06/12/1992
IWDM Study Library
IWDM in Newark NJ

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
[Arabic language] praise to Allah, the Lord, the Guardian, Creator of all the world. We ask forgiveness of Him, we believe in him, put our trust in Him, we witness that there is nothing to be worshiped beside Him. He alone rules the heavens and the earth and has no associate or partner. We witness that Muhammad, the last of the prophets, the seal of the prophets to whom the Quran was revealed, he is Allah's servant and messenger.
We ask the best salutations or offer the best salutation, the traditional salutations praying peace, the prayers and peace be upon Muhammad and on his companions and on his descendants [unintelligible 00:04:19] , and what follows of that traditional salutation. Dear beloved Muslims this is the day of Jumu’ah. This is the special day in the week for us, the Muslims. We know others have their special day, this is our special day.
The word Jumu’ah means gathering, coming together, a gathering. To juma something means to bring it into a group, into a bunch or into a group, together. To group together, so this is our day of congregation, this is our day of grouping, this is our day of forming a gathering. The purpose of this is to first of all acknowledge one authority over our lives, supreme, superior, higher, above all others, that is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah highly glorified.
To acknowledge the one authority above us, our G-d our creator, our Lord, and to acknowledge Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed as Allah's messenger and the seal of the prophets, the last of the prophets. To acknowledge His book, Allah's book, that was revealed to Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, the Quran as the final book and the only pure book, complete and pure book existing in the world.
There is no other book that we acknowledge as being complete and pure other than this book, the book revealed to Muhammad, the Quran. To acknowledge that book as the source of knowledge above all other sources of knowledge. The source of knowledge that requires every other source of knowledge to yield to it, to conform to it if the other source of knowledge is to be approved by Muslims.
We approve no source of knowledge, no book, no paper, no statement, no words of knowledge if it is in conflict with Quran. In order for us to accept it it must not be in conflict with the Quran. This is the meaning of the Quran. This is the meaning of the Quran as a holy book, the meaning of the Quran as a perfect book. This is the meaning of the Quran as a complete book, a perfect book. That is the meaning of the Quran.
That is the meaning of the Quran as the revealed book. That is the meaning of the Quran as the last revealed book and the final message, the final book from G-d. That is the meaning of it, that it is to be held higher than all other sources of knowledge for the Muslim community or for a Muslim person. That no other knowledge is to be put on a level with it and certainly not to be put above it, no matter what source that knowledge is from.
Whether it's from the secular world or from spiritual world, whether it's from the scientific world or from the non-scientific world, no knowledge is to be respected with the Quran, and certainly not above the Quran. More importantly, and that's why I'm making this statement, we must test every knowledge by the Quran.
We must test every knowledge by the Quran. Is this knowledge fit for us? Is this knowledge fit for Muslims? Is this knowledge fit for my family? Is it fit for my children? Is it fit for the Jumu’ah, for the congregation? Is it fit for the school, the Islamic school? Is it ft for it? We must test all other knowledge in light of what Allah has revealed in the Quran.
La ilaha illa llah means more than what most of us understand. La ilaha illa llah, there is no G-d, no deity, nothing to be worshiped except Allah. We know in Al-Islam the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he said (Arabic) that the Islam structures are built upon five essentials, [unintelligible 00:08:57] . The first of them being la ilaha illa llah Muhammadun rasulullah. The second being Salat, the third being Zakat, the fourth being fasting [unintelligible 00:09:10] , and the last, the fifth being Hajj, [unintelligible 00:09:15], the pilgrimage to the house, the house built by Ibrahim and his son Ishmael [unintelligible 00:09:21] .We know that the prophet has made that statement and the most important of the five structures, the five pillars that make for the construction of Islam and which should be also the construction for every Muslim life, because every Muslim is obligated to live those essentials in his own life.
To say la ilaha illa llah Muhammadun rasulullah, to say it privately and openly, to live by it, to conform to that principle and let that principle-- Let his life reflect that kind of belief. His life should reflect that kind of belief, and to make prayer five times a day, the Salat al Fajr, Salat Zuhr, Salat Asr, Salat Maghrib and Salat Isha. At least do obligatory prayer and to give in charity, to give Zakat, and to fast Ramadan, the days of Ramadan during the daylight hours.
To fast it as it is ordered to be fast as the prophet demonstrated to us that it should be fast according to Quran and the sunnah, or according to Quran and instructions life example of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and to make Hajj if we are able to. To make Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca every year, once a year if we can afford to do it.
We know that this is what structures the life, not only for Islam but it structures it more importantly because what is Islam if it is not lived? It structures Islam for the group, for the gathering, for the community, and it structures Islam for the individual believer, the Muslim and the Muslimah, the Muslim brother and the Muslim sister, the Muslim child, the Muslim boy and the Muslim girl.
This is what you need to understand, that this religion comes to structure our lives, to give construction to our lives, to give definite structure and construction to our lives. Therefore, one who lives this religion, he stands out from one who does not live this religion. One who lives this religion stands out clearly from one who does not live this religion.
One who believes as we believe, his personality is going to be Muslim personality. His personality will not be worldly personality, his personality will not be Christian personality, his personality will not be atheist personality, or Jewish personality. His personality will not be anything except distinct Muslim personality. If he truly believes in what we believe in, that Allah is one and that he is not a G-d to be born, that he's not a G-d to die, that he's not a G-d to have a family and have a wife and children.
If he believes as we believe, that Allah did not come on this earth from a mother, that Allah has been-- Before the earth Allah was. If he believes as we believe about G-d, that this G-d needed needed nothing to order the world, angels, men and jinn and to creating matter, and to make planets and everything and life come up out of it. That this G-d needed nothing to do that.
He himself has the power to do that alone and has the resources to do that by himself. That He is bigger than the world. When we say Allahu akbar we mean Allah is bigger than this world. Allah is bigger than the sun, moon and stars. Allah is bigger than the material system that we call this universe. That's what we mean when we say Allahu akbar, we mean Allah is bigger than His creation. He is bigger than His creation, Allahu akbar.
When we understand that and believe in G-d like that, then we believe that G-d intended for man to be led by a man. For a man to be shown how to live by a man. That a man should be an example to a man, and that a man should be a guide to man. That a man should be a leader for man. That a man should be a model for man. G-d says that you will certainly find in Muhammad Uswatun Hasanah, the most excellent model for anyone who believes in G-d and believes in the last day.
Dear Muslims that means that Muhammad is not only an example for Muslims, but he is an example for any sincere believing person who believes in G-d and believes in consequences of their deeds. Believing in the last day means also to believe in the consequences of our deeds, that we have to answer one day for whatever we do.
We have to answer for our deeds. We have to answer for what we're doing and for what we will do. We have to answer to someone superior to us, that is G-d. That something or that someone is G-d. Anyone who believes like that, he could be Christian, he could be a Jew or others. If he believes like that, Allah says in the Quran that he would certainly find Muhammad to be an excellent example for you.
