May 21st 2000
Dawah
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Traditional Americans like we are, and it was a good meeting, they had a room for us to meet in first with each other. And one of the immigrant Muslims said, "Oh, this is the holding room." And then we went out of that room after meeting with each other, we went out in the area they had prepared for the attendees, those who attended this meeting of the National Democratic Committee. And you might remember Howard Dean, I know sister Eisha will. Howard Dean ran for president. And he was not that impressive as president, so he didn't get the support, didn't get support and he soon was out of the race. He as the president, I guess what they called it, chairman? Chairman, yes, chairman of the National Democratic Committee. It was interesting, very interesting.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Then I also had to attend the next day and that arrangement there was made maybe about two weeks before the date, but the meeting with the judges at the Maryland District annual conference that was arranged by our brother, member of our community, his Honor, Judge Hassan Al Amin, Hassan Al Amin of Maryland. His life is very interesting in itself. He joined the honorable Elijah Muhammad, he was a follower in the time of honorable Elijah Muhammad, Nation of Islam, he sold fish, he sold newspapers, Muhammad speaks newspapers. And they tell me he was really good at selling, he sold a lot of fish.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Anyway, I met him through, Abdul-Malik Muhammad, my daughter's husband, Bicara's husband, Abdul-Malik Muhammad, he was the first one to introduce me to Judge Hassan. And Judge Hassan wrote me just recently, I've known him maybe four years having acquaintance with him maybe about four years, I guess. So recently he told me, I would like for you to speak to the judges of Maryland. And he said, going to try to get you in the program. He got me in the program and I addressed the judges along with a representative of Care, organization that serve Muslims who have had their civil rights violated in America or have experienced some injustice and would like to have that injustice addressed and their complaints addressed.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So they assist, they give assistance, this organization is very good. Many of you sitting here now you've seen their representatives. We have hosted them ourselves and they have hosted me at least one or two occasions where they were the host.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And there was a sister that I had met on another similar occasion where Muslims were asked to speak on Islam on problems for Muslims in America before non-Muslims, a non-Muslim group or Panel. I can't think of her name right now, but some of you will know her too, because she goes back to the times of Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I believe.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Anyway, I was surprised to see that the district, the chief judge of the district of Maryland, the African American. And his name is Bell, His last name is Bell, his life is very interesting. He was one of those who had the courage to sacrifice himself, to oppose the law or to disobey the law of segregation, discrimination and he was arrested and now he's a district judge in Maryland, that's wonderful. Yeah so. Many of us, we don't know the important roles that our people have now, good number of women too. In the government, local governments in the United States. And the city government, state government, local government, we are really making good progress, have made a lot of progress in making good progress still.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And we are needed, not just there, because we want to be there, we are there, because we are needed too. Certain sensitivities we have that others don't have and certain interests that we have that others don't have. And making the society better, doing justice and contributing to the future, a better future for our society, for our society, we call it United States of America.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
It was encouraging, very encouraging. I was delighted to see the judges' faces all looking warm and welcoming me. A lot of the judges couldn't attend, because they had other programs going on at the same time, but in the space that we had, it was just about filled. And I guess there were two thirds women, about one third men, the judges, a lot of women. All of them were not judges, some of them were lawyers and had other positions, court positions other than just judges. But the meeting was for the judges, for me to address judges on what judges should know about Islam, that's what they asked me to speak on. And I did and was well received and I aggravated and agitated, because I felt it necessary.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
When it comes to terrorism, most of those who want that subject to be discussed or addressed, they don't want to hear nothing, but terrorism has to be condemned, the terrorists are wrong, they're insane. And there's nothing in religion to support them, their acts, that's all they want to hear. But that's the second time I've had an opportunity to address the subject in front of people who have power and influence in positions of authority. So I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to tell them that we need to look at causes. Yeah.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
