2004/05/02
IWDM Study Library
Our Life in Community and Prayer
Pt. 1
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

00:02 S1: Welcome again here, first Sunday Homewood, Illinois, to the public addresses of Imam W. Deen Mohammad. Before I introduce him, let me mention that in the last month since his last address here, we have had several very important and successful meetings in Detroit, Michigan, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and several colleges and universities throughout the United States, New Jersey, Michigan, North Carolina, many places. Imam has been traveling and delivering his inspired and important message to literally thousands and thousands of people.

01:07 S1: We thank Allah that he has given Imam the energy and the commitment to continue his work to its completion. With that, I'm not going to delay. I will just say that we're living now in a time of great tremendous opportunity for progress, for growth, but in order to take advantage of that opportunity, we need leadership. We need focused, committed, clear, honest leadership with integrity that leads us into the life that our souls have demanded, prayed for. This is the man who will lead us in that time of great opportunity, in this time of great opportunity. Our leader, and the son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Imam W. Deen Muhammad.

02:13 Audience: Allahu Akbar.

[applause]

02:17 Audience: Allahu Akbar.

02:19 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Thank you. Thank you.

02:19 Audience: Allahu Akbar.

02:20 IWDM: Allahu Akbar, God is greater than everything. Our greeting is peace be unto you. As-salamu alaykum.

02:32 Audience: Wa-Alaikum-us-Salaam.

02:38 IWDM: With God's name, the merciful benefactor, the merciful redeemer, we're pleased to be here again on this first Sunday of the month for this community address. We're addressing our life in community. We witnessed that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed is a model of the excellent human life that Allah created when he created Adam. And Adam was the seed seduced out of his excellent life by the enemy of all mankind as is written in the Quran, whose name in Christian language is Satan and in our language Shaitan, the same, same name, Satan and Shaitan same. It's really the mercy of God that any one on earth in these times have their good human life that God created them for. Most of the people can't survive. There're many influences and happenings that are occurring everywhere to take your mind in every direction except in the direction and the righteousness.

04:21 IWDM: And we know that what Adam lost was his righteousness. His natural righteousness, natural righteousness... By natural, we mean belonging to human nature. God has not ordered anything for us that he didn't create us for. Whatever he ordered for us is what he created us for. That's why in the beginning, we have this story of man's trials, his ups and downs, his ins and outs beginning with Adam, our first man. And that man in Christian language, in Jewish language, in Muslim language, in Islamic knowledge, Christian knowledge, Jewish knowledge, that man was an excellent model for all human beings until he was deceived, and lost that excellence that God created him for. In order to be successful in life as a human being, some people don't care. Well, for them, they can be dogs, snakes, pigs. They have their freedom to be whatever they wanna be. God didn't fix us so that we can't choose something bad. He gave us free choice. He gave us a mind to think for ourselves. And if we wanna think out of the good life that God created us for, we can do that.

06:03 IWDM: If I was in control of the media, radio, television, movies, records and record industry, I would never support people barking like dogs to say that "We're dogs." That's what they're saying when they bark like dogs. Whether they know it or not, they're saying "We're dogs." And you remember the Depression, years ago, some of you my age, a little younger a little older than I'm looking at right now? You remember that expression, "Aw, he went to the dogs." Well, that's what the world is telling us now. That the people have gone to the dogs, when they have them in movies barking and identifying them by the name "Dog." It's a very intelligent actor and I think he got more decency behind his eyes than he got in front of his eyes or in his eyes, Snoop Dog.

[laughter]

07:21 IWDM: Yes, the man got intelligence, he's not a fool, but look at his name, "Snoop Dog." So, you all don't register anything when you see the movies and television, records got people barking. Human beings barking like dogs, and wearing name "Dog," proudly? You don't register anything? We may not like the criticism of this culture that had come from places like Iran, and other places, identifying our society as a society of dogs. We may not like it but isn't that what we are saying? We are saying, "We are a society of dogs." If you are in touch with your Bible you will know that people were made to behave as dogs or bark like dogs, they were cursed. They weren't blessed. So Satan has influenced our youngsters and many of our older people to express themselves in certain circumstances of pleasure or amusement or just meeting each other as dogs. Behavior of dogs.

08:57 IWDM: Not only barking like dogs but behaving in the public like dogs. When you see a male walking behind a female holding her around her waist, with his body pressed against her rear as they're walking, that's imitating dogs. And not fine dogs, alley dogs. Yes that's... No joke here buddy, you can giggle out there, but I want you to know sometimes I am a humorous person who likes to humor my audience, but this is not to humor you, this is serious. Very serious. Walking behind a female girlfriend or maybe his wife like he's a dog, you know locked into her like a dog. Who would believe that we would fall this low? That the American society would fall this low, to have that kind of behavior in the public eyes.

10:02 IWDM: And you have been slowly, slowly edged on to unconscious behavior to the majority of you, who are really decent in your minds and hearts, you see these things and that doesn't bother you. It should bother you. Every decent human being should be troubled very deeply by a society that boldly displays dog behavior, dog sexuality, in the public. It didn't just start. There was a dance called "The dog," "Do The Dog," since Satan gradually works it up, but you did "The dog" in a dance hall. You did "The dog" in some place where you were dancing, in a house or dance hall, somewhere. You didn't do it in public. When "The dog" dance was out, they weren't doing it in public, but they brought it from dancing "Doing the dog," to walking down the street "Doing the dog," like dogs hooked up. It's a shame.

