Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Aya Sofia, Masjids, Churches, Treaties And Conquest
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AI: Transcript ©
I have received a deluge of
requests for information,
particular and general inquiries,
and,
a number of very
heartfelt and strong,
opinions,
varying quality,
as well as a number of bad takes
with regards to the recent
decision in Turkey to
start reusing
the Hagia Sophia as a,
as a masjid.
The Hagia Sophia,
the Hagia Sophia, the Cathedral Church of the,
holy or sacred wisdom,
which was built in the 6th century
by
the Byzantine Roman Emperor Justinian,
not only as a cathedral church but as
a mark of the,
greatness of his state. It's really an impressive
building, especially for how early it was
built. That church was,
the first place,
that the Jummah masjid
the Jummah prayer, I should say, was established
in Istanbul,
after,
the conquest of Istanbul by Sultan Mohammed Fateh,
Mohammed the second,
who,
his victory was prophesied by the messenger of
Allah
in a hadith which is recorded in the
Muslim of Imam Ahmed,
which is beautifully,
displayed at his Mazar,
at the Fatiha Masjid,
which was itself also originally a church of
the holy apostles.
That the messenger of Allah
said,
That a day will come when,
Constantinople
will be conquered.
And, what a wonderful,
commander will that commander be, and what a
wonderful army will that army be.
And so
I guess there's a lot of people who
seem to have a problem with,
first, the
use of that,
place as a masjid.
And, secondly, with the restoration to its use
as a masjid.
Because
when Ataturk,
took over,
Turkey
and abolished the
caliphate and very rapidly secularized,
the,
the government,
of Turkey and took it
from a pluralistic,
rule based on the values of Islam
to
a very aggressive,
type of nationalism.
He
turned that, symbol of the
conquest of Islam,
over,
Constantinople
into,
into a museum.
And so,
you know,
there's a number of, I guess,
discomforts that people have
and a number
of hang ups that people have
with regards to this entire,
with regards to this entire matter.
So let's just start from the beginning.
Why are Muslims fighting with Byzantine
Romans anyway?
And, one can very definitively and squarely say,
that the, the Byzantines were the ones who
started it. And when did they start it?
Not with the Ottomans, not with the
not with the
or with
not even with the rather with the messenger
of Allah
himself.
That when news of,
his
and his ascendency in Madinah Munawara,
and in the Arabian Peninsula came,
then, there was actually an army that was
sent to the Arabian Peninsula from the Byzantine
Romans
to check,
the rise of Islam.
And,
the messenger of Allah
sent an army to engage them.
And a very well known battle from the
Sira occurred at that, that time. It's called
the battle of Muhtar,
in which,
3 very prominent,
companions of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wasallam, were martyred in a pitched battle in
order to,
block the, Byzantine army from entering,
the Arabian Peninsula and entering Hejaz,
namely,
who was in Jahiliyah, the adopted son of
the messenger of Allah
He was martyred in that battle,
and he was the closest,
person to the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi
wa sallam, one of the first people to
accept Islam.
And, had, it been in the Qadr of
Allah
that he,
outlived the messenger, oh, Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. I don't think it's farfetched to say
that,
he would have been,
in the order of the the
of the messenger of Allah. And then after
him said,
Jafar Abdul Abitalib, the full brother of Abid
Nabaleb, who was nicknamed Jafar Abdul Bayard
because people saw in visions after his martyrdom,
him flying through the ranks,
ascending the ranks,
in Jannah.
And then after him said,
And, this was interestingly enough the first time
that bin Walid, who was a relatively new
convert at the time, took command,
of the Muslim army.
And,
through
a story that you can familiarize yourself with
through the sera,
they were able to
essentially
convince the Romans that their army was far
larger than it was,
in order for them to
prudently,
choose to, not advance and to go back.
And,
the,
subsequent
round 2 during the life of the messenger
of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Salam of this conflict
was
the battle of Tabouk,
or I should say the Gaza of Tabouk
because there was no battle.
But, the messenger of Allah
took an army,
which was the most well equipped,
army that, the Muslims,
to date ever were able to marshal.
And,
they marched,
in
a,
you know, in a chapter from the life
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, much
of which is,
mentioned and dealt with in Surat
the very important chapter of the life of
the prophet.
