May 1978
IWDM Study Library

Teachings On Ablution
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed


Let’s talk about ablution. Ablution means washing, cleaning up; ablution. You see how you can learn more English? How your vocabulary can build up. Your ability to speak better English can improve just by coming to the Masjid. Ablution, most of us---I believe---know the steps of ablution. Is ablution a new thing in religion? No. You who are Christians didn’t you hear that John the Baptist gave people ablutions? (Bible, Matthew 3:6) He gave them total ablution. Is that right? It is said that he dunked them down into the river. He even gave Christ Jesus the Prophet an ablution. Is that right? (Bible, Matthew 3:16) He dunked Christ Jesus down in to the water. He gave Christ Jesus the Prophet an ablution. So ablution is not a new thing in the religion. What do we get out of the Muslim teachings on ablution that didn’t come to us in the Church? We get Al-Bayaan, the clear understanding, clear evidence, clear knowledge. (Qur’an Ar-Rahmaan:4, Al-Bayyinah:1) 

This is ablution. Can someone wash themselves, his hands, his mouth, and his nose, his face---everything---can someone do that every day and become clean internally? Yes, if his mind is in accord with what he is doing. He can wash his hands, his nose and his face and his feet and wipe his head---he can do those things and become clean internally. Prophet Muhammed said (Peace and Blessings be upon him)---we say salla Llahu alaihi wa salaam. Let us say that again. Every time that we hear Prophet Muhammed’s name---we don’t have to say it every time. But every time that you are conscious that his name is being mentioned---because we might say it a thousand times---but as long as you are conscious of his name being mentioned, you don’t have to say it every time---but sometimes you will get your mind on something else then when you hear Prophet Muhammed’s name again, say salla Llaahu alaihi wa salaam. This is just not ordinary peace and blessings to be upon him. We say to each other peace and blessings to be upon you. Is that right? 

We say rahmatullah barakatahu. We say may Allah keep you safe, which means peace, grant you peace. We say fee imaaniAllah. We wish the Muslims these things. We salaam; we greet each other with peace. Is that right? Yes. This salla Llaah, this is a special kind of peace. It is the peace that comes with the complete and perfect revelation that Allah Blessed Prophet Muhammed with.    
               
 Abraham (Ibraheem) was promised that his seed would be Blessed meaning those that follow your way, not your blood your flesh and blood seed; the one who follow in the path of Allah, that’s the one  who inherit the religion. (Qur’an Baqarah:124; Bible, Genesis 17): Is that right? You can be any flesh and blood. But if you don’t follow the right path of Allah you are not going to inherit the religion. So who did Allah say would inherit the religion--- the one who walks the straight path that was established in Prophet Ibraheem; the millah or the way of Prophet Ibraheem, the order of Prophet Ibraheem.                                               
 (This) came to Prophet Muhammed. So the Blessings of complete and perfect religion was promised to Ibraheem through his seed, meaning through people who would follow his way, continue his way…And who was chosen---it was Prophet Muhammed (salla Llaahu alaihi was salaam). When we pray, what is that called? Salaat. Salla Llahu, isn’t that a prayer? Salaa llaahu isn’t that a prayer? So this is not is not just an ordinary peace. This is a peace that we pray for. We say Allah-umma salli ‘alaa sayeedana Muhammed-in. Allah-umma salli ‘alaa sayeedana Muhammed-in wa ‘alaa aali Muhammed-in kamaa sallaita ‘alaa Ibraaheema wa ‘alaa aali Ibraaheema…This is a prayer that we say. And its sall…So this is the Blessing that the believers prayed for; the righteous have prayed for. 

This Blessing---that Allah would bless one among them with the complete and perfect final revelation…that would clear up all of the mysteries and solve all problems for us in our confused path.   (Qur’an Al-Bayyinah: 1                                                                                                               
This came to Prophet Muhammed. So when we say peace and blessings be upon him it is not to worship Prophet Muhammed. It is not to give him any special divinity. He has no divinity. And no prophet has any divinity. In Al Islam only Allah has divinity, meaning that only Allah is divine. There is no “Father Divine” in Al Islam. There is no Christ the divine in Al Islam. The Christ is a human being. (Bible e.g., Matthew 16:13) And the believers are human beings.  The Prophets are human beings(Qur’an Al Tauba: 32)…No Divine….So, we say salla Llaahu alaihi wa salaam, meaning the special Blessings, the special peace, the special blessings  that you promised the faithful. We pray that you fulfill it in Prophet Muhammed. 

And in Prophet Muhammed it was established. But we will lose it if we don’t keep it in our hearts. The world won’t lose it because Allah says Himself that He will protect this religion. He will protect the Qur’an it won’t be polluted, it won’t be corrupted. And He will keep this Qur’an in some good believer’s heart. ** This religion is not going to vanish from the earth. But we as people, individuals we can lose it. We as Americans, we can lose it…The scripture says that He will put the word in their heart. ** To keep it in our heart, we have to keep it in our mind. A thing lost from the mind will soon be lost from the heart…So let’s repeat that again, salla Llaahu alaihi wa salaam. You say that for no person except Prophet Muhammed to whom the Qur’an was revealed. Because that refers to the Blessing of the Qur’an; and that Blessing came to Prophet Muhammed---to no one else.


IT’S NOT THE WATER

Alright, let’s go back return to the topic that we want to discuss---ablution. Allah says in the Qur’an the revelation to Prophet Muhammed, the message to all people, He says to us regarding ablutions that if we cannot find suitable water use clean earth. If you cannot find suitable water use clean earth! Do you think this is only clearing up the problem for simple people? No, indeed, it is also clearing up the problem for the intellectuals in the religion. On the common knowledge level, what is this saying to us? It is saying to us this: that religion with Allah is not spooky it is rational. There is nothing spooky about the water. DON’T THINK THAT YOU CAN’T MAKE ABLUTION WITHOUT WATER. The water has no spooky power! 

**** The idea is to “record” on or in the heart. A figure of speech in English that we say when we memorize some knowledge is, “I learned it by heart”. Interestingly, the English word “record” is defined as: An account made in an enduring form, especially in writing.” (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language) The etymology or root origin of the word has the stem of “cord” which carries the meanings of “heart and mind”. The prefix, “re-“indicates the idea of being done again. The etymology or root of the English word comes from the Latin recordaari, to remember, think over.

Hadn’t the world---some of the religious people come to believe that the water had spooky powers? And aren’t there religious people right now believing that the water has spooky powers? Haven’t you in your time heard that they go over into the Middle East to the Jordan and they come back here and sell it for high prices thinking that it has spooky powers? So Allah is telling us that the water is good, the water is best for cleaning; but it has no spooky power. Your prayer will still be accepted if you can’t find the suitable water---use clean earth. If you find clean sand rub it in your hands it can clean your hands. And after you clean your hands, you can take your clean hands and wipe your face to clean your face. 

