The New Nomos

An introduction to the life and works of Goethe, the greatest German literary figure of the modern era.

With Hajj Abubakr Rieger

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

Warrior Shaykhs, martial tariqas and various Sultans all play a role in the resistance against the French colonial invaders in the Maghreb.

Join this conversation with Abdelkadir Harkassi, a Masters Student in Historical Research at SOAS, around the Sufi resistance of the French invasion in the Maghreb and learn how sometimes the most heroic act is to accept defeat. 

This is a crucial narrative and one from which many parallels can be drawn to our current time. 

Timecode Guide

2:25 (-10) The french invasion into North Africa through the military invasion of Algeria without any diplomacy

3:12 The geopolitical importance of Morocco

3:50 The severe economic repercussions of defeat to the French and Spanish

4:40 Morocco is bankrupt and had to ask the European powers for loans with all their resources being shipped away

5:00 The conflict between the young Sultan Moulay Abdelaziz and his brother Moulay Abdelhafidh supported by Shaykh Al Kitani and Madani El Glaoui

06:20 What was the French interest in North Africa?

06:25 The French interests, ideology, the French revolution and modernity.

07:08 The wealth of North Africa and the appropriation of land, raw materials, goods and trade routes

08:06 The Hafidhiyya Movement

08:44 The abolition of Zakat and the reaction from the Ulema

09:32 Drawing parallels between the case in the Maghreb and the Tanzimat era of the Ottoman Empire

11:27 Some examples of the Awqaf in the Ottoman empire

13:16 The Awqaf in North Africa and French attempts to purchase the land and then trying to dismantle the various Waqfs through changing the legal definitions

15:30 There wasn’t a welfare system. The people themselves had created a basic foundation for all of society to stand on

16:12 The first university in the world the Qarawiyyin of Fez was an endowment

17:08 Moulay AbdelHafidh defeats his brother and takes the throne

17:36 The conditional bayat of the Ulema to the new Sultan. The Sultan had to uphold a number of conditions including no negotiations with the French, but also the establishment of a Parliament which Moulay AbdelHafidh rejected.

19:13 The importance to the Sultan of the backing of the nobles, the ulema and the Sufi Shaykhs. He did not rule alone. 

19:47 Moulay AbdelHafidh inherits a throne without access to the treasury

20:44 The sincerity of Moulay AbdelHafidh in trying his best to maneuver against the French with what he had available 

21:28 The betrayal of Al Kitani and his execution

22:45 The Sufi military struggle

23:48 Sultan AbdelHafidh’s letter to the Sufi Jihadi 

25:00 The modern idea of Sufism 

25:31 The very different reality of Sufism - always engaged in the politics of their time or on the battlefield or mediating etc.

26:39 The Sufi military tariqahs and the history of their fight against innovation and foreign invasions

27:49 The military tariqahs of the Maghreb and specifically the Chaouia region

30:50 The military resistance of the Sufis against the French and 1907 Bombardment of Casablanca as justification for a military invasion

33:12 The military expansion of the French in Morocco

33:40 1911 Tribal revolt against the Sultan as an excuse for the French to move their armies into the heart of the country and the Protectorate Treaty in 1912

35:20 The meetings of the Ulema and the Sufis that led to the decision of some fighting the French and the others protecting the Deen

37:53 The new situation in Morocco with the French after the defeat of the Sufis in the last Jihad in the Maghreb and how the Sufis stopped fighting and decided to protect the Deen in order to save more bloodshed. 

39:15 The difficult thing was to accept that you were defeated and that you couldn’t fight. And then you turn to Allah

39:37 The use of the Nasiri Du’a, the Wird al-Latif and the recitation of The Shifa of Qadi Iyad for the preservation of the Deen

41:42 The nationalist movement that began in 1936 based on French ideology via the salafi movement in Egypt

42:43 Muhammad V becoming the image of the nationalist movement and his exile from Morocco to Madagascar

43:21 Muhammad V’s meeting with Shaykh Muhammad ibn al Habib and the advise the Sultan received

44:57 Moroccan independence from France and the Monarchy fully reestablished

45:19 Muhammad VI and his father Hassan II bringing the Sufis back to the forefront of society

50:50 Morocco today under the rule of King Muhammad VI

53:27 Modernity is a fight against the past so that we can progress into a "better" existence

54:12 The King's protection of the library of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al Habib

55:09 A Dua for King Muhammad VI of Morocco

Music by Ian Cattanach 

How do we get to know ourselves and unleash the hero within?

Abdallah discusses this concept with Rishad Ahmed a Life Coach and strong presence who has dedicated his professional life to helping others become more self-aware.

It comes down to one word..."unlearning"

Zen Coach Homepage

Rishad Ahmed's Linkedin

Music by Ian Cattanach

Abdallah discusses 'The Waldgang' essay by Ernst Junger with Dr Ali Azzali,, a teacher and historian and the Vice Chairman of Dallas College in Cape Town, South Africa. 

The Waldgang translates into English as the Forest Passage, but is a metaphor for the journey to the self, facing the fear of death and emerging from the 'forest' heroic, spontaneous and free to call things by their proper names.  

Buy 'The Waldgang' by Ernst Junger here

Buy 'Storm of Steel' by Ernst Junger here

Timecode Guide:

2:38 The meaning of the word ‘Kufr’ and how the works of Junger unveil the truth of the 20th Century

3:30 Junger as a war hero in the First World War and how the World Wars transformed the men that survived. 

