# Messenger Audio 43.1 (25-Feb-1983) {% embed url="" %} **(0:12) Alhamdulillah wa ash'hadu an la ilaha illallah wa ash'hadu anna wa ash'hadu ila allahu wahdahu wa la sharika lah. (0:20) The old habits come back sometimes. (0:24) The days of ignorance and idol worship. (0:28) Allah subhana wa ta'ala doesn't want any other names mentioned with him in his mosques. (0:34) And all messengers of God want us to say la ilaha illallah. Period. (0:43) I'm gonna spend this first khutba reading a talk that Imam Harith D. Muhammad gave. (0:55) Imam Harith D. Muhammad is one of the rare people that I believe knows the truth, believes in the truth, and his heart believes in Allah alone. (1:04) He's having a hell of a time with his people, trying to make them worship God alone. (1:11) And he's really a mujahid. He's really a struggler. (1:15) And if you read his writings or khutbas, you can see the truth in there. (1:22) Someday, inshallah, he will be as adventurous as I am. (1:26) He will come up against hadith and sunnah and anything else other than Quran. (1:38) This talk could be written by me. (1:41) But I'm gonna read it without comment. (1:46) Imam Harith D. Muhammad is one person I'm very happy to get to know. (1:52) I consider him a friend of mine. (1:54) And I have his picture in my office. That's how wide I think of him. (2:00) And inshallah, God will guide him. (2:05) There's no way he will fail. (2:09) With all the opposition against him, he's been always victorious and he's guaranteed victory. (2:16) For as long as he upholds la ilaha illallah. (2:19) And as you know, once you see the truth, there's no going back. (2:24) There's just no way you can go back after you see the truth. (2:27) Here's what Warith D. Muhammad is saying. (2:30) Let us look at reality, not only here, but all over this country. (2:36) Anytime you come together to do some good, you're going to have problems. (2:40) Especially if you're going to make your good spread. (2:43) If it's just going to be your private good, maybe you'll last for a while. (2:49) Maybe you'll last until you die. (2:51) But if you are doing good and you're committed and you're going to pass that good on to others, (2:58) so it will grow in numbers, you're in trouble. (3:02) If you want to get together and do some wrong, you're in the best situation. (3:07) Even the good people won't bother you. (3:09) But if you want to do good, you're in trouble. (3:12) We have to understand that. (3:15) And that's the price that the righteous must pay in the world. (3:20) We must pay that price. Accept to pay it. (3:25) I knew people wouldn't like me when I made a stand. (3:28) And when they knew what I stood for. (3:31) Now, Walid D. Muhammad not only changed the Elijah Muhammad system, (3:35) but he changed it not to Islam as it is known around the world, which is false Islam, (3:41) but he changed it to the true Islam, which is a big jump. (3:45) I mean, it's a severe jump. (3:48) So he says, I knew people wouldn't like me when I made a stand, (3:51) and when they knew what I stood for. (3:54) I knew they wouldn't like me. (3:55) I knew I was going to have a whole lot of enemies. (3:58) The more people knew what I represented, I knew the more enemies I was going to get. (4:04) But that's the price I accepted to pay. (4:07) That's the price all of us who want to do good have to accept to pay. (4:12) People aren't going to like you. (4:15) People are going to make trouble for you. (4:17) People are going to try to undermine your work. (4:21) They are going to try to make you lose faith in each other. (4:24) They try to break your trust. (4:26) They do anything to defeat your effort. (4:29) We have to accept that. (4:33) We don't have to have the CIA, the FBI, or the intelligence office of your local police department. (4:40) You don't even need that. (4:42) There are people out there in the society who will give you enough help without those agents. (4:48) On top of that, you have bad elements in the government. (4:51) Some Catholics are so prejudiced against the religion that they would sacrifice their time and even their life to see this religion stop in America. (5:02) And Protestants who will do the same. (5:06) Then you have some other Islamic groups that will do the same because they don't want to see me grow either. (5:15) So you have the FBI, the CIA, the Israeli intelligence, and the false Muslims, and even internal infiltrators. (5:26) I'm not going to name any, but there are some narrow-minded Islamic groups that will work to defeat you too because they don't want to see you prosper either. (5:37) We have to understand that we have enemies coming at us from all directions who will do their best to undermine us. (5:44) A lot of Muslims are not satisfied with my leadership. (5:48) I'm talking about Muslims of the world. (5:50) This is Imam Waris ibn Muhammad. (5:53) I do believe the great majority of Muslims on this planet love my leadership. (5:57) They thank Allah for my leadership. (5:59) But we have enough who are hateful and jealous and dislike us enough to make trouble. (6:05) Some of them are here in America and some overseas too. (6:09) We have to understand these things. (6:11) We