07/06/2008
IWDM Study Library
Revealed Scriptures
Pt. 1
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

00:04 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: It's a beautiful day. We thank Allah for this day and for this occasion and for our presence here. Peace be unto you, Assalamu alaikum.

[background conversation]

00:18 IWDM: We always begin with Allah's name, bismillah hir rahman nir raheem. There is no G-D except G-D, la ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulullah. Muhammad is the messenger of G-D, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Prayers and the peace be upon him. And what follows of that traditional salute to the last prophet, the seal of the prophets, Muhammad, to whom the Quran was revealed, for all people of this Earth, for all mankind.

00:56 IWDM: We are addressing this gathering here, this audience of Muslims and a few non-Muslims, Christians among us, and perhaps, who knows, maybe some others who are not either Muslim nor Christian. And we'll be addressing revealed scripture, revealed scripture. Muslims believe in revealed scriptures. If we understand the teachings of the Quran and the teachings of our prophet, Muhammad, prayers and peace be on him, then we understand that we believe, not only in the book, the Quran, that was revealed to our prophet, the last prophet Muhammad, but we believe in what is established in that book for us to believe in. And in the Quran, it says the believers are those who believe in this Quran and in the scriptures that came before it, to both the Jews and to those who are called Christians now. So, leaders of religion, who work in the international world to promote peace and understanding between or amongst religions, for the good of the whole world, they call these three religions, heavenly religions, they call them also Abrahamic religion because the three religions recognize Father Abraham. Jews recognize Father Abraham, Christians recognize Father Abraham, and Muslims recognize Father Abraham.

03:01 IWDM: And we know that the first father is Adam, Adam. And Adam is the father of all natural people, all natural people. He is the father of them. And we know that G-D put him in the nature of human beings, and we know from scripture that he was deceived or tricked out of that nature to want to be above that nature. He wanted to be super mortal, he wanted to be super human, but he was tricked into that position. That was not his nature to go into that position. But he was seduced by the one that is called Satan in Christianity, and he doesn't have any name in Judaism. The Jews have no name for him, but he has a name in Christianity. He's Satan, and he has a name for Muslims in Islam and it's the same word, but we don't pronounce the word with S. We pronounce it with S-H, Shaitan, Shaitan. His name is Shaitan.

04:24 IWDM: And if you understand scripture, you don't look for Shaitan in a body, in a physical form, in a body. He can take the form of a woman, he can take the form of a man, he can even take other forms that we don't know about, Shaitan. But he takes the form of a human, you may think you're looking at a human but you're not. That's no human in that body. You're looking at the devil, the father of the devils. You're looking at the Shaitan, at the Shaitan.

05:05 IWDM: So much for that. And I'm the man that like to make things real. I used to like the jazz, jazz piece, there was a jazz piece 'cause it make it real. I like that a lot because that's my nature, that's my calling: To make it real. So, the devil is no Bogeyman, forget about that. The devil is no Bogeyman, and the devil has no power of G-D. Don't think the Devil has the power of G-D. He does not have any power of G-D. He has only limited power and really he doesn't have the power that's greater than the power of a human being that's really seriously devoted to obedience to G-D. Any human being that's seriously devoted, committed, devoted to obedience to G-D, the devil has no power over him, at all. He's stronger. That believer is stronger, or she is stronger than the devil himself.

06:07 IWDM: You have to take the spook out of the devil. You have to take the mystery out of the devil, and that's what the Quran does. The Quran come behind scriptures that had to hide certain things because idolaters, pagan, idol-worshipers were powerful rulers in the world, and they had conquered even the believing people. For example, in the history of the Jews. The Jews were under Romans who believed in idol gods, false gods. And it so happened that Constantine the Great, decided that he would convert to Christianity, and he was such a mighty ruler for the Roman people, he changed the religion for the whole state, for all the Roman people. He changed the religion and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman people and of all the territories conquered or ruled over by Constantine the Great.

07:18 IWDM: We are looking at scripture for a purpose. We are reflecting on Shaitan or Satan, the devil, but for a purpose. The purpose is not Satan, he's not that important for us to have as our goal, some understanding about him, no. He's not that important. What is more important is to understand where G-D put us, and where G-D wants us to stay, and where G-D wants us to go. That's what's important, cause if we follow the guidance of G-D, we will be guided to victory over all the problems we have in human life or in human society interacting with other people, good and bad, devils and angels. We will have the help from G-D to succeed here on earth, in spite of the worst conditions, in spite of the worst condition. So, that's what we are here for. We are here to be further guided and to seek more light on why we are here, what form should we stay in, and where we should be going. Well, I'm so happy to tell you that we have reached a time in the history of the movement of mankind, the movements of mankind. Not only spiritual movements, but also the physical, social, and political movements of mankind on this earth. And lastly, economic movements of mankind on this earth.

