07/26/2006
IWDM Study Library
Guidance, Revelation, Education

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
It's with G-d's name, Bismillah Her Rahman, Nir Rahim, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer, that we begin. We witness that He's one and cares about all of his creation, especially the model human creation that we see in the prophets, beginning with Abraham, Moses, Muhammad, Jesus, Muhammad and all of them, peace be upon them. In fact, the model life was given with the first human being, and that is the human being that's called Adam. We witness that Muhammad, the last prophet who brought the last of the revealed books, the Quran, is a model, the last of those models for all of us who believe in G-d and being accountable to G-d, to follow, follow his Sunnah, follow his tradition, follow his model life.
I'm going to have to borrow some glasses. I went away, rushed out. This is a relief. Thank you very much. This is a relief here. I don't have air condition at home, but I do have arthritis. But this feels good here. Had those glasses in my hand, I think I left them in the vehicle. Hold a minute, let me see how these are going to work. They might work. Are those yours? If those are yours, I think yours work for me. These work. I can make a release. This is good. I have to be able to follow my notes. I don't know if sister Bina is here who works for a company, CPC Conttust.
Maybe someone is here who will be seeing Bina soon could give her that letter. I just passed it to a security brother. You should be able to find someone who will see Bina soon, inshallah. Sister Kay I don't know who's here or who will be here. Safa from the office, anyone from the office. Before going into the subject for this afternoon, let me make you aware of what we're trying to do. We have this facility here, and it costs to stay here. The lease is not too high, but it's more than what we are getting. I expect there will be more attending this Sunday meeting when the word gets around more. And when more attend, then the contribution will be more.
And I think we will be able to manage the cost here, the monthly cost. Should be able to manage this monthly cost without anyone straining, just with the normal contributions that we receive from such gatherings as this. We should be able to make it without pressuring anyone to give more. Now what we'll be doing. I used to have a residency. I don't have. I haven't had a residency in many years. I used to have a residency on Stony Island, where the Nation of Islam meets. Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. And I used to speak there. They were expecting me every Sunday, unless I was out of town or sick or something. And we can do the same here. If not at this facility, at some facility we can do the same.
We can have a place where I can have a Sunday address on a weekly basis. Yeah, inshallah. We can have that. And I'm more than willing to do that, if we have a suitable facility. So brother Majeed and those supporting him are keeping this facility open to us, and we hope that we will support it and support the programs or activities other than my engagement that they will have here at this facility. That is the way we will be successful, and accommodating me and other activities or programs that we need. So I'm really asking you to do that. Asking you to become acquainted with the programs, our activities that are scheduled for this facility. And please, support them, so we can keep this facility.
The subject is guidance, revelation and education. Not just revelation, revelation and education. Before I finish, you'll understand, if you don't understand now. In the holy book, the last revealed book, the Quran, the book itself is called Hudan, guidance lil-Muttaqeen, guidance for the upright or for the righteous or the straight people. You know the language our young boys use on the street? I don't know if they use it now, but a few years ago it was popular. They say, "Straight up." Well, that's this word.
Muttaqeen means actually, literally means straight up, but in religious revelation or in religious language Muttaqeen means obedient to G-d and respecting the things that G-d has established for human beings to respect. Being respectful, being regardful. This word is translated regardful also, the regardful. And G-d says, [Attaqula. Give your regards, be regardful of G-d who created you and everything and made everything possible that is good. Be regardful of him. But G-d says, Ittaqula wal ar ham. Be regardful of G-d and also the close family ties.
Now the same word is used for hellfire.Wataqunar. And be regardful of the fire, the fire wild passions that can take to burn, eat the good life up, dissipate the good life, destroy it. So guidance is what we're given, and we're given guidance and religion from the creator, the creator of the skies and the earth. Said in the language of the scripture, translation, the heavens and the earth. But heavens only mean elevated place, elevated to levels of stratosphere, elevated heights, levels and heights. That's what skies mean.
