Hosam Helal – Saviours of Islamic Spirit Episode 3 Umar bin Abdel Aziz
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AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa
salatu salam ala remember with the Ramadan and it means that you do
not more than Muhammad Ali You are early he have little Salah to
attend Muslim welcome back to another evening. We have 28 Nights
inshallah together and every night we're going to be looking at one
of the saviors of Islam, people that changed the course of Islamic
history, people that have left amazing legacies behind. Tonight
as usual, I'm going to begin in sha Allah by providing a little
bit of context, and a little bit about this individual, seeing if
we can get his name together.
The individual that we have in stock or in mind tonight, you
Charlotte Isla was a young when he was a young child, he was playing
around and one of the horses came and struck him in his forehead,
leaving a kind of leaving an injury that marked left a mark in
his head, a scar. And so when his father looked at him, he told him
in sha Allah, this is a good sign. He asked him How's a good sign? He
said, Well, your grandfather, or OMA didn't have Bob had a dream
and his dream, he saw that one of these descendants would come and
would have a mark and would fill the earth with justice after it
had become a place of injustice. You may have guessed this
individual for tonight. He grows up in a time in which the OMA
years had dominated control. The customs and the traditions of the
pagan the pre Islamic past were resurfacing. There was a lot of
racism, tribalism, partisanship, a lot of nepotism, a lot of
dominance and selfishness. There was extravagance, pretentiousness,
boastfulness by a tin man, instead of being a place the Treasury, the
state treasury, instead of being a source for the Muslims, the poor
and those who are struggling can benefit from it. It became
personal property for the Khalifa, to basically dispose on and to
spend that money on professional poets and singers and jugglers and
sometimes even buffoons and clowns. When you would enter the,
the quarter of the Khalifa, you would see people dancing, you
would hear music, playing extravagant. And sometimes you
would hear a lot of backbiting. And Ill talk about women about
power, gold and silver. When this person sits with us, we give him a
nice face. And when that person leaves, we backbite a lot of
struggle and fight internally and division for power. Does it sound
familiar?
Does this sound like perhaps an episode from one of our local
massages from one of our local board meetings from one of our
local and sometimes and I'm not pointing to any city or any
specific message. But unfortunately, it's become the
reality of many, many places and many, many communities that we
back by to one another that we back, stab each other Subhanallah
and look for reasons to to make the other person failed. So the
person that we have in mind grows up in this materialistic
environment. And Subhan Allah he is sent his father at this time.
He was the Emir of Egypt. He was the Emir of Egypt. He was the
leader of Egypt, and he would send his son to Medina to learn Islam
and to memorize the Quran. And he assigned him Salah Ibn K son as
his teacher, and sorry Hypnic K sent instill discipline in this
young individual from a very again from the very beginning. And he
told him under no condition, will I allow an except for you to be
late for Salah, this is something that I will not compromise. And
one day unfortunately, he came late for Salah, so you looked at
him and told him what made you late? And he said, Well, my
helper, my servant was combing my hair and oiling my hair and
styling my hair, but took a little bit too long. So his teacher
looked at me and he said, If your hair is going to have more weight
and more importance to you than the Salah, then I wish to have
nothing to do with you very disciplined from the very
beginning. Because of course you're dealing with someone who is
again from the aristocracy. And that goes to show you from the
very beginning, the individual that we have in mind, perhaps most
of you have guessed his name by now or Omar Abdulaziz. And perhaps
you're looking at the title of the video. You already know his name
for Omar, a bin Abdulaziz, the grandson of Ramadan hubub and the
individual that will change the face of Islamic history. And so
from the very from a very young age discipline was instilled into
him and although he grew up with a little bit of pampering a little
bit, of course, you know, he's still from the aristocracy. He
grew up with a little bit of prestige and materialism and
pampering he still was
known from a young age a panel of some people from a very young age,
you see that their heart inclines towards justice inclines towards
fairness, inclines towards honesty and inclines towards piety. So
people describe him from a young age as one of those people who
naturally inclined towards piety, and he sat with many of the great
teachers of Medina, he sat with an ally and even in the pro scene, or
the hola Juan Houma, which we spoke about last night, Zayn in
Aberdeen was his cornea or his title. And he also sat with many,
many other scholars, including Hassan Al Muthanna, he sat with
Abdullah Sultan, Abdullah had an aroma he offset with classmate
Mohammed Nabi Becker and say, the Messiah and
among many other scholars, and that goes to show you that he was
again moving around getting the best from all the teachers that he
had access to. Once you walked into the quarter one of the
teachers the study space of one of the teachers, and people were
talking to each other and he looked at him this is how, look,
this guy who is related to the Amin is related to the
aristocracy. Imagine if he were to combine knowledge with power. And
imagine if one day he would humble himself and learn the basics of
the deen and come back to reunite knowledge and power. Because what
had happened. What had happened is people at that time, the Khalifa
at the time, began to distance themselves from knowledge. You
know, Abu Bakr, Omar Osman Ali, used to lead the salah he used to
get fed was in Medina, they were trusted as sources of knowledge.
