12/12/1975
IWDM Study Library 
Coming of the Son of Man, Death Cockatrice Detroit Pt 2

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
All Praises are to Allah, thank you. All Praises due to Allah. In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful, and may His peace and His blessings be upon His servant and His Messenger Muhammad forever, ameen. My dear, beloved brothers and sisters, sisters and brothers, I greet you in the greetings of peace, the greetings of every Prophet from Abraham to Muhammad. In fact, the greetings of Adam, the greeting of every man from Adam to this very day, and that is the greetings of peace. I say, the greetings of every man. As-Salamu Alaykum. We're very happy to be here with you today. For a long time, I've desired to come here to Detroit, Michigan, Temple Number One, to old friends and new friends, old Muslims and new Muslims. Many of you knew me before I knew myself. Many of you knew me as a child, as a person, before I knew myself as a person. I don't know how many of you know me now, I hope you still know me. All Praises due to Allah.
I'm here for two reasons today, two main reasons. I'm here for the late and truly great Honorable Elijah Muhammad, our past leader and teacher, one that we knew and heard as the voice, the manifestation of the presence of the great Master Fard Muhammad in our midst, or as the manifestation of the presence of G-d in our midst, one that we loved and followed for as long as he lived. And we still follow him, those who have their eyes open and understand. I'm here for him, because for a long time he wanted to come here, and was unable physically to come here. He regretted that he was not able to come here, but thanks be to Allah, in his son he is here. You know I was talking to uh, and I think most of you know what kind of speaker I am, I speak like I feel and I speak like I'm at home.
And if I can't speak that way, I don't speak at all. I have to be for real and there's no other way for me. I was talking to a lady one day, at the time I wasn't active in the Nation of Islam. That is, I wasn't present in the active membership, you didn't see me among you. I was more present than all of you, but you didn't see me among you.
I was talking to a lady and she said, "I heard a friend of yours refer to you as Christ." She said, "I don't know if you told him that or not." She said, "But I know you're not Christ." She said, "I would never believe you're Christ."
So, I told her, I say, "Well, I'm not trying to get you to believe I'm Christ." I say, "But how would you know Christ?" I said, "What picture do you have of Christ, what knowledge do you have of Christ? And how much can you trust that? To say who is and who is not Christ, you should have some first-hand knowledge of what Christ really is, or who he really is."
So, I let it go at that, you see, and I forgot about it, but she still had a problem, because she was of my color and see, her mind has been trained to reject herself. What she meant is that, "In my mind, Christ is pure and lily white, and you a nigger like I am. I'll never believe you're Christ."
Well, that's some of the problems that we have leftover from slave days. Now, before going into my talk with you, I want to introduce my shoes. They look bad, but they feel good. Excuse me. Now, I'm not wearing these shoes because I have corns or bunions, or anything. My feet are good, but I've been trying to wear these new shoes. When they were making... Well, I remember wearing Flagg Brothers, I don't know if you know that shoe, and Florsheim, and Stacey Adams. I finally got able to buy me a pair of Stacey Adams, and that was a nice shoe. That shoe really fit my foot and held it nice, I could stand up and talk. I used to teach in Philadelphia for hours, my feet never bothered me.
Then they started putting a lot of Hong Kong shoes on the market, Italian shoes, Italian cut style shoes. Those Italian people, their feet are small like women's feet, you know? They got narrow feet and those shoes, they really don't have enough room for my feet. See, my feet are not so long, but my feet are wide. When I step on the ground, I'm stepping on it. You know, the Italians, even when they step on the ground, they leave half... this part of the foot print on the ground, you know? They leave the toes, and the heel, and a little piece of the outer edge. When I step on the ground, I leave the whole print. I got to have a shoe wide enough to hold my foot, you see.
Then they brought out those old heels, and I'm telling you, those things made me feel like my bones was being pushed out of place, or something. I didn't wear them too high, but that much heel was too much for me. I wore those heels and my legs start feeling funny, bothering me. So, finally, brother correspondent Shakir, here, my personal correspondent there in Chicago, he picked up a pair of shoes called Earth Shoes for a trip we made. A trip that you're going to hear about, too, because on that trip I wrote many letters to you, and they're going to be put into booklets and given to you. Thank you, thank you.
