12/03/2006
IWDM Study Library
WDM on Knowledge, Education and Day of Religion 
Pt 1 
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

00:04 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Thank you, Allahu Akbar, that is G-d is greater than everything we have known and everything we will know and everything we can imagine. G-d is greater. We witness that he's one and the cherisher and sustainer of all the worlds, the keeper of humanity, the keeper of his creation. And we witness that Muhammad is the last prophet, the Seal of the Prophets. Upon him be the prayers and the peace and what follows of that traditional salutation. We are always thankful for our presence. We are happy that we are seeing you here, too from distant places, appreciate your support very much and we appreciate our radio listening audience very much. And I understand that we have increased the number of cities. There is one or two new cities that have been added since I spoke or addressed the live radio audience. We are addressing a topic, or the subject of knowledge and education. We know that in the Bible and in the Qur'an, the Qur'an also addresses this issue. In fact, it addresses the Qur'an, our holy book, or our Holy Bible, addresses all the important issues that are in the great religions, especially those important issues for mankind and for community life that we find in the Bible, in the Holy Bible, of the Christians and Jews or the people of the book.

02:14 IWDM: We have the problem in Genesis addressed as a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And in Genesis, we're told that our first father, Adam, and his wife were seduced by Satan, deceived to disobey G-d. According to Genesis, the Bible, they were told not to eat of that tree; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Satan gave them his way of thinking and reasoning. And he was so clever, he made Adam think that there was no sin in following his suggestion. So Adam followed his suggestion, not knowing he was going to sin and caused his fall from heaven, expulsion from the garden, he was cast out of the garden. The Qur'an addresses the same problem. But before going through the Qur'an verse regarding this situation, I want to go through the Qur’anic verse that says "He want that", pardon me, "But he want that we be purified." He does not want us burdened, but he want that we be purified. And that brings me now to the Qur'an, our holy book, our Bible. We have the same punishment for the sin. And that was to be cast out of the garden of paradise, rejected.

04:32 IWDM: But we also have these words in our holy book that says that Satan caused our first parents to come out of the clothing that G-d had given to them and it identifies the clothing. It says, "The clothing of righteousness." The clothing of righteousness. And I have recall that beginning to say this, that the challenge to human life is corruption. Corruption. And that was the problem from the beginning. The Satan was able to corrupt the reasoning of our first parents and deceive them into thinking that that kind of reasoning was acceptable. They couldn't see the corruption, but Satan was opening the way for the corruption of mankind.

06:00 IWDM: But teaching man that G-d wants him to use his own mind and he shouldn't believe that G-d wanted him not to use his own mind. So Satan explains to our first parents how G-d did not reject man uses his own mind, and that G-d wanted man to use his own mind so that he could come into the knowledge, the higher knowledge. So that he would become a ruler, ruling the world. A ruler like G-d, with power like G-d and the angels. This was the way that he seduced or deceived our first parents. The challenge is corruption. And the most dangerous corruption is what I just mentioned, and that is the corruption of your thinking, the corruption of our thinking, the corruption of our reasoning. If we remain in the true-to-reality mind and nature that G-d put us in, we will not have our minds corrupt. Whatever's in G-d's plan to subject us to these subtle ways of the great deceiver, the father of deception, Satan himself, called Shaitan in our Holy Bible, our holy book.

08:28 IWDM: Al Hibbler was a singer when I was a young man in my early twenties and perhaps even earlier, he's called Al Hibbler. And one of the songs that he was known for on radio and live shows I guess, I never saw him in a live show. Although I saw entertainers in live shows when I was young. One of the songs was about the tree, he said he had never seen a picture as beautiful as a tree. And I really liked that song by Al Hibbler. I liked the way he sang it and I like the lyrics, the words. In the Qur'an, the book of the Muslims, and all of us are Muslims by nature according to our holy book, and I can really defend it with the Bible, if challenged and I'd be happy to do it. Every human being is born Muslim. And in the Christian language, that is to say born with Christ-nature. Every Muslim is born, every human being is born Muslim according to our prophet. He said, "Every human person is born Muslim and it is their environment that they are put in that makes them otherwise."

10:09 IWDM: And we know that Christ-nature means the sinless nature, sinless nature, clean, pure. Yes, so in our Holy Book, the tree is mentioned and the tree is described as a tree firmly placed or rooted in the earth, with its branches reaching up to the heavens. It is called a good tree, a good tree; a tree of human purity that fastens itself or fixes itself firmly in the earth, but it rises up to heaven, its branches reach up to heaven, up to the heavens. And that's most trees. Even the weeping willow, it reaches up and falls down. It reaches up a little bit and falls down a lot. I guess that's why it's weeping. But most of the trees, the branches reach up toward the heavens.

