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IWDM Study Library
The Family of Man

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
This is the world broadcast of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed speaks, the program that's dedicated to community development and human dignity. And now Imam Warith Deen Mohammed
Allah says in the Holy Book, that is G-d says in our Holy Book that is Quran "Never did a nation come to its ruins or collapse before having left all prayer"
G-d says, "Remember me and I will remember you"
Muslims are to pray five times daily. And again of prayer, our Lord says in His Book the Quran, "Surely, prayer keeps away evil and indecency". Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessing be on him) it is said in the tradition, that is Hadeeth, that he likened the prayer and the other four pillars or essentials of our religion to corner posts and a center post holding up the structure in which we live.
And he described one of the corners or in his illustration gave one of the corners of that structure as prayer (Salah). And the center structure that holds up the edifice as Taqwah, belief in G-d. Reverence, fear, belief, et cetera, in G-d. Given in these words as one of the pillars of the faith or one of the pillars of our religion, "La Ilaha Illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah, There is, but one G-d, Muhammad is the messenger of G-d", as that center pillar or structure holding up the edifice or the whole of the building, all of them together, make five, to witness that there is but one G-d and Muhammad is His messenger is one, first one. It is not enough that Muslims witness that there is but one G-d, we also must have witnessed that Muhammad is not that G-d, that Muhammad is the messenger of that G-d.
To pray, to give in charity, to fast and to make pilgrimage to the holy house or to the sacred precincts once in our lifetime, if we have the means. That is health, health of mind and body and the means, the physical mean for that journey. These are essentials and obligations on Muslims. So even though a Muslim has not made his Hajj, the fifth pillar of the faith, he has not actually carried it out, physically, every Muslim, accepts all of these essentials and every Muslim in his spirit has conformed to those requirements.
So, every Muslim in his spirit has made Hajj. However, it is an obligation that we make it, that we actually make it, carry it out physically once in our lifetime, if the means are available to us, if we have the means. So, we have the Prophet then giving us the five essentials of the religion as the main support for the life of the Muslim. Whether it be his private life or his community life, because we know that prayer is symbolically explained to us as the support for the individual life or the personal life, the private life, and also the community life. And that's why we have private prayer and community prayer. And the one is greater than the other. The community prayer is greater than the private prayer or the congregational prayer is greater than the private prayer. But however, both of them are very very important and we are obligated to do both. To pray the congregational prayer or the group prayer, and also to pray alone the private prayer.
In our prayer we don't look up to the sky, we don't look at ourselves. We don't look to the sky. We focus our eyes, our attention on a house. A house sitting in a barren land, seemingly a forsaking land. We know that G-d has given us the story of Abraham, how he had to go from Sarah, his wife, with his wife that had become pregnant with a child, with his child. And as you know, those who know the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar, you know that Sarah could not have children. She was barren. She could not have children. And she herself asked Abraham to take her servant girl Hagar to be his wife so that he would not die without leaving offspring. And the Prophet accepted her offer of her servant girl to be his bride. And he took her to himself as his wife.
And when she began to show the sign of child bearing Sarah became disturbed. She was disturbed by that. And feared that his affection would now go to Hagar more than to her. And you know, the story, I'm sure most of you how he had to take her out of that situation because she was becoming more and more an aggravation to Sarah. So, he took her out to the desert, the wilderness. And as for this story, the Bible and Quran, the Torah, Gospel all agree, all agree in these details except for one. And that is, it seems as though the Western society wants to say that Hagar was not his wife, a proper wife, that she was only a mistress. And our religion does not allow us to regard her as a mistress, she was a wife.
So, he took her to the area that is now the sacred precinct, where the holy sacred house stands, the Kabah, we turn in that direction for prayer. He took her in that area and prayed to G-d that G-d would bless her and bless her child, his child, her child with helpers and support in that lonely barren area or vicinity. And G-d answered in time. He answered the prayer of Abraham and provided the child with water from the sacred well Zam Zam that is still there. And the pilgrims drink there as they did thousands or two thousand years ago or more.
And as we know, people joined them. People joined them from wondering tribes and in time there was settled there, a community. And we believe as Muslims that, that was a great sign. A great sign, that the rejected would receive His blessing and the rejected would be brought to the forefront. We believe that Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings Be Upon him) is a descendant of Abraham through Hagar, descendants of prophet Abraham through his wife Hagar. In Prophet Muhammad, the blessing was fulfilled on Abraham through his son Ismail, who was left in the desert. And in Muhammad, the prophet to whom was given the last revelation, the Quran and the complete life of man on this earth.
Now we turn toward that humble house. If you've been there and saw it, you know that it is a very simple structure. It couldn't be made in any more simple than it is. Four walls, just four walls. It's not a mansion. There is but one room, four wall, seems to be a very lonely house. It is to tell us that we are not turning toward the home of the rich. We're not turning toward the home of the worldly. We're turning toward the home of all people.
And G-d says in the Quran," And the house was constructed for the worship of all people". That house as a symbol so dear in our religion, that it is called the House of G-d.
But, more clearly it is called the first house, Baitul Awwal. The first house built for the worship of G-d for all people. The first house, the most ancient of all the homes, the most ancient of all the homes. Baitul Attiq, the most ancient of houses. The first house, the house constructed for all people. This is the inherent social life of man. The house stands as a symbol of man's social needs, but it's in the house that man becomes or realized himself as a social being, a social creature. He takes to himself a wife. And he needs privacy for that relationship. If he's poor or just beginning in the earth, we expect that he will build just something to suffice. Four walls to give him the privacy he needs with his wife. In time, they bear children. And there is the first social order, man, the worker. The wife, the nourisher, the caretaker in his absence and in his presence. And the children, the inheritors, who must be given the knowledge of their parents so that they can replace their parents.
So, there is everything that we have in the biggest society you can name, essentially. There is everything that we have in the biggest society you can imagine there is everything in the first small social order of man. There is leadership, there is work. There is construction. The man must build the home for his first wife. Business, recreation, all the essential needs of man starts right with that first social order, first social unit. He has to have the privacy.
He prayed to G-d to protect his interest, his wife, his home. He has his religion, he has the fear of G-d. He has Taqwah. He has obligations. So he has some business, it's work so it's business. And when he comes home, he's tired and he has to eat and relax with his family. There's his recreation. He has to share his knowledge with his children when they come so that they wouldn't be left helpless in the world or helpless in the environment. There is education, there is a school and the mother was the first teacher. So, there in that simple concept, we find everything that's in the most complex concept, but it just hasn't evolved because it hadn't been enough time and tests with it.
So, essentially what we find in the biggest and most developed society is no more than what is in the smallest and most primitive social order of man. What we find in the complexity of our life is not so much social needs of man or the community needs a man, but a lot of it is nothing but greed, deceit, explotation, lust and other things that we could do without, silly life, foolishness. The pleasure principle in the man that was intended to raise him up, when man become alienated from the true meaning of social life for him, that same pleasure becomes the factor for bringing him down. So in our great society, we have all these pleasures, and most of these pleasures are undermining the real vital life of man.
Something as the Superbowl that I myself have an interest in. I guess, because the Bears are doing so good can also be a factor for undermining our essential life. The vital life of our homes and our families and our community. If we give outrselves too much to this, we will become a people of sport and play. And a people of sport and play can't be depended upon to look out for the essential life of man. So, we go back to prayer. Prayer is five times daily. So, that to me is a hint that as man has five senses, the best way of preserving those five senses is for him to recall G-d in all of his senses. In whatever sense he has, he should recall G-d. And that's the saving power for his senses.
