05/04/1997
IWDM Study Library
The Religion of Islam

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Religion of Islam was recorded May the 4th, 1997 at East High School in Cleveland, Ohio. The lecturer is Imam W. D. Mohammed, Muslim American spokesman. Now, Imam Mohammed.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: As Salaam Alaikum. Peace be upon you. Peace be with you. Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil alamin. Praise and thanks to Allah, the G-d, who is lord cherisher, caretaker, sustainer of all the world. We witness that He's one, the creator of everything, and that there is nothing likened to Him. And we witness that He has raised up from human beings, He has lifted human beings up with His spirit and His word for the highest role or the highest place of all the living and created things. He has lifted us up for that highest place in the creation.
He has said of us, the model community who will follow the guidance of G-d as it was demonstrated by the receiver of that guidance, Muhammad the Prophet, prayers and peace be on him. He has said of us that we are the best of communities, raised up for the benefit of all people. As it has been said already before I began talking. That you are the best community, the best in terms of what human beings need to succeed in life. The word that is used is khaira.
This word in Quranic Arabic language, it means that that human beings need to succeed with the life that G-d intended for them. So, there's a khaira of G-d for us in this life, in this world. And there's a khaira of G-d for us in the life to come. Our community, I repeat, is a community that is supposed to be a model for the world. We are supposed to be the witnesses of G-d in the world. The Prophet is a witness for us as Allah says in His Quran, in the holy book, and we are to be a witness for G-d to all people.
That G-d has also continued His favor on human beings and has given His favor or has put His favor in or on the community of Muslims called the Ummah of Al-Islam or the Ummatul Islaami, the community of the religion of Al-Islam. We want to speak some on the religion of Al-Islam. We had a workshop yesterday. We were actually addressing the features and contexts of this religion's book. The book of this religion of Islam or Al-Islam properly as called in the Quran Al-Islam is the book called the Quran. The Quran, Al Quran, the Quran.
The Westerners tend to pronounce that word Koran, K-O-R-A-N, Koran. You find it in the dictionaries. You might find the correct spelling now, the preferred spelling in the Muslim community, Q-U-R-A-N, you might find that spelling now. Because in recent years, the last ten years, there has been more effort in America to introduce the religion of Al-Islam to the American people.
We will find the correct pronunciation for a Muslim, phonetic spelling for the pronunciation of the word Muslim, when it used to be the French spelling, M-O-S-L-E-M. It caused the English-speaking people to pronounce it Moslem. Then came the influence of Muslims in America, and on the language, and in Europe too and all of the world on the English language. Now it's pronounced Muslim. Muhammad was given the phonetic spelling in America. Now we are having people, In fact, it's hard to find somebody that's not pronouncing the name Muhammad correctly. Most Americans say, Muhammad, Muhammad, which is correct pronunciation. That was made possible by the phonetic spelling, M-U-H-A-M-M-A-D.
The previous spelling was also a French-influenced spelling, M-O-H-A-M-M-E-D. It's pronounced Mohammed still, Mohammed. The West because of the spelling, they tried to pronounce it phonetically and they said, Mohammed. It doesn't happen often but occasionally I spell my name the way it was given to me on my birth certificate, M-O-H-A-M-M-E-D. That's how it is on my birth certificate since October 30, 1933.
I still choose to use that spelling, M-O-H-A-M-M-E-D, but I tell people who make the mistake of saying Mohammed, I tell them, I say, "No." I say, "It's still the same pronunciation, Muhammad. If they have trouble still, I say, "You know Muhammad Ali." I say, "Still, the pronunciation is Muhammad." I think it's important for us to understand, for us, firstly, it's important for us who have come along this road, experienced this experience from the earliest days of the Nation of Islam or the Temple of Islam in America till now. It's important for us to understand that Mr. Fard and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, had the spelling M-O-H-A-M-M-E-D.
