# How Imam Al-Ghazali Built A Generation | Ep. 3 | The Salahuddin Generation

**Author:** Dr. Hassan Elwan
**Series:** The Salahuddin Generation
**Published:** 2025-12-20
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/pvgOrZhPG0c
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-3
**Topics:** History

## Description
Leaders were rising—and being buried. But behind the chaos, scholars were laying foundations history rarely credits. This episode reveals the scholarly blueprint that produced Salahuddin—from Ibn Khashab’s urgent resistance to Imam al-Ghazali’s generational reform.

## Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction
- 0:51 How Muslims Really Saw the Crusaders
- 4:48 Why Muslims “Smelled the Army” Before Seeing It
- 7:25 The Real Consequence of Living Beside Muslims
- 8:32 The Crusader's Coastline Advantage
- 11:21 Real Help Arrives… and Gets Betrayed
- 15:21 The Road of Change is Painful
- 16:33 When Muslims Unite… Against Muslims
- 18:06 A Power Vacuum in Aleppo
- 21:14 “Five Dogs” in a Dream…
- 23:14 Two Scholarly Strategies
- 26:52 The C vs A+ Problem: Ceasefire vs Liberation
- 31:55 Imam Al Ghazali Walks Away
- 34:51 A New Power Rises

## Transcript
**[0:00]** Last time we saw how the Franks and the Crusaders came, and we saw the response of the Muslim Ummah to the First Crusade, and we saw how poorly the Muslims performed. Everything was

**[0:16]** there. It was not the lack of numbers, not the lack of resources, but Muslims were divided. They had everything that could have stopped the Crusaders, or at least made it much much harder for them to get Jerusalem. But we saw that it was defeat after defeat after

**[0:32]** defeat.

**[0:51]** How did the Muslims view the Franks? How did the Muslims view the Crusaders? Now, when the Crusaders came and they established their states, Muslims had an opportunity to interact with them. The next decade or two became very interesting as the Muslim rulers of the time

**[1:06]** started recognizing them as one more power. They would fight sometimes, have some truce sometimes, but it was one more opponent. One person that interacted with the Crusaders, Usama ibn Munqidh, wrote in his biography and in his tarikh if you will, in his history,

**[1:23]** some of the encounters that Muslims reported, and it gives us an insight of how the Muslims really viewed the Franks. He said, all those who know the Franks saw them as beasts, superior in courage and fighting, but in nothing else, just as animals are superior in strength

**[1:41]** and aggression. And Usama ibn Munqidh tells us about stories that are very interesting. So he says, one time, the Franks, the Crusaders, sent to the Muslim camp. They requested a doctor. They knew that Muslims were more advanced when it came to medicine. They were very backward

**[1:57]** in science, very backward in medicine. So they couldn't treat. So they asked, can you send someone to take a look at some cases that we have? And indeed, they dispatched a doctor. He goes. After a while, he returns and they ask him, what have you seen? And he reports, he said, very strange. He said, the first case, they brought me one of their

**[2:17]** soldiers, one of their knights, and he had an infected wound in his leg. And I knew what to do. It's an infection. It needs what? It needs to be treated. And, you know, and he started doing the treatment. But he said, all of a sudden, one of the religious people came and he looked at me and he said, what is that witch doing in our camp? Because they

**[2:37]** viewed medicine as witchcraft. And he was very upset. You are sending to the Muslims to send some of their witches to use their witchcraft to treat people while I'm here. Religion can treat everything. If you believe in God and in Jesus and the healing power

**[2:53]** of the Bible, we can treat everything. And then he looks to the man, looks at his leg, and then he asks the soldier, would you like to live with one leg or die with two legs? And the man said, no, I'd rather live with one leg. He said, OK, here is the cure. And

**[3:11]** he calls another soldier, get me a battle axe. And the man comes with a battle axe and he looks at that soldier and he tells him, hit right here, hit the leg of this person right there. And the man is shocked and says, we need to amputate it. He starts hitting