And we know that we are not aware of our sense and we aren't in control of our senses until we are awake until we rise up. And prayer begins with standing, we don't start our prayer lying down or sitting. We start our prayer on our feet. Now is the time to stand for prayer, not to sit for prayer, to stand for prayer. So we begin our prayer in the standing position. And then we go through the disciplines of the prayer, the steps of the prayer, and submit completely with our whole being and prostrate on the floor. Forming or giving a similar form that resemble the shape that the baby take as a fetus in the mother.
And we finished the prayer in a sitting position, not standing and not prostrating, but in a sitting position. And that's Prayer is an obligation on us in privacy though, the congregational prayer, as we said earlier, is more important. However, it is a must that we also pray the private prayer. And in that connection, Prophet Muhammad has said, or in that connection pardon me, I quote Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessing be on him), who said, "Each of you is an authority accountable for your own self, for your own actions". The term he used is "Ra'i", which means you have intelligence, you are responsible for your own self, not only for your own self, also for those things that you have in your charge and not just the children, your wife and your children, but whatever is in your charge.
There are Muslims would say, even the little child. The child has the mental capacity and child is sane, and the child is not crippled in any way mentally. Even the little child is responsible for the treatment of their toy, and we should raise our children like that. That's natural for us to raise our children, to respect everything. They are responsible for the treatment of their toys or whatever they have in their possession. You give them something they're responsible for the treatment of it. And when they come into the school age and you give them a book, we should let them know that that book is more precious and more valuable than their toys and we should teach them the proper respect for education and for all of their educational materials, this is not only a good human sense. This is Islamic requirement. This is a requirement in our religion.
The Prophet has also said of prayer. "Prayer is our ascension." Now we know in certain religious circles of the great religions, there are those people who have spiritual devotions and they believe that their spiritual devotion while they live on this earth can bring them to the high high awareness of their spiritual life and their spiritual purpose of their spiritual excellence, untill it'd be like having a taste or having a look into the heaven while you were yet upon the earth. And the Prophet has said for us, the prayer is our ascension. And we pray five times daily, five times daily. So dear beloved Muslims, we should understand then that what we want to preserve more than anything else in man and in the society is the use, the good healthy use of our five senses, the human intelligence.
That's why, there's so much emphasis in this religion on education, on learning that everyone is responsible to get an education. Prophet Muhammad made it an obligation that everyone learn, when he was leading them on this earth and himself directly instructing them that they all learn. No one was too ignorant to be responsible for learning something. And women the females, were not exempt. They too had to learn and all be depositories of that great knowledge and great wisdom that G-d gave the prophet to enlighten and educate the world. And we know from history that his great work made possible the return of an appreciation for science on this earth and broke the dark ages and made possible the enlightenment that followed that great work of our Prophet (Peace and Blessing be upon him).
So, in the Western world, you'll hear about the Renaissance but very seldom, will you hear the connection that's really what made possible that Renaissance. It was the great teachings of Muhammad(Peace and Blessing be upon him) and his great successors who followed him and extended that knowledge and that research and that knowledge so that the dark world, the world under the dark ages would come to the light. Recently, Westerners have written about this great Prophet and they have made him the number one man in the history of man. One of them, a Frenchman writing on the contribution or the significance, the meaning, the importance for certain leaders.
Prophets, reformers, revolutionaries he named them all, great generals like Napoleon. He named them all and who he listed first? Our prophet, Muhammad. And he said, it's because he achieved so much in such a short span of time and his following so wide and his work have lasted so long. I know some would say that, "oh, well, what about the works of Moses, his work has last". But it's not reaching as many people as the work of Muhammad (Peace and Blessing be upon him). As, Prophet Muhammad was shown in the vision, that his following would become greater than the following of Moses, and it has come to pass. And not only that, where we found plenty Bible all over everywhere, there are more Muslims acquainted with the Quran than there are Christian are acquainted with the Bible. There are more Muslims reading the Quran than there are Christians reading Bible. So though, they have more Bibles that we have Quran. They don't have more people aware it than we have. There are more people aware of our Holy book than are aware of the Bible.
And that is because this prophet was establish for all time. The prophets before him they were not established for all times. They were established for their time. Muhammad is established for all the time. He's a universal Prophet. And the message given to him in Quran is a universal message. And that's where the difference is. It is the complete favor of G-d upon man and that is the give man what he needs, the life he needs to live in one global community.
Our religion is the only religion that will permit man to live as one family on this earth. The others are too norrow in their address to be of good use for the whole community of man. It's not to knock any. If you understand scripture, you understand the natural, scientific, and revelatory movement of G-d's word, His law, His graces, et cetera. Then you understand that none of these prophets are to be looked down upon, are to be put in a focus to discredit them, but they all are excellent and they all achieve what G-d intended for them to achieve. However, they represent a progression and G-d was leading man to a final completion, to a final need. Therefore, why would
He give Adam what is needed for man when man becomes a global man, when Adam was just acquainted with a small part of the earth, the garden, small part of the reality that we have to live in.
Why would he give Moses the message for a global man when Moses and that world were not acquainted with the global, the earth as a globe? But when prophet Muhammad came, man was already thinking that this globe, that this sphere was one sphere. It was round.
And if he traveled and searched, he could loop that chain and bring the unknown side with the known side. That interest was already there when Muhammad was here. And man was already doing trade and traveling the high seas. And he already had that interest in venturing and discovering.
So, the movement for bringing about one global community for man was strong when prophet Muhammad was born and when he came, that movement was strong. Man was venturing out. In fact, prophet Muhammad himself was one who was venturing out, working for the lady Khadijah, may G-d be pleased with her.
He had to go to different countries to attend to her business, to do business for her, to do negotiations for her. He went to Syria and other places. So, this interest was very strong. And the Persians, the great empire, had come just about to their conclusion. But the great empires had created in man an interest in traveling and seeking to know what is beyond this immediate horizon I'm looking at? What is beyond that? So, that interest was very strong.
Prophet Muhammad came in the dawning of the global community in the consciousness of man. And he came to lead man on to that, because Allah says in the Quran, "Travel throughout the earth and see the history of the people that have passed away." And the prophet, peace and blessings be on him, he said, "And travel as far as China in search of knowledge."
So, he came in the right time, tell us to venture out, travel this earth. Not only that, the Quran that came to Muhammad, the last prophet and also our prophet, encouraged the man, the intellect of man, to reflect on the whole world order, the cosmic order. Skies, the heavenly bodies, the stars. And G-d says to us in the holy book that, "You cannot traverse the boundaries of the skies unless you have great knowledge and power."
And G-d says that, "He has made everything in the skies and in the earth to be of service. Now, if that's not a clear invitation for man to venture out, to explore the universe, seeking that that will be of service to his community on this earth, what is a clear invitation if that's not a clear invitation?
It was not the first time the invitation was given. It was the purpose for which G-d had created man, one of the purposes for which G-d had created man. For we know that He told Adam, that He made him to be a Khalifa, a responsible authority in the creation. And Muslims believe He created him in the heaven, that Adam was conceived in the heavens.
And He said that He gave him freedom to make use of the whole garden. And that garden at that time was originally the heaven. In other words, the whole cosmic order, all of the world. But that couldn't be fulfilled in Adam, because we know, looking at it in a practical sense, Adam was in the Middle East.