You can clean your body with clean sand. If you can’t find any clean sand, if you know that a stone is clean can’t you rub your hands on that stone and clean your hands? If there are some corn shucks, if you are out in the field and there are some clean corn shucks---the earth is muddy, but the corn shucks are there. Couldn’t you take the corn shucks and clean your hands? Yes. Tayyammum means using earth clean something of the earth to take off the dirt. What does it say now to people on a high level of religious understanding? They have secret teachings, symbolic teachings and the water stands for something and the earth stands for something. The water stands for man’s moral and spiritual nature. The earth stands for man’s logical mind and the rational side of the man---the purely rational side of the man. 


SIGNIFICANCE OF ABLUTION

So what is Allah telling us in these teachings on ablution? He is telling us that human knowledge cleans us---that is moral knowledge, spiritual excellence, moral excellence it cleans us. But also rational knowledge cleans us. Haven’t many of our good morals come to us from men who were not looking for morals? They were looking only for rational, logical conclusions. 
*** We have the common sense expression “come back to earth” when someone that we are having discussion with begins expressing ideas or opinions that are excessive or are lacking foundation. 
But the logical conclusions also gave us knowledge for moral excellence…So our morals don’t just come from the human excellence, morals also come from intelligent search…One feeds the other.  

As the two legs, one advances the other. The right leg moves up to bring the left leg up; the left leg moves up to bring the right leg up. Now while we are talking on this---this is Qur’an. I am teaching you Qur’an. While we are talking on this let us bring something else that Allah says. Allah says that the sinners shall be marshaled to judgment with the two legs together. What does that mean? You will have no power to enter into a discussion with Allah to justify your wrongs. You won’t be able to hide one truth and project half of it like you do in this life---you hide the right leg and talk about the left one, or you hide the left leg and talk about the right one…We get on a rational issue and you demand that we stay right on the dry, the cut and dry rational point. You say, “don’t let no moral thing come into this, we are not talking about the moral aspect.” But when we face Allah your total life shall be together before Him. You won’t be able to hide the moral evidence while projecting the cut and dry rational lies. There are those who say that religion is all spookism they won’t be able to hide the logical fact while pretending to establish a truth upon spookism. 

Do you see how beautiful the religion is? They shall be marshaled before the judgment with their legs together. (Qur’an Al-Qiyaamah: 29) And again Allah says in the Holy Qur’an that the shin shall be bared. The shin bone---there is only a small skin, a thin skin over the shin bone; it doesn’t have a whole lot of meat on it. It says that their shin bone shall be exposed. (Qur’an Al-Qalam: 42) So what is under the skin? The strong support---see on the outside is the little weak cover. A lot of people want to talk about the covering but they won’t get to the heart of the matter. They just talk about the superficial, but won’t get into the issues. But Allah is going to bare the shin. *** You are going to have to talk about the real issues. The religious leadership don’t they avoid the real issues? When you challenge them by saying  isn’t it wrong that you worship flesh and blood; isn’t it wrong that you worship blood sacrifice when Allah told the prophets before the New Testament that you should---that you shall not make blood sacrifices, that Allah does not want that kind of sacrifices? 

The sacrifice that He wants is obedience. Why have you brought back blood sacrifice something that was stopped by Prophet Ibraheem and other prophets that came behind him? And you still have it in the religion. They won’t go to the heart of the matter. They will start talking about the superficial things, and they will hide part of the argument while trying to establish an excuse. 

***In the human it is the bones that give it a definite form and structure as well as to provide continuity of its form.  Additionally all of the bones actually produce red blood cells in the marrow of the bones. As the human being ages some of the bones according to the wisdom of Allah diminish their production of red blood cells such as the shin bone. The shin bone that is scientifically termed “tibia” is the second largest bone in the human body and is recognized as the strongest weight bearing bone of the body. Thus a sign (ayaat) from Allah or rather one of the interpretations of the sign from Allah in regards to uncovering the tibia or shin bone is that He will uncover that thing that metaphorically has been the primary means of support for our rational and spiritual body of knowledge. Allah named man in the Qur’an “rajaal”. According to the dictionary the meaning of “rajaal” refers to the leg of man particularly the part below the knee; in another signification it signifies a “mature” man. And we understand that man means or is defined as “mind”. In other words, man is not a physical entity as such but is a mental construct, a mind.  


A COMPLETE LIFE

Ablution---our ablution tells us that the human being is a total life, a complete entity that he is not two people but he is one person. I was in Egypt looking at some of the ancient monuments there. And there I saw the symbolism that I believe came into the religion because people were ignorant and wouldn’t seek Allah’s guidance they just came to the conclusion that this is it and they introduced it into the religion. Dualism---when you study the religious history of most of the people of the world you will find that they have practiced at some time dualism and nature worship. These are steps in man’s growth. We see things and they seem to be the answer and we come to the conclusion that they are the answer. But if we remain faithful eventually we grow up out of those simple things that were wrong and we come to the right understanding. 

There they have a statue of the ruler, the man ruler, and they have for his legs  two Suns---his right leg is one Sun and his left leg is another Sun. So these are two people in his body and he makes the third. You have one form of trinitarianism in Christianity, but believe me, that Trinitarian thing was all over. People have gone wrong, not that everybody worshipped “three g’ds in one”; but practically everywhere that I know religion to have been, they all have had a concept that involved three principles or three figures; three essentials or important figures. For Christianity it is Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 


HUMAN LIFE IS ONE

Al Islam shows us that the human life is one---one life. That you are not body, spirit and intelligence separate one from the other---that you are a human being. And all of these other things are just aspects of your nature or development out of your own nature. You are a human being---that’s what you are. You grow into knowledge---you are a human being. You grow into spiritual life---you are a human being. You need physical existence, you need physical comfort---you are a human being. Prophet Muhammed asked his followers, he said, “can anyone who wash five times daily be left with sin, with filth on him?” What was the answer? No. So what is the ablution that really takes away all filth? It is the ablution that is made five times daily. What is that ablution? Salaat, we make prayer five times daily. So in Al Islam there is an ablution higher than the water ablution. We don’t call it ablution but isn’t it an ablution? Doesn’t prayer cleanse us? And it cleans us internally. So first we must clean externally. That is the beginning. As they say “cleanliness is next to Godliness”. What they should have said, because that is not acceptable in Al Islam---what they should have said is “physical cleanliness is the step to bring about internal cleanliness”. Or “outer cleanliness is conducive to inner cleanliness it brings about the desire for inner cleanliness”. A person who has cleaned up themselves outwardly they can’t feel comfortable around people who don’t clean. So it makes them conscious of cleanliness. He said bathe five times daily, the one who washes in the water five times daily, can he be still polluted? No he won’t be polluted. 


