09/01/1998
IWDM Study Library
Islamic Convention 
Los Angeles Ca

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Thank you. Praise be to Allah. Thank you. Thank you, brother Imam. Thank you, too. Thank you very much brother Imam. Thank you. Praise be to Allah. We praise and thank G-d. Praise be to Allah. Alhamdulillah, we say. Greeting of peace to all of you. As-Salaam-Alaikum. We witness that G-d is G-d. The creator of the heavens and the earth. The creator of mankind. The teacher of the prophets and the teacher of humanity. Mankind G-d. Our G-d. We are told in our holy book by G-d, to say to the people of the books, Christians, and Jews, those who have faith, your G-d and our G-d is one and the same. Your G-d and our G-d is one and the same.
I would like to thank G-d at this time, also for our presence here that we have been blessed to travel without accidents, without loss of life, or property and be here today in the spirit of faith in G-d and respect for sacred matters and human life. We thank G-d for our presence here. We thank G-d for the presence of those that we have come to know and have friendship with through dialogue, the Focolare movement representatives that are here today as they have been since we made a friendship with them and that's been now for about two years.
I would like for them to stand so that you will the representatives of the international movement, Christian movement for Christ's love. For the promotion of Christ's love. His commandment love ye one another as I have loved you. Will you please stand, representatives of Focolare movement? Thank you.
Thank you. Praise be to Allah. We have been blessed also to have history made for us in Los Angeles for this 1998 Muslim American Society convention, National Convention with the phone call to our father and son breakfast this morning from the Grand Mufti of Syria, who is a distinguished, a most national and international, most distinguished intellect and thinker in Al-Islam today. I believe, he is about 90 years old. 90 years old, but that doesn't stop him, that hasn't prevented him from traveling across oceans to embrace others of faith and to share with them the real message of Al-Islam with the hope that humanity will unite and work for peace and better human conditions throughout this world.
We thank G-d for the phone call from Syria, from the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ahmed Kuftaro. My friend, my brother in Al-Islam, Imam that I follow, my teacher that I got one lesson from in a two-hour conversation with him about, almost a year ago now, half a year, a little better than half a year ago and we'll see again, G-d willing in December, hopefully I'll spend about three weeks there. I'm asking that all the time he can spare except the time that I have to sleep will be given so that I may have more lessons from him so that we can have discussions. And I again, from his great knowledge and his great spirit and his great vision of how we are to represent Al-Islam in this modern time.
We thank G-d for his phone call and we thank G-d for Jim Brown's presence. Jim Brown, the football star who-- Oh, he did wonders. He was a superstar for the Cleveland Brown he said.
Yes, Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns. Yes, I know him as he wished to be known not only as a great football star, superstar for the Cleveland Browns, but I know him also as a great leader in our society helping youngsters have a mentor and support from a wise spirited mentor who has genuine interest in them and love for them. He have met with the big gangs of Los Angeles, the blues, and the reds, I'm not up on gangs either. The blues and the red Bandanas and have realized a lot of success with them. We thank Allah for such persons that have joined us in Los Angeles here for this 1998 Islamic convention.
There are others, we had the Brigadier General from Tuskegee Airmen. Some of you are familiar with Tuskegee Airmen. African Americans who fought in the war and were discriminated against, even though they were fighting for our country, but they finally won respect and the right and opportunity to be pilots and they performed so marvelously that history now recalls them as great pilots during the Second World War. I believe some of them are still the descendants or their descendants, our members are still flying. He also had great words of value to share with us.
We thank G-d for his presence here with us. We thank G-d for the Police Chief of Los Angeles. Police Chief Parks, for his comments at our banquet, very genuine, sincere presentation he made. We are lucky and fortunate, blessed to have such persons in those positions. The chief of polices in Los Angeles, a very important and serious position and responsibility. We can see genuine human heart and spirit and concern for justice that the little people, the neglected people get justice. Then we are very happy. That's a big relief to know that we have such person in that position. I'm convinced after hearing his presentation, that he is a genuine human being who has obligated himself to do what's right, and to uphold justice for all. We thank Allah for them. We thank Allah for all our Imams who have traveled from South and North and Midwest and East and everywhere, from Bermuda and other places, to be with us at this convention. May Allah keep us in the faith, strengthen us in the faith, and make all of our good efforts productive. For Al-Islam and for humanity.
