Abdullah Hakim Quick – Pivotal Moments in Islamic History #04 Muslim Response to the Mongols #03
AI: Summary ©
The cycle of Islam is a cycle where leaders and companions are involved, and the fall of the throne of Islam has caused the loss of the capital of Islam, the rise of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the fall of portfolio of Islam. The decline of the previous Islam-led region, the rise of the Mamal Lexy dynasty, and the rise of the Mamal K madam have led to a pivot in Islam, with a new force emerging. The history of slavery, slavery, and slavery in the Middle East, including the rise of slavery in the Atlantic slave trade, and the cultural shift from slavery to slave labor have also been discussed. The upcoming conflict between the United States and Islamist movement is discussed, with resistance and support for the people and the importance of learning history and religion. The conflict is described as a war of "war room" where the United States takes all available resources and equipment and takes full advantage of the resources of the Middle EastAI: Transcript ©
All praise are due to Allah, lord of
the worlds.
And peace and blessings
be always and constantly showered
upon our beloved prophet Muhammad,
the master of the first and the last,
and his family, his companions, and all those
who called to his way
and established his sunnah
to the day of judgment.
As to what follows, my beloved brothers and
sisters, to our viewers,
I begin with the greeting words of the
righteous. Assalamu alaikum Warahmatullah.
Alhamdulillah.
This is a continuation,
of our 4th series
on pivotal moments in Islamic history.
And this concept of looking at
points where
the history of Islam changed, where
darkness turned into light,
Where the course of events
that Muslims were in is very important study
that needs to be done constantly by Muslims.
And one of the great scholars,
of history and Islam,
Ibn Khaldun Rahim UHullah,
the North African scholar,
looked at history
not just at numbers and figures and personalities,
but he looked at it as a cycle.
That within
the history of Islam
and the great empires and kingdoms of the
world,
It is as though the people are moving
in a cycle.
When the leadership
and the people are implementing Islam,
When they are living by the character
prescribed by prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
When they establish justice,
then it rises to the top of the
circle.
But when a generation goes by or 2
generations and 3, and they start to forget
what the original
thrust was.
It starts to go down.
Until it can reach the point where
in the 3rd or 4th generation, they may
even forget about
the original thrust and the original,
striving,
and it goes right to the bottom. And
so that circle, that cycle is continuing
constantly. We are in
this cycle now.
In 2024,
we are going through a major crisis
where in some cases, we feel that we
are right on the bottom. I believe we're
not exactly on the bottom. We're moving up.
Although diff it seems difficult,
we are right in the midst
of one of the most brazen genocides,
that we have ever seen in our lifetime.
And, yes,
genocide and ethnic cleansing
has been perpetuated in different parts of the
world.
But the difference between what had gone on
before
and what is happening now
is that this is being done in real
time,
in living color.
That we are act actually watching what is
happening to people, listening to their cries, looking
at their bodies,
feeling their tears.
This has never happened before
in the history of humanity.
Generally,
you will hear about
murder and genocide
days later, months later.
For some, it is years later when you
look into a history book,
But not instantaneously,
not as it's going down.
And so by getting this direct view into
genocide
and the perpetrators of genocide,
we see in the case of occupied Palestine,
We see that the genocide
taking place is as vicious and cruel
as those that happened before.
And that is something that for the average
person, when you see it, when you hear
it,
when you feel it, it's hard to believe
that human beings can actually do
this. But this is the nature of humanity,
that Allah created us as he told us
in,
in Surah Tatin. He told us he create
us ahsani taqim
in the best form.
And then we took them to the lowest
of the low. So people
have the ability to rise above the angels.
We have the ability to,
submit to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
We have the ability to be in in
constant worship.
At the same time, we can go down
so low
that even the animals
would be ashamed of us or afraid.
What kind of a being is this
that is destroying everything in sight, all forms
of life?
That does not exist in the animal world,
in the insect world.
So human beings
have this dual nature.
And we are looking at today
the worst of the worst.
We are looking at the worst form of
the nature
where the occupiers of Palestine have no regard
for humanity.
They have no regard for religion.
They have no regard for international law.
And
when you see something like this,
you feel inside yourself
that this cannot last.
How long can this go about?
But we have to recognize
that Allah,
as he told us in Suratul
Talaq, Inaloha Bali Hu Amri.
Allah will reach his purpose,
and he has made a limit
to all things.
And so there is a limit.
There is a time when
change will come about.
And this is what we are looking at
some of the key,
pivotal moments that have happened
in Islamic history.
We recognized
that in 1258
AD, Bardad,
the jewel of the world,
the capital of Islam,
had fallen to the Mongols.
The Mongols had come out of
northeast
Asia,
high in the Mongolian steppes.
They came out with a vengeance,
and they began to conquer everything in sight.
The Muslim world was divided.
