10/2/2002
IWDM Study Library
The Hereafter Portsmouth VA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam WD Mohammed:
The Lord, Cherisher, Sustainer of all the worlds. We witness that He is G-d, we serve Him, serve Him only as G-d and we pray Prayers and Peace be upon the last of the Prophets and the traditional salute that we make to him as Muslims and upon all of the servants of G-d. Ameen. It's quite an honor for me as your leader to be welcomed here by your nice Mayor and to have the Mayor honor us in this way. And to be supported by our community, our Imams from around the area. Imam Sharif I think I've been knowing him even before I was your leader. And I certainly support him in his good works that he does in this town and value the friendship of the other Imams from the area. Imam Shamsideen and I met him long ago. It's been a long, long time, long time ago. And I liked him from the very moment I saw him. I think it's because he had the kind of face that was so welcoming. And I thank you for your support. And I look forward to returning to your town. Both of them had me in their city and I look forward to returning there in the near future. Imam Abdul Malik, I met him a long time ago too and he is my son In law. And he does such a fine job for us. My office values him a great deal. Thank you very much son.
I know business and to me there would never a conflict for religion and business. No more conflict between religion and business than there is for religion and culture. Now we're going to go way back into the language of religion. There was two brothers, Cain and Abel. The Chrisitan community I'm sure know of these two brothers. And Muslims we should also know if not from your Christian experience, we should it from your experience as Muslims. In fact our book is nothing more than a new introduction of what was revealed before and a pointer to the conclusion of things. A pointer to the conclusion of things. Never think that our book the Qur'an has nothing to do with the Bible.
It is a narration on certain events., commenting on the history of Jews, Christians and some others that we don't know. One of them is on a group or a religion called Sabians. And it was thought that those people had vanished. But I learned within the last few or so years that they have not vanished, that there are still followers of this religion and they are well known. Another religion that is not mentioned in the Qur'an is the Jains. In fact, during the early days under my father I introduced this language to you. And I thought that they too had disappeared from the earth but I come to find out that they're alive and strong. Recently in my interaction with peace keepers from around the world, I have come upon the Jains. And I have a friend who is one popular leader of the Jains. Our holy book certainly recognizes in all Prophets and religions and it says that there are those that are not mentioned in the Qur'an, those that are not mentioned in the Qur'an. So there are many not mentioned by name but we do believe they existed. As well those that are well known in the church and in the synagogue, the Jews. Returning to Cain and Abel.
Now my understanding of this without burdening you with a lot of language that they have would be very strange and new to you, my understanding of this is that these two brothers represented the two major divisions of life for human society. One represented the industry. It's very true in both Bible and Qur'an that one was the man of the land and the other was a shepherd taking care of sheep or a flock, Abel. He took care of the animals, he developed the new industry and his brother developed the land. Not only the food like corn, sugar cane. I guess that's where he got the name from. Sugar cane. But also the metals and worked in iron. Did iron works.
They made instruments, musical instruments of metal. And they became big builders. So they were the land workers. I guess the modern land developers would be in that traditional work of Cain. Listen to the language. One offers from what he had earned from the land, the other from what he had earned from raising animals. And the Bible calls the gift of Abel, a gift of that produced by the womb, a gift of that produced by the womb. And his brothers gift of what he produced from the earth.
Now remember don't forget he's not to be seen only as a farmer because his children, his descendants behind him following his lead, they also got metals out of the earth. And they learned to be great builders, to cut stone and they built cities, they built cities. Now listen to the language that both Bible and Qur'an says. G-d made His man from water, made his man from clay, He made His man from dust. Now think about that. He made this man from dust. So we don't really need to add very much to come up with industry. Industry. The story of Adam, our first father. Father for our natural life was given in the Qur'an. And it is put in a way and it is given in a way to help us to do a kind of exegesis really, a kind of interpretation with the language of scripture that came before it. And it is told in such a way that the students will not recognize the connection unless the student understands the nature of scripture.
