05/15/1978
IWDM Study Library
Ablution Chicago, IL Pt 2

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Jesus and his mother was a sign. What is Jesus? Jesus represents the message, the word that he brought. That word, that message was a sign of a greater to come of a fulfillment in something to come. What is his mother? His mother is the church society, the order of the world that they live in. It's just a sign of something to come. So, we have the church and we have the Christian society. We have their religious ritual and we have the Christian life. What they do and what you have been taught to do is nothing but a sign of something to come and the proof, they haven't fulfilled it. They're not washing each other's feet. So oh, it means something else. What does it mean? What is the something else it means? Yes, it does mean something else. It means that we protect the safety of each other. We protect the righteousness of each other. Are the Christians protecting the righteousness of each other? Do they pull each other's coat and say, don't do that brother, it's sinful. Do they pull each other's coat and say, don't walk that path. It goes to destruction. Are they pulling each other's coat?

Christian walks right by sin and says nothing. I know a few of you're doing it, but the great majority don't. The society as a whole can be characterized as insensitive society. They're not sensitive to the needs of each other. Is that right or wrong? The Muslim society is a society thats sensitive. You go over in the east and start drinking in the public or on the public street. Start Hulk kissing some woman and carrying on your foolishness, on a public street and seed don't somebody wash your feet or cut them off. They wash your feet over there, Brother. Muhammad Ali went to, what was that, Malaysia I think. And he was just being just a normal thing that he did because all the girls run up to him. So, he would see a pretty girl and he kissed on the cheek. There was an uproar there, that's right. Newspapers carried it and everything. In fact, it reached even over in America. Came into our papers. That's washing each other's feet. You think you can come in here and start playing with one of these sisters, or introduce some vices in here and we're going to overlook it?

And we're going to wash your feet. We're going to first get your attention. After we get your attention, then we're going to wash your feet. So, it's a sign of that that was to come, that woman, she was washing according to New Testament, she was washing Jesus' feet with her tears and with her hair. Beautiful knowledge. But does the church teach it? Some of you have been going to church all your life and some of you might be 60 years old. Have the church ever taught you what that means? That that woman washed Jesus feet with her tears and her hair? No, but the Quran, G-d's guidance with the good trust in the Imam, in his G-d, has brought me to understand it. What is a hair symbolic of, your knowledge, your knowledge, your learning. Hair is symbolic of your learning. Common knowledge of the head, common knowledge. Beard is symbolic of spiritual wisdom or higher knowledge. The hair on the head is symbolic of common knowledge, the knowledge that is generally in the society. So, this woman washed Jesus' feet with her hair and her tears. What are tears symbolic of? You have to aid your brother out of sentimental nature. You have to have a sentimental desire in you. You have to have spirit. You have to respond to your brother because you are moved by spirit. You are moved by the forces of the heart. And look at the tears. The tears are salty aren't they? Tears are salt water, not sweet water. The salt water has bitterness. Everybody doesn't want to taste the salt water. So, when we are corrected, isn't it salty to us? If you correct somebody they say take it with a grain of salt. And they speak of the bitter pill or reality that you don't want to face. See, so the scripture is telling you that we have to respond to each other's needs, come to each other's aid, move by the sentiments of the heart. And don't be afraid. Don't be so sensitive that you can't hurt the brother's feelings or the sister's feelings. Let him know that this tear comes from my sentimental nature. It's salty, brother, the water that I'm giving you is salty but my heart is crying. That's why I'm correcting you. Isn't this beautiful?

And isn't this what prophet Muhammad fulfilled? Salla Allahu alaihi wa salam. Prophet Muhammad said the Muslim is the mirror for the Muslim. The Muslim is the mirror for the Muslim. I remind you of your fault. You remind me of my fault. But look how superior this knowledge is. It's better than the parable in the New Testament. The parable in the New Testament is loaded with sentiment. This parable is loaded with justice. When I look in a mirror, the mirror doesn't show me something that is not on me. Some of you like to correct each other but you like to lie. You point out faults that's not there and ignore others that are there. But the mirror tells only what is saw. The mirror can't tell you what's in my heart. The mirror only tells us what it saw. Alright, so what is Prophet Muhammad teaching the Muslims? Don't give reports from guesses, from superstitions, from suspicions. Let your report be truthful, from proof, from concrete proof. Did you see it? Do you have firsthand knowledge of it? You know, you can take two mirrors and put them together so that one mirror tells the other mirror something. But that mirror that receives it from the fifth mirror or from 15 mirrors, tells just what it got 15 mirrors down the line.

