11/02/2003
IWDM Study Library
Fasting in the month of Ramadan and Faith

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Introducer:
Peace.
IWDM:
Thank you. Peace be unto you. (Arabic..Alhamdulillah hir rabbil ayl amin.)The praise is for God, the Lord keeper of all the worlds, the cherisher, the sustainer of the universe. We witness that He is one. We worship Him and do not associate anything with Him in worship, worship none but God. And we witness that Muhammed, born in Mecca Arabia, better than 1400 years ago, is the seal of the prophets, the last prophet, God's servant and His messenger. The prayers and the peace be upon him, offering that traditional salute and peace be upon us. God's, peace be upon us. aameen. Again, we are happy to be here on this day in the fast month, blessed month of Ramadan. For a few minutes, not too long, and if you knew how long I preached when I first became a leader after the passing of my father, you will agree with me that this one's going to be very short.
We want to correct some things that hurt our chances to live a good and progressive life in America and in the world, for that matter, as Muslims. Why should we have ignorance or anything else in our way, holding us back, denying us opportunity? If we have those among us who know better, those who know better should inform those who don't know. We are fasting the month of Ramadan. We should be aware that fasting didn't start with Muslims. Fasting has been practiced by people, spiritual people, people of faith, for thousands of years. It's an old, very old practice. It out-dates Jesus Christ. It out-dates Moses before Christians formed as followers of Christ Jesus and before Jews formed as followers of Moses. That's a long time ago. Fasting is very, very old, or I should say an ancient practice, fasting.
We know in our Holy book, God introduced to us fasting and if you're reading the Qur'an in this month, as it is the practice of believers Muslims in this month to read Qur'an daily. Before you finish the twenty-nine days of the fast month this month fasting and finish the thirty sections of the Qur'an that are usually finished in thirty days, which is the average time, average number of days for this month. You are going to read a lot about fasting. Fasting is done by people for many different reasons. The most common one is to lose weight, to gain willpower, spiritual power.
For us it is very clear why we fast the Ramadan. In the hadith Kursi, hadth Kursi, Kursi means sacred, holy. Hadith means sayings of Muhammed the prophet. peace be upon him and upon all the servants, the me prophets of God. He said in hadith Kursi, hadith Kursi are those sayings of Muhammed that were inspired by Allah. They're second to the Qur'an when it comes to closeness to God. The Qur'an is direct word of God. The hadith Kursi, inspired word of God, inspired words of God and in the hadith Kursi, God revealed by inspiration to Muhammed that fasting He says, I quote, "Fasting is for Me." Exact quote, "Fasting is for Me." Our fast is for Allah. For Allah. it's not to lose weight. We shouldn't corrupt the spirit of the fast by having some other thing, personal thing in mind that you are hoping to lose. Oh, I'm going to lose ten pounds in Ramadan. If you say that in innocence, God forgave you. But from now on, don't mix up that with the Ramadan fast. Fast for Allah. You fast to obey God. You fast to increase your willpower so that you'll be stronger spiritually to resist temptations and obey God. You fast so you can get nearer to Allah, not in physical measurement like I get near to the mic. by a movement forward, but spiritual closeness.
Spiritual closeness to God. You want to get closer to God in your obedience, closer to God, in your obedience. Closer, closer to God, being closer to His will and His purpose for human beings. You want to get closer to Him so you are more obedient to what He wants for human beings in this life, on this earth, here and also hereafter. Fasting is for God. Everything else belongs to God. Everything else should be for God. Fasting is for God. Abraham is the patriarch in the three religions: Christianity, Judaism, Christianity and Islam in order of their historical, of their presence in history.
They all identify Abraham as a man of strong faith, strong faith. Abraham is identified as a man who didn't just give his spiritual life to God, he gave himself wholly, the whole person to God. He says, I give myself to you completely, my whole self. That's what he said. He gave his heart, his spirit, his soul, his mind, his body, his everything to God. And God says of Abraham and our scripture, its in the Bible too if you can understand it or find it. He says that Abraham completed his obligation to his God. He fulfilled it and the covenant was given through Abraham.