**[3:26]** with the axe and it's said the bone marrow splattered and he starts hitting again and again and the man bled and he eventually died. That was the treatment he had in mind. And he said the second case, they brought me a woman. She had some allergies and she consumed

**[3:43]** specific type of food. And I saw that it's causing allergies and I knew what to do. And again, the same man comes. What is this witch doing again? I can treat this case. And then he looked at the woman and he said, I see what's going on. The devil is in love

**[3:59]** with her. The devil is trying to go in her body. We need to treat that. So what's the treatment? Shave her hair and start reciting on her different biblical verses and what have you. They do that. And the woman, of course, emotionally distressed, started

**[4:14]** eating more and her condition worsened. So they brought her back to him and said, look, the skin condition is much, much worse. He said, hmm, the devil went into her brain. So what is the solution? Bring me a knife. And SubhanAllah, he started cutting her head,

**[4:31]** cutting through the skull, making an incision in the shape of a cross, trying to reach the brain. And then he started getting salt, pushing the salt inside her brain to get the devil out. And you can imagine the woman died. This was their idea of medicine. So while the Franks

**[4:49]** were very powerful on the battleground, but in terms of science, they were extremely backward. The other thing that the Muslims reported is something we take for granted, but it was a big difference between the Muslim camp and the Crusader camp, which is the concept

**[5:05]** of hygiene. Muslims are clean. We have to make wudu five times a day. Definitely every Friday the sunnah is to make a ghusl. So Muslims are used to the idea of cleanliness. The army of Salahuddin had mobile bathrooms because as a soldier, even in the battlefield, you

**[5:20]** still have to make ghusl, you have to shower, you have to be clean. So the idea of cleaning ourselves after we go to the bathroom, Muslims do that all the time. The concept of eating with the right hand, cleaning myself with the left hand. The concept of siwak, I have to clean my teeth. They said the Franks were completely backward. They never or rarely

**[5:39]** bathed. They would spend a year, two without even bathing. They even sometimes they would use perfume to cover the smell. And therefore you can imagine hot summer fighting in their armor on a horse, sweating after six months. How would you smell? To the extent that Muslims

**[5:58]** used to report, we can tell that the Frankish army or the Crusader army is approaching before we see them. How? From the smell in the air. Also, we have other stories about the concept of jurisprudence. Remember at that time, the idea of Islamic fiqh and jurisprudence was

**[6:15]** very much well developed. You're innocent till you're proven guilty. We have to have proof. You have to go to the judge. It's a complicated process that goes through logic and fiqh and rulings. I mean, Muslims were shocked with how the Franks dealt with the idea of justice. One of the stories that a man came and complained that one person stole

**[6:35]** something from him. So how would you prove that he stole or not? They said the following. You bring a container of water. You tie that person. You throw him in water with a rope. If he's saying the truth, the truth is heavy. He'll sink. If he's lying, then he's light.

**[6:53]** He'll float. If he's saying the truth and he sinks, we pull him up with the rope and he's safe. And that poor man, they tied him. They threw him in the water. He tried his best to sink, but he couldn't. He stayed afloat. So they got him out and said, you're guilty.

**[7:08]** And what's the punishment? Blind him. So the Muslims were shocked at how backward the Franks were, whether it's in science, jurisprudence, health, hygiene. The only area that the Muslims kind of respected about the Franks is their zealousness in religion, their commitment, their

**[7:26]** steadfastness, their martial arts. But other than that, as you can tell from what Usama ibn Munqidh said, he said it's almost like we're dealing with animals. This had consequences because what do you think happened? When the Franks came with the idea that we are civilized

**[7:42]** and we're kicking out the infidels and the Muslims are barbarians, by interacting with the Muslims over a long period, they started to see the truth. They started to see that, you know what, those people are actually, they have better science. They dress better. Even their food, they use salt and things. So they started to incorporate a lot, including

**[8:02]** the Muslim dress of the time. And that eventually led to a revolt against the church centuries later because of the encounters they had with the Muslims in Spain and with the Muslims in the Crusades. It made them realize that something is wrong with us. Something is wrong

