The meaning of Ramadan

The word “Ramadan” is from the root word “ramida” which means, “scorched earth”. It refers to the wrapping up of the feet of tender animals during the hot months in order to save them from the torment of the ground when extremely heated. As an analogy, Ramadan alludes to the effects of the extreme heat of our appetites and passions upon our material or “earthly” nature and it provides us with the protection for it through fasting or abstinence.
-Imam Ben Bilal

Fitrah- definition from Imam Ben Bilal

ف - mouth; expression; opening
ط - goodness (as a potential)
ر - movement of subconscious

الفطرة - Fitrah - the opening of the potential goodness of the subconscious

M.A.L.I.’s Qur’anic Conference Raises the Bar

M.A.L.I.’s Qur’anic Conference Raises the Bar

by Q. Daawud Greym

In holding its first Qur’anic Conference from June 19^th – 21^st, the Muslim American Logic Institute (M.A.L.I.) set a new standard for conferences, whose focus is the study of the Qur’an.

With such presentations as “The Qur’an as User-Friendly” and a “Conceptual Analysis of the Qur’an,” as well as a number of public exercises displaying the grammatical expertise of the M.A.L.I. students, the bar for Qur’anic conferences was raised to the next level for the supporters of Imam W. D. Mohammed (IWDM).

According to its website, M.A.L.I. is “an institution devoted to the study and preservation of Imam W. Deen Mohammed’s Qur’anic logic and teachings of Al-Islam in America.”

The three-day conference, held at Masjid Ash-Shaheed in Charlotte NC, featured four main addresses, all presented on Saturday, June 20^th. A fifth address by Imam Abdullah Yahya of Dallas, TX was cancelled because of his inability to attend. The topics of the four addresses, which were presented in this order, were: (1) “The Impact of the Usage and the Loss of the Classical Arabic Language on the Muslim World;” (2) “Consonantal Connections in the Qur’an;” (3) “The Qur’an as User-Friendly;” and (4) a “Conceptual Analysis of the Qur’an.”

(Unfortunately, this reporter was unable to attend the shorter presentations on education, business, health and the prison system, scheduled for Sunday.)

In the June 19^th Jumah khutbah, Imam Qasim Ahmed, founder and director of the traveling Islamic Learning Institute, Inc and the Mercy Community Center in Tampa FL, set the tone for the conference. “Are you going to learn to read the Qur’an (in Arabic) this weekend? No!” he emphasized. But what he hoped the conference would achieve, was to “build an appetite” for reading it.

And this “appetite for the Qur’an” is natural and inborn. He related a conversation with an estranged Muslim relative who recently died and had “a different mindset.” Imam Qasim said the uncle told him that his own written material reminded the uncle of stories about his “great-grandfather” who used to sit in circles with other slaves and write Arabic in the ground. “There is an innate nature in the souls of our people (African-Americans) for Qur’anic Arabic,” Imam Qasim declared.

A stronger proof of this “innate” connection was given in the fact that the Qur’an was revealed upon Prophet Muhammad’s heart. “And surely this is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds. The Faithful Spirit has descended with it upon your heart…” 26:192 -194. Imam Qasim stressed to the audience that Allah has not created two hearts in anyone’s body (33:4). “The heart was created by Allah to love him,” and therefore, the Glorious Qur’an, he concluded.

But he asked the rhetorical question: “Why is it that you don’t have a strong appetite for this Qur’an, where you are knocking down the doors (to learn the Qur’anic Arabic)? Who has destroyed that appetite?” The explanation for the African-American’s motivational coma was given in a quote from IWDM: “We live in an oppressive word-environment.”

Then, Imam Qasim reminded the Muslims about the first commercial book that IWDM recommended to the community,“Subliminal Seduction,” in 1975. The book described the subtle techniques used by the advertising industry “to cause havoc in your subconscious and create an appetite for the unG-dly,” he said. “The designers (of this society) arrested our innate nature to love and respect G-d,” he added.

In his Saturday lecture, Imam Qasim proposed a “powerful” strategy to counteract this motivational coma for
reading the Qur’an. He proposed that the Believer read the Qur’an with just her/his subconscious mind.

HOW? By speed-reading a portion of the Qur’an every day. “Don’t worry about trying to understand the Arabic. Just go as fast as you can, because the subconscious is taking an automatic picture of every word,” he said. He pointed out that 90 % of the power of the mind is in the subconscious which controls all of the vital systems in the body, i.e. circulatory, respiratory, nervous, etc. The consistent activity of speed-reading the Qur’an will enter the subconscious and provide a protection - “hafeez” - against the corrupt words and negative influences that enter the mind from society.

