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IWDM Study Library
Story of Joseph

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Now, for the first time I'm not familiar with the English to the prayer, the opening prayer, the standard prayer of the Muslims. I read, now, the translation here given by one Asian scholar in the translation of Quran. And he gives the English as, "In the name of G-d, most gracious, most merciful. Praise be to G-d, the cherisher and sustainer of the world. Most gracious, most merciful. Master of the day of judgement. Thee do we worship and thine aid we seek. Show us the straight way, the way of those on whom thou has bestowed thy grace. Those whose portion is not wrath and who go not astray. Amen.
Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem
Alhamdu lillaahi Rabbil 'aalameen
Ar-Rahmaanir-Raheem
Maaliki Yawmid-Deen
Iyyaaka na'budu wa lyyaaka nasta'een
Ihdinas-Siraatal-Mustaqeem
Siraatal-lazeena an'amta 'alaihim ghayril-maghdoobi 'alaihim wa lad-daaalleen
G-d, most high, says in the last revelation, the last of the revealed books, the Quran, revealed to Muhammad, the messenger Prophet, peace and the blessings be on him. In the chapter by the title or by the name Joseph in Arabic or in the Quranic language, Yusuf. In the Arabic... In the Arabic or Quranic language, G-d says. (speaking in Arabic) And the translation given here, by the same translator, the Asian Pakistani translator, reads in English, "Verily, in Joseph and his brethren are signs," and then he has in brackets, "or symbols". And it continues, "for seekers", and then he has in brackets, "after truth". So it reads, "Verily, in Joseph and his brethren are signs or symbols for seekers after truth. Now let's quickly note or recall some of the major developments or incidents in the life of Joseph or Yusuf, the Quranic term. He was one of 12 brothers. And he felt close to his youngest brother or to the younger of the brothers, whose name is given in the Bible as Benjamin, Benjamin. Here in the next verse of the same chapter titled, "Joseph", the English translation is given, "Truly Joseph and his brother are loved more by our father than we, but we are a goodly body. Really, our father is obviously wandering in his mind." So here the brothers are talking among themselves about Joseph and Joseph's brother Benjamin and it seems that they are jealous of the affection that the father has for Joseph and Benjamin.
So they begin to plot and the Quranic words that are given here, that they said, "Slay you Joseph, or cast him out to some unknown land. That so the favor of your father may be given to you alone and there will be enough time for you to be righteous after that." So here, obviously, they're planning an unrighteous thing. And they're saying, "Let's get rid of Joseph first and then think about being righteous. We'll have enough time after we get this problem out of the way to be righteous." The one sensitive one, one who was conscious among them, he said, "Slay not Joseph, but if you must do something, throw him down to the bottom of the well. Throw him down to the bottom of the well. He will be picked up by some caravan of travelers." They said, "Oh, our father. Why does thou not trust us with Joseph seeing we are indeed his sincere well wishers?" Now, here they are trying to establish themselves before their father as brothers who care for the well-being of Joseph, and wish him nothing but good.
The father, his name is Jacob. In the Quranic language, Yakub. They said, "Send him with us tomorrow to enjoy himself and to play. And we shall take every care for him." Jacob said, "Really, it saddens me that you should take him away. I fear, lest a wolf should devour him, while you attend not to him." Well, it seems that the old man didn't trust the brothers. He felt that the brother Joseph might get caught by the wolf, while they're with him. While... Pardon me, Joseph is with them. They said, "If the wolf were to devour him, while we are so large a party... " Now, how large were they? It's 10 brothers. "While we are so large a party, then should we indeed first have perished ourselves." So they're really sounding very convincing, saying we would perish ourselves before we let anything happen to Joseph.
So they did take him away, and they all agreed to throw him down to the bottom of the well. And the Arabic or Quranic term for bottom is ghayaba, ghayaba. And this word, ghayaba, is an allusion to a situation, wherein there is no light. No light, no guidance, no hint as to how to escape or how to get out of that situation. "And we put him in... " Pardon me, "And we put... " This is G-d saying, G-d speaking now, "And we put into his heart the message. And we put into his heart the message of assurity, thou shall one day tell them the truth of this their affair while they know you not." So it seems, that they were not themselves aware of Joseph, his importance, his true identity. And G-d inspired Joseph, even while he was in that situation, that one day, he will himself bring to their mind the true case that they had involved themselves in, or had brought upon themselves.
Then they came to their father in the early part of the night, weeping. They said, "Oh our father, we sent racing... " "We went," pardon me, "racing with one another, and left Joseph with our things. And the wolf devoured him. But thou will never believe us, even though we tell the truth." They stained his shirt with false blood. He said, that is, Jacob, the father, "Nay. But your minds have made up a tale that may pass with you. For me, patience is most fitting against that which you assert. It is G-d alone whose help can be sought."
"Then there came a caravan of travelers. They sent their water carrier, for water. And he let down his bucket into the well. He said, 'Oh there, good news. Here's a fine young man.' So they concealed him as a treasure. But G-d knows well, all that they do. The brethren sold him for a miserable price, for a few dirhams counted out. In such a low estimation did they hold him." Now here, we get something else about their relationship with Joseph. They regarded him as being of not much importance. They didn't see him as a valuable, valuable being, valuable person. They held him in low esteem. They estimated him to be of very cheap worth, of small value. But he must have been a big problem. He is something of small worth, but a big problem because they went through all that trouble to get rid of him. So he was of little value to them, but a big problem.
It is important to understand the shirt. They took his shirt, and they stained it with animal blood, wolf blood, or animal blood, to make the father think that he had been eaten or taken by an animal. Now don't forget, the verse that we read from the very beginning, which says, "And surely or indeed, in Joseph and in his brethren is a sign for the seekers after truth." A Caucasian European-American writer, he wrote a book about our trials and sufferings, during slavery and after. And he titled the book, "The People Who Walk in Darkness". And he took the title from a Bible saying, "The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light." And I understood, after reading this small book on our misery, that he was saying that the great light that we had seen was freedom. And that the light of freedom was guiding us, and directing us, and influencing our action. And that we wouldn't stop until we had freedom. That's what I understood from his book. That in spite of all the suffering, the terror, the terror tactics of the Klan to put fear in us and to frighten us away from freedom, in spite of the lynchings and all the bad things that we suffered, we continued to seek freedom. We didn't give up, we continued our search for true freedom. So he said, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light."
And now we see, Joseph was put into the bottom of the well, in a situation that was dark, that didn't allow any light for him. And then, sold into slavery. Sold into slavery. Put in darkness, sold into slavery, and a lie was made against him by his brothers. His brothers tried to make his father believe that he had been taken by an animal. [chuckle] There's a lot I wanna say and a lot I'm not gonna say. I'm gonna let you make your own conclusions. At least in some of these areas here, some of the report on Joseph, I'll leave it for you to make your own conclusions. Now let us again, look at their moral make-up. They said, "Let us do this to Joseph. And after that, we'll have time to be righteous." Well, here are people... Here are people, who are putting aside moral obligations. They are postponing moral obligations to get something done, that they wanna have done.
Now, a man in Egypt bought him. The man in Egypt bought him. And he said to his wife, "Make his stay among us honorable." Akrimi maswahu. Akrimi maswahu. "Make his stay among us honorable." Now akrimi is from the very same words, have the very same wording, same meaning. There are many ways to express or to say that a certain person is, or a thing is honorable, deserving of great respect. There are different ways to say it in Arabic. But this word here, is the same word that is used, when G-d says, "And certainly, we made honorable, every son of Adam." Every son of Adam. So if G-d made honorable, every son of Adam, then Joseph was already honorable. But he had been put into a situation that had denied him, or deprived him of his honor. He was in a situation, because of the conniving and the conspiracy against him. He was in a situation that didn't honor him, but presented him as cheap, worthless, something not to be respected.
So, the big man in Egypt, he said, "Make his stay honorable among us. Maybe he will bring us much good. Or we shall adopt him as our son." Now look what G-d says. "Thus did we establish Joseph in the land." Now, this was the reasoning of the big man in Egypt, in the land, in the strange land, where Joseph had fell. Joseph had finally fell in a strange land in Egypt, powerful land, the most powerful land of that time. There was no other land more powerful than Egypt at that time. Now Joseph had fallen in the hands of the Egyptians after being put in the dark hole and sold into slavery. And the big chief in Egypt, he saw value in Joseph. And he said to his wife... His wife is like the queen, right? She's a big woman. The big man and his big wife, that, "Make his stay honorable. Maybe he will bring much good or we shall adopt him as a son." And G-d said "Thus," means on that (unclear) but... In that fashion, "Did we establish Joseph in the land, that we might teach him."
Now G-d put him into a situation where G-d can teach him. "That we might teach him the interpretation of stories or events." Now why was Egypt a good situation for Joseph to learn the interpretation of stories and events? It is because Egypt was a land that was heavily, in its culture, heavily symbolic. Great symbols, great symbolism. Reading all the symbolic, the mystical language of Egyptian culture, I read where in their myth, in their mythology, there was an oracle, an oracle. It's like a mysterious thing that holds prophecy. There was an oracle that would speak to anyone trying to enter Egypt, and if you're trying to enter Egypt, you first had to be addressed by this oracle, and this oracle would ask you a riddle, would give a riddle, and you had to interpret that riddle correctly. If you didn't interpret that riddle correctly, you couldn't get into Egypt. Now, mind you, Egypt was the baddest and the biggest and most important land or nation in existence at that time. It had great science, great army, great power, great ruling order, and respect in the known world then as being the superpower. Egypt at that time, the name Cairo, Qahira is the capital of Egypt, the main city in Egypt, and its name means subduing, subduing, just overcoming, just overwhelming, overwhelming, something that just puts you in awe, holds you spellbound. That's what the name means.
And if you have ever visited Egypt like some of us did, some of us from this community visited, some of our pioneers, myself, and Sheikh Shabazz, and many of us, several of us, a group of us, we made a trip to Egypt upon invitation, the Egyptian government invited us to come. So we made a trip to Egypt there, and we saw a huge statue of their ancient rulers and the buildings, the kind of structures that they lived in, still there preserved. The doorway is so huge that if you came from another land on their land and were suddenly brought in the doorway of their people, you'd be frightened to death, 'cause you'll be expecting a man to walk through there about maybe 20 feet tall. Huge doors, huge doorways, and the statues of them, very huge, standing as high as this building here, as high as this auditorium, statues of their great ones.
And their language was the language of symbols. Ancient Egyptian called Hieroglyphs, is the language of symbols. Where we speak now with words, they spoke with symbols. We read now words, print, they read symbols. Whatever they wanted to say, they had a symbol for it, whether it was the sunrise, or a bird, or broken sticks, or fast running animals, they had some symbol to say what they wanted to say. And they were not backwards, they were not primitive, they were more most advanced, most advanced. So advanced that the best of our scientists from the West are still trying hard to decipher their wisdom. They've been doing it now for many, many decades. In fact, if you go over there, you'll see curious students, men of learning over there right now at the Cairo museum trying to break codes, decipher the wisdom of those ancient people. They're still doing it, they were doing it when I was over there, and I'm sure they're still doing it now, they haven't stopped. [chuckle]
And Egypt, unlike most ancient nations, has a whole science called Egyptology. There are just books and books, volumes called Egyptology. Now here's a nation that was so great, they had to make a whole course, a whole study just for that nation, Egyptology. [chuckle] Yes, it was great in its science and great in its mysteries. Great in its science and great in its mysteries. Now, another note we should make right now is that the Scripture of the people of this particular part of the world, Bible, it warns them of a time coming when there would be an appearance of a nation and a people just like that, called modern Egypt, modern Egypt. Yes, you have ancient Babylon, modern Babylon. Ancient Egypt, modern Egypt. "So that we might teach him the interpretation of stories or events."
