Alondra Productions presents the
attributes of God with dr. Umar Farooq
Abdullah and Shi Hamza Yusuf
bismillahirrahmanirrahim the attributes
of God in Islam I'm sure by now most of
you have flipped through the program and
seen the topics that have been
identified I'll just run through the
topics very quickly the philosophy of
religion creed or chaos right thinking
regarding God self knowledge as theology
Creed as experience and finally the
sidrón sea realities and
responsibilities these topics were
carefully selected and the specific
subtopics themes and information that
will be presented have been carefully
reviewed and aggregated by our scholars
this is a detailed presentation of very
specific material which will God willing
give all of us as I said earlier a
greater appreciation of our
understanding of God according to the
Islamic doctrine according to the
Islamic Creed now why is it important to
study theology why spend time studying
theology when it has a lot of people say
we have more practical problems to worry
about
and not to be dismissive but this
question reveals an inherent
misunderstanding of what's wrong with
the Muslim world as our dear brother and
scholar dr. suleiman yang has so
rightfully pointed out ideology is the
wallpaper that covers the cracks of
logic ideology is the wallpaper that
covers the cracks of logic meaning that
people afraid to confront the logical
holes in their theology will instead
resort to ideology and what we need now
more than ever is a correct appreciation
and a correct understanding of theology
and not any more rhetoric for indeed it
is our subversion in torretta Rick that
has caused the Muslim decay and that has
brought us to the point that the Muslim
Ummah is in so it is our hope that today
in our
way that Noah we foundation and our
scholars presenting to us and all of us
being here together will hopefully
contribute towards an appreciation of
Wright theology now on a personal note I
want to tell you that I was born into a
Muslim family and I grew up Muslim right
here in Chicago and of course doctor I'm
Ryan Imam hums up
both converted to Islam and it's
interesting to me that a lot to Allah
talks about in the Quran the fact that
if the Muslims don't do what they're
supposed to do a lot to Allah replaces
them with people who will do what the
Muslims are supposed to do
it's interesting to note there's so many
of our teachers so many of our Messiah
so many of our ulema
to whom we turn for guidance are people
that Allah Ta'ala brought into this Deen
they weren't born into it they didn't
take it for granted as I did growing up
now at the same time let me tell you
something growing up as a young Muslim
in America with parents from the
subcontinent
I always struggled with my religion as a
young person I'm sure a lot of people
can relate to this sitting in this room
right now
why well the main reason was because
whenever I'd ask questions about
religion I never seem to get a straight
answer I never seem to get an answer
which satisfied my intellectual
curiosity I would always get a slap on
the head don't any more questions and go
to No Mas and this was highly
unsatisfactory and highly unsatisfying
and it wasn't until I actually came in
contact with people like dr. Umar and
Imam Hamza that finally finally my
questions began to get answered finally
I discovered that there is a rich
intellectual tradition within Islam and
there are Muslim scholars alive in
humanity today who have kept that
tradition alive and they have passed it
on from generation to generation and
indeed it is a tremendous honor to sit
at their feet and to benefit from them
so it is with this intention that we
have invited our distinguished scholars
here today and inshallah it is with this
intention that all of us should be here
which is an appreciation of the fact
that they are keeping alive a rich
tradition
within our religion and that said
without further ado I would like to
invite Imam Hamza Yusuf who without a
doubt I can unabashedly say it's
probably one of the singular human
beings who has altered the course of my
life and I could say dozens of my close
friends and associates I think he goes
without saying that among the American
Muslim until intelligentsia
there are a few intellectuals few Muslim
scholars who can rival the contributions
that Imam Hamza has made and I'm saying
this in front of him not to embarrass
him but to put it in context so
insha'Allah without further ado I would
ask him out how's the use of who all of
you know is the director of the Zaytuna
Institute based in California he will in
shot let's say a few words about dr.
omar and then dr. omar will of course
reintroduce him in a more detailed
fashion and then imam Howser will
proceed with his first presentation Imam
how's a use of Rahim or subtle or
anissina Muhammad and he will send him
to sleep first of all I want to say that
I'm very appreciative and also actually
really surprised at how many people
would be interested in this subject on
the other hand I'm also surprised at how
many people aren't interested in the
subject given that it's really the only
interesting subject because it's the
subject of ultimate concern as some
theologians have remarked that theology
is the study of what has ultimate
concern which is God I first met dr.
