other groups their argument was an
argument of experimental psychology what
he was saying was that they were what
they were arguing is that this is a
science of the self that can dismantle
the self and allow the self to perceive
the reality of the self and he he argues
that it is a science because they argue
that it can be replicated and this is
the essence of science that you can
replicate an experiment if you cannot
replicate
it's non falsifiable popper would say
religion is non falsifiable which is the
problem with it only something that's
falsifiable that we can actually test it
empirically that we can actually
establish it as a science what Hasani
says is what these men and women have
argued historically is that if you do
these things with these preconditions
you will have the same journey as
everybody else that has taken this
journey and it will lead to the same
certainty that gave these previous
peoples here's the map he argues that
you need a guide although he himself
it's arguable that he did not take a
guide but he argues that you need a
guide he gives you the map he tells you
what you need for the journey and then
he argues that you have to set out on
the journey he can't help you after that
but what he says and the reason why he's
called the proof of Islam is what he
says is I took this journey and the
destination is real this is not a
fantasy place this is not what whop you
know what whop in the stories of simbad
this magical place somewhere in the east
this is not what wow this is a real
place a place of presence of experience
of ecstasy because the word wedge' that
in Arabic which means defined also means
to enter in
to an ecstatic state and this is what
he's arguing so when he has his crises
he decides to set out now he has prior
to this written some of the most
important books in the history of Islam
people know him for that yeah the
reality of it is his his single most
important book historically has been the
Mustafa which is in 'soul and Eric
Ormsby I think right the argues in his
autobiography of Ghazali that Ghazali
was essentially a no Saudi scholar this
this is his great opus is the Mustafa
and when I asked sheikh abdullah bin bae
a one of the greatest sunni scholars
living if he would this is the question
that i always posed to scholars I asked
him if you're on a desert island you can
only take one book with you
other than the Quran and the hadith
which would it be and share Abdullah
told me on Mustafa by Imam al-ghazali
which is also D text and and he adds
things to our Holy Tradition that Imam
al Joannie who was his teacher began to
develop but Azadi himself took it to the
next level and all of a soul after
gazali is dependent on cazali this is a
fact of our Holy Tradition so we forget
that he was a great Oh Saudi scholar he
was a great moral ethicist he wrote me
zan and Amin is one of his books on
moral ethics he he he wrote that the
book he never left home without although
he memorized it he so carried it in a
physical book was raha Buddhist behind
he'd put it to memory and this was
something that he'd learned on a journey
after he'd come back studying he was on
his way back home and he had all of his
books and on a donkey and the bryggen
who robbed this Caravan robbed took his
books and he begged him to leave his
books and he said why should I leave
them he said that's all my knowledge I
spent three years gathering this
knowledge so please don't deprive me of
it
and he said that the brigand laughed and
he said what kind of knowledge is it
that a brigand can steal it from me and
is this really knowledge and Ghazali
says in his book that I know that it was
God that made him speak so that I would
learn a lesson and from that day forward
he never learned anything except he put
it to memory so he literally memorized
all of his texts that he studied and
taught and one of them was Rahu despo
Hanna's book on ethics which is one of
the most brilliant in my estimation
books ever written in in moral
philosophy
it's called makka Daria Edom Academy
Shetty it's actually translated into
English and it was published by his
stack he was heavily indebted to it all
of it is behind in ethics but he wrote
an Aristotelian virtue ethics what we
call virtue ethics today but added to it
a spiritual component that's lacking
clearly in the Nicomachean ethics of
Aristotle very similar to what Aquinas
did and Aquinas we know not only read
Ghazali in Latin but he also attributes
that source in his bibliographies so
Aquinas does mention Ghazali of arrow
ease and even cena who is called evan
sena so imam at a facade ii wrote all
these extraordinary books and then he
sets out on this journey he realizes he
has to thee because these doctors come
and they look at him they take his
paul's they look at his urine they do
all the things that doctors at that time
did and they said that he was suffering
from melancholia and it's very common in
the humoral theory which was a theory
very dominant in the Muslim world as
well as the greco-roman world and is
still used in in Catholicism they still
actually believed in the humoral theory
of temperaments but the argument most
