04/05/1998
IWDM Study Library
Inclusiveness: How Muslims Live with Others

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker: The lecture titled, “Inclusiveness, How Muslims Live Neighborly Among Others”, was recorded Sunday, April the 5th 1998, at Masjid Bilal in Cleveland Ohio. The lecturer is Imam WD Mohammed. Muslim American spokesman and now Imam Muhammad.
Imam WD Mohammed: Asalaam Alaikum.
Audience: Wa alaikum as salaam
Imam Mohammed: We praise G-d, al-hamdu lillahi rabbin aalameen. The praising the thanks is for G-d the Lord Cherisher, Sustainer of the worlds. We witness that Muhammad to whom this Quran was revealed, 1400 and some years ago, is the seal of the prophets mentioned in the Old and New Testament called the Torah, and Injeel we witness that he's the last prophet that he is G-d's servant, and His Messenger, the prayers and the peace be upon him. We witness that he is the model human person, for all human beings on this earth, and especially those who believe in G-d, and who believe that they will have to answer, to G-d one day.
Allah Most High, says of him, of Muhammad in the Quran that he is an excellent model for any who believe in G-d and the last day. The prayers and the peace be upon him. This address today is on inclusiveness and how Muslims live neighborly among others. We go firstly to the history of Islam given by the prophet to us, from Allah in the Quran, and in his model example. The Prophet Muhammad introduced to the peninsula of Arabia, to his countrymen and also to the whole world. The religion of Al Islam or Islam as is commonly called. He will introduce the religion of Islam not as a new religion, but as the religion of those servants of G-d that came before him.
Allah says of the message called the Quran because after all the Quran is itself a message that it is no newly put together or arranged message or book, scripture. Allah says very clearly to us, that it is the religion of Abraham or Ibrahim, in the Quranic Arabic, and it is a religion of the prophets before that are written in the scripture, the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is clear to us from reading the Quran and studying the life from Muhammad the Prophet that Islam, though it was introduced by that name and completed, given complete as a religion by Muhammad the Prophet, 14 centuries or so ago, peace be upon him.
It is said to be the religion of Adam, the first man, first human being, and all of the prophets. The prophet himself, prayers and peace be upon him, he said that everyone is born a Muslim. Born a Muslim. So if we are born a Muslim if everyone is born a Muslim, that tells us that Allah created when he created the human, he created the Muslim. If we are born a Muslim, then when Allah created the human, he created the Muslim. The best of our nature is the Muslim, and the wrong, the sin, the bad behavior we learn or adopt is not the Muslim. The Muslim is the good person that you are, and the non-Muslim is the bad person that you may be. This is how we are to understand that.
If Allah guided Muhammad and he did to teach us the religion and if Allah, G-d obligated us to accept what Muhammad gave us, or gives us, and he did. Then when Muhammad says that all of our people are born a Muslim, we have to accept that because G-d says whatever Muhammad gives you accept, and whatever he prohibits us or denies you, you would reject. Allah says in Muhammad-- Obey G-d, and obey His Messenger. G-d does not require that we only obey Him. G-d requires that we also obey His messenger, Muhammad, because Muhammad the Prophet prayers and the peace be upon him. He was given the job.
He was given the mission to guide us into the religion, to teach us the religion, and guide us into religion and to establish us as Muslims. G-d made him a leader, not just a prophet and a messenger, G-d made him the leader, and G-d made him a witness. He's a witness G-d says of Muhammad, he's a witness, he's a witness to what? He's a witness to the proper way, to obey G-d in Al Islam, and if we follow him, as he directed us to live Islam, then we are witnesses for other people, after Muhammad has gone from this earth, or gone from us, passed away, died, prayers and the peace be upon him. G-d says, and you are a witness.
The community of Muslims following Muhammad says, "You are a witness for the people, that this is the way G-d wants us to live the religion." To understand inclusiveness. We should first understand that Allah created the human being Muslim. Every human being is Muslim in his original creation, every baby born this hour, this minute, this second somewhere on this earth today is born a Muslim, that's not my word, that's Muhammad the prophet's word. Every child, girl, and boy, born this second somewhere on this earth is a Muslim. Allah did not give us, - G-d that is, understand. We say, Allah, we're saying G-d.
G-d does not give us a religion that has to be imposed upon us. G-d gives us a religion that He created us to have an appetite for. He created us to have an appetite for the religion that He gives us. When something in your good nature is going against, something being offered to you, most likely somebody is not offering it to you correctly, or you are not receiving it correctly. It's not that it's wrong. It's something wrong with the purveyor or something wrong with the receiver. If your good nature is rejecting it. Not your mind, I said your good nature. Your mind has been created this world. Not by G-d. G-d did not create your mind you have now. You got that mind from this world.
It's not the mind that you have to test something with, it's your good nature you have to test it with. Be good and straight, clean and up right in your nature. Then you receive things the right way, but you're thinking will be in the way of many things that's good for you, and you know that. That's why some of us too fat, high blood pressure and all these problems. The doctor say the only thing you had to do is eat right, and you won't have all those problems. We know the mind is not always doing the right thing.
Praise be to Allah. It's wonderful to see you all here. We thank Allah for this day, in Cleveland again.
Yes, inclusiveness. How can Islam omit or exclude any human being on this Earth? When the prophet said that every one born, is born a Muslim. That means everyone born is born with the birthright to be a Muslim. He's born a Muslim therefore if someone takes him away from it, he has the birthright to come back to it. That's why Allah says in his holy book the Quran, that it is your inheritance. Al Islam is our inheritance. The world will try to take away from us our inheritance. It's given in a story of the orphans, whose inheritance had been buried under the wall and the wise man was leading Moses to see these things.
Islam is our inheritance not simply because we know they brought our fore parents who many of them are Muslims to this land and we are their children or their descendants. Some of us have a natural connection by virtue of us descending from them, to being their children to Islamic heritage. That's looking at it from the standpoint of history. Something is more important than even that. What is more important is that our creator created us Muslims. Not only the African Americans here or the Middle Easterners here but all human beings wherever they are on this Earth. Whether they know it or not, their birthright is Al Islam because G-d, according to our religion, created each and every one of them a Muslim.
Knowing this religion as I do, I'm convinced that any decent minded, decent person would have the patience to do justice by the message of Al Islam. They will happily choose Al Islam to be their religion. But we can't do justice with the mind that the world has given us. We can't do justice to it with that mind. It is only G-d that can bless us with faith. G-d told the prophet, you cannot cause anyone to believe, only G-d can open them up for faith. No matter how strong the argument is, no matter how clear the argument is, G-d has already told our prophet. They can't make a person believe if Muhammad couldn't make a person believe, brother Imam, why should you beat your brains out? You say, “I'm determined to convert this brother, to have him take his Shahada”.
[laughter]
No, you do the best you can and you be comfortable. You give the message clear and you be comfortable. Don't worry about it, it's not your job to make him take Shahada. It's not your job to get him to take Shahada. G-d will open his heart, his breast to Al Islam and he will take Shahada. If G-d doesn't do it, it will never happen. G-d won't do it until he wants it in his own soul. When he wants it in his own soul, then G-d will come to him and give him Al Islam. That is open his heart or his breast to Al Islam, his chest to Al Islam, his soul to Al Islam.
