07/02/1994
IWDM Study Library
Brothers’ Meeting
Detroit MI

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Introducer: DM Publication presents a special brothers only lecture by Imam W. Deen Mohammed. A Muslim-American Spokesman for Human Salvation. Recorded July 2nd, 1994 in Detroit Michigan.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Asalaam Alaikum.
Audience: Alaikum Salaam.
Imam: His peace be on you. Praise be to Allah. We say Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin. Praise be to Allah that is to G-d the Lord of all the world. We witness that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed, is the last prophet and messenger servant and messenger of G-d, and what follows of that salute or salutation. Amin. Just give me a minute here. I apologize for not quite being dressed like I wanted to be dressed today.
We had a little problem on the road, one of the cars with us is driven by my son. My son’s car in fact. He and his wife and a couple of brothers that were with him in the car and the tire ran out on his car. The rubber started just peeling off on the road. They had to find a tire. We tried to wait for them and it made us late. I didn’t have time to go to the hotel to the brother imam's room or somewhere and put on a nice white shirt and tie that I had planned to wear today. Then I thought, I said, “It’s Saturday and the Fourth of July is Monday.” I said, “I’ll be all right. They won’t hold it against me.”
[laughter]
Praise be to Allah. We will get started in just a minute. Just a minute. I'm very pleased to see you all out here. The men and young men, and hope that the attendance will increase as we go on. Because we don’t want to stop this. I wouldn’t want to stop it. At he last meeting we were discussing the male and even in myth, in ancient myth. We went to Egypt, looking at the legs of the Pharaoh. Today, we’re going to be talking about the male-female relationship.
I believe the main message or the main information we were trying to pass on at the last meeting was that the male is given the dignity of being the provider and protector for the female, and also the support for the society. I believe that was the main information or the main thought or message we were trying to give. I think we did get that across. Did all you all if you were here last time, did you feel we got that across? Was that the message that we gave? Yes. That we are to be the providers, maintaining or providers for our female, for our women, and protection for them. We are to be the support in the foundation of the society.
The very foundation of society should be the man’s responsibility. I would like to, again, deal in a little symbolism before going on. I see these talks as connected. I wanted to give them on the same night, the same evening. Before going on to the next topic, the male and female relationship, I want to again address a little symbolism. If you studied the history of mythology from almost any land, they’re so similar you most likely arrive at the same idea. It seems to be universal for a man that man has really thought of himself and his structure as a copy or miniature copy of the external world in its structure, in its order and structuring.
When you study scripture, you find that scripture has given some recognition to that idea in man’s history of myth, mythology or history of myth. In fact, much of that myth is in certain scriptures, where the human being’s figure is compared to the figure or the order of the external world, especially the immediate world. We may say the earth and the lower heavens. By lower heaven now we talk about the heaven that belongs to the environment of the earth. That’s the clouds that form above our heads. We identify perhaps just with that extent of the figure. Earth and then the space between where clouds and rain forms, and the sun included.
It’s easy to understand that when you think of man, his head is where his vision is. His eyes, his vision, and his voice comes out of here too, out of the head. The voice when he is angry or when he’s excited is like the thunder. The emotions that cloud his thinking are like the clouds in the heavens, and if he gets too full of such emotions, water will rain down from the higher regions. [laughs] You can see how man kind of compared his own figure with the external world, or external order. We won’t spend a lot of time on that, but I’ll go right to what I want to tell you, about the legs and going to the male-female relationship.
The legs, what it immediately supports is the industrial complex. We see the factories, foundry, and everything. That’s the stomach, right. The stomach is where the materials go in, they’re sent down into the stomach and then the stomach start working with gasses, and liquids, and acids, and eat working on it. It produces it and makes the finished products for the system and feeds them into the system, and the system can survive and live and be maintained. The maintenance of this body, the maintenance compartment is right there in their stomach where everything goes and it just works with it there, those vital organs in that area, mainly the stomach, works with it and just sends it out there to every other parts, so the whole body is fed from there. Some myths have it that the soul is even in there.
That region was so important and so exciting to them when they studied it, they thought the soul was there. They say when you get afraid, sometimes you feel it right in your stomach, but not all the time. I felt it up here once.
[laughter]
Think about it now, the legs are really supporting the industry, right? Yes, the legs are supporting the industry. The industry has his waste, you know that. Every industry I ever worked for, they had waste. You’re supporting the industry and the waste. Going out that way and that way keeping the body fit. Now, above the industry are heart, lungs, mainly. Heart and lungs, above the industry. The two most important ones, heart, and lungs. They’re above the industry. Now, the heart and lungs, the heart is really pumping the blood that is fed with the digestion by digestion, is pumping the blood with the food value in it, to all parts of the body.
Now, this is like the, I would say, the monetary system.
That industry made the products up here, the products are being passed on through the system. Passed on through the system. Up here, you've got a neck. The neck is above the industry. The neck is above also the monetary system and the socialized system. The social economy. The socio-economic system that's this part right here, see. It has above it a neck. The neck really is nothing but a kind of passageway. It's a passageway for what is needed down in the stomach and for the whole body. It's a passageway. That passageway is right in the head, isn't? Right in the head. Right where the passageway is is the voice. The neck is about something else now. The neck how did it rate getting the voice box? But that's because it sees what's coming through.
[laughter]
It registers what's coming through before it gets there. It registers what's coming through before it get there. The head takes it and the neck knows that it's going down into the body before it gets to the body. It's between the body and the head. If you think about society, it's structured like that. You have the controls, the centralized control, government in the head and then you have the vital order and organs or departments of government, or society, pardon me, the industrial complexes, industrial systems, and the social system with its monetary discipline disciplining how the money should be handled and distributing everything.
