01/27/1991
IWDM Study Library
Prayer and Productive Life

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
IWDM: Praise be to Allah. Allahu Akbar. I think I'm going to have to use the glasses.

IWDM: I’m trying to get around it. Honorable Muslims, honorable people, as-salaam alaikum.
Audience: Wa alaykumu as-salam.
IWDM: That is peace be on you. The praise is for Allah, Lord of the worlds. Allah created the skies and the earth, and all things of the dead world and of the living world. Allah created all the humans, and perfected our creation with the creation of the last Prophet Muhammad. And Allah the Most High says, in the last revealed book, the Quran, "We have sent you-" speaking of Muhammad the Prophet of 1400 years ago- "We have sent you not to be other than a mercy to all the worlds." Further, speaking of our creation, that is the human creation, Allah says, "For that purpose." I'm not giving the whole quote for a reason. The language, the way I have to term this, I don't want the whole quote, I'm using only part of the quote, but the exact meanings are given in these terms that I'm using.
Says, "For that purpose." That is, He created us, the humans, for divine mercy. Again, Allah, the Lord Creator, created the human beings, for the purpose of receiving His mercy. We have been created for the purpose of receiving Allah's mercy. Therefore, we were created incomplete to begin with, to witness the grand opportunity of progress into completion and into human perfection. We witness that only Allah is G-d, and Muhammad is Allah's servant and His messenger. The prayers and the peace be on him.
Our topic, as you know, is Prayer and A Productive Life. Prayer, in a real sense, that is a praying person with his prayer demonstrates or says, "Life and achievement do not start from scratch." Life, our life, when we have it, we are aware of it and the achievements, whatever achievements we have, it didn't start from scratch. Something was there to begin with. We're saying with our prayer in a sense, "Lord, don't leave us alone." Frederick Douglass in a July 4th speech that was given on July the 9th, I believe was 1852. He mentioned something that I'm going to include in this address. What he says is this, “that man should be the owner of his own body”. At that time, slave masters own African American bodies or the Black bodies, owned our people. Frederick Douglass said that man should be the owner of his own body. He says so many wonderful things, I would like to read all of it, but for the sake of saving time, that is the point I want to include in this address.
Now, as Muslims, we say that G-d trusted us. We don't say we own it. This is the difference for us. Allah is the owner of everything. And whatever we own, it's not in a real sense ownership. As one person put it- like I've heard many learned people put it this way- they say, "Where's the ownership when you die?" You don't even know whether it's going to go to the people that you put in the will. You hope it will. You hope it will go to the people you put in the will. So where is the ownership when we die? The ownership is always with G-d. The ownership is always with 
G-d. Muslims are aware that Allah is owner, and He is the only owner. He owns our body, he owns the creation, he owns everything, but we are given ownership in the sense of trust.
Since nobody can come and claim it other than G-d, and G-d will not claim it, He trusted me with it. It is an ownership in our field of reality, or in our field of business and activity and awareness. It is an ownership because you cannot take it from me, I'm in charge of it completely. It's mine, and I have a right to go to the court and defend what is mine, you see? In a lawless situation, I have the right to defend it with my life and with weapons, or whatever. So, it's mine. This body is a trust to us. This body, this body is our trust. It's entrusted to us. This body is very important. Allah says- of bodies in the heavens- Allah says- this is the Quran, "Every creature knows his mode of prayer."
Now, without trying to interpret that, let's look at it for what it says. Let's look at it as it is stated. Every creature knows his mode of prayer. So, I'm to understand by that, the birds we see flying in the air, they know their mode of prayer. The creatures walking the earth or boring into the earth, they know their mode of prayer. The life in the sea knows their mode of prayer. Go even further than that. The heavenly bodies floating around and carrying all the life and energy and things with them, they know their mode of prayer. So, the heavenly bodies know their mode of prayer, the earth knows its mode of prayer, and all the creatures on the earth know their mode of prayer. Therefore, the human being knows his mode of prayer. Didn't leave us out, the human being knows his mode of prayer.
Prayer then must be something a little bit broader than the prayer we make here. It must be speaking a prayer in a broader sense than this du’a. It must be speaking a prayer in the sense of salat. How come I'm connecting this with salat now? Because when I look at Muslim praying salat-- The subject is Prayer and A Productive Life. When I look at Muslims, all of us praying our prayer, and trying to get the full focus of Muslims in prayer, I imagine seeing the whole Earth. Because Muslims are all around the world, all around this Earth. I try to imagine seeing the whole Earth, and seeing all of us with our faces turn towards the qiblah, meaning toward our direction in prayer. Qiblah. The Kaaba. Kaaba is the name of the place- the building, little house, the house. Qiblah means the direction for us.