Inclusiveness, it is very clear then for us that Islam is not a religion for a particular group of people on this Earth. That Islam is a religion for all people on this Earth. It is the property, it is the natural property of all people on this Earth. It's the logic. I'm following a logic. I'm following nothing but logic. I want you to know that. Muhammad the prophet is my leader and G-d said that he will-- It is prophesied in the Torah, and the Old Testament, and the New Testament, and in the Injil that one would come to free the people, take the heavy yoke off their back that was enslaving them, that was the burden of slavery.
He would break every bond, free all captives. Whatever was holding you as a captive, he would come. This one would free all- break all the bonds or all the bands that bound the people to captivity of any form, whether it's captive of corruption, captive of ignorance, captive of political powers or whatever it is, captives of ideologies. Ideologies enslave us. Captives of an ideology or whatever it is, our particular personal- the personalities enslave us. No matter what form of slavery it is, here come the man from G-d one day promised in the old books in the new that he would be the liberator to free them from the yoke of slavery and take them from every bond that held them captive. This is Muhammad the prophet.
Allah says that it's him. Says that he is the untaught, the messenger prophet mentioned in the Torah, and in the gospel and in the Injil. He would come to purify them and to teach them the book and the wisdom. They translated wisdom. It means the logic. The book has a logic, and it's wisdom too because once you know that logic, you're wise. Once you know the logic, you have the wisdom. If you know any of the logic you have some wisdom. You don't know all of the logic. If you just know some of the logic, you have some wisdom. The logic is the wisdom. You will teach them the book and the wisdom and the same one will do what?
Take from them the yoke that weighed them down, yoke of slavery and break every bond that held them in some form of captivity so that their soul would be free before they maker, free before their lord creator. Praise be to Allah. Inclusive religion, inclusive means not leaving out any. This is a religion of inclusiveness, it leaves out no people, all people have a birthright to Al Islam because they were born Muslim. Allah promised that he would complete this religion. He promised that he would perfect it and complete it.
It was done in the lifetime of Muhammad the prophet. It says this day, I have perfected for you your religion. Completed for you your religion. Perfected and completed for you your religion. G-d's speaking, he said that I have- I, G-d says, speaking of himself, have chosen for you Islam as religion. Here G-d created us Muslim and then he chose Islam, the world is full of religions, but he makes it clear that if these religions fall short of being Islam, they are not my choice. If Buddhism falls short of being Islam, it's not G-d's choice. If Judaism, the religion of the Jews fall short of being Islam, is not Allah's choice, it's not G-d's choice. Who G-d? It's not the Jews' G-d's choice.
[laughter]
Make it clear. If his religion fall short of being Islam, then his religion is not his G-d's choice for him. But Al Islam and the Quran and in Muhammad's teaching is Allah's or G-d's choice. His G-d's choice for him. Same thing goes for Christian. If Christianity fall short of being Islam, then Christianity is not the Christian's G-d's choice of religion for them. The Christian's G-d's choice of religion for them is the religion in this book, the Quran as lived by Muhammad the prophet who received this book. This is the logic. The Jews said their religion is the religion of Abraham and the prophets. Allah says in the Quran, this is the religion, Al Islam is the religion of Abraham and the prophets.
You think they have some different G-d from our G-d? Then why would G-d tell us in the Quran, "Say to them, our G-d is your G-d and your G-d is our G-d, the G-d is one and the same." That is what Allah said. It's plainly here. Tell them, "Your G-d is our G-d and our G-d is your G-d and the G-d is one and the same." How can there be different G-ds? Some of those G-ds will be false. Some are not G-d, if they’re different G-ds, then the different G-ds are not G-d. Only one G-d is the G-d and the others are false G-ds, they are not G-ds at all. I have talked with some of the most- the wisest people in religion, I'm meeting with them.
Those representing the wisest and most knowledgeable people in Christianity, in Judaism, in Buddhism, in Hinduism, in world religions. I'm meeting with them. G-d has blessed me to have connections with these people. They invited me and I came. I'm among them, I'm in organizations with them. World organizations working for peace and understanding on this earth so that we can have a better world for all of us. I'm with them, working with them and none of them have a problem acknowledging that the G-d for Christian, Jews, and Muslims are the same G-d. None of them have a problem with all that, they're intelligible people, they're very educated people. They're not narrow-minded. Small peanut head people.
[laughter]
These are big people, these are real big people, important people, with brains and educated, full of knowledge. Some of them have many Ph.D.s. I don't have one, but obviously, I've done something or G-d have done something to me that qualify me to sit with them-
Audience: [unintelligible 00:22:10].
Imam: - at the table to make judgments and decisions.
Audience: [unintelligible 00:22:12].
Imam: They don't invite me to look at them, they invite me to sit with them and engage them in conversations, discussions and help them come to right conclusions. We all participate at the table and we're all are respected as equals. As equals, we're respected as equals at that table whenever we sit, and as I said, most times, more than 50% of them have many Ph.D., not one. I don't have a one, not one single Ph.D. not one college degree, no I don't have it. Isn't that what G-d said in the holy book, that He has the power to educate the human being. When He educates a human being, that human being can stand anywhere-
Audience: [foreign language]
He can stand anywhere when G-d educates a human being. G-d has revealed the book and given us the guide and is ever present with us. All the time, to help us with this book and to help us with the guide, Muhammad and to educate us so that we will not have to feel ashamed standing before anybody in the world. Defending our right to represent G-d's way on this earth for all people. I'm not talking to you about something I believe in, I'm talking to you about something I experienced. I have already experienced this, I'm living this right now. This is my life now. Engaging people with knowledge and having them tell me, “You are a doctor." I say, "I have no doctorate." "You're a doctor, you do have it."
Audience: [unintelligible 00:24:12]
Imam: That's what they tell me, they insist. In fact, they're offended when I tell them I'm not. They say, "No, you are a doctor."
[laughter]
One of them took on the side and told me. He said, "Look, I have degrees, not one." He say, “I have many degrees.” He said, “And I know when a person is qualified." He said, “Brother Mohammed, never say you're not a doctor again." He said, "Never say that."
[laughter]
He say, "I hear you and I know you're a doctor."
Audience: [unintelligible 00:24:46]
Imam: That's what they tell me, I only can say, "Praise be to Allah."
Audience: [unintelligible 00:24:52].
Imam: "Praise be to Allah." The ways of the Lord is marvelous.
Audience: [unintelligible 00:24:57].
It's all I can say.
Inclusiveness, we going to dwell on this term. Inclusiveness. We need to dwell on this term so that we can be neighbor we have to be or we should be. Inclusiveness in Al Islam needs the term, tawhid for us to understand inclusiveness. Where do we go to find our inclusiveness or our perception or our idea, or our meaning for inclusiveness? What is inclusiveness to Muslims?
