In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
Mawaddah Association presents:
"It Happened in Ramadan,"
by 'Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha.
"The Day of 'Ayn Jalut."
“Say: If your fathers, and your sons, and your brethren, and your wives, and your tribe, and the wealth ye have acquired, and merchandise for which ye fear that there will no sale, and dwellings ye desire are dearer to you than Allah and His messenger and striving in His way: then wait till Allah bringeth His command to pass. Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.” (9:24)
◁and your brothers, your spouses, your clan,▷
◁and wealth which you have acquired,▷
◁and trade wherein you fear decline,▷
◁and trade wherein you fear decline,▷
◁and dwellings which you please,▷
“Say: If your fathers, and your sons, and your brethren, and your wives, and your tribe, and the wealth ye have acquired, and merchandise for which ye fear that there will no sale, and dwellings ye desire are dearer to you than Allah and His messenger and striving in His way: then wait till Allah bringeth His command to pass. Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.” (9:24)
◁and striving in His cause,▷
“Say: If your fathers, and your sons, and your brethren, and your wives, and your tribe, and the wealth ye have acquired, and merchandise for which ye fear that there will no sale, and dwellings ye desire are dearer to you than Allah and His messenger and striving in His way: then wait till Allah bringeth His command to pass. Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.” (9:24)
◁And Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people.▷
In the year 658 AH,
the Islamic world witnessed one of the monumental days of Allah,
in which Allah elevated the Muslims from humiliation to honor,
strengthened them from weakness,
granted them security from fear,
and granted them victory over an enemy that surpassed them in arms and equipment,
and vastly outnumbered them many times over.
The hero of this day was a young man who grew up in obedience to Allah,
dedicated himself sincerely to Allah,
and resolved firmly to champion His religion.
Allah accepted his intention,
reinforced his resolve, elevated his renown,
and honored him with a momentous day among the days of Allah.
As for that momentous day,
it was the Day of 'Ayn Jalut;
and as for the hero of this day,
he was al-Malik al-Muzaffar
Sayf al-Din Qutuz.
This glorious day,
and its great hero,
hold one of the most magnificent tales of valor.
At the dawn of the seventh century of the Hijrah,
an unruly, savage people surged forth from the outer fringes of China,
too numerous to count,
and impossible to reckon.
They swept over mankind like a devastating hurricane,
overrunning realms, toppling states,
annihilating armies, and destroying crops and cattle.
Within a remarkably short span of time,
they succeeded in subjugating China and Korea,
while sweeping in another direction
across Bulgaria and Russia,
Hungary and Poland;
and in a third direction, bringing under their heel
Turkestan, Samarqand, and Bukhara.
Beyond all that, they swallowed up
Rayy, Hamadan, and the mountainous lands of Jibal,
devouring Sijistan, Kirman, Ghazna,
and the neighboring lands of India,
until there remained not a single nation on the face of the earth
whose heart did not tremble with sheer terror before them,
awaiting its impending doom at their hands.
That was the nation of the Tatars,
or rather, the nation of total ruin.
Yet this nation brought upon the lands of the Muslims such destruction
as it had visited upon no other land,
and unleashed upon them horrors
that made the skins of historians crawl,
and their pens tremble as they wrote.
Sir Thomas Arnold described
what they committed during their invasion of the Islamic lands,
stating that the history of Islam—
despite the countless calamities that befell it—
had never known a catastrophe more harrowing than the Tatar invasions.
The hordes of Genghis Khan poured
into the Muslim lands like avalanches cascading from mountain peaks,
sweeping away the great Islamic metropolises in their path,
obliterating all the civilization and culture they contained,
and leaving behind throughout those lands
nothing but ruins and desolation.
He went on to say
that the day they swept through the flourishing city of Herat,
they reduced it to a leveled, barren plain;
and when they finally withdrew from it,
no more than forty men of its original inhabitants crawled out from their hideouts.
These wretched few
were the sole remnants of a population
that had once numbered well over one hundred thousand souls.
And in the city of Bukhara,
the sanctuary of scholars, the pious, and the righteous,
the Tatars tore apart copies of the Qur'an,
spreading them under the hooves of their horses in the stables
to serve as litter,
after slaughtering the men, enslaving the women,
and reducing that ancient city to a mere trace of its former self.
Yet the supreme catastrophe and greatest calamity struck Baghdad.
In the month of Safar,
in the year 656 AH,
the capital of the world fell into the clutches of the Tatars—
the seat of civilization, the sanctuary of the Caliphate,
the city of al-Mansur, al-Rashid, and al-Mu'tasim.
They brought down upon its magnificent quarters
horrors that would turn newborn babes gray-haired,
pillaging the ancient metropolis for forty consecutive days and nights.
Throughout this rampage, they demolished palaces and mansions,
blew up mosques and grand Friday prayer-halls,
burned libraries and academies,
destroyed hospitals and sufi hospices,
and put their swords to necks
until blood flowed through the alleyways like rivers.
