Messenger Audio 43.1 (25-Feb-1983)

Sermon-Rashad: Cited a talk given by Warith Deen Mohammed. Translation is an authorized translation from God. Some peoples intention was not to find the truth when they ask Q's.

(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....