Intellectual Foundation of Islamic Civilization

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Event Name: Intellectual Foundation of Islamic Civilization
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 5/18/2019
Transcript Version: 1


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one that gives us our civility she's the

one that teaches us our Adel she's the

one that really nurtures us and makes us

human beings and this is why children

that are brought up in households that

do not have the mothering element in it

will tend to be sociopathic or or

deviant in their nature that people that

had that nourishment from the mother

what in the Western tradition is called

the milk of human kindness you see the

milk of human kindness this is what the

mother gives to the child is the milk of

human kindness what's called Halima

which is the the literally in Arabic

means the the nipple of the human being

the this is the source of him which is

for parents it's the ability to be human

and the Halim is the one who's gentle

and had the helm is literally from the

milk of the mother and this is why what

is the name of the wet nurse of the

Prophet Halima

Satya Halima she's the one that gave the

Prophet his helm this is where this is

the source of his help and she is the

one who she had pity and

passion on your team Oh Benny Hashem

she's the one that said to her husband

let's take this poor she was Halima she

was the one that said let's take this

poor orphan what a moment you know

historically what a moment - what was in

her heart in that moment looking at the

best of creation you know it's it's

something awesome something

extraordinary

this is Halima Satya you know who gave

the prophets Eliza I'm the milk of human

kindness the wet nurse of the Prophet

the more Dionne and the Prophet said

yakuman more day after hawa the inital

healthy beware of these stupid wet nurse

because she's giving more than milk you

see so look for the the milk that's

going to give more than just bodily

sustenance there's something else being

transmitted there which is one of the

secrets of the Cobra in Ravana

I mean why is it that just from taking

the milk of a woman you become the son

of that child or the daughter of that

mother giving the milk in Sharia I mean

this is something phenomenal just by

simply taking the milk you become a son

or a daughter of that woman and you had

and she has the rights of a mother over

you it's it's fascinating to look at

these aspects of Sharia so the the

civilization the civilizing aspect is

the oral aspect and this is why the

woman has traditionally been the oral

element in culture the prophets Eliezer

is called a Nabil only now only means

oral because it's from the mother only

if you look at it as a Yan is about

what's called Yin is BA in the Arabic

language only also means from the mother

and the reason for that is it's as if

it's like the day their mother gave them

birth are still in that pure state and

this is the oral aspect that is

transmitted through

knowledge of the mother because the

mother tends to have the the oral she is

the vehicle for the oral transmission of

culture she's transmitting culture

orally to the child and this is you know

what was traditionally happening now

there can be no literacy without orality

a human being cannot become literate

without having the basis of morality and

this is why telling stories is so

important to children this is one of the

phenomenon of all cultures and

civilizations is that the mother tells

stories to the child she tells us and

she tells the rewire and now if you look

at the word the rewire in Arabic it

comes from word to be nourished to be

satiated because by nature we are

lacking us us as human beings we need a

narrative by which to live our lives

every civilization has a narrative there

is no civilization without a narrative

every single human civilization has a

narrative by which they live their life

now what the Quran is is a tional a

sauce it is the best of narrations in

other words if you take the narrative of

the Quran then you will create a scene

and among the best kuntum rival ulna OD

judgmental-ness if you take the pathos

of the quran and embody that and in

bible and be satiated by it turtle we

become people of Rivia of transmission

and this is why this oma has continued

to transmitted orally the quran it is a

rewire before it son nothing before its

qatar but it is poor and before its kita

and so there's a transmission that takes

place and in that transmission is the

quench thirsting process the process by

which the human beings thirst is

quenched for a need of narrative and

this is why one of the things that the

we are warned about is those who you

should do that that the bar of people

from the way of Allah how be level

hadith by vein

these stories now if you look at if you

look in sorta to look man at this Manuel

Hadid those who used to yeah Sheila

Hadid they are pseudo and severely led

to in order to take people away from the

subpoena of Allah this was related by a

man who used them to take some say Mohan

yet but others say I saw seen people who

used to tell story so the people who

were going to Darul Aram on the way to

here Arsenal causes the best of stories

