1988-December-9

Muslim Journal

Liberation Of The Human Mind For Muslims: Part 4

Imam W. Deen Mohammed


(Editorial note: This lecture was given by Imam W. Deen Mohammed in San Diego, California, fit the Sister Clara Muhammad School banquet on Oct. 8. 1988).

Let me continue for I will bring this to a conclusion in a few minute?. Our Lord, Allah, says to us in the last revelation, "O you who believe, a people firmly for justice, witnesses for Allah," that is to be a witness for the one Lord God. The same God says. Most High is He. "Order what in of the highest and most refined standards. And whit is working against that..." This word "rnun-khayr means to make void. And it is saying to make void what? The human qualities! Whatever acts on society to make the human qualities void, empty, nil, nothing, we are to work against it.

And I have told Muslims who were in gatherings like this and bigger "don't think that we are a people who are not to protest." Don't think that we are not a people who are at some time activists. We have to be. We have to stand up and speak firmly and loudly sometimes on the issues, when you see things developing that are taking away the foundation of human society and the essential life of man and its human qualities. That is what causes people to lose their power, to Jose their authority, to lose their governments and their nations. We have seen this down through the history and God has given us so many different and powerful reminders in the holy scriptures.

The Prophet said, the peace be on Him, "whoever sees or witnesses," for He sees what is happening, "a behavior that will have that negative influence on the society to make it void of human qualities" most of these sins that we call outrageous sins or public sins are "mun-khayr" A person can get by with us and even with God with much sin that he does in the privacy of his own home. But if he does it in the public, God's wrath will certainly come against him. Why? It is because in the public, then you are passing it on to everybody else. You are boldly doing it and are saying that it is okay. You are setting a precedent and you are setting a norm. And that is not to mean that we should be unafraid of the sins that we commit at home. Now don't go back home and get too relaxed. The house could catch on fire, too!

Now Prophet Muhammad said, whoever sees this thing being done should resist it and should change it. He should stop it and turn it away. He should turn it around. I remember the song by some singer t h it said. "Help Me Turn Around." He was calling on his woman and saying that this is killing him, Now Prophet Muhammad said to change it, but if you can't find a way — for sometimes we know the forces that are behind these things are so powerful that you know if you speak out, you are most likely to be shot or killed or anything.

Just recently there was a fellow in Chicago who intervened to save a person who was being robbed on the bus, and he ended up in the hospital. And thank Allah or as you would -say thank God that he was not killed. The only thing that I didn't like was what the police chief said in Chicago. He told them that when civilians see things like that, they are to stay out of it, I don't think that is right. If a civilian wants to risk his life to save another civilian, 1 think the police chief should just keep quiet. Rather than to say anything, he should just keep quiet. If he doesn't want vigilantes taking the law into their own hands and fighting crime by themselves, then he should just keep quiet. But to come out and say, "don't do anything," I did not like that. Human beings should sacrifice for each other.

And it continues with the Prophet saying, if you can't change it with your hands, then change it with your tongue. Speak out against it. And sometimes we know even if we speak out, you may get killed. And he says if you can't find a way to speak out against it or to fight it with your tongue, he said then fight it with your heart. Now how are we going to fight wrong with our hearts? Most of the good people in America fight wrong with our hearts. You will just say in the quietness of our hearts, "that is not right!" It will be with no one hearing us but God, but we will say, "that is not right," And what did the Prophet say of that kind of fighting of the wrongdoing? That it is the weakest form of faith.

If you have faith in the God of justice and righteousness, then the weakest form of it is to do nothing and just feel bad in your heart. That is the weakest form, but God gives you credit even for that. The better is to speak out against it. And still the better, according to the teachings of our Prophet is to act against it as He did. He changed the whole peninsula over there. And He used everything and used every level. When one wouldn't work, then He would use a stronger one. Finally He had to meet them in physical confrontation on the battlefield. He accepted that. God was with hint, and He triumphed.

