Interpreting Language in Islamic Legal Theory

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Event Name: Interpreting Language in Islamic Legal Theory
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 4/6/2019
Transcript Version: 1


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>know that metal is coming into our

bodies and we there's a lot of metal now

out there that's very harmful for people

we you know we know mercury lead paint

all these things there's also the ninki

nanka poop theory of the decline and

fall of Roman civilization that argues

that it was the lead pipes that they

started using for their plumbing which

gave them plum plumbum right plumbum

right is led in in in on the chemical

table or the table of elements

so plumbing used to be it was lead pipes

so they were drinking water from lead

the lead was getting in the water and

lad will make you stupid and so that's

the nincompoop theory of how they

literally ended up declining and falling

so the most important one is the word

and then the fan what the prophet saw I

sent him did and then he did things

because they were why him he did things

because they were men do sometimes he

did things because they were simply moba

he always his neo was always would

elevate it to man doob or Wojcik and

then he did things that were makrooh in

order to show roba Marilyn McCoo

rahimova you know

tanzie he sometimes he will do something

that's my crew to show that it's for 10z

that it's simply it's not haram like

urinating standing up for men he did

that on rare occasion to show the men

that it was permissible because there

might be times where it's difficult not

to do that so that's like just making it

easier for people because my crew is not

sinful but you wrote you're rewarded if

you don't do it but he never did

anything how long ever it's a lot

incident so those are the five

categories and now this is very

important

the Shetty are all of it goes back to

canal and all of this Kalam this speech

is in the Arabic tongue whether it is

expressed by the prophets Eliza damned

or it's a story that was told of

something he did or something he agreed

to or saw it done and consented to it so

what he consents to as part of the the

comes out the Sunnah can come out of

that or he says be at the bar and aha in

another way of expressing this that led

you tomorrow man knows who's a Sharia t

least a garage Allah cam with the Creole

Messiah

say in Omaha Allah assassin let Herot

allahumma this is really important in

other words we engage the new Souls the

the text of this Sharia in order to

derive rulings from it and to to come to

some determinations about new issues

there are two foundations one of them is

the no souls and the other is the

opposite so this is the whole foundation

of Sharia what the letter of the law and

the spirit of the law the letter of the

law is in the new Souls the spirit of

the law is in the musasat and these are

the two things that the FUP e is working

with the letter of the law which

sometimes does kill it right

to put it in the words of the New

Testament write the letter killeth and

the spirit giveth life in other words if

you don't understand them Abbasid the

and this gets back to metaphysics if you

don't understand the metaphysics which

is really what the pauses are about this

that then you kill the literalism will

kill you it will kill the religion it

will kill it and this is what's

happening why so many Muslims hearts are

dying because they've lost them opposite

they've lost a real deep understanding

of what this Sharia is for what it is

about it's not about punishing people

and humiliating people it's about Toba

it's about bringing people back to what

lawsuit behind without it's about making

people love allah subhanho wa to ana not

hate god the fear of God is in awe of

God in the same way that the child fears

the parent it doesn't fear the parent

out of out of an idea that the parent

hates it or wants to punish it no it

fears the parent and it doesn't want to

disappoint the parent out of love so the

fear of the parent is actually really

love of the parent and and so the fear

of Allah is it should be from from love

of God not because God is some horrible

tyrant you know I wouldn't be laughs

some petulant you know tribal deity that

needs sacrifices to be appeased it's not

our Lord our Lord is Allah dude he's a

German

he's dhul Jalali wal Ikram he is

majestic Azza WA Jalla he is but he's

his Halim he's Karim

he's sabor his moment these are the

calls and that's why he has beautiful

names that that they're all his asthma

are husana all of them are beautiful

even though some of them have majestic -

juliette' manifestations but all of his

names are beautiful because allah is

Jameel you Benjamin so this is really

important now the MA acid do not need

language to be understood the no fools

they're only understood through language

the Mikasa is our intellectual

conception

lies Asians they're articulated through

language but they're understood

intellectually in other words they're

its wisdom its hikmah and this is the

highest of the intellectual virtues you

have the aqil you have the inn and then

you have hikmah the apple is the the

foundation of the intellect it's it's

the intuitive intellect the news it's

what understands things it has immediate

comprehension therein is what is learned

or and acquired and then hikmah is is is

the it's when the Aqualand there in are

working together then hikmah arises it's

it's it's the art and the science right

it's the art and the science its

prudence is the practical aspect of of

hikmah in Western tradition the Arabs

did not differentiate between

intellectual wisdom intellectual in the

pre-modern sense of that word not the

modern sense and and prudence they

didn't distinguish between those two but

in the West they did they made a

distinction between prudence and and

wisdom although it's the only in in in

the Western classification and in the

Muslim classification it's the only

virtue that is both moral and

intellectual it's the only one that

shares in the moral virtues and those

are the virtues of will of behavior and

in the intellectual virtues the virtues

of understanding so prudence is in in

both hikmah and so the this is what's

needed and this is jellybean Masada

without a facet so mal Korea tennis

right the hikmah of the Tichina is

what's called mockery and knows why

