Salahuddin: Those Who Walked In With Him

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَجَعَلَ الظُّلُمَاتِ وَالنُّورَ ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ يَعْدِلُونَ لَا يُحْصِي عَدَدَ نِعَمِهِ الْعَادُّونَ وَلَا يُؤَدِّي شُكْرَهُ الْمُتَحَمِّدُونَ وَلَا يَبْلُغُ مَدَى عَظَمَتِهِ الْوَاصِفُونَ بَدِيعُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ إِذَا قَضَى أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَلَا أَعْتَقِدُ رَبًّا إِلَّا إِيَّاهُ شَهَادَةَ مَنْ لَا يَرْتَابُ فِي شَهَادَتِهِ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ الْأَمِينُ وَرَسُولُهُ الْمُبِينُ أَرْسَلَهُ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى إِلَى خَلْقِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ بِلِسَانٍ عَرَبِيٍّ مُبِينٍ بَلَّغَ الرِّسَالَةَ وَأَدَّى الْأَمَانَةَ وَنَصَحَ الْأُمَّةَ وَكَشَفَ الْغُمَّةَ وَجَاهَدَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ الْمُشْرِكِينَ وَعَبَدَ رَبَّهُ حَتَّى أَتَاهُ الْيَقِينُ فَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ الطَّيِّبِينَ الطَّاهِرِينَ وَعَلَى أَصْحَابِهِ الْمُنْتَخَبِينَ وَعَلَى مَنْ سَارَ عَلَى نَهْجِهِمْ وَسَلَكَ طَرِيقَهُمْ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ ثُمَّ أَمَّا بَعْدُ

Recently across the pond, a man walked up to the podium to speak. He had barely begun when the people began to stand up and walk out. One person after the other, rows after rows, they became empty. All coming from different backgrounds, from different countries, from different languages, and they came to that room with different reasons as well. But yet most of that room had walked out for one person, for one reason, and the man was left speaking to empty chairs.

Now I want us to keep this image in our minds. People who have never met, people who disagree with one another, yet standing up at the same time for the same moment, walking towards the same direction.

Now, on this very day, more than 800 years ago, another crowd walked together. They walked into Jerusalem after nearly 90 years under occupation. Al-Aqsa was brought back into the hands of the Muslims, and it happened on the same night of the Isra and Mi'raj, the night Allah ’Azza wa Jal carried the Prophet ﷺ to the very same masjid.

We all know the name of the person at the very front. Every child in this masjid will be able to tell you about Salahuddin al-Ayyubi, but he did not walk alone. Walking with him were scholars and craftsmen, soldiers and tradesmen, Turks, Kurds, and Arabs and Persians. They were old, they were young, and they came from different lands, speaking different languages, yet they had the same single purpose: to liberate al-Aqsa.

Dear brothers and sisters, today I don't want to speak about the man at the very front, the man who was on the horse itself. I want to speak about those who were walking around him and besides him. The Qur'an tells us about another people who had the opportunity and was asked to walk into the same land, yet they would not do so.

Musa (alayhis salam) stood in front of his people and said:

يَا قَوْمِ ادْخُلُوا الْأَرْضَ الْمُقَدَّسَةَ الَّتِي كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ

"O my people! O my people, enter within al-Aqsa, walk into the holy land which Allah ’Azza wa Jal has destined for you."

وَلَا تَرْتَدُّوا عَلَى أَدْبَارِكُمْ فَتَنْقَلِبُوا خَاسِرِينَ

"And do not turn your backs, do not forego this opportunity, lest you become losers."

They were afraid, and they gave Musa an answer that Allah ’Azza wa Jal preserved word for word, where the people would say:

فَاذْهَبْ أَنْتَ وَرَبُّكَ فَقَاتِلَا إِنَّا هَاهُنَا قَاعِدُونَ

"Go, you and your Lord, go and fight. We are sat right here.

إِنَّا هَاهُنَا قَاعِدُونَ

We are sitting right here. We have no intention of moving."

Their leader was a prophet, a prophet who spoke to Allah ’Azza wa Jal directly. Yet they still found themselves wandering and lost for 40 years, because they stood and sat sitting down.

Now compare that with the companions at the Battle of Badr, where the Prophet ﷺ consulted the people before the battle, and there stood up al-Miqdad standing up and he said:

لَا نَقُولُ كَمَا قَالَ قَوْمُ مُوسَى اذْهَبْ أَنْتَ وَرَبُّكَ فَقَاتِلَا

"We will not say the same way that the people of Musa had said. We're not like them, like the ones who said, 'Go, you and your Lord, go and fight.'"