We are not people who have a narrow religion, a closed religion that doesn't recognize the universal order of things, or a religion that does not appeal to the many people of the world, to the international family, to all nations and all colors. No, our religion appeals to all people, all nations, all colors, all races. Why? Because our religion is not a religion that comes out of the sky of man's imagination.
Our religion is a religion that comes from the same one that created matter and human beings. Souls, the human soul, the same G-d that created that is the G-d that gives us our religion. That G-d has been giving us our religion over a period of time that will equal to millions and billions of years that this creation itself has been evolved.
Our G-d put the beginning of Islam in the very creation itself. Our G-d evolved man before he sent prophets to man. Our G-d evolved man upon the excellence of his own creation. G-d made man with a definite creation. He gave us a definite creation. That definite creation we call human creation. G-d has evolved man upon that human creation before G-d sent man a prophet.
That human creation was excellent. G-d then saw that man could not go on anymore with this human creation alone, with the Muslim that's within him by nature, by creation, by the fact of creation, that that would not carry him along, that the world was becoming too complicated, the society was becoming too complex and complicated for him to manage it alone with just his original Muslim.
Then G-d complemented the original Muslim that he created when he created the world and man, he complimented that with revelation. He gave him revelation, sent him a prophet and gave him revelation to continue to evolve that original Muslim in him. Praise be to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. High is He above. Glorified and high is He above whatever they can devise or imagine or figure out with that [unintelligible 00:16:43] .
Congregation: [applause] Allahu akbar.
Yes. Dear Muslims, G-d gives us revelation to sustain and to evolve us so that we will be able to survive the complex life that he has created for us. He has created us a very complex life. When we understand Islam, the revelation of Islam and the revelations of coming stage by stage until it is necessary to make it complete and final. Finalize with Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Finalize with the book, the Quran.
G-d says, "This day I have perfected for you your religion. I completed my faith on you, perfected for you your religion. It’s complete. The Quran is complete, in fact it's the final book, and G-d said of Muhammad that he is the best model for any human being. That means he is the apex of the human construction, the human construction, the construction of man on this earth, that G-d has said Prophet Muhammad is the apex.
He is the apex, nothing above him. Nothing above him. Now, how could we see that? We could see that as a challenge to us. This is what I want to talk about for this Jumu'ah, for t his kutbah, this talk, this this lecture. This is what I want to talk about, emulation, imitation, inspiration, these three. I left my notepad somewhere. I don't have it with me.
[laughter]
Thank you.
[laughter]
Emulation, imitation, inspiration, this is what I want to talk about today. Now, we have problems dear Muslims, and we have to address our problems. We are never to go on ignoring our problems. We have to address our problems. What problems do we have? We are a unique people a difficult, strange and peculiar people on this earth. Let's face it, let's acknowledge that first.
[laughter]
There is not another people on this earth like a Negro. No joke. I'm using these terms not because I like them, but just so that you know what I'm talking about. There is not another people on this earth like a black man. Not another people, nowhere. The American-Indians, I wouldn't like to be in their situation, but when it comes to identity they have less of an identity crisis than we do.
Most people have no identity crisis. If people have lost their identity it's because they chose to lose their identity. We have an identity crisis because we have not known our identity. We have not been comfortable not knowing our identity. The world showed up, we were Africans and then later told us we were Negroes, then they called us black [unintelligible 00:20:11] until we said, "Well, we're not scared of being black." We said, "Yes, we are black."
Now we're black and we still carry the burden of not feeling comfortable with our identity. We are a special and peculiar people. It would be easy to say we're Africans because we know that's where we came from, but we're not comfortable with that. There are reasons for us not being comfortable with that. Or we can say we're African American and we do. I say I'm African American. That's how I identify myself, an African American, not Afro. I don't cut it short.
[laughter]
I've never heard an Irish man say, "I'm I-American," or say, "Iri-American," he says the whole word. I'm not ashamed of Africa, I'm proud of Africa. I don't like the problems in Africa, but I'm proud of my origin. I don't say Afro-American, I say African American. The problem we have as Muslims, we have problems with both as Muslim and as Christians, non-Muslims.
First let me tell you the problem we have with Christians. The problem we have as Christians, history in America has burned into our brains and into our genes even a belief that it makes you prouder to say you're American than it does to say you are African. Consciously and unconsciously, the Christian African American or Christian black will carry a burden identifying as African. It's changing, but it's still a real problem.
As Muslims we have a special problem. We have that problem and another problem. Really we don't have that problem if we understand our religion, we don’t have the problem that Christians have, but we have this problem, every time we address our race or address the need for race pride, you're going to have some Muslim from overseas or someone who’s influence by someone overseas telling you that that that's un-Islamic.
They will tell you it's un-Islamic for you to talk about your race. It's un-Islamic for you to try to build your racial identity, or it's un-Islamic for you to build an African American ethnicity, that that's un-Islamic. They will tell you that this religion came make us all one ummah. Well I know Joseph was promised the coat of various colors. It didn't say one color, various colors.
I know [unintelligible 00:23:02] where the same thing that they use to question this position is not favoring their argument but favoring my argument. I say mine because I don't know how many of you all are going along with me.
[laughter]
I would like to say our position. I know some of you go along. Yes, so the same argument that they give against this position I see it as an argument not against but in favor of this position. They say Allah says this, and it's true, we know He says this, and we love it. It gives us this perfect, beautiful community of people of all color, brothers on one equal plane.
That word of G-d that says the best of you is the one who is best in his obedience to G-d, that there's nothing that makes us superior to another, not our race, not our nationality, not our color. The only thing that makes us higher above another it has to be that we are higher or above that other person in obedience to Allah, in our taqwa, and taqwa is another way of saying obedience to G-d.
We know that, we accept that, but G-d says that He has made us nations and tribes that we should know each other. That he has made us, He made us nations and tribes so that we may know each other. What is a nation? A nation is a body of people under one governmental law, under one land law, one land law or one national law, that's what a nation is.
We know that the government of Pakistan is distinguished from the government of Egypt. Theses governments are distinguished though they're all strictly Muslim, Muslim governments, but they are distinguished. They don’t all look alike, and usually a nation is different from another nation so it will also be affected by geography, it will be affected by climate, it will be affected by a lot of things, and usually we find nations also differing culturally, culture.
They won't wear the same type of clothes, they won't speak the same language, and G-d mentions this too that he'll distinguish [unintelligible 00:25:37] , the differences of language and our color. Your color [unintelligible 00:25:42] color. G-d says he'll distinguish us like that, [unintelligible 00:25:46] .
A movement or a belief that wants us all to blend in and ignore color, and ignore national order, or ignore national identity, or ignore ethnicity, or ignore cultural distinctions in Islamic community, international community to me is a movement in the religion that’s going against everything that they use as an argument against a person like me who says that African American people should build upon their African American excellence, should build upon their racial distinction that is good and excellent.
