The Mongol Invasion & the Ummah’s Revival | Jumuah Khutbah | Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi | Epic Masjid

Dear Muslims, if we look at the last 14 centuries of our history, there is no doubt that the Ummah has had its ups and also its downs. And if you were to ask any historian of the Ummah, anybody who specializes in the tarikh of our civilizations, to rank the three greatest tragedies, political catastrophes that took place in the last 14 centuries after the time of the Sahaba, ridwanAllahu alayhim, I think every single historian would definitely place perhaps number one on that list, the catastrophe known as the Mongol invasion of Dar-ul-Islam.

The Mongol Invasions: Fifty Years of Devastation

The Mongol invasion, Genghis Khan, the people who literally created the largest empire that mankind had ever seen before that point in time. What we fail to realize, oh Muslims, the Mongol invasion wasn't just one invasion, it was a series of invasions spanning 50 years. You could have been born and lived and died, and your whole life you would have been hearing about: the Mongols invaded here, the Mongols invaded there, they did this, they did that. It wasn't just a one-off.

Yes, it began with Genghis Khan in 1219, but he died—ironically this very week, he died 1200 years ago, he died this very week. But the invasions continued. The empire was divided amongst his four sons. Two of them took on the Muslim empire, and they continued to attack the Muslim empire for the next 20 years. Then they died, and his grandsons came into power, and they continued to attack Dar-ul-Islam over and over again.

The Fall of Baghdad (1258 CE)

Until finally, in a date that every Muslim should be aware of, in 1258 CE, Genghis Khan's grandson, Hulagu Khan, managed to make his way to Baghdad, and he laid siege to the remnants of the Abbasid empire—an empire that had ruled gloriously for over 500 years, imagine that. Hulagu Khan laid siege to Baghdad, and while the khalifa watched, he brought him out to taunt him, to ridicule him. While the khalifa was in a cage, it is said, he saw the slaughter of the entire city of Baghdad, man, woman, and child.

Ibn Kathir said that the streets of Baghdad flowed with blood for 40 days, like the river Euphrates flows with water. For 40 days, the streets continued to flow. And that wasn't even the end. After Baghdad, the Mongolian armies went on. They laid siege to Damascus, they took over Bilad al-Sham, they made their way to Egypt, kept on going and going. It was as if the entirety of the ummah would be wiped off this map.

Only in 1260 CE, more than 40 years after Genghis Khan first left Mongolia, finally, in the battle of Ain Jalut, the small dynasty known as the Mamluks halted—they didn't eliminate, they didn't stop, they simply halted—the expansion and then allowed the ummah to recuperate.

The Scale of Destruction

In the aftermath of the entire invasion, historians of our times are trying to estimate the damage done. And according to the most reputable historians of this time frame, listen to this: over 10% of mankind lost its life because of the Mongol invasion. 1 out of 10 human beings on earth—we're not talking about in Baghdad, that was 95%. We're not talking about Samarkand, we're not talking about Tashkent. Human beings, 1 out of 10 people lost their lives because of the invasion. Because it didn't just come to us, it went all the way to Poland, went to Russia, to China, everywhere they invaded. And yes, we were the brunt, we were the main target, because the Muslim empire really was the strongest and the most powerful civilization.

Ibn Al-Athir: The Eyewitness Historian

One of our best historians that we should all be aware of, his name is Ibn Al-Athir. He wrote a book, Al Kamil Fit Tarikh, The Comprehensive History. Ibn Al-Athir should be a household name. He is before the famous Ibn Kathir by 200 years, 150 years, but he predates him, but he was an eyewitness. He was an eyewitness to the Mongol invasion. And later on in life as an older man, he writes about what he himself witnessed.

And I quote from his Al Kamil. He says, "Who can find it easy to write the obituary of Islam and the Muslims?" Obituary. Obituary is something you write when somebody dies, there's an obituary. Ibn Al-Athir says, how can I write the obituary? Because he has seen Baghdad collapse, he has seen the Ummah gone, he hasn't yet seen the rise up. So he is saying, it's as if I'm writing the death date, obituary, the end, that's it. Who can find any optimism to write this?

