[Music]
subul
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subul
was talking about the fact that I used
to be in business I like to do the
inventory before I get into something
too far and so I'm going to ask how many
Muslims do we have with us
today
okay let me go the other way how many
non-muslims we have with
us how you like being surrounded by all
these terrorists
[Music]
Muslim by the way as we go through the
program it really helps if you laugh at
the jokes cuz they won't get any
better the title of the program we're
talking about is living the example of a
Muslim or living the example of what
Islam tells us to
be and that's a very big statement even
before you get started for a couple of
reasons not the least of which is that
Islam claims to present an offer for
every human being regardless of where
they are or when they are but for
everybody everywhere every time offering
them the correct way of
life in the Arabia in the Arabic
language this is called Dean Dean means
a way of life this is the word that's
referred to throughout the Quran it
starts early on in the Quran and it goes
all the way to the back and it's
constantly being used over and over and
over however when it's translated to the
English language it is usually
transferred as the word
religion which often makes people
confused and not really understand what
the bigger Message of Islam is
about I would like to give you some
examples of that without really losing
focus on the subject that we're going to
be talking
about Allah subhah wa ta'ala God
Almighty tells us in the Quran
in Islam and the translation usually
says verily with God the religion is
Islam but I maintain that if you're
going to translate some of the words you
should translate all of them and you
should make a effort to really get it
out even if it takes a phrase or two
because people are I think more
interested in knowing the meaning of the
words of the Quran or the intent behind
it then they are just looking for a word
by word uh
translation and in this particular case
it's a very important verse it's in
chapter 3: 19 and it actually gives a a
much bigger mean know when you
understand it said verily with
thew the way of
life is submission to
him in obedience and
peace now this is a lot different than
just saying that uh the religion is
Islam because otherwise you will think
oh because all of us know that the
religion called Islam as a noun it comes
at the time of Muhammad Sall alaihi
wasallam 1400 years ago that verse would
seem to imply that everybody that before
his time is going to hell or something
or they don't have the right religion if
you said it according to the first
version I gave of it in this same
chapter chapter 3 Surah Al Imran verse
85 you find another statement which
again if it's not correctly presented
you're going to wind up with a strange
meaning
and that's when Allah
says and in this case this is verse
number 85 in this
case they
translated whoever wants a religion
other than Islam Allah won't accept it
in the next life they're going to be
with the losers meaning in
Hellfire oh wow now again this seems to
go back to that same thing again you're
saying to me that okay if I don't go
with what you're saying I'm going to
hell and and all the people before that
they're going to hell what if somebody
lives on a desert island and they never
got exposed to the word and you know
that's a very complex thing all of a
sudden to make a statement like
that but again if you go back and break
it down as I just said that
that using a phrase and translating
Islam properly in this instance you're
going to find it comes out makes
sense it said whoever
wants to
have a way of
life other than the one that Allah is
prescribing for
them he's not going to accept
that and then the Hereafter they'll be
with the losers well is that does that
make sense it makes a lot of sense I had
a problem the first time I read the
Quran with some of these verses cuz I I
thought that well I agree with so much
of the Quran at the same time some of
these things sound you know just very
harsh and and even sound
uh well tough really tough How could a
person uh read this and and Come Away
with a a better understanding so after
two or three different transl ations
then I started learning the Arabic
language and then you see ah it's a much
it's a much bigger picture out here in
fact you don't even have a small part of
the picture when you're dealing with the
English this word is used again as I
mentioned all the way throughout the
Quran but I want to take you back to a
couple of other places in the in the
Quran now I want to go back to almost
the end of the Quran when it tells us
how to deal with a person who is a
disbeliever someone who has come to you
and is basically
offered uh that why don't you compromise
your religion you have beliefs you have
values you have things that you believe
in your moral standards this is what
you're about and somebody's asking you
now why don't you compromise all of that
and hang out with us and do the things
we do for a period of time and then
maybe we'll come over to your way and do
what you do what would you tell
