1990-June-29

Muslim Journal

“Islam”, The Solution For America: Part 1

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(Editorial Note: This Sunday Taaleem Address was delivered by Imam W. Deen Mohammed at Masjid Al-Fatir in Chicago, IL on March 30, 1990. It has now been prepared by Imam Mohammed for Muslim Journal's readers.)

As-Salaam-Alaikum. That is peace be unto you. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. We seek Him for assistance. We turn to Him asking forgiveness for our faults, for our sins, and for our mistakes. We believe in Him and put our complete trust in Him, the Mighty, the Sublime.

Observances of One Billion Muslims

We witness that there is none except Allah as divine. There is nothing like unto Him. And we witness that Muhammed is His Servant and His Messenger. The peace and the blessings be upon Muhammed the Prophet and upon his Companions, his descendants, and all that follows of the most excellent salutation to the Prophet, the Last and Seal of the Prophets.
We are always grateful to Allah for the opportunity to serve in the Cause of Al-Islam. And we pray always that He make our efforts a success and accept our efforts. This is our month of fast, and we wish all of you a blessed and noble fast. Ramadan karim mubarak. Muslims are fasting this month in every quarter of the world. In the Middle East, Muslims are fasting, where our qiblah, our directional center when making prayers and traveling for Hajj is established.

We have also on the peninsula called Saudi Arabia, the home of the Prophet in Medinah, where he went from Mecca and formed a government. In Medinah is where we find the Mosque that Prophet Muhammed built with his own hands, although he worked with others in its construction. It is the Mosque of the Light, the Mosque of the Prophet. The city of the Prophet's home and mosque is known as the City of Enlightenment. We all focus there on Saudia Arabia, which is a government and a Muslim country. All of its people there are respecting and observing the fast.

Muslims are Around the World

In Indonesia, India, Pakistan, China, England, France, Russia, the Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Gambia, the Philippines, South America, North America within the U.S.A. and Canada, Muslims are observing the fast. All around the world, there are approximately one billion or one-fifth of all people on this earth observing the fast of Ramadan. We pray Allah accept all of our fasting and reward us greatly in this month, as He always does.

What is Needed in America

What is needed in America is what we should first ask ourselves, before we think about Al-Islam or any religion or anything else as a solution to problems in America. We should first be aware of what is needed in America. Do we have any very serious needs as Americans? Before addressing that I think that it is best for us to look at what we have presented in the topic for today as an answer to the serious needs in America. And that is our religion, "Islam" as it is commonly called and "Al-Islam" as it is given in our Holy Book, The Qur'an.
Let us keep before us our view of problems in the society. I will start first with the idea of Oneness or Unity. If we can say that our religion, the religion of the Qur'an, which is the last revealed Book, is unique or special among all the other religions, I think first we have to point to the idea of Unity and Oneness in our religion for that distinction. In our religion we say, "God is One" and that is it. The God that we say is One is the God that everyone accepts as One. It (Allah) is the God that the Jews accept as One. Allah is the God that the Christians accept as One. The God that we accept as One is given in our Holy Book as "the Creator of everything". Everything we have, Allah created.

Allah Holds Claim to His Creation

It may be said, "We have a lot of things here that man created." Yes, he did! But man himself is the creation of Allah. Whatever man is doing, it is because that God, Allah. created him to do it. Man could not be doing it, if Allah had not created him for it. And man cannot do anything until he gets the resources that Allah created and also guidance from those resources (creation) that Allah created. Whatever man creates, that credit too is first owing to Allah.
For example, you open a business and provide all of the materials, and then someone uses your materials and extract from your knowledge to create things. Can't you take that person to court and get your property? So the Imam says, with Allah's Name, the Merciful Benefactor. All of the benefits that we have are from His Mercy. Allah is the Merciful Redeemer. If we are ever to be redeemed, it is of His Mercy that we will be redeemed.

The Oneness of Allah

We believe in the Oneness of Allah, and that Oneness cannot be compromised. There is no compromising the Oneness of God for Muslims. "Say, Allah is One Alone." "Allah is eternal", all the time existing. We cannot go back in time to find His beginning, and we cannot go forward to find His end. But He is not only eternally existing, also everything that is existing has its tie to Him and cannot exist without Him. "Never did He father a child." And, "Never was He a child fathered by any father." And, "There never existed anything comparable to Him." This is Allah the One God for all. That concept of God is the distinct uniqueness for Muslims. We believe in the Purity of Oneness where the concept of God is the issue.

