Yasir Qadhi – Berke Khan – The Mongol Conversion To Islam
AI: Summary ©
The segment discusses the history of Islam in various provinces and countries, including the Golden Horde, which was a part of the Grand Council of Khans, Berke Khan's actions, and the implementation of sh airline in the region. The goal was not to fight alongside each other, but to fight on the outward. The segment also touches on the loss of Barakah's Khan during the War of the Golden Horde and the rise of Islam among the Muslim community. The segment ends with a warning of a war and a promise of protecting someone's um rights.
AI: Summary ©
As you're all aware, I've been under the
weather for a few days.
I've been told that there's no problems, inshallah,
for interacting with other people.
It's been a week, so this is just
recovering, inshallah, with the sore throat.
But because of this, the khatr will be
shorter than usual.
But the topic is one that, inshallah, I
just wanted to introduce you to so that
you can, as usual, pique your curiosity and
find out more about what I think to
be a very interesting incident, an anecdote in
Islamic history.
One of the most iconic historic incidents that
every human being is aware of is one
of those historic realities that even if you're
not a historian, you know something about this,
and that is the Mongol invasion.
And I've spoken about the Mongol invasion a
lot of times.
Genghis Khan invades the whole globe and the
world.
Today's anecdote is not about that invasion.
It is about a footnote about something that
happened two generations afterward that, inshallah, it gives
us hope.
It gives us hope that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala utilizes ways and mechanisms beyond what
we can imagine.
And just to set up the stage, a
lot of people don't realize that actually Genghis
Khan was very familiar with Islam.
He actually in his own personal life, believe
it or not, seems to have had an
element of respect with Islam and the Muslims.
And in fact, if you know your history,
when Genghis Khan first consolidated his tribes of
Mongolia, actually he was very respectful of the
Muslim dynasty, of the Khwarizms, of the dynasty
in Uzbekistan, of the Samarkand rulers.
And he sent them a delegation of merchants
as a token of respect.
Unfortunately, the merchants weren't treated very nicely.
They were embezzled from funds.
So he sent an emissary, he sent a
dignitary, an ambassador to negotiate that, hey, Sultan,
you better take care of what happened here.
And unfortunately, the governor, the Muslim governor, did
something very cruel.
He actually executed the ambassador.
And that is what triggered Genghis Khan to
invade the Muslim lands.
All of this occurred because, fact of the
matter is, our side did not live up
to international treaties and protocols.
Actually, Genghis Khan interacted with Muslims and he
was respectful of Islam.
Even later on in his life, he didn't
have a grudge against Muslims per se.
And I say this because the story actually
deals with this incident or reality.
And that is that after the death of
Genghis Khan, Genghis Khan had consolidated the largest
empire known to mankind.
It literally, the entire Eurasia, the entire Russian
empire, along with much of Europe, along with
much of even aspects of the Muslim lands,
he had consolidated it into one.
Before he died, he had four sons.
And he said, each one is going to
take one of these provinces, one of these
areas, so that I don't want you to
fight amongst yourselves.
And the westernmost was called the Golden Horde.
He gave that to his eldest son.
The westernmost, meaning the one that is now
Russia, Poland, Lithuania, he gave it to his
eldest son, and that is the Golden Horde.
And the others he gave to other sons.
And each one of them continued the empire.
The goal was don't fight amongst yourselves, fight
outward.
And subhanAllah, as you're aware, Genghis's grandson, Hulagu,
what did he do?
He took the command of his grandfather, and
he went towards the Muslim lands, and he
invaded Baghdad, he laid siege to Baghdad, he
raped and pillaged Baghdad, he destroyed the Abbasid
empire, and Hulagu Khan continued onwards, all the
way his forces continued, because that was the
province that was for the Muslims.
He continued onwards until he had decimated the
entire lands of Islam, until he reached all
the way to Egypt.
Can you imagine from Mongolia, making all the
way to Egypt, until the Mamluk stood up,
and in the battle of Ain Jalut, delivered
the first blow against the Mongol empire.
Now, a lot of people stopped their history
here.
I'm gonna begin from here about an incident
that Allah Azawajal utilizes ways, Allah works in
mysterious ways, we cannot fully understand.
Because in the end of the day, we
think Ain Jalut stopped the Mongols.
Think about it, how can one small battle
in Egypt stop the Mongols?
How can one battle all the way in
the periphery land stop an entire empire?
Multiple factors were at play.
