Adnan Rashid – This Evidence Will Blow Your Mind
AI: Summary ©
The Muslim students of America and their audience discuss the history and significance of the Islamic civilization, including its impact on the West's culture and its influence on the world. They also discuss the rise and acceptance of peace among Christian leaders, the importance of history and peace in achieving peace, and the loss of cultural acceptance due to the pandemic. The discussion touches on the complex reasons behind certain behaviors and how they affect the overall well-being of the population.
AI: Summary ©
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
Maybe not yet.
Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, and of course, my dear parents who are here today.
May the peace and blessings of God be upon you all. My name is Hassan Ali, and I'm the president of the Muslim Students Association here in Trinity College, Dublin.
It's a great privilege to be hosting the event tonight, on behalf of the MSA on campus. This is an event that is a collaboration. It's a TCD MSA collaboration with the Islamic societies of Maynooth University, Dublin City University, the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and University College Dublin.
Our guest speaker for tonight is Adnan Rashid. And underseat is an international speaker, historian and numismatist who specializes in Islamic history on Islamic apologetics.
Now what the * is a numismatist? I hear you ask. Adnan receive he collects coins that are of historical significance. And in fact, recently, he had a discussion with our brother Paul Williams of glugging theology, which is a brilliant YouTube channel that I would highly recommend following
where he talked about history in nine amazing coins which he has in his collection.
You may know of him from his many debates and discussions in Hyde Park, Speaker's Corner,
and you can find more of his content on his personal YouTube channel.
He has a BA in history and a master's in history from the School of Oriental and Islam, Oriental and African Studies.
To start off tonight's event, I'd like to call upon Samir secede to recite some verses of the Holy Quran. Brother Samir is a biomedical engineering student in Dublin City University. He has also participated in the King AbdulAziz international Quran competition earlier this year. So ladies and gentleman, our brother Samir secede
salam alaikum, Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
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what he can do not worry
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mean who more I mean, El Malecon could do so Salah
Mohammed Aziz, Jabbar will moussaka beer Subhana Allah here um, you Sri Akun who along Harlequin baddie on anymore
So we're gonna
use a bit hula hula mafia summer was the one we were one I see is all Heike Sadako law who Lolly
are all the bIllahi min ash shaytaan regime. Allah says in the Holy Quran and throttle harsher Ayah 18. All believers be mindful of Allah and let every soul look toward deeds he has sent for for tomorrow. And fear Allah for Certainly Allah is all aware of what you do. And do not be like those who forgot Allah so He made them forget themselves. It is they who are truly rebellious. The residents of the fire cannot be equal to the residents of the paradise, only the residents of Paradise will be successful. Had we sent down this Quran upon a mountain, you would have certainly seen it humbled and torn apart in all of Allah, we set forth such comparison for people so perhaps
they may reflect, He is Allah there is no God worthy of worship except him. Nowhere of the seen and unseen. He is the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. He is Allah, there is no god except Him, the King, the most holy, the all perfect. The source of serenity, the watcher of all the Almighty, the supreme in Might, the majestic, Glorified is Allah far above what they associate with Him in worship. He is Allah, the Creator, the inventor, the shaper, He alone has the most beautiful names, whatever is in the heavens, and the earth constantly glorifies Him, and He is the Almighty always. Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
A random applause variable there's some year
just like love her brother some year for that beautiful recitation, may Allah bless you even more. May Allah bless your family. And may Allah grant you the very best in this world and in the hereafter.
So Inshallah, the topic for today's discussion
is the impact of Islamic civilization on the west.
Many young Muslims have somewhat of an inferiority complex when it comes to the place of their culture, and traditions in their western homes. Unfortunately, not many realize quite how much of an impact Islam has had on Western Civilization.
At the same time, many in the West are interested to learn about the interface between Islam and the Western world.
Ideally, our discussion regarding this shouldn't end with today's talk.
And instead, it should continue. And we should continue our conversations in our homes and communities to continue to benefit society as a whole.
A deeper understanding of our past provides us with many valuable lessons to apply in future relationships with people who both are like us, and who are different to us.
So we hope that this talk and the following q&a which will come after it
will plant the seeds for further discussion, further conversation on the opening up of people of different faiths, different ideologies, to come together and to have a discussion about the things that they might agree on and the things that they might disagree with regards to in a way that benefits themselves and society as a whole.
And so just to remind everyone, and rather to mention to everyone, that this event is being recorded, and it's going to be sent on the TCD MSA YouTube page that we recently got set up so inshallah you can catch this on our YouTube channel at the end Wilson will share the information with that afterwards. So my dear brothers and sisters with that in mind, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in giving a warm Irish welcome to our guest will start Adnan Rashid.
Rahim
Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen
wa salatu salam ala wbrc Udall morpholino Mabon we will be live Samuel elimina shaytani R rajim Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem OMA Arsal naka de la Rahmatullah aalameen
Ladies and gentlemen
and brothers and sisters, I am honored to be here once again, Trinity College Dublin. I've been a few times. And I don't remember the dates.
So many people have been talking to me about me visiting Ireland and doing events.
If you asked me where I was a month ago, I wouldn't know. And I'm not joking. So it's very difficult for me to remember the places I have visited in the last few years. But it's always an honor to come to prestigious institutions like the Trinity College, where we can talk about these important issues.
The topic of the day is Islamic civilization in the West, or the Western civilization, Islams influence, or the influence of the Islamic civilization on the western civilization.
This is a very big topic, many books have been written on this particular topic.
What you will see tonight on the screen, and what you will hear from me, is tip of the iceberg, each and every single point I will address tonight, or each and every single slide you will see on the screen
is a chapter in itself, potentially a book in itself. So what you will see is a summary of
what we're trying to achieve tonight. A good understanding of this topic.
So Islamic civilization, what is it and why is it important?
And how can it how can it impact another civilization, the relationship of Islam with the West has been seen in different lights by different scholars, different researchers, different
intellectuals, some see reconciliation, some some see
very positive relationship, cross pollination of ideas throughout centuries in the last, let's say 1300 years. Others see a clash of civilizations.
And then they read that clash into recent events.
And that particular idea, the clash of civilizations,
perception of
the relationship between the two civilizations
leads to many misunderstandings and myths readings of the past.
So many times people jump from the Prophet of Islam Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, the founder of what we know today as the religion of Islam,
to recent events in the Middle East, so they make a connection.
So they put Mohammed
on the one hand,
and what is happening in the Middle East.
Nowadays, or lately what what's been happening on the other hand, so Muhammad salallahu Alaihe, salam, peace be upon him equals ISIS, for example.
Without giving much attention to what happened between
the history of 1300 years
this man called Muhammad came with an idea.
He preached a religion and he claimed to have been a successor of previous prophets, not breaking away from them in any major way, and confirming their messages of monotheism,
charity, prayers, spiritual
dynamics of
having a relationship with the Creator, God Almighty.