وَلَكِنَّا نُقَاتِلُ عَنْ يَمِينِكَ وَعَنْ شِمَالِكَ وَبَيْنَ يَدَيْكَ وَخَلْفَكَ

"However, ya Rasulallah, we will fight on your right, on your left, and in front, and behind you. We are everywhere. We are right by your side." And so the narrator describes the face of the Prophet ﷺ as lighting up.

For years we've been asking, where is our Salahuddin al-Ayyubi? However, I want to ask ourselves a slightly different question, because no leader walked through those same gates just by themselves. Which of those people are we, where we walk besides the person who conquers al-Aqsa? Of those who walked into Jerusalem that day, I want to highlight three sections of this group that we could fall into and that we can fall into.

The first is the one who planted for the day he would never see. Years before Jerusalem was ever freed, when most people thought it would never even happen in the first place, Salahuddin's teacher, Nur ad-Din Zengi, ordered a carpenter to create a minbar, a minbar for a masjid that was still under occupation, a minbar for a masjid that nobody could promise that a Friday prayer would be able to be prayed in that masjid. So people laughed, and they called the idea absurd, impossible, similar to the building of the ark of Nuh (alayhis salam).

وَيَصْنَعُ الْفُلْكَ وَكُلَّمَا مَرَّ عَلَيْهِ مَلَأٌ مِنْ قَوْمِهِ سَخِرُوا مِنْهُ

Nuh began building the ark, and whenever some of the chief of the people would walk by, they would begin mocking him. How absurd of an idea! You are in the middle of a desert, it's all dry land, why create an ark? For what reason?

Likewise, Nur ad-Din Zengi died in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem was freed yet he could not even pray and stand on the same minbar that he had commissioned to be built.

Yet the Prophet ﷺ taught us to think like this:

إِنْ قَامَتِ السَّاعَةُ وَفِي يَدِكَ فَسِيلَةٌ فَإِنِ اسْتَطَاعَ أَنْ لَا تَقُومَ حَتَّى يَغْرِسَهَا فَلْيَغْرِسْهَا

If the Hour is established and one of you has a sapling, a small sapling in their hand, and if the Hour comes and they can plant the sapling, plant the sapling.

The world is ending and you are still planting a tree whose shade you will never be able to benefit from. But what really matters is Allah ’Azza wa Jal seeing this attempt of you putting down that sapling. So to the elders here, the parents here, the grandparents here, you are building minbars. It is the Qur'an classes that you drive your grandson to every single weekend, or the du'a that you make for al-Ghazzah that you've made over for years and years and years. Someone may have told you none of this, you won't achieve anything through this. Yet remember, Nuh (alayhis salam) heard the exact same words, and Nur ad-Din Zengi heard the exact same words.

The second group of those who walked in al-Aqsa who we may be able to be part of is those who prepared a speech which they never got the opportunity to actually give in the first place. When the Jumu'ah prayer came into al-Aqsa, many scholars had walked in with Salahuddin al-Ayyubi to pray that salah, and many of them had hoped, "It could possibly be me, the one who's going to give that khutbah." So for many of them, writing this khutbah was an opportunity. Yet one stood and gave that Jumu'ah khutbah, and so every other scholar closed their pages, folded it, and listened to the khutbah like everybody else.

We do not know their names, but yet they still came anyways. And so the Prophet ﷺ praised this exact kind of person, where he said:

طُوبَى لِعَبْدٍ آخِذٍ بِعِنَانِ فَرَسِهِ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ

Glad tidings for a servant holding the reins of his horse in the path of Allah. And the hadith continues:

إِنْ كَانَ فِي الْحِرَاسَةِ كَانَ فِي الْحِرَاسَةِ

If he's put on the guard duty, he's put in the guard duty.

وَإِنْ كَانَ فِي السَّاقَةِ كَانَ فِي السَّاقَةِ

However, if he's put in the rear, if he's put behind, he accepts, he will stay at the rear.

So at the front or at the back, it makes no difference to him, because he was never there for the position in the first place. And this is the test of the heart, and it is hard. For many of us who want to help, we want to at least see somebody appreciating our work. Yet we need to ask ourselves down at heart, honestly, if we were to do this, yet nobody else were to know about this, would we still have done it?

And so to the young people, the students, the professionals, most of the work that you do for your communities, for Palestine, for even yourself has no stage. It is the research that you do that only a handful will ever read. It is the email that you send to the councils and the MPs. Again, the fundraisers where someone else will be standing on the mic. But wherever you are put, contributing to the Ummah, contributing to your own welfare, all of it has khayr.