what's the intelligibility of the the

Nos

what do we understand from it you have

my cool enough right and and then

there's certain things that Allah has

hidden the wisdom from us but we know

that it's my pool it's just allah has

hidden that from us and this is done to

abuddin this is done out of devotion

there are certain things like we do not

know why there are three rockets for

Margaret but there's a reason we don't

know why there's two for fudger but

there's a reason we don't know why

there's four for Thor and for four

awesome we don't know why those times

specifically but there's reasons part of

it might be that it's it's really

important to get up at dawn when when

you know there's certain hormones in the

brain that are peaking you know your

cortisol levels peak at about that time

we don't know that might be part of it

because there are health benefits to the

practices that we do there are health

benefits to prayer physically there are

health benefits to to to or to

doing meditation but that's not the the

highest wisdom in these things the

highest wisdom is all that inner

directedness towards a lot to get us

closer to Allah subhana WA Ta'ala and so

this is really important now so all of

it goes back to jellybean masada without

anima fasten this is the essence of the

mikasa to to accrue benefit for human

beings and to ward off harm and warding

off harm is is always put before

accruing benefit warding off harm is

always you HUD them not a facet and a

gentleman Missoni

so whenever something's harmful you

override other things and in our Shetty

is beautiful I'll give you an example in

the Shetty app if you're in the mosque

praying and somebody is stealing your

shoes I mean if you have a personal one

you might think that they just

mistakenly but if it looks like a thief

right you're in the prayer it is

permitted to leave the prayer and go and

stop that thief now why why would I'll

not permit that because normally Deen in

the six universals Deen is over

preservation of property preservation of

religion is over preservation of

property because port there's poor

people that though

shoes are everything to them there's

people that he might have just saved up

months to get a brand-new pair of good

shoes and they're important to him and

so Allah lets him preserve his property

by leaving the Huq of Allah for the heck

of that this is Rama somebody who's

wealthy Allah like Kabara they might not

even who cares and you can have the

shoes maybe he needs them more than I do

it's a sub topple like a BA Bom Bom you

just give me a tapa I'll be as either

bastami so and then he said these are

this these are the the foundations of is

t hat and there are many proofs for this

so you go into PS s tents at the variety

and Masada and let's eat in many island

maja said all of these are based on the

Mikasa and and their three the borough

yacht the Haji at and the taxi nyet so

this is the triage of the O sudhi

scholar they look at the necessities

they look at the needs of humans and

they look at the embellishments of life

those things that make life enjoyable

because Allah wants us also to enjoy our

lives he created us Manzana karana

liquidity spa we didn't reveal this Iran

so you'd be miserable muffle Manmohan

otha lit Assad we revealed it for you to

be happy so the the Farhana will be that

occur fairly a Franco who had an image

Marilyn let them rejoice in this it's

better than all that those trappings out

there right and and and Allah says don't

prohibit those those embellishments of

the world that Allah brought forth for

his servants right Cluedo watcher Abu

eat and drink

muy Baha eat and drink I mean they're

obviously you have to do it to preserve

your life that's an obligation but you

can also eat and drink to enjoy you know

ice cream has no benefit

really I mean very little the more harm

than benefit but it's not how Tom to eat

a lot where you're harming your health

that's but every once in a while

buckle OA right yeah this I mean Allah

put these things in the world but the

problem is when they become the

overriding purpose Socrates once

somebody asked him how did how did you

become so wise and everybody else so

foolish he said I don't know about that

but I know one difference between you

and me is that I eat to live and you

live to eat and there's a lot of people

out there digging their graves with

their teeth really there are a lot of

people out there digging their goods and

obesity is a major problem on the planet

there's so much overeating you only need

1,600 to 2,000 I mean rarely you get

these you know people that might need

more than that but that's basically what

you need we know how much food you need

anything that's excess of that is going

to become harmful and cumbersome it's

going to weigh you down and make you

sick so the dodo rot are the necessities

and the necessities are actually very

few you need for instance food and drink

this is Maslow's hierarchy of needs

which are profits lights him perfectly

articulated long before Maslow in in in

the hadith his first hope but in Medina

right where he said up I'm open you know

feed food right up Shuster Nam wallop

I'm open

well so Lupin se will a well so doable

ad when a Sunni answered Khalil

generative asana he said create security

spread peace that's security that's the

base in Maslow's needs security up I'm

open feed people next one

yep Ted so you have security food and

then Self Realization

right pray yeah your purpose in life

which is to worship Allah that's the

fundamental purpose of life so find

purpose and

so and and this is again in fede I'll go

to Robin and let the upon movement you

are in were armament help the worship

your Lord the Lord of this house who fed

you and give you security once you have

the baseline of food and security

devotion you have to have devotion so

that those are the bottle rods right

though that's the basic security we have

security needs and then we have our

basic food clothing shelter those times

and they're very minimal I lived with

Bedouins so I know how little and and

and you know Zaytuna are our campuses

next to one of the largest homeless

communities in America which is People's

Park in Berkeley and when I was

interviewed by CNN they said why did you

choose this I said well we've got the

largest homeless community next to us so

nobody can say when the Muslims moved in

there goes the neighborhood so you know

homeless people do find without all

