7/12/2002
IWDM Study Library
Jumuah Masjid Taqwa 
Chicago IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Following the way of Muhammed the prophet, peace be upon him. Our prayer shows discipline. We do it five times daily and we do other prayers too. But we are obligated to do five times daily, five prayers daily. We do the prayers of Muhammed, the extra prayers that he gave to G-d, more than what G-d asked. And those prayers are called Sunnah prayers. Sunnah prayers, the traditional prayers of Muhammed the prophet, his tradition, the tradition of the prophet. So we have a religion of discipline from the time we awaken before sunrise, Fajr time, is before sunrise, until the time we eat the last meal before retiring. And after eating that meal, we say the last prayer before retiring, the fifth prayer, the night prayer, Isha prayer. So we have a life of discipline. Now, these prayers, G-d knows that sometimes you're going to be in a situation and it's going to be very difficult for you to make these prayers. So in wartime they had provisions where they could pray. Some could pray while other watched for the enemy, they had other provisions too. But also in travel, in travel. Travel back there in those days, was very hard on people. Conditions were bad. You got a horse, you traveling on horse, on donkeys, on camels. No matter what animal you traveled on, it was difficult. Some walking, some didn't have animals, they had to walk. Traveling took so long and was so arduous, very difficult, involving hardship, a lot of hardship. So G-d permits us to combine prayers when you travel. Certain prayers can be combined, like the two midday prayers. z this time that we have given the Khutbah in is in Zuhr, noon prayer, immediate afternoon prayer, Zuhr, and Asr, it comes a little later. You can combine those two. And the next two are after sunset and the night prayer, you can combine those two, Maghrib and Isha. So two of the prayers can be combined and you have the Fajr prayer in the morning. So instead of being praying five times a day, you would only be praying three times a day. But you'll still be making five prayers. Now, also, you could shorten prayers. You could shorten prayers. You can make 'em much shorter when you are in the circumstances that permit that. You make 'em much shorter and you can even shorten Al Fatihah to just , 'Al hamdulilahi rabbil al ameen', Praise be to G-d the Lord of the worlds. You can shorten it that much. You can't shorten it more than that, but you can shorten it that much. And you don't have to say a short surah with every rakat, not when you are under a very difficult situation or very difficult circumstances. You don't have to say a short surah, 'alhamdulillahi rabbil aal ameen', is enough. Now, no one will do that unless the situation or circumstance is very serious for them. I would never be comfortable just saying that and finishing my prayer, like in one minute. I would never be comfortable with that. I'd really have to be in serious, serious trouble or condition has to be very, very bad for me to shorten the prayer to that low. But look how merciful G-d is through Muhammed, the prophet, guided us to know that we can shorten our prayer. It's not in the Qur'an. Muhammed, the prophet, taught us these things. In fact, it's not in the Qur'an how to do your prayer. Muhammed the prophet, had to teach us. He was the one to demonstrate to us how we had to practice Islam. And so we learned from him to do these things. So it's a disciplined religion, but it's also a merciful religion, a very considerate and merciful religion, like the G-d that gave it to humanity. He's the merciful G-d, most merciful G-d.