Now, the word for stories or events is the plural of hadith. Hadith singular is hadith. If you wanna speak, use the same term for many such reports or such reporting, it will be ahadith, ahadith. And that's the term that's used here, "al ahadith", that G-d would teach him the tahweel, tahweel. And in another place in Quran, it says, "No one knows the tahweel of the Quran except G-d. No one knows the tahweel of the Quran except G-d." But here... And you know the Quran is also called ahadith? That's one of the names of the Quran, ahadith, because it is a report, a recorded report, a recorded book, a record of things that took place in reporting form or in the form of a report, that G-d would teach him the interpretation of some of the stories and events.
And the word literally means, or in Arabic it would mean hadith. "And G-d has full power and control over his affairs, but most among mankind know it not. And G-d has full power and control over his affairs, but most among mankind know it not." The situation for a people can never become so bad, so hopeless that they can't be saved by G-d. "When Joseph attained his full manhood, we gave him power and knowledge. Thus do we reward those who do right." The word for those who do right, the plural "muhsineen", the doers of good. Joseph was one who practiced goodness. Now the big lady, she was fascinated by Joseph. And this verse says that, "But she in whose house he was, sought to seduce him from his true self." And the expression in Quranic language is "an-nafsi", "an-nafsi".
Which means from his true nature, his true self, just as it's given here. And here we have a picture of an innocent victim young when he was taken, right? He was a "ghulam", very young, young lad. He was young when he was taken, and he was taken and put in bad circumstances by his own brethren who plotted against him. And G-d says that there was something of great value in Joseph. But they didn't respect that value in him. They treated him as though he was something mean and cheap. And here now we have favorable circumstances coming about wherein the big man in Egypt takes him into his own care and puts him in the house where his big lady was. And now here, the big lady of the house, she is enamored by him, and she wants to now seduce him, take him out of his true nature. So obviously, his true nature was that of a righteous person. He was a virtuous person. I'm sure it wouldn't take a lot of you out of your true nature if a beautiful big lady wanted to go sleep with you tonight. But for Joseph, this was a threat to his very good nature, to his true self. Because that was not his self to allow the woman to seduce him.
She fastened the doors and said, "Now come though dear one." He said, "G-d forbid. Truly thy husband is my lord. He made my sojourn agreeable. Truly to no good come those who do wrong." So he was aware of the consequences. He was aware of his obligation, he was aware that he was indebted to a man who favored him and trusted him, and he was aware that wrong begets wrong and bad consequences. "It's not only that I owe this to him not to betray him behind his back, but I owe it to myself to keep my own good nature. Because if I lose it, I will fall into bad... Worser circumstances." Huh? This is a beautiful story. And to read it in Arabic is even more beautiful. Yeah, more of us inshallah will learn Arabic. "And with passion, did she desire him, and he would have desired her, except that he saw the evidence of his lord." He was conscious of G-d. That's what saved him. So what are we being, what are we told here? That he was human like she was. If it wasn't for divine protection, he would have been right in the same thing that she was inviting, that she was weak for. Huh? So for our people who are put in circumstances like that, their only protection is the fear of G-d.
Once they lose the fear of G-d, they're finished. "Thus did we order that we might turn away from him all evil and shameful deeds." So here, G-d orders this test for him. G-d ordered a test for him, to try him, to put him in a situation, to make his muscles of resistance and devotion to G-d stronger. See if you're good, your intention is good, your commitment is righteous and honorable, then the more temptation you're put into, the stronger you become. The stronger you become. And sometimes a young person in his virtuous life, he needs to be put into situations that will bring out that strength that is in him. 'Cause once he says no to the big lady, he won't have much trouble saying no to the little lady. So G-d wanted to hurry and prepare Joseph to survive. So he didn't give him the little lady first, he gave him the big lady first so to get it over quick. If you can stand the big lady, you'll make it among the little ladies.
[laughter]
Now, this story of Joseph is very, very mystical itself. This is a mystical story, it's a very mystical story. So we have to see the understanding on levels, on levels. Understanding on one level may not be the same as for a higher level, for a higher level. So now we are thinking about the carnal, the carnal weakness, the weaknesses of the flesh and the flesh being put to the test. But there are higher levels upon which we are tested too, right? "He said, 'It was she that sought to seduce me from my true self.' And one of her household saw this and bore witness. "If it be that his shirt is ripped'," that means torn, "'From the front, then her tale is true and he is a liar. But if it be his shirt is torn from the back, then she is a liar, and he's telling the truth.'" "So when he saw his shirt," that's the big chief, the big man. "When he saw his shirt, that it was torn at the back, her husband said, "Behold, it is a snare of you women, truly mighty is your snare.'"
The big chief had a lady who would set traps. And he didn't like that in her, but he didn't divorce. He obviously accepted that in her, right? He was tolerating her with that in her. "Oh, Joseph, pass this over." And he said, "Oh wife ask forgiveness for your sins. For truly thou has been at fault." So this kind of snare or trap-setting of her is not accepted as being right. It's a sin. Do you know you're constantly being seduced by the powers of the land? They are constantly trying to seduce you out of your true self. Now, they may think that G-d accepts, allows that they work these schemes and plots against the good nature that G-d created, but G-d says here, "It is a sin. And one who's guilty of it should pray for forgiveness." That didn't get Joseph out of the situation. Still in this situation. She said to the ladies that also desired him very passionately, passionately, said that there before you is the man about whom you did blame me. And when they saw him, they got into the same fix. For they had blamed the big lady for being weak.
She said, "I did seek to seduce him from his true self but he did firmly save himself guiltless. And now, if he does not do my biding he shall certainly be cast into prison. And what is more, he will be of the company of the vilest, of the vilest." Means those who are low and debased. Here is a situation used to throw us among people who are the lowest. So obviously Joseph in his excellence as a person, as a human being, he was very, very, very great in his virtuous life. He was very great, he was of high standards. His value was his obedience to what is right. His value was moral value. His value was the virtuous life. That was his value. Now, if a people thrown into such circumstances, if they lose their moral excellence, their moral tenacity, their moral endurance, the moral consistency in their life, wherein they hold to what is right. If they lose that, they lose their value. They don't have any other value.
What value has the African-American in his situation? He cannot compete politically, he cannot compete economically, he has no established ethnicity, so where is our value if it's not in moral consistency? Once we lose moral consistency we have no worth as a people. We don't measure up anywhere. But for a long time, that moral consistency in our life made us the envy of White people that stood above us in every other way. Yeah. But in the last 15 or 20 years we have lost our precious value. That value that gave us a sense of worth and made us the envy of many people who had the things of this world. And G-d was with us. Yes. G-d was with us but not anymore. No, not anymore. Don't think G-d is with the Black man. Not anymore. The Black man has lost the favor of G-d by turning around right at the crucial moment when he could have saved himself totally, turned around and picked up the ways of the wicked and let his whole race fall under influence of the wicked. It is a shame. So no more. It's gonna take a very small number from among us to complete the work because the majority are finished. They're out of it.
Now in the prison situation, you gotta see that he's put in a favorable situation by the big man in Egypt. And now because he wouldn't go along with the deceits of the big lady, he's cast out of that good situation now back in a bad situation. Now he's among those that are imprisoned. Isn't that the ways of the great power? Yes, it's the ways of the great power. They will give you freedom for an advantage to them. And as soon as you begin to show an independent mind, they wanna lock you up. You know, you don't have to be in a physical boundary, a physical measurement, walls of prison, wall, to be imprisoned. The people who have an independent moral mind in Chicago today are imprisoned. They will not allow you to be free. I know because I'm one of you. They deny us freedom.
You might say, "Well, Imam how can you say that? You're free. You're down here in the mosque, saying all this," but they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure I have this audience. And that it doesn't be any bigger. Yes, so now he's cast in a bad situation again. But the good is like a mighty sea. If there's the situation for it to burst into life, it will. So even in the prison situation, the mighty attributes of Joseph manifest. There were those who needed his help, and he became a helper to them. And the big people outside in the free world of Egypt, they learned of his help that he was giving inmates. And they desired that help for the free. And they said, "Hey, bring him up out of prison. We need him. We in trouble too."
[laughter]
Now don't forget, G-d said, when he allowed Joseph to fall into those circumstances and be taken up by the powerful people of Egypt. He said, "Thus did we establish Joseph in the land." Thus did we establish Joseph in the land. Yes, it is. Now with him there came into the prison two young men. Said one of them, "I see myself in a dream pressing wine." Said the other, "I see myself in a dream carrying bread on my head and birds are eating thereof. Tell us," they said, "the truth and meaning thereof. For we see thou art one that does good to all." That's Joseph. Say, "Well, we are prisoners in here. We don't know you Joseph. We're strangers and convicts, but we know that you are a person that does good by all. So help us with our situation."
He said, "Before any food comes in the due course to feed either of you, I will surely reveal to you the truth and meaning of this ere... Of this ere it befall you. That is part of the duty which my Lord has taught me. I have assured you... Pardon me. I have... I assure you abandon the ways of a people that believe not in G-d and that even deny the hereafter. Now listen. He was a small lad when he came into the bad circumstances, right? And his own brethren put him in the bad circumstances. And then in the bad circumstances the big man of the land saw good in him. So much that he said, "Hey, let's take him. Let's take him because there may be some great good in him for us or maybe we'll adopt him as our own son." Obviously, they did adopt him as their own son. Why? Because he says, "Now I have turned from the ways of a people that believe not in G-d and deny the hereafter."
[chuckle]
So he was a young lad. He wasn't experienced in the world to know what was happening. But because of his moral tenacity, moral strength and endurance, he held his moral rights together and wouldn't let anything take it apart. Because of that being in him, G-d was with him all the time. Isn't that wonderful? And G-d aided him at every turn of the events. No matter how bad the circumstances, G-d was with him, and now, he's talking to inmates in prison with him in another bad situation, and he tells them that I have abandoned the ways of a people that believe not. When did he take on wrong belief? He didn't have the wrong belief when his brothers took him. He was with his father, but he was just young. He didn't have knowledge and insight, he was young, huh? But he didn't have any false beliefs. The fact that he didn't have... A sign that he didn't have any false belief was the charge of animal blood being on his shirt. And the old man said, "I don't believe that. That boy wouldn't do nothing like that. That boy doesn't mess around with any animals." So where did he get that wrong belief? He got that wrong belief in that good situation with the powerful people of the land.
Where did we get our wrong belief? Where did we get our shirk? Where did we get our idolatry? Didn't we get it when they said you're free now to have your Christianity just like we have our Christianity. Then we became guilty of believing in more than one G-d. Of saying that G-d had a son who's G-d, and there are three G-ds. That's when we came into that, huh? Yeah. And like Joseph, when we stood up and declared the true belief in G-d, they put us in prison. They put us in prison. When we were guilty of shirk, they put us on 60 Minutes. Put us on prime time television and told the whole world our message, and showed us respect. They even tried to justify our hate by saying the hate the hate produced, in other words they ain't guilty of that hate. Hate has produced that hate. That we admire their militancy, we admire their discipline, we admire them for their cleanliness. "Oh, they're like us." They say man is G-d and they don't believe in no hereafter. Said these are truly our boys and they don't want our women. They take note. We'd favor these niggas over those integrationists. But as soon as we stood up, under the influence of our moral nature and said, "Hey, this is the true Islam, that was false Islam," then they said, "Hey, lock him up in prison." Cast them with the vilest. Jim Jones and the others. Yeah.