"How I wish my mother never gave birth to me. This is Ibn Al-Athir writing. I wish I was never born. I wish that I was نسيًا منسيًا, never having to see this, so that I could not see what I was forced to see."

And then he says, "So many times when I was writing my history book, I tried to have the courage to move on, but I couldn't write about this calamity. Every time I would begin writing, I would erase that page because of the memories that had come."

"I wish I never heard of this time frame. I wish the news of what I had to tell you about never even reached me."

And he says, "I have lived through many calamities, but never anything like this. From the dawn of Islam until now, mankind has never suffered such a disaster. This is Ibn Al-Athir, the historian writing. Calamities befell certain people, certain areas, affected certain regions, but this calamity affected all of humanity." End quote from Ibn Al-Athir.

Ibn Al-Athir literally thought judgment day is about to happen. And he wasn't the only one. He thought, khalas, this is the time of qiyamah, this is the end of the ummah.

The Ummah's Revival from the Ashes

But you see, the reality is that from that calamity, not only did the ummah come back, but it came back with a power, and a courage, and an audacity that nobody could ever have predicted. Because the fact of the matter—and this is awkward to state, but the reality is—that the Abbasid Empire, yes, it had a glorious past, but when the Mongols invaded, it had long ago abandoned that glorious past. The decline had begun much before this. Its power had already been effectively eliminated. In fact, the khalifa did not even have power in Baghdad itself, much less across the ummah.

The State of the Ummah Before the Invasion

If you read your history, you will know, the ummah had already been divided into many different mini kingdoms, every single kingdom onto its own. Yes, there's nominal, you are the khalifa, but in reality, the ummah was already divided into over 15 principalities, and they never united against the Mongols. They never united with each other against the Mongols.

If you read your history books, you will know that just like now we complain about the politicians and whatnot, so too the people were tired of corrupt rulers, while the rulers tax the people, so that they built bigger and bigger palaces, the people were starving, the people were grumbling, the people were discontent. When you read the books of history, you discover that even in Baghdad, there was something called ayyareen—we would call them the mafia, gangsters. People had taken over neighborhoods, people were not safe to roam the streets of Baghdad, because there were gangsters and mafia who were bribing the politicians, bribing the police, and we can go on and on.

This is not to paint a gloomy picture, of course there were positives as well, but the fact of the matter is that the Mongol invasion could never have taken place if the ummah had even a portion of the izzah it used to have few hundred years before this point in time.

The Catalyst for Revival

So what happened with the Mongol invasion? What happened when the Mongols swept through, and they literally demolished what was known of Islamic civilization? From the ashes of that destruction, caused by Genghis Khan, and his children, and his grandchildren, after the most brutal global war in human history pre-World War I, when millions of people, over 2 million Muslims passed away because of those invasions, after all of that tragedy, within a generation, the ummah came back, bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.

And in fact that coming back, that resurgence, that revival, we can factually state, the Mongol invasion ironically was the catalyst. This is not to justify, this is not to excuse, this is not to say that they did something good, but Allah works in ways beyond our control. And from the evils of the Mongol invasion, came much good, and that does not justify the evil. Allah used that evil, Allah used that invasion, to allow something else to happen.

The Transformations That Followed

So many changes took place in the post-Mongolian invasion. Of them is the creation of a new Islamic civilization. The blending of cultures that took place after the invasion. The new networks of trade, of commerce. From that rose up a Turkish and a Persian manifestation of the ummah. Culture became radically different, different languages flourished, different arts, different technologies, that the Abbasids had considered to be taboo. Now, technology and arts and literature is rising, but this is a very different breed, if you like, of Islam.

Of them, after the Mongol invasion, believe it or not, there was a flourishing of intellectual thought. In fact, even during the invasion and after the invasion. Unbelievably, the politicians failed, the scholars stood up to the challenge. We see an amazing output of intellectual giants, who took on the role, not of physically defending, because they couldn't do that, but of intellectually making sure the ummah is still proud to be Muslim.

