Tariq Ramadan – Islamic Ethics How we Know Right and Wrong #4A
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AI: Transcript ©
I hope you are okay.
As I told you,
I don't know about his halal.
As I told you yesterday, we'll try today
to have more time for you to
comment or ask questions,
because this is the practical side.
Yet before
entering straight into the practical side,
what I want to do is,
to make it clear
that, with all what we said yesterday,
the practical side should be understood within
an overall
vision.
What we can call
a world vision,
a concept of man, and in fact, altogether
a cosmology.
A cosmology
is the very understanding
of
how do we look at the cosmos, at
the universe,
when we say la ilaha illallah.
So it's very much coming from the centrality
of a Tawhid
and how we have to look at the
whole thing.
Why am I saying this? Because once again,
if you look at,
the way Sam Forcajar,
when it comes to technicalities,
by definition, if you only deal with the
legal, if you only deal with the issues,
the details, you end up trying to adapt,
to try to find a way,
but it's not going to be and sometimes
it's,
leading you astray from the overall vision. So,
you always have, first,
to have this vision, to have this understanding,
the concept of the creator of God and
the creation and man.
And I want to repeat this before
not to repeat, but to make it clear
before we enter
into the discussion
on,
on the different fields that we will have
today. We'll start in a very simple way
about things that I said yesterday, about,
consumption
and,
our relationship to the environment.
And then
later in the next session, we will talk
about economy and medicine,
and then also about psychology and arts. This
will be the 4 fields that we are
touching
today.
But once again I will have much more
introduction
to the topics
and discuss with you how do you see
the issues in different fields.
But now
what
I want
to start with,
is really this understanding
of,
in which we are dealing with contemporary issues.
What are the challenges that we are facing?
All what I said
the the ends, not only the means. All
this is part of what I'm going to
do now
with you, and what I'm trying to translate.
So
when you enter into
these discussions, the starting point is this overall
vision that you have,
Saying La Illaha Illallah,
get it right. Saying La Illaha Illallah is
the axis
around which everything is going to be constructed.
And when I'm saying this, you live in
the U. K, you live in the West,
and you know how much
the postmodern
ideology
is working exactly on this starting point.
By saying, no, there is no truth. And
even this,
look at what is happening in all the
discussions that we have, people coming to you
and saying something which is not exactly this.
They would say, for example and this is
a central question to Muslims is,
Oh, yes, it might be that there is
one God,
but the book that you have
is a product of human
intelligence.
Once again, it's a way to touch the
truth that you have, because why?
Part of el Aqidah for us is the
6 pillars of faith,
El Kitab, Kalamullah.
So that's essential is the starting point. You
cannot enter into the discussion not having your
foundations
clear in your heart and in your mind,
in your mind and in your heart. So
this is the connection
with the truth as saying, this is wal
So it's coming from
So this is the central thing. And this
is why sometimes, you know, when we deal
with reformists,
it's
disturbing
because
they very often go to the practical side
of reform,
not starting with the principles of the the
the foundation. And this is why it's very
good to have some Salafi coming, say, if
you don't start with Tawhid, we are going
to be lost. And many reformists are lost
because there is no the central axis of
everything, which is La Illaha Illallaha, which is
the truth. And by saying this, I'm saying
it's the truth as an act of faith.
This is why we are not scientists. We
are believers
in something.
We believe in it. So it's a matter
of faith. It's not a matter of rationality.
So anyone who is coming to you in
rational terms, like in the debate I had
in Cambridge with Douglass saying, this is not
scientific,
the fact that scientifically he cannot say there
is God and no God is putting him
exactly on the same side of postulates.
What in the philosophy is postulates
is, in Islam, an act of faith. There
is one God. This is what I believe.
And you have no scientific means to prove
that I'm wrong,
as much as I don't have scientific means
to prove that you are right or wrong.
We don't have this. So it's an act
of faith.
So this is where
we need to start with this, and this
is the starting point of your cosmology. It's
the way you look at the world, and
everything is going to be built.
Now that you may have some doubts sometimes,
that's jihad enfils.
That's your jihad, the jihad of faith. It
happened even
in the time of the prophet, peace be
upon him, that some are asking questions.
That's normal.
This is not
a scientific discussion.
It's a
spiritual
discussion that you have with your own heart
and with your own mind, and don't avoid
this.
Don't make it as to pretend to be
a good Muslim, I'm not doubting.
No. Sometimes you doubt yourself, and sometimes you
are questioning.
So the jihad
with your heart is to go to getting,
this confidence and this trust that
he is the truth and to on whom,
on him you rely.
That's a permanent struggle. And especially when you
live in the West, don't pretend that questions
are not coming to your mind.
Don't.
But it's the way you tackle them which
is essential, not the way you avoid them,
which is smart.
It's not smart to avoid questions.
It's not.
But it's the way you tackle them. Having
said that, at the central at the starting
point,
meaning this, meaning tawhid means what?
It means something that it's straight away.
Straight away. If I'm saying La Illa Illa
Allah, I'm saying
to myself and to the world
this life has a meaning.
There is a meaning in my life.
There is a meaning. It's not nonsense. It's
not absurd. It's not
irrational.
It's not irrational.
