Khatib: Nuri Madina

As Salaam Alaikum

A’uzu Billahi Minaash-Shaitanir Rajeem

Bismillah Ir-Rahman nir-Rahim

Al-Hamdu Lillahi Nahmaduhu wa Nassta ‘eenuhu, wa

Nasstaghfiruhu, wa Natoobu Ilayhi, wa Na’ oozu Billahi
Min Shurouri Anfusina wa Saiyaati A’maalina.

Praise be to Allah, we praise Him and seek help from Him; we ask
forgiveness from Him; we repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from the
evils of our own souls and from our own bad deeds.

Ash hadu an-la illaha illallahu, wahdahu la sharika lahu, wa

ash hadu anna Muhammadan ‘Abduhu wa Rasuluhu,
Sallallahu was alihi was Salam am mabad

I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah (with no partners or associates)
and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Servant of Allah and His Messenger,
The Prayers and the Peace Be Upon Muhammad, his successors and what follows
of that salutation.

Dear Muslims:

Allah Most High, says in Qur’an, that He created the first man, Adam, our father,
(SAW) from sounding clay from mud molded into shape. And by extension, we
know that this means that He creates all of us from sounding clay.

This description has several meanings. First of all clay can be molded into
shape, so we know that G-d shaped that first man exactly in the way He wanted
him-in the most excellent mold. Clay will hold it shape, just the way it’s master,
or a sculptor puts it into, and when it hardens it will not change its shape,
unless you break it.

But also when it has hardened into shape, it resonates. You can tap it and it will
produce a sound depending on it own nature—its composition, its thickness and
its shape. So G-d says He created man from sounding clay. He intends for us
to respond, and our response has to be based on the shape that He has created
us in.

What is it that G-d does to create the man in the shape He wants him to be in?
What is it that molds man in his character and in his personality? It is words.
Words Make People

This is a simple concept, but it is also profound. Muslim leader Imam W. Deen
Mohammed began his leadership of the African American Muslim community in
1975, with that simple statement, “Words Make People.” Sometimes it seems that
because it was so simple, it was lost on many of us. What it was designed to do
however was to bring us back to our pure and perfect origin as human creatures,
created by G-d. That has to be our starting point. That has to be the basis of our
Unity. That has to be the origin of our words or our language.

It was words that made man in the beginning and it was words that unmade
him. It was G-d’s words that taught him then nature of all things. And it was
G-d, Who then commanded those things to submit to man. That allowed man to
exploit all of the benefits and the blessings in the Garden of the material world.
Let us not think narrowly, like this creation is something that happened one time,
along time ago, in a Garden far away. That picture describes the creation of every
man. “The science that we study today, that gives us so much benefit
and knowledge, is “Adam, discovering the names of the things in the
Garden, understanding the nature of those things, and extracting
the benefits from them.”

And it was words also that unmade the man; that became his undoing.

Then did Satan make them slip from the (garden) and get them out
of the state (of felicity) in which they had been. We said: "Get ye
down all (ye people) with enmity between yourselves. On earth will
be your dwelling place and your means of livelihood for a time."
2:36

Satan is called the whisperer. He does not confront us directly and challenge G-
d’s command. That would expose him as an open enemy to man. Instead he
approaches us through our subconscious. Through that ear that hears and
remembers everything, but that does not differentiate or judge. And thus we
listen and believe that he is a sincere advisor; that what he bids us to is for our
benefit.

Whatever the man listened to is what he became; what he believed, what he

followed; and those actions became habits and then hardened into his
personality.

It’s what we listen to that forms as people. Where do we get these words?

We get them first from creation. G-d says that He disdains not to use the
similitude or the sign of even the lowest thing to bring a message to the mind of
man. Mother is our first teacher as children and Mother Earth, or Mother
nature, material creation is our first teacher as the creatures that G-d wants.
It is His language and it is these Words that Make the scientific man, that make
the moral man, that make the social man.

So we find that hearing is the most important sense in developing into the
custodian of the Garden and its is hearing his word that will bring us back to
health and to life after we have slipped.

Allah Most High promised us that even after we slip, even after we get fooled by
the promises of the world, even after our Garden becomes corrupted with weeds
and becomes overtaken by weeds and vermin… we still can turn to Him in
Repentance, and expect His Mercy, and His Forgiveness.

