covenants right so in surah number 7 the
heights 101 to 102 God says these are
the towns whose stories we have
recounted unto you their messengers
certainly brought them clear proofs but
they would not believe in what they had
denied earlier
thus does God set a seal upon the hearts
of the disbelievers we did not find most
of them faithful to their pact many
commentators if not most they say that
pact is the primordial covenant indeed
we found most of them to be deviant in
their unfaithfulness to God's pact it is
said that in fact that human beings have
no pact at all literally the verse says
we found no pact for most of them they
didn't have a pact they didn't keep it
and what this means they were not
faithful to the pact means that they did
not continue to recognize God's lordship
and his rightful claim to their
obedience and worship during the course
of their earthly lives although they
took that covenant and everything
necessary for it was stamped on their
natures even the desire to do it so the
verse implies that most human beings are
unfaithful to their natures and this
comes up over and over again they fail
to act we fail to act upon the intrinsic
knowledge
and the moral agency and
responsibilities that God has instilled
in us so the the Fatah then is something
that takes in the whole of our being we
talked about that it takes in everything
about us it's natural for us to stand
erect it's natural for us to walk on our
feet it's difficult for us not to do
that it's natural for us to eat in a
particular way it's difficult for us not
to know that but the fit role also
includes those things that pertain to
intellect that pertain to the heart and
everything it's a very comprehensive
knowledge and it is we believe a
manifestation of God's mercy to us
because we believe that human beings are
given a very important task which is
stewardship on this earth this world is
not our garden you know it's the garden
of the animals it's the garden of the
trees and of the water you know but to
keep that pact of stewardship is very
very difficult if we are good everything
becomes good if we are bad everything
that comes back but God gives us
everything we need for that in fact he
gives us much more than we need and much
more than we ever use also connected
with this is the idea that faith which
is ingrained in us by virtue of our
fitler our primordial self is something
that only needs to be brought out we
only have to be reminded so there are
basically two kinds of people then from
this point of view those who turn their
backs on the futur and forget that it's
there and forget what it is and those
who allow their thoughts to delve into
their futur to know themselves and to
remember the infinite treasures that are
stored up there
and God says in the Quran this is the
refrain that goes through the whole
Quran that perhaps they may remember and
he says in order that the people of
al-bab of true hearts a call to
remembrance and he says remember the
blessing of God upon you and the
Covenant that he made with you and this
theme of Vicar and Tessa Korah and
thethe key are in death care this goes
through the piranhas as you know so
again what are you remembering you're
remembering what you know and the
prophets and messengers who are given
their messages by God they come to bring
that out in us and to make us remember
who we are and what we have in us one of
the things that God says in the Quran is
that he created us with two hands with
his two hands God said to Satan I
beliefs what prevented you from
prostrating unto what I created with my
two hands he doesn't say that about
anything else God creates things with
his hand that's that's said with his
hands but here I created with my two
hands did you grow arrogant or are you
among the exalted he said Satan I am
better than him you created me from fire
while you created him from clay but here
God is saying to a Blees are you really
like you think are you really a creation
more exalted than this Adamic being that
I made with both my hands I didn't make
anything else like that and the verse
indicates that God undertook the
creation of Adam by himself
of course God creates everything but
that this was a unique and special
creation which all of us inherit
stink from everything else and
everything that God's hands have wrought
God singled out Adam then for creation
with God's two hands or by his two hands
to honor him to give him Kurama dignity
among all human beings and again to make
it possible for him to do what he's
created to do it been out of him he says
from the first existent thing down to
the last of existent things God did not
combine both hands in anything he