Should build upon their own ethnicity though it's (unclear) now, though we don't even have a (unclear). We should build upon the excellence of our ethnic life until it's comfortable for us to look at (unclear) and still get [unintelligible 00:26:38] in our [unintelligible 00:26:40] anybody else in our own comfortable dress, in our own ethnic dress, in our own racial image, in our own national principle.
We should be building that distinction for ourselves. Anyone who tells me that’s not Islamic, come and let's argue it together. Show me something from Quran, show me something from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam to support your argument. I can show you a lot to support mine. I know G-d wants us to be one, we are one, more importantly we are one.
I'm not saying that this need to build a comfortable distinction for ourselves, or an ethnic or racial distinction for ourselves upon excellence, - I'm not saying that this is more important than us building our identity in the ummah which is one. G-d says [foreign language] is one ummah, one community, and I am the Lord [Arabic language] . Yes, that's more important, but here is my understanding, here is my belief, here is my motivation. Once that comes to me and I understand it then I now know how to structure my arrangement.
That knowledge, that light makes it possible for me to be comfortable with myself as a human being. Once I identify myself as a human being with all other human beings and once I know that when G-d made the first human being he made me, and when I know that whatever he put in that first human being he put in me. He didn't make no two different parts, one part, one mix, one formula, one outcome. When I know that brother I'm comfortable now in my original self.
My original self existed before there was such a thing as nationality, before there was such a thing as ethnicity. Before there was such thing as racial unity my original self existed. Now upon that original self I want to structure my African American self. I can do it. You all believe me, I can do it. I can structure the African American people in the most dignified end.
Build upon the natural foundation that G-d has intended for us in the originality that makes us brothers to every Muslim and brothers to every man and woman on this earth. I can do that and I can guide you into a comfortable dress that will be excellent. G-d has given me this. I can guide you into a racial identity that will be excellent.
I'll make you more comfortable to say you're a black man or an African American man, as any man that's comfortable with his whiteness or yellowness or redness [unintelligible 00:29:23]
[applause]
I know I can do that with the guidance of G-d, with the Quran, with the sunnah of the prophet. I know I can do that. He has freed us. Muhammad freed us. Muhammad freed us to be a comfortable black man, a comfortable African, a comfortable African American, a comfortable whatever. [unintelligible 00:29:50]
[laughter]
G-d has sent Muhammad to free us to be comfortable with ourselves. Trust me, trust me. I want you to start a cultural day, every year a cultural day celebrating our beginning in Africa, remembering the Islamic past of Africa, identifying with the continent of Africa and showing the movement from Africa to America. Have a lecture that addresses our history from Africa to America on that special day.
Coming out in our different dress, Nigeria dress, a Sudanese dress, different dress, make dresses over there. Even a dress from Ghana [unintelligible 00:30:35] Ghana, from their Muslims, come out in a different dress just as a comfortable show, but the real message will be what we'll say about that beginning in Africa, about where we are, the circumstances that brought us here and where we are today.
From Africa, the dark continent to the dark holds of the slave ships, to America, another dark continent for us. Maybe not for them but for us this is a dark continent. There's a lot of anger [crosstalk]. This was a dark continent for us until Islam came, and then you’ll talk about our presence here in America. We must have a special role.
When you are brought up in those circumstance to the circumstance of the slave ships and then to this continent that put us in the dark while it was scientifically in the light, while it was spiritually leading in the light, it put us in the dark and made us buy whiteness and throw away blackness. Yes, that was a reason for that. Here we are coming from Elijah Muhammad, a strange man made strange by another strange man that came from somewhere overseas.
[laughter]
Here we are coming out of that strangeness hating strangeness. We don't want to be strange. We don't want to be an alien people, we want to be the natural common man that G-d created us to be. That's a wonder, that a miracle, that's a great blessing that G-d has brought us from this terrible dark route that we have come from the dark continent of Africa to the blinding continent of America.
This terrible route, now out from the strangest people ever given up by G-d, the Yacub history and all that, here comes a man now who takes off all of the alien clothes and say, "I'm natural, I'm normal, I'm human, I'm [unintelligible 00:32:25] ." From that man we can build a great man. That is the foundation for building a great man, and all the people that identify that man will be a great people if we follow the light of the Quran and the light of the sunnah.
Congregation Member: Takbir.
Congregation: Allahu akbar.
I don't see the Quran as a book that doesn't have an accommodation in it for my race pride. For my sober, dignified, race consciousness. I don't see the Quran leaving me out. I don't see the Quran as a book that leaves out my appetite for a decent and comfortable cultural life distinct from each other. Don't you know what cultural really means? Cultural means dress. It means dress. Culture means dress. For nature G-d created nature but then he dressed it.
If you don't have culture, you are like a nude person running around. That's what it means. If you don't have culture, you're nude. Now, okay well, I have Islamic culture. (unclear). Islam did not come to (unclear) anybody. Read the bible and read the Quran. The bible talks about dress, this cloth, how to put it, what fabrics to use, everything. How many buttons, how many jewels in it.
Quran does not talk that kind of talk. That kind of talk is not in the Quran. The bible makes a big deal about your diet, eating this and eating that. The Quran [unintelligible 00:33:54] that. It says, "Well if that's all you wanted was pot beans and stuff, you should have stayed in Egypt.
[laughter]
The Quran laid down this thing that's called [unintelligible 00:34:05] traditionalism. People just make too much out of traditionalism, ritualism and traditionalism. Islam came to shatter superstition, overdone ritualism and overdone tradition. Islam came to unburden us, you see. And to let us come into our dignity the natural way. To come into our cultural dignity the natural way.
Islam is the life vein for all Muslims, as long as you're having that life vein in you, that gives the excellence to your nature that Allah intended, and (unclear) excellence of nature [unintelligible 00:34:45] . There is a nature for the intellect, there is a nature for the soul, there is a nature for the heart. There is a nature for everything. So if you have the excellence of that nature, then you are going to naturally come into cultural excellence.
Prophet Muhammad made a point of telling his followers when he goes to another people, take care not to undermine their cultural life but to give them Islam as a complement to that life and Islam will be the [unintelligible 00:35:17] and the purifying fire. The fire that purifies and the light that protects.
Islam will be that, and Islam will have its influence on their cultural appetite and on their cultural expression to refine it for them without killing it. Without undoing it, without erasing it. They will still be distinctly whatever they were. You go to Sudan and you will find them wearing clothes and you may think they used to wear something like this before Islam. No, they wore something like what they got on now before Islam.
They're just more dignified in it. They are more decent dressed. They are more distinctly dressed now as Sudanese than they were before Islam, but they had clothes like that before. Don't think they were running around all naked. There was civilization on that continent. There wasn't a bunch of naked baboons running around there. That's a lie that we were told.
You think Africa was nothing but a continent populated by running naked folk, beating drums and barking like baboons. No, that's not true. They had great medicine there, some of their medicine, they taught the west, they taught the Greek. They gave knowledge to many parts of the world. So don't think that they were that dumb.
