The Life and Legacy of Imam Shamil

Tip number seven

don't dunya

so inshallah we'll move straight on to the program and what are the sisters inshallah we want to go straight on to the next part of program was where we have the main line topic of Imam shaving your mama Sherman and Douglas stone goes hand in hand and depositors who may not know about you ma'am, show me inshallah we will be enlightened by a chef. But just to introduce yourself I know he means interrupting me, you're not gonna hate me

right? People need to know more they know about CFCs need to know more. So they can benefit from

them was not introduced and I cannot be introduced either. You can mention you can mention that. I am a scuba diver, and I like ice cream. And I'm a

father of four teenagers so you can mention all of this. Okay, inshallah

I I can say that he is one of our greatest scholars in the West Mashallah. mission? Well, we have to be honest, here are we have to be it's not false modesty, our Western Muslim should know that all of us are really nothing compared to our teachers. But because Allah has tested us with language that our teachers do not have. And because we have to multitask, you know, our teachers, they have the luxury of specialization, right? There's You know, you're gonna you can be a 40 and don't need to know anything about Hadeeth back there and you could be on your head and not know anything about those. But because of our occupation, we have to do everything. So we are the way they've been in

many disciplines and we are not actual Messiah Can anyone at least I speak for myself, you know, I know she'll hide them is of course since yassa. He is initiative and colorful cool.

Yeah, I know. Honestly, yeah. Annie honestly, why she acid is Jani, one of the most knowledgeable people in the West and Al Hamdulillah. Yeah, and you can hear his lectures it is not a testimony from myself but listen to his lectures and you can see the amount of L Mashallah that is there. And he takes Mashallah every subject seriously.

I remember a number of times, I wanted just to listen to maybe one or two minutes

to to what he said about something two minutes, and I cannot resist but I continue listening to the entire lecture. And then after that, I say I

like you force me to be with you for that. Okay, one time I remember your interview, one of your interviews, for I think 90 minutes, I could not resist but listen to it all. You are benefiting from your from We ask Allah, Allah Allah if lost all of us.

And they always benefit from his presence. If so, we must pray.

Together we strengthen each other in

order to welcome chef ARCA.

Obviously very what was very special, you know, when this program was set in Dagestan and really

grateful to my son, Mohammed mendini he is really happy to support this type of programming initiatives. And you know, that a lot I was going through some of my old video clips and there was one clip I always knew I hated somewhere and that was my meeting with Chef Yasser in front of Alexa. And it was

like I found it in really unbelievable always had that in mind what happened to that video club and that was very special meeting. You know, we know part of the benefit of travel is Chef SME explained was, we are meeting cprc right in front of Jamia Morel Kibale very touching moment. And that is why just like how Allah tala has made it possible that we meet in that location that place in our law firms will AXA Allah unite us all again. I mean, that we'll never know we might go on a very special journey. May we have the likes of you, great, Allah man scholarship. May Allah continue. inshallah we will organize something like

and I pass it on to cepheus Allah

Jalla so smilla Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam O Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi one What am I

It is humbling to speak in the presence of our giants in Russia. And inshallah, the goal is really to benefit from from each other and to benefit all of you very briefly because again, this is so much that can be done here. Mr. Sharma is a name that is almost a household name amongst many, many Muslims. However, we might have heard of his name, but we haven't really or many of us haven't really studied his life and times. And in this brief lecture, just 2025 minutes, inshallah, I wanted to just highlight some of the main things that we can benefit from. Mm hmm his life and one of the things that I think is very pertinent, is that a mama Sherman, a mom, Sherman is not somebody that

is 1000 years ago, he is in fact, a part of modernity, this is colonization, the Russians are colonizing his lands, right? So we're talking about, you know, 150 200 years ago, it's not like we're talking about 1000 years ago. And so we're talking about a timeframe that is really connected with our own, it's not the ancient past. And of course, emem shamet comes from a region that we've already been exposed to that istan, which is really a part of the the whole cause or the Caucasus Mountains, and the kolkhoz region, it used to be ruled by the assassinate the Persians, before the coming of Islam, and in the time of the Allahu, and that's when the expansions began. So Islam was

introduced to this region in the time of the Buddha or Russia. But of course, this region has always had strong ties with the oma. In fact, this region has always been known for its fierce warriors for its class of fighters. And that is why the caucus region was one of the main regions where the school bonds and the whole effort would import, you know, special militias from the Saudis, the janissaries are called an English right, they used to come from this, this region as well. And many of them formed the private guards of the Saltine. And of the, the the whole family. And in fact, many of the, the mothers of our whole of our of their buses, and especially of the Ottomans, they

