The Conqueror of Constantinople – Muhammad Al-Fatih #02

Now here's a question that people may ask at this juncture, where were the allies of Constantinople?

This is the heart of Eastern Roman Empire. Where are the Western Allies? Where are they? Why are they not supporting

their CO religionists? Where are the Catholic Western?

Alliance? And the answer is that they were there.

And in fact, Constantine, the elevens, appealed to the Christians Of The World to Come and to save the ayah Sophia church and to save the heart of Byzantium.

But this call was largely it largely fell on deaf ears, there was huge disunity between them, as we said,

except Pope Nicholas the fifth, Pope, Nicholas, he said, We will help

you we will send you an army. And we will repel the Turks, but on condition that you accept supremacy of the Catholic Church. So He twisted his arm, and he said, We will unify the churches, and we will support you on our terms, and that this will be the end of orthodoxy. Now, Constantine 11th realize that this is a life and death situation. So he accepted the terms with a bitter taste in his mouth. And the pope arrived at constant Constantinople, and they were about to sign the agreement. But then the people of Constantinople rioted, and they said we don't want this humiliating agreement.

And we don't want to surrender our religion, our principles.

And then they said their famous statement that maybe you've come across, they said that we prefer to see the turbans of the Turks on our land and the long hats of the Latins.

And with that the terms were scrapped, and they moved away. And now this antium was completely isolated. And see, this is a small footnote here.

These are the bitter consequences of disunity.

Whether we're talking about Muslims or non Muslims. Now you ask the Christians today, what you did back then, was it worth it?

Was it worth it that you forsake your co religionists and now you lost the hearts of the Byzantium Empire, and that was the end of the Byzantine Empire. And that was effectively the end of the Roman the Western Roman Empire when Constantinople fell, you ask them, was it worth it? They will tell you no, it wasn't worth it. But this is the bitter consequence of disunity? Will we understand this message? Will we learn this lesson? Will our stubborn some of our stubborn brothers and sisters and some of our stubborn leaders come to the realization that now you are experiencing an existential threat as a Muslim in some parts of the world would you not realize that unity now is one of the

most important priorities

and compromises will be needed to a huge extent.

So now because antium was left, exposed, the siege began

and wave upon wave, the Ottomans were attacking the Western Wall of Constantinople using their small cannons and using those huge cannons that were designed by Autobahn as well. These were so powerful that one of the moja he doing he said that it sounded like the day of judgment was about to happen when one of those cannons went off. He said it was like Angel said, I feel blowing into the horn to resurrect the dead. It was so loud each eruption.

But Subhanallah the cannons were not inflicting any significant damages to these walls. We said that these walls have never been breached before.

So they were struggling.

And then this is the Western Front. As for the other side of Constantinople, the Eastern Front.

There was a bay they called it the Golden Horn Bay. If you manage to cross that Bay, get into the channel, you have the Eastern walls of Constantinople, and they're a lot less fortified than the Western ones. So again, now you have an attack happening on the Western Wall. And then on the eastern side, the Armada, the Navy, it's making its way, but they found that they were unable to cross the home there was a chain

that was stretched from one side of the bay to the other. And this chain was basically huge wooden joints that were interlocked using these massive nails

and iron shackles. And whenever an enemy force would come, they would stretch the chain and you couldn't you couldn't get into the bay. So you couldn't access the eastern side, of course, the anti noble by water.

So the ships were unable to get in.

So they were failing at the Western Front the Ottomans, and they were now failing at the Eastern Front. So some of the brave men decided to scuba dive

When they they went underwater and the shackles were going four to five feet beneath the water, they tried to undo it and they died in the process they drowned.

So they were really struggling. And you can imagine 150,000 men away from their homes away from their supplies 200 kilometres away, you are exposed, it's very expensive to maintain an army on the board is like that. And the morale is going lower and lower. And he realizes this is a matter of time and patience. If we don't achieve this, we may never achieve it in our lives.

And they don't know how the story is going to end.

So Mohammed Rama hula tried a third technique. What did he do?

