Muhammad West – The Revival #17
AI: Summary ©
The collapse of theying cities of Spain and the fall of the previous ruler lead to the replacement of the new ruler with a new one, but the potential for collapse is perilous. The history of Islam in India, including the devaluation of Islam in India and struggles with slavery during the time of Sayid Omar and the devaluation of Islam in the region of the United States, are discussed. Pakistan's approach to war is different from their own and their strategy for approaching India is left alone in the region. The next lecture will focus on the end of the 13th century and the first ruler's name.
AI: Summary ©
You're all well after that extra 2 rakas.
So
it's good. Do you see the Bilal is
so important? We need to they they they
are Pujis keeps us on track. You know,
when they are off track, then we're all
off track.
Interesting to note that, you know, there was
a time when in Madinah,
the the Taraweeh was around 36 rakas.
That was the official Taraweeh of Madinah. And
there's some formula in which they calculated how
they got to 30
6 And in Makkah, they used to do,
instead of Pujis, they would have tawaf in
between certain batches of tarawih.
So,
22
tonight. Was something new unique.
We continue our series, the revival of the
Islamic spirit, and,
we're coming to the end of the, the
12th century. So remember the beginning of the
century,
we had a number of Khalifas and we
or we had 2 Khalifas. The Khalifa of
Spain had lost had had collapsed. We had
the Fatimid Khalifa, and we had the Abbasid
Khalifa, and we had a crusader state ruling
Jerusalem for almost a 100 years. By the
end of the century,
11/87,
Salahuddin
basically captures
liberates
Jerusalem and slowly takes out all the Crusader
states 1 by 1.
But the century isn't over yet, and the
victory in the for the Muslims in Jerusalem
spreads to other parts of the Ummah. Now
you must understand the Ummah is a vast
place
like we have now. Many, many, millions of
Muslims across the world. And in some locations,
the,
the jihad is is ongoing and the struggle
is ongoing. And in particular, 2 areas,
as we know, and andalusia has been sort
of on the verge of collapse for a
number of years now. It has just been
the the the the in through inclusion or
the the intervention of the Murabitun from North
Africa that prevented the collapse of Al Anusia.
So you can imagine that if the Crusaders
are fighting all the way in Jerusalem, they
must have been the people of of the
the Christians of Spain who are saying, why
are you sending a crusade to Jerusalem when
we're fighting them here in the heart of
Europe? So we must ask ourselves what's going
on there. And then we'll talk about
a an area that has eluded Islam for
almost 500 years. And for those of you
in particular who have an Indian
background,
you really owe your Islam after to to
Allah and then to this man. We're gonna
talk about
who established what we call the Delhi Sultanate.
But let us talk quickly about what's happening
in Spain, in Al Andalusia.
So we mentioned the second crusade was a
complete flop from a perspective of conquering Jerusalem
or conquering,
avenging,
the fall of Adesa. They came to the
the the the crusaders came, and they completely
failed. Nur ad Din stopped them, and they
had to return. However,
the second crusade had a second frontier, which
was in Andalusia,
and there they were more successful. In fact,
they were able to conquer Portugal from, Andalusia.
They were able to take Portugal, and they
continue to push further and further. And as
you can see, Andalusia
becomes a smaller
chunk of land now. They lost Portugal,
and the the the the area of Andalusia
is becoming smaller and smaller. Also, at this
time, the Al Murabitun collapsed in North Africa,
and they are replaced by a new dynasty
called the Al Muha the Al Muwhidun
or the Almohads the Almohads.
So another North African
power,
overthrows the Al Murabitun, and that's a whole
history on itself. And so the
Al Muhads or the Al Muwhidun,
they transfer
the capital
so Spain still is under the dominion of
this North African
empire. Spain is a colony. Andalusia is a
colony, and they moved the capital further south
from Kurtuba to Seville. And for those of
you who've been to, to Andalusia, you have
seen the beautiful buildings and architecture of of
Seville because the capital moves further and further
south away from the Christians.
