IWDM Study Library

How Muslims Regard Common Sense: Parts 1&2
Imam W. Deen Mohammed


00:01 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. We ask Him for help and we turn to him for forgiveness. We believe and trust in Him, mighty and sublime, who is the Lord of all the worlds and as it is said in the Holy Book, He is Al-khaliqu kulli shay, the creator of everything. La illah illa Allah, Muhammad rasul Allah. There is nothing worthy of worship except the one G-d, Allah we say in Arabic, in Qu'ran, and Muhammad, the messenger of Allah, Allah's messenger, is the noble and generous one called the seal of the prophets, the last and the seal of the prophets and also he's called, and I quote the Qu'ran, Bashiruun mithlukum, a mortal human being, just like us. He's not the spook, he's not the angel, he's human being, but obedient to G-d, like the angel. sallalahu alaihi wa salaam wa mabad. And we salute him with the best salute, Allah's peace and prayers and peace be upon the Prophet and upon his descendants and his companions all and what follows of this most excellent salutation.

01:36 IWDM: We are in the blessed month of Ramadan and we wish all blessed and rewarding fasts, a blessed fast, wish that Allah reward you and all of us for our fasting, as He will do, and always does. The most High says, in the Qu'ran, Ya ayyuhallazeena amaanu, all you who believe, asta jibuu lillahi wa lir rasuuli edha da aakum leemayuheekum, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when you're called to that which gives you life. We understand by that the call to Islam then is a call to life. The call to this religion is the call to life. And you will recall every time the prayer time comes, we say,haya ala salah 'Haya' means life. 'Haya' means life. 'Haya' means come lively. Liven up to. 'Al salah.' For prayer. It's time now to pray. And 'haya ala al falah' means be alive, come alive for success. Come alive for success.

03:31 IWDM: So, our religion then is clearly a religion that invites to life and invites to success. It invites to life, it invites to success. And again, the Most High says in the Qu'ran, wa maa lakum la tumeenuna billahi war rasuulu yad uukum leetumeennuu birabbi kum. Why is it that you do not believe in G-d, in Allah, while the Prophet, the Messenger, Al Rasul, the Messenger, calls you to believe in your Lord. Birabikum. In your Lord. Now, here's Allah's name and Rabikom, your Lord, given in the same breath. And what is wrong with you, that you don't believe in Allah, while the Prophet, the Messenger, Al Rasoul the Messenger, calls you to believe in your Lord? So in case you say who is this Allah? So who is this Allah, we call G-d by another name, who is this Allah? So, G-d asked in the Holy Book, the last revelation, the Qu'ran, what is the matter with you that you don't believe in Allah, when the Prophet is calling you to believe in your Lord. Your Lord, not someone else's Lord. You know, common sense as we understood it. I don't know if we still understand it, most of us probably don't understand common sense anymore, the world has come a long ways from common sense. But most of us, we understood common sense to be straight sense. Straight up stuff, you know. And the Prophet was asked, peace be upon him, he was asked by someone, this this.

06:00 IWDM: This person says "Tell me something that nobody can tell me but you." He wanted something very special, didn't he? And the prophet gave him something very special, but it sounds very, very simple. The prophet says " Qul." He told this person to say "Amantu." That I have believed. thumma mustaqeem and thereafter be straight up.

[chuckle]

06:31 IWDM: That's what the prophet told him. " amantu billahi thumma mustaqeem". Now, before I came to the speaking stand here, the Imam was telling us that the prophet said, explaining a straight path, that he is the one, that he's on the straight way and the hands of Satan takes the people off the straight way. So, the prophet says "Say," to this person. He says "Say I have believed." amantu fastaqeem, and thereafter, be upright. Be straight. Common sense. How Islam regards common sense. In the Quran, Allah most high says " Qul man harrama zeenaata Allahi allati akraja lee ibaadeehee ". Who has forbidden the good things, wonderful things which Allah brought out for his servants. That's all of us, for all human beings were created to be the Ibad, are the servants of Allah. Allah addresses us in Quran as his Ibad, his servants.

