How to Read a Book

Transcript Details

Event Name: How to Read a Book
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 4/24/2019
Transcript Version: 1


Transcript Text

Part 1

bismillah r-rahman r-rahim hamdulillah

was so that was salam ala rasoolillah

Salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

I wanted to say hello and welcome to

everyone welcome to everyone here and

then everyone listening or watching

online

welcome to Zaytuna College for the

second lecture in our faculty lecture

series F Kroc was the first word

revealed to our Prophet Muhammad peace

be upon him

meaning read or recite established the

centrality of reading in particular and

seeking knowledge in general in our

tradition therefore it's imperative that

in our community when we think of over

the place we are as Muslims in America

right now it's imperative for us to be

conscious about our relationship to

knowledge and our pursuit of knowledge

towards that end as a tuner college is

an important part of this story of Islam

in America and so we're asking for

everyone's support first with your

prayers please keep us in your drawers

second with your financial support such

as joining us on February 18th for the

benefit dinner with all three

co-founders in San Jose and third by

spreading the word about say tuna

considering applying while telling

others about applying and although the

application deadline has passed we're

still accepting late applications as for

today the title of chef Hansie Yusuf's

lecture is how to read a book which

alludes to a book written in 1940 by

Mortimer Adler the suggestion for this

lecture came from students and so we'd

like to thank them for that suggestion

and we'd like to say to everyone else

we hope that

can provide a step for allowing us to

work together as Muslims in America

thinking consciously about our

relationship to knowledge and building

institutions of knowledge here in

America and finally may God allow all of

us to benefit from everything that is

going to follow in this talk about

further ado Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Sarah -

either Mohammed Wadi was happy we set

him to steam and get here off well hold

on upward I had a Leonar beam along with

Dalia hikmah to ensure I didn't know

particular than GRE very kromm oh sorry

l'homme Odyssey they know Mohammed wanna

read Quran what I heard over our water

level and Allah it's good to see

everybody and I've been absent

I've actually haven't been well either

so I request everybody's draw the topic

and Cha minute discussed tonight is

actually taken from a book which I was

fortunate enough to actually have

studied with dr. Adler in seminars and

he was a friend of my father's and my

father had studied with one of his

mentor's who actually taught him how to

read a book and that was Mark Van Doren

who was my father's teacher at Columbia

for my father's duration at that

University and Van Doren used to teach a

course using great books or classic

literature and out of that came a group

of intellectuals in the united states

that adopted a certain program that they

believe would help revive liberal arts

colleges but one of the things that they

recognized an Adler wrote this book for

this reason is that most people do not

really know how to read very well we

learn abecedarian reading which is

basically how to read letters on a book

we can read a open up a book and

and and read words but to actually

become a really good read or a solid

reader is a set of skills it that are

acquired over actually a long period of

time and one of the things about our

tradition in particular it's it's really

is a tradition that is rooted in in

reading the Prophet SAW ACMs first

revelation was acara is read and and he

was told a crab bismi rabbika alladhi ha

decreed in the name of your lord and the

batter

miss me in the name of is what the arab

grammarians Turnbull is Gianna it's -

it's the bud that you use the

instrumental bar in other words it's the

means by which you to read and so

there's a there's really a mystical

component to reading that is hinted or

alluded to in the in the first

revelation of Islam that there is a type

of reading that is done that is not the

reading that the Prophet SAW said was

referring to when he said man if you re

I'm not a reader so the Provos item was

talking about this type of just reading

a book abecedarian reading and the what

Adler refers to in this book as really

plumbing the depths of a book he talks

about comprehensive reading he talks

about elementary reading is one type of

reading that informational reading and

then he talks about comprehensive

reading which is reading for insight for

understanding and and that is really at

the root of Islam it's really getting to

insight and understanding and so this

this book actually I think is is really

one of the most important books that

I've seen in the English language

because it's a key to other books it

really can help you read other books and

it was written by somebody who who

learned how to read from a master reader

and the Adler talks about when he first

started teaching at Columbia

he took a course with John Erskine who

was a very famous

philosopher and it was a really

extraordinary course it was an honors

course they read two years they read

sixty great books in two years so they'd

read a book a week and then it would

come together and discuss it and these

were all really advanced students and he

was convinced that this was he said it

wasn't that I discovered gold it's that

I actually owned the mine that he really

felt that he had just take taken

possession of this incredible treasure

which was all of this knowledge that had

been passed down through the ages and

this radically changed his his

perspective on learning and he felt that

the best way to really learn at the

college level was through discussion it

was not it was through reading text and

really discussing them but what happens

is he he became when he graduated he

actually become a teacher of that course

and he thought oh I've done this course

I know all these books and I'm ready to

go

but being he said the diligent teacher

that he was he decided to read each of

the books again a second time even

though he was convinced that he knew

them and he said he was dumbstruck

because when he read them again it felt

like he'd never read them before and

this is one of the hallmarks of a really

really good book is that the more you

read it the more you get out of it it's

not you don't just read a really great

book one time and Adler argues really

that any book worth reading has to be

read three times but he does say that

the book can be by a master reader they

can learn how to do all three readings

in one reading but generally it's going

to take one or two weeks now one of the

things that I think a lot of students

just assume is one if they don't

understand something they'll just ask

the teacher all right so if I don't

understand something I can just ask the

teacher what does that mean and that's a

type of intellectual laziness when you

are grappling with something because the

fact that you don't understand it is

either one of two things it's so beyond

your

grasp that you just don't have access to

it so for instance if you're not trained

in mathematics and you pick up a book on

physics it's just not gonna benefit you

because you don't have the prerequisites

for for studying that book but the other

possibility is that you haven't given it

enough thought you haven't put the time

in now I'll give you an example the

metaphysics which is considered one of

the more difficult books probably the

most difficult book in Aristotle's

companion of writings the metaphysics

mile what lubya

in Arabic was was translated into Arabic

even Sina the great scholar philosopher

said that he had read the book 50 times

and still couldn't get it and he had

pretty much given up hope on it and he

said he went to a store and this this

scholar the this a bookseller said I

have a book that I think you'll really

like and it was an introduction to the

the terms that Aristotle was using in

the metaphysics and even Cena just told

him and I don't want that book I just

I've spent enough time on that book he

said you know you should really just an

amazing book and you should really he's

in it and I don't want it and so the man

said look you can have it as a gift so

he gave the man the book well even seen

him went home and he decided to read the

book and that book was the key that

unlocked the metaphysics for him so

sometimes a book needs prerequisites to

get to it right he had tried to

understand it but he didn't have the

tools necessary to understand the book

most of the books that you see in our

tradition if you take a book for

instance like Teton Valley which is a

commentary on imam at-tirmidhi if you

