The Rain

 

Honey and ability to destroyed parasites.

 

The World Is Round

Jews Exposed For Muslim To Understand

 

Today we will discuss a topic that I have mentioned many times in my lectures in passing but today we're going to shed a little bit of extra light and it is especially relevant given the circumstances right now in Falin and that is our history as a Muslim ummah our relationship with the Jewish people for the last 2,000 years before the creation of of Israel for the last 15 centuries because the fact of the matter is that it is truly ly sad in light of our contributions to the survival and the flourishing of this demographics that they seem to ignore and neglect all of these centuries of positive interactions because the fact of the matter once again Christian Europe treated this demographics in a very different way than we did and multiple times in history.

The Muslim ummah and the Muslim civilization played a vital role in protecting hundreds of thousands of persecuted Jewish people. So we need to be aware of this and we didn't need to know our own history and again only so much can be said for the history of 15 centuries but as you're roughly aware we went over this in detail this earlier part in a number of lectures in the year 70 CE in the time of Jesus Christ after Jesus Christ the second temple was destroyed and so Judaism once again had its diaspora they fled across the globe so they didn't have a land for the next 2,000 years where were the Jewish people under Christian and then Muslim rule for 1,500 years before 1947 1,400 years before 1947 where were the Jewish people either in Christian lands or in Muslim lands. Okay, what is the difference between how the Jewish people were treated in Christian lands versus how they were treated in Muslim lands?

This is the summary we're going to be discussing today. And of course, the goal is to pique your curiosity. The goal is to start you on the journey. Obviously, in 15 to 20 minutes, only so much we can do. We need to understand that Christianity, from its inception, has been extremely intolerant of the Jewish people.

Why?

Because according to their theology, what did the Jewish people do to their own God? To the Son of God. According to their theology, what did they do? They murdered the son of God. So from the beginning, there's a term that is found in Christian literature. I'm not inventing this term is called Christ killers. This is what they called the Jewish people, Christ killers. And that is why, generally speaking, in ancient Christianity, medieval Christianity, Jewish people were not treated as equal citizens. They didn't have the right to own property in most of European history. They were forced to live in special areas. The ancient term for this in Venice, the Venetian term, is still used in English. Guess what that term is? Ghetto. That term ghetto, where does it come from? Now we use ghetto to mean what? A very poor, very impoverished part of the city. Well, it was called ghetto for the first time in Venice in the 1200s, from a Venetian term to mean low-class.

It's literally a term that was used for Jewish people. The term ghetto in English comes from them having to live in a separate place of the city. Jewish people in Europe were prohibited from any noble profession. They had to take ignoble tasks. They were prohibited from owning land. They were prohibited from rising up in the ranks of nobility. In fact, the one job that they were not prohibited to do and that's why they started to do this more and more was the job that was prohibited by the church and that is lending of money.

The church said you cannot lend money on interest. And Christians if they do so they're going to go to hell. They're going to be damned. This is Christian law by the way. Jewish people were exempt because they're not Christian and they couldn't work in so many other areas. This is not anti-semitic. I'm teaching you history.

This is a fact. Jewish people then took on by and large in Europe the profession of money lending charging interest because they weren't allowed any other job. They weren't allowed careers. And this was prohibited by the church. You'd be damned. So what did they do? They became the protoankers, the first bankers. And so what's going to happen slowly but surely their wealth did increase. This is not a anti-semitic.

It's the fact of the matter is that they were involved in this profession. And that is why rich dynasties from this group did begin to rise in the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries. But that's because they were the ones lending money. Eventually the church had to buckle under pressure and change their law and say it is now allowed for Christians to do. Otherwise, Christians forbade Christians from lending money with interest. It was haram for them. The church would excommunicate you.

That's why this group began to do this in the 11th century when the crusades was announced in 1095 1096 the first crusaders they left England they left Italy they left France and they made their way to Jerusalem wanting to free quote unquote Jerusalem from Muslim lands. Do you know what happened before they reached Jerusalem? They started massacring Jewish people where in Europe. Why? What has that got to do with Jerusalem? They began to reason, ifwe're going to go to Jerusalem where Jesus walked, we should avenge his death before we get there.

