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IWDM Study Library
Scripture is Man's Saving Force

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We ask Allah choicest blessings upon Prophet Muhammad, to whom the Qur'an was revealed. We accept him, love him, follow him as our Prophet. A mercy to all the world, to all people. We accept him as our leader, our Imam, our teacher in every aspect of our lives. Peace and blessing be upon him, upon his companions, his descendants, the righteous, all of them, Ameen. Dear beloved Muslims, keeping the wholeness of our religion is keeping the purity of our religion. Leaving its wholeness brings in corruption. Any number of things may be responsible for changing or contributing to the loss of our Islamic wholeness. For instance, when we misplace values, when we shuffle or juggle the meanings in our religion, or as it is put in the Qur'an, take meaning out of their proper places. When we misplace emphasis in the religious teachings, when we fail to keep the basic concepts and principles and right perspective, these things and any number of other things, similar shifts or changes cause loss of wholeness. Pulling it as it is given in the Qur'an, we take a bite of meat out of our religion. The exact word in the Qur'an is Bid'a. This word is wrongly termed innovation. Our brothers, brother Muslims from overseas whose native language is something else other than English sometime miss the correct word when they're trying to find an interpretation, a translation of meaning for the original word in the Qur'an. The wisdom of the Qur'an or the Qur'anic wisdom as referenced in the Sunnah, are weakened by the use of the term innovation. New growth is built into the philosophical teachings or basic teachings of the Qur'an. The Qur'an is a living book. The Qur'an is a book that accommodate every need to grow. To grow morally, to grow spiritually, to grow intellectually, to grow academically, to grow scientifically, to grow culturally. Whatever the need in the society is for growth, the Qur'an has that built in operation that accommodates the need for growth. In our English speaking environment, a person is apt to interpret into the meaning of the Qur'an wherein it warns us against Bid'a, a call for the Muslims to keep some innovation vigil as a Pharisee obsession. Many of us are not aware of the instigators influencing Muslim thinking, Muslim understanding, to bring about similar currents that they brought about for other religious communities before, the Jews and the Christians, to take the Islamic community, the Muslim community, down the same path of ignorance and self-destruction. The Pharisees made the old traditions of their Rabbis a greater issue than the basic essence of the faith. This we learned from Christian traditions. The Pharisees busied themselves so much in trying to hold other people to the traditions of their particular Rabbis, that they went taboo crazy.
Now as the Pharisees, with regard to their attitude among us, contemporary representatives from the so-called Orthodox Islamic community, the immigrants, exhibit now a hypocritical vigil. And many of them too are taboo crazy. They want for themselves community superiority over others. They want an old world dominance over the new world. Dear beloved Muslims, I feel the urge to tell you be neither corrupt nor hypocritical and be spiritually and rationally attracted to the Imam of your choice. But be aware of those who would be your advisors against me. Those who did not stand by the needy Muslims of their own land.
Be aware also of the contemporary Sadducees. The design hasn't changed. The same wicked people who instigated the downfall of other religious communities, their descendants, their Rabbi children or there Priest children, or there some other kind of children. They're still around here to raise hell for the good people and to keep the same evil design on the religious community. So be aware also of these contemporary Sadducees, and I choose the word contemporary not because it's the best word, but I like it. It suggests something else. Contemporary Sadducees and Pharisees. Walking around in Muslim disguise, cheapening our religious ideas. The Sadducees among us who pretend to be one of us, they're influenced by Marxist materialism and the so-called logic of that material orientation. And they would have our religious ideas cheapened by their Marxist interpretation and application. We have to be aware of that. There are many eye opening verses in the Qur'an that speak more strongly to what is happening now in the world than they spoke to what happened yesterday in the world. That's an example of the Qur'an being able to fulfill the mass, no matter what time they come and no matter where they come from. It's never obsolete. It is never old, it is always fresh and new.
