Abdullah Hakim Quick – Rulers-Scholars Cooperation – Umar bin AbdulAziz – Minarets and Thrones #07
AI: Summary ©
The segment discusses the history and cultural significance of the defended views of the Bible and the Muslim community. The shaping of Islam is discussed, including the rise of doshronized shaytan, the deception of shaytan, and the shaping of Islam by the shrouds of shaytan. The shrouds of shaytan are also discussed, including the influence of shaytan on shaytanism and the shaping of Islam by the shrouds of shaytan. The shrouds of shaytan are also discussed, including the rise of the doshronized shaytan and the deception of shaytan. The shaping of Islam is also discussed, including the rise of the first umayia culture and the importance of learning and sharing knowledge. The shaping of Islam is also discussed, including the rise of independence, leagues, and the idea of a "monster" in Islamic culture. The shaping of
AI: Summary ©
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Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
Wa Sallallahu ta'ala ala Sayyidil Mursaleen, wa
alihi wa sahbihi wa barak wa sallam.
My beloved brothers and sisters, to our friends,
to our viewers, assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.
Alhamdulillah, this is another evening, another session, in
looking at minarets and thrones.
And that is the relationship of scholars to
the rulers.
And this we understood to be one of
the most important interactions in the Muslim world
today.
It has always been one of the most
important interactions because the scholars represent like the
head on the body, in a sense, and
the heart in the body, the key mover
and shaker.
And without direction, without the direction of the
leadership, those who are in charge, whether they
are in charge because of their physical might,
in the case of the umrah, or the
case of the rulers, or whether they are
in charge because of their knowledge of the
revelation.
And since Islam is based upon the revelation,
the role of the ulama, those who are
close to the revelation, and that being what
came through the book of Allah, Al-Quran,
final revelation to humanity, and through the authenticated
sayings and sunnah of Prophet Muhammad, peace and
blessings be upon him, those who are familiar
with that, have the essence of Islamic lifestyle.
So the essence of our aqidah, the essence
of our politics, economic, social life, family life,
comes from the revelation.
And that is critical for us in understanding
the importance of the scholars because the leader
is one who has power, and every society
there is somebody, some group, that has sultan,
that has authority, that has the force, and
is controlling the resources of the society, and
basically dominates the people.
In Islamic society, there are those with physical
authority, but there are also those with knowledge
-based authority and spiritual authority.
So this is a study of how these
two groups interacted.
And the result of their interaction spelt either
a positive direction for the Muslim ummah or
a negative one.
And we have been looking at the highest
form of this relationship, and that is what
we call fusion.
It is the fusion of the ability to
lead and the actual power and the knowledge.
So that if the person who is the
leader is also a highly knowledgeable person, like
a mujtahid, one who can make religious decisions,
and he has the power, then we have
the type of leadership we want, and along
with his consultation, and along with the involvement
of the general community, then we have movement
in Islamic society.
And we found out that the best examples
of this fusion came with the four khalifas,
the khulafa al-rashideen.
And they represented the highest pinnacle of people
who were profoundly knowledgeable in Islam and had
natural ability to lead.
And so we looked at Abu Bakr al
-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Yafan,
and Ali ibn Abi Talib.
That was the fusion.
That was the highest level.
And this is what we call the period
of the rightly guided caliphs.
And the Prophet ﷺ said that the khilafat
after me in my ummah will last for
30 years, 30 years.
Then there will be a kingdom after that.
And so the khilafat represented that highest level
of this fusion, this natural succession after the
time of the Prophet ﷺ.
And that period, 30 years, again we found
out that Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, r.a.,
for those who weren't here, he ruled for
approximately 2 years, 3 months, and 10 days.
And Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a., he
ruled for 10 years, 6 months, and 8
days.
Uthman r.a., who many people do not
recognize the importance of Uthman and his leadership
abilities and his accomplishment, he ruled for 11
years, 11 months, and 9 days.
And Ali r.a., he ruled for 4
years, 9 months, and 7 days.
