Pivotal Moments in Islamic History #03

Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim hamdulillah Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala says or willing will Arkadin the Vienna Muhammadan Allah Allah He was happy about it because Allah, All praises are due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds peace and blessings be constantly showered upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, the master the first and last, and upon his family, his companions and all those who call to his way and establish his sunnah and give his guidance to the Day of Judgment. As to what follows a Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

Alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed us with another opportunity to reflect, to reflect upon His mercy on the last OMA, the last nation of the prophets that would come from the beginning of time, that Omar of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon

and

one of the unique parts of this ummah, that the Prophet peace be upon him had described as that he was not sent only to his tribe. But he was sent to every nation, and to every tribe, and to the jinn, creatures from smokeless fire. And so this is a nation whose message had to cross barriers of environment, ethnicity, language, politics,

his job was to give the message to all of humanity.

And within 100 years,

the message of Islam, in its final form, had gone far east to China.

They had gone far north, up to Chechnya, and Dagestan. They went deep south on the Swahili coast, they went far to the west, to Morocco, and even looked across the Atlantic. And this is what could be called the known world. And so what was known at that particular time to the people living in the Mediterranean region, North Africa, East Africa,

much of Asia, the major civilizations, Islam had reached the message of Islam had reached the people.

And this is unique, because there is no other message. There is no other religion, there is no conqueror, who was able to go so far with his message, and the people are still believing and functioning by the message. And so in order for this to happen, they had to be major incidents. That happened, because you're literally going from one environment and you switch to another environment.

You're going from one civilization, and then you switch into this new civilization. And so what we are looking at is pivotal moments of the switch. Also, we're looking at points where there was a danger for the Muslim world to be totally destroyed, and it pivoted

and about face happened, the change went on.

And Muslims were able to continue, not only continue but to thrive, and to reach new borders, and to reach new people.

And so these pivotal moments. There are some of course, which you would expect to get in the life of Prophet Muhammad Salah Salem.

We want to look at some of the pivotal moments that may not be so well known by

the Muslim world, and two people had to bring out these pivots in a new light.

And with this in mind,

we recall the last session that we were looking at. It was a great pivot of Islam entering into Europe itself.

And the place where the Muslims entered is now called Gibraltar.

And this was originally in Arabic, it was called Jebel todich. So you can see how names even pivot themselves. From Jo Jable Tarik to Gibraltar ARDL Berta call the land of Berta call, right. Oranges, water call Portugal.

So you see how language can pivot. Civilizations can pivot. In this case,

the Muslims did not cross from Africa into Europe, for imperialistic reasons. They did not cross the plunder.

They had enough land, they had enough riches and wealth in North Africa, that would last them for centuries, because of you really look at the map of North Africa, not in the way that comes in most of our textbooks. But in reality on the ground, it's a huge place. Libya itself,

Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, going to Egypt, all the way across, and then going down into the Sahara, to the great desert. So huge area. And so there was so much, there was so many great civilizations, and the Amazon people, the Berber people had been there for 1000s of years. And so the Muslims were busy spreading Islam establishing the call to the righteousness, establishing the Quran, the message from the Creator of the heavens and the earth. And so, at that point, a message came to them based upon Ileana, or Julian, who was the Spanish Christian leader, living in suta, or sub. And this is that small point that sort of sticks up from Morocco. And on the other side is Gibraltar. So that

little section there, it's still Spanish controlled, but they lived under the Muslims, the Muslims control, and they paid the jizya. They paid the poll tax, and they were subjects of the Muslim leaders, because that's the way Islam is built. Minorities can live underneath Islam, as long as they follow the basic civil laws within the society itself.

And so Ileane got a message from Spain. He had sent his daughter, he was Spanish himself. He sent his daughter to Toledo, which was the educational and political capital at the time. And she was raped by King Roderick, of the Visigoths. And Roderick was the emissary are the representative of the Catholic Church, the Trinitarian Catholic Church. And it was that struggle now between unity and polytheism, monotheism polytheism Tauheed shirk, this was the struggle of the of the region and the world itself. And so on the Iberian Peninsula, which is now known as Portugal and Spain. They were the vandal people who were Gothic people. They were European origin, but they refused to accept the

Council of Nicaea. And although they were Christians, they were considered to be heretics. And so the Visigoths were dispatched by the Trinitarian Roman Church, and they took over the land and they were imposing the Trinity on the people. They were also imposing their taxes on the people.

