06-07-2003
IWDM Study Library
Sisters’ Meeting 
San Francisco CA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam WD Mohammed:
With G-d's Name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer. We thank Him for our life and our presence. We thank Him for faith and guidance. We thank Him for the best model for human beings in the whole world. Muhammad, Sa Ala Alahi Wa Salaam, the Prophet, the seal of the Prophets Upon him be the prayers and the peace and what follows of that tradition or salute or salutation. I am very pleased and honored that sisters of San Francisco area, California area have invited me to address you and I just told the sister very serious. So she was trying to tell me her name and I wasn't hearing it well. My hearing sometimes, especially when I have a head cold, I do have a head cold now. I can't hear it that well, especially when the noise is going so I couldn't hear her well. So she asked me, how's your sight?
So she got funny with me, so I asked her, how's your sight and how's your hearing? We shouldn't play with serious matters. This is a serious matter. I didn't come here to have fun. Okay, so let's not play with serious matters. Yes, it so happened that the selection you chose to open this meeting from Qur'an is exactly where I begin almost all the time when I'm speaking to sisters. And I don't have my glasses with me, but I'm going to see if I can I find the verses here. Brother Imam can you come help me? This is the only male other than myself I think that's here. Even my son. I asked him to wait outside out of respect for the sisters. And brother Imam Abdul Qadr is here for my protection. Not to protect me from you all, but protect the old man. Protect you all from the old man.
This is verse 35, the long verse going from male, female, male, female, male, female, and in this verse, the males plural, Dhakereena, and it's translated who engage much in Allah's praise. Wa Dhakereena. And then, yes, then it says Wa Dhakarati. The translation in English, that's the choice of the translator. The word Dhakereena refers to males who think and reflect, who think and reflect. There's no word of praise in here. There's no word of praise. Not to say I'm dissatisfied with his translation. No, that's nice the way he translated. It's nice, but does the word in Arabic carry the meaning of praise? Only by reasoning. It carries the meaning of praise only by reasoning. You can reason that one who reflects on G-d, think about G-d a lot, reflects on G-d a lot that they praise G-d. That kind of person praises G-d a lot. But does it actually mean that? No, anybody speak Arabic here? Anybody having a native language Arabic? Anybody? Sister here who has, you were born speaking Arabic, raised in an Arabic speaking environment, you speak Arabic? Yes, yes, yes. Sister, can you come here?
Was that a sister that said takbir? You got a strong voice. Yes. You speak English well? A little bit. Yes, yes. No. Here, here. See, I don't need your help. I need you as a witness because I'm a black man. I'm a black man from America and black people don't trust black men all the time. Yes, we are very distrustful of one another in America. Okay, so can you speak Arabic?
Men have dominated females and men will do this out of fear that females would challenge them if they give them too much recognition. Allah has recognized males and females as having a brain, intelligence, thinkers. The same word we use for thinkers in science and the history of philosophy and science is a word that G-d used to say that females are thinkers. Sister, please listen while I speak. Please don't have a conversation going. If it's your turn, I'll wait for you to finish your talk, but I think it's my turn. Okay, so let's not have conversation going while I'm speaking out of respect for one another. Let's not do that. Yes. So G-d is saying to females and males that He has created you with the same brain, same mind. He have made you thinkers and men thinkers, but it so happened that men have the physiology.
They don't have to stay home nine months or two years with the babies. Your life is tied up at the home. The man is free to go in the field. Because of the differences in this physiology, men have been free to go in the field and to think on the world outside of the home and to become leaders in the world outside of the home. The Qur'an is above all revealed books that I know about in bringing home the message to people, the mass of people, people in general, their importance, their value, and the plan of G-d for the creation of man and the creation of society. Islam more than any other religion and the Qur'an more than any other revealed book brings that home. That women though they are different from men and they have been because of their physiology they have been orientated to the home life, doesn't mean that the man has a superior brain, doesn't mean that the man has a superior intellect. It doesn't mean that the man is the thinker in philosophy and in science and the woman is not.
It only means that man has been freed to do these things that have established his superiority in that field over females. But you have the same quality, you have the same essence and the same quality of mind that men have, especially if you develop it. Since women have been freer in modern times, freer to engage the world and participate in all fields of human interest, we see women now rising up and you can't see any evidence in society that a man's brain is superior to a woman's brain. You've been given the same brain and Allah put it here so we'll know, men will know.
This is mainly to tell men you not the only thinker. Females are thinkers. Al Zakrati means and the thinking women, I would translate it that way and nobody, no scholar, no authority of Islam and the Arabic language would be able to prove me wrong. Why they don't want to say And the thinking women? Because they don't want women to think that they are equal to men and the ability to think. G-d says plainly the thinking men and the thinking women, that's exactly what it means. It doesn't mean that those who engage much in praise, it doesn't mean that at all. But by reasoning, yes, I believe that's the reason why they don't want to say it that way, chauvinist, male chauvinist in Islam, they say if we say that no, you don't want say that. The women, you'll spoil the women, you'll spoil the women if you translate it like that.
So their cultures have been designed to keep women as subjects of men. And even their translation of Qur'an is designed to hide the equal value of women. When G-d says He created you from one soul, He created male and female Min Nafsin Wahida. When G-d says that, He's saying right there that you are of the same original essence. He created you both of one essence. He made male and female human. That's what G-d is saying when He said that He created you Min Nafsin Wahida. He is saying to us men and to you women that He created male and female from the human soul. What is in that human soul? G-d doesn't leave us guessing or wondering what's in the human soul. He says in the human soul is the fujura and the taqwa, fujura and taqwa.