They built moving towers,

moving towers that had three decks, and they filled them with archers and spearmint and sword fighters. Because every time they came near the wolves, they would pour upon them boiling water, and so the Muslims would literally roast under the oil. So he built these towers, and they were getting nearer and nearer. So they were eye to eye with the arches, who were on the top of the walls firing at them. But again, boiling oil was poured upon every one of the towers, and every one of the men inside of those towers were burnt. They were roasted. May Allah subhanaw taala have mercy upon them. Mohammed Al Fattah, he said, No problem tomorrow, we will build for

amazing motivation. They tried a fourth technique. He said, let's dig beneath the earth. Imagine we said there is a moat there is a trench of water seven meters deep. So how deep do you need to tunnel to get under that water so that you don't get flooded 15 meters or so phenomenal. And they did that? They dug underground. And somehow the German engineers it's always the Germans Subhanallah on in Constantinople, they managed to discover the areas of those tunnels that were being dug, and they met them in underground warfare. And again, many of those tunnels collapsed upon the Muslims and others they were roasted, using the the the fire that was fired them on behalf of the on the side of

the Constantinople people. So by land, there was a struggle by sea there was a struggle underground. They were being met with fierce fighting as well. The situation was becoming dire.

Finally, there seemed to be what? There seemed to be a small opening in one of the western walls, leading into Constantinople. And by the way, the challenge was this. Because these cannons were so huge.

They were overheating.

So you could only fire one shot every six hours. Each cannon required six hours to reload.

Six hours is plenty of time for the engineers and the builders to rebuild the walls that were damaged. And this was the cycle.

What were they going to do?

They found a small opening, so a group of the Mujahidin This is the second attempt to enter the fort. 7000 of them died at the gates of Constantinople.

I mean, what is the capacity of this Masjid 1000 maybe imagine seven folds of this masjid, dying in the second attempt to enter the fold.

Then came the third attempt. 10,000 men were killed at the gates of Constantinople, they failed the third time. By sea there was another happening. Two or three Genoese ships came to support the people of Constantinople would food with supplies. But these were very trained sailors, the Turks they said it was as if they were born in the sea. their whole lives was the sea and they knew the sea so well. 12,000 Muslim Turks drowned trying to prevent those two or three ships from getting by and they still managed to get through and to provide the supplies.

So you're talking within

within a few days

29,000 Muslims were killed.

And Muhammad Rahim Allah is aware of this. And he is showing patients him and his men for him.

So the morale is plummeting.

We're now around day 30 of the siege.

It's been a month.

So he Mohamed makes his way to his teacher, Ark shamsudeen, who was with them on the battlefield and he was in his tent.

He said I need to see my shake the soldiers they said the Sheikh Said no one is allowed.

He wants to be by himself now. He said no, I need to see him. He said no, we don't allow you to go in so he became angry Mohamed Rahim Allah and He took out his knife and he tore the side of the tent and he came in he needs to see his mentor and he found

Wanda has shaved in sujood prostrating to Allah and weeping, begging Allah for victory begging Allah to ease the siege. And so this was the first omen that Allah subhanaw taala was going to aid the Muslims.

The second Omen I wanted to share with you

this man auction so deed the shake was amount of chromatic blessings Allah had blessed him with very strange powers and supernatural gifts. We believe in this As Alison mellow Gemma cut them out.

And during the war,

up shamsudeen. So in his dream that he was being guided to the grave of Abu Zubaydah, Ansari,

and he was shown this is where he is. So he woke up and he said, I, I think I know where the companion is buried. They said, where he said, Come with me, and they walked with the sheriff. And he said, I think he's here. And they dug and they found a corpse. And next to the corpse was a sign that said, this is the grave of the companion of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, who are you but I'm sorry. So this was a huge boost, they've unearthed the body of rasa hobby, a huge push forward for those for the media who don't have the Ottoman Empire that the victory of Allah perhaps was nearing.

The third omen. And this is an interesting one

came from the non Muslims.

There was a statue,

next to what was then the church of iron Sophia, with Constantine.

On top of that plinth

pointing towards Anatolia, which is Turkey.

And inscribed beneath it, from this direction will come the one who will undo me achieve Subhanallah Constantine, the first owner statue, inscribed, from this direction will come the man who will undo me this was during the siege, the Muslims came to learn of this.

I mean, how did this prophecy come about? And

how did they receive this knowledge? Was it maybe a prophet who existed during the time who informed Constantine the first we don't know Allah Allah. But this was a remarkable, a remarkable omen for the Muslims as well.

