Signs of the Last Day - Hamza Yusuf (Foundations of Islam Series: Session 5)

swingarm oh my soul Omaha deceiving Muhammad in oh shut up the next the next stage that that we're going to cover is the time element and this is where history comes into place now within the if you look at the the actual quranic narrative the quran is not a history book there are definitely historical elements in there the quran is using historical examples but they are used in an a historical placing in other words the story of pharaoh and moosa' it's irrelevant when it occurred it's even irrelevant if it occurred what is being taught is something very powerful right I mean the Quranic narrative is that it did occur but that is not what is relevant from the story the story is used and as a teaching example to learn something of what happened in the past in order to prevent its repetition in the future so there is definitely a historical element now my friend professor Khalid Blankenship who's at Temple a very fine historian told me that one of the frustrating aspects of the Quran as a book is that it does not allow the historian room to examine in other words he said that like there are many examples in the Bible that we have that are historical in the sense that we can actually look at them as historians whereas within the Quranic narrative the the historian does not have evidence there to either negate or verify much of the Parana narrative or he accorded to his opinion any of it really and he said what and he said it's almost a warning for for him as a historian like he found it significant that it's almost like courting him to let him know that that is not the point that the to give you a good example in the in the whole narrative we don't know if it's if it's a Ishmael or Isaac who is taken up on the mountain some of the Muslim scholars said it was Isaac and some said it was Ishmael unimportant as the as a detail in the story which is why the Quran does not mention either one by name although the narrative would indicate that it was Ishmael which is differs from the Jewish tradition which is Isaac but the point is that that is not the point of the story the point of story is a man's being tested and and and fulfilling the test in the way that we're most pleasing to his Lord now the next section here after email and xn is to tell me about the hour and the word in Arabic for our is Sam which is related it's related to the moment sat like I can say farm I'm insanity he he got up immediately from his son or I can say come son what time is it like the Arabs if they want to ask what time it is they say come son so I can ask what times it or I can say it's the time of the whole now this son does not relate to historical time which in Arabic would be called probably either Zaman and then there's another Arabic word aha and there's another one in the Quran used called Vasa the man is relates to time as a historical phenomena a SAR is more like an age or a period and I can also use a man for that as well son does not have any of this down if you look it up it's interesting word in the Arabic language there's a hadith that says do not curse AHA because the hair is God and and the hadith if you look in the earliest Arabic dictionaries doubt according to err it was time stretched out in other words this time-space right and the idea here of saya is the actual moment in which the universe comes to an end and it's called the hour traditionally in in in the English literature the hour which I don't know i don't i think the i mean we have the idea in the in the christian tradition of the last hour right now there is also an idea of the last days hospitals MN see that the last Zemin the last period of Zemin so there's an idea that the human being begins in time and is moving in X or ibly to an end of time so Adam is the first man and this is the beginning Adam and how up and the human condition is you know from a prophetic point of view it is prophets that show up throughout time and what is important in the continuity a movement of time is a prophetic tradition itself right this is the this is the way the Quran is looking at it is that there is a conflict going on and this is why the historical stories in the Quran relate to prophets coming up against oppressors coming up against tyrants pharaoh and moosa' is the most repeated story in the quran very important story the Lewis Mumford in wrote a two-volume work called the myth of the mega machine and in that book his thesis is that basically what he called him the axial prophets these prophets that come around I think about a thousand BC until Muhammad which he considers the last of these axial prophet and he said what these prophets do is that they're really shutting down the mega machine right in other words the idea of this massive social project that relates to the world the Pharaoh has his pyramids and he's going to build them and there's a lot of people that are going to die in the process but they're going to carry those rocks and they're going to carry it and do it all all for the glory of the Pharaoh or the society or whatever so Mumford said that that you know he thought the Jewish tradition the idea of the Sabbath was a way of just shutting down the Machine can't do it sorry not allowed to move anything right it literally shuts it down the idea of five prayers a day it's fair I mean a lot of Western people get very frustrated in some of these Muslim countries where everything stops rule they're frustrated about a lot of things right but but definitely the prayer is something that's very frustrating for many Western people that go there they got business to do and the guy says that we have to stop for prayer right so it's a problem and Mumford saw it really as a way of shutting this thing down because he saw it as a very negative thing now one of the things that Mumford says is that there is a movement this historical movement towards the mega machine that in Prior times it's nuts and bolts were human beings right the whole social project and he thinks that pharaoh and moosa' is the best archetype of this phenomenon that the Musa Moses comes in and is directly a challenge to the firaon ik project that the prophets literally challenged this idea that we are here for the glorification of a hierarchy and at the top is this elite and so the Quran uses this idea they're called the Mela the the people up the high people the