Yasir Qadhi – The Brutal Legacy of the Portuguese Empire
AI: Summary ©
The history and rise of the European economy and the Portuguese Empire have been discussed, with the largest economy in the world and the largest economy in the world being the largest economy in the world. The rise is primarily due to military strength, naval force, and the Hujj Jay's rise, primarily because of the naval force and the naval force's influence. The devastation caused by a earthquake on Lisbon is also discussed, with the devastation affecting the city and causing the whole world to suffer. The rise of compressor and the potential for warfare is also discussed.
AI: Summary ©
This month around 260 something years ago, an
incident occurred in world history that changed the
course of global history and it is very
likely that that incident was caused by the
dua of one Muslim lady that was returning
from hajj.
So let us discuss that story and in
the process learn some world history that is
inshallah of relevance even today.
I'm talking about the Portuguese empire.
Much can be said.
When we think of colonization, when we think
of western lands invading Muslim lands, we think
of England and France as being the most,
if you like, evil empires.
But the fact of the matter is that
before them the Portuguese empire preceded them and
they were the worst out of all of
the colonizers and yet we don't hear much
about them.
Today you'll find out why.
Why don't we hear much about the Portuguese
empire?
If you remember a little bit of your
global history, it was in fact the Portuguese
who first discovered the route to the Muslim
lands and to the far east.
Remember Vasco de Gama, right?
He was the one who first learned how
to cross from Europe.
You know they were searching all the time.
Columbus got lost, ended up here.
It was Vasco de Gama from Portugal who
eventually made his way across South Africa and
made his way back to India.
And on the way he met many Muslims
as well in Mozambique and Mombasa and other
places in Oman.
And so he's meeting the Muslim world, he
meets the Indian land and then the trade
begins.
Long story, I'm not going to go into
all of that.
But one thing you should know is that
the Portuguese started western colonization and they're the
ones who set up the infrastructure for the
other countries to follow.
And the evils that they did, really all
the other countries pale in comparison to what
they have done.
The Portuguese, of course, they colonized so many
parts of Africa, including the Muslim lands and
sultanates in Mozambique.
In Asia, of course, they colonized parts of
Oman, parts of Yemen.
In India, of course, Goa, as you're aware,
the Indians are aware, Goa is of course,
you know, still there's a Portuguese influence in
Goa.
In South America, Brazil, as you're aware, one
of the things the Portuguese did actually, they're
the ones who set up African slave trading.
All African slave trading, which we think of
as the American phenomenon, who set it up?
Who's the one who began it?
Who's the one who set up the infrastructure?
Who's the one who figured out the mechanism,
who literally marched into Africa and started purchasing
African slaves to export around the world?
That is all the Portuguese.
It is estimated up to five to 10
million people were killed or decimated by the
Portuguese invasions.
And of course, Portugal therefore became the most
powerful empire in its time, the 16th, the
17th century, the Portuguese controlled the spice trade,
the Portuguese had the best ships, they had
the best navies.
What happened to them?
How come we don't hear about them?
Today, we're going to discuss a little bit.
And inshallah, we can assume, but of course,
only Allah knows ilm al ghayb, that in
fact, it was the dhulm that they did
against so many people, especially the Muslims that
brought about their downfall.
I want to mention in particular, one incident
that many people are not aware of.
And yet it demonstrates the cruelty of the
Portuguese.
Remember, Portugal was ruled by Muslims for 250
years, maybe another day, I'll give a khatira
about that.
There's an entire province of Portugal called Algarve,
Algarve.
And to this day, there are many castles
in Portugal, the Arabs built to this day,
many of the cities in Portugal are actually
having an Arabic name.
In fact, in Lisbon itself, there is an
entire neighborhood that is known that the Muslims
lived there until the expulsion.
So Portugal is inherently linked with Islam.
However, by the time the 1490s come, and
they want to expel the Muslims, they have
a hatred against Islam.
They hate the Muslims with a passion.
And so wherever they go, they wanted to
make sure the Muslims especially are subjugated.
