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IWDM Study Library
Cultivate The Human Potential

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Announcer:
This is the World Broadcast of Imam WD Mohammed Speaks, the program that's dedicated to community development and human dignity. And now Imam WD Mohammed.
Imam WD Mohammed:
There is nothing worthy of worship except the one Lord. There is nothing like unto Him. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. Praise be to Allah. We thank Him for uniting us again on this Sunday, Ta’alim day. We pray that He bless us with more understanding in our religion, and with aid to us for the needs that we face every day in our life. Praise be to Allah. I believe it was last Sunday when we were discussing the word Ta’alim, connecting it with the root word of the verb to study, to learn or to teach, Ta’alim. One who is learned or who is educated will become an Alim and one who teaches or learns to teach becomes Mu'alim. And the study itself is Ta’alim, Ta’alim. It's important in this religion to understand that we are required to study and to learn to become knowledgeable. Every Muslim is required to become knowledgeable. Prophet Muhammad. Peace and Blessings be Upon him. He said, "Education is an obligation on every male and female child born." And he has also said, Peace and Blessings be on him, "Acquiring knowledge is the lost property of the believer." Another one of his well-known sayings is travel to China. "Travel even as far as China in sense of knowledge."

Allah Most High says in Qur'an, in the Holy Qur'an, at the beginning of the chapter translated in English, chapter by the name The Gold Ornaments. "And surely we have given it a Qur'an in Arabic that you should understand." Taqelun- Understand or become knowledgeable. Taqelun. Ahkul is brain. The name of the brain is Ahkul, brain. Taqelun is a verb formed of the same word Taqelun. It means that you should become sensible. Sensible, that you should understand or become sensible. This religion requires of the individual that he lives a sensible life and that he approach matters in a sensible way, not just in an emotional way. You have to approach matters in a sensible way. That brings us to the belief that society, if it is to be successful, that is, if it is to enjoy peace, respect between its members, then there must be some respect for the role of common sense. For the role of common sense. The learned, popular Imam Al Ghazali, in his book, his writing on the branches of the Ilm, or knowledge, he discussed the levels of sense. The levels of sense in man. And one level he identifies as intuitive, intuitive. And we know intuitive means sensing by some given, G-d given ability in us that is of a spiritual nature. Like we say, "Oh, I felt she was not doing well and when I called her, she was sick." You felt she was not doing well. You called her and you found her sick. So that's intuitive. This intuitive ability in man, it operates in every way. Not just to pick up feelings or emotional things, but it can pick up also objects. Objects. We can intuitively know an object is near us. Something tell us be careful and you look and there it is. There was an object. So, it picks up objects. It picks up feelings, it picks up objects. It even aids us in solving a problem. But it cannot be depended upon. We have no power over it. So, it is a gift from Allah. That's a gift from Allah to us. We can't depend on it. We can't say, well we're going to build a new Masjid next month and let us all do it intuitively. It won't work. This is one of the levels of sense, it's a gift from Allah. But Allah want us to come to a higher level of sense, a level higher than that. But Allah has made the human being.... The animal. Now look at the animal. The animal. What does he depend on except intuitive sense, except his physical senses and his intuition.

We don't call it intuition; we call it instinct. You see? Yes. But what does he either depend on, except his physical senses and his instinct. He has nothing else. He's left there. But Allah has protected him. Allah has not allowed him to think independently, so he has to obey the mold of his life. He has to obey the mold of his life. Whereas if the human being, He has given us freedom of thought, freedom of behavior, freedom of limited thought and behavior. We can ignore, come away from the mold of our life. I often say the roach that was in King Tuts palace, he's still here today and he still lives the same way. He hasn't lost his form of life, but the human being, we lose our form of life. We let our mind take us into ways of behavior that cause us to lose our human form of mind. And somebody, G-d's blessing, bring us back to the human form of life after we have gone out of it, left it completely, living worse than dogs. So that second level is the level of common sense. The level that require man to reason, to think and reason. Use his rational faculties.

