09/05/1993
IWDM Study Library
PLAN FOR LIFE IN AMERICA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Male Speaker:
WDM Publications presents the historic, public address by Imam W. Deen Muhammad, Muslim-American spokesman for human salvation, recorded at the 1993 Islamic Convention in Detroit, Michigan, September the fifth, 1993. The topic: our plans for Islamic life in America.

IWDM:
Peace be on you. As Muslims Greet, As-salaam alaykum. Praise the one G-d, give thanks to the one G-d who is Lord, the keeper, sustainer of all the worlds. The one who created everything, and thereafter, gave everything its guidance. And who is called, in the Quran, the creator of every single thing.


The lord, sustainer of the world. Who sent messages, prophets, one after another, as Allah tells us in the Quran, to address needs of the people as those needs manifested in the life of those people. Until man grew on this earth, in knowledge, and in science, defined the means of communication and transportation to discover the whole global community of people. Africa got acquainted with Asia. Europe got acquainted with Asia and Africa. America was finally discovered, and migrants from the continents came to this continent, America, and discovered a people we call, those migrants called American Indians, or Indians.


With the growth of the families of man, on this planet, man became a believer in the family of man. The family of man. And finally, we have come to be believers in the global community of man. The global community of man, that all of us on this big globe we call earth are really one international human community. To understand the signs pointing to the universal messenger prophet and the universal message that G-d would give that prophet, we should understand the growth of the families of man and how that growth has brought us to see ourselves now, as one, international family of people, living on one earth and having to accept to be one community.


Allah that is G-d most high, and highly glorified is he, he says in the scripture of the Quran, reveal to Muhammad the last prophet and the universal prophet. He says that you, as people, and as all people, can IN-Naas, that you, as people, all people, were once one community. Were once one community.


I have reflected and thought about that saying over the years, because something in me told me, something in me was pushing me to understand more than I understood. I understood that it was saying that Allah intended for this earth to be the home of all people, all of the descendants of our first father. I understood that, and I understood that Allah was saying that whatever he designed for us, in our creation, for us to eventually come to, as a community as an idea of life for our total community of the human family, that that eventually would come about.


Because G-d intended that. I understood that. And I also understood that G-d was saying that man, descending from one human type or from one ancestor, that man started out as a single human community, a single human community. There were no community of this idea and community of that idea, and community of this particular government and that particular government, nature of government. There was just one community.


I understood all of that. But what I eventually came to believe is this: that G-d is saying to us, though the past-tense verb is there, that we were one community, that G-d is saying to us that you are one community. You are one community. And those who understand Arabic grammar Qu’ranic grammar for Arabic language, and the grammar for that language. They understand that often times, in fact, whenever G-d says Hanna, you were, speaking of what he intends for us, he is also saying, at the same time, though using the passive verb, and is correct and proper for grammar in Arabic, he is saying that you are that.


You are one community. You may lose yourself from the idea of that. Oneness, from the belief or concept of that oneness. But you're always one community with G-d. With G-d, we are always one, human community. And eventually, G-d would bring to us, the human model for all of us, with the universal message for all of us, and we would began, become, in reality, one community. Today, our national leaders, especially the president of the United States, the one before George Bush, and the present leader that we have, recognize that man is one community, and is encouraging the recognition in the citizens of the countries, and especially the citizens of this country, a knowledge and recognition of the fact that we can no longer look at ourselves without also looking at the other nations.


We can no longer make plans for ourselves without also respecting that other nations make plans for themselves, and we all have to live together. So we have to bring our heads together, talk together, the leaders of the various nations have to meet together and talk together, and respect each other's lives, each other's aspirations, each other's sense of purpose and destiny on this earth. That's what we are seeing.


To me, this natural phenomenon, this natural phenomenon that has worked in our social nature and has worked in our economic life, and in our industrial life, to bring our national leaders to recognize and accept that we can no longer make decisions for ourselves without respecting the decisions that other people in other nations have to make for themselves. To me, this natural phenomenon is saying . I bare witness, There is Nothing worthy of worship but G-d, and I witness that G-d has chosen Muhammad as The Messenger or example of this natural phenomenon to the whole of humanity.


That's what I am seeing. It is a testimony to the fact that G-d is one and one alone. It is a testimony to the fact that the man to lead us is Muhammad, the universal messenger, a mortal person like ourselves. There is much that I would love to say to that thought, but we will move on. We trust always, that the one G-d, Allah, highly glorified is he, will approve of our works, our plans and our work, and accept our plans and our works, and grant us the result that we hope for.


