September 9th 2004
Jumah Convention Chicago, IL
Imam W.D. Mohammed
IWDM:
Bismallah al rahman al rahim. [foreign language] We witness that G-d is one alone as no other G-ds but him, no partner. And as he revealed in the Quran to Muhammad the prophet, for us, anyone comes to him, they come only as a servant, not as a G-d, sharing as a office, hold the sharing power in divine office. They come only to serve him. There is none like him. And we witness that Muhammad, to whom the Quran was revealed in this month of fast, Ramadan. Is his servant and his messenger, and we salute him with the traditional salute of sallallahu alaihi wasallam. The prayers and the peace be upon him. And on his following and on his family, on his following all, and what follows of that tradition, we thank Allah for our presence here today. We thank him for our life. We thank him for the blessings of faith and Al Islam.
IWDM:
Allah says obey G-d, obey Allah, and obey his messenger, [Arabic 00:02:24]. Obey his messenger. [Arabic 00:02:28], correction, Allah Huekbar, correction, [Arabic 00:02:35]. [Arabic 00:02:41] is translated as those with the right of authority, for those that we have given office to. And you know the prophet Muhammad, he said, "We don't accept anyone into office who come asking for it." Office is by appointment in Islam. To hold office, it should be by appointment.
IWDM:
The most qualified in Islam should appoint office holders, whether it's a small congregation or a big congregation, or a big association like we have now with W. Deen Mohammed as our leader, our Imam. It should be by appointment. I was appointed in 1975, firstly by my father, and there're many witnesses to that, and then by the national convention represented in the national offices. Firstly, the officers that were working directly under the honorable Elijah Muhammad before he passed. The supreme captain, his assistant in Chicago, Imam [Yusuf Shah 00:04:30], minister Yusuf Shah back then. The assistant supreme captain who was Elijah Muhammad II, son of the honorable Elijah Muhammad and my brother, the national secretary, [Husabez Fasul 00:04:49] at the time, and minister James [Shebaz 00:04:56], who was also special assistant in the ministry under the honorable Elijah Muhammad, responsible for affairs in the Chicago temple, masjid. Muhammad number two or temple number two.
IWDM:
These persons were appointed to office, and office should be by appointment. Now also, by the consent of the people. They have to consent, agree with those that we appoint, they support. If majority of Muslims go against someone we appoint in office, majority of a congregation or majority of association like ours, then we have to look again at the persons we appointed, and respect the will or the wishes of majority of the believers. This is the way it should be done. We know in the case of Muhammad the prophet, even when he, himself, made appointments, he sought the support of the most qualified ones in terms of good character and knowledge. He sought their support for the persons that he would appoint. And many times he didn't appoint at all. Most of the time he didn't appoint at all. He left it to them to appoint. They appointed people to represent them in positions of authority.
IWDM:
Islam, for want of a better word, is democracy. The expression in Islam is shura banahum. That is, they consult one another, mutual consultation, respecting each other as equals, equally qualified to give advice, to contribute to decision-making. And banahum means just that, mutual. I offer my advice, also he has the same right, he offer his, and we look at all of it, and we make a conclusion based upon the strongest support that we have from those qualified persons. This is, as I said, for want of a better word, this is democracy in Al Islam. This is a main description, I would say, of democracy in Al Islam. This is the main focus for our understanding and perception of how we should manage our affairs. And G-d says the believers manage their affairs by Shura banahum.
IWDM:
Getting back to obedience, Allah says, "[Arabic 00:07:57]." Obey G-d, obey his messenger, and obey [Arabic 00:08:06]. Those who call [Arabic 00:08:10 (oolu em)] of you. [Arabic 00:08:12 (memkoo))] means from you or of you. So [Arabic 00:08:16] (oolu em), how do we know the meaning of that? What is the meaning of this? They say those that have the right of authority. That's one translation. [Arabic 00:08:28 (oolu em)]. This religion Al Islam, which brings us to the topic or to our attention that we've given to the guidance of G-d today, for this kutbah, on the most special day in the year for Muslims, Friday. kutbah.
