Abdullah Hakim Quick – Pivotal Moments in Islamic History #04 The Islam of the Mongols
AI: Summary ©
The Great Khan Empire was divided into four parts and eventually divided into four parts, controlled by Kublai Khanate. The Great organ of Islam was destroyed by the Iranian-led Middle East during the Great War, and the new ruler was eventually replaced by the Sunitzis. The history of the Middle East is discussed, including the rise of the new ruler and the collapse of the previous ruler. The importance of unity and the use of da absorption in controlling evil behavior is emphasized, as well as the need to be patient and not let people know one's one is a Muslim. The conversation also touches on the importance of staying patient and not letting people know one's one is a Muslim.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. Alhamdulillahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahirabbilahalameen.
Ejmayeen
wabad.
All praise are due to Allah, lord of
the worlds,
and peace and blessings be upon our beloved
prophet Muhammad,
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 friends,
our
viewers, assalamu alaikum,
Alhamdulillah.
This is another great opportunity
to,
feast in the knowledge
that has come to us
from Allah,
the knowledge based upon the reverent revelation,
al Quran,
also based upon
the sunnah of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
and the living experience
of Muslims
from the time of the last prophet up
until today.
This is a great reservoir of knowledge.
It is a living experience of people
who believe in Allah,
who tried to follow
the prophet, peace be upon him,
who came from different cultures, who spoke different
languages,
whose circumstances were different based upon the environment,
based upon the politics of the world at
that time.
But what was constant
is the fact that there's a revelation,
that there is
a straight path, a Surat al Mustaqim.
And so the believers try to stay on
the straight path as much as they possibly
can.
And when the darkness comes in, Allah azzawajal
has promised us after difficulty
ease,
after darkness,
there would be light.
And so we are studying the transition
from the darkness into the light.
Pivotal moments
when Muslims came out of very difficult circumstances
and were able to come back
to practice Islam
in the best way that they possibly could.
This is relevant to us today
because we are going through
unprecedented changes.
There are things happening in the world,
in the Middle East,
especially in Palestine,
in Asia,
in Africa,
in the Americas, in all parts of this
planet.
The way the climate is reacting
to human pollution,
the way our societies are imploding on themselves
because of being based on exploitation,
And the way human beings
are reacting to each other,
it's unprecedented.
Not
evil
or viciousness
or divisiveness.
That's something that has been on earth
from the beginning of humanity.
But it is
the level that it's gone to.
And with the technology that we have, with
the social media that we have,
we are able to actually follow
the details
of what people are doing to each other
in real time.
And so
it's a shock.
And sometimes even believers who
feel that they have been practicing Islam all
their life, that they understand this deen,
when they see certain things happen,
they're shaken to the core.
And sometimes
you hear people for all different levels,
and you even heard the companions of the
prophet saying,
meta
nasulullah.
When will the help of Allah come?
And so
that transition
is close, and as Allah said, that
the help of Allah is close.
The transition,
and so the pivotal moments.
And we had been
looking at
a very traumatic
period. We're going through a trauma today. There's
no doubt about it.
But the trauma
that people went through in the 13th century
may be
one of the greatest traumas that human beings
have faced,
not because of an earthquake or a flood,
but basically what they have done to each
other.
It may be one of the greatest,
in human history.
And that is the time in 13th century
with the rise of the Mongol nation.
And
Mongolia
in the far northeast
side,
of Asia
was a place
where people
lived in very difficult circumstances.
It was a rough environment,
cold in the winter, hot in the summer,
very little vegetation,
and so a rough type of personality
developed
in order to survive. These were the people
of the steppes.
These were the central Asian people
who moved from
area to area just to find food.
It's not the same as somebody who lives
in an area where if you throw a
seed down on the ground,
if you're in the Caribbean, if you're in
Malaysia,
you throw a mango seed down, you throw
a a a papa seed down, and so
and after a little while, there's a plant
coming up.
And if you stay for a number of
years,
you might actually eat the fruit from that
plant. You didn't do anything.
It's based upon
the niyama, the blessing of Allah,
with the
moderate,
heat,
consistent,
and also the consistent
rain,
and so life comes about easily.
In the steppes,
it's the opposite.
It's difficult to find
sustained life,
and so all levels of existence
have
struggle.
And so it is the basis of this
struggle
to survive,
the basis of the struggle between the tribes
that gave birth
to Tamarjinn,
who was later crowned by the Mongols
as the Genghis Khan.
And the Genghis Khan mean the great leader
of the world.
He
united the tribes
of Al Marul,
of the Mongol people,
And he became their first great,
kagan,
their great leader.
That's in 1206.
And
from there, he began to expand.
