Abdullah Hakim Quick – Muhammad- The Most Influential Person in History – New Muslim Corner
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of embracing Islam and embracing people who are not familiar with it. They explain that the approach is not meant to be complex and will be given some information for students. The influence of the individual in history is highly influenced by factors like source of influence, the influence of the person in one's mind, and the influence of future generations. The importance of practicing Islam and the use of honoring Muslims is also discussed. The importance of practicing Islam is emphasized, and the class will continue throughout the summer.
AI: Summary ©
All praise are due to Allah, our Lord
of the worlds, and peace and blessings be
upon our beloved prophet, Muhammad, the master of
the first and last,
his family, his companions, and all those who
called to this way to the day of
judgment.
This is our continuation
of our new Muslim corner.
And
as usual,
we dedicate,
this time
to people who are embracing Islam,
reviving their Islam,
those who are interested in Islam.
It's not meant to be a complex,
type of course,
but at the same time,
we will be giving some information
for those students of knowledge
that you may not be able to get,
in other classes.
So we're combining,
you know, both,
and we're looking at,
prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
especially the second part of the Kalima.
And as we have discussed,
there is
mean there's no god but Allah, and Muhammad,
that Muhammad is is his messenger, his last
messenger.
The first part
is easy for people to understand, but the
second part,
that is something that many people do not
have access to
in terms of this information.
And so,
as we are going along in the life
of the prophet, peace be upon him, I
wanna do something different,
tonight,
different approach to this.
And this may be for people who are
just embracing Islam
and may have some questions in their mind.
Who is this man?
Or maybe somebody who's not a Muslim
and wants to know who is this individual.
Because I can say I was raised in
North, America,
and
going to high school, going to university,
prestigious university,
I had no clue
who Mohammed ibn Abdullah was.
And it wasn't that I wouldn't search for
things,
that I wasn't open minded.
It just wasn't there.
And
the only time you would hear the name
Mohammed
would be,
Mohammed Ali, the boxer,
or Elijah Mohammed,
the leader of the nation of Islam,
but not really knowing,
who this individual is.
And so this is an important
issue.
And and for those of us who are
able
to come close to Islam with the veils
of ignorance
are lifted,
Now we can begin to look at this.
But we want to look at it tonight,
not just from
a spiritual point of view,
in the sense that those who are accepting
Islam
accept Islam.
It's like belief is involved.
So
who is this person?
Now to get an idea,
of this individual
who we consider to be the final messenger
of god,
that this person would be the one who
affects
our life,
our ultimate leader,
our,
our guide.
This is something serious.
Not the creator. He's not the creator.
But after the creator,
he is for Muslims the most important person.
So who is that individual?
Now from a non Muslim perspective, I wanna
look at this,
and just open up our minds
in terms of individuals on earth.
Michael Hutt,
who wrote this book
he wrote a number of books,
but in 1992, he came out,
this book, you know, it appeared,
the 100,
and it was a ranking
of the most influential persons
in history.
Okay. So this is a person. He's an
American astrophysicist,
which means now his mind is all over
the place.
He's an author, but he's also a white
nationalist.
So that's the furthest that you would think
of somebody who's near Muslims or Arabs or
anything. This is a white nationalist.
Okay? So this is a person who is
Eurocentric.
They're centered in Europe,
and they even they're into power. White nationalists
are into power
and influence.
And so he searched the pages of history
with his perspective, which, of course, is a
Eurocentric
perspective,
meaning that
his main people are based upon the sources
that he had as a European
because the world is vast,
and there are influential people all over the
planet,
in China and India and Africa and the
Americas,
all over the world.
But he,
tried to look at people
who had influence.
And this is not to say I believe
in this person. No.
We're taking out spirituality.
We wanna look at reality of the person.
Okay? That that person, number 1,
the person has to be a real
individual.
Because there are some people who are
venerated
by nations,
but they're not actually historical people.
If you go to the history books, if
you try to get some sources around these
individuals, you might not find,
much info. So he wants real people.
Secondly, he wants to know what is the
actual influence,
of the person.
What did he actually do with his tribe,
with his nation,
and his influence? How far did his influence
affect human beings?
And
when he after he died,
what was the aftermath,
or what were the effects
of his actions?
Okay. So this is how he's judging this
now. And, again, this is not a Muslim.
It's not a person who has later on
embraced Islam.
No.
He also wants to know now in terms
of the future,
future generations.
So how does this in this individual
influence future generations
and
historical movement?
What kind of movement came out of that
individual?
K. So that's sort of the parameters.
You can look at this in terms of
influence in a lot of different ways.
Okay? But this is how he looked at
it.
And
what he found out,
when he did his ranking
that,
he found
he checked the east, the west, the north,
the south,
and he found that,
Mohammed ibn Abdullah,
peace be upon him,
was the most
influential person
in history.
He put him number 1,
and that shocked a lot of people. This
is a white nationalist.
Okay? This is a astrophysicist.
People who, you know, supposedly don't believe in
spirituality
and God and religion and all of these
things. Right? Who's looking at facts. But what
he found out
is that,
he studied the life of prophet Muhammad, peace
be upon. He said he was in he
was
highly effective
that in the different stages of his life,
the influence he had over people
and the plans that he had and the
movements that he made, it was highly affected.
And
he,
at the same time, he was highly cultured.
So he was a highly cultured person as
well.
And
the conquest that happened after his time,
the movement, I would say the spread of
Islam, he uses the word conquest.
But the conquest, Muslims moving out, taking the
message
that he had,
that he he gave to them,
it was like no no other message that
he could find.
Also,
and this is an important point,
is that the distance that Muslims went
because
Islam went
within 100 years.
