06/11/1999
IWDM Study Library 
Jumuah Charleston, SC

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We witness that G-d is One. We worship nothing with Him and associate nothing with Him in worship. He's only One G-d and One G-d alone. And we witness that Muhammad to whom the Qur'an was revealed over 14 centuries ago, is Allah's servant and His Messenger. We pray the Prayers and the Peace be upon him. And what follows of that traditional salutation. A salute to Muhammad the last Prophet, the seal of the Prophets, the Prophet mentioned in the Torah and in the Gospel as Allah, G-d revealed to us in Qur'an that Muhammad is the one mentioned in the Gospel and in the Torah and the Gospel. The Torah referring to those scriptures, the scriptures of those books that were revealed to Moses and the other Prophets and collected for them, for the Jewish people or for the people of Judaism. And the Gospel, the Injil is the New Testament referring to the essence of the New Testament of that which was originally revealed through Jesus Christ.
Peace be upon the Prophets of G-d. Muhammed the Prophet is mentioned in these two books, G-d does not leave us wondering or guessing how he's mentioned. He's mentioned as one coming to break the bonds of servitude or the bonds of slavery. And G-d says that he will take the heavy yolks off the backs of the people and will break all the bonds of slavery. How is he to free people from slavery? And what form of slavery is this referring to? All forms of slavery that take people, individuals, or persons from proper worship of G-d. G-d said of Islam, the Qur'an, revelation and Islam, that this religion has come or this message has come and this religion has come to relieve religion itself, to free religion itself so that religion will be free for G-d.
We know that in many countries and many lands now many Muslim lands now, the people are not free to practice Islam as they would love to practice their religion. There's a lot of government control over how the people live their religion or practice their religion in the public. So, religion can be acknowledged, but religion does not have to be free. And Islam came so that religion will be free. And when you study the life of Muhammad the Prophet Prayers and Peace upon him, you find that the main job of liberating or taking the people from slavery is the job of taking them from false worship. False worship. The worship of idols that they made with their hands, their fathers, their ancestors made. But not only that. Servitude slavery to another human being that denies or prevents that human being who is the servant, from practicing the religion as G-d intended for human beings to practice the religion or how to have religion.
As we know, Bilal, the companion of the Prophet from the black people or African people Habashi, was himself a slave when he heard, first heard the call to Islam. He was a slave. And he accepted the call to Islam while he was yet a slave and his master punished him severely for embracing Islam, for accepting the One G-d. And Muhammad as a Messenger of G-d. His master punished him severely, put him in the hot sun, in the heat of the sun, placed a heavy stone upon his bald chest to get him to give up the faith, to renounce worship the faith in the One G-d and Muhammad the Prophet. But he refused to do that. And finally, he was freed by Umar Ibn Khattab, pardon me. Abu Bakr Siddeeq liberated him by paying the price to the slave master. He paid the ransom price to purchase the slave Bilal from his master, from his cruel master, and from then on, Bilal was a free man.
May G-d be pleased with him and the Companions of the Prophet. He was a free man after that. So, the religion of Islam has to be thought of as a religion that is in the world to free mankind from bondage that prevents mankind from being free to practice religion as G-d intended for us to practice religion. So, the religion of Islam is about the freedom of religion. It is about the freedom of religion and not just the freedom of Islam, it's about the freedom of religion. How do we know that? Because the Prophet stood firmly against any mistreatment of Christians and Jews, any unjust mistreatment of Christian and Jews. The Prophet stood firmly against that. And Jews and Christians were accorded the freedom of religion. When Prophet Muhammad , the Prayers and Peace be upon him, established Islamic order in Medina, and he became the governor of that state or the head of state.
He mandated that the Jews would continue to have the freedom to practice their religion. And he made it clear that there was no interference in the practice of their religion coming from Islam. He said that they will be permitted to continue the practice of religion as they had previously done. And also, the Christians, as you know, were permitted to continue to practice their religion as they had previously practiced it. And the proof of this tradition can be found today in Egypt and Syria and many countries of the Middle East. You'll find churches there and these churches have been free ever since Islam was established, 14 centuries ago. These churches have been free and Jews too have been free. We know that with the Jews, there was a kind of a special situation or an unusual situation was created because the merchants, the Jewish merchants of Medina, they didn't like that Islam was changing the situation for them.
