Omar Ibn Al Khattab (ra): The Opening of Jerusalem | The Firsts | Dr. Omar Suleiman

i know i'm competing with the game one of the finals so if i see you looking at your phone too much i know what you're doing a sister's included but with that being said this is a topic that i think is the topic of the day and i debated honestly whether to dedicate a whole session towards this for now or to merge it within the overall conquest under um and honestly it deserves its own topic it deserves its own lecture so tonight we will focus on jerusalem but we will talk briefly about the context before we get to jerusalem under armour just a few things with this thursday night only online insha'allah on yepin's youtube channel we'll have a lecture on the virtues of the hija and how to make the most of the first ten days of the hija inshallah so that's going to be thursday at seven o'clock with the and also this weekend insha'allah we will be starting our hija series which is actually building on the ramadan series of meeting muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam and it focuses on his hajj sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the episodes are a little bit longer so we're going to test your attention span there they average 12 to 15 minutes unlike ramadan where the meeting muhammad's life episodes were averaging uh seven to nine minutes so we'll test your attention span inshallah but basically that series will go through the prophet salla sam's love for mecca his love for madinah and then eventually the prophet saws before the hijrah his hajj before the hijrah and the ultimate hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi salman are very up close and personal look at the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam during his hajj so that's going to start this weekend insha'allah as we begin the first 10 days of the so please tune into that so as we speak about jerusalem i want to first and foremost talk about the political situation that was in at the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and some of the ways in which the prophet saw islam was speaking about al-quds may allah liberated in his time now we spoke a little bit about this when we actually spoke about and the bet that he made over the surah that came down where allah subhanahu ta'ala promised the victory of the romans over the persians allah mentions that the romans will defeat the persians between three and nine years and that was looked at as an impossible feat but allah subhanahu wa ta'ala prophesized it on the tongue of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and it happened as it happened also we spoke about this a little bit with veda who of course will also come up in this lecture but the biggest city for those of you that are from surya in particular and of course all of asham uh includes syria uh lebanon jordan palestine the biggest city in surya what is modern day surya at the time was what does anyone know it wasn't damascus damascus was second we got some halabi partisanship here it was actually hemps so all those jokes about hemps you know you have to take them back hemps of course a brilliant city may allah liberate the people of syria was the biggest city in asham and second to hemps was damesh was damascus now the persians overtook damascus in the year 613 this is when the prophet saws essentially began his public taoist so the persian and roman empire empires their battle is heating up and in the year 614 that is when the persians took al-qudz when they took jerusalem from the romans i.e the christians and when the persians took the city of jerusalem they have absolutely no regard for the city meaning what they are not a people who see any value in el cots they were zoroastrians they were majous they didn't believe that there was anything holy about the holy land they didn't have a place to connect themselves to but what they did know was that this was the center of religious and cultural life for the byzantines for the christians at the time and so they wanted to truly make an example out of that city and out of the people and they carried out one of the largest massacres of that entire century they killed 90 000 people now think about without you know weapons of mass destruction that we have today what does it take to kill 90 000 people in one occurrence they killed ninety thousand people ninety thousand christians in al-qudz in jerusalem they desecrated all of the christian holy sites and they even stole from the church of the holy sepulchre what is known as the true cross the true cross is what christians hold that islam that jesus peace be upon him was crucified on so imagine the destruction imagine the message that was sent imagine what this does to the christians of the time and does to the byzantine empire when the persians sack your most prominent city and they desecrate your entire holy life they even steal the cross that you believe that islam was crucified on and they leave behind 90 000 corpses i mean how many people even existed in the world at that time for 90 000 people to be murdered in that sense that was a test for the roman empire to where if you're looking at that situation you're thinking there is no way they're going to come out of this they are mentally emotionally physically broken down as an empire and as a people and and kisrah who we know is a very arrogant ruler in persia he rubs it in he doesn't care about religion he sends a letter to hiraculus at the time who is the leader of the byzantines and he basically says i'm clearly god and whoever you worship couldn't defend jerusalem the arrogance right so he actually claims i must be god because of what i was able to do to jerusalem subhanallah the sunnah of allah with tyrants every tyrant eventually looks around and thinks i must be him and then allah humbles them may allah make an example out of the current occupiers and tyrants so he says i must be god and your god clearly could not defend jerusalem so this was a crippling moment and that's when allah reveals subhanallah if you're a muslim are we sure about this yes we are sure because it's quran allah reveals at that time now uh the christians and the persians were obviously at war the jewish population the jews of jerusalem allied themselves with who in this battle they have to pick a side right you're a smaller population you have to pick a side who did they which side did they pick they actually picked the persian side because of the animosity between the christians and the jews and this will be important to understand when we come to the conquest of jerusalem under um so the jews at that time allied with the zoroastrians against the christians in return for a promise that they would be able to establish their own religious life in jerusalem because they were persecuted by christians right it's just persecution going all around so the christians were persecuting them so they too they chose the zoroastrians because the zoroastrians would give them at least some sort of guarantee that they would be able to establish some sort of religious life this entire time the muslims are praying towards where they're praying towards jerusalem the qibla of the muslims this entire time is while this massacre takes place the muslims are praying in that