these right the accrued amounts of of

life the embellishments but Hajji at our

the next the Hajj yet are those things

that they're not necessary but they're

important some of the Oh sooty scholars

use the house as the house is necessary

but windows are hijacked you know you

have to have a you have to have windows

like I mean the door is necessary to get

in and out of the house but windows are

you need them to keep the house bring

light into the house

Oh bring fresh air into the house all

those things so that's a Hodja and then

the tech mediate are the embellishments

that's the furniture in the house you

don't need furniture it's not a need and

it's not a necessity you can sleep on

the floor you don't need a bed you can

sleep on the floor right the earth is a

Faraj you know the earth Allah made the

earth our bed so people sleep on the

earth

but those are and that's why if you look

for instance in Sharia preservation of

life is about all

Video 4

furniture in the house you don't need

furniture it's not a need and it's not a

necessity you can sleep on the floor you

don't need a bed you can sleep on the

floor right the earth is a Faraj you

know the earth Allah made the earth our

bed so the people sleep on the earth but

those are and that's why if you look for

instance in Shetty on preservation of

life is about aura so if you go to the

doctor and and and and so you've got

your you've got pain to remove that pain

as a Hodja right I mean it might not be

a doddle right it might be the doctor

needs to determine that because it could

be something you could live with right

but it could be something that will harm

you so a woman the the hijab is from the

taxi niet it's not from the Dora or the

Hajj yet and this is very interesting

because people don't realize this in

assault the the hijab the covering our

nakedness is considered from the testing

yet and Aboriginal peoples walk around

almost naked so it's neither a necessity

or a need but it's it's an embellishment

it's wedge it I'm not going to say it's

not logic but the old foodie scholars

put it in the text in yet and this is

why for a need you can remove that the

job to the doctor because in the triage

of things the need overrides the

embellishment so if you have a need if

you've got something and the doctor

needs to see your nakedness or check the

woman's breasts to see if there's lumps

or something like that that's

permissible

why because of this triaging so this is

how the Oh Saudi scholars look look at

these things now I want to two points

that he that he brings out that I think

are very important I mean all these

points are important but these are very

interesting

even though yeah ich mentions in his

shot of the mufasal' that the all

madhavan at hop up when he was the

kailath he got a letter from

abu musa al-ashari and abu musa was a

pave in Kufa al Kufa is a place in Iraq

city in Iraq it's great city of

knowledge and the the the letter he got

from him was written by a scribe and the

scribe wrote min Abu Musa ela amir al

mu'minin from abu musa to the amirul

mumineen but he didn't write min Evie

Musa

he wrote min Abu Musa now men in Arabic

scald half jar it's a preposition so

anything that follows it is an object of

the preposition and therefore it's

considered my drawer and then Abu is

from the Asthma al hamsa or citta if you

add a pin malik adds a 6 so you have

like Ibuka right a hookah yeah these

these Fuuka du mal and these when you

when you put a half jar there then they

have to have a casa to indicate that

they're much raw so it should have said

min ABI Musa not min Abu Musa but he

wrote min Abu Musa Allah Amir

al-mumineen

and he made the Albemarle for because

the Wow is the primary allama or sign of

the nominative case in in if you used

English grammar terms

well candidly IB Musa ketchup they are

sin Aloha he wasn't good at Arabic let

me Albania and Hamilton Alexander Moda

and Wow so he didn't put the the yeah as

a sign that it was in the genitive case

and so what did all Maher do he got

angry

Lavetta in tibet aha who had a Lanham so

this bad grammar caught his attention

and he got upset and he says well I know

Allah little our ability such a hip

would be had in Halawa

what made him upset or angry was the

effects that bad

we'll have it wasn't the actual it's a

minor mistake it's not a big deal but

he's looking down the road this is

called nother little mallet what are the

consequences if this becomes widespread

and so he wrote back and he said IRA

ABI Moussa and he commanded him to flog

his secretary once and to remove him

from his position people say wow it's

pretty hard for a grammatical mistake

now and that makes like the Hat this the

unhappy face on the when your teacher

gives you a little bad grammar and puts

a lot on a happy face on the side right

feel better about your teachers that was

a no model in the Pettibone Shadid one

yet Huck will be more lovin the unique

admit to who this is a harsh

disciplinary action that that he gave to

this employee and ended his employment

right well you must be the he basalt and

then he gave him the harshness of the

width I mean mm and Mela ad-dunya

Adalind this is from an imam who filled

the world with justice well better than

who cama Fabri he surpassed all these

who came in virtue heading tech in tech

at hermitage area to he cat hermitage

sharia Hatami Omar was the Sharia the

sanctity of the shady are so affected

that Omar gets angry in this way hell

had a third vid at 1:15 is this a bidet

that occurred in the religion hat alpha

assault that he would raise the assault

in a typical moneylender Konoha Everton

and Danny Amma in reality these are the

meanings that were not far from the mind

of Amma for a Nakata Shariati Bellotti

Ikeda tune because the relationship of

the Sharia attend language is absolute

what if tada cardamon I tell em to stop

him at Elsinore - what a plan and the

dad comes out all of the mistakes in the

history of Islam all of the mistakes

that these deviant sex made in the Quran

and the Sunnah most of them go back to

their lack of knowledge in Bulava

literally some of them to their lack of

knowledge in Arabic all of them

and so what amar saw was if this becomes

widespread will lose the foundation of

our religion which is language and this

is something the modern world it's very

troubling because we're losing the

ability to communicate private languages

