Lessons From the Life of Ibn Taymiyah #1
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So our discussions on some of the great the Imams, the great scholars of Islamic history
and today's our our third selection and our appointment with Edna Tamia Rahim Allah may Allah have mercy on him. And if it's a Me or him I would love for sure it was one of the great and among the greatest scholars in you know our glorious history in Islamic history. But unlike, you know, Al Bukhari Rahim Allah Allah who we began with, and unlike and now what we Rahim Allah, Allah, who we followed up with him in the same era him Allah was not just one of the greatest scholars, he was, unlike them one of the most controversial scholars.
And a person may wonder why. And I think one of the the, the best explanations,
which is given by one of the foremost experts on a Potamia today, which is John Hoover, who actually has a small biography on him to tell me that you can read in 90 or 110 pages, it's a good, it's a decent read, it's a good primer on his life and an overview of his life. He says that it's because it Tamia, unlike other scholars, remains a living force in the Islamic tradition, right? The subjects that he's discussing, continue to have renewed relevance, and are a big part of a Muslims sort of frame of mind, in light of the challenges of, of today, whether as individuals or as,
as a global community as an Oma. So
this is the culture of Allah subhanho wa taala. But if we were to try to make some sense of it, on our level, it's because he, for instance, was very puritanical, they say, like he was bent on restoring the purity of Islam, all of these things that were foreign to Islam, alien to Islam, that he believed, you know, sort of got added or clung to Islam later on. He wanted to, he like stripped Islam from the innovations, right, the Buddha, as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, the best of guidance, my guidance, and the worst matters are the newly added matters. So he wanted to purify Islam from everything he believed was an unjustified, newly added matter.
So those are points of contention, right? You're going after things that could have been part of Muslim practice, whether scholarly or mainstream among the masses, but for some time, centuries, also, because even it's a miracle in a whole lot
was, was seen and is continues to be seen as like a symbol of
rebellion, anti establishment, right, you say that this person is anti establishment. And he was anti establishment in many ways. He was many of the the established scholarly positions of his time he challenged, it wasn't just the like the the mess in the minds of the masses, you know, intellectually. He was anti establishment in some respects, and then politically as well, right. Like he had a lot of political involvement. And so these caused for him to be sort of controversial in his time, and whoever follows or thinks they're following in his footsteps until the present age.
And also because he was largely involved in sort of being a an intellectual defender of Islam and apologist, you know, apologists are people that are involved in sort of systematically defending their positions, their beliefs, their actions. He was an apologist for Islam, he was always offering the defense, the intellectual defenses, the sort of the philosophical arguments, the,
the, the rationality behind you know, what we believe and what we practice as Muslims. And so, a lot of times when he's talking to his intellectual opponents, we lose sight of the fact that he doesn't actually mean that every person that has that belief, or that understanding that he's attacking, that he's this deconstructing that he's critiquing that he has hostility towards them. Even some of the friends or the sympathizers or the fans throughout history have entertained me I have sort of conflated the two, the concept with the personality or the group that you're critiquing. And so like historically, even the Tamia Rahim Allah is John Hoover says, he wrote the greatest refutation of
Christianity in the Islamic tradition, and he has his book called The outer Sahaba even but then I didn't even see the one the people who,
who sort of
hijack the religion of the Messiah, who misrepresented Jesus Christ, these blessings be upon him. And so
He's refuting them. It is the greatest polemical work. You know, deconstructing dismantling refuting the positions and the corruptions and the distortions of Christianity. Right. So that could get misunderstood to mean even the Tamia wants Death to all Christians. That's the idea, right? The concept with the the personality, the pill, people often remember that he wrote all of this, right, he went to war intellectually with Christianity to theology. But at the same time, when the Mongols took Jews and Christians captive, he demanded that not only Muslim prisoners be released, he went and demanded the Jewish and Christian captives be released, because they are our responsibility in
front of Allah, because they are citizens of the Muslim state. And they are and within them are sort of the non Muslim citizens of the Muslim state, right. And so he says the word then that means responsibility, so they are our responsibility. And to them that means they are the protected class. They are not to be walked over by us, nor while we're around, we will not tolerate it. People don't mention this part of his legacy of his tradition of his biography, because he was so involved in sort of the the polemics against Christianity.