them huh you you you have morals you
have standards you have things that you
value but somebody's telling you throw
all that away and come hang out with us
and we're going to bib Bop and do XYZ
and all the rest of it I'm not going to
give you any ideas there's plenty of
that going around but something that
you're morally and and spiritually
opposed to what would you tell them well
this was the offer given to Muhammad
peace and blessing be upon him and
before he can open his mouth
Allah gave Revelation to him and he gave
the answer and it's a part of the Quran
whenever you hear the word cool it means
say it's an order from Allah for the
prophet to say something the same way it
was in The Book of Ezekiel I'm sure
you're familiar with the Bible and in
many chapters of Ezekiel it starts out
by saying say oh son of man it's exactly
the same idea here and it's Allah
telling him say this to the people
say
now did you hear the word Dean in there
which means your Dean okay more or less
the meaning here it says for him to tell
these people say oh you who are the
disbelievers you who reject
faith I'm not going to worship what you
worship and you're not going to worship
what I
worship I'll never worship what you
worship and you're not going to worship
what I
worship to me my way of life and to you
your
way now does that make
sense unfortunately the translators put
it most of them put it down in a term
where it just sounds really flat it
doesn't give you this depth but for sure
you see here even the word Dean is being
used to represent people's way of life
your way of life my way of life do you
your religion is how they translate it
to me my religion but it's more it's my
way of life because if you're saying it
to people for instance an atheist what
religion do atheist have but you're
saying it to atheist right atheists come
to you and say why don't you just give
up Bel and just do whatever you want to
do and be aoral for a year that's why I
think they offered him a year and then
we may you know then for a year we'll
come over there and worship with you and
you're like what so this I think helps
you to understand this word Dean it's
very critical to understand this word
Dean and then finally before I leave the
subject there's one more very key place
because we live in a land full of
Christians and Jews and they like us
have this monotheistic attitude we
believe there's really only one God
we're not out here like some religions
worshiping rats and snakes and cows and
everything else we believe that there is
a God and he's not a human being he's
not walking around on the earth he's God
and he's up in the heavens this is the
belief of the Muslims okay
so with that in mind we'd like to
mention a verse here that refers the
Muslims to look back to look back at the
Christians and look back at the Jews and
see what were they ordered and Allah
said that they weren't divided up into
their all schisms until this Clear Proof
came unto them and then it
[Applause]
says you heard the word Dean that's you
hear me focusing on that and they were
not ordered
actually commanded the word am here is
talking about commandment the
Commandments said the people the of the
book or the followers of the Bible were
not ordered or commanded any more than
this to worship God alone without any
Partners no Gods beside God and keep the
way of the dean pure for
him establish regular worship Salah we
call it Salah you stand and bow and
that's called
Salah and pay the Zak it means
purification to purify you can
purify things but in this case it's
talking about purifying your money or
holding your wealth by giving money to
the charity given to the poor people and
it says and this is the way of life most
clear now understanding that use Dean in
all these cases can you come up with a
better word and it's certainly not just
going to be Satisfied by saying religion
unless you want to rrate the word
religion in English and I don't think
that's necessary so having laid that out
for you and now of course I'm talking
about Dean I want to mention that you're
watching the dean show that's the name
of the show that will be on here in
Chicago area channel 36 uh real late
night Thursday night if your mom will
let you stay up it's like 11:00 at
night Friday I thought you said Thursday
it's Friday night oh you can stay up an
hour later on Friday night right no
problem
okay
H and you're also watching the bridge to
Faith we got two programs going here at
the same time bridge to Faith and that
the idea behind that show and we
broadcast that on cable
access uh ours is channel p
I don't know my own channel 30 I think
we're channel 30 and Channel 10 in uh
the Washington DC area and Northern
Virginia and that program is dedicated
to presenting the idea of faith in
general to show that it's necessary for
a human being to have faith in something
otherwise they live a miserable and sad
life and then often they wind up taking
their own lives this is a very sad
condition then we usually have something
and in that program dealing with the
subject of learning the Arabic language
using the English that you already know
