2001-June-22

The Muslim Journal

Purity

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(The following address was given by Imam W. Deen Mohammed at Jumah Prayer at the Taqwa Islamic Center, at 4545 S. Western Blvd., on March 30, 2001.)

As-Salaamu-Alaikum. We praise G-d. We worship nothing but Him alone. He is One and does not accept any help from any, unless that help comes as a servant. There is only Master and servant, Allah is Master alone, and all others are servants. This includes all of the Prophets; they were servants of G-d. And the most honorable title for any creature is servant of G-d.

We witness that Muhammed to whom the Qur'an was revealed is His Servant and His Messenger and a Mercy to all the worlds. We witness that he is the Seal of the Prophets, mentioned in the Qur'an by G-d as that one who is given in the Torah and in the Injil, or what is called The Gospel now, as the liberator - the educator, teacher and liberator.

In the Qur'an, Allah mentions that Muhammed the Prophet is mentioned in the Books of the "People of the Book." I have read it, and the language given in the Qur'an is in the Bible. In the Qur'an, G-d says of him that "He will take from them the yokes that weighed them down and break the bonds of slavery" - slavery to all except to G-d. The human being must be free to serve G-d.

If we understand it, even religion had been taken by the oppressors, by the wrong doers. And religion, too, had to be freed for G-d. We think that the reference to "the religion being free for G-d" is only to the struggle of Prophet Muhammed with the Book and Message of Qur'an. But no, religion itself was in the hands of oppressors, when Allah gave the world Muhammed as the Mercy to all the worlds.

Allah says to Muhammed and his followers: "And fight them, until there is no more persecution and religion is free for G-d." So when we read in the Qur'an that Muhammed the Prophet (PBUH) is a man like Moses raised up from among the brethren, remember that Moses, too, was a fighter in the Path of G-d opposing the oppressors who had religion as a tool for enslaving the people.

The religion, itself, was used to enslave the people. So like Moses, Muhammed was given to the world to free not only the people from bondage and slavery, but to free also the Word of G-d from being used by the oppressors to enslave the people. And many people today in religion are nothing but slaves of men.

They are not serving G-d, except through the men that they see as their masters. And their masters are ruling them. This can't be in Islam. In Islam, we have only One Master. That Master is the G-d Who created us and everything, highly glorified and praised is He.

Islam is an easy religion. It is not a hard religion. G-d says that we shall teach you and ease your way. G-d says this to Muhammed. He says to us that He wants not hardship for us, but He wants that we be purified. And that is the difficulty. The difficulty comes to us who are weak in the face of the temptations of the world. But if we purify ourselves, then that burden becomes easy to carry.

To carry yourself in obedience to G-d. To stay away from unclean things. To stay away from the corruptible things. It becomes easy, once you purify yourself. When you practice purification -making wudu (washing) before you pray, being in the spirit of cleanliness; you are not just doing it unconsciously. You do it consciously.

It is said, according to Bukhari and Muslim, that the Prophet (PBUH) was teaching and he said that in the latter world, the world to come, the people will be making wudu and light will be seen coming from their hands, from the water that they will be using. It is the light of purification, but it is the light also of knowledge.

They are not doing something without knowledge supporting it. They are doing something that has knowledge behind it. The wudu preserves the knowledge, the higher knowledge. In the Hereafter they will have that knowledge, and the light of that knowledge will be in the water of their wudu.

It says that G-d does not want burdens for you, but that you be purified. And purification is necessary for us to even come from oppression into freedom, from ignorance into understanding or Islamic knowledge. Purification is necessary.

It is to purify us and lead us out of the darkness. Darkness is oppression as well as ignorance. Darkness is many conditions: Corruption, ignorance, oppression. It is to lead us out of the darkness into the light.

It is also said that purification is the bulwark of religion or it is half the religion. If a river is seen having two banks - the water cuts through the land and there are banks to both sides - one of the sides is purification, That is a picture given to us. So it is half of the faith, because there are two sides to the river. And purification is needed, firstly.

Iman - faith - is needed too, if we are to be saved. The right faith will save us. The Prophet said (praise G-d for him): You will never get into The Paradise, until you have faith." And he also said: "You will never have faith, until you practice loving one another."

Notice the bad people. If they don't care about doing right, they don't care about people either. Really, those who practice loving one another have to come to some appreciable measure as lovers of purity. When you love obeying G-d and love being clean and love being correct in your mind and in-your actions, then you love one another more.

Really, this is just a growth and development for the soul. And if you have growth and progress of the soul in the way of appreciating your brother and your sister, your mother and your father, your friend and your neighbor, that growth is not by itself. That growth has been preceded by a desire to be correct in your thinking, in your feelings or in your heart.

Already you have started to purify yourself. You have been a person who wants to be pure at heart. All of these developments are characteristic of growth for the soul of the human being, and the evidence is in the eyes of that person. The evidence is in the behavior of that person. The evidence is in the facial expressions of that person. So no one can be a real human being and hide it. It's going to be seen in your eyes, in your facial expressions, as well as and more pronouncedly it will be seen in your speech.
When you speak, we are going to feel your faith in G-d.

To be continued