"The day I met Islam, I found a power within myself that no man could destroy or take away."   -Muhammad Ali

Liam Neeson refutes Islam conversion rumours

© Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP As reported on MSN.com

Actor Liam Neeson has denied long-running rumours suggesting he considered converting to Islam after filming scenes for Taken 2 in Turkey. In a 2012 interview with Britain's The Sun newspaper, the Northern Irish star revealed hearing the Muslim call to prayer five times a day while shooting in Istanbul initially "drives you crazy" but later "gets into your spirit" and even made him "think about becoming Muslim."

The comments sparked rumours that Neeson was leaving his Roman Catholic roots to devote himself to Islam, but he has now refuted the suggestion, telling Al Arabiya News, "No, I'm not converting (to Islam). But I did kind of follow up to that (call to) prayer at the time. It's funny, the first three or four days there it was an annoyance because it was waking me up. But later I looked forward to it every day."

|HD| BBC : The Life of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) - Greatest Man Ever Walk...

Def Poetry - Amir Sulaiman - Danger

Removing The "Mask" A Campaign for Correct Repersentation

R Majid Woolen Jr

Campaign: a planned and organized series of actions intended to achieve a specific goal especially fighting for or against something or raising people’s awareness of something.

And in this case, that something is a clearer understanding of the religion of Al-Islam.

As cognitive creatures we can no longer lay blame when used as an “Imaging Machine”, solely on News Media outlets, for the “Mask” that has come to cover, what should be viewed in this country, as the face of Islam.

We should see that we are being asked to stand up for and represent Islam Proper. We are being asked to clarify misused and misunderstood Islamic terms such as “Jihad” or “Jihadist”, to give a true understanding of what qualifies a martyr and the real benefits of achieving that goal.

The Barbara Walters’ special “Heaven Where Is It? How Do We Get There?” is an example of what can happen when the “imaging machinery” utilizes ignorance (intentionally or un-intentionally) to miss-represent. In this special Barbara Walters sought out a representative of each major way of life, religion and non-religion to answer her question “Heaven Where Is It? How Do We Get There?” Walters traveled to the Himalayan Mountains to visit the home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She travels to Washington DC to meet with Cardinal Theodore McCormick of the Roman Catholic Church. She went to the New York Jewish Theological Seminary to meet with Rabbi Neil Gilman, spoke with Reverend Calvin Butts, Pastor of New York’s famed Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, The National Association of Evangelicals’, President Pastor Ted Haggard.

Walter journeyed around the world - to India, Israel and throughout the United States. She spoke with many people of different religious and scientific beliefs, each with strong opinions and answers to her question. Each of the various answers and having an understanding of the various religion and non-religion I could almost accept the answer - and if I profess either of the various ways I would have been proud of each one of the representatives.

But when it came to the ones that was to relay the Islamic understanding, or give a Muslims' answer or opinion, an opinion that is suppose to represent my rational, I almost kick in the television (tell-lie-by-vision).

Supposedly Islamic Representative #1 Islamic scholar Feisal Abdul Rauf gives a statement that allows the focus to be placed on the physical animalist image of sex.

Supposedly Islamic Representative #2 - (hold on to your hats now) the attempted suicide bomber Jihad Jarrar, of Islamic Jihad, who is incarcerated in an Israeli prison. He also leads way towards darkness by stating, (by way of translation): “the lord promised the martyr who lost his life and lost the world on earth, that he promised him 72 virgin in paradise as honor, as respect for him.” He goes as far as to tell Walters that only Muslims will go to heaven and she's going to hell.

Now mind you this program aired in a time where demonizing Muslims seems to be the patriotic thing to do in this country. So quite possible a lot of clarifying point that should have been made by Feisal Abdul Rauf ended up on the editor floor.

I hope that there was a mention of what or something similar to what Imam W. D. Mohammed enlighten us with so many years ago that “man is mind” I hope it was said in a way that could have led her and the viewers to “fallow the logic to its logical conclusion” Because the statement made by Imam W. D. Mohammed “man is mind” gave me a more palatable understanding an understanding that if shared with Walters and her viewers that would clarify the animalistic view and miss presented physical prizes (if you will) that was given.

