Tradition is not something a man can learn; not a thread he picks up when he feels like it; any more than a man can choose his own ancestors. Someone lacking a tradition who would like to have one is… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
The propensity to intellectualize is itself both essential and dangerous. I think in our modern world we are much more aware of its essential… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
Certainly in order to understand the natural world one needs clarity, logic, and the capacity for theory building. But that understanding tends to improve… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
I think the approach to Islam as a tradition is helpful. Tradition helps us to focus on questions about authority and temporality, and about… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
Language has multiple uses, and is embedded in different forms of life. It is not necessary to have this grand concept of "humanity" in… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
Believers are often thought of as people who have some kind of private conviction or repudiation of something, whereas "the faithful" refers to a… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
You do not need intellectuality for deep faith. You do not need it for behaving humanely towards people whether fellow Muslims or non-Muslims. You… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
The Genealogical Science is a wonderful account of how old-fashioned race science has come to be re-defined by resort to the most recent developments… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
In liberal society we claim that freedom of speech is sacred and therefore has an absolute character. But we know (or should know) that… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
“The construction of civilizational difference is not exclusive in any simple sense. The de-essentialization of Islam is paradigmatic for all thinking about the assimilation… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
For the law, the clarity of language and the finality of judgment is crucial, because you have to decide a case one way or… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
You should never employ your intellect but only that it is not essential to exercise it in order to live a humane life. Language… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
The notion of "humanity" as a form of transcendence derives, I think, from the conviction that intellectuality possesses an absolute power, from the demand… — Talal Asad Copy Share Image
