Rydyn yn fawr am gweinio gallu gobeithio cynghwyl ar gael, ac ar gwaith i'r gwasanaeth addysg arall eraill. Rydyn yn fawr gallu gwirionedd gyda llyfr geisio'n arddangos gyda'r sefydliadau hwn i gael gan am ardi. Rydyn yn wybod y gallwn ni chymni'n cael ei wneud arONd yn teimlo i'r adewigce bwysig o wneud ar lanes. Llywodraeth efallai i ddwy'r cyffredig a ddim yn bwysig i'r adeithiau oherwydd ei bod yn aelod am ddyn nhw'n fawr, enthusiasm if it doesn't sound too much like an IT person is to log out of the session and then log back in. You will be able to join the session at any time, so you won't have any problems getting back in and I'll be here throughout the session to admit you into the room if you have to leave for any reason. Also, just to let you know that we do record these sessions just so students who weren't able to attend today can watch this back and also if you would like to watch this back sy'n teimlo i'ch gwneud ychydig fel yw. Ond felly. Na chi'n dewis i'r ffordd rwy'i gweithio'r bydd yn parwyddiad. Ond rydyn ni'n gweld i'n mynd i'n ffordd rydyn ni'n cael gwirionedd y bydd sy'n ardri o ffordd. Rwy'n oed yn awr o nu'r arbennig. Ond oherwydd fante plafnol yma, rydyn ni'n osyn yma, a cyfweld â'r bobl yn ddechreu. Rydyn ni'n gweithio cael gwirionedd yn ffordd. Mae yn ddau'r bobl yn ddechrau, box, ym mwyaf i chi'n gweithio'r gweithio ar-di-fosiwyl i'r cwestiynau i gyd, ac beth yna'r cwestiynau i gyd, byddai'n fyddi'r cwestiynau oedd o'r cwestiynau eich cyfosiwn, o'r myfyrwyd neu i chi'n gweithio'r cwestiynau, rydyn ni'n ffwrdd yn gofyniau i'r cwestiynau i gweithio a chyfodd i chi'n cymryd o'r ysgrifennu as we go through the session and looking to answer any queries you have. Once we've reached the end of the presentation part of the session, if you do have further questions, we do also like to invite you to ask those through the audio, and so again, if you scroll to the bottom of your screen you'll see that you have the raise a hand function there, so towards the end of the presentation if you want to raise any questions do you feel free to pop your raise a hand on and then we'll be able to invite you to unmute and then ask a question. You can also have your videos on if you would like to or you can keep them off if you prefer. I always think it's nice when we get into the discussion point to have your videos on. I think it's just nice to see everybody but again it's a personal preference for yourself. And then lastly just to say that we will be sending round the recordings of these after the session, so again if you want to watch them back you have plenty of time to do so. And what I'll do is I will just pop my details into the chat now so that you have them should anything happen and you're not able to get back into the session or you just want to have some follow-up questions after the session. I will be able to answer any follow-up questions you have on general kind of student experience, anything to do with the admissions process, so getting your place with us and any of the administrative parts, so do feel free to pop anything through to me on the email that I've just put into the chat and so now I'll hand over to the lovely Sean. Hi everyone, thanks very much for coming this morning. My name is Sean Hawthorne and I am the convener, which means I'm the administrator of the BA world philosophies at SAAS. What I'm going to do this morning is just kind of introduce you to the approach that we take to philosophy at SAAS, give you a sense of the structure of the programme, the other elements of the support system that you have at SAAS and then we'll have, as Kimberly says, plenty of time for questions and you're always welcome to follow up with me after this session even if you would just like to have a one-to-one chat with me, I'm really happy to arrange that with you. So welcome to the presentation of the overview of world's philosophies. Now, philosophies at SAAS is very, well not very different, but it takes a quite different approach to other philosophy programmes that you might find throughout the rest of the country and the reason for that is that our institution focuses on the cultures, the societies, the politics, the histories and so on of the regions of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Now, when you study philosophy at university, you rarely encounter the fact that most cultures throughout history have actually engaged in the kinds of questions that philosophy does. What you find in most philosophy programmes is an emphasis on largely Anglo-American philosophy or European philosophy, but we want to introduce our students to the idea that other cultures have very rich intellectual traditions that have in many ways actually influenced a lot of developments in European philosophy. So we want to make sure that you recognise that philosophy is in fact a global discipline full of interesting cross-cultural dialogues that have informed the ways in which philosophers have answered some of the big questions. What is the meaning of life? What is the nature of truth? How can I really know that what I know is true and so on? So our intention in this programme is to ensure that our treatments of philosophy reflects the intellectual traditions of the world, not just Europe, not just the Anglophone world. That said, it's not as though we neglect European or Anglophone philosophy. We emphasise the dialogue that is possible when you put these traditions alongside each other, whether we're talking about Chinese philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Enlightenment philosophy. So here we would be thinking about thinkers such as David Hume or Emmanuel Kant. These philosophical traditions are able to have very interesting conversations between each other, such that we're able to reflect more deeply on some of those big questions. We also think it's really important that you understand philosophical traditions in their own terms. They're not all the same. They're not all asking the same questions. They're trying to respond to issues in their own societies, whether that's historically or in the contemporary era in ways that speak to the people of their societies. So we try to make sure that you have plenty of exposure to the specificity, the specifics of individual intellectual traditions, Indian philosophy, Chinese thought, Islamic philosophy, African philosophy, and so on. But we also want to make sure that you experience a philosophy degree. So we make sure that you are trained in the main branches of philosophy, the sub-branches, as they're often known. That's logic, ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, which is the study of how we know what we know, hermeneutics, which are theories of interpretation, how when we read something we know that we are at least approximating what the original author wanted to convey, and ontology, which is the study of what it is to exist to be, what's the meaning of life, those really big questions. And then finally, I think another element that makes our philosophy programme quite unique is that we pay very close attention to some very contemporary debates around decolonisation, meaning how do we ensure that what we're studying doesn't repeat some of the mistakes and the problems of the past that were involved in the European colonisation of most of the world, where European ideas were introduced to other societies and were used to kind of structure them, but also to create a sense of European superiority and the inferiority of other cultures. And we really want to challenge that. We also pay close attention to questions of race, gender, disability, sexuality, in the ways in which ideas always come from who you are, not simply what you are. So I would say that in a nutshell, that is the kind of approach that we take to philosophy at SARS. And these are the things I think that mark our programme out as really quite different from most of the philosophy programmes in the rest of the UK, if in fact not in the rest of the world. It really is quite a unique programme. Now I just want to introduce you to the main teaching team. These three people, myself included, are the people who teach the core elements of the programme. Dr Andrew Hines, he is a specialist in European thought continental philosophy from Europe, but is very interested and does a lot of work on how to put those that European thought in conversation with particularly Islamic and African philosophy, as well as Indian thought. And he also does some work on Chinese thought. Dr Elvis Emmaffadon is a specialist in African philosophy, but he's also a great expert in theories of interpretation and ethics. And then finally myself, I'm the convener of the programme and I teach largely on questions of race, decolonisation and issues of perspectives coming from disability, sexuality, gender and so on. Of course, there are many other people teaching on this programme, but we're the ones that teach the core curriculum. That's where you get a real grip on the subfields of philosophy, logic, ethics, philosophies of language and so on and so forth. You'll encounter plenty of others who are specialists in individual intellectual traditions. On that note, just to tell you what the structure of the programme looks like, what we have is that over the course of the three years that you study with us, if you're doing a single honours degree, meaning you're just doing world philosophies, your choice expands over time and what we try to ensure is that you're able to build a specialism in an intellectual tradition, whilst nonetheless getting the core issues and philosophy under your belt. In year one, you don't really have any choice at all and that's because we need to make sure that you've got the foundations to make sure that in the second and third year you're able to build on those. You do a course on world philosophies in context, that's surveying history of philosophy across the world, looking at major themes in different intellectual traditions. You do a course called Reading and Writing Philosophy, which is really training you to read philosophical texts but also increasingly to be able to produce them yourself to create robust arguments. There's also a course called Methods, Themes and Debates in World Philosophies and that's looking at the difference of world philosophies to perhaps a more conventional understanding of what philosophy is and what you need to be able to engage successfully with the questions that arise when you start to expand what philosophy means. There's your course called Philosophy, Race and Racism, that's a course that I teach and that is a course that looks at the history of racism within the discipline of philosophy and then looks at the kind of ways in which philosophers of colour, black philosophers, indigenous philosophers start to both criticise the discipline of philosophy but produce their own philosophies and in the second term you are introduced to the subfields of philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, epistemology and logic as well and those are all courses that approach the the subfields drawing on resources for many of the world's different intellectual traditions. In the second year you then begin to engage with the questions of cross-cultural interpretation that provide a really good foundation for your for your encounter with the intellectual traditions of the world. So you do a full-year module called Philosophies of Interpretation and Understanding looking at how perhaps understanding sometimes fails across different cultural manures what kind of common language we might need to understand things that are different from perhaps those which we have encountered before and some of the questions of power that often accompany the possibility of interpretation, the use of language and so on and then you're able to do to select modules in what we call the traditions of philosophy whether that's Indian philosophy or Indian Buddhist philosophy, classical Chinese thought, African philosophy, Islam or Islamic thought relationship to rationality, Jewish thought and Zoroastrianism which was a very influential intellectual tradition on the kind of philosophical dimensions of both Judaism of all Judaism Christianity and Islam so it's a very good kind of grounding to understand how preoccupations