take a book like that the hadith pretty

much assumes one thing the Prophet SAW I

am assumes one thing when he's when he's

speaking that you understand the Arabic

of the seventh century because he was

speaking to

most intelligent literate people and he

was speaking to the most common people

of his Peninsula and he said Norman

Omiya than October and I said well we're

at an unlettered community meaning his

first community we don't read and we

don't calculate so everything that he

said according to imam ashabi was meant

to be understood by the average arab of

that time who was illiterate now when we

look at the language we can see how far

we've fallen as a as a species because

the Arabic language of the seventh

century was the pinnacle just like in

our culture it's been argued that the

the English language reached its

pinnacle in the late sixteenth early

17th century with people like

Shakespeare the committee that

translated the King James Bible

people like John Donne Milton I mean

this is where English reaches its

pinnacle and very often it's the poets

and because I just mentioned three poets

that represent the pinnacle of the

English language very often it's the

poets that achieve that supremacy over

other generations in terms of language

and and certainly in Islam it was no

different because in the 7th century

Arabic had reached its pinnacle with the

jihad poets and that's when revelation

comes as a crown on that vast body of

language that existed but it was because

they had such extraordinary language

skills and they were able to understand

poetry and if you can understand poetry

in any language you can understand

anything written in that language I'm

talking about good poetry and that's why

poetry is so important to study because

one of the things that poets do poets

people you know people that have very

literal type minds they say why doesn't

he just say what he means

you know why is the poet why does he

talk in in metaphors why does he talk in

this ambiguous language

because when you study poems you know

like two roads diverged in a wood and I

right well what does he mean two roads

diverged in a yellow wood like what's he

mean two roads diverged in a wood is he

really talking about being on a path

walking down a Vermont bucolic scene and

he comes off two roads and a yellow wood

and and there he is sorry I could not

travel both you know so he's there kind

of wishing he could go down both is that

really what he's talking about or is he

talking about something deeper right and

there's different ways that you can read

things you can read them at a literal

level and that would be he just came on

to pass in a wood and it's fall probably

because the the thing everything's

yellow and the leaves are falling

because he talks about the leaves on the

path so maybe maybe that's one level

that's a level of reading called the

literal level so basically you know when

you when you look at this incredible

tradition of scholarship and and I was

using the example of that book authors

the Provost I said when he spoke his

prerequisite is that you understand 7th

century Arabic well and if you do you

can understand what he's saying

Idina no see aha there's a reason why he

said a Dean as opposed to Dean owned or

there's a reason why he said adeno he

didn't say no see a tune he could have

said adenine I'll see how to adenine no

see AHA but he used article of

definition for both the muqtada and the

Hubbell right for the subject and the

predicate in that sentence why there's a

reason and if you know you don't have to

know grammar to understand that if you

know Arabic in the way that the 7th

century

yeah the Arabs knew it because they

would know exactly what it meant that

was their language and so language the

prerequisite for understanding oral

communication is simply the skills that

we have in in language and and but

they're very complicated I mean even the

most Aboriginal languages are incredibly

complex

doesn't matter how simple language gets

it's always complex and it's a miracle

that children learn how to speak just

syntax and how they work out and then

genera of grammar how they generate

grammar because children will say things

that they've that they've never heard

said before they'll start formulating

sentences at three four years old and

they've never heard those sentences

before but they're generating language

so humans are language generators we

naturally generate language now at a

certain point people started writing

down I love a bellum Allah says we

taught by the pen and because the low

hand muffled is one of the really

profound images in the Islamic tradition

this idea of the low hand the venom that

God made this tablet and then he made a

pen and he told the pen to write on the

tablet so everything that is was and

ever will be was actually written down

according to this narrative so there's a

reading and then on llamó qiyamah

what do you do you read your sahifa

you're given your book and you're told

to read it if Karachi that you have to

read your actions everything that you

did it's all recorded keith album are

cool and in some kind of who knows what

I mean you know that modern language

marco means digital you know Rock'em is

digit but it could also mean written a

written book or a digital book Aloha

Anna but it's a book that recorded

everything and we know that we've got

scriveners angelic scriveners that are

writing things down right taking note so

reading is central to the Islamic

tradition it's all about reading and

then reading signs in the self and on

the horizon so if you look when when

when when the problem was told to read

and he said I don't know how to read

he said no read

I don't know how to read read this is a

different type of reading it's a deeper

type of reading and then we're told and

this is very interesting because even

though semiotic sizz there's it's an

ancient concept the idea of the the

seemed seamless you know the symbols

it's it's an ancient concept I mean the

Greeks talked about it but the fact that

one of the most important areas of

philosophical pursuit is in this whole

area of semiotics and signs and symbols

and meanings and the fact that the

Parana identifies itself as a book of

signs and signs are to be interpreted

you have to know what a sign you have to

be able to read a sign in order for that

sign to be meaningful for if you don't

read the sign it's of no benefit if you

if you come and and there's a sign that

says danger cliff ahead sharp turn and

and and you speak Russian and the signs

in Arabic and you go off the cliff it's

because you couldn't read that sign but

if if you saw the sign you read the sign

in a language you understood you'd save

yourself from the from the danger of

possible destruction or destruction

itself so reading is is it's just

foundational now if you look one of the

things he points out if you look one of

the first and most important things

there are many types of reading and but

basically there are three fundamental

things that people read for one is

amusement less so today than ever before

traditionally people read for amusement

as a pastime and you would often see

people just on trains or before that

even just sitting with a book Henry

David Thoreau talks about meeting a

farmer in Massachusetts out near Concord

where he was staying there Walden Pond

who was plowing a field and he had

homer's iliad in his pocket in greek and

then when he was when he would take time

to rest

he would sit down and he would read

Homer's Iliad and Thoreau said you know

I started discussing it with him because

at that time Massachusetts had about a

98% literacy rate they've never achieved

that before and one of the things they

studied in grammar schools was Latin and

Greek so here's a farmer peasant farmer

who's reading Homeric Greek which is if

it's difficult Greek it's it's a you

know there's three there's four Greeks

there's there's Homeric there's added

Greek which is the Greek of Plato and

then you have Koine Greek which is New

Testament Greek and now you have modern

Greek and each one is a very distinct

language the Homeric is really the most

vast in terms of vocabulary just like

joelly Arabic it's much faster than what

comes after I mean the proton reduces

the vocabulary considerably because the

proton was meant to be understood by

lots and lots of people so the actual

number of words in the Quran are far

less than exist in the Arabic language

and there's no really difficult words in

the Quran it was very interesting the

proton uses very easy to grasp terms

there's what they call hoody butter on

but generally it's not it's not

difficult arabic in that way so he meets

us and he said you know when he started

discussing it he really didn't have an

idea of the themes of the book but he

just thought it was the greatest yarn

