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As the holy month has arrived, now is the perfect time for us to remember Allah.
It is also a good time to remember the sacrifices of those before us who worked to ensure the safety of the Ummah, to preserve & defend Islam, to spread the knowledge of Allah to the ignorant......all in the name of Allah.
Please share with us the details of historical figures that you believe can be considered heroes of Islam. Tell us what they did for Islam, tell of us their struggles, tell us what happened to them. Do not put too much detail but do not put down just a name.
I will start off.
Salahuddin Yusuf Ibn Ayyub
Who was he?
Known in English as Saladin.
Born in 531 AH (1137 AD) in Tikrit, Iraq.
He was born to a relatively wealthy and noble Kurdish family.
He was an ethnic Kurd and a Sunni Muslim.
Salahuddin means 'righteousness of the faith'. He was born with the name Yusuf.
As a child he was well educated although he was more inclined to learning Islam than having a fihgting career.
He spent most of his early life in Damascus and Baalbek.
His chivalry and courage were legendary and was widely regarded even by his enemy in this regard.
He was known to be very clever, brave, generous and humble.
He died in Damascus, Syria in 1193 aged 55/56.
What did he achieve?
1152-1169: He fights against the crusaders under the Syrian ruler at the time.
1171: He conquers the hated Shiite Fatimid rulers of Egypt.
He then went on to unite the Muslim lands by taking Damascus (Syria) in 1174, Aleppo (Syria) in 1183 and Mosul (Iraq) in 1186.
After the Muslim lands had been united he advanced on the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem.
He met Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin.
He had 30,000 soldiers and the crusaders had 20,000. It was a stunning victory for Salahuddin because by the end the 17,000 Crusaders had been killed or captured and the Muslims had very few casualties.
This effectively ended the Crusaders ability to wage war there.
As a result of the battle most of the Christian cities and fortresses in Syria fell to the Muslims.
Then Jerusalem surrendered after a short seige.
It had been under oppressive Christian rule for 88 years.
It was largely bloodless unlike the seige of Jerusalem in 1099 where the Christians conquered it from the Muslims and slaughtered and enslaved most of the Muslims and Jews. No-one was spared whether they were men, women, children or the elderly. The Jews hid in the synagogue whilst it was set alight and the Christians entered Al Aqsa, Dome of the Rock and the temple mount where they indiscriminately slaughtered the Muslims there until they were literally knee-deep in blood.
None of that happened when Salahuddin took the city.
He allowed Christian pilgrimigages to the city, granted amnesty to the catholics, freed his prisoners that could pay the ransom (which he generously lowered several times), allowed the holy church there to remain untouched and gave all the inhabitants more freedom than they ever had under the Christians.
A third crusade was called 2 years later.
The Crusaders conquered Acre despite all the attempts of Salahuddin to defend it. The Muslims only had 6000 defending the city and 8000 outside the city who came to their help. The crusaders had 25,000 men. The Muslims surrendered. The Crusaders decapitated 3,000 captured Muslims when they were meant to be given as ransom. In return Salahuddin killed the prisoners he had captured in the last battle.
But that was the crusaders' only major victory.
In the end there was a truce. The Christians kept the coastal cities and were allowed to travel to Jerusalem without paying tribute.
Salahuddin was very couragous.
When Richard the Lionheart (leader of the crusaders) was sick Salahuddin sent him a gift of the finest fruits of the land.
In battle when Richard's horse died, Salahuddin sent him one of his finest Arabian horses.
Salahuddin always wanted to find ways other than fighting to resolve conflicts.
He gave freedoms to the peoples that no-one else had given for hundreds of years.
Even in Europe instead of being such a hated figure he got a reputation for his bravery and chivalry. Many western knights modelled his behavoiur.
He died of an illness in 1193.
I definately recommend you reading up on him.
He was a great Muslim.
Edit: None of that was copied and pasted btw. Typed it up myself. Info from different sources.
It is also a good time to remember the sacrifices of those before us who worked to ensure the safety of the Ummah, to preserve & defend Islam, to spread the knowledge of Allah to the ignorant......all in the name of Allah.
Please share with us the details of historical figures that you believe can be considered heroes of Islam. Tell us what they did for Islam, tell of us their struggles, tell us what happened to them. Do not put too much detail but do not put down just a name.
I will start off.
Salahuddin Yusuf Ibn Ayyub
Who was he?
Known in English as Saladin.
Born in 531 AH (1137 AD) in Tikrit, Iraq.
He was born to a relatively wealthy and noble Kurdish family.
He was an ethnic Kurd and a Sunni Muslim.
Salahuddin means 'righteousness of the faith'. He was born with the name Yusuf.
As a child he was well educated although he was more inclined to learning Islam than having a fihgting career.
He spent most of his early life in Damascus and Baalbek.
His chivalry and courage were legendary and was widely regarded even by his enemy in this regard.
He was known to be very clever, brave, generous and humble.
He died in Damascus, Syria in 1193 aged 55/56.
What did he achieve?
1152-1169: He fights against the crusaders under the Syrian ruler at the time.
1171: He conquers the hated Shiite Fatimid rulers of Egypt.
He then went on to unite the Muslim lands by taking Damascus (Syria) in 1174, Aleppo (Syria) in 1183 and Mosul (Iraq) in 1186.
After the Muslim lands had been united he advanced on the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem.
He met Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin.
He had 30,000 soldiers and the crusaders had 20,000. It was a stunning victory for Salahuddin because by the end the 17,000 Crusaders had been killed or captured and the Muslims had very few casualties.
This effectively ended the Crusaders ability to wage war there.
As a result of the battle most of the Christian cities and fortresses in Syria fell to the Muslims.
Then Jerusalem surrendered after a short seige.
It had been under oppressive Christian rule for 88 years.
It was largely bloodless unlike the seige of Jerusalem in 1099 where the Christians conquered it from the Muslims and slaughtered and enslaved most of the Muslims and Jews. No-one was spared whether they were men, women, children or the elderly. The Jews hid in the synagogue whilst it was set alight and the Christians entered Al Aqsa, Dome of the Rock and the temple mount where they indiscriminately slaughtered the Muslims there until they were literally knee-deep in blood.
None of that happened when Salahuddin took the city.
He allowed Christian pilgrimigages to the city, granted amnesty to the catholics, freed his prisoners that could pay the ransom (which he generously lowered several times), allowed the holy church there to remain untouched and gave all the inhabitants more freedom than they ever had under the Christians.
A third crusade was called 2 years later.
The Crusaders conquered Acre despite all the attempts of Salahuddin to defend it. The Muslims only had 6000 defending the city and 8000 outside the city who came to their help. The crusaders had 25,000 men. The Muslims surrendered. The Crusaders decapitated 3,000 captured Muslims when they were meant to be given as ransom. In return Salahuddin killed the prisoners he had captured in the last battle.
But that was the crusaders' only major victory.
In the end there was a truce. The Christians kept the coastal cities and were allowed to travel to Jerusalem without paying tribute.
Salahuddin was very couragous.
When Richard the Lionheart (leader of the crusaders) was sick Salahuddin sent him a gift of the finest fruits of the land.
In battle when Richard's horse died, Salahuddin sent him one of his finest Arabian horses.
Salahuddin always wanted to find ways other than fighting to resolve conflicts.
He gave freedoms to the peoples that no-one else had given for hundreds of years.
Even in Europe instead of being such a hated figure he got a reputation for his bravery and chivalry. Many western knights modelled his behavoiur.
He died of an illness in 1193.
I definately recommend you reading up on him.
He was a great Muslim.
Edit: None of that was copied and pasted btw. Typed it up myself. Info from different sources.
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