06/30/1990
IWDM Study Library
Faith and Works Cleveland

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
As-Salaam-Alaikum
Audience: Wa Alaikum salam.
Al-?amdu li-ll?hi rabbi l-??lam?n. Praise be to Allah, the Lord, the Sustainer of all the worlds. Nasta’eenahu wa nastagfirahu. We seek Him for assistance and we turn to Him asking forgiveness. Wa nu’minubihi azawajal”. And we believe in Him who is mighty and sublime. Wa nash-hadu anla ilaha illallah. Wa nash-hadu anna Muhammad abduhu wa Rasuluhu. And we witness that there is but one G-d as we say Allah and we witness that Muhammad is His messenger. Sallallahu alayhi was salam. The prayers and the peace be upon him. Wa ala aalihi, wa sahbihi ajmaeen. And on his following his family, the companions of the Prophet, all. Am?n.
Before addressing the topic for today in Cleveland: Faith and Works in our religion, for us as Muslims. I must express the great joy that we experienced last night at the seventh annual observance of the building of the Masjid Bilal. And the achievements of the Imam Clyde Rahman and the people who were working hard with him. We certainly had a very inspiring and historic meeting occasion last night that I'm sure will benefit us in our spirit and our morale and in many other ways for the rest of our life. And for the lives of our children to follow for many generations.
I don't think the impact of this is registering on many of us as it's registering on myself and I'm sure a few others. The impact of this may be too much for the people that care nothing about anything but what is the grocery list today and who's coming over or what I'm going to have before going to bed or what's on Channel 7 or whatever.
For persons who busy their minds with nothing but things like that, I know the impact of this escapes you right now. But somewhere in the future it's going to hit you too and you're going to realize what occurred last night. Not that this is the first time but the last night was the most impressive I've seen. Anywhere, we haven't had anything to equal that anywhere in these United States.

It is a great thing when one man among us is recognized for his goodness and his merits in a big way by big people or by important establishment. But it's a bigger and a greater thing when a person that says, he is beneath that person in importance, in leadership also received that kind of recognition. That's a greater thing. It's a greater thing when we have people working with us like Imam Clyde Rahman who says the Imam W D Mohammed is his leader. But he got recognition last night that few African-Americans get in this country anywhere.
Yes. Things are happening that are too big for our small focus right now. They're going to really strike us much later in the future. Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him. I guess, he was faced similar situations. When he was following G-d and starting out with his great mission that now incorporates about a billion people on this planet. They say about one out of five human beings. So, if you gathered five people, one of those numbers go to the Muslims.
There's a lot to be said about the great achievement of our prophet. That's not our topic for today but it's hard to resist talking about it. It's very hard to resist it. Especially, once it hits your mind, once your mind becomes aware of it, very hard to resist talking about the achievements of our prophet, peace and blessing be on him.
From what I've read in the Quran of him and from what I've read of him in his own reports that we have in the records. The life reports of our prophet or reports on the life of our prophet. I'm convinced that he faced a similar situation himself. Where the worth and magnitude of what he was doing was too much for the people, most of the people that he was addressing and trying to reach at that time.
So, for that reason, he spoke to them of the future. “That in the future, many things will be realized, and in the future, you will realize this”. And he would refer them to people who had circumstances that made it possible for them to have a better grasp of the importance of what he was doing. For example, in the Qur'an, Allah gives the revelation. Then it says, “and asks the Christians”. Consult the Christians, consult the people of the book, it says. We take that to mean people who believe in Christianity and Jews.
“Consult the people of the book for verification of what I am saying to you”. Why? “Because you don't have the experience and the circumstances behind you to really be aware to really grasp the magnitude and the great gravity of what I'm talking about. You only have me as a witness. Since you are limited, your circumstances behind you, have limited you, go ask those people whose circumstances have been favorable. They have great learned people among them and they are aware of the world and the world's history and they know better how to estimate the value of individuals' work. So, consult them”.