Common sense. Don't think common sense means common feeling. It doesn't. Common sense means common sense. Common sense is the ability that every individual has to think correctly or to at least strive for correct solutions, correct direction, correct manner of behavior. This is common sense in us. I once was watching a television program and they were really interviewing this great attorney. He was a great attorney. They said he was perhaps the most successful attorney around at that time. This was years, two years ago. And they asked this attorney, they said, "What do you charge your successes to? You're so successful in the court." He said, "Most of my opponents, they depend upon the book and forget common sense." Yes. So common sense, no matter how much we learn, common sense is still very important. Common sense is basic, it's basic. Common sense, you see? But then there's another that's a high level. Man comes to a high level that enables him then to become the leader of the general masses, the ruler over the general masses who have nothing but common sense ability. What gives him that superiority in the knowledge? Scientific insight, scientific insight. That's the level that gives man knowledge and power to rule. Scientific insight. We know you don't have to have scientific insight to be chosen as a good leader or to be a good leader. You don't have to have scientific insight. Many men that cause of that have good character, that have good human quality and that have good common sense ability, they're chosen and they become leaders over others. But they can only go so far.

Those who have scientific insight will have power over them even though they're selected by the people. Now we know all the power belongs to G-d. We know Allah will protect whomsoever He will. He'll protect them. But what I'm saying, that won't be enough for those who have scientific insight. So, Al Ghazali, he has described these levels of the senses, and Allah has intended all of these levels to be ours. They are ours. These are our possession. Allah has given us that ability, that's human potential, human capacity, human potential. And we must seek knowledge. And the highest of all knowledge is revealed knowledge, revealed knowledge. Man cannot come by that or anything else for that matter. But man does not come by revealed knowledge, except through the agent that G-d has called the angel Gibreel. Angel Gibreel brings the human being the revealed knowledge from G-d. G-d has established that. Man cannot get revealed knowledge directly. He can only get it through Gibreel, the angel, Gibreel. So, Allah sends Gibreel to the human being to reveal or to convey to the senses of the human being, His revelation. His revelation. Gibreel has no ability to run the path of the world or to lead man into the way. Gibreel is just a medium. Gibreel is just a medium chosen by Allah, trusted by Allah.

When the man receives revelation, the man has to use his good senses, his good senses, his rational ability that the angel does not exercise. He has to use his rational ability then to lead man into the higher life, the life that Allah chose for him. So, it is revelation, this fourth dimension, or fourth level, revelation, is what makes possible success for man. We can have knowledge of science and still not have any success. Look how much science this world has and look how it has abused both human life and the sciences. So scientific insight by itself is not enough. You should know also the purpose, not just the knowledge but the purpose. And it is only Allah that reveals the purpose. Allah reveals the purpose and He has revealed the Qur'an and scriptures before so that man will know the application of knowledge, the proper application of knowledge, the purpose of his own being and the purpose of the knowledge. And it is all given to do what? To serve Allah's will. We are here to serve Allah's will. The knowledge is here to serve Allah's will. Everything has been done for Allah's purpose, for Allah's will. So, if we strive to please Allah, we are on the right track, we are on the right course.

Praise be to Allah. Allah Most High also says in Qur'an, in Surah Al Ahzab, Allah has not given any man two hearts in his chest or in his breast. And further Allah Most High says in the same chapter, in the same area of revelation, it says. Same context that is. "And you are not obligated. You are not charged with what you do unintentionally, but with what you do in your heart intentionally. And Allah is always, always Forgiving and Merciful." Praise be to Allah. Allah Most High also says, He says "And Allah, He is the one who has sent down from the sky water in measure. And He caused to be brought up by it a dead town or a dead land. On that wise, are you brought up or resurrected." How wonderful is this? Now understand we are talking about the nature of a human being. And Allah says He hasn't given any human being two heart in his chest or his breast. And now we read in the same context where Allah says He sends down water from the skies in due measure. Now you know if too much water comes, it's no good.

