08/29/1986
IWDM Study Library
IWDM Baltimore Maryland

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Imam WD Mohammed:
Praise be to Allah, The Guardian Evolver, the one Lord Creator, Cherisher of all the worlds. We believe in Him, we seek Him for assistance, we turn to Him for forgiveness. We bear witness that nothing is worthy of worship except Allah alone. He has no partner or associates. And we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger, and we pray and ask Allah choicest blessings upon him and upon his descendants, upon his companions, the righteous all. Ameen.
Allah Most High revealed the Qur'an and to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth. It is also said of Allah the Holy Book, in the Qur'an, the last revelation from Allah, from G-d that is, complete revelation to all the worlds. Surely Allah is the doer of whatever He wills to do. Surely Allah, He does whatever He wills to do. Allah also says, Surely your Lord is a doer of whatsoever He pleases, whatsoever He wills to do.
And Allah, He does not want that any of His servants should be dealt with unjustly. And the servants of G-d are those who walk humbly in the earth. And if they meet with the ignorant ones, the ignorant people, they say peace. Salaam, they say peace. They don't engage them in ignorance. They greet them with peace and continue on in their way. And Allah does not want that any of the worlds or societies be dealt with unjustly, that is oppressed. Allah does not want that any society, any of the worlds, means the societies, that they should be oppressed. But it is His wish that you be purified and that He fulfil His blessings, His favor, His blessing on you. The Prophet, he has said, "The believer is one who whenever he does set out to do a work or whenever he does a work, he seeks to perfect it. He seeks to perfect it." And he have also said, Peace and the blessings be on the Prophet, that Allah has prescribed for everything, that He has prescribed for everything the excellence. Excellence. And he says, "So when you slaughter the animals to make halal, then do it with excellence." Sharpen your knives the Prophet says. Have your knives very sharp so as to cause the least pain and suffering to the animal that you are slaughtering and so that your slaughtering be excellent.
Whenever the believer does a thing he seeks to perfect it. Excellence is required of the Muslim, of the believers. Excellence. Whatever we do, we should be seeking to do it in the best way we possibly can, seek excellence for whatever we do. If we deliver a Khutbah, we should be striving to do it in the best way. We should seek to perfect it. If we paint the walls or drive the vehicle or do carpentry work or run a bank, no matter what it is, if we follow the principle that the Prophet has given us, we will be obligated as believers to seek excellence in all that we do, seek excellence. If we reprimand our mischievous child, son, or daughter, we should do it with excellence, seeking excellence.
If we prepare a meal at home to sit down and dine with our family, we should seek excellence in that. He said Allah has prescribed excellence for everything, not anything is left out. For everything our Prophet said, the Peace and the Blessings be upon him. And he said, "And when the believer does anything, he seeks to perfect it. He seeks to perfect it," to make it the best he possibly can. And we know Allah Most High has forbid that we engage in foolishness or idle talk. So even our daily conversation should be disciplined. We shouldn't let ourselves be given to foolish talk, wasting time in foolish talk.
Even if we are enjoying a social gathering with each other, social gathering of meeting with each other and we are talking about things that are of not great importance. How are you doing, brother? How's the family? Did you drive up to California on your vacation? Even if it's a conversation like that, we might even ask, did you say something about the lottery? Well, we must be excellent then. You shouldn't be involved in the lottery. You should be asking about a non-Muslim. Heard some non-Muslim just hit it big with the lottery. But what would be your interest in asking about the lottery? In order for it to be excellent then you would have to bring up something that is Islamic. You would have to include in that conversation something that contributes to Islam.
You see? So we are not to just waste time, engage in foolish conversation. We are to seek excellence in everything that we do. The worst of wrongdoings, the worst of wrongdoings Allah says, is to ascribe G-d's to G-d. It's to make another G-d with G-d. That is the greatest of the wrongdoings. And we know that another wrongdoing is to neglect ourselves. We say, I have wronged my own self and I confess my fault, my sins. And we ask Allah to take away from us our faults, to remove from us our sins, and forgive us the wrong that we do to ourselves. Surely I have oppressed myself. And aren't we responsible for oppressing ourselves? Oppression means to hold down, to prevent something from growing or something from functioning as it should, as it was intended to. So if we by our living habits, by our lifestyle, prevent Islamic growth in us, then we are the oppressors of ourselves. And we should say "Surely I have oppressed myself. I have wronged myself. Therefore forgive me oh Allah for my sins."
We praise Allah continuously, the Muslim praises Allah continuously. He thanks his Lord continuously all the day. He awakes with Allah in his heart, on his conscience. We should wake thanking Allah as Muslims practice throughout the world. Alhamduillah, Praise be to Allah, the one who gives us life after death, our death. And then we should seek to fulfill our obligations as Muslims from the moment we open our eyes in the morning or whenever we awake from our sleep. And the first thing is to go and clean ourselves so we can be in a state of ablution.
