09/17/1976
IWDM Study Library 
Second Annual Convocation-Khutba

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
La Ilaha Il Allah Wa Sharika Lahu. Wa Ashadu Ana Muhammadan Rasul Allah. In the Name of G-d Most Gracious, Most Merciful. I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship but Allah, the one and only. There is nothing like unto Him and I bear witness that Muhammad, is certainly His slave servant and His Messenger.
Dear beloved Muslims, brothers and sisters, we greet you in the greetings of all the Prophets from the beginning to Muhammad, Assalamu-Alaikum.
In this Khutbah today, we want to continue the translation or interpretation of the traditional steps that we make performing ablution, called wudhu in Arabic. And I believe we can be finished, we did finish the comments on ablution.
I would remind you though that we make an ablution, we voice our intention. You don't have to voice it out loud, but at least voice it, our intentions. We say, "I perform ablution for Allah, the Rabb of all the Worlds. Now I choose to say Rabb because Lord as you know means, to the Christian world it means savior, Lord means master.
But in Islam, Rabb means that and even more. I think in our talks we have discussed the meaning of Rabb, but quickly I would say Rabb means One who develops the thing into existence and continues its development until it reaches maturity where it can manage for itself. This is Rabb. And you see in this description, in this definition, the role of the parents, not the role of just the father, but the role of the mother, because the mother, she nourishes the child and also watches over the development of the child while the child is young and in her care. She feeds it, she protects it, she comforts it, she guides it. And the father, he gives the child a means of livelihood, or what we call sustenance, bread, food, clothing, shelter. And also, the father takes it upon himself to feed the mind, the mental development, to see that the child gets some education.
But before the father's doing the feeding, and to the mind, the mother has already for a long period of time been feeding his mind and we call that first knowledge that he gets from his mother, Mother Wit. Is that right? And then later on he, he's taught by his father. And finally the society. So Allah is the Rabb of all the worlds. And if we notice in the Qur'an, Al-Fatiha, "Bismillah Ar Rahman Nir Raheem".
In the name of Allah, The Name of G-d, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. When the surah begins, "Alhamduillah, All Praise is due to G-d. Rabbil Al Amin. The Rabb of all Worlds, the Rabb of all Worlds. Whether it's the animal world, family world, political world, the universe as a World, our universes as Worlds, Allah is the Rabb of all Worlds.
So, we see that when we say Rabb, we are saying a little bit more than master and savior. We are saying much more. We are talking about Allah who has done this for the whole creation and that He's not limited to definitions like father because those definitions are limited to man's own powers and knowledge. But Allah's power and knowledge is much broader than that. He does this particular job for everything. So, we want to go and discuss the meanings of the call to prayer and eventually get into the steps of prayer itself. We know when we finish the ablution, we are ready to make prayer, Salah.
Now understand this too, that prayer in Islam is quite different from prayer in the Western world. Prayer in the Western world is pleading, begging. Prayer in Islam is worship. Although it includes pleading and begging, it is by description worship. Prayer is worship. And what we call the begging, or the calling to G-d pleading for rescue, or for personal help or for help to members of the family or someone we are concerned about, we call that Du'a. And Du'a means a call or plea to G-d for help, and Du'a is done like this. This is Du'a or it's done this manner. One may do it in many, one may just hold himself like this and make Du'a. But normally Du'a is performed like this because it's a begging for something to be put into your hands, not into your physical hands all the time, but into your control. You want something into your control, something that you can use or something for yourself like this. It's a gesture of a beggar. This is the gesture of the beggar.
Well the Muslim does not only make the gesture of the beggar, the Muslim worship G-d. Why come to me begging when you have not done any service for me? You see. So, first render service and then you are in position to ask for something. Is that right? So, the Muslim prayer is a worship of almighty G-d and we call it As Salah.
Before making Salah, the call to prayer made. And the Muezzin, who is the caller to prayer, he will say, "Allahu Akbar." G-d is the Greatest, it's translated. But Akbar, there's the word means Kabir, means big. Akbar means bigger. Kabir also means important. Akbar means more important. You see. So, Akbar means the greater of two things that is being compared. Now what are the two things that we are comparing when we say "Allahu Akbar"? There is only two real concepts of existence for Muslims. One concept of existence is the concept of the world that Allah created, or the worlds that Allah created. And the other concept of existence is the concept of the being of Almighty G-d. So, between these two, "Allahu Akbar". Akbar is the bigger. So "Allahu Akbar" means when you see the creation and your world all combined with the total creation, then think of G-d and remember that G-d, Allah, Who created these things is Akbar, is the bigger.
