Arabic Islamic Quotes Biography
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Both Christians and Muslims admire Saladin, a celebrity of history, whose image occupied a full page of the Millennium issue of a notional magazine for his chivalry and noble character. Saladin's traits and virtues were purely a reflection of the teachings of his faith. He defeated the Crusaders, known to Muslims as the Franks, and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. The experience of the Crusaders with the Muslims demonstrates that Muslims and Christians are in no civilization clash, but rather in a civilization bondage.
In 1099 Jerusalem had fallen to the First Crusaders slaughtering its Christian, Muslim and Jewish inhabitants, after promising them safety, but did not spare the lives of children, women or elderly. The Latin Kingdom formed in the following year lasted until Saladin destroyed King Guy's army at the Horns of Hettin in 1187 and shortly after recovered Jerusalem. In stark contrast to the Crusades 88 years earlier, Saladin, adhering to the teachings of Islam, did not slaughter the city's Christian inhabitants. Saladin's noble act won him the respect of his opponents and many more people throughout the world.
King Richard I of England, better known as Richard the Lionheart, who led the Third Crusade in 1189 to recover the Holy City, met Saladin in a conflict that was to be celebrated in later chivalric romances. Although the Crusaders failed in their purpose, Richard the Lionheart gained Saladin's lifelong respect as a worthy opponent. Saladin's generosity and sense of honor in negotiating the peace treaty that ended the Crusade won him the lasting admiration and gratitude of the Christian World.
I quote the Millennium Issue of Times Magazine (December 31, 1999) that dedicated a full page for an artist's image of Saladin: "When Dante Alighieri compiled his great medieval Who's Who of heroes and villains in the Divine Comedy, among the highest a non-Christian could climb was Limbo, Homer, Caesar, Plato and Dante's guide Vergil. But, perhaps what should not be most surprising in his catalog of 'Great Hearted Souls' was a figure 'solitary, set apart,' that figure was Saladin. 'When Dante--the most Christ-centered verse ever penned--wrote lionizing his name, Saladin had been dead for one hundred years." This solitary figure in Dante's Divine Comedy stands today as it did in the past as a testament to his extraordinary stature.
Perhaps Dante as well as many other men and women who, like Dante, celebrated Saladin's name, had no trouble understanding that his honorable acts were not "infidel," and that God had indeed favored the faithful. Many Crusaders discovered that Muslims, like them, possess virtues the Christians considered sacred. In fact, some Christians thought that "Saladin had European blood in his veins, and was a Christian knight at heart." To Muslims, Saladin was more than just a warrior. He was a man of piety and true faith and vision; he was a builder, a patron of literature and chivalry.
Saladin's Birth and Lineage
Saladin was born in Tikrite (a city on the Tigris River), Iraq in 1137. His family was of Kurdish ancestry. The Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad, al Mustarshid, had appointed his father Ayyub, an earnest Muslim, skilled in administration and diplomacy, as the governor of the town.
Saladin's Actual Name
Saladin's real name is Yusuf or Josef. In Medieval times, Arabic names carried a lot of information. They included the father's name, sometimes a line of ancestors (in the interest of genealogy), nickname, and honorific names. His honorific name, Salah al-Din means the 'righteousness of the faith' or 'cream of the religion.' His full name is Salah al Din Abu 'l-Muzaffer Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi, which consists of his honorific name, Salah al-Din, his domestic name, Yusuf, his nickname, Abu 'l Muzaffer (father of the Victorious), and a father and a grandfather's names, Ayyub (Job) and Shadi. This long name is often preceded by the Title: Al Malik al Nasir, 'the empowering king of the weak and helpless.' To the Crusaders, all that complexity was simply reduced to: 'Saladin.'
Childhood and Education
Saladin received his early childhood education in Baalbek and Damascus, Syria. In 1143, when Saladin was six years old, Sultan Zengi of Musel appointed his father Ayyub as the governor of Baalbek. Sultan Zengi defeated the Crusaders south of Aleppo in 1130 and in 1144 recovered the city of Edessa. When Zengi died in 1146, his son Nur al Din succeeded him. Nur al-Din was a respected devout leader. After few years, Nur al Din appointed Ayyub as the Head of Damascus Militia. Ayyub's younger brother, Shirkuh, who was an officer, was promoted to a senior command in the military establishment in Aleppo. Saladin grew up at the center stage where political decisions regarding the Crusades were made. His cultural and religious education was typical of the environments surrounding Baalbek and Damascus.
Like his young peers, Saladin learned Arabic, poetry, the formal prayers and memorized what was required of him to memories of the Qur'an and the tradition of Prophet Muhammad. Saladin had great interest in learning Islam's principles regarding Christians and Jews, the People of the Book. Perhaps his interest goes beyond just a basic knowledge for at least two reasons. First, on the night he was born, his family along with his uncle Shirkuh's family was forced to leave Tikrit to Musel by Caliph al-Mustarshid. This action was a punishment because Shirkuh had killed a Christian for no good reason. Secondly, the Christian Crusade's horrific barbarity in Jerusalem was fresh in every individual. For the young Saladin, as well as his peers, what did not add up perhaps was that their faith calls for noble treatment of the People of the Book, yet Christians invaded their land and carried out the massacre of Jerusalem.
The Status of Religion
Saladin grew up in a Muslim society that was powerfully influenced by Sufism. Sufism is a school of Islam whose members seek higher spiritual life and closer intimacy with God.
The essence and divine values of the religion of Islam were the center stage of practice as opposed to a superficial practice. The degree of closeness to God by the virtue of thikr, the private and congregational meditation and recollection of God in the heart and mind, and the work for tazkiyah (purification of inner-self and soul) was an every day norm. The divine principles such as chivalry, piety, nobility, justice, humbleness, generosity, caring, love, brotherhood, mercy and forgiveness were a living reality in hearts and minds of the mass majority of Muslims.
Publicly and privately, people were crowded at the circles of ilm, knowledge. These knowledge circles were conducted at the market place, homes, mosques, libraries, schools, clubs and other convention centers. Furthermore, homes, schools and mosques were built with provisions for private seclusion with God and for tarbiyah, the ethical and religious education with training and discipline.
As a result of tarbiyah and tazkiyah, the individual would be set on the tracks of self-discovery of God. The deeper the faith in the hearts, the closer the intimacy with God and His Prophets. Many Muslim festivals, including the birth of Prophet Muhammad, were widely celebrated. For example, the Governor of Irbid, Geukhburi, Saladin's brother in-law used to hold a four-day festival for the birth of Prophet Muhammad. He used to serve food, conduct lectures, chants and meditation during this festival. The Prophet's love and respect in the minds and hearts of those believers was so real to the point where by just hearing the name of the Prophet, some believers used to sit up right from their inclined posture in reverence and respect of the Holy Prophet. Others would be moved to tears in admiration and the elucidation of the experience. The Muslim's education during this time was greatly influenced by the illumination of one of the greatest Muslim thinkers ever, Imam Muhammad al-Ghazali (1058-1110).
Arabic Islamic Quotes Islam Quotes About Life Love Women Forgiveness Patience life and death peach marriage Mother Photos
Arabic Islamic Quotes Islam Quotes About Life Love Women Forgiveness Patience life and death peach marriage Mother Photos
Arabic Islamic Quotes Islam Quotes About Life Love Women Forgiveness Patience life and death peach marriage Mother Photos
Arabic Islamic Quotes Islam Quotes About Life Love Women Forgiveness Patience life and death peach marriage Mother Photos
Arabic Islamic Quotes Islam Quotes About Life Love Women Forgiveness Patience life and death peach marriage Mother Photos
Arabic Islamic Quotes Islam Quotes About Life Love Women Forgiveness Patience life and death peach marriage Mother Photos
Arabic Islamic Quotes Islam Quotes About Life Love Women Forgiveness Patience life and death peach marriage Mother Photos
Arabic Islamic Quotes Islam Quotes About Life Love Women Forgiveness Patience life and death peach marriage Mother Photos
Arabic Islamic Quotes Islam Quotes About Life Love Women Forgiveness Patience life and death peach marriage Mother Photos
Arabic Islamic Quotes Islam Quotes About Life Love Women Forgiveness Patience life and death peach marriage Mother Photos
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