Yasir Qadhi – Islam In Bangladesh Anecdotes From History
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AI: Transcript ©
As we're all aware, the country of Bangladesh
has been in the news. Our hearts, our
prayers go out to the people of the
land. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bless them,
make this transition time easy for them. So
I thought that insha'Allah today, let us go
over very briefly a bird's eye view of
some of the interesting anecdotes and historical lessons
we can learn from this region, especially because
this region is very interesting. If you look
at the countries around it, you know, look
at Bhutan, look at Nepal,
look at India, they are not Muslim majority
countries. And yet here we have this little
pocket of a Muslim majority country.
90%
of Bangladesh is Muslim. It is the 4th
largest
Muslim country in the world. And yet, it
is surrounded by neighbors, you know, Myanmar,
Bhutan. These are not Muslim majority countries. And
this is not where Mohammed bin Qasib landed.
This is not where the Arab sinned, they
came. That's on the other side. So how
did that come about? And what are some
of the lessons we can learn from that
region? And again, this is a bird's eye
view. How much can you accomplish in just
20 or 30 minutes, inshaAllah, ta'ala. But inshaAllah,
a bit of a summary. Of course, this
region,
has always been associated with the name Bangla.
And this goes back to the name of
a tribe that, inhabited this region 3,500
years ago. Some say it is Bang or
Banga or Bangla. And of course, dish means
land. So the country was called Bangladesh, but
the tribe or the peoples are the Bangla
or the Bangla, peoples. And this region,
before the coming of Islam, was majority Buddhist.
Majority Buddhist and perhaps 30, 40 percent Hindu,
but the Buddhism was the majority in this
region. How did Islam come to this region?
The earliest references that we have in our
Islamic sources goes back to one of the
books written under the Abbasids by, a scholar
by the name of ibn Khordazbeh.
Ibn Khordazbeh,
he wrote a book in around 800 CE,
1200
years ago, called Kitabul Masaliqi wal mamalik. And
in it, he talks about the geographical regions
that the Abbasids have contact with. Those that
they control and those that they are aware
of. It is like a geography, a book
of geography of 1200 years ago. And he
mentions
cities and lands that we now understand. Of
course, he doesn't use the term Bangla or
Bangladesh, but he mentions coastal cities and lands
that we can now link up
to what is now the modern land of
Bangladesh. And he mentions that these cities are
cities where the Abbasid ships go, and they,
go to port over there. They stay there
for a while. And there are people living
there from the Abbasid and from the Muslim
and the Arab traders.
So we learned, therefore,
that trade was the main initial route that
Islam came to this region, beginning from the
time of the late Umayyads, early Abbasids.
And excavations have actually uncovered
gold coins and silver coins. We find them
in this region that date back to the
time of Harun al Rashid. So there was
a thriving industry
from the time of the early Abbasids.
Clearly, we even have architectural remnants of mosques.
Now realize, there is no Sultanate right now.
There is no political entity, but there are
Muslims in the region. And this is something
that is documented by later geographers as well.
Later on, the most famous geographer is Al
Mas'udi. He mentions this region, al Idrisi, who
was the first to draw a map of
the world. Al Idrisi also mentions pockets of
Muslims living in these, regions. In fact,
the name of the 2nd or third largest
city,
Chittagong,
is actually derived from what the Arabs call
this region. How many of you people knew
this? Chittagong
comes
from Shattul Hanj.
Shattul Hanj.
The Arabs called the Ganges river,
Ranj.
Ganges, Ranj.
And shat means
the delta or the entrance.
And if you look at a map, those
of us not from Bangladesh, you don't know
where Chittagong is, but the Bangladesh people know
what it is. It is where the entrance
to the
Ganges and the exit from the Ganges, that's
exactly where Chittagong is.
The whole river, the famous river of India,
the Ganges River, its main tributary into the
Bay of Bengal, its main tributary, it is
right at the tip of Chittagong.
