The Last Grand Mufti of Jerusalem: Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni | Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi | EPIC Masjid

The Rise of a Leader

Amin al-Husseini now becomes inspired as well and he begins to see my country will no longer be a country, which he was correct in assessing. He was one of the first people to see this, this is 1912, 1913, he sees this. There is no Israel right now, it's pure Palestine but the immigration has begun and the European Zionist Federation is sponsoring people, paying them money, go and buy the land or do something, bribery or go and get rid of...

Already you have mass immigration happening in his land. In his lifetime he sees the Jewish population go from 3% to 35% in his lifetime. Can you imagine one out of 30 people becomes one out of three, by hook or through crook this is all going to be happening - people are bribing or force or maneuvering or whatnot. So he sees this impending doom.

Military Training and Education

World War I breaks out and he's studying in Cairo. He goes no, I need to leave my studies, I need to defend, but who am I to defend, I need to learn how to defend. So he travels to Istanbul to enroll in the elite military academy of the Ottoman Khilafa, because there's still a Khilafa then. This is what you call somebody who understands, I need to do something - studying just Ilm without action when my people are going to be massacred.

World War I - what if they march in and they marched in, what if they all take over and they took over? So he's a man of action. He went to Istanbul, he left his studies and he went to Istanbul and he graduated from the military academy, the most elite military academy that the Khilafa had.

Before this time frame he also went on Hajj and in this time frame it was rare to go on Hajj. So he was always called Al-Hajj Amin Al-Husseini because he went on Hajj as well with his mother by the way. This was before World War I.

Becoming the Mufti

When World War I finishes he then returns to Palestine and begins educating the people that this British mandate is a disaster and tragedy. We have to make sure that it doesn't get worse than this, we have to make sure they do not create an enclave for the European Zionists.

In this time frame as well his father already passed away, he had another relative that became the Mufti and that he also passed away. So he was then chosen to become the Mufti in 1921, he becomes the Mufti of Quds and Masjid Al-Aqsa.

The Supreme Muslim Council

One of the first things he does is he forms a supreme Muslim council. The goal of this council - all of the Muslim organizations want to come together. This is Rashid Rida's vision of unity which sectarian minded people don't like because sectarian minded people they say no you must think like me, talk like me, walk like me or else you are ضال مضل, كافر, فاسق.

Rashid Rida's like guys put these differences aside, talk about them in other places, we have the British coming, we have the French coming, we have Napoleon invading. This is Rashid Rida's mentality which is changing the minds of sectarianism and we find this in Ameer Hussaini as well.

So one of the first things he does is he forms the supreme Muslim council SMC and the goal of this was to bring a consolidated effort of all of the madrasas, all of the higher education, all of the sharia courts, all of the awqaf. We should have a government in spite of the fact there is no government. We should come together to show strength even though the British are ruling because by this time the British have the mandate, so technically the British are in charge of Palestine.

Warning the People

In this time frame he began giving khutbas and durus, lectures left and right constantly telling the Muslims that there is an impending doom and threat, you need to do something. You see in front of you your lands are being taken, you see in front of you the migration taking place and of course he's telling them you cannot sell.

In this time frame the main tactic and this we have to acknowledge this that unfortunately the main tactic was buying the Muslim land for very high prices. These are Muslim farmers, peasants, if you're offered 10 times the price because who's financing it? The Zionist Federation of Europe. Who's financing it? The money is coming from France, from Switzerland, from England.

Of course you have - I mean we don't blame them even though we do but you get my point here, I don't blame it individually but I mean what do you want? A land might be worth let's just say 10,000, you're being offered 150,000, just say for example. It's too good to refuse. So most this is still 1920s and by the 1940s they don't care about money they're going to be using violence. But in the beginning it was just surplus money.

Al-Amin Hussaini is telling them fear Allah, it is haram to sell to people that you know are going to be taking over. So he's one of the people that is warning of the impending doom.

Rising Tensions and Conflicts

In the process this time the British are controlling and already a number of riots have happened, multiple riots. The British were very flustered, they didn't know what to do because they're the ones telling the European Zionists to come in but then as I said in one generation in 20 years from one out of 30 to one out of three, imagine the culture shock, imagine the arrogance.

So already you have the beginnings of the clashes under the British. One of the reasons why the British threw in the towel and said khalas, United Nations you take it, is because they didn't know how to solve the problem they created. They still don't know how to solve the problem they created.

Hussaini, our guy Al-Hajj Al-Hussaini became basically the intellectual leader of the Muslims of Al-Aqsa, of Jerusalem. He is the spokesperson, he is the person that is looked up to.