Then learnt Adam from his Lord words of inspiration and his Lord
turned toward him; for He is Oft-Returning Most Merciful.
2:37

Sometimes we don’t even realize that we need His mercy and His forgiveness. We
have good lives; good jobs, our families are secure and healthy. We live in a
country where we are for the most part, free from terror and fear. But how
secure are our lives? And how removed are we from grief and despair?

Allah gives us the parable in Qur’an of two men who had gardens….

One man’s Garden was rich in abundance, all kinds of fruit and produce, and
Allah says that he came into his garden “in a state of mind unjust to his
soul.” Then he describes his state of mind. It was such that he though he had
earned his blessings. “I deem that this should never go away… I don’t believe that
I’ll ever have to be called to account in judgment and even if I am, I’ll be entitled
to something better…

These were all ideas that were not healthy for the soul. They are ideas that are
ungrateful. What have we done to earn these blessings? These good jobs,
these secure and healthy families? You may say, well I worked hard and studied
for 4 years or six years to have this position. Maybe there are believers that are
more pious than us. In Pakistan, or Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Somalia
--That work harder than us. That haven’t had the opportunity that we have had.

Over all of our hard work and our opportunity, we need G-d’s blessing of our
efforts in order to have success.

The other man had maybe a skimpy garden, but he remembered Allah and he
warned his friend, there is no power except with Allah; he reminded him that
there was no basis for your pride and standing over those who have less. Maybe
G-d will bless me with something better than your garden and maybe you’ll lose
your garden and all your hard work and effort.
 So the one man lost his garden and then he realized that he had ascribed
partners to Allah. He had given others, maybe his teachers, maybe the president,
maybe himself, credit for his success and forgot the blessings and mercy of Allah
Most High.

We keep a healthy state of mind from listening to healthy words. The source of
our words should be the Word of G-d, Most High in Qur’an.

G-d revealed to the People of the Book, and it is in the Bible, the expression:
“Hear the word of the Lord and live.” It didn't say feel it and live. It didn't
say read it and live. It says Hear ye! the word of the Lord and Live. Allah
u Akbar

Hear ye the word of the Lord and Live. In Islam, we say exactly the same thing.
We put our hands up to our ears, when we call the people to prayer and call them
to the religion and call them to the Book of G-d, or call them to turn to G-d.

We say exactly the same thing. Hayya ala Salah. Come Alive to worship, to
prayer. And how come we call it after ear? Ear is Uadhan. The name of the call is
Adhan. And the name of the person is Muadhan. All from the same word.
Meaning He Hears! He hears the Word of G-d and Lives! Praise be to Allah.

It is the Qur’an that we recite in our Prayers. The Word of G-d. And it is His
Word that we read when we read Qur’an. Even if we read it silently. It is our
conscious mind, through our capacity to read that is reciting G-d words to both
our conscious and subconscious mind.

Allah Says He calls you to an excellent! Life. And He asks; “Why is it that you do
not respond when you are called to that that gives you life! Praise be to Allah.

So this is our real life. It is Word of G-d that we Hear, and it is our being
amenable and pliable like clay to that Word, so that when G-d through his
word makes those impressions we eventually become hardened and don’t leave
that shape. We have to be dead (hardened) to those things that bring us
down and be alive to those things that give us life. And that hearing that
word is the power in our lives. We are tapped as a clay vessel, and each of us
responds with a sound. And someone hears that sound. And with the Word of G-
d in our life, and our life having become that work living, our response, the sound
that we give to the world, will be beautiful and it will touch the soul of others.

These are trying times for us, as Muslims, but we are promised by Allah, that for
the Believers there will be no fear nor grief. The world lives in fear of attack. The
guilty know that there Judgment is at hand. And the innocent have left their faith
in G-d and the goodness of his human and material creation. So they live in fear.
We are not of them. We are not to share their fear.
But to have this protection we must be Muslims and as the times get more
difficult and more trying, we must be better Muslims. We cannot leave our
purpose because of fear. We are all Mu’athan. We are all to call humanity to
prayer and the proper worship of G-d. We are all committed to Jihad. The media
has made jihad the ugliest word you can image, but Allah tells all of us to strive
with everything in our means, our lives and our possessions in His Cause. I am
not saying that His Cause is the destruction of America and the West. But I am
saying that we must not let the deceiver, the deceived or the ignorant cause us to
stray from our purpose here on earth.

Rabbana atina fid-dunya hasanatan

Wa fil-Akhirati hasanatan
wa qina 'adhab an-Nar. '

O Allah! Grant us good in this life

and good in the life to come,
and save us from the torment of Hell Fire."