**[8:19]** maybe in the way we take our faith. Now returning back to the line of events, we saw how the Franks established their states in the Muslim land. And there is a reason why they took all the coastal cities, a strategic reason. When they take all the cities on the coast,

**[8:34]** they can be resupplied from Europe through the sea. And therefore, troops, supplies, anything they want can come directly to them through the sea. So the ports and the coastal cities were very important for the Franks. And the Muslims still divided. You had the

**[8:50]** city of Damascus with its ruler, the city of Aleppo and the city of Mosul. So Sham was divided into basically those three principalities and many other small principalities as well. Egypt under the Ismailis and at that point, almost neutral, neutral to the struggle. Now

**[9:07]** what happened next? Eventually, the Muslim rulers of the time figured it out. Hey, it's just one more player and we can start to coexist. I have my seat, they have their seat and maybe we can start to form some peace treaties, some alliances. And indeed, the ruler of Aleppo,

**[9:26]** fearful of the Franks and their growing power, and he wants to control his city, so he sent to them, let's have a mutual treaty. We can join forces against the rest of our enemies, our joint enemies. And they responded, we can spare you, we can have a treaty, but we

**[9:43]** have conditions. And they sent three conditions. Condition number one, you have to pay a yearly tribute to us. He agreed. Two, any business transaction happening in Aleppo, you have to pay taxes to us. He agreed. And the third one, to humiliate the Muslims at that state,

**[10:02]** they sent a cross and they told him, put it on top of your biggest mosque in the city of Aleppo. And he agreed. He went and a cross was placed on top of the masjid, the masjid of Aleppo. At that point, now you can see the road to change and the scholars of the

**[10:21]** time were not also very happy with this. And indeed, one of the scholars, the Qadi of Aleppo, his name is Ibn Khashab, he revolted with many of the people there. And he gathered people, he went to Ridwan, the ruler of Aleppo, and he told him, this is not acceptable. You

**[10:38]** cannot put a cross on top of the masjid. But then he told him the following, I know that we alone in Aleppo, we're weak, we cannot confront them by ourselves. Allow me to go out. I can probably get some help. I'll get help that they will come help us against them.

**[10:55]** And we don't need to do this. What do you think the ruler Ridwan of Aleppo did to that scholar? I thought in the beginning when I read this, he'll probably going to kill him, maybe put him in prison. To my surprise, he did something completely different. He said,

**[11:10]** of course, go, go ahead. Why did he do that? Because in his mind was what? Remember the Coca-Cola Muslim? You're going to go, you're going to try to get people at the end of the day. Nobody's seriously going to help you. I know the other rulers and how they think.

**[11:25]** So let him go, let him try. He's probably going to go try, give some sermons, people will cry, nothing will happen. He'll come back and we're in square one. And I'm not the bad guy. So he allowed him to do that. Now, what happened is Ibn Khashab went to

**[11:41]** the city of Mosul. And in the city of Mosul, remember, this is decades later, scholars have already started working. And the new generation of people started forming, people that were trying to put some resistance. Of those people was one lieutenant, one young

**[11:58]** man by the name of Mawdud. And he was known in the city of Mosul of what? Young person, righteous, always prays salah on time, prays the sunnah, reads Quran, very much has the prophetic love in him. And he is dedicated that, you know what? We need to fight the

**[12:13]** Franks. We cannot accept them. And he's trying to gather people around him. And indeed, he was known that he fought some battles against the Franks and won some small battles here and there. Ibn Khashab went to Mawdud and he told him, look, look what's happening in Aleppo, and I'm asking you to please come and help. Maybe we can unite. Maybe for

**[12:33]** once, you know, the city of Mosul and the city of Aleppo can join forces. Unity is important. And Mawdud immediately responded. He gathered his army, responded to the call, and he went with Ibn Khashab all the way to the city of Aleppo. And you can guess what happened

**[12:50]** once Ridwan, the ruler of Aleppo, saw Ibn Khashab coming with real help. He arrested Ibn Khashab, put him in, you know, house arrest, arrested everyone with him, closed the doors of the city because now Mawdud is dangerous. Then he sent to the Franks, come and help against