And one of the stories which I want
you to think about and reflect and maybe
do your own research on, when they entered
India, and they entered the lands of Goa
and other places, the ruler of Calicut at
the time, the ruler of Calicut, his title
was the Zamorin, the Zamorin, that's the title
of the ruler of Calicut, he was a
Hindu.
The Portuguese Vasco de Gama, this is the
same person that the West admires.
He demanded that the Hindu rulers cut off
the Muslim merchants.
The Muslims and the Hindus, I told you
this many times, there was not that level
of animosity that modern India has.
Muslims and Hindus by and large, they got
along fine.
And the Muslims of India, the Muslims of
Goa and of Calicut were the ones who
would purchase from the owners, from the rulers,
and then export to Yemen, export to Africa.
There was a very strong relationship.
So when Vasco de Gama came, he said,
I'm going to allow you to remain ruler,
but with one condition, you have to get
rid of the Muslims of your land, expel
the Muslims of your land.
And the Hindu rulers said, no, these are
our allies, they have fought with us, they
have lived with us, I'm not going to
expel the Muslims.
And they mistreated the Vasco de Gama's emissaries,
they didn't like him, they kicked him out,
they didn't realize the power of the Portuguese
is all brand new.
This is still the same Vasco de Gama,
we're not talking about generations from the same
person whom the West admires.
Listen to what happened.
The same guy, Vasco de Gama, wanted to
now send a message, you're going to mess
with me, you're not going to follow my
rules to expel the Muslims, I'm going to
show you.
So on the way back from Hajj, there
was a ship of Hujjaj coming, 450 Hujjaj.
The name of the ship is called Miri,
it's a famous incident that happened, you can
look this up.
In English they say Mirin, but in Arabic
it's called Miri.
450 Hujjaj, including women and children.
And these are complete innocent civilians, have nothing
to do with what is going on in
the land.
They're doing Hajj, they've come back.
Vasco de Gama gives the command to surround
the ship, and cut off all supplies, even
though the land is right there, they're on
the way back.
Cut off all supplies, and start slowly massacring
the people with bows and arrows, and guns,
and the cannons.
Of course, as you know, the Portuguese had
the weapons that nobody else had.
The rise of Europe is primarily because of
military strength, and because of the naval force.
And the Hujjaj took a while for them
to figure out what's going on.
Four, five days went by, and one by
one, the massacre continued, and the Hujjaj began
negotiating, we'll give you all of our gold,
we'll give you everything.
And Vasco de Gama refused to accept any
conditions.
There is a chronicler from the ship of
Vasco de Gama, who chronicled in Portuguese, exactly
what happened, that is available in English, you
can read an eyewitness account.
Even though they hated the Muslims, this chronicler,
he himself said that this was a pitiful
sight.
What he saw, even his heart melted.
Vasco de Gama did not even bat an
eyelid, and he gave the command to burn
the ship when the people were alive on
it, after the fourth, fifth day.
And the chronicler himself said, the women, the
Hujjaj ladies picked up the baby saying, we
have babies here, at least save the babies,
at least that.
No, nothing.
You can imagine the la'na and the
dua and everything that those ladies gave, those
women, those mothers gave.
450 Hujjaj were massacred down to babies by
none other than Vasco de Gama.
Why?
How dare you don't listen to my condition
to expel the Muslims?
And then of course, the rampage began on
the land in India itself, Calicut in Goa,
as you're aware, if you know your history,
and then the Portuguese went to all over
the world, they went to Macau, they went
to China, they established trading ports in China,
they began forcing Christianity on the people.
That's why there's pockets of Catholics around the
world.
How did that happen?
The Portuguese, by the way, even Muslims in
Goa, they destroyed masjids, of course, Hindu temples,
lots of them, even masjids at gunpoint, they
forced people to convert, and they entered what
is now Malaysia, there was a sultan there,
the Sultan of Malacca, the Sultan of Malacca,
they invaded, it's now called Malaysia, one of
those islands, they invaded that sultan, forced him
as well to, you know, get rid of
his empire, handed it over to them.
They caused fitna and fasad everywhere they went.
What happened?
