Happiness and the Pursuit of Happiness-- The Islamic Perspective

this program is brought to you by Emory University I don't have a warm-up act so we're going to go very quickly into the proceedings afternoon as from Judaism and Christianity we turn to the youngest of the major Abrahamic faiths Islam our speaker professor say it has a nasa emigrated to the united states the united states in 1979 from tehran where he had received his early education among numerous academic appointments professor nasa taught at temple university from 1979 to 84 and since 1984 he's been the professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University he's published extensively in English and Persian and also in Arabic and French he's the author of more than 50 books and 500 articles somewhat artificially perhaps one might divide his publications into three strands although these overlap in a no doubt aspects of a single project this is how it looks to me so you must forgive me professor nice review see them quite differently first professor NASA has written on Islamic philosophy during the formative period corresponding to the European Middle Ages for example his introduction to Islamic cosmological doctrines first published in 1964 is the standard work in its field and belongs on the bookshelf of every student of medieval philosophy and theology second professor Nasser is an exponent of the mystical dimension of Islam especially in the Persian tradition and its influence on the arts and his knowledge of this literature is unparalleled third professor Nasser writes confessional II and constructively as a Muslim and in particular as an advocate for the idea of the perennial tradition and the transcendental unity of religions if I may indulge in a small anecdote in the late 1970s I was on a long train journey in England the beginning of the train journey I began a book by Professor Nasser by the end of the journey I'd finished the book and it I was doing something quite different it may be decide to study religion and to turn to medieval theology whether this is a good thing or a bad thing I leave for others to decide in the paper that he will present for us today happiness and the attainment of happiness and Islamic perspective professor Nasir will expound a distinctively Islamic take on what is arguably a universal theme but in Islam as indeed in patristic and medieval Christianity happiness is an abiding paradisal condition transcending transient experience after the talk as usual they'll be as they'll be two responses and I'll introduce the respondents in due course Thank You professor Nasir well Doraemon Rahim usually Muslims begin at this course in the name of God and fill the same fish if you want to be happy purser Reynolds Cornell through there it's a pleasure for me to come to this university again I have lectured here before and I've also been in contact with and lectured with and discuss with this holy said Dalai Lama different matters for over four decades so I'm very glad to have a small part to play this very important lecture seminar discussion that is taking place during these two days on the question of happiness I know what it is because we are too happy or not happy at all that no one talks about happiness anymore first time in human history most art just puts happiness aside most of our buildings that I bring about happiness our cityscape our city sprawl is not a place to be joyous in but I'm glad that recently even intellectually there has been a revival of interest in what in the meaning of happiness itself especially amidst hedonistic society in which everything is supposed to do with happiness but one which one pursues and not never attains since this is to be a serious intellectual and scholarly discussion about happiness and the various traditions I prepared a paper I you should never read papers except when I give a gift for lecture or something like that but I prepared a paper in Arabic His Holiness the Dalai Lama really with steel is in depth with Islamic understanding of happiness the stream being so universal of course and appeared at 50 minutes when I'm going to speak to you one cannot exhaust the subject but in the published form that will come later purpose of which i think is publishing them in the notes there are many references openings to other writings and other sources or people further interest in pursuing this subject will have a chance to do so let me begin with a Quranic verse which has defined the very word for happiness in Islamic philosophy and theology for 1,400 years in law rahmani raheem young money at Alara Kalama nephron elaborate nahi the minimum shall be on a solid in the new translation which is coming out in the study or on which I'm editing and Shiva return X it will come out inshallah is as follows on the day it comes no soul shall speak saved by his leave among them shall be the wretched and the felicitous or hypee and these two terms wretched shall be in Arabic and felicitous or happy side are key terms which have theological and philosophical and to some extent the logic Stern also a mystical in the Sufi tradition have been at the center of discussion of the meaning of happiness and its opposite in the Muslim mind and wretchedness unhappiness which as Lucia or shall be and when we come to the Sufi tradition is a very provocative very beautiful poem in the Persian language but the great for asana for the 12th century Fareeda tenets are says ëi donít ovum Enomoto teak east side as ma Kodama Stosh avec east who knows who in reality is reverent towards God among us who is happy side again and who is wretched shall be that ultimately only God knows the state of our happiness in the final sense of the term happy experience of happiness is so Universal that almost everyone from whatever culture he or she may be claims to recognize it when experiencing what to that person seems to be happiness although it may be much more difficult for him or her to articulate and define what it is if one were to ask a person from Japan or China India or Burma Persia or Egypt France or America for an Aborigine from Australia or a native from Mesoamerica to complete the sentence I'm happy because the responses would fall into similar categories dealing with such matters as health wealth sensual pleasure power satisfying human relations and for some prayer performance of the good beholding a beauty attainment of self acknowledge the responses would depend on different human types and individual inclinations but they would cut across Geographic historical cultural religious and philosophical boundaries by which human collectivities are divided and yet what is considered to be real happiness how it should be pursued and how it can be attained are deeply affected by the Welkin song the worldview of the cultures within which various human clarity with his live the case of Islam which is at once religion worldview way of life and culture is no exception that is why even the question of the pursuit of happiness which is the theme of this conference and so much emphasized in American culture is envisaged differently in Islamic thought which is concerned above all with the attainment of enduring happiness more so than in modern secularized and/or hedonistic cultures in Arabic the term attainment of happiness toxiel asada which is in fact the title of a famous work by the 10th century Islamic philosopher a bonus al-farabi is used commonly while the very term pursuit of happiness is less commonly used and does not have the same resonance as does the widely used English term pursuit of happiness the reason is that Islamic thought based on the Quran concerns itself above all with true happiness as a reality that is abiding a permanent and not only a transient experience it also considered this permanent state that is in essence Paradiso to be attainable and not only a goal to be pursued for after all it is possible to pursue something without ever attaining it and so that has turned to the Quran the source of all that is Islamic and see how it deals with the question of happiness and themes and means to attain it perhaps the best way to approach this question is returned to the cluster of boronic terms that deal with what would be rendered in English as happiness Felicity joy rejoicing contentment pleasure and the like and are fully aware the noise of difference between these cluster words these terms are interrelated in the meaning I said there are no answer difference between them such as for example between the English term happiness and contentment was in French in fact the toward the same to secant ohm is simply I'm happy the most central term in the Quran is ready to root s growl stop the sada from which comes the word sada that is the closest translation in Arabic for the English term happiness of felicity words draw it from this root appeared twice or in the Quran and as for those who are felicitous this is a verb form they shall be in the garden that is in paradise abiding therein for so long as the heavens and the earth endure save as the Lord wills a gift unfailing and the verse already quoted in the beginning which I would not repeat for you both