


Khalifah: The Role of the Moral Life Pt.1
By
 Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Location: Video Lectures — Pg. 1


00:00 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: To mankind. This is the tradition of Mohammed the prophet, according to his own words and his own works. It is said of him in the Qur'an, "To grow in which G-d intended. A servant of mankind. And a leader of Muslims, the son of the honorable, Elijah Muhammad, Imam W D Mohammed."

Takbir: Allahu Akbar;Takbir: Allahu Akbar;Takbir: Allahu Akbar 

00:29 IWDM: Allahu Akbar. That is 'G-d is greater' than anything we can imagine or know. We greet you with peace. Our greeting in Islamic language is "As-salaam alaikum"

[audience] Alaikum salaam.

00:52 IWDM: We praise G-d, we say. "Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil 'alamin". That is 'Praise be to G-d, the Lord, keeper and sustainer of all the worlds, we witness that He is G-d and G-d alone. He needs no help to manage the heavens and the earth and all things. He says no one comes to Him, except as a servant---except as a servant.' Praise be to G-d. This is the one G-d, the G-d of Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus Christ and Muhammad, the last of G-d's messengers. The last of G-d's prophets, pardon me. In our Holy Book, we're told that there are prophets more than those that are named in scripture. We are told that G-d's raised teaches teachers to help people. Moral teachers. Good people to help other people. He says, "Never... " And I quote now, what is in the scripture, 'Never was there a community of people that didn't receive a messenger from G-d.' So, G-d's raised up prophets or messengers from among all the people. This is the teachings of our Holy 
Book. And I believe, it is also the idea that is in the Bible, I'm a student of the Bible also. Yes. So, I read the religions, tried to read something on the religions of the world. And I was impressed by something in the tribal religion of the Native American people because I thought it to be the likeness of what is in the Qur'an.

03:14 IWDM: The Native American people, we call Indians of this part of the world, of this continent, in the lower continent, North and South America, they had a belief and still have a belief, some of them, that everything that exists, trees, rivers, wind, rain, stars, 
everything, the earth, the things that come out of the earth, that grow out of the earth including ourselves; everything has a message to man's mind. A message for man's thinking; for man's conscience in his thinking. A message. This is exactly what G-d says to us in our Holy Book. G-d says, "There are signs in the heavens and signs in the earth and also, there are signs in you" and; G-d also says, "But most people pay no attention to the signs. They go along heedless, not paying any attention to the signs." But some people do.

04:31 IWDM: And those messengers and prophets of G-d, they began their journey to truth. They were seeking truth. They were truth seekers. And seeking truth, they met G-d. Eventually, they met G-d. If they didn't give up the search, they literally met G-d. They were thinkers, later they were called seers because they were blessed to look into nature and look at things, and see more than normal or average people would see. So, they were called, 'seers', S-E-E-R-S, seers, and they were also called prophets later; Prophets. Because they would see and also predict. They would see things and based upon what they saw, they could predict, make predictions. And we have in our world the coming of the rise of man as an intelligent life or thinker, and as a leader, to lead the whole life of the people.

06:07 IWDM: Spiritual life, business life, the whole life of the people; life and community. And we see philosophers, thinkers, that's what they were, they were thinkers. The Qur'an called them thinkers, philosophers, along with prophets because prophets also were thinkers and they brought knowledge and understanding that actually gave birth to a new breed of philosophers, another breed of philosophers, religious philosophers. What I'm hoping to bring to you is the connection for what we see as world leaders and inspired leaders that were guided by almighty G-d, the creator of the world, creator of all things. There's a definite connection. We believe that not even science can be found without G-d's help, science, that man didn't become knowledgeable of the sciences without G-d's help. I have read story of a certain... Or the life of a certain scientist, and they said more than one, you'll find several of them among the scientists saying that they worked but there was... and also something happening, that they didn't make happen, they had no control of it. For example, Pasteur, his name, the one that brought the science of how to make milk more safe to drink and the one who discovered... The vaccine. Vaccine. Yeah, I know. I'm
sorry, I'm not needing help right now, thank you.

[laughter]

08:41 IWDM: But I appreciate your help. Yes, someone is talking to me in audience. Yes, so, he said he was experimenting with the germs and he was looking for something to kill these bacteria in his experiment. Just like science, scientists are thinkers, deep thinkers, who concentrate their thoughts and stay with the idea, they sleep with it, they go to sleep with their project on their mind. He had eaten the sandwich and then forgot he left it on the window sill above his experiment. So the wind blew, got strong, and blew mold off of his bread into his experiment. So, one day he came and he was looking for the bacteria and the bacteria, and the bacteria was dead, they were dead; all the bacteria dead, that's how he discovered his science. He was working, but the wind blew mold into his experiment and the mold killed the bacteria, so he got help from G-d. That's just one example. Like I've said earlier, there are several among the scientists who say that they had this kind of help.