And today we're gonna mention one seminal factor
that Allah used to save the Muslim lands.
Because if Allah had willed, this would have
been the end of Darul Islam.
But Allah will protect the ummah, and Allah
will never allow the ummah of the Prophet
ﷺ to be completely decimated.
What happened, subhanAllah, as Allah says in the
Quran, وَيَرْزُقُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ Allah will
give you sustenance and help from places you
never expected.
One of the most bizarre realities, historical realities
took place right now.
And that is one of the leaders of
these four provinces.
We said there are four provinces, right?
The one that was the western most is
called the Golden Horde.
So each one had a name to it.
You had the Blue Horde, the Golden Horde,
the Ilkhanids, you had each one had a
name to it.
The Golden Horde, which is actually the furthest
from Darul Islam, it's the Russian, the Ukrainian,
the Lithuanian, the Polish one.
The leader of the Golden Horde, his name
was Berke Khan.
Berke Khan unbelievably embraced Islam as the grandson
of Genghis Khan.
The grandson of Genghis Khan, the actual biological
grandson of Genghis Khan.
He interacted with his grandfather, he was a
part of the Grand Council of Khans, pause
here.
Genghis Khan had established a council, an Ilkhanid
of his entire family members such that there
would not be civil war.
So everybody of his clan, the senior members,
would be a part of a tribal council
that would resolve the thing so that there's
no civil war.
Berke Khan was a member of that elite
guard.
He was higher than a politician, he was
the royal family.
Berke Khan, the biological grandson of Genghis Khan,
the one in charge of the Golden Horde,
this is a well-known fact, but unfortunately
most Muslims don't know their history for reasons
that were not fully certain because the problem
is again, we don't have chroniclers from inside
that much.
We're talking about people that visit, people that
interacted, we don't have the amount of stories
that we need.
But we do know without a doubt that
Berke Khan embraced Islam.
Not only did he embrace Islam, but from
all accounts, he was a pious, practicing, God
-fearing Muslim, the biological grandson of Genghis Khan
and the cousin of Hulagu Khan.
The first cousin, this is again Hulagu Khan
is the grandson, and Berke Khan is the
grandson.
So the first cousin of Hulagu Khan embraces
Islam.
And how did he embrace Islam?
There's a number of theories.
One of the theories is that he was
interacting with the traders, again the standard theory
that most converts of that time frame, the
honesty, the integrity, the akhlaaq of the traders,
of the Muslims that would come, impressed Berke
Khan.
But there's also a very well-attested reality,
which is that Berke Khan also was very
much influenced by some of the Sufi tariqas
that he interacted with, that he saw in
them piety and honesty and taqwa and zuhd
that really impressed him.
And he began questioning them, and their answers
about tawhid, their answers about Allah, their answers
about the meaning of life.
It resonated with him, and he decided to
embrace Islam.
And so as the governor, sorry, as the
emperor of the golden horde, he's not a
governor, he is the emperor.
As the emperor, he embraces Islam, but his
people are not Muslim.
So he didn't force Islam on his people,
which is why to this day all of
those lands are majority non-Muslim.
Really interesting, right?
He didn't force Islam on his people, but
what did he do?
He began importing scholars.
He began creating or building masajid.
He began financing madrasas.
Where?
In the heart of the golden horde, which
is now Bilad al-Rus, which is now
Russia and Poland, and these places.
He began building madrasas in the middle of
nowhere.
But because you're the ruler, what's gonna happen?
People began to convert.
Some of his wives converted, some of his
children converted.
He began to bring in ulama and scholars
that are now gonna be teaching the people.
Now, the majority of his people did not
embrace Islam because he was an open-minded
ruler.
He didn't...
Obviously, he's not gonna force his people to
do that, right?
But what happened as a result?
The golden horde became the first of all
of the kingdoms of the Mongolian empire to
convert to Islam.
And then after that, the second and the
third followed suit.
Out of the four kingdoms, out of the
four called Ilkhanates, out of the four provinces,
eventually three of them became Muslim.
And this is how Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala literally saved the ummah.
It wasn't just the battle of Ain Jalut.
No, the very invaders, the very people who
ransacked, the very people who pillaged their children,
their grandchildren literally embraced Islam and began...
So Berke, one of the things that he
did when he embraced Islam, of course, they
used to follow a system of laws called
the Yasa.
There's an interesting point here.
The Mongols had a system of shari'a
called the Yasa, right?