But over time, the philosopher grew away from knowledge and
became more about politics and trade and economic stability of
the community. So the Khalifa didn't see himself as someone
who's a source of knowledge now, my business, not my problem. And
so I'm gonna not deny these from the very beginning he was sent to
seek knowledge. And of course, he's thought that there's no way
his father didn't assume that one day he would eventually become the
Khalifa of the Muslims. Even Ahmed himself, he told us that he didn't
expect actually was the most unexpected of events that led to
him coming to the Philippines. But Subhan Allah, how ALLAH SubhanA
Tada sets in motion, certain events that allow for some to
emerge the combined knowledge combined power and bring justice
from the top allowing there to be again, a reason for people to have
their Eman, boosted. And of course, at this time, the
philosopher was hereditary, so there was no way to assume or to
think or to guess, or to foretell or foreshadow that or Omar
Abdulaziz would become the philosopher. But what happened,
let's get a little bit of the background first. So he was the
grandson of Mattawan and Hakim and Mattawan. And he was for so he
goes back to the Romanians in that in that he was also his mother was
a mouse and the granddaughter of Roma in the hotpot, the second
Khalifa of the Muslims. And Omar Abdulaziz was born in the 61st
year after the euro. And as we mentioned, he was he was again,
sent as assigned from teenagehood, to be one of the leaders of
Medina. So he was assigned, he spent a long time in Medina, and
people of Medina liked him and he developed a good connection with
him. So he was assigned as a leader over Medina. But he made a
few conditions. He said, if you're gonna sign me, as the leader of
Medina, I have three conditions that must be met. Number one, all
of the crops and the production and the trade and the income that
comes out of the city stays first and foremost to its residents. So
we're not going to send the money to the central Philippines and
then you do with it whatever you want. And then what comes back is
very little how to expect people to work. So I want you to give me
autonomy over the business and trade and the production, economic
production, to I don't want you to intervene in me fulfilling
justice. So don't tell me this person is related to me. This
person is my family. Don't bring nationalism into it. Don't bring
tribalism into it. Don't bring ethnicity into it. I don't care
where the person is from, I don't care if he's well made. I don't
care if he's out bested, I don't care if he's Hashem or Quraishi I
don't care if he's rasool Allah wa Salam is grants, doesn't matter.
What matters is this person most qualified for the job. I don't
care about optics, if it happens, that they're all from the specific
tribe, none of my business if it happens, that nobody's from that
tribe. None of my business, I don't care about optics, I care
about justice.
And finally, his third condition was that he would be able to do
Hajj the first year, so allow me to be given the opportunity to go
and do Hajj the first year because he had not been able to do Hajj
until then Subhanallah the three conditions were met, and he was
assigned to be the leader of Medina. And one of the very first
things that he did when he was assigned in Medina. He actually
set a group of scholars 10 scholars have the best view in
Medina and he made them his advisory committee.