with for example the nature of evil develop as well as perhaps more abstract ideas such as why we see the world in terms of this and not that and so on. So these modules all provide a really good kind of introduction to modules that are then available in the second year where we move to a much more advanced level. Your module called the margins of philosophy which is another course that I teach and that is really preoccupied with those bodies of thought that philosophy has traditionally excluded such as perspectives from disabled thinkers, queer thinkers, postcolonial black thinkers, feminist thinkers and so on as a means of making philosophy much more hospitable to groups or communities that have not been considered to have anything to offer to philosophy and we show that actually they have a great deal to offer. You can also do an independent study project which is a 10,000 word essay where you are supervised by a member of staff who is a specialist in what you want to work on and this is really an opportunity for you to get much more involved in researching something that really interests you over the course of your degree and then again we have these kind of traditions of philosophy modules that you're able to do that builds on the modules that you've done in the previous year and again you know if you want to specialise in Chinese thought or Islamic thought, Jewish thought, Indian thought and so on are you able to kind of build up that specialism through the modules that are available. Now if you're interested in doing a joint honours degree and there are many combinations that you can do and you can just go to the website to have a look at that, what combinations of degrees you can do, you can only do, well you have to do fewer options but nonetheless you still fulfil the core components that the single honours students do, you just have to choose which ones you want to do in any given year but all of the modules that are available to the single honours students are also available to you if you're doing joint honours, you just don't have as much choice because you have to also do a similar number of credits in your other subject. I should also add that for single honours students in any given year you're able to exchange 30 credits whether that's a two 15 credit modules or a 30 credit module for either a language or for a module that is available in another department so that perhaps you're interested in political thought and so you want to do a module in the politics department that's completely open to you. That's not possible in the joint honours programme because you have to fulfil the right number of credits in each of your subject areas and you've got enough on your hands to do that. Now that gives you a sense of the structure of the programme but it's probably useful to know the kind of support that will be available to you as you go through the programme. Every student on the programme is assigned an academic advisor who you meet with at least once a term, usually often a bit more often than that, just to check your progress, make sure that you're happy, make sure that you're performing to the best of your ability and also looking to the future, the kinds of careers or things that you might want to do next and really support and you can reach in your goals. You have access to the programme convener so I just want to dispel your error there, that's me, you can come to me at any time and talk to me about any issues that you're having but also you can talk to me about your module choices, kinds of things that you're interested in and I'm also there to provide pastoral support as well if you're really having a rough time that I'm very happy just to sit with you and to talk to you, talk you through what's happening as well as finding ways in which we can support you. Every year of the programme also has student representatives and these are there to bring to my attention but also to the core teaching team any kind of broader problems or issues or things that perhaps you are unhappy with in the programme so that we can fix those quickly and this is a nice and anonymous way of making sure that we're aware of any struggles that are going on. You have weekly contact with your lecturers, certainly in the first year you will have an average of between three to four hours contact time with your lecturers that will be in the classroom in seminars but also in office hours and that's office hours where you can just pop in to your teacher's office and talk to them about particular questions that you have about the course you're doing with them, advice about writing some of the coursework or exams that kind of thing and then outside of the department we also have a number of support services. There's the student wellbeing and advice department that offers a whole range of services whether that's to do with mental health, support for various types of disability, financial advice, career advice although the career service is also somewhat independent of them, advice on housing and so on and they're a really good kind of first port to go to if there's any aspect of studying and living in SAAS that you need extra support with. There's also an excellent learning and teaching support department that offers individual sessions so you can go to them with your coursework when you've had it returned if you're not happy with your grade and get some training about how to improve it but they also offer a bunch of different courses and workshops on a number of study skills like knowing how to read, knowing how to structure SAAS that kind of thing and then finally our career service is really extraordinarily good and has many excellent connections to various industries that our SAAS students are very well placed in but they also offer clinics on shaping your CV enabling you to get volunteering and internship experience and all of that kind of stuff so if you come to us I always encourage our first two students to make a point in visiting them right from the get go so that you've got a really good sense of where you want to get to by the end of the degree. Now at the same time whilst the degree at SAAS is quite unique, SAAS itself is a unique and I have to say fantastic institution. I myself and an alumnus of SAAS I did both my undergraduate degree at SAAS and my PhD at SAAS. It's a very special institution it's a kind of hidden jewel it has an outstanding research culture meaning that every member of staff at SAAS is involved in producing books, journal articles and so on that are at the cutting edge of the field. We're actively thinking and writing all the time about the kinds of things you're going to encounter in the classroom and our department is second in the UK for research that is recognised as internationally excellent meaning it's right up there. In terms of philosophy departments in the UK we are in the top 20 philosophy departments likely in fact in the next round of league tables to go up sorry this is slightly out of date our NSS score was actually 99% I think this year meaning the national student survey for satisfaction with the degree as a whole that was our third year student saying that they they super enjoyed the degree and highly recommend it. Our teaching is silver in the teaching excellence framework which means that we produce excellent outcomes for our students and we have a very high employability rate for our graduates so 97% of graduates are in employment or they go on to do master's degree within six months of finishing their degree SAAS. Students are highly employable, highly sought out by employers of various dimensions and here's a very kind of general list of the kinds of areas that our students go on to after they finish their degrees with us and so as you can see a philosophy degree from SAAS prepares you really to answer any industry that you might be interested in or to go on to further study which I would say probably about a third to a quarter of our students go on to do. In terms of our entrance requirements we accept students with A level results either AAB or ABB. Generally we tend to look more carefully at those but predicted at least grades of ABB looking carefully at the personal statement to see whether you're going to fit in well and you know our concern is that you end up doing a degree that you want to and that you're going to enjoy not that you're not capable of doing it. If you're doing the IB then we accept students with 35 or 665 at HL. We don't require you to have done philosophy at A level or RE but it doesn't hurt you to have done this but it's certainly not going to count against you if you haven't. It's just as fine if you've done perhaps science degree sorry science A levels or you've done a mix or you've done I don't know you know English literature history and physics or whatever we're never going to hold that against you. We're interested really more than anything in your personal statement and why it is that you want to study with us. If you don't have any kind of standard qualifications but we think that your personal statement is interesting and that you'll probably be a good match for us then we will generally invite you for an interview and that's really just to kind of talk through your interest what you've done in your life and to establish whether were you to come to us that you wouldn't be paying out lots of money and not having a good result at the end of it so it's not a threatening thing it's really just to make sure that you're going to be okay with us and there you can see that there's a some links to how to apply and I know Kimberly is here to answer any questions if you've got any questions about that so that's the kind of very quick and general overview of the program and I'm really now happy to answer any questions that you've got and if you want to unmute yourselves to ask those if you just want to type in the chat that's absolutely fine I'm really happy to answer any questions that you've got as I know Kimberly is as well and I'm just going to catch up on the on the chat while we're doing this. So yes I think in the chat there was a few questions about alternative qualifications and our website is just being updated at the moment so we do recognise qualifications from around the world and so if you haven't got A levels but you have another qualification you should be able to find that all on the website at the moment but if you have any trouble doing that I have put my email address in the chat box for you and you can send that over we do have regional specialists in our equipment team who will be able to advise you on mostly every qualification that is out there and if there's something that we haven't come across before we're more than welcome to look into it and just see that it's the equivalent level to students that we have coming in or just make sure that we think you'd feel comfortable and prepared for the programmes as they are so do send that over to me but also do check our website as well and then I can see that there was another quick question that said can we come and visit the campus so yes yes definitely we have two we have visit campus visits every two weeks and then also we will have a number of events happening throughout the year for you to visit campus on open days which this is a virtual open day but we also have in-person open days and that's I think it's good to participate in both you get a different feel from either one of them but I do think it's a good idea to come to SOAS and to see SOAS and to kind of do it when term is on so that you can see what it's like when students are here it is a little bit different obviously at the moment because we are still coming a little bit out of Covid so we have some in-person teaching and some online teaching but I still think it will give you that experience and I would say for any students who are able to visit universities around the UK it is such an important factor of whether you feel like the university is going to be the right fit for you obviously academic wise it's kind of a priority for you but I think when you're thinking about your studies you also need to think is it somewhere I'm going to be at home is it somewhere I'm going to thrive is it the right environment for me and every university is different in itself so I think really being able