The Role of Revelation & Reason in a Post-Modernist Age ~ Dr. Yasir Qadhi | 30th April 2014

In this talk, delivered to a group of Muslims at Harvard University, Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi summarizes his doctoral dissertation, which dealt with the relationship between the intellect and the Quran, and adds some practical observations about the problems of assuming 'rationality' can always be infallible.
The talk is followed by a very fascinating Q&A which you won't want to miss!
Recorded on 30th April 2014 at Harvard University.
Shaykh ul Islam ibn Taymiyyah | Yale University | PhD Dissertation | Role of reason and revelation | Human Fitra

[@Muslim604c]

Subhanallah, this sheikh is so knowledgeable. May Allah reward him.

[@nadimmo123]

IKR!

[@guruprasad2122]

My favourite speaker

[@logicigol1201]

Muslim604 Write ALLAH always with capital letters. Dont forget to correct it. JazaakALLAH khayran.

[@ahmedw5]

Always enjoy listening to shaykh yasir whatever the topic may be. O Allah bring forth more people from this ummah with eloquence like his and knowledge like his and give him and his family jannah. Love listening to him even if i disagree with him on some aspects.

[@julio14335]

Intellectually there is no way one can deny or rejects Islam-Masha-Allah!

[@mohammedasif462]

I dont know Shaykh Ul Islam Ibn Taymiyya before My Teacher Yasir Imam .... May ALLAH bless You my dear Uncle and your Family and grant you a Long beneficial life....

[@salemgazi3607]

i live in saudi arabai and this guy really opened my mind , this guy is really knowledgeable and a gold for the muslim umma

[@NafisaLondon]

My favourite sheikh, great lecture as always may Allah SWT reward you, amen.

[@naijiri]

Superb talk. The point of reason and revelation is truly the crux of all issues.

[@eshraqsalahuddin115]

This is one of my favorite lectures from YQ

[@TheGraph89]

great lecture and loved Q&A section. The only thing I think would be great is Dr. Qadhi repeats the questions since they are not heard clearly. Jazak Allahu Khair.

[@MuhammadAbdullah-rl5mq]

agree

[@crunch2036]

Allhamdullila jannah is on ur way

[@kefahissa]

An eye-openner and one of the most amazing lectures I ever watched. Thank you Dr. Yaser. جزاكم الله خيرا ونفع المسلمين بكم.

[@abdelbaasit1]

(1:08:37) Well said. God bless Yasir Qadhi.

[@encikharith187]

loved the Q&As, particularly on Aisha (RA)'s age bit!

[@kisherenow]

Fascinating! JazaakAllah

[@a.a1332]

God bless you sir ..

[@primat6970]

MasyaAllah Laa Hawla wa Laa quwwata Illa billaahil 'Aliyyil 'Adziim

[@_f_]

Thanks

[@hjyusofm]

excellent...

[@zico352]

Maa shaa Allah

[@aminajamal593]

Ma shaa ALLAH so well explained really appreciate it .May all muslims who are leaving fold of Islam and all of Mankind listen and change their way of life and start practicing this beautiful religion of ours Iman is explained very well so all those who have degrees and are in top positions are really ignorant because they do not have Iman and are leading lives of ignorance because they do not act yet they know May ALLAH SWT guide all of us and all of mankind Aameen

[@saidsultan3270]

mashallah!!!! allah bless u dr. yasser qadhi....

[@logicigol1201]

said sultan Write ALLAH always with capital letters. Dont forget to correct it. JazaakALLAH khayran.

[@aljazeerah1990]

Mashallah !! Many muslims of this era won't even open up books of Ibn Tayimiyaah and other great philosophers, thinkers and intellectuals of golden age. Thanks for simplifying the topic!!

[@logicigol1201]

Al Jazeerah Write ALLAH always with capital letters. Dont forget to correct it. JazaakALLAH khayran.

[@thispleasesbulba]

Salams do we have access somehow to this dissertation? Is it published somewhere?

[@ayodeleakande6914]

Re-classical theories being redundant, there's an apt saying in my language - "ogbon odun yi, omugo emi" meaning cleverness this year is next year's foolishness. So my brethren lets always place revealation above reason.

[@MuhammadAbdullah-rl5mq]

reason to establish revelation then revelation as the boss of reason.

