01/20/1993
IWDM Study Library
Islam Today And It’s Effect On Society

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We're are living in some very, very difficult times now when it comes to getting respect from our children, when it comes to getting each other to accept responsibility. Now, I told you over and over again that there are trends that's too big for man, natural trends, world trends, too big for man. And I told you that no matter what President we have, the world we are going to have in the future will be a world that's going to require of each individual more and more responsibility for self. It was brought out today by a news analyst, who was analyzing the President's speech, which was short, 14 minutes they say. And he used a quote from the Bible. So one of the analysts said that he looked up the quote and he said he discovered something. That the President didn't give all the quote passage. He stopped short of these words "And every man will be responsible for his own burden." Every man will be responsible for his own burden. Well, you've heard that before. We can't say that he wanted that message to go out because he didn't include it, but it was there. So if I was a betting man, I would bet that he wanted to give the whole reading and not stop where he stopped, but he knew he couldn't. So for the wise he stopped there and he knew many of the wise would go and look up the Bible quote and they would find what he didn't say and that is "Every man will be responsible for carrying his own burden."
That's the time we are in right now. We are in a time when every person has to accept responsibility for their own conditions. The world is too big, too busy, too many people demanding their share. America and the privileged nations have kept most of the world out of their own share of their own resources. By that time, it's over. They have to recognize people's rights to enjoy the benefits of their own resources and to have equal treatment on this earth. We can't have people making 10 cents an hour in one part of the world and we selling them products and taking out their resources and bringing it here so we can make $10 an hour, so our average worker can make $10 an hour. That's not right. We can't tolerate that. The world won't tolerate that. That's the situation we are in. But it's a good situation, a good situation. Because if the world is forced by world trends, whether it be economic trends or other trends to recognize each other and to accept each other and work together to improve the state or condition of the whole globe, then that's a good situation for Muslims. A world like that can't afford to have any crusade going on between Christians and Muslims, can't afford it. So these major trends are forcing nations to really dignify themselves, really prove themselves to be what they claim they are. It's a good time. Man is not doing this on his own without being pushed a little bit by G-d. Don't think the white world has come to say blacks are our brothers and we should treat blacks better on their own without a little push from G-d. No, they've gotten a little push from G-d too. Say, Hey, hey you're too slow, too slow. Move on, move on up there, move along. Go on up there to brotherhood, get on up there. G-d's been pushing him a little bit, you see, with natural forces. Forces out of human control. That's what I mean.
Not only that, don't think that they're encouraging Muslims and Christians and all that. No, that's the same reason. There is a push to that too. And I sit among some of the whites sitting over there. I say "What system is shaped like that?" So difficult. So difficult. And every now and then while I'm talking, I see a black Muslim sitting down there. So difficult. But Allah said He created everything and His will dominates in everything He created. He says, now come and obey My will willingly or unwillingly. This is a good time for Islam. Now let us say quickly something about Islam we know, most of us know Muslims know, I'm sure. But let us for the benefit of those who don't know, let us now recall features of Islam that make Islam good for the world society. Now, yesterday, always, I'll start with those two major concerns that have really brought man from coming into his excellence and coming into the good society. And that is race, racism and religious prejudice. Muslims, I'm speaking to you directly. So believe me, some of these non-Muslims on the campus, they know more about the higher ideas of Islam than many of you because they studied, they studied as intellectuals. Islam on race. How does it get rid of the problem of race? Islam has the concept we call Tauheed. And this concept Tauheed is from Wahid. It means oneness, one, oneness. The purity of oneness, the purity of that idea of oneness. We believe first of all La Ilaha Il Allah- G-d is one and that's it.
We say G-d is one color, it's finished. How is that good for us regarding the problem of racism? How is it good for us? Because if G-d is one, then we see G-d and Creator as one and the same. Now we know that G-d and Creator is one and the same for Christianity too. But that purity of that oneness or that concept of that oneness is not quite as simple for them as plain and rational for them as it is for us. La Ilaha Il Allah. One G-d, same G-d. The Creator is the same G-d, not a different manifestation of that G-d. Same G-d, one Creator. Okay, one Creator created us all. One G-d is the G-d of us all. And also, Allah says the Lord is the same. The Lord is the same. One Lord. One Lord. The Lord is the Creator. The Lord is Allah, the G-d, one Lord. No other way to conceive Him. No other way to visualize G-d except as one, one only. I hate to make it clear to you, but for the sake of those who understand what I'm saying, I want to make it clear. One person, the soul, the being, the person of G-d is one.
