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

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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lecture

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Part 2