He shed light upon all these ideas, all these things,
and then a civilization was born.
And this civilization
was seen
from Spain, to China.
Within a century of the prophets death, the Prophet Muhammad
salallahu Salam died in the year 630 To see
exactly a century later. If we were to use the Gregorian calendar, the year 730. To see
his followers people who profess belief in his faith
were seen in northern France on the one hand, and
on the borders of China
On the other hand, this was the largest stretch of land, ever conquered, ruled,
dominated by one group of people to date.
If you ask the Muslims, how did this happen? This was a phenomenal expansion
within that short span of time, especially when those Muslims didn't have any special means to do all of this. How did this happen? How does it happen that within a century of the founder of this faith, who was persecuted himself, heavily persecuted, his followers were killed. Due to this faith, he himself was attacked multiple times, he was beaten,
he was
stoned,
he was attacked, militarily, his community was threatened
continuously.
To the extent that they had no idea of the they are going to survive
all of these attacks.
And not only that, they overcome all these challenges local challenges within the Arabian Peninsula.
They come out to confront the Romans and the Persian simultaneously, the greatest powers in the world at the time, the greatest military power, the strike.
And the closest parallel I can draw is a poor country today.
A very poor country, a small principality somewhere in Asia, or in Europe, let's say, comes out and challenges China and Russia at the same time, and defeats them.
It's another thing that
something similar to that happened recently, not long ago, but that's another topic. So
how did this happen? This was phenomenal. How did these people without any special equipments? How are they able to take all this land where the people of these lands sleeping? Well, they're no kings, they're no militaries. No one's stopping them. What happened to people open the gates to them to the walk through these gates.
And this was the largest stretch of land, ruled by one group of people to date.
This expansion beat the expansion of Alexander the Great.
And even the Roman Empire at its peak.
How did this happen? If you ask the Muslims, if someone wants to come to the Muslim then ask this question, how did this happen? Muslims will simply point to the Quran and this is
you know, God's doing. God did it. Muslims give a very simplistic answer, not necessarily incorrect or wrong. If you have faith in Islam, you can
rightly so give this answer No problem.
The Quran in chapter 24, verse 55, categorically prophesized this occurrence, this cataclysmic event, as some see it, others see it as a cosmic expansion of a group of people who defeat everyone who comes along and take all this land.
The Quran foretold this particular expansion.
And a verse whereby it is stated that it is a promise of God, Allah,
to those who believe among you, and do righteous deeds, that he will grant you succession in the land, like he granted it to those who came before you.
So it's a promise, a promise was made. And that promise was fulfilled. Within the first three generations of Islam, the prophets, companions,
and the students tabi rain or Toby Arun and their students tatami on these three generations of Islam within the first 100 years of Islam, achieved all of this, and the Quran is calling the believers because of achieving this. And this is how the promise was fulfilled. So this is the simplistic answer the Muslims give historians on the other hand,
they have other interests. They want to know how did this happen? This is phenomenal. And many historians have written works on this, the phenomenon called the early Islamic conquests, while the great Arab conquests as one of my supervisors, titled his book, Professor
A Dr. Hugh Kennedy was one of my teachers at so as in London, he has actually authored a book on this very topic, the great Arab conquest.
So many scholars have talked about it. That's not the Talk or topic of the of the day, I'm not going to indulge in that. Let's start from the point that the Arabs have defeated all neighboring empires. Let's start from that point, how that how that happened? What caused it? There are many answers to that question. And yet,
scholars have not come up with anything satisfactory.
When I say scholars, I mean Western historians are still baffled as to how this happened. What caused this expansion.
Moving forward, from that point, the line has been taken.
Muslims come out, they fight the Persians, they defeat them.
In one of the major battles called the Battle of God this year, in currently Iraq, and they take the Persian capital called Stefan Muda, in the Arabic language. On the other hand, another great battle, a very big battle, an important battle takes place
called the Battle of yarmuk. In current day, Jordan, which was the Byzantine the Roman territory, and this is after the Prophet of Islam, Prophet Muhammad had died.
And the verse I read in the very beginning of my talk is from the Quran
where the Quran states Oh Muhammad we sent you not except as a mercy for the words. So as far as far as these companions of the Prophet were concerned, they had one focus in mind, when they take territory, they have to do justice, or they have to be seen as doing justice.
They have to do justice, because this is what the Quran told them. They are doing what they're doing because of the Quran. Quran changed the outlook on life, these camel herders, shepherds, farmers, a bunch of traders, let's say from Mecca, a bunch of farmers from Medina, why would they come out and start fighting the Persians of the Romans otherwise, what drove them? Money, wealth of the Persians of the Romans, they had no chance against these people.
They were outnumbered by far
outgunned by far, or outsold, if you want to use that term for that time, right?
They had no chance, why would they put their lives at risk to go out and fight these
Titans.
And they could have been blown away completely.
So there was something else going on in their minds. And that was, as I understand the picture, they wanted to come out
to not only defend themselves against these hostile,
tyrannical powers, they wanted to help the people of these lands, because many of them were calling upon them to come and rescue them. And we will see some of the evidence tonight. So the people of the land of Syria when the Muslims arrived in Syria, they opened the gates for the Muslims. This is very much documented historically, that when Muslims came to fight the Romans and
gray, greater Syria at the time, which was Byzantine Roman territory, the people of the land of Syria and different towns in different places opened the gates for the Muslims. Why they did that is a very interesting topic. Historians have documented theories on that. One of the reasons was that these people were Orthodox Christians,
and the ruling elite, the Romans or the Byzantines, were chancy don't even Christians, they followed a different denomination. So they were heavily persecuting the masses and the masses. Due to that persecution opened the gates for the new invaders, the Arabs, not knowing who they were what they will do. They open the gates, and then they live with them and they see these people after all, are not that bad. They look scruffy, they look rough, they come from the desert, they look like barbarians, but in reality, they're very civilized. They are just
and they did justice.
Likewise, in Persia, same thing happened. The Muslims go into the Persian territory. Many people open the gates for them, actually welcome them. A Jewish scholar writing a history of the Jewish people. His name is Zion zohore. He's an American Jewish historian. He writes that when Muslims arrived in Spain, the Jewish
people welcomed them as liberators.
So this was happening across the board, Professor Thomas Walker Arnold, who wrote a book. In 1896. He published it titled, The preaching of Islam. In this book, he argues that one of the reasons Muslims took all this land so rapidly was the people on the ground helping them against the already existing rulers of these lands. This was the reason or one of the biggest reasons why they're able to take so much land so fast. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense. So they had the support of the people of Syria. When Muslims went into Egypt, the Coptic Orthodox Christians, they sided with the Arabs against the Byzantines, the Romans, because they found them to be very oppressive. Same
happened in Spain, similar things happen in Persia.