08:07 IWDM: If the question is asked, then we are to understand that someone has either plainly or implied that some of the good things that Allah wants us to have are forbidden to us, that we can't have those good things. There are many good things that we worry about in religion and worry if G-d approves this or not. Some religions, not all religion. And common sense is telling us "This doesn't seem to gel right with me. I believe this is good and I should have it. I believe this is the right thing to do. I believe this is the right way to think." And something is saying from the religious side that you shouldn't think that way, or from the religious side that that's not permissible for you, and you are saying "Yes it is." Your common sense speaking. So common sense is warring with nonsense. Let's decorate it. You can decorate nonsense and it looks real good, it looks convincing.

[chuckle]

09:31 IWDM: And again, continuing this G-d says " Qul heeya lillazeena amaamnu fil hayya tid dunya khaaleesataan yaumil Qiyyamati." Say these beautiful things, attractive things that G-d has made for his servant, is for those who believe in G-d in this life. fil hayyat tid dunya, right here in this life, on this earth. " khaaleesataan yaumil qiyyamat and they will get it in complete, in full. The day of judgement. The day of judgement. And again G-d says... Common sense, that's our talk today. How Islam regards common sense. Pardon me, I should finish this first. Kazalika nufasseelu al ayaati liqaumeen ya alamuunn. And then this way we explain the signs for people who have sense and knowledge, for knowledgeable people. Now, when we are talking about common sense, we are not talking about education. We're not talking about what we learn from the former schools or from the schools that... We're talking about that that we have by nature, we are born with it, common sense. And it develops too, just like the academic ability develops when we attend the schools, the colleges, etcetera. The academic ability develops the exposure to that learning. But without any exposure to such formal kind of settings or teachers of that nature, the common sense is also growing all the time. And there's a healthy situation for it, it will continue to grow.

11:28 IWDM: Our prophet, Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, the prayers and the peace be on him, he was a man of common sense, not a man of formal education. And he's called the 'ummi prophet', meaning the untaught, unlearned, unlettered, unschooled, however you want it prophet. And the people that he preached to in Arabia, in the time of darkness there, Jahiliyyah time.

12:00 IWDM: Those people are characterized in the Quran as the Umiyi, the Umiyun meaning also that they were just like the prophet, they also were uneducated people, they were unschooled. The word Umiyu, you can see the connection Umiyi, you can see the connection with Um, mother. Um is mother, Umiyi means I have only common sense. I only have only what my mother, that from my mother, you see? So the Umiyu, the plural of that for the many. We believe that the Prophet, Muhammad was also the most educated man to walk this Earth. But he was not educated by the people we regard as being educated, you see? He was educated by G-d himself, Allah taught him, Allah taught him. Allah created him and Allah taught him. See the difference between most of us and the prophet, Allah created us but have not taught us yet...

[laughter]

13:27 IWDM: And we left our creation a long time ago, Prophet Muhammad kept his creation, yes, he kept his creation. He was obedient to the creation Allah made for him and for that reason, Allah chose him to be the last prophet because he was obedient to the nature, to the pristine nature, the original nature that Allah gave him. Common sense, this religion in my opinion, pays more respect to the essence, true essence of the human being, all people, all races, all nationalities than any other religion or any other ideology I've come across and that's one of the things that make me feel so good to be a Muslim, it is knowing how G-d has exonerated me, has freed me, liberated me, saved me, let me out of jail from being imprisoned by false charges against my own nature, against my own creation. I didn't like it at all, when I read man is born in sin, I didn't like it at all. Something in me said this is terrible to say to a human being, "Man is born in sin." They can explain it any way you want to 'cause when you branch off from that straight way you can two soft tongues, strong tongues, you can have so many tongues, I guess as many tongues as what branches off that straight way.
00:01 S?: Yes sir.