**[13:10]** our joint enemy. They did not, of course, want Mosul to unite with Aleppo again. So they immediately responded to the call. At this point, Mawdud, I mean, what is he going to do? Fight Muslims and the Franks together with an army with no supplies? So he realized

**[13:25]** I can't do anything. So he decided maybe we can try with a different city. Maybe if we could not form some unity with Aleppo, maybe the city of Damascus would respond to my call and the necessity to fight. And then he takes his army later and goes to the city

**[13:40]** of Damascus, speaks to the ruler there. And to his surprise, the ruler said, of course, why not come in? He enters the city of Damascus and people were very happy. You know, like it seems that there is some joint work and two cities, just two cities. I want you to notice this. We're speaking about two cities, two cities uniting. Right. And then maybe

**[14:00]** there will be some unity and maybe they will start fighting the Franks in a bigger way. And what happens next? Mawdud goes to the masjid and all of a sudden a person jumps and stabs Mawdud to death. An assassin disguised as one of the regular masjid-going people.

**[14:20]** And this crime, of course, happened in front of everybody. It was so disgusting because it was done on a Friday to the extent that Muslim scholars report that the Franks were astonished at the state of the Muslims. So they sent a letter to the Muslims saying the following: a nation that killed its emir, the one that's fighting for it on the day of worship,

**[14:41]** the day of Friday in the house of their Lord deserves from their Lord to destroy and make them all perish. That was the state of the Muslims. Now, there is a lesson here. You see the road of change. People like Mawdud exist today and they stand and they start

**[14:57]** to fight and they try their best. But what happens? Oftentimes they're stabbed in their back and they die. The road of change is painful. If I want to change, if I want to be a part of a movement that is going to change individually, by the way, and as an Ummah, one of the most

**[15:15]** important things to expect, some of the resistance and biggest frustrations would be not my enemy. The people that I'm trying to help will be the people that sometimes hurt me. If we are contributing to change, we might face frustrations, we might face obstacles from the people that

**[15:35]** we love and the people that we are trying to save. Let that not deter us. Sidq is the ability to do the right thing independently. Whether it hurts me or it doesn't hurt me, whether people like it or whether people don't like it, whether it's easy or it's hard, I'm doing it sincerely for Allah.

**[15:55]** So I will commit to continue to do that. But of course, there was a lot of frustration. The Sultan of Mosul learned about what happened to his best commander Mawdud and he got killed in the city of Damascus. And people were wondering, who did that? Who do you think killed Mawdud? By the way, people of course said it's obvious. It's probably

**[16:15]** Ridwan, remember the ruler of Aleppo? He's the one with the assassins. He got scared because now the city of Damascus and Mosul are going to be against him. Many scholars think it's actually not Ridwan. It's the ruler of Damascus himself. He's the one that did

**[16:30]** this. He's the one that contacted the assassins to get rid of Mawdud. Why? Mawdud is dangerous. If he comes to my city and people love him, he might take my chair from me. I cannot in public do something like what Ridwan did. It's a double win. I get rid of him and people

**[16:47]** blame the city of Aleppo. Nevertheless, the Sultan now in Mosul was very upset. So he gathers his army and he says, I'm going to march, teach those people a lesson. And a big army from the city of Mosul marches towards the city of Damascus. To his surprise,

**[17:04]** he finds another army facing him. And that army consists of three parts. On the left is the army of Damascus. On the right is the army of Aleppo. And in the center is the Franks. The three of them united against him because the three of them viewed him as a

**[17:22]** joint common enemy. Now, what happened with this Sultan? He got really, really upset. So he took his army back, did not fight, and he made an oath. I will never help them again. And you can see the problem we're speaking about. Again, brothers and sisters, we will

**[17:43]** try to do our best to serve our deen. Let not the non-idealities of our dear brothers and Muslims, we are all humans, and their shortcomings make us abandon. Our cause is for the sake of Allah. On the road of change, we expect this.

