Hamza Yusuf – Vision Of Islam CD2 #04

			And so the idea in Islam is that wholeness or peace comes through submission to God. And it's the
exact same thing in Hebrew. I mean, the Jews believe the exact same thing that shalom can only come
when a human being is in a state of submission to God, that that is real peace. And if you're not,
then you're suffering. submission is not passive surrender, even though the words are related in
some of the other say, Islam means is discipline. submission is not a passive event. It's an act of
event. And that's where you get the idea of Mujahid of the struggle to surrender. surrendering is an
active and not a passive state. Now, in the Koran, they give four different types of Islam that are
		

			mentioned. One of them is the idea that all of existence is in a state of submission. So Islam in
the Quran means the Quran says, as Lama Memphis Amati was out on everything in the heavens and the
earth is in a state of submission to God, willingly or unwillingly. Now, if you look at the word are
here, which is one of the names of God, I hear is the overpowering one. And Allah says he's a human
followed by a bat he, Allah is overpowering His servants transcendent above them. Now one of the
things that you see in the world, if I throw that there's several things just happened. One is
gravity.
		

			I didn't throw it moved up, even if I wanted to, it's gonna come down. So things there are laws
working in the world that by necessity, we submit to one of them is gravity. One of them is our
physical bodies, the way they grew, the way our noses grew, the way our eyes came about the way are
all of these type things and manipulating them which is starting to occur now from an Islamic
perspective, is attempting to rebel against type of submission or order, which is why the prophets
Eliza was very opposed to manipulation of nature, because it is a type of rebellion. So this idea of
submitting willingly or unwillingly is very important in the Koran. And that's why I've added any
		

			line of honor what else mmm for similar to Without this, the verse that they quote, do they desire
other than the deen of Allah and everything is in reality in submission. So there's an idea here
that Islam is the order of nature. And this is very interesting, because this is the exact way that
ancient Chinese looked at the world that there was a natural order, and that the sage was the one
that aligned him or herself with the natural order eating when you're hungry, the province relies on
him said we're a people that we only eat when we're hungry, that is natural, it is natural to you do
not see animals that over eat. In nature, you don't see fat lions, you see them at zoos, because
		

			they're no longer in a natural state. But you do not see animals that are not behaving according to
their natural state. Animals drink when they're thirsty. Human beings will keep drinking and
drinking and drinking. Animals will, if they want to eat, they'll just kill humans will slaughter.
Humans will slaughter. I mean, the Native Americans when they hunted, they just killed what they
need it because they understood you don't go to put there's other people to go out. And it's trophy
hunting, they go to kill to put heads on their walls. And that is out of natural order. And this is
why a human being that's not in a natural state is in a state of rebellion. It's seen as they're
		

			outside of a fitrah state, the inherent Aboriginal nature, which does not mean that people are meant
to remain primitive. But there is an understanding that the primitive state is an expression of
something that there's an understand that and that's why even though there's there's generally three
views of history, one of them is that history went from the fall, and it's been downhill ever since.
So and this tends to be the way Muslims generally look at the world that we've gone from good to
worse. There's another which is the cyclical, and this is even Haldane introduced this and I think
it's the danger of all theories is that categories are very dangerous because you get locked in
		

			categories and you forget that there can be interpenetration and the idea of cyclical things is that
history is constantly repeating itself.
		

			anybody saw that, and that definitely occurs. And then the third is the idea of progress, we're
going from worse to better which is the modernity, it's the fallacy of modality and most moderns are
pretty much giving that as an idea, I'm certainly the 20th century 19th century was particularly
enthralled by that idea. But the 20th century was so devastating for human beings that a lot of
people are giving that up. But from a Muslim perspective, it's a little bit of all three, the
province alized, Adam said, I don't know if the first of my own is better than the last he said,
Amati come up later, on my own, it's like rain, won't be able to determine whether the first part of
		

			it was the best part or the last part. So there is an idea that towards the end of time, there's
this immense Renaissance that occurs of spirituality. And that is part of the Muslim belief. And in
some things, we get better and other things we get worse, certainly in certain ideals that we have.
They're better than others that existed in the past. I mean, slavery, the fact that most people
recognize now that to hold people in slavery is just problematic, morally, and certainly Islam and
Christianity, Christianity never abolish slavery. It was Justinian in the fourth century that
abolished slavery. And Paul talks about treating slaves well, and things like that. I mean,
		

			Christians don't like to talk about that. When they say, oh, Islam says slavery is okay. Well, so
does your book. I mean, do you know if you live in glass houses don't throw stones. So slavery
exists in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Quran, but obviously the Quran, unlike Paul
saying, you know, treat your slaves Well, the Quran says the best way to get to God is free your
slaves. So already within the platonic tradition, there's a recognition that there's an evolution
happening here, that slavery is not a healthy state. Because anytime a human being is in an
indignant state, it's bad because resentment and anger and all these things, and that's why the
		

			province license and that's Appu, I'm the Abdi don't say, my slave, my slave, didn't know kung fu
coma, I believe that all of you are slaves of God. So the idea of slavery was abolished in that
Hadees. And what it becomes is a type of indentured servitude that needs to be worked out. So that
is the first type of Islam and it's the Islam of natural order, the Islam of the laws of the
universe. There are laws in the universe, and they work and they're understandable. And certainly
the earth all these things happening on this planet, the blossoms coming out, this is Islam, those
trees are in a state of submission, hibernation, fact that animals know when to hibernate, the fact
		

			that squirrels know to start collecting nuts and things for the winter. Well, who taught them that
that is Islam, he's in a state of submission to his nature. And so the idea of human beings we
submit conaghan it's painful. We don't do it willingly. See, the squirrel just does it willingly,
that there's no, there's no human beings do it with difficulty. It's a difficult thing. And amongst
them there are those who do it completely out of desire. And so the second type of Islam is the
Islam of the prophetic tradition. The idea that