Maryam Amir – The Glory of AlAqsa
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Area had been turned into by the Crusaders. Not the Crusaders. It
wasn't the Crusaders. It was the time before them, the Christians
who had conquered the land at that time had been turned into a
dumpster. So this whole entire area that you see here, it was all
just a dumpster. And subhanAllah, he went to a Sahabi you know the
story of how Amara dillahu anhu came in, the Sahaba had been
conquering the surrounding areas, and we're going to talk in more
detail in a different lecture about the specific Sahaba that
were here in that time. So Inshallah, a different lecture
will cover that. But just to move forward, what happens is they call
Amara dillahu anhu to get the keys of the city. So as he's coming in
to get the keys of the city, and he fulfills a description of the
Christians in their books of who is going to come in. He comes in,
and this whole area, he doesn't know. Where is the place of mesh
Al Aqsa? Where is the place of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam
ascended? Where is the holiness of this area, of this whole city?
When you walk in, it's impossible to know exactly. And so he asked a
companion who used to be Jewish, and he converted to Islam. And so
this companion, his name was capital the Allahu anhu, and he is
the one who showed amahuran, who where. And so then Omar and the
Companions we're talking about, Musab ibn aradi Allahu Anh, Khalid
Ibn Walid, radila Huan Abu zaradi Allahu Anh, these great companions
with these great names, they themselves. Abu dharada, they
began to clean Mr. Al Aqsa here where you are standing, they began
to clean it. And then Omar radila. One, he had the area there, which
is Masjid Al qabili. He had it be built with the with wood. He had
it be built with wood right here. One, he built this structure that
we know as Kobata Sokha. But as you all know, this whole area is
considered Masjid Al Aqsa. However, when OMA radiallahu anhu,
when he came in and he saw Bilal ODI Allahu an Do you know how long
it had been since he had seen bila radiallahu anhu, he had been in
Medina with bila radiallahu anhu, making the event, making the
event, making the event, until the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam passed away, and with the passing of the beloved SallAllahu,
alayhi wa sallam, bila RadiAllahu, Anhu. For six days, he would make
the Adhan. And every time he would get to the shahada saying,
washadu, Anna, Muhammad, rasulallah, he would look to the
qaqah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and then he
would just begin to weep. And everyone in Medina would begin to
weep. So after a few days of this, at that time, Abu Bakr al the
Khalifa, so he asked him for permission to leave Medina. He
couldn't stand Medina, knowing that the Prophet sallallahu,
alayhi wa sallam, would never stand in Medina again. It was just
too overwhelming emotionally for him to give the knowing Prophet
saw them was not there. So he left, and he was part of the the
excursion of the Muslims conquering the different lands.
And so he was here when Abu Bakr, when Ahmed radiant who came to
take Aqsa. So when Abu Bakr Radi Allahu Anhu saw Bilal RadiAllahu.
An it's been some time since they've seen each other, and they
are holding each other and they are weeping at their reunion after
so long. Anoma RadiAllahu, anhu, he asks, Bilal RadiAllahu, an can
you make the event? Asking him make the event here in mashallah
Aqsa. This is going to be the first event ever given in
mashallah and Bilal RadiAllahu, Anhu reminds Amar RadiAllahu, an
that he promised he will never give the Adhan again. How can he
give the Adhan again when he's not here with the Prophet salallahu
alayhi wa salam to see him. And so Amar RadiAllahu, anhu, he tells
him, if the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam were here, he
would want you to give the Adhan. Please give the Adhan. And so
beyond. For the first time in those years, he stands up here,
and he gives the event here, and as he's saying, the event, and he
gets to a shadow, and Muhammad Ara,
he begins to cry, and he begins to weep, and he begins to sob until
he falls on his knees crying. And the Companions, just so moved by
this emotion, are all weeping. The Bilal RadiAllahu, anhu, for the
first time, is giving the adhan, and this emotional connection they
have to each other, to the adhan, to this place, all goes back to
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The Prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam was brought here in the time of the hardest year of
his life when Aisha radiAllahu, Anhu asked him, What was the
hardest time he didn't mention. He didn't mention all of these other
times that could have been so difficult. He mentioned this, this
time of Taif, this time of having lost Abu Bakr Aslam, of having
lost Abu Talib, having lost his best friend, his father figure, he
lost his closest, closest people, and then he went to five hoping
for something, not necessarily for the people of five to believe, but
simply to support. And he was cast out by the most vulnerable of
their community to embarrass him. He was sloshing in blood as his
feet were walking, salallahu alayhi wa salam because of the
amount of pain that they inflicted on him. And this is the when Allah
took him here to lead the prophets, all of whom had gone
through their own hardships. And I want you to realize that if you
are in mashall Aqsa right now, and you are going through your own
hardships, all.
