05/06/2000
IWDM Study Library 
2000-05-06 Establishing Model Communities in America Cincinnati OH Pt 1

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Peace be unto you. In Islam we say, As-salamu alaykum, peace be unto you. We praise G-d as it is given in our holy scripture, [...] say, meaning, say to Christians and the Jews, and another group of people recognized as being people who receive scripture from G-d, called Sabians. Say to them, our G-d and your G-d is one and the same. [Arabic] Pardon me. Meaning, [Arabic]. Yes, [Arabic] means one and the same G-d. With that, I will now share with you, I hope, the true picture of Islam firstly. After presenting the true picture of Islam, then we would like to address our obligation, not just to live our faith, our religion as individuals accountable to our creator, to our G-d, but also to be of help, of support in the effort to establish model community life. Model community life.
When Islam began on this earth, about 14 centuries ago, roughly, in the land peninsula called Saudi Arabia now. It was not called that in that time. It was referred to as land of the Arabs and it had the name Hejaz and other names that were given to that area. It was an area occupied by tribes and the tribes were not united. They were not united. The most respected tribe was the tribe of Qureish called Qureish. Q-U-R-E-I-S-H. The tribe of Qureish. The tribe of Muhammad the Prophet and messenger of G-d. given to us in Qur'an. They had...
Sometimes before the time of The Prophet, maybe less than 200 years before his arrival or his birth, they had an effort by one great leader who wanted to see the whole area, that is called Saudi Arabia now, the peninsula of Arabia, that whole area socialized. By that I mean, the leader wanted to see them having respect for each other's rights, tribes respecting each other's rights and working together for the betterment of the whole peninsula, believing in responsibility for family, also believing in responsibility to their neighbors. To work to have peace, social harmony, progress for that area. That effort didn't survive too long.
Then, comes Muhammad with the message of Islam. With the message of Islam, those estranged tribes who were not respecting each other, they were like territorial bosses. You had to pay a toll. If you belong to the other tribe, when you come through that area to get where you have to go, you have to pay them a toll. You have to pay them something to go through that area. They were United as brothers in Islam, as brothers in faith, faith in G-d. It only took about 20 years for Islam to become the religion of a land that was before a land of idol worshipers, who worshiped gods they made with their own hands, made of wood, made of clay, made of metal, different things.
They had about three or four gods that were major gods for all the tribes. Their names were given in the Quran, one of them named, Wood, W-O-O-D, Wood, not wood now, Wood, and another one named, Laat, L-A-A-T, Laat. They have several popular gods, but those gods were not strong enough in their hearts to unite them and keep them from being enemies of each other. When Al Islam came to them and said, the G-d is one, and the G-d is the one who created the heavens and the earth, the skies. In Arabic, heaven's the skies. Samawat means, the skies. The G-d who created the skies and the earth. It United them, not without a lot of difficulty. Not without an effort to persecute and prevent Islam from ever becoming the religion of any of the Arabs.
Yes. Murder, killing, boycotting, based off of all those things, it was a persecution of religion that they had to suffer, but they were victorious. They were victorious. The Prophet Muhammad used to have to ask the idol worshipers for permission to, once a year, come to the site of the house of Abraham, Ibrahim, in our Qur'anic language, the site of Abraham, that little house he built as a sign of the unity of mankind under G-d, the family of man under G-d. He used to come to that house once a year, and he had to ask permission from those who were persecuting him. He was able to get permission in time because the Muslims were given the right to defend themselves against the people who wanted to prevent them from having their religion, the idolaters, the idol worshipers. There was this, the word came in the revelation, it's in the Qur'an, in our holy book now, saying, "Now permission has been given to you to fight the persecutors.
