our next speaker is among a cohort of speakers who in the 1990s who literally, literally made plain the message of Islam for an entire generation of young Muslims not only in
America but around the world a father of five sons an author a scholar a visionary who founded Zaytuna Institute and then went on most recently to found America's first liberal arts college co-founded along with Imams Zaid Shaikr and dr. Hatem Bazeyan, brothers and sisters give a warm warm ISNA welcome and a welcome back to our teacher and mentor Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
<DUA>
First of all I want to say that when I was a young man I met ISNA and I was actually a little older than ISNA is now I was in my early 30s no ISNA was around 30 and I I i basically ended up in an
arranged marriage, it's been 20 years and marriages are
interesting aren't they because it's
null seed but the person that arranged
that marriage was one of the founders of
busines dr. Markovic on Elohim level
and dr. my boob I was a Imam Habib in
California and a little bit of a
firebrand and what you would call a
loose cannon
so dr. Mahmoud converts there's a
convert syndrome because converts enter
into a very dangerous period after they
convert they get very enthusiastic and
so dr. Maha Khan he said to me I want
you to speak at its now and he said even
though I don't agree with everything you
say I think you're good for the American
Muslim community that was his view
because dr. Michael Kahn was a visionary
he was somebody that didn't allow
ideological differences or those types
of differences of methodology if they
weren't substantial because in the end
of the day if we share the Creed of
Islam and we believe in the rightly
guided scholars and Imams of Islam those
differences of methodology are all open
to debate and so in honor of him I
wanted to mention him and I remember dr.
say you say it also trying to calm me
down a few times so in the spirit of
being a loose cannon and also I really
want to say this in all honesty I hope
this is my last Saturday night address
because I've been doing this for twenty
years and I'm very honored that isne has
brought me back and
and I felt so much love from the
community but I really feel that other
people should be up here we have some
really really good young scholars that
are up and coming and I want to see them
begin to take over these positions I'm
working on establishing a college in
California so having said that I want to
say that I've always felt an immense
amount of love from people here from the
Muslim community they're all always the
haters it's just the way it is there's
the envy or the haters and then the
petty people those people always exist
in every time in every place and you and
you if you're going to be in a in a
public position you cannot take them
seriously you just have to do what you
believe and that the cards fall where
they fall and have a thick skin about
those things but what I want to talk
about I was asked to talk about a moral
vision for this country and and I want
to preface that by saying a moral vision
for the future to me is a moral vision
from the past I truly believe that the
moral issues of every time and place are
basically the same issues our prophets
Eliza Naumann as far as I can tell he is
the first human being in human history
to articulate the principle of human
equality that all people are created
equal long before the Declaration of
Independence said all men are created
equal our prophet sallallaahu idea what
Addie was send'em said there's no
difference between a black man or a
white man or a white man or a black man
the only difference is in their God
consciousness and I know of no previous
historical statement I have never seen
that in the Bible I've never seen that
in any philosopher before the prophet
Aristotle talked about natural slaves
with all his genius and brilliance but
our prophet Elijah
articulated this to remove racism as far
as I can tell the Prophet Muhammad SAW
I am is the first human being to
articulate the Equality of men and women
I've never found anybody in the history
of humanity before him to ever
articulate that men and women are
essentially the same before their Lord
they are both spiritual beings with the
same rights there's some variance in
their responsibilities based on fitrah
on the primordial nature but they're
equal the prophets Allah lighting Saddam
was also as far as I can tell the first
person to legislate from these religions
clearly economic justice in all of the
strata of society not for one group or
for one set of believers but for all of
the people the Prophet SAW Allah a were
adding the senem in his final speech and
I mentioned it here before you will see
all of those major issues that are
affecting human beings my deep concern
about this country is that America and
we as a people and I speak as we we are
all I'm an American I can speak as an
American and when I'm speaking as an
American my Islam here is incidental in
the same way that many many people in
this country have spoken up about things
they find troubling in their country
from the Jewish community from the
Christian community from the Atheist
secular community there are things in
this country that I find deeply
disturbing Arnold Toynbee said that
societies don't commit they don't
they're never murdered civilizations are
not murdered the great English historian
he said civilizations commit suicide and
as far as I can tell and I actually did
a rotation in a psychiatric unit and had
some suicidal patients as far as I can
tell I see very serious suicidal
tendencies in this society there are
things that are deeply troubling about
this society the mechanization of
warfare the idea that you can send
robots to eliminate people on other
parts of the planet you can have
civilians or people living normal lives
in suburbia in New York and they go to
work and their work is to drop bombs on
