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IWDM Study Library
Future of Society and Life is Always 
Under an Authority

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Asalaam Alaikum. All Praise is due to Allah Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds. We seek Him for assistance, and we turn to Him asking forgiveness for our sins, for our faults. We put our complete trust in Him. And I bear witness that nothing is worthy or worship except Him alone and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. The Most High says in the Qur'an, "The du'a that man should make for righteousness, he makes it for wickedness, for evil. And surely man is inclined to be hasty." Allah in the Qur'an invites believers to be steadfast, to be patient, to enjoin patience, to invite others who believe to the practice of patience, to endure while carrying out the wishes of Allah. That is the commandment that Allah has given us through His Prophet. To be steadfast, to be patient, to endure, suffer if we must, but not to give up the life of our religion, which is Al Islam. Al Islam is a word that brings to mind the rule of Allah, the rule of creator.
Al Islam is the word that says in its meaning, There is an authority for everything. There is a sovereign Lord who is over everything and He has established a way, a way for His creatures, a way for all of His creatures, for all of His creatures, a way for everything that He has created. And that includes us, the human being, men and women. And Allah has established a way and this way for the human being is called Deen, means religion, literally it means compensation, giving something that is due. So we believe that there is a Lord who is responsible for this creation, for us, for our intelligence, for our energies, for the possibilities that are open to us because of our intelligence and because of our energies. We believe that there is a Lord, a creator responsible for that. And we believe that we are accountable to that creator, that we owe Him something for that. That we owe Him gratitude.
We owe Him obedience. Obedience to the order that He has established and the order that He has established is a peaceful order, an order of obedience to His rule or to His will as His will is expressed in creation, the created things that He has made. So we believe in the religion of Al Islam. Our religion is Al Islam. Our religion is Al Islam. And Allah has said that He is the one who gave us this religion, who revealed it and then perfected it and made it complete. He completed it for us and thereby completing His favor on all humanity. So this religion of ours is not a word. It's not an empty word. It's not merely a word. It's a word that suggests a way of life, that suggests a discipline that all of us follow.
It is not a religion that allow us to choose our own way. It is not a religion that allow us to establish our own rules. It is a religion that establish the rules for all of us. And those rules are supported by the very fact or reality of creation itself. Because the creator who created the creation is the same one who gave us the religion, not a different one. And the same one who perfected it for us, the same one who has completed this religion for us is the one who created everything. And the prayer that man should make for righteousness or for goodness. He makes it for wrong, for evil. And surely he's inclined to be hasty. Most of us, we want something right now. We don't want to wait. We don't want suffer any. We don't want to be put in any discomfort. Everything has to be perfect for us.
If it means we are going to be uncomfortable for a while, we don't want it. We want something right now real easy. But that's not the way of G-d. Life didn't come here that way. Every child that was born was born over a certain given period of time. It took nine months, sometimes a little less, sometimes a couple of days more maybe. But it takes on the average of about nine months for the baby to come. And the mother has to be patient, the family, the whole family. They probably want to say, oh good, we've got a baby coming. I wish we could have it right now. We can't have it right now. You got to wait. You got to wait till the time period is up. And during this time period, it's not so easy. The mother's carrying a burden, she's carrying a weight and that weight is getting heavier and heavier.
Her job is getting harder and harder because of the weight of the baby growing each day a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And when she delivers the baby it's not a holiday, it's a time of great labor pain. She has to endure labor pain. She endures those labor pains and finally the baby comes, she's relieved and say, "Oh, we have a new addition to the family." But look at the price the mother pay for that new addition. The father, he didn't pay any price. He just waiting, you see. The mother paid the price. He was waiting impatiently. Is it going to be a son or is it going to be a daughter? Or will it be stillborn? Will it come dead? So he's just waiting. The mother, she's carrying the burden see, she's paying the price. And doctors tell us, who know more about this childbirth delivery than we do. They tell us that the baby also endures great pain at the time of delivery. They say, we can't even imagine the pain that comes to the baby when his head is brought through the womb from the mother. They say the pain, the squeezing, the pain upon his skull is too much for the human being, the adult to imagine.
So it's pain to the mother, pain to the baby, a period of waiting, time to wait, patience and endurance, patience and long suffering. Now if life comes like that with an individual, then we should take that as a sign because Allah has said in everything there's a sign. In the skies above, in the earth below, in the things that are happening between sky and earth as well as in yourself, there are signs. This is what G-d says in the Qur'an. Then we should take this as a sign then. If every life must come over a period of long suffering, it requires patience, requires care, concern, endurance, great pain, then why should we think that some advancement, some new advancements, some extension of our life is not going to require something similar to that. But we want it easy. We want something for nothing.
