04/30/1997
IWDM Study Library
Sacred Human Dignity Georgetown University

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker 1:
I appreciate the community of peace and understanding here. I'd like to welcome you to Georgetown University as a Muslim with As-Salaam Alaikum, which means peace with you. I am very thankful for this opportunity to address you here on this very special campus known for teaching such great history that survived a long life in America. And its long life on this earth, we know it is very important to all people. You are important to Muslims. You are important to all people. And I'm saying that not because you have to be told that, but because I have to say that my heart tells me to say that to you. Muslims are people who should appreciate good works wherever we find good works. In Islam when we are first made aware, and if we understand this religion, we are first made aware of our common life of excellence that we have and share with all people. G-d tells us in our holy book that He made our design and He made it most excellent. The Arabic Qur'anic term for that design is described in Surah Ar-Rum, in Surah 30, verse 30. It simply means fitrah. Fitra, in the context of the Qur'an that I just quoted from, means the special human design that G-d made, which is inherently inclined towards goodness and morality. And I'm trying to get African-Americans who still have the slave-burden on them, of identity or a need for a satisfying identity. I'm trying to get them to understand the simple relief. There is a simple answer that will give relief to such persons. It is to go back to your better identity, to the better identity. The better identity that G-d gave us is not our racial identity.
It is not the color of our skin, our physical features, the nation that we belong to, or our national identity. The better and best identity for Muslims in Islam, according to our Holy Book, is the identity that He gave us, which is our human identity that is to be understood as the aim for excellence in human nature. G-d created us with a human nature that can drop to the lowest of the low. G-d says in our Holy Book that our human nature can drop to the lowest of the low of all creatures. We can become the lowest, but we can also rise above all creatures that G-d made. Allah created us for excellence, human excellence, and this is the common heritage that we have. And we should care more about this common heritage than we do about the color of our skin or the nation we come from, et cetera. These physical things are temporary. The racial classifications are temporary. They're not going to last forever. And also, the national classifications are not going to last forever. But what G-d will receive if we are blessed to survive this physical world, what G-d will receive is our human soul, our human soul in its' excellence, in its' excellence.
And also we are to appreciate the good works of all people, the good works of all people. If anybody does good work, according to our Holy Book, if anybody does good work, he gets the reward or the credit for that good, whether male or female. And we are to respect good work wherever we find it, and appreciate the good where we find it. Today, someone said to me, while I was here, I think I've been here today, that we should build upon the positives and build upon the good that we find in other people. This is the Islamic way, but you find the Islamic world and most of the members in the Islamic world not showing that that is their thinking. The Islamic world is not able to show that this is the thinking because of the hurt that has come to Muslims who know about the days of Muslim glory. They're told about that. Their parents will tell them. Their schools will tell them. Their imams will tell them. And their activists will tell them of the days of Islamic glory.
And they also know about the setbacks that colonialism or colonial domination caused in the lives of Muslims, disrupting the Islamic life of the Muslim society. And so this is a hurt on them. And then they're still seeing themselves struggling for wealth, to have their land in good shape, to have their resources in their own hands, and to have an opportunity to engage in the world, to engage economically and be accepted. They still feel kind of alone, kind of left out, or rejected. So this is a hurt and the burden that is on the Muslims of the world, especially on the leaders, the preachers, the imams, and the lecturers. This is a burden that is on the leadership of Muslim societies, and it causes the leadership to ignore the light, the true light of Islam, the pure life of Islam. And we are hoping for a time when we can kind of heal enough emotionally, heal enough so that we can really see the pure life of this religion.
This religion is not here to tell Muslims that Islam, the Qur'an, and the message of Islam found in our Holy Book, is not here to tell Muslims that we are to seek dominance, that we are to spread this religion to seek to be the dominant religion, or seek to be over religious people. This is not the way of our Prophet Muhammad, who received the Qur'an, may the prayers and peace be upon him. And this couldn't be the way of any of us who are trying to follow in his tradition, in his most excellent position. G-d says, anyone who seeks predominance will be denied it. G-d will deny them, will not give them that. They will think they have the power, but G-d will take it away. That's what it means, that they will not have the power. G-d will be against them, and G-d will take it away.
Yes. So we are not to seek dominance. We're not to seek to dominate anybody. Our religion tells us that people ought to be free to make free choices, even when it comes to the invitation to them to become Muslim. So if they reject, say to them: for you is your way, and for me my way. So we are not to dominate. These notions or these misconceptions about Muslims are not only a problem for the correct image of Muslims in the world, but these misconceptions are also a problem for the correct image of the Muslim society within itself. Many Muslims need to be corrected. Many of us need to be corrected. And I know because I was a lost soul myself. I was the son of, I am the son of Elijah Muhammad, the one who built the Nation of Islam, or the group called black Muslims. And I was told things that I couldn't live comfortably with as I began to learn more about the truth, the truth of man, the truth of human nature, the truth of the world. So as I began to learn more about the truth, these things were very difficult for me to hold on to. And I found myself around Muslims from overseas, Pakistani Muslims and others, and I was happy to be among them because they gave me comfort.