**[18:01]** Time passed. The ruler of Aleppo, this man Ridwan, who had the assassins around him, and the Ismailis now infiltrating the city, and eventually he died. Death comes to everybody. He died a natural death. When he died, the Ismailis now saw that as an opportunity.

**[18:18]** It is an excellent opportunity to grasp control in the city of Aleppo. They sent to the Franks, and they said, you know what? We have people inside. If you help us, and you send your forces, and we take power in Aleppo, we promise to be your allies. We promise. And the Franks needed no convincing.

**[18:35]** They started to gather an army and head towards the city of Aleppo. Who stood against them was the Qadi of Aleppo, Ibn Khashab, the judge. He revolted, gathered people. He was very adamant. The assassins could not take control of that city, and he started fighting them.

**[18:52]** Eventually started kicking them out of the city. But now the city has no ruler, and they see that the Crusaders started coming around and surrounded the city. Ibn Khashab told people, I will go again personally, and I will try to get an army to help us,

**[19:08]** but do not give up the city to the Franks. Now we said Mawdud died, but again, as we'll see later, scholars were already working, and the new generation was starting to take power. A man was in power in the city of Mosul. Different than the previous ruler,

**[19:25]** his name was al-Bursuqi. They describe him as a religious person. Prays salah in jama'ah, always prays sunnah, always maintains his taharah, loves Quran, very adamant against fighting with the Franks, and actually has won also some small battles against them. So Ibn Khashab goes to him. He finds him sick, and he tells him,

**[19:44]** we need your help. Al-Bursuqi makes an oath. If Allah cures me from my illness, I promise in front of Allah, I will take my army, and I will go help the city of Aleppo. And he makes intense du'a, and by the grace of Allah, in few days,

**[19:59]** he completely recovers. And al-Bursuqi fulfills his promise to Allah. He gets his army, gathers them, and they all head towards the city of Aleppo. When the Franks saw this, and they saw an army coming to save the city, they backed up, arranged their ranks to fight.

**[20:17]** But al-Bursuqi decided to do something interesting. He did not fight them. He decided to go inside the city of Aleppo. His view was, let me first unite the Muslims. If I go inside the city, it's for the first time, two cities, Mosul and Aleppo are now united.

**[20:34]** Now I can work within the city. We have the fortification of the city. We strengthen ourselves, and he promised everybody. And next year, once we do that, we will go and we will fight the Crusaders. But let us work on our unity first. Let us establish that.

**[20:51]** And now an interesting thing happened. For the first time, two of the cities of Sham, Mosul, a big city, and Aleppo, are under the rule of one person. And that person is al-Bursuqi. And people loved him, and he started, you know, preparing his armies.

**[21:06]** But you can guess, what do you think happened next? One Friday, Bursuqi wakes up and he says, I saw a dream. I saw five dogs that tried to attack me. I succeeded in warding some of them, but the rest of them got the best of me. And people start telling him,

**[21:22]** Ya Sayyidi, you know, maybe, maybe, please do not go for Fajr salah. We don't want anything to happen to you. And he says, how can I not go for Salat al-Fajr? That's a fard! Because of a dream, I cannot do that. He said, he opened the Quran and he read a verse from Surat al-Ahzab [Al-Ahzab 33:38].

**[21:39]** Wa kana amrullahi qadaran maqdura. The command of Allah is decreed and will indeed happen. And he told them, see, I have to obey Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, no matter what the consequences are. I cannot not go based on this dream.

**[21:54]** And he goes to Salat al-Fajr. And indeed, what he saw exactly happened. Five assassins attempted to attack him. He succeeds in warding off two, but the rest of them succeed in stabbing and killing al-Bursuqi in front of everybody.

**[22:10]** Who do you think their next victim was? The one that stood against them. The one that preached, the scholar Ibn Khashab himself on a Friday. And as he's on the pulpit giving his khutbah, one of them goes up and stabs him in front of everybody.

**[22:26]** The assassins had a pattern. They made it a point that their crime should be done in front of as many people as possible. Their best thing was the masjid and they definitely favored Friday, especially the sermons, you know, the khutbah. Why? Remember back in the time, there was no CNN. There's no Fox News.