And so it starts from them. And then
through the ages of the
and through the,
ages of all the successive dynasties that rule
the Muslims,
there is one clash after the other between
the Muslims and between the,
between the,
Byzantine Romans. And interestingly enough,
you know, many Muslims lament sectarian bickering and
civil
war. And when they read about the companions
of the
and their fitna that they have between them,
they oftentimes will,
lament and make comments about things really that
they shouldn't make comments about. But it's recorded
in history that the Byzantine,
Romans
actually offered
that we will ally with you against Ali.
And,
will ally with you against Ali.
And,
who famously responded to them to the effect
that Ali is my cousin and this is
my these are our internal matters between the
2 of us. And if you ever bring
this,
idea up again that somehow,
I'm going to involve you in my fight
against him or in my dispute against him,
I said that I will immediately cancel all,
outstanding,
disagreement with him, and the and and the
2 of us will essentially team up and,
show up at your door. So just don't
ever bring this up again.
And so this was a a an issue
that transcended
any sort of,
any sort of, sectarian or political,
victory,
because it was understood by all of them
that, the the Byzantines basically had it out
for the Muslims from from day 1.
And that's how empire functions.
And so
this will in every age successively and through
every dynasty, this conflict will stay alive.
Through the crusades,
the, Byzantines will initially,
see the armies of the Western Christians as,
being some, some sort of aid and support
against the Muslims,
they will rapidly regret that because the Crusaders
at some point will actually end up sacking
Istanbul or Constantinople,
we should say,
to be historically accurate.
And,
it's just a really long, twisted, and messed
up saga,
which culminates in the
the the conquest by Sultan Mohammed Fati,
Muhammad the second,
of Istanbul
in the year, 1453
of the common era.
And
now that we have established that this is
a very
old,
dispute and feud that really had to come
to some sort of,
conclusion one way or the other.
We
now come to the issue of what should
have been done with thee, with the Cathedral
Church of Hagia Sophia.
And
because there are people at different levels of
understanding,
from those who claim,
to be representing Islam and Muslims.
We will then thoroughly,
you know, take
a number of avenues in order to,
explore whether or not its original,
conversion into a masjid was
proper or not.
And so first off from the,
perspective
of somebody who believes in Islam,
and somebody who believes in the sharia
and somebody who believes in the, the codification
of the Sharia through the centuries.
We look
that, you know, because there are people saying,
well, look, you know, Sadam Omar,
you know, when Jerusalem was conquered,
he
didn't make the churches into masajid.
Rather, he respected them as churches. And it's
very well known about said that when it
was time for his salat,
the the patriarchy of Jerusalem actually offered him
to pray his salat in the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher.
And he, purposely,
in his sagacity,
chose not to pray inside the church because
he said the Muslims who come afterward, because
I prayed here, they'll turn it into a
masjid. And so he went, to another place
and prayed. And that that masjid actually became
a a Masjid. Masjid Omar is a Masjid
in,
in Jerusalem, and it's
actually inside the Christian quarter. It's a beautiful
Masjid, a very spiritual place. It goes down
into the earth much like the, Masjid al
Aqsa does. And, so see, well, this is
what Islam really is.
And, look,
if you believe in Islam
and you believe in the supremacy of the
Sharia,
supremacy not meaning, like, beat down everybody else,
but that this is revealed by Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. It's revealed by God. It's a
divinely revealed religion.
And, its
teachings, carry spirituality
and and a,
a a a reality with it that transcends
mundane things.
Then within that channel, there are 2 avenues
that a person can take. 1 is that
you believe in the, codification of the that
was given by our and our elders.
And so the ruling,
the ruling interpretation of the which,
was upheld by most of the,
most of the states throughout the history of
Islam,
including the Hanafi sorry, including the,
Ottoman state
is the.
So let's look at what the,
you know, what the treatment of this issue
is in Hanafi Madhub.
So we read from,
a a canonical,
work from which the fatwa of the Hanafi
Mad Heb is taken.
The relevant text.
And so he mentions he mentions here he
says that every,
every
metropolis
from the metropoli of the,
of of the polytheists. Here, the word polytheist
is used as a,
a cognate for for a person of that
person who's not a Muslim.
