Mother

April 7, 1978

As-Salaam-Alaikum, a woman's identity is in her basic nature—motherhood. A woman's unique nature creates her motherhood. She does not have to birth a child to come into motherhood. "Mother" as a social role, a leadership role for which physical motherhood is a symbol. Motherhood does not mean ability or capacity of only giving birth; it also means in addition, having the responsibility and authority of a mother (to look after and care for life as the mother does. Therefore, all women are by their nature and qualities mothers. Little girls are mother-like. The reproductive function in a woman naturally gives her distinct physical and social desires and a strong motherly interest in life and society.

Women need to take a new look at the role of motherhood in (the world and they need to re-assess, re-evaluate and re-establish the importance of the role of motherhood in the world. Motherhood is the most valuable attribute to society. Woman does not have to have a baby, or even be fertile to be a mother. To be a mother is to be a mother-like leader. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), called women who served the community well—mothers. In the Catholic Church system where clergy or officials are arranged in order of grade, rank, or class, the highest rank of female is called mother, usually Mother Superior. These cloistered females certainly do not have babies or children of their own. They are called mothers because they fulfill the beneficial leadership role that Almighty God has assigned to the female.

Women are mothers first and always. They are mothers for their families inside their homes, but they should also be mothers for the block that they live on, for the nation they live in and for the world that we all live in. In short, mother means leadership in society. Mother leadership is essential. The loss or absence of this very important role has caused many of the problems in the world today.

Women need to repossess the lost leadership role of motherhood. They should be active leaders in the community. We need motherhood leadership at every level of national life. Women, because of their natural stamina and keen interest, should push for the creation of a better life that would benefit and cover the whole world. Women should work for things that will be completed by them rather than start and stop in the first stage and leave them as many men often do.

Apathy is the absence of feeling for each other as we should feel, It is the lack of concern about the terrible things that are happening around us. In other words, apathy means lack of interest and indifference. Mothers cannot afford to be apathetic, because all of the worthwhile, desirable and excellent qualities which the world needs rest in a very significant part and depend on the leadership of motherhood. That leadership is naturally concerned about the health and welfare of all human life—the home, the community and the nation.

If, through changing times and attitudes, a conspiracy has formed to diminish the role of women or cause women to become apathetic, it is our duty to disarm the conspiracy and re-establish and restore women to their rightful and deserved role of leadership in our society. And we should lend our whole and sincere support to their efforts in assuming their leadership role as mothers of the nation. When we have done this, we will have reached the core, the central or innermost heart of society. That is motherhood.

We must have motherhood in the home and in the nation. We need those sentiments serving the best interest of the nation which are by nature female generated. We need the keen eye of motherhood watching over the land. Intelligent men know world leadership is best when it is combined with the wisdom which originates from fatherhood and with the wisdom which originates from motherhood. Female interest coming from the lungs of motherhood reaches us as solutions to problems and not merely as attacks upon conditions. The leadership role of motherhood over the nation requires that women meet the present challenge to eliminate the corruption and cruelties which modern society has imposed upon the woman. Because of the imposition of cruelty and corruption which surround us, the motherhood forces of heart and intellect are needed to save human life for America and the world.

Peace be to you

Your brother in service to Allah,

Wallace D. Muhammad

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Be True To Your Label

June 7, 1987, Dallas Texas - I have been, as you know, addressing you on the subject of "Sacred Life Connections." The theme that has been chosen for the workshops and for this address here today fits perfectly within that general topic, that I have been addressing. Community family life is a sacred life connection; to keep that life constituted, as our Lord Creator intended for us to be constituted, is a sacred duty. To hold to the identity that G-d intended for us, as individuals, and as groups, is a sacred duty. When we lose that identity that Allah intended for us, we begin to lose the way that G-d intended for us to be constituted, the way He intended for us to be made up, inside as well as outside.

Our religion, Al-Islam, focuses on family, and Allah Most High, that is, G-d Almighty, the Lord Creator says in our Holy Book, the Qur'an, "family obligations have a priority." Family obligations are given priority. My obligation to my wife, to my children, to my father, to my mother, to my grandparents, to the aging people in my family and the young in my family, is a duty that G-d has focused the revelation on, and has told us that before Him, family ties have a priority, family ties are given priority. We have obligations to family

I have a right as an individual, to benefit from good family circumstances, a good family situation, and I have an obligation as an individual, to support good family life, to be a contributor, to contribute to the well-being and excellence of family life, and society; in our religion, everyone has an obligation to work for the same, and to respect the same. We understand that in America, this is the land of freedom and opportunity, and of the great experiments, the great experiments with freedom. So here in this country, not only are the good people free, but the bad people are also free, and sometimes it seems that the bad people have more freedom than the good people. More freedom to progress, more freedom to advance their aims, their ends, more freedom to pursue their goals, that are criminal, than the good people have to pursue their goals that are legal, and that are honorable, that are approved by G-d.

It appears to be that way, and I used to feel very bad about the situation in American when I thought about this special kind of freedom that Americans have here, and for years, I was burdened with a great burden, and I said, well, what is this; is this the devil, is this hell or is this an opportunity for humanity to survive? And I couldn't say there was no opportunity for humanity here, because I have survived as an American and as a human being here. But it was confusing to me. And the more I thought about it, the more I had to rely upon the Qur'an, the teachings of my religion for an answer. And I came to the conclusion that this is just an opportunity; America gives you an opportunity, and all of us have an opportunity, and the problem for us is not to be blamed on America or on this special kind of freedom that we have here the problem is to be blamed on ourselves.