he'd ever read this yeomen you know he's

reading it for amusement now Socrates

quotes Homer a lot for edification like

he uses him as a source of wisdom and it

could be argued that the whole

foundation of Greek civilization is

Homer is the Iliad The Odyssey right but

you could read The Iliad purely for

amusement it's just a great yarn for

somebody now that people read like

People magazine you know you see people

reading people and self and us write all

these you know it used to be life now

it's self

so they read these and and these are

kind of these opiate magazines out there

just everybody just reads them and

they're kind of meaningless tripe and

there's there's nothing really in them

there you're not going to be edified to

find out that so-and-so's got bulimia or

so-and-so's getting a divorce or you

know

Angelina's upset with what's the other

one know the girl that Jennifer there

you go see we know all these things cuz

it's in your face everywhere right you

can't go to you go to the supermarket my

mom's ninety and she was out the

supermarket there was an old lady with

her I mean she's not old for my mom

because she was probably only about 75

my mom says old is ten years whatever

you are older than whatever you are so

for my mom a hundred is old now but you

know this older lady looks at my mom

they're they're looking at all the

magazines on that rack you know National

Enquirer and spectator whatever they are

people and she just looked at my mom and

she said aren't you glad we're on the

way out so what's interesting is if you

look at somebody like you know like

Dorothy Sayers I mean she was lamenting

how bad it was in the 1940s like they

could only I mean I think they would

just drop dead by what they see now but

that's one type of read and then you

have informational reading like time or

Newsweek just to get some information

like what's happening in Iraq you know

or what's happening with the Republican

race things like that so you get type of

information and that is readily it's

easy to read it's not that hard if

you're educated I mean they're they're

writing probably at about 7:30 grade

level I mean that's it most books now

according to you know a friend of mine

who's was asked to write a book for a

major publisher was asked at what level

do you want he said generally the books

that we publish now at a sixth grade

level if you look at

according to you know studies of the

language of debates Kennedy's and

Nixon's debates were at about 11th grade

level of understanding high school

lincoln-douglas debates were at graduate

school level if you just analyze the

language and and and the type of level

they they were speaking now it's about

5th to 6th grade level that's what

they're talking at so this is a kind of

dumbing down but people you know that's

the the level that information is being

written on the the last reason to read

is is to learn something for

understanding what he calls

comprehensive reading is it's actually

for to illuminate you know your

understanding now what's interesting is

one of the things that that Adler argues

is he says that you know people will say

oh I can't read that book it's over my

head and he said that is the very reason

why you should read it

because if you always read things that

are at your level you will never improve

yourself you won't get anything but when

you read something that's over your head

it forces you to like pull ups right the

bars over your head and so as you pull

up right it's really hard at first but

if you keep trying it gets easier and

easier you can do more and more now one

of the things Saint Agustin said about

his education and he was educated in

what are called now you know in our

tradition the liberal arts even though

most liberal arts majors cannot if you

ask them what are the liberal arts they

won't be able to tell you even though

they have a bachelor's in the liberal

arts or a masters in the liberal arts

they won't be able to tell you actually

what they what they refer to

but Agustin wrote a book called it's

it's not really a book but it's it's an

essay on on Christian doctrine in which

he argues it was essential for people to

know these language arts before they

went into the Bible to understand it and

and and he identifies them as grammar

rhetoric and logic and what he said by

mastering these arts he said he was able

to read it that he

was able to understand anything that he

read and to articulate anything he

thought I mean that's the definition of

a literate person that they can

understand what they read and they can

articulate what they think because a lot

of people can't articulate their

thoughts you know I wish I could put it

into words what I'm trying to say but

they don't have that that that's a skill

some people have it more naturally than

others but it is a skill that can be

acquired it's it's not magic you have to

have words you have to know how words

are put together and so basically the

the what he says is he wrote this book

for that third type of reading he didn't

read it for those first two he said if

you're interested in those types of

reading don't bother with this book

you're just wasting your time and so

what he says is the first thing he

talked about reading the word itself you

have to know words because one of the

things one of the real problems with

language is that we simply assume

because we learn language as children

you know we heard our parents say things

in context and we worked it out we

worked out what words mean in context

but words are very many words are

ambiguous you have in logic something

called an amphibole which is where you

have double entendre thinks syntax that

can actually mean different things even

though it said the same way sometimes

it's written and sometimes it's how you

speak it right like if you know in

America you have the right to bear arms

right what does that mean you can have

weapon some people could think what you

meant was you have the right to take off

your shirt and show your arms right

because in some cultures women don't

have the right to bear arms

like in Saudi Arabia it's it's illegal

for a woman to bear her arms right so

there's an example you know of something

that's just the language is not clear

now that's that's a kind of humorous

example but people actually

misunderstand language all the time for

that reason and you have a whole set of

fallacies in logic called the fallacies

of equivocation which is where things

can mean more than one thing we're using

a term to mean different things you know

to give me an example you could say that

you know only men are rational animals

right they're very good at that

statement generally I mean jinn or

rational and angels are rational but

we'll just you know some people don't

really accept those other categories so

we'll just say all all men are rational

animals you accept that mahasin yeah

okay women are not men therefore women

are not rational animals right is that

sound reasoning

yeah okay good see the the equivocal

term there is man because in the first

term it's a universal term that includes

women but in in the conclusion I'm

basically excluding men women from men

so I'm using a term right ambiguously

which is one of the rules in logic that

you cannot do terms have to be

unambiguous so what he says is you have

to know the words that the author is

using and how he's using them and that's

very important so reading what does

reading mean like reading what does it

mean I'm not reading you Father huh you

know I don't what does that mean I'm not

reading you I don't know what you mean

right yeah exactly I don't know where

you're coming from not reading you right

or you know what Mohonasen you're you're

reading between the lines here right I

mean we can use the word in a lot of

different ways right but and so there's

a basic meaning which is just to read

but if you actually look one of the

meanings in Old English for read is the

fourth stomach of a ruminant right

because ruminants have four stomachs and

what do ruminants do they chew the cud

right and they swallow and then what do

they do they spit it back up chew it

some more swallow it spit it back up to

it some more so isn't it interesting

that our word to read and to ruminate to

ponder things has to do with this idea

of chewing you know bacon said that some

books are to be tasted some books are to

be swallowed and some books are to be

chewed and digested right so the idea

that reading is is something that it's

not just this superficial thing here

even in our language and and and that's

one of the beauties of a dictionary of

etymology you see because you can really

get you know Heidegger who's German

philosopher said language is the house

of being what do you think he meant by

that

language is the house of being I mean

