# The Plot to Dig the Prophet ﷺ’s Grave | Ep. 7 | The Salahuddin Generation

**Author:** Dr. Hassan Elwan
**Series:** The Salahuddin Generation
**Published:** 2026-01-17
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/eoB5Dkr5yTE
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-7
**Topics:** History

## Description
When a pillar of leadership disappeared, the ummah didn’t just face uncertainty— it began to fracture. Division spread quickly: fear, suspicion, propaganda, and leaders willing to bargain away dignity just to survive. Loyalties splintered. Cities hesitated. Unity became fragile. And in the midst of...

## Chapters
- 0:00 The death of Nur ad-Din Zengi
- 3:52 The fragile unity falls apart
- 6:35 Salahuddin returns to Damascus
- 9:50 The girl who stopped Salahuddin's army
- 12:23 The Assassins’ ceasefire with Salahuddin
- 16:29 Building Egypt, uniting al-Sham, keeping the Crusaders at bay
- 19:22 Reynald of Châtillon, the rogue Crusader knight
- 21:39 Reynald’s plot to dig the Prophet ﷺ’s grave
- 26:48 Salahuddin spares his enemy’s wedding
- 29:24 Salahuddin strategy to trap the Crusaders

## Transcript
**[0:00]** Before the Franks leave, they said something that was very surprising to Salahuddin, a shock. He received a message from them, telling him, do not be so happy, don't think that you

**[0:18]** won, go see what happened to Nuruddin. Is Nuruddin Zinki dead?

**[0:42]** We saw how Salahuddin received very disturbing news on the hands of the Franks and the Before the crusaders leave, they sent a message to Salahuddin, telling him, go look what happened to Nuruddin. Nuruddin Zinki, the one that is the teacher of Salahuddin, the one that the Muslims love,

**[0:59]** the one that unified Sham and Egypt, the one that everybody is looking up to, they told him Nuruddin is no more, Nuruddin Zinki is gone, Nuruddin Zinki is dead. And Salahuddin was shocked. Is this true? And if it's true, how come he didn't hear about it?

**[1:16]** If something really happened to Nuruddin Zinki, he should have heard about it from Muslims. Why was the news kept from him? Is it just a rumor? Is it a trick they're playing? Or actually it is something that represents a bigger problem. And Salahuddin was very concerned.

**[1:32]** And immediately he starts writing letters, sends them to all the cities in Sham. And he says in one of his letters, news came from the accursed enemy regarding our beloved Lord Nuruddin. May Allah keep him well for his wellness is the wellness of our own hearts.

**[1:49]** And then he says the following, if the news we received is correct, then know that true men, true loyalty, true love appear in such type of afflictions. And then he starts warning, unite and be careful not to divide, lest we lose everything we

**[2:06]** gained. And he told them, Nuruddin Zinki made it clear to all of us that after he passes away, if something happens that we should unite under his son. And Salahuddin was serious in showing that he is loyal to Nuruddin Zinki.

**[2:21]** He has no intent to take over though he has Egypt and Egypt now is a powerful country. But all what he wanted is let's all unite. Our biggest enemy is the Franks. And with the letter, he sent something that I found really interesting.

**[2:37]** He sent coins. He said, and those are coins that I ordered to be coined in Egypt. What does that mean? When you had coin in the times, you would write the name of the ruler or the Sultan on it. And he sent coins from Egypt showing that they have the name of the son of Nuruddin

**[2:54]** Zinki indicating what I'm already loyal to him. Please unite. Please let's not divide. And please let's stay together. Nuruddin Zinki spent so much effort to unite the cities in Sham, to unite Sham with Egypt. Let's not lose this because if we do, things will turn out to be much worse.

**[3:14]** And the fears of Salahuddin were indeed true. Indeed Nuruddin Zinki passed away. This great man, this great ruler, the teacher of Salahuddin, in his time, he liberated more than 51 forts and cities. He's the one that united Sham.