America gives us a special situation for competition, and never think that you are going to be helped; in America, you are helped in seasons, and the season will come when you are not helped anymore. You are left on your own. So don't depend on anybody in America; nobody in America is going to help you always, except those who obey G-d over the word of man, and obey the Will of G-d, over the will of man. If you don't have anybody like that with you, then don't expect to be helped. Help here in America is always seasonal.

Now you can just hang around, spring will come again, but winter will come too, again. Muslims' hope in G-d's word.  We must put our hope in something bigger than America. Muslims' hope is in Allah, in what He reveals the Qur'an. Our hope is in the life that was demonstrated to us by His Prophet, His Messenger, Muhammad, the Last Messenger of G-d. That's where our hope is. Muslims, don't forget where your hope is, and work on keeping your identity. Muslims must work on keeping the Muslim identity. You know, things may be created or produced, and a label put on them, that truly identifies what has been made or produced, or created. But if those things are perishable, in time, the contents won't be true to the label, unless you find a way to preserve it.

In our life as human beings, we have this freedom, to conform or to not conform, to obey, or to disobey, and in the society that we live in sometimes encourages too much freedom, immoral freedom, and we find ourselves without knowing it, losing the original content of our lives. However, we continue to identify as we identified when the contents were correct. Muslims may call themselves Muslims, long after they have lost their Muslim lives. They still call themselves Muslims, and we are happy to say we are Muslims. But often, the Muslim life is left behind, long time ago. So we have to live true to our identity, true to our contents. If we don't, we are going to lose the life.

Keep identity before you, and keep the true meaning of identity before you, not just as a name, because names are just in the air, unless you can just grasp the full meaning of what that name represents. The name "Muslim" connects us with a meaning. Islam, or Al-Islam as it is called in the Qur'an, or in the Arabic language, connects us with a meaning. It's not guaranteed that we are going to keep the meaning, unless we make an effort. The Muslim name is known also to Christians; they know it, they say, "oh yes, a Muslim, sure, we know what a Muslim is."

America's Beauty

9/06/1992 - America is not a place that promises to give you religion or to give you culture. No. You are supposed to have cultural influences of your religion or from your past traditions. You are supposed to have your own taste for food, your own taste for clothing, your own taste for entertainment, your own taste for your intellect. You are supposed to make your own life in this land of opportunity and freedom. If you don't do it, then Satan and his hosts have everything ready and prepared for you. They will dress you, will give you entertainment, will give you taste, smell, hearing, and vision.  So let us not exaggerate that melting pot thing. America is a melting pot only for those who leave the responsibility for self to the world. But if you take up responsibility into your own hands for your own life, America is no melting pot. The beauty and precious thing for American society is its pluralistic life we call plurality. That is America's beauty. The melting pot is not its beauty. Have you ever seen a painter pour all of the paint into one bucket? That is the ugliest stuff you ever wanted to look at especially once he integrates it all thoroughly.

Our beauty is in uniting upon what is inherent in our life and nature, while keeping our distinctions that have evolved upon what is inherent. We are to keep the distinctions. Excellence and progress for Muslims is what we want for our religious life in America. We want progress in the world. Allah invites us to attend to the needs for progress in the world. We know the Destiny is bigger and more important than the world, but Allah tells us to also progress ourselves in the world.  We are to have income from legal sources, halal sources. We are to have Islamicly approved work and investment and opportunity. We are to invest our income for financial growth and economic growth. We are to be competitive in all that G'd has approved. If G'd has approved for us to establish ourselves in the world, that is what we should do. There is a prayer of the Prophet (the prayers and the peace be on him) where he prays to G'd for worldly progress. He prays for it in connection with the prayer for the Hereafter. He does not separate the two. He made one prayer but prayed for the Hereafter and for worldly progress.

Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) described his life as being a religious life and also being a worldly life. This is the balance in Islam that most religions ignore. Don't think that you have a right in Islam to progress in the world; no, you have an obligation. It is not only a right; it is an obligation. We are obligated to follow the sunnah of the Prophet. We are obligated to obey the Qur'an; to follow its dictates and also the influence and advice of Qur'an. Some things are law and some things are advice. You are obligated to follow the sunnah of the Prophet and his advice and Qur'an, the Sunnah of G'd and His advice.

Interview - If We Become Independent Thinkers, We Can Make a Contribution

ISMLAMICA:  You’ve been teaching Islam in the United States for over 40 years. What challenges have you faced and what have you learned from these challenges?

IWDM:  The main challenge we faced was from ourselves. We are newly converted to Islam. And the way we came to Islam was different from other communities. It was intentionally an indirect movement. Teaching Islam at the time of my father, Elijah Muhammad, was a strategy of protest – to protest the condition of black people in America. And I was hoping that, in time, things would get better and that the conditions of black people would be better for blacks in the US.

ISLAMICA: You were quoted by the Chicago Tribune as saying: “I have tried over the last 10 to 12 years to encourage [American Muslims] to get more religious education, but I have made no progress… American Society of Muslim (ASM) leaders don’t support me, but the followers do.” Can you elaborate on this?

IWDM:  Yes. Yes. Well first let me first speak of the problem inside our association: the mosques, the schools. The problem is that they were not educated in the teaching of Islam: Qur’an, Arabic, its meanings. They were not given that. So when we go to prisons to accept our imams as chaplains, they tell us that they need to be educated more in the religion.

The imams amongst us don’t want that understanding. They stand in the way. They are really working against what I am trying to do. So all organizations that work for reform suffer that. The Prophet, who sought reform, look how he suffered – back biting and all that. So if he suffered that, how can we expect not to?

ISLAMICA:  What, in your view, distinguishes the experience of Black American Muslims from that of other Muslims in the United States? Has this produced an indigenous Islam amongst Black Americans?

