What I know about Shaykh Abdullah ibn Jibreen- Shaykh Saleh Al-Fawzan’s Praise For Shaykh Ibn Jibreen After His Death

[Read here: An Academic Biography of Shaykh Ibn Jibreen Rahimahullah.]

What I Know About Shaykh Abdullah bin Jibreen


My brother, the virtuous scholar, Shaykh Abdullah bin Abdulrahman Al-Jibreen; I have known him since I arrived in Riyadh in the year 1378 AH to pursue my studies.

The Sheikh studied under various scholars across diverse disciplines. He subsequently enrolled in formal education at the Imam Ad-Da’wah Institute, followed by the College of Sharia, and then the Higher Institute for the Judiciary, ultimately earning his Master’s and Doctorate degrees.


He engaged in teaching at the College of Sharia, serving as my colleague in that capacity, before transitioning to membership in the Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta until his retirement. Alongside his official duties in teaching and issuing religious verdicts (Ifta), he taught students in mosques and actively engaged in Da’wah (calling to Allah). He traveled throughout the cities of the Kingdom to deliver lectures, conduct scholarly courses, and visit schools to provide guidance and direction.

Consequently, his entire time was devoted to Ifta, Da’wah, teaching, and examining academic dissertations at the Master’s and Doctoral levels, while also supervising several of them. This was in addition to his scholarly output, which comprised authored books, treatises, and published fatwas.


He recorded numerous audio cassettes containing lectures, lessons, and scholarly academic sessions. He steadfastly continued his beneficial and philanthropic endeavors, under which successive cohorts of students of knowledge graduated.


He adhered strictly to the methodology of the Pious Predecessors (Salaf as-Salih) in knowledge, practice, and emulation, until his appointed time arrived. The Muslims mourned his loss and wept for him; however, his legacy endures, and its reward continues to accrue to him, by the will of Allah.

This is in accordance with the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: “When a human being dies, his deeds come to an end except for three: ongoing charity, knowledge from which others benefit, or a righteous child who supplicates for him.”

We sincerely hope that he attains all three of these merits, and that Allah grants him the best of rewards on behalf of Islam and the Muslims.

May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his companions.

Written by,
Saleh bin Fawzan Al-Fawzan
Member of the Council of Senior Scholars
On 19/1/1431 AH

The Stronger View Regarding Gifting the Reward of Righteous Deeds to the Deceased- Shaykh Muhammad bin Saleh Al-Uthaymeen (and other Ulama from the Salaf)

From Shaykh Muhammad bin Saleh Al-Uthaymeen’s official website. Source

Question:

A listener, Muḥammad Ḥamd Allāh Bātī, asks: Is it permissible to dedicate the reward of prayers offered after the obligatory prayer to one’s deceased father or mother?

Answer:

Ash-Shaykh: The stronger view according to us is that this is permissible, and that a person may gift the reward of non-obligatory righteous deeds to whomever he wishes among the Muslims.

However, even so, this is not something that ought to be done, nor is it from the Sunnah; that is to say, it is not something required of a person to do. If he does so, there is no harm in it.

Supplicating for one’s parents is better than gifting acts of devotion to them, because supplication is a legislated matter by agreement and beneficial by the agreement of the people of knowledge, whereas gifting acts of devotion is a matter concerning which the scholars have differed.

We advise our brothers who wish to benefit their parents or other Muslims to benefit them by supplicating for them for forgiveness, mercy, and divine good pleasure, for that is more effective and more beneficial by the consensus of the Muslims.

[End of the answer.]

***

Imam ash-Shāfiʿī (Rahimahullah)-

“Rūḥ ibn al-Faraj informed me; he said: I heard al-Ḥasan ibn aṣ-Ṣabāḥ az-Zaʿfarānī ask ash-Shāfiʿī about reciting at the grave, and he said: ‘There is no harm in it.’”

Abu Bakr al-Khallāl, al-Qirāʾah ʿinda al-Qubūr, p. 89.
(https://shamela.ws/book/8271/6)

***

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (Rahimahullah) stated:

“As for reciting the Qur’an and gifting it to him (the deceased) voluntarily without payment, this reaches him, just as the reward of fasting and ḥajj reaches him. 
If it is said: This was not known among the Salaf, and the Prophet (Salallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) did not direct them to it — 
the answer is: if the one raising this objection already admits that the reward of ḥajj, fasting, and supplication reaches the deceased, then it is said to him: what is the difference between that and the reward of Qur’an recitation reaching him? The mere fact that the Salaf did not do something is not itself proof that it cannot reach; from where do we get such a universal negation? 
And if it is said: the Messenger of Allah (Salallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) guided them to fasting, ḥajj, and charity, but not to recitation —  the answer is: he (Salallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) did not initiate those rulings without being asked; rather, they came as answers to questions. One asked him about performing ḥajj for his deceased relative, so he allowed it. Another asked him about fasting on behalf of the deceased, so he allowed it. He did not forbid anything else besides that. And what difference is there between the reward of fasting — which is merely intention and abstention — and the reward of recitation and remembrance?”

(Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Rūḥ, p. 142–143)

***

Imam Mansur al-Buhuti (Rahimahullah)-

“Any act of devotion — such as supplication, seeking forgiveness, prayer, fasting, ḥajj, Qur’an recitation, and other than that — if a Muslim performs it and assigns its reward to a deceased Muslim or a living Muslim, that benefits him. 
Aḥmad said: The deceased receives every kind of good, due to the transmitted texts regarding this, as mentioned by al-Majd and others. He added: Even if it were gifted to the Prophet (Salallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) it would be permissible and the reward would reach him, though one should not single him out for that, because every act of worship performed by someone from his Ummah already brings him the like of its reward without reducing the reward of the doer in the least.”

(Manṣūr ibn Yūnus al-Buhūtī, al-Rawḍ al-Murbiʿ Sharḥ Zād al-Mustaqniʿ, Kitāb al-Janāʾiz, in the section discussing gifting reward to the deceased; in some printed editions around p. 192.)

***

Pro Tips to Realize When Raising Your Children in the Modern Day- A practical guide for parents who want a calmer, wiser, stronger, and more fulfilling upbringing

Modern parenting is not about forcing children into outdated systems. It is not about panic, comparison, or social pressure. It is about raising children who are healthy, capable, morally grounded, mentally strong, and actually prepared for real life.

The old model of parenting was obsessed with one thing:
“Is the child on track?”

The better question today is:
“Is the child growing in the right direction?”

Because in this age, the children who thrive are not always the fastest. They are the ones who are best built — in body, mind, character, faith, discipline, and life skills.

Here are 5 powerful pro tips every parent should seriously reflect on.

1. Do not lock your child into rigid timelines

One of the biggest mistakes modern parents make is forcing children into fixed timelines:

  • 10th by 16
  • 12th by 18
  • degree by 21 or 22
  • job immediately after

This may look organized, but life is not a factory line.

Children grow differently. They mature differently. They gain clarity at different speeds. Some bloom early. Some bloom later. Some need more time to stabilize emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually. And that is perfectly okay.

If your child delays 10th by one or two years, but gains maturity, discipline, confidence, communication skills, technical skills, or life understanding in that time — that is not a failure. If your child takes a gap after 12th and uses that time to develop useful abilities, that is not “falling behind.” If your child begins a degree later than society expects, but begins it with clarity and purpose, that is often far better than rushing into a confused life.

The goal is not speed. The goal is development.

A child who moves slightly slower but grows properly is often in a much stronger position than a child who moves fast only to satisfy relatives, neighbors, and social expectations.

So stop asking:
“Is my child late?”

Start asking:
“Is my child becoming better?”

Because a delayed path with direction is better than a fast path with emptiness.

2. Spend on physical fitness early — or pay for illness later

This is one of the smartest investments a parent can make.

If possible, put your children — boys and girls — into some kind of physical training:

  • football
  • karate
  • MMA
  • swimming
  • athletics
  • martial arts
  • any serious movement-based activity

Even if you spend only ₹1,000 to ₹2,000 per month, that is roughly ₹12,000 to ₹24,000 per year. Over 10 years, that becomes around ₹1.2 lakh to ₹2.4 lakh. At first, some parents feel this is expensive. But compare that with the cost of poor health, long-term medicines, hospital visits, diabetes care, cardiac treatment, and the overall burden of a sedentary lifestyle — and suddenly it becomes obvious that fitness is not an expense, it is protection.

And the health concern is very real. In India, 49.4% of adults are physically inactive, and among children and adolescents aged 11–17, 74% are insufficiently active. India was also estimated to have 101 million people with diabetes in 2021, along with 136 million with prediabetes. A recent systematic review reported 13.24% pooled prevalence of chronic kidney disease in India, while another review estimated 11% pooled prevalence of cardiovascular disease among Indian adults. The World Heart Federation reports 2,873,266 cardiovascular deaths in India in 2021. These diseases have multiple causes, but physical inactivity and unhealthy lifestyles are major preventable contributors.[1] Some parents worry:
“If my child goes for one hour of sports daily, marks may drop.”

Fine. Let us say marks drop by 5% or even 10%. Even then, with proper planning this can often be managed. And even in cases where there is some academic trade-off, a child with better health, stamina, discipline, confidence, and resilience is often still far better prepared for life than a child with higher marks but poor physical condition.

Let us be honest: percentages alone are no longer the ultimate measure of success. Degrees still matter, yes. Certificates still matter, yes. But what increasingly separates people is talent, ability, confidence, and usefulness.

A strong body supports a strong mind.
And parents who understand this early give their children a tremendous advantage.


3. For Muslim parents: do not ignore your child’s Islamic foundation

Many Muslim parents carry a sincere pain in their hearts: their children are progressing in school, but they still cannot recite the Quran properly, do not know the basics of Islam clearly, and do not yet show that love of deen, Quran, and Islamic identity that a parent longs to see.

This is a real problem. And it deserves a real solution.

Once you free yourself from the timeline mindset, you open the door to a much more important question:

Is my child only progressing academically — or also progressing Islamically?