created except the human being that is
in the human beings earthly and bodily
and other configurations he created
everything by the divine command but
with one hand
God's two hands gave Adam a preeminence
to sheath over all creation all the
realities in the created world were
brought together in him which of course
makes him possibly the lowest of the low
but it also makes him the highest of the
high everything in creation has a
station angels have stations cats are
cats birds are birds but human beings
you have to find your station and you
can always go higher and higher and
higher there's no limit we can also go
lower and lower and lower there's no
bottom to the pit all the realities in
the created world were brought together
in us this was so that the human being
could be the Khalifa unga of God on
earth so you know good and you know evil
there's nothing that you don't know even
the demonic doesn't know more about evil
than you know but you weren't created to
be evil you were created to block evil
but you have to know it to do that the
world demands
you know the divine names and the divine
names were brought together with
in Adam all of them that is why Adam was
singled out for the knowledge of the
names of all of them as we believed and
also rabbinic belief emphasizes this as
much as we do maybe even in greater
detail a lot of rabbinic belief begins
with Adam pad moon with Adam in paradise
so Adam then is an independent world
everything else is part of that world
the world becomes complete with the
creation of adam adam is complete in
himself
and the world is like that - you are the
microcosm it is the macrocosm if you get
yourself right it gets itself right it
is incomplete without you you're
complete without you it is complete
without it but you are complete without
did I say they're right it is incomplete
without you and you're a complete
without it the two hands emphasize God's
power in Adams creation and that God
created Adam without an intermediary
there was no father there was no mother
it alludes also to the diverse
activities involved in Adams creation I
will pass him push ad one of our great
spiritual masters and teachers he says
about the creation of Adam by God's two
hands what God deposited in Adam is not
found in anyone or anything else so that
God's special favor and the special who
sucia the special status that he gives
to human beings become manifest in Adam
and in his children one of our great
scholars gen D we have great Persian
scholars he's one of them he says the
reality of beliefs of Satan contradicts
the reality of Adam and everything the
reality of Adam is the manifest form of
the unity of the all comprehend
if nests of everything brought together
by God in the engendered worlds so
that's Adam he brings everything
together and that's who we're supposed
to be also God brought his two hands
together in Adam
only because humaneness is a reality
requiring equilibrium ya t doll and
balance and the perfection of bringing
together both the the thickness of
things and the men eNOS of things is all
in that in contrast the reality of a
Blees is disequilibrium and unbalance a
Blees becomes defined by the particular
ego which we call in our tradition Elana
nieta Lucia the partial ego he is
delimited by seeking exaltation by
claiming eminence by manifestation of
the self as ego rising up against the
reality of truth and of the one and he's
veiled by that this reality requires a
fiery separation that rise up rises up
against other elements couldn't we one
of our great scholars he says the
interrelationship of God's two hands
brings all correlation and polarity and
the world into existence and all of
those correlations and polarities are of
course in us who can be the highest of
the high and the lowest of the low
it establishes the fundamental created
dualities such as the seen and the
unseen it sets up the fundamental human
perceptions such as declaring similarity
between God and creation or between
creation and God and incomparability
tanzy all movement all change all
process in the world or trace back to
this reality of the two hands let's
conclude
now so we believe in our tradition in
what some people have called
transcendent humanism and I always like
to mention this if I get a chance but
among the books that really everyone has
to have especially students as a tuna is
the rise of humanism by George Makdissi
this was a great Christian Arab scholar
a real scholar and he shows that the
rise of human human ISM in the West we
won't say that it's not indebted to the
Greeks and to the Hellenic tradition but
it's fundamentally indebted to us also
the rise of humanism in fact Pico della