And, at the same time, around 586 BCE, a group of Jewish people who were exiled from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians, they made their way into Spain. And they thrived. And of course, they are believers in one God. So a struggle was going on. And Ileana was offended by his daughter being raped, he wanted revenge. And he made it known to the leader of the Muslims, whose name was Musa, Ben Lucia.

And Musa you can see at the bottom of your screen he's there in

his base of beta one which Tunisia

When he heard about this, he sent across his forces, Ilya Ileane had to prove himself. And he did that he was serious. It's not a trick. And Musa said his general taarak been Ziad.

He was Amazon of the Berber people fluid Arabic, fearless leader, tireless innovator and change, and he was a great man. And tonic then went across and defeated the forces of Roderick, in 711. That was the pivot point that we studied because it was there. The Muslim forces were in Europe now.

todich went forward. In 712. Musa followed Tarik. And within a short time, they had taken over the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, except for some craggy mountain area Leone, far in the north.

This was unprecedented because the cities,

whether it's Granada, or Toledo, or Valencia, or Seville, or Cordoba, they were surrounded by wolves. And they were well watered and they had food, he would take months for a small group, like what the Muslims had, but no, the people open their doors, especially the Jewish people, because they knew that the Muslims believed in one God, and they were not forcing people to accept their religion.

And so the Muslims then moved rapidly throughout Spain, unprecedented. And this was something that the people had known for years, the taxes were lifted, for the most part.

They were not forced to be Trinitarians, or any religion. It was a sense of freedom.

And they went up the rivers called the VAR y deal, Kabir, they went right up

beautiful places. And it was for 40 years, that the people of Andalus enjoyed this type of freedom.

And, but the problem that they faced is that Spain is a very big area. And a lot of terrain, has its own politics. And so the leadership was coming from Pedro Juan, in Tunisia. That's where Musa Mendoza, and the leadership of the Muslims, or Damascus, because the Muslims at that time were ruled by Benu omega. That's the omegas.

And that's a long distance. Things started to get out of control.

And people have their tribalism. There was a newly

found are the newly immigrated Arabic speaking people who came along with the forces. They were the Amazon people, the Berbers of North Africa, they were West Africans, they were the Europeans, people themselves. And these Christians, these Jews as Muslims, there's a lot going on. And without central leadership, it becomes very difficult. And so this is a point. It's like a fork in the road. Either it would just be a conquest, that would be lost, all would turn into something amazing.

And is at that point, that we have our pivot,

and that pivot was in the form of Amir Abdul Rahman Ibn Wailea.

Now,

this is a strange pivot because it's not something which is a movement or it's not a great battle.

But it is the entrance of an individual. Allah subhanaw taala raised up this person

the circumstances

that were facing his people to May a dynasty were such that he was forced to leave from Damascus and he ended up in Spain. How is this possible?

The man is up there man Ibn Wow. Yeah. It's not valuable to be Sofia. It's up there, man. Even Wow, yeah. Even his sham Ibn Abdul Malik, Ibn Mattawan. Okay, so this is the only a dynasty right? My one on how come and it goes up right to Maui himself. So this is down from the original millions. And

the remains of that time. I had gone through that cycles like almost 100 years.

And it's not the same as it originally was. That original spirit was not there in the beginning, not the that was in the beginning was not there now. And so

there were rumblings going on.

And in many cases, the Arabs were given prep preference, especially in Iraq, in the area of the Persians. And so this was a mistake, because Islam is not based upon

race or tribe. It is a meritocracy. The person with the most merit is supposed to be the one who's in leadership. And so a rumbling was going on. And a movement developed, which was led by Benoit, Bhaskar the Abbasids. And they overthrew the Romanians. Now, of course, this is a long history, you need to read, you know some of the details about it. But they overthrew the roommates. And with this politics and tribalism in mind, they wanted to wipe out domains. They did not want to have any of the left. So they went about

killing the Romans. So that they would be the dynasty that would rule course, this is not so no, this is not Islamic. But this is what happens when people are dealing with their humanity, their tribalism. And sometimes they are going off the path. And so these are the circumstances. It's a coup.

