12/10/1988
IWDM Study Library
Atlanta Banquet

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
As-sal?mu ?alaykum.
Congregation: Wa-Alaykum-Salaam.
That is peace be onto you. The greeting that most of us are very well familiar with. But I always say that realizing that it may be possible that some non-Muslim might be here. And we should remind them that we are greeting each other with peace when we say As-sal?mu ?alaykum. Praise be to Allah, the one Lord and cherisher of the world. Peace and blessings be upon the last and universal messenger Prophet Muhammad upon his descendants, his companions, and upon the righteous, upon all of them, and upon us be peace again.
I, normally on these occasions, as I just told the Imam Plemon, I only bring greetings. And I hardly have more than two minutes of comments. I told him, tonight as on a few other occasions, the spirits seem to, the atmosphere here seems to be filled with recognition of our pioneers. And I told him that it was pretty hard for me to hold it to a few minutes tonight. And he said he's very happy, his face lit up, he said, "Go on." I told him perhaps it would take 10 or 15 minutes tonight.
And these are comments. It will be comments because I have no planned address, no planned speech. These will be comments. First, I want to bring to your attention something I feel is of great importance to us as followers of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be on him, who has followers all over this earth. And has had followers in major parts of the world such as The Middle East, Arabia, Asia, Africa, and even in parts of Europe for much better than a thousand years.
And now, we identify ourselves with that great body of Muslims that follow the universal messenger and prophet, the last of them, Muhammad. Peace and blessing be on him. It is very important for us to understand something that I have come to realize and perhaps many of you realize it too, maybe you realized it before me. I don't know.
When I say, "You," I'm speaking to all of you now. I'm not just speaking to the people that I particularly addressing this evening. And that is, the recognition of two states of the Muslim. The proper recognition of the state of a Muslim is a conscious Muslim following the religion as revealed to Prophet Muhammad and as established by his leadership. That's the proper state of the Muslim.
However, there is another state of the Muslim that was proper before this state came about. And that state is the natural inclination in G-d's creatures to obey Him. The natural inclination in G-d's creatures to obey Him. Therefore, the Prophet, peace and the blessing be on him said, "Everyone is born Muslim and he becomes Christian, Jew, or something else because of the situation he's put in."
That is the baby is born in a Christian environment so most likely the baby will come up a Christian. Baby born in a Jewish environment, most likely will come up a Jew. And on and on and on it goes. But we believe that the natural state of the human being is Muslim. To make it very clear what I'm saying. I'm trying to watch the time. To make it very clear what I'm saying, we have to be fresh for tomorrow, we're going to really bring a lot home tomorrow Inshallah.
To make it very clear what I'm saying, there is the natural man that G-d made and he has to be brought into an awareness of where G-d wants him to go with his nature. Revelation comes to bring that about. But there's always the urge in him, the striving in him internally to find that even before G-d brings revelation. And man have lived on this earth before revelation, and have lived honorable and upright lives and have been fine Muslims in the eyes of the Lord Creator before revelation came.
What is the proof of that? The proof of it is what Prophet Muhammad said himself of "Every baby, every child being born Muslim." But there is another proof of that in Muhammad himself in his own life. Allah says of Muhammad, “that he was already established on the best plane of excellence before the revelation came”. And it says to the people through revelation that, "I have lived a lifetime among you." Meaning before revelation, he lived a lifetime among the people of excellence. Revelation hadn't come to him.
So, was he a Muslim before revelation or not? He was a Muslim before revelation and he was a Muslim after revelation in the proper sense that we understand it now. And he became the leader of proper Muslims throughout the world. They became his followers, he is the leader of all of them, but he was a Muslim before. Understand that.
I'm sure Christians and Jews and others would not all agree with us that the first man was a Muslim. But you know the first man in our religion, in our holy book is Adam, a Muslim. All right. I could go on talking on this natural state of the Muslim to bring home my point. Prophet Muhammad said of his own followers, those that were from the days of what we call Jahiliyyah or the days of ignorance, idolatry, et cetera in the peninsula of Arabia which is just called Arabia now.
He said of them, “the best of you now," meaning my followers that have been converted to the religion as revealed by G-d in the Quran. "The best of you now were also the best then." He was saying this that Allah gave him revelation and leadership to build on the best of what was in the world then. Now I claim this, that I represent people from my father’s leadership and they are, right now, the best that was there then.
We were natural Muslims and that's why we had a curiosity to come and see what this man is saying about G-d. “I know what I have heard in the world hasn't satisfied me, so I'm going to listen to this man. This world has been wicked, abusive, unconscious, without any human conscience in their treatment of my people so I'm going to listen to what this man has to say about G-d.” And a strong curiosity made you stay with the honorable Elijah Muhammad because of two things.