Now they're finding the history of the African people [unintelligible 00:36:42] some of them came to believe that there was one G-d and one G-d alone. I have studied African history, and different history, I know that fact. That on that continent some of them came into the belief there's only one G-d. I wouldn't be surprised if came into that belief before the Jews did, but the Jews are first in everything you know.
[laughter]
Now, brother and sister Muslim, Sister this is for you as much as it is for brothers , because we will never come into a dress that we'll be pleased with and comfortable with without you doing your job first sister. You have to start looking at your children and caring about their distinction as Muslims. You have to do that so that we have Muslim men growing up with Muslim distinction.
You shouldn't be producing children from your house that we can't distinguish from the children on the streets that come from other houses that's not Muslim. Your child should be distinguished from children that are coming from non-Muslim houses. We need you for that sister, we need you very badly. I thank G-d, I thank Allah the most high. I thank him that my mother she was obedient to whatever my father believed in, and because of that she gave me a different mind, a different appetite, a different behavior.
She gave it to me. I was a teenager before my father came into the house and began to influence us directly. She was his messenger she was his woman on the scene defending and establishing what he wanted. I thank G-d for that. Now we know Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad is not the prophet, we know he's not the prophet of the Quran.
We accept that and we know that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed is the prophet and we know that Allah is only one G-d and never can be put into a human body, but makes all bodies, human and non-human, controls them all, is present everywhere, is deciding right now how all of you will think.
[laughter]
Yes, because you don't now the power of G-d. Some of these Imams with me they'll tell you about a god that they control. They're not doing it with me, no. The G-d that we believe in He's controlling right now everything we're doing. He is deciding right whether we will stay here or go home. Whether we will be comfortable or not, whether we will believe or disbelieve, whether we will have a future or no future, whether we will even sweat or not.
Congregation: Allahu akbar.
Yes, all is in the hand of Allah. When I say hand I mean power. That's what hand means in the Quran. It means His control, His hand's control. Within his grip, His control. Everything is within Allah's control, everything. You can't dream at night without Allah's permission. You can't wake up without His permission, you can't live without His permission, you can't be born without His permission, you can't die without His permission, you can't get a headache without His permission.
I'm not exaggerating. I'm not exaggerating, not one bit. This is no exaggeration. You might say, "Well, how come I [unintelligible 00:40:11] and I'm a good Muslim?" For the same reason that Moses had trials, he was a good Muslim. The same reason that the prophet Muhammad had trials, he was a good Muslim, and he lived and he died. G-d has given us a human life that we don't particularly like all the time, but the end result of it is that a more excellent soul emerges from that broke body in time.
It's always for our betterment, it's always for our good future. I wouldn't have anything but a human life. A human is born to have good days and bad days. If you want to see what's in store for a human, just watch the weather. It rains and there's sunshine. Sometimes you like the rain, you pray for it. Sometimes you wish it had never come. You love the sunshine, sometimes you ask for it, sometimes you wish it had never come.
Sometimes the weather is stormy, sometimes it's peaceful. Sometimes it's frightening, it frightens you almost to death, that's the human life. One thing we know for sure, that we can count on the sun to rise, and no matter how stormy it is, it could be the sound like the battle front. Canons, the powerful canons, the heavens are just rolling and it sounds like a great war is going on out there. No daylight, at noon time it's dark you have to turn the car lights or the headlights on the car, but we know the sun came up.
Nothing stops the sun from coming up, it's up and as soon as this goes over the sun is going to be wherever it was. It will be right were it was, it didn't even lose time in its movement. Storm never check the movement of the sun. The sun will be on the horizon at a certain time. Certain time it's at noon, certain time it's declined. It keeps it's movement no matter what the weather is. No matter how the sky looks that sun ain't slowing up.
You can find a Muslim man who will do his duty to G-d like that, oh boy. No matter what kind of [unintelligible 00:42:24] that comes in his life, he ain't going to slow up his determination.
Congregation: Allahu akbar.
His commitment and determination is still the same, unchanged. The sun can represent many things for us, and to me it represents commitment. When you have a commitment, you don't let nothing stop you. Nothing to stop you, nothing to stop our taqwa. That's our commitment to reverence G-d above everything else. Nothing can stop our taqwa, interfere with our taqwa.
We may be thrown in a situation where we might not be able to make our prayers, we might not be able to do a lot of things, but it shouldn't affect our taqwa. We know most people are not strong enough to suffer all kinds of tragedies and calamities in their lives and not have their taqwa affected, but human being is created to suffer everything and not have it's taqwa affected.
Congregation Member: Takbir.
Congregation: Aallahu akbar.
This is the message I've come to bring you today. Are we to emulate anything, anybody? Yes, we are to emulate the example of the light and example of the prophet. Anything else? Yes, also the excellent figures that were his companions and that followed in that position, we are to emulate them. I say emulate, what does emulate mean?
Emulate means to copy a thing. It also means to copy with a desire to excel even what you are copying. It also means that. We know that none of us can excel the prophet because G-d has made him the final model, the last model, the complete man, the perfect man. We know that G-d has given us him as a model, and that he is a model of what is in us.
Don't you know Muhammad is in everyone of us? He is not in every one of us as you may think. Maybe some of you are thinking, [unintelligible 00:44:56]? The potential for being obedient to G-d as Muhammad was is in all of us. The potential for following in the path of excellence as Muhammad did is in all of us, the peace and prayers be on him, that is in all of us.
The potential for us to be the prophet, the last prophet? No, that potential was in him and it manifests in him. It is not necessary to be any of us. None of us have a potential to be Prophet Muhammad the prophet but all of us have the potential to be Muhammad the man. Muhammad the man, excellent in his behavior, excellent in his conduct. We all have that potential.
G-d is not spooky. G-d is not magic witch doctor trick bag thing, no. All reality. All is real, so if Allah created the human being, he is the first human being. When he created Adam, he created Muhammad. Muhammad was in Adam and he came from the genes of the original man. He came from the genes of the original man Adam but now, Allah revealed to Muhammad and created him again. See, he created him again. He revealed the Quran to Muhammad and he created Muhammad again.
[00:46:19] [END OF AUDIO]
BELOW IS A REPEAT OF THE TOP HALF.
[Arabic language] praise to Allah, the Lord, G-d and creator of all the world. We ask forgiveness of him, we believe in him, put our trust in him, we witness that there is nothing to be worshiped beside him. He alone rules the heavens and the earth and has no associate or partner. We witness that Muhammad, the last of the prophets, the seal of the prophets to whom the Quran was revealed, he is Allah's servant and messenger.
We ask the best salutations or offer the best salutation, the traditional salutations praying [unintelligible 00:04:11] prayers and [unintelligible 00:04:14] Muhammad all his [unintelligible 00:04:17] and all his descendants [unintelligible 00:04:19] , and what follows of that traditional salutation. [unintelligible 00:04:27] this is the day of Jumu’ah. This is the special day in the week for us, the Muslims, no others have that special day, this is our special day.