Praise be to Allah. He made this covenant with his God and all of his followers became people of the covenant. And we know in Christianity now, I'm speaking low like this because I tried everything. The last thing I tried, I went to the pharmacist just before I came here. I went last night, they were closed. I went to the pharmacist and I said, at the consultation window, consultation window. I went to that window and I said, I need something for hoarseness. He said, are you having pain? I said, no. He said, well, what you need is to get you something that'll keep your throat, moist, peppermint candy or something.
Drink water, keep your throat moist. Nothing off the shelf? No, I wish we had more good men like that. He could have told me I recommend such and such thing, but it's going to cost you about $45. He told me, don't buy anything. He told me what to do. That's the old way for good people. That's the way good people were in the olden days, long time ago. So I have to speak very easily, very quiet, and they got the mic so nice. I stopped screaming about ten years ago. I found that it doesn't help the scream. If people, if they ain't going to respond, they ain't going to respond. If they're here, if they come to see you for a show, soon as you finish the words are lost. Only this show is remembered and we don't want that.
Yes, getting back to our focus for this presentation today, our focus is on sameness. Sameness. In the Bible, in the Old Testament, the prophet, he talks of his fast and he says this fast is to serve the suffering, help those who are suffering to relieve their miseries. That was his fast. Now, we know our fast is for God, but God says, what you offer me does not reach Me. Only your obedience reaches Me. God loves your obedience because He knows your obedience is going to make you a better creation and a much more useful creation to yourself and to others, especially to your family. God knows that. So God says only your taqwa reaches Him, only your obedience reaches Him. If only my obedience reaches my God, then who is benefiting directly from my.... nothing can benefit God. Benefits mean you added something, God got everything. No matter what we give Him, we not giving Him anything because He(s) already got everything.
So who's benefiting? We are. The fasting person benefits and the fasting person is made a better person, more conscious person, more sympathetic person when suffering is noticed or observed. So our fast is not different in terms of where the benefits go or who benefits. It's not different from the fast of the prophet of the Old Testament or the fast of the faithful religious people, Old and New Testament. And even other books are to be included other than the Bible and the Qur'an, that fasting benefits the individual, making the individual know the suffering of the poor. So I guess this is how my neighbor feels all the time.
You he's hungry, you know he's poor, he's not eating good. So you become aware of his pain that he experiences all the time, maybe every day. But this is just something you volunteered to do for God's sake, for one month. So it increases your awareness of the suffering of others who are not volunteering. They can't help it. So in the month of Ramadan, great charity go(es) to the suffering people. If you cannot fast the month, God says, if you are able to, if you have means, then feed sixty persons. And we know that at the end of the fast month, we go to the Eid prayer and before we join the congregation for the Eid prayers, we give money again for those who are not fortunate enough to have it or to have the means. Sadaqa, sadaqa al Eid- the gift or the charity for the Eid day, for the celebration. Eid means the celebration day, Eid day. So our fasting is for God so that we have our spirit or our obedience come closer and closer to what God wants of us and it is expected that we will help others who are suffering, share with them our food, our drinks, our earnings, so that misery and suffering become less and less in the community of mankind. Muslims are all over the world. Muslims started in Mecca Arabia, the land of the Arabs, in the desert, in the sand.
Since then it has gone firstly to Africa but then to the Mediterranean area, finally to Spain and Europe. And preachers, have now taken the religion of Islam all around the world, all around the world, in the north, Canada, all the northern area. South America, everywhere there are Muslims and there are Christians too everywhere, all over the world. The two big followings of the religion that's built called the heavenly religions. Why are they called the heavenly religions? Because we believe that God sent His word down to human beings and chose righteous servants of excellent character and nature to deposit His word and to them so that they would give His word to others.
We believe in revelation, believe that God revealed, God communicates, God talks to human beings. So we are called heavenly faiths or heavenly religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam and perhaps some others. These are the major ones, the most noticeable ones, so many followers everywhere. So the nature of our obedience, for Christians and Muslims and Jews and many others too that we don't know about perhaps, is the same. The nature is to give ourselves to God as a debt to Him, and this is very important for this audience that is mostly Muslims, but I do feel that there are some Christians in this audience. There's some I've been knowing for years and they wear Muslim names, but they are Christians and I love my Christian brothers. Here's what we should know, but we should know, that is intent. Intent. If your intent is good, you are accepted by God.