You have all that commercial and all that up-- See, all that's going on there and over that you have government and between government and really the operations of the society you have a silent passageway where it's being conveyed from the government by order of the government-- Now, we don't mean this is exactly the way it comes physically. We mean that this is the order of authority. The government has authority. The government is over it and it decides the laws for regulating everything else and from the government, it comes to the economy, economic system, and from the economic system, industry and then workers, the industry and the people.
The people are up under industry, people up under the economic system. Social order people are under all that. They are below all that, but if you remove the people you have got no foundation for any of that. If you remove the people you don't have any foundation for any of that. The industry needs the people. Commercial world needs the people. The monetary system needs the people. Every vital department of society is founded upon the people and justified because of the needs in the people. They are going to supply certain needs of the people and they're going to give the people certain services that growth in population demands.
That's how it works. The men, I repeat, they are in the foundation. They are the legs. They are the number one strong first fundamental supports for the whole structure, for the whole society. The men then should be closest to industry. They should be closer to the industry supporting industry. That should be on your shoulders. The political government is on the shoulder of certain ones like Muhammad the prophet and the Bible said "And the government shall be upon his shoulders." What's the point of your story? I said, "That guy got a fine head on his shoulders." The head is on your shoulders, man.
The government shall be upon his shoulders. This is your government. This head of yours is supposed to be your government. You are not supposed to put your [unintelligible 00:15:34] up on your shoulders, man and have it think for you and speak for you. No. You don't bring nothing from down here and put it up on top of your shoulder and call it a head.
[laughter]
The industry has its waste, its foundry, and stuff throwing off the bad gases and stuff.
[laughter]
Beneath this industry, now look at this. Beneath the industry and above the legs, meaning the first support is really the reproduction of the life itself and elimination of waste, right?
Audience: Right.
Imam: Well, we should be supporting that then. If we're going to accept this symbolism that I gave you that the men are the legs then we are supposed to be able to support the reproduction of life and the elimination of waste. We're supposed to be conscious then of keeping the world that we're carrying on our shoulders healthy, not overburdened with waste. Smelly stuff. We're supposed to be conscious of cleanliness, and purification. Eliminating waste, and pollution, and foul things from our society. Don't you know the Nation of Islam in its symbolic design was designed to do just that?
Prepare the men of the Nation of Islam to be responsible for work, industry, business, moral cleanliness, clean and wholesome environments, and also the reproduction or family. We do reproduction of the human life, family. The maintenance, care, and maintenance, production of the family life. It was designed for all of that, to at least be a hint, or symbol in itself breathing out that kind of hint to us even if the man preacher wasn't saying, "Brother, you're supposed to be responsible for work, and factories, and industry. You're supposed to be responsible for your family.
You're supposed to be responsible for the cleanliness and purification of your life and your society". Even if they weren't saying it like that in its picture it was saying that to us. Every time I walked into the temple and we had-- back then once you entered that door and you're on the inside, you had to bring that heel (snapping hells together). Order, discipline, respect for authority. That's first thing. That's first. Then you go in there and you, "Brother, let me see those shoes. Okay, brother, you pass". It's inspection, right. Clean clothes, neat dress, shoe shine, you pass the inspection. The temple was kept clean.
You did not smell anything around there. Did not see any mess around there. No, no. The environment had to be clean. Everybody orderly and discipline. Nobody running all over the other one. Everybody respecting each other's movements. Even the high officer had to respect the movement of the lower officer or the private soldier. Because he had to move the officer. "Yes sir, brother. Yes sir, soldier." Well, this is the beauty to me of our experience, we call the first experience.
The beauty is in its quiet message. Quiet message, not the loud talk. “Yes, he is the devil. He will never be anything but the devil”.
[laughter]
“He was born, created for the purpose of putting misery and hell into the life of my people”. That was all right, but the greatest message, to me, that said the most was really in the picture. The picture of the fruit. The picture of the Nation of Islam. The picture of its aspirations, industry, and planes, and trucks, and all that. Man in its picture, he was powerful. The picture of the brother, so disciplined and militant, and respectful. That's it. Believe me, the Nation of Islam, intentionally or unintentionally, is a divine sign to the black man of America. That his greatest need is the need for him to accept responsibility for society and government in his life.
Not that we reject the government that we are under, no, but we want to grow up to be responsible for ourselves, for society and government in our lives. Believe me, every people should have their own portable government. They should. They should have their own portable government. I believe G-d intended that for every group, that they have their own portal government. America provides for government under government. It doesn't provide for no government under its government. The people that came from abroad, they came from national life. They came from cultural life. They came from ethnic life. They were invited to come here and establish that life for themselves in America under the American system of government. If they brought that over here, then they brought with them that government. Not their political government. They brought with them their cultural government. That's what we need. We need our cultural government, and Islam will help us build our cultural government.
In our cultural government, our men should be the foundation of it. In its foundation, supporting it, guarding it, protecting it, and being proud. No, I'm not the president. I'm not the vice president. I'm not the chief Imam. I'm not even a member on a shura body? Well, who are you? I'm the foundation in this governmental body. I provide for, defend, and promote basics. Isn't that what we need? Yes. Again, the beautiful picture of the Nation of Islam. The people were brought to the minister, but the propagation was mostly done by the legs. Mostly done by the legs. Out there telling the people about basics.
