MM/DD/YYYY
IWDM Study Library
The Followers of Abraham

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, it feels nice and cool in here. Peace be unto you all, Asalaam Alaikum. I really like the breeze here. It is nice, but I don't like the brothers on the floor sitting down. We have chairs. We have to find more chairs so when the brothers come, they don't have to sit on the floor. You have to have some chairs. We have some, I believe in the warehouse of the Mosque Cares. WDM Ministry. So I know we have some chairs. So if we don't have enough here, we going to make sure you have enough chairs next time. Now regretfully, it's going to be a long time because I won't be here anymore until after the Convention. July is the last month, August. I have to try to see if I can handle all this work coming in until after the Convention. Bismillah Ar Rahma Nir Raheem. Wa Salatul Wa Salaamu Ala Rasulahi Kareem Muhammad Sa Ala Alahi Wa Salaam Mabad. Salat is the prayers, Salaam you know. Wa Salaamu Ala Rasulahi Kareem. On G-d's honorable and generous Messenger. And Mabad means that what follows of that tradition, traditional salute to the last Prophet. Yes, there have been some irritation caused me, caused to me really people come, "Hey Brother Imam, that was a good talk." Talk is too general. If you understand where I'm coming from, this is not talk.
It's a Kutbah, it's a lecture. Kutbah means lecture. When you're coming from sources, well, lemme give you a dictionary definition for lecture. A speech providing information about a given subject. A speech, providing information about a given subject. That's the meaning of lecture. Talk can mean a lot of things, very broad and general. Also talk can be a put down. If you tell somebody, tell a speaker who's given a speech, "Oh, I liked your talk."
That insults him, most likely it'll be an insult. It is too general. And talk can be something rambling. You can be rambling. That's talk. You're talking but you're rambling. You don't know where you're going. You don't know where you came from. You don't know where you're going. You have no direction for what you're saying and you're skipping about and you're hitting random here and there. So talk is not the word that I want to hear. When you tell me you heard me and you like what I said. I want you to say, "I enjoyed the subject."
Or either use the word Kutbah, lecture. The subject for today is Abrahamic Faith Communities And the Followers, called children in the Bible of Abraham. And this subject is chosen for today because I believe most of us don't really know the connections for these three faiths. We think Abraham, it's enough to say Abraham. Abraham, we identify with Abraham, Father Abraham. That's true. But why have the Jewish community and Muslim community and Christian community, why have these three communities of faith identified with Prophet Abraham? Well say, "Well, because he's mentioned in the Bible and he is mentioned in the Qur'an." That's true. Still, the question is why? Why is he that? G-d says in the Qur'an that He made Abraham an Imam, which means the leader. And we know the first meaning for Imam is one who lead the congregation in prayer and who teaches the congregation because he gives the Kutbah also on Jumu'ah day, the day of the gathering, the congregation.
And he's required to give the number of rakats that's shortened from four for the noon prayer like it is in every other day, to two only on Friday to give the speaker time to deliver his speech, his Kutbah and his Kutbah is a lecture and his lecture is a teaching. If you look at the English definition providing information. If he's not giving you something on the subject, not informing you or giving you information on the subject, that's not really a lecture and it's not really a Kutbah. So we know that he is mentioned in the Bible and in the Qur'an in the Bible he's called, G-d says He changed his name from Abram. Now I change your name from Abram to Abraham. He changed the Prophet Abraham's name from Abram according to the Bible, to Abraham, meaning that he stopped being a leader of one people to being a leader of many of the many, Abraham. Ibrahim in Qur'anic Arabic, Ibrahim. And I say Qur'anic Arabic because that name was not known before the Qur'an was revealed to the people who were called the Jahiliya, the illiterate in scripture, the people who had not received scripture. They weren't Jews, they weren't Christians, they weren't familiar with scripture.
So when the Qur'an came to them a new term, many new terms came to them that the Arabs didn't have before. One is Ibrahim and there are many other terms in the Qur'an that they did not know before. So it's a Qur'anic term. We just can't say Arabic. Like Bible terms. They're English, but we don't say English terms for those Bible terms. We say Bible terms, terms in the Bible. So remember that. Yes. Okay. So these communities all identify with Abraham because their scriptures, the Bible, Torah of the Jews, Old Testament of the Bible, the Gospel, the New Testament all recognized Abraham as the father, second father after Adam. And the Qur'an also recognize him as father. Father Abraham.
What are we identifying with when we identifying with Abraham? We identifying with what Abraham represents. And Abraham in scripture represents a number of very important, important ideas or things. When we look at his unwillingness or I should say his great difficulty with believing he had to sacrifice his son and later being told by G-d that his willingness to sacrifice his son for G-d was enough and that the actual sacrifice of the physical life or the life of the son was not required. Instead He said He showed him a sheep or a lamb and He said the lamb was to be sacrificed. That was the understanding that Abraham got from the vision that G-d showed him that the lamb was to be sacrificed, not his son. And the lamb was to be sacrificed and fed to the poor, fed to the people. So he did that and he was greatly relieved. So Abraham is a man that was really devoted to his family. And did not want to accept even a sacred sacrifice that would take his son away from him. He didn't want to accept that, but he would accept anything if he knew G-d wanted that.
Because he was a man of great faith, very great faith, man of faith, but also a man of reason. And the Qur'an, Allah says that He made him an Imam for all the people or for all nations. And his sons are Ishmael in Arabic in the Bible and Ishaq in the Qur'anic Arabic and Isaac in the Bible, two sons. And the Bible calls him a Father for all, Father for all the nations. So if we understand the Qur'an coming back and saying he's an Imam, we should understand what it means, what Father means. Father means a leader, that's all. Doesn't mean the blood relationship. So the Qur'an helps us to understand the Bible, help us to make the right translation even of the Bible. Bible meanings. In fact, that's what it came for. It came behind other scriptures to further explain those scriptures and to clear any incorrect meanings or understanding. Thats why the Qur'an came. It's right in the Qur'an, Qur'an says that. Are you hearing me okay in the back Sisters? Very good, very good. Thank you. I heard they had made this super, super mic system here and we appreciate that.