**[22:43]** How do you spread fear? Who would cover that? So the assassins wanted to make sure when we assassinate someone, let as many people see it because then they'll go speak, which will strike fear in the hearts of everybody else. That's their main target. Their next target, al-Qadi al-Harawi.

**[23:00]** Remember the Qadi of Jerusalem, the one that went to the Khalifa, the one that's actively speaking and he was one of their targets. And they assassinate him again the same way. Now, here I want to point something that I think is very important. What were the scholars of the time doing? From them is Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami.

**[23:20]** And that man, when the Franks first arrived, he had such a vision and he wrote a book and he called it Kitab al-Jihad, the book of Jihad. In that book, he described, he made a blueprint, if you will, about the necessity to fight those invaders.

**[23:35]** They're not the enemy that we had before. They're not just going to take Jerusalem and stop. If you leave them, they're going to take the entire region and that they are powerful and they're supported by Europe. So we need to unite and he named those three, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.

**[23:50]** If we can unite and those rulers put their differences to the side, unite their armies and declare that this is for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, that's the way forward. What happened? Though that's the correct plan later to be adopted by the way by Nur al-Din Zanki and Salah al-Din,

**[24:07]** decades later, but at that time, nobody did anything. Although it's clear. This is what we need to do. Other scholars looked at it from a different angle. Imam al-Ghazali, when he saw what's happening, and especially after the assassination of Nizam al-Mulk,

**[24:23]** his diagnosis was different. He said a lot of the scholars that I see around me are a part of the problem. He says the Ummah needs scholars. It's like in any society you would have doctors when you feel sick, you go and they treat you.

**[24:40]** But he asked what happens if the doctors are sick? They can neither cure themselves nor cure other people. The problem is not just the rulers, but the rulers are affecting the people and the scholars of the time are not doing their duty.

**[24:56]** They're debating, they're speaking intellectually, which is all good, but the diseases that are affecting the people really are diseases of the heart. Why is it that the Muslims have what we call the affinity for defeat? Why are they running on the battlefield?

**[25:12]** Why aren't they united? Why are they so much after the life of this world, not only money, but the love of status that afflicted everybody, not only the rulers. He started to see the people are the same way. And therefore, from his view, you cannot ask people afflicted with this type of disease to go and sacrifice their wealth.

**[25:33]** I love my wealth and I'm not willing to face any hardship, not willing to let go of my money, not willing to let go of my house, not willing to let go of my comfort. You think I would really do something that jeopardizes this?

**[25:48]** So Imam al-Ghazali, his view was, let me treat the cause of the problem, the root of the problem. Let me focus on the inward. Let me work so that those things that are blocking people from going and doing the right thing are removed.

**[26:04]** And that even is a very Quranic concept. You find verses in the Quran, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَا لَكُمْ إِذَا قِيلَ لَكُمْ انفِرُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ اثَّاقَلْتُمْ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ أَرَضِيتُمْ بِالْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا O you who believe, why is it that when the call for you, stand up, stand for the truth,

**[26:20]** you know, come on, give victory to Islam, you are heavily chained to the ground. You're heavy, chained, shackled with what? Dunya. And Allah asks, is it that the life of this world went so much in our hearts that it is chaining us down?

**[26:37]** Today I can ask myself, yes, I don't like a lot of what's going on around. I definitely do not like what's going on in Palestine. But I can ask myself, can I donate 50% of my wealth to Palestine? Can I, instead of living in a comfortable life,

**[26:55]** reduce my living standards so I can have enough money so I can, why can't I? Can I donate 10% of my income every month to Palestine? If the answer is no, that's too much. If everybody's thinking like me, that's the problem. Our enemy, the enemy of Salahuddin, the enemy of the Muslims of the time,

**[27:14]** they were willing to give everything. They were very sincere. If the Muslims are not on par, if I have greed, love of wealth, love of status in me, it will inhibit me from saying or doing the right thing. So Imam al-Ghazali tried to treat the root cause.

