04/20/1985
IWDM Study Library
10th Anniversary
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

LECTURE LOCATION – VIDEO LECTURES>PG.5

PART ONE
00:07 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: And he couldn't check him by bringing his attention to his wrong, so he hauled off and smacked him upside his head. Pow! And that kind of liberty that Moses took got him put out of Egypt, "Hey, you got to get out of here with this stuff you got here boy, you. You don't belong with us. Get out of here!"

00:31 IWDM: They exiled him. They put him out in the desert, right? He got out there in the desert and met a wise man. The wise man turned him on to the way of G-d. Then he got inspired. He said, "Hey, I think I see fire. So I think I'll go there to the fire maybe I'll bring back something that will serve as a light or something as heat for you."

01:09 IWDM: And after he had that experience he went back to Pharaoh who said, "Hey, I thought we put you out of here. Didn't we exile you some time ago? What are you doing here?" He said, "G-d says, 'Let my people go." He said, "What? You're joking or something Moses? We know you. Don't you know you are our boy? Who is this G-d you're talking about? The only G-d I know is myself." Yes, that's what Pharaoh told him. He said, "Whose this G-d you talking about Moses? The only G-d I know is myself."

01:57 IWDM: He said, "Do you give life and give death?" The Pharaoh said, "Yeah. I give life and give death. If you don't straighten up, I'm getting ready to kill you right now. Who is this G-d you're talking about?" He said, "The one who created everything and there after gave it its guidance." And Pharaoh, that shook him. "Hey, what's this? This boy looks like he had met something else. He ain't the same fellow that left here." He said, "Hey I'm gonna tell you again. G-d says, 'Let my people go.'" "Hey, are you threatening me, Moses?" He said, "Yeah. G-d says He's gonna take your first born if you don't let my people go."

03:01 IWDM: And then he presented him with one threat after another, right? And the G-d he served, backed Moses up. He sent him and He backed them up. Pretty soon Pharaoh, he lost his cool. He organized his men to battle with Moses and his followers, and as a consequence, he was drowned in the sea. Right? 

03:33 IWDM: That's the great history, that's mentioned in brief here. Great history! Great history! Now dear beloved people, we in these United States, the true yearning for freedom in us is a yearning for religious freedom! And instead of getting that religious freedom, we were fascinated so much, enchanted so much, enamored so much with the hope of being accepted by our rejecters! 

04:06 IWDM: You know, pimps and other playboys and pretty boys that make a business out of romancing women, they know that the way to get a woman hooked is to reject her for no reason that she can find, and she will be tied up forever, trying to find out, "How come I'm not wanted?" He'll have her forever. She ain't gonna rest until she wins him 'cause she is rejected but don't know why, "Yeah I'm fine. I know I'm fine. I know I whipped it on him right. How come he won't come around?"

05:13 IWDM: And he pushing her off, "Hey no, go. Leave me alone." So the experience we had with the white man had the power to produce the same kind of thing in us. Whiteman rejected us and we don't know why he would treat us like this? Why are we so offensive to him? Why is our flesh is so offensive to him? We're humans like he is. How come he becomes so upset just by our presence? Why he doesn't even want us drinking out of the same water fountain with him?" Bird come up there and drink out of the fountain. [laughter] He go there and drink behind the bird, I drink out of the fountain, they lynch one of us and take the fountain up and throw it away. So he put a big question in your mind. "Why in the hell do I provoke you to go to these extremes?" You got false notions about me, man. Let me hug you, feel me, I'm just like somebody else. I'm just like anybody else. C'mon, kiss me, C'mon, please, kiss me. [laughter] I'm just like anybody else, pound me. I'm just like anybody else.

[laughter]

06:54 IWDM: Let's have sex, you'll see, I'm just like anybody else. Hey, let's have a baby, you'll see, we can have a baby. I'm just like anybody else.

[laughter]

07:07 IWDM: Don't run, let me sit by you in the park. I'm just like anybody else. Hey, where you goin'? Don't leave. I'm just like anybody else. Hey, you don't know what these things can do to your soul and to your nature and your spirit. So we want to prove ourselves to him, huh? We want to prove ourselves. And then what happened, now, we have a yearning to be religiously free, we want to find religious freedom, then he opened the church to us, and we walked into the doors and there is the image of him saying, "Come unto me." That's some powerful psychology. That this civilization use on non-whites. Push 'em away, say they're black, they're colored, they're inferior, but now come into my church, I have an image of me there that wants you. Come after me. So all you wanted to do to white women and white men, you go in there and do it to Jesus. Whoa, Jesus. Whoa, hey, Jesus, wow, wow, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!

[laughter]

08:34 IWDM: You see the psychology, you see the psychology? 

08:39 IWDM: See you can take an animal, you can take an animal and make an image, an effigy of a person and you can take that image and torture and tantalize and et cetera, that animal with that image and then take that animal to the person they never saw, never smelled anything and that animal will go right after that person. So, the person you want to accept you is the white man. The image of him is the so-called, G-d, Jesus, G-d forbid. So, your yearning, your desperate need to be accepted by the white man is kind of vicariously satisfied through your experience with the Jesus on the cross. Nothing but an emblem, a symbol of the white man's race.