SIGNIFICANCE OF MAKING FIVE PRAYERS A DAY

So if we pray five times daily that is a key for us. But what is the five? Rational sense, you have five senses. The one who gives his full senses for cleaning himself up will clean himself up. The one who cleans in a spooky fashion will not be cleaned. The one who goes to the water in a spooky fashion he can go to the water ten times---he can go a thousand times and he won’t be clean. He can pray a million prayers and won’t be cleaned internally. But the one who gives his full mind all of his senses to Allah for the purpose of affecting external and internal cleanliness he will be cleaned. He will become clean. That is what it is saying to us. We have to be conscious of what we are doing. You have to make a conscious ablution. That is why the Muslim has to first state his intention. We call it iniyyah. He declares his intention that I am about to make my ablution---not for myself, but for Allah. I am about to make my ablution for my prayer, my morning prayer or whatever prayer it is. But who is the ablution for? It is for Allah. 

So his five senses, his intelligence is aware of what he is doing. He goes in mentally aware. He performs the act mentally aware. Five represents the intelligence. The intelligence comes by five ways, the physical experience or connections, by taste, by smell, by vision, by sight, by hearing. Do you know any other way that it comes---I don’t? Some people say “what about the ESP?” He felt it, he smelled it, he tasted it, he saw it, and he heard it. If it didn’t come by one of the five ways he doesn’t have ESP. You’ve got BS. What am I saying; you don’t have to feel something with your hand to feel it. Just like you have an inner ear, you have an inner feeling. You don’t have to smell something with your nose to know what is out there in the air. You have an inner sense too. For every outer sense there is an inner connection. And people think that this is a spooky thing. It all evolved out of the five senses. 

You first have to come here physically feeling, hearing, seeing, tasting and this knowledge, and this nature grows and it develops in you. Does any baby come here fresh telling us things that we didn’t know? They have to come here learn and develop. But they might develop their fundamental potential---human potential their talents and nature they might develop them and become our superior. But they won’t come here from the womb (like that).  But “Oh Jesus spoke to the people in the cradle”. That is right. Christianity is still in the cradle. Jesus is gone but Christianity is still in the cradle. So the priest is still speaking to us in the cradle. This is ablution. We pray five times daily. 
We make an ablution before every prayer if the ablution has been broken. And we know what breaks it---filth, uncleanliness. I think one who engages in an un- Islamic conversation should make his ablution before making prayer. Why---though his hands are still clean, the physical parts are still clean, but hasn’t he let his inner parts slip to filth? So he should remind himself again that he has to be clean. I think that he should make his ablution. 

Would anyone like to come from a filthy conversation (and go) right to prayer? Shouldn’t he go remind himself that a Muslim should be clean externally and internally? So we have the ablution by water and by earth---that is by material of the earth. And we have ablution by washing and by prayer. Allah says surely prayer takes away the filthy things, filthy inclinations and takes away the shameful and filthy inclinations. I believe that is the right interpretation, the right translation. Surely prayer takes away the shameful and filthy inclinations. (Qur’an Al ‘Ankaboot: 45) So this is the cleaning.


WOMAN AT WELL

I would like to make connections with those things that are important or significant in Christian religion. Jesus saw a woman, getting water out of the well and he told her, according to Bible the New Testament version---he told her  “woman you have had five husbands and the one you have (Bible John 4:18) now is not yours.” And he invited that woman to come to water superior to the water that she was washing that she was drawing to use---not washing but was drawing to use. He said that he would lead her to water that when she drinks (it) she wouldn’t thirst again; eternal life---waters of eternal life. Do we Muslims have the waters of eternal life? Yes, we do. What is the difference between the two? The five senses, certainly. Apply your five senses that helps clean just like the tayammum, the clean earth. Doesn’t it help clean?  If the five senses are clean, if they are upright, straight they will help us to keep a good moral life, to keep our life clean; to keep disease and filth and (other) things from rotting our society. 


BETTER WATER

But there is better water; there is better water than that. The intelligence of man---the mind isn’t it always thirsty? A mind that does not thirst is not a good mind. So the water of human intelligence is the water that keeps us thirsty. The more we drink the more we want to drink. (It never satisfies our thirst). But it is good according to the Bible and Holy Qur’an it cleans too. It cleans. But there is one that is sure, there is one that is guaranteed to clean you and to bring you to that point of cleanliness that makes you satisfied. Not that you haven’t been making any efforts to stay clean---but you won’t have fear on you that there still is something else that you need for cleaning. The Muslim does not have fear on him that there is something missing in his life that he needs to clean him. The Qur’an is water and soap-a-plenty. We don’t thirst for anything more than the Qur’an. So haven’t we been led to a water that took away our thirst? 

The guidance of Allah has taken away our thirst. We don’t have to go thirsty anymore; anytime that we want some water, if our five senses don’t lead us to it; we go right to the Qur’an. And if the five senses should become polluted and we sense some bad taste in the water of the five senses, that it’s not tasteless anymore, it’s not clear anymore, we say “oh the water has been polluted, so let us go to the eternal water”. And the eternal water will clean up our five senses. So the answer to that is in Al Islam, in Prophet Muhammed. The people wanted eternal water, they wanted Divine guidance perfect complete and clear. Here it is. 


BEST TO TEACH THE QUR’AN

We have talked about the five sense water. And we have talked about another water. And look how beautiful the Qur’an is. I am just on ablution. Isn’t that the first thing that we do---wash up? Alright so we are on ablution. Some of you will say “when are we going to read the Holy Qur’an?” It is no good to read it, it is best to teach it. A lot of people have been reading it and they know nothing. Because they have forgotten, they have not had the right guidance. They have forgotten how to give themselves to Divine guidance and their teachers have been ignorant. This is a fact, I can’t hide it, and their teachers have been ignorant. They have been tricked by the Jachubites. Do you know that? Do you know that the Jahcubites used the Gentiles to hoodwink many, many Muslims in Asia, in the Middle East, in Africa and all over the world? 



THE TERM "JAHCUBITE"
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed (raa)

THE TERM "Jahcubite" is a term that I coined. If you run into "Jacobite" in the encyclopedia or in the history books, don't confuse that Jacobite with the term that I coined—Jahcubite. I coined this term "Jahcubite" for the community. When I coined the term "Jahcubite," I was thinking of the cub lion. You know "lion" and "jah" is a name for god, hence "jah-cubs"-cubs-lion, "Jahcubite."

In other words, the little lion of god — the little cubs, not the big lion. Actually I was thinking of people who try to imitate the big Satan and do a worse job than they would if they consulted the big Satan. I would call Jahcubites reckless people with scripture, reckless people with cultural knowledge. Scripture tells us that Jews were notorious for that. The renegade Jews, the devil Jews, were notorious for that kind of thing.
History tells us that these Jews were condemned by the Jewish community. The Jewish community disowned them and said they had no authority to do those kind of things. There is a story about Jacobites in history. I learned of this after I chose the term "Jahcubites," Actually the word "Yacub" inspired me to search for a people who would be Jacub or Jacub-like, and give them a new name so that we wouldn't be hung up in this Yacub story.