IWDM:
G-d uses this expression in the Quran. The Quran is the best to explain itself. The word of G-d is the best to explain itself. Our knowledge helps, the guidance and insight that G-d blessed some of us with, over others, that's very helpful. But that should guide us to understand one day that the best help we get for understanding the Quran is in the Quran itself. Yes. So the way that this expression, [Arabic 00:09:32 (oolu)] is used, this is plural. [Arabic 00:09:35 (oolu)] is plural. But G-d also establishes that G-d has rights. G-d says, "G-d has first rights." The expression in Arabic is [Arabic 00:09:58 (owle)], simply meaning first. [Arabic 00:10:01 (owle)] meaning first. The opposite of [Arabic 00:10:05 (owle)] is last, that comes behind, that comes first, that comes after, is [Arabic 00:10:12 (alher)]. First and last.
IWDM:
Yes. So of G-d, when G-d uses this expression for him, this word, this term for him, it means he has first rights. He has first rights. Now how are we to understand this? How is this language explained? First rights. It is explained in a very simple way. We are believers in G-d, G-d the creator. And by the way, G-d didn't introduce himself to Mohammad the prophet, when he first spoke to him as Allah. He didn't say Allah, and he didn't say anything. He didn't say Al Raham, he didn't say Al Rahim. He didn't use any of that. He said, "Read in the name of your Lord, Rabb." It's the first description of himself, right? That he's given. "Read in the name of your Lord." Rabb, your Lord. [Arabic 00:11:33], here's the second description of himself. And this is the one that G-d dwells upon. Not on Rabb, he dwells upon the attribute of the creator, as his name or attribute.
IWDM:
He says the one who created, [Arabic 00:11:49]. Then he says, "[Arabic 00:11:50]." He created the human being from congealed blood or blood adhering, from blood adhering, holding together. Now we don't think of liquid as holding together, but even the most common of the liquids in life, our life liquid, the liquid of our life is water. And water wants to adhere. If the surface is uneven, it will flow with the surface. But if the surface is flat, and it spills and spreads, you'll find it wanting to stay in little dots, little drops. Right? Wanting to form little circles, little drops. It wants to adhere. So even in this fluid that seems not to be adhering, there is evidence that it likes to adhere too, it likes to stay to itself, likes to keep with its body, keeps its body in tact, together.
IWDM:
G-d says he created us from water, then he says of blood. In this communication to Muhammad, he goes right to blood, not to water. Goes right to blood. Read in the name of your Lord, who created the human person from blood adhering. I don't like to say clot because clot suggests something wrong in the system. You don't want blood clots. You want blood to adhere, but you don't want blood clots in the blood flow, in the system. Can get a heart attack. Anyway, G-d speaks of himself as one having holding first rights. And then he communicates to Muhammad for the first time, and the introduces himself as Muhammad's' Lord. To understand Lord in Arabic, Lord in Arabic means one who has authority and rights over what is being lorded over. That expression is not the best one because it implies unfriendly authority, and G-d is friendly authority.
IWDM:
The one that the Lord is over or taking care of, this word says, "He is caring for that one as the best authority for that one." Now we know our parents have rights, and they have first rights. G-d says that also to Muhammad the prophet. He says, "Family or near relatives have first rights in the book of G-d." Have first rights in the book of G-d. That's the [Arabic 00:14:50], the Quran. But the kitab is not used for no reason in the Quran rather than [Arabic 00:14:58]. It's put that way because this position is established also for people who received the scriptures before the Quran was revealed, those who received the Torah, and those who received the Injil or the gospel. The books of Moses and the message of Jesus Christ. Those Jews and Christians, they also have this established for them. That's why the word kitab is used rather than Quran, because Quran presented as those coming only with the last revelation. So use a kitab to make clear that this is also in previous holy books revealed to man by G-d.
