Purity and Goodness

As Salaamu Alaikum, Peace Be Unto You.

We Praise G’d, the Lord, Keeper, Cherisher, Sustainer of all the Worlds . We witness that he is one and one alone, has no partners or no assistance with him in the rule of the heavens and the earth. We witness that Muhammad, to whom the Quran was revealed, 1400 centuries and 18 years ago is the last of the prophets, the seal of the prophets mentioned in the old testament and the new, in the Torah and the Injil as one coming to lift the bands of slavery off the people, to take the bands of slavery off the people, and remove the heavy burdens that weighed down their backs, the yolks of slavery that weighed down their backs.

This is what Allah says to us in the Quran of Muhammad, that he is the one given to them--to the people before who followed scripture in the Torah and in the Gospel, called the Injil. We witness that he is the messenger of G’d and a marvelous person for all persons who believe in G’d and the last day.

God says of him in Quran, He is enough, sufficient for all people, he is sufficient as a model for all people; and G’d says of him that any who believes in G’d and the last day, they will find in him a most excellent model  he’s for any who believes in G’d and believes in the last day.

Today, on this Jumuah, the most blessed day in the year, more blessed than the Eid of Adha and the Eid of Ramadan, according to the teachings of our prophet. Friday, Jumuah, is the most blessed day in the year--more blessed than any Eid, any holiday. On this blessed day, we want to talk about the need to have Purity and Goodness in order to receive G’d’s blessings of mercy. 

The greatest mercy that he gives us and G’d promises us mercy in two measures. That’s to fulfill prophesy too, because in the old testament it is mentioned he will give the people, who will serve him, a double portion of his mercy. They will get mercy in two measures.

That is fulfilled only when the Quran came. It was not fulfilled before. It was fulfilled only when the Quran came, that the people received a double portion of the mercy of G’d and the whole world changed to be more humane, more accommodating for the human life that we want, the good human life that all of us want.

The world was never as suitable for the human life as it was when Muhammad came with the Quran and brought about the change. The world has remained, has progressed ever since that to be more and more suitable for human life. Before I was up and down and mostly under tyrants and enslavers (those who would enslave humanity) before the Quran.

The Quran came and already it has broken the bands of slavery, taken the heavy yolks off the people and they give other ideologies the credit but those ideologies only were established after the Quran came. The Quran was established first then those ideologies were established following the light that Allah gave in the Quran, Allah’s light that he gave for the world in giving us the Quran through Muhammad, the Prophet (PBUH).

Before going to the Quran, we want to look at the traditions of the people to see where emphasis are. When we make our ritual prayer, we have to make ablution first--cleanliness comes first. We have to clean ourselves first to make the wudu. If we are not in the state for wudu to take care of the job by itself, we have to make ghusl (full bath) and wudu to be clean. Then we pray to G’d. Then we are in a state of cleanliness.

We turn to G’d and give him our complete life in devotion to him. That’s what our prayer is--the rendering of our complete life in devotion to the G’d who created everything, who made everything in the sky and everything on earth. 

So, there are some duas we say to remind us of our need to be clean. We say “Oh Allah, separate me from all my shortcomings as you separated the light and the darkness and clean me of all my defects as we wash white cloth clean with water and deliver me from all my sins as we rinse cloth clean and free of all stains with water.”

So this is evidence that in the rituals and traditions of the people they are seeking cleanliness and purity and all of it begins with purity in the mind.  You first must be conscious and we call it anniyya. You must make your intentions for whatever you are about to do. I’m about to make my ablution so I make my intentions. I have to be conscious of what I’m saying; I just can’t do it as a habit. It is conscious habit. There is a difference. Conscious habit remains good. Unconscious habit can go bad. So, we make our intentions for our wudu and when we are making our salat, we make our intentions for salat and say, “ I’m going to make salat and state the one we are going to make.

“I make intentions for salatul Fajr Prayer (two rakats ) - Sunnah (means following the way of the Muhammad the Prophet).  Then after that we do two rakats fard for the morning fajr prayer, as we are obligated to do by G’d. And, if there is any other prayer like the noon (Thur) afternoon (Asr) prayer we say four rakats of Thur, four rakats Asr; three rakats of magrib (after sunset prayer); four rakats Isha (the night prayer). We have to make intentions, we say that.

So, all of this is telling us that our religion has been “ordered” to bring us to the purest state, the cleanest and purest state of existence as a human being. It is designed to do that. We say, “Oh G’d, make me of those who keep up prayers and bring from my offsprings one who will keep up prayers.

This is not just a habit life for us. This is a conscious life for us. This is a life that takes care of the need now and in the future. We pray for our present generation and we pray for our offspring--that our offspring remain, our children, our grandchildren and grandchildren to come, that they all remain in the path of G’d and they follow the way of Al-Islam, that they keep up prayer. And if we keep up prayer, we have salvation. 