So, we are turning in the direction of that house as G-d orders, or as G-d instructs. Now, what do you see? When you visualize the earth, and all of us one billion Muslims-- Even if it was only 1,000, it would be great. It would be just as great. In fact, if it was three, it would be just as great. Scattered about all the earth, and they’re turning their focus on one center, and they’re bowing according to the regulation in the system Allah created. We don't have our time that we got together and plan, say, "Let's plan what time we should pray." G-d says, "Pray at stated time." The Fajr prayer. How is Fajr prayer regulated? By the sun. And at noon time, regulated by the sun, and at afternoon time Asr, it's regulated by the sun. At Maghrib, at the setting of the sun, regulated by the sun. At Isha time, the sun is down and gone, but still regulated by the sun. You have to wait until the sun is down and the light is gone, then you pray Isha prayer.
Now, we know these are five Fard prayers. We know there are two other prayers- there's two other important prayers, but we're talking about mainly the two- the main prayers that we feel an obligation to perform daily. Regulated by the sun. So here, we have Muslims joining into a regulation. They have become part of a regulation that is the regulation of our solar system. Our solar system and us are in harmony. Our solar system is regulated according to the sun, and we are regulated according to the sun. If you can't understand that connection; bodies in the heavens, they go through phases. They travel around a central point. If you understand the movement of the earth, the earth is not only moving around the sun, but the earth is doing some bows to the sun every quarter. And every bow it brings a new season. When it completes one bow, there's another season. Another bow, another season.
I’m aware that our prayer is in harmony with the system of G-d's universe. Now, we know too that our prayer gives us a sense of peace and security. When we’re in prayer, we get a sense of peace and security. When we look to the heavens- the universe at night, when we can view the stars- instantly, we feel peace and security. Though we can't get up there, we’re far from being up there, but just looking at it, gives us a feeling of peace and security. That's the nature of G-d's creation: order, peace, security. Now, to tie it in. Because we said we’re going to speak on Prayer and a Productive life from Quran and Muhammad. There’s a prayer, in fact. It is a prayer; "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". So, where is this kingdom in heaven that is obeying G-d’s Will that we would like to see on earth?
Well, I don't know what you want to say about it, but I know the Muslim prayer, is a good picture of it. Because we’re conforming to the universal system, and our prayer is in obedience to the will of G-d. Our prayer interrupts our business, our prayer interrupts our family concerns, our prayer interrupts our governmental concerns, our prayer interrupts all of our interests. Our prayer cannot be kept from intruding upon any of our concerns. No matter whether we’re being engaged by the family, or engaged with the president of United States. When prayer time comes, it is our duty to stop whatever we are doing, and invite the president to join us, or sit on the side while we perform our prayer in harmony and in unity with the universal system of G-d.
Now, I hope I can proceed with this in a very nice way because it's so nice when I look at it. And I hope it's coming across as nicely as I'm seeing it. We know that this orderly universe, obeying the laws of creation. And if we believe in the Creator, and Christians do, and we do, and Jews do, and many others do, then we know that this creation, obeying the laws of Creator, is a productive creation. But if it would lose its obedience to the laws established for it by G-d, it will become a self-destructive creation. I don't want to talk a lot because I don’t think it’s necessary, so let me go from there to another point.
Now, we know that our salat requires the cleaning before a prayer. We don't get anything in this religion without a price. The price for prayer is wudhu or tayammum. You have to pay a price. Sometimes you’re sleeping, you're tired, and you don't want to even move. It's very difficult to just move a limb. Sleep is so heavy on you and fatigue has just got you pulling you down. But if you're strong, if your spirit is strong to make that prayer, you got to resist that and pull yourself up out of that bed. You can't stop there. You don't feel right stopping there and just starting your prayer. Because the Sunnah of the Prophet is, and G-d says in the Quran, and the Prophet demonstrated to us how to do it, peace and blessings upon him. You’ve got to go to the washroom, go for some water somewhere. Get you some clean water, some water with no taste, some water with no smell, some water with no visible impurities in it. You got to take that water and make your ablution.
We don't want to go through all of it. I wish we had the time to go through everything. How is that like the heavens? Water from the sky is pure. Unless they pollute it down here, it comes down pure. Now, it may pass through since industry has just brought so much waste and pollution out of the earth, up into the heavens, up into the air. So, it might have to fall down through levels of pollution. And when we get it now, it might not be pure water. So, don't think we can do like the people used to do 50 years ago, definitely, 75, 100 years ago. The purest water for them was the rainwater. And they collected and brought in the house drinking water. If you go into some parts of the back-wood areas, not necessarily back wood areas. But go into some of the lesser developed areas, like in the Caribbean and other places, you may still find people with tin roofs. And the roofs are designed with grooves in them to bring the rainwater off the roof. And they will collect the rainwater off the roof, take it in the house, that's good clean drinking water. You try it now, and your teeth may be corroded. Because they put too much pollution in the air.