The urge in you to come to the proper state of the Muslim upon your natural Muslim state. And also, another thing, the belief that Elijah Muhammad was sincere. And I'm his son, I have been one of those natural Muslim and now a proper Muslim, combine them together for over 55 years.
I have seen him wake up in the morning, come down in the morning, I have seen him go to bed at night. I have slept in a room with him. Slept together. I've heard him snore. And I guess he heard me snore. When you get tired, you snore. Some people snore when they're not tired, but everybody gets tired enough you're going to snore. I've been around him even used the washroom together. We're riding a car together. We have worked together. We have swept the house together. We've cleaned the yard together. We even built a garage together, believe it or not, we built a garage together.
Congressman Luis, you think people in Chicago don't know anything about raising chickens? We raised plenty of chickens in Chicago on 6116 Wabash, Chicago, IL. We raised plenty of chickens there. I took the eggs too out of the hen, out of the hay, out of the nest. I took the hay and put it in the box for the hen to sit on and make her nest, and picked up the eggs.
My mother taught me all of that. And we had a garden. We raised corn and cabbages and all that stuff, 6116 Chicago. 6116 South Michigan, Chicago, Illinois. Don't think the South had all that experience and it's not possible in the North. If you come from the South, you would bring the South with you.
So, I have been with him in all the situations that you be with human beings, I mean respectful situations.
When he and my mother went to bed, we knew not to go in that room. Not to even knock on the door unless somebody was in serious trouble. I wish children had that kind of respect now in these days. So, I've been with him in all those situations. And I am telling you that the man was sincere. He sincerely believed in what that man he called W. F. Muhammad or W. D. Fard, he believed in what he taught him, he believed in it. He put his life on it. He lived it in obedience, for, practically, all of the life from 1931, maybe even a little earlier than that, but I know from 1931 until the early '70s.
He lived it. He believed it, lived it, and he was waiting on his savior. He built up his community. He built up his works. He was waiting on his savior to come and approve his works and take us from there. I could tell you much more, but it's not right now the time for that. All right. I know, the point is, he was sincere. Why am I making that point that he's sincere? If he wasn't sincere, he wouldn't have attracted so many of you that are sincere. And I know you we're sincere. You were sincere then, and you are sincere now.
Prophet Muhammad says, peace be on him, "Religion is sincerity." Did you hear that? Religion is sincerity. That means if you're a Christian, by you saying, "I'm a Christian and I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, peace be upon the prophet Jesus," just by saying that does not make you a true Christian, it doesn’t mean you really have Christianity. Your sincerity is what makes you a real Christian, so it is for a Jew and anybody else.
Prophet Muhammad said religion is sincerity, and further in driving home this point, Prophet Muhammad said, "Matters in our religion is judged by intention." If Honorable Elijah Muhammad's intention was to follow truth, was to be right, was to lead his people into a better life and he thought that was right. If he was really believing in that and really thought that and he was sincere, his intention too was sincere. His intention too was right. His intention too was pure. So, he should be judged by his sincerity and by his intention. All right.
Likewise, you who came to him. Some of you came to him just because you wanted to show off. You wanted to talk, talk, talk about being important, "I'm black. I'm the god and I'm this and I'm that." You just wanted to show off. But those who are with me now Marcellus Jordan, Albert Kareem from Chicago. They're right over there. They were stars then and they're even bigger stars now. Right now, when I see them, I want to go to them and salute them. They are like my superior officers, yes.
They're old on the calendar but young in real life. Yes, young in real life. When they came in, I told brother Imam Hafiz, who is also from Chicago in my staff, my personal staff. I told him, I said, "Look at him." I said, "Look at the youth on their faces." Extraordinary men. And they are just examples of many throughout this land that have that great life in them because they were true and natural Muslims before and they're true proper Muslims now. Praise be to Allah.
My point, don't forget my point now. My point is to say that we recognize in our religion two states of the Muslim, the natural state and the proper state after revelation came to Prophet Muhammad. All right. And not only that, how it came to any prophet because all prophets we believe brought the same religion of Al-Islam. The prophets come with revelation. Then the people become conscious of what G-d wants and they have the light of direction in their life and everything is clear for them. But we also recognize the state of a Muslim before that happened. All right.
If matters are judged by intention and religion is sincerity, then you deserve credit as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad deserved credit for your labor under the name Muslim back then. And now that you came into this consciously, publicly have acknowledged the revelation from Allah, the Quran, and the Prophet Muhammad. And you have become now a proper Muslim in the international world, conscious Muslim, avowed Muslims, declared Muslims, have made your Shahadah, you represent the best of Muslims on this earth. I do believe that. I do believe that.