Taqwa is reverence, fear of G-d, reverence of G-d, respect for those things that G-d has ordered to be respected, regard for those things that G-d has ordered to be regarded and He has given that to your nature and your soul and He's given it to men's nature and their soul. Well fujura, what is the fujura? Fujura is your thinking, is your appetite in your thinking mind. You have an appetite in your thinking mind. And this fujura is what takes man, women and men off the path of G-d if they don't receive guidance. This is the dangerous side, that fujur. You're thinking on your own, using your own intelligence and thinking on your own, independent of the guidance of G-d. So man made mistakes and he took his nature away from the purpose that G-d created it for until G-d gave revelation and connected him back to the nature as G-d want it to exist.
And as G-d want it to progress. He gave him guidance, revealed religion, guidance, to save him from his own thinking. So this thinking is good, but G-d made us free and we can think free. The bird cannot think, the sparrow cannot think out of the life of a sparrow. G-d made this sparrow bird, little bird that's popular in Chicago and the United States, made that little sparrow bird to be a sparrow bird. That bird cannot think out of its own life form. But man and women too can think outside of our life form. We can get an imagination of another life for ourselves and we can become aliens, alienate ourselves from the original life form that G-d intended for us. And when we look at the society, we look at society influenced by motion pictures and influenced by the culture. The culture that has strayed away from respect for G-d.
We see it creating youngsters, men and women and old folks too, creating them out of form, creating them out of the original human form that G-d intended for them to be in. So man can come out of that, sparrows cannot. So we have the ability to think, to use our own intelligence and we can think ourselves even outside of the original sacred nature that G-d wanted, created for us and want us to stay in, to be in. So we can lose ourselves. Even the great Prophet Abraham he prayed, said, Surely I have oppressed or wronged my own soul, my own self. His thinking going astray, yes, then he repented to his G-d and asked his G-d to forgive him, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So this is the nature of both men and women. When G-d says that He created us Nafsin Wahida, He created us from one soul or one personality or one person.
This is not a male or female. Sister who's from Algeria, she knows that the nafs is not male or female. The nafs is for both male and female. And nafs, you don't say anafs huwa, she understands Arabic. You don't say anafs huwa, you say anafs heya. Yes. So it's the common property of both male and female and it's talking about the human soul. So from now on, when you read this in English, I'm speaking to the English speaker, English speaking people here. When you read it in English that G-d created male and female from one nafs or one soul, understand that He's saying that He made us both human. He made us originally both human, human as He intended us to be. That's what that means. That we are both of the human nature of the human soul, of the human nature, of the human personality of the human person and a human personality. That's our equality, we are equal in our creation.
And what is our specific creation? What is our special creation? Human being. That's what distinguish us from all other living things, our human creation. So in our human creation, males and females are equal. But when this life has to express itself in environments in the world and industry and the world of culture, et cetera, because there are a difference in the physiology of male and female, the difference in even the sentiments. Women have different sentiments than men. Women have different interests than men. So we are different. We accept that difference, we know that difference and we need to preserve that difference. For the female, we have to preserve the difference that G-d intended for the soul that's the female soul, preserve that difference that G-d intended for you. And when you express yourself in the society, express yourself from your nature and from your life rather than from a male's life.
Because if we don't, then we have the absence of your contribution to the human society. And a male should not try to be a female. When he express himself in the society, he should express himself from his male characteristics, from his male nature that G-d gave him. And we both are one in our human nature, one in our humanity, one in humanity, we are the same in humanity, but express ourself or communicate our interests differently depending on our consciousness of our identity as male and female, as male and female. And sisters, G-d says that women are protecters of their men's interest, of the men's interest in their absence. Now this is something we need to stress here, especially in America where the commercial interest is in competition with all other interests and it is so powerful because it has the media, the powerful media to speak through and to speak with, speak by the power of the media. It wants to undermine all sacred identities. It wants to destroy all sacred identity and undermine all sacred interests. Why? Because if you remain, pardon me in your home, if you remain the female of your house, the mother of your house or the female of your house, whether it be the aunt or the older sister, the mother could be dead.
If you remain in your form G-d wants you in and you protect the interest G-d wants you protect, you are going to make problems for the commercials. The commercials won't get over like they want to get over in your family. You see? So you should be aware of that and know what Allah wants for you as a person, as a female with regards to your husband's interest, with regards to the interests of the family and stand there as the female he wants you to be and be a guardian in your house to protect your house from the bad cultural influences and from the commercial people who want to divide the family members, make families weak by encouraging disrespect for mother, disrespect for father, disrespect for husband, disrespect for wife. They want to break all the bonds of respect in the family so that the child will not listen to you and buy whatever the commercial is saying the child should have, everybody separated and want to the commercial interest alone.
Little children not supposed to have anybody coming in their house selling them something without mom's approval, but the commercial doesn't say "This is a commercial. If you are under 18, will you go get your mother and have her here or your father?" No, they don't say that. They are hoping that that child have no respect for you when it comes to the commercial. Okay? So this is very serious. If we go back to the Qur'an and understand, perceive our nature as human beings and perceive the value we have in the Qur'an that G-d gives us as human beings, responsibility goes along with that value. Great responsibility goes along with that value that G-d has given us. He has raised us above all living things. Isn't that obvious, that G-d created us and have raised us above all living things? No animal can challenge man can compete with human beings.
