I was asked to talk about Al-Andalus. It is one of the most extraordinary portions of our great Islamic history and in reviving the spirit of Al-Andalusia it's important that we first of all look at
what Al-Andalusia means to the Muslims and Andalus is the greatest European expression of Islam.
Islam has been in Europe for centuries. Islam was in Eastern Europe for centuries but the Islam that Andaluz is a Western European phenomenon and we should remember that that for over 800 years Islam begins in Spain in 711 in Christian era and it does not end until the final expulsion in 1609.
People forget they think of 1492 as the end of the Muslim experience in Spain the reality is is that the Muslims continued to exist in large numbers in Spain until 1609 which is the final expulsion and in 1568 for two years 1568 and fifteen - fifteen seventy that was the last actual resistance, the war of Mijares or the alfajores mountains which are just east of Grenada.
And this was led by a Muslim Ferdinando or whose Muslim name the Muslims by that time had both Spanish names and their Islamic names just like many converts here have their Western names and their Islamic names these Morisco's, who were living in Spain as Muslims and
they were actually Spanish Muslims they
spoke Spanish they wrote in Spanish that
you often used Arabic script this man
who's named his Muslim name was Muhammad
bin umeå led a two-year resistance
against the Spanish in 1568 to 1570 so
it's important to remember that that
nine hundred years over nine hundred
years the Muslims were in Spain now I
want you to imagine America is a country
that's over 200 years old and we feel
like we've been there a long time even
though we're all newcomers
I have ancestors that came very early
and then I have ancestors that came as
late as 1896 through Ellis Island my
grandfather my great-grandfather and
with him his son who was my grandfather
came through Ellis Island he's my
mother's father as late as 1896 so I
want you to imagine that the Canadians
who were really the loyalists of the war
of independence they did not split off
from the United States or rather from
England and many of the loyalists in
America in the United States of America
fled to Canada because the Canadians
remain loyalist when I was reading
Canadian history I was shocked to find
out that we were the bad guys in the war
of 1812 I always thought we were the
good guys but I was reading Canadian
history and they looked at it very
differently and we're neighbors so I
want you to imagine that the Canadians
decide that the Americans are out of
control this is just an imaginary
scenario so don't worry that the
Americans are out of control they're
threatening the world with proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction they're
cheerin izing and terrorizing and doing
all these horrible things and also the
fact that they're burning the vast
majority of fossil fuels they're causing
permafrost in Canada to melt and the
permafrost is very important for the
stability of the atmosphere and now we
know that the polar bears which our
Canadian citizens are really suffering
right now so the Canadians are fed up
they say we're going to drive the
Americans out of America into Mexico so
they they basically invade America
imaginary scenario they invade America
the Canadian Mounties on their horses go
down into America and drive the
Americans into Mexico and the Mexicans
being the generous people and warm
people that they are they embrace the
Americans as refugees from economic
deprivation and loss of housing and all
other things so they embrace them and
say nuestra casa es tu casa no I
problema
so there's your scenario now what would
the Americans do they I think personally
you know being from America I really
think they would begin a resistance
movement in Mexico and start operations
to get their country back because
they've they've been there for 200 years
200 years now imagine the Muslims in
Spain 900 years 900 years and they're
driven out of their homes by an invading
force from the north that called the
Reconquista which is not a valid term it
wasn't a reconquest the northern
Spaniards were never they weren't from
southern Spain they weren't from
attended OU's so you imagine what would
happen in that scenario it's a very
interesting problem now the Spanish have
basically denied the 900 years of Muslim
Spain really they've completely denied
it they see it as arab invaders and i
want to talk a little bit about that
first of all thought up in Ziad was
actually encouraged Musa even Messiah
who was the governor then of the
Umayyads of the East badhak bin zayed
was his general but they were encouraged
to cross over to Spain the reason for
that is because there was a count in
suta swetha which is part of Morocco
it's actually Spanish Morocco it's still
part of Spain but it's in Morocco this
count Julian and
he's called urban as well had a daughter
Florinda and he it was the habit of the
the nobility at that time to send their
children to the courts of the Visigothic
Kings in order for them to become
culture so he sent his young daughter
she was 14 or 15 to the court of King
Roderick which was in Toledo and in that
court she was raped by the king
now she was blamed for this but when she
came back what happened was her father
was completely alienated from the
visigothic king of Spain and so he sided
with the Arabs and helped them to cross
over into Spain so they had
expeditionaries when they sent these
reckon ordering groups over into Spain
to look around and when thought of the
things he had finally crossed over in
711 and the famous story that he burnt
the ships is just fantasy it's first of
all it's just a stupid thing to do you
don't burn your Navy down if you're
