12/18/1999
IWDM Study Library 
Comments on Righteousness-
Surah 2 Ayat 177

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We don't have our leader, but we are eating his flesh. This bread is his flesh. This wine is his blood. So, the Gentiles said, "They're like us. It doesn't bother them. They're actually hiding themselves from the Gentiles. Their lives were at risk.
They saw themselves in Christianity. They saw their own life and their own interest in Christianity. And one of their teachers said, "Let us in temperance and apply in principle what is Pagan. What is Pagan." So, this was one of their teachers, his name is Basil. Saint Basil, BASIL, Saint Basil. This is what he told the Christian world at that time when he was there, when he was among them as the teacher. And he's been a great figure among them. He said, talking to the educator of them, he said, "Let us translate and apply in principle what is Pagan."
So, there is another evidence to report what I'm telling you. I don't speak just from guessing. I don't do that. I speak from knowledge, only from knowledge. I never was satisfied guessing at things. I had to have some proof for it. Elijah Muhammad and his teaching made me like that. I had to dig and find truth; I'm not satisfied until there's evidence to support it. And don't think you the only ones that don't know me. Really. When I say you, I mean people like you. The only ones that don't know me. All the high-ups and religion on this earth know me. All the Arabian leaders know me. The Vatican leaders know me. The Egypt leaders know me. All the high-ups in this world know me. But you don't know me. How come? You can't read.
Takbir!!
Allahu Akbar. That's the truth. I just have to tell you straight, you cannot read. You don't have the education; you don't have the knowledge. So, you have to trust me. And those who don't trust me, they get nothing. They can't make it. No, No. You can't get it. How can you get it, you don't know who taught you? You might say who taught you, brother? G-d taught me. G-d taught me. And the proof of that is that I give it, and nobody can challenge it. And you could not come up with any explanation to even have these brothers give it one ounce of credit if it's against what I've told you. Come on, try it right now. Come on, try it right now. Come up with something, an explanation of what I've said to you, say, "No, you explained that wrong. This is the way it should be seen, Brother Imam." Come on with it. You can't do it. You don't have it. You can't find it. It doesn't exist.
We've got some dead in here. They're dead. I'm their friend, but they're dead. I can't give life to the dead. No, I can't. Nobody can give life to death. Somebody says, "Oh yes, Jesus Christ gave life to the dead by the permission of Allah." That's what the scripture says. No one can give life to death except G-d. G-d gives life, G-d takes life. Only G-d gives and takes life. So, if you're dead, there's nothing I can do for you. But if you're alive, I can reach your mind and you'll have an understanding that will free you forever.
Yes. So, these are the means. This is the meaning behind all this. We do these things, and nobody will tell us the meaning. Why is the meaning being told now? I said, "How come you, brother Imam?" Because I'm like Muhammad. I've been upright in my life ever since I've been born. I've never wanted to do anything but righteousness. G-d is my witness, I'm a human being. Certainly, I've made errors, I've made mistakes, but my life is an excellent life. It's an exceptional life as an obedient person, my life.
And I'm not educated by this world. I haven't gone to any religious schools to be taught. There's no one you can find that can claim that he's my teacher. He can't even tell you what I'm telling you, he hasn't got the ability to tell you what I'm telling you. No, I'm not bragging, but I'm just telling you the fact, the truth. There are none of my teachers that have the ability to tell you what I'm telling you. Jamil Diab, he doesn't have the ability to tell you what I'm telling you. Muhammad Abdullah, my good friend that passed, he doesn't have the ability to do what I'm doing. No.
You can't find my teacher and you can't match my work. You cannot do it. "Takbir." Allahu Akbar! If all of you were sincere preachers in Christianity, all this place would be lit up. Hey, this place would be lit up. They can read better than you. They've been trained to read better than you. They can read and they know scripture much better than you. So, I would have to hold them back from making me more than I am. If I was sitting with them like I'm sitting with you, and explain to them like I'm explaining to you, I could do it in the name of Christianity and become the biggest Christian on this earth. I know it. I know what G-d has done for me. So why don't you do that brother Imam? Because I'm Warith Deen Mohammad. I'm a straight guy. I only do what is right.
Some of you are afraid to acknowledge my leadership as what I am, because you're afraid of your own conscience. You're afraid that if you acknowledge it, your own conscience will then make you follow me. And you aren't ready to do that, you're too weak to follow me. So, you're trying to run from what I'm saying, you're trying to hurt me. Because if he convinced me, I'll have to follow him. I'm not ready for that. There's nothing I can do for you, and you weren't supposed to be here in the first place.
The sun has been used also as a symbol of the rising and falling and resurrection of not only an individual, but of the whole society. And figures like Jesus are called the Son of Man, Son of Man. And also called the Son of Righteousness, Son of Man, but also the Son of Righteousness. These are titles for not only Jesus, but others were called that too in the past. Son of Man, Son of Righteousness. And we know that S O N has a definite connection with S U N. In mythology, the Son of the G-d, in mythology, Egyptian mythology and other mythologies as well, is also the sun, S U N, of the world, the light of the world, the sun of the world, S U N.
So, we know that this symbol was a sun in the context of our material world, universe, had been used also as a symbol of the person that G-d inspires and enlightens. And he becomes not only a single body in a single body, he becomes also, a plural body. And he becomes the light of many, the light for many and the light of many. He becomes the light of the world. And it's said of Jesus, “as long as he's in the world, he's the light of the world. That's said of Jesus in the Gospel, the New Testament. So, the sun then, in its rising and setting, in the language of scripture, the sun is symbolic of the rising and setting or the rise and fall of nations. Not just individuals or not just an ideology or word, but the rise and fall of nations. The sun is symbolic of it.
