05/20/2005
IWDM Study Library
The Original Heritage of Man

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
00:02 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Thank you. And we greet you all. The greetings of peace. In our religion, we say, "As-salamu alaykum."
00:10 Audience: Wa ?alaykumu s-salam.
00:11 IWDM: It means, peace be unto you. Yes, I must say that I'm very happy to be here after attempting several times to respond to the invitation. I'm very happy to be here today to join Imam Waqidi and the Muslim community here, his supporters and all your friends in the our community. We appreciate the presence of Bishop Kirk and all of your friends who have embraced you, and you have embraced them. This is the way of the religious community under G-d, is to embrace all those that are doing good and to appreciate their good works, and if we find an opportunity to join them in their good, good works. Muslims are a minority in America and also in Bermuda, and in the west, we are a minority. And we can best serve our own interests by joining the many who are representing the common life, the good life that G-d wants for all of us. By joining them, we can best advance our own interest.
01:29 IWDM: So we are very thankful, and appreciate the presence of our dignitaries, both from the government and from the religious community. Yes, our talk is about the inherent worth of man, and inherent worth of every human being born. We believe that G-d gave us everything we need to be successful in life. But we will not get it without difficulties. G-d says, "Surely with difficulty comes ease." So life is first difficult, but if we pass the test, we can have the good life, the easy, the easy road to walk. Also, we are told in our holy scripture that human being is created weak.
[foreign language]
02:27 IWDM: Is created weak, yes. But we shouldn't stop there. I know many of us think we're created weak, and we are, created weak. The horse is born and in a little while, he's up on his feet, and he is gone. But the human being has to stay in the baby crib, and in mama's arms for a long time, before he can get up and run. So we are born weak, but we shouldn't stop there. We search our scripture and we find that G-d is also saying to us, that human life is created to progress in stages... Stage by stage... Through stages... Stage by stage. In the first stage, is weak. But as we go from stage to stage, we develop more knowledge, more strength, more knowledge, and we become very strong. The human brain is the first to wake up in us. When we received our new born babies, we see this baby and we are so happy to get the baby, and the baby looks so dependent upon us, and it is. So we respond to the baby with affection, with sentiments, and emotions, and we awaken that in the baby. We awaken that in the baby, that nature in the baby. But when the baby first come here, the baby is not for any play. Every time you see your newborn baby, the baby is looking at you trying to understand what it is looking at. It is very serious is, its brain working. The brain is working. The baby is curious, wants to know, "What is this? What is that? Ought to understand."
04:11 IWDM: But we say, "Tickle tickle little baby." And we start working on the baby, and pretty soon we get the tickle box turned on. Yeah. But that's not how the baby comes. The baby comes with a curious intellect, curious brain, curious mind. And of the brain, Muhammad the prophet said, "G-d didn't create anything in life more useful to mankind or society than the human brain." We know that if you don't have the first life, you won't have the second one in good shape. [chuckle] And if you don't have the second one in good shape, you're gonna lose the first one. You see. They go together. The intelligence, and the emotionality, they go together. We have to have both in good shape. And this is what religion does. Religion reconciles, or brings together in a peaceful harmony our emotional side, and our rational side. Well, I don't wanna get into your business, I start to quote the Bible, but I won't get into your business. [chuckle] I'll stay in mine... Yeah, especially, for this occasion, here in Bermuda.
05:24 IWDM: Sometime I get into your business, and sometime you get into mine. [chuckle] And that's good. Yes. No. Yes, G-d says that we have been created to progress stage by stage, or through stages. Stage after stage. The Arabic term is...
[foreign language]
05:47 IWDM: They're two words, stage by stage, or stage after stage. And G-d says...