Allah brought you here for a reason, whether it's you going
through it in your own life or whether someone you love going
through it and you feel that hardship is not ever unseen. Allah
chose the Prophet, salallahu alayhi, would send them to come
here and lead the prophets here. Not a single space of this of this
land, has not been touched by an angel or a prophet, not a single
spot you are sitting in a place where an angel or a prophet has
walked, and yet so many people were not able to enter this this
place, Musa alaihi salam, he wanted so badly to be where you
are, where you are sitting. Musa alaihi salam wanted to enter, but
he was never able to enter. And so he asked when the the Angel of
Death came, just to be be buried close, just to be buried close to
Jerusalem, so he would be close to betul mulkus, Musa alaihi salam
made that. Now we are here today, and we are blessed to be here
because Omar Al Hurra Anhu entered the city. And he did so with Abu.
We know he did this with justice. When he did that, he appointed, at
the time, must have Ibn Omaha, excuse me, Murad Ibn Jabil
RadiAllahu an. He appointed Muay Thai bin Jabil RadiAllahu an, to
be in charge of a school that he established. This is so critical
for us to recognize, because the school that he established was
part of being able to spread the importance of knowledge and to
build scholarship. When we lost this as an ummah, we also lost our
understanding of Mr. Al Aqsa. Have you met Muslims who don't quite
understand they know Mr. OXA is important, but like, not really.
Why have you met Muslims who are like, isn't that a Palestinian
thing? We've heard people say different things, because, as an
ummah, we have not understood the importance of Masjid Al Aqsa. And
when we lose sight of that, we lose sight of having Masjid Al
Aqsa uma Radi Allahu Arana, we established a school that started
teaching the importance of Masjid Al Aqsa and the the importance of
Islam and teaching Islamic scholarship that establishment
over time. Unfortunately, the way that the Crusaders came in after
Aksa was established was because Muslim politicians in political
rule stopped caring when the Crusaders came in in that time, in
that time in Europe, the people were in the Dark Ages in Europe,
right? They were told by the pope that if they were to take care of
someone who was sick, that they are going against the decree of
God, because God made them sick, so you can't go against the decree
of God, so you can't cure them. So so 1000s and 1000s of people were
dying. The people were so poor, and they were only being ruled by
the most wealthy. And there's poetry in history of mothers
singing to their babies. Hush Hush, little baby, don't you cry.
Hush Hush, little baby, try to die. Because as a mother, it was
so heartbreaking for them to even imagine the life that this child
was going to have to live. So knowing that these people are in
desperate poverty and knowing that they have no literature, they
couldn't read or write as a population, and they didn't know
about Islam other than they thought of Islam as a heretical
Christian sect. They didn't know Islam as Muslims. They saw it as
some sort of offshoot of Christianity. So the Pope, at that
time, he stands up and he calls for the Crusades, for this holy
war to come and take Jerusalem. From the time of calling the
people to come and take Jerusalem, and the time that Jerusalem was
actually taken was only three years, but from that time, well,
technically, a little bit more, because there's a Okay, long,
okay. I made it short. I made it short, but there is a whole there
was one Pope, and then he died, and another pope and came and took
it on, and then, okay, anyway, short, short version a few years.
