12/03/1989
IWDM Study Library
IWDM in Detroit MI

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam: That’s peace be unto you. We thank Allah, [Arabic language]: ‘the praise and the thanks is for Allah the Lord, the Sustainer of all the worlds’. [Arabic language]: ‘and the prayers and the peace be upon his noble and generous Messenger’. We are very happy to see the support here in Detroit for this occasion. This is the second visit of this nature of this kind, and we look forward to having many more visits in the future. We are grateful to Allah and we're grateful to the Believers and our friends for their support. Also, [we] appreciate the Imams who come from distant places to support us. [We] appreciate their presence here, very much.
The distinguished persons in the community- our public of Detroit, or in service and public service, or whatever your professions are- we appreciate your support for our awards banquet last night, and we appreciate the presence of those who are with us today. We pray Allah always guide us to do what is best- that is to do what is acceptable by our Lord and Creator Allah. And we pray also that what we do benefit those who are present here in the audience in attendance.
It is not my pleasure at all to waste anybody's time. I've been with people and, you know, and I've desired to do one thing, and they've desired to do another. And I either went along with them or I just remained silent rather than do something that I know people would be displeased with. We should be Muslims if we say we are Muslims. If we say we are Muslims we should be Muslims, we shouldn't lie. If we say we are Muslims we should be Muslims and this address today is addressed directly to Muslims. However, we are aware of the fact that what Allah has revealed for Muslims, [is] also for the whole world, if the world will accept it.
The topic we have chosen is the management of spiritual and material concerns. By putting these two concerns together, a lot is to be gotten. The big problem for most of us is that we separate these two concerns and, we think that the spiritual concern is left for the preacher, and the material concern is left for us. When both these concerns burden everybody equally; everybody is brought to his success or to his doom because of the mismanagement of these two concerns- the spiritual concern and the material concern.
I'm not speaking of spiritual concern in the sense that is commonly understood. I'm not talking about religious rituals, spiritual values, religious rituals and things like that. I'm talking about the tendency in us to favor certain things and not to favor certain things. For example, some of us have the tendency to favor good times; and good times in our mind is going to a dance and a party and listening to music, and dancing and having good time on the weekend- for us that’s good time.
And many of us just live just for that- go out on the weekend and party and dance- and that's for us, that's good time. The tendency in you is spiritual. The tendency toward that- the tendency in you- is spiritual, and that's what I mean by spiritual concern. We don't have this idea in our religion of spiritual life separate from material life. For Muslims, the life is whole. It’s one life. The life is whole. I have a physical body; but I don't function just as a physical body. I also have mind in here, that's abstract, and I have a spirit in this body.
And all these things work together. The whole works, for me, has to be told in terms of all three- in terms of my physical body, my mind, and my spirit. Now, most of us are trying to use our minds, but our spirit is getting in our way; and, that's the main thing that I hope to bring to your attention today- is the need for us to manage our spirit. People, who try to manage their spirit, develop powerful muscles. The best muscles for survival in the world… not these [showing his arms], and I'm pretty good with this too, especially when I was young, I was pretty good [laughter from the audience]. Not these muscles… the best muscles for survival in the world are the spiritual muscles, but not in that strict religious sense that most of us think of spiritual.
Again, I'm talking about the tendency to be pulled in one direction and in another direction. If you can discipline yourself, so that you don't allow influences to take you to the things that you know will bring you down, then you'll be successful in life. But if you can't discipline yourself in that way, you’re sure to fail. Now, we go and look at what Allah has revealed to us in the Qur’an about the person, the self. And Allah, G-d, says of the success and failure, [Arabic language]: ‘He will certainly be successful who invests in his soul’; who spends on his soul, his own soul. And here, soul is talking about that same concept that I'm trying to bring to you: the concept of the person, as a person pulled by influences and tendencies.
And the one who fails to do that, G-d says, [Arabic language]: ‘is certainly to fail’. The one who neglects to invest in his own soul is certain to fail; for sure he would be a failure. We could just close with that, you could go home with that, and it would be enough, that's it. That's all of it. I told our Imam- my associate in this work- I said, ‘Well, I know they're expecting a big deal’. I said, it will be a big deal but it's so simple I can do it in two minutes- if we will accept that. However, we know that Allah has not left us with that alone. He has given us the guidance, Al-Huda.
And Allah, Most High, says in the Qur’an, [Arabic language]: ‘This is the book,’ speaking of the revealed Qur’an, the last revelation. [Arabic language]: ‘This is the book and it is no defect; no mistakes, no doubt’. [Arabic language]: ‘Guidance for the upright; guidance for the regardful’. The G-d-fearing is translated in many different ways. It means guidance for the people of conscience; and for Muslims, conscience begins with G-d. We must first be conscious of Allah [Arabic language]: ‘Be conscious of Allah; be regardful of Allah’…and it goes on to other things according to their importance.
It includes even a regard for our family relations. [Arabic language]: ‘And the family ties or family relations’. We are to… [Arabic language]: ‘and also the family relations’. Many mistakes have been made in translation into English by people- intelligent, well-meaning, good Muslim scholars- but who didn't have the command of English, especially for American people. So they’ve given good translations, but those translations need improvement now. That's why sometimes we take one term and we have to explain it in several ways before we can see it as we should see it.