And they go to sleep and are not applying themselves. They're not busy taking care of any affairs. Nobody has their hands on any controls. They're all sleeping and then they wake back up and go to their work. They go to their job. Some wake up and find they don't have any more job. They slept too long. Somebody has to help them find a job. Yes. So, this is the world. This is the way of the world. And I repeat, when we are going through the physical steps of our prayer, our salah, we are really acting out the fall and rise or renewal of nations.
The great help there to us, is to tell us that as long as you are reciting and conscious of giving and hearing and giving the word of G-d, you'll stand. And when you stop, you fall. But if you acknowledge G-d as One, and that He has communicated to a mortal person, a man, a human being, something that the world couldn't give him, was not educated by the world. If you will acknowledge that, you can sit on the throne and come back up on your feet. Sit on the throne first, then the nation is raised up. Right? If there's nobody on the throne, you won't have a nation rising up. Praise be to Allah.
So, let's now leave prayer in its traditional meaning or sense. And let's go to prayer in a broader sense and understand why G-d says certain things here. All right? Okay. Now listen to this verse. Forty first verse of the chapter called An-Nur, The Light.
Bismillah Ar Rahma Nir Raheem. See you not that it is Allah, that it is G-d, whose praises all beings in the heavens and on earth do celebrate? All beings in the heavens and on earth do celebrate. Did you know beings were in heavens? And the birds. Oh, that's what it means, the birds. Are there birds really in heaven or are there birds up in the sky, flying in the lower regions of the sky? All beings in the heavens and on earth do celebrate. And the birds of the air, with wings outspread, each one knows its own mode of prayer and praise.
Now, the word for praise is Tasbiha. That's Subhanalah, Subhanalah, Subhanallah, Allhamdulilah, Allhamdulilah, Allhamdulilah, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar are His attributed names. That's the way we do Tasbiha, right? It says, Qul lu Qad. Qad means definitely. Qad is a strong emphasizer. Qul lun Qad Alaiman Salatahu, Salatahu Wa Tasbiha, Wa Tasbiha. Qul, every one of them, certainly, Qad, Alaima Salatahu, knows his prayer. Wa Tasbiha, and his Tasbiha.
So, what is this? Birds, they do salah and do Tasbih? I've never seen one doing it. So, what is it talking about? You don't want to know? No, I mean some of them don't care. They don't care. Got a book that they say is their book, revealed book from G-d. From G-d? Have you registered what you're saying? A book from the One who made the heaven and earth, made the skies, made everything exist and made it produce you, a human being, and animals and everything, you're saying that One gave somebody a book and you aren't interested in it? What's wrong with your crazy head? You're in the wrong company. I've never seen a bird doing salah and doing Tasbiha. So, what is this talking about? Must be talking about people, huh? Talking about people.
But they can't speak a language and that language be false. It can't speak a truth through a false language. You know what I'm saying? No, it's forbidden. G-d can't do that. G-d cannot speak the truth through a false language. So, it also means that birds have their salats. And birds have their Tasbiha. But we have to understand it. We have to understand it. What is Tasbiha in its essence, in its meaning? What is Tasbiha? Tasbiha is recalling, remembering, reflecting on the Attributes and the Power of G-d. That's what Tasbiha is.
So, this Qur'an, G-d's revelation called Qur'an, is saying that every animal, everything G-d created has its Tasbiha. Has its salah and its Tasbiha. We know what our salah is. Our salah is what keeps us with conscious behavior, that is approved by our Creator. Conscious behavior approved by our Creator. Given to us and approved by our Creator and evolved by our Creator. He has caused us to evolve, to rise up, to become better and more human and more resourceful, more of a benefit to ourselves than the members of society. This is what our salah is, that gives us life really. So, we say "Haya Al Salah". That's the call to prayer that brother gave with a beautiful voice. "Haya Al Salah". What is Haya? Haya is life. Then what is the call to worship in Islam? It's the call to life. Haya Salah. It's the call to life.
So, it is life. This is our life. When we become Muslim and we learn the Qur'an, and our life begins to conform to what Islam wants for us as a life, we get a new life. So, what it is saying is that the life established for everything, not just humans, is given to those things from G-d. And they have been given a behavior that keeps them in their life that G-d orders for them. And that behavior was given to them from G-d. And they keep, daily, like we do, daily in prayer, they keep, daily, performing in the life that G-d established for them.
They rise up in the morning as G-d intends for them to rise up in the morning. They go out and seek their livelihood as G-d intended for them to seek their livelihood. They come back at night, and they socialize, and they finally go to sleep, and they wake up with the crack of dawn, with the crack of dawn. Just like you wake up with the crack of dawn. And they are Muslims, meaning that they're submitting to the will of G-d peacefully, as you are supposed to do with your mind as a human being. And they're doing it as animals, birds, and different creatures in the sky and on earth. Do you see the connection? So actually, this prayer for us, is a bigger prayer in the broader sense, our prayer is more than a ritual. Our prayer is our life.