Short version a few years. What happens is these people come, and
they don't come straight to Jerusalem. They start taking other
cities as they're knocking on city by city. Muslims are terrified.
And you see the politicians of that time, what are they doing?
They are not aligning Muslim with another so that they can protect
Jerusalem. They are aligning with the Crusaders to protect them from
other Muslim rulers who have the opportunity to come in and protect
them from the Crusaders, but in that case, would also become the
ruler of that city. They want to hold on to this piece of land so
desperately that they're willing to work with people who are
massacring Muslims just to be able to hold on to their palace. And
now, where are all of those people? And now, what do we say
about all of them? Look at the way that Allah curses their names.
Look at the way that none of us remember them with any good what
was the point? And yet, because of them, so many Muslims were
slaughtered, and the doors of Jerusalem were opened and the
Crusaders took over. When the Crusaders took over, they killed
every single person in the city. Everyone was a Palestinian. Ought
up to them. They couldn't differentiate who was Jewish
versus Christian.
Versus Muslim. And even the Christians had a discrepancy
between their belief because they had different offshoots as well.
So they killed. And here where you are sitting right now, it is said
that horses were swimming in blood, that when they were writing
contracts, when they were writing contracts, they were standing knee
deep in blood, because of the 10s upon hundreds upon 1000s of
innocent people, they killed the old city walls. When you walk in,
I want you to imagine that they would pile the skulls up of the
people so high that they were higher than the city walls. When
you think about what this city has seen, what the walls have
witnessed, Imam Al Ghazali, Rahima Allah, it is said that that is
where he was living there's also also mentioned that it could have
been on the other side in different messages. I think you
saw it on The Walking Tour. But Imam Yusuf, the Yusuf, Imam Yusuf
that you just mentioned, he said that that's what they say, that
also he could have been studying there. But this scholarship that
went away from the Ummah, like Imam Al Ghazali, came back as a
scholar. He didn't come back a scholar. He was a scholar who
allowed for the retaking of Aksa from the Crusaders. Why? Because,
imagine he was someone who came less than 100 years after the
Crusaders first came. He is the first one who was able to start
reuniting Muslims and bring back some Muslim power to some of the
cities. But Damascus was ruled by a Muslim leader who had an
alliance, a political alliance, with the Crusaders here, and so he
didn't want to remove the potential of that alliance. So
they couldn't Muslims could not get Damascus, because the ruler of
Damascus wanted to keep his treaty with the people of the Crusaders.
So they couldn't take over ALSA yet, when Imada Dean died, his son
took over. Do you know who his name is, nuradin. Nuradin took
over. And nuradin was known as someone who was extremely
righteous, and he was very focused on coming back to Aksa. But
nuradin never made it into Aksa, his, his the next person after him
was
Salah Haddin. And Salah Haddin is the one who, because of everything
else that people put into place beforehand, was able to come in
Salaf a dean was the student of the schools that were built by
nivamukh, and in these schools, they were teaching the importance
of Aksa. So we have generations of people who forgot what Aksa is and
the importance of masah, and then we have a ruler who came back, who
took after Amarillo Haran, when Imam Al maqdisi. He's a huge
henbali scholar. Do you know what he said in The Fault in the fault
him at time period, the reason, one of the reasons the Crusaders
were able to come in is because the fault emits took over mashed
Al Aqsa. So there was so much destruction already because
Muslims were fighting against Muslims. That's a little bit of
different. Because, as a secretary, thing too, Secretary
thing too. But the point is that already the city walls were
crumbling. They came in and they stopped all of the cat, all of the
all of the teaching. So when they came in and stopped all the
teaching. Now it's just this dearth of knowledge and a whole
lot. He mentioned that where Imam Shafir, who made Ritika here in
mashal Aksa. When he mama Shafir, he was asked whether he would love
to make it mashallah or Mecca or Medina. Why does he choose mashal
when he could choose Mecca or Medina? And he said, Because Aksa
is where all of the Prophets stood. No other place all of the
Prophets stood. So he wants to be amongst all of the prophets. So
Imam ashefari, when he would teach so many people would come to his
halakas al muqdisi mentioned that there was nobody coming to any
khalifas. No one was coming to learn anything, because there was
no culture continued to see, to study and to teach. And so when we
started losing that knowledge, Muslims became very weak. And of
course, the political situation didn't help. And so all of that
led to the loss of Aqsa. Now we have nivam al Moak starting these
schools. Hala hadin comes as a student of those schools, and when
he comes as a student of those schools, he's not just taking Aksa
because it's a political issue. Why does he want Aksa? Because of
what it means to us as Muslims. He wants it for Islam, and because he
knows Islam, he's not gonna come in here and slaughter like the
Christians did. He comes in here on the pillars of Islam the same
way that Alma Aldi lahuan, when he came in and he was carrying, he
was guiding the Annie, the animal, that his servant was walking on.