The management of material and spiritual concerns [is] only possible for us- or we might think we as being successful- is only possible for us, if we have something directing us, a deciding authority in our life. An authority in our life that decides everything else. The only successful ones will be those who acknowledge an authority in their life above everything else. If you are not acknowledging any authority in your life above everything else, you are going to be a failure. Even the man who looks, or the woman, who looks at their life… and in a very practical sense, and almost oblivion… unconscious of what should be the authority of G-d in their life or anything, they're not thinking about religion or church or mosque or synagogue, or anything like that.
All they're thinking about is being successful in their life: being successful as an employee, or being successful as a business person… as a career person. They're just thinking about being successful. If they don't have an overriding authority in their life, they're not going to be successful. Now understand this: Allah in our religion does not close the door of material things and benefits to people because they don't acknowledge him. Allah says in our holy book, "The doors to those things are open to all." You can make money. Allah is not going to say, ‘Oh, did he take the Shahada? Is he a follower of Muhammad, my last prophet? Well, I'm not going to let him get rich’. No, He says, ‘The doors to those things are open to all. But my special blessing is only for my devotees.’ 
So He has a blessing that's better than all of that; and you can't get that without being devoted to him sincerely. What does it mean in simple words? It means you can have the material world whether you respect G-d or not. You can have much of that, but you will never be really happy. You will never be satisfied. You will never be pleased. If you want to be at peace and satisfied and feel good about yourself, you have to put Allah, you have to put your Creator before the world.
You have to value the goal of having satisfied your Creator more than you value your ambitions in the world. That's the simple answer to that. However, we have to understand too that for Muslims, we are not bothered with the problem of seeing material requirements in our life as something by nature, in our position or against, the real human life. And on earth, no matter how saintly we become in this religion, we should never take on spiritualism in that sense. We should never take on spiritualism to the degree that we begin to fear material involvement.
Material involvement- our work in the material field- should never be a threat to us or to the life that we choose by ourselves. The answer is simply to serve Allah, the G-d of both the spiritual and the material. In our life as Muslims, he requires of us that we progress spiritually and in every other way. No matter how good I am spiritually, no matter how good I am morally, no matter how good I am intellectually, if I have no material progress in my life, that's a sin on me.
[Humorously mimicking an audience member] ‘So how is that, Brother Imam? Allah says, [Arabic language]: ‘Seek with what he has made available to you-‘, with [or] by what He has made available to you- your intelligence, your muscles, your stand, everything you've got- to make progress. Seek with all of that, the Hereafter. Now let us slow down right here. Look, G-d tells me to seek the End, the Paradise, with everything that He has made available to me. That means even to gain the promise of the Hereafter, or to be in good shape with G-d and the Hereafter, I have to use my moral nature, my moral force, my spiritual force, my intellect, my physical force- everything in my possession. I should be marshaling everything in my resources, to make progress toward the Hereafter.
So a person in our religion, working for the Hereafter, he wants to make a good showing in school. He want to make a good showing in education. He wants to make a good showing in science. He wants to make a good showing in physics, whatever. He wants to make a good showing in business. He wants to make a good showing in culture. He wants to make a good showing in everything that he's involved in. Everything that he's attracted to, he wants to make a good showing there because G-d has told him, ‘to make good use of whatever I have made available to you for the Hereafter’. Make good use of it for the Hereafter.
Our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, we know that he said, "Live today as though today is going to be the end of you." That means don't say, ‘Oh, I have tomorrow. I have next year. I'll take care of it then.’ Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today. That's another way of saying what he said. Then he also said, "Live as though you're never gonna die." So now if I know I got many years in the future to go, I should have some long distance plans. This is the way that the Prophet has taught us. We know that he has warned us against the pitfalls of material appetite, and we are to keep a balance.
We are not to let our material appetites hurt our moral nature, or any other aspect of our nature. And we are not to let our spiritual life deny us progress in the material world, or on any other avenue of life. We are not hermits. We don't withdraw from the world. No matter how holy we want to be. We never withdraw from the world and leave the world to those who want business, and we take to the hills… and levitate somewhere. We don't do that. Our religion is a complete religion; our way of life is a complete way of life. It's called a comprehensive religion, requiring that we devote attention to all important matters for the natural human being, and the human society.
We have to devote attention to all, I repeat, important matters for the human being and for the human society. The thing that will save us is simple: devotion to Allah. Putting Allah above everything else. Being obedient to him, that's what will save us. If we just in our hearts love Allah, and want to please Allah above all other things, we are saved from extremism. We are saved from extreme of materialism. We will be saved from the extreme of spiritualism. We will be saved from that. Because Allah for us is a G-d that asks of us obedience to Him, but he also asks that we fulfill all obligations: that we fulfill our obligation to our parents; we fulfill our obligation to our families; we fulfill our obligation to those who have assisted us; to whom we're in debt. We fulfill our obligations to society; and it begins with your neighbor next door.
If we accept Allah knowing what Allah has asked of us if we accept to obey Allah, to come under his authority, how can we go into these extremes? Our religion is so plain. Our religion is so plain and so complete, in its instruction to us, that we will never go into these extremes. You find any Muslims going into extreme or becoming materialistic, they have stopped worshiping Allah as Allah is to be worshiped in Qur’an and as Prophet Muhammad demonstrated to us. They have left that! They have left the idea of their religion. They have left the motivation that should be in all Muslims.
