Special Address (to Zaytuna College)

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Event Name: Special Address (to Zaytuna College)
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 5/30/2019
Transcript Version: 1


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that when God puts you in

a position in which you're representing

his power because all power is God's so

in that type of situation how do you

behave and again the magnanimity that he

showed so that then he made his Hedorah

to Medina after 13 years of persecution

he makes this he general he attempted

you to go he was thinking about going to

Hajj up in Eastern Arabia he went to

different tribes asking them if they

would take him he was kind of Yahoo will

know about it he used to go and ask for

tribal protection none of them helped

him

and finally the house and the huzzah Raj

who were in a town called Yathrib and

these were two Yemeni tribes or Kalani

the Yemenis are divided into Hemi Aries

and Kalani's they were Kalani Yemenites

who left after the the famous dam broke

and many of the Yemenites went to syria

and different places they went to to

medina yesterday at the time and the

house and the Hazara zarba know allah

they were from the same ancestor so

they're actually one family but like the

Hatfields and the McCoys family's feud

and so they began to feud and and they

had allies from amongst the Jews so the

else had their allies in the huzzah Raj

had their allies and right before the

Prophet came they had a war called how

to bhagwath in which they fought each

other and and Pereda was involved and

Alberta was involved so the Jews used to

tell them you know there's a prophet

coming that's why we're here he's coming

to this city when he comes he's going to

get rid of all your idols and and they

used to hear this and one of the

intriguing aspects of the Arab in Medina

is that if

had a really sick child they would swear

an oath to God because they believed in

our laws the Supreme God it would swear

an oath that they'll raise it a Jew if

it lives and so there were there were

actually several Jewish Arab children in

Medina and that acara javi Dean was

revealed because some of them wanted to

force their children to be Muslim even

though they were Arabs who had raised

them as Jews because they had very high

regard for the Jews because they were

people of the book and they used to ask

them for things even though they didn't

convert to Judaism they would ask them

and so the the Piranha was revealed that

you can't compel them to convert to

Islam they they leave them in their

Judaism unless they want to convert to

Islam that's one of the as Bob that's

mentioned so there the the Jews in

Medinah

there were probably I mean these

estimates are hard but there were

probably around thirty thousand there

were more Jews and there were Arabs in

Medina and and the Jews had primarily

they were agriculturalists and they and

they controlled the soup and the no pay

no pot in particular had control over

the marketplace and so the Arab Jews and

the Jews who were farmers used to bring

their crops to the bend or pay no pot

and then they would they would buy them

and sell them in the marketplace to

Arabs that would come and then they were

also Goldsmith's and and money lenders

so these were the occupations so when

the first thing that the Prophet did was

he asked about the soup and they said

it's been your pay no class and he said

the Muslims should have their own soup

right so this is his economic foresight

and so he actually has set up a separate

market which obviously would have

angered Ben okay no Pat because they

would have seen that as breaking their

monopoly but that's what he did and his

soup was very interesting because it was

more like what we would call today a

flea market he did not allow anybody to

own a stall it was first-come

first-serve so you couldn't get like the

best play

and it was if you got there the earliest

you got the best place and so it was a

very egalitarian marketplace and so the

first thing he did was he built a soup

and he built the Masjid those were the

first two axud he did his first hota

which i will have been sanam the Jewish

rabbi heard he got everybody together in

Medina said yahan ass up shoo saddam

spread peace well up i am open and and

and feed food feed food well salud while

cielo are ham and maintain your kinship

bonds and that remember that's a deep

statement in relation to alison has

garage as well as the jews that were at

war with each other

maintain your kinship bonds don't fight

you're all related to each other

maintain those bonds well soluble a

Leigh Whannell Sunni young that's Hotel

generative is Salam and pray at some

portion of the night when people are

sleeping and you'll enter into paradise

with peace so it begins with peace and

it ends with peace as his first Hopa

begins with peace and it ends with peace

so in Medina he establishes the Masjid

and he in the marketplace and been open

open even though it entered into an

agreement begin to have talks with the

flourish and so this is the beginning of

the breakdown of of the sofa they have