00:02 IWDM: I know they know to clean it up, but it's still dirty. Man is born in sin. Now, common sense is what we're talking about, how Islam regards common sense. You know they say, "How is it now that G-d create a man without a man being... Make a man, pardon me, from a woman without a man being involved?" The immaculate conception. How is it that can happen? I'd never believe that. I would never believe that. And Allah, it's quite different the way the Quran addresses our senses, quite different. In some of us in the Abadi, I'm sure we would have a heavy reply, [chuckle] whole lot of complex language to get up to the person that has that doubt. Allah says, "The likeness of... " Jesus is the creation of Adam, and he created Adam from dust. Now if we accept that G-d created the first man from dust, from dead matter, then is it a big deal to accept that he create another one from living matter? And not a living tree, but a living human being, a mother.

[background conversation]

01:40 IWDM: If you believe that G-d created the first one, then why doubt that he created the second one? And if the first one was created from dead matter, dust, then why doubt that he can create the second one from a woman? Since all babies are born from women. All babies are born from women. So what is the big deal now that G-d can't create a man from a woman? Now why is it that this is necessary now? Why is it necessary that a man come miraculously from a woman, as a man came miraculously from the dead earth? Why is it necessary? Because someone branched off from the path of Mustaqim and said, "Man is sin. Flesh is sin. Flesh is sin."

02:46 IWDM: So if flesh is sin now, what's the next? The intercourse between flesh and flesh is sin. It's sin. Now if this reasoning is not in religion, then why is it that certain religions require that their preachers, their teachers not marry, not touch women, live a life of celibacy? Why is it? It is because they believe that this flesh and flesh is sin touching together, that's sin. So there has to be a select group of angels who are not human. They refuse, they don't accept that human nature. They even separate from that human nature. They will tell you how to live in the world. They will tell you how to live in a human body, but they don't accept to live in the world and they don't accept to live in a human body. They may have one, but they say they're not living in it. They disobey it. It says some common sense things to them. "That looks good, take it home." They say, "No."

[laughter]

04:17 IWDM: So the reason for this then is that the wrong idea has been put in the world, the wrong idea has been put in the world. So to correct this idea, a man is born of a woman, without the help of a man. G-d creates the man, the baby from the woman, to correct this thing. How has that corrected then? Well, do you accept this baby now? Is this baby without sin? They say, "Yes. This baby is born without sin. This baby is holy. His flesh is not sin. His flesh is not sin." Okay then, was Mary's flesh human flesh or some other kind of flesh? We got it now, huh? Mary's flesh is human flesh and the baby is born from her, so the flesh is good.

[laughter]

05:26 IWDM: So G-d exonerates us from the false charges. He redeems us, frees us from it. Yes. I never could stand that, that man is born in sin. I was born in my mother. And again, G-d says in Quran.

[foreign language]

06:00 IWDM: He says "Seek with the means that G-d has given you, made available to you, the afterlife, the destiny or the next world, the next life." He says "But do not neglect," in regular common language, "la tensa" means don't forget. He says "But don't forget or don't neglect your share. "Nasiyaka". He didn't mystify it, just as plain as day. "Nasi vaka", your share. Now G-d is saying I gotta share. He says "Nasi vaka." When he says that he's speaking to me individually. He could've said "Nasi vakum". Your share, means all of us got to discuss it. If he had said "Nasi vakum", that'll be your share, mean plural, all of us gonna share in it. But he didn't say plural "kum" he said "ka", that's to mean singularly. So G-d is telling me not to forget or don't neglect my share. G-d said I gotta share now. "Nasi vaka mene dunya". My share of this world.

07:20 IWDM: Now, how can I follow those that turn angel and don't want to marry women and have children, and don't wanna do some other things in this world that I like to do, how can I follow them now? When G-d tells me "Don't forget your share." Now, he didn't say "Your share of the agriculture." He didn't say "Your share of finance." He didn't say "Your share of government." He said your share. So that makes me look at everything. I'm looking at everything, for G-d said "Don't forget my share."

[background conversation]

08:13 IWDM: Now, if this is not an appeal to common sense, and if this religion is not having high regard for human beings' common sense, then please correct me when I finish. I'll be anxious to hear what you have to say.