gonna send it back you send it back we
have a problem in our history is we have
what are called the pool sauce and the
puffs were people that told stories to
encourage people in the mosques and
things like that and they often
embellish stories what the Arabs call
you the head of the Slav to spice up the
story and so that's a spicing up of the
story so far occupancy ad when he
crossed over and quickly really it was
quite an extraordinary conquest begins
to really take over this country and
within this first period
the Omegas basically
control of a large segment of Spain now
this initial million period will last
until 756 so from 7-eleven to 756 which
is when a brahmana dolphin who was the
grandson of the hanifa Hisham who ruled
in the seven 40s he actually moved from
the 724 to 743 I think and he had
trained his grandson he actually
believed because I'm profound a dolphin
was very brilliant young man he believed
that he would be a caliph at one time
but when the abbasids took over in 750
he flees and he goes to Morocco he
actually had relatives from the burghers
in Morocco and they took him in and then
he crosses over and establishes an
amazing capital in Corcovado a brilliant
man really unusual a highly gifted
general and statesman and the Omegas had
a great deal of intelligence the the Oh
merde rulers they didn't last long
and one of the things that I've noted in
Islamic history is that intolerant
dynasties in Islam are very short-lived
one of the really interesting things
about Islamic dynasties is that the
intolerant ones never last more than a
hundred years and the great dynasties of
Islam that either were intolerant in the
beginning but learn tolerance quite
quickly the Abbasid dynasty is a good
example of that or the Ottoman and the
Ottoman is the most extraordinary in
terms of tolerance and they're the
longest-lived
dynasty in human history there is no
Theo smiley is the longest live
family dynasty that we know of in human
history so it's really quite
extraordinary that they lived as long as
they did if you look at the the period
the Umayyad period when the Umayyad
dynasty collapses in the east with the
takeover of the Abbasids
that most of the Umayyad family were
wiped out and the few that got away
among them are brahmana Dafa fled he
goes to Spain sets up this extraordinary
dynasty and it is a reasonably short
live dynasty I mean it doesn't it
doesn't go on for long because well
there's a number of reasons for that
that I don't want to go into this
because I really want to get to the
point of this of what's so extraordinary
about this but here's the second of that
man of the man the second is another
very extraordinary ruler he basically
creates a court that is a completely
multicultural court he has people coming
from all over the ins and out they bring
Persians are imported from Persia
brought in Shiraz was one of the cities
that a large contingency of Persians
came from and one of the things they
brought to Spain was the knowledge of
Persian winemaking and there's a area
just outside of Seville today's day
Frontera which is where they grew their
grapes and and it's actually Shiraz de
fronteira and which is where we get the
Western world sherry from
and I know none of you know what that
means because you're Muslims but sherry
is considered a very fine type of line
in the West so that actually came from
Persian Muslims that brought that
knowledge to Spain now during this
period in 950 in Cordoba just to give
you an example of what type of city this
was in 950 and for Taba and we have very
strong documentation of this there were
six hundred thousand people living in
this city which is an extraordinary
number for that period in human history
six hundred thousand over half a million
people a very large city there were
ninety two thousand seven hundred shops
and trade establishments in that city
can you imagine the the wealth that that
city possessed ninety two thousand seven
hundred and that means most people were
self-employed and were doing quite well
they had 50 hospitals 50 hospitals in a
city of 600,000 people they had one
university and they had 300 colleges I'm
just imagine that the university had
20,000 students full-time 20,000
students and that does not overlook the
fact that people were allowed into
because classes were held openly and so
people were allowed to come in what they
call in Western universities auditing a
course people were allowed to come in
and audit without actually being
registered at the universities but
20,000 out of 600,000 the population
just an extraordinary number of people
and they were coming from many many
places there were 300 public baths 300
public baths in that city and 72 public
libraries 72 public libraries imagine
that in 950 this is their one average
house in for Koba at that time had more
books than all of Europe contained at
the same time I mean so imagine that
there was lighting there were actually
lights in the streets so there was
lighting and you could see the lights of
buh-buh-buh from 40 miles away according
to accounts at the time later they
introduced indoor plumbing and they
actually in Granada where they had
gravity they had very sophisticated
systems of gravity they actually had
running water with faucets and you can
imagine the level of civilization that
was there now during this period one of
the things that the Muslims were noted
for was their tolerance of other
religions and this is obviously because
the prophets of varieties that have
taught us about the venmo system and I
want to say a few words because the
dimmest system is considered very
negatively now in the modern world of
global community what they call the
global community where everybody cares
about everybody else and nobody steals
