which means a lot more suddenly was said
no more water color see than a Muhammad
SAW said him to Steven do you have the
do you have what the picture they took
didn't you take one of the pictures at
the beginning that that was at know what
they said at the beginning yeah did you
take that yeah but um did the this is
this is an ancient city that were in you
know the before the Muslims were here it
was a cone iam so it had a pre Islamic
history but it was the capital the
Seljuk one of the great dynasties of the
and great they were great servants of
Islam the Seljuk Empire and this this
was their capital but now it's honored
yeah now it's honored because it houses
the no not that it was that roomies at
yesterday
the its it's a city that people from all
over the world visit and they go to
visit the the scholar and the saint and
the poet Gilardi no bro me who's
actually Gilardi no Balki
he's originally from Afghanistan his his
father was from the time people bene
time which is one of the clans of our
age so on his father's side he's a
Beckett II a tiny from Abu Bakr Siddiq
and then on his mother's side his his
grandfather was a scholar was a from
ruling family in Central Asia so you
know we were at the maqam yesterday and
and whenever they would teach the math
now II they always began with the verse
from the methanal II in the first lesson
which is never think that the paths to
God are difficult to pass never think
that the paths to God are difficult to
pass to work with holiness is never
difficult and that's reiterated by even
Avila who says that if you think that
Allah can't change you in one moment
then you know nothing about the power of
our loss behind with the ANA so we're
here in the city and it's it's a really
beautiful city it's noted for its piety
in Turkey amongst the big cities it has
about a million half the people here but
they're noted for their piety and
somebody asked one of the people that's
helping us here who's from cunha what
they do for their nightlife he said come
in Ramadan and we'll show you our
nightlife that's a good answer
but the you know Madonna is he was a
very notable scholar he was not an
insignificant scholar he was actually
known for his mastery of the sciences of
Islam and he was a exoteric scholar for
a good part of the first part of his
life his father was a very well-known in
Central Asia and he was born in 1604
which is around 1207 by the Christian
era but he his father got in a lot of
trouble because he was a he wouldn't be
silent about a lot of the abuses and
innovations of the rulers of battle in
that area and so he would go around
preaching and he actually had a lot of
influence he was very influential as a
preacher and a scholar and so he was he
was basically persecuted so that he left
battle in 1607 and he went on a journey
his son at that point was about three
years old so they had to leave with
their and to make his era from a place
of persecution to a freer place what's
interesting though is within a year
about who was completely destroyed by
the Mongols so allah subhanho wa taala
many many of the scholars died and it
was a terrible time for the Muslims but
Allah wanted something else for for that
family and obviously particularly for
July Rodino Rumi but he went to they
went to Damascus they were in different
places he actually met funny they
thought him when he was a very young boy
because he was and but he didn't Dean I
thought it gave him his famous book of
poems and he actually said that he's
going to be a great poet he told his
father that he was going to be a great
poet and a master of the path and and
then when he when he came they ended up
in cunha and he was trained here and I
think what
a lot of people who are from the Arab
world are maybe not as familiar with the
the Scholastic tradition of this part of
the world but they were very very
serious students they had a great
madrasah system
there were several mattresses in this
town which were colleges not schools
there were colleges what we would call
colleges today religious colleges but
they were religious colleges where they
studied many many Sciences in the West
we have the concept of the Trivium which
are the the three language arts in in
the Muslim world there were about 30
language arts that they would masters so
it was a much more advanced and
sophisticated system when you get into
an advanced Islamic tradition by this
period 13 14 15 century these people
were studying texts on one of the
sciences of that they were very very
focused on was called Edmund well doc
which is a science that teaches you how
to analyze the meanings of words in
context so it's a contextual analyses of
words so that you can quickly ascertain
what type of word is being used to
remove ambiguity because one of the most
difficult problems with language is
ambiguity and they also had astillero
was a very important science so they had
their own tradition they would teach
Bulava which has an even ban money would
Vidya and it's tiara is part of Bala but
because it's such an important part
which is the science of metaphors
because much of language abroad jitney
