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Hamza Yusuf's Thought of the day
Anwar
10/11/01 at 22:14:48
Thought for the Day, 11 October 2001 Hamza Yusuf The Afghans tell a humorous tale of an American who sought enlightenment in their land. When he arrived he asked the first Afghan he saw, " who is the most enlightened man in your land?" The Afghan who knew no english replied "namai safman" which in their language means, I don’t know what you’re talking about. The American set out looking for this fellow named Namai Fafman. He soon came upon a funeral procession and out of curiosity asked an onlooker who it was who had died. The Afghan not knowing english replied "Namai Safman." Again, "I don’t know what you’re talking about." The American cried; "And to think, I just missed him." The moral of this story is that we must understand a people before we can benefit from them. In the current crisis, all sides are shouting but no-one seems to be understanding. Unfortunately in the absence of real discourse extremism has produced its own language that the mob do understand. If you’re not with us, you’re against us, has become the mantra uttered by both extremes which oversimplifies a complex matter and only serves to further polarise and incite. Reason and truth have always resided in the difficult middle ground between black and white, good and evil. Indeed life seems anything but black and white and good and evil battle it out daily within our own souls. Adhering to this middle ground enables us all to see our common humanity and its shared core values whether sacred or secular. The terror inflicted on September 11th was indeed evil. However, we should ask ourselves, are the retaliatory strikes presently terrifying and killing mostly innocent civilians a good response or are they a betrayal of the very core values we all share? The prophet Mohammed over fourteen hundred years ago said "beware of extremism, for it is that which destroyed the peoples before you." In the light of the present situation it is indeed wise advice. He also said, "My way is the middle way." Moderation is in fact the way of thinking people everywhere. The vast majority of humanity is not extremist but in key times can easily be driven so. To attack the seemingly intractable problem of terrorism at its roots we must address the condition that produced it and not just its ugly branches or bitter fruit. In our meeting with President Bush he said to American faith leaders twice, "I see opportunity through the tears." My fear is that if we continue to bomb an already war-ravaged and defeated nation while telling them that we are not at war with them or their religion, they will only reply "namai safman" I don’t know what you’re talking about. copyright 2001 BBC

Re: Hamza Yusuf's Thought of the day
Arsalan
10/12/01 at 00:43:44
[slm] Br. Anwar, can you provide us with the source where you got the above "thought of the day?"  A URL maybe? Jazak Allahu Khairan.

Re: Hamza Yusuf's Thought of the day
se7en
10/12/01 at 00:47:05
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/tv_radio/thought/documents/t20011011.html[/url]

Re: Hamza Yusuf's Thought of the day
ahmer
10/12/01 at 05:44:09
audio of this thought from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf [url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1590000/audio/_1591024_tftd_yusuf.ram[/url]

