Ismail Kamdar – History of Islam in Spain
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
A warm welcome to the program.
Today,
we embark on a journey through history,
and we will together be exploring one of
the most significant chapters in Islamic civilization,
the conquest
of Spain.
Our guest today is the founder of Islamic
Self Help, an author, and part of the
Yaqeen Institute, the Yaqeen Books Division.
Our guest today is Sheikh Ismael Kanda, and
we'll be learning more from Sheikh about this
part of our Islamic history.
And welcome to Radio
Islam.
Amin Amin. At the outset, we must congratulate
you
on the launch,
of the release of your your latest book
at the time so for our listeners, to
put this into context, at the time that
we are recording
this program in particular with Sheikh is, when
Sheikh has
released,
his latest book. It's called 25 keys to
a happy life from the Quran.
May Allah
make it full of benefits for us and
for you. Amen.
Amen.
If we can, just for a moment or
2, tell us a bit more about this
book, 25
Keys to a Happy
Life. Anything you'd like to share with us,
about this book, please, if you can.
Sure.
So this book, I wrote it last year
in Ramadan.
Actually, I had no intention of writing any
books last year. I was going through one
of the biggest trials of my life, and
it was a very difficult time in my
life.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala just put this
in my heart to write out
a set of ways of reframing my mind
to be happy no matter what trials I'm
going through.
And when I completed writing it with 27th
night of Ramadan,
I realized I had something beneficial that others
could benefit from as well. So I ended
up
editing it
and sending it to one of my publishers,
and they they really enjoyed it themselves.
They decided to publish it.
And this book basically
outlines
25 concepts
from the Quran in Sunnah
that
reframe the way we look at the world
and reframe
how we seek happiness.
And one of the big problems of today
is people seek happiness in the wrong places.
We look for it in sin. We look
for it in money. We look at it
for it in pain.
This book teaches us to value family,
hard work, contentment,
privacy,
good relationships,
healthy friendships, and most importantly,
a strong relationship with Allah
So it's actually one of the shortening books
I've ever written. I purposely made only 70
pages.
The idea is that it's a book that
you can give people. It's a book that
people who don't necessarily
read books will still be motivated to read.
It's a book you can pick up and
just read 1 of the chapters and be
motivated by it. So, Inshallah, I'm hoping that
our community will benefit from it. It's not
available on the market yet.
It should be available in South Africa within
the next few weeks and globally by November
latest.
Fantastic. And will she be uploading the,
date release dates on on social media? So
is that where our listeners can find out
when it's available at their local
Islamic bookstores?
Yes.
Every step of the way, I will be
making announcements on social media as the book
becomes available in different regions.
Fantastic,
So the book, listeners, is 25 Keys to
a Happy Life by Sheikh Ismail Kamda, and
these are tools from the Quran and Sunnah
itself. As Sheikh mentioned, other very,
book. So even if you're not much of
a reader or you don't feel you don't
have time to read, as many of us
say that often,
even as an ideal, as a gift. I
think one of the best gifts we could
actually give someone is is is a book,
and it would make a wonderful book for
your bookshelves.
We will definitely be looking out for that,
and we hope that there's going to be,
e versions as well,
for those of us that prefer our Kindles.
So looking forward to that.
If we could perhaps today,
with you learn more about our Islamic history.
We know that this is a topic that
you're passionate about, about Islamic civilizations,
about legacies.
If if we could start by asking you,
let's lay the foundation. Let's set that motivation
in place. Why is it so important for
us, regardless of our age,
to learn about our Islamic history, specifically
the Islamic history after the passing away of
Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
sallam? Okay. So a very important
question.
It really,
underlines a lot of the work that I
do.
I believe that history is one of the
it's probably the most neglected subject in our
curriculum today.
And
too many of us are disconnected
from our past.
Look. Our knowledge of history is limited to
it's a leap in our minds. We have
the
and the and
then we have the modern world.
And everything that happened in between for 1,400
years, we are clueless about it.
And this is a tragedy because a lot
of great things happen, a lot of bad
things happen, a lot of things happen that
shape the world
as we see it today.
You cannot truly appreciate or understand
how the world is today
without knowing what led to it reaching this
point.