And we found out that the leadership was
passed on to al-Hassan, the son of
Ali, not because of a kingdom, but because
of the choice of the believers.
And so his rule is generally attached by
the scholars to the khilafat al-rashideen, and
that was 6 or 7 months.
And if you add these together, then they
basically come to 30 years almost to the
day.
And that is part of the miracles, marjizat,
of the Prophet ﷺ being able to predict
the rule of the khilafat in his ummah.
But the shaytan, Yadubillah, rose to the occasion.
And he, wherever he possibly could, he obscured
things, he deceived, he embellished, he divided, he
fabricated.
He did those wicked things to divide human
beings.
And we understand that Islam is not the
religion of mala'ika.
It is not the religion of angels, but
it is the religion of human beings.
And human beings are subject to mistakes.
That is the beauty of this revelation, because
it is not something that is far away
and cannot be benefited from.
But it is something that is real.
It is something that is dealing with our
lives.
And so, the talbis iblis, the deception of
the shaytan, occurred.
And one of the biggest forms of this
deception came through the innovations, the bid'ah
of Abdullah ibn Sabah.
And he was from the Yahud of Yemen.
He entered into Islam in order to destroy
it.
And he especially focused on, in terms of
causing confusion with the guidance of shaytan, he
entered into a type of bid'ah through
tawhid and risalah.
So it is a type of innovation in
the concept of one God and also in
the messengership.
So he started spreading out ideas that there
are people who actually have some of the
power of Allah.
That Allah does things through people.
And this is not a strange concept, because
Isa, peace be upon him, what happened to
Jesus, peace be upon him, is that the
Christians actually developed a trinity where they saw
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And that the Father actually came into the
Son, or created the Son.
And so it wasn't just the Father.
It was a partnership.
And so that concept of the Creator not
being the sole authority, but sharing authority with
created things.
It was something that had caused confusion in
many of the religious systems throughout the world.
So Ibn Sabah took advantage of this.
And the advantage of the weakness of people
who need to see God.
They need to see things.
And so it is easier for a person,
in a sense, a narrow-minded person, who
is not that spiritual, to believe in something
he can see.
People believed in the sun, they believed in
the moon, they believed in rivers, they believed
in trees.
So many different objects in the universe have
been believed in by human beings.
And so Ibn Sabah, he tried in Medina.
And he focused on Ali, because people had
this concept of the royal family.
That Ali was like a son, and he
should take over, and his children should take
over.
So he focused on Ali, that there was
something special about Ali, that Allah was in
him.
And that was rejected in Medina, rejected in
Mecca, rejected in Basra.
In Kufa, which has always been a hotbed
of the occult and magic and confusion, people
started to follow this, but when they went
to Egypt, that is when they got solid
followers.
And this fitna, this confusion, entered into Arabia
again, in the form of Hujjaj, who were
going to make their pilgrimage, but yet their
intention was to destroy the Khilafat, and even
to kill the Khalifa himself, Word came to
the Sahaba, and they were ready to deal
with this group outside of Medina.
They were ready, but Uthman, being a very
pious person and wanting to protect the sanctity
of the city, said, no, not on my
watch, no violence inside of Medina.
And unfortunately, these seditionists succeeded in climbing over
the roof of Uthman's house and stabbing him
while he was reading the Quran, to the
verses in Surah Al-Baqarah, where Allah is
saying, but Allah will suffice you against them.
And he is all-hearing and all-knowing.
And that was a very heavy blow to
the Muslim world.
And his wife, Na'ilah, who was there
on the occasion, she tried to defend him,
and she lost her finger.
And when the word got out that these
seditionists, some of them escaped, some were killed,
but when the word started to spread, and
Na'ilah sent Uthman's * shirt and her
finger to Syria, now why did she choose
Syria?
This was the base of the Umayyad clan.
And you remember the struggle between the Hashemites
and the Umayyads in Mecca, two power forces
before Islam.
Islam changed that, they united, but still people
have their tribal affiliations.