[foreign language]
05:57 IWDM: And you shall meet he. Who's he? G-d. Our destiny is with G-d. Eventually, we all have to meet G-d. And G-d has created us to meet him. We look at the world, how it has developed, we see the history of man, how man has made the world all over. His environment is natural, until man comes in there, and his intelligence is turned on. His interest is turned on. He becomes curious of life and the environment, and he changes his whole environment, has more ability, tools to work with, to change his environment than any other living thing. The roach lives like he did in the days of Pharaoh, he hasn't changed. The same roach that Pharaoh saw. The same roach. But we change. We change. We make our environment to suit us, and we improve upon our environment, make our environment to suit us. And we affect the environment of all other living things, because we have that freedom and that intelligence, and those tools that we work with.
07:08 IWDM: Yes, I don't want to waste any time here. I want to stay right on, yes. Now, let me go to the second point here. Our intelligence finds its direction when we do what G-d said He created man to do. He created man to engage the natural world. Our father, first father Adam, was created, and G-d tells us what our role should be in life by showing us Adam, the first father, father in our natural make-up, the father of our natural life and our natural make-up. And G-d says that He made him responsible creature in the environment. Both, the religion of the Bible and the religion of Quran gives us this responsibility of man by saying that G-d made everything to respond to him, to respond to his interest, to answer his interest.
08:18 IWDM: The Bible says it in different words, but our Holy Book says it that he made to render his usefulness, everything in the skies and everything in the earth. And I have read Genesis in the Bible, and I believe they're saying, the two books are saying the same thing about the great value, the great work of man. And we have seen man do this. Man has developed the world, and he has progressed the world in every way, materially, morally, spiritually, in every way, but what we sometimes forget, or don't know maybe some of us, that the first light for man is a revelation, the guidance from G-d. Guidance from G-d. And when we look at how the world is concluded now, we see that it is the guidance of G-d that has triumphed. I don't know how many of us register that. The guidance of G-d has triumphed. We have the world still in a mess. There's still a lot of confusion, but the guidance of G-d has triumphed. Other ideas have tried to lead mankind, the community life of mankind, but in the conclusion, what do we have? We don't have those other ideas. We have the faith communities of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, but also we have to acknowledge Buddhism, the Buddhists, and the Hindus. We have these great faith communities, and they are the ones that have remained, and they are the ones that have influenced the great progress that man have made.
10:08 IWDM: And the people of the Book, the people of the Book and Muhammad, the prophet's followers, we have made great contributions to advance of the civilization, human civilization on this planet Earth. Our interests in sciences stimulated by the guidance of G-d more than anything else. Look how people who were idol worshippers, and weren't even recognized as competitors are those who were competing for the advancement of human society, they are the Arabs of Arabia, but Muhammad received guidance from G-d, guidance that tells us that it responds to what the guidance that was with the people before, Judaism and Christianity. Muhammed received guidance that responded to the light that came with Jesus Christ, with Moses and those before him. And he was able to excite the intellect of those idol worshippers, Arabs, and they became the torch-bearers of science, civilization... And civilization and succeeded in reviving the sciences that had been neglected or forgotten, or interest lost in them or whatever, he revived those sciences. Many sciences were revived because of the teachings of our prophet Muhammad, who reflected the teachings of the Quran or the teachings G-d.
11:46 IWDM: He put those teachings into practice, and the result was the new birth of the intellect among the Arab people, the new birth of the human intellect among the Arab people. And they advanced the sciences, researched the sciences, advanced the sciences, and really were the influence to bring about the Renaissance for the West, to have a new interest, new excitement in the sciences. And we know the rest of it, the West have brought us to where we are now. The West have been the leader since then and have brought us to where we are now, but today, the world has changed greatly, we don't have one people or one effort in one part of the world. We have come to a kind of a one-world order in the... Where business, economics, business, transportation, communication is all one system now serving all the countries, all the people on the earth. And we find that there are people busy in the sciences, scientists busy working in the field of science from Asia, from America, from Asia, from Europe, from Africa, all around the world. So no more of one people's effort, is the effort of the human family. And I am very happy to welcome this time. I was listening to the teachings of what I was told was Islam as a child.
