Abdullah Hakim Quick – Pivotal Moments in Islamic History #04 The Rise of The Mongols
AI: Summary ©
The importance of history and strong experiences in Islam is emphasized, along with the need for focus and commitment to achieve strong results. The importance of connection with Allah and avoiding danger is also emphasized. The importance of strength and passion in Islam is also emphasized, as it is critical for younger generation to be strong and focused. The importance of connection and strong results is emphasized, as it is critical for strong results to build connections with people and build strong relationships. The history of the United Kingdom, the "come of the thr centers," and the "come of the thr centers" movements are also discussed.AI: Transcript ©
Wabarakusallam.
All praise are due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds,
and peace and blessings be constantly showered upon
our beloved prophet Muhammad,
the master of the first and the last,
and his family, his companions, and all those
who call to his way and establish his
sunnah to the day of judgment.
As to what follows, my beloved brothers and
sisters, to our viewers, our friends, assalamu alaikum,
Alhamdulillah.
This is the beginning
of the 4th section
of the pivotal moments.
And these pivotal moments,
especially selected
to look at
the history of Islam
and Muslims,
to look at the flow
that happened with the spread of Islam
and with the different confrontations
and ups and the downs
to give us some pivotal time, some key
points
where
change came about.
And that concept of change
is a very critical one for us today
as it was in the past,
especially with the recent,
situation in,
Palestine and Gaza and
Sudan
and many parts of the Muslim world has
become very critical,
that some quantitative change, something has to happen,
in order to release the people,
from the pain and suffering,
and from the bondage and
genocide and apartheid that they are going through.
And so
by looking at history,
the concept is that we're not just looking
at history
for
numbers,
or for names, or places,
but we're looking at history as a living
experience
that Muslims went through
right from the beginning
with the revelation
and in the time of prophet Muhammad, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam,
what did he go through with his companions?
What did his companions go through during
their period
that would be called the period, of the
Sahaba?
What did the next period go through, the
Tabi'in,
those who followed the Sahaba?
What did they go through with the Tabi'in,
those who followed
the followers of the Sahaba,
and the different levels and generations that Muslims
went through.
And we have picked out certain key points
and key individuals,
that had a profound effect,
on history and were very relevant
to our own situation today.
And we reached, in the 11th 12th century,
the time of the beginning of the Crusades.
And the coming of the Crusades
and Europe making its thrust
into the Muslim world was a very pivotal
moment.
And the response,
of the Muslims to the Crusaders
with especially Sultan Saladin Al Ayubi
Rahimullah was
very pivotal,
in changing the course of history.
And so as we move,
through
time and space
and we come into the late
12th century
and the beginning of 13th
century,
AD,
we recognize
that that was
maybe one of the most tumultuous
centuries
that Muslims faced
since the beginning of the Islamic movement.
Traumatic
events went down.
Events that are so
serious, that are so,
inexplicable. It's hard to put them into words.
And so we need to try to understand
the players who are involved,
in this pivotal time
and also the response.
Because we are in
unprecedented times as well today
with what is going on,
Not in the sense that genocide
is carried out for the first time in
the Muslim world. No.
Not in the sense that apartheid, separation
of races and religions,
is carried out for the first time. No.
Not in the sense
that injustice
is being carried out. No.
What is different is that it is being
carried out in real time,
that people actually are watching it evolve,
hearing the individuals,
feeling their suffering.
And even with international communications
and travel, to even touch,
and,
empathize with those people
who are suffering. And so it it is
critical for us
to have solid examples
of what Muslims went through
to give us some strength
within ourself.
To to give us that heart, that that
feeling that we need, that connection with Allah
that we need to be able to overcome
this or at least to be able to
flow through,
what is happening
in front of our eyes. And so
this,
the first session,
in the 4th part
is looking at the rise of the Mongols.
And
I want to focus on, in the beginning,
a hadith of the prophet, peace and blessings
be upon him.
That is,
reported in Sahih Muslim,
where Abu Horeira reported
that the messenger of Allah, salaam, said,
In this authentic hadith, the prophet was reported
to have said, the strong believer
is better
and more beloved
to Allah than
the weak one, but there is good in
both of them.
Strive for that which benefits you.
Seek your help from Allah and do not
become weak.
If a calamity strikes you, do not say,
if I had only done such and such.
But say
that is what Allah has willed
and whatever he intends
he will bring to pass.
For verily the word 'la' or 'if'
opens the way
of the shaytan.
So this is a very important hadith for
us to reflect upon,
and it's something
that we need to instill into our younger
generation.
And that is that strength, kawah.