10:14 IWDM: And those who were religious, they thank G-d for the help they got. Those who were atheists, they chart it to an accident, "It's just an accident. That's life, that's the world." I'm happy to be with you on this first Sunday and beautiful weather Allah, G-d almighty has blessed us with some good weather, beautiful sunshine, nice weather. We've been enjoying a whole week of just almost perfect weather here in the Chicago area in Markham my town where I live, in this area, Chicago area, beautiful weather, couldn't ask for better. Come home at night, I want to sleep outside.

[laughter]

10:57 IWDM: Don't want to come in the house, I want to just get on the grass and put me a blanket or something like that and sleep outside, this is perfect. Yes. So, our theme today, our focus for this presentation today, is "Khalifah" that's an Islamic term, but it connects with Christian terms, also, and with Jewish terms also, for a certain figure, certain moral figure. So this is the topic for this 
afternoon, is Khalifah in the moral role, or in the role of moral life, Khalifah: In the Role of Moral Life.

11:58 IWDM: In human society, Khalifah is true human--true human being, the true human that G-d wanted to be created: Male and female. Men and women are people. G-d wanted us to be true to the best of our human nature. Human nature is free, because our minds are free. We are not like anything else G-d created. G-d created nothing with a free mind to question its own form and, if it wanted to, to destroy its 
form, or build on its form, or improve upon its form. G-d created nothing like that, except, according to our religion and scripture, of the people of the heavenly religions---we call them the heavenly books or heavenly religions---Jinn, the Jinns, the only other creature that was created to have this ability to alter his own form, nature, mind, etcetera.

13:21 IWDM: A roach lives today as a roach lived 5000 years ago, in the palace of the Pharaoh it hasn't changed a thing, he still lives the same way. Things are essentially the same life. They perhaps have multiplied, the Earth has produced more species, but those that were already produced they haven't showed any ability to alter their basic nature. Their basic nature remains the same; whereas human beings are free intelligence, free will, free intelligence and will we can alter our own nature and form. I don't want to point to any altered creatures, but I'm sure you perhaps will see one when you go home. Maybe more than one. Altered creatures they are no more the type of human that G-d made us when he made Momma and Dad, before the world changed it, before thinking of people who wanted to play with life changed all that.

14:45 IWDM: Babies come here with no intent to do anything but grow into the form that G-d made them for. That's the only intent they have. Every baby in Asia, in Europe, in Africa, in America no matter where these children are born, they are all born with a spirit and a life, to come into the human form that G-d intended for all of us. And it's only a crazy, warped-minded environment of mad people experimenting on life that alters that, and makes suggestions, or suggest to the human mind, to the minds of our young people to do things against their original nature to change, and alter, and even destroy their original nature.

15:40 IWDM: Nobody would have somebody come on television, and spin around on their head like a top, upside down, and call it break-dance. Nobody would do that but somebody that has no respect for human life. Spinning on their head like a top, doing the break-dance, and that's just one little thing. So many things that have happened in the last 40 or so years that make the foolishness that the world used to know look like no foolishness at all. It ain't nothing to even notice, in light on what has happened lately in our society. Getting back to the Khalifah in The Role of Moral Life. Adam, the first man, according to Scripture; it is said of him in religious science, myth, and tradition, cultural tradition, or the tradition of the culture of the people. It is said that he was a pure, pure being. He was not impure. He was not immoral. He was a pure being, not immoral, not having bad behavior, or bad morals, or bad thinking. He remained in that pure state until Satan in Christianity, Shaitan in Islam, the Devil, in plain English, seduced him out of his original nature, or his original form, and thereby brought mankind, the whole family, whole human race to sin. This is the belief in Christianity.

18:04 IWDM: And in Islam, we believe very similar to that, that the man was deceived. This is the same story exactly when it comes to how he come to fall or lose his human life that G-d put in him or G-d made him for. He was seduced or deceived by the Satan. We will not go into the story of how he was deceived or anything like that. That's not the purpose of this presentation. Nonetheless, he was created for moral leadership. But he lost that opportunity to continue in his growth toward more and more human excellence because he listened to the seductive voice of the Satan or the Shaitan or the Devil, first Devil. In the Bible, the Holy Bible, we find Adam in Genesis just as we find Adam in the Qur'an in the beginning of the human race or the human family. And in the Gospel, we find Jesus Christ, Peace be on the servants of G-d, all of them, we find Jesus Christ. And we also find in the Gospel a connection for Jesus Christ with Adam.

19:47 IWDM: And the Bible says that Adam---that Jesus Christ came---his lineage, his line, his life line is to be traced back to Adam. So we call Christ, Jesus Christ, we call him the Christ. But we also have to know, if you don't know, I'm sure most of you have known that Adam is the father of all human beings including Jesus Christ---Adam. Though the scripture doesn't give him an immediate father, his lineage is traced back to Adam. Now how can that be if G-d is his father and he had no mortal, or no man, or human being male as a father, how can that be? He had a mother and his mother was of flesh. And his mother had a mother and a father. So, from the mother's side, his bloodline is traced back to Adam, the first man. From the father's side he's not. That should be crystal clear to you. Shouldn't be any problems yet, I hate for you to have problems. I had enough, when I picked up what my father left us to work with, I had enough problems. I sure don't want to give you any.

