1990-December-7

Muslim Journal

"Islam" The Promotion of Business & Race, How the Conflict is Resolved: Part I

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(Note: This Public Address was delivered by Imam W. Deen Mohammed in Atlanta, GA on September 2, 1990. This article has now been prepared from it by Imam Mohammed for publication.)

Praise be to Allah, The Lord Sustainer of all the worlds. Believers, Muslims, people, As-Salaam-Alaikum. "Peace be on you." We are thankful to Allah. We praise him and we acknowledge that He alone is God, There is no partner with Him. He manages the creation alone. He needs no help from any. He exists free of His creation depending on nothing from it. He is the Lord Most Merciful Who says that He created us expressly for His Mercy. We give praise to Him and we thank Him for the gift to the worlds of the one who is called "the mercy to all the worlds", Muhammed the Last Prophet, the Messenger of Allah. the prayers and the peace be upon him. upon his descendants and upon his Companions.

The topic for us today is "Promoting Race and Business" and the understanding of our religion Al-Islam, the religion of the Quran with a following of about one billion Muslims on this earth and growing fast. "Islam" gives us solutions to resolve conflicts in our life.

OUR PROPHET

To begin, I would like to read some sayings of the Prophet as a great help to this presentation. When we know more about the Prophet himself, it is easier " for us to grasp and appreciate what is being given to us of Al-Islam, what is given to us from the best Sources for Muslims: the (Holy) Qur'an and the life of the Prophet, the prayers and the peace be upon him. This booklet I will read from on Prophet Muhammed's Sayings has the spelling of his name as M-O-H-A-M-M-E-D. That was the popular spelling for a long time. I understand that spelling started from the French. The Prophet's name is spelled in different ways. The most unfamiliar way that I know of is the Turkish Muslims' spelling "Mahmet". The name of our Prophet is pronounced the same regardless of how the spelling varies. It should be pronounced "MU-HUM-MED".

This book "Sayings of the Prophet" by Saidah Chaudry with illustrations by Pamela Howard, with Saying Number 15 reads:

"It is better to sit atone than in the company with the bad. And it is better still to sit with the good than to sit alone, it is better to speak to a seeker of knowledge than to remain silent. But silence is better than idle words."

Sayings from this collection include the following and more:

"Serve Allah as you would if you could see Him. Although you cannot see Him, He can see you."

"A Muslim who meets with others and shares their burdens is better than one who lives a life of seclusion and contemplation."

"Allah does not look at your appearance or your possessions, but He looks at your heart and your deeds."

"The best richness is the richness of the soul."

"Keep yourselves far from envy, because it eats up and takes away from good actions like fire eats up and burns wood."

You who have never heard sayings of the Prophet, I am sure you are getting acquainted with him now (the prayers and the peace be on him).

"When three persons are together, two of them must not whisper to each other without letting the third hear because it would hurt the third person.''

"The person is not a perfect Muslim who eats till he is full and leaves his neighbors hungry around him"

"Conduct yourself in this world as if you are here to stay forever. Prepare for Eternity as if you are going to die tomorrow."

I have just collected a few sayings from this small example of the sayings of the Last Prophet and Universal Messenger Muhammed, the prayers and the peace be upon him.

WORLDWIDE RACISM

I now want to introduce to you some thoughts for this topic which I hope will enable us to come to the conclusion that we do have sure, positive, safe solutions for resolving conflicts of race and business. Religion-associated images and racism is what I wish to address first. Worldwide racism is not preserved in racial groups. Racism is established in "message signaling concepts" that go into the social conscience to kill it. They are lethal concepts, deadly concepts. Satan inspired those concepts.

The world has been progressing toward a situation for man to have race consciousness and race esteem without having the burden of racism. The Qur'an enlightenment recognizes the natural inherent social value of race consciousness and racial esteem. I thank Allah that I have never been blown out into space from the realities of life. When you strive hard to please Allah in a world of confused religious language that makes it very difficult for you to see the clear guidance of Allah, it is easy to slip into endless confusion and never find ourselves.