They didn't believe in the ridiculous things about G-d and human beings that I had been taught. So I felt comfortable around them. But as I began to hear more and more of what they were saying about what was occupying them, entertaining them, I began to be uncomfortable again because I could hear them responding to hurt, responding to, I would say, denial, rejection, and denial, et cetera. Oppression, responding even to oppression that they blamed the West for. And as I heard that, I began to hear something that I couldn't accept as being Islam, really Islam. I heard that we are not supposed to accept these people, they're kafirs, and everybody who doesn't believe like us is a kafir, a disbeliever, a person that has no faith, does not have faith. They're kafirs, and they have no faith. So I began to wonder how much of a difference there is between African-Americans who feel victimized and the Muslim world that feels victimized.
And to me, I saw a similar kind of hurt and a similar kind of response to hurt that blinds the view, that blinds the rational view. And I thank G-d that I have lived now for 20 years after I first witnessed that in immigrant Muslims and others that I've met. Since then, I've been seeing a change. Muslims are changing. The thinking in Muslim leadership is changing, and I'm so happy about that. I find Muslims in America now who used to complain 20 years ago. They used to get really disturbed when I would speak as an American. You are not American. You are Muslim. That's what I was told. You are not an American. You are a Muslim.
But now it's hard to find a brother in the Muslim leadership, a Muslim brother who will say that to me. They won't speak that way. Now, in fact, there is an effort to get involved in politics, to join Muslims with non-Muslims, Christians, and others to address the serious problems in our lives in this society. We have a great society here in America that's plagued by evils that shouldn't be here because this is a Christian majority country. This G-d- fearing country has an excellent model, a most excellent model in Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. And we just shouldn't have all these evils in this society, but we do. And Muslims are seeing that now. We have common problems with these people of the book, with the people of faith. And these Muslim leaders are now calling for us to work together, to dialogue and work together. And this is the me time, the greatest time on earth, I believe, for the great faith.
Now, getting to the idea of sacred humanity, the sacredness of the human being. In my understanding, as a student of the Muslim scriptures the Qur'an, our holy book and the life teachings of our prophet Muhammed, to whom that book was given or revealed; my understanding is that the sacredness of human life, the sacredness of human life is to be understood, in the saying that we have from G-d in the Qur'an, that He made every human being for a life of service, for a life of service. And the word that is used for service is a word that meant in those days a slave. The slave belonging to his master was called 'abd'. And G-d chose to use that word to identify the servant of G-d. He is 'abd' and that purpose is the purpose for which He created us, to be servants.
But to understand the servant and not confuse it with the slave, with the meaning of slaves, we have to understand that the Qur'an was revealed to do away with slavery, too. And G-d was saying to the slave master that, 'you are not entitled to demand this much obedience from a human being.' Only G-d is entitled to demand complete obedience from a human being. So the choice of the word was to be a blow against the institution of slavery itself for then and for all times. But if you understand what a slave is, think about what a slave's life is like. A slave's life is a life that belongs to his master. His life belongs to his master, and he is to please his master and not himself. His freedom is taken away. He's to free his master and not himself. He frees himself by obeying his master. He pleases himself by obeying his master.
And this is what G-d wants from us. This is why G-d created each of us to give our life to G-d as a life in service, or as a life devoted to service. And G-d makes it very clear to us that He needs nothing from us. He needs nothing from us. And the only thing that He really accepts from us is our piety, our sincerity, our innocence, our purity, our complete devotion to Him. That's what He accepts from us. But G-d doesn't need any service, so where is the service going? The service is going to creatures like ourselves who need help, who need service, who need something. The service is going to benefit human society. The services are going to benefit the animal world. The service is going to benefit the future and benefit the environment. This is the service that G-d wants from us. But G-d wants us to give it in obedience to Him; to give that service in obedience to Him.
And that's where the sacredness of human life is to be seen. Our life is sacred because G-d didn't create us to serve each other, or to be slaves for each other, or to be dominated by each other. G-d didn't create us to serve our appetite, human appetites, savage appetites, or any kind of appetite without respect for Him, without respect for what G-d intended. So we are here to answer what G-d wants from us, and what G-d wants from us. And when we accept that, then our life becomes a sacred life. But when it's rejected, then it's not sacred. It's sacred only in the potential that's there. You have the potential for that life. So you are a human being with that potential, and you are ignoring that potential. You are abusing your life, but still, I should treat you as a human being. I should treat you with respect for the human potential that G-d treated you with. Though you are not awakened to it, though you're not respecting it, you are abusing it. So this is the meaning of I think sacred life in Islam. Although I too agree with the idea of all of us having something of G-d in us because G-d says to us in our holy Book that He has given all of us something of His own spirit, something of His own spirit, something of His own spirit. I think it should be tied also to that potential for excellent human life, for excellent human life.
