05/02/2004
IWDM Study Library 
The Role of Khalifah in the Life of Mankind

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam Earl Abdul Malik Mohammed:
Imam WD Mohammed here in Homewood, Illinois. We're not going to delay time and give as much time as Imam Mohammad desires to address this audience. It's important that we recognize the time that we are living in right now, a time that is predicted by scripture and by inspired personalities and history, time of great opportunity and also conflict. And in order to appreciate the time in which we live and understand the responsibility that we have and the time in which we live, we need, human beings need, communities need, nations need. Individuals need leaders who understand the time at hand and understand what is necessary to grow and develop and benefit the human life. We have in our tradition, Muhammad the Prophet, the Prayers and the Peace be on him. And the truth of the matter is that this world perhaps would not appreciate Muhammad the Prophet in the degree that he should be appreciated, were it not for G-d helping African-American people and choosing for them a leader to speak on behalf of them and also to speak to humanity about the important and blessed example of our Prophet, the Prayers and the Peace be on him. At this time, I would like to introduce to you the leader who leads us by his example, by his preaching, by his interests, by his focus, by his devotion. And we owe him so much. We owe him our commitment to his leadership. We owe him our support. We owe him our loyalty. I introduced to you the leader of Muslims in America and the leader for human beings. Imam WD Mohammed.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Thank you. As Salaam Alaikum. With Allah's Name, that is with G-d's Name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer. We thank Him for this opportunity again to meet with you all here on this first Sunday of the month and to speak to you, InshaAllah, on the meaning of Khalifa, the role of Khalifa in the life of the community of mankind. I am sure there are some of you in the audience here, and if we are broadcasting today, I'm sure in the broadcast audience also, I'm sure there are some of you that will be listening, you'll know me and you'll be attentive to what I have to say. And there's others that have respect for me, but I don't know if they know me as well. And I'm sure there'll be some who will be coming into life for the first time. And the life that I am speaking of is the life that I've experienced, the life that is life eternal, the life that you come into and you never die again. We have a concept in Islam, it's called Khalifa. And when we read the Qur'an, and read the Bible, Genesis, of the beginning of man, the beginning of the family of mankind, human beings, we'll see that those readings are very much alike. They're very similar. They have serious differences too, but they are essentially the same as for the historical report and for the focus for that story of the beginning of mankind or beginning of human beings.
Understand that the Qur'an does not mention Adam by name when it begins this story. And the Bible does not mention Adam by name either. Both books do not mention Adam by name. The Bible says the story begin this way. Let us make man in our own image and likeness. And the Qur'an begins with I am G-d ,speaking of Himself, saying I am making in the earth a Khalifa. I am making in the earth a Khalifa. In the Qur'an, this human is called Khalifa first, before the human is called Adam by that name, by that well-known name in church life and in Muslim life and Christian life and Muslim life. However, in both books, the man is not complete with one event or one occurrence. There are two major occurences. In the Bible it says that He made man on the sixth day. And then it goes on to say that the man was formed of the earth and it had not rained and G-d caused the rain to come down and wet the earth and then He formed man. So it gives a picture of mud or wet earth. The earth was dry, it had not rained, and then water comes down from heaven and wet the ground. And then the man is made from wet earth, from wet earth like mud. Giving the picture of mud, or soft earth softened by water, dry and then softened by water. And in the Qur'an our Holy Book says that G-d made the man and then He formed him in stages. And there are seven stages to bring him into the eighth, which completes him. And it also says that G-d made the man from clay. Bible says the same-Made man from clay. And if you give some thought to clay and understand that G-d invites us, we are not doing anything that G-d hasn't invited us to do, G-d invites us to look into what's written, to think about it and try to understand it. G-d says His signs are ignored by people, His signs are there, but some people go on heedless, not paying any attention to those signs. That's to say that G-d want us to pay attention to His signs. He want us to read His signs and understand His signs. And if we pure at heart, He promises us that He will guide us to the right reading, that is to the right understanding.
And the story in the Bible shows us this man who later is called Adam or this person, a human who's later called Adam, shows us this human person in the earth or in the garden, given responsibility, given responsibility. Genesis says that He made all that the man could see, He made it for man's benefit. And the garden itself was given to man, for man to manage it or tend to the garden. And we find Jesus Christ returning from the attempt to crucify him or the attempt to kill him, crucify him and kill him. We find Christ in the Bible returning as a gardener and his disciples seeing him and witnessing that he has survived the attempts to kill him, crucify him or kill him. They say they saw him as a gardener, as a gardener. A picture of a cultivator of one attending the garden, the garden. So here is Christ Jesus pictured in the scripture of Bible as one returning after surviving attempts on him to crucify him and take his life. He is returning. And he's returning in the same role that G-d gave the first man Adam, long before He created Jesus Christ of his mother.