IWDM:  Mainly it’s the history: how we became Muslims, the strange routes that we took, the feeling we have in our hearts and minds, our outlook on everything. I am not saying it is negative. It is positive. It encouraged us to become independent thinkers. And if we can become independent thinkers, then we can make a contribution to Islam in America.

ISLAMICA:  Black Americans have a rich cultural tradition including jazz, poetry and other artistic expressions. Is there a relationship between these cultural expressions and Islam?

IWDM:  Yes. Yes. I think our entertainment culture has really influenced America’s entertainment culture more than anything else. And we can use this positively to raise the moral life rather than putting it down. I think that nothing has raised the moral life more than that in black American culture. I can name many males and females that have lifted the life in American culture. But nothing compares to the rappers and the musicians.

ISLAMICA:  What is your relationship with African Muslims and scholars? Has this relationship influenced your role in America amongst the Muslim community? Is your outlook Afro-centric?

IWDM:  There is no direct connection. We don’t have any direct connection with them. They are doing their work given their circumstance in the world and we are doing ours. We are separate. We are trying to advance our lives.  But we really appreciate each other. For example, [Howard University professor] Sulayman Nyang. We have contact with him at least 3 or 4 times a year, at least. We meet with him and he shares his views with us and we share our views with him. But as a work effort, we are not connected to him.

ISLAMICA:  As a Sunni Muslim, you’ve never positioned yourself within any particular madhab. Do you follow any particular school and how, if at all, do you instruct your pupils about the madhab system?

It’s because, as I understand, the madhabs are geographically influenced. We are in a totally different geography in America. And I don’t think we should adhere to any madhabs because those were influenced by their location and they are different based on their location. The Shafi school and the Maliki school in North Africa and the Wahhabi one in Saudi Arabia. Regions are supposed to develop these madhabs.

I think we are gradually getting a sense of madhabs in America, especially those like me. We are getting a sense of madhabs. And with the coming generation I think that we will be getting a much stronger sense of it. It is coming more and more.

ISLAMICA:  Does the rise of Barack Obama suggest that the US has progressed in terms of race?

He put an end to the black baby crying and whining all the time (Laughs). And we welcome him. We thank God for him. Alhamdulilah. Even if he doesn’t become the president – but I strongly believe that he will become the President – his success has already sent signals to our spirits, our sentiments. That will make for a new spirit in black America.

ISLAMICA:  Less attention has been given to Keith Ellison, yet he’s both Black and Muslim. Does his election suggest anything about the future of Muslims in American politics?

I met with him in his mother’s house in Maryland. I am impressed with him. Like all elected officials, when they become elected, they have to recognize reality and the issues they have to deal with. They have to serve the country and they can’t jeopardize that interest by being too inclined to address Muslim problems.

I think that a lot of financial backers that supported him are disappointed because they expected him to do more. But he can’t do more. I don’t think that his meaning for us is anywhere near Obama’s meaning for us, even though Obama is not on record for being a Muslim. He’s on record for being a Christian: he goes to church on Sundays, etc. But just his image as a person helps all of us whether or not we’re Muslim or not.

ISLAMICA:  You were the first Muslim to deliver the invocation opening the US Senate; you met the pope in 1996 and in 1999 addressed a gathering of 100,000 at the Vatican. You’ve met with presidents, the Dalai Lama, and Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious and political leaders worldwide. Is interfaith a cornerstone of your mission? What’s unique about your approach?

There are efforts here and there. We know there are African Americans working hard in the community to revive things. But on the whole we are sleeping. So we believe, unlike other people, other ethnic groups in America, we need to be brought to our true human values. And to do that we need to be taught humanity – appreciation for human values – and we need to join humanity. That is more important than racial identity – identification with humanity. Some individuals, educators, have tried to get our people to wake up to that.

I recall a book in which the author wrote, “It seems that somewhere behind me I got separated from my social contract.” And that is just what he was talking about, the original life with all people. If you don’t have that you can’t succeed with your family, you can’t succeed with other people. And the Nation of Islam was trying to do that for us – give us a strong sense of identity.

I don’t know if you are going to appreciate this language, but African Americans, when we were brought to this land, and were made slaves, the slaves were intensely deprived of going back to their culture or their religions. So we’re raised with an intense void inside. So I believe that is why black people lag behind when it comes to community life.

We have giants when it comes to Barack Obama or Colin Powell, and many others. Even females. We have giants, but those are individuals. And they are oppressed. They are depressed. Why? Because they know that the community life of black people is very slow to come around, if it’s coming around at all.

ISLAMICA:  Can you talk about your role in the Focolare movement?

I started to come into the FLO (Focolare movement) when I was invited by Victor Hamdani. They learned about me, paid me a visit, and said that they wanted to introduce me to people that will welcome me. So we went to Pennsylvania and we went to the university there and we met with the Secretary General, with the World Congress of Peace. You see, it was WCP back then. There was a slight change in the name.

They told me at one time they wanted me to become the president in the United States (branch) of the organization. At one point, there was an evangelical (who) tried to block me. He would stare at me hard. He didn’t want me there. But they took a vote. And the guy came back, and said, “Imam Muhammad, now you are the International president.” So we have to work together. We have common goals and beliefs. So we have to work together.

ISLAMICA:  What lessons can the new generation of immigrant Muslims learn from the experience of Black Muslims in the US?

Well, I think they are learning it. And I think they are doing very well. We have to work our way up by working in the system and by being elected into positions of consequence. And I think that is happening – immigrant Muslims are working in politics. But not only politics, but working in the community and serving the needs of the community. And I think that they are doing an excellent job by working in America and defending their civil rights. So there is a growing, real deeply-rooted Muslim life right now in America.