and and they give them basically aid at

Badr and so they are expelled to he

allows them to take all of their wealth

and they went to to Hiva but it's

important to note at this time the

Prophet is very weak there's probably

less than 2,000 men that he has the Jews

were more powerful than he was and the

men okay nope I was expecting for a the

end of the earth to come to his aid and

they didn't which indicates that they

recognized that what they did was

breaking the treaty and the Jew many of

the Jews were very upright they were

they're honest people and they were

people of their word and the Prophet

mentioned that about especially mo Haiti

and others for afar and we know the

Arabs have a saying o famine Samoan more

trustworthy than Samoan more trustworthy

and Samuel who was the famous Jew that

would not give up the armor of

immigrants who left it as a trust with

him and actually lost his child because

of that and he's the famous poet jihad a

poet as well so these are the tribes the

Yehuda Ben Israel Benoit Marvin Jose de

Bono Duchamp been on a job bono Avenue

that inaba-san ABBA Majed it was from

that Abba in Philippi own this is a

Jewish tribe so Muslims only know the

the try and that should be sure play

about with a par Muslims only know the

the you know the three tribes but these

are all all Jews mentioned in the sofa

so there were many Jews in Medinah that

did not break their trust and you can

see the dominant tries Benny for a law

that should be a law not a ball and that

Bennett a nor back then in a beer and

and and then there was a this is later

right there were Medina was actually

protected by these lava tracks and

anybody who's ever seen the lava tracks

you cannot it's almost impossible to

walk on them they're they're quite

dangerous because they're very sharp you

can't take animals across and that's why

the trench was such a useful way of

protecting Medina because it Medina was

literally surrounded by in fact in

Arabic is called lava with a bow you

know it's like this Israeli lady

recently said you know Palestine doesn't

exist because the Arabs don't have a P

in their language

so they're not the V either they say so

lava is actually lava is the Arabic word

ball is fine so buffoon has a bead so

that'll work

so this is a very important event Imam

Shafi said l'm adam mo hadith and

Minetta in me the SIA and Norris ooh la

la la la anyway said I'm lemon Asura Ben

Medina T Radha and yahuda calf at and a

lady Jie Jie I know of no one from

amongst the people of prophetic

biography that differ that the Prophet

SAW lady sinem when he came to Medina he

entered into an alliance with all of the

Jews without jizya now at hazard or hood

beneath Alaba refused to go out because

they said it was sipped and the only one

that went out was mo Hajduk there were

two jews that fought at a hood and

mahalia was killed

mahalia there's a he laughs about

whether he became Muslim or not even his

Hawk says Aminah well I'm useless for

other valid ilayhi ill foodini

he believed in Allah but he didn't

become Muslim because he was just too

accustomed to his own religion but he he

told the Jews we made a promise to

defend the Prophet we should do it he

went out he fought he was actually

martyred and he left all of his property

with the Jews to give to the Prophet and

the first endowment in Islam came from

the wealth of Mahadev according to one

tradition and the Prophet said about him

o Haiti hyrulean he's the best of the

Jews and then you

graduated as absent a fifth year the the

Jews of high bar and high bar was a it's

right I think 60 kilometers from from

Medina around their high bar was an

agricultural Oasis where the Jews lived

and they worked and they had a lot of

date orchards there and they had they

they weren't United they had several

open and the open are these se hace

they're called in Iran these these

fortresses and bene no beer the

leadership of been out there who yebin

of Bob Keane Ana Nabi ribbon Michael

Pape they were in high bar stirring up

and convincing them that we need to get

the allied with the chorus with Fasano

with Papa fan and these Arab tribes in

the area of any flame and just deal with

this once and for all

so they actually amassed an alliance of

about 10,000 and they and and this is

what rasa in the fifth year and so they

march on Medina this really isn't a

battle it's a skirmish because they

never fight about ten people died all

together despite the fact they were

there for you know almost a month and

they begin to aim begins to sow

dissension amongst them but during that

time the the nobility leadership goes to

Benny Paraiba the leadership of any poor

Eva and initially the leadership of

being a parade that doesn't want to have

anything to do with it they actually

help dig the trench they didn't want to

be involved in treachery but they were

convinced by a even a knock pop that

we've got 10,000 people this is it they

the Muslims at the time only

three thousand men that's all and they

were not well armed and so they really

thought they could take care of it and

he could he was very convincing he was a

very powerful leader and he convinced