first of all what's being how's he using

that term being is a term what is being

existence right everything that is right

has existence that's being like this

so metaphysics is the study of being

right so when he says language is the

house of being what see me what happens

in a house you live in it right you know

you live in your house it's where you

spend your time so for us as

conscientious beings right because we're

that we're really out of all these other

animals that are out there we're the

ones that are thinking about what's

going to happen to you know my

retirement plan you know there's no

birds worrying about their 401ks they're

not they're not out there there's no

lizards that are like oh my god the

economy is so depressed you know what am

I gonna do you know right there they're

not out there but because we can

actually think about things you know

code you Tate think about the future

worry about the future like we language

is where all this experiences is is is

residing and it's residing in our

language and he felt that if you could

get back he believed Greek was the you

know the essential nine which is if you

could get back to these ancient terms

from the Greeks you could really

understand the net like if you could

really get to the meaning of filos and

agape and eros terms that dealt with

love because there's different types of

love the Greeks distinguished the Arabs

distinguished we don't really

distinguish we have to use adjectives to

differentiate between our types of love

but other languages actually have

different words for different types of

love because they recognize they're not

the same so one of the really important

things to have when you're reading

seriously is if you're reading a great

writer because great writers they differ

from other writers in that they're very

specific

about the words they use you know and

when you get into poetry it's even more

so because poets are not only using

words based on their meanings but

they're using words based on their

sounds like in English we have mutes and

liquids

you know mutes and liquids like cut as a

mute because a mute sound you you have

to have a vow to complete it right so

you have a word like stop you know the P

is a mute sound so you know if a poet

uses a mute as opposed to a liquid he's

doing it for a fact or she is doing it

for a fact

so just learning the sounds of words of

why we would choose stone over rock and

they're very different sounds aren't

they stones stepping stone we don't say

stepping rocks right but a stone is a

rock and a rock is a type of stone right

or but when we think of rock it's a very

different thing of stone so poets will

even be more specific but great writers

always use words very specifically then

they're not sloppy in that way and

that's why modern writers you know I had

a teacher in mauritania who said the

difference between the ancients and the

moderns is ancients wrote a sentence

that could be commented on in a book he

said moderns write books that could be

summed up in a sentence it's very

different and I found that to be very

true most of the books that I read by

mono writers they really could be summed

up very briefly whereas if you read a

book like Hawaii that's a so off you

can't sum that book up by Amazon rope

couldn't sum it up very difficult to do

that

so it's important to have a dictionary

and then a good etymological dictionary

to deal with terms so now let me just

look at some of the things that he says

in here and then I'm gonna do a poem

with you I'm gonna actually do this in

two classes because the book can't be

like you know it's there's a lot in here

right now I want you all to read this if

you haven't already read it and if you

can I would get the first edition you

have to buy it used promise you all buy

it at once it shoots up in price because

use books now they've got the computers

so they're very aware of movement with a

book right suddenly it's like seven

dollars and it shoots up to 99 because

they're limited but the 1940 the first

editions my I think much better I've

read both of them I had to read the Van

Doren version in college but this one I

think is a much better edition but one

of the things that he argues in here at

the outside he talks about reading and

then he talks about reading is learning

and he says that there's no such thing

as passive reading you can't read

passively there's only more active

reading but reading is a is a is an

activity watching a film can be

completely passive because you're just a

your your your receptive and it can

stimulate you you know you can at the

emotional level some films consume you

intellectually I mean some films a film

like red beard by Kurosawa is I think as

edifying as a lot of books you know in

just terms of and and great film

directors are do you know they have a

purpose in making their films they're

not making their films simply to

entertain although that's one level that

the film could be could be taken on but

one of the things that he says in here

is that he he realized after he'd gotten

his degree that he was actually a poor

reader this already he's got his PhD and

he was put into this class to teach and

he said that he'd read these books again

and he realized he hadn't really read

them the first time he thought he had

and then he was teaching in this seminar

with Van Doren and what happened was he

said he started reading commentaries and

encyclopedia articles about the books

and so he would come like

thinking he was really prepared but he

said Moses the good students had already

done that so and he said what would

happen is they would end up discussing

things about the book but they weren't

discussing the book and and he said what

really he and and he's very humble in

that he mentions that it was it was a

great blessing for him to have been

exposed

he says fortunately for me I was found

out or else I might have been satisfied

with getting by as a teacher just as I

had got by as a student if I had

succeeded in fooling others I might soon

have deceived myself as well my first

good fortune was in having a colleague

in his teaching Mark Van Doran the poet

he let off in the discussion of poetry

as I was supposed to do in the case of

history science and philosophy he was

several years my senior probably more

honest than I am certainly a better

reader forced to compare my performance

with him I simply could not fool myself

I had not found out what the books

contained by reading them but by reading

about them so he realized he really

hadn't read these books because and this

is why textbooks you see the reason that

you study textbooks do you know why you

study textbook you know why they other

than the money that the textbook

industry makes because you can't

copyright old books other than the money

they make and that's why they change

them every year they have new too even

though no new information they just

change the plain made money but you know

why you read textbooks you know know

anybody it's basically so-called experts

that have read the original books in

that field and they summarize the

knowledge boards digest knowledge so

what they're saying is you're too stupid

you know to really to read original

source material so we're gonna give you

this dumbed down version and but what's

happened consistently over time is they

keep having to meet more and more dumb

because they've never they're not

challenging people and so people become

lazier and lazier to the point that

basically what you're reading is

tertiary you know thought about

something and you're reading it in a in

a prose that is prosaic at best it's bad

it's just bad there's no voice right I

mean if you're used to good literature

Rashidah you've read good literature

right how do you feel about textbooks

it's torture isn't it I can't read

textbooks

I can't I'm sorry I can't read them

because they're so

you know it's like some guy that

memorized Strunk and white and practice

every single rule in that book you know

and so technically you know there's no

grammatical mistakes generally because

they're well edited and everything

there's no voice there's no where as if

you read who would you rather read in

grammar you know I met folda some guy

from Egypt who was born in 1970 or would

you rather read even Hisham one of the

greatest grammarians that ever lived I

mean who would you rather read seriously

who would you rather read about you know

the philosophy of history some guy who

read even Hal dune or would you rather

read even huh don't cuz even hundin's

not that hard I've read him I know he's

not that hard right so so you know

that's one of the things about having

forcing yourself to read these books and

not read what other people say about

these books you read them for yourselves

and and you learn how to read them and