direction while all of the holy life in jerusalem has been completely reduced to pieces the muslims are praying towards jerusalem and so it's important to understand them when it is who ruled jerusalem at the time the persians so there was nothing of churches nothing of any worship or anything that was taking place in the area of al-aqsa at the time that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was taken to jerusalem and he led the prophets in prayer and that night it was a neglected area because the persians had no need for it they had no desire for it they already made their example out of the christians at that point they neglected it and let it be and the prophet saws when he comes back to mecca the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam as he is questioned about israel he said that i'm seeing myself you saw me in the hijra in front of the kaaba when quraysh was antagonizing me and asking me about my my journey and they're asking me they're asking me about things in bethel makhtas and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that it was shown to me that allah raised in front of me and i was looking at it so imagine the prophet saw islam was standing in front of the kaaba and anything they asked the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallami the prophet saws says that everything they were asking me about i'm looking at the picture of jerusalem and telling them about it which was a proof from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to the messenger sallallahu that he was able to describe jerusalem perfectly to where when quraish sent people to question about what the prophet saws was questioned about everything the prophet saws described about jerusalem was perfect the road to jerusalem the structures that existed and should have existed in jerusalem everything the prophet saws was able to explain it as a miracle from allah subhanahu ta'ala now of course in the year 624 the same year as bedr heraculous fights back and the romans defeat the persians as allah subhanahu wa ta'ala promised and as we said allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he said that this is that this is the promise of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala foreign is the day that the believers will be pleased with the victory from allah it had a double meaning it meant that the christians who were closer to the muslims would defeat the persians and the muslims would defeat who were allied with the persians okay so it was in the year 624 what did heraculus do the leader of the romans he destroyed the birthplace of zoroaster which was the key temple of the medus of the persian empire at the time he destroyed that temple as retaliation for what they did to the church of the holy sepulchre and whatever remains of christian life and on top of that the christians did not have any idea of the sanctity of any of the area of jerusalem outside of the churches that they had built so what did the christians do to the area where the dome of the rock exists now that jewish people call temple mount that muslims of course refer to as the area of the dome of the rock you know what you know what the romans did to it they turned it into the filthiest dumpster in jerusalem so the christians had no need for the area of al-aqsa or the area of the dome where the dome of the rock currently is they turned it into the dumpster of jerusalem and heraculus instructed that when you throw your rotten corpses throw them in that area and there are other nastier details about what they would cast there that i don't care to mention because there are children here but let me just say that they cast everything nasty that they could think of in that area because they wanted to humiliate the jews who allied with the persians so they went back to persecuting the jews and of course humiliating that area because to them the christians this also had no meaning church of the holy sepulchre has meaning to us this whole area over here we don't care about so it's a dumpster to us and that is the way that they treated it now the prophet saws is in madina and when the prophet saws would next see jerusalem as far as we know is a very interesting place can anyone tell me a narration where the prophet saws would see puts in medina in particular anyone know what is it when did the prophet saw some see a vision of jerusalem again in medina when he was in the ditch the the the uh the when the azab had gathered against the muslims in medina and they built the khandak when they built the trench and the prophet saw i saw them was hitting the stone and allah subhanahu ta'ala showed the prophet saw some of the palaces of the world and in one narration particularly the prophet saws so he saw yemen he saw abyssinia he saw persia he saw he saw muslim he saw all of these palaces around the world and the munafi kun the hypocrites made fun of the prophet saws he said look these people can't even they can't even use the bathroom this was the word that the hypocrites said amongst themselves they said rasool allah and his followers can't even use the bathroom without fearing for their lives and he's promising them what he's promising them jerusalem and yemen and abyssinia and he's making all these lofty promises to them allah was the one making the promises right [Music] right allah's word will come true your followers that are with you will all go to these places and indeed those that narrated the hadith this is one of the things that mentions it's very special all of those that narrated the hadith about the prophet saw some seeing those places were amongst the sahaba that went to one of those places of course most famously of course would be the conqueror of the same place that he left seeking allah's guidance so the prophet saw some saw jerusalem from the ditch of al-madinah when they were about to be massacred he saw its palaces as well the next incident that we see in the build-up to coming is one heraculus sees a dream about the prophet saws and heraculous had just you know if you look in the biography of heraculus his most famous accomplishment is that he brought back the cross he rescued the cross and that was in the year 628 he brought back the true cross so he was hailed by christians as the savior of the true cross which is a pretty big deal right no sooner did he return to jerusalem except that abu sufyan was in front of him because he'd ibia happened right after that and heraculus is like who are you people and is there a prophet that came amongst you tell me about this prophet and the famous incident of heraculous quizzing takes place literally right after he brought the true cross back to jerusalem and that was a sign that this message that has spread in mecca is on its way to jerusalem as well and hiraculous knew it he knew that in his lifetime he was going to have to confront this message subhanallah so the true cross was rescued literally the same year as her debia where abu sufyan is in front of hiraculus and he sees the dream about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and he questions abu sufyan about the spread of islam and particularly about the ethics of muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam where abu sufyan was forced to tell the truth about the ethics