elite the elect of the world you know there's a film can't remember the name the where there was conversation going on at a table and one of the women's of sinologist and there's a banker there and the banker asks how many people are there in China according to your statistics and she said oh about a billion and he said no they're not there's only 12 people in China and I know all of them right and the idea there was here's a banker who the way that he views the world is that the only significant people in China are his friends who also are bankers so the idea of being is that there are a you know at you get to a certain level in societies where people really do view I one of wonderful things I read was I think it was Linda Crawford who's a model who was up flying and the actual helicopter crashed Cindy Crawford helicopter crashed and they were like at Aspen or some are going up to ski the powder and they were looking down and somebody said to her oh look at all the little people and right then the helicopter just wanted to this spin right so she got a very interesting I mean I thought that was a very interesting thing that she kind of picked it up or made the connection you know that be careful about thinking how special you are because we're all right in the in the hands or in the protecting care of God right so there are people that really do like Helmsley was out her name who didn't pay only little people pay taxes right only little people pay taxes there are people that really do think like that right and the poor on is really constantly bringing this up and even goes into their inner discourse which is fascinating literally you can hear what they talk about when they're you know because one of the things is he's telling his melih he said listen we got to get rid of this guy Moses because he's going to corrupt our people right so he sees you know this is a corrupting out because he's going to teach him not to worship us right not to say the Pharaohs God not to give me the authority that I'm entitled to that is a disrupting element to the power elite when you have a teaching that is literally challenging the very foundations of that of that structure and this is something very powerful in the padang and there are many examples of it so if you look here then the idea that time is coming to an end now the Prophet Mohammed peace be upon him according to the his tradition is that he is the first sign of the end that he actually his coming was the first time damn time that's how the Muslims view that now all according to the Muslims all religious traditions have told about the end of time there is a hadith in which the Prophet said no prophet has come except that he told his people that time would come to an end and there would be certain signs so we have in the Christian tradition about the end of time one of them you will hear there will be famines and earthquakes in many places and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars which is very interesting also that especially with modern CNN and all this stuff right which is a type of just talking about wars and also potential things and then you have the Book of Revelations which deals also with the phenomenon of the end of time and many many Christians if you go into Christian bookstores just so many books on the end of time right really a lot of books and as we approach the millennium I think we're going to have more and more of this because you're starting actually to see I mean you know when the publishers get greedy when they start publishing these kind of because some of these books are way out there right I mean you read and this poor guy who wrote he's the most famous how Lindsey he's the most faint this guy he has to revive his books every 10 years because he identifies like one year at Kissinger is the Antichrist but you know chess injures not around anymore since to revive it every so often because they literally trying to take the Bible and apply it to immediate events and there's actually a television program in some states where there's a guy he's like a newscaster with his wife and unbelievable like every event up well hey there's Daniel 3:14 you see Daniel says that this will happen this and there you have it look isn't that wonderful you know Iraqis are being bombed just like the Bible said it's so wonderful Jesus is it's all you know and it's really interesting it wants these characters but they're out there and people tune in and and get very interested and then national Enquirer's also got their little you know you get these the globe right the end of the time coming so you have a lot of it's always become comical you know the guy with the thing the end is not that there really is a lot of craziness and traditionally the muslims have really kind of seen every single book i've ever seen whether it's the from the third fourth fifth sixth century they say well all the signs are there the end is nigh the idea being in reality the end of time is the end of our lives i mean that is the ultimate end of time that we will die and so that is an end of time but there is also an end of human time and so within the tradition I think the most definitive hadith about it which I think is also the most wonderful is that the Prophet Muhammad said if the end of time comes upon you and you're planting a tree then finish planting it in other words don't become millennia Aryans don't become people that run off and just the end is it no do what you're doing keep working keep doing it if it happens it happens and you happen to be there when it happens but don't let that stop you from action so there is an idea of yes there is an end of time there are signs now in the tradition here the first thing he asked him about the end of time he says tell me about the the sign the hour and he says the one being questioned doesn't know any more than the one questioning in other words I don't know and he says well then tell me about its signs and then the Prophet says peace be upon him the slave girl will give birth to her mistress now that's it's that's an interesting statement the slave girl will give birth to her mistress and the scholars traditionally dealt with that in a lot of different ways one of them as they said at the end of time slaves who in the Islamic like for instance the Malik became rulers and many of the scholars said this is it but ma Malik were slaves in Egypt and they actually