And on the ninth time, he just decided to
give up, and he would quite studying, and go look after sheep or something.
And he was sitting down, thinking about
this, all the energy he had put in, and he saw a little ant, going up an
anthill carrying a piece, a crumb, of bread.
And each time he would, right before he would get to the top, he would
drop the crumb, and it would go down.
And he watched this ant do this 9 times,
and on the 10th time, the ant made it over.
And he said, “Subhanallah,
should I let an ant have a higher himma, a higher
aspiration then me?”, and he decided to try it one more time, and he had an
opening on his tenth time.
And again, this is indicative of the Muslim
belief that Knowledge is an unlocking that takes place from God. Allah Subhanawatallah, is the one <Arabic>, you know, Allah is the one that
opens up things. In Suhratul
Fatiha, is the opener, and what do we ask for? <Arabic>, you’re asking for God’s
guidance.
And, beautiful story of Ibn Sina, who, despite his faults, we should look at some of his good qualities.
Ibn Sina, whenever he had a difficult thing, that he could not solve, he would start doing “Rakat”, and he would not stop doing the Rakat, until the solution came to him.
And this was something, that these scholars knew, that Knowledge is from Allah Subhanawatallah. It’s not, Allah is the giver of knowledge. And the teacher is really like a midwife, whose whose, literally, is just helping the knowledge emerge from the child, from the student.
I mean that is what a teacher is. A teacher is a murabi. And a murabi is the one that nurtures, that pours the water in, but allows the plant to grow as it would. It just gives the sustenance to the..thing.
So, you know, a grading system, again, I think, just throw them out, I really do.
Its an innovation, it’s a Bida.It’s a Bida from…everyone
talks about Bida, Now that’s a Bida. Nobody wants the... It’s an innovation from some
<Question>And
technology, the thing about technology, “Why not learn about cyberspace”?
<Answer>Because you will literally be I mean, like in
I mean, <Arabic>…, this is, “Allah
increase me in Knowledge”, is not about cyberspace, I guarantee you that. It’s not, Cyberspace is actually a really
frightening.
The World wide
Web. Just listen to what words mean,
Bait ul-Ankhaboot, in Arabic, I mean seriously, I’m not…I don’t
think that’s a joke. Just look at it, in
the Quranic vocabulary, what a web is, what the
nature of a web is.
A web is meant to trap people. That’s what it does. And the thing is, is you’re just flying
along, you know, and you get caught in a web, and before you know it, you’re
the spiders lunch.
And that’s what it is, And
that’s what they say, “Get online”, you know, there’s amazing commercials they
do, this is part of it. Because, they
want to sell technology, so they have this commercial where There’s this guy
comes in and says, “Hey John, how you doing”
“Oh great, just, I just got online here.”
And he said, “Oh, listen, I have to go
because I need to get flowers for my mom, its Mothers day, and then I need to
get tickets to such.”
“Oh don’t worry Jack, we can do it right
here, online, you know?”
And he says, “Really? Well what do you do? “
And he says, “Oh here, let me show you.”
“Oh no, I can’t do that”
“No no, it’s
really easy.”
And before you know it, they’re both there,, having a great time, and this is, this is …utopia, this
is the great, …uhmm…
<soft conversation in
the back>
Yeah, absolutely.
<Question>Were you implying in your speech, that the only way to
preserve your childs “fitra’
is to educate him or her in an Islamic environment?
<Answer>Absolutely, absolutely, that is the only way.
And at best, we will only have that one, have on the thing, with the
child and the parent, but the society is going against them, this creates a
state of confusion. And that’s at
best. There’s still going to be, and
I’ve seen this all over the
Really.
Go to Muslim conferences and see the, and I
can see Muslim
youth in here, and I know, they they, it’s very
difficult trying to work out what all this means. And what we should do, and where do we go?
These things, I mean, somebody said to me, you know it’s good since he got to
Well that’s the whole point! <soft laughing>, that you don’t have to think about that
stuff. You know, that the butcher is a Muslim, so you can think about higher
things. <soft laughing> Instead of your stomach.
Which seems to be a major concern,
people in this country, Muslims that come here.
Oh, I would just say about Audrey Shabaaz, who came here, uhmm,
who, if people are aware of her organization, which is called AWAIR, A-W-A-I-R,
and, you know, what Audrey does, is she’s a teacher who literally goes all over
the US, and other places as well, and gives talks on Islam, and I’ve seen her
presentations, and they’re very impressive, and she’s had a major impact in in the field of, introducing some Islamic, perspectives,
into dealing with Islam, in the school system, because now Islam is taught in
the 7th and the 9th grade. And her organization needs the Muslim
Communities support, and I think they’re going to be handing out, ways that you
can help them, and it’s certainly a very worthy cause.
<Question>: If you have a choice of going oversees like
<Answer>: I would….based on what I’ve seen on the curriculum’s
of Virginia and Chicago, I would go to …
Muhammad Shareef
(
Shaykh Hamza (
<Basmallah>
Well, that is a good answer, that ..certainly, we, one of the, and I mentioned on my talk
on this, on the shortcomings of the system education.
First of all, we have to realize that
Muhammad Shareef and myself were, was actually a very
primitive form of the classical madrassa system.
In fact, because it was in, such areas the
colonialists, it took them a long time to get there, due to…malaria, because of
the terrain, because they really weren’t that interested, in terms of exploiting
those countries, so there was a preservation of those traditions from
there.
