04/15/1999
IWDM Study Library 
University of Alabama

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Thank you. Thank you. G-d is greater. G-d is the greatest Allahu Akbar. That's what we were saying. We pray, give praise, the praise and the thanks to G-d who is the Lord Creator of the universe. We witness that He is G-d the one G-d, the Creator of everything and cares about all of His creation and especially His human creation. We thank Him for the great gifts of revelation and the human model to demonstrate how we should follow revelation for us Muslims, the last Prophet, the seal of the Prophets, Muhammad, upon him be the peace and what follows of that salute to Muhammad the last of the Prophets. G-d says to us that Muhammad the Prophet that he is the mercy to all the worlds, a mercy to all the worlds. And if Muhammed a mercy to all the worlds, then Muslims also who follow him should be a mercy to all of the worlds.
If we want to do something constructive in life or make contributions to the betterment of society, of our own individual life and life of society, then we should do it with that knowledge that Muhammad was given to humanity as a mercy to all people. As a mercy to all worlds. In Islam, education is top priority for individuals and also for the community. As Allah made Muhammad an educated, educated person. He was not educated, he was not formally educated. He did not receive any formal education, but G-d educated him. Allah says that He taught, that He will teach him Himself and G-d did teach him as a sign to all of us, a great sign to all of us that the common man is never without hope. The common man, if he is in the condition that G-d wants him in, if he can earn G-d's love, G-d's friendship, then G-d can take the common man when the world is not in any condition to help him and can teach and educate the common man with revelation that opens up, brings to life his heart and his intellect. And that's what G-d did for Muhammad the Prophet. Then he's a sign and G-d did it for others. And the line, the great lineage of the Prophets, the Messengers of G-d that came to this world and Muhammad, He did it to Muhammad and the emphasis is on human kind, the emphasis is on the globe, the total earth, the whole earth and all people and the needs of individuals in community. Therefore the needs of community, the needs of community. Education as we know, you're students of history, education is really the herald of civilization. Without education, we can't have true civilization. Without education, we can't have the advances that we appreciate in life, in society. We can't have the conveniences that we enjoy, all of these conveniences that we enjoy in modern civilization or industrialized society.
We couldn't have these conveniences without education. We couldn't even have the opening of the mind to appreciate the creation of G-d and to feed upon it with our intelligence, to our minds, to digest what G-d has put in it for us so that we can grow individually and collectively. We couldn't have that without education. So, the first thing G-d did for Muhammad was to begin to bring to life his mind, his intellect to educate him. The first words of revelation to Muhammad the Prophet was read. And he said, "I cannot read." He said to G-d, "I can't read." And G-d repeated "Read" and He repeated for the third time, for the second time "I can't read." And G-d repeated again to him the third time and said, "Read." And Muhammad began to read what G-d wanted him to read. It's very interesting to note that G-d told Muhammad not to read in the Name of Allah, and Muhammad knew what Allah was. It's an Arabic word for G-d. But G-d didn't say to Muhammad, the first words to Muhammad was not to read, Bismillah, not to read in the Name of G-d. He said, "Read in the Name of your Lord who created." So that connects Muhammad, Muhammad's mind with creation. And how are you going to read if you don't get help from the objective world?
G-d said, "Read in the name of your Lord who created." And Muhammad became very literate and he became the educator of the Muslim ummah, the international Muslim ummah. He is our educator. He's more than just our Prophet. He's our educator. Through him, we were educated. Through Muhammad, we were educated with the revelation and the guidance of G-d that is a mercy to all nations, to all people. Education is top priority for us. Once we have faith and desire to live a life in obedience to our Creator, to Allah, G-d that is, the next thing is to prepare ourselves to be responsible and productive, useful. And Muhammad the Prophet says, "The best of you are those who are most useful to their societies, to mankind." How is this building bridges? What has stood in the ways of man realizing the maximum good on this earth that he can realize for himself and his society, his family or his nation, racism, ignorance, greed.