became rulers they said here they are they've become the Masters another interpretation was that children would treat their parents like this is a traditional interpretation that children would treat their parents like servants they would order them around it would tell them what to do that there would be a loss of respect amongst in that relationship but I think probably the deepest interpretation is that there would be a radical disequilibrium in social structures when you look at the relationship between a servant and a mistress the relationship is like a mother and a daughter the mother is to be obeyed nurturing the daughter the daughter obeys the mother when that is turned upside down then you have a radical disruption in the social order if you look in the Quranic narrative the first and foremost expression of a Touhey de qward view of a belief in one God is a son to the parents beauty to the parents showing beauty to the parents the Quran says and God has told the human being to honor his parents the mother first it says o Muhammad Atta women Allah when the mother gave nurtured and gave birth to the child sapped and weakened right so the nine months of nurturing a child in the womb giving birth suckling the child raising the child changing the child doing all of these things that there is a great debt owed the child to the parent particularly the mother and this is why the Prophet said that the paradise is at the feet of the mothers is literally at the feet of the mothers and the Prophet was once asked who is the most worthy of my companionship and the Prophet answered your mother and the said and then who he said your mother and he said and then who he said your mother and he said and then who he said your father and then in another tradition a man came to him and he said the artists will allow a Messenger of God I am cleaning my mother in her decrepid age the way she used to clean me is that filial piety and he said no that's payback he literally said that's recompense right you're just you know recompense in what she did for you so the disruption of the the parental child relationship is a deep disruption within a social order and we can we can see that really I think not simply in our own societies but it's it's becoming quite a global phenomenon the idea of rebellion there's an idea and our culture certainly that there's it's a given that children will rebel right this does not happen I you know soon Iman yang who's from the wool of culture right I mean in the wolf is there any idea of that of a adolescent rebellion against the parents I'm just curious there might be do you have any idea in your culture of like adolescent rebellion against the parents it was not there that would be consistent with my experience in Mauritania that they really had no concept of children rebelling against the parents whereas it is becoming a norm and with westernization it's increasing because of the idea of rebel without a cause that there is you know there is this idea that children have to rebel that they have to establish your identity there's an awful lot of identity foreclosure in the Erickson Ian type of model I think in the Muslim world there there is an idea that you really have to do what your parents say and I think there's a lot of abuse that happens from the parents to the children because they do have an upper hand there so you do see that a child will become an engineer because that's what the parents say that they should be right which in our culture I think that's in a sense one of the positive aspects of our culture is that there is a type of freedom that is allowed for a young person in many many families and it's certainly not true across the board but there are many families that do allow a child to experiment try to find out and I think that's actually a very positive aspect of our society and civilization the but the idea of the breakdown of the social structure is is something that is definitely part of the end of time that we move into a disequilibrium if you look there's a wonderful book on this topic written by a French scholar and intellectual called Rene genome which is called the reign of quantity and in that book he talks about the idea of moving away from a quality based culture into a quantity based culture and he considers that what the Hindus called the Kali Yuga period the last period of man on earth that it would be a period of great disruption in turmoil that there would be a massive upheaval of traditional models and a radical new type of way of looking at the world which is related more to quantity than quality and it's interesting there's an you know the idea one of the things that we as a Western people have done which is quite unique and a radical departure from traditional cultures is the quantification of everything you know we've really set out to measure everything you know measure space measure gas measure air measure the speed of light all of these things wanting to measure to quantify and I thought was very interesting one I had statistics in college and one one of the professor taught the course said at the beginning of the course one of the things about statistics that you'll learn is it doesn't work very well with qualitative data it works very well with quantitative data but when you get into this qualitative data we have problems right and I thought that was kind of interesting because so much of our society is based on statistics you we really do base a good percentage of our policies of even in school and education you know so much is based on well what are the stats here before we give you money show us some stats and immediately when you move into that model you're moving into a quantitative and not a qualitative model generally so the now to go into some of the signs there are basically the scholars have identified three types of signs signs that have already occurred signs that have occurred and continued to intensify and then signs that haven't occurred so some of the signs some of the signs that have already occurred according to the Muslims our signs like the birth of the Prophet that was a sign according to the prophet also said that the death of Omar was a sign in the death of both men he said that the fall of Constantinople which occurred 800 years after the hadith was recorded he said the fall of Constantinople was a sign he said the fall of Rome also to the Muslims that the the Rome the