Heroic Stands by Shiekh Abu Nizhar Ash Shaami: Qutaybah bin Muslim (ra)

Our lives are a collection of stands taken. These stands are what will decide our status and value before Allah (swt) on the Day of Judgement. Heroic stands, which changed the course of history, produced events, and greatly influenced all who witnessed them or heard of them. Heroic stands, which we mention while living at a time when most stands, we see are those of humiliation and shame. Heroic stands, we mention them whose heroes are mentioned in the Quran, and the pages of the Seerah and our Ummah's past and recent history are overflowing with them. Heroic stands, which we mention in order to take lessons from. We mention them in order to receive flames of glory, optimism, and expecting good from Allah (swt), and to prove that our Ummah, by the permission of Allah (swt), is capable of bringing back the dignified stands which will fill the world with justice and light after it was filled with injustice and tyranny.

Heroics cannot be mentioned without history bringing forth the pages of glory written by the conquering Mujahids. But here, we are searching for a heroic stand which was exceptional in its support for the truth. So, how about when both kinds of heroics appear in one man?

Qutayba bin Muslim Al-Bahili (ra), the son of Iraq, but whose cavalry reached China and brought whole countries and nations into Islam. Qutayba (ra), the Mujahid Knight, became the governor of Khorasan but found that the message of Tawheed had yet to reach the eastern frontier of the Islamic State. So, he took the decision to launch campaigns of Jihad there. He sought reliance on Allah (swt) and personally led those campaigns. His strategy was to open a land, build a mosque and leave a group of Ulema and Du'aat to spread Islam there, then move on to the next. No time passes until the populace of that land become Muslim. This commander advanced under the protection of Allah (swt). He had opened Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and all the Caucasian countries. Persian and Turkic tribes of various clans embraced Islam at his hands. Of the blessings of these conquests is that they produced Mujahid leaders native to those lands who conquered India after him. As such, all of that returns to the one who sowed the first seeds: Qutayba bin Muslim (ra).

The courageous personality of this commander, which combined his fear of Allah (swt), his knowledge and military experience, and his fervour regarding the violation of the sanctities of Allah (swt), in addition to his high determination and restless energy all of that had a big impact on people's admiration of him and their coming to Islam which was embodied by this merciful conqueror. One of his brilliant heroic stands is when he conquered the city of Paykend in Uzbekistan, he appointed a Muslim governor there and Ulema to guide the people. But after he left, a one-eyed Kafir man incited the people to kill the governor and cut off the noses of the Muslims. The news came to Qutayba (ra) as he was besieging another city. He left the siege and returned quickly to Paykend and conquered it militarily and killed all the fighters in that one-eyed man's army, then he captured him and consulted the army commanders about him.

The one-eyed man said to Qutayba (ra): "I can ransom myself with a million". So, the army commanders advised Qutayba (ra), saying: "Commander, releasing him will increase the spoils of the Muslims and the risk he posed is finished since his entire army was eliminated." Qutayba (ra) took a moment to think and then he took the courageous stand and said: "No, by Allah (swt), I will not allow a Muslim to be terrorized by you ever again." Then ordered his execution. Meaning: "Your name has become tied to killings and massacres you criminal, such that your name now frightens Muslims if they hear it. And for one Muslim woman to be frightened by your name is heavier than having millions of gold and silver. So, I want the news of your death to spread such that women and children can relax". These are my forebears so try and bring someone like them.

Brothers and sisters, this is how Muslims leaders should be: Stopping the tyrant and punishing the violator, establishing security and eliminating dangers, and bringing back dignity to honours and sanctities. Our leaders were not characterized by reconciliation with our enemies, signing peace treaties with criminals, nor normalization with prophet-murderers. In the era of humiliation which we live in, our foolish rulers made us taste lives of misery and depression. What can be better in this depression than to breathe in the biographies of these heroes so that we may perhaps follow their footsteps and repeat their glories via a rightly-guided state which produces the likes of Qutayba bin Muslim (ra) by the permission of Allah (swt).

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