Ramadan Session 2005

Ramadan Session 2005

October 21-23, 2006

Perception as Used in Scripture Imam W. Deen Mohammed

at

The Homewood Hotel Homewood, Illinois

Acknowledgements

We wish to express our gratitude, thanks, and appreciation to Imams Shaheed A. Ghani, C. B. Hanif; Melton Mustafa; Rashad Sharif and Ronald Shaheed, for their assistance in preparing this Ramadan Session 2005.

Nasir Ahmad September 2006

Ramadan Session 2005
October 21-23, 2006
Perception as Used in Scripture
Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Please Note: The transcribed lectures of Imam W. Deen Mohammed are the sole property of Imam W. Deen Mohammed and therefore the reproduction, duplication, or selling of such transcribed lectures are strictly prohibited without the written permission of Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Imam W. Deen Mohammed will pursue legal remedies against any persons or organization violating these provisions. Written consent regarding Imam W. Deen Mohammed's lectures, interviews, etc., transcribed or on tapes (audio and video) or CD/DVD must be obtained from Imam W. Deen Mohammed by writing to Imam W. Deen Mohammed, P.O. Box 121 Hazel Crest, Illinois 60429; Telephone 708-798-6750 or fax 708-798-6827.

11

Contents:

10-21-2005 Ramadan Session Introductory comments 10-21-2005 Jumah Ramadan Session

10-21-2005 Asr Ramadan Session 10-21-2005 Magrib Ramadan Session 10-22-2005 Thuhr Ramadan Session 10-22-2005 Asr Ramadan Session 10-23-2005 Thuhr Ramadan Session 10-23-2005 Asr Ramadan Session

111

10-21-2005 Ramadan Session Introductory comments Homewood, IL

Imam Warith Deen Mohammed

Congregational prayer is what I'm talking about now and whenever you meet to pray together, whether it's on the streets, on land, on the outside, or under a roof like we are now, wherever we pray together that is the masjid. Allah swt says, "The earth is the Mosque, or Masjid for G_d". That's what they do all over the world. They don't just pray in homes and in buildings, or places to gather. They pray on the ground anywhere and we do the same thing sometimes. You know that. You are familiar with that. Sometimes we prefer to pray outside on the Tid Day, when we find a nice, convenient place.

Privacy is better than praying outside, because someone can come along and not know what you're doing and they could cause problems. So it is always best when you're the minority, a small number in a big society as Muslims, it is best to have this prayer that we have in privacy.

1 can use this time to acquaint you with what is going to be our program for these days. We will be having Fajr Prayer for anyone who wants to do it. There is a room right here in the morning and you have to have something in your room to break fast with. We have plenty of dates that we're going to bring later on today. If anyone is here who wants dates and do not have dates we will have dates.

This time is Jumah, today, but at Thuhr time tomorrow we will have prayer and after it we will have some business authorized for this occasion, for these days of the weekend. We will have the sale of WDM publications and WDM ministry, or the WDM Mosque Cares publications. My son sells the publications. I gave him the business after he proved over many years to be responsible and reliable. He is very excellent. I'm very proud of him, my son, Warith Ud Din or Wallace D, the second.

He sells for himself. It was my business. I gave it to him because he did such a wonderful job with it. And then there is WDM Publications Convention Address, the Jumah on Convention Day and some other talks that we do. The Mosque Cares sponsors those events and there are the exclusive rights of the Mosque Cares upon my authority. I don't know if you know this, but any speaker, if he speaks no one can have his words in print, or any other form, legally, without his permission. That includes the TV networks. When I go on television, I have to sign an agreement with them for them to use what I do on their own show. It is their show but it is my property. What comes out of my mouth is my property.

I give it to the Mosque Cares and I give it to my son. As I said, events like the Convention, sponsored by the Mosque Cares, are the rights of the Mosque Cares. And my son, he has no right of possession unless he buys them from the Mosque Cares and he does. Occasionally, he buys tapes from the Mosque Cares and he also tapes himself. Then there are tapes that I give him if he's not there at the location where I speak, like on college campuses where I speak sometimes, or other places. I give tapes to my son for him to distribute.

