05/17/2002
IWDM Study Library
IWDM Jumuah

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
[foreign language]
00:39 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: We begin with G-d's name, who is merciful to us, merciful benefactor and merciful redeemer. That is, he is merciful to us twice, for our life, here and hereafter. Firstly, he is merciful to us by creating us in such a wonderful form, the human form, and creating us with a mind and intellect to enjoy the material world, both with our bodies and with our minds, or with our material life and our spiritual life, both. Then, he's been merciful to us again when we lose the way, run out, and can't see any further how to carry our life where we want it to go. He is merciful again. He gives us revelation, guidance, through one that deserves that special help from G-d, our creator. And we are put into a good position again to start afresh with our life and to carry it where our souls want it to go. Where G-d wants it to go. And G-d has put it in the soul that he created to know where to go. That is, if we clean our minds and hearts and have nothing deceitful in us and be not all for ourselves but for community, G-d will let us know through our souls where we should take our lives. So we witness that that G-d is one alone, "Wahdahu", meaning that he does not need anyone or anything to help him manage his creation, all of it, skies and earth and everything therein. He has no partner, no G-d with him. He is G-d alone, "Wahdahu".
03:46 IWDM: "La Sharika Lahu", there is no partner with him. If anyone comes to him according to his words in Quran, he comes as a servant. And we know all of the prophets in Bible and Quran are written as servants of G-d, including Jesus Christ, to Jesus Christ, peace be upon him and all the prophets and messengers of G-d. He introduced himself as a servant of G-d, in the Bible. And G-d says to Muhammad revealing the Quran for the world, "No one comes to him except as a servant, not as a G-d. Not as an equal with him." And He says in Quran, "I need not for you receive me, G-d." He slumbers not, he takes no sleep. He sees and is not fed, that is G-d, G-d the creator. And we witness that Muhammad, to whom the Quran was revealed over 1400 years ago, is his servant and his messenger. Abdul Rasul, his servant and his messenger. That is our creed, that is our declaration of faith, that our faith is firstly in G-d who created everything and made possible all goodness and all good things. Secondly, our faith is in man. When we say we witness that Muhammad is the messenger of G-d and the last prophet, we are saying that we have faith in G-d and in man. G-d requires that we not only have faith in G-d but have faith also in man.
06:12 IWDM: So it's not good just to believe that we are to look at Muhammad the prophet and see him in his personal life and in his personal life as a prophet or as a human being. He is also, for us, a sign, as Jesus was a sign. Muhammad is also a sign, peace be upon him. He's a sign that G-d does not need man to get man where he wants man to go. The whole world can fail human beings, the whole world can fail the soul, the human soul. But that doesn't mean that G-d is helpless, depending on man to carry the human soul where he wants it to go. When all of their knowledge runs out and can't help us, when all of their creations can't help us, when all of their teaching and preaching can't help us, G-d can revive the intellect of a human being and lift that intellect up to higher planes, where that intellect will experience revelation on the highest level and coming to a much bigger focus and dimension of his reality, a much bigger focus on his reality and a much bigger dimension of his reality. And G-d will cause him to come back down off the high level of plane that he lifts him up to with his people on the ground and guides them, revives them and guides them so they will have what their souls call for. G-d never did anything stupid. G-d never did anything that's senseless. Whatever G-d did, it's instead of him. Whatever G-d did, makes sense. Understand that, firstly.
08:41 IWDM: We must respect G-d. G-d doesn't do stupid things. G-d doesn't play. G-d doesn't stroke and tell. He doesn't need that. We need that. We need stroking. So we don't have to believe that there's... Think of a G-d or believe in a G-d that needs us to worship him. G-d doesn't need us to worship him. A G-d that need us to thank him? G-d doesn't need us to thank him. A G-d that need us to pray for him and bow down to him, glorify him? G-d doesn't need that. He doesn't need that at all. But he created us and we are his creation and his creation needs to obey the creator, and his creation needs to acknowledge the creator. The creation needs to appreciate the creator. And the more the creation does that, the better the creation is. The better it is. It becomes better and better the more it does that. It is for us that we have revelation. It is for us that we have prayers. That's for us, not for G-d. G-d doesn't need our prayers. You give G-d nothing when you pray to him. You give him nothing.