I cannot prove God rationally,
but the meaning of life is rational.
Even the fact that I'm saying there is
one God is rational in the way I'm
saying is beyond my rationality. And what is
beyond my rationality is rational, is not irrational.
Get that?
You don't?
Why are you smiling? You didn't get it.
If
in rational
in a rational,
reasoning and a rational
term, you are saying,
I rationally
acknowledge
that my rationality
has limits, is rational.
Okay? It's not irrational.
It's rational that I cannot, you know
it's very rational when you go to somebody
and say, you know what, I love him.
I say, I cannot explain why.
It's not irrational. It's rational that you cannot
explain the reasons of your heart, which is
what, Blaise Pascal was saying. You re your
heart
has its reasons your reason cannot get.
It's a well way of protecting your heart.
By the way, my answer to this
is the your heart has this reason
that your reason
will acknowledge. This is the Islamic answer. At
one point what is coming from your heart,
your rationality can get it by accepting the
limits of
that are coming. You can feel it. You
can there is and by the way, this
is something that you find in the Koran.
The people who are denying the truth,
the way it's put in the Koran is
very strange.
It's not only that they are not thinking
with their mind, they are not thinking with
their heart.
In fact, it's deep knowledge. It's deep understanding.
So, in fact,
in our journey
the heart
is getting knowledge. It's coming from where? From
what I said yesterday, El fitra,
the spark.
So when you come back to the spark,
to this spark, and you come back to
the origin,
there is an understanding that it's coming from
your heart. So sometimes you cannot explain this
with your heart,
your with your mind, but when you just
are praying, when you are fasting
in very specific
spiritual disposition
you feel that you are close.
You feel that it is it. You feel
that the truth is there. You feel that
there is a lifting spiritual process.
You're not going to explain this with your
mind,
But you can have
something which is a spiritual communion
with your brothers and sisters.
For example, the feeling that you have when
you go,
through the supplication.
That's not going to be reduced to a
rational
translation, but you can feel something. And this
is where a rida
a rida it's only coming from God. So
this is why when the people are telling
you you know some are using this
It's deep
satisfaction
and and communion with the other. So you
are not going
to be,
to get
the satisfaction of the Jews and the Christians
until you follow their religion.
And some are using this by saying they
are not loving you, they don't respect you.
That's not what is said in the verse.
The verse is something that you yourself are
experiencing.
When you are praying, what you feel with
your brothers and sisters in Islam, it's not
at all the same way the respect that
you can have towards Christians and Jews. It's
not the same. Here, it's about communion and
satisfaction.
Here, it's about mutual respect.
The only satisfaction that you are looking for
is Allah's satisfaction.
Read Allah. This is what you are. But
as to getting from people who are not
sharing your very specific way to talk to
God, don't expect from them to have this
satisfaction.
Only expect from them
mutual knowledge, meaning mutual respect. And this is
what you are expected to do. You are
not expected to go to a Christian gathering
and to feel the same satisfaction.
It's not going to happen for the Muslims,
and you are not expecting this from the
Jews and the Christians. They're not coming to
your mosque and saying, masha'Allah.
They're not going to say, masha'Allah,
to start with. They are not going to
say this. They are just going to, I
respect.
So be careful with the levels of your
relationship from within,
al Umma,
al Islamiyah,
in spiritual terms, the Muslim community is about
communion.
So there is something coming with the community.
You fast, you experience the pilgrimage. You pray
together. This is a rida, coming from rida
Allah.
But here it's mutual respect and knowledge. So
don't use a verse to transform the meaning
of the word by saying, they are not
going to love you.
They are going to attack you.
That's not what is said in other verses,
talking about Christians that are full of humility
and there is mutual respect. Why is it
that in the Quran, they are called Ahlul
Kitab? So Ahlul Kitab are going to reject
you? No. And between you and them, in
spiritual terms, it could be positive competition,
which is what we have in the Quran.
You have to compete in good deeds.
That's it.
Respect and competition for the best.
But
communion,
spiritual communion, sometimes we have interfaith dialogue. They
are all coming, and they are praying together.
You don't know what they are doing.
No. That that's not that's not interface dialogue.
Interface dialogue, you pray. Everyone prays the way
he or she wants to pray, and you
respect one another. But I don't expect from
anyone to have this spiritual,
communion with El Fatiha.
And you with anyway, you understand what I
mean.
But that's an important point, is the way
some are distorting the very deep understanding of
a verse to make it something which is
a weapon against the others, which is not
exactly what is in the verse here. It's
deeper than that. Having said that,
when I come to,
Tawhid,
it says:
Your life has a meaning.
And the meaning is exactly what we say
when somebody
passes away:
I come, I belong to him,
I come from him, He is the source.
I'm going back to him. Between this, I'm
accountable.
I'm a Khalifa.
So he has the ownership of everything,
even my body, and
the prophet was always saying, the one who
has his soul in his hands, and this
is a metaphor by saying I belong to
him,
by the one who has,
or to whom my
soul,
belong belongs. So so this point here is
the starting point of a vision of the
world, which is not only your life has
a meaning, but,
the world, the creation has a meaning.
And the way you are going to come
close to the meaning is knowing that you
come back to him, your accountability
is going to be an ethical
standard.
