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IWDM Study Library
Believers, Your Ownselves Obligate You

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
I repeat again what Allah says in the Holy Book. Ya ayouhal ladhina amanu alaikum an fusikoom. Oh, you who believe, your own self obligates you. This message cannot be taught to Black people or the African-Americans enough. This is what we need to teach more and more to the people of our color, who are manipulated in somewhat, in a certain degree, that is. They are manipulated by, again, influences. Influences. Currents of air that just sweep us up into new excitement and make us think that, they supposed to take care of me. They got to take care of me. Yeah. I'm going down there, seeing what they did with my money. And you didn't work at all this week. you didn't hit a lick, you haven't hit a lick.
And you healthy-bodied too. You healthy. You can do something. You haven't tried to get one sandwich into your mouth this week, and you're running around talking about telling people, "Oh, I'm going down there to get my money, man. They got to take care of me." And you go out on the street and you see people done lost their arm. Some people lost both their legs, and they out there selling things, crafts that they did, handicraft work. Something they did with their one limb, or with their hands that they had, limbs they had left.
People out there selling something that they got donated to them from a factory or something, some pencils or something. They out there selling something. Some of them went and got something cheap, and they out there selling something, trying to make a living. And they are really handicapped people, limbs missing, vital limbs missing. Some can't see. They're blind. And you healthy-bodied men, young men, that ought to be in the Army somewhere, fighting the disbelievers, fighting the oppressors of humanity, you ought to be in the Army somewhere with a sergeant's boot up your butt. Excuse my expression.
And you walking around here with your healthy self, just as lazy and you can be. Talking about, "Yeah. They have to give me something. They going to have to take care of me. Where's my money?" And haven't hit a lick in the whole week. That's a shame. There's no place for that kind of mind in this religion.
Your own selves obligate you. The prophet said that in the judgment, you're going to be questioned. And the members of your own body will have a right against you in the court. The members of your own, individual body. Your hand has a right against you in the court of G-d if you have misused that hand or have neglected to use that hand as G-d intended for that hand to be used. G-d gave you two hands to work, and you haven't worked with them. He gave you two feet, two legs, to carry your body, and you did not go to the place you're supposed to go, you did not use the members of your body for the work that G-d assigned.
All right. You have to answer for that. You have a brain, you have feet, have you used it as G-d intended for you to use it? You have to answer for that. Have you abused it? Did you use this hand to steal? Did you use this hand to shoot narcotics into the veins of helpless people? Misled people? Did you use these legs to go into the prostitute den? Did you use this brain to manipulate the minds of ignorant women and put them on the street to sell their bodies?
Your own self obligates you. And in the judgment, Allah and His prophet says to us, "In the judgment, every member of your body, they will have a right against you if you have neglected or misused them."
How clearer, how clearer can the message get? Can anyone give you a clearer message than that? What Allah has given us in the Quran, and what Prophet Muhammad has taught us is crystal clear. All we have to do is hear and obey, as Allah tells us in the Quran ... The believers, what did they say? We hear and we obey.
Well, nobody dictating to me. I ain't going to hear and obey. If I want to, I obey. If I don't, I ain't going to obey. Well, you are not a believer. We don't think that we have the intelligence to make improvements on the Quran. Did you hear that? Okay. I'm going to say it again. We don't think we have the sense to make improvements on this Quran. We don't believe that that's man's doing. We believe that that's Allah's doing, who made the sun, the moon, stars, who created weather, who created us, matter, and everything. We don't believe that that's His son's doing, we believe that that's His doing. We don't believe He has a son. No son, no daughters, no family. All creatures are His dependents. Is that clear?
So, I repeat. We don't believe ... We, who have sense, we who read that book and understand it, and have sense, we who respect it as the word of G-d, Allah's word, we know we cannot make improvements on what has been revealed. So, our disposition is to hear and obey, is to H-E-A-R and O-B-E-Y. That's our position. I believe we are continuing in the thought that was proposed or presented to us by the speaker who came before me.
