12/26/2006
IWDM Study Library
24th Seerah Conference with IWDM

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
0:00:05 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Muslims, believers, brothers and sisters peace, As-salamu Alaykum.
0:00:10 Speaker 2: Wa Alaykum s-salam.
0:00:12 IWDM: We praise G-d, Al-?amdu l-ill?hi rabbi l-??lam?n who is the Lord of all the worlds, we witness that he's one and has no equal or partner in the role or in the position of taking care of all of his creation. That is in the sky and the earth. He is the lord and master on the day of judgment. And we witness that Muhammad to whom the Qur'an was revealed is his servant and his messenger, and a mercy to all the worlds. ?all? All?hu ?alayhi wa-sallam, the prayers, and the peace be upon him. And what follows of that, salute to the last Prophet, the Seal of the Prophets.
[pause]
0:01:10 IWDM: We are here on the 25th of this month, a holiday of the Christians, Christmas. And we've come to a time in life in America, where hardly anything is respected, disrespect is shown to everything about everything. Including G-d. Yes, all the sacred matters, have been exposed to mockery, and abuse. So we are living in a very serious time, for truth and decency on the part of human beings. Very serious time. And at the same time, when I look at, what is going on in the leadership of the world, even government. There's clear signs, that we are at the end of the road, for this venting of filth, corruption, and lies. As I've told you many times and will be telling you many more times Inshallah. I understand this to be the day, time, or day of the conclusion of prophecy for the major issues in prophecy. We believe in the continuous judgment in this life, and the final comes after this life. The expression, "Yawm ad-Din," is understood to be the day of judgment, but the expression Yawm ad-Din, if you translate it, "Din," you know, it means religion, "Ad-Din," means the religion. "Yawm," means day, "Yawm ad-Din," day of the religion.
0:04:00 IWDM: And I believe there's a real, real significance behind judgment being expressed that way in the Qur'an, judgment being expressed as the Day of Religion. It was the Satan who got into the business of religion when the business of religion began, the Satan saw it, and he set himself up to oppose it. So with the beginning of religion is also the beginning of the works of Satan. And we know that the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, ?all? All?hu ?alayhi wa-sallam, he gave us one of his sayings, the sayings of the Prophet, The Hadith, the legitimate Hadith. One of his sayings is that "G-d the Most High wanted to show Jibr?l," or Gabriel in the Christian religion, Christianity, or in the western language Gabriel, "Wanted to show him his creation, and he showed him his creation and when Gabriel the great Angel saw it he said, 'My Lord how can anyone err or go wrong in such a wonderful creation?'" In an instance, it will all change. For G-d has power over all things, he just changed it instantly to show how it would look after Satan's influence on it. And when the Angel saw it, with all of its attractions its allurements, fascinations and whatever. He said, "My Lord," speaking to our G-d and his G-d, Jibr?l's G-d and our G-d, The only G-d Allah, he said, "My Lord, how can anyone go straight in such a world?"
0:06:35 IWDM: So it's not an accident or by human error that the world is so confused, and that lies and indecency have most applied. To cause the publics of the world to lose their human innocence. No, if we are understanding in hearing what Allah has revealed and what he guided Mohammad to teach us, we have to understand that it's the plan of Satan and the works of Satan. And so much of this is made very clear in the Qur'an, very clear. Lies and indecency, and corrupting human innocence, original nature of human innocence, such is the works of the devil, made clear to us in the Qur'an. Surely intoxicants that make your mind confused or make you lose the natural order of your thinking in your mind. Surely intoxicants are... And gambling, games of superstition are the works of the Satan, Shaitan.
0:08:40 IWDM: Stay away from him if you expect to be successful. This is in the Qur'an, plain as day. So if we are Muslims and we take drugs or we drink liquors, whiskey, alcohol, that you know has the power to influence your mind and take your mind out of its normal state, you know it has that. Then you read in the Qur'an, Allah says that these things are from the workshop of the devil, from his workshop... Shaitan. If you do it consciously, you're either having a brain problem or you're not a real Muslim. You should hate to do what your enemy has set out for you to do. Your enemy, surely the Satan is the enemy of all human beings. He's the enemy of humanity, aduwan nas, the enemy of all people, is the Satan.
0:10:20 IWDM: So would you knowingly, help the plan of your enemy? If you do knowingly then you have a brain problem. Allah has given us the Qur'an as guidance, for us, to open our eyes up, to purify our life and open our hearts up, for goodness, open our hearts up to goodness, and to accommodate the entrance of mankind or the entrance of all human beings in their best nature. So I have certainly enjoyed my short stay here so far, being with you all again here in New York, in Harlem. That has a strong tradition for African-American people. And I have really enjoyed being on your program here with our brother, whose acquaintance I made some years ago, and who is tied and the student to Abu Nour Mosque, in Syria. And his teacher is a man that I call my Imam. He has passed away now and in paradise, G-d willing, but at least that is our prayer that he is in paradise.
0:12:29 IWDM: The Grand Mufti of Syria and the Imam and the spiritual leader of Abu Nour Mosque, Masjid in Syria. Mufti, The Grand Mufti Kuftaro. Brother Shibley, Dr. Shibley, brother Shibley was invited by Imam Pasha at the Masjid here to be on this program today. And I thank Allah that I'm also on the program and had an opportunity to see him and meet him and witness his presentation, which was so clear, and as I told him, clear and powerful.
