“A tree grows. If you’re staying the same, something is wrong. You’re not alive.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“All of the people are the dependents of Allah.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“I know that people can live celibate lives. I did it myself for many years.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Reason cannot calm the storm of emotion, and emotion usually wins, until it settles down and allows reason to rise again and apologize on behalf of it.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“I don’t align myself with the West of the Muslim world. I align myself with what I perceive to be just and in accordance with my principles – the principles that I live my life by which are universal principles and that are embodied in the religion of Islam.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“A democracy is predicated on an educated citizenry. You cannot have a democracy with people that are more interested in what Nicole Kidman is doing or whoever the latest fashion model is.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Whatever one thinks of the wisdom of building a mosque near Ground Zero, this controversy now affords us an immense opportunity to examine who we are as a people. It provides us with the opportunity to get back to our foundational ideals, which have always stood as a beacon for the rest of the world.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Islam was hijacked on that September 11, 2001, on that plane, as an innocent victim.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“I would rather live as a Muslim in the West than in most of the Muslim countries, because I think the way Muslims are allowed to live in the West is closer to the Muslim way.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Corruption is rife in the Muslim world, and when it is coupled with the marginalization of religion, it manifests itself as frustration and becomes a fertile recruiting ground for extremism.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“My alignment is with what I perceive as just and fair. If it’s with the Muslims, then I’m with the Muslims, if it’s with the West then I’m with the West. It’s about justice and fairness.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Radicalization is very easy when you mock what people hold dear.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Where you don’t have people who have strong intellectual capacity, you get demagoguery.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Our duty is to be patient.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“In being aware of others’ hunger, we contribute to a more empathic world.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“My great, great grandfather, Michael O’Hanson, fled the impending potato famine of Ireland and arrived in America in the early 1840s with his bride, Bridget. They headed for Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love and a mecca for Irish-Catholic immigrants then.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Many people in the West do not realise how oppressive some Muslim states are – both for men and for women. This is a cultural issue, not an Islamic one.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“People can’t think when their minds are clouded with fear.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Our world is increasingly interdependent and pluralistic, and in order to ensure a civil future, we must get to know one another.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“September 11 was a wake-up call to me. I don’t want to contribute to the hate in any shape or form. I now regret in the past being silent about what I have heard in the Islamic discourse and being part of that with my own anger.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Katrina did much more damage than anything the terrorists could ever put together.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“The fear tactic is a tactic that’s used by people who want to maintain control, and it’s very effective.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“When a man wrote a political screed against the IRS and flew into its building, he was deemed mentally ill, even though it was clearly a political act. There’s a double standard, which is: If his name is Muhammad, it’s automatically terrorism.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“America is about choices, including those to live certain lifestyles.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“ISIS is very similar to the Kharijites, who were a toxic off-shoot of Islam. It’s not Islam; it’s a perversion of Islam, and to label these militant externalities as Islam is to legitimize their actions.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“If you don’t have religious fallibilism, you have immense problems.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“You don’t fight ideas with bombs.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“I really believe that carpet-bombing, bombing civilian populations, is a form of terror – it’s state terror as opposed to vigilante terrorism.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“I think that the idea of a war on an abstract noun is unacceptable.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Americans are generally decent and fair people with a commitment to sense, but some of us, swept up by our passions, wade too far into a sea of sensibility.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Much to the chagrin of the staunchly secular among us, religion shows no sign of going away. Predictions of the demise of religion, faith, tradition – and even God – have consistently been proven wrong.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“The greatest preventative to terrorism is Muslim religious literacy.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“The acquisition of knowledge – knowledge of both the world and of their own religion – will inoculate young people against extremist ideologies.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“For believers, both privilege and privation are a trial, and both demand responses: one demands service, and the other demands patience. The greatest privilege is to live well in flourishing lands; the greatest privation is to live in the midst of war, especially civil war.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“All peoples have contributed to the overall progress and enhancement of human life.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“To be aware of others’ accomplishments and the indebtedness we have to so many people is to appreciate and begin to respect all members of the human family.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“The human family is a great one, and the Muslim branch is certainly worth knowing.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“You can condemn and criticize religion… all those things are fine, but you can’t mock and disrespect people.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“The entrenched beliefs many westerners profess about Islam often reveal more about the West than they do about Islam or Muslims.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“The Islamic tradition does show some areas of apparent incompatibility with the goals of women in the West, and Muslims have a long way to go in their attitudes towards women. But blaming the religion is again to express an ignorance both of the religion and of the historical struggle for equality of women in Muslim societies.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“As a Westerner, the child of civil rights and anti-war activists, I embraced Islam not in abandonment of my core values, drawn almost entirely from the progressive tradition, but as an affirmation of them.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“We Muslims in the West, like Jews before us, grapple with the same issues that Jews of the past did: integration or isolation, tradition or reform, intermarriage or intra-marriage.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“I’ve said some things about other religions that I regret now. I think they were incorrect.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“The Jews would have us believe that God had this bias to this little small tribe in the middle of the Sinai Desert, and all the rest of humanity is just rubbish. I mean, that is the basic doctrine of the Jewish religion, and that’s why it is a most racist religion.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“God is much greater than anything we can imagine.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Muslims are not ashamed of their Prophet’s teaching about war. On the contrary, for us it is a great source of pride.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“The true object of war fought for God should always be peace.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Every day, my love for Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, increases.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“To the solace of his name, simply saying ‘Muhammad’ has an incredibly soothing effect on me.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“We want to counter the idea that Muslims and non-Muslims can’t live together. This is not who we are or who we want to be.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“We don’t have any power other than our intellect and our hearts.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Ideas must counter ideas. You can drop all the bombs you want, but if you don’t pull up weeds by their roots, they just grow back.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“I think the Hajj tends to reflect the state of the Ummah. That’s one of the things about the Hajj is that you get to see the Ummah. It’s a microcosm of the Ummah’s condition.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“A lot of our leadership has become acutely aware of speaking more fairly, of speaking more balanced, of recognizing that hate speech in any form, even if it comes out of emotional anger, is dangerous.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“The thing I love most about going to a book store is the self-help section is the biggest section because Americans know we’re screwed up. We know it. But we want to get better.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“I think all this Facebook stuff should just stop!”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Live your lives. Go out; take walks amongst trees.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Stop taking pictures and start experiencing life.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Palestine is the issue, and until this issue is resolved, there can be no peace.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“We must assert to the Abrahamic people that we are the last extension of the Abrahamic religion… There is no such thing as an Islamic tribe.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Hunger can bring out the worst in us.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“There are many ways to be hungry. One can hunger for love, or fame or social justice, but hunger for food seems to curb all other cravings.”
― Hamza Yusuf
“Certainly, hunger can bring out the worst in us. But it can also bring out the best.”
― Hamza Yusuf
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