We praise Allah and thank him, for his great mercy. For us, and on mankind. We thank Allah for making it possible for us all to be here today in Detroit, Michigan. We thank Allah. We thank Allah for opening our hearts to this religion, Al-Islam, and to the last model human being, the universal messenger, prophet Muhammad. The prayers and the peace be on him.


We are in, again, in this global arena in Detroit, Michigan. I recall better than, maybe, 20 years ago, now. My father, Elijah Muhammad spoke in this place. I believe that crowd was so huge. I think there was over 10,000 people. Over 10,000 people. Well, we are here again, we were here on other occasions too, since the passing of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and we are here again. And we are very pleased to see how you have responded to this ... Pardon me, national Islamic covention, here in Detroit, Michigan.


I've been invited to attend religious interface religious gathering for the purpose of addressing the serious problems of human beings on this earth. I am hoping to visit a town, a city soon, as not only a guest of the Muslims there, but also as a guest of the city. One of the questions that we are having to address is what can we do to heal these troubled cities? And the miserable conditions that we find many of the people in? The miserable spiritual state of too many of the citizens. The miserable rational state of too many of the citizens. The miserable moral state of too many citizens. The miserable social conditions of too many citizens.


They ask "How can we make a contribution to the healing of the cities?" We are also asked how we could address senseless violence, and how we could address racial strife. That should be no more, a problem that would alarm the nation, after all of the work that had been done, to bring about an acceptance in the European, Caucasian or white people, for the Africans, or the black people. And what has been done to bring about understanding and acceptance in the African people, or the black people, for the European or the white people, after so much has been done over the last 20 years, we would think that that old state of racism, and condition of racism in the people would be not so strong. Not so serious, that it would require national attention. National attention.


I still believe, myself, that a more serious problem today is not racism. And the trouble, the evil that we find between the races are carried out by one race, for the hurt and suffering of another race. We believe that is not as racial or racially motivated today, as it was during the time of two laws. One favoring whites, and one disfavoring blacks. The time of separation, segregated laws, Jim-crow laws, and two treatments, two standards of justice. One for the white majority, and the other for the black minority.


We believe that, since that time, and especially now, as many of these occurrences, that right away, appear to be motivated by race, are not really motivated by race, but race is used as a cover to give the perpetrator of the wrong doing a dignity that that perpetrator would not have, if it was just identified as a human defect, in that person.


I have in mind, now, the senseless beating that resulted in the death of an African American in this city, Detroit. And we want to know how we could be healed, after witnessing, in this day and time, such outrage. How can we be healed? We are a little better than 100 years from the ugliest, cruelest form of enslavement that history bares, that history can show us. I'm talking about the kind of slavery that existed in the south for a few century. Not for a few years or a few decades. For a few centuries.


And finally, without laws in this country, by the will of the president and his supporters and the people of this country, in the year of 1865. The way to heal is the way that has already been used to heal the wounds that we suffered from that ugly time of our enslavement. We addressed the wrongdoing, but we also addressed the human person, the dignity of the human person, and our great leaders from Frederick Douglass and even before him, and many that followed him down to Dr. Martin Luther King, and others. They all did more than just point to the wrong that was done. They did more than just seek punishment for the perpetrator. They did something that really worked better than just punishing perpetrators, and pointing to the wrong act.


What did they do? They appealed to the human person. The human person, to get more support from the human person in the society. To stop such evil, and they pointed to the human person and appealed to the human person, in a way to make the human person want to disassociate him or herself from the acts of the perpetrator. Though that perpetrator be a member of their own race, or that perpetrator be a member of their own family. They had a way of addressing the problem of race and race hatred, and racial violence that was inspired in them by G-d.


And that's how we have to address it today. We cannot ... We have to seek justice, but we have to do more than seek justice, when crimes are identified as racial crimes. We have to appeal to the better conscience and better instincts of the citizens of the country that allows that in order to get more human support against such wrongs. In time, the civil rights movement, and movements even before the civil rights movement was identified as such, the freedom movement, in time the movement of the people that were the victims with the support of free people in the society that victimized them, gained supporters. Gained in number, so many, that pressure was brought to bare, on the nation, to make its laws more equal, to make its laws more just. To make its laws more human.