Abraham was a man of faith, strong faith and firmness. Firmness. Once he resolved a thing, he stepped firmly to it. Very firm person, man of rational concerns, a man of rational concerns. A man known for digging wells. And I read the Bible as I told you many times. I read it all the way through as I felt my obligation since I'm going to be preaching to Christians and persons who are from Christianity or from church life. I felt an obligation on me that I had to read the Bible, but I knew what was there and I wanted to question and pick it apart because of the way I was raised and taught as a child and as a young man, I wanted to pick it apart of course. But I felt that that wouldn't be fair, that I should first not let my feelings and opinions and prejudices come into the picture, that I should read it myself all the way through without interruption. And then at the end of the reading, I also vowed, I actually made a pledge that I would do this. I also vowed that I would read it again slowly and study it carefully and pick it apart. And that's exactly what I did. I studied it for the second time, but the first time prepared me to do an excellent job with the second task because I was able to see the light in the Bible when I read it without letting my light interfere with it.
And I didn't have much light on the Bible. That is, I never was a student of the Bible and I never really had an interest in the Bible. The way I was raised by my father especially, and also by my mother, I had no interest in the Bible really until I decided. Because he said he's not going to teach the Bible. Who'd he tell that to? The Ministers. The Minister would come to him and say, "Your son, he sounds different. He's different." He'd say, "Yes brother. Well, he's not going to teach the Bible. He's going to teach the Qur'an." That's what my father would tell them. I mean from the time I was a teenager. Young about 17, 18, 19 years old.
Now. So Abraham should be seen as a man strongly devoted to family. And G-d saw that he was the one who should be the leader of all families, all nations, all people. And He made him that. G-d announced that he was that. To be devoted to family is to be devoted to social life, social life. S-O-C-I-A-L, social life, the social order of society. He was devoted to that. But Abraham was just a little more than that. As I said, he was a man that was rational and he pursued rational concerns. When he was offered something to respect, worship, or respect, or to hold sacred, if it didn't make good rational sense to him, he would begin to search for the truth or search for what is correct. That was Abraham. We have a story of him in both Bible and Qur'an. It shows he was that kind of man, but more clearly in the Qur'an showing that he was that kind of man, a man that couldn't have his mind burdened by things that didn't make rational sense to him. So he would pursue those things to test them, to test the truth of those things. Like the story we have of him searching for something in the universe or something in the material existence that he could feel comfortable with that is G-d. And his people had idol G-ds and different G-ds. Fertility, G-ds, G-d that they prayed to have a good crop of watermelons or something.
Fertility G-ds, that's what they call 'em. Fertility G-ds for a good gathering of harvest, of corn, of corn or whatever. They had G-ds many G-ds that they prayed to. And the biggest one was the sun G-d, G-d they called sun or fire, the G-d of fire. Some of 'em didn't mention sun in their myths or in their ideas about G-d. They would say fire. Fire, the fire G-d. But others sun, sun G-d, the sun as the G-d. Abraham is known also for monotheism that is claimed by these three great faiths. They all claim that G-d is one, one only. Christians, I know you hear about three in one, but it's three in one. They still claim it's one, three in one.
Yes. And the Jews say G-d is one. Moses told them, preached that to them, gave them that. They had to stand by that. And you know in Islam, G-d is one. And reasoning that G-d was one, Abraham searched the matter, material world first. And everything that he thought possibly could be G-d in the material world, including the sun. The one he lastly dismissed, he lastly dismissed the sun. Said, no, it can't be G-d he said, because my G-d is not one to set. The sun sets and seems to go out, seems to go out of sight. We know it's still up there the same. Science made us understand that it really doesn't go out, but to the eye, to the natural eye, it appears to go out. It appears to go out and into the earth because we didn't know what's behind there. It appears to be going into the earth. And if you really watch the sun on the waterfront, like a ocean, a lake, oh it is amazing. I've seen it. I've watched it. It goes down in the water and because it's light and the water, it's a light and the water reflects light, it appears as though it's actually going down in the water. It looks lik it is moving the water, affecting the water.
And if you ever see it rise from the water, it appears as though it's dripping some fire down from itself as it goes up from the water. That's how it appears. The G-d that created this, He created this to have it communicate to us what he wanted to communicate. So we are not supposed to see the sun as the scientists see the sun. We supposed to see the sun as consciousness. G-d made everything in the world to be a reflector of what He wanted in us or what He had already created in us. So you're supposed to see it as consciousness, man, working man, the Son of G-d and the Son of man. Understand what I'm saying? I don't mean he's a biological son of G-d. No, I mean servant. Servant of G-d, special servant of G-d, made by G-d to be His servant. G-d made him to be servant.
G-d created him to be His servant. So you can understand thinkers and philosophical thinkers, poetic thinkers changing the language and say, son of G-d, meaning biologically, pardon me to saying or making us think, they're saying biological son of G-d, that G-d actually fathered him like we father our children. But that's incorrect. Very incorrect. It means that he was the creator, and pardon me, G-d the creator created him for that specific purpose, created him for that specific purpose. Like a father will want a son to be devoted to his interest and he would pray to G-d "Bless me with a son to carry on my works." And if G-d answer his prayers, then he'll try to raise that son in his works so that son will carry on his works after him. Well that's the meaning. That's the meaning, not the flesh meaning that we think, that some of us think So anyway, the Bible, it says then the genealogy of Jesus Christ goes back to Adam and Adam was created by G-d. Allah opened Muhammad's heart and mind to understand. And he was given the revelation, the revelation, that whenever G-d wants a son, He creates that son from those that He already created. Or He gets that son pardon me, from those that He already created. So G-d is saying that I created all people and they all are My creation. And that's more conclusive than having a son. Your wife and you have a son. You say, "That's my son." That is not near as conclusive as what G-d said. I created all of you. Without a woman.
I created all of you and gave you your natures, your nature to mate with each other and reproduce yourselves. He established that creation and those laws and they stay. So Allah says, if I want a son, why do I have go and have some woman and have some woman, have a son for me in some way or other? Then I have 'em all the time. But I want more of them. I just have them come from My creation. I did it once and it keeps going.