09:41 IWDM: So, how come you can't find your freedom? How come you can't be free? How come you ain't comparable with what you are, with who you are? How come you haven't found yourself? It is because you haven't carried your freedom urge to its proper conclusion, you need to go back and pick up your freedom struggle. Your freedom struggle was not to have money, and cat-like cars, and Mercedes Benz, and fine clothes and show off with the white man in the business suit. Ought to have power in the Army, et cetera, et cetera, that wasn't your yearning. Your yearning was to find a comfortable place for your soul. Your yearning was to free your soul. Your yearning was for religious freedom, you wanted to know your G-d. What he approves, what he disapproves.

10:36 IWDM: You wanted to hear from your G-d if what the white man was doing was right or wrong. You wanted to hear from G-d. You wanted to find G-d so you can judge what the white man has established. But instead of finding G-d, you found nothing but a comfortable place with a cold image, nothing but a marble image of the white man. Or plastic, or wooden, I don't know what they making images in now. And there you rested your religious struggle. Ended with Jesus.

11:12 IWDM: Oh, I got Jesus, now. I don't need anything else, I understand why. But you still need something, you just can't see the depths of your life, you in the shallow, in the shallow; you think you don't need anything. But the depths are still troubled, not rested, and won't be rested until you find religious freedom. And the only religious freedom for non-white people, in this particular society, is to come into a religion that is not imaged in the white man. That's the only way. We ain't never going to be free. Church used to be oh so sincere. You always have sincere people in religion, but the leadership of the black church, or the African American church, or the black church now is corrupt. It is corrupt! 

12:31 IWDM: In fact, it's nothing but a mockery.

12:40 IWDM: So we have been yearning for religious freedom. This is the course G-d intended for us, to bring us back to establishment, community life and community establishment after being taken from establishment when we were brought here as slaves or taken from the opportunity to establish ourselves. When we were brought here as slaves. Many of us were brought from dignified life. We know of certain slaves that were brought and sold on slave blocks, auction blocks; it's documented by history that certain ones of them came from educated backgrounds and good situations, good fortunate situations and they were sold just like all the other slaves on auction block.

13:37 IWDM: Religious freedom is our yearning. You who are still with us here, you are here because you believe that this place is the best opportunity for that religious freedom. But that religious freedom for you will not be a reality if you leave responsibility for your religious community life to people that you don't even know. Most of you still trust me and you depend solely upon me to keep the order of your community or your religious life. I can't do that. That's too much for any human being. The prophet himself, peace upon him; he was told by G-d to tell the people I am not to be a protector of your life, a regulator of your affairs, a guardian for your interests. No! The prophet was not sent to do that. He was told by G-d in the Quran to tell them that I have no responsibility but to make the message clear. That's what the prophet was told.

15:18 IWDM: If he would have accepted that responsibility he would have deviated from the course of his own prophet-hood because he came to lead the people into shared community life, shared responsibility, shared authority, shared power. He came to lead the people into the ideal democracy. Yes! So G-d gave him the word to tell them, "No, I won't accept that you burden me with all this responsibility. You have to accept responsibility. You have to accept responsibility for your own life." Don't worry. I don't do this often. This is very important.

16:49 IWDM: We don't have in the history of Prophet Muhammad where Prophet Muhammad was going about checking on people. We don't have in the history of Prophet Muhammad, where Prophet Muhammad was trying to get all of the business in his control. We don't have in the history of Prophet Muhammad where Prophet Muhammad was trying to ascertain what was going on in all the locales, in all the towns so he could have control over the life of the people. We only have in the history of Prophet Muhammad where he gave advice when it was asked outside of the regular job of his prophet-hood when he was inspired to speak to the people. When he was not inspired to speak to the people he was just like a common neighbor. He worked with his wife in the house. He swept the house. He swept in front of the house. He did chores.

18:01 IWDM: He went to the market to get grocery for the household. He was seen carrying on the common life of everybody else. How could he do that and be the man that he was, the leader that he was? Because he was sent to bring about a truly participatory democracy where people accept responsibility for their own circumstances, apply the light of G-d, apply the wisdom of G-d. And don't expect the man who gave it to you from the mouth of G-d to be right there with you by your side, watching you, and treating you like you're a damn baby who don't know how to take care of your own circumstance. I'm not a prophet, I'm not a prophet, I don't even claim to be Mujeddid. I dropped the issue a long time ago. I'm a leader because you chose me. I'm a leader because you want me. I'll stay a leader because you want me. Yes, you can retire me by not wanting me, you can retire me, I have no guarantee from heaven.

19:18 IWDM: Yes. But I speak with the wisdom that was revealed to the prophet, and I speak in defense of the orders of life and society intended for Muslims, with the wisdom revealed to the prophet. And I say to you just as the prophet would say to you, I'm not here to watch all of your interests, to protect all of your investments, to preside over all of your disputes. I'm not G-d, I'm a human being. And G-d presented this kind of democratic participatory democracy to the Muslims so that the Muslims will be a competing force. Not only that, but a leading force for excellence on this earth, a model community for all other communities. But they failed and G-d warned the Arabs, didn't he? Allah says in the Quran, "If you fail, he will raise up behind you another people who will accept this responsibility, say, and they will not... They will be a strong people, they will be a faithful people to G-d, and they won't fear the criticism of the public criticizers."

