Hamza Yusuf – 2022 Zaytuna College Commencement President’s Welcome

			Salam alikoum Bismillah R Rahman Rahim wa salam ala honestly the Mohammed one early or certainly was
salam. On behalf of the board of trustees, the faculty, staff and students, I'd like to welcome you
all to the commencement ceremony of our graduating class of 2022 which has now begun, so please be
seated
		

			Alhamdulillah
		

			Muhammad Allah subhanaw taala an ominous Koto praise God and express our gratitude to our Lord and
Creator Sustainer of the heavens in the earth, all things living and inanimate. And we ask God to
bless this gathering.
		

			And hamdulillah welcome, family, friends, supporters, the last two years have been very trying times
for us. I think one of these solaces that we can find in it is the fact that that tribulation
affected the whole planet. It wasn't simply an individual trial, which happens but when everybody
shares in a tribulation, it certainly makes it lighter. Because it's, it's a collective trial. And
so we can support one another.
		

			In in many ways, the response to the plague and plagues are very interesting. We think, when we
think of plagues we really think of the something in the past, but plagues are part of the human
experience. And even Hudson wrote his great mo Kadima as a result of witnessing what the devastating
plague of the 14th century did to the lands, obviously, in Europe, but certainly in the Muslim
lands, he said it changed everything. And in many ways, the plague has changed everything.
		

			Hindsight is always 2020, they say and I think in many ways,
		

			the overreaction was quite devastating a lot of our young people, I saw it with my own children who
were in their last years of high school, the effects of being online for several hours a day. And I
don't think that we've really taken into consideration the effect that it had on so many people.
		

			The
		

			nonetheless, we obeyed the scientists and took their advice, we masked our faces, which certainly
gave criminals an interesting perspective.
		

			It was also interesting to see France who had outlawed the face mask being forced to wear it
		

			in Toto, so.
		

			But Putin invaded the Ukraine, and suddenly it seemed like he had solved the COVID problem. Because
everything changed after that. So here we are, we have three classes here today, by the way, and we
made a mistake, because this is our smallest graduating class. And I did was tempted to rent a
crowd.
		

			But I will say that it's a good class. And like the Jewish poet, Simone l said, You're a you're on
an alien on Takata in Kurama, kalila. You know, they they find fault in us that were few, but I
remind them that noble people are always few. So
		

			the class of 2020 2020 and 2021, some of them are here. And the graduate theological union actually
had them walk with their students. So if you could just rise for people that are here from those two
classes, if anybody's here. Yeah. So if you could just give them a.
		

			And then we also wanted to say tuna family. I don't know if Luis is here al beras. Is Lewis here
		

			is
		

			Lewis is
		

			a dear member of the family and his father Javier is really a blessing to have here but Louise got
his master's degree. And also Dr. Hussaini, got her PhD. So we have have had people here that are,
despite the COVID were able to do things and possibly because of COVID I was able to finish a
dissertation that I've been working on for 10 years, because I wasn't traveling anymore, and I
didn't really have an excuse so
		

			our graduates stay in the BA program.
		

			They have I think, persevered online their sophomore and junior years we lost
		

			A few along the way.
		

			But
		

			they're, I think, blessed with the fact that we've actually changed the degree title to better
reflect what we do here at zaytuna. So it's actually a degree in liberal arts and Islamic Studies.
And the reason for that is because
		

			we are really attempting to do the liberal arts here. And obviously, there's a lot of people that
make jokes about liberal arts degrees. So you've probably heard a lot of them, you know, how do you
get a liberal arts major off your porch? Paying for the pizza? Right? I mean, these hahaha.
		

			You know,
		

			the engineering major to ask how does it work? The Business major asked, How much is it worth? The
science major asks, Why is it worth the liberal arts major *? Do you want fries with that burger?
Hahaha. You know, a liberal arts major.
		

			You know, what has four wheels and doesn't go anywhere? A liberal arts major. I lied about the
wheels. Hahaha. You know, what's the difference between a philosophy major and a liberal arts major,
the philosophy major will ask you why you're choosing paper over plastic. Hahaha. You know, so why
don't you have a liberal arts college next to a post office, I made this one up, because the
students will protest that the category male is a social construct.
		

			Someone said to me, what do you love, do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your
life. So I got a liberal arts degree. Hahaha.
		

			Anyway, you get the point. Right? What did the chickpeas study at the liberal arts college
philosophy, right.
		

			So there's a whole bunch of them and they make fun of liberal arts majors. But the reality of it is,
the liberal arts actually built this country. The liberal arts gave Europe a supremacy over many
places. The abandonment of the liberal arts in the Muslim
		

			community is arguably one of the major reasons for the decline of Muslim civilization. The fact that
liberal arts degrees still represent despite the fact they're less than 3% of the degrees in this
country. They represent almost 20% of the most influential people in the United States. So people
can laugh at liberal arts, but the reality of it is the liberal arts is real. And it's powerful. And
the very first art that is learned and you can see this in in that famous fresco that hangs in Paris
		

			that
		

			Botticelli did where it shows a liberal arts student being held in a personification of beautiful
woman personified personifying grammar. And he's being ushered into the other six liberal arts who
are all personified as beautiful women, the idea that men studied and you should pursue the arts,
like a man pursues a woman. In other words, fall in love, and then woo her until she succumbs to
you.
		