of these verses relate happiness to the parodies of states and eschatological realities and they are crystallized permanently in the Muslim mind and have crystallized permanent the Muslim mind ultimate happiness with the spiritual world and the abiding states of paradise and yet this karana usage is none limit this term said our happiness to only the other world and words related to this route also going to be used in relation to man's life on earth in fact several words such as South Sayid mustard show odd Masuda and many other words that will not repeat here are all related to the word sada and they became popular proper names for Muslim men and women throughout the Islamic world in the same way that you have American and English woman called joy happy or Felicity another set of qur'anic words related closely to the in their field of meaning to happiness Felicity gladness and joy drive from the root srr cell such as a sword rope pleasing or gliding to on lockers suru bestowing upon them radiance enjoy these are piranha quotation I'm making misrule and will make to his folk joyful and so forth the last two verses last again referred to as pathology and paradise difficult realities but at the same time they can refer to joys in this world and then they are derived from the root frh hard-edged varaha such as the noun farah and the verb Yahoo Yahoo which are usually render as rejoicing and rejoice these terms are used in eight different veronik verses and are most often connected with God's mercy such as the bounty of God and his in His mercy in that let us rejoice and rejoicing in God's mercy teams very much also emphasized in the Bible like words derived from sada however farah and suru are also used in Islam as proper names and they're very popular one of the most revealing clusters of cognate terms as far as the Quranic understanding of happiness is concerned is related to the route rdy radhiya that is usually translates contentment in one of the most famous verse of the quran it is stated oh thou soul at peace return unto the lord content radhiya tone or the attend and contented Malby Aten enter among my servants enter my garden my paradise although hear the word Jannah that's used in a bar on this particular term is used not that one it must be remembered that the same name of one of the highest assess the paradise according to Quran is Redwan RI DWI n which comes from the same root and therefore relates the highest spiritual state a man to happiness to contentment in this way the Quran reaffirmed the relation of happiness and contentment of paradise in the Bob quoted verse it is emphasized that content means ultimately to both for the soul to be content with God and in itself and for God to be content with the set of soul conditions necessary to enter the garden so this is reciprocity between God and the human being but this ultimate set of spiritual happiness or contentment can also be situated in this life through spiritual practice can already live in the paradise of state in this world it does not necessarily have to be at the physical death man or women can already live in paradise inwardly while still being in this world that is why the Sufis emphasized so much a state of content contentment and considered a spiritual station a brother or contentment to be one of the highest stations to be attained in the spiritual journey imam about a possum alba shady and the famous 11th century Sufi master goes so far as to call the state of contentment the highest spiritual station Redwan as God's good pleasure or contentment is mentioned over ten times in the Quran and a Sufi such as AB Larabee stays explicitly that the happy person is one with whom God is pleased is content you cannot be happy and this God is happy with us in this context it is interesting to note that why for ordinary Muslims who have died one says raha Mottola Holi that's a common Arabic expression used for the dead that is may may God's mercy be upon him or her for outstanding religious and spiritual figures one says Aloha me who or on how may God be content with him or her or had one hola ho a leg may God's contentment or a Tuan be with him or her it also means that he or she enters Redwan that supreme paradise one must also mention how popular or proper names all based on this root such as the radar Martha Dorothea Dean and so forth in Arabic again for both men and women Satoru said brings into every day Muslim life the significance of contentment and happiness as permanent spiritual stations and not only transient psychological states the opposite of the term Farah in Arabic is sorrow or fuzzy and in over ten verses the Quran refers to the Scourge character of happiness by negative M the Saints of friends of God olia its opposition on host that is affirms happiness by negating sorrow from them for example in verse a very famous for chapter 10 it states behold truly the Friends of God no fear shall come upon them nor shall they grieve in this oft repeated verse the piranha emphasized the connection between the negation of the opposite of happiness that is grieving or sorrow under sending a fear the person who is content with God and with whom God is content fears nothing in this world he is God's friend and what fear can such a person have from anything since God is his or her friend finally it must be emphasized that although the Quran relates real happiness to spiritual realities it also mentions that man can ask God for happiness in this life as well as in the next in a most celebrated verse that is often recited by Muslims in the day on a daily basis the Quran states our Lord give us good in this world I'm good in the hereafter robbing Athena Fredonia Senegal Africa S&OP inaudible nod and Golda and goddess from the fire the word husana here is related to the word for host which we discussed yesterday with his holiness that means at once goodness beauty and virtue with attainment is inseparable from the state of happiness this has several other verses point to the unitary vision of Islam for what the life of this world is for believers profoundly related to the life and hereafter in whose quality one can participate who the grace of revelation and religion even in this world the sins of the Prophet a hadith are in fact the first commentaries upon the Quran and both the technical terminology of the Quran and the meanings of his teachings are reflected in the vast collection of hadith the constraints of time and space do not allow us here to delve into the prophetic sayings but as an example because only one hadith related theme of happiness and contentment the Prophet said God loveth those who are content and many of his companions have mentioned that the Prophet himself always had the happy countenance and smiled about the lab the hot earth one of the Companions of the Prophet said that he had seen no one more given to smiling at God's messenger being the Prophet and universal and perfect man par excellence for Muslims he could not but reflect even his daily life the permanent state of celestial happiness and contentment or Radha now as far as the Islamic wisdom tradition is concerned we understand by this tradition in this context not only sappy until commentaries upon the Quran and hadith but also the psalm spiritual intellectual disciplines especially Sufism and grossest modifier for philosophy at both Hekmat and philosopher ethics the cosmological sciences and certain forms of philosophical theology when we review the most notable works of this tradition we see that the theme of happiness ardour is amply treated in them and that they elucidate and expand the Quranic teaching on the subject of happiness the titles are many books belong to this tradition of themselves revealing as follow the subject is concerned for many of them use the term the very term sada happiness even in their titles one is only to recall the tarsal asada of Al Farabi mentioned already the car tables are the order of happiness a Miska way another 10th 11th century philosopher the chapter of the photo huddle Makia the Meccan illuminations of the 13th century and the Lucien Suvi master and great pronóstico Nara be and perhaps the most notable of all Islamic works bearing the word sada and his title alakazoo Li's Kimi I saw that which is in persian alchemy of happiness there are significance to note that this work which is one of the masterpieces that persian prose literature the summary written by Isaiah himself I was a higher illumine the reification of the signs the religion that is perhaps the most influential work on ethics in Islamic history the titled mentioned here are only meant to be examples and are far from being exhaustive moreover there are numerous chapters and sections the works of Islamic philosophers Sufis ethicists and theologians dealing specifically with the theme of happiness needless to say in this short presentation is not possible to deal with all the different issues related to this theme and treated by various authorities when this tradition you can only do no more than to discuss here a few of the most salient and essential teachings of these masters a full treatment of this very rich treasury