MM/DD/YYYY
IWDM Study Library
Discipline For Achieving Man's Inherent Worth

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
All praises due to Allah, the guardian evolver, cherisher, sustainer of all the worlds. (Arabic) I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah alone, nothing is like Him. And I bear witness that Muhammed is His servant and His messenger. Again, we thank Allah that we are here on Sunday afternoon midday (to) address the community on the subject of knowledge and teaching in this religion, Taaleem. Today in this address, we are going to focus upon a concern that might be the greatest concern in the life of man, and that is the need for discipline, a discipline for achieving man's inherent worth.
But first, let us have a question. The question is, are we aiming at a standard in life that compliments man's capacity? And second, has religion considered the need in man to function at the level of his or her capacity? The first question, we have to answer it individually and we can judge the workings of society and determine by what society has done in terms of freeing that capacity in us. And then decide if society has carried out its responsibility. For the second statement, we only have to search the sources, the authentic sources of religion. Search those authentic sources of religion and examine them to see if they recognize this need in man and to see if those sources have something to say about the development of this need in man.
What will now be presented is reasoned to be solid evidence pointing to religion as the foremost advocate and worker for this need in man to have his own capacity freed. Before identifying the role of religion and the religious contribution, man's capacity should be understood as a capacity and motive in consonance with his nature. I'm sure we understand what we're talking about when we say capacity. A machine has a capacity to do a certain work, to put out so much energy. We have a capacity to do work, to express what is within us, to express what Allah has put within us.
Faculties of intelligence, speech, et cetera. Many, many talents Allah has stored in every individual. In consonance with this nature or his nature in consonance, by that we mean something that is in harmony with his better instinct, with his higher and better instinct. We know in our life we have urges in us to do vulgar things at times. And there are urges in us to be noble, to do good things, to set good standards of behavior, to move higher and higher toward more and greater excellence. We know that those urges, they're in us too. So which of the urges now are we talking about as being identified with man's capacity? (Be)Cause man also has the capacity to express himself as an animal. He has the capacity to express himself as a jinn, as a Satan.
He has the capacity to do anything within the limits of this creation. But in what image is man functioning within his own capacity? It is within that image we call human, human. First, we have to then identify man since man is capable of functioning within the image of an animal. So we have to identify a man then. And I believe this is a real serious problem for the world. If it wasn't, it wouldn't have been given in the Bible. The Bible identifies man in his struggle to gain more and greater power. And the Bible brands the man that grows materially, grows politically, grows even academically, but fails to grow humanly. The Bible identifies such creature as the beast. Says, "For here is wisdom. Let him who have wisdom count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man." And we know that the same concept exists in Al Islam.
Allah says in the Qur'an. "And He shall brand the beast, burn him with the hot metal, gold poured on him for his great sin." And again, it is said that in the sunnah of the prophet, in the traditions of Prophet Muhammed, peace be on him, that he identified a rider upon a beast and he called him the Dhajjal, the one-eyed man, the one-eyed man. And Allah says in the Qur'an, Allah Most High says in the Qur'an, " and have not be given you two eyes?" Dhajjal, the one-eyed man. And in the climax of that theme and that surah Allah says, "But you have not made progress on the road that is steep.
And what will make you understand what the road that is steep is, it is the feedng of the slaves." Taking care of those in privation during times of privation. When the light of understanding is not on for the masses, rise up in the dark and guide the masses aright. When common sense is not ruling in the common, people, rise up and bring common sense back to the common people. When the inability to manage one's own affairs is prevalent in the society, rise up and free the slaves. See, this is Al Islam, this is Al Islam, this is the Bible. This is Al Islam. The holy Qur'an came after the Bible to clear up the confusion and to complete Allah's favor for the benefit of all people and especially for the benefit of the faithful, the believers. Praise be to Allah.
The latest theme the Muslim scholar Abul Maududi writes in his book "Islamic Way of Life", pages 30 and 31, under the heading "Sanctioned Behind Morality" and the learned scholar Maududi, he says, although, and I quote him now, "although Islam wants to cultivate a powerful and strong mass opinion, which may induce individuals and groups to abide by the principles of morality which it establishes, it also aims at the evolution of a political system. Islam's moral law does not really depend on these external pressures alone. It rallies the inherent urge, it rallies the inherent urge for good, which is in every person."
So I think we can establish at least one point for religion. And according to quotes by a scholar, a learned man in the religion, and according to what I have said, which also has its source in Qur'an and in Bible, scriptures that proceed it, Qur'an, we have established one point. And that is that it is the concern in religion that man's potential be released. That the human, that human be freed and the beast be disciplined. This is the purpose, that the human be freed. For want of a better word, we say human, but we know that's western terminology. It only means color man. A man susceptible to influences. Therefore he becomes colored. In higher education they tell us not to color the facts.
That means distorting and changing it. So that means its original form is not color. So without color, we have what, truth. When we add color, when we start coloring, we get away from truth, according to that language. I didn't come here to argue with any of you folks. I'm a man who believes in the freedom of the individual to choose whatever he wants. We won't lose a friendship we('ve) never had. So if you don't care to believe, that's all right with us. Our duty is only to bring the matter before you so that it'll be clear for rational minds and then let rational minds decide what they want.
