Yasir Qadhi – Omar Al Mukhtar- The Lion of The Desert
AI: Summary ©
The transcript describes the history and actions of the Ottoman Empire during the conflict in Lebanon, including their use of warfare and the rise of famous Shaykh of the desert. The transcript also touches on the concept of Pemex warfare, which uses warfare tactics such as cutting off supply lines and using shelling to attack the enemy. The transcript also touches on the loss of the allied forces during World War II and the complex human nature of the movie The Lion of the Desert, which is a complex person and has lessons about Islam and technology. The movie, The Lion of the Desert, is a popular movie and taught lessons about the realities of the spiritual world.
AI: Summary ©
93 years ago today, one of the greatest
icons of the pre-modern era, a legend
amongst legends, was captured, put under trial, and
executed.
This person has a laqab, this person has
a title.
He was called Asad al-Sahra, the Lion
of the Desert.
And I mean, of course, none other than
Umar al-Mukhtar of Libya.
93 years ago today, exactly today, was the
day that he was executed by the Italians.
So today I wanted to introduce, especially our
youth, to one of the iconic legends of
the last century, somebody who continues to inspire
the ummah, somebody whose name has become associated
with bravery and dignity and courage.
But to talk about him briefly, I'll take
just one step back and discuss what are
the Italians doing in Libya.
The Italians colonized Libya.
And very briefly, as is typical, the story
is so bizarre, you wonder, is this out
of a comic book or is it real?
But very briefly, as you're aware, France colonized
Algeria in the 1840s.
And eventually they also colonized Morocco.
And when France started getting involved in the
Arab world, England felt left out.
So England then invaded and England took over
Egypt.
And so Egypt is taken over by England.
On the Western front, France has taken over
Algeria and Morocco.
So the Italians say, it's not fair, we
want our piece of the pie as well.
And so the Italians, they already had Eritrea,
they already had Ethiopia on the West Coast,
but they wanted something on the same side
as the other superpowers that has direct access
to the Mediterranean.
And so the Italians reached out to the
British and the French, and they said, we're
going to take Libya, we're gonna arrange a
deal.
So they literally made a secret treaty.
The Italians made a treaty with the French
and the British that we're gonna take over
this land.
And they had their internal agreements and whatnot.
So the Italians then decided to engage with
a tactic.
Very briefly, they began ties.
At this time, of course, Libya is under
the Ottoman Empire.
Libya is still under the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottomans are on their last leg, they
only have 10 years left to live, but
they didn't know, the Ottomans did not know
that.
So the Ottomans are at the very end
of their, their power is dwindling.
And Libya is an outpost, which is surrounded
by colonizers, right?
Imagine on the one hand you have France,
on the other hand you have England, and
Libya is all by itself there.
And so the Ottoman Empire is already weak
in Libya.
So the Italians decide they're gonna use a
tactic.
They start with treaties with the Libyans, they
start building ports for the Libyans, they start
making economic treaties, they start sending merchants, they
start sending people to live in Libya with
legal citizenship, legal visas and whatnot.
And then they complain to the Ottoman Empire
that our citizens are being harassed, our citizens
aren't being treated fairly.
They sent an envoy to the Khalifa, to
the Sultan of the Ottomans, that unless you
rectify the situation of the Italians in Libya,
we will take drastic action.
And the Ottoman Sultan said, what is wrong
with you guys?
Libya is safe, everything is safe here.
This was all a tactic, they didn't realize
at the time.
This is all an engineered ruse guys, you
have to think a little bit more deeply.
Do not take news at surface level.
History teaches us the superpowers do very dastardly
deeds.
Today's incident in Lebanon, you see what is
happening and how they are doing what they
are doing.
Do not be so naive as to presume
the headline is what is correct here.
And the Ottoman Sultan did not understand what's
going on.
What do you mean everything is fine, it's
a safe country.
But the Italians said, unless you protect our
citizens, there shall be drastic measures.
And so in September of this very month,
September of 1911, Italy declared war against the
Ottoman Empire.