scholars are choleric by nature in fact
it's the choleric temperament that
enables a scholar to study as much but
if a scholar studies too much and is to
produce
in his output he falls into melancholia
which is the so Dowie personality so he
goes from the Sahrawi to the so Dowie so
what they argued was that he has
exhausted himself he has there's so much
output that he has exhausted himself
what Alfa's ali realized and this is
part of his genius was the reason he had
exhausted himself is because he was
relying on himself for all that he had
done prior to that that his entire
corpus to that point was based on his
reliance on his self it was all from his
self that he was just putting out from
his self and that's why his self was
exhausted because he couldn't do anymore
and at that point he couldn't talk and
so the very thing that had elevated him
and made him the most extraordinary
scholar in the Muslim world had also
ended up ending his career it was the
tongue and we forget the power of the
tongue the pen is mightier the tongue is
mightier because of his tongue and his
eloquence and his brilliance and his
abilities he was able to rise from a
cobbler son a Weaver's son to the
highest academic position in the Muslim
world and yet he'd realized not only was
he a complete phony but he could no
longer play this game with himself
anymore and he said it was God that did
this to me and he thanked God for that
gift and then he decides to set out on
this journey and for the next 12 years
he takes a journey and this journey will
take him all over that part of the
Muslim world at the time he spends two
years sweeping the Mosque in Damascus
now you can imagine this is this is like
somebody whose stature is so great
intellectually in our culture this would
be like the head of Harvard becoming
becoming a janitor in the National
Cathedral and telling nobody to abase
himself
and then he goes to Jerusalem he writes
and he's writing during this time but
he's he said practice was always
difficult for him it was always easier
to open a book than to practice and what
he does during this time is what he
calls hurry over which is the spiritual
disciplining of the soul and that's why
he writes considerably about Ryoga
towards the end of this period he writes
his opus Magnus which is the anima Dean
he gives it the title reviving or the
revived ocation of the sciences in the
in the pre-modern sense of that word not
like we use it today but in in the Latin
meaning of it of knowledge ciencia then
the sciences of the religion and he
begins with a book called kita burn in
this is the book of knowledge and what
he argues in there is that the people
that are known as the mutasa moon he
calls them formulas the people that stop
at the letter of the word that they
spend their lives discussing words he's
he argues that these people have
destroyed Islam and he really challenges
them if you read that yeah what you will
find is that it's constantly for
scholars it's one of the hardest books
to read because he is constantly calling
you a hypocrite and and and the reason
he's capable of doing that is because he
was the best of the best and and he
knows the heart of the scholar he knows
the place of stature in the scholars
world of the applause and the love of
Bravo
he knows exactly what that means the
accolades that one gets for their
cleverness for their production for
their brilliance he was he was the the
cleverest of them all and and this is
what he argues in that first book he
said you're all fooling yourselves and I
know because I was one of you and then
he says he basically argues that real
knowledge
is not all of these words it's something
much deeper than that the words are
necessary but they are only a necessary
they are not a sufficient cause for the
purpose of this and then he will argue
that the real purpose of this religion
is to know God
it is about Mary feh it's about
realization of God but he says but I'm
not going to write about what he calls
McKay Shafa about the unveilings that
will occur to people that take this
religion seriously what he says is I'm
going to write about more Amida I'm
going to write about how you can achieve
this state and here's my book and I
divided into four sections cortos the
first section is going to be about the
secrets of why we do all these things he
what he says is don't be content with
simply doing whew there are Muslims now
when they go into the the bathroom they
just it's just this quick thing and they
see it is something they have to do
before they do we'll do my own teacher
mother Hajj in the Sahara I used to do
will do next to him and he on average
would take about ten minutes to do will
do it was really quite extraordinary to
watch him do will do and I realized from
his will do that for him it was an act
act of ebody
he was not simply doing a ritual he was
actually experiencing because we know
that the prophet sal i said i'm said
when you rinse your mouth the sins of
your tongue flow out with the water in
the shaft meth-lab the water of will do
is considered polluted you can't
actually use it you have to dump it
