The Idea of Freedom in Al-Islam Imam W. Deen Mohammed (The following address was given by Imam W. Deen Mohammed as the opening address to an interview for the TV program, W. Deen Mohammed and Guest, on Nov. 10, 2006.) With G-ds Name, The Merciful Benefactor, The Merciful Redeemer. We greet you with the Greetings of Peace, of all Muslims in Al-Islam, As-Salaam-Alaikum. We are very pleased to be addressing the topic of Freedom in Al-Islam. First of all, the Prophet of Islam, the last Prophet, Mohammed upon him be the Prayers and the Peace is reported to have said: Everyone of you is entitled to his or her opinion. So I start here with the idea of freedom in Islam. Human beings are prided in Islam for human intelligence. Mohammed the Prophet (saw) said of the human brain, that G-d made nothing more resourceful, nothing having more or better use than the human brain. When we look at mans influence in the natural environment, we see that no other life presents itself as human life presents itself. No other life has changed the natural environment as humans have changed the natural environment. I think it is very inspiring, really, to see how impressive some of G-ds small creatures, much beneath man in evolution and developmental growth over the history of their life, have contributed to their environment. Bees, for one, build their nests or honey combs and have a very impressive community. There are the ants. There are the beavers and how they work and cut wood to build them a house on the water. They are very impressive. But nothing compares in any way with mans imprint on the natural environment. Man has altered the natural environment greatly, so much so that the animals and plants and everything have been changed somewhat, have increased or decreased, have improved or not improved - because of man taking over and dominating the environment. I am not looking at the problems for the environment right now. I am just looking, and hope you are looking with me, at the great power and usefulness of the human brain. Man use to live in the wilds like animals, but his brain would not let him stay like that. His brain produced for him ideas and plans for changing his environment. Today, we live in the human environment, and it almost shuts out the natural environment. There are so many constructions built by man - roads, buildings, transportation. They are built by man for man. So you walk out of your house or private quarters and most of the time, there is no attraction to pull you away from what man has established - unless it is raining or storming; then you will look up at the sky. Or if it is hot and very bright, you might look up at the sky. So our attention is drawn to the works of man. And because man has been given the freedom in this creation, in the material world, to think and act upon his thoughts, we see man as being very, very special in the creation of all the things that we know in the material existence or material world -in the universe. Because of this very, very special endowment - G-d has endowed the man with this brain and intellect and freedom to think and then act upon his thoughts - to alter his creation and to alter his own life for the better, hopefully always. It is a precious gift, a precious freedom that we have. That is where freedom should really start, with the most useful part of human life. It is useful in terms of serving human betterment and also in terms of serving the betterment of the natural environment. When we think of our freedom in the United States of America, we see that freedom started with freedom of the intellect. In fact, our great leaders of our society would trace the great history of freedom to the philosophers, the thinkers, men of deep thought. One of the great philosophers said, I think, therefore I am (therefore, I exists). For human identity, we have to start with the human mind. The human mind is where we see the true human identity. If we were not free thinkers, if we could not think independent of our circumstances, if we were created and formed in the earth like an animal or plant, we would be governed by habit. The bird builds a nest; it is instinct, habit over a long period of time. It has become habit for the bird to build the nest. We could take any other living creature in creation and look at its life and history, and we will see the same picture - that they are not changing the way that man has changed. They have not changed the way they live over long periods of time, the stretch of their lifeline or existence, except when you look at the progress for their biology. Science says that many of these creatures, the way they look now, they did not look like that originally. But they were not formed yet, so we are not really talking about those creatures. If you are talking about something biological or some germ for a dog and it is not looking like or having the picture of a dog, then we are not talking about a dog. It is the same thing for humans. If you are talking about some form of life that existed but didnt take on this design and this picture that we have, then you are not really talking about humans. You are talking about some existence of life. But once that life takes a life form then we can say we are talking about human life. When you look at man and look at other creatures, we can say that man is much more superior to all other living things. Man has taken pride in his superiority, the superiority of his intellect, intelligence