have to accept reality. (6:13) Don't think that everybody who comes to you in this name or in these clothes is your friend. (6:18) It may not be the case. (6:20) Your friend is the one who is truthful, who is open. (6:24) Anybody who has to work with you behind closed doors, anybody who has to tell you something secretly in your ear, you shouldn't trust them. (6:33) The person who comes out boldly before the community and lets them know, (6:39) I am your friend, I am a friend of this community, those are the people we should be inclined to trust. (6:45) But those persons who stand behind, in the back, but never want to be seen up front, (6:51) who claim to be with us, but are whispering things in our ears, don't trust those people. (6:57) I don't care who they are. (6:58) I don't care what kind of clothes they come in. (7:00) You can't trust people like that. (7:03) We have many masjids all around the country and all of our masjids are going to be visited. (7:09) Our enemies are already there. (7:11) Every masjid is infiltrated. (7:13) Right now I'm talking to people who are not here to help us. (7:19) They are here to hurt us. (7:20) He was talking in the masjid of Kansas City, by the way. (7:28) They are working for somebody or some agent or some agency, (7:32) or they are just part of a group of prejudiced people who are against Muslims. (7:36) They are here just to see that you don't trust them. (7:39) Every masjid has them. (7:41) Don't think your masjid is going to be any different. (7:44) We're talking to some of them right now here. (7:47) They are here in case there is an opportunity where they will be able to take that advantage to set us back. (7:54) That is their only purpose in coming. (7:57) We have to accept that, but we don't want to become paranoid, (8:01) alarmed to the extent that we're going to say, (8:04) I'm going to find him. (8:06) No, don't try to find him. (8:08) Forget about him. (8:09) Just know that he's here. (8:11) But don't worry about him. (8:13) Hope he keeps coming. (8:15) Maybe he'll hear a khutba that will change his heart one day. (8:19) I keep saying that myself. (8:22) Accept that he is here and he is a troublemaker, (8:26) here to see if he can upset you or take you back or throw a monkey wrench in your operation. (8:33) Sometimes they just ask a question behind a good talk. (8:36) They don't like to see the good spirit remain. (8:39) We had a good talk. (8:41) The spirit is high, good. (8:43) Everyone is going home in a good spirit. (8:47) May I ask a question, brother Imam? (8:50) What about so-and-so-and-so? (8:52) No, I did witness this myself. (8:56) Just to... (8:58) What about so-and-so-and-so? (9:01) Just to throw a damper on the good spirit. (9:05) If you read the history of the people who worked against Prophet Muhammad, (9:09) the kinds of things they did, (9:12) they were able to come in and pretend to be Muslims. (9:16) The Holy Quran says they would come in and pretend to be the best of the Muslims. (9:21) They would establish that they are the most enthusiastic Muslims. (9:25) They would say, let us go in among them and establish ourselves as the most enthusiastic Muslims. (9:31) And then at a certain time, let us just quietly withdraw. (9:35) And then that will make everybody wonder and will break the community of Muslims. (9:40) The Quran tells us of this scheme they used. (9:43) And there are many, many other schemes and tricks they used to hurt the community, (9:49) make you doubt, make you not trust the community. (9:53) Be aware of the many schemes they worked. (9:55) Read the Quran more. (9:57) You have it in English. (9:59) Abdullah Yusuf Ali, a good translation. (10:01) Big Saad, another good translation. (10:03) Read it in English. (10:04) They haven't read my translation yet. (10:07) Someday maybe. (10:12) Don't wait until you learn Arabic. (10:14) This is very important, I agree with this. (10:19) Don't wait until you learn Arabic. (10:21) Some of you will never learn Arabic. (10:24) You will die trying to learn Arabic. (10:26) So keep... (10:29) That's right. (10:30) And it's a diversion from the Quran. (10:33) So keep trying, but in the meantime, read the good English translation of Quran. (10:38) Read it daily. (10:39) Don't wait until Ramadan. (10:41) Read it daily. (10:42) Become more acquainted with your holy book, so you will know the tricks that the world pulls to set back the good work of the righteous. (10:50) Isn't that something? (10:51) You see how? (10:52) And here in green, they wrote it here in green, saying read Quran more. (10:58) Don't wait until Ramadan. (10:59) Read it daily. (11:00) Become more acquainted with your holy book, so you will know the tricks that the world pulls to set back the good work of the righteous. (11:07) So he knows the Quran very well, and this is exactly and precisely why he is guided, alhamdulillah. (11:13) You never see him talk about hadith.** (11:16) Which state? **(11:17) Tubu ilallah, repent. (11:31) What did you say?