of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam so this is sort of the buildup to the historical part of this before the prophet salla isaam's death when it comes to jerusalem when it comes to palestine and of course asham as a whole by the way just as a as a side note if you read about the history of heraculus you'll actually see that he was someone who was considered to be at odds with the church at the time because he held on to certain theological views that made him sort of an outcast so he had a tension with the church and that was when you look into the history of that dispute it's very interesting because the christians were still trying to figure out now that the church had decided that jesus and god were one they had to work out all of these issues verses in the bible that suggest separate entities okay so if jesus and god are one then what do we do about the verses in the bible where jesus clearly refers to the father as other than himself and this was a particular uh school of thought that was outlawed it's considered the last of the issues that the roman church shut down right which was the issue of whether or not jesus had his own human will or if there were two wills the will of god and the will of jesus okay the will of a human jesus and the will of the divine or is there just one will so heraculus was actually at odds with the church as well at this time now obviously finally the prophet saw i said i'm giving the sahaba all of these narrations about going to al-aqsa and there it might say this is very interesting because the prophet saws said to them you take journeys to three masjids you should undertake a journey only to three masjids the masjid of the prophet saws so the prophet saws pushing them and prompting them to go and pray in al-aqsa and of course the narration uh which has some dispute in its chain where the prophet saw some said in the narration of may have been said if you can't go there then at least send some oil to light up its lamps but keep yourself connected to al-aqsa and make your way to al-aqsa now comes the time of um and since we're talking about um i want you to appreciate for a moment how much of islam spread in the time of um remember the dream we talked about last last week the water spreading throughout the world so i'm going to name some countries for you modern day countries iraq iran syria jordan palestine lebanon egypt afghanistan turkmenistan bukhara and even part of pakistan all of that came under islam in the khiraf of um how many of you are covered in those countries that i just mentioned your ancestors all of that in the time of um subhanallah what a man what a what what a blessing what a prophecy of the dream of the prophet saws that the water would spread in the time of um throughout the earth the muslims defeat the persians first the most arrogant brutal empire in the world the muslims were able to defeat them in one year one year the persians did not even take the muslims seriously they thought it was a joke when the bedouin came standing in front of rustum these pompous rulers they thought it was a joke like you bedouins from the desert think that we should take you seriously tried to kill the prophet salla sallam tried to make an example out of the muslims the entire persian empire collapsed at the hands of the muslims under um in one year so this is after that the battle of qadhafiyah multiple territories then the byzantines the roman empire okay and particularly the most consequential battle with the roman empire that changed things was the battle of yarmouk so if you read about the battle of yarmouk once the muslims won the battle of yarmouk then it was a sign that the rest of the empire was going to fall to the muslims as well that this battle was also going to end with the muslims in charge of all of the contested territories between them and the romans so the muslims have defeated the persians under um they are cutting in the heart of the byzantines now where they've cut up the territories of the roman empire of the byzantines at this point and jerusalem in particular is now under siege from all directions it's under siege from all directions the muslims have taken damascus they have taken muslim they have taken egypt they have taken the land of jordan and they are now surrounding jerusalem from all ends but they don't want to spill blood in al-qudz the muslims were not looking for the spilling of blood in jerusalem and so as they are surrounding it from all of these different directions when the muslims enter into the modern area of ariha of jericho the patriarch of jerusalem who is a very important figure his name is safronius saffronius safronius is considered a saint in the catholic church he's the patriarch of jerusalem who's mentioned all the famous narrations with um knowing what the persians did to jerusalem what do you think he did smart man he took the cross because that's their most sacred relic and he sent it secretly to constantinople istanbul now this is before muhammad al-fatiha so he wanted to save the cross in case they come in and do to us what the persians did to us because we've heard about their we've heard about their justice we've heard about the ways that they have dealt with these different places but just in case let's protect our relics and they had fortified jerusalem so well after what happened with the persians because they were so worried about what would happen to them should this type of situation arise so sophronius is stalling the conquest of jerusalem and in the meantime trying to evacuate the relics of christianity out of fear that maybe the muslims will be treacherous and do to us what the persians did to us as well and in the meantime the communication starts how long were the muslims camped outside of jerusalem they were a patient army they didn't go in and just massacre people or kill anyone four months four whole months the muslims were camped around al-qudz and the negotiations took place with the patriarch of jerusalem in particular who was known as a noble man and someone that wanted to secure more than anything else his religious heritage didn't care as much for the the political dominance of the byzantines as much as he cared for the church the cross the ability for christians to be able to practice their faith that's what he was concerned about they didn't like the the you know the politics of the byzantines anyway so the communication begins between saphronius and the muslims and safronius feels throughout this conversation that the muslims really don't want to kill anybody they're not trying to spill blood in a place that's holy to them they're trying to make this a bloodless transfer as well and this communication is a fascinating communication the muslims send this message that we're willing to let you practice your faith we're willing to let you have your churches we won't touch any any of your uh relics you'll pay the jizya you'll have our protection the jizya is lower than the zakah subhanallah think about that the justice of islam as it's being communicated to him as well the tax that you will pay that exempts you from serving in the muslim army and defending a religion and an empire now that you don't necessarily believe in or hold to be sacred the tax that you will pay for that