And I say last night you received a recognition that you would never receive from your people for the next 10 generations. Because we don't have that kind of circumstances in our life to make us value what he's doing as they value what he is doing. I'm not saying this to condemn us. I'm saying this I hope to enlighten us. To let us know that though we are perhaps the best people in preparedness when it comes to sincerity and enthusiasm but we are not the best people in preparedness when it comes to a situation for measuring the value and worth of individuals who are doing great work.
We'll grow into that. We are growing into it and we are growing fast. I'm happy to say that and we are growing very fast. We are becoming a sophisticated body of people real fast. It can’t happen too quick for me though. So much for last evening and, again, it's hard to turn from that focus there on what occurred last night.
So much that is stirring in me that I would like to say. I will simply just close that last evening out saying we thank Allah for the achievements of Imam Clyde Rahman and the hardworking people with him. And we pray that Allah always bless him and the people working with him. And preserve their works and increase their works, Amin.
I would like to open the topic for today or the subject for today if you want to call it that, the address for the day. I like to use the expression, the address for the day, with some reading from the chapter in Qur'an called the Ar-Rahman the Beneficence. Before reading the contents of this chapter or the Ayahs or verses of this chapter, I would like to make comments on the very title itself, Ar-Rahman. Ar-Rahman is the attribute or name of the almighty G-d, Lord creator of the heavens and earth. Are one of the, we say the 100 names or 99 attribution names of Allah, Ar-Rahman.
We know that that number is only a number we use in formal situations, in formal conversation and discussions. We know that for Allah as Allah says in the Qur'an, for Him are all the most excellent names. Ar-Rahman, first of all, is important to know the roots of Rahman. The root, that is the core meaning of Ar-Rahman, the core. The nucleus, if you understand nucleus. Core is the main part of a fruit or something, right? The center, the most important part.
Nucleus means the same. If we understand what we mean by this expression, then the root or the heart of the word is mercy. It comes from Rahma, mercy. Ar-Rahman is the one who is so bountiful, having so much resources. Everything that exists as resources really come from Him, the creator, Allah. He gives it to His creatures; it has been created for His best behaving creature. That’s why He created it to influence goodness in His creature.
To influence good behavior in His creature, to influence thankfulness in His creature. And that first development in His creature: faith. To influence and increase faith in His creature. Faith in His creature for the Lord, for G-d. He created so much and so much. Now, let’s read some verses from the Qur'an the last revered book, the chapter titled, Ar-Rahman.
Though most of us will not speak Arabic or understand Arabic or read Arabic, still I think all of us can appreciate the soothing, for want of a better word, melodious sound of the Qur'an. Melodious means like music. It begins and we also always ask Allah's protection from the rejected Satan. It begins, "Bismillah, Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim." With the name of G-d most gracious, most merciful, Ar-Rahman Alamal Quran. G-d most gracious, it is He who has taught the Qur'an. Alama means to make someone know, to bring someone to know something by teaching, by informing. So, He is the one that taught the Qur'an.
Ash-Shamsu wal Qamaru bi husban, the sun and the moon follow courses exactly computed. We understand the word "computed" now. A computer is so common. I think everybody understands the word "computed," but I remember about maybe 30 or 40 years ago reading this, and I had to stop because many in the audience didn't understand what "computed" means. Because I didn't either until I ran into it and learned what it meant. Because I would have to explain "computed."
We don't know it now because a computer is another tabulator, right? It does much more than that, but that's one of its functions. The sun and the moon follow courses exactly computed. And it goes on to mention many other things that we see and marvel at in Allah’s creation. And some things that many of us take for granted in His creation. It moves from addressing the operations that are in the sky, the heavens. But before doing that, it reminds us of the obligation to establish justice by others, balance and justice.