from anybody else's wealth or property I
mean I'll give you an example of them
Mattoon
now in the Gulf War go for one right the
United States protected Kuwait when and
protect and it was a good thing because
Kuwait was unjustly but it wasn't for
free it cost a lot of money really like
several hundred tens of billions of
dollars so it costed a lot of money in
the kwaity
government paid quite dearly for that
protection so things aren't free
protections not free I mean that's just
the way the world works so you can call
it paying for our weapons or whatever
you want to call it but in Islam it's
just them my means responsibility it's
much cheaper than America charges for
protection I guarantee you it's a much
better deal and it's all out in the open
it's just there right in the open just
sign on the dotted line enter into an
agreement and we'll protect you you
don't have to do anything and what's
amazing the justice of the Muslims is
that when the Muslims retreated from
certain areas in Syria because they were
unable to protect the Christians and
Jews of that area they actually returned
their money to them and this is
documented historically so they weren't
squeezing people out and we even know
that Saint Omar said if they can't pay
it don't force it from them in other
words it was paid if you're able to you
have that capacity there were all people
that could no longer
and saying Alma would excuse them from
that so then the truth was not a
negative thing
in fact some will whom saw your own have
two heads for Al Jazeera and hidden
wahoo solve your own which is in the
Quran there's a big debate about what's
all gear means and I really find it
dangerous to say in a state of
humiliation which is how many of the
tafseer say it salvia is also something
that somebody who's under somebody else
so we could look at it as a minority
they pay with their hands because
they're a minority they're in a weakened
position and then my means
responsibility what who's them are they
in there in the limit of Allah and His
Messenger the limit alayhi wa rasuluh he
and that's your responsibility the
Muslim to protect and defend their
mosque that their synagogues their
churches and according to the monarchy
and hanafis schools that were operative
in the majority of the Islamic lands
also the Buddhist temples the Hindu
temples because the chef is restricted
to the three major al khattab Jews
Christians and then the miju's but the
monarchies and hanafis extended it to
anybody who was willing to enter into a
covenant with the Muslims and in fact
one of my teachers said Slava valeriani
includes in his word el buana Anja Dida
which is a book he wrote on manic effect
he includes secularists that they would
also enter into that covenant to be
protected and the prophets Edmond
Adderley the median for Ana hospital we
AMA p.m. whoever harms a thin knee a Jew
a Christian or anybody else in a
covenant with the Muslims
whoever harms then
I will be the advocate of that than me
on the day of judgement the Prophet will
be the advocate of that Vimy now one of
the things I want - one of the fantasies
that many Muslims have about Muslim
history is that when the Muslims came
everybody just said Allahu Akbar la
ilaha illallah muhammad rasool allah
we're Muslims that that's the fantasy
that Muslims have in fact Imams ate once
remarked that when you read Islamic
history you have to take a double dose
of Eman vitamins because it can be
actually quite disturbing to see some of
the things that occurred in Muslim
history now according to dr. Hana
Blankenship who I regard is probably one
of the greatest living historians that's
my own personal opinion but I really
he's the even harden of his time dr.
Colin Blankenship said that in Egypt it
took 300 years before the Muslims
reached 50% of the population in Syria
it took five hundred years so during all
of that early period the majority of
people in those countries were not
Muslims and if you read in the history
and all just one example of this because
it's very important in relation to
Andalusia one example of this is the
extraordinary scholar tragedy no suki
who wrote a really beautiful book or
even noun 1 will be the neck and nip on
how to maintain
and how to avoid calamities in that book
he mentions that he wished the Muslims
would leave all their disputations and
arguing amongst each other and reach out
to all of the non-muslims in the
community
he said we use these people in the stuff
in the home
I mean he's living in the eighth century
mr. Hill no home he said we exploit them
in this table for home we go to them for
medicine and he said what a stock dinner
home in the tuxedo home Kodama we take
them as servants but we don't teach them
what Islam is we don't tell them about
Islam so he was complaining at that time
and he mentions that they were all over
there were so many of them so as late as
that there were many many non-muslims
but over the years and over the
centuries many of these people ended up
becoming Muslim but we are still and I'm
proud of the fact that there are several
million Coptic Christians in Egypt
really I think it's a source of pride
it's not a source of failure for the
most it's a source of pride that their
churches were protected in a time when
the Europeans were literally banishing
from their land anything that had to do
not only with other religions but with
Christian doctrines that did not accord
with their own so the Catholics were
expelling Unitarians and when the
Protestants emerged the Catholics
persecuted them mercilessly many of the
great Protestants actually who were in
Eastern Europe ended up moving to the
Ottoman lands because the ottomans
didn't care if they were Protestant or
Catholic they just said you're welcome