I think the spirit of G-d, the spirit of G-d, that all of us have some of it or something of it in ourselves. I think that spirit can also be understood as the drive in each human life, the natural drive, the inherent drive in human life for improvement, for a better life, for more understanding, for more knowledge, for more work, for more responsibility, et cetera. So that drive taught betterment and taught richness of endowments, the richness of endowments that G-d has given us, such as the virtuous life and the rational mind, and all of this. I think the growth of that and the energy pushing for more of that, pushing, driving us to have some of that and have more of that. I think that is almost the same as, maybe it's not the same, but it is the effect, if not the cause, of us having the spirit of G-d, of something, of G-d's spirit in us.
We believe that we are by identity and description human, and we are going to remain human. We will never change. We'll always be human, and man should strive to fulfill his human potential, to live the fullest of that human potential that G-d designed for all of us. It is the potential for human excellence that G-d designed for all of us, and we must strive to live it to the fullest. We believe that Adam, the first man or the first parent, was created by G-d in this excellent human form, and that he was created by G-d in excellent human form. But he was deceived, as you believe in the Catholic religion. He was deceived by the seducer, and he was seduced out of his form. But G-d put him in the most excellent human form. So, it was necessary for us to have Abraham, a second father, a second father, who as G-d says in our holy book, who fulfilled, who fulfilled his obligation, he completed his devotion to G-d.
He gave not only his trust, but he also gave his whole life. He gave his intellect, he gave his soul and intellect to G-d. He gave his whole life, his entire life to G-d. Abraham is the model of total, complete, perfect obedience to G-d. Some of us will obey G-d with our spirit, but when it comes to our reasoning, our rational mind, we disobey. And that's why we have inconsistent morality, inconsistent ethics. The ethics are not consistent; situational ethics, ethics for this situation. But if you apply the same rules in another quarter or in another area of human interest, it will not be right.
It will not be correct. Or they will say those who have it in one quarter will say, but it's not to be applied in that quarter. So man is striving for the wholeness of life. It's no new discovery. When the Bible says of Jesus Christ speaking to the person who was having trouble, and the person was blessed by Jesus Christ, according to the Bible, to be healed. And Jesus Christ said, go away. Go on your way. You are whole. You have been made whole, whole, whole. And the Qur'an tells us of Prophet Abraham, Ibrahim, as he called our scripture, that he was the one who lived to see his life complete and whole, complete and whole. And I see society breeding human beings that live fragmented human lives, fragmented human lives. One area of interest will take this person's mind and dominate his mind so thoroughly or so completely that he'll become, in my view, a deformed person, a deformed person.
He has this great intellect, but a small spirit, or great spirit and small intellect, a great sense of what is morally correct, but a poor sense of what is rationally correct. So we can't have this fragmented life and expect the society to be pleasing and at peace and in unity. But if we all strive for the whole life, and nothing helps us to get into the whole life more than correct knowledge. That's why correct knowledge, seeking correct knowledge, is so important in our religion, Islam. And we are told that anyone who seeks knowledge for the purpose of using it to help self and others, then such a person will be accepted in heaven by G-d. In fact, there are many such persons who have stepped upon the path that leads to G-d. We have stepped upon the path that leads to G-d. So we want to help poor people.
We want to help the black people. Society wants to get rid of all the problems for everybody. But how is it going to be done with charity welfare? No, it can't be done with just that. We need all that. We need help from everywhere. But the effort that really helps more than any other effort is the effort to correctly educate. To correctly educate. As you know as well as I do, we find professors, high school teachers, and college professors teaching their students, and they themselves are fragmented. They're not whole human beings. They're fragmented human being and they're teaching their students, and they're passing on to their students their idea and their peace of mind, and causing the student to be at peace with his fragmented life, or with her fragmented life. And it's not an easy job to have peace. We all want peace. It's not an easy job to have brotherhood, brotherhood.
We all want that. It can't be gotten by following just the interest in morals and what is morally correct, unless we are guided and helped by G-d to know the destiny of moral effort. The destiny of moral effort is ethical society and ethical society must have laws, moral laws, rules, ethical rules, et cetera that are consistent throughout, are consistent throughout, not executed here, violated there. The principle is good in my religious life, but not good in my secular life. The principle is good in the church, but it is not good on the job. It has to be a principle that stands up everywhere. And the only way to have that is to give ourselves freely and completely to G-d as our authority. G-d, as the authority, frees us from all forms of slavery. G-d as our authority opens up our intellect more than anything else to receive correct knowledge and to be able to use or apply correct knowledge.