13:18 IWDM: A child much younger than our youngest child who's here, son who's here with us today, Mohammad Shakeel. I was much younger than him, half his age, and I'm sitting and I'm listening to the ministers Honorable Elijah Mohammad, I'm listening to my father and Honorable Elijah Muhammad preach and tell us what Islam is. And I'm glad that I was a child listening back then because back then, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad would hardly make a presentation or a speech, preach, whatever we call it, without saying what Islam is. He would say Islam is freedom, justice and equality. And that stuck in my mind so as I grew older to see the situation that our people were in and how we were crying for freedom, justice and equality. I understood that, it went into my nature and I became a believer in freedom, justice and equality.
14:18 IWDM: That's what my father said the religion was, freedom, justice and equality. So I became a believer in freedom, justice and equality. I understood that, I couldn't understand a lot other things he said, but I did understand that. And as I grew older I came to see the reality of that hunger in us, in our people and before the '60s, long before the '60s when the protest came and when our people began to awaken the conscience of the American people and the world to our need, to our hunger, our need as the people in America who were discriminated against. And really put aside and put away sometimes [laughter] But all that's gone, thank G-d and thank G-d for the good people who made that possible, our leaders, Frederick Douglass, Dr Martin Luther King and many others, women and females and males. And Quakers and good Christians who supported us as citizens, or as slaves who deserved to be treated as human beings and be given citizenship, equal citizenship with all other Americans. So they supported us, and thank G-d for them, thank G-d for the good help that we got, and for our great leaders who didn't give up, who made the big sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice many times, but they succeeded. And we are here and enjoying on this planet earth and enjoying in the United States of America. At least equality of the law, the law is there for all of us, to serve all of us.
16:00 IWDM: And what is lacking is something that government can't give us, and that is the good heart. We're always going to run into problems but the government can't make our hearts good, we have to make our own hearts good and depend upon each other and work with each other. And sometimes just to see each other differently, you can't keep looking at white people as the people who oppressed and who persecuted you or enslaved you, you can't look at them... They... I don't see the slaves now, where are the slave masters and where are the slaves except in our own souls. We let our own souls be slaves, we give our souls to things that are not good for us and our souls become the slaves of those things. So the times have changed, and the inherent life that G-d has given all of us, that we all have in common, that will make for success in life for all of us, we have to earn it. You won't get it unless you earn it. Muhammad the Prophet says.
[foreign language]
17:13 IWDM: He said, " We will not enter the paradise and that means the afterlife as well as in this life." The new world was a chance for the people who wanted the new world, to have a better living and a kingdom. They say, " Oh, this is like the new kingdom on earth." A new kingdom on earth, the Promised Land. So we can't have that and according to the teachings of our Prophet, prayers and peace be on him, until we have faith. And he said, and You will not have faith until you practice loving one another." People who are bitter, you won't have real faith, but if you change from bitterness, find somebody to love [laughter], find somebody to care about and all of us can always find someone that needs our love. No matter how bad our condition is, there's always someone you find in a little worse condition than yours, so somebody needs your love. So if we practice love, love will free us, it will free our hearts, it will free our minds eventually, it will free our minds so that our minds will see clearly what G-d wants for us on this planet earth. And we will see clearly how to live with each other on this planet earth and when we come into that state, G-d will just enrich us in so many ways, rationally, morally, in so many ways that we will never turn back.
18:44 IWDM: We will be so thankful to G-d, we'll never turn back. Nothing can turn me back but G-d. Nothing can turn me back but G-d. I am where I am, and that's where I'm gonna stay, there's nothing in this creation that has the power to take my faith and my love away from me. G-d gave it to me and nothing can take it away but G-d. So I thank you. We have this great worth in us, all of us are born with it. We can do marvelous things, our brain will work better for us if our heart becomes more innocent. Thank you, peace be unto you. As-salamu alaykum.
19:25 S?: Wa ?alaykumu s-salam.
