2001-November-30

Muslim Journal

Two Portions of G-d’s Mercy – Part 1

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(The following Jumuah Khutbah was given by Imam W. Deen Mohammed at the Taqwa Islamic Center in Chicago, IL, on Oct. 19t 2001. It is here presented in excerpts.)

Dear Believers, peace be unto you, as-salaam-alaikum. We praise Allah and witness that He is One, that He is the Creator of everything. He is the Lord of the heavens and the earth and cares about all of His creation. He created and then cared for His creation, until He brought this creation to guidance. The best of His creation is the servants of G-d, the Prophets, the Messengers of G-d. And He created man to be His ser­vants and His Messengers,

That is fulfilled in the Prophets and Messengers of G-d and completed in Muhammed, The Prophet (SAW), who is given to us as a model for our human and Muslim behavior. But not only is he given to us, Allah Most High says in His Book, the Qur'an, that whoever believes in G-d and the Last Day certainly has in Muhammed the most excellent model.

Again, Allah says of Muhammed The Prophet: "We have not sent you to be other than a mercy to all the worlds." That means Muhammed came as a mercy to mankind, to all human beings. Not only to the individual, he came to the nations and to the institutions of the nations, to the learned and their most cherished establishments. Muhammed came as a mercy to them.

If you can give people correct knowledge and guide them to the sciences, the sciences of matter, you open the way for them to have comfort unlimited. When Allah says of Muhammed, "We haven't sent you except as a mercy to all the worlds," that mercy Allah is speaking of is the second mercy. The Bible says that G-d promised the people who made covenant with Him that He would give them two portions of His Mercy.

In Islam, G-d is Ar Rahman and Ar Rahim. two portions of His Mercy And Muhammed is a mercy to all the worlds, because it was the final revelation given to him, The Qur'an, that opened the minds of the scholars, of the scientists, the researchers, the thinking people to new and fresh doors for revival of the human intellect, with its rational powers and rational curiosities. And it gave birth to the revival of the sciences. This is history.

So we are not people just invited to rituals. We are invited to wake up in our sense nature, in our compassion and in our intelligence. We are guided in this religion to wake up in the best of our nature. We should be compassionate human beings and intelligent human beings and subscribe to the best human behavior. And we should respect as a people the best standards established in history by civilized man.

That is what Allah means, Highly Praised is He, when He says: "And order or give commands, instructions, respecting the best of standards established by civilized societies." It means that which is known as the best standards. And it continues: "Turn, keep away from that which empties out your good qualities and your good senses." This is the instruction of G-d.

We are addressing the importance of the human intellect. Muhammed the Prophet (SAW) said: "G-d did not create anything more beneficial for us than the human intelligence." In fact, he said "the human brain."

I remember a sister who was very religious, who came from Catholicism to Islam, looking at me when I said that as if to say, "You are making a mistake, Brother Imam. The brain is not the most precious most beneficial thing G-d created." I'm sure she was entertaining the heart as the most beneficial thing that G-d created.

Yes, the heart is first, and the brain is second. If we purify our heart, that is the door for the brain. The good condition of our heart stimulates the brain and gives the brain that kind of support it needs to stay straight and obedient to G-d. Yes, the heart is the first, but the heart has not given us electric lights as much as the brain has. You can want it in your heart all you want, but if you don't use your brain you will never have electric lights and all the other things that make for an advanced and comfortable world.

So Muhammed the Prophet knew what he was saying, and he was correct. He said that G-d didn't create anything more useful or more beneficial or better in His service than the human brain. Muhammed the Prophet was not an educated man, when he was chosen to be the last Messenger of G-d. And Allah said; "We revealed it upon his heart."

If He, Allah, had revealed that weighty Book upon the brain of the uneducated Muhammed, it would have destroyed him. If He had revealed it upon a mountain, the mountain would have crumbled into dust. Praise be to Allah.

The focus now is on Ummatu Islamia, the Interna­tional Community of Al-Islam. Allah says in the Qur'an of Abraham, Peace be upon him, that he is a community - not just an individual, not just a man. G-d blessed him as a community, and his community, G-d promised, would be the whole of mankind, all people.

Adam is the first leader and father of mankind, for man's human nature. Abraham is the first leader and father of mankind for the intellect. And Muhammed the Prophet is a Prophet like Moses, according to G-d's Word in the Qur'an. And the order he has established is after the order of Prophet Abraham, upon them all be Peace. Abraham was a community. And Muhammed was given to the world as the leader of the believers to guide us into community life, so that we will be responsible for community life.

In congregation, every believer - no believer is excused - is obligated to learn how to lead the prayers, to lead not only him or herself but to lead a group in prayer. Both males and females are obligated to do that. That tells us very clearly that we are responsible not only for leading ourselves individually, but we are responsible for leading  the group - the collective body - as well as the individuals.  G-d says; "You are the best community evolved or brought out for the good of all people, for all mankind." It speaks to us in the plural, meaning every one of us. So how can we live Islam, live a Muslim life, and not feel the obligation to our fellow man, when G-d says He has brought us out of the world of darkness and ignorance and oppression and sins, etc., so that we will be of benefit, of service to all people? When Muhammed is a mercy to all the worlds?

Like our leader, Muhammed, we also should have it in our hearts to be a mercy to all the worlds. We should want our community to be a model community, G-d wants us to be a witness for all of the communities. How are we going to be a witness for all of the communities, if we don't see our obligation to all people and to all other societies? That we build and establish a model society that will be a witness under G-d. That He has given man the guidance to have the best society or best community life possible on this earth.

If we live it, we will be that model. It was done by Muhammed, the Prophet, Prayers and Peace be on him. He achieved that in his lifetime, and he left that to us. We are the inheritors of that great society that the last of the Prophets, the Seal of the Prophets, established. So we have to become more and more aware, more and more conscious of the fact that we have the superior guidance. And if we follow it we will have the superior community life.

None will have any community life to match ours, to compete with ours. If we pursue what G-d has given us through Muhammed the Prophet, the Qur'an, as guidance and follow his methods, his principles, respect his character, we will have the best. "And obey G-d and obey His Messenger." This is the answer.

This religion is not difficult. This religion is very clear. You don't have to be a scientist or a mathematician or a psychologist or a great philosopher or the high-minded person living in the skies because the earth is too small for you. You don't have to be that kind of person to learn this religion, to practice this religion and con­tribute to the success of the Muslim life on this planet. This religion will make you a special brain.

(To be continued)