02/03/2003
IWDM Study Library
Researching Our Faith
Chicago IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
IWDM (00:00:10):
We bear witness that there is no G-d but Allah, and we witness that Muhammed, in Mecca Arabia, more than 1400 years ago, is the seal of the prophets, the last prophet, G-d's servant and His messenger. The prayers and the peace be upon him, offering that traditional salute, and G-d's peace be upon us. Aameen. Again, we're happy to be here and we pray in this ninth month, the blessed month of Ramadan. We want to correct some things, that hurt our chances to live a good and progressive life in America and in the world for that matter. .............or anything else in our way holding us back, denying us, our children. if we have been ..................better,. we know better. Those who know better ...............don't know. We are fasting the month of Ramadan. We should be aware that fasting didn't start with Muslims. Fasting has been practiced by people, spiritual people, people of faith. for thousands of years. It's and old, very old practice in our faith. Jesus Christ, and our great Moses before Christians , ..................... and before, ................... that's an old and I should say, ancient practice. We know, in our holy book that introduced to us, fasting. And if you are reading the Qur'an in this month, as it is the practice of believers, Muslims in this month, to read Qur'an daily, before we finish the 29 days of the fast month, this month, fasting and finish the 30 sections of the Qur'an and usually finished in 30 days, which is the average time, average number of days for this month. You are going to read a lot about fasting. Fasting fis done by people for many different reasons. The most common one is to lose weight, to gain will power, ................ power. For us, it is very clear why we fast the month of Ramadan.. In hadith Qudsi, hadith Qudsi, Qudsi means sacred oath. Hadith means the sayings of Muhammed, the prophet, peace be upon him and all the servants, messengers and prophets of G-d. Hadith Qudsi are those sayings of Muhammed that were inspired by Allah, ....................... something in the Qur'an when it comes to closeness to G-d. The Qur'an is the direct word of G-d. Hadith Qudsi, inspired words of G-d, inspired words of G-d and ............... Qudsi, ........................ revealed by His servant Muhammed that fasting, as I quote, says "Fasting is for Me." Exact quote, fasting is for Me. Our fast is for Allah. It is not to lose weight. We shouldn't corrupt the spirit of the fast by having some other personal thing in mind that you are hoping to lose. Oh I'm going to lose 10 pounds in Ramadan. If you say that it in ignorance, G-d forgave you, but from now don't mix up that with the Ramadan fast. You fast to obey G-d. You fast to increase your willpower so that you'll be stronger spiritually to resist temptations and obey G-d. You fast so you can get nearer to Allah, not in physical measurement like I get near to the mic, ...................... forward. That spiritual closeness, spiritual closeness to G-d. You want get closer to G-d in your obedience, closer to G-d, in your obedience, closer, closer to G-d, being closer to His will and this purpose shall be His. You want to get closer to Him so you are more obedient to what He wants for human beings, in this life and this earth, here and also hereafter. Fasting is for G-d, everything else belongs to G-d. Everything else should be for G-d. Fasting just for G-d. Abraham is the patriarch in the three religions, Christianity, Judaism, Christianity and Islam and all of their historical , or their presence in history. They all identify Abraham as a man of strong faith, strong faith. And Abraham is identified as a man who didn't just give his spiritual life to G-d, he gave himself wholly, the whole person to G-d. He says, I give myself to you completely my whole self. That's what he said. He gave his heart, his spirit, his soul, his mind, his body, his everything to G-d and G-d says of Abraham, in our scripture, its in the Bible too, if you could understand it or find it. He says that Abraham completed his obligation to his G-d. He fulfilled it and the covenant was given through Abraham. Praise be to Allah, gave his covenant to his G-d and all of his followers became people of the covenant. And we know in Christianity now that..... I'm speaking low like this because I have tried everything. The last thing I tried, I went to the pharmacist just before I came here. I went last night, they were closed. I went to the pharmacist and I said, the consultation window, consultation window. I went to that window and I said, I need something for hoarseness. He said, are you having pain? I said, no. He said, well, what you need is to get you something that'll keep your throat moist. Drink water, keep your throat moist. 