12/01/1996
IWDM Study Library
Al-Islam Promotes a Sacred Regard for Knowledge

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

As-Salaam Alaikum, that is Peace be on you. We say, "Al hamdu lillahi Rabbil Al'ameen" Praise and thanks to Allah, the Lord, Creator, Cherisher and Sustainer of all the worlds. We seek Him for guidance, for assistance, we ask Him for forgiveness. We put our trust in Him, We associate none in worship with Him. He is God the One and Only, God alone ruling in the Universe, the Creator of Everything, Controlling Everything, the Lord and Sustainer of the Worlds. And we witness that Muhammad, to whom the Qur'an was revealed, is the last of the Prophets prophesized in the Torah and in the Injeel, the Gospels as the; promised liberator who would remove the yoke from the people that had weighed them down, and break the bonds of slavery, all the bonds of slavery. Who was prophesized in the Torah, called the Old Testament now, and he is that Prophet. And we witness also as students of the Qur'an, the Word of God, and students of Muhammad the Prophet, we witness that in the forefront, the herald, that in the forefront of that liberation is education, knowledge, true knowledge, true to reality knowledge. True to reality education is the herald, the forerunner leading that movement to break all bonds of slavery. To take the heavy yoke off of humanity. This is a wonderful time to be living in, this 1996 that's almost out. It is a wonderful time to be living in. I thank ALLAH that I am living in this time.

We have taken as a subject, "Islam is", which would be better worded, "Islam Promotes A Sacred Regard For Education".

ALLAH most high says in our Holy Book, that "God, ALLAH who created everything, "Wasiya kulli shayin, wasiyaa kulli shayin 'ilma wa rahmaat". That God has extended everything upon His knowledge and His Mercy." Knowledge and Mercy. "Ilma wa Rahmat". Ilma is knowledge, but in the Arabic language, Ilma is also science, Knowledge and science are no different in Islam. Ilma, scientific studies and et cetera. That would be different, but there is no such knowledge as knowledge and then another knowledge as science. The reason why we have the two in the English language, or in the world of man's labors. That's something we should understand too. We have the world as God created it, and we have the world of man's labors. The world of man's labors gives us one language, the world as God created it gives us another language. The world of man's labors forms upon the world as God created it. but finally it began to deviate, go astray under man's own influence, the influences of man's mind. He began to imagine and dream, and he mixes his imaginations and his dreams into the knowledge. And then the knowledge loses its purity and its no more exactly what reality says. So we live in the world of science and the world that is non-science, non-scientific. We live in a world that is scientific and we live in a world that is non-scientific world of man. Both come from man. Man makes a separation in the world of academia, education, schools, colleges, universities, man' makes a separation between that that is pure science and that that is not. I am not talking about pseudo sciences, those sciences that came earlier and pretended to be exact sciences or thought they were exact sciences but they weren't. Later exact science proved them not to be exact science. I am not talking about that. I am talking about science and imagination. Science and human imagination, what you read, are told, prose, stories, all that stuff. Which is not bad, I love it myself, poetry. That's one of my hobbies, poetry. All of that, whereas where man is writing what his own mind is saying to him without using reality to check what his mind is saying. So we have big lists of knowledge, subjects that came to us because of event or orientation in man and woman, when we say man we mean woman too. To just write or express what is coming to them, or what they are thinking, or what they are coming up with, and they put it out. So that is what we have. And in the Qur'an, its called conjecture, speculation, whatever, and rambling of the mind. The mind is rambling. Rambling of the mind. 

So we have all of this in our life, or in the world that we live in. Sometimes we don't know where the darkness starts and where it ends. We don't know where the light begins or where it ends. We don't know because it is all mixed up. So we live in a gray world, right? We live in a world that is light and dark. It is all mixed up. And we saw that knowledge, but a lot of that knowledge is not correct. A lot of it is false knowledge. It is not correct knowledge. 

The Qur'an, revealed by God, and the Bible also, in its original Script revealed by God to the Prophets, these books, these sacred scriptures—the real students of these books—God inspired the students of these books. They believe that these books are correct, exact, true, perfectly true. So Muslim scholars who say that the Qur'an has no problems with the exact sciences. The Qur'an has no problems. There is no problem for the Qur'an with the exact sciences. Does that mean that the scientific world pleases Allah, or pleases the Qur'an? No! That would be far from the truth because scientific man uses the sciences for his own purposes, for his own interests or purpose. And because of that, he may use something that is perfect in the wrong way and create corruption, trouble for humanity. And that's what happened. So it is the abuse of science that is bad and not science in itself. The exact sciences in themselves are all good. The abuse of them—man discovered the composition of the molecules and the construction of the atoms and found a way to break it apart and use the great energy that was holding it together. Atomic energy. He found a way to do that. When he found a way to do that he was really in trouble. This was the West, America. In trouble because of the war with Japan. So a bomb was made. That means that was seen as a means that could end the war. So a bomb was made, an atomic bomb, and was dropped on two cities of Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These two bombs were dropped on these two cities and birth defects and a lot of trouble came out of that. And some of their children are still suffering from what happened, and that was in 1945 when they dropped those bombs. The war started around 1941. I'm doing this so we can kind of get a feel of what kind of world we live in. When you get in the morning in the morning the first thing you want to do is turn the lights on if it's not daybreak yet, then you can start moving about. That's what we want to do, we want to turn the lights on in the world first and then start moving about.
There are a few things you should know that God has revealed, and God has revealed them not only to us but God has revealed them to people of the Great Religions. Don't think that ------.God guided me to find evidence that people of the old Countries and the New Testament all received this knowledge. What is this knowledge? This knowledge is the knowledge that I neglected. I've been neglecting since---. That is that there is reality God did it. God created reality. There is reality that God created it and knowledge should first be seen coming from that reality or being interpreted out of that reality, coming from that reality or interpreted out of that reality. Sometimes there no need for interpretation. God's knowledge gives us knowledge directly, instantly soon as you see it you receive it. and once you've got this knowledge. But there is another knowledge that is not readily seen, its in the nature or in the inner workings of the things that you're looking at. And that knowledge is exact science, and that knowledge the Ayats of God. What do we mean by that? That knowledge is exact sciences, for everything there is a science. There is a science of my skin. and the skin Doctor studies the science of my skin, he can treat skin diseases. (Little girl, you shouldn't be laughing, you should be listening. Maybe you can get something out of this, too. Don't talk and laugh. We used to have problems with folks, and they used to go get them and out they went. They don't do that anymore. Mohammed, The Prophet Peace Be Upon Him he established the respect for the lecture. And we should teach we don't want to lose respect for lecture. We're responsible for our children, their behavior is what we allow or we don't allow.) 