And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad changed the spelling when he was advised by a Muslim from Jordan. Well he is still alive, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad hired him to teach in our schools, to teach Arabic to us. Professor Jamil Diab, Dr. Jamil Diab now. He suggested to the Honorable Elijah Mohammed back in around 1950 or '51, somewhere around there, that he should spell the name M-U-H-A-M-M-A-D, phonetically, to help these people learn how to pronounce it correctly. Because we were pronouncing it, in fact, ashamed to tell you how we were pronouncing our own name. It was way, way off. It wasn't Mohammed. It wasn't Muhammad, way, way off.
It was Mukmud. That's how we thought it should be pronounced, Mukmud. I remember as a boy, somebody asks me, "What's my name? I say, "Wallace D. Mukmud". My brothers and sisters, someone would ask them, "What's your name?" My brother would say, "Herbert Mukmud. We couldn't judge whether something was correct or incorrect.
The people who were converted from the African-American communities of Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And later other places, Washington DC and Cincinnati Ohio, they grew. The numbers grew. The Temples grew. Those people that were converted, they were converted from Christian experience, from Christian families, Christian background. They couldn't question what was given to them. We thought we were very much correct. In fact, we thought we were the only people that were correct.
We were given super confidence in ourselves and super egos. We thought we were the only people who had it right until my father accepted to have the pronunciation changed by Professor Jamil Diab. Who gave us the spelling M-U-H-A-M-M-A-D and told us to pronounce it, Muhammad. Now it could be spelled phonetically also, M-U-H-A-M-M-E-D, as we find Muslims with the name Ahmed. It's one of the prophets names too, Ahmed.
Some spell Ahmed phonetically, A-H-M-A-D. Others spell it, phonetically, A-H-M-E-D, Ahmed. Really the 'Mu' in Arabic, 'Mu' sound, is not I would say exactly the 'u' that we have in English. Muhammad, Muhammad, Muhammad, that's the correct pronunciation, Muhammad, Muhammad, Muhammad. It's a blend of the 'u' and the 'o.' It's actually a blend of the 'u' and the 'o,' Muhammad.
I choose to keep the old spelling for two reasons. To say to our people, our congregation, our following, our community here in America in the international community of Muslims, to say to us, "Let's stay in touch with history and let's know the facts about our own life." The fact is that we originally had to spelling M-O-H-A-M-M-E-D. The fact of history is that that's the spelling that was used up until very recent times when historians were writing on Al-Islam. So, we don't want to be separated from the big picture, from the international body of Muslims.
We were discussing the features of the Quran in the context of the Quran, the features the main features, where the importance is in Al-Islam. For our reading, when we're reading the Quran, we should recognize what the Quran is showing us. The Quran wants us to see something. Allah's word wants us to see something. Allah wants us to see something with His word. What He wants us to see most importantly. I'm going to give you a brief, a review of what we gave in the workshop yesterday before going on with this address.
What we come to understand is that Allah wants to expand the interest of the human person, the individual. He wants your interest to get bigger. He wants your interest to be big, not small. He wants your interest to expand, get bigger and bigger and bigger. Allah says of Muhammad the Prophet, the one that Allah educated. He was not educated in the world. He didn't have formal education. He was a man of common mother wit. A man of common human sense, mother wit, as we say. Just natural human intelligence, not learning.
He didn't go to school. He didn't have tutors or professors or philosophers sitting with him and educating him. He had nothing of that nature. He learned from experience in his society. That's how he learned, from experience in his society. The language of the Arabs was a very rich language for educating. Even before Al-Islam, it was a very rich language that helped turn on the intellect. It helped turn the light on in the intellect of man. The Prophet received also the benefit of being an Arab and a speaker of the Arabic language.
At any rate, he was not formally educated. When the revelation came to him, the words came from Allah saying, "Read." His reply was, "I'm not a reader. I'm not one who knows reading." The words were given to him again by G-d through the Angel Jibreel or Gabriel to Muhammad saying, "Read." He replied for the second time, "I can't read. I'm not a reader." The third time the words said, "Read in the name of your Lord who created." And then Muhammad began reading. Muhammad began reading with the Angel Jibreel or Gabriel.
