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  #1  
Old June 15, 2007, 07:12 AM
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Lightbulb Other Muslim Voices: the Zaytuna Institute and Sheikh Hamza Yusuf

A bit about the institute in its own words: -

"Zaytuna Institute is a non-profit, educational institute and school founded and run by people committed to reviving time-tested methods of educating and transforming human beings. It is our belief that Islam offers a cohesive understanding of the world and a praxis for it that is able to cut through the illusion of contemporary nihilism and materialism.

We recognize ignorance as the greatest weapon of the dark forces working in the world and believe that the light of true knowledge is the only weapon to dispel that darkness. This is our struggle, and our efforts are directed at spreading the light and wisdom of prophetic truths everywhere and to all peoples. Our aim is to teach the tools individuals need in order to live lives of guidance and adherence to sacred order and to restore broad-based pluralistic and true scholarship to its proper place as a first priority of Muslims."


Web: http://www.zaytuna.org/

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaytuna_Institute

A bit about Sheikh Hamza Yususf: -

"Hamza Yusuf Hanson is a traditionalist Islamic scholar and teaches at the Zaytuna Institute in California.

Yusuf was born as Mark Hanson in Walla Walla, Washington and was raised in Northern California in a Greek Orthodox family, the son of a US academic father and activist mother. At the age of 17, in 1977, Hanson became a Muslim in Santa Barbara, California, after having a near-death experience in a car accident which led him to read the Qur'an and eventually to convert to Islam ...

"Shaykh Hamza is the first American lecturer to teach in Morocco's prestigious and oldest University, the Karaouine in Fes. In addition, he has translated several classical Arabic traditional texts and poems into modern English. [1] He is married and has five children - all boys."


Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamza_Yusuf
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  #2  
Old June 15, 2007, 07:21 AM
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I have not heard about this institute. May be its just famous in US, anyone else heard about it?

BTW I am still trying to figure out the point of this thread.
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  #3  
Old June 15, 2007, 07:25 AM
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Dear Sohel

I had heard of this gentleman in the polical context you quote but didn't know of his involvement with the Zautuna Institute. The name of the institute itself is encouraging. For those who don't know it, literally translated, Zautuna Institute would be the 'Olive Institute'; olive or olive branch being a symbol of peace in the Arab world.
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Old June 15, 2007, 07:27 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ehsan
I have not heard about this institute. May be its just famous in US, anyone else heard about it?

BTW I am still trying to figure out the point of this thread.
just giving some of the members the opportunity to explore some of the more tolerant, alternative streams of traditional islamic scholarship often ignored by most of the popular western media such as CNN, BBC et al - or ignored more than the juicier talebani variety of "islam".

i am not a member of the Zaytuna Institute.
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  #5  
Old June 15, 2007, 07:41 AM
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I shall email my friend Puck to contribute to this thread since he is much more knowlegeable than myself about the 'Reform movement' of the 19th century, especially the writings of Muhammad Abduh and Sir Sayyid Ahmad, whose writings are seldom heard of days.
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  #6  
Old June 15, 2007, 07:51 AM
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It would be much better if you summarize your findings or post your opinion than merely posting links and quotes. You are not doing justice to your quality posts that I've read. I just hope you have not got into that "post counts" game.
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  #7  
Old June 15, 2007, 08:27 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ehsan
It would be much better if you summarize your findings or post your opinion than merely posting links and quotes. You are not doing justice to your quality posts that I've read. I just hope you have not got into that "post counts" game.
no bro i'm not. as impossible as it maybe for some to give me the benefit of the doubt, i actually do not play that particular game, despite posting as much as i do. my "ajaira thread" was a self-deprecating case in point that failed. i'm just trying to provoke a genuine discussion amongst quite a few of the members interested in the topic. i'm really interested to see what they have to say after due exploration of the links here.
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  #8  
Old June 15, 2007, 04:11 PM
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Sheikh Hamza Yusuf is a brilliant traditional and charismatic muslim scholar. He is one of those rare present-day "encyclopedic" scholars muslim scholarship was so renowned for. I was one of the early students to attend the "Rehla" course at the Zaytuna Institute and benifited immeasurably. Insha Allah, Zaytuna will lead the way for all traditional scholarship with many of its teachers having unbroken chains-of-transmission which goes right back to the beloved prophet of Islam ( Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)!