protection is less than what the muslims pay in zakat sounds like a great deal right so sophronius is communicating with abu ubaidah something very interesting here that happens there is a companion whose name is who by the way is one of the first he's one of the earliest muslims until like after the death of the prophet saws is basically silent he was a brilliant warrior a brilliant commander he says listen um you know i'm you know we're getting a little tired of some of these demands and then the last demand in particular was we want the khalifa sophrania said i want the khalifa of the muslims to come and assume the keys of jerusalem this man who we have heard so much about this man who he mentioned this is very interesting he said the one who is spoken about in our scripture should come and assume what is rightfully attributed to him and what that means is that became a muslim he was a jewish rabbi that would become muslim later he said that in the scriptures it was said that the follower of the prophet to come would take the keys of jerusalem with patched garments and high ethics past garments and high ethics so safronius interpreted that to be honorable rightfully so he said send the one about whom we hear about his justice and we'll give him the keys said you know what why don't we send khalid he's big i mean he's he's physically the size of someone that could be you know you could maybe interpret him to be omar and he can go and he can just handle this affair for us and you know he had a similar appearance apparently to um and that didn't work at all because by that point they said what had the allah became famous in hashem why the battle of the battles i mean he's this hero in all of these battles yarmouk included so no like it's this isn't going to work right so sophronius didn't fall for it the byzantines didn't fall for it they said listen we want um to come some more context to this that the scholars mention safranius was aware of a pact that made and was signed by umar to the christians of egypt the treaty with the people of egypt was that this is what amras gives to the people of egypt in terms of an um in terms of security he guarantees the protection of their lives the protection of their religion the protection of their wealth the protection of their churches the protection of their crosses the protection of their land the protection of their sea and the one who signs this treaty is protected by allah protected by the messenger of allah protected by amir al-mu'min the commander of the believers um and the believers as a whole and the mu'min as a whole subhanallah egypt under the muslims became a place in which christianity thrived books about christianity were written scholars of christianity developed in egypt under muslim rule safronius wants this type of a pact he wants this type of a guarantee for jerusalem from um he tries his last hand he meets with suffronius the patriarch and he meets with the elders of hashem and he tries to assure them he says listen at this point now he's the emir of syria jordan lebanon all of these different places did we destroy any churches did we take any crosses did we betray our covenants no so he's able to assure him with all these things but safronius insists it's got to be um so anyway writes the letter to um to come to inviting him to come to jerusalem and saying the patriarch insists we will have a bloodless transfer but you need to come take the key you're written in their scripture they know of your justice they want your assurance here's a question that i have for you how many times did um in his entire khilafah iraq iran the persian empire right never he only left for this occasion for jerusalem and then he was on his way when the plague hit when amwas hits and when amwas hit when the plague hit he turned around because of the famous conversation between him and there are other reasons for this in the political wisdom of um i want to keep the senior sahabah with me in madina medina needs to leave to remain as the core of my ummah so as islam is spreading so rapidly i need the senior sahaba around me and he would only send the sahaba as generals the senior sahaba as generals to conquer certain lands or to open certain lands or he would appoint them as governors and even then um would summon them regularly to check upon them so um wanted to maintain the core of the seniority of the sahaba in medina around him he wanted to keep that with him and that's a central command and that was part of his diplomacy the other thing that the scholars mentioned subhanallah which is that um just really loved medina and if you think about um his greatest desire was what was to die in medina as a shahid wasn't that the dura of um that he used to ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that allah gives me shahada in the city of the prophet saws people would say to um come on come on dad right how are you going to die shaheed in medina the wars are taking place all over the place nothing is happening in madina and he knew that allah subhanahu ta'ala would fulfill his intention if he was sincere enough so omar did not want to leave madinah because he wanted to die in madinah he didn't want to go die in persia or die in hashem he wanted to die in madina and that was his wish and allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would answer his dua of course the last thing is that um is 60 years old now he's not a young man anymore to where you know it's it's easy for him to go out in these different places in these different journeys so that's one of the things that the arimat mentioned as well so it's the political instability as well as the personal connection that he has to at medina and he wants to keep it so what does he do he consults ursnaan and ali may allah be pleased with them a sign of the divine transfer to take place with he brings forth uthman and ali and he consults them about what he should do is not a good idea don't leave medina because that will leave medina vulnerable the enemies will take advantage of it and a plot will you know will ensue on the inside of a medina and who knows what could happen from there um i know what he thought and subhanallah number one advisor contrary to propaganda his number one advisor was the person he asked for more details for more consultation the person he did shura with most was multiple incidents of this he would he asked should i go to and fight against the persians said i don't think it's a good idea. so he actually was going to go to persia fight the persians and ali was the one who held him back the hijri calendar that um established he established that after asking what do you think when should we start the calendar from and it was ali's opinion that um may allah be pleased with them in which you have the hijrah the calendar that was established at that time so he takes him very seriously multiple things he said to him this is a special opportunity this is a place that our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam had great ambitions for it's worth the risk insha'allah we will take care of things here go out and receive the keys of jerusalem especially if there's something scriptural to this right like go out and receive the keys of jerusalem and guess who are the allah actually stepped