came from this region, as well. And so this region has had strong ties with the oma for the last 14 centuries. The majority of people of this town are Muslim, around 85% are Muslim, and they are basically Sunni Muslim as well. But there's a small percentage of Christians and some other faith traditions as well. And pre modernity before the Russian expansion, that the Stan had been nominally under the rule of Iran at the seventh century. But the Russians have had their eyes on this region for many centuries. In fact, from the time of Ivan, the greater Ivan the Terrible he's called, that was the first time of the 15th century where they the the Russians began their expansions into other

territories. But it was during the time of Catherine the Great in the 18th century, where the actual expansionist streak began. And at this time, also, Islam was a majority, it wasn't a strong majority. So we're going back to the 1700s. Now before Mmm, Sharman, what were Catherine the Great was the first actual leader to invade Afghanistan and this provoked the Muslims to counter this, this aggression. And the first major figure of that region by the name of chef mon Sol Sharma, Chef mon Suraj Sharma, who died 1794 he was the first person to stand up and to organize a jihad against the Russians. And he too was an urban the scholar who gathered together a militia and he defended

his lands from Catherine the Great and Chef Mansoor is well respected to this day in the land of darkness than he is considered to be in one of the main icons, you know, of that of that region. Interesting story with Chef mon Sol is that his Dharma to fight against Catherine the Great actually was a cause of many people embracing Islam, because at the time, there were many non Muslim, the pagans, the Animus, you know, the ancient religions, they were still there. And he said that if they wanted victory against Katherine, and he was the main political force that was defending his own town, he converted the people by telling them if they wanted victory from Allah, they had to convert

to Islam. They had to stop their evil ways that there were many drunkards, they were drinking and evil habits and whatnot. And he said that only if they convert to Islam, and they live a good lifestyle that Allah subhanho wa Taala will give them a victory. So in fact, Islam spread as a result of anti colonization as a result of opposing Catherine the Great and Imam, his name is schekman suit here, and Chef Massoud is like in the same lineage of Imam Shamil, meaning the same, the same groups of people the same mentors if you like that eventually become a monk shambles type of people. So that type of of combining a fierce affiliation with the

Islam along with anti colonial Jihad efforts, this is something that Douglaston is known for. Eventually, Chef mon Sol was in fact, captured and sentenced to life in prison in St. Petersburg in Russia. This invasion was then followed by the main invasion that we're interested in. And this is called the, the the cause wars, the Caucasian wars, from 1817 to 1860, for around 50 years to two generations, almost a generation and a half of constant attempts by Russia to conquer this entire region, Dallas, Stan and Chechnya and all of these regions. And eventually, I mean, of course, as we all know, eventually Russia did succeed in annexing this entire region, and then making it part of

the Federation. By the way, some of the greatest most horrible massacre is not greatest, and that's and meaning larger. So I should say, some of the largest massacres of the of the 19th century took place at the hands of the Russians, with our destiny, brother in our brothers and sisters, a lot of times, we don't even know this type of stuff. It is estimated, by the way that over a million and a half people lost their lives. 1.5 million people lost their lives in this brutal Russian invasion against the eldest son and also attaching to this entire region that was done in Chechnya, of course, in the same region. By the way, for those of you that are into arts and literature, the most

famous Russian novelist of human history, Leo Tolstoy, the famous Tolstoy, Tolstoy, as a young man participated in these invasions, Tolstoy wrote a number of books. In fact, his most famous book, if you should all know, war and peace, you all know Tolstoy's war and peace, Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace is based upon his experiences, fighting with the dustan Muslims. And so that that is just an interesting tangent over here. Also, by the way, you know, the famous Winter Olympics of 20, of sorry, of 2014 2014 took place in in Sochi, right, that Winter Olympics that took place in Sochi, which is in Dallas, Stan, that that the stadium of the Winter Olympics was built on one of the

largest mass graveyards of Muslims as a result of that massacre. Okay, so the associated massacre, it's called, which took place in the 1830, something or so one of the largest massacres of that invasion. So the Olympic Stadium that took place in 2014, the Winter Olympics, it was built on that mass graveyard, as we said, Remember, 1.5 million people died. This is setting up the stage for what we're talking about Imam Shamil here, Imam Shamil is one of the main figures that is standing up and defending his people against this Russian invasion, and Imam Sherman followed the footsteps of the earlier movements, as we said Sherman, Saud and others. He's following their, their efforts, and

he's reviving, and he's building from what they have done. We don't know that much details about him of shamas Early life because again, I mean, when he was born, nobody knew what would happen to him. It went later on, but we know that he was born in 1797. So around 1800 or so around 200 years ago, to a relatively wealthy family, his father was a landlord on lots of lands. And this allowed him to send His Son to the best education, and he trained his son in the best madrasahs of the time. And so Imam Shamil grew up in a very spiritual tradition going to the mother says learning the Quran. Also, he became friends with another major figure, who was to become the first, if you like a meal of the

