# The Rise of Zengi | Ep. 4 | The Salahuddin Generation

**Author:** Dr. Hassan Elwan
**Series:** The Salahuddin Generation
**Published:** 2025-12-27
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/o_ieznAiDTY
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-4-the-rise-of-zengi
**Topics:** History

## Description
Imad ad-Din Zengi revives hope by capturing Edessa, but is quickly assassinated, causing new despair. His son, Nur ad-Din, emerges: a king raised by scholars. He shifts the state from power (dawla) to faith (din) and abolishes all unjust taxes. But can he truly unite Damascus and Aleppo before the...

## Chapters
- 0:00 Assassins’ Friday Killings
- 2:37 Imad ad-Din Zengi: Unity and Justice
- 4:47 Damascus Allies with the Crusaders
- 6:12 Edessa: The Weakest Crusader State
- 8:25 Zengi Assassinated—Hope Collapses Again
- 10:02 Nur ad-Din Zengi’s Lightning Counterattack
- 12:15 Scholars Behind the Revival (al-Jilani & Others)
- 13:57 Reforming the Kurds: A Dangerous Mission
- 16:48 Nur ad-Din Zengi: The Ascetic Ruler
- 19:47 Ends Don’t Justify Means (Leadership Shift)
- 22:08 Sharia Justice vs “Harsh Power”
- 25:03 Taxes Abolished—Charity Explodes
- 28:25 Second Crusade Targets Damascus
- 31:56 Outlasting the Crusader Super-Alliance
- 33:39 Ascalon Falls: Egypt in Danger
- 35:40 Defending Muslims Outside Damascus
- 39:51 Sham United: Mosul, Aleppo, Damascus
- 45:10 Victory Through the Weak (Prophetic Hadith)

## Transcript
**[0:00]** 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? The assassins wanted

**[0:19]** to make sure when we assassinate someone, let as many people see it, which will strike fear in the hearts of everybody else. That's their main target.

**[0:45]** So we saw how events happened last time and it ended up that Al-Bursuqi got assassinated. And when that happened, again, you can sense the frustration of Muslims. Is it every time that when somebody tries to raise the banner of the truth and starts to do something, he

**[1:02]** gets assassinated and it seems that we go back to square one? Nevertheless, in this episode, we will see hope. Because what happened at the time? People said maybe his son should be the one that rules. And now we have two cities, Al-Mosul and Aleppo together. It was

**[1:17]** the fuqaha, it was the qadi, the faqih of Al-Mosul, Baha al-Din al-Shahrazuri, that went and said this cannot be. His son is too young and the state of the Muslims in the time need a more powerful ruler, need someone who has experience to take the affairs of the Muslims.

**[1:34]** And he proposed someone, one of the commanders of Al-Bursuqi, one that was with Al-Bursuqi and earlier was fighting with Mawdud too, a commander that knows very well politics and knows very well the state of affairs of soldiers and has fought the Franks and the Crusaders

**[1:50]** before. This man was Imad al-Din Zengi. And with him in power, a new era started, the era of the Zengids. And I want you to notice something. From now on, you'll see that the names start to change. You know, when you look to the names before that, you'll find

**[2:08]** Shams al-Dawla, Najm al-Dawla. Dawla means the state. So people would call themselves the star of the state, the sun of the state. Now you'll start seeing something interesting. From now on, the names started to change. You have what? Shihab al-Din, Najm al-Din,

**[2:24]** Baha al-Din, Salah al-Din. You notice that? The word Din, Din, Din, the star of the Din. The word Din replaced Dawla, which tells us about something that started happening within this generation. So here we have Imad al-Din Zengi that comes to power. Now Imad al-Din,

**[2:41]** he was really a soldier, but he accompanied al-Bursuqi and fought so much the crusaders. When he came into power, I would say he has two elements that would characterize his rule. Number one was unity. We cannot fight the Franks. We cannot fight an enemy that's united

**[2:58]** if we are dispersed. We have to unite Muslims together. So to establish unity, he fought other Muslim rulers. He will bring more cities in by the sword, if you will. And he said, those are treacherous rulers. We can't win this way. What should I do? If they don't

**[3:14]** want to come under me, let me take their cities by force, if you will. So he started fighting more and more, sometimes against Muslims with the idea that I'm trying to unite the Muslims. But then the second point was justice. That without justice, there is no success. And

**[3:31]** justice has to be established. Now, the way he did this was interesting. He started with his own soldiers. He noticed that soldiers are kind of mercenaries. They fight for one emir and when he dies, they switch allegiance and they fight for money and they oppress people left and right. And he said, no, no, no, no. My army has to be well disciplined.

**[3:51]** The army of Imad al-Din Zengi is well paid. He will take good care of them. He will take good care of their families. In return, soldiers have to be disciplined. Soldiers must not oppress anybody. So that was one attitude. And the second thing, the way to establish

**[4:06]** justice was harsh punishment. And he used to say to some of his soldiers, if I hear that you oppressed any of the farmers or any of the people, I will crucify you myself. Very strict in punishment. And some scholars, of course, do not agree with this harsh attitude.