The Muslim world had been united
with the amount of wealth that we have,
with the soldiers,
with the technology,
with
the the Quran and sunnah that we have
in back of us,
we would be invincible.
But when we leave the teachings,
when we become divided,
then we will be humiliated. That is sunnahtullah.
And so at that point
in history,
the Muslim Ummah was divided,
so involved in the life of this world
as the prophet
said,
loving the life of this world and being
afraid
to die.
You hate the transition.
You don't wanna go
to the next life.
And so when that sets in,
then your enemies will pounce upon you.
They will have no mercy upon you.
And so Baghdad
fell,
the jewel of Islam.
Baghdad which had been set up as the
capital of the Ummah,
the capital of the Muslims.
It was the most prosperous city in the
world.
It was there that the kings and the
sultans and the scholars would go
to be legitimized.
Temporal power,
spiritual guidance,
even intellectual
authenticity
was based in Baghdad.
And so this was a tremendous
blow
to the Muslim world
and really to the whole world itself.
And
with this destruction that went on,
with the Tigris and Euphrates running red with
the blood
of people slaughtered,
some say it's close to a 1000000 people
dying from the sword and the disease and
pestilence
that followed it.
Tigris and Euphrates turning black with the ink
of the books.
Many of the great works
of of the scholars of Islam, we only
quote their names, but we don't have the
texts
because they were lost in the Tigris and
Euphrates.
And so with this destruction,
Muslims had to continue on.
It seemed like the end.
And some of the scholars even thought that
this was Yom Kiyama,
that the the mongols, Al Mahul,
that they were yajuj and majuj,
were the signs of the last days.
But we recognize the fact
that they were not.
They were human beings on a bloodlust,
but they were responding not only to their
weakness
by responding to corruption
in the Muslim world.
And so
when Baghdad fell,
the leadership, what was left of the Abbasid
Hilafet,
what was left of them then fled over
to Syria,
and some went down into Egypt, into Cairo,
which
was fast becoming
the center of Islam.
To try to maintain their authority somehow to
maintain
this Khalafat,
this was
the Abbasid,
Khalafat.
This was the great,
leadership
that had followed the Khalifa Rashidin and the
the Umayyad Hilafet.
But
now with the fall of Baghdad,
Cairo
in Egypt,
Al Fustat
was the original name.
This became
the leading city
for the heartland of Islam.
This was really fortified, and it was enhanced
by Sultan Saladin al Ayyubi Rahim O Allah.
And Ayyubids,
his family, was the dynasty protecting it and
the Hejaz area.
And so
when the leadership went into that area,
into Cairo,
they recognized
that something was happening.
It was not the time of Sultan Saladin,
who was the next generations.
And a new force
was coming to the surface,
and that is the rise
of the Mamluk
dynasty.
And so this is part of the pivot
that is actually happening at this point. The
low point,
sack of Baghdad.
Some say it's the end of the golden
age of Islam.
Now something has to happen.
How can we go from this low point
up? A new authority
shows its head
there in Egypt. This is Al Mamluk,
and this is a dynasty
of freed,
mercenary soldiers.
The word Mamluk
coming from malakah,
that is you you own something. You're the
malak or the owner.
And mamluk means you're owned.
And
literally, mamluk is a word that's used for,
abd or a slave.
And so the mamluks,
were not
Egyptians.
They were not from that area,
but they were,
soldiers
who were brought from slavery
and,
made into a type of professional army.
And it's important to understand that this is
a phenomena that was going on all over
the world.
It was a trend
that those empires that wanted to be powerful
will produce
a group of highly trained,
soldiers who had total allegiance,
to their kings and to their leaders.
And they would train them, and they would
arm them, and give them the best. They
would become their shock troops, their elite,
forces.
And so
in this case,
many of the of the great slave markets
in terms of
military,
were found in Central Asia.
Because the Central Asia Asian people,
the Turkic type people, Mongolian people coming in
that steppe region there that extends all the
way even into Russia and parts of east
what is now Eastern Europe.
These were people who lived under really difficult
conditions.
The winters were cold,
and sometimes the summer was hot.
The area of the central steppe,
there were deserts.
It was an extremely harsh environment,
and so people had to be strong.
After a period of time,
their bodies even adapted
to the cold,
adapted to the constant struggle. Their hands became
strong. Their heads became bigger.
Their skin became tough.
Their psyche changed.
And so they were natural
warriors.
And in in the in the slave markets
that were there because remember,
slavery was a worldwide institution.
We have this wrong concept of slavery,
that it is something only with African people
or it's something which is a plantation.
No. This is something in the past 500
years with the Atlantic slave trade.
We're talking about 1000 of years ago. And
in this case, we're talking about over a
1000 years ago.
Slavery was international.
And some scholars even look at slavery and
recognize the fact
that it was only maybe a 100
years or so,
150 years or so that slavery actually ended.
