April 10th 1982
IWDM Study Library

Ta’aleem Sedalia NC Address: Part 1
Imam W. Deen Mohammed



Imam W. Deen Mohammed
[foreign language 00:00:07]


Praise be to Allah, the guardian [inaudible 00:00:21], cherisher, and sustainer of all the world. We seek help in him, we seek him for forgiveness for our sins, our faults, we put our complete trust in him who is mighty and sublime and makes all the gifts of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be on him. The noble and generous messenger of Allah.


I bear witness that nothing is worthy of worship except the one Lord and Creator, [inaudible 00:01:07] name is Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Allah, there is no associate, no helper in the room of the heavens and the earth, he is ruler alone. He has no partner, no associate, no one shares the rule of the kingdom with him. Allah sometimes stands for us and any who come to him, comes to him as a servant and that he has no need of any service, himself.


Therefore, whoever serves in the call with Allah, or whatever precept there is serving in rule of the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, angels and men and then they offer as a duty or requirement of their nature Allah needs nothing from any of them. It is for their own good, for their own benefit that they serve. Allah, most high, [inaudible 00:02:48] and explain and revealed to Prophet Muhammad the scripture so that we may have a better understanding, a clear understanding, regarding what was revealed before.


Muslims, as know, we are to believe also in those revelations or those scriptures that came before. We believe in the the Quran and we believe also in those scriptures that came before. Not that we believe in them in the form that they're in now. We understand that before Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, the scriptures were not existing in their pure form. They had been discarded and some of them had been corrupted by interpretations, translated and interpretations, et cetera. None the less, Muslims are to believe in the scriptures that was revealed before through the prophets Abraham, Moses, Jesus and all of the prophets of Allah.


In the Quran most high tells us of the mission of Prophet Muhammad, having previous prophecies that God would raise up a messenger like Moses and that he would be a teacher. Prophet Muhammad was a teacher. Prophet Muhammad has lead both the moral side of the human mind and also the needs, the needs intellectual growth and development. Prophet Muhammad appealed both to moral nature of the human being and to the intellect of the human being. Indeed, without going into a lot of discourse, or citing a lot of references, these passages, indeed the Muslims understand that Prophet Muhammad is the answer to that prophecy that Allah would give the world a messenger like Moses that is a teacher, a rational, teacher. And he dares with this particular one, that he would teach them the scriptures, the book and the wisdom, the book and the wisdom. That [inaudible 00:05:54] would check the book and the wisdom.


And that he would call them to purification, that he would call them to purification. So here we see the role of Prophet Muhammad in just a few words. That he would be a teacher, he would teach them the scriptures, teach the people the scriptures and following the scriptures, and that he would teach them the wisdom of the scriptures, not just to recite scripture without wisdom, but he would also give them the wisdom of the scriptures. And that he would lead them into purification. Purification. Dear beloved Muslims, we must keep these things in mind. There is no guidance without moral guidance. There is no wisdom coming to us from the scripture without moral soundness.


We can't expect to get the benefit that God intends for us in the scripture if we are going to be immoral, if we are going to be unconcerned about the moral development of our souls, our minds, et cetera. So this community understands that it must work hard to keep the best morals, the discipline, the best morals, [inaudible 00:07:35]. And to always keep proper morals and clean morals as a goal. For yourself, as individuals and also for your community, for your constituents. Whoever is working with you, whether it's business, whether there's education, whether there's [inaudible 00:07:56], no matter what it is, our morality is the ethics. It is the ethics that preclude every thing in the life of a human being. In self, in society, in government, everything. There is no place where our ethics stop. Our religion is a comprehensive religion and our moral code is a comprehensive moral code. It doesn't leave out anything in our lives, so we should keep that in mind.