None were spared among its inhabitants save the Jews and Christians,
whom they granted immunity for their lives and property to the exclusion of all others.
They would summon a man from among the nobles and scholars of Baghdad,
and he would emerge bringing his wife, sons, and daughters;
then they would lay him on his brow and slaughter him like a sheep,
enslaving whichever of his daughters they chose and slaughtering the rest.
Among those they murdered was al-Musta'sim, the Caliph of the Muslims;
they killed his two sons alongside him and took captive his three daughters:
Fatimah, Khadijah, and Maryam.
When those forty black days drew to a close,
Baghdad had become a leveled, barren waste:
no adhan was called from its minarets,
no Qur'an was recited in its mosques,
no Friday congregation was held in its grand sanctuaries,
and no light of learning radiated from its academies.
Historians differed regarding the number of its slain:
one group estimated the dead at one million,
while another held that they were a million or even more.
When that decreed catastrophe had run its course,
the corpses of the slain littered the roads like mounds.
Soon afterward, rain fell upon them,
disfiguring their forms and causing their rotting corpses to reek,
which polluted the air and gave rise to a virulent plague.
It spread from there to the lands of the Levant,
and countless multitudes perished as a result.
When a truce and safety were finally proclaimed in Baghdad,
those who had been hiding beneath the earth emerged
from pits, conduits, and tombs,
appearing just like the dead.
They failed to recognize one another,
to the extent that a father did not know his own son,
and a brother could not be certain of his brother.
Yet before long, the plague harvested them too,
and they joined those who had preceded them to the graves.
Then the Tatars pushed their armies toward the Levant,
and cities fell beneath their feet
like autumn leaves falling from trees.
Sheer terror marched before them,
paralyzing the inhabitants and opening the gates of cities,
which tempted them to invade Egypt,
Allah's quiver on His earth,
and to eliminate its ruler, Sayf al-Din Qutuz,
the hero of the Battle of 'Ayn Jalut.
So let us trace the life story of this commander—
this singular warrior—from its very beginning.
The young man, Mahmud Qutuz,
traced his noble lineage back to the Khwarazmian kings.
The Tatars had waged a devastating war against them,
seizing their lands, widowing their women,
and enslaving their children.
Among those who were captured and enslaved
was Mahmud Qutuz.
He then passed through the hands of slave dealers,
until he was bought by a prominent nobleman of Damascus,
renowned for piety and righteousness,
and known for his deep concern for the affairs of the Muslims,
grieving over their misfortunes
and caring for whatever troubled them.
The young youth grew up under the care of this master,
enjoying a noble, virtuous upbringing,
combining brilliance of heart and nobility of spirit
with sincerity of faith and the exalted guidance of Islam.
He used to frequent the assemblies of the great scholar of Damascus,
its venerable guide and practicing savant:
'Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam,
finding with him beneficial knowledge and sound admonition.
He would listen eagerly to his discourses,
which were ablaze with incitement to jihad,
encouragement toward martyrdom,
and censure of corrupt Muslim rulers.
At that time, the lands of the Muslims
were exposed to two massive, imminent invasions:
an invasion coming from the West
at the hands of the fanatical Crusaders,
and an invasion coming from the East
at the hands of the pagan Tatars.
The Sheikh's sermons on jihad
and martyrdom took complete hold of the youth,
awakening his heart and intellect so profoundly
that he saw the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, in a dream.
He approached him amidst a troop of horsemen,
with hair hanging down past his earlobes;
as soon as he reached him, he dismounted from his horse,
drew close to him, raised him firmly to his feet,
struck him upon the chest, and said to him:
"Rise, O Mahmud, and take this path to Egypt,
for you will rule it and defeat the Tatars."
Mahmud related his vision to his master, 'Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam,
who rejoiced at it and prayed:
"O Allah, fulfill the vision of Your servant Mahmud,
just as You fulfilled the vision of Your servant and truthful Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him."
From that day forth,
Mahmud's soul yearned to travel to Egypt.
His attachment to it grew all the stronger
when his master departed for it;
for al-Malik al-Salih Isma'il
grew thoroughly weary of the shaykh,
because he was inciting the people against him for abandoning jihad
and for colluding with Allah's enemies among the Crusaders;
so he banished him from the lands of the Levant,
forcing him to depart for Egypt.
Mahmud sought permission from his master to travel to the land of Egypt,
to rejoin his shaykh.
His master granted him leave, bid him farewell, and said:
"Do not forget the vision you saw, O Mahmud;
for whoever sees the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in a dream
has indeed seen him in truth."
Mahmud entered the service of Egypt's rulers,
where he began to display such diverse forms of valor
and exhibit such varieties of wisdom and shrewdness
as paved the way before him
to become a major commander among the army's leaders,
then the Sultan's deputy,
and ultimately the King of Egypt,
receiving the royal title al-Malik al-Muzaffar
Sayf al-Din Qutuz.