We have many giants of this time frame, and right after this time frame, including people like Ibn Taymiyyah, As-Suyuti, Ibn Hajar, Abu Suud al-Affandi, Mulla Sadra, and we can go on and on and on. All of these great giants, they are a direct result of the reality of the Mongol invasion. And what they did to protect the thought of the ummah, to revive the tajdeed of the ummah, this is something that would never have happened, had not they had the catalyst to do so, because of that invasion.

New Political Powers

And of course, of the direct consequences of the Mongol invasion, was the reshaping of political powers. The corrupt elite, the old guard were eliminated completely. And this allowed a new dynamic flourishing of multiple mini Islamic superpowers.

All of us from India and Pakistan, you're aware of the Delhi Sultanate. The Delhi Sultanate stood up in opposition to the Mongols. They never caved and buckled, they negotiated their way out. And that allowed their region to become more protected and powerful. And from that protection rose up the Mughal dynasty. The Mughal dynasty that are even in some ways, intellectually and biologically the descendants of the Mongols. They're called Mughals, because the Indian people thought this is the Mongols coming in. They weren't the Mongols, but if you're all aware, there was a slight connection with them. But the Mughal dynasty and its power, and its flourishing, and its contribution are a direct result of the invasion of the Mongols before them.

The Ottoman Empire, had it not been for the Mongol invasion, some small Turkic tribes in Anatolia led by Usman himself would never have been able to carve out a small dynasty, which eventually conquered Constantinople in 1453, and then founded, or before this and after this, founded the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire could never have been founded the way that it was, had it not been for the impact of what the Mongols did. And we can go on, and on, and on. So many political powers came up to defend the ummah, and to contribute in absolutely unique ways.

The Ultimate Irony

And of course, of the most ironic realities of the invasion of the Mongol Empire. After Genghis Khan died, or on his deathbed, he divided the empire into four. You should all be aware of this, amongst his four sons. Two of those sons and their empires converted to Islam. Two of those empires, the Ilkhanids and the Chagais, they converted to Islam. And so large groups of people who were biologically fighting the Muslims, their own grandchildren and great-grandchildren, are now part of the ummah. And the fact of the matter is many of us in this audience, we are the biologically descendants of some of those people as well.

Allah's Promise to This Ummah

You see brothers and sisters, the purpose of today's khutbah is to remind us that Allah has promised this ummah, a promise that was only given to the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And what is that promise? It is in the Qur'an, and it is mentioned upon the tongue of our Prophet ﷺ.

Allah's Promise to Protect the Ummah

The only ummah, there was no other ummah that Allah made this promise to. The previous ummahs, some of them flourished and then they withered out because of famine, because of drugs, because of the problems of the external enemies. Some of them withered out because they weren't able to procreate. Some of them, whatever happened to them, but this ummah, the one ummah, Allah has promised that He Himself shall protect it until the day of judgment.

Allah doesn't need any more witnesses. Allah doesn't need any shuhada. Allah is telling you the truth and Allah is testifying. The ummah of the Prophet ﷺ, this ummah, it shall be manifested over all other ummahs, and it doesn't matter who says otherwise.

They want to extinguish the light of Allah. They want to destroy the message of the Prophet ﷺ. And Allah says that's never going to happen. This ummah will be protected until the day of judgment.

The Mongol Devastation and the Scholar's Despair

If one of us had been alive during that time frame from 1220 onwards, for the next 60 years, 80 years, we would be excused to think that's it, khalas, the ummah is dead. We would be excused to think like Ibn Al-Athir, one of the greatest scholars of our entire history. And he says something that perhaps some might deem to be blasphemous. He goes, I have to write the obituary of Islam. Go read his book. Literally, the death note because I cannot see it coming back. And I excuse him and you would excuse him too. Because we would think the same thing.

The Abbasid empire gone. You cannot imagine a world without the Abbasid empire. Baghdad razed to the ground. A million people in Baghdad no longer exist. The capital of the ummah for hundreds of years. The most advanced city in the whole world. The largest masajid. The most frequented madrasas. The most populated libraries were in Baghdad. And overnight it is in ruins. How can the ummah possibly come back?

