I want to say first off that the topic is daunting to say the least. I certainly don't claim in any way to have all of the answers, it's something that I've certainly given a lot of thought too. And I was thinking on the way on the airplane actually, that I really in a sense don't have anything to add to this discourse that's original because this condition that we find ourselves in, which is in a sense is exacerbated in the present times for a number of reasons , is nonetheless a condition that this Ummah has been in for quite some time and some far more scholarly and more intelligent people than myself or others have looked at it and considered it quite deeply written. Several books and many many talks given many lectures and yet the process goes on and continues and as I was thinking that the ayah in the Quran came to me as I looked out the window actually well they kept it in a decorative animal meaning remind people because the reminder benefits the people of Eman and so in a sense we have nothing to offer any more in terms of the discourse the people speaking in this age other than reminders in the hopes that ourselves and that others will begin to heed the reminders and is the purpose of Vica that we remember.
If you look at the title about understanding the past looking at the present condition and attempting to look at some possible ways of change for the future the first thing that I'd like to point out is that I want to use a medical model it's useful I think. It's per onic because the Quran
says that Allah subhana WA Ta'ala says
in the Quran but come more editin Arabic
on this Quran has come down as a more
than exhortation and Allah says that it
is that is Rama it's a mercy and it's a
Shifa it's a healing
it's a Shiva in Matthews food or or
what's in the breasts of diseases and
illnesses and so the language of
medicine is the language of the Quran
and the prophets now when you look at a
disease or an illness there are certain
things that you have to examine first
you have to look at the nature of the
illness what is its characteristics and
the illnesses have many many different
aspects one of them is in medical
tradition you look at what are called
signs and symptoms now a sign generally
there's probably people in here that are
studying medicine or maybe doctors or
nurses or people in that medical
profession but a sign is something that
is objective that the one observing can
see it and a good position is the one
who learns to literally see signs that
lesser physicians don't see in other
words they see things that
the average person doesn't see so a sign
is an objective outward manifestation or
it could be an inward now because we use
very sophisticated ways of measuring
blood and cells and and these type
things then there's also what's called a
symptom and a symptom is something that
is articulated by the patient the
patient tells the physician what's wrong
I have a pain here well what kind of
pain it's a sharp pain because I can't
tell that if I'm taking a case history I
can't tell that that it's a sharp pain
that has to be told to me and that's a
symptom the sign is that they're
swelling that it's red
those are sign we can see outwardly so
we have to know the nature it's signs
and it's symptoms and then we have to
know the cause what is the cause of the
problem the illness itself has a cause
and this is called etiology trying to
understand where does this disease come
from now when you look ideologically at
an illness you have different aspects of
it you have a what they call causa
profundus a very deep profound cause you
have caused occasion Alice something an
occasional cause for instance somebody
could have asthma but it's a stress that
suddenly brings it on you see that's not
the cause of the disease that's simply a
an occasional cause it's something that
emerges and actually wakes up a sleeping
illness right and this is something that
stress does so you have superficial
causes and you have deep causes now if
you look in the world the vast majority
of what we read in newspapers what we
read in
magazines are very superficial causes if
there causes at all they generally tend
to be signs and symptoms and this
culture is brilliant at articulating
signs and symptoms and yet they have not
a clue as to the cause the underlying
diseases that are affecting humanity
that are afflicting humanity in any time
in place they have no understanding
whatsoever because they know the outward
of this world yeah I'm gonna lie head-on
Mineta hiya to dunya go home on it after
a few from hockey don't they know that
outward of this world they can elicit
the signs but they do not know the
inward they don't know the cause and the
greatest cause of all things is that
lusty pano it down and they're the
furthest from knowing that I lost behind
without it is ultimately the only cause
that everything else in fact is mean so
we have to look at the cause and it has
superficial aspects but we have to look
also deeply at it and then we have to
understand the prognosis which is what
does this mean generally because the
quran is filled with prognosis how does
it tell us the prognosis by looking at
the ancients by showing us the same
signs and symptoms telling us what the