He called them his companion. Isn't that a wonderful man? He knew of his excellence but in the prison, he looked at the circumstances of those in prison with him, and he wanted to help them and he helped them and call them his companions. His companions in that situation. He said, "And I followed the ways of my father's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And never could we attribute any partners whatsoever to G-d, that comes of the grace of G-d to us and to mankind, yet most men are not grateful." Now look... Now you know, these 12 Israel were supposed to have been the favorite, right? Israel because after all, according to the Western people in the religion, they say that Jacob became Israel, and Israel's the favorite, huh? The favored and that no one can get the special blessings that G-d has for Israel except through Israel. You have to get it from Israel. You can't get it directly from G-d. You can only get it by coming through Israel. And you cannot be called one by inheritance. You will be one by adoption. Don't forget that. Now what does our book say of this special group? It says that comes of the grace of G-d to us, and to mankind. Not just to us but G-d has favored all men as He favors us. You see there? Most of us would miss that.
[foreign language]
On us and on all people. So here Joseph, he's a true one, Joseph he can't lie. Joseph says, "Yes, this special gift that you see now in me has come through our ancestors down to me, but it's not just for us, it's for all people." And he said, "Oh my true companions of the prison, I ask you are many lords differing among themselves better? Or is the one lord supreme and irresistible?" So here the attributes that they put on Egypt, the subduer is changed a bit to make it a more powerful subduer, and it's given as a name of our G-d. Al-Qahhar. Qahir is Egypt. Qahira is Egypt, means it's something that always make you seem like you're under a spell, just captivates you, and subdue you. You see. Subdue you and here is the name of our G-d, is given now more powerful than that, Al-Qahhar, Al-Qahhar. He is the subduer. That's to tell Egypt you can't subdue, G-d is the subduer.
[chuckle]
Yeah. You watch, you try to subdue them. You're gonna wash out their conscience? You're gonna drown their conscience? You're gonna drown their senses? Well, there's one that's strong enough to drown you out. And wasn't that the state of Pharaoh and his hosts? They got drowned in the sea. Though he called himself the Lord. He said, "Oh I recognize no G-d but me." That's what Pharaoh said. I wonder how he sounded when that water was going in down his throat. And Joseph continued, peace be upon the prophets. He said, "Oh, my two companions of the prison, I ask you, are many lords differing among themselves better or one G-d supreme and irresistible?" 
We are told in Christianity or by the Christians, that actually the three are three in one, but we are told also that they differ. They're three in one and yet they differ. How do they differ? The Father is the G-d as conceived or presented in the Old Testament. The son is the G-d as conceived or presented in the New Testament. If they were the same, they wouldn't have asked for a new G-d, they are different. They are different. The G-d of the Old Testament is not like the G-d of the New Testament. They are different.
Now here are G-ds differing with each other. That's just like one coming from fascist rule, right? One man who used to rule the land, a particular people or world, who was a fascist. He was a cruel man. Cruel. He used power in a brutal way. And then they change now and send another, or He say, "Well, my image is falled in the world. Now, I'm gonna have a son that's not like me, he's just going to be the other extreme." Now, I'm firm, he's gonna be forgiving, as I have been firm to the extreme, he's gonna be forgiving to the extreme. As I've been so firm to the extreme...(unclear)
Now just like I've gone to the extreme, I've burnt up nations, I've set fire over it. I just licked up the world with fire. I'm gonna present one now that's gonna be to the other extreme. As I have been firm and strict to the extreme, this one is gonna be mild and forgiving to the extreme. So forgiving that He's gonna accept them to crucify and kill him, and He's gonna say, "I forgive you." Now you tell me they're not different? They're not different? They're different. Those two purported G-ds are not the same, they are different. And the choice of the child over the father, is because the old image was rejected. They rejected the old image of G-d. Huh?
So now, if G-d the father is not in that bad image, He's good, how did He become good? He became good by repenting. Huh? He became good by repenting. When He decided to introduce Himself through His son that would be the other extreme, the mild man, the mild Lord, when he decided that, he repented from his old ways and became a new man. So now they're still different G-ds, you say the father now he’s good just like the son. No he is the son. Well if He is the son, what was He before? So through the son, He has repented. So the Son has become not only the saviour of the world, but the son has become the saviour of the image of His father. Huh? Yes. No way to get around that. So they are different. Now here come the Holy Ghost in Christianity, still different, for Jesus He accepts all kind of abuses. But the Gospel says, now if you bring this attitude to the Holy Ghost, it won't be forgiven. That's what it says. So you can do these things to the Son but to the Holy Ghost if you do it, it will not be forgiven. So they add still another that's different. The first one adamant, not accepting to bow or bend to anything, then the son coming, so sweet and then here comes the Holy Ghost, "No, I don't take no stuff either."
"See I'm a mystery but don't... I don't take no stuff, now don't play with me like you played with the Son." So these are different. I'm not making a joke. Believe me I don't have no spirit to joke with this. They are different. And that what's Allah is telling us, in the revelation to Muhammad. He's telling us by way of hints, an illusion, that these Christians trinitarian ideas, they claim it’s one, and G-d, and one, three in one, but they have differing G-ds. There are no three in one, there are no all the same. They're differing with each other. And Muslims you must understand, many of us are so soon, so recent right from the Holy Ghost session. And we come in and say I'm a Muslim, my name is Rasheed Hameed, and I'm a Muslim now, you know, but we still have the conditioning from the church life, and we get over here and we think, "Oh, yes sir, they believe basically the same as we do."
You're wrong and we have to respect their belief. You're wrong. We have to respect their goodness. We have to respect their innocence. We are not to respect their falsehoods. By that I mean we're not to go to a church and make them feel uncomfortable, attacking what they believe in. But if we think that they are sensible enough, sober enough in their minds and hearts to stand for us to read Quran concerning their trouble, their trouble spots in their belief, we should have the courage to go to the church and read Quran to them. Yes, 'cause Allah says in his Quran, highly glorified is he. He says to the people of the book, "Cease. Stop saying three, it will be better for you if you already understood." So Allah is not tolerating their belief in no three in one. It plainly says, "Stop that." Now you are Muslims. Some of you say you're responsible for the Da'wah, for inviting the people to this religion. So what are you gonna do, you'll go out there and tell them that it's okay to believe in three G-ds, the three in one, or will you tell them what the Allah says in Quran, "Cease, stop doing that, it's best for you, if you only understood."
That should be your message to the church. You go to them and tell them look, "You have a confusion here. Stop this. It is best for you if you only understood." Tell them what G-d says in your book and maybe you'll earn the favor of G-d back on your people. 
Joseph continues now, peace be upon him, he says," Oh, my two companions of the prison, as to one of you, he will pour out the wine for his Lord to drink." Now haven't we been as a religious people pouring out the wine for our Lord to drink? Think about it. Just until recently, and many of us are still doing it. It's not as strong as it used to be, but the church leadership is trying to recuperate, they're reviving, and they pour out wine for their Lord to drink, don't they? Yeah, their congregation get drunk, but their lord drinks. Their lord is down at the City Hall in Springfield and the big industrialists, those are the lords that enjoy the drink of wine that they pour out.
Though, if he poured out that wine for the subject. It's all the Christianity message is that they give to the poor Blacks, that's all it is that they give to the poor Hispanics. The Christianity that they give to the poor and ignorant people ain't nothing but alcoholism. Get you all drunk in the head, drunk in the mind, where you don't care about anything other than that. You're like a dope addict, get hooked on dope, and you don't care about nothing but the dope. Alcoholic get hooked on alcohol, care nothing but for the alcohol. And some of our people drinking alcoholism of Christianity, get hooked on it and care nothing but for the alcohol. Same thing. Neighborhood going to waste, life going to waste, community ain't getting nowhere being taken advantage of, exploited. They don't worry about those things, just give me another drink.
You will pour out the wine for his lord to drink. As for the other, he will hang from the cross. So you're either gonna be a wine... Pour out the wine or you're gonna be hanging from the cross, huh. You don't pour out the wine, you got to hang from the cross. And I guarantee you that's the situation for the people of conscience, the poor, struggling people of conscience. If they don't join the deceitful order of these fraternities, secret fraternities and hypocrites in religion, if they don't join them and pour the wine, fill the cup with the wine, they're gonna be crucified. Crucified means the deprived of your freedom to the extent you can't move nothing. The limb that you depend upon to support you and carry you and to work for you. Crucified, like rigor mortis has set in. And the birds will eat from off his head. So it has been decreed that matter where of you claim, do enquire.
So here, Joseph became one that was sought as a way out of trouble and as a person that could bring understanding and relief. You remember when the white people used to write about how our parents, mothers and fathers helped them solve great problems, brought great relief to them. Rulers in this part of the world, rich people in this part of the world have written in their memoirs how our poor, ignorant souls brought them understanding and great relief and helped them out of bad situations, gave them light to go by. Yes, because we were good at heart, we were innocent, we were morally upright. And though we were in the bottom of the pit, the dark hole, cast in the prison, G-d was with us.
And our value was there, and it was recognized by great people at many turns of event. Yeah, you should think about these things and get your life again, or make it stronger, make your commitment stronger, if you still got it make it stronger. And of the two, to that one whom he considered about to be saved, he said "Mention me to thy Lord" but Satan made him forget to mention him to his Lord, and Joseph lingered in prison for a few more years.
Now, here Joseph has helped one of the inmates and he told one of the inmates after he had helped him he said "now when you get to your Lord mention me, let your Lord know the situation I am in." Showing you how cold the world can become, even the best people fail you. Well, these people, they were people who recognized goodness in Joseph, and they were trying to find a way out of the bad life. And Joseph helped them, and when he told them say now, "When you get in a good situation mention me to your Lord," he got in a good situation and forgot. To mention to his Chief, the boss that there's a good man down there in prison, say your ladies have put him away for good. Yeah, he's a good man, why didn't he put in a word for Joseph, he was so much occupied by his own interests that he couldn't remember the man that helped him, relieved him when he was in this bad situation too.
Now think of ourselves as a people, don't you know many of your grandparents, your grandmothers and fathers, and relatives, many of them told us to remember them. Now look, freedom gonna come one day, now when you're free remember us, but freedom came and we became so much overcome by our own desire to please our own self right now, immediately, right here, that we forgot them. Yes.
We should be remembering them to our Lord, to G-d. Oh G-d, have mercy on the souls of our ancestors, they were in the dark, they were oppressed and they wanted to see the day of light. Oh G-d, forgive them whatever sins they did and admit them into your paradise. But instead of remembering them to our Lord, we indulge into foolishness and self-destruction just for a quick thrill. So that's what we're doing, aren't we? Pouring wine or crucified. Now, we will begin with this same section here, section 6 of this chapter on Joseph and continue the talk, and pray G-d to strengthen us, shine some light on our situation. But remember this, G-d says that "That is how he established Joseph in the land."
