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IWDM Study Library
The Guidance of Allah

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
A-udubilahi minishaitan nira jim, Bismillahir Rahmaanir Rahim, Al-Hamdu lillaahi Rabbil-'Aalamin, 'Ar- Rahmaanir-Rahim, maaliki yawmid-din, 'Iyyaaka na'-budu wa 'iyyaaka nasta-'iin, 'Ihdinas-siraatal-musta-qiim, siraatal-ladhina 'an 'amta 'alaiyhim, qayril-magdhuubi 'alayhim wa ladh-dhaaaaalin. Aameen. 
Our Honorable radio audience, we greet you with the greetings of all the prophets, from Abraham to Muhammad, the greetings of peace, as-salamu-alaikum. 
All praise is due to Allah, the Guardian, Evolver, the Cherisher, Sustainer of all the worlds. We ask His forgiveness for our faults and our sins. We ask His mercy and His guidance. We ask for His protection. May His peace and blessings forever be upon Prophet Muhammad, to whom the Qur'an was revealed, the last and universal messenger prophet. May His peace and blessings be upon his descendants, upon the companions, upon the righteous servants of Allah, all of them, and upon us Muslims here in America and throughout the world. Ameen.
Dear beloved Muslims, I would like to begin the khutbah today with a saying of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, salli allahu alaihi wa sallam. I have here a collection of hadith, translated by Dr. Izzadin Ibrahim, a brother who has great honor and high place in Muslim countries, especially in the Emirates. And a brother who visited us, and was a friend of the community before I came into office. He has been a friend of the community for some years, I believe for five years or more. Dr. Izzadin has translated 40 most popular hadiths. Hadiths means saying, saying of Prophet Muhammad, hadiths. And these hadiths show us, or tell us, how Prophet Muhammad lived our religion, Al-Islam.
I'm reading now from hadith, I believe, the 25th of these hadiths. We have these, if we don't have them, we can get more. All of you should have these. They'll help you get a clear and easy understanding of the life of Prophet Muhammad and the spirit of our religion. They said, "O messenger of Allah, when one of us fulfills his sexual desire, will he have some reward for that?" And he, the prophet said, "do you not think that if you were to act upon it unlawfully, that you would be sinning? Likewise, if you have acted upon it lawfully, you will have a reward." This is the saying of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
And I took this saying as the theme of my khutbah today, because in this society people go to all kinds of extremes to avoid sin, but this society is the society most steeped in sin. It is because we haven't been given clear guidance of All Mighty G-d. We don't follow truth in a sensible way, or in a rational way. We follow it with our emotional sentiments. Sex is not something to be treated as dirty. Sex is the blessing of All Mighty G-d. If it was not for sex, we could not remain on this planet. And G-d, in creating this function in us, has united us, male and female together, as husband and wife. And has made possible the other relationships, of parents and children, brothers and sisters, in a home environment. So All Mighty G-d, in giving us the function of sex, He has made possible for us to have a beautiful world of closeness, of intimacy, of warmth, of feeling for each other, of love for each other, of concern.
And this, brothers and sisters, is the very pillar of society. Society cannot exist without the family ties, the family unit, and those beautiful sentiments that evolve, or grow out o that unit. All Mighty Allah gave us sex as a great blessing, as He gave us all of His graces as great blessings. It is only harmful to us when we abuse, misuse, the blessings of All Mighty G-d. And Prophet Muhammad guided to lead us into the light and understanding of the problems that the world had in the day of Prophet Muhammad and before. He has dealt with this problem of sex, with a very few words, by merely telling us that in sex is a reward for us, not just a pleasure. He could have said there is pleasure in it, he did not, he said, there is a reward in it. Meaning that G-d rewards us for having lawful sex. And the rationale is this, that if G-d punish us for having sex out of wedlock, or unlawful sex, then shouldn't it be believed, or shouldn't it be the rational conclusion, that G-d would reward us for having sex within the lawful boundaries, or within wedlock.
What are these blessings? They're many. When a man and woman enjoy each other lawfully, having a valid license, an open marriage, not hiding anything of their relationship from their family members, or from their friends, or from the society, then they have a closeness, a privacy, that they enjoy. And it's a lawful privacy, it's a legitimate, respectable privacy. And they have done something to please G-d, and they have done something to protect the welfare of the society, they have done something to protect their offspring. For if their offspring come up without lawful and open, acknowledged marriage, then their offspring will be subject to abuses. The society will abuse them. Their rights are subject to be taken from them. The rights of inheritance are subject to be taken from them. Whereas with the lawful marriage, that is known, these rights are most likely protected.