We have to get out of that. The world is not here to be managed by people who can't stand suffering. The world will not accept to be born on the backs of people who can't stand suffering. The world is waiting for somebody like a mother, who can deliver it with patience and with suffering. So if you're not prepared to be patient and to endure pain, then you are not prepared for this life. In being able to endure pain and be patient for a good end, for a great objective, you become an achiever. You become victors rather than victims.
The world is made for grownups. It's not made for those children. The world is made for grownups, people who will accept adult responsibility, people who will live strong, not weak. You have to live strong. Don't live weak. When I came in, I smelled reefer, we should never smell reefer in this place. Smell it right here in this area. We should never smell reefer in here. We don't burn incense for no reason. We don't need incense. Don't burn incense to cover up reefer. We should never have that, especially on Jumu'ah. On Jumah day, we expect that the people are coming here are Muslims, so they shouldn't have reefer on them or anything that's forbidden in this religion.
I repeat, the prayer that man should make for good, he makes it for evil. Who is this referring to? Not the average person. The average person, he makes this prayer for good. The average person fears G-d. The average person fear the future. The average person does not have power. The average person is weak and often becomes desperate. And when the average person becomes desperate, if he's religious or she's religious, he turn to G-d. And usually the prayer that the average person makes is not a prayer for wickedness, it's a prayer for good. "Oh G-d, please help me get my life in some kind of order. Oh G-d, show me a way out of this." Yes. But the one Insane, who makes the prayer for wickedness that he should make for good, it's talking about those with power, talking about man that takes on himself responsibility for shaping the future of society.
And many of us don't know that the future of society is always under some control. The future of society is not guesswork, it's not accidents. We are not just living. We are living according to a plan. The western world lives by a plan. And all of the institutions in the Western world falls under that plan. The elementary schools, the secondary schools, the colleges, the hospitals, the Institutes of art, culture, all falls under that plan. What you are wearing next summer, it's no accident. It depends on the decision that comes from the decision makers. There are people making decisions, there are policy makers, they're decision makers, and they are deciding what you'll wear next summer. They've already decided what you'll wear this summer and most likely they have decided also what you'll wear next summer, more than a year from now. But it's possible that they can have some problem in industry and they could have an excess of certain fabrics. And maybe an excess of certain fabric may make them change what you wear in the summer a year from now.
But everything is planned and life is under authority. And that's what you have to wake up to know and understand that you are never outside of the grips of some planned order. You live free. Free in what sense? Free in what sense, what context? You are not under yolk, you are not in handcuffs, you're not in chains. That's how you're free. But your life, your influences are not free. Your influences are constantly being grabbed. The way that you respond to certain things, the way that you feel about certain things. There are forces that come in to you through that avenue and decide what you will be, the shape of your life tomorrow. And as long as we are exposed like that to be influenced blindly, to just go to a thing because it appeals to our senses or our sentiments. When I say senses, I'm talking about sense of feel, sense of taste, sense of seeing, these senses. Something look beautiful, "I want that." Something sound pretty. "Oh, I like that. Play it again." Something tastes nice. "Oh give me a double helping of this."
Something smell good. "Let me sniff it." Say, "Oh, you're going to get a habit." "But it smells so good." So there's two sense levels. There is the blind sense level and the intelligence sense level. We don't want to be on the blind sense level where we respond to things just because it appeals to us, our senses. Maybe it's bad for my judgment, maybe it's bad for my future. Maybe it's bad for the state of my life and for the state of my family's life. So I have to consider my move and what consequences are going to come because of my movement. I have to consider that. And I have to be able to have the strength to turn down things that seems to be good for my immediate self. "So this will make you rich." Yes. But what will be the consequences down the road?
"This is going to make you look much better." But how will society take to me looking like that? Some of us, we just start prettying up and it looks pretty to us so we just keep prettying up. "So let me give you some Chinese eyes. I think you'll look pretty with some Chinese eyes. No, I'm going to give you a wig. That hair you got is not nice. I'm going to give you a wig. Let's give you some Indian. How would you like Indian hair? How about it flowing all the way down to your kneecap." And then they pretty you up. You got slant eyes and hair like Indian flowing all down to your kneecap. And then one of us see you and say "What the hell wrong with sister so and so. So he doesn't like to be us anymore?"
So we have to weigh everything don't we? We have to weigh everything in view of what is going to be the overall consequences. We have to become circumspect. We have to see the whole field that we have to live in. And make decisions that serve us best in that whole field that we have to live in. Because if we don't do that, then we make a decision for a situation that's small. And when we move out of that small situation with that thing that we have decided upon into a bigger spere, we find ourselves rejected, persecuted, hated, despised, even maybe by our own family because of a decision we made without considering what the effect of that was going to be in the whole picture. We have to come out of that brothers and sisters. And the only way to come out of that is not to try to be a genius. You are no genius. You can't do better for yourself than Allah has done for you.