That motivation is, first of all, to recognize the authority… overriding authority in your life- that is Allah your Creator- and follow the Guidance… the Book, the Qur’an… as lived and demonstrated to us, to the Muslims, by the Prophet that he chose to give that revelation- to for all the Worlds- Muhammad, the peace and the blessings be on him. It is very simple. If we are having trouble in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York or Detroit or anywhere else, if we are having trouble succeeding with our life it's because we are not established in that life.
First, we have to be established in that life. To be established in the Muslim life, you have to do more than just hear what it is to be a Muslim. You have to make a decision to be a Muslim. And to be a Muslim is not just to come in here and praying with us, or praying together, and saying "As-Salaam-Alaikum. Wa-Alaikum-As-Salaam." That's small. Being a Muslim is obeying Allah. Being a Muslim is being conscious of the requirement on you, the requirement in your life to obey Allah. Not just to read the Qur’an- you have to obey Allah. You have to feel bad when you miss your prayer. You have to feel hurt inside when you miss your prayer.
If you can go on missing your prayer, you don't feel no hurt, it doesn't bother you, you will never be successful as a Muslim. But if it bothers you that you have to miss your prayer today: or that you missed your prayer at Maghrib; or you missed your prayer at Fajr time, at dawn time in the morning before the sun comes up. If it bothers you, then you have the religious spirit of the Muslim. If it bothers you that you're not eating Halal meat: you're eating animals that’s not killed properly. Are you eating things that may be contaminated for a Muslim with the pork, or pork essence or something?
If it bothers you that you have to be in a situation like that, then you're in a good situation spiritually for the Muslim life. But if that doesn't bother you, we don't expect for you to be successful as a Muslim. And believe me, many of us haven't got acquainted yet with the teachings of the Qur’an, the blessed revealed book from Allah, the Lord Creator. We haven't got acquainted with it enough yet. We haven't got acquainted with the life of the Prophet enough yet, peace be upon him, to really understand the seriousness of these things that Allah has asked of Muslims. [For example,] that you don't take intoxicants. That means whether it's in the liquid form or drug form or substance or material, what it called, dope, whatever form it's in. If it takes your senses away, you're not to take it, it's a great sin.
And it's a sin of the works of Satan himself. [Arabic language], the Qur’an says, "From the works of the Satan himself". So you're not to do that. It's a very serious matter. You're not to lie. If you call yourself a Muslim, and you go on and the habit of lying doesn't bother you. All of us will lie occasionally, but some of us got a conscience. If you have no conscience, forget about it. You're not going to be successful as a Muslim. We have to acknowledge Allah as the uppermost authority in our life, the deciding authority in our life. See we need an authority to manage other authorities. If there's no deciding authority in our life, management is poor or not to be found.
Don't you know the people that have the greatest difficulty managing life in the world- in the modern world- is the African American people? All other people that I know, according to my knowledge of it, I'm going by what I know and I think I'm pretty well up on it. The people with the greatest problem managing their life in the world is the African American. Now, why? We're not stupid. We're bright. We're brilliant people; we're very intelligent people. So how come we have this big failure, this big ugly, ugly thing? It's because we do not accept an overriding authority in our lives.
And I hate to criticize Christianity, but Christianity is the most risky religion I know of. It has its superior points, but it's the most risky religion I know of. It leads the average person to face too many risks, too many dangerous risk. You can't succeed without rational guidance in your life. You can't be successful with people that have intelligence and people that respect the power of reason, with people that think logically and plan on the basis of what is sound logic- you can't be successful in competition with those people trusting that the spirit is going to save you and deliver you, and you don't have to do nothing but just say I believe in Christ. You ain't gon' make it with that. If people could make it with that, the African American would be in control. 
[laughter]
Well, we begin by stressing the way we are to look at our life, if we're to be successful. That is, look at life as one cooperate whole. Everything works together and everything should be working together. When things are working separate in you, you have a problem. If your mind is in one kind of discipline, going after one thing, and your moral life is in another one or your spiritual life is in another, you're in trouble.
We need something that address the whole of our life, and give direction to the whole of our life, and brings the whole of our life under authority one- one authority. That accounts for success. You may say, "Well, how come you Muslim aren’t doing so well?" The Muslim may say, "Brother, how come those Muslims in Africa ain’t doing so well?" I've told you already: we've gotten out of contact. We've lost contact with what we should be following. We're not in touch with what we should be following; we're not in touch with the guidance. Those who are in touch with it are successful. If they're in touch with it, they stay with it. They're bound to be successful… they have to be successful- no other way.
Allah says that, doesn't he? He says, “And the believers must triumph”. He says the believers must triumph. That means that this is guaranteed. If you are sincere and faithful and true to what he asks of you, he says you must triumph. And we have a history of those who are faithful to what Allah ask of them, and we have a history of triumphant people… very successful people. People who are now being looked at again after centuries of darkness being over the picture; they're being looked at again.