If you saw an animal drooling at the mouth and ready to attack somebody, you want to stop the animal. Sure, you have to, if you want to protect the people that could be hurt by the animal. But at the same time you have something in your heart of pity toward that animal, the animal is sick and something made the animal sick.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So they didn't want to hear it, but they were judges and they were intelligent, they didn't boo me off the panel. Like some of them did me in Kenya, my own people from America tried to drown me out so nobody could hear what I was saying when I was in Kenya. Don't want to hear it, don't want to hear the truth. Don't want to hear the truth. So anyway I spoke anyway and you'd be surprised how I was received by those judges. Although right there, I had opposition right there when I was speaking, one, he wouldn't speak out, but he just kept shaking his head like this.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Really getting good neck exercise, I keep talking. He's not speaking out, so I just keep talking, I did, I just kept looking at his head, I watched his head and just kept talking. I couldn't stay there, I had to get back home, because I had serious matters to attend back home. And I was kind of worried about home, because I knew I had very serious matters to attend at home. So I couldn't stay over to show my respect that I wanted to show, not just for me, but I represent you all, for us, I wanted to show my respect to the Chief Supreme Court justice, John Roberts, who addressed the gathering of judges, I guess it might have been about 20 minutes or so after I had to depart.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
In fact, when I was leaving the building, the Chief Justice was speaking and this judge, African American judge, he was waiting on me, he said, I waited for you to come out, I didn't get a chance to speak to you, I just had to meet you and shake your hand. He said, thank you for coming and addressing us. And he's the one who made me aware that the chief justice was speaking at that time. He said, the Chief Justice is speaking right now. He said "But I had to come and greet you and thank you for coming here."
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Have a lot of respect for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's work. And a lot of respect for the changes that we made to make it possible for us to get the benefits that we were to get all the time from day one. Yes. So that was an excellent meeting, I thank Allah that I made that meeting, I wouldn't have wanted to miss that, very excellent opportunity to speak to the judges and to know how they receive my position. It's very important, very encouraging. And I could hear more than one of them saying, after I concluded, it should have been mandatory that all the judges be here, they shouldn't have had any other programs, they shouldn't have had lunch. That's what judges were saying. So we thank Allah for the opportunity that was given to us through our brother, Judge Hassan Al Amin of Baltimore, Maryland.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So let's have maybe about until 4:30 Inshallah. I need someone, the security, you are here. I need someone to go get Muhammad right now, he's ready to come. He couldn't come when I was there. Have somebody or yourself or somebody get him right away.
Speaker 2:
I will get him.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Okay, thank you. He's waiting. He should be ready, right now he should be ready. Yes. Can you put it up? That'll help. Thank you. I can move it. Put it on a little bit. Yeah.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
In the Quran Allah says that Islam is the religion of the original nature of mankind, of human beings. How does G-d say that? With his words, that Islam is Deen as the religion Al-fitra, that is of the origin, the human origin, Al-Fitra,. Deen Al-Fitra come from the word (Arabic), means to originate, bring into existence for the first time. And Fatir is one of the names of G-d. It means originator. Al-Fatir, the originator, the originator. (Arabic), He is the originator of the sky and the earth. This is Quran. Yeah.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So the Deen Al-Fitra is the religion of the origin of human life, the origin of human life, or is the religion that is native to human existence itself. It comes here with human existence. That nature, just like all of our other skills and urges, appetites, it has to gradually find expression. And when we interact with each other in social community situation. We find expression for what we are born with inside of ourselves. Again, that express itself, it comes out just like our ability to handle problems and difficult situations until those problems or difficult situations present themselves.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
There's little or no opportunity for the ability to be manifest that we have inside of ourself. And so is it for the religion, the original religion or the nature of the original life, nature of the original life. The religion and the nature of the original life is what Allah give the Quran to, he gave the Quran to that, so that we fashion our life upon the original pattern of human life, original pattern of human life. And in that connection, we should understand why the fives comes up.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Muhammad the prophet prayers and peace be on him, he was asked, what is Islam? And he answered on one occasion, Al-Islam, that the religion of Islam or Al-Islam is constructed or built upon five. [Arabic], means the one [Arabic], five. Constructed or built upon five. And I thank Allah that I read the Bible too and I recall of David said that David was a boy, tradition says he was about 12 years old, this is the Jewish tradition. Say he was about 12 years old. And Goliath, the great giant was threatening his people, threatening to slaughter and dominate and rule his people. And in fact he was already doing that.