**[4:24]** Nevertheless, Imad al-Din now started doing what? Trying to unify the Muslims more and more and more. And indeed, in his time, his state started growing gradually and gradually and gradually. And then eventually he realized, now that we have the city of al-Mosul and

**[4:39]** the city of Aleppo, there is one big city in Sham that needs to be united with them, which is the capital of Sham, the city of Damascus. And as such, the ruler of the city of Damascus became very wary of Imad al-Din Zengi. What do you think he did? Now being afraid Imad

**[4:56]** al-Din Zengi is powerful, now he has a powerful army, Damascus is threatened, what should he do? He went to the Franks and asked the help of the crusaders. Let's join forces against the common enemy. If he tries to attack me, I'll seek your aid and then you can come and

**[5:13]** then you can help me against him. And indeed, Imad al-Din at one point laid siege to the city of Damascus. And Damascus is a very well fortified city. And the siege dragged and Imad al-Din, despite his efforts, he could not take the city of Damascus. At that point,

**[5:31]** Imad al-Din decided to do something really out of the box. He said, maybe it is time, maybe I have enough forces to actually direct my forces and attack the crusaders and the Franks, not on the battlefield, but maybe it's time that we can recover some of the

**[5:48]** major cities they took for the Muslims, right? We can start taking back that which they took from us. And then he started putting, where should I attack? I think he should, maybe Jerusalem, but Jerusalem is not an easy target, heavily fortified, the center. And he understood

**[6:05]** if he was to attack Jerusalem, even if he succeeds, what is most likely to happen? The Franks will unite, help will come from Europe, the concept of a counter attack. And he's not ready for yet for that. So he picked in his view, the weakest of the cities, the city

**[6:22]** of Edessa or al-Ruha in Arabic. That kingdom was a protrusion inland that existed between al-Mosul and Aleppo. And from a strategic perspective, that is a very good point to strike. So he waited, waited till the ruler of the city of Edessa was out and he pretended to take

**[6:39]** his army south. So everyone was like, you know, thinking things are good. And then he flipped and he went all of a sudden and laid siege to the city of Edessa. And something interesting happened. His soldiers were well disciplined. He had an engineering brigade and they had something where they called the tank, which is like a cover. There is an engineering

**[6:58]** brigade under it and they would move till they become very close to the wall of the city. And then they start digging and then they start putting wooden planks under the city wall. Then they set the wood on fire and the wood collapses and there is nothing that's holding the wall. And indeed, a huge portion of the walls of the city of Edessa

**[7:17]** fell. Many of the soldiers of Imad al-Din started rushing towards the city of Edessa and they succeeded in taking the city of Edessa or al-Ruha back from the Franks. That sent waves of hope throughout all the Muslim lands. The Franks are not just defeated in a battlefield,

**[7:36]** but Imad al-Din now what? Took back the main capital of, you know, the kingdom of Edessa, if you will. He took al-Ruha itself and people started viewing him as a hero and more people started to flock to him. And Imad al-Din didn't stop there. He started again fighting

**[7:51]** and expanding. But before going into that, I want us to learn a very important lesson. The concept of a counterattack. Usually what happens is we win, we win, we win and then what? We relax. A counterattack happens when we are completely not prepared and what happens?

**[8:07]** A setback and we're back to square one. When Imad al-Din succeeds in opening the city of al-Ruha, news went to Europe. What do you think happened? The Pope gathered the kings. What? A new crusade is having now to amass. Why? We need to go retake what Imad al-Din took

**[8:24]** from us and a massive crusade started to amass and will be heading towards Imad al-Din soon. What will happen when this crusade lands? So Imad al-Din is busy trying to open more cities and while he's laying siege to one of the cities, something interesting happened.

**[8:42]** Night time, his servant gets a dagger and stabs Imad al-Din to death. Is it an assassin? Who did that? There is many theories. Reality is we really don't know. All what we know is that Imad al-Din, this man that started to attack the Franks, started to unite the

**[9:01]** Muslims, again got assassinated. And again people would start to feel despair. Again, every time somebody starts to stand up, something happens and we lose him. With the death of Imad al-Din, people were very concerned. What will happen next? The

**[9:18]** city of al-Ruha, which had many Armenian Christians, sent to the crusaders that Imad al-Din is dead, guess what? Come and we will render the city to you. And indeed the Franks came, seized the opportunity and they attacked and retook the city of Edessa back to themselves.

**[9:35]** And it seemed once again we're back to square one. But when Imad al-Din died, a new era actually emerged. A new man came to the scene. The son of Imad al-Din Zengi came to power. A man that is going to change the face of history. A man that is even greater than Salah

**[9:53]** al-Din himself. As a matter of fact, he is the teacher of Salah al-Din. The one that is responsible for the major reform that happened in that time. And his name is Nur al-Din Mahmud Zengi. Ibn al-Athir, when he describes Nur al-Din Zengi, he says a

**[10:09]** very interesting statement. Ibn al-Athir is a historian who wrote an interesting book about history called Al-Kamil. And he wrote, I studied the biographies of the ancient and contemporary kings and leaders. After the rightly guided Khulafa and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz,

**[10:25]** I saw no one more righteous than the just king and ruler, Nur al-Din Mahmud Zengi. And Nur al-Din Zengi, the way he entered the scene was majestic. When he heard about the fall of the city of al-Ruha, he immediately ordered his knights, if you will. Everybody

**[10:42]** would take multiple horses, start galloping all the way towards the city of al-Ruha, non-stop, all night. And he would exchange mounts. You know, the horse gets tired, you just exchange the horse, you ride another one. By morning time, he reached the city. And the Franks,

**[10:58]** they didn't expect it. They were relaxed, they were celebrating, drinking and having fun. And Nur al-Din Zengi shows with his forces and attacks them in that state. That was completely unexpected. He overpowers the city and he retakes the city of al-Ruha. But he didn't stop there. To make a point, next day, he orders his troops, let's get out of