people on the other side of the planet
and when they talk about their
successful strikes they say three
suspected terrorists were killed in a
drone strike today three suspected
terrorists and we know for a fact that
innocent people have died in these
strikes many children by their own
estimates over 200 children in northern
Pakistan have died from these drone
strikes terrorizing people living in
these places this troubles me about this
country it troubles me because I live
here I pay my taxes but it troubles me
and it troubles me deeply and I really
feel that we we as as Muslims need to be
courageous it's it's difficult to be
courageous we're living in a society
that doesn't encourage people to speak
up even whistleblowers if you look at
some of the problems that these
whistleblowers who have spoken about
wrongdoings in corporations or in the
government what happens to them and how
they're actually they suffer from
speaking based on their moral
consciousness if we look at recently
what happened in this situation with all
of these leaks and how this person was
treated and all of these people that
have had the moral courage those people
that release the pictures from Abu
Ghraib do you remember how before a Iraq
now is suffering more than it's ever
suffered it's worse than then during
even the war period it's a country in
complete dissolution palace
these are real problems human problems
that our country should not participate
in creating more problems but with the
gifts that we've been given as a country
the power that we've been given at this
country we should be part of the
solution and not part of the problem
really and we as a community have to be
a moral conscience we have to speak the
truth as a community we also have to
look at the type of culture that we are
spreading around the globe we are the
number one producer of pornography in
the work this is deeply troubling to me
as somebody who's trying to raise young
boys adolescents are always mystified by
sexuality they're mystified by it but
what we're dealing with now on the
Internet is so deeply troubling we
recently had a courageous owner of
hotels in Sweden who began to work on
the problem of human trafficking and
when he realized the connection between
pornography and human trafficking he
removed pornography from his hotels this
is something that should be honored it
should be news the country of Iceland
that prohibits pornography the sale of
pornography and Iceland not because
they're religious people it's one of the
most secular countries in the world but
because there are middle class people
and they know that pornography is
harmful for the common weal but what's
worse is that pornography is no longer
x-rated we have in the video music
awards a young girl who had millions and
millions of followers as Hannah Montana
millions of young American girls that
saw her as something to be emulated to
be looked up at and in a display of
utter degradation human degradation to a
male or a female
and I don't blame Miley Cyrus I see her
as a victim of a demonic dehumanizing
entertainment culture in fact I would
call it an a culture not a culture
because of the occultic undertones in it
it's a dark culture and this is what our
mainstream entertainment is producing so
all of those children that saw her in
the Mickey Mouse Club as a young and
innocent girl are now twerking a word
that shouldn't even be in our vocabulary
this troubles me about this country and
I think Muslims as one of the last
bastions of really serious commitment to
modesty to honoring our women may Allah
reward all of you all of these women
incredible courage in the midst of a
naked society a society that removes
clothes that these women go out every
day in their jobs working amidst people
who see it as some kind of backward
retrograde approach to women and yet we
have social science that has shown that
when men see a naked woman or a woman in
a bathing suit the same area of the
brain that lights up when they see a
tool lights up it's not the frontal lobe
it's a complete objectification that
occurs this is what happens to our women
when they become objects of lust as
opposed to human beings with minds with
spirits with something to say not to be
used and abused and then thrown away and
look how many women we have out here
that are raising their children in
single homes because they had children
out of wedlock there was no commitment
by the male to a family and they suffer
and they struggle
some of them are on welfare and they're
fortunate to live in a country where
they can get some help this is a crisis
in our country we also have a culture
that will not talk about sexually
transmitted diseases in any honest way
every single thing that is harmful for
you in America they'll warn you about if
don't they'll warn you about doughnuts
they'll have commercials about fatty
foods
everybody knows potato chips are not
good for them everybody knows that
french fries aren't good for them they
know the cheesecakes not good for them
but nobody will dare speak out against
the deviant sexual practices that occur
in this country and are not only not
talked about are promoted by mainstream
entertainment and society promoted
deviant sexual practices that are
harmful to the human being
pathogenic sexual practices that cause
serious diseases this isn't like a fatty
food that takes time many years before
it accumulates and causes a heart attack
this is a one time possible death
sentence and yet people won't speak
honestly about it the World Health
Organization tells us that rectal
intercourse is the most risky form of
sexual behavior that's what the World
Health Organization has to say and yet
people will not say this is not a
healthy choice I don't want my child to
be practicing this male or female this
has nothing to do with sexual preference
this has to do with a sexual practice
that is done amongst heterosexual people
and amongst homosexual people yet it's