I started using the term "Jahcubite" to identify people who experiment and play with Divine things and do reckless things in the world, in the life of man. I wouldn't want them to think that when I use "Jahcubite" I'm talking about the Jews. I've tried to correct that several times.
This is not just our day, here in America; this is the day for Muslims all over the world. It is not just us that are coming into a desire to give a real study to the Qur’an, give a real study to the Muslim life this is happening all over the world. And believe me; we (Muslims) are persecuted all over the world. And in some places outside of America, I have learned that we are being persecuted more---much more than we are persecuted in America; in the Philippines, in Syria the Dr. Alawaan told me in Syria that they are watched carefully to see if anybody is getting too serious about Islamic studies. They fear their people. They fear the masses. This is something that has come about (what do we call a disease when it comes to the terminal point) an epidemic is when it comes out---yes that is the word that I was looking for. We are living in the time of an epidemic, an epidemic of religious confusion that was brought about by the denial of knowledge, refusing to give knowledge to the masses. It hurts us to say it, but we have to know what we are dealing with to be successful. 


RELIGIOUS LEADERS HID KNOWLEDGE

Egypt, their leadership in the religion denied the masses the knowledge. They taught it to a select few and those few would teach it in a secret way so that the general masses would never get it. They would only get the simple, surface knowledge. They did not trust the masses with the knowledge. Did Allah instruct Prophet Muhammed to be like that? Did he hide the great wisdom of the Qur’an from the masses? It was the ignorant, the rejected people, the-down-in-the-dust-people that he gave the precious wisdom to. That wasn’t the way of Allah, Prophet Muhammed, and the Qur’an---no indeed! But they are guilty. It happened in Egypt. It happened in the Middle East. It happened in Africa. It happened everywhere where Al Islam was established. 

We began to react like the Jews reacted when the Jews felt threaten by the surrounding nations. They put their religion in dark, secret symbols so that the surrounding nations would not benefit from their knowledge. And they plotted a secret plan to bring the surrounding nations into their control. Many of the Muslim nations did the same thing. When they were threatened by a European, a Western Power they began to hide their precious knowledge. They would not hide only from the enemy they were hiding it from their people (as well). And how could their nation remain strong if they were not going to give the knowledge out to the people? So they brought about their own problems. The epidemic came from the sins of the religious leadership. 

All over the world we are persecuted as Muslims simply because our leadership failed us. There is no other way to put it; simply because our leadership failed us! Christian leadership failed the Christians. Jewish leadership failed the Jews. Islamic leadership failed the Muslims. 
But Allah He says “I will establish my religion. I am not depending on any of you”.  Allah says “I will establish my religion”. So you see how He brings the life back? Allah-u-Akbar. 


TWO WATERS

Allah speaks in the Qur’an of two waters---one, salt water, and one, sweet water. He says in there is a barrier they do not cross and mix with each other. (Qur’an, Al Furqaan: 53; Al Faatir: 12; Ar Rahmaan: 19-20)  Look at the beautiful, rational wisdom in this. But there is still a higher understanding to be gotten. We know that the salt water is out there in the ocean and in the seas. And the sweet water is in the lakes and in the rivers. And these waters come together occasionally---in fact all of the time they are being mixed; they mix but they don’t destroy the identity or the nature of the two are not destroyed they remain separated though mixing. The salt water rises up from the sea by the Sun and become clouds and rain down on us and become rivers. The salt water becomes sweet water. And the sweet water is taken up from the lakes and rivers and is carried out over the oceans many times and over the seas and it is rained down into the salt water and it becomes salt water. But the sea never becomes sweet; and the lakes never become salty. Isn’t that a wonderful sign that Allah gives us? 

How come we can’t maintain rational balance and good spiritual life at the same time? And how come these two can’t have an exchange without losing their nature, without losing their identity? 
We have been living in a world that says that in order for your rational mind to come to the religion you have to lose your rational nature; the rational mind has to lose its rational identity. Isn’t that right? And the rational world says that in order for you come into our logic, in order for you to come into our rational life you have to lose your spirituality. Isn’t that what they say? 


COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE

But look Allah shows us one water that remains the same. They come together and mix but they never destroy the nature. How come I can’t study religion and remain a rational man? Don’t the waters mix and the sweet water stays and the salt water stays? Then how come we can’t rise above our human infirmities like the waters rise? And have an exchange with our rational question our spiritual; let our spiritual question our rational and then drop right back down and keep the same balance. How come we have to drop back down and become spooks? Come back down on the earth and have lost the nature. Allah, He inspired Prophet Muhammed---a human being, He didn’t call a spook---...Prophet Muhammed---He called a man like Ibraheem, a man like Moses; those prophets are rational prophets, who looked for rational answers to human problems. So Allah called a rational man. The revelation came to him and he understood it because Allah knew that he was of the right mind, sound mind, and sound moral character. 

So He gave it to him and the two were kept in the right order, the right form; the two were kept in the right balance. And they can mix like the feet the left and the right they move together to carry the whole body; the right foot doesn’t become the left in that movement. The moral spiritual side of the human being it should be able to work with questions of spirituality and questions of rationale and should be able to work with all these questions on a high plane of knowledge come to a conclusion and drop the knowledge down pure, untainted. But don’t say “salt sea become sweet”. Don’t say “sweet water become salty”. Is that clear? I hope that I am not leaving anybody in confusion. The religious knowledge should never take away the rational thirst in man the thirst for rational understanding; and the religious knowledge should never take away the spiritual side of human life. It is a complete knowledge. It is not like the knowledge of the cut and dry scientist; and it is not like the knowledge of the superstitious spooky monk or priest or something. It is complete. 


ABLUTION COMPREHENSIVE GUIDANCE

Ablution covers a lot. We wash out hands three times, three times each. There is a purpose. Do you know that the medical profession washes three times? I saw them. They take soap and wash three times before going to do their work on the patient. So it must have meaning. And it must also be good rational, it must have rational value too. If it didn’t the doctors would not be doing it. Three times takes away the dirt, takes away the germs. And you wash the mouth three. You rinse the nose three; the face three; the arms three; the ears one; the hair one; and the feet three. And the feet are last. 

Didn’t Jesus teach his people to wash each other’s feet as a sign? (Bible, John 13:4)  Everything in Jesus’ life is a sign of what was coming. (Qur’an Al Mu’minoon:50) He taught his people to wash each other’s feet. We wash our own feet. But Muslims also help each other wash their feet. I have been in Muslim countries where many people are making ablution and it is just common to see a brother pouring water helping their brother wash his feet. And when he finishes the other will help him wash his feet. (We have brothers here from the East they will tell you this is a fact. And those who have gone they know who have lived and been around the Muslims for a while. They know.  They help each other. So it was a sign of what was coming. Are the Christians in the church helping each other to wash each other’s feet? So who fulfilled that? Was it the church or Prophet Muhammed? 