There are no Muslims on this earth more precious than you who are sincere. Remember, I made a distinction between those who came because of sincere curiosity, sincere urge to come into what G-d wants them to be and those who came to show off, just to say “I'm a black god” or something. Or just to be different and wear FOI uniform and show off. I have made that distinction. I'm sure maybe one or two of you are out there now, I don't want you to think I'm talking about you, you came here tonight for a dinner.
Excuse me. I don't have anything against you, but I don't have anything with you either.
Praise be to Allah. Don't think I've got a new look here. I have been cutting my own hair for years. This time, I got so good, I didn't even use a mirror to do the back. When I picked up the mirror to see how I had done, it looked like I had a disease at the back of my head.
The skin's showing, I had to make it look like that all over. It took me two weeks to get this.
I won't be trying that again. I'll use double mirrors when I can't see. Now, let me give you another point. This is for us. Let me give you another point. I hope everybody will appreciate it, but it's for us. I mean we who have come to this life and this history together as Muslims. There's another thing you should remember, that the house toward which we turn in prayer, all Muslims, all over this globe called Kaaba, called the Bayt al-`Atiq, the ancient house, the house built by Prophet Ibrahim and Prophet Ismail, his son, peace be upon them.
This house was in Mecca before Prophet Muhammad. It was there. And it was under the guardianship of people who had not received the revelation. Listen, their life as they were living it was not what Allah wanted. It was far from being what Allah wanted, but it so happened that one or two of their better ones were usually the guardians of the house. Though they did not know consciously what G-d wanted them to do anything. But they just had a natural respect and a natural fear for that house that they should respect it and they should protect it with their life.
A great ruler named Abraha from Ethiopia decided that he was going to bring everything in his sight under Christianity. He brought a herd of elephants to march against territories that weren't Muslim. He was going to make all the non-Muslim, the heathens, the idolaters not non-Muslims, the non-Christian. The heathens, the idolaters he was going to make them Christians. So, he bought the elephants to attack the vicinity of the holy precincts, now where the Kaaba is, the house. And the elephants refused to march on against the house.
I know that some would say, "This is superstition." Let me tell you something that I saw, and its superstition too, I guess. But I saw it and I'm sure many of you have seen it. When you go to make pilgrimage there, the pigeons make pilgrimage with you too. They fly around the house and they do just what you do. Some of us if you've finished our circles, we go outside. We have completed our circles. The pigeons fly the same way. Every now and then you see one's fly out, you see another fly out, but they keep circling the Kaaba.
Maybe they're just following the habit of the people that's been going on there now for 1,400 years, about 1,400 years a little better. Maybe they were just attracted because of the people. We can rationalize and put some kind of science to it. But whether it's because of that or not, it's there.
I believe whatever Allah has revealed. Allah says in the Quran that the elephants came and the elephants were turned back, I believe that. I accept that. I'm a believer because I know I don't know everything, and just because I can't make everything fit to my logic doesn't discourage me at all.
I trust that G-d knows more, more than I could imagine. So, I accept on faith what I don't understand. Now, you do too. I don't care what you're following. You do too. Let me continue. Those elephants refused to go against the house. Am I all right? Abraha's army beat the elephants, tortured the elephants, everything, to make them go against the house, they refused. The elephants, they sat down, they wouldn't go against the house.
Abraha was approached by one of the people in the precinct and the custodian of the house. It was because one of Abraha's people had taken a property of that person. He came to Abraha, the leader, to complain against that person. He said, "I want my property back." Abraha says to this person, he says, "Who is going to protect your shrine, the Kaaba? Who is going to protect it?" He says, "I'm coming with an army, I'm going to invade it."
He says, "You're talking about this little matter, this little property of yours, a small matter. What about the house, the Kaaba, the day I'm coming?" He says, "Who's going to protect that?" He says, "I'm one person, I can't protect the house. The house has protectors." He said, "The house will be protected. I can't protect the house." He said, "What I want is just that you return to me my property. I'm not coming to you with that matter, I'm coming to you with a personal matter. Give me back my property."
Abraha had his property returned, had the man's property returned and warned the man that he was going to march against the house. As this person said, it came true, that the house had protectors. Invisible protectors. The elephants didn't go against the house, and when they insisted upon forcing the elephants, birds came with small pebbles, sharp pebbles that when they strike the skin, they cause poison from the pebble to go into the skin.
The soldiers got all in disarray and panic because of the great flight of birds that came dropping these pebbles down on them and they were just put into confusion and were finished. The whole army finished, went into confusion and were finished off. They couldn't carry on their campaign against the house. Couldn't advance it at all.
This is the story that happened in the year of the elephant. A writer, recently Dr. Hamidullah he asked this question. He says, "They think now, some people may say this is a fable or this is a myth or something." He says, "But why no non-Muslim Arab ever came up and challenge that when it was revealed in the Quran that that happened?" The Prophet Muhammad was born in the year of the elephant himself. It wasn’t long after that, the prophet was born, peace be on him, in that year and it's called the year of the elephant.