That the Muslims,
their,
ascendency
and suzerainty,
is established,
therein
by the imam of the Muslims. Here, the
imam doesn't mean the prayer prayer leader, but
the political leader of the Muslims. Anwata,
Meaning, it was like a pitched battle. There
was no surrender. There was no terms. There
was no ceasefire. There was no civil treaty.
Rather,
purely through the use of force.
The people who are conquered,
they will,
they will receive the status of. They will
become subjects of the state,
non Muslim subjects of the state, who if
they practice a religion which is
has origins in Revelation,
then they will be allowed to keep, keep
their religion,
and, will pay a poll tax
in order to receive the rights of the
citizen of the state that is Muslim.
And,
because of their poll tax, obviously, they'll be
exempted from religious obligations like paying zakat and
and other things that, like that.
And whatever,
whatever, places of worship,
ancient or old places of worship that are
there,
they forfeit the right to,
to those places and to gather in those
places for worship
because of the fact that they did not,
they did not pursue terms when they were
offered.
And,
it was only through, conquest that, their, you
know, their lands were subdued. And so their
public places of worship then, will belong to
the Muslims.
And they have the right there thereafter to,
restrict them from worshiping in them. Although,
Kasani,
he mentions, in his Badar Sanayat that it's
not proper that such places should be
destroyed.
Rather,
if he wishes to, he can
turn it into,
like,
residential,
property or something like that.
But the point is is that they forfeit
the right to those, places of worship.
We see in other other texts.
So he essentially mentions mentions the same thing
that,
those places that are conquered by by force,
and the,
people are not they don't accept the, the
the terms of surrender
or of truce,
then
there's a difference of opinion whether or not,
the the Muslims should
or should not should but have the right
to destroy those buildings or not. And so
he mentions that they really they shouldn't be
destroyed.
However, they lose the right to those, they
lose the right to those buildings,
as opposed to when there's and this is
another thing people,
you know, people should remember that we are
obliged as Muslims. We're obliged to,
by the Sharia,
even if there's conflagration.
Like, look, this ancient war that was essentially
started by the Byzantines against the Arabs and
against the Muslims from the time of the
prophet
himself.
It's very clear that that that that
that that that war will have to come
to some con conclusion or another because the
Romans are not known to just, like, let
people live, you know, to pursue the live
and let live,
philosophy.
People can accuse the Muslims of that as
well, but the Romans are not people who
are, like, in the moral high ground,
with regards to that accusation. They say people
in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
So it was, you know, politically,
it should be understood by anyone who has
common sense that that that, conflagration was going
to have to come to some sort conclusion
or another.
However, Muslims as Muslims, we're ritually obliged to
offer terms of surrender to,
to when I say we, I'm not talking
about me. I'm sitting in Brook Park, Ohio
right
now.
I don't offer terms of surrender because I'm
not fighting wars against anyone. But the Muslim
polity,
sovereign polity of the Muslims, whatever polity it
is, if they are fighting a war and
the war is just, even if they have
the upper hand in terms of their, in
terms of the military,
capabilities.
We're ritually they are ritually. We as Muslims,
but they as, sovereign polity are ritually obliged
to offer terms of surrender.
And if those terms are accepted,
not to fight, not to take places by
force.
And so,
what happens is,
if those terms which are offered,
by necessity, If they are not accepted,
then thereafter,
there is no obligation to,
there's no obligation to
keep the,
usage of these places of worship for those
communities.
As opposed to if those, terms are accepted,
then there is again a ritual obligation that
we have to allow them to,
keep their places of worship until unless they,
in negotiation
of surrender,
voluntarily,
forego those rights for some other,
right, in its place.
And so that is, that is clear. And
this clears up the misconception that people have
that said, he
he kept the sanctity of the churches of
Jerusalem.
Why did he keep the sanctity of churches
of Jerusalem? The reason he kept the sanctity
of the churches of Jerusalem was
because the patriarch
the orthodox patriarchy of Jerusalem
negotiated terms of surrender. The Muslims didn't fight
for Jerusalem, rather they were voluntarily
it surrendered itself
to the army of Sayidna Amar and
one of the terms of the surrender was
that Sayidna Amar has to come and accept
the surrender himself personally. So he actually went
from Madinah
on a donkey,
with 1 servant. The 2 of them traveled,
and it's very famous that when he, you
know, he would take turns that one day,
the the he would ride.
