Arabic → English transcript

Do you fast? Do you have prayers? We do pray, do not ask an ignorant person. We pray

Yes. We pray in our own way, and we believe in our own way. We believe in the Quran,

The Quran is the book of the Bani Ma‘ruf. Yes. But at the same time there are

books of wisdom. Are these the secret books? These are secret. Okay. Then he says to you

The Muslim, the ordinary believer, okay, how do you believe in the Qur’an and believe at the same time in books other than the Qur’an?

Here the answer is difficult, here the answer is difficult

and complex. I mean, you really need a wise shaykh to answer this question. You

The first “Witness to History” has been with us for nearly thirty years bearing

a certain doctrine that is considered a political identity and a religious creed at the same time.

My political identity is Arab. I separated creed from it a long time ago. I was raised

in a secular household, through my father’s upbringing or through my father’s and my

mother’s approach. But I was created in an Arab political home and I grew up on that, I grew up

on Arabism. Of course, my tasks and duties over the decades were to defend

the interests of the Druze. To defend, in these repeated wars which ended

I think so, thank God, but it was in defense of the interests of that clan

that small one in Mount Lebanon, from an Arab nationalist standpoint, from an Arab nationalist standpoint

and also from the standpoint that this small mountain in Lebanon had been the focus of conflict

between us and others for decades, even when you go back to Bashir al-Shihabi

and Bashir Jumblatt in 1860, and even before that, even when you go back

to Muhammad Ali’s campaign.