In our holy book, the Quran, G-d mentions a time when things will be happening, and it will be clear that they are not happening in response to man's doings, or his will, but in response to G-d's doing and G-d's will, and it's put in this language that, wait until you see G-d come with His clock, with His time piece. What time is it by your clock? You will give us that time. What time is it by G-d's clock? G-d has to reveal that, G-d has to make us know that. There are a lot of things that are happening in this modern world, in our time, that to me is very clear signs for people of faith.
Among modern world developments are signs and support for faith in G-d. Signs as powerful as a parting of the waters, mentioned in the Old Testament, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the Jordan River. These signs are very powerful. Some of us see things happening and witness changes in the world, but we don't do what G-d asked us to do, and that is not just see things but, reflect on them. Reflect on them as believers in G-d. Refer back to your scripture, to prophecies and to scripture, so you will know what time is it by G-d's clock, not by yours, so you will know what time is it by G-d's clock.
We have seen, the cold war period ended. We lived in fear for a time, the fear of horrible consequences, perhaps the destruction of society as we know it on this Earth, by the superpowers, if they decided to go to war with each other with the great stockpile of nuclear weapons that they had, and still have. We feared the destruction of society as we know it, and without us being able to predict the end of that time, the end came. The great Soviet Union was dismantled and only one superpower remained, and we have stopped fearing what could happen if the wrong phone was picked up by the president of the United States and war was declared between the great superpowers.
That time of fear is gone and we find that almost the next morning, a vast land that we thought had become atheists, or was without belief and practice by the faithful followers of G-d, was seen as I said almost the next morning with many people of faith ready to publicly practice their faith or their religion. Christians, Muslims, and others. We were told a story, which was a true story of the survival of Muslim learned persons and leadership, strong parents who secretly protected their religion and shared it with their children secretly so that Al-Islam will survive Communist domination over them.
We were told that parents and teachers would awake in the wee hours of the night, and they would teach their children. Say, if the soldiers would see or the officers, the police, would see light on at night or early in the morning, they would be suspicious and most likely, they would come in and investigate to see what you're doing. In the wee wee hours of the night, they thought everybody was asleep for sure, and that was when they would get up and wake their children, and share with their children their knowledge of their religion.
They were educating, secretly educating their youngsters to carry on the religion, carry on the responsibility of sharing their religion with others and living it themselves, and after 70 years of being denied religious freedom, almost the next day in the morning, they began establishing, opening up schools and colleges, and now they have many colleges in Russia for the education of Muslim children, Muslim youth, and Muslim adults who want to qualify in Al-Islam and have higher education. Something very similar happened for Christian leaders, leadership, and the Christians of Russia or the Soviet block.
The same thing happened for them. They preserved their religion, and they preserved their knowledge quietly and secretly, and as soon as freedom came again for them to practice their religion, it was established as though it only slept for a night of 70 years and woke up fresh as they were the day before they slept. Isn't that wonderful? I think that's a sign from G-d. It's a sign from G-d, mighty sign from G-d, but there are more signs from G-d. G-d speaks of the Earth itself. This body, huge spherical body we call the Earth that we live on and live from.
Responding to G-d one day against misguided men and corrupt man's abuse of the Earth. I'm giving you quote from the Qur'an, the earth will behave as though she had received revelation from her lord. I believe, what we're calling globalization now, globalizing trends and what we're calling globalization and the one world economy. The global market place. I believe that these developments are fulfilling that potent prophesy in the Quran that says, or which says, "One day, the earth is going to behave as though her Lord have revealed to her. Had revealed to her," the earth itself.
I don't think that means the physical stones or the virtual stones and sands, and soil, and trees, and rivers, and lakes, and all that. I don't think it means that. Not quite that. By interpretation, it means exactly that. The role of waters, the value of waters to commercial man. The value of the land to commercial man. The value of the winds to commercial man. The value of the sun that heats the earth and the growth that comes out. The cause of the climate, that is of importance to commercial man. That these elements, this earth with all of these elements, in man’s commercial interest are going to speak out against abuses that man has made.
Abuses of the proper use, the correct use of these things. I recall in my life being a young man before my teens and during my teens. I recall how powerful our nation was, the United States of America. I recall how the west dominated other lands and how we as citizens of this great nation, it was great then and is greater now I think. Citizens of this great nation had a much higher standard of living than other nations.