However, it doesn't change the fact that the pure water comes from the sky. Pure water comes out of the earth, pure water comes from the sky. Pure water comes out of earth because the earth filters it. And pure water comes down from the sky because impurities only go up so high. The prayer of the Bible is for a kingdom. It says, “Thy kingdom come," it's not here. Well, not at that time, and I don't think it's here yet. It's coming. "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Now, let's look at the heavens again. You don't catch the heaven, every now and then they do it, but they pay the price. They pay a big price. And it happens so seldom. You don't see them pushing each other around for space.
The Muslim prayer, you’re not allowed. And I don’t care how big you are. The sun can't intrude upon the moon and push it around. And say, "Hey, what are you doing crossing my path? What you're doing causing an eclipse for me?" Big shot, you're going to be eclipsed today because this is my path. G-d has decided that I must eclipse you today”.
So, the moon will eclipse the big fellow. The earth will eclipse the big fellow, and they all will eclipse each other at times. Some of us can’t stand to be eclipsed by a big fellow. Less more to talk about a smaller fellow, we just can’t stand to be eclipsed. But in the prayer, we have to stand to be eclipsed. The King of Saudi Arabia, a big man, or the president of Egypt, no matter who he is, he has no right to eclipse me in the prayer. If I'm on the front line and there's nothing but one space there, and I'm taking that space, he has no right to that space except the right I give him of my own will and choice. If I insist that I'm going to stay here, he has no Islamic right to say, "Move, I have to stand here." All right. I'm trying to show you that if anything answers the promise of the Kingdom of G-d coming on earth, it is the Muslim prayer. It is the Muslim prayer. We know I'm just on the Muslim prayer. Later on, we can bring in the other principles of our faith, and the other beautiful things of our faith. Just on the principle of prayer because I think the prayer is where we should see it.
Now, let us go to another, I would say, beautiful picture. Our prayer begins, really, with the intent to pray. Although, we are not actually in prayer yet, it begins with the intent to pray.
We have an intent to pray. What makes it possible for us to have that intent to pray? The desire to pray, the will to pray, the spirit to pray. The fear of G-d, the love for G-d, et cetera. There is a condition in us that is natural. The Quran and the Prophet teach us how to respect what G-d has made us. The Quran and the Prophet does not teach us how to become something. It addresses what we already are. It says, "By nature, you are created." “I did not create men”, Allah speaking, subhanahu wa ta'ala, highly glorified is He. He said, "I did not create men nor Jinn for any purpose except my worship."
Prayer is worship. He created us for the worship, so it is in our nature already. We're created to worship Him. The first people who turn to Allah, they didn't have a book, they didn't have a Quran, they didn't have a Bible. They had nothing but a conscience. They had a conscious. A conscious that said, "I didn't start from scratch. I owe something credit, for what I'm here with. Myself and my possession, my abilities and everything. I came into this and I don't know how it started, so I'm indebted to whatever started it." And man begun to believe in a G-d, and begun to try to communicate his belief to other men and to other people, and articulate his belief. And his struggle to make plainer his religion that he had in his heart by nature, brought him to receive revelation from G-d. G-d saw him struggling and said, "He needs help. My creature is doing a wonderful job with the Muslim I made him. Now, I'm going to give him revelation to bring him into the reality of his destiny." And He gave revelation then.
And revelation didn't come all at once. It came by Prophets addressing part of the need in man and more of the need in man, until one came from Allah, the mercy to all the world, to address all of the needs in man and that completed it. He taught us to establish prayer. Here is the kingdom. What is kingdom? Kingdom is establishment. We are told to establish prayer. In the prayer, where is the king? Allah is the king. Really, Allah is the king. Where's the king in our prayer? Allah is the king. We are obeying the disciplines that G-d's Prophet demonstrated to us following G-d's revelation, the Quran. We are directed to own a house, a simple little house. There are no elevators in that house, no fancy stairways, or anything like that. Very simple. Very simple house. When you go in there, there's nothing in there but air. No furniture, nothing. Nothing but air.
Audience: Yes, brother.
IWDM: Air, life. You can't live without it. Air, that's all there is in that house. Now, the kingdom is establishment. When man prays for a kingdom, he's praying for establishment.
That's what a kingdom is. How are the heavens now a kingdom? "Thy Kingdom comes." The heavens is a kingdom. Don't you know the word that we use for the heavens is related to the same word we use for the king in Arabic? Now, how is this kingdom? Because the heavens are established. Allah tells in the Quran, "See how the heavens are established." And it's not only just an establishment, He says, "Strong establishment. Seven strong, establishment." Now, I'm not going take up all your time here today. Don't worry. It ain't necessary. The hint I gave was enough to say, "Thank you, Allah. Let's go home."