Cobb but I said a what ID to ally with

them and so this is the treasonous event

that occurs during the Battle of during

the skirmish of alasa and they really

wanted to annihilate the Muslims so this

was kind of a genocide 'el attempt at

ridding the peninsula of the Muslims and

so the Quraish leave about the fan

leaves all of the Arab tribes leave and

they're left with Benny parada are in

there open a handful of them actually

went out to fight now what happens after

that is very murky to me I've read

several accounts of it I went through

all the serie literature on it I read

for a comedy book I read kiss stars work

the Israeli historian which is a very

pretty serious piece of scholarship

arguing against Barca atmos book but I'm

still convinced that it's grossly

exaggerated the numbers and there's

nothing sound on that the only thing in

a body that started in more had said

that the mulatto should be killed and

that Eddie when lisa and surat al-ahzab

clearly says very contractor una FATA

what's your own effect I mean the Quran

is very clear that some people were

killed and some were taken captive that

did occur it's undeniable but the

numbers and if you look at the the event

it just doesn't smack it doesn't sound

all the prisoners were kept in the house

admit that hadith I asked a father who

knows all the houses of Medina inside

out because they were all very well very

well studied and I asked them how many

people could be held in a house like

that he said it's a small house maybe 10

and if you read also the idea of digging

a ditch in the middle of the marketplace

of Medina it just doesn't make sense

there's several things in that narrative

that I find really really problematic

but anyway it's there and I think I

don't think any numbers should be

mentioned because we just don't know and

Imam addict did not accept it miss hawk

as a Mahad myth he was not a mod he was

just student of Zoey

they actually chased him out of Medina

he's he's the source he did an

incredible service to his ammonite then

that goes undiminished but he was not a

solid source in hadith and the rigor of

mattock in particular is is

well-established Malik did not like to

use anything that smacked of a weakness

and so you know the numbers are

definitely problematic but what happens

then is that the Prophet goes and he

makes a salud idea and what's really

intriguing about this event is they go

to make Amara but they're not allowed to

make their own bra and they meet that

hudaibiya and and the the Quraish send

out a waft earth man goes in to speak

with them they send out a WA and they

have a they're going to debate about

what's going to happen so they they come

to some agreements but all of the points

the Prophet compromises literally every

single point

he's just compromised even muhammad

rasool allah they said we don't accept

that and he told the ally to erase it

and Adi said I can't do it that's the

the Sophia called that Maharaja to Dubya

it's like a

disobeying the Prophet out of a depth of

the Prophet like he just said I can't

erase it and so the Prophet said show me

where it is and he pointed to it and the

Prophet himself erased Rasool Allah and

just said this a agreement between

Muhammad and Abdullah and the Potters

because the core I said we don't accept

that so you said not a problem

get rid of it every single point the the

Sahaba were so distraught at this and

they said everybody wavered except elbow

buckle even OMA even a ha ha

he went to Abu Bakr and he said Ali

sorrow Salman

isn't he the Messenger of God what are

we doing why are we cut they all had

their weapons they were ready to fight

why are we compromising like this

Abu Bakr he grabbed him he said you know

he reminded him and just shook him to

his core the prophets eyes and went in

he asked him Sodom Oh what he should do

she said look cut your hair go out and

sacrifice just give them some sense of

closure on their pilgrimage so he did

that and then they saw that and they did

that and they felt better on the way

back enough attack netic of the ravine

that's what's revealed like this is a

big opening what's the opening

compromise in every situation the

opening was peace this is the first time

in the history of his message where he's

actually got peace because the Jews now

he goes to haibach and and he defeats

them at high bar and enters into a

treaty with them they promised that as

ab half the date harvest so he entered

into a treaty that they would take half

the date harvest or they could leave and

go to syria they choose they decided to

choose to stay so they entered into a

contract with them that there would be a

non-belligerent treaty treaty of

non-belligerent this the first time the

prophet has peace from here on from the

sixth year on all you see is people

becoming Muslim Zoe said that man Fuji -

Islam fatone Alberta who cannot out of

AMA men who know fact before this was

greater than this fact this is an

opening that was a peaceful opening

there was no fighting and it's called a

victory it was a non-violent victory and

this was the greatest

victory ii to the the opening of Mecca