It went
to the east
as far as the gates of China
and even penetrated China.
It went to the west
all the way to Morocco,
North Africa. It went way north into what
is now,
Russia
and Chechnya and the Caucasus Mountains,
and it went deep down south on the
Swahili coast.
It's in 100 years.
But if you look at other people,
if you just go and buy distance,
of the spread of this person's influence,
Genghis Khan,
the Mongolian
conquest,
conquered more territory
in terms of the distance
of his conquest.
But the difference between the two individuals is
that,
after Genghis Khan died
and then after a period of time when
his that the Mongols divided up and broke
into sections,
the influence then went down. And now today,
if you were to say to people, the
average person, where is Mongolia?
How many people know where Mongolia is?
You can't even think of Mongolia on the
map. Right? You might think of China. Right?
A section of China, but Mongolia,
the influence of Mongol culture
actually is
in this
small
area,
in Northeast China. That's all.
So that wide area,
people are not talking about Genghis Khan.
And if they do, it's usually something, you
know, really negative.
But we're not dealing with positives and negatives.
We're dealing with influence.
Because some of the people that he chose
on his list, if you go through it,
some of them are actually evil.
Right? But they had a big influence over
individuals.
What he also found
is that, prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
that in the message itself,
he plays
a central role
that without his presence,
there would have been no movement
because that that's our. Right?
The second part of the is Muhammad or
Rasulullah.
So, therefore, his role is central to the
message. There's a lot of people who believed
in god,
But this particular message,
it focuses on this individual
bringing forth,
its teachings.
Also,
he
he he the theology
and and he mentions this theology,
the belief in God and whatnot.
He's central in this, but also morality,
ethics,
the ethics,
and the religious practices of the people.
And what is different between
Mongol
Genghis Khan conquest and the spread of Islam
is that the places where Islam went for
the most part,
95% of the places where Islam went, it's
still there today.
It's permanent.
Whereas the Mongols kept swept in, conquered the
place, killed the people, set up their own
administration.
When the people got strong enough, they threw
them off,
and
there's no more,
influence direct influence.
There are some empires that developed after
Genghis Khan's time here and there,
but it's not in the name of the
mongol of Genghis Khan.
Okay? So
this is, it's a long list. It's a
100,
and,
I'm not saying that that's a book you
need to read,
but it is interesting. You know, those you
want, you you can you can go online
and even get a p a, PDF of
it.
Right? So I just wanna look at,
21 people
that he considers the most influential people.
Just think in your mind, who's the most
important person
that ever lived?
Okay? So he puts Mohammed for 2.
He puts Isaac Newton.
K. Now Isaac Newton is
a a a a British
scientist,
1642
to 17 27.
Right? He's a scientist, mathematician.
You know, he's into physics, law of motion,
whatever. If you go into science, he's very
important. This is a Eurocentric,
study, by the way.
Because the basis of
the the sciences of Europe came out
of Andalusia.
It came out of Baghdad.
It came out of what Muslims had,
developed
taking the knowledge of the ancient ones and
putting it in a modern form. But, of
course, the Eurocentric thing, they cut out the
period of Islam,
and they consider it to be the dark
ages,
right, until the renaissance.
3.
And this is an insult to Christians. Right?
They put Jesus Christ number 3. Right?
Number 3.
Now he's challenged why you say Jesus Christ
is not number 1.
But he's dealing with them not just because
you believe in Jesus Christ.
But if you look at the message of
Christianity,
much
of the teachings of Christianity is not Jesus
Christ. It's Paul.
Paul's teachings
make up a good part of Christianity. And
if you're in the church, you will see
the preacher quoting Paul
all the time.
So so Jesus, peace be upon him, is
not central
to present day Christianity.
And even if you look at Christian practices
today,
look at Easter.
Right? Look at Christmas.
Look at all the holidays that they have.
There's other individuals. Santa Claus is not Jesus.
Right?
Easter is Austree,
the pagan goddess of the spring.
So it's not Jesus.
So present day Christianity is a mixture
of things. So, therefore, he put Jesus number
3.
Now before he put Buddha
of Buddhism. Okay. Question.
So this is Buddha, the famous Buddha of,
Buddhism.
Okay? So he lived in 563
BC
to 483
BC,
and he say he was originally from the
area of
Nepal or the mountains. Some even say he
was like a baton,
that that he came from the northern
areas, but it's it's up there in the
northern areas is where he originally came from.
And he was a Hindu prince,
and he,
refused to,
you know, follow the Hindu gods. And he
he wanted the one god. He wanted the
essence of creation.
And he went on his journey and supposedly
he found, you know, his essence and the
essence of life.
Right? So that that's Buddha. And so present
day Buddhism,
right, which is
has been a a large,
religion, a large way of life
spreading way over to China, you know, other
plots as well.
So so he put Buddha as number 3
or number 4. Number 5 is Confucius.
So Confucius
lived from 551
to 479
BC.
So he actually lived
close to the time of,
or just after the time of
oh, right in it. Actually, he meets the
time of Buddha, but he's somewhere else. He's
in China.
But what Confucius does is that Confucius,
is the one
his thoughts
he's not a religious person,
so he's not talking about God.
But he puts together their beliefs and their
philosophies,
Chinese,
beliefs.
The basis of how Chinese people think
is Confucianism,
and that's a big influence in the world.
So you see how how he's thinking.
Here he puts Saint Paul.
Okay. Now you say, why how can Paul
Paul was not even a disciple. He was
after the disciples.
And, you know, but Paul's influence
Paul took the teachings
of Christ
and put his own thoughts inside of it.