So we are told to revere G-d, be reverence, be regardful of G-d, and also the family ties. This is nothing new to say to people. It's said to us in the Quran, but that's not new. All the people before were told to be respectful of G-d, to reverence G-d, and to respect their parents, their mother and their father, to be respectful, to be regardful of your parents. The word Arhaam doesn't only mean parents. It means all family, close family ties. Arhaam, it means those who are born of the same mother, as some translations say of the womb. And I think of the womb was translated given like that, although this does have a direct reference to the females who birth children. And it doesn't say what kind of female, just say females.
What I'm saying is, it doesn't say humans. It's accepted that we're talking about humans. That is accepted, that the reference is to human beings, but the reference also is to all sacred ties of relationship. For example, we can't exclude respect for how G-d created animals to mate and reproduce. We can't exclude even energy, how energy, negative and positive charges are established by the creator to produce energy, electricity or whatever, magnetism or whatever. Or just to hold matter together. To keep the composition of matter, G-d has created negative and positive. He has created male and female.
I used to be a welder. I'm still a welder. Once a welder, always a welder, I guess. Some of the jobs we had, we call some of the tools and some of the powers we use, we call them male and female. And this language is throughout material world and science, male and female, mating, mates. The translation that says, "The family ties," is right, and the translation that says, "Referred to the womb," so the female, is correct also. But understand this, that Quranic language, the language of our holy book, it has reference more importantly to scriptures that came before. And that's established very clearly throughout the Quran. That the book has reference to scriptures that came before to the prophets of the past, to the prophets, messengers before Muhammad, the prophet, peace be upon them.
So this is what we must understand, and we know there was a certain male figure in scripture, in the Bible, who had an offering for G-d. His name is Cain. Cain had an offering from the ground. He produced from the ground. A farmer, agriculturalist you might say. And his brother was called Abel, and he was a shepherd. His charity or his gift to G-d came from his labor as a shepherd. His was fruit of the womb, so the Bible says. Fruit of the womb. So here is Abel, the man, who gives an offering called fruit of the womb, and here is his brother who gives an offering, that is an offering of the ground, the land. These two brothers are supposed to be the direct descendants of Adam. They are Adam reproduced, and Cain is said in the Genesis of the Bible, he is said to be more like Adam and that he was working the ground.
And I think it has a reference to Adam. The saying in the scripture that Adam was made from the ground. He was formed of the earth, of the ground. And if I recall it correctly, when cain was conceived in his mother, his mother said, "Now I have gotten me a child from the lord." Well, who's the lord? G-d? She got a child from G-d? Or was she calling her husband, Adam, her mate, Adam the lord? Was she calling Adam the lord, or was she referring to G-d the creator of everything as the lord? And, "Now I got me a child from the lord."
If she was referring to G-d, had G-d in mind, then she's calling her son the son of G-d. If she's referring to Adam, she's calling her son correctly the son of Adam. Guidance... we didn't make this earth. The earth supports us, supports our life. Our life has to feed on the earth, has to breathe the earth air, our atmosphere, drink the earth's water and eat the earth's solid foods. We cannot exist without feeding on the earth. And this is in scripture. I'm not saying anything. I don't say anything that's not in scripture. This is in scripture.
It may not be in the exact words that I give it, but the truth that I give is not mine. I don't have the ability to give it, except as I receive it. It's in scripture. It's from the scriptures. So we feed upon the earth, and we live upon the earth. And the earth shelters us. And the earth clothes us. The things of the earth we wear. I'm wearing CPC Comtrust right now, cool linen for this 95 temperature. And where did the product come from? The earth.
G-d says in the second chapter of the Quran that this book is guidance, Hudan, guidance, lil-Muttaqeen. It is guidance for those who want to be straight up, in the language of the bars on the street. It is guidance for the upright. That's the translation, not my translation, someone else's translation. Guidance for the upright. And another translation, guidance for the G-d-fearing, G-d-conscious. That's what it means by G-d-fearing, means they keep G-d on their mind, because they're afraid not to keep Him on their minds. They're afraid they can't live without Him, that they will slip and their life will go astray, if they do not keep Him on their conscience. They are called the Muttaqeen, the upright. Guidance for the upright.
