12/11/1988
IWDM Study Library
A Sense of Self Makes Living Better
Pts 1-4

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Warith Deen Mohammed: Asalaam Aleikum. [Arabic] Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the world. [Arabic] bear witness that there is but one Allah. There is no other divinity. Bear witness that Muhammad is his servant and his Messenger. In the book of G-d as the book of Allah, chapter, title in English The Gathering and also it has been referred to as the chapter by the name banishment. I'll read only now the English rendering translation but the verses you've already heard recited in a very beautiful voice, an excellent voice by Imam [unintelligible 00:03:08] of Dallas, Texas.
Oh he who are the believers, be regardful of Allah and let every soul look to what it proposes for tomorrow and duly regard Allah. Emphatically, Allah is aware of what you are doing. Be not like those who forgot Allah. Wherefore he caused them to forget their souls, such as characteristic of the wrongdoers, the corruptors. The associates of the fire, do not compare with the associates of the garden of paradise. The associates of the garden, they are the victorious. Had we sent down this Quran on a mountain, certainly thou would have seen it humble itself and split open out of fear of Allah.
We drive home such illustrations in order that they the people may reflect. He is Allah, other than whom there is no divinity. He is Noah of the unattested and the attested. He is the merciful benefactor, the merciful redeemer. He is Allah, other than whom there is no divinity. The Sovereign, the holy, the source of peace, the trustful, the controller, the exalted, the overpowering, the infinitely great. Having glory above the partners they attribute to him. He is Allah, the creator, the evolver, the designer of forms and creation. To Him belong the most beautiful names. Whatever is in the heavens, and the earth bespeaks his glory, and he is the exalted, the wise. Allah speaks the truth.
Those are the words of Allah revealed to Muhammad, the prophet, and we have it in the entire revelation that came to the Holy Prophet over 1400 years ago under the name Quran,
the holy book. For believers, for Muslims all over this earth. The prayer and the peace be on Muhammad, the prophet and messenger whom Allah designated to be the last and universal one, to all people and a mercy to all nations, that is all the world's. On him be the peace, and on his family, and on his companions, all. The peace be on us on this gathering, on all of us here today. Believers, dear people, our prophet said, "Whoever has seen himself has seen his Lord," or as it has been quoted," Whoever has known himself has known his lord."
In view of overwhelming evidence, in the most authentic correct sources of our religion, we must radically reject completely a belief that man is Allah. Such is confusion, such is of mad men. Hence, the saying of Muhammad, Allah's messenger, it calls for intelligent attention. This saying, that is, calls for intelligent attention to be given by us to the saying of the Prophet. To know what we are is to know in the same instance what we are not.
A sense of self makes living better. Religion, revelation promotes in us a sense of self. The world also promotes in us a sense of self. These two senses of self are in conflict. The sense of self promoted in us by true religion, especially by our lord's guidance, the Quran to Muhammad and his prophet, this sense of self leads to proper understanding of self, the proper regard for self, the proper attitude towards self and the right disposition toward the creator of that self, who is Allah.
The prophet Abraham, Ibrahim, in the Quranic language and Arabic language, he was in a situation where he had to differ with his own father and his own people. His father was very highly respected, influential man for his people among the people of Abraham. To differ with him was no easy thing to accept. Abraham, faith, Prophet Ibrahim, that is Abraham. His faith was such that nothing could stand in the way of his faith. He says, as G-d reveals in the Holy Book to his people, to his father and his people, [Arabic]. To his father and to his people. [Arabic]
Certainly I am clear, I am free from being charged with or being associated with the things you worship other than the one who originated me. [Arabic] Other than the one who originated me. He said [Arabic] For surely he shall guide me. The one who originated me for surely He shall guide me. The Prophet Ibrahim for those who don't know and for you know we are reminding you the Prophet Ibrahim, peace be on him is called by all the Muslims father. Father Abraham. As well as by Christians and Jews. Father Abraham. 
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him has establish for us that two major figures that have been created and established by Allah are called father. Father Adam, the first and Father Ibrahim. Abraham as is called in English, the second. Peace be upon them. It is also believed that Adam, the first man also the first father was created by Allah. There was no man created or existing before him and that he represents something for us in our creation.
The prophet has said of Adam and therefore of this something and I quote the saying of the prophet, peace be on him. "No one dies or is raised up from death except it be upon the design of Adam." The design, the form, you might use other terms for it, of Adam. Which is to say we don't only die in Adam, we also live in Adam. You have heard I'm sure the expression all died in Adam. Well the prophet wants us to know that not only do we die in Adam, we also live in Adam. We die and live in Adam. If man dies, he dies the death of Adam. If man lives, he lives the life of Adam. 
Adam is not in our religion a figure representing original sin. In our religion, Adam is the most noble respected G-d-made figure. Whatever he did that caused problems for himself or harm to himself and to the generations, it was not intentional on his part. It was an error. A neglect, an error. A sin by omission rather than commission. It was under circumstances too great at that time for Adam to deal with by himself. When he turned to his Lord, our religion says the holy book Quran says, remembered his Lord and he turned to his Lord and he repented and Allah forgave him. 
The language is and he met with a word from his Lord and he repented which means he changed from that way of behaving and came back to the behavior approved by his Lord. What is that saying to us? That when Allah created Adam he did not create an angel. He did not create a G-d. He did not create a perfect being in the sense of an angel or in the sense of a G-d. He created a perfect being in the sense of his nature. His nature is perfect. His nature is always to obey his creator and to do right. We all live in that nature and die in that nature.
Allah says of the community of Muhammad the prophet [Arabic] You are the best of communities, evolved or brought out for the good of all people. You are the best of communities evolved or brought out. Brought out of what? Brought out of the confusion of the world, the ignorance of the world. The ignorance of the misguided world. The confused world. You are the best of the communities brought out. You should be separate from them. You should be distinguished from them. You should not follow their ways and their habits. You should not take examples from them.
This is what is implied and much more. You are the best community. That's not the whole of it. Brought out for begins the second important part of what G-d is saying. You are the community brought out from the world with a distinction that makes you above the rest of them but that's not all that second part for what is the purpose for bringing you out? Why have G-d brought you out? Why have G-d given you this distinction above the Rest? That you may serve the good of all people. How are we going to realize that this community, well, we are already the best community.
But how are we going to realize it convincingly to our satisfaction and convincingly before in the eyes of the world? If we have Quran, if we have Muhammad the Prophet in our hearts, we have the Quran as guidance, we have the Prophet as guidance. If we have this, and we do, in the international community of Muslims, we do have that, I say we are already the best community even though we fall very short in many, many serious respects or areas. We're falling very sharp, miserably, we're performing miserably, our performance is terrible in the international body of Muslims. Our performance as Muslims as this community is ugly, miserably failing.