So this science the true scientists not much can come to us directly, but science has to be interpreted out of the body. We have to interpret it out of the body. So the science for skin, we have, and the doctor who knows all about skin cells and all about how the skin is affected by different things and different conditions and etc. He is a skin doctor. He can only be a skin doctor because he has learned the knowledge that was interpreted or extracted out of the nature of the skin. Out of the nature of the skin. From the nature of the skin. From the study of the nature of the skin. Nature meaning how it works within, the inner working of a thing. That is the nature of a thing. The inner workings of a thing. So, if you take a piece of wood, or anything. If you study the composition of that wood and you know the inner workings of that wood, then you have the sciences of that piece of wood. You have the science of that wood. So our human bodies may have several subjects, don't we? We have biology, that's the study of our life, we have physiology, that's another study of our life dealing more with the chemistry and the biology, the chemistry and the physical life. We have the physiology, psychology, because we are also thinking beings with feelings. We are thinking people of life with feeling so we have Psychology, and then we have in psychology or under psychology, Psychiatry, which looks for the physical body to see how the physical body is affecting the mind and the feelings or the soul. The personality of the person taken all together. So these are the Scientists. And as a result we just have list after list column after column of Sciences for the human body, alone. 

Then we have all the Sciences of the world, minerals—each stone will be different. There is the science of stones, but then each stone has it's own characteristics. So we would study the separate stones so we would know diamonds from limestone etc. right? So this is a big world of Sciences. But if you understand that man has not added anything to the world. Man has only extracted from the world. Men think that God gave him the brains to Science. He has been able to extract most things from the world. Light comes out of the natural world, the electric light is shining for us right there and up here. It comes right out of the natural world. 

The first time it was discovered, it was by a man, a very famous man in American history. He had a kite, and he sent the kite way up in the air, and he rigged the kite so that the kite would attract electricity from the lightening during the storm. He learned that from observing lightening. That lightening strikes and sometimes it creates fires in another place, and he was wondering, "what is that? What causes that?" So he figured it out. He sent the kite out, and sure enough, it worked. The lightening flashed, and his little rod on his kite lit up. It got hot. It sent off fire. So he brought his kite down and said, "now I have got to go to work. I have proof that it works. That is what's going to happen." So he worked and he gave us electricity. And they say that one of the African-Americans were working with him? Benjamin Franklin. (I think it was Latimer).

Let me get back to my point. That is my point. I have reached my point. That all knowledge is a gift from ALLAH. All knowledge. You can't even lie on your own resources. You can't. You can't give us a lie from your own resources. You are going to have go to Allah's resources even to give us a lie. I said, "Are you sick"? And you are sick, but you say, "No, I'm not sick". But where is the expression coming from. The expression is coming from your knowledge that you are sick, and you are changing it. You are giving us a false report, and you are saying that you are not sick. And you are using your brain that Allah gave you, and your power of expression that Allah created. That's what you use when you are telling us a lie. But if Allah would take everything from you, you couldn't tell us anything. And He wouldn't have to do anything except take your reasoning power away from you. If He only took one thing that he gave you away, that would be the reasoning power, you wouldn't be able to tell us a lie. A dog can't lie to you. No creature can lie but a human being. We are the only creature that God gave the ability to reason, and we are the only creature that can lie. If Allah just took your reasoning power away from you, you wouldn't be able to lie anymore.

Now in this same vein that is showing how much we are indebted to Allah, and how Allah, the Lord who created us and everything, is the one that gives us the knowledge. He is the one that gives us the knowledge. And when we lose it, or when we lose the road for progress in the knowledge, here, Muslims, students, you know the saying of the Prophet, "That anyone who enters upon the path of knowledge to seek it, to share it, to learn it to share it, or just to seek it, as a seeker, (because they don't just seek knowledge just for themselves, they seek it to share.) Those who devote themselves to the knowledge. He has for sure, entered upon the path of God." Isn't that wonderful? He has for sure entered upon the path of God. That path will eventually bring him to the path of God. Maybe not in his lifetime, but it will be left for his children, or for the next generation, and in time, will be taken up by others, will eventually bring them to God. He has entered upon the path to God.

How may we state that, or rephrase that? The path of true knowledge shows God's plan. And God's plan will take you to God, the Planner. Once you see His plan and you follow His plan, His plan will take you to Him, the Planner. You cannot follow the path of true knowledge continuously and not get closer and closer to Allah. Now what do we mean? I'm not talking about getting close to Allah like I would go walk close to that board over there to get close to that board, that's not what I mean. Travel in religion, is the movement of the perception. It is really the movement of obedience. Obeying what Allah intended for you. The movement of obedience. And the highest movement is the movement of perception. And really, it is the movement of obedience, too, because if your perception doesn't obey God, you will never receive teachings. So all of it is the movement of obedience, so I may correct myself now and say there is only one correct movement and that is the movement of obedience, and the highest of that movement is the movement of perception. Praise be to Allah.

So our coming nearer and nearer to God is to be understood, then in two ways. We get nearer to God by obeying Him more. And when we obey Him more, He accepts us more, and He becomes present in our life. We can't go to Him, but He can come to us. We can only go to Him by obeying Him. In conforming to His laws, to His Will, we go to Him. But really, we are not really going to Him in any linear movement, means from this place to that place. But God will come to us. And actually, He doesn't have to go in any linear movement either because He's present everywhere. But it will appear to us that He came to us because we didn't know that He was anywhere near. So when we realized that, "here He is, right here in my life, God came to me". Well, He did come to you, but He came to you like the light comes to you, you just hit the switch and it's on.