And knowing the disciplines of our prayer and knowing the message that's in our prayer can keep us in control of our own life and we can protect it for ourselves and for the future. If you believe what I believe, and you find trustworthy youngsters in your family among you, and you pass this on to them before you die, we can have a conscious grip on our life and no hypocrites among us could take it away from us. Do you think a hypocrite can have any chance at me? They know they don't. They never will approach me. They never will approach me. They know they don't have a chance.
And that's what, in the Qur'an, when the revelation had come so much to the Prophet and to the believers, it was guaranteed that they couldn't change it. They were hopeless. They had despaired. Allah hopes to change you. If G-d says, "This day, have I completed my favor upon you, perfected for you your religion and completed my favor upon you, and have preferred for you Islam as a religion." And before, it says, "And those who are seeking to divert you and take you away from this, they have despaired. They've given up hope that they can change you."
Well, they despaired of any hope of changing me, I guarantee you, brother. No. Now, the Satan himself knows it's hopeless. And I thank Allah, only Allah could do this.... Reading it like you're reading bedtime stories or something, for children. See you not that it is Allah, whose praises all beings in the skies, in heaven and on earth do celebrate. And the birds of the air with wings outspread, each one knows its own mode of prayer. The poet, the poet, the poet. And praise, knows its own mode of prayer and praise, and Allah knows well all that they do. Allhamdulilah.
And they don't produce any change in life. Their houses stay the same, their neighborhoods stay the same. Their flock stays the same. No progress, like the ones that slept in the cage, with the shadow just passing by the hole. But when Allah blesses somebody, that's yours, that's yours. Who do I belong to if I don't belong to you all? An African American, son of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, son of once the leader that led you all, led me. I'm yours. Now, if you don't celebrate and if you don't rejoice, that Allah has blessed you with a person like me, who will? If anybody should be rejoicing, it should be you. But you... You're right. You're right. You're right. He say, "Cowards." He's right. Cowards. And your weakness is your moral weakness. Moral weakness, afraid to be put on the spot.
I welcome criminals to follow me. I just want them to respect me and accept that I'm here to help them. I invite criminals to follow me, and I never will ask you, "Are you stealing? Are you selling drugs?" I will never do that. I invite you to follow me. Just don't embarrass us and put the stuff in here, and don't bring it to throw in my face. But I invite you to follow me. You don't need to be perfect; this is not for angels. Angels are already all right. And when you see an opportunity for you to cut loose your bad habits and give your service to Allah, like you should, then tell me, "Brother Imam, I'm ready. I used to be this, and I was that, but I've been reached and now I'm ready. I've cut that loose."
But I'm not going to put you out. You aren't supposed to be out, you're supposed to be here. Now, you won't understand this, some of you, if you are an African American, you're not supposed to be with anybody but the Honorable Warith Deen Mohammed. Now, I put it that way because that's who I'm with. I'm with the Honorable Warith Deen Mohammed. And I'm with him not only as a believer in G-d, I'm with him as a black man, that finds the answer to all my questions and the answer to my walk in Imam Warith Deen Mohammed's leadership.
Yes. Praise be to Allah. As they say in Texas, "We're going to win this race. We'll never give up. We'll battle into the last day." We're going to win this race and we don't give up on our brothers and sisters. Never. Never. Allah didn't bring us to life for us to forget about the dead that's among us. No. We're going to keep working to get them to see what we're doing and pray that Allah will help us turn their hearts, strengthen them, give them the care that they need to take a stand with us. And we're going to keep doing it until we're dead. We're going to work hard to leave others behind us that are going to do the same thing we are doing.
We're talking about a 5-year, 20-year plan. We have a forever plan. And that's G-d's word, it's forever. It's not here for a certain time. G-d's word is here forever. And the Prophet told us to live like that. He said, "Work and live as though you're going to die tomorrow." So today is the last day. But at the same time, work and live as though you're going to live forever. So, we work for the present and the long-distance future for as long as G-d deems it necessary, we're going to be on this earth working for His word and His kingdom that's supposed to be on this earth.
So, in the broadest sense then, prayer is conformity to the will of G-d in the life form that He created for you. Be in the life He created for you and perform as He designed for you to perform. And that is your prayer. Muslims have to live constantly in prayer. We have to have a constant life of prayer. Our life is a continuous prayer. We have to recall the words of G-d all times of the day, not just when we stand to pray.
There are situations we are meeting all the time in the world, and if we recall the words of G-d, we'll be able to fare better in this world, much better in this world. When you're seeing these things and they're affecting you, and you are not recalling the word of G-d, the journey through this world is much more difficult than it would be if you were to reflect on what G-d has revealed. Then, you would pass by a lot of things that may trouble your heart and your heart isn't going be disturbed. Don't you feel sorry for the situation. You won't be hurt so that you're set back or damaged or crippled. No, you go through it unharmed. That's the Tasbiha, reflecting, recalling.
So, it's no accident that this is happening in this year, 1999, the closing of this millennium. And Hanukah, Christian and even Christmas all are carried in this month at the end of this year, that's no accident. No accident. So go forward and don't be afraid. Go forward with what you know is right and don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to do anything your heart or your spirit tells you to do. If it's good and sensible.
If your spirit or heart tells you.....Go to mama. That you don't believe or accept Islam, but something moves you, say, go to mama, talk to her again. Go to her and talk to her again. If something tells you, write a book. Put what you have in your heart and mind in a book. Find a way to do that. Don't sit around here and dry up with all this understanding in your head, even if you disbelieve half of it. If you believe one tenth of what I gave you tonight, man, and today, you are ahead of most people in the world. And understanding, you are ahead of most people in the world in understanding. So don't fear. If you want to do something, Allah will be with you and His angels will be with you.