Jihad movement against against the Russians, and that is Ghazi moolah. His name is Raja Mola, Razi, Mohammed both of them there. So allows him Allah and Imam Sharman were childhood friends, and they grew up together. And the mom Shannon was a young man, barely 19 years old when the Russians invaded. And so he is seeing firsthand and this is under Catherine right. So Catherine the Great in her timeframe, this is the second invasion that is taking place, and it is the one that is going to be eventually annexing this region. So in 1817, the Russians invade, did and Imam Shama is, of course, you know, barely a 19 years old at this time, and he sees firsthand the destruction, the

mayhem, the havoc that is that is being caused. Unfortunately, the pledgor dynasty of Iran basically did nothing even though nominally nominally, that dynasty was responsible. And then of course, the Ottomans will pond was eventually responsible, but they did not intervene. And so what did the Muslims of the kolkhoz region do? They decided to band together and fight their own battle, nobody else is going to help them. And so believe it or not, this is something that is very interesting. They formed their independent Emirate. This is called the Emirate of the old cars or the old cars right? This is a separate question.

political entity that lasted for over 30 years. They formed, if you like a new country or a new kingdom or a new Emirate, and the goal of this Emirate was to protect the Muslims against the invasion of the of the Russians. This is an independent stronghold, not following the images or anybody else, because nobody's helping them. And so if nobody's helping them, they need to just band together, and Mr. mahasi, and Imam Shamil were the two main founders of this independent Emirate. And they set about uniting the various tribes Now, again, don't want to get too technical here. But these regions, the other Stan and Chicha, and whatnot, they're actually composed of many different

minor, different ethnic ethnic groups and tribes. It's not just one united group, and there's over 15 different ethnic groups and tribes in this region. And obviously, as you know, there's always politics between various groups of people. So Imam Shamil in a kamikaze began uniting these tribes under the banner of Islam. They persuaded them to give up their tribalism, their sectarianism, their differences between them, and they, those that were not Muslims, they invited them to Islam, the majority were Muslim, as we said. And also, another point here is that a lot of these tribes were far from the religion, and many of them had replaced the *ty out with their own laws. They called

it a dot, dot, dot means our customs, our culture, they had their entire way of life. They called it a dot, and Amanda Sherman, and the mom shamit Mm hmm z, they persuaded them to give up their audit and to embrace the shediac. For example, one of the things is that the drinking of alcohol was rampant in those cultures, they considered it normal. It's nothing to be embarrassed about. Many of the major vices that we now know, we know from the share industry, our devices, they didn't view them as being problematic. They also did not do many of the things of Islam. So Mr. mahasi, and Imam Shamil, the both of them, they began seeing that, just like before them, as we already mentioned,

you know, Chef Massoud and others before them, they began preaching that if they wanted to fight against the Russians, they would have to firstly unite. And secondly, follow the teachings of Islam. And this is a key point brothers and sisters, they had a double agenda, both of them combined together, number one, to purify the Muslims from within to make them observant Muslims to make them pray fast, give up their shut off their alcohol, give up their gambling was another major advice over there. And then number two, to unite to fight against the Russian invasion. And so they weren't successful in that endeavor. And many tribes gathered together and as I said, they found that the,

the immortal kolkhoz, or the the call of the caucus, if you like Emirates, and they began defending their homelands and attacking the Russian troops and the Russian fortresses and the Russian convoys. Of course, they had to employ what is called guerrilla tactics because minority wise I mean, their numbers are nothing compared to the Russian army and their and their weaponry is, of course substandard. So what do you do when a smaller group of people that doesn't have the weaponry has to defend themselves, they have to employ what is called guerrilla warfare tactics. And of course, there's a whiff of the early seerah. We find it over here as well. They made their capital in

Liberty, which is a major city in Dallas San, which is where Mr. shamble was from, and the Russians decided that they needed to eliminate this this Emirate. So in 1832, in 1832, the Russians sent a massive force straight to him. And they surprise attacked him, I'm shamon in his own city and affinity, and they, it was one of the most devastating battles of the entire timeframe. And in fact, sadly, it is said that the Muslims of liberty, pretty much all of them were massacred, except for two people. And when the Russians entered the city, this is by the way, this story that I'm about to tell you was printed in European newspapers at the timeframe, Russian soldiers recorded it, and they

they reported it to their superiors, and European newspapers, mentioned the story that when the Russians entered the city in the dark of the night, and they found the city quiet and dead, they thought everybody had died. All of a sudden, this massive figure appears silhouetted in the door. It's literally like coming out of a movie scenario, and the Russians stood there in shock. And the figure the Russian soldier says, he leaped over the entire line of Russian soldiers and turned around and slaughtered three in one blow in one blow over the left hand. He slaughtered three Russians and the fourth Russian, charged towards this shadowy figure and plunged a bayonet into his

body. And then unbelievably and I again, I read the article myself, just to be sure that it's actually there. The Russian soldier said that he pulled the bayonet out of his own body. This is like you see this in Hollywood or something. He pulled the bayonet out and he then struck a blow

Kill this last soldier, the fourth soldier and then he turned around and he jumped over the city wall with one leap he jumped over the city wall and basically went into the night. That was Imam Shamil.