cause was and then saying if you get the
same disease that they had then you have
the same prognosis that they have and
this is again and again in the Quranic
narrative it comes again and again we
see the same affliction they don't come
with anything new I guarantee you read
the Quran look at the people that are
lost behind without that destroyed they
come with nothing new the same old game
the people playing today are the same
players they change the names but
they're the same players we have our
archetypes and I'm gonna talk and tell
about the archetype of Tarun because
he's a fascinating Quranic archetype
Allah doesn't tell us about these people
to tell us about some story that
happened in
past when a bull daughter of elon who
was reminding more our way out of the
Aloha and more about the people that
were hoarding gold and he quoted the eye
and the knee knee effusion at the jabón
foot pop those who are hoarding gold and
silver moly on appeal and who said no
sir that's the key table yeah about that
i was revealed in the people of the book
he said nazareth be him Deborah tell
Lana it was revealed about them as a way
of taking a lesson was there any minute
ever milady the felicitous one is the
one who take speed from the afflictions
of others so that he doesn't fall into
the same afflictions so we have to look
at according to the now not only a
prognosis there are two types of
prognosis there's a prognosis if you
don't take a cure here's what's
generally will happen this is what the
doctor says but there's another
prognosis and that is if you take the
Cure now the difference between their
medicine and the Quranic medicine that
it can propel without right so Phoebe
this is a book there's no doubt in their
medicine is conjecture 95 out of the
statistical studies that we've taken 95
percent of the people that do this
treatments get better well what if
you're in that five percent you're not
in five percent it's 100 percent for you
that you didn't get better right so
their science is not exact it's based on
conjecture it's based on a type of
with the foreign cast Kahana really and
also on how committed which is making a
judgment based on repetitive events and
occurrences occurrences now to look at
understanding the past where do we go
the first thing in understanding the
past there are two types of paths that
we can examine I'm sure there's other
but these are the ones I'm concentrating
on the two types there are understanding
spiritually what took place in the past
and understanding material what took
place in the past materially if we look
at the matter from a spiritual point of
view or and I would have a slash there
unseen value in trying to understand the
past we have to understand what are the
spiritual and the unseen influences that
are involved in the history of the human
being because these are real the
materialist denies them he says there's
nothing other than the material world
and some of them like you or can't they
say there might be other things but we
can't know them the only thing we can
know is the material world and therefore
were cut off from it and this is console
critique of the ability of human being
of reason itself as a way of
understanding the Supra phenomenal world
the Newman or the world that goes beyond
this stuff here we can't understand it
it's impossible so we cannot know
metaphysics in the end what's beyond
this natural world it's not worth
studying anymore and now we move into
deep material sciences and so the
pursuit of man in the Western world
which is very different from the Muslim
world and inshallah I'll try to get to
that the the pursuit of the Western man
because again in understanding our past
there are two paths now that we really
have to understand we have to understand
the past of the I love you tab and we
have to understand the past of the
people of Eastern and because the other
players in this global scene
I really when we look at them
historically they do not have the same
impact on Islam that the energies have
had that you who'd won Masada and when
the province of ariram said that the
seminal adenine and publican Shiva and
the children there are and Athena and
hetero sarah kovin that's correct rule I
know and Yahoo do in Masada if you who
the one Messiah Yahshua little in the
heaven you will follow those who went
before you the blaze they went hand span
by hand span arm's length my arm Nate to
the point if they go down the lizard's
Hall you'll go down the lizard's hole as
well and in anyway and the mesh cat's
hat said Oh Kahneman women at Omaha and
Anita like an anemic even fatter them
even if there was one of them that went
to his mother
sexually there would be somebody from my
Ummah that imitated them in Hawai he
does not speak from passion when they
asked him will we follow the Jews and
the Christians you know sort of why he
said who are the people men Annette who
are the owner who are the nation's who
are the civilization other than those
people in other words not that there
weren't other civilizations there were
and the promise Eliza was aware of that
there were the Dravidians they knew cush
the the Chinese the Confucian is culture
of the Japanese culture but we are
talking about the impact who is being