It comes down to the Earth, the focus comes down to the Earth. And brings our attention to the great, wonderful bounties that we find on the Earth. Earth with plenty herbage, herbs, plants that are useful to man in so many ways. Giving him fruits and spices and serving his needs in so many ways. And it also brings our attention to the waters, the seas, the bounties in the seas, the beautiful things that are formed in the seas, the fish that we eat, the food that we eat. But also, beautiful things that come from fish life or sea life that we use as jewelry, as coral, and all those nice things.
You can make nice utensils and vases, whatever, and jewelry and everything from it. Also, the sea also supports our, what do you call it, cargo and support us and carry us across the seas. What is being carried across the sea on that surface of water that Allah has made to support tons and tons and tons within a vessel? The water itself created by G-d, this water is filled with useful things for man and beautiful things for man. Then that ship that he's made to sail the water, he made it from materials provided by Allah. And he himself riding in the ship, he was created by Allah. And all of his abilities and everything, his talents and everything was given to him by the Creator.
Whatever cargo is in there, raw or manufactured, came to him from the Creator. So, I'm just summing this up and briefly commenting so we can see the point. The point is Allah has been most kind to His creatures, most kind to His creatures. And we are born with it in our nature to know that whether it's Allah, whether you call Allah, whether we even know the name. But we are born within nature to know that kindness is in the world for us.
The baby hollers and screams coming into the world most of the time, but it's not because it is afraid of what's out here in the world, it's because it's suffering pain. The medical profession has described the pressure that's put on the infant's skull when it's being drawn through the womb, it's a great pressure and a lot of pain. I guess that's the way Allah tells him and says, "Well, you think this is bad? Wait till you run into some of those relatives of yours."
I guess Allah has conditioned him, getting him ready so he can survive worse things that's coming. Anyway, it's there, but once he's out, he's just as contended, once he touches his mother and feels her and the warmth from her, he's just as contented. It looks like he knew he was going to be put in good circumstances. Just like nature just made him or her know that the child was going to be put into good circumstances.
The baby is born with the nature to have faith and trust in something of the world that's going to take care of it, be kind to it, right? That is the mercy of Allah, that's the grace of Allah, that's the goodness of Allah. He has done so much good for man and woman. When we say "man," we mean man and woman. He's done so much good for man down through the ages, down through the generations, but this has been clocked into our genetic makeup.
It's in our genetic makeup, it's in our genes, it's in our blood, it's in our bones to expect goodness and to have faith in goodness, to trust goodness. I want to come back to the first verses now because these first verses, they're different, we want to see the uniqueness of this religion. We want to see this religion's distinction from other religions, so we have to go back to the first verses.
Most revelations before the Prophet, the Prophet is the last prophet, you see, he's the last prophet, so the last complete. What's given in the finish in man's growth process should be better in degrees, it should be more progress. It should be higher in man's eye when he looks at it to evaluate it. The last should be higher because it's given to him according to his developmental need, that's how Allah has served us. He created us and He has given to us according to our developmental needs.
So, that that is given lastly for the final maturity in man for the final maturity in man, for the final growth in man, it must also be more valuable and more important for man, it must also be higher in man's reach when he is aspiring for something. It must be higher and it is. Instead of just dwelling on these things that man behold in the physical environment, because that’s how the scriptures before this scripture, it mostly dwells on the stars, the heavenly bodies, the wonders of the heavens and the beauty of G-d's creation. But never addressed the developmental line in the human being. Look, the intellect of man being referred to first. “He who has taught the Quran, the beneficent G-d who has taught the Quran”.
We see, understand the beneficence of G-d, the kind, the giving and kindness of G-d and His mercy, great mercy when we recognize that G-d has served the intellect of man. G-d has served the intellect of man. Many of us, we forget that man's value in the world is that really the result of the growth of his intellect more than anything else, the growth of his intellect. Now, we know the heart is very important.
The heart is the key to the growth of the intellect, it is a key, a very important key to the growth of the human intellect. We know, dear people, from the studies the history of man, his life is growth and development, that the growth of his intellect really explains man's ability to achieve great wonders in the world. You can have the best people in heart, but if they don't have no schooling and no intelligence, it's just like being in a rabbit field.