IWDM:
Yes. All right. Allahu Akbar. So the meaning of [Arabic 00:16:00 (oolu em)] is what I'm addressing right now. If G-d is our Lord, and that like the first one we saw is our parents, we were born to a mother and father in their care, and they were the first one to take us when we were helpless, and care for us until we can manage for ourselves. This role of parents is to be seen in a bigger focus or picture of the whole creation, and then we see G-d as the Lord who acts for and over that that he is responsible for, that's given firstly into his charge before it's given to anyone else just as faithful parents do for their children. So we can see how Christians and others come to speak of G-d as father, and speak of themselves as the children of G-d, which is not proper for us. We speak of G-d as Rabb, Lord. And we speak of ourselves as dependents of G-d. G-d's dependents, just like your dependents on your federal tax return, IRS return.
IWDM:
Those are your dependents. G-d has you, and every living creature has his dependence. Even his worlds that he made, his heavens and earth, all depend on him. And he's bigger than all of it taken together. How do we know this? Solomon says in the bible, Solomon says "Oh, G-d, I build this temple for you, but I know this temple can't house you. Not even the skies above, the heavens and the heavens above them can't hold you." So that's Solomon the prophet in the bible, he perceives G-d to be bigger than the objective world. All that's in the skies and earth. Bigger than the universe. Now when we speak of universe, we speak of material concept. It's a material concept, isn't it? It has spiritual nature and spiritual in it, of it, but it is material. When we're speaking of, we are seeing material when we say the heavens and earth. We think of the stars and the earth below.
IWDM:
Chiara Lubich, our dear friend, blessed lady of the Catholic faith, founder and leader of the Focolare people, she put out a book recently. In the book, she says that the night, the only time that you can see the stars. The night is the only time that you can see the stars. She speaks of the night, and she's speaking from her spirituality. I look at her and I see a blessed lady that G-d has given understanding to, and who is trying to lead us, that is all people, not just her people, Catholics or Christians. She's trying to lead all people to come back to the original love for family, for parents, for brothers and sisters, for family, and to love the whole human family as our family. This is Christ love in her understanding. This is Christ love, the preaching of Christ love.
IWDM:
And right now she's not doing so well, and I heard of it. Such persons are so valuable in these times, for our world. Muslims should pray for her, that G-d give her youth continuously, and health, and strength, that she can continue her work for many, many years to come. That's my prayer. Ameen.
IWDM:
Now getting back to G-d as the possessor of first rights. For G-d, he says he has first rights. We understand the reason why G-d should be seen or understood as the one possessing first rights when we understand that he was before anything was. G-d was. And because of him, whatever is exists because of him. You see? So he has first rights. He designed this creation,, he made it, he brought it into existence. He designed it to behave in certain ways. And if we think we are more qualified to establish rules for his creation, we have gone astray. We have really gone astray. Allah says, "Is it not for G-d to create and command?" If he's the creator, then why you deny him command over what he created?
IWDM:
The best rulers, the best teachers, the best leaders are those who seek to know what Allah wants for his creation. And then they try to do what they have to do or make their contribution, respecting what G-d wants firstly. This is Islam. This is obedience in Islam. So G-d has the right over us. We are to obey him firstly, he has first rights. [Arabic 00:22:37]. And obey his messenger. It didn't say his prophet, did it? It says his messenger. So what are we to perceive? What are we to see in this teachings here? You didn't get the message, he got the message. So what do you look like, going with the message, ignoring him when he's the one that got the message? You didn't get it. He has the rights next to G-d. After G-d, then Muhammad has the rights over us.
IWDM:
And then it says, "[Arabic 00:23:21]. And those who are the first to be respected are given the rights of command among you or from you." Now how are we to understand them as first in the creation of G-d? In the creation of G-d, man began to make progress from parents. That's why Adam is given in the Quran, and his mate. We begin to make our progress from parents. And those parents were in their right, in their inherent right, that means based upon the nature and law of G-d's creation for them. They were in their inherent right to be over their children. And after all, when they received their children, their children were not able to speak for themselves or to do for themselves. Parents had to take care of them. G-d says, "[Arabic 00:24:36]." Have conscious respect for G-d, sacred respect for G-d. [Arabic 00:24:43], and the close family ties. The first of them is mom and daddy, then brother and sisters. Right? Yes.