Or, for example, it's a matter of Kerala, his most famous work out of he has a book called The Auto, which is basically negating or denying the conflict, they assumed conflict, maniacally will not come between reason and revelation that like logic and reason, conflict with Revelation, he wrote his most famous work these 10 volumes and how they don't actually conflict, even if some people may assume they can flick. And
there are many Muslim groups, a spectrum of Muslim groups who sort of gave into that framework, that mentality of what do you do when they conflict? He's saying no, this came from Aristotelian logic. This all came from the principles of Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, and we don't accept this framework to begin with, there is never a contradiction between reason and revelation. And so people may think admits AMI has the same impression of all people that are involved in Greek logic are all people that accept any notions that are in Greek logic, like whether it's the philosophers that are not Muslim to begin with, to the Morteza, which were sort of like
they are known as like the, the rationalist rationalist, but
the more extreme version of rationalists and then there are those who are are not like the more desert I rather they reacted to the extreme of the Tesla, and they provided, you know, like the eyeshadows. And the mentality of these who provided rational explanations for the understanding of the Quran and Sunnah without denying any of them. He didn't believe these are all the same. Even if he had a critique of all of them. It wasn't the same critique. People sort of they conflate these things.
And interestingly, some of these groups that have maintained Me or him Allah critique that were Muslim considered him Catholic, they considered him a disbeliever because of sort of the back and forth Miss between them all, and he never considered them disbelievers. He said, We don't judge Muslims based on how they judge us. We judge Muslims based on the principles Allah gave us in the Quran and Sunnah. So
it's ironic that he has held as the guy who sort of is fast to take fee and fast to excommunication when he was the farthest people from it.
What else did he get into a fight with he got into a fight with senior ism, right? He wrote a very famous, you know, multi volume work called
admin headroom and had you know, Bula, which is basically a refutation or response and a rebuttal and a push back against the notions of shamanism at large and in particular Twelver Shia Islam. Right The Imam Maitreya, and so that sort of discussion is is still used nowadays, when there's sectarian violence or sectarian, you know, standoffs in the OMA it's often invoked for political reasons to justify
sex sectarian violence, right.
It's Emile Rahim. Allah also had a lot of conflict with with extreme Sufi groups. He did. He wrote a lot and there was lots of tensions between him and many Sufi groups. And people don't know that it's gonna take me Rahim Allah, Allah was
argued to have joined the sort of a Sufi order himself, which is a funny analogy Lania the Gilani order and he has as we will visit it this week or next week in sha Allah, maybe we have to split it up into two weeks, some of the most balanced and moderate and sophisticated and fair evaluations of how to understand Sufism, what just happened here?
Rahim Allah Allah. So anyway,
there's, and then, you know, like even the Tamia when there was invading forces when the Mongols invaded Damascus or tried to imitate me physically confronted them. Right. And that is why, you know, you have sort of jihadi groups around the world today. Like even it's a man got extra famous in the past few decades because of some of the lead and was known to cite it. And it's a me, right, so people made this connection between imitating me and radical militants killing of innocent civilian Muslim, just the mental connections were made. And so that's basically why he's so controversial today, because he sort of had many bones to pick with lots of understandings. And
also, he was just such a great scholar. And so he had something to say about so many different things like for Edmund, Samia rahamallah, to be a scholar who among Islamic scholarship, for example, his his contributions were so important and seen as so valuable that over 100 of them made it to print, you know, scholars have so many works of literature that never saw, you know, the publication error. They're still in manuscripts or they've been lost over time, biographers estimate that he wrote over 900 pieces between like short treatises and you know, books, some of them, you know, larger than others, fatawa booklets books, and 900 of them in all the different sciences,
right? Over 100 of them actually made it to print and exist until today.
And so when you write that much about that many things, and you feel the need to correct the OMA from roughly 700 years in his time of drifting, you're bound to be misunderstood. That's the whole idea. Is that part clear, like you're bound to be decontextualized, you're seen as what you've said in that paragraph, because other people are just running with one paragraph, or one page, or one volume, or one moment, or even one period in your life because he himself matured, if we're going to compare sort of his personality with his writings, throughout his life, he himself changed and retracted certain positions he had an otherwise. And also to be very fair, because the vast
majority, almost everything I say, here will be lessons and virtues and praise and admiration for him. And it's a mere Rahimullah, there's no doubt that he was human. Right? Let me not to say the bad stuff first. But let's just be honest, you can't just say everyone's human, and then paint the picture that's super human. He was known to very be very hot tempered by him a whole lot. He was, it is not as obvious in his writing as it is in sort of the biographies or the accounts you hear from people, but it seems to be consistent
part of his personality, you would get very defensive and very provoked, you know, out of out of the for the dean, and many times he would say things or do things that he didn't mean to the letter, right. But when it came to his writing, he was very different, for the most part, for the most part, but he was very hot tempered. And if you see how much of his life was sort of dedicated to combat, intellectual combat, physical combat, if you see the amount of times he was imprisoned, as we will see over and over and over and over and over again,
a fair person will sort of give that some some leeway and see that the bulk of his personality and his personal biography, Tara Taylor, an incredible story about this man, a very admirable story about this man, Rahim Allah, that even that even his Muslim opponents would marvel at people that vehemently disagreed with him, they would testify that I've never seen the world has never seen someone like this man. Meaning in our era, some of them would even say in the last 500 years there was nobody like him so let's begin with we can with his life story about him and hold law. His name was acumen
that was his first name.