**[11:18]** the city, and he starts attacking different forts and cities of the Franks nearby. Making a point that yes, if Imad al-Din Zengi died, the Muslims are not weak. So who is Nur al-Din, the son of Imad al-Din Zengi? Imad al-Din, a soldier as we discussed

**[11:36]** before, right? But he loved scholars. So he decided that as his son is growing up, his son learned from him all the arts of war and how to be a knight. But he decided that also his son should accompany scholars. And here we see the effect of scholars and how they

**[11:51]** contributed in shaping the character of the leaders that led to the victory of the Muslims. Nur al-Din Zengi, as they describe him, a scholar himself. He was a scholar in the Hanafi fiqh. He loved the hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ). He had ijazah in narrating hadith. Nay, he had even a book that he wrote a book about jihad himself. They describe him surrounded

**[12:12]** by scholars. So who were the scholars of this time? Of those, most famous Ibn al-Jawzi, Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Shaykh Ahmad al-Rifa'i. And among them is one of the greatest scholars of the time, Al-Hafidh Ibn Asakir. The great hadith master of that century used to be one of the teachers of Nur al-Din Zengi

**[12:31]** and used to be one of the people that attend with Nur al-Din Zengi. For the first time, they took the science of tazkiyat al-nafs, the science of purification of the heart, to the public. Before, if you want that, you have to go to a teacher, sit with him, and you have a company of that teacher,

**[12:48]** and it's for a dedicated group of people. Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, which appeared at the time, took the teaching of Imam al-Ghazali to the public. And a major reform started to happen. Many of the soldiers and the people around Nur al-Din Zengi and around Salah al-Din came from those schools.

**[13:06]** Now, Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani was in Baghdad. And we have examples of the teaching of Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani. His book, Al-Fath al-Rabbani, which exists up till today, was written in the time of 544-545 Hijri. You open the book, what was he teaching?

**[13:21]** On not objecting on Allah. Poverty of the heart. Not wishing to be rich. Repentance. Reasons to love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Patience. Not showing of tribulation and calamities. Knowing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Tawhid.

**[13:37]** Truthfulness. Arrogance. Commanding the ego. Be careful of your thoughts. Contentment. Jihad al-shaytan. Jihad of the self. Fearing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Getting the love of the life of this world out of the heart. Praiseworthy anger versus blameworthy anger.

**[13:54]** Those are the types of teaching. He reformed them from inside. Another Shaykh, not very famous, by the name of Adi ibn Musafir. He followed a different approach. Shaykh Abd al-Qadir stayed in Baghdad. He taught the public in the capital.

**[14:09]** Al-Adi ibn Musafir did something really interesting. He went to an area called Hakkari in Kurdistan, where the Kurds used to live. This area was known to be a very unsafe area. The Kurds in this point were bandits, robbers, thieves, thugs, Muslims by name.

**[14:24]** But this is not a good area to be in. And he went to that area. And what he did? He got a piece of land, started, you know, farming and started living there. He had such an effect that it is said most of the Kurds, the Hakkari Kurds and the Rawadi Kurds,

**[14:40]** repented and really came back to Islam in a very significant way on his hands. And people really, really loved Shaykh Adi ibn Musafir. Now, the unfortunate thing is because he lived in that mountain, we don't have much about what he used to teach.

**[14:55]** But we know the following. Of those people are the people that served Salah al-Din, nay, the family of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi himself, were from the Rawadi Kurds that got affected by Adi ibn Musafir. And you will notice as we speak later, many of the people around Salah al-Din,

**[15:13]** Al-Faqih Isa, al-Hakkari. Sayf al-Din al-Mashtu, al-Hakkari. You'll notice that they're coming from Hakkari. So those scholars, when they preached, they preached a message that really reformed people from inside. And they implanted in them the attitude of being steadfast.

**[15:32]** You know, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا لَقِيتُمْ فِئَةً فَاثْبُتُوا وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ Oh you believe, if you confront an enemy in the battlefield, whether it be in the real battlefield or an opponent in life,

**[15:49]** be steadfast. It's all about being steadfast. Do not run away. Do not give up. Be patient. How do you do that? وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا Do a lot of remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brings steadfastness to the heart.

**[16:06]** What does that mean? Who teaches that? Those scholars specialized in that area. They would spend one year with Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani and he would teach everything. From the creed, you know, to the beliefs, to the Qur'an, to the sirah of the Prophet (ﷺ), to the tazkiyat al-nafs, but he would accompany people.

**[16:25]** This idea of suhbah, a companionship, is what was necessary to transform that generation from inside. And Nur al-Din Zengi, if you read about him a little bit, he was a builder. He rebuilt the cities, every single city he has. He started building schools.

**[16:41]** In Aleppo, he built eight different schools. Why? He realized Aleppo before had the assassins. It had the Ismaili creed and he needed to fight that. And the best way to fight that is what? Through ilm. So Nur al-Din Zengi, as they described him, a true worshipper of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[16:58]** He used to pray at least one third, if not two third, the nights. Every single night. He used to fast on Mondays and Thursdays. Always prayed Salat al-Jama'ah. Very generous with his money. When he came to power, it describes one of the very first thing that he said is like,

**[17:14]** what's my salary? Who should determine my salary? And he did something really amazing. He asked what is the minimum wage in his kingdom? And they gave him a number. He said my salary should be lower than the minimum wage of anybody working in my kingdom.

**[17:29]** To the extent that at one point, his wife complained to him about what? Poverty. She sent to people, you know, and send him a letter. I don't have enough. We're very poor. Can you please provide more for me? And it is said Nur al-Din Zengi, again, surrounded by scholars, got her letter.

