1988-January-29

Muslim Journal

"An Islamic Formula for a Successful Life" : Part 7
Los Angeles, California — November 15, 1987

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Cosmic man inherited from cosmic order five senses — intelligence. Intelligence. We have five daily prayers corresponding with the five senses of man, to tell us that man — in all the Scriptures, if I have read them correctly — in one way or another, tells man that there is a sacredness to his life, that there is a sanctuary of the human life, that he should watch and guard; protect it against influences that may take it out of the holy and sacred form that God intended it to be kept in. And the Qur'an says, those who guard what there is to be guarded, those who watch over their own souls, etc., etc., right? Those Scriptures tell us that. If you watch over the inherent worth of human life, gifted in a simple House that all of us direct ourselves to, if you understand that that House is a symbol of what is most vital to man as an individual human being, and more importantly, as a society, or social community, then 'house' readily brings to our minds the first unit of social life — home.

There is a home, but nobody lives in it. It's not for people to live in. That's not what it's for. It's there as a sign, that the first House God created for you, is yourself. Remember the boy I mentioned earlier? I forgot his name, but I called him "the wild boy." I mentioned that boy earlier; because he was not opportune or had the opportunity to be associated with human models. He modeled himself after animals, that he was associated with or around. Allah has given us a sign of house; a house suggests that an individual is formed by the situation of community; that he cannot form as an individual without a situation of community. It's been proven scientifically. So how are you going to preserve yourself as an individual? Keep before you community life.

When resources become scarce in this world, when civilization becomes a burden on the planners, policymakers, city designers, etcetera, when it becomes a great burden because of overcrowding, and not enough resources to get around to everybody, what happens? They begin to alienate man from his own reality. They set influences in the culture, to alienate you from your own reality. God has prepared for this and gave us the Kaa'ba: a simple house, as a symbol, as long as we have this prayer orientation, and understand that symbol as a symbol of man's unity, and of man's first identity, that man is firstly a social being, after he is a cosmic being. On earth, he is a social being, he is a cosmic being, then God forms him and brings him to his fulfillment, to his purpose and reality on earth, in the home situation, by way of social life. And the first unit of that social progression is home life. That's where our personalities are formed. So a situation is needed, a condition is needed, i? we are to be formed in the body and the identity that God wants us in on this earth. We must have a social situation.

And the most un-established people socially is the African-American man. The appreciation for his social purpose is neglected at home and in the public. Other people have more solidarity in the home and in the public; therefore, they are more equipped to challenge, compete and defeat us. Our money is not enough. They could make all of us rich with money today and tomorrow, and believe me, the white man will still be over us, until we come into an orientation that God intended for ourselves as social beings and as cosmic creatures. We have to come into that orientation.

The sun rises and sets. It tilts its head to the north and to the south, makes bows of sajda. Allah says, 'and the sun and the moon makes sajda.' They make sajda. And then He says, man, make sajda to your Lord. Direct yourself to this House and make sajda to your Lord. And Allah says, though you be scattered, though you be dispersed, you won't carry the heavy burden of Diaspora like the Jews. Wherever you are, if you would just remember this House, and turn your all towards this House. Wherever you are scattered, Allah will bring you all together.

Our unity, no matter how distant we are from each other, is secured. Our solidarity is already preserved in that prayer orientation, towards that House. This is the enlightenment that we need of self. And when you see self, you know your Lord, because you know good and well, you didn't create this cosmic order, and you can't master it. You know good and well it birthed you, and you are going to return to it. You are just here and (snaps fingers) gone. You know that. So if you would face that reality, if you will face the truth of your small fate in this great cosmic world, and then appreciate the role that God has given you in it, you will become God-fearing, you will know your Lord.

That's what makes me appreciate God so much. God, you made me a speck of dust, in this cosmic world. I'm helpless; I'm born without knowledge and I die without knowledge. I come and I go in a fleeting moment. In a fleeting moment, I'm here and I'm gone, God. But look what You have sensitized me with, in this short, fleeting moment. Oh, You have made me feel so wonderful. You have given me a place so big; you have made the place of my nativity so big. You have made the place of my death so big, until I am honored to live and die in the boundaries that you have set for me! Yes! I live with dignity, and I die with dignity! And that's why Allah says in the Holy Qur'an, no, my Prophet was never this despicable creature that they pictured. He was honored at birth and honored until the day he died.