So why stay in the church when the church was only a sign of what was coming? The church is not the real thing; it points to the real thing. So come out of the church. Come out of the church. Many of you come here and you hear us teaching on Al Islam over and over again you carry the eternal water back to the people that didn’t have it. They didn’t have it. They don’t have eternal water. The church is a dry well. I am not making fun. The Bible says that it is a dry well. It says that Joseph was put in a dry well. (Qur’an Yusuf: 10-21/ Bible Genesis 37:24, 39:1) And taken out of the well and sold into Egypt. The church was put in a dry well of religious understanding then taken to materialism and made a slave. Yes. It is just that the Bible tells what is going to happen to the church. And the church is a sign of what is going to come as a Blessing from Allah. So know that these are steps in Allah’s plan. And don’t stay behind in the signs. What does a man look like making signs, making gestures eating vicariously---imitating the motion? Ahh, delicious give me a glass of that; umm, very tasty.  

So which is better, the one that makes the signs or the one who has the real thing? Man can imagine. Oh he can have a beautiful time, can’t he? Yes. I have been in the church it is powerful with imagination---I give them that. Oh they have powerful imagination. But they are like the person who is going through the motions but don’t have the real thing. 
Scripture says---their scripture and the Holy Qur’an show that their order is nothing but a sign of an order to come.  Jesus and his mother---it didn’t just say Jesus---Jesus and his mother is a sign. (Al-Mu’minoon: 50) What is Jesus? Jesus represents the message, the word that he brought. (Qur’an Al ‘Imraan: 45) That word, that message was a sign of a greater to come, of a fulfillment in something to come. What is his mother? His mother is the church society, the order, the world that they live in. It’s just a sign of something to come. (Bible Matthew 12:48-50) 


WASHING THE FEET

So we have the Church and we have the Christian society. We have their religious rituals and we have the Christian life. What they do and what you (Muslims) have been taught to do is nothing but a sign of something to come. And the proof, they haven’t fulfilled it, they are not washing each other’s feet. “Oh (you say) it means something else”. What does it mean? What is the something else that it means? Yes, it does mean something else. It means that we protect the safety of each other; we protect the righteousness of each other. Are the Christians protecting the righteousness of each other? Do they pull each other’s coat and say “don’t do that brother, it is sinful”. Do they pull each other’s coat and say “don’t walk that path it goes to destruction”. Are they pulling each other’s coat? Christians walks right by sin and says nothing. I know that a few of you are doing it, but the great majority of you don’t. 

The society as a whole can be characterized as an insensitive society. They are not sensitive to the needs of each other, is that right or wrong? The Muslim society is a society that is sensitive. If you go over in the East and start drinking in the public or on the public street; start kissing some woman and carrying on your foolishness on a public street and see don’t someone wash your feet or cut them off. They will wash your feet over there Brother. Muhammed Ali (the boxer) went to Malaysia, I think, and he was doing the normal thing that he did because all the girls run up to him…she was a pretty girl and he kissed her on the cheek. It was an uproar there. Newspapers carried it; in fact it reached over into America and came into our papers. That is washing each other’s feet. Do you think that you can come in here and start playing with one of these sisters? Or introduce some vices in here? And we are going to overlook it? We are going to wash your feet. But we are first going to get your attention. After we get your attention then we are going to wash your feet. So it is sign of that that was to come. 


MEANING OF HAIR IN SCRIPTURE

That woman she was washing, according to the New Testament, she was washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and with her hair. (Bible Luke 7:38) Beautiful knowledge, but does the Church teach it? Some of you have been going to the Church all of your life; and some of you might be sixty years old, has the Church ever taught you what that means that that woman washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and her hair? No, but the Qur’an, Allah’s guidance with the good trust of the Imam in his G’d has brought me to understanding. What is the hair symbolic of? Your knowledge; your learning; hair is symbolic of your learning. Common knowledge of the head---common knowledge; beard is symbolic of spiritual wisdom or higher knowledge. The hair on the head is symbolic of common knowledge; the knowledge that is generally in the society. So this woman washed Jesus’ feet with her hair and her tears. What are tears symbolic of? You have to aid your Brother out of sentimental nature. 

You have to have a sentimental desire in you; you have to have feelings. You have to respond to your Brother because you are moved by feelings; you are moved by the forces of the heart. And look at the tears---the tears are salty aren’t they? Tears are salt water, not sweet water. The salt water has bitterness---not everyone wants to taste the salt water. So when we are corrected isn’t it salty to us? When you correct someone, they say “take it with a grain of salt. And they speak of the bitter pill---a reality that you don’t want to face. 

The scripture is telling you, that we have to respond to each other’s needs; come to each other’s aid moved by the sentiments of the heart. And don’t be afraid; don’t be so sensitive that you can’t hurt the brother’s feelings or the sister’s feelings. Let them know that this tear comes from my sentimental nature. Its salty brother, the water that I am giving you is salty; but my heart is crying that is why I am correcting you. Isn’t it beautiful? And isn’t it what Prophet Muhammed fulfilled? (Salla Allahu alaihi wa Sallam) 


THE MUSLIM IS THE MIRROR FOR THE MUSLIM

Prophet Muhammed said, “the Muslim is the mirror for the Muslim.” The Muslim is the mirror for the Muslim. I remind you of your faults and you remind me of my faults. But look how superior this knowledge is? It’s better than the parable in the New Testament; the parable in the New Testament is loaded with sentiments, this parable is loaded with justice. When I look in the mirror, the mirror doesn’t show me something that is not on me. Some of you like to correct each other but you like to lie. You point out faults that are not there; and ignore others that are there. But the mirror only tells what it saw. The mirror can’t tell you what’s in my heart. The mirror only tells us what it saw….What is Prophet Muhammed teaching the Muslim? Don’t give reports from guesses, from superstition, from suspicion. Let your report be truthful, from proof, from concrete proof. Did you see it; do you have firsthand knowledge of it? You know that you can take two mirrors and put them together so that one mirror tells the other mirror something. But that mirror that receives it from the fifth mirror or from fifteen mirrors tells just what it got fifteen mirrors down the line. Allah-u-Akbaar (G’d is Greater, is more important) Do you see how superior Allah’s guidance is? And if we follow it, won’t we be the best and more superior class of people? 

Allah is the one that deserves worship and every act in a Muslim’s religion is an act of worship, even the cleaning is an act of worship. We make our wudu for Allah. We say, “I am about to make my ablution, my wudu, for Allah, the Guardian Evolver of all the Worlds. Then we say, Bismillahi Ar Rahmaan, Ar Raheem, With the Name Allah, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer. Then we make our wudu. 


THE RIGHT HAND FIRST

We begin with the washing of the right hand. The water has to be clean water we can’t wash with used water. We have to wash with clean water. How is the purity of the water tested? If the water has smell and you did not put some perfume in it then it is not pure. Water should be odorless, colorless and tasteless. The water has to be clean water and that is the test for it: odorless, colorless and tasteless. It shouldn’t taste like something is in it. It should have the water taste and that’s tasteless. We begin with the washing of the right hand, three times. We wash the right hand three times. This is the beginning of ablution in Al Islam. You know, in the Bible the New Testament, John the Baptist baptized the people submerged the whole body, so they say, into the water. Jesus didn’t take people to the water and submerge them. But according to the New Testament, Jesus told the people to wash their feet, to wash each other’s feet. 