**[17:44]** And he loved his wife. And he read the letter. And then he seeking some advice from the scholars around. And he said, what does she want me to do? Wallahi, you know, he loves her. Said by Allah, yes, I love her. But I'm not ready to go to hellfire because of my love of my wife.

**[18:01]** What does she think? Does she think that the money that I have belongs to me? It all belongs to the Muslims. And I'm their trustee. I cannot take anything from their money. And then he looked and he said, all what I have left is two small shops in the city of Aleppo.

**[18:18]** I will write them. Let her take those shops. And whatever income she gets from them, they're hers. So Nur al-Din Zengi was very modest in the way he was. Nur al-Din Zengi also loved the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And perhaps that's why he was always interested in learning the hadith of Muhammad, sallallahu

**[18:36]** alayhi wa sallam. His love of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, led him to abide and follow the sunnah of Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in everything. To the extent that it was narrated one time that people read a hadith to him. And in the hadith, it mentioned the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, coming out.

**[18:53]** And it described in one word the way he used to wear the sword. See, there is two ways to wear the sword. Sometimes people would put the belt around their waist. Or you can put the belt here, like, you know, diagonally and hang the sword. And it described how the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, used to wear his sword.

**[19:09]** And Nur al-Din Zengi stopped and said, what did you say? Next day, they find Nur al-Din Zengi coming out with all his umara and soldiers. He changed the way they wear their swords to match the way the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, used to wear the sword. And not only that, that had an impact on how he would rule people.

**[19:28]** So one of the differences between him and his father, he agreed with his dad that we must unite Muslims. Unity is important. And also, justice is important. But Nur al-Din Zengi added something that I think Imad al-Din was missing, which is what?

**[19:43]** It's not only about the intention and the goal. The how is very important. The ends do not justify the means. It is not only that I have good intentions and I'm working for the sake of Allah. I have to do it in a way that pleases Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[20:00]** So the how do we do things is as important as why we do things. So it's not only about unity. How do we unite people? His father used force, the sword. How do we establish justice? His father used harsh punishment.

**[20:16]** Nur al-Din Zengi had a different idea. The best way to unite people is not by the sword, is not by force. It's to unite the hearts of people. How? By following the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, فَبِمَا رَحْمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ لِنْتَ لَهُمْ

**[20:33]** وَلَوْ كُنْتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ لَانْفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكَ It is by the rahmah and the compassion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that you, O Prophet of Allah, has been made lenient to them. Had you been harsh, hard-hearted, aggressive, people will disperse away from you. And he realized the only way to unite the hearts of Muslims is not force,

**[20:53]** is not nationalism, is not ethnicity, is not language. It's La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah. Let us unite on the love of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Let us unite on La ilaha illallah. So he made it very clear.

**[21:08]** One nation united under one Sunni Islam that follows the prophetic model. So the first thing he did was he looked to the army. Yes, his dad established a system for his soldiers, but he went and he did something that might shock you.

**[21:24]** The armies before Nur al-Din Zengi, the Muslim fighters, you know, used to drink. He was the one that came and said, you're not allowed to drink wine anymore. He's the one that banned khamr, wine, from being consumed in the army.

**[21:40]** It was Nur al-Din Zengi who said, that's not doable. We cannot be working for Allah and doing something that displeases Allah. Vulgar dancing, all wines, all shops and bars in his kingdom that is selling that should be closed

**[21:56]** because that goes against the Shari'ah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He's the one that stopped the harsh punishment. Imad al-Din Zengi, as we said, he wanted justice. And sometimes he would do it by what? Force. Nur al-Din came and said, no, we have to abide by the rules of Shari'ah.

**[22:11]** We punish people only with what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala described. And guess what happened? Something really interesting happened. People nowadays, when you say Shari'ah laws, oh my God, it's harsh. That's not what Shari'ah is full of, rahmah and love. To the extent when Nur al-Din Zengi issued that, people started complaining of what?

**[22:30]** We can't punish anybody. If we implement the rules of Shari'ah, they said, everybody will go free. We cannot punish anybody. And how will that work? And then they wrote a letter to the Shaykh, one of the Shaykh that Nur al-Din Zengi loved, telling him, please go tell Nur al-Din Zengi.

**[22:47]** There is a lot of robbers and cutthroats and people that we need to punish. And it's very difficult to prove things according to the Islamic law. And when we punish them, we have to be really harsh. Else, corruption will spread. We need those harsh rules so that we can establish justice the way of your father.

**[23:05]** And Nur al-Din responded to the scholar. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, wassalatu wassalamu ala abdalihi al-mursaleen. He said the following. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commanded us to rule with his Shari'ah. And Allah knows what works best for mankind. If we attempt to add something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not prescribe for us,

**[23:25]** it's as if we're saying that he missed it and that the Shari'ah is incomplete. And wal-'iyadhu billah, this is something we cannot claim. And he says, and minds that are not supported by the Wahi, by the divine revelation of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, cannot be guided to the truth.

**[23:42]** And I ask Allah to guide me and you to realize that the best way, the most effective and balanced way to rule people is to abide by what exactly Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala prescribed. If we cannot prove something, let people go.

**[23:57]** We have to do things the right way. So Nur al-Din Zengi implemented, if you will, the prophetic way. Implemented the Sunnah of Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, throughout his kingdom. One time, a man came and started saying poetry to Nur al-Din Zengi.