Allahu akbar! You see how superior G-d's guidance is. And if we follow it, won't we be the best and the most superior class of people? So, Allah is the one that deserves worship, and every act in a Muslim's religion is an act of worship. Even the cleaning is an act of worship. So, we make our wudu for Allah, we say I'm about to make my ablution, my wudu for Allah, the guardian evolver of all the worlds. When we say bismillahir rahmanir raheem. With the name Allah, the gracious, the compassionate, and we make our wudu. We began with the washing of the right hand. The water has to be clean water. We can't wash with used water, we have to wash with clean water. How is the purity of the water tested? If the water has smell and you didn't put some kind of perfume in it, then it's not pure. Water should be odorless, colorless and tasteless. So, the water has to be clean water and that's the test for it. Odorless, colorless, tasteless. It shouldn't taste like something is in it. It should have only the water taste, that's tasteless. And we begin with the right hand, washing three times, we wash the right hand three times. This is the beginning of ablution in Al Islam.

In the New Testament, John the Baptist, he baptized the people, submerged the whole body, so they stay, into the water. Jesus didn't take people to the water and submerge them, but according to the New Testament, Jesus told the people to wash their feet, to wash each other's feet. The wudu, the cleaning or ablution, the washing of the Muslim, begins with the right hand, with the hand, the right hand first. And it concludes or ends with the washing of the feet, beginning with the right foot first. I would like to read from the New Testament, just some verses here that should be explained, especially for people who are converted from Christian lives or have been influenced by the lies and corruption that had been charged to greet Jesus the prophet. This is from Genesis, chapter 15, beginning with verse 11. It is not the things which go into the mouth that defiles a man, but the things which comes out of the mouth. This defiles a man. Now just think about these verses. So, it's not what goes into the mouth that the defiles. Defiles means what? If something is foul, its bad. If I say you have a foul of breath, you understand what that means. So, something that's foul is bad, has gone bad, it is rotten, it has corruption in it. It's bad. Any bad, any bad thing may be called a foul thing. So, it says is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. What does this mean? I know that things that come out from us make us bad. And if we can restrain ourselves, if we can restrain ourselves and not do the wrong, that we sometime get an inclination to do on impulse to do by restraining ourselves, It keeps us good. And when we give freedom to these bad feelings, bad impulses, harmful impulses, they make us grow to become foul or they defile us. That's true. But there's something missing here, so let's continue. Verse 17, not to understand that whatever enters in at the mouth goes into the belly and is cast out into waste. Now let's look at this. This is not to know, that to understand that whatever goes into the mouth enters the belly and it's cast out into waste. Something is missing here. The good that goes in, the body tries to use it. But If excess goes in, it will throw out even good. But the body has been designed to recognize some things that are not good, that are harmful. And when the body recognizes these things, it sometimes throws it back up the way it came in. And that that the body does not have use for, it passes it out as waste in the form of urine or in the form of excretion or defecation.

But some things can pass by the detectors from the stomach, in the mouth, in the stomach. Can get past them and destroy the being, kill it.

So, these poisons that can go past the mouth, go down into the stomach and won't be thrown up, enter the bloodstream and kill us. What does this verse have to say about that? So, theres something missing here, isn't it? The Muslim must be careful, what he puts into his mouth. The Muslim can't put filth into his mouth. So, we go from the hands and we go to the mouth for, ablution. See how wonderful our religion is? These people have tricked us. So, Allah comes back to save us. Say yes, it is very important that your acts be clean and upright, but don't just protect your hands from harming others. Clean out your mouth, clean out your mouth with clean water. The ablution is not right if you use dirty water, thats no ablution, that's adding pollution to pollution. So, we wash the right hand three times. What is the hand symbolic of? What are the hands symbolic of? Actions! Dont these hands do most of our work? Don't they carry out most of the acts. The hand. So, they are symbolic of our actions. So, we should first take charge of our actions, but you can't get charge of your actions if your intentions are bad.