			That's the old fashioned way of doing things. I know things are different these days. But anyway,
that's the way people used to do it. So
		

			grammar is really important. My teacher Mater has wrote two major works, both in grammar. And I
realized later that I think he was doing that because he realized that to really have any revival of
a civilization or tradition, you have to begin in the beginning, which is grammar.
		

			Those who possess grammar, logic and rhetoric, they have advantages over other people for good and
ill. The good use of these artists to fight for truth, justice, and to redress wrongs in the courts
		

			and from the pulpits and podiums. The evil use of the arts is for manipulation for propaganda
through sophistry.
		

			Why were free blacks in the US denied the right to study grammar. I mean, it's a very interesting
question. It was illegal to teach grammar you.
		

			Slaves in this country could be taught to read but they were not allowed to be taught the rules of
grammar was very interesting.
		

			The great reformer David Walker who Imams aid, informed me that I had actually met with Amir
Abdurrahman, so he had a impact on him. He memorized Murray's grammar, which was one of the most
important books in early American history. And it was a book that Abraham Lincoln had memorized also
was a grammar book.
		

			Walker wrote a famous pamphlet and appeal to colored citizens of the world, in which he condemned
slavery and its abuses and the people that were abusing blacks in this country. But his appeal in
the book was to study grammar.
		

			And that that his people needed to study grammar as a liberating force. And that when oppressed
people acquire grammar, they acquire a power that without it they don't have this is something that
the the more
		

			Marxist idiom log from South America, Paulo Ferreira understood very well, in his pedagogy of the
oppressed. One of the things about oppressed people is they don't have even the language to
articulate what they're experiencing. So they can only feel resentment and frustration. My father
used to say that obscenity is always the refuge of people that don't have words, to express what's
in their, in their heart. And so they they go to the default setting of an obscenity, and look how
they proliferated.
		

			But it's not just for power that we learn these arts and they are powerful. We also learn them for
the preservation of our civilization, our culture and its stability. Milton in a letter to an
Italian group, Marian wrote, it is Plato's opinion than an alteration in the style and fashion of
dress portends grave disorders and changes in the state. It's very interesting that the 1960s had a
massive change in the way people dressed in this country.
		

			But here's what Milton says, I would maintain rather that when language falls into corruption and
decay, the downfall of the state and a period of degradation and obscurity are at hand for it is not
the use of words which are illiterate and mean incorrect in form for is it not the use of words
which are illiterate and mean, like vulgar and low, incorrect in form or wrongly pronounced a very
clear indication of a slothful and sluggish disposition among people and a proneness to submit to
any form of slavery.
		

			These are called liberal from the Latin Liebherr which interestingly enough, means both free but it
also means book
		

			ACARA
		

			another reason why these arts are so essential is that they teach people how to define and put
limits on meanings. Humpty Dumpty, which is a book, it was, which is in a book that was written by a
logician. A lot of people don't know that Lewis Carroll actually taught logic and he wanted to write
a story for young people to understand what a world without logic looks like. That's what through
the looking glass, and that's why we are through the looking glass.
		

			So what would that world look like? Well, Humpty Dumpty gives us a very insightful expression of
what that world was. So Humpty Dumpty uses the word glory and Alice queries. I don't know what you
mean by glory, said Alice. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. Of course you don't till I tell you
what it means. I meant there's a nice knockdown argument for you. Alice says but glory doesn't mean
a nice knockdown argument. When I use a word Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, it means
just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less. The question is, said Alice, whether you can
make words mean so many different things. The question is, said Humpty Dumpty, which is to be
		

			master, that's all.
		

			Man, woman, marriage?
		

			What are these words mean?
		

			What do they mean? God, state law authority. If we don't give meanings to these, you know, De Gaulle
said how do you rule a people that have 246 types of cheese? How do people communicate that now have
78 pronouns?
		

			So who is to be master I would argue those who master the liberal arts,
		

			the truth will always be a bargain in the marketplace of ideas, societies do go mad Historically,
many have, and many will continue to do so. People also go mad. Nietzsche pointed out and I think
accurately that, that very often. Madness is quite rare in individuals, but it's the norm in groups.
And I think the Quran is test testimony to that because the Quran is a book of individuals going
going up against group madness, to note right, the guided group in the Quran.
		

			It's all individuals.
		

			The truth will always be a bargain in the marketplace of ideas.
		

			So, the word for sanity is from a Latin word who was his health. Health is from an Anglo Saxon word,
which means whole.
		