I’m sure if any of the true students of Imam Mohammed was asked, they he or she could state in very simple language that – to make it to any plane of Heaven you would have achieved the highest state of mind, and knowing that there will be work/worship there then there will also be production there. Also- seeing that G-ds creation never stops and has no end, then the process of bringing about anew will never stop. The right mind would engage only with that that brings about righteous pure production; it would only mate with or enter into, “something that has never been touched or entered into before” and that blessed mind will be allow to produce with all that has been perfected for it.

Also the term martyr, as I understand it, it’s a sin in the religion of Islam for one to kill him or herself as it is also a sin to take the life of any innocent creature. A martyr (from the English dictionary) somebody who makes sacrifices or suffers greatly in order to advance a cause or principle - somebody who chooses to die rather than deny a strongly held belief, especially a religious belief.

Killing yourself for any cause does not make you a martyr, it makes you sick! Suicide is not a synonym for martyr. One of the most popular sayings in the religion of Islam is “The ink of a scholar is more sacred than the blood of a martyr” OR “One learned man is harder on devil than a thousand ignorant worshipers”. Again, killing yourself does not make you a martyr.

How can you claim to be a fighter for peace when your last act brings about the sound of an explosion alone with murder and mayhem ka-boom?

This is the “Mask” that must be removed, the representation that must be replaced.

Because of the sense of “change” is in the air with this year’s history making presidential campaign season, for those of us who can see know that we have to ride this wave. We too must campaign. Campaign for correct representation, we are being ask by the same media that uses that mask to send out that image, to clarify. Make it make sense.

The likes of talk radio host and host of FOXs Hannity & Colmes, Sean Hannity, talk radio host & founder of the E.I.B. Network Rush Limbaugh, talk radio host Mark Levin, Glen Beak etc… all have asked, “where are the moderate Muslims to dispute these things”.

Things like the uproar over the so-called drawing of the Prophet Muhammad could have easily been dealt with by the students of Imam W. D. Mohammed.

We have brothers and sisters among us that could put the babies in their cradles and let them have their bottles full of milk (their explanations).

We have Qasim Ahmed, Yahya Abdullah, Faheem Shuaibe. We have Dr. Nasir Ahmed, Plemon El-Amin, Hatim Hamidullah. We have sisters in this community that could show the world the liberating freedom that Islam has awakened her to. We have brothers that didn’t know what to think or how to think, couldn’t read left to right. But now not only reading left to right but coming back strong with right to left. We have eight, nine, ten year olds leading the Taraweeh prayers during the nights of Ramadan.

We have the best candidates we are the best candidate.

So you see its time for us to embark on this campaign. It’s not a campaign to run for office or take to the street chanting “Ask Us About Us”™. No! It’s an inward campaign that calls out from within us the need to be the replacement for that “Mask”. We have to assume our post. We are wartith-deen-muhammad (spelled intentionally that way for the similarity) the one to inherit the mission of Muhammad (PBUH). Keep in mind now if you don’t know, learn. Then share what you have learnt. Imam W. D. Mohammed said once “You should love this enough to keep your ignorant self away”

Who is Adam? Who is the Khalifah in the Earth?

In the language of Imam Mohammed Adam is the common type of our human nature. Adam represents the Sacred Life inside each and every human being.  The Imam has said, --



*Imam Faheem Shuaibe

"It is more important to understand Adam as a type rather than a person or individual. The Adam that G-d is talking about in Genesis before the Quran and the Adam that G-d is addressing...in the Quran is the plural figure that represents all of us in the beginning."[1] 

"The story of how God created the first person, that's the story of how God created every person."[2]
 
"Adam actually represents all of us. All people."[3]
 
"Adam is the prototype of the original humanity."[4]

"Adam is really naming nothing but our common human identity.  The common human constitution that we all have is called Adam."[5]

"God revealed to him and made him the head of the people, so they say Adam was a prophet.  So we accept that Adam is a prophet, but not in the proper sense; only by interpretation.  Adam is prophet only by interpretation.  Ok, so Adam actually represents all of us.  All people." (see footnote 7)

 

In essence Adam is the name of our Abstract, Real, True Nature.

So how are we to understand Imam Mohammed's statement "The Human Being was on the earth a long time before Adam was on the earth" without deeming it to be false or contradictory.