** (11:32) Which state? **(11:34) Which state? (11:35) Oh, he is the leader of the American Muslim Mission in Chicago. (11:46) Alhamdulillah, wa ash'hadu an la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lah. (11:50) The second khutba will deal with what happened last Friday. (11:58) Last Friday we had a group of people come in this mosque and ask, did you translate verse 239 right or wrong? (12:07) That was the biggest issue. (12:13) They asked some other questions. (12:16) But you can know right away that the object was not to find the truth, which is our objective. (12:25) Our objective is to find the truth. (12:28) Now if they were sincerely seeking the truth, they would call and say, brother Rashad, we are coming in a couple of weeks, (12:36) and we want to discuss this issue of Quran and hadith and translation, (12:41) and we would like you to prepare and go to the library and do whatever you want, (12:47) so we can all help each other find the truth. (12:51)** **But they wanted to come secretly. (12:56) They were telling everybody, hush, hush, don't tell anybody, because we want to go and embarrass Rashad Khalifa. (13:02) Their whole objective was to harass me, embarrass me, and to use their quotation, catch him with his pants down. (13:10) That was the whole objective. (13:12) It was not to reach the truth. (13:16) So they come and say, is the translation of 239 right or wrong? (13:21) Which is a silly question. (13:22) I mean, it's not important if it's right or wrong. (13:25) We have the Arabic text. (13:29) Also, they were comparing my first edition with the final edition of some other translation, (13:34) which is what we are going to do right now anyway. (13:38) You don't ask a question like, why were we created? (13:43) Now that's a good question. (13:46) That is a doctrinal question. (13:49) Why are we here? (13:50) What is the purpose of our life? (13:52) These are significant questions. (13:54) Not if 239 is translated right or wrong. (13:58) Do they know why they were created? (14:01) Do they know why we are here? (14:05) Because very quickly, you know from the appendix in our translation here, (14:11) that initially there was God and nothing else. (14:14) God created the angels. (14:15) One of the angels had rebellious ideas. (14:18) He wanted to be a partner with God. (14:20) This is where the whole thing started. (14:24) Satan wanted to be a partner with God, a god with God. (14:27) And this is what we are here for. (14:29) We are here to prove that we will worship God alone, without a God with Him, (14:33) without any other partner with Him. (14:36) So that is an important question. (14:38) So they didn't come here to say, why are we created? (14:42) Why are we here? (14:44) What is the purpose of our life? (14:45) So, they came to ask 239, verse 239. (14:51) Was it translated right or wrong? (14:56) Now, what happened last Friday, with all the childish things that went on, (15:02) is history repeating itself. (15:05) You know very well, they went to the Prophet Muhammad, and they said, (15:10) what do you know about the phases of the moon? (15:15) Now, why did they go to the Prophet Muhammad to ask about the phases of the moon? (15:21) Now, Muhammad grew up in a society that was idol-worshipping. (15:24) They were Muslims, according to the religion of Ibrahim, (15:27) but they deviated from the true Islam to idol-worship. (15:33) They worshipped God perfectly. (15:36) They prayed the five prayers a day perfectly to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. (15:40) But they also had allat, and manat, and u'zza, the other gods with God. (15:46) And Muhammad grew up in that society. (15:50) And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose Muhammad, guided him to the worship of God alone, (15:57) and he gave him the message. (15:58) So Muhammad started to utter the message, worship God alone. (16:03) What did they do? (16:03) They were up in arms, they attacked him, they persecuted him, (16:07) and now they want to prove that he is fake, that Muhammad is fraud. (16:13) They don't want to know anything about the doctrine of the message. (16:16) They said, let us go and prove that he doesn't know anything, he is not a prophet, he is fake. (16:20) That was their purpose. (16:23) So they go to him and they say, listen Muhammad, (16:26) how do you explain that the moon comes out at the beginning of the month thin and rising early, (16:32) and then every day it gets bigger and later? (16:36) You know, they didn't know about the moon going out of the earth or any of these things that we know today. (16:41) But every day in Saudi Arabia, in Mecca, they wake up every morning and then at night there comes the moon. (16:46) And every day it's different. (16:48) Until it becomes a full moon, then it becomes smaller and later. (16:53) And they went to Muhammad and said, how do you explain that? (16:58) What is their objective? (17:00) They didn't want to know about the phases of the moon. (17:04) They didn't want to know if 239 is right or wrong. (17:08) They want to embarrass somebody and harass somebody and prove that he is fake, he is fraud. (17:14) They wanted to prove that Muhammad is fraud. (17:17) He didn't know about the phases of the moon. (17:23) They didn't want to know about the one God or the worship of one God. (17:32) And the Quran was written before the creation of the