			You can't be whole In other words, you can't be truly sane without being whole. Meaning integrated
in body, soul in mind, and most importantly, the heart. Which you have sound according to our
prophets, Allah s&m If it's hole it's healthy, and the whole being is healthy on the day when
nothing avails them save those who bring a sound heart to God, God lifted us with the human heart.
We return that gift by protecting
		

			In our hearts from the snares and tribulations of this world, but by polishing it also because by
the nature of the world the heart will oxidize the Prophet sallallahu sallam said everything rests,
collusion, Yasuda, everything rests in the heart rests, which in scientific terms is oxidizes we now
know that there are these anti these, these these antioxidants that
		

			in the body that you can actually protect your body from this oxidation occurring.
		

			But thicker is the way that our Prophet gave us to protect our spiritual hearts from rusting from
oxidizing.
		

			And we polish it until with the remembrance of God until it perfectly refract reflects the
attributes of God in the Imago Dei in which we were made. So in conclusion, we're certainly living
in strange times. But one of the great blessings of an education rooted in the best of the past from
all our great tributaries that flow into this river we call civilization is a recognition that every
age is strange.
		

			We band of believers, we're were strangers in this world, if you don't feel strange.
		

			The the poet said in examining the 40 shoe, the mullah ujet dinner who Felisa BRPT we're living in
an age of such madness. If it doesn't drive you mad, you weren't saying to begin with?
		

			So the Prophet reminded us, bless it are the strangers, the alienated ones, those who know the world
is not their country, we're here on tourist visas.
		

			Do good. obey the laws, be upright, be virtuous, leave it in a better condition that you found it,
hopefully. But they're, they're temporary visas.
		

			Like the man who got into paradise and he asked
		

			the angels if he could just visit *. He said, You're in paradise endeavor you want. So he
		

			he got to visit Helen. It was fantastic. He met all these amazing people. Had a great time went
back. He said, Yeah, can I visit it again? He said, You can do it. Yeah, he goes back even better
time. Third time, he tells him You have to stay there. So he goes there and then the devil takes him
to the hottest place in *. He said, Whoa, I had such a good time. The first two visits he said
no, no, that was a temporary visa. This is permanent residents.
		

			So
		

			so it's a tradition to leave students with some advice. And I know our brother Tobias has some great
advice for you. But I'll leave you with a few things. From three sources, our book, our Prophet and
my favorite scholar from our tradition, from the book two points of some of everything you need to
know for your personal life and your social interaction. The first for your personal life, ALLAH
SubhanA wa Tada says in the Quran, we're not that was saying Alladhina Uhtred Kitab como el, any
type of Allah, that we have counseled you and those who were given the book before you to be
dutifully aware of your obligations to God, to be conscientious?
		

			And then one for all of your social interactions. Now Hi, Rafi. Kathina Minaj welcome Ilam and Amara
B SATA cutten OMA rufen Oh, is London and NAS. There's no There's no good and most of your private
conversations, except among those who are enjoined to charity enjoined, call others to virtue and
reconcile among humanity, be people peacemakers.
		

			And then from our profits ally, Saddam, a man said, give me advice. I'll see Niara sobre la. And he
said three times.
		

			Laptop, Bob, don't get angry. Don't let your emotions control you a part of the purpose of this type
of education is that you actually become the writer. And don't let your beast ride you, which is
your lower self. And then the prophesy. Sam said, say, Paul, I want to be led to Mr. Kim, say I
believe in God and then be virtuous, be upright.
		

			And God has made us upright creatures. We're not like animals that walk on all fours, although we
can become like that.
		

			And finally, my last piece of advice is one of the best things that I've ever read from our
tradition. And it's from CDR Hammond solderable.
		

			And he makes this as an axiom for him. It's a principle he says the uniqueness of God most high in
being perfect, decrees the existence of imperfection in every created thing. So there is no
perfection unless God perfects God's perfecting is a result of God's Grace and Bounty. So
imperfection is essential.
		

			perfection is accidental. Hence, to seek perfection in this world is vanity. Thus it has been said,
look at people as if they were perfect, but consider the imperfection of their nature. If perfection
appears in them, it is from the grace of God. Otherwise, imperfection is the norm. Based upon this
view of the world prudence, good feelings and camaraderie and overlooking the mistakes of others can
occur. This is how the world should be dealt with emammal Junaid said, I have taken as an axiomatic
principle in my life through which I no longer find anything repulsive in this world. And it is
this. The world is in a boat of distress, anxiety, trials, tribulations and strife and its nature is
		

			entirely deficient. Its decree is to assail me with everything that I find unpleasant or detestable.
Hence, if wanting if I encounter this world with things that I love and enjoy, I know that it is
from the bounty of God, otherwise the norm is ever as I have stated, so this is the world that we're
in it's a trial and tribulation, the Abreu Komazawa I'm Allah may Allah subhanho wa Taala in sha
Allah bless this
		

			cohort and also the previous two cohorts and all of our graduates and saw inshallah and we just hope
Inshallah, that we've, we've benefited them and for our shortcomings, we would ask them, patience
and forgiveness. Thank you