In spite of that, I say we're still the best community, and you should know it too. I know you will find, in some rare exception, Christians and others that look better than us in your eyes when you look at their behavior, when you look at how they live as a community, but that's a rare exception. When you take all of the Christians together and look at them, how they behave, take all the Jews together, look at them, how they behave, take all the Muslims together and look at us, how we behave. We don't have to apologize to anybody but Allah. We apologize to Allah for our behavior, but on the whole, their behavior is so bad we need not apologize to them, and that's just a fact.
How are we going to realize that excellence as a group, as a community, as an international body? We're going to realize it the same way I believe we're going to realize the establishment of our excellence here in America as African-Americans with a very, very bad past of abusive treatment from our superiors, our slave masters and their children. Yes, we have to overcome that even though now the conditions are behind us. The conditions of slavery, the conditions of that cruel and ugly treatment we received as slaves and as people marked for mistreatment or singled out for their mistreatment in this country long after slavery which was ended legally or formally.
We have a lot to overcome. Even though we are Muslims, we still have a lot to overcome, and we're going to achieve it, not by looking to the community of African-American Muslims or black Muslims to liberate us, but by coming into the personal excellence that Allah has created us for. The more of us come into that personal excellence that Allah has created us for, the more the whole of us will grow into that excellence that Allah have written for us, "You are the best of communities brought out or evolved for the good of all people." This address today, which we insist upon calling a public address, while we're knowing and realizing that the great numbers in this Atlantic-- Atlanta, pardon me, Civic Center today are Muslims.
We have few here today as on most occasions that represent the public, our public makeup. We will never be discouraged to give up hope that the public is going to respond to our invitation and come in great numbers. We will never give up hope. We'll just keep on saying that this is a public address, the public is invited, the public is invited, the public is invited, and we will keep inviting the public as long as we're here. We'll keep our respect for the public and for the concerns of the public and for the needs in the general public. We'll keep that respect too for as long as we're here because that's our Muslim obligation.
Our obligation is not only to ourselves as Muslims, our obligation is to the whole of mankind. That's why Allah says, [Arabic] brought out for the good of all people. Now, we turn the focus from the collective body of man and Muslims to the individual person. A sense of self makes living better. The major process in the native progression of sense of self, native, what do we mean by native? We mean inherent comes with our creation. Allah, our maker, our Creator did it. We didn't get it from others. We got it from the creator that created us. Native, that is native in our creation. There's a progression in that nature toward more improvement, toward greater meaning, toward higher performance, greater vision, greater importance, greater responsibilities.
There is a natural progression written in the very design of our creation by our creator. We're not the only ones that realize that have been informed regarding that. The great nations of the West and nations before the great nations of the West were blessed to see that and believed that man is destined to come to bigger and better days. Destined, he must come. He cannot help but come. It is a must. It is inevitable. It is unavoidable for him. G-d has established it in his desire and in his natural desire that he must come to bigger and better days. These are the kinds of things, the kinds of influences because what you say, a word comes in two major parts.
It comes in the form of communication, and it comes in the form of influence. Every word comes in those two parts. It comes as a communication, and it comes also as an influence. The world is talking to us constantly all the time, and it does not have our best interests at heart. Allah and his servants have our best interests at heart, so when the word comes from Allah, it comes to us with the communication and with an influence. Some of you sit, and you look like you want to go to sleep and say, "How come you come so late?" You need a whole lot of time to think over my coming. You make me think you want to say, "Hurry up, let's go." That's okay, but I'm not going to let you go. You're going to have to leave me. I'm going to hold you for about 40 minutes, I hope. Yes.
Not only words of language in the accepted sense or in the common sense but also everything you see, everything you come in contact with your senses are reaching you with these two bodies. The body of information or communication and the body of influence. You don't even have to hear. You can be deaf and you're still being communicated to. What you touch, what you feel, what stares in your soul.
Signaled by things in the environment that you can't hear with your ears you're deaf but you can touch. You can feel. You have other senses that are operating that make possible the receiving of communication and influences. Science says "Allah has made us to know." Science also says that take that human being born today and put it away from it's species into a situation or circumstances with animals and it will not develop as a human being. We need for our development to come into the form that is inherent in us that is here to come out and be realized.
In order to realize that form, we need human circumstances or natural circumstances for the human being. If we don't have those natural circumstances, no telling what kind of form we'll turn into. It has been documented that a certain boy they gave him a name, the sociologist that studied this boy gave him a name. He was found among animals in the wild. Somehow he had gotten separated from his family very early as a young baby and never came in contact with people.
When they found him, he was running like an animal making sounds of an animal and had no evidence in him whatsoever that he was human but they rescued him from that situation and brought him in contact with other human beings and gradually he grew into himself. To be what Allah intended him to be, a human being with human expression, with human feeling and human expression and human language et cetera.
Why am I saying all this. To bring us back in better touch with ourselves, that's the answer. We have lost ourselves. Isn't that what the prophet Abraham said when he realized his need. He said [Arabic] Surely I have been wronging my own self. I have been neglecting my own self. I have been oppressing my own self. [Arabic] and I confess my faults. Then he asks G-d, [Arabic] So forgive me my faults all of them Oh lord. Then he says finally, "For no one can forgive faults but thou. Only you."
That means if you have done wrong your friend might say, "I don't hold anything against you since it's in the past for all I'm concerned." If you haven't made up with your lord you are not yet forgiven. You will not yet feel free or relieved. You will be burdened still with that sin because you have not yet gotten forgiveness from your Lord. From your nature, not something above your head, do you know this religion has preserved for us the common line and common excellence of natural man. The excellence that have made possible the rise of great nations and great civilization without which they would have never realized that assent or that rise.
This is what we should know. This is the great news. You've heard of the great news, this is the great news. What am I saying? That Allah did not only give the great news to Jesus, peace be on him. He gave the great news to the prophets before Jesus and he gave the great news and the greatest measure to Muhammad, peace and blessing be on him. In the clearest form to bring man into this universal dimensions of life and excellence
This progression or sense of self in man that Allah created him with and created him for, with a sense in order for him to come into it, he is going to have difficulties. He is going to meet with difficulties. It's not going to be always easy, it's not going to be most of the time easy for him. He is going to have difficulties. He is going to have to fight his own confusion that he makes for himself. He is going to have to tear through the veils of ignorance that he himself have weaved.
Allah has revealed that we are brought through three veils of darkness. The prophets have told us that there is a period of 40 days followed by 40 days in succession that we are in the womb and for each 40 days, a complete phase of our life is formed. That will decide for us in years to come when we are old, it will decide for us our possibilities.
Man is created with the potential that has to be realized and we should be careful of the circumstances that we give our young children too for those circumstances are like their mothers, they are like the wombs and they may shape them for destruction. Allah says and he creates you in the wombs of your mother's. Again he has said that he has patterned you on the pattern of creation itself and the prophet as I said again in support of this point that I am trying to drive home.
The Prophet has said peace and blessings be on him, everyone is a Muslim at birth and is made other than that because of the circumstances that the baby is put into. How pitifully it is that when we are frustrated down here and can't seem to make any headway often people who have really been good believers in G-d will become frustrated to the point that they will even question G-d and charge him with their own problems. There must not be any G-d. I don't even believe there's a G-d. If there's a G-d, he is not helping us. He's not helping me.