Then we have also the Sabilillah. What we just referred to there is the Siraat Al-Mustaqeem, the path that goes vertically straight, Muttaqeen, like we stand straight up. Siraat Al-Mustaqeem, the path of the upright person. We think of this as vertical going up, vertical straight up, straight up to excellence, purity and excellence of G-d. Because if we pursue what G-d has created for us to pursue in terms of what we need for the betterment of our life, we eventually arrive where G-d created us to be. So we eventually meet G-d.
And the prophet, prayers be upon him, Muhammad, the last prophet, who received the last revelation, the Quran. He said, "Whoever sets out to travel the path of knowledge, true knowledge, is upon a path that will take him to his G-d." Didn't Abraham set out on a path to seek answers, to get knowledge? He wanted to know what is in this creation that I should respect and bring my life in accord with it. He wanted to know what could he trust his life to, and he observed the sun rising after he had studied the heavens all night. He observed the sun rising. When the sun started to rise, he said, "This must be the G-d. It is brighter than all the others," and so splendid, so beautiful and bright, and uncovering things that hid in the dark on earth, taking the darkness from the things that were hid and showing man his life field, his work field.
It was so impressive, the sun. When he was thinking rationally as a free thinker, thinking on, "What is in the creation in all of this that I can observe with my senses, my eyes and my senses? What is it out there that I should give my life to?" He had already rejected the stars, because he saw one fall during the night. And when the star fell, he said, "The stars cannot be my G-d, because my G-d does not fall." Now he's looking at the sunrise. He's a scientific thinker observing something. Does not just see it and make a quick decision. Scientific way of thinking is to watch it until it concludes itself. Stay with it. Don't be quick to say, "This is it. This is what I'm looking for."
So he wasn't quick to say, "This is what I'm looking for," though he was very much impressed. He watched it until the sun set, and when the sun set, it appeared as though the sun went to bed. And he said, "No, this cannot be my G-d. My G-d is not one to rest or to sleep or to die." Now we know the sun is not really dead. It's going to rise again in the morning from the other direction, rises in one direction, sets another. We know it's going to rise again, but I guess that's why he didn't say, "Death." He said, "My G-d is not one to rest or go to sleep, take a break."
That's Abraham, the free thinker. Now coming back to the earth as what G-d has created for us to get benefits from, all our benefits we need to live in community with one another, live in towns, whatever, cities, countries, under governments. All we need is on earth, and what is on the earth for man to utilize is what eventually brings man to requisition government, to say, "We got to have a government." Laws and everything are required in time, because of our interaction with the goods of the earth in each other, business, industry, etc.
You got money, now you need to have a system to protect your money. So you have a business system. You have an economic system. Some things too much for the private sector, you give the responsibility to government. But where it all starts? Now we are talking on cause and effects. There are causes that produce effects called in scripture also by the names Al-uula Wal-Aakhira, first things and final things. Working with first things creates effects. First things are causes. But those causes creates effects, and effects become causes for more effects. And the process continues and continues until there's a final conclusion. And whether you know it or not or believe me or not, we are now living in the conclusion of prophecy.
It's not going to come, it already came. It's here. We're living now in the conclusion of prophecy. It didn't happen back then, it's happening now. It was pointed to back then, the seers. The prophets or messengers of G-d, they pointed to this time. And in the Quran it's called Yawm Al-Deen. Literally, it means the day of religion. The day means the time in the conclusion of things for religion to be seen and man to answer for the way he has presented himself in religion. That's the time right now.