In measureless, Assura, he said, I will not make a decision until I
consult them. So yes, we have the political experts and the socio
economic experts, but I'm going to also have shoes that will guide me
and help me make and every decision that I take, I will
consult them before going ahead and making that decision. A few
years passed by, and during this time he actually goes to perform
or Omar on some narrations to hedge and he does hedge with
Sulaiman Abdul Malik. So this is, again, one of the Khalifa is at
the time, and so they might have not done Melek is looking at all
the people that have come to Hajj during Arafa. And he looks at
Ramadan Abdulaziz they're together, you know, they're
cousins. They're spending some time together. And so a man looks
at all these people and he says, My like, oh my god, yeah. Omar,
look at all these people that Allah Subhana Allah has brought to
his house has brought to perform hajj, there is no one that can
keep a count of the number, except Allah subhanaw taala. So not
looked at him. And he told him today, these people are your
subjects. Tomorrow, the maybe the evidence against you on the day
that you need Allah. So today, they're your subjects, they smile
at you. And they look at you with respect, and they look up to you.
And even if they conceal some, you know, disagreement, they will
still only show you their best face. But when they meet you with
Allah subhanaw taala, they will not show you any face or any
credit except that which you deserve. And some of them may
actually contest your decisions in front of Allah subhanaw taala. So
so the man looked at him. And of course, in the beautiful moment of
the hedge, he really took it to heart. And it's what a man
registered it as Subhanallah you know, everyone else is being nice
as for a man and a position of power. Everyone is saying nice
things to him. But you notice that Omar Abdulaziz is always trying to
hold him accountable.
So he's not just painting this beautiful picture, not only saying
the things that Alma wants to hear, but he's actually saying the
things that would contest and get Omar to rethink and also have a
more critical approach towards his policies and towards his
attitudes. So they met once when a man was was there, Omar, and he is
looking for him can find him and he finally found him under a tree.
And he saw him crying. So he told them what's making you cry? He
said to the karate yo woman piano. I will just remember in the Day of
Resurrection, I was remembering the day in which we all have to
come to Allah subhanaw taala and answer and other times when a man
is looking at Omar and rainfalls, some say this during Hajj, and
when the rain fell, everybody was Allahu Akbar. This is a beautiful
ramen, of course, in Islamic tradition, the rain is a metaphor,
symbolic of the Rama, the Mercy of Allah Subhana Allah that comes
from above. So what did he say?
When he saw the rainfall or might have not disease looked at so a
man and Abdul Malik and he told him today, this is the Rahama of
Allah subhanho Tam, but on the day that we remember or on the day
that we meet Allah subhanho wa Taala there will be no rain, there
will be no mercy, there will be no none of this pampering, unless the
person deserved it. And so so the man was taken aback, and every
moment that I'm just trying to enjoy the rain, and you got to,
you're always making it, you don't make it, you're always holding me
back. You're always holding me accountable. So so the man, you
know, had this had this idea in his mind, that moment of Nam
disease is someone who is not interested in power are not
interested in optics. He's interested in justice. And he said
what he had to say he didn't, you know, sugarcoat he didn't want to
doubt anything. He was very explicit in his advice and his
recommendation and and reminder for everybody around him.
SubhanAllah. So what eventually, so they might even Abdul Malik
gets sick, he gets sick. And when he gets sick, he calls his advisor
and he tells him, who should we assign? Who should we assign as
the Khalifa. And the advisor tells him look at your children, your
children are all too young, they're too immature and the time
they're not going to be able to, you know, hold this power and if
you give it to them now, people are not going to really respect
because they haven't, you know, shown or demonstrated capacity is
who should we give it to them?