The Qur'an is never old, its freshness is never diminished. It is as fresh today as it was 1400 years ago when it was revealed. That's what I mean by living and keeping the capacity to accommodate whatever human being wants and need if it is right. Let us look now what Allah says in the Qur'an of the Pagan Qur'aish. Allah says in the Qur'an that the Pagan Qur'aish had the cover of Allah's grace before Allah gave us Prophet Muhammad. How is that? How is that that the pagan Qura'ish had the cover of grace from Allah and Prophet Muhammad hadn't yet preached among them. Ask the Qur'an, ask Allah. Allah says in the Qur'an, the Qur'aish, their security is granted in the winter and in summer. And Allah said to the Qura'ish, "Be grateful therefore to Allah, who has granted you this security." Before Prophet Muhammad came, the Kaa'ba, the Holy precinct, were protected. They were secured. Abraha, the Ethiopian warrior or the Habashi warrior, came marching against the Kaa'ba with a great herd of elephants. He had an army of an empire, mighty warrior, but he was turned back and his great army was reduced to stubble. Yes, I'm not using the exact Qur'anic words, but I'm giving you the message. Now dear people, the Arabs also enjoyed a commercial advantage. Because that place in its special, special kind of treatment that it got became a place for the market. The man who sell his goods, the man who does the business, who exchange money, he would like to be in a secure place. So the people made their business there because there was more respect for each other's rights in that vicinity. This gave the Arabs another advantage. It gave them a security for their business transactions. It brought business to that area from different parts. They enjoyed this before the advent of our Holy Prophet.
I would like to see you seeing yourself now as recipients of Allah's Grace before I became your Imam. You were favored before I became your Imam. You had a reputation for being truthful, for being honest, for being honest in your dealings with each other and in your dealings with outsiders. You had a reputation for being modest, moral conscious people dressing modestly, covering your shame, staying away from alcohol. Where you think that came from? Oh, that came from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And where did he get it from? Oh, he got it from Professor Fard. And where did he get it from?
Whatever good comes to you, it's the blessing of Allah. And whatever bad come to you, it's because of the wrong of men's hands. Yes. Isn't that Allah? Isn't that what Allah says? Whatever good comes to you is the blessing from Allah. Whatever wrong come to you, it's because of something you did or something the people did. So don't think you have to completely shut yourself off from the past to be a Muslim in the present. You should be grateful for the good you got in the past. You should keep the good morals you learned from the past. You should keep the good mind and good principles you got from the past.
You should keep the intimacy, the close bonds that were created between us that we got from the past. You shouldn't throw out anything good. You should only throw out that that was bad. And you should give all credit to Allah and you should accept His guidance and not make false this religion. Don't claim anything unlawful for any person or for anything. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was a man, a man like a Pagan leader, a man, like a pre-Islamic Qura'ish leader. All of them weren't bad as the others. Some of them were better than others. In fact, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was better than a Qura'ish leader because he was struggling to improve the conditions of his people. He was struggling to shock the mind of society back on the track, back on the right path of moral righteousness. So he was better than a Qura'ish leader. But he was a man from the Jahiliya, from the ignorant time. He was a man worshiping the wrong G-d. He was a man guiding his people in the wrong religious direction, but don't say there was no good. There was so much good.
And then even greater than that, before the man died, he pointed to his son before his top aides. There was 30 or more sitting at his table and he said, "I wish I was like my son." He said to them, "I wish I was the man my son is." Now, if that's not a great man, tell me what is a great man. A man who lead a people and get the respect that he got, and get the high position among his followers that he got, and then sit among his lieutenants, among his captains, among his MGT officers, among his secretaries, they were at the table. And among his own children, they were at the table.
His sister, she was at the table, my aunt. To sit in the presence of his family members in the presence of his officers, of his organization and his own children and tell them in front of all of them that I wish I was the man my son is. That's a great man. That's a great man. He was telling them, I know you all know that I have slipped. Sure I have slipped, but it's not in my heart to be that way. I wish I was like Wallace. That's exactly what he was telling them. And that's a great man. I know you don't like for him to look up to me that way. Too bad. Catch up with your company. You are in the wrong house.
I don't do this often. It's just every once in a while that I hold you like this. If I break a law on Sabbath, I think it will be forgiven since I'm trying to save the lives. Now let us turn our minds to another concern. Just as the Pharisees overdid their traditions and rituals, we are being led to do the same thing. Many Muslims in this community, they think they can't say Muhammad without saying Peace and Blessings be upon him. Your heart should always have that attitude to give proper respect to Allah's Messenger, because Allah has said Himself, "Salute him with peaceful greeting, generous and peaceful greeting." But did he say every time you mention his name, greet him? Allah did not say that. Did the Muslims in the day of Prophet Muhammad, every time they mentioned his name, did they say Sa Ala Alahi Wa Salaam? They did not do that. So this is a new tradition we have taken on, isn't it? Now, Oh my goodness. We are to give due respect and especially in our Khutbah's, we are to give due recognition to Prophet Muhammad, Sa Ala Alahi Wa Salaam. Peace and Blessings be upon him.