**[3:29]** He's the one that built the infrastructure upon which Salahuddin would later free Jerusalem. He's the one that spread schools left and right, supported scholars. The Ummah lost a great, great man, Nuruddin Zinki, a pious worshiper of Allah, a great

**[3:45]** warrior, a great statesman, and a beautiful soul, one that loved the Prophet (ﷺ) and embodied his character. But after Nuruddin Zinki died, unfortunately, the three cities in Sham, Damascus, and Mosul, and Aleppo divided again.

**[4:02]** And now they were scared because they know Salahuddin has Egypt, it's very powerful. Will Salahuddin come? Will he overthrow them? What should they do? The Franks immediately took advantage of this and they started marching towards the city of Damascus and Aleppo.

**[4:17]** And unfortunately, some of the rulers there sent to the Franks, we will give you money. We will pay you tribute. We will free some of the people that Nuruddin Zinki captured. But just go back. And Salahuddin received the news.

**[4:34]** And he sent letters to the scholars of Sham, like Ibn Asakir, highly, highly admonishing what happened and telling Ibn Asakir, this is not acceptable. How can this happen? After what Nuruddin Zinki did, I have an army in Egypt. I was already on the way because I knew what the Franks will do.

**[4:51]** I was ready to protect them. This is not acceptable. This does not please Allah and His messenger. And he asked Ibn Asakir as a scholar, please go and make that known to them. We cannot be doing this. I'm not interested in taking over Nuruddin Zinki's estate.

**[5:07]** And I'm here to protect his son and defend him and try to unify the Muslims. Our enemy is the Franks and the crusaders. We should not be fighting together. But nevertheless, the governor of Aleppo at the time, his name is Sa'duddin Gumushtigin. He sent in the beginning to Damascus saying we all should rule under the son of Nuruddin

**[5:26]** Zinki. Please send him to Aleppo where I can take care of him and all of us will unite. The people in Damascus agreed and they sent Nuruddin Zinki's son, which was at the time 11 years old, to Aleppo with a delegation with him. The moment they reached Aleppo, Sa'duddin captured all the people with him, threw them

**[5:47]** in the prison, took the son of Nuruddin Zinki. And he said, you know what, of course I'm loyal to you. But then because now he is the caretaker of the son of Nuruddin Zinki, he's now the actual ruler. And he says, I'm your servant. I'm the one to take care of you.

**[6:03]** But now the son of Nuruddin Zinki is a card in his hands. People love Nuruddin Zinki. People will be very loyal to his son. Immediately the allegiance of Aleppo fell to him. The people in Mosul, another man, Saifuddin, his name, he separated with Damascus, the capital of Sham.

**[6:19]** And reports came that he started taxing people, things that Nuruddin Zinki abolished. Taxes came back, khamr and wine came back. And the people of Damascus were confused. What should we do? And Salahuddin started sending to them. And he's telling them, we need to unite. I'm not interested in power.

**[6:34]** I'm interested in unity. And by the grace of Allah, Allah guided the hearts of those people after they saw what's going on in Sham and they sent to Salahuddin, come, we will deliver Damascus to you. And Salahuddin leaves Egypt with 700 knights only.

**[6:50]** Why? If he moves with his army, everybody will be scared. You cannot take a city with 700 knights. And he came to the city of Damascus. They opened the doors. Salahuddin came in and he started visiting the scholars, making them assure that he is not power hungry.

**[7:05]** It's all about the unity of the Muslims. And the scholars agreed with him. And he started again treating people in a very nice, decent way, following Nuruddin Zinki. And Damascus in peace entered under the rule of Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi. But that was a threat to Sa'duddin and Saifuddin.

**[7:24]** Salahuddin is gaining power. He has Egypt and now he has Damascus, the capital of Sham. But Sa'duddin Gumushtigin wrote some things to the son of Nuruddin Zinki and convinced him that Salahuddin is out to get you. That Salahuddin is unloyal. Look at that man that your father put in power in Egypt.