Nothing in creation living can compete with human beings. Human being is the head of life, the ruler of the life under G-d of course in obedience to G-d. Because if you don't do it in obedience to G-d, the animal become your master and you'll be an animal in the human body and the animal will become your master. So we know that G-d has given us this superiority but without respect that He created the nafs too, the taqwa and we will lose the life to the fujura going astray from the purpose of G-d. So thank you very much. That's what I want to say to you and I want to give plenty opportunity for your comments, for your questions. Thank you very much. May G-d keep us in the straight way and save us from the punishment of the fires of sin. Ameen.

Moderator:
Thank you very much for at this time. Are there any sisters over here that have cards that need to be collected? I'll come down and collect them and then we'll bring them. Question, is this presentation being taped or not? Will the tapes be available? Can you not hear me? The first question is whether or not this is being taped and whether or not the tapes will be available.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I am sure it's being taped and we have had great success with these sessions with the sisters and brothers, separate sessions for sisters and brothers and we have a team of people working with us and we don't want to sell the tapes because we want to edit it. The questions come in and even what I say, we would like the opportunity to go over it and look at it before giving it out. And it's not for the public, it's only for those who participate in the program here, not ever to be published unless we decide together, the leaders decide that these materials have something that we'd like to give to the public and then we will do another editing for that purpose and it'll be edited for public distribution, but only with you all's permission. We will ask the sisters who have hosted these sessions and the brothers who have hosted the session if they approve of something of these sessions being made public.
This is in-house talk and in-house concerns and we would not like to make it public, so we don't want to have the audio tapes in the hands of people who may not be responsible. Not that they'll be intending to do any wrong, but just without knowing our concerns they may make them public. We don't want that. So they will be guarded and we will have them transcribed by the team. Excellent team we have under Imam and Dr. Nasir Ahmed. And once they're transcribed for us then I will again look at them and delete anything that's unnecessary or too repetitious. I'll do editing of myself of it and then give it back to them for a final printing. Once the final printing is done, everyone who participated here in this program who will present here will get a copy. Yes, a copy, a transcribed copy. Thank you.
Moderator:
Brother Imam, could you please speak on women who have careers or businesses and how to help or encourage the husband not to feel threatened or to think that the wife is not keeping the character of the home if she speaks of business and this comes from a sister of whose children and grownups.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well I have your card. They can see a family counselor or something. No, seriously. It is good to speak to a professional person sometimes, but a person of your own religion who respects your religion, speak to them about your concern. You want to keep your relationship good or you want to make it better or your husband speak to them about your concern that will help. But just stay with Islam, stay with the Qur'an. You have to. G-d tells us believing men and women are for each other. If you are believing woman, you should want a believing man to be your husband. A believing man should want a believing woman to be his wife. Doesn't mean just because we are the same color or the same organization ASM or we are Muslim doesn't mean that we will be believing men and believing women. There are a lot of us who don't have faith seriously in our souls and in our hearts and mind. So if you don't have that, you have a problem. If a believing sister doesn't have a believing husband, a brother, then that's a problem. And the same for the brother. If he's a believing husband and he does not have a believing wife, there's a problem. And all we can do is pray for one another, seek the best guidance, even professional help if you have to.
Moderator:
Next question. If a brother is interested in taking a sister in marriage but has not made the material accomplishments equal to the sister, do you think the sister should consider marriage to the brother?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. If she plans to protect the orphans, if she wants to protect our orphans, she should marry him and protect the orphans. Well, I'm a brother, I'm a male and I would marry a sister who has more money than me. In fact, I did marry one once and lived in her house. Her house, the house was hers. I didn't buy it. She bought. If we both respect the same thing, we respect the same sacred matters and we know our place in Islam under G-d and we don't get out of that mold that G-d wants us in. Didn't Prophet Muhammad marry a lady who had more means, more material means than he had and he became an employee in her office or her employment? She employed him. Yes. So yes, a sister can marry a brother who has not the material means that she has and she can be superior to him financially and they can have a beautiful and wonderful marriage. But the brother has to be a mature minded male. If he's immature, it will be a big problem for him and it will cause a problem for that marriage very, he has to be very mature in Islam, in Islamic understanding. He has to be very mature as a member in the social family, in the social family. He has to have social maturity. He can't be ignorant.
Moderator:
Brother Imam. If the sister is married to the brother and the brother cannot lead her in prayer, should the sister lead in prayer?
Imam WD Mohammed:
She got to pray. That's an obligation. That's an obligation on you to pray. You can't say, well, I can't pray because the brother can't leave me in prayer. No, you have to pray. But don't say, brother, I'm your leader, when you hear me call the prayer, you get ready. Don't do that. You just pray and lead the children. And if he joins you, thank aah humble life of
Moderator:
With the response to that same question the sister's asking in that situation, what if there are no children?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well then you lead yourself in prayer and hope that he'll stand by your side or behind you. You know there's a sign or I give a sign of many things in the world. The men tell the women their place, right? But when we go to the hajj, can a man tell a woman her place?