And so thousands, this is the first time where pograms happened against Jewish people. Entire cities in Europe, entire cities in Germany, this is in 1096, 1097, entire cities were decimated from their Jewish populations. It is really pathetic what the Christians did. The women and children ran to the synagogues begging for freedom and they burnt the synagogue with babies in it. They burnt it. Who?

The Christians. Why? Because these are Christ killers. I say this because you need to know where is this anger. Where is this anti-semitics coming from? It's coming from Europe. We Muslims had nothing to do with any of this hatred. That, and you need to know the irony of how we can be accused when in reality this notion of anti-semitism comes straight from Europe. In the year 1215 the church gave a decree that Jewish people could not live like normal citizens any Christian land. They had to wear a different clothing. They had to live in different places of the city.

They had to have specific professions. This is the Vatican. This is the church normalizing the discrimination of Judaism. This is in 1215. Don't be surprised. In a few decades, 1290, King Edward of England said, "I don't want any of these people in my kingdom." So, he made a decree to expel every single member of the Jewish faith from England. For 400 years, there were no Jewish people in England. 400 years. Why anti-semitism? The king saidnone of these people are going to be here and Shakespeare writes his plays during this time. But the stereotype, the negative evil stereotype remains in the psyche of Europe. Go read Shakespeare's plays.

Go read how he writes about Shillock the Jew. This is Shakespeare, not me. Shakespeare is an anti-semite in every sense of the term, the stereotypes, the negativity. And ironically, he's never interacted with the Jewish person because there are no Jews in England. when Shakespeare is writing because of the decree only in 1680 or something the king relents and allows them back in and that is why by the way to this day in England the Jewish population is very small compared to other places in Europe because for four centuries they were banned and one of the worst

manifestations of anti-semitism took place in Andalucia but not under us when Ferdinand and Isabella reconquered Andalucia Granada and the Muslim land when they conquered Granada the first decree less than one week or one month after they took power 1492 they made the decree it's called the decree of Alhamra because it was in the Hamra palace there shall be no Jewish people living in Andalucia hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were forced to convert to Christianity or were sent into exile the entire entire population of Iberian Spain and they were we don't know 3 400,000 half a million Jewish people.

They were either forced to convert under torture or they had to flee for their lives. And this is one of the worst manifestations. Now you get to Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s which is of course the worst anti-semitic outburst in all of human history. And this needs to be said bluntly. Hitler did not come in a vacuum. Hitler is tapping in to mainstream Christian notions of anti-semitism. The term anti-semite, the birth of anti-semite, the notions of anti-semite, it has nothing to do with Arabs and Muslims. It is European and Christian through and through 100%.

Even the term is invented by the Christians and used by the Christians. This is just a summary of Christian lands. Let's move on to Muslim lands. Subhan Allah. Wherever Muslims went and there were Jewish people, the Jewish people faced a type of flourishing. They were given a type of protection they could never find in Christian lands. And the the when Muslims conquered what is currently Iraq, what is currently Iran, Iraq had a large population of Jews in Baghdad from the time of the first expulsion, not even the second, from 500 BC because the largest group of Jews from the first expulsion they went to Iraq. So Muslims found large groups of Jews in Iraq.

In Iran is Fahan, hundreds of thousands of Jewish people again from the first and second expulsion and the Muslims came and found them and they gave them protection under the treaty of Jerusalem. When marched into Jerusalem, guess how many Jewish people were there? Zero. Guess how many synagogues? Zero. Jews were not allowed to worship in Jerusalem under the Christians.

Guess who gave them the freedom to build the first synagogue after the collapse of the temple? It was none other than acting upon Islamic commandments, acting upon prophetic guidelines. Jews and Christians are they have the right to live freely. They have the right to worship. They have the right to build their synagogues and whatnot. Now modern you know liberals come along and they say oh the conditions of are second-class citizenship. I'm not going to claim that condition is the same as secular America.

It's not. But we're not comparing to secular America. Secular America is a different notion where where religion plays no role in the Islamic scheme of things. Religion plays a vital role. So if you're a Muslim, yes, you get perks and and and privileges. No doubt about that. And if you're there's certain things, for example, you cannot convert people to your faith. For example, the the synagogue uh um min or the temple the temple and the synagogue cannot be higher than the minaret of the mosque. I agree these are conditions. But we're not comparing to modern liberalism. We're comparing to the rest of the world.