11:14 Audience: Yes it is.

11:14 IWDM: So we don't have to have anybody explain anything to us, the explanation is clear that somebody doesn't care about how we behave. Somebody have lost their devotion to decency, and these people are not in small places. They're in high places. Now, I know what they're doing, don't think I'm stupid. If I was stupid, probably I wouldn't be addressing the subject. No. Not the way I address it. No you can't be stupid and address the subject the way I'm addressing it.

11:57 IWDM: So I know that they are bringing out your bad habits, your bad tastes for things, and your bad behavior. They're magnifying it to eventually destroy it. I know what they're doing, but those are not angels, those are devils that's doing that. It's the devil, the one who see your weaknesses to magnify the weaknesses and to drive them to their limits. So, eventually, you'll be punished by your own bad behavior, and your bad behavior will eventually bring you back to your consciousness. Not you individually, but you as a society will eventually bring you back to your consciousness. This is not the way of God, this is not the way of the angel, this is the way of the devil, this is the way of Satan, this is the way of Shaitan.

13:02 IWDM: This is the way that he discredit human beings. In both scriptures, he challenges the man that God made, and he's working constantly... When I say both scriptures, I mean both the Bible and the Quran, the book of the Muslim and the book of the Christian. Both books have this in humankind from the very beginning of man's life as an intelligent human being. Conscious of his creator, or conscious of an authority greater than his. This is where it begins and the beginning of that history, also begins Satan's scheme. Satan's scheme, his plot, to bring man out of the excellent life mold or life model or life behavior that he was created for. Why Satan wants him out of that? Satan wants him out of that, so Satan can use all of his resources for Satan's cause.

14:15 IWDM: He wants all of man's resources for Satan's cause. He wants you to spend your money when he wants you to spend your money. He wants you to spend your money on what he wants you to spend your money on. He wants you to enrich him and leave the world to him. Those who have gone to the dogs, they can't be responsible for their families. Not to mention the world. And that's what Satan wants, that's what Shaitan wants. He wants to deprive as many as possible of the intelligence to be responsible for human life. In your own body, in your own family, and in your own neighborhood, and in your own world. If he can deprive us of that interest, then he will have that interest, then he will have all of us as his slaves.

15:21 Audience: Right.

15:22 IWDM: Look at what God says. God says to us in the Quran and the Bible says, but the Quran has made it so clear and plain. When Jesus said, "I have to be about my Father's business," meaning the creator's business, and when Jesus said "Peace be on him," in the Gospel though we don't follow the version all the way that's in the Bible, we have our own version, the Quran, but I'm quoting the source because that's where you find what Jesus said to the Christians or to whatever in the Christian world, at least in the Christian world. So, he also said, "The sin is not greater than the sinner." And he said, "The servant is not greater than his master." This is Jesus Christ. And he was talking to his disciples, his followers, so Jesus Christ identified himself as a servant. And he identified his disciples as servants. If you understand, follow the logic to his conclusion, Jesus Christ is saying that every human being was created to serve God. To be God's servant.

16:37 IWDM: In the Arabic language, servant is abd. And Allah says in the Quran, in our Holy Book he says, "All of you are my servants." All of mankind are the servants of God, meaning that he created us with a nature that require us to find the authority that our life should be given to in obedience, and when we find that we find the one that we in our own good senses realize as the author, the architect, the builder, the creator of everything in the skies, and the natural things in the earth including us. This is the God that we eventually find. And we don't need a revelation. We don't need to hear any whisper from the heavens to send us in that direction looking. God created us with a natural life that looks for that. The natural life looks for that. If you make the natural life unnatural, turn it against its original nature, then it won't look for that. It won't be bothered with that. And then supply it with all the distractions to keep his mind off of its original life and nature, so that it never gets back to that.

18:01 IWDM: Look, the average man of common sense, the average woman of decent common sense, even the average child with decent common sense, they fight opposition with greater spirit, with greater force when they know that the opposition is trying to destroy them. Trying to destroy their life in its best picture, trying to take away their excellence, their beauty, their value, their decency, their worth as a creative thing. When we know that, that threat is on us, we fight better than we ever fought before to save ourselves. But when you don't know your own value, you don't know your own human worth, you've lost even the knowledge of your own human identity and you're imitating dogs, then there is no chance that you're gonna stand up to the enemy. You are gonna let the enemy have his way. And the enemy is taking your inheritance from you. God created you for great inheritance. Great inheritance. Every human being is created to support life in his own body, in his own family, and in his own neighborhood, and eventually in his own world.