Not enough comes, it's no good. The right amount of water is good for the crop. And He says, "And on that wise, are you brought up." Again, Allah Most High says, and this is again is in the Surah titled The Ornaments. "Is one who brings himself up upon the outer show of things without the basic life to be found with clarity?" No. What it means is someone who builds himself up on the show of life, on a show of life, a pretense of thing, feelings, imagination, dreams, guess work, fancies and the like. And at the same time, now he's in a created form. So, because of him being structured or raised up in the show of life, he can't make any clarity. He can't bring about any clarity in his argument. When he tries to argue, defend himself, he can't do it. He can't be clear because he's established falsely. And this word Khifarm, it refers to what we call the material matter, the material matter of life. So, what the Qur'an is saying is that while it also condemns those who put all importance on the material life and become the most despicable of created beings because of doing that, they become the most despised, the lowest, the most degraded of the created beings because of them putting all the importance on the created matter, the created form. But nevertheless, we have to understand that if we are to have intelligent life, we have to have some knowledge of that created form.

You can't make sense out of life if you going to ignore the basic requirements in your life. Therefore, human conditions hinge upon the spirit of the nation's heart, the heart of the nation. It tells us what the state of life is. If you look at the heart of a nation and you see that nation's heart is insensitive, then you can expect the life of that nation to be inferior. You can expect them to be performing on an inferior level. But if the heart of that nation is focused, you can expect that nation's life to be dignified. Dignified, honorable, progressive. Progressive. Yes, progressive.
Announcer:
This is the world broadcast of Imam WD Mohammed speaks, the program that's dedicated to community development and human dignity. And now Imam WD Mohammed.
Imam WD Mohammed:
But how did David do it? He must have done it by skill, by deceit, because he deceived his general and got the leader of the sheep killed on the battle front. Then he took the sheep, right? That's the political order. Stealing the sheep from the church order, from the ecclesiastical order, the political order still in the congregation or the following of the ecclesiastical order. That's what this is a sign of in your Bible. Through David it's given to us, that the political order, the government fills the following of the ecclesiastical order by killing off their leader, bringing them into difficult contest that will embarrass them. They can't stand up in it, they get destroyed. And then the government gets those people over to themselves. Isn't that how they got a lot of you all that work underground for them right now? If Allah showed me one thing, you know He going to show me another. You think Allah will show me all of this about Fard and about the Bible, and about Elijah Muhammad, and about the Qur'an, and about ancient mythology, and wouldn't show me what this little thing you're doing here today.

You only see the tail of it. All right, so dear beloved people, Abraham is that one. So our order is the order after the order of Abraham. What is the word Millat, Millat. What does Millat suggest? Millat suggest a combining of two concerns. Spiritual and material are combined in one. They become reconciled in one concern.

So, Abraham was the Prophet who reconciled the material world with the spiritual world. He reconciled the material concerns with the spiritual concerns. Now, wasn't this the goal of most of the Prophets, the major Prophets? That's why Abraham is named as the one. G-d said, I will bless you. Through Abraham I will give you this blessing. But they were after it all the time. They were after it. But G-d said through Abraham, will I give you this blessing. And G-d said of Abraham, He said, I make you father of the people the Nations. Not one Nation, Father of the Nations. King is the plural semitic language. That's the plural. He was called at first Abram and then his name was changed from Abram. He was called Abram, Father of one community, Father of the sheepish community. And his name, because he sacrificed the sheep he was then, his name was changed to Abraham, Father of all the Nations, all the communities. And then G-d chose Muhammad Peace to be Upon him for his lasting and universal revelation. And He showed him that the community is established on the order of the community of Abraham. It is an international community, a community of all people in all Nations. Oh yes. So here we find the blessing of Abraham passing on.