11:47 IWDM: What is this picture telling us if G-d says this is a good tree? This picture is telling us... We speak of ourselves as the grassroots. So we have already described ourselves as a plant, humans, grassroots. I don't know who gave us that name, but it means that weak people, materially. They don't have much material establishment. A grass compared to a bush is small and weak. Compared to a tree, almost nothing. But look how the Bible see the grass. Just a little grass, little sap of grass. It says "What is the son of man but grass," this is the Bible. "What is the son of man but grass?" And grass is a very small life among the plant life, very small. But its charity is great for its little size. If it's wheat grass, it gives the wheat seed. Grass give its body to the cows and whoever wants to eat it. And grass cushions the hard ground, so that when the animals walk over it, the little insects crawling under the grass, on the top of the surface of the ground between the grass will not be crushed by them. So, the grass gives protection for the weak, little weak life, crawling around on the ground amongst the grass. And the grass gives a blanket of beauty. And if it's edible, it gives its food, lastly. Lastly, it gives its food as though its purpose was to give its food. Huh? 

14:09 IWDM: To give the seed, its life seed, as food to those who would eat it or want it and eat it. So you should be able to understand, especially you frequent church goers and frequent mosque goers and any Jews out there, you too, my brother. You should understand now what I'm talking about when I say that the Bible says, "What is the son of man but grass?" We know also that trees give their bodies to mankind, to human community. We make houses of trees. We make them of brick now mostly and steel. But the inner structure still requires a lot of wood. So the tree is yet giving its body to the human community, so that the human community will have house and furniture and whatever. So it gives its body. But it also gives its leaves, trees. When trees... When the fall come the trees drop their leaves, most of the trees drop their leaves and they give a blanket to the ground and that protect the roots of the tree. But the roots are more delicate things as well. And then they recycle the leaves and the leaves enrich the soil, fertilizes the soil. Yes? 

16:03 IWDM: So, the tree does not only give us flowers, beauty for our eyes and for our spirit, and sometimes fruits like apples and peaches and pears and whatever and cherries and all these things... And figs, give us all of these nice fruits but it also gives us shade in the hot weather. When the sun is burning and too unbearable, we rush sometimes to a big tree to be cooled or relieved in its shade. See how wonderful the things made by G-d are? And see how they communicate or talk to us? They speak to us of our own life and what G-d has done for our own life.

16:58 IWDM: Still on the tree. Some trees, as a matter in fact, most of them, they die when the cold unbearable weather comes. They look like [inaudible]. All their leaves are gone. Not beautiful, not attractive anymore. That is when we remember, or consider how beautiful they were in spring time when they took on their new dress or their new outfit. However, they're not dead. They look dead, but they're not dead. And I remember reading in the Bible, it says that, "The son of man was seen poorly dressed, in rags. And the moon was the only sun. Or the morning was the only sun."

18:22 IWDM: And that brings to my mind, the tree. That when fall comes, it gives us all. Look how beautiful the leaves of most of the trees. Look how beautiful they look in fall time. Look like they're saying, "Well, I'm coming to the end of my journey. And I want to give my best." Isn't that like some of us? Males and females. We sense that we are coming to the end of our journey. And we want to hurry up, to produce more in life. And leave our best to those who would be around after we are gone.

19:10 IWDM: Yes, see how G-d made his world, his world, before man tampered with it, to speak to us? And G-d says in his scripture, he says, "There comes a time when the earth, whole earth, is going to behave as though its Lord was revealing to it, was revealing to it." If that's not this time we're living in, tell me when it's coming? When is it coming? This is the day of religion. Yes, the day of religion. When did we ever, in the history of mankind, when did we ever see these great religions all on the same stage? Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all on the same stage? All interacting with one another now, all engaging each other now. Participating in discussions, called religious dialogue or interfaith dialogue. Where the great religions sit down together and discuss the problems that challenge human life yesterday and today.

20:40 IWDM: So this is a day of religion. Literally, if we translate the words of our Holy Book, that says the day of religion, literally, we'll be saying the day of judgment. What is that to say to you? That G-d, who made his world, knows his world. And he knows his world from beginning to end. So the G-d that made his world, he revealed to righteous servants, male and female some. He revealed to them, the conclusion for his world, how his world would be concluded, under the influence of Satan and under the works of mankind, how it would come to a conclusion.