0:13:28 S2: Allahu Akbar.
0:13:29 IWDM: Yes, praise be to Allah. Allahu Akbar. You know the word, "Seerah," may suggest different things to the mind depending on what your meaning is, for Seerah, Seerah. But in my understanding, Seerah, Seerah, Seerah, the Seerah of the Prophet has referenced firstly to his history, what happened in his life, even at the time of his birth, and when he was an orphan, without father and mother. First, he was without father and then finally without father and mother. And his life as a child, and his life for the 40 years, this is all before G-d revealed anything to him. His life for 40 years. And then his mission on Earth that started when he was 40 years old, with the revelation that came down to him on the Mountain of the Light, Jabal an-N?r, in Saudi Arabia, what is now called Saudi Arabia. And then the history of his life changed from the history of just a shining star, a pure jewel of human creation.
0:15:38 IWDM: Now, it's more than that, his countrymen recognized him before he was given a mission, his countrymen recognized him as being Al-Ameen, Al-Ameen, the trustworthy one. They gave him that title. And, "As-Sadiq," the truthful one. They gave him that title. They witnessed that he was that. And he was their Beloved Son, the Beloved Son of Quraish, the biggest and most notable tribe of that land, the Quraish, mentioned in the Qur'an, Li-eelaafi quraish, Li-eelaafi quraish, Li-eelaafi quraish, Eelaafihim rihlatash shitaaa'I wassaif, for the protection of the Quraish. Their protection is given through this... Through the winter and summer... And summer. And it goes on until the end, as G-d revealed it.
0:16:58 IWDM: And from that point of revelation, receiving revelation, to the conclusion of his life mission on the planet Earth, is Seerah. The Seerah in the eyes... Seerah in the eyes of the Islamic world, Seerah in the life of the scholars, the Seerah. But I'm saying, as I understand him, his Seerah began when he was born, his Seerah began when he was born. And the portion of his life that he lived for 40 years, is the life that most of us need help with, and need G-d's revelation and guidance for. Yes. But for him, that life was acceptable in the presence of G-d. It needed no change. Yes. So what is that? That's a message to the common man, message to society regarding the life of the common person or the common man, that this world, is temptation, but you don't need a revelation from Heaven to survive the temptation, even the temptation that Shaitan put in your way. But Allah created human beings, with the natural... Life... If they will choose that life, understand this. Prophet Muhammad is the universal focus for us with regard to perceiving or seeing that life, but he's not the only one that have survived the temptations of the role and Satan. And stayed in the original beautiful life, the purity of the original beautiful life that Allah put in the garden when he first created man.
0:20:17 IWDM: I have known my mother, and I have known others. Both from Islam and from Christianity who lived their lives out and died and no one had anything bad to say about them. Always honest, always truthful, always kind to other human beings, always trying to be righteous and decent. So Muhammad the Prophet is the sign of what is in the people and what triumphs over the Satan's attempts and the world's attempt to take us out of our best picture, our best nature. Yes. I'm gonna change the focus for just a while, just a little bit. And we will come back to this, Seerah of the Prophet. Our speaker before me, Dr. Shibley, he said, the Muslim never despairs. Not if he's in the right Muslim form. He never despairs. He's never sad and miserable, he's never breaking down under the weight that Satan puts on the back of mankind. He never breaks down. He's always positive, optimistic, hopeful because he trusts G-d. And G-d is over all things. Mighty and powerful. Able to change it, destroy it, or whatever he wants to do, he does whatever he wills. This is Qur'an, not me, not Imam talking, this is not Imam WD Mohammed talking, not my Imam talking. Yes, he... WD Mohammed is my Imam. Okay. And I thank Allah for him because I follow him. And following him led me to follow the Qur'an and Muhammad the Prophet.
[background conversation]
0:23:16 S2: Allahu Akbar.
0:23:21 IWDM: Yeah. "Oh, you didn't... You weren't called Imam Warith Deen before you became the leader that you are giving us the Qur'an and the Sunnah." Yes, I was. I was called Waris Deen when I was a minister of Philadelphia. A brother of Indian origin told me, he said, "You shouldn't say your name is Wallace, you should say your name is Waris." They don't pronounce the "Th," they say, "S," for the "Th." Waris... He said, "You are Waris Deen." That's what he told me, "You are Waris Deen Mohammed." He might have been an angel, but I didn't take him to be one.
[pause]
0:24:09 IWDM: Alright, so I said we're changing the focus a bit now. Not only are we given the nature or created by Allah, the creator of all things, to survive the troubles of the world without revelation, but inside the Seerah of the Prophet, inside the traditions of Islam, we should be aware that we have presently and we'll always have, and have always had outstanding Muslims of great character and great vision. Great Muslims who are being created... I know what I'm saying. And if you don't know what I'm saying or can't understand what I'm saying, please read the Qur'an more. Learn more about Muhammad, the Prophet's life, our Prophet's life. Upon him be prayers and the peace. Yes, who are being created. The Qur'an is the light of G-d, it's the light of Allah. And if you love it and you stay in it long enough, if you are not finished as a creation, it will start the process to finish your creation and bring you to be what Allah intended for the perfect man to be on this planet Earth.