Greed for power, greed for dominance, et cetera. We can address these conditions, these bad conditions in the life of society, singularly deal with them separately, and we do and we have to. But G-d revealed to Muhammad how to break bonds of slavery on the soul, spirit, mind or intellect of man without going directly to the problem. If you can unlock his soul, you can free the whole life. So, G-d gave revelation to the great Prophets, to His great servants that helps us come alive in our souls. And none of us can really come alive in our souls until we realize that we are not more important than human beings collectively. And Muhammad the Prophet said, "You will not enter the paradise until you have faith and you will not have faith until you have love for one another." Practice loving one another. And we know that this is a key principle in the Christian community too. Jesus Christ's commandment was that you love one another as I have loved you, love you one another. And I think we all need the love with the sober passions. Sober passions. And again, that's what G-d wants for us. Sober passions.
If we love Him first and love others because of Him knowing that we wouldn't be able to exist and have them, if it was not for G-d creating us as He has created us with these human hearts and sensitivities.
We wouldn't even care about them. We wouldn't even have them as our loved ones if G-d hadn't given us the capacity that He has given us to love and to want to love and to want to be loved. So, if we put G-d first, we can have all that. So it's no separate solution that Islam has. Islam according to the revelation, the book of G-d to Muhammad the Prophet, our book, the Universal book Muhammad brought to us from Allah. The angel was the medium, the angel, Gabriel was the medium to bring from G-d, the Qur'an to Muhammed. And we know that the Qur'an wants us to see the broad picture, the community of mankind just as Christianity does, just as Judaism does. And regarding these two religions and their relationship or their kinship or our kinship as three Abrahamic religions, or as some say, some of the teachers of religious teachers are saying now, heavenly religions, G-d says to us in our Holy Book that you'll find the Christians to be the nearer to you, the nearest to you. When we think of the Jews, what they believe in, especially G-d, we think of ourselves being closer to the Jews than the Christians because the Jews insist upon the kind of, I would say, worship of G-d or monotheism that's close to Islam, close to Islam. And when we think of trinitarianism, then we think of something that's away from Islam. G-d knew that Christians had this idea of the trinity, and G-d still said, you'll find the Christians to be the nearest, the nearer to you. Now, if I said that without support from the Qur'an, you all would drive, the Muslims would drive me off this platform. But G-d said it. Yes, many of the Muslims would drive me off the platform, out of this building. But G-d said it. You'll find the Christians to be nearer to you, the nearer to you. Why is that? It is because the Trinitarian idea is a mystery. It is tied to mysteries, to mysteries. And G-d has given the nature of all people, has given all people the nature to recognize that there is one G-d. So, we can say trinitarianism to people and say G-d is being one, all in one. But when they pray, they pray to one G-d. And they believe. And if you ask them how many G-ds are there, they'll say One, one G-d. So, we leave it to the Pope to tell us what the Trinitarian idea is.
We leave it to the priests in the church to tell us what that idea is. All we know is there's one G-d. And that's what the human heart knows too. And the soul knows that there's one G-d. And I do believe that Christians believe in one G-d. Someone said "They're kaffirs, they're disbelievers Brother Imam. Why you want this closeness with the Christian people. They're the kaffirs. No. If G-d says you will find them to be the nearer to you, then that's enough for me. And G-d want us to work together with each other. G-d want us to work together with each other for a better world. And G-d respects the good work of any worker. This is Qur'an I'm giving you. our holy book I'm speaking from. G-d respects the good work of any worker and G-d does not disregard or do away with the good works of any worker. That's what He said. He didn't say, well, if it's a Buddhist doing good work or Christian doing good work, the case is different. No.
Any worker, any worker, if you find people doing good and they're working for the same goal or the first same end that we are working for, we would be absolutely foolish in this day and time when the world is too small for us to be working against each other, to not embrace them, embrace their work, embrace them and work together. Because we have enough working against us. There are enough people working against G-d. There are enough people working against religion. There are enough people working against morality and ethics. There are enough people working against faith in G-d. We need those few that are sincere from the Christians and the Jews and others and Muslims to combine their efforts so we can survive better for the future of mankind, for the good future of mankind on this earth. So that is the message. That's not my message.