20:52 IWDM: There are men in nations who have taken up that invitation. I believe in the heart of Khomeini, he feels he really has accepted that invitation. And perhaps, in the hearts of certain other leaders, they feel they have accepted that invitation. But for the most part, the majority of the Muslim societies or nations of this earth have disregarded that invitation. So how come you favor Khomeini when he is a fanatic, a radical? G-d cares more about a fanatic, a radical who will try to take up the challenge, pick up the cause, than he cares about hypocrites who are pleasing everybody just so they don't disturb the waters. I'm not favoring his image over any other person's image but I'm telling you that because that man at least has the courage to say, "This is not your territory. You are not bringing your Western influences. You will not dictate to us. We have our own religion, G-d gave it to us. If we want to be under Islamic rule we're gonna be under it. Now, leave us alone or suffer the consequences".

22:19 IWDM: I'm saying that a man that had that courage, though he be a little too filled, too full of wine. What I mean by that, the wine of religious devotion. Though he be a little too full with the wine of religious devotion G-d will come to his aid quicker and with more power and support than he will to the aid of a hypocrite that's scared to stir the waters. Afraid to... Afraid to risk criticism from those who will criticize. So that old man is about 150 years old. They thought he should have been dead about 80 years ago. He's still over there living, still ruling. And they done tried everything, a Bay of Pigs and everything else, [laughter] and the man's still over there, because G-d says, "Though he's a little tipsy, he has got the courage to stand up for truth and my way." He has G-d's protection. And you people, most of you all are wine heads but if you accept, you'll see, you'll have G-d's protection.

24:01 IWDM: I'm talking about religious freedom. I hope tomorrow to carry this talk. And complete this talk tomorrow. I'm talking about the yearning, the natural yearning in us coming from the circumstances in Africa to the horrible circumstances of slavery in these United States. The yearning in us for religious freedom. And now, the blessing of coming into the community of Al-Islam. And the great responsibility of establishing your Islamic life, but requires that you share responsibility. That you share decision-making. That you leave not your properties and your investments to one man. But seek out honorable, decent, loyal trustworthy people. Form boards. Form committees. Hold each other responsible. Protect your invested interests. In concluding these talks, I want to quickly go over to you the wonderful events in these past 10 years. When I became your leader, that was a wonderful event.

25:36 IWDM: How come that was a wonderful event? You may not see it right now. But if you think about it, especially you learned men and women. If you think about it seriously, you will agree with me. That nothing has happened more significant in the life of Black people on this continent than my coming into the leadership after Elijah Muhammad.

26:16 IWDM: Yes. It ain't nothing you can see right away. But take it with you. Take it home with you. That was a wonderful event. The son of a man they called a Black Supremacist. The son trained by the father to really obey his false G-d. Who was taught from infancy to pray to a man by the name of Fard. And had no other knowledge except that. So, he prayed to a man called Fard. And he thought he was the lord of the worlds. Not only me but all my brothers and sisters thought the same, especially the young ones who hadn't experienced anything else, who believed that the White man was inherently wicked that he was the real devil. And was recruited in the FOI to be a soldier for G-d. Carrying the message until G-d come with the material hardware to remove the White- man from the face of the Earth. Yes. That's what I was taught... That's what I was given... That's what I believed. Until my mind began to grow out of it to look for better understanding.
PART TWO
00:00 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: The son of a man that the public press said was the counterpart or the other side of the KKK. Huh? But the son of Elijah didn't choose to follow the way of Elijah, he chose the way of Muhammad of the Qur'an. And then came into the leadership and kept the following after making such a drastic turn from what the whole temple on so-called nation of Islam had accepted.

00:55 IWDM: We didn't have any battles. A lot of the church people, they can't meet over small issues without fighting, dissolving their government bodies, forming new government bodies. But we remain, we kept the same people and even the same staff, [chuckle] I kept the same staff, Elijah-Muhammad's staff. His national secretary. Well, I guess, they have to be one among in every situation. But I kept him too for a long while. I'm talking about Farrakhan. For a long while, he didn't go nowhere, he was right here with us too.

01:51 IWDM: You would have thought that the following would have gone down to nothing. But it didn't. The people who supported the honorable Elijah-Muhammad the most became my most loyal, most dependable supporters. They believed that the white man was the 
devil, grafted devil. They believed that the man Fard was G-d in the flesh born of a father came here to save the black man. They believed that. They believed it so much they would give their paycheck just to promote that. And they were poor people, now that particular audience, that particular congregation accepted me while I turned the whole thing around.

02:53 IWDM: Changed the whole order. I say that was a wonderful achievement. Wonderful achievement. It wasn't possible because of me, because of my doings, it was possible because of G-d's doing. The determination in you for religious freedom. You didn't want to go back to the church.

03:34 IWDM: And you weren't no atheist, you came to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad because you were G-d fearing. So you didn't want to go back, you wanted to go forward. And because G-d made an opportunity in me for you to go forward and yet still be Muslim, you had no alternative but to say, "I'm staying with the Son."

04:00 Speaker 2: That's right, that's right.

