I'm Iranian and I relate so much to your work. I love how you cover Islam, Philosophy, Occultism, Works of Ibn Sina and everything else in your work and lectures! It's so unique yet I'm interested in every aspects of them. If I can be of any help to you in here please let me know.
Thank you for this great video! A great deal of Islamic metaphysics is written in Persian. For instance, the Gulshan-i raz of Sheikh Shabistari, Mathnawi of Rumi as you mentioned, along with the Persian writings of Mulla Sadra, and especially the narratives of Suhrawardi, constitute some of the masterpieces of philosophical expression in the language of Farsi.
Thank you. You are quite right. However, Mullā Ṣadrā wrote all of his scholalry works almost exclusively in Arabic with the exception of the سه اصل and a collection of poetry.
@@SaiyadNizamuddinAhmad محتاجیم به دعا 🤲🏾 Interestingly I also come from a similar background. My Grandfather (born in Nagpur) and my Grandmother (born in Hyderabad) both had a very good command of Literary Persian. My mother is an Iranian from Kerman however and said she could barely understand anything they would say unless it was written. My mother said she was comfortable speaking Urdu after just a month living in Pakistan and would converse in a Urdu Farsi mixtute instead. My mom also was super surprised to see that my Grandparents used to follow the Solar Calendar very closely to see when Nowruz would be and had their own specific way of celebrating it. I never got to see them unfortunately (they both passed away in the mid1990s in their 80s), and alot of the indo-persian has been lost to time. Especially I feel with Families that left India and became Muhajirs after partition.
Thank you Saiyad. I should study the history of persian language in India. It must be of utmost importance and interestingly enough, it is very amuzing and amazing
Excellent idea. I've been wanting to do one for a very long time but it is not easy to do as one needs good examples of the various styles. So it would be a challenge to do, but I will try some perhaps some time next year in shāʾ Allah.
Thanks for the video. As an Iranian living in the West who only recently became interested in Islam through the works of Guenon, Corbin, Nasr, and others, I've been kind of struggling with my sense of national identity and how to go about practicing Islam. I keep asking myself whether I should adopt and immerse myself in the Canadian/American Islamic culture, which, as you pointed out, is itself rooted in Arabic culture, or whether I should get involved in the practices of Iranian Muslims. I worry that the 'true' Islam is to be found within the Arabic-American Islam, but I feel more at home with Iranian-Islamic culture. I know that nationalism is a modern phenomenon. But it also seems to me that while every religion seeks universality, there isn't any culture that hasn't particularized the religion it has adopted. These questions might sound ridiculous to someone who was brought up in Islam, where they didn't have to make decisions at every step or question why they do what they do, since they automatically adopted their parents' culture. However, for a secular person who didn't have that privilege of not having to think or find a justification for how to live, these are real and overwhelming questions. Truly, we live in an age of confusion caused by the destruction of traditional political, cultural, and religious structures.
Salamualaikum my brother, how are you? I just read your comment and I would like to give you my advice. I am an Arab from Morocco and your right, every region particularizes the religion they adopt, and I don’t think that there is anything wrong with you wanting to practice Islam immersed in Iranian culture, it’s only natural that you would. And besides there is nothing heretical about how Iranians practice Islam so long as it’s Islam, you don’t need to Arabize you just need to Islamize that’s all. If you prefer iranic Islam then that’s completely fine, you will still be my brother in Islam.
Salamualaikum my brother, how are you? I just read your comment and I would like to give you my advice. I am an Arab from Morocco and your right, every region particularizes the religion they adopt, and I don’t think that there is anything wrong with you wanting to practice Islam immersed in Iranian culture, it’s only natural that you would. And besides there is nothing heretical about how Iranians practice Islam so long as it’s Islam, you don’t need to Arabize you just need to Islamize that’s all. If you prefer iranic Islam then that’s completely fine, you will still be my brother in Islam.