And it identifies Adam as the free, rational, free thinker, rational and free thinker. And it says G-d gave him the nature to know how to name things, give things their names. That says to me that teaching that man the free thinker the ability to know how to rightly name things, that's saying that He gave him a rational mind that can study and understand and know the nature of things. And once you know the nature of things, you then can see the natural workings of things, the natural workings of things and what they offer man's mind. man's intellect for the good of human society. And then he gives those things names. So at this point I would like to say to you that Adam, our father, that G-d created and disturbed the order of the angels when He did so. And G-d had to tell the angels wait, don't come to a conclusion as to what I have created until I have inspired him of My own spirit.
Then you make your obeisance to him, you make your surrender to him sajdah for the Muslim language. Then you make your surrender to him. Now these are angels we make with the G-d, but here G-d is saying that when man takes in My inspiration for him the angels will make sajdah to him. Isn't that wonderful? And in the Bible I read that the perfect man Jesus Christ, whether that's the perfect man, G-d created him a bit above the angels. G-d honored him a bit above the angels. And G-d says to us in the Qur'an "Surely we created the human person in the most excellent mold. Meaning that there is no life form existing more excellent than human life when that human life is conforming to the role that G-d gave him. Alright, now so much for that. Now could this be told to the world? Could the religious people preach this openly? No. Why? Because the world was not under G-d sent people. The world was not under people who had received revelation from G-d. The world was under people who were worshiping idols and many worshiping themselves. And many of the idol worshipers worshipped only their own human qualities and powers and they put names on things and called those things G-d but those things were nothing but human attribute., a human quality, A human power that they turned into a shirk and called it a G-d.
The very primitive man worshipped those things that he feared the most. Lightning, thunder, et cetera. Or those things that he benefitted from most. Rain, etc. So these the worshipers when Abraham dawned in the world. Abraham is called the second father after Adam. And in our Holy Book it says G-d named Abraham a leader for the nation. All the nations. A leader for the nations. And he is called Father by Jews and Christians. Abraham is the one who represent the idea that came into the world of one G-d only, one G-d only. And that idea, according to our understanding of religion, I'm speaking of the spirit of scripture, that idea of the oneness of G-d is what serves the intellect of man. To make the intellect of man connect with the external reality, the material schemes. Matter in the skies, stars, whatever you find up there and also whatever is on the earth.
Now, our Holy Book says that everything in the external world was made to serve human life and community. Everything in the external world was made to serve human life and community. We know that He made everything in the material with esteem to yield it's uses to man, I could give you the Arabic but I won't at this time. I know some of you speak Arabic, you recognize the language right away if I give it to you in Arabic, Qur'anic Arabic. The Arabic that's in our Holy book. He made all of it for human use, to be used in the human community. This knowledge only came after Prophet Abraham, Ibrahim in Qur'anic Arabic. Only after Prophet Abraham. He's the one whose story is told in the Qur'an as a thinker, a free thinker who was trying to come to a conclusion "What is G-d, What is really G-d?" The story goes like this, says that he was sitting once and he saw the heavens at night and he saw bright star in the heavens that appeared to be the brightest of them all. He said "That must be G-d, that must be G-d." My G-d he said. But as he continued to watch, new light came and the stars disappeared and he said, "My G-d is not one to vanish."
Then he continued to watch and he saw the sun rising on the horizon and he said, "Oh how big it is and how bright." He said, this must be my G-d. But he didn't jump to conclusions. Now this story sounds kind of silly maybe to some not to the real thinkers but to some "Aww that's silly stuff." But this language is really revealing to us the logic of the scientific mind. The scientific mind even though it's convinced of other things it does not jump to conclusions. They'll continue to watch that thing and study that thing and see if it turns out not to be what he might be thinking it is. So he didn't jump to conclusions although he was amazed and thought maybe that was G-d. But he knew he had to observe it further. That's the nature of a scientific mind, a scientific thinker. So it says that when the sun rose he said those wonderful things about the sun, he said, "That must be my G-d."