Mirandola who is one of the great
ideologues of the Renaissance and he
writes a book on man which is called the
manifesto of the Renaissance but he says
in that he's speaking to Catholic
priests and he says Reverend father's
I'm not going to quote what he said
because I forgot
but basically what he's saying is that
he is the measure of all things which is
the Renaissance language as I learned
from Abdullah the Saracen which means
Abdullah the Arab and who is Abdullah
the Saracen probably Abdullah even poo
Tabor who is one of our humanists who
wrote about that many centuries before
Piko Piko know Arabic by the way and he
knew Hebrew and he knew many things but
the human being is either everything or
nothing and although we can speak
honestly about in between there is no
excluded middle but the reality is
really that we have to strive to be
everything and if we don't do that in
the end it's as if we were nothing and
some of us do in fact become nothing
Nadja but Ned Modine or Ozzie another
great Persian meta physician says in
kneading the clay of Adam
all the attributes of the satans and the
Predators and the beasts and the plants
and the minerals and the inanimate
objects were actualized in us however
the clay was singled out for the
attribution of by my two hands hence
each of these blameworthy attributes
became a shell and within each shell was
placed a pearl of a divine attribute
each of these things these potential
evils we have they're like a shell and
in each of them is a pearl
that's if we were we live as the human
beings were supposed to be and then he
goes on to say the human frame belongs
to the lowest of the low while the human
spirit belongs to the highest of the
high the wisdom of this is that human
beings have to carry the burden of the
trust and the pact the knowledge of God
and to be stewards in his earth hence
they have to possess the strength of
both worlds to a perfection they
possessed possessed this strength
through attributes not through form life
knowledge power will hearing seeing
speech and so forth since the human
spirit pertains to the highest of the
high nothing in the world of spirits
even Angels can have its strength and in
the same way the human soul pertains to
the lowest of the low
so that nothing in the world of the
souls or the physical beings can have
its strength whether a beast or a
predator or anything else
so our transcendent humanism then is
based on the idea of the in sandal camel
of the perfect human being the human and
this is the purpose of religion for us
you know religion is to know God it is
to worship God it is to know God it is
to be his steward
earth but also you can't do that without
perfection and we have the power to
perfect ourselves but this is in
following the way of the prophets and
the messengers and the great Saints so
the goal of the human being therefore is
balance and harmony everything is that
and in the Greek tradition you see that
understood
perhaps more perfectly than any other
Western tradition the goal of the human
being is balance harmony and perfection
Kamel
we must arise and become Allen sandal
camel the perfect human being and you
must in that move beyond Allen Sun and
hyowon the human being who's an animal
to become a perfected human being is not
only the highest possible human
aspiration it is the only proper human
aspiration human beings who do not
actualize their beautiful and majestic
and unique form are less than human we
can only become perfect through absolute
servanthood through our ibadah through
Budhia through Buddha each of these has
a special meaning for nearness to God
only comes through that God is the real
this is what we believe
isn't it the absolute I'll help the more
that you approach him the more real you
become the more real you become the more
balanced you become beauty is the
splendor of truth' right that the the
universal routing of beauty is God is
the truth God is beautiful he loves
Beauty then as you come close to him and
are made real by him you become inwardly
beautiful which is balanced harmonious
just virtuous and then you radiate
beauty and this is why we see in any
sound civilization or culture that human
beings are extremely beautiful and
everything they do
God is the real so the closer that we
approach him the more real we become and
with
I'd like to conclude may god enable us
in this incredible College that you have
here in this incredible place to bring
this truth to life this is our tradition
but then who knows it in this time even
we ourselves are among the most ignorant
people of it thank you very much
[Music]
Part 2
[Music]
first of all just wanna thank you dr.
