Why Did They Become Muslims

put all its inhabitants to the sword. They slaughtered more than
seventy thousand Muslims who had sheltered in the Masjîd-i-aqsâ. A
considerable number of those Muslims were imâms (religious leaders),
scholars, zâhids (extremely pious Muslims), and people too old to use
a gun. The Christian barbars plundered the innumerable gold and
silver candle-sticks and invaluable historical items in the treasury near
the valuable stone called Sahratullah. Most of the Syrian cities came
into the possession of the crusaders, and consequently a Kingdom of
Jerusalem came into being. For many long years hundreds of battles
were fought between that kingdom and the Muslims. Eventually,
Salâhaddîn-i-Eyyûbî ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ [d. 589 (1193 C.E.)], won
a victory, called Hattin, after various battles, and entered Jerusalem on
a Friday which coincided with the twentieth day of the blessed month
of Rajab, in 583 [1186 C.E.]. Within the following few years he purged
many cities from the crusaders and rescued hundreds of thousands of
Muslims from captivity. The patriarch of Jerusalem, the bishops and
priests put on their mourning garments and made tours in Europe to
propagate vengeance. The pope died of grief when he received the
news of defeat. A new pan-European army of crusaders was
established. The German emperor Friedrich, the king of France Philip,
and the king of England Richard, wearing crosses up to their chests,
came with their armies. Yet their efforts to recapture Jerusalem ended
in failure. In 690 [1290 C.E.], the Egyptian Sultan Melik Eshref
‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ conquered Akkâ, which was the center of the
crusaders, as well as the other cities, thus putting an end to the
crusades.”
Remaining in the possession of Christians for eighty-eight years,
i.e. from 1099 to 1187, Jerusalem was eventually rescued by
Salâhaddîn-i-Eyyûbî, in the latter date mentioned. That blessed
commander captured Richard the Lion-heart. However, instead of
treating him as a prisoner of war, he showed him the same extremely
kind and mild hospitality as he would have shown to the king of a
neighbouring country paying him a courtesy visit. That was a prime
example to show the difference between the ‘wild Islam’ and the
‘affectionate Christianity’!
It is true that Muslims converted some churches into mosques. Yet
no churches were destroyed. On the contrary, many of them were
reconstructed. When Sultân Muhammad Khân ‘rahima-hullâhu
ta’âlâ’ conquered Istanbul, he converted Saint Sophia, which was a
church, into a mosque. It was one of the conditions stipulated during
the negotiations for peace. It was not only a religious event but also a
monument representing the Turks’ greatest victory. Our Prophet
‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’ had foretold the conquest of
Istanbul and had said, “How lucky for them ...,” about the would-be
conqueror and his army. Fâtih Sultân Muhammad Khân, who ushered
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