1986
IWDM Study Library
Whatever We Can Accomplish Depends on Faith Atlanta GA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Dear people, peace be unto you. As we say in Al Islam, in our religion commonly called Islam, in the West, as salaamu alaikum.
Al hamdulillah hir rabbil ayl ameen, (Arabic). All praise is due to Allah. Lord of all the worlds. We seek Him for assistance, we turn to Him for forgiveness. We put our complete trust in Him, who is almighty and sublime and we bear witness that nothing deserves worship except the one Lord Allah. And we bear witness that Muhammed is His servant and His messenger and we pray the choiciest blessings upon the messenger of Allah, his descendants and the righteous companions, the companions and the righteous all, be peace. Dear Muslims, we pray Allah's peace be on us and that He favor this gathering and the purpose for which we have gathered and lift us stronger in the faith and purer that our hearts are in our intentions. We pray His blessing upon those, His mercy and His favor on those who have made great efforts and separated from their dollars and they're concerns back home, even for those in this city, that He gives them His blessings. Allah, most high, says in Qur'an, (Arabic). The translation in English is,
" Say, Who has made prohibited the inviting things which Allah has brought out of the earth or brought out for His spirit and the good things and the good things of the provision. Say, such things are for those who believe, that is who believe and have faith. It is for those who believe during this world's life and will be complete for them, perfect and complete for them in the resurrection." (Arabic) Say, my Lord has prohibited, shameful behavior whether done openly or done secretly and He has forbidden all the wrongdoings of (Arabic) sin or wrongdoings and hatred and the association with G-d, that that is not to be associated with Him, the making of partners or associates with G-d." And again, Allah, most high says in the Holy Book, in His book, the Qur'an, "and who is better in religious life than one who has submitted himself completely to Allah and is a doer of good and he follows the way of Abraham, the upright man, and Allah took Abraham for a friend." Again, Allah most high, says in His holy book, in the Qur'an, bismillah hir rahman nir raheem, (Arabic) "the end abode, we have made it for those who do not aspire to or desire, or work for supremacy in the earth, nor corruption. And the end, or the fulfillment of things, the end abode, or the fulfillment of things is for those who are regardful, the G-d fearing, the pious, those who are regardful of the matters that are sacred and precious, the matters that G-d have established to be regarded, highly regarded, secretly regarded by man."
And again Allah, our Lord says to us in His book the Qur'an, (Arabic) "and Allah, He invites to the abode of peace and He guides whomsoever He wills to a way that is straight." And we say in the Al fatiha, opening chapter of the Qur'an, that is repeated for all occasions and in all prayers, "Id dinas siraltal mustaqeem", our Lord guide us in the straight way." "Siraltal ladhinia an amtah alaihim", the way of those you have favored, the way of those you have favored." So Allah, most high, He only favors those who walk or who go upon the straight way. He does not favor those who go upon other paths. There is only one straight way.
Other ways are crooked. The straight way in our religion is the way intended by Allah for man into any man. It is the way of our natural, natural inherent excellence. The prophet Ibrahim completed his sacrifice before Allah to Allah. He's called hanifa. He completed it and he is also our Father. And we know Allah has said in the Qur'an, that He made prophet Abraham, prophet Ibrahim in Arabic, prophet Abraham, peace be upon him, a leader for all nations. And our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was given for the Qur'an, for all people, to benefit to all people, for Muslims as a benefit, not only to Muslims but a benefit to all people.
It is said in the Qur'an that was given to our prophet, peace and blessing be on him, that our way is the way of Abraham, the upright in faith. Allah has given to us in His holy book, (Arabic) "the words of the faithful our Lord. Clearly we have heard a caller calling to faith that we should believe that, to believe, that is, in your Lord. Surely we have heard a caller to faith, calling us to believe or calling that you should believe in your Lord." We have gathered here and we should understand that whatever we can accomplish here depends upon faith, first of all, upon faith. Without faith we cannot begin. We cannot go anywhere.
Faith strengthens us and puts us in a good situation as Muslims, as families, people as concerned residents, workers on our job, voters when election times come. Faith, without faith we can't do anything. Those who have no faith in their future as Muslims cannot be expected to do anything. Those who have no faith in the ability to manage good family lives cannot be expected to do much of anything. Faith is the beginning. Allah has called us to faith. Allah gave us Muhammed the Prophet, peace and the blessings be on him, to call us to faith. The beginning of the Muslim life is faith. We say we believe in Allah, we believe in His angels. We believe in the revelations that He has sent. We believe in the messengers that He has sent.