None of us can come up with a religion better than this religion Al Islam. The challenge was put before people 1400 years ago. G-d inspired Prophet Muhammad to challenge the people who claim to be intelligent, claim to be gifted, great men of letters. He said, produce just one verse to equal a verse of the Qur'an. And they were not able to do it. And they haven't been able to do it since. So why should we be around here? What have brought us this far? Hasn't it been this religion? So why don't we trust the thing that's helping us? This religion is helping us. This religion is making us bigger minded, it's making us better thinkers and it is making a better life possible for us. So why don't we trust the thing that's helping us? Why do we want to always go back to our own petty little thoughts?
Want to experiment, thinking you can make a commandment better than G-d. You can't make no commandment better than G-d. You can't give us the religion better than this religion. So accept what Allah has given us and let's live by that and stop being little children showing off with our little petty knowledge. We don't have nothing. When you speak, speak from the Qur'an, speak from authority, speak from something bigger than you. And if you have something of your own that you just discovered, show us the basis for that in what has been discovered long time ago. If you have anything worthwhile, the basis for what you have discovered is in something that has been established long time ago. Now, if you can't show us the grounds for your new invention or your new knowledge in the Qur'an, then it is nothing. That's the test I accept. Whatever I tell you or offer to you or give you if it sounds like it's from me okay.
I want you to test me. I say the grounds for it is in this book. Now, if I can't prove that, we reject what I say. If I can't prove the grounds for it is in this book, then we should reject it. I have to establish it. This is the book that is all inclusive. In the Qur'an Allah says that there is not an issue that hasn't been dealt with in this book, for the past, present, and future. There is not an issue that hasn't been dealt with it in this book. So if I take a stand on some issue, I should be able to show you in the Qur'an the grounds for me taking that stand. And if I can't show it, then you have a right to contend with me. You have the right to even say No, Brother Imam, we have to reject that, especially if it is in disagreement or it goes against the Qur'an.
This is the only way we can live in peace. We have to have something central to live by. We have to have something universally established. And the Qur'an has established universal concepts, universal guidelines, and we have to live by that Qur'an. And no Muslim should be around here saying he's a Muslim and not be aware that the authority for all of his judgment is this Qur'an. You should understand what you're saying when you say you are a Muslim. That mean that I accept the judgments that are in the Qur'an, that they be placed against me If I'm in the wrong, that they be the test for all that I claim I know. If I claim I know something, it must be tested. It must be proven valid. It has to have some validity. And what test it? The Qur'an if I'm a Muslim. That's the problem with the world today. Too many of us are writing our own scriptures and no angel came to us, nothing.
Maybe a little smoke. That's all. And we are writing our own religion. We have to stop that. For G-d's sake, yes. Everything that a good Muslim do or everything that a good Muslim does, it's for G-d sake. He wants to please G-d most of all. But what about for our sake, the masses of America in pitiful conditions, our life is not in our own grip. Our future is not under our doing or not being shaped by our doing. Our future is taken away from us. What about us? Shouldn't we do something for ourselves? Yes, we want to please G-d. But isn't there a urge in you to improve your own life?
The way to improve it is to come out of this small mindedness, come out of this occupation we have with our own fancies, a kind of competition with each other. "Oh yeah, I got to admit that what he said was inspiring brother. But I think I can top that." Little small petty ego competition with each other. If we come into a petty competition like that with each other, we lose sight on the goal. The goal is to do what Allah has asked. So let us not come into this petty competition with each other. "Yeah, that was tough, man. I think I'm going to try to beat that next Sunday or next Jumu'ah" Whenever you get a chance to speak. Church preacher competition with each other. One get up and preach, the other one's going to beat him. He going to top him. If he can't speak more wisdom, he'll holler louder.
Yeah, we don't want that among us. We know what that has done for people. It only hold people down. The prayer that man should make for righteousness or for good. Khaira is good, And Khaira is so comprehensive. The word Khaira includes that that is good in the afterworld and also that is good in the present world. It's one of those terms that covers the whole, Khaira, good. It covers the good that G-d promised in the after world or the future world. And also in this present world, Khaira. The prayer that man should make for good things, he makes it for Shar, for evil or for harm, for that which will bring harm.
Now those people who have the power, they're the ones, most of them fit this description. Oh, they will work hard. They will pray, maybe even seek religious guidance. They will seek the scripture for help in order to keep them in position of power, to keep them over the world. And what they want is just more security for themselves as an authority or as a power. And they would search the scripture, they would pray to G-d, "Oh G-d, help me understand this. Help me get this gem of wisdom." Because they feel that in that gem of wisdom is going be a new clue that will guide them to even greater power or greater security in their positions of power.