[background conversation]

08:38 IWDM: Our religion corrects the attitude, the attitude toward sin. When we talk of sin, we see sin as conscious act, conscious act. An unconscious act cannot be sin, cannot be sin. Right now we're in this fast, this strict month of discipline for us. If any of us forget someone, just like this morning, before I came out here. I was tested. Not by the person, see, Satan tested us. I was tested. They had something that I really liked, apple cobbler. [laughter] And I happened to be standing right near the counter that the cobbler was on, and they saw, I said "Oh, you cooked cobbler." I said "That's really nice." And they took some up and said "Hmm." And I said "No." I said "I can't eat it. It's Ramadan. I'm fasting."

[laughter]

09:55 IWDM: Now, if I had forgotten and put some of that in my mouth, and even chewed it and swallowed it, and remembered it later, I didn't break my fast. I didn't break my fast. How can I break my fast when I don't know it? How can I be charged with something I don't even know I'm doing? Is that common sense religion? Right respect for the common sense person. Yeah. So that's not all? And the Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him, he said "Matters are judged by intention." Not only can I make a mistake and not be charged with a sin, but I can do something that caused harm, I can do something that's caused trouble, but if I didn't intend to cause trouble, I thought I was doing something to cause good to happen, I'm not going to be punished for the bad, and I'm going to be rewarded for the good. Isn't that something? Isn't that a wonderful G-d? G-d says because he thought he wanted to do good, he was aiming for good, though he missed it and caused bad, I'm not going to punish him for the wrong, I'm going to reward him for the right.

11:20 IWDM: So I get reward, not punishment, reward, because I was sincere, I meant well, I was trying to bring good, not bad. That's common sense religion, ain't it? Look, I don't have nothing in the Sunnah, nothing in Hadith traditions of the Prophet to back this up at all. Some of the imams, they get so jacked up in their imam suit that they can't talk out of their straitjackets. [laughter] But I don't, I don't get all jacked up like that. [chuckle] Yeah. Oh, yes. I feel that this religion gives us the conflict that we need to be successful in life. You can't be successful in life if you're going to be weighed down with heavy questions that keep your mind all knotted up, and then there's a holy, holy warning hanging over your head, you can't take the knot loose. So you feel it hurting and your reach up there and you want to take it a loose but you can't touch it. Holy warning says, "Nope, don't touch it". I can't live like that. I was never able to live like that. I hear you sister. I know.

[laughter]

12:56 IWDM: Straight up, straight up.

[laughter]

13:07 IWDM: When we think of Adam as sinning and the whole world... Look how they blamed one man. When I say "they" I mean those that led astray. I'm not aiming at the church. "Oh he really hit the church, he threw a blow at the... " No I'm not. I'm not throwing any blow at the church. We have to live with the church and the church has to live with us, and we need the church as long as we don't have everybody going to the mosque, we better have some churches.

[laughter]

13:42 IWDM: That idea got us believing that the first man Allah created, our father, first father, is responsible for all the sin on earth, because he was a man of the flesh, then the whole world or all the generations would do the sin. We don't have to do very much to show that, that thing, that logic did not prove itself to be right, all we have to do is look to see what was suggested as the correction for that. Now the first man was a man of the flesh, so a generation sinned because they were born of him. And the next one now, he comes and he's not born of Adam, he is born only of his mother, which is true, we have to accept that. Now when the son comes, he's not a son of the flesh, but you know we already corrected that by just pointing to Mary.

14:54 IWDM: And in the Bible if you read the New Testament, when Jesus, although we don't accept that he was crucified, killed or crucified, Quran said he was not. Peace be upon the Prophet. But the Bible says when Jesus was on the cross, crucified, facing death and dying, in his last breath he said some few words. One of these is, "Look at your mother." He didn't say "my mother". I started to say my mother, but he was talking about his mother, but he called his mother your mother, to them, his disciples, 'cause the church call the Mother of Jesus the mother of all. He says, "Look to your mother or look at your mother."
