Ali Ataie – Restoring Reason In An Unreasonable Age
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning and teaching in shaping modern society is highlighted by the Prophet Muhammad's teachers' mission to achieve excellence and be lighthouse. The Prophet's teacher, Zaytuna College, is a liberal arts college that provides a curriculum for writing, grammar, logic, and rhetoric to improve writing, speaking, and reasoning. The college's goal is to achieve excellence in writing, writing, speaking, and reasoning, and their success is highlighted by their success in clarifying ideas and their ability to work with students. The Prophet was a great teacher because he recognized the culture of Islam and knew the culture of the ancient world, and his method was systematic, gradual, and sustainable. The Prophet was a great teacher because he would teach by example, his character was a great teacher because he would be the great teacher because he would be the great teacher because he would be the great teacher because he would be the great teacher because he would be the great teacher because he
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, the most gracious,
the most merciful, and may Allah's peace, mercy,
and blessings be upon the Master of Muhammad
and his family and companions.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
The Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, famously
said, I was only sent as a teacher,
innama bu'ithtu muallimah.
The context of this statement is very interesting.
The Prophet once passed by two gatherings in
his mosque in Medina, and he said, Both
of these groups are upon good, kilahuma ala
khair.
But one of them is better than the
other.
As for this group, and he pointed to
one of them, They are supplicating to God,
who, if He wills, may answer their supplications,
but if He wills, may refuse them.
As for the other group, they are learning
and acquiring knowledge and teaching the ignorant.
Learning and teaching, ta'allum and ta'aleem.
So they are superior.
And I was only sent as a teacher.
And then he sat down amongst them.
According to Dr. John Milton Gregory in his
famous book, The Seven Laws of Teaching, truly
great teachers make a significant impact or impression
upon their students.
In fact, the word teacher in Arabic, muallim,
literally means the one who makes an impression.
A great muallim leaves an alama, or mark,
upon his students.
Great teachers have the ability to change the
course of their students' lives.
Recently, I was looking over my BA degree
transcript from a quarter century ago.
I noticed something quite interesting.
There were classes listed on my transcript that
I could hardly remember.
In some cases, I had absolutely zero recollection
of the professor.
But in other cases, not only do I
remember the physical appearance of the professor, but
also the sound of his voice, the way
he would move his hands while lecturing, the
color of his shirt or tie, and even
direct quotations.
Why is that?
Why is it that some teachers make a
major impression and others make no impression at
all?
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ served humanity as its
most comprehensive and impressive teacher.
He was committed to the acquisition and dissemination
of knowledge and preferred the gatherings of ilm
over devotion.
Devotion is obviously important.
Those engaged in devotional practices are upon good,
as the Prophet said.
However, those engaged in the seeking of knowledge
and teaching others, these are better.
Such is the centrality of knowledge and reason
in the Islamic tradition.
At Zaytuna, we're trying to cultivate lifelong learners.
Our school motto on our college seal says,
وَقُلْ رَبِّي زِدْنِي عِلْمًا and say, O my
Lord, increase me in knowledge.
The word Zaytuna is in the Qur'an.
It refers to an olive tree that is
neither from the Orient nor the Occident.
It is universal, like the Prophet himself.
Zaytuna College is not a seminary.
It's a liberal arts college.
Our mission has always been to ground our
students in the Islamic scholarly tradition as well
as in the cultural currents and critical ideas
shaping modern society.
At Zaytuna, we teach the Islamic and Western
traditions, the Islamic and Western canons.
In other words, our students inherit the timeless
or evergreen texts of both intellectual traditions.
Our students engage Ghazali and Aquinas, Aristotle and
Ibn Sina.
They study the Qur'an and the Bible.
And all of this is buoyed by the
liberal arts, also known as the tools of
learning.
These are grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
These tools teach our students how to write
properly, how to reason effectively, and how to
be persuasive.
Language is at the heart of our curriculum.
Our students are steeped in the Arabic language,
the language of the Qur'an, the language
of the Prophet, peace be upon him, the
language of our scholastic tradition.
Muslim scholars say that Arabic is the key
to the religious sciences, and we take that
very seriously.
The goal is to achieve excellence, ihsan, in
writing, reading, speaking, and reasoning.
The Prophet said, God has prescribed excellence in
all things.
This striving toward ihsan is at the heart
of Zaytuna's mission.
And so we want our alumni, these muhsinin,
these embodiments of beauty and excellence, to go
out into the world and extend that excellence
to the broader community.
We want their sharp intellects and devoted hearts
to be lighthouses in the storm of darkness.
The guidance of the Prophet, especially in these
days of confusion, is absolutely critical.
We live in a time in which truth
is presented as falsehood, and falsehood as truth.
We live in a time in which people
are questioning whether or not objective truth actually
exists.
Ibn Abbas, radiAllahu anhu, said that when the
Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would stand up
for tahajjud, he would say, Oh
Allah, all praises are for you.