harmful and nobody wants to speak about
it we need our physicians to speak up
about the types of cancers that occur
about what happens when you get genital
warts I worked for a gastroenterologist
and saw firsthand what happens to people
nobody wants to talk about this and yet
we have a society now where they
just get a vaccination for HPV as if
this is some normal event that's going
to happen in your life you're just gonna
get HPV no there are many strains of HPV
but sexually transmitted HPV is a very
specific type that is transmitted
through sexual practices when people are
having multiple partners or practicing
types of sexual behavior that are
unacceptable this is the reality of our
culture we need to we need to have
honesty amongst our physicians people
need to speak out they can't be afraid
of a culture that is promoting
pathogenic forms of behavior recently at
the Pride gay pride parade in New York
they requested that they all get
meningitis shots because there's a new
strain of meningitis in the homosexual
community that is extremely deadly and
it has only shown up in that community
it is not fair to people with same sex
urge 'as not to tell them about the
dangers of this lifestyle it's not fair
for young people all people can make
their decisions but a 15 year old kid in
high school he deserves to know the
nature of these practices we also have
to recognize that we have a society the
economic injustice --is in this society
are immense if people want to understand
what happened in the Muslim world
recently you have to understand the
collapse of the economic system in this
country when all of the real estate
collapse where did the money go
it went into commodities what happened
in the Muslim countries all of the food
stocks went up people suddenly people
who they were paying 25 percent of their
salary to food were now paying 45 to 50
percent and they didn't have money to
pay their rent they didn't have money
for other things it created an immense
amount of strain on these societies and
so people were becoming so frustrated if
we remember how it all started it
started over
economic crisis in Tunis do people
remember that it started over a man who
was trying to earn a livelihood by
selling things this is a crises we have
an economic crises nobody talks about
the Greek meltdown we have all these
people attacking Turkey but the reality
of Turkey the reality of Turkey is
Turkey has only recently paid off
completely their IMF debt Turkey is one
of the only debt-free countries on this
planet and why isn't that in the news
why is Aragon being demonized as a
tyrant when he has shown incredible
fiscal responsibility for his country
with the immense growth and now we're
going to see constraints put on Turkey
you will see from outside and Turkey is
going to get hit economically you'll see
this in the future why because there are
entities on this planet that do not want
to see a successful Muslim model and
Turkey is an extraordinary country with
a great people they have proven that
Muslims and seculars can live
side-by-side they have proven this we
had today
you see people say oh the Palestinians
the Jews they could never live together
they live together for over a thousand
years it's a lie I was walking with my
friends today and I saw rabbi buy soup
from who came from New York he had his
little Palestinian scarf
he had the enormous hat which I don't
know what they call them but when I saw
him I felt happy and I looked at them
and I said oh look here's this this
palace is a Jewish man from New York who
is against the oppression the Israeli
aggression against the Palestinian
people and he gave me a hug and I hugged
him and then we parted and then he came
back just to say please mention that
there are Jews against what's happening
in Palestine tell them that tell the
muscles that he has come here can
distantly to be in solidarity with
Muslims from the Jewish tradition men
who men won't be known Allah says
amongst a lot they're good people
amongst them and we know that and we
shouldn't demonize the Jews just like we
don't like to be demonized there are
good people amongst we have natural
allies amongst many of the Christians
unfortunately we need to disabuse them
of their attitudes about Islam because
they have been brainwashed over a long
period of time and then we have too many
people in the Muslim world creating so
much commotion there's a lot of
instability but Muslims have been driven
mad by social conditions people talk
about human nature I just want to say
this if you take animals and you put
them in in cages in inhumane conditions
they don't behave like they would in
their natural habitat they begin to tear
each other apart they begin to fight
each other this is what happens this is
my swan song so I might not pay
attention to those little things she's
holding up they might not they might
they don't behave like they would in a
natural environment they start to kill
each other
humanely I lived with human beings I
lived with Bedouins I spent seven years
with Bedouins living in different places
with them I lived with them and I saw
how they interact how they love each
other
I saw how a human being behaves when
he's allowed to be human when you look
in the ghettos and say look at these
animals they're not animals they're
human beings that have been put in
inhumane environments and if you change
their environments you will change their
behavior really you will change their
behavior they're human beings and and
really it would break if dr. King if
Malcolm X could come back and see what's
happened in many of these communities
the degradation the social
disintegration if they could see it they
would weep tears of blood I believe that
I really believe that they would we
years of blood to see and look at the
successful Muslims the successful
african-americans in Hollywood that are
degrading themselves women that were
