Zaytuna College Convocation 2018

Transcript Details

Event Name: Zaytuna College Convocation 2018
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 6/14/2019
Transcript Version: 1


Transcript Text

have a type of humility to make sure you

understand things come in I even Odin

sorry hawa a patio for famous sake me

and motanaby says how many people find

fault in something and the fault is

their understanding of that thing right

because you didn't know understand the

grammar of it or there was a misprint

and you assumed that it was right or you

you you were applying something from

another science to that science that

wasn't applicable like demanding

precision in one science that doesn't

allow for the type of provision

precision that you think it allows so

that's very important is to have

humility before the subject and then he

said humility before the teacher it's

very important to have humility before

the teacher and sometimes teachers will

have students that really challenge them

because they're smarter than them right

because I had students that I know are

smarter than me and you really have to

respect their intellect but they also

have to understand that there's a type

of humility that's necessary with

intelligence that if it's not there it's

very easy to become arrogant and it

becomes very dangerous and so even if

you think that you might understand

something better than the teacher be

very careful because you might not and

if you do there's a great wisdom and

benefit in just simply being hum

because it's a great gift and then

having a good opinion personal one is

very very good you know they called

Saint Thomas Aquinas the dumb ox you

know and they used to make a lot of

jokes with him because he was very easy

to play tricks on and they said there's

a story once that one of the monks said

was looking out the window and he said

oh my god a flying cow and Aquinas went

to the window to look and they all start

laughing and he just turned and said

better to believe in flying cows than

monks that lie so personal one is a very

good approach just to have a good

opinion two to think the best of people

before you think the worst and then he

said to scaffold like to recognize

grammar is is what it all begins with

grammar if you don't know grammar you

cannot learn a civilizational tradition

because it's based on grammar and and

and also obviously logic which is very

important we're trying to restore the

centrality of that science in our

tradition and and the logic that we're

learning is a logic that a lot of people

that are involved in this area think

it's been supplanted by other forms of

logic propositional logic Gottlob freak

started this movement to get rid of the

metaphysics of logic which is largely

found in the concept so the type of

logic we're teaching here is a classical

form of logic but it's very important

because one of the things that we talk

about freedom of speech

everybody clamors about freedom of

speech which is a highly overrated

privilege freedom of speech or some

people obviously would view it as a

right freedom of speech is predicated on

freedom of thought and freedom of

thought is predicated on being able to

think freely most people can't think

freely because they're shackled with the

constraints of their own intellects with

with the logical fallacies like hasty

generalization

you're not thinking freely if you make a

hasty generalization you're thinking

based upon a default setting of the mind

itself and then he talks also about

madad Cara which is very important to

most of your study will be on your own

and then when you do more that get out

with your fellow students in other words

speaking amongst them about the subject

matter and that's why the cohort system

is so important because the cohort

system creates a community of learners

that's because you're reading the same

books and one of the gifts of different

people reading the same book is there

that they find out they're reading

different books because their

understandings differ and so they can

allow insights somebody might have an

insight that you didn't know and one of

the studies they did at UC Berkeley that

I studied when I was at GT u was a

really interesting study about group

learning and and they were struck by how

good the Asians did in math and how poor

some of the other communities were doing

in math so they took some of the other

communities that were doing poorly in

math they first of all they studied what

the Asians were doing they found by and

large they studied math together and so

they would help each other work out the

problems so they actually had these

students groups minority groups that

were not doing as well in math actually

studied together and consistently they

found that their grades went up from

that so group mode akhada is very

important so that's an Islamic tradition

and I want to look at quickly at and

then I'll conclude my remarks look at

from the Western tradition we have

Shakespeare who was obviously a great

master of many many subjects it's clear

for anybody who's ever read Shakespeare

he he was also a great sportsman he knew

he knew a lot about different sports

especially Bowlings one of his favorite

traditional English bowling so like I

there's the rub

and that's a sporting metaphor there

that he's using so he has

advice to latest who was going off to

study from his father Polonius and he

says in that he says and these few

precepts in thy memory

in other words retain these I'm gonna

give you some advice I want you to

retain them see thou character you know

really work on your character on your a

lock your moral well-being give thy

thoughts no tongue

don't don't always have to give your

opinion if i thoughts no tongue nor any

unproportioned thought his act in other

words don't act on thoughts that you

haven't fully deliberated really think

deeply about what you do before you do

something because most of the major

mistakes we make in life are from doing