Why sitting on? Why was his servant sitting on a writing
animal? Why? Because of his his justice as a ruler, he decided
with this one servant who he left, Medina from Alma alahine, who was
asked to come here. We'll cover his story inshallah next time. So
I'm not going to go. I'm not gonna go into super detail, but when he
decided to come, it was just with one servant, just the two of them
coming from Medina all the way to Aksa. So they took turns on this
riding animal, and when it was his turn to enter the to pull the
animals when they entered Aksa. So the servant is asking him, you
ride. You're a meeru. Mommy. Need they need to see our leader coming
in on strong and he said, This is not justice. We decided what we're
gonna do to be equal, and it's not just if I'm gonna take your turn,
even as coming in as a ruler, even the way that people are gonna see
him. He said to one of the companions that came to him and
asked him, please, just change your clothes. Change your clothes
before you go to meet them like the whole.
Entire city is lined up waiting to see you coming in. Everyone
saying, Who is this great AMR that the priest of the cruise of the
Christians will not give the keys over to the city, except for the
man that's described in their books as SubhanAllah. He taught
them that they, I said, doesn't come from clothing. It comes from
Allah. Subhanallah comes from this connection to Allah. That
connection is what salaha Deen would seek, and the man before
him, no Radin, the DUA he used to make in his sajda, he would say,
Oh Allah, give Islam victory. Don't give me victory. Don't give
Mahmoud victory. Don't give Mahmoud victory. Give Islam
victory. Who is this dog? Mahmoud? His sincerity wasn't about him. It
was about Islam. When we recognize where we are Subhanallah, we have
been honored to be in mashallah Aqsa. And one of the questions
that we need to ask ourselves as we're here is, Why did Allah
choose me to be here when some of the prophets could never come in?
Why did Allah choose me to be here when Palestinians who were five
minutes away cannot enter? It's not because we're special, like
don't take it that way. Those people are way better than us. But
there's a responsibility. So what is that responsibility? One which
is Inshallah, something we're going to focus on in these
lessons, is a connection to the Quran. Because how did you Allahu
an How did the Companions come to Aqsa in the first place? It was
because of the wahi of their connection to the revelation, of
their connection to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam. And to
end, I'm going to share with you just the story of Malik Ibn dinar,
because I want you to see this, the way this connection can shape
someone. Have you heard of Malik Ibn dinor Just a few Maliki dinar
was a tabiri, so he was a he was a student of the companions of the
Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam. And he was part of like
the Secret Service of that time. He was known as someone who would
drink. He was a regular, regular drinker. This is before he became
a student of the Tiberian of the companions. He was known as
someone who would drink. And he was not necessarily just he was
known as someone who was part of an oppressive group of people and
malign dinar Subhanallah, he had a little girl who died when she was
two years old, and when she died, he started drinking. He just drank
and drank and drank and drank and drank until he just passed out.