If not that headin, if not the Salem,
if not good luck, even to me of how Ronnie so his name was Ahmed and his title he was known as FAU Dean to fee from from Taqwa due to his great piety. And this was like sort of common, they would give these people Honorific Titles, even as children otherwise so that they would live up to them. Right. So he was known as stuffy, your dean, his father.
His father, Abdul Halim, was known as she had with Dean she had with Dean which basically means like the flame of the religion, a light for the religion. And his grandfather was mentioned to Dean, the glory of the religion. And mentioned the dean, by the way was a great authority in Islamic history, in particular in the Hanbali madhhab. He was one of the great authorities of the later Hanbury madhhab the jurists, the legal experts of the Hambling
method that was his grandfather image the DNA Potamia Rahim Allah Allah. And then the
image, which is Abu Salam was the son of Abdullah and then he was known as even a team here the whole family was known as Edna Tamia. The sons of Tamia. Tamia is actually a woman. See Salam does not disregard women.
This great scholar is most famously known with a title that is after a woman that was his great great grandmother. Tamia Rahim Allah Allah or Tamiya Rahim Allah, who is known to be a very powerful, very profound preacher that brought many people in their hearts to Allah subhanho wa Taala was very effective in her preaching and her reminding and in her data.
Rama to Allah Allah had then he was known as Ronnie and how Ronnie is from the source of the village or the town of how to run how to run is currently in Turkey at the time of
it Tamia Rahim Allah Allah this was part of the Roman sultanate the sort of the,
the Muslim satellite states that are around the Roman Empire, right. So they were sort of directly adjacent they were bordering with the Roman Empire and then he's known as a how Rania domestically from Iran and then Damascus obviously in Syria for a reason you will know shortly inshallah
he was born anyone know what century already gave you guys a hint for whoever hasn't slept yet?
Let's work together on this.
No, I said his opponent said his likes have never existed in 500 years, meaning after the first two 300 years of Islam. No one's like him, right after the era of the great Imams.
But that means he was about 700 years into Islam. He was born Rahima Hola, in the year 661 After Hijra. So Gregorian, common errors. We use it today. He was born in the year 1263. Okay, so he's about 700 years into Islam, about 700 years before our time, he sits at the center of Islamic history, at least as it pertains to us, at least in our context. So he was born in Hebron in that city,
if present dates Turkey, into a family of scholars, as I showed you, and explain to you
and him and all his three brothers became great scholars as well. And that's always something very important to reflect on. Right? Whatever you plan to get. These kids are planted in an environment of
scholarship, they will become scholars, you're surrounded with greater odema and great books and great piety and great atmosphere don't build anything in your life on the exception, right. If we surround them with other than that a different kind of tree will sprout a different kind of fruit will will be produced. We have to be certain of that.
You know, so usually Rama was one of the greatest scholars ever in the history of Islam. He died in the year 911 Hijiri.
He was known as Jelena Dena CLT he was known as assumedly, YBNL, kootu assumedly, the son of the books, why was he called the son of the books, they say because his father, who was a great scholar, sent his mother who would help him in scholarship, sent his mother meeting his wife, Susie's Mom, he asked his wife to go get me a certain book from our library. So when she went into the library, she fell into labor. So she had to sit down right there, and she delivered the baby. And so he was born, he came out of the library, it came out of the books, and so they would sort of like attribute that history. To him. He was the son of the books, right? Even before he knew what a book was. He was
surrounded by books. So all of his him and all his brothers were scholars, but then it's Amy Rahim Allah, he he separated himself quickly, like it became obvious that there was something extra special about him that he was a prodigy. You know, Prodigy means like a very gifted child. He was a golden child.
And that he would soon be a polymath. You guys know what a polymath is?
polymath
huh?
Yes, someone who's like, who has mastered many different sciences, right? Like
when was the last time you seen like
an engineer who's a physician who's, who's the one
who, who's a who's a great software developer. Right? Was last time you seen that? So I'm gonna tell you a lot clearly. He showed very early that he was able to mass
there and enroute to mastering anything he touched and everything he touched him I would love to Isla and a big part of this What was that he had that photographic memory we spoke about that when he just looks at something, it would just stick. And many of our great scholars had this
and it was it was employed
very well by his parents. They were looking for it. They noticed it, they capitalized on it. So he memorized the Quran Rahim Allah, Allah when he was seven years old. And then Allah caston his heart also a great love to learn that some people have a skill and it just they have no passion, right? It's it is
when he was around seven years old, they say his father told him like, you know, your siblings are saying you don't want to go out with them. We're going out to this really nice garden like
scenic and we get to play and have a nice time picnic and stuff. And I don't want to I don't want to and so they went without him and his father comes back he goes you know, you really need to be more flexible you you broke your siblings, his heart like you make them feel like you you don't care about them. You don't like their company? And he said no, no, it's not that it's just that I was you know, I was learning it although now that I'm older so now there is basically no solid legal theory it primer in the Hidden Valley madhhab by evening for them Rahim Allah was one of the greatest scholars of the method
who wrote the movie and you know, did filter on all these other books. So so as far as like you were doing what he does not really I was memorizing with another is why we were going to memorize what another? Is it? Yeah, I'm done. So as far as it takes the book, and he starts opening it, and he tells him, he starts a line for me, he completes it and he flips through, he completes it like what hola hola had like the back of his hand, he has an adult another memorize Rahima Hola.
