04/16/1999
IWDM Study Library 
Jumuah 
Birmingham, Alabama

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Praise be to Allah, the Lord Sustainer of all the Worlds. Ash hadu an La Ilaha Illallah Wa Sharika Lahu. Wa Ashadu Ana Muhammadan Rasul Lahu. We witness that Allah is One and has no partner or associates. And We Witness that Muhammad, to whom the Qur'an was revealed over 1400 years ago, is His servant and Messenger, the seal of the Prophets. We glorify G-d and we glorify Him when we say Allahu Akbar. We glorify G-d when we give recognition to Him when we recognize that all good that comes to us is from Him. We glorify G-d when we recognize that a man as human being like ourselves, as G-d says of Muhammad "Tell them oh Muhammad, I am a mortal being just like you." We glorify G-d when we accept Muhammad, a man, a mortal, a human being like ourselves as the communicator of G-d's direction, G-d guidance to us directly from G-d. You say "Oh, not directly Gabriel brought it to Muhammad." That is correct, but Gabriel, Gabriel is not human being. Gabriel is not human. And Gabriel is not of this material world that we are seeing with our eyes. So though everything comes by medium, G-d speaks to us from Muhammad, G-d speaks to us, not from Gabriel, from Muhammad G-d spoke to us. So, we're getting it directly from Muhammad who receives it from G-d. So we have no other medium between us and G-d, but Muhammad. And Muhammad gave to us what G-d revealed. And we glorify G-d when we say a mortal, a human being like us. Not an angel, not a half angel, or a half man, but a common human being just like ourselves received G-d's message, communication, a decree of the heavens and the earth for us. And we glorify G-d when we say and witness and tell others, Muhammad is the Messenger of G-d. When we say Muhammad is the Messenger of G-d, certainly we are saying that he is a special man, a special man is the Messenger of G-d.
What's revealing is that this special man has no special connection with G-d, like priests or a person studying the scripture. No, he was not in touch at all with any scripture. He was away from scripture. He believed in his nature. He was one of the people called the Hunafa, of the Arabs before Islam. He was one of them who believed in human nature, believed in the natural world and human nature and they believed that nature itself supported being right. You was supposed to be right and good. Not bad. He refused to worship idols, he and the other people that he associated with. They never worshipped idols. Plus he was not familiar with revelation as we know revelation. The Jews book and the Christians book. He was not familiar with that at all. And the proof of that is that when he received revelation from G-d, it was strange to him because he had never read about these things. And he went to his wife, told his wife of the strange experience that he was having and that as he began to speak with her, she explained to him that she knew a Christian and the Christian perhaps could give them some understanding. And the Christian was her uncle and he did give Muhammad some understanding and helped Muhammad feel more at ease with what was happening to him, the spiritual experience that he was going through.
So, we glorify G-d. Every day should begin with the glorification of G-d. That's why the first thing the Muslim should hear, should wake us is the Adhan at Fajr time. The first words we should hear is that G-d is greater. Glorify G-d, Allahu Akbar. And when we start off from home with our life, we should go out realizing that Allah, that G-d is most important. Nothing that is good for me that happens would be possible without G-d. And this is natural for the human being. This is Hunafa. It's natural for the human being whether he belong to a Church or Mosque, or a Synagogue, whatever. It's natural for human beings if they haven't been corrupted by the bad things in the world. It's natural for human being to seek to give praise to the one that has made possible all the good that's in their life. They may call Him by different names they may not know how to call Him, but they go out knowing that there is something that's made me like this. Something has made it possible for me being the person I am, the beautiful person I am, the hard working person I am etc. We have that awareness of G-d that's more important than anything else and bigger than even the creation. When we say Allahu Akbar, it means that He is bigger than material creation, bigger then the universe. And none of us know the exact size of the universe. They can't give us the order of the universe. No facts, no one studying the universe can give us the order of the universe. And Allah is bigger than that and yet Allah is able to put Himself right in the heart of the Prophet, the soul of Prophet Muhammad, put Himself right in the heart of the Prophet. He's bigger than the whole universe, but yet He put himself right in the soul of the Prophet. He says "I am nearer to him then his own jugular vein." And that goes for us too. If we accept G-d in our souls, in our heart and our souls, G-d is right here in every one of us. The G-d that is bigger than the universe is right here in every one of us.
And not in us as an incomplete G-d He's us as a complete G-d. He's bigger than the universe and yet He's in me as a complete G-d. He's complete within me. Isn't that something to think about? Yes. How wonderful it is. And at the same time in every one of us and everywhere in the whole universe, in everything even beyond the universe He's there. And that's why I guess G-d says, "And which ever way you turn your faces, G-d is there. We turn our faces to the Kaa'ba. And In the book G-d says, "Turn your faces to the Kaa'ba." And in the same book G-d says, "And whichever way you turn your face, G-d is there." Everywhere. Everywhere you are, G-d is everywhere.