Moderator:
Does the wife have a right to request an allowance from her husband in order to take care of the family business? Let me read that again. Does the wife have a right to request an allowance from her husband to take care of the family business
Imam WD Mohammed:
If he's not taking care of the family business. Also, if you are not good at handling money, you can't manage the money, then why not he handle the money? But if you are good, you are proven yourself trustworthy and you have the intelligence to manage the budget for the family, then he should see that you have the budget that you need to work with for your family And not an allowance, allowance is for children.
Moderator:
When you're approached for marriage, how long should you wait to get to know the brother?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, first thing you should start doing if you don't know him a little investigative work, investigate his private life, investigate his work history, et cetera, et cetera, and don't let anyone tell you that a woman's not supposed to think about money before she marry a man. You better think about money. You ain't got no money, all of you in trouble. I'm in love. I can't think about money when I'm in love.
Moderator:
I'm a young and single. I am young and single and find it very hard to find a mate. Being single it's hard to maintain my Islam proper. There are so many single sisters. What should we do and what are your feelings about this?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Well, they were saying women are just more numerous. Females are more numerous than males. And that is a problem, especially when you don't have responsible men who can marry more than one woman. Not because he wants more than one woman in his bed, but because he wants to help the social situation. When you got problems like that, it is very serious, it's very serious for us. I remember my father saying once, he said that he read in scripture that there will come a time when men, a good man would be so hard to find. He said there'd be a woman seen in the public and she'd be carrying bones and people would say, woman, why are you carrying these bones look like the bones of a human being? She said, yes, these are the bones of a good man. So I think that time has come, I think that time has come. So all I can say is obey G-d's guidance, obey G-d's guidance in the Qur'an, remain faithful, remain chaste and have patience. And if you do that, Allah rewards, every doer of good. That's what Allah said. He rewards the doer of good. They're very scarce, scarce. But if you obey your Lord, your G-d, your G-d will have you with the right person.
Moderator:
As the spiritual leader of our community what would you suggest that sisters do when unable to get a husband, find a husband that is Muslim? Is it ever allowed to marry other than a Muslim, i.e., a man of the book? And since brothers are looking for, and many do marry younger sisters first, what should older sisters do since marriage in Islam is so important?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well for me the age doesn't matter if two people want one another, if you love each other, you respect one another, respect is most important. If you love one another and you respect one another, the age doesn't matter. But not too many young women are looking for old men and not too many old men are looking for young girls. You know what I mean? Unless something's wrong up here. So that'll be taken care of. Don't worry about the age differences. And there are the exceptions. For every rule there's an exception and things turn out very well sometimes. But the real question, the question is now that wasn't so much about age. Can you pull that up again? Whether, yeah, that's the question. That's the real question. Whether or not a sister should marry a non-Muslim man when there is no Muslim man available. No Muslim man available.
Well, the King of Jordan, the one who passed recently, he found a non-Muslim woman. Now you know there are plenty of Muslim women in his country, but he found a non Muslim woman that he wanted to marry. He married her, she was Christian, her name is Raina. He named her Raina. But she accepted to take Shahadah and become a Muslim. So if you find another Muslim man and he's willing to take Shahada and become a Muslim, then you should marry him. If he's not willing to do that, the authority, the majority of the Imams and scholars in Islam say you shouldn't marry him. Sister should not marry a non Muslim man. Let him convert first. Thank you.
Moderator:
What about men who try to play the manipulating game of becoming intimate with a woman but their intentions are untrue to himself and the woman. If the woman is successfully manipulated, is she considered a wrongdoer and is also the man?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. You knew the answer yourself. Yes, yes. If you know his intentions are not sincere and he just wants to have his way with you and you permit him to pursue that course, then you are just as guilty as he is and you both need to be flogged publicly. On the six o'clock news.
Moderator:
How do we balance the natural tendency of men to dominate with our need for independence or with the woman's need for independence?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Big, big, big, big test challenge for men to recognize it because men have been in charge and men have thought themselves bosses of the women for so long. So you sisters have to understand and have some pity on our males that we have been having this way of thinking for so long. It's very difficult for us to accept now without education. And education takes a long time when you're not going to a particular school or an institution to get it. For the public, the change in public life to educate us, that takes some time, a long time. Many of our men are going to live their lives out with their same behavior and same thinking and they're going to die like that. So you sisters, you have to have patience with your man. You have to be very delicate with him in this sensitive area, you have to use psychology. G-d has given children and women the more power of psychology than men. That's my knowledge and experience and my education. G-d has given women and children more power of psychology. Children use the power of psychology and women you use it too. So use it to keep your husband happy. Yes, keep him happy. Compliment him a lot. Thank you.
Moderator:
Allah allows brothers to exercise polygamous rights. Given that his Islam is the most civil religion for the sake of harmony, et cetera, shouldn't the brother discuss his intentions in advance with his wife?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well do you know that he might lose what he's going after if he does that? What we have going on in America is not polygamy in Islam. It's what my people used to call hoe hopping. In the time of our Prophet, Prayers and peace be upon him, there were no institutions to protect orphans, no institutions to protect widows, et cetera. So honorable men with means, financial means were obligated to protect society, protect women who needed husbands to protect them and to give them honor, the honor of having a marriage and being a wife. And those men were needed to protect orphans. And we know we can marry a woman just because we have an interest in having another wife, another wife, to help us with our burden that we are carrying. As many as four. We know that right is given to men, but we should read everything that G-d is saying about the right to have more than one wife. And G-d is also saying that if you cannot be fair by orphans, then marry only one.