they would this man wanted to prevent

them from going to Donald Aram

so he used to put these I saw seen these

storytellers on the path and they would

tell the stories of the Romans and the

Persians the mythology and some of the

people used to be deviated by it in

other words they would stop and listen

oh this is interesting

Zeus and Minerva and Arachne and Venus

and Adonis and and myth bruh and Aruna

and all these interesting mythologies

because they're fascinating look at

Joseph Campbell

look at this man who who mesmerised

America you know and I don't know about

Canada

I mean America's mesmerised anyway but

he mesmerized Canada America by telling

stories that's all he did if you watch

joseph campbell on the PBS series on

mythology he just sat and told stories

that's all he did but they're not axonal

Casals they're not the best of stories

their stories nonetheless and people

just get some nourishment from it but

our nourishment is what is the one Llyod

ma ba da ba da he will never be thirsty

after he gets these stories this is the

quran the one who gets the four on

doesn't his thirst is quenched the one

who doesn't have the Quran he needs to

keep hearing the stories and new ones

and new diversions and new why because

there's no quenching nature there's no

thirst quenching aspect to these stories

they're empty in the end they are empty

that's all they are they're empty

stories so there has to be an or

allottee which is the foundation of

literacy and this is why this

is unique unique amongst omen is that we

have maintained orality in our tradition

and Nabeel only nanometer lumia we're

and oral people lennick to varanasi boo

we don't were not people of writing nor

are we people this inside Muslim nor are

we people have but from this oral

tradition literally emerges the most

literate human society that has ever

existed on the face of the earth without

any comparison with the possible

comparison of the some of the Chinese

dynasties that were extraordinary

literate the Chinese have traditionally

been literate but in what Elfa Singh

it's a hadith there's another in it but

even a blood barber relates it and he's

one of the great hadith in half of the

mother but and the concept is true

anyway seek knowledge even enter China

so seen had some wisdom and one of the

famous things of the Arab proverbs is

undulated hikmah to anetha death not

wisdom has descended upon three at

military unity gain the brains of the

Greeks say I'm a Greek from

the brains of the greens and the idea

had all seen the hands of the people of

China see they had a great literate

tradition writing extraordinary books

Ellison Ethel Adam and the orality of

the Arabs the tons of the Arabs see

wisdom is is this oral tradition that's

transmitted and part of the transmission

is that it transcends the subject-matter

itself in other words by entering into

the oral tradition by sitting at the

feet of the teacher of the shape you are

in a transformative environment which is

different from simply reading a book and

this is why there's power simply in

transmission of knowledge even in this

format you see the experience of

transmission of orality is different

from books and this is why we come to

lectures this is why we can listen to

lectures because there's something that

is transcends simply the words there's

something that transcends the

information it is the actual nature of

the human being that allah subhanaw

taala has made the the susan the ear

itself the customer of the tongue you

see the booth in comes to buy from the

tongue and if you look at earthen is a

extraordinary word in arabic it one of

the meanings of permission in the quran

as in elcome Allah has permitted for you

comes from cousin because the other is

what the movement uses to wait for the

ulema of Allah for the commands of allah

subhana wa ta'ala we wait to hear what

Allah subhana WA Ta'ala has to tell us

and so in this this or anitya merge this

literacy now if you look at it initially

the prophets Allah lightest of them

taught in a circle what is called

Hanukkah right which is a very important

word because it also has the idea of

cutting you know able to cut to sever if

you look at all the words in Arabic that

deal with words they have this

connection with cutting with several

Kalima Kalama if you look at the root

words of these alum itself you believe

mu to cut Kadima is to cut like a sword

half which is letter is the edge of a

sword that you cut with you see this is

all related why because this is the

nature of words they're piercing they

cut the gathered news of the intellect

and entered into for an for on and this

is why the quran in its ultimate sense

is a gathering the word in arabic for

the meaning of quran is a gathering that

which gathers the quran is jana before

it's moved further and so the quran

enters you into the discourse if you

listen to it either korolenko mark or an

when the Quran is already recited to you

not when you read the Quran either or

you Lincoln when you hear the Quran

first emiru level listen attentively to

it open the ear up vamsi to and be

silent stop the chatter stop the

internal chattering and listen to the

planet or a moon that perhaps you might