This is a blessing, but also a reward. A reward is even stronger than blessing, isn't it? For we are blessed, but when G-d reward us, we are blessed indeed. When one enjoys a relationship with his wife, and none other except his lawful wife, he gets a reward from G-d. The more they love each other, and remain loyal to each other, the more G-d will bless each one of them with a blessing that the two of them recognize and can share. Yes. All Mighty G-d will, if their love is weak, G-d will strengthen their love. You know what I mean? When I say weak, flat pacing, not exciting anymore. G-d will reward them and make their love have flavor again. Yes. If they have lost a tender concern for each other, if they remain faithful to each other for the love of Allah, that is obeying Him, then G-d will bring back that tenderness in their relationship. No matter what is wrong with our relationship.
Maybe there's lustful tendencies on the part of one or the other mates, and the marriage is threatened because someone wants to go out and set fires outside of the house. G-d will even bless them to overcome that, take that problem out of their life as though it never existed. Yes. If they remain faithful, obedient to G-d's law. So Allah has asked us to be loyal, to be faithful to one another, to be trustworthy, not to betray the contracts we make. And what contract is more important than the contract that binds a man with a woman for the generation of a new family? Yes. What contract could be more important than that? You have each other, and you have offspring, most likely, that will come from that relationship. And even if you don't have your own offspring, maybe you adopt an offspring. But if you don't have the proper relationship between each other, you would be just as destructive as an influence in the life of that adopted child, as you would be in your own child. It makes no difference.
So it takes the right kind of relationship, the right kind of union. And to have that, it takes respect for All Mighty G-d. No human being is big enough to maintain his affairs, to keep his life in order, without the help of All Mighty Allah. Only Allah can guarantee us the successful life, successful relationships. We can work for them, but we can't guarantee anything. Today we might be ideally suited for handling our affairs, but some tragedy can come into our life and take away our qualifications, just like that. Yes. Yesterday we were fair, we could deal justly with our wife, or with our husband, the members of this household. But some traumatic thing occur in our lives, and throw us off balance, and we can't deal justly with each other anymore.
All kind of tests down the road for us. Allah says, in the Qur'an, that He tests us with affluence, with abundance of the goods, and the things that we like. And He tests us also with scarcity. And some of us can't manage when the time of scarcity come around, we go to pieces because things are scarce. They're not plentiful like they used to be. All these tests are out here waiting to test the true believer, and waiting to separate those who truly believe from those who are pretenders. So we have to be aware of that. And know that Allah is our only salvation. Nothing can save us except Allah. Nothing guarantees success but Allah Himself. And Allah says in the Qur'an, " hathithiquum-ullahu nefhah" . And G-d warns you Himself. The faithful believers, they know that. Because often we find ourselves, saying, thank you Allah for saving me that time. Yes. Allahu akbar.
Dear beloved Muslims, again, Prophet Muhammad said, "none of you will become a believer, or will believe, until first his desires follow what I have come to you with." These are very short things, they're not wordy, very short. But they go right home to the trouble. They strike right at the trouble. And what does it amount to? It amounts to this, the individual is not going to be helped by G-d until that individual first wants to be like G-d wants him to be. As long as you don't want to be like Allah wants us to be, then you're not going to get much help from Allah. But as your desire increases to be like Allah wants us to be, the help is going to increase. Yes.
Lastly, Allah says, in the Qur'an, that "never will Allah change what is burdening a people until they first change what is burdening their heart, or their conscience." There're some people who feel no burden on the conscience. They can go on committing crime after crime, increasing the crime, getting involved in more serious trouble, and their conscience is hardly ever bothered. Don't worry about them. They've gone so far, they're not even in our species anymore. They're not human. They don't belong to our class, the human class. Don't bother about them. Your only concern for those people should be to stay away from them, and to guard yourself against their influences. Yes. Because they are the devils. They are the devils. The devils are those who have no conscience, who have no feeling at all, no afterthought that worries them, when they have committed an evil, or on unjust act against people. They can do wrong and suffer no mental agony, not even a knock on the door of their conscience. Those people are devils.