0:25:58 IWDM: Perfect man, not G-d, he can't be G-d, not in his capacity, not an angel... He's not an angel. He's human. So he'll still be human, he still won't be G-d, he won't be an angel, he'll still be human, but he would have completed his life and G-d favors his life, as long as he wants to complete it in accordance with the will of G-d, G-d favors his life. And the best favor is to have the Qur'an in your life and to feed on its light. Yes. Following the guide, the human guide, as some of the Tablighi brothers say, who has the... Who get manual for management of the product. And we are the product. I'll talk more about this product on our commemorative Saviour's day at PUSH Headquarters in Chicago, February 25, five times five, 25, February 25, the year 2007.
[background conversation]
0:27:20 IWDM: Allahu Akbar. Now so...
[laughter]
0:27:28 IWDM: He had to come and check it.
[laughter]
0:27:38 IWDM: I want to make you acquainted if you are not acquainted of this one brother, this is just one person, one Muslim follower of Muhammad the prophet. His name is Muhammad Yunus. He was just given the Nobel Peace Prize. Muhammad Yunus. Just given the Nobel Peace Prize. And he gave a long speech... CNN, thank Allah for CNN... The merciful G-d for CNN. They carried the whole of his speech, I do believe, every word of it, and thank Allah that I just happened to turn the television on, and there it was. No one told me that he was gonna be on there... That he was gonna be on there. I just happened to turn it on and there it was. So I was able to get his speech, to hear his speech, and get his speech. And I was just sent his book by some of his supporter supporters or some of his followers or people in his service, I guess, a good while ago. It's been a little... Almost two years ago, I think, and I've had his this book in my possession, and what he has done was brought something revolutionary into the system of economics. He respects the Capitalist Theory, the western idea, and he really accepts the value of free markets, but he has added something that has the likeness of socialism. Which Islam has a likeness... I should say socialism has a likeness to Islam in some respects, in some appreciable respects.
0:29:45 IWDM: So he has a... What he expressed as social, non-dividend business. Social business is a phrase he kept repeating. Social business. And by that, he means a business to strengthen poor people, and the families of poor people, and the world community of poor people. He believes that he has come up with a plan to eradicate poverty. To one-day end poverty on the planet earth. Well, I don't need to listen to him in order to have a faith or belief that poverty can be eradicated. All I have to do is look at how much we waste, throw away, in the black community. Not to mention the whole of the world or the whole of The West. We are the biggest wasters on the planet earth. We have the most and we waste the most. And what hurts me so much is that my people who are always crying financial blues, money blues, are the biggest wasters in the United States! Oh, we don't waste nearly as much as... I'm talking about percentage-wise. You waste more of your money that comes into your possession under your personal authority. You waste more than any other people in the United States of America. And the people of America are the biggest wasters on the planet earth. Biggest wasters on the planet Earth.
0:31:44 IWDM: Now, Khomeini... May G-d give him paradise. Imam Khomeini. The West published what he said about The West, and he said, "The West is the big Satan. America is the big Satan." Now, if you are a Muslim, before you say, "Why would he say something like that? Oh, he's a fanatic, he's a radical." You should listen to your own religion! In our religion, the wasters are the brothers of the Shaitans. They're brothers of the Satan. They're devils. They're wasters. Now, you didn't choose to become the brother of your blood brother. You were just born to the same parents. So I'm not saying you did it intentionally. You may not be doing it intentionally but your life is such that your life now aids and support the brothers of the devils, more than it aids and support those who are trying to follow in the way of G-d. So whether you chose to be or not, if you are a waster, unconscious waster, then you're a brother of the devils. You're a brother of the devils. And you brothers would have a much better existence if your home life didn't waste so much. You would.
0:33:41 IWDM: So this brother here has come upon something wonderful, and he has been given the Nobel peace prize. The former president, who in my opinion is still the president for the common man or for common people. President Jimmy Carter. He was given the Nobel peace prize recently. But this brother Muhammad Yunus, more... Just recent, just very recent, just a few days ago. Very, just a few... Well, I don't know about... Yeah, not few days ago, I think. Yes, and he's introducing a new language in economics, and I think that capitalist, the capitalists' idea, starting with Adam Smith, I think the capitalist idea can be tolerated even if you're a person with a socialist mindset. It can be tolerated... Now this is me speaking I'm speaking for myself now, personally, right now, it can be tolerated because in America, the United States of America, we are privileged and sometimes invited to establish non-dividend business or not-for-profit, I won't say non-dividend, that's strictly for his institution, Doctor Yunus, Muhammad Yunus' institution, but not-for-profit entities, not-for-profit businesses. If you have a not-for-profit business, then you can use the profits to fight poverty, to fight unemployment, to do social reform.
0:35:54 S2: Yes sir. Yes sir.
