Presidential Highlights two: reason and revelation or “light upon light.” The symposium also featured Dr. Jawad Qureshi, director of the MA program at Zaytuna College, who spoke on the virtue of wisdom or prudence from the Islamic perspective. The organizers hope that the presentations will be expanded upon and developed into chapters and essays for larger publications on this subject.
june 22, 2021 “God is with the broken-hearted”: Interview with Closer to the Truth
Despite the pandemic, President Hamza Yusuf maintained a full schedule of commitments, representing the College in various educational forums and public outreach programs.
The Global Philosophy of Religion Project partnered with the PBS series, Closer to the Truth, for an online program entitled “The Existence and Nature of Deities” that included interviews and panel discussions with leading scholars and philosophers of various faith traditions.
may 19-21, 2021 Symposium: “What Happened to Virtue, the Common Good, and Pluralism? Teachings from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam” In their inaugural program, the Religious Freedom Institute and Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion hosted a symposium at the University of Chicago. Religious scholars and academics gathered to discuss the centrality of the virtue tradition in the three Abrahamic faiths.
Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn, writer and director for the Closer to the Truth series, invited President Yusuf to deliver a keynote online interview on the Islamic perspective on the existence of God, the problem of evil, mystical experiences, and the relationship between the Creator and the created. When asked about the problem of suffering in Islam, President Yusuf explained, “One of the quickest ways in which people begin to actually awaken to the possibility of God is when they are confronted with great pain and suffering. It opens up the heart. There is a tradition of our Prophet s that says, ‘God is with the broken-hearted.’ Very often it is the breaking of the heart that allows the light of God to come into the heart.” The interview, available on YouTube and the Closer to the Truth website, has garnered over 170,000 views in less than six months.
The initiative’s core objective was to revive the traditional understanding of virtue as a catalyst to promote the common good in a time of increasing socio-political strife, civil discord, and polarization. Eight scholars from each faith participated, some in-person while others, like President Yusuf, joined virtually. President Yusuf served as the lead scholar from the Muslim tradition. He presented his paper on the “Overview of the Virtues in Islam” in the opening session. He began with philosopher Leo Strauss’s contention that a fundamental question for humanity remains whether man can determine good through his own faculties or only through the guidance of divine revelation. President Yusuf explained how early Muslim scholars addressed this perennial question, by arguing for a harmonious balance between the
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