If you cannot be fair by orphans, marry only one. So you should read that too. So that tells a perceptive man or reader of Qur'an, that tells him that G-d's interest is not in you having another play thing. G-d's interest is in you protecting the society. That is the interest. Do not marry women just out of the love for her physical body or love for her as a physical thing. Don't marry women. There's nothing as to qualify marriage if that's the kind of marriage it is. It's not a qualified marriage. It doesn't qualify as marriage in Islam if the attraction is physical and that's why you want her as your wife. So all of this, we need education in this community and you intelligent educated sisters, you don't fear to come to the forefront and start training classes or educational program to educate us regarding how we are to protect our family life and our homes. You all should do that. MGT should have another name now and a bigger role.
Moderator:
I don't know about you guys, but I think I'm getting the answers to some of the questions I had today.
How do we encourage and prepare for marriage among our young and how do we deal with our teens becoming pregnant out of wedlock?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well my mother would just tear that fanny off. But you can't have it that way anymore they'll lock you up, put you in jail. How can we keep them from becoming pregnant our teenagers, big problem, big problem. Allah says to us, highly glorified is He. He says that man is not bigger than the creation. Now when we look at the influence of the world or the culture that's coming to these youngsters from the media, it's all in the streets. So this is what parents have to deal with nowadays. The world has given them that thinking. The world has given them that judgment. What is right for them and what is not. And we are competing with them as individuals. Mama, daddy, the family. We are competing with this big power as little individuals. G-d has already told us that the creation is a bigger matter than the creation of a human being. So it comes a time when you don't have any power or authority over your children. All we can do is try our best when they're very young, to keep them in the right environment and to give them the proper understanding, teachings and understanding that's all we can do. There are Jews losing their teenagers to the same thing. A Jew lived next door to us. It's been many years ago in Chicago. And he told me I had to send my daughter to Israel to protect her. Now this is a Jew.
So it's not any particular people or poor people that's having these problems or African-Americans or blacks that's having these problems. It's a problem for everybody. And sometimes it's a bigger problem for the well to do people, for professional people than it is for us because these boys that want to take advantage of females, they will look for Imam Mohammad's daughter because they know Imam Mohammed got more money. They think that anyway and they can live on her, live on me by relationship or through relationship with her, you see. Well the more you have of money, the more endangered your girls are because these boys will be looking for the one that got, they want to stay in the house when you're gone. They want to sleep there. They want watch the TV there. They want to eat the food there. So it's very serious. And your girl, your daughter needs to be taught that the average youngster that approaches her with an interest in her is not a responsible person and that she should be very slow to become interested in youngsters approaching her. And she should not do it. She don't even let him know that she has an interest until she has brought the matter to her parents and talked it over with her parents and then invite him with the parents present, invite him to express his interest in her. Don't even respond to him even if you feel like you ought to take his clothes off right out there, right there on the spot, don't respond to him. Hide that from him. Hide your sexual interests or any other interests you have in him. Hide it from him until you can have him sit with your parent that you respect. It has to be a parent that you respect to do this for you. The girl should have the parent present before she even let the male that she has any interest in him whatsoever. This is the safest way. And the parents should let him know that this girl here is a Muslim. I got a woman away from me right quick. I just showed her some literature of me and my involvement in the community. I showed it to her. I said, is this the man you're interested in? She gave up. She wasn't interested in that man. So when he knows that this girl is going to insist upon having her Muslim life, he may just go and walk away and never come back again.
We have these security brothers too. They got about four or five of 'em. They protecting me now. We have these security brothers. Yeah, I'll call one of 'em if I need to handle a young man. I say, look, I spoke with him but he can't hear me. Can you get him to hear? And some of these brothers say, yes Brother Imam, I think I can. But make sure she's hearing too.
Moderator:
Please share any anecdotes you have regarding maintaining one's focus while making salat.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. Well approaching salat, you don't need Darwinism. All you need is to obey what the salat. ask of us
Speaker 1:
Before salat there's adhan. And adhan comes from the word ear and it means that you are supposed to give your attention to this higher cause and higher purpose. That's G-d obedience to G-d. That's the higher cause and higher purpose obedience to G-d. Adhan is named adhan to say your attention is called, you're being called to bring your attention to your salat, your prayer to the worship of G-d. And give it ear, this is scripture. Give it ear, hear the word of G-d. It's in scriptures before Qur'an. Give it ear, hear the word of G-d. So if you don't make an effort, a conscious effort to keep your attention on your salat, then you lose, you lose the value of salat. So that's the key. The key is keep your attention on the salat. And the word Bismillah Ar Rahma nir Raheem or whatever words you begin with. Allahu Akbar.
Be listening to what you're saying. You are saying Allahu Akbar. Keep your mind and your ear on what you're saying. Your ear, hearing what you're saying and your mind on what you're saying. And if you'll keep your mind, Allah says, there are those who join the prayer just to be seen, to be seen, but they're not really conscious of their prayer. You see? So don't be that kind of person. Be attentive a hundred percent completely attentive. Having your ears and your thinking with what you are saying, what you're reciting. That's your protection. If you do that, you have no problem. There'll be no problem. And every one of us have to do that. Even though I've done this now from over 50 years or more, I've been doing this praying the way we pray in Islam and keeping my mind on my prayers. Occasionally I have to catch myself from outside coming in my mind. So I have to catch myself. And the best result that I've gotten is from keeping my ear, my attention on every word of the prayer. Follow every word of the prayer. Be conscious of every word of the prayer. Don't recite it as something that you remembered.