Oh, what is he saying? I don't know if you know or not. I hope you do. But even before I had this understanding in scripture, I said to myself, it doesn't hold up that Jesus Christ is a totally different creation from other men, Peace be on him. Why did I reason that way? This is before, this was back there when I was a young Minister for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. I said to myself, "If his mother was Mary and Mary had a mother and a father, Jesus Christ had a father, a grandfather. But nobody mentioned his grandfather. They never talked to him, never said, well, he had a grandfather. He didn't have a father, but he had a grandfather. Huh? And the Bible doesn't leave you without some guidance. The Bible traces the genealogy of Jesus Christ back to Adam and it traces his genealogy through other men. Yes. And finally arrives at Adam and saying, Adam was created by G-d, meaning that this man's creation is the original creation that G-d wanted when He made Adam. Adam before he fell. Adam before he was seduced by the serpent or the Satan. Satan or Shaitan, Jesus Christ is that purity of creation that G-d made when He put Adam in the garden, not defiled, not deceived out of his nature before the serpent deceived him. Yes. That's all it's saying.
And now in order for that creation to come back, G-d couldn't use the men. The men had the wrong mind. So he chose to use Mary. And without the help of a man, without any man assisting in the matter, Mary produced Christ Jesus. Blessed pure Mary produced the blessed pure son Jesus Christ. Yes. Now you say, "Oh, well, sounds like he's contradicting what he said at first." Well, maybe it's too much for you. If it is too much for you, take what you can digest and forget the rest. So this other description of Abraham, it is very, very important. It brings us to the idea of Tauheed in Islam. In Islam, Tauheed comes from the word Wahid. Tauheed. Comes from the word Wahid. Wahid means one. Tauheed means unity and oneness. Unity and oneness. It means the principle really of unity and oneness. That covers everything in creation. Everything in creation I should say, has everything to do with the concept of Tauheed.
The unity of matter, the consistent logic for the creation of the universe and for its maintaining its system of unity. It maintains its system of unity. Recognizing this nature of matter is Tauheed. Then when we study living things, including human beings, we find that their material life also comes under one law. The law for matter, living matter, the law for living matter. So in that picture, we are all together. We are together with grass and all animals. So scripture will call a man grass. What is the son of man but grass? That's what the scripture says. That's the Bible. What is the son of man but grass? So that's a description of man, grass. If you can't handle that, if that's too heavy for you brother, look at yourself. You're called grassroots, the grassroots people. Yeah. You're call grassroot people. That's what they call the uneducated, the lower class people who also called masses. They're masses. They call you grassroots. So if the people who are not high class, not very educated and popular in the society, if they're grassroots, then there must be also some turnip roots. Yeah. Cherry tree roots, Apple tree roots. Walnut tree roots. There must be a lot of other, other people too, right? I think you got that clearly.
Now they trim trees all right. But that's done seldom, and done only where people are living. In the city and town where the streets are and the curves are, and private property, a little piece of it belongs to me and a little piece belong to you. So we mow the grass and keep it nice so we don't offend each other. Right? Keep our grass mowed nice. And you have to mow it often like you get a haircut, right? Yeah. So that's how poor people are too, huh? Poor educated people. You got to tend to them pretty regularly and please give 'em some spiritual water. You don't give 'em some spiritual water on hot days, all the pretty grass goes, turns yellow or brown look dead. But they're gullible. They're gullible, man. First rain come, they turn green over night almost. They back to life. Everything living needs water, the big strong tree, no matter what it is, Cedar tree, pine tree, whatever it is. The big strong tree, it doesn't need water regularly like grass because it puts its root deep into the ground. So when the water level is below the grassroots and the grass is dying, it ain't below the tree roots. The tree roots still getting water cause they sunk deep down into the earth. Or you hear the church people and religious people, they may tell you, be speaking from wisdom and they say "You better sink your roots deep." Mean you're going to try to establish yourself or have a family or establish yourself and be serious about it. And invest money in your family's future.
And you invest money in the family future. You putting your roots deep. But when you don't plan for the future, you are putting your roots very shallow. And the life goes away with the little difficulty that comes. Hard times come for the spiritual life. Grassroots. The grass is gone. The roots ain't dead now. But the top of it, the life is gone waiting for the rain to come. They can have life again. The unity of matter, Tauheed, we identify it with Prophet Abraham. He was the one who searched the universe for understanding. And he concluded that it was one system and it had universal law.
Universal law. Law that applied to it everywhere. Every country, every land, every place, it applies. If you can go outside and reach the moon or Mars or some other planet, it applies there too. Same law. The law for matter. One law, one consistent law for matter. So we should understand that Abraham was a scientific thinker. He wasn't just rational, he was strongly rational. And that's what led him to be strongly logical. And he came to the conclusion that I can't put my mind, let my mind interfere with my search for understanding. I got to keep my mind out of it. And just follow what I see and test it with reason and logic. So his orientation or his discipline for that kind of search was scientific. It was more than just rational. It was scientific. He watched the sun and it came up beautifully and he said, "Oh, this must be a G-d. It is so splendid, so beautiful." But when he watched it, he wasn't satisfied to take his mind, his study mind off of what he was observing. So he waited until it got all the way up and started going down. And when it went down and out of sight, that's when he made his conclusion.
He said, that can't be my G-d. For my G-d is not a G-d that set. Now Abraham wasn't stupid. He wasn't testing the physical sun and the physical picture and language of things. And those ancient people weren't stupid. You think they had enough sense to run governments and societies and build ships and things and develop science. They had developed science too to a certain extent back then. So don't think they were stupid. They were never seeing those things like the masses are taught to see 'em. You've never seen it that way. They're always seeing those things as metaphors, as symbols of something in their own life. So not only is this Abraham's conclusion condemning one physically pardon me, looking at the physical thing and saying that's a G-d. But more importantly and more truthfully to the language of man and history, what he's saying is that this consciousness that you say is in you, it rises up out of you to light the world. Your ideology is not G-d. I've tested your ideology. It sets, it goes out, it has its limitation. It dies. This is what he said, this is what he's saying. This is what he's saying. And I find it to be of the nature of all the things in the material world. Your ideas are just like everything else in the material world. Your ideas come and go. One come with a bigger idea, put out your light. Like the eclipse of the bodies in the heavens. One body come and cross the path of another body and put that body in the dark even though it'd be daytime.