One point that I just want to make
before I go into why it's important is
that
I don't necessarily
refer to this as Islamic history.
Right?
To me, Islamic history is the story of
the prophets, the sierra of Rasulullah salallahu alaihi
wa sallam, and perhaps the.
Because that's where we take our team from.
We take our
understanding of Islam from these historical incidents.
Anything that comes after that is Mhmm. Muslim
history.
And Muslim history is very human. Right? It's
very human. So what will happen is people
go in with the wrong expectation.
When they hear the term Islamic history, you
think they're gonna learn about the Amin, and
then they hear about genocides and Muslims killing
each other and civil wars, and they're like,
what's going on here? This is our deal.
No. This is not our deal. This is
our history.
I think it's a very human history.
So I think changing the term and the
label that we use, it,
it creates better expectations, right, for what to
expect.
That our history, the human history,
things
aren't always
rosy.
It's not only good things that happened. There
are bad things that happened as well. It's
important to study both sides of all these,
see the glories and the highs of the
Muslim empires as well as the lows and
what caused them.
Because that's where we extract lessons from. And
then the main reason to study history is
that they say those who don't study history
are doomed to repeat
it. And we actually see that in the
world today. What's going on in the world
today? I can actually like, for example,
the state of the Middle East today
is almost exactly the state of
Islamic Spain before it come. It's like a
blur of the exact same problems and divisions
and and issues.
It's like history has been repeated.
Even what's going on in the USA today,
it's a repeat of the history of the
Roman Empire.
So people who don't study history
are bound to repeat it. And therefore,
if we want to be on the right
side of history, we need to know what
happened in the past, take lessons from it,
and improve our lives accordingly.
Indeed. Indeed. So, Sheikh, that was a very
important point, a big learning step. For
that. So we're talking about Muslim history in
Spain,
and we're looking at Islamic history being the
time of Nabi Muhammad salalahu alaihi wa sallam
and up until the Khalifa Rashidin. But now
when we're talking about Spain and
Muslim civilization, so we would talk about it
as Muslim history. And so having that distinction
and the difference and knowing where to draw
our Islamic history from was from the best
generations.
For
that very, very,
important.
And I think it as you said, it
definitely creates a shift and a change in
our understanding and expectation and how we approach,
absorb,
and and integrate the lessons from history.
So so let's talk now about the key
events that that led up to this Muslim
conquest of Spain.
Were there any key events that led to
this conquest of Spain?
And,
what is it that motivated
the Muslim forces to expand into the Iberian
Peninsula?
So to understand this, there's 2
separate histories to understand, the history of Spain
up to this moment Mhmm. And the history
of Islam up to this moment.
So
the Muslims
had been
constantly expanding the Muslim empire
from the time of Abu Bakr Rajulahu Anhu
right until the time that the Muslim province
Spain, which is about
a field of about 80 to 90 years.
Right?
And the majority of this conquest took place
during 2 reigns.
The reign of Omar Ibn Saidah, Rabia Lawahu,
where the Muslims conquered Syria, Mosul,
Egypt, Persia,
and many other lands.
And then about 80 years later,
the reign of king Walid ibn Abd al
Malik, the state obeyed the pallor, in which
the Muslims conquered the North Africa, India, Samarkand,
Spain.
So this is where our story takes place
in the
in the 19th year after hija, about 8
years after Rasulullah Salah al Wissam has passed
away. The Muslims have now grown into a
mighty empire,
one of the fastest rising empires in history
of the world. They now rule all of
Arabia, North Africa, and Persia,
and
parts of India.
And this is now a massive empire with
its own currency, its own,
political system,
a reputation that is spreading to other parts
of the world.
And at this point in time, the Muslims
had no interest in invading Europe or any
part of Europe because,
historically, at that point in time, Europe was
a barbaric backwards land. There were no civilizations
in Europe.
It was seen as this
backwards
part of the world that was just not
worth
getting into or getting involved.
Many people don't realize this, but Europe as
a civilization
only really comes about because of
Islam. Before Islam, Europe is just it's nothing.
Right? It's, there's no real history database in
the world.
So they ignore Europe for the most part.