to come and they let them come so it's
very important to see that as a source
of pride that the Muslims defended their
minorities and I'll give you one example
of the martyrs of Cour Kaaba who are a
very interesting group of Christians
these were really fanatical Christians
were very disturbed by the numbers of
most of Christians that were converting
to Islam from the Visigoths the martyrs
of Cordoba would go into the mosques and
they would curse the prophets Elijah and
Weatherby that openly because they
wanted to be martyred so they were doing
it to revive the spirit and this is
something any beleaguered religious
community will often resort to a type of
stupid martyrdom a really useless
martyrdom as a way of trying to keep a
resistance alive do you see this is this
just it's it's it's a religious
phenomenon that you see throughout
religious history so this is what they
did because the the rulers at that time
realized what they were doing they would
go to extraordinary ends to prevent them
from being punished and they actually
would actually protect them and do this
it's a very interest although some were
killed and Muslims would get very angry
I mean Muslims if you do something like
that to a Muslim they'll literally go
insane and could kill a person just
because it's a type of temporary
insanity because they're so enraged that
somebody could desecrate or degrade one
of any of the prophets but certainly the
Prophet Muhammad salat is to them so
during this period cheb root was one of
the prime ministers of this government
of a man the second he was a Jewish
minister with immense influence and
power and this was another aspect of
Muslim Spain and also the ottomans it
was it was very interesting as with the
Ottomans which is meritocracy the
Muslims would often because of the the
meritorious qualities of an individual
they would elevate them and allow them
to rise up in the community irrespective
of their origins this is very
contradictory to feudal systems whereby
you have feudal lords and then you have
the gentry and then you have the
peasants
the peons be honest in what the Arabs
call the bay idea you know the ponds the
bay dock they're the lowest people pay
honest actually comes from base which is
a Latin word for foot they're the people
that have to walk everywhere because
they don't have transportation now they
take buses right those are the paleness
and so these these people could rise up
so a cobbler could become a minister
city ahmed shah rukh was a cobbler he
was a very poor man in the ninth century
of in Fez but because of his brilliance
he ended up becoming a great scholar
although you did have aristocracy in the
Muslim world it was a very fluid system
so Jews who were in historically in
Spain they were treated as the lowest of
the low and these are called the
Sephardic Sephardim you have three types
of Jews you have the Ashkenazi Jews that
are the Eastern European Jews and then
you have the safar beam that are the
Spanish Jews and then you have the MS a
team that are the Eastern Jews of Egypt
and Palestine Iraq Daniel Pearl who was
killed unjustly in Pakistan his mother
was a misery and she was actually in
Iraqi Jew so that's why he had that dark
complexion because he was Eastern
Eastern semi so the safar beam were
actually if you study and I read a book
on October when I was in Spain I read an
extraordinary book that had statistics
of the Jewish community in Port Oba at
the height of the Muslim civil magadh
civilization the Jews were largely
middle and upper-middle class they were
not ghettoized they were actually a very
successful community one of the most
interesting characters in Jewish history
is Moshe even Mamoon who's known as
Maimonides now Maimonides
in the 11th century during the period of
even the rush he was actually a student
of even Russian during the milwaukee
dean period now even Russian who was a
brilliant malachy jurist but he was also
a brilliant philosopher and Abu Jakub
who was the ruler at that time actually
was his patron and because of that he
wrote several commentaries on Aristotle
that ended up becoming the preeminent
commentaries that led to a renaissance
of thought in Europe because
Albertus Magnus who's the great
philosopher Christian philosopher who
taught st. Thomas Aquinas and Saint
Thomas Aquinas is a very important
historical intellectual in Christian
history because basically the Catholic
Church based the entire foundation of
their theology on st. Thomas Aquinas
thought so even Russia was the man who
gave access to Aristotle to st. Thomas
and he actually mentions him many many
times in the Summa contra Gentiles and
Summa Theologica very very interesting
now that word itself that Saint Thomas
Aquinas uses Summa it means jamon which
is a specific Malachy term the Maliki's
use the word dammit in their books
you'll always see key table JAMA which
is a book that has a lot of different
issues in it so this was a direct result
of the Islamic influence in Spain on
Europe now during this early period
another very interesting phenomenon
happens and this is important in terms
of the influence the
the Muslims have had on the West in in
the ninth century and the eighth eighth
50s one of the extraordinary characters
that shows up in Spain and becomes a
character in the court is a man called
zivia and Xillia was an absolute genius
he was a poet he was a musician he was
actually a connoisseur of food he was
also a type of bow grumble character who
was a bon vivant he liked very fancy
clothes and he actually his hairstyle
was different from the Spanish hairstyle
but because he was so popular the span
Spanish men began to actually imitate
his hairstyle which shows you
celebrities have always been around and
have an effect on culture people think