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And so David, went to the water and he picked up, Bible says, and he picked up five smooth stones, five smooth stones from the water. And he put one of those stones in the slingshot. When we were boys and I'm sure many of you brothers here, you should know what a slingshot is. If you are my age or a little older or a little younger, you should know what a slingshot is. And if you came from the south, I know you should know the slingshot, I didn't come from the south, I came from the north, but we used up North. Little boys in Chicago and we would make our own Slingshot, put a rock in it and you could sling a rock and take a bird out of the air with practice. Yeah. And some of them would do that. Yeah.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So say he put one of the smooth stone in the sling and he fired it into the head of Goliath and it hit him in the head and Goliath went down, he fell down. And then the young David, according to the Bible went up to the giant, this is supposed to be a huge man, a giant of a man, Goliath. And he took Goliath's sword from him, from himself, took it from Goliath. And with Goliath's own sword he severed the head of Goliath, cut his head off. And there, the Jews have this David who would become their king one day, this young David boy saving them from the mighty Goliath, from the mighty Goliath.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So we should never think that Muhammad the prophet have been guided to something that's unimportant. If he says that Islam is built upon (unclear) of five, then it's very important to us that we know what he's talking about. He says that it's built upon five. He didn't say five what, but we take it to mean, because he named five things that he's talking about those five things. And that's true to witness that there is one G-d, that's one, to pray, to give to charity three, to fast the month of Ramadan, four, and to make pilgrimage to the house hajj bey, five.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So those are the five. He said, "Islam is built upon five." And then he gave those as five. And that is true, but also Allah said that it is the religion of origin. The pattern upon which man himself on human society was established, human society was established upon that. And it's the Al-fitra, the original nature. Most important in the original nature of human beings. That unite all of us together on equal grounds as worthy creation, worthy above animals is how human beings use the five senses. So again, here's five, five senses, common, we have in common with one another. We smell, we taste, we see, we feel, we see, we hear, five senses. So we all have this in common.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Animals have the same five senses, but animals seeing is nowhere equal to human seeing, because we more than just see with our physical eyes, we see with what scripture calls the inner eye, we hear with what scripture calls the inner ear. So we have these same senses that animals have, but G-d has given us the ability to even question our own senses. And to find opportunity for our own senses in the creation of G-d, as well as in our own creation, our own matter. We can find a place for these five senses and apply these five senses outside and also address our own nature inside and apply these five senses and do wonders and come up with science. Do wonders with these five senses where the animal, no other thing created by G-d, no other living thing can do that. So our five senses are much higher than the five senses of the animal world.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So we stand upon five senses, upon five senses. Our life has evolved upon five senses, five senses. That's why we are given a five, five of them to reconcile our life with G-d's purpose, with Allah, with Allah's will, with G-d's purpose. We are given five, by way of revelation to bring the five that's in our natural creation to its highest ascent and use, so that we be very productive and have all that Allah has promised us out of His creation and out of our own selves and we are also His creation.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
This is the way G-d has guided us through Muhammad the prophet, his revelation, his word and Muhammad his prophet, this is the way that we are guided to understand our life, created world and us in it and our role in this creation and where Islam intends for us to go with our life in this creation, you see?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So if you look at the first one, the one is, one G-d, La ilaha illallah, that's number one in the five that Muhammad gave us, one G-d, La ilaha illallah, only one G-d, only one G-d. How does that now relate to our five senses? Man wants to perceive, see clearly, perceive and understand in his mind or with his mind and in his mind, he wants to see clearly truth. What is the highest truth? What is the truth that all other truths should be tied to or should be serving? What is that one truth that should be placed over all other truths? The existence of one authority over all that exists, G-d, La ilaha illallah. That's the one.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We talking about truth, because I have an interest in the term, no, scripture before said know ye the truth and the truth will free you. Says, what you have now is part truth, but when the truth comes, then what you have been seeing in part, you will see it in its entirety, you'll see the whole of it, the whole matter. Yeah. So the scripture itself talks about truth and promises truth. And in our religion, Allah is the truth, it's one of his names, Allah [Arabic].