09:00 IWDM: And it is the material interests that have brought all of mankind now to identify as a global community, one global community. No matter what nation we belong to, we are now in a reality that we have to accept, and that is that man all over this world, all over this planet earth has become one global community. We are interacting politically, we are interacting economically. We are now saying we have to have cultural exchange and get acquainted and to know each others' differences better, so we can have closer ties with one another and the spirit of humanity, one spirit. Isn't that something? How G-D started life off for humans as one spirit. One spirit was put in the first man, and G-D gave him then something in support of his human spirit and that was the spirit of G-D. And would you believe that G-D is in every seat that you are occupying? Every seat you're occupying, G-D is there.

10:20 IWDM: Muhammad, the prophet was told by G-D, he was fleeing for his life from the Meccans who were not converted yet. They were still idolaters, idol-worshipers, and they thought he was such a threat to their society that he should be killed. As much as they admired him and loved him as a person or as a citizen, he was saying something to them that told them they had to give up their false gods, their idol gods and change and become a united people under one G-D. When he told them that, he disturbed them quite seriously and made them feel so threatened that they sought to kill him at his place of residence. And when they went to kill him they didn't find him there, so then they found out which way he had proceeded or left, and they pursued him to a cave. And it was in that cave where he was with his companion, his closest companion of that time was Abu Bakr. And Abu Bakr doesn't mean son of the spirit or son of G-D. Abu Bakr means father of a young camel. Now, you know a human being can't father a camel, can you? So, it means that he was one who herded camels. So, father there means leader, he was the leader of young camels. He had camels, a young camel. And sometimes they would even give a human being a name like that, camel, camel, a young camel.

12:10 IWDM: So, Abu Bakr Siddiq comes from Bikr, Bikr. Bakr come from Bikr. Bikr means a young camel. Abu Bakr father of a young camel. So, he was in this cave with the Prophet Muhammad, may G-D be pleased with him and the peace be upon our Prophet. And Allah revealed to him the Prophet Muhammad in the cave to say to his friend, "Allah humana, G-D is with us, Allah is with us." Then later it was revealed in the Quran for all of us, say whether there be two of you, G-D is the third. Whether there be more than that or less than that, G-D is there. G-D hovers between a man's left side and his right side and he hovers right over the heart, over the human heart. So, G-D is present like a spirit or like a bird that is supernatural. He is inside of us, right above our hearts. And he's helping us find the direction to our own human excellence. We all have been endowed with human excellence of a noble nature, noble nature. G-D says he made honorable or noble every child of Adam, every child of Adam. Now, what makes this so real? 

13:49 IWDM: To me, is the fact that when we were separated as a people from our continent that we lived on, Africa, and separated from the traditional life that we were once a part of, in Africa. Whether it was spirit or ancestor worship, or Christianity, or Judaism, or Islam, for Islam was very popular in Africa when the slaves were brought across the ocean to become cotton pickers in the south of this country, of this great nation. Yes, they were Muslims. And if we understand that, then we understand the southern nature to be really Muslim, Muslim. Southern nature and behavior was more Muslim than it was anything else. I used to see my father receiving his company and after he received them and they get ready to leave, if he couldn't go himself, he would tell one of the boys or maybe his wife, depending on whether if male or female, he would say, "Go and see them. Go to the door with them and go outside and don't come back in 'til you can't see them anymore. Make sure they are out of your sight before you come back in the house." That was the instructions of my father to us when the company came. And most of the time, he himself would go out, and he would stay outside until they were out of sight.

15:34 IWDM: If you study the history of our Prophet Muhammad, that is exactly what he established. He himself did exactly that when visitors came to him, he would go outside of his house and wouldn't go back into his house until they were out of his sight. That's a southern, natural trait of behavior. Yeah. So, what I'm saying to you with that is this, that they Were'nt spooky. Allah the G-D that created us, he doesn't want for us something that's far out there in space, an alien life or an alien nature. Allah says in the Quran, if you had been a community of angels on this earth, I would have sent you an angel as a messenger. But since you are humans on this earth, I sent you a human as a messenger. Huh? 

16:40 Speaker 2: Yeah.

16:41 IWDM: Yes. So whatever Allah wants for us in our life, is what he know, what G-D knows, he created in us for our life. It's already created in us. Jesus is not a foreign entity. Jesus Christ, peace be on him, he's a natural entity. That's why he's called a mortal human and at the same time having the spark of divine in him. Huh? 

17:08 S2: Yes.

17:11 IWDM: And he let us know that he was not the angel or G-D with these words of his in the gospel New Testament. He says, I have to be about my father's business. Huh? He didn't say my business. He wasn't independent. He was carrying out a job, a responsibility to G-D. He said, "I have to be about my father's business." And how did he get to that business? Directly from G-D, whom we cannot reach directly, only by way of revelation or reasoning, having a reference to support our conclusion? Huh? So, how did he arrive at that idea, his father's business. Most of the readers of the bible missed this. It is a direct reference to G-D as the source of all goodness and the one that gave man in his human plan for his nature, the destiny that he should pursue. But how did that arrive on this planet? It arrived long before Jesus Christ. And it arrived in Adam, the man that G-D made of the material world of the earth. That's how it arrived. And that man is also the father of Jesus Christ. Adam is also the father of Jesus Christ. How do I know that? Because I can't tell you Christians something without having Christian support for it. I know your bible, maybe better than most of your preachers, because I studied it long, long time and studied it so seriously, G-D blessed me with much that was hidden, okay? 

