03/22/1999
IWDM Study Library 
Drew University

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker 1
Allow me to introduce two student leaders, Akbar Nasir and Maryam Abdullah.
Attendees:
Applause.
Speaker 3:
As Salaam Alaikum Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatahu.
Speaker 1:
That means May the Peace and Blessings and the Mercy of G-d be with you all.
Speaker 3:
We would like to start this event by sharing with you the opening chapter of the Holy Qur'an.
I seek refuge with G-d from Satan the accursed.
With the Name of G-d, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer. Praise be to G-d, Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, Master of the Day Of Judgement. Thee do we Worship, Thine aid we seek. Show us the straight way. The way of those on Whom Thous has bestowed Thy Grace. Those whose portion is not wrath and who go not astray. Ameen.
Speaker 1:
We would like to thank all our sponsors and everyone who's helped to make it a success, but we would first like to thank Allah and G-d (Allah means G-d) and we would like to thank the whole Muslim Student Association, the Asian Association the Middle East Studies Program, SGA, UPP, EOS.
Speaker 4:
SGA is the Student Government Association. UPP is the University Programming Board. We would also like to thank Ariel of the Spanish Club, Kumba, the African Club, the Colleg Democrats, the Spirituality House, and El Casa,. Anyone that we missed I apologize. We would also like to thank Imam Ali Muslim and the Muslims from Masjid Muhammad for helping make this a success. I would also like to thank the parents who have assisted in making this program possible. And I would like to thank all of you for coming.
At this time I would like to present to you Imam Warith Deen Mohammed.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Thank you We praise G-d and we greet you with peace, Asalaam Alaikum, which means Peace be with You. We certainly appreciate this opportunity to speak to you on this campus. We have with us my assistant, who has done more than anyone else working with me to promote the correct image of Islam. He is also a former student of Drew University and actually played on the basketball team. And he's here, Abdul Malik. We have to thank the Muslim Student Association our brother Nasir for his work, faithful work an interesting view on this campus to have us here with those with who have supported him that he has already recognized. We want to say we thank you all.
Our Prophet Muhammad, Prayers and Peace be upon him, he said everyone is born a Muslim and the simple fact is that it is circumstances that makes them otherwise. Other than Muslim and that tells us that Islam, the religion of Islam, or to be a Muslim, it's natural for human beings, and it's the nature that G-d has put into the creation of human beings. And we then also understand in this religion that the Qur'an itself is not foreign, something foreign, given to man, something strange for his nature. It's not another world's message or the other world's message. It is the message that is given to complement, to assist the human nature and to complement the human nature so that the human nature will go where G-d wants it to go.
So, it is only help for the human nature, it is compatible with the human nature, and is suited to the human nature, and G-d has given Islam for the creation that He made, the human creation, to fulfill the life, to help us fulfill our life, to help us reach the destination that G-d wants us to reach. We could not reach it without the help of G-d. And Allah says, G-d says in our Holy Book that we couldn't find direction without Him. We couldn't find direction or peace to fulfill the life for our souls without His help. Without His guidance, we have no guidance for that.
So, we understand that man has been equipped too with a great brain, a great tool, the human brain, and that the Prophet himself, Peace be upon him, has paid special attention to the utility of the human intellect. In his words, and I quote, "There is no better thing than creation that G-d created, than the human brain in its production, in its productivity, its usefulness and its power to produce." And when we look at the world, the material world, and how the material world has been extended and been developed, we see that the one tool that gets the most credit for that is the human brain. And everything else that we use, even education, is just something to extend the reach. Man has gone to the moon and gone to planets in our solar system and is looking to go even beyond our solar system, to the galaxies and discover things that may benefit us.
And it is the brain that first reached out there. And then man finds the tools to help extend the reach and to help him get where the brain wants to go. This religion pays great attention to the human brain. Not that the human heart is not equally important. Yes, the human heart is the door. If the brain does not come through the door of the human heart, then the brain doesn't get anywhere. So we know that the human heart is very important. The human heart makes requisitions but it is the brain that has to answer the bill, take care of that bill. We believe that even the story of creation of man is really focusing the value of the human brain. When G-d says to the man that he created, Adam, "Tell the Angels their names," after having already asked the Angels for their names and the angels replied the angels replied, "We have no knowledge except what Thou has given us."
And G-d then told Adam, the first man, our father, our ancestor said, "Tell them, the angels, tell them their names," and Adam told them their names. And we understand that as students of Qur'anic scripture, we understand that to be saying that man's superiority is his intellect, his brain, his intellect, and man was put on earth to use this intellect to the fullest. To use it to the fullest in obedience to G-d firstly, but for the benefit of mankind, for G-d needs nothing from us, as G-d tells us. He created us so we could have His mercy and so that we could have all the benefits because of love as the Christians say. He created us because He loves us, because of love.