This is our belief as Muslims. And I have studied the Bible diligently. In fact, before I came to understand what a Muslim life is for me, and before I came to see the beauty, the light of Islam, I had read the Bible at least once from the first page to the last, from Genesis to Revelation. And after reading it and coming to a better understanding, I was so enthused about what I suspected the Bible was saying in its theme from Genesis to Revelation. I decided I was going to read it again from Genesis to Revelation and make notes. And I did. I did it. So I'm familiar with what the Bible says. I haven't been taught by an authorized person. I haven't attended any institution, authorized institution, but I am very familiar with what the Bible says. And when I say to you that what I'm saying here is not something that is also said to you in your Bible. I'm willing to debate you. If you think I'm saying too much, I'm ready to debate. I'm willing to debate it. I'm willing to debate you. Yes.
So it depends upon how you look at it, and it depends upon what sensitivities you have. We had black Muslim sensitivity. So we were reading the Qur'an, but seeing what we wanted to see. We were reading the Qur'an and hearing what we wanted to hear. We were reading the Qur'an and interpreting out of the Qur'an a religion that has no place in Muslim life. So it depends upon your sensitivity, how you are going to perceive something. We all perceive things through water. You know that? Yes, the eye is wet, the eyeball is wet, you are looking through water.
So G-d has created us to inherit the responsibility that He gave to the first man, who was Adam. And the Bible says that He created the man and showed the man the garden or the world that he was put in and charged him with the responsibility for keeping it, keeping it. Adam was responsible for keeping it marked, redressing it, keeping it sound, beautiful, and safe as it was. Adam was responsible for cultivating, because of the things that were growing there, living things, and the opportunity was there for even more growth. So He charged him with the responsibility for keeping it beautiful, just like it was, and healthy like it was, and cultivating it so it would be able to support the generations, the millions who would be coming from him, from Adam. But the man was seduced, as I said earlier. He was seduced out of his form, out of the form that G-d put him in.
He was seduced out of his form. Now, we all as human persons, we inherit that excellence, that excellent nature that G-d created within Adam, which we all inherited. And our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, says, no one is alive or coming into life or is taken out of life except on that pattern, that pattern or design of human excellence that G-d formed Adam into. formed Adam to. We are created for free choices. Free choices. And that's sacred. Sacred. We have to have people free to make their own choices, to choose the life they want, to choose how they want to live. That's why I appreciate this democracy book so much. I used to think of America as the oppressor. That's what I was taught: that America is the oppressor. I wasn't looking for good in America. I didn't have the disposition to even see good in America.
It was shown to me. But as my sensitivities changed and I began to look at America quite differently. And now I appreciate this democracy because it gives, well, it's formed to see that all of us have freedom. Have freedom to choose the life we want; to choose how we want to live; to choose the religion we want to belong to, et cetera. This freedom is a must. This freedom is a must. G-d could have created us as stone. He could have created us as animals. He gave animals a mold. They can't get out of their behavioral mold. The dog is in the same behavioral mold he was in when Isis was walking him. This is Egyptian mythology.
So nothing is able to come out of the mold of behavior that's set for them by nature, except the human being. We are free to come out of the mold of behavior that's set for our human life. We can come out of that and become inhuman. But as G-d says, He fears, He does what he pleases, and He fears no consequences. G-d didn't fear the consequences of us coming out of the mold that he created for us. He didn't fear that. And G-d chose to have us free, and away from Him, rather than to have us not free and with Him. Isn't that a wonderful G-d? A just G-d that truly loves His creation, and, this is Christian love, isn't it?
Yes. He chose to have us free and away from Him rather than to have us free and with Him. And really, G-d has given human beings that kind of love too. There are some parents who rather than force a child to be the child they want 'em to be, they'll put up with the child having a lifestyle or way that they don't like, which they hate, but they still will love that child. They still will love that child. That's great love, and that's the kind of great love we still need. We are moving toward four years, about four years or less from the year 2000. We are moving with the interest in having a much better world to accommodate the excellence of human creation. We should also keep that love and not be so hard on people who can't pick themselves up. But we should have that love, and just that love being in their environment may have the power to begin to raise them up a little bit, if nothing else will work.
Sometimes I look back at my own life, and I was told that I could say something about how we came to be Muslims in America, and how we came to be transformed or changed from what we were to what we are now. And I look back at my life, and I said, what has worked for me perhaps more than anything else, other than my sincerity, was my innocence. It's what my father ignited in me, and in all of the males, all of the members of his following. He told us that we should think. He said think, think. And he said that we should be curious. We should never accept things on the surface at face value. But we should want to see deep into things, want to see deep into things. And that turning on of my curiosities, I think has accounted for my being able to break through.