We believe in G-d's promise to us. We believe in the day of judgment. We believe in the resurrection after the death. We believe in the ordinance of Allah that regulate good and evil and gives us the consequences of our good deeds and the consequences of our bad deeds. Life of the Muslim begins in faith. Belief is faith. Faith is trust. A distrustful people cannot go anywhere. We must be people of faith. We must be people trusting Allah, trusting Qur'an, trusting the messenger, to whom it was revealed and trusting what Allah has revealed in the Qur'an for us, for our life, for our direction in this world. We must be people trusting His promise, His promise of judgment, His promise of justice, His promise of reward, His promise of paradise, His promise of hellfire. We must be people trusting Allah. Again, I'm quoting from Qur'an, Allah, most high, says "there is not much good, not much good benefit coming out of secret meetings." This meeting is no secret meeting.. I don't know if we have non-Muslims here or not, but they are invited. I invite them, all the time and I appreciate their presence all the time. And I feel obligated to invite people, not just Muslims, all the time.
Prophet Muhammed, if he had invited only Muslims, there would've been no Muslim but him, peace be upon him. He invited non-Muslim. He invited people and obligated us to do the same. And even though it's difficult for non- Muslims to join us, because we have been misrepresented and people are skeptical. They don't know if they trust themselves in our meetings. And our enemy is constantly working at keeping them skeptical and our enemy is sometimes dressed in our clothing. In fact, that's his best position. When he dresses like one of us and claims to be one of us, that's his best position to carry out, or carry out his dirty work. So Allah, most high, tells us in His holy book that there is not much good coming out of secret meanings. Why is that there for us? To discourage secret meetings. Our religion discourages secret meaning and encourages open meetings. This is a Muslim concern but Muslim concern is also a human concern. Muslim concern is also a people's concern.
Therefore, we don't have any need to conduct our meetings in secrecy, we invite the public. Allah says there's not much good coming out of the secret meetings except for those secret meetings where good is done. The purpose for the secret meeting is to do good. (Arabic) "except for those who instruct people to be charitable, to be charitable." (Arabic) "or to be of excellent behavior. To conform to the highest standards of human excellence." Why would there be a need for men to gather in secrecy for such accepted causes. And it continues, (Arabic) "or to promote the doing of justice righteousness among the people." (Qur'an 4:114)
Why would men gather in secrecy for that? That seems to be something, a cause that we could come out in the open with, no one would be against us. Yes, the devil is against that. His imps are against that. The verse continues, (Arabic) "and whoever does that .....Allah's favor, teaching what pleases his Lord then surely we shall guide him, we forgive him then surely we shall give him, bring for him or give him or brings him to a reward that is mighty, a reward that is mighty." If the Muslims meet in secrecy, they should be hiding something from devil. If the Muslim meets in secrecy, they should be hiding something from devil. They should be hiding something from the wicked, knowing that if the wicked see them go about what they're doing of good, they will plan to defeat it. If they fear the eyes of the wicked on what they're doing then it is acceptable for some of their concerns, that they meet in secrecy to advance their good according to Allah's will and purpose among men.
Allah has taught us as Muslims to be active, to be productive, to be aggressive. We know Allah doesn't accept aggression that is violent, aggression, that is war. He only accepts that we retaliate for injustice, that we defend ourselves against aggression. But, He does not accept that Muslims be aggressive in war. We are not the start war. We’re not to be the cause of war, but if war is made against us, we are to retaliate. We are to defend ourselves. But Allah does want us to be aggressive, aggressive in carrying forward the good things. When we say we believe in jihad, we are saying we believe in being aggressive with the responsibility for preparing our good things, the good life that Allah's ....for man .And Allah says. (Arabic)" struggle, press forward, assert yourself, struggle with your possessions, your belongings, your wealth and with your very selves. ............with your faith, with your moral soul.