Declare your intention and connect it with G-d. Make it an act of reverence and everything to follow should be an act of reverence. Means an act of respect, an act of obedience to G-d, to wash the right hand three times. Why the right hand first? Well, people, a long time ago have used the right hand or the right side to represent truth, honesty. Right in court they have your right today, will you swear, will you raise your right hand? Will you raise your right hand? But let's look a little deeper, which hand serves us most? We have some left-handed people. But if we would say, we want to know which hand in society has been the most valuable, has contributed the most? We are ready to reward the right or the left hand of society. Which hand would be rewarded the most? Because there are more people, right-handed, the stronger hand of most people is the right hand. And that hand has done more for the people, for the human being, for the world than the left hand. So, shouldn't we give attention first to that, that has this power to serve us the most? Yes, that's common sense. So first I wash my right hand. I get that that can help us most ready, in shape, to give the help you see. And we wash it three times. Why? Because our acts are sometime motivated by materialism, sometimes motivated by self-interest or by rationale or dry rationale. And then sometimes, what I mean by that, in argument, arguments make us sometimes act and we come under the influence, under the dominant domination of argument. So, people are not aware of that and we are always arguing. Don't think because you're not arguing now, you're not arguing. Right now, you are throwing thoughts back and forth. That's a form of argument. And people can get caught up in the argument and the influence of the arguments take them over and directs them or dominate them. So sometimes we get caught up into the influences or the powers of the material world and then sometimes we come under the influence of our reasoning, of our logic of the arguments. And then sometimes we come under the influence of our spirit. The spirit. Allah says in the Qur'an that on the day of judgment, three columns of smoke shall rise from the human being. What does this tell us? This tells us that not only the materialism can have corruption in it, smoke represents impurities that are coming out. Not only the materialism can have corruption, but also the intelligence can have corruption and also the spirit can have corruption. Some people think merely because they become spiritual, they're saved. Spirituality is not enough to save us. Human spirituality can be corrupt. Human intelligence can be corrupt and human flesh, or carnality is corruption. So, you see, we have three forms that we have to watch over. Not in G-d. G-d has one. One existence. He's one all the way through. We are the ones that have to watch over three developments, not G-d. So, look at this now, we wash the hand three times, the right hand three times, so that we will not act physically, mentally, or spiritually in a wrong way. That our acts will be clean and upright, respecting the judgment of the word of Almighty G-d. Then we wash the left hand three times. What does the left hand represent? Acts too. But the left hand usually serves me without my attention given to it.

My conscious acts are done mostly with the right hand and unconscious acts are done mostly with the left hand, or given mostly to the left hand. The left hand will help the right hand without me consciously ordering the left hand to do that. But I set the right hand to do a work for me. I set the right hand to pick up the book right, and the left hand, I don't have to tell it. It will hold the book, it hold the pages. I'm not telling the left hand anything. The left hand has been made to obey voluntarily. Now, shouldn't the weak in society obey the strength voluntarily? We shouldn't have to punish them? Weakness should recognize strength and be influenced by strength, to help strength, you see? So, if we study the guidance of G-d, the light of G-d, that G-d shines in on our own world and our own body, oh, we would be wise people. I'm telling you, we'd be wise people. We wash the left hand also three times. Why? Because our impulsive acts are also subject to wrong.

If the conscious act has been wrong, then the unconscious act has been influenced by the conscious act. So, we have to take the right hand then and with conscience, with intention and with conscience, correct the automatic habits, the automatic acts. Then we go from the hands and we clean out the mouth. If a man restrains himself, restrains himself from doing unclean and bad things or harmful things, if he checked his actions, the work that he does with his hands, his actions, and even his voluntary acts, if he remains conscious of them, that they have to be watched over, can that man avoid being a man whose speech, whose tongue, whose words are ready to agree with his intentions? If we govern our acts, the speech, it will be ready to comply.