And so Abu Sufyan's people, his son Mu
'awiyah, they chose Damascus and Syria to be
their base.
And they got very emotional.
And when they heard about this, they wanted
revenge.
Ali, r.a., being who he was, being
the wisest and the one who is perfect
for making decisions, he called the selection committee
together.
These are the people who were left of
the Ten People Promised Paradise, and they chose
him as the Khalifa.
It was ratified by the people, but there
was a disagreement.
So the confusion was between Mu'awiyah's position
of revenge and Ali's position of stability, political
stability.
And, of course, the ulama overwhelmingly throughout history
have shown clearly that Ali was correct, and
his side was the righteous side.
But in any event, it turned out to
be a major confrontation, and Ali met Mu
'awiyah eventually.
It's a long story, but eventually they met
at a place called Safin in Syria, Iraq.
And neither side could really win the fight.
It looked like it was going toward Ali's
side.
And so Mu'awiyah's side raised the Qur
'an, and they said, let the Qur'an
decide.
So they decided, they ended the fighting because
nobody really wanted to fight.
They ended the fighting, and they had an
arbitration.
And they called to this arbitration Amr ibn
al-'As to represent Mu'awiyah, and Abu Musa
al-Ash'ari radiyallahu anhuma to represent Ali.
But the negotiations couldn't really come to a
conclusion, and they eventually broke down.
Ali left toward Kufa to go back to
Iraq, but a large group of his people
broke away, about 12,000 of them.
And this is the group that we found
out was the one called the Khawarij.
They lost their minds, and they pledged to
assassinate the Khalifa.
And they sent out assassins to kill Amr,
to kill Mu'awiyah and Ali, and they
only succeeded in stabbing Ali radiyallahu anhuma and
poisoning him.
And as he was passing away, they said,
your son al-Hassan.
And he said, no, I don't say yes,
I don't say no.
He was chosen by popular consent.
And so he was the Khalifa, but Mu
'awiyah was still there.
And he ruled for a short period of
time, and with the possibility of war happening
again, he abdicated his rule, and he gave
it to Mu'awiyah.
So this is accepted by the ulama as
a valid way that the rule could be
given over.
And it was accepted by the overwhelming majority
of the scholars and the community.
And so that was called am al-jama
'a, because things calmed down.
Things actually calmed down.
And al-Husayn, the brother of al-Hassan,
he had certain conditions, but he accepted it.
He basically accepted the rule, and it appeared
that the fitna was over, but the mistake
that Mu'awiyah made was that he chose
his son Yazid as a type of crown
prince.
This is a major mistake.
And al-Hassan, they believe he was poisoned
to death, Allah knows best.
And so as Mu'awiyah was dying, Yazid
was taking over.
The majority of the companions said, okay, let's
accept this, because we don't want another great
fitna to happen, but many said no.
Of them, the most true prominent was Abdullah
ibn Zubayr, who went to Mecca, and he
formed his own rule, his own khilafat in
a sense, and ruled for a long period
of time.
And al-Husayn, and the sad story of
al-Husayn, who was supposed to be supported
by the people of Kufa, and when he
was on his way there to struggle against
Yazid, the people of Kufa changed their mind,
they became fickle and afraid, and they left
al-Husayn, and he was killed with his
family at a place called Karbala.
Okay, so this was a great tragedy for
the Muslim world.
And the rule of the Umayyads continued.
And so that rule of the Umayyads, that
one, and this is a list of the
khalifas of the Umayyad dynasty.
Okay, so it begins with Muawiyah ibn Abi
Sufyan, right, and then Yazid, this is the
muluk, remember, this is the kingdom that the
Prophet ﷺ said was going to happen.
And then it goes to Muawiyah II, right,
the son of Yazid, and then Marwan ibn
al-Hakam takes over.
Now he's not directly connected to Muawiyah, but
he is one of the Umayyads, right, so
he's like an uncle, you know, in a
sense, so he takes over.
