co-founder of Zaytuna College
yeah Hamza Yusuf is an American convert
to Islam who studied for several years
under leading scholars in the Muslim
world he is the co-founder of the tuna
College in California and has translated
into modern English several classical
Arabic texts and poems he also advises
Stanford University's program in Islamic
studies and the center of Islamic
studies at the Graduate theological
Union in Berkeley would you please
welcome Hamza Yusuf
Spiner rahim allah and i see the know
muhammad wanna annual sake was adam
Tasneem akira what i heard over after
what ain't had a near darling but hum
didn't de all praise is due to God alone
the the this this - that was made has a
symbol on it of this is a symbol that's
found all over the Muslim world you'll
find it in fact in Morocco you find it
over the doors of the Moroccan houses
you find it in mosques in India in Syria
and it's it's it's a symbol of the
Prophet sandal and it's a sandal
actually that's honored in the Topkapi
Palace in Istanbul the sandal is
actually there and this is the form of
the sandal and the Muslims have always
honored the sandal of the Prophet and it
said that his two sandals were the
sandals of fear and hope and these are
the two sandals that are necessary to
walk the path of life to have the sandal
of fear in the Senate of hope it's it's
basically paradise in the inferno and so
we set out on this path with fear and
with hope we set out on this path with
fear that our intentions might not be up
to the standard that they need to be I
know that Fatima Fatiha when she founded
the bada Wien university which is our
teacher who stood Abdullah is a graduate
of the 13 when she actually donated the
land to build the university there which
is the oldest university in the world
probably in the true sense of that that
word she fasted the entire time that the
place was being built in hopes that it
would be accepted from God as a place of
learning and we find many many stories
of the early people the type of
sincerity and devotion that they
displayed
in doing these things so we we are
trusting and I don't want to make a
claim because the Quran says wanting you
to look at out of lava huwa has poo
whoever truly trusts in God God will
suffice but I come from a tradition that
warns us of making claims and that's
where the hope comes and we hope that
we're truly trusting in God to make the
claim of I am indeed trusting in God
like the men who arrived in the
pilgrimage from Yemen and they had no
provision with them and the Quran tells
people to take provision on your journey
and say now Omar saw them he said who
are you and they said were the motuhake
dune were the people that trust in God
he said no you're the mataki loon you're
the people that need to beg for food and
then he said - soweto take provision and
then the Quran reminds us but the best
provision is the provision of piety a
word unfortunately that has been almost
removed from the English language
it's it's become almost a a historical
anomaly this idea of piety and I
remember my dear sister and I think it's
auspicious that and and and I don't say
this lightly I think it's auspicious
that a direct descendent of Patrick
Henry is here with us in this
convocation because he really started
the American Revolution and this is part
of the American Revolution what's
happening here today is part of the
American Revolution because America
began as a place that wanted to depart
from the ways of the old world and the
ways of the old world was fighting each
other over religious doctrine this was a
place that they wanted to see people
actually able to express their faith and
Patrick Henry was amongst those and
there was an early debate that wanted to
see Christianity as the religion of
America and he was a profoundly devout
Christian and he actually argued for
having religious tests there were a
group of founding fathers and they're
quoted constantly by a certain
of an extreme religious right in this
country arguing that America is a
Christian nation but there was another
group of founding fathers that actually
argued against that and they were the
ones that won the day and in some ways
were back in that struggle again of
defining what America is and there are
some people that want to retain a vision
of America that perhaps never was my own
and we were talking about the Catholics
earlier and I completely agree with dr.