of Speier intellectual teachings concerning happiness would require many volumes which weren't hopes when they would be written notice in any case begin would not begin not with the most elevated metaphysical considerations but with the most immediate and practical realities which Muslims are concerned in their everyday lives that is faith and the divine law that is Iman and Sharia the position of faith in God and his revelation is not only a peerless gift from him to his creatures but also the source of happiness in the true sense of the term for those who have received this gift this is of course a universal truth emphasize not only Islam but in all other regions especially Judaism and Christianity the Quran states did we not expand for the die breasts the expansion and Shera of which the quran speaks in this verse is directly related to the gift of faith at the same time points to join happiness that is characteristic of this state of expansion when we are happy when we are happy we experience psychologically an expansion in our being unconsciousness even physical joy and happiness are reflected in our faces a smile or laughter that expands our face what we frown our face contracts in fact one of the most commonly used words for a happiness in Arabic is much suit meaning literally expanded faith in God is also inseparable from love of God on the human plane love is often combined with pain and sorrow but the love of God is inseparable from joy and happiness even when there is longing and separation to love God with all our being is to love all that one can love and all that can be the source of ultimate happiness thus love results in attainment of all that is truly beautiful and that our soul seeks in the death of his being for God is the infinite beauty and the source of all that is beautiful in the world around us and within us how can a soul that attains through the love of God attachment to the source of beauty to all that attracts our immortal soul not been a state of joy and happiness moreover love and faith are antidotes to what usually makes man unhappy or women antidotes to doubt anxiety fear and trepidation provided human beings learn how to have complete confidence in God telecoil and actually possess this virtue the man who has this kind of confidence attains the state of contentment he or she also faces the ordinary challenges of earthly life but the state of inner contentment that is why the Friends of God the names of saints in Islamic called Friends of God will attain fully the station of tava : brother that is of contentment I've confidence of contentment fear not nor are they ever sorrowful as the Quran says explicitly for such a person even the fear of God is transformed into joy for this fear is the beginning of wisdom as stated by Sam Paul and also on the famous saying of the Prophet the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom as al-ghazali has stated the difference between the creator and the creature is that when one is afraid of a creature one runs away from it but when one is afraid of God one knows towards him the Islamic saying to occulta illallah I take I place my confidence in God that is repeated so often in daily life throughout the slovak world results in taking refuge in the bosom of the divine in a state of contentment that overcomes and transcends what causes sorrow and happiness in human life in this world of course the acceptance had the gift of faith through the exercise of the freedom of the will that God has given us brings with this responsibility which you must accept by virtue of having said yes to the question God posed to Adam and to all of us as his progeny including those who came generations after him even before the Christian of the world the or on states that have been created man God asked Adam and his progeny am I not your Lord the last of our become and they said yes we bear witness the acceptance of his lordship is the trust Amana that we have all accepted to bear on that day beyond all day's the moments beyond all moments that is called a last in Arabic for literally meaning am I not the beating of his Quranic verse and with the acceptance of his tremendous trust comes tremendous responsibility a responsibility is so great that according to the Quran when it was offered to the heavens the earth and the mountains they refused to accept it but man them is the human state human being men and women accepted it as the divine power of the Persian language hoffa says in a famous poem of saman bara Amon Anna Tovar as cashier or a fog denominated Shahrazad and heaven could not bear the weight of the trust and so the cast a lot in the name upon me whether we like it or not they accept the distrust and the responsibilities that go with it along with the danger of falling to the state of unhappiness that is what defines our nature as human beings that is why the fulfillment of these responsibilities brings with it ultimately joy and happiness enabling us to be ourselves in the real sense no matter how difficult fulfilling them might be and the refusal to accept these responsibilities leads almost inevitably to the state of wretchedness or unhappiness these responsibilities include for all Muslims first of all to follow the divine law of Sharia which Muslims consider to be the concrete embodiment of God's will for human beings Islam considers this true to apply a truth to apply not only in fact to Muslims but to the followers of all religions because the Quran teaches that God has sent his sharara that is plural sharia's for different people on different religions that he has revealed just correct this statement that came out of the city a few weeks ago which was horrendously wrong Muslims do not want to impose the Sharia upon anybody who's non-muslim the Ottoman world was the most powerful Empire in the world for 700 years and Islamic law was never imposed upon the Greek Orthodox after five hundred years became the seat of the most deeply rooted spiritual interpretation of Christianity after 500 years of Muslim rule so this absolute nonsense that goes around simply has no historical truth according to Islam each hip ridges community is given its own Sharia it's not the business of Muslims to impose the Sharia upon Christian Jews our pedometer Hindus and Buddhists which they did not do when they were in India the Sharia in Islam is usually divided into matters of acts of worship about that and transactions mom a lot to perform the obligatory acts of worship that includes the basic rights of canonical prayer the five times of a prayer the fasting of the month of Ramadhan pilgrimage once a lakh lifetime to Mecca should all do the for Mecca is turned into downtown Manhattan good Muslim the audience will as soon as you can start for Allah and the paying of religious tax all requires sacrifice and self-discipline but they all result in joint happiness for the person of faith who knows that in performing these rites he or she is doing God's will how can one not be happy in doing the will of the one whom we love and who loves us he being the fast is not easy but how much joy and happiness one observes during the month of Ramadan month of fasting among those who do fast the pilgrimage is difficult is a difficult right very difficult to perform but when one is making this in ambulation around the Kaba does whatnot see millions of joys faces performing the same right it is not only there about that except worship however which bring about happiness in our knowing that in performing them we're doing God's will and thereby Experion the grace that issues for the performance of secular rights in carrying out ordinary human translations or Mohammed in accordance with the Sharia divine law one is also doing God's will to make you living in a manner that is legitimate honest hello according to the injunction at des moines law also brings with it an inner satisfaction that results in happiness no matter how difficult the chores of one's work might be one can observe this truth in the degree of presence of happiness in those places in the islamic world where the rhythm of life is based on traditional norms in comparison with what we observe in the hectic pace of life in modernized societies when it only compared the number of smiling faces in the still traditional village norm at and how economically speaking poor with the number of visibly happy people actually will be unhappy before riding on a subway in a big city to surrender to the will of god and to live according to his will is such a source of joy and contentment but for the first time of faith the faithful it turns even the bitterness of death to sweetness for such a person knows that in dying he or she is surely doing God's will for no soul leaves the body without his will as the Orang makes clear in many passages for the spiritual person effect death is combined with ecstasy on the basis of these Universal considerations Islamic wisdom the song wisdom tradition has sought to bring out the deeper meaning of happiness and contentment and what it means to attain happiness in a permanent another only transient manner Muslim sages have pointed out over and over that since