Now if that didn't happen, if there weren't other witnesses to that, how are they allowed that kind of calendar and that kind of history to be established without complaint being in the history coming from them against that so-called fable, a lie which gives added proof that that actually happened. Maybe not in every detail as it is given because we know revelation gives us things in a broadcast way, in a way to broadcast even a greater message and in a greater significance.
But in truth, we accept the story. We accept that story, we have to accept it, and we believe that it has true basis and reality that, that actually happened. A man, a great leader, Abraha, did come there and tried to attack those precincts and bring those precincts under his influence and could not do it. He was stopped by forces beyond his control. All right?
Now, we have lived in the United States calling ourselves Muslims, defying the whole world, preaching something contrary to what the whole world believes in the name of the religion. Communists desired the camp of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the communist desired the followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and thought that these people are following him because they're uneducated and they're ignorant, soon they're going to become more educated and they're going to be our followers.
Communists had their eyes on the followers of Honorable Elijah Muhammad. They thought they were going to get that great many thousands all over the United States. Those great militant men who would die for the cause, work hard, and sacrifice and give their family pennies, give their family earnings for a cause. They thought they were going to get that mighty army.
Not only the communists, but when things began to shake, when Malcolm split, Christian militants thought they were going to get to us. The church thought they were going to get us. The communists thought they were going to get us. Later, the church thought they were going to get us. But later, the FBI and the CIA thought they were going to get us to join them to be recruits, but none of them have gotten us. I ain't talking about the two of you that came in here. You're different. I'm talking about the great majority of us. They haven't been able to get us. Here we are.
And then our good Muslim brothers from overseas looked at us and they said, "Oh, now it's time for us to get them." And they can't get us.
I'm giving you something that you need, they can't get us. Said, "Oh yes, they can. They got you, Imam WD Muhammad." Go ask them have they got me.
They don't have me. They don't have me as much you got me.
I'm their Muslim brother, sure, just like I’m your Muslim brother but I am closer to you than I am to them. And they know that if you don't. Not in blood, in dedication. We're dedicated to something, and my unity under that dedication is stronger with you than it is with them and they're aware of that. This is very important, very important. What am I saying in saying all of this? I'm saying that don't think that Allah is any less with you now than He was then. And don't think that Allah was not with you then, but He is with you now. Allah was with you then; Allah is with you now.
And you who worry about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I know how you loved him, I loved him too. Some of you all loved him more fanatically than I did. I won't say more sincerely than I did. And I know you feel that "Oh if our leader could have just lived another 20 years." I know how you feel, you're lonely. I know it, you see, he said, “that’s right.”
That's natural. You become so endeared to a man when he goes, it's hard to separate from him. You should be like me. I never try to separate from him. I tried to separate from that that I thought he would separate from if he could see better, that's all. But separate from him, ain't no desire in me to separate from him, why? See some of us think that in order to be with each other, we all have to be alike 100%, that’s wrong. We only have to be alike 100% in our spirit and in our intent. That's all we have to be alike 100% in.
No, some of us are going to have different feelings about each other, some of us are going to have different feelings about our leaders, we're going to have different feelings. We're going to have different opinions, different estimation, we're going to estimate the value of them differently. Right now, all of you, many I know I can go out there and can pool you together. Even if you say, “no, I'm ain’t sincere.” I know better than you. Yes, believe me. I know better than you.
I can come out there and select the real sincere one’s from my father's followers. I can select you and I can bring you here and stand you up there. And then question you about certain things, about certain things regarding your allegiance or your loyalty to my father. And when you answer, you all won't answer the same, you all won't reflect the same kind of attachment to my father. You'll have different kinds of attachments to my father, but you all are equally his followers. Every one of you gave your all to him. Those that I would select, you gave your all to him.
Now, I’m saying that we should realize that as Allah protected that house because that house is a symbol for something great, for something that Allah wanted established, built up and established. It’s a symbol for something. And Allah wasn't going to allow that symbol to be destroyed. It had to live until the coming of the universal prophet who would really establish the proper respect for that house, and bring the proper kind behavior in the people for that house. Yes, it had to survive.
I'm saying this, that just as that house was protected though it was in the possession or the custodianship of people who yet didn't have the light of the religion, so has Allah protected the life of this people, me and this people that I associate with to keep us around until the light of the religion come. Now, the light of the religion is here and we are here, and we represent a strength unmatched on this earth.
Now, I think I made the point very, very clear. I hope it is clear. I think I have made it very clearly, that there's two states of the Muslim. The natural state and then the state after the revelation, the conscious state. The natural state and the conscious in the light of G-d's revelation. Two states of the Muslims. Allah protects the natural state as long as we remain sincere, Allah protects the natural state.
