1986-May-16

Muslim Journal

Excerpts From Imam Muhammad's New York Address: Part 3

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

(Editor's Note: The following is excerpted from Imam W. Deen Muhammad's April 13. 1986 address at the Jacob Javits Convention in New York)

Community Responsibility

The Qur'an on community responsibility. God says: Hold firmly to the cable that God extends out to you for your salvation, for your unity. Hold on to the help that God extends out to you, and do not be divided, among yourselves.

We have a community obligation to hold on to the Qur'an, the word of God, to hold on to Muhammad, the Prophet, the last and universal liberator from God. To hold on to him and his pattern of life, his Sunnah. We have an obligation to hold on to that, and we have an obligation to hold on to each other. For God has extended His help, that we may be united. United against the forces of Satan, and Satan's schemes and devices. He can break the unity of everybody, except those who are united under God.

And again, God says, The believers (the real believers) are the ones who call to all that is good and excellent. They call to all that has good utility for man and society. They call only to that that Allah, their Lord, has approved. And then command (order) and insist upon that that is of the most excellent standards.

And they prohibit or disallow that that is defective, degrading, corruptible.

The Muslim community also has a community obligation to serve the best interest of other communities: Christian, Jewish and even the Socialist community. The Muslim is obligated to ' recognize his responsibilities to all the communities of man. And while he is promoting his own cause, he cannot forget that he has to have a healthy regard for the destiny of other people, and contribute to their worthwhile and noble endeavors. To support and complement them and be happy about their progress even though they are not Muslims. This is healthy for anybody, and it's an obligation for us.

Our Race

Our Holy Book on race value. All of the precepts, formulas, and prescriptions for our life in our Holy Book moves most of all on the principle and in the line of peace. The nature and aim in our religion for all of our activities is peace. Therefore, we have no radical preachings in our Qur'an on race. There is no radical teaching in our Holy Book on race. It just comes to us with the sober truth; the sober and sobering truth. You all descended from one ancestral, and he was made from dust. So our religion first humbles us; it doesn't preach to our arrogance, it doesn't preach to our exaggerated pride, flattering us with racial and ethnic compliments. No, it first sobers us. It first humbles us. It says you may be big now, but you weren't big when God had you in His hands for the first time. You were something too small to be mentioned, according to the word of God. You all descended from your first ancestor, and he was made from dust. And again it says: "And it is Allah that has created your forms and has made your forms beautiful." It's not saying this in any arrogant, egotistical way. The demagogue wants to flatter you. He wants to make you feel good. The demagogue wants to first make you like him. But Allah is too big for that. Allah is too big to come at you in that inferior way. God comes at us to strengthen us. God says: "It is Allah that has created your forms, and have made your forms beautiful."