to travel around and see different universities will help you to make sure that you're one making the right choices of you to apply to but also in your final decision of where to go yeah I think you know what you don't perhaps get from an online presentation and so on is a sense of the kind of vibrancy of the campus the it's quite a small campus so there's a kind of lot of hustle and bustle but that means that people really make excellent friendships there's plenty to get involved in it also means that it's quite an informal place it's not a lot of kind of how would I say you know formality between lecturers and students we really do consider ourselves to be a close community and I don't think that you necessarily pick that up unless you come to the campus so you know do make sure that you book a campus visit I'm also really really happy to meet with you on campus I'm not going to be on campus until the beginning of November but I would be more than happy to meet with you and show you around as well I also see that there's a question here about the options to study abroad while doing philosophy and language if you do a joint honours degree with a language you get a year abroad by default if you choose the four year option and there's no extra charge for that other than that you're paying four years of fees although can really correct me if I'm wrong um the year abroad is do we pay less or not I'm not sure about that yes there is a slight difference in fees and I'll put that information um in the uh on a link for you and put it into the chat as well um and one thing I should also say is the school as a whole is currently developing plans to enable either a semester abroad or a year abroad for all degree programmes at SAWAS but that's still very much in the kind of discussion stage and the negotiation stage but we think that you know encountering the cultures that you're studying about is a really really important aspect of studying at SAWAS so we you know we're really pushing to make sure that that's part of the opportunities that you have available to you and I would say that even at SAWAS as a student who's coming into our programmes we are 54% international in terms of our student body and we have students joining us from all around the world so that is again part of the sort of the benefit of being at SAWAS when people always tell me okay tell me what's what's special about SAWAS and tell me what makes your programmes unique and I I talk through kind of the very interdisciplinary approach that we have I talk through the great academic staff that we have but I always say that one of you know the real kind of the real kind of selling points if you will if you if it was selling would be our students in that they come from lots of different countries lots of different perspectives lots of different backgrounds cultures and but the one thing that they all have in common is that they want to share that and they want to learn about other people from other backgrounds and sometimes you might not all have the same opinions the same ideas but the fact is that the SAWAS student wants to hear everybody else's ideas everybody else's opinions they want to know about it they want to know why it's different to what they think they want to know is should it be different to what I think and and you're probably fine when you come to SAWAS that you might have some very fixed ideas that you have that will be wildly different to when you leave SAWAS so I think that's really part part of it and a language is in itself as well when you're on the SAWAS campus and you're walking around it's not uncommon within about a 20 minute duration to have heard seven different languages so I think that again is one of the beauties of SAWAS. I couldn't agree more actually I think you know I think our secret selling point is really our students and how much students to get their contribution to the learning experience so it's not just in the classroom it's really those conversations that you have in the hallway over a coffee in the quad or whatever where you're really encountering all sorts of different ways of looking at the world and and you know and I often feel as a as a teacher as a lecturer at SAWAS that I too am constantly learning and being challenged by my students and it's just such an enormous joy to be in the classroom with so many different people and just being challenged and and you know often having a good laugh at the kinds of misunderstandings that we might have but all you know in the end coming together and realizing that we're all in it together and that we can really develop friendships and warmth out of those encounters and I think you know in a world where your cultural difference often seems so kind of polarized what you find at SAWAS is actually really great ways of resolving some of that difference coming together respecting each other respecting our differences. So yeah I think that's probably one of the things that makes SAWAS one of the best places certainly to work and I hope to study as well. Yeah I think even in the classroom as well you can even be coming at things from different perspectives so because we have a very interdisciplinary approach but we believe that all of the subjects we teach are kind of intersected and interconnected with each other you could be in a classroom where actually you have economic students studying alongside you you have politics students studying alongside you you have anthropology students and you're approaching that particular module that particular class from a different perspective but then you're kind of learning off of each other and you realize that the world isn't built that way we don't live in silos where we can only think from one perspective and only think with one kind of goal whatever you do will be impacted by lots of different things and so I think that's really kind of what you gain in terms of coming to SAWAS and coming to an institution that is smaller that does have maybe a more specialist portfolio of programmes but actually it then widens your own kind of opinions and ideas because you can dip your toe into all of these different areas. So true. Do you see if there's any questions that we've missed? Do you feel free to add in any questions? There's no such thing as a silly question at all so do you feel free to pop in anything that you'd like there or if there's anything that we've touched upon in the earlier presentation that you might want to know just a little bit more about do you feel free to pop them in or pop your hands up if you'd like to as well? And also feel free to tell us just a little bit about who you are and why you're interested in this particular programme. Linda just on alternative qualifications do you feel free to email me? I'll just put my email address there and I'll tell you whether those would work for you. I should add that we actually do attract quite a lot of mature students who of course often do have you know or perhaps today levels a long time ago or who have quite a lot of life experience or employment experience and we always consider that and we find that our mature students not that I'm suggesting that you are Linda but that our mature students actually do very well in the programme usually are at the top of the class just as far as which A levels would be preferable. I think Kim has answered that quite well but we certainly do you know have students on the programme who perhaps under maths A level or an economics A level and so on so you know as long as you meet our requirements because of our approach to philosophy we're not assuming that you've got any kind of background knowledge of our approach and that's why we spend quite a lot of the first year of getting you all on the same page. So it's not that your A levels don't matter per say what the subjects are. I think Kim is right that you know social sciences and the humanities do kind of give you the tools for a certain way of thinking and producing forms of coursework those kinds of things but we're not necessarily assuming that you've done a lot of philosophy in the past. Any other questions? Probably quite a lot to take in but yeah do you feel free to ask any further questions that you might have or obviously follow up with any emails that you might have about the programme. And as I say I'm really happy to just meet with you one on one for the moment on Zoom but in a couple of weeks I'll be able to potentially meet in person on the campus. Well if there are no other questions from there we'll probably that's an excellent question. No I mean if you do have knowledge of a language before you come to science to study it all that happens is that you're given an assessment at the beginning of the year and you are placed in the level that is most suitable to you but none of the first year language modules ever assume that you have had previous training in that with the exception of Arabic because Arabic has lots of different types of first year modules and they have for example modules where perhaps you have you've grown up in an Arab family even if you're living in the the UK and so perhaps you've encountered some Arabic at home or whatever so there'll be a particular class for you if that's your you know it's a kind of heritage class but there are also of course Arabic classes that don't assume any prior knowledge whatsoever and that is the same for all of the languages that we teach at SAAS. Okay last chance to ask any questions and if not we can say a fond farewell and I hope to hear from you my email is there Kims is there really feel free to email us with any additional questions that you've got or you know any advice in fact if you're thinking of applying and you want to know how to craft your personal statement then I can certainly help you with that as well. Yeah so once again thank you all for attending today and we will be sending out a recording of this session to you in case you want to go through any of the presentation again and there are a lot of other sessions on today as well if you have any interest in attending those but I would say I did put into the chat earlier and I'll make sure it's included in the emails that go out to you is a link to our web page that will tell you about all of the events throughout the year and you know I know some of you are listening in today and thinking about this next upcoming year or possibly the next year or possibly the next year from that so I really would say to get involved in as many of the events either online or in person I think it just really helps you to know like I say which universities you might be wanting to apply to and then once you get to the point where you're making the decision which university really fits from you I think getting involved is a very so ass thing it's something that you'll do when you're with us in that you'll be a student who's obviously attending obviously your classes but you're likely to be attending lots of open events throughout the year which are either for your particular study area or just generally around the university so we have lots of open lectures book launches film screenings that happen throughout the year that could be within your area could be outside of that and our students do attend and then there's obviously lots of different student societies our students are activists and so they do get involved in lots of different forms of activism so sometimes that is protesting albeit peaceful and violent other times it could be something like getting involved with just education on different kind of topics and areas and discussions it could be working in the kind of charitable areas so I think that's something that you'll be very used to if you end up coming to us so why not start that now a little bit earlier on in terms of just taking advantage of all of the different sessions that we run online and in person so again I'll just thank you all for your time and for attending and thank you Sean so much for a great overview of the programmes and hopefully a lovely welcome to the department yeah absolute pleasure thank you so much all for coming and thanks Kim for your support and hope to hear from you all before too long thanks a lot thank you everybody bye bye