And G-d created us and all that we can acquire is not to help G-d but to improve the condition of man on this earth, to make a better life for all of us. And Islam also says that the house, the first house built for the worship of G-d, is a house built not for Arabs, not for any one nation or any one people, but I quote you the holy book of all Muslims, " A house built for all of mankind", "Bunee Al In Nas" are the words of Qur'an. "Built for all mankind." And we know that Islam is a religion of unity. Islam stresses that we all descended from one ancestor, that we're all one family and humanity, and that we should not look to these differences more than we look to our unity. Our unity is more important than these differences.
And G-d says he made us with different nations, tribes, et cetera, so that we would be interested in each other and want to come to know each other-"Inta Ara Fu". So that we would be interested in each other and want to come know each other. And look how this world has grown and how nations have multiplied and how barriers have been overcome, the barriers of the sea, the oceans, et cetera, that separates man from man. Look how all these barriers have been overcome, and today we are living as though we are citizens in one global village, one global village, having contact with each other, being able to know what's happening to each other.
Way across the Atlantic and across the Pacific, across the Indian ocean, way across the vast oceans, we are able to see on television what's happening to each other. Just in a matter of minutes or seconds, we're able to see what's happening to each other. G-d has brought us together. G-d in creating us, designed our nature, designed the course of our appetites, designed the course of our spirit and our will , designed everything so that we would come to the destination that he wants us to come to. And that is to acknowledge that we are all members in one humanity and that we are all equal in that humanity and none of us are greater than the other, except in obedience to G-d. That's what G-d says to us in the Qur'an, that none is better than the other except in obedience to Him, in obedience to G-d almighty.
So, this religion does not permit us to have any racism, to have any superiority complexes, as a race or as a ethnic group. This religion wants justice and equality for mankind. This religion wants opportunities for all mankind. This religion wants mankind to share the benefits of creation equally and to assist each other. If one people is behind, then those that are informed in the religion are to assist those that are behind. We are our brother's keeper in Islam. Not exactly his keeper because G-d keeps all of us and none of us can keep each other, but we are our brother's helper in Islam. We are our brother's helper. We are obligated to extend the hand of charity, the hand of love, the hand of assistance, to all people. This is Islam, and Muhammad the Prophet said "The best of you is the most useful of you to the human family." The best of you is the most useful of you to the human family. This is what the Prophet taught us.
So, this religion has been greatly misunderstood. The very name Islam says peace. Peace is Salaam. Al- Islam is the name of our religion. Al- Islam. And it means the act of accepting peace for oneself and peace with G-d and peace with man and even the whole creation. Our soul wants peace with ourself, with itself, wants peace with our fellow man, wants peace with G-d, wants peace with the universe and with creation. That's what our soul wants. And G-d promises us that when He promises us the Paradise, that one day you will earn it, you would have Paradise. And in that Paradise, there will be all peace. You would have peace with yourself, peace with G-d and peace with the environment, peace with that peaceful environment, the Paradise itself.
This is Islam, the religion of unity, the religion of peace. And as for the equality of the sexes or inequality of the sexes, we understand that G-d has made us one in our in our human constitution, in our human composition. He made us one. And the amount of progress that we can make as human beings depends on us being right, trying to be right and correct in our thinking, in our spirit, in our thinking and our behavior, and utilizing this great tool, the human brain. And I am sure that Prophet Muhammad, the Prayers and Peace be upon him, an opportunity to go to Paradise by providing a way for their daughters to have an education, he was saying that man and woman are equal. You would not want to free the intellect of an inferior, to give that intellect of the inferior the same freedom you would give the intellect of the superior.
So, if G-d wants males and females to have equal access to education, He's respecting the two brains as being of the same quality, of the same power, of the same value, et cetera. So, I think that I'm correct in believing, and I strongly believe that G-d is saying more than this, that man and woman are one human soul, but G-d is saying man and woman are of one human intellect, one human mind, one human mind. And we know it's easy for a male to change his mind. He can become feminine. They're doing it all the time. And it's easy for a female to change become masculine. They're doing it all the time. So the brain has no trouble with a sex change.
The problem is somewhere else. It's not in the brain because the brain will accept the change. We know it as a fact. Just go to San Francisco, you'll see it. It's very, very obvious. Yes. So the human brain for the male and female are the same, the same. But circumstances, and circumstances will prevent one from being Muslim, and Muslim doesn't necessarily mean being Muslim as we understand Muslim. Among some Muslims, when I look at the type that they present to me and they say, "I'm Muslim." I don't think that's the Muslim that Muhammad was talking about, and I don't think that's the Muslim that the Qur'an was talking about. This is a Muslim that's been created by cultures of the world, not the real Muslim. The real Muslim in nature may be a Christian more than a Muslim by name, may be a Jew more than a Muslim by name. The real Muslim is one who wants to be at peace with his own soul and at peace with his G-d and at peace with the fellow man and the creation.