And one day the servant would ride. And
the day that they arrived in Jerusalem, the
servant, it was his turn to ride. And
so,
they thought that the servant was the harifa
and it wasn't.
And then all of the other things that
happened thereafter,
they're all within the context of what? They're
in the context of,
of of
of
Jerusalem being
surrendered voluntarily
upon the terms that were,
ritually
obliged upon us by Allah His Rasulullah as
an and upon them as a sovereign polity.
And so
that's that's the difference between the 2. And,
so if you, believe in the Sharia and
you accept the authority of FIP, this is
what the Hanafi Madhab says, and this is
what the Madhab say in general. Right?
Right?
And lands
are then 3.
He says the one that is established by
the Muslims,
like Kufa, like Basra, like Baghdad, like Wasit.
There are cities that were built from the
ground up by the Muslims. He says that
it's not permissible to have any,
places of worship,
other than those of Islam and those places.
The Muslims build their own places. They're not
there to build the places of worship for
other, for other religions.
And Islam has an exclusivity,
you know, it has a exclusive claim to
truth like many other religions have.
And,
you know, one of the unique things about
Islam is that we could negotiate having an
exclusive truth claim
while having systems in place to get along
with other people who also have a mutually
exclusive truth claim. Then we say that the
day of judgement when we meet the lord,
we'll find out who's on truth. Until then,
we don't have to fight and kill each
other.
We have ways of getting along, but that
doesn't mean that we forego our our our,
the exclusivity exclusivity of our truth claim. And
so
if the Muslims build their own city, then
it should be natural to understand that they
would only
build in those cities that they've built,
places for worship,
of Islam and not for other other religions
that that that we consider, not to be
on the path of guidance.
Even if some of them have origins,
and guidance,
but they've strayed from that path.
So, that's the first type of that's the
first type of metropolis.
And he says this the the he he
said he says that it's not permissible to
have any places of worship for other religions
like that. And he says, like those cities,
are, those cities that are, that are conquered
through force.
Meaning that there's a war between the Muslims
in another place, and the other place doesn't
accept the terms of treaty.
Rather, they force,
they force the,
the war to come to a conclusion
through through through fighting and through,
violence.
And, in such a case, then those places,
if they're conquered, then they then take the
same ruling as those cities that were built
from the ground up by the Muslims.
And as far as those places that,
are conquered through through treaty or through truce,
those truths truths is that we're obliged as
Muslims to offer people,
not we as in me, but Muslims, their
policies are obliged to offer to people.
And so he he mentions that. He says
that, he mentions that that in those places,
not only can they keep their places of
worship, they can also, have,
have other new places of worship.
As for the places of worship that were
there before the Muslims,
attained serenity over those lands.
As for those that are conquered,
conquered through war,
they can be left and they can be
used as places of residence, but they're not
used as places of worship.
And for those places that are, that come
into the, into the fold of, the Muslim
polity through treaty and truce, which again we're
richly obliged to
offer, then they can stay as places of
worship for the people who, who worship there
from before.
And so he says he says that this
is the opinion that's there in the Bahar
Bahar,
I'm assuming.
So pay attention. And so a little bit
lower in the Ibarra,
he mentions Pakistani's,
poll. He says, he says, the call of
And so
actually mentions a harsher opinion, but
we're not gonna go with that opinion.
Rather we're gonna,
we're we're gonna go with the, the more
lenient of the 2.
If not for any other reason, I mean,
it is It's actually the more proper opinion,
but also,
there's no need to resort to the harsher
opinion in order to make our points. The
point is is what
Constantinople,
did not
accede to the Ottomans,
demand for surrender.
Rather, it was one of the most spectacular
sieges and one of the most,
spectacular conquests in the history of the world,
in the history of human beings. And there's
an entire set of,
stories with regards to that. Some are historical,
some are folkloric, some are legends.
And if anyone has seen the walls of
that city, know that whatever happened, it must
have been really big.
And so when the Muslims conquered it,
sultan Muhammad Fati
by the right of the Sharia according to
the canonical interpretation of the
of the in general and in particular, the
he
had the right to take that,
to take that place
and do whatever he wanted to with it.
