07/01/2007
IWDM Study Library
First Sunday Lecture Chicago IL
Part 1
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

00:26 Speaker 1: Human soul. Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Takbir! 

00:29 S?: Allahu Akbar! 

00:36 Imam W Deen Mohammed: Peace to you. And all in our radio listening audience, peace to you. As-salaam aleikum.

00:44 S?: Waleikum Salaam.

00:47 IWDM: Our greeting is peace, our name is peace and our way is peace. Yes. Muslim means peace. One who has accepted to be at peace with his Creator and at peace with his fellow man. One who accepts the order created by God and conforms to the best. That's what a Muslim is. A Muslim is one who follows the way of human excellence, under God, of course, under God, the Creator of all things. Islam says peace, Muslim, Islam, Islam says peace. One who surrenders his will to the will of God, peacefully, peacefully, is a Muslim following in the religion of, they say, peaceful surrender, peaceful surrender to God. And God in holy sacred scripture, the Quran, He says, "When He made everything, created everything, He invited the whole creation to conform to His will for peace and some came willingly, and some came unwillingly." And God created His world like that, not to force anyone Himself. He doesn't force anyone. He wouldn't have created us with free will, a mind of our own, opinions of our own, and a will or desire to make decisions on our own. He wouldn't have created a creature like that if he wanted to dominate the creatures. No, he wanted the creature, one creature to be free...

03:03 S?: Yeah.

03:04 IWDM: And that's the highest of his creatures.

03:06 S?: That's right.

03:07 IWDM: The most advanced of the life that He created is the human life and He wanted that life to be free, to come to Him willingly, not by force. Hence, it is written in our holy book, [ARABIC], that's the Quran in Arabic, the scriptural language, says, "Let there be no compelling in religion." Don't force people in religion, they have to come willingly, come on their own, on their own. And this is the world that we're living in now. The world has moved toward respect for every human person, respect for their right to make choices, their own choices. So thank God our scripture provided for that. It was revealed and it was based upon the scriptures that had been received by prophets before our holy book came, that is before Mohammed, the last prophet. It was based in those scriptures that came before, whether we can identify it or not. Some of us can identify it, some of us can't. It was based on those scriptures that came before that God created the human being for free choices, to be able to make his own life the way He wants.

04:39 IWDM: And if He makes it against the will of God, it is not God that will interfere with Him, it is his own creation and the creation of the world that God made. The world was made also to support God's will. And somebody, they did a transcription and they took what I said out of context and they just said right nakedly, "Creation supports God's will." Like God will need to support creation. [chuckle] You have to be very sensitive to language and look at what you're saying before you let it go. If you know the impression is not going to be good on the reader, to give them the understanding in religion that you want to convey, or pass on to them, then change the language, change the language. It would be wrong of me just to come right out of the blue and say, "Creation supports God's will." Some of you will understand it and have no problem. But a few others will have some problem. God's will doesn't need any support from his creation.

06:02 IWDM: But if you put it in the right context, yes, the creation supports God's will. The creation supports man believing in God's will. That's how it should be worded completely. The creation supports man believing in God's will. I'm saying man, I mean mankind. Females and males, everybody. The creation supports us believing in God's will. In fact, the great prophets didn't come to God, except by way of creation. After they studied creation, they saw an indication in what they studied that that was a power superior to them creation itself that had design, creation, and made it all possible. That was their conclusion that they arrived at. And they arrived at that conclusion because they saw evidence in their studies of creation that creation couldn't have designed itself, it must've had a superior intelligence over it to design it.

07:12 IWDM: Yes. And the expression in our religion, ansarullah, which means "Helpers or supporters for God." Ansarullah, "Helpers or supporters for God." It is connected in our scriptures with Jesus Christ and his disciples. Jesus Christ had disciples, and our holy book says that Jesus Christ said to his disciples, "Will you be my helpers? Ansars?" And the disciples replied to Jesus Christ, peace be upon him and the servants of God. They said, "We are servants for God." They said, "We are the ansarullah. We are servants for God." Now, that doesn't mean... They didn't say that they weren't his servants, but that language is in the Quran to make it clear to us that Jesus Christ was himself a servant of God.