The Western Wall Incident

In one particular occasion there was a large Muslim festival happening and already the Zionists, they were traveling to the Wailing Wall, the Western Wall and they were already trying their best at this time to physically acquire that land, to say this is our temple and when they would go...

Before the Zionists got involved everybody lived in peace, there was no problem with Jews coming and worshipping and Al-Hajj Amin himself studied with Jewish teachers as a child. There's no question he's not an anti-Semite. The Jews that were living there in Arab lands, the Sephardic Jews, there's never been a problem, they live peacefully. The problem was the Europeans that came and thought that the whole land is ours, we don't want to live in peace with you.

When this group came they began being accosting, just being vicious, a mob mentality and they would go to the Wailing Wall like they do now and now of course they own it or they control it. They would go there in large groups and pretend as if it is theirs, just be arrogant, push, shove, whatnot.

So in one occasion there was a large festival, there was hundreds of thousands of Muslims and he gave a very passionate lecture that you need to defend this particular space, this is Masjid Al-Aqsa, you cannot let anything happen here. It so happened within a few hours or maybe the next day there was a massive mob melee between the Muslims, between the Arabs and the Zionists at the same place that he gave the lecture, not at the same time but a little bit after, maybe the day after.

Basically the authorities said you're the one who caused the riot and more than a dozen people died from the Jewish side, from the Arab side. So it was a whole mob just attacking each other, many dozens were wounded and around a dozen or so people were killed between the mob mentality. So the British said you're the one fomenting this hatred, this violence.

There was a petition to arrest him but because he was so popular, because he was so famous, whatnot, they thought if we arrest him it might actually backlash and so they decided to not arrest him. But multiple times the same types of notions happen and he's rising up in responsibility, in concern and of course in rhetoric because the situation is getting worse in this regard.

Going Into Hiding

A time comes when the British basically have no option in their minds obviously than to say he must be arrested because he's riling up, agitating. By the way again look at the sheer double standards - the one who is defending his land is called the terrorist and the people you're bringing in for free and the people that have no right to be there, they are the ones that are given the free pass.

By the way I've gone over this and you should study this - in this time frame no Muslim terrorist group existed, there were multiple Zionist terrorist groups. Everybody knows this, go read any Wikipedia entry, any basic book of history. Multiple Zionist terrorist groups were formed targeting not just the Arabs but the sheer arrogance, targeting the British who let them in. Why? You're not allowing more people in, you're only allowing 10,000 let's say a month, no we want 100,000. They began killing British officers.

They bombed the King David Hotel which was the base of where the British had their troops. One of the largest massacres of British troops pre-modernity or pre-modern era took place in the King David Hotel. Who did it? The person who eventually would become the Prime Minister of Israel, that's the person who was behind. Again history is so weird.

So instead of considering the Zionists to be terrorists they say okay Al-Hajj Amin you are too much of a troublemaker then we have to arrest you. And subhanAllah he then went into hiding, he actually believe it or not lived in Masjid Al-Aqsa complex in disguise for a few days and then he made his way out so that he's not arrested. What's the benefit of getting arrested? So he made his way out.

Seeking Support Across the Muslim World

He went to a number of other Arab countries, he went to Egypt and then from there he went to Iraq and along the way he is talking to the rulers, the intellectuals telling them you need to get involved. In fact through the course of his life he traveled to over 15 Muslim countries meeting with the rulers, the kings, the princes, the presidents - Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, he even went to the fledgling emirate kingdom, there weren't kingdoms back then but just the royal families of those places, Saudi Arabia.

He's going to all of these lands for what reason? Wanting the Muslims to do something and as you can imagine nothing actually happened but he's trying to. The one person is going and traveling there and every place he goes obviously the British don't want him to be there so they put pressure on those regimes.

SubhanAllah nothing new brothers and sisters, what you see now it's nothing new, you have to understand such as سنة الله في خلقه and so the poor guy has to keep on going from place to place until in Iraq also he's told because the British had control over all of these places.

Journey to Europe

So where does he go? He decides to go to Europe. He decides to go to Europe and again not much different from now when all the Muslim countries have banned so many people where do they end up going? They go to the very countries that are forcing that ban on them such as the irony of the real world situation.

He goes to first Italy and from Italy he then goes to Rome, Berlin. Why? Because this is still the beginnings of World War II and on the one hand you have the British who are directly aiding and abetting...