Omar over 20 years ago in Spain we met
in a madrasah there it was a very
beautiful medicine it was in the city of
Granada which was a city of great
Islamic learning and there's a famous
book that was written called an acaba
yeah body on an author encompassing all
the news about Granada and its three
huge volumes which is detailed
discussion about the great sky
and the history of the city I met dr.
Omer there and I was struck at that time
because I was in a sense just starting
my studies and dr. Omar was already
deeply knowledgeable in many many
subjects and over these last 20 years
what I have seen is just this continual
commitment to discovery the Arabs
their word for discovery is also the
word for ecstasy because the most
extraordinary and delightful experience
human beings can have is to find out
something new to discover something and
the greatest discovery is the discovery
of God and that's why the essential
attribute that our scholars gave God was
the attribute of what can be discovered
or the existent one the one that can
actually be found that that is God's
essential attribute God is not only real
but God is something that we can find in
our lives that's what I've seen in my
teacher dr. amar who is somebody who's
been on this path of setting out to find
God my many fortunate trips to Saudi
Arabia I would always try to visit and
spend very fruitful time not nearly as
much as I would have liked to but all of
those times that I was afforded that
opportunity I benefited greatly and
that's what's called the JD's the Provos
Elias in him said that the a sound
companion is like the seller of Musk
that if you sit with them they'll either
give you some or you can buy some from
them or you can at least just get a
beautiful smell the fragrance of that
company I have a friend who I've been
for probably several years been buying
perfume from in Jeddah and he always
gives me more than I ever bought
and I'm always reminded visiting him of
that hadith so the prophet saww assumed
his descriptions are the most apt and
that's why we're very fortunate to have
this musk seller who gives more than he
sells his economic team alhamdulillah
alameen wa sallahu wa salam ala
rasoolillah ala early he or softly he
ajma'in like imam hamza i am impressed
by this turnout and I am personally
honored by the fact that so many of you
have honoured us with your presence
today I know that Imam Hamza will be
equal to the task I pray that I can also
be equal to it this is the most noble of
all subjects as imam hamza said this is
the ultimate concern of all human beings
and especially in the time that we live
a time of great knowledge unimaginable
knowledge that knowledge has to be
grounded just like electricity is
grounded and it has to be made
meaningful this was one of the supreme
legacies of Islamic civilization and it
remains our task today and the grounding
of that knowledge is in the discovery of
God and of relating all of that
knowledge to the supreme cosmological
truth I am strengthened by the presence
of my ally and my teacher and my guide
who is Imam hamza as he mentioned we met
when I was already in my 30s and he was
a very young man he was sixteen years
old at that time and I have never seen
imam hamza as anything less than a
superior even at that time when I met
him in this beautiful garden in Granada
where we had a wonderful school I was
impressed from the very beginning by the
intensity of this young man and by the
perception
that he had and it said in the famous
tradition which is attributed to eben
Abbas and to others men are nila Bhima
Halima what Rahul mamela mikuni alum
whoever will put in practice what they
know God will give them as an
inheritance knowledge of what they did
not know and this has always been the
characteristic of my beloved brother
because of the fact that he always put
into practice what he knew and as his
knowledge increased his practice changed
but you could always know what he was
learning by where he was and what he was
doing and I know that whatever Imam
Hamza believes he will do that he will
apply it and therefore his knowledge
increases from the time that I met you
mom Hamza I saw him as a vanguard the
vanguard of course are the troops that
go before the army and that check out
the territory and that open up the
ground because this is what he always
was for me when he met me the first time
I had been given a task which was to
teach the agile oomiya and Arabic to
that community in Spain that we had and
quite frankly I didn't know what the
agile Tamia was I had studied Arabic in
the Oriental fashion but I'd never
studied it in the traditional and never
been able to because of the fact that
when I opened the book of Siebel way
which was the place to end and not begin
it was so difficult
I couldn't get beyond the first chapter
so he brought to me not only the text of
the agile Omiya but he brought to me
also
a beautiful English commentary of it
which remains one of the best that is
available to this day and he brought
other books as well and as God raised us
through our lives that have always
intertwined the word marriage in Latin