0:35:55 IWDM: Yes you can do that. So I believe, I kind of digress for a purpose here, to say that Muhammad the Prophet is a complete man, he is a community leader, and the context we call community is the context for the full expression or realization of your aspirations as a human person on this planet earth. This is Qur'an I'm expressing to you, whether you recognize the word language or not. Now, in my opinion, this brother is a great witness to the timeless value of the Qur'an and the Sunnah and Uswah of Muhammad the Prophet. That's the way I see it. The Qur'an is still creating souls, minds, visions, geniuses, yes for the growth, for the good growth of the planet Earth on the man's custodianship or leadership. So I believe that CPC/ComTrust LLC, collective buying, has a great future in our neighborhoods and in this country, great future. All it needs is finances, to finance the plan, to finance the vision. That's all it needs. And one day, G-d willing, inshallah, one day, you will turn on your TV, just on impulse like I did, and you'll see someone representing CPC/ComTrust LLC and they'll be saying that this company leader has just received the Nobel prize, for doing a marvelous job...
0:38:38 S2: Yes sir.
0:38:39 IWDM: Of fighting unemployment and employing thousands throughout the poor zones of America. Huh?
0:38:47 S2: Yes sir.
0:38:48 IWDM: There, that can happen, and I do believe it's going to happen. And when you see it, now I might be gone, when you see it, don't forget, it's all within the Seerah of Muhammad the Prophet ?all? All?hu ?alayhi wa-sallam. Yes, he's the leader. Yes, he's the leader then and now and in the future, he is our leader to lead us to the best possible life for humans on this planet Earth. In every area, he is the leader. In every area, he is the leader. In spiritual devotion, he is the leader. In commitment to prosper in best industrious life or industry in a way that favors human life, he's the leader. Oh yes. For good government, he is the leader. For health care, he is the leader. Oh yes, you can name it. On the battlefront, for the military, he is the leader. You can't think of any human field of activity that he can be excluded from so well he doesn't qualify as the person that should be our leader in that area. No, whatever area, appreciation of beauty, art, culture, he is the leader. Getting back to the Seerah now, Seerah of the Prophet.
[pause]
0:41:22 IWDM: Now, Muhammad's character is mentioned by G-d to us in the Qur'an. His Khuluq, Khuluq, yes Khuluq, one of the forms of the word for, "To create," Khuluq. He is given to us by G-d to describe his creation, Khuluq as Khuluq al Adheem. Mighty foundation of character. And the speaker who shared the program with me today... Again, Dr. Shibley, he mentioned the prophet's character. He helped us to see what his character is, was and is in our hearts and memory, and in the scripture. Beautiful, excellent, marvelous human character. And this was with him unspoiled for 40 years, and then G-d called him, G-d called him and gave him the mission. Well, a lot I would like to say to you, but I won't take your time. Another time, some I have said to you already at different location, place or speech that I gave, and so I want to take the time to go into the character of Muhammad the Prophet and the character of prophets in the Qur'an as contrasted with the character of many prophets in the Bible.
0:43:55 IWDM: Okay. But I'll just leave you with that thought. That there is a big difference. Big difference. Hence, G-d says in the Qur'an, that he ordered for the believers that they should eat what is good and what is lawful, and he ordered for the prophets the same. This is Qur'an. So what is that addressing? It's addressing the corruption of the scriptures, that even corrupted the idea of prophethood. So G-d revealed in the Qur'an the correction so that we don't go on believing that G-d chose immoral persons, to do his work, or to work in his service. We're addressing the Seerah of Muhammad the Prophet, upon him be the prayers and the peace. So when we look at Muhammad the Prophet, we see a character and that should immediately want us to recall what G-d says of him, his Uswah, Uswah. Certainly, you have in Muhammad an excellent Uswah. For any who believe in G-d and the last days, not just for Muslims, or those who are known properly and popularly to be Muslim, but also for any who believe in G-d and the last day. Many believe in G-d and they believe they have to answer to G-d one day, for how they lived on this planet Earth, they believe in the judgment.
0:46:00 IWDM: For any who believe in G-d and the last day, they had in Muhammad an excellent example. An excellent example to emulate, to follow. Yes. His Uswah. Now, a great scholar among us, he came to me, he said, "Brother Imam, I have looked up the word that you're using. In the lexicon and dictionaries, Arab dictionaries and Arab lexicon, and what you are comparing here is incorrect." He said Uswah has nothing to do with the skies. It has nothing to do with Siwa. I said, "Is that so?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Well, not in my observation." I said, "In my observation, it has a lot to do with it." For the firmaments of the heavens, are firm plains, firm plains. According to revelation in Bible and Qur'an, they are firm plains, firm, plains. And we know that... G-d says in our holy book, and we know the challenge to the people of the book, in these words... Let us come to terms that respect us equally. Terms of equality. The equality here is the equality of respect. Let us not have a Kalima or creed that disrespects you.
0:48:02 S2: That's right.