The purpose of it is to, as I said, to broaden or expand our interests. So, that our interests go further than ourselves, goes farther than the little neighborhood we live in, goes farther than the town we live in. Our interest has to expand outwardly to include, in our interest, the next-door neighbor, the next town, the next nation, the nation that borders our borders. Until that interest extends over the whole world to include all people in our interests. This is what Allah wants for us. This is the feature of the Quran, to make us universal in our interest.
Allah wants us to be universal in our interest for the maximum growth and production to be within our reach. We cannot have access to the great spiritual, social, and material development, and community development. Those are the four most essential, spiritual, social, material, and political development that Allah wants for us. We can't be situated to progress in that direction if we don't have our interests broadened, expanded so that our interest becomes universal.
We begin with first things first, our own life, our family. But we don't stop there, because we are conscious of the fact that the G-d that made us all, loves us all. The G-d that made us all, cares about us all. The G-d that planned the future for one of us, planned the futures for all of us. The sooner we become aware of that and embrace other people and other nations and hope for them the best as we hope for ourselves the best, we can't even realize the best for ourselves.
Psychologically, the mind that is shut or closed against that universal interest is psychologically defeated. It's psychologically defeated. You need a healthy psychology, a healthy situation for your soul and your psychological makeup to advance in the world. You will not be able to advance continually in this world with any separate interest. It could be money interests, business interests. Whether it's business interest or political interest or academic interest, no matter what the interest is, your growth is limited by the narrowness or the smallness of your interest.
So, Allah mainly wants this word of His, this book of His, this Quran of His, this message of His that He revealed to Muhammad the Prophet, to excite in us an interest in the whole of creation and the whole of mankind. So, that we will be psychologically situated to grow to our maximum capabilities or maximum potential. This is G-d. This is the G-d who loves us all.
It is said of this G-d that before, that means in the early development of the human being. The creation of the human being and the early development progression that G-d was bringing about. Because of how He designed His creation and His will or His spirit being in His creation it starts progressing. Growing, progressing, maturing towards that destiny. G-d said in the beginning, His throne was upon the water. Throne is a symbol for rule.
The order of rule that G-d wants for His human creation was first upon the water. I understand that to mean that, well, I'll give you another saying from the Quran that to me is saying the same thing. I'll explain that saying and it will explain the throne upon the water. G-d says that of our order, the religious order. That the way our religion is designed and our life is designed by the word of G-d, the Quran, and the Muhammad's guidance or Muhammad's demonstration of the Quran, how it's to be applied or lived. He says, that this order or this pattern of life is after the original pattern that G-d established in the natural creation of the human person.
In other words, the pattern that we realized in our environment is the pattern that is written in the very natural makeup or constitution of the human life inside this body. What we need out here is what has already been inspired by the Creator in here, inside. A parable of it is given in the seed. Allah says our life, He says that we have been created like plant life, trees, and other things, like plant life. A parable of this or a picture of this is given in the seed. You take a seed, a seed appears to be dead, and they call it dead. They call the seed dead. It appears to be dead, but you put it in the right circumstances, and you who are farmers or love garden work. I don't have to explain a lot to you.
You take the seed and you put it in the right circumstances, and in time, that seed responds to moisture, softens up enough for the sunshine and the food that's coming from the earth to feed it. It begins to grow. It throws up a shoot, sends down roots, and pretty soon, it's visible for us to see. What we see in the construction that grew in the ground and upon the ground or out of the ground is the design that was in that little small seed. That's all we see. Everything that we see outward was inscribed in the very constitution of that little small seed.
The New Testament mentions the mustard plant. How that big thing, the mustard plant, grew up from a seed that is taken by the breeze. The breeze can blow it away. If you have mustard seeds in your hand like that, you got to be careful because just a small breeze can blow the mustard seed out of your hand. They're so small and so light, having hardly no weight. You put it in the circumstances that G-d created for it to realize its life and up comes that plant that is relatively large, because the mustard seed is so small.