are emerging we have a whole generation

of youth that speak in private languages

we can't understand them they speak in

acronyms they they use words that we

don't know what they mean they invert

words so bad becomes good right hot

becomes cool they law now another

example of that is from Omar from Abu

Bakr a Sudhir he was once my Ravi Raja

Muda ho Abu Ali Baba see hadith Obon he

had he was carrying a garment and Abu

Bakr was a garment merchant fatahna no

Sudhir part of the lowdown on who a

t-butyl hadith oh are you gonna sell

this robe and the man said Lera he

mccullaugh know may God have mercy on

you

what did Abu Bakr say but oh we met else

inna to come low to stock a moon had you

been morally upright your tongues would

have been grammatically correct it's a

very deep metaphysical statement this is

a very deep metaphysical statement had

you been morally upright your tongues

would have been grammatically correct in

other words the corruption

of the language only occurs with the

corruption with a metaphysical

corruption that precedes it

and that's why language is at the root

of the problem on the planet literally

it is at the root of the problem now why

did he say that well the reason for that

is in Arabic you have two types of

sentences you have what are called

hibari a' which is indicative and then

you have an inch at which there in

English we we divide them into several

categories but it's basically a

subjective sentence like an optic of an

interrogative sentence if you ask

somebody like where are you going or how

are you doing those are those are all

forms subjective senses whereas if you

have a hub Edea it's it's in it's

indicative it's a it's a categorical

statement it's raining that's Cabiria

Jim not huh buddy yeah right you can go

outside and see whether it's true or

false so when he said Tibby or Hannah

are you selling this that was a question

that's a in chat yeah but it demands a

hub area right so it's an interrogative

sentence that demands an indicative

response either yes or no or maybe when

he said no he followed it with a dua

aduana

is not a hub idiots in chat yeah but

it's when when we make dua in Arabic we

usually use the past tense which is hub

area that a haematoma

God has had mercy on you but the reason

we use the the the form of the Hibernia

is because it's out of hope that God has

already forgiven you so we use the past

tense because it's writing look a lot as

if it's already happened but what you're

really saying is may God forgive you so

when he said that

Hibernia indicative and then he said an

optic of sent statement but I McCallum

may God have mercy on you it's a wish so

he said may God have mercy on you

he didn't divide it with a fossil he

didn't put any staff there he didn't put

a Wow which would indicate that they're

separate he put them together and that

could make you think that he's saying

may God not have mercy on you so Abu

Bakr was correcting his grammar

now what to che bella say about this he

says this indicates that the Calif

should be concerned about the grammar of

his population the most the whoever the

ruler is he should be concerned about

the grammar of his population and this

is something that Muslims were obsessed

with really there are so many books on

grammar and language and no community in

the human history ever served language

like the Muslims did the dictionaries we

have are by far the best dictionaries in

human history

Muslims were writing dictionaries long

before any other civilization wrote

scientific dictionaries the Europeans

didn't start in English we don't have a

dictionary from Shakespeare's period

there's no dictionary from Elizabethan

English there's no diction I mean

Johnson's dictionary is the first

dictionary 18th century in English it's

the first dictionary and it's it's an

interesting dictionary but it's not

anywhere near as sophisticated as the

early most objection our first

dictionary was incredibly sophisticated

and I mean it's amazing Italian it's

amazing dictionary and then if you look

at the Senate out of beyond belief

Sajid ah who's amazing there's something

that al baqarah drazi dozen is more

thought of see how because there's a

famous dictionary called C ha and then

most thought of see how which is the one

I used when I was a student all the time

I would look up a word and he'd say my

room like everybody knows that that was

his definition in other words listen

dummy if you're having to look up this

word you're not ready for this dish

[Laughter]

yeah so and using words is important

right my father told me a story about

Van Doren who was his teacher

Mark Van Dorn at the University of

Columbia and my father read with him Don

Quixote it was a literature course and

you know he was 19 or 20 and he met him

in the hall and he said dr. Van Doren I

I think I understand what Don Quixote is

doing in that book and he said really

well what do you think he's doing and he

said I think he's it's a satire of the

knee of the New Testament and Van Doren

looked at me he said do you mean parody

and my dad just said that shut me up for

the next year

like he just you know in other words

it's a great gift to be shown your

ignorance and to recognize it if you're

gonna use a word at least know what it

means because there was a difference

between satire and parody and my father

did not know that distinction at the

time so if you want to judge a book you

better have the tools to judge it you

know Chesterton who they called the

English Socrates GK Chesterton

Chesterton was probably one of the most

brilliant Europeans of the 20th century

but he was a devout Catholic or maybe

high Anglican anyway he was a devout

Orthodox Christian CS Lewis who had a

huge impact on Christianity CS Lewis

what when he first met him it was

Chesterton that restored Lewis's faith

and the reason for that is because he

said if a man this intelligent can

believe in God because he was an atheist

at the time Lewis not Chesterton he said

if a man this intelligent could believe

in God I must be missing something I

need to look more deeply into this like

the man who said you know his neighbor

they were gardening and

they got to know each other and he has

some what he did he said he was a

theologian and his neighbor said this is

a true story that an English Muslim told

me he said that oh you're an atheist

have you read have you read I use

Christian so here's how you read st. st.