it's a modern phenomenon but the reality
of it is it's not now Julia who was
actually fled from the court in Iraq one
of the things that is every up did which
is really interesting is he started a
conservatory of music and began to teach
music to the Spanish Muslims now he
developed us a type of instrument from a
lute the loom and lute in European
language comes from an ood he developed
it by adding a string and the Spaniards
called it the key guitar amour risco the
Moorish guitar which becomes the guitar
now because of this he introduced very
sophisticated music from the East
Persian Mohammed what are called
Mohammed and one of the things this
music was used for was to treat people
for illnesses and so there were actually
hospitals in Cordoba that used music to
treat the mentally ill
and this is based on a Greek theory that
comes from Pythagoras called the ethos
theory of music that the soul is
actually affected by the vibrations of
sound and we know this from the quran
the quran is a very sonorous very
mellifluous and soothing speech that
part of it is the resonance that it has
on the soul and so the Quran is a Shifa
as well
but and I don't want to compare the
power on to music at all because that's
hot on to do but it's very interesting
that they use these and I'll just give
you one example in this science there's
the Muhammad rust which is a mom that
uses the key of C and the key of C is a
very soothing key and it's often used in
popular music and in fact when I was
talking with use of Islam about this and
he said that that was one of my favorite
keys to write in so like peace train is
written in the key of C but this
Muhammad rust actually soothes people
and calms them down so they would use
this in the hospitals and they called
the medicine OB Matty Stan and this was
also in fest and I visited one in fest
this science is still taught in Turkey
and they still use music therapy in
Turkey so it's actually used now this is
a very interesting influence on the West
and it's a little sidetrack here but I
find it fascinating there are two major
musical influences on Western
civilization the first is Spain and then
Italy through Sicily that goes up
classical music develops in Italy and
the reason is is because classical
music's roots are in Sicilian Andalusia
music which was very very popular and
even many of the ulema of that time
would listen to it and this is still the
case in Morocco even though the majority
in the mush whore of the form ed hem so
I'm not promoting music or anything the
mesh Horeb the form ed halves is
stringed instruments in these things
they say don't listen to them but
percussion instruments are permitted in
for festive occasions things like that
and singing the majority permit that
some prohibited so I don't want to talk
about the specificities of halal and
Haram
as I'm talking about the sociological
phenomenon of music in Andalusia this
music actually moves into Europe through
the troubadours now troubadour most of
the dictionaries of etymology say
troubadour comes from paratha the mutton
you know the Arab says a Madrid hey leo
trip you know the the musician of the
neighborhood doesn't entertain anybody
they don't want to listen to him so the
multiple of the troubadours were the
traveling musicians and they would often
sing love songs which is hustle because
the Arabs and the Arabic language is a
language of love it's a language of hope
and so these troubadours move into the
provincials France and you get all of
these troubadours singing in France love
songs and then that moves to England and
also to the Celtic lands so Celtic music
is directly related to and this has been
proven by ethnomusicologists that there
is a direct relationship to Celtic music
and Spanish music now the other very
strange connection and this was only
recently developed in a very interesting
book called Africa and the blues because
blues is a very American music and it's
the music of the African American slaves
and if you listen to early slave
recordings and I've heard them from the
late 19th century where they still had
freed slaves who were alive and they
recorded them singing you can't
distinguish between their singing and
the Adhan it's just amazing I have a
recording of this and it just amazes you
the same guttural sounds now these two
influences through Europe via Spain and
through Africa come into America with
the Appalachian Celtic influences and
then the Delta Mississippi blues
influences
and this creates what we call rock and
roll but I really believe we should call
it Moroccan roll because the connection
is really extraordinary and I'll give
you an example the basis of rock and
roll is a 4/4 beat in fact they call it
the Bo Diddley beat that's called the Bo
Diddley beat in rock and roll now if you
ever heard man Morrison and I liked him
before I was Muslim if you ever hear Van
Morrison from he's a 60 singer he sings
a song where he goes say it again
where'd that come from La Nina in LA
that's where it came from now one of the
interesting things about rock and roll
music because my father plays piano and
one of his friends who was a jazz
musician in New York Sai Walter when
rock and roll first came out in the late
50s my father asked him what do you
think about this wretched music he said
it'll never last and he said why not he
said because all it has is a beat but he
didn't know what that beat was based on
you know because I really believe that
it's actually resonating in people's
hearts
something's resonating in people's
hearts they're hearing something and the
rock-and-roll beat is based on a 4/4
beat and the Kalima la ilaha illaallah
muhammaden-rasul allah is based on four
four beats and that's why all of the
muslim in Schad is based on these basic