See, he's returning in the role of the first man that G-d made an called him Adam, named Adam. And He charged him with the keeping of the garden, attending the garden, cultivating the garden. Firstly the garden of his own soul. Secondly, the beautiful creation of G-d that will feed and support us, clothe us and shelter us like a garden. Some gardens are gardens of the pot herbs and vegetation. Some gardens of fruit orchards, gardens of trees and bushes and vines. And from these things we get not only food, we get food, clothing and shelter. And whatever role G-d gave the first man is the role that He gave all men. And that is to say all men and women, whatever role He gave the first man, he gave it to all men.
He didn't intend that He give a role to a first man and he die and the role dies with him. The role lives in his children or in the generations. And this is clearly given to us in scripture. So we should stop really looking back into time. Whatever G-d is saying of the present of the past is as much true in the present as it was in the past. So G-d is not telling you what He gave man, the first man so that you look back in time and wonder about that first man. G-d is telling you what He gave the first man to tell you that He gave it to all men and all women. And that all men and all women have the nature, have the capacity, have the potential. And whatever He gave the first man He gave to all. We are talking about Khalifa. Khalifa is the name given to this man to show us that he is present, but he's also past. If you would say Kalfan from Khalifa, from the word Khalifa. If you would Kalfan to any Arabic speaking person, he will look around, he will look to the rear of himself. Say "Kalfan", he looks behind him. So when we say Khalifa, we mean the type behind you. That's the type that G-d made first. But why do we say behind you? Because most individuals are unaware of their genetic life and they're unaware that they have in their genetic life, every parent before them. Every parent born before you have that in your life. You are the product of many parents and none of them have been lost. They all are in your genetic makeup. They're in your genes, all of 'em. And we know science makes a mistake of saying that man evolves from apes or animals, apes and monkeys. But we never give birth to a ape or monkey. That tells us apes and monkeys are not in our genes, only human beings are in our genes. Now sometimes we give birth to some monkey like human beings, but they're not monkeys. They don't come here looking like monkeys. They come here acting like monkeys. And that's after they get influenced by the world.
As Muhammad of Prophet has taught us, Peace be on him, we all come here in good shape. He calls it Muslim. And the shape G-d wants us in, He calls it Muslim until the environment makes us otherwise, until the circumstances we are put in make us otherwise. We want to make this as clear as possible to you, what we are going to say today, as clear as possible. And I think it can be made very clear for everybody to understand. Everybody. You don't have to be a student of theology or one who attended some seminary or something. No. You can be a person with common ordinary sense. You don't have to have a High School diploma, you don't have to have a Grade school diploma. But if you can think sensibly. Hear with your ears and think sensibly, you can understand this. Allah did not reveal something for people with certain certificates or degrees. What Allah has revealed can reach anybody as long as they will be sensible and true, honest with their feelings, honest with their thinking. Some of us lie with our feelings and we tell lies with our emotions. We tell lies with our thinking. Yes. But if we'll be true, then G-d will have us understand His communication. He knows how to reach every one of us.
So, G-d says, "I'm making in the earth a Khalifa, I'm making in the earth a Khalifa. Now that differs from the opening words of the Bible that says G-d said to the angels, "Let us make man". So what is this commentary on that statement in the Bible saying? It is saying... Is the Qur'an a commentary? Yes, it is a report. It is commentary, it is guidance. It is translation. It is interpretation. It is the key for that that was locked up. And it begins with Al Fatiha. And from Fatiha you get the word key. So this Khalifa story of the beginning of the human being, humanity in the Bible says, begins with G-d speaking to the angels and saying, "Let us make man in our own image and likeness." And in the Qur'an it begins with G-d speaking Himself to mankind through Muhammad the Prophet, the last Prophet and Messenger servant of G-d. And He says, I am, doesn't say we nothing. No we. I am making a Khalifa in the earth. And this disturbed the angels. They didn't like that. They were troubled by that. They didn't trust a human who is given free will, intelligence, a mind of his own.
Free will to do or not to do, to obey or disobey. Angels couldn't trust such a creature. So they questioned G-d. But when G-d showed the angels or made the angels know His plan, the angels submitted, according to Qur'an, our Holy book. The angels accepted that and they told G-d, we have no knowledge except what You gave us. They submitted, they put their crowns down to accept the one that G-d was going to crown Khalifa, custodian for the whole earth and it's environment. Not only that, for the whole universe, one made to benefit and utilize the whole universe for the betterment of man's life in society. That's what He was making. And one of them were among the angels and their leader. And he was not even aware himself that he was not an angel until G-d presented something to him that he couldn't accept. Then he stopped behaving as an angel. Angels don't disobey G-d. And he started behaving as an independent thinker and he told G-d, I don't accept this man that you're making and I'm going to prove to you that he's not worthy of what you are planning for him.