SubhanAllah, one incident occurred that changed the course
of history, and I say this because even
though we don't bank on miracles, we don't,
you know, we cannot expect miracles to happen,
but still, we should learn from history, and
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes dhulm into
account, and even if we cannot stop dhulm
physically, pause here, I'm not saying we shouldn't
stop dhulm physically, I'm not saying we become
pacifist or whatnot, have to always be careful,
people jump at every ambiguous phrase and read
in everything I say, I'm not saying we
become apolitical, but I'm saying sometimes people cannot
fight oppression, but Allah will fight it directly,
and Allah will intervene in ways we never
could imagine and expect.
What happened to the Portuguese empire such that
nobody remembers the glory of Portugal, nobody remembers
the power, their naval fleet was second to
none, no England, no France, nothing could compete
with the Portuguese, they built the fastest and
the biggest ships, they had the mightiest empire,
their capital, Lisbon, it was the most prestigious
capital in the 16th century, London could not
compete with Lisbon, Lisbon was the darling of
Europe, why?
Because obviously, they have invaded all these Muslim,
and also, you know, not just Muslim, but
you know, all lands as well, by the
way, I gave a khatira last year about
the Muslim revolt in Brazil, that was against
the Portuguese, the way they treated the Muslims,
because remember, when we talk about slaves, remember,
20-30% were Muslim slaves, and not
that any, just because they're not doesn't make
it right, of course, everything is wrong, but
20-30% are Muslims, and I gave
a khatira right here, you can look it
up, the Muslim slave revolt of Brazil, it
was against whom?
Against the Portuguese, against the same Portuguese, what
happened, subhanAllah, in this month, November of 1755,
in this month of 1755, to be more
precise, the first of November, and without a
doubt, again, we cannot categorically state that Allah
is doing this as a result of that,
only Allah knows, but still, we look at
the outer reality, and every indication, and this
is not just me speaking, even the Catholic
priests at the time, even they believe that
this is God's punishment against us, it is
recorded on record, Catholic priests said this, why?
How?
First and foremost, well, what happened?
The most devastating earthquake Europe has ever seen
in its history, and it happened on the
first of November, 1755, which is one of
the most important Catholic festivals, and it happened
at 10-30 in the morning, when the
entire city, because you know, it's a very
Catholic country, it's a very religious country, was
in the churches, they were worshipping, and that
day, it is called All Saints Day, it
is the custom, and to this day it
happens, that you light candles, and you leave
them burning for the saints, and on that
day, some things happened that literally changed the
course of history, as the people are in
their churches, the city is empty, everybody's in
the church, the earthquake occurred, today scientists estimate
it measured 9 on the Richter scale, if
you know your Richter scale, this is beyond
the charts, this is absolutely almost unprecedented, it
measured 9 on the Richter scale, this is
something that is super rare in human history,
and as the earthquake occurs, and the buildings
collapse, the people don't know what's happening obviously,
tens of thousands die, they run into the
streets trying to be saved, and they didn't
realize, how are they going to know this,
the earthquake wasn't really an earthquake, it was
a tsunami actually, it was a tsunami, and
so as they run into the streets, within
45 minutes, waves come 10, 20, 30 feet
high, so after the earthquake, they're already, the
buildings are gone, now the waves come from
the ocean, and Lisbon is destroyed completely, 20
feet high, out of the whole world, and
if you look at it, Lisbon has never
had an earthquake or a tsunami, it's never
had, and then to top it off, and
this is all of course Allah's Qadr, it
was the 1st of November, all the houses
have candles everywhere, so as soon as that
finishes, the whole earth is shaking, everything happens,
the candles are falling, of course it's 1755,
all houses are built with wood, and so
Lisbon burns non-stop for 3 weeks, burns
to the ground, 80% of Lisbon is
completely destroyed, you can look this up on
any encyclopedia, the great earthquake or the great
tsunami of Lisbon, 1755, in one day, in
one day, earthquake, tsunami, and fire, destroys the
entire city, literally the entire city is gone,
it is estimated, 30% or 40%
of the city died, tens of thousands, I
don't know what the exact number, tens of
thousands of people died, the entire city collapsed,
the king went mad for the rest of
his life, the king could not sleep in
a house, he would sleep in the tent
in the street, he couldn't sleep in the
house, the people started wondering what is going