And, you may have saw on public television or some other channel, or some other network… you might have seen them telling the American [inaudible 00:30:52] of how the American civilization is indebted to the first followers and the community of the Prophet, peace and the blessings be on him. Their studious scholars, their research people, their scientists. How they brought about a reawakening of the mind and intellect of the scholars, and guided them toward the revival of the sciences and the revival of civilization. You are hearing that now, not from Muslims only, but you hearing that now from the Western people themselves.
I've seen some very, very excellent programs on television. No one even told me about it, I just happen to be there, and the television was there, and the channel was there, on the right channel. And excellent program, where the truth was being told about the excellence of Muslims and what they contribute to bring about the renaissance, the reawakening of civilization and intelligent pursuits in the western world, and made possible what we have here now- advances in civilization, appreciation for moral and ethical life. I read, myself, part of a book by a writer, a western writer, where he said that… and he documented these things… that Crusades, where it has to be seen as a ugly thing- but a lot of good came out of it.
Because, he said, that those wars brought Christians and Muslims in direct contact with each other. And he said that when the Christians saw soldiers- saw that the Muslim soldiers- could fight the war very effectively, and still take a bath and shave regularly, they decided to do the same. I'm not making jokes, [at] anybody, I'm just telling you what he said. I don't look down on European people for that. When you see where the European people came from, and even in medieval times, if we know where they came from ancient times, how they've lived in ancient times, before civilization, before even the Greek knowledge adorned on this planet, when we study their life, their superstitious life, oh they were really in some-
You know the North can scare you more than the South. Yeah, the environment up North is more scarier than the environment of the South. Can you imagine being up there, hearing all those spooky winds up there, and all that ice and snow and huge hills of nothing but ice and snow- big white hill of death. You know cold is death! All of those mountains of death standing all around, and it get so dark up there. Sometimes they experience in some parts of the North… they experience six months of darkness. That's where the expression midnight sun come from. It be dark in daytime- pardon me- then they experience six months of day. It be night time, but they still can see the sun.
Now you know, people that live like that in an environment like that, for hundreds and thousands of years, they can be spooked up some’n terribly. [laughter]. And I read about the spirituality of the Germans and certain other European people before enlightenment came to them, how spooky and how superstitious they were. And they were given to savagery; their superstition just allowed them to be savage, and some of the horrible things that they would do… just like animals. They can trace their own history back to a state where they were just like crazy enraged animals. Even their idea of G-d was an intoxication that fed violence and insanity in them.
Their G-d was a mad thing. The idea of G-d was a mad creature, you know… for many of them! Now, I'm not saying that other parts of the world didn't experience the same thing, but I think the North is more spooky than the South. That's what I'm saying. The North is more spooky than the South. See, the South shows a organic development, right? You go to the South, you get organic development there; and that organic development, it communicates with the intellect. And if you don't believe this has some bearing, and if you who want to study- you scholars- you pretenders. [Laughter]. Scholars already know- you pretenders. You guys who wanna play scholars; go and study for yourself.

Just study the past history, ancient history, even before they got enlightenment and civilization: see what they were believing, see what their behavior was, study the environment there, and you'll come to the same conclusion... if you're intelligent. You'll come to the same conclusion. And they didn't make progress until they met with people outside of that environment. Yeah, they didn't make... study their history. They didn't make any progress until they met with people outside of that environment. And the more they came South, the more they liked it. Now, you find them all over the South.
That's not the natural home for the European man, not for the strict Caucasian man. That's not the natural home for him. His home is not the tropics. He likes it there, and now it is his home because- by choice- now it is his home. But the pure European stock, that so-called pure white man, he came from the north. You see, the environment colors you like it is. White environment, snow, ice, white environment, white man. [Laughter]. You got the dough, you don't put in the oven- white dough. [Laughter]. You take the biscuit, put it in the oven of Africa, black dough. [Laughter]. Someone called me up on the radio, that's why I have to talk like this; and they say some things that’ll make me feel so hurt and embarrassed.
I was talking on the telephone to the radio station here, and when one sister said something, I did this in the seat [demonstrating his movements].
[laughter]
I had to pull myself back up and lean on the desk and try to keep talking, you know... without them knowing that I had suffered a setback. [laughter]. I said, “Boy, oh boy”. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad made so much progress. And here it is- took him back to the most primitive days of his leadership. I like to follow the line of progress. That's intelligent. Follow the line of progress. Don't go back to where the man [and the NOI was] in kindergarten. Don't go back to his kindergarten days and then project it. You put that lil’ [metaphorical] six-year boy up there [while you’re saying], "That's my leader- Elijah when he was six years old! That's my man." [laughter]. I know Elijah when he was grown up and, felt good about his achievements, and was talking tough… and had the courage to tell you to shape up.
Even get rid of a lot of your false pride and conceit. Yeah, that's a real leader; a leader that’ll tell his people to put down what you been having years ago. Put that down, time is out for it. That's a sincere leader, that's a strong leader too. [It] takes a strong leader to tell you to put down something that he was once telling you to pick up. As they say, wise men change and you know the rest of it. [laughter]. And the biggest challenge for the human being is to manage his life, spiritually… spiritually, not materially. You think, “Oh, the greatest threat is the material things on us?” No, the greatest threat is to you is spiritual, because that's working against you and it's too powerful for you. Spiritual influences are too powerful for us. We cannot manage spiritual influences without Allah. No, you have to have Allah. These things He’s given us- [for example] our body. This own body will defeat me, if I'm not careful.