The word Jumu’ah means gathering, coming together, a gathering. To [Arabic language] something means to bring it into a group, into a bunch or into a group, together. To group together, so this is our day of congregation, this is our day of grouping, this is our day of forming a gathering. The purpose of this is to first of all acknowledge one [unintelligible 00:05:14] supreme, superior, higher, above all other, that is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala [unintelligible 00:05:25].
To acknowledge the one authority above us, our G-d our creator, our Lord, and to acknowledge Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed as Allah's messenger and the seal of the prophets, the last of the prophets. To acknowledge his book, Allah's book, that was revealed to Muhammad [Arabic language] Quran as the final book and the only pure book, complete and pure book existing in the world.
There is no other book that we acknowledge as being complete and pure other than this book, the book revealed to Muhammad, the Quran. To acknowledge that book as the source of knowledge above all other sources of knowledge. The source of knowledge that requires every other source of knowledge to yield to it, to conform to it if the other source of knowledge is to be approved by Muslims.
We approve no source of knowledge, no book, no paper, no statement, no words of knowledge if it is in conflict with Quran. In order for us to accept it it must not be in conflict with the Quran. This is the meaning of the Quran. This is the meaning of the Quran as a holy book, the meaning of the Quran as a perfect book. This is the meaning of the Quran as a complete book, a perfect book. That is the meaning of the Quran.
That is the meaning of the Quran as the revealed book. That is the meaning of the Quran as the last revealed book and the final message, the final book from G-d. That is the meaning of it, that it is to be held higher than all other sources of knowledge from the Muslim community or from a Muslim person. That no other knowledge is to be put on a level with it and certainly not to be put above it, no matter what source that knowledge is from.
Whether it's from the secular world or from spiritual world, whether it's from the scientific world or from the non-scientific world, no knowledge is to be respected with the Quran, and certainly not above the Quran. More importantly, and that's why I'm making this statement, we must test every knowledge by the Quran.
We must test every knowledge by the Quran. Is this knowledge fit for us? Is this knowledge fit for Muslims? Is this knowledge fit for my family? Is it fit for my children? Is it fit for the Jumu’ah, for the congregation? Is it fit for the school, the Islamic school? Is it ft for it? We must test all other knowledge in light of what Allah has revealed in the Quran.
La ilaha illa llah means more than what most of us understand. La ilaha illa llah, there is no G-d, no deity, nothing to be worshiped except Allah. We know in Islam the prophet [unintelligible 00:08:49] that the Islam structures are built upon five essentials, [unintelligible 00:08:57] . The first of them being la ilaha illa llah Muhammadun rasulullah. The second being Salat, the third being Zakat, the fourth being Sawm [unintelligible 00:09:10] , and the last, the fifth being Hajj.
[unintelligible 00:09:15], the pilgrimage to the house, the house built by Ibrahim and his son Ishmael [unintelligible 00:09:21] .We know that the [unintelligible 00:09:23] has made that statement and the most important of the five structures, the five pillars that make for the construction of Islam [unintelligible 00:09:32] also those are structures for every Muslim life, because every Muslim is obligated to live those essentials in his own life.
To say la ilaha illa llah Muhammadun rasulullah, to say it privately and openly, to live by it, to conform to that principle and let that principle-- Let his life reflect that kind of belief. His life should reflect that kind of belief, and to make prayer five times a day, the Salat al Fajr, Salat Zuhr, Salat Asr, Salat Maghrib and Salat Isha. At least do obligatory prayer and to give in charity, to give Zakat, and to fast Ramadan, the days of Ramadan during the daylight hours.
To fast it as it is ought to be fast as the prophet demonstrated to us that it should be fast according to Quran [unintelligible 00:10:27] or according to Quran and instructions life example of the prophet Muhammad [unintelligible 00:10:33], and to make Hajj if we are able to. To make Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca every year, once a year if we can afford to do it.
We know that this is what structures the life, not only for Islam but it structures it more importantly because what is Islam if it is not lived? It structures Islam for the group, for the gathering, for the community, and it structures Islam for the individual believer, the Muslim and the Muslimah, the Muslim brother and the Muslim sister, the Muslim child, the Muslim boy and the Muslim girl.
This is what you need to understand, that this religion comes to structure our lives, to give construction to our lives, to give definite structure and construction to our lives. Therefore, one who lives this religion, he stands out from one who does not live this religion. One who lives this religion stands out clearly from one who does not live this religion.
One who believes as we believe, his personality is going to be Muslim personality. His personality will not be worldly personality, his personality will not be Christian personality, his personality will not be atheist personality, or Jewish personality. His personality will not be anything except distinct Muslim personality. If he truly believes in what we believe in, that Allah is one and that he is not a G-d to be born, that he's not a G-d to die, that he's not a G-d to have a family and have a wife and children.
If he believes as we believe, that Allah did not come on this earth from a mother, that Allah has been-- Before the earth Allah was. If he believes as we believe about G-d, that this G-d needed needed nothing to order the world, angels, [unintelligible 00:12:22] and to creating matter, and to make planets and everything and life coming out of it. That this G-d needed nothing to do that.
He himself has the power to do that alone and has the resources to do that by himself. That he is bigger than the world. When we say Allahu akbar we mean Allah is bigger than this world. Allah is bigger than the sun, moon and stars. Allah is bigger than the material system that we call this universe. That's what we mean when we say Allahu akbar, we mean Allah is bigger than his creation. He is bigger than his creation, Allahu akbar.
When we understand that and believe in G-d like that, then we believe that G-d intended for man to be led by a man. For a man to be shown how to live by a man. That a man should be an example to a man, and that a man should be a guide to man. That a man should be a leader for man. That a man should be a model for man. G-d says that you will certainly find in Muhammad Uswatun Hasanah, the most excellent model for anyone who believes in G-d and believes in our faith.
Being a Muslim [unintelligible 00:13:32] that means that Muhammad is not only an example for Muslims, but he is an example for any sincere believing person who believes in G-d and believes in consequences of their deeds. Believing in [unintelligible 00:13:46] means also to believe in the consequences of our deeds, that we have to answer one day for whatever we do.
We have to answer for our deeds. We have to answer for what we're doing and for what we will do. We have to answer to someone superior to us, that is G-d. That something or that someone is G-d. Anyone who believes like that, he could be Christian, he could be a Jew or others. If he believes like that, Allah says in the Quran that he would sanctify Muhammad to be an excellent example for you.
We are not people who have a narrow religion, a closed religion that doesn't recognize the universal order of things, or a religion that does not appeal to the many people of the world, to the international family, to all nations and all colors. No, our religion appeals to all people, all nations, all colors, all races. Why? Because our religion is not a religion that comes out of the sky of man's imagination.
Our religion is a religion that comes from the same one that created matter and human beings. Souls, the human soul, the same G-d that created that is the G-d that gives us our religion. That G-d has been giving us our religion over a period of time that will equal to millions and billions of years that this creation itself has been evolved.