I have already start talking about it, tawhid. I've talked about the Muslim as the creation of G-d and that all people according to Muhammad the prophet, [foreign language], peace prayers and peace be on him, are Muslims in their birth. In their birth they are Muslim. Allah has taught us with the Quran and with Muhammad to see tawhid firstly, in this picture. G-d does not tell us to see G-d as one first. You don't go right directly to G-d and find G-d. When Moses wanted to find G-d or see G-d, he wanted to go directly to G-d, but obviously his nature knew better because he came to the mountain.
[laughter]
If he could just go directly to Him, he should have stayed where he was. He didn't have to come to the mountain, but he came to a mountain that he regarded as a holy and sacred mountain. He say he saw a fire. The fire attracted him so he told his people. In fact, it was his wife, according to the Bible he say, “I perceive a fire.” And it's in the Quran, “I perceive a fire, I'm going there." He says, "he says perchance" Means may be. [chuckles]
[laughter]
You know bible language. Old English. Is good, but you had to break it down for homie.
[laughter]
Homeboy, I'm break it down for you homeboy.
[laughter]
Moses said, "Peace be upon Him, maybe I'll find something there to warm us with or something for branding, for the branding iron." Something to warm them with or something for the branding, - fire. That they could use to warm by and to get use of, do whatever they need to do, cook or just brand the cattle, because he was attending the cattle of his wife's father at that time.
He went there, when he got there, he heard a voice and the voice said, "Take off your shoes, you're on sacred grounds." He took off his shoes and to make the story short, he finally goes up the mountain, ascend up the mountain and there he calls on G-d and he speaks to G-d and G-d speaks to him. He says to G-d, "Let me see you or show me your face. Let me see you." He says. G-d reply to him, "You can't see me directly."
[silence]
-the mountain, this is Quran, but look at the mountain and if the mountain remains intact as it is, you will see me and Moses, Musa, Moses fainted. The mountain disappeared, he fainted the mountain disappeared. The answer is that he didn't see G-d directly and G-d was teaching him. Here's G-d bringing a prophet up, he was a prophet. G-d has already selected him to be a prophet even though he didn't know it. G-d has selected him to be His prophet. His prophet to the Jews, to Israel, the sons of Israel, children of Israel. He was being educated. Later he receives the Commandments from G-d and everything but he never again asked G-d to show me your face.
[laughter]
Obviously that lesson was enough for Moses.
Audience: [unintelligible 00:30:47].
[laughs] So here we are, we are in the world and we don't understand tawhid. The Imam said as we were coming here, he said that, Imam, I don't know how he does this. But he would come out with a piece of paper. They're professors with all kind of the degrees and they have sheets of paper. He had come out with one little piece of paper.
[laughter]
They say he hardly looks like he's reading it or looking at it. He said, "Sometimes I don't even know if you have anything on the paper."
[laughter]
I told him I say it's organized up here. I organized it up here. I spent many hours, days, sometimes weeks to months depending on how long I have to deal with the subject, to work on the topic, working on that and I have it so well organized up here, I don't need much of this. I have something here so that I can refer back to it. You see I haven't looked at it in a little a while. I haven't even looked at it.
tawhid getting back to tawhid. To understand, tawhid comes from the word, - one. tawhid comes from the word meaning one. It means oneness. tawhid means oneness, a special oneness that helps us understand the oneness of G-d. It's a special concept of the Oneness of reality that helps us understand the oneness of G-d. That's what tawhid is. G-d I said earlier, does not take us directly to Him, to see Him but G-d takes us to the world that He made to see Him.
If you will study again, or just refresh your mind if you're familiar with the Bible that most of you have Christian background and many of you are studious, you are scripture students. If you just go back and refresh your mind, you'll find that the prophets who were looking for G-d, to discover G-d, to know G-d. They saw signs of proof of him being real and existing in what they were looking at as the creation itself. The prophets of the Old Testament and the spirit is in the new testament too. The prophet of the Old Testament, they would marvel over, they would just be-- Mind would be put into awe.
They would be so much attracted to and excited about and touched by the creation itself. The rain how it comes. The wind and how it moves the clouds. The stars how they appear to be so high above that are so beautiful and orderly on a clear night or any night you can see them. The wonders of nature, how things happen to bring about great changes in the order of creation. They look at these things the beautiful flowers, how He made the animals to live and exist. They looked at all that and they called all that the hand- I'm quoting exactly the Bible, the word is in the Bible. Handiworks of G-d. or handiworks of the Lord Creator. They called it His handiworks.
They saw the creation, the sky and the beauty of the sky and the world and climate or weather, the interaction of all that and the many creatures and beautiful flowers and animals and everything and herbs that grow from the Earth. They saw all of that as the artwork of the artist. They saw the artist as G-d Almighty the creator who did it all. They came to believe that a G-d is behind all this. That this is not accidental. Then they looked at their own self, their own creation, man and they witness that man had a maker. G-d, the one who designed the heavens and the earth.
This is how I came to believe in G-d according to the Bible. This is how they came, to know G-d, to have a meeting with G-d. This is how we have to come to know G-d, have a meeting with G-d.
We know G-d through his works, through his creation not directly. Let me tell you something, the way G-d has deemed for us to know him is the best way for us to know each other. Some people claim they knew some people and Muhammad the prophet prayers and peace be upon him said, "Have you worked with him? Did you work with him?" They said no. The Prophet said that then you don't know them. So you don't know people by seeing them, you know a face, you know a picture. That's all you know.
To know that person, you have to have some experience with that person then you come to know that person. How are knowing them? Directly? No. You are knowing them through their behavior. You're knowing them through their actions, you're knowing them through their changes, the changes that come upon them, of that they experience, or that you witness in a relationship with them, a mood change, from happy to sad. A mind change from this interest to that interest. When you have enough chance with that person to see them express themselves in the many ways that people express themselves, you finally come to know that person. Some people live together, sleep in the bed with each other, husband and wife, 50 years and they're nothing but two strangers.
[laughter]
Why? Because they haven't cared to do anything but boogie-boogie together.
[laughter]
They have had no more interest in each other than just to boogie-boogie together. They say, well its another day honey, we just boogie-boogie.
[laughter]
No human exchange, no human interaction. No. You don't learn each other moods and how it affects the heart, what affect the mind, what affects their spirit and how they look when you're happy and how they look when sad, you don't care all you want is the boogie-boogie.
[laughter]
You can make the boogie-boogie or whatever you want it to be.
[laughter]
Don't blame it on me. I'm just saying the boogie-boogie.
[laughter]
What I mean is some insignificant unimportant activity you having together for humans awareness, for human interest and human awareness, is unimportant. People don't know the rule that applies to G-d when it comes to knowing G-d applies to everybody. How can you know each other just looking at a physical picture? You'll never know each other. You've got to have interaction, exchange. tawhid, oneness of G-d. G-d teaches us with His Quran and Muhammad, the teacher. G-d teaches us that tawhid begins with us recognizing, realizing that the creation itself is one.