And they sent in the naval fleets to
capture Libya.
And of course, the Ottomans did not have
the weaponry, they did not have the manpower.
Libya already was at the very fringe of
the Ottoman Empire.
And the Ottomans were already dealing with a
lot of internal issues.
They had to deal with the issues going
on in Greece, going on in Cyprus.
Their own empire is collapsing, so much is
happening within their own empire.
They couldn't put up the defense.
So within a day, within a day, the
Italians invaded and took over all of the
coastal towns, all of Tripoli and all of
the coastal towns were taken over.
The Ottomans did try, they sent in some
troops here and there.
The British in Egypt refused access.
The Ottomans said, can we go through your
land?
The British said, no, we're not going to
let you go.
So how are they going to send in
the troops when the Italians have the naval
fleet here?
So obviously, the Ottomans then they had to
just acquiesce and agree.
They were forced to sign a treaty.
And a year later, officially, the Ottoman Empire
basically said, okay, we can't fight you guys,
take it.
So Libya was officially handed over in 1912
to the Italians.
Now, in 1912, the Italians took over Libya
officially.
However, they didn't have control over the people.
The people don't want the Italians there.
And the coastal towns were taken by force.
But how about the internal cities?
How about the valleys?
How about the entire provinces inside?
And this is where our figure, Umar al
-Mukhtar comes into play.
Because even though the Italians were able to
by force take over all of the coastal
cities, the inside towns, the inside villages, they
kept on putting up fights.
And they decided to elect amongst themselves an
Amir and that Amir was Umar al-Mukhtar.
So where did he come into the picture?
How could the Libyans elect Umar al-Mukhtar
so quickly?
How could they unanimously agree, this is gonna
be our leader?
Umar al-Mukhtar, of course his story is
legendary.
As usual, the khatr is gonna be very
short.
But very briefly, Umar al-Mukhtar was born
in 1862 to a very prominent scholarly family.
And his father and grandfather were shuyukh of
the local place.
He went to study Islam as a child.
And he got involved with the Sanusi order.
The Sanusi order is one of the famous
Sufi tariqas of the time frame.
His Shaykh initiated into the order.
He rose up in the tariqa.
His Shaykh sent him to study in neighboring
lands as a young man.
And a lot of people don't know this,
but he was studying, I believe it was
in Chad or Senegal, I forgot which place,
in his 20s.
He was studying there and the French invaded.
So he fought a jihad against the French
as a young man.
As a young man, studying in another land,
he got involved in fighting for the Muslims
against the French.
And it was at that age and stage
where the people saw in him bravery and
dignity and courage.
And they gave him the title, Asadus Sahra,
the lion of the desert.
This title was given to him, not in
Libya.
It was given to him as a young
man when he was fighting against the French.
So they gave him the title, Asadus Sahra,
the lion of the desert.
The French eventually won.
So Umar Mukhtar had to withdraw back to
his country of Libya.
And there for the next 20 years, at
that time, of course, the Italians hadn't come.
So he teach the people, he became a
Quran teacher, he became a Shaykh, he became
a person of ilm and knowledge.
And the whole area that he used to
live in one of the provinces of Libya,
he was the most famous Shaykh of that
vicinity.
When the Italians therefore invaded, Umar Mukhtar was
now in his late 50s, early 60s, right?
So now a lifetime has gone by.
And when the Italians invaded, the people went
to him and they elected him to be
their representative to fight against the Italians.
So this was when an all out offensive
began that lasted more than a decade.
Actually more than, sorry, more than two decades,
sorry, more than two decades.
Umar Mukhtar began fighting the Italians.
But how are you gonna fight a superpower
when you don't have the weaponry?
When they are 10 times your number?
So Umar Mukhtar began doing guerrilla warfare tactics.
What is guerrilla warfare?
Guerrilla warfare is you cut off the supply
lines.
Guerrilla warfare is you attack at night the
people that are the warriors and the soldiers
over there.
So guerrilla tactics is not like head to
head fighting.
It is employing tactics where your small quantity
comes into effect.