water plants with it but you can't drink
it or use it because it it's it's
polluted by the sins that have been
washed away and so imam al-ghazali is
arguing that there are secrets to
purification and he says that when the
prophet said of the whore Shepherd early
men purification is half of this
religion he said do not think that he is
talking about this water ritual
we do he is talking about purifying the
heart this is this is what he's talking
about and this is only symbolic of that
purification and and he talked about a
man the prophets Eliza dam said what you
say about a man who lives beside a river
and Bay's in the river five times a day
will you see any filth on him and they
said certainly not yellow so a lot and
he said this is like the man who washes
himself and then prays five times a day
this is what he is doing in other words
what the outward washing is to the body
the inward reality is to the soul and
and then he argues about prayer and what
the purpose of prayer is he says prayer
is entering into the presence and the
reason that you say Allahu Akbar is you
are pushing this world away from you and
putting it behind you and you are
entering into a state of presence with
your Lord and then he says you begin
ahem - ddoddo putana mean praise be to
the lord of the world the merciful the
compassionate al Rahman al Rahim medical
me Dean the sovereign of the day of
judgment or the master of the Day of
Judgment and then you speak directly
this is in Arabic called empty fat where
you move from a third-person tense what
they call a kebab Aloha to Bob and how
them where you move from speaking to
somebody who's absent - speaking of
somebody who's present Yakka na budu -
you alone we worship ya kinda starting
to you alone we seek help that this is
he says this is what the fatiha is it's
to enter into the presence of your Lord
it's not just to go through these
motions this perfunctory act that you
have to do five times a day that this is
about coming to intimate discourse with
your Lord and then you speak to your
prophet directly assalamu alayka a you
had Nephi peace be upon you
that's not Saddam ye assalamu alayka
because you understand that there is a
spiritual presence there's a spirit
presents the prophet sallallaahu Sam
said to ro Dalia a miracle I see your
actions this is Asahi a hadith and
Alba's are I see your actions in the
grain by either was it to hire and
hammett Allah were you the widget to
Sharan a stock for Telecom if I see good
I praise God that these are my people
that I taught them to do good and
they're doing good and if I see you
doing wrong I ask forgiveness he doesn't
curse us he doesn't say why aren't they
doing good
he asks forgiveness for us so imam
al-ghazali then talks about fasting and
zakat these what are the meanings and
Hajj the real meanings behind these
these things that we do and take for
granted and then he moves to the second
which is the second quarter of this area
and the architecture of the area is
quite extraordinary if if you examine it
he moves to the second quarter and he
shows that you have daily things that
you do we were talking today about
sacred monotony this idea of doing these
things that we do every day and they
become our practice like the the master
Archer who goes out every day and
practices until it becomes effortless
it's no longer he is no longer present
the beginner's mind is a wonderful mind
they say because the beginner's mind is
really the mind that has arrived
because the beginner is always present
they because they're so worried about
getting it right if you watch a beginner
driver I love when I Drive by these
schools you know these driving schools I
love watching these people learning how
to drive they're using about 16 and
they're in there and they're just
they're so present because they have the
beginner's mind you see after a while
they they like everybody else they're
falling asleep at the wheel right they
go from one place to another and they
don't know how they got there but
they've done that trip so many times
because they're asleep at the wheel the
lights are on but nobody's home
this is most people were somnambula were
sleepwalking through life
we're not present we're not present in
our meetings when we meet each other we
go through the motions we shake the
hands we don't really hear the names
when I lived with the Bedouin in
Mauritania one of the things that really
floored me about some of the Saudi Atene
amongst them one lady and and a very
dear lady to me she was the wife of my
teacher and she died a few years ago
Maryam bint weibo and I wrote a piece
about her called another mother of the
believers Miriam asked me when I first
arrived there in 1984 she asked me if I had family and I and I said yeah and she said what are their names. and I said well I've got my mother's name is Elizabeth and my father's name is David and my brother's name I have two
brothers one's name is John and the others Troy and then I have four sisters I have Kathleen Patricia Elizabeth who's now called Nabila and Mariah. I didn't think anything of it I left after I left that period there were 10 years before I went back.
