5 Clashes between the Islamic and Modern Worldviews

Land of Aqsa of Jerusalem was occupied by the Crusaders.

And many of us are familiar with the story of how salaam Dena UB Rahim Allah liberated Al Aqsa from the hands of the Crusades. But what I want us to look at today is a bit of the background to that. Who were the Crusaders? Why did they take over Jerusalem? How were they able to do so? What was the politics of the region at that time? And what lessons can we take from that to the situation that we see the Ummah in today? So let's start by painting a picture of what the Muslim world was like 900 years ago, many of us have this mythical idea of a united the Philippines. Right then we had a Khalifa because we had a honeypot the Ummah was powerful and united. And many of us think that this

was the case of the Ummah right until World War One. But the reality is, that for the bulk of our history, that Felipa was little more than a figurehead.

For the bulk of our history, there's an EVO was not a powerful man, they set out to do some history, to understand how we definitely for was at many, many points in our history during the point that we're going to discuss today.

Think of what the the King of England is like today, right? Many of the countries today that have kings and queens, they actually ruled by the Prime Minister, they actually ruled by the Parliament, the king or queen has no real saying how the country is run. This was the state of disbelief for a large portion of the apartheid era, and a large portion of the Ottoman era as well. And this was the state of the Khalifa at the time of the

at the time of the Crusades, the Abbasids, after the first 300 years, have become extremely weak, they lost a lot of their lands, and

even the lands that they continue to rule, the actual governance of those lands and the military leaders had more power, and more say, than the Khalifa himself. And so when you study the history of the Abbasids, we actually only study like the first 200 or 300 years, because the rest of them are not worth studying at all. You just sat in the palace, and they were just a figurehead. That's why we study about sallahu Dena UB he wasn't the Khalifa. He was a military general. But at that point in time, the military generals had more power, more say more ability to make a difference than the Khalifa himself. This is an important point for us to note that yes, in our times, we have been

through the first point in history where there has been 100 years, almost 100 years and three months time since the beloved fell, right. And many of us assume that if he laughs It was perfect until that point it wasn't perfect. They were good phases and they were bad phases. And we should strive for the revival of the field effort. This should be a goal of the Ummah because it is a fun dignify it is a communal obligation to have a beloved, but we should also be realistic about what a Khalifa can be and also about the problems that happened in our history. So let's look at this picture again. Right the Khalifa time with a weak person he doesn't really have any say any power any

authority. He can't really do much.

The military generals are ruling over different regions. Each region has its own ruler who pays lip service to the Abasi the Khalifa. Right so what that means is when they give the Juma Hoopa they will praise the ambassador Khalifa. Some of the region's had their own Khalifa, specifically Egypt. Egypt at that time, had the Fatimid dynasty, who claimed to be descendants of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and claimed to be the Oldfield Khalifa. So if you went to Egypt at that time, they had their own Khilafah there were multiple developments in the world at that time. Spain had its own Philipa domains. They were multiple people at that time claiming to be the honeypot. So the OMA was

fragmented, was broken up

the Crusaders at this time, the Muslims that time didn't really look at the Europeans as a threat. Right? They usually fighting wars on two fronts, either to the east, or to the north, which is the Byzantine Empire. As for the West, they look at the at the Europeans as these backwards barbaric nations in the dark ages didn't really see them as as equals. Because anyone who knows history knows that for the bulk of our history, the Muslims with a superpower the Muslims were the most civilized the most powerful nation on earth, and the Europeans were backward nation. And it's only because it was only in the past 400 years that that turned around, right with a overtook the Muslims in terms

of power and dominance and civilizational dominance in the world. It's only happened in the past 400 years. But for the bulk of history, the Muslim world

There's more powerful. So the Muslims didn't really have strong borders on that end, didn't really have strong armies at that end, because they never really looked at these people as people capable of invading our lands. Right and even more so Europe wasn't a united land. They were basically tribes and clans, they were fighting each other.

But for whatever reason, at this point in time, they become united through you through religious extremism. You see, your religious extremism can be found in any religion. And at that point in time, it was the Christians, they came up with a very barbaric form of religious extremism. They invented a concept called the Crusades, holy war. And the idea of the holy war was any disbeliever that you kill, Your sins are forgiven. You want to go to heaven kill the disbelievers. And so they began to kill, you began to kill the Jews, they began to kill the Muslims. And they began to kill Christians of other denominations. And they became united in the bloodless, a bloodless over to

Europe at that time.