comes from a root meaning to take two
trees or two vine
and to have them grow up parallel to
each other and then intertwine over each
other to make an arch that's the
metaphor of marriage in the Latin
tradition and it pertains to human
beings as well as to spouses so our
lives have always been intermarried like
that and imam hamza has always been the
teacher to me he's always in the
vanguard
he's always brought me new materials
he's always pointed in new directions
and sometimes I've studied him from afar
sometimes close at hand I know that most
of you know him as well as odd and I
know that although your turn out today
is a great honor to us especially
because it's an honor of the knowledge
that we hold dear I also know that if it
were not for the presence of this
luminary that the turnout would probably
be much more modest so thank you very
much for coming thank you for honoring
Sheikh Hamza thank you for honoring me I
pray to God that we can fulfill our
tasks and that we can make this a
beneficial session so that we not only
enjoy each other's presence but that we
also learn this menorah menorah he moves
a lot at us in Muhammad and he was like
you send him to steamer what I heard
over Aqua team Aloha Miller in Milano
I love dinner in antara I didn't wanna
hurt him a lot
aluminum I'm gonna be Magnum ten I was
in that in or slightly loved him I
hadn't seen the Muhammad when he was
five you will send him to Salima and I'm
the the topic at hand of this gathering
is the attributes of allah subhana wa
ta'ala and what both dr. omar and I
decided that we would do is begin with
an introduction and this came from in my
Western studies I had the good fortune
of studying with a Western theologian I
had two courses with him one was the
philosophy of religion another was
epistemology very brilliant man
and the one on philosophy looked at the
phenomenon of religion and how
frameworks relate to religion in other
words how we attempt to understand
religion within frameworks of thought
because religion as a phenomenon as a
human phenomena and it is a global and
universal phenomenon as a phenomenon it
is more related to experience in its
initial stages than it is to anything
intellectual it's not initially framed
in intellectual frames of reference but
rather experiential and the first
generation in every religion is always
the most extraordinary if you look at
any religious tradition you will find
that the first generation had something
that none of the later generations have
this is consistent in all of the world
religions now what's also consistent and
fascinating is that all of these
religions have almost identical problems
but there are problems because of the
nature of the particular tradition will
manifest in different ways but essence
they are very similar problems and Islam
is certainly not an anomaly in that the
problems that we as Muslims encountered
early on in our tradition were
encountered by other traditions before
Islam Islam has a unique vantage point
in that it was the last of the great
world religions and for that reason the
Parana context deals with previous
traditions and some of their troubles
one of the things about the Jews
tradition is that the Jewish tradition
does not have an understanding of the
Islamic tradition within their early
texts the Christian tradition has an
understanding of the Jews tradition but
not an understanding the Islamic
tradition whereas when you get to Islam
we have an understanding
of these two Abrahamic faiths and in
that way are a completion of them in a
clarification and this is one of the
beauties to me of Islam is that when you
become a Muslim you are becoming a Jew
and a Christian as well that we in a
sense embrace them even though both of
them reject us the Christians embrace
the Jews in essence because they
recognize the validity of Jewish
tradition but the Jews do not embrace
the Christians whereas the Muslims
embrace both and the greatest proof of
that is the fact that we are sanctioned
to marry both Christian and Jewish women
I mean I think this is a clear
indication from God is that not only is
that a figurative embrace but it can
also be a literal embrace of those
traditions and it is prohibited for
Muslims to prevent their wives from
attending synagogue or Church and
completing their sacraments in their own
faith Islam does have that wonderful
aspect that is absent in certainly the
second other great Abrahamic tradition
which is Christianity Judaism is a much
smaller phenomenon so what happens in
religion is interesting because what
happens in religion is in a sense a
manifestation of archetypes that are
replicated in all of these different
traditions and that's why you will find
even within traditions very similar
expressions of the religious personality
that we have people in Islam that are
very similar to people that are found in
Christianity and in Judaism in fact they
often will have more in common with
their Christian counterparts than they
have with other Muslims or with their
Jewish counterparts than they have with
other Muslims in their behavior and also