So, when we say "Allahu Akbar", we are saying that Allah is the bigger of two things. It means that creation pulls us and G-d pulls us or should pull us and G-d is the bigger and the more important. So, we say "Allahu Akbar", and it's said four times, "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar". So, it's said four times. Why is it said four times? Is this just because someone felt like saying it four times? No, nothing is without meaning. Nothing is without real meaning, especially in Islam. There is real meaning behind that.
When we think of ourselves as the development of the human being, we see that we develop physically, we develop mentally, we develop morally. And these three developments, or sometimes the Christian call it, I think they call it body, mind and spirit. These three developments are necessary developments and the natural developments that human life take, if we are blessed. Some of us never reach the first. We come in the world a rock and we stay a rock. But some of us become flesh and then minds and then spirit or moral makeup, moral and spiritual makeup. So, we have these three developments, but there's a fourth one. Islam does not only speak in threes, but it speaks in fours and sevens and other numbers. You see?. So, this four is talking about completion. After we have developed ourselves, that is our fundamental nature, then that development should settle our, pardon me, should agree should to find harmony in agreement within itself.
We can't live as separate parts. The human being is to live as one whole unit. So, if we try to live physical, mental, spiritual, and moral and see these things in separate parts like this, this is going to keep us divided in ourselves. Is that right? But if we understand that these things are all contributing to the total form of the human being and that we in our form are not one, two, or three, but we are one, a combination of many things and many influences. Is that right? Okay, so what will bring about the unity, the agreement, what will put these things in harmony so that the unit can really live as a unit and not as broken parts. What can do this? Knowledge. But knowledge that is given by G-d Himself. It takes divine knowledge. And when divine knowledge come, then we have another factor on another force now ruling over the three developments. Is that right? And this is who, The King, The King.
The Holy Qur'an says that G-d, in His plan design a ruler, a Khalifa for the earth, is that right? So, from the very beginning, His intention was to make a ruler, a Khalifa. So, the man who comes through the three, pardon me, three four stays development and have not managed to become a ruler over that development, he has not yet completed himself according to the plan of G-d. But if he take on these developments and then sit over, see he has to sit over his flesh. He has to sit over his rational mind. What can sit over the rational mind? Divine knowledge. Once divine knowledge come into man, then he has a higher knowledge to rule over the worldly knowledge. Is that right? Or what we call rational knowledge. Not that his divine knowledge is not going to be rational, his divine knowledge is going to be rational just like his moral knowledge is going to be human. But G-d has not created something that is inhuman, He has created a human being.
So, whatever He gives the human being, it's the likeness of Himself, or something that is of His own nature. Is that right? So, the divine knowledge is in accordance with our nature and it's a rational knowledge, but it's a rational knowledge on a higher plane. It is pure. So that one that comes into the knowledge, that kind of knowledge, then he becomes a king over himself.
But this is not the end yet. But Allah doesn't want us to only become rulers over ourselves. Allah made His Khalifa, His custodians are rulers in earth, will become a ruler or leader or king for society. All right, just like we become rulers over our own world, the own body, then the society should also have a ruler over itself. So, we are trying to quickly move through this now. So, the final development is development of a ruler, development of a kingdom. Jesus said, "The kingdom come," is that right? "That kingdom come." And he also said, "The kingdom is within you." So, it took Prophet Muhammad, who got the complete knowledge, it took him to really tell us, let us know what this is talking about, what this is all about. It is talking about mastery over yourself and in order to have mastery over yourself, you must know the total makeup of yourself.
How can a man master something that he's in part ignorant of? So, the man has to get complete knowledge of himself in order to master himself. Is that right? So, it takes the knowledge of the threefold development in order to give us mastery over ourselves. Then G-d with His divine knowledge gives us that complete picture of ourselves in relation, in our relations with each other and with the world so that the man can really become a king, a light, a sun, a master over himself. So, this is the three pardon me, the four steps. The four steps are the three fundamental developments that are necessary within the person and then the person has to see that outside of himself, light is existing, light is existing. If he shuts himself up in his own dark world, he'll never be able to make his way without fumbling and stumbling and causing trouble for himself and others.