'Nothing off the shelf?" No. I wish we had more good men like that. He could have told me, I recommend such and such that but it's going to cost you about $45. Told me don't buy anything, told me what to do. That's the old way for good people, that's the way good people were in olden days, I have to speak very easily, very quiet. They've got the mic so nice. I stopped screaming 10 years ago. It doesn't help to scream. The people, if they aren't going to respond, they aren't going to respond. If they come to see you for a show as soon as you finish the word are lost, only to show is remembered and we don't want that. Getting back to our focus for this presentation today, our focus is on saneness, this, saneness and in the Bible, in the Old Testament, the prophets, he talks of his fast and he says his fast is to serve the suffering felt by those who are suffering, to relieve their miseries. That was his fast. Now we know our fast is for G-d, but G-d says, "what you offer Me does not reach Me. Only your obedience reaches Me." G-d loves your obedience because He knows your obedience is going to make you a better creation and a much more useful creation to yourself and to others, especially to your family. G-d knows that. So G-d says only your taqwa reaches Him, only your obedience reaches Him. If only my obedience reaches my G-d, then who is benefiting directly from my, nothing can benefit G-d. Benefits means you added something, G-d's got everything. No matter what you're giving Him, you're not giving Him anything because G-d has already got everything. So who's benefiting? We are. The fasting person benefits and the fasting person is made a better person, more conscious person, more sympathetic person when .................. is noted or observed. So our fast is not different in terms of where the benefits go or who benefits. Its not different from the fasts of the prophet of the Old Testament or the fasts of the faithful religious people, Old and New Testament and even other books are to be included other than the Bible and the Qur'an, as fasting benefits the individual, making, the individual know the suffering of the poor. Say, I guess this is how my neighbor feels all the time. You know he's hungry, you know he's poor, he's not eating good. So you become aware of his pain that he experiences all the time, maybe every day. But this is just something you volunteered to do for G-d's sake for one month. So it increases your awareness of the suffering of others who are not volunteering. They can't help it. So in the month of Ramadan, great charity goes to the suffering people. If you cannot fast the month, G-d says, if you are able to, if you have means, then feed sixty persons and we know that at the end of the fast month, we go to the Eid prayer and before we join the congregation for the Eid prayer, we give money again for those who are not fortunate enough to have it or to have the means, sadaqah, sadaqah - the gift or the charity for the Eid day or the celebration. Eid means the celebration day, Eid day. So our fasting is for G-d so that we have our spirit or our obedience come closer and closer to what G-d wants of us and it is expected that we will help others who are suffering, share with them our food, our ....................., so that maybe the suffering becomes less and less in the community of mankind. Muslims are all over the world. Muslims started in Mecca Arabia, the land of the Arabs in the, in the dust, in the sand. Since then it has gone, firstly to Africa but then to the Mediterranean area finally to Spain and Europe and it preaches and now taken the religion of Islam all around the world. All around the world, in the north Canada, all the northern area, South America, everywhere, there are Muslims and there are Christians too everywhere, all over the world. The two big followings of the religion is built called the heavenly religions. Why are they called the heavenly religions? Because we believe that G-d sends His word down to human beings. He chose righteous servants of excellent character and nature to deposit His word to them so that they would give His word to us. We believe in revelation, believe that G-d reveals, G-d communicates, G-d talks to a human being. So we are called heavenly faiths or heavenly religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam and perhaps some others. These are the major ones, the most noticeable ones. So many followers, everywhere. So the nature of our obedience for Christians, Muslims and Jews and many, others too that we don't know about perhaps they're the same. The nature is to give ourselves to G-d as a ........................ to Him. This is very important for this audience. There's mostly Muslims, but I do feel that there are some Christians in this audience, there's some I've been knowing for years and they wear Muslim names, but they are Christians and I love my Christian brothers. ............... that is intent. Intent. If your intent is good, you are accepted by G-d. You can not know G-d as a Muslim knows G-d, but if your intent is good, you are accepted by G-d. Now if your intent is bad and you are a Muslim, you're going to hell and G-d doesn't care for you at all. Muhammed, the prophet said that in Islam, matters are judged by intention, nia, nia. It's judged by the intention. So let us get away from this habit. I know many of us, we are good hearted people but we have some bad habits, some bad hearted