And when Muslims came to rule,
they apply justice.
Absolute tolerance was promised. treaties were made. People were told, you may keep your faith, your churches, your places of worship, so long as you pay attacks, so that we can protect you and your belongings. You may live in peace. All those Christian denominations fighting each other in Syria
became peaceful after the Muslims took this land.
Because they didn't have the freedom to fight each other anymore. The Muslims forbade them
to fight each other, because Muslims wanted peace, they wanted justice.
So what you are about to see tonight, may surprise some of you, you may not have seen this evidence before.
It is a product of hard work of many years. And this is a very
summarized version of a very long course which I deliver in an entire day. It hasn't been summarized for you. You better thank me afterwards.
So I talked about the expansion, the conquest and
the point is now what happened after this conquest, how did the these people feel? What were their feelings when the the Arabs or the Muslims took all these territory in Persia and Byzantine, so I have some testimonies.
Michael, the elder in the 12th century,
copying earlier sources.
He writes, When the city's submitted to the Arabs, they assigned to each denomination, the churches which they found it to be in possession of, and at that time, the great churches have a Mesa and out of Iran, had been taken away from us by the Byzantines, ie the Romans. Nevertheless, it was no slight advantage for us to be delivered from the cruelty of the Romans,
the Byzantines, their wickedness, their wrath and cruel zeal against us, and to find ourselves at peace.
So keep that verse of the Quran in mind, as I go along, chapter 21 of the Quran, verse 107, or MA or Sanaka, Ihlara, Nataliya, Allah mean, or Muhammad who sent you not except to the mercy for the words, this was a promise made in the Quran and this, this was the promise these early Muslims were carrying with them. They were reading it every single day. This is the text, the reading and the prayers. Quran is a public text read every single day in prayer, and the hearing these words from God, as far as they're concerned, the Arabs, these are the words of God, right, and the hearing these words, and they want to deliver the promise.
Or they want to be seen at least to have delivered the promise. So peace was the agenda. They want to bring peace to these people, despite all the differences, despite all the different denominations, and all the all the differences they had religiously speaking.
So this is
an orthodox,
Syrian monk writing in Syria, he's writing about the Arab conquest of these lands.
Then a contemporary of these conquests was Asia, the third
in Persia, he writes, and the Arabs to whom God at this time has given the Empire of the word behold, they are among you, as you know, well, and yet they attack not the Christian faith, but on the contrary, they favor our religion do honor to our priests and the saints of the Lord and confer benefits on churches and monasteries. Now, you may be thinking the top
Islam influence on the west? Why am I mentioning this? The reason why I'm mentioning this is that in order to influence someone, you have to have something to offer. If you don't have anything to offer, if you haven't, if you haven't achieved anything, then there's nothing to offer. How did the Islamic civilization come about in the first place? Is the question, What? What were the driving forces? What were the reasons
behind what we call the Islamic civilization?
What made the Islamic civilization is a very important question. And what gave rise to the Islamic civilization? And once it came about, how did this civilization impact other neighboring civilizations? This is the topic so we're going to make a very smooth transition from the making of the Islamic civilization to the influence of the Islamic civilization, civilization on other civilizations, in particular the Western civilization. That's why we are dealing with this evidence. This is what made the Islamic civilization.
So it's your rights that
the Christian faith was not attacked by the Muslims. On the contrary, they favor our religion. Do honor to our priests and the saints of the Lord and confer benefits on churches and monasteries. This is a Christian
bishop, if you like, who was in Persia, in the seventh century when the conquests had taken place, this is what he's talking about.
Moving forward, then in Syria in the 690s, we have a man called John bar, Pankaj.
He writes, and he's a Christian writing in the Greek language, he writes, When ma via one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad is ruling this territory, he writes, the peace throughout the world was such that we have never heard either from our fathers or from our grand grandparents, or seen that there had ever been any like it 690 See.
Now,
what you saw there, those three coats, these three coats represent some of the realities of these people at that time when they were
conquered by the Muslims, let's say.
But after Muslims took these lands, what did they offer?
What treaties what terms are offered to the Christians and the Jews and the Zoroastrian then per year, let's say and beyond what terms are offered. Some of those terms are they on the screen you can see,
there is a classical work of history, authored in the second century of Islam by a man called Mr. Marbella duty. The book is titled for the herbal dawn. In that book, we have been given the terms of the treaty the Prophet of Islam, agreed with the Christians of neuron drawn
was a city in southern Saudi Arabia, which is still very much there. And this city was inhabited by Christians. These Christians came to see the Prophet of Islam in the final year of his life, or the year before he passed away. And they asked for terms, the prophet presented Islam to them, except Islam. They refused. They said, We will not accept Islam, we're not convinced. Now what?
Now what detention,
disappearance,
torture
getting killed. Now, the prophet offers these terms to them Go back to your city, the city of Nigeria can live in peace,
pay the tax, and your churches will remain in security. Your bishops will not be removed. The evidence is on the screen you can see it. Similarly, Mr. Abrams theory the theory again another early Muslim historian found the third century.
He presents the treaty
between the Muslims and the Christians of Palestine.
The Muslims took the city
in 637 CE, almost four to five years after the death of the Prophet of Islam Prophet Muhammad. The Khelifa at the time was Omar bin Khattab, the second Caliph of Islam, or the second successor of the Prophet of Islam. And these are the terms offered to the Christians, the patriarch of the city called Sophronius. He came to see the leader of the believers, the ruler, the KDF, dressed in very humble
clothing, and he asks him what is going to happen to us. Ahmed tells him, we will offer you terms of peace and tolerance.
And these were the terms that were offered to the Christians of Palestine. This is the protection which the servant of Allah Ameerul Momineen grants to the people of Palestine. Thus protection is for the lives, property, church cross for the healthy and sick and for all their CO religionists in this way that their churches shall not be turned into dwelling houses, nor will they be pulled down, nor any injury will be done to them or to their enclosures, nor to their cross, and nor will anything be deducted from their wealth, no restrictions shall be made regarding their religious ceremonies.
Tolerance, live in peace.
Then when Muslims to explain
in the early eighth century 711 CE is when the first Muslim armies landed at Gibraltar, also known as jablow, Tarik,
right.
Within four years, the Muslims took much of the Iberian Peninsula, currently known as Spain and Portugal collectively.
And what treaties were offered, we have one of the treaties extent to this day.
