WEBVTT

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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

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The best of generations in their conduct and example,

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Following the Messenger when he strove or spoke.

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A collection of affection,

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Proceed.

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Scenes from the Life of the Tabi'un,

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By Dr. Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha,

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May Allah have mercy upon him.

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Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi,

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May Allah have mercy upon him.

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The English poet Southey said,

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Describing the Muslim armies that invaded Europe after the conquest of al-Andalus:

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"Countless multitudes,

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Of Arabs, Berbers, and foreign Romans,

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Persians, Copts, and Tatars,

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Have all gathered under one banner,

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United by a fervent faith,

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Firm in its chivalry,

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And a zeal burning like sparks,

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And an astonishing brotherhood that makes no distinction between men."

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Their leaders were no less confident of victory than they were,

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Having been intoxicated by the zeal of triumph,

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And pride in that mighty power,

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Before which nothing could stand.

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They were certain that their armies could never be overcome by fatigue,

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For they were always youthful and vibrant, as if they had been unleashed for the first time.

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They believed that wherever they moved,

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Victory and conquest walked in their wake,

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And that they would always surge forward,

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Until the conquered West became like the East,

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Bowing its head in reverence to the name of Muhammad, peace be upon him.

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And until the pilgrim rises from the furthest reaches of the frozen lands,

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To tread with the feet of faith upon the burning sands,

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Scattered across the desert of the Arabs,

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And stand upon the solid rocks of Makkah.

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You were not far from the truth, O poet,

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Nor were you wandering in the valleys of imagination,

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In much of what you said.

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For the armies led by the mujahidin,

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To bring your forefathers out of their profound ignorance,

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Were just as you described.

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Among them were Arabs, strengthened by Allah,

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Who rushed to you from al-Sham,

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From the Hijaz,

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From Najd,

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From Yemen,

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From every place in the Arabian Peninsula,

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Like the sent wind.

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Among them were Berbers, ennobled by Islam,

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Who poured upon you from above the Atlas Mountains,

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Like a torrential flood.

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Among them were Persians,

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Whose minds had grown weary of the idolatry of the Chosroes,

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And who returned to the religion of monotheism,

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And the path of the All-Mighty, the Praiseworthy.

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Among them were the foreign Romans, as you said,

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But they had rebelled against injustice and darkness,

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And aligned themselves with the Light of the heavens and the earth,

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And were guided to the upright religion.

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Among them were Copts,

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Who lifted from their necks the yoke of slavery to the Caesars,

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To live as their mothers bore them,

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Free under the shade of Islam.

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Yes,

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The army led by Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi and his predecessors,

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To save your ancestors from ignorance,

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Included the white and the black,

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The Arab and the non-Arab,

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But they were all melted into the crucible of Islam,

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And by the grace of Allah, they became brothers.

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Their concern, as you mentioned, was

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To bring the West into the religion of Allah,

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Just as they had brought the East before it,

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To make all of humanity bow its head to the Lord of mankind,

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To let the light of Islam spread through your plains and valleys,

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To let its sun shine in every one of your homes,

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And to let its justice equalize your kings and your commoners.

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They had resolved to offer their souls as the price for your guidance to Allah,

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And for your salvation from the Fire.

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And now,

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Here is the final story of this army,

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And the account of its peerless hero, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi.

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The Duke of Aquitaine received alarming news of the death of his brother-in-law, Uthman ibn Abi Nisa,

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And the tidings reached him of the sad end,

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That had befallen his beautiful daughter, Minin.

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He realized that the drums of war had been beaten,

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And he became certain that the Lion of Islam, Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi,

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Was either upon him by evening or by morning.

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So he prepared to defend every inch of his land with the defense of the desperate,

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And readied himself to struggle for his own life and kingdom with the readiness of the defiant.

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For he feared that he would be led, like the other, as a captive to the Caliphate in al-Sham,

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Just as his daughter had been led,

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Or that his head would be carried on a platter,

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And paraded through the markets of Damascus,

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Just as the head of Roderic,

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The King of Spain, had been paraded before.

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Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi did not prove the Duke's fears wrong,

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For he set out with his massive army from northern al-Andalus,

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Like a cyclone.

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And he descended upon southern France from over the Pyrenees,

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Like a flood.

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The equipment of his army was one hundred thousand mujahidin,

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Within each of whom beat the heart of a lion,

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And in whose veins flowed the resolve of a giant.

