1990-August-24

Muslim Journal

"Islam", The Solution for America: Part 5

Imam W. Deen Mohammed


(This address was given by Imam W. Deen Mohammed at Masjid Al-Fatir on March 30, 1990. It has now been prepared by Imam Mohammed for Muslim Journal's readers.)


Believers Persecuted

Some will say of Prophet Muhammed that he had to fight to establish Al-Islam. Certainly, our Prophet fought at least five major battles. It was because Allah had given him something to establish in an uncivilized ignorant and immoral society. That society (Jahi-liyyah) could not respect the burden of reform. So they brought physical opposition to bear, tortured, killed and persecuted believers. Allah says in the Qur'an, "Persecution is worse than killing".

To deny me my rights to choose a decent life, to prevent me from worshipping Allah as the Prophet invited me (Muslims) to worship Allah, to make my life miserable because you have the material means and circumstances on your side: Of this, Allah says, "Persecution is worse than killing". And that was the cruel torturing and persecution of Muslims.

So much for that. I wish it was not necessary to give such information to African-Americans. Who do you have to defend among the enemies of the Messengers? You were not a party of that. Were you the leaders of the enraged Meccans?


Muslims Good For All

Behind the great achievement of victory over his enemies, Prophet Muhammed 
re-entered Mecca and there followed many other great achievements. Eventually the whole of Spain was influenced by Al-Islam. How long did Al-Islam stay in Spain? It was five hundred years or more, and some say seven hundred years.

Look, America is only a little over two hundred years old and already we have seen small nations threatening to eclipse America's international glory. That has happened at least in certain fields important to America as a leader-nation. This has happened to the United States' lead in technology in the steel industry and in the automobile industry.

We are talking about a historical record for a Muslim civilization that lasted five hundred years. History has recorded it and Jewish and other writers acknowledged that comforting chapter, a period representing conditions for progress by all under Muslim rule. Where did these builders of civilization come from? They came from North Africa. They were the Moors, among them "blackamoors". They came across the Strait of Gibraltar and brought the religion "Al-Islam" into Spain. The religion stayed there for five hundred years. Jews say that "period" was the best for Jewish life and progress.

In Muslim-ruled Spain the Jewish intellectuals had their best opportunities and freedom to grow. This "promise land" protected by Islamic civilization made the West so jealous the church people got together and united all European Christians to defeat a common rival. The Muslims were embarrassing them. The Muslims were about to civilize the world, not "by the sword" but with morality ethics and education.

The Christians (the Crusaders) came out united and fought the Muslims. Because Crusaders accepted no limits on what they could do in war, they defeated the Muslims who were civil warriors. Allah's Religion ("Islam") prevents Muslims from doing the dirty things to win a battle. The Religion of Al-Islam checks the Muslims and will not allow us to do certain things even in battle.

No real Muslim can drop an atomic bomb on a city of civilians. No real Muslim can drop "napalm" on vegetation that people will have to depend on. Allah teaches us a respect for the order of nature and natural life. Muslims must respect animals and vegetation.

We cannot destroy the natural environment, contaminate it, and cause the deforming of human life for generations to come. No Muslim can do that without coming out of his Muslim mind.


* Human Excellence "Prescribed" In All Fields of Conduct

Allah teaches us to slay clean and mercifully. If you saw the Hollywood picture of the Crusades you saw Richard the Lion Heart with a big heavy sword. It weighed so much, it required training I guess for ten months or more before the King could lift it up. King Richard's sword was a big long heavy piece of iron. It did not have to be very sharp. If he hit anything with it, the thing hit by Richard's sword would break. 

To the contrast, Salahuddin who is called Sala-din in the Hollywood made movie based upon the story of the Crusades was the Muslim Emir (ruler) and General with a very light sword. He would swing it and it would sing, for the metal was so thin and light. They met for a truce and were having a test as to which weapon was more efficient in battle.

King Richard the Lion Heart with the big heavy sword brought it down on something and the thing hit was broken into. Salahuddin responding took a silk handkerchief and threw it up and held his sword out. The Handkerchief fell on Salahuddin's sword and onto the floor in two pieces. The General Salahuddin did not have to hit the handkerchief at all. He let it fall on the sword and the silk handkerchief split into two pieces.

This same Salahuddin had a chance to kill King Richard the Lion Heart. Salahuddin stealthily made his way into the enemy camp and found King Richard sick. Salahuddin was also a doctor of medicine. Isn't this ("Islam") a comprehensive religion? You see the m an who is leading the army for the Muslims is also a physician.

And by the way, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization is a medical physician, with a Ph.D. (Yasser Arafat).


"Any Means Necessary" is un-Muslim Like 

The point is that in wars with ruthless armies of the West Muslims hands were tied. The hands of the West were not tied. If the West wants to achieve a thing, then nothing is barred. "All is fair in love and war", a western quote. Want to talk about "by any means necessary"? Then look at the Conquering West. The Muslims couldn’t engage the use of cruel weapons the West invented and mass produced. The character of the wars conducted by the West took the spirit for war out of the Muslims.

