Day 1 | Qurtuba

Day 1

4/2/18 | Qurtuba

Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick Morning Presentation

In Defense of Monotheism

Tour starting from Cordoba to Seville, to Grenada (this is the order of history)

The more you understand the background of things, the better you are able to fully analyze history. We are in the time of easter which has historical Christian significance.

Nazarenes – they were the early Muslims – the followers of Jesus (AS)

The nazareness kept the rules of moses. They were sent to the borders of

Eesa was becoming a threat to the roman empire and his followers were terrorized by the state. They asked for a miracle from Allah, they were given maa2ida / Christians know it as “the last supper”.

Good Friday, Saturday, and easter Sunday – this has that history of jesus being crucified.

One of the followers of hesys was sal, he later changed his name to Paul. He was on Damascus road. He saw a vision and changed his name to paul. Some ppl say that he was rejected by the deciples. He brought into the concepts: 1) this msg is not just sent for jewish ppl 2) we can use other concepts to bring ppl closer to God. (this is what we call bid3ah – wa kullu bid3atin dalala)

Pauls Claims:

He witnessed Christ on Damascus rd

Jesus' message is not exclusive to jews

Not necessary to follow the law of moses

à this is what makes Christians

in the ancient world, there are beliefs of ancient Gods

mythras – his image is the present-day image of jesus. His followers use to take communion, etc.. Bc of pauls claims, they could incorporate roman beliefs and adopt it as christianity.

the power was shifted to the roman empire and most important figure was Constantine who was himself a sun-worshipper. But he was a politician and his job was to unite, and there were many mixes of people.

Spain – people are very orthodox Christian

In north America – when you ask about easter, they say eggs, bunny, etc.. fertitlity symbols, life after death

Easter was the goddess of the green – she would wave her wand and everything would turn green. For a nature worshipper, this is a very important time of the year.

Constantine's changes:

-Constantine said he is going to change the holy day from Saturday to SUNday

-Changed the symbol of Christianity to the cross

-“the use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-christian times .. (was) almost universal..” (encyclopedia)

-the cross has nothing to do with Christianity, it was found in egypt, Syria, etc.. – Constantine took this symbol and made it a Christian one so he can make it seem like everyone is under that symbol

-he built the aya Sophia – the largest (?) in the world – it was not an original muslim structure than the turks took over istanbul

Arius  (was from libya)

-rejected the trinity

-council of Niceas – 325 AD – before this there was no Christian book

-he refused, he was poisoned and hundreds of thoushands of his followers were killed

-he was called a heretic (his heresy was that he did not accept the trinity, he believed in one god, which means to us that he was on islam)

When the final message came and muslims were attacked by the romans

-diff types of Christians

The Prophet (ﷺ) sent letters to the kings, one of the letters to heraculus

-accept islam and Allah will give you two rewards, if you reject, then Allah will give you the punishment of the Areesiyyeen.

Areesiyyeen – the followers of Arius

-the theme of the Mediterranean is the struggle between tawheed and shirk (trinity)

the basis of the struggle is this

Muslims continued

Amr b al-aas enters Egypt (642-644AD)

Masjid amr b al-3aas

Went through Libya and Algeria

Uqba b naafi3 (a taabi3ee in 670 AD)

-       The struggle was not to spread islam, it was to defeat the romans.

-       Present day Tunisia – qayruwwan – a crucial city – was made the capital

o   There is a masjid uqba ibn nafi3

o   Imam maliks codification of his madhab happened here

-       Islam carried on cargo through trades

Islam enters al-Andalus

Uqbah b nafi3 was moving real fast, he was an initiator, but an initiator needs a consolidator

Musa b nusair (708 ad)

was appointed as the leader. His father was nusair who was a Christian, he was taken as a prisoner under khalid b waleed. He saw the truth and became a muslim. His son musa was made leader, so he had sensitivity to other religions.

Burbers (comes from the romans who would call them Barbarians -not a good name), original inhabitants of north Africa – Musa gave dawah to them and they came to islam in large numbers

Across north Africa was spain.

