07/09/1988
IWDM Study Library
The Identity of Our Concerns

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the world. We greet you with the greetings of Muslims, the greetings of peace, as salaam alaikum. We pray peace and the blessings of Allah be upon the last universal messenger, the Prophet Muhammad, to whom the Quran was revealed. We pray Allah's blessings on this occasion that we please Him and advance the good. It is a pleasure and an honor to be again here in Newark as your guest to address concerns that Muslims should be giving attention to. Concerns for our attention.
I would like to speak on the identity of our concerns, the need to identify concerns and to manage concerns. I would be speaking from very familiar language of the Muslims. Very familiar language of the Muslims. Bismillahi rahmani rahim, that is with Allah's Name The gracious, the merciful. The term important is, I believe, the first term or the first word that we should give our attention to. The term important.
Our religion shows us where we should place importance. Understand first, that we may have, I may have, or we may have, many points of concern in mind that we're addressing or that we want to bring to you. The most important of all is that we know where to place importance. I believe that people succeed and fail because of the mismanagement of importance. Even more so because of the failure on their part to recognize where to place importance.
There are many ways to say what I'm saying, perhaps you've said exactly what I'm saying now but you put it in different words. Muslims we should understand this, that our religion is a religion of conscious behavior. Our religion is ordered for us to urge us into conscious behavior. Let me apply that to myself right now for this occasion.
If I came out here to speak to you today on this occasion and I didn't give serious thoughts beforehand to what I'm going to say today and to you and your make up as Muslim, or your needs as Muslims. If I just came here in the spirit, so to speak, without any conscious preparation, then I would be failing that requirement in our religion. That requirement in the religion that urges us or makes us want- expects us and wants us to be conscious in our behavior. Whatever we do, we should be conscious of it, and I began with the word importance.
We know our religion as the religion of prayer, our day begins with a conscious awareness of obligation to pray the morning prayer. The pre-sunrise prayer, the prayer before sunrise. Fajr prayer, dawn prayer. We are awakened in the morning, we hear certain words coming into our ears, coming to us, awakening us in the morning. Our sleeping minds are awakened from the sleep by certain words. Allah, that is G-d, Akbar, is greater. Allahu akbar. Allah is the greatest. Allah is greater. There are different translations which are correct, all of them. Allah, G-d, is greatest.
Now, greatest is a description, it's a modifier. Greatest tells us something about G-d. So the first words we hear in the morning that awakes us, not the bell, not the alarm clock, but the Adhan, the call to prayer, says something of Allah, something of G-d. It says that He is greatest. He is greater. Isn't greater more important? If I say this is greater, that means too, that this is more important. That which is greater, in my estimation is more important. It should be anyway, if I'm thinking right. So we hear in the morning, G-d is more important. That's what it's saying.
You know, if you want to say a man has airs, a man that thinks too much of himself, he is proud chested, you use the same words. You use a form of the same words to say he's big-headed. He's proud headed, - importance. I mean in Arabic but also in English, we say he's big-headed, right? Or he's a bigoted person, it means the same. He thinks himself more important.
So understand that we have a language and one word that you hear all the time, you hear the meaning all the time, coming as one word, G-d is greater, G-d is greatest, but understand that there are meaning in the terms. You can talk about these terms and you can bring out so many meanings that are expressed in these terms by the one word. In this case, the word is greater or greatest. Akbar. Allahu akbar.
We awaken, someone is telling us Adhan, the one calling us to pray, he tells us in the morning, he awakes us with this. He says G-d is more important. G-d is more important. So if we want to manage importance in our life, then the first concern should be concern for G-d. How is my relationship with my Lord, how is my relationship with G-d? How am I managing that importance? That's a job, isn't it? Because some of us can't get up in the morning and make that prayer.
We will push it aside as something that's not for this time. Not for me or not for this time. Not for the United States of America. It's not for Newark. It's not for New York City, we push it aside, and we carry the burden on our hearts, whether we are aware of it or not, it's affecting us subconsciously and our spirit ain't good. We don't have a good spirit because we are playing down the importance of the most important thing in the life of a believer, and that is G-d is more important, than whatever else you can think of.
You say, “Well I would pray but I need some sleep. I went to bed late and I know I need some sleep if I'm going to be able to function on the job like I should. I can't go out there and do these eight hours unless I get-- I can't get up and take a hour out and wash up and make prayer. That's too much.” So we begin to make all these excuses and we say, "Well, I got arthritis anyway and I'm sure Allah knows this." We make all these excuses and Allah has provided for us, so if you've got arthritis and can't bend the leg, He says, pray sitting. If you can't sit, He said we pray lying down.
Managing importance is a concern that Muslims ought to look at. Managing importance. I believe that if we can manage importance with intelligence, we'll be successful. Anybody who manages importance in an intelligent way, must be successful. First of all, Allah is the most important thing in the life of the believer. Allah, his Lord, his G-d, his Maker, his Creator. The one that made everything possible for him. The one that he owes everything. Everything is possible because of Allah. Then he should have faith. Realize that Allah is more important and then have faith in Allah.
Before faith, there should be an awareness that there is a cause for all of these things. The meal you love, it comes from somewhere and we should want to know the source where this food came from. Okay, it comes from the farm, and what is the farm? It's a piece of land. Where did the land come from? Well, it's part of the earth. No man made it. Where did the seeds come from, that grew the food? No man made them. The animals that we eat, no man made them. The water we drink, no man made it. Whatever man made, we call it artificial, right? Whatever man made is artificial.
They even use the term now, unnatural. Not natural. But really, it's not artificial, it's just a mixture of what Allah made. He just takes it and mixes it up, changes it around, throw a little stuff in it and throw a lot of things together that Allah made and come up with something that he made. So whether it's original, natural or artificial or man-made, it has a source, and you trace its source back to Allah's creation. Whether you say Allah or G-d or whatever, or cause, a natural cause, no matter what you call it, you should all think- you should feel that you owe thanks to something.