He brought these shoes and I put them on, and I told him, I said, "Well, I don't want to wear those other shoes any more." And he went out and he found another, and then my nephew went out... no, he went out with us, he got another pair. Now, he said he's going out and he's going to get me still another pair, so I'll have three or four pairs of these Earth Shoes. And let me tell you, these shoes, they are so good that really I need to take them off. They feel pretty good for my feet. Now, your feet might be different. The way my feet are made, these shoes feel all right, but they don't look that good. They don't look that good. And maybe one day they'll improve the look, and then everything will be all right.
They call them Earth Shoes. Let me tell you something, the earth shoe is the one that you were born with. That's the earth shoe. Now, that shoe, you walk with it all your life and never wear the sole out. You wear out dozens of these other shoes during an average life time, but you can walk on that natural foot for now on, and never wear the sole out. Well, that shows you that the Originator is always Supreme. I said I had two reasons, main reasons, for coming here. One was to fulfill a wish of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, or to respect the wish of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, by coming here as his son and as his successor. I know if you've heard there is no successor. Well, it's true, there is no successor, not in the sense that he was talking. He meant that there would be no successor to come and carry this on, that I have. Well, he told you that there was even a new book coming.
So, I'm a physical successor, but really I'm original in my own role and mission. Now, I feel you can't talk back to me. You can talk back to me. You don't have to like what I say, you know? I'm the last man that would force myself on you. I don't force myself on anybody. Almighty G-d never forced Himself on anybody. If anybody said He forced Himself on the people, they told a lie. G-d never forced Himself on anybody. He said, "Whosoever will, let him take a straight way to Me. Not a crooked way, a straight way to Me. Whosoever will, let him come." Was that right?
That's right. All right, you were born, you grow up, you learn everything from the world around you, that you can learn all that they will teach you. And you get a mind and a conscience you say that's your own. And Almighty G-d, Allah, who designed a creation from the very beginning, He didn't force Himself on you. He gave you a free mind, a free conscience, so that shows you that the original G-d did not force Himself on you. He left you free to reject and to accept as you like, isn't that right?
All right. Well, Warith Deen Mohammed is a man that puts himself completely in charge of the Originator of the heavens and the earth, and asks that he be accepted, to blend in with the will of that Creator, and not to disagree with Him in any degree. So, if almighty G-d has not forced Himself on you, I won't force myself on you. You know, there's a beautiful story in the Bible, was King Solomon. He made a decision, a wise decision. There was a child and two women were claiming to be the mother, and Solomon, he gave a test, he put the women through a test. He said, "Bring the child to me."
And when they brought the child to King Solomon, he took the heavy, sharp sword, and raised it. He said, "I'll split it and give each of you a half."
One woman cried out and said, "Oh, King, give the child to her." And Solomon knew who was the real mother.
Now, I see many beautiful lessons in this, but one beautiful lesson is this, that G-d is saying through this story, and through this woman, that He'd want to have you whole, not split. Almighty G-d could have split us, He could have split the human being, He could have cut you in half and deprived you of the freedom of the independent mind that you have, and He could have just left you a half a human being. But He chose to leave you whole. Well, it dawned with the false G-d, "I'd rather see him whole than split him. Let him go with the false mother, let him go with the false nation, let him go with the false G-d, because I'd rather see him whole than to split him."
That's really the beautiful lesson in that story, you see? Well, G-d is telling you something about Himself through the mother, through the real mother. The real mother loves the child and she'd rather see that child in the home of a false mother, a liar, than to see that child split in half where it won't have its whole form, be able to grow, and realize his complete nature and form. That's G-d teaching us a beautiful lesson through a beautiful parable. Now, brothers and sisters, I'm going to move on with this conversation that I have to talk to you about, and I think before I go into it I should just clear the air a little bit.
You're probably looking at this hat. Now, if you notice there's stars and moons in this hat, and a lot of glitter, that gives the picture to the mind of the heavens above. And my father, my earthly father, I don't want to spook you up. My father he loved this hat. He loved this hat so much, he used to wear it at the dinner table.
And when he would be talking, he would take it every now and then, and he would push it like this a little bit, and maybe he'd do that, and he'd continue to talk. So, I saw him in this hat and I noticed how he was attached to it, that he liked it so much. I said, "Well, let me try this hat on." And when I tried this hat on, believe me, it fit just like a glove, and I mean a good fitting glove too. And he's got one, one more expensive than this, I'm telling you, it's got some glitter in it that's not just glitter, it's for real. So, I picked it up and I tried it, and that thing fit so good. I went and got all his caps, it looked like he left them where I could get them. He put them just where I could get them, and I went and got all his caps, and they just went on so good, so nice. Old straw hat from way back there, I put that one on and it fit good.