**[27:31]** He focused on the long-term solution. Maybe we will not solve the problem now, but if we work on new group of scholars that are good doctors, that can treat those diseases in people, we will have a generation that will be steadfast, that is willing to sacrifice both effort, their life, their wealth,

**[27:49]** and they will be dedicated, they will be clear, and they will have sincerity, and they will be united on La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah (ﷺ). So that was the effort of Imam al-Ghazali. There was another group of scholars, like for example Ibn Khashab. And we saw those scholars, if you will, fiery speeches,

**[28:07]** focuses on current issues and short-term solutions. Look, the city of Aleppo is going to fall. We need to do something. I can't wait. So those group of scholars, characterized by what? Emotional. Give fiery speeches. The activists, if you will, propagating the realistic solution of now,

**[28:23]** solve the problem now. Which one do we need? And the answer is, in my humble view, from this, we need both. We need people that will do something right now. We need people that advocate for the oppressed as much as we can right now, in the moment.

**[28:39]** But we also, we need people to tell us about the long game. And I'll give you a very simple example. If I am a student in a university, and I didn't study, and I go out, and I sleep late, and I don't have a schedule, and I play video games by night, and I go out with my friends, you know, in the day,

**[28:57]** and then all of a sudden the midterm is there. And I go to one of my friends and say, help me out, I have a midterm in one or two days. And I didn't study anything. What do you think my friend will do? He'll tell me, look, I cannot give you, there is no way you can get an A in this exam.

**[29:14]** But I'll tell you what, let's work together. Maybe if we work hard this one or two days, maybe we can get a C. Maybe you'll pass the exam, right? Maybe, if we're lucky, maybe you'll get an F, because it's too late. You already did the damage. But maybe, Bismillah, let's start, and we will work on short things that will not get you an A.

**[29:33]** There is no A. But maybe you'll get a C. But here is the thing, if after this exam, you did not change, and you chose to do the same thing, and you come at the finals two days before it, tell me, help me out, you will consistently get a C at best, if not an F.

**[29:52]** But if you choose to wake up, and if you choose to change your habits, stop playing video games till 1am, wake up early and go to the lecture at 7am, stop going out with your friends, study, do the homeworks. If you commit to this, maybe when the final comes, maybe months later, maybe you will get an A.

**[30:13]** So today is the same thing. Today we see Muslims, SubhanAllah, we're oppressed left and right. And all what we ask for is what? Please cease fire. Stop killing us, and we should ask for that. But that's the C. Wallahi that's the C.

**[30:29]** What's an A? Leave our lands. Jerusalem belongs to us. Remove the root of oppression. It's not stop killing us. It's to defend ourselves and take what's ours back. We don't compromise. That's the A.

**[30:45]** And maybe by Allah's grace, I hope that we wake up, maybe we get the C now. But you know what I'm afraid of? We get the C right now, there is a ceasefire, and we return back to our own habits. Only to be surprised by another event, and we're in the same spot.

**[31:01]** Imam al-Ghazali was focusing on what? On the long term, I want an A. Ibn Khashab is focusing on what? On the short term, we need to get a C. We don't need to fail. We need both. We cannot afford people not doing either. The works of those scholars, Imam al-Ghazali and Nizam al-Mulk,

**[31:19]** the one that did all those schools, they did not live to see their work. Imam al-Ghazali has his work carried by other scholars as we'll describe, like Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, like Ibn al-Jawzi, like Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi, is what changed the generations later.

**[31:35]** He did not live long enough, but he started. We need to start both. So Imam al-Ghazali, being that deep thinker, he looked at his own self, and he realized that while he's very articulate and he can debate, he suffered from those diseases himself.

**[31:52]** Maybe not the love of wealth, but definitely, he said, the love of status. And he realized that the love of status and prestige and power can even afflict scholars. He saw that himself, while he's preaching things, he's not actually embodying them. So he decided to quit his position as the head of the Nizamiyyah school

**[32:11]** and spend time by himself doing what? Doing mujahadat al-nafs. I have to work on my own self. I have to embody what I speak on. He went on a deep reflection, and he left. He didn't tell anybody where he is. And we have many stories that he went and he spent some time in a masjid

**[32:28]** working as a janitor, as a matter of fact. And one story that in that masjid, a person comes and asks the scholars a question, and it was a little bit difficult, so they could not find the answer. And Imam al-Ghazali is there, you know, and he hears it.

