06/12/1988
IWDM Study Library
Issues and Concerns Facing Muslims

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We give all praise, that is, in the English language, we say that we give all praise to the one Lord and creator of the heavens and the Earth, whose name for Muslim is Allah. And we thank Him and praise Him on the blessings of Muhammad, the last and universal prophet, upon him be the peace and upon his descendants and his companions, the righteous all. Dear beloved Muslims, Imams, distinguished guests, and all of us in this honorable audience, we wish you the peace and the blessings and mercy of the one Lord and creator. As salamu 'alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
To begin, I am very appreciative for an opportunity, this is a blessing in itself, a great blessing for one of us to be so loved and respected, so appreciated to receive this kind of reception in Washington DC. This is a blessing that I feel very grateful for, not because of myself but because of us, our needs, our strivings that goes back a long way. And our, I will say, kinship, I don't like to use the term too much, but our kinship and circumstances that make us, sometimes, closer than blood kin.
I'm grateful to the persons that have worked with our organizers from Chicago, here in Washington DC. Obviously, you have cooperated with each other and have done a very excellent job. We congratulate the Chicago organizers who are in my personal administration to promote my ministry. We say, Dawah, my ministry. They have been very helpful, and each time they grow more, I would say, experienced, and they are now attracting better people and more sincere people in the localities that we're visiting to assist them to assure us a very good reception.
As you know, we could not achieve anything if it was not for the favor of the one Lord, whose name is Allah, for Muslims. So, all thanks again and praises are for Him, especially today.
Since I our more pressing need, today is a Muslim consensus regarding what should be our attention to concerns and a common position regarding matters of Islamic importance. By consensus, we simply mean, a majority agreement, majority support, majority opinion in favor of that.
Common faith should be the most reachable meeting place for such unity of mind or coming together of mind or consensus, common faith. However, to the surprise of many, we are not in agreement on matters of importance for Islamic faith. I think we have not given enough attention to get an understanding of just what is specifically, uniquely by definition, Islamic faith. This is not to say we don't have faith; we all have faith. But the Islamic content of that faith, for many of us, needs much improvement.
I have experienced myself over the years, a need to grow into a better understanding of Islamic faith, the Islamic faith, what we should trust, what we should put our trust in, the spiritual foundation for us. Over the years, I've come to realize that my knowledge of the faith was too general, not specific enough, not identifiable enough with Quran presentation of faith and faith as the Prophet Muhammad lived it.
We are addressing, on this wonderful occasion that began with the honoring of our pioneers last evening. We are addressing what should be Muslim concerns. And we are hoping to find some kind of agreement or some kind of common direction for us, some kind of common position for us to take regarding these concerns. Faith, as presented in the Quran, clears up the question, if we know, or recall the important teachings of faith in our Holy Book.
Also, the Prophet has addressed faith in many ways, and it has been protected for us as Hadith, reported sayings or Hadith, as we say in the Arabic language. The Arabic term for it is Hadith. And now, I will, just briefly, go to the Quran and Hadith in hopes of getting us at least to be aware that some of us are not really having Islamic idea of faith.
Our concept of faith perhaps can be no better described or established by approaching it any other way than first looking to the Prophet Ibrahim, called Abraham, for the English people. And seen as Dr. Isaiah of Libya put it, the two great aspects of faith as illustrated in Abraham's, peace be upon him, searching for the concepts that would satisfy his heart, that would satisfy his mind.
And the experiences in Abraham's life, we might say even the events in his life, that this devoted scholar and Muslim of Libya, Dr. Isaiah, brought to my attention for our consideration. Because I met with him to invite him to co-author a book with me on the simplicity of our religion in its plain teachings. In the course of our conversation, we got really fascinated, I did. I don't know if he was fascinated. Old scholars, they're not too quick to be fascinated, but I think he was too.
I think he found the subject of discussion fascinating, even though it was a subject that he was accustomed to speaking on or commenting on perhaps for many, many years of his life. He pointed to Abraham's devotional strength, the strength of his attachment to G-d, his belief that G-d exists. And whatever he sensed that G-d intended, he would give his all to it. As you know, you who are familiar with the story of Abraham or Ibrahim.
He readily offered his own son as a sacrifice because he saw in the vision that G-d desired that of him. Now, this report on Abraham, the Prophet Abraham, is accepted and given by not only the Islamic faith but Judaism and Christianity as well, with some, maybe, variations, but essentially, the report or the story is the same for the three great religions. To illustrate one aspect of faith, that is to present one aspect of faith that is Muslim faith because we have what the faith of Ibrahim, Abraham, the upright.
He was willing to sacrifice his only child, his son, because he saw the vision that G-d intended that. It really bothered Abraham, it disturbed him greatly. It caused great anguish, great suffering to him. But he did not hesitate or think about it, from the time he realized that G-d wanted that for him in his own mind, he was prepared to do it. He took his son, as you know the story goes, and he took him to present him to G-d as a sacrifice.
And he took the knife, and he was ready to present him as a sacrifice. And his son had accepted. He had told his son what G-d desired, and his son being the child and also, he was going to be a prophet too. So, it was in him to accept what his father desired to do in compliance with the will of G-d. So, his son agreed to it, and he was about to take his life with the knife. And Allah revealed to him, that in that he was prepared to do it, the vision had been fulfilled.
That, Allah does not want our innocent life, blood, as sacrifice. Allah says in another part of the Quran, "None of these such things reach G-d. The only thing that reaches G-d is our obedience called taqwa," which is bigger than really obedience. But that's the best single word I can find right now. The thing that reaches Allah that we want to give Him as a sacrifice is our obedience.
Now, you may say, "Well, how am I sacrificing when I'm obeying?" You're sacrificing your desires; you're sacrificing your own will. If you obey G-d against your desire and against your will, you're making a sacrifice. And don't tell me you didn't have to sacrifice if you're obeying 
G-d. Maybe now you don't feel it as a sacrifice, but the first time you did it, it was a real sacrifice. Maybe the second time, maybe even the 20th you did it, it was a sacrifice. Yes, we have to sacrifice.
And many times, after we have done a thing over a period of years, and you didn't even feel it as a sacrifice. Something can come up; something can occur for us in our life and make that thing a big sacrifice. The thing that we're doing for years, and didn’t even think nothing of it but now it is a big burden, it is hard to do it. You say, "O, Allah help me, give me the strength to obey you." Yes, so we have to sacrifice. And that's the sacrifice He wants: obedience.
The blood, it doesn't reach G-d; the things you sacrifice of the world, they don't reach G-d. But it is your taqwa, your deep regard for G-d's will and His way that reaches Him. That deep regard reaches Him, your obedience, your good disposition toward Him, respecting Him, fearing Him, loving Him, wanting to comply with whatever He wants of you, that's what reaches Him. Yes. Now, I'm not here pretending to give you any new knowledge. I just hope I will help you review old knowledge and get a better understanding of it.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. And we bear witness that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed is a blessing and a mercy to the worlds, a guide and a model to be followed by all people who want excellence. And we pray always peace and blessings of Allah, the special peace and the special blessings of Allah be upon him. Because he is the excellence that G-d wants in all of us. Praise be to Allah.
Let me now quickly summarize these comments on that aspect of faith. When Abraham, peace be upon the Prophet, was waiting upon seeing a vision and feeling spiritually, by intuition, or by some kind of soul-sense in him that G-d intended that for him and he was prepared to sacrifice his dear son. He was following upon pure faith with no other help, pure faith with no other help. Now, that's one aspect of Abraham's faith, and that is also one aspect of our faith. Because our faith is the faith of Abraham according to the teachings of our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. The other aspect is given in this particular event that took place in the life of the Prophet Abraham.
Prophet Abraham told G-d to tell him, he asked G-d, he said, "Tell me, how will the dead be raised? How will the dead be raised?" Being a man of the first kind of faith or the first qualification for the faithful, that is faith upon pure belief, pure faith, faith upon just pure belief. He was apologetic. See, a real believer is very careful about questioning things of a sacred nature or things of G-d or close to G-d. A real believer is very careful.