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The Islamic army turned its face toward the city of Arles,

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Situated on the banks of the Rhone River,

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For he had a score to settle with it.

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The fact was that this Arles had made peace with the Muslims,

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On the condition that they pay the jizya.

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But when al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani was martyred,

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In the Battle of Toulouse,

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And the Muslims were weakened by his death,

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The people of Arles renounced their obedience,

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And broke their covenant,

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And refused to pay the jizya.

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When Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi reached the outskirts of the city,

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He found that the Duke of Aquitaine,

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Had mobilized his dense forces there,

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And gathered them around its borders,

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And stood to repel the Islamic advance upon it.

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Then, it was not long before the two armies met face to face,

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And a grinding battle took place between the two parties,

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During which Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi launched battalions from his army,

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Who loved death more than their enemies loved life,

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So he shook the foundations of the enemy,

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And tore through their ranks,

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And entered the city this time by war,

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And set the sword to the necks of its people,

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And inflicted heavy losses upon them,

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And took from them spoils that could not be counted.

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As for Duke Eudes,

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He fled with those who remained alive of his soldiers,

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And began to prepare for another encounter with the Muslim armies,

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For he knew that the Battle of Arles,

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Was the beginning of the road, not its end.

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Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi crossed the Garonne River with his massive army,

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And his victorious battalions began to roam the province of Aquitaine,

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“And thou wouldst have deemed them waking though they were asleep, and We caused them to turn over to the right and the left, and their dog stretching out his paws on the threshold. If thou hadst observed them closely thou hadst assuredly turned away from them in flight, and hadst been filled with awe of them.” (18:18)

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And the cities and villages began,

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To fall under the hooves of his horses,

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Like leaves falling from trees in the autumn,

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When the fierce winds blow upon them.

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The Muslims added to their previous spoils,

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Subsequent spoils that no eye had seen before,

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And no ear had heard of.

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The Duke of Aquitaine tried,

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To confront this great advance once again,

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So he clashed with the Muslims in a fierce battle,

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But the Muslims soon defeated him with a crushing defeat,

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And inflicted upon him a devastating catastrophe,

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And tore his army to pieces,

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And left his soldiers between killed, captured, and routed.

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Then the Muslims headed to the city of Bordeaux,

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The largest French city at that time,

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And the capital of the province of Aquitaine,

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And they fought its prince in a battle no less horrific,

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Than the previous battles,

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In which the attackers and the defenders showed bravery,

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A bravery that evokes wonder and admiration.

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But the great and dangerous city,

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Soon fell into the hands of the Muslims,

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Just as its sisters had fallen before it,

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And its prince was soon killed among the dead.

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The Muslims acquired from the spoils of Bordeaux,

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What made all the spoils they had acquired before seem insignificant.

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The fall of Bordeaux into the hands of the Muslims,

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Was the opening for the fall of many other dangerous cities,

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The most important of which were Lyon, Besançon, and Sens,

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And the latter was not far from Paris,

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By more than a hundred miles.

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Europe shook from its furthest reaches to its furthest reaches,

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At the fall of half of southern France into the hands of Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi,

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Within a few months.

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The Franks opened their eyes to the imminent danger,

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And a cry went out everywhere,

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Calling the weak and the able to stand in the face of this horror coming from the East,

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And urging them to confront it with their chests,

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If swords were scarce,

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And calling them to block the road before it with their bodies,

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If equipment was lacking.

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So Europe responded to the caller's call,

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And people came to join under the banner of Charles Martel,

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Bringing with them trees, stones, thorns, and weapons.

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The Islamic army at that time,

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Had reached the city of Tours,

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The foremost of the cities of France in population,

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And strength in structure and antiquity in history.

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And the city was, moreover,

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Boasting over most of the cities of Europe with its luxurious and massive church,

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Filled with magnificent relics and precious treasures.

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So the Muslims surrounded it like a collar around a neck,

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And descended upon it like death when the appointed time comes,

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And they considered their souls and lives cheap for the sake of conquering it.

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So it soon fell into their hands,

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Within the sight and hearing of Charles Martel.

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And in the last ten days of the month of Sha'ban,

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In the year one hundred and four after the Hijrah,

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Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi marched with his massive army upon the city of Poitiers,

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And there he met with the massive armies of Europe,

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under the leadership of Charles Martel.