There are those who seek knowledge just to fortify their position in power, to give them a greater position or greater security in their power position. They don't seek knowledge to give to you. They don't seek knowledge to improve upon life. Their only object for seeking knowledge is self enrichment, self enrichment, hoping that by having this knowledge they will be more secured in their small positions of power, hoping that they will be richer materially because of them having a superiority over others in knowledge. Hoping that the knowledge may be a bank for them that they can lean back on and say, "I'll publish this at such and such times, it'll make me a whole lot of money."
Those are wrong people. Those are not right people. Those are wrong people. Those are no good people. The prayer that they should make for good, they make it for wickedness or they make it for Shar. They make it for that that will cause harm, hurt, corruption, wrongdoing. "And mankind is prone or in the habit of being hasty." If you would just think, take a little time, don't rush so fast. Don't make that decision so quick, take a little time to think over the decision you are about to make. Think over the attitude that you are under. Think over the feelings that you are giving yourself to. Think about the whole situation a little bit before you make big decisions. Make decisions in the light, not in the dark. Praise be to Allah.
Muslims say Allah is their Protector. Allah is their Protector. Allah is the one who has charge of their life, of their affairs. The world tells us to take our life into our own charge. And in so doing, they get our lives into their charge. They tell us that here lately, they've told us, don't even pay no attention to our parents. That even the children now got a mind of their own. They can make decisions. They don't have to pay attention to their parents. And they tell us individually that we got a mind of our own. Don't let nobody else influence us. Don't walk in anybody else's shadow.
What is it doing for us? Have these new ideas helped us? Is our condition improving with these new ideas? No, the children that are going to school now, they say one out of every five have a hearing defect. Why would one out of every five have a hearing defect? Because their parents live with nothing but noise. The baby, the infant come from his mother into an environment of pure noise and it is damaging to the ears, damaging to this sensitive parts of the human ear. So our children are coming here now, one out of every five they say. This is recent, very recent disclosure. One out of every five with a hearing defect that goes into preschools or into the kindergarten, it's a shame. We bring the child from the mother's womb right into an environment of noise.
And we have to keep up the noise. We have to turn it up. They got volumes now that the same volume 10 years ago would bust the material of the speaker. They've had to make stronger material for the speaker just so it can stand the volume that they now give to our ears. And we like the noise. We got to have the noise. Why? Because we can't live with our conscience. We have to have enough noise to drown out our conscience. Our conscience is saying this new way of life that the world has given us is wrong.
And it is so hard listening to our conscience and going against it. It is like going uphill or going against the grain of something. It's very hard. So the world has accommodated us again in that regard. They give us a lot of noise to drown out our conscience so we won't have to worry about the conscience bothering us while we are doing the thing that's against life, against our very nature. We have to change all these things. You need a moment of pride in your life. You need to get away from noise. And if solitude terrifies you, that's an evidence of just how far you have gone away from natural life.
And some of us are terrified by solitude. Any noise can come about. It doesn't get our attention. Somebody can drop a bomb right out there in front of the house. And many of us won't even take note. We'll keep on doing what we were doing just like nothing ever happened. But let everything become silent and we go crazy. What happened? What's going wrong? And silence is conducive to intelligent thought. We have to get our life in some kind of order. We have to accept something bigger than ourselves. And that's this religion. "And we gave Musa the scripture and made it a guidance and made it guidance for the children of Israel and directed them to not accept any to worship except Me." That is G-d saying this. And not to accept any to be in charge of their affairs except Me. That is except G-d. Now look what Allah asks of a whole nation. He asked this of a whole nation, that whole nation accept Him as the only Lord, the only one to worship. And that whole nation accept that He be the authority over all of their affairs or in all of their affairs. This is told to us in the Qur'an to tell us what to tell us what? That what He required of them, He require of us.
We don't have a New Testament, an Old Testament. We don't have nothing obsolete in the Qur'an. The whole book is for us. And even when it's talking to past situations, it's talking to us. Talking to us by example. So we have to accept to worship none but Allah, we don't worship anyone else. Worship implies obedience and fear. That means that you shouldn't let the fear of anyone else or any nation or any combination of things dominate you more than the fear of Allah. That's what it means. And when you get afraid, if you are not afraid, if you are not being at that time influenced by the fear of Allah, the fear of Allah comes up in you as a natural response. You afraid. So if that's not the fear of Allah, the fear of Allah immediately comes up and it dominates whatever you were afraid of. That's what the worship of Allah implies.