You find somebody rushing to question everything about G-d, hey, you better look out, that might not be the saint you think it is. Real believers, they're careful and cautious when questioning things of G-d. Abraham said to G-d in an apologetic way, he says, "Not that my faith is not there but so that my heart will rest." He wanted his heart to rest. He had faith but he wanted his heart to rest.
So that my heart will rest," he wanted to know how will the dead be raised? Now, that's an indication that the man was not satisfied with blind faith, a faith with no knowledge-base. He desired that he had some knowledge-based along with his faith to support his faith. Now, if this is rightly understood, then you will appreciate that you feel very good with this, Allah says in His Holy Book, do not pursue anything for which there is no knowledge connection, do not pursue anything for which there is no knowledge connection.
Now, the disposition in many people of faith to go to one or other extreme, to work to be comfortable knowing that their faith has no evidence anywhere except in their belief that it is right. That’s one extreme, isn't it? I'm not condemning mystics. I'm a mystic myself, but I just don't like to be mystified.
I'm not condemning the mystics because we know all mystics are not the same. But the typical mystic, he is not satisfied until he proves to you that what is offering you comes from the world of nonexistence, comes from the world of nothingness, and there is nothing in the creation or in your mind or in an ability to think to connect you with it except that you follow him blindly, out of this world. That's the one extreme.
The other extreme is this, that we don't believe in anything that we can't verify with the tools of our intellect. No matter if those tools are toothpicks and broken, rotten leaves. No matter what or how inferior they are or how cheap they are, we think those tools must qualify everything you say. "G-d said it" "Prove it to me, prove it to me," that means "Prove it to my intellect." That's the other extreme.
We don't go to either of these extremes, the Muslim person of faith must accept that there is a limit for his own mind and his own intellect and his own ability to grasp and understand and clearly see and have command of things, ideas, et cetera. There's a limit and we're all different. You will have your ability to deal with one subject, and I won't have an ability equal to yours. I may have an ability to deal with another subject you don't have ability equal to mine.
There are just too many differences, but there should be common faith, common faith. There should be a common meeting place for the mind of people of faith. And all I'm saying is we need a common meeting place for the minds of Muslims regarding what is essentially faith in America. But we need that meeting of minds, that commonplace for the meeting of Muslim minds all over this world. Because so many people beyond these shores that call themselves Muslims belong to different schools of thought, belong to different kind of disciplines in religion are far from being of the faith of Abraham, the upright, far from it. So, we wonder, how come we can't have unity? The first place to get unity is on the meeting ground of faith, that's the first place to get unity. We may never have unity in other areas of our interests, we don't have to. But where we must have unity is on the ground of faith, we should all be believing the same thing.
If we believe the same thing, then we don't have to have unity on other matters as to what should be our priorities in the community. Priority should be a unity of minds or what is our faith, that's the priority. Then after we have that, I'm sure we'll present ourselves in great uniformity when it comes to the other concerns that we should be having. Such as the place of education in our concerns, the place of the family in America in our concern.
And many other things that are bothering us right now and need our attention right now. We'll be better able to arrange our concerns and have a greater margin of agreement for ourselves if we can come to some kind agreement as to what is faith for Muslims? And I believe we can have it. Now, it is not enough to just recite those essentials of faith. It’s the proper start, but it’s not enough.
Muslims must believe in G-d, we must believe in G-d. How are we to believe in G-d? Some Muslims, from one of those extreme orientations in the past, I don't know which one. If you're familiar, one of those extreme orientations I mentioned representing the two extremes. The desire to go out and never be satisfied until you don't have anything to prove anything. You just got something that you say, “This language, nobody has this language. Don’t look for it in the history of the world, it doesn't exist, this is uniquely ours”. Then there is the other extreme, that you think you're so intelligent, and when it comes to matters of faith, that nobody can prove nothing to you unless it meets the expectation of your mind, no matter how small it is. So, be aware of those two extremes. I don't know what extreme we have in the audience here, but I'm sure we got some out there, that's right in those two extremes.
I'm sure. I was there myself once upon a time. I know. Oh, this world messed me up so much on the subject of religion, before I know anything, I was following a guru, and I didn't see nothing I recognized.
Well, getting back to the first step, the first step is to know exactly what is said in our Holy Book. That's the first authority, supreme authority, for us, what is says in our Holy Book about the faith. First of all, we must believe in G-d. I won't go into all of those qualifications for that belief in 
G-d, but I will mention some because it's very important for the subject of faith.
We must believe in Allah upon evidences. But also, and more importantly, because Allah is too big for the intellect. We must believe in Him upon faith, pure faith. The same kind of faith demonstrated in the life of Abraham when he had a feeling inside what G-d wanted and was willing to carry it out even if it meant to sacrifice of his own son. Yes, that kind of faith. We must have that kind of faith. We must believe in Allah, bil ghaib. That’s a Quranic expression. You know, we say Arabic expression, it’s Arabic language. But understand this, when the Quran came to Prophet Muhammad, an unlearned man, not one of the learned people. Peace be upon him. Precious, precious mercy and blessing to the worlds.
When the Quran came to him and was expressed as revelation through him and the people heard the Arabic coming from an uneducated man identified with the ignorant masses of Arabia in our Holy Book. The Umeyeen, meaning the unlearned, ignorant masses. When the revelation came through him and reached the ears of the so-called learned in the language of Arabic, they were so astonished.
It is reported that they saw this one little verse on the Kaaba, someone had put it there. It was the habit of those lovers of eloquence, that is the smooth, professional, common language. They were so proud of it. They would bring their writing, a bit of their writing a verse or so, and they would hang it on the Kaaba. The shrine there that Abraham built that they had turned into a shrine for pagan gods, for false gods.
They were hanging on the sign there with their beautiful verses, powerful, eloquent verses. Once they noticed that there was a verse and it was strange to them, and it was the verse that Allah had revealed to the Prophet, they were so amazed. They were so amazed. "Who did this? No one can do this. No one can do this." They were so amazed. This is before they came to know the Prophet. 
They were so astonished. They were surprised that anyone could give such a powerful verse. See, they boasted that they could give a powerful verse that would bring clarity, communicate clearly, and with the greatest economy of words, the least words. They could say so much and say it so clearly with the fewest words. That was their boast and that it would be so beautiful in the ears. And so beautiful in terms of its profoundness, philosophical profoundness. But when they heard the verses that were revealed through our prophet, they were amazed.
They said, "Who's this? Where did this come from? None of us could do this." Yes, and they were right. It was done by Allah. So, what does that say? That says that the Arab language was enhanced, improved, raised up to a higher standard of excellence with the coming to the Quran to the unlettered Prophet Muhammad, peace and the blessing be all upon him. And I could go on talking about this. This is very important. This is also, a matter of faith. Because who can prove that to a dumb person? Yes, you know some of us, "The Holy Quran is a miracle, well what's this, man?"
In the sense of its purity of language, its eloquence and its power of the expression, its economy of words. "Let me read this book. I don’t see that."
Even this is a matter of faith for many. We're not scholars in the language, so we can't see it. Scholars in the language can see it, oh, yes. Now, getting back to our point. The point is this, that we call the language of Quran Arabic, which is true. But to say certain terminologies and certain expressions are Arabic without first knowing that they are Quranic is not true. Because the Arabs did not have such expressions until the revelation of Quran.
They did not have that high of an appreciation for literature until the coming of the Quran. I'm saying this to the benefit of our people over here. I'm not ready myself, and I know I'll never be ready myself, to call myself an Arab. I'm not ready now to call myself an Arab, and I know, I don't believe, I know I will never be ready to call myself an Arab. Not because I have any prejudices against Arab, no.
I have the greatest respect for Arabs. But I don't care if there was a new race created and they would come out of the heavens, laying down here and saying, "We never did any wrong." I say, still, I choose to be called myself. You keep your own name; you keep your own racial identity.