04:03 IWDM: Huh? Wonderful, wonderful achievement. Wonderful achievement. G-d made it possible, but we all share that stayed with it, we all have a share in it. Wonderful achievement. G-d even brought some of the forces of the Jinns to help that situation. And remember me saying to you almost 10 years ago, saying, Solomon had Jinns supporting him in his army. That's what Allah says in the Qur'an.

04:47 IWDM: Yes, some of the Jinns. They're gone now, but they were helping me when they were here. I don't want to call them by 
name. But there was some big Jinns among us. And not only that, some Jinns in the government quarters, some Jinns in the private sector outside of the community. They looked at it and said, "Hey, this looks good." If I can secretly give some support to this, if I can use my few influences, my means, or my instruments to aid it in some way, I'm willing to do it. They lent their support. We appreciate whatever anybody did that helped make possible what occurred but G-d was the master planner. Couldn't have been done without him. In fact, it was his plan. Yes. Now, dear beloved Muslims, we are here in the community of Al-Islam. We are with the Qur'an, we know that the Qur'an is our authority, there is no authority above the Qur'an for Muslims.

06:04 IWDM: We know Muhammad is the one that demonstrate that authority to us, how we lived that in our lives and in the life of the society, in our relationship with each other and with non-Muslims. We know that. But prophet Muhammad he said, "I'll leave you with two authorities. And for as long as you hold to them and don't deviate, you will not go astray." And he named them he said, "They are the Qur'an and my own demonstration of how that book is to be lived called his Sunnah." Praise be to Allah. We have that. But if we don't study the Qur'an, if we don't read and become familiar with it, if we don't study the life of prophet Muhammad and become familiar with the events in his life, with his personality, with his principles, his spirit, his temperament, his wisdom... If we don't get acquainted with that, somebody can come behind me and take you into something that would be as foreign to this as the old was, and you'll still be calling yourselves Muslims because you don't know what it is in its true content.

07:33 IWDM: Don't waste your time, you youngsters, you teenagers, you young students, you bright-minded youngsters. Don't waste your time following these stupid people who bribe you to, who recruit you into their slave-making thing then promise you nothing but animal pleasures. Don't be fooled by them, look at what has happened. Go talk to the wise if your mind ain't strong enough. Go talk to the wise in religion. Talk to the wise in science and ask them what they think about the history of this community and the transition brought on by my leadership with the help of G-d. Ask them what they think about Imam Mohammed, his personality and what he's doing. Ask them what they think about it so you won't get another point of view from people who have credits and not be recruited in by these Uncle Tom's these slaves of the establishment.

08:33 IWDM: And when you are convinced in by your own intelligence that what Imam Warith Deen Mohammed represent is the best opportunity for us, is the more dignified thing to support then lay to it; put your brain to it. Put your heart in it and put your brain to it and spend your energy advancing the life content of the Muslim as it is in the Qur'an, as it is in the Sunnah and as I have tried to represent it. That's the need, because I'm not going to live, I'm going to die. And maybe sooner than you think. Yes, who knows. And what will happen with you all still looking for a Jesus to take all of your responsibilities upon His shoulder? G-d never intended no such. That's a message for the people they want to exploit. They want to take out of the race.

09:38 IWDM: Religious freedom is what you still should be seeking. You're Muslims but the message of freedom is subtle but it's strong in its religion than it is in any other religion. For when we pray, we can't even leave it to the Imam to pray for us. We have to know our own prayers. We have to know how to do it by ourselves. We have to keep the Sunnah of the prophet after the Imam had prayed, you have to be able to stand by yourself and pray. So what is the real meaning of the prophet's Sunnah? True democracy. True democracy, where the individual is capable of leadership for himself. That's the real message of his Sunnah that individual must share in the responsibility for carrying the burden of society. He must be able to carry out the functions alone, the knowledge for how to live and carry the burden and the weight of the government and society must not be on one man's shoulder but on the shoulder of all of them.

10:46 IWDM: And if they understand the sign of Christ, that is a sign. Yes. For they say Jesus is the one promising what was the Ezekiel, one of those books in the Bible, I can't recall it right now, says that the government shall be upon his shoulder. Wonderful counselor, et cetera, et cetera. Aha. But did Jesus say he was a symbol of one man? No. He said, "I in the Father, and you in me." Ah. "And you in Me," meaning that I have my strength in obedience to G-d following his guidance, and you have yours in my... A symbol, my sign. I'm a sign of a collective government, a government of many in one body under G-d." And the church He called, they used the expression, they called it the Body Christ, huh. And they refer to the members of the church but don't you know every church is a government? A lot of preachers don't know it, but this land and this law allows religion to have its own independent government, and they are supposed to be the members in that government, and it's supposed to be shouldered that they're all the members in that body and Christ is a sign of that body, as he is a sign of many mysteries. Now, what I'm saying to you, that's Christ is only symbolism. Mohammad is the real thing.

12:30 IWDM: He is not a myth. He is not a symbol. He is not a sign; he's a flesh and blood man that lived and historians have written about him that were not Muslims. So wake up and see the great opportunity before you to come into the great life of Al-Islam. Become an established community and an established people with guidance to guide your feet, to guide your destiny, to bring you into abundance of life and prosperity if you will only wake up and be true to this calling.