He is really taking care of a lot. He is back in the position he was in many years ago with me, about 15 or 20 years ago, and he's doing a very good job of processing the mail and taking all The Mosque Cares contributions to the bank and depositing them. He's a person who loves to be organized and he likes to be well organized. He has been very helpful to me. I'm saying this because some of you are not aware of that. You're just aware of the properties, my speeches and whatever being the property of The Mosque Cares. But that is not so unless I give it to The Mosque Cares

The Mosque Cares is W.D. Mohammed and I have an obligation to look out for my family, my children. So I do not want The Mosque Cares to have everything. Maybe when I pass the courts will say the property belongs to the Mosque Cares and maybe the people who take over The Mosque Cares may not be our friend. Who knows? They could sneak in. I mean our friend, your friend and my friend. I'm not just talking about family. I am talking about the community in association with my leadership.

We will have Jumah prayer and after prayer, today, Salaam Nutrition is going to come before us with an announcement and Sister Amatullah Sharif is going to

come before us, too. She's going to have the publications sold by The Mosque Cares.

We will have Jumah prayer then some presentations and from that time when we finish we will have a break and we will not start the session until after the time for Asr prayer. Tomorrow after Thuhr prayer we will start the session. The same schedule is for Sunday after Thuhr prayer we'll start the session. That will give us a chance to have a little break and I think we need that. Understand, too, the day is very short not long now. Sunset is about 6:00 p.m. Maghrih prayer is about 6:00 p.m. here in the Chicago area. "Asr will come pretty soon after Thuhr prayer around 2:30 p.m. and Maghrib prayer will come at 6:00 p.m.

If we can be ready at 3:00 p.m. to start our session and go to break fast time, Iftar, then we can go again after Iftar, quickly. Some people think Iftar is a time for relaxing. It is not. The purpose of the ritual is to have us obey the guidance of G_d directly demonstrated to us by Muhammed, the Prophet pbuh. I know it is not intentional, but when it is time to eat you do not eat when you want to. You have to eat when it is time to eat. As soon as the sun sets you are supposed to put something in your mouth. Do not loaf around and talk with each other. When the sun sets everybody should quickly take water and some fruit. You cannot eat anything man made. It has to come naturally from the earth. You do not break your fast with anything man made. You cannot break it with a candy bar, a cookie, or something like that. You have to break it preferably with dates and water.

I love the tradition of our Prophet pbuh. If you do not have dates and water you can break it with an orange, apple, grapes, a banana, and you can break it with a piece of raw cabbage. You can break it with anything that is not man made or has not been changed by man. That has a great meaning and we will talk about it, en sha Allah swt. There is a great message there.

At Iftar time do not waste time, because G_d excuses us because He knows we have been fasting and we are weak. He excuses us for Maghrib during the month of Ramadan at the time when you are suppose to be saying Maghrib prayer if it is not the fast month. In this month G_d excuses us. We don't have to say Maghrib Prayer right on the minute. We should see He excuses us for the whole month of Ramadan, permitting us to take some food into our mouth. So do not waste time sitting around

talking and socializing. Take your food, a little dates and at this time you are not filling up, but you take only a little mouth full of food, a drink of water or whatever it is and then get ready for prayer. It should take no more than two to five minutes to do that. You should be finished and then go right into Maghrib Prayer. Once you finish Maghrib Prayer we will resume the session and will continue until it is time for Eshaa Prayer.

Eshaa Prayer time is close because of the short days we have in this month and it is at 8:30 p.m. or maybe sooner. As soon as there is no sign of Maghrih in the sky and it's dark we can do Eshaa Prayer. I wish all of you would learn the time by the tradition of our Prophet pbuh and not by these calendars that they make. It is wrong to pray Jumah all through the year at 1:00 pm. They do it for convenience but that is wrong. It is not 1:00 p.m. all throughout the year; and that is not the way Muhammed, the Prophet pbuh established it. He established it to be said at the proper times.

Fajr prayer is at a designated time

The shadow of the sun for Fajr Prayer, as you know, is when the light and darkness runs horizontal. It appears to be going parallel, horizontally, and not vertically up and down. It is straight across, an even line. I have seen it more than once. If you get up early on a clear day or night you can see it as a black and white line and it will he on the eastern horizon going straight together; a black and white line of the light of the sun. It will be showing like that separating the darkness. When you, see a shadow when you can go outside or if you can make a shadow or a tree outside or anything you look at outside, if it makes a shadow, it is too late for morning prayer. Don't think that because you think it is kind of light outside, "I'm too late. I can't make Fajr Prayer." Yes, you can.