Re: Hamza Yusuf's Thought of the day
ahmer
10/12/01 at 09:17:33
A Time for Introspection by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf On September 11th our lives changed forever. We witnessed an act of aggression that in many ways does not have a parallel in past or present times. There are several elements that make this act unique, from the use of civilian planes as weapons of mass destruction to the attack on the most widely recognised skyscrapers in the world. Nor have we ever witnessed the terrible indictment of Islam as having a part to play in such a heinous crime, writes Hamza Yusuf. Muslims were seen rejoicing in some parts of the world in a display of what can only be called shamaatatul 'aadai', which is rejoicing at the calamities of ones’ enemies. This is something explicitly prohibited in Islam and was never practiced by the Prophet of Mercy, upon him be prayers and peace. We have seen images since of American flags burning to further arouse the wrath of a nation filled with grief, confusion and anger. Again, Islam prohibits the burning of flags according to the explicit verse, “Do not curse [the idols] of those who call on other than Allah, thus causing them to curse Allah out of animosity [toward you] and without knowledge.” This verse prohibits even the cursing of false gods because of the consequences.  We have also seen image after image of Muslims with beards and turbans, who by all outward means look religious and pious - but are they really? Unfortunately, the West does not know what every Muslim scholar knows; that the worst enemies of Islam are from within. The worst of these are the khawaarij who delude others by the deeply dyed religious exterior that they project. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said about them, “When you see them pray you will consider your own prayers insignificant. They recite the Quran but it does not exceed the limits of their throat.”  In other words, they don’t understand the true meanings. The outward religious appearance and character of the khawaarij deluded thousands in the past, and continues to delude people today. The Muslims should be aware that despite the khawaarij adherence to certain aspects of Islam, they are extremists of the worst type. Our Prophet said, peace be upon him, “Beware of extremism in your religion.”  Islam is the middle way between excess and neglect. Zealots are a plague upon religion. These extremists come in two types. The first is a reactionary extremist who falls far right of a centre-point. Reactionary extremists do not want any pluralism; they view the world in melodramatic, black and white, good and evil terms. They are good and anyone who opposes them is evil. From among the Muslims these are people who ‘excommunicate’ any Muslim who fails to share their interpretations of the Quran. They use takfir and character assassination as a tool for marginalising any criticism directed at them. They are used often by the Western media in order to scare simple people and cause them to believe that Muslims are insane. Unfortunately, our communities provide them with much fuel to fire their incendiary flames. The second group are radical extremists, who while they are almost identical with the former group, differ in that they will use violence to further their cause. They are actually worse than the first. They believe like every nefarious secret society before them that ‘the end justifies the means.’ They see any act as acceptable if it will further their ‘cause.’ This is blatantly anti-Islamic for a number of reasons. Firstly, Islam’s means must reflect its noble ends. Any means that does not embody the core truths and ethics of Islam is not from Islam and thus denounced as aberration. Secondly, Islam is not a secret society of conspirators who no one knows what they are planning. Islam declares openly its aims and objectives and these are recognised by good people everywhere as pure and congruent with their own wisdom and traditions. In the case of many of these extremists even the non-Muslims recognise that no religion of any weight could sanction the taking of innocent lives. The Quran says that the Torah and the Gospel have guidance and light and that the Quran came to fulfil these prior dispensations. Good Christians and Jews who believe in God and live ethically upright lives have no frame of reference for such acts, so how could these acts be from Islam, which confirms what has come before it? Thirdly, they are invariably people who have never taken a true spiritual path to God and nor have they studied the humanities. I can almost guarantee that you will not find a scholar of poetry among the whole vile lot of these people. They have no true knowledge of Arabian culture, which is centred in the idea of futuwwa; a word akin to the western word chivalry. The terrorists posing as journalists who killed Ahmad Shah Masuud were cowards of the worst type. Killing themselves was not bravery but stupidity, but killing one’s enemy in such a way is the worst form of treachery and the Arabs have many poems denouncing such type of people.   Our real situation is this: we Muslims have lost theologically sound understanding of our teaching. Islam has been hijacked by a discourse of anger and the rhetoric of rage. We have allowed for too long our mimbars to become bully pulpits in which people with often recognisable psychopathology use anger - a very powerful emotion - to rile Muslims up, only to leave them feeling bitter and spiteful towards people who in the most part are completely unaware of the conditions in the Muslim world, or the oppressive assaults of some Western countries on Muslim peoples. We have lost our bearings because we have lost our theology. We have almost no theologians in the entire Muslim world. The study of kalaam, once the hallmark of our intellectual tradition, has been reduced to memorizing 144 lines of al-Jawhara and a good commentary to study it, at best. The reality is we are an Umma that no longer realises that Allah is the power behind all power; that it is Allah who subjugates one people to another; that He gives dominion to whom He pleases and He takes it away from whom He pleases. Our understanding of tawhid has fallen into such disarray that we can no longer introspect when afflictions befall us and then wonder in amazement at why the Americans seem incapable of introspection. Indeed, I personally attended a memorial service in San Francisco with over 30,000 people and the Reverend Amos Brown said in no uncertain terms that America must ask herself what she has done either wittingly or unwittingly to incur the wrath and hate of people around the world. Muslims on the other hand, generally prefer to attack the West as the sole reason for their problems when the truth is we are bankrupt as a religious community and our spiritual bankruptcy has led to our inability to even deliver the message of Islam to Westerners in a time when they were giving us platforms to do so.   It is ironic that the Western media while producing many vile programs on Islam has also produced and aired material of the highest quality with a high level of accuracy only to be vilified by Muslims because it was not good enough. Where is our media?  Where are our spokespeople?  Where are our scholars? Where are our literary figures?  The truth is we don’t have any - and so instead of looking inward and asking painful questions such as why we don’t have such things and such people, we take the simple way out by attacking people whom Allah tells us will do mean things, say bad things and plot against us. And always when we are warned we are told to be patient, to work for the good, to trust in Allah, to return to Allah, to implement our deen. Conspiracy or not, we are to blame for the terrible backlash against Muslims. The simple reason is that when a crazy Christian does something terrible, everyone in the West knows it is the actions of a mad man because they have some knowledge of the core beliefs and ethics of Christianity. When a mad Muslim does something evil or foolish they assume it is from the religion of Islam, not because they hate us but because they have never been told by a Muslim what the teachings of Islam are all about.