So, they actually aided the idol worshipers in their efforts to try to prevent Islam from being established and spreading. So, the Jews became a party to the idolaters in their attempt to stop Islam. So that's what brought about the problem. That's what brought about the serious problem. But except for them participating in the wars against Muslim to prevent Islam from being established and spreading, the Jews present no particular problem to us when it comes to recognizing them as a People of the Book and their right to have their religion. So, you'll find Jews too free to practice their religion. In many Muslim countries, you'll find the Jews too free to practice their religion. As they practice their religion except for Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, as you know, is a holy city where the Ka'aba is our symbol for the unity of mankind and under G-d the unity of mankind under G-d.
We turn toward that Qibla, the Ka'aba, that's our direction. And that precinct there is only for Muslims and the rights of the Hajj, the rights of Umrah and Hajj. The Umrah, the lesser pilgrimage, and Hajj, the major pilgrimage. So, the vicinity over there is restricted to the rituals of Umrah and Hajj and is not to be occupied by non-Muslims. They're not to have their religious activities in that area. That's the position of the Saudi government. That's the position of many in Islam, the learned teachers in Islam. And that's my position too, that we should not have other religions interfering with the spirit and the privacy of that place. It's like our sanctuary. That's our sanctuary. So, we wouldn't ask the Catholics, Protestants to have us build a Mosque in their sanctuary. That wouldn't go too well. So, we should understand that particular character or characteristic of the sacred land and see it as no violation of the freedom of religion.
It is just a due respect and a privacy that we have to keep for our Hajj and our Umrah. For Hajj and Umrah and for the meaning, the significance of that particular area, which is all a sanctuary for Muslims, is a sanctuary for Muslims. Yes. Let me continue on Prophet Muhammad, Prayers and Peace be upon him as one coming to free the people. The main instrument for freeing us is Qur'an, the word of G-d. And Qur'an is not just revelation, the Qur'an is teaching, the Qur'an is education. The Qur'an itself is teaching and education. And the Qur'an produced what we have as Islamic education now. What we have in the world as Islamic education. It was the Qur'an as recited by Muhammad the Prophet and taught by him that produced that. It excited the intellect of the followers, the men and some women. Excited the intellect and it made scholars out of them.
They became scholars. And in time great universities sprung up in Syria and Iraq and all around Morocco, Egypt, great universities sprung up. We have what we call the Islamic sciences, the Islamic sciences and also what you call the secular world sciences or the secular world science secular knowledge. All of that was the result of the teaching of Qur'an. The Qur'an inspired all of that. The Qur'an was the herald that opened the way for all of that, for all of that knowledge, for all of that higher education. So actually the Qur'an is education. The Qur'an itself is education and it liberates. Muslim society depends upon education more than anything else to liberate and free society. Education is the main tool in Islam for freeing society. And we find that in civilized parts of the world here in America, it's not said that much, but I'm sure you feel it if you haven't heard it said. You feel that education is the main help for freeing people.
You can free them from physical bondage to a slave master like we were freed from physical bondage to our slave master of our forefathers in slavery during the days of slavery in the plantation in the south and in America and here in the United States. We were freed physically, but we were not able to exercise that freedom. It took education to prepare us to exercise that freedom. And the more education we get, the more fully we can exercise our freedom. Many of us are part, are half slaves right now. We've been free more than a hundred years ago, but many of us are half slaves and half free right now. Simply because we don't have the education to know how to fully exercise our freedom. So, education is really the liberator in Islam and in the civilized world. And that's what we should see our Prophet as number one.
You should see him as a man promoting the freedom of religion sent into this world to free religion for G-d. To free religion so the religion will be for G-d, not for the national order, not for the government, not for the king, not for the President, not for a particular group of rich people who will be controlling things. No, it will break all those bonds. It will throw off all of those false deities. It will throw them, pummel them down to the ground, shattered and broken up so that man will be free to worship G-d as G-d intends for him to worship G-d. And we know what the worst form of slavery is. G-d says the worst form of oppression is false worship. False worship. Having as a G-d that that is not G-d. G-d is first of all, the one responsible for all we see in the skies and all we see in the earth.