And it's important to understand,
in looking at this empire,
because some historians will will will actually say
that this is
maybe
the the the largest
continuous,
empire
that ever existed,
in terms of controlling land,
subjugating people,
from one end all the way from Korea,
and and then you go west all the
way into Eastern Europe. And
it's it's unbelievable
what the Mongols conquered in a short period
of time.
And so in understanding their empire,
you need to understand
the family tree
because their empire was divided into 4 parts.
And if you look at your chart, you
will see Genghis Khan, and underneath him, you
will see, Jochi Khan,
and then Chagatai,
and Odehgai,
and Tulloy.
So these are the 4 major sons,
of Genghis Khan. He had a lot of
children,
and they say that the DNA of Mongols,
is one of the most widespread on earth.
But
this is the 4 divisions
that came about.
One division coming from Jochi is was called
the Golden Horde,
that is going toward Russia and, Eastern Europe
and that side of Central Asia.
The other is the Chagatai
Khanate,
and that is sort of the Central Asia.
And then there is the Ilkhan Ilkhanate,
and that is the one,
that covered
toward Persia and,
what is now the Middle East. And then
you have the UN dynasty of Tulloy, and
that's,
the one
that had the homeland of Karakom
in Mongolia,
and then went down
into now what is known as China.
And so looking at it,
this gives you a visual look
at the empire. And the empire actually stretched
further than this. This is 1260,
where it had reached.
And so you'll see the empire of the
great Khan on the right side, katakotam.
So this is the base,
and whoever controls this area
is controlling the essence and the base of
the Mongol Empire.
Then you have just to the west,
Chagatayev
Khanate.
North above that, the Khanate of the Golden
Horde.
And you can see, and it's interesting when
you start to look at
names of countries and what's happening today, you'll
see Kyiv
right there.
And eventually, it spread
where they actually conquered what is now Ukraine
and and and those areas and went down
into Poland,
into Hungary, and, you know, these areas there.
So the world has changed a lot, but
that northern part was the what they call
the Golden Horde, and then,
the Ilkhan,
Empire.
And you'll see where that is,
coming down,
in Persia
and then going into Iraq, and later on
stretching out,
into the Levant
area of Syria,
and Jordan, coming into Arabia.
And so that was the Mongol,
empire in the four parts,
who are basically
directly related to the leader.
The allegiance is there.
When the leader dies, the great Khan,
they the families will go the families of
these 4
will go back to Kadikom, and they will
decide together,
who would be the next leader. There's gonna
be dynastic struggle,
but this is how the empire stood at
that time.
And so,
in in this area, the one that is
the the great Khan,
empire,
that one was ruled by Kublai Khan. And
Kublai Khan,
he controlled China, Mongolia,
Korea, Tibet,
in this area there. And you see in
the picture the Great Wall of China.
And that China's that wall still exists up
until today,
and it was constructed in order to keep
the Mongols out. Think about this.
In order to keep them out, this long
construction,
imagine what went into this.
That this is like, you know, over a
1000 years old, and look at the size
of it, and imagine how
how much it took to build it and
to maintain it because you need to have
soldiers,
there who are guarding in case in one
of the areas they attacked.
So this is the Great Wall of China,
to show you what the Chinese thought in
holding them back, but the wall
was not impregnable,
and the Mongols made it through.
It ended up controlling
the greater part of China.
The Ilkhanate,
you know, part,
this is the key part, which is the
3rd segment.
The second segment, of course, was the one
of Central Asia. The third,
was the one,
that that controlled
what you call West Asia,
maybe today,
and eventually moved down
not just Persia and Afghanistan
and all of those areas,
what is now Iran and and Iraq. And
eventually,
it it it destroyed
the Abbasid Khalafat.
Okay? And so that was,
the Ilkhanate
and the Golden Horde.
And this is one of this is the
key,
today to our discussion
in terms of the Islam,
of the Mongols.
This was the 4th
section,
of the great Mongol Empire.
And
they
controlled up in that northern area,
and, of course, what was really important
for them
was the the the the weather and the
gray the grassland and and the grazing,
you know, that actually happened, up in that
area.
And so they literally controlled up there right
down into,
what is now Azerbaijan.
And we will see as we go through
some of the names that are famous today
for incidents that are happening,
but what was happening,
during that time.
So
what was important to us before
was the campaign of the Mongols into now
what is known as the Middle East.
And you can see following that red, arrow,
coming from the eastern side,
they went to Hamdan,
and then they went up to Tabriz,
and and then they went north. Now it's
interesting because
Tabriz,
itself,
which became
the Mongol capital of the Ilkhanate,
that was the that's the place where,
the president,
Raisi of of Iran,
you may Allah forgive him and and all
of our leaders,
where he was killed
along with his companions,
just the other day. This is an international
incident. He was on his way to Tabriz.