Adam was made in the Middle East. He was born in the Middle East. And Adam only had that small garden. The world that now what we call the New World was not even known to him. Nevertheless, G-d intended for man through Adam or in Adam that man inherit the earth and explore the farthest regions or boundaries of the universe.
Also G-d says, "Wasi'a kulli shay, ilman wa rahma", that G-d encompasses everything in knowledge and in mercy. These are scriptural words, and they say one thing to one level of consciousness, but as the level of consciousness expands or rises, much more is said. So, here is a philosophical blessing for man's philosophical insight.
We may reason by what G-d has revealed. We may reason upon what G-d has revealed, that man should regard everything not only in the context or in the way that he views those things at the moment, but he should regard everything in the context of knowledge. That's the way the scientist is oriented to perceive or to do things.
We look at this mic, and we say, "We call it a mic." But the scientist who was involved in the designing and making this mic, when he looks at this mic, he sees the science that went into this mic to make it possible for us to speak and use it.
And so it is with every other thing, whether it be a hammer, a screwdriver, an apple, an orange, a girl, a boy, an automobile, a tree. No matter what it is, there's a way of looking at it in terms of what knowledge is formed in that thing. But look how wonderful the revelation is. It says, "Knowledge and Rahmah," which suggests then to the one who's blessed to see the revelation, to see, get the scientific insight.
It reminds him that G-d has been merciful to you in that He has brought this knowledge, this valuable science to you. There's no way to get His knowledge without getting His mercy. Is there any way to get His knowledge without getting His mercy? No, because His knowledge is a mercy.
Then as He has been gracious and merciful to give that to us, then it is a reminder to those who are blessed to get it that you must also be merciful. But men will hoard their knowledge. They will keep it from others. Right now there's many dollars paid in taxes of the citizens of this country and many dollars or whatever the unit in Russia is, I can't think of it right now.
Great sums of money is paid just to invent snooping devices and pay intelligence people to protect the science and sciences that are growing in these two great nations, because they value them as resources to give them advantage over each other. And they want that advantage so bad that they will pay great numbers of money and do things immoral and unethical to protect their great resources of knowledge.
But G-d didn't do that, did He? G-d says, "He makes it available to all". Not saying that America should give out all of its secrets or that Russia should give out all of its secrets. I'm only saying that G-d has not raised this world. The wicked have raised this world.
And we pray that there will come a time when the right world be raised up. So, don't forget how essential it is that we keep up our prayers and how important it is for us to be reminded of man's role upon this earth. Man's role or his main obligations upon this earth is to keep up his relations and his relationship.
He's responsible as a man to care about his wife, to care about his children, to care about the people on this earth. He's been created to live within a social environment, a family environment, a people, a human environment. And G-d holds him responsible for the good care and good treatment of his relatives and his relations and his dependents.
Social life is to be seen in some kind of context. Most of us can't see social life in the proper context. What do I mean by that? The proper boundary. What are the proper boundaries? What is the proper framework for social life? If we are fortunate enough to go to school and get an education and be taught social studies or social science, we learn about the family and the family needs and how this concern eventually improves the whole national order of man and global order of man. We learn that.
But many of us go to school and learn it and think that it was only for the classroom and come out of school and still live as though we have no sense of any social context. The Muslims should be reminded every time you turn toward the Ka'bah to pray, you should be reminded that G-d intend that man live in a social community context.
And the most important, the most sacred order for man is the private order, his family order. We know, if we don't have good, sound, healthy family, the society can't depend on human life and the generation for its protection, because our best protection in terms of our political leaders, our commercial leaders, whatever, the best protection of those that were raised well at home.
Those who have a good life at home, those who were good children, those who were good husbands, those who were good sons, etc. Those are the ones who will most likely make good men in the office or the positions of responsibility for the society. So, we just can't get away.
But we know this is not strange to the educated American people. For we say and as Americans with our political language, our constitutional language, that G-d has created all men equal. Do you know our holy book has said that? "Khalaqa fasawwa. He created, fasawwa, and then made all equal."
What does that tell us, the philosophical insight? What does it tell us? That G-d is saying to us with His words of revelation that the basis for equality is in the nature, the creation. A dog is created different from a human being. So, there's no equality for the two.
But is a Chinaman's creation the same as my creation? Scientifically speaking, is a Chinaman's creation the same as my creation? Is a pygmy creation, the pygmy, the small midget man of Africa... Is the pygmy creation the same as my creation, scientifically speaking?
Yeah, you who have some sense in education or school, you say, "Yes." You who don't have any sense, I'm sure you're saying, "Yes," because common sense is enough for these questions I'm asking.
So, is the Russian creation the same? Certainly, whenever we go and find a human being, the creation is the same. Scientifically speaking, this is human creation. So, according to our holy book, for those who have the same creation is natural inherent equality. Khalaqa fasawwa!
And not only that, our book then suggests something else, the words of G-d suggest something else for us. The possibility for those is also the same. Says, "G-d is the one who gave everything its created form, thereafter, its possibility for guidance." So, if I have the same created form as a Japanese, then I can do what the Japanese can do, given time and given the circumstances.
This brings us back to prayer now. I didn't get away or digress from the subject of prayer, the thought of prayer without a purpose. Muslims also believe that that prayer is a sign of the ups and downs of man, the ups and downs of man's world.
When we're in the standing position, we're reciting Quran. It is only in the standing position that we are reciting Quran. And what is the Quran? The highest science possible for man on earth. The highest science possible for man on earth is the Quran.
Ilm is science. We don't believe there is any Ilm higher than Quran. And G-d says, "Above all that has possessed knowledge is one G-d, the All-knowing". Again, philosophically speaking, what is this saying to us? It is telling us, it is telling man, telling the Muslim man, first of all, it is telling us that you are not to see science separate from religion.
G-d has made possible for you the attainment of science, that you could reach science, that you can obtain the science. Understand that your Lord intended for you to become knowledgeable. He intended for you to become possessors of the science. And understand that you are under Him. Over all that may possess knowledge, there is the All-Knowing. There is the Aleem, the All-Knowing.
So, we don't have any mysterious G-d in the sense that the physical world is one nature, and the spiritual world is a different nature, and G-d favors the spiritual nature and the spiritual world and disfavors the material. No. His greatest favor, certainly, is the favor of His mercy on man that awakens man's morals, that he becomes a virtuous creature, an obedient, decent person on this earth.
However, the blessing that is needed to establish him on the earth, that is needed to make him a great community. Certainly, the spiritual blessing will make us a great person. But to make him a great community, he needs the favor of G-d that G-d promised. He says, "I will complete my favor on them." Says that, "I will give them a double portion of My Mercy."
And it is only after we have gotten a double portion of His mercy, it is only after His favor has been completed on us and we get scientific insight in to how we should live and how we should make use of the tools in our environment and the great resources in our environment, it is only when man comes to that great insight, that great scientific level of understanding, that man really enjoy the abundance of good that G-d has created for him.
Prayer is our ascension. But are we ascending up to a realm of the unknown? No. We're ascending up from our clouded and small perception of things. We're ascending up to a G-d who is G-d of all the creation. And when we ascend up to Him, then He makes us aware of the whole total thing.
And we come back down with a broader awareness and a broader sense of our responsibility, and it makes possible a deeper search into the mysteries of things at home, not so far away. So, we ascend up to him not to become alienated from our home of responsibility, but just to get a bigger view, a higher perspective on things and get back into the field of work at home.
So, what is ascending? It is man's five senses. You say, "Oh, what about the sixth sense?" It doesn't exist. There is no sixth sense. Man has five senses and the free use of them. So, he confused one concept with another concept. Man perceived as a creature of intelligence or senses, he has only five senses. That's all. Hasn't got more than that.