I thank Allah that 1 have been able to keep in the reality of what is my life. I am in the Qur'an and Muhammed's Sun-nah. But there are the many in Qur'an and Sunnah and perhaps more m it than I am and perhaps are better authorities regarding it than I am. What distinguishes me in my own view is that I am also in my own reality. Therefore, in this regard I see myself with the few, not the many.

COLORS AND SIGNS

Races and ethnic groups are distinguished by language and by color and by features, Of this, Allah the Dearest says, "These differences are signs", My color being "black" and another man's color being "white" and my nose and mouth being thick and another man's being thin: Of these distinctions Allah says, "They are signs". Also the difference in our language we speak is also "a sign". In our Holy Book the Qur'an we are told, "'Allah made us nations and tribes for us to acknowledge each other." Some translations read "...so that you may know each other."

THE PATTERN...HUMAN

Continuing that Qur'anic message, "...And the most honorable of you are the most regardful." Some translate this as "the most God-fearing", Also we are told that Allah gave us our design or our form, "and made most excellent" our form. This design or descriptive form is the same for all of us, the same for all races.

Qur'an enlightenment brings us to understand that every race and every person was created on the pattern of a full complete human'. That is to say that we all have this excellence in us as our potential and as a property of our creation.

It is clearly given in the Qur'an that Allah made "noble every son of Adam". "Noble" means giving respect and being worthy of honor. "Noble" implies the best bred and the best blood. "Noble" also means that not only is that person worthy of honor, but that person is one that gives due respect and honor to things deserving of that. A person of nobility is the ideal person in the refined mind| of enlightened societies.

NOBILITY BELONGS TO ALL RACES

Some societies believe that] certain races (colors) have no nobility and can never have nobility, that they are doomed to always be inferior to others. The ancient are the most known, for that ignorance. Thanks be to Allah, the Lord Creator, the! One Lord, that civilization,, education, and scientific information have worked along with good human sentiments to get rid of a lot of ugly oppressive I racist ideas.

Further quoting the Prophet, he says, "Allah is good and accepts only good." I will try again to translate it: "Allah is good and does not accept other than good." I'm not giving you anything that is unnecessary or anything filled with rubbish with what is of little worth. I would not waste my and your time on such. The word for "good" also means goodness and those things that qualify to be called good by the best minded and most decent people.

Another saying from the Prophet is, "The Muslim is the mirror for his brother." Let' us see how powerful that saying is. If you want the best mirror, then get the information ofl what your appearance is and' how you look from a good Muslim. Don't run to the dead object (glass reflector).

ALLAH NEEDS NO EMOTIONAL BUILD UP

The goodness of Allah is powerful and attractive enough without any emotional build up for it. Two Attributes introduce Allah's most celebrated goodness, These two Attributes introduce each of the 113 Chapters of the Qur'an and appears within the text of the 9th Chapter for a total of 114 Surahs (Chapters). Every Chapter of the Quran is accented by these two Attributes of Allah's Mercy. We have already quoted from Allah's Words "for that purpose He created us" — for His Mercy, that is.

These Attributes say, "Allah is the Merciful Benefactor and the Merciful Redeemer" — Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim. Both Attributes are having root in "Rahma" or Mercy. In order to construct the Social benevolence of creation-supported social logic, the Qur'an offers us clear and positive guidance seen in the social role and benefit of created mercy.

The concept of man's beginning is what we want to look at now for a moment. According to most established religions, man had his beginning in Paradise. As pictured in religion paradise is a condition of bliss, not bothered by a thing. Our religion designates that condition as our beginning. Our life (existence) formed first in Paradise.

When something went wrong in our behavior, we were ordered to get down from that high state, to get down into the earth where we could have a place for all appetites. We are also told that in the earth is our "destination" and place of "rest". Further, the earth is where we will reach the goal or miss it. Here on earth we will reach the mark or miss it. Here on earth we will live, die, and be buried. The Qur'anic quote is completed with Allah's Words, “And from the earth you will be raised up again."

(To be continued)