12/01/2002
IWDM Study Library
Eid Al-Fitr Khutbah
Taqwa Islamic Center
Chicago IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We glorify G-d. We praise Him with takbirs by saying Allah is greater, greater than anything and everything in creation. And for G-d is the praise, for G-d is the thanks. We celebrate the completion of the fast month and those who have completed it, not breaking it except by error or mistake, not consciously breaking it, you celebrate also a victory, not just the celebration of the conclusion of the fast month or the end of the fast month, but you celebrate also a personal victory. It's a personal victory for us and our children that fast this month. We love them so much when we see them struggling and turning away the food and avoiding the temptation to keep obedience to Allah, to obey Allah and fast the month. Form Muhammad was inspired by G-d. It is in the collection called the Hadith Qudsi, the holy or sacred Hadiths.
He was inspired by Allah and Allah said to Muhammad for us that fasting is for G-d. Fasting is for me. Allah said, fasting is for me. So when we fast in that spirit, we are fasting in the spirit of our best human nature. When we are fasting in that spirit, we are fasting because we want Allah to accept us, to accept us. When we fast that way, we are fasting in the best human spirit. So this month is a month of victory and this training in this month is training to strengthen us to survive in a world of temptations, a world of great temptations. This world will take us away from the best of our human nature. It will spoil our beautiful human nature if we give into its temptations. So this training is to protect us against that. Give us more strength for us to endure for the rest of the year the temptations of this world. The practice is not to stop during the month of Ramadan. This is intense training in the month of Ramadan. The practice is continued for the rest of your life. All your life, all your life. Strive to please G-d with your utmost, strive to stay away from lies, untruthfulness. Try to stay away from any bad behavior because any bad behavior you tolerate, it weakens your good human nature. Your original nature that Allah created you for the best of your human nature will be destroyed and lost to the world. So we don't want to give in to the sins of this world. And we strive always to please Allah and satisfy Him with our obedience because our obedience was created for Allah. Allah created us with our obedience in our nature for Him. The obedience is firstly for Allah and if we give our obedience to Allah first, then all the other relationships will be protected.
But if we give our obedience to something else first, then all the relationships are not protected. They'll be lost. They'll be lost. You'll find that your relationship with your loved one will be lost. Your relationship with your job will be lost. Everything will be spoiled if you let your relationship with Allah come second to anything. Our relationship with Allah is first. Coming out of the house today I told Muhammad, our young son here, 12-year-old son, I told him, I said, we obey Allah. Our obedience is for Allah first. I said after our obedience to Allah, then our obedience to our country, the United States of America. And I told him, our obedience to Allah will urge us and insist that we make our country and our people, American people better if we can do it. We are to work to make the country better, the government better, and also the society, the culture, the people, the public to make that life better if we can do it. And we can only make our small contributions and go on, and others will take it from there after we have gone.
So we ask Allah to give us victory not only in the fast month, but also give us victory in that training ground that the fast month prepares us for, the training ground of the sinful world. That we train always to keep away from sin, fight sin and conquer sin in ourselves firstly, but also make a contribution to make the world better. With the help of G-d we will be victorious there too. I think we are succeeding in the world too. Praise be to Allah. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. La Ilaha Il Allah. Wa Ilah ilhum. Truthfulness, good judgment, decency, kindness, charity and the like belong to human nature. Human nature. Allah tells us in the Qur'an to obey G-d. That is obey Allah and obey His Messenger. Obey G-d and obey the Messenger. This is what Allah tells us in the Qur'an.
Over and over again, we are reminded that we are to obey G-d and obey His Messenger. We should understand that obedience to Allah is our nature. It's not something that comes to us after we are created. No, obedience to Allah is human nature. The nature of all human beings is to obey G-d. The world blinds them to that maybe or leads them astray, but they will never find happiness, complete and satisfying for their souls until they accept to please the one who created them, made them and made all the good things possible for them that they enjoy. So obedience to G-d is human nature, obey G-d and obey His Messenger. Obedience to His Messenger is also human nature. Obedience to Muhammad the Prophet is also human nature. Jesus Christ told his people according to the gospel, peace be beyond the Prophet and Messenger of G-d and the word from G-d and the spirit from him. Jesus Christ, the Messiah. He told his people according to the gospel, I in the Father and the Father in me. But he didn't stop there. He said, I in you also and you and me. So he connected himself with human mortals as a human mortal that his life was the same as the life in all the human mortals. Muhammad the Prophet is told by Allah, say, speaking to Muhammad to them, I am a human mortal like you.