That our nation was much more powerful, much more richer than other nations because our nation was using the natural resources, the minerals et cetera of other nations and giving them little or nothing in return. But, the day has come now when economic justice is being called for, and the material realities are no longer in the hands of one nation, not even this great United States of America. Material realities are now in G-d's charge. You may not see it that way, but that's how I see it. Man hasn't brought this about. G-d has brought it about.
When education influences for awakening the conscience of the most backward and illiterate people. Have reached them through the powerful media, that some of our great men and great writers of insight has identified as a liberating tool in this modern time, television. Television has its problems we know. We have many complaints against some programs on television, but television has also been the means for reaching masses of people all around this world and bringing the true picture of world communities to every community on this earth fortunate enough to have a television.
We think we're in charge of everything. We think we're in charge of ourselves. We think we're in charge of the material resources. We think we're in charge of the economy. We think we're in charge of the wealth. G-d is always in charge. We're not even in charge of ourselves. G-d is always in charge. He is the hidden force. He is watching all of us according to the scripture. He is watching over us all the time.
He knows when we're going to veer off course and have a terrible collision and cause great distraction to ourselves and others. G-d knows that and sometimes, G-d let's that happen and G-d is in the accident and G-d is in control of the accident. And G-d comes out unaffected by the accident and we recover and don't know that it was G-d all the time. G-d all the time overseeing the works of His creatures and making sure that if they make mistakes, they will recover from those mistakes.
And G-d is the one who can take a plus and make it a minus. Take a minus and make it a plus. G-d is the one that can do that. Look how communism was a great minus and look how G-d has now made it a great plus because, now it is history in the Soviet Union. They might go back to it, we don't know. I don't think they can go back to it. I really don't. It is history for us. It is a sign for us that these things that go against the will of G-d are temporary. G-d's way is permanent.
What seems to be a hurt can also be a means for us to have a better life after the hurt than we could have had before the hurt. I see these things turn into pluses, minuses being turned into pluses. To me, its a sign from G-d. It's a support for my faith. I believe we're living in the day of G-d's clock. Not our clock, G-d's clock. I believe what G-d says in our holy book that He has not made man audience, except for His service. Knowingly or unknowingly, we're serving G-d.
G-d says in our holy book that He created the mountains and everything, and man, and the angels, all He made the world. He said to them, "Come in obedience to me. Come in obedience to me willingly and unwillingly." We look at the great problems, rising crime rates, the loss of our children to the streets of crime. We know that's a hurt. It's a terrible hurt, while it is a punishment on society, it is also an instrument in the power of G-d. An instrument in G-d's control for awakening our conscience, for even a better family life than we could have had before. Our conscience is awakened again and the hurt touches us deeper and caused to arise in us, concern and spirits and determination that makes us stronger. Stronger for establishing healthy families than we would have been had our muscles not been tested and strained and our souls had not been disturbed so deeply.
I hope you're understanding me. G-d, with our bad circumstances that we bring upon ourselves, turn those bad circumstances into positive things, positive forces, positive influences for preparing us to do a better job and have a better world, and a stronger world than we would have had, had we not had any of those experiences. Look how we are born from our mothers. Nine months, carried by mama and while we're carried by her, we are land, water. Yes, but then, we are delivered from mama after nine months normally. We come out and take the first breathe, air. We open our eyes to the light of day and begin to become creatures of the sun. Creatures of the sunlight.
Our societies are sometimes in such bad condition that the world has to receive us again as living things that die. Go back to earth, and then a regeneration, a rebirth, a resurrection from the grave of corruption, materialism, greed, et cetera. A rebirth from that, a rising up again from that permits us to be born again. To breathe the air of freedom and to walk by the light of the sun. Our scriptures tell us that revealed by G-d, over 14 centuries ago, to Muhammad the model man, the model human person, may the prayers and the peace be upon him.
G-d wants us to look not at individuals when we want to understand the resurrection from the dead, the resurrection from the death, the resurrection from the dead. G-d says, "Look at a town whose buildings have been neglected and the roofs are falling-- caving in and how that town can have a resurrection. Structures can be repaired, new buildings established." He says, "Likewise, is the resurrection of the dead." Al-Islam is to be understood by Muslims. We need knowledge from the highest sources of Al-Islam to correctly understand our own religion. To correctly identify our own life.