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And we know that the Bible also says same thing, if you understand it, it's clear. Yes. So, and then after acknowledging the oneness of G-d, that there's one authority over all that exists, then we have in the five, salat. Now that you recognize that, then your whole life should be a life in obedience to that truth that you finally recognize. And prayer is a demonstration of our complete obedience to G-d. Prayer is a demonstration of our complete obedience to G-d, we don't just obey him or witness him with our mouth, our whole body from head to foot performs steps of submission, acknowledging the one G-d in prayer, the Muslim's prayer.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And the third is charity, now that you have been blessed to know the truth and know how to conform to it and get their benefits, derive the benefits from your obedience. Shouldn't you want to share with your fellow man and give him also, shouldn't you want to see him benefit too, your fellow man? Sure. This is human nature. So then once you realize G-d and you know how to serve G-d, next thing you want to do is share with other human beings. So as charity is a third of natural steps or natural progression of a natural progression, charity is a third.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And then you give, but sometime your giving is hampered or limited, because of personal demands on your wealth, on your possessions, on your property, whatever, personal interest. And there come a time when you have to sacrifice something that you want, because others, their needs justify you making the bigger problem for the community or the society more important than just your personal comforts and satisfaction or whatever.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So then we give even against our desire to hold back and not give, so we give. So sacrifice comes in the picture, you sacrifice, you make sacrifice and you give in charity. So this is what fasting is for, fasting is to let us feel, - a rich man, he feels hunger, he does have to feel hunger, he can eat plenty, many times a day as he wants, he got the money to do it. He never have to feel hunger. He can keep his stomach fed, so hunger is never experienced by him, but he is obligated in his religion to fast. And he has to be hungry all day long, like a poor man.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And there's one professor I heard teaching and his student said that is how Allah bring the rich people to feel the suffering of the poor and want to see that the poor do not have to go to bed hungry when they experience this hunger themselves, for Allah's pleasure alone. The Hadith Qudsi, we believe there were inspired, divinely inspired communication from Allah to Muhammad is not called Qu'ran it's Hadith, but we believe that they were inspired by Allah himself. And this hadith says, Allah says, "Fasting is for me." Through Muhammad he says, fasting is for me.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes. And the last is pilgrimage to the house. Pilgrimage to the house according to the scholars of Islam and all the leading thinkers and best thinkers in Islam among the leaders is the fifth pillar is the pillar of the unity of mankind. The unity of mankind, the pillar that says all members of the human family belong to one human family. And they are not to look to themselves as nationals or as members of a certain race or a certain color, they are to see each other as human beings, brothers and sisters, all.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So this is a pillar of the unity of the human family, mankind. And if all of those principles or pillars, structures that hold up society for us, they proceed naturally, logically from the first one and that is that there's one authority only over all creation over all that exists. So once you have La ilaha illallah, then there should be a natural progression bringing you to worship that G-d and then bringing you to share with your fellow man. And then bringing you to restrain your appetite so that more can have a better life. And lastly, to bring you in unity with the whole family, the whole family of mankind, the human family. So those are the five.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now, prophet Muhammad said those five are Islam, [Arabic]. Islam is structured upon five, so he said, the Islam is structured upon those five principles. And if you understand it, it is those five Principles, that's the essential basic foundation and structure for all Islamic life and teachings in life, those five. And although you know the beliefs are seven, principle of belief are seven and they're very important too. But to practice Islam, you have to recognize those five, for Islam to become into your conscience, dawn in the conscience and be expressed in human intelligent language as the Quran was revealed to Muhammad the prophet.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