So, we've got to do bigger and more things from now on. Bigger and more things from now on. We've got to be much more productive as Muslims than we have been in the past. Yes. And believe me, G-d is with us. He's with us. All you have to do is have faith and go on and do it. Be intelligent, be respectful, care about everybody. Want everybody to have a good life. Don't try to disturb somebody's peace just because they don't think the way you think. Walk around their mind and just show them by example, that here's something that you may find attractive. Don't disturb their piece. Thank you. G-d be with you and grant us success, forgive us our errors and all our sins. And make us the model community that would be an example to all of the world of what Allah wants as a community for man on this earth. Ameen.
IWDM:
As Salaam Alaikum. The same chapter that we were reading from yesterday, how it is not allowed that we put in charity or spend in the society, not even to spend in the society, money that has been gotten unlawfully. Something unlawful. That verse, verse 267, from Suratul Baqarah. And then we also made a comment on the next verse, 268, how the Satan, the evil one, Satan, translated here as the evil one, threatens us with poverty and gets us to conduct ourselves of conduct unseemly. So, unbecoming conduct. And we didn't comment on the verse beyond that.
So, the verse that I want to comment on now is verse 271. But I will read it, since it's all part of the same chapter, I'll read the other verses without comment. So, verse 269, Audhu Bilahi Mina Shaitan Ir Rajeem. (I seek refuge in G-d from the accursed one, Satan) Bismillah Ar Rahma Nir Raheem (With the Name of G-d the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer. "He grants wisdom to whom He pleases, and he to whom wisdom is granted, receives indeed a benefit overflowing. But none will grasp the message but men of understanding."
"He," referring to G-d, as we know, Allah the Almighty Controller of the Heavens and the Earth, "And whatever you spend in charity or devotion, be sure Allah knows it all, but the wrongdoers have no helpers." We commented on these verses, we did comment briefly on this verse, and the above one.
271, "If you disclose acts of charity, even so, it is well that..." And I'm sure we all understand that what it said here, but I will also state it again to be sure that everyone understands it. It means, if you let your charity be known, disclose it, make it be known, if you let it be known, you tell people, "I gave that in charity." Or others are saying you gave that in charity and you let it be known that you gave something in charity, disclosed it. But if you conceal them, which means, if you don't make it known. And it's translated, conceal them. But actually, if you look at the word in Arabic, you who know how to read Arabic, it's, if you conceal it, Da Ha, it's for it, not for them. If you conceal it. It's okay that he... I'm not making criticism for criticism's sake or to take anything from this translation, I'm making these distinctions and observations to be sure that we all are understanding it correctly, the best we can. The best we can.
But if you conceal them... And it says, "If you conceal it," it means the act of charity, if you conceal your act of charity, that's what it means. "And make it," your act of charity or your charity, Deha is for the charity, your charity. "And make it," meaning your charity, "Reach those really in need," those in need... Fuqara... he put, "Really in need." That's okay with those in need, that's what it says. "And reach those in need, that is best for you. That is best for you." That's what it says.
"It will remove from you some of your stains of evil." Now we know what it means, remove from you some of your defects, some of your sins. Say Ya Ti Qum, removed from you. Didn't say some, it says... Well, yes, you can translate, Min, yeah, An Ku Min will take away some... Yes, that's correct. That's the correct translation. Min then means, then that not all the sins are gone. Min means that something is taken away from your sin. It takes away from sin. Any act of good takes away from sin according to the teachings of our Prophet, and the Qur'an, and the teachings of our Prophet, Peace be upon him. But this is a very special, good act. "Yes, it will remove from you some of your stains of evil. And Allah is well acquainted with what you do." Walahu Bima Thamaluna Kabir.
We're going to stop right there. No, I don't think we should. We might as well finish this section. This section is very, very, very... What is the word? Meticulous. Very meticulous. It's very, very precise. Very, very precise in identifying things that many of us overlook regarding charity. So, let's come to the next verse now and read.
"Allah will deprive usury of all blessings but will give increase for deeds of charity." Now, it didn't say interest, did it? He could have put Allah will deprive interest. He could have translated it like that. Allah will deprive interest of all blessings. But he didn't say interest, he said usury. Now, look up interest in the dictionary and look up usury in your dictionary, and you'll see that some of these people who are just saying all interest that you earn in a bank is usury, they are making a big mistake. Especially, when they don't know the nature of banking in the United States and in the world. Obviously, they're prejudiced against the nature of banking because it's a Western institution.
Yes?
Speaker 1:
[inaudible 00:42:46].
IWDM:
Oh. Oh. Yeah, thank you very much. I skipped from 71 to 79? No, 75. Well, that was the angel who made me skip. And we thank Allah for his angels. Yes. So, it's very good that we read that. Now, 76, "Allah will deprive usury of all blessings, but will give increase for deeds of charity, for He loves not creatures ungrateful and wicked."
See, this is talking about usury. Men who enslave people by charging them exorbitant interest or price, for borrowing money or for borrowing something or for getting help with something, financial help with something. They charge you so much they know you will never be able to pay up. And that way you're their slave forever. When you can't pay them, they have you working for them. But you have to do this, you have to do this. You have to work this off until you pay this up. That was an ugly time in the period of history when this kind of thing was very, very popular and it was very wicked. It was. That's what Allah says in the Qur'an, it was a wicked, very bad thing.