Okay. So that's a section of Iran today.
But in those days,
that became
the the headquarters
or the capital of the Mongol Empire.
So the people who are living in that
area
within their DNA,
is Mongolian blood.
Because the Mongols changed the whole area. Places
like Hamadan that you see, they were like
destroying cities completely.
Places like Merv
totally destroyed it. In some cases, they were
killing every man, woman, and child, And their
destruction
was like no destruction
anybody has seen before.
And when the Islamic scholars are writing about
it,
they are actually comparing it to the day
of judgment. I mean, is this Yazuz and
Marjush?
Are they Gog and Magog?
And some people thought it had to be
Gog and Magog. No human beings
could do this, and as I said, when
they would come to a city and
kill, 200,000
people and the bodies are laying all over
the place, and then they would leave to
another city.
And and some of the people
underneath the bodies
would be alive.
So they would come out
and they would try to regroup.
And when the Mongols found that out, they
said, okay. We'll solve the problem.
After we kill them, we'll chop off their
heads and make a pyramid
of their heads.
Because if the head is gone, the body
is gone.
That is the level of their cruelty.
And what they would do also is that
they would pick amongst the people. They would
look for artisans,
scholars.
They would look for women that they could
use to impregnate.
They wouldn't kill everybody,
and they would take certain sections.
Even some of the soldiers themselves, the people
who surrendered,
he would they would offer them
to fight or die.
And so when they went to the next
place, they would dress them in Mongolian type
clothes, put them in the front lines,
and let them get shot by the arrows
of their own brothers.
This is the level of cruelty
that the Mongols reached.
And so
looking at the map, you see that they
traveled from Hamdan to Baghdad.
Then they went to Mosul
and then to Mardin,
around to Aleppo.
So now you're going in Syria now
to what is, you know, Homs,
and then down into Damascus.
And you see that they went down into
Jerusalem.
And then they were heading toward
the la one of the great empires
still standing, the Mamluk dynasty
in Cairo,
they were heading there to finish them off
as one of the major powers that's left,
and then eventually to go to Mecca or
Medina,
and to destroy everything of Islam.
This was the crisis
of the Muslim world,
at that point in time. So Cairo becomes
the new hub
for the Muslim world.
What was left of the Abbasid Khilafat,
they fled to Cairo.
The scholars went to Cairo.
Artisans went there.
Wealthy people. Anybody who could make it to
this
metropolis
that was established
by Amma'i Abbas Radiallahu Alaihi wa'an of the
Sahaba.
And later on, it was built up
after a period of time by the Fatimids,
Then Saladin al Ayubi, this great sultan,
Rahimu Allah, took it over and established the
sunnah
and brought it back into the general fold
of Islam.
This is the great city of Cairo.
And
in that city
rose up a dynasty
that we looked at. This is the Mamluk
dynasty.
And when we say Mamluk,
the word is
saying these are slaves. These are people who
are controlled,
by other people. But they went from being
in a servile state, although
they were brought in as mercenaries
or as soldiers,
they went from this servile state
to eventually being the authorities, the leaders, the
sultans
in Egypt itself. This was a new dynasty
that included some of the greatest
single warriors,
man to man at that time,
on earth. As a group, the Mongols no
doubt had the group power, but singularly
as a soldier,
abilities and skills,
purpose,
and the the the ability to last,
the Mamluks were unmatchable.
And I wanted to mention again the great
leader, Sultan Seyfadeen Qutuz.
Because many times when people speak of the
Mamluks Mamluks, they speak about Sultan Bebas,
and they make the mistake to think it
was Sultan Bebas
who actually faced the Mongols, but the reality
is
that it was Sayfadin Qutuz
who was born, you know, in slavery.
He's coming from the area of Persia, Khwarizmi
area.
Some say he is a descendant,
of one of the leaders, the great royal
family there.
He was put into slavery,
saw his family killed in front of his
own eyes,
and suffered
tremendous torture
to the point where he was so angry
that even the Mongols called him Qutuz,
which in their language is like an angry
bulldog.
So look at the face of a bulldog,
pit bull terrier,
an angry face
that alone itself alone would frighten most people.
That's how he looked
because of what he suffered in his life.
And say for Dean Rahimu Hola,
he rose up,
from his position as
one of the Mamluks
to be the vice sultan.
He was the wazir.
And when the sultanate began to shake,
he took over
and became the actual leader of the dynasty.
This was a time when the 7th crusade
was happening.