But what happens is after the Muslims conquered
North Africa,
the Christians and Jews living in Spain, which
is like just across the ocean of North
Africa,
they begin to see the difference in the
styles of leadership and the quality of leadership.
And they noticed that the people of North
Africa
have more justice. They have more peace. They
have more freedom of religion, the Islam.
While in Spain, they are suffering from oppression.
They are suffering from secularism and religious discrimination,
and we are being mistreated by the king
of Spain and the king of Rome.
So one of the key differences between how
Islam Islamic empires
operated and how Christian empires operated
is that Christian empires tend to focus on
a very,
like, one specific group or step within Christianity.
And anybody who was not part of that
step will be oppressed by step
And
so
anyone who was not part of the dominant
ruling
group of Christians in in Spain, whether they
were Jewish or Christian denominations,
they were oppressed.
While under Islam, all of
all do that proceed that treated equally to
each other regardless of which denomination they follow.
So Islam actually fixed the problem of securing
as a Hamas Christian.
And so what happens is this thing, Roderick,
is extremely
offensive to his people.
1 of the tribal leaders within Spain by
the name of Julian,
he had been in North Africa before he
had seen,
how the North African
how North Africa was under Islam. He actually
had a
connection to the the ruler of North Africa,
and he was able to sail.
And
he
tries to fight against Roderick and take over
the land, and he fails.
And at one point, his daughter, who was
studying in the library of King Rodrig writes
to him and says that the king is
harassing her and molesting her.
He this is, like, the last straw. They
see that we have to do something about
this man. So he actually writes in the
wisdom of North Africa and says, can you
invade us?
He's a Christian. The Jews
basically write to the Muslims of Africa and
say, can you do something about this thing?
We'd rather
do we we rather look under Islamic rule
than look under the British and the Christian
things.
And so not after Wednesday, first thing, maybe
they see they they trap. You know, why
would the Christian invaders invade their land or
they ride to the Khalifa,
King Walid?
He he tells them to go ahead but
to be cautious.
So the go ahead is very cautious, we
actually didn't they they write until the end.
They think this might be a trap. Like,
why would these people want us to pay
the Iraq? So Musa is going to say
it. He just sends 5,000
people, an army of 5,000,
led by his freed slave, the North African
warrior,
And these 5,000, they enter Spain,
emit Julian.
They team up with him and his followers.
They team up with some of the Christians.
They team up with some of the Jews.
They're not also able to say these guys
are serious. So for that's helping with them,
So he sends another 5,000. So you have,
like, 10,000 Muslims invading Spain.
At that point in time, the king of
Spain had an army of over a 100,000.
Right? So it seemed almost impossible. Like, how
would 10,000 people defeat a 100,000? But he's
telling and say that in the jihad that
takes place between,
between Tariq ibn Ziyad and and King Rodrik's
army,
there were actually thousands of Jews and Christians
fighting jihad on the side of the Muslims
to help the Muslims to take the table.
And so the Muslims are victorious
within a period of 20 years.
All of modern day Spain
is now under Muslim rule all the way
up to the borders of France. The Muslims
conquered the entire region all the way up
to the borders of France, and you that
land would become an Islamic
land, remain an Islamic land for 700
years.
That's the story of how Muslims conquered
Spain and
White.
Very, very interesting. Jazak Malaheishe
who'll take us through that.
When we look at this the the Muslim
conquest of Spain
and we put it into context of Muslim
history
over the years.
What does that conquest of Spain boil down
to in terms of its
significance
or impact
in our Islamic Muslim history, at least?
You can see the impact of the Muslim
conquest of Spain in any field that you
study.
When you study, pick many of the books
were written in Spain. When you study tafsir,
many of the books were written in Spain.
When you study medicine or science or architecture,
many of it many much of it comes
from Spain.
Islamic Spain, at least for the 1st 400
years, was
central to the development of Islam,
science civilization. So what happens
is after the Muslims take over Spain, they
kind of leave it to South Qaban,
right, which is the Islamic way in general
that Muslim rulers are on the or,
they generally leave communities to South Carbon. And
because Europe is so far away from from,
from Baghdad and from,
Damascus,
it really wasn't of much concern to the
Oveia rulers. Right? So they kind of leave
Spain to South Africa.