ISLAMICA:  Do you think racism has a role in the relationship between immigrant communities of Muslims and Black Americans?

Yes. But I think it started a long time ago. I’m not comfortable with you writing everything I say (Laughs). We find that immigrant Muslims show more racism than the white man sometimes because the majority of them (whites) have left it out of shame. They are really ashamed of it, what they did to black people.

I find that in the Bible, people find a way, if they want something [racist], they find a way of putting it into Scripture. They got something they can use in the Bible. But the Bible as a whole is against it as we know.

The shaitan has done his work all over the world. And we are all victims. All of us. So we should work together to work against Satan.

ISLAMICA:  Some say that the future of Islam in the US will be led by the African American community. Others predict that the new generations of immigrants will be leading. In 50 years, where do you see Islam in the US?

Islam is a religion that directs us to community, to develop community – under God of course. And to be productive. The same message is in Jesus’ teachings. The Muslims that come here, some of them are very intelligent, and they know their religion. They are already doing things. So in 50 years from now, there’s a big hope.

Michael Vicente Perez is Senior Editor and Fatima Bahloul is Managing Editor of Islamica Magazine. While the magazine is editorially based in Amman, Jordan, both live in Michigan and are pursuing post-graduate degrees and research in the fields of anthropology and media studies.

You Have To Get Prepared To Make It

I listen to those who are talking about problems of race. They are saying, "Yes, racism is rising again." I don't worry; let it rise. If racists want to occupy themselves .with racism, then that gives us good opportunity. While they are occupying themselves with such, I am going to see if I can be a little better in the competition to get wealth. If they want to tie their hands up with racism, let them do it. There is enough good sense out here in the society now for no one to have an excuse for being racist.  I know what racism will do. It will tie your brains up so tight that you will not be able to see your way into your own house. So why is anyone frightened by the saying, "Racism and racial sentiments are growing and rising again! You know they can turn the clock back?" I know they cannot. The clock is not in the hands of one race anymore. There are other powers influencing the time of day. This is a different world and a different time globally. America has to watch the global hour hands to know what time it is on the national time piece.

There have to be circumstances within for managing those outside of us. Our religion sensitizes us to want to know what is our own condition. And that is another point of interest for the "have-nots" who are trying to make it in the land of plenty. We should take a look at our own condition out of a desire to be better situated internally. Do more and complain less. "I have a toothache," But "how often do you brush your teeth" never comes to mind. What is heard is, "I have to get me a dentist, and he had better be qualified like the dentists in their neighborhood."  We do deserve the same good treatment that is given to any others. But what are we doing ourselves about our own condition? Are we questioning it? Are we trying to look for causes? That is the kind of sensitivity we need for making it in the land of plenty.

When viewing external factors it is wise to examine the way Christianity is presented. It can be presented in such a way that it will condition us to think very few African American Christians have studied the logic or the wisdom of Christianity. The great majority haven't studied the natural basis for many important things in Christianity.  There are natural basis requiring that there be in believers an appreciation for nature's role in religious matters. Also, it is important to know how religion views history. Many have not done any study, and for them Christianity is superficial and superstition, shallow and too much like voodoo deceits. Those without insight and without a spirit to meet the challenge of heavier concerns will tend to do the lazy thing: spook you and not educate.

I am a student of psychology. We have to be aware that we are a people who came from slavery in disrepair and not equipped to make informed choices. The only religion we could have was the religion of the people who enslaved us.  I can read something to you and pass on to you my emphasis and my way of reading it. It may be okay if I am your friend, for my influences of the reading then will be most likely good for you. But if I am not your friend or if I am the guy who is opposite everything you represent, then it is not good. You may not like this, but the church influence on the whole has weakened the African-American people. The emphasis passed on to us has made little dependent children out of most of the African Americans. I will go so far to say that it has in a strong but smaller degree made the European white man a community of childish thinkers.

I know that I say some things that some people do not like and you may want to get up and leave. But I accept your reaction. I have done this for a long time. I know I have to try and break unholy spells.
In many ways the African American people have a "white father." The "white father" is the European white man. I am not talking in the sense of "boss man," for you have gotten away from that. Now you will talk sassy to the boss, threaten the boss, and you might lynch the boss. You have gotten real bold and reckless and notorious lately. The note I wish to make is a religion that gives you to worship the image of a man which is an European looking man — although they say Jewish — is seriously problematic psychologically. It must be damaging the African American self-esteem.

The worship of the image was the first trip off the plantation. Fresh (suddenly) from under the slave master to worship an image that could be him (in resemblance). Well, that is some heavy Voodoo, It is heavy Voodoo to take a slave right out of slavery to one master and have him give himself in slavish worship under a image likeness of his former enslaver.  I do believe that a lot of "Uncle Tomism" was at work in us to make us accept the man-god image of Christianity as we did right out of slavery. I do believe that that was a lot of "hate71 conversion. I believe a lot of those blacks were just Toming" and lying. And in time it became acceptable and normal for us to be in such a mold. I believe a lot of the first ones were just outright lying. They did not believe that. How could they? The man-god image looks just like the man that just got through whipping me to break my human spirit. That acceptance was not normal for the intelligence.

Perhaps you can see it better this way. Suppose the black man had done that to England. Or maybe you could even say to someone other than the white man. It could have been to China or to Japan. Let us suppose that we had dominated Asia and treated Asia like Africa and we were treated. After we degraded Asians we would say, "Okay, we are going to free you now. That was wrong, and that will no longer be allowed in our nation or government. Now here you accept the Lord Jomo Kenyatta as your personal Savior, as your Lord and Savior. You confess all of your sins to him. And if you lean on him, you will be saved." Only "Toming" and lying could be in Asians accepting Lord Jomo. They will accept maybe because they want to be saved from getting any more punishment.