So the crusaders were coming out of Europe
trying to attack
and focusing on Egypt,
at that time. And then on the other
side is the Mongols
who are threatening. So Muslims are in deep
situation
at that point in time. Saifuddin,
who is one of the great leaders in
Islamic history, he did not rule for a
long period of time,
but his achievements are amazing achievements.
And he he's one of the people who
should be mentioned,
but he's very seldom,
you know,
mentioned. But his role is
one of our pivots,
pivotal points in history.
He led by example,
and he organized
the Egyptians and all those who had fled
into that area.
He got wealth and zakat
and sadaqa
from those who could give it.
He recruited soldiers from all different types, even
other groups of Mamluks
who were struggling against him because there were
there was division even amongst the Mamluks.
There was there was the Bahri Mamluks.
There was the Salihi Mamluks.
So even though there were division,
Sayfiddin
welcomed
the group called the Bahari Mamluks,
who were led by Babis. That's where Babis
is.
And they had fled up into the area
of Syria.
And when the Mongols were coming
and they felt they had nowhere to go,
Sayfadin
welcomed them back.
This was a great strategic move,
that Qutuz,
made at that time.
And so he united the believers,
led by example,
and when the Mongols came,
he stood in front of them.
They had terrorized the whole Muslim world.
When they started to come to an area,
just the the name of the Mongols,
just a letter from them would start would
make people tremble
throughout the society.
But say for Dean Rahimullah,
he organized
and he stood in front of the Mongol
invasion.
And if you look at this, map here,
you will see
how the Mongols are fighting war, you know,
there in Halab or Aleppo,
and then down into Damascus, they're fighting war,
Baalbek fighting another battles,
going all along everywhere they could come, fighting,
fighting, destroying, destroying,
until they came into the area of what
is now Jordan.
It's a place called Ain Jalut.
Some say it's the area where Dawud,
prophet David,
peace be upon him, when where where he
slayed,
the
Goliath.
So that's that's the well of Jalut.
So it's somewhere, you know, in this area
as I call Ain Jalut.
And
by the will of Allah,
the Mongol division remember the 4 parts. This
is Ilkhanate now.
Ilkhanate was being led by Hulagu Khan,
who was a grandson
of Genghis Khan,
direct lineage.
So Hulagu himself
was coming into the area to conquer the
Muslim world.
And by the will of Allah,
the
great Khan of the Mongols
passed away.
So therefore, the leaders of the 4 families,
remember your sections,
they had to go back to CARICOM
in order to,
consolidate,
the leadership and to choose another leader so
their empire would stay
united.
He left the group of,
at the least 20,000,
many say they even more.
But even that based upon the reputation
of the Mongols,
they were undefeated.
Based upon this,
that was a large army and it was
led by Kitbuqa,
who was one of his great, generals who
had been struggling up in the North and
Eastern Europe.
And they met at Ain Jalut.
And by the mercy of Allah Azzawajal,
Seyfadeen,
with strategy of the Mamluks
and strategy of the past,
was able to lure them into an area
in a classical formation,
falling back in the middle and then surrounding
them from the sides,
and they were able to defeat
the Mongols
at Ain Jalut.
This was a decisive victory,
you know, for the Mongols,
for the the the Mamluks,
over the Mongol Empire.
And this took place in July,
of 12 60
on 8th September.
And again, it was interesting,
because of the fact that it actually took
place in Ramadan.
Many times Muslims will look at Ramadan
as a time of relaxation,
of a time of sleep.
No.
It's a time of action
and especially in the last 10 days.
So this is when it came about. Just
imagine this,
what they had gone through.
And
this was our pivotal point,
in history,
and these these pivots are being connected together
because it's not just a military victory, but
it broke the the invincibility
of the Mongols
in the minds of the Muslim world
and Europe itself.
Unity of Muslims is restored.
Self esteem of the believers.
I mean, people are saying it's it's Gog
and Magog and we're finished. There's nothing else
left.
Even some people thought that Mecca and Medina
would be destroyed because if they defeated the
Mamluks, who would stop them from Mecca and
Medina?
Nobody.
Europe
and the rest of the world
were all trembling because the Mongols intended to
to to control
the whole planet.
That was Genghis Khan's,
idea,
and he gave that,
he passed it on,
to his children and his grandchildren.
So this is a a pivotal point,
and this was their empire at that time.
And so
and and an apparently
invisible,
in invincible group
has a defeat.
And many people think
that Ain Jalut,
although it was an important point, a turning
point,
they thought many people think that that's what
defeated the Mongols.
But they don't realize
this was a factor
in in the defeat of the Mongols. There
were other important
factors. There were some that are so important
that they could actually be considered to be,
pivotal moments,
you know, in the history,
of,
the Muslim world and really in the history
of the planet itself.
And so going back,
to that time,
we see
that
the Mongols,
leaders, you have the 4 sections of it.