Recite it as something that you are refreshing your mind with. You are bringing it fresh to your mind again and you are being conscious of every word of G-d because that's what the prayer is, the word of G-d. When we do salat we are not having our words. We are not even having Muhammad's words. We are only having the words of G-d. So understand that the prayer is the word of Allah, the word of G-d and give it that respect and hear every word you're saying.
Moderator:
When will all areas be able to get supplies from CPC, meat, food, et cetera and coral calcium?
Imam WD Mohammed:
I don't know. But we are hoping that what we are doing in our area will be duplicated in other areas that we'll have qualified people who do the same thing in other areas. It's very difficult for one area to supply all the other areas with products. Eventually we'd like to see processing plants in other areas, not just where we are. But I will tell you that we are very happy with the progress that we've made recently. We had to go outside of our brothers and sisters, outside of our community and employ non-Muslims because we just didn't have the ones qualified to handle it. We had to go outside and Allah blessed us with a European American man who has 27 years experience in making sausages. He respects my leadership. I wouldn't have even shown interest in employing him until he respected what we are trying to do.
And he respects it highly. He volunteered to help us pass the inspection and get the certification that we needed to certify our place as a government approved facility. He helped us do that. And he's crazy about our egg mate seasoned meat, our sausage and he's working with it. I put him over the cutting area, over the butcher area, over the cutting area. He has helped a big operation much bigger than ours. He helped it form. He was there helping it to get formed and helped it get all established, help it get all the approval that it has. And we know this, we have verified, we've gotten proof that he was the one who actually did this for another company and he accepted to do it for us. He charges pretty high, he charges, but he's not wanting to at all hurt our progress. So he won't even take too many hours.
He said, well I don't want to work for you no more than two hours a week or four hours a week. He said, I'll see how we can handle this without me actually coming here to work more than two or four hours. So he's conscious of us being in a financial situation where we just can't afford to pay him too much too. And he's interested in us being successful, but Allah blessed us with this man who's helping us. We have had to hire some Hispanics, Mexican. We had to hire some of them. Our people just won't, I don't know what's wrong with them.
They don't show an interest in dhikr until you have to work and prayers until you give 'em a job. Now he wants to do dhikrs on the job and he wants to pray and before he wasn't praying or anything. He has to break and pray, "Time to pray Imam. Love to see him pray but love to work too. So we've had to make some changes and the changes have gotten us where we want to be. At first we couldn't even sell in the state of Illinois to other businesses. We got Illinois license and now we got a number and all this that's to be done is for the department to bring their inspectors on site and inspect the site as they had to do for us to get the Illinois license approval. And when that is done, we will be approved to ship anywhere in the United States or in the world. We can ship to any place. We can ship to Africa, any place, anywhere in the world. We're expecting that within a few days. We already have the number. They've given us the number and that's the indication that they have approved us. So all they have to do is come and do the inspection and that we will be free to operate and ship our products anywhere in the world.
That facility can only produce so much products. I believe we can get as much as we can produce from the area that we are in. We are in the southwest area. I do believe that once these fine products reach the stores in our area, restaurants and stores in our area, we'll have enough to do right there. But we have grounds, because we feel that this business is a very excellent business and it's going to grow. We have grounds already purchased by us as CPC investors. We already have grounds to triple our production already where we are and across the street, if we have to go across the street. But you're going to use that for something else. If we have to go across the street, we can again even double that production. We are situated to really produce a lot of products, A lot of products.
But don't forget that we want you business-minded people, males and female to see what you can do and try to do as much as you can in your area. What we hope to do to make shipping costs, to bring the shipping costs down because that's the reason why we don't want you ordering from us. You order 200 pounds of product from us. We got to ship it to you in San Francisco. The shipping cost is so high, you pay too much for your product. So we can't do that. The purpose is to relieve the financial situation, to bring relief to us, not to make it harder. So if we can't bring relief then we don't want to do it. So what we are going to do now is bring our salesperson. I think she's here today too. Isabelle. Is Isabelle here today? Isabelle if you are here will you please identify yourself?
Is Isabelle here? She's not here. I think she told me she's going be here. She should be here. Maybe she'll be at the next meeting. I don't know. But she's a terrific sales lady. The best salesperson we have in C-P-C. C-P-C ComTrust. We combined it. The legal name is CPC, ComTrust, LLC. The attorney told us when we introduce ourselves we should also always say LLC, Limited Liability Company CPC as you know is Collective Purchasing Conference and Comtrust was to be the name for the production part of it. That's the meat production. Food production.
But it didn't work out too well that way. The attorneys advised us to make it one company and he did and it's working fine. So it's CPC Comtrust, LLC. Limited Liability Company. And now I think we have everything. Labels are beautiful. We have an Illinois label, I mean stamp on. So we have to change that. Now that's probably done already. Three days ago they told me they were going to do, they were doing that and we're going to put the federal stamp on it where that indicates that it can be shipped anywhere. So we have a beautiful label. Sister Isabelle has done a beautiful job. She's good on the computer too. She's done a beautiful job of helping us get that label very beautiful. And more news for you too. More good news for CPC investors and those who are interested in CPC and the food production department of CPC.