God is a source of joy and contentment and the highest level it is remembering him their cruel law that this highest level of happiness to be attained there as used by them and especially by the Sufis is not only mental remembrance of the concept of God but actual repetition of his holy name in the form of in Cantore and quintessential prayer the goal of making this remembrance permit in the soul making the soul ultimately completely content and contented just to cite an example Raja Abdullah and sorry the 5th century Sufi patron of her art president Hassan says there are three things upon which the happiness of the creature depends and the face of servanthood is illuminated by it the business of the tongue with M K invocation of the truth which is an occasion of God becquer hop the drowning of the heart in the love of the truth never happy and the filling of the secret of the heart by the gaze of the truth as that I help the person to whom God has given his own name to invoke possesses the most precious of all treasures for ultimately God and his name are one and therefore the name contains all that the soul could possibly desire in order to be ultimately happy God is contented with the soldier that remembers him for he has created us and put us here on earth in order to be witness to him and to remember him at all times when the Quran says that God has created man and jinn in order to worship Him in his eye on the highest level to know him and this knowledge is not possible without the cruel law with the invocation remembrance of God the prayer of the heart that is also the heart of all prayer in the stomach wisdom tradition happiness is often associated with attainment of perfection command of course the human state opens onto the infinite and the universal man or perfect man which we all are potentially but few realize in actuality is the theater for the reflection for the theophany tajalli of all of the divine names and qualities each human being has his or her own essence or archetype in God and a profession particularly to him or her happiness where each person is inseparable from the realization of the particular profession or command and this principle applies in in a sense to all beings done only to human beings the 13th century Sufi and philosopher absolute Inka Shani larceny treatise entitled significantly madara's el Kamal degrees the profession the happiness of each thing is in reaching the perfection that exists within itself and his wretchedness is in not reaching and not being and being disconnected home death mortality this pithy statement is it in a sense a summary commentary on what Alcazar II had written two centuries earlier in the sixteenth chapter of his book alchemy of happiness in touch entitled the happiness of mankind is in the knowledge of God he writes and he had given a long long quotation here which I do not have time to read for you here but you can read it later but what they really writes is that to each part of the human being there is a particular pleasure we have the pleasure of the eye to see beautiful forms the pleasure of the ears to hear beautiful melodies the pleasure of the tongue is to taste tasty food and not to go to fast food restaurants of course and we might be necessity but not happiness and builds from there step by step to psychological happiness emotional happiness and finally the ultimate happiness which is the happiness with God through our spirit and largest just conclude by saying all the passion of pleasures and sensible objects that pertains to mass body or of necessity terminate at the moment of death and the pains he has suffered come to not the pleasure of knowledge however that belongs to the heart doubles with death but of course it means principal knowledge not in from phone books for the heart does not perish with death rather it becomes more illuminated as pleasure doubles with the burden of other when the burden of other passions are lifted we have cited this long passage because it describes clearly different kinds and degrees of happiness which is oddly also associated in this text with pleasure the hot kinds of happiness that are open impossible for human beings and the passage points to the essential difference between happiness that is transient and real happiness that associate permanence and that does not come to an end within the man's earthly life this question of the transience of happiness as permanence is absolutely essential to understanding of the Islamic view of happiness there all we can all be happy for a few moments that probably the moments come to an end and become unhappy and art is to be always happy so the question of duration is very very important it therefore associates happening with Paradiso realities according to major theme of the Quran concerning sa'ada like other Muslim sages Azaria identifies happiness with knowledge of that which is abiding and at the highest level the knowledge of God the stake theme was taken up shortly after Abbas Ali webinar abhi whose name have already mentioned supreme master venosus in Islam the swishing of rhetorical Makia there mechanizations which provides some of the most profound his position of the subject according to him everything in this world is the reflection of some divine name the reflections of names related divine wrath lead to wretchedness and those related to divine mercy to happiness of felicity authentic knowledge leads to salvation and deliverance which is itself happiness and avoidance of wretchedness is the nature of this kind of knowledge to lead man back to God through the path of happiness and Felicity and many and any knowledge that does not do so is not authentic acknowledged but whatever because opinion or surmise done gelatine Rumi our dear friend was translated by a man living nearby here in Athens Georgia Coleman barks made famous others translations and I thought the origin from the Persian but myself have had a gift for what Americans lack in poetry and that he played a big role in popularizing melona the 13th century great Persian Sufi poet was buried in Turkey has a wonderful poem his rocky came Julie oh hey Ronnie bahar see like he's an ass - hey Ronnie Zafar see cleverness less but purchase wonder for cleverness is by conjecture and wonder victory yarrabee also states that knowledge of God brings us closer to him and ultimate happiness is associated with his proximity to the divine as ordinary happiness in this world is related to nearness to our object of desire he arrives all felicity lies in knowledge of God and also the nearness which the Sufi defines as undertaking acts of obedience is a nearness the servants Felicity who was being safe from wretchedness the Felicity of the servants lodged in his attainment - all that is desired all his desires without exception and that takes place only in the garden in paradise not in this world that is not a possibility in this world as for this world he must necessarily abandon those of his individual desires which detract from this Felicity the nearness of the common people and a people in general is nearest to Felicity the person obeys in order to gain felicity Larabee insists that the knowledge that leads to Felicity must be combined with practice with living that knowledge and not knowing it only theoretically and this practice in his most inward aspect is faith in God and what comes from him in accordance with the words of the messenger not in accordance with only knowledge of it faith embraces all acts which are to be perfected performed or avoided with only not the existence of the cosmos and all and all things in it issues when pure being which is the pure good and Felicity in itself is related to that Felicity like goodness and beauty permeates creation and we are able to experience it whenever and wherever we behold the wonders of the world of nature not sullied by human hands we experience this happiness in the majesty of the sunrise the flight of birds and baby whales playing with the mothers as as she sings in the joy of lion cubs and kittens playing the blooming of flowers and the flow of the mountain stream everywhere virgin nature smiles at us even its majestic and terrifying aspects if they are if they also remind us of the majesty of God for joy and happiness are needed like living in the DOE or the very substance of created things if only we had eyes to see and ears to hear as the Quran asserts God did not create the world in vain but in goodness and joy and placed us in a natural environment that scintillates with happiness by virtue of its very existence that issues from his being there is a source of all happiness if Nara be emphasized this basic truth again and again and rise explicitly that God created the cosmos from non-existence which is evil only for the good which desired for it and that is nothing but existence hence the cosmos exists fundamentally for Felicity and it will reach his property at the end he even goes further to state God created the cosmos only for the Felicity in his essence this assertion also implies that God has placed us in such a cosmos in order to be happy he wants us to be happy if we submit ourselves to him and