Qur'an and Hadith teach me to be intelligent and to assess the situation. To look at it and study it, to measure it and weigh it, and to let my intelligence and also my good virtues decide what I am to do, I am following Qur'an and Hadith. I am not going to be any wound up toy.  It is not racism to talk about race problems. It is not racism to be concerned for my own. It is not racism to tell you to wait two thousand years to walk down Broadway with a "white" woman. That is not racism. That is the concern for the dignity of my own.

Again in showing the beauty of our religion, the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, says "Allah is good and does not accept what is not good." What is said is that Allah does not have any double standards, when it comes to ordering the Prophets, His Messengers, and ordering the people. He says, "What Allah has ordered for the Prophets or the Messengers, He has also ordered for the believers." There are no double standards.  Allah didn't send the Prophets to live up to one standard of virtuous life, and then allow the people to live on a much lower standard. He didn't send Prophets and allow them to violate laws, to do wrong, and then obligate the people to do right. There is no moral conflict there. There is moral consistency and unity all the way. Whatever Allah has ordered for His Prophets, He has ordered also for the people and the followers.

"Eat of the things good and pure," was ordered to the Prophets, the Messengers and also to us, the people. Allah says he is going to put in the earth a khalifah. What is this khalifah? It is someone with responsibility for himself and for the good state of society. Someone trusted with authority, rule, and responsibility.  Allah also says that He has given everyone something of His Inspiration or something of His Spirit. We need to come into the spirit that Allah wants for us. What does it mean to have something of Allah's Spirit or of His Inspiration? It simply means that you have to be disposed internally to serve the Will and Plan of Allah. You have to be disposed in your heart and soul and spirit to want to serve the Will and Plan of your Creator.

That is what Allah created in creating a khalifah. He created one who was disposed and moved by spirit and nature to serve the Will and Plan of the Creator. If you have that, I can guarantee that you will be successful in the land of plenty.  The Lord Who created us is the Lord Who gave us our nature, the Lord Who gave us our nature shouldn't give us an inspiration that would be in conflict with our nature that He wants for us. But that inspiration should be compatible and should assist and support the nature that Allah made and wants for us. 

We are not talking about something unnatural. There is no reason to get spooky and float up into the zone that no one can find. Something of His Spirit is an orientation to obey the best in your human nature. When you want to obey in your spirit, in your soul the best that Allah has created you to be, then you have something of the Spirit of Allah. You have something of Allah's Ruh and His Own Inspiration has come down into you. You will definitely be successful if you come into that. No one can give you that state, you have to have the make up in yourself to come into it. But once you have it, you are sate and sound and you will make it in the land of plenty.

Iqra

01/30/1983

If you read the history of the people who worked against Prophet Muhammed, the kinds of things they did, they were able to come in and pretend to be Muslims.

The Holy Qur’an says they would come in and pretend to be the best of the Muslims, they would establish that they are the most enthusiastic Muslims. They would say, "Let us go in among them and establish ourselves as the most enthusiastic Muslims — and then at a certain time, let us just quietly withdraw — and then that will make everybody wonder and will break the community of Muslims."

The Qur’an tells us of this scheme they use and there are many, many other schemes and tricks they use to hurt a community, make you doubt, make you not trust the community.

BE AWARE of the many schemes they work. Read the Qur’an more. You have it in English -- Abdullah Yusuf AH a good translation, Pickthal, another good translation. Read it in English. Don't wait until you learn Arabic. Some of you will never learn Arabic. You'll die trying to learn Arabic.

So keep trying, but in the meantime, read the good English translation. Read it daily! Don't wait until Ramadan. Read it daily, become more acquainted with your Holy Book so you will know the tricks that the world pulls to set back the good work of the righteous.

BE AWARE of the many schemes they work. Read the Qur’an more. You have it in English -- Abdullah Yusuf AH a good translation, Pickthal, another good translation. Read it in English. Don't wait until you learn Arabic. Some of you will never learn Arabic. You'll die trying to learn Arabic.

Inherent Value of the Soul

10/02/2005 

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Our Greeting is Peace be unto you, "As-Salaam-Alaikum." We always begin with G-d's Name, asking Him for His Blessings and hoping He will accept what we present. We say, "Bismillah, Ir-Rahman, Ir-Rahim"; With G-d's Name, The Merciful Benefactor, The Merciful Redeemer.

And we say, The Praise and the Thanks are for G-d, the Lord and Sustainer and Keeper of all the worlds. And the prayers and the peace be upon His noble and generous Messenger, and what follows of that traditional salutation.

We will begin by addressing our most important perception of ourselves as Believers. That is the collective life, the life we all share, the common life that we hope will take us always to the common good and not to the hell fires of our passions.

Highly Glorified is Allah, Who says in our Holy Book, the Qur'an, "Attention you people. Reverence your Lord, the One Who created you from a single soul and created from it its mate and caused it to spread forth from both of them males many and females.

"And reverence Allah, the One Whom you involve, asking one another to respond. And be regardful of female entrusted ties of relationships. Surely, at all times Allah is watching over you."

Allah is the Name of G-d for the people we call of the Abrahamic Faith or the People of Abraham. They also are called the Heavenly Religions by Christians, Jews and Muslims. Allah is not the name of any person, no human, no object created or existing in the material world. Allah is only the Name of G-d, the Creator.

We want to address also the soul's inherent value and our belief in Angels. From reading Sacred Scripture, we learn of a belief in Angels. In the Qur'an, we learn that at birth every newborn is assigned two Angels. Its one Angel is given to assist it in the victory in its jihad of moral combat. Its other Angel is assigned to record its deeds over the duration of the person's life.