I told you before in the previous occasion when I addressed you, if Honorable Elijah Muhammad was here, he could come back alive, if he was not passed, and he'd come there, I would tell him, "Daddy," that's how I will speak to him, not only me but all the children. "Daddy, you told me not to smoke, I didn't smoke. You told me not to drink, I didn't drink. You told me not to eat pork, I didn't eat pork. You told me no to be vulgar or lude, I haven't been.
You told me not to go out looking for whores, I haven't. You told me not to gamble, I haven't. You told me not to be a liar, and I'm not. You told me not to steal, and I don't." And I would go and repeat all the things he said that I shouldn’t do and I'll tell him I have not done that. If he could be here right now, I will tell him that. 
Wasn't that a Muslim? Can anybody tell me that wasn't a natural Muslim? I'd be telling him that I have been an honorable natural Muslim daddy, because of your advice. I was born under your influence. I could have been born under different influences and I would come up a drunkard maybe, or a gambler, or a liar, or a thief, or a whoremonger, or an indecent person, or a cruel person, I don't know what I would become, depending on what kind of environment I was put in.
But because I was put in the environment under the environmental influences of Elijah and Clara, I came up with my natural Muslim intact and survived to see the revelation that came to Prophet Muhammad. And now I am a conscious Muslim intact. So, there has been a building on a building that was before. There has been a foundation, and there's a building on top of that. And when the second stage in the building is completed and we look at the whole building, then we see in the light of revelation, we see nothing but Al-Islam.
Because the natural base is there, intact it’s good, so that in the light of revelation, now all of that in the proper state. Ain't any of it in a proper state now. What I brought with me from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's influence and teaching, have been kept good and now revelation has come in to here, and purged me of the things that were incorrect and now I'm all intact. So, now, I look at my foundation and I look at the new light and all of it is in agreement. All of it is in harmony. So, ain't no part of me now out in the dark, all of it is in the light.
And part of that that I now see in the light is the gift of the past, is the gift of the past. Now, do you think you're not special? Do you think we're not special? We're special. I don't want it to go to your head, but we're special. And Muslims should believe, all Muslims should see themselves as special. Allah has preferred you. Allah has preferred you for His favor. His favor was upon the Jew. His favor was upon the Christian.
And then when the revelation came Muhammad Allah has said that He has preferred you, meaning the followers of Muhammad for His favor. Prophet Muhammad and his followers for His favor. So, Muslims believe that they are favored. They are the favored people in religion, they are the favored people today.
And I say in the whole body of the international body of Muslims, because of our peculiar circumstances, as a people and our special kind of sincerity, our strong innocence and pure intention, great sincerity, willingness to sacrifice all, not fearing the white man. Don’t you know it was something for us to not fear the white man in 1930 and in 1940? It was something not to fear the white man. To tell the white man, the white authority of America, "Do what you want, I ain't going to obey you."
They didn't publish the abuses that we suffer, they kept it quiet, but we have suffered too for our small numbers. We have suffered greatly. Not only that, the worst suffering that you can give a people is to announce publicly that the time of hostility and abuses are over and then operate covertly, secretly to undermine their life and their life efforts, and that's what they have done since I came into the leadership. Great forces all over the United State from the high and the low have been pretending to be congratulating me and our people who are with me while at the same time doing everything in their power to kill what we all about.
To present me in an unacceptable way to the public and to the people who know me but don't have the opportunity to really know me. But know me enough to say, "Yes, he's The Honorable Elijah Muhammad son, he's the new leader, I follow him now." They present me in magazines, and articles and things in a way to discredit what I really am, to make you think I'm nothing but a person that won't just pray now. He's an evangelist, he's a prayer, he just prays. He wants to be in prayer eternally. Well, I do, but I don't have to stop work. I prayer when I work. In fact, some of the best prayers you can make, are prayers when you're doing some work.
Yes, and all the other devilish things that I don't want to tell you about now. But I told two reporters, so-called reporters who came from Sun-Times and interrogated me for an hour or more. And would have interrogating me longer if I hadn't brought it to a conclusion. I let them know that I don't care what kind of question you ask me; I'm going to keep giving you what I'm giving you. So, I told them, I said, "One of you might be a reporter from the Sun-Times," I said, "But one of you for sure is from an intelligence department." I said, "You are not questioning me to publish anything, you're interrogating me for the intelligence department."
He said, "Why have you talked to us all this long time if you believe that?" I said, "Because I want you to know too what I'm saying." And what was I saying? That these people in power, not all of them, but certain ones in power, enough of them to do the devilishment for all the rest. That these people in power are liars and hypocrites. They pretend to be congratulating the new Muslim under WD Mohammed, "Oh, we're happy over their change and everything." But they are more fearful of me and what I represent than they ever were of what The Honorable Elijah Muhammad represented.