And not only Quran, but if we understand the Bible. The Bible is saying the same, "And there was a woman at the well." And Jesus, the prophet, peace be upon him, he came up to the woman at the well, and he said, "Woman, you have had five husbands over you, and the one you got now is not yours."
Praise be to Allah. So, we're rising up, and we're ascending. There's the sun of the world. There's the light of the world. And there's the light of man, according to the Western theology. And the light for man, according to Western theology, is the perfect man. The light for all men is the perfect man, symbolized as Jesus Christ... for the gospel people.
And he's called in some of the ancient scripts as the son of righteousness, the son of man, the son of righteousness. I wonder if people think about that. So, how is this man the son of G-d and the son of man at the same time? For the scriptures prophesied the coming of the son of man, not the coming of the son of G-d. The son of man come, and then they call him the son of G-d.
But the scriptures didn't promise no son of G-d. The scriptures promised the son of man. Right or wrong? You who know. You who don't know, thank you for your yes, too. And I'm sure you said, "Yes," because it makes good sense. For man doesn't expect the son of G-d, man expect the son of man.
That's natural for every father to look for a good son, right? He's not looking for no son of G-d. He'd be shocked to hell if he woke up and found his son of G-d. And I think the women would be shocked to hell, too, "Here I'm hoping for a child like me, a child to come from me and of my nature and like me, and here this is a child of G-d. Here is the son of G-d."
There is a way for that ignorance to be cleared up. I mean, in Christianity. For the same book says I have studied it. The same book says, "And the children of G-d are those who follow in the spirit."
The children of G-d are those who follow in the spirit. Now, the Bible tells who are the children of G-d. If the children are those who follow in the spirit and if they say, "Jesus is the begotten son of G-d," and the way that I am looking at it and the way that I see it's only saying that Jesus was born following G-d. He had the nature. That nature is not to be taken on, but that nature is created in man.
And Jesus is a sign that that nature is already in man to follow G-d in the spirit. G-d creates him with a spirit to follow G-d. However, the world takes it away. But by Jesus being protected by G-d as a sign for the world, it was never taken away from him. Therefore, he was the child of G-d in that symbolic sense, even before he came into the world.
And if we study his life, we see that he strived hard, his striving was hard to show himself as what? As one who having a spirit that was obedient to the will of his father, symbolically, his lord, G-d. He said, "I do nothing of myself". So, he wouldn't allow any motivation or anything to come into him, to give him a spirit to do anything independently, but his whole spirit was to obey G-d.
We see then that Jesus was no more than one who followed in the spirit. And since he followed in the spirit in the most perfect fashion, he's called a perfect creature, perfect man, the son of G-d. But understand that any of us who follow in the spirit, if our spirit is to please G-d, symbolically speaking, from Christian viewpoint, we are children of G-d, we're the sons and daughters of G-d, according to their own teaching.
And that's the habit of preachers, to call us the sons or children of G-d. Yes, we've heard preachers that call the following children of G-d, although Peter and a few other of those apostles after Jesus, they started calling the people their children. According to the Bible, Peter says, "My children." Speaking to grown-up men. "My little children," he said. Not just children. Peter says, "My little children."
And I never saw any place in the Bible where Jesus spoke down to creatures of G-d that way. He never said, "My little children." Jesus never said that. It was Paul that said that. Peter talked like that, "My little children." That was the arrogance of the European people, disguising themselves as apostles of Jesus Christ.
Those who have done scientific research into the Bible, have proven scientifically that those authors are false. Now, this is not our work. That's the work of Christians and others. They have proven scientifically that it is impossible for those authors to be the authors of those books.
So, Muslims should understand that we don't accept the Bible as it is today. We don't accept the Torah, the Old Testament nor the New Testament as they exist today and as they have been existing for many centuries. We accept the original message of the prophets Moses and Jesus, but not what we find in the Bible. Because it's the works of man.
And Allah says in the Quran, "And they write the book with their own hands and say, 'This is from G-d.'" So, we must keep that meaning before us, that G-d intend that we be watchful, that we'd be alert to preserve the intelligence of man. And the intelligence of man cannot be separated from his social needs, his social nature, his social needs, because it is only when man begin to live out his social aspirations, that he begin to grow in intellect.
Have any man grown in intellect before he begin to live out his social aspirations? If he did, you tell me who was it. Who was that man that begin to grow as an intellect before he came into his social aspirations? But when he wants to provide for his wife, then he has to go out and find something, because there is no chicken going to come in his house and say, "Here I am.
Prepare me for dinner". That ain't gone to happen. He got to go out. And the prophet says that "marriage is half your religion" to tell us that you're one sided if you're just going the spiritual route, and ain't doing nothing about the social needs of yourself and your family and the society. Marriage is half of your religion to establish a good home life, a good home environment, to be responsible as a husband, to be a good father, to provide for your family, to protect your home life, to protect it by bringing education and enlightenment in the house for the children to make sure they don't come up ignorant and uninformed, all of that is your responsibility. You have a whole world to yourself and there's great dignity when you answer that responsibility.
Yes. You're responsible for establishing virtues and virtuous life and good principles and intelligent behavior and a desire for knowledge, and studious activities on the part of yourself and your children. You're responsible for that, you're responsible for doing business for bringing money into your house for establishing yourself in some business. You're responsible for that. You're a political leader in your house. You're responsible for executing law and preserving the order of your family. Look at the great full role that man has in his private home. If you see your responsibilities at home like that, you'll have a better chance out here in the world. Yes, you will produce children more fit for the demands of the job markets out here. We don't want to produce mechanical children who just pick up a wrench and turn a screw, unloose a bolt or something. We want to produce children that the society would say "we would like to have him be over our institution. We would like to have him be over our town. We would like to have him be over this nation".
But how is that going to come about if we just have an animal view of the word of reality and look for nothing but sex and play and clothes and food. That's stupid for a human society to have no more hopes than that and no more aspirations than that. This religion has come to put us on top. Don't you know that? Allah says that, "You must rise to the top if you are indeed believers." Now if you're fake, if you are phony then we don't expect for you to rise. But if you are serious about this religion and you have intelligence and study the Quran and you study the life of Muhammad we expect for you to keep going up. And we expect in time to see a better generation. Yes. This religion is not the religion for quitters, pessimist, sissies. No, this ain't the religion for people like that. If you understand this religion, this religion is the religion for man.
And I mean, as a Muddy Waters say "A natural born man" , who has no desire to be a sissy, no desire to go out with ruffles on his shirt, and curls in his hair, no desire to compete with his woman in terms of femininity. His delight is in going out and doing the rough things and facing the rough life and going through the hardship and bringing back some tender vittles or whatever they call the stuff that you eat. And something to make the woman feel good at home and something to make the children smile, and that's what made him feel good. He feels good then. He can sit back and read a book and the glow is all over his face. The Lord created him for that kind of satisfaction. So, we close with this recital of the surah of the Quran called Quryash.