Sulfites and wine. It's a hot topic. We're going to demystify sulfites and taste some bottles that have no sulfur added in this video. Welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horkey. We're still locked down here in Zagreb. That's why my hair is crazy and all over the place. It's going to get cut soon. I'm finally getting my hair cut, so I'm excited.  Let's get into the topic of today. We're going to talk about sulfites in wine. Something that's searched for a lot. People discuss, have arguments about. We're going to talk a little bit about it, and then I'm going to taste some wines that are made with no sulfur added, which is kind of cool. First of all, what you need to know when we talk about sulfites and wine. When we talk about sulfites and wine, it's really sulfur dioxide, or SO2. You have to know that it's impossible to have a totally sulfur free wine because sulfur dioxide is a byproduct, a natural byproduct of fermentation. SO2 is also a preservative, so it helps preserve. It's an antioxidant. It helps keep wines fresh. This isn't going to be a video about health and sulfur and wine and headaches because that's quite a contentious topic. I don't think there's any definitive research one way or the other about that. But I do want to clarify how sulfur is used in wine. The use of sulfites in wine can be traced back hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Some people say the Greeks knew about it. Some people say it was invented by the Romans. That's something that's up to debate. One thing that we do know for sure. In terms of wine making, it was first mentioned as a written use of wine making by the Germans back in the 15th century. In the USA, they allow around 350 milligrams per liter of sulfur to be used in wine. In Europe, I think it's around 210 for dry wines, for sweet wines. It's a lot more than that. With those numbers, a bottle of juice or sauerkraut or any other pickled vegetables can have as much sulfur as a bottle of wine. For those of you that are enjoying a package of dried fruits, those can have anywhere from 5 to 10 times the amount of sulfites than a bottle of wine. I talked about earlier how sulfur dioxide is a natural byproduct of fermentation. But sulfites can be added throughout the wine making process. They can be added to the grapes after they've been picked to protect them. They can be added to the grapes while they're being crushed. They can be added during different phases of fermentation. They can be added to stop malolactic fermentation during barrel maturation and of course before the wines are actually put into the bottle. Lately, with the whole natural wine trend, there's a lot of non-sulfur added wines on the market. I personally think that I'm not a winemaker, but I do see a lot of winemakers experimenting with the technique. I think that sometimes they take it on as a challenge. There are a lot of regions around the world that bottle and produce wines with no sulfur added. I mean, when you think about it, think of the Quavy Rinds in Georgia. I've seen some in Armenia. I think the mecca of kind of macerated natural wine production in Colio, Italy and the border of western Slovenia. You'll find a lot of wines there with no sulfur added.  And I've also seen some made in America. I don't know where all the fad really, really kind of started, but some people attributed it actually to Beaujolais in France, which is cool, and the Rhône here, which we're going to taste some of these wines here today. I have a selection of wines from the Rhône. We actually have four from Château de la Jardine and Château de Pop, which is really cool. We're going to taste these. We have actually a Château de Pop made in traditional style with sulfites added. And then we have one that had no sulfur added during the entire process. We actually have the same thing too from Château de la Jardine from the village of Rastau. We have also this wine from Domain des Ferrand. They only add sulfur right before the wines are put into the bottle, which is really cool. Let's start out with this. This is a cool wine. I wanted to retaste it. I've had it open for three days. This is a brand new wine made by a young woman, Elodie Jean. She's the daughter of the owner of the estate Domain des Chansons. This is the Elodie Jean Côte de Rhône 2019. So it's fresh wine, 70% Syrah, 30% Grenache in Croncrete. No sulfur added at any point in time here. It's pitch black when you think about it. This is a darker wine. It's got a little more concentration than a normal Rhone wine. I'm excited to retaste this when we first opened it. I was actually quite impressed for her in this style. It's quite clean. What can happen if people don't use sulfur? The wines can sometimes have funny aromas. Mousiness is the common thing. It's almost tasted like a wet fur type of flavor during the finish and sometimes in the nose. This wine has none of that, especially after being open for three days. The Syrah really sticks out here. Black fruit, blackberry, pepper, some kind of meat. This wine is made from organically grown grapes, spontaneous fermentation, so it's quite a natural wine. You're going to find it in those type of bars. Hipster people call it glug glug wine, so to speak. More full bodied in style. Tannins are grippy, not overly big. Definitely you have the Syrahiness, this wildness, the stemmingness, this gaminess really stands out. This is definitely a raw wine. What I mean by a raw wine is when you have vegetables, like carrots, celery, potato, stuff you use in a soup. If you have that raw, it's going to taste a little bit different from after you boil it or make it in a soup. That's why I compare more wines that people are used to drinking. Those wines are finished. They'll be like the cooked vegetables. Raw wines are more like obviously the raw vegetables.  I think this is very good. I have to give her a ton of credit. I'll be retasting it. We'll be scoring it on our upcoming article we have coming up. But I think I'm pretty much in this style like an 88-89 point type of wine. So let's see what the jardines taste like. So we're tasting the Château de la Jardine, the two chattens of the Pops. The tradition, which is made in obviously normal style. And then the Le Bleu, Le Pieu Bleu, I think, which is made without any sulfur added. The tradition, the regular Château de la Pops. It's so funny. To me, this doesn't taste like normal Château de la Pops. I think Cherine pointed it out that it kind of reminds of a Brunel de Montalcino, which I totally agree. Because for me on the nose, you get a lot of leathery notes, cedar notes. Instead of a ripe strawberry note that I'm used to in Grenache, I'm getting in this more of a sour cherry note. Full body round, you can definitely detect the oak, which makes the wine quite polished. It's so funny. I looked back at my notes. I actually tasted this last year at the printemps de Château de la Pops. I'm in kind of like the 91 point range. I think it's really good. The one with no sulfur is actually a little bit more interesting, I think. Pure blue. The pure blue. Oh, it sounds so good. Yes. The pure blue is actually one-third Grenache, one-third Morvedre, and one-third Syrah. And it has no oak, only agent stainless steel. What they do is because there's no sulfur added into the wines, they inject some carbon dioxide. So I just shake it up and you have a little bit of spritz come out. That kind of protects the wine. Since we talked about sulfur is a preservative of wine. I don't know what the actual measurement of sulfur is. And these sulfur-free wines you are going to get, you are going to see some levels of sulfur. I think I know France just did their natural wine certification. I can't remember what levels of sulfur that they allow. I think it's somewhere like under 100 milligrams per liter, I think. In really natural low sulfur wines, you'll see way even below that, you know, below 30, below 25 sometimes. So it'd be interesting to see what this is. In general, Shireen and I are a fan of producers using sulfur, even natural wines, am I right? Because we want the wines to be clean. We don't want them to have these off-er, almost these mousy flavors. Now the pure blue, very fruity. Like I talked again about that kind of raw vegetable, this is more of a pure fruit nose. Blackberry, blue fruit, black cherry, a little bit of pepper, maybe a little bit of stemminess. Shireen says some vegetables. I don't know if I get vegetables. Vegetables. No off-er, almost here. Chewy tans. Like I said, more of a raw style wine. This is going to definitely find its place in natural wine type bars. This wine is always changing. I've opened it, I've been tasting it for the last couple of hours. I still don't even know how to correctly assess this. What I can say it's clean, it's super well made. It's definitely a wine that, to me, I think it's going to be over a 90-point type wine. I don't think it can jump up humongous levels. I really like to see how these wines age. I think that would be really interesting. Once this puts on some tertiary notes, it might be a little bit more interesting. So let's now see how the rationale tastes. Whoa, and I'm back. New haircut, new location. Finally ended in Zagreb, so I was able to chop off the fro that I had going on. Actually, as the night went on, the Château de la Jardine pure blue Château de Papres got really nice, open with air, had some really floral notes. I headed up at about 92 points. I thought it was phenomenal wine. I'm just really interested to see how it age. Now we're going to taste the Rastau made in a traditional, made in the kind of conventional way and one made without sulfur. Rastau is a village in the Southern Rhone. It's a little bit northeast of Château de Papres. It only became a crew, an official AOC in 2010. So kind of brand new, same kind of varieties, Rhone varieties. I love the 2016 Château de la Jardine Rastau. Last year when we tasted it, I'm excited to taste the 2017. Both these wines are 75% Grenache, 25% Syrah. The first one is really just lovely. A pure strawberries rose petal. A little bit of mineral. Really nice. It's kind of in between the concentration. It smells like a big Château de Papres in a Cote d'Orone. I mean typically it's a Cote d'Orone village, right? So full body, super peppery, nice tannins. This is just as good as last year. I mean this is, I'll have to taste through the night but definitely for me a wine that's going to be kind of like a 90 plus point wine. Let's try the next one. This is the Château de la Jardine Rastau. This is the Mempapure. Let's see if I'm pronouncing that right. Which translates literally to not afraid. They're not afraid to not use Sulfur 2018. This has a little bit of CO2 to protect the wine. And once again, it's a little bit more raw. Like we talked about raw vegetables versus cooked vegetables. Both are good. It just depends on which one you like. I like salad. Shareen likes cooked vegetables. So let's give this a smell here. So just a little bit more raw. Kind of more violets, more stem, but still a lot of strawberry notes. Pepper, this one has more kind of like crushed rock type flavors. This one's got sweeter fruit. A little bit of just a slight mild tingly sensation. Why here it is when if you have these wines at home you gotta decant them and shake them up to get the CO2 out. I mean both are peppery wines. This one, the tradition, the rest is a little bit more a little more fuller in body. The mempapur sorry is a little bit more sweeter fruit. So both nice. Really cool that you can see the difference in wine making styles. And it's so happy for me to see all the wines we tasted were clean without Sulfur. No fault. So those wines out there do exist. My suggestion to you, if there's somebody that's Sulfite do concern you, look for these wines that have no Sulfur added.  Ask the wine store manager or the guy that's selling is the wine more like a traditional type of wine? Is it more like a conventional, like a normal type of wine or is it more of a raw natural type wine? Because those wines can be off-putting to some people. So check them out. I had a lot of fun tasting through all these types of wines. We enjoy both kinds. You have to stay tuned for our upcoming article on some of the Côte d'Orone cruise. So guys, if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel, and I will see you at the next episode.