21:47 IWDM: And people of religion, using G-d's name, and letting the world go to hell, are going to be questioned one day. And they are going to be questioned in a time when mankind all around the globe will be able to listen to their questions and their answers. And that time is called the Great Standing, Yaumul-Qiyamah, the Great Standing. It would be the Great Standing, meaning that mankind, will have, by that time, connected around the world. He would have found transportation to connect himself with all other people around the globe. He would have found the knowledge in science to connect economies, etcetera, so that the world become one living room of many continents and many nations, and many religions. Yes, that time has come. And we're witnessing the day of religion, literally, the day of judgment. And we are witnessing the day of the resurrection, the Great Standing of people all around the globe. Are you changing the way we see these things? No, not if you don't want them changed.

[laughter]

23:41 IWDM: Believe me, I want you to be at peace. And I love you just like you are, if that's where you want to be. Okay? This man, Warith Deen Mohammed has no desire to force anybody to do anything. G-d knows my heart and my nature. Yes. But I'm inviting you to see the light. For many things that are true in the dark, are false when light comes on. I just want you to see in the light. I want you to see the major importance, not the small importance, the major importance, the big importance. And believe me, the big importance for the world of mankind, for the world of science and industry, material growth, civilization and ethical rule, ethical rule, these are the major issues.

25:10 IWDM: And just as the life of the tree comes and goes, it only waits for another suitable environment, or suitable climate or weather condition, and it will have its life again. So is the life for people not established in G-d's word. When the climate gets bad, or times get hard, they're challenged morally and most of them fall. They fall down, their beautiful life is gone. They get nasty and bold with their filth, most of them. And they go the way of corruption. Yes. But, when the sad climate comes again and it's nice and favors a human life coming up again, it seems as though something come up from the feet and rises up through the body. From the feet to the knees and all up until it reaches the heart. And finally the mouth and you can taste again. Say, "This life that I've been living is nasty. I can taste it in my mouth." So you want to get the life right again, huh? 

27:00 IWDM: The life source reaches the brain and causes you to think different. Say, "What's been wrong with my mind that I've been allowing myself to go to hell like this?" Yes, and you start to clean up your thoughts. Yes, to save your mind. Challenged by corruption. When Satan seduced our parents in the garden to disobey or to give off, to throw away the reasoning that G-d created man for, for Satan's reasoning or rationalism, he wanted man to rationalize, to rationalize good right out of sight. So he can do evil and think he's right. Yes? The life of the human rising up seemingly from the feet.

28:24 IWDM: And what are the feet symbolic of or representing? Innocent new life, like the baby just from his mother. It's innocent. And what is its first challenge? To stand up on its feet. The baby seemed as though he was born in the world just to stop crawling one day and stand upon his feet. Yes. And by the way, if you haven't seen Happy Feet, take your children if you got little children. You're in for a treat.

29:14 IWDM: So the feet's symbolic of the baby. But not just the new baby that comes from mama. Today, I'm expecting my daughter, my sweet daughter Khadijah, I'm expecting her to deliver tomorrow. And I'll be grandfather again. They keep making me granddad and great granddad. And I love it, but it sure reminds me of the time past, present, and how much I got left. [laughter]

30:01 IWDM: We thank G-d for life. Yes, we thank G-d that gave us this human life and the world make us think it's bad, and hard, and ugly. Don't ever believe that. What G-d made is always beautiful, always great, in all yes. So never give up on believing what G-d made. And the world makes things bad, know that it's the world's fault, not G-d. G-d is still making things beautiful, still making human life beautiful. He never stops, he's still making human life beautiful, he's making human life great, great. Yes, he is and when everything appears to be gone, just hang around. Just keep hanging around and soon you'll see the sign of what G-d still is doing, what he's still doing. Praise be to Allah and our holiest book said, "At every measurement of time, no matter how small, if you could break a second up into billions of parts, no matter how small the time is, in every measure of time, he is busy in a wonderful work of creation." And science has agreed, science has witnessed that. The telescopes, the long distant, far-reaching telescope, they say that at all times, new galaxies coming into existence. They call them 'nebula'. New galaxies come into existence. Galaxies, not just a planet or a star, new galaxies. We belong to the galaxy called the Milky Way and I guess man named it that because they milk everybody.

[laughter]

32:15 IWDM: That's the only reason I can see for them naming it the Milky Way. They give me your titty, your mama's titty, and your little girl's titty. Give me all of it.

[laughter]

32:31 IWDM: Well, thank G-d. He prepared us to overcome all challenges in our position. Even that of the major deceiver, Satan himself. Oh yeah. In our lifetime, Satan [32:48] [inaudible] to a little small thing. He used to be a big rolling thing, rolling and shaking in my eyes. I can talk and not be bothered by him. Every now and then I hear a little noise, like a little wicked snake or reptile going through dry ground and causing the leaves and the dead grass to make noise.
