(Reprinted from the Muslim Journal (1-24-03 to 2-14-03)

The Schemes of Satan, The Enemy of Man, Work to Defeat The G-d Conscious

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(The following Salatul Jumuah Khutbah was given by Imam W. Deen Mohammed at the Taqwa Islamic Center, 4545 S. Western Blvd., in Chicago, 111., on Jan. 3, 2003.)

Dear Believers, Mus-lims, As-Salaam-Alaikum. With Allah's Name, The Gracious, The Compassionate, Benefi-cent Benefactor, The Merci-ful Benefactor and The Mer-ciful Redeemer, we witness that He is One, The Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. That there is no part-ner with Him in the rule of the Heavens and the Earth; He is G-d Alone.

And we witness that Muhammed is His Servant and His Messenger, Prayers and Peace be upon him and what follows of that tradi-tional salutation to the Last Prophet, The Seal of the Prophets, mentioned in the Qur'an as being the Libera-tor coming to purify the peo-ple and to bring them out of darkness of ignorance, corruption and slavery into the Light of G-d's Truth.

In the Qur'an, Allah says that he, Prophet Muhammed, is the one mentioned in
The Torah, the Old Books of the Bible, as "the one coming to purify you and take off your back the heavy yoke that weighed you down and to break every bond of slav-ery."

We think of slavery in the physical sense readily, but the worst form of slavery is not the slavery of the physical body. The worst form of enslavement is the enslave-ment of your soul, when you don't have your soul free for yourself.

Your mind and your heart can all be enslaved by the Satan, Shaitan, the enemy of all human beings. He is the enemy of the human family. Allah says of him, "Fight the Schemes of Satan." His plots, deceitful tricks plan to defeat you in your purposes, in your best life and in your best hopes for life.

Satan is out to defeat you right there, so you will be seen as ridiculous. He loves to make human beings ridiculous. And the ones whom he wants most to bring down and make ridicu-lous are those who support the Scriptures of G-d, the religious people. He wants to make them look ridicu-lous.

If we understand the Scriptures, the Qur'an and the Bible which was before the Qur'an was revealed, about Satan's hopes and aspirations, we have to understand that according to these Holy Books and Sacred Scriptures, Satan's hope was to finally deceive people in the best places of their religious world - the holy sanctuaries, in the most sacred places.

Satan had a plan to defeat the Christians in their most sacred beliefs and in their most sacred places. And Satan has a plan to defeat the Muslims in our most sacred places. And Satan has been successful; he has discredited religion and brought religion to be a ridiculous thing in the minds of many decent and intelligent people.

They will tolerate religion and won't speak out against it, unless it is with friends like themselves. Then some, like during the spread of Communist ideas in Ameri-ca, openly attacked religion and said "religion is the opium of the masses of the people." The masses mean the common people. Opium is a drug, and they meant that religion is nothing but something to drug you.

They denied G-d in their ideas and in their planning of their life on this earth. The Communist people did that. They had no place for G-d in their planning. And if you belonged to the Commu-nist order in a Communist society under Community authority, you could not practice your religion. For 70 plus years, Muslims were not allowed to identify them-selves publicly under the Communist Party of Russia.

It was only when their power broke and they had to change their ideas, that the Muslims could come out openly and begin to identify as Muslims again and to go to the mosques and pray again. Seventy-some years is a long time to be locked away from your religion, kept from practicing your religion where others would witness it.

The Muslims' story is that they would be watched at night. Homes would be looked into, to see if they could catch someone practic-ing his religion. Muslims would have to stand watch while they prayed at night. They continued to practice their religion secretly, and that is wonderful. Someone would have to watch while the family would be having Islamic Study Lessons.

I'm sure they had to do it very quietly, sometimes whispering, unable to speak aloud, fearing that some device would pick up their activities. Satan inspired the Communist idea.

Some things close to us that are very detrimental and destructive in our lives, we forget that they are from Satan, that they are the Schemes and plans of Satan against the life of the human being. Allah says, "Surely, the intoxicants and gam-bling and games of supersti-tions are corruptions, of the works of Satan, therefore stay away from such."

As Muslims we cannot drink or take intoxicants. The Arabic word does not say "liquid" and does not say "solid." It only says "intoxi-cation," whatever will intoxi-cate your mind. When the believers were invited to Islam, they were not told immediately to stop drink-ing. It was the custom of the people to drink.

So look how wonderful Allah is in correcting man in his ways. He is not like us. Right away, we want to tell people what the law is and we haven't even educated them yet. You haven't even made them aware of the trouble that made necessary the law.