The same thing is true of us. In us is inscribed what is needed for our life out here. How our life is to grow and be established out here is written in here. Inside of our constitution, our human makeup from foot to top of the head. G-d says of this religion, it is the religion of originality. It is the religion of originality. The origin, the original state in the creation of man, that's what it is. It is the religion of the originality of origin, referring to how human beings are made, are constituted by their maker, the G-d, the Creator of heavens and earth.
This is the religion. This is true of Christianity. This is true of Judaism. This particular idea is what makes for the great progress that these religions have made. No religion or no other ideology has been responsible for advancement in human life, more than religious communities that are founded upon this idea. I repeat, though this idea is given to us in Al-Islam, in the Quran, in the language that I just gave it to you, same idea was given to the Christian, same idea was given to the Jews before it was given to the Christians, same idea.
That's why the Jewish community has such a great influence in the international community of man. And that's why the Christian community has become actually the leader in the community of man. The Christian community, it's America that has become the leader in the international community of man. Not without the help from Judaism and not without the help from the Quran.
After G-d says to us, that firstly his throne was established upon the water. And I have given some hints for the understanding of that expression or that statement. That His throne is established upon the skies and the earth. So, originally, G-d established man or constituted man's life. I understand the language constituted, made, put it together in a certain way and put certain things together that makes up the human life. Your emotional life, your rational life, your spiritual life all, your political life. We have an inherent political life.
Man has by nature, a political destiny. Man has by nature, a social destiny. Man has by nature, an economic destiny. G-d has inscribed these things in our nature. G-d wrote the constitution of our human makeup in such a way that we can't help but be urged by our own nature, our own souls, our own life, to seek our spiritual destiny, social destiny, economic destiny, political destiny, et cetera.
We can hear this in the introduction to the Constitution of the United States. The language that says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by G-d, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." Rights you can't take away from them because they are created to have these rights. Among these, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now you're hearing the political theory speaking the language of Revelation.
That's all he's doing. The political theorist, he's speaking the language of Revelation that he discovers in the text of his Bible, for us, in the text of our Quran, our book. Bible simply means book, comes from biblio, means book. We say Bible. Latin, it's just simply book. That's what Bible means. When we say Bible, we are saying book. Allah calls our book the Quran. Allah also says it is in the book, calls it book, simply book. Many places in the text of the Quran, the Quran is called simply book. It is in the book. It is in the book, the book, the book, the book, the book of G-d et cetera.
We have the same language too. The psychologist, that wants to aids man, help man get where he has to go, they discovered a long time ago that mystery holds man for the future plan. The less the common masses understand, the psychologist think that's the better, it's better for them. The less he understands, the better it is for him. We need mystery to hold him for the future plan. It has worked too.
What is meant now in this Revelation from G-d in the Quran that His throne extends now over the heavens and the earth? Is that man must not depend upon his human urges, his natural urges, for the establishment of his society or his community life. Man must be educated. Man must discover knowledge, wisdom, science, and direction for his life in the creation of G-d. With education, this is possible. The study of the skin enables the dermatologist to help us more with skin problems. The study of the whole body as a life form, human life form, enables the scientist to help us more with this life form that we have.
The study of the soil, to get knowledge that G-d put into the constitution of the soil. Enables the soil specialists, to give the farmer or the gardener help to have more products and better products, and a greater future for himself as a farmer or as a gardener. It is education as a tool for progress or as an instrument for progress that has given man the most. It is the help that G-d has made possible for us by creating us an intellect or making us a human being with a rational mind. A mind to be curious, a mind to be selected, a mind to really question things.
G-d gave us this special human mind of ours so that we would be able to indulge the universe as a mystery, indulge the world, the earth, the light, the water, the wind, everything. To embrace it, to indulge it with our intelligence. And discover in it the knowledge of its constitution, the knowledge of its construction, how it is made, and eventually to learn what it offers us as a utility or a benefit. How may human beings benefit from that. This is what G-d is saying when He says the throne was first upon the water.
