10/03/2003
IWDM Study Library
IWDM Conversation About The IWDM MinistryAnd The Mosque Cares

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam WD Mohammed:
But when he talks to me, he talks to me with respect and he won't argue with me. When I caught him doing these things. I told the office what he did, he sat right. He didn't say a thing. He won't have a confrontation with him and he does respect me. I do believe he loves me. I do believe, that. I believe he loves him and I love him. But honestly he have been tied and tied for a long time and he can only do what he's permitted to do and what he's told to do. And I know once they put somebody in your organization illegally, they can't have any, they can't come to that person defense. They can't acknowledge that they have that person among you.
They have no records in their office of that person unless they're very highly protected records. Very, very extremely identified information, confidential, secret, et cetera. And they don't let it up to anybody. So the government can't be bought to court unless they're exposed. They don't want that. Okay? So if they put a mole in, they can't acknowledge that mole. And that mole is not even on the record, okay. So when the job is finished, like on Stoney Island, his job is finished. Now they didn't know nothing about us rehiring him, he had to tell them that we have hired him again. He had to let them know he is in the same situation again. Now maybe they are neutral, but now what can they do about him in that situation? Nothing. He just got a job. So what can he do? Once we hire him on, he can only work in that organization as a mole. If he comes back in the organization, he has to work as mole.
So he's back now in the same situation he was in before. This is all assumed, okay, this is hypothetical, this is assumed But I strongly believe it. I strongly believe it. I believe it so strongly I acted upon it and made my adjustment based upon what I believe. Okay. So anyway, now he's back in. He can't do anything but what he did before. But some of the boys are in too. The boys are still here. So the boys get together, old boys get together. Oh you're back John. Okay John, whatcha going to do for us man? So that's the situation John now. Here's a conversation I want you all to know this and you share with others that you trust. John was talking with me and he said, Brother Imam, he said, you started all of this. I said yes, I do know that. He said, whether they accept it or not you are the President of the ASM. I said, I understand what you're saying. I said, that may be right. I said, I don't accept that. I don't accept a position like that.
I said, but I do have concerns for the future. I said if something happens, I don't know if the schools are registered properly. I don't know how they'll look if it's revealed they might be under an individual name. I said, some of the Masjids or the Centers may still be in the name of and individual, the property is not protected for the congregation. I said, I got a lot of concerns. I think he on his own, he went and talked about it. He said, well, we'll fix it. And I think that's what he did. I think he went and registered us all over again, registered ASM and tied it into the Mosque Cares. But he put the ASM as the umbrella, the Mosque Cares under that umbrella. I don't know, I still ain't comfortable with why he did that. Maybe because that's the way he was advised. He was probably advised to do that by those boys that he joined after coming back again.
I don't know. So anyway, I had to go take this to the lawyer. Lawyer said, I never saw it. I was thinking the lawyer had done this. The lawyer was and is our registered agent, the lawyer, our attorney Putulo. So anyway, he went to the web and he found all this. So I said I have to stop all this. I said, and you are hired to protect me and my interest. I said, what should we do? What should I do now? He said, well the first thing you should do is send John because he is the one acting on behalf of the ASM. He said, send a letter to John of your resignation to let him know it's effective immediately. I said, well let's form the language right now. So we did form the short statement that we sent to John. You saw it?
Yeah, that's the letter we formed. I sent the registered letter to John Hopkins so I'm sure he has it. He received it two or three days ago maybe. And I sent a copy to the editor asking her, I asked her, they independent too. And she said they would carry it, no problem. So they carried it. I think it stopped. But we haven't incorporated again and we will. I think we are protected even though we haven't incorporated again. I think we are protected and we will incorporate again as we had incorporated in the first place just as the Mosque Cares. In fact the language, total language is the Mosque Cares/WDM Ministry.
And we registered at the bank as The Mosque Cares. And we do business as Mosque Cares only. So that explains that. I just don't want you all to not know exactly what transpired with John Hopkins. and I don't want you to take that time out to hurt him or cause him any trouble. I wouldn't hurt him. I wish I could help him get free of whatever he's attached to. He's a good man in his heart. He's a very good person. I think he thought he was acting in our best interest, even though he knew I would say no and stop him. He shouldn't have got in position to do that. He knew that. Okay, so that much is out the way. Now this has nothing to do with that. But I want to tell you brothers that you are doing what we should be doing. You are not just preaching. You are happy to produce. You're producing on the campuses, you're producing in your city, you're building. This is what a Muslim should do. Muhammad the Prophet never had people around him in leadership positions that weren't productive. Everybody knew they were producing, not just preaching. Even the Bible says, and the Qur'an that faith without deeds or without works is not accepted.