13:17 IWDM: Yes, wake up before it's too late. And my conclusion today is the last time you will look upon me as your leader. I'm not the leader for anybody. I don't accept to be your leader, I'm Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. I'll be the Imam wherever I reside. I don't accept responsibility for you, your investments, your places, your decisions, you better carry it yourself.

13:52 IWDM: I don't intend to ever meet with the Imams as their advisor, you have to advise yourself. Take the Qur'an, take the life of Mohammed. Make your decisions, do not use me as your excuse anymore. I'm not available.

14:13 IWDM: And if you would follow my advice, you would put down the term American Muslim Mission. You would put it down. You would never pick up any term that lop you all together in one community. You'll be members of a Muslim community that is international. You will have Masjids and Imams. You will have AMCOP collective buying. You will have political awareness committees. You will have businesses, private businesses, private concerns. You will bring nothing under centralized thing anymore. You'll be called by Masjid names. You'll be free to walk in to any Masjid and be recognized as a Muslim just like Muslim law in international Muslim world. You will hold your Imam accountable. You will encourage your Imam to form good relations with other Imams, not just black ones, but white ones, red ones, and all color.

15:30 IWDM: When you meet together, you won't meet together under some corporate name, but you will meet together Imams on equal standing. You'll form your council upon your own decision, upon your own will, not pressured to do it. You will limit the power of your council to nothing but representing the interest, the aspirations, the concerns of your Masjid. Find an opportunity to work together when it's necessary. You will not require any such council for any unnecessary purpose at all. In other words, you will work for a minimum of control over your body because G-d wants you to shoulder the responsibility yourself.

16:36 IWDM: I've always had a problem in my soul accepting that religion be organized or institutionalized to the extent that it becomes a cooperation, a cooperate entity. A good situation to be exploited by the powerful. Yes, but if you follow the guidance of G-d, if you have the free, open Islamic society that G-d intends for you, then you're not an enticement, a temptation, an 
invitation to the exploiters from the powerful, from the rich. But if they see you have a tight knit, well-organized, strongly organized thing wherein there is an individual or a group of individuals dictating to many, that's a good situation for them; it's ideally structured and tailored for their exploits.

17:35 IWDM: But if you get rid of that, and have an open free Islamic society, and you come together as Imams, not belonging to American Muslim Mission that was a step from another thing that even was more institutionalized, the old temple of nation of Islam. So I brought you a step away from that. Now, I'm not telling you to drop that, but I'm advising you that if you want to really be an Islamic community, you should drop these names that separate you and set you apart from other Islamic populations [applause].

18:20 IWDM: And you should work as one Muslim, Muslim is one all over the earth. You should work as one Muslim with one Muslim identity, following the same Qur'an, following the same human model, Mohammad, peace and blessing be upon him. That's the way you should go. Don't you know you can achieve the things you want to achieve better if you do it without this situation for enemy sabotage? Yes, you can do it much better. Private enterprise, private enterprise! Formed together in groups as you have been doing. Don't you think that's progress? I do.

19:21 IWDM: I don't control the businesses in the Muslim community. I have nothing at all to do with them. The businesses are under private business people, and as a result, we have better business and more progress for business in the Muslim community than we ever had. When you look at this brochure that is coming out now, the tenth anniversary brochure, you will see more businesses represented in that magazine, and I believe that it doesn't carry not even one-tenth of the businesses that are in this community, and to make that brochure there to the Temple of Islam or the Nation of Islam mean some years ago they went and searched carefully, not only for Nation of Islam businesses, but for those who had, against the spirit of the Nation of Islam, defied the policy of the Nation of Islam, and set up businesses on their own.

20:23 IWDM: They went and got those businesses too, and pulled other people's business in to show what the Nation was doing. And not only that, not only that, they also... Yes, thank you very much... They also went and took pictures of private dwellings, homes that belonged to private individuals. How I know? Because they took the picture of my brother's home, and he bought his own home. It was not the Nation of Islam home, it was his own home, and there were other homes too in this picture magazine that showed the progress of the then Temple or Nation of Islam. So they went and got all these properties to make a big, impressive picture presentation of what the Muslims had accomplished. It was not a truthful presentation. But if you look at what's in here, it's truthful because I don't have any promotion psychology or program to take properties and put them in a magazine to impress non-Muslims that we are a rich empire.

21:34 IWDM: I don't have such policy or philosophy. Now, the businesses in Atlanta alone are very impressive, and we have them in the South, we have them in the Midwest, we have them all over, but there's no loud... There's no loud noise being made about it. It's a natural development, a natural development, nothing exaggerated. It's happening in a very natural way. It's going to grow bigger and bigger, it's going to grow bigger and bigger. Do you know most of the members in our community by the standards of this society still represent the poorest materially and the most unlearned academically. Although we have members in our community now, many that we didn't have, who have graduated from high school, and now an impressive number from colleges. We have more doctors in our community than we ever had before.

