Emotional Intelligence Of the Prophet ﷺ - Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]One of the extraordinary aspects of the time we're living in and it's been for some time in in in particularly in the western world this idea of what's called nealism or nihilism.

[00:00:10]Uh neilism is the idea that that nothing has meaning that there's no meaning everything is empty. And this was something that the jahi Arabs had concluded about the world. They had concluded essentially that it was meaningless. They said we die and we live and nothing kills us except time. It's just time and and for them time was was just uh this experience that we're having that really had no meaning and their meaning was in enjoyment of life. If you read the Jahi poets, they're very interesting and they had uh many interesting things to say and they still tell us interesting things for people that study the Jahi poets. Um they they they're quoted often in our tradition and certainly for language. But this uh this idea of nealism of this is how the Arabs uh did of it is nothing in Latin is is nothing. So neilism is this idea that ultimately the ground of being is empty that there's nothing there and and so this sura is really a reputation of that idea. Nie actually goes into three types of nealism that he identifies. Uh and the great Japanese Ki Nishhatani wrote a book called overcoming nealism. Very interesting. Um and he he quotes a lot from Nichze. But uh in that book he uh the the Japanese philosopher argues and he wrote the book right after World War II when Japan was completely devastated.

[00:02:00]uh their their cities have been destroyed with firebombing and people were were empty and lost. Um their emperor came out in western clothes for the first time as a almost a message to them that we've been defeated and now we have to imitate those who defeated us uh in order to understand their power. And this is where Japan became the great imitators uh of the west and actually in some ways superseded them in production.

[00:02:31]When I was young, made in Japan was not a compliment. Uh whereas now uh Japan makes often superior technology to other places. And so this idea of of nealism is is is very important historically.

[00:02:48]But one of the things that Nishhatani says is that he said that nealism is a perennial problem.

[00:02:57]It doesn't go away. It comes uh at especially at times when people uh are in uh when they're confused when they're perplexed. And often what happens in those times is is they use distractions.

[00:03:16]So, uh, one of the things that Dorothy Seers argues in her amazing introduction to, uh, the divine comedy, she has a a section on the the deadly sins. And she talks about lust and she says that lust is something that really emerges in a culture that has lost meaning. It becomes a source of their meaning. And so they begin to explore sexuality as as a as a Izzat spirituality uh because of the what what NZ would refer to as the Dianian quality of it.

[00:03:55]This the wildness of it of getting out of oneself which all religion is at the root there to take us out of ourselves so that we're not self-absorbed.

[00:04:06]And so, uh, I I just want to, um, just go a little bit over what we did before for the people that weren't there with us, uh, last week and then we'll go into, uh, the next section. But, uh, it begins with and then it's an oath.

[00:04:28]So the wow there is and then it's Allah swears an oath by the the the the and is a word which means shar or so the majid is something the Arabs desire to be considered majid to be in fact it's an Arabic name to be considered somebody who was magic One of the things that our scholars say about Quran and is that if you actually apply the Quran you will become Majid like it it will transform you into a Sharif and a Kharim person noble and generous and and that's why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he was uh Bashar he was the most glorious of of of human beings because he was the one who followed the Quran most closely.

[00:05:35]So Allah swears this oath and they differ on what the mo is what like what what follows it.

[00:05:44]Um, and I think Razi and others conclude that really the the best argument is that it's that it's it's really swearing an oath.

[00:06:00]Verily, you are a warner and they will be raised up. Now, one of the things about the nealism of the of the pre uh Islamic Arabs, the Jahi Arabs, is that they actually believed uh that there was no afterlife. Many cultures have a belief in the afterlife.

[00:06:20]Even the most primitive cultures uh aboriginal peoples have beliefs in afterlife. The Greeks had a belief in the afterlife. Uh native peoples here had beliefs in afterlife. It's very rare in history to find people that actually don't believe in an afterlife. But the Arabs did not believe in an afterlife.

[00:06:39]So it's very interesting that they didn't. And there are many many verses in the Quran where Allah subhanana wa ta'ala is telling us that giving us signs that there is uh a resurrection of the dead.

[00:06:58]Uh in in Allah says You see the earth in Arabic means to be uh fearful but here it means that it's dry and barren and dead in other words desiccated. There's no life in it.

[00:07:24]when we send down earth on it shakes and and then brings forth the growth and then Allah subhana wa ta'ala says the one who brought that dead earth to life will bring you to life. So it's telling you to look at the earth and how it was dead and how Allah subhana wa ta brought the earth back to life. And he does this. Allah subhana wa ta does this constantly everywhere. It's happening all the time. Right now there's people there's in such heedlessness they miss the blooming of the the trees. People don't even notice these things. But the tree in winter it looks dead. In fact, if you go out there, I actually asked the gardener, "Is that tree dead?" He said, "No, it's just it's in hibernation. It looks dead, but then it comes back to life." And this is happening constantly. There are so many examples of this around us.

[00:08:27]So, so then uh and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uh he says uh And and and again we we we sent down from the heaven water. In other words, even the water yesterday, they measure it. It's approximation, but they can measure water. But Allah knows the exact amount that is coming down to us. If it's too much, it won't produce. If it's too little, it won't produce. So when you look, Allah is giving us the the the the portion that we need in order for the earth to bring forth its fruits and gifts. An amazing aspect of life on earth.

[00:09:19]They they said, you know, that this is just the life of the world and we're not going to be resurrected.

