2007
IWDM Study Library
Why Islam is Our Religion, Qur’an is Our Book, and Muhammad is Our Prophet

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed


00:37 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: As-salamu alaykum, that is peace be unto you. We always recall God's favor on us and we begin with his name saying Bismillah Ir-Rahman Ir-Rahim, with God's name the merciful benefactor, the merciful redeemer. The topic for this presentation is: Why is Al Islam our religion? Firstly, we're going to look at the word religion and what is given in the meaning and what is implied. For the name religion as it is given in our holy book and our book, the sacred book of all Muslims called the Quran. The word Din has direct meaning and it means religion or that you follow as religion, but it also has reference to what is most important for us to know in order to have the right idea of religion and that is debt. It comes from a word from which we derive also the word debt.

02:15 IWDM: So man and religion is firstly in religion because he feels, or we feel a debt on us for all of the things we enjoy out of the universe, especially the Earth. The things that we enjoy and need out of the Earth to support our life. We wouldn't be able to have life if it was not for this world that was existing before we knew of any existence for ourselves or whatever. We feel a debt. We're enjoying the dinner. Man feels the debt. When man comes home from his labor, from his hard work and he's enjoying a nice meal, some men will feel in their hearts that "I couldn't have this nice meal if creation didn't make it possible. If the Earth didn't make it possible, if the sun was not helping me, if the moon wouldn't shine for me or wouldn't appear, I would be nothing. I wouldn't exist."

03:31 IWDM: So these thoughts come to us mainly when we retire from our hard work and we are relaxing, and then we're enjoying a nice meal, and we begin to feel that we should thank someone. And it's not without meaning that we say grace when we're enjoying a meal at the table with our family and our friends. We say grace. We recognize that we couldn't have these things if these things hadn't been provided for us before. Before our life began or our world planning began, plan for the world of man began. So we remember God and we thank God. This is acknowledging a debt. And this is religion, when we acknowledge a debt to God, or to an existence superior to ours and before ours that opened up our world to us, or made possible our world. When we acknowledge that debt, this is the beginning of real religion, real religion. Real religion is being grateful to God. Real religion is being appreciative for the many many things that make possible all the developments and progress that we make on this Planet Earth. That's real religion.

04:57 IWDM: So the first step in religion, or the first awareness of ourselves as a religious people, or a religious community, should be gratitude to God, thankfulness, thankfulness. And we know one of the names given, Satan, the enemy of all humanity or all people, is the ungrateful. Satan the ungrateful is one of his strong names that name him. He's ungrateful. Why is Islam or Al Islam, Al Islam... We say Al Islam because that's how it's given in the Quranic Arabic text. The first expression and language for man didn't say just Islam. It said Al Islam, the surrender to God. Man's surrender to God for the sake of being acceptable in God's presence, respecting God and for the sake of being in accord with God's plan for the life of man or the life of people on the Planet Earth.

06:16 IWDM: So this is Al Islam that reconciles us, brings us in peaceful agreement with God that created us, gave us the life and with his plan for that life on Planet Earth with other men, with other people. So why is Al Islam our religion? Firstly, because we have a need for a religion, we have a need for religion. It's in our own makeup as flesh and blood person or creation. It's in our makeup to want to have religion for the sake of feeling that we are recognizing and being appreciative for the many benefits that we get from a world that existed before us and a world that we did not create or make. It was here to support all our needs that we would have as human beings on this Planet Earth. Also, Al Islam is our religion because Al Islam appeals to our good senses and to our good sensitivities. Al Islam supports, recognizes the best that is in man, it recognizes him as a compassionate creature, even though he ignores this need in his life or in his soul. To give charity, to do kindness, to help combat the miseries that's in the life of society.