It wasn't it was originally only for the
for for the Jewish
people, children of Israel. He opened it up
for the Gentiles,
everybody.
He brought in other types of teachings. He
started teaching divinity of Christ,
that Christ was actually divine.
So he's changing it now.
And then his influence went into Europe,
and it is said
that 14
of 27 of the books of the New
Testament,
they're actually written by Paul.
14 of 27 books. So when you so
when when the Christians quote New Testament
teachings,
and you if you have a Christian friend,
ask them about Paul.
And they'll they'll say, yes, Paul.
They're always quoting Paul.
Okay? So he put him number 6.
7,
Silun.
So who is this Silun? Chinese?
Okay. He was the person who invented paper.
So he invented paper in China,
and he lived
around a 105 AD
is when he lived.
And, of course, paper having paper changed a
lot of things. There were forms of paper
before because the word paper comes from papyrus,
and that's the plant. The ancient Egyptians
took the papyrus plant,
and they cut it into thin, strips,
flattened it, wet they had, you know,
smashed it down,
whatever, and they they made, like, a writing
type of thing. But the problem was
papyrus was it's you it very expensive to
make.
So it was mainly the priests
who had papyrus, but what,
Tsai Lung used,
he used bamboo.
Okay? And that was readily available.
So he took the bamboo in strips,
wet them, put them down, put them into
a press,
dried it, then you could write on it.
Okay. And this spread.
And and it was really Muslims when it
was when the Muslims
made contact with the Chinese,
and they actually captured some some Chinese,
and they actually found out how to make
this paper.
Okay? And they took it into the Muslim
world.
Okay? And then
it it that really revolutionized the spread of
paper.
And and and paper, of course, we know
the influence of that.
Although some would say paper's dying now. Right?
Most people don't have notebooks. You gotta be
like older generation like me carrying a notebook,
you know, around.
Right? Although paper's coming back. Right?
And it's good to have some notes too
written because if something happens to your phone,
right, unless you have a photogenic memory,
it's good to have things written down.
Number 8,
Johan Guttenberg.
Does anybody know who Guttenberg was?
This is a different kind of class. We're
look we're looking historically at things.
Gutenberg
was the inventor of the printing press.
Okay?
And,
he lived around 1400,
and
he invented the print and press, and, obviously,
the printing press is important.
His next was Christopher Columbus.
Now this is a Eurocentric way of looking
at things.
But I I will give Michael Hart,
credit,
although he's a white nationalist and he's a
Eurocentric person.
But what he said about Columbus was
that Columbus inadvertently
discovered America.
Like, he didn't know where he actually was,
and he probably never would have known how
much influence he would have in the world.
K? But Columbus's
so called discovery of America, 1492,
for most people is a cutoff point in
history.
It's a cutoff point.
So that's the influence he had. It changed.
There's no doubt. That contact he made
had, you know, changed the course of history.
So he put him as number 9. 10,
Albert Einstein.
And Einstein, you know,
theory of relativity.
You know what has happened,
with Einstein.
11, Louis Pasteur,
right, who was a French chemist
and a biologist.
Okay? So he
he brought the concept of germs.
The theory that germs actually,
disease was coming out of germs
and bacteria.
That revolutionized
medicine.
There's no doubt about that.
Okay? So he's saying he had a great
influence,
on humanity.
Number 12,
Galileo.
Okay? Galileo,
you know, was 1564.
He was a great scientist and, you know,
especially,
physics and, you know, whatnot, you know, scientist.
13 is Aristotle.
So he jumps back.
But Aristotle is the Greek philosopher.
It's 384
BC is Aristotle,
but he had a heavy influence on,
philosophy.
I would question him because in studying history
and the Greeks didn't lie if you went
in their books. They got their knowledge from
the ancient Egyptians.
So it's the Egyptians actually that influenced
Aristotle
and all of the people in ancient Greece.
But in any event,
14 is Euclid.
Euclid is a Greek mathematician,
so they credit him with geometry.
Right? The one who developed geometry. This again
is another Eurocentric way of looking at things,
because there was a lot of you know,
the base was already there.
Now 15, this is an insult,
to the Jewish people. He
put Moses 15.
Okay? But, really, if you look at Moses,
I mean,
he's he's mainly affecting
the children of Israel.
So this is not necessarily a international.
How many people in China know about Moses?
How many people in South America know about
Moses?
Right? But but he put him there. Maybe
he's being politically correct. I don't know. But
he put Moses 15. 16, Charles Darwin.
Okay? And Charles Darwin with this evolution,
his scientific,
concepts of evolution.
And 17,
he put Shi Huangdi,
who in 259
to 2, 10 BC,
he was the emperor who united China.
So before this, China was different warlords,
and so he was the one that united
China into an empire,
okay, which is a a big influence
in the world.
18, he put Augustus Caesar.
And Augustus Caesar
is really the founder of Rome. Julius Caesar
made great
conquests, his grandfather, whatnot, but it was Augustus
Caesar
who lived in, 63 BC.
He was the founder of the Roman Empire,
which was considered to be one of the
greatest empires,
in history.
Then he puts
Copernicus,
and Copernicus
was a Polish astronomer.
Okay? And he, revolutionized
the concept of the universe.
Okay? This is also Eurocentric because it was
already there.
And Muslims had 100 of astronomers
who gave the basis to Copernicus.
20,
Antoine Laurent
Lavoisier.
Okay. Lavoisier,
he,
he was a French chemist.
Okay?
Now he puts
Constantine.
We've spoken about Constantine before,
you know, and the the orthodox,
Constantinople,
right, and the influence that he had on
the Mediterranean.