So it's still Umayyad rule.
So there's Marwan ibn al-Hakam, there's Abdul
Malik ibn Marwan, there's al-Walid, Suleiman, Umar
ibn Abdulaziz, Yazid II, Hisham al-Walid II,
Yazid III, Ibrahim ibn al-Walid, and then
Marwan II.
Okay, so this is a dynasty.
It's called the Umayyad dynasty.
And it's not all bad.
We realize it is a kingdom.
But in a sense, it is a kingdom,
it's an Islamic kingdom.
Okay, it's not a Khilafat.
Because the Khilafat is when the rule is
based directly upon revelation.
And it's not a family.
Okay, but you can have a kingdom, you
can have a family who rules according to
the Book of Allah.
That's possible.
If they are really ruling according to the
Book, and if the people accept them.
So if you have those two elements, then
it's possible.
And so, when we look at the Umayyads,
everything is not bad.
For instance, the fifth Khalifa, Abdul Malik ibn
Marwan.
From his achievements was that he helped to
clean up and to reconstruct Jerusalem.
And he was the one who actually built
the structure that you know now as Masjid
al-Aqsa.
Okay, so that structure there, there was a
wall, but there was not much really inside.
And so he built the foundation for what
we see now as Masjid al-Aqsa.
And then the Dome of the Rock is
built by Abdul Malik ibn Marwan.
So this is a great achievement.
The Dome of the Rock is still there
up until today.
It's one of the most iconic places in
the Muslim world.
And so, but the problem was, the Umayyads,
their rule was basically like what came in
Hadith to be the Jabr.
It's like force.
It's based upon authoritarian rule.
And it's based on wealth, accumulation, and favoritism.
So there's a ruling class.
They're in charge.
So politically, it was a kingdom.
Now, this is not to say that it
was a terrible time to live.
Because to a great extent with the spread
of Islam was spreading.
People were praying.
They were dying with Shahada.
Fasting in Ramadan.
Memorizing the Quran.
Making Hajj.
Paying Zakat.
So in some ways it was good.
But politically, politically there was turmoil and there
was some corruption.
So this is what happens when you have
a kingdom.
Because with the kingdom is the greed.
It's the physical greed of the people who
want to be the kings.
So this leads us up to one of
the great leaders in Islamic history.
And that is the Khalifa Umar Ibn Abdul
Aziz.
Rahimahullah.
And he was the 8th Umayyad Caliph.
He was number 8.
And he is known for his piety, his
integrity.
He was really into justice.
He ruled for a short period of time.
But in that time the changes that he
made was so great.
That sometimes they even say he is the
5th rightly guided Caliph.
Okay, he is the 5th.
But somebody even say 6 if you want
to include Al-Hasan.
But you'll hear the 5th rightly guided Caliph.
That's how much people respected the rule of
Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz.
And his background was that he was from
the family of the Umayyads.
His father was Abdul Aziz Ibn Marwan.
Remember Marwan Ibn al-Hakam.
And his father was the governor of Egypt.
But his mother Um Asim Layla Ibn Asim.
She was the granddaughter of Umar Ibn al
-Khattab.
So she was Umar's granddaughter.
Okay, so within that lineage is something else.
And this may be partly affecting the thinking
of Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz.
Allah knows best.
But he had that connection with Umar.
Of course who was the great Caliph, Amir
al-Mutmini.
And so Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz, he grew
up in Medina.
And he studied in the Prophet's Mosque.
And of course the greatest scholars in the
Muslim world were located there in Medina and
in Mecca.
Also in Basra and Kufa in Iraq.
And in Damascus.
These are some of the key places.
Cairo to a certain extent.
But really Mecca and Medina and Iraq probably
had the greatest scholars.
Damascus also was high up there.
But Umar studied in Medina.
And so a number of great scholars were
there.
And he was the student of these great
scholars.
The one who influenced him the most.
And this is the key person we're looking
at tonight.
And that is Imam al-Zuhri.
So he was a leading Hadith scholar.
