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

ng 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