...before a great and powerful leader. Leader of a small thing, leader of a big thing, leader of private matters, leader of government matters, even the president, if he is oppressive, if he's wrong, if he's doing wrong, then the best conduct of jihad that we may demonstrate is to show the courage to speak out against the wrong of a powerful leader. The highest form of jihad is to speak up for truth in the face of a ruler, whether government authority, other authority, or any leader who deviates from the right path,
Our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he has said, (Arabic) he has said that Allah's protection is for the whole people, the collective concern, not the private concern. When the private concern is at odds with the collective concern, then know that Allah will not favor the private concern. He favors the collective concern and if Allah favors the collective concern, then the Muslim should be united for the collective concern. We should not unite to advance good morality without thinking and being interested in promoting the collective concerns. Some of us will have good morality and good moral conditions for ourselves, where we are but we don't have an awareness and a concern for the conditions of people beyond us, a distance away from us. If I have a moral interest in Masjid Newark, I should have the same in Masjid Atlanta.
I should have the same in all the masjids. And my moral concern for the people of Newark should not stop there, but it should also go on to the people of a Atlanta. Wherever there are Muslims, we should have the same moral concern. We shouldn't be satisfied to have one masjid morally established and many other masjids beyond us, a distance away, morally corrupt. I'm not saying this to point out corruption anywhere. There may be no corruption. I don't know. I didn't come here with that, with any issues of morals in the masjid.. That's not my point. My point is the general concern. That we shouldn't give ourselves to narrow concern and overlook the general concern. Allah favors the general concern. Therefore we must be united behind the general concern. We should not be satisfied with good business effort in Atlanta and overlook the need for that in Chicago and other cities throughout the United States.
Whatever we do in our local place, it should take into the consideration also the needs of other places and maybe it can't serve those needs today. Maybe not even this year, maybe not for much five years, but it should be in our concern. We should have that in our concern and we should say one day our effort here is going to be carried on and going to benefit those in Newark, those in Chicago, those in Los Angeles, wherever we are. Then Allah will favor us. Allah will be with us, His protection will be written us. because we are not selfish people, we are not narrow-minded people. He will be with us. And if we have that kind of concern, we are not going to only better our condition as Muslims, but we are going to better our situation as a minority people in a non-Muslim country.
When the non-Muslims see us with that general concern for the Muslim community, they're going to appreciate us more. They're going to know that the Muslim effort is not going to be small in America, its going to be big in America. There's no way that we will take care of our collective concerns and not make a great contribution to the betterment of non-Muslims also who suffer our same situation. No way. But if we are narrow, narrow in our concerns, then we'll hurt ourselves and we'll also hurt our future in this country that is a majority, great majority non-Muslims.
So it makes good sense. It is good common sense to be a good Muslim. It is good common sense to be a whole Muslim. It is good common sense to be the total Muslim, not the half Muslim, not the one eighth Muslim, not the one fifth, to be the total Muslim. It makes good common sense, especially in the situation we find ourselves in , in America. Makes good common sense. Not that we shouldn't practice it anywhere in the world. Certainly we should practice it anywhere in the world. But in America where we're a small minority here and the mechanisms that are in the culture and in the atmosphere that can make trouble and set us back being as great as they are, it makes good sense for us to work hard as we can to grow into the total Muslim. Our prophet, peace and blessings be on him has also said, the believer is one that when he endeavors or steps into an endeavor or work, no matter what it is. decorating the house, establishing a business, organizing the family, instructing the family, whatever it is, working on your own self, self-improvement, no matter what it is, he says when a Muslim enters into a work he seeks to perfect it!
He's not satisfied with no shabby job, with no hit and miss. He seeks to perfect it. If we will believe in our religion and live it as Muhammed the Prophet taught it, peace and blessings be on him, we will show great progress as a people. No way we will not have great progress. We will have great progress as a people and that progress will not only be in the church kind of conception of what the believer should be doing, but it will be also in the eyes of the intellectual, in the eyes of the industrialists, in the eyes of all people who need it for the advance of man's society. That work will be seen by all of them and appreciated by all of them. If we follow our religion as Allah has revealed it in the Qur'an, follow it as Prophet Muhammed taught it and as he lived it. Ain't no way you're not going to progress. You are going to progress and you are going to progress in every dimension, not in any small narrow puritanical dimension, but in every dimension. For Allah has said He has made this earth to be inherited by those who worship Him.