At whatever stage of life your child is in, try to enroll them in effective Islamic studies classes. And by effective, I do not mean only mechanical Quran classes. I mean classes that build:

  • correct recitation
  • love for the Quran
  • basic Islamic understanding
  • identity
  • adab
  • connection with the deen

And if by the time your child reaches 10th standard you still feel that the Islamic output is weak — the recitation is not fluent, the basics are not clear, and the love of the Quran is not visible — then here is a very powerful pro tip:

Consider giving one dedicated year to Islamic development

Yes — one full year.

This is something many parents hesitate to do because they fear “losing a year.” But if one year can strengthen your child’s Quran, aqidah, identity, adab, and overall Islamic foundation, then that year is not a loss. It is one of the highest-return investments you can make.

That year can be used in a very focused way.

Your child can be enrolled in Quran fluency or Hifz-preparation classes that do not merely rush toward memorization, but instead build strong repetitive reading. For example, the goal can be to perfect recitation page by page, with deep repetition, until the tongue becomes fluent and the child can read confidently and smoothly.

This is powerful for two reasons: first, it gives the child solid recitation; second, if Allah later guides them toward Hifz, memorization becomes easier because the pages are already deeply familiar.

Pair Quran fluency with Islamic mentorship

During that one year, the child can also study foundational Islamic subjects such as:

  • basic aqidah
  • halal and haram
  • right and wrong
  • the reality of Akhirah and Qiyamah
  • core acts of worship
  • practical Islamic life guidance
  • age-appropriate fiqh, including matters related to marriage and family life

And if there are no strong mentors or institutions in your area, then create a solution. Bring qualified Islamic graduates or teachers home. Even two hours of steady, guided, beneficial learning can make a huge difference over one year.

Because academic years can often be recovered. But a neglected Islamic foundation becomes harder to repair later.

So for Muslim parents, the reminder is simple and serious:

Do not only prepare your child for exams. Prepare your child for deen, life, and the hereafter.

4. For Muslim parents: build a reading culture at home — starting with yourself

This is another game-changing pro tip:

Develop a reading habit yourself.
And it is worth repeating:

Develop a reading habit yourself.

Why? Because children do not become what parents merely advise. They are deeply shaped by what parents consistently model.

If parents are always on screens but never seen with books, then children silently learn that shallow consumption is normal and serious reading is optional. But if children regularly see parents reading beneficial books with interest and consistency, then reading itself begins to look honorable, normal, and attractive.

Research shows that parental encouragement is positively associated with children’s reading motivation, and that when parents support reading, children’s confidence and motivation as readers improve.[2]

Choose books that build the child

The aim is not just to keep children busy with books. The aim is to give them books that build their mind, character, and direction.

For Muslim families, this means including beneficial Islamic books — books that strengthen morals, adab, iman, discipline, purpose, and understanding of life. But it can also include beneficial non-Islamic reading such as:

  • biographies
  • history
  • science
  • invention
  • courage
  • leadership
  • struggle
  • patriotism
  • lives of great contributors to society

The point is simple: give them reading that elevates them.

And if some books contain mixed ideas, then guide them. Teach them what is halal, what is haram, what is acceptable, and what is not. Try to avoid books that have no benefit either in this duniya or Akhirah, also avoid books that propagate prohibited acts like magic, pre-marital or extra-marital love etc., say for example books like the Harry Potter series, or romantic novels etc.

Reading does far more than improve language

Yes, reading improves vocabulary and expression. But its effect is much bigger than that.

OECD data notes that reading for enjoyment every day is associated with better performance in school, and even reported that students who read daily for enjoyment scored roughly the equivalent of one-and-a-half years of schooling ahead of those who did not.[3]

Another study found that children who read for pleasure made more progress in maths, vocabulary, and spelling than those who rarely read, and that children who were read to regularly by their parents early on performed better later as well.[4] Research highlighted by the University of Cambridge also reported that early reading for pleasure was linked to better cognitive performance and better mental wellbeing in adolescence, including benefits related to learning, memory, speech development, attention, and reduced stress.[5]

Books help children discover their route in life

One of the greatest crises among youth today is not lack of schooling — it is lack of direction.

Many young people finish graduation and still do not know what they want to do with their lives. They have studied, but they have not discovered themselves.

Books help solve this.

A child who reads history may discover a love for history.
A child who reads biographies may discover courage and ambition.
A child who reads science may find a love for math, physics, medicine, or invention.
A child who reads about sports, leadership, struggle, or scholarship may begin to notice his or her own gift.

Not every child is meant to become the same kind of professional. Not every child is meant only for one narrow white-collar lane. Some children will shine in sports. Some in writing. Some in teaching. Some in scholarship. Some in business. Some in research. Some in craftsmanship. Some in communication. Some in service.

Reading broadens the horizon of the child and helps them recognize where their talent might be.

Start small and make it normal

Give them beneficial short books first.

  • 50 pages
  • 100 pages
  • 150 pages
  • 200 pages

Let them finish books. Let them feel achievement. Reward them. Ask them for summaries. Discuss what they learned.

Over time, something beautiful happens:

Your child begins to think better.
Speak better.
Judge better.
Dream better.
Choose better.

Because books allow children to learn not only from their own life — but from the lives of the great people who came before them.