it's called Arabic and English has a
website for that and then usually we end
our program talking about somebody's
particular bridge to Faith now I got all
the commercials out of the way I'm ready
to get started on the program talking
about the dean its effect on us and how
we can live it as
Muslims the example of a
Muslim is contained in the word itself
Muslim Muslim comes from a word in
Arabic so you have to understand it from
that standpoint otherwise you may miss a
good part of the meaning here Muslim is
nothing more than the noun one who is
performing a verb the one who is
performing the verb what's the verb it
comes from the same root as the word
Islam Islam is the noun represents
you'll say the religion but I'm going to
show you something and let you think
about it it comes
from comes from L me three letters and
when it reaches this state of Islam it
carries the meaning of five things in
English five things you can't say this
word in English that's why they don't
translate
it they leave
it
surrender have you heard the song Sweet
surrender this where it's coming from
this is the mean surrender
submission
obedience
[Music]
sincerity and peace now have you ever
heard Muslims say Islam is peace you
heard Islam is peace Islam is peace well
that's where they got it from from that
part of it but it really doesn't mean
peace I'll prove it to you when I sat
down here and introduced the topic I
said some things in Arabic did you hear
me say Salam
alaykum huh did I mispronounce it
no I said Salam I didn't say Islam Alum
did I no it's not Islam Alum
it's they're related definitely it's
also related to the Hebrew language by
the way I don't know if you know this
but Hebrew Aramaic and Arabic are all
from the same site tribe Semitic
languages that's why Shalom malum and
Salam alikum sound so much alike it
happened to me when I was up in uh New
York I was up in Brooklyn and I saw a
friend of mine and I hollered out at him
and I I jumped out of the van that I was
in I was so excited to see my friend you
know ran over to him and I shouted at
himam alaykum and he said waum Salam
went over I was shaking his hand now a
man walked up to us and he didn't really
speak much English okay but he was
wearing a long black coat and he had a
black hat on and he had his hair it was
like black curls coming like this and a
beard you know and he looked at us and
he
said you Hebrew yah yahood I said no no
no he said you said Shalom Alum I said
no we said Salam Alum and and he was
going oh and he was shaking my hand I
said yes we're Muslim and he went
oh he probably thought he lost wulu or
something
you can cut that part
out
anyhow so you you understand this word
Islam has a big meaning and you can see
that when you have a verb it's
structured like this it has to have and
requires two entities in order to be
performed this is the type of verb that
requires two entities walk doesn't
require that talk run jump up and down
all these things can all be done by one
but when you talk about this submission
surrender obedience sincerity and the
peace that you could do by yourself but
the others you can't you can't it needs
two entities one is the greater one is
the Lesser one is the master one is the
servant does that make sense okay that's
the word
Islam that's best understood as the one
who has given orders and now the other
one is going to surrender submit to the
terms going to obey these orders they're
going to do this sincerely even if
nobody's looking even if nobody knows
they will do it and they will do it in
peace so it's it carries a big meaning
independently you could do one and not
necessarily do the others but it
requires if you're going to be in Islam
to do all of this at the same time and
if you do you're not an Islam L because
Arabic doesn't use suffix it uses prefix
the prefix is the letter me it's
pronounced Mo so when you travel the
word for Arabic traveling is suffer our
word safari comes from this very same
word so a traveler is called a mo suffer
and when you do the worship called you
are M plural
m and if you are uh calling the prayer
that that is called
the person becomes a
mu if you uh you get the idea if you
surrender and submit to God on his terms
in peace then you're a what a mu
Islam Muslim it's as simple as that now
that means essentially the word just by
the word itself if a person believes in
God and they're trying to do what he
wants them to do they're doing so in
peace then they're what they a
Muslim but watch what
happens after I entered into Islam I
will go back to the folks that I used to
preach to down in in the valley of
Texas and when I went down there uh by
then I had grown some beard and I was
wearing one of these one of those white
ones you see those white outfits they
have you know and that's what I had on
and I get down there and the lady that
knew me she's very elderly you know and
she knew me well and she looked and she
said child what's the matter with you so
what do you mean she saidwell you're
growing a beard and you're wearing a
dress you get a good point I said I
became a Muslim she said what I said I
became a Muslim she said you can't do