He says: I'm going to crisscross him. I'm going to come at him from his left and from his right from the rear and from before his face. Say when I have finished with him, you see that he's not worthy of what's your planning for him. So G-d said, this is well and good with Me. In other words, do as you please, but not up here. G-d said, get down from here. Cursed and rejected, similar to what the Bible says. Get down from here cursed and rejected, for your pride in yourself, your exaggerated worth of your own self. You've exaggerated your importance and your worth and you have rebelled against your Lord. G-d is Lord of the angels. How do we know that? The greatest of all the angels is the archangel Gabriel. In the Qur'an, Jibril. And G-d was speaking to Gibril when he replied to G-d. He said, my Lord, how can anyone go against this? He said, my Lord, he called G-d his Lord. So we know G-d is the G-d over the angels. He's Lord over the angels. Lord means He is the one who care for them and keep their existence. That's what it means. He cares for them and keeps their existence. He's their Lord.
So here is one among them who had been acting in the role of the leader of the angels, and thinking himself also to be an angel until he was tested. He got jealous. He was jealous of what G-d was going to favor man with. And then the Jinn came out of him. Not gin that you drink. Jinn similar to the story about genies coming out of the bottles and whatever. Yeah, Jinn like that. Then the Jinn came out of him and he rebelled against G-d and had to be cast out. Now understand when he was cast out, out of the garden, not only did he go from the garden, but to send him out of the garden, man had to be sent out of the garden. A woman had to be sent out of the garden. So He said, "Get you you out of here, Qubad, which means all together, all together. Qubad means all together, like the fingers come together to make a fist. That's what this is. Qudah, from the word Qubad. From the word Qubad. So they were sent down all together.
So, if the hand with it's five fingers represent the common life of every man and woman, then G-d is saying that the whole life of man and woman was cast out of paradise, cast out of heaven because of that rebel not accepting G-d's will for mankind.
Yes. So G-d says, "Get you down from here altogether." They were cast out into the earth and they had to live with each other. They had to live with each other, the man, the woman, and also the seducer who kept his promise that he made to G-d that he would seduce a man and pull him down from the high place that G-d created him for. Yes. So he did seduce a man and says that Adam came out of the clothing that he was originally given by G-d. And the Bible says G-d found Adam covering his own nakedness, that he had taken a leaf from a tree to cover his nakedness. And G-d spoke to him from heaven. He said, "What is that you have on you?" He said he covered, got something to cover himself. G-d says, "Who told you you were naked? Who told you you were naked? And it was the seducer, the deceiver that told him he was naked but not in those words, but told him that he had misunderstood G-d and G-d did not mean that he would really die if he ate from the tree, the forbidden tree. The seducer told him, "But your eyes would come open and you'll be as the angels and the G-d's, seeing and knowing as they do. This is what the Satan told him. In other words, use your intelligence on your own. Don't be afraid of warnings from heaven, but use your intelligence on your own as you wish and you will become knowledgeable and be as the angels and as the G-ds. Eating the food that they eat. This is what he was told. Now the Bible says that when he did that, he sinned against G-d. Disobedience is sin.
And sin is death. This is Bible. This is the scripture. Sin is death. So if he sinned, he died because sin is death plainly put, doesn't need any interpretation. The Bible says sin is death. It spells death. D-E-A-T-H.
Okay, spell sin S-I-N. Spelled is I-s. It says Sin is death. Yes. That's in the Bible exactly as I'm giving it to you. All right?
So, my common sense tells me sin is death in the eyes of G-d or in the presence of G-d. When one sins he dies, he or she dies. Dies to what? Dies to shame, die to shame. You're supposed to feel shame when you know you are disobeying G-d. But if you disobey G-d and feel no shame, then you have died. You have died to righteousness, you have died to obedience, you have died. So the Bible says that Adam sinned. Our Holy Book comes to correct this, it tells us no, he had no intent to do what Satan suggested to him to do. He had no intent to do wrong. He thought he was doing right. Satan deceived him and made him think that he was doing right. And mind you, the Bible says that Satan was the most subtle of all the creatures made and it makes it clear what subtle is. The wisest of all the creatures, Satan, wisest of all the creatures.
Now all of these entities came down together like fingers belonging to one hand just like Adam is in every one of us. So the Jinn in every one of us. But every one of us are not scheming to become the master and ruler over all the nations. Only that Jinn wanted to be the master, the ruler over all nations, over all people. He wanted that for himself. But the same Jinn in us, same Jinn, but not in him under his thinking and us under our thinking, the same Jinn. Just like the same Adam first man is in us, but under our thinking our individual thinking, our individual lives, is responsible or are responsible for the Adam and for the Jinn in us. So what that Jinn will do in us is determined by our own condition and our own attitudes, our own behavior, et cetera.
Likewise for Adam. Likewise for the Jinn. Yes, we all are human too. And human has a meaning in the dictionary and in our hearts, human has a meaning and we all have our humans equally. You ain't half dog and half human and I'm whole human. No, we all are human equally. But what happens to that human in us individually depends on our individual condition, our personal condition, and how we approach things with our feelings, with our intelligence, et cetera. So one will approach his human life with respect for it, with love for it, with an interest in making it better and better all the time. And another one will be just reverse of that. Not giving a crap, not caring to even think with respect. And as a consequence, the other one in his person falls as scripture say, lower than dogs and one stands up in his human life as a man.
Yes. So understand this and stop looking back, but look at your picture today. You are as the first man and woman made by G-d. Everything that He said about the first one is true about you.