That's the G-d, the one responsible for that. We didn't make that. We couldn't create ourselves. We are not the makers of ourselves. We can't create ourselves and we are not the makers of what's in the skies and what's on the earth. In the earth that grows naturally. That was here before man or here before man influenced or got involved and tampered with it and changed it. We can't do that. So, we know that G-d is responsible for everything that has happened on this earth that amounts to good for man, mankind. And that amounts to progress for mankind. G-d is responsible for it. G-d is responsible for the electric light. G-d is responsible for this system we're speaking over, G-d is responsible for the TV and everything else. Why? Because He made you. If a computer makes something, you don't give the computer credit, you give the designer of the computer credit.
So, G-d made us and whatever we do, G-d gets the credit because He designed us to do whatever we can do. And He gave us the power and the capacity and the talent, the skills, the knowledge, et cetera all comes from G-d. The ability to develop the talent, the ability to develop the skills. All given from G-d. All given from G-d. So, whatever has happened of good it is G-d. G-d gets the credit number one first, then man gets the credit, something else gets the credit, but G-d gets the credit number one first. And we know that this religion is a religion of faith. Allah Most High. G-d says in the Holy Book that the people heard a caller calling to faith. That's Muhammad, talking about Muhammad the Prophet. And they said, "We have heard a caller, calling to faith saying believe in your Lord. And we have believed." This is Qur'an. So, Muhammad is first a caller to faith. He's essentially a caller to faith. Faith in G-d, faith in life after, hereafter, faith in the resurrection of the dead, faith in angels, faith in revelation, in the books, all of them that G-d sent. The books of Moses and Jesus and all the Prophets. Faith in the revelation and faith in the power of G-d, the ordinance of G-d over good to regulate good and harm.
The regulation, the power to regulate good and harm is from G-d Most High. So, we know that. Yes. And the judgment day. The judgment day, this is what we supposed to have faith in. This is our faith. But our faith also includes faith in the known. We believe in faith and we have faith in the absence that is absent. You may say the unknown. And we have faith also in the known we have faith in G-d, we know G-d. G-d is not unknown. Yes, we know G-d is Ghaib, G-d is Ghaib. That is, Ghaib means that that has not been attested, that has not been witnessed with our eyes or whatever our senses, our intelligence, whatever. But G-d is also, G-d is also the known. The known. That that can be witnessed, that that can be attested to, that our senses can know.
G-d is the manifest, the obvious and He's the hidden. And He's the hidden. And we believe in Him. Bil Ghaib. And we believe in Him without evidence, without proof, without proof for the eyes, without proof, for the rational sense. We believe in Him without proof for the eyes. We believe in Him without proof for the rational senses, for human reasons, without proof for our human reasons. So, this is faith. This is faith. Faith is very essential. And G-d gives us a sign. G-d says, See how the heavenly bodies, these big objects... Now here it is giving us some idea of what G-d is talking about. When you say, see how these heavenly bodies are held into space, held up in space with seemingly no props under them to support them, to hold them up there. There are planets bigger than this, much bigger than our earth that we are on. Jupiter much, many times bigger than this earth.
And there are others out there, many times bigger than Jupiter. Bodies held up into space and you see no supports under them. They're just hanging in space. There's an invisible force that explains how they are held together in space, an invisible force. And we come to know that really we supposed to believe in Muhammad the Prophet. G-d said, believe in G-d and believe in His Messenger. Muhammad the Prophet, We are to believe in Muhammad the Prophet. He's a man. We can see, we were able to see him with our eyes. Those that lived in his day, we're able to see him with their eyes. But believe in him, believe in him, trust him. Have faith in him, trust him and have faith in him. We know we don't have him. We don't see him as 150 pound man or whatever he weighed. Or so many feet high.