I was in the office back there, but I heard him over the speaker. And he said, "We need something, we need a knowledge that won't keep changing things for us." We need a knowledge with definite, lasting goals, established. Established, definite, and lasting goals for us. We need a sense of permanence. A sense of permanence. And that's the religion. That's the religion. We have to believe in, what? This, and also, in Al Akhir.
We believe in this life and also in Al Akhair, which means the present and the future. We believe in the present life, but we also believe in a future life, Al Akhair. Al Awwal the present, Wa Akhair, and the future.
Therefore, Muslim is obligated by his principals to believe in the future life. He's obligated to work for the future life. And what does G-d say? I'm talking to you as an individual. This is not to the Imam. This is left on you.
What does G-d say? G-d say of the future life of Al Akhair, that it is the great life, it is the big life, it is the abundance, it is the permanent life, the permanent life. It's the permanent life. It's what you go after impulsively. It is the speaking life. It's escaping you all the time.
It won't be the same next year as it is today. It changes. It's escaping you all the time. Listen now, we don't want to rush over there. We should say what G-d's say, and then let's take a second to think on it. Allah says, of this present life, the urge to eat and have fun, that's the present life. Worrying about the material needs, that's the present life.
Now, Allah says of this present life, he said it is Khalil. means small. It's the new. It's minute, it's minute. But Al Akhair, the future life, it's the big life. It's the permanent life. It's the lasting life. It is the real life. G-d says, "if you only knew, it is life real." This here is imaginary. This here is elusive. This here deludes us and eludes us. I hope you understand what I'm saying. But that of the future is real. It's permanent. It's lasting. It's great. It's big. It's rich.
Now, here is the key. Don't make the mistake of not understanding that it starts right here in this world. Don't make the mistake that you have to die physically and go to the grave before that starts. It starts right here in this world, in this life. And the Muslim is obligated to work for that everyday. No, Muslim, don't let the present world deceive you and tie up all your energy, and you don't work for the future world, for the future life. No. I think that's plain enough.
All right. Your own self obligates you. I read the little book that a foreign country, a Muslim country prepared for the youngsters, the elementary school, very early grade, like first, second, third grade. And it was teaching them to respect themselves, their parents, the home environment, and whatever is trusted to them. For the little girl, her doll, her play doll, whatever furniture she has, the room that her things occupy, their toys, their books, everything. It was teaching them to respect those things and to treat them with respect, to remember that those things have value. They have value.
If mama sees a little child in danger, mama will put herself in danger, if she thinks that's what she has to do to take that little child out of danger. So that should tell that little child, that that child has value. That child has great value, especially the mama. But in a civilized society that child has great value to all civilized people. Yes, the child has to be taught the value of the human person, of the individuals, especially the child, to the parents, the great future that's there waiting for that child. And how even society is depending upon the young to grow up mentally, physically, and spiritually, to be able to take this burden that we're carrying, because we're getting older. Our time is limited. We ain't going to be here to carry this long. Our time is limited. Another 10, 20 years Imam Warith Deen Mohammed may be retired, right? Yeah. I'm 50 almost now. Time is limited.
Many of us, we know this. We feel that urge on us, that the time is limited. We can only carry this for so long. So we had to talk to the young, let them know how valuable they are, how valuable they are to mama, how valuable they are to civilized society. That's teaching them the autonomy of the individual. That's teaching them the obligation that is upon them as a person or individual. Praise be to Allah.
Now dear beloved people, that knowledge that will give us lasting goals, permanent goals, a sense of direction, sense of permanent direction. Not just temporary direction, but permanent direction. That book, that knowledge is in the book of religious people. And for the Muslim, that knowledge is the Quran. The Quran. Briefly, some of the qualities or attributes of this book is that it is pure, pure, P-U-R-E. No inferior thing, no inferior matter, no inferior ideas in it.
No man judgment is in it. No human judgment is in it. It's divine judgment. Let me repeat that, because somebody's running. No human judgment is in it. Only Allah, divine judgment. All right. Every word of it, every statement in it, every judgment in it is Allah's. It's divine. Human beings could not have achieved that. No human being can achieve it. Impossible for a human being. You hear that? Do I have to repeat it? I think I should. The teachings in this book, the Holy Book of the Muslim is impossible for a human being.