So we are looking at the personal life and as I said, we're seeing Islam as being distinct, different from other religions in that it has obvious control in the life of the people. It's not just a religion of faith, it's a religion of faith, obedience, action and discipline. Discipline. That means things have been spelled out for you to do and you do those things as you are instructed in your religion to do in your religion. So this is the religion that makes, Islam pardon me. This is what make Islam, in my opinion, a religion for the stronger people, stronger people. It's not a religion for those who want excuses to not to do what G-d asks. It's a religion for the stronger in faith, strong in faith, who wants to do everything G-d asks. Who will even be seeking after learning so much, they'll be seeking to know more. He said, no, if G-d is asking something of me that I'm not aware of, I want to know because I want to do all He asks of me. Those are the people that make good followers, strong followers in Islam. But as I said, though, Islam is a religion that appeals, that makes it's appeal to the strong in faith, it is a religion that's so kind and merciful, it permits the weak in faith to come along, to come along. It permits the weak in faith to come along and it excuses them and gives them so many, I would say, conditions that they can use or take, if they like. If you're sick, you don't have to fast during Ramadan, you just make up other days. If you are traveling, same, you don't have to fast doing Ramadan, make up other days, make it up in other days. Now it didn't say, but see a doctor and get his signature or get a slip from him to show to the Imam. Islam is a religion that wants a us to not to be suspicious of one another. It want us to trust one another, so it doesn't authorize people to spy on us. Islam never had, under Muhammed the prophet, a police department? The people were policed by themselves. They policed themselves. No police over the people, they policed themselves and no investigators to go look in your home, see if you're cooking pork or cooking an eagle or something you shouldn't eat. Sometimes some of us think pork is the only meat you can't eat. There's a lot of meats you can't eat, if you obey the Qur'an, Allah and the Qur'an, there's a lot of meats you can't eat. You can't eat alligator, you can't! I know some of you ate it already, but I'm telling you right now, you're wrong. You shouldn't have eaten it. An alligator is a vicious animal that preys on other animals, even will eat up a man. That kind of animal, you can't eat him, though he's in the water. He's in the water some of the time. He's in the water and on the land, he's both. He's in the water and he gets out, walks around on land, both go to both water and land. Well, we can't eat him because he attacks other animals and eats blood. He'll eat a man, he'll eat a child, he'll eat anything. He's vicious. Can't eat vicious animals. No vicious animal, you're allowed to eat.
So getting back to Islam as a disciplined religion. Now here, look at how beautiful this religion is and communicating to us the importance of what it asks of us. Now Islam asks of us discipline, but before asking of us disciplines or while asking of us to obey these disciplines, it tells us, the creator of you is the same creator that made the sun, moon, stars and He created them to obey disciplines. So see how the sun and the moon follow in their orbit, obeying specific times, obeying specific timing. So accurate that the astronomer can calculate for the Pentagon, just when this star is going to pass, cross the path of another star, exactly, when it's going to cross the path of another star or when there's going to be an eclipse of the moon or an eclipse of the sun, et cetera. So Allah says that these things follow paths, orbits, computed, worked out. In other words, you can follow this mathematically, you can test this mathematically. You see how come it inspired the intellect of the Arabs and made them scientists? In time they became the scientists of their time, of their day and time. They became the scientists of their day and time and scientists and scholars and intellectuals from all over the world came to them to hear what they had to say and to see what they had discovered. That was a glorious time for Islam. The Qur'an did that, the same book we have now and we know we need some extra help, African Americans, we know we need extra help. I'm telling you, the same help that came to those Arabs that were in worse condition than we are in, they were in much worse condition than we are in when Islam came to them. They didn't have civilization like we have it. They didn't have education like we have it. We're in much, much better condition than those Arabs were in when Islam first came to them. So if it did all that for them, it can do it for us and even do more for us. Have faith in this religion that it can give you the best that you hope for on this earth, while you live, as a condition of life. It can give you the best that you can hope for. I repeat as a condition of life. The whole life is fed by the Qur'an and guided by Muhammed's way, peace and blessings beyond him. (SAWS) So when we look at the religion like this, to say our religion says that everything G-d created, He created this to obey His will. And G-d said, when He made the skies in the earth, He said," Come you, willingly or unwillingly." He even gave the skies, the objects that he created in the skies, the permission to obey Him or not. But it was in their nature. It was in their nature to obey Him. So though they were in chaos, He said when they first created everything, it was in chaos. It was all out of order, not in order. Like the sky we see now with the telescope, it was all out of order. And science can't come up with a theory different. So science says too that they believe the beginning of the creation, the skies and the bodies that's in this space, was from explosions, exploding bodies and they were just exploding and exploding. But eventually the exploding, rested. It just exploded out and it rested and settled and came to the beautiful order we see now in the heavens. That's what science says. And not only do they say it, they have evidence of it. They see new systems being created and these new systems explode. They come from explosion from what they call dark matter, of dark matter, nothing but darkness. Out of the darkness explodes energy and eventually that energy, over I guess eons of time, billions and billions of years, that energy finally finds obedience to the order that G-d designed for it, in its very nature, in its very nature. So therefore, the universe itself is Muslim. The learned in this religion, the obedient teachers in this religion, they have passed it down from Muhammed's time, that the earth and all the things G-d created in heavens are Muslim. Now we are going to take this to a first step, now. So if all the creation is Muslim and G-d made me from the earth like He did, the first man said He made the first man from the earth. So if He made me from the earth, then he made me from something that was a Muslim already in it's nature. It's nature was to obey G-d.