Our G-d put the beginning of Islam in the very creation itself. Our G-d evolved man before he sent prophets to man. Our G-d evolved man upon the excellence of his own creation. G-d made man with a definite creation. He gave us a definite creation. That definite creation we call human creation. G-d has evolved man upon that human creation before G-d sent man a prophet.
That human creation was excellent. G-d then saw that man could not go on anymore with this human creation alone, with the Muslim that's within him by nature, by creation, by the fact of creation, that that would not carry him along, that the world was becoming too complicated, the society was becoming too complex and complicated for him to manage it alone with his original Muslim.
Then G-d complemented the original Muslim that he created when he created the world and land, he complimented that with revelation. He gave him revelation, sent him a prophet and gave him revelation to continue to evolve that original Muslim in him. Praise be to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala [unintelligible 00:16:34] above. Glorify that I be above whatever they can devise or imagine or figure out with that [unintelligible 00:16:43] .
Congregation: [applause] Allahu akbar.
Speaker 1: Yes. Dear Muslims, G-d gives us revelation to sustain and to evolve us so that we will be able to survive the complex life that he has created for us. He has created us a very complex life. When we understand Islam, the revelation of the Islam and the revelations of coming [unintelligible 00:17:11] until it is necessary to make it complete and final. Finalize with Muhammad [Arabic language] finalize with the book, the Quran.
G-d says, "This day I [unintelligible 00:17:26] it for you to [unintelligible 00:17:28] . I completed my faith on you, [unintelligible 00:17:29] is complete. The Quran is complete, in fact it's the final book, and G-d said of Muhammad that he is the best model for any human being. That means he is the apex of the human construction, the human construction, the construction of man on this earth, that G-d has said Prophet Muhammad is the apex.
He is the apex, nothing above him. Nothing above him. Now, how could we see that? We could see that as a challenge to us. This is what I want to talk about for this Jumu'ah, [unintelligible 00:18:07] this talk, this [unintelligible 00:18:09] , this lecture. This is what I want to talk about, emulation, imitation, inspiration, these three. I left my notepad somewhere. I don't have it with me.
[laughter]
Speaker 1: Thank you.
[laughter]
Speaker 1: [unintelligible 00:18:27].
[laughter]
Speaker 1: Emulate [unintelligible 00:18:32] . Emulation, imitation, inspiration, this is what I want to talk about today. Now, we have problems dear Muslims, and we have to address our problems. We are never to go on ignoring our problems. We have to address our problems. What problems do we have? We are a unique people of difficult, strange and peculiar people on this earth. Let's face it, let's acknowledge that first.
[laughter]
Speaker 1: There is not another people on this earth like a Negro, not at all. I'm using these terms not because I like them, but just so that you know what I'm talking about. There is not another people on this earth like a black man. Not another people, nowhere. The American-Indians, I wouldn't like to be in their situation, but when it comes to identity they have less of an identity crisis than we do.
Most people have no identity crisis. If people have lost their identity it's because they chose to lose their identity. We have an identity crisis because we have not known our identity. We have not been comfortable not knowing our identity. The [unintelligible 00:19:59] we were Africans and then later told us we were Negroes, then they called us black [unintelligible 00:20:11] until we said, "Well, we're not scared of being black." We said, "Yes, we are black."
Now we're black and we still carry the burden of not feeling comfortable with our identity. We are a special and peculiar people. It would be easy to say we're Africans because we know that's where we came from, but we're not comfortable with that. There are reasons for us not being comfortable with that. Or we can say we're African American and we do. I say I'm African American. That's how I identify myself, an African American, not Afro. I don't cut it short.
[laughter]
Speaker 1: I've never heard an Irish man say, "I'm I-American," or say, "Iri-American," he says the whole word. I'm not ashamed of Africa, I'm proud of Africa. I don't like the problems in Africa, but I'm proud of my origin. I don't say Afro-American, I say African American. The problem we have as Muslims, we have problems with both being Muslim and [unintelligible 00:21:22].
First let me tell you the problem we have with Christians. The problem we have with Christians, history in America has burned into our brains and into our genes even a belief that it makes you proud to say you're American than it does to say you are African. Consciously and unconsciously, the Christian African American or Christian black will carry a burden identifying as African. It's changing, but it's still a real problem.
As Muslims we have a special problem. We have that problem and another problem. Really we don't have that problem [unintelligible 00:22:04] in our religion we won't have a problem fixing that, but we have this problem, every time we address our race or address the need for race [unintelligible 00:22:15], you're going to have some Muslim from overseas or someone with influence [unintelligible 00:22:22] telling you that that that's un-Islamic.
They will tell you it's un-Islamic for you to talk about your race. It's un-Islamic for you to try to build your racial identity, or it's un-Islamic for you to build an African American ethnicity, that that's un-Islamic. They will tell you that this religion thing will make us all one ummah. Well I know Joseph was promised the coat of various colors. It didn't say one color, various colors.
I know [unintelligible 00:23:02] where the same thing that they use to question this position is not favoring their argument but favoring my argument. I say mine because I don't know how many of you [unintelligible 00:23:16] with me.
[laughter]
Speaker 1: I would like to say our position. I know some of you [unintelligible 00:23:23] . Yes, so the same argument that they give against this position I see it as an argument not against but in favor of this position. They say Allah [unintelligible 00:23:36] and it's true, we know he says this, and we love it. It gives us this perfect, beautiful community of people of all color, brothers on one equal plane.
That word of G-d that says the best of you is the one who is best in his obedience to G-d, that there's nothing that makes us superior to another, not our race, not our nationality, not our color. The only thing that makes us higher above another it has to be that we are higher or above that other person in obedience to Allah, in our [Arabic language] , and [Arabic language] is another way of saying obedience to G-d.
We know that, we accept that, but G-d says that he has made us nations and tribes that we should know each other. That he has made us, he made us nations and tribes so that we may know each other. What is a nation? A nation is a body of people under one governmental law, under one land law, one land law or one national law, that's what a nation is.
We know that the government of Pakistan is distinguished from the government of Egypt. Theses governments are distinguished though they're all strictly Muslim, Muslim-dominant, but they are distinguished. They all look alike, and usually a nation is different from another nation so it will also be affected by geography, it will be affected by climate, it will be affected by a lot of things, and usually we find nations also differing culturally, culture.
They won't wear the same type of clothes, they won't speak the same language, and G-d made this too that he'll distinguish [unintelligible 00:25:37] , the differences of language and our color. Your color [unintelligible 00:25:42] color. G-d says he'll distinguish us like that, [unintelligible 00:25:46] .
A movement or a belief that wants us all to blend in and ignore color, and ignore natural order, or ignore national identity, or ignore ethnicity, or ignore cultural distinctions in Islamic community, international community to me is a movement and a religion that goes against everything that they use as an argument against a person like me who says that African American people should build upon their African American excellence, should build upon their racial distinction that is good.