Ungrateful people, not grateful to G-d for what G-d had given them. And when you are very selfish, that's also ungrateful because if you've been helped, you should be thankful that you have been helped. And if you are thankful that you have been helped, then you will want too also be nice to somebody else. But if there's no gratitude, there's no thankfulness, we are not grateful for nothing, then there is no sensitivity in us for other people. They go together, ingratitude, selfishness and cruelty to others. And the devil is the most ungrateful of all. That's one of his attributes. He's the ungrateful one. Very ungrateful.
Let's go back now to where we were to be. "It is not required of thee, Oh Messenger, to set them on the right path. But Allah sets on the right path whom He pleases. Whatever of good you give benefits your own souls and you shall only do good seeking the face of Allah.
Whatever good you give shall be rendered back to you and you shall not be dealt with unjustly. Now, let's look. Allah is telling the Prophet that you cannot guide people. Laysa Alaika- It is not your responsibility, Huda Hum. To guide them-Wa lakan Allah. But G-d. Yadi Man ishaa. He guides whoever He wills or pleases. So don't be frustrated Brother Imam like you may think I am sometimes. I'm never frustrated, Allah knows that. But I'm getting on these people that don't seem to respond or buzz, they show no real interest in what we are trying to share with them. And they're looking defiant, like they're very dissatisfied with what we are saying and doing. And I get on them. You may think I'm frustrated. I'm not. I'm not. I'm cool as a cucumber, as the saying goes.
I'm trying to help them. We can't let ourselves assume more ability and responsibility than is natural or possible for us. You can't make anybody believe. And we know that Allah says to the Prophet, "You cannot put faith in them. You cannot make anybody believe." Only Allah can grant them the blessing of faith. All you can do is just deliver the message, can't make anybody believe in G-d or in what you're saying or teaching them of Islam. And here it says you can't even guide them. If you could guide them, you would guide them to faith, wouldn't you? So, the two go together, faith and guidance. You can't give faith. If you can't give faith, you can't guide them. If you could guide them, you could give them faith. And if you could give them faith, you could guide them. They go together. If you could give them faith, you could guide them. And if you could guide them, you could give them faith because guidance would take them to the evidence that would give them, that would have them believe. Yes.
Now let's conclude the reading of the Qur'an for this session. Perhaps we'll read some more at the end of this session. But for this session now, the beginning of this session, let's read this. The section 22, that long verse in section 22, 177 first verse of section 22 on righteousness. Before you start reading, who can give me the word for righteousness in this section? Different word. Yeah. Bira. Al Bira. It's got the Al on it. It's the Al, Al Bira. Yes. Yeah. 177, verse 177. The first verse in section 22 of Suratul Baqarah. The second chapter of the Qur'an. Yes, the word is Bira, righteousness. Now you know the word beer in english is a drink, a forbidden drink unless it's without alcohol. They have some beers without alcohol. I don't like it. I was hoping I would cause I think I got a memory bank in my head that says somewhere in my genes I love that stuff, wine and stuff. I don't know.
Yeah. I say, I thank for this religion. I'd be a wine drinker. I know I would. I know that. My life would be ruined. I'd stay high all the time. So, you see the word beer. Beer. And you know alcohol itself, the devil produces. Allah says it, say these things are from the devil. And look what he calls it, righteousness. He knows what he's doing. He knows what he did. Did it a long time ago. Yeah, calls it righteousness. Bir. So, you think you can make them righteous? G-d, I'll make them righteous. I'll keep them so high; they can't be anything else. It'll be righteous in my world. So, you can't stop them from working against you. Watch how I stop them from working against me. I'll have them so drunk they can't do anything but just be helpless subjects. They call the alcohol spirits. And G-d, you can try to give them your spirit. Watch how they accept my spirit. But what does Bir mean in Arabic? It means a well. And well has a special meaning in scripture. Bir- A well. The well, Zam Zam is a well.
And when you read the Bible, you read of Abraham and different ones come to the well. Abraham had the well. And so, the well has a very good meaning. In Arabic, there's also called Ain. And Ain means eye. Eye, Ain. Yes, eye. And the water, when it's made, when the well is dug, the water will automatically, because of the nature of water, the water will automatically make a circle. It makes the hole a circle, makes a circle. So, it's a circle, a clear circle, transparent substance, called water within the solid mask called the ground of the earth. And when you look at your eye, your eye has water. It's water all over, all over the eye is water. And right in the center it's black. And you think it's really black like you like this mic, but it's not. Light penetrates it. It's like a black hole. And the water in Suratul Nur, which you were reading from yesterday is darkness. Says the light is asked and it describes G-d's light. And it says darkness is as dead sea and the depths of the sea, the levels of darkness in the water. This darkness is good and this darkness is bad. Darkness can be good and darkness can be bad. The darkness means the absence of light and the absence of knowledge, of information that makes light, that clears up the matter. It's the absence of it. But isn't that exactly what we have to do before we learn. We have to say, "I don't know." You have to be black in order to come become light or white, right? Yeah. Cause you think you know; you'll never learn anything. Yeah, but you have to say, "I don't know." So, what do we say to G-d? No matter how much we know, we say, "G-d, we do not know. You know and we know not." G-d is the knower, doesn't mean that we don't know anything. Certainly, many things we know, but we protect ourselves and our ego by acknowledging that we in the beginning knew nothing. That's what it means. We appreciate that knew nothing. G-d, everything we got came from you.
