Learning To Be Human (w Umar Farooq)

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Event Name: Learning To Be Human (w Umar Farooq)
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 4/27/2019 10:22:01 AM
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didn't think he owed anything to

Australia and he actually said I hate

this country even though it took you in

as a refugee and he was taken out you

know to learn about the soil do some

permaculture plant trees and in the act

of planting a tree you know he put his

hand in the ground and he said that when

I put my hand in the ground everything

changed and he said I began to love this

country and I began to feel that I'm

part of it so contact with the soil

contact with animals contact with nature

contact with each other with other human

beings talking visiting these are very

important these bring us back to a

nature there are a lot of things I would

also say martial arts and there are all

kinds of martial arts as I'm sure

everybody here knows but martial arts do

something for you one of the big

problems with males in particular is

that we don't have initiations you know

whereas in traditional societies you

have initiation

that neighbors you to move from being a

boy to being a man women often don't

need that because their biological

changes are so powerful that they serve

as initiations but you know getting back

to nature you know you should learn the

language of nature the Aborigines who

are incredible people a crowd of

incredible culture you know they teach

children to listen and if a child asks a

question they say go ask your mother

what do they mean go listen to nature

listen to what nature says about this so

and you can do that here you have this

incredibly beautiful environment you can

find yourself a sitting spot in the

forest

you know people even tell you the best

ways to do that learn the language of

the forest learn the language of the

birds the birds will come to look at you

other animals will come to check you out

so these things are very good for us you

know getting in your body you know

getting out of in in dream time for

Aborigines is being in the center brain

it's not just about dreaming it's about

being out of this analytical brain it's

always worrying and always analyzing and

concerned about stuff you know get into

the center brain so I just think it's

very easy to come back the photo I gave

you the example of our brother earth man

in Spain and many of us have seen this

in our own lives I mean look at Malcolm

X you know how this man changed so

incredibly after the pilgrimage his

voice was even different you know so we

believe in that patron this is a belief

it's obligatory for us and again this

affects the way we look at the world

that there's no one out there who is

foreign to us there's no one out there

who's alien to us and you know may we

benefit you know in learning our

tradition again one of the great dangers

of this time

and this is you know one of the things

we have to be very conscious about in

secular institutions is epistemic

warfare you know which is warfare

against your epistemology and that's

what they did the Aborigines like you're

not even human beings

you're not even animals you're like

plants you can cut down the plant you

can take away its sibling you can take

away the little plants that's what they

did

you know but the amber and epistemic

warfare means your tradition cannot

generate knowledge I spent hours with

the Aborigines in Australia and with

ones who are like basically spirit

doctors everything they say is knowledge

you know for example they don't have a

word for health they have a word for

healing that's because you have to heal

yourself every day you have to get that

negativity out of you you know that's in

you and it's just incredible but also

you know when we defend our tradition

it's not because shouldn't be because we

romantic not because we lament a loss

past no it's because I know and this man

knows and you know that our tradition

generates knowledge okay so we can't

allow our the people who don't even know

our tradition to say it doesn't you

belong in a museum we'll give you a nice

place in the museum you did produce

beautiful things and you know epistemic

warfare is imperialism and a lot of our

institutions are that way they're they

say they're liberal but they're not

liberal to anything that doesn't agree

with our the with the epistemic

tradition that they have and you're very

blessed to be in this wonderful place in

this wonderful environment some of the

best libraries and and minds in the

world and I really hope that this

institution succeeds and I believe it

will I'm amazed because the last time I

was here I don't know how many years ago

it was maybe five or seven but I

remember coming into this place and it

wasn't even used yet but I mean you know

this is a great gift that's been given

to you

and do you have great teachers you know

many of them I'm looking at right now

and may we continue to do this and I

believe myself that we are here to save

humanity in a quantum failure on quantum

later on Latino collegiately nos you are

the best community brought forth for

human beings a mammal Buhari says how

you doin a salinas you must be the best

of all people to all people and people

today they really you know how long will

this last how long will this last you

know that you know like we have schools

in Naperville right now that one class

has in it three suicides and that was

unthinkable in the old days

suicide was virtually unthinkable you

have one school they had 30 suicides

this is not right

you know these are vital signs that are

being lost and you know we have to bring

ourselves to life but we have to be life

givers as well and when we do that we'll

find a lot of good people in this

society Christians and Jews and others

you know who are on the same page that

we're on in that and in Shaw we work

together in this it's very important and

you know when we do the right things

like permaculture to me it's win-win you

know and not only that when when that

you then find that some of the best

people in the world you know you you get

to know them and that benefits us along

you know I just when I when I was in