But he didn't go away, he still sat. And he saw the sun set, it started to decline, going down. And when it declined and was gone he said, "My G-d is not one to set." This what he said. So the G-d he was looking for was the G-d that Allah says in the Qur'an He is eternal, He does not slumber, He does not sleep, no change comes over Him. He was looking for that G-d that decides very plainly in the Qur'an and also in the Bible if you recall or recognize it with the G-d that never changes, the G-d that is not affected by anything. And he says, "My G-d does not set." He meant my G-d does not sleep because many of the people in the world had the idea that even G-d has to go sleep, take a rest. So when he said, my G-d is not one that sets he meant exactly what I said to you, my G-d does not sleep. My G-d is not overcome by anything in creation.
My G-d is not dependent on anything in creation. He Himself is not fed. And in the Qur'an it tells us that the worst form of oppression is false worship, shirk. The truth is more plentiful today than it ever has been. The opportunity for religious people, the followers of G-d in the faith community to serve the whole world, is better today that it ever has been. Understand the times. Satan looks bigger now then he ever looked. You know why? Because Satan is nothing but a disease and most diseases when they have reached their last stage, they look bigger than they ever were. In fact, they come in so quietly you don't see them. And when you see them they've gone away. When you see wickedness everywhere and you see the sign of the devil in the home, in the church, in the Mosque, you see him everywhere, he's run out, he's run out of hope and he's fighting desperately to stay in the human beings affairs.
Okay? He was attacking the church, attacking the Catholic church. He already attacked the Protestant Church of America. He attacked the people of America, the public, the Protestant public by making us believe that no matter should be respected by the human being's mind unless the human being choose to respect it. Now, that's right, G-d gave us that freedom. We don't have to respect G-d, we don't have to respect his revealed knowledge, we can leave it all. But nobody is to publish that. Nobody is to tell our young children that. And I remember years ago, it must been 20 years or more ago, longer than that, I read on one of our very popular magazines on the cover, these letters bigger than any letters I ever saw on the cover that magazine. G-d is dead. Now their children are led to believe G-d was dead.
Look how many young minds were exposed to that big caption G-d is dead. So that wasn't inspired or motivated by any innocent person. That came from the Satan himself. I'm not saying the magazine, the publisher is Satan, nobody but Satan was behind it. Satan got in through them and had them put on their magazine in big box car letters almost G-d is dead. Ever since that magazine came out with that caption, I have seen disrespect for sacred things, for religion and sacred matters. It's apparent. And it increased and increased and increased until it has gotten us where we are now.
So we make a joke about G-d. We use G-d so commonly, the name G-d so commonly. My G-d. I like to play with people sometimes. Intelligent woman said my G-d. I said, did you call me? I knew that would get her to think about something else. So we are living in the day of religion. We are also living in the end of time. In concluding this, I want to go to something G-d says to make it very clear. G-d says "Who has said to my devoted worshipers, this material world is not for them? This is for them and for them exclusively in the hereafter." And exclusively for them in the hereafter. Did you hear it? You mean to tell me we going to have Jaguars and everything in the hereafter? G-d says the gates to the material things are open to all, good and bad. That's what G-d says. But my special favor is only for my devotees. That that keeps your life in good condition. That that saves your life for your family in the future. That favor is only given to His devotees, the sincere worshippers. The use of the material things, the accumulation of wealth, he opens that to everybody, good people and bad people. But look, don't we sometimes wonder seeing bad people with these Jaguars, you can tell I had a hangup with Jaguars one time in my life.
Don't that bother us sometimes, that we faithful to G-d. We have chance to get a little more of these material thing, but it ain't right. We could have got by and no FBI was looking and no police were around and looked like it was easy thing to do. But we didn't do it because G-d was looking at us. We could have had some of that too. But our goodness, our innocence keep us really the way we live. Then we look at these bad guys with all these good things, laughing and dancing and having a good time. Don't we sometimes wonder what G-d is saying, what G-d's plan is? So G-d make sure what His plan is. He said there is going to come a time. So G-d is going to cut them out of these things who's going to be using them? We are. There are two ways to see the afterlife. There's two ways to see hereafter.
