Kritikovanje HALIFE?! - 3 savremene PORUKE

0:00 Dear friends, as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.

0:03 One incident that occurred in Islamic history mentions Harun al-Rashid,

0:09 that great Muslim

0:10 ruler,

0:13 who was a great lover of knowledge,

0:15 scholars,

0:16 who encouraged science by all possible means, and when Muslims truly made

0:24 huge contributions to global sciences, etc.

0:27 This caliph had the habit of meeting with various scholars

0:32 from different fields, giving them the opportunity to address him,

0:36 to give constructive guidance

0:38 criticisms,

0:39 advice, etc.

0:42 So he specifically set aside time for that. They say that on one occasion, a preacher, a man who often advised others, took that opportunity

0:54 and spoke very harshly and inappropriately

0:58 about such a man, for such a

1:00 gathering and for the caliph of the Muslims,

1:03 thus criticizing

1:04 the ruler,

1:05 and directed very harsh words at him.

1:09 When Haru Nerradi

1:11 heard his words,

1:14 he said, Haru Nerradi, can I ask you two questions?

1:18 The man replied, you can.

1:20 He asked, what do you think, are you better or Musa a.s.?

1:26 The man was momentarily confused and said,

1:29 well, I

1:30 cannot be better than Musa a.s. There is no doubt that Musa a.s. is better than me. And you ask,

1:38 was Pharaoh worse or am I worse?

1:42 The man was again confused and said, there is no doubt that Pharaoh is far worse than you.

1:49 What you are to me.

1:51 He says, do you see how you speak to me harshly,

1:54 and remember the words of Allah, the Exalted,

1:58 He commands Musa and

2:00 his brother Harun, saying, Go to Pharaoh,

2:05 in many places in the Quran, go to Pharaoh, speak to him,

2:13 and say to him with gentle,

2:14 kind words.

2:21 Address him nicely, present the proofs nicely, gently, etc. Calmly

2:22 towards him, act.

2:24 For this, the caliph

2:25 pointed out his mistake and inappropriateness

2:32 of the speech

2:33 that took place then, but at the same time left us a lasting, in a way, advice

2:40 on how we should speak,

2:42 how we should address people,

2:44 how we should encourage ourselves

2:46 in situations where we find ourselves needing to sometimes

2:50 and perhaps more vigorously

2:52 comment on something,

2:54 to argue

2:55 or something similar. This event

2:58 teaches us truly numerous things and many lessons. I will highlight a few things I am really thinking about

3:06 for a few days and I want to share that with you.

3:08 The first thing is

3:11 that

3:13 such a situation

3:14 where someone behaves roughly

3:16 towards such a great person,

3:20 was possible

3:22 only thanks to

3:23 the freedoms

3:24 that Harun al-Rashid advocated and lived during his time.

3:29 This tells us about the importance

3:31 of intellectual,

3:33 academic,

3:33 or if you will, scholarly freedom

3:36 in every time and every place. As we see, Harun al-Rashid advocated this

3:43 and was simply a proponent

3:45 of something we today call academic freedom.

3:48 Thus, the freedom

3:50 of a professor to critique,

3:52 freedom

3:53 of academic

3:54 institutions to disagree with those in leadership,

3:58 people who, I don't know,

4:00 who may be the executive authority or something similar.

4:04 The freedom to somehow express one's opinion apart from the opinion of a

4:09 large number of people who represent something is

4:14 wrong.

4:15 Thus, the importance of freedom

4:17 is, in my opinion, a crucial

4:19 message of this example. And in fact, when we consider the time of Harun al-Rashid,

4:30 who was that man? He was the man who was the strongest,

4:31 the most powerful

4:34 man of the known world at that time.

4:40 He was the man who had the strongest army at that time,

4:41 a man who had the largest

4:47 empire, stretching from India, from the Indian subcontinent down to

4:47 Mauritania.

4:49 Morocco and where the Muslims actually are,

4:52 they have come. So,

4:53 that one caliph, although ruling vast territories,

5:01 represents

5:02 the importance of freedom.

5:04 So, freedom of speech, freedom of action, freedom of expression,

5:08 academic freedom, and so on. Where are those freedoms today among Muslims?

5:13 Where are those freedoms, even here among us? Why don't we have scholars

5:23 who publicly criticize certain

5:25 decisions of the authorities?

5:25 which we can almost see every day, etc.

5:29 To criticize that servitude.

5:32 to others,

5:34 to criticize, therefore, those who have unjustly enriched themselves,

5:40 in their ministerial and other positions.

5:43 Unfortunately, we will not see that. Why? Because it seems to me that we lack enough freedom or perhaps we lack enough courage

5:51 to live in accordance with that freedom.