And that one created the world, created man, and also watches over man. And that same one is going to judge man, the same one. And that one says that there is no pride in your creation, no pride in your worth but what? Obedience to His will, obedience to His will. He says, Allah that is in Qur'an, "He has created us from a pair or from a male and a female and made us nations and tribes, that we should recognize each other, that we should recognize each other." Litha Arafu. That we should recognize each other. You know the meaning of Taharafu? Brothers and sisters, when you go to Pilgrimage to make Hajj, and you go on Mount Arafat, that's called the most special day and time of the Hajj. More special, more special than even circling the Ka’ba. Yes it is, Mount Arafat. The Prophet says, "If anyone has to miss something and he gets Arafat, he got the best of the Hajj."
There what do we do? We meet Muslims from all nations, all colors standing there and we're encouraged to get acquainted with each other. Isn't that what Mount Arafat is for? To get acquainted with each other. "You from America? Asalaam Alaikum brother. How are things in America?" Yes, "You from Turkey? A Salaam Alaikum brother. How are things in Turkey for Muslims?" "You from Bangladesh? Asalaam Alaikum brother. How are things in Bangladesh?" So we get acquainted, we learn about each other. We say, "I never really met, I never really met anyone from Sri Linka, you Muslim from Sri Linka? I never even met anyone from Sri Linka. Tell me something about the people of Sri Linka."
I start to be enriched in the knowledge of geography, huh? I start to know about other people. So by us coming together from different parts of the world, we bring geography right there from the whole world, right there available to all of us. Not only geography, firsthand information from the people of that geography. Litha Arafu. But we know that the rituals of the Hajj are to be applied in principle to the whole of our life, whether we at Hajj or not. We go there and we have certain disciplines. Those disciplines are supposed to influence our thinking and our behavior so that we carry back the benefit of those disciplines into our life wherever we go. Back to America, back to Detroit, back to Chicago, wherever. That's what it's for. So that we know we appreciate the oneness of man better. We appreciate all colors in one family of Muslims, in one brotherhood better.
We appreciate each other's excellence. Litha Arafu means that we should recognize each other. Not for faults. G-d didn't want us to come together so we could say, "Hey, hey, I want you to come together so you know they drink more liquor than you." No, not for that stupid thing. To recognize each other's excellence. They have achieved this. They're good in craftsmanship, they're good in science, they're good in art. These are good in this thing. These are good in medicine, whatever. So, you get acquainted with each other. And you get together and you share the benefits with each other. That's what make the Muslim community a powerful community if we could get together the world community and benefit from each other's knowledge, experiences, resources and life. That's what G-d wants.
But now, if G-d wants that for Muslims, isn't that a model of what G-d wants for all mankind? Certainly. Because G-d says He has made the Prophet a witness for us and made us a witness for mankind. He's a model for us and a witness against us if we don't follow that model. And if we follow the excellence of our religion, we will be a model for mankind and a witness against them if they don't be influenced by our excellence. And let me tell you something, if the Christians excel us at excellence and we don't let some of that goodness rub off on us, they'll be a witness for us in the judgment too. Say, look, "Lord, your Muslim following, they got lost, but we were there to give 'em some help. They didn't want it."
The judge would be against us for not accepting it. This is just the honest way to look at things. The honest and decent way to look at things. That's on race. Says the only criteria is what? Our taqwa. Taqwa means regardfulness in obedience to G-d. Regardfulness in obedience to G-d. So regardfulness for a Muslim will not be the same exactly as it is for a Christian or Jew would it? Jews regardfulness is decided by what he believes in his religion, his scriptures, et cetera. Same thing for Christians, same thing for Muslims. But the regardfulness for Jews, Christians and Muslims is to be understood in their disciplines, in their disciplines. G-d has established certain principles for them, certain disciplines for them. And their regardfulness is to be identified in the context of that teaching and that life. So Jews, Christians, and Muslims, we regard the Lord, Creator, G-d, whatever we want to call it, we regard Him above all. He is to be regarded above all. All creation, all persons, all things ever. But He has created a human order and He has endowed us with faculties, intelligence, et cetera. And He has evolved us to standards of excellence, civilization, high standards, established norms that everybody salute. That is decent, decent man, decent woman salutes those high standards. He has guided us to that.