You can not know God as a Muslim knows God, but if your intent is good, you are accepted by God. Now, if your intent is bad and you are a Muslim, you're going to hell and God doesn't care for you at all. Muhammed the prophet said, in Islam matters a judged by intent, the intention, nia, is judged by the intention. So let us get away from this habit. This is nothing but a habit. I know many of us, we are good hearted people, but we have some bad habits, some bad-hearted habits, if I can express it that way. We have some bad hearted habits. Thinking you're the only one righteous because you're a Muslim. You are the only one that got the religion right because you're a Muslim.
That doesn't necessarily have to be so. If you would take at random a sister here, a brother there, sister here, brother there, and ask all of them, what is the beauty of Islam? What makes you love this religion? I want to be a Muslim? You might get as many answers as you get persons, as you selected persons You might get.......... their answers will resemble each other. Then you might get answers from some, no resemblance. Answers, resemblance didn't resemble the other, the answers gotten from others. In order for us to have the right picture of Islam, we have to have good intentions and the right heart.
If your heart is right, you don't enjoy seeing other people suffer, no matter what their religion is. If your heart is right, you don't feel happy only when you make a big buck, you're happy when your brother or your sister or even just another human being makes a big buck. We have to learn to rejoice, to feel good upon seeing others lifted up or made richer. That's a petty thing in us. It's very common and therefore it is very natural that we who have been poor for so long, we've been poor for longer than we have been living.
We have inherited, we have inherited a quiet awareness deep down inside that I lived in my father and he was poor. I lived in his father and he was poor. And you go back and back and back and your presence goes back in time and you are aware that you've been poor for many lifetimes. You ain't happy to see other people getting over and you ain't. It can be your sister or your brother and your own family. How come it had to be that nigga? We have to get rid of that. Yes, get rid of that. It's not you.
That's your mistake and not really you. That's your mistake. You, if you had the chance to think it over, you really would feel good about what others are enjoying. You feel good. You would share their enjoyment, you would share it, but it's a habit. Habit. I wonder how he got that new car. I bet he paid $50,000 for a car like that. That shouldn't even interest you. The only car you should be interested in, how much it costs the car you buy because you got to have enough money to pay for it. The Arabs have been influenced by this religion to come up with expressions like this:
Don't try to look into the cooking pot of your neighbor. The neighbor's cooking pot is the neighbor's business. Now that doesn't only mean don't look in the cooking pot, just don't be looking and peeping trying to see what somebody else got. It spoils the soul. It spoils the soul and if the soul is spoiled, everything else eventually is spoiled, the way you think, the way you behave. So, this brings us to now, faith. I mentioned the great patriarch Abraham, peace be upon him, as the man of great faith, strong faith. Allah says in the Qur'an, of Muhammed, the prophet, when he was noticed by other people carrying out his responsibility to his Lord, his God, his mission when he was on his mission, they said, we have heard a caller calling to faith and we have responded saying we believe, we have faith.
Why (does)God has that like that for us? To let us know that the invitation to Islam is firstly the invitation to faith. Many of you, you have become Muslims and you are giving the greetings. You sound like Muslims and you are, I believe in your innocence you are Muslims. But you do not have faith. You don't have faith. If you had faith, we who have faith would know it. A believer in God knows another believer in God. You can't disguise yourself. No. I believer in God readily knows another believer in God. So don't think you are not seen.