So he put Constantine,
as number 21,
and the list goes on.
And he's got a 100 there.
Of course, this is a,
Eurocentric
way of looking at things.
Today
would also be said, it's
a chauvinistic
male chauvinism.
Like, where's the women? Right?
But if you look at his list, he
does have some women later on in the
list.
Okay?
But
what's interesting about this,
again, is that,
this is a person,
you know, who's challenging
the academy.
He's challenging
European knowledge,
the understanding that people have of the world.
And prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
is not a fictional
character. This is an actual real person
who actually lived.
You can trace his life.
There's more details about him
than maybe any of the individuals on this
whole list
in terms of how he lived
all the different aspects of his life.
Okay? And you will see within his life,
he was not only a prophet, so that's
spirituality,
but he was also a family person.
He was a statesman.
He was a warrior.
So many different things,
and his influence is
is an amazing influence.
And
this could be challenged.
You could go to Oxford University
and Harvard you could challenge them and say,
bring me somebody
who has an influence like this individual.
You're supposed to be educated people. Right?
But bring me someone.
They even recently did a study
in the UK,
and they found out that now
and this is some years back, but they
said that the most popular name in the
UK
is Mohammed.
These are people who just look at the
census, go to the phone books.
Right? Mohammed because Muslims have Mohammed, Sali, not
just Sali. Mohammed is the most popular name
in Britain. Before, it was Harry,
but Harry's gone.
What is the most popular food
in Britain itself today? Anybody have any any
guests on this? What do you think is
the most popular food? Mushroom chicken.
Shawarma?
Shawarma's probably moving up there. It's butter chicken.
It's Butter chicken. It's butter chicken.
A staunch British nationalist would say fish and
chips.
I mean, fish and chips, even in Canada.
If you came to Canada before
and you went on Yonge Street or any
of the main you gotta have a fish
and chip shop.
It's
there. Right? That was their
that was their street food.
Now
even the skinheads
love butter chicken.
They're all eating butter chicken.
Okay? So
this influence and, actually, when they did the
study of the world, if you look at
these individuals
as examples of the most popular people, how
many people in the world are named Isaac
Newton?
How many are the are named Euclid
or Aristotle?
Even how many how many Christians are named
Jesus Christ?
Do you know any Christians named Jesus Christ?
Some of the Spanish say, Jesus.
You're gonna find some Spanish say, Jesus,
But it's but it's still a few.
Because, I mean, for most of the Christians,
I mean, how you call yourself Jesus if
he's God. Right?
So how many
Jews call themselves Moses?
It would be Moshe,
like Moshe Dayan,
the infamous general.
Not that many.
So you look at this,
but then you see how many Muslims name
their children Mohammed,
and you see a huge amount.
When I was in Medina,
my friend,
from the Sudan,
it's a popular name in the Sudan. His
name was Mohammed Dayn,
which means 2 Mohammeds.
I don't know how they get that. Maybe
his father was Mohammed.
So they just call him Mohammed.
And one brother, we looked at his passport
because you have the father,
you know, you know, the person, the father,
and the grandfather. He had Mohammed, Mohammed, Mohammed.
3
on his passport.
So if you look at the world census
today on Earth,
this is the most popular name in the
human race.
So this is shocking information for most people.
Even go to the University of Toronto. Go
go to York.
Ask the most intelligent people
who claim to know history,
who claim to know,
influences in the world.
This is shocking information,
and
this is important as we go through the
life,
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallallahu alaihi
wa sallallahu alaihi wa sallallahu alaihi wa sallallahu
alaihi wa sallallahu alaihi wa sallallahu alaihi wa
sallallahu alaihi wa sallallahu alaihi wa sallallahu alaihi
wa sallallahu alaihi wa s
you know, how influential
his life was,
not only for his companions, the influence that
it's having,
up until today.
So
we're gonna continue. I think this is the
coming in now.
We're gonna we're gonna come back,
and then we're gonna look in a practical
sense
how he fulfills this this role.
We'll study that after salat.
Inshallah.
So if you could can you put something
online that we'll we'll be back?
Oh,
who don't know about it, we have classes
for children between the ages of 5 to
12.
We have youth classes,
and we also have an adult class,
So you're welcome to join us every Friday
at 6
PM.
Inshallah. We also have a number of courses,
which will be starting next week.
Every day of the week, we have Friday,
of course, on
by Farid Salam. On Tuesday,
of course,
of minerals and drones by doctor Abdullah Keith
Quick,
doing the interaction between the rulers and the
scholars in Islamic history. On
Wednesdays,
we have with,
sheikh Abdul Hamid.
This is telling us teaching us about
the revelation,
the transmission,
and the preservation of the Quran.
On Thursdays, with Sheikh Hussain,
Tafir of Surat Gobakta,
and, of course, on Sundays
online
with, sheikha.
And, also, on Fridays, I wanna welcome doctor
Abdul Hakim
with his new Muslim class.
So lots going on, and I'd like to
invite all of you to be part of
it.
If you have any special requests, you can
see me,
and we will try to fulfill it.
As we continue
in our study
of the life of Prophet Muhammad
we took a little break
for those who
might have come in late.
And we looked at,
a book,
the 100,
that he named, this is Michael Hutt.
And so he ranked the most influential persons
in history.
And this is a person who is an
astrophysicist
and an author,
and he's a white nationalist.
So this is somebody who is Eurocentric,
has nothing to do with religions,
and he's looking at
influence and power
in human history.
And he tried to be as objective as
he as he could.