One way is to look at it through the lens of the Quran and the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad coupled with Imam Mohammed insight - "Exactness in Scripture is Abstract",

Quran:15:26-30

26. We created man from sounding clay from mud molded into shape; 27. And the Jinn race We had created before from the fire of a scorching wind. 28. Behold! thy Lord said to the angels: "I am about to create man from sounding clay from mud molded into shape; 29. "When I have fashioned him (in due proportion) and breathed into him of My spirit fall ye down in obeisance unto him." 30. So the angels prostrated themselves all of them together:

When we apply the insight "Exactness in Scripture is Abstract", what arises as an insight is that when these verses are taken as figurative expression it becomes a scientific statement about the historical, anthropological, civilizational development of man.

In the verse

26"We created man from sounding clay from mud molded into shape"

 

An-nas, just like the English word "man" is singular as well as plural.  An-nas labels human beings as a collective group and also distinguishes them as a category of life separate from minerals plants and animals (none of which advance their species nor show their special advancement by their historical relationship to clay).  So "We created man from sounding clay from mud molded into shape" means his civilizational development began with Clay (pottery, bricks for structures, cuneiform writing, etc.).  That being said, even so, it is likely that the same mineral contents of clay are found in the human body.

In the verse

28."Behold! thy Lord said to the angels: "I am about to create man from sounding clay[6] from mud molded into shape;"

 

using the same insight, this verse also scientifically addresses the historical, anthropological, civilizational development of man.  By alluding to the fact that there was a period in the life and history of man when he was civilizationally in his infancy, a time when he could be considered as "not being spiritually enlightened"; as not being inspired by Allah in the prophetic or revelatory sense.  There was a time when the human being, thought alive biologically, was not yet spiritually inspired or guided by "The Word of G'd".

Supporting this is Allah's statement in the Quran that

10:4."It is He Who begins the process of Creation and repeats it".

So from the insights of the Imam he tells us if you want to know how Allah did it the first time look at how it is repeated.  Thus look at the baby crawling around at our feet. Is that baby spiritually enlightened? No! Does that baby have in it the human nature? Yes!  So that baby at our feet today is just like human civilization was in its infancy.  That human being was Adam (by nature) but not Adam (inspired and enlightened by revelation).  So the Imam's statement is true. "The Human Being was on the earth a long time before Adam was on the earth." And the creation bears witness.

The Imam also said, "Adam is a baby, not a baby physical baby, Adam is a social baby.  A baby, but he is also the building block, he is father.  How beautiful the language is.

Adam is a step in the building of civilized society."[7]

Hadith: Book 032, Number 6319: , Anas reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) ..

Anas reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: When Allah fashioned Adam in Paradise, He left him as He liked him to leave him. Then Iblis roamed round him to see what actually that was and when he found him hollow from within, he recognized that he had been created with a disposition that he would not have control over himself."

We're not focusing on applying the insight on "exactness" from the Imam to this report. However, the hadith supports the fact of the verse which says

27"And the Jinn race We had created before from the fire of a scorching wind."

Namely, it shows that Iblis (who was a Jinn) was there at the beginning of man's creation (this to is a figurative expression requiring scientific interpretation).  Also when the report says that, "When Allah fashioned Adam in Paradise, He left him as He liked him to leave him", it supports the fact that though the human being had form (biological existence on earth in the anthropological interpretation) he was not yet inspired by Allah.  

Other traditions in Al-Islam say that "Allah shaped Adam into a human being, and he remained a figure of clay for 40 years".  40 is a number to represents maturity in the "first form of life" as is stated in the Quran

 

46:15.

We have enjoined on man Kindness to his parents: in pain did his mother bear him and in pain did she give him birth.  The carrying of the (child) to his weaning is (a period of) thirty months.  At length when he reaches the age of full strength and attains forty years, he says "O my Lord! grant me that I may be grateful for Thy favor which Thou hast bestowed upon me and upon both my parents and that I may work righteousness such as Thou mayest approve; and be gracious to me in my issue.  Truly have I turned to Thee and truly do I bow (to Thee) in Islam." First biological maturity then the spiritual relationship with Allah develops.  Specifically, the Imam Said that this 'Maturity at forty" means that if one is going to inspired it will occur either by or about the time he's forty. 