One of the greatest Hadith scholars in Islamic
history.
He had high intelligence, deep understanding of Fiqh.
He was a pious person from when he
was very young.
And he was one of the main teachers
of Umar ibn Abdulaziz as he was coming
into his maturity.
Umar was then appointed to be the governor
of Medina by his cousin Al-Walid.
This is when Walid took over.
So Umar became the governor of the city
of Medina.
And he started to change things.
So now here you have a person coming
into power.
And the Umayyad rule is one of power,
greed, wealth accumulation, like class type of thing.
He starts changing things around.
He starts distributing the wealth.
He starts taking away unfair taxes.
And that's a big thing for people even
today.
The taxes, even in Canada that's what we're
talking about, is the taxes.
People who were owed property, things taken away
from them, he gave it back.
No matter who had taken it.
That wouldn't necessarily happen under the other Umayyads.
Because they had heavy favoritism.
And he started to make everybody accountable.
All of the leaders, everyone in authority, everyone
in position was accountable.
Why is this?
How does this ruler, who comes out of
the Umayyad dynasty, that is one based upon
power and authority and accumulating wealth, why does
he divert?
Why does he go back to the prophetic
way?
The key is the scholar.
Now remember, rulers and scholars.
So if you don't have fusion, you need
to have a ruler who is complemented by
a scholar or scholars.
So in this case, it was Imam Muhammad
ibn Shihab al-Zuhri.
So he is a great scholar from Banu
Zuhra tribe.
And from a young age, he was heavy
into Islamic knowledge.
And he was in Medina.
And so from his teachers, this was the
home of the Sahaba.
This was the home of the Tabi'een.
So prominent scholars amongst the Tabi'een were
his teachers, like Sayyid ibn al-Musayyib, Urwa
ibn al-Zubayr, Ubaidullah ibn Abdullah.
So these are some of the greatest Islamic
scholars at the time.
So these were the teachers of Imam al
-Zuhri.
So he's got this chain of knowledge going
directly back to the Prophet ﷺ.
And it's this chain, remember, this chain going
back, this is what Imam Malik used.
It's one of the key points in the
Maliki school of thought.
And that is Amal Ahl al-Medina.
And that is the actions and the way
of the people of Medina.
Because the people of Medina, this is where
some of the greatest scholars were actually living.
So Imam al-Zuhri is directly involved in
this chain of understanding.
And so this reputation that Imam al-Zuhri
had, it reached Umar ibn Abdulaziz.
Okay, he was first, you know, one of
his students in his class and he was
affected by him and then he grew up
and suddenly he has power now.
But he realizes that Imam al-Zuhri is
not just a teacher who gives you book
knowledge, but he's a teacher who can guide
you.
And this is the heavy point.
Okay, so this is where he recognizes scholarship
piety and the commitment to preserve Islamic knowledge.
So now you have a leader who's righteous.
That's one of the points.
So Umar ibn Abdulaziz was a pious person,
he was a good person, he wanted to
do what's right.
But he wasn't necessarily a mujtahid high scholar
and so he invited Imam al-Zuhri to
be part of his administration.
So he was no longer just the Sheikh
in the masjid.
Okay, he was part of the administration.
It's like many of the masjids today, the
Imam is leading Salat, but he's not on
the executive committee, right?
He's not on the board of directors that
have the authority.
See, if they really had sense, they would
have the Imams on the executive committee with
the board of directors.
See, that's when the power and the knowledge
starts to come together naturally, because it's not
infused in one person.
So this is your second form now.
This is the second form of this relationship.
And so, what happened because of this relationship?
Very instrumental in Islamic history, what happened out
of this.
Number one, the Quran itself, you remember, was
endangered because people were trying to make up
Qurans.
And they were doing, you know, things like
this.
I remember, even in our times, this is
still happening up until today.
I was a student in Medina and I'll
never forget one time I was sitting in
the Prophet's mosque and somebody shouted in the
mosque.