Unfortunately, Ghazi a mammal has he died in this battle. So the leader dial Ozzy was the one that was in charge in charge. They found his body by the way, the Russians that is it as a tenant coming into the city, they found a lousy Mohammed they found him sitting on his prayer rug, bloodied, bloodied and wounded obviously, he must have been, you know, wounded very severely. And so he rushed to his prayer rug, and he died sitting there doing his Vicar in front of Allah subhana wa Taala. And they say that his head was pointed, you know, upwards like in his in a weird way, that's not possible for a typical corpse, but his head was looking up, and he's sitting in a vicar position on

his prayer rug, that's how the Russians found him. And this battle was a turning point for him. I'm shaman, because obviously, with the death of Ozzy Mohammed, with the death of the main, you know, leader, so then eventually Imam Shamil is grudgingly he didn't want to, but he's handed over the leadership of the Jihad and of the resistance and of the kolkhoz Emirates, right. So he regroups he makes a capital elsewhere. And he then takes on this responsibility, and it was under his leadership that the emirate reaches its actual Zenit at its peak point in time. The whole cause Emirates included all of the other stuff on and modern Chechnya and even some neighboring provinces and Imam

Shamil ruled for 27 years, 27 years he ruled, you know, after that incident, and he became a great source of irritation for the Russians. However, in the end of the day, the Russian forces the Russian military, you know, the strength of the Russian army, obviously, how long can you continue to fight such a battle, he he kept on getting, you know, defeated in small skirmishes, you have to run from place to place. And during this timeframe, by the way, a lot of amazing stories are mentioned about Imam Shamil and about his people. I mean, there are legends that are said here. And these legends, obviously, they're there, they're passed from person to person. And, you know,

perhaps there's a bit of an exaggeration, Allah knows best. But the point is the concept and the perception that people had of this timeframe is truly amazing. It is said that during this timeframe, so Imam Shamil gave a decree that anybody who drinks is going to be lashed, you know, the punishment of the shediac is going to be a whipped, okay, because this was a problem of drinking. And so an impetuous man who knew him Shama from his youth and childhood, he said that, you know, why are you telling us this, you yourself, used to drink, you know, as a young man, and your brother as well was a drunkard. Okay? So again, maybe this was true in the back, you know, before that, before,

you know, the Russians invaded or whatever, maybe everybody is doing that back then. And so he's kind of like, you know, riling him up. And so Mr. Sherman called his brother, and himself administered the punishment on his brother. And then he handed the whip to his brother, and then said, you punish me for my previous sin of drinking. And so he was lashed in front of the entire troops. And then of course, the troops understood that, hey, you know, we cannot, you know, we cannot continue this way. There's another story that's also narrated this even more Subhanallah moving and emotional and it's really amazing. Again, these are all these are all legends that are

passed down, and there's probably a kernel of truth to it, or maybe even it's actually true, we do not know that it is said that during one of these seizures, and one of these, you know, difficult timeframes, that murmuring began amongst his troops that we should just surrender, we should just surrender and, you know, give our luck to the to the Russians, at least we shall survive. So Imam Sharman made a decree that anybody you know, who is going to be talking of surrendering, that he's going to be lashed 100 times, okay, anybody who's murmuring of surrendering is going to be lashed 100 times. And then it turns out that his own mother might also have been talking about surrendering

and whatnot. And so his mother was brought in front of him, they say she's the one that's also encouraging people to surrender maybe for their betterment of their lives or whatnot, are you going to implement this head or not, and so not head, but it should be Thursday. So he brought his mother in public, and he brought the the one that's going to do the whipping and to show the people so he ordered the person to lift the whip up, but instead of his mother being whipped, he jumped in between his mother and the whip, and he insisted that he would take the whip of his mother he would be whipped on behalf of his mother, and he told the one who's whipping that I swear to you by Allah,

if you don't whip the way you're supposed to I will kill you don't be soft do it the way you're supposed to. And so he took on the the blame or the what not, and the soldiers after that there was no murmuring of you know, giving up or of surrendering here and again, all of this is very these stories really demonstrate the legend that is Imam Sharman.