5. Teach your children cooking early — it is a survival skill, a health skill, and a family skill

This is one of the most underrated parenting pro tips of all.

Teach your children cooking.

Not only daughters.
Not only sons.
Not only when they are about to leave home.
Teach them early.

Because when young people go to other cities or countries for studies or work, one of the biggest struggles they face is food. Good restaurant food is expensive. Cheap food is often unhealthy, unhygienic, or low quality. Many students end up spending a huge amount of money on eating outside — sometimes more painfully than they expected — while also slowly damaging their health.

Research supports this: the ability to prepare meals at home is considered an important life skill for college students because it can improve diet quality and reduce costs.[6] And the benefits go even beyond cost.

Studies have found that more frequent home-cooked meals are associated with better dietary quality, greater fruit and vegetable intake, and even lower adiposity (body fat accumulation). Another study found that people who cooked dinner at home more often tended to consume less fat, less sugar, and fewer outside meals.[7]

So cooking is not just a domestic task.
It is a real-world advantage.

Do not wait until the last minute

If a child is about to leave for work or study in three months, and only then you start teaching cooking, they may learn tea, omelette, noodles, and maybe one or two curries. That is not the same as becoming truly comfortable in the kitchen.

Real cooking confidence is built through repetition over years.

Let children grow into the kitchen gradually

The best method is very simple:

When parents cook, take the children along.

Show them:

  • how to cut onions
  • how to cut tomatoes
  • where ingredients are kept
  • which spice is used where
  • how much of it goes in
  • what comes first
  • what comes later
  • what must be fried
  • what must be simmered
  • what must be handled carefully

At first, the child may only watch. That is fine.

Then they help a little.
Then more.
Then one day they begin cooking simple things properly.

If children are exposed to this from 4th or 5th standard and continue watching, helping, and occasionally trying through 10th and beyond, many of them will naturally become decent intermediate cooks by the time they truly need the skill.

Cooking benefits study life, work life, and married life

This is why cooking matters so much: it keeps paying off in every phase of adulthood.

It helps:

  • during student life
  • while living alone
  • when staying abroad
  • when budgeting
  • when hosting guests
  • when supporting a spouse
  • when taking care of family

For sisters, it can become a beautiful means of nurturing their family life.
For brothers, it can become a powerful way to serve, support, and reduce burden in the home.
For both, it builds independence and competence.

Parents should not raise children who are helpless outside exam halls.

They should raise children who can actually live.

Final Message: Raise children for life — not just for society’s checklist

If there is one big lesson behind all these pro tips, it is this:

Do not raise your children merely to satisfy social expectations. Raise them to become strong human beings.

Raise them with:

  • flexibility instead of panic
  • health instead of only marks
  • deen and dunya instead of ‘only dunya’
  • books instead of only screens
  • life skills instead of only theory

The modern world does not reward people merely for passing through systems. It rewards people who are built from within — people with health, faith, judgment, discipline, competence, and character.

So the mission of a wise parent is not to produce a child who only looks successful from the outside.

The mission is to produce a child who can stand firm in life, navigate the world with strength, and, in the case of Muslim families, walk through life with deen, dignity, and purpose.

[Authored by Mohammed bin Thajammul Hussain Manna, B.E (Aeronautical), B.A (Islamic Studies), Post Grad Diploma (Islamic Studies), M.S.W (2nd Year Student)]


[1] Sources: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/searo/pa-factsheet2024/pa-factsheet-_india2024.pdf?sfvrsn=7a7e793f_2, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(23)00119-5/fulltext, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nep.14420, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12026997/, https://world-heart-federation.org/world-heart-observatory/countries/india/

[2] Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6438920/.

[3] Source: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2011/09/do-students-today-read-for-pleasure_g17a20a5/5k9h362lhw32-en.pdf.

[4] Source: https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/reading-for-pleasure-puts-children-ahead-in-the-classroom-study-finds/

[5] Source: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/reading-for-pleasure-early-in-childhood-linked-to-better-cognitive-performance-and-mental-wellbeing

[6] Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019566632300185X

[7] Sources: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5561571/, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8728746/

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Know Your Heroes: Adnan Menderes (Raḥimahullāh) – The Man Who Returned the Arabic Adhān to Turkey


All praises and thanks be to Allah, and peace and salutations be upon The Messenger of Allah, his noble household, his companions and all those who follow him with excellence till The Day of Judgement.

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, history is not only the story of kings, armies and changing borders. It is also the story of those men through whom Allah causes relief to come to His religion after years of hardship. Some men leave behind wealth. Some leave behind speeches. Some leave behind only arguments. But some leave behind a deed so mighty that the believers continue to remember them with love long after they are gone. Adnan Menderes was one of those men. He lived in a difficult age, ruled in a dangerous age, fell in a tragic age, and yet Allah wrote for him a service to Islam that caused his name to remain alive in the hearts of many Muslims.[1]

His roots in Aydın and the hardships of childhood

Adnan Menderes was born in 1899 in Aydın. His father was İbrâhim Ethem Bey, and his mother Tevhide Hanım came from a notable family of Crimean Turkish background. He lost both parents early and was raised by his grandmother Fıtnat Hanım. A child who grows up tasting loss early is often made older than his years. And a child raised close to an elder, especially a religious elder, often carries something of that discipline into his later life. The Turkish Islamic reference works on him note that he spent his childhood with his grandmother and was remembered by those around him as a man attached to his religion.