Yes. All those are signs of what happens to man's mind and man's idea. So he found that none of these ideas could serve him as a G-d. None of these ideas could keep his life for him. Then we read of how Prophet Abraham and Moses, how they had to have really do battle with rulers of their day, with the rulers of their day. And the good example, Abraham too, but a very good example is Moses. Moses finally had to separate from Pharaoh and the Egyptian government rulers and go on his own. And they had to test, test their knowledge in a contest with each other. And Moses knowledge defeated the knowledge of Pharaoh's learned ones in that particular knowledge. His knowledge defeated them. Then after he defeated their religious order and he went out, G-d told him to leave Egypt. So he was taking the people out and Pharaoh's army went out after him. Pharaoh couldn't bear it. We can't let this man go out after insulting me like this. So they went out to pursue them, right? And in trying to pursue them, Moses and his followers, they were blessed to cross the Red Sea on dry land. The sea parted, the waters parted, gave him land to walk across. And when Pharaoh's army tried to cross that same sea, the waters converged on them and drowned them. They were drowned in the water. This is a story. All has to be understood as I'm teaching you to understand things.
Alright. Okay. So what does it mean? It meant that G-d had blessed Moses with a higher knowledge and a more powerful vision and strategies superior to that of Egypt. So when they tried to pursue him to prevent him from reaching, going to his destiny, they were overcome by things between, in between, by things in between. And this was water. It was water. So really what we understand by Moses being able to go through water and water not interfere and water not block him or cause him trouble, it was the psychology. Moses was given a superior psychology. And when the army of Pharaoh tried to do what Moses and his people were able to do, they failed. They didn't have the psychology. So their senses drowned, were drowned, their senses were drowned trying to pursue him. Praise be to Allah. So Moses had scientific disciplines, as did Abraham, scientific disciplines. But this religion is more than we think it is. And don't think the world is stupid. The world keeps us in the dark. The world is not stupid. Believe me, world leaders have known what I'm telling you. They have known it all the time. But they hurt themselves when they hurt us.
And the learned wise ones, they knew it was coming. They said, "Okay, they locking up the knowledge, putting the ignorant ones in the dark and won't let 'em have light." So they predicted that there's going to come a time when that darkness going to spread and cover the whole world. Everybody going to be in the dark. That doesn't mean that they won't know certain things, but the light that G-d gave for the direction of mankind on this planet earth, they would've lost it. They would've lost it. So it says there will come a time when there'll be a book, and some person will come upon this book, and pick it up and try to read it. And he'll be a person that's not educated. So he'll say, I can't read this. So he takes the book to another person who's educated and he gave him the book, this is the Bible. He gives him the book and he said, "Will you read this for me? The man says "I can read it, but it's sealed. It's locked up." So there was an educated man who didn't know the meanings hidden under this symbolic language or the metaphorical language. Or allegorical language. Yes. He couldn't read it. Reading it literally wouldn't be reading it. So he couldn't read it either. So the same Bible says that there was a book no man could read. No man could read.
Isn't that right? In the Qur'an it says, "And none knows the Ta'weel but Allah. Huh? No man knows it. No one knows it but Allah. Oh, is that so? Yes. That's so. And Allah gave it to Muhammad. Then He told him that you have been missioned to teach them the book and the Ta'weel. Both. Oh yeah. Yatlu is from Ta'weel. Yatlu is from Ta'weel, that you are to teach them, educate them into the knowledge of the Ta'weel. Why would G-d have the Ta'weel in the Bible or in the Qur'an and nobody ever going to get it but G-d? When I was following the Honorable Elijah Muhammad at 19 years old, I'd call that stupid. Yeah, I had one of the holier than thou Sheiks tell me once "No one knows the Ta'weel except Allah. It's in the Qur'an. No one knows the Ta'weel except Allah." Yes sir brother, the Qur'an tells you over and over again "And G-d guides whomsoever He pleases to guide. And G-d will give the meanings to whomsoever He pleases to give the meanings to. Yes, He's the author and they're in His protection always under His protection. And we can't get it unless He releases it. But if it's in the book, it's for man. So now let's go back a little bit. We are not going to beat you on too long. I'm glad you found some chairs. Now that look like justice. I don't like it when it's not justice and you don't either. You might tolerate it and ignore it. I don't tolerate it and I don't ignore it. Yes. Yeah. See you nice. You real nice. I am too. But some things are more important than other things. Yeah. Yeah. "Oh, we used to sit on the floor on Stony Island." We ain't on Stoney Island anymore. And this is not Jumu'ah either. This is not Friday. And it's hot. So please make my homies as comfortable as you can all the time. We all in the state boat. Ain't no big I's and little U's here. No. And Mr. Fard insisted upon that, that there be no importance among the laborers. No one standing up over the other one. Not more important. No, we all the same. The justice is one. One justice. And it got to be applied to all.
Yes. So we're going back now kind of stepping back, stepping back to the beginning where we mentioned the children of Abraham, his children, his two children. His two sons, pardon me, not the children. I'm sorry. Children mean all the followers according to the Bible. And according to the Qur'an too, his followers would be all the people that have came up in his particular mind or logic. Those nations that follow his logic or influenced by his logic. So following the spirit of his logic, those who follow the spirit of his logic are actually educated and know his logic and follow the logic itself. They all are the followers of Abraham. Now you see two sons Ishmael and Isaac. Two sons. Now according to the Bible, the first born son was Ismael. Ishmael. He was the first. He's older. He was older. Then Isaac. Isaac came afterwards. Now again, in the Bible we have two sons. In the beginning or in the Genesis, when the Genesis started, two sons. And these two sons are from Adam.