Slavery was the relationship of people, like today
you have worker and boss,
employer,
employee,
But in those days, it was master and
slave. And the word slave actually comes from
Slav
because the Slavic people
of the north were being made,
slaves by the Romans,
and so it became synonymous
with the concept of the slave.
So in this case,
it started during the Abbasid period
in the Battle of Talas
when the Abbasids,
were facing the the Chinese empire.
And there were Turkic people who came on
their side, and they recognize how strong these
Turk Turkish Central Asian people were.
And so they recruited them,
to fight in their forces.
And and from that time on, the numbers
rose. And eventually with this trend in the
world
of creating these professional armies,
the Abbasids follow this international trend. It's not
necessarily from the sunnah. Prophet
never did this,
but it was a trend in the world.
It was a reality of the world at
the time.
And so
they were,
bought in
slave,
markets
in Central Asia and and Eastern Europe
and brought into the world of Islam,
but it was not
ball and chain. It was not being whipped
by your master.
In their case,
they were taken into the,
the the protection
of their master.
They were taught Islam. Usually, they're around 12,
13 years old, very early part of their
life.
They were taken in,
and they were allowed to get their freedom,
those who wanted their freedom and live a
good life. This is manumission.
So they were manumitted.
They
were were they were converted to Islam.
They learned Arabic.
They learned basic Islamic studies, the adab,
how to be a Muslim, and then they
went through
intense
military training.
And so these Mamluks,
so that's the name now we're gonna use,
for this category of people. There were different
types.
Probably the most prominent group of the Mamluks
was
the Kipchak
Turks
from Central Asia, but there's a type of
mamluk called the Bahri mamluks
that we'll talk about. This is southern Russia
and the Burjji,
mamluks who are Circassians
from the Caucasoid. So you have, like, Chechnya
and Dagestan.
You see how tough the these warriors actually
are up until today.
And so these were the people who were
recruited into,
this new military force.
It's interesting because generally, again, when you speak
about a slave,
you speak about total injustice,
and no doubt this is not the ideal
sunnah way of doing things. But a study
was done in Egypt
about the Mamluks,
and it showed there were Mamluks from Georgia,
which is now, like, part of the Russian
area.
They had retained their native language,
and they were actually aware of the politics
in the Caucasoid region.
So this is people who had come from
Georgia that's right next Dagestan,
Chechnya.
They were aware of the politics in their
region,
and they received,
a visit sometimes from their parents
because they're not slaves in they they would
they they had wealth.
They had families in some cases.
They had land. So they would receive visits
from their parents or relatives.
And also, they it is recorded that they
sent gifts to family members and even gave
money to build institutions
and structures in their native villages,
sometimes even churches.
So they actually gave back.
And there are cases of some people,
in in the case of Bosnia,
who sent, some of their youth into the
Ottoman,
Janissary army,
that they actually felt,
under conditions they were living in, it is
a way for their son to raise up
in his life.
And so this is the Mamluks.
I would call them bonded
soldiers.
So even the word slave is not the
right word because when we think of slave,
we think of somebody who's totally disempowered. He
has nothing.
He's just being tortured. And this no. This
person's riding the best horse, eating the best
food, highly trained, in some cases, married,
owning land,
totally different situation.
And
the the Mamluks
were given
a a a code of al Furusiya.
This is like from Firasa.
And so
Furusia,
is a type of you could call chivalry.
It's it's it's a type of noble, courageous,
chivalry
that they were raised on,
and so they were highly
respected people.
And this furusia
is made up of 3 elements. 1 is
the uloom
or the sciences,
that they get. They taught Arabic, they taught
the Quran, they are taught Islamic sciences,
all types of different
science they learn as well. Then there is
funun, which is the arts.
They also learn different arts, so they're actually
cultured people.
And they learn edip.
They learn literature.
Many cases, the half of the Quran.
They actually can, you know, are fluent in
Arabic,
and of course, cavalry skills.
And so this is a type of chivalry,
which develops amongst,
the Mamluks. And up until today,
a Mamluks sword,
and this is a Mamluks sword, and I
remember seeing a program
when the person in the United States,
marines,
that person
was given
a great honor
for being, you know, the the the greatest
soldier.
And and what was the gift that they
gave this US marine?
They gave him a Mamluk sword.
20th century,
a Mamluk sword.
That is the respect
that they had for the Mamluks,
in those times. And and you could say,
in those days,
they were probably the greatest warriors of their
age.
Now furusia is a very interesting,
concept,
and this furusia,
this moral code,
okay, it it it it embrace virtues of,
courage,
valor,
magnanimity,
generosity.
Right? But it it also took in management
and training,
the care for horses
that a warrior needs. Think about our youth
today.
If we are to get out of this
situation,
our youth from around the Muslim world have
to be trained not in just, you know,
how to scroll on their their laptops, you
know, and their cell phones.