10:09 IWDM: Muhammad the prophet has said, "You cannot increase G-d at any little small bit with whatever you wanna do for him. It doesn't add anything to him." This is what the prophet taught us. It doesn't add him, increase him in anything. He's already perfect and when he created the world, he didn't create the world for him to see all that. He didn't create the world for the world to give him man. He created the world for man. The whole world, everything, for man. The sky, everything up there, the earth, everything down here. The insect, the smallest thing in creation, G-d didn't create that for G-d, G-d created that there for us. Created it for man. And man is the only creature that we see finding joy, pleasure, usefulness in everything that G-d created. Nothing G-d created is without use to human beings in community life.
11:27 IWDM: We have Science and Industry in Chicago. We have all kinds of insects and things on display, as well as technology. We have a museum, see all the animals. We have courses taught in our schools, where no matter how small the life is, plant or animal, it's of interest to us. Isn't that proof that G-d created all this for man? Nothing else wants to know about all these things. It's only man that wanna know about all these things. It's only man that seems to bring all these things into his environment, to study them, to ponder over them, to find enjoyment in them. So the world and all things, as the prophet has taught us and prophets before us taught to people, all things that you see in this world or could know in this world, created for man. G-d needed nothing. It's for us.
12:24 IWDM: We should first know G-d as the real G-d, then we would have real faith, strong faith, undying faith. Then we would have interest, strong interest, undying interest. In religion. Without these things brought to your mind and conscience, religion for you is like passing through a flower garden. As long as the wind is blowing the beautiful smell in your nose, it's pleasure passing through the flower garden. But there's a stockyard close by, and if the wind changes, you're passing through the flower garden, but you're smelling the stockyard. And that's how religion is for the people of this world. As soon as something bad comes into their nose or into their senses, they lose the good relationship and the good experience in religion. It shouldn't be that way. Your mind should be converted to G-d. Islam is the only religion that I know of that insists upon your mind being converted to G-d.
13:54 IWDM: When we say, "Ash-hadu", we are saying, "I witness," and "I witness" is given in this Bible, but it was not expounded by the followers of the Bible, except a few. When Muhammad the prophet, and most of them asked the Muhammad the prophet, when Muhammad the prophet came to say, "It is important that your mind, your intelligence convert to G-d, not just your spirit, your soul, but your mind, your intelligence should witness this truth, that G-d is creator of everything, and G-d is G-d, and G-d has lifted up man, not only created him, but lifted him up in his intellect so that he'd be a guide for the whole world of mankind."
14:49 IWDM: We must be converted here, not just here. It starts here, this is the place for it to start, here, in the heart. But we must get an interest because we are not just creatures of heart. The animals have hearts and sometimes they just pray sentiments of the heart that'll attract us, our conscience, and we will be amazed and they'll touch our heart with their heart, animals. But I don't think any of them can touch us with their intellect, with their minds, like we can touch each other with our minds. We are superior to all created things in our minds, in our intelligence. And G-d, would he be a G-d that would make sense, if he created a human being and gave that human being a superiority over other creatures or life he made? And that superiority is not in his feelings, not in his heart, but in his intellect, in his mind. Would he be a G-d making sense if he didn't establish that human creation in intelligence and that he didn't grow them to develop their minds, cultivate their minds, and respect their human intelligence, and use the tool of intelligence for their future good and benefits encompassed?
16:29 IWDM: If he didn't do that, he wouldn't even make sense. After making a human being like that and then you ignore the great wealth and value that you gave that creature when you gave him reason, intelligence, and intellect. So when you say, "Ash-hadu alla ilaha illallah," "I witness that there is but one G-d," you're supposed to say that with rational sense. And there are plenty rational guidance in the Quran, that points us to the conclusion that there is a G-d over all this creation and that G-d is not two, three, four many, that G-d is one. The creation itself points to one G-d, not more than one. See, that's the rational conclusion you should make, and if you don't have that when you come to Islam, when you hear the teachings of Islam, when you read the Quran, you can be guided to that kind of conclusion. And when you take your Shahada, it should be a Shahada of your intellect, not just Shahada in spirit, but a Shahada of the mind, of the human intellect. This religion prepares us to accept responsibility for the community life of man on this planet Earth, that's what this religion invites us to and that's what this religion prepares us for. I'm not pulling out a pistol, I don't wanna shoot you, yet.
[laughter]
18:17 IWDM: I'm going in here to get my notes.
[laughter]
18:21 IWDM: You can get shot too, for doing this. If they know who you're standing before, you know?
[laughter]
18:29 IWDM: So I guess that's what I was thinking too, you know.
[laughter]
18:45 IWDM: The great messengers and teachers of G-d, they come from mankind and they put mankind on the right position, in the right position and on the right road. They put mankind in the right position and on the right road, but in time man, because man is encouraged by religion to engage the world so that it become a better world as a home for the human soul. So in doing this, in engaging the world, or in trying to protect the human soul, man gets too involved in material things and things of the flesh and forget what he was given from the messenger, the Prophet, that started him on the road.