And this is again, very consistent behavior. You saw the Treaty of neuron from the Prophet offer to the Christians on the ground, you saw the Treaty of Palestine
agreed to with the Christians of Palestine by the second second successor of the Prophet of Islam. Now you see the Treaty of Spain along the rows signed in the year 713. See, in the name of Allah, the Merciful the compassionate This is a document granted by Abdulaziz bin Musa been no sir, to to the me Son of God Jewish, establishing a treaty of peace and promise, a promise and protection of God and His Prophet, we Muslims will not set special conditions for him or for any among his men, nor harass him, nor remove him from power. His followers will not be killed or taken prisoner prisoner, nor will they be separated from their women and children. They will not be coerced in
matters of religion. This is a very important clause, which is consistent throughout
all the Muslim promises of protection and tolerance. This is a clause that's consistently there. You will not be forced to leave your religion. You will not be coerced in matters of religion.
Because this was very important.
taken directly from the Quran, chapter two, verse 256. The Quran commanded the believers to not coerce people to accept your fate. truth stands clear from falsehood. Don't force people to accept your faith law a graphic Dean Baba Jana Roche Domina Ray, there is no compulsion in religion, as truth stands clear from falsehood, that this was a very important clause for these vulnerable people who had who had been conquered by
an alien civilization because to date, these people are not yet known who are these desert dwellers, rough looking people with a new idea who have come out to take all this territory, we have no idea what they're going to do. But these are the promises that were made.
Then what was the outcome of these treaties? One can easily come back and say, You know what, these treaties are amazing.
At least looking at our more modern situation in the world. This day and age, having built a Bill of Rights. We have Geneva Convention and things like that protecting human rights, or people who are conquered by other powerful civilizations. These treaties are amazing. What they offer is amazing. But were they actually applied? Did they actually work? Were Muslims successful in delivering the promise? So before I answer that question, because if I went to the Muslim historians, you will say oh, they were biased.
Who is going to say we were bad?
Or Muslim historians never going to say we were bad, we tortured people.
So Bernard, the wise,
was a Christian pilgrim to Jerusalem in the ninth century. So we go to the Christians and the Jews, and let them speak about how they felt under the rule of Islam and Muslims. After these treaties were offered to them centuries ago, and now we're in the ninth century to
100 years later, what happens?
Bernard the wise a French pilgrim to Jerusalem in the ninth century writes, the Christians and the pagans, the Muslims are called pagans by the Europeans at the time
have this kind of peace between them.
They that if I was going on a journey and on the way, the Camelot donkey, which boy, my poor luggage were to die, and I was to abandon all my goods without any guardian and go to the city for another pack animal. When I came back, I would find all my property and injured such is the piece there. Now imagine that
for New York, London, Paris.
Well, Hassan is smiling, I wonder why.
And many of you are smiling, you know why?
Because now, not only that, your luggage goes missing. People go missing with the luggage.
Right. And that's the situation and I'm not being biased. We have to do justice. And that's how the Muslim world is, unfortunately, same thing would happen in Cairo, in Karachi, or let's say, one, one of the major Muslim capitals, things are bad in the world. Throughout the planet, there is chaos.
Even Muslims are not taking Islam seriously. The rule of Islam is not applied.
So, here is a Christian from the ninth century saying if I was to leave my luggage,
in a place
and if I was to go away and come back, my luggage would be found on touched. Such is the piece in these people's lands.
Same time, the same year. Amazingly, the patriarch of the city of Jerusalem, the Christian leader, let's say, was writing a letter to his counterpart in Constantinople. He writes the Saracens, ie the Muslims show us great goodwill. They allow us to build our churches and to observe our own customers without hindrance. These are Christian testimonies.
A ninth century Jewish source again, a contemporary source to Bernard the wise and Patriarch Theodosius, this is an this is an anonymous Jewish commentary on the Torah. This author writes the people in his who, whose people in whose hands the temple is today, ie the Muslims that are bassins at the time, have made it into a choice, excellent and honorable place of worship.
In other words, they allow us to worship and displace the Jewish people in the ninth century, during the Bassett period, are worshipping at the temple freely.
So the Christians
and keep those treaties in mind those promises made by the Muslims in the seventh century. And this is what's happening in the ninth century, 200 years later, where Christians and Jews are testifying. This is the making of the Muslim civilization.
Fast forward the 11th century in Spain 10 at a Jewish rabbi, writing in Cordoba, the city of Cordoba,
he writes,
that, as far as living and subsistence are concerned, our situation is the same as theirs or even better.
So he's writing is paying a tribute to the Muslims is saying, You know what, we the Jews living in Cordoba under the rule of Islam and Muslims, we are not only as good as them, in some cases, our conditions are better than theirs. In fact, in the 10th century, there was a Jewish prime minister
to the most powerful Muslim monarch who ever ruled the territory of Spain, Abdur Rahman, the third
he had a Jewish prime minister called has they been approved.
So
the outcome of this
promise made to the Jews and the Christians of the lands Muslims took was
what the the Jews and the Christians to justify to themselves peace, justice,
relative justice given to most people, if not all.
And what happens as a result, the Jews and the Christians, the youngsters become very inspired. I'm summarizing a very long story. By the way as you I may seem crude, jumping from century to century, jumping from phenomenon to phenomenon jumping from topic to topic, because time is very short. And I have a lot of evidence to share with you so I can only give you ideas to explore. You can look into details by reading books, and you can ask me about books during the q&a and I can share some sources on this
So the outcome of the rise of the Muslim civilization was
I describe it as follows. The making of the Muslim civilization can be summarized through a formula, you know, sometimes to remember things. The easiest way is to summarize a very big topic into a small formula and you remember events, right? So you can have ideas in your mind
to remind you of great things. So I have a formula I call it the golden chain of events in the history of Islam, the golden chain of events, it goes as follows There are four locks in the chain. Number one is the revelation of the Quran. The Quran comes to the Prophet of Islam,
the Quran is revealed to him in Arabia.
From the Quran comes a sense of justice, which was conveyed to the companions of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. They take this concept of justice and they deliver it and bring peace to the world. As you have seen in those treaties, and how the Christian and the US testified to it, from that peace came progress, which is what we are going to discuss.
So going backwards, progress came from Peace, peace came from Justice, justice, in the case of the Muslim civilization or the Islamic salvation came from the Quran.
So there is no progress without
peace, no peace without no justice without the Quran as far as the Muslims are concerned, their justice or their understanding of Justice, the concept of justice, the morality, the ethics are coming from the Quran. So this formula, remember it the golden chain of events, Quran, justice, peace, progress,
and people focus on the progress.
Many times when people talk about the Islamic civilization, they start talking about
all the works. Muslims pioneered in London those, let's say, the golden age, where Muslims became the best scientists, the best poets, the best intellectuals, the largest libraries in the word, street, streets paved street lights in Cordoba in the 10th century, the most civilized city, the largest city in the world. The best colors are found in places like Baghdad, Damascus, Cordoba, Samarkand Bukhara, you name it throughout the Muslim civilization. These are the best centers of learning and education.
You find observatories you find libraries, you find scholars, you find book markets. If you go to Cordova today, the city of Cordova, you see the Mosque of Cordoba, in Spain,
and around the mosque, you see very congested
streets, very tight streets.