So now can't you understand even better and appreciate even more the saying of our prophet Muhammed, that everyone is born a Muslim until circumstances make them otherwise. Beautiful religion. Then G-d says, "You are the best community", (Arabic) Ukrejat simply means brought out. Harajah, means go out. Ukrejat means it was brought out. But shouldn't we connect this with not only this philosophical picture that I'm painting now of creation and the birth of man out of creation, but shouldn't we connect this too with Exodus in the Old Testament? Because those people were cut off from the life that G-d chose for them and they were under a task master, Pharaoh and they had not a leader to guide them into the way that G-d had chosen for them. And G-d gave them Moses and Moses made so much trouble for Pharaoh that Pharaoh had to let them go and letting them go, they're going out is called Exodus. Then, in researching it, it means exodus from a particular place. That's what the Jews have. They have exodus from a particular place. They'll tell you there's a place on the mountain, they exodus from that place. And then , if you note, Egypt is Cairo,, the same Egypt that you take of 747 to, to visit, to see the pyramids, et cetera. More importantly, it's an exodus out of one spirit into another spirit. It's an exodus out of one way of thinking into another way of thanking and it's given plainly in both the Bible and Qur'an. He brought you out of darkness into the light. It's an exodus from the darkness of sin and corruption and ignorance into the light of the way of G-d. That's the real exodus. So we have to see ourselves right in America, as people who are cut off from their previous traditions, previous disciplines, previous culture, previous history and left here in America in the dark. And G-d has reached us with a Moses, not in the person of one particular man, but it was a Moses in a body of knowledge and principles, et cetera. He have reached us and that Moses have taken us out of the darkness into the right. So we have had an exodus from the world of darkness that our circumstances had us in to a world of light. Light of the way of G-d. So don't think G-d doesn't repeat these things that happened in the past. Moses came and he did a job. You think his thing won't be repeated? In time in history, there will be other people in the same state, same situation, same circumstances that the people of Moses were in. And G-d, if He was justified to give them Moses, then He's justified to give the next people in their same circumstances, a Moses.
So don't doubt the magnitude and the depth of what has happened in America among you. I should say among us because I'm among you and I'm one of you. Don't underestimate the magnitude of it! Now, getting back to life of disciplines, Islam wants from us a life of discipline, but it doesn't want us to just have this discipline and follow it blindly. It wants us to appreciate it. It wants us to love it. It wants us to feel enthusiastic about it. It wants us to feel thankful to G-d and be jubilant, want to celebrate, want to shout! That's how it makes me feel. That's how it makes me feel. And I said earlier that, others beside,, they had Islam and they were Muslims, but they weren't called by those names. They were called by other names. But when you study what they lived by and study how they respected it, you must say that those people put the will of G-d first and they submitted their will to the will of G-d. So they were Muslim. It doesn't have to be in Arabic, it can be in Greek. It doesn't have to be in Arabic, the truth is the truth, no matter what language you put it in. So if they were yielding to the will of G-d and that's what they were striving for, to obey His will, they were Muslims practicing Islam. I'm doing nothing but giving you a tafsir. This is only a tafsir and it's tough on those that can't hear. Some of you can't hear, some of you can't hear. Your ears are plugged up with your defiance, with your selfish glory. You have a selfish glory. Nobody can see it, but you, but you're going to hold on to it forever. That's your selfish glory. Don't be like that. I love you. I wouldn't come here and struggle with you if I didn't love you. Now, getting back to it. In Christianity, this idea is mystified, mystified heavily. But I'm going to just conclude this with a few words. Allah, G-d, most high, invited the arch angel Jibril, Gabriel in the Bible, to see His creation. And He showed it to Gabriel, Jibril and Jibril said to the Lord, he said, my Lord, how can anyone err or go wrong in such a wonderful world? Then within instance, I guess like the wave of the hand or something, G-d showed him the world after Satan had worked on it or put his allurements throughout it and Jibril said, my Lord, how can anyone go straight in such a world? Now think about this. G-d is saying through Muhammed, really, because Muhammed reported this, peace be upon him. G-d is telling us through Muhammed that the world as He made it was perfect and beautiful. Isn't that what Genesis says? See, on the first day, he did such, and G-d saw that it was good, all