April 26, 1991

Muslim Journal

The Practical Application Of Al-Islam: Part 2

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(On October 14, 1990, Imam W. Deen Mohammed made this public address in Tuisa, Oklahoma. Imam Mohammed has now prepared from it this article for Muslim Journal's readers.)

Servants of Allah

Allah said to Adam, "Tell them their names." Adam was seen as a creature who was going to make a lot of problems. The fear was over Adam being trusted with free will. The angels felt that he did not have the capacity for that. To prove to the angels something they did not know, Allah said, "Adam, tell them their names." And Adam told them their names. This says a lot that is not discussed here. Men, Jinns, and Angels are servants of Allah.

Let it suffice to say that Allah created the humans with something that puts the humans in a situation above the angels. Not that the humans are above the angels in the complete sense. A certain capacity that Allah gave to the human creation puts the human creation in a situation above the angels at least in one respect. I find that very comforting. I don't like to think that I was created to sin, and I don't like to think that I have to become an angel in order to be a perfect human. I would like to think that I can become a good human being, make a mistake tonight, and still be a perfect human being. A perfect human being is a well meaning person who will always repent for bad behavior or for sins. That is as perfect as I want to be. That is, I dislike bad behavior. I hope to avoid sins. I love being human.

Our religion requires that we have respect and real regard for concepts. As this regard grows in us, we will also begin to realize improved perception. True-to-nature definitions are very important for us in this religion. It is not enough to just say "I'm human" and not know the true-to-nature definition.

Muslims are supposed to live a conscious life. Everything we do we should want to do it with a conscious awareness. To be more clear, we should want to have light on what we are doing. We are not to do things without involving our alert senses. The Prophet (peace and blessings be on him) said, "Do not pursue things for which you have no knowledge base."

We are not to favor spookism and superstitions. I was making a talk once and people thought I was against fiction. In fact, it is hard to find anyone who is more a lover of fiction than I am. But I see fiction that has no roots in reality as junk. I only appreciate fiction because it is telling me something that I did not know about reality. Now if it can't make reality more attractive, more challenging, more expressive, etc., I don't
want that fiction.

I heard a discussion on educational television where one of the participants stated, "Perception is the function of all senses working together.'' I thought that was the best definition of perception I had ever heard. We think of perception as understanding a matter. Most of us think of perception as understanding. But when we really think seriously about what is involved making it possible for us to understand any particular thing, it is the combination of our senses working together to make it possible for us to understand (perceive) correctly.

The time that we live in today, the time of this society and the problems for this society make it very difficult for us to have good perception. Most do not perceive the members of the family correctly. We look at our brother and sister in the family and we are not perceiving them correctly. We are not perceiving the baby that is depending so heavily on us in the household. We are not perceiving the mother or the father.

The nature of influences in the media, in the society, and especially in the streets and in the common conversations is such that we are hearing false representations of the subject matter.

It is a big difference between this world now that I'm seeing and the world that I was a child in. The world that I was a child in had its extremes and had its bad people, but the bad were not the majority. In order to perceive something, to define something, to understand what we are seeing, we need to grasp the immediate and sometimes distant circumstances. To not become confounded and speechless before a person's behavior, we have to look at the condition of the individual person. That person's condition is part of the at-issue circumstances. Ask, what is the condition of that person? Has that person been cared for? Is that person in his or her good mind? Has good sense been communicated to that person? We have to look to see if that person's senses have been mistreated, and a condition has formed which favors nonsense behavior. Maybe that person can only respond to hurt, suffering, damage, loss, and the like. The interest behind a matter sometimes is overlooked. Interest will be decided by circumstances.

When we were enslaved and our freedom was restricted to going to bed under orders, rising up before the sun and going to plow and work the field, eating, resting a brief moment and then returning to bed, the interest was not ours. That was the life of slaves. Some few slaves had different and considerate masters and different circumstances. What interest could that slave have whose master was driving his whole life from sun up to sun down? What interest could that slave have whose master was deciding his whole life for him twenty-four hours a day? He led his life under the fear of the master and in just answering the duties and the calls of his master. He had no opportunities to have an interest of his own free of his master's influence.

The human being's soul that Allah made is so marvelous that inspite of circumstances, the soul can take wings and fly to a world of hope in imagination. But if we are only responding to adverse circumstances and conditions, we cannot benefit from that free-spirit situation. Most of the slaves most likely were working in fields with fear on them and thinking, "When is this going to be over, for I want to eat and go to bed?" Some masters, who believed in Christianity perhaps, would let them off on Sundays. Sunday would be the slave's day.

Most of the slaves had no knowledge except to follow the master's religion. They had no knowledge of any other religion. They observed the master how he worshipped and would try to practice his religion. I am not wanting to offend anyone here. I know you are asking, is that how we got Christianity?" That is how most got it in the beginning of
"Negro Church history". A lot of you do not have Christianity yet. A lot of you would identify as Christians wear the name and know the Holy Prophet Jesus by name only (AS).

We don't expect for a person to have good human interest, if the circumstances are designed to kill or to not permit the forming of that kind of interest. It is after interest forms that we can start to consider how thinking forms. "Man, can't you think?" Maybe he cannot. Certain circumstances are required for even the ability to think and to think correctly.

The angels could not think freely. Allah created Adam and exposed him to subjects and Adam was able to think. Without being exposed to something, we are not going to think. If we in that condition do any thinking, it will be oppressed and uneventful. It is after thinking forms that we come to have opinions. Most in these times are in a state where we mostly entertain opinions of others and express opinions of others. After opinion comes the forming of attitudes comes automatically. A certain opinion of me is going to make you have a certain attitude towards me. After attitudes, attitudinal habits form.

You may ask what good is this talk for the practical application of the teachings of Qur'an and the life of Prophet Muhammed (on whom be the prayers and the peace!. I have not come with my own ideas. I have extracted this from the Qur'an and from the life of Prophet Muhammed. You will find that what I am giving you is universal. The Prophet said, "I did not come to give you a new fabricated teaching." The Prophet established that he did not come with any new unfounded ideas.

The Last Prophet and Messenger came to serve Allah's orders to complete Allah's favor on humanity. If we find this to be just common knowledge, then understand that to be the unique beauty of our religion.

(To be continued)