But, Imam Faheem Shuaibe of Masjudul-Waritheen in Oakland CA, who is also founder and director of Muslim American Research Institute Advocating Marriage, gave the first major address on Saturday. However, he approached the Qur’an from a different perspective. His topic - “The Impact of the Usage and the Loss of the Classical Arabic Language on the Muslim World,” offered a more panoramic view. Reading mostly from an 11-page prepared text, Imam Faheem covered a lot of ground, starting with Adam and the origins of language and ending with the language of the Qur’an.

Many references to the Qur’an and the commentary of IWDM were made in his presentation, too. His first quote from IWDM was: “Human beings were on the earth a long time before Adam was on the earth…it was not until man became conscious of himself as a creation of G-d…that the biological person became Adam,” according to IWDM.

Then, Imam Faheem referred the audience to 30:30: “(Establish) Allah’s handiwork according to the pattern on which He has made mankind.” The “pattern on which He has made mankind” is Al-Insaan, the “completed” human form, Imam Faheem explained.

In order to build, maintain and restore this “human form” he made reference to 55:1- 4 (Allah) Most Gracious! It is He Who has taught the Qur’an. He has created man. He has taught him speech (and intelligence).

Imam Faheem said it’s the technical language that really makes the professional. “Take them before they acquired the (technical) language and you don’t have the named professional,” he said. Likewise, “the language that constructs Al-Insaan (the complete human) is the language of Al-Qur’an.”

As he began to explain the origins of language and grammar, reference was made again to the commentary of IWDM. “People in the beginning used animals as a model for language, then the intellect took over,” Imam Faheem quoted IWDM as having said.

“When the intelligence took over, they started to refine that language. But as they had to face the job of refining their language, they had to use their intellect to study matter – the language in G-d’s creation. Then…they took words from G-d’s creation and built their language up...Not only did they take words and concepts from G-d’s creation, they took the logic for those concepts and used them for connecting. From the connection of the concepts, they gave the logic to their language and call it grammar…” according to Imam Faheem’s quote of IWDM.

In referring to the role of classical Arabic, Imam Faheem said that it was designed for the Qur’an. “The original Arabic language was grown specifically to be the vessel for the last revelation of Allah,” he said.

He compared the process Allah used to produce classical Arabic to the methodology that scientists employ “to culture” or grow certain micro-organisms in the laboratory for experimental purposes. “Allah used the Arab people as the soil out of which a special language was grown. Allah created Arabic for containing divine ideas, concepts and logic. It was His plan.” Imam Faheem concluded.

While Imam Faheem had a broad, comprehensive approach to Qur’anic Arabic, the second presenter, Imam Benjamin Bilal of the Human Restoration Center of Queens NY, took a minimalist and elementary approach to the language.

Imam Benjamin’s topic was the “Consonantal Connections in the Qur’an. However, even with the study of just the letters of the Arabic alphabet, he was still able to arrive at the same conclusion as Imam Faheem – the completed human form is Al-Insaan or “the social man.”

English is known to be a “bastard language,” Imam Benjamin said. It is “an extracted language from the Germanic tribes and it was invented by the Benedictine monks for the purpose of satire,” he explained

For this type of understanding of language and words, he encouraged the audience to start using an etymological dictionary which traces the origins and development of words.

“Every letter has its own meaning; therefore every letter is a word. And every word is a sentence,” Imam Benjamin declared.

He also mentioned that every letter has “a phonetic value” and “a pictograph” associated with it. For example, the letter “alif” means “strong or to protect ,” while the letter “baa” means “house.” Thus, the Arabic word “abu” means “the strength or protector of the house,” which “is really the father,” Imam Benjamin revealed..

Another example was the letter “lam,” whose pictograph is a “shepherd’s staff or hook.” Its meaning, according to Imam Benjamin, is “to teach,” which is seen when the shepherd points the sheep in the right direction with the staff (a form of teaching) and when he holds them back from danger with the hook (another form of teaching that protects the animal).

Imam Benjamin apologized for the lack of a “power-point” projector for his presentation, as was originally planned. But he more than made up for it when he emphasized to the audience that the real “power” was in “the point” that was being made during his lecture.

Last, but not least, was the presentation by Muslim Journal columnist and the director of M.A.L.I., Imam Salim MuMin of Detroit, MI. It was entitled “Conceptual Analysis of the Qur’an.”

For his presentation, Imam Salim used an overhead-projector to display five groups of words on the masjid’s side wall. Each group formed an imaginary-square with a “focus-word” in the center and four “key-words” at the corners of the square.