Janab, I am tremendously impressed by your scholarship and presentation. I would love to connect with you digitally if I may, not only to order and acquire your works, but also to give you a hint of my own connection with the topics you have mentioned. You mentioned Lughaat e Kishori of Naval Kishore Press in Lucknow. The compiler of this Lughaat was Syed Tassaduq Hussain Rizvi, who was my mother's maternal grandfather. I spent a few years in pre-revolutionary Iran teaching English as a Foreign Language at a University and learned my Farsi there. I will copy this text into your contact email to speak further with you. It will be great to meet you in person one day. With many thanks for your presentations.
Thank you for this fascinating video. Your knowledge of this and other topics is as impressive as your extensive library. Even as an Iranian I was unaware of many interesting facts and history you quite nicely described. On a different topic, any chance of you doing more videos on the works of Rene Guenon?
I have resumed filming the remaining lecture on Guenon's Reign of Quantity and will be posting them, one per week, in about 2 weeks time in shāʾ Allāh.
I'm an Arabic speaking "Sunni" and I appreciate Persian and what Persian scholars provided to the Islamic civilization. Definitely a cornerstone to how our religion was preserved. Thank you for the great lecture. You don't have to speak negatively about Arabic Muslims. If anybody has envy and hatred it's the other way around. Just look at the history and current political situations.
These books r treasures. Especially book of verbs catch my eyes. آغوشتن is an old and local verb. Noone use the verb any more. Absolutely beautiful. May god bless your grandfather
Chashm e mast is usually attributed to Amir khusrow but i found a word for word ghazal in the diwan of mastan shah. Its still popular amongst qawwals today
wow it's so interesting! thank you for the awesome work:) i don't even know the importance of Persian in Islamic metaphysics before. if you don't mind, can you recommend any important persian metaphysics text? as a student studying philosophy, it is too interesting to negelect!
Absolutely love your presentation! I'd be delighted to have a conversation with you on this subject! I remember my forefathers not only learning Farsi, but that it was considered lingua franca in much of Central Asia and the Subcontinent, moreso than Arabic or Turkic languages... and that most Persian poets were in fact of Sunni background. It is so unfortunate to have lost that heritage over the centuries. I also noticed Robert Eisenman's book tucked away in the background! Would love to hear your take on the subject!
Thank you so much for your thoughts. I wholeheartedly agree with you regarding the unfortunate loss of this heritage in the subcontinent. As for Eisenman's work, James the Brother of Jesus, it is an extremely important despite its forbidding length, and long-winded prolixity. It deserves a wider audience, but these factors will deter most from reading it.
Assalamu Alaikum, Dr. Ahmad. This is the first post on youtube after I woke up which is quiet pleasant. I would like to request you to make a video on how to find our auspicious number using abjad and the name of Allah most suitable for us according to our name, how to decide when to recite it, and also how many times to recite. It would be of great help. And also the names of Allah, time and number of time to do dhikr of that name to get out of financial constraints or to overcome enemies. I hope that you read my message and respond. Thank you for making these knowledge packed videos for us. I am a sunni muslim and I appreciate your efforts. Please keep more of the good videos coming. Fi Amanillah.
I am from Baghdad, I appreciate your lectures and hope that one day you can do a series on the Mughals because unfortunately we Arabs had a disconnect to the Gunpowder Empires and there is little to no Arabic information about the Mughals and their beautiful empire. Some people don't even know that the Taj Mahal is an Islamic mausoleum.
Indeed, this is a major legacy of the Wahhabi menace, the same group that is an obstacle to Sunni-Shi’a rapprochement. Verily, there is no deep understanding of the Islamic civilization without an awareness of Farsi. Al-Ghazali was a Persian; people know about “Ihya,” but we would be remiss to forget that he wrote “Kimiya-yi sa'adat” in the Farsi language. In much more recent times, Allama Iqbal (Rahmatullahi Alai) wrote many works in Persian. So many great Muslim thinkers from a broad range of places ranging Sarajevo to Sylhet wrote in this beautiful zabaan. We must reclaim our heritage! May Allah help us. Ameen.
Wonderful to hear the beautiful Persian language getting such recognition! Can you explain the term @3:03 شعري meaning poetic being not true? Is there a negative connotation to the word sh'ri?
You are mistaken. I said nothing of the kind. There I was talking about how Persian in the mind of many Sunni Muslims epsecialy Arabs is seen as shīʿī شيعي (Not shiʿrī شعري) and that this is not true.