19:31 IWDM: God did not give one of us more than he gave the other when it comes to that responsibility, but if we're ignorant to that responsibility, then we're lost from the human purpose, and we're living a life of self-destruction and the neighborhood is neglected. The house is neglected. The family is neglected and even your own self, your own body needs, your own mind needs, your own spirit needs, your own soul needs are neglected and you're going against your own purpose for existence on this earth. And you'll never reach the future that your Lord created you for until you repent and turn away from the guidance of Satan to the guidance of God. You're good Christians, don't just say you're Christians, learn what a Christian is. Read the Gospel, learn the way of Jesus Christ, not from Mel Pomade. No, I'm sorry, his name is not Mel Pomade, Gibson. Not from Mel Gibson.

[laughter]

20:54 IWDM: But from the Gospel. Learn the values, the morals, the decency, the justice, the kindness, the love, the compassion of Jesus Christ. And know that the Gospel says to the Christian that you're supposed to be Christ-like. Like Christ, you're supposed to be in His light. You're supposed to be modeled after His life. Christian means you are being like Him, so how are you gonna be like Him if you don't know Him? At least read your Gospel to know Him better and practice His goodness in your life and then Satan won't be able to get you. You're Muslims, turn to your Holy Book, the Quran, and the model life of Muhammad the prophet that God says of Him, He says "Anyone who believes in God and the last day will find in him an excellent model." Turn to that book and turn to the one who demonstrated to us how to live that book and we will be saved. The topic for today is prayer. Prayer in the establishment of human life, prayer.

22:32 IWDM: In our holy book, there's really a repeat of what was revealed before in the Bible. It's a repeat. It repeats it, and a conclusion, it repeats it and then makes a conclusion for the conclusion of the world. Its emphasis, its focus, major focus, is a unity of all people. And the oneness of creation under God, there is a unity of matter. The family of planets and stars, that all belong to one law, one system, to show us that we human beings too are one family. And God created us for a system of human life. And that system of human life is one and the same for you whether you are an Asian or African or something else. Whether you are black or brown or something else or white or something else. That system is a system that supports all of our human life. It's one human system that all human beings belong to. As the system of matter is one system that all of the stars and planets, including the earth, belongs to that system, that one system.

24:00 IWDM: So this is a religion of unity, the religion that is called Tawhid. The religion of oneness and unity and obedience to creator. This is the religion of Islam. But it's not foreign to Christianity. The community of Muslims is a kindred community. A kindred community with Christianity and Judaism. Some of the learned in our religion have referred to these three communities as the Abrahamic, and the other one, another expression is the heavenly. Heavenly communities. What is meant by heavenly? It means that these three religions believe that the life that we live on this earth was revealed to us from heaven. That God in heaven or the God of the heavens and the earth really revealed it and sent it down from heaven to us. When we say heaven in Arabic language it means the skies. Sama means the sky. Samawaat, the plural of sama, means the skies. And God says that he sent it down from the skies, from the skies. If you look at the word heaven, traces, search its meaning in the English dictionary, you'll see that heaven means "elevated." An elevated, the up higher place. That's what heaven mean. So it means the same as samawat or skies in Arabic language.

25:42 IWDM: Yes. In the Bible, we have the Lord's prayer, called the Lord's prayer. It's a very special prayer. It's a prayer revealed to people. God revealed it through Jesus Christ, the Messiah or the Christ. He revealed it through him. And the prayer goes like this, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done," I'm not giving the whole of it 'cause I'm giving only the part that I'm interested in right now. "Thy kingdom come." Now we know that's old language that we don't use anymore. You don't speak like that in the streets. Your kingdom come. "Thy will be done." Your will be done. "On earth as it is in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

27:00 IWDM: To understand that, we have to understand the thinking in the mind of those who came before Jesus Christ, certainly before Muhammad the prophet, before Moses, before even Noah. There were men called in the Bible, and women, few women too, seers, S-E-E-R-S, seers. From the word see, seers. They were called that because they were straining in their minds and in their souls, and in their hearts, in their spirit. Straining to understand what is truth for human beings? For human life, for human behavior, in family, in community, in the world. What is truth? What have we been created for? They didn't have these names that we have now when they began thinking for that purpose.

28:14 IWDM: And don't forget WEB Du Bois said that, "We will progress." Black political thinker, black philosopher, philosophical thought thinker as well, WEB Du Bois. He said, "We will progress in the measure that we're willing to teach our children to think." So, we're so frightened and so intimidated by what's going on and so overly, overly occupied by the busy things that Satan has created for us. We don't have no time to tell our children anything but, "Behave. Stop. Don't do that." And they've gone so far in their wrong behavior that they don't need to be told to stop behaving. They need to be told to, "Stop thinking the way you're thinking. And start thinking for your own good human life." But we're too busy trying to survive another day, to give our children that kind of teaching that WEB Du Bois wanted us to give them.

29:46 IWDM: Now, those seers they were thinkers. Thinking how... Thinking and searching with their thoughts to find how to best manage my life. Not my life for me, my life for human beings. They were thinking for all of us. And God heard them. God loved them. And he responded to them. And he gave them guidance through their souls or in their souls and through their spirit that was for goodness. He guided them and revealed to them the truth and the way, for the truth is the way. The truth about our own existence and how we have to manage our own life. It is the way. There is no way outside of your body. God created the pattern for your body when he created your body. He created the direction for your life when he created human life.
