THE WAHHABIS
IN MADINA
40 - Sulaiman Khan I, the seventy-fifth
Khalifa of Islam and the tenth Ottoman Sultan (rahmat-Allahi
'alaih) had restored the walls around the blessed city of Medina; the city had
not suffered any assault of bandits for 274 years owing to its strong
walls, and Muslims had lived in comfort and peace in the city till early 1222
A.H. (1807), when they fell prey to the hands of Sa'ud.
Sa'ud sent the looters he raised from the villages to Medina
after capturing al-Makkat al-Mukarrama and the villages around it. He
appointed two brothers named Baday and Nadi as commanders of the looters. They plundered the
Muslim villages on their way and killed many
Muslims. Most of the villages around Medina were set to fire and demolished.
The Muslims who were on the right path shown by the
'ulama' of Ahl as-Sunnat were looted and put to the sword. There were so
many villages burnt and Muslims killed that
nobody could make an approximate estimate. The villages around Medina accepted
the Wahhabite beliefs for fear of plunder,
torture and death. They became servants and slaves to Sa'ud.
Sa'ud sent a letter
addressing the Medinan Muslims with Salih
ibn Salih:
"I begin with the name of He who
is the Owner of the Day of Judgement. May it be known by the 'ulama', officials
and merchants of Medina that comfort and peace in the world is only for those
who attain guidance. Oh the people of Medina! I invite you to the true
religion.
The 19th and 85th ayats of Surat Al
'Imran says, 'The correct religion in Allah's esteem is Islam. The religion of
those who adopt any religion other than Islam will not be accepted. They will
suffer loss on the Day of Judgement!'
I want you to know about my feelings
about you. I bear love and faith towards the
people of Medina.
I want to come and live in
Rasulullah's city with you.
I will not distress or torture you if
you listen to me and obey my orders. The
people of Mecca have been enjoying favor and kindness from me since the day I
entered Mecca.
I want you to become Muslims anew. You will be safe against plunder, death and torture if you obey my
orders. Allah will protect you and I shall be your protector.
I send this letter by my trustworthy
man Salih ibn Salih. Read it carefully and make a decision with him! What he
says is what I say."
This letter frightened the Medinans very much. They had heard about the tortures and massacre inflicted upon the Ta'ifian
women and children (rahmat-Allahi ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain) a few days
ago and had shuddered with fear. They could say neither 'yes' nor 'no' to Sa'ud ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz's letter. They could
surrender neither their lives nor their religion.
Seeing no answer to the letter, the head of the bandits, Baday
the treacherous, attacked Yanbu', the seaport of Medina.
After capturing Yanbu', he laid siege to Medina and severely attacked the 'Anbariyya gate of the walls.
Just on that day, the Damascene pilgrims came with their leader 'Abdullah Pasha. Upon seeing the city under siege, the pilgrims and the accompanying soldiers started fighting against the bandits. About two hundred bandits were killed in two hours of bloody battle while the remainder ran away.
After capturing Yanbu', he laid siege to Medina and severely attacked the 'Anbariyya gate of the walls.
Just on that day, the Damascene pilgrims came with their leader 'Abdullah Pasha. Upon seeing the city under siege, the pilgrims and the accompanying soldiers started fighting against the bandits. About two hundred bandits were killed in two hours of bloody battle while the remainder ran away.
The Muslims enjoyed peace in Medina until 'Abdullah
Pasha completed his duties of pilgrimage, but the traitorous Baday besieged the city again after the Damascene
pilgrims left. He captured Quba, Awali and Qurban and built two bastions in the
district. He barred the roads to the city and demolished the aqueducts called
the 'Ain az-zarqa.' Thus, the Muslims were left without food and water.
a mujiza: The water of the
well at the Baghchat ar-Rasul in Masjid an-Nabi
increased and its hardness decreased and brackish taste disappeared after the
'Ain az-zarqa' was demolished and the water-supply in the city was exhausted.
No Muslim suffered thirst. Formerly, this well was known for its brackish
water.
The siege continued for months. The Muslims endured heavy distress in the hope that the Damascene
pilgrims would come and rescue them again. At last, the pilgrims arrived, but
the head of the caravan, Ibrahim Pasha, said, "Surrender the
city to them," because he did not have sufficient armed forces to
fight against them. The Muslims thought that Ibrahim Pasha had talked and
agreed with Baday and obtained promise that
the Muslims would not be tortured or harmed.