Food, clothing, shelter, industry, jobs. You wasn't selling those papers just to tell those people to come hear a seminar or a lecture. You were selling those people to show the people that here is a society, here's a group of people that are about being responsible for the production, creation, and protection of their own world. The economic blueprint, banks, savings. Once you get a bank, the bank becomes successful. Now you can start financing people who otherwise wouldn't have any avenue to the finances. All beautiful and great. Now, we don't hope that will ever come as a centralized thing.
We hope that we will have independent groups of business persons, political thinkers, social students, students of society, social theorist. We shouldn't leave it to this society to come up with the ideas, principles, plans for making improvement on society. When we become wise in the religion of Al-Islam, we feel that we are as fit as anybody else, or more fit, to take on such responsibilities. I think we have a very good political theory in America. I think we have a powerful cultural system too. I expect that one day we're going to have from our own people, our own association, men, and thinkers, women too who are going to make improvements on this society.
Yes, I'm not satisfied with it at all. In America, we're free to change it. We are free to influence change in the life of American society or its people. We should be among those making contributions, and should strive to excel with the hopes that one day the Islamic influence, at least in terms of it's sciences, that the Islamic influence will have the greatest sway or the greatest sway in the life of the American people. That can come. That can come, and that's my goal. I'm moving toward it. That's my goal. My goal is not only to see life change for Muslims, my goal is to see life change for Americans.
They will welcome good help from Muslims, Jews, others. They will welcome good help for improvements on their own society, the American society. We are doing it now just by our presence in this society. Our presence, the energy field that we generate, it's so strong until it's bringing about change slowly without us directly working it. We're not directly working it. Just our presence here. Man in big position in here says, “What are all those people doing? What are they doing? What are they saying? What? Wow”. He starts thinking a little differently from then on. May affect his life so that he changed his plan.
He says, no, no. We got to make room for what the Muslims want. We got to start setting this stage for what the Muslims want. Say, I believe is good. Say, in fact, I think it's described in our own life. They just expressed this first, but let us get busy and make room for it. 
Now, so much for that, on men as the legs of society. I began this talk now on the male-female relationship with attention first to meanings, definitions, meanings. The religion of Islam, as every other religion, it has as its concern, human life. When we hear the call to prayer which is given before we get up from our beds and it's given before we retire at night.
Meaning that that call is doing all the awake hours, is for all the awake hours of our life and it's a call to what? To Allah, yes, but Allah is already there. Why I got called to meet Allah? You're calling me to obedience to Allah, you're calling me to a knowledge of Allah, but call me to the presence of Allah? No. Because Allah is always closer to me than anything else. You can't be calling me to the presence of Allah. Allah doesn't reside on a certain street or in a certain town. Allah resides in the soul and the heart or between.
It says between the heart and the mortal life. Between the heart and the mortal life, that's where Allah resides, that's in the Quran. Why is he residing there? He's residing there to regulate. He's there in the neutral zone between the man's heart and his mortal life or his heart and his self-interest. Their G-d is right there between [Arabic language]. He's just like a spirit, not going that way, not going that way, hovering right there between the man's heart and his mortal life to serve the man's conscience. See, wait, I think we hit on this already but again, we have to do it again.
They say obey your better conscience. "Oh, man, obey your better conscious, man." That's what you see here. Conscience doesn't mean very much now to some people nowadays, but we used to hear, "Obey your better conscience." Well, not all of your better conscience but some of your better conscience is the communication from Allah himself. “Oh, brother Imam always stretching out there... [Arabic language]. It is G-d himself who cautions you? [Arabic language]. It is G-d himself who cautions you, but how does he caution you?
Through your soul, through yourself. So, it's coming through you, your conscious, but it's G-d himself that's cautioning you. Now, if every believer in G-d, - real believer in G-d really believed that the presence of G-d was right inside his own being, in the core of his being, in the core of his life was G-d, the presence of G-d, and that G-d is there for the good of that person. G-d is dwelling with you, in you for your own good. Serving the very delicate and critical relationship of self-interest to the community interest. Heart is symbolic of social or community. What you would do to me should be taken over by the heart.
What you would do with yourself doesn't even have to be handed to the heart, it's just natural for you to do it. You don't have to let your heart come into it, say, is this right or wrong or is this just or unjust? That's where the heart deal with right, wrong, just, unjust. If it's self-interest, then you're just going to do it. You get up, brush your teeth, you eat your food, you go eat. You get tired, you lie down to sleep. You have nothing on your conscious telling you, "Should I get some sleep? Is it right? Is it right if I get some sleep?" No, no. That isn't a matter for the heart.
But you say, "Brother so and so hasn't got nowhere to sleep tonight. Should I sleep in here without even inviting him? Could he come here and sleep?" No. The heart should have that you, and the self, they'll say, "But he may disturb me. I don't want my privacy interrupted." That's the mortal. That's the self-interest. The mortal speaking and then G-d comes in there, "But is that what you're supposed to do as a Muslim? Have you forgotten yourself?" G-d doesn't speak to you if you keep turning him the deaf ear. After a while when you do wrong, [unintelligible 00:35:40] scared. [unintelligible 00:35:41] “I did that and didn't have no conscious, man. Nothing happened”.
[laughter]
Say, "Hey, what happened? I didn't even feel bad about that."
[laughter]
Say, "Hey is something wrong with me? I never did nothing like that and didn't have a conscience. I took the man's money and then he didn't [unintelligible 00:36:06] I left him there bleeding, man, and I didn't even think about him until I got home that night that night time and in the bed just before I went to sleep I remembered, man. Damn, man, I'm getting cold."