He studied first in Aydın and later at the Kızılçullu American College in İzmir. Even in the environment of modern schooling and foreign influence, accounts connected to his life suggest that he remained sensitive in religious matters. This is important, because the man who would later restore the Arabic Adhān did not emerge from nowhere. The concern for religion was not suddenly manufactured in old age. Its seeds were present earlier.[2]

A young man of war, resistance and sacrifice

Toward the end of the First World War, Menderes was conscripted as a reserve officer. After training in İstanbul, he was sent to Palestine. When the Armistice of Mudros ended Ottoman participation in the war, he returned. But the humiliation of the Muslims and Turks had not ended. During the Greek occupation of İzmir, Adnan Bey, then in Aydın, founded the Ayyıldız resistance organization with some companions in June 1919 when the Greeks were preparing to attack Aydın. He later joined the War of Independence in Söke as an infantry regiment adjutant and was awarded the Independence Medal with red ribbon for his service.[3]

So before he was a prime minister, he was already a man who had seen invasion, collapse and struggle. This matters. It means he was not merely a man of offices and furniture. He belonged to a generation formed by war, by occupation and by the feeling that a nation can be pushed to the edge and only survive by courage and resolve.

From farming to parliament

After the early years of the Republic, Menderes engaged in farming in Aydın. But Allah had written for him a wider role. In 1930 he helped organize the Free Republican Party in Aydın and became its provincial chairman. When that party was dissolved, he joined the Republican People’s Party and later entered parliament in 1931 as a deputy for Aydın. During his years as deputy, he completed legal studies at Ankara University. He served in parliament for years, but over time he became estranged from the political direction of the ruling elite.

This estrangement finally became clear in 1945. Alongside Celâl Bayar, Refik Koraltan and Fuad Köprülü, he signed the famous “Motion of the Four”, demanding a more democratic political life, fuller rights and freedoms, and a more genuine parliamentary order. The motion was rejected. They were driven out. But from that rejection came something new: the Democrat Party, founded in 1946. Many great changes begin when a man is no longer willing to keep silent inside a suffocating order.[4]

The man who understood the people

In the elections of 14 May 1950, the Democrat Party won a huge victory. Celâl Bayar became president, and Adnan Menderes was asked to form the government. He became prime minister on 22 May 1950 and remained the face of that era until the military coup of 27 May 1960. Bayar regarded him as the man in the party who best understood the inclinations of the people, especially the peasants, and who most possessed the qualities needed to lead Turkey forward. He was also known as an effective speaker and a powerful polemicist.

This is one reason Menderes became beloved to the common masses. Some rulers understand ministries but do not understand the people. Others understand the mood of the streets, villages, farms and markets. Menderes had that quality. He spoke in a way that connected with ordinary people, and many of them saw him as their man in a system that had long ignored or disciplined them.

Turkey before him – when even the Adhān was attacked

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, to understand why Menderes is remembered with such emotion, one must first understand the darkness that came before him. Turkey had reached a point where the Arabic Adhān had been banned and replaced by Turkish wording.[5] Think about that! The call that had risen from the minarets of the Muslims for centuries, the call by which people are summoned to the worship of Allah, was altered by state force. Allah said: “And whoever honors the symbols [i.e., rites] of Allāh – indeed, it is from the piety of hearts…” Allah also said: “And who are more unjust than those who prevent the name of Allāh from being mentioned [i.e., praised] in His mosques and strive toward their destruction.”[6] So what then of those who wage war against the very public symbols of Islam?[7]

The deed for which he will always be remembered

Then Allah decreed good for the Muslims of Turkey through Adnan Menderes. In June 1950, after the Democrat Party came to power, the Arabic Adhān was restored. Allahu Akbar! This was not a small amendment in a legal code. This was not a minor policy correction. This was the restoration of a mighty symbol from the symbols of Islam. The Ummah heard again from the minarets of Turkey the very words by which the believers are called to prayer in the language of revelation.[8]

This act of restoring the Arabic Adhan deeply affected the religious public. The Muslims of Turkey treated the restoration of the Arabic Adhān as Menderes’s defining deed, and students from Istanbul University sent him messages of gratitude, describing it as the first step toward true freedom of conscience and this won him the love of the Muslim masses. That jubilant reaction of the Muslim masses to this tells us the size of the wound and the size of the relief.[9]

He did not stop at the Adhān

But it would be unfair to reduce his entire religious legacy to that one act alone, even if that one act was enormous. Under his government, religious broadcasts began on state radio. Religion classes were incorporated into the school curriculum in a more formal and visible way. Imam-Hatip schools were reactivated from 1951 onward in order to meet the public’s need for religious officials. These were not imaginary changes. They were concrete openings after a period of religious suffocation.[10]

The Muslims celebrated the inclusion of religious lessons for children as one of the most joyful events of those days, portraying it as a rescue of the younger generation from growing up cut off from religion. It also highlights the deep impact of religious programming on state radio, describing the return of religious sound and sacred speech to public broadcast as one of the unforgettable features of the Menderes years.