It's a destruction of a ruling class. Another ruling class is coming in. The Romanians are being liquidated, male and female. And there's only a few of them left. And so up there, man, Pippin. Wow. Yeah. And his brother.

Yeah.

They leave from Damascus. There's also a servant, that they had a better who will becomes a very important person in their quest. And this is a beautiful story, by the way, the movie should be made out of this. And so up there, man. And yeah, then flee. They go to the Euphrates River.

And they're going along the Euphrates, and the Abbasids send their assassins. So they send a special team to find everybody and they heard about them, and then they chase them. And literally, you have the Euphrates, they jump into the Euphrates, and they're moving west, over the Euphrates from the eastern bank. And, yeah, I was tired. And he is the assassins say that we'll take care of you don't worry. Everything is alright. We'll, we'll spare your life. We'll take you back. It's just a political change. But up there man is very cutting and until he said, Don't do it. But yeah, he was weak. So he went back and just imagine, up there man is in the water, he turns around, sees his

brother go to the shore, they immediately, you know, kill him cut his head off, send it back to the leadership. And Abdurrahman continues.

He's now running for his life. And he meets his servant better.

And they move through Palestine.

They go down into Egypt. So now they are underground,

hiding their identity, and they are moving from place to place. This is an amazing story. And they finally enter Egypt. Now what is important to recognize about Abdul Rahman number one, when all this is happening, he's only 20 years old.

So he's still a young men, highly intelligent,

natural leader.

circumstances that are around him.

Another important point is that his father is of the bed or mayor but his mother, Raha she was amazi she was a Berber.

So it's an Arab father and a Berber mother. So therefore he has roots in North Africa. This is the will of Allah, right in play in front of your eyes. So he goes to Egypt and then they recognize that he is a maid, and he's a buddy's Berber. So they say you should go west, especially now that we may a dynasty as being destroyed, Cairo is not safe. And you can see even there there are so many stories and one of his relatives because he is of the NAFSA

Clan of the Berbers and one of his

relatives in Cairo. Now the of acids reach this area, and they're looking for and she literally hides him amongst the women's things. So he's literally hiding in the dresses and whatnot. He's got to do anything to survive.

And he makes it out and he heads toward Tunisia.

And Tunisia at that time, the rulers still had the feeling of Beto mania because it was the roommates who sent them there. It was Romanians who established the dynasty there, they established the rule of beloved in that area and Musa bin nosair was coming directly out of homemade leadership. And so

up there man Rahim Allah Tala reaches that area. And the leadership there recognizes very intelligent move. And they, they tell him that

you should go to Al Andalus.

These are the ALMA of Cato one.

And remember that Maliki school of thought is developed in

Badewanne. itself known and the great scholars that this there's a lot of wisdom in that city at the time, and especially going into Al Andalus. And so, up there man, along with better,

they make it across, and they slip in and they find people who can still relate to the Omega dynasty. Because remember, there's no internet, there's no television, there's no radio information is just coming to them by written notes, or somebody who eventually after months tells them what's happening. And so the loyalty is still to better Omiya.

And there's a lot of rumbling going on this again, the 40 years. First, it's freedom. It's relaxation, but people need order. People need central leadership in their lives. And so

rumbling is happening. And the whole thing was about to fall apart. And then the people started to relate to Abdul Hamid.

This is the perfect person to come at that time.

Because he is from Ben omega.

And so they still have a loyalty to that great dynasty of Muslim leaders. Secondly, he's, he's a mosaic. He's from his pet family's from North Africa. So he's not a foreigner. In that sense, he combines these qualities in terms of nationalism or tribalism. At the same time, he's a highly intelligent person. And he is the fit person to Allah ma se. Lola Abdul Rahman, led to hell, Islam, Al Andalus. They say if it wasn't for Abdurrahman, Islam would have been finished, in Al Andalus. That beautiful history that we know 781 years plus, God would not have made it.

But the pivot then happens with the presence of Abdur Rahman. And this picture that you see here is actually because the Spanish even recognize him, now they made a statue of him, it's in Malaga.

Because this is, this is where he landed proximately.