**[24:14]** He started blaming Nur al-Din Zengi, warning him, what are you going to say in front of your Lord in the hereafter, after what you did? You claim to be helping the Muslims and you are taxing people in a way that is haram and illegitimate. Those taxes that you're taking from people,

**[24:30]** they are not according to the Shari'ah or the way of Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. They're unjust taxes. You're not allowed to do that. How are you going to answer your Lord on the day of judgment when he's going to ask you, why did you take money from the people this way? And it is said Nur al-Din Zengi broke into tears

**[24:47]** and immediately ordered letters to be written to all his governors. All the cities and the letter to the public, please apologize and seek the forgiveness of people and tell them that the taxes I took from them, I used it to defend them and to fight the Franks and tell them from this day onward, all those taxes are abolished. 0% taxes.

**[25:10]** Can you imagine? Can you imagine if our next ruler or governor, when he takes power, he says one of the first things I'm going to do, abolish all taxes. Can you imagine? And people will say, what will happen to the economy? It's not abolish taxes, but abolish taxes and preach to people about what? Giving charity.

**[25:30]** The scholars have a role. So yes, I'm not going to take money from you by force, but that doesn't mean that you do not donate. And guess what happened at the time of Nur al-Din Zengi? People started donating more than before. Schools were established. Hospitals were established.

**[25:45]** Pharmacies were established. Gardens were established. Endowments were there. People became so generous. Islam is not about taking money by force from people through taxes. By actually preaching the importance and the beauty that if we have money to give and to share,

**[26:02]** even if I'm poor, share. If you're rich, Allah bless you. We're not going to take it away from you, but donate to other people. Give it willingly. And SubhanAllah, that message did work. And Nur al-Din Zengi, the economy thrived under him. SubhanAllah. He established something else.

**[26:21]** He noticed that, you know, he wants people to have access to him in case one of the rulers or governors are being oppressive. So he established what we call nowadays higher court. He called it Dar al-'Adl, the house of justice. What's the house of justice? He would go and sit

**[26:36]** there every single Monday. Notice Monday. Why? Because he fasts Mondays and Thursdays. So he sits there and what does anybody who has a complaint against one of my governors comes to me in person and complains to me. That's who Nur al-Din Zengi was. Surrounded, as we said, by scholars. Sometimes

**[26:56]** the commanders of Nur al-Din would get a little bit jealous of the scholars around Nur al-Din Zengi. And in one incident, one of the commanders of Nur al-Din Zengi came to him and started bashing one of the scholars. And you can tell that he probably felt we're doing all the work. We're fighting in the battlefield. And yet Nur al-Din keeps favoring those scholars. They're not doing

**[27:16]** anything, ya akhi. So he felt what's their role? We're the ones doing all the work. So he went to Nur al-Din and started bashing one of the scholars. You know that scholar, he's this, he's that, you know. Nur al-Din Zengi was silent and he let him continue and continue till he finished. And then

**[27:32]** Nur al-Din told him the following. Ya hadha, oh this did not call him with his name. The man you're talking about has two superior and excellent qualities. And those are the qualities of ilm, knowledge, and din. Even if what you said about him is true, shouldn't I be patient over some of

**[27:50]** his defects for those two great good qualities? As for you and your friends, the likes of you, you neither have ilm nor you have din. You neither have knowledge nor good religion. And you have so many defects and I'm patient over you. Shouldn't I then be patient over him? And he said, and by

**[28:09]** Allah, I don't believe anything that you said about him. And if you once more come to my audience and attempt to backbite anybody, I will punish you and discipline you myself. People had such reverence. He's a just king. He had such reverence in the hearts of people around him. And he was known to

**[28:26]** follow the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Known that also in the battlefield, a fierce soldier. But the first thing that Nur al-Din Zengi encountered, remember when al-Ruha fell in the times of Imad al-Din Zengi, we said Europe was preparing a crusade. News came to Nur al-Din Zengi,

**[28:44]** a new crusade just arrived and just landed. And now they're debating where they're going to attack next. Are they going to attack the city of al-Ruha? Or maybe they're going to attack Aleppo, his capital. Because if Aleppo falls, then they can take every other city. But then something

**[29:00]** strange happened. The crusaders came together, and remember those are the kings and the nobles of Europe. And they said the city of Edessa is too small. It is not worth our time. We came all the way from Europe. It has to be worthwhile. What is the biggest city in this area of Sham?

**[29:18]** And the response came, it's actually the capital, the city of Damascus. And they decided that's the city we should be attacking. But wait a minute, the king of Jerusalem responded, but this is my buddy, buddy. This is the guy we have an alliance, and we already have a treaty, and we're together.

**[29:37]** Why don't we attack Nur al-Din, attack Aleppo? And they said, no, no, no, no. It is the city of Damascus we're going to attack. The irony of it. The one that's their ally is the one that they decided to attack. And they gathered their armies together with the army of the Franks of Tripoli,

**[29:53]** Antioch, and Jerusalem, a huge army. Some, Ibn Qalanisi says 100,000. And they started marching towards the city of Damascus. What do you think the ruler of the city of Damascus did at that time? He realized he cannot face them alone. So he sent to Nur al-Din Zengi,

**[30:13]** come and please help. If you were in Nur al-Din Zengi's place, what would you do? Remember, this is the man that fought your father. Ibn Zengi tried to unify the city of Damascus, but he couldn't. One can say Nur al-Din might sit back and say, see, you deserve it. But this is not how

**[30:31]** Nur al-Din Zengi thought. This is not about the ruler. Damascus is a Muslim city. And no matter what the ruler is, even if he thinks he's a traitor, he cannot let the city of Damascus fall to the Franks. And Nur al-Din responded immediately, putting all the old differences

**[30:47]** aside, gathered his troops and he sent a letter. I'm coming with all my soldiers and my troop to your aid. And Nur al-Din Zengi gathers his troops and they started marching towards the city of Damascus. So you have now the city of Damascus and the Franks, you know, laying siege to it.

