07/10/1988
IWDM Study Library
National Broadcast

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
As salaamu alaikum. Allah, most high, in His book, Qur'an, highly glorified, is He, (Arabic) that is, the most high, says "Oh you who believe do not make forbidden the good things which Allah has made lawful for you and do not commit, excesses or extremes." Do not do the extremes. (Arabic)" For surely, Allah does not like the ones who go to the extremes." The one who breaks the rules going to enter the extremes of wrongdoing. 
Allah, most high, said to us that we should not make forbidden, that that He has made good and that that He has made lawful. We live in a confused society where people claim to be this and claim to be that. But when you check the source, the Qur'an and the life of the prophet, you find that many of the people claiming to be Muslims are not at all conforming to what the Qur'an says and what is established in the life of the prophet. They make forbidden, what Allah makes lawful in the Qur'an. They commit excesses, they go to the extreme, violating, violating the rules of G-d. 
Further the most high says, Allah says (Arabic) and eat from what Allah has provided for you, (Arabic) and eat from what Allah has provided, halal and (Arabic) for you that is lawful and good, (Arabic) and reverence G-d, who you are professing to believe in.(Arabic) G-d does not bring you to account for what you do with good intentions for what you say with good intentions. (Arabic), but He brings you to account for what you do intentionally, but He brings you to account for what you do intentionally with a purpose for what you do on purpose. Now we know Prophet Muhammad has taught us in the hadith, of his saying in the sunnah of the prophet, he says, G-d, judges us by our intent. That means judgment according to intent, and he says whoever made his journey to Medina intending to get a wife or to gain some worldly things, the prophet concludes that he made his migration or his hijra for those things, for the wife and for the worldly things. Though he went with the Muslims, with the prophet and the Muslims to Madina. Peace be upon the prophet, and their journey was for the sake of G-d. Their journey was for the sake of G-d. Their journey was in the way of G-d, in the path of G-d for his religion. 
So the prophet, knowing that many people would come along and would be absent-minded, would not be given serious thought to the purpose of that journey, and then there would be some who would just be undercover people seeking the shelter of the Muslims for the purpose of worldly gain, such as a woman, a beautiful woman, a chase girl, a virgin girl, or some wealth. The prophet made it clear to us that if the intent wasn't right, then the trip is not right. If the intent is wrong, intent is wrong, then the action is wrong. The actions are judged by intent. So says the prophet, peace and the blessing be upon him and Allah says in Qur'an says in His book the Holy Qur'an, Allah says, and each individual behaves according to his makeup. (Arabic) He behaves according to his makeup. Now those persons who were made up like the people of the world, they're heart, their thinking, their feelings, their aspirations, their attitude being that of the world, then they went seeking beautiful girls and material gain. They couldn't help but perform or act upon what they were. This is wisdom. 
Allah's book is wisdom, the greatest wisdom, pure wisdom.. So understand this, these disclosures that Allah makes to us, Allah reveals these things to us with the Qur'an, to his prophet Muhammad, for all the mankind, for all humanity. Allah revealed these and these are great disclosures, great revelations. They have broad application. Don't read the Qur'an like a dumbbell recorder that can't do nothing but just hear the word that's on the print but can't feel where it goes, can't sense where the word is going, can't sense what the word is addressing. The word is addressing something, the word is going somewhere and the alert human being should sense, where it is going? Especially if you find yourself in a situation that is addressed by the word, you should get the sense in your situation that the word is addressing you and your situation, your problem. 