How many of us come to that pitiful state when all we have to do is remain sensible, don't let drunkenness of mind drown out good senses. Keep striving for intelligent answers. Just and truthful conclusions and we'll save ourselves from coming to such pitiful states. The progressional sense in man given to him by his creator, that he must realize if he doesn't realize it, then he dies the bad death. He dies a bad death and Allah tells us do not die unless you die as Muslims. That means, die as he created you. Die as he created you. Die in that line of motion, in that line of motion, in that line of advancement, in that line of effort that he created you for. Don't die unless you die in that. Praise be to Allah, yes brother.
Yes. Brother, I sometimes feel like clapping with my hands and feet at the same time and I can't do that. Praise be to Allah. Now, dear people, let us proceed. We have the human edifice, the structure that Allah created and wants it to be established as a great edifice for the good of self and the whole humanity. That's what we have in focus right now. Addressing the classic issue that is addressing what particular urge is in our development that announces the beginning and the rise of the human species of human beings, as a family. Allah says, highly glorified as he to Adam, inform them of their names. Inform them of their names. Allah gives us in the revelation the scene of Ana.
[00:43:43] [END OF AUDIO]
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: In creation. Also, his worth in creation. His relative worth in creation. Allah shows him as being a little about angels in estimation, in worth. That's another distinction of our religion, isn't it? That Allah tells us that we have been created in our original make, a level above angels in value, in estimation. Now don't you know that's your brain, a renewal of spirit.
To you in the West who have been made to believe that man is born in sin, that man is created in doom by his own nature to be a sinner, and something must happen, extraordinary, out of the rules of law of nature to redeem you, and on and on and on it all goes and I don't want to shame anybody anymore today, so I will stop. Because I realized that some of you who greet me As-Alam-Alaikum are Christians in disguise and I want you to be comfortable as possible. I shouldn't say you're Christians, you're bad Christians because if you're good Christians, you wouldn't be in disguise.
Jesus said, "Why they come and arrest me according to their gospel, their report of the gospel. Why you come and arrest me in the night?" Which means to say I have done everything in the open, I don't go disguised, so why you Christians come here disguised? Peter was the one quick to disguise himself I think. Yes, he disguised himself. He pretended he wasn't even a follower. Now, this is their report, not ours. He said, "I don't even know the man," but the same one said, "He left the key to me, the key of heaven and hell." That's for another day, but it's good not to forget that. There's a saying of the wise, the wise men who study and value history, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."
I bear witness to that, I've seen that. I have seen that in my short life. They forget history and find themselves unknowingly repeating it because there are forces out there that are doing the same thing that they did thousands of years ago. They haven't changed their way of keeping things under their control. Essentially the same today as it was thousands of years ago. They have prepared for you seasons and garments to wear. If you forget history, you're going to find yourself in their garments and under their seasons. G-d says to his man that he created, "Tell them their names, inform them of their names." What does this tell us about Adam?
See, we must understand, the prophet said that every verse of the Revelation has an applied meaning that you apply directly, and it has also an implied meaning, so it is broadcasting from two directions. It is broadcasting in two veins of communication, such as nature of communication. Now, Allah says, "Inform them of their names." He says this to Adam, and when Adam inform them of their names, G-d said to the angels "Now I tell you that I know what you know not." Now here's Allah clearly separated an identity from angels and glorified high above angels. The angel is His creation and the angel is not so special in His creation that He can create something even more above angels.
If He want to, He create something above angels. He created a man and then to have the man challenge the angel. He said, "See now you thought you were the best. You thought I couldn't do better than you. You thought you were the highest, but look what I've done, I've created a mortal here with defects. A mortal here subject to error, but with a perfect nature and an urge to perceive all that he can. I have created an intellect." That's what Adam was, an intellect. G-d created a curious intellect and every child is born a curious intellect. He has to grow. If he studies and pursue the paths of wisdom and knowledge, he will grow to be intellectual, but he is by nature created an intellect.
Every creature, male and female is created with an intellect, created with intellectual curiosities. He said, "How is this intellectual curiosity when he has not yet become academic? He's not yet been exposed to the higher knowledge, the higher learning, et cetera." Yes, but what makes it possible, you just coming in contact with that? Many of you have come in contact with that and you read the name doctor and you are so stupid, you can't stay out of jail either, and you can't stay off drugs either, so what is the proof that you have really come into that intellectual life? Your behavior that convinced most of us and most of you are all in charge of the world.
The mess is not our creation, it's yours, so you're not so convincing with your degrees and your credits. The wise among you know that that's not possible for them unless if come by way beyond and out of their control. What must proceed that Greek expression in-brain or in the intellect of man? The wise say a nature given, G-d-given natural airs. A certain learned man have written a book. Many of us have too and he titles his book The Intuitive Edge. In this book, he goes forward to establish that what has made the difference between performing societies and great performing societies is this intuitive edge. You don't get this intuitive edge from books, he establishes that.
You don't get it from books, you don't get it from your professors, they can't give it to you. When you got it, you're not in control of it. You cannot yourself even control it.
It works for you, but you have to wait on it to work for you. It's something that is given to you G-d, the intuitive edge that man gets that puts him in a better circumstance and better situation than those who have not yet come into it, the intuitive edge. Some have called it the sixth sense intuition, true intuition. They've called it the sixth sense. Many of us confuse things that have a semblance of intuition, of this intuitive spirit and urge activity in us, and we think we have it, but we don't.
Or we think we have witnessed it in other people and we haven't, but if you really know what we're talking about, it's something that you cannot get at your command. You cannot get it at your command, you cannot give it to somebody else, Allah must create you with it, and Allah must make the possibilities for you to realize it. Allah must bring it to you, the power, the intuitive spirit, the intuitive activity and power in the mind, the soul, and mind of man. When I say man, we mean male and female. He said, "Inform them of their names." This tells us that the first urge in that progression line of life, developmental line is the urge to know.
Now, I have studied babies myself. Babies do not come here with foolishness on their minds. No matter how foolish the parents were, no matter how foolish the household is, the new baby does not come here with foolishness on his mind. They work with it daily and work with it all day long sometimes, and [baby sounds] and the baby look and say, "What the hell is going on?" After working on it for days and weeks, after all the baby [baby sounds], the baby done got it, but you had to work on the baby to give that baby that silliness of mind. The baby come here as Allah created it, with an intelligent mind, with a sense for intelligence.
Yes. Now, I still address and still have the great edifice, the great structure, building the human person in our focus. Now return to something else that science has brought to our attention. That is the difference between the preparation of life for its future needs and performance given that life in the womb of nature, and the womb of the mother, called the period of gestation. For different creatures, the spirit of gestation differs, for some long, for some short. It is the time spent in the womb, from the time of inception or conception to the time of delivery, nine months or whatever, the period of gestation. For the human being, it seems that the period of gestation is about midway.