There's no two creations. What I mean by that, there are no two created realities. There's only one created reality. There's one created world. The world of stars and earth is one created world. There is no two, only one. That world is under one law. Science may call it universal gravity, but it's under one law. It is all held together by one law. The moon belongs to the earth, the earth belongs to the moon, the moon and the earth belongs to the sun. The sun belongs to the moon and the earth. The stars out there no matter how many or how far away, they belong to each other. They are of the same nature, they are members of one body called the universe.
All matter in science, all, A-L-L, matter, M-A-T-T-E-R. I have to explain this to you all. You make my matter, I'll see it in prep next week "mother". "Oh, but Imam, he couldn't understand what you were saying, Brother Imam." You weren't listening. Your brain was dead, at least to the subject. Yes, deaf, dumb and blind. (Speaking in Arabic) can't understand. That doesn't mean that you're really blind, deaf and dumb. It means that your attitude cuts you off from receiving communication. It's just as though you have no ears, no eyes, no speech, nothing. You know your attention can be given so strongly to something, somebody can be shouting loud, you won't even hear. Right? That's why Islam or consciousness began for us in the morning with what?
Audience: [unintelligible 00:42:16]
Imam: The call to prayer. The hands up to the ears mean, my ears are all yours G-d. Mean that your ears are open to G-d. That's what it means. So you can't live unless you open your ears to G-d because G-d's word is the life. If you don't open your ears to it, you won't get the life, so you'll be dead. Now getting back to tawhid, that's tawhid too, all that. Nothing we could say that doesn't touch upon tawhid, the inclusiveness. So, the whole system is one system. Now G-d said this long before we had science, modern science and now modern science has established that the whole material creation, they don't not say creation, they want to avoid these terms that implies or suggests G-d, they don't want to have anything to do with religion.
They don't use that kind of language. They say that all matter is one system. This is science, but they didn't say it first. G-d revealed it first. Allah says in the Quran, "Can't they see that the heavens and the earth was one whole? One complete whole?" All this is one complete world. And it says, "If there were G-ds", meaning more than one G-d, you will see a sign in His creation. That this difference from this, so that must be a different G-d from that made that. It's not like this. There is one consistent pattern for the whole creation.
The iron that falls down from the sky, from a fragment of a planet, or a star out there, and hits the earth and the scientist discover it, it ain't no different from the iron in the earth. It is iron [unintelligible 00:44:21]. So, whatever element falls out there, it ain't no different from the elements down here. So, the constitutional or makeup of the bodies are all the same. They all are made of the same essential elements. You may say, "well brother Iman you said that there is only one world." Out of respect, I am not going to interrupt you. Or make your meeting bad here today, but I know because the great Sheikh so-in-so,
[laughter]
- he said the real world is not this world and that's true. Let's look at that other world. G-d never said other world, G-d just said: "This and the latter" in the Quran. This and the latter. G-d speaks of another creation, but that other creation that he's talking about, he did it already. It's all taken together as one creation.
G-d speaks of the human creation in two stages. A first stage creation and a second stage creation. The second stage creation is a creation of the abstract person in the material body. It is the creation of an enlightened person, enlightened by G-d, in the flesh of body. G-d speaks of this as [foreign language], another creation. Understand that even creation, the word creation in Quranic Arabic are in Arabic, period. It's not like creation in the English dictionary. It's not. Creation in the Quranic Arabic means character and characteristics. So, G-d gave you one character and certain characteristics, in the first. Then He remakes you, He enlightens you and you take on another character and new characteristics.
We experience this, many of you on the floor you experienced this already. You came to Al Islam and you came to college with one mind, you got educated and you came into another mind and your character changed from that of the past to the new character. Your characteristics were improved and magnified and made many. You became a multi-facet creature. Whereas before you were simplistic creature with just a few attributes. With knowledge, you gained many attributes, many characteristics upon a strong character. The character of the intellect. This is what you experienced. This is all it's talking about. Isn't this wonderful?
Audience: [unintelligible 00:47:31]
Imam: Isn't it wonderful to have plain language?
Audience: [unintelligible 00:47:34]
Imam: That's the promise of G-d. Even Jesus promised that in their Bible. He said "I speak to you on parables" peace be upon him. He said, "I speak to you in parables now but I will come and again and I will speak to you in plain language." Isn't that what he said? Isn't that the Bible? You all study the Bible, you know. If you don't know, maybe you should study it.
[laughter]
I know in the time of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, we had many of them study it. Excuse me one moment. Speak in plain language, religion gets confused. The language of religion gets so confused in time. So confused. G-d revealed the religion, clear to people, but in time, generation after generation people live and die, live and die, live and die. Finally, the people have gotten so strayed, gone so off from the clear language of their religion, that it ain't nothing but a lot of hard to understand words or ideas.
The communication is not clear at all. It may take you away from the religion. The communication itself may take you away from the religion. So, that is why G-d promised that religion will be made clear. Others will come, and again are back, or new ones will come and clear the religion for the people.
This is an obligation on G-d to have His will and way for the people given to them in a way that they can understand it and feel comfortable with it and know it without doubt or confusion of mind. I thank Allah that Quran is the book, it's the clear book and it will guide its students to the clear way of expression if they trust the Quran and if they trust Mohammed the prophet who received the Quran and lived it and taught it. Yes back to tawhid again. tawhid begins with us recognizing that all objects in the world that we can see including ourselves and we are a very important object in the creation. We're very important object, are part of one whole. We are parts in one whole.
The whole has born us. We have been born out of or developed out of the whole. We think of ourselves as dwellers on earth don't we? We can't think of ourselves as products of earth only. Listen, please. Why? I'm speaking scientifically now. Why? Because the sun- Science says, the sun feeds my body, just like it does to trees and flowers and everything. The sun feeds our bodies. Science says that when it rains, nitrates come down with the rain. Nitrates. These are elements, substance, not just water. Nitrates come down with the rain. Come down from where? Up in the sky, up in elements up there.
Not only that, the ancient Egyptians even knew this, that heavenly bodies far away, stars far away have some kind of magnetic influence on us down here on Earth. We are not just creatures of the Earth only. We are creatures of the universe. That's where we get the language, cosmic life. We all are cosmic beings, while at the same time, being earth beings or earth dwellers. We are cosmic beings. If you study the scripture, G-d focus in firstly on the cosmic creation. Doesn't he? He focus in firstly on the cosmic creation, on human beings as a cosmic creation, meaning that the heavens and the earth produced you, not just the earth, the heavens and the earth produce you.
This is important to understand that the term heaven in Arabic is simply skies. Understand that. The term heaven in English is simply elevated. That's all heaven means. Elevated. High up. That's all it means. In Arabic, what it means is simply skies. The word comes from [unintelligible 00:52:32] the plural. [unintelligible 00:52:34] one sky is [unintelligible 00:52:35]. Plural [unintelligible 00:52:37]. Skies. G-d is the G-d who created earth [foreign language]. He created the skies and earth. Skies. Where the word sky itself come from [unintelligible 00:52:49]. It comes from a word simply meaning sameness or similarities.