When Berke embraced Islam, he abolished the Yasa.
And he said, we're gonna establish the shari
'a in these lands.
So he started establishing the shari'a.
When Berke embraced Islam, he said from now
on, no more temples are gonna be built
here because they used to be pagans.
He said, no, we're not gonna finance any
temples.
So he began building masjids.
Some of the masjids that were built in
that time frame, maybe not the original structures,
but some of the remnants of those structures
are still present to this day.
More than 1,200 years ago, the ones
that he founded, obviously the exact same structures
have been modified, but the same location, the
ones that he founded are still over there
to this day.
And when he converted as well, one of
the things that he did was that he
established ties with multiple Muslim provinces, principalities of
his time frame.
Subhanallah, what an irony here that when his
cousin invaded Baghdad, he had already embraced Islam,
but his journey to Islam took a while.
You can imagine, it's not gonna be one
day.
He was already a Muslim.
And his cousin Hulagu has surrounded Baghdad.
When he hears that Hulagu is attacking Baghdad,
it actually increases his iman.
He becomes enraged as a Muslim.
Can you believe?
You know, it reminded me of Hamza radiyallahu
anhu, if you remember the story of Hamza,
that all of the antagonism made him a
better Muslim, right?
He became angry, how dare my cousin is
attacking Muslims and killing them for no reason.
I will have to answer to Allah for
what he is doing.
Like he felt a responsibility that my family
member is doing this.
And so unbelievably, while Hulagu is surrounding Baghdad,
do you know what Barakah Khan did?
Barakah Khan sent ambassadors and emissaries to the
Muslim rulers, establishing ties with them.
He was one of the people who sent
emissaries to the Mamluks.
And it is even said, we're not 100
% certain, it is even said, he sent
the military equipment and training such that the
battle of Ain Jalut that took place, perhaps
Barakah Khan played a role.
Again, I'm being academic here because we're not
100% certain how much happened because we
don't have eyewitnesses.
But without a doubt, he sent emissaries, he
apologized on behalf of his family, look, I
have nothing to do with him, that's another
cousin of mine.
And then, listen to this, Barakah Khan went
to war against Hulagu Khan because of his
ransacking of Baghdad.
Did you know this?
There is an internal civil war amongst the
grandsons of Genghis Khan.
Why?
One of them is a Muslim and the
other is a pagan.
And the Muslim is saying, I'm going to
have vengeance about what you've done against my
Muslim brothers.
And the first time, the family of Genghis
Khan, the first time the four kingdoms went
to war together, the first time was over
this issue.
Otherwise, Genghis Khan when he died, one of
his biggest fears was, I don't want my
sons and grandsons to go to war.
So he had a very intricate design which
worked until one thing, Genghis Khan couldn't predict
Islam.
Genghis Khan didn't have Islam in the equation.
That when a person converts to Islam, then
he doesn't follow the laws of Jahiliyyah.
He's not gonna follow just because he's my
cousin, I'm gonna not touch him.
No, now that Barakah converted to Islam, can
you believe Barakah took an army to fight
against Hulagu?
At least five wars took place between Barakah
Khan and Hulagu Khan.
So much so that Barakah actually passed away
in one of these wars.
And Barakah died in 1267 in what is
now Uzbekistan.
Because of the battles that took place, he
fell ill in a very cold environment.
He didn't die because of the wound, but
he just fell ill, it was just a
cold or something.
And so he is buried outside of the
Golden Horde.
Why?
Because he was busy fighting his own cousin
Hulagu because the one had invaded Baghdad, and
the other one has to avenge that death.
So of course with Barakah's death and obviously
the Islamic nature of the Golden Horde diminished
but it didn't eliminate.
Once you opened up the door, Islam remained.
And that is why, listen to this brothers
and sisters, many of you are familiar with
the fact that there are pockets of Muslims
in those areas.
Have you ever wondered where they came from?
Why are there Tatars in Russia, in Poland?
Where?
Do you know in Poland which is a
Catholic Christian country, there is the second largest
group of faith is Muslims.
What are they doing in Poland?
Did you know this?
I've been to Poland.
Poland has, I don't know how many percentage
think, don't quote me, 15-20%.
I mean a good percent, don't quote me,
I could be wrong here, but a good
percentage of Muslims.
How did they end up in Poland?
It is from the descendants of the Golden
Horde.
The descendants of some of them are the
biological descendants and others because the safe space
was created, the Muslims came there.