Because of their great victories, we are here in America and do not have to fight. That is not physically, and I don't think we will ever have to fight anybody over here physically. I look at some of these off brands denominations sometimes and think it might be a possibility. But I hope not. Also let us look at our common prayer that we say all the time in Al-Fatihah, "E-Yahka-Na-Abuthu Wa E-Yahka-Nastain." It says. "You alone we worship." And "Na-Abuthu" comes from "Abd," and don't forget it is the common term used for slave. "For You we worship and for You we give our lives as slaves." "Eyahka" means only for you. "And You, we ask for assistance."

Now to reflect on what is being implied as well as what is given directly, one only has to refer to the issues of servitude and dependency in the life of world society. This term, "Na-Abuthu" means we worship and devote our whole life to you as obedient servants accepting you as the absolute authority. And this word "nastain" means we turn to you begging you and asking you to assist us. It is because only Allah has absolute authority over us, our being and ourselves, and also over the resources out there.

So when we need food, we beg Allah for food. We don't have to beg man for food. Not that we are to be too proud now if you are hungry to ask another man for food. It does not mean that. But it means that this prayerful kind of pleading or asking, we don't do that to anyone but Allah. We pray to Allah for that help.

And regarding our dependency we don't worry about it, for Allah has created us and He created this dependency also. Also, He has a way to take care of us. He should have the faith in Allah to call on Him and direct ourselves to Him. and then you use everything that He has made possible for us within our human reach or human grasp to improve our condition. We do this being faithful to Him, respecting Him. and trusting Him. Act upon what Allah has given us.

All of these references to the person, to the human creation and to its excellence, to its equality says to us that we, ourselves, have great resources. Though I don't have the position of the governor or the position as the supervisor on the job. and I have no power in terms of my resources, and maybe I don't have ten dollars in the bank. Maybe I only have myself. Now all of these things that I have been talking about tonight were not addressing what you have in your pocket or how much wealth you can get. It was not addressing that. It was only addressing what you have in the treasures of your own creation.

At this point 1 will conclude what I am talking about. And the point is this. The most powerful influence for liberating the mind of the Muslims -For I was given the topic to speak on "Liberation of the Human Mind for Muslims." Now the most powerful influence for liberating the Muslim mind is right in what I have given you tonight. And perhaps the most powerful of them all is God addressing us as His "ABD." He calls us "ibadullah." It means servants of God or slaves of God.

Here the slave master has Bilal, who was a slave from Habashi, Ethiopia as it is now called. The master has his slaves and he hears the religion using the common word for slave as the slaves of God or the slaves of Allah. So he is a slave of this man, and he hears this religion where God is addressing "My slaves." He is addressing all the people as His slaves. 50 don't you know that that is going to register on him in slavery. That this man is calling me his slave, and that religion is saying that I am God's slave. That is powerful.

There is also the slave master now who has the slaves, he hears the religion or the revelation addressing him and his slaves all or both as slaves. And God is saying, "Oh My slaves." Don't you think that if he has any good in him whatsoever, he is going to start feeling uneasy in the position of being a slave master? That God is calling that slave His slave and that I am also God's slave." That was the most powerful thing.

Now the Imam asked me to talk on liberation of the human mind, and I have mentioned Allah in the Quran addressing the human being as an intellect or as an intelligent person. That is an obvious way that Al-Islam excites the mind and makes us come out of that slumber and makes us feel proud to be intelligent and an intellect, for all of us are intellects. All of us may not be intellectual, but all of us are intellects. This religion wants to excite the intellect, so that the dumbest one among us will want to become intellectual.

And I believe that especially in this modern world there is that possibility. We believe that every man, no matter how bad his situation is or how much cultural neglect there is in his life and in his family life, no matter how ignorant he appears to us to be, that he is entitled to equal education. Every child born in the United States is entitled to the same education. I can go to any school no matter what kind of background I have, and no matter how dumb you think I am. I can go to any school that I can qualify to enter. If I cannot qualify for a better one, I can go into another school first and can work my way on up to Yale. Harvard and maybe even to a better school, if there are any.

The modern civilized world believes in that, too. That we should be given the opportunity to come alive in our intellect, Thank you very much, As-Salaam-Alaikum.