**[32:43]** So the man is walking out and he says, stop, I heard your question. And he gave him the answer. And the man was astonished. So he went back to the scholars and he told them, what kind of scholars are you? You could not answer me? And the janitor in this masjid answered better than you.

**[33:00]** And then they heard the answer and they thought, oh, seems this kind of answer. This is Imam al-Ghazali. And he left and he continued to work on himself. Later on, he came back a changed person. He wrote one of his most famous books, Ihya Ulum al-Din,

**[33:17]** the book of the revival of religious sciences, which combines the outward with the inward, focuses a lot about akhlaq and purification of the soul. It's a huge book. Now that book was a revolution in its time. Many scholars loved the book, but some scholars noticed that

**[33:34]** Imam al-Ghazali, while as great as he is, the book still has some problems in it. Some of the ahadith are not very authentic. And what should we do when we find a great scholar providing a good work, but there's some problems with it? Should we just throw it away and warn people, don't read it,

**[33:51]** just throw it in the trash? That's not what those scholars did. Ibn al-Jawzi, who lived in the same time, noticed this, praised Imam al-Ghazali. And he said he did great work. However, I see some things here. So what did he do? He wrote a book called Minhaj al-Qasidin.

**[34:08]** He took the work of Imam al-Ghazali and tried to remove the problematic ahadith, take it a step further. Later on, one of the students of Ibn al-Jawzi, Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi, a great scholar that lived in the time of Salah al-Din and was with Salah al-Din in the Battle of Hattin.

**[34:25]** This scholar wrote a book called Mukhtasar Minhaj al-Qasidin, the abbreviation of the way of the seekers to God, if you will. That's the title of his book. Why did he do that? He saw that the book of Ibn al-Jawzi is too detailed. He wanted something that is simplified enough, abbreviated enough,

**[34:43]** that the public can read. So the works of Imam al-Ghazali continued to influence the Ummah for decades, if not centuries to come. So the scholars are working in the background, trying to get a new generation, right? Now, how did change happen?

**[34:59]** Back to the line of events. Now we saw Bursuqi got killed. It seemed that every time a good man stands up, something happens and we lose him. Every time somebody stands, holds the flag, he gets killed or assassinated, betrayed. And then he falls down.

**[35:15]** And people started to lose hope. As a matter of fact, at that moment, something major happened. The follower of Bursuqi, one of his commanders that was with him all that time, Imad al-Din Zanki, came to power. And that is when a true significant change started to happen.

**[35:47]** For more information, visit www.yaqeeninstitute.org

## Other Episodes in "The Salahuddin Generation"
- [SERIES FINALE: Salahuddin’s Legacy | Ep. 11 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-11.md)
- [The Man Who Outsmarted Salahuddin | Ep. 10 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-10.md)
- [One Sultan vs. All of Europe — Counterattack | Ep. 9 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-9.md)
- [The Victory That Reopened Jerusalem | Ep. 8 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-8.md)
- [The Plot to Dig the Prophet ﷺ’s Grave | Ep. 7 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-7.md)
- [Salahuddin’s Revolution Begins | Ep. 6 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-6-salahuddin-revolution-begins.md)
- [3,000 Riders to Egypt: An Impossible Mission | Ep. 5 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-5.md)
- [The Rise of Zengi | Ep. 4 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-4-the-rise-of-zengi.md)
- [Why Jerusalem Fell in the First Crusade | Ep. 2 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-2.md)
- [The Rise of the Assassins | Ep. 1 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-1.md)
- [The Salahuddin Generation: Knights and Scholars | OFFICIAL TRAILER](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-official-trailer.md)
- [The Salahuddin Generation – Official Teaser](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-series-official-teaser.md)