I'm convinced I'm a follower of Prophet Muhammad. It's because of me studying the Holy Book that he received, the Qur'an. And it is because of me studying his personality, his life that I'm the man I am. Yes, that's what has made me the man I am. So, I don't care how many people differ with me. I don't want to go back to what I was and I don't want to go back to what you were or what you are if you differ with this idea. So, I'm determined to follow the way of unity, the way of peace, the way of tolerance and the way of diplomacy. Muhammad was not a man just come one way and say, that's it. That's it. Take it or leave it. He was a diplomat. He was diplomatic. Peace be upon him. He was a great diplomat. When his own people were persecuting him, he remembered that there was a Christian leader of the Habashi, what we would call Ethiopians now. So, he sent his followers to that man so that he could get help for his followers. And they went to that Christian ruler and they told the Christian ruler of the persecution that they were suffering in their own land, in the land the Arabs.
And he permitted them asylum there, gave them protection and assured them that they would be safe in his land. The idol worshippers were hot on their heels. They finally arrived and they demanded that this king give those followers of Muhammad back to them, that they belonged to our land. Theyre our citizens, give them back to us. He refused. That's Muhammad the Prophet. Don't we owe debt then to people who believe in Christianity? Yes, we do. And when Muhammad became the leader, the authority in Medina, and the society was then under the rule of the Qur'an. G-d, with the director Muhammad in place, he mandated freedom of religion. I didn't discover this. My Muslim brothers who researched history and kept preserved the history of Islam, they gave me this. Muhammad mandated the freedom of religion. That the Christians and the Jews could continue to preach, to live their religion as they have lived it before. He didn't say, you can be Jews but you have to change it. No, he permitted them to follow their religion as they followed it before. So, we have to understand that if we are going to build bridges, we should first look at the most serious problems, the most serious issues for unity, peace and cooperation among people.
And one of them is this idea that G-d gave one religion the freedom to take over the world and drive all other religions out. G-d said if He had wanted to make you one community, He could have made man one community, but He chose not to. I was just listening to a very clear minded, the Imam from Africa on an audio tape here very recently. And he was teaching us repentance, repentance. And he was saying how G-d created man with a free will. Well, it's a limited free will. We know we can't do anything and everything. Our powers are limited. He created us with limited free power, free will and power. And he said, and He also created us not as angels perfect, but as human beings with the nature not only to seek perfection but also with the nature to make errors, to make mistakes, to sin. And I've never read the Hadith to verify the authenticity of this Hadith. But this Imam, he says, he quoted the Hadith. He said that if man did not sin, G-d would've done away with that creation of man and created another one that would sin. He said, because G-d is forgiving. That's one of his attributes. He is merciful and forgiving. So how is He going to exercise that attribute if there are no one to make, no one making mistakes?
I bought his logic, but I can't verify the authenticity of that Hadith because I haven't studied that. I don't recall reading it, but I did buy the logic. So similarly, I would say the same reasoning applies when we look at the different communities. If G-d make us different communities, then G-d is giving us an opportunity to show our uniqueness, to show our individuality. Not only as individuals but also as a society. G-d has given us the freedom to have distinction as societies, or communities.
And some of us are going to sin more than others. Some of us are going to overcome others with power, will power or some other power. And it's going to be a test. It's going to be a test. And the better one eventually will rise to the top. It may take generations and generations. It may take thousands and thousands of years, but whatever G-d has done will stay. And that's what G-d says in the Holy Book. Says, what is with G-d stays. What is with you perishes, goes away in time. And that means what is not in accord with the will of G-d will be done away with in time. So, if G-d intended for us to be correct and excellent, but He made us free to differ with each other, in time, we are going to overcome these barriers of differences. And in time we are going to be in peace, in unity, in harmony. And the best is going to be acknowledged by all of us in time. I don't know how many times it'll take, but in time I know that's going to happen. I was speaking to a group, an audience here recently, audience of educators, but most of the audience was common folks, common people from the public.