And someone, you know, one may ask the question, why the white couldn't expand the streets and make bigger pathways. The reason why they kept the streets that way is because this is how they were. And this was the biggest pork market in the world at the time.
Right. So this is what people talk about when they talk about progress, the Islamic civilization, this is what they focus on. They don't see the causes that gave rise to the Muslim civilization.
To the extent that the Muslim civilization was able to now influence other civilizations, my time is coming to an end. So I have to move very fast Inshallah, so that we have time to address your questions as well. So the Muslims had dominated these lands and they brought peace and from peace came progress. Libraries are produced of huge magnitude. The outcome was many Christians and Jews. They started to read Muslim works naturally, they became inspired by the Muslim civilization, and many started to convert to Islam. And you can see on the screen there, in the ninth century, a Christian monk writing in secret, he's lamenting that these Christian youngsters of ours are reading
Muslim philosophies. They know better Arabic than the Arabs, they are now performing
poetry better than the Arabs. And the reason why he's lamenting is because this is the time when people were converting to Islam in massive numbers, Christians.
People were driven out of Spain later on in the 17th century in 1609, by filling the third we're not Moors or barbers or the Arabs, they were actually Hispanic who had converted to Islam in large numbers.
Moving on.
So what did this Islamic civilization do? And how did this civilization
influence the West? First?
What do some of the intellectuals from the Enlightenment period think Adam Smith was the founder of modern economic principles, the author of The Wealth of Nations a very big a very important book The Wealth of Nations. In his works, he pays a lavish tribute to the Muslim civilization, as you can see on the screen.
He writes in one of his essays on astronomy, Adam Smith, writing in the 18th century, he was born in 1723. And he died in 1790. The founding father of capitalism. I don't know, do you know Adam Smith, put your hands up?
Adam Smith, okay, good. Right, he was on the back of the 20 pound note. In Britain, he writes the ruin of the empire of the Romans and along with it, the subversion of all law in order, which happened a few centuries afterwards produced an entire neglect of that study of connecting principles of nature. It's talking about astronomy, the science of astronomy, in particular, to which leisure and security can alone give occasion, if there is no security, one cannot study the connecting principles of nature.
After the fall of those great conquerors, the Romans
and the symbolizes of mankind, the Empire of the caliphs, seems to have been the first state under which the world enjoyed that degree of tranquility which the cultivation of the sciences requires. It was under the protection of those generous and magnificent princes, that the ancient philosophy and astronomy of the Greeks were restored and established in the east, that that tranquility which they're mild jest and religious government, diffused over the vast empire revived the curiosity of mankind to inquire into the connecting principles nature.
So Adam Smith is saying that they might just end religious government, in other words, Sharia system,
the Sharia law, very much maligned lately in Western media outlets, was responsible for creating the golden age of Islam, the mild jest and religious government. And he this this was a very learned man, by the way, he read a lot of books. He was one of the most learned philosophers of the 18th century Britain.
Moving fast forward, Alfred Gillam. He wrote a book, The legacy of Islam published in 1931. In that book, he acknowledges the fact that it was Islam, the religion, the faith and the system that gave rise to what this book discusses, and the book discusses the progress I have highlighted already. But Islam is the fundamental fact which made the legacy possible it was under the protection and patronage of Islamic empire, the Arts and Sciences, which this book describes flourished.
Then TW Arnold,
preaching of Islam, in his book, he states Muslim Spain had written one of the brightest pages in history of medieval Europe, her influence and pass through province into other countries of Europe beginning of bringing into birth, a new poetry and a new culture. And it was from her that Christian scholars receive what of Greek philosophy and science, they had to stimulate the mental activity up to the time of Renaissance. So what are these people talking about? Where did all this come from? How did the Muslims suddenly start to influence Western Europe? With all this knowledge? What was happening in Western Europe? Western Europe was in darkness.
In fact, some scholars call it the Dark Age, others are challenging the notion, no doubt. But pretty much Western Europe was in darkness. Okay, no monuments, no major cities, right? If you go through Western Europe, Germany, France, Britain,
even Spain, if you minus the Muslim period, you don't see any monuments. You don't see any great universities or any remains of any great institutions. There's nothing there. Yeah, you see the Roman wall, Hadrian's Wall
going across Britain in the north, because he wanted to keep the pics the Scots out. Right. So he put a wall there, starting from one
part of Britain going all the way to the other side of the coast or the other coast from
basically, it's a wall that stretches about 170 miles in northern Britain.
Apart from that, there is nothing
so Europeans were hungry.
for knowledge, and where did they find it? Al Andalus Islamic Spain, how Islamic Spain came up what happened there? Again there are books written on these topics, books, immense books, with a lot of detail. All the universities, all the libraries, and what occurred in Islamic Spain once Muslims took Spain in 711, and thence forth, what happened? What happened to the cities what happened to the Christians what happened to the Jews?
So
in his history of medicine, Victor Robinson, he draws a very eloquent parallel between
medieval Europe and
the city of Cordoba, ruled by Islam and Muslims. Europe was darkened at sunset Cordoba shown with public lands Europe was dirty Cordoba built 1000 bucks a year was covered with vermin. Cordova changed his undergarments daily Europe, Lane mud Cordova streets were paved. Europe's palaces had smoke holes in the ceiling. cordobas arabesques were exquisite. Europe's nobility could not sign its name Cordova children went to school. Europe's monks could not read the baptismal service cordobas teachers created a library of Alexandria and dimensions.
And this will, again, the progress I talked about this progress cannot be divorced from peace that the Muslims brought with them for them to achieve this in the first place. And that piece came from the Justice they offered to everyone in those societies and that Justice originated from the Quran.
Otherwise, how did they suddenly wake up and same model was replicated from Spain to China, it couldn't be an accident in Spain, maybe the climate was very nice. The fruits were very beautiful. They were tasty, right?
Or maybe the women of Spain were very nice looking. And the Arabs fell in love with them and suddenly became happy. And they created a similar civilization. You know, people can talk about all sorts of stupid things, right? And come up with reasons. But this was not an accident. Because this was replicated throughout the Muslim civilization.
You see, the calligraphy and artwork in Cordoba, or let's say in the city of Grenada or Seville?
When you look at those monuments, who has been to Seville and Granada, anyone,
have you seen Alcazar and Alhambra Palace?
When you look at the artwork,
you have to acknowledge that this is the peak of human excellence.
It's the peak of human excellence.
They could not do better than that.
How did that happen? Was that an accident?
Absolutely not.
Murder picked up Pictou who was an English man who had
accepted Islam. In the early 20th century. He wrote in his book the cultural side of Islam, in Spain and Obioma. Yet and in Baghdad under the basket Kaylee's Christians and Jews equally with Muslims were admitted to the schools and universities. Not only that, but were boarded and launched in hospitals at the cost of states.