The prayer is our salvation. Yes, but if we leave off prayers, we lose everything, and Allah, (G;d Almighty, Highly Glorified is He) says never did a people fall until they first forget their prayers. They neglected their prayers. They broke their tradition. They went off from that way of following prayers--the way of prayer you see. 

So, we know that and G’d says he does not want for us hardship but that he wants for us to be purified. He does not want for us hardship; isn’t that a loving G’d? He knows when we get up early in the morning, this is hard on the body. The human body can’t think. The body can only respond, it can’t think. So, if it could think, it would get up with us so happy, we would feel so good in the morning, but it can’t think so we have to think for it.

And it’s going to be saying, “Hey, I don’t want to get up”. And G’d knows it’s going to be hard on us so G’d says he does not want for us hardship but he wants that we be purified. When we meet the challenge, when we accept hard things that’s in the way, obligation. When we accept to do that hard thing, it makes us stronger to do the hard thing. So, G’d really is so wise that even the difficulty that he permits us to experience is also a training so that we will have better “fitness” for the whole life and the road ahead.

Yes, so actually it is a fitness program and what athlete dreads fitness programs. He goes into it with a good spirit. He loves it. It hurts, it pains, but he loves it.  I met a gentleman at one of the youth facilities. We were invited to one of the youth facilities to go and talk to the youth. Some African American brothers are doing a good job. They are in charge of the administration at the facility in Chicago and a big facility too. The size of it made you feel real bad a facility this big means a lot of our children lost.  Anyway he was telling me how fit he was. He said, feel and I felt and it felt just like was I feeling this mike or something of iron, some steel. That’s how it felt. It felt like iron, not plastic, but iron--not wood, iron. That’s just how it felt, like iron up under his coat. He said the first thing he tells these youngsters when they look like they want to threaten him or something, I tell them, “before you do this, I want to let you know, there is a side of me I hate to see myself”.  And he went on to tell us how he was in professional football and everything and how he loves fitness. The man loves fitness but I gives you pain, you know. 

And this is how we should love to do what Allah wants us to do. No matter how hard it is, or how much pain it gives us, we should love it as a fitness program. That’s what it is. If you obey, it is a fitness program for you.  And that brings up the month of Ramadan, which is coming soon in a few days. The month of Ramadan is a fitness program. It is a fitness program, every year, once a year we come into the month of Ramadan. And what is it for but to purify us. It is to aid the program of purification. It is one of the biggest elements in the program of purification for Muslims.

In that month we abstain from food and drink or taking anything in our bodies or enjoying the biological life, the physical life--the physiology. We don’t indulge in sex during the daylight hours with our wives. We don’t get romantic or get sexual with them during the daytime. It’s a total discipline for the total person. The Bible has hints of this too. It says if you look at sin with your eyes, your eyes have already committed the sin. So, any part of you that you give to sin, that part is guilty of sin. So, in Islam we have to give our whole life to the devotion so that the whole life gets the benefit.

So we are not to be thinking about sex because if you do that, you have already violated it. See, you say I didn’t have any sex, but I was thinking about it all day long. Well, you broke it all day long. So, you don’t do that, you have to discipline. That’s what makes you a superman. I say superman because the people under the world are weaklings. The people under G’d are strong. And the measure between them and us if we give our self in service to G’d is the difference between an ordinary person and a super person.

Yes, it makes us supermen and superwomen, sister. You sisters who devote yourself to this religion, as Allah has revealed, it you become superwomen.  They don’t just have super male heroes, they have super female heroes too.  So, the religion is “ordered” to purify us. And if we become purified, then we are fit to be servants of G’d. G’d want all of us to be his servants not just prophets and messengers. He says, “yeh ebadulah” speaking to all human beings. “Oh you servants of G’d”. Praise be to Allah.

He wants that we should be purified and the one who is promised is Muhammad (PBUH) the seal of the Prophets, the last of the prophets--he is a liberator, coming to liberate the people. But the liberate the people he has to purify them.  Yes, you are sent to purify them and the terms that are used lets us know that it is both a physical purification and a non-physical purification. It’s purification of the physical person and also the non-physical person.

You will say spirit and I’ll say spirit, purification of both the body and the spirit--the material life and the spiritual life. And if we understand this religion, we study it as scholars, we come to understand that every structure or pillar or essential serving as the basis of our religion is really a purification.  
Shahadah is a purification, to witness that G’d is one. Monotheistic purity. It is a purification. 

Salat is a purification. Salat burns out all impurities. It’s more powerful than any wudu. The wudu is first but the salat is what burns out all the impurities. It’s that fuller soap and that fire that purifies that is promised in the gospel. Yes, so it burns out all impurities.  Zakat is a purifier. It says, “Oh messenger of G’d take from them for charity to purify them.”. 

Fasting is a purification. That’s what it is for. It is to increase the purity of our spirit. Spirit is the unconscious force. And nevertheless, it survives consciousness if it would give itself to G’d. It survives consciousness to bring the mind back to G’d spiritual direction.