That strength
is so important
in our practice of Islam
to the point where the prophet
is saying that a strong believer is better
than a weak one,
more loved by Allah than a weak one,
But in both of them there is good.
So in in in both of the believers
there is good. The weak believer is still
good
and loved by Allah, but the strong believer.
And when we talk about strength,
as we learned in another tradition that the
prophet, peace be upon him, said that the
strong person is not the good wrestler,
but it is the person who controls himself
when he's angry.
Aleedi yamliku nafsahu and dal khadab.
Self control.
That the essence of strength is self control.
And even
in the martial arts,
in physical fighting of all forms,
it is really the one at the height
of the battle who controls himself,
who can make logical decisions
that usually is the one who comes out
with the victory.
And so strength here is a broad term.
Strength can mean strength in my thinking,
strength in my commitment,
strength in my ability to carry things out,
and, of course, physical strength,
Mental strength, physical strength.
This is the the the essence of it
because
Muslims have to be strong
because of the challenge that is coming from
the evil one,
and his companions.
And then the prophet, peace be upon him,
said, strive
for that which benefits you.
This is critical for the younger generation.
You have to look at what you are
doing. And if there are things that you
do that are of no benefit to you
And I'm not talking about relaxing
because even the companions of the prophet salawasalam
relaxed.
And Hanzalah came to the prophet, peace be
upon him, and said, I have destroyed myself.
And the prophet said, why? And he said,
because when we're with you, we're serious and
we're focused, but when we are with our
families and our children, we relax
and we enjoy ourself. And the prophet told
him that there is a time for this
and a time for that. Sa'atun
sa'a.
So there's a time when you're focused and
serious,
totally committed. There's a time when you relax.
Nothing wrong with that as long as it
stays within
the movement
of the commitment.
But when the relaxation
overcomes commitment,
when relaxation
becomes
the reason to be,
that is the problem.
And so focus.
Focus on that which benefits you
and do not become weak.
So this is really strong for us now.
There's a lot against us. There's a lot
to be depressed about.
There's economic crisis, political crisis.
Do not become
weak. And even if a calamity strikes
you or me,
we shouldn't say, well, if I had done
this or that, it would be better. It
would be this. No.
We have to say at that point when
calamity strikes
that Qadr Allah
wamasha'a'a'ala.
Whatever Allah has willed,
it will come to pass.
So this
concept,
this,
guidance given to us by the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam
is really important in understanding
this particular pivotal moment
and the response
to this pivot pivotal moment,
and it carries over.
You could say,
even from this period up until today,
that strength is something which is really important.
And we saw amongst the khulafa of Rashidin,
the great, rightly guided caliphs.
We saw Abu Bakr and Omar and Uthman
and Ali. But we saw in the time
of Omar,
who had that mental and physical strength,
that things were more united, more organized, more
progress was made. Allah is ultimately one to
decide,
but the strength of Ummah definitely held back
the shaytan
and the evil forces.
And so,
in looking at this, I want to,
take a little aside,
to focus on something which is connected,
to our
pivotal moment in order to expand our consciousness
of ourself. Because I think it's really important
for Muslims and,
non Muslims
to get familiar with nationalities,
get familiar with
different types of people,
different ethnic groups, different linguistic groups. And even
though Muslims are an Umba,
we are one nation.
Tribalism is so strong that sometimes Muslims don't
even realize
the strength of their brother or their sister.
And so I want to take an aside,
I I want to look at something which
is very North American, which is very Canadian,
but which is also neglected.
And this is a shout out in a
sense,
to the indigenous people
Because with the crisis going on,
in Palestine,
again,
we're seeing indigenous people struggling against settler settler
colonialists.
That struggle that's been going on for 5,
600 years.
This has brought to light
the struggle of indigenous people all over the
world.
So this response to to colonial period,
this response to the *, to the slavery,
to the exploitation
of the lands of the indigenous,
is something which is widespread.
And because of technology and media, it's put
down.
People are not
given the details.
The situation now has brought everything to the
surface.
And so
I want to look at the first nations
people,
And these are the original Canadians
because and it's North America as well. But
when you say
Canada,
you can really see it because the word
Canada
is not a European word.
It actually comes from one of the native
languages, Iroquois.
And Kanata
means a large village.
So that's what Canada is, one of the
largest villages in the world, because it's second
in land space in the whole world.
So the original Canadians are not Europeans.
Today, if you say, oh, there's a Canadian
fellow coming,
you would expect him to be a white
complexioned
person, British, French, you know, something to do
with Europe. But the first Canadians
who lived for 1000 of years
in these lands
were not
Europeans.
They came from Asia.
And if you look at the picture, you
will see,
what they are looking like even in the
21st century. You can still see,
their complexion. You still see their look.