[laughter]
You've been rejecting Allah so much, you've been turning him a deaf ear and he's letting you go on your own. After a while, you'll be in the pit in the flames and don't know how to get out. Religion calls us to life. Haya alla salah. and they translated, come to prayer, this is English. Now an Arab, his language is Arabic. He was born speaking Arabic. His parents' and parents and parents' all these spoke with, Arabic. [Arabic language] that's all they know. All they have known for generations. When he hears, haya alla salah. You think he hears, come to prayer. He does not. That's not what hears, but when you translate into English, he doesn't know how to translate it into English, he's not English speaking.
When he hears come to prayer, say, "Yes, that's what it means." Because that's what you're supposed to do. When you hear that call you're supposed to go to prayer. Come to where the prayer is going to be but what is it actually saying, literally saying? Hayyan means living. Something hayyan means it's alive, it's living. Haya means liven up. Be alive. Alla means on upon. What? Salah means what? Devotional obedience to G-d. Devotional obedience to G-d we call it salah and our salah is a special devotion that really encompasses the whole of our life. The whole of our life.
Believe me, the more you learn about it, the more you want to agree with me. It encompasses the whole of our life. Government, education, everything is expressed symbolically or ritually by our prayer. Everything. Not just these things without any special meaning in history. No, it addresses these things in their life history. The expanse. The life expanse of these things. Here is the beginning, life start standing erect, is beginning in its establishment. Then it begins to bow down to thank G-d. It remembers that there is a G-d that lifted it up, that established it. It goes down the establishment.
This is the life. The body that's going through the prayer. It's a demonstration. I don't want to leave the mic. The body that's going through the prayer, is really a symbolic demonstration of the whole life of the society pictured in one person or an individual and then the group get together, they all pray together. This life brings itself erect, established, erect before G-d. Then it begins to acknowledge that G-d is responsible for what it has achieved, its establishment. Allahu Akbar, and look where the hands go, to the ears. I couldn't have had this if my ears had not been open.
I open my ears and that's what made it all possible. Can the deaf speak? I open my ears and it made it all possible. So then the hands go down. You begin going through the words of the salat. The first thing you do is acknowledge G-d as the Lord of all worlds. The word for worlds is not really worlds like these physical worlds. Worlds of knowledge, - aalameen from [Arabic language], knowledge. After you finish, and Fatihah is a must and you should recite a short passage from Quran with Al-Fatihah. When you finish, you glorify G-d again, don't you? Allahu Akbar.
Now you're going down. You're submitting. You're submitting the government to G-d. Allahu Akbar. You're submitting this government to G-d. What are you doing now? Submitting it on what level? Ruku. What level? The social level. You're submitting it on a social level. That G-d, my social evolution, I owe you. Thanks for it. I couldn't have evolved socially without you. Then you come back up because you praised him with that gesture. Sami'Allahu liman hamidah. G-d hears whoever praises him. Then you go right back down, Allahu Akbar. Go all the way down and put the government on the ground.
You put the government on the ground. You make the government prostrate to the earth, to the womb of material development. You put the government down there. Make it prostrate to the womb of material development. Down there you say, "Subhana Rabbiyal A'la”. Glorified or glory be to my Lord the most high." Government submit to the origin of itself. The government of what? The government of thinking, knowledge processes, insight, intelligence, learning, perception, everything that has the relationship, a direct relationship, with the mental processes. The mind, put it down there on the earth itself because that's where all knowledge came from, out of the matter itself. You submit it.
You tell G-d that, I'm not proud, G-d. I know that everything I have up here in this crown came out of your creation. You come back up you say, Allahu Akbar. You didn't say Sami'Allahu liman hamidah because really, that wasn't praising G-d. That was submitting. [laughs] You were submitting. You were submitting. You bring yourself back up and when you submit you glorify G-d, not yourself. Allahu Akbar, and you bring yourself to a sitting position. Then you go back down for a second time and do it again, to say what?
That man, socially evolved by G-d, when he discovered the sciences in the material world, he believed in a G-d, but when he set himself back up on the throne, he began to enjoy the benefit and power of government and achievements he forgot he wasn't quite on the track, yet. He was not quite educated yet. He was just knowing that some G-d was responsible for evolving him socially and that he owed the material benefits and the knowledge to the creation, so he submitted to that. Then he got back up, and he made the mistake of thinking that he should be responsible for all this.
So he's sitting on the throne. Then he offered the maintenance or the care of the order to angels and mountains, and both of them refused it, but the man hasty and fool hearted, he rushed up and said, "I'll take it." This is in Quran. Getting all that swells his head up and make him think maybe I'm G-d. Maybe G-d was in creation but now G-d is taking a rest. G-d going to sleep in creation. Now, "Hey, this stuff I got is heavy and powerful. Maybe I'm G-d." After he's corrected he has to make a second bow, put his government back down there on the ground. Why? Because now if he is blessed to make that second sajda that he's safe.
Why? Because now he has not only acknowledged his limitations, but he has also acknowledged as a witness, as an observer, with insight, G-d's plan, G-d's scheme, G-d's Will, G-d's direction for him and for society. When he gets that, he makes another sajda. He says the same thing. Glory be to my Lord most high. He comes back up. Now he's ready. Great nations rose on this earth but they were not able to achieve peace. Were they? Great nations, the medieval, the ancient world. I don't read ever of one of them that achieved peace for any long period of time. They were oppressive.