However, we have to still explain why it is given in the Quran by Allah that Islam is the Deen Al-Fitra. Islam is the religion of the origin, origin, the original ... Pardon me, the original nature of human beings. It is the religion of the origin. The origin [Arabic], of which G-d fashioned the human society upon, he fashioned the human society upon. Now, this is not the Quran, this is before the Quran. Allah is talking about what I referred to earlier, Allah is talking about the origin of human existence that were before revelation.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I've given you this before, but I'm giving it to you again, because you need to know it clearly and you need to be able to express it clearly yourself. Yes. And you need to be convinced that what I'm giving you is correct. And in a accord with the revelation, the Quran and the teachings of our prophet in his life, on him be the peace. Yes. Yes. So it still leaves us to explain that original nature and origin of human life and how that origin is what Allah gave Islam to, or what Allah fitted our religion to. He fitted our religion to that original nature.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I told you this before too, it's very clear, Muhammad as an example. Muhammad the prophet lived 40 years before he received any revelation from Allah, no communication from G-d. For 40 years, he's 40 years old. And he had never worshiped false idols, not only him, but he had members in his immediate circle of friends who were like him, they didn't worship idol. Abu Bakr, never worship idols. So he had members in his immediate circle who also did not. And some of the writers on the life of Muhammad and his companions, they identify Muhammad and certain companions of his as Hunafa from Hanif, Ibrahim Hanif, that's for one. Abraham, peace be on him, was Hanif. That's the word for one person that has this uprightness in him. And the plural form of the word is Hunafa
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So the scholars and also those who communicate history or relate the history of prophet Muhammad to us, they say that he and those companions of his, they were the Hunafa. Now, Ibrahim is Hanif, he is one, the description for one person is Hanif. So Ibrahim is presented to us as Hanif. That's the strong description of him, stronger than any other description that we have in the Quran is that he was Hanif.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And the argument is given for us, defending us, our position as Muslims it said that our religion or our order, our way of life is that of Abraham Hanif, the upright in his nature, the upright in his nature. Now, what Muslim, but a Muslim that's terribly confused in his mind or sick, mentally damaged or something, who would say that Muhammad was not upright in his nature, before he was called by G-d, who would say that? Knowing that Allah says that he have already lived with you for 40 years, meaning the proof that this man is my servant and messenger and he's worthy of this position that I've give to him is your own testimony that he was the truthful before he met with G-d. And he was a trustworthy before he met with G-d. And he was kind to everybody and to human life, even to animals before he met with G-d. So he already was perfect in his human nature, before he met with G-d.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So what do that tell us? It tells us that man doesn't need revelation to make him good, Allah created you good. All man need to do is to embrace the best in his own creation and build upon that rather than upon the weakness in his nature, build upon the strengths in his nature and reject the weakness in his nature. And that process will eventually establish him as the model human being that G-d intended when he created man on this earth, that he will qualify a hundred percent to be called G-d's servant and messenger. Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
The learned of old, they observed, they studied, they were thinkers, free thinkers, free thinkers with a Supreme purpose. And they observed the creation of things, the stars, the pattern of stars in the sky at night, they observed the inner workings and interaction of forces in the heavens and in the earth during the daytime, when they could observe and see physical things and how they work. And they were so awed by those things that they searched and searched and searched the scheme or the logic, the pattern of logic that they found in all of these things. And they came to the conclusion that this is the handy works of one G-d. That's what the prophet in (unclear) is called, in the Bible. That all of this is the handy works of one G-d. One author did all of this. The Quran came to affirm that, affirm it and take it to another step for it to be applied more in the life of people, the life of human beings in society. Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So Ibrahim, Abraham is the one that we point to and we say, father Abraham, he is the one who is upright in his nature, upright in his nature. And then Allah gave us a religion that was the religion of that one, our father Abraham, who was upright in his nature. So he gave us the religion of Abraham. And when Allah says in the Quran, and he was the first of the Muslims who he's talking about? Raise your hand if you know. Allah says in the Quran, certain one in the Quran, mentioned in the Quran, not by name, but say he was the first [Arabic] Muslim, [Arabic]. Raise your hand if you know, yes, assistant [inaudible ].