**[31:03]** And now Nur al-Din Zengi comes and the Franks find themselves caught between two fires. The city of Damascus, heavily fortified, well fortified with an army inside and Nur al-Din Zengi from outside. And Nur al-Din follows a different strategy. He does not fight one big battle. He consistently

**[31:22]** harassed them. And whenever they would attack, he would start to pull back, pulling them out because he knew he can drain them. And they go back and he attacks again and again and again. He realized it's a war of patience and persistence. And this is something we only have to also learn

**[31:39]** that sometimes it takes time and persistence to win. Sometimes it's not one quick, easily big, battle and we're done. Sometimes the best strategy is what? Consistent small efforts. He exhausted the army of the Franks. At this point, something interesting happened. The ruler

**[31:56]** of Damascus sent two letters. One to the king of Jerusalem, his old friend, and one to the newcomers, you know, the kings and nobles of Europe that are coming in this new crusade. In the one to the newcomers, he said, you see this Muslim army around Damascus? That's Nur al-Din. This is the

**[32:13]** greatest sultan of the Muslims. If you do not fall back and leave my city, I will deliver the city to him. Would you like Nur al-Din to take Damascus? Would you like him now to have the three cities in Mosul and Aleppo and Damascus? This is not in your best interest. So what does he suggest?

**[32:29]** You know what? I'll give you a good amount of money and you can go attack another city. Why are you attacking Damascus? Go attack Aleppo. Leave me alone. Take the money and just... He's trying to save himself. And then he wrote a letter to the king of Jerusalem,

**[32:46]** telling him, what are you doing? We had a good relation. Those people you're helping, if they take the city of Damascus, do you think they're going to leave you in Jerusalem? Perhaps one of them will replace you and he will become the king of Jerusalem. It is not in your best interest to do that. We had a good relation. So just go back. I'll give you some money and

**[33:04]** let's return back to our previous treaty. And this negotiation did work. The Franks frustrated. Months they could not take the city of Damascus, as we said, very well fortified city and Nur al-Din Zengi is outside. They can take this big sum of money and go somewhere else. Some of them decided

**[33:23]** to go back to Europe. The rest started marching towards the city of Aleppo. Nur al-Din Zengi meets them on the way and defeats the Franks on their way to the city of Aleppo. And to his surprise, that was the end of that crusade. Yet Damascus was still outside of his control. The Franks realized

**[33:44]** that Nur al-Din Zengi is pretty powerful. And through the years, every single year, there will be consistently battles between Nur al-Din Zengi and the Franks. He did not leave them alone. And he started liberating small forts here and there and defeating them in multiple fronts. And they realized Nur al-Din is pretty powerful. The soldiers of Nur al-Din, a little bit different than the

**[34:04]** soldiers they saw before. Then they decided to shift their attention. If the northern area ruled by Nur al-Din Zengi is that powerful, what about the southern area? What about Egypt? Egypt under the Ismailis was in really a very weak state. And indeed, the Franks launched an attack. And they

**[34:23]** attacked the city of Ascalon. And they successfully took that city from Ismaili rule. Nur al-Din Zengi became so perturbed at this. Why? If they take the city of Ascalon, they're so close to Egypt. Egypt is weak. If they choose they can start attacking Egypt with the Ismailis there,

**[34:42]** they might not be able to defend themselves and that would be a disaster. If a country as big as Egypt with all its resources fall to the Franks, that's a major blow to the Muslims everywhere. And Nur al-Din Zengi wanted to stop that. So he needed to go and maybe attack Ascalon, stop them.

**[35:01]** But that's far from Aleppo. On the way from Aleppo to Ascalon is Damascus. So he sent some messages to the ruler of Damascus. I don't want to take over the city, but can I come and use the city as a base? Can I resupply my troops? Can I use it to launch some attacks? I need to be there

**[35:20]** so I can defend the Muslims. I need to check the Franks on the southern border. And I just need your support. And you can guess what happened. Unfortunately, the ruler of Damascus sent to the Franks. Nur al-Din Zengi is coming. We have a treaty. He is our common enemy. Please come and help me

**[35:38]** defend the city against Nur al-Din. And the Franks did not need any more invitation than that. And they sent their army and they started going around the city of Damascus, laying camp. And unfortunately, their soldiers started going to the farmers and the land and, you know, all the estates

**[35:55]** around Damascus. And they oppressed people left and right like soldiers. And the complaints came by the dozens to the ruler of Damascus and the Dutrich Nur al-Din Zengi. The ruler of Damascus chose to do nothing. Why? I need those people here. I need their protection. So even if they

**[36:11]** oppress the people and the farmers left and right, it's OK as long as they're protecting me and I'm sitting on my seat. But the news reached Nur al-Din Zengi. And Nur al-Din Zengi was really upset. And he sent to the scholars around him, taking, you know, their shura and what should we

**[36:27]** do. Then he decided to take his army and go protect the farmers and the people outside of Damascus and put an end to the Franks' presence around the city of Damascus. And he wrote a letter to the ruler of Damascus. And this letter is amazing. You read it and you can really see

**[36:46]** who Nur al-Din Zengi is. I have not pitched camp here in order to make war against you or lay siege. Only the many complaints of the Muslims have induced me to act in this way. For the farmers have been despoiled of their goods and separated from the children by the Franks. And they have