Then in Baghdad, in the ninth century, an institution was made to translate Greek works into the Arabic language. Now, after the Muslims have taken this land, they have consolidated the power they have offered terms to the native people of these lands, they have established a peaceful relationship, there is tolerance. And after this consolidation, now is the time to rise to make progress to create a civilization. And in the ninth century in Baghdad, in the city of Baghdad, medieval Baghdad, this is what's happening. Greek works, Greek knowledge, Greek wisdom is being translated into the Arabic language. And certainly a lot of these Muslims woke up to that
phenomenon.
That took a lot from the Greeks, and the left a lot. So these works ended up in libraries throughout the Muslim world, in particular Spain.
So there were many libraries of repute throughout the Muslim world, with hundreds of 1000s of volumes.
The first library of importance and value in Europe was the Royal Library of Diomedes in Cordoba, outdoorsman, the first was himself a scholar and appoint his son a sham followed his footsteps by becoming a poet and an admirer of Arabic literature and then Hukam the first also love poetry and liked to be surrounded by scholars. The later calyx, especially of their hand, the third and Hakim, the second word devoted to the hobby of collecting rare books, or disease that I myself have caught
Abbas be naszej, the agent of Dharma the third travelled as far as Mesopotamia, in search of Arabic translations of Persian and Greek works in science rare and valuable books. All the new bought and copied for Hakim the second Alexandria, Cairo, Baghdad and Damascus, the Chief Librarian of haccombe. The second, the Caleb and codabar in Western Europe at the time, was a high ranking eunuch. Talat, according to whom there were 400,000 volumes of books in the Royal Library, the list of the books recording the names of the authors, and the titles alone consisted of 44 volumes of 50 folios, each, the largest library in human history. To date,
the 10th century Cordova, the largest library ever assembled in human history to date, larger than Alexandria, what happened in Alexandria, in the ancient period,
this is the renaissance that was taking place, and there were 70 public libraries in the city of
in the city of Cordoba. The result was Muslim men of science. Moving on very fast. Okay. I do apologize for going over time.
The result was Muslim men of science. Again, I want to remind every one of you that I am
brutalizing these facts by being very succinct, and brief about these facts.
What I am sharing with you is not even tip of the iceberg.
There is a lot of information out there in books on these very topics. Okay, so I have summarized, it's like, you know, as they say, it's like to confine a river into a cup. It's not possible, right? But I'm trying my best to put these things in front of you so that you can actually get these glimpses and go out and start studying these topics. You can take any of them for your personal study, mostly men of science, the list goes on and on and on. People wrote in geography, people who wrote astronomy, medical encyclopedias physiology, Materia Medica, diagnosis therapeutics, hygiene, okay?
commentaries on Aristotle and Galen, for example, travel writing, laxatives, poisons, geography, algebra, trigonometry, trigonometry, and zoology. And you name it Muslims had created something absolutely shocking. In the centers of learning, like Cordoba, Baghdad, Damascus, summer can Bahara these cities,
right. So what happened with this knowledge, now the Europeans woke up.
Okay, and Muslims produce some original works, some people claimed, due to their religious and cultural bias. In particular, in the West, during the 19th century, many people, many Western historians, they woke up to this plethora of literature and they realized, hold on a second, you know, we've been trying to paint Islam and Muslims as barbaric and as, as a primitive, mysterious, some, you know, some strange civilization, but these people gave rise to our own civilization. So, this was very difficult to swallow. For many,
let's say European thinkers at the time, because they were dominant. They had colonized many Muslim territories for them to acknowledge that this inferior civilization that we have dominated, Once Upon a Time inspired our rise, right. So they started to play down the role of Islam and Muslims or the Muslim civilization. John William Draper, who wrote a work titled, The history of the intellectual development of Europe. In that book, he acknowledges that the European scholarship systematically suppressed facts about the Islamic civilization that it was directly behind the intellectual development of European scholarship.
Same has been acknowledged by a recent scholar in her works. Her name is Maria Rosa Menocal. She has authored a book on Spain, ornament of the world titled ornament of the world, she writes in her works, that Western scholars to this day in the 21st century find it very difficult to acknowledge that they are in some way in debt to the Islamic civilization. It's very unfortunate.
You see the bias on media, you see it, you see it glaring in your face.
So Muslims produced original works. One of the propagandas was that Muslims just copied from the Greeks. They found Greek works that translated them and that
copied and pasted, they plagiarized. And they forwarded all these works to the Europeans.
But the reality is, the Muslims actually not only copied from the Greeks, they completely turned Greek sciences around.
They produced independent researchers. As you can see on the screen, there are some examples where Muslims actually wrote commentaries on Greek authors and correcting they corrected their basic errors.
So Muslims had advanced in science. And
so how did the Muslims transfer this knowledge? I'm finishing right now with Hassan, I know you're gonna very soon physically remove me from the podium. Before that comes when it comes to that were nearly there.
How did this knowledge transfer what how was this knowledge transmitted to the Western world? Coming to the point of discussion? How did Islam in the Muslim civilization influence the Western world? How did that happen? Firstly, many Western scholars or students of scholars, they had to learn the Arabic language Englishman,
German
students, French students had to learn the Arabic language in order to unlock this knowledge which was available in Spain at the time, for almost 500 years, from the ninth to the 14th century, scholars were traveling from Europe to study with the Muslims or Jews and Christians who spoke Arabic, well, who lived in that Arabic culture, the Arabic language was the lingua franca of the educated world, the status the English language enjoys in the world today was enjoyed by the Arabic language of 500 years throughout the western world, by the way, I'm talking about not the Muslim lands, I'm talking about Britain, France, and Germany. You may be thinking Arabic 500 years in these
lands? Yes, absolutely. facts that are very little known to the world.
You know, who was the most learned man to walk in London in the 11th century? Or in the 12th century? The one who knew the Arabic language, such a person would be a celebrity.
Just like you go to Pakistan, and you go to a government office and speak English doors will open.
You know what I'm talking about? Yeah.
You go to Egypt, don't speak Arabic. Don't try speak English and watch what is happening.
Same. Same was happening in Britain, France and Germany. In the 10th 11th and 12th century. The celebrities of those societies were those who spoke the Arabic language people like Adela, the bath, Daniel of morally. Robert De Scott, Robert of Catan. Michael, the Scott, these people. There is a book authored by a Jewish historian. Her name is Dorothy Metz litski. She wrote a fascinating book on this very topic, specifically dealing with England, not all of Europe, England, and the book is titled, The matter of Arabic in medieval England, the matter of Arabic in medieval she talks about this phenomenon. Arabic silences Arabic knowledge in England in particular, she gives plenty of
examples of this. Mind blowing, how did this happen?