And you don't find people fitting that picture under any one name, Christian, Jew or Muslim or other. G-d wants us to be that best that He created us to be. That's the answer. And Allah says He has prescribed excellence in the creation of everybody. Everybody. And everything that is. So we are motivated by will and by spirit to have better life, to have excellence for our life. When we look at science and you know more about this then me because you are students of science on this campus too. When we look at the explanation that science gives for man achieving for becoming more productive and more valuable to himself and his society, it's explained as evolution. From the savage to the civilized as evolution. Something motivated the man to come from the savage to the civilized. And that is explained in Islam as G-d's inscritpion of excellence upon his very essence or his upon his very makeup as G-d created him.
We are moving toward unity for nations, where nations will all be working together for peace, for better conditions for all people on this earth. We are moving toward unity for religions, where religions will be working for each other and assisting each other, cooperating for the good of all people instead of fighting each other or condemning each other. Religious tolerance is growing. And how do we get it? Go back to what G-d says about our differences. When we come to know each other, when we have a will and a spirit to know each other, and we have patience with each other to sit down, to have dialogue, discussions, to know what's on our mind, to know even what's moving us, what's motivating us, what's in our hearts that's moving us to be the way we are.
We can come together, we can learn with each other, we can see each other, we can understand each other, and we can see what G-d wants us to see and that is the more important life created by G-d, and this life is a common life that is shared by all of us equally, and therefore we must share also a common destination or a common destiny. And we must work to help each other to get there.
We know that there are many leaders in Islam who for one reason or another seem to be reacting or responding to problems more than they are responding to opportunities for us to have peace and cooperation amongst us. And they use statements from the Qur'an that make trouble for Muslims as well. They say that Islam must prevail over all other religions. Islam must prevail over all other religions. This doesn't make people feel comfortable. They don't want to hear that. That means that you are out to do them in. You are out to take them from their life, or deprive them of their life, their religious life. This is not what that means.
Allah says "And fight them". And who are the them? Those who deny Muslims, the Prophet himself at that time and his followers the right to practice Islam, to have and practice Islam. It says and fight them until there is no more persecution, and religion is free for G-d. And totally free for G-d. It's solely for G-d, or solely free for G-d. That sounds like to me a fight for freedom of religion, the right to practice your religion, to have your religion of your choice, and to practice the religion of your choice. That's what that sounds like to me. And the same Book instructs us, the Holy Book of the Muslims, says if any wants another way, they can have it. The right way is clear from the wrong way, so if anyone wants to choose for himself another way, he can have it.
It says in another small chapter, For you, your religion, for me, my religion. That's how it's ended. It ends the argument. "For you, your religion, for me, my religion." It doesn't say, For me, my religion, and I'm going to put your religion out. I'm going to throw out your religion, or I'm going to dominate you, or deprive you of your religion." It doesn't say that at all. It says "La Ikra La Hafadeen." And let there be no compulsion in religion. Don't force people to accept religion. Don't force them to pray like some Muslims do in some places on this earth. Don't force them to pray. Don't force this on people. This is Islam, this is Islam.
And we have gotten away off the path of Islam. Muslims of the world have gotten far from the path that Allah gave us when He revealed His religion, the Qur'an, the Holy Book, to Muhammad, the best of creation. We should get to know Muhammad too. He was not a warmonger, he hated to fight. Once he was in a town, he began to invite them to the religion and this town rejected him and they threw stones, the children, the people threw stones at him. So much until the report says that the sound of his feet mashing against the blood as he walked could be heard. He didn't fight. It was only when G-d told him to return the fight, to return the attack to them, to fight the agressors, that he resorted to war, and that war was just to free religion so that religion would be solely for G-d.
What does that mean, religion solely for G-d? That's a big eye opening statement. Nations will use religion to serve nations. Societies will use religion to serve the society. And religion is taken away from its original purpose, and that is to grant a good life to people as G-d intended . So it's not religion for G-d, it's religion for the nation, religion for the society, it's religion for the individual preacher. Islam wants us to have religion free for G-d, and a man's privacy is to be respected. G-d says that no one can stand between G-d and a human person who wants Him. G-d says He's closer to us than our own life vein, than our own life vein. He's closer to us than our own life vein. And Muhammad the Prophet said the person who's being denied justice, who's being mistreated, if he calls on G-d, Muhammad says nothing stands between him and his G-d, not even a veil, not even a thin partition like a curtain or a veil.
