Hamza Yusuf – Vision Of Islam CD5 #01

			The corpus of Hadith is not the proof for everything in Islam. And that gives you your next category
of proof, which is called PS. And illogical reasoning. A large portion of Shetty, and a lot of
Muslims don't know this, a large portion of Sharia, or sacred law is actually not directly from
Quran or Hadith. It's actually comes out of human understandings. Now, who do we trust, we trust
people that first of all the prophets, Allah Islam said that the best generation are my generation
in understanding of Islam and behavior, according to it, or my generation, and then the next
generation, and then the next generation. Well, that third generation ends with these groups of the
		

			moms. They're the last group. So they are called the people who wrote everything down. The people
before them were the people who heard it from the Sahaba. And the Sahaba, were people who lived it.
		

			So each generation is less adherent to the tradition than the one that preceded it. And that's why
the Prophet peace be upon him said, no time will come except the time that follows it is worse than
it until you meet your Lord. And what that means is each generation is there less understanding,
less practicing, and less aware of God, the oma say that in every generation, there's always
exceptions. So you will have somebody in a generation that might actually be better than some of the
scholars that preceded him more knowledgeable, things like that. But they will still not be from a
generation, the best generation were the first three. So that does not negate the possibility of
		

			individuals coming later, that are great people like the people went before but as large numbers of
people that disappears, and it increasingly does so until the prophets lie, Selim said, people will
have * in open public places. And the best people in those days will say, Would you go do that
somewhere else. And there's a hadith that says that so things get morally worse and, and all of
these things. So this is happening now, the men have is when you have a Hadeeth, that is open to
several interpretations, and most words, by their nature can have more than one interpretation. If
the moms differed on it, then because they've reached a level, which is called he had much luck,
		

			where you reach a level of absolute ability to determine or derive legal rulings. And that doesn't
mean you can't be wrong, but it means that you're so knowledgeable, you have the authority to be
wrong, because somebody who's a fool, even if he's right, he's wrong. Whereas somebody who is very
brilliant, and very humble and capable of his limitations, which these men were, then even when he's
wrong, he's still right. Because he's basing it on deep deliberation. He's basing it on thought he's
not basing it on opinions or on foolishness or on No, he's His judgment has arrived out of serious
effort. And it's very different when you meet somebody who holds an opinion, because you read it in
		

			time, or Newsweek, and somebody who holds an opinion, because he really thoroughly studied the
subject. I mean, you feel much safer either way, whether you're pro Palestinian or pro Israeli, if
you meet somebody who's really thoroughly examined the issue. He has weight and authority. But if
somebody just read the headlines, and then he's going to spout his opinions, then he's a fool. And
it's a fool who takes his opinion seriously. I mean, that's the reality of it. And that's why the
Quran says Howdy, Estonia, Lithuania and the moon, Valentina moon, are they the same? Those who know
and those who don't know, they're not the same even when they're wrong? They're not the same.
		

			Somebody who's wrong, who's speaking out of knowledge is not the same as somebody who's right who's
speaking out of ignorance, you're still safer with the one who's wrong with with deep knowledge and
understanding.
		

			And the thing about these people is they'll never be way off. Because they know the principles. One
of the things that the ancients particularly Greeks had this understanding that if you understood
the universals, the particulars would take care of themselves. One of the things about modern men
and women is that they're obsessed with particulars, and they know nothing of universals. And so
when you know Li the AMA, right, if you have that general principle, you're not going to make big
mistakes in the particulars. In that just yet, you just won't make big mistakes. If you know that it
is a general rule of law, what else there are, there is no harming and there is no reciprocation of
		

			harm. That's a principle in Islam. If you know that principle, that's going to save you from a lot
of problems. If you
		

			You know, the principal and Omar Bhima. Cassidy ha, that matters are based upon the intentions
behind them.
		

			That is going to affect how you view people's action. If you understand the principle masaka to
tayseer, duress necessitates facilitation or ease, that when people are under stressful conditions,
you need to help them by making things easier in order to remove that stress because people in
stressful situations will begin to break down mentally. So that is why rulings will change in times
of great difficulty. So a scholar who knows that, like Shaykh, Abdullah bin Veja, he has opinions
that other scholars don't they don't see it, because he knows the universals. So when he moves into
the particulars, he knows how to work with them in a different way. Whereas there are people that
		

			learn the particulars of shediac, they memorize all the rules for a doobie for C, D. And so when
they see that, oh, that's what you do well,
		

			is that always in every situation? Do you see? So there's a very big difference between people who
have this, and this is what these imams were famous for. They were famous for this vast
understanding of the philosophy behind the Sharia, the legislation, they understood one, that
shediac is for human benefit. And therefore if they found things that were harmful to people, even
though the law said to do it, they would change the law. So and that's hard for a lot of Muslims to
understand because they don't, they've lost that flexibility. And intolerance generally comes from
ignorance. And that's at the root of intolerance. If you want to remove intolerance, you have to
		

			first remove ignorance with people. So the madhhab are based on those differences of understanding.
And so what I want to say about the jihad, there is a difference about what is the reason for jihad.
out of the four EMA EMA Matic among our hanifa Imam Ahmed believed that the reason that fighting was
legislated was to remove aggression or belligerence. That was the ALA was what's called herrada Imam
Shafi. He said no, it was to remove Kufa it was to get rid of Kufa.
		