These are the indigenous
First Nations people, and far north especially, we're
dealing with the Inuits.
And
history tells us that the main way that
people came from Asia into the Americas
in the north
was by the Bering Straits.
And,
there was a point 10000 years ago or
more
where it was so cold
that that straight, that pass in the water
in between Alaska, Canada, and Russia
was actually solid.
And this drought
and terrible climate was so bad that the
people of Siberia,
of northern Russia today,
had to migrate. They had to escape.
They had to make a type of hijra,
a type of physical migration in order to
save their lives.
And so they crossed over into the Americas.
And imagine
this open land, this huge land,
no human beings are on it. It's like
as though you landed on a planet
or you landed on the moon.
There's nobody there.
And yet they were brave enough,
they were resilient enough,
they were hardy enough
to survive.
And even in the terrible winters,
the terrible snow and the terrible cold, they
were able to adapt,
themselves.
For instance, in the building of the Igloo,
home.
And this igloo
is ice because everything else is ice surrounding
them.
And so this is ice,
you know, in the middle of ice.
And so with human
intelligence,
they found out that when you have solid
ice and you put skins
inside of it, fur and skins inside of
it, and then as a human being, you
live in there, you change the temperature,
and the skin keeps it in. You can
actually
take your shirt off inside there, it becomes
so warm. So this is one of the
great adaptations,
that they made. And amongst the First Nations
dress,
you can see
the different styles of dress. And this is
interesting for those who have traveled in,
Central Asia and
even in parts of Africa, North Africa especially,
but I found even in East Africa,
you can see the combinations of the colors,
inside of the dress.
This could be a dress from part of
the Muslim world, but this is First Nations
dress here in Canada.
Okay? And in the far northwest
section
in the northwest territories
in Inuvik,
there is a masjid that has been established.
I visited there to train the people in
how to do dawah,
how to do outreach. It is called the
mosque of the midnight sun.
And that is because there is a time
of the year,
especially at the winter or in the deep
summer,
where, like, in the summer,
the sun stays out 24 hours.
There is no sunset.
K? Even at 5 in the morning, 4
in the morning, sun is out.
So they call it the land of the
midnight sun. This is the masjid of the
midnight
sun. And we had to deal with some
issues
because, obviously, how are you gonna make your
prayer? How can you establish Maghared e B'l
Isha and Fazha when the sun is out?
And there there is a way that the
olema have shown that you can use the
closest,
reasonable city
or you can use Mecca tal Muqarrama,
as your base
and you will make an estimate.
So you put the times estimated for prayer,
and then you make your prayer even though
the sun may be out.
And so we opened up the masjid to
the First Nations people.
And these are some of the young people
who are very interested to come inside of
the mosque,
because Muslims naturally have a tendency to build
a masjid, do their activities, but they don't
call people from the outside.
And so,
we,
had a session
with the First Nations people. We called them
into the Masjid.
And they came and they were interested, and
these are the 2 2 of the little
girls
who came in. Now I want you to
look at their features.
You can see the central Asian feature of
the people. These are Canadians
whose families have lived here
over
10000 years.
You're not in Central Asia.
You are in Canada.
And so we said, let's do an experiment
because they wanted to put on hijab.
They wanted to see what it felt like.
And so we put it on them.
And and you see them with the hijab
look like Muslims who are coming from Uzbekistan
or Kazakhstan.
That is the Central Asian Muslim
look. It it's amazing,
you know, what,
a piece of cloth can do,
for an individual.
Now
remember the girl's features.
These are Mongolian
women.
These are the Mongols.
And many have heard the name, Genghis Khan
but don't know about the culture.
These are women in Mongolia
today.
Again, look at the dress
and think about the dress of the First
Nations
in Canada. And you will see,
similarities
in their beliefs, in their language,
and their customs, and so many aspects.
But this this is the parallel that we're
making.
So this area,
of Central Asia,
that we're dealing with,
the key part of this area, which is
gonna affect,
next few pivotal moments is what is called
the Eurasian
steppes.
And the steppes region is not
high high mountains. There are it is mountainous,
but then it is flat,
and there are deserts.
There are vast
expanses,
within the the steppes.
There's a lot of area where grass can
grow grasslands
are there. So, therefore, the people of the
steppes,
became involved with animal husbandry.
They took care of animals,
because that was the main way to survive
in this area. You couldn't grow,
vegetables and fruit in the same way you
do in the warmer climates.
Now to get an idea of what this
area is,
we'll look at the Turkish Mongol homelands.
We touched on the area of the Turks.
We may go back to them again, as
we go on inshallah.
But
right in the center, how we centered it
before,
was Kazakhstan.