**[7:41]** Now he's coming to take over that which belongs to you and to your dad. He's a traitor. And he wrote a very emotional letter, you know, playing on the emotions. He asked the son of Nuruddin Zinki to go in public and deliver that to the people.

**[7:56]** And the son of Nuruddin Zinki, 11 years old, stood in front of the people of Aleppo and started reading this and started crying. And the people were extremely emotional. And they said, of course, we are with you. We are loyal to you. We are loyal to Nuruddin Zinki. How come Salahuddin is coming to attack?

**[8:14]** And you see the fitna that's now starting to happen between the two camps. Salahuddin doesn't want to fight. So he sends to them, let's have peace. Let's have truce. I'm not here to fight. I'm here to unite with you guys. Let me keep Damascus.

**[8:29]** You keep everything else. And all what we have to do is join forces and let's focus on the Franks. And they send that let's sign a treaty with this. Salahuddin comes forward and Saifuddin and Sa'duddin come out with the armies of Aleppo

**[8:44]** and Mosul. They have an army of maybe 10,000 or more. Salahuddin has only 700 knights. And guess what they decided to do? Why should we sign a treaty? That's a golden opportunity. We can easily overwhelm him. And they started to prepare to attack Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi.

**[9:03]** And by the grace of Allah, Taqiyyuddin, the nephew of Salahuddin, a formidable warrior, came quickly with some of the knights of Egypt. And Salahuddin was very keen. We're not here to kill each other. But they attacked Salahuddin. And he ordered Taqiyyuddin repulse the attack.

**[9:20]** And by the grace of Allah, Allah helped the forces of Salahuddin to repulse and defeat the attacking party of Mosul and Aleppo. But then Salahuddin gave a very interesting order. Do not kill them. Do not follow them. Typically, in a battlefield, if you defeat your enemy, you chase.

**[9:37]** He said, no, no, no, no, those are Muslims. We are not interested in killing them. Those people will become our allies in the future. They're the soldiers that we hope later to unite with to attack the Franks. Let them go. And they go. And Salahuddin starts moving towards the city of Aleppo.

**[9:55]** He reaches the city of Aleppo. And something really interesting happened. What should he do? Should he attack the city? So he started camping outside and they sent someone to negotiate with him. Let's make another treaty. And subhanAllah, this time the gates of the city open and here comes the person that he's

**[10:13]** going to negotiate with Salahuddin. A young girl. And it is said Salahuddin sees this young girl. He started tearing up and went to her and started asking her, what do you want? And she started telling him, I want you to leave and said, done. I want you to give me this fort.

**[10:28]** Done. I want you to do this. Done. Anything she said, Salahuddin agreed on. Who was she? The daughter of Nuruddin Zinki. They sent the daughter of Nuruddin to Salahuddin knowing that Salahuddin, when he sees her, he will give in.

**[10:44]** And that's exactly what he did. He gave her all what she asked, left and started going to other forts. And he used to say that I'm not interested in removing you from power. You can stay in power. All what I want is the following. Is that when it's time to fight the Franks, if I ask you to come, you bring your men and

**[11:03]** join me to fight the Franks. That's all what he wanted. I want your strength because we need to be united in facing our enemy. That was his strategy. Salahuddin started going to other cities and laying siege, but something happened. Now Sa'duddin Gumushtigin realizing

**[11:20]** how Salahuddin is powerful, he starts making a plot. And the plot had a number of directions. Number one, the assassins. Now the assassins are not happy with Salahuddin at all. He abolished the Ismaili Khilafah and he took control of Egypt and there is a reform.

**[11:37]** They're very unhappy. So he gave them some money and told them to assassinate Salahuddin again. Their previous attempt failed, but now let's try to do it again. Second, he sent to Raymond, the ruler of Tripoli. Create a diversion.