You see some people, they become so vain, so much in love with their own body- the physical body- that the body sends them to the shrink, the psychologist. Some, the love of the body sends them to the grave. You hear them dying with that disease where they wanna stay so thin and they love their beautiful, thin self and get that disease- a few of them have died with it. What they call it, arexia or something like that?
Crowd: Anorexia.
Imam: They get it and die because they just so obsessed with that body… looking good. Our religion saves us by protecting for us that relationship upon which all other relationships depend- the relationship with Allah. All other relationships depend upon that relationship. If your relationship with Allah is great, then you are not going to have any trouble with other relationships. You know that to be true, all the believers here they know that's true. Because our on life tells us that. Those of us who have great problems with: our family; sometimes our children; sometimes our mate; our husband, our wife- whatever.
We have great problems sometimes. Don't think the Believer is not gonna have problems. Allah says, "Do you think you'll be admitted into Paradise just on saying you believe and that's it?" You have to undergo hardship, you had to be tested. Isn’t that right, oh Allah? To take a certain group of people that say that they love him, and they believe in him and everything, and then he gon’ save them from all difficulties, and leave the other people to have problems. No… if He give them problems, He should give us problems too.
If we accept the same burden that they have to accept, and still hold with Allah, that's the proof that we deserve the great prize at the end of the road and not them. Yes, but if we go an expect a life with no trials, expect a life with no tests, no challen-. No, that's wrong; that wouldn't even be just of Allah to do that, just by us simply saying we believe in him or choosing to believe in him. That's not just. So we have our problems. Sometimes we have so much misery in our family, we don't even wanna think about it.
Yes. In fact, believers, if they're not blessed with a circumstance or environment that supports their children and family members believing in what they believe in, they are under more strain than the average people in that environment. Yes, we have a definite life that we have chosen, and this world doesn't respect any definite life. I mean, the World. I'm not talking about Christians, or the church. I'm not pointing at any particular thing. The World itself, the World itself is under the influence of greed, right? “Yeah, material greed- that’s where it is. Let’s see, now he gotta come back to that devil”. No, it’s not just material greed. There are people you think they materialistic, they aren't materialistic, but they know in order to get you on to them, they have to have material power, they need material power to get you under them. They will go and work to get themselves into material power in order to achieve that dominance over you, but then they're not materialistic. You go to his house, he's eating a lil’ small portion of steak. And he's spending money like he just heard that it ain’t gon’ be around anymore.
He's carefully spending his money, but he's in control of millions and billions. Not that he's materialistic, but he needs that material control over you. The people that he has to get to. [inaudible]… what he wants? Do you know the worse greed is not material greed? The worse greed is arrogance: the greed for power, and big image over others. People will sell everything- there are those who have that greed- that will sell everything, sell their mothers, their babies, and everything; so that they can keep themselves in a superior position over others. They have to feel that, "I'm in control. I control people lives."
I've heard some say, “I control people's lives”. Yes, I've heard ‘em say that. There are people who have that kind of greed for power, greed for authority and arrogance, that are much more dangerous to us than the people who just love material things. Do you know who [are] the greatest materialists in the United States? Just think on it for- I'mma give you 15 seconds. Think on that: the greatest materialists in the United States; the biggest materialist in the United States? [The Imam responded to someone who answered the question] African-Americans! You've got it in less than 15 seconds. [laughter].
Anybody that ain’t got enough money to pay the telephone bill for three consecutive months, but will go out and get a big ole’ expensive car costing $50,000…. that's materialistic. [laughter]. Anybody that complain that their race is behind and we’re being denied opportunity- we don't have any of this, we don’t that- but when he gets thousands he puts some on leather coats and, TVs and, all kind of electronic equipment. He can turn over and turn the TV on… just turn over. [Then] hit something, the TV come off. [laughter].
And he eat to show how much he could buy. He doesn’t eat… really most times he not eating to feed himself- he's eating to show how much he could buy. [Saying,] "Oh darling, bring me the chicken. Bring me a few slices of that ham. I think…nah, take the ham back. Is that ribeye in there? Can’t ya get that ready? Put a few of those giant shrimp on the plate too, on the side. Hey Ralph! Don’t let… don’t you want… look, I tell you what, fix Ralph some lobster," and one car was repossessed last month, and he got some money; he still showing off like that. Now, that's materialistic. See, that's materialistic.
But the man that goes after material wealth, but uses it for other things- other than just for personal appetite or whatever- that man is not necessarily a materialist. Don't you know you shouldn't be calling people materialist or materialistic just because they got great wealth? I hope I can correct this but, I got a plan to get myself into some big money. And I hope I can correct this at least in my circle of associates. [laughter]. I don't want you looking at me talkin’ ‘bout, “He's materialistic”. No, whatever I get is going to be to serve Allah.
And Allah says, "Seek by the means that He has made available to you”. The Hereafter. [Arabic language]: but, “don't forget that He has given you a share of this material world”. What else does Allah say? "And My devoted servants, they shall inherit the earth." Don't you want to do that? I do. I wanna inherit a piece of it that's got gold and diamonds and… or oil or something. You know I wanna inherit a rich piece of it. And we can manage it, if we always keep Allah first. We can manage it.