[applause]
19:39 Speaker 2: Now, our Imam has made his delivery short for a good reason. Do you see a mic here? He's opened the floor for questions to you all. We have a very diverse group of people out there. I see your faces. I know who you are. There are great intellects out here, and we have a lot of interests, and there are many things on our minds. We've had newspapers with a lot of headlines and we also have an interest in where we're going. Please take advantage of the night and ask our Imam some questions. He's eager. He really wants to contribute. In fact, he's not finished with us. He wants to come back again. So give him a reason to come back again. Please take advantage of him, ask him some questions tonight. Inshallah, G-d willing. Do we have at least the first person to come to the mic and ask a question?
[background conversation]
20:32 S2: Okay. Yes, sir. Okay... Yes, sir. And certainly, I take advice. And Imam, he says also, if you hadn't heard him yourself, he says is for comments as well, so contribute a comment and take in to account that we don't wanna hold you up for the rest of your evening. But if you wanna care to, do the best you can. Sir!
20:58 Speaker 3: Okay. Good evening. I got a few comments, but the first one is about the Buddhas that got destroyed in Afghanistan. Alright. There was Buddhas that got destroyed in Afghanistan...
21:13 S2: Yeah, yeah. Got it.
21:13 S3: And what it looks like to me is that when Moses took Joshua to the river and he went over the tomb to destroy all those graven images, and now that... Okay, this guy went away and destroyed these images, everybody's complaining that these images were destroyed, but those were commandments from G-d. And now they're digging up more of these Buddhas and the commandments from G-d were to destroy them. And what's your thought on that?
[pause]
21:53 IWDM: Yes. We can't let the behavior of some desperate people, despondent, or desperate people affect us more than the positive things and good things we see going on. The news media, it looks for exciting news, and it reports more bad news than good news. But there are a lot of good things happening too. If we would tell you the story right now of Islam, of how the Mongols destroyed our sacred books and literature, etcetera. Millions of books were destroyed by the Mongols, but the same Mongols changed and were converted to Islam. And these people you're talking about now, it's bad, we have to address that, but I'm sure the government and other agents in the world are aware of what's going on and they are taking care of that. I'm not trying to play down what you are saying. It's very important, what you're saying, and we should have to take a position, position. My position is always on the side of what's good and best for human beings. I don't care who's doing it, Muslim, Christian... I don't care who is doing it.
23:12 IWDM: My position is always on the side of the good life of human beings. I'm with those innocent human being always. And we are not to mistreat or disrespect the sacred relics, sacred symbols, or whatever of any people. The Muslims during the time of Muhammad, they were taught to protect the churches, protect the cross from any disrespect, to protect the houses of G-d. That's what Muslims were taught under our prophet Muhammad, prayers and peace be upon him. And that should be in us today. But when people lose focus, their focus are on their enemies, the people they are fighting, they get drunk in the head and they forget their religion, they forget their moral life. And we have to just respond to it by taking advantage of the opportunities we have where we are. And G-d says, "Act in your places. Do all the good you can in your places".
24:10 S3: But do you not agree that it was a order that was sent to Moses through Joshua from G-d to destroy those things?
24:20 IWDM: That it was.
24:21 S3: That it was an order given to Moses passed on to Joshua.
24:27 IWDM: Oh, now you're talking about the right and wrong of idols, of idol worship.
24:31 S3: I'm talking about the right to destroy the idols. No one's saying that... Everybody's saying that, "Oh, they shouldn't have destroyed it"
24:39 IWDM: Yes.
24:39 S3: But the law that came down from G-d was to destroy it. And nobody's listening to the word of G-d. They are just taking this guy and saying that he's wrong.
24:49 IWDM: I understand. I understand. But yes, I understand what you're saying. Abraham destroyed all the idols too. There's Moses. Before Moses, Abraham destroyed the idols, peace be upon the prophets. And we know Muhammad went into the Kaaba and took all the idols out and he threw them out of the Kaaba, the holy house there in Mecca. He threw them out. That represents the unity of mankind, the unity of all people. He threw those idols out of that house. But what you're talking about, we can't... I don't know if Moses spoke to those people who did that over there in Afghanistan. We still have to respect each other. Muhammad the prophet was never rude, he was never ugly in his treatment of anybody. Some of us think that he was just against anybody that didn't believe in G-d. He had relatives that didn't accept him. But he didn't treat his relatives bad. He always treated his relative with respect.