the way up to the last day, seven days, and He beheld that it was good. But then something happens in Genesis. There is a repetition and He makes man again after He had made the whole world and everything, in all the seven days. Now what does that tell you, think? Because that's the description of males in Islam, thinker, think! Not that women don't think because the Qur'an let's us know, 'and the thinking women, the believing men and the believing men, the thinking men and the thinking women.' So it's there, we know they think, but it's more characteristic of us to give a whole lot of serious thought to things, to get what we want. Okay? So anyway, and it's usually for the public world, the outside world, not for the home. Thinkers were not looking at the wallpaper when they came up with all those great ideas. My brother, I heard him over there, I know his voice. They weren't looking at the wallpaper brother. They were looking at the universe when they were coming up with all those great ideas. So anyway, man is a thinker and if G-d did all of this in Genesis, each day is given, when He concluded everything, He said it was good. If he did the sixth day and it was good, then how can He back up now and make man on the sixth day? You understand? Man was already made. On the sixth day He also made man and He saw that the whole world was good, including man. But after, Muhammed explains this to us, peace be on him, so we can understand it. But after the Satan placed his deceits all over the world, then He made man again, after Satan had confused things, He made man again. The proof that He had confused things because man was under a deep sleep. He made him and He caused him to be under a deep sleep. And then He made from him his mate while he was under a deep sleep. So even his mate was from the world that had been influenced by the Satan. He made (her) from (her) mate while he was under a deep sleep. If he was under deep sleep, his mate also was under a deep sleep. 
In concluding the Khutbah, I want to point out something else that is unique for us in this religion. Not that it's not any other religion, but other religions have not brought it out clearly so people will know it. Islam is religion that recognizes human beings. You will err, you will fall victim to sin. Nothing is going to change that. That's human nature. Some of us will be angels, some will be better than others, but there will always be those to make mistakes. And Allah didn't give us a messenger, Muhammad the prophet, that was an angel. He gave us a messenger that was a human being like we are, a human being, as Allah says in Qur'an, human being like yourselves. (Arabic) Human beings like yourselves. So G-d, in this religion, does not ask us to separate from the world, to not have wives, et cetera. He wants us to live a normal human life, a good human life, and to forgive one another as Jesus Christ in the Bible, New Testament. He didn't only preach that G-d is forgiving, but he preached that his followers should also be forgiving and forgive one another. Don't hold things against one another. Don't just keep something all the time. It should die soon. Everything dies eventually. So your bad feelings for your brother should die eventually. Don't just keep bad feelings for your brother or for your sister, or for your wife, or for your husband. Let those things die. It just kills you if you hold onto 'em. The person that holds onto to grudges and bitterness, et cetera, it works against them. It's a disease that's taking away their beauty and taking away their happiness, killing them gradually, killing them slowly. So let us be forgiving.
Islam is a religion that teaches forgivingness, forgivingness, forgivingness, that we should forgive. Islam is a religion that doesn't say just because brother can fast 10 days after Ramadan, the whole congregation should do what he did. No, we excel in different things. One will excel in fasting. Another will excel in some other devotion or some other thing that G-d accepts as a charity or as a service. So don't look at each other as one taller, one shorter, one holier than others. Look at us all as brothers and sisters only. And don't raise one up among us, above the other, because you don't know. Only G-d knows. In the judgment, when you see that person, you raise up, maybe he'll be in the hellfire and the person you put down may be in heaven, cool with Abraham. As the Bible says, in Abraham book. You don't know. You don't know. No matter how good a person looked to you myself, no matter how good I look to you, don't you make a judgment that I'm better than another brother. I'm serious. I'm very serious. Don't you make a judgment that I'm better than another brother. You don't know that. I don't know that. I have no way of knowing I'm better than this brother, this brother sitting before me, and I'm looking at. I have no way of knowing that Only G-d can tell us that in the judgment. I have no way of knowing that. I know one thing. I got a lot of faults that I wish I didn't have, and I'm constantly working on 'em. I know that. I'm busy keeping sin out of my life.