The fact of the matter, never once in all of Islamic history was there a policy to kill all Jews. Was there a policy to persecute all Jews? Was there a policy to expel all Jews? So allowed the Jewish people to come back into Jerusalem. This is the first time they could come back and build the first synagogue under the and the rest as they say is history. that in Baghdad when the Abbassids made their bet hikma you know the famous house of wisdom they hired the most competent translators regardless of their background and because Muslim people weren't studying ancient Greek and whatnot some of the best translators were from a Jewish background because they're the ones studying ancient Greek ancient Latin and so Hikma hired the top Jewish minds to be in charge of the house of wisdom and when the Fatimids.

And when the Spain instituted their own because they wanted to compete there three they wanted to compete with one another. So they made their own institutes of publishing. They also hired the best and brightest minds regardless of their background. Jews and Christians were at the top of this list. You have to understand why Muslims weren't studying ancient Greek and whatnot. These civilizations were. So the and the sultans hired these people and gave them the best salary so that they can work with them. And one of the most interesting examples in our own history in Andalucia was under the kingdom of Granada in around 1030 like basically literally uh 1,000 years ago literally 1,000 years ago. The prime minister of Granada, the Sultan was Muslim. The prime minister was a rabbi and his name is Isahis and he was a rabbi. He was a learned man. He rose in the ranks until he became the prime minister of this is a Jewish person and the people loved and respected him. The Muslim population loved and respected him. The books of history mention that when the reconquesta began because the conquest took 500 years, right? When it first began, Ibnah, this Jewish vizier was leading the Muslim army in jihad to defend against the crusaders. Can you believe this?

And because in those times everybody dressed up in a particular garb, they wore Quranic, you know, talismans for the time it is said wore the Quranic coat of armor verses of the Quran. and he's leading the Muslims in actual jihad against the Christians who are invading against and he defends and he wins and he protects this is the reality of Jewish life under the uh rule. Now, some people point out that 20 years later, a mini massacre occurs. And this you have to be careful, sisters and brothers, when you read these types of things.

Do your research. Do your research. It is true. A mini massacre occurred against the Jews of Kobba. But why? I'll tell you why. You won't find this too often because people just want to say, "Oh, the Muslims rebelled and they massacred hundreds of Jewish people in Inba." It's true, but I'll tell you the story. This guy, he died and he was buried with honors. His son 21 years old was given the next vazier ship as an honor that your father was a vazier you become the vazier. His son is Ysef Ibn Ysef turned out to be a traitor and the first thing he does he writes a letter to the next kingdom.

If you invade on such and such a date, I'll make sure you win over the kingdom. I'll distract the army and whatnot but there's one condition. You must make me the ruler and I'll pay taxes to you. Okay. So this guy Ysef, he attempted a coup d'eta and he got his people to support him and obviously his people were of a Jewish background. The letter was uncovered. The Muslims went wild. Mobs attacked the palace and literally shredded Ibah Ysef the son of the famous one. They literally shredded him and and you know tortured him to death and then they turned on his core, killed him and then it is true sad the mobs turned on the Jewish quarter because they thought this was a Jewish revolt against the city and innocent people lost their lives.

But the point is no sultan gave the command, no government instituted this and the reason why it happened was not because they were Jewish. it because it's because the notion came that the entire community is treacherous to us. That's why this happened. Then things went back to normal and Jewish communities began to flourish within 150 years.

The greatest Jewish mind in all of Jewish history was born and raised and studied in who is this person? Who can tell me? Mus Rambam is what the Jew Jewish people call him. The holy rabbi Rambam memorize this name. That's a title, honorific title. Musabun, Moses Maymonades. In the entire history of Judaism, there is no theologian that is more respected and venerated than Rambam. Rambam, Moses Mayades, born and raised in traveled the Muslim world, died and is buried in Egypt in Cairo. He spoke fluent Arabic. He went through the madrasa systems in those days. If you wanted to study, you went to the madrasa, right? And the madrasa is religious.