22:42 IWDM: But even with that, growth or change in the education level or the academic level of the membership, we still represent the poorest of the African-American people, and also the least educated of the African-American people, our membership, that is. But our membership as a body identifiable in the low level or poor level or poor... The low stratum of people in the African-American race, that particular group we call the members under this particular voice, if they would be studied, they would be found to be more progressive than any other similar group in these United States. We represent progress, real progress. In fact, we represent so much progress until I'm always hearing from non-Muslims this; "We're depending on you all."

24:06 IWDM: We are depending on you all. We have this, we have that, but you all have something that we don't have. That's what I'm hearing from them. My father had no education, no more education than three years, elementary school, in the South where schools were inferior at that time and may be in this time. Many of the schools are still rated inferior to northern schools, is that not right? My father had only three years education. My mother went to the eighth grade but did not graduate from elementary school, my mother. My youngest brother has his doctorate degree. I am a man that's highly respected for wisdom and insight. Yes. And we come from that, from momma and dad, Elijah Mohammed and Clara Mohammed who used to be... Before they became Muslim, took on those names, Elijah Poole and Clara Evans.

25:26 IWDM: And our children, our children are performing on a very high level. Yes. Daughter, a student of IIT, Illinois Institute of Technology. I've got a son who's very bright. In fact, his teacher who's with him now says that he is performing on the level of 12th graders... 12th graders. And he is not yet graduated from high school, he will graduate in June, Insha'Allah. Yes, this is what I'm told. And I believe it because I know him too. I have experiences with him too, I know. I believe that actually, if he had the help, encouragement, and the help, and the circumstances he could go straight out of elementary school into college, he wouldn't even have to go into high school. I know that myself. He's better now than a lot of freshmen in high school. His ability is better. He's here, I don't like to say it in front of him either. He's wondering, "What you talkin' 'bout, Dad?" That's Saadi, Sasdri-Deen. Yes.

26:52 IWDM: But not just my family. There are many other Muslims. Brother Hazam Ali, he has a child too in IIT. Another brother, another sister, they have a daughter in IIT. In fact, there's about four or five children from the Muslim community here in Chicago in IIT. IIT is one of the hardest schools to get into in Chicago or in Illinois. See, we used to give credit to the old Temple of Islam, say, "Yeah, that's because it's the Temple of Islam". Well, what about Laila and Saadi and Ngina, they ain't the product of the Temple of Islam. They've been under my tutelage more than they've been under anybody else's. [laughter] That's right. It's because of the broad concepts, the broadness of the mind and concepts that our children are courageous enough to take on responsibility to tackle these subjects, not be afraid or intimidated...
PART THREE
00:00 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Most of us have inherited fear, shame, low self esteem, or either artificial ego, and we go to these institutions of the white man and we can't make it, either because we are not in tune with reality and have a ego that's too big and artificial, or because that we have been shortchanged because of the environment and environmental circumstances for ourselves. This religion has brought us to see the needs, to create the right environment, to work on improving the environment, to bring concepts that are natural and broad to the minds of our children. And because of that, our children are excelling. Our school is going to be the best.

00:50 S?: Right.

[background conversation]

00:53 IWDM: Yes. The Clara Muhammad Private School here in Chicago, it's going to be the best.

01:00 IWDM: How do I know? Because I know we got the best. We got the best vision, we got the best plan for the school. Our school is going to be the best. We're going to put out the best mind, the best products.

01:24 IWDM: If you all would join me, in a little while you'd be dominant in this city.

01:32 IWDM: You would. The power will come to you. He would. The power would come to you. Why? Because they are wasted out there.

01:42 IWDM: This is not me talking. This is what their own examination, evaluation has concluded, that the public school system is a waste. The white man, he has taken his best out of the public school, he's dealing with it privately with his own money. And he leaves his poor whites and you poor folks to have the shambles that are left. The quality of the teachers is nothing. The spirit and drive in them has gone. All they looking for is animal pleasures, animal rewards, money and Saturday night kicks. Am I telling the truth or not? Okay. So you see this is a fortunate situation for you. Come and support me. Join my leadership. Support me. Say, "Oh but I heard you just retired from leadership." Certainly, you dumbbell, you.

02:57 IWDM: I didn't say I'm going to stop talking. I said I'm going to stop doing your work.

03:17 IWDM: So accept the direction. Come into Al-Islam. Accept the direction that we offer. Learn what we are doing here in Chicago. If you have a situation to reproduce it or to do better, do it where you are. And encourage your people to come into this religion. This is the religion. This is the place of religious freedom for the African-American person. So tomorrow, Insha'Allah, we will continue this subject, and we want to alert you to the evils, the danger for the dangerous possibilities for a community that is not alert and educated in form. How it can easily be taken over by people who don't have the interests at heart. And because you don't know what you represent or what you should be, they can lead you in the name of your religion to a foreign course and a contrary end. We don't want that. We're going to work to fight it, we're going to work to stop it.

04:28 IWDM: We hope tomorrow to show you, and to get you to see and agree with your own mind, upon your own decision, that the solution we have here in America to bring African-American men up and African-American families up and African-American community up is the same that's needed in Africa and everywhere else that black people are existing today. The same is needed. They have the same problems in their spirit, same problems in their souls that we have over here. In fact, in many places, they have a worse problems, a worse situations than we have. You're not going to come out of it by trying to follow your own whims, your own 
opinions. Whimsical opinions that you dream up. I thank G-d for saving us from dependency on dream thinking.

