Tariq Ramadan in Singapore 120408

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Alhamdulillah. I had the opportunity to attend a public lecture entitled “Prophet Muhammad’s Enduring Message to Humanity” by Professor Tariq Ramadan. Professor Tariq Ramadan holds an MA in Philosophy and French Literature and PHD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. In Egypt he received one-on-one intensive training in classic Islamic scholarship from Al-Azhar University scholars. Prof. Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Islamic Studies (Faculty of Theology at Oxford). He is also a Visiting Professor at Erasmus University (Netherlands). He is currently Senior Research Fellow St Antony’s College (Oxford), Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan) and at the Lokahi Foundation. Professor Tariq Ramadan is currently President of the European think tank: European Muslim Network (EMN) in Brussels. (London). (Biography from website)

This article is primarily intended for my own recollection of his lecture and serves as a secondary data storage should my hardcopy notes get lost. Nevertheless, I hope you, the reader, benefit from this sharing as well.

Professor Tariq Ramadan:”Prophet Muhammad’s Enduring Message to Humanity”,12 April 2008, Singapore

• Understanding the limits of religion, what is permissible and what isn’t, requires first understanding the life and light of the Prophet (s.a.w.)
• If you are not just with your own self, you will never find inner peace
• Justice is a condition of peace
• However forgiveness too, is a condition of peace
• The Prophet (s.a.w.) was sent as a mercy for mankind. This is why even non-Muslims can relate the similitude of his life and teachings
• Many elements of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.)’s life reflect that which contains ability yet fragility
• If you are lost in your past, use that to treat those who are lost in the present
• Do not refuse or neglect, but learn to manage what is normal: your shortcomings as a human being
• There is no deep faith without deep knowledge
• Knowledge must come with humility
• Do not worship knowledge, worship the educator (Rabb) of knowledge Allah s.w.t.
• Remember humility, for there are some things which you do not know, He knows. This is a reminder, and a teaching, for us as humans
• Come back to the substance, and not just superficiality
• “I’m not, I’m just trying my best.” - a noteworthy response

This lecture follows his book In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad very similarly. If you liked his lecture, try and read this book as well.

(This was about only 1/2 of the lecture. From here on, my note-taking fails, my hands could no longer write, and I just wanted to listen and listen and listen, with my ears, with my heart. And the rest is in the memory, and in the hearts, InsyaAllah)

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