19:12 IWDM: So anyway, I'm talking about Adam. Adam is the father of Abraham. Yes, Abraham was not before Adam. Adam was before Abraham. Adam is the father of our natural bodies and our natural life, and everything that support that natural life. Now, Adam is bigger than most of us realize. Adam is the father of industry. Industry. He's the father of industry. Economics. All was given to us because of our father Adam. He was the one that G-D say, "See all of this? All of this land that I formed you of? It's all made for you to utilize." He said, "And not only that, whatever's in the sky. I made that for you to utilize. Whatever's in the earth, I made if for you to utilize. The waters, the seas, the rivers and all that's in it. The land and whatever it grows. I made that for you to utilize." So, Jesus Christ didn't separate from Adam. If you understand the gospel, Jesus Christ establishes himself as the second Adam.

20:31 IWDM: And what does that mean? One coming to continue the work of Adam. To free the people, to get back where G-D wanted them. Cultivating the land. Developing the earth, so that human life in society and in community will become better and better. For G-D want us not to suffer. Allah says in the Quran, and it is in the bible also, Allah says in the Quran, "I don't want you to have hardship, but I give you this way of life, so that you will be purified. So that you will be purified." Well you know, some of us are so close to Satan, we may have to go to hell and come back before we get purified. [chuckle] But know this also, that G-D says, "Even though you be put in hell, if you hold on to belief that there is a G-D, one time in the life or in the future, that will pull you up out of hell." Isn't that a wonderful to know that even hell is not superior to the life that G-D created for us, that that life can even break the grip of hell and come out of hell if it will just hold on to the belief that there is a G-D.

21:58 IWDM: What kept us in slavery? Wasn't it holding on to belief because the world we came into was all new to us. We didn't have any knowledge of what we were coming in to. We came into it and now, here we are in it and we have no way of looking back to where we came from. All cut off from all of that. Now here we are, we're seeing all this misery that they're heaping upon us. We don't have any scripture to explain this 'cause we weren't permitted to read the bible, you know that? Yes? In slavery, we weren't even permitted to read the bible until we were free. So, here we are in slavery, and we don't have any reference, nothing to turn to but our own souls. And our souls told us that this is not right what they're doing to us. And we didn't know to call on G-D by Jehovah, or Allah, or any name, or Jesus Christ. We didn't have any name to call on G-D by.

23:05 IWDM: But we say, our parents, when I say we, I'm speaking as a descendant of my parents, of my forefathers. Our forefathers said, "Somewhere there is a just authority of G-D." Where the white man, he had his G-D. They say "Somewhere there's a just G-D" and we know that G-D doesn't approve of what's being done to us and they kept that faith. They held onto that belief until help came to them from other members of the white world that understood their suffering and disapproved of it. Disapproved of it. They were Quakers, they were other good Christians, some were Jews in the latter part of the history, Jews joined and we had plenty of help.

24:05 IWDM: But when Frederick Douglass broke from his master, there was no Jew there to help him, there was no Christian there to help him. He had a good master who encouraged him to develop his mind and become educated. The wife of that good master saw that he had materials to read and assisted him in his reading and studies. But then, the master, that good master got in bad financial condition and he had to sell his slave. So, he sold Frederick Douglass. When he sold him, he sold him to a different master, a master who wanted nothing from him, but his service, slavery, slave service. So, Frederick Douglass wasn't used to that bad treatment and one day on the road his master insulted him some more and I guess, he threw Muhammad Ali a hook and right cross at him. He knocked him down and went free. And went free, he got his freedom. Frederick Douglass, he's our father too.

[background conversation]

25:17 IWDM: Yeah. That's the father of the freedom movement. Father of the freedom struggle to find justice in the United States or in America. He's the father of it. He didn't want to leave America, he just wanted to leave slavery. He didn't want to use... Leave the government, he wanted to leave slavery. And then, when he understood Christianity and he understood the founding father's language for the Constitution of these United States, what did he say to the white leadership of America? He said, "Your behavior is such that would [shame] a nation of savages." Yeah? He say, " You call yourself Christians, Christ-like." He said, "And you claim democracy, but your treatment of your subjects is such that would [shame]a nation of savages." Powerful man, a powerful man. How many Muslims are out there? Raise your hand, let me see the Muslims. I'm one too, I'm a Muslim.

26:29 IWDM: Now, how many of you all still identify with African-American people up from slavery or black self from slavery? Let's see your hand. Okay. Well, don't stop learning about them. Keep their history. Keep our history with you. Don't forget our history 'cause this time is the day of our victory. I mean, conclusive victory.