Allah, Most High, it says in the Quran: [foreign language 00:08:38] The people of the scriptures. [foreign language 00:09:07] The people of the scriptures did not become the [inaudible 00:09:27] until there came to them the [foreign language 00:09:40] The messenger, or a messenger, from Allah, who recites for them purifies scripture. Purifies scripture. [foreign language 00:10:01] Who recites for them or who teaches them, purifies scripture. He has [foreign language 00:10:09]. That is, in what he brings to the believers of purified scriptures. [foreign language 00:10:20] Our book made right. Book corrected, or made perfectly right. Then, we understand, that those previous scriptures that Allah revealed to messengers before, return to us in the mission of Prophet Muhammad. That is, that that was necessary for our time, for the people, and that time and the time to come, that was worth while to preserve for the future generations, for future changes in the world, was retained. Was retained. In the right form, perfectly as God intended it.


So it came back. By that, we mean that if any Muslim would speak the scriptures that were revealed before, he should speak those scriptures in the Quran, not in sources other than the Quran, because the Quran now contains what was revealed here before. And it contains this in it's right space [foreign language 00:11:52]. And it, the corrected book, the corrected book, books made right again for all time. Now we like to refer to the Bible so that this Quran will help us to see what the Bible is presenting, what the Bible is trying to establish. Because the Bible is old scripture. If the Bible was good enough, than Prophet Muhammad would have taught the Bible. The Bible is old scripture, it is not good enough, the Bible contains the error, contains the mistakes, the error. But with the Quran we can see what is the right way to understand the Bible. The correct way to understand the Bible is had by studying the Quran.


Now Jesus Christ [inaudible 00:13:15]. Because we know he is a prophet of Allah, one of the prophets of Allah, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, one of the prophets of Allah. A strong characteristic, or perhaps the most obvious characteristics in the personality of Jesus, is the [foreign language 00:13:48] of Allah. The [foreign language 00:13:50] of Allah. Because we are told that he was blessed with something of the [foreign language 00:14:00], he was blessed with the [foreign language 00:14:04] of Allah and that he himself was inspired by the [foreign language 00:14:10] of Allah. And that Mary, his mother, blessed mother, she was blessed with the [foreign language 00:14:21] of Allah. And Jesus is a child, a prophet born of the [foreign language 00:14:31] of Allah. That he has given us something of his [foreign language 00:14:38]. So don't think that he is talking about something that is not common in the people.


All of us have something of the [foreign language 00:14:48] of Allah, but Jesus, he is singled out for having this [foreign language 00:14:57] dominant in his life. Dominant in his life. And we know [foreign language 00:15:03] refers to the spirit, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Now there is the branch of studying in Islam called [foreign language 00:15:13]. [foreign language 00:15:18] is the studying of spiritual life. [foreign language 00:15:24]. The spiritual aspect of the life. [foreign language 00:15:29]. So we can understand then, that Jesus was more a spiritual prophet, a [foreign language 00:15:36] than any other thing, than anything else. And we can see that the character of his followers all over the world. The character of his followers all over the world is spiritual character.


The Bible prophecies that he must return. That he must return. That Jesus will return. Now Jesus, though he is characterized as the spiritual prophet, the [foreign language 00:16:15] prophet of the [foreign language 00:16:17] of Allah, he also represents a role of the intellect. A role of the intellect, because according to the scriptures, he promised the people that this, that they had gotten, through his mission, through the grace of God, that this would dwell with them and live with them and cause them to go and search and would lead them into all truth. Into all truth. So this is not just any spiritual characteristic in the man, but it is a spiritual characteristic that we understand when we study the inner aim of man. Human beings have a natural inner aim and that inner aim is seeking fulfillment. It is seeking full expression. It is the force in the man, in the human being, that forces and drives the human being to reach the full capacity of the soul and intellect. They call it inner aim.


Well, this inspiration came into that nature of the human being and Jesus Christ typifies that in its first stage. First it's a spiritual urge and the spiritual urge eventually leads up into the encounter with rational, with the rational, right? It brings us to that encounter with the rational. So that's why Jesus has to come back. He has to return because that urge was not fulfilled in Jesus. He said God will send you another comforter and he will lead you into all truth. The Christians understand that that means the return of Jesus, or the continuation of that force typified in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. You see? But they realize, too, that it had to take on a new characteristic, a new characteristic, in order to bring people into the full life. You see?


