May Allah bless you with shifa, increased rizq and ease. May He bestow comfort on you and your family. May He restore you completely and allow you to continue to do that which is most pleasing to Him. Ameen.
ASA, I’m sure you will find these words of inspiration from Imam W Deen Mohammed soothing for the soul. May they comfort you while you are recovering;
The Good News
No Unjust Suffering
Chapter 6- The Good News
Whenever you read the Qur'an, before you begin reciting you are to say, "I seek refuge with G_d from the enemy, Shaytan (Satan)." Every chapter except the 9th chapter of Qur'an, "Tauba (Repentance)", opens up, "With G_d's Name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer". What is the main subject of the 9th chapter? What is the main activity? What is going on more than anything else in the 9th chapter? It is war. People who take up war they are not in a condition to perceive G_d and His beauty. That is why the Old Testament shows youG_d in His anger most of the time.
It is all about conflict. The righteous are trying to survive the wicked. You are not inclined to think of G_d as, "The Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer", or to think to say, "With G_d's Name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer", when you're fighting. You are not inclined to do that.
The religion of Islam shows the human nature in its picture that is accepted by G_d. If your life is threatened and you are fighting, G_d does not expect for you to say, "With G_d's Name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer." You are trying to save your life from an enemy who is trying to kill you or your family. He's trying to destroy your city, your town. What is G_d saying when He is revealing this chapter to us without the saying, "With Gd's Name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer?" He is saying that when mankind is at war with each other they are not saying, "With Gd's Name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer", and they are not expected to say that. They are fighting for their own survival, to save their own life. So G_d doesn't expect that. G_d forgives them for forgetting Him in such circumstances. But after they fight, get into trouble, lose lives and they begin suffering a lot, then they remember G_d. When things get hot and tough then they remember G_d.
So inside of Chapter 9 is a verse that says, "With Gd's Name the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer", though it is not in the beginning; meaning when man gets into enough trouble, even though he is fighting and killing to save his own life, he will turn to his G_d. Isn't that nice, that you do not open the chapter or the subject of war with the name of G_d? G_d is saying, "I'm not with your war. You do not start your war with Me. You start your war on your own. But eventually you will turn to Me. When you catch enough hell, then you will remember Me; that I am the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer".
End of Suffering and Confusion
We want to make progress in the world. We don't want to fail. The first step then is to begin in your innocence. We want to get to the end of the road. The end of the road is not the end of living. The end of the road is the end of struggle, suffering and confusion. The end of the road is a good life here on earth and hereafter; a good life where you will feel good about yourself. You will be able to feel good about how you and your family are living. You will be able to feel good about how your neighborhood is striving or existing. Now how can you feel perfectly good as long as there is another neighborhood suffering like ours used to suffer, or there is another nation suffering like ours used to suffer? So you see G_d has created us to be one family, to register the hurt of all people, to feel their hurt and to not be comfortable in our souls until everybody has a life that is livable.
We know all of us are not this conscious. We practice putting things out of our mind that bother our conscience. We practice it so much until we can look at people suffering and crying, moaning, dying and being mistreated and we'll just keep on smiling, go to sleep and rest good tonight. But there are a few that G_d has created who won't accept that and one day from the few will come one who will disturb your rest, calling you out into the field to go to work to make things better. This is the way of G_d.
Progress on Road of Life
The second step, if you want a good life, is to make up in your mind to think, "Yes, I want a good life. I don't want a life that I have to be ashamed of. I want to be of good character. I don't want to be of bad character. I want to be somebody that other good people can feel comfortable around or with. I want to be a person that good people can trust. I want to be loved by my family and appreciated by my family". If you are that kind of person you have already made the first step. That tells us that your life is in good condition. The life G_d gave you is in good condition. Your temple is in good order, the temple of your flesh body.
So you want to be informed in order for you to make progress on the road of life. As I said, it is not for just anybody. You can't make progress on this road without being educated. You have to be educated and I'm not speaking of the academic world. I'm talking about good common sense and knowledge of how G_d made life or made you to live. That is what you have to have. We call it, G_d. You may not call it G_d. If you don't want to call it G_d, call it Creation. Call it Mother Nature. Call it whatever you want, but Something is responsible for making you the way you are and making you the human being you are. It created matter, nature, to give birth to you the first time. So if you don't want to include G_d, start right there with Mother Nature and say, "I want to be the best that Mother Nature offers me". Then say, "I want to see what direction, what help is in Mother Nature for my mind, for my reasoning, so I can reason better; so that my reasoning will serve me better and I can become more successful". Mother Nature is a teacher herself, isn't she? She is our first teacher.