Well, this great earth we have here, and it is a great earth. We call it mother earth. G-d taught us to give it even more respect than the secular world tells us to give it. When G-d says in the last revelation in the last book, the Quran, he says, Al Ardu Masjidullah. The earth is the G-d's place of worship. The earth is G-d's mosque. The earth is G-d's Masjid. To the Christians the earth is G-d's church. To the Jews the earth is G-d's synagogue. To the others the earth is G-d's temple.
Do you know mother nature put it in people, tribes, Indian tribes and others, to respect this earth? They won't pollute it. I don't say that they're doing the right thing, but it's obvious that man hasn't always done the right thing either. I'm talking about the man, like in the movie The Man. Talking about the man. So it's not obvious to us that the man has done the right thing all the time. These Native Americans we call Indians, they believe that their continued existence on earth depends on them not hurting the balance of nature, respecting the balance of nature. And if we understand it, that's what G-d asked of all of us who claim religion, the Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
And the Quran Letabilatu Kaqula. Let there be no altering on the original creation that G-d made. Don't change the laws that he put it under. Don't tamper with the laws that he put it on or that he put it under. Don't tamper with the design that he made. Letabilatu Kaqula . Let there be no alterations on the nature, the original nature established by G-d. We are living in a time when we need the guidance to be correct. Our Quran, our book, is guidance for Muslims. The Quran, guidance for Muslims and for all mankind, if they will accept it. For all mankind. Hudal-lin-naas. Guidance for mankind. That's what it says plainly. Hudal-lin-naas. And clear evidence establishing the criteria and what is not criteria, the guidance and the criteria.
Praise be to Allah. This is clear. Now, how did everything get so far off? We have guidance, the Quran. And the people who came who answered the prophets or messengers before Muhammad, they had guidance from G-d, from the creator. And in the Quran the sincere devoted obedient servant of G-d is used to say something very important for us to recognize. This person is praying to G-d, and it seems that he must be praying leading a group of people in prayer, because he says, "We." And he referred to the paths that had made their life great and successful. Plural, not one path. "Subulana," he says. Say, "If you," meaning G-d, "had not guided us to our paths," not one path, "to our paths, we certainly would not have found guidance." Sincere worshiper of G-d, honest and truthful worshiper of G-d.
What am I referring to now? The fact that we cannot come by any knowledge unless our minds engage what G-d created. There is no knowledge except that our minds engage what G-d created. That's the beginning of knowledge, correct knowledge. So he said, "We could not have had these paths, if you had not guided us." [Arabic 00:34:02]. "Except that G-d guided us to this." What path are referring to? The path of science, astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, etc., including political science. All of it. Man could not have had it unless he engaged the creation of G-d and studied how G-d had evolved societies and communities and how they had interacted with his created world and became more knowledgeable and eventually became scientific.
Praise be to Allah. So all designed to be good for man. The creation story says, "The first day, before man was, such and such was in the creation, and it was good. And on the second day such and such was, and it was good." And the third day the same, and the fourth day the same, and the fifth day the same. And then man was made. And it was good. Yes, the sixth day was good too. G-d couldn't conclude unless it was good. Then he said on the seventh day, according to the Bible, he rested. No, he didn't rest. He finished mankind and prepared mankind to earn heaven.
That's the rest. When mankind, his creation, his social nature has been completed by G-d, he has been completed for living as a social being with his fellow man in an order that would be good for them. He was ready for that, and now he was ready also to earn heaven. So G-d rested mean he rested from his work of putting man in a good situation to go to heaven. Now you know in music, I think, seven is a rest stop, isn't it? I'm not a musician, but I'm a student of nature and science. Yes, I think seven is a rest stop. But you don't stop the music, you just pause.
Praise be to Allah. Now let me go to a scene that shines light on what will be a problem for this wonderful creation. I like to hear old Satchmo sing about it. What a wonderful world. Satchmo Armstrong. What is his real name? Louis Armstrong, yeah. Anyway, continuing... G-d in a story that the Arabs have of our prophet's life, I mean life of revelation, having things revealed to him by G-d. He told his followers, he said, "G-d wanted to show Abraham his creation, so he said, 'Abraham, look, observe my creation.'" He had not made it yet. G-d is showing him a picture of what he's going to make. The world for man has not been created yet.
