03/21/1999
IWDM Study Library 
Faith and Good Works

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Yeah. As-Salamu Alaykum. Praise be to Allah. You witness that G-d is one. We put our faith and trust in him who is mighty, who is alive. We don't break the faith, we keep the faith. We witness that Muhammad, the Prophet, the last Prophet, the seal of the Prophets to whom the last Revelation, the Qur'an was revealed is His servant and His Messenger.
Ash Hadu Ana Muhammadan Rasulahu. We witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. Praise inshalla. I'm not in any pain but my voice is horse. Having some laryngitis, Inshalla will be able to make it through this. I believe the mic is sensitive enough to carry my voice to you without me straining it. Our topic for today is faith and works. Faith and works. We know that no one can give us faith. Only G-d can give one, a person faith. G-d can give a person faith. We can influence them, we can invite them and influence them, but we cannot give them faith. Allah said this to His servants, the Messengers, Peace upon them that they cannot give faith to anyone. It is G-d who gives faith. In the Qur'an G-d promises two gardens, not one garden, Jannahtain. Jannahtain. Two gardens.
And a garden has to be worked. You have to work the garden to have the beauty, the life and beauty of the garden. We have to work the garden. Islam has come to us with the Prophet, the Qur'an the Revelation and the Prophet Muhammad to show us the full life that G-d wants us to live and to explain things that were before difficult for people to understand the people of the word or scripture, the believers to make it easy on the people. To understand so that they will be able to live the full life that G-d created them for.
We know that work is of nature of every human being. We used to associate work with men, that work is for men and we didn't know that our wives were working that as my mother would say, "skin off the bone." Doing all the things that she had to do to keep the house, take care of the husband, see that he was able to stay on his feet and do the things he had to do and take care of all the children. Many times there were many children to take care of, but we thought that work was for men. Work is for all things living, all things living, even insects.
Everything has to work. Work is the property of every living thing, the love of work. Pride of work is the property of every living thing and more so for the human being, because of our ability to do so much more work than insects or animals or even angels. And that is why G-d says in the scripture that He made the man a little above angels, little above angels. And it's not put that way in our scripture the Qur'an, the last revelation. And nevertheless it is put there. And even plainer says He asked the angels, G-d asked the angels, He said: "Tell Me your names". And they replied to G-d. They answered Him and they said: "We have no knowledge except what you've given us."
So, they didn't even have the knowledge of their names, not on their own. They had not the ability to name themselves. They had not the ability to even discover their names. And G-d said to the man that He was making, our father the first man, human being. He said: "Adam, tell them their names". And Adam told them their names and they all responded with great submission bowing, making prostration to Adam, the higher creature in the mind. The higher creature in the intellect they submitted to his superior mind for the work of G-d in creation.
G-d did not say, I taught Adam the names then, not at that point. He didn't say He taught Adam the names. He just spoke to Adam and said, tell them their name and Adam told them their name. It is wonderful. Yes. This is almost like on stage. You can't see, you can't see your own script. Well there's no light back here. I'll make out. I can make out. That's all right. I got it. Yes. We're going to come back to the gardens, the two gardens. Just in a few moments. Now when we study the Genesis and when we study how man would develop and made to progress by stages, steps of progression. In the Qur'an, there is I would say a parallel.
There's a parallel of agreement in the two reports, but difficult grasp right away. The belief that not only we descended or we are from the first man in terms of our life, our human life, our flesh, but that we are also from the first man in terms of our production, our productivity, and our production, what we produced. He made our father more than flesh. He made our father a brain, an intellect, a mind, a great mind for great production. And scripture shows us how the children of our first father progressed. They progressed not only as flesh, but more importantly they progressed as industrious children of their father.
Industrious children of their father. They became great builders. They are pointed to as the builders of the world, the ones who built the world originally. And we are the children of those who built the world in the beginning and built it and left it for others to inherit. The scientific world and the industrious world is the works of our father and his children and we are his children. So, it is also our works. So, this work, great work of man and that is a property as a love, as a devotion, as a pride, as an interest, is a property of every human being, male and female.