Now, if we find in our circumstances as enslaved people, kept subdued people in this part of the world, if we find in our circumstances, events similar to those that were in the life of Joseph. And if we believe in the word of G-d the Quran, then we should take hints from that story and strengthen our life. And look, we do not have economic power, we don't have political power, we are not favored in this country, now you can make yourself believe whatever you wanna believe you, you can just drift out there in the world of make belief, that's up to you, but I'm talking reality. We are not favored in this country, we are the disfavored in this country, our circumstances are still bad G-d, oh Lord, our circumstance is still bad. Then take the hint from that story, so now G-d will establish us if we keep our moral tenacity. G-d will establish us if we be morally consistent.
If we will be right by everybody, if we want good for everybody, not just for blacks, for everybody. There were people in slavery and people freed, so called liberated and for all the time they were trying to get equal opportunity or to get into the mainstream of these United States or the life of America, they were claiming that they had a belief in a G-d and that they had a belief in moral justice, divine justice. They were claiming to be good people, wasn’t that our claim? As a race, our politicians and our religious people, our church people were speaking in the name of all of us and they were claiming before the world that we are a G-d-fearing people that believe in the moral justice of G-d. And then soon as we get the freedom that we want to play and have some ice cream cones and some hot dogs and chili. As soon as we get that freedom to play and have some common food, we forget what it was all about. We forget the moral message that we sent out. And betray it right in our own life so soon.
You see how come we ain't getting nowhere now? Yeah.
So let's pray for forgiveness. And take hints from that great mystical, beautiful passage, story in Quran of Joseph. Take hints from it to strengthen and tighten up your own life and your own situation. So we pray, G-d, forgive us our sins, strengthen our faith, make pure our intention, and establish us among the good and excellent followers of Muhammad the Prophet, peace and the blessings be upon him.
[foreign language]
Amen.

NEW LECTURE
This is in English as given by the international scholar, Abdullah Yusef. He gives us Fatihah, which means the opening chapter. And it reads, "In the name of G-d, most gracious, most merciful. Praise be to G-d, the cherisher and sustainer of the worlds. Most gracious, most merciful, master of the day of judgment. Thee do we worship and thine aid we seek. Show us the straight way, the way of those on whom you've bestowed grace, those who's portion is not wrath and who go not astray. Amen." Now, we say it in the language of Quran, Arabic.
Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem
Alhamdu lillaahi Rabbil 'aalameen
Ar-Rahmaanir-Raheem
Maaliki Yawmid-Deen
Iyyaaka na'budu wa lyyaaka nasta'een
Ihdinas-Siraatal-Mustaqeem
Siraatal-lazeena an'amta 'alaihim ghayril-maghdoobi 'alaihim wa lad-daaalleen
Amen.
We will read now from the seventh chapter of Quran, the chapter of The Heights. Al-Araf in Arabic. The word Al-Araf translated to mean The Heights. It literally means, in its meaning, in its root meaning, heights knowledge-wise. It comes from the root word Arafa which means to know. And Al-Araf means the greatest extension or elevation of knowledge and is called The Heights by the translator.
However, the verse that we are going to read gives us the full range of the message of Muhammad the Prophet, the peace and the blessings be on him, as to what people or what race or what nation he came to guide or came to give G-d's revelation to. Verse 158 of this chapter reads "Say oh men and in the language of Quran, the Arabic language, Quran. This language in Arabic is called Fusha. Arabia Fusha.
It is the standard of the language for all colleges, universities, etcetera. It sets the standard for the highest institutions in the Islamic world. It is the highest standard of Arabic language. In fact, the Fusha is formed because of the Quran, it's formed by the guidelines of Quran. The Fusha means the highest standard of Arabic. And many of you who are learning Arabic, to read Quran, you're learning Fusha. And if you speak that... Many of us, we wanna show people, "Well, I've learned some words, I can speak some Arabic." It's only natural. You go and speak to an Arab in the language Fusha and he will have difficulty understanding you. Most of them would be happy to know that you are learning Quran in Arabic, the Fusha.
Only the sinners among the Arabs will not be happy. But all of the Arabs almost would be happy to know that you are learning Arabic, the Quranic Arabic, the Arabic of our holy book. But most of them will not be able to understand Fusha. When it is spoken as a language. The common language of the people has not been Fusha for many, many, many hundreds of years now. They left that, and they have dialects of Arabic, colloquial language, the common language, what we call over here... What do we call it? I guess, the majestic... Not slang, not slang. It's the language that we speak, you speak in Chicago, you speak English, but it's not proper English. Colloquial, I guess. There's still another name, I can't think of it right now. That's okay, it's not important, colloquial. It means the language that is spoken in a very... In a particular area or vicinity, right?
Yeah, so we have that over there. Like in Egypt, they speak different from the people in Iraq, and they will speak different from the people in Saudi Arabia. And so it will go, you see? And when you go to the market, if you speak Fusha, the very best Arabic which is the Quran. In fact, Quran sets the Fusha. It sets the standard for Fusha. Many stupid people over there would snickle, they would even laugh. And they won't be making mockery of you, but it would be funny to them that you're speaking so proper. And many times, they can't even understand it.
Like here in the United States, we say we speak English, right? But if we speak pure English, people will laugh at us, and say, "Hey, where he come from?" We speak American English. It's not pure English. And even if we speak proper American English, people will laugh at us, some people will laugh at us. We have to speak the common language of the people. So, it is with Arabic, only with Arabic it's more like the situation for the Italian people. Italian people, they speak Italian, but Latin is the old language right? Latin. And Latin now, still... Latin still sets the stage for other Latin languages, as Italian and other. But it's called a dead language, huh? It's called a dead language. Some of you should make note right there. It's called a dead language. But yet, though it's dead, it's still holding the other Latin language to the line, right? Right. So, similar kind of thing has happened in the Muslim lands. The Quran was revealed in pure Arabic, the best Arabic. But as time passed, the Muslims have drifted away from the purity of their language, and there are many, now, local languages that are Arabic, but not pure Arabic.
And I believe that this is instigation of the Satan, the devil, to take the people away from the language of their knowledge source. 'Cause the Quran is the knowledge source. To encourage them to get away from the language of their knowledge source, so it'd be hard for them to understand their knowledge source. So many Arabs, they can't understand the Quran as well as you can. And it's because they don't know the Fusha either. Few of them will know the Fusha. Only those who come up in the schools, in the Islamic schools or come up on the Islamic tutors and receive instructions in Quran on Islamic Studies, only they will understand the Quranic language. But you read it to them, and they will hear it, and you'll be thinking that they know it. No, they can understand a little, because they're Arab. So they understand a little, it touched their heart. They understand a little, but much they will be missing because they don't know themselves the Quranic, highest standard language of the Quran. And I guess that accounts for much of the weak faith in the Islamic world. Because if they don't know how can they have strong faith.
That's not the way of Al Islam. What I mean by that, Prophet Muhammad did not set that example, he did not teach them anything that would give them a reason to fall into patterns like that. In the days of the Prophet, the teaching of this Quran was for everybody. Was for everybody. In fact, it was the source of knowledge for what we may call the religious and secular world. There was no such thing as religious and secular world in the time of Muhammad the Prophet, peace and blessings be on him. There was only one united world and the full light for the whole society... Religion, science, education, government, politics, whatever; all was derived from a careful study of the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad the Prophet, may peace be upon him. The school of scientists that came immediately after the preaching of this Quran by Muhammad, they were first students of Quran. And they based all of their great findings on the light; revealing light of the Quran. We're told that they re-discovered the sciences, the great sciences of the ancient Greeks, Aristotle and others. That's true. But it was not only the ancient Greeks, there were others too.
It just so happened that the West was more interested in the sciences of the ancient Greeks, what Persia had in this great history before and other great empires and nations. The Muslims were also interested in that. And they brought all that science to be respected again. Prophet Muhammad said, go even to the far country, China in search of knowledge. So he didn't limit their intellect. He didn't limit their intellectual curiosities, but he taught them that their intellectual curiosity should be free and they should go wherever knowledge is, seek it. Seek it to verify your position. Not to just follow it blindly, but seek it to verify your position. So if we understand this religion and understand Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon him, the Muslim is the freest and the most consistent man on this earth. If he would just be what he's supposed to be. The freest and most consistent.
So here G-d says in this verse, "Say oh men, I am sent unto you all, as the apostle of G-d. To whom belongs the dominion of the Heavens and the Earth. There is no G-d but He. It is He that giveth both life and death." So believe in G-d and in His apostle, the unlettered Prophet. Unlettered means uneducated. It also means, for Muslims that he could not read. But to say a man is a lettered man in English means he is an educated man. To say he's unlettered in English means he's not educated. I will continue the reading of this verse now to it's conclusion. It continues, "Who believes in G-d and His words." Then the command comes, that's my expression now and I continue it now. "Follow him that you may be guided." The focus here is on Muhammad as a messenger of G-d to all people. "Say, oh men, I am sent unto you all as the apostle of G-d." Apostle was another term for messenger of G-d. And in Arabic...
[foreign language]
It's translated, "Oh men." Because English also use men to mean all men. And man to mean all men also. So in religious language, even in English, terms like man and men can mean all people. If you look in the dictionary, you'll find that meaning under one of the entries. For the definition, you will find that meaning in the dictionary for man and men, it can refer to all men. And all man by itself, singular. It refers to all men, like mankind. Like the expression mankind. The word in Arabic is Anas. And anas means the people. Anas means all the people. There is no such word as Anas for blacks. Or Anas for Chinese. Anas is for all people. That term is for all people. So Anas means all the people.
[foreign language]
Say all people. Speaking to all people.
[foreign language]
Surely I am. G-d is telling Muhammad to say this.
[foreign language]
The messenger of G-d.
[foreign language]
To you plural.
[foreign language]
All of you. So there is no question as to the people that G-d sent Muhammad to, who they are. Whether they are Arabs, blacks, whites, Mongolian, or African. No, all people, very clearly stated, say to the people, "Surely I am the messenger of G-d to you, all of you."
[foreign language]
Means all of you, not excluding anybody. What G-d, so what G-d is it? I won't follow the Arab G-d, I'm not gonna follow no Arab idol. G-d... So what G-d is it? It's not the Arab G-d, it's not the G-d of Israel, it's not Israeli G-d, it's not Arab G-d it's not black G-d. It says...
[foreign language]
To whom...
[foreign language]
To whom belongs...
[foreign language]
The dominion of the skies, which is translated, heaven. Now, if you tell anybody that the G-d, the power, Muhammad represented is the one that's responsible for the order and rule of all that you see up in the skies, and on earth.
[foreign language]
There is no other G-d except Him.
[foreign language]
He gives life and gives death.
[foreign language]
Therefore, believe in G-d and in His Messenger, the unlettered prophet who himself believes in G-d. See? He's no hypocrite. He's nobody that's trying to do the spiritual world and to come into a spiritual bag. And he's gonna work his thing over their heads.
Like many have done to the masses of the world. It's very clear that this man is not one who has a game for the fools. And he himself is not believing or taking the same medicine, or following the same prescription that he's given the masses. No, you believe in G-d. He's a man of faith. And another place in the Quran says we have heard a caller calling to faith. That was the way Prophet Muhammad was first seen, as a man calling people to faith, to believe in G-d, first of all. To believe in his messengers, to believe in the last of the messenger, Muhammad himself. Who believes in G-d and in His Word. He believes in G-d and he believes in the revelation. The scriptures.