And there there's a civil war that takes
place between the Oveias and the Abbasids. The
Abbasids take over the Bosun Empire.
A very fascinating story takes place, in which
we are going to go into it. But,
essentially, the
Abbasids
waxed
all of the various instances except for one
by the name of.
And, really, Abdul Rahman in the warrior's life
reads like a just one of the most
vaccinated stories in our history.
This man escapes
at the age of 18
from the,
deposits.
He goes on the run. He goes into
exile. He goes into hiding. He changes his
name.
He fights after him. People are trying to
uncover him identity to find him to move
from country to country, crossing the ocean. He
finds his way into Spain.
As in Spain,
he finds an independent
Muslim nation
that is still loyal to his family because
his family were the one that liberated them
on the Christians.
And so this the people of Spain give
him the leadership, and Spain becomes a separate
land from the Abbasid empire. So many people
have this misunderstanding
that we had, like, 1 Khalifa, right, until
World War 1.
That's a huge misunderstanding. We only had 1
Khalifa for the first 100 years of August.
After that, you had Abbasids in Baghdad.
You had the Obeidians in Spain.
You had the party mates in Egypt,
and more and more coming about
going as the S. Go back. I don't
think there was any point in history afterwards
where they were in one Khalifa. There were
always at least 2 or 3 people claiming
to be Khalifa at the same time. So
Spain becomes a separate
civilization from the Abbasid empire.
It becomes an Oveian civilization
for 300 years. And because the Oveians are
now focused on Spain and Spain alone for
those 300 years,
they give it all of the time, all
of the attention, all of their resources, and
it grows into
one of the most powerful
and well developed civilizations
in the history of the world.
Right? We're talking about a land that was
ahead of its time every possible way.
The technology that existed in Spain at that
time was so advanced
that when Europeans from other lands was in
Spain, they thought it was match they thought
they were witnessing match. Right? You know, they
had automated fountains. They had water flowing through
the cities.
They had mechanical statues.
They had things that were just way ahead
of their time. And, again, the rest of
Europe is still in the dark ages. They
it's like a complete clash right. You go
to to to
England or any other part of Europe, and
people are still living in the olden days
in mud houses, not even parking, no universities,
no libraries.
And then you go to Spain, and you
have this well developed situate or, this well
developed country where you have universities,
you have libraries, you have
research centers, you have
experiences that are lit at night.
You have basically
a thriving
civilization. This really we've been talking about how
or why
is the history of Spain,
why and how is it,
important? It's not just important to Muslims.
It's important to Europe and to the whole
world because this is
where civilization
and science and technology is introduced to Europe.
The rest of the Europeans
don't know about these things before Spain.
Right? They start to study Arabic so they
can go to the University of Spain. It's
in the University of Spain here introduced to
science, introduced to medicine, introduced to technology,
introduced to the scientific method, introduced to philosophy.
And then they take these things back to
their lands, and then the renaissance happens and
the enlightenment happens. It's all because of the
Muslims and what the Muslims did in Spain
that the rest of Europe wakes up from
its saga, Egypt, and experiences its growth and
reaches the heights that it reaches later in
history.
Subhanallah.
Subhanallah.
Sheikh, let's talk a bit about, if we
can, misconceptions,
because we know that arises,
with, history as well and our understanding of
it.
But but here, specifically, let's talk about,
Muslim Spain. And how does the
history of Muslim Spain actually challenge
stereotypes
and misconceptions
about Islam?
And let's look at that maybe culturally as
well, please, if we can.
Yeah. I think there's
3 main misconceptions about Islam
that are radically challenged by the fact that
Muslim Spain existed for 700 years.
Number 1 is the lie that Islam is
intolerant towards other religions.
Right? The fact that Christians and Jews wanted
Muslims to take over their land so that
they could live in peace.