We know every one of you that we meet that does not have faith. We know it. In fact, we don't have to meet you. We can be sitting in the same room with you and hear your conversation and we know from your conversation, you don't have faith. That's the first step in Islam. Faith first step. The first step is faith. You should be firstly a believer in the God that made everything. Now for us Muslims, really for others too, but I think we dwell on this, we make the points clear and strong that, you are not to believe in superstitions. We don't have faith based upon, or faith, supported by superstitions, some spooky idea of an existence, some spooky idea of the existence of God. God is no spook, God is real. God is first of all, first of all, God is goodness. God is goodness and God is truth
and God is intelligence. Intelligence. God is not playing games. God is not playing games with you or with me. "Oh, God is watching us to see, if we take some water in our mouth or a piece of candy." No, God is too big for that petty thing. He created you to watch yourself and when you don't watch yourself, He's not worried about you. Our faith is an intelligent faith. That's the point. It's not a hokey pokey, hocus-pocus faith. It is not a faith based upon some spooky idea or spooky thing. No, we are not spooked up.
We are not scared. We weren't scared into wanting to be obedient to God. We were attracted by God's beauty, by God's goodness, by God's love, by God's generosity. We were attracted to want to believe in God and obey God because we think we owe that to Him. He has given us so much we owe it to Him to give Him obedience. The sun, the moon and stars give their obedience to the Lord that gave them the logic that set them on a course that is logic and logical. It is scientific, the scientists will say. Their order in the sky is scientific, their nature is scientific.
It is intelligent and it is governed by laws. And these laws are consistent and these laws are intelligent and these laws reflect or communicate to the thinking, obedient soul, God's will, God's purpose, what God wants. Now, if God, this is Islamic thought I'm sharing here with you today. If God made the universe to obey him, how stupid it would be for us to disagree with the order of the universe. So the philosophical thinker in Islam, he says, man is not the first Muslim. The earth is Muslim, the stars are Muslim. Everything that God made in His plan is Muslim. Muslim means agreeing and conforming in the plan of God as He intended that we conform or agree and doing it out of a love for it.
You can't be a good anything if you don't love it. You can't be a good tap dancer if you don't love it. You have to love it to be good at it or you have to be forced to do it, be forced to do it. And then forcing you only gets so much out of you. Whatever you are able to do by somebody compelling you or something compelling you to do it, forcing you to do it, you could have done it more and better if you had loved it. Faith. There's a saying in the Bible. It says, cast your bread upon the water and it will be returned to you. That's faith. That's faith. Cast your bread upon the water and it will be returned to you. That mean(s) have faith and you'll receive for your goodness, you'll receive back, you'll get back. Don't worry, have faith. Now we know it means other things too, but what's most importantly in that saying is that you should trust. Trust God, have faith.
You might not get it two hours later. You might not get it two days or two months later, maybe not two years later, but believe that God is just and truthful and if God asks you to do something, do it. You will get what God promises sooner or later. It's guaranteed, guaranteed. The two religions also say that faith and good works are inseparable. You can't find one without the other where there is faith in a person, that you have found the person, that person is also a person who do(es) good works. And both religions wants us to know that if you claim faith but you are not doing good by your self and others, your faith is not accepted.
Faith without work, good works is a dead letter, not counted for anything worthwhile. People of faith are responsible for the biggest things that have happened in the history of mankind, people of faith. Now this is something that even if you don't believe in mysteries, even if you don't believe in the unseen powers in a God that created when there was nothing existing but God. You hear me? A God that created things when there was nothing existing but God. If you believe in the God you'll be productive. Don't tell me you got all that faith and you don't produce anything.
You don't even produce a decent paycheck to take care of your family. And you talking about, you want people to think you are faithful. I often share this with the audience that I'm speaking to. Some people were so proud of this man because he fasts all the fasts, he prayed all the prayers. He was just a holy man. They said to themselves, they said, look, prophet Muhammed, the prophet should see this man. Let us take him to the prophet. The prophet should know about him. They did and they told the prophet, fast, all the fast, pray all the prayers. Holy man. Prophet Muhammed asked one question. He said, who's giving him food and shelter, taking care of his needs? They say, we do, oh messenger of God. You are better than he is. That's what he said to them, you are better than he is because he has only faith and no good works.
So he canceled his faith with no good works. It ain't good works to pray, pray, pray. That's not good works If you are not helping your family members, if you're not caring about other human beings, if you're not trying to make yourself productive, if you are living on someone else's labor and not caring to use your own ingenuity, to use your own muscles and energy to produce or to support yourself at least? So that praying is stuff. Its just motions you were going through. You weren't truthful. Your prayer was a lie. Every one of 'em.