And Chittagong is Shattulhange.
Shattulhanj.
That is the, delta of the Ganges river.
And that's the Arabs would call it Shattulhanj,
and this eventually came into what we now
call Chittagong.
Now, the first,
Muslim power that entered here dates back to
around the 10th or 11th century. And this
is
the one of the branches of the Hudid
dynasty. The Hudid dynasty, of course, was established
northeast, but one of the branches came,
and conquered some of the regions until they
find it finally made their way to Bengal.
And the first famous ruler or the first
conqueror of the Hurid dynasty was Bakhtiyar Khalji.
Bakhtiyar Khalji. Bakhtiyar Khalji was the one who
eventually made his way into what we now
call, you know, the the the area of
Bengal. And it is an amazing story that
it is said that he was leading his
army. He was so eager to enter. He
only had 18 people when he entered the
first village and town. And with 18 people,
he began the conquest of this entire region.
And, Bahtiyar Khalji established the Ghurid dynasty, but
he made himself independent, but technically he's a
part of the Ghurid dynasty. You know, one
thing you have to know when you listen
to my history and others, you understand. Yes.
There was a technical khilafa, but, you know,
the khilafa is not gonna control every distant
region. And what happens is the government might
send somebody and that somebody basically becomes semi
independent. And he's running it maybe in name,
maybe in name only, maybe even not even
in name, but this is what Al Khaji
did. And he began to mint the first
Muslim coins or the first Islamic coins date
back to, Al Khaji, which is around 1200
CE, like 800, 900 years ago. He began
to mint the Islamic coins of this region,
and the Khutba was given in his name.
Before this point in time, if there were
any masjids, the Khudba would have been given
in the name of the Abbasids. But now
Khalji comes along and in his name and
the name of the Khurids, and thus begins
the first political base, the first state, if
you like, in this region of what is
what we now call Bangladesh. And this next
300 years, we can say technically there's multiple
dynasties. They're called the Delhi Sultanate, the Delhi
Sultanate. This is the extension of the Delhi
Sultanate, but the ministers, or the, I should
say, the governors are independent or semi independent.
But now that the political base has been
established,
now you have masajids popping up everywhere. And
you have a new phenomenon, a phenomenon that
was very common for that time, and that
is preachers
who would travel from Arab lands, Muslim lands
with the only intention
of preaching Islam.
And this began the phenomenon of the Sufi
Khanqas.
Sufism played a very important role in the
spread of Islam in this region. And a
number of famous Sufi preachers, the most famous
of them, every single person of Bangladeshi heritage
knows this person, and his name is Shah
Jalal. Shah Jalal is the most famous one
of them, but he's not the only one.
But he's the most famous and he's of
the earliest one. And Shah Jalal was of
an Arab descent, but he was born and
raised in Konya, in Turkiye. And
they say that his sheikh handed him a
mission that you have to go to. He
gave him some soil. He goes, wherever you
find the color of the land to be
the soil, that's where you will settle. So
they say that Shah Jalal left,
Turkiya left Konya, and he kept on traveling,
traveling, traveling until he made his way to,
this region of the Bengal. And he said,
this is what my Sheikh wanted. This is
where I'm supposed to be. So he spent
the next 78 years. He lived to around
a 100 something years old, 110 years old
he lived. He spent the next 78 years.
In fact, it just so happened when he
arrived, there was a massive battle going on
between the Muslim Sultan and between one of
the Hindu dynasties. So him and his scholars
and and Sufi,
shuyuh, they actually joined
in this campaign.
The campaign won what is considered to be
somewhat miraculous victory. And so Allah, may Allah
blessed him like he was given the izzah.
Like, oh, because you guys came. You are
pious people coming from the Arab and the
Muslim or the Turkish lands. Because of you
guys, Allah blessed us to win this battle.
So this established his reputation
as a saint or a wali of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. By the way, we do
believe in righteous people. We should believe this.