heavens and the earth. (17:36) But the Quran narrates that story of the people who wanted the Prophet Muhammad to prove that he is fake by asking about the phases of the moon. (17:47) What does this mean, folks? (17:49) This means that these people are sitting peacefully somewhere and then God wanted them to do something. (17:56) And all of a sudden they were all pepped up and let's go prove that Muhammad is fake. (18:00) Actually, God is doing it because the Quran is already written. (18:04) God was doing that because it serves the Muslim community. (18:09) It shows them who is who. (18:12) And it brings things. (18:16) It brings things to light and forces certain issues. (18:22) Now I have repeated to them, I have talked to them. (18:32) What was I talking about? (18:38) Right, forces certain issues, that's right. (18:41) I have emphasized to them that my translation is an authorized translation. (18:46) And this of course burned them. (18:48) And as you know, I don't repeat this kind of thing, I'm too embarrassed to say that. (18:53) But this is the kind of thing that is forced by these actions. (18:58) What I'm saying is that God did it. (19:01) Because it's written in the Quran before they were born. (19:04) So they were sitting in Mecca somewhere and all of a sudden they get the idea, let us go harass Muhammad. (19:11) But it's not really their idea, is it? (19:14) Of course they are good candidates for it. (19:18) So God wants to force certain issues. (19:22) I am forced today in this khutba to show you one reason, one of the reasons why I think this translation is authorized. (19:31) And I wouldn't, I would normally be too embarrassed to mention it. (19:38) I mentioned it to a couple of you maybe. (19:43) But it is this kind of confrontation that forces out certain issues. (19:48) I'm going to distribute these to you. (19:54) What I did is I have examples of translations from their favorite translations, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, and Pickhall. (20:04) Pickhall is one of their favorite translations. (20:06) And I'm going to compare one verse that they have in their translations and in my translation. (20:33) And then I will explain to you how I arrived at my translation. (20:38) And why I think this translation is authorized. (20:44) And why it is. (20:49) You know, I'm a** **chemist, I'm not an Azhar graduate, I'm not an alim. (20:56) And my feeling when I started this project was I have no business translating the Quran. (21:02) Because everybody has a copy, share with each other. (21:05) There should be enough copies here. (21:10) Do you have more? (21:14) We're going to talk about the translation of verse 22-15. (21:19) Surat al-Hajj, verse 15. (21:22) And on the top you see the translation of Albury. (21:25) He was a Harvard man I think. (21:27) Was he, Ricardo?** (21:30) He was in England. (21:32) Which one? (21:33) He was a student in Mongolia. (21:38) He was a Cambridge professor. **(21:40) Cambridge? He was a Cambridge professor. (21:43) And here's his translation of verse 15. (21:46) Whosoever thinks God will not help him in the present world and the world to come, (21:51) let him stretch up a rope to heaven, then let him sever it, (21:56) and behold whether his guile does away with what enrages him. (22:02) Okay? Now you know what to do. (22:05) If you don't think God will support you in this life and the hereafter, you know what to do, don't you? (22:11) See, God told you in the Quran, and this is Albury's translation. (22:15) Just all you need is to stretch a rope to heaven, and then sever it. (22:23) And then behold whether your guile does away with what enrages you. (22:28) This is Albury's translation. (22:30) Let's go to the next one. (22:32) Yusuf Ali. (22:33) Next page is Abdullah Yusuf Ali. (22:35) He says, if any thinks that God will not help him, parenthesis, his apostle, in this world and the hereafter, (22:44) let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling and cut, parenthesis, himself off. (22:51) Then let him see whether his plan will remove that which enrages, parenthesis, him. (22:57) See, now you know better. (23:01) This is what you do if you don't think, if you don't think that God will support him, his apostle, in this life and the hereafter. (23:10) Let's go to the next one. (23:12) This is the very famous translation.** **(23:15) Pickhall. (23:16) Now you know what to do, right? (23:24) Is everybody holding the Pickhall translation? (23:27) It says, whoso, this needs some high intellectual pronunciation, (23:36) whoso is want to think, parenthesis, through envy, that Allah will not give him, parenthesis, Muhammad, victory in the world and the hereafter, (23:47) parenthesis, and is enraged at the thought of his victory, (23:50) let him stretch rope up to the roof of his dwelling, (23:55) and let him hang himself, (23:56) excuse me, I dropped the translation, (24:03) and let him hang himself, (24:04) then let him see whether his strategy disbenefits that (24:11) That word actually enrages. (24:21) Now, this is a translation against the doctrine. (24:27) This is a commit suicide. (24:29) God is saying, according to Pickhall, commit to hang