But we're talking about Muslims. So there's no question about the G-d that Muslims acknowledge, that's Allah, the one Lord and Creator that made all of these things. That's the Lord we acknowledge. So there's no question. So we should give thanks to Allah. We should realize that ourselves, our food, our clothing, our intelligence, because all that you know also came from what Allah created. You don't know anything that didn't come from creation. Even the lie you know, came from creation. You twisted the truth and made a lie. The truth was there before, you cannot make a lie from nothing.
You've got to make a lie from something that Allah has provided. You take something that G-d has provided and you twist it and make a lie. Even your lie, if you're proud of it, you should say thank G-d for making it possible for me to lie. Now I hope you know how to take me seriously. [chuckles] Someone will say, "Did you hear what he said today? He said we ought to thank Allah making it possible for us to lie."
[laughter]
I said if you're proud of it, if you're proud of yourself as a liar and you don't have it in your heart to be thankful for the right thing, then maybe you should be thankful for the wrong things that you're proud of because even that it wasn't possible for you without Allah. We should be people of faith, we should believe in Allah, not just acknowledge him. Intelligence will help us to find that there's a cause. Once we find that there's a cause, then the heart should feel gratitude. Should feel appreciative for the good things, for all the things you enjoy. If there's a cause, we should be thankful.
Once one feels to thank to the one that's responsible for the things that are good in their life, for the things that have helped him made possible, their existence and their survival and et cetera, then there should begin a spirit to trust that source. That cause, that source, Allah that made possible my existence, make possible all that I enjoy, I can have faith in it. I have no problem having faith in one that made possible this being of mine. My being itself, is something I can look at and appreciate. This is no cheap creation here.
This is a marvelous creation. So I can look at this and say, whatever this is, is worthy of my trust. If you need a vehicle to go to a certain place and you ask some associates or some friends and say, "Look, I need some kind of transport. I got to go to such and such a place, and that's too far for me to walk. I need some kind of transport." One of them say, "I can get you a transport." "Okay, get me one." Then he brings you a transport and you get on the transport, and before you put all your weight on it, it collapses.
Then another one says, "Well, I can get you a transport.” They bring you transport, you get in and then it doesn't collapse. You ride it, you go all the way to the destination, no trouble at all. You come back, no trouble at all. Just took a look here, you just had to wipe the windshield off a little bit and maybe put a little water in every now and then. Maybe you had to get gas once or twice, but no trouble, got back alright and everything.
So one of these friends, you should trust, and one you shouldn't trust. The one who gave you the transport that as soon as you put a little weight on it, it collapsed, you shouldn't trust that one. Look, this been carrying you how long? 30 years? 40 years? 50 years? 80 years? It's been carrying you for all that long time. Hadn't collapsed on you yet and you haven't been taking care of it very well.
[laughter]
Shouldn't you have trust, shouldn't you have faith in the one that created this like this? Created you like this? Not to mention all the other wonderful things in creation that lets us know, the Creator is worthy of our trust. Trust is faith, isn't it? Belief, what is belief? Faith, because where there is no need for belief, there is no need for trust. If there is no need to believe anything, there is no need to trust. No need to believe in anything, there's no need for faith. Where there's a need to believe, there's a need to have faith, there's a need to have trust.
Okay. Now, the human being is not a creature without problems, weaknesses, frailties, defects, limitations. We can perform very well in certain situations, with certain tasks, but when the task is above or more than our ability, we can be made to look very ridiculous trying to accomplish that task. The human being that performs so well and looks so great, and wins the admiration of everybody, go on, go on. Go on Tyson. Man, you are the greatest. Put him in another situation and he looks so bad, you turn your head from him. You don't want him to see you looking at him. Messing up as he's doing, you see?
So the human being has his limitations. So we have serious limitations as human creatures. We have to turn to G-d and many times we don't feel secure. We fear for our own safety. We fear for our own well-being and the believers turn to G-d. Mind you, I'm not speaking to atheists. I came to address Muslims. So we have to turn to G-d, we turn to G-d, because we want G-d to support us in our situation. Along with this believe, trust, faith, we need a sense of security, don't we? We want a sense of security.
Now, a sense of security doesn't mean we will never have a cold, we'll never have a headache, we'll never get tired, we'll never run out of money. No. No one can give us that sense of security. We'd like to have it, but no one can give it us. But there's a sense of security that Allah can give us. That makes us feel secure even though the money ran out. Secure even though the doctor says you have a bad disease.” I can't help you with this. This is going to get you one day soon. It's terminal.”
The believer in Allah if his faith, his belief is good enough, can face that terrible kind of situation and still remain with a sense of security. Now, mind you, when we say Allahu Akbar, the one who's making Adhan is directing himself toward a particular orienting point for his prayer. His Adhan and his prayer. He turns towards Qibla, he turns towards the Kaaba. The name of the house, Kaaba in Saudi Arabia, Holy Mecca. He turns towards that house, saying G-d is greater. G-d is greatest. G-d is more important.
That house and the precincts there, they have a name. The territory itself has a name. Al-Haram. Al-Haram means the territory or the area where there are restrictions. Restriction, sacred. Restriction. It cannot be violated. Also it is called bu our Lord, (Arabic) place of safety, security. So he prays and he directs himself towards the house and that area there, the house and the area around it is called a place of security, a place of safety. Anyone goes there and prays, if he wants to sleep there out in the open, no house, no doors shutting him in.
He feels free and at ease to sleep there, he shouldn't be anticipating any danger, any trouble in that place. You see that when we wake up in the morning, say Allahu Akbar and we direct ourselves in prayer following the Mu'adhin, who calls us to wake up and make our ablution, clean up and get ready and dress properly and get ready for our prayer. We follow him and heed in the direction that he turns himself, we turn in that direction. Line up behind the Imam or whoever will lead the prayer, or we're leading the prayer ourselves, we do all of that ourselves.