That is a huge territory,
there in Central Asia. To the right of
Kazakhstan
is Mongolia.
So this is the land,
of the Mongol people.
And,
based upon the connection between the two areas,
and you will see
that if you look closely here at the
steps, right in the middle, you'll see that
it says Altai Mountains.
So the Altai Mountains was sort of
a dividing point
between what you could call the Mongol people
and the Turkish people,
although they're cousins.
And and and and the proto,
Mongolian type was the the the the father,
of all of them. Okay? But you could
divide it into the eastern steppe,
which is Mongolia,
and then the western step.
And that is where Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan,
and the other Central Asian groups come in.
And then you can see the connection,
how it goes, across.
Again, looking at the steps, I wanna look
at those steps again. They're so important
because if you
go west in the steps,
you'll actually see that this
expansive region
even reaches the Ukraine.
You know the Russian Ukrainian war that is
going on right now.
This is part of a steppe region. Isn't
Moscow and surrounding
these areas is a steppe region. And the
Ukrainians were famous before for
people called Cossacks.
And the Cossack warriors were famous for
riding horses,
shooting guns, and arrows on the horse.
That is a trait
that was similar
to the other people,
who lived in the steppes.
And
the warriors in the steps became the greatest,
riders
maybe in the world
in terms of their abilities, what they could
do.
And they developed the ability
to shoot bows and arrows
while they're riding at top speed.
And so in those days, that would make
them formidable warriors.
Because if it's a large group that is
moving through rapidly at you, they don't
stop but they hit they hail down
arrows upon you and then they continue as
they are moving through. You don't have a
chance to deal with them, that is something
shared by the warriors all the way through
this steppe region. And this is pivotal in
a sense because these people coming into the
Muslim world, it changed,
the makeup
of the Muslims and it changed
our history forever.
Now amongst the different warlords,
stepping back in history a little a little
bit, in the 7th century BC
there was a group called the Scythians
and these were Persian Iranian speaking nomads.
Okay? And they lived, there,
in the steppe regions,
and this is somewhere between,
China
and then going all the way over to
the side of the Ukrainians.
And they began raiding down from Central Asia
into the, what is now the Middle East.
By 6 12 BC,
the Scythians were the one of the key
factors
in destroying the Assyrian Empire.
Now the Assyrians
had ruled
for over a 1000 years and they dominated
the whole region back in those days.
The Scythians
with this relentless attack on their horses,
coming in, going out, this irregular warfare,
This is what people in the steppes,
were known for. They were one of the
main reasons why the Assyrians came down.
Another important group,
in this steppe region
is a group called the Huns.
And,
this is in the dying days
of the Roman Empire. Now, again, the Romans
was
they they they were one of the major
groups
in the Middle
Earth,
Mediterranean,
Asian,
European area.
And,
by the 5th century,
in the area of the steppes,
the Huns,
again, one of the nomadic groups,
they ruled that area. And, again, they had
that ability,
to ride and to shoot.
And there's something about that climate.
There's something about that area that hardens the
personality.
And so it it is by that time,
the 5th century, their great leader Attila,
Attila the Hun, he was called the scourge
of God.
He and his troops terrorized
the Eastern and Western Roman Empires,
plunded the Balkans.
It it extorted tons of gold from Constantinople.
It invaded all the way over to to
France.
They were in Italy and finally when they
were raiding Italy,
Attila,
died,
from drinking himself to death in one of
his so called wedding nights.
So 'han'
is so serious that I know in American
English
and because I was raised in America,
Han is being used.
I used to play basketball
and and if you used to, you know,
dominate the ball all the time
and you wouldn't give it to other people,
they call you a hun.
They say you're a hun. I don't know
if they use that today in in soccer
or football or anything. But in my days,
if if you dominate the ball, you hog
the ball, they call you a hun. That's
the name of a group of people.
But it stuck because of,
the fear that the Romans had
for the Huns in Europe. It was so
serious that even comes down into European based
languages
up until today.
Now looking at this group,
the the the focus group we're looking at
is the Mongols,
Almohul.
So in language in in in Arabic and
in their language, Almohul, mohul,
you know, they have their way of pronouncing
in their own in English, we're saying,
the Mongols.
Okay? And
the the Mongol nation,
really, in ancient times, they were very obscure
and they were not really that important,
of a people,
and they lived in that
terrible
climate
that is there. Now you look at the
picture and you see,
just rocks
and stones and nothing green
around you, and then suddenly it gets flat.
In the cold,
periods,
it's still
nothing green growing.
And so
in this area,
the Mongol nation
started to develop.
They would spend most of their time,
fighting against each other,
not able to reach any heights because they
couldn't unite.