Right? Or or or or how to play
video games
or how to play soccer.
This is furusia.
They were trained
the care of horses,
how to be a warrior in battle,
but they also learned sports as well.
They had leisure sports, and they especially love
to have the sports like polo,
horse riding.
They they especially loved that because they were
basically cavalrymen.
And they learned tactics
for the cavalry,
riding technique techniques,
how to protect themselves, mounted archery
so they could ride and they could shoot.
And some of their texts actually showed
formations.
They would move into formations, how their armies
would move, how they use fire and smoke
screens,
how they treated their wounded. And it's interesting
because you have scenery of Mamluks coming into
a battle,
drums are playing.
K? This is not drums which is playing
as a party.
This is not the drums that some people
think that any type of music is haram.
No.
This is a rhythm that is happening. The
drum talks,
and the drum actually
gives commands for foundations, for for formations.
The drum can say the left, go forward,
Right, go forward.
Center, come back.
Be strong.
Motivate.
And so all of this is part of
this.
And it's interesting because if you look on
on on the right of the page,
you you will you'll actually see a document,
in Arabic,
and this is a document dealing with
how to,
deal with spears
spearmanship.
Okay? And it's basically showing
how to go forward, how to defend.
Literally, it is a textbook on how to
use the weapon.
And you see the person in his sunnah
with his cap and his beard and his
tobe.
Right? But this is the reality of.
This these are the greatest warriors,
of their age,
at the time. These are the Mamluks.
And the Mamluks,
this is something
again,
you could say it it began in early
Abbasid period
under, al Mu'tasim Billah.
But over a time,
you'll see that the major Muslim
groupings and empires,
that the Mamluks and the people in these
professional armies,
were playing a central role.
Mamluks even raised up to the point of
becoming amias
or amongst the Turkish people, Bey,
and in some cases, even Sultan.
So that's not a slave
that you think about,
you know, when we say the word slave.
This is something different, and this is a
artist's conception of
a Mamluk warrior. You can see the the
look that he has on his face, like
Dagestani or Chechen
or somebody coming from this area,
powerful warrior,
but
practicing Islam,
can speak Arabic,
maybe half of the Quran.
These are the Mamluks.
So the Mamluks
lived in special areas generally.
They have their own society.
They were totally allegiant,
to the Sultan.
So they were not in the tribes and
nations and ethnic groups that fight each other
and fight for power.
They were allegiant to the leadership,
at the time.
And
the descendants of, sultan,
Saladin al Ayubi
called the Ayyubids.
They
brought in Mamluks.
And when even in the time of, Saladin,
he brought in the Mamluks, when he took
over Egypt,
they became part of his shock troops, his
special forces,
and they,
developed,
leadership,
to change,
from the Fatimid,
extremist Shia,
rule
into the sunnah.
Salahuddin established the sunnah, the shafi I fiqh.
Saladin,
you know, established justice.
The base of this
was his force, and the forces the base
of the force,
was the Mamluk warriors
along with the Kurdish,
warriors and others who had joined Saladin
Rahimahullah.
So for the most part,
they the Mamluks began to get involved in
politics
stage by stage.
They were not originally
involved in politics itself, but the very nature
of the change that Egypt,
and the Muslim world was going through
forced them
into being involved in politics.
In June of
1249
AD,
the 7th crusade
began.
You remember that Europe
had broken out of its
dark ages,
its poverty,
wanting to get the riches of China,
wanting to get the riches of the Middle
East, the Levant.
And so they burst out supposedly
in this,
religious crusade. It wasn't actually religious. It was
more,
economic and political than anything else.
But they were repelled.
And we saw how, especially when they had
taken Jerusalem
and Sultan Saladin,
they he defeated them, and they would they
would driven out again.
But in 1249,
Louis 9th
then came on
to make another crusade.
Now his intention was
to go right down to Egypt and Cairo.
Because if you take Egypt and Cairo,
then you basically have a base,
in terms of numbers and in terms of
position,
which could give you prominence.
You could take back Jerusalem, you could go
down to Mecca and Medina,
you you have opening to Syria, you have
opening to North Africa. He wanted to use
it as a base.
So he took a strategic part of Egypt
Damietta,
and this was a challenge.
The European forces then poured into Egypt.
And
the Egyptian Sultan,
Asali,
Ayub,
they struggled,
but he passed away in the midst of
this struggle, and the power
passed briefly to his son, Al Mu'azzam Turansha.
After that,
Turan Shah was not capable
and and then is is taken out of
power, and then
it it it went to his favorite wife,
the wife of Saleh,
Shedra Adoor.
And she was Turkish, some say Armenian.
And she took control,
of Egypt,
at the time,
but
a lot of intrigue was going on,
in Egypt, and and and and she became,
you know, a woman ruler,
there.