Also because Umar Mukhtar knew the land and
because obviously he was a horse rider and
he was somebody who knew the desert.
He understood the best mechanisms to attack, the
best lay of the land to use.
And the Italian soldiers could not compete with
that level of tactics.
And this is why he wreaked havoc in
Italian lines.
His name became famous in Italy.
The newspapers had pictures of him in Italy.
And the media began calling him, the terrorists
calling him the main instigator against the Italians.
He became a household name across the world
even though he was in the desert fighting
the Italian forces here.
And in one anecdote when the Italians asked
him like, or when his own people even
said a negotiation was sent by the, because
you have to realize here, the Libyan government
officially is now pro-Italian.
The people that are there, the in Tripoli
and what not, the Libyans have agreed.
And Umar Mukhtar is not agreeing with his
own people.
Umar Mukhtar has gone against the people that
have sold Libya to the Italians.
So negotiations are taking place.
And one of his own people asked him
like, why are you fighting?
You're not gonna win.
You know you're not gonna win against the
Italians.
And he gave a famous answer.
He said, I will fight as long as
I can and I will die.
And if I die, I will leave behind
others who will fight.
For me, there is no such thing as
surrender.
I either win or I die.
He gave this powerful example or metaphor.
There's no such thing as surrender.
For me, I either win or I die.
I will not live a coward and a
slave to the Italians.
There's only two options for me.
Either I live with dignity or I die
at the hands of these people.
I'm never going to acquiesce and surrender to
these people.
So his people took courage.
They took a shelter under him.
And he continued this war for over 20
years.
In response, the Italians increased the pressure.
And in Italy, one of the worst fascist
dictators of human history, and that is of
course Mussolini.
Mussolini comes into power.
So Mussolini comes into power when Umar al
-Muqtad is waging war against the Italians.
And Mussolini gives the green light to his
general.
His general is Rudolfo Graziani.
Graziani is a household name in Italy.
Everybody hates him.
He is one of the worst generals of
humanity because zero compassion.
And of course Mussolini tells him, do as
you please.
So Graziani employed what is called a scorched
earth policy.
Scorched earth policy means no mercy.
We will not take any prisoners.
Everybody will die that comes across us.
We will kill men, women, and children.
We will kill animals.
We will scorch the earth.
We will get rid of the trees.
We will make the land uninhabitable.
This is the scorched earth policy that Graziani
used against the Italians.
And to give you one simple example, the
statistics indicate that before the war began, there
were over a million goats and sheep in
Libya.
When Graziani starts his scorched earth policy, 90
,000 are left.
90,000.
In other words, 92% of the animals
are killed.
What do you think of the people?
He's killing the animals on purpose so that
people cannot eat, people cannot live, sustain.
And Graziani started concentration camps for the first
time in that region.
He literally, just like you see in the
videos, and here's another issue.
Why is it that when we say concentration
camps, only one peoples come in and only
one land comes in, right?
The fact of the matter is these concentration
camps were before the ones in Germany.
These concentration camps were before the ones under
the Nazis.
And hundreds of thousands of people were housed
there with poor water, no sanitation, no medicine.
The UN, not the UN, sorry, the other
organization, we'll call them, before the UN, the
League of Nations, they estimated over 40%
of the people in these concentration camps died.
40%.
Because why?
They didn't have food, they didn't have water,
they didn't have medicine, cholera, typhoid, all types
of diseases.
There are pictures of these concentration camps.
We're talking about 1930, 1931, 1932.
There are pictures, there's video footage.
But why is it none of our high
school kids sees that video footage?
Why is it nobody even knows there were
concentration camps in Italy, in Libya under the
Italians?
Look at it yourself, right?
Not to say that what happened in another
land is not bad.
It is bad as well, but this is
also bad.
Teach all of history, but selective memory, it
has an agenda behind it, right?
So the Italians massacred hundreds of thousands of
Libyans.
Zero mercy, as we said.
Women, children, animals are killed.
What do you expect is gonna happen to
the...
And they would mistreat and abuse the prisoners.