So he said, "Abraham, observe my creation." And Abraham observed it. And Abraham said, "My lord," speaking to G-d, "my lord, how can anyone go wrong in such a wonderful creation?" And then G-d caused it within an instance to appear with the allurements, the attractions that Shaytan or the Christians, in the church the Satan, that Satan had put on it to introduce it to man. So after G-d had made the world as he wanted it to be introduced to man, then Satan decided that he was going to alter it. You didn't forget what we said about altering. He decided he's going to alter it and make it so fascinating, make it so enchanting, so charming that mankind won't be able to resist his attractions, the attractions that Satan would bedeck the creation with, just decorated all with these attractions.
One translation said, "He made wrong, sin, fair seeming. Made it appear beautiful and innocent." When Abraham, I mean pardon me, when Jibreel... this is Jibreel, not Abraham, I'm sorry. Correct your paper. He is showing Jibreel, the angel Gabriel, the creation, not Abraham. When Jibreel saw the creation that was altered by the Shaytan or Satan, he said, "My lord, how can anyone go straight in such a world?" Again, my students and guests here, G-d says in the last revealed book, he says, "Never did G-d bring something to his messenger that Satan didn't strive to produce the likes of it and introduce it to the people." Well, I've set the stage for what I'm going to give you now.
What is governing the life of most of the people right now? What is attracting them right now? What is ordering their life, how they will live until they die right now? Has a design that's more ancient than the ancient kingdoms that you know of. Yes, Satan has been around a long, long time, and his design is still on our life. He has kept his design on the life of the people of the world. Remember what I just said to you that G-d said, "Never did G-d desire something for his servant that Satan, or the Shaytan, didn't strive to come up with the likes of it, something resembling it.
See, he didn't produce a strange world. Satan just made the world that G-d already had produced more fascinating, more tempting to take you out of the obedience that is in you by nature, by birth for G-d. I don't know why I'm going so slow. I think it's because I feel better. It's not hot in here. It's hot at home. Especially I had to cook those collard greens I got out of brother Hearns , Arthur Hearns... I'm sorry, I don't know his Muslim name right now. I've been knowing him for a long, long time, brother Arthur. He used to cut hair. He was cutting hair before he was a Muslim. He became a Muslim, brother Arthur Hearns.
Well, he planted a nice garden back behind CPC on the CPC Comtrust grounds across the street from the facility way back there in the back of the two houses that are there. Brother John Muhammad is living in one of the houses. And I went back there, because they told me those collard greens were ready, and I was just too busy to get back there. So almost two weeks had passed, and I hadn't gone back there. So I just decided last night I was going to go back there, even if the mosquitoes tried to keep me out, I'll go get some of those greens. And I did. And I put them in the pot.
See, I love to cook. Cooking is one of my hobbies. Cooking for me is the harp for David. David, he played a harp, and that's how he took the burden off of him. Relaxation, a little time for relaxation. So I cook, and it takes the burden off me. I love to cook. I cook those greens, and I told my wife, I said, "Look, I cooked those greens for tomorrow. It's too hot today to finish the cooking and eat for here." I say, "I'll just put the greens up for tomorrow." I hate to admit this, but I would have been here a little earlier. I went to that pot like I was under hypnosis and put it on the table, and I ate those collard greens. And man, they delicious. Wow, they delicious. Straight out of the garden, no pesticides. Thank you, brother Arthur Hearns. Thank you very much.
Now to get back to the subject here, we're living in a time when the design is still here that the Satan had on the ancient people of the world, and he has kept it. So his design grows with the history of mankind. As mankind develops more, the design also develops more. But it's the same old design. Now the Bible says, "You are not supposed to..." like most of us in church and religious life. I'm sorry, I have to correct that. Most of us in religious life we take the Satan to be super, super. He's supernatural, super, supernatural. He's unnatural, but certainly not supernatural.