But if he realize that his world is a great world, but this world is fed by an outside world and that outside world is the world of divine truth and Allah is the one that provides that guidance or that food for our development. Then the fourth step is the development of a ruler, or king. We might call him President, we call him by different names. But society naturally moves along certain steps, lines of development. And the end is the development of strong leadership for the whole society. This is human life wherever you find it. In fact, you also see this in animal life. The animals, most of them they work until they have established a leader for themselves. Then once they have a leader for themselves, they go in agreement under the leadership of that leader, following that leader.
All right, so this is what it's telling us. So, we say, "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar" four times. Then our physical power and our physical development, who has made it possible? "Allahu Akbar", is that right? In our mental development, who has made it possible? "Allahu Akbar". In our moral, spiritual development who has made it possible? "Allahu Akbar". In our government who has made it possible? "Allahu Akbar". You see, so these are the steps of development that the human being of the human society naturally takes and he can't stop at three. We can't just have three. So, the three sprinkling of the water is not enough.
We sprinkle three times, but something should happen behind those three sprinklings. So, the world of Christianity, they just keep sprinkling three times and never get the result of the sprinkling. But it took Allah's revelation to Prophet Muhammad, Peace be unto him, it took revelation to him to bring the result, to make something pop up. If a gardener is out there sprinkling three times, he dies, no seed popped up out of earth. His generations follow him and they sprinkle three times, no seed popped up yet. And finally one comes up and he doesn't sprinkle three times he just begin to start talking about these three sprinklings and all of a sudden life pops up out the earth. Then we see what the three was for. It was to bring about the fourth, and that's the government, the kingdom, a society that is ruled over sensibly with divine guidance. So now we talked about "Allahu Akbar," the four takbeers.
Now we go from there and we says, "Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Il Allah." With this knowledge coming to the Muslims, when they know this knowledge, here is the complete knowledge we have received, the knowledge of the process, the developing process from Adam to Muhammad. Muhammad has given us this knowledge now he has shown us the road from Adam to Muhammad. He's shown us what G-d want us to do, the growth that he want us to come in, step by step, from Adam to Muhammad. Now with this understanding I say, " Ash Hadu An La Ha Il Allah." "I give open testimony that there is nothing worthy of worship but Allah."
But before this knowledge, men worshiped the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. They corrupted the worship of Allah. But after we get this knowledge, we don't worship any Trinitarian concept of G-d, which is only a concept of human development. We worship G-d and G-d alone, "Ash Hadu An La Ha Il Allah", only Allah. "La Shiraka Ala", nothing is like unto Him. Not son, not Holy Ghost or anything else. To be like me, you must must be a resemblance. Is that right? How can that only have an atom weight of my potential and image be a likeness of me? And we in our makeup are only atoms, less than that in comparison with the Divine Creator.
So, after we say "Ash Hadu An La Ha Il Allah, and we say it twice. We say, " Ash Hadu An La Ha Il Allah," "Ash Hadu An La Ha Il Allah". Why twice? Because man has been divided by a lack of knowledge of the development of human society. Man has been divided morally, spiritually and physically. And he thought of himself in this world as a physical world and a spiritual world. So, seeing the world has come along physically and developed physically before it came into spiritual understanding, then we look back at our spiritual life, our physical life and our physical accomplishments and we say, "Allahu Akbar." He's the bigger. Then we look at how spiritual accomplishments and we say, "Allahu Akbar." He's the bigger.
Some people look at their spiritual accomplishments and say we are Allah. Is that right? They got people who go through spiritual exercises to become spiritual and once they think they have become spiritual to that degree that they see everything. They say, "I'm G-d, I'm G-d." So, they go through exercises to become G-d but they never create anymore worlds. So, we say, "Allahu Akbar]." Is that right? "Allahu Akbar," twice. "Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Il Allah." We say "Allahu Akbar four times for the development of the human society and then, "Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Il Allah" two times meaning that we recognize Him and Him alone in our physical world, or in the world that we ourselves come into knowledge of, and then when we come into knowledge by divine guidance, in this world, we also say "Allahu Akbar." Is that right? And we express it in "Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Il Allah", for the physical. And then "Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Il Allah" for the spiritual.
No G-d, but one G-d, ruling both. There is no physical G-d. The rest of the world makes the devil look like he's the G-d of the physical and he's exerting and showing off his power like he have power of his own. Is that right? Look at these movies that they make, The Exorcist. G-d shaking up the priest, making the priest commit suicide, terrorizing the place, the devil G-d making the walls shake, making the bed rise up off the floor and everything.