So, we also value our privacy, and we don't have a clergy, really, as clergy is understood. We don't have a priesthood, we don't have a clergy, and everyone's free to go directly to his G-d. And the reason why my community is so much at peace and having a much better life than they used to have is because I have invited them to go to any mosque you want to go to. Choose a place that welcomes you. You don't have to attend a mosque on the corner, the one that used to be a Temple of Islam under the Nation of Islam. If you want to go to an Egyptian mosque or a Pakistani mosque or any mosque that's built by any ethnic group in this country, I welcome you to go there if that's where you find your peace.
If you don't find your peace in any of those mosques, read the Qur'an, learn about the Prophet Muhammad, study Islam and make your own, as the Bible tells the Jews at one time-Make your own house your Masjid. Make your own house your Masjid. Turn towards the Qibla and make your own house your Masjid until one exists for you that can accomodate you, knowing that religion is solely for G-d. Thank you. Peace. Asalaam Alaikum.
Attendees:
Wa Alaikum As Salaam. Applause.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
So, we will accept questions, and I understand that someone is to come and help us]. We need the help.
Speaker 6:
Bismillah Ar Rahma Nir Raheem. I thought before we take the questions that we can provide a brief context or comments on Imam Mohammed's very interesting comments and speech. I think we can see him perhaps as a bridge between Islam and America and Islam and the world. There have always been, for the past hundred years or so, there have been Muslims in this country contacts and discussions and exchanging of opinions between American Muslims and Muslims abroad in the areas where we are the majority. But I think today, this evening, we heard something very different. Where we heard something different regarding the direction of the American Muslim community under the leadership of people like Imam Mohammed as to where the Muslim community is going . And that is, American Muslims, American Muslim leaders talking back to the Muslim world and saying, "Listen, we have something to teach you," that our experience as Muslims in America isn't not an deficient experience. That it's not an experience as a minority. Rather it is the experience of people who have a unique interpretation of Islam or a unique experience of Islam and we have something to teach you. Therefore we can now see where dialogue becomes possible, and we can now see the possibility of a two sided discussion, rather than those outside teaching us as if we were students now. Perhaps we have something to teach them as well. This is particularly important I think, because the Muslim community in this country, both among people who are Native Americans and people who are immigrants is growing steadily. Islam is probably the second-largest religion in the United States behind Christianity or soon will be. And this is a process which began really after the Second World War. Both the process of converting Americans and with immigration. Also the increased involvement of the United States in the Muslim world whether for good or for ill has raised this question to the headlines and made it something on the conscious and in the minds of everyday Americans whether they happen to be Muslim or not. And so the kind of dialogue that Imam Mohammed raises today gives us an opportunity to extend our knowledge and your knowledge about what Islam is about as well as to interact with Muslims around us in this country and also with the Islamic world as a whole.
So, I don't want to take a lot of Imam Mohammed's time or your time with Imam Mohammed, but perhaps Professor Nasir has some comments that he would like to make at this point?
Speaker 7:
Thank you. I'm very grateful to have been asked and a little embarrassed. I don't really feel that I have anything at all to add to the very beautiful words we've heard from Imam Mohammed. When he greeted the audience and said Asalaam Alaikum, excuse my accent. Whenever I hear that, I think of the Hebrew greeting Shalom Alachaim, to which the answer is Alachaim Shalom and I'm reminded just literally, verbally how close the origins, the spiritual, the linguistic, the geographical origins of Islam and Judaism are. In this country we speak very often for all kinds of convenient reasons of the great Judeo-Christian tradition. Historically speaking, of course, the Islamo-Judaic or Judeo-Islamic tradition is at least as great and very deeply entrenched in the history of Judaism.
Just this morning I was teaching a class- I see a few of my students, about medieval Jewish philosophy and it's impossible to explain Maimonides or the other great medieval Jewish philosophers without talking about Al Turabi and the other great medieval Muslim philosophers because the influence was so profound, the cultural influence. I want to thank the students for having invited such an inspiring voice to this campus and just express my personal gratitude to hear a purely spiritual message void of politics, void of dissension, that so often corrupts the true beauty of our shared religious tradition. I'm a Jew but after listening to the Imam's definition of a Muslim, I realize I am a Muslim as well.
I think the with the information at this point questions or comments are welcome.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Yes, your questions are welcome. And if they are too difficult I will let you know. Yes.
Attendees:
In our local newspapers, we've been reading about the increase in women in Islam. Could you tell us what women are finding in Islam that they haven't found in other religions or in other traditions?
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Yes. I feel that our society, our very special society we have, this American society and it's influences have gone all over the world now. It has freed us and at the same time it has left us alone, so to speak. If we are not, I would say, getting help and welcoming help from our church or from our mosque, synagogue, we're kind of lost out here in the world on our own. And many women, who previously belonged to Christianity, or to the church, they are out here on their own. And the culture, popular culture, is not giving them any help. Secularism is not satisying their souls. And I think they are hearing about Islam in America and it sounds good to them and they come and see what it's all about. That's my explanation.