And there was talk about a film to be made. There's a famous Spanish actor, Antonio Banderas, he wants to play up the ramen.

So you can imagine that because he's from Malaga, himself. And this is a something of pride. So for the Spanish now, who in the past hated Muslims, things are turning around. And they recognize that this is one of the heroes, not just of Moorish history, or of Islamic but it is one of the heroes of Spain itself. And so of their men there then comes in

Remember, it's around 755

That we may a dynasty fell

and the epic journey of observed men then takes place. So this is your pivot. This is your change that is happening now. Which is going to impact everything. So there in your picture, there is Al Andalus. And the Mediterranean region is their look at the journey that he takes all the way across North Africa and into an endless This is not easy, because this is by foot, camel, donkey, horseback, mule, boat, whatever possible way

He could be without money without wealth, young man, he stays with people. So it takes him a long period of time to get across. But he finally reaches this fear seeming part of the world. This is Al Andalus. This is an amazing place that has an amazing possibility. So this is around 755. You can look around this point and his his period is going to about 787.

And

very important person. Now, what does he do?

He after rallying the people around him, and dealing with opposition, another part of him is that he was really strong, some say even ruthless against his opposition. And so he was a strong leader like Omar will have top, you know, really low one type of person. And so he established the leadership of the weights. He didn't call it that, because he called himself an Emir. And they related to him as an Emir. And but a loyalty to Ben Omega was there. And so the change happens, and he looks out the area. The former capital was Toledo. That is a little bit above the center, but just below in a desert region, which is similar to what the Muslims knew in Syria and the Arabian Peninsula. He

establishes Cordoba, Cordoba, and he makes it the capital. Now these coins that you see on the screen, these are actually coins minted during the time of Beto mania.

So so they literally eventually were minting coins. And this is a serious change as going about. What did he do? Let's look at the steps that he made to make this pivot. And this is also training for leadership.

And what does the leader do? Does the lead just come in and sit on the throne? No, he thought strategically.

And because Islam is based upon the belief and Allah subhanaw taala.

And because of the Prophet Muhammad, Salah Salem, one of the first activities that he did, was that he established the masjid remember, the three activities that happened when the Hijra came, we studied this in Asia at a time. First, it was to strengthen the relationship of the believers with Allah. And that is all purpose Islamic center.

Second,

that is to establish brotherhood

between the believers. And third is to strengthen the relationship of believers to people of other faiths. And that's what the Constitution says after a man is following this prophetic model.

And there's a huge place that is there. It was originally a pagan temple,

indigenous people. And then it turned into a pagan temple of the Romans. So the Roman belief then came in, and then Catholicism came in, and it turned into a cathedral. And now it was being shared by the Muslims and shared by the Christians. It's the center of the town. So the town is built around this structure and the courtyards. And what that is around So after a man then purchases the building, now, key point here.

He gives 100,000 dinars to the Christian inhabitants. He's respecting the religion, respecting the house of worship. And he now begins to develop this former cathedral to be the Jamia

Masjid of Jamia of Cordoba. This is not only the largest house of worship in Spain, but it is probably the largest in the whole of western Europe. Now remember, on the eastern side, you have Constantinople, and is Sofia. But on this side, this is the largest house of worship. So he establishes it. Also, how does he establish it? He establishes as as all purpose

Islamic center. So there's not only prayer being done inside, but there is also Talim education. There is welfare going on the poor being fed. People are learning about Islam entering Islam. So this was amazing and the succeeding leaders added on to this Masjid

until it became literally one of the wonders of the world. It was an amazing place. Now, while this was happening, the Abbasids were establishing the rules.

And news came to them that no man yet had escaped.

And he reached all the way to the former, far flung territory of the rebellions. In Al Andalus. Solomon saw was the Khalifa of the Abbasids. He said, his people were hit squad, we call it today. He said soldiers out to eliminate up the right man

to end his influence. But after a man was highly intelligent person, and this force that was said to deal with him, was defeated.

And

when the defeat got back to man saw, they asked him, What should we do?

Kalman saw said

leave this man was sucker Quraysh.

Leave him he is the Falcon of Quraysh. Now, this is politics. But he's even quoted as saying, you know, I'm glad there's a sea in between me and this man. This is this is his negative power side.