that I said why she said you're not from
over
there I said from over where I knew what
she was meaning but I said that's said
from where she said well wherever they
come
from so I tried endeavored to give her
the same Insight that I gave you just
now by using the word and showing her
that you know whoever is doing what God
wants him to do this in in English Okay
in Arabic then that would be a
Muslim she like what I said okay let's
go real slow you believe in God she said
you know I do and he's one she said of
course and he hadn't any part she said
what are you trying to preach now I said
I'm just asking you yes of course I said
do you want to do what God wants you to
do she said all my
life said the Bible says it huh when you
said God's will be done on Earth you
mean it did you try to live up to it
said all right I said so if you believe
in God and you're trying to do what he
wants you to do in Arabic that would be
Islam she said oh and one doing it would
be a Muslim she said oh okay I said so
see you could be a Muslim she said no I
can't I said why she said I'm not from
over
there so you
see as as much as you want to talk some
people aren't going to get it because
the plane's going to fly low but it's
going to still go over their
[Music]
head we understand of course that uh
there is a lot of
resistance uh to the notion of Islam and
Muslims in the world today and that's in
part to the media hype media they have
to run with a story you can't just say
that a little boy helped an old lady
across the street and did a good deed
today you have to carry it to a higher
level otherwise it won't make the front
page you've got to put something in
there you know elderly woman captured by
you know uh boy and Drug across okay
that sounds much better than a Boy Scout
trying to do a good deed you've got to
put something in there to get some hype
and especially if you got a story
already pretty decent we just add a
little bit more leave a few things out
and you got a
headline so we'll blame at least a
portion of it on the media but at the
same time I'll tell you that's not the
only story we have some governments
involved that have some bigger issues we
have big business involved and they've
got some big issues and big bucks behind
some of this stuff but even then laying
all the blame that we want we have to
come back and look at the Muslims
themselves and you have some Muslims who
don't do Islam there are Muslims who are
not doing what I just
said they don't necessarily surrender
submit in peace to God's will right so
that's a bad image but where is it
coming from well it's not coming from
Islam is coming from a human being now
question do human beings make mistakes
I'll remind you fool me
once and I voted for the guy there's a
no I'm just
kidding you got that one right all
right we have a good thing in this
country by the way a guy can only run
twice and that's it once he's well he
can only be in twice he can run all he
wants some of them ought to run faster I
think I need to come back to our story
here we're talking about what it is to
be a Muslim now you've understood it
from the standpoint of
the breakdown of the word the atmology
here of the word let us look at what is
the character of a Muslim if you would
like to know the character of a
Muslim I think it's best to quote what
the wife of the Prophet Muhammad P be
upon him said now you gentlemen how many
of you are married raise your hand if
you're
married now raise your hand if you're
only married to
one
just I couldn't resist
that couple ladies were they going
uhhuh
okay just kidding what I'm trying to do
now you see
is kind of set it in your mind to
understand that a woman knows a man
really well if she's married to a
is that right she knows things about you
that nobody else knows and you wish you
would never tell them right ladies is
that right ladies are smart by the way
they don't do that they don't tell us
but we're all the time telling them is
that right is that how it works isn't it
yeah well for sure Prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him was no exception here
that his wife knew him very well and
here here's what she said about him if
you would like to see the Quran walking
look to Muhammad s wasallam because he
was the example the living example of
what the Quran is teaching us and what
did what did he do and how did he
live many non-muslims well known and uh
highly praised throughout history have
read or learned about
Muhammad and have been surprised and
have made some very interesting comments
not the least of which George Bernard
Shaw uh
Gandhi Gandhi says something like this
in his report about reading the volumes
of Muhammad that he
read he said I know now it was not the
sword that that spread Islam he said
that I know now was not the sword to
spread Islam but rather he said by
reading this and understanding the
character of Muhammad he said it was the
heart to reach the hearts from his
character the character of Muhammad his
good way with the people the sensitivity
and at the same time the
responsibility he gave a very glowing
report at the end of which he said that