When Muhammad, the Prophet was given permission to fight, he got very brave soldiers joining him, and though they were much smaller in number, and not as skilled in warfare, like those who were persecuting them, they were very victorious, very victorious. In time, the idol worshipers had to make concessions. They had to give in and at least yield some ground to the Muslims under the leadership of our Prophet Muhammad, prayers and peace be upon him. They finally gave permission for Muhammad and his followers to come to the house of Abraham and make pilgrimage, that we call Hajj now, most of us know. We are making efforts now to have a big, big number from our community, going in the year 2001 on Hajj, this would be a second effort for us to make a big numbers. The first time was... Oh, been almost 20 years ago. We took over 300. I think it was about 360. This time, I think it's going to be 2001 Hajis, sisters, men, women and some children. Anyway, he had got permission to make it.
Here's our prophet now, the prophet of Islam, he's taken his followers to make Hajj. He's doing it with permission of the unfaithful, ungodly people, idol worshipers. He's doing it with their permission. Why am I saying these things? To show you the rational picture of Islam, rational picture of Islam. Islam is not a religion for fanatics who say this has to be, there's no discussion. No, we are open to what is rational, reasonable, rational. The Prophet finally, as you know, got to be very victorious over the opposition. He came into Mecca with, they say, 10,000 soldiers. His army had grown to be very large. Mecca submitted. The forces there of the idolaters, of the idol worshipers, they gave in. Did Muhammad say, "Each one of you have to profess this religion." [Say, La illaha illallah Muhammad ar rasuulallah]. "If you expect to continue to live in this land that we have conquered, that Allah has given to us, into our hands, into our charge."
No, he did not say that. You know what he said? He didn't even say you had to be Muslims, no. He said, "Whoever accepts to respect the peace, they will be protected," their lives, their property, et cetera, will be protected by the Muslims. Whoever will accept the peace. That means, don't pick up arms against your neighbor, don't go to war against us, don't threaten us, don't make trouble for us. If you agree to that, then you would have the same protection, as citizens, that we would give the Muslims. Not only that, the obligation, the responsibility was heavier on the Muslims to protect them from each other and from anybody else, from Muslims, anybody. The obligation was on the new state formed as an Islamic state under Muhammad, the Prophet, prayers and peace be upon him.
Jews and Christians, they were told, "You should practice your religion. You have permission to practice your religion just as you did before." This is documented. He didn't say, "Well, you can practice your religion, but we want have some say so in it." No, the Muslims didn't have any say so in the way that they practiced Christianity, that was their religion. It was for them to be responsible for its teaching, it's preaching, it's, et cetera. He said to the Jews the same. We know trouble started. There were a group of rich Jews in Medina who weren't happy at all with Muslim state being established over Medina or to the city next to Mecca, our holy city. In fact, both cities are sacred for us now because Medina, it's the city of the prophet Mohamed. He moved to Medina, invited to come away from the Meccans, who were persecuting him, had boycotted him. The boycott was so severe that it took the life of his first wife, and at that time, his only wife. Took her life, lady Khadija, may G-d be pleased with her.
He moved to Medina, and Medina is now called by Muslims all over the world, the city of the prophet. Is also called, more formally, Medina al-Munawwarah, which means, the city of enlightenment, or the illuminated city. The city of enlightenment or the illuminated city, Medina. To close this part out, Islam was very successful. G-d opened a way and Arabia became an Islamic country, or state. Islam spread from Arabia to Persia, Iran, Iran what's called Iran now, to Africa, to Ethiopia, to Egypt, Ethiopia, and to other parts of Africa, and also went as far as Europe. The Turks eventually became Muslims. As you know today, the Turks are white people, but they're Muslims, and a strong and ancient civilization. Very ancient and strong civilization with a very, very fascinating history. Islam reached as far as far as Rome, few people in Rome converted to Islam.
Also, it went to Asia, eventually. We know the Mongols, the Huns, who were very fierce people, or war natured people. In fact, their society was based upon war, that's what it was based upon, war. Expanding, conquering more land, conquering more people, becoming stronger and stronger. They at first rejected our religion, Islam, and caused a lot of trouble and a lot, great losses, especially to education. They burnt libraries that contained thousands of volumes of very precious books on the religion, on the history of Islam and the religion.