Jew who was a very educated man on the faculty of this university where I spoke and was in the group that arranged for me to be there as their speaker. And Christians. When he came up to comment on what I had said there, presented to them that evening, he said, I want to tell you if a Muslim is what Imam Mohammed said, a Muslim is, I'm a Muslim. He said, I'm a Muslim. Now I don't know where he was speaking from. He couldn't be speaking from his training. He couldn't have been speaking from his training. He couldn't have been speaking from his religious knowledge. He had to be speaking from his heart, his soul. He was speaking from his soul. He was speaking from his heart and his soul. And Muhammad the Prophet said, everyone is born a Muslim, everyone is born a Muslim, and it is the circumstances that he is put in that makes him otherwise. A Jew or Christian or something else. Now, we should understand too that all Muslims are not Muslims, and all Christians are not Christians, and all Jews are not Jews. Now I'm going to leave it just like that. In the very beginning of the Qur'an, G-d says to Muhammad read. And then when G-d tells us at the beginning of mankind how mankind began, the attention is again on the intellect.
G-d says that He wanted to share with the angels His plan to create a human being, a khalifa, a rule in the earth, responsible for himself under G-d and responsible for the environment under G-d. He wanted to create a Khalifa, that's the term for that particular person in that role, a human mortal, human mortal, flesh and blood made from the earth. Mud. The angels were alarmed. They said, oh Lord, what will you create? This will cause bloodshed. There will be bloodletting. G-d says, I know what you know now. Then G-d spoke to the man that He was going to put in the earth, His man that he created Adam, our father, first father. And He said to him, He said, Adam, tell them their names. So that tells us that the angels didn't even know their own names. He said, Adam, tell them their names. So, when Adam told them their names, they submitted. They made sadjah. In Islam, it's called sadjah. For the Muslim sadjah. They bowed down with complete submission to G-d. But He said, bow down to Adam. Isnt that what He said to the angels, bow down to Adam. And they all bowed except the rebel among them called the Iblis, the one who became the Satan, the shaitan, the devil, the head of all evil. And then G-d says, did not I tell you I know what you know not. That's what G-d said to the angels. Now here is a human being, having ability to know what angels do not have the ability to know. Speaking from the Qur'an. Here is a human being with the ability to know what angels do not have the ability to know. So what is this special gift that G-d gave human beings, that He didn't give the angels free mind, free intellect, rational powers, the power to reason, the power to make independent choices, the power to obey Him or disobey Him. He had never made a creature like that before. For the angels, according to Islamic knowledge, have no power according to Qur'anic knowledge or reading. Have no power, cannot disobey G-d. They cannot. It's not in their nature or in their power to disobey G-d. And I know someone will say, well, how come Iblis, one of the angels, Iblis. How was he able to refuse to accept it? Because he was never a true angel. He was just among the angels in the role of an angel. And in his nature and mind, he thought he was an angel. But when the test came, it proved that he was not an angel. He rebelled. How is this bridge building bridges? If we don't support reason and respect the opinion of each other and the opinion of different societies or different groups of men, we can't have any peace on this earth. We have to have respect for the human mind. And even if you think he's wrong, if he's determined to be as he is, it's better for you to leave him alone, than to try to break his mind or kill him because he doesn't believe like you believe. G-d is not like that. If He was, He would have killed most of us long time ago.
Muhammad says of the human intellect that G-d made no better thing in terms of its power, ability to facilitate progress, to produce, open the way and facilitate progress. This particular utility that the human brain has, makes it better than anything else G-d created for man. There's nothing else in our world. And we know that human brain is the reason why we have civilization, the reason why we have all of these great advances, the reason why we take so much pride in our fine universities like the University of Alabama.