habits, if I can express it that way. We have some bad hearted habits thinking we're the only one unrighteous because we're Muslim. You are the only one that got the religion right because you're a Muslim. That doesn't necessarily have to be so. If you would take at random, a sister here, a brother there, sister here, brother there, and ask all of them, what is the meaning of Islam? What makes you love this religion or want to be a Muslim? You might get as many answers as you get persons, as you selected persons. You might get, their answers will resemble each other. Then you might get answers from some, no resemblance. In order for us to have the right picture of Islam, we have to have good intentions and the right heart. If your heart is right, you don't enjoy seeing other people suffer, no matter what their religion is. If your heart is right, you don't feel happy only when you make a big buck, you're happy when your brother or your sister or even another human being makes a big buck. We have to learn to rejoice, to feel good seeing others lifted up or made richer. That's a petty thing in us. It's very common and therefore it's very natural. We who have been poor for so long, we've been poor for longer than we've been living. We've inherited a quiet awareness deep down inside that I lived with my father and he was poor. I lived with his father and he was poor. And you go back and back and back and your presence goes back in time and you aware that you've been poor for may lifetimes. You ain't happy to see other people getting over. Be your brother, your own family. "How come it had to be that nigger? "We have to get rid of that. Get rid of that. It's not you. That's your mistake and not really you. That's your mistake. You, if you had the chance to take it over, you'd really feel good about what others are enjoying. You would share in that enjoyment, you would share, but its a habit. "I wonder how he got that new car? I bet he paid $50,000 for a car like that." That shouldn't even interest you. The only car you should be interested in how much it costs, the car you drive. because you got to have enough money to pay for that car. Perhaps, I was influenced by this religion to come up with expressions like this. Don't try to look into the cooking pot of your neighbor, the neighbor's pot is the neighbor business. Don't look in the cooking pot, just don't be looking, peeping, trying to see what somebody else got. It soils the soul. .When the soul is soiled, everything else is soiled, the way he thinks and the way you behave. This brings us to now, faith. I mentioned the great patriarch Abraham, peace upon him, as the man of great faith, strong faith. Allah says in the Qur'an of Muhammed the prophet, that he was noticed by other people, carrying out his responsibility to this Lord, his G-d, his mission, when he was on his mission. They said, we have heard a caller calling to faith and we have responded saying we believe, we have faith. And G-d has that like that for us, to let us know that the invitation to respond is firstly the invitation to faith. Many of you, you have become Muslims and you are giving the greetings, you sound like you're Muslims and you all believe in your innocence, you are Muslims but you do not have faith. You don't have faith. If you had faith, we who have faith would know it. A believer in G-d knows another believer in G-d, you don't disguise yourself. A believer in G-d knows a believer of G-d. So don't think you are not seen. We know every one of you that we meet that does not have faith. We don't have to meet you. We can be sitting in the same room with you and hear your conversation and we know from your conversation you don't have faith. That's the first step in Islam, faith, first step. The first step is faith. You should be firstly a believer in the G-d that made everything. Now, for us Muslims, really for others too, but I think we dwell this, we make the point clear and strong that you are not to believe in superstitions. We don't have faith based upon, or faith supported by the superstitions, some spooky idea of existence, some spooky idea of the existence of G-d. G-d is no spook, G-d is real. G-d is first of all, first of all G-d is goodness, G-d is goodness and G-d is truth and G-d is intelligence. Intelligence. G-d is not playing games. G-d is not playing games with you or with me, G-d is not watching us to see if we take some water in our mouth or a piece of candy. No, G-d is too big for that petty thing. He created you to watch yourself. If you don't watch yourself, He's not worried about you. Our faith is an intelligent faith. That's the point. It's not a hocus pokus faith. It's not a faith based upon some spooky idea or spooky thing. No, we are not spooked up. We are not scared. We're not scared into wanting to be obedient to G-d. We're attracted by G-d's beauty, by G-d's greatness, by G-d's love, by G-d's generosity. We were attracted to want to believe in G-d, to obey G-d because we owe that to Him. He has given us so much, we owe it to Him to give Him obedience. The sun, the moon, the stars, give their obedience to the Lord that gave them the logic that set