things without thinking and one of the

most amazing things about our tradition

is what's called istikhara which is

where if you're going to do anything of

any serious consideration you always do

is Sahara which is a prayer

where you actually pray to God as the

haruka right I ask you to choose for me

right Esther uka the with your knowledge

stop the auto capital Attica and and and

I'm asking you with your ability to you

know to do that so that's very important

and then he says be thou familiar but by

no means vulgar be familiar with people

but don't go down to that level that

very often happens when people become

too familiar which is where they tend to

become vulgar right Vulgarian is a word

you might want to look up because we

have a whole culture now of vulgarians

where people that swear for no reason

one of the signs of the end of time the

Prophet said you will see obscenity

without any reason because you used to

be people swore when they got angry now

people just swear right just for the

sake of it an obscenity is it's it's

obscene for a reason every culture has

obscene words that that

so that's that's something very

important

don't become vulgar the friends thou

hast and their adoption tried grapple

them to thy soul with hoops of Steel the

prophets Eliza have said one of the

signs of the end of time is he said you

should count yourself lucky if you have

one true friend and a true friend is

gold right it's the one that you shed to

do Shem the holy edge Mac he will do

everything he will basically pull

himself apart to pull you together so

that's a true friend so friends are true

friends are rare and it's a very high

mom in Islam the my palm of sadaqa and

Cydia in Arabic which is a true friend

means that the one who's who's who's

truthful they don't they're not

obsequious or they'll tell you what they

really think

but do not dull vie palm with

entertainment you could look at this a

few different ways but one of the

meanings is don't everybody you can't

shake hands with don't let him become

your boon companion you know just

because a lot of people just like

sitting around with people and just

shooting the breeze and and if you find

an entertaining person it becomes a type

of enjoyment so don't don't dull thy

palm with entertainment by just going

around looking for people to associate

with and one of the the snares of the

devil with students is to get them to do

everything except study so you will

constantly be distracted and you and I

feel sorry for students today in that

the distractions are much greater than

they've ever been for people so I had

the good fortune of studying in some

really isolated places so I know the

blessing of pure isolation and then he

says of each new hatched yet do not dole

I palm with entertainment of each new

hatched unfledged comrade and so beware

of entrance to a quarrel

but being in there that the opposed may

beware of thee so don't don't

G da I'm America Robin Lana literally he

he was once in a in a gathering and they

started arguing and he got up and he

shook his Rida like almost like a

masseuse shakes their hands out after

they massage just to kind of get that

out of their system he shook his Reed

and he said unto me horrible

he said you you're war and he left and

he used to say lay seulji down minute

Dean fish a this religion has nothing to

do with argumentation and a man came to

him once and said he was from the Moriya

one of the sexes and he said yeah

Abdullah huija DeLuca let me argue with

you about this issue any mo Maddox said

why either adopt any and if you win the

argument he said Tony you follow me he

said what you da Arab dukkha he said

that's my oka if I win I'll follow you

and then he said what you Geoff either

j32 Avella bana what if a third comes

and he defeats both of us he said nuts

battle who he will follow him he said my

friend you're gonna be on a new religion

every day and he's as for me I I know

what I know and I know where I got it

and that's what I'm following so that's

tradition that you don't have to grapple

with things in each generation you have

a kind of consistent truth that's been

transmitted you have to still grapple

with it because not all of its absolute

but that's important not not to get into

arguments get into discussions but it's

very different from argumentation give

every man thine ear but few thy voice

this is very good advice for a student

you know listen attentively because this

is the time of listening but don't be so

quick to give your opinion about things

teach take each man's censure but

reserve thy judgment

listen to people's criticisms of you and

take them seriously but don't be too

quick to criticize others Imam Shafi was

once asked how did you get such good

character he said I always listen to my

critics if they made him think about

whom you know he's got a point I talk

too much or I argue too much or I'm

arrogant then he would work on changing

that and then he said costly thy habit

as thy purse can buy but not expressed

in fancy rich not gaudy you know wear

something that's appropriate to your

station don't dress like a poor person

if you're not poor and don't be gaudi

for the apparel oft proclaims the man

this is something that modern people

have completely dismissed although in

reality their apparel often does declare

them traditional people always dressed

well because they knew what the human

being was it's a very exalted creature

and and this is why all traditional

clothes have an elevating quality in

them even peasants dressed beautifully

and they always had good clothes to wear

on special occasions now we have

t-shirts at awards ceremonies this is

the type culture that we're in so and

just look at any pictures from before

the 1960s in any civilization on this

planet and look how people dressed and

look at the way they dress today because

it does declare who they are they their

minds are like that their their minds

are slouched our minds and so that's

reflected in their own state from and