So, something that has priority, top priority for the life and successful society that we will go back to the savages. We will lose our life, our human life and our morals. And our morals. It is the intellect that refine the morals. It's the intellect that extend the morals. It's the intellect that frees the morals. It's the intellect that brings moral thinking to ethical thinking. Where morality graduates from just simple morality or simple morals to ethics. This is what we need in the world and the Christians cherish the same values that we cherish. And if we want to build bridges so that we can live together and work together among each other and not be threatened and not have fear, then we have to respect what G-d has revealed and order our priorities as G-d has ordered our priorities and realize that no matter what we do, if we don't do it in recognition of Him, thinking ourselves bigheaded will not get it if we don't do it in recognition of Him and give Him credit for everything.
We want credit for inventing electricity. No, you were just a tool. You were only an instrument. That man putting that kite up there, he was only doing what G-d inspired him to do. Yes, we believe in inspiration on different levels. The highest level is the level that the Prophets get on the highest level. But G-d is with any creature that wants to do something for the benefit of all. Thank you very much and I hope we are working on building bridges so we can have peace and harmony and unity and more progress for all people on this earth. Peace be unto you and we pray G-d forgive us our errors and guide us to the way to His straight path always. Ameen.
Host:
Praise be to Almighty G-d. We appreciate the comments and insight of Imam Warith Din Mohammed. And now we'd like to give an opportunity for those who may have questions to have an opportunity to address questions or even short comments. We hope there's questions, even short comments to the Imam. Our preference is that it be directed towards something that was delivered tonight. But if there is something else, we can understand that. But that's our preference is any questions directed towards the subject that was presented tonight. So, if you have a question, you can come to any of the mics.
IWDM:
Yes sir. Nope. Passed it up. Yes Ma'am.
IWDM:
Yes. Our paper has been keeping up. The Muslim Journal, that's our paper, has been keeping up with what's happening and keeping us informed to the best of it's ability. And we do have Muslims in Chicago area where I live. We're in touch with what's going on. We support it with our hearts, our spirits, and we are prepared to support it with money and life if we have to. Yes, you're welcome.
IWDM:
Yes, I believe I do. I believe I do. If my answer doesn't satisfy you, then you follow up with another question. First, we have to be aware, be aware that Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon him. He wasn't given the power. G-d didn't give him the power to see the future. G-d revealed to him, he didn't have the power to see the future. So, I'm sure he didn't know that the ruler, the Christian ruler would become a Muslim. And I believe if we would, if our ambassadors for Islam, coming among Christians and others who don't believe as we do. If they want to invite people to Islam. They weren't really inviting the ruler to become a Muslim, they were inviting the ruler to see the value of their religion. The envoy that Prophet Muhammad, Peace be Upon him, sent. He didn't send them to invite the ruler to become a Muslim. He sent them to go to that ruler for safety from the persecutors who were persecuting them, their own people, Arabs. And he sent them to do that. And they had the wisdom to do it in a very respectful, diplomatic way. They didn't tell the ruler "La Ilaha Il Allah, Muhammadan Rasul Allah." They read to the ruler, they recited to the ruler passages from the Qur'an that respected the mother, the blessed, the mother, Mary, and the blessed child, Christ Jesus, the Prophet. That's what they did. If we would use the same diplomacy to have Christians be comfortable with us, maybe a lot of them would become Muslims. Like that ruler did. Thank you.
IWDM:
If I would share my opinion. Yeah, I believe, well, I believe we are living in the day of religion. I believe this is the day of religion. This is the season for religions now to come back to their purity, to clean up their acts so that we can see the common essence that all of us share. We all share revelation from the same G-d, and we all share essentially the same vision for the future of mankind on this earth.
So, I think this is the day of religion where the smallness of the world and the closeness of people now, the cost of multiplying the populations, growing populations, et cetera, and the invention of the television that has problems, but it has more good than problems. It has caused us to see ourselves all over the world. None of us can hide anymore. You don't have to wait six months to get the reports from across the water. You'll get it in about six minutes or six seconds. So, we have come to a time where we can't hide from each other. We are close together. So, we need a system that can serve all of us. We need to bring our ideologies, our strategies to one table now so that one is not hurting the other.