G-d speaks of the seven strong heavens. Here we are down here on earth now, and we’re performing our religious duties, and we find that in accordance with what the Quran says, "And there are seven in you." Out of respect for what G-d says, we come to the Kaaba for Hajj. Labayka lahuma labayk. And we pray at the Maq?m Ibr?h?m after we have done what? Circled the Kaaba. How many times? I thought it was seven times.
Praise be to Allah. Let's proceed on. I think we getting there. What is my prayer now? Man prays mostly for what? Mercy. He may pray for guidance, he may pray for money, he may pray for a relative to be healed or for himself to be healed, but it all boils down to mercy. Because he is at his wits end. He needs mercy. Our language in prayer is what? The Quran. See, in this brand that we're talking about now, this is established prayer. We can't have our own language. Nobody can pray our established prayer using their own language. All of us must use the language revealed by G-d called the Quran. It begins with what? Al?amdulill?h, praise be to G-d. Rabbi l-??lam?n, Lord of all the worlds, the whole system, not part of it. Not a little piece called Israel, the whole of it.
Lord of all the world. Who is He? Ar rahman Ar rahim, two words, both rooted in mercy in terms of their meaning. Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, merciful benefactor, profit, merciful benefactor. “I will make your life profitable. How? Because I am Ar-Rahman, the owner of mercy and benefits”. Now, sometime the White man is not the one to turn to for both mercy and benefit. You get one or the other. Mercy and no benefits, or benefits and no mercy.
Don't forget that. Think about that for a long time. The more you think about, the more it's going to come to you because I have experience. Our prayer begins, Ar Rahmanir rahim, merciful benefactor, merciful redeemer. Isn't that the kingdom man wanted to come? A kingdom that will be kind to him, where he can get benefits and mercy, where he can get mercy and benefits. You see what I'm saying now? Where he can get benefits and mercy. Where he can get mercy and benefits. That's what he prayed for. Yes.
Now, let me come to the last and final point. You didn't know it was going to be concluding this fast, did you?
Let me come to the last and final point. Prayer is life. Prayer itself is life. Every creature knows its mode of prayer. For the heavenly bodies, the life of the heavenly bodies, is obedience to the law established for it by creator. Once they deviate from the laws established for them by the Creator, they go from life to death. Prayer for us is the same thing. Prayer is the life. Once we go from prayer, what did the Prophet said? "Never did a people fall until they first left off prayer." They put prayers out of their interest. They forgot about prayer. Then the nation falls. How do we know that this prayer is life? Hayya As-Salat, and it's translated, "Come to prayer." What is that word that says come? It's hayy, life. Life. Al-kalbu HayYun, akbaru asadan maitan. He understands the language and some of you do too. Kalbu HayYun, dog living. Akbaru more important and greater than.
Asadan, a lion, maitan, dead. A dog living is better than a lion dead. Hayya Alas Salat, I have translated not come to prayer, I said liven up to prayer. Liven, become alive for prayer. Liven up for prayer. Why? Because prayer is the life. Remembering G-d is the life. Remembering G-d is a step toward the prayer. Prayer has already begun when you remember G-d. Every creature knows his mode of prayer. Thank you very much. As-salaam alaikum.
Thank you very much. Praise be to Allah.
Praise be to Allah, the merciful benefactor, the merciful redeemer, an appeal for contributions from Muslim American Community Assistance. That's M-A-C-A office staff. The purpose of the MACA fund is to provide support to Imam W. Deen Mohammed and his ministry. Imam Mohammed directs the work at two office locations. One of these is at his private home and depends entirely upon him. The responsibility requires much more than these visits and public addresses. That is by itself, or by themselves, a matter of great importance. This charity assistance contributes to the financial dignity of its supporters and the community. The MACA charity funding supports our Clara Muhammad Schools, and joins the striving poor. That is those who are donating to it, and giving assistance to a select number of Imams and special needs deserving such recognition from this charity fund.
You can see from listings of our standing supporters and their contributions in our Muslim journal. MACA is not yet among the competing charity institutions. But your backing it, along with our faith and growing importance, say we will get there. Also, humble assistance is given to high-priority needs of suffering souls outside of the United States. This is mostly our kind gesture to the suffering, and to those who give up much to reduce the great burden of poverty and suffering on others in the suffering quarters of our world. Imam W. Deen and MACA staff appreciate all our supporters. The ones who send $2 or .75 cents, and the ones who send $3 or $3,000 or $5,000 or more. We appreciate all of our supporters. As-salaam alaikum and Allah's mercy and blessings be on you.
We appreciate it so much. We couldn't pay our bills if we didn't have your support. We couldn't do all the wonderful things we are doing without that support. As-salaam alaikum, again.