[foreign language]
And follow Him. Meaning and follow Muhammad.
[foreign language]
In order for you to be guided right. This is clear enough for Muslims. Is this clear enough? It should be. It should be clear enough. That our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, he is the messenger who was sent from Allah, the last messenger, not to one people but to all people on earth. For all times. Not just for the end but for all times. For all times in the future to come. He is the completion of prophethood. He is the last of the messengers. This is not in any general kind of vision or any general kind of sense. This is in a specific sense. For G-d had a plan from the very beginning to give the people that he created what they need for their health and their guidance. And their whole life. And he gave it out in degrees or in portions. According to the situation, the circumstances, he gave it out. And he had in his great plan, to advance the people on this earth, by step by step by gradual assistance until he bring them into the full light of what life they should have on this planet as one people. Not as different people, as one people. And when that comes, there is no giving in to any pressure to put that behind something else. That can't take a subordinate role in the world behind something else, that kind of universal message intended by G-d cannot be second to anything. It cannot be second to any ideology.
It cannot sit back and let secularism take over the life of man. No. Those who truly understand, receive and understand the clear guidance of this holy book, they know that this vision is the leading vision for man on this earth. And this religion is the highest idea and the highest concept for the life of man on this Earth, and this religion is intended by G-d Himself to prevail over all other ideologies and religions, though the enemies of it hate it or detest it according to the word of G-d in this holy book.
So let's clearly see the light and then let us be ourselves in the light, but let us clearly see the light. Some of us will not be able to respect the obligation established in the light, some of us will be too weak, we will carry us 70% of the load, another will carry 80%, another will carry 90, another will carry maybe all the load if he possibly can, and some will carry only 30% of the load, some will carry nothing. But let us at least do justice to our own defenses, let us not close our eyes foolishly to what G-d is saying to Muslims and to the world in this holy book, the last revelation. He's saying to us that this is His plan for human beings on this Earth.
It was sent expressly to be given simply, plain, and clear, according to the words in the Qu’ran. It was not sent to be put in esoterics, to be put in symbolism, to be put in cryptology or any other hard language to decipher or to decode, it was sent to be taught plainly, openly, and clearly according to the words of G-d in this book. It is wonderful to see... And you won’t see it unless G-d bless you with it, it is wonderful to see as a student of the Quran, that the Quran gives us the symbols, it gives us the esoterics, it gives us language and allegory in picture form. The same book also gives us that in clear, plain, simple language.
Yes, this is a marvelous book, and I use that expression because I don't have a better one right now, a divine book, wonderful book. That that is hidden is given, but whatever is hidden is also revealed for the plain common man by this book. So when you read the whole Quran, don't think you're missing anything, if you read the whole Quran and you just have common man sense, you don't have the tools of interpretation, you only have common man sense, you don't have the fraternal keys. You just have the common man sense. Be assured that when you read this whole Quran, you haven't missed anything, because whatever they hid, G-d gave it again in another language so you could get it. The only thing you missed is how they get it.
You get it, but only thing you missed is how the secret people did it, their language, their tricks, their double-talk, their play on concepts, you missed their game thing, but you don't miss what G-d intended for the people, because G-d is also giving it in plain language. That's why they're not happy to see this book in the hands of the... On their people. There used to be a time when they would see any of us African Americans... I have to say indigenous African American, but I said this overseas and they say, "African American?" They thought we meant the people of Africa living in America.
So I guess that's why it never caught on, Afro American, African American, I guess it never caught on 'cause nothing can really fully be established in our nation without being accepted, at least pretty well in the international world. So we can call ourselves Afro Americans and all that forever, but unless that is understood in the international world, it's gonna be a problem for us establishing it here as a way of addressing ourselves, our race. So I see the problem now, so I said, at least when I write book, I'm gonna have to not say African American or Afro American, I'm gonna have to say indigenous. They understand indigenous to mean us, that word has caught on overseas 'cause we said indigenous blacks, they understand that to mean us.
So indigenous has caught on. And you'd be happy to know that indigenous has caught on also, in international Muslim circles, for our efforts here to come into the right religion. The right Islam, they refer to us who came from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's leadership into the Sunnah into the standard religion now, they refer to us as the Indigenous American Muslims.
And they are watching us with great hope and great anticipation. They are not so excited about the immigrant Muslims as they are excited about what they call the Indigenous American Muslims. And Indigenous means forming with the land, you form with the land, and I was talking to a young girl, Muslim girl, of our community about this, about, in fact it was only about four or five days ago.
And she said, you know, I've always felt that I was just an American. Now isn't that something? She said, I have always felt that I was just an American. Now, I wasn't agreeing with her all together, but I was happy to hear her say that, because I think of myself as a Muslim American, and I think of myself as an indigenous Muslim American. But anyway, what she said to me, I could identify with it in part and appreciate it coming from her.
She said, "I never thought of myself as African." She said, "I never thought of myself as Black." She said, "I accepted it, because everybody else use it." She said, "I never thought of myself as Black, I never thought of myself as African," she said, "I've always had a problem with those kind of terms. She said, "I saw myself as just an American." She said that, "I believe that we were the only Americans, that everybody else were something else to qualify them as an American." She said like, "Italian-American, Jewish-American, Spanish-American." She said, "but what kind of American are we?" She said, "we are just Americans." Isn't that something? Yes. So I really appreciated what she was saying.
The people that came to this part of the world, they saw it as a good prize, for them to capture. They came in as conquerors, and they conquered this land and they took it. They didn't give up their identity, they didn't say, now from this day on we are Americans. No. They said, "e pluribus unum."
A unity of many. So if you were Irish, you are still Irish, Irish-American. If you were Ghanaian, you are still Ghanaian, Ghanaian-American, right? Wherever you are from, still that, but now you are an American. But now look at us, and I hope to not hold you too long today. Look at us now, and our kinda special situation we have. This young girl said, "all the rest of them came to America." She said, "we didn't come to America" Now that's true too. For the overwhelming majority, that's true. We did not come to America. You know they ask you, "Where did you come from?" When they as us that we should say "nowhere." "What do you mean?" Say "I've always been here." They say, "No, you people came from Africa" Say "No, we didn't come from Africa, they brought us from Africa."
We didn't come from Africa, they brought us from Africa. So people coming from some place, they prepare for the trip. So those who came from those other nations, and other nationalities, and other lands, they prepared for the trip. They put in their traveling bags, their past identities. But we didn't come. We were brought. And we were brought suddenly.
We were not allowed any time to pack any bags. You know the circumstances. So we came here naked. And then they cut us off from any continuing communication with the land back then. So we had nothing to live by, except what we found, in the circumstances we were put in. So we can talk and talk and talk, philosophize, philosophize, philosophize. But we would come to the conclusion if we got five god senses, that we are native Americans. What else are we? What else can we be other than native people of this soil. That's all we can be, Native people of this soil. I know they call the Indians the Native Americans, but they were not brought here. They came here.
And they weren't stripped. They had time to pack some bags and bring some identity from Asia with them. This is the history of the American Indians, that they came from Asia, by way of the Bering Strait. They came from Asia. Many, many thousand years before the white men arrived, and they brought their culture with them to this part of the land. You who know the history. They brought their culture with them to this land. And there are students now studying the relics, the ruins and relics and ancient buildings of the first people called the Indians on this land. And they have come, many of them, in fact, the majority of them have already come to the conclusion that they were once connected with Asian culture and Asian life.
They found the same kind of structures, the same kind of culture in the Asian people's life. So they have come to the conclusion that these people... And not only that, they have come to the conclusion that there must be a tie between some of these native Indians that came here and the African people, especially the Egyptians of Northern Africa. They say their pyramids have too much a resemblance for them to not been somewhat connected in their past.
[pause]
So we come to the conclusion that we are the only people of the soil. We're the only people that this soil has produced from the very beginning. What I mean, the beginning of our mind. All the other people came here with something already fixed into their minds. We came here with nothing fixed into our minds. And those that had anything fixed into their minds they wouldn't speak it for fear of death. And in time, they died out, what they brought had no place in this part of the world because it wasn't allowed. That's the circumstances. So one day, who knows, maybe we will ask them to recognize us as just Americans. The rest of you are some kind of American. We are just Americans. And who knows G-d may have a plan to give us the rule in this land. Who knows? Oh, we are too weak, we don't have enough power, we don't have the numbers. Do you know how many people conquered Saudi Arabia had brought into government? About 20. About 20 brave men following their brave leader Ibn Saud, the late King Ibn Saud.
First king of Saudi Arabia name was Ibn Saud, and he led a revolution to bring the people to respect the religion as it should be respected. They had started to bring in things in religion that were superstition, many of them had started to pray to ancestors, go to graves of ancestors and pray to ancestors. Corruption was coming in Saudi Arabia where the Prophet established this great religion. And this great man, the great soldier for Allah, for G-d, Ibn Saud. He was a student of a school of thought in Al Islam called Wahhabism. His teacher Wahhab, the man who heads the school Wahhabism had excited his mind so much and made him so strong, a believer in G-d and Muhammad the Prophet and the power of the Quran, that he couldn't tolerate any longer the corruption of the religion in Arabia, it wasn't Saudi Arabia then. But because of his great victory it was named for him, after Ibn Saud, Saudi Arabia.
And right now, if you go over there and see the Saudi Arabian people, they are mixed up people like we are. Some of them look like white people, some of them black, but the majority of them are brown people. For the majority of us are still black. Majority of them are brown people, they have few white looking people and few very black people. And they are all Saudi Arabian. So by the white man's description, what are they? Are they white or black? By the white man's terminology, by his language terminology, they are black people. But do you think he would ever tell you the Saudi Arabian people are black people? He would tell you Ralph Bunch is a black men and Ralph Bunch is whiter than most Saudi Arabians. But he would tell you Ralph Bunch is a black men. Dr. Ralph Bunch, you know what I'm talking about? The one who went over to the Middle East and made peace between the Jews and Arabs. We need another Ralph Bunch to go over there with the Quran and try it again.
Yes. So we must understand that Prophet Muhammad is a messenger of G-d, the Last messenger of G-d, and not the last because we don’t like to see another one follow him, the last because G-d completed his favour upon us with Muhammad. G-d completed what he wanted for all the people on this earth with Muhammad of Arabia. That's why he is the last, and whoever comes up with something now to advance the future for man or to improve the present, or to explain the past, he can't come up with anything that hasn't already been given to Muhammad the prophet, peace and the blessings be upon him. That's why you can't call another one a prophet.
Doesn't mean that G-d won't reveal things to people. He will always reveal to people. It doesn't mean that you won't have illuminated minds anymore. We will always have illuminated minds. But we will never have anybody coming up with anything to add to what G-d gave as a plan for this whole world.
So in a scriptural sense, there is no more men, or messengers coming from G-d. He is the last. And again I repeat, whatever we come up with, it has already been revealed. Well that's enough for that. Praise be to Allah.
Now, was the world expecting this man, this prophet? Yes, the world was expecting him. The religious world, the people who received the scriptures, from messengers that came and the line of progression of prophets before him. Yes. They knew he was coming. They expected him. Many Jews, many Christians who heard Muhammad the prophet.