And we, pain to realize a society that outlaws discrimination based on color or based on race. An equal opportunity for all citizens. That was not an easy job. That job was accomplished and that was the great accomplishment for the oppressed and the victims, and also for the decent ones who are members of the victimized, the family that was victimizing us, the white family. That was a great achievement for both the victim and the people identified in the family of the victimizer. A great victory.


So these incidents that are happening should not cause us to be alarmed, since we know that a whole race of people were treated worse than the individuals that we are witnessing that we just witnessed were treated worse that ... That were treated worse than that, and the humans, the human conscience was awakened. The moral life in the human body of the citizens of this country was awakened, and the power of humanity and the power of conscience and the power of human morality was able to stop it and change the law and make equality for all of its citizens.


So never despair in the face of these single incidents anymore, but remember the great achievement that we had for us. The great progress we've made as a people who were put in the worst state, than any slave was ever put in, in the history of man. There are those in this society, and in the international community, who are not satisfied with this human progress that we have made in these United States. they are not satisfied with it. It denies them the opportunity to carry out their design on the society of man. They are not pleased at all.


Though their numbers are very small, there is enough of them just to watch and be alert for every opportunity to play on our emotions and fire up ugly racism up in us again. And I'm not addressing you only, I'm addressing all Americans. We should be aware that there are enough of these enemies of humanity still around, watching, and alert for any opportunity to play on our emotions to stir up ugly racism again.


Don't be tricked into the trap of supporting the enemy of man. What we are seeing in this society and much of the evil that we saw in the past that was called race hatred and racism, ugly racists, it was not that at all. It was nothing but defect, ignorance, corruption, in the human life, in the human person. And racism is used to dignify that ugliness. That they can make us believe who are members of the favored race, white supremacy favored the race of the white folks, the European descendants. If they can make the members of the favored race believe that G-d intended for them to be masters of those that do not belong to their race, or are not of their color, if they can make the favored race believe that the other people are not entitled to what G-d intended for them, then they can divide the one community of man. And oppress the whole community of man with that instrument that they formed, the racist instrument.


The racist instrument. We have been told by those before me, and I repeat what they have said, "No member of humanity can oppress other members of humanity without oppressing itself." No member can plan, no member of people, or member of race can plan a horrible future for any members of the human race, or the human family, without also, one day, meeting that horrible fate themselves. This is the truth, this is the justice of G-d. This is the reality.


My final note on this particular problem of racism is that it does not excite me anymore to take all of my energies away from other things, and to give all of my energies to race problems. It does not excite me that way anymore. We have made too much progress to have racial incidents take all of our attention away from all of these wonderful things we should be about, and put it just on race. That's the scheme of the Satan, the scheme of the enemy of man, don't fall into the trap.


We are never going to see a time on this earth. This is not heaven, this is earth. We are never going to see a time on this earth where all people, all colors, all races, all ethnic groups are going to be in heaven with each other. This is not heaven, this is earth. You can expect that, as we hit each other upside the head every now and then ...


Hit each other upside the head every now and then, the members of the international family of men will be hitting themselves upside the head every now and then. You know, if we can't keep the members of our own family from slapping each other and saying ugly things to each other, occasionally, how can we keep the members of the family of man, all of these nations, and all of these different races from saying ugly things to each other occasionally, and smacking each other occasionally?


Let's not exaggerate the size of the problem. I think the size of ignorance is bigger than the size of racism. Right now, I think the size of immorality is bigger than the size of racism right now. I think the size of moral insanity is bigger than the size of racism right now. I think the size of greed, the size of greed. Greed for money, greed for money, greed for luxury, is bigger than the sin of racism right now. I think the treatment that we are giving each other in our own home, the neglect that we have in our own home is bigger than the problem of racism in America right now.


Once, I went to get some gas, to gas up my car in Little Rock, where I lived, about three years or more. This African American, black man, we like to say African American, we don't want to lose our connection to Africa, and we certainly don't want to lose our connection to America, after all we suffered and the price we paid for that connection.


I looked at him, "Good day." You know? I'm feeling I'm in the south, you know? I'm not in the cold north, and I'm just feeling just brotherly and everything. And I say "Good morning." He looked at me just to say "Are you crazier than hell or something?" He didn't return not one word as a greeting to me. I felt hurt and sad, I took the nozzle and put it in my tank and I start to pump the gas, and I looked up. When I looked up, about one car distance and a half away from him, now there's a European American, what we call a white man. All right, he's gassing up.