What the Muslim life is, we need knowledge from the Quran and we need the knowledge of the human person that received the revelation, the Quran and introduced, for the first time Al-Islam to the world of people. To this world of human people, human beings, nations, Muhammad Ibn Abdullah of Mecca, Arabia, prayers and peace be on him. Our religion is a religion of peace, it's the religion of peace.
Peace is so prevalent in our religion. Our name is Muslim, meaning, person who accept peace. Muslim is from Salaam, peace. Our greetings is Salaam, peace and we are told to look for a day when we will arrive at the abode of peace. Dar es Salaam, the abode of peace. We are told that our G-d is the source of peace. That He is the peace. Our G-d, the G-d of all people, the G-d of the universe, we are told that He is the peace. So, how can a religion that has so much peace in its composition, in its important language, in its most important terminologies, how can that religion say so much to peace, address peace so much and we, not be a peace-seeking people?
We look at the life of Muhammad the Prophet, prayers and peace be on him and we think of him as a warrior. He did not want to be a warrior, he had to be asked by G-d to take up arms. He was a peace-maker. He was a lover of peace. He suffered, took abuses and didn’t returned the blow at a fight because, he wanted to give people the message and not fight them, but the idolaters were people that were not enlightened. They were not an enlightened people. Muhammad was born in an idolater’s society, they worshiped idols. They didn't have the right concept of G-d, so they didn't value human beings.
The life of human persons and a human society, like civilized nations of Christians and others, value human life and human society. They were savage in many ways. They were cruel savages in many ways. The Prophet suffered enough and it was G-d who knew the time to tell him to rise up. G-d permitted him to return the attack, to defend the mission and the community, the Muslims, the faithful against the war makers. He was not a war maker. On the day of victory, when he was victorious, in the peninsula we call Arabia, Saudi Arabia now.
On the day of victory, what did he do? He did like the Prophet David in the Bible, peace be upon David. He forgave his enemies. He told them, he proclaimed, that as long as they accept the order of peace. As long as his enemies accepted the order of peace, they would have no fear. Their lives and their properties would be protected by the new Islamic State. He didn't tell them that, "As long as you believe." No, he didn't say that. He said as long as you accept peace. Which means, you didn't have to become a Muslim, he forgave the enemies and then say, you must now become Muslim. No. He did not. Christians were existing before in territories that the Muslim had won and they continued to exist and he said that-- he mandated that they practice their religion as they had practiced it before. There were no demands on them to change their religion, to get rid of it or to become Muslim. He said the same to the Jews. He mandated the freedom of religion also for the Jews.
If this great man forgave his enemies and permitted those of other religions to continue to live, practice their religion as they had practiced before. He even didn't go out witch hunting, seeking idol worshipers, spying on them to see if they still worship the idols. He didn't do that. All he asked is that, they accept the new order to live in peace and to keep the peace. Muhammad the prophet, we should know him, brother Muslims. We should know our prophet, we should know the model man, the model human being that G-d gave us, who was a mercy to all the nations as G-d says in the Quran. We should know him. He's not a warmonger. He was never a warmonger.
He's a peacemaker. He's always a peacemaker. He is a liberator. He came to champion the cause of the freedom of religion, not to persecute the religious communities but to champion the cause of the freedom of religion. G-d says to us of Muhammad that his model as a human model is enough to satisfy any people who believe in G-d and the last day, any people. Christian, Jews, and others. He is enough as a human model to satisfy. He's sufficient to satisfy any people who believe in G-d and believing in last day. Do you think they are not Christians who respect Muhammad? There are many Christians who respect Muhammad and didn't just occur in this century.
They have been in every century since Muhammad's day. Christians of higher learning and higher education and those of the common people who have great respect for Muhammad. The persecutors of people, the persecutors of human life, the oppressors of mankind, the oppressors of humanity, the warmongers, those who have greed for power and greed for the wealth, greed for the resources of the world, they are the one that have promoted this clash, clashing of Muslim and Christians. The Crusades and the religious hatred that we know in history gone and in present history. They are the ones that have secretly promoted this evil.
There are good Christians and good Jews that have never bought the opinion of those who persecuted Al-Islam, and there are good Muslims who have never bought the opinion of our Muslim leaders and Muslim powers that have persecuted Christians, done wrong by them or done wrong by Jews or any people of faith. There are those of us that have always looked at the Christians with respect and looked at the Jews with respect. Respecting them as people to whom G-d sent messengers, prophets and people who follow the path of G-d and live the life of faith, faith in G-d.