And finally,
and again, this is going around the 13th
century,
they were united,
under a,
very important leader whose name was Temerjin.
And Temerjin,
started to organize
the different Mongol tribes,
people who were just angry, fighting each other,
this type of personality.
And, again,
we need to try to understand,
what happened to these people because
life was so harsh and so difficult
that they were angry,
they turned on each other,
and eventually they turned on the world.
And so how do you go about,
organizing a group like this?
It is not easy and it takes a
certain type of personality,
even to be able to organize,
people like this. And Temerjin
was that individual
that Allah had willed.
Temerjin was late later known as Genghis Khan.
His father was a chief but a a
lesser chief.
And, it was,
when he was around 9 years old, his
father was killed,
and his tribe was
scattered and destroyed.
His mother was banished
along with,
their their children. They had 5 children.
And they were forced to live,
by themselves in the harsh steppe.
Okay. So this was a death sentence.
You don't have a store that you can
go to buy goods from.
You don't have mango trees or,
you know, different vegetables that will be growing
in the warm season.
You are living in in a vast
expanse.
The best you can get out of it
is grass,
and a few shrubs
that might grow in that area. And so
contact with other human beings is critical to
survive.
You have to live as a social unit,
so being banished
was like a like a death sentence.
Times got really really bad. It got so
difficult
that some reports even say they were starving
to the extent
that Temerjin killed his older brother because he
refused to share a fish with him.
Now imagine the level of starvation,
that you are on. You are losing control
of yourself
completely. Now this
affects the mentality of a person,
not only of the of the people of
the region,
but Temerjin himself
must have been mentally affected
by this horrible suffering that he went through.
But he was strong
and he grew
up to be a very,
charismatic,
leader
and he began to amass the tribes
to to to bring the people together. He
was a master in tribal politics.
And so he was able to bring the
tribes together
sometime by a a positive way, sometimes by
killing a leader, however that they had to
do. The Mongol clans
started to come together,
and finally,
they united under the leadership
of Tamarjine.
And
they decided
that they would
end
tribal warfare
and they would unite
under the leadership of this man.
So this that in itself,
is a major achievement.
After unifying,
the Mongols, Temerjin then,
he started to look out
outside of Mongolia
and he began to take on some of
their rivals, their neighbors.
One of the groups was the Tatas,
and he took them on and he totally
defeated the Tatas.
And by 12:06,
he had destroyed most of the rivals
in that part of the steppes.
Okay? So that central part of the steppes,
the Mongols were controlling it. So it's not
just Mongolia.
They had now stretched out into another area.
He took it a step further,
and he claimed that he had a type
of,
vision.
And in these visions,
which were endorsed by their,
shamans, they are they're magicians
because they believe in Goktangri,
which is this, you know, sun god, this
one
god, you know, whose whose symbolism is blue.
So they believed in this
so called god of the heavens,
and,
Temujin said that he was ordained
that he should be the ruler
of the earth. So everything under the sky
should be under his control.
And so they pro proclaimed
him Genghis
Khan,
and that means the universal
ruler,
the ultimate ruler
of the people on the face of the
planet Earth.
And this is important to try to understand
because this
is happening now
and it's moving
towards
the Muslim world.
It is a change going on
in the 13th century. Muslims in other parts,
of the Ummah,
Egypt, Morocco, West Africa,
Syria,
Mecca, Medina,
are not directly
impacted by
this at this point in time. But it
is a big change coming about which is
about to influence the world.
But instead of going west,
he looked,
east and south.
He looked toward China
because the largest empire considered to be one
of the 4 great empires in the world
at that time,
of course, the Romans
and the Persians and the, Aksumite Ethiopians
and the the empires of China.
These are the great powers dominating
much of the world at that time.
So he looks off.
And the Chinese were so afraid of the
Mongols
that they actually built the famous,
Great Wall of China,
And that wall is still
there today.
It's considered to be one of the wonders
of the world.
Just imagine building a wall like this so
long.
Look it up and see how amazing that's
fear.
That's when you are afraid of somebody.
They were afraid of him. And so he
went south down. And the Xia
dynasty,
he defeated them. And by 12:10,
he controlled and he went for the Jin
dynasty.
This is not the Jin like Jinese,
but this is the Jin. This is one
of the nations amongst the Chinese.
And,
he attacked
and he defeated them by by 12:11.
So this was a great victory.
And the leader of the Jin, he left.
And so northern China
was controlled by the Mongols,
and that would have been enough for them
at that point in time. It's a huge
area,
it's very fertile.
The more you go south
is the more you are going into
fertile area.
And so you have your economic products,
you have political *,
and you're going south. That should have been
enough.
However,
something happened.