They would mutilate their bodies and put them...
And there's graphic footage, there's graphic pictures.
They would put the bodies of Umar Al
-Mukhtar's followers in every single city to make
people scared to join his camp.
Every city would have mutilated bodies.
They would burn it and desecrate and put
those bodies there so that people do not
join Umar Al-Mukhtar's camps.
So they continue to do so until finally
in 1931, they set up an ambush and
they managed to capture Umar Al-Mukhtar in
September of 1931.
They captured him in an infamous battle called
the Battle of Green Mountains in the area
of Burqa.
They captured Umar Al-Mukhtar.
And because they didn't want any chance of
escape or any media propaganda, within two days,
a sham trial.
You know, literally it was a media circus.
You know, all the media was there.
They paraded Umar Al-Mukhtar around everywhere.
And then within two days, they just decided
to...
Of course, it was a done deal.
They were going to execute him.
And in the trial, all of the reporters,
they remarked that the persona of Umar Al
-Mukhtar exuded dignity and nobility.
He never once indicated any fear, any type
of, you know, cowardice.
There was coming from him courage and dignity,
even as he's in his shackles.
And the Italian reporters are remarking about this.
There's so many pictures of this trial as
well.
And even the reporters were impressed.
And the judge asked him, do you not
have any regrets?
Don't you regret all that you have done?
And he answered calmly that, I have no
regrets.
I am not the criminal.
You are the criminals here.
I have done nothing wrong.
I defended my land.
I defended my people.
I defended my religion.
I have done nothing wrong.
You are the criminals that have come and
invaded my land here.
And the way he responded with that courage
and dignity, it shook even the reporters and
the people in the room there.
And the generals and the military leaders, even
though they hated him, they also wanted to
pose with pictures with him because they admired
him.
They hated and admired at the same time
because there is that notion of a noble
enemy, right?
So even though they wanted to kill him,
there are pictures of the generals that are
posing with Umar al-Mukhtar at the same
time, taking, you know, that's not the selfie,
but they're taking the picture with him because
they want to have the honor that, oh,
I'm standing next to Umar al-Mukhtar.
And of course, we're all aware that even
as he was sentenced and he was walking
to be hanged, there was not even an
ounce of fear.
And this is what impressed everybody.
There was not any ounce of cowardice or
fear.
He was reciting his usual Wirdan Qur'an,
and he stood on the gallows that he
was going to be hanged by.
And he said the karima in a calm
and dignified voice.
And he met his end.
Literally, today is the day, you know, 93
years ago in 1931, when he met his
end.
And inshallah ta'ala, he died the death
of a shaheed.
And so with his death, the resistance had
to come to an end.
There was no figure to replace him.
Can you imagine the respect that he had,
that when they got rid of him, the
resistance fizzled out, the Italians officially took over
the entire country.
And in 1937, Mussolini himself visited Libya.
He wanted to now show the world, this
is my land.
They changed the name of the country and
they called it Italian Libya.
The official name of the country was Italian
Libya.
Two words, Italian Libya.
And they had a flag, Italian Libya.
And for 15 years, there was a country,
there are stamps like this, there are flags
like this.
And Italy was the language of the country.
And everything was in Italian.
Italians are coming to live in Libya.
It is now their province.
And so Mussolini wants to come and indicate
to the world, this is my country and
land.
And so he arranges a festival.
There's video footage, you can watch it online.
This Mussolini is one of the worst dictators
of human history, right?
Everybody knows him.
He's like cousins of Hitler in the same
type of mentality.
And so he marches into Tripoli.
And there are rows and lines of people
and entourage.
And you know, he comes in his car
and you can see all of the video
processions.
And astaghfirullah, but the shuyukh of the government
are saying takbir and Allahu akbar, and giving
him titles and honors.
And when he arrives at the mosque and
the palace here, the same shuyukh with their
big turbans and big beards, right?
They greet him and they bow down to
him, and they hand him a symbolic sword.
And they call him, I'm not joking, they
call him the defender of Islam.
They award him the title, Defender of Islam.