and superiority of his brain. The brain serves community. The brain serves family. The brain serves the human heart. The heart tells me, Oh, this is a burden on my heart to look at these conditions the way they are. The heart tells me these are bad conditions in my neighborhood or area, for my friend or for a stranger. My heart will dictate to me that this is not comfortable. Who takes over the responsibility to do something about it? What part of me does that? It is my brain. So when the Prophet said each of you is a leader in his own right, entitled to his own opinions, the Prophet was giving us an idea of freedom in Al-Islam. We have a concept we call Shura, and that Shura is a governing body. We are told in our Holy Book, the Quran, that the believers, the Muslims, conduct our affairs by Shura. This means having members in a body qualified upon their good character and knowledge and experience as Muslims, how to judge a matter, how to contribute to decision making on all levels of concern, from the smallest to the biggest. This is required of Muslims. If we address an issue in our life, we should address it with respect for one another, those who have knowledge, experience and good character and can make a contribution to a discussion and to coming to a decision. It is called Shura Baiynihum. That is respect for each others character and intelligence. A lot of us forget that intelligence evolves man; it evolves even mans moral life. Intelligence evolves mans romance with females. Without intelligence, his romance would be disgraceful in a human society. We tend to want to separate moral life from intelligence or rational life. We cant do that. Moral life is intelligent life, if it is advancing. There is intelligence in every aspect of the human form. There is intelligence in my hands, in my ears, in my skin. If something gets on my skin and my skin tells me it is uncomfortable, that is intelligence in my skin. Mans whole life is intelligence. When the baby cries because it has dirtied its diaper, it is so someone will come and clean it and put on a nice diaper. Do you call that morals? Has the baby grown up to understand what we mean by morals? It is not morals, it is intelligence. We seem to categorize intelligent life, saying this way is moral and this other way is rational. You cannot make that kind of separation and be correct. If it is good moral thinking, it is also rational. Freedom should be freedom of the dome. This is the free dome on top of the house, on top of the temple. The President sits in the Oval Room, a big dome. Churches and Mosques like to have in their designs big domes. It all started with the head, the brain. An open area is really a reference to the sky. Country dwellers, when they wake up in the morning, dont look at buildings and all of this that obstructs the view. They look at open land, and it seems as if the sky is coming down and touching the earth — like it is one big dome over the earth. That is the freedom we want, the freedom to engage the total environment with our brains. All of us wont be interested to do that. But those who will be interested, we want them to do that. We want philosophers in modern times; they shouldnt just be a thing of the past. We want philosophers who will engage creation with their intelligence, with their hearts. The heart is intelligence. Nat King Cole sung a song once titled My Foolish Heart. For there to be a foolish heart, there also must be an intelligent heart or he wouldnt have used that kind of language. We want intelligence and to take pride in intelligence. We want freedom in our intelligence. You can lock my body up in a cell for some reason, justified or not, but if I have an active mind, my mind will be free. And I will make a lot of progress for my life while physically confined. Maybe, it will be a year or two or 10 to 20 years in confinement. Still, I will come out with a plan to build a wonderful life for myself, using my intelligence when my body was confined. My intelligence was free. The idea of freedom that we have today, I would say, is a reaction to bad experiences or reaction to denials. Oh, the United States used to hold us back. They arent going to hold me back anymore. I am free now! So you are free to play music so loud, it hurts my ears, punishes my ears and with about 10 years of it, I wont be able to hear. But I am free, and I can turn this box up as loud as it will go and pull up beside you and give you some, too. They will pull up beside you in the street and shake your car with their volume. You are free to do that. You are free to be vulgar, to be rude, disrespectful in your home, to disrespect family members - your mother, your father - this is freedom? No. That is not freedom. It is only freedom for the ignorant interest, not for the intelligent interest. Real freedom starts with the freedom for the intelligent interest — not for the ignorant interest. I hope we will be able to come back to what is real freedom. This is freedom in Islam and also for Bible people. We have the same freedom given to us by The One G-d, Who revealed the Scriptures to the Prophets. The Christians have it as the Bible, and we have it as our Quran, the Holy Books. Dont think that I am telling you something about Islamic freedom that is not also true of freedom for the people who follow the Bible.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 22:15:29 +0000
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