The wudu, the cleaning or ablution the washing of the Muslim begins with the hand, with the hand--- the right hand first and it concludes or ends with the washing of the feet beginning with the right foot first. 
I would like to read from the New Testament, just some verses here that should be explained, especially for people who are converted from Christian lives; or have been influenced by lies and corruption that have been charged to Jesus the Prophet. 
This is from Matthew chapter 15 beginning with verse 11: “it is not the things which go into the mouth that defiles a man but the things which come out of the mouth this defiles a man.” Now, let’s think about these verses. “It is not the things that go into the mouth that defiles.” Defiles mean what? If something is foul, it is bad. 

If I say, “you have a foul breath”, you understand what that means. So something that is foul is bad, it has gone bad; it’s rotten, it has corruption in it. It’s bad; any bad thing may be called a foul thing. So it says, “it’s is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but that which comes out of the mouth this defiles a man”. What does this mean? I know that the things that come out from us make us bad and if we can restrain ourselves and not do the wrong that we sometimes get an inclination to do or an impulse to do by restraining ourselves it keep us good. And when we give freedom to these bad feelings, bad impulses, harmful impulses they make us grow to become foul or they defile us. That is true. But there is something missing here, so let us continue. Verse 17: “do not you understand that whatever enters in at the mouth goes into the belly and is cast out into waste?” Now let’s look at this. It says, do not you know, understand that whatever goes into the mouth enters the belly and is cast out into waste? Something is missing here. 

The good that goes in the body tries to use it. If excess goes in, it will throw out even good. But the body has been designed to recognize some things that are not good, that are harmful. And when the body recognizes these things it sometimes throws them back up the way they came in. And that which the body does not have use for it passes it out as waste in the form of urine or in the form of excretion or defecation. But some things can pass by the detectors in the stomach, in the mouth and in the stomach and can get pass them and destroy the being, kill us. So these poisons that can go pass the mouth go down into the stomach and won’t be thrown up, enter the blood stream and kill us. What does this verse has to say about that? For sure something is missing here isn’t it? 

The Muslim must be careful what he puts into his mouth. The Muslim can’t put filth into his mouth. So we go from the hands and we go to the mouth for ablution. See how wonderful our religion is? These people have tricked us; so Allah comes back to save us. Say yes, it is very important that your acts be clean and upright. But don’t just protect your hands from harming others---clean out your mouth. Clean out your mouth---with clean water. The ablution is not right if you use dirty water. That’s no ablution. That’s adding pollution to pollution. So we wash the right hand three times. What is the hand symbolic of? Actions; don’t these hands do most of our work? Don’t they carry out most of the acts?  The hands, so they are symbolic of our actions. So we should first take charge of our actions. But you can’t get charge of your actions if your intentions are bad. 

Declare your intention and connect it with Allah and make it an act of reverence. And everything to follow should be an act of reverence means an act of respect or an act of obedience to Allah. We wash the right hand three times. Why the right hand first? Well, people from a long time ago have used the right hand or the right side to represent truth, honesty. Right in court they have you right today, “will you swear will you raise your right hand”, but let’s look a little deeper. Which hand serves us most---we have some left-handed people---but if we were to say, we want to know which hand in society has been the most valuable that has contributed the most we are ready to reward the right or the left hand of society.   Which hand would be rewarded the most? The right hand; because there are more people who are right handed. The stronger hand of most people is the right hand. And that hand has done more for the people, for the society and for the world than the left hand. So shouldn’t we give attention first to that which has the power to serve us the most? 

That is common sense. So first I wash my right hand. I get that that can help us most ready in shape to give the help. And we wash it three times. Why? Because our acts are sometimes motivated by materialism, sometimes motivated by self interest or by rationale or by dry rationale---what I mean by that is, an argument, arguments make us sometimes act and we come under the influence or domination of argument and most people are not aware of that. And we are always arguing. Don’t think that because you are not arguing you are not arguing. Right now you are throwing thoughts back and forth. That is a form of argument. And people can get caught up in the argument and the influence of the argument takes them over and directs them or dominates them. So sometimes we get caught up by---or into the influences or power of the material world; or sometimes we come under the influence or power of our reasoning, of our logic of arguments. And then sometimes we come under the influence of our spirit---the spirit. Allah says in the Qur’an that on the Day of Judgment three columns of smoke shall rise from the human being. (Al Mursalat :30) What does this tell us? 

This tells us that not only the materialism can have corruption in it---smoke represents impurities that are coming out---not only the materialism can have corruption but also intelligence can have corruption and also the spirit can have corruption. Some people think merely because they become spiritual they are saved. Spirituality is not enough to save us. Human spirituality can be corrupt. Human intelligence can be corrupt. And human flesh or carnality is (subject to) corruption. So you see we have three forms that we have to watch over. Not in Allah; Allah has one, one existence---He is one, one, one all the way through. We are the ones that have to watch over three developments, not Allah.


PROTECTING THE UNCONSCIOUS WASHING THE LEFT HAND

Look at this now. We wash the hands three times, the right hand three times so that we will not act physically, mentally, or spiritually in a wrong way. That our acts will be clean and upright respecting the judgment or the word of almighty Allah, G’d. Then we wash the left hand three times. What does the left hand represent? Acts too, but the left hand usually serves me without my attention given to it. My conscious acts are done mostly with the right hand. And unconscious acts are done mostly with the left hand or are given mostly to the left hand. The left hand will help the right hand without me consciously ordering the left hand to do that. But I set the right hand to do a work for me. I set the right hand to pick up the book; and the left hand---I don’t have to tell it---it will hold the book, it holds the pages. I am not telling the left hand anything. The left hand has been made to obey voluntarily. Now so shouldn’t the weak in society obey the strength voluntarily? 

We shouldn’t have to punish them. Weakness should recognize strength and be influenced by strength to help strength. So if we study the guidance of Allah, the light of Allah that Allah shines in on our own world and our own body oh we would be wise people; I am telling you we would be wise people. We wash the left hand also three times. Why? Because our impulsive acts are also subject to wrong. If the conscious act has been wrong then the unconscious act has been influenced by the conscious act. So we have to take the right hand then and with conscious, with intention and with conscious correct the automatic habits, the automatic acts. 


WASHING THE MOUTH

Then we go from the hands and we clean out the mouth. If a man restrains himself, restrains himself from doing unclean and bad things or harmful things. If he checks his action the work that he does with his hands---his actions---and even his (in) voluntary acts if he remain conscious of them that they have to be watched over. Can that man avoid being a man whose speech, whose tongue, whose words are ready to agree with his intentions? If we govern our acts, the speech it will be ready to comply; because usually the speech arises to the defense of the act. Usually when a person starts lying he is lying to defend an act. So the wrong of the tongue is usually because of the influence of an act. So if he cleans his actions his tongue will automatically become agreeable. Now his mouth is ready for cleaning. But if a man is not ready for his actions to be right, you can wash his mouth out a thousand times a day that sucker is going to lie. Because he has evil acts to defend that he is not ready to discipline or he is not ready to put in order. So Allah tells us through Prophet Muhammed wash the right hand three times, wash the left hand three times. 