0:48:03 IWDM: And you shouldn't have a creed that disrespects us. And what is the condition that you do not raise from among yourselves? Men to be Lords or Gods. 'Cause when you do that, you put us down and you make yourself up. You put yourself up. You put us down, you put yourself up. We don't have any men that we say are Gods. You have a man you say is G-d? So your society has a G-d, a man G-d, that is over your society. So you have created a situation that is unjust and unfair to the common people, to mankind. Why should you have a man, a man G-d, and we acknowledge that we're no Gods. And you know your claim is false. You know man is not G-d. They know it. They will tell you man is not G-d and still give you a picture of a man is G-d. So let us come to terms that are equal of respect. Now, if you think that's not related to our Kalima, again you're missing, like the great scholar that came to correct me. African-American from our community. What is our Kalima? L? ?il?ha ?ill? ll?hu mu?ammadun ras?lu ll?hi, huh? That's our Kalima. Now, what is Kalima? Anyone out there. What is Kalima?
0:50:04 S2: Word.
0:50:04 IWDM: Literally.
0:50:05 S2: Word.
0:50:05 IWDM: Somebody gave it, word. Not words, not Kalimat, word. So word in the scriptural language can be a plural concept, as well as a singular concept. So we have, in that creed, several words. La illaha Illallah. But it's one word when it comes to naming the concept of the idea.
0:50:37 S2: Yes.
0:50:38 IWDM: It's the Kalima. Kalima. One word, Kalima. Okay, so when Allah give us the challenge to put to them, let us come to a Kalima Seerah. A just and fair word. What is that just and fair word? L? ?il?ha ?ill? ll?hu mu?ammadun ras?lu ll?hi. That's for us. What is that word? What word can we accept from them? We will accept from... We'll accept from them, La illaha Illallah. Zakat. See, he is Arab by birth. Zakat. Nothing else.
[foreign language]
[laughter]
0:51:31 IWDM: Yes. That's the term of mutual respect.
0:51:34 S2: Right.
0:51:35 IWDM: That we demand. We ain't begging for that, we demand that. Now, slow down, Bilal. 'Cause I'm getting ready to drop one on you. The greatest victim of shirk is the Black man of America.
[background conversation]
0:51:58 IWDM: That Jesus Christ's idea has just uprooted our life, broke our roots, corrupted our soul and spirit.
0:52:13 S2: Yes sir.
0:52:13 IWDM: And we don't even know it. And we don't even know it. Have you ever seen a preacher really preaching his heart out?
0:52:23 S2: Yes sir.
0:52:24 IWDM: I mean, a good Christian preacher.
0:52:26 S2: Yes sir.
0:52:26 IWDM: Have you ever seen one dude and he didn't look like he was carrying a burden? Even when he was preaching and feeling his best. Even when he got a little tipsy and started to almost go into the Holy Ghost.
0:52:42 S2: Yeah.
0:52:42 IWDM: Then you detect pain and most of the time, it's that pain that gives him the Holy Ghost. Yeah, he be loving what he's doing, loving what he's doing. But that pain is there, you see. And that pain, it stops him. His brain can't go any farther because he can't really explain his pain. It's an abstract called shirk, but he can't explain it, but he's under it. So he runs into it and he can't explain it, he gets the Holy Ghost. Man can't deal with it. He goes off his... His computer goes off, goes whack. Whoo, blah, blah, blah.
[background conversation]
0:53:49 S2: Yeah. Oh, my G-d. That's crazy.
0:53:54 IWDM: Now, we know I'm on that case. They ostracize me at a big important meeting that they invited me to come to. And because I wouldn't accept the role that they cut out for me to attack my own brother, that they had also invited. If they didn't want him, they shouldn't have invited him. Don't invite him and then expect for me to do battle with him. You do battle with your own guest. You invited him, that's your guest. You wanna attack him, you attack him. You ain't gonna invite me on to that. They set something up, they gonna have some fun, okay? I disappoint them. They thought I wasn't coming. I told them I wouldn't speak, but they still invited me. So they thinking I ain't coming, right? I came. They had the urge to stick me somewhere, sit me way over to myself like I had a disease, or something that was terribly contagious. I sat there just so peaceful and comfortable and witnessed the whole thing and went home. Yes, yes. Well, the main speaker, the Reverend, churchman, main speaker, and his church was host for the occasion. He made it plain to me that he was aware that I was not satisfied with African American church, Black people's church. He didn't call my name or anything, but he made it very plain that he wasn't satisfied, so he tried to show me and prove to me that he can keep a level head and still drink heavy wine.
[laughter]
0:56:00 S2: Yes sir, yes sir.
0:56:00 IWDM: So he was drinking the heavy wine of the Black church gospel and was showing me that he kept a level head, but I saw him out cold, but he was a preacher. Boy, that black man preached. He did, he really could preach. In fact, when he came back to his seat, it just so happened that the place that I had been seated after the arrangement, 'cause this was for the occasion they had come in and filled the spaces and he came in and chose a seat in the row right in front of me, kinda angled like this, one seat angled from me. So he's in the row just in front of me, and he's sitting in the seat in that row in front of me that's in front of the seat beside me that's empty, and several seats empty 'cause they didn't wanna, I guess, catch whatever I got.