Allah, most high, He says in His holy book that every individual acts according to his own makeup. And the prophet said, none of you will believe until your desires follow what I have come to you with, that is the Qur'an and his sunnah, peace and the blessing be Sorry, it looks like I can’t respond to this. Let’s try a different topic. On him. None of you will believe. Belief then is most essential, if we are to have success. It is the believers that will get success, not just one professing to be Muslim, faith has to be there and the prophet says, unless our aspirations, our desires, our inclinations follow what he has brought to us, come to us with, we cannot be believers. So why should we worry about brothers and sisters among us who have the makeup of the world and have no interest or inclinations toward the purity of the Qur'an and the sunnah of the prophet? Why should we worry about them? We are wasting our time. Those are people, by their own makeup, have written themselves out of this company. They're not in this company, so don't worry about them. Worry about pleasing Allah. G-d does not like those who commit excesses, who take the liberty to do as they please while giving no thought to what G-d wants or what He will do. Allah doesn't like such creatures. 
Now, if Allah tells me in His holy book that He doesn't like a certain creature, should I like that creature? If I'm the worshiper of that G-d, I should dislike what He dislikes. In fact, I'm not His believer. I'm not the believer in Him until I can do that. If I can't dislike what Allah says He's dislikes, then I'm not yet a believer. They have the silly mind over here in the Christian so-called democracy where if you are religious, you ain't supposed to dislike anybody. And many of us have recalled that the Bible that they claim to be the book that presents that kind of idea says there were two brothers, Jacob and Esau, and G-d loved Jacob and hated Esau. That's the very words of their Bible. And you can read the Bible from cover of cover and you can see that G-d is saying that He likes certain ones and dislikes others. We don't have G-d saying that He hates anybody in the Qur'an. Never, no place in the Qur'an where G-d say He hates anything, He doesn't hate, but He says he loves and He does not love. (Arabic) G-d says (Arabic) and eat from what G-d has provided you. This is a far reaching statement. When you eat something that G-d has provided you, you are eating something that Allah has made available by His powers. When you eat something that Allah hasn't provided for you, you are eating something that you have concocted, or invented, or imagined. And how many of us are stone cold dead in the market because we feed on nothing but our small imagination. (Arabic - watakullah) and reverence Allah, watakullah and reverence Allah, fear Allah, respect Allah with profound respect with deep, deep, deep down respect. This is what Allah asks of us. (The) most high says, (Arabic) "surely the devil, the Satan, wants to bring about hatred and opposition, enmity between you, among you through the invitation to you to take intoxicants and to gamble." Again, far, far reaching, far, far reaching. 
First we look at the direct application. Anyone knows what drinking is and intoxicants, alcoholic beverages. And we know what gambling is, taking what is our possessions and putting them in a risk situation. We know what gambling is and we know what drinking is. But what happens to a man that drinks and gets drunk? He loses his sense of balance. He loses his sense of judgment. He loses his mental control. He becomes subject of unbecoming shameful behavior subject to give himself to unbecoming, shameful behavior. It takes his emotions out of the natural state and causes him to behave in a way that disgraces his dignity. It makes him drunk. When he takes it in the extreme, he becomes drunk. Now, isn't there a resemblance between the man who is silly, under influence of intoxicants or listless under the influence of intoxicants and the emotional victims of the world that are silly under the influence of the bad things in the environment, who have taken on the bad attitudes, the bad sensitivities, the silly emotions of the society? Aren't they drunk to? 
Let's look at the gambling situation. The man gambles with his material resources, but isn't there a resemblance between the one that gambles with his material resources and the one that gambles with his human qualities? He sits at a table, he joins company, he involves himself, he gets involved into activity. He exposes himself to social environment that he knows will risk his qualities. He knows he's risking losing his human qualities, his moral qualities, his intelligence, his principles. Is there any grounds in the Qur'an for this kind of explanation? I'm giving? Yes, it is. Allah, most high says in the Qur'an "and they will be as drunk people and they will have not taken any intoxication." You'll see them as drunk people, but they would have not taken any intoxicants. Not the kind you know about or the kind you think about when you think of intoxication. Praise be to Allah. So it is the devil that invents our produces these things in the physical form and also in the spiritual form. He produces the spiritual drunkenness and the behavioral drunkenness we call the drunkenness from liquors, hard liquors, narcotics, et cetera. He produces all of that. The devil does that. These things are not the creation of ordinary people. Intoxicants and gambling is not the invention of ordinary people. 
