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More Sense and Less Sensibility

In an age of feeling and emotional excess, what enduring guidance can we find in the novels of Jane Austen?


President of Zaytuna College, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, will explore how Austen’s moral clarity, subtle social critique, and focus on character formation offer a compelling response to the instability of modern life.


Drawing on both the Islamic tradition and the Western literary canon, Shaykh Hamza reflects on the enduring relevance of sense over sensibility and how cultivating inner balance, ethical restraint, and self-knowledge remains vital and constant in an ever-changing world.

About the Speaker

Hamza Yusuf Head shot

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Hamza Yusuf Hanson is the president of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the US. Ranked 23rd by The Muslim 500, he advocates for traditional liberal arts education and serves on the UAE’s top fatwa council under Shaykh Abdallah b. Bayyah. As co-president of Religions for Peace, he collaborates on initiatives with the Vatican and the UN. Hanson, a member of the Jordanian Royal Academy for Islamic Studies, works on peace initiatives between Muslims and Christians. He translated The Marrakesh Declaration, promoting rights of other faiths in Muslim-majority societies, and authored Purification of the Heart.