**[11:52]** I'll give you money, but start attacking Salahuddin. Keep him busy. Third, he started releasing some of the prisoners that Nuruddin Zinki captured. Why? Those prisoners were great leaders of the Franks and some of them were really adamant

**[12:09]** to attack Muslims. I'll release them, they'll go and create a problem for Salahuddin. I'll keep him busy so he does not come back to me. This is how things were, unfortunately. One man caused so much trouble. Nevertheless, the assassins agreed and they sent some of their people that were disguised

**[12:28]** as soldiers of Salahuddin. Remember their method? So they had soldiers within the camp of Salahuddin that are actually among them. And Salahuddin is walking among his soldiers, encouraging them and all of a sudden, one of those people takes out his dagger and attempts to strike Salahuddin.

**[12:45]** But he was wearing his helmet and the blade slid and it cut the face of Salahuddin. And Salahuddin falls down, holds the hand of this assassin and they're fighting and it's said the Umara, you know, the people around Salahuddin, took them quite a few seconds to react. They couldn't believe their eyes.

**[13:01]** They were shocked. But then they quickly jumped on that person and got rid of him. Salahuddin stands up, only to be surprised, a second assassin. Salahuddin blocks him, falls to the ground and one of the Umara of Salahuddin stands between and gets rid of him. He stands up again and a third assassin jumps at him.

**[13:18]** And now the Umara of Salahuddin surround him and protect him and take care of that third assassin. And a fourth assassin starts running away and they capture him. And it's said Salahuddin was so disturbed with blood coming up from his face and people now don't know who should we trust, who we should not trust.

**[13:36]** And the people loyal to Salahuddin surrounded him and started saying, let's review all the soldiers. Let's not make anybody get access to Salahuddin that we do not know. And it disturbed the campaign so much that actually the campaign stopped. And it is said Salahuddin didn't understand why are they doing this?

**[13:54]** Who are those people? They're the assassins. And Salahuddin realizing the assassins, they have been a problem. They killed so many people. Remember Mawdud? Remember al-Bursuqi? Remember Ibn Khashab? They killed so many people. Sometimes they killed Khulafa. Even Abbasid Khalifas themselves were assassinated by them.

**[14:12]** And he realized those are a threat to him. They will not stop. So he asked where are their forts in the cities of Sham? Let's start attacking their forts. And he starts placing trebuchets. He took the first fort and then he went to the second fort, heavily fortified, and he

**[14:28]** laid siege and he started attacking. And we know that all of a sudden the attack stopped and Salahuddin left. And never again he attacked the assassins. What happened? One of the stories that makes sense is that Salahuddin enters his tent and he finds a

**[14:43]** poisonous dagger with a letter. And the letter is from the leader of the assassins telling him what? You are under our grip. If you do not stop, not only we're going to kill you, we're going to kill your commanders, your family members and everybody else. And that's a very serious threat.

**[14:59]** The other story that people spread that they came to negotiate with Salahuddin al-Ayyubi and Salahuddin had two of his guards and the assassin told him, let's speak, order your guards to leave. And Salahuddin says, no, I trust them. You can speak in front of them. And then all of a sudden, this messenger looks to the two trusted guards of Salahuddin

**[15:19]** and he tells them now. And they take off their swords pointed to the neck of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi. Assassins disguised as trusted men of Salahuddin. And he looks to him and says, see, you're under our grip. Let's make a treaty or else. We can kill yourself, your family and all the leaders.

**[15:37]** So whichever story is true, it seems that Shihab al-Din was the one, the uncle of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi that went to him and told him, listen, it's not wise to fight the assassins because they can really cause havoc. On the contrary, make an agreement with them, make a deal with them that you leave them

**[15:55]** alone and they, on the other hand, will leave you alone. That way you deprive your opponent from using the assassins against you. And it seems that's the most reasonable story, because from that day, the assassins never attacked Salahuddin, never attempted to do anything to him or his men.