Gregory he said no he said have you read

a Gustin he said no he said have you

read Aquinas on unbelief he said no he

said sir you're not an atheist you are

an ignoramus so and that gets back to

you know Chesterton really when

brilliant people believe in God

it should strengthen your Eman because a

lot of these so-called atheist today

want to say that only stupid people

believe in God right but the most

brilliant people in human history of

believed in God Newton wrote a

commentary on the Bible that he

considered more important than than all

the works he did in science so it's it's

anyway

Chesterton when he first met Lewis Lewis

said they were meeting in Surrey and he

said I didn't expect the the flora here

to be so wild and and Chesterton looked

at me he said what do you mean by wild

sir yeah and then he said and why

wouldn't you expect it to be that and

Lewis was taken aback by it and and then

he said the Assumption here is that

you've read something about the

geography of Surrey that would lead you

to conclude that it shouldn't be so wild

you know he said I don't know anything

about Surrey and he said then why would

you expect it to be anything

yeah you know we should all just shut up

really really we should all just shut up

that's the truth yeah that's what vit

consigned it at the end of his life and

you know I was once in moody Tanny the

true story and there were these two

little girls and one of them just talked

all the time the other one never said

anything and I remarked to one of my

teachers at the time he was actually

younger than me but he became a great

scholar and and I said to him I said

Pamela I had the oculata you know she's

so intelligent

he said not happy de and and I said I

mean her her language skills are amazing

at that age he said italia and with the

kidney were talking about the one

talking I did I said yeah he said I

thought you meant the silent one yeah

and then he said he said he's gonna sue

cooter I know it said that guy he said

that silence is a sign of intelligence

in our culture yeah it was really

interesting to see that so let me finish

up here and then I think now what's

interesting is imam ali founded grammar

not fascinating imam ali because of us

where the doily came to him he was with

his daughter and they were looking at

the the stars and she said madison a

Samana Madison a Somali yeah baba and

she made it my drawer right and it

should have been Madison a semi because

she what she wanted was to amazement

right so and and he said a new zoom like

cuz he she asked it like what's the most

beautiful thing in heaven she didn't she

meant to say oh how beautiful the

heavens are but she said it like what's

the most beautiful thing in heaven my

accent was so Matty

yeah Baba and he realized that she made

a grammatical most

he got distressed by it so he went to

his teacher said 'no ali all delano and

told him and said 'no ali said you

should know one a la rubia and he said

in and out of its in and out of ietter I

said ass now Arabic has three things

it's moon or VeriFone fan who had a now

he said it's it's it's nouns or what we

would call because in traditional

grammar even in English that they they

they they adjectives were were put with

attributive and substantives were put

together so adjectives used to be one

part of speech adjectives and nouns

because they're descriptive of a

substance and so they were put together

so the ISM in Arabic is massif as an

adjective so it's it's put together with

the nouns even though we distinguish it

in the eight parts of speech in English

but he said language is three things

substantives right and then the the

verbs fit alone so that so you have the

substantive which is either an accident

a property or it's the thing itself or

it's an action or it's a word that

facilitates meaning of those other two

what we would call like prepositions

adverbs all those type things so that

began and he said so follow this path

and who had a now and that's where we

get the word natural from from this

story so that was how important he

considered it to be

so let me just do the I would have liked

to I you know this is such an

interesting book and I would have liked

to have gone into some other things but

time waits for no man

[Music]

and he goes into moon out of here

Tusheti are the differences between Imam

mattock and Chevy and humbly and Imam

Abu Hanifa because they differed on that

about is the Sharia Arabic or is it not

and mahadji's inclined towards that it

wasn't that the Arabic was that the

Arabic was the vehicle it could be

transmitted through other vehicles and

the other three mom said no it's

actually the vehicle that it's

transmitted through is Arabic and it

really can't be transmitted through

other vehicles and they both have merit

and then he goes into is language from

God or is it conventional and and this

is a very important debate that and then

does can Arabic be established by by

means of of analogical reasoning or not

that's another debate and then he goes

into dela that alpha which are all of

these different ways of interpreting of

interpreting the the meanings the Motaba

codicil dominant exam which what things

correspond to what's included in their

meaning and then what they indicate and

then he goes into Montauk and whom he

goes into the Hakata I talked about

those the the the or Thea the Sharia and

the world idea and the Magi as we talked

about that yesterday and then he goes

into the the nas the the mahkum right of

the Montauk which is the the nas de la

da de da de da de chartres ability

and then the demo foam which is the

Moapa and the mahadeva and then he goes

into the the problems of you have of the

MoBay in the mode what's what's

clarifying what's needs to be

interpreted the Haas the arm what's

specific what's general the Millea the

mukluks what's what's absolute and what

is constrained at Amida when a he the

commands and the prohibitions the Cooley

and the jewsí the universal and the

particular right the Mojave and the

machete kick the one that corresponds in

the one that puts doubt the most Derrick

and the motive things that have shared

meaning and then things that are

synonymous so these are all the D that

that have to be learned by the scholar

before they can really navigate the the

texts and this takes it takes work it's

hard work but it's certainly possible so

I think they're gonna show you the film

and then I'll just make a a plea so go

ahead if you want to show that we're

living at a time where people associate

Boko Haram with Islam we're living at a

time when people don't think of Imam

al-ghazali or fucka being or Ozzy

or all of these great giants of went

before us they think of ignorant people

and they and many too many people

believe that this is Islam and that's

why we're here that's what this is about

this is about restoring the centrality

of knowledge to our religion the

centrality of knowledge to our religion

[Music]