city of Rome would become Muslim which hasn't happened yet the Pope and also so that would be a later sign that haven't occurred but in terms of already occurred they would be signs that have happened there was a fire that the prophet predicted in Medina which was a result of a volcano that erupted and he said Medina would be confronted with a massive fire and and that occurred and several other events that are mentioned in the tradition the signs that have occurred and continued to intensify one of them that the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said that one of the signs would be that intoxicants would be widely used so you can see this happening in the Muslim world and just intensifying from quite some time ago another sign would be the nakedness that people would begin to remove their clothes and he said until it would get to the point where people would actually walk around in the marketplaces in shorts with their thighs fully exposed right it's in a hadith and mesh you fit us well enough of how the body atone walking in marketplaces with the thighs fully exposed he said also that people would have sexual intercourse in front of other people was a sign of the end of time he said that it would get so bad that you would see people fornicating on in public places and the best people would be people who would say can't you do that somewhere else another one would be speed in travel he said great distances would be traversed in very short times and he said also that people would hop between the clouds and the earth of sube Nepali was Semin and he said that there would be musical instruments would be everywhere and he said that also that people would dance with instruments on their head which some have interpreted as headphones that they would dance with instruments on their head and they would spend the whole night dancing like that and he also said that you would see singing women prevalent in public spaces because traditionally that was something people did in private things but he said it would be come out open into the public and he said that there would be many people with the he said text photo and house at which would be whisperings like there would be many confused people that would have a lot of psychological type of problems so I mean I could go on and I guess quite depressing so those are signs now then there's the big ones in which the Prophet the biggest of all is called the Antichrist which people understand the Hadi hadith literature the vast majority the signs of any time are related to hadith literature although some are in the port on one of them is that a clear smoke would appear over cities towards the end of time seem sort of to Duhon some people have interpreted as that yeah Johannes is smoke gas it's the same word used for gas in Arabic Duhon is used for gas as well because the evident of Oz is a modern word for the Arabs Duhon was used for gas as well no clear mean it would be very everybody would see it right and it says from the evil that people were doing another major sign is the Dajjal now I just want to read because I think it's very interesting this is was written in the last century but it's taken out of classical Arabic books yeah just about the Antichrist the word in Arabic is from dead yella it means to smear a camel with tar in other words covering the whole body with tar smearing the part that is mangy or scabby so it has the idea of hiding illness or sickness covering it over right covering it over with a black pitch to lie to conceal truth with falsehood concealing the truth he enchanted or fascinated so the idea that the Antichrist is an enchanter or a fascinator people are fascinated by him he compressed he traversed the region's or tracks of the earth or land now the Prophet said that the Dajjal would enter every city on the planet when they asked him what would his speed be like he said like a wind that leaves a cloud in its trail cadena stead Baraka Sahab literally means like a wind that leaves a cloud in its trail and in another tradition he said he would run made a white donkey made of iron whose span between his two ears was 40 cubits valhalla - Amanda Hadid as the hadith says and then he says to confuse to mix things having one eye the Prophet Muhammad did have question the job the gel is the word in Arabic for Antichrist which is better translated by the Arabs but in the Arabic language as the imposter Christ oh Christ yet Monsieur the gel the false messiah very much so uh-huh in it is long a concept of the Messiah the one time thing represented by Jesus of Nazareth Wow Jesus has seen this on the side on the side how did this is it and this is going to be an Jesus yes and and it's interesting because if you study the Islamic Jesus I think it gives you a very good picture of the idea of an antique Jesus because anti and Arab in Greek antis also means in place of instead of it doesn't really mean against the original meaning of anti and Greek as a prefix means instead of and that's closer to the Arabic interpretation which is impostor or in place of pretending to be the Islamic Jesus and I actually translate I'm hoping to get it out this year but I translate all of the Arabic sayings of Jesus because there's a very large there's actually more sayings in the Islamic tradition of Jesus than there are in the New Testament and most of them deal with the dangers of the world of materialism so I find it really interesting that you know this idea of an impostor that Jesus is the whole thrust of the Islamic Jesus is salvation through giving up material wants and the idea of an antichrist is salvation through desire of material goods that it is material goods that will make you happy that is material goods that will save you so I think there's a very materialistic element in here and also the idea of being one-eyed is that part of the by ocular vision is depth perception which you lose when with one eye and so the idea that there's no that the Dajjal or the Antichrist does not have a depth perception 'el being he sees things in two dimensions and some of the Muslim scholars do not consider it an individual and but most do and some and you'll see it as we go on here having one eye is one of them also to gild a thing so in other words you take lad you put gold over it that's you dead jinn so to make something that's cheap or insignificant look very worthwhile or significant cover the land with