Not only that, when the Christians finally take
back,
Spain, the Jews plead to the Ottoman Empire
because they really believe the only place they
have full freedom of religion is under Muslim
rule. And so even when the Muslims lose
lose Spain, they all run away to the
Ottoman Empire as to remain under Muslim. So,
really, Spain is proof
that Muslims
solve the problem of religious violence and sectarianism
by creating a
a empire in which people could live in
peace regardless of their religion and even self
govern. And you would have Christian towns living
under Christian law and Jewish towns living under
Jewish law. All of that's perfectly fine because
they take their jizya, and they have the
right to full freedom of religion under Islamic
law. So the idea that Islam is intolerant
to other religions, this is incorrect. We believe
Islam is the true religion. We want people
to raise the true religion. We want people
to go to paradise, but we don't force
it to others. And our system is designed
such that people actually
historically
felt that that was the land where they
received the most freedom of religion. That's number
1, the the misconception that Muslims are in
parliament,
to other religions. The second misconception, this exists
amongst Muslims, is this idea that,
you can either be Islamic or you can
succeed in worldly sciences. Right? This is a
very strange misconception
that popped up in the past 100 years
that,
like, if you're Islamic, you have to be
a mala or something.
And if you're, like, going into
science, medicine, and stuff, you have to be
secular.
This is, again, a product of
the western modernization.
Islamically and historically, we've never had any problem
with science of any type.
Muslims have always viewed science and worldly developments
as something that our deed encourages.
Our deed encourages
encourages us to pursue and develop all beneficial
knowledge. We did never see it as contradicting
our religion. And this is why during the
Muslim golden ages, Muslims led the world
every scientific field, including in Spain. Many of
the most important scientific
space. So this idea that will that Islam
is like this backwards religion that's averse to
science, this is a
oriental stereotype that is completely
proven untrue when you study the history of
Spain or Baghdad
or even the Ottoman Empire.
The third misconception, which is the one you
mentioned, is the issue of culture,
and it is a misconception that exists amongst
Muslims.
Many Muslims today see Islam as a monoculture.
They think that if you become a a
practicing Muslim, then it means you have to
embrace
a specific culture. In some parts of the
world, they assume it's Arab culture. In other
parts of the world, you know, like in
South Africa, many of them assume it's Indian
culture. And this is
incorrect.
Islam is multicultural.
Islam
allows for cultural diversity.
What you would find historically is any land
that the Muslims
conquer or the Muslims move to,
they never
mess with the culture of that land.
Rather, the culture of that would become
Islamic in the sense that any aspect of
that culture that was without
without without any other aspect would
become
more
the local culture is the deciding factor,
meaning you're not allowed to import foreign cultures.
Country. And so
what you find in when the Muslims conquer
Spain
is there there is no attempt to paralyze
Spain. Rather, what develops Spain is the first
truly
European
Muslim civilization
with its own architecture,
its own culture,
its own form of entertainment,
its own system of universities
and government. It's a completely different world from
Baghdad or Egypt.
Then the travel in that time will be
amazed at how culturally diverse the Muslim world
was.
You can really read, for example, the channels
of of even Jubei. Even Jubei was
many people know what even Batautta is travels.
Even Jubei was actually a traveler from Islamic
is something we need to revive. We need
to become more
tolerant
to the cultural diversity of Islam.
It's fine. Culturally,
Islam looks different in Turkey, Indonesia,
Arabia,
India, North Africa,
I mean, what example of that? The design
of the children know we, Jay, you know,
when we go to what we know with
the, you know, blown away by
The and
the analysis that we saw in Spain will
be something like that.
People who channeled the in Spain are so
blown away by the beautiful for a perpetual
development plan that they importantly
on Spain to Marina, and we design based
on the established competence of the rights.
Also, even till today, if you go to
Spain and you visit the ancient Muslims that
have been converted into churches,
they look in many ways like Muslim
because
that's the exact same language. It's not only
the Islam's fame develops in culture, it also
influences other culture as well as the community
itself.
Absolutely.
Shehil points out some very important points, and
I think, you know, we've talked about this
on previous,
interviews, dialogues with you about,
this whole cultural misconception
that Islam belongs to a certain
group or race, and I think that that
fought so much of our Dawah efforts when
we look at it in that way. So
Jazakullah Kaye for bringing up these very relevant
points,
and I think the change begins with the
awareness.
And and
from there, to make the changes, affect the
changes
we need in our societies and our homes,
first and foremost,
to create those, mindset changes that were on
short form.