And so very quickly, they move him into, like, tried to see how fast they can go. And so he dives very early in his life into, you know, the complexities of you know, fifth law and Islam is is complex. It's almost like an all or none with you know why? Because
fifth
is sort of, you know, the, the
sort of the orientalist and also Western experts in the academy in academics, they felt like, why do the scholars of Islam of Islamic law, talk about anything and everything, it's because the principles in Islamic law apply to anything and everything, right? Like if you if you talk about a knee, the knee it actually applies to all chapters, your will do your Salah your, your marriage, or divorce your your business deal your, you know, the killing of a person criminality and this is a very simplistic example. But that's what I'm saying. Let's jump into, like, what, what sort of is learned in criminal law is the same routes and the same principles and the same texts and the same
proofs that will apply in general, right? To Salah and fasting and hedge, and so on and so forth. Right? They're all interconnected, they're all interdependent.
And so, a true expert in film actually has to cover all the subjects, the expert books and 15 every month, they go through all the subjects and a guy that right acts of worship, Al muamalat, right? Transactions, you know, and then Egina yet criminal law and so on and so forth. So he began to can you imagine like, imagine a young kid right seven going on 17 And those 10 years, he's jumping from you know, how to pray, how to pray means, I had to figure out what do you figure out well, that means I have to understand the intricacies of what breaks the will do, which means I have to also understand what like adult relations and marriage look like. Which also means I need to
differentiate between what types of blood are men cysts and what types of letter knock Mensis which means it just continues to branch out and branch out and branch out. And then marriage and divorce and as we said civil dealings.
So,
to be able to handle this at such a young age was was a very promising sign. And that was in LA, then he jumped into deaf see it about him a whole lot. And deaf see it also is not a you know, a shallow subject, it requires understanding which ahaadeeth are authentic, which aren't authentic, which narrate then that requires which narrators are liable, which are not reliable, you know? And then you have to get into okay, what is the definition of reliability and not sort of live as this hadith, then you have to sort of bring into it also history, the history of the context, the reasons for the revelation, and then you have to also have to start becoming a master of the Arabic language
because the Quran came down an Arabic Arabic means you know, I need to know like the word the way words more fun I have to figure out sort of grammar and all this Rahim Allah to Allah He devoured it all. Everything they throw at him, he only got better and better and better. He crushes all of these subjects.
But I wanted to point out that it all started with his memory, the first thing they notice is his memory. And that is one of the the important signs you look for, for someone that has promising intelligence. And why do I start with this because memory is sort of not appreciated in our age. In our age, it's it's the opposite imbalance. You know, you don't want to just memorize and not understand the same time some people say you don't have to memorize, just understand. But there's actually a like,
a synergizing relationship that happens here, the more you're able to remember, the more dots you can connect in your head, the higher IQ you will have, right, the higher intelligence you will have to make sort of those connections. You know,
you'll have more of those lightbulb moments you'll have in Pepper being impeccable
in intelligence in sha Allah by virtue of Rotes memory, memory as a result of repetition, Allah sort of spared him that he didn't need much repetition, he would pick it up with his photographic memory, but even for us, people think that oh, I don't want to crowd my kid's mind with memorizing the Quran right now. He'll do it later. Allah knows best one later is right, but this will only higher the ceiling for you and for your child. Even people nowadays as adults, that have like brain fog, know that the Quran has its own Baraka, but the call to memorize Quran requires repeating the Quran. This reputation heals your brain, it heals your brain, it helps you lock in and focus and imprint on your
mind certain points of information.
Anyway, so these all merged as a result of his memory and his desire and so on and so forth. It merged together to give him a profound understanding one of the Maliki scholars of his time,
even in Seminole County, or is m LA County, Rahim Allah. He used to say about Edna Tamia, shameful Islam, Allah and Allah hula hula Aluma camera Alanna leader who that hadith like Allah melted the sciences for him, the same way he melted iron for the Buddha is Salam. You know Allah azza wa jal said in the Quran about the Buddha, Allah is a non profit that would were Alaina LaHood, Hadid, we softened, we melt it, iron for him. He was a iron was malleable for that with Ali Salam and so he could do so much so fast with it, right? He's saying it's as if Allah has melted like he enabled him to Tamia to effortlessly manhandle knowledge, right and reconfigure it to fit it all in his mind,
Rahim Allah Allah and they gave so many examples of this
I will skip some of them. But we have to rewind I was just sort of I went on a little bit of a journey about his knowledge and his scholarship and and his early years and that what was so telling in the mid 1200s We said he's born one common era 1263 Okay, good. In that period in the mid 1200s.