water he put his land into a right or proper state prepared it improved it with dung so to spread dung on the earth to spread feces on the earth the job done for maneuvering land and then do job is refuse lowest basest or meanest sort of people the lowest basest or meanest sort of people dead job a Guilder a liar conceals truth with falsehood who deceives deludes beguile circumvents outwits much or often very deceitful the great deceiver and then a great company of men dijanna in arabic means a great company of men journeying together covering the ground by their multitude or a company of men journeying together carrying goods for sale right so trafficking goods all over the place Masika dab the false Christ or Antichrist is to be a certain man right comes forth in the last day so having one eye or eyebrow so that you get the idea there this is a classical coming out of classical dictionaries the idea of the Antichrist is that towards the end there there will be a type of false salvation through love of the world and material things and these things and and I think the Muslims definitely have a very strong sense of the Dajjal because at the end of the prayer you actually make a prayer that says and I seek refuge from the tribulation of the vigil in the last period and the Prophet Muhammad said every prophet has warned his people about the Dajjal but I will tell you something that no other prophet told his people he only has one eye so that was the the tradition that he said about the Dajjal that he would have one eye and there's a very interesting some of the Muslims said you know the television is like a Dajjal is a one-eyed type Beast and there's an interesting section in Moo's Mumford's the second volume of his work on the mega machine which is the eye of the one eye of Ray the all-seeing eye of Ray and he talks about that the mega machine one of the things about the mega machine he said traditionally was that they couldn't they didn't have an all-seeing power these these previous kings and rulers and so he said what's happening though is that and he wrote this in 1961 he said in the near future we have theoretically at our hands a machine that will able to monitor all of our life which is the computer and he said that and this is what Foucault called the Panoptix society the all-seeing Society and it was designed after the idea of a prison system that Jeremy Bentham designed which was where you had a center piece utilitarianism you had this Center you only needed one guard and around the guard were all the prison cells so in the middle was a tower of which this one guard could watch everything at one time and so the idea of the all-seeing you know the state apparatus in which we're all monitored a really interesting book about this subject is called the I can see the cover because it's got that pyramid with the eye on it it's got the naked consumer a very interesting book about how we are watched that you know a lot of people don't know this but when you buy things with your credit cards they go under bio-datas and so they can work out like I started getting all this stuff about like different types of books I'd get these like things from spiritual book companies and things because they worked out you know you buy them then they sell they do bio-data on you find out what type books you like to read and then they sell that list of people when we had a baby the first child then like week later we got all these things about bit and my wife was like oh what you know this is a classic problem with religion right you it's a sign right no there's somebody that monitors for the corporation's all the births in the county and they sell your address to people right it wasn't a sign right or it was a sign that we're in big trouble right where everything's being watched by these so the idea just of you know this kind of panoptic culture where and the interesting thing now is this idea of computers with the actual camera on it very interesting phenomena because who else can watch right who else can watch while you're having your conversations and things like that so that there is an idea of this you know the Antichrist and this the the end and most Muslims do believe in a second coming of Jesus vast majority of Muslims there are many Hadees that confirms it's not actually mentioned directly in the Quran but most Muslims do believe in a second coming of Christ towards the end of time a good point and that was something that the the prop the scholars did deal with that he will not come back as a as a prophet bringing a Sharia according to the Muslims he actually comes back and he can the the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad that's how the Muslims view it that he comes back now the question was wouldn't that mean that the problem Muhammad wasn't the seal but it would in the sense that the Prophet is after Jesus the Prophet Muhammad said there's no prophet between me and Jesus and he said that all of the prophets are brothers we have the same father which is the religion of the deen of islam with different mothers meaning the different Shetty Azur the different sacred laws and then the next after the birth of mistress is that you will see the barefooted naked destitute herdsmen competing in constructing lofty buildings now at one level this is seen by many people in the modern time the idea of you know the Bedouin people now in the Arabian Peninsula building all these you know they were literally destitute people 4050 years ago and when I was in the United Arab Emirates I was once in in the muds of Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi who's the ruler of Sharjah and you know they're very kind of pomp type pompous modulus you know there's a lot of protocol things but there was this guy that came in literally in almost rags and he came in dirty and he barefoot comes walking in quite arrogantly goes up to the ruler shakes his hand then sits down and I asked a person next to me who's that he said it's his cousin you know but he's still like a Bedouin out in the he lives out and it was just you know he's a bedroom guy losing a tent but you know his his cousin had become the ruler of the country so I I thought that was really interesting this idea of these you know poor people and then building a very interesting phenomenon in Arabia is building buildings and then another Sheikh getting upset because so-and-so built a taller