In the interest of that concern, I make a point of telling you the truth about the importance of Arabic language for Muslims. Certainly, it's important, but it's important only after Allah upgraded the Arabic language with the revelation of Quran. And it’s not general Arabic that's important for us. No, I care nothing about the general dialects of Arabs. It's Quranic Arabic that's important for us.
The Prophet Muhammad didn't encourage anybody to take on the ethnic identity or the racial identity of another. In fact, he worked against that. And there are many instances that I can point to in his life and his life reports, the authentic reports by Bukhari and Muslim and others to support that. But that's not what we're here for. So, we're not going to spend all that time. I can do it you know. When I was younger, I could talk till the sun rise up again.
That's no joke. I got some witnesses here. I start talking while the sun is shining and before they know it, it's dawn. I say, "Let's have dawn prayer." And that's not because I'm some great speaker. Now, I'm not a great speaker. I just have a hell of a lot to say, I was filled up. 
And that's the truth, I’m filled up. I be so filled, that I don’t want to stop. Well, sometime the mortal body, the mortal life can't take all of that. So, I had to check myself and save the life for all of us. Praise be to Allah. Now, let us go back to where we left when we're talking about faith as presented in Quran. Number one, belief in G-d but not belief in G-d without also a willingness, a reception in you to believe in Him without knowing with your mind how to prove it or how to defend it.
Don't you know there are some things that we shouldn't argue about? They are established common principles of faith that nothing can be relied upon, in the human being, to verify it amongst ourselves except the innocence of the human soul. And some faithful people of the various religions, I've heard Christians say it, "I don't need nobody to explain it to me. I know it in my soul," and some say, "I know it in my heart," which almost mean the same thing.
See, when we have a pain here and sometimes, we don't know exactly where to point, and we have a good feeling too and sometimes we miss, we don't know where to point. I know it's somewhere here. One time I thought it was in my hands. Oh, Lord. Hands felt like it was just vibrating, almost, electricity went all in my hand. That soul might be going through my hands. Don't let it go to your head. It might drown out your senses, yes.
Now, belief in G-d bil ghaib. Bil ghaib means without proof, without verification, without the mind, the intellect verifying that, without you knowing that, knowing the proof of that with your intellect, with your mind, with your rational thinking. That's what it means bil ghaib. Just like if I say, "Tomorrow, I'm going to be speaking in Philadelphia." Now, where's the proof of that? Where's the proof of that?
I may be dead tomorrow. I may be too sick to go there tomorrow. I may be insane tomorrow and go to Los Angeles thinking I'm going to Philadelphia. Yes, there ain't no proof of that. How can anyone give verification for the future? We can believe it. Now, see, there? You're not aware of that. But most of the things that we depend on are really of the nature of faith. That support is in the nature of faith. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow." What proof have you got of that?
That's why in our religion, Allah says, do not say what you're going to do on tomorrow without saying Inshallah, if G-d wills it. And if G-d wills it, it's going to happen. Whatever He will, is definitely going to happen. But I don't know. I'm not a partner with Him, an equal partner. Say, “whatever's going to happen, now let me in on it”. No, He won't let us in on it.
He might know it. He might know that "Wallace, says he's going to be out there tomorrow. He doesn’t know his family will be crying over him tonight. He's going to be dead tonight." Only Allah knows. And that's the Bible, that's Quran, that's all the great religions. So, we have to believe bil ghaib. G-d promised us what? Afterlife. That's another thing we should believe in. We are to believe in Allah, our G-d, the one Lord and creator. I want to make it clear what we are to believe in. Allah the one Lord and creator. He is Lord and Creator. Ain’t no Creator then Lord comes.
I think we all believe that. I think Christian preachers and mystics even in Christianity. I do think they believe that. I think they believe that the Creator and Lord are one and the same. I really don't think they believe it just like most of us hear it. I don't. I don't think they believe it just like most of us hear it. The way most of us hear it, it's a heavy cross to bear if you carry it. That's a heavy cross to bear. I won't talk about that. I'll leave that alone. But it's a heavy cross to bear. Why? Why is it so heavy for me to bear? Because to me, it's an injustice to almighty G-d who created everything, and made possible everything.
To separate Him in two kinds of identities and say, "This is the one who created, but this is our Lord. This is the one who created, but this is the one who saves us." Believe me, I can't buy it. No matter how hard I try, I can't help but knock it when I see so many victims. Look, any Christian that thinks they love the blessed Jesus Christ, the Prophet for Muslims, more than we do is fooling themselves. You're fooling yourselves. We're not insisting that you Christians become Muslims. We are obligated to invite everybody, but we're not insisting that any of you become Muslims. We're not going to break or part company with you, look at you in an unfavorable light because you choose to remain a Christian.
In fact, if you want to improve your image in our light, just improve your Christianity that you live. Not that you talk about that you live. Believing in G-d. I hope I'm not boring you to much by taxing you too much today. I don't like to rush. I like to take my time. The sun will rise. You’ll be back home if you want to go back home. You’ll be all going back home. You’ll be in bed and then sleep the night and everything. G-d willing, inshallah.
Belief in Allah bil ghaib, without proof, without it being verified. But in a sense, it is proven to the faithful. In a sense there are verifications, for the faithful. Many things are verified by other avenues, than the rational mind or the intellect of man. I've noticed that this thing occurred this way at this time, in connection with this interest. And when I got in a similar position five years later, they occurred the same way. It was a revelation to me that time, it’s a revelation to me this time. Then it occurs for another friend of mine way, way away. And then I meet him about my experience.
I meet him and tell him about my experience. We had the exact same experience. So, isn't that some kind of verification? If we allow the experiences that we share the same kind of experiences, and we can’t explain ourselves with our rational mind, just what occurs to make those experiences possible. But the faithful says, "Yes, sister, you don't have to tell me. You don't have to explain it to me. I had the same kind of experience." So, for the faithful there are verifications, there are proofs. There is a common agreement. They say, “To verify a thing, you have to find somebody outside of yourself. You have to go about. And don't be satisfied to just to have it verified by someone of your persuasion. Go to somebody that differs from you”.
This happens for Buddhists. It happens for Christians. It happens for Jews. It happens for people that ain’t got no religion. What am I talking about? I am talking about experiences that we can’t explain with our minds, but we know they happen. And we know they happened bringing us a message. They don't just happen. They happen bringing us a message. They happen bringing us relief in the critical hour. They happen, alerting us to a situation, a bad situation for our loved one down south or up north. And we know something is wrong. We know we have to get in touch with them. We get on the phone and call them. And say, “Child, she's sick, she's in the bed. She's in the hospital right now. Maybe you should come down here and see her." We believe in the unity of matter, that's part of Tauheed. That is the unity in our religion is first principle, unity, oneness. First principle in our religion, and it begins with Allah is one. He has no partner. Allah is one, cannot be made divisible. You can't divide Him up into no different parts. He is a unity that can’t be altered; therefore, the Muslim cannot believe in the Trinitarian doctrine. Though we respect our Christian brothers and sisters, we don't reject them as being a legitimate religious community, and a fine religious community because they believe that. But we cannot accept it.
We know it to be, according to our religion, a great burden and an injustice to man, that he sees G-d in plurality and not in oneness. There is no plurality for Him. That's our belief. So, if we believe in Allah, in His oneness, perfect oneness an unalterable oneness. It cannot be altered. And we also believe in Allah without any proof that He exists for our intellect because we are born with respect for Him even before we know it. We're born obeying Him before we know that we can even think. How are we born obeying Him? Every child is born with a soul. Every child is born with the qualities of the soul. Every child is born with spirituality. Every child is born susceptible and ready, agreeable to the belief in G-d.
We make him an atheist after long, long years and hard, hard labor. And a lot of help from Satan, we make him an atheist. Every child is born a believer in G-d, born with a soul with all of its human sensitivities that G-d wanted for it, and its faith. The first expression of that faith is his faith in his mother. His faith in his mother. That's kind of philosophical, but the first expression of faith in G-d is the baby's faith in his mother. He never saw her before. Once we get grown, we don't trust ourselves with our life with nobody until we have some experiences with them.