[@naijiri]

The point is that they should never contradict in the first place. Which is quite the fitting reconciliation, abi?

[@rsq3716]

11:40 (quote of the day )

[@Borjigin.]

The scholars' definition of aql seems more synonymous with wisdom than thought.

[@mohammadsayed6373]

May Allah-swt help us understand Islam as was understood by Salaf Saliheen-Ameen...

[@klaaskay2685]

Can you please enable the Transcription feature? This will help us non-English speaking a lot.

[@justicefree4408]

because the quran was bestowed to us 1400 years ago the best of people wehere there 1400 years ago they went through the most difficult of tasks so for us should b easier in our times

[@waqasamin7029]

i wish salafis were like yasir qadhi. the only ones i ever meet are crazy ones.

[@Abdul_Aziz919]

He definitely is a person who ascribes to the salafi manhaj insallah bt I think you have a misunderstanding of what a salafi as-salih is. I hate that you've experienced what you did bt I thank Allah that I was introduced to the manhaj by brothers who taught it in a harsh bt comprehensive way. And I think that maybe you encountered the harshness which in today's world is needed bt in my humble opinion I think that most of our brothers who give dawah forget about being compassionate and soft and loving bc off how harsh we as muslims are being treated and how muslims are abandoning the sunnah. It's a good thing that you specifically said those you've meet bc it admits that this is your opinion of the ones you've encountered and masahallah you've met some who have changed your opinion of us by now. I advise that you study the major schools and in my opinion you will see that the salafi manhaj is the only one that allows for growth as we grow as ppl. As salamu alaykum

[@ahmedsadeed370]

dr. yasir, the title is actually misleading, u didnt disseminate the altriusm narrative of post modernism or tried to concile islam narrative with post modern one, whole lecture was actually a summary of ibn taymiyaah philosophy....

[@lucasmacedo5226]

I am not an muslim but I did found this to be an interesting lecture. However I must point out a problematic aspect of Ibn Taymiyya's reasoning (atleast according to Yasir Qadhi). If indeed we can through intellect come to the conclusion that intellect is limited, how do we know this conclusion is accurate if our intellect is too limited for us to formulate conclusions on the basis of intellect? Either this is an paradox or/and mystery and thus should not be considered relevant when it comes to faith (precisely because God transcends the material world; thus transcending the intellect that is a product of the brain which makes part of the material world, but if that is the case how would and on what basis would Muslims offer their critique to the doctrine of the trinity for example?) or this is straight up an contradiction which I would assume would become an problem for many muslim apologists specially in modern times where 'rationalism' is being used as an methodology for making sense of things within the islamic religion/tradition (Qu'ran/Hadith/Sira etc).

[@mohammadshuayb3944]

hello , what it seems is that u r misunderstanding the point about limited intellect a bit . We say independent intellect is limited means it is fruitful till its limit. So what we conclude from it till its limit is useful and one of the things we conclude is that it is limited and for further guidance we need divine text . So we can use that basic aql for e.g rationally proving concept of One God . But then in the shariah sciences we have to go to text. we did not say aql is fraud but limited if independent.

[@MuhammadAbdullah-rl5mq]

lucas macaedo thats why ALLAH s.w.t.has given us the natural system. you think carefully before choosing a wife, a doctor, a boss etc. once you choose, you enter into a protocol which you dont question every second. if you do then you are outside the norms of social existence, a social outcast.

[@oldlahore1857]

Intellect, fitrah and scripture are all interlinked and interdependent. What channels our 'limited' intellect is both fitrah (the innate nature of man) and the scripture which confirms both fitrah and intellect. So to conclude, our limited intellect is channelled by fitrah and as a result both end up conforming to the scripture. Hope this helps. Correct me if im wrong.

[@Ostariophysi]

1:09:51 Yasir Qadhi should know that "apologist" does not mean someone who apologizes for his faith or whitewashes it. Also, he claims that 100 years ago most people in America got married at 13, 14, 15. This is not true. People in the West have only very rarely gotten married that early for at least hundreds of years now. "One thousand marriage certificates from 1619 to 1660 in the Archdiocese of Canterbury show that only one bride was 13 years old, four were 15, twelve were 16, and seventeen were 17 years old; while the other 966 brides were at least 19 years old." In Shakespeare's age, no actresses would have performed in his plays, the female characters were played by boys. And while it is true that Juliet is 14 in the play, that would have been seen as an extremely young age to get married at even back then.

[@DWAGON1818]

Even today children to these ages are allowed to get married in Europe and US. What number should it be?13,15 or 18m

[@vinnymcintosh7917]

1:05:55

[@OmarAli-xr5ew]

While the speaker seems very knowledgeable, I failed to see where he found a correlation between "reason" and "revelation". It seems to me, he emphasized more of "believing" more so than any reasoning. Yet, we're to think and held accountable for not believing, but how is one to believe without having sufficient reasoning for that belief? Isn't it just blind following to believe without a reason? If that's the case, why then punish anyone for believing in whatever they want, since there's no need to have reasoning? A bit circular to me.

[@Tothose]

Albert Weiz may be you misunderstood .i give you simple example . if you go a doctor we use our intlect to tell he is a doctor once we came to that conclusion . the rational thing to do is that you accept what doctor tells you. once you came to conclusion the revelation is from GOD .than you cant pick and choose.

[@imranies]

Dr. Yasir emphasized the ROLE of reasoning; where the role of reason is to find out the truthfulness of the revelation. In this case, we use our reason to find out whether the Quran is truly the Word of God or not. After the reason has determine the truthfulness of the revelation, it has completed its role and thus switched to believing the Quran, and believing everything that his God said. It should be reasonable enough to believe, that our God who created us knows what is best for us. The best way is to actually read the Quran, and let your own heart and reasoning judge it; whether it is truly the Word of God or not. Below is the Quran in english translation. I hope you'll find it helpful. It's best to read the entire book, but if you cannot do that, than perhaps around 15mins of reading is good enough. quran.com/2

[@MuhammadAbdullah-rl5mq]

omar ali. both brothers have given you good answers confirmind brother yasirs speech.

[@laylaali5977]

The problem is today’s schoolers don’t have independent thought they depend on classical schoolers that is why traditional Islam is back ward.

[@MuhammadAbdullah-rl5mq]

layla brothet yassir used his independent thought to distinguish the most logical scholor. dont use jargon to confuse others.

[@Akhee-il4kb]

At college, I've seen graffiti on bathroom stalls making fun of us for making wudu. It said something along the lines of, "Dirty Muslims watching their feet in the sink." Although things like this usually annoy me, I actually laughed at it and thought it was funny lol

[@jinndot]

Lool dirty cause our feet is washed more than their faces 😂

[@ahmedw5]

But we wash the hands, the feet, the face, the head, the arms, the ears and THEN the feet. So its not like we ONLY wash our feet.... Learn before you speak jinndot.

[@jinndot]

ahmedw5 first read before you write i wrote a reply to the above comment of the brother who wrote about the graffiti. I said OUR (i.e MUSLIMS) feets are cleaner than those people who make comments about the wudhu. So Ahmedw5 please READ before you write brother.. Jazakallah

[@ahmedw5]

Lol sorry akhi i read you're comment completely wrong. I understood it as "you are dirty because you're feet is washed more than your faces" my bad brother.

[@jinndot]

ahmedw5 lol its okay brother forgive me if i came across rude may Allah (swt) bless us all

[@TheDandyLion]

17:45 He sounds like Nouman Ali Khan haha Masha Allah Tabarakullah

[@ibrahamturay6698]

MouthLikeMishary VHSv big

[@shoka2114]

He says that so many muslims are using a methodless method and yet he shares the stage with the likes of zakir naik, who interprets islam as he wills.

[@affy45]

Any madkhalies here? hahaha

[@George-iv1hi]

Harvard has gone to the dogs. It teaches utter stupidity as science.

[@Musaferjanewale]

Why is he so much into ibn tayymia. Isn't that who the wahabis believe

[@moekazi9338]

What an ignorant statement

[@aljazeerah1990]

what is the meaning of the word wahabi and who are wahabis as a majority of group? And what is the problem with wahabis? Quote me the problem from the books of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab and not the actions of individuals. Though I don't label myself as wahabis, sunni or such.I call myself a muslim which is the name given to us by Allah. To clarify things, I follow Quran and Sunnah from Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. My opinions are more or less inclined to Imam Hanafi School of thought. I would really like you to explain me the problem with wahabis....

