(Get your Qur’an out. This is a list of points made during a recent sermon at congregational prayer–jumuah. It was the Friday after the airing of the new Roots  cable television series and before the start of Ramadan 2016. Visit this youtube video to hear the complete sermon.)

Hud. Ramadan. Roots.

• What do they have in common? Their signs have been perfected, then elucidated.
• Seek God’s forgiveness and repent to Him to be blessed generously and get grace if you’re deserving.
• Innermost thoughts not hidden; the cover of clothes doesn’t hide secrets and declarations.
• We have Ramadan for a number of reasons. We have so many blessings, so much food and drink, that we need to take a break.
• I know a woman for whom this is not true. She doesn’t have so much. Food doesn’t just appear on her table with ease. Her life is one of struggle but she maintains her belief and trust as much as she can. And I notice she doesn’t fast. She says it’s for health reasons.
• Yes we fast to purify ourselves, to acknowledge the pain and hunger of those very near us and to show God we have a deeper level of perseverance and consistency beyond prayer and meditation and reading this Book of Life.
• This book is revealed with God’s knowledge. READ 11:13-14

If you live in the ‘hood, you want material things to show your expectation is NOT to always live in the’ hood. You use material things to prove you are blessed by God despite where you have to live.

There’s nothing wrong with that. But God says those who PURSUE this worldly life and its material vanities….READ 11:15  It’s about your intention and modus operandi.

READ Hud 11:50-60

READ Sura 89 Dawn Al Fajr:  1-14, they didn’t pass the test, 15-16

• Ramadan is the forced reduction in provisions. It allows us to regard orphans, advocate charity, righteously distribute the inheritance of helpless, not spend so much money
• Our roots tell African Americans what their inner pain is, and how they have been taken advantage of, like the helpless orphans their ancestors were when uprooted from their homeland.
• Kunte Kinte’s family fasted for Ramadan. They had been doing so for centuries. But their observance of this rite didn’t prevent the kidnapping and slaving holocaust.
• Yet today the gift of Ramadan reminds us how to be strong when we are perceived to be weak.
• The sura (chapter) called Hud reminds us that tall buildings and visible physical power mean nothing when God has blessed you with intelligence.

READ Hud 120-123