Allah, The Merciful G-d Who loves His human cre-ation, the human beings that He created, first wants to condition you to understand the problem. Then once you understand the problem, He brings to you the prohibi-tion, the law.

Muslims were coming to prayer, can you believe it, intoxicated, under the influ-ence of alcohol or some drugs. You may think that "reefers" are new, but people have been smoking reefer for longer than the Indians have been having powwows. .They called it hashish in Arabic or grass.

It was finally after Muhammed the Prophet had taught them and educated them and got them into another mind, that G-d revealed and told them that intoxicants are of the works of the devil and to stay away from them. It did not come all at once. The first order said: "Do not come to prayer intoxicated." Finally, it came and abolished it all together, saying: "It is the works of Satan and stay away from them." Then it was prohibit-ed.

It was also the same for gambling. And look at how the world gambles now today; it is so popular. In Christianity and in the Bible, the person who gam-bles is described as a bad person or a weak person. The person who drinks, in the Bible, is described as a weak person and as trouble for the society.

Where the Bible doesn't condemn it outright, clearly like the Qur'an, it does con-demn it, if you study the whole Bible. You will see that drunks are among the sinners and among the peo-ple who have fallen from the way. We know the Bible says "take a little bit for your stomach's sake," but that is speaking to the practice of the people back in those days who used liquors for certain cures.

Today, you will have cer-tain prescriptions or reme-dies prescribed that will have an alcohol content in them. Also they apply it for cleaning. There were hygiene and medical purpos-es for alcohol, but that did not mean for you to take it.

The eating of swine or pork meat is strictly forbidden in the Qur'an, but it is also for-bidden in the Bible. And there are many Christians who are not following the wide-open way of those who walk the wide-open path.

They follow those who are in the narrow arid straight path, and they don't even eat pork. There are Seventh Day Adventists and other Chris-tians who don't eat pork. So don't be deceived by the looks of this world. The looks-of-this-world is what Satan wants you to see. And he wants you to think that all people are like that picture you are looking at, but no.

There are Christians, Jews, Muslims and other people, too, who stay away from those things that cor-rupt and bring down the society, the people. Look at what the Communist had to do. They condemned religion as the opium of the masses, as drugs for the common peo-ple. But as soon as they got into power, they had to stop crime. They stopped the peo-ple from drinking as freely as they did before.

The Communists had to do this. Any people who want to control their public to achieve important things or important objectives or ends, they have to protect the peo-ple from the life that cor-rupts them and brings them down and makes trouble for their families and for the society.

We live in America, and it is not a country that imposes laws upon your private life, but it does impose laws upon your public life. You can drink. But if you drink and drive, you are in trouble with the law - if they catch you. You can gamble. But if you gamble without a permit and you are caught, you are in trouble with the law.

There are controls. It is not Islamic, but their society still .is telling us that these things are harmful, and if not con-trolled, the, whole country or whole people can be brought down by these things.

Look how cigarettes have troubled the society. They have discovered that they are cancer causing. But not only cigarettes, liquors also can cause cancer and destruction of your organs. But no one is trying to con-trol liquor like they are try-ing to control cigarettes.

If you look at the world, don't just see these things - study these things, and you will see the schemes of Satan are alco-holism in the society, the sale of drugs. All of these have to be identified as the schemes of Satan, because G-d says "these are the works of Shaitan," the intox-icants.

Also the promotion of free sex is the scheme of Satan. They would have you to believe that what you do with your body is your busi-ness and you have no one to answer to.

They don't say, "What you do with your body is your business, except whereas religion is concerned or what G-d says." No. They don't leave any chance for you to think of an Authority to gov-ern your life, but yourself.

They make you think you are free and nothing should govern what you do with your own personal life. That this is your business.

They are saying, if you want to Kill yourself, then kill yourself. If you want to corrupt your life, then cor-rupt your life. If you want to abort your baby, sister, woman or girl, abort your baby; that is your business, that's your body.

Why do I identify this as the schemes of Satan? G-d wants to bring together those things that should be together. G-d created those things that belong together to be together and to be brought together, if they are not together, and to stay together - like husband, wife, family. G-d created family to be together and to stay together. Satan wants to break families up.

This scheme of Satan, per-haps, is the scheme that all the other schemes can be seen under or this one scheme can reveal all of the other schemes. What I am talking about is his scheme to break up that which should be together, to divide that which should be united, to separate that which should be together.