I think of a little bird I've seen. My mother used to have chicks in Chicago. She had chickens, little chickens, a few chickens for eggs. And also, we would eat them too, sometimes, if there were enough of them to eat. So I've seen the little chicks hatch, and how the new, embryonic bird-chick began knocking on the wall of the cell, and it eventually cracks. It made it crack, and that little bird then comes out. Sometimes nothing but the beak comes out. And after a while, the head finishes coming out, and soon he's free. He's free. He freed himself by himself. And we find ourselves, as I did in a similar situation. I found myself having to break out of one egg after another. I would break out of one egg, and after a while, I found I still had another egg to break out of.
I may still have another one to break out, I don't know. But it's been a long time since I've pecked on the wall of eggs to get out. And that's human life. And as long as we respect our rational mind, the ability to reason and make independent choices, and respect our own worth as human persons, as individuals, that G-d has endowed all of us, each individual, human person, richly, richly. And if we would use our intelligence and use our best sensitivities, we can get out of all confinements that limit our potential; that are there to limit our human potential. An ethical society is the desired end goal for giving the optimum opportunity to all of us to break out of those cells and come out into a bigger dimension of freedom.
Speaker 4:
Now for questions and answers. And please, those of you who would like to ask me questions, you can use this microphone, which is in the aisle between the two rows of seats. And please line up behind the microphone, and ask your question from there. Before we start that, I would like to read just a small expert excerpt from the Georgetown University Freedom of Speech Code. Georgetown University is committed to standards promoting speech and expression that foster the maximum exchange of ideas and opinions. An individual or group wishing to protest may do so as long as any speaker's rights to free speech, and the audience's rights to see and to hear a speaker, are not violated. In that spirit, I am asking you, please do not make lengthy statements. I'm asking for brief questions today. Ma'am, please proceed.
Speaker 5:
Q. Real quick. I'd just like to thank you for coming this afternoon and giving us the opportunity to hear you speak. My question is: you talk about curiosity and trying to break out of that shell. There's a common belief today that people have been breaking out of shells, and now are taking it too far. Is there such a thing as taking it too far?
A. Taking it too far? That's where we gain many of our problems in society today.
Q. And how do you feel about pushing curiosity? Do you believe that curiosity does kill the cat?
A. Yes I do. Yes I do. Yes, I most certainly do. That's why we have to make sure that people have the opportunity to at least be invited to faith, be invited to faith. Without correct faith, the rational mind leads to trouble, leads us to trouble. It will take us into trouble. In fact, that was the beginning of, in Islam, that's the beginning of the Satan, the devil. His beginning is in trusting his rational mind and not having faith. G-d had faith that the human being G-d has faith. Now isn't that something? I know a preacher who says that on his ministry, his TV ministry, he says, he says G-d believes in you. And one of the attributes of G-d, in our religion, is the believer. The believer. It means the trusting person, the trusting one, the one who trusted us with freedom, the trusting one. He trusted us with our human life. And unless we have faith, then the rational mind will certainly get us in the worst trouble possible. The rational mind has been created to help us get into the best situation possible. And it also can get us into the worst possible situation, if we don't see faith in G-d, and understand it, and how it affects that faith, in the classical way that we have it in the classical faith in classical religion.
It can't be man's dreamed-up idea of faith. One guy told me he was working on a job, then he said, and G-d called him. So I asked him: What did G-d say? And he told me. I said, that sounds like you called yourself.
Speaker 6:
Q. As-Salaam Alaikum. A. Wa-Alaikum As-Salaam.
Q. I'm referring to the latest issue of the Muslim Journal. In it, there's an article calling for approximately 30 students to travel to Malaysia to create a relationship with the Malaysian Muslims. Could you please expound upon that?
Speaker 1:
A. Yes, yes. Imam Plemon is here, too. He's in charge of that. He has that responsibility.
Speaker 7:
Yes. Imam Mohammed has established great relationships between our community and the Malaysian communities, especially with the youth organization over there. And they would like to do an exchange. So they have invited us to bring 20 to 30 students over there for a 12-day exchange where they would visit the schools, the youth organizations, and the government, and then next summer, a longer exchange of 45 to 60 days of some of those students. And Malaysian students, Insha Allah, G-d willing, will also come here that following summer. So we are asking you to send your information if you're interested. There is a cost to fly over there, to get over there. That cost is on the student, but all the other expenses are covered by the youth organization.
Speaker 6:
Q. Is that exchange based upon or for Islamic studies? Will the Malaysian students come here to, I guess, learn Islam further?
Speaker 7:
A. Really, it is the idea of seeing how the two communities can benefit from making progress in Islamic development. So they can share with us, and we can share with them, and look at the models that both the communities represent.