But it was a destiny that people thought they wanted to reconcile worldly life. They wanted to reconcile material concerns with spiritual concerns. We have in us a spiritual nature, a spiritual soul, a spiritual concerns. And we have to learn the place of the external reality in that concern. And man, in trying to find that, he rejects it in ignorance. In ignorance, he rejects it. Says it's too difficult to carry this material, burden alone. He says the highest discipline of the soul is to live without it. To live without a woman, sex, to live without children, to live without money, to live without business, to live without participation in government. So, he intend right, but he goes off. So that's why Allah says in the Qur'an, that Adam slipped. And the word that is used is similar to an earthquake. What causes an earthquake? Imbalance. Imbalance. Imbalance. The pressure is either out of balance or the crust is out of balance. And then you have an earthquake. Yes. So, it says that he slipped. He didn't intend it, but his balance went off. His balance went off. You see. Praise Be to. Allah. Now, so if this is the order, then that tells us that in our community we can't be separated. Business mind, spiritual mind. Where are our material minds? Spiritual mind. We can't be separated like that. Community goals, spiritual goals. We can't be separated like that. No, this is one life. It's all one life. And Allah has reconciled it through Prophet Abraham and have applied it or demonstrated it through Prophet Muhammad, Peace be Upon him. In his day and time, these things weren't separate. Prophet Muhammad was the Chief over the material distribution. He was the Chief over government processes. He was the Chief over spiritual processes, the Chief over morals and ethics, the Chief over academics and higher learning. He was the Chief of all these things. He was the complete Prophet who reconciled the life, brought man in line with his purpose, with his full capacity. So, are you operating at full capacity? If you belong to the sheepish order, you're not operating at full capacity. And you fraternities and you sororities, you belong to the sheepish order. You are trained not to upset the boat. You are trained not to rock the boat. You are trained to do what the establishment wants and your reward for obedience not to G-d- Your reward for obedience to the needs of the establishment is your assurance that you'll progress up through the establishment. So, they say join a sorority, join a fraternity. So, you'll have assurance that you will progress right up through the establishment. You have been free to join these sororities in these fraternities now for over 50 years. And look at the situation of the African-American today. What are these sororities and fraternities doing to change the condition of your people? Economically speaking, governmentally speaking. What are you doing to give more power to your people in government? What are you doing to bring the poor up from poverty? What are you in a secret fraternity for? You nothing but a hired, hired slave plantation keeper. That's all you are. You are nothing but a hired keeper. You are one of their keepers for the plantation to see that other people of your own lot don't get ahead. You the special ones to watch their back when they ain't around. They train your eyes so you can watch their back, their hidden interest when they ain't around. And if you don't like this, you should be shot in your head. Cause you ain't fit to live. You ain't fit to live. Belonging to some secret fraternity.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself paying them money, letting them break down your resistance. They break down your intelligent discipline. They ain't satisfied until they break you down. Then they tell you now you're ready to join us. If you got any moral inhibition, they will break down your moral inhibition. If your reasoning process is too natural, they will break down your reasoning process. They ain't satisfied with you until you accept just to be a broken vessel for them to put together for their purpose. Don't you know that's the only thing that keep us down. Lemme tell you what keeps us down. It's not nature. Nature will get us up. It's these same people among us who watch the interest of the oppressor and sabotage efforts made by the people to dignify themselves. Throw confusion into the plan of the people who want to lift themselves up. Get themselves in key positions to sabotage operations, to retard operations, to program operations for self-destruction. Get yourself in positions to do that for who? Your master. And you feel indebted to them because they paid your way through school. They promised you a position and fulfilled their promise. But have they given you the most precious promise? Have they given you freedom?

Do you have a free conscience? Do your people have freedom to move up the ladder of progress? And Allah says in the Qur'an, "And the devil promise you and G-d promise you. And the devil is always one to break his promise. It's time we wake up, time, we wake up. And the only way we are going to be successful is to break every allegiance, break every allegiance that deny us a free mind, an at ease heart. Break every allegiance that deny us a free mind and an at ease heart. Then we'll be successful. Then we'll be successful. For us who called ourselves Muslims what is the answer? Allah says in the Qur'an that "Your death and your resurrection is as the death and resurrection of one person." Nafsin Wahida. You die because one wicked individual has the courage to go counter to the divine scheme of this universe. And you get back on the track or you come back to life because of one person having the courage to go counter to Satan's scheme. So, He says, "Your death and resurrection is as the death and resurrection of one person". One person. How is that again told in the scripture, in the gospel? In the gospel it says "Lift me up and I will draw all men up unto me."