so you have to learn certain skills to

read these books and then this is what

he goes now the other thing he talks

about is dead and living teachers and he

says that in reality the dead teachers

aren't dead T's you know in this culture

they talk about dead white men you know

that phrase which is not really fair to

these people because they they they act

as if somehow these dead white men are

the reason for all this you know there's

this kind of let's get rid of dead white

men because all the problems came from

these dead white men the fact is this

civilization has consistently ignored

most of those dead white men I mean this

civilization has happened in spite of

them because many of them were

persecuted literally killed right they

weren't popular people Spinoza was

kicked out right they weren't popular

people Locke had to flee England from

political persecution right Socrates was

killed by the noble people of Athens but

we have dead brown men right that's our

tradition we've got this whole tradition

of I mean this is largely written

we don't have that many women that wrote

we do have some women that wrote and

Keith Abhinav Ani there were many female

scholars but female the women tended to

be you know you have to have a certain

type of genre in Arabic like a bravado

to write a book because writing a book

is putting it's really not only is it

putting yourself on the line

but it's also there's a certain

assumption that you're qualified to do

something and the women tend to be very

humble wasn't that they weren't great

scholars they had a lot of great

scholars but their nature was more

humble in that so it wasn't that there

weren't great women scholars there were

but they tended not to write and a lot

of them focused on areas like sierra

hadeeth great mahadji that several of

them but and some of the folk aha imam

up the howie's mother um

omaha we was one of the great folk AHA

quoted in the books of fit of the Shafi

school but generally you're looking at a

tradition that was largely written by

men and and that's something to take

into consideration critically when you

read because men have a certain view

that women don't always have the

prophesy said I'm used to take counsel

from the women listen to the women he

would have the women come they had how

people through Nisa

she used to come they make declarations

on the woman's behalf and the Prophet

would force the Sahaba to listen to her

and then he does what do you think and

they would all be woops amazing you know

because they weren't used to having that

voice so but he talks about dead and

living teachers and one of the things he

says is that reading a book is like

reading nature the questions you ask you

have to answer yourself and you ask

questions of a book you have to answer

them yourself whereas in a lecture you

can stop me and say what did you mean by

that

and I can explain it to you alright so a

living teacher is very beneficial in

that they can really help you to

understand some things so

he talks about you know long before the

magazine existed live teachers earn

their living by being readers digests

right in other words a lot of what

teachers and lecturers did is that they

learned all these things and then they

were able to transmit them to other

students but in the end the work you

have to do the work all right what time

is it okay so what I'm going to do right

now is this is just part one of this

lecture but I'll go over quickly you

know he said that that there's there's

three basic ways of reading a book

that's worth reading and he talks about

you know that you have to read it

structurally which is he uses the

metaphor of architecture which is a good

metaphor so you what you want what you

understand is the architecture of the

book because any great book is written

with a structure in mind if you read him

out of as Ali's book that yeah yeah has

extraordinary structure and he

articulates it early on in the book if

you look at he's he has 40 books there's

a reason why he put what's book 20 in

there yeah do you know anybody no book

20 what's book 20 nobody book 20 is the

book of the prophets character so he

puts that right at the heart of the book

and out of 40 books he puts it right at

the heart because that's the heart of

that that that whole opus well what he's

saying is here's the embodiment of

everything that I'm talking about all

these virtues all these qualities that

I'm telling you to inculcate this is the

one you should emulate in them but he's

got ten four books so he does quartet

and there's a reason why he has quartet

I mean there's a reason why we have four

movements in in music as well four is a

very interesting number and they were

very interested in numbers there's four

um Zija right the me

at Fort there's four seasons

right so four is very important in the

life of man because we have four basic

seasons in our lives we have our

childhood we have our you know adulthood

maturity and then we have our fall right

and then you have your winter your last

period and so he puts these in the fore

and then he's got the first is the book

of knowledge that's where he starts

because he's going to define for you

this is yeah yeah Illuma Dean but before

I'm gonna show you how to revive these

Sciences I have to tell you what the LM

is because this is a book about now so

I'm gonna define my terms right so he's

got it's a very structured book so you

have to look at the structure of a book

now

some books are very nice in that they

give you what are called analytical

chapter summaries so you have like a

chapter heading and then you have the

analytical summary so that the author is

telling you here this is what this

chapter is about you'll get that but you

should be doing that work you have to

really break down a chapter right so

looking at the structure of it and then

you have to look also the the second

type is the analytical the interpretive

where you really have to see what the

author is saying what's going on right

and then finally a critical reading

which is where you begin to engage in a

these are the three types that he said

every book has to be read three times

the first is to get the structure the

second is to understand the book and the

third is to have a conversation with

book and you can only he said a lot of

people will jump to the third reading

they'll read it critically without

really understanding and that and and

that's where you get people all of that

book it's rubbish why because you know

the authors full of it you know whatever

but have they really understood the

author's positions because in a lot of

cases they haven't you know there's

people that are entrenched in

ideological positions if I'm a Keynesian

any monetarist that I read I'm just

going to disagree with them off the bat

but if I

don't have a position economically maybe

I'm a Keynesian but I'm open to

persuasion

you know persuade me that monetarist

policies are better than Kings iam or

maybe there's a third way maybe there

you know there's some synthesis out of

this dialectic or maybe you know there's

a fourth of fifth or a six way maybe we

can think outside of the box right but

if I'm entrenched in a certain

ideological viewpoint there's no way I'm

going to be able to read a book with an

open mind so that's one of the things

suspend suspending your criticism

charitable reading alright so basically

what I want to do now before we end is I

want to look at that poem so could

everybody read this is a poem by Pierce

Eva Shelley because reading poems are

like reading a book in miniature you

know a poem is really like a book

alright because it's so packed with

meaning

poets are you know you could write I

could write a whole book and I'm not

exaggerating I could write a book

comment a commenting on this poem I

guarantee you I know I could I could

write a book just commenting on this

poem that's how much meaning I consider

to be in this poem this is the reason I

like this poem is the first poem when I

was 12 years old I was in 13 I was 13

years old in eighth grade mrs. Augustine

Ellie's class she was my English teacher

and I read this poem and it gave me

goosebumps first poem that ever really

affected me like that right so for me it

has a lot of meaning in that way but

anyways some people you know he's from

the romantic spirit Eva Shelley famous

for marrying the woman that wrote famous

novel Frankenstein anyway these guys

were very critical of a lot of things

but so just read it and just just give

you a minute or two just read it and

think about it

so if you had to say in one word what

the poem what kind of what you felt

reading that poem what would it be

that's like yeah I guess if you

hyphenated them we could consider them

one more yeah well okay why what's the

feeling what did you feel

how'd you wrap you read it before no so