Mauritania there was a shake there his

name was Muhammad and I mean they called

me know and when I visited him I was

staying in shear hut but he would wave

his house I think it was twenty two or

three and we we used to go visit him his

dhikr was the Hassan at how seen he was

to recited every single day by memory

the whole thing and his do I was making

dua for the OMA much like that that's

what he did was he he was I think in his

80s

at the time and he told me I've never

wished for anything to be different than

the way it was but today I wish I was a

young man so I could go with you to mark

the Hajj to study and then he picked up

some earth and he said no see Hattie

Lika

that uptight man had he had he Oh

Malcolm Marshall he said my advice you

don't get far away from this this is

your mother

you know the earth and I think one of

the things that technology is doing is

it's really distancing people from just

being with with the earth and we're

fortunate to be in an incredibly

beautiful environment here there's a lot

of places to go so I think that's really

good advice just about being in in in

nature and we know the prophets all I

said I'm he was very deeply connected to

the natural world and that natural world

spoke to him and and and he spoke back

he's with jabba the hutt jabba dona had

one out you know walk barefoot in the

grass yeah it's incredible

it's not too cold I'm sure the matter do

I'm sure how fat insane Omar said that

remind yourself be like mad even Adnan

and walk barefoot sometimes right yeah I

said no more said even you know I mean

even when you wear your shoes you can

imagine that you're walking barefoot

you're feeling the earth underneath you

these things are all very very valuable

to us they're also very good for our

health and getting rooted and learning

to be human beings again right that's

one of the things we have to do but I

just emphasize it's easy to do that

mm-hmm it's not difficult even though it

would might seem to you impossible but

this is one of the easiest things to do

that's also God's mercy it's so easy to

come back and it's very difficult to

astray to go astray

because the point where we're at right

now

there was a lot of work put into that

over a lot of generations it didn't just

happen overnight

you know and there's a lot of money

invested in that as well and it's very

easy to come back and to be yourself and

to be natural and you know our religion

is a religion of service and love and

service and love you know everything one

last point in question to you you talked

also about beauty and the importance of

beauty the the prophets of Lies to them

when the man asked him about was wearing

nice clothes and a good Santa was that

from arrogance and he said no it's it's

it's a lot loves beauty and and and one

of the things that that I find really

notable about pre-modern people is that

they they adorned things they they

didn't have a lot of things generally

but what they did had they always made

beautiful and when I was in Mauritania

they started using Bic pens their

traditional pen was a bamboo pen but

they started using big pens but the

women would adorn them with leather and

make them very beautiful so they would

actually take the plastic and they would

just do a design on it and then put

little frills at the end of it and the

students would write with these pens and

when I asked one of the women why they

did that she said it's so ugly you know

the bigger pen you know and and what is

what is that thing in humans that wide

not just have a functional carpet why

put the Tree of Life on the carpet why

not just have functional walls why put

wainscotting with designs on the on the

I mean what is that and how do we

restore that because Muslims they

dressed beautifully even peasants

dressed view you know the Afghan

embroidery and and the the seborrhea

that the Egyptian fella wears with the

striped people really have become they

don't you don't see the the

the the Caliphate of God in that in that

human being anymore and how is that

restored you know traditional societies

you should tell me any traditional

society that was not beautiful you know

look at the first nations of this land I

mean look at the Inuit you know the

Eskimos we're really a civilization

there are on that's a good example of

I'm wrong that doesn't have cities but

everything they did was beautiful

look at the Aborigines you can't believe

how beautiful everything they they they

make is and we were like that too we

were a highly skilled society we were a

society of crafts and everything guilds

and everything we made was beautiful and

that's because God is beautiful

and he loves beauty beauty is the

splendor of truth' you know and that

means God doesn't love ugliness and

ugliness is the mark of falsehood

ugliness means you've gone astray so you

know getting this back again I believe

it's going to be easy and again if we

look at say tuna and if we look at many

of the brothers and sisters that are

dear to us look at the beauty they they

they they create you know so God is

beautiful if you love God you become

beautiful you become internally

beautiful that's the universal routing

and then what you produce is graceful

and beautiful even the way you walk even

the way you talk even the words you use

because you want to use beautiful words

you want to know what your words mean so

this is very important to get back this

beauty and everything and that makes us

human you know that Alma to Dede who is

one of our great theologians he talks

about how God holds us back from evil by

putting us in a natural setting we still

do evil but the natural setting is

telling us this is wrong this is wrong

this is wrong what happens however when

you put people in an ugly setting of

broken windows

you know

you know broken glass in a graffiti you

know rats so forth it you can't believe

there's such a thing as truth anymore

you can't believe that there's any such

a thing as goodness anymore and that's

what beautification is something we have

to do to ourselves and in Islamic art I

believe the highest form of art is

architecture architect and and in our

tradition architecture is what generates

so many other forms of incredible art

you know but our art according to some