This reality based knowledge is what God wants us to teach. Reality rooted, or reality based, or reality supported knowledge. Now this idea, I said earlier, of knowledge being reality supported, and losing that base because of man's imagination, his dreaming mind, his wandering mind, etc., losing that base, then God having to call the thinker back to that base. Some of you just made Asr prayer, and you might have done Dhikr. Dhikr, Subhana Allah, Subhana Allah, Subhana Allah so many times, Al Hamdu lillah, Al Hamdu lillah, Alhamdu lillah, so many times, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, so many times. You might have done that, called Dhikr. We also recite the 99 names of God on the fingers too, dhikr. Now what does Dhikr mean literally? They translate it as "remembrance". But what is "remembrance"? Remembrance is thinking with a purpose in mind. That's what remembrance is. "Remembrance" is thinking with something to think in mind. And with a purpose in mind. It also may be called loosely, "meditation", "reflection". But it is thinking, isn't it? It's thinking. And when Allah revealed the Qur'an in the language that it's in and the word, expression "Dhikrullah" is given as an expression in the Qur'an, "Wa dhikrullahu akbar", "And the reflection or remembrance of God is the greatest". It really means thinking on God is the greatest help that anyone can get. "Dhikrullahu Akbar" - "Thinking on God is the greatest help that anyone can get."

Now I may be having sickness in my family. Or my child may be misbehaving and I can't control my child. So I turn to Allah. I turn to Allah and make a Du'a. My mother used to do that often. And she would pray, hold her hand like this. She carried a lot of burden on her, my mother when we were young. My father was away or locked up most of time. Most of the years of my young life until I was a teenager. So she would often be seen like that in prayer. Sometimes you would hear her praying. And then sometimes she'd be so lively. I remember others of us, but I remember myself, too, I said, "Mama", she said, "what son?" And she knew and she said, "Mama's okay, I was just reflecting on my Savior, I was reflecting on my Savior". And that's how people would regenerate her life. She would revive her own life. And she would come out from thinking on her savior and she go into the kitchen and you would hear her singing. She would be taking care of business in the kitchen, she would be singing. Because she had had her life restored, the energy of her life had been restored by thinking on God. Isn't it wonderful? Yes. And God says, "Remember me, and I will remember you". "Remember me and I will remember you". That 's what God says.

So this is also true for the first man that's seeking exact knowledge. And what should education be? Education should be the exact knowledge, and knowledge supported by exact knowledge. If anything in the school is taught and it is not supported by exact knowledge, it shouldn't be allowed. Now, you might say, what about abstract? Abstract knowledge. It should be true to reality. Not saying that you have to make a bird appear exactly as the bird is all the time. But by interpretation, what you make as a drawing should agree 100% with the reality that you are interpreting. Now this is not for elementary school. You say, "well you don't have a college education, how can you talk to us like this?" Because God has educated me. God has educated me. So, and I know your level, I know my level when I was trying to get it, you can't understand all things, you're elementary school students, high school students, if you're college level students you have to be the best. And you have to be smart to understand all that I explain to you now. And you who are in art, if you're in school for art you understand what I'm talking about. but for you who are in arts, If you're interested in school for art you understand what I'm talking about. Yes, so what we say in his physical appearance may not look like the same you are drawing, or the same you are attracting. But when you explain to us where you are coming from, your explanation should not go against the object, the real object that you were interpreting, that's what I mean, or you know in mathematics, two and two are four, ten time four or twenty times two is forty....forty, Now forty looks a lot bigger than two, but it's kept it's agreement with two. In all due respect, mathematics does not loose it's agreement with the root, with reality. Does that make it plain for everyone? See how I brought you from the elementary class . Praise be to Allah.
But they don't understand it quite like the artist understand. 

Okay, praise be to Allah. Now, let us see something in the Quran, if there had been a lot of non-Muslims here I would handle some things a little bit differently. I would put more emphasis on one but my interest now would be more heavy, heavier on the Islamic side. Yes, now, I hope you don't, don't keep getting non Muslims friends outside, cause it your duty, your duty is to make others, or bring others to at least see Islam. So that they may become Muslim. It is much more rewarding for you than your interest in just learning for our own mind, for yourself. So let's not lose that importance. And it's not to say we always go back to two. With those that I'm teaching and believe me I'm available, I'll come any where. I'll go to the moon, I'll go mars, if they can get me there quick enough and I come back. I can come back and see my family before I die. I'll go to mars, seeking yes, so I can come on days when, for nothing but teaching. And the Imam here, I can come for nothing but teaching. Anytime you want me to come and teach on a subject in Islam. to all Muslims, you invite me I'll come. Inshallah I'll be here. 

Now, in our book, "Qur'an", the language is clear. By "clear" what we mean is that there is not an effort to make the understanding difficult for you. The effort is to make the understanding easy for you. This is the Qur'an. And Allah says to Muhammad, the Prophet, "We shall ease your way until you are safe from difficulty. God is going to bring him from great difficult life, difficult situation for his mind. The Prophet began as a prophet with a great burden on his heart and his mind. The world was messed up and it was burdening his heart and his mind. And God said to Him, "We are going to ease your way until you arrive at the state of ease". Where it will be easy for you. And you know that Jesus Christ in Christianity, He says, "Come and accept my burden, my burden is light". Not heavy, light. Well that was a sign of what was coming. He's a sign from God of what was coming. And from the teacher who is going to teach you—and it's not going to be difficult to understand like. But you won't reject that teacher if you stay true to the word of God. Stay true, stay with the word of God. Be true to it and eventually God is going to give you that teacher that will make the burden light. And that happened with Muhammad, the Prophet in the Qur'an. The Qur'an gives it like this, it says, "This is the Deen Al-Fitra". Fitra. And Fitra is a noun form of the verb which means "to appear the for first time. To appear for the first time". Deen Al-Fitra. It means what appears in the minds of human beings for the first time of the knowledge that God revealed. 

Now it appears for the first time, and in time, as I told you, man gets away from it. He starts following his own mind and gets away from it. So God says, "This is the Deen of Fitra". "Fatara an naasa alayhaa". He originated the human being upon that pattern of Fitra. So man was established upon a knowledge that dawned in his life for the first time and he began to make his life be in agreement with that knowledge. So God is saying that that was a knowledge that was responsible for the forming of man's first educated institution, enlightened orders. Enlightened communities. That dawning was responsible for the first enlightened, man's mortal communities, etc. And this is what He is bringing back to you.