The seven skies the seven heavens mean that they are same. They're similar. This term is used. They are same or similar in body. This suggests that this was the first object. From that came all the other objects. All the other names, all the other identities came out of that. That's what it suggests. That in that was the first object, the first identity and all other identities came from that. That idea is also in the scripture, both Bible and Quran, and that He had made the heavens as a board, a blackboard. Made it as a script of great- that great screen holding a great script. The heavens.
That idea is extended in the language of the Quran, further extended in the language of Quran that says, "In all the sky, there are signs, the signs of G-d as well as in ourselves." All the creation is a script. This is Quran. All the creation is a script. A script is for reading. That tells us that all of creation can be read. That tells us further that Allah created all of the script, all of the objective the world, skies and earth, and us in it, and everything in it to be read. In other words, we are to see messages from G-d in everything that exist. This is the truth, plain truth, and logic. We are to see messages from G-d in everything that exists. That's why they call universe. One verse.
Audience: [unintelligible 00:55:09]
Imam: Isn't it wonderful?
Audience: Yes.
Imam: It's strange that we can walk in the dark so long and become so familiar with darkness, but don't know it is light. Not really darkness, there's light, but we are so familiar with it. We walk in it, but we don't get any light at all. It's darkness for us. We see it all the time. What I mean, you read this in the scripture, too, but you didn't see it. You heard that word, universe, all your life maybe.
[gap in the recording] We have just formed another company.
[laughter]
Yes, we have. No joke. Business company. This is not the subject here. G-d bless me with the term for it. I was straining my mind I wanted the term that would satisfy the interest that I have in my mind. G-d bless blessed me with the term. You will be familiar with it later in the future it's called "UniTrust". When I gave it to the attorney for us to have it incorporated on that name, the company-- fixed on the name. Now we already had the need for the company, what we needed it to be put on paper and a name for the company, it had to have a name. When I gave the attorney this name "UniTrust" he said, "It's just a procedure that you have to follow." He said well, "I'll go and see if no one else has used it."
When he came back he told me and said, "But Imam there's another company existing called "UniTrust" International. I might want to change the word the language somehow so that we can use it." I said, "Let me think about it. I say, maybe Allah will bless us with a better term, better name another name." I did some brainstorming to get that. I said, "Let me think about it." I didn't think to call him up, three days later or four days later we met again for business. He said, "Brother Imam I called downstate," and that's where we have to get the company incorporated downstate, that's where we are going Illinois. He said, "They said that we can use it." He said it is available."
We end up with the term "UniTrust", it will be "UniTrust" meaning one trust. In Islamic knowledge and life, we trust G-d that's one trust. But G-d says, trust G-d and trust his messenger, so that's two trust, right? Okay, we trust each other, don't we? That's another trust. We trust G-d angels. G-d says, and trust His angels. That's another trust, we have many trusts. Don't we? But we have one trust. [laughs] Like this nation E Pluribus Unum, one of many. Many nations, many nationalities come here and they conform to the law and way of one nation America US.
We have one nation of many and we have one trust of many. What is that one trust? Trust in G-d. It's only in the trust that G-d wants us to have for Him. That other trust are admitted and qualified. We trust Muhammad the prophet because Muhammad the prophet trust G-d and He is the servant of G-d, obedient, upright moral servant of G-d. We trust the angels because they are the servants of G-d, the messengers of G-d. Whatever we trust other than G-d it qualified it becomes real for us because of the trust in G-d. Really there are many trusts in one G-d. The trust comes under the trust of G-d. I'm a business-practical man too.
I told the brothers in the meetings sisters too we have sisters there too, see we don't keep-- we not sex crazy, or sex tilted. We're pretty balanced. I said, now that I explain the Islamic side of it. I said, "Now let me tell you what we mean business when we say "UniTrust". We mean that we trust this business. We trust the business vision, economic vision that we have and it's one. Our vision is one and we trust it based upon what we have as a business vision, we trust it." Though we have many entities who setting up another company. The trust is one.
The trust is the knowledge and vision, the logic and the objectives that we hoped to reach, when we see that and we trust it then I trust it, you trust it, we have one trust, don't we? We have one trust in business, we trust one business promise. This is the business promise we have. You trust that business promise, I trust that business promise. Okay, you aren't loyal to that business promise, - out. Although I might have initiated it, G-d initiated it as far as my knowledge goes G-d initiated it, G-d has inspired me to come up with these ideas. G-d has initiated. It's the blessings from Allah, the Mercy of Allah.
If you see me as the initiator, the person among the human person that's with it, I'm the one who started all this now. This new thing, vision for improving our lives materially. [clears throat] This new vision CPC, okay. If I'm not loyal to the nature, concept, promise, vision, logic of this business idea, - out with me. That's the way people succeed. This is the way people really succeed in life. This is the way of intelligent, educated, civilized society. You don't set a man up and put everything at risk by saying this is what holds it all together. That man holds it all together. You putting it all at risk because that man is going to get sick. That man is going to die, that man may go crazy.
[laughter]
Imam: Yes. Only thing you have to do is marry four wives in America.
[laughter]
I just saw a way to help another situation.
[laughter]
With a few words.
[laughter]
I couldn't resist the temptation.
[laughter]
Fools rush in where where wise men fear to tread.
[laughter]
I'm just trying to slow up the rush.
[laughter]
Praise be to Allah. Now, getting back to our subject. "UniTrust", one G-d, we trust that one G-d. If we know how-- first, we have to love the logic that G-d gives us. We have to love it. When you love the reasoning, the logic, the reasoning and the logic that G-d reveals, then without actually trying your mind, your reasoning, your feelings, your emotions, everything in you starts to be influenced by that and starts to agree with that and conform to that. That's how I come up with "UniTrust" because I love that logic. G-d says, "[Arabic]". G-d has caused everything he made to be extended, supported by to be extended have its extending life or extending existence. Everything is growing, everything is in motion, moving and growing. Upon what aim means science. It means science. Rahman and mercy.
Just little small expression, - that's wisdom. That statement in the Quran little small expression in the Quran is great wisdom. If we want to plan our life, we want to plan our business. Our business vision, it's more than just a business, it's a business vision. If we want to plan our business vision for getting us from where we are now materially speaking or economically speaking to where we would like to be in this world then we should appreciate the logic that G-d has given us. We should appreciate the way G-d says He has done things. Now we want to grow. We want to see our work extended. Let us be sure that it's respecting the laws of science. I mean real science, Allah created science, not what you get out of these colleges.
That's science but it might be 90% pure, but I doubt if it's 100% pure. That means 100% in accord with the logic that G-d has put in the matter. I don't know if it's 100 % accurate or in accord with that or not. I say G-d science, the science created by G-d. If you want to do things respect that. Respect these laws of reality that G-d made. Remember what G-d said, how He extended things, not just upon laws but He extended things upon mercy. Where is the mercy going to be in our concept of our business? Where is the mercy going to be in our vision for getting us from here where we are to where we want to go.