“What I did, was take a word from the Qur‘an and find other verses that contain the same word. Then, I took key words that surrounded it and looked at their contextual meanings,” Imam Salim told the audience. As he positioned the key-words around the focus-word, a “conceptual field” of meanings emerged from them, he said.

In the last word-group, Imam Salim took the focus-words of the first four groups and used them as key-words for his last focus-word – “furqaan.” These converted key-words (with Imam Salim’s definitions) were: “futuur (original pattern) tafaawut (surface, passing, perishable); mutashaabihaat (facsimile) muhkamaat (plain, everyday logic without interpretation). Their collective effect on “furqaan” pushed its meaning from “to split, separate or divide” to a conceptual-meaning of “having the ability to tell the difference between a facsimile and the original,” Imam Salim said.

In a private interview, he explained the object of his “conceptual analysis” approach. “The object is to develop a conceptual wholeness or world view. It allows you to go beyond the dictionary meanings and use the Qur’an to define itself. This is the key to studying the logic of Imam Mohammed.” Imam Salim concluded.

Co-facilitator, Sr. Hafeeza Muhammad of host Masjid Ash-Shaheed, who also composed a splendid dua for her son to read on Saturday, cited a conference-attendance of 220 Muslims. She said that the figure was “beyond” their expectations.

###

Peace Conference Lecture

The following is a lecture delivered by Imam Ben Bilal from Jamaica, NY on June 7th, 2009.  It was at an inter-faith conference. 

With Allah’s Name, The Merciful Benefactor, The Merciful Redeemer

 

INTER-FAITH PEACE CONFERENCE

Sunday, June 7^th, 2009

Hosted by: The Ahmadiyyah Community of Bait-uz-Zafar

Guest Speaker: Imam Benjamin Bilal

of the Human Restoration Center

142-64 Rockaway Boulevard, Jamaica, N.Y.

 

 

            Greetings to our gracious hosts here at Baituz Zafar and greetings to all of the inter-faith participants on the dais as well as in the audience of listeners. I greet all of you in the universal greetings of peace; As Salaamu ‘Alaykum! Peace be upon you all!

 

“Salaam” in Arabic means the same as the word “shalom” in Hebrew, and in fact, as most of you know, they are sister languages within the Semitic group of languages. This word, which is commonly translated as “peace,” also alludes to the concept of “wholeness” or “completeness”. So, As Salaamu ‘Alaykum and Shalom Alaychem not only mean “May Peace be upon you,” but also, “May wholeness or completeness be upon you.”

 

The human being is a composite being. None of us are simply one thing. The human life is multi-faceted and stratified, and for that reason, all of the major concerns involving how human life is to be lived are addressed by G-d in our respective Scriptures and historical sacred writings. Our Scriptures speak specifically to, not only our physical or material concerns, but more importantly, our collective mental, moral, social and spiritual concerns.

 

Muslim is not an ethnic group, nor a geographical location; nor is its identity the prized possession of Arabs or Arabic-speaking people alone. The Qur’an was revealed to Muhammed the Prophet over 14 centuries ago in order to provide guidance for the completion of man’s life as a social/spiritual entity on earth. It is a Book for any who believes in a Creator and who also believes in ultimate accountability to that Creator. You do not have to be a Muslim proper in order to quote from and benefit from the guidance in the Qur’an. If you don’t believe me, ask President Barack Obama.

 

Paraphrasing the words of Muhammed the Prophet, may prayers and peace be upon him; Every human child is born upon the fitrah which is the natural pattern inherent in created matter, but it is man’s fabricated environment that subsequently causes him or her to veer away from that original pattern. All religions, including Islam, have been victimized by those who assumed to know better than G-d how human life is to be motivated and directed. Some have even chosen to pervert G-d’s words for those ends. But in the process of perverting G-d’s Word, the image of what a true human being is got corrupted also. As a consequence, many of the people who claim religion do so believing that they are G-d’s favorite because of race, geographical location, special instruction, or some other perceived favor.

 

According to Muhammed the Prophet’s teachings, there is no superiority of a white over a black, or a black over a white, or of an Arab over a non-Arab or a non-Arab over an Arab. The only superiority is in moral regardfulness called “taqwa” in the Qur’an. This sense of regardfulness educates the soul by promoting good-will and selfless service to humanity, and will not allow, race, ethnicity, language, geography, gender, age, or any other false division to hinder one’s self from promoting freedom, justice and equality among fellow human beings.