it's first time to ever read it okay

it's famous poem so what did you feel

yeah what most struck you about okay

okay

can anybody identify what you think the

main point is rashida what's what do you

think the main point is in here it's

it's definitely a very ironic poem yeah

and what's the central irony

yeah yeah in the middle of these

yeah it's nothing there round the decay

of that colossal wreck boundless and

bare the lone and level sands stretch

far away yeah so I met a traveller from

an antique land who said two vast and

trunkless legs of stone stand in the

desert near them on the sand half sunk a

shattered visage lies whose frown and

wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

tell that it's sculptor well those

passions read which yet survive stamped

on these lifeless things the hand that

mocked them and the heart that fed and

on the pedestal these words appear my

name is Ozymandias king of kings look on

my works ye mighty and despair

that's the quotation my name is

Ozymandias king of kings look on my

works ye mighty and despair nothing

beside remains round the decay of that

colossal wreck boundless and bare the

lone and level sands stretch far away so

it's definitely an ironic poem now if

you get into what are there any words

that other

Ozymandias is actually a real name

because this was you know this was

during the British when they were

beginning to discover Egypt and they

were coming back they were actually

bringing things back as well but they

were discovering and so they were

telling they had these travel logs it

was very popular to read about their

experiences going up the the Nile and

seeing all these incredible Egyptian

ruins of the Pharaohs and became very in

in England it was a big deal and so he's

writing this

poem about somebody who's come back and

he's telling them about his experience

right and he's gonna tell him about this

he was out in the desert right and then

he saw this two vast and trunkless legs

of stone like trunkless legs of stone

it's amazing you trunkless like there's

no body just the legs of stone are there

right stand in the desert right there

standing there without a trunk right

near them and then nearby on the sand

half sunk and another really strong and

you know you can see the trunk sunk you

see these are the internal rhymes of the

poem I music these are these are you

know you could have said other he could

have described half-buried he could have

said right but he didn't he said half

sunk a shattered visage lies and sunk is

something we normally think of the sea

right something sinks in in water but

here's sand another type of water the

water of Earth right half sunk a

shattered visage right what's a visit

it's the face right and and this is

important because you know that's an

older word we don't know so you have to

know why he's using a village right lies

whose frown and wrinkled lip and sneer

of cold command what's he telling us

about this guy his character right tell

that it's sculptor well those passions

read right the sculptor really

understood something about this this

character right whose frown and wrinkled

lip and sneer of cold command I mean

sneer it's an interesting word right

what does sneer mean what are you doing

you sneer at somebody

it's contemptuous right arrogance just

sneering it's sneer of cold command

heartless we're dealing with a heartless

person here tell that it's sculptor well

those passions read I mean here we have

reading right the artist reads also it's

a different type of

reading he's reading into the

personality of the of the of the

character that he's sculpting he read

well those passions because he's put

them on that face and then what's he

telling his passions or when you think

of passion what do you think huh

well what do you think though passions

like somebody's passionate what are they

huh yeah but what passion he's got so

much passion uh-huh I mean I think of

life somebody who's really alive you

know they're passionate they're alive

right so he's it's interesting he's

juxtaposing here you tell that it's

sculptor well those passions read which

yet survive stamped on these lifeless

things so here he's juxtaposing passions

with lifeless and yet he's telling us

they survive

how have they survived the sculpture you

see so this is Shelley's own little

we're getting into his philosophy now

because Shelley was a romantic and

believed that in the immortality of art

that art was one way of achieving

immortality and so what he's saying is

look oz amanda's doesn't really live

anymore except because of this artist

right so the artists actually outlived

Ozymandias because he's the one that

left behind this thing it wasn't Azam

and is he paid for it but it was the

artist that produced it okay so he's

tell that it's sculptor well those

passions read which yet survive stamped

on these lifeless things the hand that

mocked them what do you think he means

they're mock them and the heart that fed

what does he mean the hand that mocked

them

what does mocked me

let's mock me there's another poem great

poem one of my favorite poems by Yeats

come let us mock at the great that had

such burdens on the mind and toiled so

hard and late to leave some monument

behind nor thought of the leveling win

come let us mock at the good with all

those come let us market the good with

all those calendars whereon they fixed

old aching eyes nor thought of how the

seasons run and now but gape at the Sun

come that US market the wise that

fancied goodness might be gay and sick

of Solitude might proclaim a holiday

wind shrieked and where are they mock

mockers after that who would not lift a

hand maybe to bar that foul storm out

who would not lift a hand maybe to help

the good wise or great to bow that foul

storm out for we traffic in mockery he's

talking about the modern age it's all

mockery let's just make fun of everybody

make fun of the Prophet Mohammed soul I

Sam you know it's just it's an age of

mockery make fun everybody's open gay

make fun of politicians make fun of

everybody's open game for mockery but is

that what he's saying here the hem that

mocked them see there's some importance

of knowing terms yeah that's what he

means he means more imitate because that

you know in his time mock also meant to

copy or to imitate the hand that copied

them because he wasn't mocking he wasn't

mocking Ozymandias so this is important

you can't understand something unless

you know the words

that the author is using in it so here

he means the hand that copied them now

what's he mean the heart that fed

the passions yeah he copied those

passions he nailed them

he got them on that face in stone right

the hand that mocked them and the heart

that fed what's the heart that fed fed

what the passion so it's the heart of

Ozymandias he got his heart it's it's a

cold heart

it's a contemptuous heart it's a heart

that you know it's it's it looks down it

frowns on things not not a happy heart

and on the pedestal these words appear I

mean what do we put up on pedestals

right on the pedestal these words appear

my name is Ozymandias king of kings look

on my works ye mighty and despair you'll

never be able to achieve what I achieved

despair mighty he's talking to the mind

he's not talking to the peasants he's

talking to other King I'm King of Kings

look on my works ye mighty not peasants

you know they're all shaking in their

boots I'm talking about the mighty

should look at me and Who I am

look on my works ye mighty and despair

and then boom he's got the exclamation

mark right and then what nothing beside

remains it's just such a beautiful turn

of phrase to come right after that you

know nothing beside remains that's it

round the decay of that colossal wreck

right this giant Ozymandias nothing

beside remains round the decay of that

colossal wreck boundless and bare the

level sands the lone and level sands

stretch far away so what do you mean

boundless and bare the lone and level

sands stretch far away what are the

sands referring to

it's the desert right but what do you

think what do we think of sands also the

sands of time right so it's time it

levels everything everything we build

it's all going to be leveled time is the

great leveler so you know he's basically

just saying look nothing beside remains

it's all boundless and bare the lone and

level sands stretch far away there's

just this little half sunk village in

the midst of a massive ocean called time

that no matter what we do it's always

going to be this half sunk a shattered

visage in the ocean of time the sands of

time right in the end pretty bleak

unless what alpha D and net in Santa Fe

Xhosa it'll in madina al munawwara

middle Saudi Hathi what's also but happy

with who also the summer unless people

are building not for this world because

all these things that you do here become