Now God is bringing it back to you. You lost that. You got off track. You got off base. You are wanting now. You are not attached anymore to that reality that God makes, that God did. And God wants to call you back to that reality, the Deen Al-Fitra that He patterned the human life from. Praise be to Allah.

Now, behind that, before I give you an explanation for this same idea in Christianity, or in the Christian world, let me give you something else that may help. Man speaks of the beginning of civilization. And civilization is understood to be the movement of society upon correct information. That is civilization. If it is not that, it is not civilization. Not in its true essence. So the movement of society in a forward direction, or a progressive way upon true information, correct information. Alright. So men, in that particular science, the science of the history of civilizations, historians, they will speak of the early history as the dawning of history. 

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Now they did this 2500 years ago, at least. I would say at least 2500 years ago, yes. Particularly in the time of Plato and the Greek philosophers. There minds were already thinking that way. So before the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad, there was already the expression of "the coming of the Light", the Dawning of Civilization, and similar language. These expressions were already in use. And then God says, "And by the Daybreak", "by the daybreak". This is in reference to the dawning of civilization. Not just the dawning of consciousness into the soul of man, but the dawning of civilization. That is why the Prophet instructed his students to know that are two applications, there are two understandings of the knowledge. There is knowledge that is plainly explained, explicit, and knowledge that we know by the exercise of reasoning. It is implicit. Implicit, meaning that it is implied, the hint is there, but many people can't sense the hint. They don't know how to see where the direction that this knowledge is taking them to go. The knowledge hints them to go in a direction, but they don't see it. They miss it. Most people will miss the implicit but if they are rational and good thinkers, they will be able to follow the implicit and the explicit.

Now also in mythology, long before the Qur'an came to our Prophet Muhammad, in mythology we have the myth of nature, of mother Nature. We have the myth of Mother Nature. And a lot of mythology have formed upon the myth of mother nature. When you look at these myths, these myths are saying that man's world is born out of mother's nature. Mother Nature is the mother of man's world. It is said that "Deen al Fitra" is the pattern, is the base on which man's civilization was formed. That's what its saying. But it's saying it with mythology, it's saying it with myths. With pictures and drawings that hold great messages. It was shown with mother Atema, Atimas I think her name is. She is holding her baby in her arms. She is holding her baby in her lap. She is mother earth, and she has the little man child in her arms holding him. Well, I better not say too much. 
The child appears to be dead in her arms, and yet alive at the same time. When you look at it, it appears she could be holding a dead child. She could be holding a child that is relaxed, so calm that it appears to be without life, but it is not. Because the child is not rigid. It is not a rigid picture of the child, but it is a completely healthy picture of the child. So life and death is communicated from one picture, and she is holding it, Mother Earth. Well, let us keep going here.

Now, when you look at the picture that is going to be everywhere pretty soon, The Nativity. The picture of the Nativity in Christianity. In that picture of nativity you have a little child. Seems to be in danger, animals all around it. A little child among animals. I used to think that it was a really a savage way to bring a message to somebody on Christmas day. I did. I was very critical. You know, I was the son of Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam product. Yes, I was very critical. But as I got more sober-minded, because I was a hot head, my mind got clearer. I began to think more clearer, and I began to interpret that picture. A wonderful picture. Those animals are signs or literal depictions of the pagan idolatrous world that was existing before Christianity in Europe and Greece, and different places. So they are styled there as animals. But you notice, what are the nature or character of the animals that are in that picture with that little child? They are all animals that we like and that serve us. Right? Camels, donkeys, rabbits, deer. These animals that are useful to us, and animals that we like. They are not snakes. If you see a snake in the nativity, a snake put that snake there.

What is this telling us? This is telling us, "here comes the word of God. The Word of God. And the Word of God will be placed upon a pagan people who have not been evolved up into their humanity yet. So really, in their behavior, they are animals. But they are not really bad animals, they are good animals. I don't think Ghengis Khan was in any of those pictures. Or Attila the Hun, I don't think he is in there anywhere in the nativity.
Those were pretty tough fellows. The shed a lot of blood. 

So here's how to solve it then? What is it telling us? It is telling us that the Word of God is going to come into the world, but it is going to come among people who are in the womb of life. They haven't even come outside of the womb of life yet. That have not come out into the light. They are in the dark. They are in the womb of life. They are in primitive, premature sense of humanity. That humanity is premature. And when you look at the premature picture of a human being and some of its most premature photographs, it appears as an animal, doesn't it. You go back, carry it back far enough, it appears as a little tadpole. What the frogs come from, a tadpole. It appears like a little tadpole. And then finally, it looks like a little monstrous thing. A little monstrous thing all knotted up there. But then it comes out into the light and it looks like us. It is in our form when it comes out into the light. Well these people in their progress to be born into humanity were not yet born, they were in their premature form in the eyes of the wise. So they used animals to depict them. They say, they are not bad, this child is like a rabbit, this child is like a donkey, this child is like a camel, this child is like a horse, etc., and they give different descriptions. 

And here is the baby, seems to be comfortable. The baby is not crying, the baby is not frightened. The baby is just perfectly relaxed. What are they saying? If we can introduced the word of God in a form that will be not progressed, don't introduce him in an advanced state, present the word also in its most primitive form. Most primitive form. So the wise, in this language in perceiving God's word or God's knowledge a long time ago, in ancient Egypt, they used the human body as the depiction of Revelation. The body of Osiris, of the son Osiris. It was a human body, but it was really, by interpretation, it was the revealed Light. The revealed Light. So since they used the human body as a microcosm, a small model of the whole universe, and then use it also to depict also Revelation, when Christianity came upon the scene, these learned scholars in the mythology, in the language of mythology, they used the body of the human being the same way Osiris's body was used. His body is the Word. His body is the Light. But we don't want this body in the full grown form because the animals may be frightened. So let's put this body in its most infantile form so the animals won't be frightened. The body won't have no more to say than they can digest. Enough there.

What I am saying to you, that though this is very confused, that's what it is. This is very confused language. We know this. Well, it is very difficult language. It is confusing for us because we can't understand it. But it is very difficult language. It is like the little child superman coming down from a high zone in the sky. From Krypton. Where they had plenty kryptonite. Supposed to be a very hard substance to crack. Anyway, here we are now, we are looking at what they did. How they tried to speak a language through pictures. And I am saying, I interpret it to be saying this is the Deen Al Fitra, upon which He patterned man, civilization. That is what that nativity is saying. Believe me, that is what that nativity is saying. When you look at the picture of the woman holding her child in her arm now, that's what that picture is saying. This is the Deen of the Word Al Fitra, upon which we patterned the birth of the civilization.