he was saddened when he reached the end
of the book because he said he wished
there was more that he could read about
this great man
so what was it that Muhammad and I want
to talk about him now because he is the
example for the Muslim a Muslim doesn't
need to look to YF EST to know how to be
a Muslim and you don't need to look to
any of the characters today to try to
take your Islam rather you can simply
look to his example and it has been
recorded and more has been written about
Muhammad than any other human being on
the planet
it and that's before 9/11 just in case
you thought that was afterwards no long
before that there has never been so much
written about any person as there has
been about this man now you might be
surprised to find that out but there are
whole entire libraries dedicated to
things about Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him his sayings his teachings his
companions their lives and how they were
affected by him and it goes on and
on but let us look to the early years of
Muhammad long before there was the
prophecies coming to him or the
revelation of the
Quran he was known even as a small boy
he was known for his
character he never
lied not once not ever did he lie and
people knew that about him to the extent
that they called him in Arabic a sadik
it means means the essentially they were
saying this guy is the very Spirit of
Truth itself when you look to the Bible
by the way it translated to the English
language you find an example there given
in John 14 and John 16 talking about the
comforter who will become known to you
as the spirit of Truth so this according
to Muslims we consider this to be a
prophecy about Muhammad coming and one
of the things that he was known for is
tying the families back together
bringing the Family Ties together the
kinship and fixing that and that's
called a counselor isn't it and again
you look in these same texts you find a
mighty counselor will come and these
things surprised me you see I was of
course Very Much against Islam in the
very beginning of this uh because I was
preaching Christianity I don't need any
competition here but then I find these
things and I begin to wonder another
thing he was was known for is
his fairness his the Justice the way
that he dealt couple
examples one time when he was coming
into the mosque or the area it wasn't
called the mosque then it was just the
area of the where they have the big
Square building the big black building
called the
cabba the kesi tribe was rebuilding it
doing some work on it and there was a
big stone that had been there since the
time of Abraham
okay and they wanted to put it back in
there up where it had been but there
were several tribes involved and each
one of them wanted the honor of
replacing this big Stone where it
goes and they were going to fight about
it they got to the point there was going
to be Bloodshed oh we're going to do it
oh no but then they realized that you
know guys we we've been through this so
many times and they have wars that even
went on and on and on over things even
less than this
so they said the next one who walks in
through the gates there will let him
make the decision of which tribe It is
Well when he walked in they were all
satisfied immediately because they knew
that he was fair and just and they said
we'll get we're going to get Justice now
and of course each one said well it'll
be our tribe you know so when he came to
them and heard the Dilemma he said to
them okay get a sheet or some cloak or
something put it down put the rock in
the middle of it then each member of
take one member from each tribe and let
them go around and pick this thing up
and so you're all lifting it at the same
time and put it right up to it then he
pushed it in for him and they were all
satisfied now in the days when they used
to fight each other to the bloody
end all of the tribes that were going to
fight would give him all their
possessions because when the fighting
was over they knew they could get it
back from him but not anybody else
because he was
trustworthy now if you add these things
up this is an amazing character he never
drank
alcohol you say okay so what because
remember in those days a lot of times
you might have bad water you might not
have anything to drink but they always
had plenty of alcohol had it everywhere
he never drank it he never emed not even
a little
bit he also never even dated he never
had a girlfriend he didn't run around
and do what they commonly practice the
it was a very common practice in those
days amongst the ignorant Arabs in that
particular area he also never worshiped
those Idols the false gods and statues
that were all around the area they say
there were 360 of them all scattered
around in the area of worship and
different tribes from around and in
different nations used to come from all
over uh the Arabian Peninsula to perform
their various rights and do different
things there at this place of worship
and they brought their own Gods when
they came many times and yet all of this
he wouldn't worship any of their false
gods this gives you a little idea about
his
character now let's talk about his