meanings in the next world everything

you do here is is meaningful in the next

world

that's another view anyway so any

questions any answers on the okay let's

hear it yeah yeah yeah speed reading is

like trying to read on methamphetamines

I don't believe in speed reading I think

you can speed read a blog not my blogs

now you can speed read a blog you can

speed read a an article in time or

Newsweek something like that you know

there's things you could read there's

their skimming and then there's

superficial reading skimming is just

scrolling down a page and you know

trying to see do I really want to read

this or not and then superficial reading

is to read it without really thinking

about it right whereas real reading

takes time I mean real readers are you

know if you're gonna read something in

the way he's talking about

Adler's recommends not reading more than

twenty pages an hour and taking a break

I don't know that's you know that's slow

reading so you know but I mean I you

know my teachers like chabela bimbe he

reads all the time amazing he's always

takes books with him and and bought up

that Hadj I brought him once a

three-volume book of at was Annie as a

gift it was a book of thought was that

he didn't have and it's a famous one

it's quoted he just for the next three

weeks

that's all he read when he would had

free time and he finished it in like

three weeks mind you he's reading

something that he knows a lot about so

it depends on also what you're reading

Adler talks about you know original

communication which are primary texts

because there's authors that that are

giving you original thought and most

books don't have a lot of original

thought in them because it's just not

very few humans have really original

things to say and a lot of them are

actually just rehashing things that have

already been said but because people

don't know tradition you know Mark Twain

said the ancients stole all their best

ideas from us all right and there's a

lot of truth to that statement you know

because people don't know where things

come from and so they they read

something wow that's amazing but then

you read Aristotle and you'll see like

oh that's where he got it from you know

so that happens anyway so I mean I'm not

a yeah I took a speeding course in

school that I had to take in residence

and maybe I didn't have to take it but I

think I did actually cuz I it was in a

it was part of four because I was a

tutor when I was in school in the

reading lab but I wouldn't recommend

speed reading I'm not a fast reader she

read really slow I look upwards to like

I don't if I don't know a word I'll look

it up which slows you down you know I

mean I have a pretty good vocabulary but

you know there's words I still come

across words all the time that I either

don't know or I'm not quite sure I can't

remember you know it's like because you

have passive and active vocabulary

active vocab is what you use passive is

what you can recognize and understand

when you here to read it and our passive

vocabulary are much larger than our

active vocabularies and our active Oh

cavities are usually limited to about

two or three thousand words but but are

passive but act

I mean active our passive ones you know

you're talking a lot of words people

people know a lot of words surprisingly

I mean even you know relatively

uneducated people know a lot of words

and also a lot of nuances and I mean

what the average person knows is just

phenomenal that's why people are

brilliant humans are we're not stupid

we're very smart you know in memory

people say I don't have a good memory

rubbish

you you remember so many things it's

amazing you can all leave this room and

I can ask you to tell me basically

what's in this room and you remember it

I mean how did that happen just from

being in a room to know you know where

the podium was you know where the books

were approximately how many of those

shelves are in here you know where the

table was where you know we can we can

describe those kiosks the little

cubicles in the thing right we've been

and there's a little guestbook on the

thing right and then I saw a little

poster you can go there now if it's

still there you know a little poster

about building say tuna brick by brick I

mean that's just walking into a room and

I just noticed all these things I mean

how did that get stuck in there people

have phenomenal memories we just don't

know how to utilize our memories like

don't know how to read these things are

trained you know memories uh

you train your memory that's it's it's a

skill so anyway any other questions in

regards to reading higher-level books

and primary sources isn't it helpful to

rely on something that is a little

easier to understand as a means of

gaining familiarity with the material

and then heading into more difficult

original texts otherwise it would seem

to be a barrier to learning if an

individual becomes overwhelmed or give

ups you know I would say it depends on

what you're reading I mean for instance

you know I'm reading a book right now

that I've read before but I'm reading it

with somebody and it's book by moment

about Judy and he momma divide Judy

assumes in that book and it's a it's

really a secondary book cuz he's drawing

from a lot of different books but he and

it's a textbook it was used in a lot

hard for Activa

but in that book he's assuming that you

know logic rhetoric grammar philology

and mad wall that he's assuming that you

know theology because it's an

intermediate theology book so he's

assuming you've had basic theology so he

makes all these assumptions on his

reader now if you knew Arabic pretty

well you can actually read the book but

you would be missing a lot of his

nuances you just you just would cuz and

then you'll miss things like he'll use a

word that you won't know that he's using

it to refer to something else as a

science as a technical term because

that's one things about knowing terms

now one of the things that he's going to

argue in here is that you have to also

in in the second level of reading you

have to be able to identify terms and

propositions and arguments and these are

basically the three subjects of logic

understanding judgment and reasoning

those are the three subjects that logic

deals

with understanding is what are called

simple apprehensions knowing terms

what's called in Arabic logic so water

being able to conceptualize something

and the Arabs say they say that I'll

hook more attache in foreign anti so

where he in order to judge something

judging a thing is a branch of its

conceptualization that you have to

conceptualize something before you can

make a proposition so you have to know

if I say all men are created equal

ok I have to know what men all men

that's a universal statement so I mean

every man does that include black people

at a certain time maybe people would

have agreed that right but now most

people right would include that does

that include you know Arabs

does that include right so when we say

all men we're talking about everybody

right irrespective of what people went

to hundred years ago when when they

declared that and they didn't think that

that was a universal statement Jefferson

did right and Benjamin Rush and others

but not all of them I mean I'm sure they

they didn't but you make that say you

have to know what they mean by all men

and then what do they mean created equal

equal is a mathematical term and they're

using it in a philosophical statement so

I mean are we equal like you're taller

than me aren't you standing he's taller

than me isn't he

so we're not equal so all men are not

created equal

he's taller than me right so what am i

what do I mean by equal here what am I

talking about

these are terms you have to understand

the terms before you can make the

proposition so is it a mathematical

metaphor is it am I saying created is

assuming God - right because created

means it's a passive form that assumes a

create or right because creative means

to be made so something was made has to

have a maker that's an assumption

and they believed it because they are

endowed by their creator they mentioned

the Creator right after that right so

that's a proposition all men are created

equal is it a true proposition in

modal logic you have what are called

modalities so it depends on what you're

talking about

you know because people aren't creative

some people are faster than others

taller another smarter than others we're

not all created equal so what are we

talking about are we talking about with

our basic human dignity

that's so there's a proposition is that

what he meant maybe we need to discuss

it so you you have to know the terms and

then the proposition now he's making an

argument that's a proposition as a

categorical statement right it's a

declarative statement all men are