So the adviser Raja tells him, perhaps consider Omar Abdulaziz
and so many times in Malik you consider Zomato Nam disease for
the position for the job and he does accept but then he says My
people, the omegas and others are not going to be too happy if I
just pass a terminal disease. They might actually call it might cause
a lot of division in the community. He says well aside make
it a condition that OMA becomes the Khalifa but right after him he
has he did not dimeric will eventually come back so we're
going to pass it on to Omar temporarily
And then take it back to the family. So that way the family is
not going to be what the family is not going to be too upset. Now
imagine this is these are the conditions through which your Omar
would eventually come to power Ahmed Abdul Aziz, yes, he's going
to be the Khalifa. But under the condition that the power
eventually goes back to Abdullah Malik's family SubhanAllah. Now,
did Omar guests this did he assume this would happen? He had a
feeling because he had a good relationship with Saudi man. And
he knew Sudan and trusted him. He knew Sudan and trusted his
justice. So Abdullah is preemptively came to Rajat the
advisor of Solomon and I'm the medic, and he told him, I beg you
do not bring my name or suggest my name to swallow a man if he asks
you, who should we consider as a successor, I beg you, because I'm
not ready for power. I'm not interested in power, please do not
suggest my name. So Raja was really smart. He looked around. He
says, You're just saying that to put the idea back in my mind so
that I actually suggest your name, upon which Romo walked away,
humbled, and he didn't say anything. And Roger understood
from that, they actually means that he was genuine. He wasn't
just suggesting, you know, some people play in reverse psychology.
I don't want the power, but they actually they want the power. It
wasn't like that for them. Not that it is his whole life stands
against that. SubhanAllah. But so he ascends to the philosopher the
next day, they bring him and there's so much so much detail
here that we can discuss, you know, some random action or
somebody's story and say, that sort of met him at the Melek pass
that night, but he passed away back to Allah subhanaw taala. And
his advisor knew that if we just pass the information on, nobody
would have listened. So we actually took so the man about the
medics body, dressed him up, put him on the seat of power that he
usually sits upon. And he read the command. Everybody accepted. Of
course, as soon as they heard his name, they were like what, but
then when they heard the condition that eventually the philosopher
would come back to his he didn't have the malloc they were kind of
okay fine. We're will tolerate it will tolerate it Subhanallah the
man so rather than what did he do when Omar heard the news of him
becoming Khalifa? Did he get excited to do celebrate? No
narrations tell us they actually fell. He fainted from hearing the
news, not out of joy, but out of the panic and the burden that he
felt. So how is this really happening? Am I going to become
the Khalifa? Now what's interesting is right before this
Omar Abdulaziz, he was known as I mentioned, for being luxurious and
having a beautiful life. But Subhanallah it's as if fate met
him when he was making dua, he was making intentions at this time,
and prior to to change his life to give up the pampered lifestyle.
And he was married to soften they've been tagged in Melek,
right. He's married to foster babies, Abdul Malik, the daughter
of a Khalifa and now she'll be the husband, the wife of the Khalifa,
the granddaughter of the Salif, she's, you know, raised among the
hula. So she's used to luxury, she is used to luxury. So what does he
say? He gets up on the mimbar, this is a Yohannes. My people, I
did not choose this position for myself, but it was given to me.
And I will not accept it. Unless all of you are okay with it. And
the people outside not just in Medina, and I just didn't, you
know, in the in the capital of the Muslims everywhere, unless the
Muslims by consensus accept me, I will not take it. I will not take
it. And the people of course, said we accept you and there's no one
better for this position than you. So they told him, let's take you
to your home. Let's take you to your palace. I don't want the
palace. I will stay in my house. Let me show you the rise the
Calvary and the horses and the camels and the caravans that you
will have access to Beverly It is enough. My ride is enough. All
right, let's let me show you the dress that you're gonna wear the
beautiful, you know, luxuries and the beautiful jewelry. And I don't
want any of that.
Subhanallah so he refused a palace. He refused any pampering.
He refused any of the rights of the Khilafah. And he actually
decided I will not take from bail man. And I'm going to reverse many
policies. So what did he do? The first thing that he did is he
dismissed many of the governors that were known to be cruel and
unjust. And all the jewelry and valuable gifts that were given to
them were handed back to the state and they became deposited as part
of the vital man.