For the most part,
the the original Mongol leaders, although they were
liberal in many ways,
they allowed other religions to come because their
animistic religion,
was so broad based. They worship
Gokhtangri.
This is the sun god.
And they had a lot of superstition, and
they didn't really have strong sources.
And so you find them accepting other religions
and, you know, mixing it all up together.
And and this is a point.
This is a serious thing.
And and and again, this is what happens
to great religions
when the great religions come into an area
and they meet people of lesser faiths.
So if the great religion,
in this case, Tawhid,
monotheism,
is taught to the people in a proper
way
so they fully understand
Tawhid
and they get close
to the Arabic language, to the Quran,
then
they're able to
purify their deen
and raise to a high level of practice.
But if they don't,
what develops is a type of,
mixed,
Islam where
they are practicing Islam in the day and
magic in the night.
And I saw this in West Africa itself
where the people used to worship,
by these big trees. You have this tree
called boabab tree.
And so the people would worship
by the trees, and they would feel that
there is jinn and spirits by the tree.
And one of the great scholars came into
an area with a huge tree where the
people would worship.
And he taught them Islam, and alhamdulillah, they
embraced Islam.
But he found out later, from some of
his close companions,
that they would make salat during the day,
and at night they go back to the
tree.
So they were mixing up. This is classical.
So the scholar waited until 1 night, and
during the night
with his companions
and the believers, he chopped down the tree.
So when the people woke up the next
day, they looked.
They finished salata without looking toward the tree,
it was gone.
And so now he showed them,
now you have to cut this off.
And this happens to many religions. Up until
today, Christianity
is a mixture of original Judaism,
because the followers of Isa alaihis salam were
all Jewish
mixed with
superstition. That's why you have Easter.
That's why you have bunny rabbits and eggs
and fertility cults
in the name of a monotheistic
religion.
So
this is similar, and so the Mongols
at first resisted certain aspects of Islam.
They had their superstitions,
and,
Khubilai Khan, this and and Chagatai.
So this would be over in the Chinese
Mongolian side and then the center part.
Okay. They actually are recorded
to have
prohibited
halal
slaughter.
So they did not want halal meat
at all.
Also,
they
had a phobia against cleaning things with running
water.
I don't know logically
what was wrong with them, why they couldn't
deal with pure running water.
But the concept of tahara,
the concept of purity,
and cleaning things like this,
maybe in the area they didn't have enough
water,
they were against it.
Also, they were against circumcision.
And so they tried to prohibit this, you
know, in their areas. In some cases, they
even said if you do this, it's punishable
by death.
Now going back to the evolution of the
Mongol Empire, that is where,
the the the the great Khan dies.
And you find
Hulagu Khan
and the other parts of the 4 groups
coming to Karakorum,
and Mongke
Khan is,
being enthroned.
And so to represent
the golden horde,
one of the sons of Jochi remember Jochi
Khan is the one who established that.
One of his sons, Berke
Khan,
he attended that ceremony.
Now some people say that Berke from a
very young age was exposed,
to Muslims and Islam, because Muslims were, in
many of these areas, the ones that were
still alive,
were
That's
the guidance
That's the guidance. And you find, you know,
some Muslims today
enter Islam,
and when they enter Islam,
they say, I've already been practicing Islam.
I just needed to take shahada.
And so it appears that Berdiche was this
type of person. He wanted instituted
certain aspects of Islam
for the betterment of his people at the
time.
And so reports come from this enthronement
ceremony
that the animals that were slaughtered were done
in Islamic fashion, so the meat is halal.
Also,
when the great Khan,
was taking his oath, he swore on a
Quran.
So
how did this happen?
Many writers will say it is because of
Berke Khan.
So out of respect for him, because he
represents one of the 4
great sections of the leadership.
And so out of respect for him,
they allowed this to be instituted,
in the enthronement.
And after this ceremony,
happened,
Berke Khan was on his way back, so
he's gotta go west.
So he's traveling
Mongolia and then and then and then crossing
to the west with Kazakhstan
and, you know, these areas, you know, that
we know he's moving west.
And
a sheikh who's who's very important to us,
Again, this is one of our pivotal persons
who is a great person, did a may
a major thing,
but but it's not necessarily known in our
history, and that was Sheikh Seifardin,
Barkhazy.
And he heard that Berneke Khan was on
his way
through, and he invited him to Bukhara.
And Bukhara is the great capital there in,
Central Asia. Now you remember Bukhadi Hadith.
So so is what is left of it
there. So he he it's the great
capital there in Bukhara. He invited him there,
and
he, had developed
his own madrasa.
He had survived
somehow the onslaught that happened
when the Mongols, and he was still he
was strong enough and he was teaching.