G-d says Most High, "For the protection of the Quryash". Now, who is the Quraysh? The Quraysh is the tribe of our Prophet Muhammad. He was the son of the tribe by that name, Quraysh. Also, it was the most respected of all the tribes of Arabia, the home peninsula of our Prophet. And the Quraysh had come to a great sense of social responsibility. They had a great leader, a few generations prior to the birth of our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. And this great social leader, he organized the Arab people as the Quraysh to be responsible for the sacred precincts and also to be responsible for maintaining a just and healthy social order. This is history. This is Arab history. He regulated the society, where all had equal access to the sacred precincts, and all had the freedom to earn money, to earn a living and to travel freely without any unjust burden being placed on them. He didn't perceive the great social vision, the great world vision, that came with the Quran, no. But he did, as a social reform teacher, that ancestor of the prophet, that great man of the Quraysh perceived a better social order for those tribes of Arabia.
In the days of the Prophets, much of that knowledge had gone. They were or had become savage, ignorant tribe competing with each other in a stupid way, boasting of ignorance, rather than of intelligence and yet thinking themselves to be great intellects. That was the state that the Prophet found them in. However, there was still a respect for the blood relations for the relatives in the Quraysh. For we know that it protected that sense of respect for the family order of the tribe, worked also to protect our Prophet. They wanted to kill him. And some of the men of the Quraysh said "How can we do that? How can the Quraysh stoop to that? We don't do that to our sons".
They had a sense of responsibility to their children, though, it was not the child of their own loin, they say, "This is a son of the Quraysh, and this is not how the Quraysh is supposed to behave". We know that eventually they did seek his life because they became so desperate. So angered over his success that they did seek his life. But it was just a few of the lunatics that did that. A few of the most wicked of them that did that. Most of them, they could not bring themselves to that point where they would kill one of their own members of their tribe for a good thing, just to protect their own private interests.
Now, when Prophet Muhammad brought the great message, G-d inspired him and gave him the Word that honored the order that the Quran was to replace. Now G-d had sent the prophet Muhammad with a vision and the tools for establishing the Ummah Al-Islamiyya; the community of Al-Islam, or the world nation or global nation of Al-Islam, not in the political sense so much, but in the sense of enlightenment, proper behavior, et cetera. This revelation came to establish that. But the same revelation that came to present a new order to replace the old pointed to the old to addressing its excellence.
And giving respect to old. To tell us that what G-d intend to fulfill as a favor, his favor upon man, upon you and upon man is already in the nature and the history of man. It is in his nature, it's the inherent possession. An innate or natural inborn possession. And it is also something that has had his expression in the history of man, though it didn't reach its full dimension. So, it says, "For the protection of the Quryash." Not for the protection of a spiritual order. Not for the protection of a Sufi order, not for the protection of Monks. No, for the protection of the Quryash. How do we perceive the Quryash in history? A social order. "For the protection of the Quyrash. Their protection has assured them over the periods of Winter and Summer." Over the periods of Winter and Summer. I believe that this one small chapter have great, great value for us in our present situation. Because we are people who are naturally social beings. We are naturally socially motivated, but we have no social construction. Little or no social construction.
If he would say, "What is the main drive? What is the main drive?" Oh, I forgot the bears, don't worry they're being recorded. You're going to see them. If you want to see them you'll see them. That's why we recording it so I can forget them. What we say "What is the main drive? What is the driving force in the black man?" Some will make the mistake as we have done and say spiritual force. No, it takes on a spiritual form, but its social force. Blacks don't like to get together to study Sufism, blacks like to get together to feel good. That ain't spiritual, that's social. Blacks like to get together, to communicate with each other, to listen to each other to talk.
We like to get together to see each other perform. That's social. Those are the social needs of man. We like to get together to generate a warm feeling. To be happy to have recreation all of those are social expressions. So actually the black man, and not only that, in the sense of the social sense too. In many ways he's more advanced than the technological white man. Maybe not here in the big city, but go look at the black man in the towns where he hasn't been exposed to so much of this big city destruction. There's a Fiji tribe. They were looked upon as a primitive tribe. They were dominated by the colonialist. They reasonably got their independence. When they got their independence, they didn't have to come into no social sense.
They always kept a social sense. Not having the freedom to establish a strong social order, a strong social environment, a cultural environment for themselves. What did they do? They shared their possessions. Boats were common property shared by all the people. No man could be the sole owner of his boat. The boat had to be for all Fijians. Fish of the water, for all Fijians. Foods found, could not be possessed by any one man or any one family it had to be for all Fijians. If any Fijians found himself in need of things like corn, flour even butter and sugar, I read where all they had to do is go to another Fijian home and if they had sugar, their law required that you give them some of your sugar.
Their law required it. And we found the same nature in our mothers and fathers down south. They came up north with that nature. If you came from next door and knocked on the door and say you needed some flour, it hurt them if they didn't have some flour to give you, you need a stick of butter, it hurt them if they don't have some butter to give you. You need some milk, whatever it is, you need a blanket, your children cold, you got a blanket, I got an extra blanket, it'll hurt them if they didn't have a blanket to give you to over your cold children.
So,that social sense has been in us. But we been bombarded by the confusion of modern complex city life. And it has just shattered that sense of social responsibility in us. All we have to do is come back to a sense of some kind of social construction through our life. And we will find that we'd be happier. That's how come the Nation of Islam made many of the most deprived in this black community of America, most deprived ones culturally and education wise, the most deprived in terms of money and knowledge, etc. It made them feel happy. They feel happy. I know because I was one of you that I didn't come from the situation you came from, I was born in that environment and still, I felt happy, I felt so good because it's obligated us to care about each other. It obligated us to feel for our brothers and sisters. It made us see ourselves as a community, Responsible for itself and responsible to each other.
It was the answer then and it's the answer, now. There was an attempt made but the materials couldn't be saved. Because the materials a lot of it came from falsehoods, came from wrong ideas of man, the nature of man etc., came from wrong ideas, it had poison. But that doesn't mean that the hope the need is wrong. It mean we just have to do it again and do it right. "For the protection of the Quryash. For the protection of the Quryash this protection has assured them over the periods of Winter and Summer." You say, "oh Man naturally dreads Winter, why should he dread Summer?" See the Quryash, they live in the desert. The extreme heat makes the land, the Oasis go away just as the extreme cold makes the Oasis go away. Is that a great sign? Where is the house, the house is out there because the house is a sign of what is going to happen to man's protected Citadel. His Citadel, his great city are going to fall to that same kind of situation. Where the extremes of coldness will make him desolate and the extremes of heat will make him desolate. But not in the geographic sense in the spiritual sense, in the social sense, in the cultural sense, in the political sense, in that sense will man become desolate because he gives himself as too much heat. The heat of passion, the heat of his passions in his culture upon his institution of learning that heat of his passions will burn out the substance and burn out the essence and will burn out his senses and will leave his Citadel as barren as a desert in Saudi Arabia, in terms of culture and knowledge and civilization, etc., etc.
It will make his city a barren desert, the heat of his passions. What will save him, that's a sign of not only of what will save the home in the desert, that's a sign of what will save every home of man on this earth. The protection is given for the periods of Winter and Summer. "Therefore worship the Lord of this house." It didn't say worship the house. But we turn toward the house don't we? We say Allahu Akbar facing the house. And we do our disciplines of prayer facing the house with the house in our focus.
G-d says to Moses on the mount, "You cannot see me, but look upon the mountain. You can't see me. Where are you Moses? You on the mountain? And you came up into this mountain? You want something out of this mountain? You can't see me, look at the mountain." So now, we can't see G-d, no we're not supposed to see Him. "No vision catches Him", according to His Word in our holy book. So we can't see him. But what do you want him for, man? You want him for a better and more productive and stronger and more secured community life? Social life? Okay, well don't look at Him now look at the concept. Look at your social concept, look at your social need in some kind of context. Look at your social life and it's requirement in some kind of focus and some kind of context. See it in its pure, pristine nature. See it as I created it. Simple house standing is a symbol of that.