But the universities in
Now there is no doubt, that initially there
was an extraordinary, resurgence of that , especially
during the Mutazila period, because to the emphasis on
rationalism, and on the intellect itself.
And that began to die down, and I think that …there’s
very sound explanations on why that happened. And there’s no doubt that
the, two emphasize strictly on the religious training, and to neglect the
aspects of these other sciences, is very dangerous to the balance of a society.
But what I would say, that the Muslims,
view these sciences as inherently sacred in themselves, as a “Fard Khifaya”. In other words, mathematics and all these, are religious sciences, so Islam does not separate
from the secular and the sacred, in the same way as the Christian has done.
Somebody asked in here, explain how a
Muslim can have the qualities of a Jew or Christian, you mentioned in the
beginning.
Now, if there are any Jewish or Christian
people in the audience, I just want to say , again,
I’m talking at a archetypal level, not about individuals.
And, basically the Quranic
archetypes it presents for the Jewish archetype, is that of people that know
the truth but don’t act according to it.
And the other aspect is is gross
materialism. And part of that is due, that the dominant Judaic tradition was that there was
no afterlife.
In other words, the purpose of the Judaic
tradition was the historicity, of the community itself. That the community was
maintained historically. And the continuity of the Jewish tradition. This is why in the Jewish tradition, the
sacred rituals, actually the sacred rituals, are historical rituals. Like the Passover, and these types of things,
celebrating the exodus.
So, what happens when that is taken to extremes, is materialism.
And in a sense, Isa Alahissalaam,
was an antidote, to materialism, because he was pure, spirituality. In fact, he was called Ruh-Allah,
<laughing>, that’s his name. If
you don’t get the point…you know.
Uhm…He didn’t have, a place where he put his head. The man was a complete aesthetic. He had left the world completely, and that
was a cure. And sometimes medicine has
to be an extreme, in order to cure the social sicknesses.
So he came, with a cure. This is why his teaching is not complete in
itself. It must be taken into historical
context. In other words, the Christian aesthecism,
must be seen in the light of the material extremism of the age, when he came.
And to take it out of its historical
context, perverts it.
And so what happens is you get the other
thing, which is the extreme leaving the world. So, In other words, the Christian went astray
by completely ignoring the world, and eventually the world came back with a
massive, Now they’ve gone to the opposite, which is
pornography everywhere, it’s a complete indulgence, in the sensual.
And a, a complete forgetfulness about
the Akhira. Which is Surah ur-Rome…
<aside> Yeah,
Inshallah.
Surah of the Romans, That Allah says, <Arabic from the Quran>,
“They know the outward of this world, most
people don’t know anything.
And then Allah, he negates their knowledge,
then he confirms their knowledge, by saying, they know the outward of this
world. But, as the next world, they are
in heedlessness about it.
So, What happens, I
think, is that when Muslims neglect although they know the truth, they neglect
the religious traditions, and emphasize the materialism, or material aspects,
this is that archetype that deviates, which is the Hebrewaic
deviation. And when they go to the
extreme of the other worldliness, and forget the concerns of this world, then
they deviate in that other matter.
So, and then the Magian,
in the sense, is an interesting, dichotomy of the two. Believing in the two Gods
of the … The God of light of the next world, and the God of Darkness in this
world.
So, the ideal is to be a balance between of
the two.
<Question> What
happened to the golden age of Islam, when the Muslims were at the forefront of
Mathematics, Science and Literature?
Some blame the Mualim, who focused on
ritualistic practice, while staying away from secular subjects, do you agree?
<Answer> Again, to just blame,
I mean, the point is.<Arabic>,
The nature of civilization is to rise, and
to fall. And what the Quran is, is an articulation of Sunnan, of why that happens.
Because, the Quran
is trying to teach us, “Why”, not so much, “how”. Because we can
learn the how.
But
the why is the important thing, why do nations…?
And Allah gives us very clear reasons for
that. And certainly
not due to emphasis on Ibadaat. <laughing> I guarantee you, and that’s one of the
reasons civilizations get Tawfeeq, or benefit, from
Allah.
So the emphasis on Ibadaat, is not what is the
cause of the Muslim decline. I think,
part of it is, actually is the Kibir, or the
arrogance, that began to manifest in the Muslim societies, where they saw
themselves as superior to other societies, and some of the letters the Muslim
rulers began wrote to write to Christian
rulers and other rulers, were so denigrating.
I Instead of, the Prophet, who use to write letters
like <Arabic>, to the Great Emperor of the Romans, as a way, because he
wanted to make dawah to them.
Whereas, you know, less then 500 years
later, you have the Sultan, you know, sending a letter: <Arabic> From the
Dogs of the dogs of
So, I think that has more to do with it,
then other things. And
also a descent into the world, and leaving Jihad. And leaving the struggle,
that Allah demands for people.
Anyway, I, there’s a lot of question, and I’m
actually starting to collect questions.
<Aside> What’s
that?
Oh alright, great…
Moderator (
I’m afraid this is the end of the Question period. Really I hope you will understand, there are so many questions, wonderful questions, that we just can’t entertain…
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf(
They’re actually very good questions
Moderator (
Yes, wonderful questions really, On a
positive note, I hear we have a sister outside, who wants to take shahadah, so it will be a wonderful thing for us to close
this session this evening with a Shahadah.
So may the person, just, come upfront, Inshallah?