Slaves
Generally, after a few years a slave would be freed, especially if he was a Muslim. The slaves saw how the Muslims treated them and it was far better than the Christians.
There was a rule in Spain, a non-Muslim could not keep a Muslim as a slave.
Abu Dharr (Allah be pleased with him) had a slave, he dressed just like Abu Dharr and ate the same food. Someone asked him why he did this. He narrated a Hadith:
Salam ibn ‘Amr reported from one of the Companions of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Your slaves are your brothers, so treat him well. Ask for their help in what is too much for you and help them in what is too much for them.” (alAdab alMufrad)
When Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) addressed to Bilal (Allah be pleased with him) with, “You son of a black woman!” and Bilal (Allah be pleased with him) got insulted, he went to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
He told the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) “O Messenger of Allah, this is what Abu Dharr has said to me.”
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) called Abu Dharr and said, “O Abu Dharr you are a man who still has the traits of ignorance in him! I am equally the son of a black woman, as I am the son of a white woman.” (This is because He (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was breastfed by a black woman).
In another narration, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “You are a man who calls to Jahiliyyah, whoever calls to the call of Jahiliyyah, he will be in the fire of Jahannam!” And the Sahabah (may Allah be pleased with them) asked, “What if he prays and fasts?” He (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Even if he prays and he fasts.”
Hatim Tai (Allah be pleased with them) had a son Adiy ibn Hatim (may Allah be pleased with them), Adiy was a prince. He once went to Medinah, he was walking in the streets of Medinah when an African girl came and said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), “My master is harsh on me.” The Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) answered, “Do not worry, I will speak to him.” He then smiled and said, “Hold my hand and take me anywhere.”
Adiy (Allah be pleased with them) says, “When I saw this I knew the man (the Prophet) was not a prince, as you could not walk with a prince like this. But, I also knew he was not an ordinary man.”
Cordoba
Cordoba fell to the Muslims in 711 A.D. The Muslims marched north, finally reaching Cordoba. Magheeth Rumi exploiting a weak defence managed to enter Cordoba and conquer it. Tariq (Allah have mercy on him) conquered many cities, until the Christians flocked to him. Finally, his men became tired of fighting. Then he began to send small armies to different places, each army had only 700 men. Tariq (Allah be pleased with him) penetrated deep into Spain until men were exhausted of fighting. Then he returned to Cordoba and settled there. Musa (Allah have mercy on him) had instructed Tariq (Allah have mercy on him) to only fight with Roderick. He was annoyed with Tariq’s disregard for his command. Musa left with a large of 18,000 in 712 to Spain. It is reported that Tariq (Allah have mercy on him) was imprisoned for disobeying direct commands. He was later released and reinstated. The Muslims showed a tolerance never experienced before. The majority of the population embraced Islam. They took all of Andalus, besides the Northwest area, from where the Christians regrouped. The leader of this group was, Pelayo. Musa made roads into France, he wanted to take the entire Europe and finally reaching Damascus through Constantinople, but he was called back to Damascus before fulfilling his dreams.
Musa ibn Nusayr (Allah be pleased with them) stayed in Spain for three years. He was now 75 years old. The Caliph – Waleed ibn Abdul Malik (Allah have mercy on him) called him back to Baghdad. The actual reason we are unaware of, but possible reasons
- He was powerful and had conquered the whole of North Africa, so Waleed thought he is getting to much authority.
- Waleed became insecure, about himself and his relationship with Musa.
So, Tariq ibn Ziyad (Allah have mercy on him) and Musa ibn Nusayr (Allah have mercy on him) went to Waleed (Allah have mercy on him). By the time they reached the Caliph, he was dying. Whenever Musa (Allah have mercy on him) conquered a land, he would send the treasures and booty to the Caliph. On his journey back from Spain he brought all the treasures back but someone advised him not to give the treasures. Musa said he wanted to bring them back. This led to slight tension between Musa (Allah have mercy on him) and Sulayman ibn Abdul Malik, who was the brother of Waleed (Allah have mercy on him), as Sulayman wanted the wealth from Spain. Musa meets the Caliph and shortly afterwards, the Caliph dies in 94h.
When Sulayman took over the throne he despised Musa (Allah have mercy on him), so he tortured him. A 75 years old man was made to stand in the heat of the blazing sun, he already had asthma. Umar ibn AbdulAziz (Allah have mercy on him) was an Umayyid, he was around at that time. He says, “No day was worse for me than seeing the old man, an old mujahid, indebted on the Ummah, the conqueror of North Africa being tortured like this.”
Umar (Allah have mercy on him) went to the caliph and said, “I do not pledge allegiance to a king who tortures old men like this!”
Sulayman uplifted the torture, but paced heavy fines on Musa (Allah have mercy on him).
Some scholars say, they were both at peace with each other later. Others write, they went Hajj together.
He died either of poverty or illness.
Imam Shafi’ee (Allah have mercy on him) said, “Some people die and their evils remains on. Others die and their goodness remains on.”
We all remember the Khayr Musa ibn Nusayr (Allah have mercy on him) left behind. Just like When Hussayn (Allah be pleased with him) was martyred, Yazid was rejoicing. But, in the eyes of Allah Hussayn (Allah be pleased with him) was accepted. Also, Hamza (Allah be pleased with him) – the uncle of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had his liver chewed and his body mutilated. But, later was known as ‘Asadullah’, The Lion of Allah.