For more videos on People's Struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. My name is Zoe and this is Around the World in 8 Minutes where we bring you stories of struggle and resistance of common people united in the rejection of this unjust system. For our first story, we take you to Colombia, where social movements and human rights organizations are denouncing the detention of three peasant leaders that took place between December 15th and 16th. Roberto Taza, Adelso Gallo, Teofilo Acuña were arrested by members of the National Police and the Attorney General's Office and have been accused of pertaining to an armed guerrilla group. Movements have denounced the charges and setups and alleged that the arrests are part of the repressive strategy of the government of Iván Duque to persecute and criminalize social dissent in the country. The three leaders, which hail from different regions in the country, are well-recognized within Colombia and across the world for their work in defense of the land against multinational extractive projects of human rights and of the project to guarantee a dignified life for all in Colombia. They are part of the National Peasant Organization El Cuerde Aor Nacional Agrario as well as a platform of social movements, the People's Congress. They're also leaders and spokespersons of the Agrarian Peasant Ethnic and Popular Summit, a platform of rural organizations and people's movements formed following the massive agrarian strike in Colombia in 2013. They have vowed to fight this political persecution and prove their innocence. The arrests occur in a moment of increased harassment and violence against organized communities in Colombia. According to a report released by Indepas on December 15th, 85 massacres have been carried out in 2020 alone and over 1090 social leaders have been assassinated since 2016. We now go to India where despite a brutal cold wave, tens of thousands of farmers continue to be camped out on the borders of Delhi, demanding the withdrawal of three farm laws. The farmers feel these three laws will drive down the prices they get for their produce and will lead to greater corporate role in agriculture. The government has offered some concessions but has refused to accept their central demand. Meanwhile, sections associated with India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have continued to spread rumors and misinformation about the protest, despite the widespread support is gaining across the country. The farmers, however, have refused to yield. They see it as not just a struggle for their livelihood but also their democratic rights. We talk to a farmer's leader who explains more on this. We believe that the government's prestige, the prestige of Mr. Modi's and the government's prestige, is at stake. The way forward for us is that if we are sitting here, then we have to reform and reinforce the principle of Delhi. We have to call on other people. We have to discipline it more. We have to regularize it and make it systematic. And along with this, we have to call on the people of the country, the farmers, the people, the farmers and the people to take this issue, or the farmers' issue, and make it a matter of the country. Students, youth, employees, all think that agriculture is a matter of the country. It's a crisis, it's our crisis. It's our problem to resolve this crisis. So, for the people of the country to resolve this crisis, let's come to the field, and let's come to the field and form a united nation, people of any language, some religion, some caste. But let's come together and form a movement in the whole country. Which you are saying that I am also thinking that after the first 47, there has been a big wave like this. And to make it a more qualitatively big wave, I want to say again that the wave that should be interventioned in the political narrative of the country, should be changed in that wave. Next, we head to Bolivia, which after a year of struggle on the streets and highways against the coup and dictatorship led by the Bolivian far right and supported by the United States and the Organization of American States, they successfully held elections on October 18th, where in the movement towards socialism won in a landslide victory. Since then, movements and elected leaders in Bolivia have been working to recover what was lost under the year of dictatorship, economically, socially and politically, as well as taking forward the fight for justice. We spoke to Andrónico Rodríguez, a trade union leader from the tropics of Cochabamba, and now president of Bolivia's Senate, about these challenges and the tasks ahead. Organizing, registering, in a very responsible way, in the Senate's chamber, we have a great responsibility ahead of us, reconciliation, but with a lot of responsibility and of course what is required is for justice to be materialized for our brothers and sisters who have been victims of this criminal act in Bolivia. But beyond all this, we are in the obligation to reactivate the economy, social stability, economic policy, Bolivia has been paralyzed for more than almost a year and it is a great responsibility of the Senate's chamber to help in this sense the executive to take forward reconciliation with justice and of course economic reactivation, generation of jobs and again achieve social stability, economic policy. See you next week for another episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes and don't forget to check out our website at peoplesdispatch.org. We're going to sing, we're going to triumph, we're going to advance, we're going to march in unity.


What's up everybody? Jason here for jasperyscasebrakes.com. It's just a 1920 panini. Oh, sorry. I don't keep on saying panini. Hip Parade basketball. Every time I think of basketball, I just think of panini. This is Platinum Edition, Limited Edition, Series 14, five box hobby, half case break, number two random teams. And again, this is a little buyback from Hip Parade. We did the first half right now in a separate video. This is the second half. The five remaining boxes out of the case, number 30 total spots. All teams in. Everybody gets a random team in the NBA. One incredible autograph for a box. So again, high risk, but a very high reward. Only 100 hand numbered boxes produced. And again, take a look at the superstars and hall of famers in Series 14 from Lugadanchitz, Rustbrook, Trey Young, Harding, Kobe, Durant, all the way down to Yaoming, and many more. So good luck. Let's do the break, guys. Roll it. And we got ourselves a four to four. Eight the hard way. Good luck. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Michael, done a carol. All right. There you go. Eight times. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Box down to the heat. Michael with the Hawks. Andrew with the Nuggets. Michael with the Raptors. Zach with the Spurs. Charles with the Blazers and Clippers. Michael with the Celtics. John with the Sons. Brents with the Pelicans. Chad with the Mavericks. Danny with the 76ers. Roger with the Jazz. Zach with the Nets. Ryan with the Wizards. Jason with the Rockets. Joseph with the Hornets. Charles with the Grizzlies. Joe with the Pistons. Carol with the Lakers. SKS with the Cavs. Jeff with the Bulls. Zach with the Thunder. Brents with the Kings. Joe with the Knicks. Jeff with the Pacers. Jonathan with the Warriors. Brents with the T-Wheels. Carol with the Magic and Heat. So again, if anybody wants to make any trades, let me know if not we're starting. A Bubby Liz is here. I don't know if you need this. Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to tweet out that trade when it closed yet. Anybody want to make any trades if not we're closed. Jonathan, what do you mean what's left besides the Phoenix Suns? You have a... I think you also have the Warriors. I'm closing the trade with them guys. T-WC. Alrighty guys, so here we go. Five remaining boxes. Good luck. Yes it will, Matt. It is on our break schedule. So here's a Google Doc that you can take a look at. But NT is breaking around 8.15. 8 o'clock. There's a schedule that we're on right now. Alrighty guys, good luck. Four, five hits. Box 22 out of 100. Alright guys, first hit is this. Who is this? And it is a Lamarcus Aldridge. Upper deck. That is out of 100. And it's an exquisite collection. Must be a rookie. There you go, Blazers. That is going to Charles. There you go, C. Alexander. Next one. Box 14 out of 100. Got a Dennis Rodman autograph for the Bulls. Dennis Rodman. Bulls. Went to Jeff. 30 out of 100 now. Iverson out of Hoops. Hot signatures. There you go. Philadelphia 76ers going to Daniel. Two more guys. Box 62 out of 100. And we got a Larry Bird. Treasures of the Hall 5 out of 10 for the Celtics. Had an NT. There you go. Boston Celtics going to Michael. Very nice. On card as well. Last box. Box 90 out of 100. Last one, guys. Good luck. And we got the Admiral. Three color patch. Two out of 10 out of flawless. David Robinson for the Spurs. San Antonio Spurs, our Spurs. Went to Zach Sorensen. Last spot, Mojo with the Spurs. And there you go, guys. That was the break. So no more basketball for tonight, but we do have baseball and hockey edition. David Robinson. Larry Bird to 10. You got Allen Iverson. Dennis Rodman. And then Lamarcus Aldridge. Three color patch. And there you go, guys. Appreciate it. Jaspyscasebreaks.com. Coming up next is a quick select blaster. Baseball break to give away two spots and dive into Icon. And then we'll do cello pack to give away the last five mixer spots. And then the mixer. Appreciate it, guys.