We have to move not only with high knowledge, wisdom, high knowledge science and exact knowledge but we have to move with compassion, with mercy for human beings, for human life, for our brothers and sisters in the religion, for our neighbors who are not Muslims. (unclear) and Rahman. This is living the Quran. This is how you live the Quran. The Quran is not just for us to just read and be educated to say that we know what it's saying. The real purpose is to have it, support, guide and support our life. We have to know how to interpret it and apply it to our life. We have the strength of Islam in our own lives, not in spirit only but in logic and in mercy or compassion, the kindness of Islam. Its kindness, we have to have it on life and our own works, our practices, our own devotions to business, everything.
If we practice that how can we not be successful? No way we going to fail if we practice that. Yes, tawhid the oneness of G-d's creation, the unity of His creation, it's all one universe, one system of matter. One system with many systems operating in it. But it is one system, the system that holds it all together and keeps it all conforming to nature and the rules of law or order that G-d created for it or created it for. This is the beauty, tawhid. Just a moment I'll pulling the glasses out now. I've got a plane I'm supposed to catch. You've got something you are suppose to catch too. Let me hurry up.
[laughter]
Imam: Yes. That's another thing we have to do. Just because you're going to catch a plane and the other one's going to catch something else you can't make your matter more important than theirs, because their matter to them maybe even more important to them than yours is to you. I respect your obligations, your commitments and everything or just your desire, I have to respect that. I'm going to hurry up and sum this up.
Inclusiveness, yes, tawhid and inclusiveness I'm putting them together because this oneness takes us to the language or to this terminology we have here this term, inclusiveness. It is inclusiveness that provides or presents to us the oneness. This is included. This is part of the same nature. This is part of the same nature so it's included. This is part of the same logic so it's included. This inclusiveness is what enables us to see the oneness, correct? That's where we able to see oneness like my body is one human body isn't it. This is a finger, not a tongue. this is a finger, ain't no tongue it's a finger.
But all of these taken together it's included, is part of this system, it survives in this system. Take it off the system it dies. It is a necessary part of the system. It is an extension of the life of this system. Its logic is the logic of the system. It's life is the life of the system and its logic has the same logic. Same way the whole universe. Same thing goes for the whole universe. It's included, my fingers included in my body. If you draw a picture of me and my anatomy or whatever and you leave that finger out of there, we say hey, you missed something, a finger goes there it's included. Right?
Audience: Right?
Imam: Okay. The inclusion of all these things as natural members in one body is what brings to us the idea of oneness, that this is one body. Okay. Same thing for the universe. This inclusiveness is to be understood firstly then we can appreciate what is meant by oneness. Now I come to another expression here. Religious freedom, we have to understand that though G-d says, Islam is a religion of man, the religion of Adam, the religion of all the prophets. Their natural hesitance, our inheritances. Heritage pardon me our inheritance. Yes. Though G-d says that G-d also says, "And I have preferred for you Islam as a religion." Isn't that a soft way of putting it?
Audience: Yes.
G-d didn't say like He said for the 10 Commandments. Gave Moses 10 Commandments. There were no softening of that language. Thou shall, thou shall. Right? But when it comes to giving us, Islam. The Quran and Islam doesn't that constitute or comprise our Commandments. Yes. These are our Commandments. When Allah gave the Quran to Muhammad, these are our Commandments. He doesn't say “thou shall” like bam bam bam like that.
[laughter]
But it's soft, He says, "I have preferred for you, meaning that there are other choices. Anytime that G-d says, "I have preferred for you," G-d is saying there are other choices. G-d didn't exclude or dismiss the possibility or the fact that there are other choices. People are choosing Christianity. People are choosing Judaism. People are choosing other religions, the Sabians – the Sabians are mentioned in the Quran and they still exist. They didn't go no anywhere. A few of them are still existing over the middle East, called Sabians. G-d didn't dismiss those religions. But he says, "I have preferred for you this day” - this day. If he says this day that means maybe yesterday He didn't.
[laughter]
Listen, If G-d says, "This day, I prefer for you Islam," maybe yesterday He didn't. What did He prefer for them yesterday Brother Imam? Maybe Judaism, maybe Christianity who knows. I think whoever He gave His Covenant to He preferred that way at that time. If His covenant was with the Jews at that time that He gave His Covenant to the Jews then that was what He preferred.
When His Covenant came to the people of Imran. To the family of Imran then-- I'm reasoning that their religion if they had it was what He preferred. But His (unclear) was that He would perfect His light, G-d himself would complete and perfect His light. He did that in revealing the Quran. Now just like he took the Covenant off one before and put it on another prior to Muhammad the prophet when Al-Islam comes, and the last prophet comes then He takes the Covenant off of the one that it was on and He puts the Covenant on the Muslims, on the ummah of Al-Islam.
He says "this day," He completed the revealing of the Quran to Muhammad the prophet. He says, "This day have I completed for your religion, perfected for your religion and completed my favor on you." My favor on you. Meaning that I favored my creation, I favored human beings. I promised them that I was going to favor them and I have been extending my favor to them from the time that they were created till this time, the old prophets, the new and now the last Muhammad. With Muhammad, he completes his favor on the human beings [crosstalk] that he created Muslims.
He completed His favor on them and said, "this day I have perfected for you your religion and completed my favor on you. I have chosen for you," have chosen for you, so, G-d has a choice of religions. Before this choice, His choice was with others, His covenant was with others, his choice was with others, but his choice had not been completed and manifests. Actually they were just stages in the growth toward completion. This is the logic. Whatever He gave the early prophets, what they got was stages in the growth toward completion and perfection. Whatever He gave Moses of the Jews are stages and growth toward perfection and completion, then when it is completed and perfected then He says, "Okay, you've seen what I have tolerated.
[laughter]
You have seen what I have been putting up with. I gave my covenant to these people but you see how they lost it? Now, I'm giving it to you. My choice used to be with them. They used to be my ambassadors, message carriers and ambassadors but now I'm giving it to Muhammad and his followers." Praise be to Allah. It says then anyone who will reject this religion after G-d has perfected it and completed His favor upon, if anyone will reject this religion he makes himself a fool.
Here is what G-d said, "If anyone rejects this religion they make themselves a fool." Actually, it means that they debase, they cheapen their own creation. [foreign language] They cheapen their own creation. I have studied this religion and I'm convinced that if we accept anything other than what G-d is saying in Islam that you were created Muslim, that He made you, He created you, and He created you Muslim, and that you're already having in your own reality, in your own human constitution the form that G-d wants in you.
It would be ridiculous now for me to believe some other kind of way that G-d created a human being but didn't create that human being in the form He wanted, and now that human being has to be reborn again to come into the form because the form he's in is a beast, or a sinner, or a despicable thing. No, G-d said he created us Muslim from birth, you're born in the hospitals, in the nurseries, Muslim. You're born where Allah wants you to be. The world raises us in the wrong way, rears us up in the wrong way. This makes all the sense to me. Now, Allah reveals to a human being, not to a tree and the tree speaks to a human being. To a human being, he reveals and the human being speaks to us, human beings.