They maintained themselves. They endured, but they didn't realize peaceful order. There was always something that was not acceptable for their human nature. They were always uncomfortable with the situation. They never at peace hardly at all until a revelation from G-d came and showed the way, showed the will. Even those religious nations had only temporary periods of time when they enjoyed peace. Their peace was short-lived. They were right back into wars and confusion. The only one that last for a long time was really the late ones. Islam, the Ummah of the Prophet had peace among themselves a long, long period of time.
One in the order of the government in Spain for 400 to 500 years. 400 to 500 years, that's a long time. That's longer than the United States has been existing. There was others, enjoyed it for a long time. Not that the ignorant world or a world of darkness weren't making trouble and causing wars occasionally, but peace was secured for long periods of time. That was just the dawning of the light. We haven't really seen the full light of Islam yet. That was just the dawning of the light, but that little dawning of light was passed on to the west. They were able to see the direction for themselves, the will of G-d, the order to come, the future order that G-d wants for man on earth.
They were able to see it, and go back and pick up where their people left off and search for it, and bring this world that we call a democratic society, but look how long that the man has had that dream for the idea of democracy. Over hundreds of years, while they had that idea, and beautiful thinkers, but the behavior of their society was still savage. The treatment of subjects, human beings on this earth, was still unacceptable for the human soul to tolerate. And it's only now in, I will say, the years of decline for western power, and glory, and dominance, that western society is beginning to conform to the beauty that it advocated and claimed for itself.
A society of justice for all. A society sharing its production, and its bounty, and its beauty, and its comforts and everything with its people, and promoting growth, and happiness for all of its citizens. We're just coming to that time. When the American people are expecting that and working for that and getting support from leaders to realize that, we just come into it. Really, the second sajda that we see it just starting to come. The second sajda. But this is the life. This is the life of the order of society in its trials, in it deaths and resurrections. G-d gives it life and establishes it, it forgets its G-d, has to remember its G-d, submit to his G-d, conform again to the social life that G-d intended for it, and acknowledge the benefits the material benefits came from G-d, and the knowledge to run society came from G-d, by placing the government upon the ground, the head the crown upon the physical ground, upon the material out of which came enlightenment, direction etc. from the Creator Himself.
That's why the language is. “Endowed by the Creator” in the preamble to the constitution of these United States. “Endowed by the Creator”. It didn't say endowed by Jehovah. It said endowed by the Creator. Because that connects you directly with creation. Creator, creation. That dollar is a token representing creation. Right? Yes. It represents creation. A dollar of wheat. A dollar of whatever. A dollar share in an automobile. It represents something that came out of the earth. Creation; you see? 
So we are just beginning to see as I said, signs that the established world, the most progressed, and established world is about to try to please or conform to G-d's will for human life on this earth by making the second sajda. And it says that G-d told Adam, “And tell them their names”. And when Adam told them their names all of them made sajda, except Iblis. And he became one of the oppressors or man. And in time became the worse of all of the oppressors. Iblis. 
But they all made sadja. What does that have a reference too? This has reference to G-d's plan and help for the intellect of man. That when G-d has helped and inspired the intellect of man then all other forces that had been responsible for the trust in the creation has to submit to his man. Specifically in this metaphor or this description, - the angels. Those forces that were created to be in perfect obedience to G-d. The angels. Now those angels can be understood in many ways both abstract and concrete. But we know that in their true identity angels have no concrete image, though they can operate or manifest in concrete forms. 
And those angels are responsible for what? They are responsible for the regulation of G-d's creation. They operate in the regulation of G-d's creation. It says in the Night of Power, in it descends the angels. Not only the Spirit, but the angels descends. For what purpose are they coming down to the darkness? To obey every order of G-d. This has direct reference to the dawning of knowledge. The beginning of enlightenment. The angels are working with G-d to bring man to enlightenment. And we know that the chief angel bringing the message from G-d is the angel Jabril, Gabriel. Yes, the angels all obeying G-d coming down into the darkness into the light, but it is not a bad night. It is not a night of ignorance. The night of ignorance is below it. It's in the higher heavens. This night is in the higher heavens. This night is the night of peace. (Arabic) until the dawning. Until the rise of the dawn. Huh? Yes.
So this work that's going on to aid the intellect of man is happening in a darkness that is a darkness of peace and quiet. And the peace and quiet is the peace and quiet that G-d Himself can only give. Yes. And there is no light of the world in it. It's dark, but in it comes the stars. The stars will form in the darkness of the higher world, the higher heaven, - stars. And they will have patterns and tracks and patterns and movements. They will show order and obedience to an order, to a will. And then will be more powerful in their order than the life below. They will endure when lights come on and go out down here. They still endure above. That's all in your head my brother. I know it's heavy for you, but all that I'm talking about has reference to what can be in your head. Your head can be so above the pettiness of this world until it's like the canopy of the stars at night. Yes. Bearing witness that the light ain't out because the sun has set. It's just so far away your little eyes can't see the size of it. Oh man this is so good. 
Alright. Haya alla salah. Come establish life upon devotion to G-d. That's what it means. Come alive to the establishment of your life upon obedience, or devotion to Allah, to G-d. That's the call. And shouldn't that be the call? That is the call. That your life will never be the life that satisfies the core of your soul until you establish that life in conformity with what G-d wills. And what do we say when we're standing up here? We say nothing that was not revealed. If you don't know what to say, you are permitted to say, Allah I beg myself to you (Arabic) ignorant and weak. Please give me strength, I don't know Al-Fatihah yet, but I'll read it in English. And if you read it in English the best you can, your prayer will be accepted. But you shouldn't be satisfied with that. You should be coming to a teacher, coming to someone that knows to try learn how to perform that prayer as it's supposed to be performed. 