After learning the Arabic language, the European scholars actually felt sorry for the country men and people so they started to translate these words from Arabic to Latin. So general Gerard of Cremona translated at work from Arabic to Latin on astronomy and mathematics, including alpha is ms algebra, forbidden coursework and Roman balance alkyne. These optical works writing on chemistry by raazi and even seen as medical encyclopedia. John Seville, translated as chronicle medical and philosophical works by Al kindI al baton is Robin Cora al cuwbc. Of for Ronnie and Al Shifa of Ibn Sina, MacArthur. MacArthur is a philosopher the ways of the philosopher's by Allah Ghazali. Plato of
trivially made substantial amount of translation from Arabic to Latin and the complete list of translators and their translations far too much to cover here. Absolutely. This is not even tip of the iceberg. What happened in Spain in cities like Toledo after Christian kings took the city of Toledo in 1085 from the Muslims. When the King walked into the Muslim library, he was blown away.
He had realized that he has discovered the true the real reason of Muslim Advancement at that time books
He got the scholars to translate all of this work of much of it in the Latin language and then it was moved to the Europeans. And lo and behold,
the European Renaissance,
Muslim, Spain had written one of the brightest pages in the history of medieval Europe. Her influence had passed through Provence into the other countries of Europe bringing into birth a new poetry in a new culture.
Okay, so Professor Thomas Arnold in his book preaching of Islam, page 131 states, the Renaissance was directly inspired by
Islamic Spain. George Saliba in 2007, author a book, Islamic science and the making of the European Renaissance. The making of the European is what names come to mind when you think of European Renaissance and you want very quickly, go ahead, names. Sorry, buddy cheese. Okay, good.
Sorry,
Alexander.
Oh, no, that's very old, the European Renaissance. I'm talking about the 15th and the 16th century.
The Vinci Leonardo da Vinci. Anyone else? Michelangelo.
Who else?
Anyone else?
Sorry, Raphael, absolutely.
Many names.
But if you look at the works and the origins, you will realize many of these scholars Rene some scholars writing in Italy and France and other places, they were directly inspired by knowledge that came from London was from Muslim Spain.
George Saliba writes on page one, there is hardly a book on Islamic civilization or on the general history of science that does not at least pretend to recognize the importance of the Islamic scientific tradition and the role this tradition played in the development of human civilization in general. Absolutely.
EJ home yard on chemistry on the history of chemistry, he writes on page 82. Early European chemistry is almost wholly a legacy from Islam. It is impossible to understand Medieval Latin alchemy without a clear idea of the work of the Arabs.
So even the University of Oxford, the first science taught at the University of Oxford was astronomy. And it came directly from the Arabs from Spain. Artie Gover in his history of science at Oxford. This is what he has to say, as you can see on the screen, that the first science taught at Oxford was astronomy, and it came from the atoms.
So ladies and gentlemen, on that note, I'll stop. Again, do forgive me for being very brief and brutal with these facts brutal because I couldn't give you more. I have a lot more to share, as I explained earlier, that this is a very long course summarized for you to fit into one hour. Okay. And there is a lot more I can share, and describe and explain which may blow your minds away, Right. but believe you me, there is a lot that needs to be looked into and studied for you to better understand the influence of Islam and the Muslim civilization on the western civilization. Okay, and if you have any questions you may ask during the q&a, what humbly Lyra Malala mean, thank you so
much for listening.
What caused us
to slow down in terms of scientific comparison?
Very good. What caused the Islamic civilization to decline? In other words, okay. I don't believe in the decline theory. I believe that Islamic civilization is still very much alive. It is a living civilization. It is
going through some tough period. For example, you see if you study the history of the Islamic civilization, this civilization is like a flower that leaves its fragrance in the hand that comes to crush it. Okay, so even in Al Andalus, the Islamic civilization is alive in monuments, in the achievements in the libraries when you go and see those manuscripts is there. So the decline theory, I don't fully agree with it. We are going through a phase we are going through a very tough time in our history. We have gone through similar situations in the past like the Mongol invasions, Mongol invasions in the 13th century, destroyed, devastated much of the Muslim civilization in
The East, the Mongols started killing from Mongolia. And they went all the way to Syria. They invaded India for 100 years. They tried to destroy the civilization of Islam in India, the Delhi Sultanate, they did that for 100 years, the Muslims stood in the way. I mean, in India is very funny What's happening today that Muslims are blamed for a lot of the things. But if you look at the history of the Muslims did not stand in the way of the Mongols for 100 years, the Sultan's and the armies, the Mongols would have devastated India, they were they were lusting after India because of its wealth. Right. So we had similar upheavals, if you like, in our history, and the past. So with
this one, what's happening today, Muslims just need to wake up and realize that we are in the situation we are in is because we have left behind. The reason we once were successful. So once most of us wake up to the reasons that's why I mentioned the reasons First, you see, this was the reason why I went through that long process of explaining why the Islamic civilization rose in the first place, what gave birth to it, those principles, those ideas, that justice and peace that was delivered by the Muslims. So once we start to work on that, again, bring justice to our own countries, let's say, and then start to build those institutions. We can inspire the world once
again. What was done before can be done again, as long as it's the right thing to do. So I don't believe in that decline theory. I don't think we are in decline yet. Yes. You have questions? Yeah. A few questions are coming in on the slideshow. So one of the questions is why did Bernard Lewis sorry?
Why did Bernard device call Muslims pagans? I don't mind talking about Bernard losers, you want me?
Why did Bernard the wise called Muslims pagans? Because during the Middle Ages, the Muslims were generally referred to by the Christian clergy, as pagans, because there were many misconceptions. Even during the Crusades. When you look at the writings of some of the monks writing the history of the Crusades, they were outrightly lying about Muslims, the Muslims have an idol of Muhammad in the worship that idol in the temple. Okay. For example, Falk of charts, who was crusading chronicler, who was a historian of the Crusades, he wrote, the Muslims worship an idol of Muhammad, which was, which is a lie. That never happened in history. So a lot of lies were fed to European masses at the
time, the clergy who were teaching the masses, the Catholic Church, I'm sorry to say it predominantly at the time, was very ignorant of Islam and Muslims, right. And when someone tried to correct the errors, they were excommunicated
by the church. So the church wanted to keep the masses ignorant about Islam, to have hostility towards Muslims. And this is why the Muslims are referred to as pagans and a lot of derogatory things. And there were many lies made up about the Muslims and if you want to study that phenomenon, there is a book on it a very powerful actually few books on it few books, one of them is Islam and the West, making Amazingly, the same topic I addressed her Islam and the West making of an image, Islam and the West making of an image. The author is Norman Daniel Norman, an excellent work A must read, also read the works of JV Tollund, JV Tollund, T O L, A and D. He has also written on this
phenomenon how people in the West saw the Muslims, okay, and many more books can be cited, but these two works, or these two authors will do wonders for you Inshallah, because the next question I think we'll ask has gotten a few likes, and it's put quite succinctly, female scholars question mark.