Now, don't worship that. The knowledge in that is going to make possible your elevation. It's going to make possible your success as a social creature. You're going to come to great civilization and to great heights you're going to gain much, you're going to grow and expand. Become a great world order. But now, don't worship the concept itself. Don't worship that concept, don't worship that concern, don't worship that interest. Don't give your spirit and your soul and obedience, to the extent that you worship that. Worship the Lord that created that. But give yourself in obedience to the disciplines of excellent social life. Should we discipline ourselves to the excellence of a life beyond our vision, beyond our perception, something I don't know. Can I conform in obedience to something I don't know? No, I conform in obedience to the social life that is inherent in me.
I try to obey the best and most excellent disciplines, the best and most excellent social urges that G-d has created me with. That's the discipline I must have. But don't worship that, worship G-d. What is this telling us? The Christians that made a mistake and putting Jesus Christ as a body before them. And they turned toward the body and worshiped the Jesus. Don't worship the temple, worship the Lord who made the temple.
So, actually, our prayer discipline is more than just a guidance and an embodiment of great knowledge, great hidden knowledge for us. It is also a message to those who have made the mistake of worshiping the concept rather than the G-d that created the concept. "Therefore worship the Lord of this house. The one who fed them in times of hunger. And protected them against fear." Some of us can just see these words just as word order. "G-d said beautiful words". We can just see the revelation as poetry. Some of us can't see the revelation as anything other than prose, nice poetry, nice philosophical statements, nice romantic statement.
But those with the scientific interests. They can see in those few words volumes of science. "The one who has protected them from hunger. Why has G-d said the one who has protected them from hunger in connection with this simple house? G-d is saying that if you live out the best and noble and clean inherent social values if you obey them and live out their aspirations, that you will not hunger. Because He has made it for man that if he follow his best social aspirations, he would enjoy abundance. He would get more than what he needs for himself and his dependents.
Because it is obeying the best social urges in man that man prosper financially and prosper politically and otherwise. "The one who gave you protection against hunger", we come together and work together collectively, there's more food for my family than I need. We have so much food that we say "Hey, let's do some trade with those people that need some food. We got too much food. Let's give them some of our food in exchange for something that we don't have that they have". Pretty soon you have great, great wealth because if you are living out your social urges, your better social urges.
The one who has protected them from hunger. And have given them a sense of security. That have made them feel secure against fear. It is when man band together and become a social unit that his fear is reduced. When he's by himself, he fears that some other man will come and try to take his possessions. But when he forms a social order and establish laws to protect the private interest he feels more secure. You can go to sleep and rest, whereas before he had to have an ax or sword or hammer or stick or something. He couldn't rest unless it was right by his bed. But when he forms and grows to social construction then he can rest and go to bed with no weapon in the whole house.
So, understand that the focus for Muslims is on his community needs. And in order to realize your community needs and flower into a beautiful community you have to live out your better, your enhanced social value and that better social spirit. Let it be free. Let it be free. Don't hold back kindness toward your brothers and sisters don't hold back courtesy, don't hold back the spirit or the impulse to say a kind word to do right by your brothers and your sisters. That's your better life. That's your better life. If you live that out, we will have a better community, you'll have a better society, we will grow in strength, in wealth and in possessions.
Now, So much for the obligation on the man to take care of the needs of his children, his own children from his own loins, his wife, his children, and to provide for them and also to provide for them leadership in the religion that is Imam. When it comes to teaching them, Ta'aleem, you don't handle Ta'aleem in the home. The man handle Ta'aleem in Mosque. The woman is to handle Ta'aleem in the home. If she's insufficient and her husband is more efficient than she is in the knowledge of the religion than she's supposed to in quiet and privacy, have him assist her with her presentation or whatever she planned to give her children.
And when the children see her, see the teacher, they're not supposed to see you, they supposed to you're wife, they supposed to see their mother. And in Al-Islam the mother is the teacher for the children at home. She's their teacher and also she's their boss. The husband is supposed to stand in the background and defend the boss lady, but he's not supposed to come out and take her job from her. Don't come and help her argue with the children, don't come and help her direct the children, or help her explain something to the child.
Be patient, sit back and keep quiet and let her handle it and only accept it if she comes to you. Then when she comes to you, tell her the children is here now I will see you tonight. Or we'll talk about it tomorrow or we will talk after the children have gone or when there is a time for us to be in privacy about the situation for the children with her. And understand that she is the boss in the house. In our religion, she is the first teacher. First teacher means the first teacher of the children. In our religion she's the first teacher and in our religion, she's the boss of her domain. And that's the house. You're supposed to be her backup, not to overrule her in the house. The only way the man could overrule the woman in the house is in privacy. And when he has clearly on his side and Quran and Hadith, but be careful but you're not supposed to impose even those things on your wife. What I mean by that, you're not to make your wife pray five times a day. You're to remind your wife that she's neglecting prayer in a kind and loving way, and then keep quiet. In fact, you're Athan is enough reminder. That's enough reminder, you don't have to say nothing else behind that. You're Athan is enough reminder. If she brings something in the house, that's not allowed, such as
liquor, or pork, or something that is not permissible. Then naturally, you're the man of the house to protect the interest of the house in case the woman, the boss of the house, should neglect it or something. Yes, you're there as a backup. But even in that case, you're not supposed to go hastenly to a judgment. Inquire with her in privacy why this happened and when it's clear that she did a wrong, bring it to her attention in a kind and nice way. And insist that she obey the word of G-d, and follow the orders or the Sunna of the prophet, insist upon that. But don't now go and tell her, "Hey, I saw you wash up for prayer. I didn't see you wash your right hand three times." Leave her alone. If she knows what she's supposed to do, leave her alone, and wait on her, because you're not doing everything you're supposed to do. And I'm not doing everything I'm supposed to do. Everybody has some room for improvement, so don't jump on her and try to be the watch.
You can't be the watch. Allah didn't make us to watch over each other, to see that each other measure up or do all the requirements. No, watch over yourself and just call our brothers' and sisters' or members of the family, attention to the religion. That's all. And make sure that everybody has the knowledge and that's enough. Don't argue about it, because you're going to have a heart attack. Pretty soon, you won't be even able to take care of your wife. You'll wear yourself out, shrivel up, get old and weak and crazy, and you won't even be attractive to her anymore.
Somebody told me, "But Imam, Sister Shirley now, she do these things, and people say, that's the Imam's wife." I say, "Yeah," and he got through talking and I just went about my business. I ain't think about you. You got some nerve anyway coming to talk to me about my wife. Everybody go to hell on their own. Everybody go to heaven on their own. If you're going to let somebody else influence you, that's your fault. Ain't nobody said that she's Sunna, or Qur'an, or Sunna. So yeah, that's your problem. It ain't my problem. I'm handling my problem by cutting some of the weight off. "Hey, that's too much, cut some of that weight off there. Drop some of that weight so that I can make it.
So, we just call our household's attention. Bring it to their conscience, the need to serve G-d and the Athan will do that. It will keep the religious reminder in the house, if we just make the Athan. And don't fuss with nobody. Some of us got a good kind of relationship with our wife. We can talk together and work things out together. That's beautiful, but most of us don't have that kind of relationship. So don't ask for trouble. Just make the Athan and that's all.
