Sultan Abdul Hamid was the greatest ottoman sultan ever after Sulaiman al Kanuni, Allah’s mercy upon them. In 1879, Sultan Abdul-Hamid II came to power & due to the Empire’s weakness and under European pressure, he installed a Secular Constitution & the first “Representative Parliament”. However, 1 year later, Sultan Abdul Hamid dissolved the Parliament & suspended the constitution, maybe be out of fear of violating Allah’s Hakimmiyah & because he did not trust the intentions of the Secular parliament.
He was the sultan during the time of the creation of the Zionist movement by Theodor Herzl in 1896. In 1901, in response to Herzl’s request for Palestine, it was narrated that sultan Abdul Hameed told Herzl’s messenger: “while I am alive, I would rather push a sword into my body than see the land of Palestine cut & given away from the Islamic Caliphate.”
He was even offered a lot of money. He rejected the offer saying ‘I will not sell a single inch of the country, because it is not mine, it belongs to all the Muslims. They paid for this empire with their blood. And we will redeem it with our blood. Let the Jews keep their millions. If the empire is partitioned, they can get Palestine for free, but that will happen over our dead bodies.’
Herzl himself visited the Sultan and reiterated the offer, to which Sultan replied, ‘Even you paid me the weight of the Earth in gold, I would never agree. I would never bring shame upon Muslims. If you want to buy Palestine, know that the price is the blood of all the Muslims. I have no enemies, other than the enemies of Islam and the Muslims.’
Realizing that leaving the sultan in power was not good for the Jews and seeing him as a hindrance in way of their plans & goals, Herzl allied with free-masons, the CUP party and with European leaders to topple Abdul-Hamid.
Abdul hakim II was the last of the Ottoman sultans who had any real power. He was overthrown in 1909 by a group known as the Young Turks. In 1909, sultan Abdul Hamid II was overthrown as the result of a military coup orchestrated by the Young Turk movement ending his 33 years long reign. In the next ten years following his abdication, the Ottoman Empire was torn apart.
He ruled the Ottoman Empire at a time when the Muslim world was falling into the hands of non-Muslims. By his efforts, he delayed it for 30 years. Abdul Hamed II was the last Muslim ruler to hold, Makkah, Madinah and Jerusalem at once.