Should build upon their ethnicity though it's down now, though we don't even have a real focus in it. We should build upon that excellence of our excellent life until it's comfortable for us to look at it as he sees it and still get [unintelligible 00:26:38] in our [unintelligible 00:26:40] anybody else in our own comfortable dress, in our own ethnic dress, in our own racial image, in our own national principle.
We should be building that distinction for ourselves. Anyone who tells me he's not Islamic, come and let's argue it together. Show me something from Quran, show me something from the prophet [Arabic language] to support your argument. I can show you a lot to support mine. I know G-d wants us to be one, we are one, more importantly we are one.
I'm not saying that there's need to build a [unintelligible 00:27:20] ethnic or racial [unintelligible 00:27:22]. I'm not saying that this is more important than us building our identity in the ummah it is one. G-d says [foreign language] is one ummah, one community, and I am the Lord [Arabic language] . Yes, that's more important, but here is my understanding, here is my belief, here is my motivation. Once that comes to me and I understand it then I now know how to structure my arrangement.
That knowledge, that light makes it possible for me to be comfortable with myself as a human being. Once I identify myself as a human being with all other human beings and once I know that when G-d made the first human being he made me, and I know that whatever he put in that first human being he put in me. He didn't make no two different parts, one part, one mix, one formula, one outcome. When I know that brother I'm comfortable now in my original self.
My original self existed before there was such a thing as nationality, before there was such a thing as ethnicity. Before there was such thing as racial unity my original self existed. Now upon that original self I want to structure my African American self. I can do it. You all believe me, I can do it. I can structure the African American people in the most dignified end.
Build upon the natural foundation that G-d has given to us in the originality that makes us brothers to every Muslim and brothers to every man and woman on this earth. I can do that and I can guide you into a [unintelligible 00:29:09] that will be excellent. G-d has given me this. I can guide you into a racial identity that will be excellent.
I'll make you more comfortable to say you're a black man or an African American man, and any man that's comfortable with his whiteness or yellowness or redness [unintelligible 00:29:23]
[applause]
Speaker 1: I know I can do that with the guidance of G-d, with the Quran, with the [unintelligible 00:29:38] , I know I can do that. He has freed us. Muhammad freed us. Muhammad freed us to be a comfortable black man, a comfortable African, a comfortable African American, a comfortable whatever. [unintelligible 00:29:50]
[laughter]
Speaker 1: G-d has sent Muhammad to free us to be comfortable with ourselves. Trust me, trust me. I want you to start a cultural day, every year a cultural day celebrating our beginning in Africa, remembering the Islamic past of Africa, identifying with the continent of Africa and showing the movement from Africa to America. Have a lecture that addresses our history from Africa to America on that special day.
Coming out in our different dress, Nigeria dress, a Sudanese dress, different dress, make dresses over there. Even a dress from Ghana [unintelligible 00:30:35] Ghana, from their Muslims, come out in a different dress just as a comfortable show, but the real message will be what we'll say about that beginning in Africa, about where we are, the circumstances that brought us here and where we are today.
From Africa, the dark continent to the dark holds of the slave ships, to America, another dark continent for us. May be not for them but for us this is a dark continent. There's a lot of anger [crosstalk]. This was a dark continent for us until Islam came, and then [unintelligible 00:31:14] our presence here in America. We must have a special role.
[unintelligible 00:31:20] from that circumstance to the circumstance of the slave ships and then to this continent that put us in the dark while it was scientifically in the light, while it was spiritually leading in the light, it put us in the dark and made us buy whiteness and throw away blackness. [unintelligible 00:31:37] for that. Here we are coming from Elijah Muhammad, a saved man made saved by another saved man that came from somewhere overseas.
[laughter]
Speaker 1: Here we are coming out of that strangeness hating strangeness. We don't want to be strange. We don't want to be an alien people, we want to be the natural common man that G-d created us to be. That's a wonder, that a miracle, that's a great blessing that G-d has brought us from this terrible dark rock that we have come from the dark continent of Africa to the blinding continent of America.
This terrible rock [unintelligible 00:32:13] the strangest people [unintelligible 00:32:16] given up by G-d, the [unintelligible 00:32:18] and all that hear from the man now [unintelligible 00:32:22] say, "I'm natural, I'm normal, I'm human, I'm [unintelligible 00:32:25] ." From that man we can build a great man. That is the foundation for building a great man, and all the people that identify that man will be a great people if we follow the light of the Quran [unintelligible 00:32:37] .
Congregation Member: Takbir.
Congregation: Allahu akbar.
Speaker 1: I don't see the Quran as a book that doesn't have an accommodation in it for my race pride. For my sober, dignified, race consciousness. I don't see the Quran leaving me out. I don't see the Quran as a book that leaves out my
appetite for a decent and comfortable cultural life distinct from each other. Don't you know what cultural really means? Cultural means dress. It means dress. Culture means dress. For nature G-d created nature but then he dressed it.
If you don't have culture, you are like a nude person right now, that's what it means. If you don't have culture, you're nude. Now, okay well [unintelligible 00:33:26] . All you have is Allah. Islam did not come to force anybody. Read the bible and read the Quran. The bible talks about dress, this cloth, how to put it, what fabrics to use, everything. How many buttons, how many jewels in it.
Quran does not talk that kind of talk. That kind of talk is not in the Quran. The bible makes a big deal about your diet, eating this and eating that. The Quran [unintelligible 00:33:54] that. It says, "Well if that's all you wanted was hot beans and stuff, you should have stayed [unintelligible 00:33:59]."
[laughter]
The Quran laid down this thing that's called [unintelligible 00:34:05] traditionalism. People just make too much out of traditionalism. [unintelligible 00:34:09] superstition, overdone ritualism and overdone tradition. [unintelligible 00:34:19] then let us come into our dignity the natural way. To come into our cultural dignity the natural way.
Islam is the [unintelligible 00:34:31] for all Muslims, as long as you're having that [unintelligible 00:34:36] in you that gives the excellence to your nature that Allah intended,
and when you have an excellence of nature [unintelligible 00:34:45] then there's other things. There is a nature for the intellect, there is a nature for the soul, there is a nature for the heart. There is a nature for everything. So if you have the excellence of that nature, then you are going to naturally come into cultural excellence.
Prophet Muhammad made a point of telling his followers when he goes to another people, take care not to undermine their cultural life but to give them Islam as a complement to that life and drown the [unintelligible 00:35:17] and the purifying fire. The fire that purifies and the light that protects.
Islam will be that, and Islam will have its influence on their cultural appetite and on their cultural expression to refine it for them without killing it. Without undoing it, without erasing it. They will still be distinctly whatever they were. You go to Sudan and you will find them wearing clothes and you may think they used to wear something like this before Islam. No, they wore something like what they got on now before Islam.
They're just more dignified now. [unintelligible 00:35:54] more decent dressed. They are more distinctly dressed now as Sudanese than they were before Islam, but they had clothes like that before. Don't think they were running around all naked. There was civilization on that continent. There wasn't a bunch of naked baboons running around there. That's a lie that we were told.
