Presidential Highlights

Despite the pandemic, President Hamza Yusuf maintained a full schedule of commitments, representing the College in various educational forums and public outreach programs.

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.

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 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

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.

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.

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july 4, 2021 Virtual Event: Bradford Literature Festival (UK)

President Hamza Yusuf participated in Bradford’s annual literature festival, held this past summer from June 25–July 4. The festival showcases talented authors, poets, artists, and musicians from around the world, with over 70,000 people joining the event annually. This summer, the festival was held in a hybrid model with many writers and artists participating virtually because of the pandemic. Zaytuna College presented its latest curriculum series publication, An Introduction to Islamic Theology, an intermediate kalam (Islamic theology) text translated, with a contemporary commentary, by faculty member Shaykh Faraz Khan.

In his opening remarks, President Yusuf explained the importance of metaphysics and its relation to theology, “One of the most important subjects, and one of the most neglected subjects in our current world, is metaphysics. Aristotle called metaphysics the first philosophy or the philosophy of being. Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the one? What is the many? How do they relate? What is the essence of things? What are the attributes that make up those essences? What is the difference between an essence and an attribute? These are the great topics of metaphysics, and metaphysics ends in theology. It is a preparatory study to arrive at the cause of all causes, which is the First Cause.” Shaykh Faraz Khan also discussed his own journey in studying kalam and his motivation for translating this foundational text of the Maturidi tradition of theology. The talks can be found on the Bradford Literature Festival website.

september 28, 2021

Webinar: Understanding Riba

(hosted by Guidance Residential)

Usury: A Crime Against Humanity

HAMZA YUSUF

President, Zaytuna College

9/28/2021

As part of its educational programming related to Islamic finance, Guidance Residential hosted a webinar on riba, or usury, and sharia-compliant alternatives to modern-day financing. President Hamza Yusuf joined the webinar as a gust scholar, delivering an elaborate keynote presentation entitled, “Usury: A Crime Against Humanity.” He spoke on the history of money, the concept of usury in Islam and its prohibition, the responsibilities concerning wealth in sacred law, and Islam as a religion of commerce. The presentation provided a holistic explanation of money, trade, and commerce as one of great ethical concern in Islamic sacred law due to its extensive socio-economic impact. With over 7,000 registrants, the webinar attracted viewers from around the world. Zaytuna plans to develop its own course on Islamic finance in the near future.

Thomas Jefferson on Money Creation

“And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”