The next thing after praising G-d to be on our mind is to make a wudu or a ghusl, the full bath and get ourselves in a state of cleanliness and a state of ablution. Because G-d says He does not want a difficulty for us, but He want that we should be purified, that we should be clean inside and outside in our hearts and also in our actions, that we should be clean. So we should awaken with the ablution, cleaning on our minds and not go and meet people in a state of uncleanliness, not even the family members, unless you are on the way to the washroom or waiting to go to the wash.
And then make your ablution, clean yourself and then meet with people in a state of cleanliness after you've made your fajr prayer. The Muslim day begins with ablution, praising G-d, remembering his Lord, making his cleanliness, his ritual cleaning and doing his Salat and remembering Allah at stated times, not when he has an urge or get in the mood to remember G-d. But at stated times. We remember G-d when the mood arises, the mood may arise while we on a CTA, the transportation, the public transportation, I don't know what you call it here while you're on the public transportation, the bus or the train or in our car, we remember Allah, we praise G-d. Subhanala, Alhamduillah, Allahu Akbar, La Ilaha Il Allah.
We remember Him when the spirit hits us, when the mood strikes us. But we must remember Him at stated times. Fajr time before the sun rises to make ablution and pray. Zuhr time, noon time, right after noon, immediately after the sun reached the highest point for the noon prayer. And the Asr prayer the third prayer. And the Maghrib prayer after sunset. prayer, the fourth. And the Isha prayer, the fifth. And we should not let our program be more important than that program. And then we'll be successful, and then Allah will be with us, and then we'll be a blessed people. But we must put first things first. Allah is first. Allah is most important. What He has ordered is first, more important. Following the Prophet, being in my life habits like Muhammad the Prophet, Peace be upon him is more important than following a star on the corner, on the TV screen, the TV monitor or the movie house screen. Following the Sunnah of the Prophet is the more important.
So what I'm saying to you is that Allah has the power to do whatever He wills, but He has left us with rational minds and a limited freedom to exercise our own choice in the matter. And He has created us and made us honorable creatures. He says He has made the human being in the best of molds. So He has made your features, your shape, your design, have made it excellent. Have made excellent your design, your picture, your features, your description as a human being. Made that excellent. So He has created us in the best mold, in the most excellent mold. And He has given us our design, our design as a creature that He created and has made that design most excellent. He has created us for excellence and He require of us excellence in all of our doings.
He could have made us as Allah says in the Qur'an, He could have made people all believers if He had so willed because He is the doer of whatsoever He wills. He could have made all people believers, but He leave us to have the dignity of exercising our choice in the matter so that we may earn by our own will and our own action, excellence and merit and reward from G-d above what He has given us in creating us. He does not want hardship for us, but He wants that we should be purified. He wants that we should qualify for receiving the fullness of His promise, His blessings on us. And G-d has said that He will establish us if we are truly believers, that He will establish us and He will make us the superior in the land.
But He will not give us this special favor if we desire injustice, if we desire just to have dominance or superiority over others. He says He will not give it to any who desire dominance, who desire to have positions of dominance. He has promised the believers that he will give them superiority, that He will give them the positions of power, but they must not seek it. They must seek to please Him, seek to obey Him, seek to live out their life as He intended for us to live out our life, Highly glorified is He, according to His word in the Qur'an and the guidance that we find in the life of the Prophet, in his Sunnah and in his life.
We pray Allah's choicest blessings be upon Muhammad the Prophet, that he increase in following, following that deserves to be called the followers of Muhammad the Prophet, Peace and the Blessings be upon him. Followers striving for excellence, striving to live in accordance with the signs, virtues, principles and teachings of the spirit of the Qur'an, the word of G-d and the Sunnah of His Prophet. And Allah says to His Prophet that surely you'll find in Muhammad, in the Prophet Muhammad, the most excellent model for any who believe in G-d in the last day. So the true believers will take Muhammad the Prophet, the last Messenger Prophet from G-d, they will take him for a model. They will take him for an example, and they will not accept that anyone other than the Prophet dictate their behavior, their lifestyle. Because we know that Muhammad has been given to us by Allah, and Allah shows us through Muhammad the excellence that He wants in all of us.
And in following his excellence, we will receive the blessings and favor of G-d, blessings and favor of Allah, and we will always be successful. The greatest temptation we have in society today is a temptation to just go blindly and follow others, copy others life habits, the behavior, behavior patterns of others. We have the Qur'an, the word of G-d, and the Sunnah of the Prophet to protect us from the strong sensation to be dominated in our minds and mental makeup by man's fabricated ideas and ideologies and philosophies and by the lifestyle that we see ran off now as though they're coming off of an assembly plant line, assembly line, and a plant of such nature made on the streets and also made by the institutions, Hollywood, the media, the television media, producing forms of creatures to influence us to come into their form, to follow their life patterns. And only the believers whose hearts are with Allah, the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet are saved from such. So again, we seek Allah, His guidance and ask Him to forgive us our sins to make perfect our intent. Forgive us and aid us that we live a life pleasing before Him and that we be worthy of the name Muslim and worthy of the claim, that we are followers of the Prophet, Peace and Blessing be on him.