At the same time,
the Europeans had to be dealt with.
And so the Bahari Mamluks,
this is a group that we'll talk a
little bit more about under the leadership of
Bebas,
and Bebas becomes one of the great Mamluk
leaders.
At that time,
he led the forces of the of Bahri
Mamluks, and they defeated,
Louis' troops.
The king delayed, and he was actually captured.
And this is around 12:50,
and he eventually has to pay a big
ransom in order to get himself out.
But the political pressure
at the time
forced a male leader
to come in.
So with Shejera,
she was forced to marry
one of the Mamluks whose name was Abek.
So now by the sheer force of the
nature of the politics,
The Mamluks who were originally just a military
force,
the leadership
falls. There's no more Abbasids that are around
to lead.
The Ayyubids now have fallen down,
and so the leadership
fell to the Mamluks.
And Eibek,
became their leader.
But after a short period of time,
Eibek was assassinated.
And a power struggle went on.
And the leading,
Wazir,
the leading,
minister, you could say, in Egypt,
whose name was Seyfirdin Qutuz.
He was a Mamluk as well.
He took over
the leadership formally,
and he founded
the first Mamluk
Sultanate.
He became Sultan.
It was Bahari
Mamluks.
K? So this was the first
dynasty of the Mamluks,
and it was called Bahari
or Bahariya,
and this is because their base was on
the river.
The Nile at that point was so big,
they'd like an ocean.
So their bases, they had, you know, on
forts on the river itself.
So they were called the the Bahari Mamluks.
Those Mamluks who followed,
the leader of the sultan Saleh,
they were Salehih.
So they had different names,
and they would actually wear different colors,
on their clothing and different flags,
that they would have.
But this Mahdi group, their center was the
Rota Island on the Nile, and they were
basically made up of the Qipchaq
Turks
and the Cumans.
So this is another Turkish group,
as well, and they are the the first
official
Mamluk
Sultanate.
Who was Seyfiddin
Qutuz?
Now I would say
that this person
is probably
is one of the most important leaders
in Islamic history.
But
despite his importance, he is one of the
least known
important leaders
in our history as well. Who is say
for Dean Qutuz Rahimahullah?
He's somebody who really should be studied,
especially at points like what we are in
right now.
As a young person,
he was
sold into slavery.
He's coming from the area of Khawad Izmi
in Persia itself in that area. He was
sold into slavery,
and,
he was the power
behind the throne at that time,
and and he's he took over power.
Okay. Even though he came from slavery, he
was Mamluk. And,
he took control,
and he had to depose
that a 15 year old reigning sultan.
So Sayfid al Din, let's let's look at
him for a moment.
Okay. He was of Turkish
Persian origin,
and he was captured by the Mongols.
And some say that he was actually a
descendant of Al Ad Din Mohammed
the second of
the Khwarezmi
Khwarezmi
state,
that he was part of that dynasty.
And he was captured
by the Mongols,
and he was,
thrown into the slave market. So this is
when the dynasty fell. And you remember when
Genghis Khan,
attacked them,
the mistake that they made at that point.
This is around 12/31.
So he was taken as a slave,
and he was brought to Damascus.
And there he was sold
to an Egyptian
slave merchant.
Now his name
is Sayfadin, hut Sayfadin,
but the Mongols called him Qutuz.
This is a Mongolian word. And Kutuz actually
means
a wild
crazy dog.
Now think of a pit bull terrier.
Think of the most
evil hooking,
tough looking dog,
growling at you, his face.
Because Zayf ad Din had had suffered so
much in slavery.
Saw his parents killed, sold.
He was angry person.
And so they just called him.
Get rid of this guy
because because he looks too dangerous even for
the Mongols.
And so
he was sold,
eventually
to Eibek.
And Eibek then brought him in.
He was intelligent.
He was strong,
and he rose in the ranks
till he reached the point of being the
wazir
underneath Abek. And after Eibek, as we learned,
died and after he was taken out,
Seif Ad Din took over.
So this is now your leader, Sayfadin Qutuz
Rahim O'Allahu.
At this point,
after
destroying Baghdad,
the Mongols
were now threatening the rest of the Muslim
world.
And their leader, the grandson of Genghis Khan,
who was in charge of that side of
the western side,
of the the Mongol empire was called Hulagu
Hulagu Khan.
And his forces then proceeded towards Damascus.
And there in Damascus,
the the ruler,
Anasya Yousaf, he wanted to surrender.
Right? But the Mamluks, who were there at
the time, the salihiyah,
and their leader was Bebas,
right, supporting because remember the Mamluks were supporting
everybody.
They wanted to kill Anas because he would
submit to the Mongols,
but eventually,
they were not able they didn't do it,
and they escaped themselves because the Mongols were
coming in.
And,
when Bebas was not from the Bahari Mamluks,
when he came to Egypt,
Seyfid al Qutuz, intelligent person, Instead of fighting
off the other Mamluks, he united.