Rabbits are sweet and nice too you know, beautiful and sweet, nice things. The intellect is what establishes man as the crown in the kingdom of creatures. He's the crown. He crowns the kingdom of creatures. It is his intellect. And that is addressed first in the Quran after the verse saying Ar-Rahman. Ar-Rahman is a verse to itself. Isn't that something?
The one word, the name of G-d form one verse to itself: Ar-Rahman. You can stop right there. Ar-Rahman, stop, one verse. The beneficent, the merciful, the beneficent G-d, Ar-Rahman, a complete verse within itself.
How is this a complete verse within itself? How is this a complete thought, a complete line of reasoning, a complete thought, a complete method to a man's intellect, to his heart and mind in itself, just the one word, Ar-Rahman? Not even Allah. Is there any verse that says Allah and stops? Why? Because when we say G-d, G-d is a name that encompasses that, that incorporates so many other wonderful attributes that cause us to know G-d by His description.
But when we say Ar-Rahman, it touches that all of us know that someone has been kind to us. All of us know that we have received mercy somewhere along this road. All of us know that. All of us know that we received mercy from somebody along this long road that we've been walking on, whatever. All of us know that somebody had to be kind to us in order for us to be here enjoying what we enjoy. Somebody had to be kind to us. I’ve had individuals tell me, "I had nobody treat me right. Nobody ever just treated me right."
I have patience with people like that because I know they met with some people that were so terrible that the experience just obliterated, blotted out, killed and made them forgetful of everything else that ever happened good. That one experience was so ugly, it just BAM, it just shattered everything that ever happened good in their life. So, I have patience with them, and I just listen to them until they get tired of telling me all the bad stuff. Then when I see that they ran out of telling me all the bad stuff and then I say, "How did you get this?"
I say, "That's nice." I say, "Where do you get those nice pieces from? I find something, nothing but the looks. I say, "You know you are a handsome person." I say, "Where did you get that?" Maybe he's ugly physically, I say, "You got a good heart."
Then, sometime, it's not that but he's sharp witted. I say, "You sharp witted, person." I say, "Where did you get that?" You have to start gradually making them conscious. And let him know that he hasn't been mistreated all the time. Somebody must have treated you nice at some time in the road. Somewhere down the line, you were treated nice. Then, you can bring it all home to them gradually. Most of them, I'll bring it home to them gradually, saying, "Look, how are you here talking to me?" A lot of people are dead. A lot of people can't talk, they don't have speech. How are you here talking to me?" I say, "Well, start counting your blessings."
That's what you could tell them, say, "Hey, stop counting the misery that you've experienced, chalking up all and keeping a record of all the bad things that happened to you. Try to keep a record of something good that has happened to you." You have to change them from a pessimist to an optimist if you can. The one verse Ar-Rahman, just the name of G-d has one word and that is the name of G-d: Ar-Rahman, the Beneficent G-d.
Do you know the evidence of it is in Quran that at one point in the Prophet's mission, his followers were so moved and touched by the name Ar-Rahman? Every chapter begins, "Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim." Those are the two names opening up every chapter, except one and then those two names come in that chapter that is not opened by with those two names. If you read the body of that chapter, you run into Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim in that chapter, so every chapter contain it.
Every but one has it in in the beginning: Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim. When they're hearing this come from Allah revealing this to the Prophet and they're hearing it as he gave it to them. The name Ar-Rahman became so endeared to them that they were calling on G-d by Ar-Rahman, not Allah. More of them in the habit of them will say Ar-Rahman more than they'll say Allah.
The verse came, “Say, call on G-d by Allah or by Ar-Rahman. To G-d belong all of the most beautiful and most excellent names”. It must have been creating a problem. I’m sure some of the believers probably saying, "Look, are we changing from calling G-d Allah, from calling the Creator Allah to calling Him Ar-Rahman?" However, when we understand the name Allah, we understand why Allah has remained the most dear name and the richest name for man's intellect when we want to really comprehend or behold the name of G-d, the concept of G-d that Allah is richest and complete and perfect and holding the concept that man wants to give a name to Allah, "Allah."