which was also a non-violent victory so

the two greatest victories of the

Prophet were victories of non-violence

in the mechanical potato - s people

would fight every time they met phonemic

Eretz in whose honor when they finally

had peace what would be a third power

and they stopped fighting what a

Menendez ba-ba-boom ba-ba and people

felt safe from one another well tackle

Fatah Fowler though they meet and then

they'd start discussing fellow hadith

when Munez ER and debating felon

McCallum I hadn't been islami yakky

Bhushan in Halawa he so nobody that was

just talked to about Islam that had any

brains except that he would embrace

Islam after that what a defeat a nica's

entertain in those two years more people

became Muslim than in the previous 19

it's amazing so you know and then what

time is it okay I'm going to stop there

and maybe we'll finish this another day

yeah so I'll just leave some questions

because I have an interview that I have

to go to but if anybody has any

questions feel free to ask or comments

some may come relative item so at the

very beginning you mentioned that the

prophets of the laws are some told us

that Islam would only exist as a polity

for 30 years but and I'm wondering

whether that is a statement that you'd

recommend to us as like explaining to

people when they either look at things

in Islamic history or governments that

call themselves Islamic and are doing

things that are not following the Sunnah

of the Prophet awesome do you think that

that's something that non-muslims could

hear and understand and and give them a

little bit more wisdom as to how to

understand what's happening I mean I you

know I don't I don't know what people

are how people react there are so many

variables when you talk

to people background education I mean

the word in Arabic 450 laughs difference

of opinion is the word it's it's derived

from a word that has to do with

background califo what you leave behind

so he'll via is your background so he

laps come from different backgrounds you

know we're in you know Black History

Month I mean there's all these people in

America white people that say things

like you know why can't blacks just get

over it but they never define it like

500 years being stripped of your of your

heritage of your history of your name

being you know subjugated being treated

like animals they were actually

categorized as like livestock you know

and that went on until you know 1865 or

1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation

but it takes a hundred years to

legislate civil rights from that and

we're still not there we we don't have

an african-american as president there's

African Americans first lady if we have

a Kenyan American as president he's not

African American he's the East African

right from the Luo tribe to which in

Kenya he couldn't even get elected which

is pretty amazing right that's what

happened to his father his father went

back to Kenya he

there was no upward mobility because of

his tribal background that's part of the

problem in the in the Muslim world and

in Africa as well is that you know

families determined so much there's no

upward mobility there's no meritocracy I

mean the first thing a Syrian asks you

you know Bates mean which house are you

from and right when you tell them boom

you've been identified you know you're

either from a good family or from

another type of family and it doesn't

allow for upward mobility it doesn't

allow for meritocracy the Prophet tried

to eliminate all that stuff judge people

according to the content of their

character not according to their tribe

clan family wealth or lineage

that's how people should be judged so I

don't know you know I mean we have to

embrace the dark you know we have a

shadow in our religion there's every

religion you know dr. winter says that

the history of our religion is the

history of its ego and we tend to forget

that that there's there's a lot of

darkness in our history there's a lot of

beautiful things and in many ways in

terms of the pre-modern rug Muslims have

nothing to be ashamed of it's quite

stunning what they were able to

accomplish given the prevailing

attitudes in most parts of the world

many of the things that the Prophet

taught were the dreams of philosophers

and and they became common coin the

Muslims have always had racism but

they've never had a racism that

prevented somebody from eating with

another person they never had that type

of racism there's no history where they

would not put their hand in a plate that

had a white hand or a black hand in it I

mean they just didn't have that type of

racism so but we have a lot of dark

things in our history in our past and

and our religion our tradition has a lot

of horrible things that they're there

and they're in the books and I've read

them I've spent 30 years reading in our

tradition and I've seen stuff that

really bothered me but it's there and

and we have to deal with it but does it

represent the ethos or the spirit of

Islam or the spirit of the Prophet I

would argue that it doesn't and so it's

but then there's things that certainly

that happened at the time of the Prophet