08:30 IWDM: And inviting the servant of God, he says this very plainly throughout the gospel or The New Testament, that he is a servant of God. The disciples of Jesus Christ, they wanted to make it clear that they were with him and understood his mission. That they were not just coming because he called them, but his mission was the mission of the servant of God, Jesus Christ himself. So they say, "We are the ansarullah." We are the helpers for God, the helpers for God.

09:16 IWDM: Now, we know God doesn't need help from anything. But God didn't create the world for Himself. The proof of that is, the scripture says, He was before the world. "Before the world was made, God was." There was never a time that God was not existing. He exists eternally. There'll never be a time when He's not existing. There never was a time when He was not existing. He is eternal. "Oh, that's hard to understand. I like the idea of God being born." You do? Well let me give you something else to puzzle your little mind. Start counting. Where do you stop counting? Is there any end to counting? Well now, measure space. Where does it run out? See how much I'm putting on that little human mind of yours? [chuckle] And you can't deal with it. You can't manage it.

10:28 IWDM: No, God is the only existing that is eternal, absolute, and immeasurable. And he made his creation to support you believing in Him as such. Because He made space and all the science and technology we got right now, science cannot tell us where space starts and stops. And science cannot tell us also when the world will conclude and when it started, they just guess, all theory and guessing. All guess work. So don't think man knows everything. Man never knew everything, and he will never know everything. The God that designed this creation, designed it so there will always be room for faith. For faith. 'Cause that's what makes human beings the best of all creation. They're creatures of faith. Yes, creatures of faith. And it's written in the gospel where Jesus Christ is supposed to have said, "Faith move mountains." He said, "If you have so much faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could move mountains."

12:05 IWDM: This is New Testament, the gospel. Now, it's a little shady up here. I gotta put my paper in the light so I can see it. The word "issue" has different meanings, have several meanings in the dictionary, "issues." But if we say issues to an audience like this, a public gathering, you think of problems, don't you? Issues. Youngsters, they using the word "issue" a lot now. "Oh, she has issues."

[chuckle]

12:51 IWDM: When I was young, we didn't use that word, but now youngsters use it a lot. "Oh, I don't wanna talk to her, she's got issues." Well, it means problems alright. It suggests that there are some problems. Issues. But you know they call the first birth, delivery, also issue. Issue. And something that exudes out from the body. Issue. It issued from the body. It issued forth from the body. You'll be referring to liquids. Issues. Yes. So it has different meanings. Now, I don't like saying it, but African American people, black people, got more issues in this time than we ever had in our whole life.

13:51 S?: That's right.

13:51 IWDM: Issues.

13:52 S?: That's right. That's right.

13:56 IWDM: No more limiting our freedom to the master's land on the plantation. We can get up and go and just go and go anywhere we want, we got the money. We don't have the money, we get there any way we can. If we can find a way, if we can go there. You can go back down South and come back up here, you can go west, you can go north, south, east, west, everywhere. Just go about your business. Ain't no master telling you what time to go to bed, what time to get up in the morning and get out there and go to work in that field, in that land. Ain't no master doing that anymore. The law has been corrected. A lot of sacrifices made by our people and other people. American whites, Jews and others. Other religions, Quakers and others, they paid a high price supporting us to get... First, to get us free from the land of the slave master, the plantation. Then to get the law corrected so we would be given the same gestures, or the same treatment that all other citizens are given.

15:26 IWDM: All that has been accomplished and we still have more issues. More issues now than ever. Issues with whites, issues with immigrants, issues with the government, issues with the church. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Issues. Issues with each other. Issues with Imam W. Deen Mohammed, and that guy is so nice, I don't know how you can find the issue.

[laughter]

16:06 IWDM: But I guess that's what invite issues too, be too nice, you going to invite some issues. [chuckle] Such is life. We're free to do our own thing and God will not take that freedom away. He will not allow anyone speaking in His name as a preacher of Islam, and if you understand it, same for the Christian preacher, or for the Rabbi, you can't take that freedom away from the individual. Have to respect him and his rights to make his own decision to live a life of his own choices or his own choice. That's a wonderful God.