The Miracle of Revival

Fast forward a hundred years, and subhanAllah, you have a whole new batch. Not yet in Baghdad, but Cairo is now on the rise. You have magnificent madrasas in Cairo. You have the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal dynasty creating its own network over there. You have across the ummah, we still have Andalus in this time frame. And the Granada empire, the Nasrid empire is flourishing at this time frame. From east to west, you still have magnificent contributions.

And in fact, if you were to find yourself alive a hundred years after the Mongol invasion, you would be excused to have forgotten about the invasion altogether. Such is the reality of history. Such is the cyclical nature of history. One year, one generation negative, but the next generation positive.

Never Doubt Allah's Promise

And what we as Muslims need to do is to never doubt the promise of Allah. Because the promise of Allah is true. No matter how negative the situation might appear, no matter how sad the reality is, we must put our trust in Allah, that Allah will bring from the ashes of a catastrophe, from the disaster unfolding in front of us, He will bring about changes, perhaps cataclysmic changes, and those changes will be for the positive of this ummah.

Not because me and you are worthy of it, not because we have done something, we have all failed collectively, but because Allah has promised His Prophet ﷺ, Allah has promised His nabi, this is of the barakah of the Prophet ﷺ, that his ummah has a special status.

The Prophet's Supplications for His Ummah

He made dua in salat al-tahajjud, he would beg Allah, ummati, ummati. He made dua in salat al-tahajjud, and he would say, Ya Allah, I beg you, do not destroy my ummah because of a calamity, because of a drought. Allah says, I give it to you. Oh Allah, do not destroy my ummah because of an external invasion. Allah says, I will grant you this, they will never be destroyed. Then he said, Oh Allah, do not cause my ummah to fight amongst itself. And Allah said, this I will not answer, this you're not going to get. Your ummah will be fighting, you will not get that. But the other two you got, and that is the exact reality.

From the beginning of Islam up until now, no famine, no drought, no internal issue has eliminated the ummah. No external threat has eliminated the ummah. But yes, the ummah has had civil war, the ummah has had disunity from the time of Sahaba till the Mongol invasion till now. And that is one of the trials we have to deal with.

But the fact of the matter is though, Allah will protect this ummah because He promised His Prophet ﷺ this. So dear Muslims, put your trust in Allah. Be optimistic about tomorrow. Understand, we are at a time frame where we see another low, and it is very painful. But from this low without a doubt, have yaqeen, there will be an all-time high. And that is because Allah Himself has taken upon Himself to protect this ummah.

Doesn't matter what outsiders say, Allah says, I will do it. And He has done it in the past, and He shall do it for our generation, and He will do it for future generations. Until the day of judgment.

May Allah bless me and you with the Quran. And may He make us of those whose verses they understand, and applies halal and haram throughout our lifespan. Ask Allah's forgiveness. You as well ask Him for He is the Ghafoor and the Rahman.

The Three Greatest Tragedies in Islamic History

All praise is due to Allah, the One and the Unique. He it is whom we worship, and it is His blessings that we seek. He is the Lord of the oppressed, and He hears the prayer of the weak.

As to what follows, I said if we were to look at the top three tragedies that Islamic history has produced, one of them without a doubt would be the Mongol invasion. Obviously what you place on this list is subjective depending on who you ask. Every historian might have a different list. But if you were to ask me as a novice, as an amateur reader in Islamic history, if you were to ask me what are the top three tragedies that the ummah has seen after the time of the sahabah up until our time frame.

First Tragedy: The Mongol Invasion

In no particular order, I would say yes, the Mongol invasion without a doubt is on there.

Second Tragedy: Colonization and the Fall of the Khilafah

And number two, not necessarily it's worse or less, just saying three different things. Number two would be colonization, and the fracturing up of the ummah into all of these nation states, and the relinquishment or the abandonment of the khilafah, the destruction of the khilafah. This is one thing. From 1800 to 1915, 1920, this 100 years, in my opinion, it is definitely one of the most negative catastrophes that we've seen since the beginning of our history. The realization or the reality of the fact that we no longer have an entire power base, that we are fractured into more than 50 nations and countries and different principalities. This is without a doubt very big tragedy.