08:13 IWDM: Sometimes that does not register in his mind as it should, but it is there. And we choose Islam because Islam gives us a picture of our life that pleases God, Islam gives us a picture of humanity. A picture of the best human life and he gives that to us and says he's pleased with that. Al Islam compliments man and compliments achievements for society under the leadership of man or under the leadership of man and woman, it compliments us. It points out our excellence, or points us to look, "This is your excellence, see. Man, this is your excellence.". Your excellence is your heart that feels bad and hurt when you see hurt on others as well as on yourself and your family, but when you see hurt on others, distanced from you, stranger, your heart bears that hurt. That's the excellence in the creation of man. That's our excellence. The heart is the most excellent member in the body of the human being, the heart. It is said of Muhammad the prophet, who received communication or a revelation from God, it is said that he caused the revelation to his sin upon his heart, to come to his heart, draw the sin upon his heart, not his brain, upon his heart.

10:11 IWDM: So that tells us that if we lack compassion, if we lack love and sympathy for others, other than ourselves, other than our immediate family, but that also is given to those most distanced from us, the stranger, the nation across the water, living in a different part of the world. The heart that registers kindness and registers a need to act and do something about the suffering, removing suffering from the people of the world, that heart is the most excellent part of the human being. Why is it more excellent than the brain? It is more excellent than the brain because sometimes the brain gives us attention to matters of intellect, or matters that appeal to our intellect, but may not be the concern that we should be giving attention to in society at the time. At the time it may need our heart, society may be needing our heart more than anything else. And the heart is the first step, we must come to God with pure hearts, decent hearts, with compassion for others and the Quran shows us that, it tells us that, but it also tells us that in times of productivity God has not created anything more useful, more productive than the human brain, than the human brain.

12:02 IWDM: So for religion, the two have to work together. The two have to be partners. The two have to be partners in the development of the world, for the good future of the world. The brain and the heart have to be partners. The heart has to sense the need in society, and the brain has to respond to that by coming up with ideas, methods, strategies, etcetera, to deliver what the heart registers. As the brain respects what the heart, the heart gets into the groove that God... I mean, the brain, pardon me. The brain, because of the heart, gets into the groove that God wants the brain in. And that groove is the groove of making society more decent, more productive, and more fulfilling for the life of people in society.

13:17 IWDM: Also, and I would say lastly for this presentation, we choose Islam. We choose Islam as a religion, or for our religion, because Islam appeals to our most productive element, our most productive feature in our life, and that is human intelligence. Al Islam is a religion of faith and reason. It is given in the description of Abraham, the one that points us to the promised land, that is to the community life that God wants for us on this Planet Earth. He is a man of unquestionable faith in God, but a man of also respect for the brain, for the human brain, the rational nature in man's mental makeup.

14:48 IWDM: Too many leaders that want to bring people to faith address the spiritual and emotional side of man's life so heavily that it seems sometimes that the rational intelligence, the human intelligence, and the rational side of man's life or soul is ignored. And I believe that many in, whether they be in the East, where Arabs are, or Africans or whatever, Europeans of the East or not, all people need to know that their intelligence is respected and not excluded from an appeal to get them to become converts to a religion. I'm not saying that other religions don't have that appeal, but I think too many religions and too many leaders, religious leaders, play down the value of the human intelligence and the ability to reason and think for ourselves. They play down that most important freedom that God has given us.

16:33 IWDM: And for that reason, people choose religions other than Islam, or they choose those religions that appeal to the emotional side more than anything else. But we choose Al Islam for the reasons given here, and I thank you for giving me attention, and I'm going to go now to another topic. The topic for this presentation is: Why is the Quran our book? That is why Muslims say the Quran is their book and they choose to get all of their guidance to support what they want to do with their life in the world from the Quran. Quran, the word itself, comes from word meaning "to read", "to read" and the Quran means, "the book that is to be read and recited.""The book that is to be read and recited." We read it and we recite it in the presence of the congregation, or we recite it for the service that is given to the congregation or for the congregation. It means to read and to recite, the book that is to be read and recited. The first communication from God, Allah, to Muhammad, the last prophet, began with the word "read." The first communication said, "Read. Iqra, read," To Muhammad the prophet, peace be on him.