And they began to take over land after land after land until they came to Jerusalem. Why Jerusalem? It's always Jerusalem because Jerusalem is a key and central place in our history, in Christian history and in Jewish history.

And when they took over Jerusalem, because the Muslims not ready at the time, Muslims were expecting a barbaric force from that part of the world to be coming towards Jerusalem. And, you know, to be ready to take over to to bloodshed. So the Muslims weren't ready for this. And they were divided amongst themselves fighting each other.

And so what happened is one of the biggest genocides in the history of in our history, one of the sadness and biggest genocides in our history. 900 years ago, approximately over 100,000 people were massacred in Jerusalem. Over 100,000 People were massacred. There was blood flowing in the streets. There were skulls piled up. This was what happened to Jerusalem and Palestine 900 years ago, and then the Crusaders remained in power over Jerusalem for 90 years.

Now, we will look back and think how is it the hill Africa existed, the Muslims are the most powerful nation on Earth. Yet the Crusaders who will and as powerful as them who weren't as technologically advanced as them who didn't have as large a kingdom as them, the Crusaders were able to maintain Jerusalem for 90 years. It was primarily because of the disunity of the Muslims. Because even during those 90 years, Muslims continue to fight each other. Even during those 90 years. Some of those Muslim states don't many states would pay money to the Crusaders to protect them from other Muslims. They would ally with the Crusaders, normalisation

for protection against other Muslim states. And in this state of weakness, the Ummah lost Jerusalem for 90 years. What we're experiencing now is not the first time this happened 900 years ago. Now, we all know that eventually, at the end of those 90 years, a great leader came about from amongst the Muslim by the name of celebrity they up who conquered Jerusalem, and brought it back on the Wooster road. And it remained under Muslim rule, right until the fall of the Ottoman Empire 99 years ago.

In fact, we will say living under Muslim rule, right until the 1940s. I O, technically, between World War One and 1943 were under British rule, and if we're being honest.

But how did Salah who didn't come about and what and what did he do to gain that kind of power, because again, looking at the speech in Jerusalem, and its surrounding areas are conquered by an outside power that are pressing the Muslims, this country is around it at this united and fighting each other. It's very similar to what we see in the Muslim world today. So how the soldier who didn't become slept with him, he started off as a soldier, he sat down to value average soldier, nothing special about him, you wouldn't be able to pick him out from any of the other soldiers. He was your normal average soldier, he raises in the ranks, he becomes a general and he gets sent to

Egypt to work for the Egyptian government.

Now, note at that point in time, the Egyptians, the Egyptian rulers, the party means what what what separated at that time, they were the sheer level of innovation, even the normal she had given a small initial, but so that within works with him, he works for them. Right? And

this is where the history gets a bit.

on what's the right word to use, but this is where the where history contradicts what we want to see, right. Many of us when we think of history, we expect these great heroes only did great things and only nice things happen. And we expect like these pious people who just United

The OMA to the lectures. And that's what some of us thinks someone's thinks Allah who didn't give a good lecture, the whole region united, they fought against the euro. So that's not what happened. Politics happened. So that would mean, basically, he has a coup in Egypt. He works his way up until he's the chief adviser of the 40 Minute king. And then the 40 Minute King mysteriously dies and slough who didn't claim to be the new king. And he takes over and he makes they suddenly left. Right. As for what happened and who died and how they die. Nobody knows. Very suspicious, but Salahuddin does what he needs to do to take over that lamp, and Egypt, it becomes under slapped with

its power. And this is when the story really begins, right until this point in time. Nobody really knows about slavery. Nobody really cares about slavery, and then suddenly, He is the ruler of Egypt. When he becomes the ruler of Egypt. What does he do next? Again, not what we want. We imagine he becomes the ruler of Egypt. He goes for Jerusalem, he writes the Crusaders know, he spends the next 20 years fighting the Muslims. For the next 20 years, they are regional wars between sallahu means kingdom, in Egypt, and all the nearby Muslim mini kingdoms. Right? Again, each region had their own ruler. But what is the purpose of these wars? It was to unite that region under one leader. That was

his that was his vision to unite that region and the one leader. How do you do that? You see, this is the tricky part of our politics that we don't want to think about or talk about, how do you unite a region under one leader?