We know that. And Muhammad the Prophet, Peace be upon him and the Bible too. I could quote the report from the Bible supporting the same thing I'm going to say now, but using the Prophet's own words. He said to the people who admire this devoted saintly person who kept all the rituals and everything. He said to them, he said, who takes care of him? And they said, we do Messenger of G-d. And he said, then you are better than he is. So that tells us that just being a pious person and praying and fasting, doing these things that identify you as a religious person on spiritual a follower is not enough. If you are not productive in the community or in the society if you're not producing or taking care of yourself. And he said the hand that puts charity in the hand is better than the hand that receives charity. So many things that he said lets us know that. And this is the point that you all should remember as Imams. Some of you already know. And Muhammad Prophet was a perfect human being when G-d picked him. G-d didn't pick Muhammad to teach him to be truthful or to teach him to work for purity of the soul. He was already a pure soul. Teach him to educate him for his job, for his new job and the heavy responsibility that he was receiving. He picked him to educate him, guide him and educate him. That's why He picked Muhammad.
He picked Muhammad because Muhammad was, as the Bible says Lamb without spot or blemish. He was just qualified as a human being for G-d to serve G-d and mankind. And know this in connection with this meeting here, that Prophet Muhammad was a business man when G-d picked him. He was a business man. He was not a preacher, he was a business man. But G-d picked him to be the last Messenger to the world. A business man. And you find the Qur'an respects business and wants the followers to respect business and to do things in a business way. You have to have witnesses when you contract the business. So this is business. So I don't know how in the world Imams think that I can be their leader and stay away from business. They run around saying, "is the Imam best qualified to do business. We know what he can best do and that is teach us the Qur'an." They can't tell me what to do and they can't tell me how to teach Qur'an, they don't know the Qur'an like I know the Qur'an. They don't have the heart to know it like I know it. The heart has to be the right heart first to know the Qur'an like I know it. And they don't have that kind of heart yet. Some of these people that always want to say where my limits are, where I should be going, where I shouldn't be going.
So the relationship under G-d should all be productive relationships. When we are rendering service to G-d, whatever serious relationship we form, it has to be a productive relationship. It all began when G-d created human beings. He created human beings, male and female to mate with one another. When G-d talks about that, He's not talking about sex, he's not talking about biological life. He's talking on a higher plane and in a completely different language context. We all know the common people will grasp the first meaning or the obvious meaning, the common people will grasp that. And the common people are the ones that need to be told, don't commit adultery, don't do this, don't do that. Educated people, they know those things are bad for the family, when things are bad and that behavior is bad for families, bad for society. They know that. G-d didn't have to reveal that to teach them. Well who was the book for? The book is for the leaders to teach the leaders, those leading people in society and to the masses or the common people.
And Allah says of Muhammad, He said that He sent him to purify the people, to lead them out of the darkness into life. He also said, and to teach them the book and the wisdom. The word for wisdom is Hikma, and this means the rules of logic. We translate it wisdom, but it simply means the rules of logic. And the judge is called Hakim from that root word because he knows the rules of logic for his profession. So he's Hakim. So by that reasoning, we come up with the term wise, why the translators put wise and not all that language. Teach them the rules for the language, the rules of logic for the language of Qur'an. Why they didn't have all that? Cause the writer was thinking, how would the English or English speaking world best receive this? How would they understand? So they called judge wise here, divine wisdom. So that's why they use wisdom. I'm not saying that we shouldn't use wisdom. Yes we should use wisdom, but we should understand what you're saying about wisdom.
A man is able to execute something in a wise way or with wisdom then he knows the rules of the logic for the language he's using. And if he doesn't, he's not wise in that language. So it says to teach them the book, Al Kitab, the book. So now He didn't say to read to them the book, teach them the book, right? The Hikma. And the wisdom. And the wisdom. And the rules of logic for it. So look at it now one way. First way you just read it as we read it during Salatul Jumu'ah. You are just reading the book. That's all you're doing. You're not teaching the book. Then He says, G-d says of Muhammad, he's going to teach the book. He brought him, gave him the Qur'an so he can teach us the book. So how we going to teach the book? Like we do on Fridays we bring support to it. Tell what Muhammad, how Muhammad explained this and what Muhammad said about these things. That's teaching them the book. But now there's insight also that once G-d bless you with that, you can see the spiritual structure upon which to meat adheres. I'm giving you a picture, a cinematic picture of a human being. His skeleton is the logic.
That's the structure, okay? That's the structure. Shows how it's built up and how it's formed, what kind of shape it takes internally, and then the meat. And once it adheres to that, then it's a nice human figure. I'm not speaking without sources, I'm coming from sources. The Bible speaks of the bones coming together, right?