The Bible doesn't say, "Fear him as something that you can't deal with, because you're natural and he's supernatural." The Bible says, "Rebuke." I give you the exact words. Quote, "Rebuke Satan, and he will run from you." End quote. Didn't say, "Run," it said "Flee. That he will flee from you", means run swiftly. The Quran says, "There will come a time when you have to answer for how you lived your life. And there will be those who will point to Satan, say, 'G-d, he tempted me to do these things.'" And G-d will say, "He had no power over you but the power to invite you, not to force you. He only had the power to invite you. So who is the blame on, if you accepted his invitation? It's on you."
That's what G-d is saying, that there's going to come a time when people will want to point to the Satan, the devil, and say, "The devil made me do this." But G-d is not going to accept that as an excuse, because G-d says that the devil, or Satan, has no power over you but the power to suggest something or to invite you to do something, and it is you who accepts the suggestion or the invitation. But that is not all. G-d says, "Surely, such as drinking or taking intoxicants and gambling and gangs of superstition are of the works of the devil. Stay away from it, if you expect to be successful."
So G-d has revealed to us some of the schemes of Satan. One of his schemes is intoxicants, liquors and drugs, etc. Another one of his schemes is to encourage gambling. And how many men have lost their wives, their family and have gotten killed gambling? But this world doesn't keep that before you does it. No, they're not trying to counter punch those who are inviting you to these things. If they were, then every time there was an ad that came on television for you to go to the boat or to Las Vegas or some place, the government or the church or the religious establishment would be obligated to come and say, "We deserve equal time." Isn't that the way they do it in television? If something comes against your interests, "We deserve equal time." No nobody's doing that.
The devil is having a field day. He gets more freedom than anybody, than any other interest. And no interest given more recognition and freedom than the interests of the Shaytan, or the Satan. So this is America. This is the greatest country ever. Yes, it is. And that great and dreadful day is coming. It's called great too, like great America. It's a great and dreadful day. It's a great day for those who kept their obedience, and a dreadful day to those who gave it up. So the judgment is two times great, in America two times great. A great angel and a great devil, two times great. And I'm still accepted in heaven.
He's not going to fare too well talking like that. That's what you think. Fare better. Those on high, they know the truth. And they know when it's spoken selfishly and when it's spoken in obedience to G-d. Don't worry about me, I'm in good hands. Praise be to Allah. Continuing now, G-d says to us in the Quran, last revealed book to mankind on this earth, he says, "Fight the schemes of Satan," or Shaytan, "for his schemes are..." Come on, louder, louder. Weak, not strong. His schemes are weak. Now, what does that mean? His schemes depend upon human weaknesses. That's what it means.
His schemes depend upon human weaknesses, for all human beings need to do to put the Satan out of business, be strong. Not superman strong, just be your human nature, human person strong. That's all. Be as strong as a little girl or a little boy going to school for the first day, and you raised them right, and you kept them from bad influences. And they're just going to school. They're not even eight years old, not seven years old, and somebody stopped them as they're on their way to school and offer them something nasty, a cigarette or something shameful. And they say, "No," and keep going.
Now that little baby got enough strength to say no to what's wrong. A little child preschooler just going on the first day of school, going to school, got enough strength of obedience inside to say no to the wrong thing and keep going to school. Now we know there's some children that are weak, but they didn't come up like that child. Their circumstances were not as fortunate as that child's circumstances, and G-d is the one that decides it all. G-d permits that some be in bad circumstances to test them., and he permits that some be in good circumstances to test them. We are tested by good circumstances and bad circumstances, because sometimes good circumstances is a heavier test than bad circumstances.