It means that he trusted the rule of human society to the very constitution that He made in the human being, natural development. G-d trusted the human world with natural development, but natural development can only carry us so far. Don't think natural development was always bad. Originally, natural development was good. Natural development became bad as man began to have more money, more power. Then it became bad. He didn't have enlightenment so he became selfish. He wants to dominate other communities, other people. So, it made him savage.
He began to trust material might, military weapons, weapons of war et cetera. And he became bad. The evidence that man does not originally develop that way has been documented by Margaret Mead, who studied a primitive society. She said of that primitive society that she studied, that they knew nothing about crime. They didn't know what crime was. They had no concept of crime. They trusted each other. They lived as one big extended family. They assisted each other. They loved each other. They didn't know war. They didn't know crime. That has been documented.
Man used to believe that what G-d said, that He created the man originally and put him in the Garden of Eden. The Eden was a beautiful place. It was peaceful, no crime, no cheating, no lying, no deceiving, until the serpent came up or the shaitan came up and seduced the man out of his true nature. Then the trouble started. We have the discovery of persons like Margaret Mead now as evidence that G-d told us the truth before our scientists discovered it.
Allah wants to expand our interests so our interests will become universal interests. So, that we will be situated to have growth continually without any blockage. I wish I had more time with some of you who would make very good students for Al-Islam and for humanity. Allah wants to cultivate the devotional nature of man so that his work, what he produces, what he contributes to his environment will contribute to his success and not to his downfall or his failure. Our devotional nature is in us for G-d. The purpose for us having a devotion nature in us is so that we be servants of G-d.
This is the religious explanation that we are devotional creatures because G-d created us to serve Him. The Prophet Jacob was approaching death, peace be upon him, and he called his sons to his bedside. He wanted to die in peace. He said, "Sons, what will you serve when I'm gone?" They assured him. They permitted him to die in peace. They said, "We will serve the G-d of your fathers. The G-d of Jacob, Isaac, et cetera. The true G-d, the One G-d." He could die in peace.
We have a concept in Al-Islam called Tawhid. It comes from the word Wahid which means one. Wahid means one. Tawhid means oneness wholeness unity, oneness, wholeness, unity. We discussed this yesterday too in the workshop. Our devotional nature, if it is upon Tawhid. If our devotional nature is upon Tawhid, we have a situation for ourselves to progress to the optimum, to the farthest possible reach in our effort to advance the human life. If it's situated upon this concept, Tawhid.
The concept of Tawhid begins, firstly, with the belief that the one who's responsible for all this world existing, including the human existence, is one G-d, one creator of everything. The beginning of this Tawhid, this belief in the concept of Tawhid starts with the recognition that this world is not an accident. It didn't come here by chance. It bears a design that convinces the human intellect that this was done by a cause that has ability like the ability in the intellect of man. But only its ability is not limited like the ability and the intellect of man.
It has the ability to perceive things, to know things. That's why one of the attributes of G-d is the all-knowing, Al-Aleem, the all-knowing. Al-Aleem too is another attribute of G-d. The knowing and the all-knowing, these are the attributes of G-d. Man begins to realize that this world has been treated and designed in a way to awaken the intellect of man and interest man in engaging it with his mind, engaging the world with his mind. He discovers that, this intellect of mind was created by a greater knower than myself. The knower of all things, who created all things.
Man began to function as a rational being, a rational being, a rational being and he began to engage I say, creation itself, matter. The land, the skies, the things that grow the things that moves in the heavens. Doing this created the astronomer, who studied the stars. Doing this created the scientific farmer. Oh, we had the farmer but now we got the scientific farmer. The scientific farmer, the scientific ruler. Understand that nations are not ruled anymore by just rulers who respond to human demands. Natures are ruled now by scientific rulers.