But he respects the qualities. And they say Why would you say something like this? He's an old man yet. And he said no. He's a young man. He lost his family. He escaped from Syria through Iraq. He goes all out to Egypt, across North Africa, into Al Andalus. He doesn't have an army with him. He doesn't have wealth. And he's able to establish rule. This has this is an amazing feat.

And so this name, soccer polish, the Falcon of Kadesh. And I felt a falcon is a beautiful bird.

Highly intelligent warrior bird. And so this is a fitting title for Abdul Rahman they also call him and you'll see this in some of the books of Dr. Manoj darkfield. And that means the doctor is the one who's entering into and they say, Oh, well, man, Doc Allah quarter Bob and Ben Mejia Hakima. He was the first to enter quarterback from Ben who may have as a ruler.

Okay, so this is the first who made ruler is a dynasty person who now comes into quarterback and makes it as his capital.

Now, he's a leader. How would you function as a leader think of Sana

because the Prophet SAW Selim sets the example. And those the closer that a leader can get to his sunnah is the more likely he will be successful in this life and the hereafter, whatever up there man do.

He walked amongst the people without bodyguards. He was accessible to people.

He became engaged in the affairs of the people on the ground, he would give Juma football as well. So he has learned, people get to hear from him on a regular basis. But he would also disguise himself in regular clothes, and he would walk amongst the people. And this is amazing. This is what Omar used to do regular one to go amongst the people and even up to our man is used to do that as well, then you would question people, what do you think about Amir Abdul Rahman,

because he wanted to know whether he was ruling successfully or whether he was an oppressor. And so this is an amazing quality. And when the leader comes down with the people,

okay, this is one of the most important aspects of leadership, when the leaders start to get separated from the people and then hide themselves behind closed doors. When they barrier themself and have hundreds and hundreds of bodyguards around them. This is the beginning of the end of your man turns it around.

He also

brought scholars scholars came from North Africa, even other parts of the Muslim world He even said those who are who have their feeling for better Omega come to Al Andalus. So there were people coming even from Syria, Arabia from all over different parts of them other than Muslim world, and they were going there and he sat down. Let's look at this land, and strategically what can we do?

And so strategically, they developed

they

I embellish, they beautified and lose the Romans who are great leaders in the sense of powerful leaders and organized and then high civilization. They brought in water on aqueducts. So that was an amazing achievable when the Romans fell, the aqueducts were basically destroyed, only the foundations were left after a man then refurbished the aqueducts, extended them, made them more useful. And you will actually see how the aqueducts lead into smaller channels that lead to tiny channels that can go right into your house. And so you can actually have running water. And that's an amazing thing at that point in history. And so he established running water

in the cities, especially in Cordoba, and he had the scientists study the land. And they recognize that in terms of plant life, it was fear seeming for citrus fruits, also pomegranates and different type of the dates of course, and different types of fruits were brought in and, and vegetables and orchards and gardens were made. This is upward mobility. This is what a leader is supposed to do. Not hoarding the money to himself, and living a good life and his people are starving to death. Even as you see in the world today, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. No. So this is an example for all times.

He used the wealth to raise the standard of the society itself.

And

an amazing study is that he's looking at the type of soil what can be planted. The environment, even pomegranate itself that you know, is really POM de Granada. It is the apple of Grenada. Because this is where it's really came into its developed, we still say, pomegranate, palm de Granada, the apple of Grenada. And so this is another amazing thing. So he's helping the people. He's taking care of the welfare of the masses of the people.

Okay, this is a great leader.

He then empowers the people themself. He builds hospital. So now if you got running water, you have to harder

then hospitals, clinics,

places to wash up and to be clean. And he developed schools and public baths. Now that's something that was not known in Europe, even the monks would go years without bathing. And it was it was like a badge of honor. So bathing

and public works, places where you could get waters is in the city up until now, you will see fountains that are there as strategic places in, in the ancient cities from this time. And this is something not known in most of the world, because generally, this running water and this progress is for the rich people. But he did it for the whole city.

Then he made a very important move. He established free education for children right up

Christian, Jewish Muslim,

not just for the Muslims, and everybody else becomes ignorant education for all free so that every child would have reading, writing, and arithmetic.