You know what I want to see? And whenever I come to this city, I feel obligated almost, to go back and kind of get to focus on things, in the order that we should see them. You know… get focused on our life, and the order that we should see things, you know? We should see things in a certain order, taking certain steps to bring us where we are now. We should look back in the past, not to just have that nostalgic feeling or something [saying], "Oh, what now? Oh, those [were] the good ole’ days. Yes, the good ole’ days". Not just for that, but we should look back mainly to collect what we should retain, to collect what is important and valuable for us still now. Let me tell you something. My father and mother- and I put father and mother because he was so big. That's why I didn't say mother and father. My father and mother… and she made him big! My mother made him big in my eyes. My father and mother, they told me from the time- I can't remember a time when they didn't tell me this… when I was hearing and knowing anything they were telling me this- they told me to fear Allah. Obey Allah.
Now how can I obey Allah? Allah wasn't talking to me. My father and mother was talking to me. They were talking to me. I was not talking to Allah. I wasn’t reading the Qur’an. They didn't tell me read Qur’an. We didn't do that in those days. So they told me to fear Allah, and told me to obey Allah. They told me to be decent. They told me don't lie. They told me don't go around with bad company. They told me all these things. They told me don't smoke, don't drink. They told me don't lie, don't steal.
And I feel so good to stand here today and tell you that I have obeyed them. I still fear Allah. I still tried to obey Allah. I have the same spirit, now as I had as a child, to fear and obey Allah. I still don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't use narcotics. I don't want a whore. I want a wife. All right? I'll never accept the pay for it. I want to share it. I haven't changed. I owe that to my father and mother's teaching. They're protection of me. They didn't only teach me but they protected my mind. They protected my thoughts; [and] watched over me as protectors. And because of that, I am still in that great discipline that they gave me.
Now, my theology- or if you can call it a theology- my concept of G-d has left erroneous kind of idea that they gave me, and now I'm happy to be free and at peace with my G-d, believing in Him as he's presented in the Qur’an, the last and final revelation. I'm happy with that. But I'm also happy that they put the fear of Allah in me, no matter how I thought Allah was. They put the fear of a superior authority in me. They told me to fear an authority that should decide other authorities for me. That's salvation. You know what Allah says to us in Qur’an? “Whoever holds on to la-ilaaha-ilallah, that there is G-d alone, he holds to that there is one G-d over everything else, that will bring him out of hell in time. Yes. That means I can make mistakes, I can neglect things in this life and cause a hell for myself, but as long as I hold on to that there is one G-d, that we’re answerable too- that we have to answer to one G-d- eventually that will bring me out of hell. And believe me, I've had enough experience to say I'm a witness. Yes, to say I'm a witness. ‘Cause in my heart, when I was a youngster, sometimes I'd be praying and my mind didn't feel comfortable visualizing that man that taught my father. And I would say to G-d in my prayer, if I'm not seeing you right, please help me to see you right.
I didn't even tell my parents that. I didn't tell anybody that. Back then, you know that was a little bit too heavy; a little bit too risky. I didn't know how they would react, so I didn't tell them. But as I grew older, I said I betcha they’re thinking the same thing. [laughter]. Finally, I got to talk with certain- what I call very sincere and faithful studious, followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and they loved me, and I said if they love me, they must think much like I do. And we just silently just approve each other, you know. [Saying to each other when we meet,] “As-salaam-alaikum, brother so-and-so. Oh, praise be to Allah. Isn’t it wonderful to be brothers,” ‘cause we know something’s missing here, don’t we? [laughter]. But our sincerity saved us!
Our truthfulness and sincerity saved us, and Allah was our G-d and our protector. Oh, yes. If you understand it, Allah was our G-d and our protector. He doesn't charge us with what we do in ignorance, or what we do without knowledge, he charges us only with what we do with knowledge. As long as a heart is sincere and straight, Allah will stay with us until we are delivered from confusion and ignorance. We have to manage our responsibilities, dear people, to be successful. And Allah has given us the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet, and the Prophet has demonstrated to us the responsibility that we all must accept.
There's responsibility on all of us. And the focus in our religion is on individual responsibility… individual responsibility! Don’t you know this meeting here, I can't- if it doesn't come about- I can't look at one person, [that being] Imam Hafiz who's very important in arranging these engagements for us, I can't look at him and say, "It failed… it didn't succeed because of you”. No, because if there's another one that’s around, I'm gon’ point to him [and] say, “He didn't do it? How come you didn't do it?” The responsibility is on all of us. And whoever's qualified to do it, the charge is going to be made against them if it's not done. That person didn't do it, but you were also able to do it. How come you didn't do it? This religion is not closed to anybody. Whoever's qualified should do the work. 
We do our Sunnah prayers. Do you know what- that meaning- that has for me more than anything else? For some people it’s just doing what the Prophet did, to follow the Prophet. That's beautiful to me, also. I love to do what the Prophet did. I feel obligated to do what the Prophet did. The beauty in that to me is not that I'm doing prayers because the prophet did these separate from the congregational prayers or the obligatory prayer. The beauty to me is that the Prophet has, by this, demonstrated that every sane and abled individual Muslim must be responsible for leading him and herself; because the one who leads in the prayers is the leader. He’s called the Imam; he’s the leader.