Now let us look at children that's not from the loins. If you adopt a child, brother, you have the same obligation to that adopted child that you have to your own from your loin. You have to give that child food, clothing, shelter, education, and you've got to give it to that child same way you give it to your own children. You cannot favor your children over that child. If you spend time with your children, you have to spend the same time with that child. That's your child now. If you buy for your children, you have to buy equally. You can't buy more... spend more money for your children and less for that adopted child. No, you have to spend all on them equally so none of them are feeling that you're favoring the other.
Many of us don't even know that we can't even favor our own children from our loin. I'll use my own family. There's Saudi, there's Warith Deen, there's Ngina, in the house with us right now. If I spend more time with Saudi than with Ngina and Warith Deen, give him more attention, I'm doing wrong. If I favor him by giving him more money, buying him more things, that's wrong. I got to treat them all equally. So, there's no way for you to be buddy-buddy with one of your children, like many Western men do. They will like or prefer one child and they are buddy-buddy with that child, maybe a girl, sometimes it's a girl, and they're buddy-buddy with that child and they don't have much time for the other children. That's wrong. That's not accepted in our religion that you do that. You have to buddy-buddy with all of them.
You can't come in the house and bring one up under your arm. It's different if it's a little baby. The ruling, those qualified people in the religion, they say the only way you can favor one child is that one child be handicapped, crippled, blind or something like that, and require that extra help or extra attention from you. One child has to be handicapped or the child is very little, child's still dependent, like an infant or a very small child. That's the only way you can do it, but you're not supposed to give any favoritism. Don't show no favoritism to your children. You can't buddy-buddy with one. You've got to be the buddy of all of them.
We used to hear, men used to say, "Yeah, that's my namesake." No, we can't do that. They're all your namesake. They're all your namesake. You can't do that. Even though you don't like the behavior of some of them, you can't do that. You got to treat them all the same. It doesn't mean that you won't punish, or find some way to let the bad ones know that they are wrong, sure you do that. But in our religion, it's wrong to punish by denying them the things that you're responsible for. You can't punish a child by saying, "You don't eat today." No, and you know some of our people in the south were raised up like that. White people did that to their children and we learnt it from them. "Okay, you didn't do so, and so, and so. You don't eat today." Send the child home hungry. Send the child to bed hungry. That's cruel and crazy.
Oh, you're mad at him, you're going to stop him from eating? Oh, you're mad at him, you're going to take his clothes from him? You're mad at him, you're going to tell him he can't sleep here tonight? Well, if he's still a minor, he sleeps here tonight, he eat there tonight, he gets what you eat too. You eating lamb chow, he eating lamb chow too, even if you're mad at him. He eating lamb chow. He eats just what you're eat. You're not supposed to mistreat him. If he deserves a whipping, give him a whipping, but don't cut off the provisions that you have to share with him.
And don't be so quick to whip. Don't be so quick to use physical. Try to reason with your children. Talk to them. And if you whip them, whip them lightly. Don't tear their flesh. Don't bruise them up. Whip them lightly and whip them before the other members of the family, before the other children. If there are not children, if the wife whips, she whips in front of the father. Whipping with somebody else watching. The big whipping is having someone else see the whipping. That's the big whipping. Then you don't have to hurt, just make sure you sting. Just sting the flesh lightly, but don't hit until you break blue, bruised flesh and don't use no hard, heavy objects. Use thin, light objects that you know won't do nothing but make a sting. The best thing, use your own hand like this. Just do that. That hurts. It hurts. And do it in front of others, it's embarrassing.
If he does something in front of his buddies, don't tell their buddies to go home, like we do sometimes. "Go home, you can't have anymore company. Go home." No, say, "Hey, come here." Right in front of the buddies, and get something that stings but won't bruise or break bones. Those little switches, they used to hurt. Believe me, those things would hurt, but they didn't break no bones. They leave a little welt but they didn't break no bones. They don't damage the tissue. They just leave a little welt, those little thin switches. Get something thin and light that hurts, that leave stings, pain, but doesn't do damage to the tissues, the blood under there. You don't want to leave bruises. Leaving a little red mark or something like that, that's all right. But don't leave bruises, don't leave no scars. Don't use nothing heavy that will damage under there. So, much for that.
Since we're on beating, the proper way beat also the wife. You know it is says the Holy Quran permits me to beat my wife. That's true. Kalila means lightly, a little bit. Little bit. And the prophet has explained, says, Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. He said, "If you had to strike your wife, and you shouldn't strike her unless she's guilty of a really serious Islamic violation." You can't strike your wife because she argues with you or because she didn't agree with you, or because she didn't iron your shirt, or fix your dinner today. That ain't no reason to strike her. If you strike her, it's got to be over some very serious Islamic issue. She's putting some poison into the family that's against the teaching of the Qur'an or she's doing something that's against Al-Islam. Or she was looking at a man with lust in her eyes and it was very clear and proven that she's guilty of that. She admits that she's doing that. She admits lewdness. Then you're permitted to strike her and then, strike her lightly. Prophet Muhammad said, do not strike her, same instruction that I gave you for the children, it's for the wife. So that if you damage, or break, bruise, inflict wounds. You don't do that. Lightly.
And we have the Prophet as the example. Understand that even in this, the Prophet is our example. When did he beat a wife? When did he use that provision in the Qur'an? But did he have trouble with his wives? Yes. So much trouble that the trouble comes into the scripture. But when did he hit one? Or abuse one? Or hit one? Never. And in fact, do you know the prophet had slaves? Yes, he had slaves. He freed his slaves, but he had slaves. But there's no record of him ever. In fact, his slaves said that he never spoke harshly to us. "He always spoke to us with respect and kindness, and he never hit us or abused us." That's what is on the record, what the servants of the prophet said. Said, "When he was angry with us, that he wouldn't abuse us out of anger or when he was displeased, that he would speak kindly to us and always with respect."
So we have him as a model too. We're obligated to follow him as a model. If he'd never beat a woman, when the provision is there, what is the better behavior for a man? The better behavior for a man is the behavior of the Prophet. Though G-d has allowed us to do that, the better behavior, that even if she's wrong, is best not to strike her or whip her. If she's guilty of a really lewd violation, you can bring her before the court of the land, if there's Muslim court of land, right? Then you can have her punished if she's guilty of adultery, or fornication or something like that. She can be punished, by the law of the land, or by the law of the Ummah, the Islamic Ummah. But if she is not guilty of any serious thing like that, then the best way is to follow the example of the Prophet and don't use physical force on her at all.
When I was young, I followed my elders. I thought you were supposed to beat your woman so she would love you better. But I wanted a higher and more peaceful life than that. And I saw that I couldn't beat a woman and have that higher and more peaceful life too. Because she would tell me, "Hey, we didn't get our exercise today, Nigga. Let's get it on." And I would say, "I don't have time for that. I'm busy. I got my mind on higher things. I got work to do." See, so I got tired of being down there on that level with her and I decided I wasn't going to do that no more. I cut it out. Right? I don't hit my wife. She's stopped hitting me too.
That's the truth. I'm telling you the truth. There are some of the people, they don't like it that I share my own private life with you all like this, but how else are we going to benefit each other if we don't share some of our private secrets, our private things. So, I have to share this with you and we benefit from it. Yeah, I'm human just like you. Born here in America, raised in Chicago just like you, and don't let nobody tell you they ain't never had no quarrel. If they have, they're special. Very special, rare people.