The land was called Vandulusia – the Vanduls believed in one God. Muslims made it into Andalus. The church wanted to impose trinity on the people. Jews lived in this area from 927BC – they have an ancient culture in spain. Toledo was their base. They believed in one god. They umposed taxes upon them, they punished them, they called for a leader.

Musa was a consolidator; his job was not to expand. But they had the same msg of one God

Governor Ilyan (Julian) Ceuta, Morocco – he sent his daughter to Toledo to get an education. King Roderick of Toledo raped her, (?). They wanted avenge from the king..

Tariq ibn ziyaad

He was amazeekh, he could speak Arabic. (conquered spain in 711), he was under Musa.

He crossed the straits. This area called gibralter, a famous battle of islamic history – muslims had about 7 to 12 thousand (they were 5 or more outnumbered), they defeated their enemy.

They fought all the way through the last days of Ramadan, three days of eid – straight through and defeated king Roderick. When they were going to diff cities, ppl were opening the doors, muslims were not punishing ppl or taxing them, so muslims were welcomed.

Gibralter comes from the word - Jabal Tariq

Muslims conquered spain and Portugal

This continued for 40 years.

The leader of spain was either coming from qayrawan or Damascus and al-waleed called them back.

For 40 years, there was relative peace, but they needed a leader

There was a struggle beween the Abbasids and ummayyids. They were killing each other.

Abdur Rahman ibn Muawiya – the falcon of al andalus – escaped the fighting

“if it not were for abdur rahman, islam would have been finished in andalus”

he led by example. He was made leader of spain. He collected zakat and distributed among muslims. He made free public education for all kids (doesn’t matter religion), encourages trade, agriculture, citrus fruits, cotton, olives, encourages ppl with positive example and he is not imposing islam on people.  (side: Portugal – oranges were imported and grown in portugal – Burtuqal à Portugal /land of the oranges)

A saying: “awwalu man dakhal alqurtuba min ummayya addakhila” Abdurrahman was called “addakhil”

Al jaami3 mosque – one of the greatest mosques (we will visit it today)

In year 1000, Qortuba - the largest city, had public baths, lighted streets, running water, univiersities

London and paris, it took them 700 years to reach the advancement of spain

Al-Andalus

-jews, Christians, muslims lived together with muslims

-islam gives space for other believers to live in our societies

-the Christians renaissance came from muslims 

The murabitoon and muwahidoon came and settled in spain – they were black

Conclusion:

Muslims brought together the knowledge of the ancients of the world and put it together with the concept of one god and we synthesized. But the Europeans gave very little to us – they were living in terrible poverty – the dark ages - the greatest civilizations were ancient Egypt – not Europe, even the greeks got their knowledge from Egypt – they say we got our knowledge from Egypt. But Europeans like to say knowledge came from north south – this is very Eurocentric. We have been brainwashed to think the more north you are, the more civilized you are.

We say middle east – middle from where? Europe. China is considered far east, far from where? From Europe. Start opening your mind, it is astonishing how much our history is covered up – from the dark ages to the renaissance as it came from nowhere.

Link to Notes: “Behind the Vault” almaghrib class taught

On the Route to Qurtuba Mosque

The hotel we are staying at, there was a palace close to it

The ummayads at the time are being attacked – Abdurrahman escapes and arrives in morocco, makes his way to spain, takes control. Now he has to deal with the muslims here who aren’t happy he is coming. The Abassids are sending armies who are trying to deal with him so ummayids don’t reclaim the khilafa.

If you want to lern about determination, skills, Abdurrahman is the perfect person called. This palace next to the house is called arrusafa, which is from a name in Damascus (bc he is from there).  A poem towards the palm trees (?) - “me and you are in a foreign land and we yearn for the soil and air of Damascus” 

The tunnel we are going through is called the los ummays

Driving into qurtuba, we drove over a bridge – a huge bridge has two arches (new bridge about 5 yrs old), the name of the bridge is punte ibn firnas (the bridge of abbas ibn firnas – he was the first guy to attempt flyinf) he crash landed and broke his back bc he did not have a tail. The bridge has two arches, to represent the wings. Abbas was a bridge engineer. What does that say to you especially in the state of the muslim world – recognition, even if ppl make fun of you at the time, you can be recognized generations later.