Oh, yes, absolutely. Is this amazing that you mentioned that
I would like to address
I would like to bring to your attention. Something
very interesting. There is a book on this very topic. Perhaps you can get hold of this book and read it. The author is Asma siete.
She is a Cambridge University Scholar.
Okay. Author is asthma A S M A.
Okay, so is spelt with S A Y
Double E. D, the title of the book is women and the transmission of religious knowledge in Islam, a very specific book written on women and their scholarship in Islam. And she addresses the history a few centuries. Okay, she starts from the second century of Islam, I think she goes up to the Ottoman period. So this is a very important work for you to consult published by the Cambridge University, women, and the transmission of religious knowledge in Islam. In fact, not only that, women were absolutely crucial central to the production of libraries in quarterback, I'm very thankful for raising
this point, I do apologize for not raising this earlier. I mean, being, you know, again,
being a man, men always focus on you know, achievements of men. So I should have mentioned this earlier, right?
Women in Spain and in Honduras, and the Muslims are ruling Spain were instrumental in producing those libraries, guess how they were the best calligraphers they were copying works for libraries. So if a manuscript came from Baghdad, that was in fashion that was in demand on let's say, science, let's say astronomy, let's say alchemy, or medicine, they would be
women are working actively in libraries to copy those manuscripts in hand, so there were hundreds, hundreds of women scholars and calligraphers who were working day and night, transcribing these works, so that they can be library. So how come the second is 400,000 volumes didn't come from a vacuum, because there are many ladies, many women, many scholars who were producing these works. Okay, and there's a lot more we can discuss. But again, it's a topic in itself. That sister had a question earlier. Yes, please.
Here,
according to a virus in the last century Christians, despite that it would just have gotten down on language that shows the influence of the importance of Muslim influence. But how does that relate to how can we reconcile that with, for example, ethnic minorities now who have been oppressed for so long that they have forgotten their own language, or even if they do remember it, it has lost its prestige, due to the appearance of imperialistic influence from outside, it's just very personal, because you know,
countries
even if they are not different language on the wheel is because it has lost its importance.
You see, this phenomenon can be repeated, it has happened in India, for example, when Britain was ruling India for 200 years, the first century was consolidation of power, the second century was actually exerting civilizational influence on the masses, right. And this is why many Muslim leaders and intellectuals in India became worried because many Muslim youth were being lost to British influences, right? Because Britain was the power
ruling India at the time,
most major universities were British, they were supported by the government. And Victorian England was phenomenal in terms of producing literature and books and libraries. So many Muslims got mesmerized. That's why some of the scholars woke up. And they decided that we must educate our youngsters about our achievements for over 1000 years for them to realize that this is not new for us. It's just we just woke up to this reality that we are in this situation in this state of affairs, but we have a huge civilization behind us, achievements of 1000 years. So remember that that's why they established an institution called the Early girl University. And same can happen in
other places like China, for example, what's happening in China, due to persecution, the Uyghurs are being forced to lose their culture and language. Similar things happen in Spain when Muslims lost territory in Spain, the Catholics came in, okay. The Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, when they took the last stronghold from the Muslim in 1492. They forced the entire population
close to half a million people, native Hispanic Muslims. They were called Moriscos. Okay, and I have a lecture tomorrow evening on this in London. Okay. Moriscos were basically called Moriscos
basically as an insult, but they will not Moore's Moore's basically came from North Africa, currently Morocco
And the Sahara Desert, right? But these people in Spain who were Muslims were native Spaniards. They were Hispanic, originally, right? But their culture and language was snatched away from them. And Wallah, he, if you were to read about Moriscos and the experience in Spain, you will shed tears, you will cry, you think you think this is persecution, what we are seeing nowadays, let's say in China, I mean, it's bad, as bad as it is. But when you once you read about Moriscos, you will see how those people were put through immense difficulties and challenges to lose the faith. They were forced into baptism. They were forcefully converted. And still they resisted. They were practicing Islam in
secret, they were called crypto Muslims. They were practicing Islam in secret and the Inquisition was breathing down the necks. They had to hang pigs
at the doorsteps
to convince the Inquisitors that they are Christian, but they were not Christian. They had to hide the books and wolves. They could not be seen to be excessively clean. That was a sign of Islam. In Spain. If you had a bath every week, you were a Muslim.
And this is not I'm not making this up. If you were clean, if you were walking around clean, clean clothes, clean body, good hygiene, Inquisition. Straight to Inquisition. This guy is a Muslim, he can't be a Christian.
Because that wasn't the culture of the Christians at the time Muslims. As part of the religion you have to wash every day, five times a day you wash for prayer, and you at least bathe once a week
if you are from civilized Muslim territories, okay?
So these things can happen. They have happened in the past and they're being repeated today. May Allah protect us. But again, I believe Islam. To this day, this is why I don't believe in the decline theory. I don't believe we are on the decline. Islamic civilization is still very much powerful, very standing very influential in the world, and still can contribute a lot of positivity in the future to come. Inshallah.
Another interesting question we have.
So somebody mentioned that they're planning to visit and de Lucia next month to learn and witness Islamic history there. What are your recommendations on reading our lectures? So I find it quite interesting that
people might not realize the significance in the place of Islam in what is currently known as the West. So I think that's quite a pertinent kind of question. There are many books you can read.
One of them is by Richard Fletcher, Moorish Spain. You can read that book you can read a political history of Islamic Spain written by again one of my teachers who Kennedy, Islamic Spain and Portugal. He has written a book then there is an author called Anwar Shanna his book is very difficult to find Muslims pain there are two volumes published by Routledge or rootlets press titled The legacy of Muslim Spain if you want to go academic if you really want
you know complicated details on the achievements of the most of Muslims in Spain then these are these two volumes the legacy of Muslim Spain edited by Salma Hydra jayyousi It's an academic work very you know very powerful work and there are many other books you can read but get ornament of the world is a good start by Maria Rosa medical is a very simple very plain very easy to read book ornament of the world. Maria Rosa medical, okay. And then there are many history history is written by Muslim historians as well if you want to read them. There are many available in Sharla. Just like her another interesting question we have
heard from Stan isn't how come Spain isn't a Muslim country? Because Islam was completely systematically wiped out from Spain, the pope from Rome, specifically commanded Spanish kings and queens to wipe out Islam.
Wipe completely wipe out any traces of Islam.
And that means books, monuments, people are everything. Can you imagine? A people lived in a land for 800 years? Listen carefully.
People lived in a land for 800 years and at one point in the 11th century, the population of Muslims in Spain was 5.5 million people. There are no graves.
No grave.
In Spain today, there are no graves of Muslims.
None.
5.5 million Muslims live