What I said yesterday,
you have to change yourself
on the basis of values that were revealed
to you through the Quran or given to
you through your culture or
thought about through your mind.
Okay? So this is where you have the
your faithfulness to the path
is to know the prohibition,
to know the obligation,
and to know what are the values that
are going to help you to come to
closer to the meaning of your life, which
is to serve him.
And what is the best way of serving
him in the Islamic tradition? The best among
you,
harukum and faukum lin nas.
The best among you is the one who
is serving humanity the best way. In which
terms? In ethical terms. Serving means
on the name of the values that Allah
brought or revealed to us as the path.
2 thirds of the Koran is mainly about
moral,
teaching. It's about morality.
It's about ethics
and the goals that you have to achieve.
So
this path, this journey is what we call
Sharia.
Okay? So, one God,
my life has a meaning. There is a
way. This is the path. I'm going to
do this, to implement
the, obligation
to resist the prohibition,
and then to try to be positive
and to be,
morally
committed
in this world. So this is the vision
that I have. All this is about what?
What I said,
that we have a responsibility.
By definition, if you are a human being
in this cosmology, this concept of the world
and your life, you are accountable. Mukalef.
Mukalef
means every one of you
one day is going to be asked:
What have you done with your mind? What
have you done with your body? What have
you done with your time? What have you
done with your health? What have you done
with your neighbor? What have you done with
your society? What have you done in every
single thing?
So which is the very understanding,
you remember this,
companion who just converted to Islam, and he,
the prophet,
asked the companions that teach him,
the Quran, and he came to,
to 2 verses.
So the one who is going to do
an atom of good will see it, An
atom of bad will see it. That's that's
okay. I I get that.
I get that. This is the meaning of
Ihsaan.
Make
us fear you, love you, as if we
were seeing you, which is the highest level
of ihsan,
which means what?
Everything
is about
accountability.
So everything,
the way you are dealing with yourself, with
your neighbor, with nature, with with the environment,
everything,
not
because,
by the way,
what we are saying here, it's very heavy.
It's very heavy.
And this came to the prophet very, very,
very soon.
Who are going to bestow on you very
heavy words,
your responsibility.
He's a rahman first,
every single chatter except 1,
rahman er Rahim. I start with God, in
the name of God, the merciful, the most
merciful,
telling you, you are going to be unjust.
You are going to be wrong. You are
going to fail, you are going to try
to be good, and you are going to
succeed only,
not because Allah is a lad, because he's
just, because he's a rahman.
He's the most merciful.
So it means what?
That you are accountable,
that you need to get it right from
the very beginning.
Remain humble.
Remain humble. You are in need of Him.
That's a cosmology.
It starts with what? La ilaha illallah.
It's a call for humility
and commitment,
which I say I transform this by saying
we need humble believers
and ambitious
believers.
Ambitious not with arrogance, knowing that we rely
on him, because if he wants, everything is
possible.
Everything is possible. If you think, you know,
everything is possible really, literally, everything is possible
if he wants. So you have to trust
him.
But at the same time, be humble with
your own self.
From the big cosmology,
it comes to a very clear understanding of
who you are in the whole thing,
so you have to be committed here.
And then with this,
everything that you have to to to get
in this process
on based on your understanding of this in
a spiritual way.
So get me right.
There is no way of being active if
you are not spiritual
with all what I'm saying now. If you
don't get what I'm saying now, what is
the meaning of what you are doing? What
is the very essence of your intentions in
what you are doing?
So the deep
understanding of 'erohaneya'
kuno rabbeiniyin,
that to be imbibed with the presence of
God,
'errohaninatasquiatinat'
it's about what? You're going to to go
through the process of purification
purifying
yourself through your actions, through your commitment in
this cosmology,
this understanding. La ilaha illallah.
I know how
how limited I am. I know how powerful
he is.
This is the meaning of it. So you
know that all this is a construction
that is based on the
main,
in the main
sources. And as I said, your goals are
coming from there and in every field
we have, in every action,
there should be
a moral
goal.
And in fact, this is the way I
would
try to find in Arabic
a translation
I'm saying this in the book do you
have a translation in Arabic of spirituality?
You don't.
There is not a word that is translating
what you have in English as spirituality. There
are three words in Arabic. The first one
is teskiyah,
purification.
We have all this in
the glossary.
Teskiyat ennaz, purification of the self. Rabbeni,
rabbeiniyun,
meaning, meaning Bayt, with Allah, God's presence, kunub
rabbeiniyin,
as it is said in the Koran, and
then,
ruhani,
which is
to make the rohaniosal
being alive. But rohaniyah
is not exactly spirituality here.
And what is important in the Islamic here,
in the Islamic understanding of this,
it means there are 2 things that are
going to protect
what we call in English spirituality and its
tasquiat en nafs.
No way in Islam
to be able to go through a purification
of the self
if on the path
you are not
implementing in your life the pillars
of the visible side of Islam. In fact,
no spirituality without religion,
which is exactly the opposite of what you
hear today. Be spiritual and forget about praying.
Forget about discipline, which is,
once again, rubbish.