Now the ruler himself is not always qualified to rule to have scientific rule for his people. He's given that help from others. Members in his cabinet as it is with America, members in his cabinet. Advisors to him and to the State Department et cetera. He's given that help. He gets that help so that the rule over the people will not just be based upon human nature, but it will be based upon knowledge, real knowledge. What we call now science. After realizing that the one who designed all this is one G-d the Creator. That's how we understand the oneness of God creator no two creators did this.
Allah says in our holy book, if two or more creators had done this universe that we're looking at, then it would have trouble in it. Because one's creation would be interfering with the other's creation. Some will say, well, suppose it was more than one creator and they were all agreeing with each other? Well, that's true. It was more than one, that's why Allah says of Himself, and He is the best of creators. He is the best of creators. After their G-d, the real creator did it certainly then He got helpers. They say, we agree with this creation. We agree with this idea when G-d invited them, come on in. But you're not coming in as a G-d. You're coming in as a servant. G-d says, whoever comes to Him comes to Him as a servant.
Then we perceive from that position, rational position. Our religion is a religion of rational faith. That means even our faith must have rational support. Muslims don't accept any faith. We believe in the unknown certainly do we believe in the unseen certainly we do. We have to that's Muslim. Our religion begins with faith, faith in the unknown faith in the unseen and untested. Yes, but that faith has some support from reason. Reason, human reasoning, the ability to have to reason. We believe that in existence of a G-d that we haven't seen with our physical eyes or that we can't present to you like we present material things to you.
We believe in such a G-d but it does have a rational base and a rational base I've explained to you already. That man's intellect enables him discover that this world couldn't have been made accidentally. That it must be the result of an intelligence, the cause behind all causes. We perceive from that premise then to accept that this universe is one continual whole and it is sustained by a universal law. There's the universal law that holds all of this world together. What is that comet? HaleBopp, something like that. HaleBopp. I saw it with my eyes in the sky one night after the sunset going with this long trail of fire behind it.
We may think it's a stray body. Its a body that lost contact with his family, but it felled into another grove. That's how come it can be clocked so exactly. It's a body that fell or got out of its original family, but G-d has created the world with a universal law. It was caught by universal law and then fell into another grove on to another pattern of movement another orbit. I think that's what happened to the black man. Yes, we're something like HaleBopp.
We got lost from our original family. But the universal law of G-d caused us to fall in to another grove. And we are beginning to have our independent orbit. It was Marcus Garvey who said, that the day will come when we will rise and take our place in the constellations of the heavens. After agreeing then that this matter is one continual whole, and the English language for it is universe, uni-verse. Uni means one. Verse means script. That G-d wrote this script we call the creation, the universe. G-d is the writer of it. He wrote it with His power, with His will, with His power to create, with His power to will things into existence. Kun faya kun. He did it and it and it bears His message to the intellect of man. G-d wrote this script. It is one script. That means it's consistent. It can be studied objectively, and it can be utilized because it is logically put together. It has a central theme. It has an intelligent conclusion.
Now, the master knower, the master writer, would He write something that has an intelligent discourse and the conclusion to be stupid?
Audience: No.
IWDM: No. It has also, intelligent conclusion. That brings us to believe in the second unity, or second oneness and wholeness. The unity of human beings, the unity of man. We believe that all human life is one life. Though we differ racially in racial makeup, physical features, skin color, hair texture, et cetera, we are the same human creation. We are no different from each other when it comes to how G-d has made us, or constituted us, humanly, to be humans. We believe in the oneness of the human family, the oneness of human beings and that makes it possible for us to have that universal interest. Interest in all people, the conditions of all people, the future for all people. G-d is the one who cares about us all.
But at the same time, this religion has been ordered as nature is ordered, to give us a sense of privacy, a sense of individuality, a sense of family, a sense of local community or ethnicity or race. The reason why we can't have peace in our soul when we are pursuing our goals in life, it is because we are told that you are to embrace all people. You are not to be racist.