So we ain't got no special prayer for the Imam. The same prayer he's taught, all of us are taught. And if we have people come here and the Imam can't be found, any of us that know it, can be the Imam for that occasion. So this is a religion that obligates its public to accept responsibility individually, and to qualify themselves to the greatest degree, so that whenever the need is there, the need can be answered by someone. And [the] responsibility is on us all. Yes, this is a beautiful religion. This is the most democratic religion that I know of. It is the most democratic idea of man in society that I know of. I don't know, I can't think of one that's more democratic and my idea of what that democracy is. This democracy that we have in the West is a progressive democracy. It has began with one idea of freedom, and rights of individual, and has brought us now to a kind of democracy, we call it participatory democracy, where we're not satisfied to only have representatives, but every man- no matter a woman- no matter where they are in the scale, they should have access to whatever opportunity there is in the whole civilization… in the whole country, or in the whole society. And they shouldn’t just leave certain matters to their representative. If they can qualify, they should have some input; they should be able to influence what's going on.
Not only that, they should be able to go and participate in discussion. I mean, I know we have a long way to go here, but that's where we’re moving to now, where the people and the general public will be seen as responsible for not only the life of this country through their representatives, but they will also have the opportunity to watch and look and criticize what their representatives are doing, and make input if they are qualified to do it- make input! [For example,] come up and influence policy. Don't you know that's already Islam? We're trying to get to that, but that's already our religion.
In the time of the prophet, the prophet made the people aware of their responsibility to such degree that they knew- men and women knew- that no matter whether they were called Ameer or not, or had a position of power or not, if they saw something wrong, they had the power to speak out and give guidance from Qur’an, and give guidance from the Prophet, and correct that thing right on the spot.
Right now, we have something that I think a lot of us don't realize the importance of it. We be… the Imam [would] be leading the prayer, [and] anyone in the group that knows the Imam made a mistake can call his attention to it by saying, "Subhanallah” or “Allahu Akbar." That tells the Imam, "You've made a mistake." And the Imam has to correct it. What religion you know where people in the congregation, they hear [a mistake] and go, "Wait, preacher."
[laughter]
Speaker: Or, "Wait priest, or Father… Father, just a moment. Go back in reverse and, go back and pick it up again." What does that to tell us? We don't like to have interruptions in those special, very important formal meetings like that. We don't like to have any interruption. What does that to tell us? That his presentation and his image that he has before the people is not as important as getting that message over correctly- as giving correctly what Allah has revealed to be given; that his image is not that important. So you know, I'm sure a lot of Imam they have been hurt. I bet they went home and cried like babies.
[laughter]
Have such great image: [imitating their speech] “You know I’m a scholar and I’m”—then somebody says, "Allahu Akbar!" And he has to go at it again… and go back and corrected it. And sometimes the man, he never saw him before, he might be in shabby clothes; and he go back and tell him, "No brother, you said it wrong," and he'd give it to him right. He give them the verse right, and he has to say it right. He has to give it right. Not only in prayer, I mean also in lectures, you know.
Any time he's lecturing, and he makes a mistake, you correct him with what? "Allahu Akbar." That shows the role of the individual; the great role of the individual in this religion. We are not to look at people and say, "Because he doesn't have wealth or because he's not a scholar or because he's not in position of authority, we don't have to listen to him." No, his authority is that he knows what G-d said. That's his authority. He knows what Allah said. He knows what the Prophet…. that's his authority. Yeah. So praise be to Allah.
I return now to the religion itself. That is the religion of Al-Islam. That is a comprehensive religion. It is a religion that addressed the total life and the total needs of man, and does not bring about a dichotomy, or separation in the life of man, where one side is working against the other, or threatening the other. We know that anytime we give ourselves to extremism, that’s gonna be a threat. If we give ourselves to extremism in spiritual life, that's a threat. We give ourselves to extremism in material life, it's a threat. In our religion, all extremism is bad. Allah says, "Guard against extreme." And again Allah says, "The devil invites you to extreme."
But we can't close this address without mentioning the big danger that is presented to us by… in the Satan himself, the devil. We know that when Allah created everything, he created it perfectly suitable to the best condition and the best opportunities for the human being. He made it the best. We call it paradise, right? He created paradise for us. We know as Muslims, what the Prophet has told us, that it was Satan who changed it. He changed it from Paradise to a very perilous creation for man. He put enticement and, what you call… things to lure you from what Allah wants. He put enticements, attractions to lure us from what Allah want.
So he made the world very unsuitable and very dangerous for the obedient servants of G-d. The Satan did this; but it doesn't mean that we should see these things in their nature as being bad. No, they're not in their nature as being bad. They are bad only in our misconception of those things. We misconceive them. We misconceive the things. We misconceived the purpose for these things and there lies the danger for us.
Everything, even the pig, the pig is an animal G-d says, "Don't eat the pig." So we can't raise pig for somebody else to eat. That's it, no pig. So… but look, even that pig, Allah created him. He's of Allah's creation. You leave him alone, he's a good pig.