in at the command of umar as the substitute khalifa while he went out to jerusalem to receive the keys was placed in charge of the medina by um who makes his way out to jerusalem now here comes the most interesting part weren't they worried about political instability so shouldn't he take like a really strong posse a really big army with him to go out to jerusalem decides to make this entire journey the man who would sleep out in the open on his shoes he makes this entire journey with one camel and one servant and no army with him he goes out carrying his sword and he has the sandals and he has one camel and one servant and bismillah let's make our way to jerusalem no one else follow me subhanallah he goes out to jerusalem and i want you to imagine the description of how he looked um did not wear a turban did not wear a helmet so his head was bare and yes by the way um was bald okay so um left his head exposed which of course you know for a royal occasion at the time i mean subhanallah these were things that were significant right but this was the humility of um it came naturally to him the garment that he wore remember we talked about that incident between him and salman allah about the garment that he had where he merged them together the garment that um was wearing was a white garment and it had 17 patches on it patches meaning these were places in the garment that ripped it was a wool garment that ripped and he patched it together in those places and the description of it subhanallah the description of it is it was disproportionately on his left side um did not even care about the color of the patching you know usually when you want to patch your garment you patch it with the same color right it wasn't in fashion to just be random with your colors patched it with whatever colors he could find so his garment was beat up he's not wearing a turban or a helmet he has absolutely nothing to suggest royalty and he goes traveling in the desert alone the most powerful man in the world takes a trip from medina to jerusalem by himself with a servant with no army fearing no one but allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and without any of the appearance of a dignitary of the time to go assume the keys of jerusalem think about that it gets better he tells the servant he says listen you and i are going to take turns we're going to split this trip 50 50. you ride the camel 50 percent of the time i ride the camel 50 percent of the time so for half of this trip omar of the allah is going to pull in the desert the reins of this camel while the servant sits on top and they're going to take turns because that was the that was the justice of um subhanallah one of the duas that he used to make to say allah from being made of any of the money of the muslims meaning that you know you talk about amana here like the trust here like let it be purified of any cheating in it any deception in it and they make this journey as they are making this journey um to jerusalem him and the servants they start to get closer to philistine the servant it's his turn to get on the camel and um based on the way that it was divided um says get on the camel we're about to enter into philistine it's the big moment right they wake up that morning and um says your turn and he says they're not waiting for me they're waiting for you they're not waiting for me like come on like it's okay i understand i get it you know it's already generous of you enough that you split this 50 50 for this entire journey says get on the camel i'm gonna pull the rain it's 50 50. we agreed half half and he said said honor is to the one who fulfills their trusts again a man of amanah and you wonder where um would get it from subhanallah his grandfather he said no isa honor is to the one who fulfills his trust i don't care if people are waiting on me and they see me pulling a camel who cares it gets worse they're walking into philistine and um who falls in a puddle of mud allah decreed it that way so this white garment that already had 17 patches on it is now covered in mud because um accidentally stepped into a puddle of mud okay now this is getting embarrassing right just so you don't blame the sahaba with with the famous incident that we know is coming up you can imagine the scene by the time um gets there the people have lined the streets to watch the reception of the key given from the hand of the patriarch safranius to um they have lined the street for miles people are sitting in their balconies they are looking on to see who is this great man that never leaves madinah that we've heard about now because islam has spread to all of the areas around us who is this great man that we're going to see so the sahaba they go out to meet um and he arrives first and foremost in the area of al-jabir does anyone know where al-jabya is today it's actually the golan heights illegally occupied subhanallah may allah liberated also stolen from the muslims he arrives in al-jabir which is modern day the the golan heights and this is right as he is about to make his entrance into jerusalem some of the sahaba come to meet him as he's about to come in and he says can you change can we get you some armor can we go buy you something can we put a helmet on you he's starting to argue with him to say you know why don't you wear something that's more befitting of amir al-mu'min right the khalifa of the muslims that's going to come and receive the keys of jerusalem now by the way does he have a point yes he has a point there's a good intention and he has a good point but subhanallah allah has created different people for different times responds with the most famous answer that we have ever heard islam we are a people who allah has honored through islam when we seek it through anything else allah will humiliate us that statement you wonder what um would say to us today if we presented our condition to him if he would seek his advice the same man that told sarah when he assumed the governorship of iraq the first order for you is maintain your prayers because if you lose that then you lose everything else what does he tell the muslims he says where are people that allah honor through islam you're worried about their perception you're worried about the way they're going to see us if we seek honor through them allah will humiliate us now by the way abu if you remember his seerah was one of the poorest of the sahaba was the commander of the muslims the amin of this ummah and had absolutely no personal desire himself in fact um who used to kiss his hands and um if you remember he said uh let me visit your home you know you're in hashem you're the emir of hashem this entire area let me come visit your home of obey the left and he said you want to come cry you want to come see my house and cry he said come on over and what happened um walked into the house of veda and he started to weep because he said you know where is your food where is your where are your pots where are your pans don't you have anything lived in a little tent and he had nothing with him and he said i told you you were going to cry and um dunya changed all of us except for you so this is not personal this is a methodology issue um is making a point here to the sahaba that we're not going to give in to their pompous nature we're