06/02/1996
IWDM Study Library
Islam Promotes Peace Between Nations
Atlanta GA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam Plemon El-Amin: I present to you Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. Takbir.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Imam Plemon El-Amin: Takbir.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: As Salamu Alaikum.
Audience: Wa 'Alaikum as-salaam.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: Peace be on you. We pray that G-d, the one and only Allah that is in Islam, the proper term for Muslims, Allah. We pray that Allah guide us always to that that will bring the results that will be accepted by Him. If the results are accepted by Him, then the results will please us. Nothing short of what G-d wants for us will satisfy us for long. Maybe for a while, but not for long. We are very thankful to Allah for our presence here, and for your presence here. We are happy to be here on this special occasion in Atlanta, the beautiful city of Atlanta.
We have to recognize this city, the Muslims here and the good people of this city for your good works and good achievements, especially, our community because we are with you, and we are part of you and whatever happens to any of us it is registered in the soul or on the soul of all of us. We attended the graduation, the two classes graduating the junior high and the high school class. Again, we were just thrilled to peak I would say of our appetites, for pleasure, for fulfillment to see the graduations again in this year '96. We congratulate to all of you for your contribution to the school here. Clara Mohammed Elementary and Warith Deen High.
The teachers, the principal, the director, and the students and all of those working with the school, you deserve a big, heartfelt congratulations. I know you will keep up the good works. You're committed to do that. This is your own desire and will to do that and you won't be happy not doing that. We're not worried about excellence in the school of Atlanta elementary school and high school of Atlanta. We know that you're guaranteed more and more excellence each year because of the good situation that you have for yourselves and those that are working with you.
Now, we have a subject here and I would like to- well, begin by saying in the language of Muslims, the Quranic language Alhamdulillah. Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil 'alamin, praise and thanks to G-d, the G-d, the one G-d, Lord, cherisher sustainer of the worlds. Wa Salat Wa Salaam Ala Rasool lillhi Al Karim, and prayers and the peace be upon G-d's noble and generous Messenger Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed, and what follows of that salutation of their salute to the seal of the prophets, the last prophet Muhammad upon him be peace.
All believers, "Ya Ayoha Al-Muminoon," G-d says. Over and over again often to us in the Quran addressing us more often as believers than as Muslims, or believers. Ya Ayoha Al-Muminoon." I address you here as G-d address you most often in the Quran, the holy book of the Muslims. All believers, and I greet you again As Salamu Alaikum, and wish you G-d's mercy and G-d's blessing always. We thank Allah who is the real Lord creator of all of us, the one G-d for the great community, religious communities on this earth. The one G-d for all mankind, for all nations.
We wish up that G-d and worship Him only, we do not make gods with G-d, we do not have false gods, that is Shirk a term in Quranic language in Islamic language Shirk, meaning the worst sin. The worst of all sins Shirk. We know that in the religions we call the Abrahamic religions now because of this name being given to these religions by their modern-day scholars. We know that these great religions they all have commandments, and we have what we call this Muslim Creed, the Muslim Creed. La Ilaha Illa-Allah. No god, but the only G-d about the one G-d. Muhammad Rasul Allah, Muhammad is a Messenger of G-d, that is our tree.
The first commandment if I'm remembering correctly for the people of the Old Testament, the people of the Torah, that is called in Islam or in the Quran. The first commandment for them is that you shall have no other G-d before me. You shall not worship false gods or have any other god but the one true G-d. We know that the people of the New Testament the gospel it's the same, but the language is so mystified that we can't hardly understand the clarity or see the clarity. The clarity is there, but its hard to see is shrouded, is veiled, is covered so we can't see it hardly unless G-d guides us himself. It is there the message of Christ Jesus the prophet peace be upon him was also you shall have but one G-d, the G-d the Lord G-d is one, the Lord G-d is one.
That was his Creed also. The Creed of all the prophets according to our religion was the same, one G-d, one G-d only. That idea we believe is needed for man to have peace on this earth between man and man, between groups and groups, or races and races, or between nations and nations, or governments and government. That's the idea that's needed. As long as, man will be divided by idea of G-d that is not the true idea of G-d, we won't have peace on this earth. But the time of a moment that we come to accept the one and only G-d as our G-d, as our Lord creator and G-d Lord creator and G-d that we should worship and obey, we can have peace on this earth between person and person, group and group, between nation and nation.
We can have that peace. We have gathered here today, not just for this presentation, we've gathered here for Clara Mohammed School, and for the WD Mohammed high school, and we've gathered here for the Shura sponsored organize educational conference. I would say and for this address. We do not want our time to be wasted. We do not want our time to be of no benefit to this gathering to us and to you. As we did, you also did. You left your personal matters behind or you left them for a while, and you came here. We asked G-d the one G-d, the G-d only G-d we ask Him for the good results we seek for ourselves and for you or for everyone.