However, some of these names, especially Ar-Rahman, touch the heart in such a way that it makes a believer cry out, "Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahman, Oh, G-d. Ya Ar-Rahman." In fact, you'll hear them if you go among Arabic-speaking Muslims in the East, especially during Hajj, you'll hear them calling out, "Ya Rahman. Ya Rahman. Oh, Ar-Rahman. Oh, Ar-Rahman," which is natural and proper and acceptable.
He created the man. He created the human being. Now, understand, G-d is saying the Merciful One created the human being. Allah the Merciful One, G-d Himself, the Merciful One, the Merciful and Beneficent one. He's merciful and kind and giving and just serving your needs. He created the human being. That's very important. Understand, this is the third verse, very short verses. The first one, Ar-Rahman. The second one, Alamal Quran, He taught the Quran. The third one, Khalaqal insaan, He has created the human being, or man.
It is very important. Why? Because the mercy and kindness and benevolence and charity, goodness of G-d to man touches man in his emotions and in his heart so much that he began to look for that concept or that image as G-d. The one that will show him the most kindness, he has a tendency to make him his G-d. The one that he believes is more kind and gentle and loving and serving his needs and everything and just giving him gifts, "Oh, that must be G-d," but who was that? Yes, it is G-d, but the one that does that is Allah the creator. Everything ties back to the creator; everything ties back to the creator.
I don't know how many Christians we have here today. We always are happy to have Christians among us, and if they have good sound faith and healthy faith, we don't want to take that away from them or to shake that or shatter that for them. We'd rather see them hold that than to come over here and be a bad Muslim. I don't know how many Christians we have here today, but I do know we have a lot of ex-Christians here today. So, for that reason, I want to say this, the Quran addresses the most important matters in the life of man, the most important matters.
And when I say "life," I mean the whole thing, history and everything, the most important matters. But at the same time, it touches in the individual and communicates to the common person. He doesn't have to know anything about the history, he doesn't have to know anything about Christian theology or anything. Allah is speaking directly to His common creature.
He touches his heart, He touches his mind, He touches his aspiration. He touches his whole life, his whole life everything directly, communicating to him directly. But at the same time, Allah has the ability, the power to communicate to the whole human family while He's addressing the common individual person. So, it seems like it’s not addressing Christian theology, but it is.
In Christian theology, they made a mistake of taking the beauty and mercy and kindness and generosity of Jesus Christ, the Prophet, peace be upon him, to be the proof of divinity in him that he's a G-d. Because he was so loving and everything. He loved them so much, "He must be 
G-d, that must be G-d." Right now, we have to be careful loving certain spiritual people or spiritual man, an imam, a preacher, a minister, a priest, a rabbi. He has to be careful being really kind and loving because there's a tendency in us to appreciate that so much, we make the mistake of thinking that's G-d, especially in the Western world.
In the Western world, man, though he's lifted up high as the image of G-d or if they say he has in him the divine spark. Some more confusion, that's all it is. If he got a divine spark in him, it's nothing but a human spark and ain't going nowhere as a G-d. It'll go a long way as a human but nowhere as a G-d. See, we don't believe like that, and I thank Allah that He saved us from that kind of idea.
Now, the problem is that this world, the Western world has made all of us, in our nature and in our originality, feel bad. When they say, “man is born in sin and that all of us are just doomed, we're just born to be sinners and we're doomed unless we be saved by the one with the divine in it”. In the Christian theology, this one is Jesus Christ, the Prophet. And that kind of idea has influenced the way we perceive each other, I would say, the concept we have on each other, the attitudes toward each other, our treatment of each other, it has influenced all of that.