personality his personality was a quiet
person a gentle person and one who
really wasn't given to give you know
jumping out here acting foolish and and
joking around being silly and all those
things he was very quiet shy humble and
everybody liked him he was somebody
could go talk to he could say anything
to him and know that he wouldn't repeat
it to other
people let me give you an example of
something what
happened after Islam came and he was now
preaching he was rejected immediately by
all of these people were worshiping
these false gods besides I didn't
mention this but I don't know if you
know this in the religion business in
those days people made a lot of money
off of what other people were worshiping
people actually could go out here and
trick these poor people into believing
this that or the other and take their
money away from them you know that was
big business of course now people
wouldn't do anything like
that would
they so of course they were upset with
him and they didn't like what he was
saying because he was saying that you
know the money if you're going to donate
any money it should be given straight to
the poor people themselves oh have you
ever heard such blasphemy in your life
the poor person don't know what to do
with money give it to me I'll take care
of it for them you know kind of like the
government
does so this explains at least partially
why the people resisted it right
away so with this going on the these
tribes would establish people around the
area in the mountains and different
places so that if anybody came there it
was traveling through there they want to
come there then was it was a trade route
they would tell them they would post
somebody there hey when you get in there
watch out for this guy he's dangerous he
is the and say whatever they want to say
about
him and they would lie you
know they were giving out false message
about our Prophet Muhammad s Ali
wasallam not unlike we see today same
thing so here's a lady she had come in
and to town and she had a big package of
some kind and she needed somebody to
carry it she thought Muhammad s wasallam
was a porter and she asked him carry the
so he carried it he does say ma'am
that's not my job he grabbed it and he
carried it and he carried it and went
out wherever she needed to go and she
got up there and he put it down and she
said I can't pay
you oh he didn't do it for money anyway
she said I can't pay you she said but
I'll give you a tip she said there's a
man in the city he's claiming to be a
prophet talking about a God that he has
to worship or something and and be be
careful of this man and his name is
Muhammad he said ma'am I am Muhammad she
said I bear witness that that's the real
God to worship and you're his prophet
and on the spot this is the story we
have it it shows us the character of the
person and if the Muslims today would
study more about Muhammad the prophet
and less about Muhammad the soccer
player I think we'd all be a lot better
off we have a lot of characters out here
today and I mean it in the literal sense
who claim to be representing Islam but
if we look to the example of the Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him and the the
real life situations that he lived
through we will find here a good example
for all of us Allah says about him in
the Quran a very beautiful statement
Allah said that he is the
he is the very Mercy to the human beings
in Jin to the worlds Mercy to the
worlds he was a prophet and he
prophesied things that came to pass he
was a messenger and he delivered a
message from almighty God he was a
father he had children none of his sons
survived they were all little boys when
they
died but he was a good father his
children loved him very very much and he
was a husband his wife loved him so much
respected him so much I want you to
think about this when he passed away he
passed away with his head in her
lap he passed away he had his head in
her lap and look at this she was still a
young lady she never remarried she never
got any boyfriends she didn't go out
running around she lived to be well up
into her 60s 70 like this and all all
the time she only said the very best
things about her husband now when I ask
you
today even living right in front of you
we have some of our women are not quite
that good or respectful you know what
I'm saying trying to water that down a
little bit I'm outnumbered over here and
I don't need to be attacked but I'm
saying can you imagine a woman who never
ever said anything bad about her husband
in fact she only said the very
best this is the example now of Muhammad
and as she said if you wanted to see the
Quran walking look to
Muhammad I think that really outlines
the the message that I wanted to deliver
tonight and I thought it would be a good
thing for me to do to to pull up right
about here and give you folks a chance
to speak and how you can do that is
through your questions that you send up
here so if you'll take the time take the
opportunity to go ahead and write
down and then send it up to me I'll read
them out and then I'll give you the
answers if I know the
answers