The Turks tried "firepower" and they couldn't hang in. The Turks were the last great Muslim government (Nation) to fall to western domination. At any rate, the Turks were brave soldiers and fought with novel weapons. However, their heart was not conditioned for engaging the West in what was to come in the form of war-regulated economies.

Again the point is it was not Allah's intention (the Qur'an and Allah's Messenger's Life) that the Muslims compete with the West for territory and global dominance. (**Qur'an Reference below.) The Muslims today own more than fifty percent of the natural energy resources. The resources with Muslims also include gold, diamonds, and other precious minerals. So did the West really win what is fought for? The West has another side that I acknowledge.


Wars for Dominance Keep You Out of Paradise

Behaved savagely, put a lot of people in misery, occupied their homes, and before you are ready for it, Allah's justice comes. The unjust will have to get out of those homes, give up territories, and behold sand once laughed at under which is more wealth than the gardens they were gloating over.

Recently discovered for Saudi Arabia is another oil deposit that might make past oil deposits look small. Also recently Saudi Arabia has discovered gold. Allah's Mercy is not only coming to the Saudis. Libya and Gulf States and other Muslim lands are discovering they are not poor but rich.

It is granted that there is a problem with this comparison. On my own perception I am saying there is a possibility that a sign of Allah's Plan for relief to the Muslims is given. Allah has said, for the faithful are "Gardens under which rivers flow". Allah also has said these promised "Gardens" would not depend on rain (watering). There would be rivers flowing under them. A little rain would suffice. (Qur'an reference.)

I have no authority for this analogy except my own excitement. However, one thing is certain, under the sands are reserves of oil, energy, wealth. The money from those reserves has put gardens on the sand. I saw gardens.

Recently our fifteen-member delegation to Saudi Arabia observed astounding new and often what appeared to be ultra modern developments. I saw a man cutting a lawn where before there was only sand. We saw beautiful flowers where sand was. A man-made lake is now in Saudi Arabia.

One might fear that the Royal Kingdom has forgotten its religion. In Saudi Arabia there is a factory for mass production of Qur'ans. Every several minutes Qur'ans are coining off the press. There are cassette tapes of the Qur'an also being mass produced rapidly. Only the superior recitation by reciters, editors (checkers), and high quality production are accepted at the site for this large scale printing. The machines they were using are produced here in the United States. I may say, the factory in Saudi Arabia is really "rolling" with Roland. The best machinery available in the United States is run by Saudis at the Qur'an printing factory.

What is presented here is not given to condemn the West. I wish not to say that Americans are uncivilized. We have some of the best of civilized people contributing true human character and excellence to the history of America. But we know that when we look at the character of this people (the West) in their quest for control of the global community, on the human behavior side the "West" is shamefully void. When we look at the whole history of our country's presence in other lands, we are looking at something awfully ugly in the eyes of most Americans and the world. 


Let Us Not Forget

About one hundred twenty-five years ago our (African-American) fore-parents were freed from the cruelest form of slavery in world history. Let us not forget our fearless ones: Nat Turner and the other examples of the African rare (raw) courage. Let us not forget Frederick Douglass. It was our proven raw courage and virtuousness and wisdom that served us so well to attract to our cause and to our side the necessary support from those of a better mind in the racial family of this once racist Nation (the South and the North). In times of the worse circumstances, something great was working in our hearts to win the opposition to our side.

However, better times could not come without great sacrifice and great suffering. It came because of a minority with a strong moral will to insist that the United States treat its minority outcast as humans. Let us not forget what endeared better Americans to our side. When we talk about the majority, we have to say that the majority were savagely cruel to-ward us for our claim on humanity. Had we claimed nothing but employment (jobs), "whites" bitterly and desperately selfish would have made sure we stayed employed.

Some body (of individuals) have made racism and racial minorities prey for their convenience — for economic exploitation, divisiveness, and for transferring and redirecting both surfacing and potential hostilities. We are making great progress with Christians and Jews and Muslims working on these problems of race and religious bigotry. But do not forget that the Frankenstein, the Vampire, and the Wolfman groups are not all healed. Some still wait to be shocked and go about like they are fixed to a jig. Some still invite us to join the living-dead. Some still can't open the eye wide to the mystic night without going wild.

Muslims, let us not resurrect these bad-time mutant creatures. Without human excellence for mental moral and social maturity, in a thickly populated heavily loaded rapid-fire world there will be those who go to the unreal (where the needed support of knowledge is missing) for escape under the covers. Our religion stands up and presents us in the light, not in the shadows.

(To be continued...)

* This "prescribe" is taken from a saying of Prophet Muhammed where Allah prescribes excellence in all things, including the slaughter of animals. It can be found in the Forty Hadith.

** "Allah will not give Paradise to any who wants a dominance or a corruption upon the earth". (Qur'an)