Re: Hamza Yusuf's Thought of the day
ahmer
10/12/01 at 09:36:54
slm 'thought of the day' is really awesome and makes a listener think!!

Re: Hamza Yusuf's Thought of the day
Arsalan
10/12/01 at 11:08:41
[slm] Br. Ahmer, jazak Allahu khairan for the article.  Where did you get it from?  Can you provide a source please? Jazak Allahu Khairan.

Re: Hamza Yusuf's Thought of the day
bhaloo
10/12/01 at 11:19:29
slm This was another article about Hamza Yusuf released yesterday.  It mentions some things and clarifies some points, especially against others that are misusing his words for their own agenda.  There is an issue about the well respected and world known, Sheikh Qaradawi in here, that I will address in a separate posting to clarify this matter.   Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 17:29:04 +0100 Islam 'hijacked' by terror By BBC News Online's Kate Goldberg The attacks on the US and the bombing of Afghanistan have focused the world's attention on Islam. But the events have also generated confusion and misconceptions about Islam, which some experts argue could feed the cycle of violence and mistrust. Hamza Yusuf, a leading Islamic scholar in the US, said: "Islam has been hijacked by a discourse of anger and a rhetoric of rage." As Taleban leaders appeal to Muslims around the world to take up arms, Mr Yusuf insists that this is not a war between Islam and the West. Mr Yusuf, who has advised the White House on the current crisis and is director of the California-based Zaytuna Institute, says that the perpetrators of violence are falsely using Islam to justify their actions. "There is nothing Islamic about terrorism. To use violence against civilians to create terror is one the greatest crimes of Islam," said Mr Yusuf. He quoted the Prophet Mohammed, who said: "Beware of extremism, for it is that which killed the people before you." He also reprimanded the media for focusing on extremists, rather than the moderate mainstream, whose voices he said were being drowned out by a more vocal minority. "To give airspace to these people is irresponsible. It would be like Arab countries interviewing members of the [extreme right-wing] National Front in Britain, and saying this is what British people think," he said. Muslims denounce violence A leading Muslim scholar, Yusef al-Qaradawi, issued a fatwa - which is an opinion of an Islamic scholar, based on Islamic law - immediately after the attacks, saying Osama Bin Laden could not call himself a Muslim. Terrorism has also been rejected by the conservative sect of Islam in Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, and the Saudi Government has issued an official fatwa rejecting suicide bombers, said Mr Yusuf. Prominent British Muslims have denounced al-Qaeda, and appealed to the media to separate the words "Islamic" and "terrorist". "It is misguided to describe the attacks [on the World Trade Center] as Islamic," said Mahmud al-Rashid from the Muslim Council of Britain. There are rules of engagement in Islamic law, and attacking both civilian and economic targets is illegal, he said. "Suicide is also prohibited in Islam. It is an action of despair, and Muslims are not supposed to despair in God," he added. In defence of the Taleban However, Mr Yusuf believes that the West also has an obligation to recognise Muslim grievances, and recognise what he calls the "moral ambiguities" of the current situation. "Portraying the Taleban as evil is very stupid," he said. "They are by-products of the Cold War. They have been flooded with weapons from the West, and they're as much victims as the Twin Tower victims." He describes Bin Laden as "frightening" but says "it is very real and understandable that such characters are emerging. "There is a lot of humiliation and hurt pride in the Muslim world," he said. In his video message, Osama Bin Laden himself said: "We've been living in humiliation for 80 years." Mr Rashid believes that war with Afghanistan could have been avoided if the negotiations with the Taleban had continued for longer. He argues that attacking Afghanistan will only increase the support for Bin Laden, and create a humanitarian crisis.
NS

Re: Hamza Yusuf's Thought of the day
ahmer
10/12/01 at 11:48:12
Bro Arsalan, here is the link for the article. This article first appeared in Q-News's October issue, the Muslim magazine [url]http://www.q-news.com[/url] [url]http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/masud/ISLAM/misc/shhamza_sep11.htm[/url] pls read this thread too [url]http://www.jannah.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl/YaBB.pl?board=bebzi&action=display&num=5102[/url]
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