live according to it to the reality of our primordial nature which we will still bear deep in our soul and fulfill the purpose for which we were created let's one think that this knowledge that leads to is not bound to love yarrabee also emphasized the central role of love in the attainment of happiness we love in everything that we love the love of God that is made possible through revelation and the divine reports as a specific function leading to felicity but even without revelation love of God is a fact of existence though cannot lead to our felicity unless we are aware of him only love God reveals himself in every form that's making it necessary that we love him in any form that we love to be happy in this world instead of a quotation from him to be happy in this world is to realize that all love is ultimately the love of God the truth that we can realize only if we gain that knowledge of the divine which is possible only through faith in his revelation and knowledge that is not possible to attain without divine love this moment philosophers have also discussed extensively the question of happiness including a Massena sorrow Rd and malasada has related the whole question I've been a happiness to his particular metaphysical perspective of gradation of being and therefore gradation of happiness which we all experienced in life there's only one happiness but gradation of it but I shall skip it detailed discussion of philosophers to turn to the last part of my discussion of my paper the attainment happiness so we talk about happiness but how to attain it to understand the meaning of happiness theoretical is one thing and as attainment and realization another human beings were the Muslim Buddhist Christian Jewish or followers of the Navajo religions know how to attain transient happiness will it be in the enjoyment of sensual pleasure or psychological satisfaction any a hungry person is happy in eating a meal or a person in prisoner room getting fresh air outside or a lover meeting his beloved but these ordinary experience of happiness are passing States often followed by sadness yet the yearning of human happiness that does not cease and that yearning itself leads to sadness if it is not satisfied what is difficult to attain is permanent happiness in a world that some have characterized as the veil of Tears there was a Christian term Islam like other authentic religions provides the means of attaining that permanent state of happiness by emphasizing the importance of not gaining freedom of the passions passion itself but freedom from the self not freedom of the self but freedom from the self happiness is a celestial quality the sparks of each shower upon us from the world of light but the sparks are soon extinguished and turn into cinders in the world of darkness in which we live but in fact itself this fact itself demonstrates that happiness issues from another world in the spiritual world beyond the confines of material existence and the fact that we continue to yearn for happiness proves that in his essence our soul belongs to that Paradiso world from which I descended here below again as the cherubic poet Hoffa says I was an angel and exalted paradise was my abode it was Adam who brought me to this monastery of ruin to attain permanent happiness you must therefore remember who we are where we came from where we are why we are here and where are we going which detach ourselves from fleeting pleasures and joys and seek permanent joy by attaching herself to the spiritual world which is our spiritual original home were alone we shall attain permanent happiness you must die before we die dark to the world here are now in order to gain eternal Felicity the life of the spirit and the intellect understood in its original sense must experience the happiness that issues from faith which provides for us security in Arabic faith and security again our roots similar to each other a man and a man from which from all that would deprive us of high penis and the highest-level who must experience the happiness of our own and halation and God and subsistence in him and the full realization of unity only through leading a spiritual life to begin that peace that passes all understanding the attainment that abides abiding happiness for which we were brought into this world and which is our birthright by virtue of our happiness by virtue of our primordial nature that we must have forgotten and that we must recall to be truly happy you must rediscover who we really are in this process of remembrance even sadness can be a major step towards the attainment of happiness if the sadness be the nostalgia for our original abode which is proximity to God is in this sense that one must understand the famous Persian poem my sadness for thee addressing God be glorified for it is an eternal sadness I shall not give up the sadness for a thousand forms of joy this is this spiritual nostalgia which itself is the source of very very profound joy happy it is not unrelated goodness but also the beauty as if a myth hadith of the Prophet said God is beauty beautiful and he loves Beauty my time is unfortunately up and I just want to very very quickly conclude the last sentence Islam recognizes the need of man for happiness and points men and women to that spiritual reality were in alone permanent happiness is to be attained it also provides through its moral and spiritual teaching the means to attain that happiness that does not cease it teaches that through reverence towards God and reverential fear of him what the Quran calls taqwa we must pull the roots of our soul out of his transient world and planted in the divine reality from which he has come we must transcend the stifling Cristin of the ego through faith correct action and prayer and realized knowledge you must break the walls of the ego and miss do so through generosity compassion and charity to ether and Karim which are bound to love and which are means of overcoming self-centeredness and selfishness there are such impediments to the theme of real happiness as all the sages some of whom we have already cited repeat the highest happiness come from knowledge of the truth and its realization and are being true the capital T what Christ spoke about we must seek with our whole being this salvific knowledge that transforms the very substance of our soul satisfying the transient experience of this world in order to gain the Paradiso experience a permanent happiness to attain this station on my palm must in turn remember who we are must remember that our goal is to become one of the Friends of God whom fear overcometh nog nor are they ever sorrowful the advice of islamic spirituality to those who wish to attain permanent happiness is there where the practice of remember subject let us them throughout the fleeting moments of this life remember I remember to remember thank Thank You professor NASA we have two respondents as usual Vincent Cornell our first respondent is ASA Greeks Cantor professor of Middle East and Islamic Studies here at Emory his published works include the way of abou might yarn 1996 in the realm of the saint power and authority in Moroccan Sufism 1998 his most recent publication is the five vol books at voices of Islam 2007 a comprehensive introduction to Islamic traditions thought and life and civilization with chapters by 50 Muslim authors since 2002 he's been a participant in the annual building bridges seminars of Christian and Muslim scholars conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury Scott koogler other have I pronounce your name Scott kugel are other respondent is associate professor of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies here at Emory he received his PhD from Duke University in 2000 and history of religions and anthropology he's the author of six books and numerous articles including Sufis and saints bodies mysticism corporeality and sacred power in Islamic culture 2007 and queer jihad struggling to live as gay lesbian and transgender Muslims forthcoming before coming to Emory dr. Google was an assistant professor religion at Swarthmore College and a research scholar at the Henry Martin Institute for Islamic studies inter-religious dialogue and conflict resolution in Hyderabad India so first events if you come up it's a great honor for me to respond to this eloquent and thought-provoking paper by dr. Sayed Hussain awesome I consider dr. Nasser one of my teachers although unfortunately I never had the privilege of taking a class from him instead like many others I learned about him from his books starting with Sufi essays which I first read as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco back in the 1970s since that time I have come to know dr. Nasir personally and consider him a spiritual mentor a true friend or in Persian dost in the full Sufi sense of the word dr. Nasir is one of only two people that I have known that when I first met them I said to myself I want to be like that when I grow up although I am now 59 years old I still can't say that I am yet a grown-up dr. Nash's description of the effects of modernity on the concept of happiness remind me of the Sufi saying finding