What he openly said about Islam

In 1951, in a speech in İzmir, Menderes was presented as declaring: “Turkey is a Muslim state and will remain Muslim. All requirements of Islam will be fulfilled.” Whether quoted exactly as preserved in the press reports of the time or through later transmission in that press tradition, the meaning is clear: he was willing to speak publicly in a language that reassured religious Muslims that their faith would not remain imprisoned forever beneath the slogans of the secular elite.[11]

My dear brothers and sisters, words alone do not make a man righteous. But there are times when even a public word in defense of Islam becomes a comfort to the believers, especially in a land where religion had been cornered, humiliated and restrained.

Scenes that show how the people felt

Another highly revealing anecdote concerns the opening of the Adapazarı Sugar Factory. At the ceremony, sacrifices were offered, and thousands of people joined together in takbīr and du‘ā’. This is significant because it reflects the spirit of the age as experienced by the religious public. Public ceremonies were no longer remembered only as cold secular rituals. Some of these occasions had begun to feel like gatherings in which the people could once again breathe as Muslims.

The same study notes that Islamist writers contrasted the pre-1950 climate with the more open atmosphere under Menderes, even describing the return of visible religious dignity to public life. In such writings, the reappearance of clerics in their turbans and robes at public occasions was treated not as a trivial matter, but as a sign that religion was no longer being driven from sight. Even where the language of these journals is clearly partisan, it still reveals something important: for many believers, Menderes was not merely administering a state; he was loosening a suffocating grip around Islam’s place in public life.[12]

A wider life than one issue

At the same time, Menderes was not a single-issue leader. His years in office also witnessed major economic and developmental changes. Turkey moved away from an overwhelmingly statist model toward a more semi-liberal system that gave greater room to private enterprise. Agriculture was rapidly mechanized. Roads, dams, ports, and a range of public services expanded. Villages and towns were drawn more deeply into the life of the nation.[13]

There were also important developments in foreign policy. Turkey sent troops in support of South Korea, entered NATO in 1952, and later took part in regional alignments such as the Balkan Pact and the Baghdad Pact. Important agreements concerning Cyprus were also concluded in 1959. This means that Menderes was not merely a symbolic religious figure within Turkey; he stood at the center of a state attempting to position itself in a dangerous Cold War world.

The burdens, the crises and the decline

But, as with many rulers, his story was not one of ease alone. The same large-scale development policies that impressed many people also brought financial strain, foreign debt, and inflation. From 1955 onward, unrest increased, economic pressures became more difficult to manage, and opposition intensified. The 6–7 September events, political fractures, student demonstrations, and growing bitterness between government and opposition all pushed the country toward a dangerous edge.[14] [15]

The plane crash and his sense of Allah’s favor

In 1959, while traveling to London over the Cyprus issue, Menderes survived a plane crash. He regarded this survival as a grace from Allah. Indeed, a man who walks away from death often emerges with the sense that his remaining days are no longer ordinary. Such moments deepen in people’s hearts the belief that Allah has preserved someone for a purpose, even if that purpose will later culminate in trial.

The coup and Yassıada

Then came the coup of 27 May 1960. Menderes, Bayar, and other leading figures of the Democrat Party were arrested and taken to Yassıada. Before his hearings began, Menderes was held in harsh isolation. He was allowed only restricted contact, and communication with his family was tightly limited. At one point, under the weight of everything, he even attempted suicide before being saved. Such details are heartbreaking when one remembers that this was the same man who had once stood at the head of the state, cheered by crowds and watched by the world.

The trial lasted for months. Many were tried. Death sentences were handed down. Serious concerns were later raised about the fairness of the proceedings, the independence of the court, and the overall atmosphere in which the trial was conducted. For this reason, Yassıada remained a wound in public memory rather than a closed chapter of history.[16]

The Last Hours of Adnan Menderes: Dignity at the Edge of the Gallows

And then came the darkest hour. The same man who had once stood before the people as the elected leader of a nation was now placed before a junta intoxicated with revenge. They stripped him of office, isolated him, tried him, and marched him toward the rope as though they could also strip him of honour. But there are some men whom humiliation cannot truly break, because Allah places in their hearts a stillness that tyrants cannot reach. When the sentence of hanging was read to Adnan Menderes, he did not collapse. He did not spit venom. He did not beg men for mercy. With a calm that seemed to rise from somewhere deeper than politics, he said only: “May Allah protect our nation.”

Turkish accounts further report that in the final hours before the execution, Menderes was subjected to a degrading prostate examination.[17] [18] Later journalists, witnesses, and legal commentators described this not as a necessary act of care, but as an additional humiliation laid upon a man already sentenced to die. Whether in the courtroom, the prison cell, or the examination room, the same spirit of cruelty seemed to persist: to punish the body and to wound the dignity. Yet even if men were able to injure his frame, they could not command his soul. They could prepare the gallows, but they could not touch the decree of Allah.