It's in the balance, it's midway. You can't say he's really the one representing the shortest, and he's not the one representing the longest. It seemed that his period represents a kind of midway. Allah has said that He has made you a midway nation, and he tells us that he has put everything in the balance, and you must face the scales one day. How sweet it is. Now, the period of gestation for the human being in the womb according to the information that we get from modern science is 275 days. The huge animal, the elephant has a much longer period of gestation, 645 days. The possum, some of our people in the south learn to eat and relish in love because states were out of the question.
Many of us don't understand why we love certain things that the doctor say is bad for most black people. Say, "Stay away from that, it's bad for most black people." You get higher blood pressure, you get this, and you get that, you get gaunt, and you get this, and you get that. A lot of us don't understand why? We ate so much of that stuff. You take a little pause and you might get by, but if you keep on taking a lot of it, you will be in serious trouble. Because of not having better available, we had to eat that kind of stuff, and if you eat it long enough, and you're hungry and admire what you got to eat, you're hungry. What you get to eat? I got to eat them fat bag.
It's good, you're hungry as hell, it's good. After a while, you begin to remember that as tasty. It's so tasty. Say, "What are those things that you eating?" "These are chitterlings." "I've never seen those before, what are they really?" "They're hog bowels?" They are delicious and you don't understand why. The world doesn't understand why. Why are those things so delicious to them? You were hungry. Tomorrow you get up hungry and ain't nothing there but some hog bowels. You wash them out and season them up, fire them up, put enough sage and peppers and stuff on it to kill the dung taste. Not the odor, the odor will just rise up above the sage and everything.
[laughter]
You just start sucking on that stomach, it's just delicious. You're so hungry, you ain't tasting nothing but sage, and pepper, and stuff, then grease, then rags. Sucking on rags, what a shame. Shame that we ever had to be put in such circumstances. You know they say, culture taste. Germs are culture too. You can culture taste with something bad. It just means bringing a habit about it. Make it a habit and establish it, then it becomes the culture, soul food. The culture of the soul folks. That's important too. We're getting help to learn more about the knowledge of this Muslim diet, Islamic eating habits, et cetera, and also the benefits of it.
A book was put in my possession here recently by a brother, Mahamud and the staff of our people, the photographer, and reporter, and the graphics man, he's doing many jobs. He's a great addition to the staff of the journal, and this is one that I had nothing to do with getting him into the office. When I knew he was there and they didn't have to come with me. I told them don't come to me, I do not want to have anything to do with your organization, you have to handle it yourself, and they have done wonderful. They have gotten some excellent help. Brother Mahamud Atick, Ahmud, and also Sister Aisha Mustafa, the one who's really carrying the responsibilities of editor right now.
In fact, I don't know why she's just not called the editor. That's what she's doing, that's who she is. She's having responsibilities in a marvelous way. I'm not criticizing at all here now because you know the circumstances. You're aware of things that I'm not aware of. I'm not there with you and for all we know, Sister Aisha has refused to be given such or to be addressed as such, I don't know. I don't know at all, but I know one thing, I met with the people who are responsible for the office and they appreciate her work just as I do. I think she's going to have even a better future with us pretty soon, very soon.
She deserves it. This sister is outstanding. There are many others, but it so happened that this is the one that I mentioned today, these two persons, but I think Mahamud in Sister Aisha will work with the staff of the Muslim Journal. I have observed her over the years, a hard worker, a serious worker, a professional worker, very Muslim-like person, ain't for no monkey business, dedicated, committed, alert and sensitive, and will, as meek and soft as she appear to be, she will stand up when she has to. Yes, so the human being has a gestation period that's kind of middle in the range for the creatures, for the gestation period for creatures. What does this gestation period tell us for the different creatures?
Again, according to science, these observations, it tells us that these creative forms have clocked in their created form. It's clocked right into their created forms. The influences for their survival and their needs, the conditions and influences for their survival and their needs because we know the outside challenges, all of us done that. When we are born from our mothers, it was too much of a challenge. G-d, after the period of gestation, brings us under the mother's care directly, where before, we were just living in her system, upon her system.
Then He delivers us out from her system, severs the cord, the umbilical cord and brings us out as a separate system, but that separate system cannot survive on its own, so Allah has put the mercy, the love, the caring nature in the mother in order for you to make it and be prepared eventually for your challenge, your task in the environment.
Now, there is another period, the maturation period. Is that what it's called, maturation? A period of maturation, where you go from delivery to maturity. They say this growth process for us is about 20 years. 20 years before the growth process is completed and we stop growing.
Maybe some will stop earlier, maybe some will go on a little longer, but for the great majority, the standard, the rule is that about 20 years. How long is it for the other creatures? Much shorter. Some of them have longer periods of gestation than we do because as science explains, they have to be prepared for the wild quick. They have to be able to come out right now and rip and run and go. We know that certain animals, they come right from their mothers, you see the pictures on television so good now in many ways, especially those nature series, those series on nature. You can see, they let you see the delivery right on television, educational television.
You can see the delivery, you see the animal just come out, just delivered, and it shakes itself and it tumbles a little bit, pretty soon it's gone, it's running right with its mother.
So where the gestation period may be long, when they come out, they're ready. They don't have to wait for too much growth and maturity to be able to perform just like the adult. Now we know that they can't perform everything. They have a period too of maturation. They have to wait for certain physiological needs or physiological organs and functions in them to mature so that they can mate and reproduce and all of that. We know that, but still, for them, it's much shorter than it is for us.
Allah says He has made signs in the skies and signs in the earth, but how many of us go along just not caring, not even paying attention? Heedless, not paying any attention. The help is out there to help the intellect come into his destinies. His human glory is out there, the help is out there. Allah says, "Look how many go along unmindful, paying no attention." He says, "Also, there are signs in you." That's what we're talking about. Now the focus is on us, the human being, the person that there are signs in you. Gestation, maturation, this long period of maturation.
A scientist, a man of science and an author of a book titled How the Brain Works. He says something that I'm sure you can find in many books on the brain, on this subject. He says of human growth, the human growth, this period of growth or maturation, there is about 20 years in the human being, that the thing that is relatively observed in that period of growth is the brain. He says when the first form of life can be observed, even then it appears that the brain is taking the lead. We've seen pictures of the early, what they call it, the fetus? The early forms of life in the womb. You see a lump, something looking like a, was is it, a tadpole, right?
Something resembling a tadpole and a big lump at the head of it. That big lump is that brain. That's what Allah has made to operate for the good organization and government of that body, so it has to grow fast and grow big in proportion to the rest of the body. A sign of the bigger importance on the human intellect, the bigger importance on a human thinking ability, rational ability, brain. Again, it is good that I tell you this, which you know, but to hear it the way this learned scientist or student of science and professor of science has put it.
He says, and I'm really giving it to you, this is my expression to the best of my knowledge that says what he said, "The function of the brain is to make sense out of what goes into it." Isn't that wonderful? Now, how many of these people who follow modern pop culture have brains that are operating properly? If the true function of the brain, the real function of the brain is to make sense out of what goes into it, then most of the people following the trends of life, and pop culture are not really having true brains.