5:54 Take the Muslim

5:55 world,

5:56 And

5:58 One of the reasons, believe me, why the state of the Muslim world is so miserable,

6:04 so wretched,

6:05 is actually the lack

6:08 of freedom to criticize,

6:10 to express opinions, to oppose the ruler, etc.

6:14 In our case,

6:15 currently,

6:16 opposing

6:18 opinions

6:19 of the ruler or someone in a position, even within the religious hierarchy, is considered blasphemous.

6:27 It is considered

6:28 almost a form of piety.

6:31 What is essentially a thing that develops a culture of submission.

6:38 So it is simply a submissive

6:43 awareness that does not allow us to move forward.

6:45 To progress,

6:52 to criticize, to improve

7:01 things. How will we improve if everything is ideal?

7:04 If everything is great, and if no one dares to criticize anything.

7:05 So, it seems to me this message, which is not given enough attention, should be highlighted more.

7:11 He neither harms them, nor kills them, nor persecutes them, nor anything.

7:15 Jews would come to him wanting to go to war, insulting him,

7:21 wishing for death, etc.

7:23 Yet, the Prophet (s.a.s.) treated them kindly.

7:27 So,

7:28 this is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of the breadth of the Prophet (s.a.s.).

7:37 A man comes and grabs him by the collar,

7:39 his garment roughly, yet the Prophet (s.a.s.) did not scold him, but smiled.

7:46 The man comes to him and says,

7:48 O Muhammad, be just.

7:50 O Muhammad, he calls to justice, he calls to the principle of justice.

8:04 You know, it has never happened that a prophet, peace be upon him,

8:10 rebuked someone for this. So, you will see that in all historical periods,

8:11 when freedoms prevailed among Muslims and when Muslim rulers and those

8:16 in positions advocated for freedom of expression,

8:18 academic freedom, and so on, this was actually a direct

8:19 evidence of freedom,

8:20 or rather,

8:22 prosperity of Muslim nations,

8:29 and peoples, etc. In fact, today we see prosperity in those nations that have great freedoms.

8:31 scholars to explore,

8:32 to speak, to criticize, to disagree, where you have more factions,

8:44 which indeed has a positive effect when criticisms of authority are raised,

8:50 as this is the essence of that position.

8:56 that actually improves the social environment for all of us.

9:01 So, to discuss these freedoms could be extensive.

9:04 I think that is the first message. The second message is certainly the importance of scholars,

9:05 it is mentioned that Harun al-Rashid, thus the capital part,

9:23 which emerged in his time,

9:28 certain discoveries.

9:35 And it will give us a social impulse to be better in every way.

9:47 What is it in modern times?

9:48 In modern times, it is actually an investment in science by universities,

9:52 social communities, if you will, and others.

9:54 One comparison I haven't mentioned until now,

9:56 really touched me.

10:02 Recently, I listened to the director of Pfizer, I think, where he said the following,

10:17 the director of one of the largest companies. Without going into what it is, who is behind it, and what they have produced, that's another topic.

10:20 But notice, this man who has enormous capital, enormous responsibility, towards that capital, and a huge number of workers,

10:22 says that five years ago, out of the ten best universities

10:26 One was American.

10:28 Then he says, today the situation is not the same. He says, out of the 10 best universities

10:34 in the world,

10:35 8 are Chinese, one is American, and one is European.

10:40 And indeed, this was something that opened my eyes and shows us why China is advancing so much.

10:56 Because they invest immensely in science. They invest greatly in young scholars, acquiring knowledge

11:02 from around the world and then pay huge funds and provide significant

11:03 grants

11:11 to their young scientists who start their startups, their ideas, and so on. Unfortunately, we do not see this among Muslims,

11:15 that it is even relevant, and we see what was done

11:16 unfortunately, it is no longer like that.

11:19 excuse me, currently

11:20 among Muslims

11:22 today. So this investment in knowledge and its importance

11:26 of scholars who, you see, had the opportunity to present their research

11:31 to the caliph himself,

11:33 to interact with him and so on. And I will conclude with the third advice,

11:37 of this event,

11:39 is actually to be mindful of how we address, to whom we address, in what tone we address,

11:46 in what manner, thus,

11:48 We present this matter, for the Prophet, peace be upon him, said,

11:55 Gentleness will not enter anything without beautifying it.

11:59 So, do we have a gentle approach? This gentle approach does not mean weakness,

12:07 or laziness or something similar. No, on the contrary,

12:10 so yes,

12:12 we argue

12:13 with evidence,

12:14 with

12:16 those factual

12:17 things, and sometimes even when subjectively presenting certain matters,