Yes! Honored at birth and honored when he died. There's no shame in dying. A funeral was seen as big as the cosmic reality; I love life in it and freedom in it, but hell, death isn't going to make me weak. For all I know, my genes may survive in a particle of dust, and Wallace may spring up one day. Because God has given me hope. And the more I learn about the nature of this continuous order, a cycle of growth and death, the more I am believing that a billion years will pass like that (snaps fingers), and a change will come in the combination of dynamic factors of the universe, this man may live again. He may live again to see his Lord even better.

The Lord that has given the common man that hope, must have a way to fulfill it. The Lord that gave man that hope must have a way to satisfy it. So don't become so scientific-minded, so secular in your thinking, that you lose the promise of God. I live to have more opportunity, to prove myself in the field of testing that's this life and the world, so I can qualify for greater promotion in the world beyond, or in the time beyond, because actually, space will be the same space, for Allah says in His Paradise, space is equal to the heavens and the earth, and He says when they behold it, they will say, this looks like what we saw before.

Now if you want singing and dancing in religion, I can understand you walking away from here, and not declaring yourself secretly or publicly a Muslim, if you are not one. But if you are not looking for a song-and-dance religion, you're really looking for a real religion, I cannot understand you walking out of here — I don't care if you are a priest or preacher, I don't care if you're the Pope. If the Pope was sitting here, I'd say, Pope, what's wrong with you? After hearing this, you're not going to declare yourself as being a Muslim? You must like graveyard drama, you are entertained by graveyard drama. And you know mystery and spookism has a strong attraction when you don't have knowledge.

Don't say, That man thinks the Pope is dumb. "I know he's extremely wise. I know that. They (the bishops and the cardinals) will not even accept him to be in that position; they wouldn't accept him being in that position until they had proof that he was extremely wise. I know that.

But if he turned down this religion after it was presented like this, I would say well, you must have a secret commitment and this thing you keep doing is an act that you're carrying on as necessity for your situation. I hope the fear comes off you, Pope. That's what I would say to him. It must be an act, because with your intelligence, I know you cannot walk out of here and not be changed.

And this problem in self-view and self-identity, we are going to discuss at a later time. But the reason why men of great knowledge, of great intellect, can continue to serve falsehood (and that's serving falsehood); once you learn truth and you don't change before the world's eye, you are serving falsehood.

You may be serving falsehood and truth at the same time, but that's double-mindedness, deceit, weakness, cowardice. So we are going to talk about how man is searching for the answer, the end reality for himself, becomes blinded by his own subject if his interest leaves the big picture and gravitates towards the small picture which is himself.

You now the Gnostics of Christianity, they misinterpreted Jesus Christ and his mission on this earth (peace be upon the prophet, Jesus Christ). They misinterpreted his mission and they held the world in ignorance for hundreds of years before their people were enlightened by the insight of Qur’anic revelation, and then looked again to see if they misread or misinterpreted or gone astray from  the direction of the Gospel. And they discovered they had, and there Martin Luther was born, the mind of Martin Luther was born, and women began to b^ respected and accepted in society. Women began to be given rights in education. The slave had to be liberated. Why? It took them centuries, a thousand years or better, for them to rightly apply Christianity. Why did it take them all that time? How come they had to wait for the liberation movement to be established on the peninsula of Arabia, and to conquer darkness there, beat back jahiliyyah (the heathenism there), and establish a civilization par excellence there, before they came into an understanding of the real direction and the real application of Christianity for themselves? Why?

They missed the mark. Their ignorant, pious Gnostic leaders missed the mark. They thought that Christianity was an exercise to train man's muscles of divinity, to bring him into God-consciousness. That's what they were all about, and they thought that few men with the divine spark was chosen to be the caretakers and masters of the world and to keep the ignorant in check. Those who were without that spark keep them in check. It was slavery; they had slavery for the masses. Common man was a slave under that rule, and only those with the divine spark, those that they considered to have the divine spark, who illumined intellect, illumined by the Gnostic ideology, their perception of the Bible revelation, of Jesus' life, if one didn't have that, you were common animal man, and you were to be treated as such, and not included in the circle of society, but used as beasts of burden, and their women didn't have the soul or the spark, so they weren't to be included either. They would just be used for procreation, but not to be given the dignity of the human being. It was just recently that they got the right to vote in the United States.

So now they associate us in their misery with women rights? The plight of the woman and the plight of the black man; slave and female slave, our former female slaves and our black African slave. That's what they mean.

I hope I have been of some good to you today, and God willing, as we say, insha' Allah, at the next meeting, we will begin with man gravitating towards the narrow circle and blinded by his own illusions of himself and his importance, where that brings a man down, but the worship of the One Lord brings him up. As-Salaam-Alaikum.