But, those same enemies of Islam later learned about Islam and they converted to it. Those who were the enemies of Islam became also the great defenders of Islam in time. The Huns, the Mongols became the great defenders of Islam in the far east, in Asia. That's true for Christianity before the preaching of Islam. We know that it was Rome that persecuted the followers of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. But the same Rome became the leader of Christianity, the church of Rome, yes, along with the Eastern church in Greece. Just trying to give you a kind of picture of what Islam is, how it started and what it is and our prophet, what kind of person he is.
When Muhammad, the Prophet was being persecuted by the Meccans, his own fellow countrymen, some of his people who were suffering, they pleaded to him to find some relief for them. He sent a group of them as an Envoy, as a messenger, a messenger group carrying the message of the persecution of Muslims, of Muhammad and his followers in Arabia, to the leader of Ethiopia. Ethiopia at that time was not called Ethiopia by the Arabs. I don't think the Arabs ever called that land, Ethiopia, they called it the land of the Habashi. They were sent there, and when they got there, they introduced our prophet to that Christian ruler of Ethiopia.
One of them, perhaps least educated of them but strong in faith, he was the one who came up with the correct approach to make to the Christian ruler. He recited to the Christian ruler passages from our holy book, Quran, on the Virgin Mary, peace be upon her, the mother of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, and how the Quran introduces the blessed mother and her blessed child. Also, John, peace be upon John, who was born before Jesus Christ. When the Christian ruler heard the beautiful story that came with the revelation to Muhammad the prophet, he was so touched by it. He told this group that came for protection, "Don't worry. You have nothing to fear here. You have the protection of this country." He gave them asylum or protection.
The Meccans, knowing where they had gone, arrived soon after. When they arrived, they said, "These people you have, you don't know these people. These are bad people. You have to give them to us so we can take them back and have their hearing, their courts or punishment, whatever. The Christian ruler told them, "I see no problem with these people and you cannot have them back." They were very, very angered and they left in that state, but never were able to get those former citizens of Mecca back into their charge. We have, as Muslims, this in our history, the beginning of the progress for Islam on this planet earth, we have that in our history.
Many of you, I have shared this with, but I will tell you again, those who I have not shared this with who are Muslims. This is very important for us to remember, particularly in the United States of America, where we are living as a small minority among the great majority that are Christians. We should remember that our religion started with help from Christian ruler and protection from Christian ruler. That should endear us to Christianity. That should endear us to Christian leadership. That should make us feel a debt to the Christian Church. Yes, we should feel a debt to the Christian Church. We shouldn't see them as trouble in our path, we should see them as people honorable, receiving scripture from G-d, who share the belief in the same G-d that we believe in, and we're now citizens with them in the same country, in the same situation.
We should be looking for occasions to have peaceful, healthy, intelligent discussions with the leaders of Christianity in this country, church leaders, etcetera, so that we can serve each other and not be a harm at all to each other or against each other. This is what I want, and this is what most of these Imams want with me. This is what we want. If you are in the audience and you don't know this, we want to share it with you so that you will consider it and join the effort to form peaceful working relationship with the Christian leaders in our neighborhoods, in our city, in our state, in the United States of America, in the country. G-d is greater, he says. With that little bit I shared with you.
You can see that Islam began as a very sober, sober, not a fanatical movement, but as a very sober mission, very sober mission, sober mission, or movement, a very sober movement, not fanatical at all. If we want to continue to make progress as Muslims with this religion, we have to continue to respect the leadership of Muhammad, the Prophet, how he established it. He didn't establish it by looking for enemies, he established it by looking for friends. G-d says in our holy books, and we know Islam is a religion of disciplines. It's a religion of self-control. We have to take control of our own personal life and make it conform to the will of G-d, to the plan of G-d for Muslim life. It's a religion of disciplines. We can't do anything we want. We live to please G-d. We live to serve G-d, and serve G-d means, obey his commandments.