Amato for your talk I mean the the book
that you wrote which I have in Arabic
about cetera Amman and cetera Abdullah
bin baya actually read that book and was
very impressed with it the hadith that
you quoted cool amalu denuded Oh Allen
cetera
baba who you hurry Daniel oh you know
Serrano you Magister nahi that the
hadith indicates that people are
enculturated into customs and beliefs
and traditions but then he says come out
to a jeweled behemot obey the hematin
Gemara just as the animal is created
complete or whole in its nature held to
his Sunnah behind in Jeddah do you
notice any mutilations that that you do
as humans to your animals like cutting
their ears and things like that so it
indicates that the Vitara is it's it's a
wholeness in nature that's there but the
hadith also indicates that there's a
whole set of other possibilities to that
that inherent or Principia nature and
one of the things I think that's very
confusing for people in the 20th century
we've seen human nature is denied like
this idea that we have human nature is
denied and that all peoples the
anthropologists and sociologists and
social scientists have shown that
there's so much diversity in the world
that it's impossible for us to have some
type of human nature that unites us all
as this hadith would indicate and
there's a very interesting Herodotus in
the histories has a very
interesting section where Darius the
King brings the Greeks and they honor
their fathers by burning them and he
asked them how much money would it cost
to get them to honor them by eating them
and they said they you could give them
all the money in the world they wouldn't
eat they were horrified by that and then
he brings the Indians and who ate their
father's to honor them and he says how
much money to burn your fathers and they
were horrified by that and Herodotus
makes this comment about how customs are
so different even though they were both
honoring their their ancestors so just
in terms of how do you see this
incredible diversity of human expression
and and the relationship that it has to
this idea of a universal nature when we
talk about the filtra you know then some
of the most important verses about it
are like surah Deschamps in surah 13 you
know by the fig and the olive and so
forth by the sun and the morning
brightness so these are these are
chapters in the Quran which established
that human beings are perfectly created
and that there's nothing wrong about
them at all
but commentators say that one of the
reasons why they're preceded by the
oaths is because the oath in Arabic
means this is the literal truth it's
emphatic it's not metaphorical it's
absolutely so but it needs that emphasis
because no one would believe this and
you know that if you look at what people
do especially the evil they do this also
takes on so many forms it's impossible
to comprehend and it is very clear and
the other hadith we just denied as you
know just looked at a very small part
even the hadith I mentioned
left out two-thirds of the hadith just
for times sake you know but it's very
clear in our tradition that it is the
demonic more than anything else that
alters the human beings and they do it a
thousand different ways times a thousand
different ways if we would look for
proofs of the filter law then I think
one of the greatest proofs of that in
the 20th century is the great Austrian
[Music]
anthropologist Vilhelm it and he wrote a
book in German das poem this idea got
this Goethe cedilla the origin of the
idea of God never translated into
English and it's 12 volumes and you know
this book is really amazing because he
spent his life documenting all the
so-called primitive religions primitive
religions being what we call micro
religions their kinship groups that
don't have political structures
everything is determined by kinship and
these little groups that we call
primitive they're always very isolated
otherwise they wouldn't be that way and
there many of them especially in the
20th century there still were many that
are not there today and he showed that
all of them have the idea of the one God
no exceptions whatsoever none of them
are polytheistic in the sense of having
Pantheon's not a single one and he did
that also to refute lubbock and tyler
who were evolutionist anthropologists
who didn't do research by the way they
didn't do good research and they claimed
that religion begins with animism so he
showed that's absolutely not true and he
himself who was a catholic he believed
that this was a proof of ancient
prophecy and we wouldn't necessarily
disagree with him because these people
are so isolated and yet they have these
amazing similarities that pertain not
just to the belief in the one god
then they call by beautiful names you
know but also they believe in morality
they believe that marriage is given to
them by God they believe in heaven and
hell some of them even believe in the
sea rot the path that takes you to the
garden and so we would also say that's a
manifestation of football but like as
you said human beings no one has a
greater spectrum of potentials good and
bad than us right
the Nesta Webster who was regarded
before she went into conspiracy theories
and as a historian in one of her books
she makes that argument that the the
unitarianism was the aboriginal faith of
human beings that idolatry was was
secondary and and not primary so she I'm
wondering if she was influenced by that
well Arnold Toynbee was right that's one
of the main influences on Arnold Toynbee
and Arnold Toynbee who is really a
remarkable thinker and you know
historians sometimes are equivocal about
whether they want to accept him or not