that are very troubling for modern

people that's going to be undeniable

concubinage is something that modern

people cannot get their heads around at

all it's very very difficult for people

to grapple with that concept but that

was a prevailing concept not just

amongst Muslims but amongst most of the

civilizations of the of the pre-modern

world so and we certainly have types of

it now it's just criminal activity right

I mean there's probably more concrete

vintage today than at any other time in

human history

just it's not regulated it has no

there's no rights there's no so said I

work from shaken I think um when you

made mention of that mentality of those

that have this you know been to Islam

what maybe even in your opinion or an

approach that we can take now would be

to kind of change that well one of the

things is really interesting to me when

I read Arnold's book on the preaching of

Islam you know he he says that Muslims

were actively engaged in spreading their

religion until the end of the Khilafah

at late 19th century it just stopped

spreading it was very little done and I

just thought that was really interesting

that that Muslims always had

missionaries they were usually came out

of the Sufis I mean even even Tamiya

writes that the the mob today ah amongst

the Sufis did great service by spreading

Islam in places no one else wanted to go

to because they would go like to they

went to the Bogomils I mean Albania

became Muslim over centuries you know

the the Turks arrived there in the in

the 15th century but it took several

hundred years before they really and

there's still the Albania I don't know

they're so very nationalistic as a

people but but it took a long time Egypt

according to a hadith Blankenship who I

trust did not reach 50 percent for the

first 300 years it was mostly Christian

Syria did not reach 50 percent for the

first 500 years and the lúcia never

reached 50 percent there was always a

majority of Christians and so Muslims

have this fantasy that you know the

Muslims just showed up and everybody

said Allah Akbar la la la la it doesn't

work like that they they lived with

these people of different religions and

and they treated them sometimes well and

other times not so well and sometimes

better than other places treated

minorities and sometimes they did

horrible

so they're human and but overall you

know our our our tradition just I think

and the Prophet inculcated this in his

Sahaba he had an incredible tolerance

for for idiosyncrasies and bizarre

behavior and he really tolerated people

as they were and that's why he had some

crazy people around him that are clear

in the Sierra

he had jokesters like no Iman is a clear

jokester and the Prophet tolerated him

you know he went bottom all these gears

and brought him and then the man shows

up and he he said you know you owe me

some money to the Prophet he said why he

said no a man said that you were going

to pay for these yeah you know so and

and he allowed for different the one

thing that he really did not like was

religious extremism really bothered him

probably was very bothered by who do

even in a bat he did not like people to

do excessive better like too much

fasting too much he was very temperate

and moderate dhikr is another thing

doing a lot of Vicker but doing you know

the kind of he said Dada

Benny at FLE slam there's no monkey in

Islam so he was very wary of that he

didn't like extremism but you know when

we were at the conference in Marrakesh

and and the Imam at haramein was there

Abdul Fattah and he's one of the great

moonshee Dean of Morocco got up and sang

he sang and then and then Sam use of got

up and sang well one of the Christian

ladies from the Yvonne Jekyll tradition

she got up and she is burst into song

you know and I saw these Aruna in the

front were kind of like

yeah and I mentioned it later to Shahab

doll and he said honey honey any letter

saying he's just not uptight you know

it's just let people be who they are you

know as long as they're not like harming

or you know so anyway

Salam alaikum Sheikh Hamza can we hop

take one question from online yes here

in the back yeah and this is actually

related to something you just mentioned

but if you have any other remarks or

summary regarding the essence of what

took place in Marrakesh in terms of the

meeting but then he did the Declaration

which you know whereas the conditions in

various parts of the Muslim world have

deteriorated dangerously due to the use

of violence and armed struggle as a tool

for settling conflicts and imposing

one's point of view whereas this

situation has also weakened the

authority of legitimate governments and

enabled criminal groups to issue edicts

attributed to Islam but which in fact

alarmingly distort its fundamental

principles and goals in ways that have

seriously harmed the population as a

whole

whereas this marks the fourteen

hundredth anniversary of the charter of

Medina

a constitutional contract between the

prophet Mohamed Salah TM and the peoples

of Medina which guaranteed the religious

liberty of all regardless of faith

whereas hundreds of Muslim scholars and

