Part of It happened in Ramadan (the series is completed)
· Lesson 8 of 10
Event in Ramadan | D. Abdul Rahman Raafat Al-Basha | H (8) | Demolition of the city of Ashkelon
0:000:00
Transcript
Machine translation — may contain errors
0:00
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
0:04
The Mawaddah Association presents:
0:09
"Events in Ramadan."
0:13
By Ra'd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha.
0:16
The Demolition of the City of Ashkelon.
0:21
On the first of Ramadan in the year 587 AH.
0:26
There was a hero among the heroes of the Muslims,
0:29
gripping a large pickaxe with both of his strong hands,
0:33
and swinging it against the fortifications of a city belonging to his Ummah,
0:37
a precious pearl among the gems of his kingdom.
0:41
With him were his sons and his brothers,
0:44
his forces and his soldiers,
0:46
and vast throngs of his people.
0:49
In the hand of each of them was a pickaxe, striking at a side of the city.
0:55
As for the one holding the large pickaxe,
0:58
he was the great hero, Salah al-Din.
1:02
And as for the stricken city, it was Ashkelon.
1:06
Ashkelon was not, at that time, some remote village abandoned by its inhabitants,
1:12
left to the elements to demolish and ruin.
1:17
Nor was it a small, crumbling village
1:21
that one would find easy to abandon,
1:24
or easy to set one's hands to destroy.
1:28
Rather, it was one of the greatest cities of Palestine,
1:32
situated between Gaza and Bayt Jibrin,
1:35
resting on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea,
1:39
with towering heights and impregnable fortifications.
1:42
It stood like a giant in the middle of the road between Egypt and the Levant.
1:46
It watched like a vigilant sentry over the approaches of the sea.
1:51
Ashkelon combined majesty with beauty;
1:55
for in addition to its formidable fortifications
1:59
and its towering battlements, it possessed clear signs of splendor and grace,
2:05
such that historians called it the "Bride of the Levant."
2:09
It was a title they were stingy with, bestowing it only upon Ashkelon and Damascus.
2:15
The demolition of Ashkelon at the hands of Salah al-Din has a long, stirring story,
2:21
beginning in the era of the Rightly Guided Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him),
2:26
and continuing to this very day.
2:29
The Muslims conquered the city of Ashkelon during the era of al-Faruq (may Allah be pleased with him),
2:34
when he sent word to Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan,
2:38
commanding him to conquer Ashkelon and the neighboring coastal cities.
2:43
Mu'awiyah obeyed the command and conquered the fortified city,
2:47
and stationed guards there to protect it from the raids of the Byzantines.
2:52
Then, groups of the noble Companions and the great Tabi'un began to flock to Ashkelon,
3:00
until it became a center of knowledge and religion,
3:04
and a refuge for the memorizers of the Qur'an and scholars of hadith.
3:07
The fortified city of Ashkelon remained in the hands of the Muslims
3:11
for five centuries and a quarter of a century,
3:14
holding the reins of the road between Egypt and the Levant,
3:17
and blocking the sea routes against every aggression.
3:21
In the year 548 AH,
3:25
the Crusader invasion swept over it, along with other Muslim lands they had overrun.
3:30
Its fall, along with the fall of its sister city Acre, into the hands of the Franks,
3:35
was a thorn in the throats of the Muslims and a speck of dust in the eyes of the mujahidin.
3:40
This is because whoever possessed Acre and Ashkelon possessed Jerusalem,
3:45
and severed the route between Egypt and the Levant.
3:48
Ashkelon and Acre remained in the hands of the Crusaders for nearly thirty-five years,
3:55
until Allah decreed that they be conquered at the hands of the hero of Islam and the Muslims, Salah al-Din.
4:02
On the day Salah al-Din conquered the city of Ashkelon,
4:06
hopes blossomed in his heart,
4:08
and he was overcome with a joy he had not felt with any previous conquest.
4:13
It is no wonder, for Ashkelon would bring him closer to his greatest aspiration:
4:18
the aspiration of liberating Jerusalem.
4:21
Salah al-Din sent a message to his people in Egypt
4:25
following the conquest of Ashkelon,
4:27
in which he said, after praising Allah as He deserves:
4:32
"We descended upon Ashkelon,
4:35
the impregnable stronghold, the fortified fortress, and the towering mountain.
4:40
It possessed a strength that exceeded all expectations.
4:44
We conquered it fourteen days after we descended upon it,
4:49
and the banners of Tawhid were raised upon its walls,
4:52
its homes were inhabited by Muslims,
4:55
and the mu'adhdhins called the takbir in all its quarters.
4:59
Our resolve is set on heading toward Jerusalem;
5:02
if Allah grants victory, we shall then turn to the city of Tyre.
5:07
Peace be upon you."
5:09
After the conquest of Ashkelon, Salah al-Din realized
5:12
that a door of goodness had been opened for him,
5:16
and that he must enter it.
5:18
He used to repeat the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him):
5:22
"Whoever has a door of goodness opened for him, let him seize it,
5:26
for he does not know when it will be closed against him."
5:31
At that, he gathered his scattered troops,
5:34
consolidated his divided forces,
5:37
assembled the elite of his soldiers and the best of his commanders,
5:40
and set out for the great conquest.
5:43
On Sunday, the 15th of Rajab,
5:46
in the year 583 AH,
5:50
Salah al-Din descended upon the Crusaders in Jerusalem like the hand of fate.
5:55
On the 27th of that month,
5:57
the hero liberated the city from the hands of the Crusaders,
6:01
and brought down the Great Cross from atop the Noble Rock,
6:05
after it had remained in the grip of the Crusaders for over ninety years.