You think Africa was nothing but a continent populated by running naked folk, beating drums and barking like baboons. No, that's not true. They had great medicine there, some of their medicine they [unintelligible 00:36:31], they taught the Greek. They gave knowledge [unintelligible 00:36:36] of the world, so don't think that they were that dumb.
Now they're finding the history of the African people [unintelligible 00:36:42] some of them came to believe that there was one G-d and one G-d alone. I have studied African history, I did some history, I know that fact. That on that continent some of them came into the belief there's only one G-d. I wouldn't be surprised if came into that belief before the Jews did, but the Jews are first in everything you know.
[laughter]
Speaker 1: Now, brother and sister Muslim, this is for you as much as it is for [unintelligible 00:37:13] , because we will never come into [unintelligible 00:37:17] that we'll be pleased with and comfortable with without you doing your job first sister. You have to start looking at your children and caring about their distinction as Muslims. You have to do that so that we have Muslim men growing up with Muslim distinction.
You shouldn't be producing children from your house that we can't distinguish from the children on the streets that come from other houses that's not Muslim. Your child should be distinguished from children that are coming from non-Muslim houses. We need you for that sister, we need you very badly. I thank G-d, I thank Allah the most high. I thank him that my mother she was obedient to whatever my father believed in, and because of that she gave me a different mind, a different appetite, a different behavior.
She gave it to me. I was a teenager before my father came into the house and began to influence us directly. She was his messenger she was his woman on the scene defending and establishing what he wanted. I thank G-d for that. Now we know Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad is not the prophet, we know he's not the prophet of the Quran.
We accept that and we know that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed is the prophet and we know that Allah is only one G-d and never can be put into a human body, that makes all bodies, human and non-human, controls them all, is present everywhere, is deciding right now how all of you will think.
[laughter]
Speaker 1: Yes, because you don't now the power of G-d. Some of these Imams [unintelligible 00:39:01] they'll tell you about G-d that they control. They're not doing it with me, no. The G-d that we believe in he's controlling right now everything we're doing. He is deciding right whether we will stay here or go, whether we will be comfortable or not, whether we will believe or disbelieve, whether we will have a future or no future, whether we will even sweat or not.
Congregation: Allahu akbar.
Speaker 1: Yes, all is in the hand of Allah. [unintelligible 00:39:34] that's what hand means in the Quran. It means his control, his hand's control. Within his grip, his control. Everything is within Allah's control, everything. You can't dream at night without Allah's permission. You can't wake up without his permission, you can't live without his permission, you can't be born without his permission, you can't die without his permission, you can't get a headache without his permission.
I'm not exaggerating. I'm not exaggerating, not one bit. This is no exaggeration. You might say, "Well, how come I [unintelligible 00:40:11] and I'm a good Muslim?" For the same reason that Moses had trials, he was a good Muslim. The same reason that the prophet Muhammad had trials, he was a good Muslim, and he lived and he died. G-d has given us a human life that we don't particularly like all the time, but the end result of it is that a more excellent soul emerges from that broke body in time.
It's always for our betterment, it's always for our good future. I wouldn't have anything but a human life. A human is born to have good days and bad days. If you want to see what's in store for a human, just watch the weather. It rains and there's sunshine. Sometimes you like the rain, you pray for it. Sometimes you wish it had never come. You love the sunshine, sometimes you ask for it, sometimes you wish it had never come.
Sometimes the weather is stormy, sometimes it's peaceful. Sometimes it's frightening, it frightens you almost to death, that's the human life. One thing we know for sure, that we can count on the sun to rise, and no matter how stormy it is, it could be the sound like the battle front. Canons, the powerful canons, the heavens are just rolling and it sounds like a great war is going on out there. No daylight, at noon time it's dark you have to turn the car lights or the headlights on the car, but we know the sun came up.
Nothing stops the sun from coming up, it's up and as soon as this goes over the sun is going to be wherever it was. It will be right were it was, it didn't even lose time in its movement . Storm never [unintelligible 00:42:04] the movement of the sun. The sun will be on the horizon at a certain time. Certain time it's at noon, certain time it's declined. It keeps it's movement no matter what the weather is. No matter how the sky looks that sun ain't slowing up.
You can find a Muslim man who will do his duty to G-d like that, oh boy. No matter what kind of [unintelligible 00:42:24] that comes in his life, he ain't going to [unintelligible 00:42:27] his determination.
Congregation: Allahu akbar.
Speaker 1: His commitment and determination is still the same, unchanged. Just as the sun can represent many things for us, and to me it represents commitment. When you have a commitment, you don't let nothing stop you. Nothing to stop you, nothing to stop our [Arabic language] . That's our commitment to reverence G-d above everything else . Nothing can stop our [Arabic language], interfere with our [Arabic language].
We may be thrown in a situation where we might not be able to make our prayers, we might not be able to do a lot of things, but it shouldn't affect our [Arabic language]. We know most people are not strong enough to suffer all kinds of tragedies and calamities in their lives and not have their [Arabic language] affected, but human being is created to suffer everything and not have it's [Arabic language] affected.
Congregation Member: Takbir.
Congregation: Aallahu akbar.
Speaker 1: This is the message I've come to bring you today. Are we to emulate anything, anybody? Yes, we are to emulate the example of the light and example of the prophet. Anything else? Yes, also the excellent figures that were his companions and that followed in that position, we are to emulate them. I say emulate, what does emulate mean?
Emulate means to copy a thing. It also means to copy with a desire to excel even what you are copying. It also means that. We know that none of us can excel the prophet because G-d has made him the final model, the last model, [unintelligible 00:44:35] the complete man, the perfect man. We know that G-d has given us him as a model, and that he is a model of what is in us.
Don't you know Muhammad is in everyone of us? He is not in every one of us as you may think. Maybe some of you are thinking, why do [unintelligible 00:44:56]? The potential for being obedient to G-d as Muhammad was is in all of us. The potential for following in the path of excellence as Muhammad is is in all of us. We [unintelligible 00:45:11] to the audience, that is in all of us.
The potential for us to be the prophet, the last prophet? No, that potential was in him and it manifests in him. It is not necessary to be any of us. None of us have a potential to be Prophet Muhammad the prophet but all of us have the potential to be Muhammad the man. Muhammad the man, excellent in his behavior, excellent in his conduct. We all have that potential.
G-d is not [unintelligible 00:45:41] spooky. G-d is not magic [unintelligible 00:45:47] thing, no. All reality. All is real, so if Allah created the human being, he is the first human being. When he created Adam, he created Muhammad. Muhammad was in Adam and he came from the genes of the original man. He came from the genes of the original man Adam but now, Allah revealed to Muhammad and created him again. See, he created him again. He revealed the Quran to Muhammad and he created Muhammad again.
[00:46:19] [END OF AUDIO]