We don't drink liquors; it's forbidden in our religion. We don't take drugs; it's strictly forbidden in our religion. Very serious offense in our religion, and for Christians too. But I'm speaking for Muslims right now. We don't take drugs, a very serious offense, and we don't steal, we don't lie, we don't cheat, we don't deceive. All the virtues of Christianity are embraced by us, yes. Now, when we look at the articles of faith for Muslims, we share with Christians, Jews, Sabians, and some others too now that we are not aware of, these articles of faith. Number one is to believe in G-d, the G-d who created everything, who made human beings and everything that exists, and to believe that we are accountable to that G-d for our behavior, that if we don't behave as we should, one day we will be judged and we'll get the consequences of our bad deeds, that if the good deeds outweigh the bad deeds, we'll get the rewards, the good rewards for having been a good person.
Understand this, G-d says, "You're no angels." If the earth had been populated with angels, I would've sent you an angel to be your prophet, a messenger, so you're no angels. That's not to excuse bad behavior because G-d has created us with angelic qualities. The human being has angelic qualities, as well as human qualities. We are to always strive to be as perfect as we can be, but never think that we are angels, because once you think that you are an angel, you can't see your imperfection. G-d wants us to see, have knowledge of our imperfections so that we can constantly be improving upon our own selves. Now, we believe in G-d, we believe in his angels, we believe in the books that he revealed, all of them, to Moses, to Jesus, all of them. We believe in the resurrection after the death, its called, Al badi badh al Mawt. Al Mawt means the death.
We believe in the resurrection after the death and we believe in the judgment day, that there will come a final judgment day, that the guy that did the terrible thing and thought he escaped, he didn't really escape. There's coming a final judgment day when every deed of good is going to be rewarded and every deed of evil, or bad, is going to be punished. We believe in a final day. G-d doesn't want us to be terrified, "Oh, I've been a terrible guy. I believe in this religion, but I've been such a terrible guy. I know I'm going to go to hell fire." No, G-d says he is the only one can judge you. Say, the only one can judge you is the one who has been around for all time. He knows what happened to you in your life, from the day of your birth to the day of your death.
But he also knows what happened in man's world, from the beginning of the world with Adam to the end of the world, he knows what happened. He knows how much you are responsible for and he knows how much the world is responsible for. You can't judge yourself, only G-d can judge you. G-d doesn't want us fearing judgment day, G-d want us working for freedom day. Freedom from everything that is against the human life, the good human life that we want for ourselves and that G-d intends for us. We have these similar beliefs that we share, and we have these in common. When it comes to faith, Muslims and Christians are very close together. We don't have much difference. We only differ when it comes to practice, how we live this in the world.
What distinguishes us from Christians and Jews mostly, is our five articles of practice. Number one is, to make Shahadah, and this we share with the Christians. How do I know? I'm a student of your Bible, Christian brothers and sisters who are here. I'm a student of your Bible. I'm a good student of your Bible. G-d blessed me to be a good student of your Bible. I believe in the purity of your Bible. I have great respect for your Bible. I handle your Bible like I handle my Quran, I handle it with respect and care, I put it in a special place, it's not just left anywhere in the house. That's because I read it for myself twice so that I would understand it and be able to... How can we represent Islam in this country and demand the freedom of speech to preach Islam and not know our Christian neighbors who are in the great majority, and who actually are in the controls? Most of the people in control of this country, they're Christians.
How can we say we're imams and not want to know them first? You're out there on the corner preaching and you don't even know the Christians, shame on you. You should know Christians. You should know the church, what it stands for, and know Christians, what they believe. You should know the best of their life, don't look for the worst of anything. Always look for the best of everything. You should know the best of their life so you can have respect and love for them, then you'll feel free of preaching in America. You'll feel free of exercising this freedom, this life of freedom of speech, free speech, or the freedom to speak out in the public.