19:45 IWDM: And pretty soon he says to Allah that he has to have another message or revival, a revivalist or something, bringing him back to where he's supposed to be. This happens and it has happened and it's gonna continue to happen. Muhammad, the Prophet prophesied that his community would go down, that it would fall under darkness, but it would be revived. And he promised his community that it's us, we're his community and all the people who follow the Quran and Islam and knowing that it was revealed to Muhammad the Prophet, the Quran, are the community of Muhammad the Prophet, over one billion of us now on this earth in many, many countries of the world, most of the countries of the world.
20:53 IWDM: Muhammad, the Prophet told us that there would be, at the head of every 100 years, someone to revive the religion, every 100 years. Now if he said these things, should we be thinking that the Islamic world is all right all the time? How can it be all right all the time if the Prophet said it was gonna go into darkness? Even after he had guided it right, set it up, corrected it and put it on the right road? He himself said, it's gonna fall under darkness. It's gonna go down. And he himself said at the head of every 100 years, there'll be a revivalist, someone who revives it, a Mujeddid, or someone who revives it. Bring back the newness, the freshness as it was before.
21:54 IWDM: So we shouldn't then think that the Islamic world is in good shape all the time. If what he said is correct, there are gonna be times when the Islamic world is not in good shape. There are gonna be times when the Islamic world, whole Islamic world, is under darkness and not finding its way. But we shouldn't give up hope 'cause he said that there would come, at the head of 100 years, a revivalist. Now, what does he say? Do you think he's gonna come? Do you think you can mark your calendar and say, "It's been 100 years. It's 100 years at this moment, brother, the revivalist is here"? No, that's not the way it works. In the Arabic language, Islam is science, Islam is revelation, Islam is language that is on the level of the common man and at the same time much higher than the grasp of the common man.
23:03 IWDM: And you need a special man, inspired by G-d at times, or woman, sometimes it's a woman to get us back, a special man to inspire us to get us back where we are supposed to be in our thinking. And when the thinking is corrected, the thinking then can correct the heart. But when the thinking is in the dark, all we can depend on is the heart, and hope the heart is innocent and good, yes. Yes. So what I'm getting at is this, when Muhammad the Prophet said 100 years, it has to be translated, it has to be interpreted. The word "hundred" in Arabic is "miaya." And 100 years... Yes, the word "hundred" is "miaya", "miaya", "one hundred". And "death" is "mayit, mayit." These two words have the same essential constitution when it comes to lettering, how you put the letters together. They are essentially the same. "Mi" and then alif and then 'ta' at the end. So, when he said "100 years", it's a play on death. So what he means is that whenever his community dies, there's gonna be one to resurrect it. Whenever his community dies to the right perception way, to live and practice Islam, there will be one to revive their understanding, one coming to revive it, to give it life again. And the call to prayer that our muezzin did so beautifully, very excellent, I have to have a copy, Inshallah, I'll get a copy of this, of the muezzin. Don't think of getting me a copy of what I'm saying here, or go to jail.
[laughter]
25:35 IWDM: No, you know I'm joking.
[laughter]
25:39 IWDM: Only joking. Yes. The call to prayer, the call of prayer is a call to life. It begins with the word, life. The call, first we acknowledge G-d, that he is superior, he is greater, he is more important than anything else, "Allahu Akbar", drop it like that, you know? But then you make the call, you say, "Hayya", "Come", "Hayya alas Salah", "Hayya alas Salah", "Come to prayer," that's the call, that's the first pronouncement of the call, when you say "Hayya", "Hayya alas Salah". "Hayya" comes from the word "hayyun", "Al-hayy", it's "Al-hayy", the noun itself is "hayy", and you use the same word as the verb to instruct someone or call someone. "Hayya" means living, "Hayyun", living. In the Arabic, the Arabs did not just hear that word for the first time from Muhammad's mouth, prayers and peace be on the Prophet. They had a proverb that's in the Bible right now, but it was in the Bible before the proverb, Mohammed the Prophet, peace be on Him. That proverb goes like this, when you get a big dictionary that gives a lot of explanations, your dictionary will tell you that that proverb is an Arabic proverb. It is in the Bible, it says "A living dog is better than a dead lion."