“Oh, the human being ain't worth nothing anyway, it’s nothing but a sinner." And those people, many of them who were trying to develop themselves into the divine man in religion, those in the religious schools of thought, they made the mistake of actually believing that if the human person didn't have this divine spark in them, that they were no more than a beast, common animals and should be treated like animals. Now, we don't want to bring an ugly history back, but I'm telling you what I'm saying is history. Actually, treated the common people as they call them "the common herd," the common herd, the common people are animals.
There was a time when you had no rights as we have today, you didn't have any kind of right. The common public or common masses are treated just like animals. If you didn't have what they thought was the intellectual spark or the divine spark in the intellect, then you were nothing. Not only that, the women too, the women were thought to never be able to have that. Their nature wouldn't allow them to have that, so they were treated just like property.
No education for women and no education for the common public, that lasted for centuries, all right? I'm talking about Western society; this is Western society. You can go in some places perhaps even today, in some places where still, there are traces of that kind of ignorance and that kind of treatment of common people. They'd be treated just like animals, just treated just like dumb animals and worse than animals because some men are very kind to their animal. It depends whether they like them or not, they're treated like the rejected animal, the kind of animal that they don't want, treated worse than an ordinary animal, yes.
We know how we were treated when we were first brought to this country, we know how we were treated. You can see what can happen. Why? Because they believe that the natural man is nothing, the natural man is nothing. He's just a sinner, he's nothing until some divine spark come into him or something. We must understand what G-d is saying to us, that He has been most kind to His creatures, most kind to His creatures.
He didn't give this to just some Priests or to some Monks or Rabbis or Imams. He gives this to all His creatures. He gives all these things to all of His creatures. That tells us that He is the same by all of us and He must've estimated us differently. He must have valued us differently, right? Because if He didn't, why was He so kind by us that were not born Christians? Why was He so kind by us that were not born Jews? Why was he so kind by us that were not born Muslims?
He's been kind by all. He's blessed people with environmental situation that was a paradise for them, yes, and brought so many riches into their reach and made it possible for them to realize heaven on earth almost, yes. And they didn't have to be Muslim, they didn't have to be Jew, they didn't have to be Christian, He did it for them. He didn't say, "Let me find this, let me first make them a Muslim, and I'll do this for him. Let me first make him a Christian, and I'll do this for him." No, He did it before we were made Jews, Christians, and Muslims. You see the wrong in us, Jesus is the Lord and Jesus is the love.
Allah is love. Allah is the divine love, Allah is the divine mercy, Allah is the loving G-d. He is the friend that never fails us. We make a big mistake. And the kindness that we credit one man with is no more than the kindness that we will see in many men if we really know history. There ain't no one man that'd be kind like that. Sometimes, a mother that never gets her name in the news has suffered more than Jesus Christ suffered, according to the gospel.
I'm talking about according to the gospel, and don't think I'm not a believer in Jesus Christ. I'm a strong and firm believer in Jesus Christ, peace be upon the prophet. But I know too that there have been people whose names have never gotten into the news, not even to speak about in scripture or on a book and they have suffered more than Jesus Christ has suffered according to what they say happened to him. They suffered more. Many of Jesus Christ's followers suffered much more than he suffered according to what they report of his suffering.
They didn't break, they still love creatures, they didn't curse their enemies, they did the same thing. So, if that's going to make him G-d, then there are other many of them G-ds then. See what Allah is trying to teach the Muslims? "There's a big mistake to not trace everything back to me the Creator." What is existing out there by itself? Nothing. What started on its own without Allah? Nothing. I'm just quoting scriptures. And this is what makes strong faith.
See, when you understand that of Allah, that'll make your faith strong, strong faith. Have a little patience. It won't be too long, I hope. In this religion, we are given concepts that protect us from having the truth fragmented and alienated before us. See, man's mistake, misguidance in man's intellect and in his heart many times cause him to think he's right but he breaks the truth away from itself.