[00:09:31]So this was the belief of the Arabs that they wouldn't be resurrected. So this this chapter is almost entirely about the resurrection and the prophet used it constantly as a reminder as a wow. Uh said that she memorized it from hearing it so often on the tongue of the prophet. They shared a oven and when they used to come to bake they shared an oven but she heard him many times and she said she memorized it just from hearing it constantly. So then they say they're the Arabs if they say if they say it's positive they like it.

[00:10:19]It's just strange. It's they wonder about you know it's a strange thing. They don't know the cause of it. They they consider it like what we would say in our culture weird. It's just strange.

[00:10:33]But it can also mean wondrous.

[00:10:42]So here Allah uses instead of even though they were mushikun and there are different types of kufur is one type of kufur. There's another type where they actually believe in god they believe in the last day.

[00:10:56]They believe in some of the prophets but they reject some of the prophets. That's another type of kufur. It's not the kufur of atheism or ilhad or the kufur of the mushik who associates with Allah.

[00:11:09]But kufur is a very important term in the Quran. And if you're reading the book with us, Isizutsu's book, the great Japanese, I I'd have to call him an accidentalist because he was in Japan studying the Muslims as opposed to an orientalist. But he uh extraordinary linguist and extraordinary scholar and he he he's written several books about Islam because he he was fascinated. In fact, he's the only person in Iran in their great academy of philosophy. He's the only uh non I mean I don't know if he was a non-Muslim, but he he's considered a non-Muslim. I find it hard to believe somebody could have that depth of knowledge and see how extraordinary the Quran was and not be a believer. But in any case, he's the only person that they have a picture of him on their wall of all the great uh great philosopher scholars in the Iranian tradition. He's the only one and he taught in Iran, but he had an incredible knowledge of uh of languages. He knew over 30 languages like Dr. clearly a very similar uh genius for language among many other things. But he he analyzed the word kufur in the Quran and he sees all of these different he gives you all of these different perspectives on what kufur is. So, and this is why in in in this translation of the Quran, which is uh we've been working on this Ramadan with some of us to try to republish it because it's been out of print for a long time. But this translation of Quran, one of the things that Dr. Kiri did in the translation is he doesn't always translate kafir with the same word.

[00:12:57]and and and in that way he's showing that the the the multifaceted nature of kufur in the Quran that it's not it can't be fixed with one translation there's not one word that can really get to disbeliever is one aspect of it uh but the word is and it might I don't know some sometimes you have these linguistic coincidences but cover in English is uh rel related uh in meaning so cover to cover over is exactly what it means. And that's why the kufur in the Quran are the farmers in one verse. Uh that when they saw theat they were uh it it pleased them to see the theat. So the kafir is a farmer because yakuru he covers the seed with with soil.

[00:13:50]So the kafir is the one who covers over the the truth. He hides the truth. He conceals the truth or he covers over his blessings. So one of the meanings of it is ingrate that there in there's an ingratitude in these people the kufur they're ungrateful and and and Allah warns us in many many places in the Quran about this idea of of forgetting the blessings of Allah to remember the blessings of Allah. Part of is remembering the blessings of Allah.

[00:14:23]If you attempt to enumerate the blessings of Allah, you will never illumin uh enumerate them. And one of the the dangers of dunya is when you reflect too much on the world, on the negative qualities of the world, you can fall into a depression. You can fall into a state of ingratitude. When you don't focus on the positive and that's whyl wants you to focus on the negativel wants to fill your life with all these troubles, make you feel despair. That's that's the whole game of El. He wants you he swore an oath to Allah that he would lead the majority of of humanity astray. And he said that you will find that most of them are not grateful.

[00:15:08]They're not shakarim.

[00:15:10]So so it's a very dangerous thing to fall into ingratitude.

[00:15:15]So he says uh a by the glorious recital but they think it's strange that a warner has come to them from their midst and those who scaw say. So here he's translating kafar uh as scaw.

[00:15:31]This is an astonishing thing when we have died and are dust like if we if we die and then we're we're dust.

[00:15:45]That is a a very remote possibility, right?

[00:15:55]We know what the earth has diminished from them has has taken from them because as we we uh when we're buried in the earth except for the incorruptibles and they're real. The incorruptibles are real. There are people who do not uh they don't perish uh from the earth and um many many uh people have seen incorruptibles. Um there was a study in discovery some time ago where they let people into the the Vatican where they keep the incorruptible bodies and these are pre-Islamic saints uh that were preserved in their bodies and some of them they mummified a lot of the popes actually to kind of ensure that they didn't corrupt they they had them imbalmed but there are people that don't um the earth does not take them and and I I heard from sheh Mahmud Saw the Iraqi scholar and these are people I believed I he was not he was a man of great integrity but I heard him he was one in a group of people that reeried Sad Hamza when the when the they had floods and the and the grave actually got uncovered and so they reeried him and and he said he saw him fully intact his body and there are many examples of that So it's not and this is in other traditions as well. It's not just the Muslims that have incorruptibles.

[00:17:24]There are other traditions of this. Um one of the big impacts when I was a 12-year-old, I went to a Orthodox summer camp in Greece and they took us to the island of Zakinthtos and there was a Orthodox saints in their tradition whose body was completely intact, open to air.

[00:17:44]Um and we were told that they still cut the nails and cut the hair of this saint. But um there are many many examples of that in uh in in history and still today. So,