Now let us go to something else. Of Abraham we are told that Abraham is the Prophet who was upright in his human nature. Upright in his human nature. he we was chosen by God to be the father of all the nations because of that obedience in him. Even before he was a prophet preaching, this in the traditions of the Jews, Abraham was a man before the revelation came to him, he was a man didn't do wrong. He would rather hurt himself than to do wrong. When he went among the people, if they gave him something or they helped him with something, he didn't want to take it. He'd give it back or he offered them something else. Or he said I can't accept it, I can't pay it back. He insisted upon not having any debt to anybody. This is Abraham before he was prophet. He insisted upon not having any debt with anybody. he insisted upon not burdening anybody. When he went around the people he didn't want to be any burden to them. He would rather go hungry than to be a burden to them. This was Abraham.

Abraham was truthful. He believed in his makeup that God would take care of him even before revelation came to him. And the thing that was driving him more than any other thing was his obedience to what he believed in his mind to be true, honest, straight or upright. That was Abraham. Okay. How did he come to that nature? God didn't say, "Abraham be honest, don't tell a lie. Don't take advantage of anybody. Be just. If they give you 50 cents worth of food, give them 50 cents out of your pocket. Don't bum on the people." He was not a bum. He did not go around bumming his way. He wanted to pay for whatever he received. This was Abraham. And this particular disposition in his nature, in his own personal life is called "Khalifa". And he's called "hanifa". He is called, peace be upon him, "Ibrahim hanifa". Abraham the Hanifa. "Hanifa" is translated by those who translate, the Arabs and other who know Arabic, as "Upright" Who was upright in his nature. In his own human nature. God didn't make him like that. He never got a revelation from God. He just chose to be that way, because that is the way he wanted to live. He was comfortable. He was most comfortable when he was living that way. And I am sure if anybody said, "Abraham, why are you like this?" He wouldn't say, "Because God told me". He didn't know about any God. His father's God was a false god. And he was so upright in his nature, that he didn't even like their gods. His own mind wouldn't let him be drawn to their gods.

Now, how do we know from the Qur'an that Abraham was this kind of thinker? Allah says of Abraham, which has a lot to do with the true knowledge and sciences as education comes into the world—Allah says of Abraham, that Abraham set out one evening. He started in the evening. He set out one evening after sunset, after sunset. He set out to think on the creation, itself. He didn't know God, he was just thinking on the creation itself. And he saw the stars appearing in the skies as the night got dark. and he saw one star that appeared to be bigger than all other stars. 
Some say the star he saw was the lightening he saw the great star and he saw it with color. He said this must be the ruler, this must be the mightiest one in all this world. But as one seems to have gotten away. Kinda got away and he saw different effect, then he saw a star fall, he said oh this can't be God, can't be God falling? He took a fallen star and said any of those stars can fall. If one fell, any of them could fall. So he's fed up with the stars.
So he sat out all night until the sun started to rise, then he saw the sun rise up. He said, "oh it has moved .swiftly and most splendid, then all the rest. It must be God. Now here's a man that has not found God and he is not calling G-o-d, he didn't use that word. He called this the biggest the one in the family of bodies that's all he wanted. He wanted to know which one was Akbar. And which ever one was Akbar that was going to be the one to be excepted. Allahu Akbar? Right? That's who we except. We except Allah. Why because Allahu Akbar. Allah is the biggest, of all So when the sun came up, he saw it. First he was a rational thinker from a special kind. There are a lot of rational thinkers, but that rational thinker that won't rest until he has exhausted every possibility known to him for examining this thing further.. so he saw it. There arrived... he believed that this was the biggest, but he wanted to wait. Saw it rise up to the zenith, noon day, to the zenith, the highest point in the sky for the sun in our eyes, in our eyes. Then he saw it, so I'm sure he wanted to see what happen to this. So he stayed there with it, and it set, the sun set, the light was not to be seen, And he said, Abraham peace be upon him, prophet Abraham, in Quran. He said, "No this is not my God, he said, "my God is not one to set". He didn't want to accept the God that would set. So he believed that whatever was responsible for the universe it shouldn't be subjected to the laws of the universe like everything else in the universe. So in the complete law then it couldn't be God. He reasoned then that there was a law for all of these things. And the law giver or the law maker, the Creator, is the only God. And he declared his belief, his faith in the real God, with his upright character, with his honesty, truthfulness, and just dealings with all people, strangers and relatives alike, God chose him and called him, "Father of the Nations". Now we know that the language in the Qur'an is not father, it is Imam. He calls him "Imam for all the Nations". Praise be to ALLAH!

So is respect for Creation, respect for knowledge as God, Himself created it. Respect for that. And then whatever we do to interpret, or to extend or to communicate or express, we must not disobey the reality that got it started. Stick with the reality that got it started. Obey that reality. Don't take that reality from this reality. Don't weaken this reality. But merely build upon this reality like we build upon one, two, three, four, and calculus and etc., logarithms, all dealing with numbers. But look how it advanced by obeying the nations, the reality that God created.
Mathematics is Islam and Islam is Mathematics. It can be proven in no given time. Mathematics, and its obedience to that reality. That's what it means Allahu Akbar.

Now, we are going to have to round this up. They told me that they have a good meal prepared, and I want to socialize and I want to eat. But I want to eat more than I want to socialize because I am hungry..

Another expression, Allah speaks of the Book and He gives a description of the Book, "Ummal Kitaab". Mother of the Book. Mother of the Book. Now where do we find the "Mother of the Book" in the Qur'an. Allah makes it very clear. It says, "This Book has been revealed metaphorical and basic. Metaphorical and Basic. The translation that you have is like the one that I have. I have a lot of different translations, but I have more of the one that you have because that is the one that we prefer. It says, "Allegorical" and "Basic". The word for "allegorical" or "metaphor" or other name we could give it, is "Shubahaat". Now what does that mean? It means that what is given here is a resemblance of something else. Understand that. The "shubahaat" says that what is given here in the verses resembles something else. So you don't have the real thing, you have the resemblance in the "shubahaat". 

