1986-August-1

Muslim Journal

The Muslim Must Meet Challenge

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

 (Editor's note: The following is excerpted from a Khutbah Imam Muhammad delivered June 20 at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit.)

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of All the Worlds; we seek Him for I assistance, we turn to Him for forgiveness, we put our complete in trust in Him, we have belief in Him; I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except one God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Servant and His Messenger. We pray the peace and blessing be upon him, and upon his descendants and his com­panions, all the righteous, and upon us be peace. Amen.

Highly glorified is He who created the heavens and the earth. He who gave everything its created form, and thereafter is guided; to Him is due the praise, to Him is due the thanks; He is the creator I alone; the One who has created every single thing — there is no t division in the rule of the heavens and the earth; it is the doings of only One Lord. He accepts no partners and no shareholders, in the rule of the heavens and the earth.

La-shaarika-laahu. There is no partner with Him. And He has power over all things.
He has sent His Messenger with the truth. He has sent His Messenger, His Guide, into the truth, and that falsehood should perish, for surely falsehood is due to perish.
He has sent His Messenger, that we may have in him a perfect model for human conduct or behavior. He has sent His Messenger. Muhammad, that we may have in him a leader for all times. And He has said in His Book, 'whatever the Prophet gives you, accept, and whatever he forbids you, stay away from it.'
And the Prophet has said, peace and blessings be upon him, that I leave you two authorities, for as long as you follow these, you will not go astray. And he gave those two authorities as the Qur'an, the Word of God, first of all, the revealed message for all times, and secondly his Sunnah.

In Al-Islam we know Adam to be an excellent creation of God, not a sinner. We are told that Adam had no desire to go astray, but he was beguiled, deceived and slipped out of his form by mistake. He was unaware that he was slipping out of the form that God had intended for him. Later Adam had an encounter with the Word of God, and repented.

Adam, in his creation, was made good, and whole, however, his creation often represents the beginning life for that framework: that life was to be completed with the last Prophet, Muhammad. Because Adam was not complete, in terms of the intended growth and de­velopment of man, but merely a framework for that: a beginning of man, a beginning of human society, as intended by God. Because Adam was not complete, he was unable to manage the challenges in his environment, without deviating, and coming into a situation where he would have to repent and turn back to God. Nevertheless, he was created as khalifah. He was created for the responsibility of rule: governor, authority, the office custodian.

And Allah says (Most High): "We made for human use or to be serviceable, whatever is in the sky and whatever is in the earth." That was made for Adam. Adam could only utilize it up to a certain degree, because man was in a process of growing to his full capacity, for which Adam. I repeat, was the framework.
Then comes Muhammad in the last days of the prophetic office, with the final message, and as the Final Prophet or the Last Prophet, and Messenger of God, with the complete and Final Re­velation, the Qur'an, and with this Prophet and with this Revela­tion, the Qur'an., we are prepared, equipped fully to meet any chal­lenge from Satan or from the environment.

Prophet Muhammad, peace and the blessings be upon him, was victorious in his life, he was victorious as the Messenger of God, and that victory shall always be for all time. No matter what our local situation is as Muslims, the Prophet was victorious. The Qur'an is victorious. Al-Islam is victorious.

When we look at the international community of Muslims in Africa, Asia, Arabia and the Americas, we may become dishear­tened, because Muslims in the international world, are not faring so well. The Muslims of Africa, have a lot of difficulties, the Muslims of Asia are faring better but they also are faced with great difficulties. The Muslims of Saudi Arabia, are faring perhaps even better than the Muslims of Asia, but they are also facing great difficulties. The Muslims of the United States are faced with great difficulties. We live in a land of democracy, that protects us with its laws, and its institutions, the freedom of religion, the right to use our own reli­gion, but it is a land that also gives opportunity to evil, to criminals. We have the right of life, but criminals take our lives. We have the right of freedom of speech, but evil people deny us that freedom, and threaten us, to prevent us from using that freedom. So we are not in a good situation here in America; we are facing great difficulties.

It's not easy being a good anybody in the United States of America, whether it's a good Muslim, a good Christian, a good Jew, a good atheist, or anybody, it's very hard in the United States of America. So let us understand that. The condition of religion is not to be confused with the condition of the people. The religion is perfect and complete; if we conform to the religion, we can change our condition. Where we are suffering, and meeting with great difficulty and are unable to establish ourselves as real Muslims, there is either the misconception or weakness on our part, regarding our religion. If we conceive our religion rightly, and then have the strength to live it to the best of our ability, we are going to make our condition better, with Allah's blessings; He's going to be with us. We are going to make our condition better, even if it means changing the order of the world.