So you study the sciences along with Quran and hadith and so mun as a Jewish student and was not just given the freedom. He excelled in his studies and his biographers mention this. I'm not making this up. Read his modern day biography. He lived like a Muslim, prayed like a Muslim, recited Quran like a Muslim. Nobody forced him. It was free and you could be who you are. But he was in such awe of Islam that some people say he secretly converted for a few years. Allah but he lived like a Muslim in the dorms. And there was no pressure because in Andalucia there was a type of religious freedom that was not found anywhere in Europe. You could be a Christian, you could be a Jew Jew, you could be a ZerArustrian, you could be a Muslim.

And everybody lived freely in Andalooia. But Rambam decided to act like and memorize he Quran like a Muslim. Eventually, he goes back to his rabbi, you know, pro profession and he begins writing. Now, this deserves an entire lecture. I don't have time to get into there, but it is one of my areas that I love to read about because intellectual history is my area. Moses may listen, I'll just summarize it. He took Islamic concepts and he judicized them. Mainstream Judaism is influenced by Moses Maymonades and Moses Maymonades is influenced by Islamic thought. Now this is not a conspiracy.

Again, look this up. In fact, there's an entire entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia. I just saw this today to make sure that I can reference to you. The Stanford Encyclopedia online which is one of the most largest online encyclopedias. The Stanford Encyclopedia of of intellectual thought has an entire article the Islamic influences on Moses Maymonades and of them his proofs fohe existence of God. His concept of God is coming straight out of ali notion of prophethood and what is prophethood? his notion of even theology. Pause here footnote sounds strange I know but Judaism by and large did not concentrate did not care about belief.

Judaism cared about what law Judaism cared about how you act. It had almost nothing to do with that's why they don't have any book on the first book of of Jewish theology. Who wrote it? Ram bam. the first book and you read this book and you are reading al Farabi al- Kindi you are reading Islamic mortali thought his conception of god of the attributes of his conception of prophethood it is coming straight out of his madrasa training and this is now mainstream Jewish belief I'm not making this up this is wellnown mainstream Jewish theology is coming straight out of and madrasa he just changed it you know made it a little bit and so And he wrote a creed to this day. To this day, the righteous or the observant Jewish people, the first thing they do when they wake up, they read Moses Mayad's one-page creed. And it begins I believe in I believe in just like just like other it literally begins I believe in and there's 13 points. I believe in God.

There is one type of stuff literally coming out of Islamic thought. He has no partner. cannot be described in this and that literally goes through and it goes all the way and I believe in resurrection I believe in the messiah that's going to come one of the 13 points I believe in the messiah so so this is coming from Mus by the way one interesting thing about Rambam wallah he's so ironic so ironic he became the best physician of his time because he mastered Ibena so he read Ibans Cena he mastered Ibena now he's the best physician he works his way up guess who he becomes the personal doctor to none other than Salahadin Alubi. Salahudin  Ayyubi takes him as his personal court doctor for a period of time. He travels with Salahaden. He is the primary doctor of Salahubi. Nobody can accuse our religion of anti-semitism. Nobody can accuse our sultans, our of hating people because of their different faith. It didn't happen that way. If you were talented, you were the best doctor. And it's so ironic. Salahudin is conquering Jerusalem. And Rambam is his main doctor. Subhan Allah.

How can we not remind our Jewish brethren of this reality? Look at from where to where? Look at the past. And now look at how that has flipped eventually. He he went to Egypt. He lived in Egypt. By the way, he wrote most of his writings in which language? Arabic. The chief rabbi of Judaism is writing his books in Arabic. This is well known. You can see them and look a look at them online. And he has a book called the guide of the perplexed.

And there are a number of papers about this that this is coming straight out of al Gazali's literally Imm Ghazali wrote and there is a book that he wrote for his people the guide for the perplexed and it has the same motifs the same notion again it's not copy paste because in the end of the day he's an intellectual thinker but he takes ideas. He takes notions from Islam and he judicizes them which is what we expect to do but where is the origin, what's the kernel of our faith tradition?.

It is true to say, It is true to say that never in the last 2,000 years before the creation of this country has the Jewish people flourished as they did under Muslim Spain, under Islamic Andalucia, their greatest minds, their largest synagogues. You can visit their synagogues to this day in Kuba, in Granada. They still have their synagogues that were built not under the Christians, under the Muslims. Where now in 1492 Ferdinand Isabella come the first decree all Jewish people will leave or convert or die be killed. Where did these 500,000 Jewish people go? The Sultan Muhammad II gave a decree.