And this is claimed that this is, an
Islamic or whatever. We have,
unfortunately,
the the president and former general secretary of,
ISNA, the Islamic Society of North America,
made a statement, which I'm later told that,
it wasn't an official
statement by ISNA. Rather, he just kind of
went rogue and and said it on his
own.
He mentions,
he mentions wrongly,
out of place
the, practice of the prophet
and his rightly guided caliphs.
And, he said that according to that,
the holy places of other, religions are to
be,
are to be,
respected, which in some condition is true, but
this is
saying,
something that is not in its place. It's
out of place.
And, unfortunately,
there are many people who are,
abjectly untrained in in in the understanding of
Sharia, but they feel
happy, just,
you know, uncomfortable just talking about stuff. Just
basically making things up. And,
and so he mentions that,
the the act of restoring that masjid to
its masjid status. Once a masjid, always a
masjid. That's the way works. He says it
is unfortunate that such an act is not
giving glory to Islam, which strongly forbids Muslims
from such a sacrilegious act. So he essentially
calls keeping that masjid, the masjid,
a blasphemy,
which is
it's just it's just patently ridiculous. I mean,
it's embarrassing to be honest with you.
If anyone has any,
strings to pull with Isna, he should apologize
for this. Not only did he make the
statement out of place,
but he,
he what he spoke was wrong.
And, he said the wrong thing. He said
it in the wrong way without being much
more with his with his sure counsel.
And,
strangely enough, it
it's ended up making the rounds on the,
on the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese
of America
just in a way to just take potshots
at the Muslims. And,
you know, the Orthodox Archdiocese of America,
you know,
let's just say that they're not you know,
they haven't
reciprocated
any sort of concern for, Muslims,
not only in Greece and their places of
worship in Greece.
But in general, you know, this being the,
you know, close to the,
anniversary
of the massacre in Srebrenica, which was also,
something that happened at the hands of the
Orthodox Church. It's just it's just shameful. It's
just shameful for for him to, bend the
deen backwards and pander in such a bizarre
way to people who obviously,
don't have much concern for the Muslims
at any rate. So,
as,
us being in America and Americans don't like
us accepting authority, there are many people who
say, well, who cares about the Han of
Imam Have? You know, we don't we don't
I bought off of the are not the
Quran, and they're not the hadith of the
prophet.
You know? Sayed Omar upheld the places
of worship of,
of of the Christians. Therefore, every Muslim has
to uphold the, the sanctity of the places
of worship of every other religion,
universally. Well, the prophet
he conquered
and he, destroyed the idols of the and
people say, well, there's no,
precedent of Muslims
destroying the,
the places of worship of other people. They
say, well, the Kaaba was originally
and so that's okay. Well, the prophet also
sent
to the temple of Lot.
I believe in 5,
and,
it was destroyed as well.
Although they were offered the opportunity to destroy
it with their own hands and their superstition
forbid them from doing so.
But it was all of these temples were
destroyed in the Arabian Peninsula.
Someone might say, well, you know, that's special
for the,
the places of worship of the Arab.
They they don't follow
the the the same ruling of the Christians
and Jews. Well, you don't believe in 5th
in the first place. So, go ahead and
prove what the difference is and make your
own love and and and establish all of
that.
Otherwise,
otherwise, the,
you know, there is precedent
between the 2? The difference between the two
is there's a difference between those people who
accept,
those people accept,
terms,
versus those people who
force a type of total war that has
to end in in complete victory based on
violence and not based on truce. Because the
sunnah is always to do things the easy
way rather than to do them the the
hard way.
Then this brings us to,
those people who are humanists,
and they don't, they're saying, well, we're Muslims
culturally. I mean, they may not say this
openly, but,
you know, the subtext is is very clear
for people that we're Muslims culturally, but all
of this Islam's supremacy, we don't
Ramadan or whatever. But, you know, we're not
eat samosas in Ramadan or whatever.
But, you know, we're not trying to make
a sincere
and a
real effort to actually implement Islam in our
lives.
But,
you know, we're not concerned with any of
that, but we wanna keep our cultural identity
or our what our quasi ethnic identity is
Muslims.