No human being can give the world that. You might say, "Well, didn't it come from a human being? Didn't it come from Prophet Muhammad?" But Prophet Muhammad didn't say it was from him. He said it's from Allah, the most high G-d, creator of everything. That's what Muhammad said. And we believe Muhammad, peace be on him.
All right. Another of its attributes is that it is the perfect book. It must be perfect. If you understand that the book is from G-d, all of these qualities, we need not to discuss them. It's self-explanatory now, is that not correct? If it's from Allah and you understand what G-d is, if it's from him, then all of these qualities are self-explanatory. It's pure. It's perfect, it's complete. In other words, he didn't leave nothing undone. Allah didn't need something for me to do or for you to do. It's complete, finished.
Now you know, the attitude that the world gives us, make us feel very uncomfortable with this. Because the world gives you an attitude to make you distrust everything. The world wants you to distrust everything. Now, I don't want to blame this on certain people in religion or certain religions or certain individuals or other cultures. No, no. We want to make it clear that this comes mainly from academia. This is mainly the work of people in academia who claimed to be our educators.
When we send our innocent young teenage daughter, our innocent young teenage son to these city colleges, state colleges, universities, and many of the private colleges and universities, when we send them there, the hungry vampire with his fangs, just waiting on them to suck all of their human blood out of that veins and make them a cold dead monster to go around preying on other innocent people. And the first thing they want to do is take out of them the trust of G-d. They want to take out of them trust in G-d. Take out of them love and trust in parents. They don't want them loving and trusting their parent.
So the first thing they want to do is knock the family foundation out from under them, and knock the faith, the foundation of faith down, and make them open-minded gullible nut to accept whatever they say, as authority in the intellectual world. Isn't that a fact? Can't you see why this place is more important than any other place you can go to?
And I'm not worried about the people who went to the churches today. I'm not worried about the people who went to the synagogue today. I'm not worried about the people who even went to the Buddhist temple today. Because at least they have better there than the world of academia has. I'm worried about you because you came here. Obviously you're not Buddhist. You're not Jew. Or either you're shopping, you're not satisfied. So my concern is for you.
All right? So let us continue now. The book is the universal message, the universal book. Its knowledge is universal in its scope. In other words, it's not knowledge just for whites or for blacks. It's knowledge for all people. Its concern is all people. And its knowledge is not just for America, or for Arabia. Its knowledge is for the whole world. Universal. Universal. Also, its knowledge is not just for a certain age, its knowledge was not for the age in which it was revealed. Its knowledge is for all ages. It never gets old.
That's impossible. It's impossible for you. Don't forget what we said. This came from the one who put the world out here, who created it and established it. The universe, the galaxies of many stars. This is from that one. If we are believers, we are believers. If we are not the first one to know it is ourselves. We should be told first, "Hey, you are not a believer, man."
Let us come now from the book as a lasting book, a permanent book, a book serving the universal needs of man, all ages. Let us now come to the prophethood. The prophethood is the prophethood of men, human beings with human limitations like we have. Who couldn't stay around in person to tell us about their message. But G-d promised that their work would not be in vain, and that the righteous would rise up with them and behind them to keep their word in the world. And it's here, not only the Quran, but also the life of Prophet Muhammad is here for us.
So now let us look at the prophethood. Prophet Muhammad was not a renegade. He was not a self-styled man. Prophet Muhammad came in the long line of the prophets, as the last of them, as the one entrusted with the job, responsibility of giving the message in its universal concept or universal context. Whereas others gave it in different aspects of it, different pieces of it, different aspects of that message as the need was created in the history of man.
But at some point there should be a man to give the universal message, because at some point, society grows into its universal dimension. And if you look at the world at the time of the prophet, it was the time of the movement of the great empires. Is that not right? A venturing out from your own homeland across the ocean, into other people's homelands. And we found men on the Arabian peninsula whose homeland was not Arabia. Their homeland was Europe. We found men on that peninsula of Arabia from different parts of the world. And there were men in Africa from different parts of the world, European occupation, Roman occupation in the Middle East. Roman occupation in Africa. The Greeks had been there. The empires were spreading. They were on the move.