Why? Because what he represented, they figured would never be accepted by the majority in America. What he represented they figured had short life, or at least a small room for growth. Short life and at least short room, small room for growth in America because it wasn't appealing to the mind of the majority. It had no appeal to the mind of the majority of the people, so they knew that no matter what he taught and what he did that he couldn't grow but so much.
That in anytime they wanted to, they could bring the forces of the great majority of decent-minded, race minded people from the whites, and the blacks, and everybody else against The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, bring him in the court, stop his movement anytime they wanted to. “But now this son of his have reached over there and connected himself with the international Muslim world. And he has changed his Muslim identity from black Muslim to international Muslim.
And he said he doesn't represent Yaqub's history anymore and the deportation to the moon and other things that most people can't figure out one way or the another. What he talks is plain talk. And he says he follows the pure teachings of the Prophet, the Holy Quran, and The Prophet's teachings. That we cannot discredit in the eyes of the decent world. We can only discredit that in the eyes of the indecent world, and the indecent world are in the minority. The indecent world is the weaker. Now, he has connected himself to the strength and put us in the weak position. We can't contain him anymore. He's not confined in small territory anymore. He's not isolated from the great body of conscious human beings anymore.
He has the sympathy of human beings on his side now, whether they're Muslim or not, whether they're black or white. This man is dangerous to our purpose, and our purpose is to see that this man we brought from Africa in chain remain in chain forever.” What I mean by that? “We don't want him ever to come into our independent mind. We don't want him to ever come into a life form independent of what we approve of because we have treated him so damn bad, excuse the language, for 300 years.
Our forefathers, our fathers and mothers, and family treated him so bad he might one day just wake up from a nightmare, and in his independent state, he might declare war on us if we allow him to grow and become strong. So, we have to either keep him in the mind that we want him in or keep him confined to small growth possibility. We have grown out of that. G-d has performed a miracle for us. Allah has performed a miracle for us. He has brought us out of the narrow confine, he has brought us out of the design of the fearful white man, brought us out of the design.
I say fearful white man fearing his ex-slave, his people that he brought over here from Africa and mistreated. When he wake up in a new man and really realize for the first time that he ain't worth imitating, that he ain't worth following.
Believe me, they have this fear, a strong fear in them. Let me tell you, see, some children, five years old are really 25 because they have been curious for five years. Then some children five years old, they're not even three years, they're just two because they have no strong curiosity. I'm 55 but I'm really 55-hundred years old because I was born with a strong curiosity. I woke up with a strong curiosity and as I live day by day, it grew stronger and stronger and I still have this. It grows strong, now I'm 55 and it keeps growing stronger. Strong curiosity.
So, I've soon more in one life of 55 years than generations will see in 5,500 years of the works of a people, the behavior of a people, the devilishment of a people, the cunningness of a people, the devious ways of a people. I have seen this European-American man. I have seen him, I know him. I know him so well that now I spank him all the time.
I do. I spank him all the time and I want you to start helping me spank him. I'm going to tell you how to spank him. It works, but he has to be spanked often because he is devilish.
Let me give you an example of his devilishment. I walked into Carson’s, come up the escalator, here are two European-Americans, man and his woman, wife, I don't know what. They spot me, "Get the black one." Now you know, I had heard them, I was on the escalator, I was coming up there, I heard them talking to each other. They weren't talking loud like that, but soon as she spotted me, "Will you get the black one?" That's devilish. That's childish and devilish.
I'll give you another example. We get on the elevator, I and some of my associate brothers in the staff with me, we get on the elevator. When we came to get on the elevator, the European-American are already on the elevator. We came close together in the elevator before the door closed, they said, "Did you notice suddenly it's dark in here?"
Let me give you another example. All of these happened very recently. Let me give you another example. I go into the store to buy some frozen yogurt. I love carrot salad, am I all right?
Attendee: No, you all right.
Tell me now because I don't want to hurt nobody.
Attendee: You're all right.
I love carrot salad especially with the raisin and everything, it's so nice. I had a little cup-like that, about that size and about that deep. A little plastic cup. I knew the place was a little high, so I asked for the small cup. I said, "Would you give me a small container of that carrot salad?" I said, "How much is it?" $1.47 before taxes and I know how much carrots cost. Raisins ain't that expensive, but I love the stuff and I'm in a good spirit. I'm not trying to hurt anybody or complaining in any ugly way, so I said, "Yes, it should be good. At that price, I know it's good." "Have you ever had it before?"
I detected something in that voice. "Have you ever had it before?" Like, "Nigga, you ain't never had nothing like this before. You eat cornbread and collard greens with grease, oil fried skins and stuff."