05:32 IWDM: You follow a logic, tried and proven logic for establishing individuals and societies. The Qur’anic road, the Islamic guidelines, that's the answer and we've gone into the night. We have to make Maghrib prayer. We don't have the situation here for it, and that's another thing. We should never have programs that does not provide also accommodation for our religious obligations, and prayers are very sincere, very important one, is one of the five essential pillars of this religion. We should never have a program and agenda that omit, disregard our obligation to pray our five daily prayers.

06:29 IWDM: So I conclude this talk, and I hope that you have seen in it progress, progress. I don't make a decision in the interest of myself. I make the decision in the interest of pleasing G-d number one, and that means progress. My vision is for progress. And I know that the best way to progress in this country is to have a situation that enable individuals to carry the greatest amount of responsibility for their own circumstances, for their own lives. Don't be afraid to invest. Invest, invest your time, invest your knowledge, invest your energies, invest your money, but do it with a sober mind. Do it in a practical way. Be practical in your thinking. Follow the best advice. Be a Muslim, let us be obedient to the Qur'an, and to the son of the prophet. Be very serious. Don't take unnecessary risk, but don't be too distrustful. Don't be afraid to trust each other, you find people that share your same aspirations. And you're struggling. You don't have much to work with. Join those people who share your same aspirations. Don't be afraid to trust each other, and work hard together to improve the situation in your life.

08:15 IWDM: Compete with the rich. Compete with the powerful. This is what Allah want for us. Don't you know some of the powerful rich people today, were poor just five years ago. Yes. Some of the most powerful and richest people today right now, on this calendar day were five years ago poor. But they had the vision and the courage to find the resources, and invest their time and their energies, and to trust each other, and build a great thing. That's all you need. You don't have to be poor. You're poor and weak because you don't have courage. You don't even have the courage to trust another good person. Reading the Qur'an and following it's direction, and learning more about the how that it is to be lived by studying the life of Muhammad will bring you out of that situation. And you will become a progressive, productive people. We are realizing some progress but not near enough. I hear they're coming out with another issue of a journal, which will be another special issue. It is quite needed because they're recalling the achievements of the community. And the first achievement quite naturally was achievement for bringing this religious community to be true to it's name, to be true Muslims, to have a true content.

10:02 IWDM: But another great achievement was to remove the structures of slavery. We centralized the interests of the community, the business interests of the community, bring it in to private hands, remove the unit called, "FOI," and "MGT," and bring a situation where every Imam have dignity. Every congregation has dignity. All of them on a equal footing, free as they should be to invest in their own immediate region, and build their community locally without having so much demanded of them from a central office.

11:08 IWDM: Freedom, Islamic freedom is another great achievement that you have realized since I became your leader, so another paper is coming out, and I hope they won't forget these things. Also in my travel abroad, this particular house we're in right now was under heavy, heavy liability. We had to pay about $240,000 periodically to Libya alone. It was killing us, strangling us to death. My policy was different, so we had different policies. We were not forcing the people to come up with donations and quotas of donations, so the money just wasn't here, so how are we going to pay these... All these big debts? How we're going to answer all these big demands on us, financial demands on us. I went to Libya in the name of Allah, then I asked the Libyan government to excuse us from that obligation. No quicker than I asked, they granted it and I came back home free from that responsibility.

12:15 IWDM: I think when a leader makes a visit to other country and saves a community, the obligation to pay $240,000 or more once or twice a year, I think when he achieves that, that is a victory for that community.

12:40 IWDM: And that's just one of many things that we have been able to achieve since I came into the leadership with your support. You say, "Well, what about the next 10 years, Brother Imam?" The next 10 years are going to show up this past 10 years so much that it's going to be too small. The only problem we should remember from this we will say, "Hey, we came from the Temple of Islam on the Sunnah road of the Prophet." The rest of it won't even be worth remembering. The progress that will come in the next 10 years will overshadow what we have done in the past 10 years so much that we won't hardly be able to recall. Say, "Yeah, we did have those small things back then." Trust my word. Trust my word. The only thing that was missing in our life was freedom. Now this religion has brought it to us. That's right. The ideologies, and even the church ideology we had, before didn't permit us to be free. Now we are free indeed. As salaamu Alaikum.

[background conversation]

13:57 IWDM: Takbeer.

[background conversation]

14:00 IWDM: Allahu Akbar. Allah.

[pause]

14:24 S?: Historic address.

14:25 IWDM: Bismillahi Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem. With the name Allah, most gracious, most compassionate. Dear beloved Muslims, Imams, community in general, Assalamu Alaikum.

[background conversation]

[pause]

14:57 IWDM: Bismillahi Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem. With the name Allah, most gracious, most compassionate. Dear beloved Muslims, Imams, community in general, Assalamu Alaikum.

[background conversation]

15:15 IWDM: Praise be to Allah, the [15:16] ____, the Cherisher, the Cherisher, the Sustainer of all the Worlds. We worship Him, associating nothing with Him. I bear witness that he is the One alone. He has no partners in the rule of the Heavens and the Earth. He never begot a son nor was He born. There is nothing like unto Him whatsoever. And I bear witness that Muhammad, to whom the Qur'an was revealed, is His servant and His messenger. We pray the peace and the blessings be upon Muhammad, upon his descendants, the companions, the righteous, all of them. Ameen.