them on course. That is logic and logical. It is scientific, the scientists will say. Their order in the sky is scientific, their nature is scientific, it is intelligent and it is governed by laws. And these laws are consistent and these laws are intelligent and these laws reflect or communicate to the thinking obedient soul, G-d's will, G-d's purpose, what G-d wants. If G-d, this is Islamic thought that I'm sharing with you today. If G-d made the universe to obey Him, how stupid it would be for us to disagree with the order of the universe. So for ..................in Islam He says, man is not the first Muslim. The earth is a Muslim, the stars are Muslim. Everything that G-d made in this earth is Muslim. Muslim means agreeing, conforming in the plan of G-d as He intended that we conform or agree and doing it out of a love for it. You can't be a good anything if you don't love it. You can't be a good tap dancer. You have to love it to be good at it or you have to be forced to do it, be forced to do it and then forcing you only gets so much out of you. Whatever you are able to do by somebody compelling you or something compelling you to do it, forcing you to do it, you could have done it more and better if you had loved it. Faith, there's a saying in the Bible, it says "cast your bread on the water and it will be returned to you." That's faith, that's faith. Cast your bread upon the water and it'll be returned to you. That we have faith and you'll receive for your goodness, you'll receive back, you'll get back. Don't worry, have faith. Now we know these other things too, but what's most important in that saying is that you should trust, trust G-d, have faith. You might not get it two hours later. You might not get it two days or two months later, maybe not two years later. But believe that G-d is just and truthful, that if G-d asks you to do something, do it. You'll get what G-d promises sooner or later. It's guaranteed, guaranteed. Two religions also say that faith and good works are inseparable. You can't find one without the other. Where there is faith in a person that you have found the person, that person is also a person will do good works and both religious, let ................................. that if you claim faith but you are not doing good by yourself and others, your faith is not accepted. Faith without good works is dead................, not counting for anything worthwhile. People of faith are responsible for the biggest things that has happened in the history of mankind, people of faith. Now this is something that even if you don't believe in mysteries, even if you don't believe in the unseen powers, theres a G-d that created us when there was nothing existing, but G-d, you hear me? A G-d that created things when there was nothing existing, but G-d. If you believe in the G-d you'll be productive. Don't tell me you got all that faith and you don't produce anything? You don't even produce a decent paycheck to take care of your family, and you talking to make people believe you're a man of faith. I often share this with the audience that I'm speaking to. Some people were so proud of this man because he fasts all the fasts, he prayed all the prayers. He was just a holy man. They said to themselves, they said, look, prophet Muhammed, the prophet should see this man. Let us take him to the prophet. Prophet should know about him. Prophet, he fast all the fasts, prayed all the prayers, holy man. Prophet Muhammed asked one question, he said, who's giving him food and shelter, taking care of his needs? They said we do oh messenger of G-d.. You are better than he is. That's hadith. You are better than he's because he has only faith and no good works, so he canceled his faith with no good works. It ain't good works to pray, pray, pray. You cannot (give) good works If you are not caring for your family members, if you're not caring about other human beings, if you're not trying to make yourself productive, if you are living on someone else's labor and not caring to use your own ingenuity, to use your own muscles and energy to produce or to support yourself at least? So that praying is just motions you're going through. You weren't truthful. Your prayer was a lie. Every one of them. Your fasting was a lie. Every day of it was a lie because you are not trying to do anything and you want to live on somebody else. Brothers come here, I want to make my salat. How come the masjid is not open and ready for five daily salat? We are working brother. It's very difficult working for non Muslim to pray five daily salat, five salats daily.. They don't want to give us that opportunity to break every two hours or so and pray. But you seem like you ain't got nothing to do. Why don't you come here and see that the door is open? "Yeah, brother, I'll take care of it, al hamdillah, al hamdulillah!" As soon as you go out, you forgot your watch, you make your wudu and you left your watch on the sink. You go back in there to get your watch. He's sleeping on the floor of the Masjid. He was looking for a flop house, some place for him to sleep and have the nerve to call himself Bilal. Bilal Ibn Rabah. Al hamdulillah.