Because to be having true brains, the brains must be functioning in the way that brains are to function. They're not trying to make sense out of anything, they are following blindly the trends of ill frond. Life and behavior, they represent deformity of life and behavior, and you don't have to be told that, but you do it in fun and you have been sensitized to be amazed or surprised that anybody will speak in any way critical. You think, "Its only fun." You're supposed to appreciate fun. He has no humor, he has no love. Yes, that's the way we've been sensitized. Turn on the TV, there some people doing the dog, they don't call it a dog now, but they're doing the dog.
The cameraman, he got the camera on the dog, not on that human being, on the dog, and he's shooting the dog from different angles. He shoot the dog from the top-downward to show you how the dog look at his action from down view. Then he goes and he put the camera up under them and he shoots up under them so you can see the dog from up under side and they're just doing the dog. They don't tire, they just have a little break for the record to be changed and they get right back and they're doing the dog. That's the behavior that we accept and it's presented to us on television to influence our little babies before they can even grow up to pick on the right behavior, influence them to come up too.
Just getting their satisfaction doing the dog. I observed a little child, a family. I was in their home and one of these, what do you call them? You know bandstand kind of shows were on. So trained bandstand, you know about that. One of those kinds of shows were on and the older children were into it. They were looking at it and just watching it with interest, and every now and then, one of them would do a little dog. The little baby that was about two, not quite two, very expressive, very intelligent had no interest in what was going on on that television.
Now we know that some little toddlers even, we will be so tickled to death because they have worked with that little toddler, they teach that toddler how to do the shimmy or the dog or something. "Look at it, he can dance. Look at it. Look there, you're so cute, look at it dance," and doing the dog. That's because somebody just worked with her and encouraged her in that. They encouraged the little child in that, but leave the little child alone, that little child ain't into that, they see that as foolishness. Their brain is still in the natural state. It wants to make sense out of what goes into it. A sense of self makes living better.
The crowds that follow those trends and that kind of behavior, do you think the world is going to be in their hands tomorrow? Do you think they can secure life, the world, establishments, institutions for the generations to come? No, they are seen by those who are in control and in positions to secure the future of nations and society. They are seen by them as the waste of society. The waste that it keep them from being a trouble, from making mischief, lead them to the silly, frolicking, the silly fun, so they're written off.
They are written off as waste on the planet, but to keep from getting in the hair of the wise and the people with bigger things on their mind, let them frolic and play, accommodate their foolishness. Much more will be said, but we'll leave it for another day. Who knows, they might get even still better, and we might not have to bring up the evils of the world.
Now, Allah says of the human person, this creature he made for excellence, who go along heedless, forgets his maker, et cetera, He says, "Does he reckon that there is no one in charge of him?" What a great revelation as all the revelation is, what a great revelation. Does he reckon, does he figure?
I figure I should go tomorrow. He might not know reckon, that's the whole down-home term, to reckon. Does he figure that no one is in charge of him? Now that's another observation that we have to make when we are examining our departure from the good state that Allah wants for us as creatures. We have to look at that. Some of us think that we shouldn't be under any authority. We are not anarchist in the proper sense of the term, but we are anarchists even in a worse sense. We are anarchist with not even a knowledge that we are giving ourself to unruly life and behavior, where we respect no authority and think that we shouldn't even be under authority.
"Ain't nobody gone tell me what to do. Ain't nobody going to be over me. I'll walk in no man's shadow." Yes, you do. You walking in Satan’s shadow when you're talking like that. You're walking in Satan’s shadow. In the shadow of Satan himself when you're talking like that. Does he figure that no one is over him, no one is in charge of him? Allah is always in charge, but when you forget him, He forgets you as it has been given today, as it has been cited in the verses from the Quran. When you forget Him, then He forgets you. Not that He has human makeup and He forgets you like you forget, it means that you disregard Him, you write Him off, He writes you off.
Leaves you on your own, and whoever He leaves on his own, male or female, the devil is assigned him as an associate, as a companion, as a friend, the devil. Now, you think that those people who are in that ugly disposition in spirit really don't have anybody that is in charge of them, but understand that Allah says whoever He writes off gets a devil as an associate, as a guardian, as a guide, as an advisor, et cetera.
Now, you make that the devil is a term, he has a mystery about him, the Satan, the devil. There's a mystery about him. You can't see him through the veils of mystery, but let us look at the consequences for, after all, we cannot see Allah either, except through veils.
He's too above us, He's different, you can't see Him except through veil. Also, we cannot see Allah directly. For he told Moses, "You cannot see me directly." Moses wanted to see him. This is in the Quran in the Revelation and He told Moses, "You cannot see me directly." No one can see Allah directly, but we see him by indirect approach to what we want. All right, so I believe that we can't see Satan directly, but we can look at the mess and see him in the mess. All right, so here you are saying, "Ain't nobody over me," but you can't go to school this morning, and we know that going to school is going to put you in a better situation for the task of living in this world, but you can't go to school this morning.
You can't get your head away from the box or the coffin, whatever that thing is they carry around, the music makers. It look like they're carrying coffins of dead babies on his shoulders.
[00:43:02] [END OF AUDIO]
Preacher: To advance your life. You can't cut loose the river, you can't cut loose the liquors, you can't cut loose the ugly behavior that's keeping you out of better things. You can't cut loose the habits that put you in jail. You can't cut loose the habits that's getting you all beat up every weekend and sometimes through the week. Don't tell us ain't nobody in charge of you. Allah has told us, he leaves you to have the devil as an adviser. He say, "He is a very terrible friend. He is a terrible one to have as a friend."
Look at the abuse that you get leaving Allah. Lord have mercy. I pray Allah that he keeps me in the state that I'm in forever or I'd rather commit suicide and that's a great crime in Islam. Then let my life fall to what I see some of these people let their life fall to in the world. [unintelligible 00:01:11] Does he figure that no one is in charge of him? I'm watching the time, don't worry. I know you've been here a long time too. We must be regardful of our true-self. Allah says, "All you who believe be regardful of the fire." Why? Because the fire represents sin, the influences of sin and that fire that passion for those things, sin and influence of sin. The passion for those things will destroy your true form like fire destroy the things that we put in the fire.
Have you ever seen things putting the fire and the fire just twist up the form? You see the thing twisting, and bending, and breaking in the fire. That's why as you, that's a symbol for what happens to your true form when you give your life to sin and the influences of sin. We must work then to keep our true self intact, to keep our true self from the fire of sin. Again, we caught to something wonderful in this progressive sense of man and that is the urge for peace and a sense of peace.
Man needs a sense of peace turn in other ways a sense of well-being, a sense of security from trouble, pain, hurt, and et cetera. He needs to enjoy and feel that sense of peace. Now, we must work to preserve the true self-interest because when we look at the self from different angles, see the different aspects of self-interest. The functions of self see self and its many important functions. We come to appreciate self and we come to have a sense of our self-interest. We should work for the true self-interest and realize that peace is a natural requirement in our nature.