View of jami3 Mosque

Tareq b ziyad in the west – he was 17/18 yrs old

Muhammad b Qasim in the east taking over hind/india – he was also 17/18 yrs old

Their level of iman was so strong – khalid b waleed would say takbeer and the whole army would be yelling out Allahu Akbar – it shook their enemy

One major battle happened and spain was practically taken over

For 40 yrs it flourished and there was peace.

The army was arab and burbers – lands got split

In year 750

-Abdurrahman comes and is able to stabilize the situation, his mother is burber

we will go to the museum / jami3 mosque - medical instruments, maps, education – contribution of the muslims

Lessons from the Museum in the tower of calahorra

In 11^th century spain

- they treated mental illness whereas other places these kinds of people would be locked up

-they treated cataract, complicated eye surgery

-all of the surgical instruments

-the map which was very advanced for its time

-main library of qurtuba, 46,000 thousand handwritten books

-alhakam said bring me a book I did not read and I will give you its weight in gold

-15^th, 16^th century …country was bragging about 2,000 books

-the less fortunate child would be more educated than the nobleman of Europe

-baytul hikma in Baghdad was a massive library that the moghuls destroyed

-a poetess wrote a book calling qurtuba: ornament of the world

-irrigation system was very advanced for its time – it is an islamic duty – ecology, to preserve nature, to use the resources we have. Reason why muslims were successuful was bc they did it under the guidance of the quran and Sunnah. Saqiya means to provide water. It is still called the saqiya system. If you have too much water, the plants would die. So the temperatures were balanced, this was a natural air conditioning system. Umar (رضي الله عنه) checked up on the markets and found a man …. He said even the land has a right on us

at the main mosque of qurtuba

built in 785, you can see the arches and Arabic calligraphy at the top

the Christians have always wanted to erase the history – when there was something that needed repairing they would add Christian effects – not easy for them now since it is a tourist site, but they weren’t able to erase it bc the local ppl did not allow it

welcome to masjid qurtuba

just to say that is amazing bc it was a dream of ppl to go visit this wonderful beautiful place. Muslims came in and took control. Qurtuba was an old city it was already present. Muslims needed a place to pray, it was a church. Muslims purchased half of the church. They are coming in as conquerors an they could technically do what they want, but they purchased it. For 40 yrs things were getting figured out. Abdurrahman stabilized things in 755 for the next 30 yrs. He wanted to leave behind a symbol. He went to the church and asked to purchase the other half. He asked them three times and they refused then finally they agreed. There were 4 constructions and 3 extensions. Abdurrahman II extended further, then third extension by alhakkam, than fourth extension by al Mansur. Abdurrahman III extended again and added the minaret. So changes were made for 200 yrs.

Architects who come on the tour are little kids in a playground bc they understand the language. When Christians came and eliminated islam, they took over the mosque completely and there was no tolerance. Any city you will go to, madrid, grenada, etc.. has a big cathedral in the middle using the structure of qurtuba masjid. The original structure of the jami3 masjid is here. The outside structure is the original one in all of spain.

The Christian locals would not allow the government to demolish this building, they took ownership and called it their misqueta (mosque).

Calis the third – the king. He has never been to the mosquebut gave permission to cathedral being built in

What you have created can be found anywhere ad what you have destroyed has never been seen in the rest of the world.

Cathedral being put in the middle may have had a wisdom bc it protected the rest of the masjid.

Lesson – Allah does not need us for anything. The symbol of al-andalus 800 yrs  is the masjid of qurtuba.

They have been trying to wipe out the history of muslims, if it is one place that shouldn’t be standing is this masjid. You don’t find monuments like these that are preserved like this. Allah used the cgristians to preserve this symbol. Muslims are a large minority of spain, but masjid qurtuba is the second most visited site in spain.

Politic of Masjid Qurtuba

The church is very nervous now. The wiping away of islam happened from the top. In 1492, when grenada fell…now 500 yrs later, myslims are coming back, mosqyes are being built. Everyone coming to see masjid qurtuba is the masjid, not the cathedral. The only ppl that call it cathedral is the church, everyone calls it misqueta. Till this day the locals are protecting this structure. Even on google, it was labeled as cathedral, but ppl found out and they changed it to misqueta.