There are righteous people and Allah Azzawajal blesses
righteous people with various things. So yes, the
concept is correct. No problem with that. And
so Shah
Jalal established his credibility
right when he landed, basically. This victory boosted
his credentials, but he didn't participate after this
in any type of military expedition. What he
did is he opened up a hanqa. He
opened up, a a a a lodge, and
he began preaching and teaching, for the next
50 or 60 years. And what I found
super interesting, I learned today that the most
famous traveler
of medieval Islam, Ibn Battuta. You know, Ibn
Battuta. Ibn Battuta
not only visited,
this area, and he called it al Bangala.
In his book, he calls it al Bangala.
Not only did he visit this area, he
lived in Seleth,
and he maybe even took a wife there.
We're not sure it looks like that as
well. And he said, then I traveled 1
month
to visit the most famous,
wali of the region, shahjalal
He actually met shahjalal.
Ibn Battuta, I found out today. I didn't
know this. He actually met Shah Jalal, and
he describes that he was a tall, handsome,
frail man. He would fast continuously.
He was living in a, you know, a
monastery, a khanqah away from the city. His
students were there. And I, you know, and
he mentioned some miracles or some karamaat you
can say that happened. And, he that Shajalal
gifted Ibn Battuta a turban, was very happy
at this. So, ibn Battuta is very he
he literally said this is the most famous
saint in the region, which means Shajalal had
already established his reputation in his lifetime. And
ibn Battuta actually
detoured from his journey just to go visit
Shajalal and then come back and resume his
journey. It is said that Shajalal, and Allah
blessed him and others, but he was number
1 to convert many tens of thousands of
people in his preaching and teaching and interactions.
And ibn Battuta himself says he witnessed many
of the Hindus or the, he called them
Hindu. They might have been Buddhist because at
that time you couldn't these people probably couldn't
tell the difference. But even if they were
But, ibn Battuta says even the local, you
know, Hindus and Buddhist would go his hanqa
and stay with him, to be influenced by
him. So ibn Bultuta was an eyewitness
to this da'wah continuously
going on. So we're now in the 12,
1300,
and this is when 1400,
basically 15th century, what begins now?
2 things. On the one hand, the Mughal
dynasty,
and on the other hand, European
colonization.
Right? Who was the 1st European to come
into India? This should be a high school
question for the kids here.
This is way afterwards.
Vasco Di Gama. You remember from your high
school. That's good, yes. Masha'Allah. Even though you've
passed high school age, but clearly it has
Just kidding with you. Vasco Di Gamma.
Price points. What year was that?
Even I think I'll have to No.
I think that is correct. I'm not sure
exactly the final year, but 14/90 something. I
think that is correct. Vasco Di Gama. Now,
by the way, Christopher Columbus was trying to
get to India. Right? That's why he ended
up over here. Like all men who get
lost, he didn't ask for directions, so he
came over here. Okay? But Vasco Di Gama,
I guess, asked for directions. So once Christopher
Columbus failed, they wanted to get to India.
Why did they wanna get to India? Because
India was the land of treasure,
the land of spice, the land of fertility,
the land of produce, the land of fruits,
like the soil of India, and
especially the region of Bengal
has always been of the most fertile.
And actually, historically,
you know, in our times, there is a
perception that this region is impoverished. This is
a modern perception. For its entire history, this
region has been of the most powerful economic,
places. And in fact, under the Mughals, this
was the number one producing region of the
Mughal dynasty. Under the British, this used to
be number 1. And then by the time
the British left, it went down as I'm
gonna explain in a while. Right? So this
is why they wanted to come, primarily because
of not only this region, but especially because
of Bengal. And so in the 1500, 1600,
2 things happened. Both of them affected the
people of this region. 1st and foremost, the
Mughal dynasty. Of course, you know, you have
Babar, you have Akbar, Shah Jahan. They, of
course, built the largest or they not built,
but they created the largest network,
the largest,
conglomerate
political base. And as a part of that,
they also acquired, if you like, Bengal, and
they made it into a province. And so
for around a 100 something, 150 years, the
Mughal Empire was the
one in charge and there was a province,
they called it the Bangal Subha. They had
they had the the province that was semi
independent, but still under the Mughals. While this
is happening,
you had the colonial empires come. And by
the way, it was the Mughals who also
chose Dhaka
as their regional capital, and this was the
rise of Dhaka now. So now, whatever capital
you choose, so then it's gonna start rising.