The fourth Omen was that there was an eclipse that happened.

So this is a lunar night.

And the moon eclipses into a crescent, this is on the 22nd of May 1453.

And what does the crescent represent in this context? My dear brothers and sisters, the

what does it represent?

The symbol of the Ottomans, that was their symbol, the crescent. So when the people of Constantinople saw the moon in the shape of a crescent, they panicked, and they felt that divine aid was being taken away from them, I checked the NASA website, myself, and you can do this yourselves. And you will find that there was an eclipse that happened on the 22nd of May 14 53. in Constantinople.

This was a huge omen and a push forward that maybe Allah was saying to them, just to show patience, I will help you just show patience.

The fifth omen that came for the Muslims. And this is again, coming from the Christian side, they said, we saw what seemed to be a huge light emanating from the back of ayah, Sophia church, going towards the heavens, and we interpreted this, that the Holy Spirit had left us

in support of the Muslims.

So they went into their churches, and they took out a huge ion picture of Mary the Virgin, and they lifted it, asking Allah or asking God to help them, and it began to rain heavily upon them. And the picture was thrown onto the, onto the ground. And that was the end of that as well.

So the point of mentioning this to your brothers and sisters, there were so many things that were happening to indicate that Allah subhanaw taala was supporting the believers. So Mohammed Al Fatiha hammer home, I realized that if he was going to overcome this difficult situation they were in, they needed to come up with a novel plan

and a novel plan he came up with.

By night, he traveled to the eastern side of Constantinople, which is where the bay was remember the Golden Horn.

And he instructed his men to pull 67 ships by hand

and to deploy them into the bay.

So they're going to pull 67 ships by land and over the hills to bypass that chain.

that we spoke about that they couldn't bypass. And what did they do? They made a wooden rails.

And they covered it with animal fat and grease.

And they began to pull the chips, one after the other until 67 of them were deployed inside of the eastern side of Constantinople within their golden horn Bay. So the miracle was threefold A, that it was done in just one night, an all nighter. Number 267 ships. Number three, this is the most amazing part of the miracle in a completely clandestine fashion.

They weren't discovered.

So, by the time the sun had risen,

the Christians of Constantinople are waking up to the sounds of tech, be it Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. They looked down from their walls, and they see 67 ships that had somehow bypassed the chain, a miracle.

And some of the non Muslim commentators have said that with this daring maneuver of Muhammad, and further, he had surpassed Alexander the Great, I mean, in our eyes, where is Julius Caesar? And who is Alexander the Great now nobody compared to Muhammad Rahim Allah, but for them, they said with this maneuver, he had surpassed Alexander the Great.

And so now there was an attack on the Western Front, on the Eastern Front, and it seemed that things were slowly picking up Allahu Akbar, we are now coming on to day 54 of the siege look just under two months in intense warfare. On this day, Muhammad Rahim Allah, this is the 28th of May 1453. He says to his men, purify yourselves,

and be sincere to Allah subhanaw taala. And intensify your Harada and repent to Him, and make this a night of prayer and is still far and do ha and vicar, Allah subhanaw taala is helping us.

And then on the next day, he delivered his final battle speech. And he said to his men, I instruct you all now to be in a state of fasting.

And he said, You do not destroy a church when we go in. You do not desecrate the land. You do not kill any of the clergyman, you don't harm the women. We don't rape, we don't loot we don't steal.

And this speech is said to have had a profound effect on the men who were with him, because it indicated that victory now was nearing. And as they were pounding those western walls indeed and opening was made. And finally 300 brave men, they ran inside carrying the Ottoman flag. And they ran through one of the watch towers, and they planted the flag from now inside of Constantinople. And each and every one of them was butchered Subhanallah not one of them remained. But the purpose of that flag was achieved.

As far as the people of Constantinople were concerned, the Muslims have entered. And as far as the Muslims were concerned, our flag is inside. So we have entered. And so there was chaos and havoc in the ranks of the Christians, and they fled to the east. And they boarded their ships. And most of them fled, with the exception to a few Constantine the 11th, being one of them, who fought until his death.