And we're really misguided into thinking that whenever I take the concerns of my own race into my hands, and decide to devote myself to the concerns, or to the betterment of my race. "Well, that's racist. No, I must not use that kind of language. I'm not devoting myself to the betterment of my race. I'm devoting myself to the betterment of humanity. So that's the problem though. You say, "Allahu Akbar," but that's the problem. You're devoting yourself to the betterment of your race by addressing the first level and most important level in the identity of your race.
The first level and the most important level in the identity of your race is not that the skin is black, is not that they're African, is that they are human. Now, what's wrong with addressing your race? What's wrong with addressing the betterment of your race and devoting yourself to the betterment of your race, if you recognize that the most excellent image and identity and constitution of your race is that human constitution, that human identity that G-d created them in and created them for? Then, you proceed from there to make their ethnic conscience compatible and not injurious, to their human consciousness or conscience.
You want to reconcile the extended development, or extended growth, with the original growth, the best that G-d made. So, you would be making an African American people in the fashion that Allah want you to make the people. You'll be improving the humanity of the African American people. That's what we should try to do. We can't give up on the betterment of our race. We are working for the betterment of our race. We are building up, freeing the human Constitution, freeing the human excellence, and building upon the human originality so that our people become a people richer in their ethnic identity. Richer in their racial makeup so that one day, they can rise up to the constellations of the heavens and take their place among the stars.
Allah doesn't want us to just work for the universe or work for the international community of man, Allah wants us to be aware that first things first, care about yourself, put yourself in order. If a man wants to have a good result from a tool, he has to make sure that tool is put in its best condition. We as individuals, we are the tool for the beginning of our own progress and for the beginning of our own contribution to others. This is the tool, myself first. Put self in the best situation and in the best condition. Care about how your self is made, care about how your self is equipped, care about how your self is constituted. Seek opportunities to improve yourself. That's the first requirement. Be conscious that the next thing to you is your mother and your sister and your brother in your household, or in your apartment, carry their future on your mind too. Succeed with them in mind. Yes. Then your neighbors and your race. Yes. But if you do it all from the center upon that first foundation, the human foundation, you don't have to worry about making a constitution to the world or to humanity. Your growth is going to be human growth, and your charity is going to be not closed against any.
If you got more than enough for mom and daddy and your sisters and brothers, there will be some for your neighbors. Got more than enough for your neighbors, there will be some for others in the city that are not your neighbors and in the world that are not your neighbors. This is simple and easy and very healthy. We believe in unity upon diversity. Diversity upon unity and unity upon diversity, both. We believe in diversity upon unity and unity upon diversity. Diversity advanced when you develop that diversity upon the unity that G-d established, firstly. And the unity is advanced when that unity embraced the diversity and cares about the diversity. That's why we have encouragement from our societies now, to learn of other cultures, to accept other cultures, to learn of the will of other nations. The aspirations of other worlds. Because we all are created for the same. That is life and progress.
The more we embrace each other and recognize each other and respect each others rights to grow in our own distinctions, to grow in our own individual distinctions. G-d has created no two people exactly alike. G-d has created no two races exactly alike. Not exactly alike. We must cherish that distinction that is ours, and appreciate the excellence in our history, the excellence in our tradition as a people. And build upon that excellence and extend that excellence and have, as the protection for that excellence, human consciousness. The awareness that human beings are really one design, one creation. That they all are the same in our human identity. Allah says, "He's the one who made your identity and made it most excellent. That He made our Surah and made that Surah most excellent.
The Surah is your identity as a people, your group identity. The identity that He made the most excellent for us is that human identity in us that makes us uncomfortable when we are not producing. It makes us, the soul. It registers on the soul. Makes us uncomfortable when we are not producing. Make us uncomfortable when we are lying, et cetera. Yes. The excellence in our soul that wants to grow outwardly, and want to have His presence in everything that we do, all of our expressions and all of our works, all of our creations. We're going to quickly go through this and close it. Allah wants for us maximum good life and maximum production. Allah wants for us refinement. We want to improve life in quality as well as in quantity. 