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One of the decisive battles between the two sides took place,

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not only in the history of the Muslims and the Franks,

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but in the history of all humanity.

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This battle became known

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as the Battle of Tours (Balat al-Shuhada').

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The Islamic army was, at that time,

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at the peak of its dazzling victories.

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Yet, its burden was heavy with the spoils of war

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that had poured upon them like a torrential rain,

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and piled up in the hands of its soldiers like gathering clouds.

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Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi looked

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upon this vast and immense wealth

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with a gaze of anxiety and apprehension,

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fearing for the Muslims because of it.

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He was concerned that these treasures

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might preoccupy their hearts during the encounter,

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and distract their souls in moments of intensity,

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causing one eye of the soldier

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to be fixed on the approaching enemy,

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while his other eye remained on the spoils in his hands.

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He intended to order his soldiers

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to dispose of these vast and immense riches,

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but he feared their hearts would not be content

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with such a grave decision,

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and that their souls would not permit them to abandon

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that precious treasure.

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Thus, he found no better way than to gather

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these spoils in special camps,

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and place them behind the army

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before the fighting began.

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The two great armies stood for several days,

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each facing the other,

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in stillness, anticipation, and silence,

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like two mountain ranges

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standing one against the other.

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Each army feared the might of its adversary

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and prepared for the encounter with the utmost caution.

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When time dragged on in this state,

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and Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi sensed

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the fires of zeal and courage

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boiling in the chests of his men,

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he chose to be the one to initiate the attack,

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relying on the virtues of his soldiers,

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and optimistic about his good fortune in victory.

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Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi charged

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with his cavalry against the ranks of the Franks,

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with the ferocity of predatory lions.

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The Franks stood firm against them,

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and the first day of the battle ended

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without the scales tipping in favor of either side.

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Nothing separated the combatants

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but the descent of darkness

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upon the battlefield.

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Then the combat resumed the following day,

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and the Muslims launched against the Franks

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heroic assaults,

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yet they did not achieve their objective.

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The battle continued in this state

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for seven long, arduous days.

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When the eighth day arrived,

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the Muslims launched a unified charge against their enemy,

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opening a large gap in their ranks,

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through which victory appeared to them

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just as the light of dawn appears

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through the darkness.

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At that moment, a detachment of Frankish battalions raided

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the camps of the spoils.

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When the Muslims saw that their spoils

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were about to fall into the hands of their enemies,

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many of them turned back

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to recover them.

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Consequently, their ranks fractured,

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their masses faltered,

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and their momentum was lost.

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The great commander rushed to act,

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and while the hero of Islam,

00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:05.700
Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi,

00:16:05.700 --> 00:16:08.700
was traversing the battlefield on the back of his horse,

00:16:08.700 --> 00:16:11.700
his grey steed, moving back and forth,

00:16:11.700 --> 00:16:14.700
charging and retreating,

00:16:14.700 --> 00:16:17.700
he was struck by a fatal arrow.

00:16:17.700 --> 00:16:20.700
He fell from his horse

00:16:20.700 --> 00:16:23.700
like an eagle descending from mountain peaks,

00:16:23.700 --> 00:16:27.179
and died a martyr on the battlefield.

00:16:27.179 --> 00:16:30.179
When the Muslims saw this,

00:16:30.179 --> 00:16:33.179
panic spread among them and distress prevailed.

00:16:33.179 --> 00:16:36.179
The enemy's pressure intensified upon them,

00:16:36.179 --> 00:16:39.179
and nothing halted their ferocity but the arrival of darkness.

00:16:39.179 --> 00:16:44.000
When morning came,

00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:47.000
Charles Martel found

00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:50.000
that the Muslims had withdrawn from Poitiers.

00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:53.000
He did not dare to pursue them,

00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:56.000
for had he pursued them, he would have annihilated them,

00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:59.000
as if he feared their withdrawal was a ruse

00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:02.000
of war, devised in the night.

00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:05.000
So he chose to remain in his positions,

00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:08.000
content with that great victory.

00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:11.259
The day of Balat al-Shuhada' was

00:17:11.259 --> 00:17:14.259
a decisive day in history,

00:17:14.259 --> 00:17:17.259
in which the Muslims lost one of their most cherished hopes,

00:17:17.259 --> 00:17:20.259
and during which they lost a hero

00:17:20.259 --> 00:17:23.259
among the greatest of heroes.

