07/11/1999
IWDM Study Library 
Jumuah Shaw University
Raleigh, NC

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
As Allah tells us in the Qur'an regarding Prophet Muhammad, he exemplified the best human life before he was made to be the Messenger of G-d. And it was in that capacity as a Prophet and a Messenger that Muhammad was commissioned to be a human model for all. And when we look at the word Sewa, which is used to describe the Prophet in his behavior, it exemplifies balance. Has to do with balance, from the same word Sewa. And the balance for Muslims is to live a whole life in obedience to G-d. Now mysteries are in all religion. And these mysteries tend to draw the mind from the things we understand to the things we don't understand. The unknown are those things that are not known by the rational mind as much as they're understood by the soul and spirit. So. if we don't have the Sewa, if we don't have the model as a model for us, we will go the extremes, thinking that the religion is to go to these extremes. And thereby ignoring the rational development and the spiritual development of our community. Islam is here, Muslim brothers and sisters. Islam is here to keep us from going into those extremes, where we go into extreme spiritual practices and ignore the rational and the material development our community. This community is called a balanced community, and Al-Islam calls us to the life that G-d wants for us. And that is in accord with the model exemplified in the community established by Prophet Muhammad in Medina.
But don't forget your share of this world. Islam obligates the human being who follows the religion of Islam to live a life of obedience as an abstract body and also as a concrete body. Both in my spirit and in my flesh. This is something special in Islam, that we come alive to the possibilities in life in both the abstract and the concrete. And G-d relates the story of Abraham to us in the Qur'an. Abraham, he had some questions. He was a faithful man, but he was also a rational man. He respected his rational mind, and he wanted his rational mind to be comfortable with the matters he was being confronted with in religion. So, Allah gave him instructions in order to assist him in understanding the matters which he had questions about.
So, Allah wants us to know that you will never become too many or too hungry to be served. And you know what they say about the population explosion and everything and about the limited water and all this stuff. But Allah created this and Allah provided for everybody and everything. You just do what you're supposed to do and don't worry about anything else. And I guarantee you when the situation calls for it and we can't go any further, before we can't go any further with our lives, there already will be a new thing discovered that will take care of that problem. A new occurrence or a new discovery to take care of that problem. I'm never going to slow up. Only slowing me up is age. I done had about five more children since I talked to you.
Yeah, just age slowing me up. Ain't nothing else slowing me up. Let the sinners worry about overpopulation. Yes. So, when G-d says to us that He created us like a plant, He's saying many things. See that's why they say the Qur'an is powerful and its expression, in its expression. Very powerful in its expression. Few words say so much. One word can say so much. So, G-d says, "And He has created you as a plant," which means your creation is the parable of a plant. The parable of your creation, pardon me, is the parable of a plant. Now let's look at the plant. It didn't say what kind of plant. Just a plant. Any plant you can think of, it has to grow in something. It has to take life in something. And no matter whether it takes life in the sea, in the water or on land, it has to have roots.
It has to have to feed, it has to have attachment and a pattern of growth, a pattern of growth. It doesn't look in its middle life like it looked at birth. And it doesn't look in its childhood like it looks as a man or an adult. This is true for all life. All life grows in patterns. And the growth tells us something. The patterns of the growth patterns, or the structure of the growth tells us something about it. And most plants give something to society, not just to themselves. They either give you beauty or they give you shade or they give you a broom, they give you something, you find some use in them. All of them give you something. Some of them give you their whole body. Whole body. Some of them want to keep that body so they give you fruit or they give you nuts or they give you grain.
So, you value what their bodies are giving you. And you want to preserve their bodies so their bodies multiply. They keep plenty bodies. The environment now is worrying about trees, that we use up all the trees. So lumber is a big business, but because they don't want trees to be used up, they don't want to run out of trees, they say, "Hey, you got to conserve the trees." They now have laws passed. Say you can't cut trees down in certain areas to conserve the trees because they hold such value for us. They're not only value in lumber but their value is in cover for the land. Their value is shade. Their value is beauty. They have so many values. Now this is the way human beings should be. See. So just don't stop with G-d saying that your creation like that of a plant. Don't stop there brother Imam, you should start there. Not stop there. That's where you should start. You should start there. And then Allah says "And think and reflect."