So we're not here to beg devils to come to the straight way. We are here to call believers to the way. We're here to call Muslims to the way. Or people of faith, or people seeking guidance. The devils don't seek guidance. They come to guidance to seek a way to supplant people, setting up something to drive them away, or pull them away, from the path of Allah. They come among us to whisper lies. And often they take on the dress of a very serious righteous minded advocate. And they'll be the first ones to tell you, how you're supposed to pray, or how you're supposed to address Allah, or how you're supposed to respect Chief Imam. They'll tell you, "I don't think you know him yet", suggesting that he's superhuman. In hopes that you will buy it and become a member of the "shirk" class. The class that's established idols, associate false G-ds with Allah. Yeah. So this is no easy road.
The path of Al-Islam is not the path of the jahiliyyah. The path of the jahiliyyah is the path of the ignorant people. Can't no ignorant people follow the path of Al-Islam. Al-Islam makes you wise. And it only takes one dose. Yes. The first dose of Al-Islam you get, you become wise. Yes. You haven't learned everything in the book, but your eyes have been opened to see wisely. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And G-d guides us, G-d protects us, but we have to be aware of the company of the devils. The company of the devils are on earth walking about in human form. And they have never been making trouble for us in any other form. Whenever they make trouble for you, they're in human form. Yeah. Yeah. That is serious trouble. We sometimes wake up out of a nightmare, but that nightmare, it passes on and leaves us alone. Very seldom the same nightmare just keeps coming. But these human devils, they keep coming. They are a constantly recurring nightmare. That's right. Yeah.
So when you open your eyes and go out in the public places, and you put on your defense, and the best defense is Allah. We say, bismillah, means with Allah's help, or with His power, because of Him not because of me. Bismillah. He'll open the way. And we say, alallahi tawakkalna, and on Allah we put our trust. Right. When you go out of your home, ask Allah to keep your house safe, ask Allah to give you protection in the traveling about. You don't know who you're going to run into, or what you're going to run into. Yes. And a believer who doesn't commit big sin may find himself falling into big trouble because he doesn't realize that forgetting G-d is the biggest of all sins. Yeah. Yeah. So remember to say bismillah. Remember to put your trust in Allah. And to put your children, put them in the hands of All Mighty G-d. It's a blessing of Allah. And only Allah can bless us like that. Nothing else can help us like that. Yes.
So many things happen in our life, daily, that we overlook. We don't give enough importance to Him. In fact, I recognize that in my own life. And I just made a point, I said, no matter how big, or how small, a thing is, from now on, the moment I become aware that a good thing has happened in my life, I'm going to say, thank you Allah. And I just made it a habit. No matter how small it is, I try to remember to say, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, all praise is due to Allah, thanks to Allah. Yes. And that is a great blessing, to be aware of those things.
Dear beloved Muslims, Allah is bigger than anything we could possibly imagine. Allah is more significant, more important. And that's what we mean, when we say, Allahu Akbar. So don't ever think that something in your life is a problem too big, nothing is too big, Allah is much bigger. And don't let anything stand in your way of giving your full devotion to All Mighty Allah, because nothing is going to reward you anymore than Allah will reward you. Yes. We seek security, and we seek pleasure, we seek enjoyment, in individuals, and in business, and in our ventures, et cetera. But believe me, the best pleasure, the best reward, the best fulfillment, comes from pleasing All Mighty G-d. Yes.
In fact, there's a scientist who said that almost in the very same word, the scientist Albert Einstein. He said that the experience one has with the mysterious, meaning G-d, faith, is the greatest of all experiences. There's nothing, no experience. He was a scientist, and not a petty scientist, Albert Einstein, we're still following his discoveries. In other words, he's still teaching many. He's dead and gone, but he's still teaching many. Yes. He knew that his physical endeavors were nothing compared to the guidance of G-d and the life that only Allah can give us. In fact, of the physical, Einstein said, "the physical experience leads to a metaphysical experience." The physical leads us to seek the higher understanding of the physical things that we're dealing with. Yeah. And if it doesn't do that, then it's really closing up it's benefits before we get them. Yes.
And for some, the benefits are closed. And that's because we are so small-minded, so tight-hearted, small-minded, we can't expand our heart to receive all the goodness that's out here for us. We can't expand our mind to give justice to other people and other ideas other than our own. And because of that, we remain just dried up, like a piece of fruit, separated from its life source. It just dries up and dries up and dries up. Gets so tight and small, pretty soon its fit for nothing but to be recycled. It can't be used anymore unless it's recycled. Has to be grafted all over again. Yes. This is the way life is. And many of us, we find ourselves going back through the death-life processes. Not as souls, or personalities of individual beings. Well, what I mean by that, you just become something on a record. And your body go back into the earth, and fertilize trees, and feed worms, and other things, and you become just a record.