It is awesome. And again, this is like a 30 year timeframe. Lots of little stories mentioned here. It is mentioned that by the Russians that once they attacked a small town, and they thought there may be maybe be only a few 100 men over there, and they were shocked to discover that every single man, woman and even child, they had pledged to fight until death. And they were shocked to discover even young boys and young girls and women were armed and they were fighting to death until they were forced to withdraw with daggers with homemade instruments to defend the town. So this timeframe is a timeframe where we hear the legends of the the bravery of Palestine and of the people of Palestine

and the phone calls and the Muslims, men, women and children to defend their their lives and their honor against the Russian invasion. And during this timeframe, Imam Shamil really became legendary even amongst the Russians, just like Salahuddin Allah UB, so many years centuries ago, also became legendary amongst the Frankish. Crusaders, just like sliding up was respected by Richard the Lionheart of England, he was respected as an adversary so to Imam Shamil became respected and also feared that people loved him and hated him. At the same time, I mean, the Russians, that they loved him as an enemy, that as a noble enemy, they admired who he was, and they also feared him because of

the ferocity and because of obviously, the success of his of his campaigns against the Russians. And in fact, very interesting footnote here. A number of prominent Russians actually defected from their army and they converted to Islam and they joined among shamas movements, most famous amongst them. If somebody we have his name as Hajji moron. That's all we know, Hajji mode, that he was a lieutenant or maybe a colonel in the Russian army. And he defected, and he embraced Islam. And he became one of the main lieutenants of the shaman. And this was one of the main causes as well of basically because he knew the tactics, he knew what's going on. So he became basically a renegade

from the Russians and a great ally for the Muslims. Allah has honored Islam, you know, by his conversion, and a lot of head came from his conversion, and his conversion really hurts the Russians. And again, going back to Leo Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy, again to all of you should know Leo Tolstoy is the famous Russian intellectual and author and historian. I mean, Tolstoy is the most famous Russian intellectual period, right? There's nobody more famous than Tolstoy, Tolstoy participated in these battles against him. I'm Sherman as a younger as a younger person. And Leo Tolstoy actually writes another booklet, he has an entire novel about Haji Murat, right. He has an

entire novel dedicated to the basically romanticizing the story, which is published and you can find it in English, as well. So Mr. Sherman, as we said, proved to be a very big nuisance for the Russians that he impeded the Russian progress. But in the end of the day, you know, I mean, the Russians really were superior, technologically, they had more people and more manpower. How long can you continue to to fight? So before I conclude, by the way, one more interesting incident, very long story, but brief one minute summary that in a particular instance, a mom shamble, his sons were also fighting with him in a particular instance, the Russians, they, they promised a type of

a type of amnesty to one of his sons by the name of jamala. Dean, if he were to surrender and do this and that they would do, you know, protect him and whatnot. And so when he gave him that surrender the son cimetidine, they, the Russians broke their promise and they took him as a prisoner, and they marched him to St. Petersburg, okay. And they demanded that Imam shamas surrender because they now had his son hostage, okay. They broke their word. They completely double stabbed and were treacherous. And they took him shamas main son, who was the senior most and fighting Jihad and whatnot. They took him as a as a prisoner and held him hostage. What did your mom Shambo do?

Imam Sharman invaded one of the main, you know, cities of Russia. And he captured two of the princesses of the Czar's family. And he held them hostage along with their entourage. And he demanded an exchange you know, these two daughters for that one son of mine, right maybe the shed that can either have their own thing but he took these two princesses and he demanded that you know, we're going to do a transfer and a swap over and so the Russians acquiesced and they sent you know, Gemma Dean back and he sent to the the two princesses back interestingly enough, in the

in the the the princess his entourage there was a French lady who was there you know that what do you call the governess? Right that that takes care of them teaches them right. So she was also captured. And she then went back to France and she wrote a book that she wrote her eyewitness experiences about being with a mom shaman and that was printed is still available in France in French and she

praised the chivalry of Imam Shamil, the strictness of how they were protected. Nobody harmed them, nobody did anything, you know, to, to to irritate or whatnot. Yes, he was very, you know, harsh and strict with everybody. But with these women, he made sure that they were protected, their honor was protected, and that they were then sent back and not mistreated. So this lady writes her entire, you know, I haven't read it, it's in French. But I mean, I've heard that it's there. And so you can read the her own y witness account. Now, again, so much can be said. But as I said, in the end of the day, the Russians were, of course, stronger militarily, you can't really, you know, I mean, no

matter how much you have any, eventually the Russians are gonna, you know, overcome you. And so after decades of war for almost three decades, and by the way, the Russian tactics were brutal massacres, wherever they went, as we said, 1.5 million people, one of the things also they had a policy. So Mr. Chamberlain, his group is, of course, they're there, they're well accustomed to living in the mountains and amongst the forests. So the Russians began chopping down the trees wherever they want to have no cover for the for the Muslims. And that was a brutal tactic. Because you know, when you chop down the trees, you destroy nature, you destroy farmland, you destroy. And