But the baby knows right away it is supposed to trust his mother. That's the trust that G-d has put in, the faith that G-d has put in that baby. That's faith in Allah. You know, if I have enough faith in the people that organized this affair, I can sit out there comfortably. But if I don't have the faith in the people that organized this affair, I might sit there and say, "Hey, what are they doing now? What's holding up the program? Somebody coming to shoot up this place?” I’ll start having all kind of wild imaginations. After a while you’ll see me, moving on out.
The Lord that created us, we know Him. We know Him in our nature. Our nature knows Him, and we can't speak to Him. We can't tell about Him. But there was a baby who spoke in the cradle. Jesus Christ, peace and blessings be upon him. He was a baby in the cradle, and he spoke, and his mother heard him. His mother was asked, "What is this that has happened? This miracle, what is this, you’re claiming that you have a child and no man touched you?” She pointed to the baby, Christ Jesus, peace be upon Him, in the cradle and she said, "Talk to him about it." And he spoke. Now, there’s a test, and you’re not Abraham. But I hope you keep following Abraham.
That is keep following the faith Allah gave the prophet, and verified that faith as the faith that He intended for all the multitudes of the earth by saying that, that is the faith, the original faith, the faith of Abraham the upright. Let me continue on faith. I hope I won't keep you too long. I don't want to make anybody uncomfortable or tie up the day. Now, we are to believe in the resurrection. Prophet Abraham, he asked G-d, "How are you going to raise the dead?" I would love to apologize for this question, but I just want my soul to rest. He wanted peace in his soul, peace in his heart. He said, "For my heart's sake or for my soul's sake, will you give me answers for me?"
Then G-d said, "Abraham, you will have to believe in me without me giving you any help on this particular question, or matter that you presented to me." No, He didn't. According to our Holy Scriptures, the Quran, Allah replied to him and He said, "Take portions of birds and put one portion on each mountain, on four mountains. But train the birds and when you call them, they will come to you." Isn't that beautiful? That was enough for me years ago. That was enough for me. It was enough for me that Allah respected the intellect of His human creature. And said his intellect needs more than what his heart has been given.
His intellect is not satisfied with just what his heart has been given. His intellect needs more, so Allah responded and He gave him more. Just as He said, “train them.” To me, I say this is good, that's plain. That it is true that if you train birds and you can separate them, you can put them in different situations. Four mountains are four different situations. Put them in four different situations, and the mountain itself is an elevation, isn't it? So, you have trained them and that’s why they have gone on top of the mountains. Because you have trained them, now they are elevated. They are able to go on top of the mountain. You know that song? “Let's go where eagles fly”, and all that stuff. You heard that song, I can’t recall. The folk singer sings it. When he sings it, it touches me too.
I've had to check myself sometimes. I’ll be singing. I’ll say, “Wow, what am I doing here?" I have to catch myself. Because I’d like to be able to go higher too, especially on a mountain. We got some connections with the earth, but that eagle trip up there, no ladder, no nothing. I can understand that because when you train something, the discipline is ingrained in that something. Especially if it's a little animal or even plants. Plants, if they get accustomed to a certain kind of orientation, a certain kind of activity. If that activity continues for a long enough time, though that was not in that plant, the seed of that plant will bear a new orientation.
A plant will come up a little different, from the one that went through that. And if it continues over a long enough period of time, a new-looking plant will come about. And it's true for us as human beings, true for dogs, true for animals. In fact, based upon what they call the evolution of the species, adaptation. What the western science says? The western science says that the way the monkeys arms are, the way its legs are, the way its jaws are, the way its head is, the way the bird's beak is, how long it is, how sharp it is, how round it is, all of these things, even the color, comes from that thing being expose to a certain environment. It has to go through a certain kind of discipline, over and over again, for hundreds and thousands of years, and finally it comes out a creature looking like that.
That's western science. And some of you all don't believe that. Well, I would quicker disbelieve than I would the Quran, because I’m a man of faith, but I believe that. My religion doesn't put me at odds with exact science. My religion on the contrary, obligates me to respect exact sciences. So much for that. So, we're to believe in the resurrection. You may say, “Oh, no, W.D. Mohammed I know him. I know he is the son of Elijah Muhammad, but he is not Elijah Muhammad. And I don't care what he says, I know there's nothing after death. The honorable Elijah Muhammad told us, "Death ends it all." I know that”.
Well, if the honorable Elijah Muhammad was here, if I could bring him right here and he sit here right now, or stand here right now beside me, I would prove to you before him that you're not his follower in 1975, just before February 26. I can prove it because the honorable Elijah Muhammad told me, "Son, there must be something after death." He knew my belief. I had long change and he put me out of the community because I had changed. So, he knew my belief and he told me, "Son, there must be something after death." I knew he was serious. He wasn't giving no lecture. He was just sitting down eating and talking, and relaxing like we normally do. Ok he said, he is a witness. I know I wasn’t at the table by myself.
I can't say who was there, but I know I wasn't there by myself. He said, "Son, I know there's something after death." Now, you may say, "How come he didn't tell us that?" He said something else to explain that. He said, "Son, after a man has gone for as long as I have gone, speaking as strongly as I have been speaking, he can't bring any change on those matters to his people, they would think he was lying all the time." I'm telling you his exact words to me. That’s his exact words to me. Just a year, or less before he passed away. And Allah knows that I believe that he will enter paradise. I do believe that. The honorable Elijah Muhammad will enter paradise, I'm very convinced of that. Allah will forgive him of sins. In our religion, the only sin is conscious sin. Any sin error is not a sin. Any sin you commit without a consciousness of it, without awareness of it is not even a sin.
And I know that Elijah Muhammad couldn't have preached to his own son, a little boy, the way he preached for all those years as strongly as he preached and not be sincere. I know he was sincere. I know he was sincere. I know he believed what he was saying. So, he believed what he was saying and he was taught that by a mystic who pretended to be not only an authority on religion, but the 
“G-d himself”. Now, you know anytime an African-American with three years elementary, formal education and no more, who had to go to lumber yards, freight yards et cetera for a job because he didn't qualify on the basis of what is required up here for better jobs.
And was on welfare when he was found by this mystic, he was on welfare. And also, a man victimized by alcohol. This is the truth. I have to tell you these things. He was victimized by alcohol. My mother used to have bring him in on her shoulders in the house, drunk he was out of it. And then that African-American with that little bit of education with no world exposure. Georgia and Detroit, that’s it. No worldly exposure, no opportunity to sit with the learners, to sit with people of higher minds, or of informed knowledge. No, no opportunity for that. And then a man comes to him looking like a white man with thin lips, sharp features, straight hair.
And he made sure it looked straight, he had a way of processing his curly hair. Actually, he was a curly hair white man, but he knew in order for a black man to listen to him, he had to be straight-haired and look as much as he can like a typical Caucasian or white man. Because we just didn’t listen to anybody else in those days, unless they had the backings of a white man. And let me tell you something at this point. Most of us would not have supported Dr. Martin Luther King, if he didn't have a degree in the white man's approved knowledge. Dr. King, if he was just King and had that elementary education, he wouldn't have got nobody to go two steps with him on no passive resistance march.
"Damn fool, man. You hear that crazy nigger, man? He talking about don’t carrying no weapons and lay ourselves in the streets, crazy nigger, man.” That's what they would have said about him. But because he was doctor King, "Oh, yes, Dr. King." I'm getting at something here. Don't you know a man of the honorable Elijah Muhammad’s education which is really nothing with his experience in the world, nothing, with his knowledge of the international world, nothing, meets a white man, a white man in his eyes, a white man. And that white man tells him that, "I've come to deliver you, to save you from your cruel oppressors, your cruel slave masters." And then tell him that, "I've come to bring you the supreme wisdom, I've come to bring you that that is higher than anything this world knows. I am the “god in person."
And tell him the white man is the devil. His reaction to that, “Yes, yes.” Recalling his treatment in the world, recalling the treatment of his associates, his peers in the world and even better than them. Oh, they didn't pick on just dumb blacks, back in those days they picked on anybody that they didn't like. With no legal justification, beat him up, string him up, drag him through the streets, tear his body all up, and smoke and drink, and having a party over the remains. Now see, that stuff, we have knowledge of. My father had knowledge of that kind of treatment they were giving innocent members of our race back there in those days.