Don't let the rule and the power and presence and dominance of wrongdoers blind us to the truth of the history of the people of faith, what they really are and what they are really committed to or obligated to uphold. Don't be blinded, don't be misguided or fooled by those who are in power because their power and their rule is temporary and G-d's way is permanent. We have to dialogue with each other. We have to welcome each other. G-d says that He didn't create us to stand over each other but He created us, tribes, nations different so that we would want to get acquainted with each other, so that we would want to know each other.
Muslims, that tells us that Allah the Lord creator of all wants Muslims to be in dialogue with people of other religions. How are we going to respond to G-d's teaching to us that He didn't make us different societies or different nations for us to despise each other or stand over each other, but He made us different nations so that our curiosities will be aroused and we will want to get acquainted with each other and when we get acquainted with each other, we will benefit from the differences and appreciate the differences. Our nation is a different nation from that of China, the people China and others.
Our nation is different and they are different, but when we come to know each other, we find that they have benefits that we can use and we have benefits that they can use. Coming to the world table, to the global table of acquaintance. The global table of acquaintance where we are getting acquainted with each other. We can go from that global table back to home much more richer than we were before we sat with each other at the global community table to have dialogue and get acquainted. We know each other better to respect each other more.
The more we know of each other's differences and appreciate what G-d has favored or blessed us with separately, the richer we will be in knowledge, in human worth and even in faith. My faith has been improved through interaction or through dialogue with non-Muslims, of the Christian religion and the Jewish religion. We look at the global trends and if we are people of faith following scripture, we will try to benefit from what G-d has said of the future times that are coming, the ends of man's efforts and planning, the conclusions that we are headed for and G-d says, "Ultimately these conclusions are going to be fair and just conclusions. Fair and just conclusions."
We shouldn't look at events in the life of a nation or in a life of this globe, separate taking out of the context of developing history, progressing history, but we should look at these events in the context of the lifeline of history. I have not lost respect for the United States of America after rejecting it, I was born and raised in a society that rejected it. So I was born nursing the milk-- being nursed by the teaching of separatism and rejection refusal to accept, refusing to accept the United States as a government that we would value or should value. As I began to think freely, and remember G-d says, "Think." In the Quran G-d says. "Think, for surely thinking brings you profits, benefits."
As a thinker, I began to study America's life and history for myself and come up with an estimate of its value to society, to human beings and society for myself and I couldn't judge it by what occurred in this history to make my fathers and mothers slaves in the south or to take away our human respect and human worth. I had to judge it by its whole life line.
When I looked at its whole life line, I saw that it was really a nation like the soul of one person, a person that had committed himself to high human values and standards but had been tempted at certain periods of time, at certain steps in time, had been tempted and gave in to the temptation. Then, I look at it in the conclusion of that ugly time period that supported white supremacy and I see it repenting its ways. I see it overcoming white supremacy, I see it purging it's own soul to get rid of racism in his spirit and in his body. Should I put it down now? I should have put it down in 1950, I shouldn't wait until it change to put it down. So, I'm not with those who want to put down America. Not at this time. For me, this is my day. My day is here now.
Now, that a room is made for me in the most powerful country on this earth, you think I'm going to follow you out of the house? I'm going to be going into my room.
I'm going to engage the competitors for more space in the house. We're peacemakers, our model, the Prophet Muhammad, the peacemaker. We should be liberators, we should be champions, the cause of freedom of religion. We should be making contributions to the betterment of mankind, not just to ourselves our families and our neighborhoods but to mankind.
If you do your work for yourself in the right spirit, your work will be a contribution to all people in the spirit of obedience to G-d, in the spirit of unity with all humanity, in the spirit of cooperation with all the good forces and good minds of mankind on this earth. If you do your separate work in that spirit, your separate work is going to be not only a great contribution to yourself and your family and your neighborhood, it's going to be a great contribution to mankind. What we are building in the United States of America for our life as Muslims in this country. We are doing it for ourselves but we are doing it in the spirit of a true Muslim follower of the model man Muhammad.
What we are doing is going to benefit not only us but other people. We have a business plan to help or join others, Christians in our neighborhoods in our African American neighborhoods, who are trying to improve the material conditions in their neighborhoods. We are going to join them with a business plan and we are going to make our contribution to the improvement of material conditions in our neighborhood and G-d is with us, we're going to succeed.
