05/30/2003
IWDM Study Library
Jumu’ah

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Praise be to G-d, who gives life and who gives death. In His control, all things are kept. We witness that He is One, and has no partners with Him in the creation and in the management of the Heavens and the earth. And that none come to Him except as a servant. And that He created men and jinn for His service, to serve Him. We witness that Muhammad, to whom Qur'an was revealed, is His servant and His messenger and a mercy to all the world. Rahmatan lil Alamin, a mercy to all the world.
Again G-d says of him, G-d said in our holy book, the Qur'an, "You'll find in him an excellent model. For any he who believes in G-d and the last day and are doers of good." G-d has power over all things and the Qur'an says that He is Al Qadiru ala kulli shay. He has power over all things. He is the doer of whatever He wills. For all the creation, is kept as it is in His one hand, all the creation.
Then, He said to the rebel angel who is really not an angel, he's the jinn, Iblis, who became to Satan Shaytan, said to him, "What's the matter with you? That you do not accept him whom I made with my two hands or two control?" Praise is to Allah. Allah is giving us a perception. And in that perception is G-d as though He's an image of a human being, having in one hand everything He created, the Heavens, all the things that exist, in the Heavens and the earth.
And in the other hand, He has the man that He created. One control, for the man He created, and the other control, for all the other things He created. Can the human beings balance all of that that is on the other side? The man, the human life, balance all that in the other side? Yes, but only as obedient servants of G-d. The contribution of man to G-d's creation is what Allah made the creation for. He made the creation to give an opportunity for a creature, that He will create to find his way to his Maker through the search that he would make in the creation of G-d.
Searching creation, man comes to G-d. This is the book that came before the Qur'an and this is in the Qur'an if you understand it. Searching creation, man comes to G-d. Muhammad the prophet, he taught us to travel throughout the earth in search of knowledge. Peace be upon him. One of his popular sayings is, "Go even as far as a far country, China, in search of knowledge." And of knowledge, he also said, "Do not seek a knowledge of which there is no good use." Do not seek knowledge for which there is no good use. It’s not just knowledge but knowledge that we can benefit by, when we apply it in our lives. If it didn't benefit the human society, then it's a knowledge that we should stay away from. This is the teaching of our leader, our guide, Muhammad. The seal of the prophets. Prayers and the peace be upon him.
Beautiful athan, beautiful voice our brother has. You know in Al-Islam, the call is made by human beings. The sound we hear is the voice of a human being, a man. We are told of the study of Islam, that the Jews had a bugle. Then after the Jews, came the Christians. The Christians had a bell. They have the bell and I don't hear it ringing too much lately. Not to criticize. Just wondering.
Then the Muslims comes the voice of a human being. The voice of a human being, the voice of a man. Now, the call is called the athan. It is taken from a verb or from a noun meaning 'ear'. Uthun is 'ear'. Uthani, my ear. Uthani means 'my ear'. Uthun means ear. Athan is the call that made to get the ears' attention. That's what it's for, that's why you put your hand like this. Call that's made to get your ears' attention, "Give me your ear," as the saying goes. "Countrymen, lend me your ears." This is in literature.
And G-d said, "Whoever has an ear to hear, let him hear." This is in the Bible. Yes. The athan is the call to gets man ear. When you give your ear, it's to take something into your mind. It affects your heart too, if your heart is well, but the main receiver of what you hear is your mind. Your mind receives it, and your mind tries to understand it.
Or try to get whatever the communication is. Athan, athan. The athan is also a call to life. It's a call to life. The purpose for religion, especially Al-Islam, is to give life to the dead. Give life to the dead. And to build up the life after it has awakened to a call. To build that life up. When we hear the word, 'temple'. Temple comes from a word literally meaning nothing but time. Temple, time. Temple- we hear about the temple. Building the temple. In the Bible it talks about the temple.
In Al-Islam, we don't have that language until Mr. Fard came to us and he gave us that language again, temple. But in Al-Islam, we don't have that language, temple. But we have that idea of the house called Kaaba that is the center of our spiritual life and interest for the whole earth, the Kaaba. They don't call it the temple, it's called 'the house'. Al Bait, the house. It's also called Kaaba as I just said. Kaaba and Al Bait. The word Kaaba means connected. Things that connect in order to work.
And we read in the Bible, about the Prophet Ezekiel, he is having a vision of the people as the valley of dead bones. They have lost their lives but more than that they've lost even their design, their picture is gone. Not even a picture of a human being is left. Just bones, separated.