And so those people because of Barakah, they
were the ones who had remained up until
now.
In Russia, over 5.5 million Tatars, the
Russians called them Tatars.
So there's Polish Tatars, there's Russian Tatars.
Those Tatars, where are they from?
What is the origin?
They go back to the Golden Horde, this
time frame of Barakah.
Perhaps some of you are even familiar with
the famous Volga, the Bulgarian Muslims.
Now, the Bulgarian Muslims is a bit more
interesting story.
The Bulgarian, the Volga, in Arabic, they were
called the Sajalika.
They were a race of the Slavs.
The Bulgarian Muslims converted before Barakah.
But when Barakah ruled over the Golden Horde,
these Muslims came under his rule.
And so he was the one who allowed
them to flourish, brought them teachers, made mosques
for them.
So again, to be accurate here, the Volga
Bulgarian Muslims, they were Muslims before Barakah.
But their Islam had diminished, they had almost
forgotten their Islam.
Barakah comes along, and because he's a Muslim,
he revitalizes their Islam.
And he allows them the flourishing.
To this day, there is a community, believe
it or not, in Bulgaria, out of all
the places, there is a community of Muslims.
Now again, this is predating Barakah, but Barakah
was the one who fortified, built masjids for
them.
You will find masjids that Barakah basically financed
and helped because of the fact that he
had embraced Islam.
And so the point being that, subhanallah, how
bizarre, but this is how Allah's Qadar works,
is that, how could the Mongolian invasion be
stopped?
From within their own ranks, they went to
war.
From within their own ranks, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala created one of his own grandsons
who stood up and said, No, you cannot
do this.
You are hurting and harming innocent people.
And so instead of fighting outward, Barakah turned
his army inward.
He went back into Mongolia fighting towards the
very people where he came from.
And civil war took place amongst the descendants
of Genghis Khan.
Why?
Because one of them as a Muslim said,
I cannot allow you to do this.
Now, in that battle, in that series of
battles, lot of damage was inflicted.
However, nobody came out the victor.
But what it did do, it stopped the
onslaught of the Mongols.
Because now they're battling amongst themselves.
So now they're no longer fighting outside.
And then with the death of Barakah, and
then even Hulagu died after this.
So then it kind of impeded the progress.
But it opened the door for Islam.
And as I said, after a while, eventually
the other two, the other two, the Ilkhanids
and the Chad guys.
So you have the Golden Horde, the Ilkhans
and the Chad guys.
Three of them, Chad guy, you know, there's
the common last name in India and Pakistan,
Chad guy, Chad guy.
So the third of them also embraced Islam.
And then their descendants began to influence many
other dynasties.
You're all aware Timur Lane and the rise
of the Timurids, obviously the Mongols of India
as well, right?
These are all dynasties that are, some of
them are biological and others are taking the
spirit of that, Golden Horde and the Islamic
identity coming straight from them and then resurrecting
it.
Much of the architecture, much of the language,
much of the culture that we associate with
Timur Lane and his dynasty, with the Mughals,
and of course the word Mughal itself comes
from Mongol, literally the people, Babur was a
biological descendant of Genghis Khan as well.
And he's taking from the Golden Horde, he's
taking from the Muslim identity of Barkay Khan.
So subhanAllah, how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
works in mysterious ways that we don't know
what is going to happen.
Why I say this?
Because so much is going on right now.
Just open your eyes and see the reality
of the world.
We don't know, there doesn't seem to be
an external political force.
There doesn't seem to be a superpower that's
gonna come.
But Allah will always protect his religion and
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will, يرزقه من
حيث لا يحتسب And I have no doubt
that something will happen.
Perhaps, perhaps, one of the superpowers, one of
the leaders, one of the influential people will
convert to Islam.
We already have so many converts in the
social sphere.
Maybe it's only a matter of time in
the political sphere, somebody will convert.
And when that conversion happens, just like with
Barkay Khan, it might not change the entire
dynasty, it didn't do that, but it left
a mark.
It left an indelible mark that influenced history
and it still influences history to this day.
So do not lose hope in the promise
of Allah.
Always put your trust in Allah.
Always do what you can and realize Allah
will protect his ummah either this way or
that way.
But somehow Allah will protect his ummah.
Your job is to do the best, learn
from history.
This ummah has never been wiped out.
It will never be wiped out.
This is the promise of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us
to see the return of Izzah and glory.
And inshaAllah we'll continue next Wednesday.
Jazakumullah khair.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.