And at that time, south was still segregated, not only segregated, you had to be careful how you even spoke to a white man and don't look at a white woman. That was in the time of the honorable Elijah Muhammad. Yes. Ok. So, for him to be approached by a white man now, and if he was black man, the honorable Elijah Muhammad would have gone crazy. He would have said, "Clara, what have I been drinking now?"

Yes, I’m sure he would have. But the man was white. See, you need equals to deal with equals. Yeah, you need equals deal with equals. Ok, the white man over here that have made me afraid and everything, he's white. And what he has made me respect is his whiteness. I don't take that off a black man. A black man talking like that, I just reach in my pocket and get my razor, I make him white. Whip! Yeah, that's what they used to say them old quick razor blacks down there in the south that drank a lot on Saturday after working so hard for the master for five days or so. He’ll be out there looking pretty, and say, “A nigga walk up and disrespect my lady I'll pull out my razor and I hit the black nigga in the shoulder, and the white just lay out there."
I’ve heard them say that. So, they didn't care about no black man. He says, "Crazy nigga, get out of my face." But it was a white man. So, here was an equal for equal. White man to challenge a white man. And this one says, “he loves blacks and he was moved by our suffering, and he came to deliver us and destroy our enemies. And bring us up to the top and put them in the hell fire where they belong”. Oh, shoot, if he couldn't get a convert at Tuskegee, I know he'll get a convert at the soup line in Detroit, Michigan ghetto. Yes, go to Michigan Detroit ghetto, I know he'll get a convert. Because you can go right now. You brothers in Michigan, you want some converts? Go out there and stand in the long lines.
And watch the guy that walks away disappointed. He didn't get any job today. And say, "Hey, you know why you didn't get any job today? This whole society is rigged against you, people just like you in that situation.
You should come over and let us give you something that will help you through life”. He’ll say, “Okay, man, let's go man, come on." Yes, man come on, where are you going? Can my brother go with me man?" See, first he wanted to know the percentage of dissatisfied. And when he saw there was a good percentage of dissatisfied, he was confident that he could bring them his new thing. What am I saying behind that? I'm saying that we could do that, but it's not proper for religious people, or so called moral minded people to trick people or take advantage of people in a certain situation and invite them to come and listen to your doctrine.
He's ain't got the situation to even give rational attention to your doctrine. He’s urged by flesh necessities. The urges of the flesh will make him come right in and take Shahada. That’s nothing but meat speaking. We don't want that kind of conversion. We rather go tell those fellows, "Look, you're responsible for your own situation. Why don't you let us teach you the dignity of yourself? The value of yourself. The great precious worth, the precious tools, the resources that you have within your own power that you don't know about. Let us give you a better image of yourself that comes from G-d, than this world has given you.
Brother, will you have the time to listen to this kind of talk? So, you can stop standing in this line? And go on out and use your brain to make a better living for yourself. Go on back home and apologize to your mother. If you have any children apologize to them too. And tell them, "This lazy curst is going to be a better person for now on." Are you ready for us to help you, brother? That's the way you should go to him. And that’s straight forward, isn't it? And prophet Muhammad he said, someone asked him for the best advice. What is the best help that he could give them in advising them? He said, “Qul, say. Amantu thummas takim" Say, I have faith, I believe and thereafter be upright”. So, these two go together in our religion. Abraham the upright.
Faith has to be upright. Another place where Allah says in the Quran. He says, “and they say, "We have no obligation to these ignorant people." No, you have an obligation to the ignorant people. You have an obligation to even the non-Muslim ignorant people. That's what it means. An obligation to respect their human G-d given properties. Even though he appears to you then ignorant, or drunk, inferior, not worthy of your respect. You don't look at him just on the surface, you look at him in terms of what G-d says He made him. He ain’t that now, but G-d says He made him that. Respect him for what G-d made him and help him get into his form.
No double standards, no double justice, no duplicity, no dealing here one way and dealing here the other way because there are different circumstances here. This is an ignorant man, this is a white man, this is a black man, this is a Chinese man, deal with them all the same. Morality is one and consistent for us. That's the teaching of Allah's book, His holy book, the Quran and His messenger, peace and blessings be upon him. In fact, He said, "I came expressly to the world to lead you, to promote you into good character”. So, we can’t have no sneaky characters, no shady persons lurking in the dark, coming out all kinds of bags, presenting themselves one way before us and another way before other people.
That's not Al-Islam, Al-Islam condemns that. Protesting in jail for a kosher meal and come out and go eat ham hock and all that stuff. As soon as you get out, you go for some ham hock, a pot of pork and everything, with no conscious whatsoever. That's not the conversion we want. Faith, that's what we're talking on, faith. Now, we are to believe in the resurrection of the dead. But Abraham asked for some kind of help for his rational mind, didn't he? So, if we are Muslims, following Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon the prophet, both of them. And he said that, "Our order of faith is after the faith of Abraham the upright." Then that qualifies all of us, if we have any natural curiosity, any intellectual curiosity, about a thing. As long as we have the proper respect for Allah as demonstrated in Abraham's life that he apologized for even asking such questions in a sense. He said, "Not that my faith is not sound, but for my soul's sake or for my heart's sake," he wanted that understanding. And for many of us, we have questions. Our minds have questions in it, about real fundamental things of religion.
And we fear to really entertain the thought, we push it out of our minds a lot of times. Well, let me tell you. As long as you are faithful and respectful, you respect Allah, you are regardful of Him. Don't be afraid to think. Don't be afraid to question. We have been given an example in Abraham that G-d approves our minds having such questions. We can question what Allah says, but we should question it with the proper respect. Is it okay then for you to wonder about the resurrection? You bet, if it ain't okay, you're still doing it. And I know it, that's why Allah pointed that out to us. It's human to want to know some answers about these things that we can't verify.
No more than human. Certainly, ask and if you're sincere enough, if you're pure enough in your intentions, I'm sure that Allah will guide you as He guided Abraham. And you don't need that much help because Abraham is already an evidence. If you believe in Allah, and the Quran and Abraham. Abraham is already some support for you, so you don't need all of that help. Yes, I believe in the resurrection. I believe in the resurrection as Muslims should believe in the resurrection both here on this earth, in this life, and also here after. The teaching of the prophet is this, that for every revelation, this include even the sayings of the prophet, most of them, because they were done under inspiration and what he gave was also the Quran, if we understand it.
It has its support in the Quran, it has its counterpart in the Quran. If it doesn’t it’s not a true hadith. We have been told that there is an expressed application and also a non-expressed application for what is given to us in the form of revelation. So, I have to believe then, the both. Allah, is almighty 
G-d, with all powers. He did all this, as Allah tells us in the Quran. He did all this. He made all this possible. This reality, He created it. If we can really call it a reality. He created all this. Why I say that because He's the only real. See, when we talk about reality, this is Islamic teachings. When we talk about reality, we're talking about what we can touch, see, smell, taste, hear, verify with our senses.
That's what we're talking about when we say reality. But this stuff that we're talking about that's reality is not reality by our own definition. How come it's not reality by our own definition? Because our definition of reality goes ultimately to this conclusion; that, that, that is real is constant, and ain’t nothing constant of the creation. The only constant about the creation is its non-permanence. That's what's constant about it, its non-permanence. This thing here according to science. This wood here that you look at, you say, “this is real. Yes, brother that's real”. It has so much information to give you that you don't know that will change your whole perception of it, that it ain't funny. Because right away it appears to me without motion.
It appears to have no motion. When actually, according to science, it's inner parts are constantly moving, but it's supposed to be motionless. There are molecules here and atoms here that are moving. This thing is composed of many things, but when you break it down to the lowest denominator of what it's composed of, it's composed of molecules that are composed of atoms, and atoms are composed of neutrons, electrons and protons, and all that stuff is active in this apparent still and dead body. And once you know all that, you don't even see this thing the same way no more. But you have to know it.