Peace is a natural requirement in our nature and the Muslims are called Muslim meaning resigned to peace, accepting the state of peace. That's what it means Muslim. Muslim means resigned to peace accepting the state of peace. Our greeting is Asalaam, the peace. Alaikum, be on you. Our greeting is not to say, "Good day," as much as it is to say, "Peace to you, peace be on you." For they say good day, and good night, and goodbye. Well, at many times this they mean yes that and they don't mean goodbye G-dspeed in the way that the English people understand it. They mean goodbye G-dspeed you to hell, G-dspeed you away from here, goodbye be gone, goodbye.
You meet people that are complete strangers. They know nothing about you at all. You just have a necessity to have some kind of relationship with them to ask them to move the car, I asked them is that your car, or to say give me five of those apples. They don't even know why they got such an attitude towards a person they never saw before goodbye or flat goodbye. Goodbye, the one said it to me in the bank. Our money is helping that bank. Goodbye in a flat ugly way to me. I said, "G-dspeed," you know what she said? Caucasian a woman. You what she said, "We all are going the same place."
She understood what I meant. She said, "We all going the same place." I said, "I don't see how you come to that conclusion." I said we are not going to the same places now. I have took a vow to whip the deviance when they insult me. That's right. I'm not going to take it off any or many more. I'm going to call their attention to it. I'm their Daddy. Allah has raised me above them and mine and above them and hot. I'm their Daddy, I'm going to whip them every time I see them at all. If they are equal to me or above me, then they wouldn't be behaving like that.
I'm asking you to join me in doing it. Don't pay for insults. Don't give your patriotism, your dollars to people that treat you ugly insult you. Don't give it to them. To correct them right on the spot. They say, "Hey, it's dark in here. It's getting dark, isn't it?" When you come around they may say that, the racists. Tell them that G-d brings death in black and white. Tell them that the winter comes and the earth is white and it's dead and we can't have crops and good times. Then the white body dies and turn black. G-d brings death in white and black. That book I referred to, How The Brain Works, is by Leslie A. Hart.
[silence]
Now, returning to the Greek figures of the Prophet Adam and Abraham. It appears that the focus on Adam is on Adam mainly as a creature created in the nature that G-d wants. In the nature that G-d wants. In that nature, he's a creature that wants to make sense. He doesn't want to make foolishness. He wants to make sense. Because of him, the generations that follow, they progress intelligently learning, industry, everything followed the creation of Adam, is that not right? The man realized great industrial nations, and great industrial powers, the great sciences and everything.
Then along came the prophet Abraham. He was born in a society we believe from the study of history and also from what is indicated in the revelation that he was born in an advanced society. Abraham wasn't a product of any backward society in terms of knowledge, science, material advancement. He was born in an advanced society, but that society was retarded humanly, it had lost his human excellence just as this one we are living in right now. It's advanced scientifically industrial, they ete cetera, but it is retarded humanly.
On the whole when you agree with me that the rest of the world is retarded humanly on the whole, just turn on the TV during news time and you will be thoroughly convinced. If you got any kind of decency or truthfulness about you, you will be thoroughly convinced. Abraham, he comes in as a second father, the lead man to the realization of his responsibility as an intellect a moral intellect, a reasoning creature, a rational creature, a reasoning creature.
See that the process that followed, the creation of Adam, it was a process that was supported by the nature, the G-d given nature. In time the G-d given nature and its ability to handle the affairs and problems of the world runs it's course. It reaches limitations. Then the dawning of intelligence the dawning of enlightenment must come into the mind and the rational faculties must come alive to examine what man is doing in irrational way and to study what has happened to him in the past. To bring him from heaven to hell, to bring him from Adams to excellence to the sins of the world. He must examine it very rationally and come up with answers.
Just as a nature was given to him by G-d that sustained him somewhere all over the middle generations and brought him into great excellence in time. Likewise that help up here to deal with the things rationally, to study what happened in the past and come up with diagnoses and answers for the future must also come from G-d. We believe that G-d created man on the sixth day that says it, others do. G-d created him on the sixth day and he cannot do that without the intuitive edge. The intuitive edge must come to him as a gift of our Lord just as his nature did. How wonderful, our father Abraham, peace be upon both of them.
Abraham and may focus on him, look at him in the focus, we see him as a creature established for being best. To have faith and reasoning, reconciled in him as a functional need in Him. We find faith and reasoning and purposeful, functional accord in that great figure prophet Ibrahim, prophet Abraham, Prophet Ibrahim. Praise be to Allah. The power, the resourcefulness, utility or however we want to say it of faith and reasoning must one day come into some accord, must work together and we can talk on this for hours. You can, I'm sure you who are aware of what we're talking about. You could talk on it for hours.
This is nothing that we can conclude in a few moments. We are just bringing these points to view, bringing them through your observation in hopes that we can go from there. Prophet Ibrahim peace be upon him is given more recognition in our religion than he his in other religions. In our religions the order of the Muslim that Prophet Mohammad established is after the order of Ibrahim. The Prophet Ibrahim, peace be upon the Prophets.
The respect for man as an intellect is promoted more in our religion than in any other religion. Openly promoted for the many, for the public. For the masses, openly promoted. Prophet Mohammad, what was his first activity as a prophet responsible for the great gift of the final revelation to him for all the people. What was his first active? He's seen as a teacher having patience with the most neglected person in terms of help for his mind and intellect, having patience with them, working with them and encouraging them. Once they were able to learn one line of reading, one line of revelation, one verse of knowledge, he encouraged them, now you are obligated to teach another in your situation to teach another without it. To pass it on to another.
He was a teacher that was not confined to institution. To the walls and limitations of institutions. He was a teacher that made not only public education, but made it a responsibility of the public. He did not only make education public. He made education the responsibility of the public, of each member in the public of the Muslim. You're responsible to pass on knowledge as you get it. He made all of them teachers then, didn't he? He encouraged and set all of them off as teachers, didn't he? I hope you all can appreciate what is seen here.
Suppose we had that kind of devotion, suppose we had that kind of dedication to the duties of our religion, that kind of commitment to the commands of G-d and the duties in our religion, suppose we had it. Look how quick we could rise up as a great people in this county because all of us with would accept responsibility to be helpers of one another. I hope I'm not taking up too much time. Let me know. We can close it. We can close it now. We can close it anytime. Yes we can. I've reached the point now that I can go away anytime now, I can close it anytime. I know when the rains have fallen and the ground is wet and the thing situation is good in the heavens. I know when to sleep.
If we had that kind of spirit and commitment, we wouldn't pass through blocks and streets and neighborhoods. Seeing our people crazy minded, idle, ignorant, abusing themselves, neglecting the human destiny and not take the time to go in there and make an effort anyway, a sincere effort to help them out. Brother, sister, neighbor, however you want to address them, I don't think you're aware of the great help in the world for you and me and all people. I don't believe you are aware of it because if you were, you would have a different spirit, different mind, and you'd be getting in better situations for yourself in this world.