be people that become recipients for

divine Rama for Rama itself which is why

this wizard why we're here this is the

whole reason this is the reason why to

become recipients of divine Rama Allah

subhana WA Ta'ala says in the Quran well

I is an animal that even worried Erica

Hama home in a Moroccan Arabic aah they

continue to be in differentiation in 50

laughs and for that reason he created

them Eleonora him our Ibuka in other

words he created them according to a

badass retort a moon that from amongst

the creation are those who leave the

state of if to death and enter into a

state of 80 laughs of Harmony and they

become the recipients of divine Rama

what is Erica hidaka whom i litter Hemu

order to become recipients of rama and

this is why we were created but the

source of our team is entering into the

gather Ness of Quran which then takes

you into the four and now the Arabic

word for a means the you for eco to

separate to split to divine because this

is the nature of the intellect in the

intellect is a piercing element you see

it's it's something that allows for

differentiation to occur but then we

move back to the Quran and this is why

from silence we enter into the words and

then the words emerge back into silence

and this is part of the secret of these

stops and starts of the Quran allow look

fat would empty that in the Quran there

are places where you have to stop and be

silent because now the words have to

re-enter into the realm of gathered Ness

what on see to and be silent so that

this thing can pierce your hearts

because it will the Quran will pierce

the heart and so then from from this

movement into these the separateness

into for an is where all of intellectual

thought comes from moving out of the

state of or allottee into the state of

literacy because orality is like

gathered Ness the ear is an organ of

gathered nough sits not an organ of

separation like the eye you see it's an

organ of gathering us and this is why

once we move into the literate state we

move into before on and this is what the

intellect means in fact in the Latin in

Arabic the apple has to do with minute

which there's a whole semantic discourse

there but in Latin intellectus means to

discriminate between intellectus means

to discriminate between so the intellect

itself is a discriminatory faculty it's

what allows people to differentiate to

discriminate between Huk one Barton

that's why it was that's why we were

given it to a debate a rastaman I'll

write that the guidance is in contract

is clear counter distinction from

falsehood and how is that known through

the intellect itself now one of the

beautiful qualities of ft death is that

differences of opinion not

of the Muslims but of the other nations

is that different by its nature creates

a dynamic tension in human beings

you see if if you grew up in a Muslim

culture and we're never exposed to a

mullah head somebody that doesn't but

even God when suddenly you're exposed to

a mullah head what he will do or not

even a monofin if you leave for instance

if you grow up in Mauritania in the

desert you wouldn't even know that there

was such thing as a kaffir except by the

Quran because everybody there is Muslim

they don't even know like in Lebanon you

can grow up with Christian Jewish people

all different types of people in that

type of culture so you're used to that

you're accustomed to that there are

certain areas in the Muslim world still

where there are Muslims that have never

even seen a cafe I mean it's amazing

thing to think about now how do you

think he's going to feel when suddenly

after growing up for 20 years or 30

years he goes to Paris

and he meets a whole culture that

doesn't believe in what he basically

thought was the world suddenly he's

forced to really think what does this

mean and this creates a tension in the

human heart and this is why all of

intellectual activity is a result of

some type of tension there cannot be

intellectual activity without tension

and this is why in the history of Islam

some of our most brilliant thought comes

as a result of the Muslims being

impacted by intellectual forces that

were alien to their teaching and the

beginning of this is when the Muslims

met the Hellenistic Christians when the

Muslims I mean the Muslims had this

because Quran is not philosophy the

Quran is not even theology there is no

theology in the Quran theology is trying

to prove the existence of God the Quran

doesn't even it doesn't even bother with

that as we lay check is there doubt

about Allah I mean really if you think

about that the Muslims didn't need

somebody to come and convince them that

God existed and this is a lot of the

theological exercises of the Christians

was to prove rationally the existence of

God and unfortunately in many ways the

Muslims fell into that trap and a lot of

becomes attempting to prove the

existence of God which is an absurd

premise to start from no we have to

prove our own existence

there's I have this book called the

problem of God by I think his name

Angeles Dave and Angeles and I I think

it should be retitled the problem of

David Angeles you see but there is no I

mean God doesn't have a problem no you

have a problem don't God doesn't need