And religion is the answer. If G-d's word is the best guidance, then religion is going to facilitate this great need for people to find the place for peace and harmony and cooperation. The religion is going to do that. And I do believe this is the day of religion, not the day of judgment. The day of judgment is all the time. The great day of judgment, I don't know when it will come. We don't know. No one knows only G-d as Muhammad told us, Peace be Upon him. But the day of religion is here. When did it ever happen in the history of man that most of the great popular, outstanding leaders of religion, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, are trying to come to each other, trying to reach each other, put their hands in each other's hands for a better world.
When did that ever happen in the history of man? It didn't happen. It never happened. It has never happened before. So, I believe this is a time of religion. So, what my position is on religion, my position is that religious communities should go along with the best voices that we are hearing, the most knowledgeable voices, the most informed voices, the cleanest voices that we are hearing. And the Pope, the leader for the Catholics, he's one of those voices. And I know Protestants have problems with the Pope or Catholics. You don't believe alike. But Protestants are embracing the good message and good leadership of Pope John Paul.
Yes, because this is time for it. Conditions have come about because of the growth of man, the dynamism of man's soul and his works, his society, has brought us to a situation where the best of us is demanded of us, the best that we have in our souls and our minds and our capacity as human beings is demanded of us. And so, our leaders are speaking now with cleaner voices. They're speaking now with less selfishness. They're asking us to be more tolerant. And what is my idea of politics or government? That government is going to have to become more respectful of revelation, the word of G-d and the faith communities. And that's what's happening in the United States of America. Muslims believed that G-d created us for the whole life, not just to be souls without bodies or to have spiritual life without industrial life. He created us to have the whole life. And He created all the material things for us to get benefit from.
The religious people are not in control of industry. We are not in control of material wealth. We need government, we need industry. All of us need each other. I think if we look how this world has grown and how it has become. Different powers, checks and balances, not only in the White House but checks and balances out here in the streets or in the world. We look how things have happened. We have to see the masterful work of G-d. G-d has done that, to create a situation where we can get the greatest benefits. G-d says He didn't make you difference, nations and races, tribe, et cetera, so that you could stand over each other, but He made you different so that you would have a curiosity and want to become acquainted with each other. And when you become acquainted with each other, you say, Ooh, look what the continent of Asia has produced for the good of mankind.
Look what the continent of Europe has produced for the good of mankind. Look what the continent of Africa has produced for the good of mankind." Now let us follow the one who made it all possible. Let us please Him and put it all on the table so all of us can enjoy the best of what we have produced. This is what G-d wants, and that's what's happening. Now, I don't know if that satisfies your question or not, but that's what's in my heart to say to you and everybody when I get an opportunity to speak, that miracles are happening. They're modern day miracles. And to me, they may be bigger than the parting of the Red Sea. Thank you. Thank you. I have to go now. Thank you. Peace.
Host:
I'd just like to make two announcements. One announcement is that first of all, we'd like to thank the Imam on behalf of the students. We thank them for hosting us. We thank Imam for a wonderful address and question/answer period. One more time. Takbir. Takbir. Takbir. I'd like to announce that Imam WD Mohammed will be conducting the Jumu'ah prayer service and he will be the speaker tomorrow in Birmingham, Alabama at the Jumu'ah Prayer Service at 1:00 PM. So those who are able to come, we invite you to come and be with us. And the other announcement is that WD Mohammed Ministry has a table set up outside as you go out the auditorium with a lot of more information that you can secure there. So please stop by WD Mohammed's ministry table right as you go outside the auditorium. Thank you.
Imam WD Mohammed (47:37):
We'd just like to close with Al Fatiha. Bismillah Ar Rahama, Nir Raheem. Al Hamduillahi Raabil Al Amin, Ar Rahman, Nir Raheem. Maliki Yaw Mideen. Iyaka Na'a budu Wa Iyaka Nasta een. Ihdina Siratal Mustaqeem. Siratal Ladin An Amta Alahim, Gharil Magdubi Alahim Wa Lad Daaaleen. Ameen. Thank you.