He's really giving us a picture that helps us to understand ourselves, how we are composed, what is essentially or most importantly in this composition of human life, Jinn thinking, man and woman. But also a tendency to let appetite take us from our excellent mold of life that G-d created us in. Appetite unchecked or as they say unbridled appetites The man wasn't reached through his conscience. The story makes that clear to us. The story of being deceived by the Satan, the Shaitan, the Satan makes it clear to us that he wasn't reached through his conscience, he was reached through his appetite. The seducer had to first fire up his appetite and get him hungry and attracted to something that he wanted to consume or eat that was supposed to make him bigger and more important, wiser, et cetera. So, if that's the way our first father was deceived, that's the way we are deceived today.
You let your appetites take you away from your good life. And some of us go so far, we just don't give a crap. Know we are destroying our own family. We on drugs, drug abuse, whatever. But we continue to do it because our appetite have gotten too big for our own ability, lose our strength and ability to the appetite of tempting things that are too much for us to handle. And G-d lets us know. He says, "Man, think not that your creation is a bigger matter than the creation of the world." So G-d tells us to warn us that if you don't use a power bigger than yourself, and My word is a power bigger than you, if you'll trust my word and obey it, you have a power working on your side that's bigger than you, bigger than everything that can tempt you, bigger than drugs, bigger than Satan himself.
Yes. So G-d is saying that He's making human beings to be ruled by their own nature that He has made to be responsible in His creation, in the world that He made. So He made us with a nature to be responsible in our own soul alone to ourselves, but also in the world where we're exposed to all the wonders and all the things that tempts as well as guide us. So He made the human being to be responsible, to be able to take care of himself, not only himself, but also his children and to respect his wife. And to work in agreement with his wife and his wife work in agreement with him as though they are one person, not having two minds. One mind. Not having two hearts, one heart. They're to live with each other and work with each other as though they're one person.
And if they do that they will birth children that will be obedient by nature.
Peace lovers by nature, be kind hearted by nature, be trustworthy by nature.
And G-d will bless them with the guidance to continue until we reach the land of promise. The glorious destination.
So, G-d is making Khalifa, He's making the ideal society, a society governed by all the people. Sound something like the United States Constitution, doesn't it? A society governed by all the people working together to have the best of life possible for mankind, for people. Yes.
It's an authority that He has inscribed into the very matter and nature of the human being that He made. He inscribed it in there. And I don't think I can say it much better than the Founding Fathers. "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men, meaning women too, are created equal and are endowed by their Creator." There's recognition of a G-d that made it all happen. And are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I don't think I can say it much better than that. So here are the Founding Fathers saying that G-d made man Khalifa, that no government can give him his wherewithal that he has depend upon for his life and his future. G-d in making him, made him with his wherewithal. I like that expression wherewithal. Praise be to Allah. Yes. But we are not talking about something imaginary. We are talking about something real, something very, very real. So the society that G-d wants us to have is a society that's protected by all of us. Hence the saying of the Prophet- "G-d's control is on the whole people." He doesn't control the people by one person. He controls the people by using all of them. And thank G-d we have a form of government and politics that not only say that's granted to us, but encourage us to exercise our authority as citizens of these United States. Study your candidates or study your best leaders and nominate them so they can become candidates and then support them at the polls. Use your power, your individual knowledge, taste and power to get the best leaders for all of us. Now, if that government is not answering the call for Khalifa, tell me what is. I know it's not the whole picture. Because the political people who ordered this political society of ours, they didn't want to get back in the position that they were in before in Europe by giving power to preachers and giving power to men thinking themselves to be holy and above the law. So that a church would come into power again and abuse the rights of the many.
They didn't want that to happen. So they were acting out of fear and out of intelligence. Out of intelligence, they're building a great society. Out of fear, they're protecting that future society from trouble coming again, trouble that will be made by holy men who like Iblis, may confuse reality and forget even that there's an authority over them. That's the situation we have in the world of religion right now.
Men thinking that they are already as far as they can go, that they have nothing more to learn. G-d say, you wait until I whip your ass with nature, you'll know that you got something else, some more that you should be learning. And that's what G-d is doing. He's whipping those dumb asses all over the world. He's whipping them with nature. And their people are saying, we can't trust you anymore. We can't trust you anymore. No matter what you say about your role and who you're talking to and what you're reading, your behavior tell us, we can't trust you anymore. So don't expect for us to obey you anymore. That's on the headline today. Not in those words, but they're saying the same thing. Same thing. So G-d is making in the earth a Khalifa. Muhammad the Prophet said, the Muslim believers, we order our affairs by Shura Bayanum. The statement is Baynakum because he was addressing us. We conduct our affairs by mutual consultation. We collect the best and most qualified of us, representatives of the good people. That's what it means, representatives of the good people. Well how can you make that conclusion Brother Imam? You so wrapped up in the Western way, you miss the Islamic guidance. You dumb fool you. I pity you. Now you know you don't have a degree from any place. You going on your own.