happiness in this world is like finding a rose growing on a garbage heap it also reminded me of Matthew Arnold's poetic lament in the poem Dover Beach of the second human fall from Eden engendered by Darwin's Origin of Species and the theory of evolution when Arnold said I love let us be true to one another for the world which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams so various so beautiful so new hath really neither joy nor love nor light nor certitude nor peace nor help for pain and we here as on a Darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight where ignorant armies clash by night one of the tragedies of our present condition as Peter Ochs of the University of Virginia has stated is that we are all born into what he called the original sin of modernity dr. nasir has taught us today that in the Islamic perspective true happiness is not measured according to worldly delights but according to the attainment of the spiritual values and insights that are most important and which lead us toward God in this respect is worth pointing out that the Arabic term sada which as we heard means happiness also means salvation as for its opposite chicawa the most basic sense of the word does not really mean unhappiness per se but more importantly means suffering or tribulation for this reason chicawa is also used for perdition Rapala recalling both the escotto logical notion of Hell and the moral psychological notion of hell on earth this can be seen in the following statement by the 15th century Moroccan Sufi reformer Muhammad ibn Suleiman LJ's uli he said no that sada is in God his Saints and the prophets of God and that chicawa is in the ego and what arises from it here the human self or Neffs understood in the modern sense of the ego draws the soul away from God and the teachings of his prophets and saints this is why it leads to suffering and perdition Sufi psychology has long been concerned with drawing a clear distinction as Islam does in general between the spiritually actualized soul that finds its way back on the straight path or sirat al-mustaqim to its origin in God and the self-indulgent soul that loses its way in the desert of gross materiality and self-deception to heal such people Josue Lee prescribed learning from the wisdom of a dog he said the dog is not pained shocky at the loss of a close relative nor does he accept assistance from others why because these are signs that he is secure in his trust for his master however despite the fact that we have very good reasons to decry the effects of modernity on our spirituality we should also not forget that the world has always been seen as an abode of suffering and unhappiness in addition if we focus only on ultimate happiness we may be led to invalidate the more ordinary forms of happiness that are also crucial to the human condition it is this kind of happiness the thomas jefferson referred to when he spoke of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence as dr. nasir stated in yesterday's public session the popular understanding of the pursuit of happiness has today been distorted by the effects of advertising consumer culture and hedonistic notions of instant gratification I remember many years ago seeing a cartoon and Playboy magazine where the pursuit of happiness was depicted as satyrs chasing naked nymphs in a forest in much of the Muslim world today this is unfortunately how the pursuit of happiness in the contemporary West is depicted and it also contributes to the misrepresentation of American social and political values by ideologues of Islamic anti Western ISM now we perhaps will never know exactly what Thomas Jefferson meant by the phrase the pursuit of happiness but we can be sure that it was not the Playboy philosophy as I see it Jefferson most probably meant the pursuit of happiness in the sense that in a just society people should be free to pursue their own interests and goods according to Protestant notions of conscience and personal calling in notes on the state of Virginia in 1781 Jefferson stated that the concept of personal liberty had a theological dimension personal liberties are he said the gift of God and quote they are not to be violated but with God's wrath such liberties include the right to pursue ones happiness or satisfaction in a myriad of different ways according to the dictates of reason and with the caution that ones pursuit of happiness does not cause harm to others religious conservatives in both Christianity and Islam often forget that granting citizens that leaves the legal right to be wrong is not the same as condoning wrong behavior according to Jefferson God's gift of Reason is best respected when people are given a chance to make their own decision of their own decisions in a letter written in 1794 John J another major figure of the American Revolution said on the subject quote among the strange things of this world nothing seems more strange than that men pursuing happiness should knowingly quit the right Road and take a wrong road and frequently do what their judgments neither approve nor prefer yet so is the fact and this fact points strongly to the necessity of our having garv are being healed or restored or regenerated by a power more energetic than any of those which properly belong to the human mind although the power that Jay speaks up in this quotation is the god of what he called the Christian dispensation his words resonate with much of what dr. nasir discusses in his paper Jay also said to see things as they are to estimate them a right and to act accordingly is to be wise this sentiment is virtually identical to a sentiment expressed by the Muslim philosopher abu nasr al-farabi whom dr. nasser just mentioned in tassel asada the attainment of happiness this book deserves serious discussion in the present context because it is best described as a handbook for seeing things the way they are as such it provides a sort of bridge between the ideas of American Founding Fathers and Islam like many of Ferraris other works and unlike some of the works of Avicenna toxiel asada is both pragmatic and humanistic in the very first sentence of the book Farabi states that it's subject is quote the human things through which nations and members of societies attain earthly happiness in this life and supreme happiness in the life beyond thus it is a book of traditional meaning non materialistic humanism in which earthly happiness falls below ultimate happiness on the scales of values but it is still valued for its own sake although there are certainly significant differences between fabi's philosophy and that of the Enlightenment founders of the United States of America both share in acknowledging the validity of worldly happiness and both stress that the domain of the moral virtues includes political life to put it another way although happiness and lesser things may pale before the supreme felicity it is still worth pursuing for its own self in the present day US where Islam is conceived by many as the quintessential other and where the Sharia is considered the antithesis to the US Constitution it is important to remind people that some of the most important intellectuals of traditional Islam were hard-headed practical and pragmatic people Farabi was one of these although he did not write beautiful spiritual poetry like Avicenna the entire tradition of Islamic philosophy could not have existed without him in today's climate of the classics clash of civilizations he presents a useful and counterintuitive paradox this highly respected Islamic philosopher learned his philosophy from Christian monks who kept alive the pagan philosophy of pre-christian and pre-islamic Alexandria even more he received his education not in the Middle East but in Central Asia Farabi was a Turk from what is now whose Becca Stan and his face appears on what his Kazakhstan's version of the dollar bill as a final irony he died on the road to Damascus although unlike paul of tarsus his encounter was with thieves and not with christ for obvious most important contribution to our discussion of the pursuit of happiness is the four questions around which he constructs the argument of his book Castile asada these questions come from a greek work the ISA Gogi our introduction to Aristotle's categories by the philosopher Porfiry despite the fact that they were first posed by Greek pagans Farabi saw these questions as universal questions that applied to the happiness of all persons regardless of their religious background before determining whether someone would would be excuse me before determining whether something makes us truly happy he said we should first ask ourselves the following questions what what is happiness how how is happiness achieved from what from what does happiness come and for what for what purpose is our happiness intended again let me say them because I think they're important what is HAP how is happiness achieved from what does happen is come and for what is our happiness intended each of these questions can be answered on the theoretical level or even the theological level however as Farabi informs us each of them can also be answered deliberatively