rhythms and so you have this connection
in Spanish all the Spanish see if you've
ever heard the end ricean singing a lot
of it is singing that
Namah a lot of the West African music is
singing la ilaha illaallah so here
they're saying nananana in morocco
they're saying na na na ma
so we just need to fix the bowing for
them right which is gonna take some work
but it can happen and in fact there was
a album that won a Grammy a few years
ago that Santana produced and in that
song you know the song says there's a
devil under the bed he's telling you to
be afraid and there's an angel over your
head and you can hear him say and then
it comes in the in the law like that
just they sing that's literally la la
hey la la and it fits in that 4/4 rhythm
so that's just a side thing which is
what I find really interesting and I
think Muslims should study this to bring
this out it's really important that
people see where this stuff comes from
and why it has an effect on people so
that is one of the interesting aspects
of Spanish influence on the West is the
musical influence now the the Muslims of
Spain were completely in love with
learning or I should rather say certain
cities in fact Poltava how the of
evocative in and out of a who grew up in
Seville Siviglia he said about Cordoba
Edom atomos shipping fee fee for Taba no
peanuts
laughter when Musa Pia illa Ashby AHA
Tituba if if a musician import opa died
he had all his instruments were sent to
Seville in order to sell them where da
Matta
a demon fish via new Pinatubo who in
Oporto bahattar too bad but if sky
in Seville died his books were sent to
poor Papa in order for them to be sold
because Seville was known as a party
town
there's people when they go to
university they don't choose like
Harvard or Yale they choose universities
that they know are known for partying
seriously this is true people go to
universities I'll give you a good I
don't want any of you to apply here but
a good party school is the University of
Arizona in San Antonio that's a famous
party school people go there to have a
good time for four years but if you want
to study you have to go to a serious
school well the same is true in the
Muslim countries there were cities that
were known like baklava was a city known
for knowledge
Elia was a city known for a lot of fun
and activity to this day Seville is
still known as the party town and
Poltava is considered a city of great
learning to this day Futaba is still a
place it's a university town that has a
much learning in it that's just amazing
it's sooner to love you humping heat so
the learning the desire for learning was
immense in Andalusia and this is really
the strength of this country during the
period of the Umayyad scholars came from
all over one of the most interesting
aspects of engineering scholarship is
that they encouraged something was
called a reflow the retina was where a
scholar would travel to another country
and to take a journey to the east in
order to gain more knowledge and then
would come back and they would often see
an extraordinary change
in that scholars perspective this is
very important and I would encourage it
for our it won't enough elite some of
the anima in the college would really
benefit by taking journeys of knowledge
to other countries where they can sit
with other Illuma and listen to other
anima because when Illuma are stuck in
one little provincial area and all they
know is their own area they're not able
to really think in in a more global or
more broad perspective so exchanging of
students is very important this is what
the end editions would do in fact Haven
has him who's of muta shepherded amongst
those scholars was known for not making
the retina and maybe there's a
relationship to even husband's harshness
in certain issues and the fact that he
never took that great journey to acquire
knowledge from scholars in the east one
of the great travellers of the East was
a medieval Muslim and the GDP now this
man in the late 10th early 11th century
he made a journey and he brought back
the system of numeration that had gone
all over numeracy in the east so he
brought back what are called the obama
to india and he they developed under the
sands and the Moroccans developed their
own system which is called an ottoman
Arabia and this is very important to
note that the Arabic numerals are not
Indian numerals the Arabic numerals of
the Morocco and of the North African
countries were developed by the Muslims
themselves and relate to angles these
were taught to one of the students
Gilbert who learned in Spain studied in
a school in Spain gehrig art becomes
Pope Sylvester Pope Sylvester introduced
numerals into Europe where
you get that knowledge he got it from
the Muslims and numerals I will
guarantee you numerals are the secret of
the power of Western civilization and if
you don't believe me read a book called
the measure of everything which is about
how the Western scientists began to
measure everything and they did it
because they were empowered by numeral
and that's why and I've said this before
but the problem is not weapons of mass
destruction the problem is weapons of
math instruction because it's only
through higher mathematics that you can
develop weapons of mass destruction and
that's why even the Imam al-ghazali they
warned about atomic film pizza because
they were concerned about that aspect if
the people that master these Sciences
aren't morally righteous upright people
they can actually really harm people and
do terrible thing so the Muslims
introduced these numbers into Europe and
then Europe took these numbers and
measured and quantified everything they
developed calculus Leibnitz and Newton
developed calculus and calculus has
empowered Western civilization really