so they kept on doing this for decades and decades, it really proved to be very, very brutal, and again, to be to be a sad reality, Subhanallah this 30 Years War, and I have to say, this will lie, it hurts to say not to single Muslim power outside, help them, not the Ottomans, not the Badgers, nobody did anything that nobody sent any aid to help the Muslims of this region. And so what's going to happen for how long can they, you know, continue, and eventually, the Imam Shamil was forced to negotiate a surrender for at least allowing the rest of the people to live and not be massacred. And so, after all of these years, you felt that, you know, really, that Allah knows best is any What are

you going to say at this stage? And I mean, maybe it is best to allow the people to live and not just to be killed to the last person. And so in 1859, look at how many years have gone by an 1859. He willingly surrenders and negotiates a peace treaty for the rest of his people. And as a part of the surrender, he has to obviously go under arrest and whatnot. So he is taken to St. Petersburg in Russia, where the Tsar himself insists on meeting Imam Shamil, can you believe like the leader of the Russians, the Royal the king of the Russians desire, he is called right. He wants to meet you, Madam Chairman. Can you believe that's the honor that he already has heard of him on Shabbat, he, he

wants to meet him, and after he meets Imam Shamil, of course, he has to be arrested, but he gives him basically an apartment, not the prison, and he gives him a stipend, and he gives many conditions, but he allows him to live under house arrest. Okay, so as an honor to him, I'm Sherman. He's not executed, and he's not sent to the main prison. He's actually given a house arrest, you know, in St. Petersburg is not allowed to go back to the list. And so he has to remain over there. And for 10 years, he was treated as a house arrest basically, in St. Petersburg. In 1869. Mr. Sherman asks petitions bizarre that let me do Hajj. Now let me do Hajj, I have not done Hajj here.

And so in 1869, the Tsar granted him permission to do Hajj. And so he began his travel by taking a boat to Istanbul, where the soul bond of the Ottomans the soul, pon the halifa of the Muslims basically wanted to meet him, and he housed him in his own house as

Excuse me, I'm still recovering from a flu By the way, there's not COVID related already. And Charlotte got tested, but it's some I had a flu for the last week. May Allah give Shiva to all of us. I mean, so he housed him for an entire, you know, week or two, the the, the sofa and the halifa and gave him honor and cut them and whatnot. And then he continued onwards to Mecca. in Makkah, he met the great Mujahid an alum and warrior, I'm the auditor at what like how we wish we had some eyewitness or picture or something to great leaders of the timeframe of the auditor does it if you don't know who is the other designer, then we'll let you guys need to study out of the college area

as well. He was the leader of the resistance in the in Algeria against the French right. And here we have Mr. Michel, leader of the resistance against the Russians and the two of them meet in the house of Allah under the shade of the Kaaba will law he would have beautiful religion This is where people like this are united in their emaan in their kenema in the rituals of Hajj. This is what Islam does. So they met over there they embrace one another. I wish we had more information I have not been able to discover much more of their conversation at least seems to be lost here. Nonetheless, they stay together in Mecca for a while they perform the Hajj and then Imam Shamil moves on to Medina as we

should all do after doing Hydras go to go to Medina and Subhanallah You know, he passes away in Medina and He is buried

In bulkier, a lot of code, He is buried in a lot of code, and SubhanAllah. What a beautiful ending. That is, by the way, a sight point here. And that is that while he was in jail in St. Petersburg, he would compose poetry. And it is said, and this is really interesting, I actually looked this up and I confirm this on the other side, you listen to the story, very interesting. It is said that, as you were saying some poem, moving poem about how he misses his homeland, about how he wishes he was back home and whatnot. And he's under a prisoner here, that a rabbi, a Jewish rabbi, was passing under the street. And he heard that poem. And he was so moved, that he wrote the poem down, and then made

a version in his own language. And it was then adopted by a movement of Judaism known as the the the Shabbat, movement, ch, a, ba, D, it is a strand of Orthodox Judaism. And so this was a famous Rabbi that was one of the founders of that movement, he adopted it. And to this day, that poem, that it's not, it wasn't. So again, this is a poem that is based on a mom, shaman, but it is also the rabbi is putting in his own language, his own thing, but that poem is used as a part of the literature of the Jewish orthodox Shabbat movement to this day, it is still recited by the movement in New York, in Brooklyn. Well, you know, the, so the Orthodox they were their capital were not that is part of the