And so
his way to defend
Islam and Muslims
was not militarily.
His way was
spiritually
and ideologically.
And this is important,
for,
Muslims to realize that the struggle is not
just military struggle.
And that even when you're looking at the
situation in Palestine,
the situation of confusion in the Sudan
and other place, it's not just about a
military thing.
A lot has to do today with social
media.
A lot has to do with economics.
Right? That's why your boycott, divestment, sanctions,
is so important.
A lot a lot has to do with
people entering Islam.
Because the more people who accept Islam,
especially people who have influence,
it's it's gonna help this generation and future
generations
in taking a stand against the evils
that will be continuing
to the day of resurrection.
So Sayfid Din Rahimullah was
one of these pivotal
key people
in our Islamic history that we need to
understand.
He invited Birk e Khan
and consolidated
his faith,
taught him the basis of Islam,
brought him spirituality,
connected him with the rest of the Muslim
world in his thinking,
and then
using Bukhara as a base,
he made a public announcement.
So the public announcement from Bukhara
went around the Muslim world that Beric E
Khan, one of the of the leaders of
the Golden Horde, had embraced Islam.
This is a major thing, and this is,
surprisingly enough,
it is before,
okay, it is before some of the major
things that went on.
Okay? So he he he's embracing Islam at
that time.
So
Now who was Sayfididin
al Khasi?
He was a poet.
He was an Islamic scholar,
living in that 13th century.
Okay. He was born
in Baqaz.
Right? And this is in the area of,
Khuhistan
in Khorasan.
So when you say Khorasan today, you are
talking about Afghanistan,
Iran.
You're looking again the area of Tabriz. People
have that on their mind. Right? So it's
all in this area there. This is where
he was born.
He got his education in Herat
and in Nasapur.
And that's important because
you'll see that Herat,
that's part of Iran,
Afghanistan today, right on the border of Iran.
And Naysapur,
you'll see our great Muhadduddin,
Imam Muslim,
Imam Abu Dawood.
Right? They're all coming from this area.
It was a Sunni area at the time.
Okay? So he got his education,
in this area.
He became one of the followers of
a a a a sheikh Najmuddin,
Kubra.
Okay? And they gave him, the title Sheikh
Al Adam.
This is, the sheikh of peace,
you know, that this well known, you know,
scholar.
So this is your pivotal person who makes
his move. It was not
a military move. It was not a physical
stance as in the case of Saifedean Qutuz,
but it was a spiritual one.
It was an ideological
one
that changed the course of history.
And that is important for us to understand,
as we go forward.
And so
when Barakay,
came came back to the area of the
Golden Horde,
which is now,
Russia and here Dagestan and Chechnya and those
areas there, even going toward what is now
the Ukraine.
When he went in into,
back into that area,
he he gave dawah to his family.
His wives accepted Islam,
other family members,
the the officials around him.
And,
with the,
he eventually
takes over from Batu,
who was the leader,
and he becomes the leader of the golden
hood.
And so your picture on the right is
an artist's conception of Hulagu Khan.
And
he now continues Hulagu continues on with his
blood,
lust,
and he sacks, destroys
Baghdad. And,
this was something that was terrible for all
Muslims. And Bir de Khaan,
it hurt him
personally as a believer,
especially when he heard that the Khalifa had
been killed.
And so his allegiance now was more for
Allah and his messenger than it was for
the Mongol dynasty.
And this is key because you're talking about
an empire
that stretched further than any other
empire,
maybe in the history of humanity.
You're talking about soldiers who could fight in
the desert,
who could fight in the jungle,
who could fight in the snow,
who could fight underwater,
who could fight on ice.
You're talking about an amazing group moving from
place to place,
a seemingly invincible group.
How does this go down? This is not
magic.
You see the hand of Allah Azzawajal
using the believers,
setting the stage, and that's keep it in
mind today because that's why we're studying this,
in order to to think about things that
we can actually do today
in this chaotic world,
that we are living in. And so,
Berta k Khan,
is upset,
and,
he lets it be known,
to Hulagu. Hulagu's busy.
So Hulagu goes back to Karakom. You remember
what what happened? They had to consolidate. Now
he's intended to come back now,
And his first mission
that he has to do before he can
bring his thousands of hordes
into the into the Muslim world to to
destroy everything that Kitbuqa
front forces,
he has to deal with Berdek khan first.
Think about this.
K? That's the first roadblock.
And so what Berke Khan does is
he has outreach.
The Mamluks heard about his shahada,
which is so important.
And so they now Bebas you know, Sultan
Bebas was ruling,
and they send a a message to Birk
Haan
congratulating him and the Golden Horde
and pledging
to cooperate.