We don't have that. We don't have that. What we have is the knowledge of Muhammad, what kind of character he was, what he loved, what he didn't love, the life he preferred, the life he fought against. So, we know these things about Muhammad. We know Muhammad in his abstract. We know Muhammad in his abstract, not in his concrete, not in his physical presence. We know him in his abstract, invisible presence. And that's the true person. That's the real person. That's the person that lives eternally. The physical will go back to the earth and gone. But the abstract person may live eternally. If G-d has mercy on them and accept them, accepts his good and grants them the eternal life. So, this is the real person. And it goes for us too. We think of ourselves as physical pictures. The real picture, the camera can't get it.
You can't take my real picture. Camera can never get my real picture. Camera can only get what you're looking at right now. And believe me, there's some identical twins and you can't tell them apart. But if you know the abstract persons in those two bodies, you will know them apart. If you know the real person. So, this is true of everything. We say, "Oh, I can't see G-d with my eyes. Well how can I know G-d?" Same way you know your brother. You know G-d by His attributes and what He stands for and what He stands against. You know your brother by his character, what he stands for and what he stands against. The same. Yes. And really you don't know this material world. That's why I say all this that you see with your eyes is Ghurur. It's deception.
It's deception. It escapes you. This is not the reality. To know the real mass we call earth that big mass we call the earth. You need to study it as a scientist study it. And when you study it as a scientist study it, then you can see this earth. You can really know this earth. This earth is much more than just mountains and rivers. No, this earth has itself an abstract body. And the abstract body is its nature. What makes it like that? What's the scientific nature? So, when you know it's scientific nature, then you really know the earth. For the first time you can see the earth.
This is just common sense that helps us to understand faith. So, it's easy to have faith if you have the right rational composition and the right rational attitude. If you're composed rationally in the right way and you have the right rational sensitivity, you can really appreciate faith and faith will be your strongest position. Faith will be your strongest position. The strongest position the believers take is his position of faith. Faith in G-d and faith in what G-d has ordered us to have faith in. The knowledge is limited. That's why the true follower of the way, they don't claim knowledge for themselves. No matter how much they know, they say "G-d, we know nothing." You know and we know not.
We witness that G-d is One. We associate nothing in worship with Him. And we witness that Muhammad, to whom the Qur'an was revealed is His servant and His Messenger. The seal of the Prophets mentioned in both the Torah and the Gospel or the Injil. We ask G-d to guide us always, to forgive us our errors and guide us always so that we will be guided. Because if He does not guide us, we will never have guidance, Ameen. The Prayers and the Peace be upon the generous and noble Messenger Muhammad and what follows of that salute to him. We witness that G-d is one, the Creator of everything and that He created man to be His servant. All men, all people to be His servant. G-d repeatedly says to us in the Qur'an "Ya Ibadalah, Oh ye servants of G-d," speaking to all people. The highest position for a human being or anything in creation for that matter is to be servant of G-d. Muhammad's most noble title and highest title is Abdullah. Muhammad Abdullah. Muhammad, the servant of G-d.
Dear believers, we are to practice our religion. And to practice our religion, we have to know the essentials of the practice. One is shahadah, to witness openly, not just privately, but to witness openly that G-d is One. I witness that G-d is One alone and there is nothing that can be compared to Him. No, no comparison for Him. And I witness that Muhammad, the Prophet, the seal of the Prophets is His servant and His messenger. This is the Shahada, the shahadah. The Shahadatain and one Shahadah, two witnesses and one Kalima. La Ilaha Il Allah, Muhammadan Rasulallah. No G-d but One G-d. And Muhammad is a Messenger of G-d. Why is this practiced? How is this a practice? When we really take that into our lives as we should, it forms our life all over again. It frees us. It puts us in a situation where we can have brotherhood with each other.
It humbles us. It condition us to respect that there is one creation. That all matters created by one G-d. It conditions us to respect that humanity is one creation. That all men are the creation of G-d. That we are actually one human family. That kalimah conditions us to stand upon Tawheed, which comes from oneness, singleness, oneness. Tawheed. So that we have unity with Muslims and unity with the good people of the earth. And we have unity with matter, unity with all matter. That we see ourselves as part of this vast scheme of material things that's hanging in space in the skies and also in the earth and that comes up out of the earth. So, this Kalima is very important. La Ilaha Il Allah, Muhammadan Rasulallah. Muhammadan Rasulallah has to be repeated with no G-d but G-d. Then Muhammadan Rasulallah. How come? Because in many religions the two are confused. The G-d and the servant of G-d are confused.