G-d wants us to know that it is to be done with respect for the one who created you and with respect for the nature and excellence that He created you for. To keep that work for G-d and to keep that work excellent, excellent. Prophet Muhammad stressed this interest in excellence when he said, Prayers and peace be upon him. "Whenever the believer endeavors to do the things he seeks to perfect it, he seeks to perfect it." That is he's always trying to do it the best he can. If you dress, you should dress the best you can. Don't see something messed up and not straighten it up. If you can straighten it up, please your eyes for excellence, the eyes for excellence. When you're dressing yourself, when you're cleaning yourself, when you are helping another, when you're doing a work for a boss, please your eye for excellence.
Do your best. This is an obligation according to our Prophet, our leader, Muhammed. Prayers and peace be upon him on all of us, male and female. And G-d rewards us all according to our works. Allah says through Muhammed and to all of us, through him in the Quran that He does not misplace the work of any worker. I think the translation is that He does not lose or something like that or waste the work. It means misplaced, So, you don't lose anything, but it'll be misplaced. If I don't get the credit from my good works from you, somebody else will get the credit. It's misplaced.
And if you don't get the credit for your good works, somebody else will get it. It's misplaced. They won't say it wasn't done. They'll acknowledge that it was done. Yes. So, G-d created us for work. That's the point. And the greatest work is done, when it's done, whereby one who believes in a G-d responsible for it all and who believes that, that G-d is to be respected. That person does the greatest work. And that kind of belief comes only from a person who believes in G-d. Faith. Allah says, "Ilah Ladeena Amanut Wa Amanu Salihati" "Except for those who believe and do good works. Faith, it inflluncwa the heads and the religious order and thereafter after influencing them has influenced the masses of people to believe that work for G-d is just abstract work and that the products are abstract products. I work for G-d to be righteous, an abstract product.
I work for G-d to be truthful, an abstract product. I work for G-d to be loving and kind, abstract products. I worked for G-d to be a builder of a city, to be a builder of a nation. That's the work, not just the abstract product. G-d created our father and made him to have a nature and a spirit to want to work the earth and develop it and build upon it and to manifest the great tool that G-d gave in his brain. To manifest the productivity of that brain as a witness to G-d. His shahada is his work more than his words.
Jannatain. Two gardens. Two gardens. One is the garden of the soul, the other one is the garden of the material world. G-d created us to cultivate the garden of the human soul, but He created us also to cultivate the garden of the human world. The world of material things affected, influenced by the human being. When we look at the surroundings in a city or a town where there's great human industrial, industrial works, we don't see as much of natural works as we do of manmade works. Man produces so much until he blocked out the forest, blocked out the animal kingdom. He surrounds himself with the works of his own brain in his hands. A great producer. If all of this would be done to glorify G-d, it would be a great shahada. And all of our children would come up knowing G-d and believing in G-d and loving G-d and wanting to pay a debt back to G-d.
If man would just acknowledge that it was G-d who designed his nature. It was G-d who designed his intelligence. It was G-d who made his special brain to be superior over all the brains of the world. It was G-d who did that and that he owe all of his credit to that G-d. Then his children will come up believers in G-d, his children will come up appreciating G-d and not thinking that man is G-d or thinking that man is the limit. Man is the ultimate. Man is the all in all. And when he's lost in that world of mankind, he has no one to turn to but man, so he's crushed by man's world, having no one to turn to but man. And man cannot give him answers that his soul was asking. It's not the brain that man gave him that's asking the questions. It's the soul that G-d gave him that's asking the questions and man can't answer them. So, he's left alone, suffering in the world, miserable without direction.
Jennatain. Jennatain. Two gardens. The garden of the soul and the material universe. And G-d says "His throne dispersed upon the waters." And then later G-d says, "My throne extends over the heavens and the earth, not just on the water." He says, "My throne extends over the heavens and the earth." And then He says to us that He has given us the garden, the width thereof, the width, how spacious is it? He says, "As spacious as the heavens and earth." That means He made our brain to cultivate the whole material system, the whole material scheme. And we let the white man go ahead with it. And we just watch him and complain when we should read what he, read, the Qur'an, the word of G-d and be motivated as he has been motivated and go on out to utilize your brain and to utilize all the worlds that G-d has created for your human interest, for your intellectual interest, for your mental energy. Thank you very much. Peace. As Salaam Alaikum.