morally and practically for most people the deliberative moral and practical aspects of happiness are most important toxiel asada for Robby's book is best described as an introduction to moral philosophy and a summary description of the hierarchy of virtues from theoretical virtues down through deliberative virtues moral virtues and practical virtues however if one abstracts the essence of fabi's logic from his heavy reliance on Aristotle and Plato's political philosophy one finds within the book an argument not unlike those used by the American Founding Fathers nearly the same questions about happiness and moral virtue have also been asked by American political and moral thinkers from Jefferson through Thoreau to John Dewey in fact the only significant difference between Farabi and the philosophically minded founding fathers such as Jefferson J or John Adams is that the latter the Americans tended to approach the question of happiness deliberately deliberatively morally and practically rather than metaphysically which is what Farabi meant when he uses the term theoretical thus at a time when islam is seen by many americans to be quintessentially alien and different from american values it is important to conclude by asking ourselves two final questions when we abstract for Abhi's four questions from his narrative when we clear away the debris of time culture and epistemology that separate Farabi from our own philosophies how much difference is really left are not these questions as useful for our own time as his and might they not also help gain a deeper understanding of our own american notion of the pursuit of happiness thank you thank you for that summary that took the discussion to another plane professor Cornell and thank you to site Hussein Nasser also for giving us a wonderful exposition about happiness in the Islamic tradition and I think the most wonderful aspect of his presentation is its breadth including visions of happiness in theology and law philosophy and Sufism or Islamic mysticism which are all rooted in the Quran and there are very few people in North America I might say very few people anywhere who had the experience and the erudition to give such an exposition that covers the whole terrain the whole landscape of Islamic thought with such depth and so we're very fortunate to have was Todd Nasser with us today he ended his presentation with the advice to us that we should all engage in Zickuhr remembrance of God and that will surely help us all if we think about happiness as we leave here and then promptly forget what we've been thinking about so my response to stud Nasser is merely to provide an illustration through stories because we tend to remember stories even as we forget abstract thoughts and ideas so I wanted to tell a couple of stories that come from a man named Nizam Adeem Nizam Medina alia who I count as one of my spiritual ancestors and from whom I seek guidance he was a teacher in the chisti Sufi order which helped to spread Islam throughout Pakistan India and Bangladesh and that large corner of the world before I tell you a little bit about him let me tell you the story there was once a Sufi who was traveling as Sufis do as we all do and he fell into a well a very deep and dark well which was full of water and had no rope by which he could pull himself out he was on the brink destruction and he was in a very sorrowful State suddenly he saw something resembling a rope which was lowered down into the well from above he recognized it as a way to save himself and very happily he grabbed it and was pulled out of the water when his grip vision suddenly cleared from being out in the dark and down in the dark to being out in the light he found that he was holding the tail of a lion which had lowered its tail down into the well and as he recoiled in terror from the lion he heard a voice saying we have saved you from destruction through destruction we have saved you from destruction through destruction now what does this have to do with happiness think about that a little bit we've heard about happiness lessons from a dog now we have happiness lessons from a lion Mazama Dino Lia when he was a young man back in 13th century Delhi back when Delhi was the capital of the Islamic world really one of its shining cities he was a lot like us here at Emory or at least many of us young intelligent ambitious and studying law he was studying law to qualify as a theologian and a judge in the Islamic tradition a position that could give him social status a government salary guaranteed wealth and a pious reputation and he was about twenty years old and he was convinced that he was on the right path to pursuing happiness both in this world and the next but one night when he was in prayer in a mosque he heard someone recite from the Quran as it asks has not the time arrived for believers that their hearts should in all humility engage in the remembrance of God alumni at knee Lilla Dina Aminu untuk Shah hooloovoo whom live acutally he'd read this verse and so many like it from the Quran since his childhood but this time it struck him not in his ears or in his mind but in his heart and without packing for the journey he left Delhi with all of its securities and he'd heard of a Sufi teacher who lived in the remote forests of the Punjab he took the road out through the countryside to Punjab which was crawling with lions and robbers and other dangers he found that Sufi teacher eventually and dedicated his life to Him that Sufi teacher represented a way of being Muslim that was called the chisti way tarik let's Ostia it was founded in India by Moinuddin Chishti who taught that to worship God as a true Muslim one should develop generosity like a river magnanimity like the Sun and hospitality like the earth only somebody who does this is being a Muslim his Sufi teacher told Nizam a deem that to embody these qualities one had to reject worldly pursuits so Nizam Adeem being the young law student that he was offered to give up his studies and abandon his ambition to become a judge but his didn't his teacher did not command him to do this he said rejecting the world does not mean leaving the world and sitting idle No rejecting the world means wearing clothes and eating food and mixing with people as they are what comes unasked should be accepted but not courted one should never let one's heart be attached to anything only this is rejecting the world known as Almondine returned to Delhi he continued his studies but he slowly realised that he didn't derive the same happiness from his ambition and his goal that he once had becoming a scholar or a judge did not hold the same promise of fulfilment that it formerly did and he gradually realized that giving to others is better than getting for oneself a government salary and a pious reputation now seemed like a prison of sorrow too Nizam Adeem the path he chosen as a way to pursue happiness and fulfillment now seemed like a dead end and in that context he started to teach about Sufism in Delhi and attract followers from all over India and the wider Islamic world and to his followers who gathered to hear him he would tell the story about the Sufi who fell in the well and was rescued by hold to a lion's tail we have saved you from destruction through destruction there's an important practical story I think in this on the nature of happiness the Sufi was happy to find a way out of his sorrow happiness and sorrow are these fluctuating opposites that structure our responses to the world and he grabbed the way of happiness that he felt but how soon that happiness turned into terror and this is the way with most of our happiness is at least in this transitory world what makes us happy in one moment is the cause for our sorrow in the next and so we continually are saved from destruction by a new destruction the thing that we think has saved us will become the thing that will destroy us if we cling to it why keep clinging to a lion's tail once you've let it pull you out of the dark well hold it for a moment then let it go and move on as quickly as possible if happiness isn't something to pursue we could ask ourselves is sorrow really something to flee Nizam Medina alia tells another story about happiness about a Brahmin that is a high-class priest let's say a high caste priest in the Hindu world in India a Brahmin who had wealth and status lived in a city and although the Brahmin was very wealthy he attracted the envy and the jealousy of others including the chief magistrate the Islamic judge of the city in which he lived who find him and seized all his for his possessions and reduced him to a state of poverty that Brahmin became absolutely destitute he was hard-pressed to even make ends meet one day he came across a friend and the friend said how are you and he said well and happy the friend said how can you be happy when everything has been taken from you and the Brahmin replied still with me is my sacred thread a sacred thread a very simple thread of white cotton that Brahmins wear over one shoulder and around their waist to symbolize their spiritual station and their attainment of the hope liberation from this world that cannot be taken