They make the mistake of thinking that the servant of G-d is also a G-d. We have been protected against that. We have been protected from that kind of deviation. We cannot say shahadah without also saying Muhammad is a servant of G-d. Every time we say Muhammad is a servant of G-d, we are saying Muhammad is not G-d. Muhammad is not G-d. And this is no accident, that servant is so important. To know the difference between the G-d and the servant. This is a witness, a witness of what was revealed before to them in the Bible. The Bible says in the New Testament, the servant is not equal to the master and the sent is not equal to the sender. This is the Bible. I've read it. So, this is not a new declaration, really. It's a repeat. It's a confirmation or a declaration of what came before in scripture, that the sent is not equal to the sender.
And the servant is not the master. So, we say "La Ilaha Il Allah", No G-d, but G-d. Muhammadan Rasulallah. Muhammad is the Messenger G-d. And we say that Muhammad is a servant of G-d. Muhammad Abdullah, His servant and His Messenger. So, it keeps the perception, it keeps the picture correct. Our Kalimah keeps the picture correct. G-d is G-d only, and man is not G-d. If Muhammad is not G-d, what man can be G-d? And Muhammad is the model man for all people. So, if he's not G-d, what man can be G-d? No man is G-d. No. The best man that G-d made is not G-d, not G-d. Not in any measure, G-d. Not in any degree is he G-d. G-d alone is G-d.
This is a wonderful declaration, a wonderful Shahadah. Yes. And we have to pray. After Shahadah is prayer. We worship. Now you can pray correctly. Now that you see correctly, you can pray correctly. Your prayer is to the right G-d. So, we have to make salat five times a day. Why? Because this religion respects our five senses. "Oh, it has nothing to do with that Brother Imam. Where you get that authority from? Well just comment on it later after I'm gone, I don't have the time right now. It respects the human beings intelligence, respects his five senses. We have five prayers. Is this something new? Has Islam, Qur'an brought us something new? No. No. The Bible says that Jesus fed people two fish, right? And how many loaves of bread? Five loaves of bread.
We don't have time to, you just have to take it without further discussion of it. Okay. Yes. Now after that we have charity, don't we? And what does it say? Put your bread on the water and you'll see it come back to you. Now charity right? Zakat, charity. That's the third. And after that, what? Siyam, fasting. Ramadan. Fasting. You consuming too much. Just fast and you will have more to give. And fasting is given to us, mainly to bring us closer to G-d. In fact, everything that we practice in Islam is to bring us closer to G-d. But fasting is also to open up our hearts to give charity, to give in charity. So, fasting comes to really support for Zakat. We give. G-d says, give in charity. Now, he's going to help us. He's going to help us to be prepared to give in charity more by teaching us to love fasting and to fast for G-d.
So, we feel the pain as one of my professors taught me, Jamil Diab from Jerusalem originally, but he's American, lives in America. He stays in Arizona right now. My father hired him to teach us Arabic. And he said, "The fasting makes us feel the pain in the stomach that many poor people feel and they can't eat, they can't get food. They have to wait till someone give them food or wait till they find food. They have to carry that pain and suffer that pain. Many of them go to bed night after night with that pain." So, it teaches us the pain of the poor people and makes us feel sorry for them. The poor man, we hear the family is hungry next door. We know what it is. We have fasted. We know what that pain is. So, a believer will right away feel sympathetic and want to go next door and take next door some bread, some meat or whatever to that person.