And so it was the Mughals who chose,
and you still have, as all the people
from that region know, you have magnificent
structures built in that region still to this
day. Magnificent, beautiful masajid that is still standing,
to this day. So,
and I also have to mention before I
move on, I forgot to mention, in the
beginning, that, of course, the language,
of of the people of this region is
different, and their culture is different. And, therefore,
their intellectual
and cultural heritage has a unique strand. They
are, their their art, their architecture,
their language, their scholarship has been written in
a different style and language than any other.
And so they have contributed a very unique,
way of,
both architecture
and cuisine, and of course, Islamic thought as
well. So I was getting back to the
colonization,
and
5 different regions were competing over Bengal.
5 different European countries.
Number 1,
Portugal.
The Portuguese were the first to get to
this region. Vasco da Gama was Portuguese.
Number 2, the Spaniards came.
The Spaniards then established their post.
Number
3, the French came along.
The French came along, and they also established
their post. And number 4,
the Dutch. The Dutch came as well. And
then last but not to be the least,
the British came. Now each one of these
5
established
East India Trading Company,
Dutch East India Trading Company, Portuguese
East India Trading Company, British East India Trading
Company.
And each one of them began competing
to have the most
land, the biggest perks, the most direct access
to the governors, And
interestingly enough, in this region of of, what
we now call Bangladesh, the Bay of Bengal,
multiple times these 5 powers actually fought one
another
on the Indian subcontinent soil for resources.
So you have the British and the French
fighting each other for resources in this region.
And sometimes they're bringing in the locals as
well because, you know, there's something called sepoy.
And the sepoy is a local who was
paid by the British or the Dutch or
the French. So you had a class of
of Indians or
Bangalis. You had them being paid by these
European superpowers, and they're fighting each other on
behalf of these, you know, superpowers. So in
any case, what happened was these 5 entities,
all of them attempted to negotiate the best
treaties with the governor. And
this also coincided with the waning of the
Mughal Empire. The Mughal Empire
started to decline in its power, and so
this region became once again independent.
And another superpower was established, regional superpower. Let's
call it the Nawabs of Bengal. Now technically,
the Nawabs of Bengal were multiple dynasties as
is usually the case. It wasn't just one
dynasty. But for another 200 years, you had
many a 150. You had many dynasties that
are not under the Mughal Empire. They don't
need to get permission from the Mughal Empire.
So the regional five colonial powers have to
negotiate directly with these dynasties.
And one of them was to change the
course of the entire region's history, and that
is Siraju Daulah. Siraju Daulah in 17/56.
He was the Nawab of Bengal. And
long story short, the British and the French
were at a massive war. And Sirajid Daulah
initially got caught up. He sided with the
French. The French were more sympathetic to him,
but the British demanded more and more. And
the British started building larger posts, taking more
land, demanding higher taxes.
Sirad Siraj Jadawal refused. He said, I'm not
going to be a party to this. It's
not fair. Remember, these
companies are not governments.
They are trading posts.
They are East India Trading Company.
Sure, they have mercenaries,
but they're not governments. This is like you
open up a shop somewhere, and the shop
is surrounded by your mini army. That shop
becomes a mini city. That shop starts taking
the land around it. This is what these
principalities did. Siraju Daura said, Enough is enough.
You guys are not welcome here. And for
one of the most historic and important times,
he went to war.
