Tariq Ramadan Quotes
-
I'm working on different fields. One of my next books Insha'Allah will be a novel because it's important to explore the heart and imagination, the spiritual side. I've been working for twenty five years in the legal field and now I'm reaching what I want, which is an Islamic applied ethics and I'm also dealing with Muslims in the West.
→ -
Only in the crucible of self-mastery can freedom be smelted
→ -
IS [Islamic State] has played a major role in helping Bashar al-Assad to reposition Syria on the international scene. Now, it is almost impossible to come up with a solution that would exclude him. The political game appears to be very cynical indeed.
→ -
I look to Islamic ethics to find something that can provide the basis for shared values with other traditions, and ultimately universal values. This ties into the point I made in a book, 'The Quest for Meaning', that the only way for values to be universal is if they are shared universal values. My main point is, in this quest for value the aim is not to express your distinctness from others, but about being able to contribute to the discussion of universal value.
→ -
Greek philosophy departs from the assumption that we can understand the world autonomously using our rational faculties. Islam is not saying this.
→ -
The philosophical connection between the Islamic world and the West is much closer than I thought. Doubt did not begin with Descartes. We have this construction today that the West and Islam are entirely separate worlds. This is wrong.
→ -
Islamism implies some sort of political and social plan for Muslim people. In that classification, we find different categories. Legalist ones, traditional ones and revolutionary ones. Some of them are revolutionary but are non-violent, others are extremely violent. There are also the ones we call the literalists, like the Egyptian party Hizb al-Nour that used to be against democracy and now is getting into the political game.
→ -
The 'fires'n that produce thick, rarely innocent, often strategic smoke should therefore be scrutinized. they should be known and identified; and when they involve dishonesty, lies, or manipulation, they they should be ignored.
→ -
Sometimes people confuse silence as wisdom when in fact it is compromise.
→ -
Our democratic societies are in danger. In allowing ourselves to be infiltrated by fear, to be blinded by the passion of identity, we are entertaining the most serious illusions about our freedom.
→ -
Proud to be a Muslim isn't a stamp you have on your heart, it's a light you have in your heart.
→ -
Because ethics is fundamentally about questioning the ends, the goals and aims of our actions, we must come back to the rules and ask why. So we must return to the philosophy of law, the raison d'etre and the point of what we're asked to do. It's not easy, it's very demanding and it needs intellectual courage.
→ -
The very essence of the Sufi spiritual tradition requires you to purify your heart, to liberate yourself from your ego and to be courageous in facing any corrupt power, injustice and oppression. Unfortunately, colonial powers pushed an agenda by using Sufism against resistance, and some ulama played that game in the past and in the present.
→ -
What we get from all religions especially from the Prophet's life, peace be upon him, is that there is no way to reach peace if we are not ready to sacrifice, not ready to strive, not courageous enough to face the powers here and the dictators who don't care about humanity or human life.
→ -
We have to free the Muslim mind from the obsession with limits and rules and forgetting the path and objective. This is truly a liberating process, and for me this is Islam: liberation from the ego, and in this case liberating ourselves from the wrong understanding of the religion.
→ -
I focus on Islamic applied ethics in many fields, and here I am saying that coming back to the Qu'ran and the sunnah as our reference point does not mean that we depend for our ethics on 'Islam as opposed to the others'.
→ -
Always walking along despite the dangers and adversities, despite the injustices and horrors, trusting in God so as not to despair of men and events.
→ -
The perception in the Arab world now is that we are having secularists against Islamists, and that's it. So the secularists are progressive; the Islamists are reactionary, conservative. This perception is wrong.
→ -
We have to reconcile ourselves with philosophical questions in every field. Every field should be open to inquiry and knowledge.
→ -
Muslims, scholars or not, are on the side of the oppressed and never on the side of the oppressors. Some scholars claim they don't do politics but if you listen to their statements in the Middle East or in other conferences, they support corrupt regimes and despots, such as as-Sissi.
→ -
Fear is created which can lead to racism. However, we can overcome that fear through trust.
→ -
To have a moral sense is not to be dogmatic in dealing with rules. It can be an open way with dealing with questions of objectives and purpose, which is completely different.
→ -
Populism is everywhere. We have religious populism in the Muslim-majority countries as much as we have populism in the United States of America.
→ -
To those who say "Sufism is apolitical" or "no politics," I respond: "No politics is politics." Look at the very old African Sufi tradition, the Asian Sufi tradition, or the North African Sufi tradition. Then you get it and understand what Sufism is all about wisdom, courage and resistance.
→ -
The discriminations that are found in the Muslim majority countries are more Cultural than Islamic. .... I have always said to the Muslim women, please do not nurture the victim mentality. Stand up for your rights.
→ -
If we agree to say that those terrorists are indeed Muslim, I have no problem whatsoever to condemn their actions. I won't apologise though, or justify my point of view.
→ -
We need to realize that we should be on the side of any human being who is oppressed.
→ -
History is replete with ideologies of freedom, justice, liberation of the downtrodden and the exploited, that have been turned against the very people they had mobilised, or that have reproduced the same logic of exclusion and terror toward those whom they claimed to set free.
→ -
If you are not at peace with yourself then you cannot spread peace.
→ -
No one must ever let power or social, economic, or political interest turn him or her away from other human beings, from the attention they deserve and the respect they are entitled to. nothing must ever lead to a person to compromise this principle or faith in favor of a political strategy aimed at saving or protecting a community from some peril. The freely offered, sincere heart of a poor, powerless individual is worth a thousand times more in the sight of God than the assiduously courted, self-interested heart of a rich one.
→
Related Authors
-
Al-Ghazali Theologian -
Ayaan Hirsi Ali Activist -
Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi Writer -
Yusuf al-Qaradawi Theologian -
Anwar Sadat Former President of Egypt -
Bernard-Henri Levy Author -
Ibn Taymiyyah Philosopher -
Hassan al-Banna Teacher -
-
Michel Onfray Philosopher -
Nouman Ali Khan Instructor -
Suhaib Webb Imam -
Nicolas Sarkozy Former President of France -
Siraj Wahhaj Imam -
Gamal Abdel Nasser Former President of Egypt -
Hamza Yusuf Scholar -
Christopher Hitchens Author -
Marine Le Pen Member of the European Parliament -
Alain Finkielkraut Essayist -
Edgar Morin Philosopher