Unity. Let's work together now in order to
deal with Hulagu.
Okay? So this is critical now,
in your movement,
and your development
of unity.
And so Birk e Khan
takes advantage of this with the golden horde
and unites with the Mamluks.
This is
pivotal moment.
Because what happens
is that
the great empire of the Mongols
is now broken into a section.
The western side, which is the Golden Horde
and the Ilkhanate,
are now fighting against each other.
This is a civil war,
and so Berdiche and Hulagu
started to fight each other.
And this broke out in a civil war,
and it led to other civil wars.
It led to confusion.
It helped the Mamluks when the when what
was left of the Mongols came back, because
they came back, and and they they reached
Damascus.
But now
Bebas
and and the other believers were able to
deal with them now
because they had Muslims in the north
who were helping them on that side.
So this is a critical moment,
to think about. It is a pivotal moment,
in our history,
which is based upon dawah.
It is based upon the call to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so this shows us
one of the great tools
in our hands
is
to call to Allah,
to practice Islam.
As the prophet
said, whoever sees evil,
change it with his hand.
If you can't change it with your tongue
if you can't do that,
you can't change it with your tongue, meaning
say something,
then at least feel that it is wrong.
But that is the weakest form
of faith.
And so there's levels.
Those who can change with their hands,
that may come militarily, that may come economically,
whatever your hand can do
because a hand can do a lot of
things.
The hand can write.
The hand can boycott.
The hand can,
give aid.
The hand can unite with other hands.
So so so the hand can do a
lot of different things.
But if that won't work,
then the tongue, the mouth,
expressing yourself,
is expressing your,
your your your
outrage as to what is happening in Palestine,
in Palestine, and other outrages that are going
on.
Expressing yourself,
not just in a negative way in an
angry outburst, do it in a positive way.
One of the greatest outbursts that we can
actually do
is to spread Islam,
is to counteract
Islamophobia,
to counteract the lies,
that have been spread
about Islam
and Muslims.
And so
this is the effect of Dua and Irshad.
Irshad is guidance.
And so through this,
and it continued on. And there are many
different stories. Some of them may be sort
of like myths.
Some of them may be true stories.
There's there's a story of,
a a great scholar in the Persian area,
and and he passes this Tughlaq Khan. And
Tughlaq Khan was one of the, mongols who
hated Muslims.
And when the scholar came in his area,
Tuguleh said, what are you doing in this
area? And the scholar said,
I've made a mistake. Tuguleh said,
you know, you you can die for this.
Right?
And so when he found out this person
was a Muslim,
he said, you're no better than a dog.
See the insult?
But the Muslim said, I agree.
Without the guidance of Allah
we're worse than dogs.
Now that
shocked Tugilay
because a Muslim spoke
to power
and gave him guidance connected to Islam.
So Tuglai said, I wanna hear more about
this Islam.
And eventually, he accepted Islam.
And when he accepted Islam,
you know, it is said that that a
huge amount, thousands of his followers came in.
And so that was a form of dawah.
There's so many stories about how how it
came about.
And so that is
the power of Allah
through the believers
and through our efforts,
that helped the Mongols to go from being
the worst enemies of Islam that we had
ever had up until that time,
until they became champions of Islam.
So you have Birka Khan,
and you have others who are coming up.
The Mughal dynasty,
the Mughals of India.
It's actually Mughal.
So that's the Arabic way. That's close, not
Mongol.
Mughal is the Arabic way. The Mughal is
is Mughal Like, that is is the way
in Turkish language to say it. That's right.
So Mogul
is
Mongols.
See?
And they became champions of Islam, especially in
the case of Aurangzeb,
of the Mongol dynasty, Rahim Ullam.
So this is our pivot
that came about not through military, but it
came about through a dawah to il Allah,
through standing for the truth and being an
example of Islam.
So I wanna open up the floor,
for any questions or comments that anybody may
have.
Floor is open.
Yes. So this is important that we see
the the the question is, how do we
implement
these pivotal moments into our lives?
We need to see
first the prophet,
his companions,
the the the first three generations,
the great scholars, the great strugglers, male and
female,
not just as people you read about,
but as
living examples
of what to do.
So we need to look at them to
try to emulate them, to follow them,
to to to look at how they impacted
their society and their time and see how
we can implement,
the this thing today.
And you can see from the pivots,
you see what the Muslims did. It was
wasn't all just military. If they couldn't do
the military, they would speak out. They would
practice Islam. They would give dua. They gave
dua all over the place to the Mongols
until they they helped them to transfer
because their power was so irresistible. Now it
became the power of Islam.
K? So
live Islam through the examples that are living
examples.
Next question.