Think, reflect. For surely it profits. You get profit from that. You get benefit from that. Yes. Now some charity is, like I said, its product, its good product, its fruit, its nuts, its grains, but some charity is the whole thing, the whole life, What does the grass give? Wheat grass. It gives it all. You just don't take the feed. All of it, all of it. Wheat grass too is consumed, eaten. And we know the cows Brother Imam, Brother Preacher if he is here. You know the cows, they eat the grass, they eat the body, they eat the whole body, they eat the grass. And you who know something about sheep, the sheep gouge under the earth and get the whole thing. Even the roots. Even the roots. And in the Bible it says, "What is the son of man but grass."
And that's not to be taken literally. It's to be understood. And you have help from Qur'an in that the Qur'an says He didn't say you're a plant. Your creation is like that of a plant. That means you have to translate. You have to see comparison. You have to come up with the logic for understanding what should your life be. So as a package consumed totally, the world gives me the products that are made from the ground, the earth at the marketplace, all these things. But it also gives me biology, anatomy, iron for the human nervous system.
The digestive system. The science of hair growth. And what it's made out of. It breaks it down to me so I can understand it. So, if we look at what I just said while hearing what I'm going to say now, Jesus Christ, not in Islam, but in Christianity, in the Bible. Jesus Christ, he wanted his followers to see him not as flesh and blood and to remember him not as flesh and blood. It was the Last Supper. And he said, take this bread, my body.
And he explained that the bread was the doctrine of the New Testament, the doctrine of the New Testament, teachings of the New Testament. And he told them to take this wine in remembrance of me. Don't remember the blood that flows in my flesh body. Don't remember the flesh that this blood is flowing in. Remember me on a higher level and a more meaningful level than that. Remember me in my teachings, the New Testament. And remember me in my spirit. Blood, wine. He said, this is not me. It's not my interpretation. All this is in the Bible. It don’t need no interpretation. The Bible's interpret interpreting itself. He said, my spirit, the spirit of the New Testament.
Now here, a man is telling his followers that he wants to continue to remember him and not to lose him, to see him not in his flesh, animal flesh and blood because that's what this is. This is no different than animal flesh. And the blood in here is no different than animal blood. The only difference is it's made for a human being and because it's in a human body and a human intelligence, et cetera, we don't steal it as much as animals do. No, I'm sorry. I made a mistake. forgive that mistake. But the animal nature in us rise up, we steal more blood than animals. If they lose the human nature to the animal nature, we steal more blood than animals. Back to my point. He's trying to tell them to remember him and his teaching. The teaching is the bread. And this is no new thing. When Jesus was teaching the people, what does the accused say to him that didn't want him doing that? Will you take the bread that's meant for the children and give it to the dogs? He wasn't giving them any bread. He was teaching them. He was lecturing to them, he was teaching them. He was speaking to them and they said, "Will you take the bread that's meant for the children and give it to the dogs?"
So, Jesus wasn't introducing any new language from the Bible. Correction, Is not introducing any new language. When the Bible says of Jesus and he said, "The doctrine of the New Testament is myself." And he gave the bread as a symbol of it. And he said, "The spirit of New Testament is my blood," and he gave them wine as a symbol of that. Now come back to what I told you. There's no part of the human being that hasn't been translated into science, by science. Am I correct? No part of the human being that has not been translated into science by science. So, if I go and get that teaching, am I not consuming the human being? If I follow the same logic of translation and interpretation, I am consuming human beings. So here now, we have seen the fulfillment of man as a plant. There's some plants that give their whole life to someone to consume them, some animal, something that needs to consume. They give us all of it. So, the science has been brought out and that's what the guidance was. That's what the inspiration is in scripture. To guide the curious intellect, to love to study rationally and bring out all the knowledge, the hidden knowledge. The hidden knowledge of the nature of things is science.
Did you get that? I have to slow up for you sometimes because you're not as serious as I am and you miss things. Yes. Let me repeat that. The hidden knowledge of the nature of things. How a thing exists as it is. Why it's like that, how it can hold its own self together. What makes it different from something else that's loose, that's most fluid or et cetera, or that's not solid. All of this knowledge that we interpret out of matter by observing matter and using references, et cetera, rational references, et cetera. We come up with this science, the science of things. So actually if we translate everything that exists into its knowledge text, take it out of its physical text and put it in a science text with science, acknowledging science. If we can do this for everything, then we can eat the whole universe.