[@TheFarhanmatin]

dude!

[@mangkoeboemie]

What an ignorant dude!! You can learn from anyone even from your enemy!!

[@takarsagafe]

You can add the Prophet Muhammad to that list. By the way Ibn Taymiyyah lived in the 13th Century so he has nothing to do with you Modern way of thinking. The only Muslims who dislike Ibn Taymiyyah are the Shia and some Suffi groups and both are a small Minority in the 2 Billion Muslim Community.

[@zverh]

Lol "reason" and "revelation" do not belong in the same sentence. Two opposites.

[@imranies]

Dr. Yasir emphasized the ROLE of reasoning; where the role of reason is to find out the truthfulness of the revelation. In this case, we use our reason to find out whether the Quran is truly the Word of God or not. After the reason has determine the truthfulness of the revelation, it has completed its role and thus switched to believing the Quran, and believing everything that his God said. It should be reasonable enough to believe, that our God who created us knows what is best for us. The best way is to actually read the Quran, and let your own heart and reasoning judge it; whether it is truly the Word of God or not. Below is the Quran in english translation. I hope you'll find it helpful. It's best to read the entire book, but if you cannot do that, than perhaps around 15mins of reading is good enough. quran.com/2

[@MuhammadAbdullah-rl5mq]

abu nahab wake up

[@synhope3746]

Very Disappointing Yasir Qadi. We are not interested what classical scholars are telling, but what our scholars of our times are telling. Br. Yasir Qadi, you tell us what you understood. Why you have to refer all the times to classical scholars. Where are the scholars of our times. Why should we have to understoand the scholars who were born hundreds of years ago. We highly respect our ancestors and their services, but what about the current scholars. Quran is for all time. Why should we understand Quran from the minds of a person who existed hundreds of years ago. Yes, there is no problem in taking help from those classical scholars, But, most definitely, Quran gives us meanings based upon the current times. Brother Qadi, we need to understand the Quran based upon our requirements at this time. We need to know what you have understood. Scholars of past are important, but the most important of us is Brother Qadi is YOU, not somebody hundreds of years ago.

[@ahmedw5]

Because Ibn Taymiyyah was a genius. Allah gave him much knowledge. There are knowledgable men in our times but i don't think there are people even close to Ibn Taymiyyah. Wallahu A'lam.

[@celestialknight2339]

Because knowledge ('ilm) & wisdom (hikma) are for all times and places, and the true believer and thinker is he who takes the benefit of good knowledge & wisdom from anywhere he or she finds it, not just from people living in our times. I agree that a balanced approach to the subject would be good. No issue there. But remember that a subject like 'Aql is about the inherent human nature, and therefore is essentially the same throughout all times. And most importantly, remember that the greatest classical Islamic scholar to have ever lived, over 1,400 years ago, was none other than the Prophet Muhammad himsef (ﷺ). May Allah (swt) guide us and increase us all in 'Aql and in beneficial knowledge. Ameen

[@logicigol1201]

Flam Write ALLAH always with capital letters. Dont forget to correct it. JazaakALLAH khayran.

[@MuhammadAbdullah-rl5mq]

syn hope. Muhammad saw also lived long time ago. brother yassir gives their knowlege currancy, since he has studied islamic knowledge also is aware of contemporary thought.

[@BMLKABD19]

You have to understand that for one this is a lecture to an Ivy League audience. But even if it was not so, you have to understand where you come from to know where you are headed. The exemplar you have me conjuring in my mind is that we are in a jungle trying to find our way out of it, but you are frustrated at the most qualified to read the map because he is not simply pointing the way but is rather he is trying to triangulate our position in reference to where we were a day ago, in order to assess our progress, basically reading the map. You may not be interested in the process of triangulation but it is nevertheless a critical aspect of way finding worth paying attention to because the guide, in this case Sheikh Qadhi, may not always be around to point which way. And if he going without one of us understanding the triangulation component, (the position of past anlim and their reasoning) we will be totally screwed simply because we did not pay attention. Hope this analogy helps in addressing your concerns. Wallahu anlam. Salam