**[37:04]** no one to defend them. Since Allah bestowed on me power to grant safety to the Muslims and wage war on the Franks, it would be impermissible for me to neglect them and fail to come to their defense. Especially that I know that you are unable to protect them, and I am aware of your degeneration,

**[37:24]** which led you to seek the aid of the Franks and deliver the goods of your poorest people to them, people whom you have criminally wronged. This pleases neither God nor any Muslim. And then Nur al-Din Zengi comes and then he starts protecting the city, attacking the

**[37:40]** Franks, pushing them back, you know, protecting the people. And now the ruler of Damascus is afraid, Nur al-Din Zengi is there, so he closes the door of Damascus. And Nur al-Din Zengi, what should he do? His father attempted to take the city by force. The ruler is a traitor. But attacking the city, putting Muslims against Muslims, and it's a very well-fortified

**[38:00]** city, it's a big fitnah and it's difficult and many lives will be lost. Remember Nur al-Din Zengi has a different way. He wanted to unify Muslims, not by the sword. By what? By the scholars and by the hearts of people. So he started sending letters to all the scholars

**[38:16]** in Damascus, everybody. And people loved Nur al-Din Zengi. His reputation, his chivalry, his reflection of who Muhammad (ﷺ) is, people really sincerely loved him. And people made du'a for him, people wanted him as the ruler of the city of Damascus. And eventually, the

**[38:34]** scholars inside the city of Damascus, with the help of Nur al-Din, letters going back and forth, they started speaking up and they started speaking to the people and they started speaking to some of the soldiers inside the city of Damascus. And eventually, some of the people and the soldiers said, that's it, we're done. They sent a letter from Damascus

**[38:53]** to Nur al-Din Zengi informing him, basically we've had it. Come in, you can take the city. And indeed, Nur al-Din Zengi shows up, they open the gates of the city of Damascus and Nur al-Din Zengi enters with his army. He took the city of Damascus without shedding

**[39:09]** one blood of the Muslims. Once he took power of the city, what do you think he did to the ruler? I mean, people might think this ruler deserves to be punished. Nur al-Din Zengi didn't do that. He took him out of his position, gave him a smaller city and a smaller fort and said, you know what, you can continue to rule, you stay in that fort, but the city

**[39:28]** of Damascus is not yours. Why did he do that? The message is what? Join forces with me, I don't want to deprive you of status and power and, and, and as long as you serve under me, there is a position. But the likes of this man cannot be entrusted with a big city like Damascus. So he removed him from power, put him in a smaller place and took control

**[39:48]** of the city of Damascus. For the first time, the three big cities in Sham with many other cities, Al-Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus are united. Nur al-Din Zengi successfully united all the cities of Sham and now the Franks face a unified front, unified cities, unified

**[40:09]** army, all under one banner, the banner of La ilaha illallah. Under what? The Sunnah. Nur al-Din was very clear. One flag, one nation. It's not the Arabs, it's not the Turks, it is not the Kurds, his army, everybody. We're all Muslims. This is not a Palestinian cause.

**[40:29]** This is not an Arab issue. This is not the issue of Gaza. This is a Muslim cause that concerns every single Muslim. And the Muslims reacted as one. Turks, Kurds, Seljuks, Arabs,

**[40:45]** whoever you are. Even it said some people came all the way from Morocco to Nur al-Din Zengi to fight with him and later on with Salah al-Din. And he actually reciprocated. He noticed that when people from Morocco, they got captured, their families are not there to ransom them. And Nur al-Din Zengi, he made an allowance from the state and he

**[41:05]** specified this allowance is for what? To free any prisoner that is from Morocco that falls to the Franks because they have no family here to ransom them. He established unity, but the way he established unity was beautiful. Unity of the hearts that led to what? Unity

**[41:23]** of behavior. And this is the way Nur al-Din Zengi successfully unified the cities of Sham. But I have to mention, because sometimes you think, look at this man, you know, yes, you know, when we follow Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, victory comes. Sometimes he got defeated.

**[41:39]** There were battles that Nur al-Din Zengi actually lost. It is not victory, victory, victory in the battlefield all the time. But you know what? There is victory in defeat. And Wallahi Nur al-Din Zengi exemplified that in one of the battles. It's called Waq'at al-Buqay'ah. The Franks noticed Nur al-Din Zengi every year would gather his forces and attack. And

**[41:59]** they decided to basically lay a trap for him. And they united their forces, gathered everyone from Tripoli to Antioch, you know, big army and prepared an ambush for Nur al-Din Zengi. And indeed, his forces started coming as he does regularly to attack the Franks. And he

**[42:16]** didn't know that they're already there and prepared. And as they lay camp, the Franks attacked the Muslims while they were not ready. And they took them by surprise. And the knights of the Franks, you know, the Templars and the Hospitallers charged down and the Muslims

**[42:32]** were not ready. And they crushed the line of defense that faced them. And they actually went all the way till the tent of Nur al-Din Zengi. Some of the scholars with him lost their life. And Nur al-Din Zengi was about to be captured. It was one of his soldiers that came quickly, gave him his own horse and Nur al-Din Zengi jumped on it. And him

**[42:50]** with some of his knights, they succeed in escaping. And Waq'at al-Buqay'ah, this battle that happened, it was a major setback. Nur al-Din Zengi lost a lot of his troops, a lot of his equipment, a lot of his weaponry, a lot of his horses. But what happened was amazing.