Whereas if you would have lived the right way, you could have come into a beautiful life, and you could have passed away a beautiful thing. That's right. We don't have to pass away dumb, empty, and ugly. We can go out as beautiful, in fact, much more beautiful than we came in. Yes. Yes. And it's a fact that every little baby comes in beautiful. I've never seen a baby come into this world ugly. That's right. The most commonly looking features are often accompanied by the most bright and beautiful life or personality. Allahu Akbar.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin. All praise is due to Allah, the Guardian, Evolver, Keeper, Cherisher, the Sustainer of all the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad, the universal messenger, prophet, the last of the prophets, the seal of the prophets, the fulfillment of prophecy, the messenger to all of us, the guide for all of us, the Imam for all of us. Because of him, we have had great Imams, we have had great teachers, great scholars, we've had great reformers, because Prophet Muhammad established the religion, with the help of G-d, and the guidance of G-d, and left a great example. An example so great that it is called a Mighty example, left a Mighty example for us.
Dear beloved Muslims, let us prove to the world that we're not a petty people, that we're not crabs in a barrel. That we're not people who can't stand to see someone, other than ourself, get credit, receive honors, or be lifted above us. Let us prove that in this day and time, there are people who will accept that one be lifted up, so all can be drawn up behind him. Let us keep Prophet Muhammad before us as our first Imam. And let us respect good leadership, when we find good leadership. Let us not be influenced by any un-Islamic thing in our lives. Don't allow the outside agitators, the outside sabotages of good works, don't allow them to influence you with racism, to turn away from Prophet Muhammad. Because if you do, you'll be setting your own doom.
If Allah has raised us with His clear truth, above racism, above a physical-mindedness, to think as sound minded, sober-minded, human beings, to live with our hearts, and our intelligence in one form. Allah has made that possible for us. To fight off ugly prejudices, jealousies, that corrode the human goodness, the human excellence, like rust eating away an iron bar. The iron is very hard, but corrosion sets in, and pretty soon the slightest wind can blow that iron bar about like dust. In fact, it becomes dust, and the slightest little wind blows it about. What will protect us? Obedience to Allah. Love for Allah. But if we don't love Allah, how can we obey Allah? The fear of Allah, a grown-up fear, knowing the consequences, fearing to displease Allah. Not that He's going to be upset by our sins, but we know His will, and we want to be in accord with His will.
And we know that He doesn't have flesh and blood heart, and sentiments, like we have, but we know He must have a supreme love. A supreme love. Because all of this goodness we discover in obeying Him cannot help but come from a source that is all-love. Allah must be love. He must be care. He must be tenderness. All of these attributes, when they're seen as divine attributes, in the total concept of All Mighty G-d, don't show us a weak, fragile human being, but shows us the source of the human strength. For we are tender and merciful in our hearts, we are compassionate, we have love for each other. But we know that there must be a being that has given us these things, and that being must have the very source of this goodness that we only get as a reflection, or as a sign, of a much greater thing in All Mighty G-d. Yes.
So dear beloved believers, while we're worshiping All Mighty G-d, Allah, as a being that is not creation, but creator, don't forget that G-d is able to communicate with us on levels beneath Him, while we are not able to communicate on levels above ourselves. Yes. So don't think G-d is not capable of hearing your pitiful conversation. Go and make the pitiful conversation. G-d, He's able to relate to us on all levels. He understands His creation. He knows the inferiority, infirmities, of His creation. He knows the steps that you've come, and He knows the depth that you can fall down into. So don't be afraid to speak to Allah just as you would speak to yourself, or to someone else. That's why the Muslim is given the standard prayers, and we pray to Allah standard way.
But also we're given, du'a, we call on G-d, du'a means calling on G-d. We call on G-d. We make du'a, like this. And the Muslim is allowed, in his standard prayer, to speak his heart and his mind, while he's in prostration, with his head on the floor. He's allowed to pour out his heart to G-d. It is recorded that Prophet Muhammad remained with his head upon the floor, the ground, in prayer for so long they thought he had passed away. Astagfirullah. They thought he had passed away. But, no, he was pouring out his heart to his creator, to Allah the Supreme. Yes. And look at the tenderness, the beauty, in this man. That same man, who would spend hours on the floor, speaking to G-d, also respected tenderness of a child. Once a little child got on his back, while he was in prostration, and he refused to get up until the baby left him alone.