Speaker 1:
A. Yeah, we were in Malaysia, and I was so impressed by Malaysian thinking, the thinking in Malaysia. The society over there is a very beautiful society, and the Buddhists, the Muslims, the Jews, everybody is living with each other, and they don't seem to be having any problems living with each other. It's beautiful with different races, and some with Chinese. All of 'em living together, and their problems are very minimal, when we think about our problems here in some of these neighborhoods, some of these areas we live in.
Speaker 8:
Q. I like to thank you again for giving us some of your time to speak with us. Thank you. I have a question. Do you see an expanding role, or what role do you see for Muslims in America in military or political service in this country? Do you see an expanding role? Do you see any conflicts with that?
Speaker 1:
A. Yes. Well, I think our role should be to be where we are, whether we are in the military or somewhere else. How we perform there and what interest we take up there to influence change for our betterment, wherever we are. It should be because of the excellent Muslim awareness we have of the excellent life that G-d created us for. G-d says to us, He have made us to be a model and a witness for all people, a model and a witness for all people. A model of the life that G-d wants for all human beings. And if we can ourselves come to know that model and try to live up to the excellence that is in that model, then that will be the influence making us change or asking for new things, innovative things to happen. And as we ourselves become more aware of our Islamic model, the model Islamic society, then the more we are going to have influence in America, as a benefit for America's continued good growth and excellence. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Speaker 4:
Q. Hi. I was wondering if you could explain a little bit about the beliefs of Minister Farrakhan and how they're the same or different from yours.
Speaker 1:
A. Well, really, I think he believes in running and escaping the truth, really. Except for that, I don't know any other belief he has right now. Thank you. He doesn't believe in what he preaches. I know that. I know him personally.
Speaker 2:
Q, As-Salaam Alaikum, brother Imam. I have a question about halal meat. Around the country now, there are a lot of companies that are starting to produce halal meat mechanically, and I've heard different fatwas and different voices saying that the Prophet would not be pleased with them, the tafseer on the first piece of meat once, and the tafseer at the end. And I just want to get some understanding from you and the community, what is the position of halal meat slaughtering, especially with the mechanical aspect of it?
A. The halal? Q.Yes. A. What qualifies it to be halal?
Q. Yes. And does the mechanical slaughtering qualify it to be halal? And, if so, what is the process of a mechanical slaughter?
Speaker 1:
A. Yes. Okay. That's still being discussed among the leaders of the Muslim communities. It's still being discussed between us or among us. But outsiders contribute something, some understanding. There's not much said about the process in the Qur'an. But again, a lot is said if we seek to interpret and apply the understanding. What it says is that firstly, what you choose to slaughter for consumption should be healthy and good, should be in good taste, human taste, and should satisfy good human taste, and it should be healthy for the human being. A sick animal is not halal, et cetera. Then it says also that you should slaughter the animal with mercy, with compassion. You shouldn't take a long time slaughtering the animal. The instruments should be very tough so that the stroke is quick with the least amount of suffering. You are aiming for the least amount of suffering to the animal.
And as you know, the animal has to be slaughtered so that it bleeds; it must bleed. When they're bleeding, you have to hang the animal up. So the animal bleeds. And many of the leaders in Islam, knowledgeable persons of the Qur'an and of the life of Muhammad, the Prophet, peace be upon him, may think that the animal should be free and not held. So that it can't respond to its death or to the loss of its life. They say that when the animal is struggling, that movement helps to get all the blood out of its system. So all of these things should be considered. And if you pray like you are supposed to pray, the right way, with the prayers included, then I don't think you are praying like some of 'em who say you come in and they show you the animals. You are hired to be the halal man. You come in, and they show you the animals. And they say, here are the animals that are going be slaughtered today. You say a prayer, get your fee, and go. And they're going to slaughter the animals after you're gone. Okay, that won't work. We are supposed to say Bismillah, and then give the stroke that kills the animal and lets the blood out. And after you make the stroke, you say, Allahu Akbar. What is the purpose of that? That's to keep the psychology of the human being from being deformed by his profession. If you just keep slaughtering with no thought of mercy to animals, and no thought of obedience to G-d, no thought that G-d is the giver of life and the taker of life, maybe that person will also want to cut a human being one day.
So it's a lot in that halal slaughter. There's a lot in what G-d has told us. So in my opinion, we need processing, slaughtering, and processing places that will be designed by persons knowledgeable in this halal method, in this halal process, in having the respect for and knowledge of the halal method and process. And we don't have that. So we have to do the best we can until we have that. G-d, and even the prophets, did not institute prayers right away. And prayers, you know, are number one in Islam, to praise, to have prayer, to pray to G-d, to believe in G-d. And then the first act is to pray to G-d after belief. But the prophet did not institute the prayer that we do now until 10 years later, 10 or 11 years later. And all during that time, what was he doing? G-d was guiding him to prepare the people and give them circumstances or give them a situation for having the establishment or for establishing the institution of prayer. So don't feel too bad about what we don't have. We have to go to McDonald's and get a McDonald's burger. That's better than going to the whorehouse and getting something else. So think about going to the whorehouse as a big sin, and get the McDonald's burger until we can get meat processing for ourselves.