Birth dad
was attacked, invaded, decimated by who? The Mongols who have the Mongols you guys remember? Anybody?
Hulagu Hulagu is the grandson of Gandhi's Khan. Okay. This was one of the most devastating moments in all of Islamic history. It was the first time ever that Islam gets invaded to its core Islam that Islam territories that the Khalifa be killed by a non Muslim like by an outsider, right?
And you know the Mongols there was nothing like the Mongols, arguably the most brutal people in all of
in all of documented human history, like in that whole campaign, you know, that that reached back the dead, it is estimated that they killed 1 million people and to kill 1 million people without carpet bombing.
It's hard to imagine how do you kill a million people, right with like swords and daggers. And they were said to be the very first people in human history also to pile heads. So like as a warning or whatever, or a statement for the next city in line. They will take 10s of 1000s of human heads and make pyramids out of them. The men, the women, the children, the babies, just pyramids of heads right under this eventually reached all the way to book that. As the Muslims were busy with their infighting and busy with their their luxuries.
kills the Khalifa puts an end to that Besut dynasty divested caliphate right
which is basically the second major caliphate. After the time of the mermaids came to our Besitz. They ended that Besitz they burned the greatest library in the world at the time, the library of stuff that they burned all the books and threw them in the rivers. They say that the Euphrates river there could not be drunk from for days due to the amount of ink that was there still flowing in the reverse. This was in the mid 1200s. So now stepping into even the Tamia Rahim Allah is life in 1269, when he's about six or seven years old, the Mongols attack her run her run his town now, and everyone knew what the Mongols did. And the Mongols have never been defeated. There's no point in
even trying to resist them. So his family they pick him up and they all flee the everybody in the family, they flee Hebron. And even the biographers mentioned that
they encountered on route one of like the attachments of the Mongolian army actually crossed paths with them. They just got out of the home for Buddy. And they sort of stepped to the side of the road and they made you know, like incessant pleading with Allah azza wa jal weeping and crying that Allah save them. And they just continued on going and it didn't bother them. And so they survived. They thinly survived, sort of the the massacres that the Mongols were taking part in and heading to Iran to do there as well. And so they migrated and reached Damascus, Damascus. And that is why he's in the team yet. Hi, Ronnie domestically, so he's about, you know, seven or 10 years old when they
reached Damascus.
His father becomes a teacher in the Great Mosque, the great homemade mosque in Damascus that we've spoken about in the past, with a no your Hamilton otherwise, that central mosque where all the great scholars come to learn and to teach. His father actually gets hired as a teacher there in the mosque and they established themselves there they set to build their livelihood. By the time the Tamia Rahim, Allah is 17. He has gone through about 200 scholars. In Damascus, it was of great benefit to him to relocate to Damascus, why the father of Allah azza wa jal, he becomes a teacher himself MK Nomade mosque yet when it comes to a teacher, and that was something
odd even in their era, like 17 years old, I imagined I was like, I'm not saying imagine I was like a high schooler giving fatawa and writing books and doing all this. And even in their era 17 was early, because also you have all these great scholars present. And so you got to wait till the old diabetes.
And then you sort of have a chance to offer something well, what can you possibly offer in in the middle of all of these giants at 17. But he did. It was a testament to his prowess and his readiness to issue fatawa and judgments and teach. And he continued learning throughout.
And then four years late into teaching four years later, and 1284 his father dies. So you're gonna tell me Rahim, Allah is approximately 21 years old.
And
he is asked to come conduct his father's classes in the Romanian mosque itself. And this once again, was odd, and it met a lot of resistance. And some of the great scholars whose names I'll spare you for now, they show out to see who's this kid that we're putting in the Omega mosque, 21 year old to educate us because this is the deen of Allah and simply sort of giving your chair or the chair being inherited because your dad was a great scholar is totally unacceptable. And it should be simply because He's your dad. And so he walks into the Masjid. They say first time you ever give us a class, he walks in, and he does what he always did for the rest of his life. This was his habit. He
would end he answers he prays to rock house to Allah azza wa jal, and then he sits down in the chair, and he closes his eyes. And he would he would speak with his eyes closed. I guess too much is happening up there. He would close his eyes and he took off and everybody's blown away. You know, one of the great scholars of his time his name slips past me now. He says I sat with Edna Tamia for four years, explaining one ayah in the book of Allah azza wa jal and every time I sat with him, he taught me something I didn't hear before he taught me something new every single sit down and these are scholars these are not layman.
And you know him him praying to rock us first and him.