Yes, your fasting was a lie every day of it was a lie because you are not trying to do anything, you want to live on somebody else. (We) got brothers (who) come to us, "I want to make my salat. How come the Masjid is not open and ready for five daily s salats?" Well, we are working brother and it's very difficult working for non-Muslims to pray the five daily salats, the five salats daily. They don't want to give us that opportunity to break every two hours or so and pray, but you seem like you ain't got nothing to do. Why don't you come here and see that the door is open and for those like you? AlhamdulilIah, thank you, yes brother, I'll take care of it. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah. As soon as you go out, you forgot your watch, you were making wudu, and you left your watch on the sink. You go back in there to get your watch. He's sleeping on the floor of the Masjid.. He was looking for a flop house, someplace for him to sleep and he had the nerve to call himself Bilal, Bilal Ibn Rabbah. Alhamdulillah (Arabic).
If the honorable Elijah Muhammad was here today, oh boy, he would be whipping on some of our folks. Yes, he'd be whipping on some of our folks. He'd be whipping on all these young boys and telling the men folks, how can you stand for this? They're calling the girls bitches. And I taught you to respect your woman. Faith, good works, intelligence. God says, (Arabic) this is the original language of Qur'an, Arabic, the Qur'anic Arabic. God says "He has made everything to communicate knowledge and science." Everything He made, He made it to communicate to human mind, knowledge and science. That means that nothing that exists that God didn't create so that it would impart or whisper to us, with its silence like a body language, whisper to us an invitation to come and get more knowledge and get science. If you just think of the human body, there's the science of the skin, there's the science of the blood, there's the science even of the hair. There's the science of everything in our body. And some will specialize in just one science or just one thing in the human body to see how God has extended the creation of the worlds so that we would be enriched with knowledge and science, but not just knowledge and science, beauty.
And you've just seen a beautiful sunset or a beautiful rainbow after a heavy rain and the sun comes out bright. You've seen that beauty, but you haven't seen the beauty of the logic and the goodness that brings that to us. So the man that's blessed or the woman that's blessed with knowledge and insight into things, they see more beauty than those who just see the outer appearance, and that goes for each other. You wonder how come some men can love human beings so, and devote their life and make such great sacrifices for a human being they don't even know. Because they see what you short- sighted folks can't see. God has invited them into another big area of his creation that is even more beautiful than what appears to the naked eye. Now, God says you are community. God doesn't want us to think that we are just an individual or just a human person. What's more important than that? We are a community. God made human individuals or human persons to be connected for the life of community. And we cannot have great benefits separately or altogether unless we devote our attention to strengthening and progressing our community.
If we just follow the clear guidance of Allah, God the creator, we will be happy. We will be, maybe you're not happy all the time. Anybody happy all the time is crazy. Thats sick. How are you going to really know the beauty of happiness if you are not going to be unhappy sometimes? God knows better than we know how to order this world. So God wants us to give our attention to community. Long time ago, oh it's been a long time ago, many years ago on Stony Island when I became a young leader for you all, I say young. Yes, I was young. I had a head full of hair.
My hair was so thick up here, I didn't think it would ever go away. And I said to the brothers, I wanted to see us not do things because you're afraid you're going to get put out of the temple, put out of the organization. I wanted to see us do things because we believed in it, because we loved it. That's how I wanted us to be. So I told some of the brothers (who) didn't have jobs. I said, you always have a job and it's for your own good benefit that you always go to your job, your nature, your human life, especially for a male. You don't have to tell a woman to work. A woman's going to work. She's going to work. Your own nature, your manhood needs you to have a job.
There's a prophet in the Bible and in the Qur'an, in the Christian's Bible and also in our Bible, "hear what he said? I told you Imam, he ain't right brother. He called our Qur'an Bible." You go get you a dictionary and search the meaning of Bible. It simply means book. It means book. Now don't start calling the Qur'an a Bible or if you do, I'm going to have a mean brother do something to you, if I find out. I'm telling you he really needs some exercise, he's mean because he just ain't punching on nobody, ain't beating (nobody) (If) e gets some exercise, he'll feel good and he won't be so mean.