Part 2

A’uzu Billahi Minaash-Shaitanir Rajeem

Bismillah Ir-Rahman nir-Rahim

Al-Hamdu Lillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen Wassalatu Wassalamu ‘Ala

khairil Mursaleen, Muhammadin Al-Nabiyil Ummiyee; wa ‘ala
Alihi wa sahbihi Ajma ‘een ammaa Ba’ad.

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of All the Worlds; the Prayers and the Peace be
upon the best Messenger, Muhammad, the unlettered Prophet; and upon
His Family and upon all His companions, and what follows of that
salutation.

Our Prophet Muhammad, (SAW) is reported to have told the early companions:
As soon as you learn and understand and are able to apply One!
Line! Go then and inform another one of that! He didn’t tell them, “wait
until you know the whole Book. He didn’t even have the whole Book revealed to
him at that time. He didn’t tell them wait until you’ve become a scholar.

Allah in Qur’an describes those who hoard knowledge, selfish people, who want
to stand over others, greedy people who want to dominate others, religious
people who hide the word or only give the people a child-like, or a watered
version of the word, as like “Donkeys Carrying A Load of Books.”

So we are to spread the word. So if you understand this religion. If you

understand One Principle. One Idea. One basic. If you understand; La Ilha Illa
Muhammad rasullah. Go out there and pass it on to somebody else.

If you understand the practical benefits of Prayer. Turning to G-d. Remembering

him five times a day. To keep your five senses alive. To keep Your
communityyou’re your government strong. Go and pass that on to another
person..

I think we all understand that in the evolution of human society, in this

movement that G-d began, to evolve man toward his highest and his best
development and performance. We have moved, the world has moved from an
Industrial to an Information Society. Now more than ever, we see the importance
of words, and the language that they form.

The Spread of Language

In 1607, at the time of the first permanent English settlement on the American
continent at Jamestown Virginia, about 4 million people spoke the English
language. By 2007 an estimated 2 billion people in the world spoke English.

The Unification of World Community (Globalization)

The factors that more anything else have brought about this globalization, are
transportation and communication. They both rely on networks (net works) and
though they may involve cellular connections, they are still all interconnected
with each other and the whole.

Cell phones have helped save Africa.

Communication involves a message and a medium (vehicle)…the vehicle is

technology…computers, satellites, the message is via a language.

When the Qur’an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad, (SAW) in the Arabic
language, Arabic was being spoken throughout the Arabian peninsula at that
time. Yet the revelation of the Qur’an and the living of that Book and the
teaching of that Book brought about a whole new language.

Speaking that language, one word at a time, one line at a time, one sura at a time,
and living that language—all this brought about a change. It changes the lives of
the individuals, it created a model community in Madina, and it spread beyond
the Arabian peninsula to the whole world.

Now we have we have one world community. And it needs to hear the Word of G-
d. It needs to learn words of Inspiration from its Lord, after it has slipped in the
Garden. Those words are in Qur’an and we must read it daily in order to get the
benefits, and the blessings in our own lives and in the world.

Here is a word. And we know it is from G-d. Because we know that Our Prophet
said it Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said that at some time in the future or in
the end, the people will see Christ Jesus and himself. We also know that He said
that all human beings are born Muslim.

Jesus, the Christ (SAW), was questioned by those who wanted to make him divine,
to raise him to a Lord or patron among them and replied: “” I in you and you in
me.” He was saying that the same nature, the same original creation, the same
innocence of human life — the soul, the mind, the thinking, the behavior, the
Muslim—that same Muslim nature that G-d put in me is in each of you.

When the Christians say, "Christ within me," he is saying the same thing that we
are saying, when we say "every human being is born Muslim.''… Christians' term
that they arrive at is from Christ and "Christ within me." Ours is Adam, Abraham,
Muslim in me - in my nature, my original creation. Christ is the innocence of
human life — the soul, the mind, the thinking, the behavior. Muslim is the exact
same.

It is our belief, our Islamic fundamentals of practice, our daily reading of Qur’an that
will bring out this nature in us. And it will grow us and evolve us and increase our
value. That is the image of Muslim that the world needs to see. Not some separate or
extreme creation, and not some passive plant waited to be harvested. But rather they
need to see us in their own best image—an innocent nature, amenable to G-d’s
commands, and resonating with His Word and his message to all the worlds.