He has not made this earth to be inherited by the disbelievers, the rejectors of faith, the rejectors of G-d, the rejectors of truth, the corruptors, the oppressors of the righteous. No, He have made it for those who serve Him. Now Allah says that very plainly in our holy book, that's enough for me. And Allah says He made to for those who serve Him and I'm the one who pledged myself to serve him, then Allah made the earth for me and I'm going to do something about the false tenants. Now, you know you can hurt him just like he hurts you. You don't have to go at him directly all the time. Go at him indirectly in the most positive indirect way, the most productive, pardon me, indirect way to advance against your enemy, who's a corrupt enemy, a wrong person. The most powerful way go at him indirectly is to go at him by concentrating on improving your own conscious. Because his most powerful effort is weakening your own conscious. That's how he advances himself against you. His best weapon is to weaken your conscious. So your best weapon is to improve your conscious. Now, if I'm not doing a good job on the battlefield against wickedness, against evil in my environment, its most likely because I’m not watching my own conscious to see that my own conscious is improved every day, all along the road of progress,
Allahu Akbar, and in Him we put all our trust. You know what we are saying when we say Allahu Akbar? We are saying Allah is more important. We are saying Allah is more important. Allah is bigger. Allah is greater. And you know the Bible people, they have a saying, "greater is He that is in me, than him that is in the world, than he that is in the world, than him that is in the world. Greater is He that is in me". So aren't we similar? When we say Allahu Akbar, we must first have Allah within us. Allah should be in our hearts. Allah should be the core, the nucleus of our very life. We should not depend on our life system, the lungs the brain, the nervous system, the heart, more than we depend on Allah. So that if man can say, well, the most vital organs for man, for life, for sustaining life and keeping life is his heart, then when we say Allahu Akbar, we mean that Allah is more important for sustaining the system than the heart. For a man may aim at the heart to kill you and Allah may cause him to faint before closes the .... .
Praise be Allah. And Allah says He's closer to you than your own jugular vein. The more I look at myself in the framework, the context of this religion, the more courage I get to deal with the problem. If you are weak, if you lack courage, its because you are not seeing yourself in the context of your religion. Dear beloved Muslims, understand for us, religion is honesty, religion is truthfulness, religion is goodness. Religion is decency. Religion as the prophet says, is good behavior, peace and blessings be on our prophet. The prophet again has said, and this was said after the settlement in the city of the light, the city of Enlightenment, Medina,(Arabic), Medina, the prophet's city. He was born in Mecca, but Medina is called his city. And it was there that he established the first community order for the Muslim that came to be recognized as the first Muslim nation.
From there, Muslim nations have been established in every quarter of the world almost. You might say, well not in the West. Oh yes, I believe Europe is considered west, isn't it? Well, there are many white Muslim nations there and in time, who knows maybe Rome will become a Muslim nation. Who knows? Upon establishing the Muslim order of society in Medina, and we must understand Muslims, then except for devotion, spiritual devotion and just private almost, discourse on the religion, there was hardly anything accomplished for our prophet and his followers, his wonderful outstanding followers for over 10 years.
But after the settlement in Medina, great progress started. Some of us want quick results. We're not patient, we've got to see it right now. Now we have the Sunnah of the prophet, but we are not the prophet. And when we look in the history of the prophet, there's a period of better than 10 years, it looked like nothing was happening. So don't listen to those around you saying, well, if this way of the prophet is right, and Imam Mohammed is right and telling us to follow the Sunnah of the prophet, how come we don't have something to show for it?
Don't listen to people like that. In fact, I don't have to tell an awake believer that at all, because they know not to listen at me. They know not to listen to me, if I say anything to dampen their spirit. They listen to only that I say that helps them Please Allah! If I say anything out of my mouth that dampens their spirit to go forward as a Muslim, to fulfill their life as Allah intended, they don't listen to me. And sometimes in my human weakness I may say something that might not ring true or may not contribute to the good spirit and strong spirit of a believer. So the alert, awake believer, they know to just cast out what I said. And when I meet you and I see it, remind me to thank you for casting it out and I'm going to cast out what you say too, if it dampens my spirit.
