Hajj Abubakr Rieger introduces us to the life and works of the greatest German literary figure of the modern era and defender of Islam; Muhammad Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Links to Key Texts:

Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann

Selected Works of Goethe: Sorrows of Young Werther; Elective Affinities; Faust and Italian Journey

Schiller's Historical Dramas: William Tell; Don Carlos; Demetrius

Timecode Guide:

2:31 How the works of Goethe relate differently to you as you grow older

3:23 The vastness of Goethe’s Faust and an introduction to the work - an in depth archive of all of the things that Goethe thought in his life put in a very hidden structure that is revealing all of the time

5:55 Whoever has a strong yearning, we can save - 

6:47 Your yearning will bring you to the Divine

6:56 What is the main theme of Faust and a brief synopsis of the play

8:18 Faust’s bet with Mephistopheles

10:09 Faust and Gretchen

12:18 The visionary aspect of the second part of Faust as a proof of Goethe’s insights with the artificial creation of human beings, virtual worlds, the collateral damages caused by globalisation, the creation of paper money etc.

13:26 How Goethe was misunderstood in his time and perhaps his works are easier to understand now

14:18 The Elective Affinities

Goethe managed a word treasury of 90,000 words

16:32 “I’m not anti-Chirstian, I am also not un-Christian, but I am a non-Christian”

20:00 Goethe - “In the field of nature I am a pantheist, in the field of morality I am a monotheist, in the world of art I am a polytheist”

21:55 Believes strongly in the freedom of being a writer

22:40 The scandal of The Young Werther 

23:35 Goethe’s relationship with the Duke of Weimar

26:20 Burnout working for the Duke and the subsequent Italian Journey

28:41 Eckermann’s question to Goethe: “when was the most happy time of your life?”   

29:35 The friendship of Schiller and Goethe.

30:37 The Ur-plant - “It is an idea I see and I can touch”

32:45 A bit on the life and works of Schiller

33:06 Wilhelm Tell by Schiller as a story from Goethe

34:00 The expression of unity formed between Goethe and Schiller

34:25 Schiller’s death

34:56 “If you meet the real, it makes you speechless”

36:18 “the spirit forms the body” - Schiller

36:32 Goethe’s writing style and its revealing nature for the reader’s metamorphosis 

37:58 “Nature is not a system”

38:53 Goethe and Islam

40:21 Goethe’s interest with religion

40:33 The meanings within the end of Faust

41:26 A gift of a calligraphy of Surah al Ikhlas, the organising of a Jumuah prayer and the East Western Diwan

43:06 “I am not rejecting the idea that I am Muslim”

43:42 Goethe’s defence of the Prophet sallahu alyahi wassalam

43:54 Goethe embracing of the shahadah 

44:46 Katharina Mommsen - Goethe and the Islamic world

47:17 Why Goethe did not mention Islam in Faust

48:43 Where to start with the life and works of Goethe

Music by Ian Cattanach