Then came the moment for his final words. And what words they were. Not the words of a bitter man. Not the words of one drunk on rage. Not the words of someone crushed by fear at the sight of death approaching. His heart turned instead to his family, his people, his homeland, and to Allah.

He said: “At this very moment when I am departing from life, tell my family and children that I remember them with compassion. May Allah bless our homeland and nation with eternal welfare.”[19]

These are not the words of a man spiritually defeated. These are the words of a man leaving the world with mercy on his tongue and concern for others still alive in his chest.

On 17 September 1961, Adnan Menderes was executed by hanging. The International Commission of Jurists urged clemency and protested the death sentences, but the regime pressed on. He was buried on İmralı beside his two companions, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan. Yet the story did not end at the gallows, nor was it buried in the earth with them. The public conscience was not pacified. A deep sense remained among the people that something profoundly unjust had taken place. Years later, in 1990, his honour was formally restored, and his remains were transferred with a state ceremony to the mausoleum prepared on Vatan Avenue in Istanbul. Thus history itself bore witness that men may be condemned by one age and vindicated by another.

This too is from the strange unfolding of Allah’s decree: generals may pass sentences, newspapers may inflame, courts may sign their names beneath injustice, and regimes may imagine they have closed the matter forever. But the real reckoning is not with judges, uniforms, or bayonets. The real reckoning is with Allah. And for many believers, the gallows did not make Menderes smaller. They made the crime against him larger, his patience clearer, and his memory heavier upon the conscience of the nation.

The praise of the people of religion

Among the strongest points mentioned in his favor is the praise of Shaykh Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, who referred to him in as “one of the heroes of Islam” and as “the Hero of Islam.” This was not casual praise. It came from a man who knew imprisonment, exile, and oppression for the sake of religion. When such a man praises a statesman for reopening doors to Islam, that praise deserves to be remembered.[20]

Shaykh Ali Haydar Efendi[21] was reported to have said: “I began studying from the age of six, and for at least six hours a day a book would not leave my hand. Since then I have devoted myself to worship and obedience. But as for what Menderes did — restoring the adhān to its original form — for the reward of that one day’s deed, if it was accepted, I would be ready to give the reward of all the worship I have performed up to this age.”[22]

A further valuable point emerges here: Religious journals repeatedly presented Menderes as a man carrying a spiritual responsibility, almost warning him that if he served Islam sincerely, his name would be remembered with gratitude and honor. This is extremely useful for understanding not only Menderes himself, but also the way the religious public of that time viewed him. They did not see him merely as a prime minister. They saw him as a man standing at a point of testing between repression and relief.[23]

A lesson from his life

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, the lesson of Adnan Menderes is not that every politician is righteous, nor that every ruler who speaks the language of religion should be followed uncritically. No. The lesson is that Allah sometimes uses imperfect men to render great services to His religion. A man may carry political weaknesses, burdens, and contradictions, and yet Allah may still write through him a deed by which millions are relieved.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever relieves a believer of a hardship from the hardships of this world, Allah will relieve him of a hardship from the hardships of the Day of Resurrection.”[24] If Allah used Menderes to relieve the Muslims of Turkey from the wound of the ‘banned’ Arabic Adhān, from the constriction of religious instruction, and from the suffocation of public Islamic life, then that is no small matter.

Final words

So remember this name well: Adnan Menderes. Remember him not only as the man through whom the Arabic Adhān returned to Turkey, though that alone would have been enough to make many believers love him. Remember him also as the orphan of Aydın, the young man of resistance, the veteran of the War of Independence, the parliamentarian who broke with a suffocating order, the founder of a new political path, the leader who understood the common people, the ruler who reopened doors for religion, the survivor of a plane crash who saw Allah’s favor in his survival, and the prisoner of Yassıada who ended on the gallows.

May Allah forgive Adnan Menderes, have mercy upon him, accept the good that he did for Islam, pardon his mistakes, and grant him the highest levels of Jannah. Āmīn.

***

Acknowledgement of Sources: This essay is an original synthesis based on materials consulted from TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (“Menderes, Adnan”), Encyclopaedia Britannica (“Adnan Menderes”), BBC Türkçe (biographical coverage of Adnan Menderes and the Yassıada process), Anadolu Agency (including reports on Menderes, his execution, and the restoration of the Arabic adhān), International Commission of Jurists (regarding objections to the death sentences), the Cihannüma article PDF and the BBE Journal study cited in the footnotes (for the religious reception of the Menderes period), Cevaplar.org and the Türkiye Yazarlar Birliği (TYB) interview preserving Emin Saraç Hocaefendi’s transmission of Ali Haydar Efendi’s words about Menderes, and, for scriptural citations, Quran.com and Sunnah.com.



[1] Summarized from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adnan-Menderes and https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/menderes-adnan .

[2] See TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.

[3] TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.

[4] TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.

[5] Under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Republic of Turkey implemented “Lā’iklik”—a militant form of secularism aimed at the total Westernization of society. This was not merely a separation of mosque and state, but a systematic state control over religion. Key reforms included the abolition of the Caliphate (1924), the closure of Sufi lodges, and the Hat Law (1925), which banned traditional religious headwear. Most provocatively, the Arabic Adhān was banned in 1932 and replaced with a Turkish version (Tanrı uludur), a policy enforced by the force of arms. These measures sought to strip Islam from public identity and replace it with a singular, secular Turkish nationalism.