Give me one spirituality,
one teaching that is coming from all the
spiritualities around the world, from Hinduism to Buddhists
to Judaism, Christianity and Islam and whatever,
which is not based on discipline, is the
starting point of a spiritual life.
Why you
pray? Why you fast? This is to be
disciplined. I always,
repeat my own experience with the Dalai Lama
when I was in India, waking up at
4 o'clock in the morning, repeating the text
and being very disciplined.
People like him because during the day, he
smiles and everything is easy. But during the
night, he's reciting. He has a discipline.
And in our world today, it's very important
not to come with a spirituality which is
the opposite of this efficient
life that we have with our work and
under pressure. It's as if spirituality is the
opposite of a stressful life.
No.
Spirituality has to do with disciplined life, whatever
is stressful, your daily life.
This is a way you look at the
whole thing. This is the starting point of
how you are going to be committed here.
And as I said, you are accountable.
Now
this is also saying something about,
the way you have to deal with
where lies the authority
in
your understanding of this cosmology.
Of course, the final authority
in
everything which has to do with
Islam,
arkaneil
il Islam or arkaneil iman or al Aqeedah,
it's coming from God.
And that is to be repeated.
You know, can I ask you something,
all of you who are
trying to be good Muslims,
as we are all trying to be?
You know what?
In your life,
instead of when you are demonstrating to go
out and say, Allahu Akbar.
And sometimes you have to say to people,
please
stop transforming Allahu Akbar into a political,
shouting slogan.
In your life,
whatever you are facing,
whatever when you are facing any difficulty,
just in you,
Allahu Akbar.
Just get it.
Allahu Akbar.
Meaning, whatever
whatever are the plans, whatever
thing, Allahu
Akbar,
Wallahu Alam. You know, every time
you you write a fatwa, Allahu Alam not
goes best on many things,
which is this is the way you look
at the world. He's bigger than everything.
He's higher than ever. That that's deep.
That's not just to shout at the people,
whatever you do to ask Allahu Akbar, and
you use it as a political slogan, that
sometimes people here aren't completely misunderstood.
I I keep I keep on repeating to
to people what was said to me. I
said, these Muslims, they go for Palestine. They
go in the street. Allahu Akbar.
They are demonstrating in front of people of
other faiths, and they think that they are
going to be understand when the people listening
to them is Allahu Akbar means kill them
all.
That's the way it's understood. Why are you
saying this like that? Allahu Akbar is too
much,
a deep message to be put in a
situation where it's misunderstood.
Like now, it is understood that all these
extremists are using Allahu Akbar and say, he
said Allahu Akbar.
So meaning, that was an,
a violent extremist Muslim.
Okay. Let me come quickly to to to,
the authority here that in all this within
this cosmology,
the final authority or the
the first authority in everything that has to
do with the moral teaching, the understanding of
the world,
the ownership of the world, the ownership of
your being. What you are trying to do
is God. And then
you also have to look at the world,
the way it is. And he told us,
sunnat Allah. Let Abdi Lafi sunnat Allah. He's
saying,
this word, it's at your disposal,
and this world has an authority on you.
And the authority on you is that it's
a reveal,
it's a revelation as well. In fact, the
second book, Al Quran, is talking And this
is where we are lost, because we have
been following Orientalists
in a way which is wrong. In fact,
if you come back to the Islamic terminology
and the Arabic terminology,
the way the book is talking about the
universe is completely different from what we are
saying.
In fact,
the second revelation the book is talking about
the first revelation, the universe, exactly in the
same terms.
In fact, the universe has to be red,
and what you find in the universe are
Ayyat,
science,
which, in fact, is the very word of
ayat in the Koran, not verses.
The English translation of ayat is not verses.
This is coming from the Bible,
versification.
This is why we speak about verse. But,
in fact, it's a mirroring reality.
So it's Ayat everywhere.
So it's a cosmology.
This is what you find in the deepest
Hindu and Buddhist tradition saying the microcos
and the macro costs are mirroring. That's exactly
what we have in Islam.
But if we are coming with a yad
here versus here and a yad there, you
are participating to something which is called
the disenchantment
of the world.
It cannot be so.
When the people are saying you know, Dawkins
was looking at me once and say, you
still believe in angels?
Yes, my dear.
So it's as if, you know, scientific mind
cannot think that angels
yes. When I enter home,
my cosmology is coming with me within that
home, and say, 'Salaam, wa Alaikum, wa Rahmatullah.'
It seems that nobody is there, and still
there is a presence.
Get it or not, it's not rational, but
it's not irrational.
But you understand what I mean? It's everywhere.
And this is something which is your commitment,
is is why when apparently there is nobody,
there is still something
that's coming from you. So your authority is
also coming from it's coming from the book,
and then the the way you are going
to deal with the authority of the world
that you have to
study.
You have to travel around the world and
look at things. You have to take from
history. You have to take from the natural
law. You have to take from history, you
have to take from cultures, you have to
learn. So there is an authority here in
your learning.
This
is why, we made you tribes and nations
for you to know each other, meaning what?
You have to learn from others.
So this is why he wanted, from the
very beginning, this diversity,
to the point that he's saying the authority
of diversity in your mind is that if
there were no diversity in the world, the
world would have been corrupt.