Last year 2017 bbc came with andalucian riutes and the cathedral did not allow them to record anything with the muslim group.

The church (?) tried to claim this area and register it, but the mayor appealed it and said this belongs to the city of qurtuba.

AHQ and br tariq cannot say anything in the cathedral.

There is a mihrab that was preserved inside it. Under it is the last few ayahs of suratul hashr: subhanAllah amma yushrikoon – Allah preserved a testimony against them in their own church

In the bus after the masjid:

The architecture of the cathedral and the architecture of the mosque

Intention of architecture is for ppl to come closer to Allah, represents eternity – Allah is all eternal.

The chirsitian architect was – the roman emperor is a form of god, anyone related to the family – the halo was from the roman emperor system. It is from the roman pagan religion. The emperor would have that around them to symbolize divinity. Christmas was a roman pagan festival. So Christians incorparted many roman beliefs and it was about control. In order to control ppl, there were two fundamental things – illiterate the ppl (dumb it down), if you have a dumb down population, you can have the second fundamental thing, which is fear. You can make them so dumb down, and believe whatever they want.

On cathedrals, statues of gorgyle, dragons, monsters are all on the outside – this is the first ingredient of fear.

In the feual system, you have a community that is working on the outside, hard workingin, and every Sunday they go to church and you are dumb downed, and see these gorfyles. Then when you go inseide, there is images of jesus, marry, saints, looking down on you. And the priests are their representatives, and if you don’t listen to them, you will be damned.

The ppl owned nothing and they had to work all of their lives. Till now, majority of ppl are dumbed down, phones, games, sports – when they are entertained, they are not interested, when you ask them to be critical, they don’t want to talk. The elite at the top benefit.

In Christian religion, it was used as a tool, now media, etc.. are the control.

There is no compulsion in religion – Allah says truth stands out clear from falsehood.

If someone showed you sunglasses and said it is a phone, you would believe them. Then you see the mobile phone for what it is and realize it can take pictures, etc…

Similar to that, non-muslims look at the islamic architecture and ask questions

On the road to Mudawwir

Mudawwir means “round”

One of the towers

Bc of its strategic location, there has always been a castle on this site. When Abdurrahman came, he had constructed a castle in the 10^th century. After an eathrquake, It has been rebuilt to the European style of castles, but maintains some of the old structure.

At Darul Salam in the city of Mudawwir

Br Mohammad his father (Mansur abdul salam) was one of the leaders of the muslim community and one of the first Spanish reverts. At that time, it was difficult for muslims to establish themselves. So his father bought this area next to the castle in order to help develop this area. This place was among the olive trees, he was able to develop the area for twenty years. They made this place a center of the community to tend to the needs of the muslim community. His father with a group of Spanish muslims created an islamic association, and for 25 years they have tried to develop the rights of muslims on a national level. Many Spanish muslims, did not have knowledge of islam, but they had the spirit and faith, and they were trying to look for references. Books were translated into Spanish, the quran and small collectiions of hadith were translated. They had to fight with the persuction against islam. At that time, it was difficult to understand this community, but with the help of Allah they were able to change the condition. Freedom of religion was open for the people again. In 1992, they came to the agreement of cooperation, btwen the islamic association and the states…a great achievement for the muslims in spain. Islam was officially recognized by the state, when in other countries like france and Germany, islam did not have official recognized. In spain, in the official constitution, islam is recognized. The state will have to provide means and protect islam just like it protects other religions. It took many years to come to this point, but alhamdulullah islamic education in schools is allowed. It is called Conte Islamica

Through their website, webislam (?), was a way to voice the muslims of spain for those who were interested to know how islam developed in spain. Because they are in qurtuba, it was the center of islamic civilization in the western country. People come to qurtuba to visit the mosque of qurtuba. Ppl everywhere know the monument bc it has been one of the big monuments in the western side of the world.