He also established schools for trade skills,

carpentry, plumbing, farming,

metalwork, he establishes weaving, and he even allows trade unions. So they literally had revisit trade union silversmith group, and this is how the major Islamic cities are there. You see a section where all the suits silversmiths are working. You see a section where there are people doing leather crafts, and so he's literally establishing the basis of modern civilization. These are the things you take for granted. You think it's the Romans is not the Romans. It is the Muslims who are doing it up there Amanda Dakhil Rahim Allah, He is the pivot point.

He is making a base here for a major change, not only in Spain, but in Europe. And you could say to a certain extent, the world

and

these

changes these advancements were amazing things. I just imagine you're living under the Visigoths, you're taxed, you're hated, you have no education. You have no medical facilities. And suddenly now, a change comes about is running water. You're you're being educated as to the use of water to Hatha, and medicine.

Facilities are there around you agriculture as they're beautiful things you are literally they even planted a type of neuron, it's a type of orange, that, you know, it doesn't really it stays on the tree. You don't eat it, but it beautifies the tree.

So literally, you would have these trees that all around, you would have running water.

Muslims are busy, they're making five Salaat. You're they're busy doing their activities. They're defending the borders of Islam. So naturally, people love the book, especially those who did not accept the Trinity. Because these are Unitarians. Now, remember the concept of Unitarians. So Unitarians are here so it's easy, especially for the Christians, because Muslims believe in Jesus and Mary, easily salaam as a great prophet, born without a father, marry a virgin, may Allah be pleased with them both. That's within Islamic beliefs. So once the veil of propaganda and lies, is is taken away, it's easy for a sincere Christian, especially one who was a monotheist to easily

embrace Islam, and it happened. And so they came in and droves. The Jewish people, of course, they have more foundation, but there were Jewish people also accepting Islam.

And so Muslims are growing in number not because waves of hostile Moors colored people coming in from North Africa, like the Spanish put into textbooks. No, it is because of the progress, the upward mobility of Islamic society. This picture here,

you look at it, and you say, Oh, that's a Moorish palace. And yes, it is built in the style of a Muslim palace. It's called Alec Kozar. And up until today, if you go to Seville, and you'll see it Alakazam people, this is one of the major tourist attractions. And you will go there but what's strange you say because, you know, it looks like Granada, Alhambra. And I'll humbler is the great palace of Granada. And that's where the Muslims were, for the last 250 years. But why is this like this? That is because Pedro the first, who ruled from 1364 to 66.

The when the Christians had taken over this territory, remember this hundreds is years after the beginning times. But when they had taken over, he fell in love with Muslim society.

So he hired

architects and builders to come from the lands of Granada and to build a replica of the Alhambra. And this is amazing, because when finally Granada did fall,

the the Alhambra after years fell into disrepair.

And so you don't, they had to sort of build it back. But this in the style of Alhambra, because it's a palace. And so for Pedro furs, other Spanish kings and queens. They would live part of their time in the palace, and they took care of it. So you will literally see some of that original ad Lucien designed. The color combinations are the type of architecture that they developed with the running water. You'll see it there in this URL casa. El Casa as well. Khazar comes from you see it in Seville. So if you get a chance to visit Spain, make sure you go to Seville and you go to our Casa el casa. And you will see that right near it is also a huge cathedral. That's where the Jamia Masjid

was there's a minaret there, which was later built by Elmo hidden Aloha days. Right. But for our intents and purposes, we're going back to the time of Amanda Darko. And just after him. His his successor and his successor people are coming into Islam peaceful. There's no forcible conversion that is going on. And so

of your man and his successes, they made amazing achievements. And around the year 1000 ad, Cordoba was one of the largest cities in the world.

It had over 200,000 houses 600

mosques, masjids 900 public baths 50 hospitals, this is something which is unprecedented

in Europe itself,

and

the sign or one of the

epic statements that you'll find in many of their buildings, and you'll see it on the right. It says, well, our valuable Illallah nobody can conquer you, except Allah.

And so that was the spirit. And it propelled them to make amazing achievements. So here's your pivot. Now. Here's your pivot. This is one of the largest cities in earth, some say the largest on Earth.