And
on that basis, we are embarrassed in front
of people of other faiths. You know, why
is this thing, become, you know,
being used again as a masjid after it
was a museum
because it it embarrasses us in front of
in front of those people.
And this attitude is bankrupt even according to
humanist
values.
Why?
What is what is, like, the the the
the the, like, most basic
morality of humanism?
I think, actually, it's not even this. It's
just the law of the jungle. But even
humanists who argue or atheists who argue that
being an atheist or being a humanist is
not fundamentally a carte blanche to be an
immoral person. They'll say, well, you know,
they'll say they'll say something like, you know,
the golden rule is what defines,
our
our morality. Do on and to others as
you would like to have done to yourself.
So
why is it that all of these,
all of these people, you know,
have whether they're Muslims or non Muslims really
doesn't matter.
Why is it all of them have this,
like, strange outrage
about
this one place, which was used as a
place of worship
by the Muslims,
you know, since the conquest
of of of of Constantinople.
And they're completely blank when it comes to
all of the Muslim places of worship
in Greece,
in Bulgaria,
in Romania,
in,
Serbia,
right, in Croatia,
in all of these places that were destroyed.
A number of those places of worship, one
can make the argument that the Muslims have
built a masjid over the ruins of another
church. But there are a number of places
of worship that weren't like that.
But nobody cares.
Nobody cares. There are massages in Palestine that
have been turned into bars. Nobody says anything
about that.
There are massages in in in in Turkestan,
in China,
in like, politically under the suzerainty of China,
but in East Turkestan,
where the Uighur,
people live. Literally, in front of our eyes,
they're being turned into bars. There are massages
and graveyards of the Muslims in in in
Palestine. You can call it Israel if you
want.
Call it whatever you want. A rose by
any other name. Right?
They're being turned into they're being turned into
bars. They're being turned into parking lots. They're
being turned into all sorts of stuff right
in front of our eyes. Nobody says anything
about them. I haven't seen say it's a
go rogue, the president of ISNA go rogue
and make a you know, feel so passionate
about this that I have to make a
statement,
without even consulting with the other members of
the Surer Council,
with regards to any of these things. They
don't care.
They
don't care.
They the or the the Orthodox Patriarchate, are
they going to make such a big fuss
about it? No.
They're not going to.
And this,
you know, this type of bankruptcy,
which is what? When it comes to when
it comes to our humanity,
we're gonna make a big fuss about it.
And then when it comes to the another
person's humanity or when it comes to another
person's rights or another person's culture or another
person's religion,
you know, we're gonna disrespect it. The fun
part is even from the point of humanism,
one of the interesting things, right, is that
the you know, a reason that the golden
rule is so important. Right? Even to people
it can be appreciated even by people who
don't,
who don't believe in any any sort of
higher power.
The reason is as a human being, we
are
psychologically wired
to see ourselves in other people.
This is why, you know,
when you see another person being tortured, when
you see them being beaten, when you see
them being disrespected, you feel pain inside of
your heart. Why? Because you identify with that
person. You see that that person is like
me. In fact,
genocide and torture and * and all these
horrible things, human beings can't bring themselves to
do that. Violence, they can't bring themselves to
do that. And so the architects of genocide
always have to dehumanize the other person
in order to get people to in order
to get people to subscribe to such, violent
and such, horrible behavior.
Man, forget about forget about dehumanization. A human
being doesn't even like to see an animal
being slaughtered. You don't even like seeing a
chicken being slaughtered. You don't even like seeing
a a a cow,
being slaughtered. You don't even like seeing a
goat being slaughtered. It causes you pain. Why?
Because you see yourself in that other living
thing.
And so if people don't have even that
much inside of them, forget about humanism, they
don't even have mammalism or vertebraism
inside of them,
then how morally bankrupt is it for us
to join on the bandwagon? And what benefit
do you think alliance with such people is
going to be?
And the fun part is is this, forget
about the Hagia Sophia. Every masjid in Turkey.
Every masjid in Turkey.
Whether it's the Hagia Sophia or another one,
non Muslims are always welcome in those places.
They have to observe some sort of decorum
and protocol, but that's universal. You can't just
walk into,
You
can't just walk into, you know, you can't
just walk into a Burger King buck naked.