going to be ourselves and i'm coming into jerusalem this way so after they argued with um and there were other people by the way yes others that tried to get um to change his appearance and he said nope i'm going in like this come with me or stay back and there comes um walking into jerusalem still with the servant on his camel with a white garment with 17 patches covered in mud and the people are just looking and saying what in the world is this who is this man what is this religion what are these ethics and subhanallah whoever humbles themselves for allah and allah elevates them immediately all of the people started to praise the humility of um like this man is different this is the most powerful man in the world and this is the way that he carries himself and safranius the patriarch he says to squids to a man like this jerusalem is handed over he's happy subhanallah i mean this is incredible look at this man look at his humility look at his justice and safranius the patriarch he said to um and he wasn't just praising him he said with a leader like you your people will never be defeated told the truth said with a leader like you your people will never be defeated in anything and um enters in and that was a momentous day of the entrance of um who the people are watching now this entire ceremony that is to unfold now before anything is handed over the first thing that is done is that um and safranius have to sign some paperwork and that is the pact of um what's known as the pact of um between the muslims and the christians now by the way the way that it's introduced subhanallah bismillah abdullah in the name of allah the most compassionate the most merciful this is a promise a covenant that is given from the slave of allah um the commander of the muslims even subhanallah the way he's writing the pact is not one of the of of any type of pompous nature and the pact has been brought together by numerous historical sources but the gist of that pact is obviously one where there are concessions that are going to be made by the christians in jerusalem in exchange for the protection of their lives and the protection of their churches and the protection of their crosses and their security right so you can have bits and pieces of this document that are construed there's a wonderful uh paper on it that we have at japan alhamdulillah that was written by dr taslima which is religious minorities under muslim rule where she dissects this this document a bit but at the end of the day it's a pact between the allah and the patriarch of jerusalem at the time and subhanallah this should be mentioned one of the conditions that the christians put on the muslims was that um would not allow the jews that they expelled to come back why because they pers again they were at war the christians and the jews were at war with one another allowed them to have free access to visit their place of worship and he returned according to most of the sources about 70 jewish families to jerusalem at the time the justice of um doesn't disappoint the appearance of um who doesn't disappoint the relationship between him and safranis is on display for everyone so if you're in jerusalem at the time you're watching the leader of the muslims walk now with the patriarch of jerusalem and he's literally giving him a tour of el kutz he's showing him around jerusalem he takes him to where the holy sepulchre the holiest sight in christianity now at ease of who this man is safranius gives um remember this was the man that tried to get the cross out of jerusalem because he just wondered maybe just maybe they'll treat us the way the persians treated us safranius actually gives him the keys to the church gives it to the muslims and um who gives him a promise of its amanah this is one of the most beautiful things subhanallah that till today one singular family a muslim family has held the keys to the holiest satan christianity they're actually known as al-nusriba who's no no um her son abdullah was one of those that entered into jerusalem with the muslims and his family assumed the keys of the church of the holy sepulchre until today every morning a man from that family goes and opens that church for the christians you can actually it's it's there there have been documentaries about this the man today his name is adid judah who literally a muslim man goes every day and opens the church of the holy sepulchre for the palestinian christians to go and to access that church and by the way one of the things that historians mentioned is that this solved a lot of inter-christian dispute why because the denominations would fight over who gets to hold the keys to the church subhanallah the prophet saws and fatah mecca one of the first things the prophet sawsome solved was that only one family is in charge of the keys of the kaaba no one else gets to take it there's something symbolic about who holds the keys right that was the wisdom of the prophet saws here the wisdom and the amanah of the muslim shines that the muslims would never betray that amanah of the keys of the church of the holy sepulchre the holiest site in christianity till now as we said adib judah and that family adhiba holds that ki then of course the famous incident takes place where the adhan abdulhur comes in the time of lahore comes in the patriarch in an act of friendship right they are now bonding this is subhanallah momentous occasion they're and and and you know if you think about even from a political perspective the more that um likes him the easier life is going to be for his community which is now assuming a secondary status they're no longer going to be in charge here so when the time of salah comes what does he say he says why don't you pray in our church great symbol right go ahead and pray in our church the leader of the muslims praying in the holiest site of christianity did respond and say no because this is a place of kufur and you know absolutely not and forget you and no um said listen hear me out there are people in the um of the prophet saws that were what muhammad spoken to people divinely inspired subhanallah their vision is incredible if i pray here the muslims are going to turn this place into a masjid one day years later muslims are going to come and they're going to say prayed here therefore this is our place this is a masjid this is not a church anymore so um let me step out and pray outside so that people can't claim your religious place later on so my community doesn't steal your church later on and um knows how much we love him because what happened he goes outside and literally the place that he prayed is now a masjid was built a hundred feet away from the holy sepulchre called masjid umar and every day subhanallah you know may allah i know some of you have been able to see it allah all of us to be able to experience it but it's it's a fascinating sight i mean even the images right you know you've got the masjid making adhan they're facing the holiest site in christianity and guess what they're all palestinians that's probably something that you're not told much in the media today right subhanallah the wisdom of um but then comes the adhan this is something subhanallah that i want us to actually think about for a moment this meeting in jerusalem was a reunion of sahaba a lot of these