So don't think you got an angel here. No, no, no. When I look at prophet Muhammad, he's an angel. And when you look at putting us both of us in the same picture, he becomes an angel, in focus with me. And he was a human being. He was a human being, but had so much going for him that was perfect, perfect, perfect. Record, just perfect, perfect, perfect. He had so many perfects on his record, till my record makes him look like an angel. But what makes me fit for G-d's work is that I don't like sin. I don't accept sin. I'm constantly fighting sin, but I'm human. And so are you, so don't give up. Keep fighting sin. But don't expect to be an angel because you're not. You'll fool yourself, but you can't fool your wife. Praise be to Allah. So in the conclusion of this, remember these two things, one from Qur'an and the other from Muhammad the prophet, prayers and peace be on him. From the Quran, G-d says, "And take the best thereof." So here's what G-d wants from all of us. He know we can't all be the same. We can't all be as good as the other. He knows that, but He only wants us all to have an appetite for the better. Don't see two things, one bad, one is bad, and the other one is good and you choose the bad. Take the best. Always take the better. Don't take the worst. He said and take the best thereof. What is He talking about firstly? The Qur'an itself. Because the Qur'an gives you many excuses to be weak and to not to be in the lead. Allah wants all of us to have at least a desire to be in the lead. And if we have a desire to be in the lead and we love to be in the lead only for G-d or only for the advancement of this Muslim community, we are happy when another brother or sister is in the lead. Because all that we want is that the community go forward in the best way. So we will be maybe at the end of the line, but we will be just as excited as the person who's next to the leader, because all of us want the same thing - that is the best for our community. And when we celebrate the victory, nobody is going to be more happier than the other. We all will have the same happiness if we all desire if for the whole community. So He wants us to be selective. Selective. Don't just take something, look and see. Maybe there's a better choice.
Don't apply this just to the Qur'an. Now when He gives us this, everything that he gives us for Qur'an or in Islam, it's to be applied to the whole life. So when He says, then take the best of us, now let's go to the tradition of our prophet, what he said. He said that the best of you now are the best of you in the days of ignorance. So isn't that saying again that there's an original nature we call the Muslim. And whether you are in ignorance or not, that nature stands out, though you were in ignorance that nature stood out and now you are not in the dark. You in the light following the Muhammad prophet and you stand out again. But he said, those who are standing out now, were the ones who were standing out back then in the days of ignorance. Isn't this wonderful? And it's true for us. This is true for us. In us is followers, G-d tells us. He says, follow not only Muhammad the prophet, He says and follow those after him, who followed him in excellence. In excellence. So this is taking the best there of, right, taking the best thereof. So if you live a life going after excellence, you are doing what G-d says, you are following the best thereof. So authority, pardon me, legitimacy or credit is to be given in Islam to those leaders who follow in Islam, in the tradition that Muhammad set, the excellence that G-d revealed and the excellence that he gave us in Muhammad. Because He said to us, "You certainly have in Muhammad, (Arabic) a most excellent model for any who believe in G-d and answering to that G-d" The last day mean(ing) you believe that you have to answer to that. G-d. This is beautiful, brothers and sisters, this is really beautiful, so clear and so beautiful that a human being can live in this religion and be comfortable. You can get angry with somebody and call them a dirty dog or whatever. And you can come back to your calmness and still love yourself as much as you did before you called them that, maybe more, because after you called them that you probably got relief and it brought out a lot of good that you hadn't discovered in your own self. That makes you grow in righteousness and grow in compassion and grow in beauty. Thank you very much. We ask Allah, to forgive us all our faults, make us firm in this religion, make our feet firm for His sake, for His pleasure. Let us not turn back our hearts after He have guided us to right. Ameen.