Once you believe the scientist because I haven't done it. I haven't tested that, but I believe the scientist. “How come you believe scientist?” Because his mind pays the bill, his mind cultivates the land, his mind built your home. His thinking, circular, scientific mind built the world, and they make it possible for you get a paycheck. They created the products that you have to go work on in the factory. They created a thing that you can sell, they made it possible for you to have money, and they made it possible for you to live in doors instead of out of doors.
And they tell you come here and I’m going to educate you. And they educate you and send you out in the world in better shape for the task of the world. So, that's why you believe in them. And you forget that Allah made the world and them possible and everything that they have made available to you. You should believe in Allah, you see. But we have a problem, don’t we? We have a serious problem. “Prove it to me”. Me, what? Me, your heart? That's difficult too. I knew of a girl once. She loved this no-good fella so much. Good girl. What you call a chase girl. She loved him so much she gave up her virginity, and tried hard to have a baby.
Finally had one, to hold him. Everybody knew the fella wasn't no good, knew he wasn't nothing but a cancer in her life. She couldn't hear a thing, she loved him with torture and all. So, the heart ain't no proof of intelligent judgement. If the heart was the necessary condition for intelligent judgement, the black people would be on top of the world. Because most of the time, we usually move on nothing but heart. What we feel in our heart. "Go on Jessie, run Jessie, run Jessie. I love you Jessie. Run Jessie. Run baby." You can't tell me that's taboo. Ain’t no taboo for me when I'm trying to help people get their minds together.
Ain't nothing taboo. Yes, we have to admit it. We have a sentimental attachment to Reverend Jesse Jackson who has done wonders, surprised everybody even me. And I believe. I ain't no skeptic, I believe. I'm a quick believer. But he surprised me with his success. Oh yes, surprised me. Really, I knew he was going to get near 100% of us. I knew that, because everyone of us we want our image improved.
We need somebody to look at us differently. And a win for one of us, the election, presidential election, a seat in the white house, oh shoot. We know what that's going to do for the whole race. Yes, we won. We won.
That little guy that came out yesterday, “Hey baby. What’s happening baby?” Jesse Jackson go to the presidency he come out, "What's happening baby? Hey man? Do you know what’s happening? Did you read the paper nigger? Were you watching the television Nigger? Jesse, Jesse Jackson is president of the United States. Say watch your language Nigger. Don't say, "You is. You is." Straighten up your language man.” Oh yes. Yes. He goes up to a high level. See?
And really all of this support for Reverend Jackson, is really support for the image of Black people. And that's emotional, sentimental, and when you're selecting somebody to sit over the whole United States, it is not good for you, not good for you. Not good for your image in the eyes of the rest of the intelligent world, for you to go upon emotionalism in supporting somebody for the presidency of these United States.

Thank you, very much. Now that's bubbling. What is that?
Now he showed me a Perrier bottle. And that's really a classy, classy, classy carbonated water.
You passed.
I ain't worried about him giving me nothing I couldn't detect. They know I can be one surprising fellow.
He’ll need all the pampers you could bring him. If I just hint that he did something wrong with that water and if you ain't got it, he believes it, shoot man. He'd be back here; you have to get him pamper behind pamper. “Get him another pamper”. And I would too. I'd need some pampers too if I was in his situation. All you folks out there. No, I know him, he wouldn't dare. He's tried it once with artificial beer. It wasn't real. It was artificial. It was an imitation beer. My wife jumped on him so bad. I know he wouldn't dare think about even bringing an artificial drink here for me. She jumped on him, started hitting him so hard, I start flinching.
I tried to let her know, "Hey, please, cool down. Please." The man didn't do that much harm. But there are some matters that we shouldn't play with. That's right. But there’s play in us.
Getting back to what we have planned to establish here today, and that is that we have been a people sensitized, conditioned to respond purely out of emotions almost. Sentiments and emotions. We make judgements and everything from sentiments and emotion. They call it gut. Yes. I don't call it gut. For us it ain't no gut. It's sentiment and emotions. When they say gut, they mean pure instinct. Just out of pure instinct. That's what they mean. But for us it ain't pure instinct. It's highly sensitized emotions.
That's what it is for us. You may call it pure instinct, but I don't see it that way. It's something in our conscious. We just not doing this from pure instinct, we're doing this consciously. It's out of habit, but it's conscious for us. We don't approve you until we love you. And America feeds that kind of makeup in people. I'm talking about now, the media, literature, Hollywood, feed that kind of makeup in people. Where you accept people mainly because you like them.
Look, if we're going to wait until we all like each other to get together and unite behind something, support something that's good for all of us, ain't going never come. Because I know some of you I ain't going never like you. And some of you ain't going never like me. I'm sure of it. Some of my friends tell me I'm a likable fellow. They wonder how anybody can dislike me. But I'm sure that some of you that don't like me, ain't never going like me. You don't have to like me.
In our religion you do not have to like me. You have to like, what Islamic conscience dictate that you like. And Islamic teachings does not dictate that we like a particular person or personality. We can dislike him if we like. We don't care for him to come to our house, we don't even want him in our company. But if he can do a good job for the religion and he's not breaking any law, or embarrassing us as a member of the religion. When he stands up and talk and speak to us on religion, all that is good coming out of his mouth, we must like, though we don't like him.
We must like his Islamic performance, but we don't like him personally. That will lift us up a lot. That will make us a more sophisticated community if we can accept that we don't have to like everybody that we support. But this world what us to think that first you got to like him, so they want a pretty fellow. The women killer. He got to be pretty, you know. You can count the number of ugly people that run and win. I'm sure you can count them, right? Yes, this country is against ugly people.
If Jesse, may G-d bless him, with all the success he's entitled to it. If Jesse lose, and don't get the vice presidency, or any appointment in Washington, in the cabinet, or any other job than what he has now, I suggest to him that he come back, because he likes to be on a hot issue, and take up the rights of the minority ugly.
I ain't joking. It hurts my heart to see how ugly people are mistreated, cut out, denied rise in the society because they’re ugly. A Muslim can't do that. You look at these brothers. They ain't all handsome.
If they are, it's not my doing. You did it. I don't care, I don't see any ugly person. I see usefulness. Do you have what we're looking for? I don't see ugly. And if you're a believer I don't care how ugly you appear by these standards of these people, you're not ugly to me. You're attractive to me because your belief just makes you beautiful. And I've seen the individuals, and I know you have this common knowledge.
That by the standards of this world they were super beautiful but when I looked at them, they were ugly because something inside was posing in the outside. It turned me off completely. So, really the real beauty then is the beauty of the soul, isn't it? That's the true beauty and I don't care what you say. I know some of you brothers you're just looking for that woman that can't be matched.
You're looking for the most beautiful woman in the world. One that would turn you on, you can't find no one other to turn you on a little bit more. I'm going to tell you something. Speaking to that brother that has got that kind of mind. If you ever start seeing beauty internally and you run into a woman with beautiful insides. You will be thinking, you'll be shocked when the people say, "hey man, how in the world you live with that frightful woman?"
People with your past mind will say, "How in the world you live with that frightful woman?" You'll be shocked. Frightful?
In your mind, she's the prettiest face to ever walk the face of earth. Yes man. I know because I had previous experience. A girl got to me and she had a beautiful outside. I said, “No, her teeth ain’t ugly.” Her teeth sat out like that. Said I liked that, that cuddle thing. The thing that knock the cattle off the train track.
You know what I'm talking about. That thing with one of them old chu-chu train. It had a thing go out and about like that.
Her teeth were, they were like that. She could not cover them. She would try too.
When I first saw her, something inside of her attracted me. And the outside repelled me. But the attraction on the inside was pulling me so strong until my mind, my preaching mind begin to tell lies to me.
It said, “her teeth are beautiful.”
It said, “just look at those sexy lips.”
After a while, she was so pretty until I almost praying to G-d that she would like me as much.
So, it's unfair what they've done to ugly people in this so-called democratic society. And if Jesse don't get on the case, I'm going to take it myself as an issue pretty soon. 