And we never accept that really, we have an authority in knowledge. The authority is all with G-d. And even that that we know we may have to give it up one day, discover that we didn't know it quite right. Our knowledge was not quite right. You, see? So, we don't know when your knowledge may change either. Our perception of what we think we know may change. You, see? So that's a good thing to say. We know nothing. I got that from them, reading about them in scripture. And that's what I say, "I know nothing. You know everything, G-d. I know nothing." And that's exactly what our knowledge is when we put it in light of what G-d has revealed. Nothing. Yes. So, this Bir, Al Bira, is a beautiful word. Righteousness also refers to spiritual purity and to which is symbolized as a well cause the water that comes up from the ground is filtered through the sand and rocks that's deep below. That's the best filter, the sand and rock under the oil. That's the filter.
And the water comes up from the reservoirs beneath the surface of the earth, sometimes they're very deep and it comes up through the filter. And it may be some impurities and will be impurities near the surface. But as the water comes up and runs, keeps going, it cleans it, it pushes all the filth away. And pretty soon if you have a good well, the water is perfectly clean. It's filtered water. It's symbolic of the spirit, our spirit, our spirituality. Spirituality means all of our sensitivities like fear, emotions, sensitivities, and even sensibilities. See, sensitivities, I have to say this because all of us are not on the same level. My education has been extended because I've studied for so many years on my own. But when I graduated from high school, I didn't have the vocabulary I have now. I had a little small vocabulary. So, I'm not going to take it for granted that you're not college students. Some of you are college students and college professors. We have college professors among us here, at least one or two.
But I can't just take for granted everybody know everything I'm saying. So, I have to explain it. Sensitivities and sensibilities. Sensitivities, you understand that. If any of us see a person doing cruelty to even an animal that we don't particularly like, we won't like that. It'll affect us. Some of us don't like cats. But if we see somebody beating on a cat and just beating on a cat unmercifully that touches us because we have human sensitivities, the sensitivities of living things. Not only humans, animals have that too. We have these sensitivities. But sensibility mean sensitivities that are trying to perceive something, sensitivities that want to perceive something, that want to feel and know something. So, since the same senses that register hurt and pleasure, bad and good, these same senses too also want to know. They want to know.
So many times, it's from your sensitivities that you begin to feel a little uncomfortable with your sweetheart. So, sensitivities are saying, "Hey, there's something wrong here." See, I'm hugging her with a real hug. This hug she gives me doesn't feel like the right hug, feels like a fake hug. So, we have sensitivities. Our sensibilities. And that's why it is told that in the hereafter, those who made that wudu, was in the habit of making wudu, they would have the light of their wudu on their hands. The light of their wudu on their hands. So, what is the Ilm here? The knowledge here? The knowledge is that these were innocent, pure sensitivities that made us want to be clean. We sense ourselves being unclean. We don't feel good. I'm not talking about wudu now; I'm talking about any cleaning up period. We sense ourselves unclean and we don't feel good. Our sensibilities tell us, "Wash, clean, take a bath," and we take a bath.
So, the Prophet Muhammad is teaching us when he says, "And there would be the light of your wudu on your hand." He's teaching us that there is a conscious act on your part because you want to be clean. You are of the purified ones. You love purity, you love cleanliness. You have sensibilities. And because of your good sensibilities, you have kept your wudu and that's your habit, that has been your practice. And in the hereafter, you were resurrected into a new creation and a new form. You have light going from your hands. The light of your wudu. Beautiful. Yes. It is not righteousness that you turn your faces toward East and West. Now isn't it something that we still have people turning their faces toward East and some toward the West? In the western world, your bed will be turned, and it's turned so that you come up out of the bed like the sun from the East facing West.
See the sun rises in the East, but it's always facing West. It rises in the East facing West, sets in the West and comes up the next morning facing West, just keeps going West. But it comes from the East. So, what is it going to? What is West? Darkness. The sun is trying to get back to where it came from, wants to get back into the dark. As so is man in his intellect, his mind, in his curiosities. He become conscious of himself and his birth or creation is like the East. When he become conscious of himself, he starts going in the way of the West. Death. He's going to death. But at certain point in his life he doesn't know always know he is going to death now. He think he's going to manhood and going to bigger business, whatever, or a bigger career, whatever, or a beautiful woman, whatever. Oh yes man, I'm romantic. I can't help but think of women sometimes. You got no romance in you, you are dead. Yes, Islam is for lovers. Praise be to Allah.
Yes. So, at a certain point in his progression, he works progress for himself. The man began to have thoughts of his beginning. And though the sun is still going West, something, you can't reverse the movement of life that G-d has designed. Now the sun got to keep going West, keep aging. You keep going toward the death. But something happened. The sun is also perceiving, isn't it? So, when it gets past the zenith point, it seems as though it's looking eastward because the shadow has now been cast in the opposite direction and the man wants to conceive his spirit. He wants to perceive his spirit. He wants to know what is the reality behind these objects. So, they start to cast shadows in the other direction, whereas before he was just wanted to see, "What are these objects in my path?" And when he gets to a certain point, he begins to be curious of how all this got started, including me. So now I want to see what are the shadows behind me? What are the images behind me? So, he begins to search his beginning.