Good News
Muhammed, the Prophet, was not stupid. When G_d called him he was a successful business man. He was not immoral or indecent. When he was called he was already a decent, moral and admired human being. His own people called him, as-Saadiq, the Truthful One and they called him, al-Amin, the Trustworthy One, the Honest One, the one that you can trust. They were calling him these names before G_d called him to be the Messenger of G_d. What does that tell us? G_d is telling us by revealing to Muhammed the same thing that Jesus Christ in his sign, in his mystery tells us; that a human being can have a good life without revelation, without a Prophet being sent to them. G_d doesn't have to come to us that way. G_d made us to have a good life. If we would just respect the good life that G_d made for us we could have a good life as Muhammed had a good life; and he's just one example that is given to us. There were many human beings that became very decent, kept a good life and they became very rational, very intelligent and very productive without joining a religion. This is a fact of history and a fact of nature. Isn't that good news?
For the Christians this same message is in the nativity, the birth of Jesus Christ, but it is shrouded in mystery. The same message is coming to the Christian world that I am giving you right now and that is why the New Testament is called, "The Good News". These phonies in religion are telling people, "You have to repent, repent! You have to reject this mortal flesh, this mortal nature, reject this gross body! It is temptation that will lead you to damnation!" But the good news is that they got off track. They went blind in their own self-righteousness. The good news is human beings are born good and it is only your wrong thinking that makes you bad. That is the good news, that we all should have salvation. We have to learn to trust our good senses, our natural good intelligence that G_d created us with. We want to become more intelligent, more informed in the ways of life, in the ways of living successfully.
Serve Something Bigger
The third step is to struggle to know, "What is my purpose in this plan that I find in Mother Nature? I've found this big plan, now what is my purpose here? Am I to worship matter? Am I to worship the earth? Am I to worship the trees?" Then, you have to begin to search. You have to search the things you know to see if those things are worthy of you worshiping them, or you coming under them. But, if you search without revelation, without G_d, if you search with your good natural intelligence, you are going to come to the conclusion that, "I can't manage this by myself. I have to serve something above me". You can call it an idea or truth. You can call it a perception of your destiny. Call it whatever you want, but you have to serve something bigger than you.
G_d tells us in the Holy Qur'an, "Oh man, don't think that the creation of a human being is a bigger matter than the creation of the skies and the earth." This world will overwhelm you. This world will beat you down, bury you and wipe your history out as though you never existed. That is what this world will do. It is a bigger matter than you. So at least find that discipline that accounts for this world being sustained. Find that discipline that sustains matter, the earth, Mother Nature's work or order and then say to yourself, "This world that is bigger than me is sustained by obedience to certain laws. So I am going to have to recognize a set of rules, a set of laws. There is something governing me that is bigger than my mind". Call it what you want, but that will be your salvation.
Chapter 8- No Unjust Suffering
"Whatever misfortune happens to you is because of the things your hands have wrought, and for many of them He grants forgiveness. Nor can you frustrate (aught), (fleeing) through the earth; nor have you besides G_d any one to protect or to help".
The above verses from the Qur'an are addressing those who are always complaining against G_d. It is not addressing believers. It is addressing those who always want to blame G_d for their bad situation; those who are always complaining and blaming G_d for their problems. They are the people who have messed up life for everybody else. In plain language, or straight to the point, they are getting punished. They are being punished for their deeds. That's what it is saying.
These are wrong doers. It's talking about wrong doers, those who always want to say G_d is an unjust G_d; that if there is a G_d, then this world is a mess and it's His fault. There are college professors who say that and try to break the faith in others, especially in their students. They say, "Do you believe in G_d? How can you believe in G_d with all of this misery and suffering? Mother Nature is cruel". That's what they say.
They didn't just begin to do that. They did it in ancient times, in the time of the Prophets. So these verses from Qur'an are addressing those who want to say, "Look how life is made so miserable. We're making life better. We're the ones who come to the sick and help the sick. We're cleaning up this mess for that G_d you believe in"! They blame Mother Nature, too. They believe Mother Nature is cruel. So that mind is the one that is being addressed when it says, "Whatever you are suffering, your own deeds have brought it about".