One son is Abel, the other one Cain. And if you have studied the Bible and taken note, Abel was first. He was the older child. Cain was second, the younger. Now look how they compare with the two sons of Abraham. Ishmael came before Isaac. Isaac. And Isaac ends up getting recognition over his brother who came before him. And there was Abel and Cain. Cain ends up recognition over his brother who came before him. And actually he buried his brother's life in the dirt according to scripture, both Qur'an and Bible. Now what are these lives in Abraham? I think I told you maybe I didn't finish it, but Abraham was devoted to social life, family, that means social life. Abraham was devoted to social life, but he also was a man of great faith. So he was devoted to both social life and spiritual life, social life and spiritual life. And Jesus described himself as a reconciliation for both of those lives. He said, I come not of water only, but of water and blood. Water, the spiritual life. Blood, the social life. Yes. So here we have these sons, two sons in the beginning and two sons in the beginning of Abraham's new world, a new world understanding that Abraham is going to bring, two again. And one represents spiritual life, one represents social life. Ismail or Ishmael represents the spiritual life. Abraham put his wife Hagar, who was pregnant with his son among a new people. And he left him there and he went on to complete his mission for G-d, that mission he had to complete for G-d. And the baby needed water and the mother couldn't find water for the baby. She was desperate to find water for her baby Ismail or Ishmael. And while she was in panic, she happened to look back to see how the baby was doing. And she saw a spring of water coming up out of the desert.
Spring of water coming up out of the desert at the heel of her son. So her son was rescued by a kind of miracle. Yes. Her son was rescued, but the water came up at his heel. And heel is what you balance yourself on. Heel is what you balance yourself on. You stand very comfortably on your heel. And it's a round ball. Not a square, not a rectangle. It's a round ball and things blown by the wind, the wind appears to blow those things in circles right? Huh? Yes. When you smoking, you look like you blow smoke rings. Huh? You're blowing ring circles out, huh? Yeah. Rings. Rings. And when you look at the heavenly bodies, they all look like they're circles. Heavenly bodies. Looks like they're circles. Man made a mistake and thought the earth was flat like a table before science came and corrected his perception. He thought the earth was flat, but he thought those things were round. Huh. So when you read all this and when something hit the water, it makes circles. You drop something in the water and make a circle and it ripple out, circle, circle. I could talk on and on and on this. I got a lot more to say about this. Water. Water is something. And a lot to say about our spirituality. A lot I could say about our spirituality. But that's not the subject. So I'm going to have to stop. Hebrews, can you follow me a little further? Okay, well let's continue. I'm about to believe we are the black Hebrews. All this stopping and stalling. Yes. Okay. So we are looking at these two lives, the spiritual life and the social life, spiritual life and the social life that G-d created to be together. And another sign of the two lives is when a woman gives birth, the first thing that appears is water. The water breaks. And then later the blood.
But before then, she was alarmed maybe by a little spotting of blood, huh? A little spotting of blood. A little sign that this is going be life, not just a trip to the washroom. This going to be life. Yes. But just before the baby's delivered, the water break and there's a lot of water. The water break, there's a lot of water. And then come the baby look like in blood coming out, water and blood. Water and blood, life. So it's aside from G-d. The wise of ancient times, times unknown to us, they saw that as a sign from G-d. So they took the blood to be the social life and the water to be the spiritual life. And they reason that we must be of both. We must have spiritual life and social life. Of both. So you know Cain hit his brother in the head, jealous of his brothers role as a servant of G-d. He hits his brother in the head and then buried his blood in the earth, in the sand. Yeah. So it looks like the murder, looked like he killed him, got rid of Abel. That doesn't mean that at all. What it means is that he put his social interest into material interest and killed his role in society, ended his role in society as a leader. Isn't that what has happened to us today? They have put our social interest and social life in material interest, business and making money and having material things have actually killed our role as social reformers and as leaders for the social community. Yes. That's what has happened. So don't think of the past when you read about these things. This is something that started in ancient time, but it's continued. It's never been stopped. . It just keeps living and keeps taking the people away from their good interests and good life, wiping 'em out. And after they bury 'em for a time and they get old, they make as much as they want. And the new order is not exciting anymore and not producing as much wealth, then they change it back to the old order and start the game all over again.
So Abraham also is the educator. He's the true educator because he's not guessing, he's following law, material law, material logic, sound reasoning. So he arrives at the gate of science, the great illuminated gate of science. He arrives at that gate and he opens it for the whole world of mankind, Abraham. So the one who perceives that all matter is connected and related and under one universal law. And that all matter can be studied by human brain, human mind, and human mind can arrive at its inner nature, the inner nature of matter, and discover laws hidden from the eye and discover the nature or the behavior of matter, nature or behavior of the original behavior of matter. By nature, the original behavior of matter can be discovered. So he opened the door to a treasure that covers the span of the universe. Huh?
And then the Qur'an says "The throne used to be upon the water, but now Your throne extends over all the land and all the water." And then He said He promised you a garden. It ain't Eden no more. It's bigger than that. Say, it's expanse is as the width of the heavens and earth. Thats the language of Abraham. Then it says in this order that we have. It's the Millah, the order of Abraham Hanifah, the upright one. Upright in his nature.
Praise be to Allah. Allahu Akbar. A man of faith with rational concerns, devoted to rational concerns. A man known for digging wells. Now look at a well. A well, you make a hole in the earth so deep that you get down to the water level under the surface of earth. And the water comes into the hole. And that's the well, and it stays at the level that it was at before. So you have to put a bucket down there and get it up. Or build you some apparatus to go down there and bring it back up, right? But even if you make the hole square, water is going to round that hole. Yeah. In time water will round that hole. So that's why the Qur'an doesn't only call it a well, it call it Ain, an I because that hole represents perception. It represents a way of seeing. But really he doesn't want that. He just want to know, do I have you for good? Do you like me so much you going to stay with me forever? I like it here with you. So let me convince you that I love you just crazy. I'm crazy in love with you. And he come back to his normal mind, you start to pet him he might strike at you with those sharp claws. Yes. So we should notice those things. Eyeballs made round. So your vision, you're seeing things should be universal, like the round bodies of the heavens and earth.
Earth is round two, science, discover. So your vision should be universal and your vision should seek to complete itself. A circle, a perfect circle represents completion. Your vision should seek to complete itself. And you should have one vision in common with mankind and all living things. That should be scientific. Huh? Yes. Fish got an eyeball just like yours. In fact, I've seen some animals, if they could just take that eye and put it in my head and it wouldn't germ me up, could fix it some way where it wouldn't contaminate my body. You could have some eyes just as pre as yours, prettier. From some animals out there. Eyes look just Like yours.