And that's why the Prophet said, "The sun shall rise from the West." It never going to rise from the west, that's an impossibility. But figuratively speaking by interpretation and translation, yes, the sun rises from the West. How does it rise from the West? When the sun sets in the West and began to cast the shadows toward the East, toward the birthplace, the beginning. For the man for the human beings mind, it is studying its beginning. And when we do that, we're sun too. We're called sun. When we do that, then we have turned our sun toward the West. Pardon me, we are studying the East, but we are trying to rise our sun from the West. Let me explain to you. When we study our beginning, we study our beginning so that we would have more ability to deal with the darkness, death. We want to proceed this death that we are going to. But how can we perceive it if we don't know our beginning? So, we turn our attention to our curiosities, to our beginnings to discover how we began. Now if we go beyond the sun rising, we are going to go down in the darkness of the East because the sun comes up from the East and it's rising before we see it. So, we got to go into the beginning of our life that's unveiled, I mean that's never veiled, undisclosed. We don't know that. We don't know our beginning, but we will strain our mind. We will use references in everything trying to perceive our beginning and we will come up with some knowledge of our beginning. Then we will apply it to the darkness of the West, death. And we will then get some perception of what death must be and when we get a perception of what death must be, the light is coming from the West, or the sun is rising from the West. So, man will seek to know his beginning after he anticipates his ending, and he doesn't know what the conclusion is going to be.
Then he wants to go back to the beginning to understand his life so that maybe he will understand what death is for him. You understand what I'm saying? It should be clear. So the sun seemed to be reversed then, goes down seeking to know what was before my birth into this world? What was I before I was conceived in my mother? Did I have an existence before that? What was I? So that kind of study, it turns on the spiritual life and the faith. Faith and spiritual interest is turned on. And when the mind separates from the material interest, it starts to concentrate on the spiritual life and the spiritual interest. You begin to perceive or have some idea. You have some idea of what may be at the end for you. So, when you start to do that, then the death that you're facing is not so horrifying anymore. You say the G-d that made me from nothing is able to make me again. So, begin not to fear the darkness so much and not to fear the death so much, the end so much.
So that's light rising from the West. That's pertaining to my own life now. But for this religion, when the religion becomes confused and the beauty of Islam is lost, the great Ummah of brotherhood and sisterhood is dead. Health and happiness between the brothers and the sisters is gone. The soul will be saddened, the soul will be constricted, miserable of the good people and G-d will bless some of them or at least one of them to begin addressing this bad condition. And he will study the religion and he won't find enough help studying the Qur'an, studying the history, studying the Hadiths. He won't find enough help. He will struggle and struggle until his spirit will take over for his mind. And the spirit is going where his mind can't go, and G-d will assist him with angels, and he'll begin to see the purity of Islam, how it all got started. Then he will take that purity and he would apply it to the present and where we are going with our life.
And he'd say, "Hey, there has to be a change." And he will also be a sun rising from the West. Yes. And the most learned in the religion, the one I'm calling now, he's a hafiz and master practically all the Hadiths. Not only a hafiz but a reciter of the Qur'an but he knows practically all the Hadiths also. An old man and he told me, he said, " Imam WarithuDeen," he say, "The Prophet, Sa ala Alahi Wa Salaam, said "That the sun would rise from the West. He says, "But Imam WarithuDeen, it will rise from the West. But as soon as it gets up very visible, it goes back down, it sets again in the West." I said, "Thank you." It doesn't rise from the West and set in the East, that never happens. It rises from the west and as soon as it's clear and visible, it goes back down. It obeys its Lord. Because there are some intellectuals in religion, in theology, they want to know the beginning and they keep going from the West to the East. They keep going from the West to the East.
Ontology, the beginning of things. Eschatology, the conclusion of things. East and West, so they keep going and these are their terms, not mine. This is their interest and they have set the terms. They've created a whole field of knowledge on this. So, they go toward the East all the time. They want to know their beginning all the time. They're just obsessed with knowing their beginning. And they end up saying their beginning is G-d. In the beginning they were G-d and they came from G-d, out of the body of G-d and they will return to the body of G-d. That's their end. So that's how they determine their end, that they will return to the body of G-d, which is their reasoning is far out of line with our reasoning. But their language is like our language. We know that we came not out of G-d but because of G-d. And in a sense, we came out of Him too, but something of Him, not all of Him.
Like our virtues, our purity is from G-d. Our purity is from G-d and our mercy is from G-d. Our love is from G-d. All these attributes that are good for us and that are human nature and want purity. Love wants to be pure love. We prevent it, but love wants to be pure love. I don't care how bad the person is, love in that person wants to be pure love. And maybe the reason why his love is so impure and so corrupt is because he has been hurt so much loving that his love has become wounded love, abused love, defected love, rotten love. Hear that brother and sister, rotten love. Now maybe you have never had some rotten love, but I have. Rotten love. But the nature of love in us is to be pure, pure love. So really, we do come from G-d, we come from G-d. Our virtues, our attributes of beauty and purity come from G-d. And also, our spirit comes from G-d. Not all our spirit, Allah said He have given everyone something of His spirit. Allah says this. I'm not coming from anything but the scripture.
So, some spirit in us, we have different spirits in us. But some spirit in us is from Allah too. But so, is it true for everything? That's why Allah says He have given everything something of His spirit. Now He says everything, that means He gave the sun, the earth, everything something of His spirit. We have to accept it, that's just what He said. We can't change it. If Allah says He gave everything something of His spirit, we have to accept that. Now we know the spirit that He gave huge rocks or tree, oak tree or something. It's not the same spirit He gave a human being. They're different spirits, but everything has something of His spirit. So what is spirit? Spirit is an influence in you directing you that wants to direct you and its nature is to direct you. That's what a spirit is. And influence in you that its nature is to direct you. So, if you get the influence of the sin in you, the nature of that influence is to direct you to more sin.