completely so the Western dominance that
we witness now on the globe is a direct
result of a pope that studied from
muslims who believed that knowledge was
for Humanity and this is very important
and I want to wind down here because
it's such a fascinating period and I
actually lived in Spain I lived in Spain
for over a year in Granada so
just a few things about the
contributions of Spain the Spaniards
invented crystal Spanish Muslims
invented crystal the highest form of
glass the Spanish invented the idea of a
movement in music Nova it's called a
nova nobody attend alwah it's a change
western music if you look at classical
music western music the hallmark of it
is movements where did they get the word
from they got it from Spanish music many
of the instruments used in classical
music came through Spain do you see in
fact the piano which is the highest of
the Western classical instruments were
along with the violin both of them are
introductions from the east by Muslims
the piano is a an extended what they
call the cannon the cannon if you look
at a condo and look inside a piano it's
identical really it's identical the
piano is a percussion instrument the
kanoon is a plucked instrument the piano
is struck and who invented the condom
and Farabi the Muslim philosopher al
farabi a Farabi was a genius
he spoke 70 languages there's a famous
story he came in to a gathering in Holub
of one of the Umrah and he was wearing
an Anatolian suit because he studied
magic from Greece and the he was just
sitting there and the animal were
talking and and one of the servants
spoke a very strange dialect and the
Emir was trying to explain something to
the servant the servant couldn't
understand so far avi spoke to the
servant and the Emir looked and he said
ëno had Elijah he said do you speak this
dialect he said another King no Sabina
Doha he said I speak 70 language they
say do you know anything about Arabic he
said well test me and so the grammarian
start testing him they went on until
they all said this man knows more than
anybody and then he began to talk about
logic and they were completely amazed
and so the Amir said do you know
anything about music and he said
bring me road so they brought him a dude
and he played the and made them all
laugh and then he played the rude and he
made them all cry and then he put them
to sleep because he wrote a book which I
actually have in my library called cheat
abend will see a funky you the big book
of music it's this big I mean it's it's
a Madame Osama and in that book he
teaches you how to use music to affect
the emotions of people which is the
reason Plato in the Republic said music
should be prohibited because it's too
powerful a weapon and it affects the
emotions of people and most musicians
don't know what they're doing so they
get people educated you know you go to a
rock concert and suddenly people are
beating each other up and they don't
know why well if you play that music
like that you know everybody's going
like that and lighting candles and so
this was something that the Muslims the
influence that they had all of these
things music on the movements and also
the extraordinary advancements in
astronomy and I'll tell you a secret
that this is something I've never seen
this written you know Bennetto said that
he liked Imams he'll be used to say the
hallmark of a civilization and I've seen
this throughout my study of history the
hallmark of a great civilization is it
has two great concerns two major
concerns the first concern is a concern
with law jurisprudence what we call
fifth and the second concern is within
metalic and the reason I believe that is
true see people wonder why America spend
so much money on NASA
and spend so much money on astronomy
because that's the nature of a vibrant
dynamic civilization they're interested
in the heavens why is America's flag the
Stars and Bars because the bars when
they put you in jail because of the law
they call it behind bars and that's not
that's the way America works you know if
you don't follow America's law they put
you behind bars right so who can give
adequate enough sect like the Egyptians
say but the the this flag of the America
is the Stars and the bars in metallic
aluminum and that's that's the secret
why are Americans obsessed with law
Americans are the only people that I
know of really it you would be amazed at
how much legal language Americans know
deposition they're legitimate I mean
they sue each other a lot right but they
really know look at how many American
programs are about law courts and
lawyers look at how many films have been
made that are just court scenes because
they're obsessed with law and as long as
they're obsessed with law there'll be a
powerful nation and when they begin to
lose that desire and that's why what's
extraordinary and I'm not really blowing
any pipes for America right now what's
really extraordinary about that country
and I I just say you know turbines off
to them is that you have people in that
country that no matter how criminal the
activities of the country get you have
really great jurists and people in the
country that fight to redress the wrongs
of that country and I have to say that I
I feel proud of being
on the side of those people I really do
because there are really good people in
there that are working to redress the
Guantanamo zation of people I mean it's
a word in our vocabulary now to
Guantanamo as people and the whole point
of these laws that are so extraordinary
the high principles that many of them
came through Sicily cheated Raja
people don't know about that the history
of Sicily in fact a lot of people wonder
where Americans got the jury system or
the English Anglo jury system of twelve
and some of the researchers in the u.s.
