this world and our lives in the next; delivers ‘Divine rights,’ that is, the rights of the public, from wrongful exploitation; preserves our national life; attracts all minds and demonstrates to westerners our constancy, maturity, and existence; saves you from being called to account in this world and the next; establishes unanimity of purpose and result; gives rise to public opinion, the spirit of consensus; prohibits the corrupt evils of civilization from entering the bounds of freedom and our civilization; delivers us from begging to Europe; through the mystery of miraculousness, in a short space of time makes us traverse the long distance in progress that we have lagged behind; gains great value for us by in a short time uniting Arab, Turk, Persian, and Semite; shows the collective personality of the government to be Muslim; by preserving the spirit of the Constitution and Article Eleven,(21) saves you from perjuring yourselves; gives the lie to Europe’s old false ideas about us; makes it affirmed that Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) is the Seal of the Prophets and the Shari‘a is eternal; forms a barrier against irreligion, the destroyer of civilization; with its shining face, puts an end to the darkness of the conflict and confusion of ideas; unites all the religious scholars and preachers and causes them to assist the nation’s happiness, and makes the government and its activities serve licit constitutionalism; since its absolute justice is compassionate, reconciles and binds to a greater extent the nonMuslim minorities; inspires the most pusillanimous man with true feelings of proprogress,

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(21) Article 11 of the Constitution: "Every Ottoman is free to practise his religion on condition only that no breach of public order or good morals is committed." [Tr.]