So if we are the same in our human nature and life as Muhammad the Prophet, as Christ Jesus and all the best of the G-d's servants, if we are the same in our human nature as him, then it is in our human nature to obey the best of that human nature. And when you are trying to obey, it's natural. Even if you don't go to church or to a religious place, a Mosque or Synagogue or whatever, or Buddhist temple, it's natural for you to want to follow the best that's in your life, the best urges inside your heart, inside your soul, inside your spirit. That's human nature. So when you are following that and responding like that, you are really obeying your original nature in its excellent mold or excellent form. You are obeying that. And Muhammad is the victorious one among us who succeeded.
Even before G-d gave him revelation, he succeeded in keeping that nature, that beautiful human life in its correct form. He didn't lose it to the world. He never worshiped idols. He never worshiped idols. He never lied. He's called the one who already spoke the truth, called that before he was missioned, called by G-d. His people called him that the people of Quraish, his tribe, the most notable tribe of Arabia, they called him Al Sadiq, the one who never speaks lies. And they called him Al Amin, the trustworthy one, the one who will never break the trust. He will keep his word to you. He would keep his trust. He'll keep the trust. So he did this and G-d says of him, and he's already lived among you all 40 years, meaning that he had lived among the people long enough to prove that he did not spoil his original nature. His original nature in its best form.
The human nature in its best form was never spoiled for Muhammad the Prophet. He's called the Hanifa after Ibrahim, Prophet Ibrahim, the upright in his nature. And he belonged to the Hunifa, the upright in their nature, even before the Qur'an was revealed to him, even before he knew about religion, he was already the best in his nature. And that is to tell us that G-d created Adam right not wrong. Adam was not created in sin, a sinner. He was created in the best human nature and we descended from him. We all inherit the best human nature from our Father Adam, we inherit the best human nature. And all of us are his descendants or his children from that point of view, not in his sin, but in his excellence. We are all his descendants, his children. And if we follow sin, it's not because of the nature that G-d gave us, it's because of the world that deceives us or tempts us out of our righteousness. As we are told, the Satan seduced our father and our mother, our parents, and caused them to come out of the clothing that G-d had given them. The clothing of righteousness, the clothing of righteousness. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. La Ilaha IL Allah.
Muhammad was given a great victory over those who were trying to prevent Islam from ever being established on this earth. He was given a big victory over them. It was the idolaters, the mushrik, the mushrikeen and also their supporters from Jews and from some other people were supporting them. And Muhammad the Prophet and his followers were given the victory. But we say G-d defeated the campaigns of the enemy of his foes by himself. G-d did it. We should not think of that victory as a victory for brave men. Yes, brave men had a part. G-d honored brave men to give them a part in the victory. All those brave men that fought, they were honored by G-d to have a role in the victory. But the victory was G-d's. G-d made the victory. Allah made the victory. Had it not been for Allah revealing the religion and sending Muhammad the Prophet as a mercy to all the worlds and protecting the way and the religion for all times, even against physical forces, military powers, we would not have had any victory. Victory came only the cause of Allah's protection, His will in it for us.
This is the deen of fitra. It is the religion of origin, of origin. The religion of origin is a religion of our origin in heaven. When Allah first created the human soul, unspoiled, unchanged, it was in heaven. It was in heaven. G-d created us in heaven and in creating us, our souls, He put into our souls what we needed for our life always. And what He gave us as revelation was answering the plea in our nature for help. Our nature was begging for help. Man could not do it alone even though G-d gave him what he needed in his nature, he could not do it alone against this world. The world is too big for him. So G-d had to come to his aid and answer his need that G-d put in his original nature. So Islam is not something foreign added to you.
It is what your original nature calls for. This this I have perfected for you your religion. Your religion. G-d didn't say His religion. Your religion. It's your property. It belongs to your nature. This day I perfected for you your religion and have completed my favor upon you and perfected for you your religion and completed my favor upon you. This means that G-d had created you for this. That's His favor to you, to create you so beautifully in your original nature. And completed My favor on you and have chosen for you or preferred for you Islam, your own religion. Your religion by nature, have preferred for you Islamadin as religion. Praise be to Allah. When we say surely I have wronged my own self.