The Controversial Years: Al-Husayni in Berlin

The Zionists and then you have the opponents of the British, and they happen to be the German Nazi party. We're gonna have to come to this because this is where it gets a bit awkward here. He stayed in Berlin for three years and he met Hitler once in that time frame. That is the picture that the Zionists always use — that he was a Nazi member. We're going to come back to this. He met Hitler once for less than an hour and he asked Hitler to declare Arab lands to be safe, and then the Muslims should support. He did try to negotiate that if you declare that nothing is going to happen, then I promise you we will try our best to support your cause.

Hitler did not accept all of his demands, but Hitler did say — obviously from his paradigm, you understand this as well — that he would put an end to Zionism so you can keep your lands. "I'm going to stop any extra migration, you will have your land back here." So he remained — and I'm going to come back to this point — he remained in Germany until World War II finished. When the French liberated Germany, they arrested him and then eventually they let him go because, and this is an important point here, he didn't do anything with the Nazi party for him to be tried with anything. He's just living there and we're going to come back to this point.

Years of Exile: Cairo and Lebanon

He then attempted to go to different countries, and as you're aware, obviously he would be given pressure to leave until finally he spent most of his time in Cairo in the 50s and the early 60s between Cairo and Lebanon. For that entire time frame, he never stopped attempting to bring political rights and stability to his people in Al-Aqsa, in Jerusalem, in Palestine.

But unfortunately — this is a deeper topic — in the 50s and 60s, the Islamic spirit about Al-Aqsa got lower and lower, and the secular nationalist spirit got higher. Al-Amin Husseini represents Islamic revivalism, and for many reasons the 40s and 50s saw a decline of religiosity and a decline of Islamic revivalism across the Muslim world. Anyone who is above the age of 50, 60, you are aware of this from your own family and your stories that you've heard all across the Muslim world.

The Rise of Secular Nationalism

His version of revivalism wasn't popular because he remained firm as a Muslim, as an Islamic intellectual. Which version became the popular one? Secular pro-Palestinian movements such as especially the PLO. The PLO — and I'm not, I don't want to get involved between the Palestinians — I'm not Palestinian but I'm just being academic and factual. The PLO is coming more from a nationalist perspective and Islam is very much in the background, it's not in the forefront.

Of course, PLO then leads to Al-Fatah. So now you have Fatah and you have the other organization called Hamas. I'm just being factual, so don't take a clip. Hamas — whatever you want to say about it — it represents the more revivalistic spirit, and Al-Fatah represents the more nationalistic, somewhat secular spirit. This is the PLO remnants that became Fatah.

In the 50s, Al-Amin Husseini sees this reality. What reality? Islamic revivalism on the decline. It is sad to say that Arab leaders did not give him much respect after this — not just the Arab leaders, but even amongst the masses. It was PLO. If you do your history, there were at least six or seven Palestinian organizations that are called terrorist organizations that attempted to do attacks at this time frame because they felt this is Marxist. You had guerrilla Marxist type of warfare going on because they were inspired by South American movements, they were inspired by African movements.

This is the time frame in the 60s and 70s. You have people like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. You have these people that actually did something. Fidel Castro seems to have won in his land of Cuba. So Fidel Castro and Che Guevara actually inspired movements around the world — Muslim and non-Muslim. Many of those movements were movements that are Palestinian but nationalist, and so they have Marxist ideology. Some of them were atheists, many were Christian. Religion is not something that is important.

For the record, this only began to rise up in the late 80s and the 90s — alhamdulillah — that you have an Islamic revivalist movement around the whole world here.

The Final Years

Our person Al-Hajj Amin, unfortunately, his influence dwindled — not because he changed his tone, but because the world wasn't ready for him. He passed away in the early 70s and he was buried in Lebanon. His family attempted that he be buried in Masjid Al-Aqsa. They requested and petitioned, but Israel denied him that privilege. He never returned to Israel since the British attempted to arrest him. His whole life was in exile.

He passed away in 1974, which is relatively recent — not that long ago. There's a lot of other information. I'm just going over what he did in the 50s and 60s. He formed organizations, he traveled the Muslim world, he attempted to bring about the beginnings of the OIC. He was one of the people who actually attempted to bring something before that. It all fizzled out. He wasn't able to do much, but his legacy lives on.

Debunking the Zionist Lies

Now I want to get back to the controversial issue because, to me, it is imperative that we talk about this factually. The accusation that is made against him is that number one, he was a Nazi, and number two — the most preposterous, and wallahi it is downright evil — what these liars (and they are liars) from the revisionist Zionist camp attempt to do.

Before I tell you the lie, understand what do they want to do? They want to demonize Palestinians. They want to make them subhuman. They want people to lose all sympathy for Palestinians. How do they do this? By inventing lies, by portraying them as terrorists.