18:41 IWDM: And it continues with a total of five, complete with a total of five verses, five verses. And it addresses the intellect, the hunger in man's mind, or in man's intellect as a thinker, who wants to build his mind for the benefit of community life on the Earth. He's not selfish, he's not wanting to build his mind just to take care of his personal needs or family needs. No. Muhammad the Prophet left the society, and he went up into a mountain that is now called the mountain of enlightenment, or the mountain of the light. He went up there with the burden of the society on his heart, and that is where, up in the mountain, away from the people in a kind of solitude... He sought solitude. He prayed hard to get a response from the authority that was over his life, his existence, and all matter, all existing things.

20:00 IWDM: And the response came, and when the response came, the response didn't say, "Muhammad, this is Allah." The response said, "Read in the name of your developer, your developer, and your cherisher." It's translated "Lord," but "Lord" for Muslims means "developer" and "cherisher." He's the one responsible for us developing in the Earth as humans. Before we took up our cause, or our needs into our hand to work those things out ourselves, he had already created us human, and he had already provided us the things that we need to support our life. They were already provided for us in his creation we call Mother Earth, or the Earth.

21:01 IWDM: So we choose the Quran, or the Quran is our book, because it recognizes our heart, our heart as a social binder that will help us, bind us... Bound us together or bind us as a social group, and that whole social group includes all the people on Earth. Man is a social family. Man is a spiritual, mainly a spiritual, and a social family. All people in the human family or the human species are members of one another in a social, spiritual and social bonding that we rightfully can call the social family of mankind, the spiritual and social family of all people, or of mankind.

21:58 IWDM: So the brain is much needed to do the work of developing the Earth to support us now and future. Past, present, and future. And the Quran addresses that need so clearly. Not that other books don't address it. The Bible addresses it. In the Bible, this need is addressed in a beautiful way. But the Quran struggles with our ignorance [chuckle] to convert us to seeing that man is to be respected as a human being with a brain, and the brain functions as an intelligent entity, and it progresses by listening to thoughts, reasoning with thoughts, thinking, reasoning, and projecting into the future. So this is the brain. If we didn't have it, we couldn't have development out of the Earth. The heart appreciates what God has created as Mother Earth, or for our support, to support our life. But the brain engages it. The brain engages it to see what further help is in this creation for a better life or for the future we want. The brain does that. The brain is the chief instrument for developing the world.

23:40 IWDM: And Islam recognizes that. It recognizes that, and puts more attention on man individually and collectively, our people collectively, and persons individually, puts more attention on our life, and calls us to take that great freedom that God created us for, more seriously, and develop the society with all or the total human life being the interest, not just one side of it, spiritual side. No. Spiritual, material, political, whole life. The whole life being the interest. And the whole life being seen or focused in society, the needs of community life or the needs of society, not looking to what I may want, maybe I just want a piece of community life, not the whole community life, but we all together, we need the whole community life. So the focus is on the whole community life. The Quran tells... In the Quran, we are told that man was once one community. And that God is moving us with the instrument of matter, or with the instrument of community life. He is moving us in that direction where we will become one community again. And we have become one community again. Economically, we have a system now where the world is seen as one world. All nations are seen in one focus, that we have become a global community. A global community that needs economic connections everywhere. We need economic connections with each other everywhere.

25:46 IWDM: So the Quran is our book because we believe that the Quran addresses man for the future. The light is always... No matter what God is saying in the present, the light is always shining toward the future or on the future. And we believe that we have come to that future now, and this generation of Muslims now are perhaps even more serious about knowing the Quran and following the guidance of the Quran, because the prophecies in the Quran and the light that shines on our road ahead in the Quran has already prepared us to be one community or...

[foreign language]

26:42 IWDM: As one community. Says, "I am your Lord... " This is Quran. God says, "I am your Lord." And he says that, "Your community is one community, one united community, and I am your Lord." God is our Lord.