and waited saviour Imam of Zamanah, my respected brothers and sisters. As-salamu alaykum, jami'am wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Zaynab al-Sughra, translated as Zaynab the Younger, is better known as Lady Um-Kurthum, who is the second daughter of Lady Fatima al-Zahra and the commander of the faithful, Ali ibn Abi Talib, salawatullahi wa s-salamu alayhim, ajma'een. Historians believe that she was born anywhere between the sixth to the ninth year after Hijrah and that she passed away from this world 40 days after the companions, family members returned back from the captivity period from Khufa and Damascus back into the city of Medina. And therefore straight away we can observe from the timeline in which she was involved in being born in either the sixth or up to the ninth year of Hijrah all the way to the time after the Ahl al-Bayt returned back from captivity. We can see that she is not only in real proximity to the greatest personalities of the Ahl al-Bayt but also she was a first-hand witness and participant in regards to some of the most famous and important events in Islamic history. We see straight away that she spent time with her grandfather, the Holy Prophet of Islam, Hazrat Muhammad al-Mustafa, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, which means she also witnessed his demise and therefore she was also present in the house when the house was attacked by the enemies of Muhammad and Ali Muhammad. It also means she was present and witnessed when the enemies of Ahl al-Bayt took her father out of the house and demanded the allegiance to be paid to those particular people. We find as time moves on, she also would have moved with her father towards the city of Khufa and she would have been a princess just like her elder sister and we also find that she would have witnessed the demise of her second brother and her first brother, Imam al-Hasan and Imam al-Hussain and we find that she was in captivity and when brought all the way back. The fact that she is participating in such important elements of our history, the history that we hold so close and dear to ourselves and in fact knows so well, despite this level of contribution and participation, it is surprising that we as a community generally do not know as much about this younger sister, Zaynaba Sohra, as what we do compared to her elder sister, Zaynaba Al-Kobra and straight away when we look at it from this angle we feel aggrieved because we can see the contributions of the other siblings within the family. One knows what the trials and tribulations, the contributions of our second Imam were. One knows the lessons and the sacrifice of the master of the martyrs and one knows what Zaynaba Al-Kobra, peace be upon her, has left for us, not only in her sermons but also in the way that she stood tall against the enemies and looked after the family members. We know tafsir from her, blessed tongue. But the question we pose here at this point, comparatively, what do we know about the personality of Zaynaba Sohra, peace be upon her? Do we know of her sermons? Do we know of her poetry? Do we know of her tafsir? Do we know where tafsir and Mufassereen have mentioned as to where she has been subscribed to in the Holy Quran? And therefore straight away we may observe that there has been an imbalance. The question we can pose now is why have we inherited this situation? Generally as a community, if we know so much about the elder sister, Al-Kobra, peace be upon her, what are the reasons that we can assess as to why we know so little comparatively about the younger sister? Generally we find there are three. The first reason is, because in regards to the way history has been written and the biographies that have come down to us, very rarely do we see the name of Lady Um Kulthum, peace be upon her, mentioned. We find often that she is mentioned as someone who is the daughter of her two great parents, or maybe the sister of these two great imams. But as for her own dedicated work, as for a biography or analysis of her own contributions, we find this has been lacking up until now in history. And you can imagine over 1400 years what the consequence of that lack of material would have done generation after generation, how the youths and the scholars would have interpreted the absence of contribution and understanding. The second reason as to why there is an absence in regards to what we know of this great lady is because there is a difference of opinion in the Shiaskula thought as to whether she existed at all or not. Now that may come as a surprise to many of us, because we know in history there are many debates. What took place in such and such an incident? Who was present? What took place at this time? But for us to debate the existence of a personality from amongst the Ahlul Bayt, especially as someone so close in proximity to the great personalities of Rasulullah, the lady of light and the commander of the faith, or maybe strange. But yet we find there are some Shia historians that say she did not exist at all. There is no such person as Zainab As-Sughra. There is no person as Lady Um-Kurthum, the second daughter. What they believe is there is only one daughter. There is Imam al-Hassan, peace be upon him. Imam al-Hussain, peace be upon him. And one sister by the name of Zainab only, no younger. And therefore, because many scholars have presented their opinion that she did not exist, as a consequence again, subsequently we can imagine that many people have stopped writing and pondering and researching further upon this individual. The third reason as to why there is little in history known about her is because within, again, the Shia scholar thought, there are some scholars who believe that Lady Um-Kurthum, peace be upon him, married the second Caliph Umar Khattab. Now again, that will come as a very strange idea to many people. And I can already see some of the eyebrows being raised at this. There are some Shia scholars, grand, very famous Shia scholars that are household names that will believe that she married Umar al-Khattab. Straight away, one will question, how is it possible that our school of thought believes that Umar participated, nay, led the assassination of the Lady of Light, but her second daughter can be married to this man? The reason being is because amongst the crimes committed by Umar Khattab was that he forced this marriage upon the commander of the faithful to give his daughter. Now, this is disputed. There are differences of opinion, but the reason as to why this is significant in regards to our understanding of her is because there are many people within our school of thought that as a means to reject the marriage ever taking place in the first place, they reject her existence in the first place. How can you say she married Umar if she doesn't exist in the first place? And therefore, you can imagine that over a period of 1,400 years, what we have inherited about this wondrous lady and ultimately we find that comparatively we know very, very little about her. We know very little about her sermons. We know very little about her poetry. And we know very little about her key contributions that leave a legacy of lessons for you and I to take. However, despite this, there are others who have written against these ideas and said, no, she definitely does exist. No, she did not marry Umar. This incident did not take place. And therefore, these incidents are stepping stones for us to understand the wider personality of this individual. We find that there have been many people who have written and provided us with a number of jewels and gems for us to take, ones that we can analyze and understand into our own life. We find that we come into our own situation. We have an opportunity from tonight to change our understanding of this personality. We have a very wonderful calendar. Our calendar is very structured. We have Muharram, Safar, Rabi Al Awal, Shafa Ramadan and so on and so forth. Within these months, of course, we celebrate and commemorate the birth and the death of the holy personalities. But we will note that this particular holy personality, Lady Umkurthoum, S.A.W., is not within our calendars. We have a birth and a death date which we come to the mosque for Imam al-Hassan, S.A.W. We come for a course, Imam al-Hassan, S.A.W. and indeed we come for Sayyid al-Zaynab, S.A.W. But within our own calendars, we have not dedicated one night towards the birth and the death of this great personality. That in itself may be something that from tonight onwards our communities can change. By virtue of realizing that we do have enough information, there is enough in the books of history for us to understand her and see what lessons she has left for us to delve into. As an example, we find, famously, on the night of the 19th of Shah Ramadan, the commander of the faithful is now opening this iftar for the time in which he is preparing himself because in the forthcoming hours his blessed head will be struck by Ibn Muljim. As we know famously, he opens this iftar with none other than this daughter of his, Lady Umkurthum, S.A.W. What a wonderful opportunity for you and I to see this personality as an individual, to see her in her own light for her own accomplishments. We find, actually, as we go forward in time, she is adorned with probably one of the most beautiful titles that is in existence adorned to the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them all. Her elder sister, Zaynab al-Kubra, peace be upon her, is given the title Umr Masaib. Umr Masaib is a very deep title that is adorned to her. It means that she is the mother of all of this Masaib, all of this grief. We see that she lost her grandfather. We see how much she was in proximity to her brother. We see how she led the family and how she was so strong. And therefore the title is deserved, Umr Masaib. But in history, what title is given to Zaynab al-Kubra? Is there a title which can be compared to this? There is. The title in history that is given to this younger daughter is Umr Nawwaha. Umr Nawwaha. Nawwaha, the root word of it is Noah. We have just recited Noah. Noah is lamentation. It's for us to provide us with an elegy to recite for our grief that is within our heart. Imagine being given the title in history of Umr Nawwaha. The mother of all the recitations of lamentations. What does that say about her personality? What does that say about her as an individual? It shows us that she was one who in her own right and personality started the movement of the recitation of Noah in the first place. Imagine we come and we sit and we recite our Noah. But she is Umr Nawwaha. Therefore every lamentation is recited in any language around the world from 1400 years ago to 1400 years from now goes back to her own elegy and goes back to her own lamentations. She is very famous for her own lamentations. We recall on the day of Arba'im every Dhakir in the world will come and recite the famous lines of Sayyid the city of Medina. What does she say? O city of my grandfather do not accept us. Imagine saying those words. Imagine what she had been through in entering towards that city. O city of my grandfather where I grew up do not accept us. We left you with our brothers and with our sons and we come back to you with none of them with us. She is very famous for these lines of poetry and for her lines of lamentation to the extent that when she returned to Medina she was one who organized so many morning sessions so many gatherings in her own house to remember the martyrs of Karbala that the governor of the time placed her under house arrest and