So, I said to myself, "Now, I shouldn't keep all these hats. I don't need all these hats." And really, I don't wear hats that much, but I love this hat, and I love all of his hats. Tell you the truth, I love those hats. I'd like to keep them, but I've got a desire now that's stronger than my like for the hat, for myself. I want you to have a hat. So, really, I brought this hat to give it to Number One. All Praises to Allah. Thank you, thank you.
Because I know, if you feel like I do, you want to have something that was close to the man. Now, honest to goodness, everybody that loved my father, I wish I could be with them all the time. Any of you who really loved my father, I wish I could be with you all the time. But I can't, the mission is big and the world is big. But we can share his personal things. And when I leave here, I'm going to leave this hat to every Muslim believer that accepts me as the leader. I want to make it very clear, if you don't accept me as the leader, this hat is not left here for you. And when I say the leader, I mean the leader. There's no invisible man backing me and speaking to me, there's no one guiding me from a distance, or hiding himself from you and teaching me.
My teacher is the one who taught Adam, believe it or not. So, in order for me to give you a gift, you first have to accept me as your leader.
Now, you who don't accept me, you probably will share the gift too, because we can't kick you out and say, "Don't like this gift, or don't look at it." We want it on display so any follower can look at it, protected in glass. Heavy glass with a lock and key so all the followers can see it, and feel that it's their present from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, may Peace and blessings be on him, and from his son your leader and teacher, whether you accept me or not. There is a story... goes, a fellow told me a story once. He said, "There was a woman who loved a man so much, until... she just wouldn't break with the man no matter how bad she was mistreated. The man would mistreat her and she would excuse him all the time as being ignorant. She said, 'The man, my husband, is just ignorant. He hasn't yet seen what he has, so I'm going to stay here until my husband gets wised up, and one day he'll see what he's got. And I know my husband, he's a good man. He'll really love me once he sees what he's got. He's ignorant, he just hasn't seen what he's got." So, she took all of his abuses.
"So, the man just got so sick of her, he said, 'Woman, why don't you leave me? Why don't you get out of this? You know I don't care for you.'"
"And she said, 'I know you don't care for me, honey, but I know you need me, and I know you love me but you just don't know it. Honey, I'm going to stay with you, I'm not going to leave you. You have to leave me.'"
"That man thought about that, tried to leave this woman, and thought about that, and thought about that. And the story goes, he finally embraced her and said, 'Look, woman, you're the best woman that I possibly could ever have.' He told her, he said, 'You don't move me that much physically..." He said, 'But that's all right. I think I'm going to grow to really love you.'"
And I remember that story the fellow was telling not only me, he was telling other people too who were around. And I said to myself, "That fit a lot of people, and especially men who give themselves to truth, freedom, justice, and equality, righteousness, who give themselves fully to Allah." Men like that, the people hate them and love them. They hate them, because they knock on the conscience too much. People don't want to be conscious, that's why they drink so much and use so much dope, smoke so much dope, and shoot so much, and pop so many pills, because they don't want to be conscience. People want to just close their mind's eye and close everything out, and just dream in darkness. But the G-d man, he won't let them stay asleep.
He'd come up there knowing that he was going to get a nasty answer at the door of that conscience, but he raps anyway. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Say, "Nigger, don't you know that I don't want to hear nothing you've got to say?" And he'll go out and disguise himself and sneak back up at the door, and knock again. The same old nigger, "Didn't I tell you I don't want to hear anything you want to say?" Well, let me tell you something, there's a love too in the person, for that man who stands up for truth, righteousness, and justice. There's a love in them for that man, too. They love him because they identify with him in their true self. In their true self, they know the man is right, they know the man is good for them. But in their false self, the self that rules the true self, they can't stomach the man, because the man is always interfering with something they want to do.