Speaker 2:
Alright, Shukran.
Speaker 9:
Q. As-Salaam Alaikum. A. Wa Alaikum As-Salaam
Q. I want to tell you how glad I am to meet you today. This is my first time seeing you in person. I've heard you on the airwaves and everything. My question to you is: How would you feel when Allah brings to us as Muslims, clear signs from the new world of order and discipline, a strong and wise, young leader? Do you think that the old Muslim vanguard would submit to whoever Allah would choose, or do you think they would still keep fighting Allah's will.
A. in the Nation of Islam? Q. No, in Al-Islam, the new world. You're talking about the new world order.
A. I understand. I understand how Allah wants things to go. I understand. Yes. I think we are just a sign. Our thinking that we have is just a sign of what G-d is causing to happen all throughout the Muslim world. And in some places it is more difficult for them. I live in America, where we have the freedom to speak and express ourselves, and can work for the life we want. But as you know, in most Muslim countries, you don't have that freedom. If you don't please the government and please the authorities, they'll have you locked up soon or deprived of your freedom soon. So we don't have the freedom in our own Muslim lands to really live the excellence of our religion, to live that excellence. We have to be free to speak out and to express ourselves and to criticize the government, et cetera. They don't have that freedom. In America, we do have that freedom.
So it is happening here in a way that we can observe and recognize, but I believe it's happening in a bigger way in other parts of the world. And in the Muslim lands, it's happening in a bigger way because they're Muslims. They're Muslims of the Muslim tradition, and they've followed it for a long, long time. They know they have thinkers over there who are thinking, and it's growing like natural growth, like natural growth. All of a sudden, we are going to see the good life break through the soil, and a new society in a Muslim land is going to happen. The season is here, for it is going to happen.
Speaker 10:
Q. Good afternoon. I'm taking a class on Islam this semester. And from what I understand, Islam, unlike many other religions, concerns itself not only with spiritual affairs, but also with social, political, and economic affairs. And although the Qur'an provides guidance to man in all major walks of life, it does not give structure, but rather gives an outline of the proper life. Because as times change, and political, economical and social conditions change as well, religion still has to find a view in every age. So my question is, what's your view of flexibility in your religion? And I guess, how should we draw a line between what is just traditional and what is absolute?
Speaker 1:
A. The expression for the prophet's tradition is the sunnah. Often we say the sunnah of the Prophet, the sunnah of the Prophet. We know so much of the Prophet from the reporting that has been given to us, and we also have it in Islamic history. We have the sayings of the Prophets, his life, how he lived, et cetera, in Hadith. There is a big collection of hadith. But this source of information is not the first source of information for us. The first source of information for us is the Qur'an, the holy book, the word of G-d, that was revealed to Muhammad, the Prophet. And G-d also speaks of G-d's way. Like preachers in the Bible, I read of G-d's way. And in the Qur'an we have the expression G-d's sunnah, the sunnah of G-d, the sunnah of G-d. Well, I think the problem for us is following tradition in the world today. For Muslims, yesterday and today, the problem is that we follow, with too much attention to the Sunnah of the Prophet and do not give enough attention to the Sunnah of G-d.
Speaker 10:
Q. Thank you very much.
Speaker 11:
A. You are welcome.
Q. I wanted to know, do you still believe in some of the teachings of your father, Elijah Muhammad? As far as, for instance, when you speak, and you say America is a very democratic society and everybody's treated equal here and everything, I consider myself a Muslim, but I don't personally believe that from the experiences that I had where I grew up. The things that I see our people go through, even people with education and without education, the racism that goes on. And when Elijah Muhammad and Farrakhan, I mean personally, I don't believe the things that Farrakhan teaches, but I do believe that for black people, they need to come together and organize. But often when black people do come together and unite, we are considered racist. But when any other ethnic group or religion comes together, they are not racist. And another thing, and that's the same question, with fighting these things, I think we can't be passive. When I say passive, I don't mean fire on the militants. We should be militant, but I think we should be more aggressive about speaking the truth to people, and educate 'em, not just black people, but other people, about what's going on and how to fight. And I want to know: Do you think we should be doing more of that to fight what's going on in society, more educating people to what's really going on?