stopped the people of Medina coming to sit with her. A few days later she passed away from this world straight away when we begin to put the pieces of the jigsaw into this grand personality's life we can see how much she has contributed towards us and therefore tonight I want to present to you one particular incident and that is an incident that took place on the night of Ashura it is a unique incident full of history and it is a conversation that takes place between the master of the martyrs her brother and this great personality and inshallah through this one particular incident we may be able to observe how much of a grand personality she was and the proximity towards her brother and in the reality how close her brother was we are looking at her as an individual leaving us with the same lesson the night of Ashura is one of huge significance now it is easy for us to say that we can say it very quickly the night of Ashura is of course important we are here upon this night that there was Tasbih being recited we know that they asked for one additional night to serve and worship their creator and sustainer but beyond just this at a very superficial level there is a deep significance towards the night of Ashura the reason for this is because it predicates the day of Ashura what we mean by this is the day of Ashura is the grandest day in history which movement in the history of humankind comes close to the day of Ashura which sacrifice can ever compare to this day and therefore for this day to be prelude by this night this night itself must have huge significance as well we think back and look at the personalities involved even though it may be obvious to us we can recount it we can become conscious of who was present we have three infallible imams we have grand personalities like lady Zaynab al-Kubra Zaynab al-Sughra we have these great ladies we have great members of Ahl al-Bayt Abu Fadr al-Abbas who was a faqih in his own right imagine Ali Akbar what a human he must have been and then we have the greatest companions known to the Ahl al-Bayt imagine under a tent these personalities sitting and discussing for one final night imagine the gems that have been left for you and I and therefore the night of Ashura the night of Ashura is not an ordinary night in history the number of lessons are phenomenal in fact, there are entire volumes of books written specifically about the lessons from the night of Ashura the night of Ashura for the master of the martyrs is broken into four stages is broken into four parts he has to equally divide his time amongst four things so that he as the Imam sets the precedent as to how someone should be within their day even if it's going to be on such a precarious night as the night of Ashura he splits it into four the first quarter is that he spends it between himself and his creator and sustainer Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as an example we know that he recites Quran this night we know that he supplicates this night we know on this night he does not forget his Salat al-Layl this is between him and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then the second quarter is that he has to spend time between himself and his family members so he would sit with his daughters he would sit with his sons and engage with them one to one how many times on this night do we recount a tradition between him and his daughter Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala a conversation between them and he also has to have time for his companions his companions by his own words are the most noble companions that he has known and therefore he will spend time with them as individuals as well one of the most famous traditions is that when he's walking the night and one of his companions Na'far is walking behind him and Na'far eventually catches up to him and the Imam says to him shall I show you where the martyrdoms will take place tomorrow here is where Akbar will fall and here is where the arms available for the Abbas will be severed so he still spends time with his own companions and the fourth quarter the fourth part of this night the balance of this human being on the night of Ashura is that he spends time for himself he spends time knowing to look within deep himself one narration that we start this issue on and it says that on this night of Ashura the Imam was sitting alone picture this in your mind this grand personality if this was the last night of our life imagine how we would float and we would gravitate towards this Imam as much as we could for these final minutes the Imam is sitting alone and he is cleaning his sword he is preparing his sword tomorrow to strike the enemies of Allah SWT as he is cleaning the sword he is reciting lines of poetry to himself O time shame be upon you whose friend are you really but indeed the issue is always with him and unto him shall we return he would repeat these lines over and over again whilst cleaning his sword our fourth Imam narrates he says I was in the tent and I was struggling between illness and being awake between this point of consciousness and going into sub-consciousness and I heard my father reciting these lines of poetry and I realized what he meant I realized that tomorrow was the day and I began to choke back tears but my auntie Sayyid al-Zaynab al-Qubra she was sitting beside me in the tent she could not control herself she bursts into tears removes runs out of that tent and head straight towards her brother Aba Abdullah O my dear brother how can you say such things how can I survive after you I have only just lost my grandfather Rasulullah I have only just departed I lost my brother Hassan like just yesterday and now you are telling me that you will depart at this point hearing this commotion the ladies of Ahal al-Bayt also leave their tent and they begin to cry and wail cry and wail one of them who comes forward is the second sister Sayyid al-Zaynab al-Qubra she cries out her own words the words that we recounted at the beginning of the Arabic Khutbah we said when she calls out Sayyid al-Umkurthum tunadi Umkurthum calls out she cries out Wa Ahmad Wa Ali Wa Hassan Wa Akha Wa Husayna Wa Diyatuna O Ahmad O Ali O my brother Wa Diyat How much we are to lose after your demise these words were between this wonderful brother and this wonderful sister conversing with each other in this moment of grief on the night of Ashura Imam replies to her he actually attends and he addresses all of them he says O Zaynab but before he addresses all of them he directs a response back towards his dear sister Umkurthum he says O my sister Umkurthum be consoled by the consolation of Allah now this particular dialogue between these two personalities may be considered ordinary it can be overlooked however there are deep oceans between these two personalities imagine we were sitting imagine you and I were sitting on that night of Ashura and we heard the master of the martyrs addressing his sister would we not believe there is depth within this statement Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions the tongue of an infallible does this verse not become applicable to the master of the martyrs as well when he speaks he still does not speak of his own not of his own whim even the lessons that he provides to his sister on this night there will be deep oceans within it and for a sister to be able to comprehend those deep oceans she must have deep ma'lifah of her own brother and still give lessons for you and I so they converse at this level this conversation is a unique conversation in history she calls out and she begins to talk to him the first lesson that we notice is that the master of the martyrs takes her the sister to be an individual personality even though there are other ladies there he addresses his younger sister now this is significant because we have been pointing out that may be within our own communities we have not done justice by treating her as an individual to herself look on the night of the 19th of Shahr-e-Muddam the commander of the faithful treats her as such an individual that he has his final meal with her one to one on the night of Ashura Abba Abdullah addresses her one to one so that all of humanity in history the universe can be inherited and given this one lesson from her they treated Lady Um Kuru Thum as an individual they saw her as a personality and therefore we too must also look upon her as the individual personality then we look at the words that were exchanged between these two people the words start out with a cry we see here in Arabic that there is a cry a call some of them name it a cry this cry is different to a calling of someone else when we call someone in Arabic when we go to Hajj and someone wants to call you if they don't know your name or your Hajj and you know that they're talking to you everybody looks around everyone turns around me so when they call you they call you with ya but here we see and famously we know when there is a cry of distress they change the letter from ya to where they don't say ya Ahmad they say wa Ahmad it changes to the letter wow in Arabic grammar there is a reason for this that it moves towards understanding that this is a deed call of distress we see this cry often from the night of Ashura'a onwards all the way but in fact it's all the personalities of Ahl al-Bayt that have also used this cry an incident takes place when the house of Ahl al-Bayt was attacked by the enemies of Allah swt when the door falls upon the lady of light and when the commander of the faithful is dragged out of his house with a rope tied around his neck and a sword pointing towards his blessed face Salman al-Muhammadi notes a narration he says how could people like this do such a thing to a man like this how could people who are so low perform an action to a man who is so grand and then Salman narrates that Ali ibn Abi Talib also used this harfan nida he also exchanged the yeah for the wow he called out wa Hamza but I do not have Hamza on this day to protect me he says wa Ja'farah but I do not have Ja'faratayah to protect me on this day so even the commander of the faithful used to call out like this wa Hamza and wa Ja'farah Ali ibn Kulthum in her distress calls out the same wa Ahmada, wa Ali, wa Hasan wa Husayna wa Di'atuna ba'dak Ya'aba Abdullah how can we bear after losing you o Aba Abdullah how can we bear this separation how are we going to live after your demise after your martyrdom the commentators when they look at this statement they say that this was a statement beyond just losing the person of Aba Abdullah it was what he represented that we were going to lose he was the last of Ahlul Kisa he was the last to see the revelation take place he was the last of the people of Mubahela and when he was to be martyred, all of these things were to be taken away from us it wasn't just the personality of Aba Abdullah, the master of the martyrs that man who sat and that man and that young boy who had that Kisa wrapped upon him when Jibreela Amin descended with words from Allah that I have not created anything illa fi muhabbatihah was for that man how much we are to lose after your martyrdom Aba Abdullah and that's what she meant with that deep cry the master of the martyrs responded and he says, oh my dear sister Uncle Fum be consoled by the consolation of Allah have you ever heard words like this in all of the years of Majalis that you have been coming to all the books that you have read all the sermons the sermons that you have listened to have you heard words like this from an infallible be consoled by the consolation of Allah this statement according