Now, Allah Most High says of Jesus Christ in the Quran, that he is a [foreign language 00:18:56]. [foreign language 00:18:57]. He's a [foreign language 00:18:59] from Allah, from his Lord. [foreign language 00:19:04]. [foreign language 00:19:05] literally means 'a word'. A word. Now let's look to the Bible and see what the Bible says, and the Bible says also that he is the word. But what the Bible says of this word, the Bible mystifies this word, puts a lot of mysticism in this, says that in the beginning there was the word and the word took on flesh and dwelled in the world with men. And the Bible also says of the word that the word was with God and the word was God. So how is Quran is going to correct this for us? How will Quran correct this for us? In Allah we will see before we finish the [inaudible 00:19:52].


Now, the Quran corrects this. Jesus, then, has to return and we are saying that Jesus returned in Prophet Muhammad. But, that wasn't Jesus, that was Muhammad. That wasn't Jesus, that was Muhammad. The Bible says of Jesus, say I go away, and you see me no more. Now that's one statement. We have to write that down, that's a statement. I go away and you see me no more, so we wrote that down, no more. Now let's see what else it says. And nevertheless you shall see me. So now we write that statement down, too. You see me no more and you shall see me. Now how are we going to reconcile this? This contradiction? I mean, clean cut contradiction.


So how are we going to reconcile that? How are we going to bring that into some kind of agreement so we can understand what it means? It means the person Jesus will never come again. But, the urge that was in Jesus, that did not reach the intellect, the intellectual expression, would come back again and it did, in Prophet Muhammad. The Christians are confused, they say Christ is the ruler, Christ is Lord to the end of the world. They are confused. Christ simply means purified one. [foreign language 00:21:37] means wiped clean, made right. You see? So Christ simply means purified one. All of the prophets of God were a Christ. He didn't choose them until they were made clean. He'd never choose any unclean messenger. They all were [foreign language 00:21:59]. They all were ordained, chosen by them because of their excellence, moral excellence.


Their cleanliness, their perception was clean. It was not false like ours many times. We have false perception, we can't see clearly because of foreign matter in the view. You see? So God sent all messengers who were [foreign language 00:22:32] and if you study the old scriptures, the scriptures that revealed before, you see many messengers. They were anointed. What is anointed? Clean! Clean! Anointed, but not cleaning with a rag all the time, there's many ways of clean. And they were all anointed. The Jesus type is a type. Of what? And that's why in the vision of Prophet Muhammad [foreign language 00:22:54], peace be on his messenger. In the vision of Prophet Muhammad, we find Adam, that is the ninth visit of Prophet Muhammad, we find Adam was on the first level. And Jesus Christ was on the level above that. And then Jesus Christ was an expression of something that was native or natural in Adam. You see?


Jesus Christ was above that. Perhaps we could say that Jesus Christ was the beginning of a revelation or unfolding of something that was in that original man, in Adam. Right? Okay, and then on the next level, we go on up and we find the different prophets. And in the highest levels there was prophet Ibrahim, [inaudible 00:23:54], peace be on them. Now, dear beloved Muslims, we are to understand then, that Jesus represents an urge, an urge for expression. An urge for expression. And this urge found expression in the spirituality of the people. And you go among Christians right now, hardly you can find a group that will differ from this picture of them. All of them are contained in spiritual life and in spiritual expression.


That is the path of the followers of Jesus Christ. But all of them will tell you, whoever has new knowledge, in fact the average believer in the Christian religion will tell you that there is an urge in them to know the truth. But it hasn't reached the rational expression yet. So they don't discuss it as we discuss it. We discuss it in rational terms. They don't discuss it like that in rational terms. Only in the high circles. We should say the hidden circles. Only in the hidden circles will they discuss it like we discuss it. You see?