And in another verse,
So even if the same verse is saying
that, even religions would have been
destroyed.
So the point for us is to get
this, that there is an authority.
So this is why I remember, once again,
my father, Rahim O'Allahu,
once he told me this, like this, in
between two doors, he said, you know what?
There is no tolerance in Islam.
I said, sorry?
There is no tolerance?
And then I came back to him, and
he explained to me and said, no. Tolerance
is not enough. And then I started studying
and said, 'That's exactly the point.'
You don't come to somebody and say, you
know what? I tolerate you.
I suffer your presence.'
which is toleration
means this: I suffer and I am in
a position of authority.
Might be that you know, there is a
so this is why the the the treaties
of tolerance coming from the Western tradition is
to be understood in in such a way.
But in Islam,
if this is God's will, you have only
one thing to do, to accept and to
respect.
And then you respect the other. You don't
tolerate them. So it means it's another vision.
So you have to deal. Pluralism
has an authority on you.
Diversity
is God's will. You can't adjust. So this
is a cosmology. So you come in this
country, you are in Britain, and you see
a diversity of
people, even if you are a majority or
a minority,
the only way you have to deal with
it is mutual respect through mutual knowledge.
This is a way of life.
And it's challenging, it's difficult, but no choice.
And you are going to be accountable. How
you treated the neighbor? Muslims or people of
other faiths, what have you done with them?
Based on, this is a duty, it's not
a matter of choice.
You have to deal with it.
So the authority is coming from God, and
then it's coming from
its creation. The world has an authority. So
also when, for example,
you go to the medical doctor, you know
that he has a professional
authority,
because in his field there are rules and
knowledge that is taking from
its,
subject matter. So you have to deal with
this. So once again,
you have to acknowledge that
with this cosmology
there is the final authority in moral terms,
and there are authorities
in
scholarly terms that you have to take. And
this is where you need to get this,
and you don't need to put Islamic everywhere,
but any authority coming from the understanding of
the world is per se Islamic.
Why are you so obsessed with putting Islamic
everywhere?
Yes, it's Islamic for a medical doctor to
understand how the body works.
Because the body is Allah's creation, isn't it?
So we don't have to put Islamic everywhere,
because in fact it's just showing how
we are experiencing an inferiority complex.
We are so scared of not being enough
Islamic that we put Islamic everywhere
in our slogans.
So
here, this authority,
it's, it's, important
also.
And with this, with this,
Allah, et Tawheed,
the moral authority that is coming from the
scriptural sources, our
rationality,
our way of dealing with the 2 texts,
the 2 revelations,
and then at the same time trying here,
to understand that
we have
to do what with all this, what I
said yesterday: reform the self
and reform the world.
And here there is something which is essential.
Many of the Muslims around the world, when
they are speaking about Jews and by the
way,
let us start this clearly. Anti Semitism is
anti Islamic.
To be against the State of Israel
and its policy,
that's the only right way to be.
That's it.
But it has nothing to do with anti
Semitism.
Even if you know, we have you heard
about Bernard Henri Levy,
the one who was liberating
Libya because he loved them so much.
Telling us that it has nothing to do
with Israeli policy. Anyway,
he just wrote a book about, the spirit
of Judaism and he's saying, you know, the
new type of anti Semitism
is anti Zionist.
So if you criticize
Israel, it means that deep down
you are anti Semite.
We don't buy this, and we have to
struggle against this by saying anti Semitism is
unacceptable.
Many
scholars are saying, you know what? And they
are repeating something which is old:
that there is something in Judaism which is
based on the
chosen people.
And some, yes, in the orthodox tradition are
speaking about we are the chosen people.
And if you come in the Koran,
faddala kumalalalalamin
bani Israel. You have been chosen.
It's in the Koran.
So it might be that they are repeating
what is in the Koran.
Now you come to some Muslims, and what
are they saying?
They are saying, look at them, they think
that they are the chosen people.
And in the Koran, yes, but this was
in the past.
Who are the chosen people today?
Us,
of course.
And we have the proof,
which is:
You are the best community. So
And what you are criticizing there, you are
repeating it for yourself,
which in fact is completely wrong.
The way we translate the aya and we
understand the aya, it's not this.
We are not
the
best community
by blood
or innly by reference to Islam.
That moruna bil ma'aruf, inasmuch as
so it's conditional
you
promote the good and resist the bad. It's
conditional.
So the election of Bani Israel
was a moral election,
not a racial or blood election, not
intrinsically,
but morally.
You are a chosen community
as long as
you behave in moral,
according to moral standards?
And look at this, to the point that
the perception that you are the best
community
is coming in the world through the way
people are looking at you,
not the way Allah
knows about you. Because he knows that you
believe, so why is
minu Nabilah coming at the end of the
verse?
Because he's not talking about this. He's talking
about the moral condition for you to be
the best. You should be perceived
as that moroonabilmaruf
watanhamnaniilmokah
wetu minunabilah.'
This is hidden. This is Allah's secret. But
what is seen by the people is
that you are promoting the right and resisting
promoting the right and resisting the bad.
And what it means here, what other verse
is leading us to this in our cosmology,
our understanding of our responsibility,
within humanity
is the other one,
We made you the nation of the middle
pass, litekunu
shuhada alen nath.
