Yasir Qadhi – The Brutal Legacy Of The Portuguese Empire From Colonization To Catastrophe
AI: Summary ©
The European history of the Portuguese is discussed, including the Portuguese's reliance on Muslims, strict religion rule, and the rise of Islam in the Middle East. Theics cause devastation in Lisbon, including destroyed buildings and destroyed houses, causing people to die and collapse buildings. Theics cause events like earthquake in Lisbon, causing the whole city to shake, and causing people to run into the streets trying to be saved.
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 into 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 that 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 5 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, Algarve, Algarve.
And to this day, there are many castles
in Portugal that 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 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.
No, 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 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 or 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 and 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 pacifists or whatnot.
We have to always be careful.
People jump at every ambiguous phrase and reading
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
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, in this month, November of 1755.
In this month of 1755, to be more
precise, the 1st 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 1st 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 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, 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 1 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 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
middle of 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, you know, definitively
state that this incident led to that.
Only Allah knows.
But without a doubt, we do state definitively,
Allah says in the Quran that every single
person, we took him according to his sins.
We dealt with him according to his sins.
Literally Allah 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's talking about people in the
past, but we take an Ibra from this
verse.
And that is, 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 zulm, 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 or 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 going to 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 will 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.