The prophet, he prayed that life could be given to those dry bones. The bones begin to come together and connect properly to reconstruct the life, the human life.
And I said that Kaaba means the making of connection so that something can work properly or correctly. This is similar to that vision that the prophet had. The message of the prophets of the Bible is in the meaning Kaaba, connecting the bones where they're supposed to be connected so that you structure the life properly. Allah says of that house, “Awwal al-Bait”, the most ancient or the first of the houses. Buniya linaas, built for all people. Buniya means constructed, for here is a house that was built for all people.
The house is a sign, a symbol of how you construct life, the human life. It is a message as a sign or a symbol of how G-d intends that man has his life constructed. It also gives us a picture or understanding of how G-d wants our lives constructed. When it says buniya linaas, its built for all people and then it says it is a house, a “bait”. Same name used for my home, “baiti”. “Baiti fi madina Markham.” Some of you know enough Arabic to know exactly what I just said. “Baiti fi madina Markham.” My home is in Markham, Illinois. That’s what I just said. So “baiti” is a common word. It’s the same word used for the house in the Qur’an by G-d, not a new different word, not an uncommon word. Same common word. Bait, “Awwal al-bait”, first or most ancient of the houses.
Here is a house that represents the good construction of human life. The common life that we all share as human beings in one human family, the house representing that. This is a house that G-d says is full of blessing. In the Qur’an said this house is full of blessing. Wonderful, beautiful language G-d reveals to Muhammad the Prophet, prayers, and peace be upon him. The house is visited by people from all over the world, and they come there not recognizing each other by their tribal names or their racial names, by their nationalities. No, they come there recognizing each other by the name Muslim. That's enough, the name Muslim alone.
Muslim means one who has resigned, or has given his life to G-d to live in peace. Peace with G-d and peace with his fellow man, or with his brother Muslim and anyone who will accept to live with him in peace. It is seen as a sign of the oneness of the human family, that we are one human family, and it is seen also as a sign of our unity. G-d promises us that as long as we orientate ourselves towards that house, respecting that house as our center, that wherever we are scattered on this earth away from each other, if we just remember the house and turn toward that house that He will bring us all together. It is a sign, also, of our unity and how we can have our unity again if we lose it.
The Muslim world struggles in its unity and that unity is lost. There no condition worse on the Muslim ummah, or the international community of Muslims, on this planet. No condition worse than our disunity. No condition worse than that. We have no unity; our unity is gone.
Now, what else is gone that we may look at and find a reason, an explanation for the unity being lost. Gone and, in an equal degree is our recognition of the value of the common person in the eye or in the presence of G-d and how valuable that recognition of our membership being based upon respect for the common life. The common life that G-d created, how valuable that is for our mission, or our purpose on this earth, and our unity as Muslims. Gone, lost.
In Muslim lands the common person is treated like an animal. In most of the Muslim lands the common life or person is treated like a sub-human. I read in the Bible, where it said, "Destroy this temple and I will restore it in three days," I think it says. Destroy this temple and I will restore it in three days. It's talking about the coming destruction or loss of knowledge in the society regarding the value of human life, in the creation of G-d. It's going to be lost, it will be destroyed by the evil doers, by the greedy leaders in this world of oppressors. It's going to be lost. But the sayings of G-d coming out of the mouth of His servant, speaking the words of G-d. In the first person he speaks, he says, "And I will restore it." Not that vessel from which the words were coming, but the G-d speaking in that vessel, said, "I will restore it."
It's all about giving life to the dead, so that the human being that G-d intended to have this great experience and great challenge in his life that will eventually take him to his G-d. That he would see his G-d, as though seeing G-d's face. That's what he will have, if he will engage the world with his heart, with his intelligence, with his sensitivity et cetera, as G-d wants him to, then that engagement or that indulgence will eventually bring him to see his G-d.
Praise be to Allah. Allah says of His face, He says that there will come a time in the heavens, all that we see in the sky, will be done away with. It will be done away with as though it was a scroll and somebody just took it and rolled it up, made a little scroll out of it. Both scriptures talked of a time when the heavens and the earth will have passed away. And G-d will bring in a new creation, the Bible says a new heaven and new earth. Between the time of the leaving of it or the loss of it and the recreation or the coming back of it, there will be nothing existing, “illa waj hulaah” except the face of G-d.
