When the sheikh was granted an audience with Umar ibn Al-Khattab, Al-Mughira was present. The representative announced, “O Commander of the Faithful, I bring greetings from the people of Bahrain. I also carry one hundred thousand dinars that Al-Mughira took from the Muslim treasury and gave to me for safekeeping. I am here to return it to you and present my testimony.” Turning to Al-Mughira, Umar asked, “What is your response to this?” Displaying remarkable wit, Al-Mughira countered, “He is not telling the truth. The actual amount I took was two hundred thousand dinars, not one hundred thousand dinars. He only presented half and kept the remaining portion for himself.” A surprised Umar asked, “What would drive you to commit such an act?” Al-Mughira answered, “The needs of my large family and my lack of wealth drove me to it. I stand before you now and admit to taking two hundred thousand dinars.”
The sheikh, visibly shaken and trembling, exclaimed, “I swear, he never gave me anything! This sum was gathered by the Bahraini people as a plot to prevent Al-Mughira from returning to us.” With a smile, Umar asked Al-Mughira, “How did you manage that?” Al-Mughira replied, “He lied in his accusation of theft. My intent was to disgrace him. Instead, Allah brought him to disgrace.”
Under the guise of promoting freedom and Christianity, a Belgian monarch oppressed an African nation beginning in 1885. During this era, Belgium lacked the colonial holdings possessed by other major European powers, a fact that the king found personally affronting. He identified an opening at the Berlin Conference, where Africa was being divided, and targeted the Congo. He secured control of a territory vastly larger than Belgium by convincing European leaders of his intent to civilize the local people, establish hospitals and schools, and eradicate slavery through Christian outreach. While the international community initially accepted these claims, a period of profound suffering began in Congo. The king instituted a regime of terror to enforce rubber collection, resulting in the deaths of those who resisted. Families were subjected to grueling labor, and children were held as hostages. This systemic brutality lasted for years, during which none of his philanthropic pledges were realized, and around 10 million Congolese people perished. Growing international condemnation eventually forced him to cede control of the Congo in 1908. He passed away a year later, maintaining wealth and prestige without ever facing legal accountability or trial. Rather than being condemned, he was commemorated with statues. This monarch was Leopold II.
Do you know who was the most hateful ruler of Islam? He demolished mosques and Quranic schools, and legalized adultery and the consumption of alcohol! He built hundreds of taverns, forbade men from growing beard, and prohibited women from wearing the hijab. He also deprived his people of performing Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages, and executed and tortured Muslims until the number of his victims exceeded 10,000. He once mocked the Holy Quran, saying, “We no longer rely on figs and olives, we are now in the age of progress.” He suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and was bedridden, only to discover later that the cure for his illness was extracted from the bark of the fig tree. He was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who ended the Ottoman Empire and became the first president of the Republic of Turkiye.
The greatest tyrant in the history of the Ottoman Empire was Murad IV, son of Ahmed I. He assumed power as a child after deposing his uncle Mustafa. Despite his young age, he was the target of several assassination attempts, even by his mother, Kösem Sultan, who was ready to do anything to gain the upper hand in the government. However, Murad was a strong-willed man, so he threatened her and prevented her from interfering in the affairs of the state. He sought out and executed all those involved in the murder of his brother, Osman II, even those remotely connected to him. He banned tobacco and alcohol, closed taverns, and prohibited soldiers from frequenting cafés. He killed anyone whose loyalty he suspected or who opposed his opinions or decisions. He even went as far as executing some scholars who opposed him, an unprecedented act in the history of the Ottoman Empire. For this reason, historians labeled him a ‘despot’. However, his aim in all these measures was to surround himself and the state with an atmosphere of awe and terror in order to restore the Sultanate’s glory and prestige, which was lost under the previous sultans. On the international stage, he attacked Safavid territories and forced the Shah to relinquish Baghdad and several other cities. Murad IV ruled for 17 years, inheriting an empty treasury and leaving it full. He eradicated corruption and the Janissary corps’ dominance. He was called the second founder of the Ottoman Empire, because he revived it after its fall, reformed its economy, and restored its prestige, which lasted for many years.