We, humans, we should understand that we are of one origin, one origin. If we have one origin, then most likely we would reason that we should be also of one destiny. If we began all the same, then or in us one condition then the condition for all of us at the end of the road should be one in the same condition. Our beginning, we have in common is a heavenly beginning as we understand it in our scripture in the religion, it is a heavenly beginning requiring that we be formed in and of the ground here in the Western world, in America and Western world and English is called Earth. The term is different in other languages. In the Quran, in Arabic, Quranic Arabic it is called ‘Ard meaning earth and also ground, our floor, the level, the ground level. All scriptures of the Abrahamic people say the same, we were formed of one origin and that origin for our form is the earth, is the earth. However, I repeat, our beginning was in heaven. G-d created the human being for the heavenly state. He made the human being, He conceived the human being and made him originally for the heavenly state.
Humans, we were put down here on this earth for the state of peace, the state of peace. This beginning in the heavenly state communicates or translates itself for us in our hearts and soul and mind as peace. P-E-A-C-E, peace. The world of men, and nations and powers, you don't hear them asking for happiness. Now, in science, we're told that is in Western science. In Western science, we're told that man is driven by the pleasure principle. Life is driven by the pleasure principle and we are all on this earth existing to be pleased, pleased or to have pleasures, that's what they say.
Man is driven by nothing more than he is driven by the need to have pleasure. Now, we are not necessarily as the religious people or religious students or scholars, we are not necessarily disagreeing with that, but we are asking for some clarification. A plant needs a certain condition to have his life and to grow. A human being, a dog, and everything all life need a certain condition. Animals want to be pleased, they don't want pain in their stomachs, they want to be pleased, all animals, all living things. So to say the main aim in human life is to have pleasure without clarifying it, to me, is to leave babies and neglected people to destroy themselves because pleasure sought for pleasure sake will soon destroy a human being.
But if pleasure is sought for G-d's sake and we have the right idea of G-d, then pleasure will assist or the quest for pleasure will be the condition to make possible the fulfillment of human life. So we are not necessarily agreeing with Western science that says that pressure principle is the most important deciding factor in the appetites of human beings. G-d has revealed to prophets that understanding that would make it possible for them to lead blocks or groups of people successfully closer and closer to the ideal state that G-d wants for man or human beings on this earth.
G-d has done that. And G-d has shown human being, the man, the people, the heavens above as a sign to man transmitting to Him or speaking to Him of the state that he needs on earth. When we look to the heavens, we find the situation that feeds the need in our soul for peace. Abraham in his quest for peace, Abraham was a prophet who was driven by the quest for peace in his soul, when he looked to the heavens, he began to wonder, he began to have questions. It expanded his mind. It gave freedom to his thought. He began to look at the heavens and search for what is the ruling principle or the ruling reality in all of this world that I can see or reach with my senses.
What is G-d? Who is the ruler? What is the ruler? Whom should I serve? What should I worship? That was the questions that came to his mind as he was looking up into the skies and to the heavens. He wasn't the first prophet to look up into the heavens. Other prophets looked up to the heavens even before him, and they looked up into the heavens and they began to imagine that there was a bigger cause and a bigger purpose, a bigger interest, a bigger concern that man should be carrying than the small things that the average person are weighted down with.
They became leaders for people. Abraham, we might say, is the religious spiritual father of the great faiths. Spiritual father. Why do I call him a spiritual father? Because when I study the scripture of G-d that G-d has revealed, and I see Adam, peace be upon them, as a father, the first father until Abraham and how Adam was not complete in his spirit. Because of that G-d said to the angels who were disturbed at G-d saying I'm going to make this Adam, this man, this common mortal, rational being with freedom of mind, with freedom of will and put him into the vast of matter and the universe or the earth, and the universe.
They were disturbed, they said, "How can you trust something like this with that kind of responsibility?" They told G-d he will cause bloodshed. This is from our scripture, say he will cause bloodshed. G-d says, "I know what you know not." This is what he said to the angels, "I know what you know not." G-d said, "Wait until I have breathed into him of my spirit." Here was Adam incomplete as a spiritual man. He was incomplete, he didn't have G-d spirit yet ruling in him. He had the human nature that G-d gave him ruling in him, but he didn't have G-d's purpose, G-d's will see spirit is always moving.
There's no spirit in the air if it's standing still. Spirit is always moving so spirit indicates a direction for his spirituality. That's what spirit indicates, a direction for his spirituality. Here he was in his human spirituality, but he didn't have a direction for that human spirituality. He was put into creation as a baby, and he had to grow up. And G-d gave him a companion that was certainly growing up. G-d calls him to be deceived by the seductive voice of the Satan the Shaitaan, the devil. The devil deceived him and caused him to slip from that heavenly state that he was put into.
He lost his heaven, he lost his peace and he began on the journey the quest for peace. Our scripture says and he met with a sign or word from his Lord, and he repented his ways and he got back on the track of success, of peace, back on the road to peace. This is Adam. We have no idea of man as a sinner by birth or created to be sinful, there's no idea. We don't accept that idea in Islam. We don't believe in original sin. We only believe in original innocence, we don't believe in original sin.