And so on the 29th of May 1453, a Sivan, Mohammed Al Fattah had achieved what no other 21 year old had ever achieved. He had just conquered Constantinople.

And he enters into the city

until he gets to the middle of Constantinople.

And he dismounts from his horse and he prostrates to Allah subhanho wa Taala in humility to him, and then he picks up some soil and he places it on his head, as if to say this victory was from Allah, to humble himself, to remind himself woman Massaro in laminine de la victory is only from Allah. And then he made his way to iron Sophia, which was still a church at the time.

I Sophia was the most important church in all of Orthodox Christendom.

And he went inside and he saw the religious men of Orthodox Christianity, and the women and children hiding there and fearing for their lives.

And he met their leaders one after the other

as he was reassuring them and giving them promises with respect to their property, and their lives and their works. And he gave rights that they had not experienced before. The way

He saw the way they saw him menu meeting the slaves or the captured these the the the the prisoners of war using his own money, many of them became Muslim just by virtue of the mercy of Muhammad Rahim Allah and the ethics of a true Muslim conqueror.

And one of the things that he did is that he told all of the denominations that were living in Constantinople were Christians and Jews and Armenians and Franciscans Franciscans are a subset of Catholic Christianity in Bosnia, he said, all of you will have the right to rule your communities according to the dictates of your own religion, we will move away from that, that's yours.

And they were even given autonomy to carry out capital punishment according to the dictates of each religion. And they were given their own prisons to punish people who had committed crimes in their religion.

And he said that your clergyman will all be exempt from taxes.

And interestingly, he said to them that all of the Christians that have fled Constantinople in the last 30 years or so inviting them back and tell them they aren't they are, they are safe here.

And he said the same to the Jews, and one of the Ashkenazi Jews, he wrote a message to all of the Jews around the world saying to them, come to the country of Turkey, come to the land of prosperity come to the land of peace, where you will be able to make as much gold and silver as you want without the Christian looking at you and wanting to persecute you for it. Come to the city of Constantinople, where you will not have to wear the yellow badges that you're wearing in Germany to humiliate you come, and here you will find prosperity and ease and life is cheap, and the land is rich, and there is abundance. And then he said that if you knew of just 1/10

of the happiness and the prosperity that we have here, you would not consider any burden too difficult to make your way here. He said, Come my brethren to the land of peace.

This was the reality of the conquest of Muhammad Fattah, of course Delta novel. And you compare that with how the Muslims were treated

when they became a minority.

I mean, they speak about Mohammed Al Fattah, having converted is Sophia into a mosque and they don't like that. First of all, the army of Muhammad Al Fatiha are now the new residents of Constantinople with the current people living there. They were more than the entire population of the whole city, just the army, they needed a place to pray. So he instructed that the ayah Sophia would be converted into a mosque. It was not desecrated all of the symbols of Christianity and the crucifix if they were merely covered.

And it was also a political message that he was sending that this center this church, were all of the affairs of Orthodox Christianity were administered from here, this has finished and no longer will you conspire against the Muslims. There was a political message he was sending as well. Seven other churches were converted into mosques, and the rest were kept for the Christians to accommodate for the new Muslims who are now living alongside the Christians and the Jews and the Armenians in Constantinople.

And they built a pulpit. And they waited for the Friday to come and the great shake auction. So Dean ascended the pulpit and he delivered the first Friday hotbar in Iowa, Sofia.

These are some of the main features of the conquest of Constantinople. I wanted to share with you brothers and sisters, and I just want to wrap up because we've gone over the mark

alum Hammond In fact, you have remained as active as ever remember, he's just 21 years old now. So he's the life is ahead of him.

And we said there were 170 military campaigns during his short life, he led 30 of them. The first of them

was the very year he came into power. And the last of them was the year he died. He did not stop.

As one of the historians said that there was nothing that was going to stand in the way of the determination of Muhammad the second IG Subhanallah and hug him. And then he decided after taking Islam to Romania, and he was the one who killed Dracula, by the way, and this is an established fact the slayer of Dracula was Mohammed Al Qaeda, in what they called back then Wallachia. He brought Islam to

South Russia. He brought it to Khurana and to Bosnia and Albania, south of Italy.

He was the one who delivered Islam to these places.