companions hadn't seen each other for a very long time think about who is there about are gathered in this place that they used to hear about in mecca and medina and they used to pray towards because all of them were from asabi they were all from the first they all prayed towards jerusalem as early muslims and now they're gathered in jerusalem talk about a surreal moment and subhanallah this was a reunion of sorts for them they had not been together like this since madinah and now they're all together in jerusalem and um when he saw bilal before we even talk about the adam story embraced him for a long time and they both cried okay so what's narrated is that they hugged think about the meeting of um who disappeared after the death of the prophet saws he went out in jihad but he didn't want to be anywhere near madinah omar doesn't leave madinah he hasn't seen vidal for all of these years so he hugs bilal and they both cry and and i um want to quote the words because the words are significant now subhanallah even to me every time you read these incidents something else pops out to you he said have a young this is one of the days of the days of allah when allah says like there are days in history that don't come back when you look throughout history there are few days that stand out we are in one of the most momentous days in the history of the world can you make it for us that's his introduction i took a promise on myself that i will never do adhan for anyone after the prophet saws i can't do it anymore it was a promise that i made that if it's not rasulullah saying i can't do it anymore i will never do it again until i meet the prophet saws i took a promise pushes him and you know what he says to bit of allah amongst the things he says this would make the prophet happy so he he talks to him with the love that he has of the messenger sallallahu alaihi sallam you're holding back out of your love of the messenger sawai sallam this would make the prophet's life unhappy and if he were here he would have ordered you to do the same he would have asked you ethan yabila you think of the prophet saws who ordered you to make the mecca and then in madina and none of the other sahaba had the honor of being ordered to do so first you think that the prophet saws would have passed you up if he were here please make adam for us and so goes to make the adam the first person to make adhan and madinah and by the way who had the dream of the allah making he was one of the two that had the dream of the adhan being made so this is a connection between omar and bilal as well and now jerusalem the first muslim that's going to go up there and say allahu akbar allahu akbar in jerusalem all of the sahabah cried including hearing his voice in this place where these sahaba are together and they said subhanallah on that day wept so much that he fell to his knees while bilal was giving the adam and the sahaba were consoling him why because suddenly this wasn't jerusalem anymore this was medina it took them back they were remembering their time with the prophet salaam they had not had this moment for decades now where bilal is giving adam and subhanallah took um the allah who fell to his knees when he realized the prophet saw some died fell to his knees literally fell to his knees after all of this walking with the patriarch and going through this could not hold himself anymore and subhanallah this marks the two most momentous salahs in this place the gathering of the prophets imagine a jamaa a gathering where rasool allah is the imam and praying behind the prophet saws imagine that jamaa imagine walking into a musa and all of those people are praying behind one imam and the imam is also allah is the salah that took place in that place that happened there and now you have the second most noble salah the gathering of the sahaba of the prophet saws is the imam and all of these people are praying behind um this was the place also that when the prophet saw some on the night of islam him to drink what milk and the dream of the prophet salallahu when the milk was coming through his fingers was who was catching that milk it was um and here is um now leading salah in the same place the sahaba where the prophet saws led all of the prophets now um he wanted to know where exactly the prophet sais unless the salah so he asked he's asking who knows the area a jewish rabbi that became a muslim scholar he's asking him he's saying i want to know where the prophet saws led his salah i want to pray in that exact place that also allah says i prayed now at that time that area was what a dumpster it's a dumpster and when um who sees it that way omar and the muslims begin to clean up the dump themselves so um gets down with the muslims with the sahaba and they are cleaning up that area and being first jewish and then muslim he points to the area of the rock right and um says no that's not it and in one narration he said it's your it's it's your ignorance or the days of ignorance that are taking a hold of you or it is your jewish heritage maybe that's pointing you to that direction but i'm looking for the place that the prophet's license prayed take me to the place that the prophet saws and prayed and then subhanallah in that place discovered that exact place where he would pray and this is now a first the first time the muslims can pray in mecca publicly was because um was walking in front of the muslims in one line in the other the first time muslims could pray in mecca publicly the first muslim after the prophet saw islam to pray in al aqsa is um so think about that first and this is the area of masd all of it is considered al-aqsa including the area of the dome of the rock all of that is considered would pray in that place remember the moment where the prophet saw someone was praying in front of the kabbalah towards towards jerusalem and um who was trying to figure out who he was now he's standing in jerusalem praying towards mecca first one to do this because when the prophet saw some did the night of the raj jerusalem was still the qibla facing towards mecca praying in that direction what do you think he's going to read in that salah it's pretty consequential right what does he read i mean one of them should be a give me what is it obviously the first or one of the surahs the first surah that should come to mind is written israel but that's the surah he would read in the second raqqa the surah where allah talks about bringing his prophet salam here to this very place that um who is praying right now in the first rakah he read sura-sat surah-sad has the mentions of islam and many of the happenings that took place in that area but particularly there was one ayah that um read that shook him so rule between the people and justice and do not follow your desires when he read that verse subhanallah he's reading that in al-aqsa there is no structure yet by the way and he reads surah israel in the second one i want to pause for a moment subhanallah and as we wrap up you know there's the book 100 most influential people in history written by michael hart and the first person of course is muhammad sallallahu that's something that was spoken about quite a bit the only other muslim that was mentioned there is um or i'm sorry the only of the sahaba that's mentioned there is