The Junta islamica (pronounced hoonta) was involved in giving muslims the right to pray…

They try to be examples for their local community, they are ambassadors of islam here in spain, they hhave to be very respectful of the other religions, they encourage interfaith dialogue. We can learn and share with others wheat is in common. Everyone wants to live in peace. Islam teaches us that there is no coercion in religion, we show respect and we ask for respect.

They are a small community, they have a few families in the area, they have regular jumah prayers, Imam Mustafa is the imam of the community (from Africa)

Questions:

How did your father convert to islam:

He converted at 28 years old (he was born in 1947), he came from a very conservative catholic family. At that time, the association of state and religion was very connected. Ppl were not able to have a choice, it was a dictatorship until 1975 when the president … passed away. People were forced before that, at that time, his father was disappointed with the way the church was treating the people, so he studies and in his heart, he kept the spirit of the faith, but he did not believe in the principles of Christianity. Many questions weren’t answered, he was involved in the politics of the community. Originally he wanted to go to india to learn about the Hinduism, he was very interested in the human mind, he was a psychologist, thes interests led him to explore. He went to England on his way to india, while he was there, he connected with the muslim community there and found them interesting. They found a shaykh called abdulqadir alsufi who was under al-murabitoon movement. His father learned a lot from that him and decided to follow him. So he was sent to Africa and the united states, but then the shaykh was told that he has to go to spain.at that time it was the 70s and 80s, and the shyakh appointed him as the ameer of muslim community in spain. After some time, his father had some clashes with the shaykh and went his way…

Has the government at a local level recognized the trauma of the inquisition of the muslims?

Not really. On an official level, the books and history still don’t recognize that there was an inquisition. History is presented as if islam was an occupation. This is why they call it “reconquest”. Instituitions still have these teachings in their books since it is a christian country. With the jewish community, there was an official apology made, when the president of spain whent to Israel, they gave an official apology. The jews here were called safardic jews, anyone who can prove traces of being safardic jew from spain, then they will get citizenship. When moroccos muslims were

What is your vision of islam ten-fifteen years from now?

Statistics show that islam is growing in spain, we hope after 10-15 years, islam will be better established and organized here. The umbrella organization is called Islamic commission f spain which is recognized by the govt. 4% of muslims in spain, there are about 2 million muslims in spain. There are about 46 million inhabitants in spain.

Words from Shaykh Abdul Hakim

This community gives us hope. Even though this area faced a genocide. The islamophobia is nothing compared to what happened here, what we are going through is very light. This re[presents a blessing. Cherish these moments here bc it is very unique. There is another group in Houston texas, islam in Spanish – we hope that islam will be spread to the latino community, bc this is a huge community that has not able to have proper access to islamic knowledge.

In the masjid (Darus salam), watching a presentation:

Europeans are told that islam is not a part of you. Now after this video, it shows that islam is

The story that can never be told:

-missing chapter of European (western) history

-progressive, intellectual culture

·      No one wants to be a part of an oppressive history, everyone wants to be a part of the progressive history, forward thinking

-“systematically” written out of history

·      There is a whole civilization tha was hidden

·      What just happened as a person from the west – shocked, betrayed, and your place in history is completely different .

-played a huge role in European civilization and development

The story that is told:

-islam has nothing to do with the west

-has nothing in common

-no shared heritage

does not belong

-the other

Islam in Europe in 711 CE – over 13,00 years ago

-this story cannot be told bc if this msg is spread (equality, distribution of wealth, justice), our system cannot exist anymore.

The general public if they are saying things about islam, it is because they don’t know – they are ignorant, it is the leaders and propaganda they push. When they come across the real teachings of islam, they will see the truth.

What is missing today?

The muslims of that caliber to go out and show what muslims are. It has to be lived, people are hungry for a system that is a truth. Every human is born on a natural fitra to look for the truth. Those who truly want to find the way, Allah will guide them.

When people reach a stage of jahiliya, that natural inclination of finding the truth kicks in.

Spain before Islam

Romans in 216 BC-410CE

·      A huge empire, they spread to Europe and employed ppl into their tribes to help them

·      Vandals (barbarians) were a barbaric tribe who were employed to be in the roman army with the promise that they will be romans, but those promises were false. So the vandals revolted and sacked rome. They came and settled in spain. They were Unitarians and believed in one god.