And we have had a brother, Ima, New York, Imam Izekeil Pasha made contact for us with a huge supplier of halal products, meat food products to countries overseas. And they're big. Usually big people won't even show any interest in small businesses like ours. But because they respect what we are trying to do for Islam, for Muslims in America, they have accepted to have us also buy their product from them. And the cost of the product been reduced like by two thirds. We'll be paying one third of what we were paying before for halal chicken and other products that we want. That's a big relief we have. Yes. So Allah is with us and if we stay faithful, Allah will always be with us.
Moderator:
This message from the sister in Richmond. I gave $3,000 to CPC. Who should I speak with or write to regarding any profits?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Don't ever give any money to CPC. Invest money into CPC. You didn't make a gift. It's not a gift, it's an investment. We don't accept gifts, it's an investment. So if you have proof of your $3,000 investment into CPC, you have earned already interest or what we call your earned benefit, some benefit from your investment. Okay, alright well at the end of a 12 month year, at the end of one year you have money added to that principle. So you have already earned some money. The company itself, sometimes it takes the company two years, three years depending on the nature of the business. Sometimes it takes 5 years to actually realize profit. So what we have been doing is investing to make the company strong and workable as we want it to be and approved by the government. And we have reached that point now. So we don't have to anymore invest in establishing the company, the company is established now. We have to just invest in keeping the company and keeping it, pardon me, finance and operation. But now we should start realizing a gain for the company and it's getting ready to take off. Getting ready to take off real big, real big in a big way.
It's getting ready to take off. So the company has not realized a profit yet, but investors for us to have your money to do what we have done, we pay you for that money, we pay you for your assistance to our business. You earn that. That's earned every year. So you should contact us, send us the proof that you are a CPC investor and ask for a statement. We can give it to you now just like that. I wish you all could come. Any investor that want to come and see our operation, we welcome you. But just give us a notice and tell us when you'll be in the area and we will take our time to show you what you have there.
At one time we had to go to files, look in the files, which we still have in the files. I took a computer course myself and my instructors told the class said don't depend on the computer. You have to have hard copies because the computer can lose everything you got. Something can happen. The computer may lose everything you got, but you need the computer to compete In this new business world that we are in. You need to have computers working for you. So we have a computer that bring your name up just a matter of seconds. We can bring your name up and look at your whole record and everything, tell you everything you need to know about your investment. Just in a matter of seconds we can do that. So if few of you all want that information, please contact Sister Mia, MIA, her name is Amia but everybody call her MIA for short. It's MIA sister Mia, that's right. Sister Amia personnel manager. Our business department manager for CPT Comtrust, MIA. And ask her to send you your investment history and she'll send it to you.
Moderator:
I have a question. Brother Imam my husband and I are capital investors in CPC. We would like to add $18,000 to our account but need clarification from you on how to do it.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Wow. All of this good news. Now we have investors, we have investors that have invested over $300,000. So somebody has a lot of faith in what we are doing. But when you say to me 18,000, when you go over about 10,000, if you say a million, I'm just as excited over 10 or 18 as I am over a million. That's big money for me. I'm a poor man, been poor all my life. We are very excited about bringing you in and you can make sure I have your name and I'll take it back home with me because this is very important. I'll take our time if you're here and I'll speak with you, I'll come over to you and you make sure I have your name and contact number for you. And I'll have Sister Mia mail you a package that explains everything.
Moderator:
Brother Imam, what is the best approach for Muslims to respond to a gay male or gay female who wants to take their shahadah and become Muslim?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Pretend they're not gay. I don't know how I can take it gay. A gay person on my mind. Yeah. Pretend they're not gay. Maybe Allah will change them. Maybe that shahada will make them not gay. Wow.
Moderator:
Can sisters call the adhan if no brother is present? Also is it required one sister should lead prayer when only sisters are present?
Imam WD Mohammed:
If a brother is available, brother should lead the prayer. And you sisters should make sure that you are watching your sons and observing your males and your family or sons and when you see on interested in the religion, encourage them to be the muezzin in your house when your husband is not there. But siters yes, if there's no male available sisters lead the prayer and if you want to call the adhan, call the adhan. There is nothing in the religion that says a sister can't call the adhan.
Moderator:
Brother Imam I am taking the death of my son very hard. Can you please give me some guidance?
Imam WD Mohammed:
We pray Allah that he relieve your burden and help you overcome this. And all we can do in certain situations is just ask Allah to strengthen us to do that. Just keep Allah in your mind.
Moderator:
What is the position sisters should take? After all the war is over and other problems. We have very little security for sisters. Brothers. don't respect us as we should be respected.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, we should have persons that we can go to in our local area to talk to. Again, I say your sisters need to see your needs. The family needs, the needs of women. And you need to have those who are better educated and who are interested in helping identify so that those sisters, like sisters here who are asking this question, will have someplace to go, someone to talk to. Thank you.
Moderator:
Mom. This is from a young person, 15-year-old. Is CPC ComTrust registered as a public trading company?
Imam WD Mohammed:
No. We're registered as a distributor of products of our product. A producer, processor of product. and a distributor of products. And we are authorized by the state and by the United States to ship and do trade anywhere. We want to ship products to any place and to do trade. Yes.
Moderator:
What should someone do if they're interested in working and relocating for CPC?