00:17:23.259 --> 00:17:26.259
It reenacted the tragedy of the day of Uhud,

00:17:26.259 --> 00:17:29.259
for such is the Sunnah of Allah in His creation,

00:17:29.259 --> 00:17:32.259
and you will never find any change in the Sunnah of Allah.

00:17:32.259 --> 00:17:36.890
The news of the tragic day of Balat

00:17:36.890 --> 00:17:39.890
al-Shuhada' shook the souls of the Muslims

00:17:39.890 --> 00:17:42.890
everywhere with a violent tremor,

00:17:42.890 --> 00:17:45.890
and their hearts were shaken by its horror

00:17:45.890 --> 00:17:48.890
with a severe quaking.

00:17:48.890 --> 00:17:51.890
Grief spread because of it to every city,

00:17:52.890 --> 00:17:55.890
and its painful wound

00:17:55.890 --> 00:17:58.890
still bleeds blood from their hearts to this day,

00:17:58.890 --> 00:18:01.890
and it will continue to bleed as long as there remains

00:18:01.890 --> 00:18:04.980
a Muslim on the face of the earth.

00:18:04.980 --> 00:18:07.980
Do not think that this deep,

00:18:07.980 --> 00:18:10.980
gaping wound has pained the hearts

00:18:10.980 --> 00:18:13.980
of the Muslims alone;

00:18:13.980 --> 00:18:16.980
rather, a group of the wise among the Franks

00:18:16.980 --> 00:18:19.980
shared in that sentiment.

00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:22.980
For what befell the Muslims in Poitiers

00:18:22.980 --> 00:18:25.980
was a great calamity that afflicted humanity,

00:18:25.980 --> 00:18:28.980
and a tremendous loss

00:18:28.980 --> 00:18:31.980
that struck Europe at its core,

00:18:31.980 --> 00:18:35.079
and a disaster that befell civilization.

00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:38.079
If you wish to know the opinion of some of them

00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:41.079
regarding the tragedy of Balat al-Shuhada',

00:18:41.079 --> 00:18:44.079
then listen to Henri de Chambon,

00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:47.079
the director of the French magazine *Revue Parlementaire*,

00:18:47.079 --> 00:18:50.079
as he said:

00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:53.079
"Had it not been for the victory of the barbaric army of Charles Martel

00:18:53.079 --> 00:18:56.079
over the Arab Muslims in France,

00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:59.079
our country would not have fallen into the darkness

00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:02.079
of the Middle Ages,

00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:05.079
nor would it have been afflicted by its horrors,

00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:08.079
nor would it have suffered the civil massacres

00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:11.079
to which religious and sectarian fanaticism drove it."

00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:14.079
Yes,

00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:17.079
and had it not been for the savagery against the Muslims in Poitiers,

00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:20.079
Spain would have continued to enjoy the tolerance of Islam,

00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:23.079
and would have been spared the stigma of the Inquisition,

00:19:23.079 --> 00:19:26.079
and the progress of civilization would not have been delayed

00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:29.079
by eight centuries.

00:19:29.079 --> 00:19:32.079
Regardless of the differing feelings and opinions

00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:35.079
regarding that victory of ours,

00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:38.079
we owe the Muslims all the merits

00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:41.079
of our civilization in science, art, and industry.

00:19:41.079 --> 00:19:44.079
We are compelled to admit that they were

00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:47.079
the ideal of human perfection

00:19:47.079 --> 00:19:50.079
at a time when we were the ideal of barbarism.

00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:53.180
It is a fabrication what we claim today,

00:19:53.180 --> 00:19:56.180
that time has turned,

00:19:56.180 --> 00:19:59.180
and that the Muslims have reached in this era

00:19:59.180 --> 00:20:02.180
what we were upon

00:20:02.180 --> 00:20:09.079
in the Middle Ages.

00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:18.079
They were here,

00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:21.079
watering the clouds of our lives,

00:20:21.079 --> 00:20:24.079
so they died within us,

00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:27.079
their memory rising high.

00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:30.079
They departed and cast into the conscience

00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:33.079
a question: is there anyone like them,

00:20:33.079 --> 00:20:36.079
a star that rose and shone?

00:20:36.079 --> 00:20:39.079
They filled life

00:20:39.079 --> 00:20:42.079
with pride through their deeds,

00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:46.079
and the world of humanity flourished because of them.