Attributes of Allah (CD Set)

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Event Name: Attributes of Allah (CD Set)
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 4/9/2019
Transcript Version: 1


Transcript Text

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