And if you perform it as it's supposed to be performed, you don't speak your words you speak only revelation. So what is that telling us? That it was revelation that brought man to stand up and hold himself in establishment for a duration of time. It says when the prophet first started preaching he used to stand in prayer for all night almost. Standing up all night. Reciting long passages, chapters of the Qur'an. Just standing all night. 
What's holding the kingdom up? The revelation from G-d. And when it goes down it doesn't go down because it has to. It goes down because there's too much. Oh G-d it's too much to stand up here with all of this. I got to acknowledge where I came from. Allahu Akbar. Bend down there and put your hand right on the common man's head. Recognize. Reach down there and grab the head of the common man. Allahu Akbar. 
The life establishing the life. We have to see the social plan for our life as the overriding plan, the prevailing plan. The plan that incorporates all other plans. This is not socialism. This is community. That's the difference. Socialism is more on the regulation of society as dictated by the needs of the people, as a social group or social entity.
That's the socialist idea. Whereas, the Islamic idea, doesn't take in the social relationship first, it takes in community first, that man had been created to be a community. As a community, he is supposed to perform no matter how small his responsibility is. You got a family that's a small community. It's not so much the relationships first that we look at, - father wife, husband, father, or parents or children, but family itself, the unit. We need to appreciate the family as a group, because if a family keeps this collective group, keeps its members in the family order, your small family group or your fine, small family order, if it contains its members in a group as a community they live together, they work together, they socialize together, they eat together, they retire together, they get up together to go out and seek support means, income for their group. This is a community. This is supposed to be seen firstly, as a community. For us, it is not social or socialism as much as it is community and community responsibility, or responsibility for community. As I go on with this, we're supposed to see that family life, that community life, with its relationships and its order, - social relationships as the sanctuary of life.
Sanctuary means a place that supposed to be guarded, protected from all trouble from all danger, et cetera. That's sanctuary. You are supposed to cherish this community life so much in its social nature, in its social identity. You're supposed to cherish the social community so much that you guard it with everything you got, you will sacrifice your life to it, you will go to war for it. It's more precious than anything else to you, except G-d himself. The social community, or community with the social nature and its community life.
What would that give us? That will give us security. If we cherish it, protect it, it will give that sanctuary security. A sign of that is the Haram, the sacred precincts that we visit on when you make Hajj pilgrimage. It said that G-d established that place, or made that place what? A sanctuary. Made it what? A secure place, a place of security where you feel that you can trust everybody and everything around you. Where you feel safe, no one will rob me. No one will harm me. I'm safe here. I'm secured here.
It's a sign that if we order our community life, beginning with the family itself, as G-d intended for us to order it, recognizing G-d as our authority over all other authorities, we will have a sanctuary, a haven, a secure place from the world, that will survive when the world is gone. The world may live and die, but that sanctuary, that life will stay. With that, I say that the Muslim life, the Muslim community life, should never depend on the world that it lives under are in. The world they live under or in may come and go but our life should stay. There's no reason why it should come and go. Not only should it stay, but it should not be affected that much by what happens in the external world.
It should have his own government. It should have its own authority over it. It should have its own obedience. It should have its own life. I don't want to point to anybody. Everybody don't die. When the economic system fails them, fails the world, everybody don't [sic] die. There are a few wise people, you can make all the lucky people. They may progress more during the death of the economic order than when it was thriving. Understand that. You don't have to die. We don't have to suffer the consequences that's registered in the world, no.
If we have our own eyes on our own form of life, our own system of life, our own government perception of what should be government in our life, then we should be able to exist in and endure and continue to thrive and prosper, when others are dying. That's why I say you want that tree that gives its fruit in every season. Winter a comes and some are dead, they can't bear any fruit, but we want that tree that will give us fruit in every season. Winter time it's bearing fruit. It didn't exclude weather, it said, "Every season." I'm not off my subject, brother. I've beaming in there with full force. With the help of Allah, we'll be beaming in, we'll be right in there. We are right on target. Full force. 
We mentioned meanings. Let's look at some meanings here. Human. When we want to understand human in English, human means to be the best like what is the best nature of a person? His good side. For, want of a lot of words. I'm taking a lot of time, I don't want to spend too many words. I'm just making it short. If you go to the dictionary for meaning, it will tell you just that but also says human means Homo sapiens. Thinking man. Goes back to the brain, to the mind. To the intellect. G-d says if there had been angels populating the world Earth, He would have sent us an angel as a messenger.
That's to tell us many things and here is one thing is to tell us. The good side of human beings. This light idea of what is human or this sentimental idea of what is human will not bring us to the destiny and the bounty that G-d has created for us. Angels can't get there. But a man obedient to G-d, a society of men obedient to G-d like angels are obedient but being rational men with open minds and thirsty intellects, they can get there. It's not just human, sentimental good side of the person. No, the real human identity begins with a rational mind. That's what distinguish us from animals. That's what distinguish us from angels.
That we got a rational mind. When a rational mind also embrace and strengthen and cooperates and give support to the sentimental side, that soft side, then you have the best condition. That doesn't means that if you ignore that side, you ain't going to be progressive or successful because there's some hard, hard theories, political theories. Cold ones and they have made a lot of progress. They got a lot of the dunya. They may didn't get paradise but they sure all came up with a lot of the dunya, the world that is. Dunya, world. 