They don't understand what they're talking about. How is it demonstrated in the community of Al Islam? Under our leader Muhammad the Prophet, Peace be Upon him, he called his men together to make a pledge of allegiance. And he told them to join their hands and he placed their hands above, he placed his hand above theirs, meaning that my rule is above yours. And Muslims who have followed that tradition, they still do it. If they have one and one person come up, he put his hand, the leader puts his hand over his hand and that makes the bond.

If there are many people, they join hands. The leader puts his hand over all their hands. That joins the bond. Not that the leader is the Prophet, he's carrying out the obligations. What does Allah say in the Qur'an? He says, "And when they placed their hands and your hand was above those, says Allah's hand, G-d's hand was above yours." So, the Prophet's hand is above the people hand. And Allah's hand, mean His authority. His authority is above the Prophet. But how is His authority carried out? Through the Prophet, a human mortal just like us. Now, dear beloved people, if we are Muslim, tell me where is your authority if you make me your Imam? Your authority is under my hand. Or you don't belong to this order. If you belong to this order, you join me. You say you belong to the American Muslim Mission? Some of you say, "Well I didn't join you. I joined this community." Well, you crazy man. You just a crazy person. The community has made their decision. The community decision is that I'm their leader Now, how you going to join them without joining their decision? If you join them, you have to join their decision.

And if you join their decision, then your authority is under my authority. You know, our enemies don't want this among blacks. This is the last thing they want among blacks. They don't want blacks to be obedient to another one unless he's a criminal. If he's a criminal, they don't mind it because they can easily come against criminals and squash them out overnight. See the law, the law is established against criminals, but ain't no law established against what I preach. President Madison says that this country has to recognize Islam as it recognized Judaism and Christianity. And ever since President Madison, the government has upheld that right. That legitimate religion has to have freedom of religion in this country. So, they can't deny me my leadership. So, they have to work subtly, deviously, deceitfully. They have to work that way through you to get you prejudice against me. And many times, they can't come directly at me. So, they will make you prejudice against any authority over you. They have to prejudice your mind against any authority over you. And then they're clever enough to take that kind of mind many times and make it accept a criminal over them.

See how subtle the devil's traps are? Too much for the average one of us. If we don't have G-d's guidance, we are finished. We need Allah's protection. Without Allah's protection, we are finished. So, I offered someone to come and stand by me. I offered them a position by my side. I said, I want you to go and check on this interest. He told me, he said, "I'll look out for the community's interest." That told me that he was not a man to stand by my side. Anytime you tell me you won't accept my orders in that spirit, that you have to accept it in the spirit that you are looking out after the community's interest. You are telling me that you don't recognize my authority over you, that you are equal with me. If you can look out after the community, you do it. Now, if I'm going to work with you, I'm independent to look out after the community as I see fit. So that's that same Indians with no Chief, that the white man has bred into his freed slaves and their descendants, where they resist authority in another one of their own kind.

No, you ain't telling me what to do. I'm just looking out for the community. Sounds nice, but it's very poison, very poisonous. You are just looking out for the community. If the President called me to the White House and say, "Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, because of your statute, your credibility, we want you to go on a mission overseas." And if it was something that I could accept and I did that, could I tell the President of these United States, "Well, I'm going for the sake of the United States of America." I say, "Yeah, I accept it, but I'll be looking out for the interests of the United States of America." The President will tell me, he'll say, "Who the hell you think I am? I'm the one that the America has chosen to look out for the interest of these United States. And you got the nerve to tell me in my face, after I offer you this dignified position, that you are going to assume my kind of power and responsibility? Say, "Well, you are one Imam we going to kill. We going to say you died of an accident or something. Say you hiccupped and you didn't come back. You caught the hiccups and didn't come back." Yeah, cause I would be a stone fool, wouldn't I? Now here I am offering a man a position by my side. I did this recently within the last three or four days because he has shown a change of heart. So, I offered him a position by my side to work right directly with me. Nobody giving orders, directly with me. He tells me "I'll look after the, you know I'm going to look out after the community interests." And with that kind of attitude. "You know, I'm going to look out after the community interests." In other words, not yours. I will never tell you his name. I'll just tell you his mind. That's good enough. We don't want that mind to pop up again. The greatest obstacle we have in the way is that sensitivity in us that won't allow us to accept another one like us to tell us what to do. Somebody going to tell us what to do. You can't live in this world without somebody telling you what to do.