We wake up, we clean ourselves and make the Adhan and turn towards the house. The Kaaba. When you begin the prayer, the same way we begin the Adhan. The Adhan begins with G-d is greater. G-d is greatest or G-d is [unintelligible 00:36:00]. We begin the prayer, we raise our hands, facing that place, and we say, Allahu Akbar. G-d is greatest or G-d is more important. We begin the disciplined prayer facing that point, that place. We are acknowledging G-d and we are directing ourselves, we are facing a place of security. A place of safety.
A place where sin is not to happen. A place where not even injury to another brother, another person, not to happen there. Not even to an animal, you're not even to harm an animal. Not there. A place of safety, a place of security. So these terms must be very important in our life. Allahu akbar. Important, must be very important for us in our lives. Importance itself, because the Adhan is saying Allah is more important. Importance itself must be very, very serious for us in our life. Importance.
So understand this, that in Allah calling us to recognize him as being more important, He is influencing us and sensitizing us, He is conditioning our minds to place importance properly. To place importance where importance should be placed, and I begin with the most important in my life. That's my Lord, my G-d. I can't stop there. Allah is important, I owe Him prayer, I owe Him worship, I pray to Him. I pray to Him. In praying to Him, I'm facing an area, a territory that’s called a place of security, safety, et cetera.
That should tell me that also important for me in my life is a place that's safe from sin, from violence, from hatred, from anger, from ugliness. A place. 
Dear people, everyone of us in our own hearts and in our soul are Kaaba. Inside yourself is the need. A need there for there to be inside of you internally, a place where there will be no sins committed, where there will no hatred, no anger, no ugliness. All of us have that need.
When we have a place like that, we feel at peace, we feel safe, we feel secure, we don't feel threatened. Sinners feel threatened, criminals feel threatened. The innocent person never feels threatened. Why should he feel threatened? It is wrong doing that make us worry about what's going to happen. We are not angels, we are not perfect beings. We are going to commit sin, we are going to do wrong, and not even that land over there, that sacred, the Haram, if it would speak to us and say, "Has there ever been a sin committed here?"
It will say, "Yes." Say, "Has there ever been any violence?" "Yes." Say, "Have anybody behaived ugly here?" "Yes, but it's not allowed here. It's not condoned here. It's not approved here.” You should have a place in you like that where you don't approve of wrong though it may come because we're human, but you don't approve of it. You say, "Get out of here. You're not in the place for that behavior." The Satan himself was cast out because his behavior was unfitting, unsuitable for the high place he was in. So G-d said, "Get you down from here." He was cast out. [unintelligible 00:41:43], rejected.
We should reject things from our sanctuary. All of us should have a sanctuary in here and we should reject things and keep it holy and keep it safe, keep it secure. Then we will have a sense of health, a sense of soundness, a sense of well-being, a sense of safety, we won't be fearing everything. You fear no one but G-d. It doesn't mean that if I walk in a dark room I've never been in before that I won't sense some danger, I won’t be afraid. That's natural, that's human, but that fear won't become so big for me that it would take me over. I will immediately call my Lord in my mind and I will trust myself even in that new strange dark place until I manage to get a light on or something. 
Now dear beloved people, after we have acknowledged G-d as being more important and have become aware that we need to trust Him, who is most worthy of our trust, how can I trust you and not trust G-d? Why should I trust you? I got many more reasons to trust G-d than I got to trust you. So anyone who says they don't believe in G-d, don't trust G-d, they ain't worthy to be trusted. No, they're not worthy to be trusted. They're going to disappoint you in a big way, sooner or later, or they're going to disappoint themselves sooner or later.
So we should progress in our growth. A growth of awareness. Awareness of G-d as being the benefactor, responsible for everything, awareness of the importance that I should place on my duty, my worship. Give worship to Him above all things, and realize that I'm a creature with limitations, because of that, I will feel threatened in certain situations or conditions, I need a sense of security for my well-being, so I should work to improve the environment within myself and I should work to improve the environment immediately in my charge.
That's my room that I occupy, or my apartment that I occupy, or my home that I occupy. I should make it a Haram. My room should become an Haram. A restricted area. I do not approve sin in this room. I do not approve a forbidden thing in this room. If I have an apartment, or the home, it should be for the whole home. If I got land, it should be for all my land. Yes.
[silence]
[unintelligible 00:45:37] progress. I should come to a point now where I am rationally aware of certain evidences. Though I have faith and I will always need faith, because no one can grab Allah and say, "This is Allah. Look. All of you, look at Allah. This is Allah." Nobody can do that. No one can go into the future and find paradise, say, "Yes, I found it. I went out into the future and I found the paradise that the righteous are going to and here it is. Look at it." So there's always going to be room for faith, but we should have some knowledge. If we give that kind of attention to--
[00:46:36] [END OF AUDIO]
See, when a man starts to search for importance in his life, he's going to eventually find a cause for everything, and when he identifies it that's G-d. Some may say, well, not necessarily so because men also believe that creation has no cause, it's its own cause, that the creation brought itself into being. Yes, we know of such men, but I'm speaking to Muslims. I'm not supposed to be addressing no atheist concerns, no atheist ideas, I'm speaking to Muslims.
So when you find the cause, you've found G-d. So the ultimate cause behind all of this is G-d, that's Allah, that's what I want to say. Isn't that what Abraham did? Peace be upon the prophet Abraham. Isn't that what he did? He searched, he looked at the creation and he decided that nothing he saw in creation was the cause, that there was a cause behind it all because everything else followed a plan. Everything else rose up and set, everything else went out and came back, everything else lit up and went out, so he came to the conclusion that none of this is G-d, G-d is the one that's designed this. G-d is the designer of this that I'm looking at and the creator of this that I'm looking at. He is the cause behind this that I am looking at. That is the G-d and he's called the man of faith, isn't he? By Muslims, but not only Muslims, by Jews, and the Christians them, and Muslims, he's called the man of faith. He was no fool, he was wise, a very wise man. He didn't follow faith in any spooky way, his intelligence led him to faith. Do you know that? Think about it. His intelligence led him to faith.