[laughter]
0:57:15 IWDM: But look what happened. I got up for a brief moment, when I came back, I don't have my program book and I made my business to get the full program book before I came in and sat down. I went to a proper one and said, "I'd like to have program book. I don't have anything but this piece of literature here." So they immediately... I said, "Yes, yes they know me, Imam Mohammed," the person said, "We'll give it." Though he got it for me, gave it to me. But now by the time the church filled up, the area filled up, the programs have run out, they've run out of programs. So he was a big man, he's the main speaker, main speaker, featured speaker, and he didn't have a program, so what he did, what most big preachers do, he just saw a program on a seat and he picked it up and he took it and put it in his seat, took it with him and when he went up to preach, he left it in his seat. So, when he come back to preach, I know my program, I know I have few pieces of paper inside there with the... So when he came back to preach I said, "You really preached." I said, "The spirit was really on... " And it was, I witnessed that. I said, "The spirit was really on you," and I hugged him. He was hesitant, but I hugged him and he liked it, so he returned the embrace, warm embrace, and then before he sat in his seat. I said, "I am just giving you the hug and acknowledging that you really preached and had the spirit of G-d on you," I said, "But now I want my program."
[laughter]
0:59:00 IWDM: So he said, "Oh, oh, oh," and he handed me my program. Yes. If I told you that racism started with Satan, you'll believe it, won't you? Yeah, racism started with Satan and not in America. It started a long time before they came to this part of the world from Europe, a long time before that. Do you know there is evidence that there was the seeds of racism among the followers of Prophet Muhammad? When the prophet had to correct his own followers for seeing Bilal as an inferior specimen. One of his followers in his presence spoke degrading or evidencing a prejudice, a bad prejudice, in his presence against Bilal. Degraded the wealth of Bilal and the prophet replied according to this hadith, the prophet's reply was, "We all are Bilal." We all are Bilal. Now if I had the time I could go to the Bible and show you where this problem is in the Bible. It started a long time ago.
1:00:56 IWDM: A long time ago according to the Bible, before even the flood. Long time ago. Now, if we live the life that we're given in this religion, as our, again, as our Imams made it clear to us that Muhammad the prophet though gone from this Earth is still living on this Earth within us. And he's living in us, he made it very clear to us how he's living in us, and I won't repeat it 'cause I don't want to interfere with how he presented it. He presented it very clear to me and very powerful what he was saying. And many other references, not just through the Prophet that he gave clear and powerful. Now, let's apply this to Satan. Now, if you can believe that Satan was among humans and according to the word of G-d, the Qur'an, Satan had no interest in being anywhere else except among humans. 'Cause it was only when he was acquainted with G-d's plan for humans that he got his idea.
1:02:46 IWDM: So he really didn't become the big Satan, or Shaitan, in his power and plan until he saw what G-d planned for human being. So his interest was in humans to defeat the direction of G-d's word in their lives. To defeat that direction, so we lose the guidance of G-d, and fall victim to his plan and his scheme. This is the Satan. Now, I'm saying to you just like Muhammad the prophet, he lives in the generations that embrace the Qur'an and accept him. He lives in the generation, so does Satan, Shaitan. Shaitan is still here. Shaitan is still among human beings. Shaitan still has his strong hold in human life. Yes. And the more we give in to his invitation, the stronger Satan's base becomes for doing what he wants to do throughout the world.
1:04:27 IWDM: So the Uswah Muhammad is very important for us to understand. What is his Uswah? What is his balance? It has a reference to balance. What is his balance that keeps him on a balanced plane in terms of human life? When we stand for prayer, we try to stand erect like a soldier, foot to foot, shoulder to shoulder. Or at least erect, shoulder to shoulder like a solid wall we are told. We try to stand erect, that standing erect isn't a comfortable balance, it is a comfortable balance for achieving great works or doing great things on the planet Earth. Can you imagine how much work we could have accomplished on the planet Earth or in America or in your town or anywhere else if we couldn't stand up and hold ourselves balanced and not worry about it? It's the balance there that we achieve as little crawlers, like an animal on fours, and the spirit is in us to stand up like human beings and not crawl around on fours like animals.
1:05:49 IWDM: And that spirit that's natural in us that G-d put in our creation, or urge to conform to the life of human beings and get up off our fours like an animal, with the animals. That urge is there and we stand up and after all, it's so natural. We ain't even conscious of it. That's the balance, the Seerah, that's the balance or Seerah. Now, that idea should also apply to your moral sensitivities, your moral life, or your moral sensitivities and your moral sensibilities. It should apply to that too. When something is inviting you that's indecent, or corrupt, or unjust, your whole life, it is Seerah. Your whole life should see it as offensive, to see it as threatening, threatening to the form that you have established for your moral life. Something that's gonna tilt the scales and put it out of balance. Yes. That Seerah should also govern also your intelligence. If something comes and seduces your thinking, seduces your power to reason and come up with the right answers. Your rational sensitivities should sense a threat to your Seerah. Huh? Yes. And you should reject it, right?
1:07:35 S2: That's right, brother.
1:07:36 IWDM: Yes. So all of us have the Seerah. All of us are created with the Seerah. And if we follow the way of Muhammad, the prophet, we will have a uswatun hasana. We will have an excellent balance for surviving in this world. Surviving the temptations of Satan himself. All of this indecency and corruption of not only feelings but also thinking, thinking. And that's the greatest threat. When the subtle attempts come to corrupt the way you think. And make you think you're reasoning correctly. Isn't that what happened to our father. When the Satan came up and seduced him out of his life and his nature, out of his protection that G-d had created him with, or the clothing that G-d gave him, the clothing of righteousness. Yes. But when the Satan came up to seduce him, he didn't go and try to break down his Kalimah or his articles of faith. He didn't come and cut that. He came right to his brain. And tried to get the man to see that what you are obeying here is holding up, stifling, checking, imprisoning your brainpower. So don't believe the way you believed before Adam, Upon Adam Be Peace, but be willing to take a chance. So you can have your eyes opened up.