We have to think of our definition of human in both ways. Prophet Muhammad is the ideal human. But the beginning of his life is in the dawning of his mind, his intellect. That can't come from G-d unless you are already of good character. He will only bless those of good character with that great dawning of enlightenment in their dome. Thinking human homo sapien, thinking man. How long do you think the West have had that kind of terminology? They didn't have that terminology before prophet Muhammad taught us dhakar. Dhakar means what? Thinking. Reflect with the mind. Think. [Arabic language] Thinking. What is man in the Quran? What is his name?
He has many names but the name that G-d contrast with female is [Arabic language] G-d says and the [Arabic language] is not like the [Arabic language] The male is not like the female. Man, you should think of yourself as being the thinker. I know women don't want to hear this. It wasn't no woman that went up on the mountain or sat by the river resting her heavy head on her hand and came back to the city, and said, "The way we're doing this is wrong. We have to come from this haphazard, hidden myths kind of society we got. G-d has shown me something. Our power above has shown me something. There's a logic to this life. There's science and enlightenment. Great lights in the darkness of matter."
He started telling them these things. They start listening to him. Pretty soon, there was studious men, sitting down with studios men. Pretty soon there were scholarly men and students and other scholars coming from long distances on donkeys and horses and whatever they had to ride on, walking. Coming to this one man that had got this new vision. After a while, a better order of civilization, laws, human treatment, regulation of money and business and everything. It wasn't a woman. It was a [Arabic language] resting his crown on his hand, heavy with thoughts.
Heavy with a whole lot of ideas. Just having a brainstorm. Spontaneous bursts of energy in the higher regions of the heavens. He rested. So heavy, he had to rest it on the hand. Oh Lordy. Sometimes he, like the prophet in the Bible said, "My cup runneth over." Just too much to tell. Grounded with messages. Head grounded with messages "I have to sleep tonight. I'll see what I can say tomorrow."
[laughter]
That wasn't no woman. That was a male. Now they don't like that. Doesn't mean they ain't got brains. But that wasn't your role in the creation and the advancement of man's world. That wasn't your role. That was my role. G-d says, "The [Arabic language] (male) is not like the [Arabic language] (female)"
You all could be homosexuals if you want too, buddy. I got a pride and dignity with this perception that the Quran gives me. I got a pride and a dignity, man that'll make me cut off my leg and my arm before I be a homosexual. Look at the fringe benefits. Ooo Lordy, tonight after the work is all over, I go there and have my soul rested. Tranquility, for even the flesh. Flesh, he speaks to me say, "Hey, that was a nice rest last night." Say, "I was as rested as a baby."
[laughter]
The world as Allah, designed it for us, oh man it's heaven. It is heaven, and that's what Allah says through His prophet, praise and peace be on Muhammad. Before the Satan's influenced the design of the world, it was a paradise. We can have it right here on this earth in this body. These physical bodies we got. Let's look at, man. The word man. We've seen the [Arabic language]
Let's look at the English word, man. What does man mean? I will tell you. We learn how a word is used, how a part of the word is used or how a word is joined to other words to make another word. We can tell. They can't hide everything, even though they don't give it in the dictionary. Man. Mechanic, manipulate, you get all these words. Actually, what is the English word saying man is? Man is something that works. Management. Man is something that works. I like that English word. You're supposed to be something at work, something that doing a work, something that's handling something else, being responsible for something else, controlling something else. Management, I can manage this. That means that I can be responsible for this. I can control this.
This is within my power to handle. I can manage it. When you think of man, think of words like that. Man, manage, even manipulate, that ain't too bad. We have to manipulate sometimes. I'm manipulating you a little bit in a small degree, right now. My intentions are good. It's good work, it's a beautiful deceit, a holy deceit. You know I must be a friend, I'm even telling you. 
Look at this word, woman. The ignorant say, "Woe to man." They say that's what woman means, woe to man. That's the ignorant in the western thought. It says that the fall of man came because his woman let Satan deceive her and she seduced him after Satan deceived her and brought them both under Satan.
In Islam, we are told that the man slipped and we are told that Satan seduced both of them. Not one of them, but both of them. There was nothing passed to Adam the man by the conduit of a woman or by the woman as a conduit. No, Satan went directly to both of them. It says he seduced them and caused them to come out of the identity, out of the dress or the clothing that G-d had put them in.
We've cleared that up. Let us see what is man, the term for man in Quranic language. The term for man is dhakar and the term for man is (bushr?) Two, dhakar is the thinking, the man as an intellect. (bushr?) is man as a social member. As a man as a member in the social order (bushr?) What makes him now so important as a member of the social order? Because he is sensitive in his outer body whereas the woman is sensitive in her inner body. She is sensitive in her inner body. The man that Allah wants is sensitive in his outer body. He is sensitive when he sees his family hurt, his children hurt, his friends hurt, his neighbor's hurt et cetera.
The woman is sensitive when you hurt her feelings, when you disappoint her, trust et cetera. That's what hurts her so much. She's more sensitive in the inner core than in the skin. The man is sensitive in the skin as you go deeper in him he's not so sensitive. He becomes more stable inside. He tends to be more stable.
You see a man falling down his heart has got disturbed, he ain't a man no more, he's been feminized. He's supposed to be upset because his family is hurt, his friend got mistreated, didn't receive justice. Those things are supposed to hurt him. His girlfriend went with another man? If that makes you boo hoo and stops you from going to work tomorrow you're not yet the man Allah created you to be.
You're supposed to register that like a light tremor. The impact goes to the skin and the skin says, "How are my children going to be affected? How is their future going to be affected? Let me see if I can defeat her in her purposes, deny her what she's got her eyes on, so it will go to our children." That's the master, that's the man. He sits down and he looks at the child that's hurt and upset because the mother or a girlfriend that ran out and go with somebody else. That's the man. Brother, the young boy, I'm sure you've all been boys. I was a boy, all of us been boys. The young boy when that girl or man disappoints him, he's a boy. His sensitivity is more like the female.