And Greece, he toured Athens for about six weeks, he conquered Greece, and he walked through Athens for about six weeks admiring the heritage and the history of the country.

And subhanAllah it seems as if the older

Muhammad was getting the more daring he was becoming. And he decided that now is the time to go to Rome, to the Vatican, to gather between the Eastern and Western empires of Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. And indeed, he made his way to Italy, and they landed south of Italy in a city called Toronto. And they defeated the first four that came in their way. And the Vatican, you can imagine they were shaking. There is nothing that's going to stop this young man but Allahu Allah. Allah is above everyone and no one escaped death. At the age of 49, they're in Italy, Muhammad began to experience the throes of death.

And so they left Italy and they made their way back to

Turkey. And at the age of 14 years old Muhammad Rahim, Allah is pure bless it, so inshallah returns back to its creator. So this is the end of Muhammad infatti. And there was huge celebrations all across Europe, and the bells of the churches were wrong. And there was an announcement that was made in Italy in Venice, saying like Randy Akela, and mortar, meaning the great eagle has died. Huge celebrations because he had created a momentum that Europe would not be able to stop until another 400 years after his death. It was a miracle La ilaha illallah praised by friend and foe, this is Muhammad. In fact, there are a whole lot, a few messages.

The first message, the importance of the team, your brothers and sisters, the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not just praise the conqueror of Constantinople, he praised the people who are with him, the team. So think of a project for yourself as a Muslim, as a Muslim. Ah, think of a project.

Every project requires a leader and requires a team. If you have a leader without a team. These are wasted ideas if you have a team but without a leader, that's a wasted resource you need both. You may not have been blessed with the ability to think of a vision for yourself to lead on a project, no problem, be part of a team that is be part of a team that has gone to the presidency. How can I help you? I am a man these are my skills. How can I help you? I am a woman. These are my resources. How can I help

look at the projects that are happening to serve the cause of Islam and attach yourself to it. Because the leader of a project is praiseworthy, and the team behind the project are just as praiseworthy. That's number one, the importance of the team. Number two, the importance of parenthood in delivering greatness in their children. The most important figure in the life of Muhammad Al Fatiha was not a Mullah Qurani and was not armed. shamsudeen It was his dad, Maura Thani.

His father from a very young age would bring his Son into the gatherings, the military conversations and he would say Son, listen, contribute. Give your opinion don't belittle yourself.

And he during battle would accompany his son to uproot from his heart fear and, and cowardice and to not be afraid of meeting an enemy.

That was his father who did that. And I want you to realize his brothers and sisters, empower your children, give them tasks. Don't sit there proud as a parent smug when your child is sat next to you thinking mashallah, look, he or she is abusing me unconditionally. They don't bat an eyelid. They're still as a statue, so obedient, masha Allah and you think that this is the ultimate achievement of a parent. That's a ticking time bomb that sat next year

that's waiting to implode or explode. Because the rule says, the child who obeys you unconditionally will obey anybody else later on in life unconditionally, and then you may get a deviant,

in their beliefs deviant in their actions, deviant in their sexuality, perverse, whatever it may be, and the child doesn't know how to say no, because you uprooted that from him or her from a very young age. Should Be quiet. Don't speak shush. Don't talk Don't be naughty. A child has to be naughty, naughty, they're supposed to be a little bit reckless give them opportunities, give them space, give them tasks, or marble hubbub he asked the Companions What do you think of the verse Are you ever do have to come and Tagalog agenda to read for Soto Bukhara what does it mean? And there was a young man there called Abdullah him not as a child. The young boy said If enough semen Harsha

uni Ameerul Momineen I think I have I have an answer. I just don't want to speak almost said to him Coleoptera Viva la Nuff said no speak nephew speak don't belittle yourself. See how they empowered the children. But you keep suffocating them. You keep telling them to be quiet. Do not speak I am shy. I'm not shy. Don't speak. What happens

That child implodes or explodes, what does that look like they will either implode, meaning they grew up to become weak, demoralized, devastated individuals withdrawn. They don't want to speak, they don't want to contribute. They're afraid of failure. They don't want to test things they don't want to innovate,

withdrawn.

They just want to binge on Netflix, Netflix all day. They talk to you through WhatsApp, but they never pick up a phone call,

let alone you know, the travesty of needing to make eye contact.