How can they live again? The winds blow on these dry bones. And the wind means the spirit. The dry bones started to come together. All the bones start to come together. So the logic for the structure was revealed then, wasn't it? Because it said prophesied to the winds. And the winds came, that means G-d gave this inspiration. G-d's inspiration came to them and came to the logic and they were brought together in logical order. So Muhammad is to teach us the book and the logic. It means that he is going to bring the dry bones together so that we know how the language or how the particular subject of the subject matter that we are curious about, we know how it is logically structured by G-d, how G-d has logically structured it. And then we are truly wise in that body of knowledge. We become wise then because we know the logic of the book that we are reading. And when you know the logic, you know how to relate it to universal logic. Any logic is true in Mexico, United States, everywhere. If it's true in one place. It's true everywhere.
No matter what you're talking about. You're talking about the spirituality of man, social, whatever you talking about. If it's true, if it's really true from G-d, that's why it's called Al Haqq. Reality is real. If it's truly from G-d, then it'll stand up anywhere. It's not belonging to any particular sect or particular thougt in religion or not even to any particular religion. It stands up anywhere. And that's what Prophet Muhammad was given to us for. So Prophet Muhammad was given it to us to also guide us and to have us succeed him and carry on his works after him. How do we carry on his works after him if we just know how to read the Qur'an and let them foreigners give us the tafsir? Then we should have the foreigners run everything for us in the religion. They should run everything for us in the religion.
If G-d has blessed us with inspiration and guided one of us to see these things and the foreigners acknowledged that person too. Say he's special. We shouldn't bother him. Leave him alone. We don't have to teach Imam Mohammed anything. That should be enough for everybody else. But it's not. So I said that just to say that G-d wants us to have productive relationships like the relationship of male to female. When the male and female meet and form that relationship with husband and wife, we expect that they're going to produce children and children need more human beings to do more work and provide more services, et cetera. So that's a productive relationship that G-d asked us to keep sacred, mating of male and female. And it's a sign that all of our other relationships should be the same. They should be honorable, they should be sacred and they should produce not only for us but for society. That was a Kutbah wasn't it? Now I'm asking you all to begin, let me know where I'll be.
Speaker 1:
Well first of all, as you know, I hope you know all of us have officially resigned from the a ASM. It's been published in the Muslim Journal.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I appreciate the decent and intelligent way that you all worded your statement.
Speaker 1:
Yes sir. Thank you. And in addition to that, we've all committed ourselves to support the Mosque Cares, your leadership. And we've tried to put together what we think is your agenda, at least our perspective on what we believe to be some of the things that you've emphasized over the years. Education, business, dawah, the zakat and some other things. And we have some specifics under that. Pledging our support, our increased support I should say to all of these areas. And just trying to see how we can help further some of the initiatives. I know that you've had a big concern for education and we know that you had big concerns for business and we are just trying to put something together and put some fuel into at least those decent ones among us that sincerely want to help you in the work that you're trying to do.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Alright Is this a copy?
Speaker 1:
Sir. That's for you. That's for you. Yes sir. Yes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Now Layla did show me something like this I believe. It wasn't this complete.
Speaker 1:
Right. She may have gotten something. Because what we've been doing, we've been consulting with each other and we'll send it out and we'll get feedback.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I'm pretty sure that this came from you.
Speaker 1:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
But it was for the Imams.
Speaker 1:
That was the proposal before your resignation.
Imam WD Mohammed:
It wasn't this?
Speaker 1:
No, it wasn't that.
Imam WD Mohammed:
It was before my resignation.
Speaker 1:
That's right. That's right. Yeah. And that was from me.
Imam WD Mohammed:
That's right.
Speaker 1:
That was from me personally. You and I talked about that personally in DC.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I see.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. And what I was registering at that time back in July as I had registered over the years, that in the community that you were not getting the support that you deserve to get. And I saw that there had been conspiracies against the educational efforts, the business efforts. And all I was trying to do at that point was say Brother Imam, here's my proposal to try to put something in motion to advance the need for the Imams to be more educated, to support the business initiatives. That was from me personally.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Oh, I see.
Speaker 1:
But this is from me.
Imam WD Mohammed:
When I said for the Imams, there was no other names there.
Speaker 1:
No, that's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
But I felt that you were presenting this for all.
Speaker 1:
Exactly. Yes sir. That's right. That's correct. That's correct.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I've seen this and this is pretty thorough. Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Imam WD Mohammed:
That's correct.
Speaker 1:
Okay. Alright. So I don't know, the Imams, they had some questions that I think that they wanted to ask you.