My understanding is that no one suffers unjustly. This is philosophical also, by insight. I myself suffer. Sometimes I can hardly sleep, getting up every twenty or thirty minutes. I have to get up and go to the washroom, etc. But I know that I have type II diabetes and should not eat too much sugar. So, who's sending me to the washroom? I'm responsible for sending me to the washroom. Now, that's a simple case, a simple situation.
What Sin Did the Child Commit?
But, what about a child who's born with a physical defect? What sin did the child commit? He committed no sin, but he has a physical defect. Now, I see it two ways. The explanation is given from two different perspectives, or two different views. In one view the explanation is (and I do believe this with all my heart, mind and soul) if the parents would live better we wouldn't have these defects. We inherit these defects from parents who abuse the life and the abuse doesn't always have to be physical because sometimes mental abuse is worse on the life than physical abuse. If we carry bad thoughts all of the time they can affect us physically and it does affect people, physically. They say you can be young and worry can turn your hair gray. So that's evidence right there that the condition inside can affect the condition outside.
I believe, like many good Christians, that we should not have had all these diseases like syphilis, cancer, etc. If we had kept a good spirit, a good nature and had been clean and correct inside and outside, we wouldn't have these problems. I don't believe we would have them. But, as I said, this is deep and philosophical.
So, I believe if we can get back to our original purity and innocence, it will overcome all of these diseases. They say people who get close to G_d and have good thoughts about themselves and others suffer little or no worry and little or no disease.
After I came to that conclusion I said to myself, "Well, yes, the way they live messes up the environment and punishes life, causes us to have diseases, defective births and everything". I was convinced of this and that was clear in my mind. But, now, here is an innocent child starting out in life. Why should that fall upon the generations, especially innocent babies? Then, I said, "G_d's plan goes before and beyond everything that can happen in His creation, so why this innocent baby?" G_d knows who to put a burden on. It (Qur'an) didn't say He doesn't burden. It just says He doesn't burden any soul beyond its capacity. What does that mean? It means when you reach your capacity you'll die and that's G_d's Mercy, too. He takes the pain away. He takes you out of the pain, away from the pain. That's His Mercy. So, He knows the life and He knows how much to burden it or when to leave it free of burden. If He burdens it, that's His decision. He knows best and if G_d burdens you and you didn't earn punishment your burden is a blessing.
The Suffering Savior
I have more misery now than I have ever had in my life, physical misery, and I'm more qualified to advance G_d's cause than I have ever been in my life. So what's the purpose of this pain? It's to keep my conscious aware of my Lord, because we naturally turn to Him when we get pain. I keep Him on my mind now and I keep a little pain in the body; a sign of the Suffering Savior. He suffered but this kept his mind on his G_d.
You know the doctor says, "Well, I can make you better now. I can get you in better shape, but it's going to be a little painful. If you don't mind the pain, you can anticipate it getting a little better". So it is with our Lord. Sure, it can be painful, but we should believe, firstly, that G_d would not permit a servant of His to carry pain, to be in misery, if it wasn't for that servant's benefit. Down the road we will get the reward. He's assisting our soul's effort. He's assisting our soul in its effort to please G_d and achieve what G_d wants. So He is assisting it and sometimes He assists it by making the body miserable.
I used to say, "Let me get out of here so I can be with my G_d. There's too much confusion going on in this house". But now, there is nothing they can do in the house to take my mind off of my G_d. No, He's on my mind all of the time and I do know pain helps. The body's suffering helps.
Authority to Inflict Pain Belongs to G_d
However, I don't believe in inflicting pain upon myself. That would be a sin. We're not to inflict pain upon ourselves, like we're not to commit suicide or take our own lives. If we do that we are taking from G_d an authority that belongs only to Him. It's His authority to give or to take life. It belongs only to Him and if I inflict pain or misery upon my mind that's a great sin. So I do what I can to keep my body healthy and free of disease and pain because that's my responsibility. And I understand the way of G_d, too. That's His body. He created it. If He wants to punish it, He can and I am most happy with Him doing that.
This is also applicable on the group or community level. What applies to a person applies to a community and vice versa, cause G_d says in Qur'an, "Your death and your resurrection are as one soul". So, whatever afflicts one soul also afflicts the community and whatever delivers one soul also delivers the community.