There's video footage, I'm not making this up
here, right?
And he raises up the sword iconically.
There's an image of Mussolini raising the sword
as if he is protecting.
And this is by the way, Napoleon, if
you listen to my library chat, Napoleon did
something similar in Azhar University 100 years ago.
It's something similar.
He stood on the Minbar of Azhar and
he goes, I'm gonna defend Islam.
Similar concept to this thing.
By the way, if somebody says, how can
the scholars and how can the Muslims of
that time do this?
Are you not seeing what's happening right now?
Are you not seeing what's happening right now?
I'm sorry, don't point fingers in the past.
Open your eyes.
Almost every, if not every country and superpower
in our part of the world, who is
it supporting?
Which side is it supporting?
Gaza or the apartheid regime?
So, don't think it's something different back then.
It's the same thing.
And their scholars are drum rolling for this
reality of the apartheid state.
So, don't be surprised.
You always have it.
Nothing new.
Just back then and here as well.
So, Mussolini then takes this award.
And the Italian Libya country lasts until World
War II.
It was only World War II because Mussolini
sided with Hitler.
And of course, Hitler lost in World War
II.
Because Hitler lost, Italy lost.
Because Italy lost, it lost Libya.
SubhanAllah, look at how it happened here, right?
So, it lost Libya.
The allied forces propped up a king there.
Eventually, the king was overthrown by Qaddafi in
the 1960s.
And the rest, as they say, is history
here.
One anecdote that the youth here should be
familiar with.
I know all the adults here well know
this because they grew up in this era.
In 1981, the movie, The Lion of the
Desert was released by Mustafa Aqqad.
And The Lion of the Desert chronicled quite
faithfully.
It is actually quite faithful to the history.
It's actually very well done.
He hired historians.
And one of the most famous actors of
Hollywood by the name of Anthony Quinn.
Our younger generation has never heard of him
because he's a previous generation.
But Anthony Quinn was one of the superstars
of Hollywood at the time, in the 70s
and 80s.
And Mustafa Aqqad managed to get him to
play a role.
And it was all about Umar al-Mukhtar.
And this movie was released in the public
theaters in America.
It was a proper movie.
It wasn't just like a, you know, for
the Muslim world.
It was an actual box office movie.
You could go and watch it.
It shaped the entire perception of Islam.
And of course, it was dubbed into Arabic
and other languages.
And it was a massive hit in the
Arab world as well.
I know every one of us above the
age of 30 watching this movie.
It affected us immensely.
It is one of the most powerful movies.
I know my critics are gonna cancel me
for this.
So go ahead and cancel me.
But for those of you who watch movies,
the 0.01%, good for you don't watch
them.
For those who are watching, if you're gonna
watch anything, you must watch The Lion of
the Desert.
It is one of the most powerful movies
that moves you, shakes you.
You're gonna be crying by the end of
that movie.
I speak to the youth especially.
Stop watching your useless stuff on HBO or
whatever.
If you're gonna watch, then watch something like
this.
This is a movie that teaches you lessons.
It teaches you morals.
It teaches you the reality of Umar al
-Mukhtar.
And the acting that was done was super
great.
The guy who Anthony Quinn did an amazing
job of acting.
And it really shows you a portrait of
history.
And by the way, another complicated issue.
And I say this because again, my job,
my role here is not just to preach
to make you feel happy.
My goal is to make you think and
to better the Ummah by sometimes doing things
that are complex.
Mustafa Aqqad is a complex figure.
Mustafa Aqqad is a complex person.
He was a Syrian American, came here in
the 60s, studied in Hollywood in UCLA, went
into Hollywood.
He was a Muslim, obviously he's a Muslim.
He's also the director of a series of
movies that are very popular.
Does anybody know which ones?
Halloween.
Every single one of them, Mustafa Aqqad is
the director or the senior director or something
in there.
Every one of them, I think all seven
of them.
He was a big name in Hollywood.
And he also had something of iman in
his heart.
He didn't have to do this movie and
the other movie which is what?
Which movie?