Now, G-d says turn your faces, if you just turn your faces toward this house. When G-d says, "Turn our faces," what does He mean when He said turn our face to this house? G-d says nothing will be left when the creation is done away with, except His face. What does He mean by His face? A face is what gives you a picture, or a sign at least, of the intent in the person. You look at the face of a person, you can see that the intent is bad or you see that the intent is innocent, you can trust that face. The intent is also the purpose, so there will come a time when nothing will stand up except G-d’s will, except G-d's intent, except G-d's purpose. Purposes not agreeing in G-d's purpose will all be done away with.
And I think we're living in that time now, when the heavens are being rolled up like a scroll. And a new heaven and a new earth is coming into existence. Yes, the work hasn't changed, the purpose hasn't changed, it is still to give life to the dead.
When a child is born from its mother, it's alive in its flesh. You feel it and it is warm, but is not yet conscious. A doctor, or the nurse takes the baby in their hand after taking it from out the new mother. They have to hit it to shock it. When it's shocked or hit, it takes in air. And only after taking in air or with taking in air can it become a living human being. Now, has man created something so marvelous? No. Philosopher says of the birth, that we call this common, we take it for granted, he says there's no miracle like the birth of life. I'm sure he has thought about what he was saying, thought very deeply and very seriously about what he was saying.
Here's a body existing and it's alive, but it has no consciousness. It's not alive as a conscious human being, until air is taken into the lungs. Now its conscience. Life turned on by nothing but air and G-d says, "When I had breathed into him of my breath, then you may obeisance to him." We know that we can't think until there's consciousness. There's no intelligent growth for the mind until there's consciousness. Then we can begin to take in things and begin to know things, remember things, learn things, and develop our mind. Eventually learn how to speak with our power that we've brought into our mind.
Yes, wonderful creation, the creation of human life. Then we know that even though the body has taken in the breath of life, it's conscious. It can go to sleep, it goes to sleep and it's still alive. It's not dead, the body is warm. When you talk to it. No response, it's sleep. Sleep like death, for the mind, sleep is like death. And you're dreaming is like travelling I guess in your soul, your dreams.
When you go to sleep, you even lose control of the body. Not just your mind, but your body also. A man be standing on his feet and goes to sleep, his head drops. If he isn't careful the whole body will fall going to sleep on his feet. A man gets knocked out in the boxing ring, he's out. When he comes to the body's awake but the referee wants to know if the mind is awake and alert too. If he doesn't look right to the referee the referee might say, "How many fingers do you see?" If he answers correctly, depending on how he looks, the referee might ask him another question, "Where do you live?" or, "What's your name?" or something. When eventually he feels comfortable that this person is in control of his mind or conscience, now he's ready to go back into the contest.
Think about these things, G-d has structured something and stood a life erect. Erect, like men builds buildings. They stand erect, but they have materials in them holding them erect. Here's a man, he has connections through his body: ankles, knees, hips et cetera. He has connections, and these connections are really like swivels, most of them. You can't stand anything else up like that on swivels, it falls down. You can't keep it up, but here's a man with a body on swivels, on balls. Ankle bone is a ball, it's got a ball. He's standing on all these balls, even his head is on a swivel. That's why you drop like that when you go to sleep, you nod.
Without any conscious effort, he's standing there erect. Without conscious effort, the structure holding itself. He's not saying, "I have to keep myself up to make sure I don't fall." No. It's a natural thing for him, he's standing and everything is holding in place. A structure held together. Don't you know that's a miracle? That's a miracle, that G-d has created a spiritual thing, and it's held up on these swivels, on these balls, with no conscious effort. G-d made it to stand up like this. When are you awake and you want it to stand up? Then the will is in you, the body obeys you. As long as you have a will to stand up, the body want to keep standing.
Even if you go sleep, all the body knows that you wanted to stand. So, the body is still holding you up and your head drops. Ain’t no boss in the body anymore, he's going to sleep too. The body will still say, "I have to hold boss up, got to keep his body up." Until you get to far gone and the body say, "Oh, it's time to let him go." Isn't that wonderful? 
It's the same for the so-called living. Don't overlook these things that seem to be small or nothing. Because these things have great signs. Allah says that there's signs in the heavens above you, signs in the earth beneath you, and as well there's signs in your own selves. This is what Allah said. but must go on ignorant or heedless of the signs, paying no attention to the signs.