25:47 IWDM: Except the ones who met him in the battlefield trying to kill Muslims, trying to stop the religion, those he fought. And he cared about relatives so much, he said, "A relative shouldn't kill a relative, not even in war. Let somebody else do it." So we just don't know the great leaders, the great figures that we have in these religions, the great prophets. From the earliest ones to the last, Jesus Christ and Muhammad, we don't know them enough and their goodness and their greatness and in their goodness. Yes, so I understand what you were saying and these idols are forbidden. Yes, they are forbidden. But if people are attached to these things, there's a way to go about. Muhammad was not a fanatic, going looking for crosses and statues to destroy. He never did that. We follow our prophet in his excellence.
26:42 S3: Okay, and...
26:44 IWDM: Thank you.
26:44 S3: Okay, one more. Okay, we're going back. When they were crossing the River Jordan and just before they crossed the River Jordan he said, "When you go across the River Jordan... "
26:57 IWDM: I'm not hearing you too well.
27:00 S3: I'm talking about Joshua, when he was about to cross Jordan and Moses says, "I'm not going. I'm staying over here. But this is what I want you to do when you go over there. I want you to kill off all the women, all the children. I want you to kill off them all and get rid of them." We didn't kill them off and we found favor with some of them. And we even took some of them as slaves, that's the reason why we became slaves.
27:23 IWDM: Yes.
27:23 S3: And if we didn't kill them, we had to civilize them. And now that 2000 years is almost up and they're pretty well much civilized, do you have anything on that?
27:39 IWDM: Well, yeah, there's a lot to be said to all that too though, but I'd rather talk to you one-on-one about these things. I will say this, Scripture was put in the language to not only preserve it, but also to protect it from a world that didn't want to see the way of G-d come into it and be established. So, many things that we read in scripture can look ugly to us on the surface. That's because it was put that way to protect it from pagan people who love violence, love blood-letting. That was their way. Conquer. Conquer. Kill. Conquer. Put people under the power of the pagan ruler, of the idol worshippers. That was their way back then. And it would be revealed, the true, simple, beautiful life of the religious community. If it had been put plain and clear before them, many people would have been killed before they could even get started. They would just kill them all. They would try to kill them all. G-d protects but G-d protects in His own way. And I think the one way that G-d protected the weak and innocent religious communities that's following the way of the people of the book, and now Islam has joined, also in that same picture, serving the good of all people, of all mankind. They have been able to survive by having strategies. It's not all about war and religion.
29:41 IWDM: You know what the real blood is? Muhammad, the Prophet said, "The ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr. The real blood is the shedding of the blood of true knowledge from G-d." That's the real blood. To educate the people with the guidance of G-d, with the guidance that G-d provides. This is the true blood. This is the life blood of the body, the life blood of the person of faith. That's our life blood. Guidance from G-d is our life blood. But it says Jesus is coming back and He's going to slay the wicked to take vengeance on them, take revenge on them and slay them and blood is gonna flow in the street so high, it's gonna come up to the horse's bridle, all that. If you read that and you get the wrong picture. If you read it literally, you get the wrong picture.
30:43 S3: Well, I just understand first...
30:44 IWDM: So, a lot of what you're reading in the Bible that looks ugly is not.
30:48 S3: Well, from my understanding is that the war is over and they're civilized and we just got to move on from here.
30:51 IWDM: Our scripture also you read something... You can't take everything literally, that's what I'm saying. Don't take it just literally. It has to be translated or interpreted. Yes. G-d never missioned prophets to kill people, He missioned prophets to free people from ignorance, from diseases, from ugliness. [chuckle]
[background conversation]
31:30 Speaker 4: As-salamu alaykum.
31:32 IWDM: Wa alaykum s-salam.