Donnie that we have an immense amount of
knowledge in previous religious
experiences and the Catholic religious
experience in this country is one of the
richest as well as the Jewish religious
experience in this country for Muslims
to benefit from but my own family who
work on my father's side were Catholic
Irish Catholic immigrants to this
country and they built churches they
built my great-grandfather was a patron
of st. Joseph's Catholic College in
Philadelphia and my grandfather
graduated from that College on my
mother's side we have my
great-grandfather Peter your gapless who
changed they changed the name to George
built the first Orthodox Church in San
Francisco at the turn of the of the 20th
century so I come from a family that has
a rich tradition of expressing religious
faith in an environment that was
antagonistic to that faith because the
Orthodox faith a hundred years ago was
not really an acceptable form of
Christianity to many many people in this
country and the Irish Catholics probably
suffered as much as any minority that's
come to the the the shores with the
public exception of the African American
community but the Irish American
community suffered greatly for their
faith and for their beliefs
so this country is is about liberty and
what was articulated in starting this
revelation revolution was give me
liberty or give me death that Liberty
was more precious to that man who
who made that statement and and the
greatest freedom is the freedom of
conscience the ability to actually say
what you think to be able to believe
something and to articulate that belief
and not be ashamed of it not to not have
to hide that we have Muslims in the
United States of America right now that
are hiding their faith that have changed
their names that use other names this is
what my great-grandfather who dropped
the OH from Hanson my grandfather's name
was Hanson but his grandfather's name
was Oh Hanson and they hid their Irish
roots because it was very difficult to
be Irish in this country in a certain
strata of American society my Greek
grandfather changed his name from Yogi
appleís to George and hid his Greek
roots he was a light-skinned Greek and
he was able to be somebody who said he
was actually from France until the 60s
enabled him to reassert his Greek
heritage and then he actually
participated in building the Greek
church now in San Anselmo in in Marin
County he was the president of that
church but it took an evolution in
American consciousness for him to feel
comfortable enough to assert the fact
that he was a greek orthodox immigrant
to the United States of America we would
have thought that we have transcended
this problem that were we've arrived
Obama Barack Hussein Obama is President
of the United States we were at the
inauguration in the church setting and
we had a woman in a hijab who actually
was part of the ceremony and Barrack
Obama's grandmother a Luo tribes woman
from Kenya was sitting in the front pew
wearing a traditional Kenyan Muslim
hijab and I'm thinking subhanAllah
you know glory to God masha'Allah but
ground zero has erupted this debate and
this country is really I think
struggling again about who it is and
what it
who we are as a people we're in a time
of incredible confusion for many many
people our young people when we look out
I mean just coming to this convocation
and and we wanted something dignified
and I said the my only criterion was it
wasn't pretentious but I wanted
something dignified because religion is
about dignity it's about the dignity of
human beings we are not animals we are
the meeting place between the
terrestrial and the celestial wear
something exalted wear something
extraordinary we have language we
produce language we write poetry we have
feelings that other creatures do not
share with us we have the concept of
infinity and yet outside in one of the
greatest universities in the United
States of America we have frat houses
and people coming just walking up the
street the the sights that we see for me
it saddens me I don't know how anybody
could be happy about seeing young people
with such a loss of dignity for me I see
this as a loss of dignity and I see it
really it's becoming a global phenomenon
the t-shirt and the shorts have become
the global uniform of globalization and
it wasn't that long ago when just dress
and the dignity of dress if you look in
traditional societies everywhere people
had such dignity in the way they dressed
even the poorest of people dressed with
such dignity Aboriginal peoples the
native some Native American tribes used
to call off conflicts if it rained
because they didn't want the feathers to
get dampened that it was more important
to be dignified in the battle than to
actually fight the battle great American
poet that I like began a song blind what
wise men looking in a blade of grass
young man looking at the shadows that
pass
poor man looking through painted glass
for dignity dignity that really is what
education is about
it's what not just higher learning but
from the primary school treating
children with dignity we know what harm
now is caused by humiliating children
imam al-ghazali the great articulator of
islam said never scold a child in front
of other children but always take it
aside because he said when you shame a
child in front of children you create
humiliation in their hearts and he said
those children will lose the sense of
shame and they will actually get worse
and worse we have an immense task ahead
of us as a tuna College is an attempt
its success is going to be entirely