He fought
the colonizers. This is now not necessarily the
first, but the most important and the most
seminal
fighting that took place by the locals, the
resistance
against colonization.
It was done by the Nawav of Bengal
against the British. And in fact, initially, he
succeeded. He overtook Calcutta
and he freed,
the he kicked out the British. He had
to obviously he killed some of the people
there as well. The British people, obviously, that
happened. And when that happened, the British sent
in the troops,
and they
sent in their most
promised and decorated
general. His name is major Robert Clive. Major
Robert Clive had a reputation
of being heartless,
cruel, but also very efficient.
In other words, he was a general exactly
what you need for from their side. And
major Robert Clive decided that he was now
gonna go wage full war against Saraju Daulah.
So him and Siraju Daulah basically had a
number of battles. Calcutta went back and forth
until finally, so Siraju Daulah was kicked out
initially. Siraj Jadawla then brings 40,000
troops
against Major Clive who probably had less than
2,000, right, including the sepoys. There's no way
that
this is clearly gonna change the course of
history. If Sirajidullah
wins, then the British are kicked out. But
here is where
constantly the ummah has a problem from within,
and that is we don't need external enemies
when we have people inside of us who
will betray. And what major Robert Clive did
was he used the tried and tested tactic
of the British,
divide
and conquer.
Major Clive understood I can't win them in
battle.
And so he resorted to the standard technique
and he found one of the senior,
some say he was the senior,
general and,
military commander under Sirajidullah,
his name was Mir Jafar.
Mir Jafar. And he began a secret negotiation
with Mir Jafar
to
become a trader,
come over to the side of the British.
Mir Jafar named the price, he got the
price.
Mir Jafar said, once you get rid of
Sirajidullah,
I have to become the nawab. Clive said,
fine. You will be the next nawab.
Once he went back and he heard that
more and more, you know,
help is coming from England,
Mir Jafar
renegotiated the contract and demanded triple what had
been the initial price. Greed. Complete greed. They
say the equivalent in our times, if you
calculate it out, is around £3,000,000.
So for £3,000,000 British pounds, the equivalent in
our times, which is around less than $4,000,000.
For $4,000,000
Mir Jafar
not only betrayed
his own
dynasty,
he literally changed the the course of history
to what was about to happen. Such a
measly sum, 4,000,000. That's all that he needed.
So Mirza So long story short,
when Clive's forces came, Siraj ad Dawla thought
that he had Mir Jafar and the troops
on his side. Turns out at the last
minute, Mir Jafar, because he was the commander,
he simply withdrew leaving Sirajid Daulah
almost unprotected. Sirajid Daulah had to flee for
his life with his women and children. Mia
Jafar's
forces caught up to him and executed him
on the spot, paraded his body,
in public. And then,
Major Clive
literally greeted Mir Jafar, kissed him,
held his hand, put him on the throne
of the sultan of the nawab, and gave
him a
bowl full of gold.
This is now your treasure. And he did
become the nawab for a while, and then
of course, as is always the case, then
he realized the British are not giving him
what he wanted. And he actually died a
miserable death,
because obviously you're not gonna win as a
traitor. For those of you who studied Iqbal,
Iqbal has some really famous poetry
about, about this. Right? I'm gonna really mess
this up. But,
Ja'far I as Bangal, wasadiq aazdakan.
Nangi Adam, Nangedeen,
Nangiwatan.
Nakabul,
waraumid,
wana murad,
mildati as karashan, Andari fa'ad. Is that right?
Right translation? Andar I fa'ad? Is that right?
This is Farsi. Right? So,
Iqbal has some really powerful lines here, that
Ja'far from Bengal
and Sadiq from Dukhan.
Mir Sadiq was somebody who betrayed Tipu Sultan.
Right? So, Ja'far from Bengal and Sadiq from
Dukhan.
These people are
nangi adam, disgrace to mankind.
