(This address was delivered by Imam W. Deen Mohammed at the Eidul Fitr Prayer and Celebration at the Taqwa Islamic Center, inside the 45th Arena, 4545 S. West-ern, in Chicago, III., on Sun., Dec. 16, 2001.)

G-d Approved Prophet Muhammed

G-d is the bigger over all that is big. Praise and thanks deserve to be given to Him much. He approved His Servant, made him legit for all the worlds. His Servant spoke the truth. It is telling us that G-d made him the truth-ful before He called him to be Messenger of
G-d; that was one of his titles. The idolaters called him As-Saadiq, The Truthful. G-d said His Servant spoke only the truth, because he spoke what G-d revealed to him, the Qur'an.

When we finish reciting any part of the Qur'an, we say "G-d spoke The Truth." And Muhammed gave us to say in prayer the Qur'an. We don't say in prayer something from our own minds that we
made up. We don't say in prayer something from the Prophet, except in du'a. In formal standing prayer, salat, we only say Qur'an, G-d's Words given to Muhammed and to all of us, to Muhammed by way of Jibril the Angel.

That Word of G-d is both a recital and an edu-cation or a teaching. Muslims are required to read the Qur'an during the month of Ramadan and read the whole of the book by the end of Ramadan.

Eid: Recurring Happiness

And the Eid is a recur-ring celebration. The word "Eid" means that it keeps coming back, repeating all the time; every year it comes back again. Some of the Imams from overseas say it is a recurring happi-ness, coming back all the time.

The word "Eid," itself implies that this is a happy occasion. When I was a young man about 15 year old, I use to hear the Imam who was our school teacher then to teach us Arabic to read the Qur'an, Jamil Diab would say: "Eid sayyid Mubarak." Eid meant the celebration day, and sayyid meant happy. This is a day for rejoic-ing. When I came here today, I could feel the spirit of happiness here.

A child who wants to be obedient to his parent and when he feels that he has done just as the parents wanted him to do, he feels a special hap-piness. We have that good nature in us; it never leaves. It comes in us as babies, for G-d cre-ated us like that. We have it in our hearts to be that way.

G-d, Who is above par-ents and above the world, we do this fasting for His Sake. Those who were unable to keep the fast due to some health problem should also share with us this happi-ness, this victory is for Allah's Sake.

The Blessings Of Fasting

Allah says in Hadith Qudsi, like G-d spoke to him - the Sacred Hadith that came to Muhammed by way or revelation. They are not on the high plane of Qur'an but on the human plane, and G-d told him that "Fasting is for Me." G-d also told him of the breath of the fasting person who can't brush his teeth all day long and his breath will be offensive, "The breath of the fasting person is like the best perfume to G-d."

If you fast to lose weight, then you didn't fast. If you fast to con-vince somebody else that you could fast, then you didn't fast. If you fast simply because Allah said fast in this month of Ramadan, then you have already received bless-ings in this month.

G-d says: "In this month are blessings." If you have been conscious that this month is for G-d and even if you can't fast but have the desire, your desire is rewarded.

G-d told Muhammed to tell us that matters are judged by intentions. If your intentions were to fast though you couldn't, you get the reward just as though you fasted.

The Best of Blessings

The rewards are many. The best of rewards is to be blessed with what you did not get before when reading the Qur'an. That is the best of the bless-ings during the month of Ramadan, that Allah blessed you to get more 'than you got before. That Allah blessed you to see more of what He gave to Muhammed.

There are other bless-ings. You have needs in your relationships with your children, with your husband or wife, with your family, with your boss, Allah will bless you to have improvement with that relationship.

Maybe you need to pay your rent and you are hungry. It may be a gift. Maybe you need to pay bills and some money came that you weren't expecting. That came from your G-d and from my G-d, from places and directions that you didn't expect it to come from.

A Personal Relationship With G-d

Don't let the Christians say they have a personal relationship with G-d and think that the Mus-lims don't have a person-al relationship with G-d. G-d is as personal for us as in any other religion. G-d says to Muhammed: "When My servants ask about Me, tell them that I am near." And He says: "Tell them, I hear the caller who calls on Me. And I respond, so let them respond to My Call."

My mind is on The Throne today, because I see the fulfillment of what happened at the end of the world. It is in the Bible and says: "Water shall flow from the Throne and Light shall go out with it and cover every area. It shall continue to flow until the whole world is covered with light. It has hap-pened. Today is the day.

Praise be to Allah. We praise Him. We glorify Him. There is nothing to be glorified above G-d. In the heavens and in the earth everything bears witness to the glory of G-d. And for Him is the thanks. We do not wor-ship with Him anything, only G-d, the One Who made everything.

The "Brighter" Eid

Let me turn attention now to. what is the name of this Eid - Eidul Fitr;
The Eid coming in about three months from now is Eidul Adha.

Most of the learned in this religion say that the Eid of the Sacrifice, of the Hajj or of the Pil-grimage is the bigger of the Eids, and that the Eid we are having now is the smaller. I say "yes" and "no" to that, because the language does not say bigger, it says brighter.

"Adha" says "brighter," not bigger. And it is the time of the day that is the brightest. It is the brightest of the time in that bright time.

Shouldn't it be brighter after Al-Fitr? It has been preceded by a whole month of us striving to bring our body, our whole mind and spirit, to obey G-d and to conform to what He wants for us.

After that, three months later we should-have the brightest day in our life.
The -brightest day is after we make pilgrim-age.