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May peace and the blessings be on the prophet. Many of them who heard him in the time that he preached in Arabia... They recognized him, with tears flowing down their cheeks. So this is the one that our scriptures told us about and they became Muslims. They left their Judaism, they left their Christianity and they became Muslims. That's what we fail to understand, the western minds, that looks at the Muslim world, fails to understand that, "Look Muhammad didn't convert people that didn't have religion. Where did he get the people from that were following him? He got them from the persuasions that were existing when he was here on this Earth bodily. He got them from the persuasions that were existing then. Christian persuasions, Jewish persuasions and also a kind of nature belief that most of his people in Arabia had. They were naturalists who believed only in nature.
And their G-ds were only concepts or depictions, picture made depictions of facets of nature, forces and facets of nature. But that wasn't only true for them, that's true for most of the ancient world, most of the ancient world did the same thing. They followed nature until they saw nature guiding them to nature's lord. Nature has a lord too. And when they found nature guiding them to nature's lord, then they said oh! This is the lord of us all.
And then they took the one Lord for their Lord. And this is given to us in the Quran. Don't think I'm giving you anything that's not in the Quran. This is given to us in the Quran. But not in the language that I put it. They were my words, but the same line is given to us in the Quran only much better. Now, dear people... So since they had some knowledge of this one coming, let us see what Allah told Muhammad of this in the Quran. To let them know that this is the one that G-d promised.
I should begin with the prayer Moses praying that G-d would stay with the people after he had passed. And Moses prayed and now I quote, give you as given in the Quran what he said "And ordain for us that which is good in this life and in the hereafter, for we have turned unto thee" and G-d replied to Moses and said, "With my punishment, I visit whom I will but my mercy extendeth to all things. That mercy I shall ordain it for those who do right and practice regular charity and those who believe in our signs."
And the 157th verse follows that verse continuing the description of Muhammad the prophet in scripture. "Those who follow the messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own scriptures in the law and in the gospel. For he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil. He allows them as lawful what is good and pure, and He prohibits them from what is bad and impure. He frees them from their heavy burden, and from the yokes that are upon them." Isn't that the liberator? That's the one with the moral excellence that makes him fit to liberate the whole society of man on Earth. “So it is those who believe in him that honour him, help him and follow the light which is sent down with him”. “And follow the light which is sent down with him”.
So what are we really following when we follow Muhammad. We are following G-d's guidance. For Muhammad, without G-d's guidance, is not the man for us to follow. Muhammad with G-d's guidance is the man for us to follow, and he earns the office, because of his obedience to the best impulses in his nature.
For G-d says of him in this holy book he has already lived a lifetime among you. Meaning that they could find no spot nor blemish in him even before he received revelation. Oh yeah. 40 years, very significant number. And follow the light. Let me go back there, back to the...
“So it is those who believe in him that honour him, help him, and follow the light, which is sent down with him. It is they who will prosper”. G-d said it is they who will prosper. Should we expect individuals or nations to prosper for long, if they don't follow this? No. No.
They'll prosper for a little while and as G-d says in the scriptures, the Bible and also in this holy book, the Quran that their days of merry making is a deceit. They are fooled by it. They think they are prospering when they are fastly moving towards their doom. For now about 10 years almost, I've felt the presence of a deathly silence on the greatness of America and I don't feel it lifted yet. My soul feels it, Allah is my witness, G-d is my witness.
Deep in my soul I feel a judgement of G-d on the productivity of America. And I have been feeling it now for about 10 years. I don't feel that it is lifted. Now with that observed or noted that Muhammad is because of necessity the last prophet. Muhammad because of divine decree is the last prophet. And not a prophet to some people but to all people on this Earth. And not a prophet from the elite but a prophet from the common masses, because the people that he himself is associated with or identify with, take on the same name that G-d gave him, which mean unschooled.
He is called the ummi, which means that one person unschooled, uneducated, unlearned, and the people that he associated with are called the Ummiyyun which means plural, the uneducated, the unschooled people. So he is called an unschooled prophet, raised up from among the unschooled people to be a messenger to all people. Now that too is fulfillment of scripture, for scripture says in so many ways that it says, out of the mouth of babes shall come perfect praise. Babes mean babes in knowledge, those who are not educated, out of the mouth of babes shall come perfect praise. So what is the perfect praise. The Quran. It begins with...
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All praise is due to G-d, Lord of all worlds. It begins with that perfect praise. If I say all praise is due to the Lord of Israel, that's not perfect praise, that's imperfect.
[chuckle]
If I say all praise is due to the Lord of the Muslims. That's Imperfect. Or the Lord of the Christians. It's imperfect. Until we give the right qualifications to the Lord, that he is Lord of all worlds. Then if that be my Lord, then all praise is due to my Lord, huh? And that's the perfect praise. It says, out of the mouth of babes shall come perfect praise, but it doesn't only mean verbal testimony. It means that their life, their behavior will be a reflection of what G-d had intended or what G-d revealed. And therefore, their life will be a testimony to the perfect guidance of G-d. We saw that on this Earth and Muhammad, peace be on him and his great companions who follow him. May G-d be pleased with them. And on the great defenders of that way of life, who succeeded them and remained for centuries, following the religion as it should be followed. We saw that up on this Earth.
It was lost because as Muhammad predicted, that his people would go to sleep in comforts. And a materialist power would rise up and plague the life of not only them but the whole world. Prophet Muhammad predicted this. He called that materialistic power, dajjal. The dajjal who would be riding a donkey. The donkey is symbolic of the ignorant undisciplined masses. See, a donkey is hard to discipline. He rebels against discipline. He has a big head relative to the size of his body. And huge ears, he's always listening. Isn't that the donkey people, the donkey masses. Oh, that's a big distinction of the donkey masses. Oh, he's always listening, he wants to hear everything you want to say. But now, when you start saying, "Okay, now you've heard what I've had to say. Now can we sign your name up? Are you gonna follow this?" "Well, hell, why I got to follow that? I'm a person, I'm a man, just like you." Big ears, big old head, he's got a whole lot to say.
[laughter]
Oh, he could talk forever. When he runs out he holds you with signals that will excite your expectation. Hey man, well, you know, what I'm saying. He ain't got nothing to say. That's just to hold you. "You know who won the pennant in 1925?" If there was a pennant in 1925? See, he will say anything just to hold your attention because he got to keep talking. He's got a lot to say. But ain't ready to follow G-d. The incorrigible masses. Rebel against discipline.
See, the beguiled would be riding them. Tell me, who did the Bolsheviks build their world on? The ignorant masses, huh? The ignorant masses. Who are the Democrats rolled upon? Huh? The ignorant masses. I blame them for the state of our people right now. Yes, I do. I blame the Communists and the Democrats for the state of the African-American people. The Communists for their hidden devilishment. The Democrats for their powerful deceits. So what about the Republicans? Well, they deserve to be condemned for their sins too. But I'm telling you, Democrats wants us to forget that it was Republicans that started the freedom process for the African-American man, the indigenous African-American man. Yes. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. The Democrats were racist. Isn't that of history? The Democrats were racists. How quick we forget. I'm not saying that the Republicans haven't got their racists too. They've got their racists here, and they are kind of ivory tower boys. Bankers. Big shots. It's kinda hard for us to identify with them unless we come in as a servant. I don't wanna identify with them, I wanna challenge them all. Yes, as an American, Muslim American. Challenge all of them.
And again, G-d says in His holy book that Muhammad the promised one sent to the unlettered people or the unschooled people to teach them the book and the wisdom and to purify them. And to purify them. So let us give our attention for a few minutes to this need for purification, the need for purification in our lives or in the society. He was sent to give them the book. The source of light and understanding. The higher source of light and understanding that that makes possible the development or the creation of all other forms of knowledge that we need to live the full life on the Earth.
He was sent with that to teach them the book and the wisdom. Now, he is gonna... He's coming now to a people that are unschooled. If they are unschooled even though they have a government, they are at a risk. High-risk situation because the learned nation will come against them and defeat them easy. Now, it doesn't mean that none of these uneducated people were not in power in the time of Muhammad. Don't you know we got many unlearned nations right now in power? In fact most of the nations in the third world are unlearned. That's how come they're third world. That's how come they're in a situation they're in. Because as government, they are not yet learned. So the Prophet comes to people like that. And that's in the Bible. That's in scriptures that came before say that Jesus came... Jesus understands this.
Jesus is a great sign. Christians know it. I mean the learned Christians. The leaders in Christianity. They know it. They know that Jesus is not really to be seen to be appreciated in the body like ours. They know that Jesus to be appreciated is to be appreciated as a sign. Not as a body like this. No man like this. No. Only as a sign. That's where he is really appreciated. So Jesus came as a sign or depiction of the revelatory process, how G-d brought revelation into the world through man. He is a sign of many things but more than anything else, he is a sign of this... And this is given in the Bible in these words, "In the beginning, there was the Word and the Word took on flesh," meaning that in the beginning, there was the word of G-d as revelation and the revelation in Jesus took on flesh.
And many understand it to mean, took on the power of sin in the world. That's true too but more than that, took on flesh. Meaning that the Word is depicted as flesh and dwelled among men. And dwelled among men. So this is the Bible and G-d gives us the light of understanding on this in the word of Quran that says...
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That it is not G-d's desire or wish to put you in any difficulty.
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But it is His wish to purify you and to perfect His blessing on you. And we know that the same kind of language is given in that verse of the Quran of this Holy book regarding the completion, the finishing of the revelation to Muhammad. This day have I perfected for you your religion. Same language, same words. And completed my favor on you. And have preferred for you Al-Islam, the religion. This is the Quran, same word. So it continues here, says, "And that he may perfect His blessings on you." Now, the same expression perfect His blessing on you is given again in the Quran in this way.
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That He may perfect His word. Kalimati, His word. So His word is what He perfects. And in perfecting His word, he perfects His blessings and made possible the completion of the message, the completion of the religion. So the Christians say it is one way with Jesus Christ as a symbol for something greater. Behind the symbol or to be interpreted out of the symbol. And Allah says to us in the Quran in a plain language. In a plain language. And understand that our holy Book says the same thing of Jesus. That He is a sign, in fact it says He and His mother are signs.
So let us continue on purity now. We're talking on purity. And I hope you are not in a hurry, it won't be too long. Inshallah. G-d willing, it won't be too long now. So it says again, surely, Allah wants to take away from you corruption, oh people of the house and to purify you for a lasting purity. Isn't that wonderful? Now, this was said to Muhammad the Prophet, revealed to him by G-d to be said directly to those people in his family, who lived in his own house. But, look at, it could have said, now many Muslims, if Abdul Salam was here today, who is a Moroccan Muslim and a teacher here in our school. If he was here today, I'm sure he would have difficulty accepting what I'm gonna say now.
Because there are those who understand in the Islamic world that Ahl al-Bayt is talking about the family of Muhammad. But I believe that Ahl al-Bayt is talking directly about the family of Muhammad, but it includes all people who follow the religion strictly. All people who follow the religion strictly, all Muslims who follow the religion strictly, with a sense of obligation, that the family of the Prophet had. All of us who carry that religion with that same sense of obligation are Ahl al-Bayt. That's my belief. But however you know, you can differ with that, they have, the have the Shiites who would differ with them even more than I differ with them.