on, the priests began saying this is God's
punishment against us because of what we're doing,
even the priests began saying this is God's
punishment, the people were shocked, how could on
the holiest of holy days, during this church
time, literally on the 1st of November, while
we're in church, all of this happens, this
is a sign from God that we are
doing something wrong, and of course this 1755
tragedy, it was the beginning of the end
of the Portuguese empire, that said they could
not recover one incident, one incident, it sent
them into a type of shell shock that
literally they could not recover after this, and
after this, England and other countries began the
rise, and Portugal began the descent because of
one simple tragedy that Allah Subhanahu wa ta
'ala had willed, and of course we cannot
definitively state that this incident led to that,
only Allah knows, but without a doubt, we
do state definitively, Allah says in the Qur
'an that, فَكُلًّا أَخَذْنَا بِذَنْبِهِ every single person,
we took him according to his sins, we
dealt with him according to his sins, فَمِنْهُمْ
مَنْ أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِ حَاصِبَةٌ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ خَسَفْنَا بِهِ
الْأَرْضَ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ أَخَذَتُ الصَّيْحَةُ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ خَسَفْنَا
بِالْأَرْضَ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ أَغْرَخْنَا literally Allah is saying,
some people we sent an earthquake, some people
we caused the earth to swallow them, some
people we sent the tidal waves, some people
we sent, you know, a loud noise against
them.
Of course, Allah is talking about people in
the past, but we take an Ibra from
this verse, and that is فَكُلًّا أَخَذْنَا بِذَنْبِهِ
We believe that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
never allows injustice to flourish.
And even if we cannot stop it, we
should try to stop it, even if we
cannot stop it, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
will himself intervene.
So when we see what is going on,
when we see the reality of dhulm, do
not lose hope in Allah.
True, we don't plan miracles, we leave it
to Allah, but we have yaqeen that no
empire that unjustly kills, that decimates, that murders
and massacres millions of people around the globe.
We're making dua against this nation and country,
and subhanAllah, within one day the entire empire
collapsed.
And this is not ancient history, this is,
we have eyewitness accounts, we have so many
aspects that happened.
By the way, footnote here, that this incident
triggered many issues that are not relevant to
us, of them, they say, scientists, researchers say,
well scientists say, this was the beginning of
scientism, this was the beginning of people studying
seismology, studying earthquakes and whatnot, the whole discipline
began from Lisbon.
Also by the way, architecture, how to build
structures that are gonna be resistant, this began
over there as well.
Also what is interesting for us, the rise
of atheism and the rejection of Christianity.
Because the iman of these folks is so
weak, when one tragedy happens, the response was,
this country, this nation started losing Christianity.
How could God send this down on the
day of the church?
And it literally caused a shift, and as
you now know, those lands are very secular,
and they say this was the main catalyst
that started the rise of secularism and agnosticism.
But for us as Muslims, wanted to teach
you world history, and of that world history,
is that even though we don't plan for
it, we put our trust in Allah, and
we know for certain that Allah, one of
the chroniclers, he wrote down, he wrote down,
it is as if God sent every force
of nature against us on that day.
It is as if we had no friends
and allies.
The wind, the fire, the air, the ocean,
everything turned against us.
This is what the eyewitness said.
And of course, this is Allah azza wa
jal, demonstrating His quwa.
When Allah sends His armies against the dhalim
nation, there is no one that can possibly
stand up.
So we put our trust in Allah, we
make dua to Allah, we ask Allah that
we stop the dhulm that we see, but
we also trust in case we cannot stop
it.
Allah azza wa jal would never allow dhulm
to flourish.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless our
brothers and sisters who are being persecuted, and
allow us to see victory, either at our
hands or directly from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And inshallah with that, I will see you
in two weeks.
I'm traveling, I'll come back inshallah in two
weeks inshallah wa ta'ala.
Oh, my humiliation, oh, my shame, when my
Lord says to me, Are you not ashamed
to disobey me?
And do not fear My punishment, and do
not incite My anger and You will not
find My distress.
Oh, my humiliation, oh, my shame, when my
Lord says to me Are you not ashamed
to disobey Me?
And do not fear My punishment,