Then the mouth three times; because we injure each other with our tongues physically, mentally and spiritually. Don’t we? And we are injured too by things that we allow to come into us in those three ways. And even the physical things that we allow to come into us that are unclean and unacceptable are harmful to the heart and to the conscious, or to the mind to the heart and the mind---those things though they be physical they influence us mentally and morally and spiritually, or morally and spiritually. Is that not a fact? Can any person do a shameful act and not be influenced by it? Can anybody put any kind of filth or shameful thing in their mouth and not be influenced psychologically by it? No! The mind would have to be beat out of its moral discipline to accept this thing that you are doing. So you first have to beat out the obedience for it to accept the disobedience---this thing is filthy, the pork is unclean. The filthy act that you do with the mouth if it is a shameful thing to you it is going to affect you mentally, spiritually. So we clean the mouth three times.


THE NOSE KNOWS

 Then after we clean the mouth we go to the nose and we clean out the nostrils three times. We still have a common expression, we say “she is nosey” or “he is nosey”. What does this expression mean? It means that you get into business that is not yours; that you are unnecessarily interested in other people’s business. So that is an indication that you have a degree of ill-will in you towards others. If it wasn’t there you wouldn’t be so nosey. So we clean out the nose three times because it is symbolic of the spirit---the spirit of the human being those things that we call purely spiritual. ( Al Hijr 15:29) You know we say that “I can smell it in the air”; we associate it with a spiritual sense. Or “I smell something cooking”. We associate it with a spiritual something. It is not suspicion now, if I say “I smell something cooking” it is not a suspicion now it is a kind of intuitive awareness that I have of something. It is a spiritual power. We can say that the nose represents spiritual power. We know that horsepower is usually seen---or pardon me---is described in his nose. 

The horse, he has thin legs, a muscular body, but when he runs his nose flares open, he has a strong nose he breathes very great volumes of air. So we usually see the power of the horse in his nose. And the horse is symbolic of the spiritual powers in the man, in human being. In Revelations you will find this; there are four horses representing the four spiritual influences in the life of the people that come from the four forces: materialism,…and spirituality. (Bible Revelations chapter 6) Or you might say, from business, from education, from government and from religion. That is the way Christians would probably say; but I don’t think that John the Revelator would say it that way. Because religion should cover all of those things, in Al Islam it does. After rinsing out the nose three times---and think about this now, even our spirituality or spiritual power, intuitive power of man---when I say “man” I mean woman too, this is women’s lib, we have to keep everything out in the open---in Al Islam “man” don’t mean male self, man means that dominant power in the human being, intellect, spirituality, sentiment, all that makeup a human being is called man, the human being that is what man is. Rinse the nose out three times, after that what do we do? 


THE FACE

We rinse the face three times. What is the face symbolic of: a man’s character---a man’s character? A man, if he says humpf we say don’t pay any attention to him there is another face that he is not showing you. We mean that the character that he shows us is false, the real character he hides with the mask. So the face is symbolic of character. 
Let’s go back now and repeat these steps. We checked our actions, conscious and automatic actions. We then gave attention to the mouth to keep the speech, tongue clean, to keep the appetites clean---the appetite and the speech to keep it clean. Then we went to the nose, to clean up the spirituality of the human being; to clear up the superstition---to clear up the superstition from your life so that your spirit would be more acceptable in the world and to Allah. Then we went from the nose and went to the face. 

The character is now ready for its cleanliness; it is ready now to give itself to present itself as clean. But if there is something hidden in my spiritual make-up---many people they are clean physically, they don’t believe in doing wrong to people, they are conscious of physical filth but they have a warped, freaky idea about what spirituality is. So they do dirty things blindly. They can’t even see the filth in the things that they do. And they do injury to innocent people, and they are blind to the injury that they are doing. Why---because they have a warped, unreal sense of their spiritual power and spiritual nature. We have the self-righteous person in religion that has his own ideas of what righteousness is, he can’t come to the truth. Why---because his spirit is giving him problems, he has a witch in his spirit. And witches they just can’t give proper worship to Allah; but if we begin with these things that are first and untie the knot by beginning with the first knot. See these things, these acts aren’t they first? 


INTENTIONS FIRST

The intention is before the act. Get to the intention---untie that knot. Do you want to make the life free and straight? Okay, make the intention right that is the first knot.  Get your actions in order that is the second knot.  Then we went into the mouth: clean up your appetite and your speech. Then we went to the nose. The nose is also a form of appetite because people have spiritual appetite. You have an appetite or a desire for “spookism”, for mystery. That is why society exploits these things in us because there is in human nature a desire for mystery and spookism. Why is that there? Because there are questions unanswered and you don’t know how to answer them. If you were getting enough questions answered in the real life you wouldn’t be so interested in the unreal. 
But a people who don’t have an understanding of the real, they give themselves almost totally to the unreal. 

So the desire to know is driving you out into nothing for answers. You are frustrated in the world, you can’t get the answers from the world of reality, so since you can’t get them from the world of reality then that curiosity has to be answered somewhere so you go to the a world that doesn’t speak fact, to a world that doesn’t say “you missed it that time” or “you were wrong that time”; “you didn’t get the right answer”. They don’t have an answer sheet. So you can miss and say, “I got it”. So you see superstition and spookism comes into our life because we are not getting enough understanding of the reality. Get enough understanding of the reality and your life won’t need spookism. The spookiest people in the world are those that have been starved out of the world of reality. 


THE FORCE OF ARMS

We wash the face clean. After the face where do we go? To the arms; what do the arms represent? Power---what kind of power? The power to enforce the will; power to enforce what you want. The arm represents power, the power to execute law, to make things come under your command. What has this wudu taught us? It has taught us don’t try to execute your power to make other people conform to what you want until your own face is clean. Make sure that your own character is right. Bad characters shouldn’t be given the power to execute their will on the people. And what does Allah say in the Qur’an of Prophet Muhammed, “we have seen him”---Allah didn’t say “I have seen him” this thing wasn’t only shown before Allah. Allah sees all. Allah says “we” have seen that he is established on the supreme level of character. Prophet Muhammed, salla Allah alaihi wa sallam. Said, “We have seen that he is established on the supreme level of character.” That’s the kind of man that was worthy to be made a leader to tell people what they should do in their lives. But some of us want to use the arm before we even wash the hand; not to speak of the mouth and the nose. We haven’t even washed our hands and we want to use our arms to make somebody submit to us or to our will or to our authority. That kind of arm must be broken. 