education doesn't just educate the

intellect no education czar much more

dynamic and holistic integrity thing

it's an integrative process that helps

to integrate the various parts so if an

education does not have anything to do

with the spirit of the human being it

has nothing to do with the psyche of the

human being then it's not according to

Mark Van Doren really education this

course is to help them map the next four

years of their education and to think

really deeply about that I've never

really been able to tap into this course

and that this school has allowed

daddy come weapon well and why don't you

leave say Toretto phil heartman that can

have a body and ability in a shot

attack me too Marton an astronut early

civil eyetality hunting the essence

right the this hold the foundation the

basis of the divine decree is God's

secret within creation this is all my

secret you know how is it that I can

choose on my own accord but that's in

perfect harmony and alignment with a

pre-eternal decision God's preached own

decision it's a secret it's a la secret

and we cannot we're not privy to it we

do not have access to that but the mind

has limits and this is well beyond the

limits of the human intellect you have

to do such that with the putter does

that make sense the mind has to make a

such duck after taking theology 1 and

theology - it makes complete sense fly

compare religions it's the third thing

that you take because you get there you

get yours you want the others - to gain

a strong grounding your own beliefs and

then taking not taking that and running

with it and then setting but Hinduism

and Confucianism

you really realize how similar a lot of

them are but how unique your own

tradition is I can look at the other

traditions I can take whatever wisdom I

mean but at the same time be strong in

my own in my own faith and it's an

angelic being so let's say managing a

job would be when you would say no what

is it no is it no no it isn't yes it is

well obviously you're not gonna solve

that you're not gonna resolve that are

you there on the street but you will say

okay no human being is an angelic

creature so what are you doing you're

saying absolutely no member of the

species man is an angelic creature so

you're separating actually separating

the predicate angelic creature from the

concept man this whole idea of being a

better person or a better individual or

we're finding our souls it's not just in

Islam it's in so many other traditions

that came before and I think we cut like

we just don't you know we're not exposed

to it and so I think it's amazing cuz

that's where you get your philosophy

classes are in philosophy class comes in

that's where your body class comes in

all the Western tradition is so

important because it's there it's

similar to our tradition

I think that's saying a lot is that you

don't just reject things and don't know

because you don't know what could be in

that that it's good for you so many

questions I have about certain things

you know Western philosophy doesn't have

the answers to but if you understand I

Lena if you underst

Islamic scholarly tradition of theology

and you want to share those arguments

then all of a sudden some of those

questions that were so perplexing before

now you have a clear answer and it's not

like it's a dogmatic answer it actually

makes sense rationally the most

important and difficult thing is to

continue to preserve the authenticity of

Islamic rules

I would not mean only by that the daily

prayers that's very very important of

course I do not mean by that on the

Islamic ethics that's also very very

important but I mean awed by that also

to preserve a mental ambience which is

Islamic in which the reality that Islam

can be breathed if we don't have

committed knowledgeable and fearless

Muslim youth we don't have Islam we have

some perversion of Islam so this is the

torchbearer

here say tuna let there rise among you

right a group rejoining good and

forbidding wrong let them start here

they start here in say tuna and then

they spread so that's the to me the

ultimate benefit of say tuna is that it

it is the vehicle for sustaining the

life of the human spirit

[Music]