If we can talk a bit, Sheikh, about
the decline
of Muslim rule in Spain, and then we
have the,
Reconquista,
what
reflections
or would you say what what does history
offer us,
as Muslims
about the importance of unity, about being
steadfast in our day being,
when it comes to this chapter of history.
An important question. So
So this is the reason for this week
because we see the once 300 400 years,
the political of Muslim civilization.
Right?
And so we have this glorious history, but
it is following a readout
and tragic history.
Spain is the first
wholesale empire to fall completely and to be
lost in other states.
In the past of 7 100 years before
the recompest
And that was the possibility issue that Muslims
have lost a major. Example, I find the
issue recently always concrete.
I think most of them became complacent.
I began to feel like if if Allah
will just then be taking it away from
us. I just became the,
what? Muslims that made a place.
Go back to being
a a a.
So the events leading up to it can
be categorized into
4 categories. Right? Well, of which citizens,
make economies lose their power. Number 1 is
greed. People became greedy for power. They became
greedy greedy for power. Spain was seen as
this lucrative
land that was worth a lot of money.
People rarely become the healthiest. You can
control this land.
And so this is a big as a
fighting to uphold this land. And this.
Between the Muslim also
in the greed,
they,
can do a more money.
The way to this, what's the Arianism,
Muslims in Spain break out into different ways
that have
in regency basically.
Because in Spain, you now have the Spanish
Muslims, the Arab Muslims, the non African Muslims.
It off
the complacency
that comes with too much
power. And obviously, soft times create big men.
So stop
explaining the essential type of
civilizational
development and glory.
Like, at one point in time, the Muslim
of Spain
are the richest, the wealthiest
civilization
on Earth. And with that comes all kinds
of luxuries
that you need about the lives of Muslim
in Spain. At a
right,
Muslims are not put up in Judea and
Jamesonens,
there's sectarianism,
there's freedom, there's racism, there's unity, the Christians
fighting each other to power.
At the same time,
the European world is making up. The crusades
are taking place. The recoque are taking place.
Europe is now coming.
Completely conquered. Muslims
either kept back to the the minority workforce
I wouldn't have been 200 years where no
Islam meant to stay at home. It's just
completely inadequate.
This is
perhaps one of the 3 greatest tragedies in
the history of Islam.
But these 3 great tragedies that caused the
downfall
nations
actually lost
their Muslims.
And those matter completely Christian again as if
they saw it again. And
that is really one of the biggest and
saddest strategies in history of Islam.
Indeed. Indeed.
Lastly, Sheikh, if we if we look
at Muslim Spain,
and the lessons we can learn from there,
particularly to do with justice and ethics.
Could you help us
understand more of that, maybe summarize that for
us? Then on a practical level, what does
this part of our history
teach us when it comes to ethics and
justice?
And, also, I think connecting to heritage on
that level, which is so important. Yeah.
That's on the heritage. Right? Many of us
are completely disconnected from the from from what
what Muslim Spain gave over to someone.
I'll just give a few names that people
can look into
to to reconnect with our history of Islamic
Spain. I mentioned earlier,
and that's great,
well, the 2 leaders.
And then I mentioned also Abdul Rashni with
his amazing story. How do we recommend people
selling the biography of Abdul Rahman 3rd,
Beyond that, another great aim to look into
and learn about is even Hazal.
Even Hazal developed his own while
Actually, I have some of the folks who
would think he was one of the most
one of the greatest minds that Islamic's been
confused. And the very beautiful book on the
philosophy of love, I can translate it into
English. It's just one of my favorite reads.
Imam al Kuntubi.
Imam al Kuntubi. So Spain eventually became a
Baliki empire. And in that Maliki empire, Imam
Al Kutubi was one of the greatest minds.
He produced,
some amazing works. So another book that I
have by is
the of
which is basically
a
Tafsir.
Very fascinating work. Again, written in Islamic Spain.
Right?
Even is another good name to look at.
We spoke on the channel to
even translate into English while worth looking into.
Even Rosh, the father of philosophy,
also was of Islamic faith.
Even Al Aghida,
the man who discovered optics. We wouldn't really
have our glasses and things today without him.
He discovered how the eyes work. He also
invented the scientific method, which is what all
of modern science in both of them. He
was from Spain.