To break up families is one of the objects of the Satan. That is what he has to do, because if he doesn't break up families, then there is an authority in the life of the people. Family is an organi-zation. Family is an institu-tion. The whole society has been built upon the institu-tions we call family.

The family is The Mother of all other units of society. Family mothered all other units of society. It is deserv-ing of a discussion in detail. When he divides the family, the father has no authority, no voice in the house. The mother has no authority or no voice in the house. The children in the family are all separated, and the family is disunited.

Then when Satan makes his appeal, who do the chil-dren turn to, to see if he should be obeyed or not? Nobody turns to anybody in the house to see if they should obey the invitation of Satan, when that family is disunited and the members have no respect for the par-ents - for the father, for the mother. Then the voice of Satan can come in easily.

They talk about how great the society is and how won-derful this democracy is. But if you look at the opportunity given to Satan in this democ-racy, you will see that this democracy is beautiful on the one hand and very ugly on the other. To tell people "love your family," is one voice in the society. It says: "Care about your children"; "Did you hug your child today?" All of that is beautiful.

But while I am at work, the TV is on, and you;,.are selling my children things that I don't approve of with-out my permission. To me, that is total disrespect for family life - for the parent, for the husband, for the wife, for family life.

It is a total disrespect that you will come and appeal to my children before me and in my absence to get them to buy something, whether it is a hamburger or a soda pop or a toy or an item of cloth-ing. I don't care what it is.

No appeal should be made to minors. It should only be made to adults. When they open up with their commer-cials, the first thing they should say is: "Daddy, may I have your attention?" Or "Daddy and momma, may I have your attention?" Then give the commercial. That protects the family. That tells the child that he or she is not to buy this thing or accept this, "unless my momma and daddy say OK."

But no, they go directly to every individual in the household, in the family, to sell things as though no one in the household is a minor, as if everyone is a grown up or an adult and can do things independently, can make independent decisions.

This is terrible, and this is why we have the society we have right now. Allah wants us to fight the Schemes of Satan.

G-d doesn't tell us to go after Satan. That is not the way to find Satan. Satan doesn’t have a
sharp nose, white skin, blue eyes and yellow hair. Satan is not red skinned with horns sticking out of his head. A picture won't take you to Satan, unless it is a picture of his schemes.

We don't care who started the fire, just let us put it out. Maybe we will catch the one who started it later. That is the way you catch Satan; you put out his fires. That is what Allah wants us to do. If we put out his fires, we put him out of business. That is what Allah wants us to do -to put Satan out of business.

Put out Satan's fires of drugs, alcoholism, sex abuse, etc. - all these crimes and all this corruption in our lives. Let us fight corruption and evil. Let us fight cruelty. Let us fight lies and falsehoods. Allah has told us in the Qur'an that this is the way He wants us to defeat Satan.

I want you to look at our own people and see how we are helping the devil. Allah says the spendthrifts are the brothers of the devil. Are you in the habit of just spending money and not taking care of your most important needs -to see that your phone bill is paid, to see that your lights are kept on, that the heat is on or in the summer, the air conditioner is running, the rent is paid or mortgage note is paid, all of those impor-tant things that represent your security for your com-fort?

See that they are being paid. Then if you have extra money to spend, don't forget the future. For Allah tells us to be orientated future-wise, not just for the present. Muhammed the Prophet told us to take care of how we live today, so that we don't have trouble tomorrow, the prayers and the peace be upon the Prophet.

I know you love Allah. You love this religion. You love G-d's model human person for us, prayers and peace be on him. So if you love those things, how can you stand to behave and live as a brother of the devil and not be both-ered by that? You should be bothered by that.

You and your family will sit to the table and eat, and the whole meal that you served, the food that you ate, weighed 10 pounds and five pounds of it went into the garbage. Then you are working with the devil. You have no room in your closet for clothes. You go down-stairs in the basement and you are stumbling over clothes. There are clothes everywhere, because you have a buying habit - you just have to buy things.

Spendthrifts are the brothers of the devil. Those who spend without a con-scious, who spend without control over their spending, are brothers of the devil. How are you helping the devil, when you spend that way? The devil wants to take all of your energies in your life away from G-d.

If the devil can keep you under debt and keep you struggling to pay for things, he has tied up your life. He has taken your time from G-d. Look how we have to have two and three in a house-hold working, or more. Some will have two and three part time jobs to make up for one full time job and a half. Some will have two full time jobs. So when they see each other, they are in a hurry -one is rushing to bed and the other rushing to work. They pass each other brush-ing their teeth.