The Holocaust Lie

One of the lies that unfortunately has gained currency even amongst some people that are supposed to be academically inclined is the lie that Amin al-Husseini was the one who told Hitler to engage in the Holocaust. You will find this online, you will find this amongst many academics as well — some pseudo-academics, excuse me. You will find this amongst some pseudo-academics. However, there is not a shred of evidence that he actually did anything like this.

So the lie is: he was a senior member of the Nazi Party. The lie is: he was of the entourage of Hitler. And then the worst lie: the Palestinians caused the Holocaust. Wallahi, how nefarious! The Europeans are guilty, that race is guilty, and who do they accuse? Oh, it's the Palestinians who caused the Holocaust!

You understand now why it's important to talk about this person? Because the justification — by the way, even if one person did this evil, that does not give you the right to do evil against everybody of the same skin color and ethnicity. That's the essence of bigotry and racism. Even if — but that is the notion that is being said here.

The Facts About His Time in Germany

So let us debunk this and then let us clarify what was he doing in Nazi Germany, because he was there for three years. As for the claim that he was a member of the Nazi Party or of the core of Hitler's entourage, there is no evidence whatsoever that he ever signed up to be a Nazi. There's no evidence whatsoever that he was close to Hitler. How could he be close when he met him once in three and a half years for less than an hour? And he met him for what reason? To try to secure Arab freedom.

There is no evidence whatsoever. It is a blatant lie. And then as for the claim that he helped orchestrate the Holocaust, once again, every serious neutral academic acknowledges there is not even a whiff of evidence for this. Absolutely nothing. It's a blatant lie that they want to just smear the Palestinians with.

We now know — everybody now knows the whole story of how it came about and who was in charge. Speer and Goering and all of these guys — we all know them. Nobody ever mentions that Amin Husseini was a part of secret meetings. He's just a foreigner living in Berlin.

His Role as Radio Broadcaster

However, one thing that, yes — and this is where it comes a bit more awkward — he started being the Arab broadcaster for the German news agency. Every country — even Voice of America — when I was growing up and throughout the 90s, Voice of America would be across the globe in 20 different languages. Every government has a branch that gives news according to its perspective. So because he's a senior Arab, fluent in Arabic, he took the job of being the Arab broadcaster for the German radio. Obviously, the German radio is under the Nazi Party at that time. That was his job where he got money from for three years — he's just reading the news in the Arabic language.

Understanding the Context

Some points to keep in mind, and I will be very honest here because we don't have to defend every single decision he made, but we try our best to be fair. Point number one: he was in exile. Why did he end up in Germany? Because the British wanted to arrest him, because every other country was forced to let him go. So let's be fair here — the one country that gave him an opportunity to come was Germany. What did you expect him to do?

Addressing the Historical Context and Criticisms

You're the ones calling him a terrorist when you're the ones creating the real terrorists over there. You're the ones calling a genuine freedom fighter - and without a doubt, according to any definition, he is a freedom fighter. Without a doubt, according to any definition, he wants liberty for his people. You're the ones who made life haram for him, so he had to go where he had to go. So the one place that welcomed him was Germany, so he went to Germany because that's where he was given the right to be in exile.

Understanding Hitler's Evil and Historical Context

Number two, there is no defense of Hitler. I've said this multiple times - Hitler was a very bad person, a very evil person and I have said this multiple times. Muslims, we have to be careful. We study history. When Hitler was doing what he was doing, multiple Muslim countries protected the Jewish people of that time frame, because it was very unethical and wrong. The Grand Mosque of Paris - its whole basement became a safe refuge for Jewish people. The Grand Mosque of Paris! In Bosnia which had some Jewish people, the Muslim ruler said no way. In other regions that had some ties with Germany - Tunisia, other places - we're not gonna hand our Jewish people to you just so that you can kill them. This is zulm. Families come and you're gonna kill them?

So we have to be careful here that whatever the Zionist entity does, we don't back project our anger to try to defend a person that is indefensible. So Hitler was evil, no question about that. But what I'm about to say is not a defense. In 1930 and 1940, people weren't aware of how evil he was and this is factually correct. It's not a defense but it is true.

Winston Churchill up until I believe 1940, praised Adolf Hitler. Winston Churchill the Prime Minister! And he said "You know I met him, he's not that bad of a man as people say. I think he's a man who can honor his word." He had some praise for him, up until 1940. Here in our country, Joseph Kennedy, the father of John F Kennedy - because JFK's family is the royal family of America - his father was one of the most powerful senators and he was also the ambassador to England. John F Kennedy's father, Joseph Kennedy, praises Hitler up until I think 1940-41 as well. He's "I think he's a man who's gonna bring..." whatever, I don't know exact quote but he didn't call him a demon.