Now what I'm saying is that once we have given this kind of attention to importance in our lives, we should then have some intelligence, support for what we are giving ourselves to. Now, upon giving G-d this kind of attention, this kind of intelligent attention, I am in a position now to say I am a witness. A witness has to know something. You can't witness without knowledge. What kind of witness is you if have no knowledge? There is no witness without knowledge. A witness must have some knowledge. Now I have become a witness, I say Ash-hadu alla ilaha illallah, I witness that there is but one Allah, but one G-d, that there is no deity except G-d, except the G-d. Allah, the G-d. I witness that there is no deity except the G-d.
Didn’t Abraham goes through the process, the rational process of examining with the tools of his intellect the things that he had looked at and the things that his father had told him was G-d and he rejected those things and he even looked at the creation itself. He witnessed the stars and the sun in its movement and everything and he came to the conclusion that none of those things was G-d, not a single one of those things was G-d. Didn’t he with intelligent tools looked for answers and he arrived at the answer and he said that there is no G-d but G-d the G-d, the one who is responsible, who caused all of this and none of these things is my G-d, and he became the first of the Muslims.
So Muslims, important for you is this, that you should not be believing in something without some knowledge. Allah says do not pursue anything for which there is no knowledge support. There's no knowledge to support it at all? Then give it up, don't even waste your time with that. When we invite people to believe in the Lord creator, there is knowledge to support that. Though it's belief, though it requires belief, it requires faith, it requires some (unclear) in certain measures, but it is not without knowledge, it is not without a knowledge base, it is not without a knowledge support for it.
We don't say, "I believe and or." I believe. Count me among the converts, I believe. We say, Ash-hadu, I witnessed." So the Muslim, it's supposed to be an intelligent convert, a rational convert. The strongest appeal in our religion when we examine it along with other religions. The strongest appeal in our religion, when compared with other religions, is what? The rational appeal. The intelligent appeal, so this is important for us. Don't even going to talk about the current crisis, this is the current crisis. I'm right on the current crisis.
Participant: Allahu Akbar.
[applause]
Imam Mohammed: Allahu Akbar.
We say, Ash-hadu alla ilaha illallah, I witnessed. Witness means to be present too, doesn't it? So whoever is what? Present in the month of Ramadan should fast that month, and the word describe from here, Shahada. It’s the same. So a witness should be present. You go in to court, the judge says, "Are you a witness? Say, "Yes, I'm a witness." "You're a witness to this case?" "Yes, I'm a witness." "How are you a witness?" Say, "I'm a witness because I believe." He will say, "Please, I'll excuse this person."
[laughter]
You have to be a witness because you saw something, you were present. Abraham was a witness because his senses were present when he witnessed when he found G-d. His senses were present when he found faith, so he's a witness, his senses were present, but you get heavy in the spook, your senses ain't present. What kind of witness are you? Your senses weren't present. We don't witness one thing because that was mortal, a second was needed. One and then a two, one and a two. A two was needed to witness something. Something to be witnessed and a witnesser. Something to be witnessed and something to witness it.
In this case, it is G-d that is to be witnessed and there was a witness-bearer, and in this case, it was the prophet and the first of the Muslim, Abraham. Abraham, not that he is really the first of the Muslims in some general sense, but in the technical sense only because we know everything G-d created is Muslim by nature. He came into his Muslim, he became conscious of his Muslim state and therefore he was the first conscious Muslim. Yes, so you need too. We say, " Ash-hadu alla ilaha illallah, I bear witness that there is no deity except the G-d."
The G-d, not the second G-d or the third G-d, there's only one G-d, the G-d, and if there is any second, third or fourth, they are not to be acknowledged, they are not to be recognized, only the one G-d. That's the Muslim. That's the Muslim way. You also must bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of G-d. Wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadar-Rasulullah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of the G-d. What are we saying with this second witness-bearing, with this second testimony? What are we saying? We are saying that we witness that there's a G-d upon faith and also upon intelligence and we witness that this knowledge didn't come to us by way of spookism, guesses, dreams, no.
We witnessed that there's a human mortal that has enlightened us, that has taught us, that have called our senses to witness what he witnessed, so we witnessed the G-d and we witnessed the messenger of G-d. We witnessed the G-d, the source, the cause, and that the cause also has a communication line and I received it from the messenger of G-d. Yes, but the messenger of G-d, he also has to witness the same. Muhammad the Prophet, don't you know Muhammad the Prophet had to say the same, Ash-hadu alla ilaha illallah, I witness that there is no G-d but the G-d, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadar – even though he is Muhammad, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadar-Rasulullah Yes, he had to witness it too.
Why? Why does he have to witness it? Because many mortals has perceived that there is a cause behind all of this. They call it a G-d, a deity or something, and then went and made the mistake of introducing themselves to their disciples as the G-d. The pure water and light became wine and they got drunk to a degree that they confused what they had experienced. They got it mixed up and they said, "I am the G-d." Muhammad has to witness that I am a messenger of G-d. I witnessed G-d and I witnessed that I am a messenger, which is to say a mortal receives communication, a human mortal receives communication from the Lord of the universe.
Which is to say at the same time, this human mortal is not the Lord of the universe, the human mortal is only the messenger of that Lord. We have to witness that and to really make this very clear to you, the distinction between the G-d and the mortal messenger, Allah says to Muhammad in our Holy Book right here before me, here's one and here's one, two right here before me, "Say to them, Oh Muhammad, say to them I am a mortal, an [Arabic language]." If you go anywhere among Arab speaking people and ask them what is [Arabic language], he will tell you you, you're [Arab language] too. Any flesh man and woman is [Arabic language].
Although for the woman it's the feminine form, it's saying [Arabic language], human mortal. The same words. So that it would not be taken to any wrong conclusion because the truth can be said so simply to the wine drinker, and they will even find in the temple of truth room for their distortion, for their lie, for their confusion. “Yes, he is a human mortal, but he's not a human mortal like us. He was human mortal, but had divine spark in him. He had illuminated the G-d, divine presence was in him. Sure he was a human being, that's true, what you read was right. He was a human being but he was not a human being like us.” “He was a divine-human being because G-d was in him, G-d dwelled in him, and when he spoke, he was G-d speaking.”