then he says neither a borrower nor a

lender be good advice to not give surety

is surety as one of the great Greek

Wiseman said for loan oft loses both

itself and friend

you know people money and you lose their

friendship this above all and then

finally he concludes going back to the

beginning see thou character this above

all to thine own self be true and it

must follow as the night the day thou

canst not then be false to any man if

you're true to yourself you'll be true

to other people but if you're false to

yourself you're gonna be false to other

people so that's very good advice

so we're blessed to be starting this

year we're excited about this class it's

a small class but we're expecting big

things from the class and this is the

beginning of something and inshallah you

are

Sabby alone and may you be sappy alone

in in in the literal meaning of that

because you are sad alone just by the

mere fact that you're the first doing

this but may you be sad alone also

spiritually people that outstrip and and

really work hard one of the most

important things that that people have

really difficult time today is being

alone and one of the things that this

machine does is it prevents people from

ever being alone with themselves now

because you just constantly can be

entertained but you have to learn to be

alone and one of the great scholars he

said the Outland se lacy you fiducia and

see what had the animal feed and Makati

you know that meeting people really

doesn't benefit a lot other than just

kind of empty he said she said words

Oakland minion SEL Ally of the animal is

La Holly so don't have a lot of meetings

with people except to rectify your state

by meeting with people in a better state

than you and to learn to study so I

really hope you take that advice may

Allah subhana WA thought to give all of

you toe field I want to just especially

extend an immense gratitude to the

people that worked on this program and

were able to really convince WASC

inshaallah we believe justifiably that

this program was viable and that it was

in accordance with the standards that

WASC has set for the schools and

colleges of the western part of the

United States dr. del Pardee no faculty

worked incredibly hard on a very very

excellent report for our sub

of change he had immense help from his

team we've been best have Sumaira I

thought we also had dr. Hatton Imams aid

and other faculty members that helped

with this dr. Dominic Qureshi and and

and dr. Fadi and others that helped so

there was a lot of work that went into

this and I'll just conclude by saying

that like all starts there's going to be

some bumps in the road so you're gonna

have to help us also navigate those

bumps but don't get frustrated just see

them as the challenges that come with

life on Earth we're committed to making

things better

inshallah and better for you better for

us and better for this institution does

equimolar head on will sit on my knee

kumara nominate kumarahoe saliva a

cartoon or just like to take a moment to

shout out to Allah to invite methi Ameen

to the podium please said I'm Ronnie

comb we're gonna celebrate this in

shallow opening and so I invite everyone

to celebrate with us together in sha

Allah

meantime here

Aloha

why Jabba sure good why Lena

[Applause]

Lilla Hey

[Applause]

bye-bye Elena beam tiny

[Music]

to the worst

Jabar oh good Elena Manila Heda

oh the why moon rose over us from the

valley of a word

and we are we're to show gratefulness

the car is to Allah Allah

a namitha year

[Music]

till order

lena nila heeda oh you who were raised

among stars coming away the word to be

open

you have brought to California nobleness

you have cried to California nobleness

you have brought to California nobleness

welcome base color to God's Way Boyd I

[Music]

ain't no mutiny

you know I

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

while a he was I love mohammad

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam hundred

sallallahu aleyhi wa salem solo muhammed

solo love while

was I

um takbir Allahu Akber Salam aleikum

[Applause]

Salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

jazakallah khair for the song for the

nasheed this is a celebration for the

beginning of the master degree program

at Zaytuna College and we have our first

incoming class this would not have been

possible without the hard work of a

number of people that I would like to

recognize to begin with and I think one

is dr. mark Delp who really took on the

forging of our own independent master

degree we were thinking about creating

an MA degree jointly with GTU so that's

still in the backburner and we forged

ahead with our own independent MA degree

which required a far more work than

possibly would have been needed to do so

so really we have to recognize that work

sumaya sitting in the back she became

our in-house expert on WASC so much so

that now wasps have taken her to

actually become part of visitation team

and she just had lost past week training

so she would become she would go visit

other institutions to be part of the

accreditation process so in here we

her work is tremendous and now for us

we're actually going to have another was

visit for the BA degree in the

institution next February so we're

beginning the work right now to prepare

our files and our documents

institutionally for WASC visit so this

is very important that we have someone

in-house that is able to know the

topography of the accreditation process

as well as the inside work working of

WASC the same institution that accredits

UC Berkeley Stanford and other

institution is accrediting us as an

institution so the master degree really

owes a lot to the work that have made it

possible for this Catherine just for

those who can the students in the MA

degree this morning when we had our

first orientation they received the

catalog and it just was hot of the print

print of the press that the first page

table of content was missing so talk