"I ain't never hit in my wife, never wanted to hit her." Oh, you're so special. And your wife is special. You're rare, very rare people. In fact, you're already in paradise." Because even if you don't want to hit her, I'm sure many of us have wanted to hit our wives. It's just natural. You get the instinct. You just want to hit her, you're mad, you're irritated, you're bugged to death. You have a woman wake you up in the middle of the night. You went to bed one o'clock and you got to get up for Fajr prayer, and she feels like talking tonight. You got to get up and go sleep but she don't feel like it. She's going to talk to you all night long, so you be impatient... Now, I won't say this was Sister Shirley. I'm not telling you this is her. So she says, "Who was it then?" "That's none of your business." It didn't even have to be me at all. Maybe I knew this to happen to somebody else.
Anyway, you got to get up for Fajr prayer and you went to bed at one o'clock and you're tired. Okay, but now she ain't tired. She can't sleep. She wants to talk. This is her night to talk. So you start off being really patient and controlled, and you look at the clock and the time is going. And after a while, you say, "I didn't get into bed until one o'clock and I wanted to get up for Fajr prayer." And you don't get no result. Well, I'm going to tell you, okay? Every time I talk to you, you want to do something else. So you go, you try to keep your cool. You try to keep your cool and after a while, you say, "Why don't you get the hell out of here and go somewhere? Since you don't want to sleep, this is a bedroom, Goddammit. I want to sleep. Get the hell out of here and go away, and you can sleep or talk or anything, but leave me alone." And you ready now to throw the TV out the window or jump out the window yourself. You done gone crazy.
But we have to understand trying situations, and don't put each other in trying situations, because you're going to have an explosion. If you keep risking those trying situations and the house going to blow up. But you still have to be restrained. Restrain yourself. Some of us would turn around and hit her up side of the head. Got some crazy, savage men that will hit her upside her head. "Didn't I tell you to leave me alone? Bam!" That ain't no Muslim, that's a savage. That's Jahiliyyah creature.
Yes, so understand that the obligation is to all the children and even to the adopted child. Here is another point we want to mention here before closing out now. It's three o'clock. We're going to close with this. In our religion, it is prohibited to keep the real parent from being known to the child, and it's also prohibited to deny that parent as parents. So if such as such person is the father or the mother, that has to be known, has to be acknowledged, has to be known. The child has to know that. Also, it's not allowed that you tell that child, "Though you were born of that parent, or she or he, that's not your father." You can't do that. You can't do that. You can't keep it secret and you can't deny the parentage. You have to accept. You have to make it known and also accept the parent.
Say, "But what about if he was a criminal?" You have to let it be known. Such and such person was your father. That's all. Trust Allah's nature, that He has created in that child, that that child will be able to live with that. Keeping it a secret and he'll learn later on finding out, you're risking a worse situation. In fact, we're not even to question the rulings in our religion, that are rulings of the Qur'an, the word of G-d, and the Prophet. There's a ruling of the prophet. In fact, the Qur'an says, "Call your children by the names of their parents. Do not call them by other names." That's so that that child will be known, that that child is a child of this person. You can't hide the the parent. So understand that. And if any of us have done that in the past, then understand that whatever you did in ignorance is forgiven. But from now on, don't allow that. And if there's any way for you to correct it, have the courage and trust G-d that you can correct it, bring the truth to the child or to the children.
No brother is to disown any child of his loin. Never disown a child of your loins, brother. I don't care what the social consequences are. It is better for you to accept the social consequences than for people saying, "Oh, he did that," or "He got that child by that girl and didn't even take care of that girl." Or, "He wasn't married." Whatever the social consequences, do not deny your own children.
So, we close on that note. May G-d bless us to be strong in this religion, and to seek the information from the sources that are established. That is the Qur'an and the life of Muhammad, the prophet, and the learned established, men of quality and of knowledge. The Ulama, the Imam that are established for having that knowledge and the scholars established for having that knowledge, and also from the consensus of the community, of practicing Muslims, from our own opinion as good, sincere practicing Muslims. So let us understand those four sources for ruling in our religion, or for deciding matters in our religion and let us understand our obligations to our families. The responsibility that's on the man as the provider for his family and the responsibility that's on the woman as first teacher, a teacher for her house, for her children, and protector of the interests of her household, her whole house. The woman is obligated to protect the interests of the man in his absence, in his presence and in his absence and to not allow anybody... This is a Sunna of the prophet, peace and blessings be on him, not to allow anybody in his house that he doesn't want there.
If it's an apartment, so it ain't his house. Well, if he's there, you're supposed to respect it as his house. You're the boss, you're the lady, the supervisor there at the house, you're the manager of that house, but you're supposed to respect that as his house. And the prophet said, "Women, do not beat your men." And it was explained by the learned ones in the religion that sometimes, a woman is stronger and tougher than her mate, and she could brutalize him. So the women are to accept the husband in the role of Imam, a Khalifa, a ruler there that G-d has made him, and even though you can beat him physically, sister, please don't beat the brother. Please don't beat the brother up. G-d might have put him in a frail body and left him without physical courage. You're supposed to have motherly mercy on him and don't beat him up, because that will destroy his ego, and shame him so bad, he won't be any good in this society anymore. So, please don't beat him up.
Well, if you he too far out of line, you tell him you'll call the police. Over here, you say, "We're supposed to settle our own affairs." No, if he going crazy, call the police. Call the police. Don't be looking up the Imam. I ain't no police. Call the police. And if she beats you up, brother, you call the police too. If it gets too hot and too dangerous, call the police. Sometimes we go crazy. We're living in a crazy world. We go crazy. Liable to beat up the pigeon, or beat up the parakeet, liable to start killing the cat. It's a crazy world. When it get wild like that, just go to the phone if you can, and if you can't, then sneak to the phone, and dial and call the police. Get you a police. Get you some help, because we're a minority in this country, and we're first to turn to the law, especially in criminal matters.
Don't you know if your child, or your father or parent or relative, anybody in the household commit a criminal thing, don't you know that burden is on the whole family? It's on the whole family. And the Muslim family is supposed to agree. Bring that guilty person before the whole family and have a family hearing, a family court, that you either stop this. You go and confess this, if he's done something, he caused some loss or something, you go and confess then, to save this family, and if you don't, then we're going to have to go and tell on you. That's right. You want to be a strong family, that's the only way to be right.
Thank you very much. For a minute, let's have Duah, Al-Fatiha. So, inshallah, we see you next Sunday for Taaleem and we will continue on these matters and more and more, we're going to have to get into the practical side of this religion, so we know how to apply it in our daily life. So I hope to see you next Sunday, and again, we hope to see you all, who can be free of your responsibilities, your jobs. We hope to see you for Jumu'ah Friday. When the weather gets down to zero and below, we understand it. We're not putting any pressure on you, especially the elderly, our senior citizens and the very young children. We're not putting any pressure on you to come to the functions, to attend the regular functions. If there's any emergency needs, we will try to get that message to you so we can come down here in an emergency. But as long as there's no emergency need, we are not going to put any pressure on you when it's very, very cold, but do your best. Just do your best and that's all G-d asks. That's all we can ask, just do your best.
Tuesday? You mean for the class? Yeah, Tuesday, if the weather is zero or below then let's forget about it. Too cold. If it's zero or below, let's forget about it. In fact, if it's 15 below... I mean, if it's 15 degrees, too cold, forget about it. But if it's 20 or so, then it's okay. All right. If it gets below 20, if it's 20 or more you come out. If it's below 20, then let's stay home. It's a little bit too cold. We don't have nothing but two months of this refrigeration. Twelve months in this society and two months in the calendar. It's ice all the time out there in that world.