yourself. (24:36) This is their very favorite translation. (24:41) Now, I must add here that this is the final edition of Pickhall's translation, (24:49) which they are comparing with our first edition of the translation. (24:53) This is the final edition. (24:55) As you know, brothers and sisters, we sit here every Friday to correct my first edition of the translation, (25:01) our first edition of the translation, (25:04) which is by no means perfect, my goodness, (25:07) and we printed it cheaply and everything, (25:10) because we know that the final edition, if they are really fair, (25:15) they should compare my final translation with the Pixar final translation. (25:20) Anyway, so this is what Pixar says. (25:22) Now you know what to do. (25:26) Okay, the next translation is Sher Ali. (25:30) Published under the auspices of Hadhrat Mirza Nasr Ahmed, (25:35) third successor of the Promised Messiah and head of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. (25:41) I mean, there's idol worship right on the front page. (25:45) Who so thinks that Allah will not help him parenthesis the Prophet, in this world and the hereafter? (25:53) Let him, if he can, find a way to heaven, and let him cut off the divine help. (26:00) Then let him see if his device can remove that which enriches him. (26:05) So now you really know what to do. (26:09) All right? (26:11) Okay, now we go to... (26:15) Who's this? (26:16) Muhammad Sarwari. (26:19) Okay, another translation. (26:21) The next page. (26:24) Those who thought that God would never grant victory to Muhammad in this world, nor... (26:31) Now Muhammad is never in the Arabic text, by the way. (26:35) And it has nothing to do with the Prophet Muhammad, but they translate everything in terms of Muhammad. (26:40) He doesn't even bother to put it in parentheses. (26:43) Again from the beginning. (26:46) Those who thought that God would never grant victory to Muhammad in this world, nor in the life hereafter, (26:52) and now that he is victorious, should hang themselves by the necks from the ceiling. (27:00) Then cut the rope, and see if this can do away with what has enraged them.** (27:09) Enraged. (**27:10) Oh yeah. (27:14) Enraged them. (27:18) Now this is... (27:21) I mean, this breaks the doctrine of Islam, of not committing suicide. (27:26) Fatima, can you turn the heat down, please? (27:31) Okay, now let's go to a translation of yours truly here, and see if it makes sense. (27:39) If anyone thinks that God cannot support him in this life as well as in the hereafter, (27:45) let him turn totally to God and sever his idolization towards anyone else. (27:50) He will then find out that this plan eliminates his worries. (27:54) This is the solution to any worries that you have in this world. (27:59) And this should be consistent with the doctrine of Quran. (28:03) If anyone of us does not think that God can support us here in this world and in the hereafter, (28:10) let us give true Islam a try. (28:13) Let us turn totally to God and cut out all idol worship from our lives. (28:18) And then you will see that all worries are gone. (28:22) No more headaches, no more traffic tickets, no more problems from the spouse, the wife and the husband. (28:29) Now how did I reach this translation? (28:39) And this is where I am forced by circumstance to mention that I consider one of the signs (28:45) that told me that this translation is authorized by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala (28:50) and that I do have permission to translate the Quran into English. (28:55) What happened there? (28:57) It just happened that I started the translation back in St. Louis. (29:02) And when I came to this verse, I finished the 21 surahs and it was 1971. (29:13) And in my house I had a huge table with all the tafsirs of Quran and the translations (29:19) that I got my hand on, on the table, spread open. (29:22) I turned the page as I go with the translation. (29:25) I came to this verse and I looked up the tafsirs. (29:30) I found that the original mufassir Ibn Kathir translated it, (29:34) if you don't think that Muhammad will be victorious in this life and the hereafter, (29:39) stretch a rope to the ceiling of the house and hang yourself. (29:42) And everybody else took from him. (29:45) And of course that didn't make sense to me (29:47) because it defies the doctrines and the laws of God that you shall not commit suicide. (29:54) You shall not kill anybody including yourself. (29:58) So I left that verse blank. (30:01) I am saying this and God is my witness. (30:04) I am saying it in a khutba, a worship, a practice of worship, (30:10) and I am responsible for it. (30:12) Every word in it is true. (30:13) So I left that verse blank and I went to verse 16. (30:19) And I went on now. (30:21) And then I had to leave for Hajj, for pilgrimage. (30:26) Now the title of this surah is Al-Hajj, pilgrimage. (30:30) And I finished like about 20 verses after, before....** --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://rashad-khalifa-audios-and-videos.gitbook.io/rashad-khalifa-audios-and-videos/messenger-audios/messenger-audio-43.1-25-feb-1983.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.