I'm from Indonesia and I feel the same. Persian's importance in the history of Islam cannot be understated, and it is unfair to label a language as "shiite" because a language belongs to everyone's history. Persian is the first vernacular in the Muslim world than can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Arabic. I want to learn Persian someday and I actually have some ideas on how to improve the Persian orthography.
از میرزا عبدلقادر دهلوی مشهور به بیدل شما هیچ یاد اوری نکردید که به فکر اکثری افغانها ایشان یکی از ستون های شعری پارسی هستند از ویدیوی که تهیه کردید جهان سپاس و معلوماتی که ارایه کردید واقعا مفید و باارزش اند
Ibn 'Arabī and Rūmī reading lists will be posted next week and the week after (1 video per week). I don't recall ever saying I would do one on al-Ghazālī though…
You touch on a very important and yet marginalized topic. I don’t think that Sunnis view old Persian writings as Shia literature as we know they were Sunnis before the Safavid era. Their contributions are well known and (i thought) were translated into arabic if they were not already written in Arabic to begin with. Nevertheless, it is interesting to discover Persian literature during and after the Abbasid period whether it is religious, poetry, novels or otherwise.
Yes, Alhamdulillah there are some Sunnis like you and me that still acknowledge this as had been the case until at least the nineteenth and perhaps early twentieth century Common Era, notably Allama Iqbal (d. 1938). However, as we discussed earlier over the weekend, there are some Sunnis in more recent times that are somewhat lacking in their an appreciation for Farsi. I tried doing some academic research earlier tonight to substantiate my hitherto “anecdotal” claims, but I will have to get back to you, Inshallah. I have been reading from Hovannisian and Sabagh’s “The Persian Presence in the Islamic World” (Cambridge University Press, 1998), but I’ll let you know if something turns up in this or another text.
At least the “Khuda Hafiz” versus “Allah Hafiz” debate can be substantiated. Vide Elias, Jamal J. “Key Themes for the Study of Islam.” New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014.
A lot of Persian nationalists will claim that they gave Islam everything but they don’t need Islam themselves while also completely ignoring how their precious civilization got completely mopped by so called “Arab barbarians” driven by the will of Allah.
We Iranian, along side all ethnic groups muslims, don't think that Islam found its identity and glory and status by us. We don't say that if there were no Iranians, there wouldn't be Islam in existence. No, But Iranians like any other ethnic groups such as Turks, which by the way I am an Iranian Turk, would argue that our glory is to serve Islam, to serve the Deen. It is the honour of Iranians to contribute to Islam in the term of giving and offering scholars of Islam. It is the honour of Turks to actually contribute to some extend in defending Islam by their swords and their words(eighty percent of poems that talk about our prophet is in some form of Turkish language). It is the honour of a nation or ethnic group to serve Islam, not the other way around. We honour ourselves to be a muslim, not Islam honouring itself for having believers in a specific ethnicity and lineage. ان اکرمکم عندالله اتقاکم.
Dear Professor its wrong to say that Sunni Muslims have no interest in learning Persian. The Madrasas of Indian Subcontinent teach the Persian language in Darse Nizami equivalent to BA Islamic Studies. Great Indian Sunni Muslim Revivalist Scholars like Shah Waliullah Dehlavi and Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi wrote Books in Persian. Shah Waliullah was the First to Translate Quran Al Kareem in Persian.
I did not say they have no interest or never had such interest and I am well aware of the dars-e Niẓāmī. My point is that interest in Persian has declined a great deal in Sunnī circles and is often identified with Shīʿas.
I’m not an Arab, my heritage is white British. There is no room in my heart for the love of any language other than Arabic which I am fluent in. However Urdu and Persian hold a higher status in my heart than English despite it being my mother tongue. I can read and write basic sentences in Urdu and I would consider learning Persian as I believe its grammar might be easier or more clearer than Urdu grammar… what full courses are available to learn Persian right now? I know there are many Urdu courses with different levels and stages and a full text book for each one?
I am not aware of full courses online. If you live in London, you should look into courses at SOAS. You may also consult my Persian language reading list.