Shabbat movement. So they are the ones who took a poem from him on Shabbat. And they thought it was such a moving point about exile and about loneliness, and about being away from home and family and whatnot. And that became a part of their vernacular that they use to this day. So we now conclude with the seven points of benefits, okay, from this story, and of course, much more, but time is limited. First and foremost of the benefits of your mama Sharma story is that your mom Sherman was a one of a series of great luminaries that came in the same time and frame to do very similar things to protect his people against the onslaught of the of the Russians. And this shows us point number

one, that no person works alone. You need a team, you need a people, you need those around you to help you one person cannot build an empire. Yes, you need a mover and a shaker. But there are people that are involved that are behind the scenes. If you look at Imam shammas life, there are people that go back 100 years that are doing the same thing, and that even continued after him. So Imam Sherman was definitely the most famous and he was definitely the great luminary, but he was not isolated. You need people and you need support, as Imam Shamil had number two. Another point that we learned here is that spiritual victory does not necessarily may be even typically equate to

political victory to be victorious does not mean that you win the physical battle, I believe Imam Sharman won, even though he didn't win politically, I believe him I'm Sherman is a victor, even though he lost politically to the Russians. You see, the point here is that as Muslims, we need to think beyond just beyond just this world as well. Of course, we want political victory, but I'm not trivializing that. And that is why the Prophet system is the Prophet because he has the double victory, the spiritual and the political. But in case I'm saying, in case, we do not achieve the political after trying it, that does not make us failures, that does not mean it was for not on the

contrary, true leadership and true victory is attained by one's manners and craft and one's life, and not just the outer manifestations of the political victory. Suppose the Tsar won the battle. Nobody knows the name of the Tsar. We all know the name of your mom Shama Imam Shama his legacy lives on. And this leaves us to point number three. And that is that just because you don't win the political victory, it doesn't mean the struggle was in vain. No one should think that Imam Shamil wasted 3040 years, you know, fighting the Russians. On the contrary, there are many benefits that came out of it. People embraced Islam. There were people that converted that were non Muslims. The

Islamic spirit was revived amongst the data. Stan is before him. I'm chairman before the jihad, generally speaking there were far from the dean. But this brought them back to Islam. And so we have to look beyond just a political victory just because there was no you know, US Emirates that became permanent, we should not think that those 34 years were in vain, the Islamic Dawa, the movement of Islam, the moving and shaking of my ideas and minds, even if it does not result in political victory, there is much hit and benefit that comes out of it. And just because we don't attain worldly ends, it doesn't mean that we neglect the spiritual ends number four point number four here

is that legends are not born but made in their lifetime. When he mama Shama was born, nobody knew what would happen. Nobody knew what that he would become who you would become, in fact, even Imam Shamil did not want to

He grew, he did not. That's why when Edward was formed, he turned it down. He gave it to his friend because he, he didn't want it. It was necessity that forced it on him. And when it was forced on him what happened, he rose up to the challenge. And he became the greatest leader of the Emirates. Your legacy is what you do with what you have. There are plenty of other people out there. And if you take the the best of your circumstances, and you make the best out of it, that is how leadership is formed. So true leaders and true legacy builders, they're not people that are just born into privilege and rank and fame. They make the best that they can with their destiny, by Allah's will.

And other and this is the reality with every mover and shaker from Harvard Divinity School, I had dinner up to him, I'm shamit. All of these people, when they're born and they're young, they're they have no clue what's going to happen. But you keep on raising the bar, you keep on making the best of your circumstances. And by the time you finish your life, you look back and that's a lot of blessings on you that you've accomplished much so you make the best of your situation. Point number five, we also learned from your mouth shambles, that again, to be a respected leader, you lead by example, and not just by speech. May Allah forgive all of us. This is one of our big problems. We

talk too much and not enough action. Mr. Sharma didn't just talk. He didn't just give Dawa he demonstrated what it meant and again the stories that I just told you of taking the the pain himself standing between him and his mother, you know, taking the the whipping for drinking when he was a child, whatever. How What do you think the people felt? Right? Can you imagine when they saw that? Okay, Mr. Sharma is being whipped because his mother was talking about surrender. And he's taking the whip who's going to talk about surrender after that, right? True leaders lead by example, by their o'clock by what they do. And again, his son is being held hostage being tortured. When he

takes the two princesses, he does nothing. He protects them. He makes sure that his army does not harm a hair on their head because you lead by example, His people are being massacred by the Russians. Never once did he massacre innocent Russian peasants. He never did that. He never targeted innocent civilians the way that the Russians targeted his people that and again, by the way, I'm the guy that adjusts it as well. The same thing, by the way, that he also never ever killed innocent people just because the French were killing his people. Point number six here is that Subhana Allah How can we not lie? How can we not feel jealous at a beautiful death will lie what a legacy, an

entire lifetime of Dawa and of jihad and then asking permission to go for the Hajj and then performing the hajj and then in Medina to be buried in book theological to escolares oh god for definite Dhokla vaca to be very over there Subhana Allah what to life what to end of time what's a beautiful to finish any time we're homeless, great to finish upon, having performed the one and only hedge that he did and then we're making his way to Medina and being buried in Berkeley and La This is from Allah zone, you cannot allow you cannot buy this for a million for a billion dollars. This is a blessing from Allah subhana wa tada that he was gifted and his body is still in both