away the brahman in this story is not happy because of events but in spite of them he is content and this is a theme that I wanted to draw out of dr. Nasir seen that next to happiness and maybe deeper than happiness is something called Dada or contentment yesterday his Holiness the Dalai Lama and his guest spoke about happiness as a deep satisfaction or an abiding joy that comes with knowing who you really are that is like the thread that the Brahmin wears over his shoulder to symbolize his status that self-knowledge does not fade and it cannot be taken away that Brahman was content beyond happiness or unhappiness and maybe that is a goal that we should embrace for ourselves as we think about happiness how to attain it and maybe what its limitations are happiness after all is a reaction to events or feelings contentment on the other hand is restrained in the face of events or feelings wonderful things or terrible things are just things we make them wonderful or terrible by our usually short-sighted assessment of what they are again the Sufi floundering in the well is extremely happy to hold on to a lion's tail until he realizes what he's holding on to contentment gives one the inner strength and endurance in ways that mere happiness does not Nizam Idina alia used to teach his followers that patience is that when something terrible happens to you you bear with it and you do not complain but contentment is when something terrible happens to you you do not regard it as terrible but instead you act as if that misfortune has never been following you many times it happens that a traveler will have a thorn Lodge in his foot his foot may even begin to bleed but the traveler is hurrying along so fast and is so preoccupied with the journey and reaching his destination that he doesn't take any notice of the pain that has happened in his foot only later does he become aware of the pain now if you reflect on the lesson of these incidents says Nizam and Dean in which pain goes unnoticed you'll understand how much more the same reflex characterizes the one who was preoccupied with meditating on God and remembering God doing Zickuhr that is the very same attitude described by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his talk yesterday he told us that when something bad happens that causes him pain or suffering or sorrow he tries to look at it from a distance or from a different angle or from within in order to discover what it is inside that event that has a potential for goodness that has a potential for causing happiness so I wanted to just offer to you this idea that maybe the pursuit of happiness isn't such a good goal for us I think Nizam and Dean olia in 13th century Delhi would say that pursuing happiness may be good in the short term but pursuing contentment would be a much better goal for the long term because contentment is deeper than happiness or unhappiness it's deeper than hope or fear these fluctuating states that structure our life are fleeting one leads to the other as long as we remain attached to the things in this world in a selfish way so perhaps the pursuit of contentment might be something that we want to think about I think that that flows rather nicely from Professor Nasser's talk that he gave us today and it certainly is as he mentioned contentment is the highest goal of most Sufi thinkers they put it above happiness and sometimes even above love or hope so contentment might be another aspect of happiness that we could think about through these stories and I thank you for giving me the chance to respond to your talk we have I suppose three or four minutes for questions and observations there are microphones set up in the room I hope they're switched on so I would welcome any questions or observations from anybody in the audience nope can somebody help with that I think hello that's gorge aggressor I'm content with both your all your talks but and Ziggler was mentioned I don't know if any of you would feel comfortable in giving us a taste of that of a few minutes of Ziggler for folks who would like to join in in that like she wants performance of thicker she was the performance you need a few little few minutes with now the levels of the performance of ech the recession the Quran of course is a self form of egg and what are the names of the Quran is the Corolla by the technical performance of the deck by the folk Arab I'd also initiated among Sufis I do not believe that they should just be performed anywhere in public they need certain preparation and I'm not one of those who's willing to perform them in public I'm sorry to say professor nasara had a question you spoke a little bit about divine law and the Sharia and my question is what happens when other human beings begin to regulate the observance of this divine law does it then lead to happiness or does it lead to discontentment and sometimes even war and how would we balance the role of the divine and the role of politics and social structures a conflict and war unfortunately are part and parcel of human existence every time we have a vaccination against the flu we're carrying out war against those particular life-forms which cause the flu there's no doubt about that and the question is what kind of conflict what kind of war of course societies that do not believe in the Sharia also avoid Wars all the time and I have to say that in Georgia obviously all different kinds of societies all different kinds of civilizations the difference between following the Sharia are not all under Sharia is that first of all the Sharia does not lead to conflict and war it leads to the assertion of the preservation of Islam of your of one's religion and almost home and was family I was lucky all of these things are in the Sharia and if one has to fight for these things for self preservation so be it it's not the cause of unhappiness of course all conflict has unhappiness in it but all of the soldiers who this country have fought in various Wars for to preserve the interests of the United States and the other have suffered many of them have been killed yes of course but they all had the idea that they were fighting for a cause and therefore the fighting for that cause permitted them to carry out these acts you must not confuse law which seeks to govern human existence with all of its ups and downs our frailties and the possibility of conflict which is an aid to the human state and to living on this earth with a kind of pacifism what the Sharia does is to limit conflict to the extent that is possible until therefore even you have to participate in it you feel as if you are doing the least immoral to be completely moral in a particular sense to be a Quaker the only Christians you could sell the Quakers because they are pacifists but there are many other very good Christians who are not Quakers and they do feel that they're also living their religion even if they have to fight for one cause or another which they feel to be just according to justice or preservation of themselves or the nation over whatever it is that is going on so this is a question somewhat simplistic and in order to fully answer that we have to understand the larger context the idea that is behind this question is that religions cause war if with all one does a follow religion one can be very peaceful and moral atheists this is one of the position of the 20th century forgetting that the 20th century caused more death through Wars than all the century of human existence combined together that not a single one of these was caught was fought for the cause of religion when over a million Frenchmen and Germans killed each other in the First World War just a few yards apart or in Russia some 20 million people died in Germany 11 million people died a second world war and these figures which are just astounding none of these were Wars of Religion and so behind this question sounds a very fallacious put position of many people in the modern world who want to prove to God that they can be good without God and so it's all very sickly than their soul they try very hard to prove that they're very moral and upright beings while they're opposed to religion but unfortunately experience has proved otherwise human beings whether they follow religion or they do not follow a religion oftentimes fight wars and they kill each other and there's no war in the Middle Ages and he fought by Islam according to the Sharia that causes sin devastation that countries without any religious law causes a second world war to each other even taking the difference in technologies into consideration I think we have time for one more question boys have time he's up I don't know time is up I've been instructed to keep the trains running strictly on schedule so I do apologize to those of you and that thank you again professor NASA and Vincent Scott the preceding program is copyrighted by Emory University

Channel: EmorySchoolofLaw

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Keywords: happiness, nasr, islam, happiness and responsibility, cslr

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Length: 88min 43sec (5323 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 01 2010