[background conversation]
1:09:48 IWDM: Take a little chance. So you're not reading what G-d said, correctly. You ain't gonna die really. Your eyes are gonna come home. That's the Bible. And the Qur'an... In the Qur'an, we have a very similar picture of the situation for Adam, and in his predicament that the Satan put him in. Where he wanted to change the way Adam was thinking. That he should live his life. Now, we also have Hadiths from the Prophet, and the Hadith is report of his saying, what he said. Right? What he said, that's the report of what he said. So we have his character, his Uswah, his excellent balance, and we have also his Sunnah. His Sunnah is what is recorded that he did, how he did things in his life. His Sunnah and we also have his sayings, Hadith. We have these. Now, to see how we all are to identify with the Uswah of Muhammad, not Muhammad, the Prophet, the man that G-d gave the great mission to. Not just him. We identify with him, with that man as to his followers. But there is a sameness that we have with the Prophet because he is a human being. G-d, Allah says, "Say to them... "
[foreign language]
1:11:55 IWDM: "I am a mortal human like you are, a mortal human like you are." Okay, so here we have a sameness, huh? There's a different master, teacher to his students. Huh? We are not masters, not in his presence. None of us are masters in his presence. That's Muhammad, the Prophet, upon him be the prayers and the peace. And guided by G-d directly, receiving revelations from G-d for us because we didn't receive Qur'an, he received it. One man received the Qur'an from G-d. And all of us have privilege to it. We have privilege to take it and follow it. Blessed, fortunate to take it and follow it. Yes, but we have that sameness, we have that sameness too with the Prophet. We are mortal humans like he is, that we are the mortals created by G-d. The mortal humans created by G-d just like he is and was. So we have a sameness, and I'm saying the Uswah. We have a sameness with him. We lose our Uswah to the false and corrupt world, to the ignorant or to corruption or both, we lose our Uswah, but we were born with it like an apple where an apple comes with an apple seed. Every life comes with a life germ, comes with a seed for reproduction. All of us have this Muslim nature at birth.
1:13:37 IWDM: And I'm not coming and giving you this from me, you know where it's coming from. And all of us have this human capacity for excellence, for human excellence in society, human excellence in community. We all have this capacity at birth. Inherent potential, capacity, from all excellence, rational life, moral... Pardon me, a just society, an ethical rule. We all have that all in our life, human life, as an apple had apple seeds for its reproduction, yes. And that life of its own form, order, and nature wants to ascend, wants to rise up from lesser value to greater value, from ignorance to intelligence, from moral weaknesses to moral strength and excellence, that nature is in all of us and if we get the right environment, just like every baby, follows the plan for its future from a germ, a light germ to a complete human picture within so many months, complete human picture.
1:15:39 IWDM: The community picture that G-d wants for people is inherent also, I'm slowing down for you to think, I don't want you to rush over what I'm saying. The community picture that Allah wants for human beings is already in the life germ, all the life that comes here, without this free will that we have, the plant and animal kingdom. Anybody, anybody come from the human world to teach the sparrows, the robin bird, the pigeons, the chickens any one of us come from the human world to give them that community plan, but they get it don't they? So yes, their community plan is inherent in their nature and life, just as eating, picking up grain off the ground or whatever there is or however they eat, just as eating is inherent, just as drinking water is inherent, just as wanting to be clean, to go to the water, a bird goes to the water to take a bath, a dog in the summer wants to jump in the water, love to jump in the water. So all these animals, even a fly is given a dirty job, yes, fly is given a dirty job. Allah assigned a dirty job to the fly, but he didn't leave the fly with a dirty nature.
1:17:26 S2: No.
1:17:27 IWDM: If you watch flies as I have, thank G-d I've been observant, like a scientist, all my life. If you watch flies like I have, flies all they do, will do much Tayyamun. They doing much more than we doing. Every time these flies... Look.
[background conversation]
1:17:50 IWDM: I've watched them. Take it back there. And he's wiping his brains out, wiping his body out. He is cleaning himself all the time, he cleans himself compulsively.
[chuckle]
1:18:08 IWDM: Because he is constantly in dirty work. Now I could go on and bring you many other examples and many other pictures of how something that you think is nasty or think is bad or think is mean, look even a buzzard, now you know he got a bad job, but he lets you know, I don't like this job, he walks around like he's so sad.
[laughter]
1:18:43 IWDM: I've never seen a happy buzzard.