Eventually, you are going to see Muslim contribution to the material improvement of our African-American neglected neighborhoods, where we have no real material role in the life of those neighborhoods. Where we don't have any real business showing in the business life of those neighborhoods. You're going to see us joining Christians and others to bring real business life to those neighborhoods and our contribution is going to benefit us in those neighborhoods and it's going to benefit those distance away from those neighborhoods. I'm standing here now, I'm wearing a suit, tailor made for me in Bangladesh, Bangladesh way across the water.

You heard from Rahman, brother Rahman, a businessman from Bangladesh who spoke before I came to speak to you. You heard from him. We have a business partnership developing with the business people of Bangladesh through the business company that brother Rahman represents. We have already through their boss, brother Hassan of Bangladesh too but a citizen of America, we have already made contacts with their factories, I've seen their factories, clothing factories I've seen huge factories very modern operating at high standards, producing high quality goods. I've seen the tags on huge quantities of their products saying, walmart, K mark and others coming to America.
How many of you are aware that the world-- commercial world of the day is not the commercial world of yesterday? My children have in their closet children clothing made in Saudi Arabia. How many of you knew that? That Saudi Arabia manufacturer make children clothes and other items? How many of you know that from the oil that Saudi Arabia has a great abundance of, there are many byproducts and of these byproducts are products for making clothing? Many of your synthetic clothing, great percentage of your synthetic clothing come as byproducts from refining the crude oil. Using derivatives from it they make substances from which they get fabrics.
Many of you are wearing it right now. You're wearing materials that are byproducts of petroleum. Don't be surprised if Saudi Arabia may one day change from an oil based or crude oil supported economy to an industrial-manufacturing supported-factory supported economy, don't be surprised if it happens, it can happen. I'm also wearing shoes made in Italy, and I'm sure that most of you know that Italians are great workers of leather. I'm wearing a pair right here, so comfortable, I have to remind myself I'm standing in shoes, I feel like I'm standing barefooted.
Yes, I'm standing in shoes made in Rome Italy and we have business relationship with that manufacturer, and we are going to develop that relationship. I'm wearing a tie made in the United States of America, isn't that something and a shirt made in the United States of America. I came here in a shirt made in Bangladesh also. One day, I'm going to stand before you and I'm going to have some articles of clothing made in Mexico. Yes, the global market is here, the global economy is here and the global market is here. One day, I'm going to come to you standing in a suit, shoes, shirt, tie made in MSA, Muslim American Society Factories.

If you know what G-d intend for the human being, you will feel that it is as much an obligation on your neighborhood, on your community to produce the needs of the community. Housing, businesses, transportation, financial institutions, human service departments or buildings, hospitals, clinics, whatever. It is as much an obligation on you to do that, as it is on you to make your five daily prayers. Because, if you make your five daily prayers and do dhikr on your fingers, and fast the month of Ramadhan and do extra prayers and extra fasting, and don't do the other part of it, which is associated with marriage.
We're told that the Prophet said, "Marriage is half of your religion, to marry is half of your religion." Why is that so important? To marry is to accept the social institution, the social establishment, to make your contribution to the social institution, the social establishment. To marry is also to make your contribution to the economic life of the society. Because, if you're a real man, you're a man like Adam was, peace be upon the Prophet man that the first man Adam. G-d said to him, "I put all of this before you, now cultivate it, cultivate it." He was given the ground and the waters and the trees and the forests, all to utilize it and to cultivate it.
If you're a real natural-born man that G-d made you, or that G-d made you fathers, you marry not only to have sex buddy, that's a small part of it. You marry to make your contribution to the social establishment and to make your contribution to the growth and health of the economy.

If sex is all of it, then you're no more than a dog in heat. Lastly, in this address, I'm going to appeal to you to sincerely study your religion for yourself. There's not enough time on Friday to give you all you need to know for that week about your religion. The Imam doesn't have enough time on Friday, Juma day to give you what you need to know about your religion. You're going to have to become literate, you're going to have to start reading Islamic books, good Islamic books, the Quran more and study it more, good Islamic books rather produced by your community or some other community.