That's what we have to understand because that's what Allah is telling us. Ordinary people would never promote such things. Those are inventions of the devil. And Allah, most high, goes on to say, (Arabic) so the devil does these things to prevent you or hinder you from remembering G-d and from practicing prayer or worship. And G-d says, "then therefore, would you be mindful?" then therefore would you be, would you guard against it after G-d has disclosed these days to you? Will you guard against it or will you be stupid and just hear it, but continue to expose yourself to these evils? Allah must high says, continues, (Arabic) " and obey G-d and obey the messenger." See the two were put together? (Arabic) and obey G-d, Allah and obey the messenger. It didn't say, (Arabic) although that's .................... But look, this is very serious matter. This is the worst situation you can ever get yourself in. You are exposed to the devilishment of Satan himself. 
And G-d says, and obey G-d and obey and obey is repeated and obey the messenger. Why? Because Satan is too big for us. It was not one of us that kept his morals intact, kept his life without spot of sin in the most sinful time and proved worthy of the great blessing of being made the messenger of G-d or the prophet of G-d. It was not one of us. Likewise, today, we are not capable of keeping our morals and our life intact without the blessing and help of G-d. 
The prophet Muhammad, he's the one, peace be upon him, he is the one whose life was kept intact even before Revelation, before he was made prophet, his life was kept intact. Though he was born in and living in the most sinful, the most ignorant spot perhaps on the globe at that time, pagan Arabia. It was his life that was kept intact. It was that man who kept his morals intact, who did not give himself to the sins and the ignorance of the world that he himself was born in. If we would decide this on our own like the devil wants us to do nowadays, when I was a boy, the devil didn't ask us to do what he's asking us to do now in America. When I was a boy, the devil didn't ask people to decide for themselves what's right and wrong. The devil went along with them consulting their mamas and their daddies, their church and the establishment. But now, for my children, it's a new world, it's a different situation. The devil is advising them now to don't listen to your mama, don't listen to your daddy, don't listen to your religious teachers. Make up your mind for yourself. And the result is that we have a rebellious and defiant youth because they're victims.
To be compared with Him. (Arabic) To Him belongs whatever is in the skies and whatever's in the earth. (Arabic) in His control is the rule of the universe. (Arabic) and He has power over all things. He has sent us a messenger, Muhammad, peace and the blessings be on him, as a guide and as a mercy. We believe in Him (Allah). We believe in His messengers, all of them as Allah, almost high, revealed to prophet Muhammad in the Qur'an, that the believers make no distinction between the messengers of G-d. They do not discriminate against any single one of them, but we say all of them are messengers of the one Allah, one G-d. (Arabic) "the messenger, Muhammad that is, peace be upon him, he has believed in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and so likewise do the believers. We believe in G-d, we believe in His angels. We believe in all the revelations, all the books that He sent. And we believe in His messengers, all of them. (Arabic)And they do not discriminate against any single one of His messengers. (Arabic) And they say, we hear and we obey." This is the spirit of the believers. This is the spirit of the Muslim. 
The Muslim is one who resigns his will to do Allah's pleasure. He is a peacemaker. He finds peace with his Lord and therefore he finds peace with his creatures, with the creatures of his Lord. And Allah most high says to the prophet, whose in the Qur'an, for us to say, (Arabic) " your Lord and our Lord is one G-d ,is one G-d." That is ,we only have one Lord. There is only one Lord. And in the Qur'an we say often we are obligated to say the (Al Fatihah - the first chapter of the Qur'an) with every prayer we make. And for every occasion when we meet, we prefer to open that occasion with Al-Fatihah and to close it with praise to G-d, Lord, of all the worlds, (Arabic) all praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. So where is there room for another Lord? If Allah is Lord of all the worlds? He's not just the Lord of Israel, as the Bible says, I've read it so often, the Lord, G-d of Israel, the Lord, G-d of Israel, the Lord, G-d of Israel, just over and over again, the Lord, G-d of Israel. And then the New Testament mentioned Jesus as the one who sent only to the house of Israel, the one who sent only to the house of Israel, the Lord who sent to the house of Israel only. So this is not the Lord of the Qur'an. This is not the Lord of all people. Allah is Lord of all the worlds. (Arabic) He is the Lord of all the worlds, not only of all the people, but all the worlds. 