intellectuals from over 120 countries

along with represent Islam Akande

international organizations as well as

leaders from diverse religious groups

and nationalities gathered in Marrakesh

on this date to reaffirm the principles

of the Charter and so we declare our

firm commitment to the principles

articulated in the charter of Medina

whose provisions contained a number of

principles of constitutional contractual

citizenship such as freedom of movement

property ownership mutual solidarity and

defense as well as principles of justice

and equality before the law and that the

objectives of the charter of Medina

provide a suitable framework for

national constitutions in countries with

Muslim majorities and the United Nations

Charter and

related documents such as the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights are in

harmony with the Charter of Medina

including consideration for public order

noting further that deep reflection upon

various crises afflicting humanity

underscores the inevitable and urgent

need for cooperation among all religious

groups we affirm hereby that such

cooperation must be based on a common

word requiring that such cooperation

must go beyond mutual tolerance and

respect to providing full protection for

the rights and liberties to all

religious groups in a civilized manner

that issues coercion bias and arrogance

based on all the above we hereby call

upon Muslim scholars and intellectuals

around the world to develop a

jurisprudence of the concept of

citizenship which is inclusive of

diverse groups such jurisprudence shall

be rooted in Islamic tradition and

principles of mindful global changes

urge Muslim educational institutions and

authorities to conduct a courageous

review of educational curricula that

addresses honestly and effectively any

material that instigates aggression and

extremism leads to war and chaos and

results in the destruction of our shared

societies and calling upon politicians

and decision makers to take the

political legal steps necessary to

establish a constitutional contractual

relationship among its citizens and to

support all formulations and initiatives

that aim to fortify relations and

understanding amongst the various

religious groups in the Muslim world we

call upon educated artistic and creative

members of our societies as well as

organizations of civil society to

establish a broad movement for the just

treatment of religious minorities in

Muslim countries and to raise awareness

as to their rights and work together to

ensure the success of these efforts we

call upon the various religious groups

bound by the same national fabric to

address their mutual state of selective

amnesia that blocks memories of

centuries of joint and shared living on

the same land we call upon them to

rebuild the past by reviving this

tradition of conviviality and restoring

our shared trust that has been eroded by

extremists using acts of terror and

aggression we call upon representatives

of the various religions sects and

denominations to confront all forms of

religious bigotry vilification and

denigration of what people hold sacred

as well as all speech that promotes

hatred and bigotry and finally affirm

that it is unconscionable to employ

religion for the purpose of aggressing

upon the

rights of religious minorities in Muslim

countries so that's that's the

declaration and and we had a Yazidi

there hoop yeah you know and he said to

me I spoke to him afterwards and he just

said listen no Benny our community

attributes this to Islam

you know he said we've been living with

Muslims for hundreds of years and the

the sabian said the same thing the Druze

said the same thing yeah so fact the

most painful cry came from the head of

the cities of Iraq you know so but it

was important you know they all shared

their the Christian we had the you know

the Christian Catholic Archbishop we had

the Cardinal sorry Cardinal from the

Catholic tradition with that the bishop

from the Palestinian church you know

also affirming that Muslims have treated

the Christians in in the Holy Lands well

for centuries I'm in a book I recently

read which I found fascinating are the

Syriac sources that really haven't been

looked at this the first time they've

been translated into English but

historically what what people did when

they looked at the Muslim the early

period like Fred Donner they looked at

the Byzantium sources but the Byzantines

were they were they were oppressing a

lot of these religious minorities but

when you look at the actual malachite

church and the Chaldeans and the

Nestorian church and the Jacob white

church and the amount of fissile Church

the stuff they say about Islam is

totally different like they saw them as

liberators and this is the greatest

thing that's happened to this region and

you know it's very different picture

that you get from the Byzantine sources

so anyway I have to go do this interview

so Hanna Columbia Homme de casa donde la

Atlanta stop beautifully like a la

mesilla Odyssey no Mohammed Raja

adios on you send em to Stephen Kajiura

somehow not a bigger of the desert en

masse for no ceremonies in July her

you