Something they want to think, or something they want to act out, or something they want to get others to think or act out. That man is just always getting into their business. Well, let me tell you, I'm in your business to stay, brothers and sisters. And I don't care what you do to me, I'm going to be on the job until the very last. First, I can't get off the job because I didn't put myself on it, Allah put me on it. So, I can't get off it. No one has the power to undo what Allah does. You may think you have the power, but you don't. And Allah has done this, and no one has the power to undo it, not even myself. Not even myself.
In fact, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told me once, he said, "Son, I don't know exactly what it is that Allah has for you, but I know He has something for you." He said, "No matter how many times we separate, I know one day we're going to be together. So, I know one day you are going to come back and carry on this work for me."
Now, when he told me that, to be honest with you, I didn't see myself coming into no role like that. To tell you the truth, I wasn't even interested in what he was talking about. I was only interested in what I was talking about. And what I was talking about was something that was present. It wasn't future, it was present. So, I was trying to get him to see my point. "You mean to tell me you was disputing the master?" Yes, indeed. That's how a master is born, by disputing with masters.
"Oh, you were a hypocrite, then." I've been called that. Well, let me tell you. The one that will struggle with you and contend with you, on principles for your good, for his good, and for the good of everybody, that's somebody that loves you. That's no hypocrite. I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, if anybody can go get anything that I have said and show it to the world, I'll help you show it to the world. Show it to the world, I'm not ashamed of anything I ever said about Islam, about you, about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, or anybody else. I'm proud of what I said. I'm so proud that, really, I look at my past and I'm more proud of that, then I am my present.
Why? Because I was a young man. I didn't know it all, I didn't even know the fullness of my father's mission. You didn't either. You didn't even know a quarter of it. I didn't know the fullness of my father's mission. But I had the courage to stand up on what he taught me, and not back up, not shake or waver. Even in his face, even if it meant bringing his anger against me, I didn't waver. I said, "But you said such and such and such. Now, I don't see that out here in the world, I don't see this in your believers, in your followers. I don't see it in many of your officials that's under you." I said, "You taught me that. This thing is falling. I know you don't like to hear it, but I'm gonna tell you anyway."
I told my father, I say, "This Nation of Islam... this Lost Found Nation of Islam is falling." Jealousy, superiority complexes, right in the official staff, and those people who claim to be puritans, perfect, clean saints in the Nation of Islam, walking around talking about "Because I'm blacker than you, I'm better than you." I'm telling you what I heard with my own ears. Official staff. "Well, sister, you know, your color won't be around too long."
Our leader and teacher said, "There’s coming a time when there'll be no light ones on the planet." I had enough sense to know that the purpose of my father and my leader, and your leader, was not to divide us, but to unite us. And I knew that, that kind of talk was bad. It was shameful for us to stand up and say because I am a shinola black shoe polish color, and you are not, that I am better than you. Or that I will be around long after you are gone, you see? And the bright ones, they had a problem too. They would look at Master Fard's picture, and The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and they would hint that because they were more Caucasian looking, that they were more like the G-d and his servants.
I'm telling you what I heard with my own ears. Almighty G-d made it reach my ears because he was preparing me to undo it. So, I wrestled with these things, I condemned them outright as wrong. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has never stood up in my face, or stepped down in my face, and said, "Son, you were wrong." He has never told me, not one thing, not one time, that, "Son, you are wrong." He has tried hard to get me to shut up, and I mean tried hard. Tried so hard until I was crying inside because I couldn't do what he was trying to get me to do. It had hurt me that I couldn't please him, but he never said, "Son, you are wrong."
Why he didn't say it? Because son was right. But it just wasn't quite time for son. So, father was hoping that son would keep quiet until the proper time. But son had to grow up and that's all part of growing up. There's a story of Buddha, who was a Prophet. His people have gone astray, what they have is not the truth, not Islam, but Buddha himself was a Prophet. Buddha, he had a powerful and rich father, and every time Buddha wanted to go out and develop his mind and his spirit to fulfill the mission that he was searching for, Buddha didn't have the mission yet but something was moving him, compelling him to think in a certain way, and to go out and be to himself, and develop his mind.
Every time his father saw, his father would throw everything in his way. Everything he possibly could, he threw in Buddha's way. So, Buddha finally overcome his father's tricks. The father didn't only oppose Buddha outright, but his father would use other people. He did everything, he'd come at him in all kinds of ways. But Buddha, as a young man, finally broke from his father, and he left his father's house, and he went out and visited. He went out and visited distant places. When he came back, Buddha was a Prophet.