So Allah protects us from that kind of the wine drinker's conclusion by telling us he is a mortal human just like you. An [Arabic language], "I am a mortal person like you." Not like something floating up there and going down, but like you. That means you have sex, he has sex, you hungered, he hungered, you thirst, he thirst, you need clothes to protect you, he need clothes to protect him, you get cold when the weather is cold, he gets cold. You get hot and needs a fan, he gets hot and he needs a fan.
You get tired, you need rest, he gets tired, he needs rest. You get lonesome, he gets lonesome. Beauty makes you liven up and beauty make him liven up. What I'm saying just like you. That's what it said. [Arabic language], just like you. You worry, he worries. You need the Lord because you are weak, he needed the Lord because he was weak. Yes, just like you. You reach a point where you want a wife, he reached a point when he wanted a wife. You love children, you want to have children, he loved children, he wanted to have children, he had children. He found comfort with his relatives when he couldn't find comfort with nobody else, you find comfort with your relatives when you can't find comfort with nobody else.
He was a mortal human being just like you. He wanted to see justice in the society because he had a good human heart just like you. He wanted it so bad that he rejected the whole society because they wouldn't straighten up just like you. He went away and sought solitude with his Lord and his Lord answered him just like He'll answer you, but He won't give you the Quran, it ain't necessary, it’s ere, protect it for all days. Then who knows? Maybe you haven't had this Quran. Maybe He will give you the Quran. Yes, maybe He will give you the Quran. Many of us have it all the time.
In the house, it's on the bed stands or nightstands, on the dining room table, on the mantle, we have it, but we don't have it so maybe He'll give us the Quran, but when we get it, we will know if, He gives it to us we will know that we ain't supposed to go out and tell nobody Allah has given the Quran to me. He didn't reveal it to you, He gave it to you. You didn't have it so He gave it to you. That is to say He will give you the ability to read it and get the right understanding. Now, after witnessing this, we say, in the call to the prayer itself, haya alla salah. Haya alla salah. This comes after witnessing in the Adhan itself, in the call, the awakening call.
Haya alla salah What does Haya mean? Hayun means living. Haya means liven up up, become alive. Wake up, you're dead. One's sleeping is like dead. Haya, wake up, come alive, but you are a creature credited by scientists for being the most intelligent creature on this earth and you are identified as a specie, not because of your bodily attributes, but because of your human attribute. The attribute that they have identified or has designated as your specific identity is your unique mind and intelligence. Homo Sapien.
So when you get up, you shouldn't wake up just bodily. The boxer that gets knocked down, the referee won't let him fight just because he's on his feet.
Say, "Yes you woke up bodily, now lets see how your mind is operating. Say how many fingers? Where you live? What's your telephone number?" If he makes all the mistakes he says, "Sit down, the new champ."
[laughter]
The prayer called haya alla salah, saying come alive, wake up, liven up. Yes, the first thing to get up must be the body, but then the mind has to be awakened. Allah wants us to come with awake minds. An awake mind is an alert mind. The degree of awakeness can be measured by the degree of alertness. Am I right or wrong? So an awake mind is an alert mind, haya alla salah I must become aware, become conscious, become alert in your mind, The G-d is more important, so that is addressed to an awake mind. To an awake mind, to a conscious mind, G-d is more important.
Then after all that, you all, G-d is more important, you hear the Adhan all the way to the point, haya alla salah, come to prayer. You should be awake then, you should be awake mentally then. You heard Allahu Akbar twice, you heard Ash-hadu alla ilaha illallah twice, you heard wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadar-Rasulullah twice, correct? Yes, and then you hear haya alla salah, you should be awake now. If you're not, then you'd better come on and wake up, haya alla salah, come alive to prayer, wake up, become alive to prayer. Haya alla salah. Say it twice, not once, say it twice.
There's a reason for that too because both of us are creatures of two sides, aren't we? We are creatures of the left side, creatures of the right side. We are creatures of the dark side, creatures of the light side, aren't we? Yes, we are creatures of two sides. These new students of the mind and the nervous system, they done cut us in two and they're talking about the dark side, and the light side, and all this, and giving all these different names to these sides of us, but we know we're creatures of two sides, so wake up on both sides. We want you to come alive on both sides. To come alive on both sides, on the dark side and on the light side.
We can't live totally in the light, can we? I know I can't. You can't live totally in the light. You will be in the light and all of a sudden the sun sets. The sun sets on whatever you were in the light on. Whatever you are in the light on, if you keep pursuing the light, eventually the sun sets and if you've got some sense, you'll say it's time to rest, the day has been spent. You see? When you're crazy, you keep on. You're a crazy enthusiast, you keep on going in the darkness and you think it's light, but most of us know when our sun is setting and we know, well, it's time to rest. Yes. Now, haya alla salah, but that's not all. Haya alla salah, there's something else.
Haya will turning this way, then the muezzin will turn this way towards the dark side. Haya alla falah. What is falah? Falah is success. It's success but what is falah in common language? Falah, cultivation. Cultivation has made man successful. He has cultivated the land and he has become successful. He cultivates that that he finds uncultivated and he has become very successful. Haya alla falah, come to cultivation. “Oh he’s introduces something new, I never saw that, where did he get that from?”
I just explained it and you were a witness and now you're going back in the dark by yourself. Not once but twice. Come to cultivation twice. Come to falah twice, come to cultivation twice. Why? Because in this world we call the material world, the world of vision, there's also a dark side and there's the light side. There's the bright side, there's the light side, there's the dark side. Even to the world that you say you know, there's a lot of unknown in the world you say you know. Allah says there are worlds that He has created that you know and that you know not. Since this book was revealed, they have discovered worlds that men at that time did not know.
