Hamza Yusuf – Look What You’ve Built

			Bismillah R Rahman Rahim was salam aleikum wa rahmatullah Hamdulillah. over 10 years ago, we really
recognize the need to have a constant support for the college, especially for operations. So we
started a program which was called the 12,000. Strong. And it's based on our prophetic tradition
that basically tells us that if you have 12,000 people, you won't be defeated for lack of numbers.
The importance of this program really is that it enables us to take care of a lot of the things that
we have in operations, and that enables development and advancement to, to use the type of money
that is needed for the institutional longevity for the perpetuity of the institute. So it's really
		

			important that we do that. I want to thank all the 12,000 Strong donors who have been supporting the
college on a monthly basis, you have really helped our operations, it's now almost a quarter of our
monthly budget comes from these monthly donations. So just a lot of thanks. One of the things that I
think we should all remember is that the best actions are those that are constant, even if they are
small actions. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, federal armory, at one will have let
you know the best actions are those that continue, even if they are small. So even $30 a month is
just, I think, a really important thing for people to do with this institution or others. One of the
		

			really remarkable aspects of zaytuna College, I think, is that we have acquired one of the finest
properties in the Bay Area. So we are literally on top of what is known in Berkeley, California as
the holy hill. The reason it's called the holy hill is that there is a consortium of religious
colleges here from the different Christian iterations, but also from now the Buddhists and the
Hindus. And the Greek Orthodox Church is here, the Catholics are here, the Protestants are here. We
also have, I think, now a Mormon center, and an Islamic center at the GTU. So these are all, I
think, really signs that these religions can live together because we certainly do it here on the
		

			holy hill. I said, when the Muslims were moving here that we, we wanted to make the hill a little
holier, but not holier than thou. But this is really the only accredited Wilson College now on the
West Coast.
		

			The academic program, we have a BA, which is accredited, and an MA program, which is accredited,
both of them are rigorous programs. And our students are going to many, many wonderful places. We
have people now at Oxford at Harvard, at Georgetown Law, Davis law, Urbana Champaign, Claremont
Colleges, some of them are going into the Islamic teaching at the Islamic schools. But this is not a
seminary, it's really important for people to understand that it's a liberal arts college, we do
have people that will go on to study Islamic subjects. But there are other things, we also see the
importance of the body, and the development of the body, especially with young people. And so we
		

			have incorporated as soon as sports tradition at zaytuna College. So we have horseback riding, we
have swimming, we have archery, and we actually are part of the collegiate Archery Association so we
can compete with other schools.
		

			We are building a really beautiful studio. In the studio, we're going to be having online courses
done at a very high professional level, one in formal logic, and the other in constitutional law
taught by our own faculty members, to really brilliant scholars. One of them a philosophy scholar,
and the other is a really world class constitutional lawyer. So we're looking forward to those.
We're also going to have other courses in siara. So we're really hoping that the 12,000, in
particular, have direct access to those courses as being members of the 12k program. I think they're
gonna be very proud. Hopefully, inshallah. A lot of people don't know this. But we actually started
		

			the Emir Stein Center, which was named after me, I'm the father, that is at the great Algerian
scholar who saved the Christians when they were being persecuted. And also sister, Edith Stein, who
was an extraordinary woman who was killed in Auschwitz. And what really warned about the rise of the
Nazis. So when you see the rise of hatred,
		

			we're reminded of people like that, who could see what was coming and warn people about it. And so
the Emir Stein was really done in order to educate people about the faith that the Muslims are not a
threat.
		

			We have our extremists like every group. But generally Muslims are good neighbors, law abiding
people, and they tend to enhance places as opposed to detracting from them. So I really hope that
you spread that there's been over 11 million views. We actually won what they call it a YouTube
Oscar for why evangelicals hate Islam, which was done by Pastor Bob Roberts from Texas. We've got
some really great world class, scholars from outside of the faith of Islam. In order for it to be
more objective, I think for people so that they can hear not so much from Muslims that they might
view as propagandists, but rather from people that really have studied and are experts in the faith
		

			from outside of the faith because we're trying to really to reach people that have a lot of
misgivings or misunderstandings about our community.
		

			There's also this extraordinary gardens that we're developing here with the Z cell, which is for
sustainable living. So we have some permaculture experts, we're already growing fruit and vegetables
that our students are eating, but we plan on having really the bulk of their fruits and vegetables
coming from the property itself. And that's a very ambitious program that we hope you support. The
gardens are really quite stunning already. But we're planning on really enhancing that. So I just
want to again, thank everybody for supporting the Emir Stein center for supporting zaytuna College
for supporting Z SEL and for supporting our students, our faculty, and our staff. So looking forward
		

			just to having your support, but also looking forward to you seeing where we're headed, and the
things that are in store, I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised with where things are
going. So I want to thank all of you, who are already 12k members and supporters of the college but
I also want to encourage those of you who might be seeing this or finding out for the first time, I
hope that you'll join us and reaching 12,000 strong this is a community project. It's a global
project. There are people all over the world that are excited about zaytuna college and so I hope
that you'll join us and reaching 12,000 Strong by the end of next year. Thank you