If I want to say, "This resembles that". "Hadha Ushab hadha", this resembles that. Shubahaata, that is the same word. So it is resemblance. We have in the English language, that to be seen for what it used to be, and we have that that is not, and they use the language meaning that it has a semblance to that, to the real thing. Well, that is the same thing in "shubahaat". It resembles, you are looking at the resemblance or you are looking at the semblance or the resemblance and not the real thing.

It says those who prefer, what it means, they engage themselves more. They have a preference for studying, a preference for reading, that "Shubahaat" moreso than for reading the "Muhkamaat". They have a preference for reading, for studying, and engaging or indulging in the "Shubahaat" moreso than they have for the "Muhkamaat", the basics of the book. 

God says of them that there is a defect in their hearts. There is a defect in their heart. And if they are not careful, it will disease the whole life for them. They will be finished. Yes! And God says that the "Muhkamaat" are the basis of the Book, are the base of the book. So the book is supported upon the "Muhkamat, not upon the Shubahaat. The logic of the book is in the muhkamaat not in the shubahaat.

Not to play down the shubahaat now, but just to warn you that the shubahaat is veils upon veils, veils upon veils. And you may be tied up until eternity lifting veils and never get to the real thing. And never get to the real thing! So Allah does not want us to just give all of our time to the Shubahaat. Give our time, mostly to the Muhkamaat, and a little time to the shubahaat. The shubahaat is supposed to be the violin playing after we have cultivated the farm, and brought in the food and the goods for the market. Delivered the truck loads to the market, and have the money in our pockets, now its time for the violin at the fireside, play a little shubaahaat, and go to sleep. Praise be to Allah.

We are getting through with it. It won't be long.

Now, the final part of this address on "Islam's Sacred Regard For Knowledge", that's what I have been pointing to. How Revelation uses the real world, the created world that God made in His original created nature, to show us where Revelation should begin. Revelation should dawn upon this reality. And when it's dawning, it should be in agreement with that reality.

God created this world, and He didn't create it for nothing. This is His creation. Okay, I don't want to talk too long. My son told me, "Daddy, are you going to talk long?" And I said, "I don't know." I said, "What should I do?" He said, "Don't talk long". And he looked at my face, and I guess he could feel that I was burdened with this. He said, "Daddy, talk a lot and talk a little bit." He's six years old. "Talk a lot and talk a little bit." I understood what he meant right away. He meant don't stretch it out too far, but don't fail to........I'll be patient with you. So, I said to myself, "I don't think that little young man can understand all that I am getting out of what he told me". I am going to have to learn how to say a lot, but say it in a little time. I am still working on that.

The Natural world. The natural world. If we want to understand the great resources of the natural world and how we have come to have so many comforts, so much knowledge, so much education, so much technology, so much industry. So much comfort and conveniences in our life, (to understand that) we are to go back to the world as God made it. That's where it started. It started with the world as God made it.

What composition for man's life accounts for this great progress? The social composition. Man banding together with other men, first looking into his own family. He wanted to have a lot of sons, why? Because he wanted have more hands to go to the fields. I don't know if they still use that expression anymore, "hands". But "hands" means workers. He wanted to have more workers to go to the fields, because he felt that "if I can do this with three workers and I can end up with this much money at the end of the year, if I had thirty workers, what could I do! So some would have 15 children, 20 children, 20 plus children, I never heard of 30 children yet. They say, "I can't have enough from one woman, I need two wives, three wives, eight wives, ten wives, fifty wives. Rich man.

And Allah addresses this in the Qur'an, "You pride yourself in having sons". Why? Because these sons are workers. And after working a lot, you accumulate a lot of wealth, now you have to have an army to defend it. So now you need 20 more wives, 30, 40, 50. Somebody it is said had 200. (Solomon) I didn't want to say any names. 200 wives. Solomon had a great kingdom, though. All his sons. Now really, that Prophet didn't have all that many wives, that is symbolic.

But it is true that men saw that the more men that they produced from their loins, the bigger their tribe got. And the men in the tribe was their work force and also their army, their defense. So they wanted a lot of men, a lot of males to take care of those needs.

Finally man began to question his own motives. Like I will right now? What does man want all those children for? If he just has all those children so that he can have more money, if he is having all those children so he can have an army to defend his wealth, then that is not becoming of his humanity. So man began to question his motives and he said "No, this is not the way to do it." We are supposed to see the social establishment. That human beings are supposed to be a social establishment. And to have a social establishment you must have it for all the people in your town. For all the people in your boundaries. Not just for you family. So the family order gave way to the social institution. That included all the people within the geographic boundary or within some boundary. They used as a symbol, the home. That our society should be made homes for all citizens.

Today we find a picture of a little simple house, the Ka'aba. It is called "the House", "Al Bait". In fact, "Al Bait" means "the home", Ad Daar means "the House". Al Bait means the "home". So we have a simple little square house in a circle there, and a mystery shrouded symbol there. And we turn to it, in that direction, and we orientate ourselves for Salaat, for prayer, and for Hajj. It is there to say many things to us. That God sees the whole world of people as one family. The family in humanity, or the family in Adam. God sees the whole people, all the people of the world as children in humanity. One family generated by Adam and his wife. 

First we are to recognize that this world is populated by the children of two parents, then the next step for the reasoning is that none of us should have advantages over the other. None of us should be given preferences over the other. That we are all equally children, the sons and daughters in humanity. Therefore the whole society must accommodate us on equal terms. There must be the same opportunity for one that there are for the others, etc., etc. So this wonderful picture of what the world should grow in to, or what the world should be trying to evolve in to, is the Ummah of Al-Islam. The Ummah of Al-Islam. And the little, shrouded symbol there, with the black skirt on, and the black stone in the corner, holds great nature, and holds great knowledge. And doesn't God say that plainly in the Qur'an? He didn't only say that House was just to make Hajj to, He said that in it is great knowledge. In that House is great knowledge if it can be extracted, if it can be interpreted out of that shrouded little four-cornered house, one room house.