·      Romans than used another tribe called Visigoths (barbarians) to fight against the vandals and made same promises, but broke them, then they revolted too.

Before the arrival of islam, the roman king converted to Catholicism

-whatever religion your king was, the people by default followed that religion too

-when the muslims arrived, they came with the system of one god, monotheism, so these ppl in spain were familiar with the oneness of god (Unitarian beliefs), so it made sense to them and it was easier for them to convert to islam.

-this place was based on feudal system – the ppl below were owned by the lord, everything, your clothes and house were owned by them, your crops all belong to the king. When islam starts to spread, it spreads throughout arabia during time of Prophet (ﷺ), then spreads east and west during 4 khalifa. Then it spread eastward toward china, and westward towards spain.

Tareq b ziyad – 17/18 yr old man with 26,000 ppl

If you want to travel to morocco, it will take you 35 minutes on a boat

-before the battle, he took a nap and had a dream with Prophet (ﷺ) in the dream and saw ansar on one side and muhajiroon on the other, Prophet (ﷺ) said to him, go forward, you shall take your oath…. Tareq made the same dua Prophet (ﷺ) made at battle of badr “we are outnumbered in a foreign land and if we are defeated, you will not be worshipped in this land….

Tareq gave an amazing speech which is preserved until now, people use points in his speech until now.

One of the oldest accusations of Islam

History tells us that islam forced people to convert to islam.

If you look at history, it is very difficult to force people to do things, little pockelts of resistance would be very difficult to elimintate. Islam was around for 1400 years ago. If islam was intolerant of other faiths, then why are there other religions in muslim conquered places like Egypt. Either muslims did a bad job of forcing ppl to convert OR forcing them never happened. The zakah the non-muslims did not have to pay, but they had to pay jizya to contribute to the state, and to be protected by the muslims. Dhimmi was what they were called, but gives the connotation of “protected”.

-there were 70-80% of muslims in spain at one point, but not right away. If islam was forced, then they would have forced them all to become muslim right away

-the martyrs of qurtuba (equivalent thought of suicide bombers) – the Christians who had enough of ppl converting to islam. One guy disguised himself that he wants to convert. He went to the masjid of qurtuba, and instead of saying the shahada, he would curse the Prophet (ﷺ). So the muslims told him not to and he insisted and they said that this is not tolerated and he will be killed, so he was.then at least 35 people did the same thing after him.

Lessons:

In reality, islam has not forced other ppl to convert to islam, in fact, it has protected them. Perfect example is Jerusalem, the Christians, muslims, and jews lived among themselves for 1400 years. Jews have been in rule for 70 years now. They are persecuting muslims and Christians badly.

Crusades:

Taking out the past 70 years, Christians have had rule with the crusades for 80 years, they treated the muslims horribly. The crusades are one of the weirdest events in history. It was picked up on the western Christian world in rome, they turned this into a huge battle. They made a story up that infidels are killing our people and – so the ppl of rome took their families and donkeys, and went to Jerusalem. They killed off the jews first, on their way, they went to Constantinople which was a civilized community. These hulligans show up and the king of Constantine closed the gates to them. The crusades went in and rampaged that area, They roasted babies on sticks and ate them (this is not a muslim account). Constantine king

They went their way to Jerusalem – those who bought their freedom were gathered in masjid aqsa. The crusades slaughtered them all. The blood of the muslims were running through the streets of jersualem ankle high (their accounts).

Conquest of Jerusalem

Umar (رضي الله عنه), the only time he left medina was to go to Jerusalem.

Church of nazereth – they told him to pray there, he said he was not going to pry there so that msulism do not later build a church there. So he prayed across from it, currentlyt it is called majid umar ibn alkhattab.

Umar (رضي الله عنه) appointed a man from the ansar in his army and said you are responsible for opening and closing this church – to protect their right. Until now, the descendants open and close the church. The promise of umar (رضي الله عنه) is still upheld 1400 years ago.

Lesson

We need to be confident in ourselves. We are blessd with examples from 1400 years ago that we have to look at and follow.