G-d communicates to a human person and a human person communicates to the rest of the human persons what G-d is saying or what G-d is communicating and that communication comes as Al-Islam, a religion. That religion is just answering what my Muslim creation is asking for, that's all it's doing. My Muslim creation wants something that is not getting from this world. It wants understanding that it's not getting from this world. It wants some logic that it is not getting from this world. It wants some perception of the whole in reality that it's not getting from this world. It wants some direction for itself and understanding of this purpose in this creation that it is not getting satisfactorily from this world.
Then Islam comes and gives my human soul what my human soul is starving for. Is Al-Islam really something foreign to my body or something natural for my body? Something natural for my body. That's why it's called deen al-fitrah, the religion of the original order. The one that He created man from in the beginning, from the start. [Arabic language] The one he created man in the nature and form that Allah created the human person in from the beginning. This religion comes to do no more than just feed that with the food that it calls for. Feed it with the food that it calls for. That's all. So understand that. This religion of Al-Islam is not a religion of angels that comes down from heaven to humans. It's a religion of humans that comes down from G-d to humans. Praise be to Allah. Isn't it wonderful?
Audience: Yes.
So to live Al-Islam is not living something that's hard for you. It's living something that's easy for you, if you would just accept that it's yours. The religion of freedom. Now, the religion of freedom why do we have others calling Islam the religion of freedom? Islam is the religion of freedom. Islam frees us for the first time we're completely free and the soul wants freedom.
We can have measures of freedom, political freedom, different kinds of freedom, but until we have the freedom that G-d gives us with Islam, with the religion, we won't enjoy a complete sense of freedom for ourselves. That's my firm belief. I am a free man, completely free, G-d knows that. I am a free man, completely free. Nothing holds me, Nothing. If the boss of the CIA would like this business idea I got and he didn't conform to it I'd fire him just as quick as I'd fire any of you.
[laughter]
I'm completely free. If the president of the United States likes this business idea and he wants to join it he'd be out just as quick as you would be out. I'm completely free. If any of you all working for me thinks somebody else has me under them. Try me.
[laughter]
Try me. You'll be out. Nothing can keep you in but G-d because my allegiance is only to Allah.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
I'm completely free.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
[silence]
You play your little games but I told you I am completely free. I thank Allah. Only Allah did that for me. Nothing else could do that for me. With this book and with Muhammad G-d has made me completely free. Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon him when he was given victory in Mecca that meant that he had victory over the whole peninsula of Arabia. Jews were living traditionally in Medina. That's in Arabia. [laughs] Did he tell them you can't have your religion anymore? No. He mandated by written law, he put it in writing, in law, statement guaranteeing them religious freedom as long as they didn't try to go against the peace of the state. He did the same thing for the Sabians. He did the same thing for Christians. Muhammad did that.
Now how can we, educated members of our community, how can you now think that we are not to respect religious freedom in the United States when Muhammad himself established it long before the Spanish and others discovered this America? Muhammad the Prophet, our leader had already established that these people should have the right to practice their religion. Some will say, "Oh, well it wasn't then like it was now." How can you say that?
[laughter]
It was worse then than it is now.
[laughter]
When you look at the early history of the Jews, they were worse long time ago than they are now. Look at the early history of the Christians, they were worse people on this Earth than they are now. Is that not a fact? They have grown more civilized with time. Don't say they were a different people. They were worst. If prophet Muhammad could tolerate them then, I know we can tolerate them now.
Look, in Rome, there was the Vatican, right? Allah has given, through Muhammad, has given a chapter by the name of the Rome. Ar-Rum, that's the name of a chapter in the Quran. Allah revealed predictions to Muhammad in the Quran, that the Romans would be threatened, but they would overcome it, or be spared. They would gain victory.
Is that not in the Quran? Yes, they would overcome their difficulties that they were facing at that time. From threats, it's in the Quran. It didn't say you will survive this one but you'll wait until the wave of Islam, the wave of the Muslim soldiers come, you won't survive that. No, no threat from Islam.
Muslims and Christians clash, not because Islam wanted Muslims and Christians to be against each other. Muslims and Christians clashed because the world of Islam had become materialistic and political, more so than religious, and the world of Christianity had become long before that, materialistic and political more than religious. That's what brought about the Crusades, the fighting, the wars.
Now we live in a civilized world, a much more civilized world. The Muslims from Saudi Arabia, from Mecca, are sitting at the table with the heads of Catholicism discussing how we can recognize each other and know more about each other so that we can contribute to the betterment of the world together. That's what they're doing, like we're doing over here. And not just them, many. Don't think Islam is not for the freedom of religion. Now you've got Christian neighbors living around you. In fact, you are the stranger in their neighborhood.
[laughter]
I'm working like the dickens to make you look like you're not an alien.
[laughter]
Like you do belong humanly in their neighborhood. If you listen to me, you're going to have the best life that people have ever lived on this Earth. The time now is better than it has ever been since the history of man for mankind to have the good life, the best life in history. G-d has blessed me to be in tune with it, in tune with it, spirited for it. If you follow me, you will have the best life that any people have lived on this Earth. But you have to be like Muhammad, prayers and peace be upon him.
He loved his neighbors. He more than loved his neighbors, he felt that the G-d that created them created them to have his support, that neighbors should support each other. We have always heard of good neighbors being good neighbors. It's natural for us, that's that Muslim nature. Wanting to be a good neighbor, that's your Muslim doing that, that's the Muslim in you that G-d made, wanting to be a good neighbor and feeling that you're obligated to your neighbor.
When our African American people had less of this world's mind and more of the fear of G-d in them, the natural Muslim in them was more alive. They cared more about their neighbors in poverty, in hell so to speak, but they cared about their neighbors. “Hey child, Mabel, about five miles down the road there, that girl ain't got no flour. So we've got to get her some flour. They'd take their flour and share their flour with her and get somebody to walk five miles down the road and give that neighbor, Mabel, some flour so they'd know she's got some bread.” Isn't that Islam?
Audience: Yes.
Imam: Isn't that proof that Allah made us Muslim?
Audience: Yes.
Imam: By nature?
Audience: Yes.
Imam: By our virtual bodies, flesh, blood bodies, he made us Muslim. You've been living part of your Muslim life. You've been living part of your religion, Islam. You now have to recognize what was Islam that I was living before that Allah is calling me to become aware of. Muhammad the prophet said, peace be upon him, "No believer will go to sleep resting well tonight knowing his neighbor is hungry next door, going to bed hungry." Isn't that what he said?
Audience Yes.
Imam: Well isn't that what's been the practice of most of our people in the south?
Audience: Yes.
Imam: If they would have to go to bed and they knew the neighbor was hungry down five miles, eight miles [unintelligible 01:37:12]? They couldn't rest well. You got to get them some butter down there, got to get some meat down there, got to get some flour down there, give them some sugar. Isn't that what we did brothers?
Audience: Yes.
Imam: Our parents did that. That was Muslim, that was Islam they were practicing. That's what the Prophet tried to do for those Arabs. He tried hard to make his Arab brothers and sisters and Arab citizens, fellow countrymen, know that Islam is not something foreign to your nature, your body. Islam came to just build on the best that you already are.
