Mohammed Mana – Activism vs Scholarship

			Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls Welcome to a discussion on the once upon the now The Epic of
Moses. And, and many is kind of getting himself stuck inside a little niche here. Yeah, cuz the
whole movie.
		

			So the topic, the topic of this video is about what is there? Is there a divide or maybe there is
perceptively a divide between the idea of academics and Islamic scholarship as well as social
activism and, and campaigning for social justice. Part of it is, hey, are on one side, the argument
is, Hey, you guys, were activists, you're not approaching things from an Islamic perspective, you're
not making you're not Islamic, you know, academic enough, whereas on the other hand, the activists
are like, Hey, why don't you guys be a little bit more active? And not just sit on your theoretical
high chairs?
		

			At least that's the perception. Yeah, that's, that's, that's so. So there's definitely grievances on
both sides. And perhaps there are individuals that, that would, that would feel they're a part of,
of one particular community more so than another and they may have certain expectations. And that's,
that's understandable to degree, but
		

			I think, unfortunately, individuals from both parties have,
		

			have perhaps contributed to exacerbating the problem more than necessary. And actually, there
shouldn't be a divide there.
		

			And, and that's, that's something that we that we noticed, so that we take away when we reflect on
the story of Mossad, he said, um, which is that he was someone that was champion, championing, you
know,
		

			justice and trying to essentially save a nation from from the depths of oppression. But no,
definitely he was a messenger, he was a prophet, he was someone that received revelation, he was
someone that acted upon revelation. And within his life experiences and within his story, there's
really this sort of,
		

			homogenous mixture of
		

			and there's no, there's no divide or divorce between the two, that the two are complementary, and
one without the other is, is, is a deficiency. And so, you know, obviously, there's different
personalities, people have different inclinations and different strengths and weaknesses and
interests. And there shouldn't be the sense of competition, or there shouldn't be a sense of
hierarchy, there should be actually cooperation. And, you know, those that are more passionate
about, about being active on a grassroots level, they have a lot to contribute, we have a lot to
learn from them, and those that are interested in the, in the academic aspect of, of the religion,
		

			that's also something important that we need and that we can benefit from. So there needs to be open
communication, there needs to be IWC be respect, there needs to be understanding and appreciating
the value of each skill set, you will would it be fair to say that Messiah said I was an appropriate
hybrid between the scholar and activist, I think older messengers were okay. That's the older
messengers were because they were, you know,
		

			they were people that brought
		

			goodness to their, to their, to their communities and to their, my goodness, we're not even just
talking about Muslims, we're talking about everybody, well, the society as a whole benefited from
their presence, okay, and benefited from their message and their mission. And that's essentially,
you know, this all goes back to Revelation.
		

			You know, Allah subhana wa, tada, what what he reveals is balanced, you know, and in following
revelation, there is a call to action. And there is a motivation to learn and to increase in
knowledge. And the to go hand in hand, unfortunately, when when there are certain parameters that
are not respected, or there are certain bounds that are overstepped or, or there's a lack of
respect, or there is poor communication, that's when you end up with these unnecessary conflict and
a lot of energy and a lot of time is wasted, when actually there could be a lot of there could be a
lot of positive output for the Muslim community for society at large. And when we see that type of a
		

			good working relationship, then we start seeing the beautiful fruits of that without what is it that
you could share that would be an appropriate takeaway, which we could probably also understand more
in depth in the program. Well, first of all, there's an appreciation. There's an appreciation for
the individual for the the messenger and there's an appreciation for his his character and for the
way he carried out his mission objective. And it's important to start there to have that have that
appreciation that understanding that love
		

			and there is also an appreciation for the planet
		

			Because that's where we get this information. That's where we get the story and the way it's told
these important aspects of Moses objective are highlighted. That's very important. And that that
begs the question of, oh, what else is there for me to discover? What other important lessons Can I
can I extract? So let me learn more, dig more, read more learn and research. But then also, there's
the aspect of, can these two?
		

			Can these two methods of bringing good to the community to society? Can they coexist? Can they work
together? Absolutely. They can. We have a real example of that in the life of Musa in the life of
Mohammed Salah Salem in the life of many scholars. And so I mean, I was no history of Islam. I'm
wondering if the appropriate question is not whether or not it can. But I'm thinking, is it the How
appropriate for the two to be separated? No, it's not appropriate. That's, that's, that's the whole
point is it that's not necessary, when they are separated, that's when we end up with deficiencies,
okay. That's what what do we end up with an imbalance, you know, and and that's problematic for us
		

			as a community and, and that's something that hinders us from from contributing to society as much
as we possibly can.