Allah wants us to be secured and supported by purity. Not just behavioral purity in our moral body, but behavioral purity in our rational body. Allah wants to us have ethical society, that's what I'm saying now. Allah want for us to have more than just a moral nature and moral awareness. Allah wants us to have ethical society. An ethical society cannot be had without progress, education and progress for the intellect. And Allah wants for us a sense of inherent government. Allah has designed in our soul, has inscribed upon our souls, the appetite for correct rule. R-U-L-E. Correct rule. If we keep G-d as the authority over all other authorities, eventually utilizing all of the tools or benefiting from all of our natural endowments. That the political theorist was addressing when he says, "And they are endowed equally by their creator." If we use all of that then we are going to eventually accept the responsibility to decide what kind of authority we going to have over our society.
We have progressed upon that pattern to have American democracy. But Muslim brothers and sisters, it can still be refined a little bit. Let us aspire, let us work hard to become those in the future that will make some contribution to improvement of the rule in America. The concept of rule and government in America. Al-Islam constitutes us to be established, to have a life of peace, to have establishments for peace. To have peace between us and others, and other nations. To contribute to the spread of peace, or the growth of peace. Peace is inscribed upon our nature, also. We inherit responsibility to promote the peace. G-d has put it in our makeup. "Oh, you who believe," G-d says, "Oh, you who believe, save yourselves and your relatives from the fire." The Muslims are not waiting on savior to come back like some dumb Muslims in the Islamic world. They say, The savior is coming back from the heavens with a long sword, going to fall down- a light down upon the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and has gone to make the world all right for all of us." That's fiction and bad fiction.
The truth is Allah said to us, "Save yourselves and your families from fire." So, we are to learn this religion so that we can pass down this great knowledge to our children so that our families will be saved from the fire. Not only ourselves, but also our families from the fire, be saved from the fire. The family of our Prophet, and the family of Abraham, is not just their biological members. It's the members in this tradition, the Islamic tradition, followers in the Islamic tradition. That's why some translators will not say family, they'll say followers. The followers of Muhammad, the followers of Abraham and the followers of Muhammad. Some will say the family of Abraham, the family of Muhammad. That's correct and is also incorrect; its correct in that Prophet himself, was obligated as a human being, born of a family, to care about his relatives and to work for the good of his relatives. But he was also given to us as a Prophet, who started a new family. A family of Muslims. A family of Islamic thinkers. Those who think, as he taught, as he influenced us to think, we are in the family of Muhammad. As those who think, as Abraham taught them to think, are in the family of Abraham.
Save yourselves and your relatives from fire. Nar, The fire. Religion is designed to inspire us and to draw us like a magnetic force, to want to engage outer environment and be a factor for its continual life and production. Growth. Allah want us to have community-based institutions of education, culture, industry, et cetera. All of that is possible because Al-Islam situates us for progress in every way. Comprehensive religion. It situates us to be progressive and to be successful in every way, no matter what interest we take up. If its approved by G-d. Al-Islam situates us to be successful.
Lastly, Al-Islam wants to invite communities to respect the inherent aim in human nature, and to be supporters of freedom, justice, equality. Al-Islam wants communities to not to be selfish and jealous, or to fear that if one part of humanity progresses, it may leave us out. G-d want us to have the light on in the whole world and have faith in each other. Muslims are not only to believe in G-d, we are also to believe in each other. We are to believe in G-d and believe in his Messenger and believe in human beings. That G-d has created human beings for excellence, and if we cultivate that excellence, encourage others to cultivate that excellence and respect that excellence in themselves, we will have a society that we can trust. We are supposed to be builders of trust, builders of faith in each other. African Americans will never go forward, as you want to go forward, if we're going to be suspicious of the advancement of each other. Yes, you will advance but what will you do with it? Let us trust each other, and let us help each other advance fast. Let us complement each other for our achievements.