Now, this wasn't in Chicago either. So, I said, "Yes, I had it before." I said, "That's why I'm buying it because I had it at home. I like it." So, I paid for it and as I was walking out, the lady that was waiting on me at first after I made this kind of complaint in a nice way, the other lady came in and took over. She must have been the boss. Took over from the other lady that was waiting on me at first. The lady that was waiting on me first, she said, "Have a good day," and the other lady that was irritated by me not liking her price I guess, she said, "You mean have a good night."
The sun was just about at noontime. It's a long time before night, so I said, "Are you saying that when I come here, the sunsets and the place gets dark?" She said, "If you say so." I said, "Okay" and walked on out. Normally, I don't do that. I usually make it very uncomfortable for them. I know how to make them more uncomfortable than they can ever make me with their words. I usually put it on them, I fry them really good and burn them and then pour some boiling water to put the fire out, but I just said, "Okay" and went out. You will never get these things again. That's what I meant.
Several times since then, I have to go to the next store. Another store I created with is right next door to them. I pull up there didn't even look at their window. I don't even look at their window, just go right to the other store and keep going. Never getting my penny again. You want to pay for abuse and ugliness? You're stupid and that's a big reason why we don't have the respect that human beings should get in this country because we take too much abuse and just keep on giving the people our money.
Now we shouldn't take it off each other either, but we should really have a campaign to see that we don't take it off these people that have mistreated us during slavery, during so-called freedom, and now during so-called equal opportunity. They're still abusing us so we shouldn't take it. Say, "He sound like his father now." No, I don't sound like my father, I sound like a decent human being. Any decent human being should think that way. Now, here is another point I'm making. We have an obligation to live up to the best if we are really the people that I think we are, and I think we are special. We have an obligation to live up to the best.
We have an obligation to do more than we expect of the average person. We do. We are not the average person. The experience we came through under the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and now the experience we have come through to make us what we are now definitely says to me that we are not the average person. We are not the average person.
In the eyes of sociologists, in the eyes of historians, in the eyes of anybody with insight into nature and behavior of man, knowing our history under the cruel white man, then our history under The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and now our history in the light of Al-Islam, international Al-Islam. If they know it and see it, they would say, "No, these are no ordinary people. These are no average people." You have to accept brother and sister, you're pioneers. Not only you but the brothers and sisters now that follow the pioneers, that come to inherit the responsibility of the pioneers that they are going to carry for a long, long time.
I'm going to make one more point, Inshallah, one more point. Now, you are no ordinary people, you are extraordinary people, believe it. You're extraordinary people. I don't say this to make you big-headed. You're extraordinary people. Wouldn’t you say the Japanese are extraordinary people in business, in perseverance, in discipline, wouldn't you say they're extraordinary people? If you wouldn't, you're just crazy, you're just dumb if you don't say they're extraordinary. They are extraordinary people. If they weren't extraordinary, you wouldn't have a commercial on the movie screen saying, "These people have done this and the pace they're going, they're going to soon own the world."
That's what they are saying now, the Japanese. That the pace that they are going, at the rate they're going, they may soon own the world. So, they're saying they're no ordinary people, they're extraordinary people, at least in that particular discipline. They're extraordinary people. Well, I'm saying because it is true, you are extraordinary people. Not only that, we have the historians, sociologists presently that are saying to us if we read what they are saying, Thomas Sowell of the west coast his associated, his last name is William. My good friend from Boston Imam Shakir Mahmud sent me one of his books. And I've looked at the book recently and he's saying it too that, “what we have endured as a people in this country have definitely made us extraordinary.” Now you may say what? "If we are extraordinary, how come we have so many problems? If we are extraordinary, how come we are not doing better?" You're doing much better. You're making great strides. When we have passed away 100 years from now, 50 years from now and people would study our history and they would say, "These people came from Africa as slaves. They were brought over as slaves and they suffered servile life existence as chattel slaves for 200 or more years."
Then they were so-called liberated but they were discriminated against, and they were labeled sub-human and called three-fifth of a human being in the constitutional language of the United States. They were written out of science as a total person. Out of the sciences of the United States of America, they were written out of those sciences, this is what I’m aware of. They were written out of those sciences as a total human person.
They were not called a total human person. And after freedom, they had an avid appetite, thirst for knowledge and they were seen resting during the breaks on the plantation, resting on their plow with a book in their hand because now the white man had allowed them to read, and they would be reading trying to learn something. And those people within a hundred years from that period, for most of those years separated Jim Crow lynched, terrorized, beaten down, denied equal opportunities, they still survived.
They changed the attitudes of most of the whites against them and to get a situation in America where they could really go to school, and get education, and go and find jobs, and get equal pay on jobs with the rest of the white people. And then they had a moment of celebration. They would call it a moment. To me, it looks like it’s been a billion years but they would call it a moment. They would say, "Then they had a moment of celebration. They celebrated their freedom and they just started drinking, and doing freakish things, and acting crazy, and follow the worst ways of the white man, dissipating their energies, looking for nothing but fun and good time, forgot their families.