You hurt your own soul when you wait for the white man or some other man to hire you to work. You ain't got no job? I know the sister's are going to like this, wash dishes for the wife, wash clothes for the wife, learn how to iron too. She got enough to do. She can give more attention to the children. Do something in the house. Work! Working makes a man healthier, working make(s) a man feel better in his soul. Allah Akbar, God is greater. So I told him, I said, if you ain't got no work, I said, take care of your own. Work where you are. Go and look at your neighbors. See if your neighbors need some help. Go next door, the neighbors paint peeling off the house. Say, I would like to volunteer and paint your house.
This is what I said. Oh, it must've been fifteen or twenty years ago. I don't know, but I know it was a long time ago. And some brothers had the open mind and heart to receive what I said and were ready to act on it, and some did. I said, go to the neighbor and tell the neighbor, I see this paint is peeling on your house. I don't have any work and my spirit as a man, I need work to keep a good spirit. May I paint your house. I'm not asking you for any pay. My pay will be that my soul will feel better knowing that a man is working.
I told them, I said, now, some of those neighbors (are) going to think you're crazy and some are going say, okay, paint the house. And when you finish you (and you) do a good job, they're going to say, I can't let you do that for nothing. They're going to give you something. Maybe they can't give you the scale, the pay scale for the painter, but they will give you something. So this is the way I talk to the brothers. Some of you here that remember me talking like that, raise your hand. Good. Look. Look. Well, I haven't changed a bit.
Work. Even if you have to work for no monetary gain, for no money. Work! It keeps your male soul, your male spirit alive, your masculine soul alive. You’ve got to work, Brothers. When I'm not working, I start to get sick. I start to feel bad. Community is the scene for us. All of us should understand that God created male and female to live in community and to identify with community, as community and to give work, labor, effort, thoughts, et cetera, spirit, to the community. Build your community, strengthen your community. See your community neglect and help get attention to that neglect so we'll get rid of that neglect. See your community weaknesses and help us get attention to those weaknesses and let us make it strong. See your community ugliness and help us get attention to that ugliness so we can make it beautiful, et cetera, et cetera. And Allah is with us all the time. Peace to you, as salaamu alaikum.
A young gentleman here, our brother in humanity and our brother in faith wants to declare his faith today. Stand close so they can hear. (Arabic: Shahada) Alhamdulillah hirabbil ayl amin! Praise God, the Lord of the universe. He just said, I witness that there is but one God. And I witness that Muhammed is the messenger of God. He has taken his shahada and he is written down today with us as his witnesses that he's a Muslim for God, for Allah.
moderator:
Now if there are some questions from persons in the first five rows, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, no questions. Okay, I have a few announcements. We have a few announcements.
1st audience question:
I want to know from brother Imam, I know that he's building a new shopping center here and I want to know how do I make the check out to him as some type of initial money to help build a shopping center?
IWDM:
This is wonderful. He doesn't live in this area. He lives a good way from here. Wonderful person that I met some time ago and have been in touch with him recently. He's a businessman and he also can help us build this shopping center. And if you think you're going to give me a little check and get out of helping us build it, that ain't going to work. You should make the check out to CPC ComTrust, CPC/ComTrust, Allahl be with you always and blessed Ramadan.
2nd audience question:
I've been to numerous Muslim events and there's never provision for salat. And I was wondering, I've heard Imam working Mohammed say in the past, "anytime something is given, there should be provision for salah." So I was wondering, is there a way, I know we have a huge crowd, but is there a way that we can have salat when we have our event?
moderator:
Did you hear?
2nd audience question:
As salaamu alaikum. I've been to several Muslim events and I've noticed that we never have provision for salat. Salat is very important, especially during Ramadan. So I was wondering if there's a way that we could possibly have provisions for Salat. I know we have it during our convention, but it would be very nice if we could have salat. As salaamu alaikum. Oh, furthermore, I have heard Imam Mohammed say, "no event should occur without provision for salah."