Imam WD Mohammed:
You should contact us and let us know. We do have a very active brother, energetic brother. He's taking retirement and he's retiring. He's taking a leave of absence for a whole year. His employers have accepted that he take a leave of absence for a whole year and he's coming to Chicago. He'll be living with us in that area wherever he located in Markham, Illinois, he'll be living with us in that area and working with us to help promote the business. So anyone interested in relocating to work with us if you've got the right qualifications and you're serious about working, not just about showing us that you follow the rituals of Islam, but we don't want you to set up dhikr classes in the work area. If you're really serious, please contact us. We have property that we can build homes on and our workers that qualify eventually we're going to put them in housing and make their mortgage so low they're going to be thankful that they joined CPC.
Moderator:
Please speak on listening to music specifically wind and string instruments.
Imam WD Mohammed:
It doesn't matter what kind of music it is. You just be aware that most of the music we are hearing is music designed to break down your good nature and make you an animal. Bad music is bad music. Vulgar music is vulgar music.
Moderator:
I am on medication that makes me sleepy, especially during May. I fall asleep sometimes during the prayer and forget where I am during prayer.
Speaker 1:
If you're a doctor says you have to be on that medication. then you do the best you can in prayer even if you become senile. Some of us at this age now we become a little senile now. We just try to remember the best we can and Allah forgives what you can't do, Allah forgives.
Moderator:
What steps are necessary to get you to come to Nevada? Specifically Las Vegas?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well make sure the gambling wheels are rigged so I can win a billion dollars, a billion dollars to invest in CPC. I'm not interested in Las Vegas, only the Muslims of Las Vegas.
Moderator:
I would like to know if I don't wear a wrap, I'm sorry. I would like to know if I don't wear a wrap or hijab all the time, but dress appropriately for Islamic events is that being a hypocrite?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, you don't have to be dressed a certain way to be a hypocrite. But understand that the rule in Islam is modesty and decency. Modesty and decency. You can wear a dress down to your ankles covering your feet, but you can make that dress so seductive and indecent that your long dress will not be modest. Just remember the first rule, modesty and decency. And women, Muslim women identified in public by their dress, by that covering. So you should try to do your best to identify with Muslim sisters in their dress and not with those that are not Muslim.
Moderator:
The need for a spiritual way that will help us towards the Jennah more than anything is needed. How would you suggest that we go about obtaining this very deep and heartfelt objective?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, yes. There is a saying about Prophet prayers and peace be upon him that if someone holds to La Ilaha Il Allah that there is one G-d, you sincerely believe that and you'll keep that in your heart and respect that no matter how far you stray from the way or from the proper behavior, that will eventually save you and says even from hell. That will bring you out of hell.
Moderator:
Brother Imam what's wrong with our men that they will not study the example set by the Prophet Muhammad Peace be upon him and protect and maintain a community for us. Why are they still of the same unsophisticated mindset of 1975?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, I don't know. I'm from 1975 and I'm from 1965. I'm from 1955. I'm from 1945 and I have kept with the same intent and spirit to try to be the best person I can be, to try to be the best human being I can be. So it is not the time. If they don't have an interest and a spirit in them to be excellent human beings, there ain't much you can do for 'em. Sister, maybe you should just help me preach to 'em.
Moderator:
Many times a woman is discouraged from being emotional when she's in business. What is the right disposition for a woman in business?
Imam WD Mohammed:
I have that same problem too. Things start coming apart in business and I get so emotional sometimes I have to collect stuff. I say, whoa, wait a minute. Let me get back to my business mind. You have to keep your business mind. Don't let your sensitivities, your feelings, your emotions, your irritations spill over into business. You have to be business all the time. You should not take it personal. Don't ever take anything personal in business. The business is always bigger than you. Whatever cause you working for is more important, so don't let your particular feeling of thing come into the picture and take you away from what the business is needing. Give the business what it needs all the time. That's the key for being successful. The business. Don't take anything personal. Don't even relate to your employers or your workers or your coworkers. Don't relate to them from personal feelings and personal interests. Remind yourself and remind them, we are working for the business and the business is what we are trying to serve, not our own personal interests and we'll be very successful.
 I'll work with a baboon if he can do the job. I'll work with a baboon. I don't take business personal.
Moderator:
I live in a community where there's a lot of trouble with gangs, black on black crime. It brings pain, sadness, hardship and suffering to others and most parents are not prepared for the work. Is it un to have a pre marital arrangement to take the burden off the shoulders of an unexpected parent?
Imam WD Mohammed:
That's not clear to me. It's not clear to me what is being asked yet. I think we're going to have to just pass by that question. It's not clear to me what it's being asked. I don't want to touch it like it is. I may say the wrong thing. I'm not clear.
Moderator:
Last question, what Surah did you read from?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Okay, that was Surah 33, Ayat 35
Moderator:
There are a couple of questions that were repeat questions. He responded I think appropriately when he gave a presentation and similar questions were asked and I'm trying not to repeat same questions over and over. But the question is regard to relocating work. This person is asking who should she contact regarding relocating and she writes, please mark that I will relocate.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well again, you need to write us or fax us. We need to know something about you, your interest, not about you as a person, but you as a person who is interested in this business. CPC business. CPC business. Just fax it to us letting us know what your interest is. Give us some description of you regarding your qualifications to join CPC. Once our business manager gets is she will take a look at it.

37