Person in good circumstances began to take the good circumstances for granted, make enemies, turned the heart turns, and the person that had good circumstances and was produced good in the early years of his or her life is now a wicked person. We are tried by good circumstances and bad circumstances. And I tell you, sometimes you shouldn't envy a person who got a lot of money. Don't envy them. Maybe if you had that amount of money, you'd go to hell right away. You'd have the means to go to hell quick.
I used to hear some criticism of Muhammad Ali. They say, "As soon as the fight is over, all those pretty women converge on him." And I said to myself, "It take a strong man to manage that life of Muhammad Ali, because they would converge on me, I might not get home." I mean, we just have to be truthful. So here I am. You all say, "Our Imam, our Imam. Chief, chief." But these other guys are chiefs, too. They big dudes, too. They stand up to all that temptation. We don't know if our Imam can stand up to all that temptation and pass.
But I'll tell you one thing, as long as I keep this spirit in me, I'll be coming back smoking. I'll, be smoking. The flames don't hit me but I'll be coming back. Knowledge has progressed. Systems of knowledge have progressed. So where is he now? He's in everything that was intended to be good for human beings in society. We have a term now globalization. Globalization. Is this a new thing, globalization? No, it's something that has come to its conclusion. Yes, this is a day of conclusion of things. It is something that has come to its conclusion, but it has been progressing all along.
When man managed to build a boat or ship and go out from his land and cross the ocean of the waters and go into another land, that was a step that meant progress for globalization. So globalization is a process that has been coming all the time, isn't it? It is a process that has been coming all the time. So if it has been coming all the time, when G-d revealed to man how to search for cause and effect and how to identify the Uula and the Akhira, the first, and that that became later as a result of the first, that resulted from the first, the latter. When G-d showed that the man and taught man to be future looking as well as present, attentive to the present but also looking into the future and anticipating and calculating what will happen in the future, given what is already working presently, causes and effects.
And then how to trace causes and effects, to see that this cause is going to produce that effect, and that effect is going to become a cause in the life of those people who will be in their present time. It will be a cause in their life, because they will be living in their present time. And then it will produce effect, and it continues like that. Metaphysics is all about that, isn't it? If you all don't know the term, write it down, metaphysics. Look it up in the dictionary. If you're my student, you're not satisfied to have something in your head that you don't know.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed have never had something in his head important that he needed to know and didn't try to get the knowledge for it. If it was a word, I go to the dictionary. The term I didn't understand, I go to dictionary. If it was an idea I don't understand, I try to find what's related to that idea. When I find what's related to it, I go and look up that that is related to it. Research until I clear my mind. G-d rewards the worker. You hear what I said? Or I need to say it about a thousand times? G-d rewards the worker. He never rewards you just because you're good. If you good and not working, you're bad. If you aren't bad for yourself, you're bad for society, and the society is more important than any individual.
G-d rewards the worker. Oh soul, pleased internally or pleased with yourself and pleasing in the presence of your lord, return to your Lord, any you among my servants, Ibadi. What is G-d's servants? Muhammad is his servant, special servant. G-d's servants are G-d's workers. You hear me? You ever heard of a servant without work to do? G-d is telling us plain as day, "That my servants are my workers", and if you want to have heaven, work. And when you work to your own satisfaction, you feel good about your own work. You look at your achievements, you say, "I feel good. I have achieved well." Then G-d say, "Now think about yourself in the presence of your G-d." Now what you've done, you think you're still pleased with it knowing that G-d looking at it? Well, enter you among my workers, Wa quwi fil ibadi], enter you among my workers, Wad kulli Jannati, enter you my paradise.
What a powerful revelation. Power in goodness, having great power to feed the need in our souls for light and understanding, so that we feel good about ourselves and good about our accomplishments. And then not fear that we are not going to be accepted in heaven. What a wonderful revelation. It's so beautiful. The rhyming is about as beautiful as any rhyming you'll find in the Quran. The Quranic Arabic rhyming, it's so beautiful. So today we see... let me tell you first what Mr .Farad said. There he go again. He just stay away from that, that's dangerous. Is nothing but trouble going back in that teaching.