27:29 IWDM: And in Arabic you say it like this, it's still said the same way, thousands of years, "Alkalb", the dog, "hayya", living, "akbar", better, bigger, better, greater, "min", than, "asada", lion, "mayit" dead. "Alkalb alhayu 'akbar min al'asad almayit." That's the saying, old proverb, in the Bible. [chuckle] In the Arab. So they had "hayya" long before the coming of Muhammad the Prophet. But then as a result of Muhammad and the Quran and Muhammad, we have a call to prayer and it says, "Hayya" and it is given an imperative or as an order verb, although it exists too as a noun, same sound as a noun. Like "stop", "stop" is a noun and a verb. If you come to a stop, you who know grammar, is stop not a noun, as I just used it? It's the name of something, it names where he ended his movement. Did he not come to a stop? A stop, verb, I mean noun. "Stop your foolishness", verb, order verb. That's English, isn't it? [chuckle]
29:21 IWDM: Well we have "Hayya" in Arabic. It means living, it's a noun, living is a noun. But if you tell someone, "Hayya alas Salah" it means "Come to prayer." The same word that means "living", means "come to prayer", means "come". If you say "Hayya alas Salah", it means "come". So what is this word saying to the enlightened student who's searching language for more knowledge and understanding? It's saying to that enlightened student that this word does not merely mean "come," it means "come with enthusiasm," living, not dead, sleeping, slumbering, absentminded. The very word says, "Come with enthusiasm. Come lively, to prayer." Now. Brother Imam, I'm gonna try to do what I told you, I'm gonna try to conclude in 40 minutes, although he told me, "Go. Forget about the time."
[laughter]
30:46 IWDM: Said, "Because there are some who have business and they'll get up and go if they have to," he said, "But some will wanna sit and remain." But I'm gonna try to finish in 40 minutes like I said. All this. So, what is prayer now? This is what we have to be aware of, this is very important what I'm telling you, makes the difference between a live Muslim and a dead Muslim.
[laughter]
31:13 IWDM: Really, I'm telling you the truth. When you see Christians do this, they're praying right? That ain't the way we pray. When you see Muslims doing this, they're praying right? That ain't the way we pray. This is the way we beg.
[laughter]
31:32 IWDM: I want to make it clear to you. This is not the way we pray, this is the way we beg. There's this saying, "We're begging G-d", and we're supposed to beg our G-d, not supposed to beg a man. You're supposed to beg your G-d. So this is the way we beg. And Muhammad the Prophet says, "The one who's got his hand like this, is inferior, less than, not as important as the one who's got his hand like this." Put something in the hand like that. [chuckle] This is the way we beg, not the way we pray. This is not "Salat." This is "Dua". And "dua" means "calling for help," 9-11. Dua, 9-11. Okay. Now, to understand prayer in Islam, we must get the understanding from revelation, Quran, and Muhammad, of course. But let's go to the first source of revelation. In the Quran, Allah says, "Every creature knows his mode of prayer." Listen to that, "Every creature knows his mode of prayer." That means the lion, the eagle, the snake, the mosquito, the fly. He didn't leave out any, He said every creature knows his mode of prayer. So what is in prayer?
33:16 IWDM: Prayer is your natural life discipline given to you by Creator. All the animals that G-d didn't give free will and free intellect minds, they stay in the same mold created for them by their creator. They don't come out of that mold. They wake up like they're supposed to wake up. They go to sleep like they supposed to sleep. They move and transport themselves as they're supposed to, as they were created to. They form their families and their society as they were created to. They conduct their daily life to survive as they were created to do it.
34:08 IWDM: Man is above them in creation. Man is created also to think and plan his future. But the same G-d that gave them that mold for them, gave us also our thinking mold, and he has turned thoughts in human life to tempt us from animal existence to inspire man's existence and serve community in a way to make it the most excellent and most trouble-free community, the most intelligent community, the most obedient community to G-d, to the creator. And the most, I would say, the strongest sign in community, that this community recognizes its creator and gives credit to its creator, above all things.
35:14 IWDM: So this G-d has created us for. This G-d has created our intellect for, to acknowledge Him and to take our lives to the best possible condition. This G-d has given to us in our nature and in the nature of our souls and our mind, our intellect. And it will happen in a natural way. That's why Allah says to Muhammad and not to us, in revelation, Arabic. It is the religion of origin, the religion of our human origin that he has patterned civilized society or mankind upon. So we think of revelation, yes, we need revelation. We need revelation just to assist, to assist evolution.