We praise Allah and turn to Him asking Him for forgiveness. We put our complete trust in Him. We do not break from the faith with Him in the faith. And we bear witness that He alone is G-d and there's nothing like unto Him, no equal, no partner with Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. And we praise the promised blessings upon him and upon his descendants and upon his companions, all the righteous, Ameen. Allah says in His holy book, the Qur'an, the last of the revelation, the complete revelation for all times and all nations and all people. Whoever desires the protection, the garments, the protection of this world then know that with Allah is the clothing, the garments, the protection of this world and also the hereafter. Allah says again, And whoever desires the harvest of this world, we extend it to him. However, there is no share for him in the harvest of the hereafter. It is very clear that Allah has directed us with the Qur'an and with His servant, blessed Messenger and servant Muhammad, to put the hereafter above this present world. In concluding this today, this is part of the Khutbah today we want to look at this instruction of G-d and extract from it the substance, the substance, or that that is most important for us. First of all, it requires that we be people of faith, that we follow Allah, follow His Messenger, be Muslims upon the principle of faith. For we don't know what the last day holds for us. We only hope that it holds for us the best, that we will earn the best by our behavior to please Allah, to follow Allah and His Messenger. But we don't know. So we live, we must live by the principle of faith. And anyone who does not live by the principle of faith is in hell. It is our faith that brings us the good life.
We can have much knowledge and be in hell. Our faith brings us to good life if that faith is right. But not only a principle of faith is given to us in the regard for the hereafter above the present world, but also a way of looking at ourselves and our place in this vast creation. That the Muslim should not live as much for immediate ends as for future ends. May I repeat that. The Muslim should not live as much for immediate end as he should live for future end. When it comes to looking at ourselves in the world and seeing our place here and what our obligations are, what our aims should be, we should be putting more importance on the distant objective and less important importance on the immediate objective. And that makes for success, especially if we hold Allah first above all things, fear Him over all other fears, follow Him and follow His Messenger, then we will be in a good situation for all times.
Putting the distant objectives before the immediate. Allah has plainly told us what the immediate things are. Fine horses or maybe your Mercedes, your BMWs and all those things. It's not horses in Chicago and in Baltimore. So where it used to be the fine horses, now it's the fine BMWs, the fine Mercedes, beautiful women, great wealth. These are the things of the world. These are the immediate things. Now, in concluding this Khutbah, G-d says in comparison with the rewards in the latter stage, the end, the things of this world, what you gain out this world is but little, is but little. Now I find African Americans are not deprived of owning Mercedes-Benz. They're not deprived of owning brand new Cadillacs, brand new Lincolns, Mark Six BMWs.
They're not deprived of that. I see those in my neighborhood. I'm sure you see some of those in your neighborhood. They're not deprived of having fine women. They have some fine women. Gold necklace, diamond rings. The glitter of this world, money to show off, but no future. No future. Can hardly stay in one place. Six months, the bills drive you on to another location. This is because we put the immediate things above the end. So, we should approach life with that principle, that the end objectives are more important than the immediate. And don't spend your whole life working for these, working to fill your stomach, to have a beautiful, physically beautiful wife. In fact, the Muslim is not supposed to marry with that motive. If the motive is to have her because she's physically appealing, that's wrong. You are to marry her for something different. Because she has Muslim qualities, because she's sincere to Allah and His Messenger and the community. She's sincere, she's trustworthy, and she has good Muslim woman qualities.
You should be looking for that in the woman you're looking for and not physical attraction. But those are the things of the world. And you should not be working for the BMW, but you should be working to please Allah. And what has Allah put before the BMW? Islamic propagation, Islamic education, Islamic community establishment, strong Islamic communities that don't have to depend for their everyday life on outsiders who are not Muslim. So, this is what you should be seeking. You should be seeking those things that Allah has made an obligation on you and those things that Allah has pointed out as being of top priority. Of top priority.
In fact, that's what we are talking about. What is top priority? What is top priority in the life of a Muslim? It is not these things of the immediate world or an immediate appetite, but it is those things that men look to down the road because they know that in working for those long range objectives, they will best serve not only themselves, but their families and their communities. So we ask Allah to help us understand His Qur'an, help us apply it's teachings in our life and in our community, and to help us be decent followers, truthful, and decent followers of the most excellent creature Muhammad, the perfect man. Ameen.
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed



