Al-ghurabah
30-03-06, 09:34 AM
What caused the decline in the Muslim Ummah? The decline in Spain was not only due to the crusaders, but also because of the decline of the Muslims, those in Andalus began to have gender based discrimination and banners of jahiliyyah began to rise.
1- BOOTY
The booty became the cause of our destruction, it is very strange how it was the beginning of our defeat, in Uhud, the messenger Muhammad (saw) was leading the army, and he was the best to lead, he ordered the people to stand their ground, especially the archers, however when the people began to fear that they will lose the booty they left their posts and disobeyed the messenger (saw), the archers were supporting the Muslims in the battlefield, and when they left the mujahideen no longer had their support. This resulted in 70 mujahideen being killed.
The Amir of another battle was Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiki in the Alps, but because of the booty we lost the battle, again Abdul Rahman gave instructions to his men not to leave their positions, and they came out for the booty, resulting in the loss of the battle.
The same in Andalus and in Morocco, Musa bin Nusayr, the Amir of Jihad wished at that time to conquer Europe, the Khalifah Al Waleed bin Abdul Malik however was not so optimistic, he was calculating the possible losses from the army and money, and so pessimistically declined to the expedition. The governor, Al Samhu bin Maalik Al Ghawlani of Andalus (102H) entered into a city in the Mediterranean sea part of the south of France and he stayed there with his army, from there was able to reach one of the rivers in France and reached from there Toulouse, conquering as he went. However the French resisted heavily from there and surrounded them, they fought and was killed in this battle, among them was Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiki, and the new governor Umbusa bin Suhabi Al Qalbi, he looked to conquer Europe, however when he went to conquer, in his mind was the booty. If we do not fight for the sake of Allah (swt) exclusively, without to fight for the booty, there will be chaos.
Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiki was with both governors, and now he was the one who was in charge, he took a lesson from both. He was full of Imaan and zeal to fight after the death of the two governors, he called for Jihad, throughout Andalus and Africa, and everybody answered his call, because he called for jihad for the sake of Allah, and rejected the tactic of fighting for booty and raiding for money. In his army now were not just the Arabs, but the Babars from Africa. He met them in two cities. He decided to terrify the crusaders, the first was Toro, and Poitier, and they are the closest cities to Paris. The French gathered their biggest army, and their alliance from Europe flooded the region till the army was bigger than the Muslims, however the army of Abdul Rahman, fought till they nearly conquered Paris, till the people were saying that his army was victorious.
However, this time the thought of booty came again, but not on Abdul Rahman, but with the Crusaders, they calculated from previous battles, and so they thought of how to bait the Muslims with booty. Abdul Rahman was mature and would never be trapped like this; however the Muslims were not so mature. The Crusaders saw that the guards for the booty was at the back of the army, in Fact Abdul Rahman ordered the booty to be thrown into the sea, but the army disobeyed him, they found that two thirds of the army was at the back of the army guarding the booty. The Muslims did not at that time realise that the crusaders deliberately piled much booty in the cities that the Muslims conquered, calculating that the Muslims will not easily be able to carry all the booty; this will weaken and slow the army. The army at the front became few, Abdul Rahman said to the army “any arrow you throw for the sake of Allah, is better all the Dunya and everything in it.” But the army disobeyed him and were concerned only with protecting the booty.
In one battle after that, Abdul Rahman was fighting with two swords, the place is called ‘the siege of the martyrs’, and the Muslims were defeated, in that day in 114H, ended the last serious threat from the Muslims to Europe.
In 132H, Abu Muslim Al Kharasani, and Abu Ubaidallah, killed Marwan bin Muhammad who was the last Umayyad Khalifah, they killed him in Egypt, here the entire Khilafah was killed, but Abdul Rahman bin Mu’awiyah who was known as Saqru Quraish (the falcon of Quraish), he succeeded to run away in front of all the Abbasid army, after great fighting, he managed to escape to Palestine, then to Morocco, and had a role to play in Andalus. Andalus at that time was under Yusuf bin Abdul Rahman was not able to resist against the attacks at that time, and Abdul Rahman took over after fighting internally against the governorship there, he managed to establish an Umayyad emirate, (not Khilafah, as the Khilafah was Abbasid). There is no doubt that this decline was from the Muslims not only from the kuffar.
Throughout the following years, Ja’far tried to take it back, and the crusaders tried to take it back, however nobody succeeded, because Abdul Rahman was strong, for 30 years he governed by Islam, under the Khilafah of the Abbasids, he died in 162 and he left behind him a good strong state in Andalus, after was Hisham, the son of Abdul Rahman bin Mu’awiyah, and then his son Abdul Rahman, and this third son governed after him. Nasir was young when he became governor and ruled for 50 years, his state was very strong and Andalus was at that time the Qiblah for science, (Imam Muslim and ibn Hazm were from Andalus), in that time the Mamluks came to power.
The Mamluks were Christians mostly, Nasir had in his mind to become closer to the rich areas and booty and so started to build relationship with the Christian Mamluks, after he passed away, his son Hakam, and then Hisham came into power. Hisham was called the weak, because his guards were the ones who were pressuring him so much that they controlled him, until one of the guards Al Mansoor became as if he was the Khalifah.
2- MISUNDERSTANDING OF WALAA AND BARAA’ & TAKING BITANA FROM THE KUFFAR
222H, the Umayyad rule in Andalus was destroyed, and became fragmented, each governor within Andalus started to fight eachother, until Andalus became 16-17 states.
They never understood that Andalus contained a Christian population, surrounded by Christian states, if they do not make da’wah, they will lose their direction completely, and they did not understand the Walaa and Baraa’ until they started to incline towards the relationship of the Christians.
Allah decreed that we would face alternating days, recycling the days so that we can learn lessons from our past, but the very people working to establish the Khilafah are making the same mistake, there is no understanding of Walaa and Baraa’, it is essential to learn this lesson.
3- ALLOWING TOO MUCH INVOLVEMENT OF THE WOMEN IN THE STATE
There was so much involvement of the women that it was close to allowing her to make decision, they even were made heads of guards, the role of the women in the state of Andalus was involve in the decline.
Andalus was not destroyed in one go, it was gradual, for example, Hisham the weak was only 17, so it is no surprise that it was her mother that became ruler over him, she would tell him what to do, and he would do it, to the point that she was the one who ordered to let Mansoor the guard to have a freehand.
This occurred because, Hisham was very young when he became governor, only 7 years old, so his mother was the one who would rule through him, all the way until he was 17, and she gave Al Mansoor Abu Amir free hand over Hisham. This weakness made it easy for others to make coup.
There were many rulers one after the other, every few years there would be a new ruler, and there became to be 27 states through Andalus, the Muslims were too fragmented. These states started to fight eachother, and continued to fight for 30-40 years. The Kings of Europe allowed them to do so, waiting to take advantage, and even supplied both parties’ weapons. These states, among them 18 of them was ruled by women, four directly and the rest behind the scenes.
In the time of Abdul Rahman Al Dakhir, they found the children crying because they could only shoot 9 out of 10 targets, he would cry in case that one he missed was the enemy, and the enemy may kill his people. however when they came back during the decline, they found beauty parlours, and the women would compete to be better than the others, the people would fight over women, now the kuffar started to refuse the jizyah, and these weak leaders began to concede and allow them not to, while other states insisted on jizyah because they saw it as booty, and they fought them for it, and called other states to fight them.
After a while you could not count the kings of Andalus nor their corruption. For example, they used to become obsessed with poetry, and use it to praise the kings, and anyone who would praise him more, would be rewarded. However even this poetry caused wars between the Muslims, and these poets were mostly Kafir.
The Christians started to think about Andalus, Al Mu’tama bin Abbad had a chance to fight back, and he called for help from Morocco, he was a poet and used his poetry for Islam and Muslims, and used it to convince Al Murabitun (the Moroccan Muslims) led by Yusuf, to come and help, he moved to Gibraltar and went to help, fighting and this was the rise of Tawheed in Andalus, and after 300 years, this was the biggest victory in 479H, Yusuf bin Tashyee, however found that all the leaders in Andalus were useless. He consulted the Ulemah, the first was Imam Ghazali, and he gave fatwa that Andalus must come back under one banner of Islam, and said to Yusuf, “If you want Allah to be pleased with you, take Andalus back and unite them ...”
The Kings of Europe were witnessing what was happening, in 500H the kings of Europe began to look again to try and take back Andalus.
The kings said: “o people of Andalus tie your clothes, you presence in Andalus is a mistake.”
Although the states and kings of Andalus were removed, however they failed to unite against the crusaders. Alfonso VI, said that he will get jizyah from all the kings, however every time they gave jizyah they took something in return, they took a piece of land etc every time. On the year … H, Andalus was taken completely from the Muslims by the crusaders.
The lessons we must learn from our past, is that we must build the Ummah, only seeking Nussrah will not help us, because the Ummah is not strong, not even as strong as the weak states in Andalus, and army will not help that problem.
The people of Andalus in this time were much closer to the salaf than us, and they are better in Imaan than us.
Al Muwahideen were in charge of Andalus and they built the Muslims in the area, however it happened that Andalus was divided into two and the culture began to separate and fragment. After Al Murabitun were destroyed, the Muslims declined until they made an agreement with a neighbouring Christian state and the king Fernando, by 664H, that very state was invaded by the crusaders.
This was there mistake, they did not have walaa’ wal Baraa’, they allied with the kuffar, and it was their destruction in the end.
Ibn Ahmar was one such person who allied with the crusaders, that he would attack and weaken a state, and let the crusaders fight and take the city.
The only group that was fighting was from Ahl Al Sunnah wal Jama’ah, the Ulemah rose and called for Tawheed and jihad, and they rose to fight against them.
One of the famous statements of the crusaders is that “until we take them as our friends we will never defeat them.”
And Allah (swt) says: “they wish for you to be Kafir like them so you might be equal.”
The destruction came after Abdullah ibn Ahmar the king of Granada made this alliance with the crusaders, he made a 20 year treaty with them, allowing them to be in authority and even paid jizyah to them, 150,000 marafini (the equivalent of ½ dinar for 1 marafini). And he declared to help the Christian against his enemies, even if they are Muslim.
Eventually the crusader took Granada and the whole of Andalus, and Abdullah ibn Ahmar became known as Abdullah Sagheer, the defeated.
The lesson is that the crusaders were never clever in their war against Muslims; it was the Muslims that were weak and defeated ourselves. The Muslims allied with them and gave up the Land, Abdullah Sagheer gave up everything. It was not the clever tactics of the crusaders that defeated the Muslims in Andalus.
The most important lesson that we must take from our history in Andalus, is that we must NEVER trust the kuffar.
1- BOOTY
The booty became the cause of our destruction, it is very strange how it was the beginning of our defeat, in Uhud, the messenger Muhammad (saw) was leading the army, and he was the best to lead, he ordered the people to stand their ground, especially the archers, however when the people began to fear that they will lose the booty they left their posts and disobeyed the messenger (saw), the archers were supporting the Muslims in the battlefield, and when they left the mujahideen no longer had their support. This resulted in 70 mujahideen being killed.
The Amir of another battle was Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiki in the Alps, but because of the booty we lost the battle, again Abdul Rahman gave instructions to his men not to leave their positions, and they came out for the booty, resulting in the loss of the battle.
The same in Andalus and in Morocco, Musa bin Nusayr, the Amir of Jihad wished at that time to conquer Europe, the Khalifah Al Waleed bin Abdul Malik however was not so optimistic, he was calculating the possible losses from the army and money, and so pessimistically declined to the expedition. The governor, Al Samhu bin Maalik Al Ghawlani of Andalus (102H) entered into a city in the Mediterranean sea part of the south of France and he stayed there with his army, from there was able to reach one of the rivers in France and reached from there Toulouse, conquering as he went. However the French resisted heavily from there and surrounded them, they fought and was killed in this battle, among them was Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiki, and the new governor Umbusa bin Suhabi Al Qalbi, he looked to conquer Europe, however when he went to conquer, in his mind was the booty. If we do not fight for the sake of Allah (swt) exclusively, without to fight for the booty, there will be chaos.
Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiki was with both governors, and now he was the one who was in charge, he took a lesson from both. He was full of Imaan and zeal to fight after the death of the two governors, he called for Jihad, throughout Andalus and Africa, and everybody answered his call, because he called for jihad for the sake of Allah, and rejected the tactic of fighting for booty and raiding for money. In his army now were not just the Arabs, but the Babars from Africa. He met them in two cities. He decided to terrify the crusaders, the first was Toro, and Poitier, and they are the closest cities to Paris. The French gathered their biggest army, and their alliance from Europe flooded the region till the army was bigger than the Muslims, however the army of Abdul Rahman, fought till they nearly conquered Paris, till the people were saying that his army was victorious.
However, this time the thought of booty came again, but not on Abdul Rahman, but with the Crusaders, they calculated from previous battles, and so they thought of how to bait the Muslims with booty. Abdul Rahman was mature and would never be trapped like this; however the Muslims were not so mature. The Crusaders saw that the guards for the booty was at the back of the army, in Fact Abdul Rahman ordered the booty to be thrown into the sea, but the army disobeyed him, they found that two thirds of the army was at the back of the army guarding the booty. The Muslims did not at that time realise that the crusaders deliberately piled much booty in the cities that the Muslims conquered, calculating that the Muslims will not easily be able to carry all the booty; this will weaken and slow the army. The army at the front became few, Abdul Rahman said to the army “any arrow you throw for the sake of Allah, is better all the Dunya and everything in it.” But the army disobeyed him and were concerned only with protecting the booty.
In one battle after that, Abdul Rahman was fighting with two swords, the place is called ‘the siege of the martyrs’, and the Muslims were defeated, in that day in 114H, ended the last serious threat from the Muslims to Europe.
In 132H, Abu Muslim Al Kharasani, and Abu Ubaidallah, killed Marwan bin Muhammad who was the last Umayyad Khalifah, they killed him in Egypt, here the entire Khilafah was killed, but Abdul Rahman bin Mu’awiyah who was known as Saqru Quraish (the falcon of Quraish), he succeeded to run away in front of all the Abbasid army, after great fighting, he managed to escape to Palestine, then to Morocco, and had a role to play in Andalus. Andalus at that time was under Yusuf bin Abdul Rahman was not able to resist against the attacks at that time, and Abdul Rahman took over after fighting internally against the governorship there, he managed to establish an Umayyad emirate, (not Khilafah, as the Khilafah was Abbasid). There is no doubt that this decline was from the Muslims not only from the kuffar.
Throughout the following years, Ja’far tried to take it back, and the crusaders tried to take it back, however nobody succeeded, because Abdul Rahman was strong, for 30 years he governed by Islam, under the Khilafah of the Abbasids, he died in 162 and he left behind him a good strong state in Andalus, after was Hisham, the son of Abdul Rahman bin Mu’awiyah, and then his son Abdul Rahman, and this third son governed after him. Nasir was young when he became governor and ruled for 50 years, his state was very strong and Andalus was at that time the Qiblah for science, (Imam Muslim and ibn Hazm were from Andalus), in that time the Mamluks came to power.
The Mamluks were Christians mostly, Nasir had in his mind to become closer to the rich areas and booty and so started to build relationship with the Christian Mamluks, after he passed away, his son Hakam, and then Hisham came into power. Hisham was called the weak, because his guards were the ones who were pressuring him so much that they controlled him, until one of the guards Al Mansoor became as if he was the Khalifah.
2- MISUNDERSTANDING OF WALAA AND BARAA’ & TAKING BITANA FROM THE KUFFAR
222H, the Umayyad rule in Andalus was destroyed, and became fragmented, each governor within Andalus started to fight eachother, until Andalus became 16-17 states.
They never understood that Andalus contained a Christian population, surrounded by Christian states, if they do not make da’wah, they will lose their direction completely, and they did not understand the Walaa and Baraa’ until they started to incline towards the relationship of the Christians.
Allah decreed that we would face alternating days, recycling the days so that we can learn lessons from our past, but the very people working to establish the Khilafah are making the same mistake, there is no understanding of Walaa and Baraa’, it is essential to learn this lesson.
3- ALLOWING TOO MUCH INVOLVEMENT OF THE WOMEN IN THE STATE
There was so much involvement of the women that it was close to allowing her to make decision, they even were made heads of guards, the role of the women in the state of Andalus was involve in the decline.
Andalus was not destroyed in one go, it was gradual, for example, Hisham the weak was only 17, so it is no surprise that it was her mother that became ruler over him, she would tell him what to do, and he would do it, to the point that she was the one who ordered to let Mansoor the guard to have a freehand.
This occurred because, Hisham was very young when he became governor, only 7 years old, so his mother was the one who would rule through him, all the way until he was 17, and she gave Al Mansoor Abu Amir free hand over Hisham. This weakness made it easy for others to make coup.
There were many rulers one after the other, every few years there would be a new ruler, and there became to be 27 states through Andalus, the Muslims were too fragmented. These states started to fight eachother, and continued to fight for 30-40 years. The Kings of Europe allowed them to do so, waiting to take advantage, and even supplied both parties’ weapons. These states, among them 18 of them was ruled by women, four directly and the rest behind the scenes.
In the time of Abdul Rahman Al Dakhir, they found the children crying because they could only shoot 9 out of 10 targets, he would cry in case that one he missed was the enemy, and the enemy may kill his people. however when they came back during the decline, they found beauty parlours, and the women would compete to be better than the others, the people would fight over women, now the kuffar started to refuse the jizyah, and these weak leaders began to concede and allow them not to, while other states insisted on jizyah because they saw it as booty, and they fought them for it, and called other states to fight them.
After a while you could not count the kings of Andalus nor their corruption. For example, they used to become obsessed with poetry, and use it to praise the kings, and anyone who would praise him more, would be rewarded. However even this poetry caused wars between the Muslims, and these poets were mostly Kafir.
The Christians started to think about Andalus, Al Mu’tama bin Abbad had a chance to fight back, and he called for help from Morocco, he was a poet and used his poetry for Islam and Muslims, and used it to convince Al Murabitun (the Moroccan Muslims) led by Yusuf, to come and help, he moved to Gibraltar and went to help, fighting and this was the rise of Tawheed in Andalus, and after 300 years, this was the biggest victory in 479H, Yusuf bin Tashyee, however found that all the leaders in Andalus were useless. He consulted the Ulemah, the first was Imam Ghazali, and he gave fatwa that Andalus must come back under one banner of Islam, and said to Yusuf, “If you want Allah to be pleased with you, take Andalus back and unite them ...”
The Kings of Europe were witnessing what was happening, in 500H the kings of Europe began to look again to try and take back Andalus.
The kings said: “o people of Andalus tie your clothes, you presence in Andalus is a mistake.”
Although the states and kings of Andalus were removed, however they failed to unite against the crusaders. Alfonso VI, said that he will get jizyah from all the kings, however every time they gave jizyah they took something in return, they took a piece of land etc every time. On the year … H, Andalus was taken completely from the Muslims by the crusaders.
The lessons we must learn from our past, is that we must build the Ummah, only seeking Nussrah will not help us, because the Ummah is not strong, not even as strong as the weak states in Andalus, and army will not help that problem.
The people of Andalus in this time were much closer to the salaf than us, and they are better in Imaan than us.
Al Muwahideen were in charge of Andalus and they built the Muslims in the area, however it happened that Andalus was divided into two and the culture began to separate and fragment. After Al Murabitun were destroyed, the Muslims declined until they made an agreement with a neighbouring Christian state and the king Fernando, by 664H, that very state was invaded by the crusaders.
This was there mistake, they did not have walaa’ wal Baraa’, they allied with the kuffar, and it was their destruction in the end.
Ibn Ahmar was one such person who allied with the crusaders, that he would attack and weaken a state, and let the crusaders fight and take the city.
The only group that was fighting was from Ahl Al Sunnah wal Jama’ah, the Ulemah rose and called for Tawheed and jihad, and they rose to fight against them.
One of the famous statements of the crusaders is that “until we take them as our friends we will never defeat them.”
And Allah (swt) says: “they wish for you to be Kafir like them so you might be equal.”
The destruction came after Abdullah ibn Ahmar the king of Granada made this alliance with the crusaders, he made a 20 year treaty with them, allowing them to be in authority and even paid jizyah to them, 150,000 marafini (the equivalent of ½ dinar for 1 marafini). And he declared to help the Christian against his enemies, even if they are Muslim.
Eventually the crusader took Granada and the whole of Andalus, and Abdullah ibn Ahmar became known as Abdullah Sagheer, the defeated.
The lesson is that the crusaders were never clever in their war against Muslims; it was the Muslims that were weak and defeated ourselves. The Muslims allied with them and gave up the Land, Abdullah Sagheer gave up everything. It was not the clever tactics of the crusaders that defeated the Muslims in Andalus.
The most important lesson that we must take from our history in Andalus, is that we must NEVER trust the kuffar.