He wasn't like some of us, self-righteous robots, who would get up, and dump the baby from his back. Just get right up, baby fall from his back, he wouldn't even turn around and see if the baby was hurt. Nothing can disturb his prayer. So Allah has given us an example, Mighty example, in Prophet Muhammad. Knowing that we would go to extremes, he told us how to place matters in their proper order of importance, or of urgency. For G-d would charge him with hurting that child. He was praying to G-d, but why add sin while you're communicating to the All Mighty G-d. If he had gotten up, and dumped the baby on the floor, he'd have to make another prayer, if he was a good man. And pray to G-d to forgive me for dumping this baby on my back. You see?
Muslims, when we are praying, and the baby is screaming, we don't continue praying. If there are women, we trust our women to take care of the babies. But say, if a brother knows that the baby is with him, nobody else to take care of that baby, and while he's praying, the baby screams out, should he keep praying or go to see what's wrong with the baby? He should close his prayer, assalamualaikum warahmatullahi, assalamualaikum warahmatullahi. He should close his prayer and go right away and see what's wrong with the baby. You see? Prophet Muhammad has demonstrated to us how to live our religion as Allah wants us to live it, to be intelligent, faithful, obedient, but also to be intelligent.
Dear Muslims, I hope that we all can follow the guidance of G-d, as it should be followed, and respect Allah, as the Holy Qur'an says, Allah the Most High says, with the respect that is due Him. Don't give Him less than His due. And we'll be successful. Let us do all we can to keep this religion spreading in our personal lives, the life of our loved ones, and throughout the world. In our going about, let us carry the light of our faith, so that other people will be attracted to this great religion, and be helped by it. Let us remember always that every Muslim is a preacher of the religion. In Al-Islam, every Muslim is obligated to teach his religion. There are many quotes I could give you establishing this, but I'll give you one. It says that the Muslim is obligated to learn the Qur'an, and also teach it. You're not just obligated to learn it for yourself, you are also obligated to teach it, to give what you learn to others.
And in the days of Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, Prophet Muhammad was not giving the people Qur'ans out like this, written books. The scripture was fulfilled in Prophet Muhammad. The message went out on the tablets of their hearts. Yes. It went out on the tablets of the hearts of those firm believers. They memorized whole chapters, memorized the whole book. Prophet Muhammad never cared about notes. He preached directly from his heart and his mind. G-d had revealed it, as Allah says in the Qur'an, on his heart. And he called the believers to it, and it was engraved in their hearts.
And when the book was put together, and made a paper book, where did they get the writing from? They got it from the engravement on the hearts of the believer. They would call those in, who had the engravement in the heart, and they asked them, will you verify that this is the word of G-d? And many of them agreed, yes, that is it, exactly, not a word is missing, not a syllable was out of place. They didn't even write it on paper until the great men agreed that not a syllable, not a sign, if it was tasari, and wasn't tasara, they would have to put tasari. If it was dahaba, they had to put dahaba, it couldn't be dahabu. One word. But you change it, it makes a difference. You see? Yeah. Yeah.
Everything had to be exact. If it was put in paper, it couldn't have been protected. Why? Because people would come up and change the paper. But if it's engraved on the heart of the faithful, then it's protected, because Allah has put the faith into the hearts of the faithful. And as long as they remain faithful to Allah, He protects it. And that's what He told Prophet Muhammad. He told Prophet Muhammad that we shall make it easy for you to recite, or to remember. He said we shall teach you with easy verses to remember. And The Qur'an was revealed in smooth, eloquent language, that has a kind of musical rhyming about it. And the ideas are so intertwined, or connected, that if you take something out of place, it can be discovered. Yes. The wonderful Qur'an. Yeah.
Dear beloved Muslims, let us not think of ourselves. You got to wonder why he talks on like this, because it's not easy to just say a thing and get the results. Let us not think of ourselves as being so far from Christians. We are the fulfillment, the Christians are the sign. They are the sign of what will come, and we are that. Yes. Yes. They were told that G-d shall write it on their hearts. They were told that Jesus said, "the first shall be the last, and the last shall be the first." Is that right? Oh, yes. And didn't he teach them to wash their feet? And wasn't that the last part of His instruction? Yes. The last thing He demonstrated was the washing of the feet. Yes. And isn't that the last thing with us? The washing of the feet. But also with them, that's the only thing they did.


