May 11th 2001
Jumuah Ephraim Bahar Cultural Center
Imam W. Deen Mohammed

This broadcast of IWDM, the Muslim American Society leader. The following kutbah or sermon in English was delivered Friday, May 11th, the year 2001 at the Ephraim Bajar Community Center in Chicago, Illinois. Your lecturer is Imam W. Deen Mohammed.
Bismillahir rahmanir rahim (Arabic)
We praise Allah. We witness that He's one. We witness that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed more than 14 centuries ago is His servant and his messenger. The prayers and the peace be upon him and what follows of that salutation.
We ask Allah to forgive us our errors, our shortcomings, our sins, have mercy on us, and guide us. It is written in the Quran that if G-d does not guide, you are not guided. Mankind cannot be guided except with the help of G-d. G-d has to guide the humanity. For many, many generations, thousands of generations, man was in darkness. Mankind was in darkness and didn't know his destiny. He didn't know that he was to be a civilized society, a human society distinguished from the animals, the apes and wolves, dogs. He thought he was just another animal. That's what history tells us of primitive man, savage man.
He lived like an animal. He talked with the animals. He even worshiped animals, some animals were gods. It took G-d to inspire him, and G-d told the angels to say I'm creating a khalifa in the earth. The angels were not comfortable with that. They feared that there would be bloodshed if man would be given that kind of authority.
That tells us that the situation was in the hands of the angels. G-d had left the situation in the hands of the angels to reward and punish, but now G-d is telling the angels that I'm going to make a creature that I can guide myself. I can guide. I will guide him, and he will have free will. He will be created in the way that would permit him to reject me or accept me.
So, the angels, they were fearful of that. G-d said wait until I have given him of my spirit. Then you make your submission to him. We know the complete story in the Quran of the creation of man in the Quran for us to read, and I'm sure Imam made that clear to you, have given it to you from the Quran. My purpose in giving it here, I'm just slightly making some references to it, some small references to it is to say what I had started out with, and that is man cannot be guided except by G-d. If he's not guided by G-d, then he's going to disgrace himself. He'll disgrace the wonderful creature that G-d intended for him to be. He'll be a disgrace. He'll be shameful.
Yes, and G-d says that he formed us in the bellies of our mothers. In the bellies of our mothers, and we know we're formed in the wombs of our mothers, and we know that the stomach gets mighty big. G-d is speaking to us. Men see their wives growing. So, G-d is saying to us so we know he forms us in the belly of our mothers. He says that he has put us in three covers of darkness, three covers of darkness. He also says that he sent Muhammad the Prophet a mercy to all of the worlds, as it is written, to take us out of the darkness into the light. Out of the darkness into the light.
The Prophet Abraham, upon him be peace, he was searching. "What am I to worship as a G-d?" And the story goes that he was observing the outer world, the natural world, and he was attracted to the skies, those great objects up there moving in order and never seeming to change their discipline. He was attracted to that.
He watched and watched and watched, and he was disappointed with everything he saw, even the sun itself which rose in the morning. He sat all night watching the skies, and it rose in its splendor, and he had glorified all this. But when it set, he said, "No, my G-d is not one to set." So, he couldn't even accept the sun, the glorious sun. He said the one behind all of this, the one he made all of this, that's the G-d.
We view him in the Quran and Bible to as the father also of all people. The Quran has its leader, Imam, for all. And the Bible has its father, father, for all. Yes, and we know in Islam he's also father, though he's called leader for all, because our Prophet, peace be upon him, he addressed him father. Father Abraham. So, we know that he's the father also for us in Islam. He's our father. Second father after our natural, first natural father. Adam. Adam. Peace be upon them.
G-d is the one to guide. If you have no guidance from G-d, we have no guidance. And G-d, also mentions in Quran, that he is the one who has given us not one task, but tasks as in the plural [Arabic]. From [Arabic], one path. [Arabic], one path. The path of G-d. Then he gave us also [Arabic]. That's paths. Plural. Paths.
Now, we can make many comments and many, I would say, guesses. But what are that paths that he was referring to? Like when he said he made us in the bellies of our mothers, we have experience. We know what he's talking about. Well, if he said he had given us our paths, you should recognize your own path. Understand firstly any path you take, you wouldn't have it, it wouldn't be possible for you if G-d hadn't made you the way you are and made the world the way it is. Yes, but this is referring directly to or specifically to the path of intelligence, the path of intelligent search.
This is referring to the paths of science. Astronomy, chemistry. These are the paths that G-d have guided us to, and we wouldn't have these paths if it were not for G-d. How did we find them? We didn't find them in our dreams. No human being on this earth since it's been in existence found mathematics in a dream or found chemistry in a dream or found astronomy in a dream or found economics in a dream. All of this is found by studying the environment that G-d made and using the tools of intelligence that he gave us when he created us.