The world of microbes. They discovered a whole new world that man didn't know, the world of microbes. Microorganisms that we can see now because of the invention of the microscope, but men in those days could not see those creatures and they were existing back then just as they are now, but the man could not see them, Allah had not yet blesses men with moves for discovering that world of microbes. Allah had said it, "There are worlds that I have created that you know and that you know not." Not only that though, my own spirit, I have a spirit in me. I need something from the visible world but there's another side.
The visible world satisfies my need up to a point, that is what you call the concrete reality. The concrete thing will satisfy my need up to a point and then there is a component of the concrete thing that still hangs with me. Though the concrete thing has been used up as a concrete, there's an abstract part of the concrete that still hangs with me and I still want it, I will carry it on. I'll eat the piece of pie and the pie is finished and I don't want any more pie, but later on, I'm thinking about the piece of pie and enjoying it as though I'm eating it again.
Yes, and you know your beautiful car you've just bought, that Porsche or that Saab or whatever it is, that you love so much, you drive it and you're through driving it, you can't drive it no more, but now you're sitting at the table and you're eating and your wife says, "I can tell your mind ain't on what your doing. What you thinking about?" "My Saab."
[laughter]
So there's a light side and a dark side even to this world, isn't it? On the spiritual side, light side or the dark side? Both. Now, man needs to cultivate that that is undeveloped. The left of most people is more undeveloped than the right, isn't it? The right is more developed, the left is undeveloped. Man needs to cultivate that that's undeveloped in himself to start with. You have a mind that's undeveloped, you need to cultivate it. You have human sensitivity undeveloped, you need to cultivate those human sensitivities. An intellect undeveloped, you need to cultivate the intellect, but now in your environment, you need the environment.
Other people, Japan, they done develop something over there, they got finished stuff all over the world, finished products, and you look at your own land you got, ain't nothing developed, so you need to develop that. This religion call us to come alive. What is awakeness? What is awareness? What is being alive? It is acknowledging the most important, being able to identify what is the most important. Managing what is most important. Being able to manage the importance in my life. Giving credit to the most important, who's G-d first of all, and then it is also to the intelligent, even in my faith and my belief I just stick with intelligence.
Don't follow spookism, voodoo or any of that stuff, astrology and all of that stuff, Muslim that’s a sin for you. The Evil Eye and all of that stuff, that's sin. We should follow faith intelligently. We shouldn't pursue something for which there is no knowledge of it, the mysteries and the devilish things, wicked things, games because that's what it amounts to, games. Games of ignorance, games of exploitation, where the (unclear) are taking advantage of the fools that buy their magic. Yes, so we are to cultivate, we are to worship and worship lifts us up, doesn’t it? Worshiping Allah lifts us up. It lifts us up in our spirit, it lifts us up in our senses.
It raises us up, it lifts our senses up from inferior things, from vulgar things, from self destroying and destructive things. It lifts our senses up, it lifts our spirit up, worship. Worship in Al-Islam does something even more that gives the Islam a special kind of identity. Worship in Al-Islam educates us. Worship educates us. No one can say his prayer without being enlightened, if he listens closely to the words of his prayer. Our prayer is also a form of education. In fact, it is the highest and the best form of education. From it will come the inspiration and not only inspiration, the incentive and the direction to go in pursuit of all the useful knowledge and creation.
Because if you pray you must use the Quran. I can't pray and not use the Quran. When I pray, I must use the Quran and this is the Book of Life. This is the book of enlightenment, so while I'm praying, I'm also being taught. I am being educated. If I'm not even following with that, if I'm not praying with that kind of awareness, it will influence me subconsciously without me even being aware that I'm being conditioned. The Quran will condition my mind to love knowledge, to love intelligence, to pursue wisdom, to pursue good sense. The Quran will do that, so I'm being educated as I pray.
This is salah, this is haya alla salah, come alive with prayer. We’re praying and we’re reciting Quran, and our minds are being awakened and turned on to intelligent behavior, intelligent concerns, et cetera. Quran is doing that. Then haya alla falah, come alive to the need to cultivate and the Quran itself will also condition us for that particular duty also as well. The Quran will condition us for that. We shouldn't be satisfied to finish prayer and not to engage in some useful work. We finish prayer and then we go and we answer the call to useful work because it's required of us as worshippers.
I'm speaking of worship in terms of salat now. The ibadah is also worship that covers every act of the human being, and every act of the human being in our religion should be an act of worship, every act. If you arise this morning and you make yourself presentable, you make your living quarters presentable, and you left your living quarters in a presentable condition and you walked out among the people of the public in a presentable condition, you performed an act of worship according to our religion. When you speak the truth, when you speak kindness, when you extend courtesy to another person, you’re performing an act of worship in our religion.
All of these are acts of worship from the smallest to the highest. The highest act of worship is to submit your whole life and your whole self, your person to Allah, the one Lord who is the most important. That's the highest act of worship, but everything else you do second to that way all down the line, one million or one billion times down the line from that important, in our religion is an act of worship. When you behave in the right fashion as a parent or as a adult around the children, around your own children, you're performing good act of worship in our religion. Worship in our religion is not going to church on a Sunday or going to mosque on a Friday only.
Worship in our religion is not saying Allahu Akbar and making salat only, worship in our religion is everything that you do that Allah intended for you to do and wants you to do in order for you to be a presentable person, a presentable creature that he made. Everything, you go to school that's a high act of worship. You go on to school to improve your mind to become more useful to your family, to your loved ones, to your society, to yourself, you're performing a high act of worship. The act of worship for the people who pursue knowledge brings them into paradise. It leads them straight to the paradise according to the saying of our prophet.
Also Allah says in the Holy Book that the scholars will be in a location. They will be in a location next to the prophets in heaven. Why? Because they have pursued knowledge and they have not only pursued it, but they have gotten it and then imparted it to others to make the world more knowledgeable, so for that they earn a rank next to the prophets in heaven. To use the tools of your intellect, to put your mind to work, to go to school and get your education so that you will be better for yourself and better for your loved ones, and better for the society is a great act of worship second only to the work of the prophets themselves.