So everybody turned around and looked and he
shouted and people ran over to him and
he said, Look at this Quran.
And he said he found this Quran that
was coming out of Jordan, that it had
erased all of the negative things about Bani
Israel.
So anything to do with Yahud that was
negative.
The verse was erased from the Quran.
And so this brother is reading the Quran
and he realizes, wait, the verse is gone.
So they reported it to the authorities and
they had to collect all of those Qurans
from the Prophet's mosque and anywhere because they
were coming out of Amman, Jordan.
So they had to collect all of these
Qurans and burn them.
What about back in these days when the
Quran was just now put together in a
book form?
It was there in people's minds.
But it was just now being put together
and consolidated.
Now, how do you interpret the Quran?
The Hadith gives us the Sunnah.
The Hadith gives us the meat.
Allah tells us, aqeem as-salat.
But how do you pray?
The Prophet ﷺ said, sallu kama ra'itamuni
usalli.
Right?
Sallu kama ra'itamuni usalli.
Pray as you have seen me pray.
How did he pray?
You get it from the Hadith.
So, if somebody comes along and says, I
heard that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ used to pray
like this, sitting in a chair and praying
to the Sun when the Sun rose in
the middle.
And he said, that's an authentic Hadith.
We have a problem here.
How are you going to stop it?
Maybe he was a great leader before Islam
came.
But the Hadith is false.
So therefore, there needed to be a way
to preserve the Hadiths.
To compile them and to preserve them.
So that all of the major areas within
Islamic life, that we would have authentic traditions
to go back to.
They didn't have Hadith books like us.
You couldn't pick up Bukhari and Muslim.
There was nothing like this.
There was only the Qur'an that was
there.
People had memorized it.
And then there was the traditions that people
had memorized, but they were all over the
place.
So how do you now study this?
How do you put it together?
So Umar ibn Abdulaziz then instructed Imam Zuhri.
He counseled with him.
And he said, you take the lead.
See, so this is the ruler now, who
has power and authority.
And he says, I'll give you the resources.
So Imam Zuhri then began to systematically gather,
verify, document the Hadith.
He laid the foundation for Hadith collection.
The science of Hadith.
Imam Zuhri is a fundamental person in this.
How does it come about?
His relationship with the ruler.
Next, in the area of governance.
That Zuhri, he counseled Umar to be ethical.
That you should have rules.
You can't be, it's not based on power.
And so he gave him guidance on how
to rule in a moral way.
How to implement justice.
And so this was crucial in showing Islamic
values through the rule itself.
So Umar then consulted him on fiscal matters,
that's financial matters.
Such as how to distribute wealth in a
fair way.
How to deal with non-Muslims.
And how does Sharia?
How do you respect Sharia?
How do you deal with the welfare of
all your subjects?
This is now implementing Islam.
So Imam Zuhri then, he gives this advice
to the Khalifa.
Another area which is notable is the area
of justice.
And this is a deep area.
And Imam Zuhri, he made it clear that
wealth is a key thing.
If you go back to the Prophet ﷺ.
You see that when gold came into Medina.
The Prophet ﷺ used to give it all
away.
And when it was all given away.
Then he would go to sleep.
So he did not keep the wealth for
himself.
And you'll see the same with the great
leaders.
You'll all see them the same.
And so Imam Zuhri was strict on this
with the Khalifa Umar ibn Abdul Aziz.
That you have to deal with the public.
Don't amass wealth yourself.
This is crucial.
And so this now was a serious thing.
Because Umar then also applied this to the
ruling family.
So the Umayyads themselves.
Who were used to being the rulers.
And used to living in palaces.
And used to having all the wealth and
all of the power.
And everything themselves.
They now had to follow the strict rules
of Zakat.
And in this relationship.
And this now sets the pace really for
the future.
What is your example of a good ruler
and a good scholar cooperating together?
What is it based on?
Umar, he showed respect.
And he made it clear to Zuhri.
You are an independent scholar.
You're not my lap dog.