so miss Meena we that have indeed uh we

started this college really with a lot

of trust and we did it in many ways in

the reverse way in which colleges are

started because colleges usually start

with a endowment and they build from

that endowment we did not start with an

endowment so we're trying to build an

endowment but one of the issues that we

face on a constant basis is budgetary

restrictions and crises so that's the

mode and inshallah were very close to

accreditation we had a glowing WASC

report that's going to be put up on the

online because we have the site visit

they have 39 criteria that you have to

fulfill to get accreditation what

accreditation means if we get it and

shala we're hoping to get it this year

or next year or on the verge of 2015 but

it means that we can take Canadian

students we that they can get the visas

that they need to study student visas we

can take foreign students even from the

Muslim world because we've had many

people from Turkey even from the Middle

East that have wanted to study there so

we we're expanding and we need a lot of

help to build this but this has to be

seen as you know it's it's it's it's a

it's a project that concerns the OMA

because we do not have an academic

address in the West Muslims do not have

an academic dress in the West

so it's accredited because one of the

things that we get when we're credit is

is an edu we get an actual academic

address for the Muslims which is to get

the edu org which is an educational

email that Harvard has so if you get a

letter from a Harvard professor it's

usually on

you dot org right at Harvard so that

that is a major step I think for our

community that we need to fulfill but we

need your help we have a program which

is 12,000 strong taken from the hadith

that prophet said 12,000 people with

working with one heart won't be defeated

for lack of numbers if the if they're if

they don't succeed it's for other

reasons but it won't be for lack of

numbers so we're asking for 12,000

people we've probably got about 1200

some of you already how many people in

here already doing that so hum do that

there's some people but a lot more is

needed and we're really hoping that

people will step up we're asking for a

dollar a day give us a couple years

commitment four or five years whatever

you can do if you're able to but it's

literally you know it's less than a

latte you know people go everyday spend

four dollars on a latte or something

like that it's you know we're asking for

a little bit of sacrifice or help from

our community it's not much that's

really all we're asking for is dollar a

day if you want to give more that's fine

but we're asking for a like a $30 a

month commitment to you know do every

month so that that's the hope that

people will do that there's a booth at

the bazaar if you want to sign up but I

really hope that you do that I I think

it's a it's an excellent project that we

hope to develop more I mean I literally

just had a major Foundation come to me

they asked for a meeting with me the

major foundation and these are people

they're not Muslims and they said we

want to help say tuna you know it's

amazing so they're reaching out to me

from a major foundation they said what

you're doing is really important there's

a lot of ignorance about Islam you know

we're in a multicultural civilization

and people have to have a better

understanding so we'd really like to

find ways that we could work we'd like

you to write grants you know if we can

help with certain things now this is a

foundation that that has it's a

multi-billion dollar foundation

philanthropist did and they had they

have to give out a certain amount of

money every year so they actually

sometimes they'll all have to give it

out and if they don't get enough grants

they go looking for people to give but

it's very ironic for me that people

outside of our faith come to ask if they

can help us and it's like we've got

billionaires in the Muslim community

like where are they

it's a very strange time and it's really

sad but I'm not counting on the

billionaires I'm counting on the

thousand Aires series I think there's a

lot more Baraka and just getting a lot

of small donations from people that work

hard for their money and the money is

halal you know I had which is a true

story I had somebody who was in

derivatives and a hedge fund that came

they wanted to help as a Muslim I didn't

want the money didn't take the money cuz

I I don't want money from you Zuri from

armaments from alcohol pornography I

don't want I don't want that money in

the lot by even whatever loved by you

but allows pure and he only accepts

what's pure so I'd much rather have

small donations from a lot of sincere

Muslims that want to see the succeed for

for the Ummah really I think you know

it's a it's a lighthouse for people give

them some hope and some pretty dark

times the Muslims you know they're

gutted all over the world Muslims are

really gutted you know they just okay

what's next so anyway whatever you can

do to help Jews are coming off pattern

somebody said I felt a wave of joy

mingled with sadness when you mentioned

that chef I'm Bella van Bayer got his

PhD in Tunisia

I'm Tunisian I find it heartbreaking

that we don't learn about our legacy

what were his advisers you know I don't

know they drives back in the early 60s I

would also like time in another crisis

changing accept of our kids I you know

if you smile at kids they don't smile

back you know if they're little they're

very often shy which is a good thing so

that they're just shy that's a normal

thing for children over friendly little

children to strangers is not

healthy time when you have so much

stranger danger and so but children by

their nature are sanguine you know if

you know about the humoral theory their

children are happy by nature it's the

world that will make you sad the world

that we've created not that allow

created but in terms of Tunisia Tunisia

has one of the greatest legacies of

scholarship in Islamic history I'm in

the same to know we named between after

this a tune of of Tunisia I mean it's

taken from the piranha that's where they

named they got from Ottoman Shahada to

maracas it's from a blessed tree neither

of the East or the west in other words

of both according to one tough seal so

and I had some of my teachers were

Tunisian she said that a knife was a

great man great malachy scholar a really

true truly great one of the last

great scholars of Tunisia she demanded

how a MIDI beautiful scholar that I knew

I actually met also the Imam of the

Halloween Shihab Rahman clave another

amazing man

so yeah

Tunisia may Allah restore Zaytuna and

bring it back to greatness in the lie

ahead out of the bottom ot huh Allah can

bring a dead earth back to life so you

know solid fill Israel and v not as

important as tip itself to inculcate the

octave personality we need for the next

generation of intelligent

odama is it time to change the model of

how we teach and actually train the next

generation of scholars to meet the

challenges of the likes of the

transhumanists shouldn't we teach a fool

you know food is very important and you

should always learn food what before

also so it's it would seem in some ways

it's putting the cart before the horse

because the O's tool is really the horse

but it's it's not in that food what is

is what we practice it's very important

to trust the scholars we don't need any

new med hubs what we need is is she had

from within the Med hubs there's there's

nothing new that is needed we don't need

this renewal of all swollen v to rewrite

all sorted fit we couldn't do it first

of all I mean these people had

intellects that God bestowed upon them

in that early period that are beyond

comprehension in some ways and they came

all at the same time so we don't need ro

food is very rich our traditions

extremely rich and everything's in there

but it has to be it has to be accessed

and that access means training and that

training takes a long time unfortunately

it's hard work and it does take a long

time in and learning Arabic mastering

Arabic is is one of the major keys and

that in it of itself takes a long time

dr. Nelson yesterday chided me for not

learning Persian and and God knows I

have actually tried to learn Persian on

several occasions trade image entities

here and he can tell me he can tell you

that that's true I actually had a great

Persian scholar who offered to give me

lessons and everything but I told dr.