He wasn't at all real white. You know, white to me is snow, white to me is the paper I write on, he wasn't really white. He was kind of reddish, a reddish color, but we call him a white man. Our eyes caught each other, and both of us said "Good morning." And right after we said "Good morning," almost in the same instance, something just pulled our faces and our eyes together. That's the African American and myself who had refused to reply to my greeting. I guess we looked at each other with a stare, that if it was a gun shot, both of us would be dead.


I think it's time for us to work for unity, respect, peace, love, togetherness, for our family. Put more attention on that, than on healing the situation for us with the white race. We need to spend more time on getting our own family, the family of the black man, the family of the African American, more healthy, more sane, more normal. As human persons. That's what we need to work on more than we need to work on mending a rift between us and white folks.


You know, I think we've reached the point of what they call, in economics, or business, diminishing returns. You can exploit a situation financially or economically, and I'm not using exploit in a negative way, now. You can make use, I'll put it that way. You can make use of a situation or opportunity in economics, or in finance to the point that further effort to get more out of it will not bring you more, but will work against you to bring you even less.


They call that, it's the point of diminishing returns. I believe in our effort to make blacks and whites love each other, and want to live with each other. I believe that effort, pardon me, to bring this about, has long ago reached the point of diminishing returns. And the more we try to do it, the more we push the races apart.


You know, and I said this even when I was a minister for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. My human nature gave me this understanding. You can have a beautiful relationship with a mate, of the opposite sex, but if you pour it on too heavily, you may turn that mate against you. Anything can reach, given increasingly, can reach the state of that condition or that point of diminishing returns. "Then how come she doesn't love me anymore?" Well, you have just made a big mess and a nuisance and a fool of yourself.


Though you were coming in positive, your positiveness now has become negative. Little babies, animals will tell you "That's enough." I have been petting my cat, my cat said "That's enough." I had a dog once, I was hugging and petting that dog. That dog said "That's enough." I remember seeing little children playing with each other, and one child would just be in a mood to just kiss and hug, and another little child will say "That's enough."


Now, we don't think we can ask the white race to hug and embrace us and kiss us, to the point where they'll say "That's enough." Let's stop throwing our money in the fire, and let's put it to good use. Let's spend some love money on healing our own selves.


We are Muslims. Our religion is Islam. I must take a few minutes to address the meaning of Islam. What is Islam? Many of you will say "Well, we already know brother Imam. We've been listening a long time." Yes, we already know, but sometimes we need to recall it again. What is Islam? We live in America where Muslims are in a minority. We are growing fastly now, but we're still in the minority. We turn on television and what comes to our eyes and our attention is most likely something that has nothing to do with Islam, or Muslims. And we go about in the streets and to the places we have to frequent, visit, and it is not expected that we are going to run into Islam and Muslims.


We are growing, and I'm pleased to say, we are meeting each other more often now, as we travel, as we go about our daily duties. But still, we are living in a society that is not Islamic. That is not Muslim. So we have to remind ourselves, refresh our understanding of what Islam is and what a Muslim is. Now the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that a Muslim is a righteous person. How can those who say they still follow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad do unrighteousness knowing that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said a Muslim is a righteous person.


Something's wrong. They are hypocrites to what they say they believe. Now, again, for us. We say we are Muslims, and we go to the party tonight, and we shake the booty, we lose ourself in the music and in the sexual excitement of what happens at the party, that is not Islamic. And we pause for a minute. I said "As-Salam Alaikum brother." As- Salam Alaikum brother, what's happening?" That can't be accepted. We have to remind ourselves what Islam is and what a Muslim is. What did Muhammad the prophet say? Prayers and peace be on him, that a Muslim is. He was asked this question.


I don't have to guess how to answer it. I got from the Messenger of G-d, the words to give you. The prophet said Islam is to witness that there is one G-d. And that Muhammad is the message of G-d. He said "And Islam is to pray." To make salat. We know to make salat. In Islamic terminology, it means to pray the Five daily prayers.


And he said "Islam is to pay zakat." To give zakat. To be charitable, out of your earnings, out of what you have to give something for the benefit of the society, and especially your family, your members of your family first. Number one. How do we know that? Because G-d says in the holy book that it is written in the book, that is in the book of Allah, that family ties have priority with G-d. Family ties are first with G-d. Don't go out and give others before you give the needy members in your own house. In your own household, in your own family.