Are you going to give a lecture? Are you going to go and just talk to all the things I say Give us your lands? That's all you have one leader now, how does it work? Slot would indeed by any other politician would have done. He fought wars against his fellow Muslims taking over each of the land surrounding Jerusalem, until Jerusalem was surrounded by a united land under one leader. But to do that, he had to do things that we wouldn't approve. He had to find other Muslims he had to wait civil war against other Muslims. And yes, obviously, when Muslims are fighting Muslims, people die.

But eventually, eventually, it's law who then becomes the leader of the entire region. Note again, another mistake in our history. Salahuddin was not a Khalifa. He was a military general. He was a regional power. He was a a king at the most you can call Him a king, right? But he still paid lip service to the Bassick, Khalifa Burj Khalifa sitting in Baghdad, he has no power, Salahuddin has power over all these lands. And now he has all these lands surrounding Jerusalem under his control. Now he can put together a big army, you can go in, you can fight the Crusaders, he can kick them out and ensure that that land becomes Muslim lands until recently.

So when you look at the story of slavery in a UB, there's two versions of the story. There's the romanticized version, where he's only portrayed as this pious king or only did pious things. And that's how you conquered. And then there's the real story, that yes, he was a good Muslim. Yes, he was a Muslim who believed in Allah and wanted what was best for his own mind wanted to liberate Jerusalem. But he also was human. He also was a politician, he also had to do what politicians had to do to gain his power and to find his enemies and to take over that land. And so when we think of the story of sloth Houdini, we really want solutions to what's going on in the Muslim world today.

We can't focus on the romanticized version of history. We need to study real history to find real solutions. And real history gets ugly. Real History gets murky. Real History has a lot of gray areas where you look at what they what they did. And you wonder, was that the right thing to do?

But that's the way politics works. So sallahu Dena, UB, we know him today to be one of our greatest heroes. And he's such a great hero that even non Muslims can't fault him. Even the Christians. Who were the people he defeated, they still praise him, because when he conquered Jerusalem, he let the people go peacefully. He brought Jerusalem back to being this multicultural land with Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in peace. And he did not take revenge for the genocide that took place 100 years before that, and for this amazing act of generosity and compassion, which he did, mimicking the Sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam when he conquered Makkah, because of this

beautiful act of surrounding a newbie, even the Christians praise Him today as a great man. And so so that Houdini up is a is a role model for us. But we need to be realistic about the history if you actually want to draw lessons from it for what's going on in the Muslim world today. Welcome to day one and in Hamdulillah.

Al Hamdulillah, Wanda was salat wa salam ala moana and Adama bad for inositol Hadith Nikita

We'll know what have you heard you heard the Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam are shorter and more limited as to how does it invade our cool ability and Dolla dolla to infinity. One of the mistakes we make when we study history is that we tend to read what we want into history, right, we tend to revise history to make it seem

all beautiful or glorious. And we end up believing in it, but

studying the real history.

And this is something that needs to change. We need to be realistic about our history. Because when you are realistic about history, you can actually analyze it and take lessons from it.

But when you just yearning stories of pious people only, and it seems like everybody who lived before the modern era was pious, you can't really relate to it, you can't really take any benefit from it.

So I highly recommend that when you study any aspect of history, whether it's the story of Sulaco Dean, whether it is the Bulevar, Ross, Eugene, whatever it is, wherever you study any aspect of history, try to study it from multiple resources from multiple angles. Don't just read one person's perspective, because every author has their bias. Every author has the agenda and what they are writing. And you may find that one or two may hide certain things, because it makes the group look bad. Or another author may hide certain things because it's not what they want you to see history as. So we need to be more critical in how you study history. And we need to be able to see history

for what it was.

One lesson I want us to take from the study of Salahuddin a UB is when discussing solutions to the current problem in the Muslim world, we need to be more realistic about the political side of it. Because the reality is that politics is messy. And politics is dirty. And politics is not a nice game to get into. But it's necessary for someone to do it and the reality is if in our time if someone had to unite all those countries under a single ruler under a single Khalifa it's highly unlikely he's going to do it through a speech it's highly unlikely he's going to do it through a letter most likely there will be wars between the regions they'll be wars between those lands before

they become one land.