This focus on Guardian Angels speaks to a necessity imposed by nature to bring souls to accept their own share in the responsibility for the shape and outcome of their own lives.

In the final analysis, not even pointing out Satan as the problem will excuse any from their inherent responsibility. That is to say, we are born with many rights. But we also are born with responsibility.

The government of the United States and the Constitution of this great land recognize this inherent nature or inborn gift from The Creator, G-d, as we call Him Allah in Al-Islam for Muslims.

The government document reads, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident." And it goes on to say that not government but "The Creator endowed or gave certain rights to human beings." They are called "inalienable rights"; they cannot be taken away.

The government took the position that not even the power of government can take away those rights. It goes on to name those rights: Life that means the permission to have your own life and not have it in the possession of somebody else is given by G-d.

A long time, as you know, this country tolerated slavery. And slavery took away our life, not only our rights but our life. We were not free to live our own lives. We had to live the life planned for us by plantation owners and slave masters.

The document goes on to read regarding these inalienable rights: "Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

When I was taking a few courses in junior college, I remember reading in a text that one of the students had, that the pursuit of happiness is understood as the right to have property. Every citizen in these United States has the right to have property of their own.

We know what G-d says to us in our religions - I am a student of the Bible and the text of other religions, too. But I study mainly the Bible and our Holy Book, the Qur'an.

I remember reading in the Bible references to this same right or inborn nature and its wonderful properties and how these properties are to be protected by G-d, Scripture and the conscious righteous people, so that no person will be deprived of those rights.

And if they ever are deprived, it is the duty of the conscious righteous people to go to the aid of those persons or individuals, who have been robbed of their rights or denied their rights.

We come now to human life and its spiritual or psychological dynamics. We read in the dictionary the meaning of dynamics, and I want you to understand how I am using this word. So I am reading the entry that fits this language I am using here now. "Dynamics is pertaining to energy, motion in relation to force."

Envisioning the conclusion of this world, we find that the ancient people of religion and the words of the seers and the wise tell us how man's world will come to a conclusion. We see this as wisdom, and we see much of it as prophecy. I won't use any of that language referring to the end of time in an attempt to give that picture of the last days.

Most of us in church life or in mosque life or in whatever religion you have, I am sure that you are aware of the many pictures given to us of the last days.

Of natural causes, human life will be pressured into moving forward. Also by the extending or intensifying of pressure bringing to bear more pressure, pressure behind pressure on human life, it is forging a meeting before Him. I am giving you the language of Qur'an. Him means Allah.

The language of the Qur'an is "one pressure behind another, pressuring the hearts of the people." Sometimes, it will become so unbearable, people will wonder, "Is there a G-d." The pressure will have become so much on them.

In another focus on the dynamics of human survival and progress, it is revealed that this pressure and struggle in the soul will bring the human perception to be eye-to-eye with the Fires of Hell.

'You shall be brought closer and closer, and you shall see Hell with clear vision, with sure perception or correct perception." This is Qur'an. But reference to this is also in the Bible.

In fact, whatever came to us in the Qur'an, it came to us addressing what had come before to the people called Jews and Christians, both called by us as given to us in our Sacred Book, "The People of The Book," meaning the people of the Scriptures that were revealed to Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ - peace be on them all - and the many others whom I didn't mention.

Though religion has been the world's biggest oppressor, the Qur'an says religions' merits are more than the demerits. The Qur'an's fresh air way of addressing prophetic "End of Time" is intended for the sharpening of human perception.

Perception in the intellect regarding the history of religion how, in one hand, religion has been offering charity and giving charity, and in the other, religion has been greedy for power even over nations.

Nevertheless, important it is that issue baggers serve themselves well by being conscious of the fact that some Scriptures clumsily fabricate a message bearing cloth as a strategy for survival and also as a strategy for war.

These strategic planners, in planning the death of brutal, savage governments also subtly plan a peace times and a time for discarding their cloth stained with bad blood.

Rising spiritual and social dynamics, rising public awareness and literacy in the public, rising respect in government for the value of the common citizen and their publics, honoring the equal rights of the common citizen in the life of the state, all of such makes understandable the prophetic Qur'anic expression: Day of Religion.

In the Qur'an, the expression Day of Judgment is the same as Day of Religion. Of Sacred Scripture, the Qur'an's Words read: "None can touch it." It means none can reach its insights but the purified ones. None can touch it but the purified ones.

Most of man's Holy Scriptures are arduous fitness exercises in moral leadership training. Engagers who remain constantly devoted will grow in moral firmness to qualify for a seat at the table of ethics and global rule or order.

So the Words of G-d in Scripture are intended to produce a special leadership for the world. But you have to go through arduous training. In world religions, the student will find the most disturbing reading, on first sight, when you start to read the Scriptures. If you are morally sensitive and curious, you are going to find the reading of Scripture very disturbing on first reading.

And on second sight, you are going to perceive the most intriguing and productive literary fabrication. You are going to be amazed and will say, "Oh, this is the most productive literary fabrication I have ever experienced or read!"

Hence, the Qur'an's first word in its revealing itself to our Prophet Mohammed, the prayers and the peace be on him, is "Read!" This word, "Read," is prophetic, having to do with old prophecies. Reading can be mentally, morally, intellectually and spiritually liberating. However, the benefits are expected to only be opened for the constantly devoted student.

Regarding using our five senses, they are necessary if we are to gain any knowledge or information. Knowledge and information must come through the five senses. I know perhaps you are thinking that knowledge is intuitive. That is true. But if you don't use your five senses and work those senses very diligently and constantly, there will be not true intuitive knowledge.