to commentators appears to be unique this cannot be found by any other infallible no other infallible has mentioned these words to anyone else and the words are so deep because to be consoled by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is different to how you and I console each other we have to console each other our family members pass away our friends pass away we lose the worldly blessings that we have been blessed with and as such we help each other we have empathy and we have sympathy and we have an arm around the shoulder we say you can cry upon my shoulder I'm here for you can Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala do that for us this is the end of consolation what did the master of the martyrs whose tongue is purified mean when he said to his pure sister be consoled by the consolation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commentators divide this into four possible meanings the first one is that what he means to say is that the consolation of Allah should come in the knowledge in the Ma'lifah and it was something that is designated by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala no matter what is going to happen I am going to be martyred by these evil tyrants of a human being we see on the night and even on the day of Ashura Imam sits with his young daughter Sakina and he strokes her blessed head and she says to him oh my dear father can you not take us back to Medina please take us back to Medina this is amongst the cries Al-Atash, Al-Atash please taking me back to a place where I feel safe the response from the master of the martyrs to his daughter oh my dear daughter know that even if the sand-grouse was left in its place they would still go after me no matter what is to happen they will continue to try to shed my blood and therefore oh my dear sister the consolation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that this event is going to take place Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has designed that my blood save Islam and save humanity in itself the second reason as to why he could have said these words is because he wanted her to know that with this sacrifice came the grandest the most supreme of pleasure from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala there is nothing compared to this sacrifice oh my dear sister be consoled by the consolation of Allah that every breath that you take every cry that you make every time you face yourself in front of the enemy tyrants this is the greatest sacrifice and reward known to human history the verse of Quran speaks about this he is very patient those who are in trouble they say to Allah and to them those upon them are salawat from their Lord and those upon them are and you are going to be tested we are going to test you in these ways you will face this pain in this difficulty but give glad tidings to those people who bear patiently through this Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the third reason oh my dear sister take consolation from the consolation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that know that we have designated that there will come a man from amongst us who will rise and take revenge upon our behalf on that night of Ashura in the tent there is an incident that takes place where the Imam is sitting with all of his family and all of his companions and he sits and he says know that you will achieve paradise tomorrow and know that after our demise we the Ahlul Bayt will be risen from our graves and a man from my grandson Muhammadin al-Baqir will come and take revenge for us he is al-qaim he is the Mahdi can you imagine this statement of great companions how much they would have wanted to be part of that mission and therefore have consolation from the consolation of Allah that he has guaranteed that this man will rise aina ta'ala ibu al-bidamil maqtuli bi-karbala we cry out every Friday where is that man who will bring about the revenge for the martyrdoms in Karbala and the fourth reason as to why the Imam made this statement to her blessed holiness is because of the end of the narration itself he says oh my dear sister know that everything in this earth will perish and every living creature must die and everything in existence will eventually be destroyed why make these words because the master of the martyrs wanted to remind his dear sister that there will come a time that we all must perish and we will all be risen before Allah for accountability and every one of those men who will strike the sword it's me tomorrow and every one of those men that will slap you and every one of those men that will take your hijab they will face an accountability like no other on the day of judgment be consoled by the consolation of Allah that he will ensure that you are given satisfaction on the day of what level of depth these two personalities could speak at if you look at these words on a very superficial level you will bypass them but the more you delve into this great wondrous personality the more you will see that she is an individual who stands tall as a giant of Ahlul Bayt and in the reality is crying out for you and I to know her that she is an individual there is an incident one day that took place that says Imam al Khomeini may Allah's blessings be upon him forever he one day recited the Masaib he recited the Masaib of Lady Zaynab al Qubra peace be upon her and after the Masaib he went home and he went to sleep in his dream Lady Um Kurthum peace be upon her appeared Imam al Khomeini you have mentioned the Masaibah of my elder sister Zaynab al Qubra but you did not mention anything about me how could you forget me and the troubles that I went through if that was the statement made to Imam al Khomeini to remember her can you imagine that call that is being placed on the shoulders of you and I from today how much we can change history how much that when you throw one stone into the middle of a pond that all of those reverberations eventually go out and the ripple effect meets all of the borders of that particular lake we can make that ripple effect from today we can change within our communities our understanding of this personality and know her as she deserves to be known the night of Ashura there is a narration that says Sayyida Zaynab s.a.w left her tent as she walked out of her tent she heard a conversation almost like a a buzzing conversation taking place she went towards the tent and she listened in and she heard that this was a tent filled with the companions none of the family members just the companions and she listened in and she heard that Habib ibn Madaher was addressing all of the companions oh companions tomorrow will be the 10th day tomorrow will be the day in which you need to go out in front of Abba Abdullah and sacrifice your life do not allow any one of you to remain tomorrow for you will meet with the most beautiful of rewards tomorrow Sayyida Zaynab al-Qubra wept she found comfort in the knowledge that those companions were there for her brother she walked on and she walked to another tent and again she heard this murmuring this buzz taking place within the tent and again she listens in and this time she hears it's the family members discussing amongst themselves and Abbas is addressing all of the family members Qasim Akbar and he says to them as the general of the army of Hussein oh family of Hussein tomorrow is the 10th day know that all of you must go out and fight and not return do not allow me to be embarrassed where I see you coming back you must give your lives to Abdullāh tomorrow Sayyida Zaynab returns back to her tent and the narrations tell us that Abbas walks out of that tent and as he heads out of the tent he walks past another tent and he hears crying taking place these tears are coming from none other than Sayyida Zaynab a sughra um kurthum he enters into that tent and he says to her sister oh my dear sister um kurthum why are you crying she responds back to him and says oh my dear brother Abbas I am embarrassed I am crying because of the pain which is going through my heart oh my dear sister what pain is going through your heart that tomorrow is the 10th and every one of the ladies has someone to sacrifice for the master of the martyrs I do not have a husband here I have children here Zaynab has owned a Muhammad Layla has Akbar but who do I have to give towards Hussein tomorrow I am fearful that on the day of judgment I will present myself in front of my mother Fatima and I will be embarrassed the most famous of responses comes back Abbas says oh my dear sister Kurthum I will become your sacrifice tomorrow on the 10th of Muharram we say to you oh lady um kurthum what a wonderful sacrifice you were given is there any greater sacrifice than the standard bearer of Hussein on the 10th of Muharram and on the 11th of Muharram she became the standard bearer herself her and her sister looked after the children one of the narrations tell us that after the trampling of the body of Hussein the enemies continued to ride towards the tents one narration says that Fatima Tassoura the young daughter of Hussein leaves the tent she narrates that I looked out and I saw horsemen coming towards the tent I didn't know what to do I didn't know whether to go towards the horsemen I didn't know if I should go back into the tents so I stood there waiting to see what the horsemen would do the horsemen continued to ride towards me and they did not slow down I was fearful that they would trample upon my body so I ran away but this horseman chased me he began to get a spear and using the backside of the spear he clubbed me towards the floor Fatima Tassoura says I was knocked unconscious at this point when I woke up I was resting in the lap of my auntie Um Kurthum I began to cry and said oh Um Kurthum did you see what has happened to me oh Kurthum my auntie my hijab has been taken from me please is there any cloth that you can give me to cover my face she responds oh my dear niece sohra I cannot give you any cloth because even your auntie's cloth has been taken from her and then we see that we should start this story we should start this movement tonight and bring what Um Kurthum Salaamullahi Alaihem must have heard in Jannatul Baqir Hussain leaves the house of the tyrant governor of Walid and of Marwan they have demanded the allegiance upon him and he has left and he has gone towards the grave of his mother Fatima and towards the grave of his grandfather Rasulallah he climbs towards this grave and one of the great Farsi poets describes this and says that he climbed upon the grave of his mother Fatima and was reciting an elegy and saying Khudahaf is Madina farewell to you Madina for this is the final time that I will see you and then he goes towards the grave of his grandfather Rasulallah he begins to weep and he says oh my dear grandfather I am tired of this oppression they have not done justice towards your grandson Hussain he wept so much that he fell asleep on top of the grave of his grandfather Rasulallah Rasulallah comes to him in the dream and says to him oh my dear grandson Hussain you must awake now for the time has come there is a station in paradise that is waiting for you I am witnessing right now that dogs, wild dogs are tearing at your blessed body that you are crying out for a glass of water and they will not give you that glass of water you are crying out in a pool of blood and they will kill you in that pool of blood oh Hussain there is a station in paradise that is waiting for you but you cannot achieve that until your head has been severed oh my dear grandson oh my dear grandson