Something happened on the Western side.
And that is
that
a confrontation
started to happen.
And that was with the Muslim world.
Now
switching out of this
Mongolian
evolution,
we need to look at the Muslim world,
what had developed.
We know that the Khalifa Rashidin,
ruled for a period of time,
and then you have, like, 40 years, and
then you have the the the Umayyads.
This is for a 100 years plus. And
then there was Abbasids, Bennu Abbas.
And they had ruled for a number of
years.
And by the 13th century, however,
the Abbasid Khalifa
was only a symbol
of what a Khalifa is supposed to be.
You remember the example of the Khalifa al
Rashidim,
And Omar is is is one of the
great examples of this
in that he saw not only his own
area
as part of his,
responsibility,
but the whole of the Muslim Ummah
and really the whole world.
That changed
where the Khalifa became more
concerned with riches,
with Hayatid Dunya,
more concerned with his own,
political power and his own fame.
So you could say that the Khalifa was
a shadow
of what
the Khalifa used to be.
The Khalifa was weak, and it is said
that in 13th century, around this time, that
the army of the Abbasids,
which is mainly centered in Iraq, in the
area of Baghdad because remember Baghdad is now
their capital
in Iraq.
The Khalifa only had about 12,000 soldiers.
So he wasn't concerned
really with the Muslim world. He was more
concerned
with bodyguards,
who would protect,
Baghdad,
and the areas around it. The Muslim world,
which was vast,
Muslims had gone west all the way across
North Africa, they had gone down into,
the Sahara Desert.
Remember,
Muslims had gone to Al Andalus.
This was the time of the great Umayyads.
The Umayyads had a Khalifa in Al Andalus
at that time.
And in North Africa,
as we studied, the Fatimids,
the Shia, schismatic Shia groups had developed
themselves
in, Tunisia
and then over to Egypt that became their
capital.
We also found out that there were other
groups
that came out. There was the Seljuks that
we looked at, a Turkish nation.
There was a group called Buehids.
There were different schismatic
groups coming from
the Botania.
There was the Hashashin,
the assassins.
So there were many different
states.
And usually
these nation states were based upon
a a a schismatic
ideology
or based upon an ethnic group. The Khalifa
who was supposed to unite everybody,
was confined,
to Baghdad itself,
the capital of the Muslim world.
Poverty was widespread.
Imagine this, Baghdad was
considered to be the richest city on earth,
was the city above that at that time,
but yet poverty
was widespread.
And it is said that that that
one of the slave of the,
Khalifa
and Ibn Al Aqiyyah and Ibn Kathia
are 2 of the great historians Muslim historians
who wrote about this. Ibn Al Athiya,
he writes saying that the slave of the
Khalifa, Allah Adina Tabarasi,
that he actually had 100 and thousands of
dinas
worth of property
It's the slave because a slave is not
always somebody in ball and chains.
So the slave of the Khalifa
was,
fabulously rich,
but the 'ulama,
the great scholars in the Nizamiyah,
institutes,
the great scholars who are writing in so
many books and whatnot, they were only getting
a few 100
dinas per month.
Look at this difference that is going on.
The the Khalifa was so rich and so
powerful,
but the people were suffering.
Also at this time, by the will of
Allah, there was there was,
climactic changes were going on.
There was also a famine breaking out because
of the lack of food coming to the
masses of the people.
And Ibn Lathiya even writes
that when it came to to the key
time
in the middle of 13th century, and we'll
be getting to that inshallah next period.
In the middle of the, of 13th century
that
the hujaj,
the groups that go from different capitals
think about Toronto, * is going to Mecca
Fahaj,
New York,
Think about Jakarta.
Think about all the different parts of the
world going to Mecca.
At that time, Baghdad,
the richest place on earth,
nobody
had time to make Hajj.
No hudjaj.
With all the wealth and riches
that they had there was no Hujudjaj
who even cared about
fulfilling
the 5th pillar of their faith.
That's the dichotomy and that is the weakness
that Muslims brought upon themselves.
And I say this with all deference
to the people who are suffering,
but we have to look at ourself.
And when we look at this period of
time you will see what happened to Muslims
because they were the richest on earth, people
are suffering all over the planet,
and so
change came about,
major pivoting
came about.
This is how it was divided,
Right in the hotline, you can see,
where it says that that Khilafat,
that's Iraq, that's basically the area of the
Khalifa.
You see the Ayyubid Sultanate. This is the
family of Saladin,
al Ayubi.
Then you see,
to the north, what is called Sultanate of
Rome, Rum. That's the Seljuks.
So the Seljuks were controlling the area which
is now Turkiye.