The Surah of the Qur'an just recited is called The Purity. It means that this Concept of Allah is complete and perfect. No corruption of ideas have crept into it. It has been given by Allah and remains as revealed to Muhammed for us and for all times. That Oneness is unique for us and is the purest of the ideas called Monotheistic beliefs.
That is not to say that others do not believe in One God. I believe that Jews believe in One God. I believe the Christians believe in One God. But we have that special uniqueness where we do not compromise that Oneness. It is not confused. It is not weakened. I do not want to offend anyone here, but to me a God that has a progeny is weakened by a progeny.

I am the one saying that, and I accept responsibility for that.
First of all, the Idea of God is different from the idea of man, woman, and child. Man can hone that his work will be improved through his progeny. This is because man starts off unfulfilled and incomplete. Allah has always been as He is. Allah is perfect always, and for Him to extend Himself by a progeny would say that He needs help like we do. We need a progeny to extend our existence and to give us another chance through our sons. We need a progeny that will perhaps do better than we did, in hopes of having a better society through them. The idea of progeny, in my opinion, weakens the Concept of God.

Al-Islam as a Solution

We are offering Al-Islam as a solution. Therefore, we should see Al-Islam clearly. Prophet Muhammed, the peace and blessings be upon him, has said "Al-Islam is structured upon five essentials". The first is There is but One God, and there are no two gods or multiple personalities. There is Only One. "And Muhammed is His Messenger." Muhammed is not God and is not God's son. Muhammed is God's Messenger. "A human mortal just like you", referring to Prophet Muhammed, Qur'an, Muhammad, Allah's Messenger is not divine and is not an angel. He is a human mortal just like we are.
I think the idea is weakened when we say a man just like other men comes to save other men but the man is God.

The idea is weakened. If a man is God, then there is no big deal to make over whatever he does. If he saves the people, no big deal. He is supposed to be God. If he heals the sick, no big deal. He is God. We have doctors who heal the sick. He helps the blind? We have doctors who can give new eyes now. To think of man as divine is to weaken the idea of God and in the same instance weaken the merits of man.
Now if you say a man did these things, that he was not a god but simply a man, it makes the man great. It is great that a man will do these things. But if he was supposed to be God, then it is no big deal.
We may be hearing something for America. Think about what needs a solution. If we say America needs a solution, what are the problems?

We Pray to Allah

The second of the essentials for Muslims is that we pray to Allah. What do we look like acknowledging that there is a God responsible for everything and then turning to pray to the wall? Men fall into errors like that, because they get spiritually drunk. Spiritual drunkenness is worse than wine, whiskey and strong drink. I will not cover all of the details of the Muslim essentials. I will just be bringing to you the concept of the religion.
The third of these is that we give in charity. First of all we are to give to those closest to us and who are dependent on us. But we are to give also to help other people's children and grandparents and families. We are to help others and give for the sake of Allah. It is a duty and is one of the five essential practices of Muslims.

The fourth of these is to fast the month of Ramadan that we are in now, Sharu Ramadan. The month of Ramadan is the month in which the Qur'an descended, in which it was revealed to Prophet Muhammed; the peace and the blessings be upon him, as guidance for all the people. Did the Qur'an come down as guidance to guide Arabs? Then let us see what Allah says. It says, "...as guidance for all the people". It did not say as guidance for the Arabs. It says for all the people, which includes the Arabs and everyone else.
That is why you will find this religion everywhere, among all nationalities and colors. Whether they are black, brown, yellow or red, everybody has it. If E.T. comes down, he will get it before you. It is because he is not in the mess of America's culture. He does not have as many problems. I'm sure he can get that one finger out there to say "La illaha illallah. Muhammedan rasulallah." He will say, "I don't have to call home. I have found Al-Islam, the Qur'an and Muhammed's leadership."

The last of these pillars or essentials is that we make pilgrimage or visit the House Baitul Awwal. ( Baitul Atiq). Allah gives it those names or titles. Baitul Atiq means the Ancient House. Baitul Awwal means the First House built for the people fall). It was built for all the people. So we turn to a House that Allah says in our Scripture was erected for all people. It did not say for the Arabs. The expression addresses all people equally, Arabs and others generally.

Who was it erected by? It was Prophet Ibrahim and his son. Ismail. These two prophets, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon them, erected this House. And of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) who built that House, Allah said, "I will make you a leader (an Imam) for all people." Therefore the House built there is for all people. We turn towards it as a sign and as a qiblah for our direction in prayer and for Hajj (Pilgrimage) to the Holy Precincts in Mecca.

The Oneness of Humanity

Our Mecca multi national participation in the Hajj announces the oneness of humanity. That "oneness" belongs intrinsically to the logic (concept) of oneness revealed to the Prophet in the Qur'an. One Allah, one creation, and one human type uniting all men and women of heaven and earth. There is no creation out there belonging to the devil or to Satan.