Anybody who flees from Andalucia shall be welcomed in our lands anywhere you are. And he said any vizier, any governor, any businessman who impedes their settling, who stops them from settling in any city shall be punished by the Sultan himself. Sultan Mehmed II welcomed hundreds of thousands of Jewish people in 1492 with open arms. He literally saved them from execution or forced conversion. And he was angry at Ferdinand and Isabella and he goes, "This is not a good policy." But he thanked them. He goes, "But you are giving us your good minds, your good workers. Don't worry. We will take

them." Because of this, sisters and brothers, where did they go? They ended up in Morocco, in Tunisia. They ended up in Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of large Jewish communities were living in the Middle East, in Yemen. They were living there because Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jewish people. Muslims welcomed them and they said, "Come and live here." and they lived here up until 1947.

And by the way, before we even get to 1947, let's not forget another chapter in Muslim Jewish history. And this one, I was honestly surprised when I found out under Nazi rule when you're all aware what Hitler did. He made a policy, all the people of that background shall be exterminated. The most inhumane, barbaric policy in the entire history against uh the Jewish people was Hitler. He literally exterminated them by you know gas chambers and whatnot. Guess who intervened where possible in multiple countries?

Muslims sometimes at risk to their own lives stood up and protected Jewish people. And wall brothers and sisters I say to you honestly I have visited Ashwitz and I have studied this chapter in history. Wall I swear to you if I were alive at that point in time I would hope to Allah that I have the courage and bravery to stand up against the tyrant of tyranny of Hitler and to protect innocent women and children. The way they were brutalized, the way they were rounded up and just kill for no reason. Innocent babies. We saw thousands of toys and thousands of shoes of children literally just piled up there kill for no reason. I would hope I would have that courage as well. And I was so happy to hear so many people stood up.

The Sultan of Morocco, interesting Morocco was under the French rule and so technically it was not independent. Yet when the French said give us your Jewish people, Sultan Muhammad the 5th said no way. These people are our brethren. They have lived with us for centuries. they shall not be handed over. So, Sultan Muhammad refused to obey the Nazi policies under uh the the French rule of the of the Nazis. Tunisia as well refused. The Ottomans refused. In Bosnia, the Muslims refused. And perhaps the most brave act of courage because it wasn't a government. It was brave. In France, the Muslims who were under the Nazi occupation.

So, the Nazis, if you remember your history, they invaded France and they took it over. So you have Nazi rule in France for a few years. You literally had Nazis ruling France before the liberation in 1947. So Nazis are in control. Muslims were allowed to live as secondass citizens. The Imam of the masid, the Imam of the masid, the Grand Mosque of Paris. I visited it. It's a very beautiful masid built in the 1930s. It's still standing to this day. It's a beautiful iconic masid in Europe. The Imam of the masid gave a secret talk to the Muslims. And he encouraged the Muslims. If you know any Jewish friends of yours, bring them in. We will protect them in our mosque.

The basement of the masjid became a home for the Jews under Nazi rule in France. And this was engineered by the imam, the sheikh. And some people were didn't have space. He forged Islamic documents and told them to dress like Muslims. And it is said he saved over a thousand people by this policy. A thousand Jewish people in France were saved by the Muslim community who literally banded together. They didn't tell any secrets that there were families in the basement of the masjid. And those that didn't have space, the imam personally forged IDs that these are Muslims. Cuz you know in the end of the day what do the Nazis know?

They look different. They talk different. They dress different. They pretend to be Muslims. This is what you call Islamic rule. This is what is of the Muslim. When this tyrant comes, you're not going to allow him to do this. You will protect them. And so it is truly sad that all of this history has been completely forgotten. What happened? Obviously, you're aware in 1947, it is estimated there were around less than a million Jewish people living in Arab and Muslim lands. Less than maybe 900,000.

That's a huge number, by the way, especially after World War II. After World War II, you had more Jewish people across the Middle East than Arab lands than anywhere in Europe, right? So almost a million living in Yemen, in Cairo, in Iran, in Morocco. These are all people of of of Jewish background.