21:34 IWDM: But he gave us a lot of help, he didn't give us only problem; he gave us a lot of help and also problems. I want to make that clear, yes. So, Adam according to Christian theology, according to Christian teachings, Adam, the first man and Jesus Christ is the second man. Second man. Or the second Adam, the second Adam. Now, couldn't it be since all men make mistakes, could it be that when Jesus kept saying his father, he was talking about Adam and not G-d all the time. Could it be that he was saying "My father" Adam father and also was referring to Adam sometimes? And when he said "I have to be about my father's business", we know G-d, the business of G-d is the business of keeping the whole universe, caring for all things that he made. That's the business of G-d.

22:58 IWDM: And maybe He has business bigger than that that we don't even know about. Who knows? I'm a free thinker, myself. I'm not afraid to think, especially when I know my intentions are good. I'm afraid to think if my intentions are bad, then I'm afraid to think. As long as I know my intentions are good I'm not afraid to think, I'm a free thinker. Thank Allah for that, I thank my G-d for that. Yes, anyway I can't myself come to a conclusion whether Jesus Christ was referring to the Lord G-d who created all of us and we all are his dependents like children of parents, depending on their parents. So, I can't be sure that he was saying Adam or saying G-d. Or was saying G-d all the time when he said "My father", referring to G-d all the time. Or referring to Adam all the time when he kept saying, "My father".

24:05 IWDM: Because he didn't say my father every time he referred to G-d. Almost all the time, but not quite all the time. Yes, but what we do know is established in Christian education, Christian religion education, is established that Jesus Christ is the second Adam, second Adam. Now, the story of Genesis is to be seen in the Qur'an as the story of the Khalifah. Where G-d says before any human beings were existing, he had made his world before human beings were existing; G-d says to the angels, he said, "I am making a mortal in the earth", and G-d calls that mortal a Khalifah, called the Khalifah. He said, "Surely, I am making a Khalifah in the earth" innee jaAAilun fee alardi Khalifah. That's in the original language of the Qur'an---Qur’anic Arabic, that's what G-d said. "Surely I am making in the earth a Khalifah".

25:33 IWDM: I began this address by referring to the Khalifah as the moral life that G-d intended all human beings for, the moral life that G-d intended all human beings for, male and female. Some thinkers in Christianity obviously don't believe that original sin or that idea of original sin goes all the way back to Adam before Satan seduced him. Original can mean first too, doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be in you. But it could have gotten in you like a germ you catch. And since it is the first one recorded for human life it would be the first sin. But the idea that all of us are born with that, that when G-d made us he made us to sin is wrong. In my understanding as a student of the Bible it's wrong for Christians and Jews to believe that. And in our Holy Book it is not accepted that people are born (in sin or are born sinful).

27:12 IWDM: G-d says in our religion that He made man, made us, and made us good, not sinful or not looking for sin or wanting sin. We having free mind, free thinking, and free willpower we make choices we choose to sin, G-d didn't make us to sin, G-d made us to make choices. And we are guilty of making the wrong choices, not G-d. So this is the way we believe and my understanding of the Bible supports that belief. It's not against it, the Bible is not against that, it supports that belief, but you have to understand it, you have to see it. And I guess you have to be looking for it. But usually you'll find what you're looking for, even if it's not there. Your mind is set so much on it, you think you found it. You think you found what you were looking for and it wasn't even there. You come up with a lie, you come up with something justifying your wrongdoings. You twist the scripture, you mis-read or you read something in the scripture that wasn't there. You make mistakes even reading and you say, "Yeah, this is in the Bible".

28:33 IWDM: And if somebody really challenged you, that know the Bible, they can prove perhaps that, prove to you that, "No, that's not in the Bible the way you got it." [chuckle] There's something in the Bible alright, but not the way you have it, yes. So getting back to the Khalifah, so G-d says to the angels, "I am making a Khalifah in the earth", and the angels were disturbed by that and even challenged G-d. The challenge came from the Jinn, who has free will so he is a free spirit, he's a free being in his intelligence, in his spirit, he's a free being. So he didn't accept it either and he even became the contender with G-d. That's one of the names of the Devil in religion, these religions I'm mentioning now, "Contender with G-d". He became a contender, Jacob became a contender and he came a long time after Adam... Jacob. Jacob also had the same nature to question G-d, and to challenge G-d's way that he established. And Jacob was called the contender but he repented too, Jacob repented his ways and G-d renamed...
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	Khalifah: The Role of the Moral Life Pt.1	

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