16:06 IWDM: We are in the second and last day, I believe, of this two-day celebration, our observing of the 10 years of support and progress as a community struggling, striving to be true to it's name that is Muslim community. We thank Allah for His blessings on our effort that has made it possible for us to come into the clear teachings of our holy book, the Qur'an and to follow G-d's order to the believers. That is to obey, believe in and obey also the messenger of G-d, Muhammad, to whom the Qur'an is revealed. I can say for myself and for many others that I have gotten some response from or some indication of how they feel over the program for yesterday. I can say it was very excellent spirit of the community here in the Midwest region, better than I have seen in perhaps the whole time that I have been your leader.

[background conversation]

17:58 IWDM: It seems to be a more healthier, healthier environment, a healthier spirit, and a more normal membership that I have seen since I have been the leader of this community.

[background conversation]

18:19 IWDM: So you know I had list a lot of things, along with what was mentioned yesterday, to bring to your attention here that we could celebrate as achievements since we have been on the plain road of Al-Islam. But as I was sitting back there and getting some notes and some information together to present to you, I said, "Well, best to leave that to the journal, the AM Journal and others," and what I plan to do today is just bring some things to your attention that perhaps are not available to AM Journal, and the publications that will be bringing us news, have been and will be bringing us news on our community and on activities as Imam in Chicago and for the membership of the community or the [19:37] ____ Masjid.

19:39 IWDM: Now let me clear up something that happened yesterday. I was so caught up into the spirit of what this was all about until really I didn't know what was happening but I just knew something happened, wrong. I didn't know what it was though, but I knew something. You know your spirit registers sometimes before your mind registers what's going on. So my spirit had registered that there was something that was happening that wasn't quite correct, but actually I didn't catch it with my mind; it passed my mind. Then later I was told that this check that was presented to me yesterday was presented in a language that made some people think that this check was to me, a check for $5000 from the Clara Muhammad Memorial Educational Foundation. So let me clear that up right now. I'm going to read to you the endorsement on this check. It says, "Pay the amount of $5000, no cents, to the order of Clara Muhammad School," not to me, as a donation.

21:11 IWDM: Now this is their donation to the school, Clara Muhammad School, $5000, and this is not the first donation. This is a very sizable donation for any poor people like us. It is a substantial donation that they're making, very substantial donation considering the means that they have to work with. We have received very good donations from the Clara Muhammad Foundation to our school ever since it was formed. Sometimes not nearly this much, but a $1000, I recall several times them giving a $1000. And we have them listed among our leading supporters for paying tuition; they pay tuition for poor members of the community, and lend other kind of charitable assistance. It should be also noted that the Clara Muhammad Foundation is on record for giving substantial contributions, aid, to the black colleges and non-Muslims who are in bad situations or bad circumstances. So we thank them for this big gift and very much needed gift. We pray Allah reward them with the best rewards and aid them in making their wonderful, charitable institution an even more important one for them and for the beneficiaries, the people that receive help from them in the future. For the future, pardon me.

23:19 IWDM: Now I hate to... See, when I get to talking, I get in the spirit and I forget. I may even forget the money. So hold this money please, and don't let nobody touch that until we get it into the bank.

[background conversation]

23:44 IWDM: Now, I wanted to mention to you also today that in the spirit an interest of realizing for ourselves a truly Islamic free society I have encouraged the creation, publication of books, magazines, and even newspapers though we have a newspaper, but I would like to see more newspapers. A community as national as we are, we could have a newspaper in every big city. There is a Muslim who is an editor for a newspaper about the same I would say the same standard that our newspaper is on and I recall reading it on occasions when I've had opportunity to get one and it's a very good newspaper, very good newspaper. Perhaps if we would search, we might even find even more newspapers put out by Muslims in the community or belonging to the community. When I say community, now I'm referring to our community, not the broad Islamic community. I'm talking about just our Islamic community, our part of the Muslim population here in the United State.

25:38 IWDM: We have recently realized the production of a magazine that will be coming out monthly, Progressions Magazine. Some of you might have seen Progressions and maybe you got a copy of it. I believe the cost is about, what $0.75 I think. Cost is $0.75 and the first issue in my opinion is a very good one and I think a very good one in terms of quality. Quality work, quality work, and when I say work I mean the artwork in it is excellent, very excellent. Quality work and quality message, the message too is clean and that's what we like.

26:31 IWDM: We have another publication on the way. In fact, it has been on the way for some times. In fact, it was brought to me as a project before the Progressions Magazine became a project. The magazine is not yet out, but it's a magazine that will be addressing economic concerns and some political concerns as well. That magazine will be put out by persons working and assisting and supporting the national chairman of the collective buying, community AMCOP. We hope to see that publication soon.

27:20 IWDM: Along with these efforts and the journalistic kinds of publications, we have also work being done for bringing about books, pamphlets, booklets, et cetera, for the purpose of passing on knowledge, education, and the religion, Islamic knowledge, Islamic education, and help for us who's...