Attendees:
Hi, I would like to thank you for coming and for a very enlightening lecture. You spoke about the G-d of Islam taking care of His creation so I'm wondering if you could say more on this.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Yes. G-d says to us in a chapter of the Holy Book entitled Ar Rahman, which means the Beneficent G-d who is also Merciful, a Merciful and Benevolent G-d, Ar Rahman. And in that chapter, we see a comparison. G-d is revealing to man his life that he sees with his eyes. He also tries to show him the other side that he doesn't see with his eyes, his soul that G-d wants him to cultivate too. In Islam, as a student of this religion, I also understand that when G-d says that He has prepared for His human creation two Paradises or two Gardens, more specifically two Gardens, He's saying that He equipped mankind to be cultivators, or developers, cultivators, to cultivate the soul, his own soul, to cultivate his own soul and also to cultivate the material world the material world, all of it. Especially the earth, the earth.
And this is the Genesis in the Bible, you know. He put him in the garden and assigned him the responsibility of keeping the Garden. And Allah says to us in Islam, in the Qur'an, that the whole creation, this whole material scheme, is the field to interest the human brain and for him to plow it, to search it, to plow it, to discover things in it. And He says the width thereof is the width of the skies and the earth. The width of that field that He gives us to cultivate or to explore, the width of it, or the space of it is as of the space of the skies and the earth. That means all creation, all creation.
It is no wonder that after the revelation of the Qur'an and the preaching by the most excellent human being, Muhammad, the model human person Muhamamd, the Arabs brain was just fired up and scholars with curiosity to know what is this that G-d has made? What is it saying? What is this plant? Does it have some help for us? And they got the medicines and they became the leaders in medicine. And what are these stars in the skies? And they studied the skies and became leaders in astronomy. And they became leaders in mathematics. I hope I have said something that has been pleasing to you.
Attendees:
My question is I guess kind of simple, but what do you think as a spiritual leader, what do you think your greatest hardship is?
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
My greatest hardship? Getting people to look away from trouble and live with hope for all of us to live together peacefully and certainly work for a better community for all of mankind. I find that many are burdened by the past and they live in the past. Many African Americans lived in the days of slavery and others lived in the days of civil strife in this country and they can't seem to move with the calendar and live in the present time. So that's one of the biggest problems that I face. And I think that most Americans are just deprived of their life because they are just too busy trying to live the life that this society's culture has designed for us. If I would just live by the dictates of my calendar, what the calendar says, calendar says-"Wallace, you have this to do, you have that to do." I have to have time to take a bath." You hardly have the time to brush your teeth. And most of us are working many hours. We need hours alone to ourselves. Everything is renewed or have life, or given the first life when it's separated from everything else and put in a quiet place to itself. The seed that we sow to have a crop it has to be put in a quiet place to itself. This is given in the Qur'an too, in our Holy Book. The human being, our mind and our soul and our spirit needs time to get away from everything else and just be at peace with itself, So these exercises that some Asians are offering to the American people you know, they're helping some Americans to find peace and to come to a better state of mind and not be so entrenched, and it's because they give them exercises that take them away from their daily chores, the daily assignments, you know? So it's very difficult in America to find time for yourself, and I think that's a big obstacle in the way.
Attendees:
Hello. You have spoken of why Islam is such a powerful personal spiritual practice and relationship with Allah. Where is the relationship between the person relationship with Allah and working towards the community? What's the balance towards contributing to the community around you and concentrating on individual practices?
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Yes, I would say the time to give attention to our own souls, in most religions we have guidance for that. Ane we find the greatest relief when we seek peace with our Maker. So Muslims, when we withdraw from our busy world and our busy life, we go through a practice we called dhikrs. It is remembering G-d in His names, in His descriptions in His mercy in His goodness. So we're remembering G-d, in His Greatness,etc. So we're remembering G-d when we're doing that. And some I would say more mystic orders like some of the Asians, say nothing but the Name of G-d, Allah, Allah, Allah. And just empty everything out the mind and free the mind. So this solitude is not really a selfish thing but it's main purpose is to be at peace with our Maker.
Attendees:
So that helps form a connection with other people and strengthens the community.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Yes. We believe that the best help that we can get to be at peace with mankind is to first be at peace with your Maker. The Maker is the Maker of all of us and He care about us equally.
Attendees:
I was wondering what you felt American Muslims relationship is with those Muslims who are from foreign countries.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
We have to identify as members of one community. G-d says to us, "You are one community and I am your Lord, so therefore worship Me". So we have to identify as one community. You know when we have a member of our personal family, individual family in the household, who has gone away from the values and disciplines and the interests of the family. Some of us are maybe not sensitive enough to our responsibility, we may condemn them and push them out. "You get out of the family." But then the more decent position would be to say all of us will get together and help this one. Yeah.