And he goes with a part of the truth that looks that attracted him, it becomes so fascinating for him, he only takes that one facet. He takes that one little facet of the truth, and he becomes so enchanted by it, so fascinated by it. After a while, he's swearing up and down. And will go to the gallows, he will go to the fire pit, whatever, "This is G-d, this is G-d," saying, "No, this ain't part truth, this is the whole truth, this is the absolute." And he will go to death saying that. If he had patience and would accept that maybe he made a mistake, it'd be so easy and simple to show him that what you have isn't nothing but a fragment.
You have a small view of the whole. That's why the Quran, Allah in the Quran treats the subject that is close to the hearts of people, Christians and even Jews, so delicately. But at certain points, the surgeon has to save the life of the creature that he just cuts. The whole cancer is taken out at one stroke, zoom. The doctor, you go with a bad tooth or something, the good wise doctor, first, he acts like he ain't even going directly to the tooth.
He's rubbing you, you say, "Doctor, the pain is here." He knows it. He'll say, "Let's see here." He mops the mouth; he starts mopping your mouth. "Are you cleaning my gum?" He starts mopping the gum, He knows what he's doing. He making it possible to do what he has to do without you suffering so much. After a while, you ain't feeling too much and he then puts something that'll kill the pain on the surface of the gum.
After a while, he later takes a needle, he wipes it around real slow. A good one. You don't even feel the needle go in and then he gets his stuff. You know now he's getting ready for the tooth, right? You know, you can see it. You know what he's doing. Most likely and most of the time, you don't even feel nothing but pressure. The tooth gone, it’s out. But that tooth is going to come out. It's going to come out or be filled, whatever he got to do, he got to do it.
At one point in the Quran, Allah brings us the truth right to our eyes in a way that let us know, "No, I either got to be a Muslim or I just got to give this up. There ain't no rules for me holding this wrong belief." It says, “What if Allah would will to destroy every creature on earth, including Jesus and his mother, peace be upon them? What is there to prevent G-d from doing that?” Nothing. Aren't we stupid then to worship the one who depends upon the other for his life, for his survival, for his security, even to be resurrected, even to go from death to the heavens?
Wouldn't we be stupid to worship one as a G-d that's so dependent? What struck me though, and another feature of this religion that's unique for it, this religion communicates to man, and remember what I said, when we say "man," we mean humanity, communicate to man by giving, first, respect to his true self, the true self of man. To explain what I'm saying, more than any other religion that I know of, this religion communicates to man through man's nature. It addresses man's nature to communicate to him.
It addresses man's nature, his natural life, his natural development, his natural aspiration in communicating to him. It respects man, what he is essentially, what he has been created, essentially, to be or what he is. That's what it addresses. In doing that, it brings the light into the intellect life into the mind, into the reasoning of the human being. It brings life into that that wasn't existing when he was blindly following myths, fiction, superstition, false beliefs, whatever we want to call it.
And I used to hear this difference between the Prophet Jesus, peace be on him, and the Lord of the heavens and earth. Before I learned the logic of the Quran in dealing with this misconception. I was just partly aware of that logic at that time. Before I could really utilize the great logic of the Quran and the methods of the Prophet in dealing with that, it was convincing enough for me, I was a young man, I was a minister for the Elijah Muhammad, a young man.
I couldn't understand. I couldn't have patience with certain people that would hold to the idea that there is any G-d other than Allah. You know the simple thing about Jesus was enough for me that he was a baby. That was enough for me, he was a baby. Now how can something that was a baby can be Allah, can be G-d? I wasn't raised in the church. I wasn't raised in the church but I was raised with a kind of church way of seeing G-d. Because I was told too that G-d was a man. That G-d was W. Fard Muhammad in the person, I was told that.
So, I was given a similar kind of idea but I was also influenced, as we all were who were taught by Elijah Muhammad and his ministers, I was influenced to at least try to reason with things. No matter how strange a thing we were taught, we were told to pick it apart, to reason with it, that everything should be figured out or proven mathematically. That made me start picking things apart. I got to make sense out of it.