He tried to look at,
the
different people, famous people at different points in
history,
and he came up with a 100. It's
very, very Eurocentric. I mean, I study history
deeply,
and know that,
the Greeks because, you know, he mentions you'll
see he has Aristotle and a lot of
different, you know,
Greek scientists and whatnot. They were influenced
by,
the ancient Egyptians,
the Phoenicians, and other people actually influenced them.
And then he has Isaac Newton as number
2,
the second most, you know, important person, very
important person.
But if you look at
science,
you know, in Andalus, Andalus Andalusia,
in Granada, in Cordoba, in Toledo, and in
Baghdad,
you will see that the basis of the
Renaissance
period
came directly out of the Muslim world.
And you can trace
with each of the subjects.
You could trace the scientists, and you can
see where they got it from.
Okay?
So
that's not really our issue.
What was
shocking to me and many people,
especially for those who do not know who
Mohammed bin Abdullah is. They don't know who
he is.
And you can be a highly educated person
at a big university.
And if somebody comes to you and says,
who is prophet Mohammed,
peace be upon him, or Mohammed bin Abdullah,
who is he?
He could only tell you just a little
bit.
He may be quote from some newspapers
or some Islamophobic
rants,
you know, but to have solid history,
he couldn't do it.
And that's that's a shocking thing, you know,
for for people who are open minded
because an open minded person should have a
more broad base. But this,
European scholar
looked at
people throughout history, and he could find nobody
whose direct
influence
on his movement,
on his people was like Mohammed,
The spread of Islam so rapidly
and the permanent nature, the places where it
went, it stayed.
Not that's why Genghis Khan is not even
on this list because Genghis Khan conquered more
territory.
But where's Mongolia today?
There's no influence.
You see?
So if you if you look at these
people, you will see
that
this is a crucial person person, and we
need to know this,
especially
those who are taking the Kalima of, you
know, there's no god, but Allah, and Mohammed
is the messenger of Allah. Who is he?
What did he actually do?
So we're going to the life of of
the prophet, peace be upon him. Yeah. Question
first. Go ahead. Question about that book. Yeah.
Does he need to be focused on the
past 2,000?
Yeah. Does he
focus on the past 2,500
years?
You know, in the list,
the way, you know, European history is taught
is very narrow
because you would think that most of history
is the last 500 years or or a
1000 years.
But in his list, he does mention
some people like he mentions Menes,
who is the one who united upper and
lower Egypt. That's
3,200 BC. And he really is one of
the most influential people.
Because if you look at the time that
the Egyptians spent,
this is 3,200 BC.
And it's only, you know, a short period,
600 years later, they built the great pyramid,
which is the largest maybe one of the
largest structures ever built. So in order to
build that,
you would have had a civilization
for a period of time.
So if you think about those 1000 of
years, you say 5000 years and then 3,200,
you know, 8000 years.
Okay. Now the European Renaissance will say 15th
century, you know, whatever,
You know, we're now in 21st. It's only
600 years.
So in terms of human history,
this is short period of time. These people
that he's listing,
are generally in this short period. So it's
a very Eurocentric,
point of view. But he did mention, Hammurabi
and some people like the the ones who,
you know, the writing of ancient
Babylonia.
And, so he mentioned some of those,
but he put them further down on the
list.
Okay? And,
but that's not, you know, the reason why
I brought this. I brought this because,
you know, people
were all affected by secular life, by the
media, by education.
Okay? This is not a Muslim telling you
that this man is the most influential person
who ever lived on earth.
He could not find anybody else.
And
if if if you take his list
and again, this this is the book, Michael
Hart.
Right? And and, you know, he's listed the
most
100 most influential people in history.
Right? He's an astrophysicist.
He's a white nationalist.
So he's not a a a spiritual person.
He's not a person who became a Muslim.
Right? And he put on his list. Look
at this list.
I I just gave you 21 of his
list.
Right?
And he put Isaac Newton as number 2,
but he put Mohammed as number 1,
the most influential person who ever lived because
he could not find anybody
who was so central to his message,
who affected the spiritual life, the political life,
the economic life, the message spread in a
100 years
all around the world. It's permanent. Up until
today,
95% of the areas it spread to, it
stayed.
He couldn't find anybody like this. He was
being objective.
Even Jesus Christ and a Christian, you know,
a
Christian would be offended. How can you say
Jesus is not
how can you say this?
But he was honest enough to say
that within present day Christianity,
a good percentage of the teachings
come from his number 6 man, who is
Paul.
And Paul has got like 24 out of
37 of the books of the new Testament
are written by Paul,
not Jesus.
So in present day Christianity,
you know, they are quoting Paul
all the time.
And, obviously, the spread of Christianity, the this
big influence.
Okay? He put Buddha 4, Confucius.
Right? Chinese culture. So so you can see
he he tried to spread out a little
bit.
But for us, the witness here,
just to bring something different,
okay, especially for those who say, okay. You're
a religious person. This is just your religion.
No. This is not a religious person.
Now what we are looking at is not
his position
because this is a very Eurocentric
weak look at history.
Because before
the Greeks
and the Romans,
the ancient Egyptians had they had physics, math.
You know, the ancient Indians even, you know,
had the concept of 0.
I mean,
science, China,
you can go around the world. So it's
a weak look, but
he was honest enough to say
that this person,
was the most influential person in history,
which is a shock
for a lot of people who read,
his book. But really, you know, if you
stand objectively with people,
then you will see the result. Now we
are looking at the actual life of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
that came to us through authenticated sources.
And we found out that
after the beginning of his message,
for 13 years,
he was in Mecca,
and he was teaching the belief in one
god.
He broke down racism.
He broke down class structure.
Right? He challenged
the society itself.
And because of that,
he he was persecuted,
insulted. His followers were killed.