When I first saw Miriam after 10 years she said to me Keifa (how is) David, Keifa Elizabeth, keifa John, Keifa Troy, keifa Mariah, keifa Patricia. and she named all of my family
It just it just really it was such a dagger to the heart because I realized she wasn't just asking to chat she wanted to know their names and she internalized their names and ten years later she could recall names that she'd never heard in her life.
because they're not Arabic names and she
only knew Arabic and I I was just so
stunned but she was a present human
being she did dhikr
all the time that was her life she spent
her life serving the students of that
place she knew every name of every
student that ever came to that and gray
eyes ahmet met her and and and remembers
her you know she she was present and and
this was from practice this was from
just the monotony of everyday working on
your presence with God because when
you're present with God you're present
with the creation of God you start
noticing things like the wind in the
trees you start noticing the subtleties
of everything that's around us it
becomes real and and this is this is
what Imam al-ghazali is arguing the end
and so he has the book of he begins it
with eating and drinking we eat with no
presence anymore people used to take
time before they ate and said grace even
in this country people would stop before
they ate and they would thank their Lord
for the gifts which they were about to
receive this was common practice being
present with food people used to be
present when they cooked food they
cooked food with love
One of my teachers, Omer Hilajee, his wife would cook her food doing prayer on the Prophet the entire time. With Nyah (Intention) for Shifa (healing); That God would make that food a healing for the people that ate it and make the energy that they derive from it, used for worshiping Allah.
They would only buy from grocers in Medina that they knew prayed five times in the prayer in the Masjid.
They would go out and pick their own animals and sacrifice them, because they didn't want to buy meat from these butchers that they didn't know how they were treating the animals.
This is a real family that I have visited over the years. It is a fact and I guarantee many people have experienced this. If you go and have eaten a full meal, and you go there, and they serve you food in the house of Omer Milahjee, you will not get indigestion by eating a second meal immediately after at his house. Many people have testified to this because they will force you to eat.
They will say "Kul! (eat) Kul! (eat) Kul! (eat) <arabic text>", meaning "eat like men and drink like camels"
That food was made with presence.
We forget people don't have energy anymore how is your food being manufactured how is it being grown how is it being cooked because this is where energy come from it comes from that's the sub up for the inner the energy that we live on is caloric its heat derived from these means that God has given us so he talked about being present when you eat chewing your food being grateful not putting another morsel in until you've finished chewing the morsel that's in your mouth because he says this is from gluttony -
don't
eat quickly to eat with gratitude never
mention death at the table he says death
is not an appropriate because he said if
your heart is alive and people
mentioned death at eating you should
lose your appetite and if you don't it's
a sign that your heart is dead
Wendell Barry the other night talked
about people now reading about massacres
or watching them on television while
they're eating their dinners and it has
no effect on them this is from deadened
hearts we're no longer feeling and and
then he he moves into he ends this
chapter he begins the next section with
the section on the wonders of the heart
and this is the section where he deals
with what he calls the money cut those
things that are destructive to us and
the money cut in his understanding are
the vices that will kill the heart and
he ends he talks about pride and
arrogance and he distinguishes between
vanity
and arrogance he says vanity all you
need is a mirror but arrogance always
requires another person so the vain
person simply needs a mirror to admire
himself but the arrogant person needs
another being to oppress and and he
talks about the roots of these and much
of it is related to death the fact that
people have forgotten that they're going
to die and then he ends this section
with the book of delusion or what we
would call illusion this the internal
state where we completely miss read
ourselves we don't know who we are the
Arabic word the the Roman word for
personality persona means mask in Arabic
it's called Shazia which comes from a
word that means a shadow so the
personality is is is a shadow it's an
illusion who you think you are is not
who you really are who you are is is
related to your historical narrative
where you were born where you grow up
you speak if you speak here like a
Kentuckian you have a certain way of
speaking but if you grow up in New York
you would be speaking like a New Yorker
these things have nothing to do with
your personality they're simply the the
circumstances you find yourself in and
and he says that to get out of this