36:08 IWDM: Revelation comes from G-d to assist evolution when man runs out. Then G-d says, "My man is running from me now. He just ran out. He knows not where to take his life. He has learned that he will fail himself. Now I'll come in and help him so he will know me." G-d wants to be known by you and me so that human beings can do more with his creation than animals can do. Me? Yes. He wants his creation to be better and he created one of the animals to do that, with the capacity and the possibility, potential to go up higher and to reach further with his mind and to take his creation further than animals can take it, community life. Praise be to Allah.
37:15 IWDM: This is where you should be in your thinking. We are so far behind, the world that is. The world of religious teachers, so far behind. We are talking to the man's soul, we're talking to his spirit but doing little teaching to his rational mind, and that's a big mistake. In Islam, the focus is the rational mind, and Muhammad the Prophet sees the importance in his head, "G-d did not create anything better than the human brain." You hear that? This is the saying of our Prophet in Bukhari and Muslim, the Hadith, the great volumes of information that we have from that time. G-d did not create anything better than the human brain. Aqal Insaan, that's Arabic. You speak Arabic, you got it there. He did not create anything better than that.
38:23 IWDM: So wake up. Muhammad had to have... I say had to, maybe didn't have to, but I believe, I don't know, I'm not sure, I'll change that. Muhammad has been assisted by Elijah Muhammad, who was inspired by Mr. WD Fard, and Fard Muhammad. And it wasn't until he got that kind of assistance that the world witnessed this kind of talk.
[background conversation]
[laughter]
39:16 IWDM: Praise be to Allah. Now if G-d wanted, by miracle, I said, "Glorify G-d." Now if G-d wants me to glorify him, should I just glorify him with my hands? Should I just glorify him by shouting? "Thank you Jesus, thank you G-d, thank you G-d, thank you G-d"? Should I just glorify him with noise and movement? If a king invites me to perform for him and I know how to crack jokes, I know how to do a lot of that, I know how to buck dance, you probably don't know what that is, some of you are too young. I know how to buck dance. I can sing. But I got some mental skills, I can do calculus, and the kingdom doesn't have calculus. So if he invites me, should I give him what I have to offer that's inferior? Or should I give him what I have to offer that's superior? Should I buck dance when the king needs calculus and I know calculus? So should I go and give G-d the spirit of my soul and the sentiments of my heart, when G-d has created my brain above my soul and above my heart? Put the brain up here. I don't know whether it's above my soul or not, the soul is so mysterious. The soul may extend beyond my brain, I don't know, but it's waiting on my brain to do something. I know that.
41:12 IWDM: So anyway, should I perform with my spirit and not perform with my mind? For G-d? Should I glorify him with just my spirit and not with my intelligence? When you see what has happened in this world to bring communities from existing just like animals, eating, sleeping, having sex, playing, dying, to engaging in the material world, nature, in the material world and giving human beings science, technology, and many comforts as a result of the intellect working with matter. When you see that, when you see how Islam came in the time of Muhammad, when the world had left off intellectual interests, scientific inquiries and how, when Muhammad received the Quran, it was inspired again in the minds of studious men and women, and that great science and technology came back, medicine, astronomy, instruments to study the stars, instruments to make brass. All this came back. And that flourished soon after his coming, universities and college, science and technology. On that level back then. When you see that, you should know that G-d created human beings to glorify him, not just with the instruments of their feelings or of their spirits, but with the instrument of their brains, their human intelligence, their rational faculties, etcetera. This is a great glorification.
00:00 IWDM: Is the front brain, the front of the brain. That's the most developed part. The Messiah saves the day. The most developed part is the front part. But before they told us that, the living required that we put that part on the ground, on the floor. Go find G-d. Who? And G-d said he made the man of the Earth. So out of the Earth, it came. And then he said he's gonna return the man. He's gonna die and he's gonna turn him back to the Earth. Well, G-d, I am dead when I'm under the authority of narcotics, drugs, whiskey, puntang, etcetera. G-d, I am dead.
[laughter]
00:51 IWDM: When I'm under the authority of my bank accounts, my money is managing me and I'm not managing it. G-d, I am dead.
[laughter]
00:58 IWDM: Return me to the warmth of science and knowledge and direction from you, so that I can stand back up and be the man on my feet again. Eh? Yes, so we glorify G-d. Say, "G-d, I lost it, but I'm giving it back to you. I think I found myself, I'm gonna put my head on the ground that you took me out of, in hope that I will be born again and live again and glorify you with my whole life and with my mind." Huh? Yes, in every case your brothers, in every case your sisters, every case your public for a better world. This is prayer. This is prayer. That's why on the Jumuah day, we don't have to say full rakats of Zuhr the noon, mid-day prayer. We cut it in half. Why? Because what I'm doing here is prayer. My Khutbah is prayer. And when the Bible has Jesus saying, "Give us this day our daily bread." That was a prayer, wasn't it?