You don't have time to read the Qur'an enough. You don't have time to reflect enough. To reflect is what keeps people alive. What is reflecting? It is thinking on the beauty and greatness of G-d, how He made the world so wonderful in its beauty and its goodness. It is how He made animals and plants so wonderful to think on. That gives life to your soul. That gives life to your insides and makes your good insides come alive.

The devil does not want you fed by this healthy food that Allah has created. He wants to keep you so busy, that you don't have time for it. So if you want to get more time, brothers and sisters, stop spending on things that you don't have to have. Stop eating on more than you can consume. Know that it is a sin to bite off a piece of chicken and then throw it in the garbage. 'That is a sin.

I know some brothers and sisters will eat with their family out in a restaurant and know that they can't control the' situation, because Satan's influences are too powerful, his schemes are too powerful. So the brother will order very little from the menu, proba-bly toast and a cup of coffee. Then when the rest of them finish, he'll ask, "Are you finished?" Then he goes and eats chicken and half a cheeseburger and will be full, because what they left is more than enough to fill him up.

I rather see a brother do that, than for a family to waste their hard earned money. If a hamburger costs $1 and you throw half of it in the garbage, then you threw 50 cent into the garbage. If the drink costs 60 cent and you throw half of it in the garbage and some will throw all of it in the garbage, just like they are not poor.

You should go to the homes of the rich and see how they eat. I would say sit in their neighborhoods quiet-ly, but you may get arrested, and on garbage pick up day see how much garbage is picked up in their neighbor-hoods. Then come back to our neighborhoods and see how much garbage is collect-ed. It is horrible.

The garbage truck is tak-ing your money away. You are hiring more and more garbage scavengers than anyone else. The city has to hire more garbage pick up men for you, so your sewage bill for the city is higher than the rich person's bill. Does that make sense?

The devil, the Satan, also inspired slavery, to give their souls and their bodies to a man who can buy them, who can pay for their soul. Satan says, "Now we can't do this ugly thing anymore and make people who have not done a crime work for nothing any-more." They call them slaves. "So we have to let their bodies free." Then he devises some-thing else for you.

You are not slaves on a plantation with your movements restricted, but he has done something that created the same results or effect. What he wanted was the total control of your life, and that is what he has gotten by hooking you with commer-cialism, by hooking you with consumer spending and hooking you with his devices of intoxicants and sexual cor-ruption. He doesn't have to worry about the masses of people, for he has enslaved them all.

I return to what I have said in the beginning. There are many forms ot slavery, and sometimes the worst form of slavery is not the enslavement of your physical body but the enslavement of your soul. G-d says: "Oh you who believe, save your own souls and your families from the fire."

We ask Allah to forgive us our sins and our weaknesses. Oh Allah, save us from' our own weaknesses and purify us and do not let our hearts go back to corruption, after You have guided us aright, Ameen.

Let us remember the requirements for Mus-lim life and the proof for Muslim life. The require-ment for Muslim life is that we obey G-d's Instructions. That we violate none of His Commands. Whatever He orders, we obey.

If we should fall and become weak or forget and Satan slips something in on us, the moment that we rec-ognize that we are out of the form that Allah wants us in, we ask forgiveness, so that we can get back in the form Allah created us for, the form of a Muslim believing in G-d.

Remember also that faith is the first life. Knowledge gives structure, design and much growth to the life. But the life is faith. Faith is the first life and it is The Life. If you take faith out of it, it dies. The whole life dies.

No matter how great the knowledge is to structure the life and to advance the life and increase the life in so many wonderful things, if you take faith out, it is like taking water out of the beau-tiful garden. Then all of the beautiful life will soon die and it will be gone.

Hold on to your faith, and ask Allah to increase you in faith. And we also want Allah to increase us in knowledge. But remember what makes your faith strong. It is remembering Allah, when you are facing trouble. It is remembering Allah when you are enjoying and experiencing great joy in your life. In the two extremes of joy and sorrow, remember Allah.

When there is an occasion for sorrow and an occasion for joy, remember Allah. And your faith will increase, because Allah is going to make His Presence in your life stronger and plainer for you. If you remember Him, the more you see Him plainly working in your life with you, the more your faith will increase.

Your faith will increase to a point where you will not always want to say you believe, you will say, "Oh, I know that. I know Allah will do that for me. I know my G-d." That is a person who has stayed close to their G-d in faith, for such a long period of time. They have no more questions about it; they know their G-d and know what their G-d can do.