his existence to be proven prove your

own existence

you see really it's like they say you

know Nietzsche 1887 God is dead

Nietzsche 1887 Nietzsche is dead 1900

God right back that was the reply is he

because Nietzsche declared in the gay

science that God was dead now there's a

whole what he was saying is is actually

not trivial in fact because he wasn't

talking about God Allah he was talking

about the concept that the

reconstruction of reality in the minds

of people who literally basically just

described themselves one of the Greeks

said if horses had gods they would

certainly look like horses right and

this is one of the problems of the human

being we would like to project upon God

our own nature and God's nature time a

lot of male seafoam glory exalted is God

above their own descriptions muddy one

of the Jewish men in front of the

Provencal I said have described how

Allah has will roll up the heavens and

the earth in his fingers and and he

described in somewhat anthropomorphic

terms and the frozen ice in him when he

heard it Baca he laughed and he said my

little laptop uppity they haven't

estimated a lot in his true estimation

in other words if you only knew if you

only knew you see so this this

environment that was created through

this tension produced extraordinary

thought now one of the things that

happen the what we have to remember is

the Quran is a book and books by their

nature are words and words are

problematic because words have

any meanings I'm there's people here

that have heard things that I've said

now that maybe I didn't even intend but

this is the human nature we filter words

through our frames of reference there's

some cognitive psychology called

assimilation and accommodation theory

which is that what we tend to do is when

we think we tend to first assimilate it

and then we find in our frame of

reference how we can accommodate it and

the Western people are brilliant at this

they're brilliant at giving words for

everything like they'll say for instance

hearing my talk today they'll say huh

this is a devotional talk as opposed to

an objective talk you see I'm not being

objective because I'm being devotional

right and it's nice words they're

brilliant I mean if you want to just

memorize words go to university because

that's what they give you words for

everything

Maggi last Mountain some may Tomo ha

they're just names that you name that's

all they do they name you see because

the gods of today are no longer Latin

Rosenman adds and wood and all they know

their concept evolution they say liberty

justice the American Way these type

thing the Marines sample Semper Fidelis

always faithful Semper Fidelis and it is

interesting that's the marine slogan

Semper Fidelis and fidelity is a man

that's faith what are you always

faithful to blind obedience that's what

they teach them if a Marine if they say

to run up that hill even though he's

gonna get killed

he's been brainwashed to where he'll do

it and then they think that our suicide

bombers right these people that go and

do this I'm and I say our because

whether we agree with them or not

they're Muslims right I mean they're

Muslims really they're they're Muslims

we can't say no no they're not

slum stuff for Allah no if somebody says

Leonid allah mohammed rasoolallah he's a

muslim whether he's right or wrong is

another matter and that's to be

discussed in another way all right so I

just want to make that clear so see they

say oh that is crazy human being who

would strap himself full of bombs and go

blow up you know a Marine base well the

man's themselves do the same thing only

they don't do it for you know trying to

liberate their land they usually do it

trying to conquer and other people I

mean that poor Lebanese man that blew up

that Marine base he was just basically

believing that he was defending his

homeland

that's different from a bunch of myrrh

and what are you doing in Lebanon where

are you from Kentucky what are you doing

in Lebanon

oh I'm defending uh why I basically got

sent here I mean that's really what

you're dealing with I mean so whose

rational and whose irrational this is

the question don't be fool we need

anthropology too

we need to study these beasties just

like they study us you see let's get

into their psychology let's see how they

think why is it they don't have number

13 in their elevators

I'm you ever think of that those

irrational Muslims

you I've been in Saudi Arabia there's

number 13 we don't have a problem with

13 what's your problem oh well uh well

let me think about that

you know Devils number Devil's number

well Jesus was one and he had 12

disciples one plus 12

that equals 13 was he a devil I mean

seriously

see we fall into these traps of

believing all this falls dialectic no

why because we don't have intellectual

tradition anymore we've become people

that really tend not to think like

everybody else which is unfortunate it

has its own interpretations but I wanted

to I got off on a now where was i before

that when I brought up do you remember

your suppose that that's what the

chairman's for years you're supposed to

be following then you give a summary and

no oral thing now is the beginning I

found it

he's thinking he's only got 15 minutes