So I'm saying to the people that criticize Amin Husseini, if your own politicians couldn't see through Hitler and they are politicians, you expect a person who's just a political activist and a sheikh, you expect him to know this reality? This is a double standard here.

The Question of Knowledge and Forced Choices

So my point is we don't know what Haj Amin knew about Hitler. The claim that is given is that nobody knew the Holocaust was happening or how bad it was until the World War 2 was over. That's the claim they themselves say to exonerate themselves. Americans say this about themselves, Europeans say, British say, "We didn't know how bad it was." Okay, your intelligence and your aerial didn't know and you expect Amin Husseini to know, an average person? So a double standard is given here. We don't know how much he knew. This is the second point.

And then the third point, there's no exoneration but when you are forced into a corner and when there is a war going on and one side is massacring your people and the other side says we will protect your people, what choice did you want him to have? And honestly, it's a very difficult point. What choice did you want him to have when he is given the promise by Hitler himself that if Germany wins, then we will stop the Zionist project?

Now obviously, Amin Husseini did not know Hitler is doing more than just stopping the Zionist project. Hitler is exterminating the Jewish people of Germany. We don't know how much Amin knew or not but what we know for certain because that was a public meeting, the records are there, is that Hitler said to Amin Husseini that "Your people, if we win, you give us your verbal support, if we win, we promise we were not going to allow this immigration to continue and you will have your land free and independent." So what did you want him to do?

The Example of Nelson Mandela

And you think this is unique to him? Nelson Mandela, there's an amazing interview, go watch it. Nelson Mandela, after all was said and done and he visited America. What's that guy's name, Ted Koppel, one of the famous guys in what is it, 20/20, whatever it is. Ted Koppel thinks he got him in a corner and he says "So in the 70s and 80s, your people, the ANC, they met with this guy and that guy, even you, when you were released, you met with this dictator and that dictator." So he's trying to put him in a corner.

And it's an amazing interview. This is a leader, I have to say I admire Nelson Mandela - a true leader and it's something that we need to benefit from the courage that he has. He literally became angry and frustrated at this arrogance of this interview. He said "When you guys were calling me terrorists, when you guys were considering me and my fight to free my people as terrorism, when I was in jail by your own decree, the only peoples that met with me are the ones you call terrorists. They're the ones that helped us, funded us, gave us aid. And now when everything is said and done, you want to take the accolades, you want to pretend you're the better party? You're the ones that called us terrorists and you supported the apartheid regime against us."

He literally flipped the script and completely silenced the interviewer. Meaning what did you want us to do? We were fighting for our freedoms and instead of helping us, you jailed us, you tortured us, you considered us to be criminals. Now that it's all said and done, you think you're all clean and holy? No, you have no rights to now come back and say "I met with so and so and so and so," because those people were the only ones that were helping us to fight for freedom for our people. He literally did not mince his words and flip the script here.

If this is Nelson Mandela, why should Amin al-Husseini be treated differently? You're the ones who called him fighting for his people a terrorist. You're the ones who supported the terrorists against him. You're the ones wanting to imprison him. So the one place, the one superpower that gave him help, what did you want him to do? And again, I mean hindsight 20/20, without a doubt that Hitler was not a good person and it's in hindsight, we know that nobody should form alliances with him. But again, it's 1940, we don't know the future in this regard.

Conclusion: The Legacy of Al-Haj Amin al-Husseini

So to conclude, we'll say that Al-Haj Amin al-Husseini was without a doubt the primary figurehead, the spearhead of Islamic revival to free Masjid al-Aqsa from 1920 up until his death in 1974. Unfortunately it was Allah's Qadr that towards the end of his life, he really was not given the respect that he deserved. His lectures, his influence became much less, not because he changed his stances but because it wasn't popular at that time to be an Islamic revivalist talking about Masjid al-Aqsa and whatnot.

Yet his legacy remains and he should be somebody that we look up to and respect and we make dua for. And without a doubt, he is free of the accusations that his enemies make. He was never a supporter of Nazi ideology - this is a lie. He was never a member of the party - this is a lie. And without a doubt, the biggest lie is that the Holocaust comes from them - this is a complete and blatant lie.

If he made a judgment error, it is a judgment error that we understand even if we don't condone. We understand given the context and we excuse for that. And I am certain if he understood the reality - and obviously hindsight is 20-20 - he would never have cited or at least been even partially in support of a person as evil as Hitler. But the lies that are said are worse in this regard.

And with this, we make dua for him and for all our brothers and sisters over there and may Allah bless all of us to be able to contribute to the revival of the ummah.