So deviations away from Islam or the nature G-d created for us is wronging our own selves. So when we lie, when we give into the habit of lying, we are wronging our own self. Because G-d didn't create us to lie, He created us to be like Muhammad never told a lie even before G-d made him know religion. He created us like He made Muhammad never to lie, to not to ever want to lie. So when we lie, we are going against our own good nature. We are wronging our own good selves. We are oppressing our own good selves. We are holding down ourselves. We are holding back ourselves from progress. When we lie, when we steal, when we cheat, when we fornicate, when we commit adultery, when we do all these things that G-d said don't do. He said don't do 'em because you are going against your nature when you do it and you're going to suffer consequences, bad consequences.
If you go against your original nature, you're going to feel it in your soul. You're going feel it in your conscience. You're going to feel it on your spirit. If you shut it out of your conscience, it's going to weigh on your spirit. It's going hurt your performance when you want to do good and succeed in the world. Sin brings down the best of men. Sin brings down PhDs, bring down men with 10 PhDs. Sin bring them down. They go up to the Presidency of the United States of America or to the kingship of Saudi Arabia or to some other high place and they fall down and they are disgraced before the public. The public dismisses them, the public get rid of them. They're not fit to be leaders for the people anymore. What brought 'em down? Not that he couldn't figure math, that didn't bring him down. Not that he didn't know law. He knew how to argue law in the court, that didn't bring him down. What brought him down is the same thing that brings the most deprived man down, giving into temptations and spoiling his own good nature that G-d created for him. Not listening to the best urges of his own creation and going following weaknesses in the world bring down the biggest of all men and women. Bring down the biggest. So we must understand this as it is given. Understand the religion as it is given, and we will have fulfillment and happiness and peace everlasting.
Al Islam is a religion of human nature. The religion of the original human nature. The human nature before the world takes it out of its excellence. Islam is the inheritance of every human being. It's their rightful inheritance, the inheritance of every human being. Islam, Al Islam. In the month of Ramadan, we have been fasting from the first sign of dawn where the blackness or the black thread of night and the white thread of the coming of dawn, the early dawn are on the level with each other, running parallel, straight line across the sky on the level. We start fasting and we fast not only from taking food into our mouths or drink, but also from temptation to engage in sex or to engage in romance that will lead to sex. We stayed away from all those things. The urge for sex is in nature, it's the urge to keep us existing.
It is our survival urge for us to produce ourselves over again. It's the urge to keep us on this planet. It's a very strong urge. We resist that too to please our G-d. We don't satisfy anything that Allah hasn't approved in the time or whenever. If there's a time for not doing it, we observe that time period. But if it's not to be done the whole life, we never do it. We never do it. We try our best. We are human. We are subject to make mistakes. We're subject to get weak. But if we keep our good intentions, keep our good nature, the original nature, we will feel sorry for it. We will want to say I'm sorry to G-d and we will want to ask Him for His help to not do that again. So this is the way, the good behavior of human beings.
And as the Hadith of Muhammad the Prophet says, the one who does that over and over again. Every time he does wrong, he remembers that he did wrong. And he remembers that there's a G-d that he can repent to. So he goes to his G-d and he ask his G-d's forgiveness. And Muhammad the Prophet says in one of the reported Hadith of Prophet Muhammad, Prayers and the peace be on him, Sa Ala Alahi Wa Salaam. He said, this person kept going back to G-d so many times. One time G-d told him, He said, go on on your own behavior. Your discretion has proven to be your protection. Isn't that a wonderful G-d? But tell me, doesn't that also say, that says several things, but doesn't it also say that really G-d created the man with what he needed to do the right thing. That's what it's saying, that I created you with what you needed to do the right thing.
And you have responded to your good human nature that I created you with in a wonderful way. So I trust you on your own. So see, the courts wasn't the first to say you're released on your own good discretion. No. You know they got an expression. I'm not giving it to you, all of it. But the courts weren't the first to do that. G-d Almighty did that. And I wouldn't be surprised if they read that in the Hadith of Muhammad and include it in their legal language. Yes, they got a lot from Islam. We know that. They know it too. So we resist this food in the time period that Allah says don't take it. Or resist these things that are for our pleasure in the time period that Allah says, no, you can't have it in this time period. Wait until the Mahgrib, until the sun has set. We do that for G-d. And look when it's time for iftar, to break the fast, can we eat a snicker candy bar? No. Listen to this. Can we eat a hamburger? No. You have to eat nature's food unchanged by man. Nature's food unchanged by man. So you should eat the food that came from the ground just as the ground produced it, not changed. Huh?