"The people have heard a caller in the land call-ing to faith. And we have responded saying, 'We believe.' So write us down with the righteous." Isn't that wonderful. Muhammed the Prophet said, "You will never enter the Garden of Paradise..." - which all of us want to go into, and I think I have finally made it.

We've been told that those not in the flames will go over it and see the flames and those mourning and groaning and crying and their pain because the fire is on them. But they will be passing over safely into the Garden of Paradise, praise be to Allah.

"You will never enter the Garden of Paradise, until you believe." Faith is first. Then he says there is a condition for even having faith. Why do I have faith in my momma? It is because my momma took care of me and protected me and gave me food and came to my rescue. That is why I have faith in my momma. If she had not done those things, I would not have had faith in her.

So what will strengthen or be the condition to cause us to have faith? It is the proof that we love one another. It also said, "You will not have faith, until you practice lov-ing one another." When you practice loving one another, you strengthen the bonds between you and your broth-er. And because the brother knows that you love him, he believes in you and he trusts you.

Faith is not just a belief, faith also is a trust. "You will not enter the Garden of Paradise, until you have faith. And you will not have faith, until you practice love." So we thank Allah for His Mercy, the mercy of the good Muslim life, the natu-ral life that He created for us.

We thank Him for His Mercy of Revelation, the Qur'an, that is Guidance for us to take care of all of our needs in this life for as long as we exist on this planet earth. And we thank Him for His model human being, the one He created for each and everyone of us to be in model of - Muhammed the Prophet, the prayers and the peace be upon him.

We thank Him for His Word, the Qur'an. These sources are really the sources that make our life and keep our life. Don't ever let anybody take those away from you. And the Satan will want to rob you of every-thing, so that he will be the only one for you to turn to.

You won't turn to Satan as a person, you will turn to him as a supporter of your way of life. You will turn to his intoxicants, his drugs, his corruption, his division of the family and destruction of the family life. Strengthen yourselves.

All the great communities of faith now are stressing the importance of family life and how we have to strengthen our families. This is a battle in these last times to save ourselves and our own lives from Satan.

So let us be with Chris-tians and Jews and Bud-dhists and Hindus and all good people who are fighting Satan's Schemes. They are fighting to keep family life strong and to keep faith in the soul and to keep righ-teous the life.

We ask Allah to protect for us the Blessings that He has given us, for if He does not protect them we will certain-ly lose them. Oh Allah, pro-tect for us the gifts You have given to us, including our good wives and our good husbands and our good chil-dren.

Let us remember the requirements for Mus-lim life and the proof for Muslim life. The require-ment for Muslim life is that we obey G-d's Instructions. That we violate none of His Commands. Whatever He orders, we obey.

If we should fall and become weak or forget and Satan slips something in on us, the moment that we rec-ognize that we are out of the form that Allah wants us in, we ask forgiveness, so that we can get back in the form Allah created us for, the form of a Muslim believing in G-d.

Remember also that faith is the first life. Knowledge gives structure, design and much growth to the life. But the life is faith. Faith is the first life and it is The Life. If you take faith out of it, it dies. The whole life dies.

No matter how great the knowledge is to structure the life and to advance the life and increase the life in so many wonderful things, if you take faith out, it is like taking water out of the beautiful garden. Then all of the beautiful life will soon die and it will be gone.

Hold on to your faith, and ask Allah to increase you in faith. And we also want Allah to increase us in knowledge. But remember what makes your faith strong. It is remembering Allah, when you are facing trouble. It is remembering Allah when you are enjoying and experiencing great joy in your life. In the two extremes of joy and sorrow, remember Allah.

When there is an occasion for sorrow and an occasion for joy, remember Allah. And your faith will increase, because Allah is going to make His Presence in your life stronger and plainer for you. If you remember Him, the more you see Him plainly working in your life with you, the more your faith will increase.

Your faith will increase to a point where you will not always want to say you believe, you will say, "Oh, I know that. I know Allah will do that for me. I know my G-d." That is a person who has stayed close to their G-d in faith, for such a long period of time. They have no more questions about it; they know their G-d and know what their G-d can do.

"The people have heard a caller in the land call-ing to faith. And we have responded saying, 'We believe.' So write us down with the righteous." Isn't that wonderful?

Faith is not just a belief, faith also is a trust. "You will not enter the Garden of Paradise, until you have faith. And you will not have faith, until you practice love." So we thank Allah for His Mercy, the mercy of the good Muslim life, the natu-ral life that He created for.