This is an indication is a good time to stop at it. That he enjoyed a very close relationship with Allah Subhana Allah Allah or this is what we expect of him.
It's AMI Rahim Allah.
He understood that knowledge will not benefit others. Your knowledge no matter how much you gather, right because he gathered a lot really fast. It will not benefit others until it benefits you right
If you're not seeking knowledge, to sort of better you're standing with Allah, you're probably probably also not teaching knowledge to benefit your standing with Allah. Right? There's probably some lack and the sincerity there. That's how you think of it. That's how you should think of it. And so he would seek this knowledge to lift ignorance from himself first, to clarify where Allah's pleasure is to himself first, and then as the responsibility that he had to the rest of the Ummah and the rest of humanity. And there's so many dimensions of his life we can cite to,
to highlight for you what his relationship with Allah was, like, you know, one that exists in English language. It's a very short book, someone I forget the brother's name, we translated it. It is letters of Edna Tamia to his mom from prison. You will see he enters prison like a handful of times. And he dies there, Rahim Allah, there are the letters used to send his mother from prison. If you see just the optimism and the humility and sort of the deference to Allah and the confidence, he has unbelievable optimism, even in the time who entered prison with him a bunch of times, and other times, you'd have to visit him because his chef a bit Samia was in prison, he would say we would go
there losing hope, and like the world is suffocating us. And we, we don't know where to go anymore. We're being bullied and you know, sort of ostracized from every gathering. And just when we're about to sort of give up we go. And we simply look in his face, he says, and here are a few of his words, mind you, he's the guy in prison. They're the visitors that are supposed to be cheering him on, per se, right? We go we look in his face, we hear his words. And he immediately just removes everything we're feeling from the amount of optimism he has, and good thoughts of Allah, irrespective of circumstances of what cited about him in this regard is that it used to say the true captive is the
one who is taken captive by his desire for this world. Right? I'm not a captive in here. The people out there who buckled for money or power otherwise, they're the captives. The people that did it for cult membership, they're the captives. I'm not the captive. And mind you, you know, even it's a mere speaking of prison. I know we were jumping the gun here. He was actually appalled by the prison system. Like one of the times he sent sort of messages to the rulers, you would tell them fear Allah, the conditions in your prisons are not humane. Because, you know, the prisons back then didn't have cable TV. I'm not sure if you're aware of this. The prisons back then were not prison
cells. Like you throw someone in the bottom of a well and you lock them, right, throw some crumbs for him or cheat meal throw something down there. Dungeons, caves filled with spiders and bats and tarantulas and snakes, and, you know, unbelievable, he will tell them fear Allah, even those that are rightfully in prison or not to be imprisoned that way is impermissible. Islamically. He would tell them this, but then when he was thrown in prison, and they would come to him, they would just sense from him such great
you know, high spirits. And then they'll fire him says I would come to him in the morning time, and he would be facing the wall after his morning prayer, his federal prayer, and he would not turn to me or to anyone for hours. And then one time he turned to me and he says, Have the healer do it.
This is my morning meal, my breakfast if I don't have it the whole way. I lose my strength. This is my actual nourishment, food for the soul.
And even though I am also reports he is his greatest student among so many, but he says that even the Tamia Rahim Allah would say to me, Vicki, remembering Allah,
for the heart is like water to the fish. I imagine the condition of the fish if you pluck it from water. So he was constantly in a state of wicked, constantly remembering Allah as diligent he would begin his day with just hours of a bad
the ASPCA and the rotation of Quran and prayer and so on and so forth.
Even when you when you read on his his journey and knowledge, he had such a passion for Deaf see it he would say that I would check the meaning of the idea in over 100 The first year.
And I would feel like there's still something here that I'm not getting.
And so I would continue to make a step far. He would only say this, you know his private circles sometimes right? To his closest confidence, seek forgiveness from Allah 1000 times until Allah asila Jen unlocks for me my misunderstanding or unlocks for me my blind spot.
And they would say at times when he felt confused about issues, he would walk out of Damascus and go find some abandoned masajid on the roads, places where nobody goes or nobody knows where he is.