And these dynasty the rulers, though, may it's

they established an amazing dynasty. Now, around the year, from 912 to 962 50 years, a ruler comes in updraft man, the third who is up there, man on nasiha Lydian Illa abdominal Nasugbu calm. So Abdul Rahman Nasir Rahim, Allah Rahimullah, he has that spirit of his great great grandfather. I'll drive man the first and he is tireless leader. Powerful. He has great ideas. And but he wants to take it a step further.

Because the Abbasids are now struggling to survive. And they're actually crumbling. Now they're the corruption has said it. There is also a large Shiite dynasty. There in North Africa, you will find the Israelis they first established themselves in Tunisia. And then they moved over to to Egypt.

There's also another group of Hassan Nia, they actually in Fez, Morocco. So this Khalifa is all over the place. So if you're a man or NASA makes a move, he said, We are the most stable of all the leadership.

And we also are controlling our country. We have great scholars here. Islamic universities, we are making Hajj, some of the great scholars that you know,

are coded to be, you know, the great tough sale quarterback. He's from quarterback, even hasm. You know, so many great scholars came from this region itself. So it's very important place it is the seat bed of Maliki Feck.

So I'm not mad at that Abrahamian or nausea

makes a bold move is that I am announcing that I am a mirror meaning I am the Khalifa

of the Muslim world. That's a bold statement to make in order to make a statement like that. You gotta have something to prove it not just something you inherited from your great great grandfather, not. So he comes about to build one of the wonders of the world. And this is called Medina to Zara.

And it's an amazing sight.

Today, if you go to Spain,

in Cordoba, there is an archaeological site that is still there. It's a World Heritage Site. And the Agha Khan actually and other philanthropic people developed help to develop it un came in UNESCO came in. Now if you look at this picture, because this is an archeological site, you'll see columns on your right, and then it goes down the green goes way down. Now the second light green, there's a road that is down there that it is believed that Medina desira, this one the city reached all the way down there.

They've only excavated maybe about 25% of it. All of this with years going by in time and neglect. It actually was covered over by the grass. And it's being excavated now. And it's an amazing site. So there's not a nasiha has one of the wonders of the world.

And he establishes himself. And this is an important point. Because where's your pivot? Now? People genuinely think that Europeans when they related to the Muslim world, they looked east. Okay, but from Switzerland, and from Germany and France, delegations were going west. So the Khalifa was in the west of Europe.

Okay, that's a pivot

and

amazing achievements went on

of the amount of NASA 50 years of rule

and his family came after that.

Rumbling started to happen.

But Cordoba had reached its heights. They even had large markets. It is said 50,000 Weaver's.

Imagine this in the marketplace, the streets of Cordoba were lit 10 miles in any direction, running water. It took Paris and London 700 years to achieve this 700 years. Think about this. Because if that's the case, and if Muslims here in Toledo and Cordoba and Granada and then in Baghdad, and in other parts of the Muslim world, Cairo and Timbuktu and, you know, how do we mean, pay the one other places, this is the Renaissance. So the real renaissance of Europe, happened here. And the European scholars would sit at the foot of Muslims, and they would gain their knowledge. That's where your Renaissance comes from.

Even one scholar is even mentioned that you even see how you got this black robe when you were in something on. This is all taken from the Muslims, the graduation ceremonies.

It's the university system, Oxford University, the top university and England.

If you look into one of the old libraries where the founder established, you'll see Arabic writing there, because they were literally bringing over Arabic texts and translating them. The Renaissance of Europe was translation.

Pivot, the pivot came about from Abdul Rahman. And so in Al Andalus, Jews, Christians, Muslims living together, harmoniously covered Valencia is what a term they're using today,

most populous, industrious land in Europe itself. Okay, it was flourishing. Even Jewish scholars will tell you this is the golden age of Jewish literature, Maimonides, it's during this time.

So this comes about, this is an amazing change. And this is a stamp coming out of Portugal recently. And it is saying the pod noon, they haven't seen. It's really a pod noon, you know, which is the law of Ibn Sina. But you see, they even reached the point where they're not going to lie. And the person in the stamp is a Muslim. So times are changing, and people are recognizing what has happened. But I want to remind you also, because question may come with all this great achievement, and how did it fall. And this is where you need to critically study andaluz critically study what happened. There's Ibn Khaldoun cycle of rule. And that is that when dynasties are established, the beginning they live

by their morals, they're strong, they're powerful, their children still have that same spirit. But the next generation maybe is born in the palace. So they start to get weak, and they start to lose it. And so it's almost like 100 year cycle in the sense

that you see dynasties go up and go down.