So we are a social community. That is what we mean when we say that we are all the children of one ancestor. We are a social community and we belong to a social institution. That social institution is the Ummah of Al-Islam. It is our social institution. It is called "Ummah", after the word mother, "Umm", "Ummi - my mother", "Ummun" - Mother". "Ummah" - Community. Al Ummah - the Community.

We will have social institutions within this mother institution. Within this mother social institution we will have smaller social institutions. The smallest one is our private family, mom and dad, and the child or the children. That is the smallest one. It goes back to the symbol of that little simple house. That is the smallest one.

It is said that the Jews found themselves in such a precarious situation in the world that they were worried night and day. There was no rest for them. The whole world seemed for them trouble at that time. And God told them to make your home your synagogues, make you homes your synagogues. In other words there was no freedom for them to come out and go to the synagogues anymore in the public. They might be killed. It said make your homes your synagogues. Now, that was a decision that they had to come to in order to survive. But it was a sign that one day Allah would reveal that every household should be a mosque. That every family should be a mosque. Every family should have its Imam. And every Imam in the household should be responsible for helping the most promising male in that family become the next Imam so that if he dies the family is not without an Imam. 

This is what Prophet Muhammad wanted. That's why immediately he began to teach, and he didn't care how ignorant you were. He did not care if you did not know how to read. He began to give you a few lines from the Qur'an. A few lines from the Revelation. And he said, "remember it". Study it, learn it, remember it. And go out and teach it. If you don't know but one line, teach it to somebody. Isn't that wonderful. Suppose we had a reform movement for ourselves like that? Suppose we had for ourselves a reformed movement like that where we would accept from our Imam, no matter if we just learned one line this week, we have to pass it to someone else so that two people, at least two people know that one line now. Suppose we would do that? Do you see how fast we would be educated in Al-Islam? How fast we would be educated in the Qur'an. That we would be obligated to whatever we received—I see some of you all are taking notes enough to make a book almost, I am not criticizing, I love that. It tells me that they care. And they prove they care about it because I here it back, when I listen to them, I hear it back. So I know that are not taking it to just store it away, they are taking it to use it. But suppose all of us, you and your friends, even the little girl there who can read and write, suppose she was taking mental notes, suppose she was writing down something and would go and tell her friends, instead of playing or turning the TV on, or ripping and running. Suppose she just took a few minutes out to tell her friends something she heard here, and repeat it exactly the way she heard it. What she could understand on her level, wouldn't that be wonderful? Let me tell you. That is what we have to do. That is the Prophet's legacy and his tradition. And that is what your Imam is asking you to do. Don't just hear these things, but take what you know that helps you, what makes you feel good.

Take it and share it with another person, and tell that person to share it with another person. What we are receiving is better than dollars. It will put you in a situation to more dollars, homes, and everything else. In fact, it will put you in a situation to have towns and cities. And that is where we are going—New Africa! Yes, we are going to have towns and cities under our supervision. A mayor from us, a police chief from us. From us! Bankers from us. Everything from us, like they got it for them, right? I can go in an Irish neighborhood, and I guarantee you everything is from them, the bank, stores, transportation. If it is not public transportation, you can bet it is from them. And if it's public transportation, believe me, they are catering to them. Because they have power. They have community in their hands. We want to have our own community in our own control. Under Allah, of course.

Now Allah says of us that He created our life, the human life, like the plants were created. The plants. What does that tell us? What does Allah want us to know when He says that to us? He wants us to be excited in our rational mind, to look for cause and effect, for logic and the connection for logic. So that we eventually become universal in our minds and our natures, and in our perceptions, and in our language, universal. Scientific, and yet not secular like this world. He created us like a plant. There are many kinds of plants, but you can find the most simplest plant, the simplest form of plants having great charity. Look how one little grain of wheat, planted in the soil and cared for, bears up a blade of grass, and in the top will be the wheat, the seed, with many seeds in its tops. You gave one, but look how many you got back. They will have so much that you will have more than enough next year. You can eat, and you can plant. And as Allah says, "See how the he causes the plant to come up out of the earth and they give to man and to the animals. From them men and animals eat, and find comfort". Animals find homes in the plants. The trees, the biggest, will house birds, and sometimes rodents, squirrels. It becomes a house for them, food for them, shade for them, to shade them from the heat of the sun, to cover them from the beating down from the rain. All of that that plant has given. For man he gives you the wood, but a dead thing. The tree dies, before it dies, man cuts it down and gets its wood. You get its woods, you build your house, you use the wood to fire your fireplace, it warms your house. You use it to cook your food, as a means to cook your food, all came out of the tree. And it gives so many other services to the animals. And then it is a thing of beauty too, isn't it? It decorates your land. It adds beauty to your land, et cetera. All of that comes from Allah. 

So Allah says He created us as a plant, and I just elaborated a little bit on the plant. Suppose we had a community that wanted to be of service, not only to human beings, but of service to God's creatures, the animals? To try to make their existence better, not worse but more comfortable on this earth. So what you see Western civilization doing, is what Allah wanted the Ummah to do. But do it in a more decent way. Don't manipulate animal behavior, don't use animals as guinea pigs. And you know, you have animal cruelty societies putting pressure on science so that science doesn't use the animals as guinea pigs. That is a concern. To do it with care of the animals in the interest of science is okay. Like to hunt an animal just to feed yourself and your family, or to carry the meat to the market, it is okay. As long as it is justified for consuming. But to hunt for sport, and you are going to leave the animal out there dead, and you go home. You just hunt to sharpen your shooting skills a little bit, you need to be shot at. Yes! You need to shoot him as he steps up on his porch. Now please don't do anything that I am telling you outside of the law. Wait until Islam civilizes these uncivilized laws. Yes, we still have some uncivilized laws in the world, and in time Islam will civilize all of these uncivilized laws.

So much for the plants and the trees, a sign to us of God's charity, of God's goodness and God's charity. And God wants us to produce, but not just for ourselves, produce to bring relief to human life and also to all life.