And you haven't studied enough to know. Yes, in Islam it is established that leaders are not to volunteer for positions without the approval of the people. That we don't appoint, we don't accept persons who bring themselves to us for a position.
That's Islam.
We have to choose them.
This is Islam. Yes, indeed. So if we choose them and we give them our support and authorize them, then they are our representatives. They are our representatives. We selected them to represent us, our interests. G-d Himself says in our Holy Book, obey those that you have given authority to. They don't give authority to themselves. Obey those that you have selected for positions of authority. They don't put themselves in those positions. I be answering reporters sometime or being interviewed by them and they say, "Well, in 1975 was it you took the leadership?" I said, I haven't taken anything. It ain't in my nature to take something from somebody. No, we have film right now showing that I spoke and the people, the leaders firstly, the leaders firstly, Minister Farrakhan among them, my friend Minister Farrakhan, he was on stage too. He was among them. The leaders firstly acknowledged me as the leader and presented me to the people. And the people accepted me. I didn't take anything. I have followed the spirit of the Khalifa. Yes. And let me tell you something. If the leaders had not accepted me, there would've been bloodshed on that day.
Because I have people, I had people in that audience. I have people in this audience who if they would impose a person that they can't trust on them and reject me, there'd be some bloodshed. G-d was Merciful to all of us, to me and to all of us. Khalifa is what we are addressing right now. So don't remember anymore if you were doing it before. Let G-d, when He's talking about Adam, He's just telling us that we had a first father. Man could find that out without revelation. Only thing he had to do is just say, well, I have my father, my mother or son before them. It must've been a first one. And you know the name Adam in my understanding, it doesn't say more than a common man can conclude. And Christian leadership circles our religious leadership circles, I should include especially Jews, Christians, Muslim. They say red clay, man was made from red clay. And before that was written or said or put in language, that was the myths of the ancient. Ancient Greeks. And they had this story long before the religious community had it. Say that the G-d Zeus in heaven, he sent down from himself rain water. And from that he made a class of human beings. Secondly, he sent down from himself blood. It was a rain of blood and he made from himself a second class, but it was higher than the first class. Now we have first grade, but second grade is higher, isn't it? We have first school, elementary school, but high school to second school is high, isn't it? So when you go from first to second, it doesn't mean second is always better. So he made from the raining of his own blood. Think about that. This is myth. Upon the ground. He made a second class or a second group of human beings that were more useful and more productive than the first group. Now what does this tell us in this myth about the ancient, the ancient who conceived the ideas before revelation came from G-d to man. I can't say really before because it could have been man thousands of years before these myths and it could have all been lost and the world regenerated again. So not that I'm believing that G-d didn't communicate to man before these thinkers called philosophers, but at least in that time period that we are aware of, we cannot find before the philosophers, religious people having these ideas. They came up with these ideas after these thinkers called philosophers. Anyway, yes. These two classes are spiritual and social, spiritual and social. The oldest, still addressing Khalifa, don't think we are off the subject of Khalifa. The oldest records of such thinkers are found in the history of the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians. Their history goes far, far back. Very old people on the continent of Africa. The thinkers of the ancient Egyptian, they had a similar idea, and their society was similarly structured. And you have it in their story, the story of ancient Egyptians with regards to the oppression or the enslavement of the Jews or Hebrews and Moses confronting them. And when he confronted them, he didn't confront, his contest or his argument that he was permitted to have with them on their premises was not with the politicians, it was with the spiritual people, with the high priests and the order of the high priests, the religious people, the religious group. And Pharaoh, and those immediately under him for the management of the society were not necessarily spiritual people. So they couldn't challenge Moses, a man that was spiritual and had been given spiritual guidance by G-d.
But Pharaoh sure thought that his religious order or spiritual order of priests would be able to handle Moses. And I'm not going to repeat all that, but they lost the contest, his high priest and the order of high priests, they lost the contest with Moses. And they were so disappointed, and Pharaoh was so infuriated, that even when he said to Moses, you can leave here, go, he couldn't stand to see him get away that easy. So he sent his army out to get him. But Moses had been given some knowledge above the knowledge of the high priest order. So when Moses came to the water, the water parted for Moses, and when the high priests and the army of Pharaoh tried to follow through the open way, the water came and converged on them and drowned them, including Pharaoh, was drowned in the water. So here is a man that was given more knowledge and believe me, knowledge is power. He was given more knowledge than the opposition had in that highly ancient civilization of the Egyptians. Yes.
I think it can happen again. Yes it can. It can happen again because the same original man that was back then, he's here now. He's in every one of us. He's in every one of us. Whatever they were able to do, we have the capacity and the potential to do the same. Oh, can you make the waters part? They already parted. Can't you see it? And we are walking across the terrible threatening water on dry land and if anybody tried to pursue us on route to our destiny, they'll be drowned. The waters will come against them, all converge on them and they'll be drowned. So don't look back and understand that pictures ought to be read, not to be taken literally. Says My signs exist everywhere, but most of them go on heedless, not paying attention to my signs. Now, why do we have this big world of trouble for Islam? Shouldn't say for Islam really. For Muslims. Because they are so jealous of the West taking the world and out running them. When the world took, when the West took up the world, I mean responsibility for the world, to make it suitable for human life.