theoretically. So this shows us in show lozada you know, the cloths and the good that is there. And the final point is Sheldon, I apologize if it went over time. I'm not sure about my time. The final point you should all vote out and then I'll hand it back to our esteemed Messiah. And again, I'm sorry to be so blunt here, but we'll law here we have to stop being politically correct. I met I left out a very controversial issue because I wanted to mention it right now. Imam Shamil, Imam Shamil, was a knucks. Shaban de Cher. Imam Shamil was a leader in the party of the NAACP. Shaban de, and he had a car that are in the sunset of the NACA been the year and they I was given to him in the

sunset of the NACA been the year and he was a person who combined his version of the soul Wolf with pure Islam with fighting against the the colonizers and the and the Russians here. Why am I saying this? Because dear brothers and sisters will law one of the biggest problems that we have is the narrow mindedness of sectarianism, the narrow mindedness of my fellow cop versus the other fiddle cause that we cannot see beyond how a person is doing some of the smaller things, some of the minutiae of their worship of Allah subhanahu wa Tada. You know what, I'll be brutally honest here. Many people would have considered your mom Shama to be moved together. In our times, many people

would say that, oh, he is Natasha Bundy. He's doing this and his decrees This is doing that. But Subhana Allah, I'm not here to debate who's right and wrong. I'm saying we need to be brave and Frank enough to admit that you know what, nobody can doubt the courage, the sincerity, to be brutally honest. As far as we can even say Allah knows best his Eamon and taqwa we can disagree with his interpretation of Islam. But let not that disagreement blind us to what we have in common with Imam Shamil. Let not let us not be so sectarian that we cannot see beyond the Philippines.

That he belongs to throughout his life he among shamble was a noxious Bundy from birth until death. His father was a part of this incident he became the shift of the sencilla By the way, I didn't mention this because I wanted to mention it at this time he's he did not separate his Natasha Bundy identity from his from from who he was. And so Pamela he now we haven't taught, you know, groups that they would not be able to see beyond the fact that he belongs to a different Film Club. You know what dear brothers and sisters will like any what can be said here. I mean, those who look up to me, those who look up to him in Tamia, they need to follow me here. When the Mongols invaded when

the totters invaded, even taymiyah. We all know he was a great chef with Islam. He was very harsh against a huddled column that was a wolf and whatnot. But when the Mongols invaded outside of Damascus, he didn't care who was an Ashanti who's a Sufi who's or whatnot, he understands that we are all Muslims against the Mongols. He understands that these types of discussions there's a time there's a place there's an audience. So to be brutally clear here, I am not trivializing the differences, but I am saying to many amongst us have made these differences the priority. I am the first person to say, Well, I these are important issues. Let's talk about the reality of data. Let's

talk about how we should do as cow, but let's use the right audience, the right language, the right platforms, and let us not use these differences to make us even more disunited. We have to have a wisdom in how we talk about these things in the language that we use, and even in the audience's that we preach it in. And this is something that brutally honest will lie it is lacking amongst many people, sometimes even many scholars about what is the reality of the oma happening, and you are worried about who's anoxia Bundy and who's a celebrity news and shiny and whatnot? Well, I this is not the time or the place to go public on these issues. So we're talking about Imam Sharman, many of

those that are talking about him now, if he were alive now, you know, they would be saying different things about him because they have a difference in how he practiced certain of God and whatnot. So my point is very, very simple to your brothers and sisters. And that is that yes, indeed, there's a time and place to talk about our internal differences. But we also need to see what unites us and we also need to understand that you know, there are things more important and that is where is your wealth out? Where is your Eman? Where Who do you really love in the end of the day, if you love Allah and His messenger and if you want the Dean of a lot to be superior than will law he we can

look apart and we can overlook many, many differences in the face of the onslaught that is happening. If you're one that is to Allah subhana wa tada and you want this Deen to be successful, then insha Allah to Allah I'm begging you that if that is the case, that is your brother in Islam, even if you disagree with many of the details, even if you don't necessarily see eye to eye, but in the time that we live in with the onslaught taking place will light how can we make these differences? The biggest of all, Imam Shamil was a great alum and a great Mujahid and he was a knock Shaban the Sufi and so be it. That is the reality and we respect him not in spite of it, but because

of it. We respect him because he was a person who wanted to revive this Deen in the way that he saw best and his his job is with a lots of hands on with data and with this I asked a lot of xojo to forgive me if I said anything wrong should hate them and others are here they can correct if any, you know if any with any issues come here, but this was what I had in mind, and inshallah we'll hand it back to our organizers Zack moolah head