Pretty nice round eyes. Yes. So getting back to these sons, I explained Cain and Abel, Cain, the man of the ground, and Abel, the one who was a shepherd. He raised animals. And animals are family. If they're sheep, family of sheep, cows, family of cows. Animals exist in family just like man. Even chickens. They have rooster and hens and family taking care of their babies, their biddies and their chicks. But he was one who was a shepherd, the sheep. Did I say Abel? That's who I meant. Yeah. If I didn't say his name, that's who I meant. Abel. And the Bible says Cain, he was thinking about and reflecting on how Abel was so loved by G-d and Abel was raising animals. And his product is called fruit of the womb. Fruit of the womb. What mother, what a mother bears, what mother produces from herself. In the Bible, the product or the contribution of Cain is called product of the ground. Product of the ground. And the product of the ground that he was typical of is given in his name Cain. And cane is a grass, scientifically speaking, cane is a grass, but cane grows tall and very strong. And you can use it in construction. Grows tall and very strong. Very strong and hard on the outside, hollow on the inside. Isn't that that greedy materialist?
You try to pat him on the back and rub him. Oh man, ain't no life there. It's just like the outside of a cane. That's right. Just like the outside of a cane. And you try to reach him on the inside. Ain't nothing there, hollow on the inside. And they plan that for all of us. Hallow be thy name. I know it's spelled differently, but He said he made Adam of clay. Then Allah revealed to Muhammad said "Yes, clay and sounding clay, not only clay, but sounding clay." Yeah. This man G-d made can hear the ring. I'm talking about the man that G-d made, not me. Talking about many, many that He made. Yes. So here's this one brother taking over the role of his older brother in society. Then Jesus come and he says, "I am before the world was." Isn't that what he said? So when did the world come? According to the Bible Genesis, the world came, the industrial world came with Cain, Cain. Cain is the one whose children, Cain's children became the industrialists. What is that? Stone cutters, building great buildings and structures, iron workers, instrument makers, all of those things came with Cain's sons. The sons of Cain. Yeah. And Jesus Christ, he says he's before to world was. And he says all before me were thieves and robbers, thieves and robbers. They the only ones that take your life that G-d wants you to have. They were out to take it from you, deprive you, rob you of the life that G-d created you to have on this planet earth. All before me were thieves and robbers. Does it mean all before a particular man, a particular Jew born of a particular woman at a particular time in history, single flesh and blood real person? No. He personifies. He's a type, he personifies. He's a type that is in all people and belong to all people. And he's the type that's called Adam. When G-d made man, He created him. He called him Adam.
And the same Bible says, "And in that day He named them Adam, named them Adam. Created He them and named them Adam, to tell you plainly that Adam is a human type. So don't think he's one person. Then Jesus come too. We know Abel was one person, but that's not important. What's important is that you recognize that he's a type, a universal type of all people. And that's the type that Cain deceived and took his role away from him in society. So if you notice the scripture, the scripture is just one theme. The theme is G-d's will for mankind and how the enemies, selfish ones interferes with that and rob man of the great glory and great promise that G-d created him for. That's the theme. That's the major theme from Genesis to Revelation, from Al Fatiha to Al Nas. Look how the Qur'an ends. Say, I seek refuge with the Lord of mankind. Refuge. I need the help from something bad.
The G-d of mankind. Yes. From that wicked one who whispers into the hearts of mankind, from among both Jinn and men, from among both Jinn and men. And Europeans allowed themselves all to be called Jinn. Gentiles. Jinn. It ain't no different. Gentile is the west language for Jinn. Yes. And the Qur'an didn't put down all Jinn. Said a part of them heard the Qur'an being recited. A party, a portion of them heard the Qur'an being recited. And they said, "What a wonderful recital that no man should reject it." That's what the Jinn said. Yes. They asked the Prophet say, "Everyone has a Jinn, Do you have one?" His reply was "Yes. And my Jinn became Muslim." Yeah. So really the Jinn is not necessarily a European or a man of the West because there was a Jinn in Solomon's kingdom. And where he was over there where Israel is now, Jerusalem. And he desired Sheba's throne. He admired her civilization so much he wanted her throne to be brought to him so he would have for the Jews or for Jerusalem, the throne of Sheba as the throne of Jerusalem or the throne of King Solomon. And Sheba is African people. You can go over there and see 'em right now. Yes. Yemen, in the area of Yemen. That's where you'll find them. Anyway, and you'll see that though time has passed and the Arabs have mixed with 'em a lot, , you'll see your likeness in them, that they must have come from Africa. And the darker they are most likely the worst their situation will be over there. Isn't that a shame? That's a shame. Everywhere we go and find dark people with light people, we find the dark people in an inferior situation to the light people.
Look how many black skinned Indians there are over there. But you go over there and you see the black skinned Indian and you see the white one, you'll see the upper class and the lower class. There's an exception to the rule. A black one will go up. But on the whole, that's what you're going to see. Now, if I was a white man turned on to what I know now, I would be a white man, a sober John Brown. That's what I'd be, a sober John Brown. But I know my calling have to be among the people like you because you are the ones that's not favored. You're the one that's cut out of your promise more than anybody else. You are the ones cut out of your inheritance more than anybody else. Yes. So justice would be that the man that knows, have light on the subject come among the people who've been kept mostly in the dark. Yeah. So this is justice. Yes. So Abraham was known for digging wells, and I've made some comments on the well, the water, the spiritual life, the spiritual life. The spiritual life is under the surface of the material. Even when you can't see it, you go to the ocean or lake and you see plenty of water, you come to land, you think you've left the water. You haven't really left it, it's underground. Yes. It's underground. So the Qur'an says, "And they shall have gardens underneath where rivers flow."
Gardens underneath which rivers flow. Talking of the material Earth, but also talking of the human nature, the human life. Meaning that we don't have to show our spirituality like most spiritually charged people. You meet 'em, they can't hardly give you the greetings without letting out the spirit. "Hallelujah, glad to see you brother." So that's the water that's visible all the time. You'll be cool. You'll be calm and sober-minded. Won't be all charged up with a lot of spiritual stuff all the time. And you'll be doing your social business, you'll be doing your cultural business and all your business. You'll be taking care of your communities and your neighborhoods and everything, and having things grow up and multiply and become very rich and productive. And you ain't getting the Holy Ghost every time somebody look at you. You'll have gardens under which rivers flow. Oh yeah. Gardens under which rivers flow. A beautiful, productive society have cultivated the earth and space they live in. And got all kind of beautiful trees and everything, and decorated buildings and just a beautiful material environment, beautiful agricultural environment, just everything so beautiful. And you won't be so spiritually charged that it's visible all the time that you a Holy Ghoster, or spiritual. Yes. Look, go back to the Bible. The Bible says there was a great civilization in ancient times, huh? It was flourishing, wasn't It? And four rivers went out from it. Huh? And what did that area, what was that area, What did that area become? That area became paradise.