 

When did Imam Mohammed (ra) come to Tauhid and how old was he when he became our leader?[8]

The "first life/second life hypothesis"; the "Human before Adam" dichotomy is also confirmed in the life of Muhammad ibn Abdullah becoming the Prophet

10:16. Say: "If Allah had so willed I should not have rehearsed it to you nor would He have made it known to you.  A whole lifetime before this have I tarried amongst you: will ye not then understand?". 

We know that Muhammad ibn Abdullah was 40 years old (a mature human being) before he received the last revelation and became a Prophet (Adam).



So in the final analysis Prophet Muhammad is the actual and perfect fulfillment of the Story of Adam.  The Prophet was and is the Original Human Nature Manifest Perfect and Alive in the flesh on Earth[9] as Khalifah in the earth.

 "If ALLAH had stopped the creation short of man, then it wouldn't make sense. Just like if He would have stopped the creation of us short of a head, and just left a neck up there alive, and no head. A neck with no head. That how  I would see the universe if God had stopped short of us, and left the universe just like that, nothing but a corpse with no head on it. ALLAHU AKBAR.



When man is created with free-will, and rational ability to go back to his job and get the understanding of the whole scheme, then it all makes perfect sense. That is why we believe that ALLAH created the universe for who? For Muhammad, PBUH

It didn't mean that He didn't create it for Adam. Yes He did, he created it for Adam, but Adam is in Muhammad. And when Adam gets in Muhammad, Adam gets whole, cause his real destiny is to be complete in Muhammad."[10]

1.] Ramadan Session 2002 pp. 10-11 of 49

2.] -P. 28 Wisdom of W. D. Mohammed, Part 2
3.] Imam W. D. Mohammed January 22, 1978 The Great Prophetic Figures In Scripture
4.] Imam W. Deen Mohammed Ramadan Session in Athens, Georgia February 25, 1995
5.] May 11, 1997 "Leadership in Community Life" Aquinas College Grand Rapids, Michigan
6.] "He created man (Adam) from sounding clay like the clay of pottery." (Chapter 55:Quran).
7.] Great Prophetic Figures In Scripture
8.] What is the sign in the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr and Al-Hajj Malik El Shabazz at 39 years old?
9.] John 1: 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth
10.] Imam W. Deen Mohammed In Newark, NJ  -  Jumu'ah  March 26, 1993

By: Imam Faheem Shuaibe Masjidul Waritheen, 1652 47th Avenue Oakland, CA 94601 Phone: 510.436.7755

To contact Imam Faheem Shuaibe

  

Wallace D. Muhammad; October 30, 1933 – September 9, 2008), also known as "W. Deen Mohammed" or "Imam W. Deen Muhammad", was a progressive African American Muslim leader, theologian, philosopher, Muslim revivalist and Islamic thinker (1975–2008) who disbanded the original Nation of Islam in 1976 and transformed it into an orthodox mainstream Islamic movement.

 

A Mind to a Heart

R. C. "Majid" Woolen Jr.

When one is seen trying to reassume The Post, a righteous post, we must not be against that person in any form or fashion. We must see or find a way to assist and aid him in regaining it. Regaining it in a way that has given him even more strength once he has regained that most important position. Not holding or knocking that person down by throwing verbal and psychological blows or bringing up past failures. There are no questions. There are no ifs. No buts. Have faith. Either we love this person enough or respect and understand the value of this natural order enough to do our part or we do not.  

This is a point must be reiterated and it has been said that the best ways to bring a point across is with signs, symbols, or parables. One of the best examples use in giving man an idea of how prestigious his place or “Post” here on earth or in this world is that of Adam and Eve. The story of Adam and Eve is used to give us insight in most if not all of the major religious scriptures. The details of the story when being relayed maybe a bit different, but the main point always seems to be the same. Adam sinned. Adam slip. Adam forgot his “Post” his position.  

Most of us all know the plight of Adam and we have all learn the lesson that man is prone to make mistakes. But we must look at Adams plight differently. We should not see only that he sinned, slipped or forgot. We should see that he stood up fought for and regained his rightful place. Let us not ok or expect man to fail. Let us examined and understand, and once we do, then aid and support him in regaining or gaining all that is needed to strengthen him for the better and be the man that is worthy of that post or position.