Get good Islamic books, learn more about Al-Islam, learn more about the Quran and Al-Islam, learn more about the teacher Muhammad, the liberator. Learn more about him, so you can value your religion as it should be valued. G-d says, "Don't count your religion, don't count your being a Muslim or religion or being in Al-Islam as a favor to G-d," "Oh I'm going to do G-d-- I'm going to please G-d, I'm going to be a Muslim." G-d says, "Count it as a favor to you, you're the one that's getting the great benefit," G-d doesn't need it. Al-Islam and Quran is not for G-d, is for you, for human beings. G-d never needed to read the Quran.

We have a great religion, many of us came from poor Christian life in this great country America. Our preacher was poor, the Church was poor, we were poor, that was the situation for most of us who came from Christianity to Al-Islam in this country. There is exception but it's very rare, so we didn't come to Al-Islam with really a strong knowledge of Christianity, we were just people who believed. If we continue to be a people of weak knowledge in Al-Islam, we can do no more with our life now in Al-Islam than we were able to do with our life in Christianity.
What will make a difference is that, we become educated in Al-Islam and if you become educated Al-Islam, then we can do what we want to do with our life, we can lift it up and we can put it down. I know we are not fools to put our life down, we're going to lift it up. Let me read something to you here that a professor at Chicago University said about the future, I think he's addressing the future of Muslims in this country, indirectly if not directly. Professor Martin Marty University of Chicago, Professor of Theology, a theologian, well respected, I met him personally, I know him personally.
He says, "Unfamiliar religions might arouse suspicion at first, but over the long run they fit in, every new religious group has gone through it." They fit in, what does that mean? They plan to grow with America while preserving their identity and that's what we have to do. All over this world, on all the continents where Muslims exists, if they are minority in a nation or in a society, they should plan their life with respect for the life of the people that they exist with. They should come up with a fair honest sincere evaluation of the true beliefs and true aim and purposes of those people or the aspiration of the people that they differ from. They should learn the purity of those people for themselves. They should learn the innocence of other people for themselves, so that they will have respect and value their neighbors who are not Muslims and work with their neighbors who are not Muslims, and plan their life inside of the life of the majority. That it grows and contributes to the excellence of the people that are different from them.
This is our recommendation in America. This is our recommendation for every minority Muslim people in any majority of people wherever they exist on this earth. Time is out for us to move upon prejudices, move upon hatred. This is not the way of people of faith. We are to move with an interest in contributing to the excellence of all people, even to the excellence of our enemies. Allah says in our Quran the same things that the Christians have in their religion, says, "Sometimes, showing kindness to an avowed enemy will have the effect of turning that about enemy into a bosom friend."
G-d hasn't prepared us to just go out and say, "Enemy, I have to fight him." G-d want us to be intelligent. G-d want us to be rational. G-d want us to have foresight, insight, foresight, circumspection. G-d want us to see, not be in the dark. Dear Muslims, what is really the invitation of Al-Islam to us? It's the invitation to come to civilization. To rise up in civilization as a model for civilized nations, not just for ourselves.
It is an invitation to come out of the darkness of ignorant, unfounded prejudices, superstition, hatred of another people, desire for dominance to come out of their blindness, to come out of that corruption, to come out of that evil, to come out of that dumbness, that ignorance into the guidance of G-d which is the light. Then, He have revealed the religion and sent Muhammad for what purpose? To bring you out of the darkness into the light.
He says lastly and this my address, "You are the best community brought out, evolved, brought out of what? Darkness. Darkness, the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of unfounded prejudices, the darkness of hatred, bigotry, greed for power and et cetera, for dominance. He brought us out of that into the light of freedom, justice, equality, to liberate oppressed and falling, fallen humanity.
This is the great religion of Al-Islam. We have to give it its due respect. To give it its due respect, you have to learn it in its full context. You have to see Al-Islam in its full context. You can't see Islam in a small Imam leading 20 people next door to a liquor store. You can't see Al-Islam there. You have to see Al-Islam in the Quran and see Al-Islam in a full context of the Quran and see Al-Islam in the full context of the life of Muhammad the prophet. In the best examples that has followed his leadership since the early Ummah until today.
That's how you ought to see Al-Islam. You have to see Al-Islam in the excellence of the followers who says he's a Muslim. In his excellence, look for the follower who demonstrates excellence of humanity, excellence of mind, excellence of behavior. Look for Al-Islam in that follower, then you will see Al-Islam.
Thank you. Let's go ahead forward, fearing nothing, seeing nothing as an obstruction.