[laughter]
Yeah, he's only a bad pig when you start eating him off your plate…
[laughter]
Or, selling him to somebody else for consumption. He's a good pig. Just leave him alone. He’s a good pig. Now I know that's difficult for some of you, because we once made that pig more important than Allah. Boy, a lot of us, we forget about Allah but you mention that pig, you get our mind back [saying], "No, man, I never touched any pork. How in the world could he eat pork?" We never say, "How in the world could he stop believing in Allah?" No, "How in the world could he eat pork, man? After knowing all the trichinas and the trichinosis, and germs in that worm… that naked worm, man." I don’ heard him talk like that, you know: "I don't see how that brother gonna be eating pork. I could do anything thing man but I don’t think I could ever be eating pork."
[laughter]
That's changed now, though. That was when we had a strong desire for moral strength in our life, but the atmosphere's changed now, you know: just loose morals. So with loose morals that same brother, now he saying, "Man, it ain’t gon’ kill you to eat a little piece of it."
[laughter]
Dear Muslims, I'm sure that all of us are aware of the burden on us as a people. No matter how successful we are individually, I'm sure all of us are aware of the burden on us as a people. We waste our resources. We fear to invest wisely. We are inclined to gamble, more so than to use our intelligence and good logic and plan a successful business or something. We give our money to a risk situation. That's pure risk.
We'd rather gamble than to invest wisely. I pray Allah that the Muslim will accept the Muslim responsibility to work for the life hereafter and also work for the life here and now. Don't be afraid to invest. We're not gonna always be successful. If we believe in Allah, then if we see an investment that is proper for Muslims and it looks like a good investment to us according to our own intelligence- we have studied it- we are not afraid. We know nothing is guaranteed. If we fail there, we will try again… and try, try again, as the expression goes.
We never give up. Don't be foolish. Make calculated moves. Up with knowledge, get knowledge before you move, and be sure that you've done all the preliminary work: that you researched the matter; you’ve studied the matter; you’ve looked into it. And go on and have the courage to invest. Success belongs to the people who have courage to invest. You invest nothing, you get nothing. Isn't that common sense? Isn’t that what we’ve been told? You put nothin’ in, you get nothing out. Some of us can't even be farmers anymore.
We're afraid the seed won't come up. Where our fathers and mothers they had faith at least the seed would come out. They plant and expected a harvest, and worked for a harvest. We have to be the same today. Put something… invest something in the world to get something out of the world. And if you're not in a position to invest, then work at getting yourself into a position too and make an investment. When Allah tells us over and over again in the Qur’an to spend, you know most of the time what that means? Invest in the world of today, for the good future tomorrow, but do it loving Him and trying to obey Him. Do it in obedience to Allah and He assures us that we will be successful.
Look at the money that come through our hands. Those who study our financial situation as a people, they are saying that we are spending as a race or as a group in America much more than all the other groups are spending. No other group that we know of are spending like we are. We are great consumers, great spenders. We are spending great wealth. So you know what we are doing? We are giving business opportunity to other people. That's all we're doing. Were just giving business opportunity to other people. We are making other people rich. Just going out, just buying. We are scared to put the dollar into the economy. We’re afraid put the dollar into the financial workings of society.
We just, "I'll buy that car. That's new. That's good. Give me that coat. Give me two or three of those." You got to spend that money ‘cause you don't even trust the bank with it. Everybody getting rich and we staying poor. I remember a time I was talking once, on the need for us to invest and try to establish ourselves financially, and one brother said, "Well brother, we ain't supposed to give ourselves to materialism." I said, "Lord have mercy." I corrected it though. I went back and got the evidence from Qur’an and the life of the Prophet.
A lot of us think the prophet was a poor man. Do you know that our Prophet, peace be upon him, was no poor man? Even before he was missioned as a prophet, he was a businessman, working in the employment of Lady Khadija. May G-d be pleased with her. Working in her employment, and he was such an asset that she put him over her business because he was so successful at what he did. So our Prophet, even before he became a prophet, he was a businessman. You should think about that. [You] say oh, the Prophets didn't have any money, he slept on a lil’ thin mat--
Yeah you’d sleep on one too. I would like to see us sleeping on a little thin mattress, where you can feel a little small pebble, if it’s under it, you know; and if you turn over on it, you’d say, “A little small pebble is up under this mattress”. That's the kind of mattress he slept, so thin that if a little small pebble was under he could feel it pressing his skin; but I like for you to sleep like that too if you like, it is very good. When you wake up, let me see you ask what is the financial situation of the good believers? They come, we want to improve it here. You take this, go invest that.
Invest this, help the community. Prophet Muhammad had so much, he just passed it out to a bright and industrious and good minded people and, giving this, a lot of it, saying, "Go and invest it, help them make money, help increase the wealth of the Muslims." That's what I like to do. I just got to follow my prophet all the way. One day, I see myself sitting around, and tell them to open up vault number two. How many of those Mercedes dealership they got now? Thank you very much. Tell them I want to buy one of the new electric trains that they got out there. I want a train. I want to have my own train. I'd like to see that day.
How many employees they got in that bank? Is it 200? We got more money here in the bank just laying up here and look we don't have any good investment opportunity right now, except the investing in employment, build another bank that size and just so we have more employment. You see how righteous money can be. All you need to do is have your heart in the right place, have your heart with Allah, accept the guidance of the Qur’an and the life of our Prophet as an example for us and go on after establishing yourself. Not only spiritually, but materially. Thank you very much. Assalamualaikum.
[00:17:20] [END OF AUDIO]