This wrong image of Muslims being people who
are aggressive and have swords and fighting.
You know, for the first 13 years of
his prophethood, they were not allowed to fight.
They did not defend themselves.
Okay? So literally,
they suffered,
and eventually, they made my strategic
migration we call Hijra,
and they went north from Mecca
to a place called Yathrib.
That's what you know today as Medina, Al
Medina to Manohar.
K? Yathrib
was a city in the north,
north of Mecca.
It's in a volcanic area.
On two sides, it says lava.
It has a lot of water in it.
And the main people who were living in
Yatra at the time,
the Arab tribes was the Aus and the
Khazraj.
So these tribes had originally come from Yemen
because Yemen was the source of,
original Arabic language
and whatnot and the pure Arabic tribes.
So they came from there 100 of years
before,
and they were polytheists. They believed in the
different gods,
but there were also Jewish tribes there.
Now this is surprising.
Why would Jewish tribes
go south deep south
into Arabia,
into this particular place.
And so our history books show us, and
it came through
their sources
that they expected
a messiah,
a prophet to come.
And according to their,
sources, he would come in a town
that was surrounded
by lava
on two sides.
It had a lot of trees and a
lot of water
is the perfect description of Yathrib.
So they're in,
Medina.
It was later changed to Al Medina to
Manoah, the lighted city.
There was the tribes of Benun Nadia, Benu
Qaynaqah,
and, Benu Qureyda.
Okay? So they were allied to different,
Arab tribes.
K. So then the people came from Mecca
and those who had made migration to Ethiopia,
remember the first migration,
they also came.
So those people who did the migration are
called Muhajarin.
So these are the names.
And and the ones who supported them in
Medina,
Al Ansar.
So you have Ansar and Muhajarin.
K. So these are the 2 groups,
of the Muslims.
Right? And so this was the sanctuary. Now
we studied last week about the first place
he landed in was Cuba,
which is outside of, Medina,
and that's where the first Jummah was. The
first mosque was there in Kuba.
And then they moved,
into,
the city itself,
of Medina. Not a large city at the
time,
but they moved into Yathrib itself.
And
everybody wanted to have him,
as their
guest
because, obviously,
they believe this is a prophet,
and you'd want him as his guest. And
and and to be objective
is an in interesting, you know, how he,
how he chose it.
His camel,
Al Qaswa,
and the relationship
of the Arabs
to their horses and their camels,
like many nomadic people with very deep relationship.
And so the his camel, Qaswa,
was special.
And so
the camel could actually tell,
because animals can sense danger.
They have senses that we don't have.
I remember when the tsunamis came. Remember the
great tsunami waves?
So they had 1,
discussion of people on one of the islands,
and the water went out,
way out.
You could see fish jumping around and everything.
And so the tourists were there. They said,
come do a selfie.
So they all wanna do a selfie.
And then suddenly, they turned around and the
water went came back on them because that's
how the tsunamis go. It sucks it out.
Yeah. Now
the animals,
the goats, sheep, animals,
they went up into the hills.
They start running to the hills.
The other people are doing selfies. Right?
But the shepherds who are close to their
animals
knew the animal animals sense something wrong.
And they went up and they were saved
because they were high enough. That's their relationship
with their animals.
And so he let his,
camel go,
and it moved,
and it stopped at the house of Abu
Ayub Al Ansari.
Abu Ayub.
So it stopped at his house. So this
is where he stayed.
Okay? And,
we're looking at his actions because you want
to know now
you think of a person who's a prophet
and you
think spiritually, and we have seen so many
spiritual moments in the 1st 13 years.
Okay? Now there's another side another side of
him.
And, again, if you think about this in
terms of even what this astrophysicist
found out,
who has this influence?
What is this individual? Because he studied it.
Three
great actions he did.
Three foundations of the city.
Number 1,
he strengthened
the relationship between the believers and their lord,
and that was he established
the house of Allah,
the Masjid.
Okay? And
what I would call the Masjid he established
was not just a mosque where you go
in and pray and then you go home.
It was an all purpose Islamic center.
Because in it, there was teachings.
There was,
medicine.
You know, travelers could come, people learning about
Islam.
There were so many things that went on
inside. So today, you call it all purpose
Islamic cent. That's the idea of the IIT.
So now there's there's sports going on,
and you just finish praying.
So that's the idea. That's how the original
mosque was.
So he strengthened this as the as the
basic
basis of the society itself.
Okay?
And,
the second move that he made
was that amongst the Muslims, he established Al
Muakhat,
and that is a type of brotherhood.
And you could call it it's described by
some as a type
of social contract between individuals,
the Ansa and the Mahajid. In other words,
you meet people here.
It's not just, your Muslim brother or sister.
It's not just shaking hands,
you know, and but you actually,
deal with that person like somebody in your
family.
So you're really a brotherhood now.
Okay? And so he literally paired people together.
He paired them together. He said, you are
a brother to that person. Right? You're a
sister to that person. He paired people together.
And this was very strategic what he actually
did.
Okay. So this type of relationship,
the most famous one is, you see Abdul
Ahmed ibn Auf and Saad ibn Abi Rabiya.
Okay. So Abdul Ahmed ibn Auf,
was very wealthy, very good, rich businessman.
And when he left Mecca, he left everything.
And so he came to to Medina,
and
Saad became his close brother. I'm gonna take
care of you now. So what did Saad
do? Saad was wealthy.
And and Saad said, I will give you
half of my crops,
half of my animals. I'm gonna I'm gonna
share everything with you.
Okay? Abdul Ahmed
said, thank you very much.
Give me some twigs,
clarified butter.