IWDM:
So [Arabic 00:24:59 (wa oolu em memkoo)], this is how this is established. Now those leaders from among us who respect these rights that nature evolved, nature itself evolved this. Nature evolved these rights. The natural world supported us coming into these rights before we had sciences or ideologies. Mother nature had already established mom and dad in responsibility. Yes. And had established them in a good way too, to love their children and to want the best for their children. Praise be to Allah. Yes.
IWDM:
And then man began to increase in his numbers, his family. Then he began to appoint men to be leaders over many, not a few but many, even sometimes many families, in a tribal picture or concept, or town or government, or whatever, village. They choose a leader. They choose this leader based upon tradition, and tradition goes back to time unknown. So what taught you to choose these leaders? Good nature. Your good nature taught you mother nature, and your good nature that you got from mother nature supported these choices and taught you to make such choices. So it's natural for man they call the primitive societies, sometimes primordial society, they got different names going way back to the time when man was not figuring this out, was not planning how man should be formed and live on the earth. But his own nature, his own inward spirit had guided him to these things.
IWDM:
So from us who're having these first rights, they have to respect G-d as the author and owner, and the Lord, creator. They have to respect him. They have to respect the right of parents. I'm bringing the logic home. They have to respect the right of parents. They have to be as the good parents, caring for all their children equally, loving them with the same love. We want to improve, don't we? But that's what I'm doing. I'm trying to give help for our improvement. Not just you, I'm with you. I'm bringing help for our improvement. So these leaders, if we want better leaders then, we should take light from the light of G-d. G-d has revealed the light. Let us take light from the light that G-d gives us for our needs in this darkness. Yes. And the messenger, himself, is established as having first rights over the believers, to be their guide and their teacher, the authority over them.
IWDM:
So those from among us, those that also understand the nature of how we arrive, the nature and the logic for arriving at first rights. Who have first rights? The believers or you? You have first rights only when you respect the life of the believers. Their life begins with G-d, and then his messenger. And then with those that are entitled to first rights from among them. [Arabic 00:29:22 (memkum)], from among them, from among you. So if you're from among us, then you have to answer to us. Yes. G-d is saying that your rights is established in them. Your right is established in them. As long as you hold that respect and you respect what G-d has established to be respected, then you have the first right to that office or that position. Yes. [Arabic 00:30:00].
IWDM:
And then the word, [Arabic 00:30:02 (oolu)] takes on another meaning. Now that we've seen how that language has been used in the history of the creation and evolution of human beings as a society under G-d. Now that we've seen how that language have come forward, how it has progressed to be with us now. Now we can change the language from possessor of first rights to those who have position of authority over you. But you shouldn't come to that understanding or that kind of language, pardon me, you shouldn't come to that kind of reading until you first understand how they came to be recognized as having that right of authority over us. He sent Muhammad to teach them the book and the wisdom, and to purify them. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the heavens and earth. Beneficent and merciful. Merciful and giving. And Merciful and redeeming. Wonderful Lord. The most merciful of all that have mercy. [Arabic 00:31:33]. The most merciful of all that have mercy.
IWDM:
This is G-d. The one G-d who made man to be one family, and knew that he would separate ... He says he made you from one pair of a male and a female, and then caused to come from them all the men and women on earth. And he says he made you tribes and nations, not that you should look down on each other, but that you should come to recognize each other. [Arabic 00:32:19], that you should come to know one another. But this way that this word is used, it means, not just know, know and acknowledge what you know. If you know that Germans were the first inventors of such and such, acknowledge it. Don't be jealous of them. If you know that the black man was the first doctor, medical doctor, acknowledge it. Don't envy his right to that recognition. [Arabic 00:32:55]. We go to mount Arafat, and we meet each other, leaders from all over the world. If we see in one, something that is meritorious, we love it, we cheer it. That's our brother.