02:13 Speaker 2: Yes, sir. That's right.
02:15 IWDM: He wasn't talking about Wonder Bread or whatever kind of bread you got here, that you buy from your stores here. He wasn't talking about that kind of bread. He was talking about the bread without the B. The R E A D, read. That's read and read correctly. Give me something read and read correctly, G-d. And I need it daily. Is that proof in the Bible? Yes. In the Bible, it said of Jesus, says "Take this into communion. Take this." What was it? Wine. And then remember it's a meal. And what does the Bible say about the wine? It represents blood. And what does it say about the blood and the wine? It's the spirit of the New Testament. And He said, "And take this bread in remembrance of me, my body." And what does the Bible say about that bread? It says that it is the doctrine of the New Testament. The doctrine. The doctrine means teaching. So he said, one, the blood and the wine represents the spirit, and the bread represents teaching. So I come back to my suggestion to you that you take the B off of B R E A D, and just read it R E A D. It's in agreement with the New Testament, what I told you. Eh? Okay.
[background conversation]
03:49 S2: Takbir.
03:49 IWDM: Allahu Akbar.
03:49 IWDM: Read about the rapture, it's not now. It's the wonderful loaf of bread.
04:04 IWDM: In fact, it's five in one.
[laughter]
04:13 IWDM: Here is what we should be looking at. Islam comes to awaken us for community life, life in community. Muslims can't be Muslims on an island somewhere to ourselves away from our society, away from our people. Muslims are obligated by the teachings of Islam to establish the individuals in community, not outside of community, in community. All of your aspirations, all of your hopes. You are to first look at your community and then pick a place, pick an interest in your community so you can establish yourself upon, or for you to establish yourself in. This is Islam. Islam requires that of us. That we don't just go out on our own individually, and try to make a life for ourselves. We have to look at our community first. And plan our life with respects to what our community gave us, with respect for what our community needs, and with respect for where our community has to go in order to live what G-d asks of our community in the Qur'an and in the teaching of the life of Mohammad the Prophet. This is what we have to do. Islam is community life, not just living our own life privately, selfishly like that. And Islam comes to do what civilization... When we are told by G-d that this is a religion of Fitra, means a religion of origin, archeologists, all the science scientists, modern scientists, who study the past life of man on this earth.
06:21 IWDM: They find evidence that human life is an evolving life. And just like a plant, and G-d says to us doesn't he, that you're created like a plant. Just like a plant starts with a seed and it develops itself upon a stem and later upon the body of itself and later produce beautiful design, a beautiful symmetry, a beautiful picture, a structure. And oftentimes produce something useful to other life, not just itself, but useful to other life. Seeds that other life feed on or fruit that other life feed on, including human beings. Or beauty that the human soul feeds on. It's giving something, it's not just establishing itself, but we find instead that it is giving something to other than itself. To other than itself. And the simplest of plants behold nothing, no seeds, no fruit, no nuts, no beauty. It dies and it's dead body enriches the soil that it came up out of. Its dead body enriches the soil that it was taken from. So even if it has the least to offer, it does have something to offer. It makes the soil useful for other things, for itself, and other things to grow in.
08:06 IWDM: So G-d has created life, not to live selfishly, but G-d has created life also to give unselfishly. Charity. And the greatest advice is that we are made for human society has been made possible because of people not being selfish. Because if we are selfish, we wouldn't even give the knowledge. Freely. Not to mention, the material benefits that some of us are fortunate to have, that we share with others so others can have a better life. But to scientists the knowledge. We wouldn't have those in the world making the world so beautiful if it wasn't for that charity that's in the heart of every human being. So this is the beauty of religion, brothers. This is the substance of religion. The substance of religion is not in show, not in ritual. It's not in dressing up in your Ihram, two pieces, and bringing your picture back to Brooklyn. To show people yourself in two bath towels. That's not the substance of this religion. The substance of this religion is not Allahu akbar. Nobody heard it. Those people are dead. You got to teach. So then they'll hear.
[chuckle]
09:44 IWDM: So just like it is for the evolution of man, science believes, social science, believes that man has a natural urge, desire, an urge in him to evolve. That means get better and better, get more developed and more developed. Get more, become more resourceful, more resourceful, and more resourceful. That it means more qualified to do many and better and greater things. Science says that man is created with this spirit and desire in him to evolve socially. And science says that civilization does not really present itself until man perceives his social aim. Social aim, where he should place his life in community with other men and people, family, etcetera. Where he should take the community life, not just his private life. For he is turned on to where, and wants to know where should I take my community life, my race, my family, my tribe, the people that I live with on this earth or on this island or on this continent or on this peninsula, etcetera? When he gets into that mind, that's when he starts to evolve socially and it takes him to his social aim. That is to have comfort not just for himself, but have comfort for the people he belongs to. Not just for himself.