Now, we could go on. Let us come to another concern for us as regards faith. First of all, we should believe in what we profess to believe in. And if you can't believe in it, then stop lying. And don't go around saying I'm a Muslim and you don't even believe in the Muslim faith. Just stop lying, and you don't even have to tell nobody you stopped lying. Just stop lying.
We go now to the Hadith, the sayings of the Prophet himself. He said many things, peace and blessing be on him. But I read one report that really touched my heart because I'm a man of faith. See, we have this kind of importance for us in religion. Simply because our religion is comprehensive, complete. It includes everything that G-d intended for a human life. It is balanced, that is it does not encourage us to go in the extremes of spiritualism and lose touch with the world. And it doesn't encourage us to go after the world and neglect the latter which is more important.
Yes, approval with G-d and the hereafter is more important. It is the more important not only for the hereafter. It is more important for the here and now.
Because with that kind of belief and that kind of desire and aspiration in your life, you're going to be more successful on this side. People who don't believe in big things in the path ahead cannot do big things now. And if you're sincere in believing the biggest report that the world has ever received. And that is, that G-d created us for excellence and for heaven and for a reunion or a return to Him.
If you believe in that, that's the biggest motivation in your life, along with your religious teachings to get you to make the most of your life here on this earth. Yes. And I wish we can all understand that. I know that people of faith they do understand that. But I wish we could all understand that because it could just change the circumstances for us in term of failures and success. It would change that.
But no man has the power to affect that in your life. No, man. It wasn't given to any Prophet to have that kind of power. Allah said to the Prophet that, “you cannot make them believe. Don't go around weeping because they do not believe. You can't make them believe.” And when he regained so many dear and outstanding followers, stars, brilliant stars in the community of devotional faith in religion, Allah mentioned to him that, “you didn't cause that. No amount of money, nothing that you could do could cause that but it was Allah that caused that.”
Allah blessed him to have those kinds of disciples that loved him so much and followed him so faithfully to the very end. Allah was the power in that. And he could not turn them to faith no matter how well he was established in their eyes as an honest, upright, truthful, perfect human being. He had not the power to turn them to faith. That power only comes from Allah.
We have children, seeing that child will know that the parent that bought it clothes. The parent that took care of him when he was sick. The parent that protected it. The parent that tried to make the best life possible for it, would be a trustworthy advisor. But even that trustworthy parent cannot be assured that if he invites his child to the religion that child will come. No way. It's only left with Allah.
So, we know we can't convert people to religion or bring faith to you. We can't do that. We can only invite and the condition must be in you to receive Allah and His message. But if we could, I'm telling you, Allah knows that I would do things that are impossible for me. I would do the impossible. If I could bring people to faith. I'm telling you. If I believe that I can bring you to faith I'd really believe that I'd levitate. I'd rise above this platform and hang in air.
But I don't have enough faith that, that will make you a believer. You’ll say, "Hey you saw them wires hanging off the ceiling? You see that nigger swinging on the wires."
And it doesn't have to be no wires. Your disbelief will make you see shining wires holding me up. They already tried that, didn't they? They said witnesses saw the Christ Jesus going up in the air after his crucifixion and resurrection. He went up, they said, soul and body, flesh and everything. They verified the wounds and everything. Those people in the church are still jiving. It didn't make them believers not all of them, I'm talking about certain ones, the many of them still in there just jiving.
Going to church to show off their new hat. Or to out shout the next person, so the attention will be on them. Or to be among friends, enjoy a certain feeling being among friends and will say yes to everything. The preacher said, "And John". "Yes." Everything, "Yes". And then go to see a movie and Sammy Davis sang, “it ain't necessarily so.” And they say, "Yes, it ain't necessarily so.”
They go to church and the preacher say, “it is so.” And you say, “yes”. Go anyway. Yes, that's a reality. That's true. Let’s see where we are here now. Yes. There was a group of the followers of the Prophet and they had been with the Prophet during hard times and battle days. And they were without water. They had been without water for a long time, they badly needed water for drinking and for washing and et cetera.
Finally, rain came and it came at the moment when they were almost about to break their spirit. The rain came and they rejoiced that the rain come. And the report went through the gathering of the multitude that Allah had blessed them with rain. But some others said; and understand now, that this was in the early days of the Prophet, many of these people had just been converted from paganism and other religions.
So, the word went through them saying that no, there was alignment of certain stars in the heavens. That when that alignment takes place rain comes. So, this came to the Prophet's ears, and they told him that these two things were being said. He said those who said the rain is a blessing from Allah they are correct, they're the people of faith. Do you see that?
This is another example of faith. We shouldn't be of the mind in this religion though we are encouraged to think rationally too, but we shouldn't be of the mind in this religion, to try to prove everything with the rational mind and discredit faith, discredit faith pure faith. Don't be like that. Faith is the first and the strongest bond between a believer and his Lord, isn't it?
Yes, it is the first bond and the strongest bond between the believer and his Lord. Be careful brothers, from the days of Jahiliyyah, the days of wanting to prove everything with your small mind, be careful of saying and reply to what believers say about their experience that evidence faith and the workings of Allah in their life in a mysterious way. And you treat it as though, “Oh, ain't not happening like that, be real, be practical.” Be careful, that is a tendency in us that shouldn't be in us. No, we should be intelligent and being intelligent, you recognize what exists as real for the people of faith.
And it should make you feel happy when a believer say they have a mysterious experience. As long as they're not doing anything or putting something out here to harm the thinking of Muslims. As long as it is in accord with what Allah has revealed in the Quran and the Prophet has demonstrated to us, you should respect it and support it. Now they start talking something from
astrology or something like that. Tell somebody to watch the stars and something like that, that's un-Islamic. Then reject that.
But if they express faith in Allah, not upon proof, not upon the evidences known to our intellect, be careful of treating it in any kind of negative way. Because you will be seen as a disbeliever in the eyes of the believers and that will stop you. You won't have no influence no more with the believers.
Now, look at these two sayings now in contrast. There's another report, all of these are authentic reports, Bukhari and Muslim. Where the Prophet told the people of a dream. And in the dream, the Prophet said, peace and blessings on him. He said milk was coming out of bones. And he told them an explanation of that dream. That the relevancy or the importance, the significance, the importance for them there for that understanding of that dream is related or should be seen in the focus of science. He said Al-Ilm, which means science.
Now back then I don't know what they understood I'm sure if they didn't the Prophet most likely taught them, gave them understanding. But it's just recent in the history of man, science, that we learn that actually milk and bones are of the same substance. Milk, calcium, bones, calcium. Now, it's easy for me to understand what the Prophet meant. When he said the milk came out of bones and he explained the dream as ilm. He said the understanding should be sought on the basis of ilm, knowledge, science. So, we understand it now. All right.
So, you see the balance in the religion. Dreams usually especially coming from a religious person, influence a religious person to respond in a spooky fashion, to take the trip out of the world. So, it says, “I saw in my dreams bones and milk was coming out of it.” Oh, he goes into a spook bag. “Oh, Lord terrible things may happen. There might be a good sign. Oh, Lord watch your children be careful of drinking milk.
I hope you're not going to, and somebody will pass away, bones.” They’ll go off. But the Prophet he told us of the dream and he said, “he saw milk coming out of the bone”. Now, the tendency, I repeat it. The tendency of the average spiritual person is to take that out of the world. Play on superstition.
But he says, “this is science.” And it was science. It is science that milk and bones, the dream is saying that they have same substance. Bones make milk, the milk coming out of the bone meant that milk went into the bone. Or the calcium not milk but calcium went into the body of the milk to build up good bones.
So much for that. Now I hope that if we can accept to be supportive of that picture of faith, that balanced picture of faith, where we respect the brother or sister who's constantly telling us about Allah's miracles and blessings in their life. And also respect the brother who's constantly telling us of his interest in pure science, of his constantly working with facts of science. Respect them both and hope that they both have faith in Allah and see them equal in our eyes in terms of them being believers.