Not only that Subhan Allah, he only had accorded some narrations,
one shirt, he didn't have to he kept one shirt, and sometimes
you'd have to wait for the shirt to dry to make it for Salah. Once
his children were talking to him and they were covering his mouth.
They're covering their mouth in front of him. Why are you covering
here? They said well, we only have onions in the house. Only pulses
and onions in the house.
So we don't want the smell to offend you. So he cried. Because
again, the income was very limited he wasn't taking money for, and
whatever little was, you know what he was sustaining from before, it
was not enough. And he told the guy that his family told him
listen, I'm giving you an option. Do you want the dunya? Or do you
want the actual? Do you want to live a life of luxury, a life of
luxury, a life of pampering? Or do you want to live a life that's
going to be a little bit restrained, but we're going to set
a legacy behind and re revive the way things should be revived the
prophetic way of managing the Prophet Muhammad said and did not
make money out of the people that he served, he served and gave, he
would take the clothes off of his back to give, we need now a time
to really revive and refresh. And we need to lead by example. So
they all said that we choose you. And we choose Jana, we choose you
and we choose Jana. Now, in addition to that he wouldn't spend
more than two Durham's on sending messages. And he wouldn't take
from the state for any of the fragrances or any of the musk. And
sometimes when he actually entered the state, the beta man, he would
actually plug his nose a little bit he would say, I wouldn't want
to consume that which is not mine, not only eating but even the
smell, the smell of the musk, me consuming it would be so hard I'm
taking from that which doesn't belong to me. Can you imagine
Subhanallah incredible, incredible justice, when people would send
him letters his his the people that worked for him as part of the
Muslim community or the Muslim leadership at the time, when they
would send letters saying we need more paper, he would say make your
pen finer, right closely and concisely for Muslims do not
require such detailed reports which are unnecessarily a burden
on the states Subhanallah when people sent asking for, you know,
fancy seals is keep it simple. There is no need for that luxury.
And when imagine the previous attitude, the previous policy was
tried to reduce the number of non Muslims entering Islam. Why?
Because if non Muslims anti Islam, the jizya taxes, nobody is left to
pay the Jizya. So that was a big, you know, the tax that was imposed
upon non Muslims at the time or the close to tax. It was a source
of income for many of the philosophers before. He said, No,
that's not the purpose. Let as many people come to Islam through
justice, let them come to Islam. And if if we have to go back and
cultivate fields and work with our hands to make money and to build
the state, why not? Why not? The purpose is not to exploit if they
want to come to let them become Muslims. And they actually invest
a lot of money into setting up places for learning and sent out
letters to India sent out letters to China sent his deputations and
delegations to sit with people to learn from them, and also to teach
them Islam. Teach them to Esna teach them Islam. He changed a lot
of things financially, economically. He said there will
be no standard taxation anymore. Everybody will be taxed based on
their income sounds like a simp simple thing. That wasn't the
case. It didn't matter how much you produced in your farmland,
everybody was taxed a fine rates. That's not fair. What if this year
I didn't have enough crops, He abolished all taxes and duties
levied by his predecessors. And whatever little tariffs on
production, he kept them simple and people who were in debt, he
allowed them to be paid. And all the lands and the sea routes and
the roads were open for trade without any embargo whatsoever. No
taxes to be levied. Everybody's open, fair policy, fair trade. He
made unpaid labor illegal, any measures that were taken by
previous predecessors to exploit and to keep money for themselves?
All of that was gone. And then he made sure that nobody will be able
to accept gifts for the work that they're doing. No Khalifa No, Amir
is to accept gifts, you're doing the work that you should be doing.