Well this kind of movie is an allegorical projection of what was in somebody's mind. They're telling you something real but they have given you a false picture of it, you see. There is no devil in existence who have power over Allah's creation. The Holy Qur'an says, " Subhana Wa Ta Allah." Allah says in the Qur'an that the devil has no power. The chief devil. Satan himself has no power over My worshipers except the power that they give him. So, the devil call you and you come, you don't have to go. And even descriptions of the Christians, the Bible for the Jews and the Christians, it says rebuke Satan and Satan will flee from you. Then how they come to give Satan so much power to make him a G-d?
All right, let's continue now. This is Ramadan so I'm sure you're not bothered by a long Khutbah. I don't usually have long Khutbahs, they're very short Khutbah. But in Ramadan I thought we should have some long extended Khutbahs. So, we say, "Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Il Allah." One G-d for all, One G-d everywhere, One G-d in both the non spiritual and the spiritual things, matters. Then we say, "Ash Hadu Ana Muhammadan Rasul Allah]." "I give open testimony that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." Because after we have come into all this knowledge we must confess, the conveyor or the medium, pardon me, by which are from which we arrive at this truth. We didn't arrive at this truth by ourselves. There was a Messenger. We didn't go direct to G-d and get this. That was Muhammad of Arabia, about 1400 years ago. He is the one that brought us this great understanding.
So how can we say I bear witness that G-d is G-d and there is nothing like unto Him and express all this great wisdom that somebody else put into our ears without also confessing that G-d missioned an upright man of great character. Holy Qur'an says, "That We have certainly seen, observed him, speaking of Prophet Muhammad, that he is of high, excellent, mighty character." And that is why he was blessed with this.
And in another place it says that we have revealed it "Atha Sabri", on his heart, or on his breast . And in another place, "Atha Qalbihi." "On his heart," you see, on his heart. So here is a man whose heart was right. It didn't say "Ala Rasihi.""Ala Rasihi" would be on his head. But this man's mind was the mind of an Ummi Prophet. He's called the Prophet, the Ummi Prophet, is that right? His mind was a mind that had been built rationally by mother wit. He didn't go to the institutions of the society, he didn't go to the Rabbis, to the Priest, for lessons.
So, G-d did not speak to him in his knowledge because this man had no knowledge. It was this man's heart that opened up for G-d. The ear of his heart was wide open, pleading to G-d. G-d come into us, correct our ways, clear up this pagan society. So, his heart was bleeding and his heart was good, his heart was right. It was the best, it was the strongest. He was willing to make sacrifices for his people. He was willing to deny himself and sacrifice so that the society would become clean and right. And his mind was struggling to get G-d's truth. So, G-d spoke to him where his strength was, in his moral makeup, in his sentiments, in his heart. But when He spoke to him, he conveyed knowledge. Conveyed knowledge. So as the result of the man's heart and soul being right, G-d spoke into his conscience and filled him with the divine truth, gave him the truth and says "This day I've completed my favor on you".
Not just you Muhammad, but on the people, all of them and have chosen for you Islam, Deena, Islam, as a way of repentance, as a way of compensation, as a way of paying your dues. And we call it Deen, but in Deen is also the word payment, paying the due. See a religion that only says G-d gives is not a religion that's going to make a strong society and that's not the right religion. From the very word Deen we get the understanding that something is due from us. And the Holy Qur'an says, "Oh people don't count Islam or your, pardon me, don't count your acceptance of Islam or your practice of Islam a favor to G-d. Don't count it as a favor to Me. It is a favor to you."
All right, so we say, " Ash Hadu An Muhammadan Rasul Allah, Ash Hadu Ana Muhammadan Rasul Allah" twice. Then after expressing or broadcasting, these words that if the wise hear it, not just the one who has hair on his head, the young boys have hair on their heads, but the one who have grown mustaches and beards, if they hear this and if they still have that mustaches and beards, some men wear mustaches and beards but don't have, they have clean faces like babies, but we only see something that is not real. So, their mustache and beards which are symbolic of higher knowledge is not really there. But those that really have the knowledge, they hear the wisdom expressed in this Athan, this call.