left

where was who where was i cuz I went

into something and I didn't want to all

right yeah

Kalam theology projection I think that's

where we were projection projecting upon

that a words this is where I wanted to

go words and the meanings of words the

Quran itself because the Quran is words

it has to be understood now

understanding of the Quran means

understanding Arabic language in that

ananza Yahoo Quran and our via Lila

Kentucky loom we have placed this into

the Arabic language the uncreated word

of Allah is placed into the Arabic

language why in order that you know by

necessity because it will assist its

necessitate your thinking now one of the

things about the Arabic language is that

it's elliptical by nature it's what in

English they call ellipses the three

dots dot dot dot in other words they

don't tell you the whole sentence that's

called an ellipsis well in the Quran

there's a lot of ellipses why is that

because ellipsis demands that you think

it forces you to think when everything's

spelled out for you that does not force

you to think so by the nature Allah does

not want us to be passive reciters of

the qur'an he wants us to be active

studiers of the Quran he wants us he

wants to force us to think

lalume taki luna and so what this

necessity was a need for the grammar and

this is why grammar is really one of the

penultimate sciences of Islam and I say

penultimate because it's not the final

purpose grammar is not a purpose it is a

means the ultimate science is tafseer

you see which is to understand the Book

of Allah this is the highest science by

consensus of the dilemma to understand

the Book of Allah but despite that fact

many many our ulema were not more

faceting of some of the greatest dilemma

mmm Noah is one of the greatest of our

scholars

I mean of all the Luna math of book of

Acts Arman Iowa III ended him in a good

way

more than any other Adam why because

Iman oh we was given a tow vehicle that

I don't see in any other Adam of the

later period because his books are

accepted by everybody you know after the

Book of Allah readö Sahin or banana

hawea the the extraordinary much mana

which in the machete met have after Imam

and nobody showed up

the Shaffer is just shut up and started

quoting Imam no and he died before he

was 40 years of age just phenomenal

human being and this is part of our

intellectual legacy now the thing that

the fact is he never wrote tafseer he

commented on hadith and his main

emphasis was thick and hadith and

naturally also because it's necessary

why is that because there was a need and

this is what our ummah have always done

they have risen to the occasion whatever

the need was they fulfill it and this is

why the prophet elijah time said al

Allen is a meta animal future had full

return when the Adam dies an opening

emerges an intellectual opening in other

words our border now has a space layer

should do her build our animal aha

it will not be filled or protected

except by another animal so when the

donor - saw for instance that the Mojave

theme were dying off then that became

their emphasis if you look at one of our

greatest intellectuals above acaba

Kalani I mean phenomenal Iraqi and

scholar he initially was a fuckiní in

the Maliki school when he saw that the

dominant fitten of his age were in

Kalama in theology he became and what to

kill him despite the fact that theology

is of all the sciences the least

important in terms of I won't say the

least important what I will say the

least desired I won't say the least

important because it has its deep

importance but it's the least desire why

because the anima did not like Callum if

you read the earlier limit they did not

like collab in fact I think the reason

they called it Callum is in an almost

derogatory

it's like empty talk but when the

shabiha is there there has to be an alum

who makes his own and other super hot

which is to to to reply to counter argue

the doubtful matters emerging into the

understanding of the Muslims that is an

obligation on the ulama and this is an

age of sugar bohat and we have so many

choco hat and we don't have animal

replying to it because we don't have

this level anymore this is one of our

deep crises in this age and so of a

baccarat Bellini or him oh Allah when he

saw that the the crises at that point

was was Kalam he became the greatest

with the killing of his age and refuted

all of the sex of his time and he was

sent by the Muslim caliph to Rome to as

an ambassador to Constantinople

when he entered into Constantinople the

the Emperor at that time they were very

arrogant it was their tradition that

they had to bow just literally go into

full rakuen

to the Emperor and he wanted a bucket of

belani to bow to him and his sake for

the bishops told him no the Muslims

don't bow except to Allah and so he said

well work out some way that will force

him to bow so what they did is when to

get in order to get into his chamber

they put a small narrow arch and that

would force him to come in to it bow you

see now up a bucket Arbuckle and this is

intellect when he came to that chamber

and he saw the king's throne behind it

he turned his back

and came in backwards you see and this

upset the ruler but what can you do