And

our problem three is we have unrealistic expectations. We have unrealistic expectations the most unrealistic one of all is that many of us think that nothing gets solved that will Mojave comes right this is our will be most annuals expedition do nothing for him to come he will solve everything but it will come 500 years from now 1000 years from we don't know we're gonna do nothing until that time. i This is just a lazy excuse to not take action.

But other unrealistic expectations is that whoever comes into power is going to be like Abu Bakr Omar.

Right reality is the first generation of our leaders will call the Calabar Washington, because they'll never be someone again like them after after those four after Abu Bakr Omar or smiling or the we will never find leaders on their caliber, but what you will find our human leaders, leaders who have the good qualities and their faults, and Allah will use the human leaders to do things.

If you look at the great heroes now history after the fall of our Washington after the Sahaba, especially our political heroes, none of them were perfect. Many of them did really, really bad things. Right, whether it's the mood, the conqueror of that environment, the conqueror, rice, Sudan, Mohammed Avati, who conquered Constantinople and turned him into Istanbul. He did some very brutal things in his reign to maintain his power. Sudan Harun Rashid, same thing. We know him as a great leader who did great things, but he also did some brutal things to maintain his power. Solomon, the magnificent, the great Ottoman ruler, he did some really messed up things in his reign, even though

his reign is considered the greatest of all the Ottoman rulers. But that's the reality of politics. And even today, if a politician had to rise up that could unite the Ummah that could restore political power to the OMA, it's more likely that he's going to be an average Muslim, who may have to do some bad things to maintain his power. It's far more likely that someone like that would be a hero in our times, then a pious when you Allah, Madonna chef, who somehow becomes the Khalifa of DOMA. That's an unrealistic expectation that the person who rises up is going to be pious, and he's only going to do good things. That's an unrealistic expectations. So when we are discussing

politics, when we are looking for political solutions, when we are trying to figure out a way forward for the Ummah, we need to start being more realistic.

And there are multiple sciences in our religion that we need to revive. In order for us to be able to think more realistically about these topics, one of the sciences that nobody talks about in our community anymore, is Yassa. Sharia, right? Sharia politics. This is a topic that we don't talk about anymore. And because of that, I find that Muslims living in the West have the most bizarre, extreme messed up understanding of Sharia law. The idea we have in our minds of what Sharia law and what an Islamic lead and if you love what looks like, never existed in history, it literally never existed in history.

Like if you had to actually go and visit the beloved under Abu Bakr, Omar Ozma, he won't meet your expectations, because we have such an unrealistic idea of what Sharia is, and what an Islamic landless.

So we need to Revive, revive the study of Islamic politics. And we need to start studying these books. And when when you study Islamic politics, you realize that I'll show you a lot more flexible, our Sharia is very realistic. Our Sharia takes into consideration things things like the lesser of two harms, the lesser of two evils. It's very dynamic, it's very fluid. It's not this, it's not as strict and as straightforward as we like to think it is. But you need knowledge to understand that. And so I highly recommend that we do two things. Number one, we revive the study of Islamic politics and Islamic law. So we understand in general, number two, we revive the study of Islamic history.

And we study history critically, to take lessons and to take strategies and to understand things. And we don't just study the nice parts of history. More importantly, we study the times when things went wrong. Whether it was the crusades, we watch the Mongol setting or Baghdad, whether it was the fall of Islamic Spain, whether it was the fall of Islamic India, whether it was the fall of the Ottoman Fiat but we must study the negative points now history should we get understand how we ended up where we are, at least get start working on solutions. So let us inshallah make the effort and make time to now start studying these points and start studying these, these various sciences

because this is what will help us as an ummah to find solutions to our problems. We ask Allah to grant victory to the Muslims of Palestine We ask Allah to remove the oppressors from the Middle East and to replace the righteous rulership and to yet to unite the Ummah and the one kaniva We ask Allah subhana wa Tada and all of the tyranny and oppression that Muslims are facing anywhere in the world. And Hamas will Mujahideen of the Philistine animal soldiers that have been Philistine and Lahoma easily stolen was looming on the horizon. It's not just the meat on the horizon. Lisa wants to know about the Athena between your husband will ask you the hashtag Okinawa national Bahama