Speaker 2:
Father Abraham.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes, exactly. Abraham was the first of the Muslims. He was the first one to become conscious of his Muslim nature. And to stand up in it, live it and propagate it, Abraham. But a name is not given why? Because though it comes from Abraham, firstly, in the new history of the people of the book, history that's going to be started by Muhammad the prophet. His existence is going to start the new history. And the new history of the servants of G-d, Muhammad is the first of the Muslims.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So actually we have two firsts, we have first in creation and in the people of the book and their history, the history of people of the book, then we have a prophet coming, he's going to start another history. From Hijrah the migration from Mecca to Medina starts another history. And this prophet of the new history for the people who receive revelation from G-d, he also will be the first of the Muslim. He'll be the first of the Muslims, there was no one called Muslim before him. And through him we came to know Abraham as the first of the Muslims. Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So we have Abraham pointed to, his own constitution, in his own makeup. He's pointed to as the first of the Muslims. So if he is the first of the Muslim, what about Adam? Wasn't he a Muslim? Yes. What about Noah? Yes, a Muslim. Moses, yes, all of them Muslims. But none of those that I mentioned were established in their Muslim nature and were practicing their Muslim nature or demonstrating their Muslim nature. It was Abraham, why Abraham? Because those persons were just naturally Muslims, from Adam, those others I mentioned, they were just naturally Muslims.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So they were good vessels for G-d's work. For the work he wanted to deposit in them, they were good vessels, because they were correct in their Muslim creation or their Muslim life. But Abraham was conscious of his Muslim life, he was conscious of it. And that's why we have the [Arabic], at Mecca doing the rights of the pilgrimage. We have to stand where we believe he stood and do two Rakats of prayer in that position or in that place called the standing place of Abraham, the upright in his nation. Yes, [Arabic], the position.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So he's the one that took the position on that nature. Whereas the others might have expressed that great nature and they did in their life or in their lifetime. Here's a man that stood upon that nature and he actually submitted to G-d upon that nature. He was conscious of that nature and he took that position upon the excellence of his human nature and he bowed down to G-d and confessed the oneness of G-d and made his submission to his G-d completely. That is told in the two rakats of salat.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Two rakats of salat. Yes, he surrendered the physical life and he surrendered the intellectual life. That both my body and my mind is the gift of my G-d. That he became the one to guide us to the fields of knowledge, all the great fields of knowledge that Allah gave us when he created the material world and us, Abraham was the one to guide us to that. So the promised land is more than just a place or a piece of Geography. Most important is the land for us mentally. The promised opportunity to use our minds and benefit from the production of our tools, we call them mental tools. Yes. Abraham is a sign of that. [Arabic] the order of Abraham, the upright in his nature.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So when Muhammad says, make good use of five before five be your failing or cause you to be defeated. To lose. He meant, make good use of five senses. The sense to smell, the sense to taste, the sense to feel, the sense to see, the sense to hear, make good use of these five senses, before five become your downfall. What are the five that will be your downfall? The same five. The same five neglected will be your downfall. Whoever spends on his own soul succeeds and whoever neglects it fails. So how do we spend on our own souls? Spend on your five senses and you'll be spending on your own soul. You will refine your soul, you'll enrich your soul, you will elevate your soul. If you try strive to make the best use of your five senses. We have the sense of taste, but human life wants to taste only that, that is suitable for human life.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