And Allah says to us, (Arabic) "your community is one united community, (Arabic) And I am your Lord, (Arabic) worship up only me." And again, Allah says, (Arabic) "and he has not created the human beings or the jinn for any purpose except to worship him." He is their Lord. He is the Lord of all of them. Allah is one Lord, and we say to the Christians, your Lord and our Lord are one. We say to the Jews, your Lord and our Lord are one. We say to all people, your Lord and our Lord is one. Because there is no two lords. There is only one Lord and he is not the Lord of Israel , only. He is the Lord of all people. He's Lord of all the worlds. He is the one who has been the Lord for this universe. (Arabic) Meaning everything, all the orders that's in this universe, every galaxy, every community of animals, every community of plants, every community of animals, the community of men, all the communities of men. Allah is there one and only Lord. (Arabic) That's what we say. Praise be to Allah whose Lord of all worlds. (Arabic) praises be to Allah, Lord of all worlds. 
This brings to mind the idea that is most prevalent in the religion. It permeates the whole religion, every aspect of it, and that is (Arabic - Tauheed) oneness, unity. We say, (Arabic) say Allah is one alone. Say Allah is one alone. And His oneness is best described to us by His own revealed word in the Qur'an, under that surah by the name, suratul Ikhlas. Allah, He's only one . (Arabic) Allah is eternal. (Arabic) Never did he give birth to a child . (Arabic)and never was he born a child to anyone. (Arabic) and there never exists for Him any equal or comparison." That's what we are to say. That's the oneness, that's oneness. That's the purity. That's Ikhlas. 
Arabs, one day, Insha’Allah (G-d willing), if you visit among them, perhaps some of you who made the Hajj, you have visited among them and you have heard this expression, but maybe you didn't pay attention or maybe you didn't know. They say (Arabic - khalaq), when the thing is through with, they say khalaq, that means finished, nothing else. And this surah is named (Arabic - Al-Ikhlas) means that it's finished. That's it. Don't add anything. Don't take anything away. You cannot make it better. It's perfect as it is. G-d has made it that way. G-d is one and that's it. No father, no mother for Him, no child G-d, all that we have to reject. He is G-d alone. Allah says if He wanted to have a son, He would take one from among those who've already created. Now isn't that good sense? Why would G-d have to have a son by some method like that when He'd already created so many sons? 
So He says if He want to have a son, He'll take a son from one that He'd already created. We have to have one by birth processes. Allah creates them. He created Jesus. He didn't give birth to Jesus. He created Jesus, peace be upon the prophet. He said that Jesus, the likeness of Jesus is the likeness of Adam, and he created Adam from the dust, from the dust. So this is very clear. He's one Allah. There is no G-d's with Him. No G-d's with Him. And he has done everything by Himself and He is able alone, to take care of His universe that He have created. He does not need help us to help him. Allah says in the Qur'an, and He is not one that to need you to feed him. He asked nothing of His creatures. And in another place, Allah says, He does not eat. He does not take sleep. He does not feel tiredness. He is the eternal. He is the eternal, existing alone, existing alone. He is (Arabic) one, only one that exists alone, by Himself and He dominates everything. (Arabic) He exists alone by himself. His existence is alone, is one, not by mating. We exist by mating. We live by two. We exist, we repeat our living by two. But Allah, according to His word in Qur'an, He is the only one who exists alone, needing no mate, needing no helpers. And He is (Arabic) He dominates everything. And another place, Allah says, and no one can approach him in any state except as a servant. So no one approaches Him. If the angel approaches G-d the angel approaches G-d as G-d's servant. If man approaches G-d, man approaches G-d as G-d's servant. This is the clear teachings of Qur'an. We should understand that the whole life of the Muslim is influenced by that oneness. The oneness in G-d. He has enforced that oneness. The universe which He created, it is compelled to respond to His oneness. So it seeks oneness too. It is the nature of what He has created to seek His oneness too. Many of us look at the diversity in life. We look at the many varieties of things and we begin to attach more importance to variety or diversity than we do to oneness and unity. But look, is the universe held together by variety and diversity or is it held together by unity, agreement, accord, oneness, et cetera? The universe is held together by oneness, unity, agreement, accord, et cetera, which all implies a oneness. That's what holds this whole creation together, not diversity, not variety. 