And he would make long sujood he would dust his face. It doesn't mean they say that they don't mean that he actually puts dust on his face means he stays in sujood for a long time, right? He does his face and sujood weeping to Allah and saying to him, yeah more Alima Ibrahima Alemany yeah MUFA him so like manna for him me. Oh teacher of Ibrahim teach me Oh grantor of understanding to Sulaiman grant me understanding. Because you know, it's so beautiful how Quranic is his soul became because Ibrahim alayhi salam was stuck, right think of he had no teacher. Right? And so he had to just turn upward. So he would say, I can't find the teacher to explain this to me. I finished the books I
finished that I still don't get it. There's something that needs to be uncovered here he feels it. And he would say oh teacher of Ibrahim will talk to you, Abraham without a teacher, right teach me and Allah azza wa jal said in the Quran also, for him now has to the man when Suleiman alayhi salam, and his father gave sort of two different verdicts about an issue. Allah said, We gave the correct understanding, in that issue, at least, to the son to the the lesser the younger, not the father, not the senior. So he's showing his humility, I'm the lesser I'm not deserving, but give me understanding the way you gave. So they might allow us to understand you see, the beauty of His
Spirit in the way he would interact with Allah azza wa jal, he was a man that had a very close relationship with Allah or so it appears, I'll mentioned to you
two incidents quickly, and we'll close because we have to have refreshments. The first of them is that in 1294, there was a Christian man
named as Seth and Assef curse the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, he would openly taunt and curse and demonize the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and sort of one man, I like the man from the other white sec.
He sort of gave him a silo, he protected him. So even the Tamia goes, and when people hear he's going, they all come after him, because like, they're all, you know, following their scholar, basically, and he goes all the way He demands that the men be handed over, he has to be prosecuted, he has to be tried. Of course, the problem is, as soon as the man comes out.
The people throw him the beating of his life, right? It doesn't get to the court proceedings or anything at all right.
And so a complaint is filed against him in the Tamia, and he's charged with inciting violence, essentially, and he's thrown in prison.
You know, I just realized that this was totally unplanned, but I just realized there's this whole discussion online in the world today about the whole Sandman rush the issue, and like, he was stabbed, apparently, he was ready to kill him. The same man who sort of you know, said when he said about the prophets of Allah, who it was being affected by demons years ago, right. Somehow it resurfaced, and someone attacked him somewhere. I'm very vaguely familiar with the news reports on this issue,
but
at the end of the day, even the Tamia Rahim, Allah Oh, we need to say to separate me that I know Allah from the many misuses of his legacy, that we began this lecture even speaking about people sort of see him in a vacuum, pick what they want from his legacy, Imitate me and I did not believe in lawlessness, right. And Imitate me Rahim. Allah did not believe in, you know, ignoring pragmatism, he was actually known as being very pragmatic, like always weigh the mocassin always weigh the pros and the cons of issues. And so
the thing is here that people really don't know if it's a male or female, Allah, if they believe that our beliefs as Muslims, right, like every country has their beliefs, every system has their beliefs. We believe that Islam is sort of the religion of the state per se, right? That the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam should be off limits, right? Certain things are an exception to freedom of speech, right? Like nowadays, right? We do we believe that exception to freedom of speech in common culture here we do.
If I were to make a racist statement, can I say freedom of speech? I hate black people, I hate white people. I hate Spanish people. Society would reject that from me, wouldn't they? And so likewise, when Allah is first and foremost, in that paradigm in that worldview, that would have been a law in the state you can't go to the province Isola. Right. So that was sort of the the,
the incident but don't miss apply it to a different context, right? Because Can you imagine everyone applies the laws that they believe in their own head, regardless of where they exist in the world? How would the world have any sort of trust or peace or structure or anything, right? Like, I'm going to come to America but I'm still abiding by French and French laws. Technically, in France. I can say this or I can do that. Right. I go to France say no in my country.
Marijuana is fine. I'm smoking here you can't prosecute. No one's gonna accept that. Right. So that is the idea. We can't decontextualize what he was saying and where he was saying that so on and so forth. And so when he went to prison, he went to prison for sort of getting this guy beat up being the spark that got ISEF beat up.
He actually writes a the most famous book on the subject of cursing the province I love. It's called a Sodom and Massoud Allah shettima Rasul, which, which is literally translated, the unsheathed sword, pulling the sword out
against the one who curses the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, He's establishing again, in light of there has to be a government here. We're not ever calling for this, you know, rogue. No, no, he's saying that Islamically speaking if you want the Islamic position, the Islamic position is that a capital offense is cursed in the province also lived, according to the vast majority of scholars in Islamic history. Take it or leave it. Right. That's all so you went to prison for a while, then he came out?
Do we have time very quickly for one more? And then in 1299, six years later, after the SF incident, he gets into gets into it, not with a man who cursed the prophets also lamp with the great grandson of Genghis Khan,
whose name was God, ZAN. Zan is not like Hulagu grandson, but a great one of the great grandsons of Ganga use Khan. His name was Roseanne
Zahn show shows up at Damascus. You know how they were going to Iran. Now they came to Damascus. He shows up at Damascus. He lays siege they have Damascus surrounded they're about to attack Damascus. What's crazy is that Roseanne was Muslim or claimed to be Muslim.
But he was very Mongolian in his approach. Like he was still ruthless still barbaric still even you know as he was still greedy, he was still power hungry. All of those things were there. But he claimed to be Muslim claimed to pray claim to fast. He had sort of like
a cabinet of scholarly advisors, Muslim scholars, Islamic scholars. And so it was really practically no different like we're dead Muslim is not going to help us right now because that is just like everybody else. He's Mongolian. He's a conqueror. And so people begin to flee Damascus they go.