Even Filmar, the first human to ever attempt
to fly, was also from Spain. So this
is the,
this is the,
history of,
this is the legacy of Muslim Spain that,
we have this
these great minds of technology in every possible
field of science,
to technology,
to it's a fear.
This is in the energy of Islamic State
that we need to create Canadian architecture as
well, very beautiful architecture
that is
absolutely fascinating.
And then finally, we come to the issue
of justice.
Right? The whole reason why Julian Christian
wanted the Muslim to
invade Spain
was because they they trusted the justice of
Muslims.
The way
the Islamic empire works is very different from
modern state, very different from a modern country.
The governments don't control everything.
They guard the borders and expand the empire.
They ensure that Sharia is the law of
the land.
That's it. That's the rule of of of
the. Beyond that, every land becomes sovereign. You
have your tribal leaders. You have your chief.
You have your chiefs. You have your admirates.
You have your governors.
And
it's left up to the people
to to learn their life as they want.
If anything goes wrong, we can write to
the media, and we'll try to solve their
problem. But for the most part,
Islam trusts people to
take care of their own land and take
care of their own people. There's not much
government interference in how you live your life.
Right?
So for example,
under Muslims in Spain,
Christians have their own house,
and each town would have its own denomination
of Christianity.
And they had full freedom of religion to
the level that they could even apply Christian
criminal law
to people who converted to
blacks. They would have a Christian judge meeting
over that land. It was the same with
the Jewish town and the Jewish neighborhoods.
So in this
way, Islam created a level of justice, a
level of religion that the world has never
seen.
This this is what attracted people to Islam.
This is one of the main reasons
why most of the lands in the Muslim
conquered people welcomed the conquest.
So it was replacing the unjust system of
the tyrannical empires of the past
with a,
Islam system
that was more just than anything humans have
said before.
We, in our own personal lives, need to
live by this justice today,
that we are responsible
for how we treat the people around us.
The prophet
say every single one of you is a
leader. Imagine the leader only is household. A
woman is a leader over her children and
the workers in the household will not turn
it away. Everyone is a leader. Everyone is
responsible
for their flock. So
we all have positions in our life where
we are responsible for others. If we have
to be judged towards them. We will be
responsible to allow them to deal with that
for how we take 3 total positions of
leadership.
This is one of the most important things
that we can take from,
with some conquest of Spain, how they lose
Spain, how we develop during the time.
Absolutely.
You allowed us to go back into history
with you, but also brought us back to
the present moment and the changes that we
can make overgrowth
we can make,
in our own lives so that we can,
we can take benefit from that and also
draw on the lessons and the meanings from
there.
Sheikh also had mentioned to us in terms
of reading further and learning more, ibn Hazm
and Al Qutabi
and Abdul Rahman the third. These were references
that Sheikh made. At the early part in
the early part of our interview with Sheikh,
he talked about the difference between,
the phrase Islamic history
and Muslim history, and that for me was
very profound. So if you have missed that,
as soon as the program will be up
on podcast, we can go back and play
back on that.
And very, very important that we understand the
difference because there is a difference between the
2. It has been such an honor to
have you with us today on the program
and to be able to learn more about
Minslave Spain,
with you and the lessons we gained from
there and to learn more about this part
of Muslim history.
May
Allah accept from us and from you, and
we look forward to learning from you in
the future. Allah grant Baraka in your health
and and grant you afiyah.
On the program today, we heard from Sheikh
Ismail Kamda.
Sheikh talked to us about Muslim history of
Spain. We learned more about the,
the the Muslim rule in Spain, how it
contributed to different elements of kinds and culture.
We also learned more about,
how the history of Muslim Spain actually challenges
our misconceptions
about
cultures,
interacting other cultures, and about Islam.
We learned more about the lessons from the
decline of Muslim rule in Spain and practical
reminders,
about connecting
about connecting to our heritage.
The program will be up on podcast on
Radio Islam's website, and you can follow that
for more. Sheikh's latest book is 25 Keys
to a Happy Life from Quran at Sunnah.
Islamic self help with the website, and you
can find out more about this as a
academy and sheikh's works at Yaqeen
Institute.
We look forward to joining you next week
for another program as we continue to explore
our history. Until then, Assalamu alaikum.