The Waldganger doesn't fight ideology with ideology. He resists by tapping into the deeper parts of his being. 

04:55 The link between heart and courage

05:25 Junger's book 'Storm of Steel' 

07:20 How the soldiers of the First World War couldn’t accept the terms of the Treaty of Versaille and were unable to adapt to bourgeois society. Junger said “Better a criminal than a bourgeois.” Bourgeois society aimed at protecting men from destiny and fate.

10:25 The principle of efficiency in the capitalist technocratic state and the Waldganger as the one that resists by taking the passage into the forest. 

11:28 What the forest represents and how the men of Allah never act with ideology, they act by calling things by their proper names

12:28 Ideology is a cover up of reality - a view of existence that is limited  

13:10 Lexical Innovation

14:10 Mass education based on ideology

15:30 Dante on the metaphor of the forest 

17:10 Encountering the truth through encountering yourself

18:05 Bear Grylls and his experiences in the most hostile environments

19:05 "For the light to shine through there must be a crack". The great teachers take you to the place where you are forced to rely on Allah

19:50 "The Sufi is like the earth, you throw rubbish at it and roses grow"

20:20 Science was put in the place of the Divine - Man is not rational

22:28 "The Modern battle of the Thermopolae is fought in the heart of man" and "Every man is a Path." A man who is looking for the truth in himself will look for the truth outside. 

24:30 Junger on modern medicine; "Health and wellbeing is with the fearless."  The fear of death.

29:00 Paralysis, rigidity and fear. "The physiological age of the body is defined by its stiffness". 

30:10 What is love? Love is renunciation of will. 

31:55 Junger's example of David and Goliath

32:44 The eternal part of man being denied by Western science

34:20 Without the spirit there is no man and the spirit is the essence of man. 

35:20 The source of the strength to resist

36:07 The metaphor of the journey

37:22 The metaphor of marrying your real self

37:33 Nietzsche and the Cosmic poem of Iqbal

40:00 Junger’s book ‘The Adventurous Heart’

40:32 Style as something that speaks to something deeper

42:48 Initiation of traditional societies for young men and women to prove themselves

44:17 Know yourself

44:32 Every great event in history has been initiated by a small elite, never by the masses. The masses follow!

Music by Ian Cattanach

In the first episode of The New Nomos, Abdallah engages in a profound conversation with Mujeeb Gallagher, a distinguished Lawyer and Classicist from London, on the timeless significance of Homer's epic masterpiece, The Iliad.

As they delve into the depths of this ancient song, a powerful revelation unfolds: the dire need to rediscover our authentic selves. They explore the concept of staying true to one's inner essence and fostering spontaneity as the driving force towards meaningful action.

The exchange between Abdallah and Mujeeb Gallagher delves into the profound wisdom encapsulated within The Iliad, leaving audiences with a newfound appreciation for the transformative power of embracing our true nature.

Buy Martin Hammond's translation of The Iliad here

Timecode Guide

00:00 The first lines of The Iliad recited by Aminah Folli in Ancient Greek

01:38 The Iliad as the source of European civilisation

02:19 A song that remolds the human psyche

02:56 A brief synopsis of the Iliad, the theme of Achilles’ rage and the fall of Troy

05:38 Rage and understanding man and manhood. Homer takes a hard look right into the soul of man

08:29 Modern man is scared of man. What makes Achilles better is that he submits to himself and his destiny better that anyone else

09:23 Submitting to one’s destiny and tawba 

10:05 "You can’t make tawba for a broken psyche"

12:19 "Say: I have Iman in Allah and then go straight" 

13:38 Quoting Ibn Atailla who said “the whole of the cosmos is inside the human heart.” And how the heroes in the Iliad who accept their destiny are ennobled, transformed and elevated. 

15:00 Alexander Pope’s description of the Iliad as ‘The Wild Paradise’

16:23 The theme of war and the battlefield in the Iliad as a crucible of life

18:03 Exploring the idea of our modern crisis of being

19:28 Illness, tawhid and how warfare has been outlawed nowadays. Instead we have drones, surveillance and war as a computer game.

22:35 Exploring spontaneity and the propulsion towards action

27:15 The Shield of Achilles

30:13 Assabiyya (esprit de corps) among men and the relationship between Achilles and Patroklus as the highest bond between men

31:47 How the Iliad teaches recovering the Authentic Self

32:48 The modern misrepresentations of Achilles and the incompatibility of his character within the constructs of modernity

35:53 How Muslims are the only group nowadays able to access and truly understand the Iliad

37:16 An anecdote from Hajj 

39:03 What would Homer say about the lockdown? As he looks down on those who avoid confronting their enemies out of fear? And the relationship between courage and authenticity.

40:53 What is fear? An anecdote about Rumi

41:55 Comparing how modern society looks forwards into an ideal future when all previous traditions looked back at a bygone era. And how as Muslims we have the Sahaba as our guiding lights. 

44:48 Goethe on the Iliad, European history and christianity

45:13 The end of the Homeric Spirit with the World Wars

47:23 The Rivers of Blood Speech, Enoch Powell, the legacy of Babur, the Mughal empire and the future of Islam in the West

52:25 How christianity opposed Greek values and the continued tension between the two.    

Music by Ian Cattanach