Preferably dates. I told my son, he doesn't care for dates. A lot of youngsters, they don't like olives, they don't like dates, they don't like tomatoes. They're different. We liked all that. We were so poor and hungry everything was tasting good. Now these fellas, they have so much they spit out good stuff. Yes. So I told him, I say we love Muhammad the Prophet so much that even if we don't love dates, we prefer grapes to dates or maybe peaches. Even if we don't love. This is not what we prefer, but now we do prefer it because Muhammad preferred it. I told him we eat these dates because Muhammad broke his fast with dates. He loved the dates. So we love the dates because Muhammad loved the dates. I told him, is it nasty to you? I say, can't you eat it? He said, yes.
I said, I know because I've seen you eat dates and it wasn't in Ramadan, but it's not his favorite fruit, you see? So we should follow Muhammad the Prophet, and we should love him. We should love him so much that we want to emulate his behavior, his style. We should love him to that extent. I didn't want to make a long Kutbah for the Eid. My friend Muhammad Abdullah of San Francisco, who finally moved to Haywood, he has passed some several years ago. But he told me, he said, if the Kutbah is longer than the salat, you have to work on it.
I am working on it. So forgive me. We have to take the food as G-d created it, as Mother Nature gave it to us, as the earth produced it, unchanged. And look how delicious it is. When we break fast look how delicious it is. And really it makes me aware that the food as Allah produced it is more delicious than the recipes that change food, more delicious. The water is more delicious, more tasty, more satisfying to my body than any drink they make. The orange juice from the natural orange or the pear juice or whatever it is, more delicious than any drink made by man, changed by man. All of the original foods. Allah want to bring us back to that awareness that we lose by eating all these spices and stuff. They killed the taste buds. Just like these heavy drinkers. They're taste buds are burned so much by strong liquor. They can't enjoy hardly any food. They have to put a half a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce on the sandwich to taste it. Well, that's punishment. That ain't no good. That's punishment. Allah want us to remember that the best tasting food is what He created for you before man changes it. Now this has a reference to something much more important. And they change the revelation, the scripture with their own hands, putting in their words, putting in their language into what they say G-d revealed. And they say this is from G-d. Now that's the food too that if you taste the real thing, Qur'an, you won't put that food over the Qur'an anymore. You'll know the food from G-d is the best.
Now lastly, brothers and sisters, we have mentioned that all good behavior is in our own nature. G-d created us for it. And a good behavior is charity. And the poorest person, my mother never was so poor that she didn't want to give in charity. And I was raised by her so I have never been so poor that I didn't want to give in charity. I could have been out of a job, couldn't pay my rent, maybe couldn't pay the phone bill. But I wanted to give in charity. That tells us it's human nature to want to give in charity. So don't forget your sadaqa. Really before we make, if you didn't know you are excused. In Islam, you're not blamed for anything you don't know. You're blamed only for that that you know and don't do. Okay? Yes. But before you make Salatul Eid you are supposed to have done your sadaqa. You're supposed to have given in charity. So I did it and I did it before my son. My mother showed me the way, we parents, we are obligated to show our children the way. And I told him, what you see me do, you do. So I pulled out a small bill, $20 bill. I wish I had more. I would give you more for this great work that you are doing here at this facility, Dr. Michael Ramadan. I gave him $20. And I looked at Muhammad he gave him, I said, $10. He gave him $10.
Now the fellow, the fellow he earns, he earns, you'd be surprised, he earns a pretty good weekly allowance. He earns a pretty good weekly allowance. He can cook. I get sick, he can cook for me. And I mean he cooks very delicious rice. I told him his seasoned rice tastes better than mine. And that's not an exaggeration. Excellent cook, excellent worker, beautiful created soul. I pray Allah protect his soul for him and not let it be spoiled by the world or anything, a girl, a woman. They're going to try you my boy. And you gonna be tried by your own self. Your own self is going to want to do some terrible things. And you stay in your good nature Allah will give you the paradise, a high place in the paradise InShallah. So let us be examples for our children. No matter how much we fall victim to the temptations of the world, never be so low that you can't point your child to the high place. All right.
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