I would stand up, as a minister, and I'm sure I drove many Christians to dislike me. But some of them liked me and they became followers of the honorable Elijah Muhammad and they're still around here. Yes, I see them, they're still around here. They saw me when I was a young man on Greenwood, 53rd and Greenwood, preaching over there, and they're still around. Some of them are still around. They stood up and they said, "Yes, I believe.” After I got through the fire and brimstone.
Yes, I couldn't understand. I said, "He was a baby. How could you believe he's a G-d? He's a baby. When he was a baby, somebody cared for him. He had to come into the world, your baby came to the world like a baby. He had a mother." That was enough for me. In his own word, in the gospel, I read the Bible too. I said, "Here's his own word in the gospel, he said the sent is not equal to the sender. The servant is not equal to the master." I said, "Still, the same gospel says they are three in one, all the same, all equal”. This is a contradiction.
I said, "I like it and I understand it when he says the sent is not equal to the sender. And the servant is not equal to the master. That's where he makes sense to me. When you say they're all one and the same and equal, then he kills it, for me." Yes, that's what I would tell them, as a minister of the honorable Elijah Muhammad. I'm telling you, I thought I was victorious, and I think I was. When you come with common sense against foolishness, and I don't mean this is foolishness, this is not foolishness but it’s deception, it's myth, it's myth and deception.
It's erroneous teaching no matter where it's found. It can be found on the holiest scroll in the history of the planet, it's erroneous teaching, it's deception. If you come at it with common sense, ain't nobody can stand against you. So, what they do? They run backwards. The best preacher, the highest one in theology, when you come at him with common sense, he has to back up off you. He'll get the running backwards.
Just like one, I won't say what the denomination because this denomination has been picked on enough. A fellow from one denomination, he invited the fight too because he met me when I was cooling down. I don't feel sorry for what I did to him. He invited an argument in religion with me. He said, "You're a Muslim, aren't you?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Your father is Elijah, right?" I said, "Yes." He jumped on me and said, "I'm a minister." I said, "Yes." He jumped on me. When I got to throwing at him nothing but common sense, "Get behind me, Satan."
I was a young man even at that time. I was in my early 30s. "Get behind me, Satan." I told him, I said, "Where are you coming from in the Bible?" I said, "There's another part that says that the real believers will make Satan flee from them. You're supposed to put Satan to flight. If I'm Satan, I'm supposed to be running from you. If you really got something." "Get behind me, Satan." Isn't that some kind of expression? "Get behind me, Satan." What do you mean, you are going to lead me? "Get behind me, Satan."
"If I'm Satan, you're going to lead me or something?" "Get behind me." "What you mean?" "Hide, hide. I don't want to see what you got. I'll call you Satan and I'd say anything about you but just to get that out of my face. I can't stand it anymore." That common sense logic, man, it puts some pressure on them. They had to run or start just ranting at the mouth or falsely accuse you of something as it go apart, it just would come apart.
Those really high up in the knowledge, some of them just become silent. Because they were told that not to risk the Ark of the Covenant in the battlefield. They say, they did that once they lost the Ark. It is the Bible, it's the Bible, no kidding. The Jews, not the Christians, the Jews, the Bible says, “Once they fought the people, they brought the Ark out into the battlefield, the Ark of the Covenant.
They brought it into the battlefield and ended up losing it to their opponents. They were told never to come out that with the Ark of the Covenant again, "Don't risk it in battle." That's not all real wise, boy. They don't risk the heavy stuff in the battle. If you start getting the battle hot and heavier for them, they just go silent as if they had nothing. Well, I guess that's wise. The Arabs have a saying, “If speech is made of silver, then silence is made of gold”.
That's an old Arab saying, and many of the proverbs in the Bible come from Arab sayings, they're wisdom from Arab. Bible history will tell you that, it's actually Arab wisdom that had been preserved under the title Proverbs, not all of it but a lot of it.