And he actually welcomed Bebas in,
and he granted him the town of, Khaliyub,
and unity came now. So this is what
s ef ad Din was looking for. He
was trying to unite the believers.
These are some he has some amazing
qualities,
and
you can see on this map,
the movements
of the mongol campaigns.
You go to the right of the map
and you see,
as they're coming in,
Alamut and Hamadan.
Okay. One group goes north to Tabriz.
The other group hits Baghdad.
So from there, they go up into Mosul
and then Mardin, then Aleppo,
right, and down into Homs
and down into Damascus.
So now they're coming down,
into Jerusalem,
and now
they are threatening the Mamluk Empire. So this
is you can see the movement,
that the Mongols were actually taking, trying to
to take over the major cities,
within the heartlands of Islam.
And so the Mongol army now
comes down,
and it is facing
Egypt.
And Hulagu,
in his arrogance,
sends a letter
to the Egyptians
to lead a Sayfidim Qutuz,
and you can see the level of pride
and arrogance in the mongol. Now think about
the occupying
powers today in Palestine and Philistine
and parallel between this. Because this is what
we're dealing with.
You think this situation is bad today, and
it is horrible and horrendous.
But the Mongols,
they are the one who set the pace.
They they are the leaders. They are the
the the example
for the murderous barbarian
savages
who come along and commit genocide
from their time probably until yajuj and mahuj,
Gog and Magog come before the sign last
signs of day.
This is what is translated from the letter
of Hulagu to Saifedean Qutuz.
Just listen to his language.
Now it's interesting because when you read the
letter,
you'll see that Hulagu has got Muslim
scholars with him.
Because the letter is written in classical Arabic,
and this quotes from the Quran
in the mongol's letter
to the Muslims.
Okay? Now this is what he says.
From the king of kings
in the east and the west,
the mighty Khan,
in your name, oh God,
you who laid out the earth
and raised up the skies.
See how he starts?
He's starting up in in Islamic way.
Then he continues.
Let al Malik al Muzaffir Qutuz,
who is of the race of the Mamluks,
who fled before our swords into this country,
who enjoyed its comforts
and then killed its rulers,
Let Al Malik and Muzaffei Qutuz know as
well as the emirs of his state and
the people of his kingdom in Egypt and
in the adjoining countries
that we are the army of god
on his earth.
Look at this arrogance.
He continues.
God created us from his wrath
and urged us against those who incurred his
anger.
In all lands, there are examples to to
admonish you and to deter you from challenging
our resolve.
Be warned
by the fate of others,
and hand over your power to us before
the veil is torn. And you are sorry,
and your errors are rebound upon you.
For we do not pity
those who weep.
That's the mongol.
Think about today.
We do not pity those who weep,
nor are we tender to those who complain.
You have heard that we have conquered the
lands and cleansed the earth of corruption and
killed most of the people.
Yours to flee,
ours
to pursue.
And what land will shelter you and what
roads save you? What country protect you? You
have no deliverance
from our swords. You cannot avoid
dreading us, for our horses are swift.
Our arrows do pierce.
Our swords like thunderbolts.
Our hearts like rocks.
Our numbers like sand.
Look at this
this eloquence that he has.
Fortresses cannot withstand us.
Armies are of no avail in fighting us.
Your prayers
against us
will not be heard.
Listen to this. In Arabic, he said,
dua. Your dua will not be heard.
For you have eaten forbidden things,
and your speech is foul. See, he's reading
the Muslims now.
It's our corruption now which brings us down.
You betray oaths and promises,
and disobedience
and fractiousness
prevail among you.
Be informed that your lot will be shame
and humiliation. Then he quotes the Quran.
Today, you are recompensed with punishment of
humiliation because you are so proud on the
earth without right for your wrongdoing.
Then he quotes the Quran again, Those who
have done wrong
will know to what end they revert.
Right? This is the 26
chapter 227.
Then Hulago continues.
Those who make war against us are sorry.
Those who seek our protection
are safe.
If you submit to our orders and conditions,
then your rights and duties are the same
as ours.
If you resist, you will be destroyed.
Do not therefore destroy yourselves with your own
hands.
He who is 1 should be on his
guard.
You are convinced that we are infidels,
and we are convinced that you are debaucherous,
meaning you're corrupt people.
God who determines all and judges all has
urged us against you.
What
much for you is what what much for
you is little for us.
The honorable for you is base for us.
Your king should expect nothing from us except
humiliation.
Therefore, do not wait long, but quickly answer
us before the fire of war is set
and the spark is thrown over you, then
you will not have from us dignity,
nor comfort, nor protection,
nor sanctuary, and you will suffer at our
hands the most fearful calamity,
and your land will be empty of you.
By writing to you, we have dealt equitably
with you
and have awakened you by warning you.