because he's he does what historians are
not supposed to do which is to tell you
what it all means
but you know Toynbee I was very deeply
influenced by Schmitt and by others and
one of the interesting things about
Toynbee is that he believed that the
most advanced human beings who ever
lived were those of the Paleolithic of
the Old Stone Age and again he doesn't
say that just off the top of his head
they didn't build cities like we built
cities but they were spiritually very
far advanced and he bases that on a lot
of things but Schmidt's one of them well
you brought up Toynbee and I think you
were the first one that exposed me to
Arnold Toynbee that's kind of become a
very interesting reference that I go
back to at different times I think some
of the students I have actually read at
least the abridged
version of toy biz study in history but
one of the things that he talks about he
at the outset of the study he argues for
the differences like these differences
in civilizations and he wants to
understand where civilization originated
from and what produces it and he he
basically rejects race this idea that
there's racial superiority and some
peoples as opposed to others he
categorically rejects that but he does
make an argument that there are distinct
manifestations of civilization and one
of the things that again as human
expressions there's such an incredible
diversity on the planet of human
behavior and expression so which would
you do you see civilization as something
that unifies human beings in in in from
from a fifth sense that humans by nature
begin to create civilization you know
language is so important so when we use
the word civilization one of the
problems is that it defining the term it
comes from the word city so it's those
great societies that build big cities
like Rome and so forth and this is where
in our tradition we use the word I'm
wrong and I'm wrong to me is a much
better word because of the fact that it
has nothing to do with cities it means
bringing things to life you know it
could be preferred to better ones just
as although we have al-hilal and Alaba
do but you know I think that you know
with with Toynbee and you know his
concept of civilization this focusing on
these civilizations that are big States
and so forth I think that that's if we
had a broader spective it would be good
of course when he talks about human
beings in the Paleolithic then he's
taking that broader perspective but
Toynbee also believes very much
what he calls the creative minority and
one of the most important ideas in point
B is that history is always the work of
minorities and therefore more minorities
that are galvanized and that have
solidarity they will lead and they will
have great effects and he believes that
civilizations like those of Egypt and
those of Mesopotamia and those of
ancient China the Yellow River Valley
Civilization the Yellow Emperor that you
know that these begin by creative
minorities and creative minorities are
always inclusive and they're not
oppressive and they're great gift to
human beings and in fact maybe hitomi
hints at this but we could easily say
that they're prophetic and he emphasizes
the fact that to do civilizations like
those of Egypt or Mesopotamia or the
yellow valley in China is such an
immense human undertaking that
essentially can't be done without a
prophet it's got to be done with
something that can you know give us
divisions in labor and a whole way knew
of weight in a new way of living but
then the civilizations usually become
civilizations of domineering or dominant
minorities and then they oppress and
they become the they become you know the
Prophet they become the property of the
elites and then they create which time
what time because the proletariat's
using that Marxist term but you have an
internal proletariat which are the
oppressed people in the society and you
have an external proletariat which are
usually better when people's who are
also oppressed by that civilization he
would regard the pre-islamic Arabs to be
the external proletariat of the
Byzantine and Persian empires okay so
they have to keep their distance but
they also learn from them how to use
weapons
and usually they can often conquer them
as well but I sort of forgot the
questions well yeah okay it's fine let
me let me look at something else here
that you brought up the idea of moving
because you spoke very beautifully about
the Adamic nature and that human beings
are these incredibly honored creatures
but there's also in the quran in san
which is a difficult word to translate
you know it's the intimate being it's
the being that that represents the
essence it's that dying you know the in
san is the essence of the of the the the
i but the in son is also talked about
potato in Sonoma Clara you know that
that in Santa Julio Kahului you know the
human being was created in angst and
anxiety he's called a jewel in the Quran
he's hasty he's oppressive you know ya
Johannes in the Mubarak inada and fusco
your oppression is against your own self
nasa talking to all humanity Marvin I'm
now who are economists um Kennedy Albany
moon we didn't oppress them but they
were oppressing themselves so there's
also this other side of the human being
that is actually very negative in the
Quran and obviously the Christian
tradition deals with that with the idea
of the Fallen human being how would you
address that aspect of the human being
so this is also part of the futur all
that it has the negative capacity right
and it is forgetful and it has to be
forgetful because then it can't use what
its Vitolo is for which is to rediscover
it and when we come into life we believe