And you'd find, like, the grand mosque,
and the and and the beautiful architecture of
the Almohads.
The Almohidun had built Al Qasr in in,
Seville.
And,
originally, the Almohads
and the the Christians had a truce. After
they lost Portugal, there was a kind of
a truce, and, each side was sort of
sorting out their own internal affairs. But then
the,
the Khalifa of the Al Mu'a, he called
himself the Khalifa, but he wasn't recognized as
a Khalifa, or it's just a title.
He had to go back to North Africa
and deal with, as always, an insurrection and
uprising in North Africa. And when that happened,
the Alfonso and there's always Alfonzos. All the
kings of of of Spain, Alfonso the second,
Alfonso the 8th, Alf this is Alfonso the
8th. 8th this is Alfonso the 8th of
Castile.
He breaks the truce, and he tries to
invade,
Cordoba and tries to invade Seville, and they
manage to capture a small
town.
So now the it appears once again that
the the situation in Al Andalus is on
the verge of collapse.
The,
the North African armies,
they are struggling with an internal
affair and also then the Khalifa dies and
his son takes over.
And so the new
ruler or the new,
ruler of the Al Muhaduns,
Abu Yusuf Al Mansur,
he
manages to put down the uprising,
and he sends his his his army north
into Andalusia. He sends a massive army into
Andalusia, and this was almost a winner takes
all kind of affair. If the Muslims lost
this battle, then Andalusia would have been completely
overthrown. And so the if you look at
Spain, Spain has 3 regions. It's got the
southern regions under Lucia, and then you have
a mountain range
that almost blocks off the 2. And then
you have central Andalusia or central Spain, which
where Toledo is, and then you have the
north, also the mountain range in between. So
now the the Crusaders would need to cross
this mountain range to enter Andalusia.
And so whoever takes control of this mountain
range really,
has the the upper hand. And so
this battle is called the battle of Al
Al Arakos
sorry, Al Aqos, Battle of Al Aqos, or
Al Aq in in in Arabic.
And,
what happened
they stationed the army outside of this gorge.
You know, the Muslims had to cross through
this narrow gorge, and the crusader army was
about to was waiting for them in ambush.
The
ruler, Alfonso, he was he was supposed to
wait for other crusaders to come and join
him, the other kings of of Spain, but
he couldn't wait. He was greedy for the
for the victory, and so he engaged 1st.
And as he engages, he crashes you know,
he he he charges into the Muslim army,
and he begins to win. He's actually pushing
the Muslims further and further away. But, you
know, as his army gets further in, it
gets surrounded by the the the Muslims. And
he is completely overwhelmed, and his army is
is defeated,
at the Battle of Al Aqous, and this
almost stops the reconquestaffore
momentarily. This is a somewhat short,
pause, but the Almohads
are able to stop the incursion into Seville,
and the Muslims once again are able to
breathe a sigh of relief. But this really
came after the conquest of Jerusalem. The fact
that the Muslims, reclaimed Jerusalem, it was an
inspiration that we can move forward again. We
can change, turn the tide. So Andalus breathe
and they live to fight another day, and
indeed, the the situation still remains perilous. But
tonight's a real sort of area that is
something new, a new frontier,
and this is for our brothers and sisters,
especially from the Indian subcontinent.
You you should know a bit of your
history.
Islam
in India today, basically, almost a quarter or
1 third of the Muslim Ummah,
from the Indian subcontinent. The subcontinent, we're talking
Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Indian, and India. And, of course, throughout the
world, all our brothers and sisters for the
from the Indian heritage, we're all somehow connected
in in that way. 1 third of the
Muslim hails from that region of the world.
And surprisingly,
when did Islam land there? Very quickly. Islam
arrived in the time of Sayid Omar already.
From the time of Sayid Omar, they arrived
in Pakistan. The Muslims arrived in Pakistan, and
they established a small,
a stronghold in in West Pakistan. It's called
Balochistan,
and that's basically where they stopped for a
while. The Sahara didn't go further in because,
the the obviously, they knew this region was
a a highly populated area that a long
history, and they had very powerful Hindu kingdoms,
and the Muslims were not keen to engage
much further.