And we get a call to prayer. Athan. Give the “mu’ath-then” your ear. That's what that mu’ath-then is saying. Give me your ear. Pay attention, because something is being said of great value. G-d is calling you to life, and G-d says He calls us to a good life. He intends for us a good life and not only a good life, but also good establishment. We go now from the establishment of the human lives and the life that G-d created him for, to his own acts on earth. To his own work on earth as a creator himself. G-d has given him a mind to create things, so now he has to be about his Father works, that's the Bible. That's what Christ Jesus says in the Bible, peace be upon him. I have to be about my Father's things.
And G-d wants him to be a producer and produce what G-d has created him to produce. To advance human life and fulfill human purpose on this earth. Adam, the first man, whatever he was created for, all men are created for that. And Allah created him of the earth, the ground, and then put into him His own inspiration, or something of His own spirit to put into the man, and caused the man to be a living soul. And He created him not as He created a rabbit, or a turtledove, these wonderful little innocent creatures that do hardly no harm to anything. That's beautiful, but He created man with much more than that beauty.
He created him with a mind to become a creator himself. Any time one people led another people of faith from their life and their future, and become the creators of their life and their future, those people have really become almost worthless in the plan of G-d. Good for nothing but to be used or exploited, or used by others. That's no good. Slavery released us, freed us to be on our own, but we did not have knowledge.
Slavery took that away from us. Enslavement took that away from us. The world that we became conscience in, the world of white supremacy took that away from us. Yes, took that away from us and didn't allow us to get hardly any help to get back on the road, to find that great light for ourselves again. We will have to struggle for it our ourselves. Now in Muhammad the Prophet, his life a sign as the life of Jesus Christ is a sign. Adam, the creation of Adam is a sign, the same sign, all representing the same sign.
Muhammad the prophet, here he is, born in a land of idolatry, idol worshippers and people behaving as beast, savages. Not all of them, but most of them. A land not united, but of sides warring against each other as gangster sides. Nevertheless, a human being is born among them without even a mother to see him grow up to be a teenager and a father, not seeing him at all. He couldn’t recall his father, he was too young. He was young when his father passed away.
But he managed to keep the excellence of his creation that G-d gave Adam, and he lost it to the deceiver, the Shaitan. And that He gave Jesus Christ. Muhammad, peace be upon the servants of G-d, he kept that life. He came into it and he kept it. He wasn't a boy when Allah called him, like David. He was 40 years old, and at that time in Arabia that's old. The average lifespan was hardly much more than that. He was 40 years old when G-d called him.
When G-d called him, he didn't call him to say, "Muhammad, come from a life of sin." Muhammad was not sinning and never got revelation and never was taught religion. All he had was human nature lifting him up, evolving him into the material life that G-d created him for. Isn't that something? Isn’t that a great sign? Yes, it's a great sign. That no matter what the world does, Satan helping the world or leading it, they cannot destroy human life. They can destroy most of the human life, but G-d will always keep them. The Bible says a remnant. There will always be a few keeping their life that G-d created them for. And Muhammad was one of that great few in the history of people.
He was one in that great few. G-d said of him, "He has already lived among you a lifetime. This is the one you called before I called him to serve me. You Arabs you called him the truthful one. As-Saadiq. I didn’t teach him how to be truthful. I gave him the nature to be truthful, and he kept it. You call him Al-Amin, the honest one the trustworthy one. I didn't tell you that his name was Al-Amin, that's what you were calling him before I called him."
His nature evolved him, stood him up in those great principles. You see the great tribute that's being made here to the common human life? Sign in Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, sign in Muhammad? After the first creation, Adam our father, who was deceived by the Satan. I have to keep saying that, to come out of the life that G-d intended for him. And G-d said that he deceived your father and your mother, to come out of the life that they had been given or created in.
He called it clothing. He said their clothes were the clothes of righteousness. That the soul remains in agreement, that righteousness in the mind does not conflict with the soul in that particular commitment. Then the human being keeps the life in its excellence that G-d created him for. This is the sign, a mighty sign. Praise be Allah. There are many signs I could give you in this life you're living here right now, but I won't. I'll keep going, because I've already said this longer than I had planned to.
Brothers and sisters, our first responsibility to our creator is to keep our life as He intended it to be. When we lose knowledge of how He intended it to be, there is revelation. G-d will reveal to His servant and we can find what He has revealed. We can study it, and we can and come to see again and know the life that G-d has given to us. Our book of Qur’an, preserves for us for all time the life that Allah, our creator, intended for us. The model of how we are to live that life is Muhammad, who received the revelation from G-d upon his heart as G-d said. He revealed it upon his heart.