Right? We have different, definitions of what is,
clothing and what's
not. We have different definitions. For Burger King,
it may be different. For a courtroom in,
you know, in America, it may be different.
So the definitions may change, but the
idea is that there are protocols for coming
into different spaces.
As long as a person
observed that protocol, man, woman, a person of
any faith can enter into any of our
places of worship in Turkey as Muslims,
and nobody's gonna say anything to them. Nobody's
gonna say get out of here, you you
CAF or you infidel. No.
That's not how it works.
People can come into the Hagia Sophia. It's
not gonna be like the Jamia Master of
Cordoba,
which
was by force turned into a cathedral even
though nobody wants to worship there anymore now
that the Christians have the upper hand in
that place because of.
If you open it up for the Muslims,
watch how the Muslims will flock there and
pray.
And if you try praying 2 rak aab
there,
you're going to be escorted out by force.
It's not like that in in in the
Hagia Sophia. So this kind of weird, like,
internal, like, heart attack people are having, like,
oh my god. You're embarrassing at me in
front of my non Muslim friends
or, you know, somehow, like, this kind of
misplaced,
idea that that that Muslims have this, like,
sacred
obligation to protest against the, quote, unquote, sacrilege
of,
of the Hagia Sophia being turned into a,
turned into a masjid. It's not being turned
into a masjid. In fact and so I'm
not a historian, so you don't have to
take my word for it. Go ahead and
research this. But what what we've been shown,
is that actually,
even though he was not obliged to do
so,
the,
Sultan Mohammed Fateh,
he,
actually
paid the the Orthodox Patriarchate
for,
that
cathedral church which was out of use for
a very long time, probably centuries.
It was in complete decay,
and it was out of use. Travelers would
come and go and they would see that
the building was falling apart, it was not
maintained properly.
And so he purchased it from them, and
he fixed it up. This is one thing
people should remember,
with regards to Constantinople. I mean, I know
it's it's like a a bruise to the
ego of Europe
that,
the,
you know, the capital of the Eastern Roman
Empire, which out of the two capitals, Rome
and Constantinople,
for,
you know, for for over a 1000 years
was the more powerful of the 2.
It was a holy city for the Orthodox
Church, and it remains a holy city for
the Orthodox Church. So it's obviously it's painful.
They're not gonna be excited about Muslims,
taking it over and conquering it and living
there.
But interestingly
enough, one of the things I see that
western historians do to console themselves in order
to make their
civilization
seem big and the civilization of the Muslims
seem petty
is what they say. Well, the one of
the reasons that Sultan Mohammed Fatih was able
to conquer Constantinople is it was already in
decay.
The entire city was in decay. It was
something like a tenth of its original,
population or a tenth of its population at
its peak. The buildings were in decay.
The empire was nothing more than just a
city state of Constantinople. It was unable to
defend itself. So it wasn't really that big
or spectacular victory.
Okay. That's fine.
Great. Wonderful. Right? I mean, I've I don't,
like, wake up in the morning saying how
are the Muslims gonna rub the noses of
the Romans into the ground or whatever. What
happened happened. It's fine.
But then listen to
listen to those historians when they say that
and look at it, you know, the they
call it Constantinople.
Right? I'm not gonna get it. You can
call Constantinople if you want to. It's not
a big deal. The prophet himself called it
Constantania.
Right? Look at Constantinople
at the time that the, that sultan Mohammed
Fatih took it over. What did he do
with it?
He he bought this old building, which was
completely
decrepit and falling apart.
And him and his
descendants,
they populated it with worshipers.
They built it up, they fixed
it. They made it vibrant again. They made
it something that another person would say, we
wish, we wish, you know, it was still
a church. Otherwise, it wasn't a church, not
because the Muslims made it not a church.
It wasn't functioning in the church because
it was abandoned by the,
by
the,
orthodox Christian state
that was unable to
to make it function. Not just the Hagia
Sophia, but the entire Constantinople.
Literally, he he drafted
tribes, Turkic tribes from all over Anatolia
and had them settle the different places of
the city so that city that had become
desolated and had become empty would become vibrant
again. And look at Istanbul from the time
of sultan Muhammad Fatiha until this day, it's
such a vibrant city. It's such a vibrant
city. It's so packed and bustling, filled with
people. It's
a lively city. It's somewhere a person Muslim
and non Muslim alike, you know,
pious
and, you know,
the alternative to
Alike. Everybody is, like, wowed by the city.