And Allah says the extent of the garden that He has prepared for you is as the heavens and the earth. We don't know the invitation to science that G-d gave us when He revealed the word brother. They don't understand it. If they did, they'll be so excited and nothing would be able to turn you away from looking at G-d and what He wants for you. Nothing that the world could come up with could take my attention off of G-d and His message to mankind. Nothing. Because I see that the one who has liberated us all and given us the full measure of freedom that we are created for, it's only G-d, only G-d. G-d is the only one that did that. And it hurts my heart to see that this world that has benefited so much doesn't give G-d the credit. No, that's not much credit to give G-d, to say, G-d created all this. But look what we have done. So, I don't think I have to say more to you if you understand like I understand it.
Imam E Abdul Malik Mohammed:
We thank G-d the Lord Cherisher of the heavens and the earth and all that is between. The Lord of all the systems of knowledge. We praised Him alone, Him having no partners. And we witnessed that Muhammed is His Messenger. We pray the Prayers and the Peace upon Muhammed and what follows. It is my pleasure, my honor to stand before you here this evening. But I have to say it's also my burden to stand in the place of our leader on this occasion. I'm as, well, I don't want to disappoint you all, but I'm disappointed because I came here to hear him as you did and also to participate in these special moments.
I've had the opportunity quite a few times actually to stand in his place, in his absence. And what I reflect upon in those moments is the concern and the interest that I feel certain that he would promote and that he would preach, that he would present to you. So that was good news. He's on the plane on his way. I don't think he'll be here in time for this. I'm still left with this burden. Yes, I know his life. I know his concerns. I know his hopes and his vision. I know his language and I know that he would've very much wanted to be here to share those things with you himself and to witness this special, well, this part of the special series of events this week, this Taqwa meeting or conference, and to pay tribute to the founder of that conference and the founder of the North Carolina Central University.
For Muslims, the spiritual life is the life. There is no life more important than the spiritual life. And psychologists and historians, doctors of the psyche also say that man, human beings are essentially spiritual beings. That there's something existing in the human creature that functions in cooperation with this material body, but functions also independent of this material body. And it is this thing, this entity, this urge or this directional nature that makes you rise in the morning. It is what is present that causes you to be devoted for some purpose. And it's that life that is the essential life, the most important life. It is that life. That is the life to be guarded and protected. So, G-d gave us this material body and He gave us this material world to advance that life that is essentially spiritual. And there are many places in our religion that indicate this to us. And we recognize that there are also the same kinds of emphasis in the scriptures of others, the scriptures of the Christians and the scriptures of the Jews. It was something motivating Christ Jesus, Peace be upon him, in the garden that devoted him to his purpose. Even when his companions fell asleep. They were tuckered out from the work or from the interest. But Christ according to the Bible, stayed devoted to his purpose. And then he questioned them later about their slumber.
This is no different from where G-d says in Qur'an, the Holy Book of Muslims. He says, "We have heard a caller calling us to faith. Believe you in your Lord." And then it continues "And we have believed." So it is a devotion to faith. It's a devotion to the spiritual urge, the spiritual purpose in man's life and man's creation that brings him to a state where he can bring about stability, where he can bring about progress, where he can build institutions. It's something that exists in him as a desire that G-d created in man when He created man first, when He created Adam, He created this something, this essence, this function. And when this something is not respected, and when this something is not valued, when this something is left to be oppressed, war zones are created on this earth. That's what a war zone is on this earth.
A place where the human essence, the human content, the spiritual nature that holds in it, the spiritual nature holds in it the design the G-d put in man for progress. It is the most sacred, it is the most special. It is the most important aspect of human life, the spiritual nature. And when it is disregarded and when it is forgotten, when it is ignored, then we have the problem of oppression. We have the problem of racism. We have the problem of sexism. We have all of the difficulties that have faced man upon this earth. And it can be traced to one thing that the essential human spiritual nature has been forgotten or disregarded. So. if we are to address the issues of stable neighborhoods and communities, if we had to address the issue of the absence of wealth, not an economy in neighborhoods, in poor neighborhoods, there's no economy, no exchange of goods and services, no material resources. Those things cannot, you can't even approach any solution for those issues until you first address and acknowledge this entity or this spiritual nature in man, it has to be regarded properly. And G-d says, Allah as Muslims say, we say Allah, but Allah is the word that is Arabic for G-d.
The Christians, our Christian brothers and sisters. They should know that when we say Allah, we are not speaking of some G-d that you are not familiar with. The Christian Arab, the Arabs who speak, pardon the Christians who speak the Arabic language, when they say G-d in their language, they say Allah. So, this is the G-d for all of us. And we believe that it is incumbent upon us, it is a part of our faith as Muslims to accept that the Christians and the Jews and others share this common devotion and belief in the One G-d. Now that's very special. If I didn't say anything other than that, that would be enough and this burden would off of me.