You would leave with them a leaflet, a pamphlet if you had to write it yourself with a piece of the information that have influenced your life for the better. You pass it on to them. I admire the Jehovah Witnesses, though I don't believe in their religion, I admire the Jehovah Witnesses for their dedication, for their sacrifices that they make. Well dressed men, women, sometimes they even carry some of the children with them. They go from door to door. They don't know what kind of response they're going to get from you, but they ring your bell and risk being insulted or treated bad to tell you something or to bring you something that they have respect for and value. More Muslims need to become like that.
Our Prophet was the best example for everybody. He made his followers just like him. Those that knew him and responded to him. They became Just like him, they devoted their life to help bring more people to appreciate the excellence G-d intended for human being. In the Quran, Allah gives us verses that call our attention to the soul, the great human soul and the need for man to respect that great creation and to become conscious of it and respected it and work for its excellence. Contribute, spend, this is the word of Revelation, spend on it.
We spend on fun, we spend on image, we neglect the future of our children just to spend on fun and image, foolish spending. We spend impulsively, didn't even take inventory today, don't even know what's the nice bus you go to the store you're just excited. You buy ears of corn and you finally go home you find three ears of corn still there bought from last week. You bought flour you found, "I made a mistake, I got flour, there's some flour here." We don't have to be assisted doing this now, brothers who just do like this. Get two packs of meat. Go back home and open the freezer. "I didn't know I had some of this already." Ain't got the good sense to take inventory before you go to the store. You spend like that.
Allah wants us to spend on our own souls. Successful is He Who spends on his own soul? What he's spending on his own soul. I mean, what he is investing in, when he's spending on his own soul. He's investing in his soul. Yes, we know that. What in particular is he investing in when he's spending on his own soul? Allah says and the soul and it's need for enlightenment and regardfulness. A person can grow in enlightenment, grow in intellectual ability, perception and et cetera and still be a failure when it comes to achieving in the world, because he missed the other major need in his soul in his life. The ability to be regardful of things that should receive due regard.
He doesn't regard his employer he doesn't regard the rules of the establishment that he's employed by. With all of his intellectual ability he's seen as Skid Row, a drunkard, a failure, this is a fact of life. In many cases like this so we don't have to go to science to find out how come that man is in the gutter and he has a PhD? How come he's picking up people and rubbing on lettuce he has a PhD? This happens. How come he's shooting dope, sparkling can on and he has a PhD? We don't need to go to science to get no answers. Allah says the soul's requirement the need in the soul, is for enlightenment intellectual growth, the growth of knowledge in our mind. The other need in the soul for the growth of regardfulness respect. Proper regard and proper respect for those things that are do that regard and that respect.
Everything that Allah has made, is deserving of a certain regard and respect. We must spend on it. Look how beautiful it is when the soul responds, as he has been created to respond by G-d. It finally comes into his destiny of excellence. Allah says, also, return to your Lord [Arabic language]. Return to your Lord the one who evolved you, the one who gave you that orientation in your nature, to bring you from lesser to greater, from inferior to excellence, et cetera. From poor taste and small mindedness to great taste and rich taste and great mindedness.
Return to your Lord, the one that's responsible for that says, pleased and pleasing. Another big epidemic we have in our society is a need in the foolish creatures we call human being to be pleased. They don't have a spirit to be pleasing. Those two things must be balanced. Just say you have a spirit and the need to be pleased, you should also have a spirit and a need to be pleasing. How come I should keep pleasing you and you ain't giving a shit about pleasing me? You're right, that ain't fair.
This is a very rude and discourteous and unfair society. The people I'm talking about individually, all messed up, ugly sensitivities addicted to false pleasures, the appetite for small pleasures small cheap pleasures. Please me, and they'll tell you, "Please me honey, and I'll give you what you want." Here it has become a business deal. "Please me and I'll give what you want." Hold on, may be I ain't talking about pleasing me, maybe that's not the issue right here. Maybe I'm displeased because you're not pleasing even the requirements of yourself. Your nature is asking for better treatment from you. Maybe that's what displeases me.
Maybe you're not respecting our children, maybe you're not respecting the house, maybe you're not respecting the order of society. Maybe that's what's this pleases me. What's going to change now, this thing in society, what's going to get rid of this big problem? Us respecting and valuing the great edifice that Allah has made in making us come into the knowledge of it, what is this true self? What is the true direction in the life of self?
What is the true aim and the urges and natural urges of self and appreciate it and appreciate it, and respect it so much that you cooperate with it, that you care for it, that you give of your earnings to help it grow, to help it come into its excellence? That you look at another human being and you don't see them as Joe so much as Joseph or as Mario, so much a Miriam. You see them in your image, you see them in the same form that you appreciate for yourself, you know that G-d has treated them with the same.
Then you don't only want to spend for yourself to get to realize that the more of the excellence that Allah created for you, but you also want spend for that Joe or Joseph or Yusuf and Mariam so that they can come into more of the excellence that Allah created for them. Love for your brother what you love for yourself. The Prophet said, "Love for your brother, what you love yourself." He says the Muslim, the believer, is a mirror for his brother. The believer is a mirror for his brother.
We love our brother, we don't lie to him. He's going down, going farther and farther away from the disciplines of Muslims. Giving himself to the dissipations of the world, covered, as the prophet said, with Haram. With the things that are not permissible in the religion. We say, "Hey, man. You do look good man." That's not responsible brother. You know his condition, you know where he's going. Don't, "Hey, Asalam Aleikum, brother. You look good brother. See you tomorrow."
It should come to your conscience, your responsibility and you should say, "Brother. Have you taken a look at yourself lately? I don't think you want to happen what is happening to you. It's an image that I'm seeing of you, not good." The Prophet in saying that the believer is a mirror, the brother is a mirror for his brother. He's saying, "No more then, we are helpers of one another. We are true helpers of one another. We don't lie to our brothers and sisters just to keep their friendship. We love them like the good mother.
The good mother will put pain on behind her child. She doesn't love that, she doesn't want to hurt that child, but she would make that little child's behind or legs hurt in pain because she truly loves that child. She will risk having that child pump it's little lips up and look at her, she'll risk that. She'll risk the love bond for her and the child, to save the child's good life. That's really loving them. No better love than the love of a true mother, unless it's the love of Allah. That's right.
Shouldn't we be like that for each other? A lot of us so weak and many of us have good hearts, but we have fallen into the ways of the world. We just think we'd be out of place and won't be taken right, won't be seen right if we risk hurting the person's feelings that we are friends to our love. If you're really a friend, you will risk not only hurting their feelings, but you risk losing their friendship to save their good life.
He says to the soul that is coming to its final complete phase of excellence. [Arabic language] return to your Lord. pleased and pleasing, then that's the condition for returning to your Lord and being accepted by your Lord. that you are pleased with Allah your Lord, and aura of things established by your Lord. To be pleased with your Lord doesn't mean you're pleased with him as you're pleased with your husband or somebody, but you're pleased with him by indirect knowledge. You're pleased with him in that you accept the aura that he has established for your life and for all people. You're pleased with him, you're pleased with his rule, you're pleased with his law, you're pleased with what he has prescribed for you. You're pleased with it, you're pleased with what he has done in creating you, you're pleased with him.