Let us try to understand Islamic democracy. If you learn what an Islamic democracy is, and we had an aspect of Islamic democracy in the beginning of this talk, where I quoted Maulana Maududi by saying, in the long run, by and large, I'm not using the exact words. These are my words. But by and large the guarantee of a Muslim society that it will remain law abiding. That it will remain law abiding, that it will respect Islamic principles, moral principles, does not rest upon the external forces, the forces of government and et cetera, or people executing authority. It rests upon what? The content of the individual's heart, that has to be in the individual's heart. In other words, Allah has not given the human being a nature that can be ruled over by another human being without individual consent.

There must be individual consent. Even with Allah laws. Allah Himself, Almighty G-d won't impose His laws, though He know they're the best for you. He know they were designed perfectly for you, but He won't impose those laws on you without your individual consent. So that's what it's telling us. And scripture tells us that. I'm hurrying because I don't want to prolong the time. Scripture tells us that they and G-d, the trouble was that the people couldn't get the society to be at peace so it could prosper. So, the scripture came saying, there's coming a time when G-d is going to write His word on their heart. It is going to do away with that dependence on force, enforcement of the law. G-d is going to educate the people and He's going to educate them so they can see the value of these principles and they're going to love them. The more we understand a thing, and the more we see that it's made for us and that it works well for us, the more we are endeared to that thing. So, we begin to love it more don't we. And those Muslims who were educated under Prophet Muhammad, they're told in the Qur'an to support this, support it with more enthusiasm than you gave the age of ignorance, than you gave your leaders under polytheism. Support it with more enthusiasm than you had before this conversion. And that's what I tell you. I told you the other week that you have to support this with more enthusiasm than you gave to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

With more enthusiasm than you gave to Fard, WD Fard, WF Muhammad. With more enthusiasm. You have to support this with more enthusiasm than you gave white bosses. See, this is right. If this is the right, if this is better than what was before then shouldn't you support this with more enthusiasm? That's no more than good sense. That's no more than good sense. Allah asked it of the Prophets before, and it is an example to us that the leader must ask this of the people. And no one under me, as long as I live with my knowledge, is going to impose upon you without your consent. If you don't like this, you can get out of it. If you don't want to donate, you don't have to. If you don't want to give us a greeting, you don't have to. But there's a minimum that you have to do if you expect to continue to come around here and call yourself one of us. Oh yes, we have to enforce that. That's why in Al Islam, we have sanctions that we must enforce. There are sanctions that we must enforce, but we are not depending solely upon those sanctions. Where is our faith more than it is in those sanctions? It is in the state of your heart.

That's where our trust is. That's where our faith is. We know that long as the condition of the believer's heart is good, he will love these sanctions. He will support these sanctions. And no matter how much effort we put forth to enforce the sanctions, to enforce the principles of laws of Al Islam, if the content of the human heart has gone bad, if the individual has lost the Muslim content of his heart, we are finished. We are finished. That's why the learned Maulana Maududi says ultimately, enforcement does not rest in the sanction or in the law. Isn't this in agreement with the New Testament? In the law, but in the content of the human heart. Praise be to Allah, Praise be to Allah. So let us understand this, and I hope that this has helped us in some way today. So, I conclude this talk on the need to cultivate the human potential, to free it so it can go to its destiny that Allah chose for it. And anyone who's living, cheating himself on a level beneath his human capacity, he should think seriously about it and begin to do something in his or her life to bring that capacity up so that it reflects and compliment what Allah has made you. And Allah has made you, as He says, in the Qur'an, "A most dignified creature. He has made you honorable. He has created your forms and made them beautiful and most excellent." So, we thank Allah and we ask Him to keep our faith firm and protect our heart from deviating, keep our intent pure, keep us in the faith and not let us go back to the ways of confusion and mistakes and immorality.


