Quotes from Hamza Yusuf

Our duty is to be patient.

All of the people are the dependents of Allah.

Americans are generally decent and fair people with a commitment to sense, but some of us, swept up by our passions, wade too far into a sea of sensibility.

September 11 was a wake-up call to me. I don't want to contribute to the hate in any shape or form. I now regret in the past being silent about what I have heard in the Islamic discourse and being part of that with my own anger.

Live your lives. Go out; take walks amongst trees.

You don't fight ideas with bombs.

Force yourself to be humble, until it becomes second nature. Then it will be an unconscious activity.

Muslims are peace-loving people generally. Among the young, yes, there are some militant attitudes. But a lot of it arises out of chivalry.

Why do we need to justify God's existence? He exists. We need to justify our own existence.

If you are looking for happiness in this world (dunya), you're in the wrong place.

In our inherent contradictions as humans, and in order to validate our own pain, we deny the pain of others. But it is in acknowledging the pain of others that we achieve fully our humanity.

Our world is increasingly interdependent and pluralistic, and in order to ensure a civil future, we must get to know one another.

Opinion is not knowledge. You're entitled to your own opinion but you're not entitled to your own facts.

Ideas must counter ideas. You can drop all the bombs you want, but if you don't pull up weeds by their roots, they just grow back.

My great, great grandfather, Michael O'Hanson, fled the impending potato famine of Ireland and arrived in America in the early 1840s with his bride, Bridget. They headed for Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love and a mecca for Irish-Catholic immigrants then.

Stop taking pictures and start experiencing life.

Religion is here to unite us. It's not here to divide us. If it's dividing us, it's not God's religion, it's something else.

There's a statement in the Quran: There should be "absolutely no compulsion in religion."

My experience on this planet is that if you treat people with respect, they tend to treat you with respect.

Knowledge is taken from breath, not lives in a book

The acquisition of knowledge - knowledge of both the world and of their own religion - will inoculate young people against extremist ideologies.

Allah knows exactly what to give you to help you return to Him. The events in your life are purposeful, appropriate & non-random.

The Islamic tradition does show some areas of apparent incompatibility with the goals of women in the West, and Muslims have a long way to go in their attitudes towards women. But blaming the religion is again to express an ignorance both of the religion and of the historical struggle for equality of women in Muslim societies.

My alignment is with what I perceive as just and fair. If it's with the Muslims, then I'm with the Muslims, if it's with the West then I'm with the West. It's about justice and fairness.