Speaker 10:
A. Let me kind of back up a little bit with this. Now, when I was speaking of this democracy and my appreciation for it, I was not intending to say that everything is present here and we have no problems. We do have problems, still have problems, there are going to be problems. We are humans, we are human beings. We are going to always have problems. But we have at least an idea here that will hold us and invite us to become better people. So the idea of American democracy, the concept of governance based upon the respect for the human being, for the human individual, the human potential, the human rights, et cetera; this idea of government is excellent, very excellent. And what we have to do is just learn more about this idea so that we can defend our own rights better and pursue our own freedom better. But as the brother said, do I think that sometimes you can go to the extreme with curiosity?
We can. And sometimes we can go to the. extreme with freedom. And freedom taken to the extreme takes away freedom. You become a slave to your own passions, to your own bad behavior, et cetera. So I'm not saying that our society is perfect. I'm saying that the concept is an excellent concept, and it is a concept that can help us keep the excellence of our life and accommodate growth for the future. Growth for the future. People are people, and they're going to be moved by their own interests. So we are always going to have white people and black people that we can't live with, but let us all work for a better society, and that problem will be minimized. That's what I believe.
Speaker 4:
We need. We can take two more questions, and then we will close the session with questions and answers.
Speaker 12:
Q. So real short, what do you see as most significant and what stands out as most significant in your mind? When Allah in the Qur'an refers to the soul as being described as feminine, like 'nafsin wahidah'. And it says the soul, in one verse in the Qur'an, talks about he should fear a day when no compensation shall be taken from her. What stands out in your mind is the reason why the feminine adjective is used, and the other is just the reason?
A. What kind of attitude? I'm not hearing the word.
Q. A feminine adjective when Allah says in the Qur'an 'nafsin wahidah?' I just want to see what stands out in your mind that is most significant about that. And the other one is just an open invitation to you to visit Masjid Taqwa An-Nur, whenever the next time you're in the area. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1:
A. Please call the office, get the number of my secretary, my daughter, Gina Muhammad. Call her and arrange for me to visit. Thank you very much. Yes. The work is feminine, grammatically speaking. The person that G-d made first, the person is given a feminine description or is given a feminine noun, nafs. And that's because in the Arabic grammar, in the Arabic language, there is only masculine and feminine gender. It is not like English shaving a neuter or neutral gender. Qur'anic Arabic has only masculine and feminine genders. Everything is either masculine or feminine in gender. So the soul of the human being is in the feminine gender. And I would say that the term is put in the feminine because our souls are of a very sensitive nature. And the soul is really the monitor that monitors what's good and bad before the intellect gets the responsibility. -
The soul is far-reaching. The soul can reach out farther than the eye can go, where eyesight can't go. The soul can pick up things that we can't reach with our eyes, our ears, or anything, but the soul can pick it up. So the soul is far-reaching. Also, the soul is all-embracing, too. The soul really is the world's potential. The potential for your whole life in the world is in the soul, is in the soul. And the soul will let you know, make your life not possible, make you feel bad when you are not taking more advantage of opportunities that are for you. I don't care how lazy a person is, if that person will tell you the truth, they'll say, yeah, I'm bored sometimes. But they just have not turned on anything to take them out of their laziness. We can find something to excite them and take them out of their laziness. They won't be lazy. The soul is not lazy. The soul is not ignorant. The soul is perfect. The human soul, as G-d created the human soul, is perfect. And G-d created us from that perfect entity, male and female. He made us. Thank you very much. And I'm going to ask to leave after the next one, may I?
Okay.
Speaker 13:
Q. As-Salaam Alaikum. Looking around the world today, there seems to be a lot of turmoil in Muslim countries, and there doesn't seem to be, actually, any Muslim country with Islamic rules. And I've heard that a lot of people feel that a final Islamic revival will come from American Muslims. Do you feel that we have a different perspective or history to contribute, and what do you see as our role in bringing about that final, strong Islamic revival?
Speaker 1:
A.In Muslim country for the international community of Muslims?
Speaker 13:
Q. Right.
Speaker 1:
A. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I believe that G-d has a way of rewarding people for their suffering, et cetera. And a lot of good people suffered generations of slavery and suffered denial here in this country, discrimination based upon our color, et cetera. And they're gone. But there are still some of their children around here who are determined, as believers in G-d, to hold on to G-d, and to have faith in man in the civil society, that things are going to get better; and that one day the bad life, the bad times will be behind us. So G-d will reward us. Those people. We are the survivors of those parents who are gone. We are the survivors. They have survived in us, and G-d is rewarding us. Now, if you want to be an excellent Christian, I believe G-d will help an African-American soul become the most excellent Christian. If you want to be an excellent Muslim, G-d will help the African soul to become the most excellent Muslim. So we have special help from G-d. We had special help from a man to get here, to go along and be in our nation. We have to accept help from G-d now. Thank you very much.
Speaker 4:
Thank you very much. May I please ask you to remain seated while Imam Mohammed leaves the auditorium with his escort?


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