Now, dear beloved Muslims, then Prophet Muhammad is that one that was [inaudible 00:25:34]. After Jesus Christ. The return of Jesus Christ. Now, if I would say to you that the lamb was Jesus Christ, the return of Jesus Christ, it's a little bit harder. That's confusing. But if you understand that the lamb typifies or personifies that particular characteristic in Prophet Muhammad. The Bible says Christ in you. So it's the same principal, it's the same Christ principle is in all people, then if the Bible is right, then that Christ principle has to be in Prophet Muhammad. If we understand that the original pattern on which God designed man needs expression. Needs to be revealed. It needs expression. It must be revealed itself.


If Jesus was an expression of something that was already in the original man, Adam, then does that stop with Jesus? Every man must have that too in him, right? All right. Now I'm not talking to the world, I'm talking to you. All right? All right. So, then, Jesus must be in me. I must be Adam in my original nature and Jesus must be in me and John the Baptist must be in me and also Joseph, Yusef, must be in me. And [inaudible 00:27:32] must be in me. And Moses and Aaron. [inaudible 00:27:36] must be in me. And Prophet Ibrahim, peace be on him, must be in me. They are prophets, but they are expressions of something that's in me. Something that's in my original nature. So, in other words, God has not brought anything out to speak back to us that wasn't already in us. Now, is this some great thing. Oh, the imam is heavy. Excuse me, I'm not heavy, I'm light. The wisdom is heavy.


This is in the Quran and in the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, peace be on him. The Quran says and in you are seven and above you are like seven. It didn't say a different seven. An alike seven, a similar seven, do you see? All right. Now, we are trying to establish something, the fact is we are establishing some things and now we have a goal in mind. All right. Now the Bible says that Jesus appeared after his crucifixion. Now, we know we don't accept the crucifixion of Jesus. We don't believe that Jesus was crucified. Allah Most High says they did not crucify. They did not kill him neither did they crucify him. So we don't accept that, do we? All right. Now we can understand that they didn't. Because what Jesus typified is still in the world and it's still in people. And it came back in its right expression through the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be on him.


So we know that they didn't kill him and they didn't crucify him. Instead it was made to appear that way unto them. So Jesus, after his crucifixion now, Jesus returns, after his crucifixion, so the Bible says, and he was seen. At first they didn't recognize him, did they? The woman who saw him, she didn't recognize him. She saw him and didn't recognize him. Now if it was the same man and physical characteristics how come she didn't recognize him? I mean, she was very common, she was a common associate of Jesus Christ according to the Bible, the New Testament. She saw him and was talking to him, she him and saw his looks and she heard his voice and she didn't recognize them.


He had to reveal himself to her. So that means that it was not the same person. Now I'm not saying that the Bible is correct all the way. It's not. But we have to understand what the Bible is trying to say. In it's effort, it's trying to say something. Now the manner in which, or the method it uses, may not be correct. So don't think that we are saying this line of reasoning is sound for Muslims, it's only sound for Muslims if Muslims have the insight to criticize that logic. All right? Okay. What we're doing is feeling what the Bible is saying. So we will understand what the Bible is saying. All right.


What we should take note of, perhaps more than anything else, is what Jesus told her when she went to touch him. He said, "Touch me not. I have not yet ascended." He said, "Touch me not. I have not yet ascended." What does it mean? Now we know how come she didn't recognize him, because when he was with her, he was the messiah. Ah! When she knew him, she knew him as the messiah. She knew him as the [foreign language 00:32:23]. She knew him as the purified one. When she saw him resurrected, she didn't know him. But when he fought out of the impurities of the dream, when he fought through the impurities of superstition and the grave and et cetera, she recognized him. Oh, this is my Lord. Yes. She recognized him then. And when she went to touch him, he said, "No."


All right, dear beloved Muslims. In the beginning there was the word, and Jesus is the word from his Lord. So what does Jesus, he was a prophet, we know that, but what does Jesus also symbolize. Jesus symbolizes Christians. He symbolizes the very gospel that was revealed to him. He himself is a sign of that gospel. He's a sign of how that gospel come and came into the world, how that gospel would be treat-