When the West took up the world, the East under the Muslims had already given it up. You think G-d is depending on you keeping the world? If you get tired or get too filled up, get too full and sleepy at the table of plenty and you ain't got no spirit to go out and work in the field anymore, G-d is going to give that responsibility to another people. That ain't my word. That's His word in the Holy scripture. Say if one people fail Him, He select another. He ain't depending on nobody forever. No, nothing is forever, but time and death. And that's mortal death. Mortal death. Ain't no death for the immortal. There is no death.
Praise be to Allah. Intimidating citizens, making them afraid for their life if they argue with or refuse to obey their political bosses. I don't like it. It doesn't make me feel good that President Bush is over there with our soldiers. They losing their life and they're killing the people. I know a lot of 'em over there need to be killed, but I know some of them over there dying innocently. They're not guilty. Their leaders got 'em in trouble. So that doesn't make me feel good at all. But I'd rather see them whip ass than to see it stay like it was. And G-d says that He will punish one people with another people. That's in both books. Both scriptures. G-d will punish one people with another people and G-d says that My covenant with you is good as long as you keep it. But if you yourself break the covenant, you don't have any covenant.
You hear these scholars of Islam? "Yes, the covenant was with the Jews and then Christians and now it's with the Muslims." I don't believe it. You lost it long time ago. Yes, the leadership of Islam or the Muslim world lost that covenant a long time ago and they know it. I'm talking about the wise scholars, the wise Imams and leaders. They know that the behavior of Muslims, especially behavior of their leaders, deserve that G-d take the covenant away from Muslims.
He is not taking it away from the good people, taking it away from bad people. And if the majority of the Muslim leadership is bad, then He takes it from the Muslim leadership. I believe His covenant is on African Americans. Those people who had the covenant, they didn't know it until G-d revealed it. So you can have the covenant and not know it, but I believe G-d is making things happen in our life and in our life of the world today to show us and the world where His covenant is. Now we talk about spirit and most of us don't understand it. Most of us don't understand it. It's a mystery, spirit. It's a mystery. What we know as spirit is nothing but good feeling. That's all we know. Good feeling. When we're feeling good or when we're feeling holy. Oh, we got the spirit. When you're feeling bad or feeling nasty, lost the spirit.
All we know is feelings. But there's a higher spirit than that. That's just the influence of a higher spirit. Your feeling good is the influence of a higher spirit. Your feeling bad is the influence of a higher spirit. Yes, your feeling bad is the influence of punishment for you not doing something that you ought to be doing. As soon as you feel bad, just start thinking, what have I been missing that I should be doing? And I guarantee you you'll find it. And I guarantee you, if you'll go do it, your spirit is going to change for the better. You stay at home, wetting yourself with your own tears, moaning your own condition, feeling sorry for yourself and nobody else. Punishment. All you have to do is look away from yourself. As that man said, I was feeling sorry for myself with no shoes until I saw a man with no feet. Then the burden of sadness was lifted off of him and he went on barefooted and happy as a free man,
Spirit, the spirit that G-d gave man that enlightened him and opened up his mind to the universe, to bigger things. That was a spirit that had a direction. It's not just any spirit. It's not just wind blowing here and there. It is a direct movement. It is movement with a direction.
And when the Non-believers were ridiculing, making fun of religion that Muhammad was bringing and they said, "Have you seen this G-d you're talking about? Which the Jews had said to Moses and they were punished for it. Same thing. Said, have you seen this G-d? So the revelation came to Muhammad to tell them these G-d's that you have, Lad and Uzar and whatever, have you seen them? You done made statues, but have you seen them? They're nothing but idols made by your own hands and your own imagination. You haven't seen them. So the laugh was turned on them. Huh? Ridicule was turned on them. Yes. Then it goes on to say that he met his G-d in the far horizon as two arrows going parallel side by side from the place of origin to the target or the destiny. Then they met in the far horizon. Now what is it saying? That the spirit of Muhammad was in perfect agreement with the will of G-d and his spirit and the will of G-d was so much in agreement that they were traveling to the same purpose. That was a distance away, but they were sure to meet at the place of destination or destiny in the far horizon. Say, "And he saw for sure he saw what he saw." So what is it saying? Muhammad surely saw, he had convincing proof that his G-d was with him. And he didn't see his G-d as you see a stone that you made and called it G-d. But he saw his G-d in will for man. And His will for mankind. And he saw his G-d in his destiny for his spirit, his destiny for his spirit.
Praise be to Allah. I don't want to elaborate all of that. It'll take too much time. I think that's enough. But for my students, when I meet them on Sunday, whenever, we can discuss it further. In fact, we'll discuss it first. We'll discuss it further Insha Allah, G-d willing, yes. Alright people, you have to have faith in G-d that made you in everything, designed you to be the type of life you are. And by designing you, determine what you can do and what you can't do.