**[16:12]** And you see Salahuddin never attacked them back. The idea of Shihab al-Din is let's focus. We cannot fight on multiple fronts. On one hand, you have the Franks. On another hand, the Muslims are divided. Now you want to open a third and start fighting the assassins. Let's focus on the bigger problem.

**[16:28]** Nevertheless, during those years, you can see consistently Salahuddin is focused on three things, building Egypt and attacking the Franks and consistently trying to unify the people in Sham. That's when the infrastructure of Egypt was built, really. That's when he focused on building the Egyptian army, the Egyptian fleet, because as we said

**[16:48]** before, he realized Egypt has the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and the Franks usually come and attack the city of Alexandria and Damietta. We must have a powerful fleet. So he started building ships. Some of the ships had trebuchets, catapults mounted on them. He built ships with the places to have horses so that you can go deploy them and started

**[17:08]** actually sending ships to some of the islands that were owned by the Franks. And he used to attack the Franks because he realized the Franks are going to take advantage of the weakness of the divisions of the people in Sham. So he kept them in check. Would regularly go out of Egypt. And you see that in the books of history.

**[17:25]** From the time of 571 Hijri all the way till maybe 581, 582, regular attacks. Salahuddin going and attacking the Franks and the Franks attacking back. It is too detailed. Ten years of agony. Fighting the Franks on one hand, building the infrastructure on one hand, and consistently

**[17:42]** trying to unify the people in Sham. And you would hear the betrayals. For example, the Seljuk Sultan sends to Salahuddin, now you have to deliver some of the cities for us. They actually belong to me. Division. Further division.

**[17:58]** And Salahuddin disagrees. We need to unite. Why should I give you some of the cities that we are... And then the Seljuk Sultan, he sends an army of 10,000. 10,000 to attack Salahuddin. Yes, unfortunately Salahuddin did have to fight Muslims.

**[18:14]** He didn't want to. He was forced to, unfortunately. It's a fitna. And they send an army, 10,000 to fight Salahuddin. Salahuddin sends his nephew, Taqiyyuddin, with 1,000 knights only. And Taqiyyuddin, subhanAllah, did a very interesting trick.

**[18:30]** He reached there before Fajr, and he saw that the Seljuk army is camping, and he saw their fires, and he got the drummers of his army. They used to use drums to issue orders. And he dispersed them around the Seljuk army. And he told them to sound the drums, create a lot of noise, let the horses run.

**[18:50]** So when that happened, the Seljuks thought that they're surrounded, and they started to panic, and then Taqiyyuddin attacked with 1,000 knights. He defeated 10,000 knights. Once they started to retreat, the orders were clear.

**[19:05]** Do not chase, do not kill, let them be. They are Muslims. And the divisions in Sham continued between Aleppo, Mosul, and Salahuddin. Every time Salahuddin would send a messenger for them, they captured the messenger and threw him in prison. I mean, it was just terrible treachery.

**[19:22]** So what changed this? Remember, we said Sa'duddin Gumushtigin released some of the prisoners that Nuruddin Zinki captured. Among them was a man that changed the course of history. Who is he? We know him as Arnat, Reynald.

**[19:37]** He at one point ruled the city of Antioch. When Nuruddin Zinki captured him, he did not give him an option to ransom himself. He just kept him in prison. Because he knew that man and his followers were the Templars and the Hospitallers. Those are religious orders with fanatical views.

**[19:54]** Their mission in life is to protect Jerusalem, defend it against the Muslims. And it seemed that Reynald in his fanatical ways were supported by them. And Nuruddin Zinki realized this is a very dangerous man. Sa'duddin Gumushtigin released that man.

**[20:10]** Knowing that now, after spending years and years in prison, he hates Muslims. And he will cause so much problems for Salahuddin al-Ayyubi. When he was ruling Antioch, he wanted to invade the island of Cyprus.

**[20:25]** And he went to the priest of the church of Antioch and told him, I need money from the church because I need to build a fleet so that we can go and invade the island of Cyprus. And of course, the priest told him, that's not acceptable. You cannot take the wealth of the church to do this.

**[20:42]** Those are Orthodox, but they're Christians. We can't do this. So Arnat took the man, tied his hand behind his back, started torturing him, and then covered his wounds with honey and threw him in the desert. Desert, wounds, honey, what do you think happened?

**[21:00]** The body of that priest became infested with all sorts of bugs. Can you imagine? He broke down under such kind of torture. And he gave Arnat the wealth of the church. And Arnat prepared his fleet and invaded the island of Cyprus, took them by surprise,

**[21:15]** killed people, even the religious people, cut their noses and their ears, you know, and burned the crops, took everything he can. This is what he was against Orthodox Christians. Can you imagine how he was against Muslims and especially Salahuddin?

**[21:32]** Now Arnat decides to do something that is unthinkable, something that changed the face of history. Arnat, he had a fort called Al-Karak, which is in the southern tip. And he came up with an idea, I'm done with Muslims. I am going to attack the city of Medina, where the Prophet (ﷺ)

**[21:51]** is buried. I see the pilgrims, they go to Mecca and Medina. They try to visit the grave of their Prophet. Astaghfirullah. And he said something, and I'm, Astaghfirullah. I'm going to dig the grave of their Prophet, Astaghfirullah. And I'm going to take his body out, and I'm going to bring it to my fort.

**[22:12]** And if they want to visit him, they come to me and pay me money. Can you imagine? The Franks are now attempting to attack Muhammad (ﷺ) himself. Unimaginable. But that's what this criminal decided to do. Those criminals existed in the past, and they exist today, and they will continue to exist

**[22:31]** in the future. And SubhanAllah, Allah decreed that this Ummah would have people like Salahuddin to defend it. And I ask Allah to decree that we have people like Salahuddin today to defend our Ummah. And Arnat's plot was genius. He said, if I go by land, Salahuddin has those watchtowers that will detect me, and then he'll intercept me on the way in the middle of the desert.

**[22:54]** So he decided to do something out of the book. He decided to build ships inside the city of Al-Karak. And he disassembled the ships, and he carried them on camels all the way to a small port city known as Ayla, at the tip of the Red Sea.

**[23:09]** And he indeed, laid siege to the port of Ayla, deployed the ships in the Red Sea, and started sailing south, heading towards the city of Medina. Now the Red Sea, Muslim area, they never saw a Frankish ship in the Red Sea before. Nobody expected this.

**[23:25]** On the way to the city of Medina, he met a number of ships, you know, merchant ships, Muslim ships, and he did some pirating acts. He started to attack those ships, take whatever wealth he can, sink the ships, burn the ships. Basically, this is the pirate of the Red Sea, if you will.

**[23:41]** And the news reached Salahuddin that there are crusader Frankish ships in the Red Sea, and they have started attacking Muslim ships, and it seems they're heading to the city of Medina. And subhanAllah, Salahuddin was not reactive. He was already prepared. He had a fleet, well-trained men, and he ordered the leader of the fleet, Husam al-Din Lu'lu,

**[24:03]** take your fastest ships, deploy them in the Red Sea, and stop this criminal from attempting to reach the city of Medina. And indeed, Husam al-Din Lu'lu gathered some of his best men, and they went for the ships, put some horses in it, as we described before, and then they started sailing south.

**[24:19]** And now a chase happened. Arnat heading south towards the city of Medina, followed closely by the ships of Husam al-Din Lu'lu. And unfortunately, Arnat succeeds in reaching the city of Yanbu and lands first, and Arnat now is on the way with his forces towards the city of Medina.