But after accepting responsibility to keep our own life erect, standing as G-d wants us to stand. He says, "Be a people standing firmly for justice.” And in another place, He says, “though it be against your own self, or against the rich or poor.” We got the guidance we need to be successful, but we have to be in touch with that guidance. We have to give attention to that guidance. We have to have leaders conscious of that guidance, to the extent they want to follow the model of Muhammad’s uswa, and encourage you and invite you to come into that model human person.
Because Allah made that model for all people not just one man. The model He made for Christ Jesus is a model for all people. That’s why Jesus said, "I in you and you in me." That's the saying, “he in the father and the father in him.” G-d says to Muhammad, “Say to them, I am a mortal person like you. Anna basharum mithlukum. I’m a mortal human being like you." Meaning though my uswa is high and great and perfect, it's an example for all people, if they will accept it, I’m still a common person, just like you.
Meaning that G-d created you for the same Uswa. G-d created all of us for the same uswa. G-d says, "Whoever spends on his soul, he will get the gain and he will get the benefit for that. Whoever neglects his soul, he will bring his life down to the lowest of the low." Spend on your soul. When you’re reading the Qur’an, studying the religion that was revealed to Muhammad the prophet, the seal of the prophet, the last of the prophet, you are spending on your own soul.
When you are studying the model life of Muhammad the prophet, so that you can appreciate him more and more, as a common human person like yourself, that G-d made leader because he was standing in the best of his creation before G-d called him, then you are spending on your own soul. When you read the directions in the Qur’an, the directions in Muhammad's teachings, for you to establish your life in society, read of your responsibilities to develop the land, to have beautiful establishments as G-d says, you are spending on your own soul.
The life we are in, is the first life that has to come awake. And when it is to sleep consciously or sleep to learning, it is as though dead. Because the human intelligence is what makes you human. If your conscious mind is gone, you're virtually dead. A man laying up in the hospital and he can't think for himself. He has lost his consciousness, control of his own mind. They say he is as a vegetable. He is as a vegetable, meaning the human being is gone, the human is gone.
So, don’t think that you looking at people walking around in human form that they are living. Most of them walking around in human form are dead. And Al-Islam is a call to life, and don't think you can put down calling out people to life and calling the dead to life just because the honorable Elijah Muhammad has gone. You have to still call the dead to life. Go and bring the dead in and let's bring the dead to life. Let's construct the builder again, so he can go out create and build a wonderful neighborhood and restore our neighborhood.
Because G-d says another sign of the resurrection is a town and its roots have started to cave in and work is done on it to bring it back to life. We thank G-d for understanding, we thank G-d for creating us as thinking beings, a man, and we thank G-d for giving us a model of the excellent life that He created us for in Muhammad, the seal of the prophet. A Mercy to all the world.
We salute Muhammad, the last prophet, with the traditional salutation. Prayers and peace be upon him. And what follows that salutation. Muslims are a brotherhood, that's another way of saying Muslims are family, that's what it means. Muslims are brotherhood means Muslims are family. Christians are family, Jews are family, and we all exist in one big family, the family of mankind, the family of human beings. And G-d wants us to know that it is His will that we differ with one another, it is His will that we have different communities. A people of one persuasion having their community, people of another persuasion having a different community, and G-d says if He had willed or wanted you to be one community, He would have made you so.
Then G-d says of those communities that He approves of, that He has sent prophets to, that have faith in Him and fear Him and call on Him when they have nothing else to depend on or nothing else to hold them up for guidance, they call on that same G-d. Muslims, Christians, Jews and some others by other names. He said compete with one another in an effort to have all that is good. That's what G-d says. Go as in a race, after all that is good.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us not be outside of the beautiful human life that G-d created us for, let's be in that light. And if we are in that light, then if we see Christian achieving good for people of Newark, or people of Brooklyn, or people of the United States of America, all over the world for that matter. If we see a non-Muslim achieving good and fearing G-d, believing in G-d and wanting obedience and righteousness, let us cheer them on, as though they passed us in the race. Cheer them on and let us be hoping that they reach the goal of righteous achievement for the benefit of humanity, to make life better for all of us on this earth.
And If we will let that come into our hearts, we are going to find that if we run down the road and pass some Christians or Jews or somebody, we're going to find them, saying "Go on, brother. Go on, brother Muslim." They will be cheering us on. Thank you, let us work hard to respect the responsibility that G-d has put into our hands for our own soul.


