Hamza Yusuf – Start Practicing, or Stop Pretending

Hamza YusufSeptember 22, 20120 comments

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Seerah Islamophobia Quran Taqwa Patience Muslim World Affairs Character & Akhlaq Education

About this lecture

In this powerful and urgent lecture, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf draws on Quranic verses, Hadith, and historical examples to call Muslims to patience, self-restraint, and wisdom in the face of provocation and Islamophobia. He warns against reactionary behavior, ignorance, and extremism on all sides, arguing that the Prophet ﷺ conquered the world not through rage but through beautiful character and *taqwa*. Addressing Muslims in America directly, he issues a sobering challenge: either truly practice the religion, or stop pretending to be Muslim.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf is one of the most influential Islamic scholars in the Western world. Born Mark Hanson in Washington State in 1958, he embraced Islam in 1977 and spent over a decade studying the traditional Islamic sciences in the UAE, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania, most notably under the Mauritanian sage Murabit al-Hajj. He is the co-founder and president of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California — the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States — and has translated numerous classical texts, including "The Creed of Imam al-Tahawi" and "Purification of the Heart." His lectures on spirituality, classical scholarship, and the crisis of modernity have shaped a generation of Western Muslims.

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