Man's concept of the world was becoming more universal. His view and outlook on the human need were becoming more universal. So G-d raised up the messenger for that time, for those needs. He raised up a man to speak to the universal needs and to the universal concerns of man, not only for that day but for all time.
So we have to understand that we don't introduce a foreigner, when we introduced prophet Muhammad. We are not introducing a foreigner. Allah says of him and of the word, the men of wisdom in religion, the wise in religion, they know him as they know their own children. They're not ignorant. They know what scripture says. They know what G-d promised and they know Prophet Muhammad came, perfectly fulfilling what G-d promised. Peace and the blessings be upon him.
So let's look at the prophethood. He is a prophet in the long line or chain of prophets, that G-d's mission from the very first need that man experienced in Adam, may peace be upon him. And he comes to complete that chain or that line of the prophets, and to establish the universal message for all times. What does he offer us in his person? What is the most precious thing? What is the most precious value for us in the person of this universal Prophet? The dignity of the individual the dignity of the individual.
Now, if you study history, especially social history, history of society, the growth of society, you find that the idea of the individual as precious is more prevalent, is more pronounced in universal education, than it was pronounced in the feeble efforts that were made by the philosophers who were local in their imagination. Is that not correct? Those philosophers, those men of genius, those men of intellect, of old, of ancient times, who were more local in their vision and local in their imagination, the power of imagination, they didn't give us this precious idea of the individual, the individual rights and the precious idea of the individual as a dignity. As a dignity that we can't violate, that we shouldn't violate. Praise be to Allah.
So what do we see in the person of the prophet is this? This is the most precious thing we see in the person of the prophet. How are we going to explain this now? We explained it by showing you the prophet. The prophet was not a son of the rabbi. Our prophet was not a son of the elite class. He was not one who inherited culture and wisdom. He was not one of the Ivy leaguers.
How do we describe him as a human being? How do we describe him as a man in the makeup of society? He has to be described as one of the uneducated masses. That's how he's described. And Allah has left that description of him in the Quran for all time. He is called the ummi prophet. The ummi messenger prophet. Ummi, what does the ummi mean? It means that he was not educated. He was not educated. Ummi, not educated. He was one of the common people. He was not a product of any school or any institution.
His attribute, his merits, his worth to his family and to society, to man at large, is not to be attributed to an institution, or to any school. He was a common, uneducated person like we are. And he was carrying upon his heart, the burdensome conditions of his people at that dark time in the period of history. Their superstition, their ignorance, their arrogance, their pride and their stupidity.
I talked to some of you and I see such great pride in your stupidity. You talked down to me as if you know so much more than I know, and you fool me sometimes. You get my respect and then you slip up and say something that let me know I'm talking to an ignorant person. What in the world is this? Proud and arrogant in our stupidity.
Well see the holy prophet, peace be upon him, he was carrying the burden of his people in the world, on his heart. He was a morally upright person who was not overcome by the superstitions And the vulgar display of his people who went around the holy Kaaba that's there built by Abraham and his son, Ishmael, peace be upon them. But it had become polluted with false idols. They hadn't lost the true religion and they were annually going about the Kaaba.
And those who didn't have the money to purchase garments, they had to go around naked. They were put on the spot. They were pointed out. These are the poor. So they had to go around naked. And this was allowed, that they go in the nude, around the Kaaba. This is history. We have it preserved. The history, it's preserved. And you know that must have been a terrible burden on Prophet Muhammad's heart. Men taking pride in men, very much like these hoodlum gangs we got over in Chicago and in many other big cities. They look at manpower.
I got 1000 men, how many you got? And they were trying to outdo each other in the number of able men. So they were disgraced when too many girls were born into their family. So what would they do? They had a pagan habit, ugly habit, worse than savage. We can't find the word to word to describe it, of killing the baby girl and burying her in the sand. You can't imagine the ignorance that was on that society and the world. That was Arabia at that time. But the whole world was in very much the same shape. Except for a few isolated pockets.
The burden was so much on him. So he left the community of people. He went way out into the valley, went up into the mountain, away from everybody. And there in solitude, cried out, screamed out, crying to G-d, if there's a G-d, where are you, G-d? What about the world? What about the people? Is there a way for them? Shall we always bear this?