31:33 S4: Brother Imam, I've been to, personally, I've been Christian. I followed your father and I've come to follow you. And I've always been a sensitive person. I'm very sensitive. And the sensitivity that's in the world today...
32:00 IWDM: I didn't get that.
32:01 S4: The sensitivity that's in the world today.
32:04 IWDM: The sensitivity.
32:05 S4: Yeah, the picture that the world sees on TV, the religious scriptures that's all come to say that it is ending. I know that we live on a planet called Earth. It goes around the sun. It has... We live on it, it has Christians, Muslims, Jews, all ethnic groups live on it. But there's a lot of religious ideology that calls for an ending. And some has called dramatic endings. At that time, in your speech earlier, you said that this is a good time for the human family.
32:47 IWDM: Yeah.
32:48 S4: What we see on TV, what we see in the neighborhoods of... Especially amongst people of African descent, the drugs, the killing of each other, and the world and in this ugly picture. I'm trying to find something... Where do you think that we are at, at this present time? And give us a little hint of your understanding of what the future looks like.
33:19 IWDM: Yes. We are now experiencing the coming together of all good works, and all good workers. The coming together of all good works and all good workers for the betterment of the human human family on this planet earth. That's what we're experiencing. And that's not coming on in the news and on TV that much at all. I'm in an active president, I was first given the position of US president, one of the two... One of two US presidents, for the organization called, World Religions for Peace, WCRP. World Religions for Peace. It's a world organization of different religions represented by persons who agree that peace should be supported by all religions. Tolerance, religious tolerance, and cooperation for the good of man, for the advancement of all good, our common good... The common good. So I belong to that organization. They invited me to see what they were doing, and I attended their meetings, and finally they said, "We want you to be one of the presidents," so they made me one of the presidents.
34:55 IWDM: And I'm telling you this, because I was writing fast... I write fast... I don't have any degrees from college or anything, I study on my own, I've educated myself, so to speak, and had a lot of help from friends, colleagues, so I'm taking notes, and I forgot that they might wanna read my notes. They couldn't read my notes.
[chuckle]
35:18 IWDM: 'Cause I scribble, you know. So some of them didn't agree that I should be an international president. But I heard... I knew what was happening, so right in the middle of the sessions, I started writing more legibly. And they came and they looked at me smiling. And they said, "You are now an international President of WCRP."
[laughter]
35:46 IWDM: They were able to read my notes. I was just able to... They would say, "This guy can't write. How can we have him in as the President?" But they accepted me. And I'm now tied to world organizations, religious organizations for peace, not just one, but at least three or four of them, I'm tied to, I have relationship with. And we meet, and I know what's on our minds. I'm talking about, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus. I know what's on our minds. On our mind is a peaceful world for the family of mankind. A world of peace for the family of mankind. And this is what the promise is in our holy scriptures. It's the promise in the Bible, it's the promise in the Quran. This is the promise. So in spite of these things that we see, this ugliness we see, is happening on the earth, I know that something good is happening in the heavens. And the signs in the heavens says, "It's a good time." Even though the happenings on earth says that time is bad. It might not be a good time, yes, when we look at the picture on earth.
36:56 IWDM: And I often give this answer to people when they're looking at all these bad things that are happening. I had the chicken pox and there are other diseases, sometime when you're looking the worst, that's when you are the best off. The disease has run its course. And when it runs its course, you look the worse. You got all these sores and stuff on you, but you're feeling much better. So I feel good with all these sores all over me. [chuckle] Thank you. Hope we can speed it up now.
37:30 Speaker 5: As-salamu alaykum.
37:31 IWDM: Wa 'alaykumu s-salam.
37:31 S5: My question is, just a few, a couple months back in New York City, a woman led the ?al?t. I wanna hear your viewpoint on that.
37:40 IWDM: Yes. The Jummah? She lead the Jummah?
37:43 S5: At the Jummah.