actually believe that there's a
connection between a Malak you principal
of taking 12 people in the absence of a
polity and using 12 notables peers to
judge a people because the idea of some
of the manikins scholars like email
Madhavi if you have 12 people it's hard
for them to make agree on an error right
so much of what we see in America and in
the West in terms of laws and things
there's a direct info statute law was
influenced by Napoleon who adopted many
of the monarchy principles in Napoleonic
statute law which is a very important
legal development in Western legal
history so the influence is immense and
so what how can we revive the spirit I
would say that there's a few things that
we can do the first thing that we can do
is recognize that Spain is one of the
greatest testimonies to the power of the
Islamic religion to facilitate the
flourish meant of human society and
civilization it is one of the most
powerful testimonies to the ability of
Islam to actually create a better life
for ordinary
citizens not just for the elite the
parks in Andalusia were for everybody
they developed parks where everybody
could go to the poorest of the poor and
the richest of the rich the street
mining was for everybody the wealthy the
poor the public baths were for everybody
this is one of the secrets of Andalusia
is that it really helped human society
flourish now one of the tragedies of
Western civilization that they have yet
to come to terms with many many people
in the West have not come to terms with
this fact Christianity as a religion
failed to create societies in which
human beings flourished this is a
historical fact and this is why
Christianity when it ruled Europe with
with its iron hand knowledge was not
promoted and when it was it was only
promoted amongst the priestly class
common people were not allowed to learn
the standard of living was never
promoted the Krish early Christians in
Europe believe that taking baths was
ungodly that it was better to be a
unaesthetic
and so in many places baths were never
encouraged this is very well known many
many other things but the most important
thing that they failed to do which
Islamic civilization and particularly
Spain succeeded in doing was creating an
environment of religious tolerance this
is the great accomplishment of Spain is
that in Spain muslims jews and
christians lived under the beautiful
umbrella of islam the protective
umbrella of islam that put them in the
shade of justice from the sun of tyranny
and during that time
you had extraordinary intercultural
dialogue you had extraordinary
introduced dialogue and debate Muslims
were not only tolerant of other methods
in their schools but they were tolerant
of other people's beliefs and honored
those people in their right to believe
what they believe this is the great
achievement of Spain and this is
something that the West directly adopted
from ottoman and Spanish influence and
one of the great proofs of this is Henry
Stubb who in 1701 a book was released
into the intelligentsia of England Henry
stop was a close friend of the great
English British philosopher Hobbes
Hobbes was very troubled by the
religious Wars of the 17th century
because of that he wrote a book in which
he really wanted to create a space where
the secular and the religious were
separate because he felt the religious
always ended up creating tragedy
creating wars creating dissension and
thus the great student of this idea is
another extraordinary philosopher who
returns in the great revolution in 1688
from the the the the tolerant land of
the Dutch he returns with them and this
is Locke John Locke and John Locke wrote
a very important treatise which is
called the treatise of toleration and
one of the things that I discovered
about this man in reading a biography of
him
was that the most influential teacher on
Locke was a man named Edward poco and
Edward Poe Koch was the Arabic Islamic
professor at Cambridge and Edward Poe
Koch introduced these ideas to Locke at
a very early
of the sophistication of the ottoman
system of toleration and that is why the
first act of toleration in European
history was under the suzerainty of the
Ottoman Empire done in Transylvania this
is the first act of toleration and then
the next is in England so the secular
religious crises of Europe was a direct
result of the inability of European
religion to help benefit human society
and this is the great achievement of
Islam this is the great achievement of
Islam and this is why Prince Charles in
an extraordinary and prescient address
said that the Muslims are unique in
religious history in being able to join
the secular and the sacred in a
harmonious interrelationship and it
behooves us in the West to bring the
sages of Islam to the West in order for
them to edify us and illuminate us on
the secret of that ability because we
are facing a great calamity if science
does not serve humanity under the great
umbrella of the religious truths the
moral truths of religion science is out
of control
science is completely out of control and
that is why we do not want to see a
separation of religious principles from
secular tradition this is not a Muslim
problem this is uniquely a European
problem it is not a problem of Islam and
although I don't want to see the mullahs
running everything
I really don't
I want them in the Masjid guiding people
and things like that and leave them out
of the White House or any other place
really
I don't want to see the mullahs there I
want to see the mullahs more shedule
this Lissie a saint I mean I really
believe that because that's the role of
the scholar is to help guide the
political people and that's why the
prophets Allah I am in a hadith and
there's some weakness there but the
hadith repeated many many things that
pero el maraa al agua en una ma ma sha
Allah Allah o Mara I mean that's that's
a really important idea in Islam so
finally the West abandoned this project
of religion and made it a private affair
and adopted four things in order for
human beings to flourish politics
economics science and technology and the
human social sciences these were all
hallmarks of the Angelou Seon Society
they're all hallmarks of the end of C in
society and so our challenge as Muslims
is how we can once again be able to
revive the ability for Islam and for the
Muslims to work with the great
challenges of our time the great
transformations of our time using the
the past as our compass the past is our
North Star but also using the present
recognizing we're in the present and on
a journey into the future so we want the
assala of the past the the principles of
the past and the strength of the past to
derive from that but we also have to
reconcile the fact that we are modern
people and we can do that
may Allah give us benefit and finally
Allah subhana WA Ta'ala says about
people that abandon his way come tocome
in debt not my urine was roaring while
my famine shed him how many greats
gardens did they leave behind and
Springs and fountains was Errol and mama
Hymon
one Nick Martin can ophea have a keen
and all these blessings that they were
in it deriving these blessings from
Kidada kaorun aha oh man ah Kareem this
is the Sunnah of a logically I knew that
Widow have been an ass we are here in
the West we should partake in this
extraordinary civilization by becoming
productive members of it and also I
believe becoming leaders inshallah
and we can do that in the spirit of
Andalusia which is akamalik aromas are
American