Especially when you make the most use of that. Who would not want a religion like that? I agree with Allah said that who would reject the religion of Abraham except for the person that just want to be nothing? I'm giving a common language for it. I know what it says, I know to translate, I know use of translation. He did not translate it like that I know, but it means the same thing. Who would reject the religion of Abraham, that is this religion of Islam, except the person who just wants to make himself nothing? You don't want to be anything, you want to be nothing.
Are you saying that if a Christian doesn’t accept this religion then they’re just disrespecting themselves, treating themselves as nothing? No, I'm not saying that at all, but if they consciously reject this religion, they're fools. If they reject this religion because they’re in love with Christ Jesus, they can be excused. If they reject this religion because they love their way of life, they love traditions of Christianity, they love their church, Christian friends and all that, they love their situation in the Christian world, they can be excused, but if they reject this religion because they studied it and saw it and understood it, and now they reject what they see, they are fools.
Anyone who sees this religion for what it is and rejects it is a fool. Now I'm talking to Muslims. I want you to know I'm talking to Muslims. I don't talk to Christians that way. After we say haya alla salah, what is the Adhan, what does the muezzin say, the call to prayer? He then says again Allahu Akbar. Why? Because now it’s turning you on for the things that are resources for your betterment, that will give you comfort, pleasure, happiness, and power, the theme among great people, so we have to tell you Allahu Akbar. Allah is more important than what? Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar twice. It comes after haya alla salah
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, twice. Allah is greater than whatever you can get on this side or whatever you can get on that side. Allah is greater, then La ilaha illallah, there is no G-d except the G-d. Why they must tell you this? Because men have been led to the right idea and then got involved in the development of the material things and lost their life of faith and their vision. Engaged themselves with those things and then set themselves up as dictators as G-ds over the weaker people. This has happened, man has in time come into great material power, great might, et cetera and have set himself put as a dictator, absolute dictator.
A lord over other people and forgot himself that he is a frail creature created by his Lord and that all of his (unclear) is owing to his Lord. He forgot all of that and begun to oppress his fellow man. It's necessary after opening up the avenue for great wealth, great development, and great wealth, and great progress on a part of man in society to remind man behind that that Allah is more important, Allah is more important. Lastly La ilaha illallah, there is no deity except G-d because men will make deities of many things and usually it's a thing that satisfies them the most.
Whatever satisfies them the most, they want to make a deity out that and forget that Allah had satisfied them the most and made possible all things. I'm going to begin to conclude this now and I'm right on time. I told the imam, I said I'm going to need about an hour and a half and then I'll start winding it up. I said if I don't start winding it up concluding after an hour and a half, I said send me a note or touch me if you're close enough to touch me. I wanted to tell him it's better to touch me rather than send me a note because people will think I'm getting ready to upset the meeting or change the vibration. Because a long time ago, people used to send me notes and I used to curse them out.
[laughter]
"Hey, you interrupted my thought. Why did you pick this time to send me this note?" I would be sensitive, I'd get on them, but I'm glad I saw the clock before he had. I know he saw it but he didn't want to do it anyway.
[laughter]
I told him everything was cool.
Now in concluding this, I know how people feel. Look, all of this talk about G-d, and religion, and all, this is good, but we've got to live in this real world. Well, the baby comes here from mama complete they say, but the baby cannot live in this real world, not yet. The baby has to be protected by mama, carried by mama, supported by mama and daddy I hope for some years until then we hope it’s ready to come out here and live in this real world. Now I'm not saying you're a baby, but many times we're babies because of our neglect, our own personal neglect and our own personal lives.
We neglect to cultivate good attitude in ourselves, we neglect to cultivate good sensitivity in ourselves. Good ways of feeling. You know you should cultivate a good way of feeling towards yourself, towards your loved ones, towards your strangers, towards everybody, cultivate a good way of feeling. Many times we're suffering the neglect of not cultivating these things that are necessary in us to make us fit to handle the real life. So we go to the employer and we miss the job. We sit at home and have no vision, we can't create a way for ourselves. We can't find a way out of the slump that we are in.
The reason might be because our creative juices are not turned on. You come here and you hear a lecture like this and some of you want to sleep. I only see about two in here sleeping today, but some of you want to sleep. "I ain't here for this, we're ain't talking about nothing important," so why sit here, fool, don't waste your time, you could just go. Wake up and say, "Hey, I'm in the wrong place," and go on out of here. So if you sit here and sleep you’re telling me that you are crazy or you’re stupid, something’s wrong with you because you won’t even get up and go.
[00:46:20] [END OF AUDIO]
I was speaking once and I kept looking back, so I guess something was telling me something behind you. I kept looking back, he's sleeping. Everybody he was just sitting up there before everybody and we had thousands there, more than this, ten times as many. He's sitting there--
[laughter]
I ain't going to say his name, but I saw that. I turned around and look at him. I said, "So and so sitting up here and sleeping."
[laughter]
I put him on the spot. Why, because he was putting me on the spot. He's sitting up there sleeping and suggesting to the ignorant in the audience, that I don't have anything important to say. So I put him on the spot. I told the audience that if he didn't have nothing to do, if I wasn't of any interest to him, why sit up here and-- I used the language I can't use. I've been working on this mouth for a long time, I can't go back. I said why would he sit up in a chair and sleep in that chair? Why don't he go and get in bed? All that money he got, he go and buy and he going to get a nice bed.
You don't come here for us to give you, pass out money to you. That's not our service to you. Our service to you as Imams is to pass out to you what Allah has blessed us with of the religion. That's our service to you. We don't pass out money, we don't give you a card to go down to see Mr. So and So for a better job or for job, or something like that. That's not our service, although some of us are in position to help you that way too, but that's not our real service. Our real service is to share with you what Allah has blessed us with in our religion. That's our real service.
You say, "Now where's the practical benefits, how is that going to help me?" If your life is not turned on, you cannot perform in the world. If we can turn your life on, G-d will bless us to give you the right thing for this religion, to turn your life on for you, then you will go out there and you can manage the task of living in the world and you'll be successful. Yes, you'll be successful.