16:56 IWDM: That is a wonderful God. Yes. And now He did that knowing that many of us will choose to go our own separate ways and never really conform to His will. He knew that. But he knew that there would be a number who would be conscious and they would be seeking truth and they will not be pleased to live under man's authority. They will be seeking evidence or proof of the existence of a higher authority than man. And he knew that eventually they would come to their Lord, return to their Lord Creator, voluntarily not forced. Yes, God knew that. And he knew that that few would have the support of his creation. Earth, wind, fire and water, all the elements, the whole creation would smile on those few that would accept willingly and voluntarily to live a life striving to please the Lord that made them and everything. Yes, God knew that.

18:25 IWDM: And that few would gain such power in creation, and knowledge of creation and of God, that they would become the leaders advancing the life of all the people. See, those who have issues with Scripture and God they can have issue, they have the right, but they'll never be the ones to lead the world. They'll never be the ones to lead society. They'll never be the one to advance society. No indeed. The communist people, didn't they have issues? They said, "Oh, we know matter, we know science. We don't know God and we can't prove that God exists, so we're going to leave God out of our ideology." And they followed that ideology for about 70 some years and it came to its conclusion, it collapsed on 'em and they had to give it up. Russia, the communist party failed in Russia. China continued. But understand, if you have studied China and Russia you will know that China's communism has always been greatly different from Russia's communism, greatly different. That's why they were both communist but they had issues with one another.

20:18 IWDM: For the whole history of the communist party, China and Russia always had issues, they were never happy friends. And that was because China was deeply rooted in their Chinese traditions. And their Chinese traditions was given to them by their spiritual masters: Buddha, Confucius, and other learned, enlightened saviors of theirs. So they follow the spiritual way. Even though they're communist, they didn't go materialistic, they weren't materialist. They believed in commune life, that's their communism, commune life. That they should live as communities and the nature of community should decide how they should be ruled, and how they should relate to one another, and how they should produce for their society. That was their idea.

21:29 IWDM: Whereas Marx's idea was to break the belief in God and give the people to the nature of material things, and have the material nature rule rather than the spiritual life. This was Russia's communism, and they failed. It died, it didn't live to see 80 years. And that's why today we read in the news that we're the only superpower, we're the only superpower. Now, that's not quite correct. China is a superpower, whether we recognize it or not, China is a superpower. If it ain't got nothing but manpower, it's a superpower. [laughter] But it got more than manpower, much more than manpower. Yes, we got issues. Be patient with me here, I'm... Yes.

22:49 IWDM: Yes. You know, a spiritual leader in the days of old, before we became so modern with television and all these other things, before we even had radio, not to mention television, the spiritual leader was not just one to read scripture and make you feel good. The spiritual leader would also ask you, "Do you have issues?" And if some of those issues was making you a problem for the tribe or for the area that they lived in, then the spiritual leader was to help you fight those issues. "Get out of him. Let him go. Let him go, I said. In the name of... Let him go." And keep working on you. And you would get so tired of him saying, "Let him go," you'd give that issue up.

[laughter]

24:20 IWDM: That's a joke. Now I'm just having a little humor here. No, some of them were convinced that the spiritual leader had the power to bring out demons, bad spirits, or whatever was causing their abnormal behavior and personality. Yes, psychology didn't begin with the modern world, psychology began with the spiritual world. And the scientific world took it over. But it started with the spiritual world, not with the material world or with the scientific world, psychology. Yes, psychology is natural. Everybody has a bit of psychology. When your wife asks you, "Where you been? It's after 2:00." And you answer her, you give her a piece of psychology.

[laughter]

25:30 IWDM: You know how to do it very well, it's natural for you. Now, don't think this here ain't got the same tool.

[laughter]

[background conversation]

25:46 IWDM: The preacher should never lose his skills that work, that help. And right now, I'm coming at you with some spiritual psychology. Not you individually. Individually, we can find perfectly healthy African-American, no problem, no issue worth discussing. They are doing fine, males, females, old, young, middle-aged, doing fine. You can find them, they're doing fine. But on the whole, the African-American race, or black people, oh, buddy, we got some issues and abnormal behavior that has become so popular, it's in style. It's accepted as normal behavior. We got two extremes because it's nature. Nature has two extremes when it comes to feelings, sensitivities, okay? Soul, soul nature. Two extremes, pleasure and pain, pleasure and pain. The key to living a successful life is managing pleasure and pain. So that pleasure is not taken over into...

onclude this hour and we hope to talk to you again.