Now we have no other purpose but you.
Peace be with
both us and you.
And with all those who follow divine guidance,
who fear the consequences of evil, and who
obey the supreme
king,
say to Egypt, Hulagu has come
with swords unsheathed
and sharp.
The mightiest of her people will become humble,
and he will send their children
to join
the agent.
This is Hulagu Khan
and his letter to Sayfadin Qutuz.
What was the response?
Now after this, millions of Muslims killed.
An army a so called invincible
army right in front of you.
What is the spirit?
And that's the spirit that we need today.
That's what has to be inculcated into our
youth.
Seifedean Qutuz' response to Hulagu was he killed
the messengers,
and he hung their bodies on the city
walls.
In other words,
there's nothing to talk about.
Now
many scholars
would look into this, and technically speaking, he
was wrong.
Because according to Islam, you're not supposed to
kill the messenger.
Right? But others say the circumstance
were such
that there needed to be a bold
response.
And also for the Muslims, the Muslims needed
to know
that there was no turning around.
K? So this is the move that he
made.
He then, this is Seif Ad Din. He
imposed discipline on himself. He gathered all the
rich people together, the leaders, and he said,
now they're in front of you.
We need support.
Our army needs
to be fed, to be closed. We need
weaponry.
I will take my own wealth, and I
will give it toward the jihad.
And I expect that you, all the rich
people in Egypt,
all of those who have the ability will
also join in
to be prepared for this resistance
against the evil. That is the spirit
which changes
conditions.
That is the pivotal feeling and the spirit.
And so with this,
Sayf ad Din Rahimullah
was able to unite the believers
in Egypt. And as they moved out
toward they didn't wait for for the Mongols
to come to them. They went to meet
the Mongols.
And you will see on the map, if
you follow that red arrow, you will see
the Mongols coming in, Aleppo,
going down to Damascus,
and then turning around,
right, and then going down
into what is now present day Jordan,
Syria and Jordan.
Okay?
So Hulago is now moving with a huge
army
and coming down. Sayfadin Qutuz, as he's moving
along, he goes through places like Gaza.
See how important it is? The people of
Gaza support.
The people of Philistines support.
The people on the ground support.
Muslims unite from all different types of backgrounds,
and they move toward the mongol threat. That
is the spirit
that makes a pivot
in the affairs of the believers.
And so Allah intervened.
And at that point in time, the great
Mongol Khan,
Monke,
passed away.
So Hulagu,
with his huge army, he had to return
to Karakoram,
which is the capital of Mongolia,
because this is now
a session. Who will take over the leadership?
And Hulagu
was one of the leaders, and this is
serious now because they have these disputes, you
know, amongst successes. So Hulagu took a large
part of the army,
and he went back. He still left over
20,000
warriors,
and there were others that joined them as
well. And he left as his leader,
Ketbugha.
And,
but the army was still fierce.
It was the Mongols. They had never been
defeated.
And so they came with their reputation.
Muslims did not know. They did not have
instant communication to know exactly what it was.
The Muslims went out with the fear of
Allah in their hearts
and they went forward
and it was in 12/60,
they met the Mongols at a place called
Ain Jalut.
This is the present day Jordan. It was
approximately September 8th.
You know what's interesting about this? It was
the last 10 days in Ramadan,
and it is reported
that the Mamluks
made tahajjud prayer
and odd nights,
and all these nights
made tahajjud prayer in the evening and face
the Mongols
the next
day. Mamluks,
it is described when the army came out,
the Mongols were shocked at what they saw
because the different colors were there, the different
regiments were there, the drums are beating, the
organization,
the strength.
They had never seen anything like this.
And so,
Kitboga
then
set up against other Muslims.
Kutuz set it up so Muslims would attack
first coming in the middle, and he had
Bebas,
who was one of the greatest horsemen at
the time,
leading the middle. He went to the middle,
engaged, and then started to retreat. This is
a classical
formation.
Kitbugha,
overly emotional,
losing his intelligence,
attacks. So he he pushes into the middle.
The Muslims then come on the sides,
and they move around the sides.
Then
Bebas turns around,
and you have him in a sandwich.
This is a classical movement,
that happened. It the battle lasted from dawn
until midday.
And the Mamluks
entrapped them
and found them everywhere they went.
And it is one of the battles where
it is said
that on the battlefield itself,
that every single one of the Mongols was
slain.
Every one of them. Kit Bughra himself
was caught and was executed.
And so this was
one of the key
pivotal points.
This is your pivot.
Why?
It's not just a military battle.
It is the myth of Mongol invincibility.
It was broken.
Psychologically,
Muslims all around the world, the Muslim world
rejoiced.
They rejoiced at the victory. The Mongols are
human beings. It's not Yajuz and Majuz, not
Gog and Magog.
They can go down. We can win.