[6] Sahih International, Quran.com 22:32, 2:114.

[7] Read ‘ISTANBUL AND THE ADHAN’ to know more about the history of the Adhan in Turkey. The entire essay ‘Istanbul And The Adhan’ by Mustafa İsmet Uzun has been presented at the end of this essay. [Source: https://istanbultarihi.ist/544-istanbul-and-the-adhan%5D

[8] See Istanbul Tarihi, Anadolu Agency, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.

[9] Cihannüma article PDF İslamci Basinda Adnan Menderes İmaji.

[10] TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, BBE Journal.

[11] Cihannüma article PDF.

[12] See Cihannüma article PDF.

[13] See Britannica and TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.

[14] The 6-7 September events (or Istanbul Pogrom) refer to state-sponsored mob attacks on September 6-7, 1955, primarily targeting the ethnic Greek, Armenian, and Jewish minorities in Istanbul. Triggered by fabricated news that the Greek consulate in Thessaloniki (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s birthplace) had been bombed, the two-day riots resulted in dozens of deaths and the widespread destruction of minority-owned homes, businesses, and churches. For Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, the events became a fatal political crisis born of a severe miscalculation. Historical evidence indicates his government orchestrated the initial spark, intending to manufacture a limited, controlled protest to pressure Greece over the Cyprus dispute and distract from a failing domestic economy. However, the mobilized nationalist mobs quickly spiraled out of state control, transforming the intended “minor fire” into a catastrophic, full-scale pogrom. This devastating violence sparked international outrage, shattered the government’s credibility, and crippled the local economy as minority populations fled. Menderes’s role in instigating the crisis was later weaponized against him during the Yassıada military tribunals following the 1960 coup d’état. While these tribunals are widely condemned by historians as highly politicized sham trials designed to retroactively legitimize the military takeover, the charge of his complicity in the pogrom remained central to his conviction and subsequent execution by hanging in 1961.

[15] See Britannica and TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.

[16] See International Commission of Jurists (https://www.icj.org/resource/execution-of-turkish-ministers/) and TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.

[17] See https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/turkeys-hanged-pm-adnan-menderes-in-his-own-words/1490690.

[18] A prostate examination usually refers to a digital rectal examination (DRE), in which a doctor inserts a gloved, lubricated finger into the rectum in order to feel the prostate gland for enlargement or abnormalities. Although medically routine in proper clinical settings, it is an intimate and physically uncomfortable procedure; when imposed on a prisoner immediately before execution, it may reasonably be understood as an act of humiliation as well as examination.

[19] https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/turkeys-hanged-pm-adnan-menderes-in-his-own-words/1490690.

[20] Rasael al-Nour Muslim Heritage PDF Köprü Dergisi.

[21] Shaykh Ali Haydar Efendi (1870–1960), known as Ahıskalı Ali Haydar Efendi, was one of the most respected late Ottoman and early Republican Turkish scholars, renowned for his mastery of Islamic law and his lifelong devotion to teaching, worship, and scholarship. He was remembered by later scholars as a leading faqīh of his age, deeply revered even by major religious authorities such as Ömer Nasuhi Bilmen and remembered as the teacher of influential figures in Turkey’s Islamic scholarly tradition.

[22] Ali Haydar Efendi, as recalled by Muhammed Emin Saraç in an interview with Salih Okur, “Emin Saraç Hocaefendi ile Son Devir Âlimlerimiz Üzerine..(1),” Cevaplar.org, February 15, 2007, https://www.cevaplar.org/content/emin-sarac-hocaefendi-ile-son-devir-alimlerimiz-uzerine-1.

[23] See Cihannüma article PDF.

[24] Sunnah.com – Ibn Mājah 225.

The Ruling on Women Practicing Sports- Shaykh Abdul Azeez bin Abdullah bin Baaz (Rahimahullah)

Noor ‘Ala Ad-Darb: The Ruling on Women Practicing Sports

Question: 
A sister from Basra Governorate in Iraq, identified by the initials (M. ‘A. Dal.), says: Our sister’s letter is somewhat lengthy, but its summary is a question regarding sports for girls.

Answer: 
Sports is a broad and general term, and sports among girls may include activities that do not contravene the purified Islamic law, such as extensive walking in a place reserved exclusively for them, where men do not mix with them and cannot see them, or swimming among themselves in their home or in their private school, where men neither see them nor have access to them. There is no harm in that.

As for sports in which mixing between men and women occurs, or in which men can see them, or which cause evil among the Muslims, such activities are not permissible. Therefore, the matter requires distinction and clarification.

Sports that are exclusive to women, in which there is no Shar‘i violation, and in which there is no mixing with men, but rather they take place in a screened location and a place far from intermingling, are un-objectionable, whether they consist of walking, swimming, or similar activities. The same applies to competitions held among them. Yes.

(Shaykh Abdul Azeez bin Abdullah bin Baaz Rahimahullah)

Source