The Psalms say, "Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil." See, when you have managed to present yourself innocent before your lord, you don't fear. And when G-d show you things that you didn't know and make what was a dangerous scene a beautiful and peaceful scene. You all look at it, you see danger. I look at it, I don't see danger. I see beautiful thinking, beautiful ideas, powerful insight. That's what I see. He said, "There was a certain black man who was the superior one of his time. This was before we had the moon in our flag. And this superior black man, he was dissatisfied with the people speaking different languages. He wanted all of them to speak the same language."
You know language has different meanings. When you say English, right away the meaning that comes to your mind is the language a certain people speak, like English for us, American English for us, Japanese for the Japanese, etc. But understand that language also mean the language of a particular science, like mathematics is a language, the language of mathematics. So language has different meanings. I'm sure that this is not what was given to us back then. The lessons in the Nation of Islam is not referring to Spanish, English, Arabic. No, not at all. It's referring to the language of science. Mr. Farad is all about bringing science to your mind one day, science.
How do we know that? He said, "Study engineering. Become civil engineers." This was his invitation to us in the Nation of Islam back in the early 30s. He was about science. He was about knowledge in science. He said that this superior one decided he was just going to do away with the whole or all of it. So he got an idea to put dynamite powder into the earth so deep and set it off, and it will split the earth and destroy the earth. So he went about doing that thing. He drilled a hole into the earth to the depth he thought would split it, and he filled the tube up with dynamite, black powder and set it off.
The explosion set off a piece of the earth. And that piece was blasted out into space, and it found an orbit and started rotating in his orbit, and it became our moon. But he was not successful in achieving what he went after, and that was to get everybody to speak the same language. Or was he? I have come to know him perhaps better than I know you all. Better than I know the closest one of you to me, I've come to know him. It was meant to be. Now, I'm leaving that go, but I'm bringing you to the present.
We have a term now, humanism. Been around for some time now, humanism. And when you study the term humanism in its early days in the history of the culture, humanism referred to those romantic times for the culture when man, the society, found beauty in the study of human life and nature. And their studies presented such a beautiful picture, an inspiring picture of human nature, human life, that they begin to devote themselves to the human sciences that we have now in college, the humanities.
But we know that humanism has a following, and that following is not true to religion and not true to G-d. They don't look higher than they are for guidance. They look at each other for guidance, and they are working hard to advance humanism, so that humanism will take over the mind of mankind on this planet earth. That's one great movement we have in the schemes of Satan, humanism. Sounds good, doesn't it? But isn't that what Satan is good at? Making the bad thing look right and beautiful?
Now I gave you what G-d said that never did he give something to his servant that the Satan, the Shaytan, the devil, didn't try to come up with the likes of it. We have a term in the Quran, Basharun. Bashar, Basharun. It means human, the human mortal, where these people focus their attention to the human nature made by G-d or evolved upon this earth upon mother nature, or whatever you want to say. That's what it's talking about, Bashar. And the same term is used to refer to Muhammad as a person who have received a message to deliver to people. He is a Basharun, Basheerun, from the same word a messenger, of good news bringer.
What is the good news? The world put down human value, put down human importance and said, "Yes, G-d did create man, human on this earth. But because he was human, he erred." I'm now taking off from something a philosopher said, "To err is human, to forgive is divine." Now it sounds great. Doesn't he sound so great? I'm sure the humanists they got that from him. But he doesn't impress me with that, because I'm a product of the best creation, and I'm a product of revelation. Yes, I am. And I know that to err is human, but to forgive is also human. To forgive is human. And not only the human, is life.
I've seen animals look like they were going to cry. I couldn't hear them crying and couldn't see no tears falling, but they looked so pitiful that they had done it wrong, and they were trying to get close to the animal that they had mistreated, the other animal of their species that they had mistreated, saying, "Forgive me. I love you. I want to be accepted back." So to err is human, and to forgive is human. To err is life, and to forgive is life.