What you are expected
to be,
it's witnesses
before people.
To the truth,
to your message.
To your message, you'll be witness, Sheikh. This
is why now I'm calling the world you
know, you were talking yesterday about, do we
have to speak about Muslim majority countries or
Muslim minorities.
What I said in nineties when I was
talking about our situation in the world, the
global world, is now the world is Dar
es Shehada,
not Dar es Salaam.
Dar es Shehada is the space,
the global space, where we have to bear
witness to the truth before human beings, even
before Muslim
fellow Muslims.
So shahada is the very status. But what
means shahada
is the way you are perceived,
be a witness.
So this is why when I meet a
Jew,
with a Jew or with a Christian, I
say, you know what?
The only thing that I'm expecting from you
is for you to be a witness of
your principles.
Be a witness.
Show me what faith is doing with you.
Don't try to convert me. And we don't
have you know, some are entering into interfaith
dialogue by counting how many are going to
convert.
That's just completely wrong.
What you have to be the one that
you have to be within the interphase dialogue
is the witness,
in the way you speak, in the way
and this is why in the Quran,
with wisdom.
The best exhortation. Speak
the best way. This is the way you
behave. This is to be a witness.
So what I'm saying here, in the world,
the best community
is the more
morally committed.
There is no election. You are not better
because you are Muslim. You are better when
you are the better Muslim you can be.
So this is why I'm saying to Muslims
even in the UK, please stop talking about
Islam
and be better Muslims.
Don't use the you know, they are going
to
we are falling into the trap of this
discourse about Islam, about Islam. The only thing
which is going to change is for us
to be better Muslims in the way we
understand to be witnesses.
This is coming from the cosmology.
I want you to understand that everything is
connected in the big picture here before we
come to the practical thing, and the practical
thing should be dealt with
when did I oh, okay, that's good. I'm
in my tongue.
So it's conditional.
Now, last thing that you have within this
cosmology,
which is important,
is
many things came
from Al Qur'an and Al Kareem.
Many things that we have are in the
Hadith.
And still,
there is a space here
which
you have to get it, because
very often when we speak about Islam, as
I said yesterday, it's about submission and everything.
It's as if everything gets set and done.
In fact, it's not Islam is not about
this.
The moral orientation is there.
The
principles are there. Your accountability is known. What
you have to do and what you have
to be in the world as witnesses is
known. The goals are known.
And still
there is something that you have which is
special in the universe,
which is going to be translated by the
word that we know and we very often
use it in a very defensive
or only legal dimension because the Foucault took
it and created it, and it's a problem.
It's a very important
notion. It's a very important
notion,
which has to you have to take time
to deal with it, which is
now the
15 notion that I am have been studying
here. I counted them yesterday, so 15. If
If you don't have 15, you are not
following. That's not good.
And plus all what you have in the
book.
This notion is saying what?
It's saying that the text came to you.
Everything is in the Koran. Nothing is missing
in the Koran. We agree on that. Nothing
is missing in the Koran as to the
principles,
not as to the detailed answer.
So you need to have to deal with
the detailed answer.
And the detailed answer is
that Allah,
God, in the Quran,
sends some verses that are open for interpretation.
Okay? That you have to look meaning what?
It could be that at one point
you understood something, and later you're going to
understand something else, because new knowledge are giving
you another understanding.
Balaqaadirinaalaan
nusawiyya
banana.
This is a verse where Allah is saying,
am I not able to come back to
you with your old creation? I'm able. I'm
even able to come
with your finger, the tip of your finger.
In the 7th century, the tip of the
finger meant,
it's small. He can come with this.
And now with new scientific knowledge, he's saying
something that the Americans and all the intelligences
know.
No one has the same.
I'm going to come with you here.
So what was understood in the 17th century
7th century is not the same as what
we're understanding now. It's coming with your singularity.
You,
Nobody
else. He's coming for your fingerprint.
So we didn't know the fingerprint at that
time. Now we so the more we come,
we have
versus
that are open for interpretation,
that we are going to get
a better understanding.
Even, for example, in the
astrophysical
world,
a Shamsoul, Khmer Rouge, husband, to the point
now that they are able to take pictures
of the,
the el hillal. How do you call this
in English? English?
Impression.
Impression?
You can take now a picture with the
new technology that is telling you exactly when
the the the the month is starting.
I know that there is a big discussion
among scholars. Should it be with our eyes
or could it be with technology?
But now we know that this is
'Eshamsuwal
Kamaru' behozban means very,
very precise
calculation.
Behozban,
the morphology of the word here,
it's very precise. And we know that it's
true now.
So we are discovering.
So the Koran is open for interpretation
in some of the verses. Some of the
verses are talking about the world, but also
some of the verses are open for interpretation
when it comes to rulings. So it's open.
And on some very specific issues,
the Koran is silent.
And the hadith of the prophet
is saying:
He kept quiet on some issues,
not out of forgetfulness,
but out of mercy.
My silence is your freedom. This is what
Allah is telling us. His silence is going
to be our freedom.
But be careful.
Our freedom
was understood by the scholars. It came also
in the legal field by,
what
the Maliki were talking about by saying, il
masale helmorselah.