Even the Tamia Rahim Allah refuses. He gets in the masjid, after the Salah stands up gives a fiery hotbar right. And he would always remind people that you know, only those who have diseases in their hearts fear other than the Creator subpoena with Allah. If you have a healthy heart, you don't fear anyone this view the words of Mr. Hamid. Samia would often cite them Rahim Allah Allah. And so he says, I'm going to present myself without an army. And whoever of the scholars, the God fearing scholars wants to come with me, come with me. So a bunch of scholars go with him, including called the Licola, who's like the chief Court Justice of Damascus. They go,
they get to the encampments of Zen in the Mongolian army. They're allowed to enter the golden tent. It's called wherever Zan you know sits the royal tent of this emperor, and they enter and everyone understands this protocol, you go in, you get on your knees or you sit down right there. So they all do that. They're all following protocol. It's a me throws protocol to the wind and he keeps walking. You walk straight up the van, the narrator says until Roseanne, who's sitting and imitate me who's standing until their knees almost touch like everyone was there and like, is he actually going to make physical contact with this guy? Like, Is he insane? That's why they were observing this like,
is he touching him? So they said their knees were almost touching. And then if the Tamia without introductions,
unload, unloads on Gaza. And he says to him, you claim to be a Muslim that fears Allah you claim to pray and fast, you claim to believe Allah and His messenger. If you pillage and you burn and you steal, and you're, you let your army rape and this that in the third and so he says to him,
even your father's and your grandfather's even getting this Khan himself who was a missionary who was a pagan, kept his promises better than you and you call yourself a Muslim at least he didn't betray.
He says so Dakila encounter Muslim and if you if you're Muslim fear Allah
the those who are with him, or the you know, the chroniclers right, that some of the scholars with him say really all jokes aside, I pulled my close to the to the side, because I was waiting for his head to fly. And the blood was gonna sort of like trickle on us all or like splash on us all. So I kind of pulled my close together. I pulled myself together because like already, it's over this man as a deathwish. Talking to the Zen like so we all know what the Mongols are like so that he tucks his clothing over, pulls it to the side, look around
But surprisingly, Zan just says, Who is this guy? Like?
For some reason, he just doesn't reciprocate. And he says this is gonna take me and this is a delegation of scholars, the scholars of Damascus, and he said the scholars of Damascus then we have to honor the scholars, and he invites them all to dinner.
And so out of fear only all the scholars sit down and they have dinner in Tamia openly rejects the offer and says I'm not eating. That's why it's like halal food, you know? Well, Muslim hygienic, he didn't say that I'm imagining the scene. He says to him, you stole this food. You stole these animals from those cities and the wood that you even cooked on was like stolen property that you cut these trees down from and even the wheat you're making the bread with is all misappropriated. I'm not here for food. I'm not gonna have a morsel of haram food.
And so because then they think okay, you know, he spared his life once he's not going to spare his life the second time. As they're leaving. If I Zan actually says to even the Tamia pray for me, you know, pray for me shift even we don't have to shift
for just bravery. He says to him, pray for me. Imagine the scene right? Even the Tamia Rahim Allah is like lifting his hands
with this guy who's basically you know, like a belligerent, you know, murderer, rapist, everything. And he says, Oh Allah, if this servant of yours marched all the way over here, no certainly Dini to support your religion, to establish Islamic influence and Islamic justice in the lands for our aim, who then help him
when Canada JASIC federal minute dunya and if he came here to hoard more of this world and to subjugate Your servants for Aliko then destroy him
the the those presidency, and then we find them opening his lips and saying, Amin
and we just like, Is this really happening? So they walk out? And then Edward our best who is the Chief Court Justice, basically scolds have been Tamia like how dare you? We were all gonna get killed. We're hoping the blood ones flesh but we're probably all gonna have to pay for this. He tells him like who are you to speak on our behalf basically.
We're never going to go with you anywhere. Again. I thought you were gonna go be sensible. Like, give him an offer and negotiate. We'll never go with you anywhere again. And it saved me. I don't know. Allah says the feeling is mutual. I will never go anywhere with you again.
Of course historically, that's true. That they went their separate ways. Even Samia became the Tamia Rahim Allah, and almost everyone else where it's hard to recall even their names, right? They are the scholars or the personalities in the time living Potamia that's what they're known as. Right? And so this is sort of the FOD love Allah azza wa jal, the bounty of Allah that He gives to whomever he wishes subhanaw taala.
And the Hmong goals in 1300 actually interrupt their siege and they retreat away from Damascus and they don't invade. But the rest of his life in sha Allah, I'll defer it next week. And some lessons we can take from it. Subhana Allah Hamrick shadow Allah you know, had the antenna still firaga on it away.