delusional state is is is the beginning
of the path to want to get out of this
state to recognize that you're in it and
that's why the next book which is the
last ten books the book of salvation the
first chapter is about repentance
Metanoia changing your mind turning back
realizing that the destination that
you're on is one to your own debt and he
ends this he has fear and hope and trust
in God and he puts trust and tawheed in
the same chapter which is very
interesting because to him till he is
not a theoretical construct which it is
to most Muslims this I did God is one no
to him God is doing everything at every
instant that is toe he'd and gazali is
arguing that if you really understand
this you will have utter trust in God
you will put all your trust in God
because it's all God God is doing
everything in every instant and this is
why if you're not content with your
circumstances he argues you're not
content with God because it's God that
put you into those circumstances but
what God is asking you to do is respond
to them appropriately that's the
challenge it's not the circumstances the
challenge is the power that God has
given you in your will your yadah to
actually take your circumstances and
respond appropriately and there are only
four circumstances and four requisite
responses you're in tribulation and he
says the response to that is patience
you're in a situation of blessing and
you have to respond to that with
gratitude and that will increase you and
if you don't do those things what he
says if you're in a state of gratitude
and you respond by he
the blessings will be taken away from
you not as a punishment but as a
reminder to pull you back one of the
things he says if God he said there's
only two types of people from a hadith
people in tribulation and people in good
situations he said if you're in a good
situation God will send the people of
tribulation to you and if you reject
them and close the door on them
he will make you the people of
tribulation he'll take away your
blessings because your blessings are to
serve the people in tribulation these
are the awakenings that he's trying to
instill and inculcate and this is why as
you read this book a transformation
should occur if it doesn't you haven't
read the book but the book is not to be
read once in the Haggadah me tradition
the 40 books were read one book a day
for the rest of your life and this is
what the Habad EEMA did every 40 days
they would do a hutton of the iya and
start over again and I was fortunate to
be in one of those gatherings with Holly
Bell foggy a Hitomi scholar and he
literally could finish the sentences by
rote of the area because he knew it so
well and when we would read it on
Thursday nights we would go to his house
and we would read it and he would
literally correct all he was blind he
couldn't see and he would correct the
with the readers when they would read if
they made a mistake he would correct
them it was really quite an
extraordinary experience for me to see
somebody who had completely internalized
this all the people that I have met that
have been part of this tradition all
really some of the most extraordinary
human being that I've ever met
teacher mama has spent several a large
period of his life reading nothing but
the eeeh in a graveyard outside of the
Bedouin encampment where he was from and
the prophets let him visit the graves
and this is why Imam al-ghazali ends his
great book that yeah with the book of
death because he knows Ali argues this
door is right in front of you you are
knocking on this door right now you
don't know when it's going to be open
but you come into this world and you are
knocking on the door of death and that
door is a door that opens through
infinity and he said you are here for
this finite period of time and it's it's
such a great gift to be alive to be a
human being it's a great gift to be a
rock as opposed to not existing at all
it's a greater gift to be a flower it's
a greater gift to be a tree and it's a
greater gift to be an eagle but what a
gift to be a human being to be a
conscious human being created on the
doors of eternity literally created on
the doors of eternity and this is what
he is constantly reminding us and he's
saying you're on this journey and you're
either conscious of it or you're not
once you become conscious of it you have
to become an active Wayfarer not
sleeping on the bus but driving the bus
making sure that it didn't take a detour
down the wrong road because all the
roads lead to death but only one of them
leads to a good death and and that's the
road of a Sun of being a beautifier
being somebody that makes the world a
better place than you found it that when
you leave the world the world was better
for having you in it and this is the
ultimate criterion of a human being
whether they lived a worthwhile life or
whether they squandered their life
in frivolity vacuity and stupidity and
he uses the word stupid many many times
many times he doesn't shy away from that
word because all of us know that we have
elements of stupidity in our lives
nobody's free of this but to not
squander do not do not squander this
life is the essence of intelligence
whether you're a street sweeper or a
professor a doctor a judge a lawyer
whatever you're doing if you're doing it