But from that tragedy, and from that reality, just like I explained to you about the Mongol invasion, I could give another khutbah about some of the positives that have come, some of the great accomplishments that have happened as a result. Not because we're justifying, not because we're happy, but Allah from the negative, there will come a positive. And from tragedy, there will be something of benefit to come. This is the sunnah of Allah in the creation.

And so from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, from the collapse of the khilafah, from the breaking up into the nation states, wallahi we see in our time frame, a type of intellectual revival, and a type of spiritual revival. Just like when the Mongols invaded, the politicians failed, but the ulama took on the job. The intellectual thinkers took on the job. We see this reality now as well. Across the globe, there is a revived resurgence of izzah, a resurgence of wanting to study Islam, know the deen, be proud to be Muslim. Even if politicians fail us, the religion will never fail us. And insha'Allah, its scholars will always be there to defend.

So I would say the second tragedy would be colonization, from Napoleon's invasion in 1798, up until the collapse of the Ottoman khilafah in 1920, basically that 110 years, that is I would say number two.

Third Tragedy: Our Current Reality

And then I would argue, number three is what we are seeing right now. I would argue, I would make a case, not very proudly at all, with great sadness, tears, that the third tragedy, that is unprecedented, catastrophe of the highest magnitude, is what we are currently seeing right now.

Words fail me, because this is a tragedy of a different nature. This is not a tragedy of numbers only. Because frankly, more people were killed in the Mongol invasion than what we're seeing now. But at least in the Mongol invasion, you had hundreds of thousands of warriors fighting you. At least you had an excuse, these are better trained, better horsemen, better people of swords, better skills, and they're literally invading hundreds of thousands. At least you have an excuse.

The tragedy we are seeing now is a tragedy of a very different nature. I would argue it is unprecedented in our history. It is a tragedy that betrays how utterly weak and impotent we are as an ummah. And I am guilty just as you are. Two billion strong we boast. One out of five people on earth we say is a Muslim. Do you realize, never in our history have we had these numbers? Do you realize, never in our history have we been one out of five people on earth? And within a generation one out of four? Unbelievable!

A hundred years ago, a hundred years ago, the ummah was 10% of the world's population. Now we are 20 to 25% of the world's population. The exponential growth is astounding. But I have to say, where does that benefit us when we can't even feed hungry children dying in front of our eyes? The emaciated images of babies who can't even get milk and food. Mothers who are too weak to raise their hands for dua. People that are dying when they're standing in food lines and the world is watching.

A Tragedy of Weakness, Not Numbers

This is not a tragedy of numbers, even though it's painful to say 100,000, 200,000. But the fact of the matter is the Mongol invasion, 2-3 million. Colonization is more than this as well. Look at what the French did in Algeria and on and on. In terms of sheer numbers, I'm not trying to trivialize. We face much worse. But this is a tragedy of a different proportion. It is a tragedy that betrays how utterly weak and useless we are as an entire ummah. And I cannot think of another tragedy that proves this point in such a manner.

So what if we have 50 plus countries? So what if we have so many armies here and there? So what if we have trillions of dollars and we build bigger and bigger skyscrapers? What has that done for our ummah? And without a doubt, I am guilty just like you are.

And as we speak now, the UN has belatedly declared Gaza to be a famine situation. Should have done this weeks ago, but they just declared that. And can you believe, almost the same day that the UN declares there is a famine going on in Gaza, the IDF announces they're going to invade Gaza. And they're bringing the troops in to invade Gaza. What are you going to invade? Mothers who can't even stand up? Babies who are dying out of hunger? This is your invasion? The most coward army in the world?

But I cannot get angry at them. How about us? Where are we in all of this? I cannot just get angry at them. Where are the 2 billion? Where are the 50 plus countries? Can you believe they announced the invasion? They literally said, we're going to invade Gaza. They're getting 60,000 troops as we speak. And the ummah is just sitting there twiddling its thumbs, not able to do anything.

I cannot even think of a similar situation in our entire history. At least when the Mongols invaded, the ummah tried to fight. At least, yes, they failed, but you couldn't blame them because of the quantity. Okay, we didn't unite, but they didn't just stand there. They tried to do something.