They wrote the following letter to Sa'ud and sent it by a
council of four representatives, namely Muhammad Tayyar, Hasan
Chawush, 'Abd al-Qadir Ilyas and 'Ali:
"We offer the respect to be paid
to you and say salams. May Allahu ta'ala make you successful in your deeds
which are compatible with His approval! Oh Shaikh Sa'ud! Ibrahim Pasha, the
amir of the Damascene pilgrims, arrived and saw that the city was besieged, the
roads barred, and the water cut off by Baday. He asked the reason and learnt
that it was an order of yours. As we hope you bear no evil intention towards
the people of Medina, we think that you have no information about these
unbecoming and evil events. We, the notables of Medina, assembled and decided
to inform you of what has been happening to us. We unanimously elected the four
best, purest persons and sent them to you as messengers. We pray to Allahu
ta'ala that they will come back to us with good news to make us happy."
Sa'ud treated the messengers very violently upon reading
the letter and was not ashamed of saying
that he was very angry with and hostile
towards the people of Medina.
The messengers begged him much to forgive them and imploringly
cast themselves at his filthy feet.
But, he said,
"I conclude from your letter that you
will not obey my orders, that you will not accept my true religion, that
you are trying to deceive me with soft words for you are overwhelmed by thirst,
hunger and distress, and that you are begging just to get rid of this distress.
There is no other way out but to do whatever I wish. I will make you groan
and vanish as I did with the people of Ta'if, if you pretend to be
accepting my orders but speak or act unfavorably."
He forced the Muslims to renounce their madhhabs.
The fallacious, heretical terms dictated to the
Medinan messengers by Sa'ud are written in detail in the book Tareekh-i Wahhabiyyan.
The Medinan messengers went back to Medina after accepting Sa'ud's orders under
compulsion. The Medinans, stupefied by these events, showed acceptance
unwillingly, as the one who falls into the sea grasps the serpent. They
surrendered the Medina fortress to seventy men
of Baday as required by the seventh clause of the agreement. One of the
terms of the agreement was that the shrines
in Medina should be demolished.
They unwillingly fulfilled the terms in
order not to be tortured. Although they did so unwillingly, these deeds of
theirs gave way to very bad consequences.
No answer came from the letters written to Istanbul
for help. The Medinans lived under torture and oppression
for three years. When they lost hope of help from Istanbul, they wrote a
letter to Sa'ud asking for forgiveness and
mercy and sent it to Dar'iyya with Husain
Shakir and Muhammad Saghayee. But Sa'ud did
not receive the messengers for he had heard that the people of Medina had asked
Istanbul for help before. He set out for Medina with a large flock of brigands
to increase the oppression and torture on the Medinans.
All the savages and villagers of the deserts of
Arabia recognized Sa'ud as the ruler of the Najd, who signed the letters he wrote to here
and there with the title
"al-Imam ad-Dar'iyyat al-majdiyya
wal-ahkami 'd-da'wati 'n-Najdiyya."
As soon as he entered Medina, Sa'ud ordered the servants of
shrines themselves to demolish the shrines. Although the Muslims had demolished
many noble shrines as required by the third clause
of the terms accepted three years before, they had not dared to touch a
few shrines which they knew to be great and blessed. The servants of these
shrines started demolishing them while weeping and lamenting.
The
servant of Hadrat Hamza's (radi-'Allahu 'anh) shrine said he was very old
and could not do anything, and Sa'ud ordered
a treacherous slave of his to demolish the shrine.
That person climbed up the
dome to start demolishing it but fell down and died, and Sa'ud, the filthy, gave up demolishing Hadrat
Hamza's shrine, yet he had its door removed.
After supervising the operation of this base order
of his, he made a speech on the dais constructed in Manaha Place.
He said that the
Medinans did not want to obey him, but became munafiqs out of fear and wanted
to go on being polytheists as before. He added,
in a very ugly and impertinent voice, that those who took refuge in the
fortress should come and show humility, and that those who did not come would
suffer the "Wahhabite justice" performed in Ta'if.
Everybody was frightened when the fortress gates
were closed and it was announced in every street that all the people should
assemble in Manaha Place. They supposed they, too, like the Ta'ifians,
would be tortured to death.
They went to Manaha Place after kissing away, the
children's tears and saying good-bye to and mutually asking forgiveness from
their wives.
Men and women assembled in two separate groups and
bowed their neck towards the bright dome of Rasulullah's (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam)
blessed shrine. The blessed city of Medina had not suffered such a sad day ever
before.
Sa'ud was mad and
enraged with a blind grudge towards the Muslims. But, Allahu ta'ala protected
the city of Medina from being painted with blood, with the blessing of Rasulullah. After insulting the Muslims with
unbecoming and mean words incompatible with modesty, Sa'ud ordered his bandits
to settle in the Medina fortress. He appointed Hasan
Chawush, one of the rascals he trusted the most, to be the governor of
Medina and went back to Dar'iyya. He came to Medina again after performing hajj
in Mecca during the pilgrimage season.
Sa'ud came out from his
den to the courthouse when the Damascene caravan went two or three days' way
away from Medina. Without even a tremble of his dark, stony heart, he let his bandits
plunder the precious gifts; the works of art of great historical value;
invaluable pieces of art gilded with gold and inlaid with jewels and with
precious stones; and select copies of the Qur'an al-karim and rare books, which
had been kept in Rasulullah's blessed
shrine and in the treasure of Masjid
an-Nabawi that had been sent as choice, elaborate gifts by Muslim
sultans, commanders, artists and 'ulama' from the whole Muslim world over a
millennium.
The fire of hatred in him against the Muslims did
not calm down even after this shameful vileness of his, and he went on
demolishing the remaining graves belonging to the Sahabis and martyrs.
Although he attempted to demolish the dome of
Rasulullah's blessed shrine, the Muslims' cries and entreaties made him
give up; yet he ruined the Shabakat as-Saada, fortunately not touching
the walls.
He ordered
that the walls around Medina should be repaired. He assembled the Medinans in Masjid an-Nabi.
He closed the gates of the Masjid and delivered the following speech on the dais:
He closed the gates of the Masjid and delivered the following speech on the dais:
"Oh congregation! I have summoned you here to advise you and to warn you to obey my
orders.
Oh people of Medina!
Oh people of Medina!
Your religion has now been completed.
You became Muslims. You pleased Allah. Do not ever admire the false religion of your fathers and grandfathers anymore!
You became Muslims. You pleased Allah. Do not ever admire the false religion of your fathers and grandfathers anymore!
Do not pray to Allah to show mercy
upon them!
They all died as polytheists. They all were polytheists.
I have explained how you should
worship and pray to Allah in the books which I gave to your men of religious
authority.
It should be known that your
possessions, children, wives and blood are mubah for my soldiers if you do not
obey my men of religious authority!
They will chain and torture all of
you to death.
It is forbidden in the religion of Wahhabism to stand in front of the Prophet's shrine with an attitude of respect to say salat and salam as your grandfathers used to do.
It is forbidden in the religion of Wahhabism to stand in front of the Prophet's shrine with an attitude of respect to say salat and salam as your grandfathers used to do.
You must not stand in front of the
shrine, but walk away and say only, 'As-salamu
'ala Muhammad,' while passing by.
According to the ijtihad of our imam
Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, this much respect is sufficient for the
Prophet."
Sa'ud, after making
many similar unbecoming and vulgar slanders,
which we dare not to quote, let the gates of Masjid as-Saada be
opened. He appointed his son 'Abdullah the governor
of Medina and went to Dar'iyya. Thereafter, 'Abdullah
ibn Sa'ud left no harm undone to the Medinan Muslims.
The Sahih Collection of al-Bukhari
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It is related from Anas that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Madina is a sanctuary from here to there. Its trees are not to be cut down nor any improper [contrary to the Qur'an and Sunna] action committed in it. The curse of Allah, the angels and all people will be on anyone who commits an improper action."
["Here to there" is from 'Ir to Uhud.]
It is related that Abu
Hurayra said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and
grant him peace, say, 'They will leave Madina in spite of the good that it
contains and only wild beasts will live in it - meaning beasts and birds of
prey. The last persons to be gathered in it will be two herdsmen from Muzayna
making for Madina, shouting to their sheep. They will find it empty. When they
reach Thaniya al-Wada', they will fall down on their faces." [Thaniya al-Wada':a pass at the Haram of Madina in the direction
of Syria]
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