And the third and final group that again we may find ourselves within, walking into al-Aqsa, that we can implement now is those who carried the rubble when they entered into al-Aqsa. Because when the Muslims walked into al-Aqsa, al-Aqsa itself was not ready for prayer. People had fortified walls around the salah, around the old mihrab, and for part of the masjid it was used as a storeroom and for much, much worse beyond that. So for an entire week, the people carried the rubble out, scrubbed the floors, sprinkled them with waters, and laid out the carpets so that the people can pray the Salatul Jumu'ah. And yet, despite that, we did not record the names of the people who did that.

Similarly in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, like the one who was known to have swept the masjid itself, and then the companions had buried this individual after they had passed away, and the Prophet ﷺ ensured to visit that grave. And so in this masjid, there are those marshals who ensure things are going well in the masjid for salah every Friday. There are those sisters who stack up the chairs after a late-night Gaza fundraiser. And there are those who hoover the carpets that we're still sitting on right now. Nobody writes down their names, yet Allah ’Azza wa Jal knows every single one of them.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْأَحَدِ الصَّمَدِ الَّذِي لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ

Dear brothers and sisters, that same minbar that I was speaking about stood in al-Aqsa for many centuries. However, within living memory, we saw it burned down as a result of the entire masjid itself being burnt down. And so craftsmen spent many years trying to rebuild it, and there it stands today in its original form.

So every generation that walks in, they must pick up as to what the last generation had carried. So, when you walk out of this masjid, what are certain things that we can do to support?

The first one: don't be like those who said,

إِنَّا هَاهُنَا قَاعِدُونَ

"We'll stay right here." Don't be like one of those. Pick one thing, one act for yourself, for your community, and for the Ummah at large, and keep doing it as long as it is needed.

It could be the boycott, a monthly donation, abstaining from a bad habit, or a letter to your MP. Keep it as long as, even after the news has settled on. And the people of Musa, they did not refuse very dramatically. Rather, they just stayed idly, stayed exactly where they were, making no meaningful progress. So take that first step and stick with it.

The second thing that we can do is, and realise this, walk with those who may not be quite like you. The people who walked into that hall and walked out of that hall across the pond came from all across the world. And likewise, those who walked into Jerusalem came from their different backgrounds. But yet this is the nature of doing goodness. Hence Allah ’Azza wa Jal says:

وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى وَلَا تَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ

Cooperate with one another towards goodness and righteousness, and do not cooperate towards sin and aggression.

And finally, plant something you may never see. Whether it be the tasbih and the tahlil that you repeat, growing your garden in Paradise, or donating towards building a masjid, building your mansion in Paradise. Teach your children the name of al-Aqsa. Read them the first verse of al-Isra, Surah al-Isra, and tell them how our Prophet ﷺ led all of the prophets in prayer in that masjid. Despite the generation of Salahuddin almost never seeing al-Aqsa in their lives, yet they still liberated it. It lived in their hearts throughout their entire time.

When the first khutbah was given in al-Aqsa, one of the verses that it opened up with was with the same verses we opened up in this khutbah today:

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ

All praise is due to Allah, who created the heavens and the earth, and made darkness and light. Darkness first, and then light. We ask Allah to free al-Aqsa and all of Palestine, and let us, or our children, or our children's children to pray in it. We ask Allah to make us amongst those who walk and not to be the ones who are sat idle. We ask Allah to accept all the saplings that we plant and never get to see grown, and every act of service that no one else notices.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ كَمَا صَلَّيْتَ عَلَى إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَعَلَى آلِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِنَّكَ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ كَمَا بَارَكْتَ عَلَى إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَعَلَى آلِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِنَّكَ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِنَا فِيمَنْ هَدَيْتَ وَعَافِنَا فِيمَنْ عَافَيْتَ وَتَوَلَّنَا فِيمَنْ تَوَلَّيْتَ وَبَارِكْ لَنَا فِيمَا أَعْطَيْتَ وَقِنَا شَرَّ مَا قَضَيْتَ فَإِنَّكَ تَقْضِي وَلَا يُقْضَى عَلَيْكَ إِنَّهُ لَا يَذِلُّ مَنْ وَالَيْتَ وَلَا يَعِزُّ مَنْ عَادَيْتَ تَبَارَكْتَ رَبَّنَا وَتَعَالَيْتَ يَا ذَا الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ اذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ عَلَى نَعْمَائِهِ وَاشْكُرُوهُ عَلَى آلَائِهِ وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