This is what Allah wants for us, but don't you know we have divisions among us? We have people who will and I'm not talking about African-American Muslim only, I'm talking about all the world. We have those that are only associate with people of their thinking and don't think much, will not place much value on people that are not of their thinking. If you are a person who gives your life mostly to faith and you're not a scholar and you're not belonging to the academic society or the academia, they don't care for you, they don't want you around them. They have a superiority complex regarding you and what you are or your status.
Yes, this is un-Islamic. We have to appreciate everybody and treat them all the same, and understand that this world is made up of all kinds of intellects. All kinds of minds and is necessary for that person, that common person who trusts his whole life to faith, to be among us, to help keep us balancing and keep us alive. And it is necessary for that brother to work constantly on facts and scientific evidences because we need that kind of progress in our world.
We have to have both of those. But all we want to do is make it known to that brother that you are to respect that sister or that brother that is not of your kind of mental persuasion or interests. And we want that sister to know that she has to look at that brother and see him as being just as much a believer as she is, though she has holy revelations day and night.
That don’t make you a better believer than another person because you have holy revelations day and night, no. I know people that Allah is always manifesting to them, something in their life. They're psychic and they're so sensitive in a psychic way, that they always seeing things and aware of things and bringing attention to things. And they help people. Sometimes they're better doctors than the head shrinkers. Yeah, they help people, doing a lot of practical good in the community. I know that to be a fact.
But those persons shouldn't think that they're favored by Allah and they are better Muslims than the person that's out there making 20, 30, 40, 50, 100,000, $200,000 a year. And contributing to the better life of his family and his neighborhood and everything. And he's working in the field of science, et cetera.
And he's a Muslim, too. He's given the community that kind of dignity. For Allah loves him. Understand this, we are to be faithful people like that common faithful person. But if you can have that faith and have also education. If you can have that faith, strong faith and also education, you’re raised higher in the scale that Allah has made.
Allah says what? The scholars, but they must be faithful now they're genuine in their faith, they will be in a rank next to the Prophets in the paradise. Yes. So, if you're a strong believer like that, if you have the ability to learn something, get busy. So, you will improve your situation in the next world.
And understand this, that this religion obligates us to respect and seek learning. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him he said, "And seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave". From the cradle to the grave. So, don’t say, “Well, it’s too late for me. I'm too old go school. Believe me you can learn more now in the streets, just going to the grocery store, riding a bus, that you can learn in most of these poor schools that we have in America.
And TV it’s just reading and writing and arithmetic all the time. Science and Biology and everything. So, don't think you've been cut out. If you have a mind, a thirst for knowledge, oh you can become educated without even sitting in a formal kind of situation.
You can become very highly educated, and maybe that will turn you on, and excite you. Maybe you say, "Hey, well, I didn't know I had these qualifications". The first thing we know, you did go to a good college or good university and come back home with master degree or PhD. You never know. Many of us never had the opportunity. We never been even influenced or encouraged to think of ourselves that way. And we have received many compliments from people but just didn't take them seriously. “You know you're brilliant”, but never took them seriously. If you hear people around you say, "Hey that was a brilliant answer you gave. Well, that's very perceptive.”
People telling you those things know that you got a mind that should be in some higher institution. Try it anyway. What you got to lose? Nothing.
Because an uneducated person can't lose no time. Unless you're in a good business, you're uneducated and got into some money, then you will lose something. But, on average when I say uneducated, I'm not talking about it by the standards of the colleges and stuff. I'm talking about just stupid.
So, that kind of person can't lose no time. All they got is time. In fact, time is their burden. “Well, ain’t nothing to do. What happen to the TV?” I know some of you heard that, “What happened to the TV? Well, how come you don't fix it? The record player ain’t working? This house is, I don’t even want to live here no more.”
You say, “Why don’t you try picking up a book? When was the last time you read the newspaper?” I can’t say what they probably would say. They might even get violent or physical with you. So much for the need for a common meeting place of our minds on the matter of what is the Constitution of faith in Muslims? I hope that from this day on, those who've been guilty of not seeing faith in the proper way and mistreating people that are really good believers because you don't value their kind of respect and their kind of experiences. I hope you will change and start treating all believers in the best manner possible, with the greatest respect possible.
Yes. Oh yes. One of the tests of a believer is that he respects another believer. This is the Prophet's teachings. Yes. So, be very careful of that. We must show believers the greatest respect. You might see me and you say, "Imam, why's Imam greeting that brother like that, he doesn’t know that brother?" I see the proof of faith on him and I don't even know him but something in me just make me want to treat him just like I do my own family and my children, my brothers and my sisters that's close to me. I want to treat him the same way. I want to embrace him and I never saw him before. That’s because I see faith in him.
The proof of faith just shining, yes. And it says, “And the light of faith will be on their faces.” The light of the faith would be right on their faces. The face will be bright with the faith. We used to think that that was Caucasian or angel or something. No, the blackest face in the world glows, when there is faith in the person. It has a brightness, a light about it. Oh yes.
In fact, it doesn’t have to have faith. I saw a fellow on the plane, he was drinking and acting like a fool. And his skin was real black and had a white glow on his skin. Yeah, his skin. On the surface of his skin was glowing white, a white glow. See black is not a reflector of light, it absorbs light. But if the surface of black is shining then it gives a glow. It gives a light. You know, what they do? They put a shiny surface opposite a black background, and what you got there? A reflector. A mirror. They put the shiny surface opposite the black background and you got a mirror it will shine light.
Well if this black skin be shiny enough the light hit it, it will reflect light and you see white. I actually saw white. See, I'm an observant person. And I'd be looking for these things and I saw white. Not only that, there was a fellow who had real nappy hair, black hair. I saw this man I looked at him I said, "His hair looks pretty." And it looked pretty because it was sparkling, just white shiny all over it, sparkling like a light. Just like this, see this here? It was like that, just sparkling. All that, what’s that activator?
I guess that what it was. All that oil on that black hair, the light was hitting the oil at certain points. And he looked like his head was lit up.
So, don't let them tell you that black has to be separated from some light. Black and light go together. Yes. If there were no darkness, we couldn't see the light. Yes, it's true.
Now a few other things that I'm going to quickly bring to your attention and close this. I have presented faith to you as a concern for Muslims. The content of faith as a concern for Muslims. And I believe that if we have time to think on it, study it, discuss it more. We will see and agree that this is a real, real issue. This is a real, real issue for Muslims in America and throughout the world. That we at least agree on what is the special, distinct, if I may say, concept of faith for Muslims.
Because faith for Muslims differ, though there's the universal knowledge and a universal idea of faith. We have kinship with the people of the book as being people of faith. That is the Jews, Christians and there are others. But, when we really look at our distinct faiths, in terms of what is the special concept for the Christian, for the Jew, for the Muslim, they differ brother. They differ brothers and sisters. You may say, “Oh, yes, we all have the faith of Abraham. We are all Abrahamic.” That's wrong, that's wrong.
We all claim the faith of Abraham and the Muslim idea of the faith of Abraham, the way we have presented faith is quite different from the way faith is presented to Jew by the Jew or Christian by the Christian, quite different.
And that brings me to say something here, that I also think it should be one of our major concerns, regarding these so-called sister religions or close religions. That is this, that Muslims recognize kinship with Jews and Christians in terms of religion, because we received our Prophet from the same Lord, they received their Prophets. They've received their Prophets from the same Lord. We all received our Prophets from the same Lord. And the Prophets they have fraternal unity. They have, if we may say, a sequence. Whereas the knowledge that one brought before, and the messages that one brought before is verified, supported, and advance by the next until the end of the line of Prophets. Yes.
So, we believe in that, we believe in the oneness of G-d, the validity of the Prophets and the continuity of revelation. The continuity of revelation, that this revelation though coming to this Prophet is not in opposition to this that came to another prophet. No, they have agreement, there is agreement and unity for all the messages that they brought. If we understand it that's what we believe. Well, we don't believe that you would go to the Bible and prove that. Because the Bible is different, it's diversion of many denominations, many points of view. It has gone astray from the original, that was given to the prophet.