This is no more than decent human beings. We know that that's the practice of the people in the south. Our people in the south, whites and black. If they knew some neighbor was hungry, they come to your door with something to eat. They bring you some food to your door. They couldn't stand and have something and know their neighbor was hungry. And this is Islam. This is the teaching of Islam. After fasting than Hajj. Hajj. We go make Hajj for G-d too. The pilgrimage to the Holy house, the Ka'aba. We make a Hajj there for G-d. And we make Umrah too. I made Umrah very recently, about three weeks ago I made Umrah one of the best Umrah, in fact, the best Umrah I ever made. I made it about three weeks ago. And we go and make the Hajj there to visit the sacred house built by Abraham and his son, Peace be upon them. To perform the rights of Umrah and to know that G-d wants all people to respect each other as equal dependents on the G-d who is the caretaker, the keeper of all of us who loves all of us, just like a good parent, loves the children, their own children.
So, we have to accept each other that way and embrace each other that G-d made us one people "Kanu Nas Ummin Wahida." That people were originally one community, human beings of one family, one community of human beings. And we know that we have the same ancestor. The first man, Adam. Peace be upon Adam. And Christians, the faith community of Christians and Jews and Muslims. We are now united as children of both Adam and children of Abraham, children of Abraham, the Prophet Abraham. So, this is the five essentials of Islam that again, if you accept them in your heart, your mind, heart and mind, they will influence the way you live and the way you shape your life. The way you shape your life. And your life will become a new life because of you having Shahada, the worship of One G-d and obedience to Him and to His servant Muhammad the Messenger of G-d and because of your praying the five daily prayers, or at least being committed yourself to do that and feeling sorry or regret, remorse when you can't do that or when you don't do that.
And giving in charity for the good of the religion, for the spread of the religion, for the strength of the religion, but also giving in charity for the betterment of the whole society. To help the poor, to help the widows, to help orphans, et cetera. So many recipients of charity that are mentioned in the Holy Qur'an. And you'll find that the same recipients are also mentioned in the Bible, same recipients mentioned in the Bible. And that this charity is for these people, the needy, and to those who suffer misfortune in the world, et cetera. So, when you have this in your life, your life becomes a new life. Your life takes a different form. You become a different, you become a different picture, a different picture. The Muslims should not resemble everybody else. The Muslim in his behavior and his actions and in his behavior should not resemble everybody else.
You should resemble the believer in Islam. You should resemble the believer in G-d and His Messenger. Muhammad. You should resemble the follow of G-d and the follower of His word and the follower of Muhammad His Messenger. You should resemble Muhammad the Prophet, Peace be upon him. Prayers and Peace be upon him. He says, "Those who take on the behavior of others is not one of us." So, you shouldn't behave just like everybody else. Don't behave like the people on your block who are not Muslim. Behave like Muhammad the idea model, follower of the revelation. And try to mold your behavior after his behavior. And as much as you can, try to practice Islam, not just believe it, but put it into practice and you'll see your life take on a new shape, a new form, a new picture. I know this is a long khutbah. I know. I didn't intend it to be long. I intended it to be all I'm saying.
But I didn't intend it to be this long. So, I thank you for your patience. I appreciate your patience with me. So, I'm going to conclude this by saying that a Muslim is first of all, a believer in G-d, then a believer in the Messenger of G-d. So, this tells us that we are to believe in G-d, but we are also to believe in man. We are to believe in man. You find people who believe in G-d, but they don't believe in man. They can't go far in this world. Belief means not only believing, it means trusting. You must trust G-d, but also trust man. We trust G-d and we trust Muhammad the Prophet. Peace be upon him. And we must trust our excellent people in our community. Trust the sister and the brother who have shown us that they are excellent in their practice of Islam, in their faith and in their practice of the religion. They're excellence. Trust them. Build strong bonds of faith and trust between you and your brothers and sisters. And you'll be able to do wonderful things and great things together. That's the key. And that's what Muhammad came for. Muhammad came not only to bond us with G-d, but also to bond us with each other. I thank you. We pray to G-d for forgiveness, for our shortcomings and our errors and forgive our sins. Our Lord grant us mercy. And your guidance always, for without your guidance, we would never have found guidance. Ameen
Iqamah:
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Ilalah, Wa Ashadu And Muhammadan Rasulallah. Haya al Salah, Haya Al Falah. Qai Qama Tu Salah, Qama Tu Salah. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar La Ilaha Il Allah.



