2001-June-29

The Muslim Journal

Purity: Part 2

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

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

When you speak to us using everyday common language -  like, "Are you going to the store this morning?" "Would you like to have some breakfast with me, this morning?"
- no matter what it is, we are going to feel your faith in your language, if you really have it.
So don't think a non-believer can come among us and hide. We know believers from non-believers. G-d has always, since time begun, marked the disbeliever. Just like a secret service man. I can identify them anytime. They are marked, and so is the informant. They cannot hide, although they think they are hidden. Not among people of faith. People of faith know one another.

You read in the Bible, before the Qur'an came, that they will be known by the mark in their foreheads. And you think it means the mark you get by pressing your forehead on the hot sand. No, that mark seen is just a sign of the more permanent mark. The more permanent mark is the mark of righteousness and sincerity and faith that radiates. When you look at them, you know.

If he is a practicing Muslim and you look closely, you will also see the sign of his prostration and especially if he is doing it on hot sand. These thick carpets are like paradise for us. The Prophet did not have all this nice thick carpet. This carpet will not put a mark on your forehead.
So let's know the way of life in Al-Islam. And let's devote ourselves the way we should devote ourselves in obedience to G-d in everything. Don't leave G-d out of anything.
I practice this and try to get my family to practice it also. I wake up in the morning with Allah on my mind, and I keep Allah on my mind as I go to sleep, asking Allah for His Protection. Live with Allah on your mind all the time. The first thing we should hear in our ears when we awaken in the morning is "G-d is Greater"; Allahu Akbar. We should be awaken by the Adhan that says "G-d is Greater," its first words.

And while we are awake, we should be aware that it is G-d Who created us to have activity and rest - life and death. We should say: "Praise to be G-d Who gives us life after death. And to Him is the eventual return." This is a person who lives with an awareness.
He didn't make himself; he couldn't create human beings. G-d gave him his existence and made him living, and G-d will make him dead one day. And G-d will raise him up from his death and give him life again. "And to G-d is the eventual return." So let us live, as I have said, a life of complete obedience to G-d, the One Who created us.
Also let us seek the knowledge of how to live this religion that we claim for ourselves as Muslims - from the Qur'an, the Word of G-d revealed to Muhammed for all the people and from the life tradition of Prophet Muhammed - how he lived.

Many people will tell you how the Prophet lived, just like many people will describe Chicago to you. Some will describe it as nothing but the lakeshore. So know that people who read about Prophet Muhammed are the same way. Some will describe him only as the beauty of the lakeshore. Others will tell you about the high buildings. Others will describe the people of Chicago, or the businesses of Chicago, etc.
So Muhammed has many facets, but all of those features together spell "The Servant and Messenger of G-d to the worlds and the last of them - the Seal of the Prophets." What is meant by the Seal of the Prophets? He is the one who comes after people have lost the purity of their books that they received. The purity of the books is gone for the Jews, for the Christians, for all of them.

The books are not exactly the way in which they received them, and their prophets are not even perceived as they should be perceived. Muhammed comes as the last Prophet and Messenger of G-d and comes with the completed message. Each prophet made a contribution before him, and he comes with the complete message.
Then what he gives is proof and even a kind of revelation on what the others received and what their mission was. So the seal means that he comes to give the world the truth of those who went before or came before him. He came to restore honor to them where they lost honor. To raise a man up to G-d when he is only a human being is to take away much of his honor.

You'll say: "Oh no. They gave him the honor that is to be given to G-d!" But he is a man, a human, and he would not like that you do that to him, if he is a truthful servant of G-d. So you did take away his respect and his honor by lifting a human being up to G-d. So the Prophet who comes and clears that up restores honor even back to Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, and on Muhammed the Prophet.
The most disrespected prophet in all of the books is Jesus, the Christ Prophet of G-d. He is the most robbed of them all. He was robbed of the honor that G-d gave to him when He made him, the son of Mary, peace be upon him and his mother. But when they made him "god," they shamed him before the world. They made him ashamed. With Muhammed bringing the truth back freed him, this freed him from dishonor, shame, lies and even corruption. That is the worst corruption of all.

Allah says in the Qur'an that even the heavens will be outraged, lest they should say "Allah had a son." That is really something. The gravity, the weight of the wrong, the crime of saying that G-d had a son is like a bombshell: The heavens would be outraged that they say "Allah had a son."

To be continued