This is why this taste better. You can't explain this. No knowledge, no science that I know of, spiritual science or no other science, can just explain that to me where I have no more need to wonder about it in my rational mind. So, this is how we accept G-d. We accept G-d, we accept Him as much as we can understand Him with our rational mind. And at the same time, G-d remains hidden from us, that is beyond the rational eye of the rational mind. The eyes cannot form a physical perception of Him, yet we trust the rational mind with the perception it give us. We glorify G-d with the glorification of Allahu Akbar, and we glorify Him with our obedience, our respect, our obedience and our witness. And that brings me to what I want to say to you today. We are to be witnesses for G-d. We have to first have our souls accept G-d and love G-d in our soul. Not just outside of us but love G-d in our own soul. G-d should be your closest companion. G-d should be your closest friend. We love G-d within our own soul. We open our soul to Him and accept Him in our souls that we witness that He is G-d. We become Muslims officially or accordingly by witnessing that He is G-d.
Ash Hadu La Ilaha Il Allah. I witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except the One G-d. Ash Hadu Ana Muhammadan Rasul Alah. And we witness that Muhammad is the Prophet or Messenger, a mortal human being like us, is the Messenger of G-d to the whole world. A mercy to all the worlds. This is an obligation on us as individuals. Than G-d says to us, "Be a people standing as witnesses to G-d upon the principles of justice." Upon the principle of justice. This is obligated on us as individuals. So, for the individual in this community, when he accepts G-d in his heart and soul, then he is fit for the work of family life, he is fit for the work of community life. He is fit now to come into the community and make a contribution do the work that G-d has called him to because he has accepted to obey G-d in his heart and soul. He is devoted to G-d in his heart and soul, he makes no partners with G-d, he is free to pursue all the good work that G-d requires of him. He is fit now to join his brothers in the community to live community life and build up his community for the betterment of all. And if that dies within us, the whole community dies.
Allah says, "The life and the death of a society is as the life and death of one individual." If the desire to be devoted to G-d dies in our souls, that is the real death. The physical deterioration, the physical losses of our body or the physical even of our community is not the real death. If we keep G-d in our hearts and soul, we can bring back the community establishment just like if we keep G-d in our hearts and soul, we can bring back the deteriorated human being. We can lose our money, we can lose our friends, lose everything. But if we keep Allah in our hearts and soul, we can bring back the good life again, of the individual and of the society. For as Allah says, "The death and resurrection of a whole people is as the death and resurrection of one individual." Allahu Akbar.
We praise G-d, Alhamdu Ilahi Rabbil Al Amin. We praise G-d, Lord of all the Worlds. He is Ar Rahman and Ar Raheem He's The Merciful Benefactor and The Merciful Redeemer. In the chapter of the Qur'an Ar Rahman, the Merciful, Allah describes the many beautiful things that the human being delights in. The many treasures that exist, both of the land and the water. Beautiful things coral in the sea, and the pearls and all of the rich and beautiful things G-d has enriched us with on both land and sea externally. But even more important, He has enriched us internally. The soul is as G-d wants it to be. He also wants the soul to have its water. And in the water of the soul will be many precious things.
And in the rational mind or the material signs will be many precious gifts, precious things to help us have a good comfortable life. So, man had this idea long before Islam that Islam doesn't accept man without accepting what G-d has caused man to discover. Because of the nature that G-d has given him, he has been able to discover those things. Call it microcosms and macrocosms. Nevertheless, the Qur'an is calling man to life. Life in microcosm and macrocosm. In my conclusion we're to be witnesses for G-d as individuals. From the beginning we have to be witnesses of G-d as the individuals, but also the community itself is to be witnesses for G-d, all of us. Because the message of the Prophets is a message that appeals to the whole community. "Be witnesses for G-d." If our community is to be witnesses for G-d, then our community is to be as Prophet Muhammad. Prophet Muhammad didn't just read scripture, Peace be Upon him. Muhammad read scripture, Peace be Upon him, and then he applied the knowledge and he taught to build the community life up so that community life, its stores, its schools, its Mosque, its businesses, everything would be a witness for G-d. That G-d has shown me the proper picture of myself and that G-d has called me and shown me the proper way how to use the resources of the earth and become an establishment. Thank you very much. Let us be witnesses singularly and let us be witnesses for G-d collectively. As a group, as a community and as a society.
Iqamah:
Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Il Allah, Ash Hadu Ana Muhammadan Rasulullah. Heya Al Salat, Heya Al Falaq. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. La Ilaha Il Allah.