Because a lot of people don't know that. They don't realize that the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Adam, the first man, the G-d of his wife, the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, the G-d of Jacob, the G-d of Ismael or Ishmael as he is called in the Bible, the G-d of all of the Prophets, Joseph and all of the Prophets, all the way to Jesus Christ, Peace on him is also the G-d of Muhammad. It's the same G-d who missioned all of these Prophets for what? For what purpose? The same purpose for which we are working right now. To free this spiritual nature that will have in its existence its fullest and most complete expression, that it will be free and that it will recognize that G-d created all of this environment to protect it and to urge it on and to give your energy to it, to give it some assistance, to give it some help.
So, the material world, our material body, its not a burden to us. It's not a sin upon us. It's not something that G-d gave us to be overwhelmed with. No, it's something that G-d gave as a compliment, as a brother, as an assistant, as a servant to that spiritual nature. Prophet Muhammad, the Prayers and the Peace be on him. He said that "On the day of judgment, that your material body will be an argument for and against you." That the material body, my hands, my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my feet, my legs, all our obedient servants to the world, the spiritual nature that G-d put there. And Muhammad, he was seen standing for a funeral procession. And one time he was standing for a funeral procession and one of his companions said, "This person is not a Muslim."
It was a Jew. And the Prophet didn't respond to this person. He remained standing. That is a clear indication from the Messenger of G-d to Muslims. If we understand it, that we ought to respect the nature that G-d created. We are to respect it. We are to honor it, that it has no label. The only label is the design that G-d put on it. And that is his first father, Adam. And Allah says, G-d says in the Qur'an "That every child of Adam is honorable." Now, if we had that kind of teaching in the Mosque on a regular basis. In the church, on a regular basis. In the synagogue, on a regular basis, we would be light years ahead in the war against oppression, in the war against ideas and concerns that destabilize man and his community.
Sometimes I think that the Muslims, well, I think this, and I know this at the same time, they're not correctly perceiving Muhammad the Prophet. They're not correctly identifying him because if they identified him in his true life, they would not be enemies or they would not be adversarial. They would not be in difficult situations with their Christian and Jewish neighbors. Muhammed was never no trouble to his Christian and Jewish neighbors. He caused no trouble for them. And when he became, or when he was put in a situation where he had the authority to do something to hurt them, he only asked that they respect the order, that they respect the peace and that they could practice their religion and lived their life as they had lived it before. This is Muhammad's tradition, but many of us and Muslims, having not correctly perceived Muhammad the Prophet and his preaching and his life and his demeanor, his spirit would rather see a good Christian....
Yeah, I'm telling you truth, I'm talking to my Muslim brothers. I see so many of them, and I'm talking to my Christian brothers and sisters as well. Would rather see a good Christian, miserable as a Muslim than as a good Christian. Now, you all wouldn't look at me like that if Imam WD Mohammed said that, and many of you know he would say it. It's better for us to respect the nature, to respect the spiritual desire, to respect the spiritual urge, to respect the life that G-d created and to let that life be free, to choose its own path with the protection of G-d, then for us to proselytize somebody and convert them to Islam, to our idea and never introduce them to the Qur'an or Muhammad the Prophet, only introduce them to our little small idea of what life is as a Muslim. Now, Muslims, they're not the only ones guilty of this, A lot of other people guilty of this too, and I think more guilty than Muslims.
A narrow picture, a narrow perception of Christ Jesus. I'm not going to go too far with that because I want to explain, because I have respect for Christian tradition. You'll find me to be as much in love with Jesus Christ as you Christians. I'm in love with him just like you are. Passionately. He's the perfect human heart with no defect. And he is a sign according to the Qur'an he is a sign, he and his mother. And that tells us that we are not always going to see exactly what he represents. He is a sign, he is a mystery. This is what our Holy Book says about him. So, the Christians have more of an excuse for going a little ways away than the Muslims do because he's called in the Qur'an a sign, he and his mother. Now, let me get back to this and then I'll complete it. I'll be finished. The spiritual life, the life that is essential to man and his purpose on this earth in this existence is to be G-d, is to be masonry. And the Qur'an says that he, pardon me, the Qur'an says that G-d expanded the heart of Muhammad.