**[43:06]** Nur al-Din Zengi starts, you know, galloping with his horse. And then he stops, you know, maybe a couple of miles away. And he starts gathering all the knights around him. He successfully gathers about 1000 of them. And then he orders, we're laying camp right here. One of the

**[43:22]** Fuqaha' with him, his scholars were with him even on the battlefield, told him, Ya Sayyidi, this is not a wise idea. The enemy is right there. And if they see you, they're going to come and they're going to attack you. It's not a good idea. And Nur al-Din Zengi responds,

**[43:39]** if Allah grants me 1000 knights, I am not afraid to stand and fight those people. Lay my camp and I'm ready to fight again. And then he said, and I will fight myself. And he used to fight, as we mentioned, Nur al-Din Zengi was a very brave knight, by the way.

**[43:56]** He used to fight with two swords. And he intended to fight himself. So that scholar told him, Ya Sayyidi, please, this is extremely dangerous. You don't have people around you. And if you fight yourself, what happens if they kill you? You're the one that we just united all

**[44:13]** the cities of Sham. Muslims are united all around you. You're the one that's doing all this. You're the one that's protecting Islam. You're too valuable. Don't risk yourself. If something happens to you, what happens to us? Who will protect us? Who will protect the Muslims? Nur al-Din Zengi looks down and starts tearing up and looks up to that scholar.

**[44:32]** And he says, who is Mahmud? Nur al-Din Mahmud that you say that to? Who protected Islam before Nur al-Din Zengi? That is Allah. Alladhi la ilaha illa huwa. And he does not see that he's the one that's bringing victory

**[44:49]** to Islam. He is a tool. It is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It is a favor that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose him to bring victory through him. Tawhid is about seeing Allah and His attributes through everything. I deal with the creation, but I see through it. I see

**[45:06]** Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala behind everything. Tawakkul is about that. I take the means. Yes, power, strength, soldiers, but it's all Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that's the soldier, the knight Nur al-Din Zengi, the scholar Nur al-Din Zengi responding to a scholar. A lesson

**[45:24]** in Tawhid. Another lesson happens. And this is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, this is true victory. So people come to him telling me, Ya Sayyidi, we need another army. You know, we've lost so many horses, weapons, and now the Franks are on the loose. We really need some money so that we can build another army so we can protect people. You're spending so much money on those scholars

**[45:45]** and those, you know, scholarship for the students of knowledge and people sitting in the Masajid and take the money from them, give it to us so we can buy weapons and we can protect them. The response of Nur al-Din Zengi, one who really embodied the Sunnah of the Prophet,

**[46:01]** sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, one who knows the Hadith of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, not in his head, in his heart, he said the following, You want me to take money from people that fight for me day and night with arrows that never miss and give it to you? You fight with

**[46:19]** me only when I'm with you and your arrows hit and miss? Their du'a is an arrow that never misses. And then what does he do? He recites a Hadith from the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, 'An Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, 'An Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Anahu qal, Hal tunsaruna illa bidu'afa'ikum? That the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said,

**[46:38]** Do you think that you attain victory or help or provision from Allah except through the weak ones among you? Their du'a is why you're getting your provision. So Nur al-Din Zengi understands the power of du'a. Never underestimate the power of du'a. Yes, he's in the battlefield,

**[46:54]** but he knows very well the du'a of every single person in his Ummah is the means, is one of the most effective means by which he gained victory. This is who Nur al-Din Zengi was. When you look to this, is this defeat? Might be defeat in a military sense, but it's not.

**[47:11]** Defeat is when I'm defeated here, when I'm psychologically defeated, when I give up, when I become helpless, when I start to compromise, when I start to drop my values and my character and my morals and I just want to be safe and I give up. Then my enemy really won.

**[47:29]** Muslims, yes, can be defeated in the battlefield. And not only in the battlefield, I can be defeated in life, I can make a mistake, but I'll always stand up, bi-idhnillah, and respond. Again, I'm not defeated inside. I still have hope that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can bring victory,

**[47:46]** Allah al-Qadir. By the way, in any battle, not only in this period of time, the enemy always wants people to what? To lose hope so that they can stop fighting, to see that this you cannot win this. What does that mean? Give up, be subdued to me. If they successfully do that,

**[48:06]** they overpower their foe. Winning is about not giving up inside, no matter what setbacks we have outside. My heart has hope because my hope is not in my means and my tools and my rulers, my hope lies in Allah rabbil 'alamin. And Allah al-Qawiyy, al-Matin, al-Qadir, al-Rahman, al-Ghafur,

**[48:25]** al-'Afuw. Despite my mistakes, He can forgive me. I make mistakes a hundred times, Allah can forgive me a hundred times. Despite my weakness, He can cover me with His strength. Despite my poverty, He can cover me with His richness. Despite of my inability, He can cover me with His abilities.

**[48:42]** Allah al-Qadir, al-Qawiyy, al-Ghafur, al-'Aziz. In that, we should have hope. This is Nur al-Din Zengi, the one that led the reform of the Muslims at his time. It was a movement led by scholars that led to the appearance of those generations. And yes, sometimes when we

**[49:01]** build bottom up, when we build an infrastructure, even later on if the rulers are bad, the infrastructure stays. There is a difference between a nation who has a good infrastructure and the ruler is bad, that nation can recover in a faster way. Which is exactly what happened next,

**[49:18]** after Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi. Things weren't really great. But you know what? The system that was established in the time of Nur al-Din and Salah al-Din saved this Ummah for centuries to come.

## 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)
- [How Imam Al-Ghazali Built A Generation | Ep. 3 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-3.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)