building than him he'll actually tear down his building and build up one taller than the second one right and this is also in our own culture the New York you know the the Empire State Building was the tallest and then the Chicago building one up them and then the World Trade Center and then you have now Malaysia interestingly enough very proud the Malaysians are very proud that they now have the tallest building in the world and you know somebody had it on the cover of a Muslim magazine and they asked me what I thought I said I think it's really interesting that the Muslims are proud of being part of fulfilling the signs at the end of time right because it's seen as a very negative thing not a positive thing and then also there's another way to look at this of building tall buildings like these kind of wretched people and that is the idea of of building lofty ideas and building ideological structures because the Quran talks about the building of taqwa boo-yah know taqwa right the building of God consciousness and awareness so the idea also of wretched people creating lofty ideologies that many people will follow and think that they're the truth and things like that so these is just a very quick overview about it and then also finally I think the point of all of that is that time does come to an end that the human condition does come to an end and that's how Islam contextualizes history is that there is an end that is imminent again I think for the individual person the imminence of the end of time is always related to their own personal death but there is an idea also and then there's another important I think a very important idea within the Islamic tradition and that is that each generation will be less they will be fulfilling the idea of this dimensional Islam of amen is some SN they will not do it as well as the previous generation that there is an idea that each generation is a watered-down version there are periods of renewal historically in the Prophet Muhammad did say that that there would be renewer every hundred years or so there would be people that come and renew but the idea that it's not the same I mean I think the Muslims do have an idea traditional Muslims anyway that it's not so much progress but quite the opposite one of the things rented genome pointed out about the rapid speed of progress you said one of the things that we forget is increasing acceleration means going down not up right that the idea of the modern world and I think there's a lot of questioning now of the wisdom of the you know the idea bacon introduced the idea of progress because prior to that the Christians did not have that idea within their worldview of that we are progressing they had quite a different idea and I think ultimately from the Muslim world view and also from other traditional worldviews that the you know that the same ethical issues that that the Plato is positing through Socrates you know what is justice you know how do we lead a good life what is a good life these things we have not come any closer right to really you know progressing in terms of our ethical nature in terms of our spiritual nature that although we have massive outward technology able to do extraordinary things bring the living back bring the dead back to life you know move mountains quite literally despite that we are still dealing with basic human tendencies such as greed lust and the slothfulness it's hard to get away from those and in some ways were less aware of our own negative tendencies than perhaps people's before us were and more filled with our own sense of hubris and our own sense of power although certainly the 20th century is is a century that has created a lot of disillusionment you know we've killed a hundred and eighty million people this century alone in wars between human beings and it's interesting that they weren't religious Wars there were ideological Wars you know because one of the oftentimes critics of religion will point out well look how many people died in the name of religion well look how many people died in the name of communism right I mean we forget that we're dealing with a human species that it's not the religion is not the problem man is the problem right and if there's a humanizing factor in the human condition as far as I'm concerned it has been religion that religion is what has introduced into the human being concepts like making beauty that concepts like becoming conscientious charity right carry tasks you know these these things the Kairos all of these things are coming out of religious traditions and the Muslims always in and God knows best I'm going to open it up for some questions if people want to go there believe me you're most welcome to go this is my last talk that that you know that I have with you and I just would like to say my presentations you know I'm I adhere to the teaching of Islam and I do believe in Islam and I tend to take a more devotional approach than say some other academic approaches you know that that is my I really try not to preach to people because I never have ever liked being preached to in my life so I really try to do that but if it has come off as that you know I would apologize to anybody if I said anything in any way that offended people or their tradition or their own beliefs that I also apologize for that that was not my intention if that was the result then I would just ask that I would be excused for that graciously and then I would also just like to say that this has really been a very good and enriching experience for me it always is and I've been appreciative the fact Darla's song has invited me back but I would like to say this has benefit for me a very good group and I'm not just you know I didn't say that to the last groups I really have enjoyed this group personally you know I think you've all been just really just a good group and you're all teachers so you know a teacher likes nothing better than having good students and and so I've honored and grateful that that's been the case so having said all that I'll just say if anybody has any questions that I could answer or anything I had a question that just came up in my mind like it's about time but it's not directed to you election I notice it and the MAS there was a list of when the five prayer times were and they changed every day right I guess it's late to the lights of the day is there a place where how would you find out what the