um he's number 52 on that list and of course our lists are with allah he's number two in our list after the prophet saws but he writes about um he says omar's achievements are impressive indeed because after muhammad sallam himself he was the principal figure in the spread of islam without his rapid conquest it is doubtful that islam would be nearly as widespread today as it actually is furthermore most of the territory conquered his reign has remained as such ever since and he says obviously muhammad should receive the bulk of the credits for those developments but it would be a grave mistake to ignore omar's contributions the conquests he made were not an automatic sequence of the inspiration provided by muhammad sallam but also under his brilliant leadership himself it may surprise some that umar a virtual unknown figure in the west has ranked higher on this list than people like charlemagne and julius caesar however the conquests made under omar taking into account both their size and their duration are substantially more important than either of those two we owe so much to um subhanallah that particular moment as well now what does this mean for us i don't know whether to read these uh verses with a sense of pride or with a sense of shame i honestly mean that subhanallah when you read the verses and the stories and then you go back to what's happening right now in al aqsa is it pride or is it shame is it pride in the moral system in the fact that when um enters and once enters we don't spill blood and do to others what has been done to us we're not a people that defiled a sacred city that's not who we are the justice the ethics the contracts the oaths the way that people spoke about how they flourished and their civilizations under muslim rule obviously the next time that it would transfer out of the muslim hands would be the crusades by the way and we know what the crusaders did not just to muslims but to jews and to other christians as well so there's the pride of it but there is the absolute shame of it as well and i want to mention subhanallah in conclusion you know it's said about him that he used to travel from al-madinah to just to pray to raka's and he was afraid of missing out on the reward to the extent that he would not even drink water when he was there because of the reward of that place the narration of the dura sulaiman that our prophet saws that no one comes to this masjid seeking the pleasure of allah except that they leave this place as pure as the day that their mother gave birth to them the narration that i already mentioned about the oil and the lamps there's another weak narration subhanallah that whoever puts on the haram from jerusalem and makes his way to hajj or umrah will be forgiven for all of their sins and as i said that's a weak narration but subhanallah we actually find people like who is authentically narrated to have made multiple umrahs from that place wearing his seeking that reward of being in jerusalem and then mecca and then in madina all at the same time the prophet saws saying that the salah in al-aqsa is akin to 500 prayers elsewhere and the sahaba an authentic narration from abu dhabi allah we were mentioning in the presence of the prophet salla which of the two messages is better the masjid of the prophet saws that a salah in this masjid of mind it's better than four prayers in mazel aksa well but what a beautiful and blessed place that it is to pray there will come a day that the most beloved thing in the world to a believer would be to have a piece of land where they could look out to al-aqsa and they would give up everything in the world for that opportunity the whole dunya would be meaningless to them for the opportunity to have a piece of land where they could look out and they could see in mazel aksa and they could go out and they could pray in mazda al-aqsa what's at stake in what's at stake in silvan what's at stake in these places that are being decimated every single day and you think this is an issue of al-qaeda i think this is an issue of deen you think this is just another political issue this is an issue of creed for us this is an issue of creed for us this is an issue of iman for us this is an issue of faith for us where the prophet islam is saying that day will come subhanallah it's as if these speak to exactly what we witness that the most beloved thing in the world to a person would be to have that opportunity and so dear brothers and sisters we read about this and we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to forgive us for our inability and to to make us amongst those that find our islam in islam the way that um implemented manifested found and taught in islam we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant us the piety of those people as they prayed in that blessed gathering we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to liberate al-masjid al-aqsa we ask allah to liberate al-mazil aqsa and what is around it we ask allah subhanahu ta'ala to liberate it once again and to allow for the muslims to pray there in peace once again we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to restore the israel of the muslims through their israel islam to honor us through al-islam we ask allah subhanahu wa that what we have lost of territory what we have lost of connection what we have lost of deen that allah restored for us we ask allah to fill our hearts with faith to fill our hearts with certainty to fill our hearts with that which is beloved to him we ask allah subhanahu wa to allow us to pray in our lifetimes in a liberated muslim we ask allah that just as he gathered um we ask allah subhanahu ta to gather us in that place we ask allah subhanahu that just as he gathered muhammad and the prophets we ask allah subhana to gather us in that place and to allow us to pray in that place liberated we ask allah subhanahu wa to protect our brothers and sisters who are losing their homes around al-aqsa we ask allah subhanahu wa that through our duas through their duas through the calls upon him we ask allah to protect those homes to protect those families who are clinging to the most beloved places on earth in this moment we ask allah subhanahu ta'ala to foil the plans of their oppressors we ask allah to foil the plans of their occupiers we ask allah subhanahu ta'ala to protect them we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant them the ability to persevere and we ask allah subhanahu ta'ala not to make us amongst those the sinful and the passive but instead to make us amongst those that are active in that work in the best of our ability and we ask allah to forgive us for that which is out of our ability and we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to gather us not just in al aqsa the way that he gathered the prophets but to gather us with the prophets and we ask allah not just to gather us in the place where the sahaba gathered us gathered but to gather us with the sahaba in the highest level of janata furdos with the ambiya inshallah you

Channel: Yaqeen Institute

Views: 1,017,221

Keywords: yaqeen institute, islamic research, islamic lectures, islamic studies, islam, faith, iman, omar suleiman

Id: YJsn55Uon3Q

Length: 70min 42sec (4242 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 06 2021