and all sort of that my problem is I got

dove into the sea of Arabic because you

have the Arabian Sea and the Persian see

there's kind of a debate about what it's

called is that I don't in to the Arabian

Sea and I've been drowning ever since so

it's just I haven't been able to get out

because I always think when I'm trying

to learn something gals I could be

learning more Arabic because Arabic

doesn't end it's just it's just does not

end and the subtleties of air that go on

and on

but it's Arabic takes a long time to

learn sort of is very difficult now is

actually reasonably easy it's it's a

it's pretty logical and it's it's

actually the irregularities of naku are

not that many it's it's it's very

logical and and you can learn it there's

not that many concepts in now but sort

of is a whole issue pop and sort of this

that's a whole other and then also fit

Aloha learning the meanings of words and

the meanings of words in context I mean

if you just look at all that you're

audible has so many meanings it just has

so many meanings in Arabic and and they

mean very different ways on you know

face has many meanings it's used for

many different meanings

it can mean aspect it can mean you know

equality lots of things and then they

have a lot of idioms that take a long

time to learn like mad watch you know

the water of the face which is you know

it doesn't make any sense on the face of

it no pun intended

but you know mad you know of Habana I

would watch hehehe you know the Arabs

say he he dissipated the water of his

face which is something that happens to

people when they live bad lives they

lose a type of clarity in their faces

the the reflection that water enables to

happen something bad happens to their

faces and so that's an idiom of Arabic

that they use you know that America

shadow and up here you know and you'll

see these come up in in books so that

takes a long time but I would say you

know the Arabs the Arabs the more

Italians they say aha moment for a homo

ha Eden tomorrow one too so often were

added to be a shorter one the most

important in in knowledge is that peda

that's the most important and I Peter

has a lot of metaphysical foundations

like if you study in the Quran you will

find a lot of metaphysics

and when you get into sophisticated

theology there's a great deal of

metaphysics and all of our great

theologians were masters of metaphysics

all of them tough touzani though see I

mean truly great metaphysicians and when

you get into their books we have many

people at the level of Aquinas in in the

West we have several with the kidney

moon that are at the level of Aquinas

and my father who knows Aquinas very

well when when when I did a film on

Ghazali and he watched the film he got

intrigued and he wanted to read some

books he said is he translate I said yes

he said could you get me some of his

book so I got him several of Gasol's

books and he read through them and then

he said to me the West never produced a

Ghazali and and I know his knowledge of

the Western canon is very very strong so

that statement to me holds a lot of

weight but that's what he said he said

that the West never produced a ghazali

and and it's sad that now people

disparage imam al-ghazali's name it's

just tragic

it's the ignorance of the time and the

prophets said the end of time won't come

until the later part of this community

curses the first part of it so that's

one of the signs at the end of time is

that people will curse the earlier

people so so you have to learn a Kyi's

and then you have to learn for 1/5

before o Sole also it is not it's a 45

but for what is for dying and then you

have to learn tasawwuf means Allah I

mean there's two types of two souls

there's a metaphysical to solve which is

very complicated and and it's it's like

it's like quantum mechanics you're

entering into a realm that just it to be

able to read those books and understand

them takes a long long time but the the

tussle that we need is that the soul of

a holic and our ethics is generally in

the books of the self

I mean that's where the ethical

tradition ended up in us

so you learn to have even apps how to

rectify the fault of the self I think

she thought her mother always been

talking about these things from the icon

and and and these think this is really

that a lot of of Islam is in the books

of tussle wolf and and and nobody

disagreed about that even Tamiya even a

bit of a hob all the people that they

use to bash to solve all of them except

that that aspect of to solve what they

were against was metaphysical Sufism so

Inman Tamiya was against metaphysical

Sufism even Umberto Wahab was against

met if that's true but they were not

against ethical to solve that that's

absolute fact so that's the soul of

Allah and the soul of an earth walk

those are the two types of tussle

you know the experiential tasawwuf which

is about States and stations of the

heart and the other one is about

refining your character so nobody

disagrees about that and even a layman

josiya wrote a famous book on to sew

wolf which is his commentary of Abdullah

on Saudi khawaja abdullah onslaught his

famous book amenaza de set 18 right

madad is just a tea keen so the this is

well known even akadama did a motifs are

of imam al-ghazali's yeah yeah is mostly

he says you have no Kashyap and Mohammed

ah those are the two types of azov mocha

Java Inman mocha Java and aluminum arm

but he said I'm not this book is not

about element of mocha Java

it's about Edmond Muhammad ah so what he

was saying is the idea is not about

spiritual states it's about a clock and

refining the soul the he's got the the

key tab and I bet that right sheet a bit

more I'm a dad and then he's got the

monocot and the moons yet it's four

sections forty books right and at the

heart of it is what book twenty the lap

of the prophets a lot isn't that's the

heart of the area so the architecture is

very impressive

he begins it with the book of knowledge

not the book about Peter the book of

knowledge defining what knowledge is and

defining who the knowledgeable who the

true anima are differentiating them from

recall the motorists amoun the formalist

and then showing you what false ottoman

do one of the things that false Illuma

do is they they attack other Annamma and

belittle them in order to gain followers

that's a sign of false aroma because

true allama work at the level of ideas

and they don't attack people like that

they look at ideas and and they write

and and do that but they don't get up

and slander Muslims and things like that

so so that and then he says add a toombi

hot shoe or a tool that you need to

start with and that's the Arabic

language so that's this tool that you

need to start and that doesn't mean that

you cannot you can learn Islam and

become a very educated Muslim in English

you can learn Islam then come a very

educated Muslim in order do you can

learn Islam become a very educated

Muslim in Turkish or any of these

languages that's absolutely true and

there are many many very learned Muslims

that don't know Arabic but to to to

enter into really the the realm of

defending Islam and moving into that

realm it's to have access to those

primary texts important but the Hanafy

position is you don't need Arabic to

understand Islam and and as an ad you

mean you know Alba Hani who was a Janee

I think to me that's that's the truth

that but the vehicle of Arabic is

extremely important that's the position

of the other three Imams because the

meanings that are embedded in Arabic the

semantic fields that are created by

Arabic the deep dimensions of the

language are extremely important and

there's a reason why Allah chose Arabic

to be the language that he spoke to his

creation through and so that's very

important so but a solid fifth is really

important in order to understand this

religion and I think it's good to have

what we did was just a very basic

introduction to all soon and flip which

is useful to have some idea

of how sophisticated our scholarship is

in that I think there was one other and

with that you know I also want to say to

everybody somebody asked me what course

do I teach I teach ethics that's a tuna

I've taught logic

I've taught astronomy I've taught the

Freshman Seminar and I've taught

prophetic biography but right now I'm

teaching ethics so we have to break but

I want to say I was I'm really very

happy with a dev of this group and it's

really been impressive and I you know we

have to get to a point where we can just

benefit from our people and not you know

and so I was I was just really pleased

with how everybody because I know people

there's people that could you know with

dr. Nelson could have brought up things

that you know just for me would there

there's no point in bringing them up and

and I was really happy that nobody did

that you know because he's somebody that

I feel has just been such an

intellectual powerhouse for our

community and he comes from a different

tradition than I do but he's he's not

and he's not on Rothfeld Lee by any

stretch of the word you know he's not

somebody that speaks ill of Sahaba or

anything like that so it's you know it's

important that that we respect and I not

and in our early period imam niye tabu

Hadi has people from the Shia community

in his Senate there are Shia in soluble

Hadi and this was the early period it

was much more fluid than a lot of what's

happened now with the divisive miss the

Muslim world right now between the

Sunnis and the Shia's and undeniably

there have been atrocities on both sides

so in Iraq there have been Shia death

squads that have gone we've gone out and

and and killed but we're not those this

is not what we're about we're about

intelligence and honoring people and

honoring differences and respecting

different positions so he's somebody

that respects the own amount

irrespective of where they came from or

who they are and that's something that

we really need to inculcate in our youth

just a respect for intelligence and for

intellect and and for achievement in any

field or endeavor and for goodness

people that have a floppin character so

I just want to thank everybody for being

so respectful and and just really

wonderful group of people young people

that it's you know you give me

personally give me hope to see so many

good faces and in our youth and I'll a

bless all of you it's nothing enough