And it is in our small world where we see the greatest signs of diversity and variety. But when we look at the big universe, we see more sign of oneness, more sign of unity, more sign of oneness. When we come home to our own small world and see how many sweets we like on the table and how many different kinds of pictures we have in the house, how many spices that we use, then we come to see a lot of variety. So there's a lot of variety. And when we come to the small world, the small world is filled with diversity and variety. But as we look at the big world, we see more oneness, more unity, more singleness of purpose, more singleness of design, et cetera, et cetera. 
Dear beloved Muslims, this is the Islamic way of thinking, and we have to come to conform to the Islamic way of thinking and stop looking so much at the discord of life. That will make you miserable. Don't dwell so much on the discord of life. Dwell on the unity of life. That is where the Muslim find his peace. Allah is one existing by Himself, needing nothing of His creation, and He's not the one who creates and then some other one can create with Him and be a competitor. He is (Arabic) He is the creator of everything and whatever we create, it's creation in only our imagination. We've only taken from G-d's work and used what He has created and used our tools, or faculties that He gave us that He created to produce something. So whatever we produce really its His. 
If a man has a piece of land, if he has a piece of land and you come there and you live on his land and then he provides you with the seeds, he provides you with the seed to sow on his land and you sow the seed son his land and you get a crop, he has a right to that crop, he will pay you from that crop. But if you get the land, if you get the seed, he has the land, you get the seed, now you're partners, now you are partners. But if anyone has a seed of thought, he got it from G-d. You can't have one seed of thought without G-d. So how can we claim really possession of anything? So the Muslim spirit is this, Allah owns everything. We own nothing but the privilege to prove our worthiness in the eyes of G-d. That's all. As one who's given a trust. Wouldn't the world be much more peaceful if people would get away from the bigheaded idea of owning things? Because once you start really giving yourself to the idea that this is mine, this is my house, this is my land, and we possess children and people too, the same way. These are my children and many workers say of their men, servants, these are my boys, these are my girls, and they're talking their workers, right? Yes. But when we get to that degree, I call it disease and ourself for self, for self and self dominance over other things and other people, when we get to that degree of that sickness, really we are miserable to live with. We are hard to live with. We can't live with ourselves. 
People like that, they don't even find peace with themselves. As soon as they become awake, they have to quickly call somebody. They have to talk on the phone. They have to get with somebody quick because their own company kills them. We don't want that kind of state in us. We want to be as Allah wants us to be. We have one G-d, one boss that's Allah. Neither the communist nor the capitalist are our boss. Allah, He's our boss. Neither the white man, not a black man is our boss. Allah is our boss, and we have one human type that we put above every other no matter what the race is, and that's Muhammad the prophet, peace and the blessings be upon him. That is our success. That is our success. 