[laughter]
So don't throw me out 'cause I differ. Or say who is he? Where did he get his knowledge? Well, let's talk to intelligent audience and let the intelligent audience be the judge. I'm ready anytime. Yes. So, I believe that Ahl al-Bayt goes for all of us who follow the religion with the same conscious devotion that was established in the great relatives of the family of the Prophet. And mind you, this was told to them because they had become some of them a grievance, an annoyance to the Prophet and his own family because of their failure to live up to the highest standard for the Muslim society. And understand this also, that just as Muhammad had to be protected, in his family. If we have great leaders today, we need protection in their family. So any time you see any members of my family failing the standard, you should be concerned. You shouldn't say "Hey, look at his own children. Ha ha ha." You should be hurt in your heart. "Look at his own house, look at the Imam's own family. Ha ha ha." You shouldn't be like that. That's the enemy, that's the hypocrite, that's the infiltrator. You should be hurt in your heart. And you should love the family of the Imam even though they deviate, because all of us can deviate.
And you should have a desire in your heart to see them improve their conduct not only for their benefit, but for the benefit of the need of an example in the house of our leader. That was needed for the Prophet is needed for all our leaders. Not just for me, for all our leaders. Even for the non Muslim leaders. Before you pick a non-Muslim leader to be a Mayor, a Governor, or whatever, an Attorney General, learn something about how he lives privately. And see if you find his house all messed up. See if his house is a rebel house or if he's a leader. If he's a leader or an associate, reject him. But if his house is a rebel house, then let your heart go out to him and to his house. Yes. Why should our heart go out to his house? Because you need him. And he needs his house. We need to get bigger in our minds and hearts than what we are, then we'll become a bigger people.
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Concerning the Blessed Mother of Jesus, upon Him be peace and upon her. G-d says in the Quran...
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Surely G-d chose you, that is Mary, the mother of Jesus. And purified you.
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And purified you.
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And chose you...
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To be above all the women of the world. Why did He chose to use Mary to be above all the women of the world? Because of her guaranteed, verified, guaranteed purity. Now, the prophet comes now to the Muslims or to the world, that he invites them to become Muslims. And to the Muslims, in the scriptures he says to them, "You are the best community brought out of the world for the benefit of all people, to who our G-d says of our Muslim community." The international Muslim community in this holy book. And what else does he say? You invite to all that is good and you prohibit all that is bad.
And in another place G-d says to Muhammad, he says, "Oh Muhammad, tax their wealth as a means of purifying them." As a means of purifying them. And then He says, of Muhammad, “that you are sent to teach them the book and the wisdom and to purify them." And He says again to Muhammad, "It is not G-ds wish to put you into any difficulty, but it is His wish to make you pure. To purify you." So if Mary was a sign, what is she a sign of? She's a sign of the Ummah Islami. She's a sign of the Islamic community established by Muhammad the Prophet. Yes. Now many of us don't know that Mary was a sign of also of something to come. We know that Christ has to come again because the gospel says it, but many don't know that Mary is a sign also of something to come. Not that Christ himself would come, no. But what he represented, a sign will come that was not fulfilled while he was here. Because the Bible clearly says, it was not fulfilled while he was here. It says, "But when the comforter will comes, he will lead you into all truths." And he didn't say that thy kingdom is here. He said, "Thy kingdom come." Huh?
Now, many of us missed a little quiet signal in the gospel. According to the future also for his mother. The Christians give the incorrect picture of Jesus on the cross dying. The Quran gives the right picture. And he speaks in his death which is not really his death. That's also a cloud covering something else. But he speaks out of the gospel and he says, "Look to your mother." Look to your mother is just like saying look to the future. But look to the future by what means or through what focus or window. He said look to your mother. So when Jesus was upon the cross, he didn't say look to me. According to the gospel, he said look to your mother because you won't see him before you see your mother. You following? Praise be to Allah. You won't see him before you see your mother.
Now, I am saying that the real community of the Muslims that was established by Muhammad the Prophet himself, is the fulfillment of the sign of Mary. And Muhammad himself is the fulfillment of the sign of Jesus. Now, all, but he was father of our community. No, he wasn't. He said, "I am not the father of any of your children." That's what Muhammad said according to the word of G-d in the Quran. So sayeth Muhammad, "I am not the father of any of your children." And he didn't teach anybody to call him father like the Christian leaders do. He said call each other brother. They called him Muhammad and they called him brother, not father. Messenger of G-d, Muhammad and brother.
Oh, but how can that be explained now? If he... How is he coming out of his mother? And we raise up from among the illiterate. Huh? He was raise up from among the illiterate. So what he come out of? He came out of ignorant people. And ignorant people he came out were people who followed nature, but have not been made pure until the blessing of the Quran. With the blessing of the Quran, they were purified. And Allah said in the Quran of Mary, "And he purified her."
The Prophet said...
[foreign language]
Surely purity is the seashore of faith. And they translate it, surely purity is half of the faith. Surely purity is half of the faith. But when you come out of the water upon the bank, the bank should be the bank of purity. Huh? And as you proceed on into the land, going over the clean sands of the river or the banks, you go into that land that will permit harvest production, planting and harvest or production. Huh? But the water, then the clean sand, then the fertile soil as you come out of the water. So that's why the Prophet then said, "Surely purity is the seashore of a bank, the bank of the sea for the faith, for Iman." If you’re going to be trusted, if you going to be trustworthy and be trusted, then you have to have a preference in your life and that preference should be for moral decency. And if it's not there, then we can't expect the great blessings of G-d.
I conclude that on purity now. And if you don't mind, I would like for you to be here just for a little while longer. Not much longer.
[pause]
Returning to our theme on Joseph, as a sign, Allah says in this holy book, the chapter is Joseph, Yusuf, which is Joseph in English and this is section 6, the 43rd verse. We are continuing here. We stopped at this section. Bismillah ir Rahman ir Rahim. In English, to save time, I'll just read in English and unless there's a real pressing need to give the Arabic, I will just continue in English to save time, The king of Egypt said, "I do see in a vision seven fat kine, whom seven lean ones devour, and seven green ears of corn and seven others withered."
[pause]
Now, the kine here is spelled K-I-N-E and it means a young cow. So he saw in a dream, seven fat young calves, seven fat calves, and in the same dream he saw seven other calves that were very lean. And they were given to devouring, or the seven lean ones were the cause of the fat ones being lost or eaten up, and seven green ears of corn and seven others withered. "Oh ye chiefs, expound to me my vision if it be that you can interpret visions." They said... Here is the king of Egypt, he's talking to his learned priests, who are schooled in the interpretation of highly spiritual or psychological matters. They said, "A confused medley of dreams, and we are not skilled in the interpretation of dreams."
So they said that "this, what you report oh king is confusion to us. It's a lot of confusion to us. Just mixed confusion on top of confusion." Saying we are not very much skilled. We are not really skilled in interpretation of dreams. Just like those people who profess to be experts, they profess professionalism, but when you really got something they can't handle, then they start talking about, "Well in that particular area now, I'm not really a professional in that particular area. I think you should see some specialist, a specialist for that particular area." But as long as you don't catch them in a situation like that, oh they make you think they can handle everything.
[pause]
It continues now. But the man who had been released, one of the two who had been in prison and who now besought him after so long, that is remember Joseph, you recall that Joseph told them after helping the two in prison. He was in prison and they were in prison with him. Joseph's still in prison now, here in this reading. He told them, "now remember me to your lord when you get out" and your lord there is like the lord of London, your boss you see, your big chief. But they forgot, they got out and are so happy over their freedom, they forgot. So now he remembered, one of them remembers now, when the king is in this difficulty. And now, I will continue the reading. He said, "I will tell you the truth of its interpretation, send you me therefore." So he was sent, he was allowed to be sent to Joseph. He left and he went to Joseph.
Now it continues. He speaks to Joseph now, "O Joseph!" He said. "O man of truth! Expound to us the dream of seven fat kine, calves, whom seven lean ones devour, and of seven green ears of corn and seven others withered. That I may return to the people and that they may understand." Joseph said, "For seven years shall you diligently sow." Sow the grains, the seeds for crop. "As is your wont and the harvest that you reap, you shall leave them in the ear, except a little, of which you shall eat."
He was telling them that when they sow and the crop comes to not eat freely but to take a little, just enough to manage, just enough and leave most. "Then will come after that period of seven dreadful years which will devour what you have laid by in advance for them." So he's telling them, G-d is going to bring, or they're going to have seven bad years for their productivity and that they should prepare for those seven bad years by saving much during the seven good years. "Which you shall have specially guarded."
Oh yes, now comes the next verse, "Then will come after that a year in which the people will have abundant water. And in this, they will press wine and all." And the next verse says, so the king says "bring him unto me." So when the messenger came to him, Joseph said, "Go thy back to thy Lord and ask him what is the state of mind of the ladies who cut their hands?" Now Joseph was put in prison because the lady, the leading ladies of Egypt had wanted to seduce him like the big lady did. But they were so excited over his beauty, his appearance, that they cut their hands. And when he asked what happened here, Joseph was charged with cutting their hands. So he was charged with seducing, he was charged with trying to seduce the big lady and that was explained and he was cleared of that. But when the little ladies came, they inflicted themselves and caused bleeding from their hands themselves. But Joseph had to bear the burden of that and he was put in jail. Put in jail after all the other bad circumstances he had.
So he wants this cleared up. Say, "Okay, the king needs me now to interpret the dream for him and they wanna bring me to help him? First clear my situation here. So what about those ladies that charged me?" So the king said to the ladies, "What was your affair when you did seek to seduce Joseph from his true self?" The ladies said, "G-d, preserve us. No evil know we against him, said the Aziz's wife." The big lady said that, no evil we know against him. "Now, is the truth manifest to all. It was I who sought to seduce him from his true self. He is indeed of those who are ever true and virtuous." So she admitted, the big lady admitted that she was the cause of it all, she started the whole thing. That she was the one and he had not done any wrong that he had ever been true. He's a man that's always true and virtuous.
And it continues, "This say I in order that he may know that I have never been false to him in his absence." So she's telling Joseph that I haven't been false to you in your absence. That's what she wanna tell Joseph. Now, the charges she made against Joseph, she made it in Joseph's face, didn't she? Yeah. So she was false. She was wrong, but she didn't do it behind Joseph's back. She made it right at Joseph's face. She told a lie on Joseph right in his face to the king. So she just wanted him to know that. I get you in trouble but I don't do it to you behind your back.
Ain't that something? It's all right, isn't it? I hope you all can see deeper than that, than what would have been the letters here on the page. Now this woman, she's cleaning up for herself, isn't she? But I'm not saying she's Satan, but didn't Satan clean up for himself too? He said, "I don't want no part in this. I didn't force anybody to do this. See, I didn't invite them to do these things. They came on their own. So they shouldn't blame me, they should blame themselves for making me their choice." So he cleaned up too, didn't he?
But G-d says, "Hell is a fit place for you both, for you and your followers." That's Satan. See, that's why our religion is so great. When I was a child, I thought the Devil in Christianity was an indestructible being. Say, "Oh, if you do that, the devil going to get you. You'll go to hell and burn forever. The devil going to put you in the fire." I'd say, "Where's the devil?" "He's in hell, he's in hell." So I said, "Then how in the hell can he live in hell with all the fire and do a job?" But our holy book tells us differently. Hell is not a comfortable place for even the devil. G-d says, "His punishment shall be that he shall be put in hell too." Say the fire that breaks up, men and stones.