And G-d turned to him in his moments of grief and silence and gave him the first verses of revelations. He was not a literate person. He was not an educated person. And the first words of revelation says, Iqra, read. Bismi Rbbikal ladhi Khalaqa In the name of your lord who created you. Can you imagine that? Don't lose sight on the reality. This happened to a man that was just like the average one of us, that had been denied the opportunity to get an education, that have been denied their wisdom that men trust to guide their feet and their hands and their brain and eyes. Been denied that and just left to the world. Left at the mercy of the world. And that man carrying the burden of humanity on his heart, seeks solitude in the mountain of the light now, that we visit when we make Hajj.
Climbed up there. It was an ordeal just to climb up there. But he climbed up there and set in a hole in the mountain, in the top of the mountain, there in peace and quiet and solitude, and cried out searching for an answer from the Lord of the world. And Allah answered him, and he was uneducated, and the first word said read, and the man could not read. He was not educated.
So his reply was, I can not read. And Allah repeated through the angels. Again, it said read. And he replied again, I can not read. And Allah for the third time commanded him read in the name of your Lord who created. And when the verses came, he said exactly what Allah had told him. He repeated it. And from then on, he was repeating what Allah was telling him. And as a result, we have this book that contains what Allah told him. And this book broke the dark spell that was upon the world, and brought science and enlightenment out of Arabia to awaken again, the educated history, or the history of science in Europe and throughout the world. That's the glorious religion that you are now a part of. Don't forget that.
So again, I say to us, to you, that the most precious thing about Prophet Muhammad for us, the most precious thing in his person to us is that he is a sign from Allah. Yes. What is he a sign of? A sign that intellectual slavery, slavery of intellectualism is broken forever. Never will an elite group of intellectuals command the minds of the world. Allah has bypassed them and have gone to the man who didn't have education. And he established the sciences again through that man who was not of their school, not of their colleagues. So that's a sign to the world for all time, that the intellectuals do not command. They will not dominate the sciences. They do not command any monopoly on the sciences. Allah didn't call on them to bring the sciences back into the world, but he brought an illiterate up to him. And he gave him the knowledge, and then gave it to us.
That speaks for my dignity. I don't know. You all can't think, I don't think. Something is wrong with your mind. You aren't able to think. When I hear that, you know what that does for me? That tells me that I am capable of knowing what's in this world, of knowing the sciences in this universe, that me, this person born 1933, October the 30th in Hamtramck, Michigan, Wallace D. Mohammed on the birth certificate, that this child, this man is capable of knowing what's in this universe. I'm capable of coming into the sciences without going through the doors of the intellectual. I don't have to go to them for it. Yes. It didn't happen to me. It happened to Muhammad, but Muhammad was a man just like me. And Allah says in his Quran, say Muhammad, tell them that you are a human man just like them. Bhasharoon Mithlikoom That you are a human man just like them.
So that tells me, look, he's a human just like me. He had no angel qualities. He had no superhuman qualities. He was a human being just like me. And he was not fortunate to be raised by intellectuals. He was just his circumstances, not only his nature, but his circumstances too was like mine. His nature was typically humans, all 100% human, just like mine. And his circumstances were like mine. The world kept me out too. I'm not the son of an intellectual either.
Okay. All right. So what did that tell me when I read what happened to Muhammad? Peace be on him. When I read what happened to him, that G-d took a man like me, a natural man like me, and in circumstances just like mine, and then he gave that man revelations, and made that man the leader for all time. And from his mouth, from his leadership, from his hand, came the work and the leadership to bring up the sciences, to enlighten the world again. That speaks for me. That speaks for what I am.
So you're telling me they're going to sell me Jesus, after I get Muhammad? Jesus didn't offer me that. Only Prophet Muhammad offers me that. I can't see myself being a man like Jesus. And when I look at what happened to Jesus, I don't get no sense of dignity out of that. It doesn't tell me, that happened to a man. You're a man too. See how great of worth he is, see your great worth, see what great possibilities are in your own being, your own substance. I can't see that, because his substance was not human. His substance was divine.
