IMAM HASHIM SHARIF: What are the Islamic requirements of establishing institutions and how should we understand them in the context of your leadership and the upcoming Save Yours Day observance?

IMAM EARL ABDULMALIK MOHAMMED: I appreciate your question Brother Imam Hashim Sharif. I always strive for brevity in answering the questions that I receive. Sometimes answering the question requires some background or historical support. We want to make things clear so that people reading these responses can follow the logic.

Institutions as an expression in society begin in the soul of the people, deposited there in the form of a desire to express their original pattern and aim by the Lord-Cherisher-Creator, Allah That Established the created order as the first institution. Allah is the One G'd, and this Name is like no other Name. It is known that man, in error, has constructed and institutionalized so-called gods in his imagination and in his world. The name 'Allah' puts aside and disqualifies these inventions of man's mind in one expression. Allah says that He has fashioned the Created order and He has fashioned man upon it, and that this is the standard of uprightness (the way of Abraham) and the right way of religion.

The created order is the first institution. I cannot give the words from the Qur'an in its own language in this format of the written or printed word. This is the limitation of this format. It will be much better when I can communicate face to face with all of you and the People and speak the words exactly as they are given in the Qur'an with clear speech and also the written word. We thank Allah that we are near that day. The Arabic Qur'an is clear. It says of itself that it is the Clear Reading or Clear Book.

So, first we have this natural uprightness or 'hanif' status. 'Hanif' is the natural inclination toward upright, honorable behavior, the natural sense for good and right. It is established alongside the honor with which Allah made Adam. It is the mate of honor in Adam. This uprightness is the first institution and all subsequent institutions are built upon it. This is the institution of nature and the original pattern of nature. It is in or a part of all creation. It contains the germ of original purpose and aim for all creation. Man can deviate from it, and if he does deviate form it, it punishes him. There are many streams of understanding that flow from this, but as I said I am striving for brevity in answering your question.

Then, it is reported that the Prophet was asked that he explain something that only he can explain. In response he said to the questioner: "Have faith, and thereafter be upright." So, here is the Prophet's teaching on the institution of faith that is built upon the institution of nature. Faith stands upon nature. And we have the teaching in the Qur'an "Our Lord, we have heard a Caller calling us to faith: Believe in your Lord. And, we have believed." The foundation of all Islamic institutions is this: Nature and intelligent Faith. And Islam treats both of them as fundamental disciplines of the true knowledge or foundations of the true knowledge.

It is reported also that the Prophet was asked about what is Islam, what is faith (eemaan), and what is right action (ihsaan). So here is the progression for the institutions. And these are referred to as the 'arkaan' or principles or pillars, from the word which refers to a strong, reliable orientation. These are the establishments, the institutions of Islamic identity and Muslim life.

We have institutions built into our nature as a creation of Allah, and into our disciplines of faith, and into our actions that reflect our creation with an original, honorable nature and our focus of faith. The progressions or elevations for the institutions are Muslim (nature), Mu'min (faith built upon nature), and Muhsen (conscious action reflecting correct faith and honorable nature). The institutions we establish in the world, if they are to be lasting and worthy of support, must be built upon this. So, we will have cultural institutions, social institutions, economic institutions, educational institutions, etc., and they will fit perfectly within these progressions that are defined in our Islamic teachings and Islamic logic or reasoning.

When you speak of my leadership you are speaking of me as leader in the tradition of Imam W. Deen Mohammed. My leadership is only this and what it implies. My leadership is public representation of Imam Mohammed's guided tradition and public representation of his People's Islamic aspirations for all that is required of them in their Islamic identity and commitment to a Islamic community existence and destiny. I have given quite a bit of commentary on this tradition recently and I will continue over time.

Save Yours Day is in the soul of our People. It is a cultural expression that points to our origin as a People coming into an appreciation of our humanity with a new Islamic awareness and identity, then faith, and then commitment to an Islamic life within the challenge of our circumstances as an enslaved and oppressed people in America. If you follow the reasoning of what I have explained here of the natural development of institutions in the soul any reasonable person can see how our observing the importance of this day as an institutional symbol in our life should be respected and honored.

We should be bothered that we are not properly respected in the national public of America for who we really are, and what our story is as a People. Every time Imam W. Deen Mohammed stood up to speak anywhere, he was a living institutional representation of our life as a People. This is why it is a foolish and self-hating thing to say that he has no successor. The institutional life reflects what is in the soul of the People. The institutions are constructed upon what the People value in themselves, what they love, what they are committed to, what they want the world to benefit from that they have produced. If a People have no institutional expressions they are either oppressed, cursed, or they are not truly a People.

I wish I could have expressed this in fewer words. I ask you brother Imam to pray to Allah that he make us more clear and more brief and more effective in our representation of Imam W. Deen Mohammed's tradition.