For he says, "Return to your Lord pleased and pleasing," because when you are pleased with Allah, then you can become pleasing to Allah and pleasing to yourself. Then he says, "Look, [Arabic language]. Enter you among my servants." Now, that's paradise there. Paradise is not only a beautiful place but paradise also place where I'm going to join other workers for Allah. A servant is a worker for Allah. He says, "Enter you among my servants, [Arabic language] enter you in the company of my workers, my servants, those who work for me."
He says right behind that to let you know something else, "[Arabic language] Enter you into my garden of paradise." These things they are connected. The urge in man for pleasure fulfillment, and proper regard for Allah and the order that he have established. Not only that, the urge for self-approval to be pleased with oneself because he said, "Pleased and pleasing." Pleased with myself, because my self strives and succeeded in pleasing G-d." He's saying that the condition for being really pleased with yourself is to be satisfied with your efforts, your efforts that you made to please your Lord.
Also that is another thing, work. You don't get that great habit, you don't come into that real ecstasy, whatever we could think of the highest idea of fulfillment of pleasures, you don't come into that unless you have an appreciation for service, an appreciation for work, a commitment to do something to improve the state of affairs. That's what he's saying. You come into that great sense of fulfillment and happiness by giving yourself to a life of productivity, a life of the work that Allah approves respecting him as the overriding boss, the supreme boss if we can use that term, the highest authority, the one responsible for it all, to whom respects must be paid for everything.
He says, "[Arabic language] Return to your Lord. [Arabic language] Enter you among my workers, my servants, my workers." He says, "[Arabic language] Enter you my garden of paradise." I think that clearly tells us that the conditions for being accepted into the garden of paradise is to fulfill those needs in the human creation that I have been talking to you about this now, and mainly those that come like a three-stage rocket. Those that come like a three-stage rocket, the urge to realize self in the nature. The urge to realize self in the conscience and the urge to realize, established by self. To realize establishment of self in the community.
Those are three great urges in the human life. To establish self in the nature, to establish self in conscience, and to establish self in society in the environment. In doing that, one time another you must come upon G-d or the Devil, and you're going to end up in one or the other charge. You have to pursue that, G-d has clocked it into your very nature, you have to pursue it and in that route, maybe before you get to step two, maybe actually get to step two but at one stage or another in that round that's three stage venture, you are going to meet Allah or the Devil. Depending on your disposition, your attitude, your respect, your makeup, your sensitivities and how those attitudes that you would take.
I'm going to conclude it now with another reminder from the word of G-d, from the Quran, if I can find it. Just give me a minute here. I think I can find it. I have it here right in front of me, I didn't see it. It's covered by another paper. Allah says in Quran and some of this stuff. Allah says in the Quran, "Why do you not respond to the Muhammad the Prophet," Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon him, "when he invites you to life, to that which will give you life."
Now, I give you these verses from Quran that says, "[Arabic language] By the son and its brightness, it's illumination, [Arabic language], by the moon, [Arabic language] by the moon that follows it [Arabic language] and the day [Arabic language], the day, by the day and it's brightness and brilliance, beauty, illumination [Arabic language] and by the night that enshrouds it, cloaks it, covers it." Now, here's the verse that brings home what we're going to conclude on. "[Arabic language] And by the skies, the heavens and how it is raised up, how it is structured."
We conclude this address with that verse which says, according to my understanding, I do believe that Allah has blessed me with understanding, you look at the heavens and it holds for us many mysteries. We see great bodies up there and even after science has attempted to take the mystery out of it, it still mystifies. Knowing in the laws of universal gravitation and all that still myself I as a student of science and I'm sure the scientists themselves who write the science, I'm sure they're still amazed too how those gray material balls of mass many times great in size in our earth float up there with seemingly nothing supporting it.
Not even air because out there it's airless space but they say there's a time of universal destruction with kind of magnetism and we know that there's an invisible attachment we call magnetism and the ship worker and the shipyard let down the electromagnet a crane. The electromagnet and there's nothing but a flat disc of metal and it picks up these thousands of pounds of metal by no physical grip only by an invisible grip. Even that, though I understand it, I think in the light of science, it still amazes me, it's the wonder, the greatness of it. G-d said and heaven [unintelligible 00:43:53] so we have a spiritual
[00:44:03] [END OF AUDIO]
Warith Deen Mohammed: your best terminology. Anyway, we find that the spiritual component works with the material component. They work separate and they also work in conjunction with each other just as the husband and the wife. The husband and wife have their separate lives, but they also must live together especially to reproduce themselves. We have this spiritual component or dimension of the human life and form, and we have that material component and dimension. That spiritual component and dimension amazes us and mystifies us right today after all these sciences have come to try and scientifically explain everything about man, still it mystifies us.
Not only us lay people, but I read the words of scientists themselves; they are still baffled, they are still facing wonders, this is a wonder. They are still amazed at the form and functions of this dark side of the human being, the side that we can't clearly understand. G-d wants that to be put on solid bases too. He wants that to have proper form and proper behavior too, so He gives us and cares by telling, "You, look at the heavens. It's as mysterious as you are more so." See how G-d has made it to work in obedience to Him.
It obeys him, and see how wonderful it is and see how much you love it and how much you admire it and how much it satisfies the aesthetic needs in your life and the needs for a sense of order in your life, it's so much a great influence in this respect that the prophet prayed Jesus according to their reports of what he said and give us-- he said, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in the heavens." On earth, as it is in the heavens. What was he responding to that he saw in the heavens?
The green vast order of harmony, agreement, brightness, brilliance, beauty, order and peace and independence in that unity. They share unity and they're all working together, but the body also, the heavenly body also has it's own little kingdom, it's own little orientation that it conducts by itself, and at the same time in conjunction and in connection with the other heavenly bodies. How come we can't have our own separate kingdoms?
How come I, Warith Deen Mohammed or W Deen Mohammed, W D Mohammed, how come I can't have my separate kingdom? The autonomy of my own being? They call it the autonomy of the individual. How come I can't have my separate independence within the total independence? How come I can't realize the great sense of authority and responsibility? How come I can't have the badge of command and authority? How come I can't be respected as the boss in my house?
How come I can't be respected as the boss of my block, as a community? How come I can't be respected as a community trustworthy, worthy of supervising and looking after the life and destiny and future of this neighborhood or this community? How come I can't be trusted? I want my body in the heavens too.
One black spokesman for African recovery from the black man's recovery, he said he saw-- he believed that one day will come, the day will come when Africa, he meant the African people, the African children, us and all of us will take our places in the constellation of the heavens. He means that we would have that lift, that loft the place in the eyes of man and society. We would have that independence in the eyes of man in society, that one day we will be respected as stars too with office of our own, with fields of command of our own, with territories under our command. Why not? Thank you very much. As-sal?mu Alaykum.
[applause]
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