And nangideen,
disgrace to their deen, nangiwatan,
disgrace to their homeland.
Nakabul. They have no acceptance. They are hopeless.
They are unfortunate.
And because of them, an entire nation was
corrupted by their actions. This incident is called
the famous
Battle of Plassey.
The the the town is Pelasi Pilashi. So
the British call it Plassey, the Battle of
Plassey. The Battle of Plassey,
in 17,
56,
it changed the course of history.
Literally,
this is the most important battle that every
student of history is aware of because when,
the,
Major Clive won over the, sultan or the
Nawab of of of Bengal, what was the
result of that? A number of things. 1st
and foremost,
this now established
British
superiority
over all of the other colonizers.
Now England
is dominating.
Even though before this, the Portuguese had dominated.
Because of the battle of Plasi, now England
has the upper hand. Secondly,
now that England has basically conquered Bengal,
this is the
nail in the coffin for the Mughal dynasty.
That's it. This is the the most important
province, the most expensive, the highest, you know,
produce. And now it's not in the hands
of the Mughals. Even though nominally it was
technically not there, but still there was this
notion. So now that the British are here,
then what's gonna happen from 1757
until
the famous, what is called, mutiny war of
independence, 1857,
100 years. The British
changed from being
a trading post to becoming the British Raj.
The beginning of this, the battle of Plasi.
When the Muslims of the Bengal province, when
the Sultan of the Nawaz province was betrayed
by his minister, it was inevitable. That's it.
One thing led to another. And in 18/57,
the British
annulled the, Mughal dynasty, kicked out the last,
Mughal,
Sultan who died a very lonely death, in
in, Baha'u'll Shah, Zafar Baha'u'll Shah. There's a
picture of him. The only picture we have
of a Mughal
emperor on his death bed in 18/60 or
something. It's just a sad, sad portrait of
a person lost everything. So he was exiled
and the British then, took over. And, of
course, when the British take over, what do
you think is gonna happen? They're not interested
in the people. They're interested in their pockets.
And for the next 90 years, they fleeced
this region. This region that used to be
the number one. Bangladesh or this area of
Bengal has always been known. Ibn Battuta.
I I read this today just to refresh
my memory. It's been many years since I
read Ibn Battuta, and I forgot he had
mentioned Bangladesh. Ibn Battuta has an entire paragraph
shocked at how cheap
the produce of bengal is.
He mentions prices.
He says, for 1 1 dirham, I can
get 3 chickens. You know? He says, I
have never seen this much rice in my
life. This is ibn Battuta
describing this how many centuries ago. And he
goes, you can purchase this much quantity for
a small amount of rice. And he said,
my friends here, they told me that for
8 or 9, you know, dirhams, they can
spend the whole year with enough money for
food for eat. So he's describing a land
that is rich in produce, that is rich
in food, and has easily accessible. In his
whole travels, he has hardly seen a land
as rich and as, you know, useful and
and,
economic as this region is. But what's gonna
happen? That's why the British were eager. That's
why the battle of Plassey is taking place.
That's why all of this is happening. Once
the British come, Khalas, topsy-turvy,
180.
From 1857
up until
1947, 90 years, this region went from being
number 1 to subhanAllah, almost all the problems
we can blame. And I say this over
and over again, do not be fooled. Wallahi,
do not be fooled. The enemies come, they
wanna make us enemies in between. The number
one enemy that we have is the colonizers.
Do not be fooled by the rhetoric. They
put it in your mind to divide and
conquer. No, It comes from them. They're the
ones who did all of these, you know,
negatives that happened. You can 90, 95%,
you can blame on the tactics of the
British. Time is limited. I have to mention
one thing that the British did. This is
something every one of you should know. The
worst natural sorry, the worst manmade disaster
in this century or of the top 3
took place in this region caused by the
British in 1943
and 1944.