Now, it's clear in my mind that what He means when He says He is the One who has guided all the prayer for one (unclear), we would not have guidance if you had not guided us. Again, you are the one who gave us our path, who gave us our path. But G-d wants us to appreciate all of these paths, but not make none of these paths the most important paths. And understand that when G-d says he gave us these paths, G-d means these paths will lead to him. If you have the right heart and spirit of soul, state of soul, mathematics will lead you to G-d. Astronomy will lead you to G-d. Chemistry will lead you to G-d.
Many scientists were not worshiping people, but science, their study of science, the experiments as a scientist brought them to be faithful to G-d. They understood that there's a G-d behind that. This is wonderful. Yes, this is what Islam does for us that other religions, as I know them ... Maybe there's a religion I don't know about or something in some of these religions I don't know, but to my knowledge, let me put it that way, to my knowledge no other religion gives us this kind of clear understanding of our creation and our place in this creation, our job in this creation as human beings what we are to do, how are we to live, and who are we to give our worship to. None of these religions give this as clear as the Quran as Muhammad the Prophet's teachings and as our own intelligence when we apply our intelligence to the study of Quran and Muhammad.
We really don't need anything but that. We ourselves can begin as atheists not believing in G-d. We can begin as a communist not believing in the G-d of Islam, and even as a Christian or a Jew or a Buddhist, if we're sincere, if we study the Quran with no prejudice, pre-judgment, opinions that's keeping us from giving it a fair shake, if we do that, we're going to come to the conclusion that G-d is the one that created everything and our purpose on this earth is to serve that G-d above everything else.
In the conclusion of this part of the kutbah, G-d says what we sacrifice to him does not reach him. Your money, the blood of animals and your sacrifice he says do not reach him. What reaches him, he says, is your obedience. Your obedience reaches him. So, he created us to obey, and that's how we serve him. We obey him. Not give him money. The money is for us. Praise be to Allah.
I conclude by saying I thank Allah for the strange way that I was brought to Islam. I thank Allah, because it has made it possible for not only us, but for any people who want to come to Islam in a very excellent way to have that opportunity. If whites are converted by our dawah, they are fortunate. They could be converted by somebody else's dawah. Allahu Akbar.
(Arabic) We praise G-d Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin, the Lord, sustainer of all the world. We witness that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed is His last Prophet, the seal of the Prophets, his servant and his messenger and a mercy to all mankind. We praise G-d. We associate none in worship with him. We put his word and his guidance over all guidance. We question all light by his light, under his light, in his light, and we want to be the best community. We want nothing less than that. Allah says that he has made us the best community. You are the best community evolved for mankind. Raised up, evolved, means brought out. (Arabic) means brought out.
Didn't Moses bring people out in the world of Egypt? The world of darkness? He brought them out, and our Prophet is called in the Quran a man like Moses, sent to bring us out of the darkness into the light, but he can not do that except that we accept to be purified. So, let us love purification. Let us love clean language. Let us love intelligent speech. Intelligence purifies the tongue. Yes, the savage tongue was very dirty, but with education, this tongue got cleaner and cleaner. So, Islam is also the highest education, and it will bring us to the highest form of civilization. We should desire to be our best. Not halfway. Don't want to be half your best. Always want to be your best.
It doesn't mean you're going to be your best, but you're going to be in a situation to do better with it if you want your best than you would be if you just want half of your best. I see so many children doing their homework going to school, and they're making half effort. If those same children would shoot for the whole effort, they could bring their grades up.
Islam does not invite us to be less than what Allah has created us to be, and Allah has created us to be the model human that Muhammad was. He is the model. He is the perfected man. Perfected man. He is the perfected man. The Arabs called him, among their theologians or learned people, (Arabic). Imam, they call him [Arabic]. It means complete man, and Allah choose him because he was the complete man. Yeah.
Now, I look at my past life, and I see my brother here, too. I look at our past life. Past lives. We never went after less than our best. We were encouraged to do that. We were taught by my father, by the Nation of Islam, to do your best. Do your best, and that's what we did. If we hadn't, we wouldn't be as successful as we are now. Yes. Yes.
So, know that this is Islam, too. We think just praying fives times a day, that's Islam. That's sleep if you don't have the light. Yeah, what does Muhammad say to the man that they brought to him, special man? Peace and blessings be upon our Prophet. They say, "This man, we want to present him to you. He prays. He fasts. He does all these things." Muhammad the Prophet said, "And who takes care of him?" They said, "We do." He says, "Then you are better than he." Now, I'm sure that came as a big surprise for some of them who were feeling bad because they didn't make all their prayers. Feeling bad because they didn't fast every day of Ramadan every year. They were feeling bad. So, they lifting this angel up. They lifted him up, and the Prophet says, "You are better than he is, because you're taking care of him."
Now let us pray. That's enough.
[Arabic].