Speaker 3 (00:35:15):
Oh boy. He would be whipping on some of us, yes, he'd be whipping on some of our folks. He'd be whipping on all the young boys and tell the men folks, how can you stand for this? They're calling the girls bitches. I taught you to respect your woman. Faith, good works, intelligence. G-d says, (Arabic), this is the original language of Qur'an, Arabic, the Qur'anic Arabic. G-d says He has made everything to communicate knowledge and science, everything He made, He made it to communicate to human minds, knowledge and science. That means that there's nothing that exists that G-d didn't create so that it would impart or whisper to us this science like a body language. Whisper to us an invitation to come and get more knowledge and get science. If you just think of the human body, there's a science of the skin, there's the science of the blood, there's the science even of the hair. There's the science of everything in our body. And some will specialize in just one science of just one thing in the human body to see how G-d has extended the creation of the world so that we would be enriched with knowledge and science. But not just knowledge and science, beauty. And you that see a beautiful sunset or a beautiful rainbow after a heavy rain, then the sun comes out bright. You've seen that beauty but you haven't seen the beauty or the logic and the goodness that brings that to us. So the man that's blessed or the woman that's blessed with knowledge and insight into things, they see more beauty than those who just see the outer appearance and that goes for each other. You wonder how come some men can love human beings and devote their life and make such great sacrifices for a human being they don't even know. Because they see what you short-sighted folks can't see. G-d has invited them into another big area of His creation that is even more beautiful than what appears to the naked eye..
(00:38:55):
Now, G-d says you are community. G-d doesn't want us to think that we are just an individual or just a human person. What's more important than that? We are a community. G-d made human individuals or human persons to be connected for the life, for the life of community. And we cannot have great benefits separately all together unless we devote our attention to strengthening and progressing our community. If we just follow the clear guidance of Allah, G-d, the creator, we will be happy. We will be, maybe you're not happy all the time. Anybody happy all the time is crazy and sick. How are you going to really know the beauty of happiness if you are not going to be unhappy sometimes G-d knows better than we know how to order this world. So G-d wants us to give our attention to community. Long time ago, oh it's been a long time ago, many years ago on Stony Island, when I became a young leader for you all, I say young. I was young, had a head full of hair. My hair was so thick up here, I didn't think it would ever go away. And I said to the brothers, I wanted to see us not do things because your afraid going to get put out of the temple, put out of organization. I want to see us do things because we believed in it, because we loved it. That's how I wanted us to be. So I told some of the brothers who didn't have jobs, I say you always have a job and its for your own good benefit that you always go to your job. Your nature, your human life, especially for a male. You don't have to tell a woman to work, a woman (is) going to work. She's going (to) work. Your own nature, your manhood needs you to have a job. As a prophet in the Bible and in the Qur'an, in the Christians Bible and also in our Bible, did you hear what he said? I told you that he ain't right brother, he called al Qur'an, Bible. You go and get you a dictionary and search the meaning of Bible. It simply means book. It means book. Now, don't start calling Quran a Bible. Because if you do, I'll have a mean brother do something to you if I find out and I'm telling you he really needs some exercise. ........................ If you get some exercise, you'll feeling good, you won't be so mean. You hurt your own soul when you wait for the white man or some other man to hire you. Get work! You ain't got no job? I know the sister's are going to like this. Wash dishes, bro, for the wife, wash clothes for the wife, learn how to iron too. She got enough to do. She can give more attention to the children. Do something in the house. Work. Working makes a man healthier. Work can make a man feel better in his soul. Allahu akbar! So I told him, I said, you ain't got no work. I said, take care of your own working for where you are. Go and look at your neighbor. See if your neighbors need some help. Go next door , neighbors paint (is) pealing off the house. Say I would like to volunteer to paint your house. This is what I said. Oh it must have been 15 or 20 years ago. I don't know but I know it was a long time ago. I said some brothers had the open mind and heart to receive what I said and were ready to act on it, and some did. I said, go to the neighbor and tell the neighbor, I see this paint is pealing on your house. I don't have any work and my spirit as a man, I need work to keep a good spirit. May I paint your house? I'm not asking you for any pay. My pay will be that my soul will feel better knowing that a man is work. I told them, I said, now some of those neighbors are going to think you're crazy and some are going to say, okay, paint the house and when you finish you do a good job, they're going to say, I can't let you do that or nothing. They going to give you something. Maybe they can't give you the scale, the pay scale for the painter, but they will give you something. So this is the way I talked to the brothers. Some of you here that remember me talking like that, raise your hand. Good. Well I haven't changed a bit. Work. Even if you have to work for no monetary gain, for no money, work, it keeps your male soul, your male spirit alive, your masculine soul alive. You've got to work brothers. When I'm not working, I start to get sick, I start to feel bad. Community is the scene for us, all of us, to understand that G-d created male and female to live in community and to identify with community as community and to give, work, labor, effort, thoughts, et cetera, spirit to the community. Build your community, strengthen your community, see your community neglect and help get attention to that neglect, so we will get rid of that neglect. See your community weaknesses and help us get attention to those weaknesses and let us make it strong. See your community ugliness and help us get attention to that ugliness, so we can make it beautiful, et cetera, et cetera. And Allah is with us all the time. Peace to you, as salaamu alaikum.