Who did that we did that. Or he will explode because of that suffocation. What is exploding look like? Just testing out every perversion that's out there.

So your child

is an extension to your heritage and an extension to your legacy.

Your child if we play it right. And you see especially my sisters, because our hopes are upon Allah then yourselves and the conspiracy is upon you more than anyone else, to look at motherhood as being something small and pathetic in the grand scheme of things behind Mohammed Al Fatiha was a man and was a dad. And they are no less significant in the eyes of Allah even though we may not celebrate them as much today.

Your child will be a continuation of those good deeds you couldn't do in your life, and a completion of the project that you started. Don't be that person whose life ends with your death. That wouldn't be a wasted opportunity, who will carry on your legacy your children invest in them. Don't let anybody convince you that motherhood specifically and then fatherhood is not the most important of all professions and trades and crafts are out there.

There were two other messages actually I wanted to share with you but I will stop here and then I think we've gone over the hour mark. So, John, we will conclude. I hope this has given you some inspiration brothers and sisters to look further into the life of Muhammad Rahim Allah, Hamelin Father

and to the other soul times of the Earth, manically left.

And to really brush up on our knowledge of history. And then most importantly, to take that knowledge and to convert it into a reality or project that you pursue. And you put yourself on the map in the eyes of Allah, gender Jellico.

Find your strengths.

Find your passions, which are more important than your strengths. Find a way to channel them in the service of Islam. And then number four, persevere, continue, continue and don't allow yourself to be set back by any negativity. Mohamed Al Fatiha was a he suffered 29 assassination attempts wasn't setback. He had gout which is a severe type of arthritis a buildup of uric acid. And he would he would be rendered immobilized for months on end. He'd have to be carried from person to person for months on end. And sometimes he passed out because of the pain they thought he died.

That's my mother in fact, but he wouldn't allow that to set him back. Muhammad referred to when he was five he lost his older brother, Muhammad. Then when he was around seven and eight, his other brother Ali al Deen died. And then when he was 17, his mum died. Then when he was 19, his dad died. And then when he became a husband and a father, his son Mustafa at the age of 23, died and that really broke him. But during the grieving he was with his military generals planning for the ummah.

We say 170 battles Mohammed Al Fattah had,

how many was he victories in 105? What about 65? Better defeat? Why don't we talk about the defeats he went through to realize that you will go through setbacks in your life, but you continue. In fact, just six years after he conquered Constantinople, he went to Serbia to conquer Belgrade, which was even more fortified than Constantinople. That's another story. And they lost. The Ottomans were delivered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Serbs and the Hungarians.

And that's why you hear the bell ringing at noon ever thought about why the bell rings at 12.

That's to celebrate the defeat of the Ottomans.

And not yet you had Pope

Pope Castile as

Pope Castile is the sixth, who told all of the European churches

to wring their bounds when the Ottomans were arriving to Belgrade and they laid siege on it to support the Christians. And all of the churches in Europe were ringing their bells at noon, and it has become a tradition ever since. So when you hear it in butetown, and it's an Orthodox Church, by the way, that rings his bell as well interest interestingly, right? Remember, that's setback. But what did he do? He didn't cry over spilled milk. And he received an arrow to his fire during that invasion, by the way, and he bled so profusely that they thought he died and they went back and that defeat had bitter consequences for the automatically left and they lost

A lot of territory because of it.

He recuperated

and went back to Belgrade and defeated it.

So, everybody has a battle in their life a battle where they are successful, and every one of us will experience a knockout defeat.

One day for use on the against you sometimes you win sometimes you learn. The believer is not set back by adversity. It's a motivation to find those flaws in your game to review them to discover those blind spots, and then to move again and to advance and to perfect your game with Allah azza wa jal.

Anyway, as you can see, the conversation is long. We ask Allah Subhana Allah to forgive us into partners. We ask Allah subhanaw taala to have mercy upon me Nina. Mohamed infatti Rahim Allah have died and we ask Allah to give him the highest grades in Jannah. We ask Allah subhanaw taala to prepare from us and from our children, his likes and those who will be better, who will carry forward the flag of Islam at every department in life and in every field of their life. Also Milan and Amina Mohammed Al Hamdulillah