So we are currently living in a pivotal
moment
Yes. So now we're talking about a pivotal
moment in Palestine.
How do we stay patient? What do we
do? Again, this this is a whole subject
in itself.
And, if you go back to my Jummah
Khutba
here last week and the week before
and others, you will see,
direct,
information about, you know, how that we need
taqo,
you know,
and taqwa,
that we should depend upon Allah. We should
have the consciousness of Allah.
You know, we have to go back to
our sources.
This is where we have to start living
Islam.
And and that's an important thing. It's not
just you say that you're Muslim, but you
live as a Muslim.
And so with these examples and, you know,
trying to get active,
even if it's the smallest thing that you
do,
you make a dua. You you give something.
You go to a rally.
You you continue on. But remember,
keep keep in touch with your history and
especially the signs of the last day so
you do not get depressed.
This is part of a process that we
are going through as Muslims, and it will
continue
until the day of resurrection.
Question.
Is it true that our sins are the
reason why Muslims are suffering?
Is it true that this our sins are
the reason why the Muslims are suffering?
Allah knows best.
This is part of sunnah to law. It
is the way of Allah, you know, in
this world.
But to be honest with you,
there is a hadith which is reported in
Abu Dawood,
where the prophet
reported to have said,
So the prophet said, this, my nation,
is a nation that has
mercy on it.
Its punishment is not in the next life,
but the punishment is in this life.
Fittin,
trials,
temptations,
confusions.
2, Zalazal,
earthquakes.
And 3, Hetal,
that's murder,
genocide.
See what he said? It's like a wake
up call that we will have to go
through. When we get slack,
Allah wakes us up.
And these 3 areas, you can see all
3 areas
hitting us today
combined,
because we're being prepared
for something big
that is about to happen in the world.
So
it's not something that we need to cry
about,
but it is a reality. It's a wake
up call. So all of us need to
read to make toba,
to repent, to look at our lives,
and to realize that just because you have
a Muslim name,
just because you speak Arabic or Urdu or
Turkish or Swahili or Hausa, just
because you you have something Islamic about you,
it's your deeds,
your intentions and your deeds.
This is the bottom line.
Question.
How do I give dollar
to my coworkers and friends?
How do you how how to give dawah
to your coworkers and friends? The
you know, this is the question. The best
way is to live Islam.
Because there's a lot of words around. There's
a lot of confusion around. But if you're
living Islam, if you're implementing your Islam with
them, and I don't mean you have to
stand up and mix a lot in front
of them,
but just be honest on the job.
Just be modest.
Just,
you know, you know, speak the truth.
Don't be afraid to let people know that
you're a Muslim.
Give charity. Help people out.
And the person might say, why are you
doing this?
Why are you not swearing like the rest
of the guys on the job?
Why are you not smoking drugs and and
drinking alcohol like everybody else?
Then you can say, because I'm a Muslim.
Now somebody might then say, what is a
Muslim?
There you are. So that's your inroad. It
started with
living Islam.
This is the most important things that Muslims
can do today.
Question.
Sheikh, I feel anxiety and sad when I
read about what's going on.
The question is I'm feeling anxiety and sadness
with what happened to the Muslims in the
past. But you have to realize, and this
is what we are looking at here, with
the difficulty came ease
that they were Muslim took a stand. It
changed.
That literally it changed.
And we saw in the past what happened.
Muslims are attacked, and then they rose up.
And right after this period,
right after this destruction of the Mongols and
Mamluks,
and Berdike Khan taking a stand, it was
the golden age of of of of one
of the golden ages of Islam. After Baghdad
fell,
Muslims came back again. So many of the
great
tafsir, like Ibn Kathir,
and, you know, so many books that we're
reading today actually happened in the Mamluk period.
So it's like a cycle. Our history goes
in a cycle. There's a down point, and
when we struggle, we're coming back up, and
we are rising now.
Don't get caught up in the media. Get
alternative medias.
If you keep watching
CNN and and BBC, you keep watching that,
that's your only source of information. You will
be depressed.
Get alternative
forms of social media, and you'll understand Muslims
are rising. Muslims are fighting back. It's not
all bad.
There's a positive side to the world that
we are living in today, and if you
know the signs of the days of judgment,
if you study it, you will see we're
in the process right now.
It's difficult to watch, but we're in the
process, and after darkness
comes light.
So with this point,
we will be continuing on, you know, for
our next,
pivotal moment, And I pray that Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, would bless you and bless the
Muslims and make it easy for the Muslims
in Philistine,
and Sudan and all the areas where we
are going through struggle. May Allah give us
victory. If not, may Allah give us,
Jannah
and
give special
give special blessings to those shahids,
especially the children who are following in his
path.