Then they hear, says, ".Haya Al Salah" "Come to worship." If you have recognized this truth, then you should rush, "Haya", come alive, rush to worship. Whether you be physical or spiritual, "Haya Al Salah" you need it. I'm not just calling spiritual beings, not just calling the monks and priests and whatnot, this call is for every human being, whether his life is in the ground or above it, come so we can bring you together, put you into some kind of balancing agreement. "Haya Al Salah." "Come to worship, Come to worship." Then we turn to the left, "Haya Al Falaq, Haya Al Falaq." "Come to success," is translated. "Come to success." Certainly is success. But what is Salah talking about? It is talking about cultivation. Cultivation.
The man may be out digging in his plot of land, cultivating his land so he'll have a harvest. The spiritual man may be out preaching to the congregation, trying to cultivate divine life in the people, or spiritual life in the people. So both you worlds who are looking for cultivation, come to the voice of Islam, come to the call of Prophet Muhammad. "Haya Al Salah". "Haya Al Falaq" Come to worship and worship will bring about that cultivation that will bring you harvest in the physical ground and harvest in the spiritual creation. You see isn't this a beautiful call, isn't this a beautiful call? This is a rich Adhan, but how many of us who are Muslims have studied this Adhan and showed the Muslims the richness of this Athan? And I'm just talking on it in brief, I'm not going into it extensively. I'm just hurrying over the discussion of Athan.
All right. Then after he called the people we repeat, "Allahu Akbar" twice. There's no need to say it four times now. Those who come must have had some life in their physical and some life in their moral. If they didn't have some life in the physical part being in the mind, they wouldn't have answered this call. So now that you've answered this call, you've come now, you've followed this along, even if you heard it, if you didn't have it right before, you have at least life now in two stages of your development. So, we only say, "Allahu Akbar," two more times. Meaning that now we want to give you the moral firmness, the moral right and firmness that you need and the organizations are the government that you need, come into moral strength and come into government. This is going to take time. We have woken you up now to your physical needs and we have awaken you to your rational senses because we have struck you with a message from G-d that doesn't send you off on any spiritual trip and separate you from your rational senses. Is that right?
All right, so now we want to establish in you strong conduct, strong moral, and prepare you for government over yourself and government for the world. Is that right? So "Allahu Akbar", twice. And then lastly, "Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Il Allah", once. Why is the last expression, "Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Il Allah" said once? Because we are no more talking to people whose minds are split and divided, who see the world as physical in the world as spiritual. This powerful Adhan has brought knowledge to the people who hear it and have understood it, that world is only one world. G-d created creation. And creation is not to be broken up into spiritual and physical parts, but all of these things work together as one unit.
And man in his physical is of the nature that G-d made him in and that is of the nature of a Muslim. And man in his spiritual is of the same nature. So why should we speak of men as physical and spiritual? Men are men. Allah didn't say, "Let Me create a physical and a spiritual creature." He said, "Let Me create a Khalifah." And a Khalifah indicates that this person is not split up in the halves or into three parts or any other parts, that this person is a whole, well organized whole part. So, we think of life not as spiritual and physical, but we think of it as all divine. We think of the life as human life. Human life. a G-d made life, both physical and spiritual. Do you understand? And when Muslims carry on that duty as Muslims, they don't say I have to give so much for the physical and so much for the spiritual.
We don't break separate our donations like that. We say I have to give so much for Allah's work. So much for Allah's work and that charity covers every aspect of the social needs, of the development needs for social development. If it is physical, we attend to it. If it's moral, spiritual, no matter what kind of human need there is, we attend to it. And whether we make charity into schools, our charities into our businesses, our charities into Salah, Mosque activities, prayer activities, all of this Salah is, pardon me, all of this Zakat or charity, is Zakat. And whether our act is a physical act, spiritual act or a moral act, if that act is done with the intention to satisfy and please G-d and not rebel or cause trouble for Islam or for Allah, Allah's order, then that act is an act of charity. It is not called physical charity or spiritual charity. It is just charity. And worship is not called physical worship and spiritual worship, it's just called worship. Is that right?
All right, so this is Islam. Islam is a religion of wholeness, the religion of unity, the religion of oneness. So, we say, "La Ilaha Il Allah," and that completes the Adhan. Then lastly, the Iqamah is said. And the Iqamah is the Adhan repeated, but with a slight reduction in certain things that we say. And with the inclusion of "Qad Qama Tu Salah", "Now is the time to stand and make Salah." Qad Qama Tu Salah "Now is the time to make Salah." Then we face the Qibla, the Ka'ba, not the sun. We face the Ka'ba, because the light of this world is blinding. Certainly, but the light of G-d is truly the light of the world. So, we don't worship the sunlight. The closer we get to that light, the less we see. It's only good for the eyes at a distance. Is that right? So, we don't worship that light. We worship the light of Allah.