And G-d says, to get the focus without going into too many details, G-d says to us "And regard the family ties." Same word. Don't think that G-d uses a different word in Qur'an, uses a different word in the Qur'an. No, it's the same word. Allah says "Wa Taqwalah." But also, He says, "Wal Arham." Be regardful of G-d, but also be regardful of the family ties. And He also said be regardful of the consequences of your deeds, but here's how He puts it, "But be regardful of the fire." So G-d says, the criteria for claiming that you above somebody else must be that you have more Taqwa than that person. So that ends the belief that certain persons, certain race, or certain black color is given more human excellence or more human merit or the higher place in G-d's creation than the other.
That's puts an end to that. The Prophet said there is no superiority of the European, the Caucasian race over the African or the blacks, and there is no superiority for the blacks over the white or over the European, the Caucasian people. He said "There's no superiority for an Arab over non-Arab and there's no superiority for a non-Arab over an Arab." What is Islam saying? We talking about Islam's effect on the world, on the world, on society, on the society. What is Islam saying? Islam is saying that G-d does not recognize any national supremacy, that one nation be supreme over other nations. One nation claim dominance over other nations. G-d does not recognize any racial supremacy, that one color or one race claim a supremacy over another. That's what it's saying in plain language.
Our religion is. our Prophet I should say. Prayers and peace be on him, is the last of the Prophets, the last of the Prophets. And this Prophet comes to give human beings what we need in order for us to have a condition for us living in peace with each other on this earth. The main difference between our Prophets and the Prophets before him is that they were local teachers, local figures. They were addressing the needs of their people, the needs of their locale. Now we know in both Judaism and in Christianity is a direction for them to make that method universal.
But ours doesn't bring that in last according to that as a promised land or something to come, ours begin with that method. That G-d is one, man is one, the earth is one, and it belongs to Allah. That's saying a lot to man who claims territory and it belongs to Allah. You see? Now, wouldn't it be wonderful? Wouldn't we take a lot of burden off the ecologist, environmentalists, if we all just accept that this earth belongs to G-d? If we believe in G-d, we'll start treating it better, wouldn't we? There's much I can say about Islam, but I'm going to say a few more things and then conclude. I said the two most important things, and that is Islam permits no racism. Islam permits no national arrogance, no national arrogance. And we know that certain nations that we love now dearly used to be very arrogant. And one of 'em is this nation. The United States of America used to be an arrogant nation. We look at its conduct overseas sometimes now we think still there's too much arrogance in those who hold the power, who hold the power. A little bit too much arrogance. But we can feel good as citizens of this country because we know that that is not the intent in the law of this land. The intent is not that we have an arrogant government or an arrogant nation. That's not the intent. The intent is that we have a just, fair, humanitarian society and a nation protecting that society, a government serving in protecting that society. That's what the intent is. So, we can be happy, we can always correct ourselves. Isn't that wonderful that you always have the materials you need to correct yourself?
That's what men like Dr. Martin Luther King and before him, Frederick Douglas discovered. That in America's claim, in its own ideals, was the material necessary for correction. Now, I want to talk about something closer to us, and that is the treatment of each other. Prophet Muhammad, not just Christianity. Islam wants us to be loving toward each other, loving by each other. Prophet Muhammad says, "You are not a Muslim, a believer until you love for your brother what you love for yourself." And he said, "None of us should go to sleep at night knowing our neighbor is hungry."
Did he put an end to slavery? Yes, he did. Allah, the guidance in the Qur'an, it puts an end to slavery. But also, the Prophet put an end to it, How did he put an end to slavery? Clothe your slave with the clothes you wear. Feed your slaves the food you eat. Well, if I'm going to feed, say, say I'm making about $75,000 a year or more, and I'm eating sirloin chops and stuff like that, lamb chops, and sirloin steaks and I'm trying to obey G-d and I'm reading there what he say. Feed the slaves. what you eat. I say well, I'm eating some lamb chops. Lamb chops Them things are expensive. I can't eat 'em right now. "Well, darling, you got enough for the slave?" After you go through that a few times and clothes too, you got to give 'em the same clothes you're putting on yourself. And after you have a few days like that, you'll say, "Look here, I'm sorry, you got to go out and find you somebody else to take care of you."
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