There are animals that like to eat filth, their nature is to clean up the filth on earth. We got taste, but we don't want their taste. So a human being with human intelligence, he wants to always refine his taste, elevate his taste, make better his taste and be more selective, so he will be identified as a creature having better and higher and more decent choices for taste.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Look at pride that we enjoy when we're intelligent. And refined in the culture. Look at the pride that we sense when we sit down at the table and eat nice tasting, very nice tasting food. And we be telling to each other, bringing to each other's attention. Hey, how do you like that thing, let's taste that. Oh, yeah, It's terrific. Everyday.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
All creatures don't have that. But not only that, all of our senses are progressing senses, they're not senses at a standstill. All of our senses are progressing senses, they are growing senses, they are senses that are reaching for higher and higher, I would say consciousness. For higher and higher consciousness, that's the sight, that's everything, hearing, everything. So we don't just hear to hear the noise or hear sound or know how loud something was, we hear to know how worthy of my ear or how worthy of our ears something is? Huh? Oh, that's foolishness, I don't have any time to try to hear that. Huh? Oh, that's vulgar, my eyes, I don't want to look at that.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So look how wonderful our senses are. So if we take pains, take time to elevate our senses, then we enrich our souls, we structure our souls better and we succeed in life. If we do the reverse, we neglect our own souls and we bring our life down to the lowest of the low. This is Quran, this is teaching of Islam, of Al-Islam. It is so clear when you stay on track, but when you out there skipping about and jumping all about the universe for understanding, you miss all of this. So come home to the standing place of Abraham, begin there and stay focused. That's right. And you won't be lost in the twilight zone or to the twilight zone.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Praise be to Allah. Yes. So Islam is for fulfillment of what is told in Jesus Christ or what is given in Jesus Christ as a mystery. The birth of Jesus Christ is called the nativity, the nativity. And in the nativity, there are animals, not just a man, not just human life, there are other forms of life. Why? Because the five senses are in animals just like they're in us. And that's to say that whatever G-d is going to do with this model, man, this Jesus Christ. The life that he's going to be working with is also in animals, the life of intelligence, the life of the five senses. But he has created this man to become the model, the Supreme model of life, higher than animal, higher than all the animals. Supreme model of life for all people, for the world, Jesus Christ, a sign of that.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And then Muhammad comes and he is living, a man living in history. A testimony, a living historical testimony to what Allah tells in a mysterious picture of the nativity. And I'm convinced that when Muhammad the prophet said, they will see me and Christ Jesus together. He was talking about more than just the ... I will say the prophets as brothers or the family of prophets, that they all belong to one family that G-d created to serve him in his purpose in mankind.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I think I know that he was talking about more than that. He was talking about what is very, very important in scripture or in revelation. And what is important is the mystery of Jesus Christ. Why is he a mystery? He's a mystery because man had not evolved enough in his time, in the sciences, in the study of G-d's creation, in the study of nature that G-d made. He hadn't evolved enough in that to really have language references, to support him receiving that knowledge. And his world was so barbaric at the time, so savage and barbaric that if it was told, they would make every attempt to destroy it, they would've made every attempt to destroy it before it got to people.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And also to protect the truth for a time when the environment or the circumstances for it surviving and not being persecuted so severely would be there waiting for a better time. Hidden for a better time to come. For the intelligence of the people, but also for safety in the environment or safe situation for it in the environment when the rulers would not be so barbaric and savage. And ignorant themselves. So it worked.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And there's so much in revelation that I can give you to support this. That's what I look for you all to do, when you read, you'll see all of this support of what I'm saying, as you read scripture you'll see the support just coming, plenty of it coming, supporting what I'm saying. So no need of me going through all of that, but you'll see it, you'll read it, you'll find it. And you'll give it some of you all, you discover it for the first time.