I mean you're gonna force a man to so

when he got there the bishops greeted

him and he said he greeted them back and

he said how is your children and your

wives and the bishops looked at each

other and they said what are you asking

about don't you know that we're not

Anna's Oh

and then I had well out lad that we're

exalted above having children and having

wives and he said ie tetanus ahuna and

an ad without lab potency wound it a lie

and I had well whether you consider

yourself above wives and children and

yet you attribute to Allah subhana WA

Ta'ala a cohort and a child you see babu

hatela decaf ah this is the head job of

ibraheem bui

and lady cava he was amazed boogita

his intellect suddenly went into you

know what shut down in computer language

what happens crash you see it crashes

you know file item aha

you know your mouth means I mean it

means to to overwhelm them with Hodja

but the root word is is like smashing

the brain you see so you literally bleed

he can't well he doesn't know what to

say and then the king said you see they

knew Islam they were living with the

Muslims they knew he said tell us about

hadith or if we want to hear about

hadith or if which is when Aisha was

accused of adultery everybody knows that

so Abu Bakr Abu Bakr and Maha Lonnie

said nam to righteous women Mary and

Aisha they were both accused of adultery

as for Mary she became pregnant as for

Aisha she didn't but Allah has absorbed

both of them of any blemish you see

this is power because words are power we

don't say the word is mightier than the

pen you know that I'm in the sword the

pen is mightier than the sword

no the pen is a sword the pen is a sword

it's safer hop and it has its time in

its place and it chops off next Barbary

Paul that's what it does it takes off

the because it separates the intellect

because it's so powerful overwhelming

now just to look quickly and how how

much time the the the grammar if you

look at the sciences that were developed

by the Muslims grammar is the really the

Arabic grammar is the first deep

intellectual analysis of language prior

to that grammar was very superficial the

Arab grammarians went into such depth

and profundity into the language that

they priests aged all of modern

linguistic thought and theory really I

mean you take old grammar books from

Masada and Kufa which were the two great

centers of grammar in the classical

Islamic world and and you look at the

ideas that these people were talking

about you literally become overwhelmed

and amazed at the subtlety and the depth

of this intellectual tradition they

scientifically broke down the Arabic

language they recognized patterns that

had not been recognized in language

before what they now call semantic trees

diagramming they were doing all of these

things they taught the Jewish people

grammar of Hebrew prior to that the

Hebraic grandma was extremely

rudimentary if you look the Hebrews did

not even know that their language was

based on try literal roots they didn't

know that it was the Muslim primary that

taught them that the Muslim grammarians

taught them adjectives the Hebrew

language is extremely poor in adjectives

all of midian

Hebraic poetry is based on Arabic meters

of poetry that was developed by Holi

development the Jews did not have

sophisticated poetry prior to that no

their great poetry that if he went to

Tel Aviv University is all based on n to

the C and Jewish poets who were

imitating the metres of the Muslim

poetry you see so they have a massive

intellectual debt and I really think in

a lot of ways the intellectual debt that

Europe what they call quote unquote the

judeo-christian culture which is a

fabricated word invented in the 1930s or

something like that prior to that they

used to call it the greco-roman culture

and then suddenly this word starts

popping up and and now it's become the

judeo-christian I mean obviously during

the pogroms in Europe that existed that

no European would want Judea attached to

Christian culture I mean that would be

anathema

why were they kicking them all out so

tradition it was the greco-roman culture

but these people have such a massive

debt to the Muslim Ummah that really it

goes beyond explanation I mean that you

just have to superficially look at their

own Sciences and all of their methods I

mean one of the theories this is the

traditional European Orientalist theory

about Islam that all of the classical

Hellenistic tradition was deposited in

the bank of the Muslim Khilafah right in

other words we got all these books we

put them in the bank and we never looked

at them and there was no accruing of

like interest intellectual interest they

just stayed there and then these great

Europeans rediscovered these books right

and then that was it that's a complete

fabrication of what happened

the Muslims took Hellenistic thought and

expanded on it criticized it throughout

large sections of it use sections of it

and it was reintroduced in Europe solely

with comment

in other words the European is there is

no st. Thomas Aquinas without even

Russia and he is their greatest medieval

scholar and he literally is the

foundation of the Catholic Church st.

Thomas Aquinas there is no Aquinas does

not exist