Fortunately, for once I couldn’t find any news about American Muslims today. With the way things have been going, no news is good news to me.

This gives me a chance to talk about Islamic history. I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m quite the student of history. I especially love Islamic history; mostly because we were so much stronger and honorable than we are now.

One of the most famous episodes of our history is the period the West calls “The Crusades.”

I’m not going to go through the whole history of the Crusades now. I’ll have an audio on it available soon, Inshallah, and you can watch the video above for free.

But I do want to point out one little thing about the ultimate prize of the Crusades: Jerusalem.

You probably hear a lot about how Jerusalem is the ancient home of the Jews and how it’s always been historically their homeland.

Whatever. History says otherwise. True, the ancient Israelites were the first to build a kingdom where Jerusalem currently sits.

But in the annals of history, their time in Jerusalem was brief compared to others. In fact, Muslims have controlled Jerusalem longer than any other group of people.

Yes. You read correctly. Muslims have controlled Jerusalem longer than than any other group of people, including the Hebrews, Israelites, Jews, Israelis, Zionists, or whatever other name you want to call them.

Here are the facts:

• According to the Bible, King David (Prophet Dawood, peace be upon him) captured Jerusalem in 10 BC. Jerusalem was then ruled by the Children of Israel for the next 400 years.
• Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem in 537 BC and Jerusalem was Persian land for another 200 years.
• Then came Alexander the Great. He conquered Jerusalem from the Babylonians and Jerusalem became Greek property for another 230 years.
• The Romans eventually conquered Jerusalem from the Greeks. Jerusalem stayed in Roman and Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) hands for almost 500 years.
• Umar Ibn Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, the beloved companion of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), conquered Jerusalem in 637 CE. Listen to this beautiful description of Umar’s conquest!
• From that point on, Muslims controlled Jerusalem for the next 460 years until the Christian Crusaders conquered the city in 1187 CE. That’s 550 years. Longer than anyone else so far.
• The Christian Crusaders only controlled Jerusalem for 88 years before Salahudeen, may Allah’s mercy be upon him, took it back.
• Jerusalem was once again under Muslim control and stayed that way for the next 730 years! It would not leave Muslim control until World War I!

Combining the time from Umar Ibn Khattab’s conquest to the Crusaders, with Salahuddeen’s conquest to World War I, Jerusalem was in Muslim hands for 1280 years.

That’s longer than the Israelites, Bablyonians, and Romans/Byzantines. Combined!

So don’t fall for the rhetoric and believe that Jerusalem is promised by God to anyone else except Muslims. When we were doing right, Allah gave it to us and we had it for a looooooong time.

Inshallah, that time will come again.