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
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considered joining us here it's a tuna
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