prayer times are where your geographical living ground you read through that again my guru second I think in the beginning of the Islam lecture I talked about how to find the prayer times and they are based on the Sun and the movement of the Sun they're easy to determine unless you live in an area in which the Sun is clouded over so you don't see it and in that case generally the scholars have permitted the use of astronomical means of determining so you haven't really hit a time like you do right but we actually personally I don't follow that that's put there for like cloudy days and things like that I will look outside at the natural phenomena to determine my prayer times that's what I do there are many Muslims that depend on the prayer schedule traditionally it's alien to these because there's an importance in being aware of cosmic phenomena I mean the the Muslim tradition really does try to connect you to the movement of the planets the Stars the Sun uh-huh tomorrow yeah that's a good idea why don't if we have a sunny day because we really need a sunny day I mean I can do it without it but if we have a sunny day then if you meet me outside at about 1:30 I can do it if you don't have anything going on then uh-huh I like your response today's paper Molly ever has a editor from the Fort Worth star-telegram she opens up by saying the Shiite Republican plot against House Speaker Newt Gingrich this comes a dolt how do you react to the use of the term she angry father well this is a that's a good example of the introduction of terms into our culture through the media that that have negative stereotypes attached to them for most people shiite has a very negative and so he's talking within a cultural discourse that's understood by his readers negative Shiite is negative and that's how it's being introduced for an Iranian who happens to be an American Iranian you know he's going to be offended by that it's part of the problem with language is that we you know that there's an idea I mean political correctness has a lot of problems associated with it because it we take it to such absurd lengths you know but but there is an idea of just being sensitive to people's cultures and one of the things that the Quran says is we create you in peoples and tribes that you might come to know one another and the most noblest of you are the most God weary the Thomas Cleary one of the things that he said about that verse is he said that you know we talk about the problem of racism the problem of all of these attitudes but we've never really examined how do we break these down and and he thought that that Parana conjunction there that to come to know one another you know and this part of what this is all about you know this is literally trying to come to know a tradition how do they view the world how do you look at things as a way of understanding of people and I think the Muslims are as guilty as any other people of being narrow and and and not trying to understand other there are some Muslims that come here bringing a lot of their attitudes from other places and when you come to America you have to learn what is appropriate within this culture you have to learn that that you know that you're a guest in a host country and the same would I think would be for Americans going to a Muslim country you know you are a guest in a host country we in this culture we have a saying when in Rome do as the Romans do and there's a wisdom there in that you you you have to recognize that there are sensitivities now part of the problem and this is a good example that you've brought up is the globalization of our world we are no longer isolated communities the Turk is no longer the barbarian at the gates of Vienna scaring us right the Turk is your doctor right I mean seriously we're dealing in a in a world where these barriers have been broken down there is a great opportunity here there is a great opportunity there's also just as the Chinese know because they're ideograms for opportunity is their ideogram for crises we are in a crisis State as well right we do have white supremacists in this country we have a very strong anti-semitic element in this country we have an anti Arab sand right we have people that do look at the world in these terms we're trying to break this down you know we're trying to create some civilization here some some humanity it's a it's a daunting task you know but hopefully we can rise to the occasion I think this is I mean you know we can stereotypically say well what do you expect from Dallas right I mean weak I can do that I say well that's just a southern redneck right he might be a bit sounds like he's a liberal you he might be excuse me she I'm sorry yeah so they're stereotyped something like that must come from a man so you know the idea is that we can it's very easy to stereotype pigeonhole people do these things but unfortunately it creates a lot of animosity a lot of a lot of turbulence and trouble the another example of that is the word jihad which is a very very high word in Islam it's not a low I mean seen as I'm really in the same way we use a crusade in in our culture a crusade is a good thing he led a crusade against drugs in the Muslim culture crusade it has a very negative connotation right it does it for english-speaking Muslims who know the word crusade it really conjures up people coming in and slaughtering and attacking and pillaging the Muslim heartland so it you know language is very very problematic and and I personally I you know I just this is something we live with you know I think being for me being an American who became a Muslim was very interesting for me because I grew up part of the dominant culture I am you know I'm a white American I went to very elite schools in this country you know I had very a lot of opportunities a lot of other people didn't have but then becoming a Muslim and seeing how you know a lot of Americans relate to me as a Muslim you know it suddenly changes and I did change my name which you don't have to I I was quite young when I became Muslim and a name was given to me and I took it in retrospect you know I really don't think that you well I know that you don't have to and I don't know if it's really that why is it the thing to do because I think it creates this idea that well you have to be an Arab to become Muslim or you have to you know that doesn't many American Muslims that do not change their name right