[laughter]
1:18:51 IWDM: And as I said I can bring you many examples to show you that Allah is not communicating that the way of G-d opened to you is all so filth and indecent, no. That was the indecent person who got that message, if you're indecent you'll get an indecent message, but if you're decent you will see G-d's truth plainly, in time. Yes, alright so all of us have that excellence in common and all of us have also that urge to rise up from lesser to greater in every sense, moral sense, rational sense, community sense, every sense. We all have that nature. So, when we read about the ascent and travels of Muhammad the prophet that's just not speaking to him or to leaders he is the eighth and the heavens are only seven and Abraham is in the top, the leader for our ethical world, Abraham, for an educated and ethical world, Abraham, under G-d, faithful to G-d. And G-d says in the Qur'an, there are seven in the heavens and a like number in yourselves, so whatever G-d has showed us in the heavens we have the same capacity and potential in us to go up from Adam to Abraham he's our father if he's our father that means we're his children, we his children mean we're his products, fruit of Islam.
[background conversation]
1:21:03 IWDM: So when we see the seven is the power within, is the life urge within that G-d has made to rise up from inferiority to your excellence. The highest possibility for any man regardless of the color of his skin or the texture of his hair. This is Islamic thinking, Islamic reasoning that others have too, they may express it differently, especially the people of the book. So who is the eighth? Who is the eighth? The eighth one is the one who comes to reconcile the heavenly urge, with the community urge on this planet Earth, with the urge for life, community life on this planet Earth. There's a heavenly urge that wants to rise up spiritually, soul-wise to its purity that G-d wants for it. And it's universal universality that G-d wants for it. When you rise up there and you get to the seventh level, you achieve that what's left for you? Mohammad is the guide. You come back down on Earth, and you don't favor living in the mountains, over living in the plains with the common people. Yes, that's what he said.
1:22:42 IWDM: He said G-d offered him a way, and he chose the plains, not the mountain. And we know G-d offered him also what you all like so much, wine. I'm not talking about Vat 69 or whatever that stuff is called and Mogen David, I'm not talking about that stuff, I'm talking about the wine you get when you read scripture and go listen to that preacher. I said that preacher, so don't go out and say, "Them all preachers," I said, "That preacher." There are other preachers, but I said, "That preacher." Okay? Yes. So, Prophet Mohammad said that he offered him a choice between milk and wine, he chose milk. And then another saying of the Prophet is that he had a vision of milk coming out of the bones of a human being, and he told them that the understanding of the dream is science. Science. Now, we know the bones form the structure, the concept.
1:24:05 IWDM: The picture concept of the human person is formed by the bones. For, after all, we start as a life germ, blood adhering or congealing or adhering, and then lump of flesh, and then bones come into the flesh. And when the bones come into the flesh then we get the human picture, the bones, you get the human picture. So he chose the milk. And modern science tell us that milk has calcium, and the baby gets the milk from their mother and it helped to form strong bones and they give the calcium necessary for growth, to grow the body. To grow the bone and muscle and even the blood, all have a relationship to this big... The structure, the bone structure, yeah. Yes. So in concluding this, I want to say to you that al-Islam, according to our Prophet is Buniyal Khamsin is built upon five. Buniyal Islam Ala Khamsin. Islam is structured upon five. And the woman in the Bible, she was washing in the well and is tied to the conclusion of this matter for the Bible and for the people of the book. She was washing at the well, and it says... The Bible says that Jesus Christ saw her, he observed her and he said, "Woman you've had five husbands over you and the one you got now is not yours."
[pause]
1:26:01 IWDM: And the Prophet said, "Take charge of five before five be your undoing." I'm summarizing it. He pointed to the future, how you would lose the future if you didn't take charge of five now. What are these five? Five senses? Five fingers? Five toes? Five stands out in the structure of the picture of the human being. Five. Five senses is what all knowledge respects. All true knowledge respect the five senses. If you don't hear it, you don't feel it, you don't see it, you don't smell it, you don't taste it, it's non-existent, non-existing or existent for human being. No way you can know anything except through your five senses, no way. You wouldn't be able to think without your five senses. You can't even get a picture in your mind until you hear something, see something, smell something, feel something, taste something. If you don't experience something with your five senses, you can't even form anything into your mind. Now I know psychologist says that that's incorrect. Psychology says, the psychoanalyst says that he can take your mind back to the time when you were existing in your mama's womb and help you recall experiences, he will identify those experiences that you are expressing some, that you are responding to some kinda way as experiences that you had when you were in your mother's womb.
1:28:14 IWDM: Well, you must have had feeling in there, maybe you couldn't smell, maybe you couldn't tase, maybe you couldn't hear, maybe you couldn't see, but you sure must have had some feeling or he couldn't get any indication that you were existing. This is the reality. Now, so what is so important for us with this religion? And what is so important for us with Mohammad's Uswah and his ascension? Five senses, five senses. So you wanna protect your life, protect your intelligence and your human body. Protect your eyes, protect your hearing, protect your smell, protect your taste, protect your feelings. Protect your feelings, that's your life, that's your true life. Without those things, you are nothing, you're dead, you're non-existing. Thank you very much. And may G-d guide us to the way of Muhammad the Prophet, following the Qur'an as our guide over all other sources of literature or information. We thank Allah and we pray that he keep us always in this religion and keep us always, always for the future that Mohammad is our guide too. He is our guide to the best possible future for human life on this planet Earth. We pray that he always be our guide. G-d, guide us always, and show us mercy.