Praise be to Allah. Now, dear beloved Muslims, we have in this religion, noble figure, giant figure. his name is Abraham. In Al Islam, his name is Ibrahim, peace be upon him. Ibrahim same man, Abraham in English or in the Bible. And this man, according to the vision of Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him, this man represents the highest elevation in the release of that capacity that sits within the human being. According to the vision of our prophet, peace be upon him, he saw in the vision, the first ancestor, Adam. And Adam was on the first plane. And he saw above Adam on the next plane, two prophets who did not descend immediately after Adam in the chronological order, but according to the gospel, he did because the gospel traces Jesus's genealogy through Joseph who was not his father, through Joseph who was not his father. Now you all correct me if I go wrong, if you can, (be)cause I know I can't correct everybody. I don't have the sense to correct everybody. Now, so according to the gospel, his genealogy is traced back to Adam. And the Bible says, son of Adam, who was the son of G-d or who got created by G-d. This is the Bible. So we find in this vision of Prophet Muhammed, Adam, on the first plain, level. The next level, there is Jesus and John. Peace be upon them.
And on the third level, another level, on the third level is Joseph or Yusuf, in our language, in the language of Muslims, Yusuf. And on that fourth level is Idris. Some say he's Ezekiel. Idris on the fourth level. And then on the fifth level is Aaron or Harun, in our language. And then on the sixth level is Moses or Musa, in our language. And on the seventh level, there is none above it, it is Abraham or Ibrahim, peace be on them. This is what Allah showed Prophet Muhammed in the great vision and in the great journey, a journey and vision by night. It is given in Qur'an.
What is the relationship now between us and these great figures? Prophet Muhammed, peace on him, when he met, introduced by Jibril took him to the level, he met Adam. As salaamu alaikum, my father Adam. So Adam is our father. When he met the prophets, Jesus and John, peace upon them, he said, as salaamu alaikum my brothers Jesus and John. So they are our brothers, they're not our father. And similarly he addressed or in the same way, pardon me, he addressed all of them until he got to the level where Abraham was. And then he said to Abraham, he said,as salaamu alaikum abu ya Ibrahim. Peace be upon you, my father Abraham, which tells us that we have two fathers. Two fathers. And then G-d blessed him to rise up from the precinct of the Haram, its the holy city Mecca, the sacred monuments at Mecca. He blessed him to go up from Mecca, the precincts of Mecca, from the relics there that have great meaning, the Kaa'ba and the surrounding relics with their great meaning.
He blessed him to rise up from there and he went upward and westward, and descended there upon the Mosque of the Dome in Jerusalem, the mosque in Jerusalem, making a connection between what? Between east and west, between the east and west, between the individual and his aim, between the concept of the individual and his fulfillment in society. But mind you now, the Jerusalem site was condemned even though Allah showed Prophet Muhammed the connection between the two, that one is the original capacity of man. That's the Kaa'ba, that' the symbols there. One is the original capacity of man and the other one is the effort to bring that capacity out, so they can be realized for the benefit of society. And Jerusalem, according to our teachings, according to the revelation of Prophet Muhammed, Jerusalem had failed, because Prophet Muhammed had originally directed his community to pray toward Jerusalem, and he stopped because he had difficulty with what he saw in what they had established there in Jerusalem.
And then he was in wonderment as to where he should turn and his eyes were going up to heaven, toward Allah. Not that Allah is not everywhere. Well, when man wants hope, he looks up to G-d. That's natural. So he was looking up to Allah for guidance and Allah gave the revelation saying, "We have beheld you turning your vision toward the sky. Now we will direct you to an orientation, a Qiblah. We will direct you to an orientation that will please you." Say, now turn yourself toward the Holy House at Mecca, the Masjid Al Haram, the Masjid Al Haram. Turn yourself toward the sacred precinct in the Haram. That's the name of the vicinity there in Mecca, to the Kaa'ba, its center.
So that tells us that Jerusalem as it existed was wrong. The Jews made a mistake in their interpretation of how man's potential should be brought out. Their own history establishes that. Their own scriptures establishes that though it is also given for Muslims, that they made a mistake. The point is just one of the mistakes of the effort in Jerusalem to free the capacity of individuals. I think his name was Menachem. I'm not sure. Not Menachem Begin now, this is another one. Menachem, I think his name is, in the Bible. If it's not exactly that, it's close. I'ts close to (that) pronunciation. He came behind David, Solomon and David or David and Solomon and finished the ruin of Jerusalem.
What finished it off was materialism. Materialism. Specifically speaking, it was taxes, taxation, saying he overtaxed the people. He taxed the people so much that it brought about the fall of the temple. The temple there represents the government, the fall of the government of Jerusalem. I hope you could appreciate this presentation today. All of us may not be interested in the same thing. When you come to dinner, some like apple pie. They say, well what are we serving today? Well, they're serving apple pie, ice cream, lamb chops, turkey and dressing. But they have a number of dishes. Soup and salads, French dressing, Italian dressing, vinegar and oil, whatever. All of us don't have the same taste, but we hope that everybody can go away happy. Because you are our guest. You are our guests. We ain't your guests. You are our guests. So we hope that everybody can go away happy. Praise be to Allah. Let us look now at another sign in scripture that came before. There was a great David, peace be upon the prophet Dawud,, he's called in the language of the Muslims. Where after all the Arabs had no knowledge of this until Allah revealed it in the Qur'an. You have to understand that. The Arab, they didn't have this language. They didn't know Dawud, Moses, they didn't know about that. All this came to the Arab with the Qur'an. So we should treat the language of Qur'an the same way we treat the language of the Bible. We don't say a man named Isaiah has a Jewish name. We say a man named Isaiah got a Bible name, right? Right. So when we say a man named Dawud, don't say he got an Arab name. Say he got a Qur'anic name. Let's use the same language, same standard, same reasoning. Let's be truthful.
Enter Here