(00:49:46):
The young gentlemen here, our brother in humanity, and our brother in faith wants to declare his faith today. (Imam Mohammed recites the shahadah and the new convert repeats it after him.) And he just said, I witness that there is but one G-d, and I witness that Muhammed is the messenger of G-d. He has taken his shahadah and we witness, it is written down today that us, as his witnesses, that he's a Muslim for G-d.
Speaker 5 (00:51:31):
Now there are some questions from persons in the first five rows. I have a few announcements. We have a few announcements
Speaker 3 (00:52:08):
As salaam alaikum, I want know, I want to know from brother imam. I know that he put in the new shopping center here and I want to know how do I make a check out to him as some type of mission, money, to help build a shopping center.
IWDM (00:52:47):
This is wonderful. He doesn't live in this area, he lives a good way from here, wonderful person that I met some time ago and have been in touch with him recently. He's a businessman and he also can help us build this job. And if you think you're going to give me a little check and get out of helping us build it? No way. You should make the check out to C.P.C./Comtrust. Any other questions?
Speaker 7 (00:54:03):
I've been to numerous Muslim events and there's never a provision for salat, and I've been to numerous Muslim events and there's never a provision for salat. As salaam alaikum. I've been to several Muslim events and I've noticed that we never have provisions for salat. Salat is very important, especially during Ramadan. So I was wondering if there's a way that we could possibly have provisions for salat. I know we have it during our convention, but it would be very nice if we could have salat. As salaam alaikum. Oh furthermore, I have heard Imam Warith Deen Mohammed say, no event should occur without provisions for salat.
IWDM (00:55:25):
Yes, she is correct on both points that we should try to find a way to have salat, and the did say we shouldn't have a program without accommodating those believers who want to make salat. Now let me tell you something. I have been put out of the temple, okay? And when you're put out of temple, all my work history was with the Nation of Islam. So I didn't have any work record, I couldn't go outside, I could go outside and wash windows or something. And I did that. I did that. Even took a scrub brush, big one. I went with a bucket to knock on doors and somebody gave me a job. I said I clean carpets. One person gave me a job. I cleaned the carpet with the brush, a bucket and the brush. I knew I could do it. I did a good job. But my wife, we had a child and we needed more money, so I said I got to get me a better job. I went to this industrial site and I knew if I could get hired there, I'd make good money, I'd be able to take care of my wife, she'd be happy. She wasn't complaining, she was helping me, babysitting for her girlfriends and making money, making some money. It was snow in Chicago, above my calf, above the calf of my leg. I looked for a quiet place where people wouldn't see me. I found a place on the side of this building where people wouldn't see me. I didn't want to be noticed and have people think I'm crazy or something or have them wondering and I 'd prayed when I put my forehead in the snow, made submission to G-d and prayed. I got that job. I thank Allah. I got that job. Allah says, my earth is a Masjid. We have an obligation to provide a place for you to pray. But, we can't go in that area without permission from the people we rent this facility, this area from. So when we finish, you pray wherever you like. The whole earth is Allah's Mosque.