IWDM:
Now G-d want that to be a picture of how we should be in the family of man. Not only should we be that way towards Muslims, we should be that way towards mankind. With that, I conclude this first session. And we ask Allah to give us guidance and mercy always. Ameen].
IWDM:
Bismallah al rahman al rahim. Again, As Salaam Alaikum. We witness again that Muhammad is a servant and messenger of G-d, and that he is most generous man, more generous than all human beings recorded in the history of man. Completely unselfish, very generous. And his heart needed no healing when he was yet without the knowledge of G-d. He evolved. A perfectly beautiful human being upon mother nature. So he's called the [Arabic 00:35:04 (oomee)], prophet. And G-d chose him for his excellence, that he had retained his life as G-d created it for Adam, who lost it in an encounter with the enemy of mankind, Shaitan, but got it back. According to the revelation of G-d to us, he met a word from his Lord and he repented. Praise be to Allah.
IWDM:
Yes. This wonderful man, Muhammad, is a witness to Muslims and a witness to the world of religious people. He is a witness that G-d created man, and put him on the earth in good condition to live and get the benefits that G-d had for him in creation. It was not his nature that caused him to miss the mark. It was the suggestion of a more subtle and more experienced, because of age creature, Iblis, Shaitan, that he missed the mark. Yes.
IWDM:
So this idea that man's creation is weak and sinful ... Is weak, yes. G-d says, "[Arabic 00:36:55]." Human beings have been created weak. But he didn't say [Arabic 00:37:03]. He didn't say he did it. He said [Arabic 00:37:05], meaning that it happened. [Arabic 00:37:12]. Yes, it happened that this [inaudible 00:37:19]. And G-d says, "I'm the best of creators." G-d again says, "Whatever you don't like of yourself, the bad, is from yourselves." He said, "The good that you like is from G-d." So G-d does not accept any responsibility for any sin in you. And original sin? No, no such thing as original sin. What you mean, original? Well, you must be talking about the history of Shaitan if it's original. It's original in his history, yes. He was the first sinner. But if you mean original in creation, no. Originally, there was no sin in creation. This is position of Islam and this is position of the bible.
IWDM:
The bible says that Allah, G-d made the heavens and the earth. He started it all on the first day, and he created the undeveloped matter. And then he created life, and he created animals and all these other things. And then on the sixth day, he created man. And the seventh day, he took a break from all of his works. Now we know, really, there's another man to be created on the seventh day, but long after the world has gone astray. Then he will create another man on the seventh day. This'll be the new man, the second man, the man who can deal with Satan. Yes. Praise be to Allah.
IWDM:
What did G-d say in Genesis? "And he beheld that it all was good." He didn't say some of it was bad. He didn't say he found flaws in some of it. Not even man. Man was created on the sixth day. He didn't say he found him sinful or by nature, inclined to do wrong. No, by nature, inclined to do right. So it's our own fault up here that we go wrong, that we sin. We do not accept the belief in original sin. No. Every baby is Adam, freshly given to us on this earth from our mothers. Every baby is the life of Adam, unadulterated, unspoiled. These babies come here, and they're ready to be made beautiful people if they have beautiful parents and beautiful environment. Because of the super ego we call the ruling culture, the babies can grow up and leave the parents, or be exposed to others who are exposed to the super ego. And they can get their heads turned backwards, twisted.
IWDM:
And then though they were blessed with parents who were fit to parent them, the pressure of the super ego was too much. They fell victims to the world. But we know that the world was not always having the super ego, the predominant culture of the media, the media's supported culture, entertainment media, number one mainly. Yes. It was not always having that. Commercial media, number two. That is number two in your perception, but number one as the cause of it all. The commercial media gave us the super ego. That's his wife there. That's his wife. The predominant culture is the wife of the commercial man.