So it's the public interest left to human
beings by the silence
that is coming from God. And very often,
el masalahalmor
salah is defined
by scholars, the fuqaha,
in English, unrestrictive,
probably unrestrictive.
And I think that this is wrong. It's
not unrestricted.
There is no legal
frame, but there is an ethical orientation.
So in fact, you have to come back
in Islam when you are trying to find
the right
fatwa
to understand the moral orientation.
There is nothing left in our book
with no
moral orientation. So you need to get the
final goal, which is the ethical goal, and
then you are going to find the legal.
But you need to have an or an
ethical orientation. Everything is about ethical orientation.
Everything in the Koran is telling us about
all the ethical orientations. But he's not giving
us the legal framework, how we are going
to translate.
This work that you have to do,
from the ethical teaching, the morality that you
find in the Koran,
or the rules that you find in the
world, to try to respect the world in
an ethical way.
What is it called?
It's called ichdihad.
Ichdihez.
This notion is central.
And this is where
when you have this
cosmological
understanding,
you understand that ishdihad is the way you
are going to use
your reasoning,
your mind
in getting the goals, not only in the
legal.
The Fukah took istihad as a legal
instrument.
That's fine. But istihad is bigger than that.
Istiad is about, how are you going to
make the legal
part of the path?
So Istiad is,
how am I going to remain faithful
to Allah's teachings on the past using my
mind, my heart,
and all the knowledges.
So there is Ijtihad everywhere.
So it's not only Ijtihad with the texts
it's Ijtihad with
the environment, and it's Ijtihad on all the
sciences.
If we reduce
Ijtihad
into the legal,
you know what you are going to do?
Exactly what I was criticizing in radical reform,
by saying if ICHTihad is a legal means,
you are reducing ICHTihad to something which is
an adaptational
tool to the world, which is exactly what
jurisprudence is all about. The world is changing,
and then you go you come with an
issue, trying to find the new rules or
legal framework,
because the world is changing,
which is not ishtihad that we are talking
about. Ilkhila'fafil'ard
means a bigger,
deeper, wider ishdiad.
How am I going to rely on the
sources,
know my responsibility,
and try to achieve the goal? So it's
not
about
adapting,
it's about
changing,
transforming,
and getting the final goals.
So, each jihad is huge.
It's a philosophical concept.
It's a philosophical concept.
It's a scientific concept, and it's a legal
concept.
If you reduce it to a legal concept,
you are coming with an moustalah,
which is the specialized way of
dealing with this world
in the legal framework.
By the way, in
our center, Kyle, what we are doing this
year in Granada, we have a summer school
1 week every year. This year it's about
creative lifestyle. It's 5 days where we are
stressing and working
in May on classes where we are going
to deal with Istihad as a notion, understanding
this in every field, so because this is
central.
I now am working in the center with
some of the scholars.
I
we have the same, you know, vision that
we have to move, and then we came
to the discussion on ichthyad. We realized we
don't have the same, so we had a
critical discussion within, and it's critical here to
have this. But what I want you to
understand is this: why? Because in every field
that we are going to work,
if you don't put yes, if you don't
put Ichthiad within the
overall understanding,
you are reducing it here in something which
is
a reactive
tool to the way the world is. So
as I told you yesterday, this cosmology
is helping us to be
active,
a force of proposal not reactive,
and defending
ourselves from the dominant culture but having something
to,
express.
This means 2 things here.
In the way we look at the world
and this is why
in the book Radical Reform I
put together
environment and economy.
And I will come to economy later.
But when you deal with this understanding,
you understand that with this cosmology,
you have no choice
but to
know
and to implement
the vision that is coming from the Koran
and coming from all
our prophetic traditions,
that environment,
this universe
has to be respected because this is the
very
creation of God, and this is a revelation.
And you have to respect
environment
in something which is not the way we
have ecology today.
What is
and get this is where I want you
to understand what I mean.
I'm dealing with people in green parties, in,
you know,
environmental
organizations,
and what they are doing is very good.
It is very important.
But the way they arrive at it very
often is because we are facing catastrophes,
global warming. So because there is a problem,
we raise the issue.
So the principle
is coming from the potential risk.
What we have to do as Muslims, and
we are not the only
religion, and we are not the only spirituality.
It's in fact
environment
is the starting point of our thinking,
not the final resistance
to catastrophe.
So it's an ecology beyond ecology.
It's an ecology which is rooted in your
principles.
When you see nature,
the way you love God will be seen
by the way you respect nature. And Malik
Badri, when he was writing and by the
way, if you haven't read that book, read
that book on contemplation
that in fact
the way you look at nature and the
environment is telling a lot about the way
you have this connection with Allah.
The prophet
and I promised to myself that you will
find this first in every single
book that I wrote, and I I I
was faithful to this promise except for one
book.
It was not really fitting,
the Arab awakening.
Anyway
In the creation
of, the earth and the heaven, in the
alternation of night and day, there are signs
for those who are full of insight.
And he was crying when he got that,
meaning that it's a spiritual
commitment
to respect environment
for the Muslims?
Why is it that today
we don't speak about
global warming? We are not there in anything
which has to do with
ecological discussion. Muslims are completely disappearing.