37:44 IWDM: Yes. And they invited me... They planned it and they invited me to join her, and my reply was in writing, "I cannot join you, or join anything that is against the tradition of our prophet, prayers and peace be on him, Muhammad."
38:00 S5: Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah.
38:03 IWDM: That's my answer.
38:04 Speaker 6: As-salamu alaykum.
38:06 IWDM: Wa 'alaykumu s-salam.
38:09 S6: I'd like to continue with the question with regard to Islam's standing, and in your opinion on suicide bombing.
38:24 IWDM: Suicide?
38:25 S6: Suicide bombers.
38:27 IWDM: Oh, suicide bombers. Suicide is major crime, sin in Islam Suicide. And we've been discussing this since 9/11. I've sat in discussion with notable scholars of Islam, and I haven't seen one, that has said, "That can be accepted." They all... We all condemn it as a sin, a great sin. That you take your own life to accomplish an end, like the killing of the enemy or something like that.
39:07 S6: Thank you. And my question was, for the benefit of the non-Muslims so that they would have a better understanding of where we are in Islam as to what is happening over in the Middle East. My final question would be, could you give us your synopsis on the Palestinian-Israeli situation?
39:27 IWDM: Yes. I was over there and invited by Yasser Arafat at the time he was living in, this was maybe seven, eight years before his passing. And I was his guest over there, and they welcomed me on the radio, I spoke on the radio. They also welcomed me in meetings with some Jewish people also who were demonstrating in favor of the Palestinians, while I was there. And, nothing has changed the way I feel about their situation. My heart and sympathy goes to the Palestinians because, they were not advanced in weaponry, defence of their land, and military leaders came from Europe with the support of America and also Western countries, along with America, and supported them having a land, for their independence in that area. And if you knew the story of how that land was gotten and how families that didn't understand what was happening driven out of their homes, killed, shot, and... Killed right on the spot, looking at their home being destroyed, their people being destroyed, that's horrible, and that has scarred them deeply, has scarred the Palestinian people deeply.
41:12 IWDM: So while we want to support Israel and her rights to have independence there, we have to also sympathize with those who paid a big price and are suffering now, and have been scarred very deeply. These suicide bombers, that's wrong, but they have been scarred so deeply that they're, these are desperate acts. They are not thinking about what is right and wrong, they're just thinking about what will get attention to their cause, so I sympathize with them. But things are looking much better now, and we pray for the success of this new chance that Israel and the Palestinians have, to work out a peace that will be lasting. We pray for their success. That was my answer to the brother. Now next.
42:09 Speaker 7: Yes, good afternoon Mr. Muhammad, I like to know your opinion on the people that worship Jesus. Do you believe that they... The people that worship Jesus of Galilee...
42:21 IWDM: Yes, yes.
42:22 S7: The Christians that worship Jesus. Do you believe that they are idolaters?
42:30 IWDM: Well, I'm not sure they worship Jesus. I meet many, they don't worship Jesus, they worship G-d. You have in your mind a man, they worship G-d. I don't think they worship Jesus. Christians don't worship more than one G-d. When I talk to them and try to understand their worship, I see that they worship G-d, the creator. So no, I don't see them as idol worshippers, but I see most of the people in the world as idol worshippers. When I understand the false gods of the Bible, and what they represent, the meanings, the names they were given, and then see us ruled by sex appetites, the appetite for sex, see us ruled by the appetites for violence, the appetites for fame, the appetite for affections that come to us, but not that, we are not interested in giving them, but just want people to love... We are under false gods. Don't think that those ancient civilization were so stupid, that they built some stone and thought that stone was their G-d. No, that stone represent something that's in us, that is taking over our life and ruling us against the better nature, and against the better destiny that G-d made for us. Yes, so yes, we are idol worshippers, in America we have more idol worshippers than anywhere else on earth, 'cause we have more freedom to worship these idols in America. [laughter]
44:03 S7: Thanks. Thank you.
44:07 Speaker 8: Good evening. We know the world is made up of many nations. The world is made up of many nations, some nations are governed by religious leaders, and some believe that religion should be separated from state.
