Ali Ataie – Restoring Reason In An Unreasonable Age

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.