You are the light of the heavens and
the earth, and all praises are for you.
You are the keeper of the heavens and
the earth.
All praises are for you.
You are the Lord of the heavens and
the earth and whatever is therein.
You are the truth, and your promise is
the truth.
And your speech is the truth.
And meeting you is the truth.
And paradise is the truth.
And hellfire is the truth.
And all the Prophets are the truth, and
the hour of judgment is the truth.
As you can see, this is very different
than a famous statement made by arguably the
most cited person in academia, the darling of
the modern academy, Michel Foucault, who said, These
radical, anti-rational philosophies are easily vanquished on
the battlefield of ideas.
Today, more than ever, we need the wisdom
of the Prophet to stay firm on our
path and not to be derailed by distractions.
The Prophet was not a distractible person.
Our mother Aisha, radiAllahu anhu, once said of
him, The Messenger of God, peace be upon
him, used to remember God in all of
his states.
In other words, the Prophet was always focused
on God.
He lived a disciplined, theocentric life.
The Prophet was a great teacher because he
would teach by example.
He was a living embodiment of the speech
of God, the Noble Qur'an.
His character was the Qur'an.
There was no contradiction between his speech and
actions, his teachings and his lifestyle.
He was transparent, honest, sincere, and reliable.
Before his commissioning as a Prophet at the
age of 40, his kinsmen called him al
-Sadiq al-Amin, the truthful and trustworthy.
The Prophet was the great teacher because he
would teach his companions in stages.
His teaching method was systematic and gradual.
This facilitated the learning process for his companions
and engendered a strong sense of longing for
additional knowledge rather than a sense of being
overburdened or intimidated.
Jundub ibn Abdullah radiAllahu anhu said, Then
we learn the Qur'an, and our faith
or confidence or conviction increased because of that.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, was wise
and practical, the perfect balance of wisdom and
action.
He would often repeat himself for the benefit
of his companions.
This teaching method is extremely effective because it
highlights important points and deepens their impressions upon
the minds of the listeners.
For example, a man once asked the Prophet,
The Prophet said, The
repetition of the Prophet here not only stressed
the importance of filial piety, it also etched
this teaching about the status of our mothers
into our memories, never to be forgotten.
The Prophet was a great teacher because he
would often engage with his students.
His companions to clarify ideas and concepts.
He would ask them questions and provide vivid
analogies to reinforce their understandings.
He once asked his companions, The companions responded,
And then the Prophet said, That is the
similitude of the five daily prayers.
Through them God erases sin.
The Prophet was a great teacher because he
was emotionally intelligent.
In fact, one of the reasons why the
Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet in
stages was to strengthen his emotional heart.
The disbelievers say, If only the Qur'an
had been sent down to him all at
once.
We have sent it as such in stages,
so we may strengthen your fuad with it.
That is to say, to fortify your emotional
intelligence.
What are some of the signs of emotional
intelligence that we see in the great teacher,
the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ?
The Prophet was gentle, easy-going, and approachable.
Allah ﷻ says, It is out of Allah's
mercy that you, O Prophet, have been lenient
with them.
Had you been cruel or hard-hearted, they
would have certainly fled from your presence.
The Prophet took responsibility for himself.
He was self-reproaching.
On the day of Ta'if, on that
very difficult day, he said, O God, I
complain to you of my lack of strength.
He is essentially making tawbah here and asking
God to strengthen him.
The Prophet was humble.
Once a man came to the Prophet and
started to tremble due to being overawed by
the majestic presence of the Messenger of Allah.
The Prophet said to him, Calm down.
I'm not a king.
I'm only the son of a woman who
used to eat dried meat.
Of course, this is true.
And it is also true that he ﷺ
is the master of the children of Adam.
I am the master of the children of
Adam, and it is no boast.
I will be the first one for whom
the earth will be split open on the
Day of Judgment, and it is no boast.
I will be the first to intercede, and
the first whose intercession will be accepted, and
it is no boast.
The banner of praise will be in my
hand on the Day of Judgment, and it
is no boast.
The Prophet sought counsel from others, his companions,
his wives.
Allah orders them in the Quran, So pardon
them and ask Allah's forgiveness for them, and
consult with them in matters.
The Prophet was resilient.
He stayed positive and optimistic.
He was constantly smiling.
He had a good sense of humor, but
was never inappropriate.
Once a Bedouin entered the mosque and attempted
to urinate in one of the corners.
The companions almost pounced on him until the
Prophet intervened and calmly explained, Rather, it is
built for the remembrance of Allah in prayer.
As the man was leaving, he supplicated, probably
in response to the companions scaring him.
The Prophet laughed.
He thought that was funny.
And he said, You are constricting something vast.
The Prophet was a great teacher because he
recognized that other peoples and traditions contained wisdom
and insight.
He said, Convey from me, even if only
one ayah, and relate the traditions of the
children of Israel, for there is no harm
in that.