Speaker 4 (00:58:59):
As I see it, If we close our hand, we would take back what we opened and give when we said we was integrated, we turned and carried the money to him. All we have to do is close our hand and buy from us.
Speaker 8 (01:00:33):
As salaam alaikum. I have a question for the Imam. Can you expound a little on the rules of logic as it relates to understanding the scripture?
Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
Yes. The old man that I got to know as my father's friend who visited my father and my father had asthmatic bronchitis. And this old man was actually an Indian in his origin, but he was living in the United States, San Francisco at the time I believe. And he brought my father some dried salmon, and he told my father to take it and it would help his condition. Any he told him some other things that he should not be taking so much. One was the milk. He should not be taking so much milk or eating cow products so much. Anyway, I met him and he became my friend also. And he said to me, once,, he said, every ayah of the Qur'an is connected to another ayah. Every chapter is connected to another chapter. He said, when you read Qur'an, he said, you should try to get a feel for connections. Since then, many years have passed and I have been blessed by Allah, G-d, that is, to give my attention to connections. It's in the Bible also, its importance on connections. I'm speaking on logic now. He wants me to make some comments on logic, the logic of Qur'an, logic for Muslims, for our life. Kaa’bah is the name of the house, the little house, and it symbolizes the unity of all human beings. That we all are one family and that we all originally came out of one home and little places called also Al-bait, it means the house or the home. And the word Kaa’bah means connection, connection. In the Bible, there's discussion of the connections of human bones and a promise that the whole person can come back together again and be resurrected or have life again. And the congregation is civilized too as a human body. And the congregation has now been dismembered. The head is out there somewhere, shoulders somewhere else, foot somewhere else, hip bones, somewhere else. and ......................., all the bones are coming together and they came together according to the logic upon which they were formed in the first place. Yes, thigh bone to the hip bone, etc., etc. So, disorder is confusion. Order brings peace. Second message to you all, logic, today is don't like confusion. The Bible says G-d does not like confusion. And we know Allah is inviting the intelligence of the man, Adam, women and men, to look at the orderliness of the universe so that we would be inspired to love, order and see beauty in order because where order is confused, ugliness appears. The best logic I can offer you today is to love order. Dislike disorder, because order is also beautiful. Don't just want to eat what's on the table. Want to see the whole meal. See the glass of milk, see the toast, see the scrambled eggs. See the whole meal. That's better than gobbling up your food. When somebody said, what did you eat? Uh, uh, uh. Thank you very much.
Speaker 5 (01:09:02):
The CPC contract is open until about 6:00 PM this evening. The address is 2979 West 167th Street , again, 2979 West 167th Street. Also, the Mosque Cares is selling t-shirts outside there for $5. There are also pens on sale for a dollar, and those who purchased banquet tickets to this past convention, National convention, the Convention books are also available. There'll also be dinners sold at the break Fast time today here. And we're waiting to know exactly what the price is going to be. And the meat in the meals provided by C.P. C./ Comtrust. So we'll wait to get the official word of the cost.
(01:11:55):
Okay. So the dinners they're on sale, with the meat provided by CPC/Comtrust, halal meat are available at the break Fast time for $10. And here at the restaurant. Purchase a ticket outside here and the food is here, next door. And the break Fast time is 4:50 pm. And also there'll be some dates here and fruit, some food to break the fast here. Brothers and sisters, especially to the Imams, the classes will be before the Imam comes on says sometimes we hardly get an hour in, but if we try to get here early enough, so we want to start at least about 30 minutes before, maybe even prior to that, even a bit early. But only because the timing involved here and the other people that's here. Sometimes it takes up a lot of that time too. If you get here early enough, then we can start early enough to have the classes. But it will be every fourth Sunday, It won't be every Sunday, every fourth Sunday. The first Sunday every time, when the Imam speaks, but it won't be anything in between that. We won't have any classes in between that, only the day that he's going to speak.
(01:14:07):
Okay, thank you very much and we encourage you to be here each Sunday. Look in the Muslim Journal to make certain that the first Sunday of each month, Imam Mohammed will be having the public address here at this location. Peace. As salaamu alaikum.

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