This is where traditional Islamic teaching methodology is used and improvised by some of the most brilliant minds of our age!
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  #9  
Old June 15, 2007, 04:12 PM
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Btw, thanks for sharing this, Sohel NR!
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  #10  
Old June 16, 2007, 05:05 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BanCricFan
Sheikh Hamza Yusuf is a brilliant traditional and charismatic muslim scholar. He is one of those rare present-day "encyclopedic" scholars muslim scholarship was so renowned for. I was one of the early students to attend the "Rehla" course at the Zaytuna Institute and benifited immeasurably. Insha Allah, Zaytuna will lead the way for all traditional scholarship with many of its teachers having unbroken chains-of-transmission which goes right back to the beloved prophet of Islam ( Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)!

This is where traditional Islamic teaching methodology is used and improvised by some of the most brilliant minds of our age!
Couldn’t agree more. During my limited interactions with this approachable and charming man, I was always impressed by his humble bearing, clarity of thought, the vast depth and expanse of his knowledge, and the traditional methods of scholarship he emphasizes with regards to ontology and Islamic research. I was under the distinct impression that this is what it must have been like to face the likes of Ibn-Rushd during the glory years of Islamic scholarship and sciences. I have been thinking about exploring the Institute myself the next time I find myself in the Bay Area. As the sheer number of my posts clearly show here, iI'm bored with the line of work I was trained to do, and am seriously pondering a late, more meaningful career change. Your input certainly adds a lot of fuel to that fire.

I’m always deeply inspired by men and women who incessantly engage in the inner struggle to balance Imaan with Aml, to feel and practice what they preach. The harmony of pen and sword is beautiful indeed, and that beauty can bring out the best in all of us if we allow it, and become conscious of God's grace that flows through us always. I’ve had the good fortune to meet HE the Dalai Lama, Ayatollah Rafsanjani, Hojat-al-Islam Khatemi, and a certain Mrs. Kawabata, my former aikido teacher and a woman entirely devoid of malice. I wish I had the good fortune to meet Sheikh Ibn-al-Arabi, Jalauddin Rumi, Lalon Shai, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekanda, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Al-Hajj Malik Al Shabaz and Mother Teresa just to feel the warmth their God consciousness, love and desire for justice must have emanated, and continues to touch so many long after their death.

Blabbering on ...

Anyway, I caught a program on Al-Jazeera quite recently that interviewed Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and wondered why Munafique nutjobs like Laden get all the attention in the popular "western" media. Of course the late Edward Said in his Orientalism, Culture and Imperialism and Covering Islam has provided great insights as to why. Muslims living in the west, especially in the post 9/11 world, can perhaps arm themselves better with the knowledge of such scholarship and take it upon themselves to proactively balance and perhaps even dispel some of the negative images of Islam painted and perpetuated by malicious and the ignorant alike.

Thanks for you input bro.
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Last edited by Sohel; June 16, 2007 at 09:52 AM..
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  #11  
Old June 20, 2007, 10:41 AM
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Here's Riz Khan of Aljazeera TV talking to Sheikh Hamza. He talks about a wide variety of highly relevant issues, including being a Muslim in the West. You'll need Quicktime to view it. The Download's long but worth every minute IMHO.

http://www.zikrcast.com/podcast/VidS...izKhan_SHY.mov
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  #12  
Old June 21, 2007, 05:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by P.Warner
I shall email my friend Puck to contribute to this thread since he is much more knowlegeable than myself about the 'Reform movement' of the 19th century, especially the writings of Muhammad Abduh and Sir Sayyid Ahmad, whose writings are seldom heard of days.

i have been following this thread for a while hoping there might be a few more responses. perhaps the seriousness had deterred the masses! pelham warner emailed me earlier this week requesting me to contribute to the thread.

hamza yusuf and the zaytuna institute can be classified as neo-traditional. what is neo-traditional? the neo-traditional is a return to a form of islam practised and preaced in the late 19th and early 20th centrury untainted by the reform movement. it would be essentially uncharismatic in character and accepting of most of the sunni creeds and teachings. there would have been little room for innovation (bida) or even interpretation. the neo-traditionalist movements emerges around the third and fourth decade of the last century. the most famous of the neo-traditionalists would be the jam-at islami'a movement founded my mowdudi in 1941. the basic tenet of this form of neo-traditionalism is to politicise islam. the jam'at saw the congregation as an important veneer of islam as the gradual islamisation would turn the whole geographical country into an extended congregation. the name of sayyid qutub must also be mentioned. qutub was a something of a radical follower of the muslim brotherhood created by hasan el-bana. his brand of fundamentalism extended to what could be termed as affirmative action and a return to the salaf, the classical roots of islam. the egyptian government executed qutub in 1966.