it begins with clothing some would say

it begins with the mihrab the recitation

of the Quran the writing the Quran but

clothing is one of the first things and

we we believed in beautiful clothing and

who didn't all traditional people were

like that you know and it showed their

identity it showed their honor and it

showed what they believe in who they are

you know but we wanted clothing that

would be beautiful we want a clothing

that also we could pray in and not be

embarrassed you know you look at their

Eid prayers you know in Nigeria and you

can put it National Geographic you look

at us praying I eat prayers it's like

please don't take a picture in tell her

you know sitting up or standing up again

right except for the sisters they're the

ones that come off okay but you know we

wanted to call so clothing that would

look good clothing also we can do

ablution with easily and we made

beautiful things and you know in

Pakistan those of you who have been to

Pakistan you're from Pakistan they have

enroll pindy this incredible museum

called Lok varsa and local varsa in

Punjabi means the tradition of the

people and I went to that museum the

woman who took me she was one of the

curators she said and I was this is a

question in my mind

and so she answered it without me asking

it and it's like she said this is a

museum designed to preserve the cultures

of this land not to destroy them because

many people say that you know being put

in a museum is likes a lot of janazah

you know it's this the end of your

culture so they said we don't want to do

that and then if you go there you know

and you look at all these cultures in

Pakistan

you know Punjabi you know Pashtuns you

know the Cyndi's they're all these

different cultures and they're all

beautiful and everyone is distinctive

everyone is distinctive and they're so

beautiful it's like beyond words oh good

look at look at what the Indonesians to

what the Malays do but this is the way

we were traditionally you know you go to

a rosales this beautiful retreat we have

in Spain and you have a tile which is to

me one of the most beautiful tiles in

the world

you know it's an Andalusian tile but

it's called the breath of the most

merciful

and the colors are soft you know and

then you have what is called in a

Contracting Square which looks like a

cross with points and you have expanding

square which looks like I guess an

octagon okay inside and that's that's

the breadth of the most merciful in and

out and you know so how did they develop

that and it's so simple but and

especially I do I'tikaf there in the

last ten days of you know Ramadan if I

can and you know I just like to focus on

those tiles because to me they're

spiritually therapeutic right so this is

who we were and this is who we are and

this is who we must be and you know

beauty is our means right beauty in

making beauty and you know again you

know one of our teachers who studied

metaphysics we talked tonight about my

booty and koona we and others these are

the greatest Mehta physicians they are

spectacular

you know this man spent his life

studying great mother physicians and

that's not something that everybody can

do not everybody can do rocket science

you know but this man he was visiting a

particular place in Pakistan I think

body Imam

or bullish ah I don't know which one it

was and he's overstayed his time so he

came out it was late at night and he had

to be taken to his hotel and his hotel

was a long ways away and there is nobody

there and then out of the darkness came

this cart a cart driver and those of you

who know or do you know what they call

that cart

I always forget and you know the cart

driver he said if you looked at him his

clothes you could buy all of them for

one dollar in the market he was a poor

man and so he spoke them he didn't know

or do he knew Persian he spoke to him in

Persian and said could you take me to

the hotel the man answered or do he

could understand it because the

languages are close he got on the front

seat of the car with this poor man and

the man who was he

this world is filled with amazing things

began to recite to him from Hafez and

Rumi in perfect Persian and he said in

those 45 minutes I learned more about

metaphysics than I learned in 30 years

so beauty is the language of truth also

and that's why you know even some of the

things we talked about tonight because

it put in an intellectual vocabulary

not everybody can understand that but

when you put that into poetry when you

put that into rhyme when you put that

into art and into beauty you know then

everybody gets it and beauty attracts

you then to those meanings this is why

also our societies were so beautiful and

you know a lot about that I remember

going to one of the great I think it's

the celli mia one of the great mass of

scene and in a DNA I think it is and

it's basically read and I actually

couldn't leave that mosque it's like

this is the story of the whole universe

you see it's a he's telling it in colors

he's telling in symbols he's telling

into shapes but like what have you done

here you see so this pulls our souls to

the truth and oddly Nastasia opposite

and that's why we want to replace the

ugly

with beauty thank you on that note I

want to thank you dr. omar on behalf of

the community here for coming this way

also Hodja Samara for coming and

supporting you may you have a blessed

trip here the Maurice Murray tenían say

that Abbas in Shaba may not see any evil

I want to thank everybody for coming out

tonight

may Allah subhana WA Ta'ala bless doctor

Omar Abdullah Farook and his family and

his loved ones and keep him safe and

preserve him Shalom may we benefit from

what we've heard tonight and may you all

return to your homes safe and sound and

and have a blessed sleep with some dream

time inshallah may you say may you see

beautiful things in your dreams

tonight's and shall one of the signs of

the end of time is many beautiful dreams

that are true you see because this is

one of the ways it God's merciful to you

that you live in a world where so many

people don't believe so he sent you

these incredible dreams so may you have

beautiful dreams sweet dreams alive

archaic own ceremony

you

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