The best time to make it is at that time when the light is running horizontal, especially for the month of Ramadan. In fact that is the only time it is mentioned, during the month of Ramadan; and that is to tell us we have to stop eating or whatever we are doing for our bodily sensation, to satisfy the flesh. You have to stop at that point. But most Muslims, they will wake up early. Some of the Sandia Arabians, I think they call the adhan by that time. They call an early adhan at that beginning point for Fajr. But most of the believers around the world, here and all over, they pray after the dawn appears. When dawn appears, you see the night has

changed. A little light is in the sky on the Eastern horizon and you are starting to see the night get a little light coming into it. That is dawn and at that time we start Fajr or the Dawn Prayer. But as I said, that time will go up to the time when an object under the sun, with the sun shining, has a shadow. It has to be a clear sunny day and if the light makes a shadow, it is too late for Fajr Prayer.

The Prophet phuh is reported to have reminded his muadhdhan appointed by the Prophet himself phuh, Bilal ibn Rabah, may G_d be pleased with him, he said, "Bilal you overslept and the time for the Fajr Prayer has passed." They were in travel, so he went on the way until the sun got up good, like about the brightest time of the sun, called Duhaa. Duhaa comes between morning sunrise and noon. Usually for us it is like 9:00 a.m. or 10:00 a.m. when the days are long. But it could sometimes even be like 8:30 a.m. If you can imagine the earth as a straight line and then cut it in half and you have two big half circles formed over the earth, the point right above the line is called the zenith and it will be noon. But do we pray at Noon Time? No, we pray at Thuhr time and it is a little after noon when the shadow starts to appear on the other side going in the other eastward direction.

Jumah Thuhr prayers when the shadow appears Eastwards

When the sun is rising from the east the shadow is going westward and when it reaches perfect noon there should be no shadow going east or west. But because the sun also moves north and south, some of you never noticed it, it never came to your mind, but Allah swt gave it to Muhammed pbuh. He must have seen it so Allah swt addressed it as the two easts and the two wests. When the shadow is not casting itself east nor west that is the perfect noon. But when the shadow starts to cast itself Eastward in the direction that sun is coming from that is Thuhr time. As soon as you see the shadow appear at any measure eastwards that is the time for Thuhr Prayer and it is the time for Jumah Prayer.

Asr prayer when the sun is past the half way mark

The 'Mr will come when the sun is past the half way mark between the zenith, noon or that right angle and it starts to go in the margin. Then it is time for Asr Prayer. And it will be Asr Prayer time as long as the sun has not gone half past that right angle. I hope you are following

me. When it is half past that angle it is no more `Asr Prayer time. You can't pray when you can look at the sun while standing up without raising your head. If you look Westward to the sunset and you see the sun and you did not have to raise your head, then you do not do any prayer at that time.

Maghrib prayer when the sun does not appear on the horizon

Maghrib Prayer time is when you have to wait until the sun goes down and does not appear at all on the Western horizon and there is only the reddish look of it on the horizon. That is when you do Maghrib Prayer.

Eshaa Prayer when the sun's light cannot be seen

Getting to the last prayer time, it is when the sun has left and its light and its glow cannot be seen on the Western horizon, and it appears to be dark. That is called Lail. That is the time you can make Eshaa Prayer. Usually, they wait until the darkness has been there for a while, or has appeared and some time has passed, like a half hour or an hour. But for this occasion when we are all together here, as soon as darkness comes we can make Eshaa Prayer. We make Eshaa Prayer followed by Witr if you like, or we can go right into Taraawih, the night prayers, the prayers of night in the fast month; or we can do Witr Prayer at that time and then do the Taraawih Prayers. You know Witr Prayer is three rakats that are said at nighttime in all the months, not just in the month of Ramadan. It is not fard but it is highly recommended that we say Witr Prayers, the three rakats.

When we complete the Taraawih Night Prayers in the month of Ramadan we will be free then. Our time is our own. If anyone can't stay for prayer, like sisters or anyone having exemption according to the Qur'an and the tradition of our Prophet pbuh, you don't have to stay with us. I love to do Maghrib Prayer, Eshaa and Taraawih Prayer Night Prayers. Then after that I will go home, en sha Allah swt.

The restaurant here, I believe they prepared halal food for us in the hotel. Yesterday, I visited the restaurant of the culture center on Halsted Street in Harvey, Illinois, and 1 was so impressed until I said to myself, "We are going to nominate the two brothers who are the leaders over there for "Man of the year 2006." They have to share it. If you see what they have done and you know how lazy and negligent we have been in the Chicago