imitated today the Jew and the Christian
nobody is imitating the the Japanese
people are walking around dressed like
samurais they're wearing jeans and
t-shirts and cowboy and baseball caps
when the Chinese President came here
that's what
did he put on the cowboy hats and went
to the hoedown right not like whole as a
Chinese name that's a hoedown is what
they do in Texas or something like
that's what he did you see he comes and
you look it's amazing it's interesting
because in the pictures that they showed
in the magazine his wife because China
is still a deeply conservative culture
and when you see Hillary Clinton next to
his wife his wife is what these people
would call a Wallflower there's a
nonentity there's no personality being
expressed and next to her is this woman
glamorously turning 15
so people aren't imitating these people
they're imitating these people here the
Europeans and the Americans and in
particular the Americans which is a very
interesting phenomenon so we have
outwardly when we look at attempting to
understand the past there are two paths
going on that we have to be concerned
with as Muslim as attempting to analyze
and understand the age we're living in
because we do not be ignorant of our
aids see ya mr. Wolfe mentioned in his
heart that in the shuffle of Abraham the
Prophet soul I said I was quoted as
saying in the stuff of Ibraheem one of
the wisdom that if I am an age that I
was given was Alan Marie and your Kuna a
different is Amana he moon she can t be
sandy he McQueen and a dashing indeed
that it is upon incumbent upon an
individual to know the age that he is
living in to take hold of his tongue
because that's the Malak that's the
thing that will allow you to possess all
of good in Islam is to hold your tongue
and then to get on with what is your
business the problem is that I'm said
when I first meet Islam and moderate on
Islay I need from the good Islam of an
individual is that we leave what is not
any concern to him so in understanding
this past we have to know the Muslim
past and the European and American past
also and I can't do that well you have
to do your homework the Muslims have to
look and they have to look in an
intelligent way in a sophisticated way
not in these simplistic ways that we've
been given to looking at things for some
time looking at superficial causes
talking about the superiority of
technology as this is some cause in
which the Muslims are defeated and Allah
if there's anybody in this auditorium
that still believes that they haven't
read the Quran and if they've read it
they have not understood it because the
Muslims have never been defeated because
of aruthor
or added they're never defeated because
of good
or edit and just to it's very
interesting to note many people don't
know this but between the period of 1920
the early 20s to about 1938 there was
active resistance against the French in
Morocco a Bloody Mary V is a whole
although higher on for him oh Allah of
the great wouldja heads of this century
killed three times as many French his
people his army during that period then
were killed in World War one putting up
a resistance now there are causes that
have to be understood we have to
understand what they are in a deep way
so we have to look at history because
history explains many things to us now
if you look at and you can understand it
at an archetypal level you can really do
without history if you have a deep and
profound understanding of the Quran I
guarantee you if you have a deep and
profound understanding of the quran
because Quran is history at its
archetypal level it is history in that
is constantly repeating itself and by
archetype I don't mean it in I'm really
using it idiosyncratically I mean it's
simply that it is explaining to us human
phenomena so we can see the pattern
repeated again and again we can see
moosa and throne and see that struggle
with all of the prophets and the
oppressors we can see that struggle
again and again and that's why it's
repeated so many times in the quran so
at looking now to look at some spiritual
and material forces we can go back to
the first and primary concerns which
takes you to the quranic narrative in
understanding what goes wrong right from
the very
because the Quranic narrative is very
powerful in that Adam Addison and his
wife Hawwa and Sharon are three they are
the three important creative figures
that must be understanding the Quran we
believe that they existed that they are
real and and that the story is not a a
mythology it's not a narrative
mathematician M is created by allah
subhana with the ana from water and play
as we all know which modern science has
added nothing to that statement nothing
whatsoever modern science has added
nothing to that statement because you
can take apart this human creature and
you will find water and earth that is
what we're made out of from it we came
and to return that's reality
so the quranic is not three scientific
it is science at its most accurate
descriptive state and I say that because
it speaks in a language that not some
arcane group of scientists can
understand but it is open for everyone
to understand Adam adenosine M is
created as a halifa and there are
different stories that