Where's the marketplace?
And he went to the marketplace and he
sold it.
And shortly, he became one of the richest
people in the city. But the point is
what he did is what some people call,
like, sharecropping.
So this is an economic thing. Like, think
today if somebody's got a business
and and a a Muslim needs help. So
you say, okay. I'm gonna, you know, give
you, you know, a certain amount of,
materials. You can come in this business.
In other words, you're taking your Islam
to a deeper level.
See?
He also appeared,
Hamza.
Remember who was his uncle and a great
warrior with Zaid,
right, who was, you know, you know, his
close companion.
So you you'll see different people who were
put together
and the relationship.
So in other words, he he said to
the Muslims, be you gotta be closer to
each other
than just words.
We have to have a real
sort of social contract,
a real brotherhood
between ourselves.
Okay? So he established this
amongst the Muslims.
And the 3rd foundation,
that he did was
he established
he strengthened the relationship of the Muslims to
non Muslims,
to people of other faiths,
and he made what is called the covenant
of Medina.
It was a series of edicts.
They put it together. It wasn't like a
straight out constitution.
But when you put it together, it is
like a constitution
or a covenant.
And,
that
the the people, the Muslims,
right, the Quresh, the who came, the.
Right? They are one nation.
And, also, the Muslims made a contract with
the Jewish people
and with the Arabs who were
polytheists or other people. In other words,
Muslims were the dominant power,
but yet there were non Muslims part of
the city state.
So this is one of the first,
city states
where you have minority groups
who are allowed to live in the city
with the dominant power,
and they maintain their religion.
They maintain control of a section of the
city, but they have a covenant with the
dominant power.
In other parts of the world, for the
most part, you know, much of the world,
you were either
the dominant group, the master, or you were
slave.
1 of the 2.
That's all over the world.
The Romans,
you know, even the word slave comes from
Slav
because they were taking the Slavic people as
their slaves.
It's everywhere in the world. Master or slave.
This is no.
This is a city state
where minorities can,
cooperate.
So in other words, in this covenant,
economically, they would help each other,
In terms of defense, if the city was
attacked,
they would all help each other.
So it was like a a unity,
that he developed,
you know, with the the the people who
were not Muslims in the city.
And you can start to see why even
somebody like Michael Hart would read about this.
He can't find many people like this
whose influence went all over the world.
Where do you find somebody like this?
Also, what he did was
he he changed the name of Yasserib. They
say or.
So Taba is something which is good and,
you know, beautiful and, you know, the city
of the prophet
or the lighted city.
So the name changed. Okay? And he
stressed in his teachings
that people should live in peace,
and they should share.
And he he stressed,
give salaams,
greetings,
greet everybody,
that people should be going down the street
in greetings.
And if you went back in
Canada, it's been a while, maybe decades,
in certain parts of the world. But e
even here in Canada, but if you have
to go back urban cities, you gotta go
back. But in the rural cities and, say,
the West Indies,
there was a time not too long ago
when you're walking down the street and you
see somebody and you say, good morning.
How many times you're walking down Young Street
and you see someone say, good morning?
Right? If you're in Chicago or New York
City, they would think you're trying you're a
thief.
Like, what game is he running on me?
You see? But
everybody should be greeting each other.
Close family relationships,
regular prayers,
watch your tongue.
Right? Don't scandalize other people. Insult other people.
He stressed mercy. Have mercy.
Right? And he he even said,
you know, you need to feel for others.
He said that if you're walking down the
street
and you see something
which is harmful in the street,
then you move it out.
That is a that is a form of
charity.
So what is this now?
This is what you call civic.
It's civic
duty.
If we're in Canada and somebody's getting hurt,
somebody falls in the river and, you know,
some person will jump in and save them,
so they will give a medal. Right?
Because that is civic duty. I mean, everybody's
supposed to jump in the river,
but urban life makes people cold with each
other. Right?
So they were breaking all of that down.
So everybody is supposed to call to the
to righteousness
and forbid evil.
It's the duty of all the people in
the city.
So so this is how
he actually
began to change the city rapidly.
So it was not just prayers.
Prayer was a central part,
but it was also civic action.
Right? It was a type of morality
that was shared by people of other religions.
That is an amazing quality.
And if the average person
heard about this this man,
not the propaganda, Islamophobia that they're hearing, if
they heard about this, they would say, okay.
I didn't know this.
I did not know this. And that's what
happened with this person, Michael Hart. Although he's
a you know, he's into power and he's,
you know, Eurocentric,
he couldn't help but saying,
this man is the most influential person who
has ever lived
ever.
And he was challenged,
but nobody could really,
bring enough evidence,
you know, to overcome. We're looking at the
actual reality
of the life of prophet Muhammad, peace and
blessings be upon him.
K? So
we wanna open up the floor for any
questions anybody may have,
concerning the information that has gone on, you
know, so far. And so this is the
first,
entrance into Medina, the first actions
that happened in,
the city of Medina.
K? Floor is open for any questions.
Okay.
Doctor Quick. In Michael h Hart's work, he
makes a reference to a number of European
thinkers. Right.
Theologians
and conquerors. Surely, they're Islamic there are Islamic
thinkers and leaders that could be put. Yeah.
Okay.
The reason why I chose this book is
not because I believe in the book. Right?
Because Michael Hart is a white nationalist, you
know, astrophysics,
you know, physicist,
Eurocentric.
Okay. The reason why I brought it is
because it's shocking to see somebody who's not
a Muslim,
who rationally figured out. We we're trying to
understand
prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. So I'm
gonna give you the point of view, not
just reading from our books.