stripped their ancestors were stripped
of their clothes and now they're paid to
strip their clothes no they should be
honor themselves they've been given the
privilege of honoring themselves in a
society that will allow that now these
are these are the things that trouble me
about this culture and Muslims should be
a spark of hope we should be a beacon of
light not just for people overseas but
for people in this country when they see
the dignity of our dress when they see
the dignity of our behavior when they
see the excellence of our schools when
they see the professionalism of our
doctors of our healers of our lawyers
when they see people that are ethical at
the root and the core and they won't
inform they won't absolve themselves of
those ethical responsibilities then
we'll be a beacon of light and people
will say I want to be like those people
like that man we had a man in a in a
7-eleven store and a man came in with a
pipe I'm trying to steal money from him
and he said to him he took out a gun he
had a gun he pulled out the gun and the
man stopped he dropped the gun and he
said I'm so sorry I'm just desperate I
don't have any food that Muslim man gave
him 20 $40 and made him promise that he
wouldn't steal again and then the man
said this is this is this is something
that you can see because it was filmed
this meal of that man who was robbing
that man said I want to be a Muslim and
he said that she had a right there and
then that's like something you read in
the books because he treated him like a
human being too many people are
denigrated in this culture
you have now a culture that's emerging
where people live in these bubbles and
then other people live in another world
where SWAT teams invade their homes on a
daily basis where their children are
taking away from them because of these
protective services and they don't have
the lawyers that can prevent that from
happening
really there are two Americas that have
emerged the VIP America and the poor
America the middle class has eroded
immensely now you can if you have money
you can drive in the fast lane it didn't
used to be like that in America now if
you go to Disneyland or any of these
amusement parks you have fast tracks
because if you have money you don't have
to wait in line with the peons this is
different from the ideal that was
America so we have a lot of work to do
and finally in conclusion I want to say
to all of you I've heard a lot of
Muslims lately say I'm so depressed I
was in recently in Arabia and I have a
Muslim friend he was a very active
Muslim and I said what are you doing
these days he said no I'm I just I've
given up that's what he said to me he
said I've given up I've had enough you
know if there's no hope I grabbed him
and I shook him literally physically and
people who know me know that I'm very
capable of doing that I shook him and I
said to him what do you mean there's no
hope if you want a bit hopelessness is a
bit we're a religion of hope we live on
hope every time you're depressed or you
say there's no hope what you're saying
to every African that was brought over
in Chains and and survived the
transatlantic crossing and came here and
lived in slavery and marched to get
their civil rights you're saying to them
that was all a waste of time if you're
depressed you're dishonouring all those
Andalusia
who were chased out of what was called
paradise at the time they were chased
out of Andalusia but they made new lives
for themselves in Tunisia in Morocco and
today you have an to the sea and
families that hail from Andalusia just
like you have Palestinians here that
were chased out of their homes your
dishonouring all of those Indians that
migrated to Pakistan with the hope of a
better life
your dishonouring the Afghan ease that
have lived in over 30 years of war and
they're still trying to hold their heads
high we can't do that
there's no room for hope I'm in it till
the last breath I'm in it till the last
breath because in that last breath and I
pray to God that allah subhanho wa taala
gives me on my last breath a shadow and
la ilahe illallah WA ash hadu one
mohammed rasoolallah because I believe
in the promise of God I believe that his
prophet was true I believe that hell is
true and that the fire is true and that
the day of judgment is true and I
testify to the truth of the syrop that
we will be weighed in the balance and
there will be those who are found
wanting and there will be those who are
given grace and there will be the out
strippers these are all true things that
every prophet is taught and I believe in
them and I will hold to them till I die
and the struggle continues this world
was never meant to be paradise God has
created a world that is meant to drive
you to God and if you've been being
driven to the devil
you've been doomed my friends because
all of the hardships that you suffer in
your life if you believe in God you will
find those rewards on the day of
judgement I was in Abu Dhabi and a taxi
driver said to me and I'm done I was in
Abu Dhabi a taxi driver said to me I
said where are you from he said Dada and
I said to him I hope that your family's
safe he said the house caved in on them
my father was killed he said to me I've
worked 12 years every month I sent
everything I could back to my father to
build that house and it was destroyed I
feel like my whole life is a waste I
said to me a fee Vanara BIA testing
behind the law what law he Kentucky
bitterlin deewana dig you were in filial
piety to your parents believed in the
promise of allah subhanho wa taala
what you're doing is not to build in
this world when Ben le habia dunya
Sahaba Medina if you build for this
world what you build will go to not we
build for the next world not for this
world and if what we built if if my
college in California is destroyed by an
earthquake so be it so be it but we are
builders for the akhira and this is the
place we do it
Jews ah Kamala hey Thomas anomaly