It's the paradise. So if you understand the Bible, the Bible tell you that the first perception of paradise was the perception of life, thriving and flourishing life, human life thriving and flourishing and being very beautiful and productive. And not at war with itself. Having peace, huh? And high quality, high expectations of one another when it comes to moral expectations. Huh? Decent disciplines and everything. Taste, quality clothing. Quality properties. Quality roads and streets. That's the way the Bible described it. Yes. Oh, that's a beautiful place. And that place four rivers went out from it and fed the whole surrounding. Four rivers went out from it, fed the whole surroundings. And G-d gives you your provisions in four measures. It was inherent life. That' all it's saying. The natural inherent life that G-d released, He caused it to spring forth from those people who devoted themselves to excellence. Their rivers of influences went out and influence others around them, influenced them to become beautiful and productive. That's what it means. And it can be the same within your own soul. When G-d awakes the soul, the same thing happens. It begin to want beautiful things or excellent things. It begins to improve the appearance of the person. Make it beautiful and clean and decent and respectful. Oh yeah. And it's coming from that inherent life that is given always in four. "And He gave everything its provision in four measures." And the Bible says, Ezekiel says Yes, this is the valley of death all right. And ain't nothing out here but dry bones. But it prophesied to the wind, huh? How many winds? Four winds. Prophesied to the four winds, going back to what is inherent and to awaken it. And it is the spirit that's inherent, spirit. Spirit in us, in the spirit form. When He says wind He means influence their spirit, you can awake their spirit and bring them back to life.
Yes. And the Qur'an makes it very clear. Four. Qalaqa Fasawa. Four steps. Qalaqa, He created then He established equality. Qadara, He empowered. Fahadha. He empowered the mind, the brain, the thoughts. Fahada, And then guided. So the last one is guidance.
Speaker 4:

Imam WD Mohammed:
The Prophet in Qur'an was being mocked, being made fun of by the ruler, the powerful ruler. And the ruler was saying, "You don't have any help but me." The Prophet said, "I obey G-d, who gives life and gives death." The powerful, arrogant ruler said, "I give life and I give death." Right. What was his reply? And the final words came from the Prophet was "He who created me shall guide me." And that's when he parted. He left the rebellious ruler. "He who created me will guide me." And the ruler, typical of the ruler who deceives us in these times, not the President, not President Bush. President Bush gets a paycheck. Yeah. Same old deceit. And the same thing we should say to them right now. Hey, look, we tired of this donkey party of yours, established to take care of underclass people. You have not much to offer anybody else, huh? Donkey symbol. Donkey symbol. Committed to help the sister husband get a job, be employed by the rich or by the establishment, the wealthy. Give them some medical care. We'll help you get medical treatment. We'll help clean up the medical system so it'd be fair towards you. We want to work toward the day when everybody could have a job, be entitled to a job and have a job, be able to get a job, be able to work, and everybody will be able to get medical insurance or to get medical attention. Everybody. That sounds like a church program to me. Sound like charity. It sound like charity. That's about what it is. Are you telling us to quit the Democratic party? No. If you can do anything to make it better, please make your party better. And when it changes its symbol from a donkey, I might even come out publicly and say, this is my party. I said publicly. I'm not signed up to the Republican Party, don't think that. Never. I never have. Never have. Now their symbol is a big old elephant.
A lot of material. Massive animal. Much bigger, has much more weight than a donkey. Much more material weight than a donkey. And when he sounds off, it doesn't sound as grating and as uncomfortable for your ears as the sound of donkeys. That sound is just hard on you. The elephant start blowing his snout out, he sounds like a trumpet. Sounds like a loud trumpet. Blasting like a trumpet blasting. And he's just a very, very complex creature. His strength is in his nose. That's his snout. And also his mouth is in his snout. His mouth and his nose in his snout. And his strength in his snout. That's the elephant. You should think about these things a little bit. Why the Republicans chose that sign. He can give himself a bath. . He take his same snout, with the nose and mouth and he take out the water and then he can turn it around and just spray himself. Yeah. He has a shower, portable shower instrument. He take water and give himself a bath, give himself a bath with the same snout. So the thing that he has his strength in, cools him off when he needs it, cleans him when he needs it. And deals with hard tasks when he needs it. To move something out of his way, throw it out of the way, whatever. Using the same thing, the snout. And for his size, he got a very little tail. Not much of a tail. All his intelligence up front, not back there where his rump is. So that's something to think about. So that's the symbol, the rich, that's the symbol. The learned rich people like. They like that symbol. And I don't blame them. It's a powerful symbol. Powerful symbol. And it speaks for what they stand for. Yes. And they say they are the Republicans. And actually what is our society? A republic. It's a republic. Democratic republic. So the Democrat has a term that's just a description of this republic. And Republican, they got the whole thing. And if you come in and be their friends, oh, they want you now because the time is out for the big divide between rich and poor.
They know that the system should work for everybody fairly. And there shouldn't be no people by color or by class or anything else. Shut out of that opportunity. So the Republicans, they're inviting our people to join the Republican party and if you like their principles and you want to contribute to business, you want to do business, make business, they welcome you. They welcome you. We don't know what Allah has in the future for us, but one thing for sure, the Muslim leader should always be the leader of Muslims and let the people decide whether they want to be Republicans or Democrats. Yeah. Yes. Because this is our life. Islam is our life. Being Muslim is our life. That's what we are going to make sure that we keep and that we be responsible for it. Now you notice that the water of the well is in the earth. You must understand what that means too. It ain't water, it ain't rainwater. It's in the earth. Although the rainwater comes from the earth too. But it's taken up into the air and reach cold regions, condense and fall back down to the earth. Scientifically speaking. What we should understand about the water underground, and you know well water, because it's underground, the water when it comes up is usually not diseased and of good taste. Yes. It's been filtered by the earth deep below the surface, the surface of soil. So what we should understand by that description and that picture that's given to us is this. That if your spirituality forms naturally, if it forms deep down in the natural life that G-d created, that spirituality is better and more safe than what's on the surface, what shows itself on the surface. Ocean water is too salty.
Lake water many times too germy, too polluted, too germy, too polluted. The river waters more safe. I guess that's why John the Baptist, his water was the river water. And even Jesus Christ came to him according to the Bible. And he said, John baptize me. I wonder how many preachers explain this. You know how I hear preachers say that? You had to read the Bible to get that. Here's a man they called G-d asking another one to baptize him. I don't blame 'em for leaving it alone. I'd leave it alone too if I was in that game they got. Now, don't you all get the opinion of me that I don't have much respect for the church and the preachers. I do. But those that set up house in our neighborhood, most of them ain't nothing but robbers and thieves. And you know it. I don't have to tell you, you know. They're nothing but show business people. A show to get you to forget everything and just enjoy what they're prepared for you so when they ask you for your money, you don't hesitate. Robbers and thieves. So I'm going to conclude this and I hope you've gotten some understanding. May Allah forgive us our sins and our errors, perfect us for His cause and guide us always. Ameen.
Speaker 7:
I would like to have you comment on the statement that Sarah made. Sarah made a statement in the Bible saying that never will the slave girls Hagar son share throne with my son Isaac.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, yes. Yeah. That's in the Bible to show the unjust establishment of class, , class system, where one class will not permit the other class to share the benefits and the comforts of their class with them. That's all. It's just to point to that injustice, that the class system is unjust and it has to one day be done away with.
Speaker 7:
Thank you very much Brother Imam.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Class system as a class. There will always be the natural rise of some people over others, but it shouldn't be protected and reserved by the establishment. They shouldn't order the society so that the society favors the upper class staying the upper class and the lower class staying the lower class. That's what the injustice is. And that's what that's pointing to. And Abraham was going to overcome that. His mission would overcome that. And how was it overcome for Hagar? She had to get away from being a servant in that woman's house. Oh, he shouldn't speak of Sarah like that, Alahi Salaam. I'm speaking of the figure. You thinking of something else. I'm speaking of the figure, the Sarah figure that keeps poor people out of what Allah created for them too. So Abraham knew that she wasn't going to give up anything to the poor. That's why he took his wife out there in the desert. Said, but what I'm giving her in the desert, the desert going blossom and bloom one day and going run with Zam Zam. The bible says that said one day the desert shall run with beautiful streams. Huh? That's the prophecy in the Bible. And you go over there and look at the Saudi Arabia now you might want to stay there. Sure look much better than these ghettos we in. I am still waiting. Comments, questions.
Speaker 8:
Years ago, my mother when I was a little boy and she took me in her lap and she opened the Bible and there was the Caucasian picture there.
Imam WD Mohammed:
There was?
Speaker 8:
A Caucasian picture. Caucasian.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes.
Speaker 8:
But she looked through it she said, "It don't look like the one that's going to help us." And then it come to me that Allah would guide me and steer me. When you came along, I said, oh, that's the one.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, brother. Yes. My mother did the same thing to me. She pointed out pictures of Caucasian people. So let me know that these are the people that put us in the situation we in right now. So I mean, I wasn't nothing but a little boy, but she let me know these people, they may look all right in the face. I read a book by a German and it was titled The People who Walk in Darkness Have Seen The Light. And he quotes a slave named Julia in his book and he said, Julia spoke out to the white men. She said, "You look like G-d in the face and act like the devil's in your heart." So time has changed a great deal. And really there's no more need for us to have a protest movement protesting our treatment or whatever to the White House or to the white people of this country. No. We have to address the neglected interior of the African-American people. That's where the focus has to be. That's where we have to direct our attention and our labor, our work. On the neglected interior of the African American people.
And to start with the spiritual life. That's the interior life of the body. Yeah. The way we think spiritually, the way we behave spiritually, the way we think morally, the way we live morally. That's the life we should be addressing internally. And then from that strength we'll get, when we strengthen the interior life for the individual person, which is a spiritual life, when we strengthen that and get it to feed on the waters that run underneath, rivers flowing underneath, when you get it to feed on that nice clean water and it nurse itself with that nice, clean, original water of the original nature. Yes. That well, that Abraham water, that's what we need, that Abraham water. When we get that and get ourselves strengthened spiritually and firmly morally speaking as well as spiritually speaking, then we can address the interior life of the neighborhoods and do something about that. So no, you don't need to go get a movement to go see President Bush. He ain't at home. Do you have any more comments or anything? I'm waiting. I got about five more minutes. I couldn't leave here without hearing the sister's voice.
Speaker 9:
You spoke on the word I believe and I might mispronounce it but it was Ta'weel.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. T-A-W-E-E-L. Short first syllable, very short. Ta'weel. T-A-W-E-E-L. Inshallah at a future time, you all remind me, I would like to give you a whole subject. make the whole subject just on Ta'weel. Allah sent Muhammad the Prophet to what? "At lu. At lu Suhufa Matahar." There's the word Ta'weel. Those who know the Arabic, they're witnessing, their bearing witness to me. Yeah, they know. Yeah. So Prophet Muhammad was sent to teach the book and the wisdom, to teach the book and the wisdom. And to also to recite to them the Ta'weel.
Speaker 9:
Brother Imam.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Oh, another one. Okay.
Speaker 9:
Yes sir. You talked about Sheba and in the Qur'an it refers to Sheba when she walked into the room with Solomon, how she pulled her dress close to her and she thought she was walking on water.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes.
Speaker 9:
Could you explain that for us?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Solomon's kingdom. Yes. Solomon's kingdom was well developed morally and spiritually, a well-developed kingdom. They had solidified their spiritual and moral life and made it very beautiful like a marble floor that's so pure, it looked like water. So when she stepped upon it, she thought she might sink down into the water. Now that was the glory of Solomon's Kingdom. Next time I'm going to tell you how come he wanted her throne.