We believe that life is originally innocent and it becomes sinful because of its failure to manage or cope with the powers, the influences, the temptations, et cetera in this massive world that G-d created. G-d made it this way and He says the man that certainly your creation is not a bigger matter than the creation of the heavens and earth. That's to tell man that you can't meet the challenge of the universe of the material world with your limited human resources. You need the help that only your G-d can give. When he gets that help, then he can manage and cope with the forces in the creation, and he can deal with Satan, and he can tell Satan with confidence in himself because of his position by his G-d.
He can tell Satan, "Your war against me is weak." Surely the strategies of Satan are weak, this is what G-d says to us. Surely the strategies of Satan are weak, but we will never know that until G-d opens our eyes. Praise be to Allah. What is missing in the spiritual man now? In order for the spiritual man to be qualified or equipped to meet the test the challenge from the world, what he must have? He must have completeness, he must have completeness, completeness for his being. G-d tells us at us of Abraham say in Abraham completed his pledge or his requirement before G-d. He's man it was required to come up before G-d with so much achievement for himself, and we're told that Abraham completed that, he completed it. Abraham then is seen as the complete man. Adam was missing something. The second father has Adam and also what Adam was missing. He himself is Adam. He's Adam, in completion, but he's called Abraham or Ibrahim in our scripture, not Adam. How do we know he is Adam? Both our scripture and the Bible says the genealogy is traced back to Adam.
As one son is the son of Adam all are the sons of Adam. That means that Abraham, though he was our Father to like Adam, he's also the son of Adam. Adam out of one father came another father who became our father, but he's also the son of Adam. He is Adam also in his human nature, but he is Adam, in completion. Therefore, he's called Ibrahim which means father or leader for all people. Completeness. Now, let's think about the struggling groups, the suffering groups of humanity, not just about the black man in his plight or the African-American people in our plight. Let us think about all groups that have been in bad situation, unable to establish themselves, unable to compete with other groups, dominated completely by other groups, having to be subservient or dependent on other groups, having to do menial tasks for other groups.
Not only us, there are other groups like us. In fact, the powerful Jewish people according to their scriptures, they were once in a situation like that themselves where they were overpowered by another group, and they were a colony like people under the mighty ancient Egyptians. It was G-d who inspired one among them and made him a prophet Moses as they say, Musa as we say in the Quranic language. Musa, Moses, was made a liberator for them and he led them out of that servitude or out of that bondage to the ancient Egyptian pharaoh.
Let us think about these groups a little bit here. We want to see how to come up with some rational explanation, logical explanation, for the inability of some groups to achieve a satisfying condition for themselves or for their group. African-American people still turn to Minister Louis Farrakhan, turn to him in a hypnotized, fascinated, mesmerized, captivated by his voice, by his voice, by what he has to say. That tells us that African-American people are still not in a condition that they're satisfied with because if they were, they wouldn't turn to his voice.
His voice invites you to take up a real, real burdensome life. That tells me that if you willing to take up that burdensome life that he's calling you to, you must have something that is even more burdensome than what he's calling you to. That's the burden on the soul for peace in the soul. How come so many groups haven't fulfilled this need for peace in the soul? It's because they haven't come into this condition that Abraham came into. Abraham came into the condition to want the completeness of his human makeup. He wanted to complete, G-d puts it just that way. He wanted to complete his human constitution.
Some of us, we have not been fortunate enough to have parents or civilization, or educational institutions to focus in on our human constitution and lead us to a view of our human constitution that is complete. The school will emphasize learning for a career supported by learning or knowledge that you achieve. The school is mainly addressing your brain and your intelligence. The church, most of them, and the mosque, and the synagogues, all of them they will focus so heavily on or so intensely on you as a spiritual creature that they will fail to give you a complete view of yourself.
Al-Islam is the religion of every human being ever made. G-d intended that. G-d put Al-Islam in our body when He made the human body. He put Al-Islam in the human body so that one day it will dawn or rise up in the human life as the sun rises up in these. It will light the human life and bring the human family to G-d and to peace. That's what G-d did. You may call it your beautiful Christianity or your beautiful Catholicism, whatever you call it. Another will call it his beautiful Judaism or his beautiful Islam.
It's the beautiful nature and intent in that nature that G-d created for every human being. In our religion is Islam, in our religion is Muslim, meaning one who has accepted Islam, Muslim. One who has accepted Islam, one who has in his own makeup a desire in his nature. Even though he can't translate it, he can't identify it and give the proper language to it, it's in his nature, a hunger to have peace.
Allahu Akbar. A human being is another thing is given to us by scriptures, by prophets of ancient times and modern times, and prophets from the east, and the west, and the north and south. These prophets have brought us the picture of ourselves as a cosmic being, what does cosmic tell us? 