So, this is the spirit and attitude we should have If Muslims have strayed and we believe that and know that we should be interested in helping them as their brother, as their friend. Muhammad says "A Muslim is a brother to Muslims." And G-d says "Believers are protectors of one another." So I'm not saying that these Muslims who have strayed, they're not Believers. They are believers, but their knowledge is incorrect and we should want to help them.
Attendees:
I'm curious to know what the Islamic perception of evil in this world.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Evil? Yes. I believe that Islam wants to call us back from extremism. And G-d says "Hell is real, hell is not a dream or a superstition, hell is real." That is hellfire that is real. Hellfire is real. It is not a place that they makes hell hell. It's the fire that make hell hell. G-d says hellfire is real. And if hellfire is real, then we must accept too that the Satan the devil, the evil one is real. And so I think religion, some religions, well we have. I don't think religion is to blame, people have done this to themselves. I don't think any one religion is to blame. If we don't have guidance all the time that we accept, good sober guidance, then we have a tendency to go to these extremes. And I think the world has made the devil a bigger thing then what he is. Satan himself, we have made him too big. So Islam, the Qur'an, in my opinion, brings him down to reality. Brings Satan down to reality. Islam says "Fight the schemes of Satan." it didn't say fight Satan. Because where is he? No one knows. But we certainly know where his works are. We can get to his works. It says, "Fight the schemes of Satan."
So, Islam like the Bible, doesn't tell us to fear Satan. Don't got crazy and go to extremes. The Bible says "Rebuke Satan and he will flee from you." So why has he become such a big terrorizer? Such a big thing, you know. He's not as big as we have made him. We have made Satan almost as big as G-d you know. And when a preacher preaches about Satan, 90% of the time he is preaching a sermon, he is making Satan bigger than G-d. And that's what I disliked about the Nation of Islam. When I sat as a young man about 18 years old, I was sitting in the temple one night and the whole speech was about the devil. And inside me I was saying, "They are making the devil more important than Allah." I couldn't say it outwardly, I would have been in trouble. But I was saying it to myself-"They are making the devil more important than Allah."
So, what do we do about evil? We fight evil. And we're not obsessed with this devil thing, this Satan thing you know. We fight evil for the betterment of humanity,for all human beings. We fight evil. And in this fight, we have to all be together. This is a place for unity, for cooperation, for Christians, Jews, Muslims, everybody who believes in a decent religion. This is the common grounds for us to be on. Fighting the things that hurt the good life of all people. If we're going to fight diseases, if we're going to fight ignorance, we also have to fight immorality, we also have to fight pornography. We have to fight diseases of the heart and the mind that comes from immoral things, or people promoting immoral things. And in this fight, we should be comrades in arms. On one battlefield. That's what I believe. And that's what's coming about. The leaders of the great religions are coming together so all of us can work against these things that are hurting all of us.
Yes, so evil, the human being in our religion is not born in sin. Now, I don't think ... I'm a student of the Bible too, and I've often said to our audiences, I've said if I were to choose to be a Christian, I think I could be a very good one. If I choose to be a preacher, I think I could be a very good one. I don't think the Bible is saying what many of us think it's saying, that man was born in sin. That it means that he can't help it if he lives his flesh. If he lives with his flesh, he's going to sin. If he accepts his flesh, he's going to sin. If he doesn't reject his flesh, he's going to sin. No, I don't think that's what the Bible is saying. And the Qur'an comes to make it clear, that we're not born in sin, that our father was not a sinner because of the nature G-d created him in. He was a sinner because he was seduced out of that nature by the seducer, Satan. That's what caused him to sin. And it said he met a revelation, a word from his G-d and he repented his ways.
So, this is a story of Adam in Islam, that yes, he did sin, but he also lived to repent his ways and he came back to G-d. So he's not lost, and we are not lost, and our nature is good. The bioligical life is a servant of G-d. Muhammad once stood for a dead body. And his followers asked, "You don't stand for living people, why do you stand for this dead body? He said "Because that body was an obedient servant, it obeyed it's master." So the blame is on the person for the sins of the body, not on the body for what it does. It's a servant, we're the master.
Attendees:
Do Christians and Jews go to hell if they're not Muslim? Or go to heaven?
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Go to heaven?
Attendees:
Yes.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Yes, yes. Well, you know, we have a so-called Scholars of Islam, and I guess they are Scholars, who take a position and they hold to it very rigidly and no matter how strong the logic is against it, they don't give it up, they don't give up. And we can't change them, only G-d can change them. They will say the things that were said in Muhammad's time does not apply now. Like in the time of our Prophet Muhammad, Prayers and peace be upon him, the people were told that he was taken to the Paradise.