Now, in concluding this, I'm going to bring you something here from, well it is a book, this book written some time ago by a Jameson B. Harry. Had his Master's degree in social studies and also a M.D., a medical doctor. He wrote a book on the circles of poverty. Really, the book was on the circles of poverty. The book was on conditions, circumstances that are associated with poverty. That are directly associated with poverty. In one section of the book, he gives us many kinds of circles of poverty. Let me quickly and not to present this, but to just to show you that certain things that are not directly associated with poverty, may be the cause of the poverty.
Now, I'm saying that this kind of religion will situate you for the big path of living in that real world. What you call the real world, or what we call the real world. He identifies here, poverty as a condition that will influence or lead one under given circumstances, to a reckless life, to become reckless, and also to become wasteful. Now, how does poverty make one wasteful, we've got nothing to waste?
The biggest wasters are the poor people. You know that? Poor people waste more. You say, "Oh no. You ought to see what the rich waste." But the rich got so much more than you. Count your waste and measure it with the waste of the rich and you see you're the biggest waster. I talking to you poor folks. You're the biggest waster. Eat a meal and, be unemployed. What are you making out there, what's that going in the garbage? Sometime, he don't even do that, he just say...
[laughter]
… and the whole plate goes into the garbage. "Oh, that's old." "What are you throwing that plate in the garbage for?" "That's old." "Was it broke? It's not usable anymore?" "Yes, you can use it, but it's old." We have become the disposable people. Everything is disposable. Even our lovemaking. Say, "Hey baby, would you like to have a disposable love affair?"
[laughter]
"A quickie, just one-night stand?" Everything's disposable. Big waters, just throw away everything. How does poverty affect that now? See, if a person is poor, if he can tolerate poverty, he becomes ignorant automatically. Poverty leads to ignorance. Anyone who can tolerate poverty will become ignorant automatically. G-d has created this world for us to exercise our tools of intelligence and muscles, et cetera. We are naturally born to want to engage the physical world.
An infant come here wanting to engage the physical world. Pretty soon, it's engaging the physical world. All the animals come up, they want to engage the physical world. They have a relationship an interchange with the physical world. They engage in the physical world, even when they're not working, or they're not eating. They'll go out and play, that's engaging the physical world.
When your play becomes idle play, just play for play sake, then your play has degenerated. Play in the life of the human has degenerated. Play shouldn't be just to play it safe, play is to build steel, for work. G-d has put play and excitement and enjoyment in our makeup, so that we will enjoy play as young creatures, so that that play will be the training for work, for the needs of the work field.
If you can outrun me, if you can outmaneuver me, if you can catch the ball, you're developing the skills you need for the work field. The animal that plays with his sisters and brothers or with his mother and father, is developing his survival skills. His work skills. The same thing he did in play, when he meet an enemy, he would do it, but seriously.
[laughter]
That's what he used to do in play with his brothers and sisters. The same agility with which he moved out of the way of the boy in play, flip and just go and whoo, you missed me. He do that in a real context. When a people will play just for the play sake, and are not interested in the skills of play, they have degenerated. "Oh, I've got to go out and have some fun." That's just what they mean. They put the cap on it, they feel it for us to let us know I'm really talking about play for play sake. "I want to go out and have fun girl. I'm going to get funky tonight.
That's being reckless, isn't it? Poverty, recklessness, waste, all connected. Poverty, misery, another circle he gives. Poverty, misery. Anyone who tolerates poverty long enough will become miserable. Not only miserable, they become pessimistic. "Ain't nothing going to happen good. You going out looking for a job, you crazy. Man, they ain't going to hire you."
Poverty, crime. Poor, you don't have a strong moral constitution. You didn't get a strong moral foundation at home or something, whoever raised or whatever? You got out among bad associates and got influenced in the wrong direction. Now you don’t have a strong moral constitution. Poverty now will influence you into crime. You’ll find yourself thinking of criminal things. These are the cycles of poverty this man is saying. We can go on naming them, he gives many. We even mentioned pawning. That poverty will cause a person to start pawning. I know this for a fact.
I knew a friend, close people pawn anything they can get. When they run out of money, they start pawning stuff, losing most valuable stuff, losing it to the pawnshop. Never being able to get it out.
When you think about the condition of the African American people as a whole, unemployed, welfare, crime. Doesn’t that speak for the majority of us? I know there is a strong minority among us and thank Allah that minority is growing stronger, but we have still this majority that are either in a situation of unemployment, where they’re just tolerating it, or they got into crime too and they’re on welfare. I forgot the third one, they’re in jail. All right the fourth one, unemployed, in crime, on welfare, in jail. That’s the majority.
What I’m saying to you in my conclusion is this, you shouldn’t come to religion for dollars, money and things like that, even though we may be in a situation to help some of you who qualify, sometimes with that kind of help. Sometimes we may be in a situation to give you some of the cash, to give you some help, but that’s not how you should come to religion. Nobody should join the religion for money, for charity, for that. You join the religion to have your life attended, to have your life needs attended. Your personal internal life needs attending.
The heart, the soul, the intellect to have it all attended in hopes that you become a functional being within yourself. Capable of going out there, living in the world, and making progress without crying and moaning and complaining and cursing everybody out and telling dark tales and dark stories all the time.
Believe me, that’s the greatest help you can get. The greatest life is internal life it makes possible success in the world. The greatest life is internal life, yes. The greatest help we can get is help for the internal needs. You cannot put a price on that. You cannot put a price on that.
If I would, right now, select one of you a poor fellow who just ain’t got a spirit to do nothing, but just hold his hand out, if I would just select one of you right now and say, ”Don’t worry about your hand anymore. I’m going to authorize the Mecca Fund to give you $500 a week for nothing.” That would be absolutely nothing compared with what we’ve just tried to give you today. We pray G-d to bless us and guide us all right to keep our minds straight and mind sound and and sane. Allahu akbar. As salaam alaikum.
[00:14:11] [END OF AUDIO]