IWDM:
When I say commercial man, I'm saying this in a very negative sense because commerce is a gift of G-d. And a conscious person, a business person who provides a commercial life for the town or the world, is a good man. But those whose greed dictate that they should do anything to promote profits over all other interest, they are the ones that we're talking about, who represent the husband of the predominant culture. Or as the pope, John Paul, his holiness, John Paul says, the culture of death. Yes.
IWDM:
So making the point here, the point here is that we, Muslims, have to know our religion from that that is not our religion. We're encouraging the people of faith to recognize the good in each other, not just for the purpose of tolerating each other, we want more than toleration. We want the family to become as Chiara Lubich want it to become, a family of brothers and sisters. We want these different religions to cooperate with one another and to lend strength from each other to the other, from one to the other, so that we support all that is good for the future of mankind on this planet. That's what we want, and that's the voice of the organization that I represent for world peace. WCRP. World Conference of Religions for Peace. That's their voice, and that's the voice of the World Parliament of Religions and many others who are working on an international stage to help the cause of goodness and justice for all people.
IWDM:
This is a blessed time we're living in. I recall the language of the ministers, early ministers in the time of the nation of Islam, saying that there's coming of great and dreadful day. Great and dreadful day. I witness that is here, great and dreadful day. If you read the Quran and the bible, of the ever mushrooming problems for mankind, they're constantly getting bigger and bigger. As the man gets bigger as a creator, as a producer, and as he gets bigger in numbers in the world, and carry his ideas and his ways all over the world to others, as this thing grows, that trouble is going to be mounting up too. It's going to be constantly growing too, and increasing. But isn't that history? Isn't that the history of man's life on this planet? As his numbers increases and his works increases, trouble increase also.
IWDM:
So that great and dreadful day, it'll be a great day in one sense, on the one hand, and a dreadful day in another sense, on the other hand. How is it dreadful? It's dreadful because of the mushrooming, because the ever-increasing of the works of man with no respect for the plan of G-d. So for those who are guilty of that and for those who buy that, they have no trouble with this world, the way it is, it's going to be a dreadful day. But for those who have been kept by the saints and the righteous people for this day, they have kept us for this day, they have kept us in touch with the word of G-d, passed it on down to children and it has lived with us, has our natural life blood, to those people it won't be a dreadful day. It'll be a great day.
IWDM:
A great day because with man coming to his conclusion, he can only do so much when the whole world is available to him, and he have done his thing on the table of the whole world. That's going to be the end of his doing without respecting the plan of G-d.
IWDM:
Therefore, we have national leaders, nations. Ain't talking so much about their nation, they're talking about the whole world and what must happen to keep the whole world so all of us survive. They're talking about survival. We're living in the time when man is talking about survival. His own creations threaten survival. His own emphasis on what's important in the life of human beings threatens survival. And he's now saying, let us look at this again, let us rethink this. He could've been saved long time from this if he had done what Allah says. Say, why don't you research the Quran? Praise be to Allah.
IWDM:
So yes, I call this the day of religion. The day of religion literally means the day of judgment. The day of religion and the day of judgment is one in the same. When the time come, when nations, political people, material people, scientific thinkers, students and children of science and material logic, when the world's formed before their eyes and such constitution that they are stopped in their tracks and don't know how to turn or which way to go, they're going to look for answers and they're going to start listening to a little man. Not this man, any little man. When I say little man, a man that doesn't have their bigness. Don't have the bigness of material accomplishments, don't have the bigness of wealth. They don't have to look at little man, and say, "Little man, how can we get out of this predicament?" That's the day of religion.
IWDM:
And the little man going to speak from the holy script that G-d gave the prophets. He's going to speak from the holy script, and he's going to bring light to that dark world. It's going to be judgment day everywhere. Allahu Akbar. And G-d's mercy is going to come back to the world as it did with Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Oh, yes. And man shall have a new start. G-d says, "Isn't it G-d who can create, began creation and repeat it?" Thank you very much. Let us pray to Allah, make dua that he keep our hearts always for Islam. [Arabic 00:50:33]. Ameen.