 

Like many so-called “black” people in this country, I use to believe that “Islam” was the private possession of blacks and that we were in fact, the only legitimate race on earth with the only approved “religion”. These were teachings that were taught to a black man in Detroit, Michigan named Elijah Poole, later re-named Elijah Muhammad, and these teachings were given to us, through him, beginning in the early 1930s. The originator of these teachings, however, was a man called W.D. Fard who immigrated to this country from what would later come to be known as Pakistan.

 

Mr. Fard’s teachings represented a uniquely strange blend of Black Nationalism, mysticism, geology, mathematics and eastern mythology wrapped up in Islamic terminology. However, he left hints and clues in his peculiar brand of what he called “Islam” that we believe were designed to eventually bring us into the universal fold of Islam as it is presented within the pages of the Qur’an and the life example of Muhammed the Prophet.

 

I cannot possibly chronicle for you how this evolution from Elijah Muhammad’s teachings to where we are today happened in the small amount of time we have for this presentation. You can learn about that history alongside countless other subjects by attending our class called: “The Sacred & Secret Language of Religion and Culture,” held every Sunday at 1:00PM at the Human Restoration Center, 142-64 Rockaway, Boulevard in Jamaica, NY. Suffice it to say that, the progression from race-based ideology to our present universal perception of mankind was fulfilled for us in the mission of our late and honorable leading imam, Imam Wallace. D. Mohammed, the son of the late and honorable Elijah Muhammad. Imam W. D. Mohammed passed from this life on September 9^th, 2008.

 

During his tenure as leader, Imam Mohammed continued to systematically dismantle those notions in his father’s teachings that were inconsistent with Qur’anic logic while continuing to promote the good moral behavior and industrious thinking that his father had worked so hard to institute in his followers. Beginning in 1975, Imam Mohammed worked to establish inter-faith dialogue and cooperation among all groups of ethnic and religious people.

 

That is just a brief peak into the miracle that G-d performed on us in the last 30 years right before your eyes, in America! Upon accepting the mantle of leadership, Imam Mohammed’s first major lecture was entitled: “Remake the World”. Coincidently, that happens to be a favorite phrase of our current president.

 

My concluding message is to Muslims all over the world: Let us do our best to remain true to our label. Our Muslim identity is our human identity. Let us as Muslims regain the true human spirit we had that contributed towards the advancement of peoples in Africa and Asia and whose sciences helped bring Europe out of the so-called Dark Ages. Let us remember the ethical, cultural and scientific leadership Muslims exhibited as the leading influence in Spain for close to 700 years.

 

 In the Qur’an, Allah says to protect the houses of worship of any people wherein the name of the Creator is pronounced. Let us not continue to fall victim to the age-old trick of Shaytan to bury us under fancy terminology and rhetoric while our original and essential human form suffers dissipation due to neglect.

 

If we do not utilize the fine precepts given to us in our Sacred Book and in the excellent human model of Muhammed the Prophet, we as Muslims will begin to exude that which is putrid, stale and unworthy of the label, “Muslim” although the kufi, the khimar, the jalabiyyah, the Arabic names, etc. still carry the label, “Muslim”. And this is what happens to people of various faith groups, whenever they choose to pay more attention to labels than to substance.

 

Let us all rally around one label: “Human”! And let us bring our sensitivities and sensibilities back to that which is pleasing to the Creator and which serves the best interest of all creatures; a sacred regard for all, and the promotion of human excellence.

 

This Peace Conference is a great example contributing towards that effort. Bait-uz- Zafar, keep up the good work. Thank you. As Salaamu ‘Alaykum!

CRUCIFIXION OF THE WORD

Recently, I have been reflecting on an arabic word: (umiya) أمي

"Those who follow the apostle, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures),- in the law and the Gospel;- for he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil; he allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure); He releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them. So it is those who believe in him, honour him, help him, and follow the light which is sent down with him,- it is they who will prosper." -Holy Qur'an 7:157

Umiya, according to many arabic dictionaries, is translated as "illiterate" or "uneducated". Yusuf Ali uses the translation: "unlettered" (which I think is a better translation, but still insufficient).

This translation has to be placed in the correct context. Our Prophet Muhammad (saw) was not illiterate or uneducated in the general sense, he was unlettered in scripture. Meaning he had not been taught any of the previous revelations nor did he come from a people who had previously received scripture.