And to the right of the Hilafet,
you'll see the empire of Khwarizmi.
And Khwarizmi Shah
was
one of the most powerful leaders on Earth.
Look at the land space
within,
the area which controlled by the Khwarem u
Khwarezmi.
And so broken up into different areas,
people divided 1 against another,
the weak
benefiting from the poor,
The Deen is not being dealt with.
Something is about to happen
to the Muslims.
The prophet
in authentic hadith
reported in Abu Dawood, ibn Majah, and Ahmed
is reported to have said in the authority
of Abu Horetta radiAllahuan.
The prophet
said, this, my Ummah,
is a nation
that has
mercy upon it.
Its punishment will not be in the hereafter,
but in this life.
That being Fitin,
meaning trials and temptations,
Salazzle,
earthquakes,
and Qutl,
genocide,
murder
that is happening.
And we can see, well, Iyadu Billah,
at different points in history, and again I'm
saying this with all deference
to those innocent people who are suffering.
May Allah give them paradise for for for
what is happening to them, especially the children.
But this is sunnah to law. This has
happened
in Islamic history, and we need to understand
what happened to come out of the situation
today. And especially for those new Muslims,
those young Muslims,
those who are reviving their faith, who wanna
know what is going on,
What is happening with all these Muslim leaders,
all of these nations, all of this power?
What is happening to the Muslim world?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has told us
this nation,
it's got mercy on it.
Okay? We're not gonna be punished in the
next life, Insha'Allah.
And that is because when you have Tawhid,
when you have that oneness
inside of you, you are born witness to
this
over the ages
that that person of Tawhid,
following the prophethood
or sincerely not,
would come out
of hellfire. Some will go directly into paradise,
some follow in their prophets.
And others, even after being punished for a
a period of time, Jahannam Yoon, they are
known as in hellfire,
because of the tawhid, they gotta come out.
So the ultimate punishment is not in the
next life,
but the punishment is in this life, in
the dunya.
He said three things.
He said fit fitin, it's the plural of
fitna,
and a fitna is a trial. It's a
temptation.
It's a confusion.
It's a gray area. Look at the situation
today.
Look at how confusing it look at the
temptations we're under.
Just go to your cell phone. Just look
at the amount of fitna, the amount of,
illegal
sexuality
and *
and * and the things that are going
on, temptations and the trials, the drugs,
the gambling,
so many different material things
spread all over the world popping up in
front of you. Fitan.
Fitan.
This comes like a punishment to us.
Okay? It's a wake up call. And I
say it's not just
punish you see, because getting punished, getting hurt
is not always
something which is
negative.
For instance, when you get a cut,
if somebody is cut with a knife,
he will feel more pain
when it heals
than when the actual knife
struck the skin.
Because the healing process
is a painful one.
That is sunnatullah.
And that pain is good because if you
didn't have pain
then you might take your hand underwater,
you might do things with it, but the
pain will remind you over and over again,
I'm healing. I'm healing.
And so similarly
this fitna in the Muslim world, it is
a wake up call.
Alhamdulillah,
Muslims are waking up all over the Muslim
world,
especially the masses of the people.
2nd point,
Zelazal.
And Zelazal earthquakes.
Look at this earthquake that hit Turkiye.
This is one of the major earthquakes quakes
of the centuries
hit the Muslim world.
And if you go and start
looking at the earthquakes that have hit
the Muslim world and the tsunamis
over the past 50 years,
you're gonna see probably the majority of them
hit the Muslim world.
Aside from earthquakes, Olamar also sees Zelazo could
stand for natural
catastrophes
that are also hitting us
as a punishment.
It's a wake up call to us
before it's too late. And finally, qatl
and that we will use the term today,
not just murder,
genocide.
And it is happening
in the Muslim world,
not only in Philistine and Gaza, it has
happened in other parts of the Muslim world.
We are seeing it going down in front
of our eyes.
It is a wake up call,
and we have to realize
this is sunnah tulah,
and this is what has happened in the
past,
and this is what is going on. So
pivot.
Pivotal moment.
Genghis Khan is in China.
He's defeated the Chinese, taken
over northern China.
But suddenly on the western side,
one of his governors
who had now sent his,
people now into
the Hawarismi
empire. Remember the Hawarismis?
One of the greatest empires in the Muslim
world.
But again, having this power
and not being united, not practicing your deen
as you should, it breeds arrogance,
takabbur,
pride.
And so
the Mongols came in to do trade.
The leader
of this section of the Khwarezmi Empire, he
humiliate, disgraced them.
They came back another group came back again
said, did you really mean this? He took
them and he said he shaved their beards,
he disgraced them,
Right? He even killed them.