What happens in 1947? The the the country of Israel is formed and they make a call, a plea that if you come here, you will be given perks and land. If you come here, you'll be given a better economic status. And so, majority of them migrated. Why did they migrate? Put yourself in their shoes. It's their land from their perspective. Obviously, they're getting their own people. They're getting a citizenship.

They're getting uh land they they feel it's going to be safer for them. Some of them believe in in Zionism. And yes, I'm not going to deny because of the atrocities in 1947 and the massacres against Arabs, it is true in a number of Muslim lands, for the first time in history, these types of sentiments that we now are familiar with began to develop against the Jewish population. I'm not going to deny this. But why did it happen? Because of politics of Israel, not because they were Jews. Because Israel massacred thousands, hundreds of thousands of Muslims, expelled hundreds of thousands of Arabs. Well, then there's going to be a feeling of sentiment. Why are you guys doing here? Go where you belong and whatnot. So, all of this put together in the next 5 to 10 years from 900,000 Jews in Arab and Muslim lands. Currently, it is estimated there are less than 15,000 across all lands. 200 here, 500 here.

All of them have come to Israel. But one final point and with this we conclude. Subhan Allah. This is something you need to know. All Muslims. This division of living under Muslim, living under Christian, it had and has and continues to have a profound impact on the demographics of the country of Israel. Judaism is divided into multiple groups. The three most important groups. Number one Ashkenazi. Number two, Cifard. Number three, Misrai. These three divisions go back to whether they were living under Europe or under Muslim rule. And the most Europeanized Jewish people are the Ashkanazis. These are the ones, they never lived under Muslim lands. These are the ones they have a different cultural background. They're more European generally. They're more secular. Generally, they're the ones in charge.

Generally, they're soioeconomically privileged. And they're the governments ever since the founding of Israel. Sepharim are those Jewish people that were kicked out of kicked out of and Lucia and Misrai are the Jewish people who lived in Arab lands Yemen, Iran, other places for many millennia. They are the smallest generally and Misrai are more pious. They're more orthodox. They're more religious. They're more believing in God. And a lot of you don't know this. In Israel, they are treated like secondass citizens in Israel because they can tell by your looks, they can tell by your name, they can tell by your culture.

 The Ashkenazis who have a white skin color are the superior class. And of course, there's even a lower category, the Felashia, which they're coming from Ethiopia, and you should see how they are treated in uh Israel. They are the lowest of the low. But above them are the misrais and above them are the cifharim. Sherpadic and Mizrahi. They are ghettoized in Israel in the 40s and 50s. They were not given the land they were promised.

 They were not given the perks that the Ashkanazis were given to. They were not given government positions. And this caused, I'm not joking, you can look this up. In the 60s and 70s, political parties, some of them semiviolent from the cifharim, from the misrai, were formed to fight against whom? Against whom? The Arabs? No, Ashkenazis. To fight for their rights. And these days there is a massive um party in in um uh in Israel called the Shas party. S h a s the shas party. It is the fourth or the fifth largest party.

 It is a party that was founded to protect the rights of the Arab Jews i.e. thearim and the misrai Jews so that they have equal rights as the Ashkanazis. You have to realize racism is rampant in that group of people even amongst their own. Any Jewish person who lived in Muslim lands who spoke Arabic who comes from an Arabic culture is not treated with the same respect as the Europeans. And this is well-known open secret. Go look it up. Go do your research in this regard.

 So this is one point and I want to conclude on this point sisters and brothers and that is that we are not mentioning this wall. We are not mentioning this to remind them of a debt they owe us. No we did this because Allah told us to do it not because of them. We did this because our prophet taught us this is how we treat

minorities. We would do it all over again. But we just want to show the world this is Islamic law.

 

This is Islamic Sharia. the freedoms that they had, the intellectual, you know, curiosities, the the books that they produced, they couldn't produce a fraction of them in Europe in medieval times. And that is what we give to the world. It is truly sad. And we don't say this as a debt or a favor. We're just pointing out the facts. It is truly sad that the same descendants of those whom we saved, those who were given refuge with us, they have flipped the script and they are doing what Hitler did to them, they are doing to the very people who protected them. And we just say this as a historical fact and record. Otherwise, we complain to Allah and Allah alone.

 

These are facts we should all know. And we are proud as Muslims of our history and we're proud of our and there's nothing to be ashamed of. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. And inshallah we'll continue in the same vein.