And when he passed out, he had a dream. So Manik Ibn Dinard had a
dream that he is standing on the day of judgment. And if you've
ever had a day of judgment dream, have you ever had a day of
judgment? Dream? Any of you? Okay? It's terrifying, but it could not
be. Maybe that's just my own nuts. I don't know. Okay, I shouldn't
have said all of that. The point is, it's a very terrifying
experience. And if you think about the Day of Judgment, we hope, we
pray, that it's a blessing and joy, but it's also very scary. So
Maliki Medina, he has this dream that he's standing on the day of
judgment and this huge snake is chasing him, this enormous snake.
So he runs in this direction. So he starts running, he starts
running, he starts running, and he stops here. He stops right here.
And there's very, very old man is standing, sitting right here. So
he says to this very, very old man, save me. Do you see the
snake? It's chasing me. Help me. And the old man says, Do you see
me? I'm so weak, I'm so frail, there's nothing I can do. I would
I can't do anything but go in that direction. Go the other way. So he
runs the other direction. Runs the other direction, and he gets to
over here. And what is over here? He looks down. It's a cliff, and
underneath the cliff is hellfire. And he hears a voice, and that
voice says, Turn around. You're not from the people of *. So he
turns around. He runs again to the old man one more time, and he
says, Please help me. Help me. And the old man is like, I can't do
any Look at me. Go the other direction. So he runs the other
direction. And all of a sudden, as he's running, who do you think he
suddenly sees
his daughter? The answer is, his daughter. He saw his daughter.
Yes. So he sees his daughter. When he sees his daughter, he is
suddenly so overwhelmed with joy, the snake is gone. He sits down
like he used to sit with her. He puts her on his lap, he holds her
and he asks her, what was that snake? And she says to him, My
Father, don't you know that any of your sins on the Day of Judgment,
they're going to come in the form, in a form. And that snake was all
of your bad deeds, and it was trying to eat you alive. And that
old old man, that old old man, those were your good deeds. And
your good deeds were so weak and they were so frail that they
couldn't actually help you. And if you hadn't had the loss, the test
of the loss of his baby girl, then everything would have been lost
for him. And then he says, she says to him, yeah, a bitty my
beloved father. And she recites an ayah,
hasn't
it
come time for the believers, for the believers, for their hearts to
become softened at the remembrance of Allah. She says this item, and
he wakes up screaming. He wakes up screaming that time is the moment
of salatul, Fajr. He quickly makes Waldo. He leaves his house. He
goes to the masjid. You know when you walk in late to the masjid,
and sometimes you're already finished with Suratul Fatiha and
you're.
Hearing another ayah of the Quran, you walk in and you're maybe it's
the eye You're memorizing. Maybe it's ayah that you've been
thinking about and you like to find a lot to message from Allah.
He walks into the masjid, and what is the Imam reciting? Hasn't it
come time for the
believers, for their
hearts to be softened by the remembrance of Allah, the same
ayah that his daughter said, That was a moment that Maliki bindi not
completely changed. He went from being someone who was drinking,
who was involved with all these things that were unjust, to
someone who became one of the greatest scholars of Islamic
history. He would stand in the night and make dua and say, Oh,
Allah, I don't know if I'm of the people of the Hellfire or the
people of the paradise, so please write me of the people of
Paradise, and don't write me of the people of *. One night, he
was making zolano pm in his home, and he lived such a life of
aestheticism that he had nothing in his house. A burglar walked in.
He broke it. He didn't see this man praying in the like darkness
of the corner. They didn't have like electricity. Maybe he had a
candle. And I don't know. Why am I saying that? The point is, can see
anything. So he just, like, is trying to look for things to
steal. He doesn't find anything in the house. And then what does he
see? This man praying? So Maliki bendino returns to the man, and
he's like, Oh, you came here to steal something, and you're not
finding anything. So why don't I let you go with something better?
So he tells him, make Wu Doo and come pray with me. So this burglar
comes. He's embarrassed. He makes Waldo. He comes and prays with
Malik Ibn Dinard. And at vegr time, Malik Ibn dinor goes to the
masjid. It was said about him that he would say, if it wasn't for
Waldo, I would never leave the Masjid. He would just be in the
masjid all the time, constantly making doubt, constantly teaching.