In fact, some authorities on the psychology of man say that really the sixth sense that we come to understand - intuition or inspiration - is all the senses in one. It is the power of the five senses producing one sense or one medium - intuition.

Muslims who are students of their religion do not believe that man have any power over intuition. It is the sacred property of G-d, and He does not allow us to have command over it.

So by using our five senses, we are brought into another dimension, a spiritual dimension that brings information to us without our personal control over it. For that reason, we believe in Angels.

There is a medium working in our life and in the world to bring us information. Or I should say "mediums." The one medium is the medium we call Angels, but they are themselves performing different roles - there are many.

The Prophet spoke of the five senses to protect us from the harm of Satan, the enemy of mankind, or called Shaitan in our religion. He spoke on the five senses, because Satan is the enemy of all human beings.

Why is he the enemy? It is because the human being, in their natural mind or nature, do not want to dominate anybody. They don't want power over people, but Satan does. Satan wants to rule everybody. And Satan wants power over everybody in every nation. That is Satan.

The average human being, we don't want that. Human beings in our true nature do not want that. So we want the sharing of power, the sharing of authority under One Authority that we all agree is over all of us. And that is G-d. That is what we want.

Satan being against that wants to trick us and deceive us and make us think that religion is something different from what G-d intended for us.

And Allah, G-d Most High, says, "Never did G-d prepare something for His Messenger or Prophet, that Satan did try to present the likeness of it."

So if that is true, if G-d produced a Bible, then Satan also wants to produce a Bible. If G-d produced a Qur'an, Satan also wants to produce a Qur'an.

And he wants to make it look so much like the one G-d gave you, that you can hardly tell the difference. Or the average person will not be able to tell the difference.

Regarding love for one another, we need to love one another. How are we going to survive these powerful schemes that are designed to reach the hearts and minds of all people and cause them to deviate from the Plan of G-d? How are we going to survive that, if we don't love one another?

We have to be strongly bonded together. And the strongest bond for humans is love. Thus G-d says, "You should love Mohammed the Prophet (saw), His Messenger. You should love him more than your own self and your own families."

Why? It is because he is the Life that is your salvation. Not only in him, but that same life is in all of you, in all of us. He is representative of the life that is our salvation. We should love him more than our own life, because most of us don't even perceive correctly that life in us that is our salvation.

It is called Christ nature. It is called Muslim nature. It can be called by other names. But most of us haven't achieved it, have not reached it and have not grown upon it. So we live a life that Satan planned for us, or we live a life of our own whims, imaginations and impulses or whatever spirits we come into.

Living these lives cheats us out of the precious life that G-d created us for. And we look at these lives that we are living and say, "I don't love this life I'm living as much as I love Mohammed the Prophet (SAW)."

He is your true life and sacred life; he is your best life and he works for your liberation, for your salvation. So he says regarding love and what we desire or wish for ourselves, "The Muslim is one who wants for his brother what he wants for himself." And he warned that we would not be blessed by G-d, until we want for our brother what we want for ourselves.

Praise be to Allah. What did he say about the five senses? Did he say the five senses are to believe in G-d or to witness G-d and to pray and to give in charity and fast the month of Ramadan and make the Pilgrimage to the House? That is what he said when he was asked "what is Al-Islam."

But addressing the five senses, he did not say that. He said, "If you don't use your five senses to take care of your affairs presently and for the future, you are going to lose the ability to use your five senses."

Why? It is because you are not alone; there is the enemy of the human being who has been around longer than you. He is older than you and wiser in the ways of the world than you.

The Bible calls him the most subtle of all the creatures on the earth. That means he is the one that you are most likely to overlook. His presence and his wisdom keeps him hid from human view. It is very hard to find him and to detect him.

And his ways of reaching you through your weaknesses are so subtle and so hidden and so intelligent, the average one cannot withstand him and cannot keep back his advances.

Hence, the Muslims, we seek refuge with G-d from the Rejected Satan.

The Prophet said, "If you don't use your five senses to take care of your affairs presently and for the future, you are going to lose the ability to use your five senses." Why?

It is because you are not alone; there is the enemy of the human being who has been around longer than you. He is older than you and wiser in the ways of the world than you.

Muhammed the Prophet is reported to have said also on the five senses to his learned disciples, followers and students, "If anyone would wash five times in a river, the person would be clean of all impurities." Now we know some of us can get so filthy, we could wash 50 times in the river and still be unclean.

He was not referring to a physical river. A river is a directed flow of water. What the Prophet is saying is that if you clean yourself with your five senses being put in a stream of spiritual obedience that pursues the same Object or keeps in the same Direction, never reversing, never going off its course -like a train on its tracks, if you keep to that, you will be purified, you will be cleansed.

We have many who have kept to their religious devotion and have their spirit for their Creator and have done that constantly over long periods of time and have realized that they are blessed to be protected from the suggestions of the Satan and protected from the temptations of the world and ungodly people.

Sometimes, the situations they are in are like virtual hell; every description they find in the Book of hell, they see it all around. And they feel the agony of the burning fire touching others, while they are spared. So we know the Power of G-d's Word, and we know He has created us to get that Power by our sincere and constant devotion, never giving up.

The five senses can take us up, that is advance our life, and the five senses can take us down. G-d says, "Whoever spends on his own soul -spends on the upkeep and advancement of his own soul in accord with what G-d wants of him - will certainly be successful. And the one who does not spend on the good condition and advancement of his own soul will certainly be a loser, losing everything."