See, this is the way of Almighty G-d. Now, you might say, "Well, why didn't The Honorable Elijah Muhammad tell us these things of you?" He told you many things, but those who are jealous of my position, they don't hear nothing and remember nothing, but the lies they have heard about me. They don't want to remember anything else that they have heard. Now, many of you are new, you haven't heard these things, but the old ones that have been around some time, you know not only my father, my mother and Master Fard, if any of you remember him. He himself left Wallace D. Mohammed in your mind. He put my name on the back of the door before I was born and predicted that it would be a boy, and told them to take special care of that boy.
The honorable Elijah Muhammad on many occasions there in Chicago, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church. This was about 15 years or more ago, right?
He stood up and he told you that, here is this one, that he's a good one.
Said, "He's going to follow in my footsteps." He said, "I'll build the house, but he will put the finishing touches to it."
That's what he said. Now, if you don't like what I'm saying, you have to reject him too.
Oh, did he come here just to argue with us about himself, and try to establish himself? No, I didn't come here just for that, but I know unless we get that done, we don't have anything done. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he clearly established me in his followers thoughts and mind.
Why? Because he had been told by his leader to do that, and he had made a promise to his leader that he would do that, so he fulfilled his promise.
And I'll tell you something else you might not know. He loved me.
Even when there was problems between us, he still felt more happy with me in his presence, than anybody else, believe it or not.
And not only that, we had something between ourselves that no matter what the problem was, when we'd meet, we'd smile, and we'd embrace, and we'd talk as two friends. And when the problems come up, the problems come up, but after the problems we'd part as two friends. That's right. Never did I leave him with bitterness. No, I left him saying, "As-Salamu Alaykum, daddy. You take good care of yourself." That's what I'd always tell him when I left.
And he would say, "Son, give the family the greeting, come back and see your father sometime." All right, a lot of things you need to learn.
When a new life is being born, even the parents can't look in on it. Do you know that?
That's the way Almighty G-d has designed His creation, nature. A parent can't look at what G-d is doing. That baby's born in the womb. You don't know most of the time, you don't know whether they're male or female. Don't know whether it's going to be Black, brown, or yellow, or red, or Caucasian for that matter. You don't know what's growing in there, you just have to wait until he gets through with it, and present it to you, is that right? All right. My father and my mother, they had thoughts, they had some idea, but they couldn't look in, not into the womb, and see what Almighty G-d was doing.
He was creating a new life, a new birth, a new person. So, they couldn't look in and see it, but they were anticipating a great deliverance. Before my mother passed, she'd smile and she said, "Son." She said, "I know you'll be successful." That was before my mother passed. My father was alive, very much alive.
And my father, before he passed I was with him too, during his last hours. When he was alert, conscious, he told me, he said, "Son, you got it." He said, "Go everywhere, go all over the earth, and preach that gospel." That's what he told me. He said, "And preach that gospel."
What he was talking about, that gospel? He was talking about the gospel that he had heard on the tape that they had brought back to him, and let me tell you, some of them brought it back thinking that he was going to kick me out. But when he heard the tape, his face just blushed with pink and red color. He just lit up and shined, his eyes, he looked more beautiful and more happy than I've ever seen him in my life, and I have witnesses to this. We were sitting at the table there. There was Sharif, there was Minister Sha, I believe the National Secretary was there. Were you there, the National Secretary, or was... I believe he was there, the National Secretary was there.
And there was a lot of others there. There were secretaries, from the private secretaries, and many others. And he heard the tape, he just began to come alive, and he was drooping at the table before he heard the tape. He was drooping, right? Brother Sultan, you were there, I believe you were there. He was drooping at the table, but the more he heard the tape, the more his body raised up. And he listened, and after a while he said, "That boy got it."
Now, you can't imagine, unless you love me and him, you can't imagine how that made me feel. Oh, it sure took a burden off me. And believe me, I had been walking around in the street, people calling me crazy. My people. Members of my own faith, my own Temple people, calling me crazy, calling me a bum, calling me a hypocrite, a Malcolm, all these crazy names they're calling me. And I know that I am Number one friend to the man you are charging me with being an enemy to.
That's a burden, brother and sisters. So, I carried that burden, but when he showed them and approved 100% what I had said on the tape, and believe me I opened up both barrels on that tape, I said, "This time I'm gonna..."