one of the great grammarians and
philologists in the Islamic tradition
argued that the vast majority of
language is actually metaphor that when
you begin to analyze language you will
find that what you're dealing with is
metaphors we're using metaphors
all of the time so they would study that
in order to better understand and
comprehend language he he had a very
very popular method I say here at
college
Hana Dino Rumi and he he had mastered
all of these Sciences at a very high
level and he was also extremely popular
and apparently from the stories because
there are some interesting biographies
that were written very early that have
people that knew him personally but he
was he was a very very unusual boy as a
child and this is always you know one
wonders about these great minds what
they were like when they were children
the the talk that Ken Robinson gave
about the problems of Education a few
years back and he just mentioned about
you know we tend not to think of
Shakespeare as a child but what was he
like when he was in grammar school and
how would the English teacher really
dealt with somebody like that
so I think the same is true it's very
interesting there's some teachers there
students actually surpassed them quite
early on Saturday in tough days Anya is
a good example of somebody who had a
very early age had a massive opening
even though he was actually considered
to be not very bright in in the
classroom which is often the case with
great geniuses is that people think
they're actually stupid and he had a
massive opening and his teacher actually
ended up putting him in the chair to
start teaching the classes so that does
happen but he obviously had an
extraordinary experience by meeting a
teacher who was completely what we would
almost call an antinomian he was a very
unusual wandering itinerant preacher who
had incredible impact and was usually
chased out of places because he had such
a massive impact he was a charismatic
but when Geraldine fell under his spell
he really went had a massive
transformation had incredible spiritual
openings and then from him poured forth
all of this incredible poetry that's
bread all over the world it's been
translated into countless languages and
there's pilgrims that come from Japan
that come from England Australia all
these different places to come visit
this place and I think you'll see we're
going to go in Shaolin visit the the
madrasah where it is the cells are there
they they're hollow was a thousand and
one nights they would do a Halawa the
day they had to do Kidman
before they were actually allowed to
study so they had to go through a period
of spiritual transformation one of the
one of the stipulations was that they
couldn't speak ill of anybody or if they
were treated badly they could never
retaliate they would just have to accept
everything that was done to them and
they had a very rigorous discipline I
think people forget how serious this
early community was about their religion
and we tend to as modern people it's
very difficult for us to imagine the the
type the intensity of practice and the
intensity of dedication and devotion
that these early peoples had in their
religion one of the the one of the
Andorian poets he said Len I was sort of
officially hynden walch to have a place
in related
mailani we have a good example in
Bushido Hindon and in his sister and
face and Layla Layla and Majnun and in
may in Thailand these are these are
famous love stories of the early Arabs
and what he was saying is is that the
reason God puts the Romeo and Juliet's
in the world is as a proof against
anyone that claims to love God that the
intensity of erotic love the intensity
of love between two human beings can be
so great that people actually go mad and
I'll do anything for the beloved and and
so those people are there in the world
as a proof according to that poet
against people who claim to love God if
you say you love Allah but in kuntum to
halawet to be Rooney say if you love a
lot if you have a claim for something at
beg you know - I didn't with Jerry you
know the the proof is on the one making
the claim so if you claim to love Allah
the proof is in following the prophets
Elias and that's the proof so that's the
the the proof of your love and the
Sahaba had complete to marry they were
completely annihilated in the love of
the Prophet slice him to such a degree
that a Bilal or a Delano after many
years of being in Syria came back to
visit Medina and some of the Med Deniz
convinced him to give the Adhan it was
very difficult for him but he decided to
and when he gave the Adnan people heard
the Adhan for the first time from batao
since the time of the Prophet and they
came out their homes just weeping they
were just crying that that's how present
the prophet saw him was in their lives
in my magical deal and they said if the
prophets name was mentioned his face
used to change the color in his faith
would change
they had issue you know real love and so
he went through that intense period and
what he talks about
and muhabba which is I think you'll
study with city hubs in text on even a
show in his he talks about we have to