And He has determined for you in your design that He gave you a great future. You can produce and produce much more than you can imagine right now. Yes. So you have to have faith in your makeup. Have faith in your G-d. Yes.
And never think yourself big enough, wise enough, great enough to judge G-d. To tell us what G-d is. No one can tell anybody what G-d is without G-d revealing Himself. G-d have to tell us Himself what He is and we know no more than what He tells us about Himself. He is unreachable unless He wants to be reached. This is G-d. I'm not only speaking from scripture, I'm speaking from my own life experience. And if G-d says that He made man to be responsible for his own soul, believe It. And start, if you haven't been doing it, start trying to be responsible for your own soul. Well, how can I be responsible for my own soul? Your soul tells you when you're laughing too much, stop laughing and get serious. Your soul tells you when you're crying too much, stop crying and go to work.
Yes. Your soul tells you these things. You know in your soul that you are not doing what you're supposed to be doing. And when you're doing the wrong thing, you know in in your soul that you're doing the wrong thing. But G-d has put over your soul a manager, a responsible entity. That's your power to think, reason, remember and obey what is right. So don't leave your soul on its own begging you to behave with respect and you just going on as though the soul is not speaking to you.
You are the convener, you are the council, you are the manager. G-d knows that the soul is bigger than you, but He chose you and put you over something bigger than you and He put in that soul obedience to you.
But He put in that soul to know when you are deserving it and when you're not. And the soul is very patient. Soul is long suffering. So the soul will take the crap off of you day in and day out, month in and month out, year in and year out. But after a while, the soul will say, go to hell. And that's exactly where you're going to go. Yes. Shame on us black people, African-American people, let good times come. Forget all about the dignity that we lost when they enslaved our foreparents. Forget all about the human freedom we lost when they limited our life to the existence of a slave on the plantation under white bosses. We forget about all that. Your soul cannot forget. Your mind can forget, but your soul can't forget and you wonder how come you're miserable? You wonder how come the black race is miserable.
It's because you are being punished for not answering the best motivations, the best aspirations, the best concerns and interests of your ancestors who wanted what you got now. Freedom. So they can take their own life into their own hands and make it better. Now you've got your own life in your own hand, but you're still sitting around like a slave, waiting on a slave master to tell you to get up and go to work. Come back in and go to bed. Okay, you're free for Saturday. Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. Go and have your good time. You are behaving as though there's an invisible slave master, a cruel one too. From back there and that time still whispering to you and telling you what to do. And you are not having any responsibility, no real dignity of your manhood, to stand up to that voice and say, I'm free now. I tell myself when to get up, when to go to work, what work to do, where to spend my money, what to spend my money for and when to go play and when to stop playing. When to dance and when to stop dancing. But you ain't telling yourself that. You'll letting the system provide for you your freedom and your livelihood, the extent to which you can go. You are still in captivity. Thank you very much. Peace. Asalaam Alaikum.
Imam Earl Abdul Malik Mohammed:
Imam Mohammed is going to answer your questions.
Two questions from male and two from female.
Audience Member:
If we want you to be our leader, then you have to have to produce the deeds to the ownership of the mosques and the properties. I want know, have any of the Imams around the country responded to that?
Imam WD Mohammed:
A few. A few, but a very few. Very few. Very few. Like less than 5%.
Audience Member:
But you had a great response when you resigned from the community.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Yes. Well, what we had was a wave of persons upon knowing that I was no longer accepting to be responsible for the local places or cities around the country, Masjids, schools, whatever, and that I was going to only be responsible for my office. The Mosque Cares, the organization that I had, we had. When I say a wave, I mean we had many, a quick surge of persons letting me know that they were with me and they were going to stay with me. Behind that surge we had Imams who started resigning. Most of those Imams have not changed a bit. They're the same people they were before. They resigned only to save their face with the people that had come, that had indicated to them that they were with me no matter where I go. When they saw that, they responded to that situation by stating to us that they resigned. But actually they haven't changed a thing. No, they haven't changed a thing. The great majority have not changed anything. Yes sir. You're welcome.
Audience Member:
Thank you.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And that's good for me. As long as they do their own thing and don't put my name in it. Don't use my name. That's okay with me. Yes ma'am.
Audience Member:
A couple of months ago you stated that we were in our last days, but you didn't expound.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. We are living in the last days, as my father say, the last days of this world. And I say the same thing. We are living in the last days of the old order. That didn't respect justice, didn't respect what G-d ordered, didn't respect human life. That order is gone. Yes ma'am.
Audience Member:
Asalaam Alaikum.
Imam WD Mohammed:
It is good to see you.
Audience Member:
Thank you.
Audience Member:
Yes. She used to help us out in Chicago al lot and we know her very well. Sister is a hardworking sister, very faithful and very constant. She doesn't change.
Audience Member:
Thank you so much for these sessions and helping me out. But the question I had was regarding the name Khalifa as a name for a child or male or female.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes.