Barely had al-Malik al-Muzaffar established himself upon the throne of the land
when Hulagu, the king of the Tatars, sent to him
an epistle carried by five of his men, which read:
"From the King of Kings of the East and the West,
the Supreme Commander,
to al-Malik al-Muzaffar
and all the emirs of his realm in the Egyptian lands:
Truly, you have an admonition in the fate of other lands,
and a deterrent against resisting our resolve.
Take heed, therefore, by the example of others,
and surrender your affairs unto us.
You have surely heard that we have conquered the lands
and purged the earth of corruption;
so flight is your only recourse,
while relentless pursuit is ours.
For our steeds are fleet of foot,
our arrows pierce through all,
our swords strike like thunderbolts,
our hearts are unyielding as mountains,
and our numbers are vast as the sands."
Al-Malik al-Muzaffar gathered his emirs
and consulted them regarding the matter,
and their consensus was to meet the enemy in battle.
He then ordered the execution of Hulagu's five emissaries,
hung their heads upon the gate of Bab Zuwayla,
and set about preparing for war with utmost vigor.
Yet he observed the terror gripping the people regarding the Tatars
and their dread that they and their cities would suffer
the very same fate as Baghdad.
So he hastened to address the matter
by rekindling the flame of faith within their souls
and turning the people back toward Allah.
He established a bureau for jihad,
entrusting its supervision to his teacher and the venerable shaykh of the Muslims,
'Izz al-Din Ibn 'Abd al-Salam.
'Izz al-Din Ibn 'Abd al-Salam relied upon the mosque
to awaken slumbering hearts
and invigorate their flagging resolve.
He assembled the mosque preachers,
instructed them on what they ought to deliver from the pulpits,
and urged them to summon the people to jihad
and inspire them with the desire for martyrdom.
He refused to license any of those preachers
until they had committed Surat al-Anfal
and Surat al-Tawbah entirely to memory.
As a result of this,
the pulpits, homes, and marketplaces
became vibrant with the recitation of the verses of battle,
to the point that ordinary men, women, and children
almost knew them entirely by heart.
A profound religious fervor washed over
the souls of all,
encompassing every segment of society:
the transgressive ceased committing sins,
addicts abstained from drinking wine,
the people turned back in penitence to Allah,
the mosques overflowed with those bowing and prostrating,
and the people had no talk left to occupy them
except speaking of meeting the enemy of Allah and their enemy.
Barely had al-Malik al-Muzaffar completed his military preparations
when intelligence reached him
of the Tatars advancing toward his lands
to exact vengeance upon him for what he had done
and to sack his realm as they had sacked Baghdad before.
He rallied the people to jihad,
and they answered his call, light and heavy,
the elders and the youth,
having pledged to themselves to attain one of the two best outcomes:
victory or martyrdom.
On Friday morning,
five days remaining in Ramadan,
in the year six hundred and fifty-eight,
the two hosts met at 'Ayn Jalut,
located between Baysan and Nablus.
The Tatars' arrows began pouring relentlessly upon the heads of the Muslims,
sundering their ranks,
scattering their formations,
and paralyzing their movement.
When the distress grew severe upon them,
the Sultan ordered them to charge the enemy of Allah and their enemy.
Swords clashed violently against swords,
spears became hopelessly entangled with spears,
fierce slaughter broke out between both sides,
and each fought with the utmost gallantry.
When al-Malik al-Muzaffar beheld the sheer might of his enemy
and their immense manpower and boundless equipment,
he threw off his helmet from his head,
cast it to the ground,
and cried out in his roaring voice, proclaiming:
"O Islam! O Islam!"
Thus he inflamed his soldiers' hearts with the fire of faith
and ignited their souls with zealous devotion for Islam.
They swooped down upon their enemy like falling meteors,
continuing to fight them with fierce resolve
until they breached their dense battle lines
and penetrated deep into their packed multitudes.
Thereupon, Allah cast feebleness into the souls of the Tatars
and struck dread into their hearts.
Within an hour or so,
the enemy began to fall back,
then started to retreat in disarray,
and ultimately turned their backs in full flight.
The Muslims rode hard on their heels,
putting their necks to the sword
and routing them utterly.
To conclude:
the day of 'Ayn Jalut was indeed
the first day the invincible conquerors were defeated
and the subjugators themselves were overcome;
after that day, they never stood tall again.
And that Mamluk,
Sayf al-Din Qutuz,
was the first man to humiliate the tyrant Hulagu.
Islam was, and remains,
the wellspring of victory for the Muslims
and the path of honor for the believers.
True indeed are the words of Allah the Almighty when He says:
"Say, 'O Allah, Owner of All Sovereignty,
“Say: O Allah! Owner of Sovereignty! Thou givest sovereignty unto whom Thou wilt, and Thou withdrawest sovereignty from whom Thou wilt. Thou exaltest whom Thou wilt, and Thou abasest whom Thou wilt. In Thy hand is the good. Lo! Thou art Able to do all things.” (3:26)
and You take away sovereignty
from whom You will.
You honor whom You will,
and You humble whom You will.
In Your hand is all good.
Indeed, You are over all things competent.'"