determined by the support of the
community there's immense support in our
community so far it's nowhere near what
we need but we're looking forward to it
and inshallah trusting in God to the
best of our ability I want to thank many
many people who have come here I want I
want to thank I saw Rabbi Lerner Michael
Lerner come in and I'm so glad to see
him well and healthy
[Applause]
Rabbi Lerner was in my personal prayers
when he was when I found out that he was
sick so it's it's really an honor to
have him here with us and many other
people I really I think dr. Donna his I
really feel like what he articulated and
you are a tough audience because I would
have given him a standing ovation hands
down but it was just such an incredible
[Applause]
it was such an incredible articulation
on many different levels and so much
went into it and I was just honored by
the fact that he took so much time to
put that thought into it and and I want
to study it and I really hope the other
faculty members and the students look at
it and really think about what he was
saying because this is a man who's
coming with an immense amount of
experience in the very things that we're
going to be grappling with and gtu the
Graduate theological union has in some
ways the seed was planted by sister Mary
Ann Farina many many years ago she's
here today she is a devout Catholic nun
who's also a lover of Imam al-ghazali
and actually wrote her dissertation
looking at Imam of gazanian st. Thomas
Aquinas and she came to me over 10 years
ago and we had a meeting in a yurt and
there are meetings in life that you
don't forget and then there's meetings
that you forget and then there's
meetings you wish you could forget but
that that was a meeting that I I could
not forget because she she really
planted a seed she said at the Graduate
theological Union we have we have all of
these religions on the top of this hill
teaching their traditions and she says
you're one-fourth of the world's
population where are the Muslim colleges
where's the Muslim seminary to teach
Muslims you need to do it as a tuna
should think about that and that was
really a turning point that came from
sister Mary Ann and I really thank you
and honor you for coming today in
support of of what we're trying to do
and now this this this is a courageous
group of young people they really are
because
[Applause]
religion is about faith and and their
presence here really is an act of faith
because they're coming into something
that is new we're all starting new and
and also some of the parents not all of
them needed their parent's permission
but some of the parents that allowed
their students I mean we had some
students that could have easily gone to
Ivy League colleges and and they chose
to come here and support this endeavor
it's it's a it's a historical group of
young people and and we thank them for
honoring us in putting placing their
trust in their Lord but also we would
say and then in us so we we really honor
that many many other people I see here
that I want to thank for for coming and
supporting us we've had immense support
in the Muslim community Zaytuna is known
now all over the world and when when I
was at the oz har University which is
one of the oldest universities they have
over three hundred thousand students at
al-azhar which just floored me I had no
idea they had that many students but
it's one of the oldest universities in
the Muslim world and the US as Hadees
the the ones that begin from that early
period and go through go through an
incredibly rigorous training and they're
actually quite stunning as scholars they
really are a lot harder has fallen on
hard times they're really trying to
reinvigorate it but they want a
relationship with us the I was also in
Morocco I just was a guest at the Kings
lectures there in the Douro sarracenia
the the minister there of religious
endowment also said that we are behind
you and the Peruvian University which is
a great Islamic University is also
looking to establish ties with us I mean
this is incredible it's just a blessing
and in light of that I just want to
remind myself and all of you we've heard
a lot of poetry but you're going to hear
one more poem and and it's important
because poetry to me religion without
poetry is is is like the nuclear waste
it becomes toxic if you don't have
religion with poetry all of the
Companions of the Prophet
the great ones that we know of were
poets I have a book called Cheryl Sahaba
the poetry of the Companions of the
Prophet they all wrote poetry the
Prophet loved poetry once he was riding
on a camel with a companion and he said
do you know any of the poetry of ibn ABI
salt he was a pre-islamic poet and he
said yes and the and the Sahaba said I
was ashamed to recite something so I
just recited two lines and the Prophet
said e let's hear some more and he said
so I recited two more and then he said
hehe let's hear some more and he said I
kept going until I recited over a
hundred verses in another narration say
now Omar asked somebody if they knew the
poetry of Eibon Abby cinema one of the
great poets of the jahaly period and one
of them even i-best said yes and he said
let's hear it and he kept reciting it
until they heard the Athan of Fujio and
then he said let's hear some Quran so
the the the prerequisite of learning
quranic tov seal or exegesis
is to master the jolly poetry it's a
prerequisite and some of it is quite
rivaled it shocked me when I was
studying in fact there's a whole slew of
erotic poetry in the Arabic tradition
t