The prophet said, peace and the blessings be on, him after establishing the Muslim order of society, he said to his followers after this, there is taqwa and jihad. Now you know, until the prophet got model for Muslim community life there were many great paths to concentrate on. Private efforts, secrecy, they had to hide themselves from the enemy. That's why the matter of secrecy is taken up in the Qur'an. They had to hide themselves from the enemy because the enemy was out to stamp out the light before it could be seen. So there were many great concerns for the Muslim to concentrate on. But once the model community was established, then that was an energizer, a constructive energizer that was tangible, visible for the believers. That's very necessary.
You brothers and sisters who are not only trying to keep your Muslim spirit, but you are also trying to carry out your community Muslim obligations by showing work, good work, legitimate work, lawful work business, lawful business. You are doing the work of building a visible, tangible entity for the Muslim community and that serves as an energizer, a tangible, visible, energizer. I came here to Atlanta, I read in the journal about your growth and business, when I came in Atlanta and saw them again this year, this time, this visit, oh again I just energized! Du'a fuel.
I don't know what it is, but it's powerful!.
So don't let nobody tell you, your work's cheap. In fact, you stand out. Not only are Muslims, you stand out as citizens of Atlanta and that's how the Muslims should stand out because Allah says if you truly believe us, you should be successful and you should gain, you should succeed. You should go farther than other people. The non-believer should never out-strip the believer. Now don't go away with the mind that Muslims are competing in Atlanta against non-believers. Christians are believers. There are many, many excellent believers among the Christians. In fact, we know on the day of judgment, Prophet Muhammed has told us in fact, peace be upon him, that the people from the different religions, they're all be there and not going to be just Muslims gathered.
Christians going to be gathered for their reward. Jews are going be gathered for their reward. But we have been told this, those genuine ones will be represented mostly by Muslims. There'll be more Muslims among the genuine ones, their numbers, but don't think that they're not excellent believers out there. Now when we start comparing believers, we have to be careful. Say, oh, let's present our believers. Let's have a meeting of the great religions and let us present our believers. Oh, the Muslims have to be very careful because I might present a brother or sister that will fall way down on the scale of quality believer and a Christian will win the contest or Jew might win the contest. So we had to be very careful. We have to select carefully our Muslim believers. If we get into a contest with Muslims and Christians, I mean with Jews and Christians, and you readily recognize that? Don't you? Thank you.
We've got the best, only if we will be the best at it. But still there are emphasis in other religions that will present them as being better than us in certain matters. Now, I don't think we can shout better than some of those sanctified people, cause that's not one of our emphasis. Shouting is not one of our emphasis. I don't think we can sing those gospels better than, some of you Muslims, right away got into trying to sing the gospel. But I don't think you'll ever beat those Christians singing gospel, because that doesn't happen to be our emphasis.
Now let us look at a discipline in our life that many pass by and never see but encounter it all the time, if they read the Qur'an. Allah, He wants us to believe in the hereafter. Allah wants us to believe in the latter, the future, that that Allah has promised us yet to come. And He wants us to put more importance on that than we do on the immediate, the now, the present. And He promises us that the future is more, it is better. It is better in green, it's better in quality. What He has.......for us in the future, it is better in terms of quality and it is also better in terms of quantity..
That's what Allah promises us in the Qur'an, in our Holy Book. There are two ways to look at that promise of Allah. The first and most important way to look at it, we all know. That, is that I live in this world, but I'm not in control of my faith. I can spend all of my energy and labor hard and be good, but I'm not in control of my faith. I may live to see eighty. I may not live to see eight years old. I may not live to see 20, I may not even live to see myself get married and have a family and I'll be an excellent person. My fate is not in my hands.
So the cause of this reality that we have to live with, Allah, He gives the true believer for his intellectual amount. He doesn't have to be brilliant, he doesn't have to be rich, prosperous. He can just be ordinary and even subordinary. But if you respond to faith, believe in Allah and respond to faith, Allah gives him an assurance that this is not all, this is not to end of things. He can get beat out of all of his savings. He can get robbed of all of his establishments. He can lose it all unjustly, but he won't be sent to the crazy house because he has a faith, that this is not the end of it. Neither am I cut off from the reward that my wealth have earned and neither is the unjust person put off from the punishment that his wrong doing have earned, that it is not finished until it looks finished. It's going to start up again in a whole new situation.