Now that is not to say that there is not coming also the spiritual world that does not have any more flesh or what they call the mortal life, the life of mortals. The life of the mortal will be gone. And G-d says, Can't you see that He who did this the first time, He who created the whole world the first time is able to do away with it and do it again. He can create again the whole world. And the promise is that He will create another world when this has gone. Now according to science, "Oh this will be light years to come." That's what science says that the sun one day will not be working in the solar system. That all of this one day will be gone. That the whole material creation, all that we see out there, material things, is perishable. That means it's slowly dying, slowly going away. That what science says. And religion says that when G-d determined the end of this, it will vanish certainly and the people will die and the faithful will be awakened. And when they wake up it might have taken millions and millions of light years they have been gone. The time of their separation from life might have been millions and millions of light years. So much time your mind, human mind can't even see it or calculate it. But what do they say when they are reawakened in the new creation that G-d will have.
It seems like there was only a morning and a night then we woke up. It would be just that fast. It would be just that fast because when you are sleep you are not keeping time. When you are dead you are further away from the power or the ability to keep time that you were sleep. And the time will be just like that and you'll be in a new creation. This rational seeker believes in both promises of G-d. I believe that G-d is going to one day finish this world as we know it, going to kill the world. And I believe He's preparing us now to exist in a higher world. There will not be the simple troubles we have now in our human life and there will not be the many diseases and the many troubles for us that we run into in this material world when we experiment, explore and follow our curiosities.
You know man, if we wouldn't follow this wild extreme curiosity, we wouldn't have no pornographic material No simple life tribe ever started taking pictures of different private parts of members of their tribe and blowing them up and sneaking behind the tree looking at 'em. And certainly they wouldn't do that stuff to their own young children. Our own wild mind and unbridled passions, not respecting the disciplines of intelligence and decency that takes us out of a good life. But I believe what G-d promises. And in my conclusion He says when they wake up in the new world, they going to say this looks like what we had before. Give something that look like that Jaguar I saw before.
So let me conclude by saying you that we are not separated from our total life. G-d wants us, both Christians and Muslims to have a whole life, not a part partial life, not a piece of life. G-d want us to have a whole life and He want the whole life to respect His will for man in society, of the human life in society. That's all. He wants us to have a whole life. He wants us to support good government, to be interested in good government, support good government help our good leaders make G-d's government better. He wants us to be in business to appreciate the banker, to appreciate the money lender. But insist that he kosher, insist that he do halal. Insist that he does not violate the laws of the land, the law for his business as well as for the other people's businesses. This is based upon good life but go after the whole life. And don't think that little people can't do big things. There are big fish in the water. So that big fish run into a big school of piranha fish he better each other because they'll tear him into something for Halloween about that fast.
Now we don't want become vicious piranha fish, but we sure want to make a vicious effort as small people to support our collective investment by doing business and let us get our share of this world and have the honor and the respect that we want by nature. The honor and respect of knowing that our men and our women to be industrious and work together and have a strong business community for the African American community in the leadership and association of Imam WD Mohammed. Let's go for that share. And let's remember while we're working for that share and it's growing. It's going to grow and grown and grow, that G-d said one day He's going to cut the criminal out of it and it's going to be only for the innocent people.
We thank our leader Imam WD Mohammed for a very beautiful address. Please just one moment before you leave. We have a few announcements. There will be the containers, contribution containers will come around. Again, those who have been given, if you've been given an envelope, please put something in it and deposit it inside the container. Also too, we want you to be aware that the Muslim Journal has a subscription booth outside in the lobby there. Please stop by, pick up the pamphlets, subscribe to Muslim Journal there, very excellent read. Don't forget, please don't forget the dinners. The dinners are located on the second floor. Their seven dollars for the dinner, very excellent food. Please stop by purchase something to eat. Please don't go to McDonald's or Wendy's anywhere, anywhere like that. Spend your money with us today. We need your support.
We want to thank each and every one of you for sacrificing time today, coming to share with us and hear this wonderful message of our leader. A. very beautiful message. And we thank Allah that as we came before you, that we understand this message is to be used in the public. We pray to G-d that you will use what we have been given here today to improve our lives. Again, we thank you, we pray Allah will bless each and every one of you who have traveled a distance to return safely. Inshallah, look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you very much. Asalaam Alaikum.
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