When Muhammed the Prophet was addressing the five senses, he was addressing the things that operate in our human nature - in our body, in our mind, in our soul, in our spirit - operate there to assist us and bring us closer to the great life and great end that G-d wants for us.

Another reference to the five senses is in the Bible, in the New Testament. It says that Christ Jesus, peace be on him, was approaching and saw a woman washing at the well. He said to this woman: "You have had five husbands over you, and the one you have now is not yours."

Was he talking about the five senses of smell, sight, hearing, taste, feeling? No. He was alluding to those senses as key factors in the problem, but he was not addressing those five senses directly when he said, "You have had five husbands over you, and the one you have now is not yours.”

He meant, you have had five senses ruling in your life or in your nature. And you have had a life given to you that compliments your nature and preserves for you your five senses. But now you are following rituals and culture that G-d didn't give you. The world gave you that.

You are following a sixth principle that shouldn't be your husband and shouldn't be our mother. That is the wayward culture, the culture influenced by The Satan, himself.

Let us go back to the expression Day of Religion that is also to be read or translated as Day of Judgment. The word, Deen, has a connection with the word, Dan, which means Debt.

What is Allah saying when He uses the expression Day of Religion? It is the Day that you must answer for the Debt. The Day is coming when all of us must answer for the Debt.

We may be indebted to the Founding Fathers of the United States for this beautiful land that we live in. But before these United States, this whole earth was G-d's House of Worship. Before the United States and all the nations preceding the United States, this beautiful earth was indeed beautiful - before the nations put their pollutions and their hands on it and influences in it, it was most beautiful.

It was called by the Revelations "The Garden of Eden," a beautiful paradise. When we go to a virgin land, one that hasn't been spoiled by man's works and industry, that small peace of land is called paradise by those who discover it.

Allah, G-d, says in our Holy Book, "The Earth is My House of Worship. The Earth is My Masjid."

When we think about the many tribal people living in their traditional native life, again untouched by industrial nations, their concept of property is different from our concept of property.

They will say the land does not belong to any one of them. No member of the tribe can claim ownership of the land; the land belongs to all the people.

Of the river, they will say it is mutual property, because "we didn't make it." Even if there are fruit trees, no one native can claim possession of the fruit trees. They say that, because they didn't make it. The fruit trees were here all the time, and they never know when they began.

Do you think the Qur'an missed this great idea and great way of perceiving external objects and reality made by The Creator or formed before man? It does not.

When the Qur'an says, "The Earth is the House of Worship of G-d," it is addressing the idea that has been for generations and generations, in time forgotten, in what we call Native people.

It is the idea that what we didn't make, we cannot make claims on it, and we cannot use it selfishly and deny others the right to it. That is common property, and it is an idea a little stronger than the common good. Praise be to Allah.

We look at the saying of the "Day when we must answer the Debt, the Debt to G-d, The Creator of everything." That is the language in the Qur'an and Bible, but more specifically in the Qur'an, calling G-d by title, "The Creator of Everything."

We don't believe that there is more than One Creator. There is only One Creator. It says, "Look at the design in creation, in the matter and in everything you see or behold - in the sky, in the earth, everywhere - can't you see that One Artist did it, not two?

The Qur'an says that if there had been more than One, we would see conflict and discord. Because we know when any two minds of bosses from people do a thing, there is going to be a struggle for the upper hand in it and discord, unless they agree in one.

And how do they agree in one? They agree in One Authority over them both. Then they can show unity, consistency, harmony, etc. That is what we want for our life on this planet earth.

We don't want it to be tormented by adverse spirits and Big I's and Little U's bagging issues. There are a lot of issue baggers that have risen up here lately and are very popular. They have no real purpose of their own or no real plan of their own. They just want to stay popular and benefit from their popularity. I call them "Issue Baggers."

There is the day when we have to pay the Debt owed to our Creator. What are we going to pay Him for? You didn't make your life. You can go back to every human being ever thought of, and no human being formed their life. It was formed by a Superior.

No human being made the brain, the mind and nervous system to be as it is and to work as it does. No human being created or made such a powerful or wonderful productive computer we call the human life or human person. Nobody did that but G-d.

Whatever we have been able to achieve with ourselves, with our own lives, by studying our own lives and by studying the area out in our environment - the environmental life of both dead and living things - whatever we have been able to achieve is not owing to the computer, any more than the computer you are using deserves credit for what it does.

It does not deserve credit for what it does. The one who designed the computer and brought it into existence and the persons who worked to bring it into existence are the ones who deserve credit for what that computer does.

So you sing beautifully. The persons who sing beautifully and get people to rave and swoon by the thousands, most of them praise G-d. They recognize that their talent is from G-d. So it is for the artist, the painter, for the true scientist, all of them will not accept too much credit. They will mention G-d and acknowledge G-d in their achievements.

I want to conclude leaving this picture on your mind. This is The Day of Religion, the Day of Paying the Debt, making up for the Debt. What does G-d want from us? Nothing. He just wants you to acknowledge that He made all of this possible and not man. That is all He wants.

He wants you to be fair and honest and not proud and arrogant and boastful. He wants you to acknowledge that it is not you, but it is your Creator Who made all of this possible.

What else is this expression saying? It is a comment on the old use of the term "religion." It is telling you that what you have known as religion is charity and theft.

It has given you on one hand and robbed you on the other. The message of the Qur'an and the hidden message in the Bible is to expose that theft and to prepare us for the day we are living in.

It is the Day of Manifestation of all good and all bad. So we can make the proper choice, so we can succeed on the Path that G-d gives us.

Thank you. This concludes this Radio Address today. To all of you in our Radio Audience, peace and happiness, the happiness that only G-d can give, "As-Salaam-Alaikum" - The Peace be unto you.