So he was sitting in them. He was sitting in the masjid all the
time. People knew him. Now for the first time ever, he's walking in
with someone no one has ever seen before. And so they're like, Who
is this person that you're walking in with? And he's like, this man
wanted to steal something from us, but we stole something from him.
What was the thing he stole from him? He says, bad character. We
stole his bad character and replaced it with a connection with
Allah subhanahu wa. Every single one of us here, we have our own
issues. We have our own struggles. We have everything. But Allah
chose us to be here in the last 10 nights of Ramadan for a very
particular reason. You may not know what that reason is. I may
not know exactly what it is, but we have a responsibility, even
more so than we did 10 days ago, to the Quran. The Quran changed
Malik Ibn dinor, it is what allowed for Salafi Deen to be so
reconnected to Islam that he with the work of all those who came
before him by Allah, Allah mercy, conquered Jerusalem again. We are
in a time where we can make a difference. If we lived in a time
where Islam was already in the golden era, none of us are
probably going to be Imam, Imam, the great Imam, as they were
already there all and did all that. But if we lived in that
time, maybe we would be students whose names were never written, or
maybe we're in in a book somewhere. Now we are in a time
where even if our names are not remembered, our actions will make
a huge difference because of the because of everything that's
happening. So when we make dua, not that they didn't make a
difference too, but I'm just saying Allah chose us to be here
for a reason in this time and in this place, when we reconnect to
the Quran, like the Companions who came and opened all of the doors
for people to know Islam, like Malik immandinar, who had a past
but his future was connection to the Quran. When we make an
investment with the Quran, make an investment in knowing that our
connection is with Allah and with nothing else, we will see this
ummah change, and it starts with us. So Inshallah, let's make a
commitment to that change. Inshallah, together, we will work
in that journey so technical level, we have the connection.
When that elahail ends, I think we had time for Q A but please feel
free to leave. I know. I'm sure many of you are very tired and
ready to get ready for a thought. But if anyone has questions, feel
free.
Yeah, you mentioned dimensions that Allah asked
us. So there's something called fitzra. And fitzra is that's like
innate knowing, like every single person is born with Fitzroy. Every
single person is born with an innate knowing of some things.
First thing, the most important thing, is that Allah is our Lord.
This is why it's so natural to believe in one Lord. It's, you
know, I'm sure you've had Christian friends or relatives who
are like, I never quite understood what the Trinity is like. It
doesn't quite make sense to me. And I know I, a lot of my family
members are converts, and so, like, I know that there was, this
was a big theological issue, like, what does it mean to have rule in
one we're so grateful and blessed that Allah blesses with knowing
just him, just him alone. And that's with all respect to anyone
who believes anything else, but it's just a natural inclination
that you would want to worship Allah amongst the fitrah is also
it's unnatural to kill someone. It's unnatural to want to steal
from someone. We are conditioned over time, and we learn over time,
and we are taught over time. But if you ask a three year old child
or a five or seven year old child, is that something right to do,
they're going to say, No, it's a Fitz unless they're taught
otherwise. So part of this fitzra Is this innate knowledge of
worshiping Allah. Where did that come from? The Allah has already
asked every.
Every single one of us and in the place before this time, this
acknowledgement that we are going to worship Allah and that we're
going to carry the heaviness and the responsibility of this
message. So this is something that Allah established from us before
we even entered the world, and this is the fitrah that we're born
with. Is why a lot of people, when they convert, they're called
reverts. And this is a long discussion in film. I personally
use the word convert if someone were to ask about conversion,
because when you convert, never mind. We don't. We can talk about
if you want. But the point is, a lot of people say revert, because
they're saying, I'm reverting back to what's natural for my soul when
I was actually born with this worshipful lesson. I will tell
that directly. Does anyone else have any questions?
Okay? But so awesome to see all of you. Such an honor to be an
episode with you. Inshallah, we will see you soon. Please keep me
in your jaw and my dad. That's my dad.