created equal

he's not saying maybe all men are

created equal I think all men are

created equal in my opinion all men are

created equal those are different ways

of saying he's saying all men are

created equal categorical declarative

Universal statement we have to know what

those terms are and then we have to know

okay what's his reasoning

what's his reasoning what so now that's

the third level so that is that that's a

science that inshallah you guys are

going to learn before you get out of

here because it's very important you

know one of the things about logic is no

longer taught generally and it's it's

created a lot of havoc because people

can't think any more clearly and and our

tradition is very committed to logic I

mean the Shem CEO was a almost a

universal you know the pseudonym in

North Africa I mean one of the things

about Sheldon Bay yeah that makes him

distinct amongst a lot of scholars I've

seen is he really knows logic really

well so when he when he reasons he's

just it's like knowing chess logics like

knowing chess but you know you don't

just know the rules because everybody we

can all reason and we're humans like

yeah every game you can make an argument

you can make an argument a car give its

all the time but when that's there's a

difference between knowing the rules of

chess and knowing the strategies of

chess right because if you know the

strategies of chess you can end a chess

match in about three or four moves with

somebody who doesn't know the strategies

of chest and and logic is not simply to

win arguments it's it's really a means a

tool to pursue the truth and and that's

why you know that's one of the things he

says that you

should not ever want to read a book

critically just to win an argument with

the author no you should be open to

being convinced Imam Shafi said I never

debated anybody but I hope and prayed

that the truth would manifest on his

tongue so I would have to submit to it

and that's a whole other way of looking

at this thing

but he's assuming that you know

traditionally people study grammar

rhetoric logic they understood

conditional sentences they understood

universals particulars

they understood definitions and fib

Lee's equivocations all these type

things are really important in language

and they're all things they're tools of

learning that you need to acquire and

and the better you get at them the

better you'll be at it reading and the

better you'll be at critical reading

because one of the things about all

these men that one of the things that

they share if you go into any of these

books like imam sowwy you know wrote

this book is a commentary on his ships

book you know he is going to assume that

you understand you know logic I mean

he's just going to assume it and he's

going to assume that you understand

mmm you know al Cathy come on fess up

you know for hone Mandel Harlan repeat

Amanda body ie o'clock level JJ dolly

come first Sara B he al bhaji you know

so now he's defining what's he mean by

al kathira wa ha meter fill JJ the other

hard men who feel bad at Mohammed Farah

dear al owal al-qadir men who feel

better dil de la Roche that was a

mineral je dominar ad hoc Oh baby so

these are all terms that you have to

understand he's talking about jagged of

foodstuff the good of a foodstuff right

and the rowdy is the lower quality al al

Holly IL Cathy ermine who feel better

the majority of it in a country illa the

everybo shade that was up energy yet Oh

Mina rowdy yep yup ah Bobby so you can

also use what's between the two and then

he goes further into the commentary al

qadir here accordion for her

means the same at heart and some say it

means the as fee attack level je de la

it's the heart of the jade only so you

know these are like this is like a

telegraph

I mean he's using you know it's like

it's like texting he's using minimal

language there and that's the way the

later writers are the earlier writers

are much easier to read but they're just

they kept distilling it distilling it

distilling it right because here see in

when he wrote this book this is a

six-volume when he wrote this book it

was assumed that you memorize the text

this is a commentary on a text that's

about 150 pages and he assumed you

memorize the text and then what what the

commentary is is those are for the text

to be memory pegs for the meanings but

this book is a condensation another book

which is called the mood Awana right

which i should be here somewhere

anyway it's the module one is like about

this size so they took the madonna and

took it down to about this size so they

took a book like this and summarized it

to this and then had to write this to

explain it so you're back where you

started but the reason they did that was

because in the old days they actually

memorize this and they couldn't do that

anymore so they started writing these

abridgements to keep the memory you know

to simplify it so even though it was

much smaller it was actually a lot

harder than this but the memory was

easier and so this was just to explain

what you had memorized because people

couldn't memorize that anymore so that's

the way the muslim tradition kind of got

into these summaries and glosses and

glosses on glosses and like that but

they're assuming at this level he's

writing in the two hundred years ago

he's he's assuming that you have

mastered a certain set of sciences he

and he's not writing for some guy that's

got a secondary degree from you know a

high school or even a college degree

now dine chumps or at Damascus

University they can't read these books

you know that you have to study people

you have to study with people who have

studied the books and that's why the

onus and that and he talks about that he

said some books you need a teacher

they're just not going to work without a

teacher he says if it's a great book

generally it should be understandable

it's a lot harder with a teacher without

a teacher but he said you can do it if

you put the work in and that and that's

true but I'll conclude sorry about I

know there's a lot of question but I'll

conclude a bahai Anatole he D one of the

great scholars of Islam he said you

illuminate hombre an adequate about the

akka famine is that I could do me that

that simple people think you know

inexperienced people think that books

will lead the one of intellect to

understanding your vulnerable Moodle and

it could teddy a family it that I could

allow me you'll come to know these

knowledge --is right well may other

Libyan afiyah

how are me BA how year at Oakland

Fushimi well my real Jahoda be under

fear how a my behavior at Oakland Fahim

but the ignoramus doesn't know that in

these books are ambiguities that will

confuse even the most intelligent of

people either um to the Illuma be lady

shaken

balota Anna Surratt or mr. Keamy hotel

to be sorrow more Oh Erica had a Serie A

Burnham into a mahaki me if you try to

learn the this knowledge you know

revelation and the knowledge is that go

with it if you try to learn this without

a teacher you will go astray and affairs

will become so confusing to you that

you'll be more astray than Thomas the

physician and it's referring to a famous

Arabic tradition of Toma

al Hakim he was a man who inherited

books from his father his father was a

physician who died he inherited his

library so he read and learned medicine

through books

and he had a book that said and habita

so that that doäôt woman could lead uh

the black seed is a cure for every

disease but there were two dots the the

Scrivener put two dots instead of one on

had that so it said I'll hire you to

soda the black snake is a cure for every

disease so he went to find a black snake

and they call Black Mamba it's very

poisonous snake and he tried to catch it

and it bit him and he died so they

that's their metaphor for anyway so

behind the Columbia time decay eyeshadow

under you don't hit that that's a little

cooler to we take talking a lot head-on

so I'm gonna do the next one will be

it'll be a continuation on this but I'm

going to go into more detail and and

we'll do some more poems and and also

I'm gonna read with you a speech to

analyze as well alright sorry it's just

a it's very hard obviously to follow

that hamdullah Joseph Walker comes with

the amazing intellectual journey we just

went on Jessica Moore cleared everyone

for being here please everyone

considered joining us here it's a tuna

for the intellectual journeys that

happen here and for supporting this and

please see the website and the Facebook

page for information about the next

lecture

Zaytuna College is investing in a new

home in Berkeley California join us on

February 18 for a benefit dinner

featuring a checker Hamza Yusuf and

handsome Bosnia and find out how you can

dedicate a Briton to be

permanently displayed at the new campus

register today

Part 2