Then, of course,
the Umayyads coming to power, and the Umayyads,
their favorite thing to do is conquest. And
as we said, Al Waleed was that
ruler who was able to conquer Spain
and the rest of Pakistan at the same
time in the same year. He's watching his,
like, chessboard, and he's getting news of Tariq
and Busyad conquering all of Iberia and another
his general, Mohammed bin Qasim, conquering the rest,
going deeper into,
into, the subcontinent.
And
all of Pakistan is basically conquered by the
Umayyads,
and they are unable however, they're not able
to enter into what we have mainland India
today. They were not able to cross over
from the Indus river into India because there
is these massive
Hindu
kingdoms that are well structured and,
they're called the Rajputs.
They have been a for 500 years, Islam
is not really able to penetrate into this
land. And to think about it, Islam is
in Spain for 500 years, but not in
India.
At that time, there were more Muslims in
Spain than there were in India. It's it's
it's strange to think about as of today,
you'd have almost thought India has been Muslim
since Nabi since the time of Nabi Adam.
Right? But it wasn't the case. It was
really a frontier kind of land. And it
was after the conquest of
of Jerusalem or or Salahuddin
reconquering
Jerusalem that all over the Umma, you have
the spirit of revival, the spirit of we
can do, and,
another attempt is made now to push further
into into into India. And
at this time so while the the the
the the warlords and the,
generals are planning an invasion of the Muslims
from from Afghanistan. So the the the there's
this Muslim,
empire in Afghanistan.
They are planning to invade further into India,
you know, having grand plans of how they're
going to make this area an Islamic kingdom,
how they're going to convert the people to
Islam. They plan, but Allah is planning differently.
In the markets of Neishapur, in the markets
of Persia, a small boy is being bought
and sold as a slave, and he's going
to be the man that's going to bring
Islam to India. So this man,
it's a bit of backstory about him. His
name is, Qudwudin Abak. It's called Abak. It's
easier to call him. Right? Abak. He is
subhanAllah. So how how did he become a
slave? Basically, his parents couldn't afford you know,
they sold him. His parents sold him as
a slave. And he finds himself in Persia,
a young boy in the slave market, and
when Ali
comes and, you know, that was as he
went to go and buy things, he bought
vegetables in there. He needed a slave and
he bought this young boy. And is lucky
that he had a a a a good
slave owner, and we talk more about slavery
in the time if we if we can.
But this sheikh buys, Avak, and he raises
him well. He teaches him to recite Quran.
He allows him you know, he grows up
with his other sons, and he trains him
in the arts of of of being a
man and all of that. When the sheikh
dies, Abak is now like a teenager
and, his
brothers, which you could say of this, didn't
like him and they sold him off again.
So he sold again. And he sold back
and forth, and, eventually, he falls into the,
he's bought
because he's a strong person. He's physically strong
and he can read. He's bought by the
warlord, the guy who is in charge of
Afghanistan. He's a warlord. He's buying people for
his army. So he's bought as a soldier.
And most of the you'd find many of
the armies now within Islam, whether it is
in
Egypt, you'll find the Ottomans do the same.
The soldiers
began as slaves, and they get trained. And
as you succeed in the battlefield, you can
win your freedom. This was kind of the
the deal. And so this, man, Abak,
he is,
you know, a a soldier, but a slave
soldier, and he's under the control of this
warlord of Afghanistan.
And they find that he has, you know,
his his devotion and his piety to Islam
really touches the the the the the owner
because he says that, man, this this is
a slave, but he can recite the Quran.
It's half of the Quran. And that he
is deeply pious and that when I give
him a task, he does this honestly and
faithfully. And when I reward him, he makes
sure the other slaves, so, you know, share
in whatever rewards he gets. And so he
gets promoted and promoted. And so when the
invasion starts, the the Gurids, when they now
invade, they invade, India,
and they face off against,
you know, the Rajputs, these,
armies of the of the of the Hindu
kingdoms in in in in India.