Audience Member:
Is that an appropriate name for a male, a female. And if so,
Imam WD Mohammed:
Actually it could go for both male and female, but if you don't want eyebrows to raise, then give it only to males. But if you like me, I don't care if eyebrows raise, give it to male or female.
Audience Member:
What is the correct English spelling?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Spelling, spelling of Khalifa.
Audience Member:
Yes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
K-H-A-L-I-F-A-H.
Audience Member:
Thank you.
Imam WD Mohammed:
You're welcome
Audience Member:
Brother Imam, may I have a question in regards to headgear. We have adopted wearing kufis and I wanted to know how did this come about?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Certain head gear?
Audience Member: Yes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
According to the reports Muhammad the Prophet wore head covering, that was the head covering that people are accustomed to in his country and he did keep his head covered. You know, women are told that they should cover their heads in public, but men also cover their heads in public and they still do because of the climate, the weather environment. The sun is really punishing in the summertime and in the wintertime it's cold. So they keep their heads covered practically all the time. There is nothing in the Qur'an and there's nothing in the teachings of the Prophet that says a man has to wear any particular covering over his head. He doesn't even have to cover his head. If it's hot, your good senses should tell you what to do. If the sun is burning your hair, do you want to cover it? Use an umbrella or something to shade yourself in the sun.
If it's cold, you want to put something on your head if your head is cold. But when your own good senses have no reason to have you put something on your head, then you wear what you like on your head. But we do not like, Prophet Muhammad said this. I want to caution you now, those who like freedom but don't like obedience, I want to caution you that Muhammad the Prophet said, those who follow the styles of the people are not with us. So if they come out with a cap, baseball cap and you all wear baseball cap. They come out with another style covering for your head, you can come out with that. That tells us you're following the styles of the world. You choose the style that's intelligent. And if we are all Muslims in the same association, we should ask our leadership, is this new thing acceptable or should we continue to wear what we have been wearing? We should talk to the leaders too. And sometimes the leader's not aware. He has to be made aware of certain things.
But for the sisters Muhammad the Prophet said, Peace be on him. All the scholars agreed on this, excuse me. He said, when the women go out in the public, public women should be cover everything except face, hands and feet. So if a woman wants her feet not to be covered, she doesn't have to cover her feet. She doesn't want to wear gloves, she doesn't have to wear gloves. He didn't say you have to cover your feet. He didn't say you have to cover your hands. He didn't say you have to cover your face. If a woman wants to cover her face, there's nothing that says the woman can't cover her face, but it says she can go with her face uncovered and her hands and her feet. As for men, Prophet Muhammad says, if you are working like in ditch or in some work that get where you get your legs muddy or dirty, man can expose himself up to his knee. He shouldn't expose the knee, but he can wear pants that just cover the knee and he can have something that shows his breasts, but he shouldn't show his navel and his stomach.
He should be covered up to where his breast starts, the bottom of where his breast starts. Now there's ritual, there are ritual meanings and cultural meanings in this, but Muslims always are taught, guided by the Qur'an and Muhammad, to go for the common sense reason and make it more important than ritual meanings or et cetera. Now why the man cover down below his knees? So that when he sits down, if he has on no shorts, he's still safe.
Audience Member:
Thank you.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, you're welcome.
Audience Member:
The other part was the proper pronunciation of kufi.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, there's many. There are different kinds. Kufi. Prayer caps. That's what I like to call them. Prayer caps. But they're called uofi and other names. And your sisters, what you cover up with. They call it Khimar. And Khimar comes form Khamar. Khamar means intoxication. And I've been over there. Some of those sisters can intoxicate the man especially if you been been away from home a long time. They can take their Khimars, and they put it over their face and you could see the features. You know something is under there. Your imagination goes wild. My father said, I bet you go there and pull that thing off of some of 'em head, they'll scare you to death.
Oh yes, yes. Oh yes. They reminded me that some of you all don't know the importance of not going to Shooters. If you go to Shooters, I know they got a lot more to serve. They got a big banquet over there. I know it's exciting. But the money that we make here, we take up a collection, but nobody's pressured to give money. The dinners really help us a lot. And the hotel, they give us this accommodation. We don't pay them rent. We pay for the meals. We pay for the meals. And the meals are almost a must that you buy meals here. If you're hungry, please don't go to Shooters. You can go there another time. And I'm sure there's a Shooters or some place like it in your hometown. So make that another time and sacrifice for our sake. The China perch is delicious and I think that's what we're having today. China perch and these people who accommodate us, they have respect for us. They believe that we are people who want to have good life and we have respect. We are decent folks. They have accepted us as such, and they try to do their best for us. This hotel, this management, also the kitchen, they try to do their best for us. So please, if you're going to eat, please don't leave. Go over there and eat. The only reason why you won't see me over there because most leaders have to go. I used to wonder how come the leaders gone.
If I stay around here, they're going to be at least 10 hypocrites that want to come and smile in my face and act like they want to talk to me. Now, if I really felt there wasn't going to be any hypocrite approaching me, I would stay with you. Thank you very much. See you next time. As Salaam Alaikum.