that all children until the age of
maturity or sometime after that they're
Saints you know because of the fact that
they have this fitrah and they're also
not morally responsible they're not
moral agency you know but then as the
passions develop in us then these
passions you know the the idle of the
pig the idol of the dog anger and
appetite
you know they will necessarily veil us
from who we are so you have this seeming
contradiction between holy people in
Sanyo hell you are either Meza who shall
rue Jews who are with either a mystical
faith oh man you are so we have this but
again our commentators make it very
clear that this is a particular type of
human being you know here's a human
being who's not true to his or her foot
law and what was the other part just you
know that idea of looking at the human
and all these negative qualities so
would then human nature if we if we say
there is a human nature that's universal
I mean you'd exceed that we would insist
but but for us the nature and from that
hadith that began the talk the nature
the human nature is really a nature of
potentialities of is of capacities and
and so the actualization and we have the
concept of it an incentive common you
know this idea of the perfectible human
being that can move towards a kind of
wholeness or completeness which is a
restoration of that of that first being
is that is that mmm is that how we have
that and you know of course I'm a
convert this beloved brother is a
convert many of the people here are
converts and I remember when I became a
Muslim which was early January the 3rd
1970 and then as I went through that
first year there were certain dilemmas I
had in my heart from before like an
emptiness even though I had been
religious and that was filled
you know believe it or not you could
actually see your face changing in the
mirror
especially in Ramadan like can I do this
can I fast this I've never done that in
my life and then you just see yourself
changing and so it's this is manifest I
think to most people who come into the
faith and I remember when we were in
Spain Sheikh Hamza was also part of that
that we had a particular person come to
us from the mountains he was from Madrid
he came from a Stalinist background he'd
become a Buddhist he was in a black suit
that he could sleep in or keep him warm
he did his own Buddhism and then all of
his buddies joined us and he was we
later called him ice man you probably
met him and when he came to us he was
frightening you know his eyes were like
about to pop out of his head yeah and we
had a madrasah which comes a I met him
there and we had it was an Andalusian
type of school and you know we had a
little door with a open for the window
you know it's like a window to the door
to know who's knocking and when he
knocked at the door the brother who went
to open it shut it just like that it's
like and then he says oh my god like
what if he becomes a Muslim you know
we've got enough crazies in the
community already
and he kept knocking and if finally we
had to let him in and then in Nelly lie
he were in LA he wrote you know he took
the Shahada we thought oh my god what
are we going to do and I know my wife
Samira remembers him really well and
like within three weeks you could not
recognize him and he was also a
professional Acrobat and I would watch
him from my office looking over the
garden and he couldn't take two steps
without doing us a big skipped and the
way that Acrobat skip is not the way you
skip and he became he became the most
beautiful person in our community and he
became a person that you know anything
you wanted done even cleaning your house
even doing your laundry
you know sacrificing a chicken he would
be the one to do it so again one of the
most important things is you can come
back to the football and that's why we
say the filter can be altered but it
can't be substituted for something else
my wife and I when we were at Michigan
where I began to teach in 1978 you know
we were in student housing because I was
an assistant professor who's always poor
and she was also completing her
education that we were in the Graduate
housing and there was a woman there who
was a feminist she was divorced with a
child she was a law student and I don't
know why but she liked us we liked her
and we always argued and she's always
talking you have you can't get in a word
edgewise and then you know one spring
day and she's talking about you know
that how horrible religion has been to
women and we say that women are
religions best friends that religious
not necessarily their best friend and
you know so one spring day she was out
we were out in an open area and her son
was there he's about three years old
and he was having a big time and then he
got over to where the cars were parked
hmm you know on a street both sides of
the street and there's a car coming down
the street really fast and he's going
out between the cars and then she
notices him just at the last moment
where did she say oh my god
I swear she said oh my god and the car
slammed on its brakes and it screeched
and there was crying and yelling and he
escaped by an inch of his life
you see and then and this is what the
Quran says that anyone who calls upon
God in dire need he will answer their
prayer that was st author which she did
which is coming out of what her fitful
but when the fitara is veiled over it
only shows itself to be what it is in
times of great fear mm and this was a
time of great fear I can't lose my son
and also times of great joy and that can
they say there's no disbeliever in the
foxhole so but the ability of the fits
order to come back this is very hopeful
for us isn't i