You're not the scholar of the Sultan.
So I'm not going to exert pressure upon
you.
For certain policies and certain decisions.
You make your decisions based upon the Book
of Allah.
And based upon the Sunnah of the Prophet.
Peace and blessings be upon him.
So with this independence.
Imam Zuhri was able to be a true
advisor.
To give honest feedback.
And this really helped in terms of governance.
That the scholar is free to criticize the
ruler.
You see, look at our countries today.
Watch our countries.
If somebody criticizes the king.
Criticizes the ruling family.
He's in jail.
And this happens unfortunately all over the so
-called Muslim world.
That's not the basis of the relationship of
the ruler to the rules.
So Umar then wanted some specific things.
Give me some specific advice.
And so the Imam told him.
You are appointed over a people.
Who will have claims upon you on the
Day of Judgment.
They will take from you on the Day
of Judgment.
And this affected Umar so much.
That he wouldn't even take anything from himself
from the Betulman.
From the public treasury.
He would not take anything.
He became really strict upon himself.
And they together promoted knowledge.
So they financed madrasas.
They financed scholarship.
For people to learn.
And then for knowledge to be spread.
And whenever you have a government that is
like this.
Where the government is actually putting its wealth
into knowledge.
Then the society flourishes.
The unfortunate thing today is that many of
our governments.
If you look at their fiscal records.
You will see that they are mostly putting
their wealth into the military.
And secondly after that it's in building their
palaces.
Or buying big yachts.
Or buying worthless paintings.
And just throwing their money away.
That's because they don't have the relationship with
the scholars.
Who are independent enough to criticize them.
And so Imam Az-Zuhri advised the Khalifa
Umar.
Avoid favoritism.
Nepotism.
In other words selecting your own family members.
People should be put into the position based
on merit.
It's a meritocracy.
The one who is the most suitable to
take the position.
Who is most qualified.
That is the person who should be in
the position.
So what came out of this?
It was justice.
There was governance.
And in that three year period.
Approximately.
The whole Muslim world changed.
It's like light coming into a room.
Filled with darkness.
Or with just a little bit of light.
Suddenly a bright light is there.
Because of this relationship.
Also because of this Hadith compilation.
Because of the money that was put into
it.
Because of Az-Zuhri had the right to
do this.
And he was connected to the great scholars
of Hadith in Medina.
He set the pace.
For scholars like Imam Malik.
So Imam Malik, his Hadith book Al-Muwatta.
Is the first authentic book of Hadith.
He is affected by Imam Az-Zuhri.
Because Imam Az-Zuhri now is setting the
pace.
How do you codify?
How do you bring the Hadith together?
How do you tell weak from strong?
So he sets the pace for this.
Imam Malik brings the Muwatta.
And then Imam Ahmed comes along.
And he brings the Musnad of Imam Ahmed.
Which is the largest book of Hadith in
Islamic history.
They are influenced by Imam Az-Zuhri.
Also Bukhari and Muslim.
The very Bukhari and Muslim, the systems that
we see.
Is affected by Imam Az-Zuhri.
Because of his relationship with the ruler.
And so this is our model.
It's the model of the positive cooperation.
Between the scholars and the rulers.
And that in a sense is a great
revival.
In righteous leadership.
That is the way that we want leadership
to be.
We want it to be so you will
see in the principles.
You see that the leader, you see that
the scholars.
That they are working together.
And the Islamic society is able to function.
And if we are to come out of
the confusion.
That is in the Muslim world today.
That this is a model.
Not just to have a leader who has
the knowledge.
But also to have knowledge, to have leaders.
Who are pious enough and sensitive enough.
To bring scholars around them.
And to give these scholars.
That independence that they need.
To be true Islamic scholars.
That is another form for us.
In the relationship of minarets to the thrones.
So I want to open up the floor
for any questions.
That anybody may have concerning this second model.
The discussion about the Shia.
Of course is a long one.
And you have to recognize.
That in the time of Ali.
The word Shia meant Shia to Ali.