held up your Mohammed today are clean
and the last one is muhabba the stations
that you adorn yourself with because in
traditionally in that path that you have
what's called Talia and then you have
Talia and then you have tears Leah and
Talia is the emptying out it's what the
in the Christian tradition they called
it Canosa swear you empty out the self
because the self is is full of itself
you know you talk about people's you
know you say he's full of it and himself
that's exactly what it means he's full
of himself one of the things about daddy
I'm Mia a lot of people don't think what
these terms mean you know Indonesia but
one of the things the Egyptians they say
and they don't know what it means but
I'm convinced it's from their own
spiritual tradition if an Egyptian wants
you to say watch out
he says Headley Ballack min if sick you
know it's not how they say watch out can
development if sick but if you actually
look at what it means in arabic it means
empty your mind of your ego
suddenly Ballack min f ck do the Talia
of yourself that's how you watch out if
you because the only thing that gets you
in trouble is your nuts
that's the only thing it's the only
thing that gets you in trouble is your
nuts
and so the the Muslims were very serious
about doing work on themselves now
they're serious about doing work on
everybody but themselves they don't want
to do any work on themselves because
there's nothing wrong with them it's
it's America that's what's wrong it's
Israel that's what's wrong
it's Bashar that if we could just get
rid of that guy everything would be
perfect it's everything but where
it all starts that's why and if you look
at our condition that's the whole basis
of it the prophesy lies to them he began
by emptying them out he made them
vessels for the truth but first he had
to empty them out like the famous you
know the martial artists who wanted to
study with the master and he goes and he
and he meets that this master that he's
been trying to get the opportunity to
teach study with them and he says oh and
I studied with master so-and-so
we did this I did Wing Chun and then we
studied with him and I did this system
and then I studied with this I did this
and he's he's telling the mass or all
these people he studied with and all
these things he learned and so when the
tea came he just kept pouring the tea
the master and it until the cup was just
overflowing and and this this man says
well why are you the cups full he said
so he said really you should stop
fooling filling it because it's full so
it can't take anymore
he said no of course not if it's full it
can't take anymore he said well you're
false
I can't it's the same thing you're full
and and you find this motif in many's
teaching stories about house on a
Saturday when he went to meet Buddha son
who's been mushishi and here's a man who
went from Morocco he was a great scholar
studying Halloween and then he went to
Tunis he studied he went the east and he
was looking for a spiritual master when
he got to Iraq one of the people of Iraq
told him he said the man you're looking
for is in Morocco so he went all the way
from Morocco to Iraq and the Iraqi man
said no you're looking for William Sound
even mushishi
so he went back and he went up the
mountain for anybody that's visited that
part it's it's near top wan he went up
the mountain to where this great sage
was living and he when he first met him
he
in the close of the anima he had all
these beautiful janaba and and she said
after cells you know did you do whole so
and he said yes he said yes I said you
didn't do so he goes back he does also
again he comes back he said after cells
you know he said yes he said no you
didn't go back so he goes back and then
on the third time he you know got the
point
zombies doesn't mean what it what he so
he took the clothes of his servant and
he put them on he gave a sermon his
clothes and then he came he said now
you're ready to come you know you have
to strip away if you and and this is you
know the people don't want to do this
anymore we're like you know gel added
you know Rumi tells a story about the
barber you know that they used to do
tattoos so you go to the barber you get
your hair cut you get a tattoo like now
in America and so he goes to the barber
and he tells him I want a tattoo he said
well what do you want he said I want a
lion you know people see people wonder
why everybody's getting tattoos now
tattoos are about the ego you know
Descartes said I think therefore I am
now they say I think therefore I am that
that it's a way of letting people know
I'm I'm different I'm special I've got
this butterfly on my back you don't have
one of those right and and then they get
more and more and they can't stop
because it's not working you know you
just keep trying to make it work so he
wants a lion because he wants to feel
like a lion so put a lion on my back and
so the the tattoo artists he says all
right so he starts with his needling oh
what's that you know he said that that's
that's the tail he's only making a line
without a tail
okay so then he starts again oh oh
what's that he sa