This I say in order that he may know that I have never been false to him in his absence. And that G-d will never guide the snare of the false one. Nor do I absolve myself. Nor do I absolve my own self of blame. Now, she said, "I have to take to some part of the blame now. I didn't do nothing behind your back, but that does not mean... Me saying this, don't think I'm saying that I'm not responsible for some wrong. I don't clear myself of all the blame now." Look where she puts the blame though. She says, "The human soul is surely prone to evil." She blames her soul. There's a weakness of the soul.
It is prone to evil, unless my Lord do bestow his mercy. But surely my Lord is all forgiving, most merciful. This is wonderful. Now, this...
[foreign language]
The soul that is prone to evil. La amara means... La is an intensifier in Arabic grammar. La means that whatever is there is compounded, is made stronger, is excessive. La amara. If it's amara and you put la before it to make it la amara, it means it's compounded, it's intensified, it's excessive. Now, when we give ourselves to any desire that it becomes an obsession... Was she obsessed with getting Joseph?
So it became an obsession for her. And what Allah is saying in the Quran is that the soul under the pressure of an obsession is inclined to do wrong. Now, when a leader campaigning for positions of power and authority, if he allows the office that he is aspiring to to become an obsession, look out. He might have been clean before. Corruption most likely will come in.
So this is what Allah is saying. If some Muslims are making mistakes of thinking, that's what G-d is saying here, is that the human soul have a natural tendency to commit sin. That's wrong. You don't have a natural tendency to commit sin in your soul. You have a natural tendency to be right in your soul.
It's when you start rationalizing with your own small mind, right and wrong, the benefits and the consequences. When you let your own small knowledge come into the picture, that's when you start to commit great sin. There's no baby coming here committing no great sin. Baby comes here trying to go right and they remain decent and nice until they get into this mind that they can make decisions for themselves, by trusting their own limited minds, huh? This is where we differ so much with Christianity and many other religions. They say the flesh is weak, the spirit is willing. I say is it really though? But the flesh is weak. We don't have that kind of idea. We reject that. That's wrong. Flesh is strong, the mind is given to be weak in bad circumstances.
The flesh is strong. Flesh is strong, nature is strong, spirit is strong when that spirit is in agreement with the excellence of nature. Nature's born like a worm that has to grow into special form, huh? There's a silkworm that comes as a worm but there are other worms that comes as a worm and they have a metamorphosis. They rise from a worm to an elaborate creature, huh? Well, symbolically speaking, in our nature we are like a worm that has to come to a metamorphosis. A transition. A trigger into a higher elevation.
The apparatus for this transition is also a property of their nature in the womb. So then nature has in it already a program for advancing the quality of the creature, huh? He may be born in a smaller place, in a filthy place, in a dark, dismal place, in swamp water and all kind of slimy stuff, but there is a program in him that nature has put into him that programs him to come up the scale of evolution, huh? So we don't judge nature by what she is in her embryonic stage unless we can see into her embryonic stage her mighty program for the future.
So let's not be like the rest of the world and think that flesh of man is weak and prone to sin. But let us think as G-d wants us to think in this religion, in this Quran. Let us think that G-d has made the nature of man excellent. And his flesh is obedient to G-d. Do you know Prophet Muhammad only stood for a dead body? He never stood for a living body, when a man was in it and responsible for his behavior. But when there was a funeral, and a body was dead, if Prophet Muhammad was sitting and he saw the procession coming by, he would stand. Why? What wisdom was he giving in that demonstration? He would say and assess the motive for himself, "G-d, I recognize the flesh that you made to be excellent, worthy of respect. And the wrong is not the flesh, but the ignorant creature that was responsible for the flesh while he lived or while she lived."
So we should understand that. Yes, so she blames it on the soul. Is that the same thing the West does? Oh, well you know only G-d is divine, the human being is weak and prone to error. After all he's only human. That's their language. Excuse him, because the soul is given to sin. Unless you, unless you confess to the Lord Jesus Christ and be born again. And be born again, not human, but be born through his divinity, be saved by his divinity. What they look at in Jesus as His divinity, we see it as his nature, we see it as also our nature, it's not divine, it's not G-d, it's human nature. To be obedient to G-d, to care about the suffering, to accept death, rather than commit the... Rather than give in to the sinner. Whatever he had done was nothing but human... So what they call his divine is really our excellence. What they call being born again through Jesus Christ, is nothing but being born again through a rejuvenation of your own moral nature.
See our religion respects what is right and proper and does not cloud the picture with a whole lot of esoterics. All right now, let us continue here and we are going to conclude now in just about 10 minutes or less... So the king said, "Bring him unto me, I will take him specially to serve about my own person." Therefore when he had spoken to him, he said, "Be assured this day, thou art before our own presence with rank firmly established." Didn't G-d say that he established Joseph in the land. That he would establish Joseph in the land. So the King said, "Be assured that you are with rank firmly established and fidelity, fully proved, mean that his trustworthiness, his honor, his integrity, had been fully proved. Joseph said, "Set me now over the storehouses of the land, I will indeed guard them."
Now, this is the story of Joseph, but we must understand that in the story of Joseph, G-d says, "In the story of Joseph is the great sign to all the seekers." So Joseph said, "Now set me over the storehouses." So who should we put in all over the distribution of goods, over the regulation of affairs, the regulation of the distribution of wealth. All governments must have some regulations. Who should we entrust to be over that? To be fair and just by all people. Someone whose integrity has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. Someone who has been tested and passed the test, who came under the great pressure, came under the great test and passed the test. Not only as an individual, but as a people. For G-d tests persons and he tests people.
And we were on the way, to come into the position of Joseph, but we let the turbulent '60s and all of it's deceits, invitation to get the green dollar, the high emphasis of black beauty is black power. We let all of those deceits and invitation to smoke reefers and burn incense and go backwards in the path of civilization rather than forwards. To go to crime and oppress you all weak people. Black on black crime. All of that mess that developed knocked us out of the great opportunity to become the Joseph of the western hemisphere. Yes, while if we have been loyal to our professions, to our professions, to our claims, if we had been loyal to our better aspirations, that we published all over this land and throughout the world. If we had remained loyal as a people to those high aspirations, today we would be the most beloved people in the western hemisphere.
And people would (unclear) us in positions of risk, of high risk to the other people. Because we were people, and our forefathers, our ancestors following the spirit of freedom, the spirit of high moral conscience, high moral minds, the spirit of obedience to G-d, that was all together with us. And we were warning the racists and warning the white man that if he didn't hurry up and do what G-d wants, that G-d would bring terrible consequences on him. And that if he is a conscious Christian, he should see his sins and his failings. Wasn't that the voice of the African-Americans? Indigenous African-Americans? Until he got freedom. Then when he got freedom, he forgot. And as a consequence, he knocked himself out of the opportunity to become Joseph of the land. Who knows? Maybe we succeeded. Maybe Joseph is right here. Who knows? Yes, who knows? Maybe in this small community of Muslims, maybe we are the Josephs. Now, I know they got a lot of bullshit out there too, but I'm talking about the good ones. I didn't invite the bull dung. I ain't responsible for their presence here. But those who are truly and sincerely behind what I represent as a Muslim. Maybe we are the Josephs. I think we will pass the test.
He says, "Set me over the store houses. I will indeed guard them as one that knows their importance." Isn't that wonderful? He will guard them as one that knows their importance. So Joseph was a morally oriented, or morally disciplined man before G-d established him. Because of him being a morally disciplined man, G-d chose him to establish him. But G-d said that he was going to teach him, huh? The interpretation of things that had been recorded or reported. And try him in situations in order to establish him in the land, huh?
He had the moral quality and moral tenacity, obedience to his moral excellence, he had that, but G-d wanted to make him fit for the position over the land. To make him fit, G-d had to put him through trial so the world, looking on, would know that he has been qualified, huh? Yes, they put him in all kind of situations under the most powerful and under the most wicked and brought him through to prove his excellence. In all of those trials and situations, G-d proved his excellence, huh? And he taught him the secret of things, the mystery of things to be interpreted.
And he said in that way, he established Joseph in the land. Thus did we give established power to Joseph in the land to take possession therein. To take possession therein. Didn't G-d say in the scripture, "my righteous servants shall inherit the land"?
The wicked shall not live continually. G-d says, he shall lead them all, by their deceits to their doom. And he says my righteous servants shall inherit the land. We have forgotten that. I'm not talking about we the public, I'm talking about we the religious establishment. We have forgotten that G-d has required righteousness of us, in order for us to be put over the wicked. For if we don't have righteousness, and only have the claim of being religious people, that doesn't give G-d the justice to put us over them. Only when we are righteous and they are wicked, we are obedient to the moral code, to the moral law, and they're disobedient. They disrespect it. Then G-d will choose the righteous over wicked. Is that plain as day?
It didn’t say that G-d calls us to be clean and saintly and holy for an inferior role on this Earth. He calls us to be excellent in every respect and it begins with moral obedience. Not for the inferior role on this earth but for the choicest role on this Earth. And that has come to pass over and over again, and still the people fail to see, that it is the righteous that G-d gives the power to and gives the land to, if they would only stand up. And being what they are professing to be. To take possession of the land they're in, it says we bestow of our mercy on whom we please and we suffer not to be lost to the Lord of those who do good. So if we remain constantly obedient to G-d, it may be some time coming, but know for certain that eventually you will be put over your oppressors, your persecutors. Those who throw filth and corruption in the path of your moral struggle. You will be put over them and G-d will remove that headache from your life. It came with Muhammad, it came with the righteous servants of G-d before Muhammad. It can come again if you all are willing to be strong.
But G-d want us to know that this great station on Earth that we can have is not better than the hereafter. So the next verse says, "but verily the reward of the hereafter is the best, for those who believe and are constant in their righteousness." Praise be to Allah.
So we read up to section eight of this chapter titled Joseph. We hope to continue it at another time. It is, as G-d says in this holy book, the great sign for the seekers. And I hope we are putting the emphasis where they are in this holy book. And I hope we will, as a people, admire this excellence that G-d has created in the nature of man as shown or exemplified in the life of Joseph here in this chapter. Actually, the fulfillment of Joseph is again, Muhammad the prophet. Yes, Muhammad the prophet. Because it was his moral excellence that made even the idolators before he was mission as a prophet, trust him over the storehouses, huh? Excuse me, I have recorded. They come to him as though he was a bank. They leave their possessions with him when they were traveling out of the country, out of his vicinity.
Yes. And eventually G-d put him over all the storehouses. Didn't he? Yes. So understand that really Joseph was fulfilled in Muhammad, but he was not only a sign of what's fulfilled in Muhammad, he's a sign to all people in an oppressed condition, the pre-Islam Arabs, oppressed by their ignorance. We have been oppressed by ignorance and also by racist powers and oppressive powers. So we have been oppressed in many ways. We haven't only had our moral life and our intellect thrown into prison or into the hole behind bars. We have had our whole physical life contained in prison, in slavery and in prison, or on plantations in prison. Don't you know the prison system right now is set up for the ignorant. And a lot of us that are in there shouldn't be there. Victims of circumstances. So let us understand this. And I conclude this now. I thank G-d for blessing us to be here today.
[foreign language]
That prayer in Arabic is a regular prayer said by Muslims often, says O Lord, do not allow our hearts to go back to corruption after you have guided us and give us from your presence, mercy. Amin. As-salamu alaykum. Peace be unto you.