how is hamza yusuf unique? my understanding is that his brand of neo-traditional lacks the politicisation that the jam'at had propagated in pre-partition india. he wants to create a new ontology within islam that celebrates a return to the classical roots, however, with a vast difference from the salafi movements, he does not want an epistemology to go with his ontology. this is very interesting indeed. i find his brand of islam at times similar to the early fazlur rahman although there is the element of personal charisma attached to the figure of yusuf that is so typical of movements starting out within usa. unlike other contemporary movements, he doesn't seem to be a direct philosophical decendent of muhammad abduh. despite the bastardisation of the 19th century reform movement, the more daring forms being propagated by the likes of rashid rida, hasan el-bana and later through qutub, the salafi movement had lost much religious clout amongst the masses (not perhaps amongst suicide bombers though!). yet i still find abdou fascinating. i admire his courage in wanting to philosophically involve reason and free-will into islam. it is easy to see why hamza yusuf would not want to be the philosophical successor to that great tradition of reform. his background seperates him from other islamic thinkers of our time in that he is not indebted to any arabic, north african, iranian or south asian tradition. so he has started his very own tradition with a strict reference to the early teachings.

unlike others here, i don't want to join the institute by the way!
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Old June 21, 2007, 05:30 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sohel NR

I’m always deeply inspired by men and women who incessantly engage in the inner struggle to balance Imaan with Aml, to feel and practice what they preach. The harmony of pen and sword is beautiful indeed, and that beauty can bring out the best in all of us if we allow it, and become conscious of God's grace that flows through us always. I’ve had the good fortune to meet HE the Dalai Lama, Ayatollah Rafsanjani, Hojat-al-Islam Khatemi, and a certain Mrs. Kawabata, my former aikido teacher and a woman entirely devoid of malice. I wish I had the good fortune to meet Sheikh Ibn-al-Arabi, Jalauddin Rumi, Lalon Shai, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekanda, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Al-Hajj Malik Al Shabaz and Mother Teresa just to feel the warmth their God consciousness, love and desire for justice must have emanated, and continues to touch so many long after their death.

Blabbering on ...

.
i rather enjoyed your blabering although i find the idea of harmony between the pen and the sword to be rather disturbing. there appears to be something of a searching soul in your words. i would recommend you a strict diet of muhammad abduh, perhaps the greatest of the philosophical minds of the 19th century. i see that you have mentioned al-arabi as well. abduh would not have approved of ibn-arabi but i do. there is need for a modern scholarship and a movement that somehow enjoins the pholosophy of al-arabi and teachings of abduh without falling into the trap of bahaiism!
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Old June 21, 2007, 07:07 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Puck
i rather enjoyed your blabering although i find the idea of harmony between the pen and the sword to be rather disturbing. there appears to be something of a searching soul in your words. i would recommend you a strict diet of muhammad abduh, perhaps the greatest of the philosophical minds of the 19th century. i see that you have mentioned al-arabi as well. abduh would not have approved of ibn-arabi but i do. there is need for a modern scholarship and a movement that somehow enjoins the pholosophy of al-arabi and teachings of abduh without falling into the trap of bahaiism!
Puck -

Thank you so much for your thoughful feedback. I shall definitely look into Muhammad Adu as per your suggestion. I don't believe in strict diets that much and choose to cultivate my faith through a variety of activities. One of those activities is Kendo or the Japanese "way of the sword" I've been practicing for the last 15 years. The phrase that you found disturbing meant nothing more than "practicing what you preach". My searching soul, or soul searching for that matter, in no way mitigate my faith in God. In fact, I think they make it stronger.

Please take the time to download the posted video if you haven't already. You may find it worthy of the time.

I understand what you mean by the trap, and you may rest assured that I shall stay far from it. I'm also too impetuous to be institutionalized.

Thanks again, and looking forward to more your posts.

Peace, Sohel.
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Old June 21, 2007, 07:12 AM
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my reference to 'a strict diet' was simply a pun based on your interplay with words, the 'pen and the sword'. it appears that we have both misunderstood each other!

i have been formally warned by pelham to curtail my use of the exclamation mark when posting in forums. it appears that my original post took his heeds a little too seriously..
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Old June 21, 2007, 07:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Puck
my reference to 'a strict diet' was simply a pun based on your interplay with words, the 'pen and the sword'. it appears that we have both misunderstood each other!

i have been formally warned by pelham to curtail my use of the exclamation mark when posting in forums. it appears that my original post took his heeds a little too seriously..
No offense was taken my brother. Other elements of your post gave my a clear idea of where you were coming from. I was just being humorless.
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