This is not to turn you from Christianity. Believe me. If I thought you really wanted to be a Christian, I'd tell you right now, "Hey, you really want to be a Christian. You shouldn't be here. I'm going to say things to shake your faith. Go." I wouldn't even want you here. If you really wanted to be a Christian, I wouldn't want you here. I would like to know before I start. Say, "Look, well don't stay here. I believe I'm going to say things to shake your faith. Please go now, before I get started."
As I said earlier, if you're shopping, then we have to serve you. I hope I'm not boring you or tiring you out. Just bear with us a little while longer. All right. So let me again, show you what I'm talking about in Jesus. Jesus offers a great moral message in his person, a great moral message. But the moral connection, the worth of him as a moral sign to us is destroyed by them saying that he was not a man like us. If he were not a man like us, then my own nature is disappointed.
They tell me, "Oh Jesus, you know Jesus. He wasn't crooked. He didn't deceive. His heart went out to all people. Irrespective of their race, or color, or their class or status in society. He went to the hunger, the people who hungered. He went to the poor. He went to the diseased. He ministered among the sick and the poor and the ignorant and the diseased. He was a messenger to the sinners and he didn't look down on them. But he sat down, supped with them, talked with them, walked with them, and he aided them. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. But so did Mother Teresa, and she had a father and a mother. I think Mother Teresa had more worth to sisters and brothers than Jesus.
I know when I talk like this, it makes some of you all puke on yourself, . Excuse me, please. Please excuse me. Your minds ain't right. This world got your minds wrong. If your minds were right, what I'm saying would be fresh clean water. You'll say, "Boy, I haven't had a glass of water like this in ages. This is what I've been wanting." If your minds were right.
You see how they see how they build up their power and then knock the foundation out from under their own power without knowing it. Build up a man that's so wonderful and then say, "No, he's not human being. He was not born like we are born. He had no father." You might say, "Well, doesn't your Quran say the same thing?" Yes. Sure, the Quran say the same thing. But the Quran says he is a sign, and the Quran gives us Prophet Muhammad, a man just like us, who also lived on the highest pedestal of moral excellence, who also did what Mother Teresa does, who also did what Jesus did, but he is the last messenger. So Jesus in his sign pointed toward Muhammad, the coming one.
That's how we understand it. And our Quran teaches us of Jesus, of the mystery of Jesus in such a way that we don't walk away with the burden of superstition and confusion. To understand him is to understand the word of G-d. Kalimatan a word from Allah. And if he was the sign of the word of G-d, does the word of G-d come to us, depending on the father, depending on the rabbi, depending on the priest? Or does G-d bring the word to the people, without the aid of teachers? So the immaculate conception is a sign of what actually happened in Prophet Muhammad. When I speak this way, I cause a lot of them to shake, who are supposed to know, a lot of the know it alls. I cause them to shake, but I don't mind shaking them. It's my pleasure to shake them. Because they're asleep too.
So we believe in the immaculate conception, we believe in the birth of Jesus, the prophet, peace be on him, as it is given to us in the Quran. We believe in it, 100%. We who know, we believe in it 100%. We don't question the power of G-d to do whatever he wants to do. But at the same time, we know that the real message is in the sign, and the sign points to Muhammad, that he did not have a teacher. He did not inherit from a father. That G-d raised him up from his community, from his nation. G-d raised him up from his nation. Yes.
And even more wonderful. It wasn't even virgin. Isn't that wonderful? That the message of Islam say yes, it can happen and it doesn't have to be a virgin. Allah can bring a virgin man up, he can bring a pure man up from a society that's not virgin. So it can happen, but only from a virgin. Yes, it can happen and it doesn't have to be a virgin.
You see the higher wisdom. You see the superiority of Al Islam. All right. Praise be to Allah. We know his physical mother, the lady, Aminah. She's also virgin, in the sense that she was not a lewd woman. But the higher meaning of the term would not apply. In fact, the circumstances for Jesus and Prophet Muhammad were very much alike in many senses. But in the sense of the environment favoring Jesus' development, whereas Prophet Muhammad was different. The environment favored Jesus' development. It's known in Christian history and also by learned Muslims, that Jesus came up in a holy, puritan, religious society.