Our scholars point out that the wording of
the second statement demonstrates its permissibility, and there
is wisdom and truth in many of the
stories and sayings of the ancient Israelites.
Of course, the Qur'an is both musaddik,
confirmer, and muhaymin, overseer or final authority when
it comes to any purported sacred text.
The Prophet ﷺ also said, Wisdom is the
lost property of the believer.
Wherever he finds it, it is his.
Imam al-Ghazali used the example of a
skilled money changer.
The skilled money changer can place his hand
into a bag full of coins and extract
the gold from the counterfeit.
If you happen to look at Raphael's famous
painting, The School of Athens, you'll see Plato
and Aristotle in the middle, but also Socrates,
Heraclitus, and others.
In the bottom left corner, you'll see Pythagoras
reading a math book, and Averroes, Ibn Rushd,
in a green cloak and turban, looking over
the shoulder of Pythagoras, reading his math book
as well.
This was not meant as a slight against
Averroes.
Muslim philosophers were great synthesizers of knowledge.
They took wisdom wherever they found it.
From this passion of learning, Muslims for centuries
committed themselves to learning in all fields of
study.
In the Catholic tradition, no one really has
the status of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Catholics call him the angelic doctor and the
universal doctor.
Aquinas was influenced by Maimonides, the great Sephardic
rabbi, philosopher, and theologian.
Aquinas was also highly influenced by Avicenna, Imam
al-Ghazali, and Averroes, all Muslims.
The latter, Aquinas called the commentator.
He meant the authority on Aristotle, that is,
Ibn Rushd.
Dr. David Burrell at Notre Dame University said,
In
one
of my classes here at Zaytuna called Seminal
Ancient Texts, our students engage with the Tao
Te Ching of Lao Tzu, the Analects of
Confucius, the Dhammapada, the Bhagavad Gita, the Psalms
of David, the New Testament, the Epic of
Gilgamesh, the Histories of Herodotus, and the Works
of Days of Hesiod.
Engagement with these seminal texts increases our students'
ilm al-hadara, or civilizational literacy.
It also gives them access to the great
wisdom of the ancient world.
It completes their education and makes them people
of rare insight.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was the great teacher
because he taught us about Allah, our Lord
and Creator of the Universe.
The Prophet was the means by which we
have come to know metaphysical realities.
The Prophet was a chosen vessel through which
God gave us His final revelation, the Noble
Qur'an.
The Prophet's own manner of understanding and teaching
was one of intelligibility and reason.
He understood things from a broader perspective of
metaphysical truths that brought clarity to the most
complex situations.
He said ﷺ, عَجَبًا لِأَمْرِ الْمُؤْمِنِ إِنَّ أَمْرَهُ
كُلَّهُ خَيْرٌ Amazing is the affair of the
believer, indeed his affair.
All of it is good, and this is
only for the believer.
If the believer experiences delight, شَكَرًا He is
thankful.
فَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُ And that is good for
him.
And if he is afflicted with hardship, صَبَرًا
He is patient.
فَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُ And that is good for
him.
Using the prophetic model as our foundation at
Zaytunah, we've derived one of the most sophisticated
curriculums on religious sciences taught by our world
-class faculty.
Just listen to these courses.
During their freshman year, our students take courses
such as Introduction to Hadith, Trivium Seminar in
Grammar, Introduction to the Qur'an, Credal Theology,
Trivium Seminar in Logic, Islamic Law, and of
course Arabic.
As sophomores, they take Qur'anic Sciences, Economics,
Islamic History, Euclid's Elements, Trivium Seminar in Rhetoric,
Material Logic, Politics, and Intermediate Arabic.
As juniors, Advanced Arabic Grammar, Family Law, Constitutional
Law, Calculus, Philosophy, Classical Muslim Texts, Principles of
Islamic Jurisprudence, and Kalam Theology.
Finally, as seniors, Arabic Rhetoric and Literature, Astronomy,
Contemporary Muslim Thought, Comparative Theologies, Commercial Law,
Inheritance Law, Ethics, Readings in Islamic Spirituality, and
Muslim Apologetics.
As a Muslim college in the West, we
swim against the tide of this anti-theistic,
anti-rational sentiment in higher education and champion
the truth.
We are restoring reason in an unreasonable age.
Thank you for listening.
I hope you found this talk beneficial in
this blessed month of Rabi'ul Awwal.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ promised us that 12
,000 hearts united as one will not be
defeated for lack of numbers.
Please join the 12,000 Strong Initiative, our
monthly giving program, and be a part of
a community that strives to restore faith and
reason in higher education.
One of the major benefits of being a
member is access to President Sheikh Hamza Yusuf's
First Command Book Club, learn how to effectively
read a book, how to summarize a book,
join a vibrant online community of fellow readers,
and enjoy interactive live stream sessions with our
President, Sheikh Hamza.
May Allah bless you.