I'm advising you to do that because I know what it has done for me. It has freed me up to free at home in America, as a Muslim, with every right of citizenship, and it would do the same for you. I don't care how much rights you have on the law books, if you don't feel at home with your Christian neighbors, you just ain't free to preach Islam. G-d says, it is not G-d's wish to put you to any hardship. He does not wish any hardship for you, but it is his wish that you be purified, that you be purified. Islam, the religion of purity, and Christianity is a religion of purity. (silence) Islam is also the religion of all people. If you understand Christianity, Christianity also is a religion of all people. But, how can this be? How can Christianity be the religion of all people and Islam, too, be the religion of all people?
Islam means, resign to do the will of G-d. It comes from a word meaning, peace. When you render peacefully to G-d, give yourself peacefully to G-d, we believe that you will have peace, so Islam is a religion of peace. Our greeting is peace, Assalamu Alaikum. If you have read your Bible, Christ Jesus greeted people, his disciples, his friends, the people, he said to them, "Salam Alaikum." Read your own Bible. He said, "Peace unto you. Peace be unto you." In our language, in Arabic, religious language of a Muslim is, As-Salaam-Alaikum, peace be unto you. That's how Christ Jesus greeted people. It's in the Bible, you can read it for yourself, if you haven't already read it and made note of it [....] that, it's there.
Not me that, to say you're Christian mean to be like Jesus Christ, that's what it means. To say you are Christian means to be Christlike. How was Christ? More than anything else, he was a man of peace, more than anything else. I read the gospel; I know. I read the New Testament more than once. He was a man of peace, more than anything else. He would excuse small defects for the sake of peace. He would tell people to excuse their enemies even for the sake of peace. G-d's peace was his nature. G-d's peace was Christ's nature. His nature was peace, that's Muslim. Our meaning, our language, that's Muslim. So, Christ was a Muslim. For us, the name for that condition that was Christ, is Muslim. For you, the name of that condition, is Christ.
Christ didn't come to tell you, "Oh, I am this, but you can't be this." He said, "I in you and you in me," this is the gospel. I'm not saying this to teach a Christian anything, I'm saying this to let you know that we are closer than you think we are. You think we are so distant apart, and Muslims need to hear this even more than Christians. We think we are so far from each other. No, we are very close to each other, and G-d says to us in our holy book, I'm not speaking independently. I'm speaking with authority. G-d says in our holy book, he says to the Muslim, "You'll find the nearest people to you to be those who call themselves Christians."
But in that time, the Christians of that area didn't call themselves Christians, they called themselves Nazarenes, but they're the Christian, they're the quiet followers of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, says that, "You'll find the closest to you, will be those people who call themselves Nasara." Nasara, in Quranic Arabic means, the people of Nazareth, the Nazarenes, who were, the name for Christians in that early time of history. G-d wants that we be purified, and Christianity is religion that wants purity for its life, for its people. We know Christ, what's the meaning of Christ? It means purified. Christ means purified. It means anointed.
How do you anoint? You anoint by cleaning with a certain oil. All of that is ritual, but is it saying in plain language, this man was purified. He was born pure. Then as child, he was purified. He was anointed after being born into the world, he was again anointed, which means you can be born pure, but if you don't get some cleaning in the world, you might lose that purity. That's the Christ, that's the Christ. He said, "I am in you and you in me."
Muhammad came behind him about 500 years, or so, later. What did Muhammad say about his own identity? He said... G-d said through Muhammad, pardon me. He said, "Say to them," G-d says in our holy book, say, Muhammad, "Say to them, I am a mortal human being like you." Basharuun Mithlukuum is the Quranic Arabic, our holy book, the language of our holy book. G-d says, "Qul," means, say, [...], ["Ana]," I, Basharuun, a human mortal, Mithlukuum, just like you. He said it to them, "I am a human mortal just like you." What was he saying? Same thing that Jesus Christ had said, "I in you and you and me," we are one and the same type. The human type G-d created. (silence)