11:20 IWDM: And if your Imam W Deen was not turned onto this when he was a teenager, you wouldn't have W Deen. It's not the Quran and the Sunnah that made this imam. It is my desire to live the best of my social nature and to follow the best aim in this social nature so that I and our people will be helped by my existence. And who turned that on in me? Elijah Muhammad, my father. He turned that on in me. Yes. So it's the course of that nature. It's the course of my fitra that I was able to guide you to the Qur'an and the Sunnah. I know where my salvation is. I know where my savior was. In my fitra.
[background conversation]
12:17 S2: Takbir. Allahu Akbar.
12:17 IWDM: Allahu Akbar. Now, there's a seed in this world where all human beings have the same nature. They have... G-d gave everybody a fitra. Every human being is created with fitra. And to compete with this world now, in this world, and succeed. We need a strategy. And we need the best or the superior strategy because other people have strategies too. Other nations, other communities have strategies too. We need the best strategy. We need a strategy that can compete with all other strategies and not be defeated.
13:16 S2: Allahu akbar.
13:18 IWDM: That's the strategy of Islam.
13:22 IWDM: That's the strategy Mohammad had, prayers and peace be upon him. The best strategy is the one that the world... [13:32] ____ That itself experience that strategy. The best strategy is the strategy of openness. Openness, not secrecy. The best strategy is the strategy of openness. G-d loves peace. G-d loves courage in a righteous man. That's what G-d loves. Peace and courage in a righteous man. A righteous man that's brave enough to trust truth, even when [14:03] ____ tells him you can live longer if you use me for a while. The best strategy is openness. But don't think this is a silly, foolish openness. This is a wise openness. It refuses stuff that goes on top first before the little man hears it. Those on top get it first because they are the ones that can hurt you. They are the ones that can make a lot of trouble with you. So you give it to them first. And put it along with that escapes the man on the ground but reaches the man in the high tower. It reaches him. We hear, "Uh oh, we got company." And we didn't create it. Yeah, he's telling everything. He's talking. He was telling what we were doing up here.
[laughter]
15:22 IWDM: We got to do a little review work now. We gotta review our working and see where we are right now. And see if we've done anything wrong. And make sure we're on solid ground and see if there is a victory that we can look at. And maybe explain this G-d's creation here. So they go back and study. They go back and study. And if they come up with a conclusion, he has seen into the sanctuary and the sacred corner. But he is not guided by G-d. He lacks the wisdom that G-d gives. So let's ignore him, let's embarrass him, let's bring out his weak side, let's destroy him. But if they say he's genuine, he's lying, he's protected by G-d, leave him alone and keep quiet. Be as quiet as you possibly can. 'Cause anything you say he's gonna hear it. So they're saying it too. But the innocent ones among them, see, they're not all innocent. Do you know why in the higher regions of the heavens there were the angels and G-d speaking to them? And among them was Iblis the one who was leading them. And that one was not prepared to obey G-d to the full extent. When G-d revealed his plan for human beings, Iblis rebelled, and refused to obey G-d. And then here is G-d's creation. He said, "I'm gonna prove it's not worthy of what you are offering it." That was Iblis.
17:49 IWDM: So now, if this was in the heaven, in the higher region of the heaven, in the presence of G-d, where G-d was addressing them, what do you expect that they're gonna hear? Hmm? Don't you expect when the righteousness come there's gonna be somebody disturbed? When determinations come, to address the man that G-d wants man to go. Don't you think somebody gonna be disturbed? Yes, plenty of them gonna be disturbed. And they're gonna be disturbed right up there in the high tower. Way up there in the high regions. They're gonna be disturbed. And they're going to make plans to defeat our efforts. We must have a great strategy. Now, one of my duties, the revivalist from India. At this modern time, he passed away but thank G-d I was on the Hajj with him and met him in Arafat. And had conversations with that great man before he died. He said, "Islam is an idea for the reform of the whole world." So Islam is an idea or a plan for re-ordering the whole world. Is it alone? No. Christianity has encircled the whole world. To reorder the whole world according to Christian teaching or ideas. The Jews have a same thing. They had a plan, though they keep separate. They keep separate but their influence is not kept among them. Their influence is everywhere. Even in China a long time ago.