but the fact that I do have my legal name is my Muslim name has really caused some very interesting things to happen to me and my wife was she's you know Native American Mexican in and she you know because she wears the hijab she during the Gulf crisis she was spat at told to go home go back where you came from right it was kind of ironic because you know she I told you you need to tell him that you don't need to get on a plane or a boat to go back where you came from yeah and she's from the air this her roots are R from the Sonora Desert so very interesting you know and she was in a supermarket once with the Javan there was a young Mexican girl there who said you know the baby was in the the basket and the woman wanted to put the groceries into the basket and they were both Mexican and one of them said to the other you know in Spanish just knock him out of the way and you know my wife was so upset about that and she very gentle soul she didn't say anything I told you should have told them you know I speak Spanish and that's not and I got upset I went back to the store you know and I just I saw the manager and I told him what happened I also reminded him that a good because it's a store right next to a very large Muslim population they have a lot of Muslims that buy there which is always bottom line if you can bring that in get some action right son I just told him what happened he was really horrified and and you know said he would talk to two people but you know we forget that that these things do happen is very interesting occurrence is to feel the brunt of that you know black like me that type of thing where you suddenly realize there is another world of experience for other people and for the Muslim it's just by the fact that they're Muslim it's not you know yeah it's very interesting so it's it goes back to some real basic prejudices and some basic things and hopefully you know I tend to be an optimist I'm skeptical a lot of things but I tend to be an optimist so and and the Quran does say don't don't despair it's not a good thing to do it's the only unforgivable sin for the Catholics so uh-huh don't despair again it's part of you know if you go in the way I look at it humanity had a beginning just like I had a beginning as a child I've grown into my adulthood I will grow old if I have a full life I may even become decrepit at the end of my life right this is part of the natural process you know humanity had its maturity it will have its it's decay and it will have its old age and it will have its decrepit period and then it comes to an end for something new to happen from my perspective so you know the way the Muslims view everything is majesty beauty and God according to the Quran is the possessor of majesty and beauty they're both from God so we are in a very majestic time we're in a time where there's a lot of tribulation this country alone we don't I don't think we realize the extent of our troubles in this country if we just look at the natural disasters in this country you know in the 1980s insurance companies were paying out five billion dollars a week a year in in terms of natural disasters we're now paying five billion a week you know we've had a lot of devastation in this country just in the last ten years just in terms of naturals that our topsoil is disappearing right we're grossly over using our resources our children are really getting lost in a lot of very confusing messes our media is extraordinarily you know pervasive and in its you know the violence that is putting out there and a lot of very negative messages in the midst of that there are some very positive things happening you know and I would tend to rather be identified and be part of what's positive than just you know what one man said well Heidegger said as well we're way beyond pessimism and optimism depressions a luxury the world's coming to an end I'm depressed you know no this is the a you know this is the age it's like the way I look at it you know there's a scene in Gone with the Wind where she's running through Atlanta and everybody's just stretched out you know wounded and dead you can either run through it or you can just sit and offer somebody water and Pat them on the back and just say you know we're human this is it this is the human condition it's awesome it's incredible it's glorious it's majestic it's beautiful it's intense it's tragic it's kamek it's all these elements and and that's part of the the power and the wonder of the whole thing so I'm going to choose to remain positive about it and I hope all of you do to your teachers you can't get depressed you know I saw wonderful program once on PBS which was about the black schools and and there were very very powerful experience but there was a white man who had been teaching in inner cities for a very long time in since the early 1960s and he was just saying how bad it was getting and that he was losing hope and that this just the faces you know the lack of light in these young black children's faces in these inner cities it was just it was driving and he was literally saying I'm just losing hope I'm giving up and the black man jumped up and he said you know we've suffered we went we went through slavery went through coming over the you know the great crossing he said you're not going to tell us there's no hope we sang songs to get us through it you know and that's the joy of the human you know the human being is we're people of hope like the rats and if the rats you know can do it you know we can do it yeah really that's that's our greatness that we do have hope and despite all the odds right so let's hopefully we're not like the people on the Titanic that think the ship is unsinkable and get to arrogant right the band plays on and we all go down

Channel: Islam On Demand

Views: 230,834

Rating: 4.8348494 out of 5

Keywords: islam, death in islam, life after death, what happens after death, angel of death muslim, why death, what islam says about soul, the journey of soul, when will i die, what happens to a muslim soul after death, hereafter in islam, islam lectures about death, armageddon, end of time, when will the world end, nuclear war, last days, signs of the last day, signs of the last hour, judgement day, when is judgement day, judgment day, when is judgment day, when is the final hour

Id: in5kC5qFjm4

Length: 62min 13sec (3733 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 16 2011