And so it was a great psychological victory.
It also united
Muslims different groupings
to come together.
Our self esteem is raised. This is what
is needed now,
desperately in the Muslim world,
as we see our children being killed,
for our self esteem to be raised, for
somebody to stand up
for the truth and for the innocent people
who are dying.
Also what happened, Mecca and Medina were saved.
Because if the Mongols had conquered
Egypt, they would go down into Mecca and
Medina.
They would take over all of the Muslim
world, or the hot land.
They would also go on to Europe.
So Europe, which was trembling and shuddering,
they also felt relieved
because of the defeat of the Mongols.
Pivot point
in Islamic history.
And so these are the moments that we
need to remember.
That Allah
could bring us from the depths of darkness,
the depths of despair.
100 of 1,000 in each city, over a1000000
in Baghdad
killed,
the end of our golden age.
It seemed like yomukiyama,
but we came back.
And we can come back today Insha'Allah.
And that spirit is there, that resistance spirit,
you see
it. You see it rising up
in the strangest places,
and we can only pray that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
would enable us with that spirit
and that victory
that happened in the past.
So I want to open up the floor,
for any questions, that anybody may have,
concerning
this pivotal point,
in Islamic history.
Floor is open for any questions,
that anybody may have,
concerning
the situation.
Online, do we have any,
questions or comments from the people?
So how can
help this for?
Yeah. I mean, without going too deep into
today's situation because we're giving the pivotal points,
but, you know, resistance,
however we can, in this part of the
world,
clearly our resistance.
If you can't change change evil with your
hands, those who can change it with their
hands in the colonies,
change it.
Those who can't say something,
write,
boycott,
especially help the students,
the students who are in need because they
have
uncovered
colonial
genocide.
It's all connected together.
But young people use the social media. If
that's what you're good at,
get the true history. Learn your history.
Learn where we're coming from. Learn your religion
and and continue the resistance. Spread this information
all around because ignorance is one of the
greatest weapons being used today
to hold the people down throughout the world.
And so resist on all different levels
and support the innocent,
especially the weak and the children and those,
you know, give give of ourselves and our
time in order to help the weak and
the poor and the innocent.
Question. Another question.
Were there any Shia groups
were there any Shia groups during the time
of the Mughal groups?
Yes. In terms of the Shia,
there were, the Shia the Fatimids
were not there, but the Shias were there.
But they were not a large force. It
was the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt which was
the largest force.
The Shia they are the schismatic ones.
There were other small,
Shiite groups that were in left in Tunisia
and then also in Iraq.
At that point,
Persia
was the Seljuks. It was,
Sunni.
Iran, what is now Iran and Persia, this
is a Sunni lands.
Okay. So there were Shia, but they were
only a small force
in the Muslim world. For the most part,
it was the Al As Sunnah wal Jama'ah,
who were leading,
the Muslim world. We had our own schisms
and our own divisions that we had to
overcome.
Question.
Why did the scholars at the time think
this was Yajuz and Madju's and who are
the real Yajuz and Madju's?
At this time, the question is why did
the scholars think it was Yazuj and Majuz?
Because the prophet
said,
before the end of time,
and this is Surat Al Kahf, you see
the story of Dhul Qarnayn, you know, the
righteous leader who traveled and he in the
land and he came to a mountainous area.
And, he he found a a group of
people who were trying to hold back a
murderous,
race of people. This is called Yajuzhan Majuj.
And by the power of Allah and the
and the the the
genius of Dhul Qarnayn,
a said, a wall was was built, a
barrier was built. But before the day of
judgment,
Gog and Magog, they will break out of
the barriers,
and they will be killing and destroying everything
in sight.
Okay? So therefore, some of the scholars
looking at the amount
of killing and murder that were not especially
when Baghdad fell, They thought that is this
Qiyama?
Could these people actually be the Gog and
Magog people? But, no,
those scholars who have the chronology of the
signs of the last day know that the
Gog and Magog come after the time of
Isa Alaihi Islam.
And,
Jesus,
peace be upon him, did not,
descend.
Okay. So the and eventually, we see now
they weren't,
because later on, you'll see that some of
the Mongols,
alhamdulillah, accepted Islam.
Khan is a is a popular name
amongst us up until today.
K. So it was not. But that's the
reason why because of the intensity of the
murder,
they had we had never seen anything. The
world had never seen anything so vicious
and so rapid
as what happened in the Mongol
time. Question.
That's it for now.
So we we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to unite us today and to bring back
that spirit,
and to help those innocent people who are
suffering in Gaza and Philistine and,
in the Sudan and so many areas where
this confusion is going on, where the innocent
are being,
driven out of their homes. May Allah bring
them back to their homes and bring peace,
to the land and unite the Muslims
to establish
justice on this earth. I leave you with
these thoughts, and I ask Allah to have
mercy on me and you.
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