And and so this news got back
to Genghis Khan. And Genghis Khan was reported
to have said, there is 1 sun in
the heavens and there is 1 khan on
earth.
And he launched his campaign
to invade the Khwarizmi
Empire in 12/18.
Okay? And he overran this place.
Right? By 12/21,
he had over overrun
the Khwarizmi Empire, chased the leader
of the Khwarizmi,
chased him, Jalaluddin,
all the way across
until he died in a small Caspian island.
He died,
by himself, the leader of one of the
greatest
sections
in the Muslim world.
And so pivotal moment,
arrogance,
instead of dealing with non Muslims,
injustice,
these are merchants who are coming. These are
not soldiers.
Yes. The Mongols are conquerors, but they're coming
to you as merchants.
They have a white flag so to speak.
You disgrace them, you kill them, you humiliate
them because you think you're so powerful.
That is a major mistake and considered by
some
to be maybe one of the greatest mistakes
in history.
One of the greatest mistakes
in history is what the Khwarizmi people did,
instead of maintaining neutrality
with the Mongols, they started animosity
and they unleashed
through their arrogance
Genghis Khan who considered himself to be the
punishment of God on earth.
This was unleashed into the Muslim world, and
that is our pivotal moment
for today,
and this will lead us
into next week's,
class and understanding
where we will try to look at the
response,
to this invasion that happened
and the results of the invasion
and how the Muslims
came back. This is critical for us today.
Remember what is happening today.
Remember this genocide that is going on today.
How are we gonna respond? How are we
gonna wake up?
It is all part of sunnah to law
which is being played out right in front
of our eyes.
So I wanna open up the floor for
any questions,
that anybody may have,
concerning,
this first of the pivotal moments
in in the 4th section.
K. So question.
The question is, are are these moments considered
to be signs of day of judgement?
No. Not necessarily.
The signs of the day of judgement
we get from the traditions of the prophet,
he told us about, he showed us minor
signs and major signs. Now some of them
could fall into the minor signs, definitely.
And in terms of the major signs, you
will see later
that
the Mongols
had reached such a level of destruction
that ibn al Athir and some of the
scholars, they thought, is this Gog and Magog?
So the Gog and Magog nation, which is
one of the major signs of the day
of judgment,
they were not sure. I mean, is this
Gog and Magog?
Okay. But we found out later, no. It's
not.
So so these are signs in the sense
of murder,
definitely widespread murder and corruption. That is one
of the minor signs of day of judgment.
Floor is open.
Yes. So the Quran is talking about that
Rome, in the chapter of Rome,
that Rome was, you know, conquered in the
lowest part of the earth, and then they
will,
they will succeed in defeating their enemies
in this lowest part of the earth.
This happened,
just before the Quran was revealed.
So this is now going back, remember,
the Quran is being revealed,
from 610,
right, 610 AD,
on 23 year period. And so it is
before this time,
that the Romans were defeated,
by the by the Persians. And just at
this point, the Persians, you know, now were
defeated by the Romans.
So this came about as the Quran is
just being revealed, and this is a miracle
in the Quran, actually.
But it's not this time. This we're talking
now,
13th century,
you know, which is,
you know, a good,
600 years later.
Okay? So the Romans
at that time,
this is a previous Byzantium
or the Eastern Roman Empire.
Now floor is open for any general questions
that anybody has.
So right now is what's happening in the
Palestine to pivotal moment? How do we learn
and how do we react appropriately?
Yes. So this is a discussion in itself.
What I'm giving you is
a mirror,
a mirror image as to what is happening.
In terms of what's going on,
it's real time.
So we're seeing what has happened to the
suffering of the Palestinian people. We're seeing the
world is rising now.
The colonial period is ending.
Major change is coming about
and starting to affect the Muslim world as
well. That was in a deep slumber.
But I'm giving you the in this class,
the mirror image of what actually happened.
And this, Insha'Allah,
can come about.
So when we study the past, we're able
to see what is happening today, but it's
a process.
And the painful part of this
is that we're actually living through this
in real time. So this is different than
studying the Mongols,
you know, 100 of years ago. You're actually
living through it.
And it's a painful thing to actually live
through, and it requires a lot of patience.
But the Muslim has to have
the overview, the greater picture of things, and
not just get tied down with the present.
Deal with the present,
but remember the overview of what has happened.
So we're looking at the past
to connect it to the present in order
to understand,
inshallah, the future.
So with this, inshallah, we will, be closing
the class.
And next week, we're we're we're rolling inshallah.
We're we're gonna move through these,
you know,
traumatic events
and try to bring you this information and
mirror it with what is happening today.
I leave you with these thoughts, and I
ask Allah to have mercy on me and
you.
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