And Shia to Muawiyah.
So Shia only means a group.
But then when Muawiyah took over.
The Umayyads became the leaders.
And people from the family of Ali.
Like Al Hussein opposed them.
But at that time everybody was praying the
same.
Everybody was fasting the same.
There is no Shia group and Sunni group.
Nobody used these words.
It is only later after that.
It is after the time of Al Hussein.
It is now going into the area of
Kufa.
In Iraq.
That you get people who now start to
bring in different concepts.
Ideas of the Imamate.
That the Imams are like prophets.
The Quran is not complete.
Things like the Surat Al Wilaya.
That there is an extra chapter that we
don't even have.
Things like that started to come in.
Especially in the area of Kufa.
Because this was always a hotbed of political
confusion.
So this is when you start to have
the Shia group.
Not just political.
But it becomes like a religious type of
group.
So it is around the time of the
Tabi'in.
Where it starts to come in.
Another question?
Given that the time period of the Umayyad
dynasty was 7th to 8th century.
Was Muslim rule, despite the internal turmoil, more
just and fair than the nearby Byzantines and
Persians?
Yes.
The Islamic rule.
Again, as I said.
There is authority.
There is too much power and force being
used to rule.
Instead of piety.
However, people were still basically Muslims.
The food all in your market places.
Everything is Halal.
There is no pigs running around.
Zakat is there.
People are making Hajj.
Islam is spreading.
So it is another world.
It is nothing like the Romans.
It is nothing like the other societies.
But politically, it was not the Khilafat.
And this is where some confusion comes in
sometimes when the leaders get too greedy.
And power struggles happen.
But still, it was far cry from what
was happening in Byzantium.
And the example of that is in the
case of the Abbasids.
Now the Abbasids came after the Umayyads.
So one of the rulers, Al-Mu'tasim Billah
and this is now going another few hundred
years later.
So a Muslim woman was captured.
Taken prisoner in the Christian lands.
And she cried.
She cried to him.
And the word somehow got back to the
Khalifa.
That one Muslim woman was captured by the
Christians.
So he wrote to the Christian ruler and
he said, if you don't release this Muslim
woman, I will send an army to you
that is so big that the front of
it will be to you and the back
still coming from me.
And the Christian leader said, hear and obey.
And he sent back the Muslim woman into
Muslim lands with female bodyguards.
Look at this.
Look at the Izzah of Islam.
Look at what's happening today in Palestine.
Look at what's going on in Kashmir.
What's happening in Sudan and other places.
Look what's going on.
And go back into different points in history.
They still had Izzah.
They had strength and they had respect.
But on the top there was political corruption.
So we want to see the bright lights
that happen even within these time periods.
And those are the same bright lights that
can go back on today if we implement
the example of these pious people.
Okay, question?
Floor is open for any other questions.
Are there any books translated into English?
You know, there are some.
Yes, I don't have the specific name but
I mean if you look at, there's a
few history reference books.
I'll have this thing for you there.
The History of Islam by Mas'ud Al
-Hassan.
There's another book called A Short History of
Islam by Al-Jazayiri.
S.E. Al-Jazayiri.
The Golden Age and Decline of Islamic Civilization,
Al-Jazayiri.
Of course there's Tariq Tabari.
That's in Arabic.
I think it's translated into English.
Al-Bidaya wa-Nihaya.
Bidaya wa-Nihaya is translated into English.
Ibn Kathiya.
So there are some books where you can
get Abdul Aziz, Umar ibn Abdul Aziz.
So inshallah we will be, we'll let the
Adhan go off first.
Surah
Al
-Fatihah
There was
another question?
Okay so we'll be closing the class.
Next week we're going to look at something
a little bit different.
So we're going to see when the scholars
now, they confront the ruler.
Now you're going to see something a little
bit different with a negative relationship and then
what happens in that.
So we can see all sides and examples
of everything.
So have a safe journey home for those
who are online.
Wa akhira da'wana alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen.