The Lives of Man....Hamza Yusuf Hanson

Hamza Yusuf Hanson, a Muslim revert at 17, received his early Islamic education mainly from a 'one to one encounter' with a Shaykh in Mauritania [' pondok style'], then later  in Morocco and Egypt,  and is currently the founding dean of Zaytuna Institute in USA.


Here he gave a 'dry' 2 hour lecture to his students on 'The Lives of Man', mainly derived from a  book of a classical scholar, Shaykh Al Haddad, with some anecdotal addition from his [ Hamza's ] own experience and acute observation and present day reading.


Fairly 'dry'  academic stuff but nonetheless quite illuminating.
Hamza Yusuf is certainly not a 'fountain of knowledge' per se but  it is rare in the Western world to find a guy who knows Arabic very well, steeped in early  Judea- Christian tradition, embracing Islam wholly and able to speak excellently to an English speaking audience.
They can be counted with fingers of one hand !
May Allah bless him with a long life to spread the universal good message of Islam...................


part 1 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G1Cyj7gt9k&feature=youtu.be

[very profound esp his discussion at 1.04- 1.10 on the spirit of syariah, touching on the spirit of hudud]

part 2 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiXRHpATKoQ&feature=related

[ 0.15 , 0.16- 0.20 {death and dying in religious traditions }, 0.20 { spiritual death }, 0.29, 0.34 { on boredom and excitement about life, an arena of ecstasy, emotional death } , 0.35, 0.38  { submission as the radical cure to 'imprisonment'} , 0.54 { seeing prophets in dreams } and 0.58 { marthydom }  ]