This is the right way. And he said "Islam is to fast Ramadan." The month of Ramadan, the month of fast. And he said "It is to make Hajj," or to make pilgrimage, to the house in the precinct, the holy precinct, in the city we call Mecca. That's it.


Now, the Prophet was asked "What is Islam?" And here we are arguing over "What is Islam?" Oh, no, he's not teaching Islam right, brother, he's not teaching Islam right, brother. Oh, he doesn't have the right understanding of Islam and well, there were brother so and so he doesn't have the right understanding of Islam. Why should we be wasting all of this time? Islam is to say There is nothing worthy of worship but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Islam is to pray the prayer that Prophet Muhammad taught us to pray as Muslims praying all over this earth. Islam is to make zakat, to put something in charity. And Islam is to fast not when you say the Islamic fast comes, but the fast during the month of Ramadan, and Islam is to visit the house to say that we are one family of man on this planet.


They don't have to argue about what is Islam. Now, I said I'm going to speak a few minutes on Islam. What is Islam. Now, let me remind those who followed my father, that I also followed my father. Have you forgotten that? I also followed my father, and I am son of my father. And I know that my father said not once, but many times, "If it was a lie, it was a good lie, and I'm sure lies have that quality." Worse lie, not so bad, the best lie, or the lie we can tolerate the most.


The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said this, "When you become a member with me, in this temple, you're automatically a member with all Muslims of all Islamic nations." That's what he said. So he put, into my heart, a desire to want to identify with all Muslims on this planet. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad did that to me. And he put, in my heart, also, a desire to want to be comfortable with that identity. To be comfortable identifying myself with all Muslims on this planet. He said "You automatically become a citizen in every Muslim nation on this planet." That's what he said.


Now, I won't spend a lot of time on what The Honorable Elijah Muhammad did to me. I will just close out that particular thought by telling you that if anybody is responsible for what I am now, more than myself, it is Elijah Muhammad who passed away February, 1975. So if you don't like me, first, blame my father, then blame me.


I hear that certain persons who say they follow Elijah Muhammad in this city of Detroit are admired and supported and liked and they have a bigger following than is with Imam W. Deen Mohammed. That's okay, that's okay with me. Allah says “The majority of the people don't know, so I expect for the majority to always be like that. I'm proud to have a sane, rational Islamic minority. That minority's growing, just look around you.


Praise be to Allah. I hear that those people who have no power in the government, so called Muslims, have no power in the government, in the city government, in the federal government, have no power in the government, have no land power, have not even any real political power. That they want to tell me to stay off their turf.


That he shouldn't come in here, we're not coming to see you, we're going to boycott him and et cetera. Look, I'm a free citizen of the United States of America.


So don't think I'm affected at all, by your not wanting me here, and by your false claim that this turf is yours. Detroit is more than a turf. I claim a share, of the whole of Detroit, as a native-born US citizen, born in this town, born in this place in Hamtramck, Michigan, on Yemans Street.



IWDM:
To the city of my father's new lease on life. I have a sentimental attachment to this city. And when I see trouble that's too much for us to handle, or ears to deaf to hear, well, we have to say "I may go away from this city and pretend like I'm quiet and you won't even know that I'm remembering this city." It may last for months or even years, but don't think, brothers and sisters, that my mind has ever given up on this city. This is one of the best cities, the best opportunities for the growth of our community. This city is one of the best opportunities for the growth of our people, Muslims. One of the best cities.


And we are going to have more meetings here, bringing people from other cities, Midwest regions and at times, we're going to bring them from around the United States, here to Detroit until we feel better about the state of African American Muslims in this city. It is our hope that one day we'll be open, not only Mosque here, but we open schools, Muslim schools here. And have the finances and means to support those schools. Even if the money has to be brought in from outside, until our people become a little more better-situated, in terms of jobs and income, in this city.


We are not ever going to forget Detroit, Michigan. And I want you to know, that there has been one Muslim brother, of this city, that has kept an association with me and has been consistent and consistently tries to get more attention to the Muslims of Detroit. Only one that is Imam Daub Alim. Imam Daub Alim Only one.


This is not to say that we don't have other Imams here, who are with us, doing something for Islam. I'm not saying that. That is most likely true. But they have not made an effort to keep an association with me. So I want you to know, this is my contact in Detroit, Imam Daub Alim.