No force of proposal, no discourse. It's as
if
it's secondary.
While, in fact, if you are serious with
Allah,
the way you treat nature,
the to the point that ethics of war
is sending Usama, the prophet
and then this was repeated by Abu Bakr
as Siddiq telling him, you don't touch
women, you don't touch children, you don't touch
religious people, you don't touch nature.
You don't touch nature if you are going
to destroy. And then you go to Pakistan
and say, you know what, there is something
which is called Islamic nuclear bomb.
Okay.
Try to be consistent with this. How are
you going to use it?
Is it possible?
Do you have something in Islam which is
collateral damages?
Not only human collateral damages, but natural damages.
Now, talking about this, it's as deep as
that. This is the way you show your
spirituality.
It's the way you respect nature. Environment
is the starting point of your relationship, because
this is a revelation. These are this is
a gift.
Are you going to destroy the gift? Are
you going so your neglectfulness towards God starts
with the way you are with nature, with
the way you are in the way your
consumption.
How are you going to deal with this?
And for us Muslims it's secondary. Let us
talk about the serious things: taking
over power,
the state, politics,
money,
economics.
So we are doing exactly the same. We
are colonized
and our priorities are put by the surrounding
world, not our message.
We are not setting the priority,
and this is why I'm always saying be
careful. One of the powers of the dominant
is to ask you the questions, and you
are trapped into the questions. So the better
way is question the question.
Question why am you asking these questions? But
you have to be quite smart in doing
this
with from where you are to set your
priority.
So
and this
has to do with the cosmology,
a sense of the universe.
When the people are saying scientific,
the postmodern, it's all about,
you know, disenchantment,
and and and no. It's it cannot be
like this for us. It cannot be.
Wherever you go, I was just coming, and
I I was looking at the beautiful
landscape.
I just took a picture and said, I'm
sorry to tell you this. It's just more
beautiful than what I have here.
I'm talking about the venue.
But sometimes you are caught with things. It's
just you you just when you are neglectful,
why do you why do you you know,
when I was in northern
Mali,
I was with the Tuareg,
somewhere Muslims and others, waking up just before
sunrise.
And the way they were, they were praying,
waiting for the sun to come and touching
the
sand. You know this relationship,
this relationship to nature,
is this not the spiritual
things that we are talking about
in your daily life?
We live in the UK. What is your
relationship to nature? What is your relationship to
environment? What is your relationship with the other
revelation, which is as important as the second
revelation,
which is the world, which is the environment?
Don't we have to be at the forefront
of this
concern
about you are destroying God's gifts?
Is it not essential?
And not with what we have in mind
sometimes. It's a good way to be accepted
by the people. They will like it.
Well, some some of the people are inviting
you, and they want you to be liked
by the
non Muslims.
No, I'm talking about our priority here,
because when you come with this, you will
see that in all the fields this is
the relationship you have with the universe that
is going to have an impact in all
the fields: in medicine, in psychology,
in art, in all the fields. Tell me
how you deal with nature, with the universe.
I will see how you deal with science,
how you deal with psychology, how you deal
with economics, how you deal with politics.
It's there. You the starting point is there.
Tell me how you deal with the principles.
I will know how you deal with the
details.
At the end of the day, political power
is more a detail
than
thanking God for the way you deal with
the creation and yourself.
If you are really spiritual,
if you are really committed.
So this also,
it's important to the point, and I will
end with this, that this has an impact
on consumption,
because
what I have been saying now is that
Allah, and what we are saying here, is
be careful.
He gave you all this
to respect the being of nature,
not to transform nature into havings.
The capitalist system is transforming everything into havings.
It's yours. Take it. No. It's a being.
There is an essence in it. So the
very essence of conception
here has to do with the way you
define
the universe around. If it's only
matters
or materialism,
you can transform this into heavings,
and then it's your authority. No.
If there is a being over there, if
there are signs over there, the way you
are going to deal with it is: Be
careful. It's life.
Animals.
Nature. It's life. It's being. It's not only
havings. It's not because you have the intelligence
that you can transform
the beings created by God into havings
destroyed by your intelligence and your arrogance and
to spread the corruption which was mentioned in
the Koran from the very beginning.
It's because you look at the world as
your property
and not with
fellow
beings and life around, that you are going
to end into this. Which is what? What
am I talking about here? It's what we
call disenchantment.
It's rationalism. It's materialism. Materialism is a very
deep
ideology.
And the problem is when Muslims
are talking about
their spiritual life in a very materialistic
way,
This is what?
This is shirk.
And this is not rafi.
It's very visible.
Okay? So this is the starting point. So
this is a practical I want to start
the practical discussion with this. It's very practical,
what I'm saying. It's in your daily life.
It's the way you deal with everything. It's
the way you look at things. It's the
way you look at people. Because at the
end, if the legal and the power is
essential, you look at somebody,
you see that he or she is doing
wrong, and you end up reducing
him or her to what he does or
not, and not who he is.
That's exactly the same logic.
It's the same. It's the way you look
at things that,
we need also to come to this understanding.
So I'll stop here for the first part.
Questions? And then
I promise in the next sessions there will
be shorter introduction, but I wanted to start
with this one, which is essential.
And once again, it's very practical.