with purpose intentionality purity of
end and means then you're doing the
right thing it doesn't matter what
you're doing I would argue that we're in
one of the greatest crises that we've
ever been in as a community the Muslims
and I'll conclude just by saying a few
words about this and why Imam al-ghazali
is so relevant for us today Imam
al-ghazali hated sectarianism because he
felt that the sectarian mind was a
provincial mind it was a mind that was
incapable of seeing universals that it
was trapped in the in the realm of
particulars and he also recognized the
concept of the Wayfarer and my father
who taught philosophy and humanities at
the university level spent a good deal
of time with Aquinas and a lot a lot of
time more time with Plato probably but
he knows the Western Canon very well he
spent his life reading and rereading it
he saw a film about him out of Azadi and
he asked me is this man in translation I
said yes he said could you get me the
book so I gave him several books of the
amount of Isaiah including the alchemy
of happiness the two volume version and
he devoured those books and when he
finished he told me two things he said I
know my tradition reasonably well and he
said and I can honestly say to you I
don't think
the West has ever produced a Ghazali and
the scent coming from him for me that
was quite a statement the second thing
he said if you spend the rest of your
life just reading this man it won't be a
life wasted an intellectual waste of a
life but the purpose that all Ghazali
makes very clear is it's not about
reading me it's about taking what I've
written and writing your own story with
your life being these meanings embodying
these meanings and that's why he's heard
jetted Islam he is the proof of Islam
and in in this age that we're living in
when men of religion and women of
religion are so few throughout the
Muslim world I can honestly attest to
the fact that I met many very devout
Muslims but it's rare that I've met
these types of people that are
transformative by being in their
presence that the work that they've done
and put into themselves and I've met
women and men of this caliber and
stature in the Muslim world and and they
have always had the same effect on me
and and these are the people that Imam
al-ghazali is calling us to be because
we need more people like this
the imbalance on this planet is from the
lack of people of stillness of people of
presence the Quran says that when the
Hamidah jellia
this zealousness and fanaticism of the
jati people riled them up Allah says
that he sent down his Sakinah his
tranquility on the believers on the
Prophet and on the believers that the
response to fanaticism and gsella tree
is Sakina it's not more fanaticism and
more gsella tree but Sakina is not
something it's something that god will
descend upon hearts that are open to it
if the hearts aren't open to it they
won't receive it they'll miss it in
their own agitate
and so imam al-ghazali is really to me
an antidote to so much of what we're
seeing out there all this madness I
think they would be shocked at at the
type of Islam and the lack of community
we've got a lot of good Muslims
everybody in this room
you're good people but our community our
Ummah when we saw what was done to
Gaddafi when he was captured that that
brought shame on our community as a
community it brought shame and if it
didn't bring shame on you then shame on
you because our prophets Elijah when he
came into Mecca he came in with his head
bowed when he had the power to crush the
people that had crushed his people for
13 for 20 20 years when he had them in
his power and they said what are you
going to do with us
and he said that's a three Balika
million he said what Joseph said there's
no blame today this is not a day of
blame hind' who had bitten into the
liver of his own uncle his beloved uncle
he sat with her and spoke with her and
it was painful when he met why she he
asked him to tell the story of his
killing his uncle and when he got to the
point where he pierced him he said
kohanga has polka it's enough and tears
were flowing down his eyes and this was
the necessary confessional that they did
in South Africa where they made these
criminals come before the South Africans
and tell them their crimes speak their
crimes because this is how we purge
these things from ourselves by admitting
these things it's not about public
humiliation it's about people taking
responsibility for their actions and a
great opportunity was squandered but
this is the crises that we're in and we
have an immense amount of work I want to
thank a few people in here dr. Parata
for coming he's a dear friend and
really wanted one of the pillars of our
national community
I also gray Henry Aisha gray Henry is a
friend of now many years and I'll just
briefly say the first time I met her was
in Cambridge Massachusetts I was a very
young student of Arabic and I didn't
have enough money to buy it but I just
wanted to see lanes legendary two-volume
masterful dictionary of the Arabic
language and so I I went to her shop in
Cambridge the Islamic Tex society and
she actually had the two volumes on the
desk and and I told her I just want to
look at this book I I'd love to buy it
but I can't afford it and she said how
m