Ibn Mulhim (Allah have mercy on him) says, “It was amazing that Musa (Allah have mercy on him) even went to Waleed (Allah have mercy on him) when he was called. Because he already had Spain and parts of France under his rule.” This shows the sincerity of Musa (Allah have mercy on him). The same happened with Khalid ibn Waleed (Allah be pleased with him), the last four years of his life he did not fight. This was because Umar (Allah be pleased with him) demoted him. The last year of his life, was called the ‘Year of Women’, as he could not fight.
But the story of Musa (Allah have mercy on him) did not end there, they assassinated his son Abdul Aziz (Allah have mercy on him). He was reading Surah Waqiah at the time. All out of spite and hatred. And Abdullah, the other son was also martyred! Inna Lillah…
The head of Abdul Aziz (Allah have mercy on him) was bought to Musa (Allah have mercy on him) whilst he was alive. Sulayman asked Musa (Allah have mercy on him), “Do you know who he is?” Musa said, “This was a pious man who conquered Portugal and the Ummah is indebted to him.”
The reason for killing AbduAziz (Allah have mercy on him) was, he married Roderick’s wife to create ties between the Christians and Muslims. Sulayman thought he would be a sell-out.
Sulayman died in 99h.
Over the next 40 years Spain had 21 or 22 governors, there was absolute mayhem. Muslims had a lot of loss, they were demoralised and lost motivation. There was 100 tonnes i.e. 100 opinions about everything. It was like what happened in Uhud, 50 archers and Saeed ibn Jubayr (Allah be pleased with them).
For this, we say, that the more the Dunya opens up before the people, and they end up concerning themselves with it, they will lose as much of the Akhira as they have gained from the Dunya. The Prophet (peace ad blessings be upon him) said: “By Allah, I am not afraid of your poverty,” meaning I am not afraid of poverty for you, for the Dunya will open up before you, “but I am afraid that you will lead a life of luxury as past nations did, whereupon you will compete with each other for it, as they competed for it, and it will destroy you as it destroyed them.” [Bukhari & Muslim].
The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke the truth. This is what has destroyed the people today. What has destroyed the people today, is their competing with one another for the Dunya, and them being as if they were only created for it, and not it created for them. So they have preoccupied themselves with what was created for them over what they were created for. This is backwardness. We ask Allah for protection.
Amongst the famous rulers were:
Samh ibn Khawlani (Allah have mercy on him), the fourth viceroy. He was the viceroy in the time of Umar ibn AbdulAziz (Allah have mercy on him). He was martyred at the siege of Toulouse in 721 A.D. In 1030/721 a man called Bulai, with some renegade Christian took to the mountains to start a guerrilla against the Muslims. Anbasa, moved quite deep along the Rhone River. In 725 A.D. Anbasa was ambushed and killed.
The most successful and tragic expedition as that of Abdul Rehman Ghafiqi (Allah have mercy upon him). Eudes tried to stop but to no avail and called up Charles, who was later known as Martell (Hammer). The Battle of Poiters (Battle of Tours) is regarded as one of the most defining battles in the history of the West. The Muslim army was considerably smaller, Muslims were all infantry and Christians all cavalry. The battle began and raged doe an entire week from 25th to 31st October 732 A.D.
The most disturbing aspect of the history of Spain is the amount of internal strife amongst the Muslims. Arabs against Arabs, Berbers against Arabs, new Muslims against the ruling elite. There are three types of Arabs:
Al-Ba’idah – They existed but no longer do e.g. the people of ‘Aad and Thamud.
Al-Aaribah – The original Arabs i.e. The Yemenis aka Kelbites.
Al-Musta’ribah – Those who became Arabs later. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was from this category, as Ibrahim (peace and blessings be upon him) travelled to Makkah, Hajar (Allah be pleased with her) did not even speak Arabic. They were also known as Qaisites.
Two later rulers who ignited the wars of racism in Spain were Hudhayfah (728-730) and Haitham (729-730).
Then the Berbers revolted, this led from the inequities between the Arabs and the Berbers. The Berbers were looked down on before Islam, could now equal the Arabs on all fronts. The next to cause great mischief was a man called Shomal (the grandson of Shimr, the man who beheaded Hussain RA at Karbala).
The two armies met at the bank of the Guadelate in 745 A.D. Ibn Khattar’s army was routed.
Abdul Rahman (The Hawk of Quraysh/Falcon of Andalus)
The largest opposition to the Umayyads was the Abbasids; their leader at the time was Abbas, the grandson of Abbas (Allah be pleased with him). Abdul Rahman (Allah have mercy on him) had to flee to save his life. He finally reached the Berber tribe of his mother, Nazfa, situated in Naqur, four years after fleeing. The time was right for Abdul Rahman to make his appearance. Andalus was in a state of chaos due to the internal feuding. He wrote a letter to the Syrians and Ummayads living in Andalus. This iletter was taken by Badr in June 754. Abdul Rahman (Allah have mercy on him) had to wait an entire year in suspense for the response. On August 14th 755 A.D. he arrived in Spain and had mass defection in his favour. He took Seville peacefully. With his victory at Cordoba on 15th May 756, he sealed his name in history. He defeated Yusuf and Shomal. He was crowned the ‘Ameer of the Muslims.’ Mansur often praised his foe and it was him who give him the title, “The Falcon of the Quraysh.”
Abdul Rahman (Allah have mercy on him) did not like to wage war unless there was no other option, hence he would always start with the option of peace. Others were children who were bought from Europe, but they were brought up in Islam and were fundamental to the army and state. He was always ready to help his subjects.
Ismail Ibn Nazir Satia (One who is in dire need of Allah’s forgiveness, mercy and pleasure).
15 Sha’ban 1437