Now we find that man evolving or growing, progressing, producing upon the natural world, upon the natural ground, the natural soil, from what he knows there he uses it, he takes it out. That that established man first as a community. And while he was doing that, he was not only increasing his physical store of things, of goods, et cetera, or resources and discoverings, the natural resources. But he was also developing skills. He was developing skills. By finding out how to cut down a tree better. How to take the iron ore, and believe me, science tells us iron was discovered accidentally. It wasn't any scientist looking for iron. Iron was discovered by man before medieval times, in ancient times. And he discovered it when he built a big fire and there was iron ore in the ground. And after the big fire, he came back and he found that the iron ore had solidified, had gotten harder and more refined. So it gave him the idea that he could take that same material that was around plentiful in his area and he could subject it to high temperatures, to high fires, strong fires, and he developed a blower, the bellows, they developed the bellows to make it hotter. Then they learned how to make clay ovens, huge clay ovens and put it in there and have one little hole for the bellows. Then they learned to make many bellows, big bellows, and the more iron they could make. They produced iron.

By the way, when Mao Tse Tung was denied help from Russia, because America was putting pressure on Russia, and Mao Tse Tung wanted to develop steel for scientists, he didn't get any help from the super powers. Even the ones who he had a kinship with in the Communist ideology, he decided, he told his people let's make furnaces in our yards. They made furnaces on their private property. That man was determined. That's how we should be. That man was determined. They made furnaces on their private grounds, put the iron in there in the furnaces that they prepared, and used metal skins and built the fire and did it the simple way. Finally, they learned how to do it the more sophisticated way. Pretty soon it was in the News. China, under Mao Tse Tung, was producing steel. In primitive, back yard furnaces. Yes!

So skills were developed. Now this didn't only happen in industry, the metal making industry and whatever else. This happened also for medicine. Man was at the same time discovering that certain herbs helped certain kinds of illnesses. He was discovering this. He discovered that certain plants treated certain kinds of illnesses and diseases. So he was discovering this and keeping it, preserving it, writing it down in books what he learned from this. From his experiments, and how this works, and he passed it on to his sons. Isn't that wonderful? And they called it "Traditional Medicine". This is how the world of knowledge came to us. We have these institutions around here, and we look at these institutions and we think that these institutions are God. We do. You go to Harvard, you go to Yale, you go to Princeton, you go to these places and you think that these institutions are ruled over or administrated by God.

They are the beneficiary. That is all that they are. Beneficiaries. They haven't lived long enough to be responsible for all of the knowledge that we have in this world. They are only beneficiaries. They have gotten this from those who passed it on to them. At the beginning of it is your Lord, your God that made you, ALLAH!

He started off by making creation. He made creation not only to support us, but he made creation to speak to us, to talk to us, quietly, privately share it's knowledge with us. Start us off to school, Mother Nature. And if we continue to respect it, it will make you a great scientist. Great scientist! If you keep this kind of mind, if you will accept it and if you teach it, and you pass it to your children, in time your children will not only be asking for equality, they will be responsible for defending those who desire equality.

So behind that development, which I am sure took thousands of years, came another development and that was for the perception of man. First he was working with physical things and getting knowledge directly from the physical experience that he was having with things. From what he saw, experienced, and observed, he wrote it down and passed it on to the next generation. Later on he began to wonder if there was not more than this to life.

Then there began the family of philosophers. And the philosophers are the thinkers. They engage more of their brains, their rational minds than they did their hands or tools of industry. They engaged their minds. And the picture of Ibrahim. The Imam Ibrahim, our father Ibrahim, peace be unto him is the picture of the great thinker. He is like the father of the thinkers. And with that came the philosophers. Now the philosophers, they exercised the power of reasoning. The power of reasoning. What they discovered they communicated upon the power of reasoning or the logic that rational thought can bring them. And then they give it. 

After the philosophers came—well I missed one, and that is the founders of Metaphysics. Metaphysics. Industry, Metaphysics, Philosophy and Exact Science. The exact sciences.

That is how this world of knowledge has come to us. It has come to us in stages of growth. The industrialists, the ones who worked the land and harvest the products. Discovered things of worth to take to the market, et cetera. Then behind them came the Metaphysicians, the ones who see language in the language, or another nature that tells him that this is a message to man's mind. A message to man's mind for his understanding of his own personal world. His mind, his thought, his feelings, his soul, his everything. So that is the language of metaphysics. It interprets the outer world reality as a light on the private world of man. And the reverse, the inner reality as a reflection of the outer reality. Both. They both reflect each other, one is a small model of the big one. The microcosm, the small, the person, the macrocosm, the universe, the whole world. So the language of metaphysics came. Then after the language of metaphysics, the language of philosophy. That is, thinking, reasoning. The reasoning to get more out of the objective world, the world that they can reach and get some benefits from. So this new trend in the development of the knowledge. it's now going to strengthen the industrialists. It is going to strengthen the industrialist. As a result of the language of philosophies, medicine improved, a lot of the orientations improved for knowledge. Because of the thinkers, the philosophers.

The philosophers guided the thinkers to the door of scientific observation. Scientific observation. This didn't happen because of one trend in man's thinking. It happened because of the progressional development or growth for man's thinking. That is how the world came to be scientific like it is now with all this abundance of knowledge in it. And it all started from the reality, the world that God created. And if all of this development would die, would disappear from the world, the whole world of scientists, metaphysics, philosophy and the exact sciences and technology, if all of this would disappear from the world, man, if he was spared and still existed on this earth, in time he would come back into all of this. 

God is the one that brings him up, evolves him. He evolves him from the natural world that Allah created. And Allah comes and assists him if he is right in his heart. Allah comes and assists him when he can't carry it further. Allah will assist him and show him the interpretation he needs to have to go into another dimension for his mind. Wonderful creation, Allah's creation.

The difference between those communities of people, or the people who fail and those who succeed, is that they don't have this knowledge. This sacred respect first of all for creation as Allah created it, and secondly to keep their knowledge conforming to the nature of that reality. Those that don't have it, they stay weak, those that have it, they look at causes, they look at effects. They come to have what we call perception. Perception means an understanding of what you see. Perception is not just seeing, it is understanding what you see. They come to have correct perception, and then they are the ones who give the names of things. They are the ones who name things. Isn't it a shame that the Black man hasn't named anything yet. Well, maybe he did, "Jitterbug"? I don't think so. "Jazz"? Maybe, but I don't think so. We create things but someone else give it a name. We create things but someone else puts a name to it. And God taught the first man the names.

Thank you very much. As-salaam-alaikum.
May God forgive and guide us, and always have mercy on us. Amin.