6:10
The fall of Jerusalem stirred the fury of Europe;
6:13
it rose up in an uproar.
6:15
This great event shook the throne of the Pope,
6:18
who began to warn of woe and destruction,
6:21
and called for a holy war.
6:23
Men rushed from every direction,
6:26
wealth flowed from every pocket,
6:29
and weapons poured in from every path.
6:32
The road to Jerusalem
6:34
was through Acre and Ashkelon.
6:37
The Crusaders attacked Acre with an assault the likes of which history had never witnessed,
6:42
and the Muslims defended it with a defense the likes of which history had never witnessed.
6:47
Salah al-Din stood alone against all of Europe,
6:51
and he and his army suffered such exhaustion
6:54
that they could no longer bear it.
6:56
He realized that he would inevitably be defeated
6:59
if a helping hand did not reach him from the Caliph of the Muslims.
7:03
So he sent a message from the fields of jihad
7:06
to the calm and tranquil Caliph in Baghdad,
7:10
in which he said:
7:12
"The long duration and the heavy expense
7:14
have taken their toll on us and our soldiers.
7:17
The disbelievers are being reinforced by the sea;
7:19
the sea brings them ships more numerous than its waves,
7:22
and soldiers more plentiful than its foam.
7:25
If the Muslims kill one of them on land,
7:29
the sea sends a thousand in his place,
7:32
and if one rank of them is wiped out, they bring twenty more."
7:36
Then he said:
7:38
"The King of the Germans has come out against us,
7:41
along with the kings of the Cross,
7:43
the masses from beyond the sea,
7:45
and the hordes of all the nations of disbelief.
7:47
Their Pope has forbidden them every comfort,
7:50
extracted every reserve from their treasuries,
7:53
clothed them in mourning garments,
7:56
and bound them to the plan of jihad,
7:58
so that they might seize from our hands the tomb of Christ
8:02
and rescue the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from us."
8:05
Then he continued:
8:07
"This requires us to exhaust the resolve of men
8:11
and deplete our financial treasuries.
8:14
It is incumbent upon the Caliph of the Muslims
8:17
to protect the qiblah of his subjects,
8:20
and to remove their affliction."
8:22
Then he said:
8:24
“He said: My Lord! I have control of none but myself and my brother, so distinguish between us and the wrong-doing folk.” (5:25)
8:28
"My brother has already joined your side,
8:31
and here are my children;
8:33
I have exposed their faces to your enemy,
8:37
and for your sake, I would not mind seeing them suffer harm."
8:41
Then he implored the Caliph, saying:
8:44
"O kin of Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him),
8:49
be his successor in his Ummah,
8:51
and fulfill your duty toward them.
8:53
Do not delay our aid,
8:55
for the benefit of relief is only found before it is too late."
9:00
Then he concluded his sorrowful letter, saying:
9:04
"Furthermore,
9:06
even if time has bitten us, we remain.
9:10
We pledge to Allah that we shall remain standing
9:14
until we are victorious or we have fulfilled our duty.
9:16
And that no one shall reach the descendants of Ahmad
9:20
as long as there remains one of the descendants of the Ayyubids to be remembered."
9:24
Salah al-Din's letter did not find a listening ear from the Caliph and his men,
9:30
nor did it find receptive hearts.
9:33
The Muslims continued to defend Acre
9:36
until it fell into the hands of the Crusaders,
9:39
after swords had become blunt, arms had grown weary, and resolve had faltered.
9:44
It was a day of great calamity for the Muslims.
9:48
The Crusaders did not miss the opportunity;
9:50
they directed their armies toward Ashkelon,
9:53
and beyond Ashkelon lay Jerusalem.
9:56
Salah al-Din found himself unable to repel the Crusaders from Ashkelon,
10:02
and realized he had to make a firm decision in a critical situation.
10:07
Making firm decisions in critical situations
10:11
is a matter that only the greatest of men can handle.
10:15
Umar ibn al-Khattab made a firm decision in a critical situation
10:20
the day he pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr at the Saqifah,
10:23
thereby ending evil and establishing order.
10:26
Abu Bakr made a firm decision in a critical situation
10:30
when he resolved to fight those who withheld zakat,
10:34
thereby protecting Islam and preserving the religion.
10:37
Salah al-Din made a firm decision in a critical situation,
10:41
and decided to demolish Ashkelon
10:43
and remove it from existence,
10:46
so that the enemy would not use it as a fortress, a residence, or a base.
10:50
It would have been difficult for Salah al-Din to make his decision
10:55
had he not been a leader who was fully empowered and obeyed.
10:59
And it would have been difficult for the Muslims to execute it
11:02
had they not been on the same level as their leader.
11:05
Salah al-Din said on the day he issued his decision:
11:09
"By Allah, to lose all my children
11:12
is dearer to me than to demolish a single stone of Ashkelon,
11:16
but there is a benefit for Islam and the Muslims in doing so."
11:21
In late Sha'ban,
11:24
Salah al-Din sent his army to hinder the Crusader advance toward Ashkelon.
11:29
On the first of Ramadan,
11:31
he raised his pickaxes to demolish the great, ancient city,
11:36
with vast throngs of Muslims alongside him.
11:40
Then time turned its cycle,
11:42
and the swords of the Muslims drove the remnants of the Crusaders into the sea.
11:47
The descendants of Salah al-Din rebuilt Ashkelon,
11:51
and settled their children and offspring there.
11:54
It remained in the hands of the Muslims until the Jews took it from them,
11:59
and gave it the name Ashdod.
12:02
The city, stricken by its new invaders,
12:06
awaits today the liberating leader and the saving hero.
12:10
So, congratulations to the one through whose hands salvation will come.