G-d took him, showed him into Paradise, showed him what Paradise looks like, and there he saw the followers of Jesus, Moses and Jesus there. He saw Christians and Jews in Paradise. So you're asking me do they go to heaven? Muhammad said, Peace be upon him, that "G-d showed me Paradise and there were Christians and followers of Moses and followers of Jesus, they were there in Paradise." But those who want to say, "No, they can't go there," they'll say, "Well, they were once the folowers of Jesus and Moses, but then they became followers of Muhammad the Prophet."
But the logic doesn't pan out. Why? Muhammad said the followers of Moses were in big numbers but his followers were in greater numbers. That's what he said too. The whole story is that his followers were in greater numbers, in greater numbers. So that's distinguishing his followers from the others. He didn't say, "They all became my followers." See, so the logic doesn't hold in what they are saying. And there are many quotations I can give you from the Qur'an that will prove that is the wrong position to take. Not only Jews and Christians, but any, Allah says in Qur'an, "Any who believe in G-d and is a doer of good deeds has no fear. His reward is with his G-d." Meaning he's going to be rewarded with Paradise, and he shoudn't fear, he shoudn't dread that he's going to be given to hellfire, you know.
It says if he believes and he has faith and good work, he shouldn't have fear. This is Islam. I think the problem is Muslims are too desperate, many of them, to overcome the setback. They recall the glorious days of Islam and they're too desperate to overcome the setback. Their minds are too clouded with anger, with disappointment, with failure, that they can't even see the way to walk the path of Islam. The best thing I can tell you is don't listen to them if it doesn't set right on your heart and soul. Don't listen to them.
Attendees:
First of all I'd like to thank you for your oral presentation. A few questions. I was particularly impressed by your emphasis on the intellectual development, especially being a student, and I was curious if you could talk about two things. First of all, the implications that this would have for those who are mentally challenged. And secondly, also, I was wondering if there would be any advice that you would give us regarding safeguards about technology and is the academic setting, university setting, successfully accomplishing the development of one's intellectualism? Is there anything dangerous that you see coming from our universities, or are we doing adequate? For instance, is there too much individualism coming out? What kind of safeguards should we have in our intellectual development?
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Yes. The best safeguard is for us to keep clear focus, proper focus ine the religion,for those of us who are members of the great religions. And that is that G-d is the one who opens all opportunities to man. All opportunities for the brain, are made possible because G-d created this world as it is, and whatever we produce, we produce it because G-d has made available the provisions that created the provision and provides us with the interest, or the brain to have the interest, and the tools to do the work. You know? So G-d is the one to give all the credit. And I go so far as saying that man said he made this mic. Yes, man made it, but it's also Allah's product, it's G-d's product.
And the television, the automobile, the great planes that fly in the sky, the rockets that reach the outer regions of space to go find the objects in the reaches of space. All of those things made by man are also the product of G-d. When man makes a computer or a machine to do work for him, does he say that machine is it's own maker, as some of the Imams from India and Pakistan they always use this logic. Does he say that the machine is its own maker? No, the man made the machine. The machine has been designed in that way. The machine gets credit, it's a wonderful machine. I have a little car. I got a big one I have but I like my little Plymouth Neon. It maneuvers so wonderfully for me in traffic, so I praise the car- "Oh, it's a fine car." but the man who designed it gets more credit. He deserves the most credit.
And so, when we remember that and don't praise man, don't make man, don't give man more credit then he shoud be receiving. All of the sciences that we have and all the technologies we have, it's only an opening up of the secrets of matter and the creation that G-d made. Yielding it's utility and usefulness to us. And G-d has designed it and us to do the things that are happening. So if we just give due credit to G-d and do it in preschool and do it in elementary school and in high school and in the colleges and universities, if we did that, we would have the best protection. That would be our best protection. If we don't do that, then we stray away from obedience to G-d and we stray away from our obligations to serve humanity and to serve human life, to have it better.
So, technology should first consider how it's going to affect human life on this earth, and science and everything should first consider how it's going to affect human life on this earth. So Muslims should be joining those who are trying to protect the environment. There's a religious obligation on that to join those who are trying to protect our environment. I hope I have somewhat answered the question. Thank you.
Attendees:
What has been the greatest audience that you have spoken to? Because I see you more as a leader for humanity, not just as a leader for Islam. And in listening to you tonight and other nights I've listened to you speak, as a Muslim woman, you have been more of a leader for humanity, for people for an entire span or lifetime, that you have said things that have touched everyone in their hearts, not just as Muslim or Christian or Jewish, but more just for humanity. What has been your greatest audience that you've talked to and your best experience you can leave us with that will inspire us even more?