It is also recorded and preserved in the history that the prophet said “That Islam is structured upon five. That tells us that the five that describes Islam, that tells us what Islam is, also forms the structure of Islam. That's how Islam is structured. Now, you know, you can lose some paint off the wall and still have the house. You can even lose a piece of the fixture, and still have the house. But when you start to lose the structure, you're losing the house.


The concept of the house is damaged when you lose any part of its structure. So if we lose a part of the first principle, There is nothing worthy of worship but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, we have lost a part of the concept of that house, and that's the most important. That's the first one. If we lose any part of prayer or fasting and Ramadan or making pilgrimage to the house. If we lose any part of that, we are losing part of the structure and part of the concept of our religion.


See how easy a loss has made our religion for us? The people of Moses, they are proud people, they are proud people in service to G-d. They are proud people in relationship with G-d. They are proud people. They had a great Prophet. We know, Moses, Musa, as it's called in Quran Musa, They had a great prophet. Peace be on him, and we know the prophet brought great guidance, great knowledge and great guidance to the people of Moses. To his people.


But we know also, that his people have a history for being a moaning and groaning and complaining people. And that tells us that the life has not been easy for them, and we are told, by the prophet, the prayers and peace be on him, that he was given five prayers to give, when Moses gave his people 50.


So Allah relieved a burden on us. He didn't give us 50, he gave us only five. And he gave us a religion with only five principle structures in its total or complete structure. And made it so easy that we don't have to be professors from college and universities, we don't even have to be high school graduates. We don't have to have any form of schooling at all, and we can be taught and made to understand this religion, is a religion that every individual with a sane mind can see, witness to, accept and live.


If I don't worship other G-ds, false G-ds. And I accept Muhammad is the last prophet, then I have conformed to Nothing deserves to be worship but Allah. If I will make salat, and I ... Do you know who's making salat now? A lot of you probably don't know this. Don't take it as bad news, it's good news to me, most of you will take it as good news. I have a little son who's just maybe three years old, and now, he can follow me in prayer. I've never forced him to do it or nothing. When we prayed, he came and he tried to do it. He was making sajdah that way, you know, we're standing this way, he's making Sajdah that way, but he was doing it.


Now he stands patiently in line, like a solider and makes Ruku and Sajdah with us. The baby, the little child, three, can do salat. One day, G-d willing, soon, before he's even in elementary school, when he's five or six, or maybe earlier, he'll be able to do salat by himself.


So our religion is for all of us, it's for all of us. All of us can practice this religion. All of us can make Hajj. All of us can give in charity, it's the nature. It's our nature to do that. We don't even need Islam to come to us. Most of us, we've been charitable all our life. We believe in sharing what we have.


And I want to say to you at this point that nothing that Allah has ordered us or invited us to is not already in the best of our human life and human nature. Allah only invites us to what he has already created and put into us, the best of our human life and our human nature. That's all he invites us to. Nothing is strange to every common person, male and female. Nothing in Islam is strange, to you. Male and female, all of you. Each one of you.


That's why Allah says to Mohammad, and say to them "Oh, Mohammad,” Saying to them "Oh, Mohammad, I am a common human person, just like you." That's what he said to them. No angel. No, he's a human person just like us. No man with a divine nature and a human nature, no. All human nature, just like us. Isn't it wonderful that there is only one divine, but a human being can obey that one divine, and progress in obedience until he becomes a kind of small reflection of the active use and beauty of that one divine. To the point that human beings will say "He's G-d, he's G-d, the man is G-d."


No, you're making a big mistake. He's a human being that perfectly obeys G-d. That's what makes him look like G-d. He can never be G-d, he can never be an angel, he's always a human being. It's wonderful. I thank Allah for the way that I have had to struggle and come to understanding from the honorable Elijah Mohammad's teachings. I thank Allah for that. I wouldn't have had it otherwise. Something in me, before I even came the understanding of Quran and the life of our prophet. Something in me told me this, it's not a complement to me, to tell me "man is G-d." I want you to listen to this very carefully.


Because, G-d as my witness, we have senior members, in terms of the years that they've been around in this religion, we have senior members here today, male and female, who knew me when I was a boy. They knew me when I was a boy. One that was honored last night, he knew me when I was a teenager. And I'm looking at one now, who knew me when I was a baby. Sister Viola Kareem, and others. We have those who knew me when I was a baby.


Let me tell you something, Brother Albert Kareem, he would look at me, sometimes. And I'd know he was reading my thoughts, almost, or at least reading my emotions.

