Renovatio: The Podcast

Juan Cole's Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires (2018) retells the history of the prophetic period in seventh-century Arabia through the context of a brutal war between the Iranian Sassanian Empire and the Roman Empire in the Near East. In this conversation, Juan Cole and Hamza Yusuf reflect on how a new understanding of the historical period can give us sharper insights into the prophetic mission and the message of the Qur'an.

Hamza Yusuf, President of Zaytuna College, converses with Eva Brann, the sagely long time educator and author of St. Johns College in Annapolis Maryland about philosophy, wisdom, and wit.

Scott Crider and Hamza Yusuf discuss the art and artifice of poetry. https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/authors/scott-crider https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/authors/hamza-yusuf ____________________________________ Moon Landing – W. H. Auden It’s natural the Boys should whoop it up for so huge a phallic triumph, an adventure it would not have occurred to women to think worth while, made possible only because we like huddling in gangs and knowing the exact time: yes, our sex may in fairness hurrah the deed, although the motives that primed it were somewhat less than menschlich. A grand gesture. But what does it period? What does it osse? We were always adroiter with objects than lives, and more facile at courage than kindness: from the moment the first flint was flaked this landing was merely a matter of time. But our selves, like Adam’s, still don’t fit us exactly, modern only in this – our lack of decorum. Homer’s heroes were certainly no braver than our Trio, but more fortunate: Hector was excused the insult of having his valor covered by television. Worth going to see? I can well believe it. Worth seeing? Mneh! I once rode through a desert and was not charmed: give me a watered lively garden, remote from blatherers about the New, the von Brauns and their ilk, where on August mornings I can count the morning glories, where to die has a meaning, and no engine can shift my perspective. Unsmudged, thank God, my Moon still queens the Heavens as She ebbs and fulls, a Presence to glop at, Her Old Man, made of grit not protein, still visits my Austrian several with His old detachment, and the old warnings still have power to scare me: Hybris comes to an ugly finish, Irreverence is a greater oaf than Superstition. Our apparatniks will continue making the usual squalid mess called History: all we can pray for is that artists, chefs and saints may still appear to blithe it. August 1969

In modern educated circles, the philosophy of Conservatism doesn’t usually enjoy a good opinion. Liberalism being the default philosophy of the educated classes. The conversation we present today presents conservatism divorced from politics, as a philosophy of conserving only what is good of the past, and might challenge you to reconsider your opinion on the subject. Roger Scruton is philosopher of politics and aesthetics. He has authored more than fifty books on culture, philosophy, and religion, including A Dictionary of Political Thought and How to Be a Conservative. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Cambridge in 1972 and is currently pursuing his interest in the philosophy of music. He is a Fellow of the Humanities Research Institute and Course Director of the M.A. in Philosophy at the University of Buckingham. Hamza Yusuf is a leading proponent of classical learning in Islam. He is president of Zaytuna College, and has taught courses on Islamic jurisprudence, ethics, astronomy, logic, theology, prophetic biography, and hadith, as well as other subjects. He has published numerous articles and translations, including The Prayer of the Oppressed and Purification of the Heart. He also serves as vice president for the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, an international initiative that seeks to address the root causes that can lead to radicalism and militancy.

Renovatio's Editor Safir Ahmed sits down with Cyrus Ali Zargar for a chat about his research into the role of storytelling in Islam's ethical tradition. Cyrus Ali Zargar is an assosiate professor of religion at Augustana College who recently published a book entitled The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism. Cyrus Zargar wrote an article for Renovatio entitled The Secret of the Morality Tale: Sa'di on What It Means to Be Human, which explores the place of literary ethics within the broader Islamic Ethical Tradition.

The study of Hadith is a subject which is often misunderstood. We asked Jonathan Brown to help clarify some of the most common misconceptions about the study of Hadith from different perspectives. Jonathan Brown is an American scholar of Islamic studies. He is an associate professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service where he also holds the Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization. He has authored several books including Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy, Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World, Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction, and The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim. He has also published articles in the fields of Hadith, Islamic law, Salafism, Sufism, and Arabic language.

To many, the silent theology of Islamic art can speak more profoundly and clearly than the most scholarly works, and its beauty can be more evident and persuasive than the strongest of arguments. The Qur’an is not a set of syllogisms or prosaic rational proofs but a recitation of unmatched linguistic beauty, filled with symbols, stories, metaphors, and poetic phrasing. It was the beauty in artistic expression which inspired many of the earliest conversions to Islam. Read Oludamini Ogunnaike's article about Islamic Art for Renovatio: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/the-silent-theology-of-islamic-art This podcast is an audio recording of a panel called The Silent Theology of Islamic Art, with Oludamini Ogunnaike, Elinor Aishah Holland, and Abdal Latif Ian Whiteman. Oludamini Ogunnaike: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/authors/oludamini-ogunnaike Elinor Aishah Holland: http://harmonyofline.com Ian Whiteman: https://ianwhiteman.blog

A wide ranging interview about the study of Islam with Caner Dagli. Dagli is an associate professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, specializing in Qur'anic studies, interfaith dialogue, and philosophy. An editor of The Study Quran, he was among the 138 Muslim signatories of the 2007 letter “A Common Word Between Us and You,” an appeal to Christian world leaders for peace and cooperation between Christians and Muslims.

Hamza Yusuf at the inaugural Renovatio event on May 14th, 2017 at Zaytuna College