IWDM:
Yes, she is correct on both points, that we should try to find a way to have salat and I did say we shouldn't have a program without accommodating those believers who want to make salat. Now let me tell you something. What I did, I had been put out of the temple, okay? And when you(re) put out a temple, all my work history was with the Nation of Islam temple. So I didn't have any work record, I couldn't go outside. I could go outside and wash windows or something, and I did that, I did that. Even took a scrub brush, big one, and I wented with a bucket to knock on doors and somebody gave me a job. I said, I clean carpets.
One person gave me a job. I cleaned carpet with the brush, a bucket and the brush. I knew how to do it. I did a good job. But my wife, and we had a child and we need(ed) more money. So I said I got to get me a better job. I went to this industrial site and I knew if I could get hired there, I'd make good money, I'd be able to take care of my wife, she'd be happy. She wasn't complaining, she was helping me, babysitting for other girlfriends and making money, making some money. It was snow in Chicago, above my calf, above the calf of my leg. I looked for a quiet place where people wouldn't see me. I found a place on the side of this building where people wouldn't see me. I didn't want to be noticed and have people thinking I'm crazy or something or have them wondering. And I prayed when I put my forehead in the snow, made submission to God and prayed. I got that job. Thank Allah, I got that job. Allah says, my earth is the Masjid. We have an obligation to provide a place for you to pray, but we can't go in that area without permission from the people we are renting this facility, this area from. So when we finish, you pray wherever you like, the whole earth is Allah's Mosque, Masjid. Thank you
3rd audience comment:
Brother Imam, as I say and as I see it, we own the wealth in the ghetto. If we close our hand, we would take back where we open and give when they said we was integrated. We turned and walked and carried the money to him. All we have to do is close our hand and say bye to them. Thank you very much.
moderator:
Okay, we have a couple of announcements. Do you have a question? Oh, okay. I think this is the last one. What's your question?
final audience question:
As salaamu alaikum.I have a uestion for Imam Mohammed. Can you expound a little on the rules of logic as it relates to understanding the scripture?
Introducer:
Yes sir.
IWDM:
Yes. An old man that I got to know as my father's friend who visited my father and my father had bronchitis, asthmatic, bronchitis. And this old man was actually an Indian in his origin, but he was living in the United States, San Francisco, at the time I believe. And he brought my father some dried salmon and he told my father to take it, that it would help his condition. And he told him some other things he should not be taking so much. One was the milk, that he should not be drinking so much milk or eating cow products so much. Anyway, I met him. He became my friend also.
And he said to me once, he said, every ayah of the Qur'an is connected to another ayah. Every chapter is connected to another chapter. He said, when you read Qur'an, he say, you should try to get a feel for connections. Since then, many years have passed and I have been blessed by Allah, God, that is, to give my attention to connections. It's in the Bible also, it's importance on connections. I'm speaking on logic, now He wants me to make some comments on logic, especially logic of Qur'an, logic for Muslims, for our life. Ka'ba is the name of the house, the little house that symbolizes the unity of all human beings, that we all are one family and that we all originally came out of one home. That little place is called also El bait. It means the house or the home. And the word Ka'ba means connection. Connection.
In the Bible, there's a discussion of the connections for human bones and a promise that the whole person can come back together again and be resurrected or have life again. And the congregation is symbolized too as a human body. And the congregation has now been dismembered. The head is out there somewhere and shoulder somewhere else and foot somewhere else and hip bone somewhere else. So they made a song about it, how all the bones start coming together. And they came together according to the logic upon which they were formed in the first place. Thigh, bone to the hip bone,, et cetera, et cetera.
So disorder is confusion. Order brings peace. Simple message to you on logic today is don't like confusion. The Bible says God does not like confusion. And we know Allah is inviting to the intelligence of the mankind, women and men, to look at the orderliness of the universe so that we will be inspired to love order and see beauty in order. Because where order is confused, ugliness appears. The best logic I can offer you today is love order, dislike disorder, because order is also beauty. Don't just want to eat what's on the table. Want to see the whole meal. See the glass of milk, see the toast, see the scrambled eggs, see the whole meal. That's better than gobbling up your food as somebody say, what did you eat? Uh, uh, uh? Thank you very much.


