1991-November-15

Muslim Journal

Value of Family in "Islam": Part 5

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(Imam W. Deen Mohammed made this public address in Nashville, Tennessee on May 26, 1991. From it he has now prepared this article for Muslim Journal's readers.)

All of these great major concerns that we have (the moral, the financial, and spiritual concerns) are tied together. If we see these things under devotion to Allah and with appreciation for our families, then we would have no vision problems. No man is going to become immoral because of money coming into his home, unless he loses sight on the principle that should be established in his life. If he loses sight on the principle that should be established in his life to hold up his total life, then he can be spoiled and be corrupted by money put into his hands.

I find that most people, who are corrupt, are not corrupt because money was put into their hands but because nothing was put into their hands. I pray Allah gives us the understanding to devote ourselves to the family and to work to establish strong and healthy families. We must study our religion and extract the knowledge from our religion and apply it for the good job of building healthy and strong families.

If we take care of that family need, I think we will eventually be in a situation to make progress as an ethnic group, as a race. Right now, we are too many on welfare and too few are making it good with business and enjoying wealth. The great many are either on welfare or depending upon circumstances that cannot be predicted hardly beyond one day. We don't want that for our race. We are hurt by a poor image of the race.

We want our race to be in good financial shape. It (our image) should at least be in good enough financial shape for it not to be a factor for tearing down or destroying the family life.