And where do we go first---the right arm, and we wash it three times too because power is given to these three things, they interfere, corrupt and mess-up---pardon me, it can interfere, corrupt and mess-up our physical life, our mental life and our spiritual life or moral life. We wash three times down to the elbow. Why---down to the elbow, why don’t we go all the way up here (up to the upper arm near the shoulder)? Because the action is usually here (pointing to the forearm between the elbow and the hand) this is where the action is. And when you hit you don’t think of this (upper arm) so much as this (forearm or lower arm below the elbow). If you cut this off (grabbing the forearm) you don’t have a threat. Cut a man’s arm off to the elbow and you don’t have to worry about him beating you up. He needs length and some kind of maneuverability to his punching power. So we wash the forearm down to the elbow three times; then we go to the left because power too is used consciously and it is used sometimes without conscious thought. And really wise men have to watch their impulses because they will use the power impulsively and…destroy themselves before they know it. And then you go over to get the left arm. 
What is Allah telling us? 

That if you want to correct what happens in you without your conscious knowledge of it, if you want to discipline the subconscious---discipline the conscious. Isn’t that beautiful? Why do you go to the psychologist they don’t have this knowledge and if they do, they don’t give it to you. You go pay them $50.00 for five minutes to tell you how stupid you are. That is all they tell you in those five minutes, they tell you how stupid you are, or show you how stupid you are. And you go back and pay $50.00 for five minutes. Come to Al Islam. 

So if we watch over the conscious act, the impulsive act we will be disciplined or formed, or made to conform to that new discipline or the new mind. But you first must have a new mind to replace the old mind that was destroying you. And the new mind will eventually---if you keep giving it attention---it will go down and dig up out of the grave, up out of the subconscious those things that don’t agree with it. And eventually they will be made to rot out; they will be made to stay out of your life. 


PROTECTION FROM THE WHISPERS

Now look, we go from the arms and we wipe out the ears. Once a person gets power, you know what he better watch over? His ears, because those people that want his power want to get next to him to get some of his power they are going to be constantly in his ears (whispering). (Al-A’raaf:20; An-Naas: 4-5) They are going to be constantly in his ears. So once he has made it that far…his character is good, he has got the power the people are going to start buzzing his ears. You wash the ears---it didn’t say the right ear first---you’ve got to get to those ears right away you don’t have time to wash the right ear; while you wash the right ear he will put it in the left. So you just stick those hands and go right away do both ears at the same time. 

Clean both ears right away. So that the evil suggestion or the seductive things that came from the seducers’ mind does not enter your ear and spoil your character…You wipe the ears so that we listen only to clean upright things. Train these ears not to listen to anything that has any corruption or impurity in it. These ears should not receive anything that is unclean; and it is to be clean before Allah. If it is not in agreement with the word of Allah, this Qur’an then we stop it right at the door.  We say “sorry, you don’t have the right ticket”. Don’t desire to hear or to know what is going on if it unclean or unacceptable before Allah. (Qur’an Al ‘Araaf: 20; Al Qaaf: 16; An-Naas: 4-6)
And after we clean the ears, where do we go from there?...The hair, and how many times do we clean the hair? Once. What does the hair represent? Knowledge…We have to watch over our knowledge. A man, a powerful good man of good character he gets on the throne; he is a man that can easily resist temptation of people to influence him to make him bad, to spoil his character but he has to also watch the knowledge because people out from him will be changing the knowledge. And pretty soon they corrupt the society. So we watch over the knowledge. How many times do we have to clean the knowledge? 

One---just wipe it once; that’s all, just once. Why---because knowledge is not something that is given to all these influences. Clean the knowledge once means don’t try to make the knowledge spiritually right, don’t try to make it rationally right, or economically right---make it right. 
Then from the hair we go down to the feet, the right foot three times and then the left foot three times to the ankles…and that completes the ablution. 


DUAAS ASSOCIATED WITH ABLUTION

There are some duaas that are said, I say some myself after saying that I am about to perform my ablution for Allah the Rabb of all the worlds. And I make my ablution after I finish or while I am finishing I say a traditional duaa. Oh Allah, separate me and all my shortcomings as you have separated east and west. Clean me of all my defects as we wash white cloth clean with water. Deliver me from all my sins as we rinse cloth clean and free of all defects with water. Now it is symbolic, but it is also very beautiful. What does it tell us? That even a white cloth has to be cleaned. Some people think that because it’s white it is pure. But white gets dirty like every other color. In fact it is going to show up more if it is on white. So we go, ”Oh, Allah separate me and all my shortcomings as you separated east and west. Clean me of all my defects as we wash the white cloth clean with water”. Does a Blackman have white cloth? Yes. Does a Whiteman have a black cloth? Yes, and also a red one---we will talk about that later…So the white cloth is in our nature. There is something in the nature of the human being that right away shows the speck. That is our righteousness. 

A person who has a good conscience, if anything wrong comes along it shows up like something on a white cloth. Then there is a person who is always deep in mystery, always delving into the unknown that is the black, that’s darkness…So really you need some conscience on that, don’t you? Because it takes black to show up white---I mean white to show black. You need to put some good righteous conscience on those mysterious ventures…And sometimes we need the black to show the white, you see, they show each other they reveal each other. So wash the white cloth---your righteousness, your righteous conscience, the purity that you love, that you love to have in yourself---wash it! 
Clean me of all defects as we wash the white cloth with water. Deliver me from all my sins as we rinse the cloth clean of all defects with water. It didn’t say “white cloth”, it just said as “we rinse the cloth clean” no matter what the color of the cloth (that we are) rinsing; water is cleaning all colors. 

Don’t we have to clean ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually?...And we say, Ameen. That’s a short duaa. There are other duaas. Oh Allah, make me be of the company of those that purify themselves; and make me be of the company of those that turn to you for forgiveness. 
We have gone over the steps of ablution, wuduu---wu-duu, wuduu. So thank you very much, As Salaam Alaikum.
Human knowledge, wisdom and understanding is self advanced as we struggle to answer the why, when, what, where, how questions in regards to situations, circumstances, things, and so on. These simple interrogatories Allah tells us in the Qur’an that He has made the creation---all of it---to submit in service to man. That statement by itself expresses volumes. However, when we understand that the term “man” actually means and signifies mind a great deal more.

Rites or rituals are part and parcel of all religious activity. Religious activity from birth to death is associated with one or more rituals in all of the religions that we know of rituals sometimes referred to as rites are essential to the practice of a religion.  The “religion” of Al Islam is not an exception from this universal observation and thus we find that the observances of certain rituals in the daily life of Muslims are essential. As soon as the newborn Muslim child enters the world certain established rites or rituals are performed. For example, the shahadatain that is that there is no G’d but Allah and Muhammed is the Messenger of Allah is whispered into one ear of the child and the Adhan the ritualistic verbal call for the establishment and performance of the salaat is whispered into the other. From the point on until that human being’s body is laid to rest in the grave its life is structured within the context of rituals.  The very foundation of the Deen is based on the performance of five essential rites, namely, declaration of the conscious acceptance that there is no G’d but Allah and that Muhammed ibn Abduullah of Arabia who lived some 1400 years ago is the Messenger of Allah; prayer (salaat); charity (zakaat); fasting (siyaam); and pilgrimage (hajj). These five are 