			Now, that's a big difference
		

			in understanding generally, in the history of Islam, the ruling governments followed the Hanafi in
the Maliki method, which created an incredible tolerance for other people's non Muslims. But even
the chef when they had authority, they basically applied the principle of the other imams.
		

			So even though that is the opinion of Imam Shafi, it was not the practice of the scholars of his
madhhab. As we move into Islam and Eman what is the difference between Islam and even Islam in the
Arabic language comes from a root word selima, and selama means to be whole.
		

			It's the same root of the Jewish Hebrew word which they get shalom from shala. The idea is that
Salaam is a wholeness, that when we speak of God as a center, that is the name of God, what it means
is, is that God has no parts. Now, when you have wholeness, you have peace. That war comes about
when you have divisiveness. Do you see how the understanding there a peace comes out of this
understanding of wholeness, that if a people are whole, if there's an integrity in a people, then
you won't have wars. But when people become divisive, you get belligerence. And that is why, for
instance, in Islam, generally, when they ruled, they believe that Jews and Christians and other
		

			religions had a right to live and practice amongst them with certain conditions, but they've had
that belief it's in their religion, whereas there are other religions that have ruled that didn't
believe that they actually believe they had no right at all. So that creates a very different type
of society creates a divisiveness that leads to war. So the Muslims have always seen that. I mean,
if you look at the human body, there are things on the body, that do not serve a purpose for the
body as a whole, but they're part of the body. You can have scars on your body, they're part of the
body, you don't dig out further to get rid of the scar. You just leave it the way it is. So there's
		

			still a wholeness, even though it might not be something that you necessarily like or want there.
		

			But you tolerate it, because it's part of the body.
		

			So traditionally, Muslims saw other religions, not as co religionists, but as co human beings.
They're human beings. We would rather they be Muslim, but they're part of the social body.
		

			And so we should tolerate them. And the Quran says even that they can be part of families, they can
be married in the families they can, they should be treated with dignity, but even with kindness and
friendship and and these things. So the difference between Islam and Eman is that the word settimo,
which means whole relates to the outward of Islam. When we say Islam, what we mean is an outward
practice. And that's why a Muslim is anyone who basically says, I'm a Muslim. And the way that they
say that is Allah, Mohammed rasulillah. Anyone that says, There is no God, but one God and Muhammad
is His Messenger is considered a Muslim, whether he practices or not, that's enough to come into
		

			Islam. And then they're treated as a Muslim. They're buried as a Muslim, as long as they never
reject that. Now, the more according to Islamic teaching, the more you practice, with good
intention, the stronger the man gets. So the man is the inward component. It's not something you can
see Islam you can see, basically, he man is something that only God can see.
		

			That's that's the secret of Benny Adam, is this unseen element of faith? And that's why in the
Quran, when the Arab say part of that Arab airman, these desert Arabs came, they said to the
Prophet, we believe Allah said, Don't say we believe, but say we have submitted a slum let me know
where I can go to a cinema.
		

			We have submitted while I may have tweeted email if you can, because he man has not yet come into
your hearts. So the Quran clearly distinguishes between Islam and he man. Now we can also see Islam
though, as a greater rubric. That includes eemaan. And so it's looked as a specific but it's also
looked at as an inclusive word. Now, one of the things he takes them artistic RTC light approach,
here a little bit, I mean,
		

			generally, the Sunni scholars believe that Eamon was merely toss D, which means to verify something
in your heart to believe it in your heart. That's all it was. And then there was a difference of
opinion about whether you actually had to say it on your tongue. Obviously, if you were mute and
couldn't speak, you didn't. But if you could, they said it was an obligation. And then action,
according to this, and this is a classic debate between Protestants and Catholics also, is it faith
in deeds that one is saved? Or is it faith alone? And obviously, the Protestant tradition says it is
faith alone. The deeds don't come into it. In a sense, that's closer to the Islamic tradition in
		

			that particular aspect is that the Muslims believe that faith alone in God is enough, although there
is an idea that there might be some purification in the next world for those people. So it's a very
dangerous and precarious type condition to be in, where you have faith in your heart, but no deeds.
Medic Ben dinar tells a story that he saw a funeral and he decided to go and help them very this
person, and he helped put him down into the grave. And it had a very powerful effect on him, which
often does if you go to funerals, and Muslim funerals are particularly powerful because the body is
just in cloth and this knot in a coffin so you putting a person right into the earth and then
		

			throwing dirt on them.