19:57 IWDM: Their influence had reached all the way into China. The Jews. So the Jews obviously. Also have a plan or idea, for reordering the whole world. When you read the bible, old testament, you can see that the Jews have a plan for reordering the whole world. So we are not alone, we're in competition. With the Jews, with the Christians. But we people of the book of scripture are not alone. We have been in competition with communism, and before communism, other isms, who were trying to reorder the whole world. Huh? This is not something I'm tell... You think I'm talking to you for my own ego? I don't stroke myself, brother, and G-d knows that. I'm not telling you this because I wanna talk. I'm telling you this because it is a must. Because it is absolutely necessary that I talk to you this way. It's urgent that I speak to you this way.
21:15 IWDM: So we are not alone, we're in competition with others. In this day and time, what is important that we understand about this competition. Islam requires us that we don't compete with anybody to achieve something bad, something wrong. We are in a contest with others. We are challenging and being challenged. Hear me, we are challenging and we are being challenged. But we invite people of good intentions, people of good nature, people who want to see fairness for all people. We invite them to compete with us and we compete with you as a race for all that is good and excellent. It should be a competition involving well-wishers, involving well-wishers. We believe that if you succeed a few miles ahead of me, it would be a victory announced early for all of us.
22:42 IWDM: We should be competing with this kind of awareness and this kind of interest in our competitors. We see you on. Let's go, brothers, in competition. Let us go with all that we have, to see to the glory of G-d, for the comfort of man on this Earth, all that is good and excellent. Isn't that beautiful? That is beautiful. And we say our campaign is not against you well-wishers, our campaign is not against you innocent people. Our campaign is only against the oppressor. That's Qur'an I just gave you. Our campaign is only against the unjust, the oppressors. Glorify G-d, Allahu Akbar. La ilaha illallah.
[foreign language]
23:54 IWDM: Ameen.
[pause.
24:24 IWDM: We praise G-d, Al-?amdu l-ill?hi rabbi l-??lam?n, who is Lord, cherisher, sustainer of all the world. We praise G-d who sent Muhammad to be a mercy to all the worlds.
[foreign language]
24:45 IWDM: G-d says you're not sent to... Speaking to Muhammad, to be any other than a mercy to all the world. And we witness that G-d educated, uneducated man in Scripture and in Revelation and prepared him to be leader for the whole world for every school of thought, for every field of knowledge, he created Muhammad, who was uneducated, he created him and established him as leader to lead mankind into a new world. The enlightenment, the age of enlightenment, the Renaissance, all came about because of Muhammad the Prophet, being inspired by G-d, and a man like us, a mortal human being, just like us, but in his nature, not in academics. He would establish an excellent human nature, not in science, not in academics, and G-d raised him up and made him the leader to aspire the intellect of man and the hearts and souls of men and women, to create a world and lead and bring on to all the world. All the world.
26:15 IWDM: Ethics, morals, ethics, science, enlightenment, civilization on the highest level. This is what we witness. For G-d gave that for one human being that had not a rabbi to teach him, had not a monk to teach him, had not a priest to teach him, had not a Christian scholar to teach him, knows the emotion to help him along. G-d can do it for so-called Negroes and African-Americans abandoned by the world. G-d can do it again and G-d has done it again. Thank G-d. That's my message to you today. So let us respect what G-d has created us for, and respect the excellence that he has created us in, the human mold of excellence, and let us respect what has happened to us in these parts, the United States of America, preparing us on to a new mind and a new thinking and a new spirit to succeed, made possible by what appear to be a corruption of Islam, the teachings of Mr. Fawad to my father, the honorable Elijah Muhammad. I thank you, and we ask Allah to forgive us our mistakes, forgive us our shortcomings, forgive us our error, forgive us our sins, take away all our sins, for only ye can remove sin, Ameen.
[pause]
28:02 IWDM: Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
[foreign language]
28:42 S2: If everyone place their heels on the line, and make sure the rows are straight. Your heels on the line would make sure that the rows are straight.
[pause]
29:04 IWDM: Allahu Akbar.
[foreign language]
30:13 IWDM: Allahu Akbar.
[foreign language]
30:22 IWDM: Allahu Akbar.
[pause]
30:31 IWDM: Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.
[pause]
30:44 IWDM: Allahu Akbar.
[foreign language]
31:48 IWDM: Allahu Akbar.
[foreign language]
32:00 IWDM: Allahu Akbar.
[pause]
32:08 IWDM: Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.
[pause]
[foreign language]
[background conversation]