The Message.
See, this is the complexity of real life.
Real life is not just Angel Jibril and
Shaytan.
Real life has complex people.
People that, may Allah forgive, without a doubt
there's things in that movie that without a
doubt there's no justification.
And I know my critics are gonna love
this and as usual cancel and CIA agent
and what not.
Audhu billah.
But I'm teaching a reality.
Somebody else couldn't have done what he did.
He had the contacts, the means, the skills.
Does that justify?
I didn't say it does.
I didn't say it does.
But I'm saying, Allah will judge him on
the akhirah.
Without a doubt he didn't have to do
this.
These movies were not lots of money for
him.
The money was in Halloween.
The money was in all those other serials
that he did.
The money was in the thrillers.
He did this out of passion.
And in fact he lost money doing this.
He did it the first movie ever to
put Islam in a positive light.
The first movie to actually portray Islam.
And we all who are of our age
and older, we grew up watching this and
it influenced us as children.
As young men in these two movies, it
influenced me as a child.
And every one of us we know this.
I know our youngsters have never heard of
these because the quality is a bit poor.
It's not black and white, it's not that
old.
But it's not up to cutting edge or
whatever you call it, 4K, whatever you call
it.
It's not that level of graphics.
But it is something that I do.
If you're gonna watch movies, then these are
the ones that actually have some benefit in
them.
And this is the complexity of real life.
Mustafa Aqqad had the contacts, the clout, the
power to actually do something like this.
He used his skill set.
Tragically, he died in 2005 in a terrorist
attack by Al-Qaeda against people.
He was just in a hotel and Al
-Qaeda blew up in a Muslim land.
And Al-Qaeda blew up the hotel and
he was in it.
So he actually, inshallah, he died a shaheed
in this attack over here.
So to conclude, some of the lessons we
learned from Umar al-Mukhtar, back to Umar
al-Mukhtar.
Some of the lessons we learned.
Perhaps bittersweet, victory is not promised in this
dunya.
Umar al-Mukhtar did not gain political victory.
But that is not the ultimate victory.
The ultimate victory is first and foremost in
the eyes of Allah and then in the
qulub of the mu'mineen.
And if you look at it that way,
without a doubt, Umar al-Mukhtar is the
victor.
Does anybody know the name of the shuyukh
that handed the sword to Mussolini?
These were the shuyukh al-Islam.
These were the shuyukh al-Islam.
These were the ones with the photos.
These were the ones in the media.
These were the ones at the time, you
would think these are the big shots.
And what has happened to them?
Nobody even knows their names.
And the one that was taken as a
criminal, and the one who stood in front
of the court with his hands tied, and
the one who was dragged to be hanged,
that is the one who has love in
the hearts of the entire ummah.
Is that not a victory?
This is what you call victory.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grants victory
with iman, with taqwa, with ikhlas.
Do not judge victory by this dunya.
Do not judge victory by likes on a
YouTube video, by popularity in this dunya.
It means nothing, means nothing.
At that time frame, those people who handed
the swords, they were the ones who were
the most popular.
They were the ones who were considered shuyukh
al-Islam and the mufti of Libya and
this and that.
And subhanAllah, people don't even know they existed
now.
And this is the legacy of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Victory is given because of what is inside.
Even if you lose the dunya, Umar al
-Muqtad didn't gain the political freedom that he
wanted, but he died a dignified death.
He died the death of a courage, courageous
man, the death of a shaheed.
He died the death of Asad al-Sahra,
the lion of the desert.
And because he lived the life of a
lion, and he died the death of a
lion, Allah azza wa jalla preserved that legacy.
So, O Muslim, do not be deluded by
the temporariness of this dunya.
Be firm, be persistent, be courageous, speak the
truth, never give up the upper ground.
And wal-aqibatu lil-taqwa, the end result
will always be for taqwa.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant Umar
al-Muqtad the highest place of firdaws al
-a'la.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala resurrect
us with him on the day of judgment.
Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.
Allahumma
salli wa sallim wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
Allahumma salli wa sallim wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.