And this song theory in his pocket, Dima Abel Khaldoon. So he's called the father of sociology.

So this started to kick in. And you can literally see,

this is probably the best study I would say in the world, to study the cycle.

From our point of view, and we need to benefit from this. What happened wealth, when too much wealth starts pouring it

also fighting with each other arguing, disputing, and then disunity. Once the disunity comes, then your enemy start to pour in. Corruption comes you can't blame your enemies because started inside of yourself. And it's only if there is a revival that comes afterwards that you can return to your original sources in your original strength. Okay, so this is the example of Al Andalus.

It is a shining civilization

781 years plus, that is there. It's a good example of the rise and fall of Islam. But for us, there was a pivot

that happened around 751 Remember

right in the 750s, it was up there man, as Allah Ma said, Lola up there man led to hell a slump Al Andalus. If it wasn't for this man of God, man, a dark Hill, Islam would have been finished and landless. Not only what would have done, that would have destroyed the Renaissance, the renaissance of Muslim lands in the West, but also the West itself, European Renaissance

influenced the world. So this is an important pivot in Islamic history. And this is an important individual to study, if you want to study leadership, that this is one of the people you should use as a model. Not perfect. He was kind of ruthless, you know, with his opposition, but he tried his best to go to the Sunnah. And so when you see these qualities, you see, to the power of Allah azza wa jal manifest and pivoting coming, and the changing of the course of history.

So I want to leave you with these thoughts here. And I want to open up the floor for any questions that you may have. I'll take this down.

And

we want to open up the floor

and see if there are any questions.

People are coming from different parts.

And

the question you can put it into a question area, you can put it into chat, as well.

This will be online for you.

And you know, I want to give something extra Now, this can come back on the screen.

And that is

I want to give you some references.

So if you can see this.

There's Ahmed Thompson was a British writer and Uttara men.

They wrote a book called for Christ's sake. That's literally the name of the book. Okay. Ahmed Thompson also has Islam in Andalus. So this is a very important book, Michael berry if you want to get a European writer, homage to Al Andalus, The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain.

There's also SEL xiety. He's done some amazing work the Golden Age and decline of Islamic civilization. Very important. You can also go to harass al Khatib last Islamic history. I have an e book as well, which is called behind the vault. That is there. And of course, your documentary. For those of you who may not be in the last class, there's a documentary when the Moors ruled in Europe. That is done by Bettany, Hughes. Okay, so these are some of some suggestions for further reading. For those who want to take it

a step further. Okay, so I want to open up the floor for any questions that anybody may have. And we'll go back here

and see

so these are some of the questions one asked about the books but you know, the easiest the best one to get, you know, clearest and

Islam in an endless Ahmed Thompson. He's a British Muslim.

But I'm at Thompson

for Christ's sake and also give you a background as well. Excellent work.

Okay, and, and some of the other names that I do so we want to go and see if there's any other questions

that anybody has.

And this becomes

another important pivot, another change in the world. And Inshallah, we will go on to the fourth pivot.

This is one, which you can easily follow up and to see what is left the Alhambra Palace is still there in Granada.

The Jami Masjid in Cordoba is there. So you can literally go back it's a cathedral, you gotta respect the cathedral. But the people of quarterback loved it so much, that when the Christian rulers eventually took over to the corruption of the Muslims,

they wanted to destroy it, but

The people said no.

You can easily destroy it but you will never be able to build back something as beautiful as this. And the arches that are there are still being replicated in Masjid throughout the Muslim world. It's an amazing place.

And it's something that you need to see.

You know, after you go to Mecca, Medina Jerusalem,

not religiously, but historically, you need to visit. Okay, so, final point, any other questions? Anybody has?

There? Okay. So you know, keep your questions and write them down for the next class. And we'll come to a conclusion Subhanak Allah who we have the kinda shadow in La ilaha illa, Anta, the stock for rucola to Lake or Africa Juana? hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh