Episode 44: The ghost of Abu Muslim

The Abbasids based their legitimacy on the fact that they were part of the prophet’s clan. This was not contested during the upheaval of their revolution, and in the following years al Saffah inflicted great pain on his enemies as a way of warning others not to mess with the new ...  Show more

The chaos of the Abbasid revolution gave foreign powers a rare opportunity to strike at the caliphate while it was paralyzed by internal strife. Things could have gone very badly for the Arabs but the unparalleled al Mansur proved as capable against these foes as he had those who ...  Show more

Only one man was worthy of fighting with the sword of the Prophet ﷺ, and he proved that he would honor it in more ways than one. The story of Abu Dujana (ra) is a story of a man who displayed bravery in the most difficult moments of battle, and integrity in every moment of his ...

Abu Bakr_ Second to None in the Pursuit of God Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (ra) was the ultimate “first”: quick to believe, quick to do good, never hesitant to follow the Prophet ï·º, and had a natural instinct toward good. In Episode 9 of The Firsts, Sh. Omar Suleiman describes the noble ...  Show more

In the 7th century, the world saw the rise of one of the most important religious and political forces in history: Islam. Springing forth from the Arabian Peninsula, within a matter of months, the Islamic Caliphate had become one of the largest empires on Earth. Much of that grow ...  Show more

A story of great myth and of huge historical significance, the foundation of Baghdad is a fundamental episode in the development of Islam. The Umayyad Caliphate, the first great Islamic empire, stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the borders of China; no dynasty had ever preside ...  Show more