Okay? But his if you go to the
100,
it's very Eurocentric. It's it's a weak understanding
of history.
He's denying
the history of the world before,
you know, Greek, Greece, and Rome,
what happened in Egypt, what happened in
India, in
Mesopotamia,
China,
so much history.
Okay? He he's not aware of this, but
the reason why we're using it
is because
of the shocking
number one status that he gave.
And and and if you read his,
writings in it, and I'm not asking you
to get this book. If if you are
interested, just don't waste your money. You can
get a PDF online, and you can just
quickly
go to what he said. I will give
him one credit, though, with Christopher Columbus.
Okay? He said that Christopher Columbus inadvertently
discovered America,
and he never could believe how much influence
he had.
So he was honest.
He didn't discover America as we've discussed. He
was discovered
because he was lost, and he thought he
was in India.
Right? He called it India. He's totally lost
if you look at the world.
So he he was honest enough to say
that.
But the influence of Columbus,
especially on Eurocentric history, 1492
is like a cutoff point.
Right? Everybody who studies in, you know, European
societies
know that date.
It's getting less and less prominence now. But
before, it used to be something you had
to know.
Okay? But the reality was Columbus
was actually lost.
Yeah. Any other general questions that anybody has?
Floor is open.
So these are the 3 moves that he
made.
Very strategic moves in the city.
You can look at it from a lot
of different points of view. Politically,
you can look at what he did.
Okay? He strengthened the Muslims,
solidified the base,
and he also
reached out to to non Muslim, made unity.
That's what this society is supposed to be.
That's what the so called
democratic societies are supposed to be.
This is the basis of it. This is
over 1400 years ago
that this actually happened.
Question.
You said that in the city, there was
multiple
groups of different religions.
Do they have to pay, the nondominos? Do
they have to pay a tax or they
have to go to war?
Yeah. I mean, this is the early
point in time,
because they had just arrived and just established.
But, eventually,
you know, the Quran did stipulate,
a type of jizya, which is a tax
that that, non Muslims would pay toward the
state.
Because Muslims pay zakat, so we have to
pay a a tax. That's zakat.
So 2 and a half percent of your
wealth is going to the treasury house.
You know? But any city state, you naturally,
who's gonna clean your streets? You know? Who's
gonna protect you? You know, everybody has you
have to pay taxes
to live in this society. So they did
pay a type of poll tax
called the.
They paid it, you know, to the state
in order to keep things running and, you
know, the defense of the city.
So it was it was there established. And
it's interesting if you get any, text that
go into the life of of the prophet,
you'll see,
very interesting,
constitution type of thing he set up in
his relationship to other peoples.
Very interesting.
The other any any other questions concerning tonight's
class?
Should what what would you recommend of all
of the biographies of the prophet?
You know, that there is the, Ibn Hisham,
you know, itself. Ibn Hisham is translated into
English.
There's a number of different ones.
Another way
has a text. There's a recent one done
by, Sheikh Yasir Kadi.
His serum is is excellent.
Yasir Kadi.
Martin Ling's
is okay.
So so there's different texts.
If you wanna go deeper, you'd have to
go into, you know, deeper books,
you know, on the life of the prophet
Shamayel of, and you'd have to go, you
know, deeper into some, you know, deeper books.
But maybe I could bring a list at
some point so you can get a whole
list,
you know, of some of the names.
The other so the floor is open now
for any general questions that anybody had. That's
part of our gathering here now.
It's not just a subject matter. It may
be a general question.
Yeah. So so this is a question,
which
20, 30 years ago was a burning question.
You know, where should we go to practice
Islam?
And so many people thought that we should
not be here in the west,
that you need to go east.
Okay?
But the world is a big village now.
Right? And in terms of, you know, what
the the mess that's happening in the so
called Muslim world,
many people came here and found that they
could practice Islam better here than in some
of the countries over there
because of tyrannical rulers.
And then there are natural catastrophes. There are
also wars.
You know? So, really, there is no,
no set place
at this point. I say wherever you can
practice your Islam the best.
You know, some people say I wanna go
to Arabia, you know, Saudi Arabia. I wanna
go to Medina. We'd all love to go
there.
But once your is over, the Saudi say,
like, where where's your visa?
If you don't have a visa,
they gotta kick you out.
That's totally opposite of what it used to
be. Right? So so we, you know, we
have nation states that are following
secular, you know, laws
in terms of nation states.
So,
but if you
have family members
or you're in a linguistic group and people
are practicing Islam and it's fairly safe,
it may be better to be in an
area than in some of these urban areas
because it's getting very hectic here
as long as you can be safe.
Because people are in crisis
all over the world with the climactic changes
and whatever.
People are in crisis, so you have to
strategically,
you know, find a place
to go.
It's not that easy.
Any more questions online? Floor is open for
anybody.
Love you online.
So we will be continuing on, you know,
with our classes. You know, the the regular
year has come. We maintained our class throughout
the summer.
This is a great achievement,
that we made. But now there will be
more people here, you know, on Fridays,
but our class will continue inshallah.
And we're going through a change with time.
So next week, we'll come at 7 like
we did. We were here at 7 today,
and we'll come at 7, have a general
discussion.
And then after Maghrib, which is around 7:15
or so,
then Maghrib Salat will come in, and then
after Maghrib will will start the formal class.
But 7 o'clock,
we we will be here. So if anybody
would like to come early, any general questions
you have or things like that, you can
come early because that's part of the purpose
of the class.
You something's, you know, bothering you about about
Islam or what they said or whatever. This
is a chance, you know, to ask your
questions inshallah.
Okay? So,
glad everybody's back. Have a safe journey home.
We'll see you next week.