1978-June-30

Bilalian News

A Balanced Muslim

Imam W. Deen Muhammad


With the Name Allah (In the Name of God), the Gracious, the Compassionate. 

As-Salaam-Alaikum

(Excerpts from a Khutbah delivered by Imam Wallace D. Muhammad at Jumah Prayer, June 2, 1975)

All praise is due to Almighty God, the guardian evolver and sustainer of all the worlds. The blessings and peace be upon Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah to us all.

O Allah, guide us, forgive us our faults, and grant us the blessing of faith. I bear witness there is no deity except Allah and I bear witness Muhammad is His Servant and His Messenger. Peace be upon him, his descendants, his companions, the righteous servants, all of them, and upon us in America and throughout the world:

Dear beloved Muslims, Allah has blessed us and has enriched us. He has blessed us to be Muslims. He has blessed us to have faith. He has enriched us with understanding, with teachings explaining to us the mysteries that Christianity and other ways left us with.

We thank Allah for relieving us of the great burden of confusion and misunderstanding. We pray Allah that we will prove grateful and obedient servants all the days of our life, and that we will raise our children and spread this message of Al-Islam to others so that we will be called helpers in the way of Allah.

Allah has said that He will make this religion, Al-Islam, the dominant religion though the rejecters of faith hate it. It is the obligation of every Muslim to spread this faith, to invite people to the way of Al-Islam, to teach the Quran as much as we know it.

Only when we have faith and practice that faith, is that faith going to produce for us the things that make a comfortable life for the individual. We can have all the faith, but without the practice, we will never have the life that we want for ourselves.

Allah will not give us ease, and happiness and blessings in our life until we make sacrifices and practice our faith. We have to value our faith above the things that give us personal pleasure, other than the pleasure of Almighty God.

Many of us are striving to have our full life satisfied under or in obedience to God, but many of us are having trouble obeying God because other things are pulling at us, things are pulling us away from obedience to God. So we have to strive hard.

The human being finds his way to his object or to his goals with his feelings, with his senses, with his intelligence. We have to use our intelligence. Allah has sent messengers, prophets to appeal to our hearts, to our senses, and to our intelligence.

The last message from Allah, the Quran appeals to the man's intelligence over and over again. The old thinking man, the rational man, the men of logic, you see — the men of sound reasoning, the men with brains. Allah, through His Prophet, has addressed the intelligence of the human being.

It is only by using our intelligence that we can truly come into the full light of Al-Islam. We don't want people responding emotionally or responding out of the sentiments of the heart, but having little understanding.

We don't want to grope in the dark, searching for the way with spirit only. We want to use intelligence. If we use intelligence, we will find the way and we will overcome those things that pull away our religion.

Doesn't intelligence tell you that nothing else is more important than the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth? Shouldn't it be just an automatic conclusion then that nothing in your life should be more important than obedience to God?

I notice some Muslims that don't work for outsiders, for non-Muslims. They work for Muslims or they work for themselves. But Friday, when Jumah comes, they remain at their homes or in the street. Some of them are just stumbling around or loafing when Jumah Prayer is called.

Allah, the Most High says when prayer is called, the midday prayer, the Jumah Prayer, leave your business.

What about those that have no business and still stay away? It is a shame, they don't understand yet.

Al-Islam is a balanced religion. And for the sake of those who think that when we say "balance" we mean keep a little sin on the scale, that's not the kind of balance we're talking about.

The Muslim should have nothing but good deeds on his scale and he should struggle hard to keep only good deeds on his scale. He should try to keep a scale that has no bad deeds on it at all.

Balance in Al-Islam is not leaning so far as to one thing that Allah says, that you neglect something else that Allah says. All that Allah says is lawful. Allah doesn't bid us to do anything that is unlawful or sinful.

It is lawful to take care of our children. It is our duty to raise our children properly, to educate them, to see that they have a decent life if we are able to.

It is our duty to provide the material means, and so forth, where our wife and our children will have a comfortable living. That's our duty. It's the duty of every male and female to educate themselves and their children. These are duties. A man has a duty to develop his spiritual life, his spiritual nature. He has a duty to develop his financial worth.

If the man is poor, he should feel something is missing in his life as a Muslim until he finds some lawful means, some legitimate livelihood so that he can earn something for himself and enjoy the dignity that comes from earning with your own hands and with your own intelligence. This is what we mean by balance in religion.

The Muslim who prays all the time and keeps the Quran in his hands all the time and quotes Hadiths all the time, but has no job, contributes nothing but prayers and readings, is an unbalanced Muslim.

Likewise the Muslim who spends all his time in his business and is never seen at Jumah Prayer and makes one prayer a week, maybe, but never keeps up regular prayer— that's an unbalanced Muslim.

The Muslim who forgets his prayers and feels no burden, no shame, feels no hurt in his heart while he's busy all the time and making money or going out for worldly pleasures — that's an unbalanced Muslim.

This is the correct way to seek balance. God has said that there are certain things that we "must" do in order to live a full life as Muslims. If we neglect one part of those things while taking care of the other part, we are living an unbalanced life.

But nothing Allah bids us to do is unlawful. Allah doesn't bid us to commit sin. Allah doesn't say if you get uptight, go out and drink a little bit. No. If you get uptight, you pray to God to give you some strength and understanding.

Allah didn't tell us that if you get uptight in this society where there's so many women running around in bikinis and short dresses, it's okay to have an affair out of wedlock. No. Muslims are never to have an affair out of wedlock. You are only to have an affair with your lawful wife or your lawful husband. You are never to have an affair with someone that you are not lawfully married to. This is Al-Islam.

The Muslims who say, "Oh, I'm uptight, I'm gonna curse. I'm gonna use vulgar language to let off some of this steam." That's not Islamic — that's sinning.

Let us be careful not to make our sins legitimate acts. If we do that, then we charge God with sinfulness. Allah hasn't invited us to any sin. We can't do that.

Let us have the right understanding, brothers and sisters. Let us remember that a Muslim cannot be perfect because he's a human being, but he can strive for perfection. And only by striving for perfection can he ever become the best possible person for himself and for others.

If you say, "Oh I have to keep up a reasonable amount of bad doings in my life," that will never bring you to the best you can be. Only when you say, "I don't want an ounce, not one speck, not an atom of wrong in my life," then you can achieve the best.

Allah is the perfect being. Allah is all righteous, truthful — no imperfections in Allah. Allah is Supreme and Perfect without any imperfections.

O, Allah. Make us of those who purify themselves and of those who repent, and guide us in your path. Amen.

Peace be to you
Your brother in service to Allah,
Wallace D. Muhammad