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
My greatest audience . This one. That's right. You know, I believe G-d blesses our parents, G-d favors our parents. If we have wonderful parents who try to be good to their children, who want their children to be correct in their life and living, I believe that G-d helps our parents. And I believe my mother and my father, in spite of the strange things they believed in. They were very sincere in their desire to see us obedient to G-d, following the right religion in the right way, and being decent, upright people. They were very sincere in that. And I believe that G-d favored them by having their son, Warith, become a lover of humanity. And that has been my motivation ever since I was a child. I wanted to be human and I wanted to be a member in humanity. I didn't care about race as much as I cared about human nature, human life, what G-d wants from a human being. That's all I wanted to know. What am I, how am I to live and be a part of humanity and work with humanity, live with humanity as G-d wanted me to be and do.
I just wanted to be what G-d wanted me to be and that belief eventually separated me from the idea the Black people are to be separated from white people and that we should have our separate world independent of each other, living as enemies. It seperated me from that. And I don't think Islam would have ever become my religion, because I wasn't living in Islam as a child. I was put in circumstances that favored me becoming a Muslim. I hope you understand that. I was put in circumstances that favored me becoming a Muslim but also gave me a chance to be ... I don't want to say that. A Nation of Islam leader. A Nation of Islam leader, you know? But I chose not to be a Nation of Islam leader. I chose to follow this path.
And I feel that if Islam, if my study of Qur'an, of the religion, from it's two superior sources, from the Qur'an and from the life history of Muhammad. If I had not been attracted to study those two sources, to study and find out, "What is Islam?" I would never have come to Islam. I would have gotten into something else. Malcolm X was interested in Communism while he was in prison. And it was the Nation of Islam that attracted him to leave Communism for Islam. While he, at the same time that Malcolm was changing from Communism to Nation of Islamism, I was looking at Communism. Yes, I was. Yes, I was. Because the Nation of Islam had put me in a situation where materialism is the only reality. So, it put me in a situation to investigate Socialism, Communism, and that's what I was doing.
But lucky for me soon after I got this interest, I started to see deterioration, spiritual deterioration, and moral deterioation in the Nation of Islam. And then I wanted to learn for myself, "What is Islam?" So I started studying the Qur'an quietly. And in studying the Qur'an quietly, I saw a superior truth. A truth superior to my Nation of Islam idea and a truth superior over the idea Socialism and Communism. That's what saved me. And as I have said and I will repeat it, I would have never accepted Islam from those preachers that come over here.
Attendees:
Yes, sir.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
I hate to say it, but they never could have gotten me.
Attendees:
That's right.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
They don't come the right way. Some of them do, but most of them don't.
Attendees:
I would like to thank you very much for your presentation tonight. I would just like a follow-up question posed by my colleague here. And that is what happens with those who are mentally challenged as it relates to their relationship with Allah, with the Qur'an and with Prophet Muhammad. Because as you know, many times such people are discriminated against. How does Islam relate to such questions?
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Yes. In Islam, the greatest name that a person can have or the greatest title that can be given to a person is Servant of G-d, Servant of G-d. Abdul. And G-d gave this special title to Muhammad . The possibilities for man as a Servant of G-d are opened up to him because of his brain, because of his special brain. You know, all of us are not equally endowed. All of us are not equally equipped physically, spiritually or mentally. So if we ask the question, this question, what about those who are challenged mentally, well, what about those who are challenged morally? So the answer is, those who are better equipped and better prepared or blessed or who are more fortunate, have to help those who are not. That's the answer.
Where would we be as a community of people on this earth if it were not for the productivity of the human brain and intellect. We would be savages and animals, that's where we would be. Most of us want to put too much importance on the heart, the human heart. The human heart, yes, that's a condition. That's the first condition. The heart has to be right for G-d to open up the treasures, open up His treasures to us. The heart has to be good. But from that point on, the brain must lead us into Paradise. The heart is the condition, but the brain must take the steps. You can't even be morally excellent without the brain helping you walk the path. Morality depends upon human reasoning and intelligence.
Attendees:
As Salaam Alaikum. The type of questions that have been asked tonight, I'm very honored to be among such an illustrious people with high intelligence. It just made me wonder if there is a explanation that you could give us on a whole as the best methodology for us to reach this level of appreciation where we can implement what you are speaking about.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed:
Well, methodology? Just have the courage to open our eyes and see what's ever out there. Whatever is here or out there. Just have the courage to open our eyes and aske questions. That's one thing the Nation of Islam did for me. It taught us all to be curious and to ask questions. It says don't not to just read the surface language but to dig beneath the surface. That was help for our brains to be free, because if we want to free our brains to serve G-d, we have to overcome fear. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Peace. As Salaam Alaikum.