44:20 IWDM: Yes.
44:21 S8: What is your opinion on that particular matter?
44:26 IWDM: Yes, at our religion, we are told that religion is for G-d. Religion is for G-d. So if the state rule controls the religion is wrong, religion is for G-d. Religion is a matter between the worshipper and his G-d, and G-d says not even to Muhammad, G-d said not even so much as a veil, a curtain, should be between G-d and the worshipper. So I would be inclined to say that, yes, government should not control religion. The people should be free to practice their religion and to respond to the authority of G-d over them as given in their Holy books. The government should not try to legislate or control religion, legislate for or control religion, no. I agree with that. But all governments should come under G-d.
45:27 IWDM: All governments should come under G-d. The President should not have any partition separating him from G-d. If he says he's a Christian, he should be a true Christian, and he should be responding to G-d and he should live a good Christian life, yes. And I thank G-d that America, though we have the separation in America, and the United States is my home, that though we have the separation of church and state we have respect in our government for our religions. And the respect is there. And not only that, most of them are themselves established in religion as being religious, and if it be a Jew or a Muslim I'm sure we're gonna expect for that government official to be true to their religions, as long as that is so, I'm happy with the situation.
46:24 IWDM: The secularism threatens all of us because it's free, it's free to go against religion or to be for religion. And most of the time it's always critical of religion and playing down the value of religion. That's the modern secularism we have in America, and I'm sure it has spread it to other places, and maybe in some places was already there, I don't know, in a bad way. But that's what we have to be afraid of. We have to be afraid of the progress for secularism that wants to play down the importance of religion and moral life. That's no good. Yes, sister.
47:07 Speaker 9: As-salamu alaykum.
47:08 IWDM: Wa ?alaykumu s-salam.
47:10 S9: Brother Imam, I need to ask you this question. What is the role of women from a Islamic perspective in the light of feminism in today's world? Women are, they want equality with men, they want... It appears that they also want the same responsibilities as men and I need to understand, from the Islamic perspective, does Islam promote equality between the sexes or equity? So that's my real question, equality or equity, and why?
47:47 IWDM: Yes, yes. The Quran tells us that our equality is our soul. G-d made us soul-wise equal, we all are equal in terms of human soul, we all are equal. And G-d gave the human soul a constitution that He gave the human soul, when he made, created the human soul he created it with its regardfulness, consciousness, to regard that that is worthy of respect and regard, such as G-d, when we come to know G-d, our parents, etcetera. And G-d has also given, when he made the soul, he designed it with its fujur, and its fujur, meaning its intellect, intelligence, its curiosities, its curiosities. But first its curiosities are not guided so it gets into trouble. Thinking can get us into trouble, so that's why its called fujur, it means that it's dawning, it's dawning, it's not bright, it's not clear. But He gave it to us and He made it to become clear, to become clear one day, in time.
49:04 IWDM: And the Quran mentions the thinker. The Quran addresses the thinker, the philosopher, the thinker, who, like the prophets... In fact, the prophets were thinkers, the prophets themselves were thinkers, studied the universe and came to certain conclusions that satisfied their heart and their intellect and their minds. G-d says of such ability of the brain, of the intellect, He says that it is the property of both males and females.
[foreign language]
49:48 IWDM: The males who exercise this power and the females who exercise this power, it is in the Quran back to back to show us right side by side, pardon me, to show us and to tell those who might think that women have inferior minds or inferior intellects to men, to tell us no, they have the same. And we see as women have enjoyed more freedom they have shown the ability to be equal to men intellectually, brain-wise. So as far as the human creation we are equal. But precious to us is the role of mother, precious to us is the role of mother, and religion wanna preserve the picture of human life in its best tradition. And we are in support of that. So we care for women to not all leave the home and join the men in the work fields and neglect children or neglect family life. We want women to stay feminine too. We don't want them all to drive big trucks and spread all over the place. No, we want you to stay pretty too. Thank you.
[laughter]