He ain't reached manhood yet. He boo hoos and carrys on like a baby deprived of a candy stick, and won't stop crying until you put it back into the hand. But that man he will take a whip out, he take a stick. If that organ gives him too much trouble, "Baby, stop bothering me G-d damn it. I got business to take care of." I'm going to try to bring this to a close pretty soon. I've got about 10 minutes. Look at life itself, what it means. L-I-F-E. It's no accident that I-F-E is also in wife. That's no accident. That's to tell us that life and wife are tied together. That the woman in your life should be symbolic of life because she's the field out of which you hope to get generations of life.
She's the field for your crop of life, your harvest of life, your investments in life. This is the way we should see it. I'm not saying anything that's not (unclear), but you speak English. I'm not coming straight from the Quran all the time because you speak English and it's there. Why should I overlook it if it's there?
Also, look at the word live. It's no accident that I-V-E is also in give and alive, A-L-I-V-E. You want to live, you want to stay alive give. Don't be so damn selfish. Give. Live for more than your self and then you will really find life, you will really experience life, you will really appreciate life when you start to live for more than yourself.
You'll have a bigger life. You should be living for as many as you can live for. We talked about the rituals that we go through or the movement in prayer as indicating establishment, submission of the establishment, but also they indicate life and death for the establishment. Life and death. Putting the head on the ground is symbolic of dying. Dying to what? Dying some time to just establishment. You don't have the life anymore to establish yourself and your head falls to the ground. But if you glorify G-d, you will live again.
You will live again. It is also a picture of the sunrise and sunset of our life and it happens all the time. The sun is rising and setting all the time. Behind each sunset, there is another sunrise coming. Glorify G-d. One day you will say, "Peace be on you and the mercy of G-d. Peace be on you and the mercy of G-d." Who can announce peace? The one who has found it and is sitting upon the throne of the order for peace. He found the order of peace and established the order of peace, and he's sitting on the throne representing the order of peace. He speaks out with authority as the emir or the Khalifa.
Peace be on to you and the mercy of G-d and his voice is not limited. The range of his voice is not limited. It will vibrate around the world because when G-d gives the man the perception of how society is to be established, how peace is to be ordered, it's good for everybody everywhere on the globe. As-Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah. As-Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah.
[background conversations]
Peace to the sunrise and peace to the sunset. Peace to those in light and peace to those in the dark. Man can go to bed now and rest. This is not just dreaming. This is real. We are going to get there. We are getting there. 
I'm going to close out on this. Most precious to us is the Muslim commands in our life. G-d say, "Don't do this. Don't do it. Don't do that." If you fall victim, be like that one we mentioned earlier today. Come to your G-d say, "My Lord. I have done wrong. I repent to you." G-d said, "I forgave him". That's what G-d says. This is in the saying of the Prophet, praise and peace be on him. Be like that one. No matter how often you sin don't say, "Oh, there's no need in me going back to the masjid. I can't live that kind of life".
That's Satan whispering in the weak side of your life. Whispering in the weak parts of your soul, in your spirit, in your mind. Whispering in there, making you think you should give up. Making you think you are not fit for the Muslim community. Anybody who loves Allah, loves G-d and want to be right. You're always fit for the Muslim community. I don't care if you gamble every day, shoot or use a narcotic every day, drink liquor every day, do wrong every day as long as you love Allah it's going to work more of that stuff out of your life and eventually you got to overcome all that. Never give up.
You never heard me say anything that make a man who's in sin think that he's not welcome in an audience when I'm here. You never heard me say anything that indicate that. We don't know the burden on each individual. We don't know the circumstances that account for what has happened to each person. Only Allah can judge us. All we can do is help our brother and show our brother the right way and encourage him in his good deeds and his strength. Don't encourage him in his bad deeds and in his weakness. That's the fault some of us make.
We're going to act like we don't tolerate your brother's weakness. No. Love the brother and hold him close to you but never tell him that his bad deeds and his sins are okay or you are going to overlook them. If he showed them to you can't overlook it, you have to tell them, "Brother that's wrong. You got to try and overcome that brother." Be your brother's brother. Not a hypocrite for the sake of just having friendship. Praise be to Allah.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
You look at the word life, you see wife. You look at the word death you see eat, E-A-T. Allah says in the Quran [Arabic language] Surely, we've given you abundance. Abundance of good. Allah says also in the Quran [Arabic Language] The going after abundance. The mounting and piling up wealth. Will stay on you until you come to the grave. It's something that becomes hypnotic, it becomes automatic almost in your life, and it stays on you and causes you to lose moral conscience and you just keep going after it compulsively without any ability to resist going after the wealth, or going after material plenty. Where is it carrying you? To the grave, to the hell, to the destruction of your human nature, your good life, your good soul. That's where it's carrying you. But do you see what I did? I gave you a reference of abundance in a good sense and in a good light.
G-d wants you to have abundance and at the same time, G-d warns you that going after it will bring you to the grave. The grave of the death of your humanity. Look how it is in English and these words life wife death eat. This culture and its commercial system that poisons and deforms the culture it's designed to take you from your wife, to take you from your life, to make you eat, eat, eat yourself to death. Peace be on you. I'll see you next time. As-Salamu Alaikum.
[background conversation]

[01:27:00] [END OF AUDIO]