Every person here from that region is well
aware of what happened. I'm sure many of
you have stories of your grandparents about what
happened during this time. The infamous
famine that took place in which we don't
even know how many people lost their lives,
that we can't even calculate.
Like, 5 or 10% of the region's population
disappeared
in 1 year. Up to maybe 3,000,000
people, not just because of famine, but then
because of the the famine, the the hunger,
the disease, the dysentery, all of this caused
simply by the mismanagement
and the greed and the inhumanity
of the British. This was a preventable disaster.
How can you starve to death in one
of the most fertile regions in the world?
How? When you have British who are more
interested in sending food to their troops,
not caring about the local because World War
2 World War 2 is going on. And
so the British, a series of bungling mismanagements
that they didn't care about. To be precise,
it's not as if they intended to kill
3,000,000 people, but they didn't care that they
killed 3,000,000. See the difference? It's not as
if they had a tactic. What are we
gonna do to mess up? But their mismanagement.
And there and there's many PhDs and many
books written. You can find this on Amazon
online. What would the British do about intentionally
limiting? Because they were worried that the food
would end up in the wrong hands. They
also wanted the food that was available to
end up in their troops. And so both
the tactic of limiting what they can produce
along with
acquiring what they are producing
and not distributing it. There are pictures. Wallahi
these pictures, they will move any heart to
tears. There are pictures of 100 and thousands
of emaciated
men, women, and children just dying on the
streets because this is 19 forties. You have
lots of pictures. You can see them of
people literally like bones that sit.
And there's barrels and barrels of rice being
sent outside,
not to the locals. And infamously,
when even the viceroy and the governor felt
pity and he begged Churchill, please change your
policies. Right? This is a famous
draft. I wish I could show you the
picture of it. Right? That he sent, the
telegraph to, Churchill
that, you know, please do something. We have
millions of people dying here. And Churchill look
at the arrogance of these people. And they
they they say Churchill is a hero and
whatnot. Yani, if you look at these people,
they have no ounce of humanity for anybody
outside of their race. You know what Churchill
said?
If they're starving, how come they're breeding like
rats?
How come there's so many?
And if so many people are dying, how
come Gandhi is still alive?
He did not change the policy.
Literally the even the local governors begging him,
and he has it in his handwriting that,
well, they're still breeding like rats, he called.
The people there, he called. They were all
Muslims. He called us their rats. He goes,
look at their quantity. There are people like
rats. Why should I change my policy? And
if they're all dying, I want Gandhi to
die. Why isn't Gandhi dying? Just the amount
of racism and arrogance that in that, you
know, cruel. And because of this, as we
say, we'll never know for sure, but maybe
up to 3,000,000 people, passed away. And, of
course, it's because of this that,
there was a strong resistance from this region
against the British. Many famous,
thinkers and many intellectuals,
they champion for freedom, you know, along with
people in other regions, Bangladesh or this in
this region is, of course, is not called
Bangladesh right now, but the people of this
region are of the most antagonistic. And eventually,
of course, in 1947, as you're aware, that
is when the British had to leave. And
because this is now a Muslim majority land,
so then they also granted it separate independence.
And now, as you know, multiple changes are
happening. So we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to bless the people of this region. Wallahi,
our hearts, wallahi, I swear to you, my
heart, my duas are for the people. It
was so, you know, joyous to see, you
know, some of the things happening. What hamdulillah,
hamdulillah. In the end, we just make dua
all we can do. We make dua to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that Allah Azawajal protects
the people, blesses them with a government that
genuinely cares about them and their interests, that
blesses them with a government that wants to
protect their own civilization and culture. 90% Muslim,
they should be proud of this. They give
so many, you know, contributions to the ummah.
So may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala protect them,
bless them, grant them hidayah, and inshaAllahu ta'ala
let us see, 'Izzah back as it used
to be, the political and economic capital for
1000 of years. We pray, inshAllah, that this
returns. Jazakumullah khair. Assalamu alaikum