G_d also says in Qur'an, "Your own self, your children and your possessions are only trials". If you pass the test by remaining steadfast in faith, then G_d is going to reward you many times more than you have suffered. That goes for an individual and for a group or community, because when He puts you to trial or tests you, and you pass the test, you expect a reward and He rewards many times over. This life is easy to bear if we know G_d's love, as the Scripture says. If we know G_d's love the life is easy to carry.
Another Reality for the Soul
I believe that for some souls it is G_d's Will that they have no experience in this life at all and He takes them, immediately, to another life, another reality. I do believe that there's another reality that none of us know and sometimes G_d decides that a particular birth should not be for this world. So, He takes it, denies its entrance into this world and it goes straight to a higher world. But who knows why? Maybe G_d knows that if it is born in this world it's going to be an innocent child and it is going to suffer more misery than it can bear. It may be that G_d knows that if that child is born into this world that child is not going to have an opportunity to develop and have a good life, or not even have an opportunity to compete in a world like this. So He sends it on to another world and I sincerely believe it's a higher world, a higher reality than ours.
There is something else I believe and it is supported by the Qur’an. You know, you hear about what is called, a bad seed. G_d denies some people children, period, and there may be many reasons for denying them children. A few persons that I know that haven't given birth to children, knowing them and observing them over all these years that I have known them, oh, it's a mercy to the human seed that they didn't have children. Now, that's what I can see. My insight is very limited, but that I can see. So how do we know? With the still born, G_d may be saying, "I'm going to punish you by letting you see what has formed in your life because of your relationship with this person. But you'll just see it. You'll never have it". And then G_d sends it on to some other place. That's a punishment.
I know a person who said of her children, "I regret that I had either one of you. I wish that I had flushed you down the toilet!" Do you hear that? That's her exact words. "I regret that I had any one of you! I wish that I had flushed you down the toilet!" Consequently, she had two still births.
Lastly, life is too complicated for us to understand with our sadness, hurt and whatever. But we should give it to G_d and believe in G_d; that He is a good G_d. He's a just G_d. He's a merciful G_d. He's a loving G_d. We would then know that whatever He does is for our good.
I know that whatever we want to do of good, if we are really serious about it, we can do it. If we want to make billions of dollars for a good cause, G_d is with us and all we have to do is act. He's going to make the way for us and He is going to make the act productive. Even if we can't do it, or we reach our limitations, He'll take over from there. Now, we're not going to be foolish and put G_d to the test. We shouldn't do that, not knowingly. But, I know we don't have to be afraid or hesitant. We don't have to fear making progress. Make the effort and G_d is going to be with us, always.
As Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah wa barakatu. May Allah bless you with a complete and speedy recovery.
I believe it was 1970 when the Camera and Plate-Making Dept. At Muhammad speaks newspaper received some much-needed help from a young lieutenant in the FOI. An energetic young man with an automobile with a loud muffler, so loud that we always knew when you were arriving for work. You brought energy and attentiveness to an otherwise routine job. Those characteristics of action, attentiveness, and energy have been consistent over the past 48 years as you worker tirelessly for the advancement of Muslim principles and community life in this "wilderness" called North America. May Allah be pleased with your efforts and restore your health and vitality following a complete recovery for surely Allah Alone is our Provider and Sustainer.
Enough of the soft stuff, GIT BACK TO WORK, BROTHER!!!
As Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. My first year in Chicago 1975, I met Qasim Ahmed. He was the voice on the street, sidewalk, in hallways espousing Islam apart from the Lessons and rules of the then Nation of Islam. He was energetic, inspiring and fully engaged and promoting the transition and teachings of Imam W. Deen Mohammed. He's continued on his post for 40 plus years. Will be looking for that spark, fervor to return. May your recovery be speedy, complete. Ameen.
بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيم
And We send down of the Quran that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe… (Quran, Surah Al-Israa, 17:82)
May اللّهِ restore your health, keep you and guide you always. May اللّهِ provide
you and family with peace and increased strength throughout this test. Know that you and all the gifts that اللّهِ has blessed you with are so dearly appreciated and are continued to be passed on to others. May the blessings of اللّهِ follow you. Much love to you and family, from the Salahuddin and Sumpter Family.
May Allah bless you with shifa, increased rizq and ease. May He bestow comfort on you and your family. May He restore you completely and allow you to continue to do that which is most pleasing to Him. Ameen.