"In the Qur'an, G-d said that Muhammed is the Unlettered Prophet, meaning he was never schooled or taught by any religious teachers. He was a businessman working for his wife, Lady Khadijah, may G-d be pleased with her. He was not acquainted with the Bible or any scriptures – unlettered or unlearned in scripture." -Imam W. D. Mohammed

So, this debunks any argument saying that the revelation of the Qur'an through Prophet Muhammad was not authentic. It is illogical to believe that a man (prayers and peace be upon him) with no training or knowledge of previous scripture, or formal, wordly, education could create a book as remarkable as the Holy Qur'an.

But the word Umiya...what is the connection with "Um" (Mother). Why use a word to mean uneducated or illiterate with a word that means mother? In what way is a mother illiterate?

"There are some among the religious groups of people who use to believe that women do not have to be educated. There are actually some who still believe like that. Do you see how that inference can easily be drawn? If “ummiy” is translated as “unlettered” which basically means “untaught” or “unschooled” then one can easily assume that women do not have to be educated. This then leads to the idea that women do not have the same capacity for learning as men do. This idea stretched so far to the point where it was eventually accepted by certain members within the hierarchy of several major religions that women did not have souls. The words “mother” and “matter” come from the same root. Therefore, women were seen as merely materialistic beings put here to service the man’s needs and pleasures." -Imam Benjamin Bilal

It is very important to have the correct perception, especially when studying scripture. The Ummi or the unlettered are those who do not have knowledge of scripture. They only have that which the common people have when they come from the womb of their mother, mother wit !

Look how the tone changes from something harsh and degrading to something innocent and innate! An innate knowledge, free from wordly or outside influence, a motherly knowledge. This is what the Prophet had.

Look at how words can influence our perception and understanding things!

"When Imam Mohammed told us that “words make people” he was bringing us back to the origin of language. He could have said that sentences make people or paragraphs make people, but instead, he went to the root of the problem and said that “words make people” and he said that a word is “anything that brings a picture or message to your mind”. Now, let me show you something about this word “word”.

The Bible says that, Jesus is the word and the Quran calls Jesus a “kalimatan min Allah” which means a word from Allah. Do you see how simple this is? This is not something that you need to go get a PhD in Islamic Studies in order to figure out. All you have to have is a free-thinking brain and a pure heart. And you have to stop allowing the culture to influence your understanding. Learn to think naturally.

In the Bible Jesus says that, “I am the word”. Separate that from what you have been told concerning Jesus being the “son of G-d”. In the Qur’an, Allah addresses what has been said in the Bible by stating that Jesus is a “word from Allah”. Do you see the correction? He is a word, but from Allah. He is not Allah. And Allah is not “the word”. Some Muslims have made the mistake in believing that, Allah is the Qur’an or that the Qur’an represents the totality of what it is Allah knows. Allah is not limited by His Word. The Qur’an is everything that you need to know. Allah’s knowledge is infinite. In fact, it is much more than you will ever need to know.

By Allah saying that Jesus is a word from Allah, look at the help that this gives the Christian in the Qur’an. The Qur’an is here for the Christian as much as it is here for the Muslim. The Qur’an is here to correct Jewish understanding as much as it is here to shape mold and establish Muslim understanding. “Muslim” is simply the nature that Allah put in us, in the Christian, Jew and everybody else. It is our original nature. “Muslim” is our human makeup. It is that which is related to the “fitrah” and the fitrah is the natural pattern upon which Allah created, not just everybody, but everything. As a consequence, everything in creation has Muslim nature.

The key for Muslim success in this day and time is to return back to the study of the sciences. We will not be successful, in my opinion, until we turn our attention away from seeing Islam as ethnicity. That is the trap. The trick is to make us think that “Muslim” means Muslim country or that it is relegated to certain Arabic speaking ethnic groups.

If the Christians say: “Jesus was crucified on a cross.” And then Allah says that, Jesus was a word from Allah, then what is that suggesting? First of all, “kalimatan” does not mean just one word. “Kalimatan” actually means a “group of words”. It can mean “sentences”. It is given as a singular word but it has plural significance and application. Therefore, we are now talking about the crucifixion of language. This is explained in our Muslim “Bible” (Qur’an) as a help for those who follow the Christian Bible. The Christian may ask: “You mean to tell me that, this is not talking about the crucifixion of my Lord?” No indeed, not as a flesh and blood person. It is referring to the crucifixion of Christ Jesus as a principle representing what the schemers have done to the Word of G-d. Right now, the process is afoot to try and do the same thing to the Qur’an. Putting the word on the cross means that they situate your scripture so that you can’t make progress with it. The Bible actually conveys the blueprint for how language itself is crucified and revived or resurrected over and over again. Those who can read the blueprint also have the knowledge of how to bring the people back to scriptural understanding."
-Imam Benjamin Bilal