They had a moment of relaxation and celebration.” They said, "Hell, let’s take a break." But all the time there was a small group of them still holding the line. From the African-American Christians and a new group called Muslims, they were still holding the line. And they survived that period of dissipation, that period of drunkenness, playfulness they survived it. And after about 50 years, they rose up as a great economic power in the United States. They would look at that history and they would say, "It’s amazing how fast these people recuperated." But we think it's a long time. “We ain’t going nowhere.”
We are making great strides. People reduced to the level that we were reduced to by the peculiar institution of slavery in this country and what followed as Jim Crowism and et cetera to survive it and to be where we are at now taking like we talk now. And doing the things that John Lewis has done and Abernathy has done, not to mention Dr. King and many others in different areas of interest. It’s amazing. You don’t see it now because you are in the thing. You have to step out of it and compare it with the history of other people.
See other people that have been reduced to nothing, mistreated and written off as human beings.
Read about other people and see how long they were in that state. See how long it them before they were able to recuperate, get up and stand up and start demanding equality on this earth. We are a new people setting a new example, we are extraordinary and that’s what you have to believe. That’s what you should believe and once you believe that, you will have the power working on your side to do even greater things. See, but we live most of our time in moaning, in weeping, in complaining, in regretting, in being pessimistic and believing that, “ain’t no real change going to ever come. We will always be the underdog.” No, you ain’t the underdog, you're not a dog at all, you're the top person, you're the top man.
Just look at what you have suffered, look at the depths to which you have been brought down, the low levels to which you have been brought down as a people by that ugly peculiar institution of slavery and where you are now. Look at it in this short period of time. You are extraordinary. All of us are extraordinary that have gone through this experience. Now we the Muslims under The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, we went through another experience. We were shot out in space, so many million miles from our natural orbit. And was told to form a kingdom, a black kingdom out there in a no-negro land. And said, "Yes, we can do it."
And we made such a great showing that those that didn’t go with us, they looked at us way out there in the zone that they couldn’t name. They had no language to even name the zone we had been shut out into. They looked out there and said, "Those black Muslims are amazing."
"Look how they work and produce for themselves and look how organized they are. Look how disciplined they are. Look how their life is being transformed, reformed." It was amazing. Now we have come through all of that and now have come back into homeland for nether land with the homeland mind. We got the homeland mind now, not the nether land mind. We got the homeland mind now and we have survived all of that and we have made the order of our lives that we brought from neither land compatible with homeland. Brother, that’s extraordinary. You are special people. You are very special people. Now, this is what I want to say in conclusion.
An old pioneer, I don’t know how old he is, he may be 80 something. He got to be 80 something. He could be 90 something, he could be a hundred and something, I don’t know how old he is, but I know he’s old. He’s 80 something or maybe 90 something or a hundred something. This is no myth. This is no imagination; this is real I’m telling you about. He got in touch with me and I hadn’t talked to him in a long time. I like him, he likes me. He says to me, "I think you should remember Chicago and what was invested in Chicago by your father and his followers because I don’t think you should just write Chicago off. I think you should build something great in Chicago."
So, I read his letter. Naturally, I am touched about his interest in what was invested, what was done, so I talked to him on the phone. I told him, I said, "I got your letter about that and I appreciate your concern. I’m going to Chicago. I still in and out of Chicago and we have plans to visit the two Mosque there. The one under Imam Nafis and the one that my Brother Jaber built on 47th Street twice a year." Given a Khutbah, Jumu'ah at one and Ta’leem teaching on Sunday, and then another three months later, we will do it at the others, which will bring us into both those mosques twice in one year.
I told him that and I didn't tell him that Brother Jaber has built a wonderful mosque there on 47th Street, so I don't think we should feel bad that much has been lost. When I look at that structure it doesn't tell me that something has been lost, I think something has been gained because that structure, to me, is more impressive than the one on Stony Island. It's more Islamic in the design. It’s Islamic in its design, it meets the Islamic requirements in its design and everything. I didn't want to tell him that though because I know his sensitivities, but I wanted to tell him something else.
I said, "You know what, I was watching television and, on the news, they showed a man who rides around on a motorcycle in the streets of London. He's 95 years old. They said that he's been doing that since he was a young man. Isn't that something? 95 years old he still rides around on a motorcycle." I said, "That's really risky. I like motorcycles, but I've never gotten one myself because it's so risky." I told him, I said, "Once I saw on the news another man they had, the same place over there in the center of Europe and he was riding a bicycle. I think he was 90-something too."
I said, "These times have really changed. People used to think of 50 years as being a full life, and then suddenly, they got to think 60 years was a full life." I said, "Now we don't know. It could be 90 years, it could be a hundred years, it could be 200 years." As-Salaam Alaykum