That's enough. Allahu Akbar. Every officer that worked for the Muslim
state at the time was given clear instructions sent regular
reminders about Taqwa about fear of Allah subhana Donna about
having to stand in front of Allah subhanaw taala he would call them
often for reminders, and it will bring to you to give reminders to
renew their intentions and to remind them to be sincere
Subhanallah
as I mentioned before, it wasn't expected for the philosopher to do
this. He would call out the innovations and the deviations in
the additions into the deal. And he would remind them to hold on to
the Quran and hold on to the Sunnah. Hold on to the Quran and
hold on to the Sunnah. And his his legacy was such that there was a
time during his rulership and during his Khilafah in which he
was looking for people and people were looking for people to give
zakat and charity to South Africa to but no poor people exist. It
could be identified to receive the sadhaka of the community. Imagine
the law
If he left behind,
you're looking for someone poor to give money to but you can't. He
imagined eradicated poverty in his community had stipends that people
who are seeking knowledge could benefit from scholarships were
made available.
And subhanAllah he's one of his famous lines. He said, This is
tatata. Hakuna aneema If you're able to become a scholar for a
lambda starter for cooling water and nema. If you can't, then at
least be a student of knowledge, the inland testator, if you can't
hit the home, love them, love the scholars. And if you can't fella
to, at least do not hate them, and do not be an added reason and
burden. Don't slow them down Subhanallah imagine eradicating
poverty and leaving that beautiful legacy of justice behind. He is
one of the saviors of Islam, because he brought the spirit of
selflessness, devotion, putting the other ahead of yourself. And
often he would have tears coming down his eyes. And he would say,
you know, once he was seeing crying, and his wife told him,
what are you What's making you cry, he said, think about the sick
children, and the widowed mothers and the orphan children, and those
who are unable to those who are poor, and those who are
impoverished, they've been dismissed, and I've inherited
years of injustice. It's difficult to undo that. But that's what I'm
up against. And I will not give up until Allah subhanaw taala gives
me the strength to do the best that I can. And he accomplished a
great deal. In the few years that he served.
He passed away at 39 years of age, young age. Why? Because some
narration say he was poisoned. When you stand up and do all of
that you will make enemies. And he knew that. And he told his wife,
all of this that I'm doing, it will compromise my position, and I
will make enemies. So are you ready to embark on this journey
with me and to do things for the sake of Allah, even though it
might cost us our lives? It might cost us our comfort? And she told
him and she said, I will not leave you go and you will find me by
your side. This is the legacy of justice
so that he becomes a Hoja. He becomes proof and evidence and a
testament against all leaders who say I can't it's a different time,
different place. No, there was again very similar. There were
very similar circumstances to the circumstances that we have today.
And the Muslims loved him so much that they called him and he gave
them the title. The fifth, right Lee guided Felisa after Abu Bakr,
Rama, postman, and Ali, he was coined as the fifth rightly guided
Khalifa, that is the legacy of Ramadan Abdulaziz, one of the
saviors of Islam.
And upon discussing his life, we're left with one thought, and
that is, can we train our children, train our youngsters to
stand up for justice and to dream like Omar did?
And I'll leave you with this. Once he was speaking with his family
members from a young Asian they asked him What are you? What are
you trying? What are your goals in life, he said, my goal is to aim
for the best of the best and when I get to that position, to do the
best with it. And upon towards the end of his life. They asked him,
How do you feel he said, I did the best that I could with what Allah
has given me. And the only thing now that I'm trying to achieve
imagine is achieved so much. The only thing now that is lifted
achieved is to achieve Jana and the grace and the mercy of Allah.
And if I'm able to do that, then I've achieved the best of dunya
and achieved the best of Africa. May Allah reward you, bless you,
bless your families and your loved ones stay safe, let us relive
these legacies. And let us encourage people around us to
relive these legacies. And let us try to embody and implement and
manifest some of these beautiful qualities and lessons that we've
learned Subhanak Allama Hamrick Masha Allah in the end, Nesta
Photokina. Two were like thank you for tuning in. Keep us in your new
app was said I want to come on rahmatullahi
wa barakato.