Why? They made it into something.
There's not a square inch of that city
that you cannot find the Muslims invested into
making that city something beautiful,
that the Ottomans invested something into making that
city beautiful.
That he actually
paid money to the orthodox
church, and there's a deed of sale. And
then as his personal property, he dedicated it
as a waqf as a masjid and it
cannot be revoked.
Now someone might say, well, you know, his
purchase was,
his purchase was under duress, you know, like,
they wouldn't have sold it to him if
he didn't conquer the city. That's fine.
That's fine.
He wasn't obliged even to do that much,
even to make that
sale. Not by the law of the jungle,
not by the law of humanism of doing
to others
what you would like to have done to
yourself, reciprocity, I should say,
nor by the law of Islam. But he
did it. And one very interesting thing, and
I wanna conclude on this, on this point.
We have the the the
the the document
in which,
Sultan Mohammed, you know, his,
was made, and it's written in beautiful handwriting.
The last,
the last you know, some of the last
words in that in that document are, the
that endowment document are what?
So
this is a man, the righteousness to of
whom was attested to by the messenger of
Allah
when
he chartered that this building would be restored
and then used as a as a masjid
until the day of judgement
as all masajas are.
He said, whoever whoever
attempts, whoever hustles and makes an attempt
to
undo,
the endowment of this place as a masjid.
May Allah
never accept from
him. May Allah
never accept from him any sort of plea
for justice
nor uh-uh any sort of, bargain on the
day of judgement. May Allah, may Allah. And
basically, it's an it's a in the
language of the Quran. It's
an invoking of a curse,
on such a people.
And so the person who the prophet said
what a wonderful commander will that person be,
don't shoot your mouth off on Facebook and
on Twitter and, like, you know, write articles
and, like, you know, whether you're the president
of ISNA or just some person on,
on social media. Don't shoot your mouth off
trying to,
trying
to, revoke the masjid status of that building,
which was forever. It is forever a place
of worship.
Don't try to revoke that that status,
which is itself a sin. Sin. And then
thereafter also enter yourself into the curse of
Sultan Mohammed Fateh,
which fell on the heads of people like
Ataturk who who did that, who they they
revoked,
or tried to undo
the status of that place as a place
of worship.
Don't cast your lot with that can.
A, it's a sin, and plus, this is
Sultan Mohammed himself, the messenger of Allah,
praised him. Don't
voluntarily drag yourself underneath this curse.
Allah give us.
Allah
give
us. And, you know, this is a message
to our,
our brothers and sisters, for them to to
give heed and consideration.
And, it's not there to rub, you know,
the faces of the noses of Christians into
the ground. Trust me, if there's anyone who,
has suffered humiliation
in the last 2 centuries,
I'm pretty sure the Muslims have a greater,
claim to stake in that.
These things happen, and, our future is not
in having endless battles and endless wars,
or endless antagonism with one another.
Come. If you love that place,
if you,
love it for the sake of Allah, for
the sake of God, as a Christian, as
an orthodox Christian,
then know whether or not you have that
building or that piece of land, you always
have god. You always have a call upon
him by day and night wherever you are
in this world.
And if you love to call upon him
in that building, welcome. Come.
Go kneel in that place.
Put your hands out in front of the
Lord and ask him for what you want.
Want. It's still a place of worship.
His holy name can still be called in
that place.
Go and pray over there. If what you
want is God, then he's there for you.
If you would you want us to call
on god in that place, that those doors
are open for you. May they be open
for you until the day of judgement.
But if this is just some sort of
nationalist thing that, like, oh, Greeks are better
than Turks or whatever. This is all nonsense,
you know. You know, if this is just
some sort of nationalism based on a secular
modernist,
and materialist understanding,
you know, 2 different
types of monkey,
trying to, like, beat each other up. This
is a pointlessness of existence. There's no there's
no good in it. Allah,
give us all guidance
and give us all the of living and
dying in a way that, he's pleased with
and returning to him in a way that
he's pleased with.