So don't forget, we are one community, one united community. Is it a community united upon race? No. It is a community of all people. We have one Allah. We have one religion. We have one human type as the model, peace be upon him. We have one central overriding orientation in our life, that's our (Arabic - Qibla). We have one Qibla, not two. We have one Qibla, one direction for which we all turn in worship. Our whole life is regulated by a central purpose, whole life regulated by a central purpose. I have my own individual interests. You have yours. I have my own personal likes and dislikes. You have yours. I have my own opinion about things. You have yours. This is Al Islam. This is our freedom. That's our right Allah, and not only allows that, Allah encourages that. But he says also to everyone is an interest toward which he's turned, being turned. He says, now turn you all toward the sacred mosque in Mecca. 
So there He unites us all in spite, or in spite of our separate interests and our separate concerns, our personal opinions and all that, in spite of all that, G-d now directs us in a unity. He brings us in a unity. He brings us together as one people in a central purpose. And that is to do what? To obey the nature that He has created for us. The sign is Ibrahim (Arabic - Haifa), peace and the blessings be upon him. Ibrahim Hanifa. Ibrahim, the prophet Ibrahim, he was a prophet, that G-d blessed to also be a model for the people. Allah says in the Qur'an, you'll find in Abraham a beautiful model, a beautiful model. So we know that Abraham also was a model man, a model one for not only one race or for one region, but for all people. 
Then Allah says he raised the house up. Who built that house? He instructed Abraham and his son, Ishmael. peace be upon the prophets. He instructed them to build that house. As a house for who? All humanity. So He raised the house up for all (Arabic) for all humanity. He raised the house up for all humanity. And in the Qur'an, Abraham is called an Imam for the people, not one people, for all the people, Imam for all the people. He was an Imam for all the people, and he was a sign of the last one coming who would establish that as a practical way of life, would establish an independent society under one Allah and under his revelation. That's what Abraham hoped for. That's what Abraham was promised through his seed, the promised land. What is the promised land but the ummah of Al Islam. That's the promised land. If you don't understand the ummah of Al Islam, the international community of Muslims that prophet Muhammad was blessed to establish in his lifetime, peace be on him. If you don't understand that to be the promised land, then you don't understand what is the promised land yet. That is the promised land, for he promised many people and they were coming in and going out. They would come into it and lose it before it was truly established in its full glory or its full dimension, full meaning. 
But through Prophet Muhammad, it was established in its full meaning, and his community became a community, a model community for the world. It became a mercy for the world. Right now we have our Western civilization, but our insight, we owe it to the Qur'an. I'm speaking now as a Westerner in this land, the Western people owe the insight to the Qur'an, to the revelation that came to Prophet Muhammad. The regeneration, the regeneration of the sciences. They owe that to the mission of Prophet Muhammad, the universal mission of Muhammad, the revelation we call Qur'an, that's what they owe it to. What they call the Renaissance, what they call the age of freedom, all of that came about as a consequence of the revelation and not prior to it, but it came in consequence, not prior to it, for the Christianity itself was in darkness. 
The Christian world for centuries was under darkness. Their civilization was stagnant, their females were enslaved. The public had no dignity, no freedom. Only a small elite were in the power and they denied the public education. But it was only after Al Islam, after Qur'an and after Muhammad, the Prophet did the real idea of freedom come and did the real movement of science of the sciences come. All of this came in consequence, not prior to the Qur'an and Prophet Muhammad, peace and the blessings be upon him. So the Muslim, see, he walks in dignity. This world doesn't intimidate a real Muslim no matter how much they have, no matter how much road they've gained on the Muslim world in terms of material power and in terms of sciences, the physical sciences, the sciences. We are not intimidated by their advances. We are not intimidated by their progress. Not when we know what Allah has revealed. When we know what Allah has revealed, then we are just impatient. We are impatient with the mediocrity of the Islamic world, and we wonder what's wrong with the Islamic world that it doesn't get in the forefront as Allah ask it to do through the prophet. He say, be foremost not behind, not just keeping up with somebody. Allah tells us to be leaders to be foremost.
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