Initially, they lose, then they come back and
they fight a second battle. And this is
again, the very different warfare. So if you
like, warfare and strategy, it's quite interesting. You
have the Turkic
Muslims coming with horses against the Hindus with
elephants. And so very different strategies of war,
very different styles of war. The first time
the the the Muslims came and they they
the their approach was we charge in, but
you can't charge into an elephant. You're gonna
lose. And that's basically what happened. They charged
head first, and they lost. They came back
the 2nd year, and this time, they waited
for the army to come into them. And
the great
the great strategy of of these people, you
find this when you talk about the Mongolians,
they have this amazing strategy of retreat and
encirclement.
They wait till you charge into them and
you're chasing, chasing, chasing after them. And, obviously,
a horse runs a lot faster than an
elephant. So you keep letting the elephant chase
you until he's exhausted. You turn around and
you encircle them, and that's how you crush
the army. And so this was the strategy
they used and
at a battle called the Battle of Tarain,
the battle of Tarain, the Muslims, 1192, this
is like 5 years after Jerusalem was conquered,
were recaptured by Saladin,
the Rajput kingdoms lose. And with that, with
the fall of the Rajput kingdoms, the Muslims
now enter, you know, en masse into into
India.
And this man, Abak, he's sent there to
look as a governor. You just make sure
everything is there. The warlord is still in
Afghanistan. Afghanistan. You this is like a province.
You make sure everything is going okay. The
governor the the warlord dies, and there's a
civil war. As you would know, this is
the normal,
trig of events. The leader dies, brothers fight
and kill one another.
So Abac,
a slave, is left alone in this region.
He's left completely alone without support, and he
is sort of in charge of a
Hindu kingdom with a small contingent of Muslims,
and he needs to strategize and rebuild,
basically all on his own. And he chooses
Delhi.
Delhi, which is a tiny little village, not
the the capital of the area. It wasn't
any of the headquarters of one of his
kingdoms, and he builds an administration there. And,
really, once again, through piety,
through,
his justice, his sense of kindness, he's able
to bring people together, most of them non
Muslims, and establish a bureaucracy. He establishes a
type of of of government. And from the
this would be what we call the Delhi
Sultanate, which is really the start of Islam
in the Indian subcontinent. Eventually, the Delhi Sultanate
would rise up, and it will conquer the
entire subcontinent. It'll become the Mughal Empire, and
it will stay there until
the queen of England, until basically the British
invade India. And and to
prior to the invasion of of of England
of of India, it was the wealthiest country
in the world. 25% of the world's GDP
was in India. That's why England is so
wealthy. They basically robbed India blind. And it
was really
this man who started the beginning, the laid
the seeds, this man, Abak, a a pious
slave who was bought and sold as a
child in the,
markets of Neishapur eventually would start a dynasty
which would last until, as we said, 1
quarter of the Muslim world is Muslim
largely because
of this man.
And so we find our history very interesting,
and this is now the end of 12th
century and the beginning of 13th century. And,
if ever there was a century which we
want to forget or would be the most
difficult century,
it would be the 13th century. So we'll
talk about
the next perhaps tomorrow's lecture, we're gonna begin
part 1, the worst 50 years in our
history. We'll talk about that tomorrow.
Right. Yesterday, we asked what was Salahuddin's age
when he died. He was 57. I gave
the answer away yesterday. He was
57.
And Yasir Jacobs.
Is over here.
K.
And Fadlah. Fadlah. Yeah? Okay. And Fadlah as
well. I'm the okay.
And then today's question, who was the first
ruler of the newly formed sultan in the
the Delhi Sultanate? What was his name? His
name is quite easy. Okay.
We,
remind anyone as well for would join the
Maharajah. And just and people ask questions.
Of course is those who cannot fast and
will not be able to fast. You're too
old. You you will permanently sick.
A
a. If you are fasting and you can
make the day up after Ramadan, then you
don't pay.
Of course, is for everybody. This is for
Eid.
Eid.