You get the influence of the devil in you, the nature of that spirit is to direct you to be a bigger and bigger devil. Yeah. So, the spirit is an influence in us that its own nature is to direct us. Its nature is to direct us. So, G-d's spirit, something of G-d's spirit is in all of us. And the nature of that spirit is to direct us. But it has challenging spirits from many other things, challenging that spirit. We want him too. We want to direct him too. Ain't that life? That's life. And when we allow too many spirits to be in ourselves, then we have just given up on management of our life. Also sensitivities, the heart is to engage spirit. And if that happens and you'll be a sincere person, you put all spirits under the spirit of G-d. You make all spirits recognize, respect the spirit of G-d in you. Then your life become one. Your life becomes whole. And Jesus says, "Go on, you have been made whole. This is gospel. You have been made whole."
How come? You've given up attachments to these other spirits and you have let the spirit of G-d decide what your life should be. So, because of that, there's harmony. There's one great symphony of spirits in your life and they're playing to the tune of G-d. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, that's heaven for the soul. Yes, the sun will one day rise from the... It's not righteousness to turn your faces towards East or West. That's not righteousness. But it is righteousness to believe in Allah, to believe in G-d. That is the G-d, the real G-d, and the last day, and the angels. See the order they coming in. So, man fears death, doesn't he? This life died. I know I do. And that's in us before we even start to be curious about the beginning of things and wanting to know the conclusion of things or have faith in G-d or anything. Every creature is born with this natural fear, fearing the last day, the setting of the sun, the conclusion of things.
So, we also have to believe in the angels cause that interest in us and that inability to proceed to the satisfaction of our souls, it is what brought us to search our beginnings, to know our ending better and to acknowledge that G-d must be over all this. Wasn't that Prophet Abraham Peace be upon him, Ibraheem who watched the sun rise and watched it set and came to a conclusion that there is but one G-d, Allah. And he's our father, our second father and first teacher from G-d. Universal teacher. And the last day, so we come to believe in G-d and believe in the last day. Then we want to know, how has this all come to me? I was straining, I didn't know how to find it. But something sparked in me in the dark and I saw light. What was that magic? Intuition or whatever we call it. So now we accept that there were unknown agents, unperceivable agents assisting me, bringing, helping me get to the light that G-d wanted me to get to.
G-d's angels and the book help on the high plain of prophecy and Prophets, the great angel Jibreel comes and the high angels to bring assistance. So, they come before clear communication comes. So, we believe in those angels. We know we didn't decide the time of revelation. We couldn't decide the time of revelation and we didn't even know how the revelation would come. Muhammad had never known any experience like that. He was confused and frightened with his wife and told us his experience and what G-d caused him to know that he had angels assisting him. So, he comes to know the angels. And then after he come to know the angels, then he has the revelation and the books, and he believes and the whole progression. Now let me tell you something, you also should believe in righteousness, although it's not given here. You should believe in righteousness. You should want to be righteous, and you should have faith in righteousness.
Righteousness is a power all by itself. Your faith in righteousness brings you to knowledge of G-d and faith in G-d, and in the last days, and in angels, and in the books. None can touch it but the purified ones. So, if you don't have this purity, you will never get revelation. Touch it means have a feel for what G-d is saying. You have a feel for what G-d wants you to do before you even have it in your brain and your knowledge. You have a feel for it where you will never have the feel for the direction G-d wants you to take in this Qur'an until you love purity, love righteousness, want purity and want righteousness. None will touch it but the purified ones. Now this touching is the beginning of revelation. Touching is the beginning of revelation. A blind man can touch and know what a object is. At least he'll have a perception. If he never saw that object before, a blind man can feel it and get a perception of how it looks. I've never felt that before. Hand me anything, any shape that I've never had.
I can feel it and I have a perception in my mind how it looks. It's like a shadow of that thing, right? Yes. I can perceive how it looks. And I saw a movie once and this guy finally got involved. His feelings got involved. And the woman was already loving him. She could see, she had eyes. So, when he really got involved and he felt that she was accepting him, he then wanted to see her for the first time. He took his hand and he felt all over her face. He put his fingers into the crevices of her face. So, he'd get her features, that he got her features. And of the blessed Mary peace be upon her, it is said, "And no man touched her, but she conceived a child." Isn't that wonderful, brother? And Allah sent her help and told her, she wanted some food for her new baby and Allah said, "Take a stick and scratch the earth and make grooves from the tree." And when she did it, water came into the grooves and fresh ripe dates fell for her baby, so she'd have food to feed her baby.
See how consistent it is? We started off talking about the well, didn't we? Pure sensitivities that want a definite focus in the gross matter. Perfect circle like Ain, the Arabs call it Ain, Eye. And to believe in the Messengers. The revelation is what brings us to believe in the Messengers. The books are the revelation. When they give us what G-d have revealed to them, then we believe in them. Those who accept faith, they accept faith. And spend of your substance. All of this is righteousness, beautiful and spend of your substance, that mean whatever you have is not always something you call money, a dollar or something. But you have something of value. It's not always tangible, that is material like you can touch it with your hand. But it's some ability you have, some good that you have that you can help others with. So, you always have something to give in charity and spend of your substance out of love for Him. We have to stop here. We are not-