**[24:39]** And surely enough, Husam al-Din Lu'lu with his fleet, they land and immediately deploy their horses, and they start chasing Arnat. And they intercept him at Rabigh, maybe a hundred miles outside the city of Medina. That's how close Arnat was of reaching the city of Medina.

**[24:58]** And you can imagine, people in the region, they were shocked that the Franks are even attempting to attack the city of the Prophet (ﷺ). So many volunteers came to the help of Husam al-Din Lu'lu. And a battle happened between Arnat and his knights and warriors, and Husam al-Din Lu'lu, and the men of Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi.

**[25:16]** And in this battle, by Allah's grace, Allah gave a victory to the men of Salahuddin, and Husam al-Din Lu'lu crushed the army and the men of Arnat. Only Arnat himself, with very few people, succeeded in escaping. But all his men either killed or captured.

**[25:36]** And immediately, the scholars sent to Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi, knowing who Salahuddin is. The scholars told him, there is no way that you can forgive those prisoners of war. Because their attack was against the Prophet (ﷺ), all of them must be put to death.

**[25:51]** And Salahuddin agreed. Now, the repercussions of this throughout the Muslim Ummah was so profound. Salahuddin now emerged as the protector of Islam. The protector of not only Egypt and Sham, but Hijaz as well. People really loved Salahuddin, but something else happened. Can you imagine if you receive the news that somebody is trying to attack the city of Medina, that somebody wants to attack the Prophet (ﷺ) and astaghfirullah dig his grave?

**[26:19]** What do you think the Muslims would do? It unified Muslims. And SubhanAllah. Remember, Sa'duddin Gumushtigin released Arnat to create what? A diversion for Salahuddin. This ended up in unifying the Muslims. People now realized how dangerous the Franks are. More Muslims now were ready to come join forces with Salahuddin.

**[26:41]** And everybody who had an atom's weight of faith in his heart wanted to join the fight and put an end to this. And by the way, Arnat, as he escapes, he reaches his city, Al-Karak, his fort, and he finds pilgrims, you know, a caravan of pilgrims.

**[26:56]** And there was a treaty that Muslim pilgrims, when they pass, the Franks and the Crusaders would not attack them. And Arnat decided to violate that. And he attacked that caravan, killed all the soldiers, captured the pilgrims, threw him in his prison, and mocking Islam and the Prophet (ﷺ).

**[27:14]** "Tell your Muhammad to come and save you." When Salahuddin heard this, Salahuddin was furious. And Salahuddin made an oath. If Allah grants me Arnat, I will kill him with my own hands.

**[27:31]** And then Salahuddin, he ordered all treaties that we have with the Franks and the Crusaders, all of them are abolished. All his armies from Egypt, from Sham, from Damascus, everybody come. It's a showdown. And subhanAllah, now the efforts of Salahuddin pay off. Aleppo, Mosul, Damascus, everyone unites.

**[27:52]** And Salahuddin has Egypt and Sham and a little bit of Turkey, including Hijaz, Yemen, parts of Sudan, parts of Libya, parts of Iraq. He achieved unity big time. Everyone came. And subhanAllah, now you see what? People now united under one banner.

**[28:11]** The banner of La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulallah. That is the vision that scholars maybe 80 years ago had. Now it's being realized. And I want you to notice, those things do not happen in a day and night. People think Salahuddin came, and next day, battle of Hattin. It took him decades, decades of work, him and Nuruddin Zinki and people like Mawdud and the scholars to reach that point.

**[28:36]** And Salahuddin takes his army and goes and lays siege to the fort of Al-Karak and starts bombarding the city. While he's doing this, a messenger came from inside the city. What's going on? Well, there is a wedding inside of the city. The stepdaughter of Arnat is getting married. Please don't use your catapults and trebuchets because we have a wedding.

**[28:57]** And how did Salahuddin respond? He said, where in what area is the wedding happening? And they told him it's in that area of the city. And Salahuddin orders his engineering brigades, bombard everywhere and spare this sector. Let's not disrupt the wedding of the stepdaughter of Arnat.

**[29:13]** A man of chivalry, look at his character. That's a woman getting married. Let's leave her alone. And he succeeds in breaking the walls and he enters and there was a second wall. But then something happened. The Franks, realizing the size of the army of Salahuddin, gathered all their troops, if you will. Jerusalem, Antioch, Tripoli, and they headed to meet Salahuddin.

**[29:36]** And Salahuddin realized it's a showdown. So Salahuddin backs up. And they went inside a city called Saffuriyah and waited for them outside. But they refused to come out. Because they realized this big army of Salahuddin, how long can they stay? You're maintaining 30,000 people? Think about the amount of food and logistics. How long can he keep them? They will have to go back.

**[29:59]** And that's what they wanted. Salahuddin was an excellent strategist. Not only a man of faith, not only a man of tawakkul on Allah, not only a true worshipper that prays the night and fasts, but also when it comes to the battles, he had strategy.

**[30:15]** Salahuddin made an excellent plan. He ordered some of his troops to go lay siege to Tiberias. And he said, lay siege to the city, but do it slowly. Do not take the city immediately. Break the walls, keep bombarding the city, delay.

**[30:31]** Why Tiberias? What's going on? Well, the wife of Raymond, Raymond of Tripoli, this great leader of the Franks, he has a big part of the army. His wife was in Tiberias. And what Salahuddin wanted was the following. We will lay siege, crush the walls, and slowly apply pressure. And see his predicting what his opponent will do. This is strategy.

**[30:56]** And he said, I know what will happen. She will send a message to the king of Jerusalem. Come and help. That will force him to do what? You either help her and go out, or you stay, but your reputation as a king will be defamed. Really? You're leaving Salahuddin to attack and take a city and a dame in distress. This lady sends for you and you just sit back and do nothing?

**[31:19]** Salahuddin realized there is a weakness. What is it? The Templars, the Hospitallers, Arnat. They are extremely zealous. They want to fight. They think they can win. They are very dedicated to the cause of the cross. They think they are the children of God. He played on their zeal. Knowing that those people will pressure the king to go out to save the city of Tiberias. Then Salahuddin can meet them. And that's exactly what happened.

**[31:47]** They lay siege to the city of Tiberias. They start attacking and they apply pressure slowly. And surely enough, the wife of Raymond sends letters to the king in distress. And the king gathers everyone around him. What should we do? And Raymond started speaking. And he said something very profound. Do not go out and fight Salahuddin. This is what he wants us to do. I fought Muslims many times before. I've never seen an army like the army that Salahuddin have. I've never seen men like the men that surround Salahuddin. It will be a mistake to go out and fight them.

**[32:22]** As for my own wife, Salahuddin is a gentleman. He is not going to hurt her. I know how chivalrous they are. Let it be. Let him capture Tiberias. My wife will be safe and we can always get it back later. But do not go out and fight him. That's a mistake.

**[32:40]** And guess what happened? Arnat, the Templars, the Hospitallers, they became furious. And Arnat stood up and started bashing Raymond. What kind of talk is this? You're scaring us of Muslims because they're your friends? What happened? Maybe you're a secret Muslim. Oh, you're a hypocrite. You need to renew your faith in Christ.

**[33:01]** Anybody who does not stand up and fight, irrespective of the consequences, is a traitor. You have to repent and you're scaring us of Muslims. What? Muslims are like wood and we're like fire. The more the wood, the more the fire will rage. We have Christ. And he started quoting the Bible and the Templars and the Hospitallers.

**[33:21]** And the emotional plea, the king was forced to agree with Arnat. And reluctantly, Raymond said, I think it's a mistake. But if that's your opinion, I'll go with you. And the king gathers all the armies. Remember now, this is all the Franks. The Franks in all the cities is the biggest army they can muster. And they head out to meet Salahuddin. What happens next?

## 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)
- [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)
- [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)