In worshiping the light of Allah, if we take on the nature, of the mental nature of those people who seek the light of the son, we will still become blind because we approach Allah a person with a physical mind, looking for a physical Allah. Then our mental guidance, our mental light, the nature of our mental light will become as a physical thing. And the knowledge that we get will blind us. Instead of opening up our eyes, it will blind us. But if we keep the right position, keep the right mind and attitude and disposition, then G-d will increase our understanding and the nearer we get to Him, the more understanding we will have.
Some people can move toward G-d. Move toward Him constantly, get closer and closer to Him, every step trying to get closer to Him. And the closer they get, the broader their vision gets, the more understanding they get, the clearer things become in their life. Then there's some people, the closer they get, the darker their world gets, the more confused things get that are in their life. That is the because they took a physical attitude, a physical disposition. They have a physical outlook and a physical mentality and this kind of disposition splits the human being up and he can never see the realities.
So now I think we have completed the Athan. And next time, Insha Allah, we'll begin to make comments on the traditions, the traditional steps of Salah. So I say with this part of the Khutbah I completed, I pray that Allah give us the victory that He has promised to believers, the faithful, and establish this Nation of Islam in the West as a strong, decent, honest, upright, kind, merciful, tenderhearted, firm, determined, strong, Nation or body of people in the West that will stand up and not be selfish and declare for the world that the truth out we have is a universal truth. It is a truth from the Creator, the Lord of all the World. And that we are not a separate body from the Muslims all over the world. We are one body and that our mission is the mission of all G-d-fearing people, a mission to bring human life to people who know no life but animal life.
In fact, I would say a life worse than animal life. So, I hope that we can do this and not become selfish, not become proud thinking that we are now the light of the world. Allah and His truth is the Light of the World. And the best we can do is be humble submissive servants serving the advancement of that light and always give credit where credit is due. We give credit to the work of Prophet Muhammad, before even Allah gave us... For righteousness, for decency, for honesty. And he was given the name before Allah missioned him, the name Al-Amin, the trustworthy one. Is that right?
So, we never should forget the contributions Prophet Muhammad made during his whole lifetime from a boy until he passed away as a man of 60 some odd years old. And we should never forget that what we have as a message of Islam, the Qur'an, was a message that his heart earned. His heart earned the receiving of that message. It was not us. So, if his heart has earned it, then let us always say and mean what we are saying, "Ash Hadu Ana Muhammadan Rasul Allah." Not yesterday, today, "I bear witness that Muhammad is a Messenger of Allah, the one through whom the Qur'an was revealed 1400 years ago. Though he's not here physically, I bear witness that he is existing now as the Messenger of Allah." That's what we should say. Because it is of his light, it is of his light, that is his light that I have with me today. Is that right? And it is on this, it is on the stress of this that I established myself.
So, it is not myself, it is Muhammad Raul Allah. "Ash Hadu Muhammadan Rasul Allah". We should be proud to say th8is. If you want to boast of some strength, you have some strength to boast of. Boast of your strength to admit these facts. For it takes a clean heart and a clean mind to get his hands on wealth, knowledge and power and tell the people that it didn't come from my hands, I got it from another. It takes strength to do that and that's what you should be proud of.
We also know that we have also inherited a wealth of strength, a wealth of spirit, a wealth of courage from the leadership of Master Fard Muhammad and Master Elijah Muhammad. So, we should also remember to give them credit, the credit that they are due. And when we speak from their truth and their strength, don't speak from it as though we have invented it today. But let the world know that Master Fard Muhammad and Master Elijah Muhammad, they encouraged us to come together and to have pride in ourselves and do things together to build up our community. Is that right? They put us on the road toward physical development and toward mental development. And though they blinded us spiritually, they were only hood winking us so that our eyes would be closed long enough to the first hood winker so that the next one that comes along behind them would be able to take both blindfolds off. is that right? So, All Praise is Due to Allah, so let's give credit where credit is due. Allahu Akbar.
"Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Il Allah Wa Shaika Lahu. Wa Ashadu Ana Muhammadan Abdahu Rasul Allah". Brothers and sisters, in this last portion of the Khutbah, I want to ask each and every one of us to keep the spirit of Ramadan and be conscious of ourselves as a family, as a community, as a nation, and strive and pray that Allah develop in us concern for our brothers and sisters, so that we can move and grow as one body. And let us pray that Allah bless all of the Muslims everywhere with this renewed spirit for the propagation of Islam that is being felt now in East and in West, and that all Muslims will stand up strong for the truth, the message of the Qur'an. That will stand up strong for Allah and for the last Prophet. And will not be ashamed to tell the world where they stand. The strong men, the old men, the young men, the women, the girls, all of them, let's pray that Allah give them a renewed strength in this month of Ramadan.
Let's pray that Allah bless the Imams who are leading Muslim congregations all over the world with renewed spirit, with renewed strength, to preach the truth as it should be preached. Let us pray that Allah bless Muslims everywhere and that He come into the hearts of all G-d-fearing people and make their hearts right hearts, take out the selfishness, the ugly prejudices from their hearts, so that they will stop seeing each other as Muslim, Jews and Christians and start seeing each other as people striving to please G-d, so that they will compliment each other and walk together.
I know many are not ready for this kind of talk, but the world from the very beginning was divided into two classes. Selfish, materialistic, cruel class and a human class as trying to please G-d. Light and darkness, the wrong and the right. So, we should forget about labels sometime and put more attention, give more attention to contents. And if there's Christians with the contents, and Jews with the contents, Buddhist with the contents, I don't care what they are, if they have the contents, then we should identify with that content that is our contents. Though the labor bely what is in the body, We should identify with that body because the contents speaks the same thing that is my contents. This is how the world is going to overcome the forces of the devil, the forces of evil, corruption and inhuman treatment. This is how it's going to overcome it. It's going to overcome it by the forces of humanity, the forces of G-d fearing, coming together and realizing that they are not enemies of each other, that they're all working in the same field. This is how it's going to come about.
So, though we hold on to our truth and don't allow Jewish interpretations of that truth or Christians interpretations of that truth to influence us or to distract us in any way, we have to recognize that we all are people in one group, are in one camp, so to speak. And it is those people that hate the idea of G-d and hate the idea that people are going to turn toward G-d and give themselves to G-d, it is those people that are the enemies of all of us. They don't want G-d in the common people because they know once G-d comes into the common people, they can only misuse you but so much. So, it is those people, brother, that are the enemy of all G-d-fearing people. So let us realize that. Muslims in many parts of the world now are encouraging interfaith meetings, meeting between Muslims and Christians and even Jews, because we are recognizing today that we are all in a boat together and we have only one enemy.
That enemy is not the free world, is not the Communist world, is not Jew or Christian. That enemy is ignorance, arrogance, greed, moral corruption. These are the enemies of all of us and we all have to band together to overcome these enemies. So let us pray to Allah in this month for the blessings to come to the Nation of Islam so that the promise made to the Muslims in the Revelation to Prophet Muhammad will come true for us and that Allah will establish Muslims, Islam as a predominant way in the world. And to tell you the truth, when you look at the missionary strength of other religions other than Islam, Allah has already made Islam the dominant religion in the world.
When you look at the respect and the attention that the Qur'an gets, in the light of the respect and attention that the Bible and other revealed scriptures get, we can say that Allah has already made this law the dominant religion in the world, but we want to make this manifest by bringing about agreement in actions. For many of our hearts have already taken the position that is closer to this Islam than to anything else. But now we have to get that body, we have to get the actions to manifest so that the world will see that Allah's truth, that completed truth that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad is a light of the world, the salvation of all people.
I thank you. Allahu Akbar
Allahu Akbar.
Speaker 3:
Brothers and sisters, can I have your attention for a minute, we'd like to make an announcement. As you know the chief minister will be... Can I have your attention for a minute?
Speaker 3:
As you know the Chief Minister will be speaking at a church this evening and we made the announcement on Wednesday night. We went over to the church and it can only hold about 300 people. I'm sure that we want to make sure that the Reverend, the Pastor of the Church and his congregation can get in to hear the Chief Minister. So, if we all show up tonight, surely we all can't get in. So, we are asking the Muslims, we're having Mosque services here, there'll be brothers going and we are asking the Muslims maybe who live right around that area, which may be about 200 Muslims or so, if they would just attend the church and other Muslims come to the Mosque. We want to have enough room for the Pastor and his congregation. Thank you, As Salaam Alaikum.