That's all Islam is. It's a building up on the best that you already are. G-d gave the guidance for how that should be [unintelligible 01:37:58], and here it is in the Quran and in the life of Muhammad, but the Devil will try to make us, - Satan, the Shaitan himself, he will try to make us think, don't (unclear) that religion, you are black. That's the religion of Arabs. No, this is the religion of the human being. Muhammad made the Arabs, know that this is not the religion of the Arabs. He said, "Respect, honor is not to be paid to any because of him being black or white or black or red or because of him being an Arab or non-Arab, but because of his obedience to G-d.
Audience: Yes.
Imam: Because of his obedience to G-d. All of us are free to follow the light, follow the way, be obedient to G-d. We are equal then. This (unclear), or circumstance, or situation for equality. I don't have to now worry that somebody's going to impose his authority on me because he's white, or his authority on me because he's black and I'm white, or his authority on me because his nation is recognized above mine, but go on the basis of human equality. Praise be to G-d. If this isn't plain enough for you, then you aren't fit for nothing but ignorance.
[laughter]
You've lost your Muslim self forever. The Muslim sitting down in your soul with both eyes closed and his fingers in his ears.
[laughter]
Deep in the core of his being he hears and be touched by what I'm saying and take his fingers out of his ears, and open his eyes.
[laughter]
Praise be to Allah.
We are on the path of G-d? Our religion is life on a path. Your hear that? Our religion is life on a path. What does that suggest? Progress. A path suggests a beginning point and a destination. If the whole of my life as a Muslim is life on a path, this is for the other great religious too, but (Arabic) is called the path of G-d.
It says, call the people to the path of G-d. (Arabic). Call them. Call the people to the path of G-d. My whole life then is the life of the path of G-d and Muhammad the prophet (prayer and peace be upon him), he says, "In this world, I'm just a traveler." That's what he says. "I'm just a traveler. I stop under a shade tree." That's what he says. "I stop under a shade tree." So you're in route then he wasn't going to stay there. That was just a stop, what do you call it? Stopping point. Rest stop. Rest stop. Shade, suggests rest stop. It's a rest stop on the road. He's not going to stay there, he's going to keep moving. We have to call people to the path of G-d. So that says that our religion is not a static religion. It's an active religion It's not a static religion, it's an active religion.
It's a religion of action. Action. It's a religion of action. I have to be moving. Doing something. A path suggests constant progression. Constant progression. I can't be slacking back. Back sliders and laggers, and draggers they're condemned by scripture. I can't be backing up in the road. No. I got to keep going in this road. I got to keep going towards the destination. The destination is to satisfy what G-d asks of me. G-d wants human beings to do something about his life, about his family life, about the life of his community, about the life of the people of the world. I got to keep going.
[applause]
What is that saying? It's hard it's hell. The damn niggas on my back but I'm going to keep moving.
[laughter]
[applause]
They're not going to weigh me down and stop me, I'll be found dead. Not making progress in the world, no I'm going. I'm going to keeping moving. I'll carry the grave yard with me.
[laughter]
If you join us in this religion, you be ready to work. You be ready to make progress. You be ready to turn your life from a zero to a 1, and a 2, and a 10, and a 20, and a 30, and a 40, and a 100, and a 1,000. You multiply your life into progress by increasing your life, because G-d says here that created us for growth. He wants that we have increase. This is G-d's promise. This will make you a good neighbor. If you're a positive person on your block. You're progressive person on your block, you will contribute to the health, strength and progress of your neighbors and the block.
They will welcome you and love you. They will talk about you just like the Indonesians talk about those good business, those Arabs that came to Indonesia to live with good business practices, with fair dealings, with honest clean hearts. They praise them so much until the word went all over the country and the whole country converted to Islam. Not by sword, but by good people giving the best example of Muslim followers of Muhammad in the Quran and Muhammad.
Converted the whole country. The whole land to Islam. The Indonesians would brag about that now. They'd tell you that, "Our history say that the business men from Muslim, Arabs came here and they were such good neighbors. They were such good neighbors that we want to learn what made them that way." This is their report. What made them that way? And when they said, it was their religion. "We wanted to have that religion, so we converted to Islam." Isn't that wonderful? It happened once in history. Can't it happen again?
[laughter]
I'm not after converting all Christians, all the America to Islam. That's not my objective. My objective is just to build on the solid, good, healthy life that G-d has prescribed for us in this book and in the example of Muhammad. That's all I'm going to do. If I don't get nothing but three houses built. Just like G-d wanted. I'll be happy. But now to have 3,000. That's a wonderful thing. That will bring so much great joy to us, now and generations and generations to come, the world will be so much better. But I'm now counting on that. I know if we build up Muslim life, in the Christian environment, non Muslim environment, as G-d intends for us to build up that life. If we do it the way G-d wants us to do it, I know if it doesn't bring them to be Muslim, it's certainly going to make them conscious that they're not living up to the best of their own religion.
We are going to have better Christian neighbors as a result of us being the excellent Muslim neighbor. Isn't that something to work for? Don't just work to convert somebody, but work to have a better environment for all of us.
In conclusion, I go back to that promised one in the Bible. In the old book, the Torah. The Old Testament in the Injil. The New Testament. The gospel. Muhammad the liberator, coming to take from the people. The york of slavery. Break every band or bond that holds him in captivity of any form. I go back to Him. What is he going to do? He's come to purify them, and to teach them the book and the wisdom.
G-d says that He created you that you may grow and that you may have increase. Therefore, Islam is the path of purity. Islam is the path of growth and increase. Progress. Islam is the path also of excellence. G-d says that He has written and scribed in the nature of everything. A need to have excellence. Excellence. The roach couldn't be in his form, that he's in. If he didn't have urges in his biological make-up, that was urging him to have roach excellence. G-d did that, for us to realize all of this excellence we must have at the end of the path, not only paradise, after the body is dead, in the ground and dirt again. We must have a vision and a path, of the ummah.
The community life that Allah gave Muhammad to us to lead us to. That he gave revelation to us to help us know how to establish, to order that life, and order that community and have that community and realize the great [unintelligible 01:47:59] and resources of life on Earth, in community. We have to have that vision down the road. That we want to build a town. It is only a town of 50 people or a town of 500, or a town of 5,000. We are going to build a town in America. We are going to have model neighborhoods in America. Model Muslim neighbors in America among Christians. Praise be to Allah. Thank you. This is the conclusion of this. Let us be good neighbors and let us have nothing, but our natural rights, our birth rights, - Al-Islam. As-salaam alaikum. May G-d get us to the way.
Speaker: For more on the ministry of Imam, W.D Muhammad. Muslim American spokesman, call 1708-862-5228. Post office box, 1061, Calumet City, Illinois, 60409. For WDM publications, call 1708-8627733. Post office box 1944, Calumet City, Illinois, 60409. For Muslim journals, see local distributor. Thanks for listening.
[01:49:18] [END OF AUDIO]