Speaker 2:
This is more of a proposal than a question. We discussed this on a conference call. We would like to initiate a fundraising drive to build your Mosque Cares facility. And we would like to initiate a 90 day drive to raise 600,000 dollars among those who want to support. I believe the support in the community if we make the appeal and of course it'll all be directed to the Mosque Cares. And we want to see that facility built for your work to continue to grow here. We want to give support to it. You went around the country helping all of us with our fundraising efforts to build in our local areas around the country and we feel that we haven't done enough to help you. And whenever this has come up at Imams meetings in the past, there would be people who would kill it on the floor. "Well, the Imam don't want us to do that. We shouldn't do that." And I've never accepted that you didn't want to do that because you're doing that for all of us around the country. if you want to see growth there, it don't make sense that we wouldn't want to see a growth here. So I hope that you'll allow us to initiate a fundraising drive for the Mosque Cares to build a structure.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, I am a very slow to ask the poor to donate or contribute more than they already are doing. I don't like money to come from poor people to help me or to help us. So the only way I expect it if it's done like a banquet style, a banquet style fundraiser. But in a different way because normally you put the price up so high a poor person can't afford to participate. So you keep them out by making the price too high and only those with better means would be able to pay for the dinner. Because normally it has to be like $75 a hundred dollars and up. So the poor person, I wouldn't even try to manage that because they know I wouldn't force them to do that. But if you have a fundraiser like that where you put, I don't know how you can do it, you all know how to do it. You have a dinner and give them some kind of special recognition or something, then a prices ranging from maybe 50 to a thousand dollars a plate and you could raise money that way. Because they do it that way.
Speaker 2:
What I had in mind was the Masjid who have historically supported. Say we have 300 Mosque and Centers in the association. If each one gave $2,000, that would be $600,000. So I think if we asked the Masjids who support your leadership to get support from their members for a special drive, it wouldn't have to be a burden on the individual. They give according to what they're able to do and then set a goal for the Masjid to raise a certain amount in a certain period of time.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I understand what you're saying. I could accept that only if those Masjids are told that we are going to work together and help to raise that money by having a banquet in your area and all of us will support the banquet and raise money off of people who got money. All our people ain't got no money. Believers they'll give you, as they say, their last dime as Mr. Fard or my father said. They'll give you their last dime. They don't know how they're going to pay the rent or anything. All they know is that they believe Allah will hold them accountable if they don't respond to a call to help their leader you know. We don't want people under that kind of pressure.
Speaker 2:
In raising the money for you Imam, what account should it go to?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah, if it's for me it would have to eventually come to our account. The Mosque Cares account. For the success of it, there'll be people who support us. They might not trust people they don't know, or Imams they don't know. It's best just to let 'em know the funds are coming into the Mosque Cares.
Speaker 2:
Would there be some like a special account under the Mosque Cares that it could be so we could monitor the progress of it?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, yes. We have a property account.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
So that's where it would go.
Speaker 2:
Okay.
Imam WD Mohammed:
So the bank statements would come and they would show what money went into the property account. So we would have to do it like Rafa used to do with the CPC. Every time one come in we have to do it with a seperate deposit slip. We don't mix deposits. We make that deposit by itself. So it'll go in as a Mosque Cares deposit.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And the record will be deposit slips and it'll be easy to identify on the bank statement that it came to Mosque Cares.
Speaker 2:
They should add something on there like a note property account or something like that.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes,it will.
Speaker 2:
The Mosque Cares property account.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes it will be.
Speaker 2:
Okay.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes sir. We deposit it into the Mosque Cares property account but we won't deposit it with other money.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
We deposit it only with the money collected, the money sent to us. And that way we'll have a deposit split record of the money and a deposit slip has the number on it, the number on it, the amount properly on it. So we can go right to the bank statement and identify those amounts. Now on the bank statement, I'll require that once they get the bank statement, they put the language on the bank statement too. So we have the deposit slip and the bank statements, the record of everything that comes in.
Speaker 3:
Now in terms of the business, established business. Now a couple thousand shouldn't be a whole lot of weight on them.
Speaker 2:
On that same note Brother Imam, is it possible that a model or an architectural drawing or something could be put together in advance so that people could see this is what we want to build in Chicago?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, we've talked about that before.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. When you announce that you're going to have a fundraiser, the visual picture should already be ready. So now we have land that would be suitable for a Masjid already. We have land really right across from here. There's enough land right across the street. But we have also 59th Street. I don't know if the town will permit us, but we got pull with the Mayor, some pull with him. He might even rezone for us or rezone at least that part. Let us have that part. So we might be able to build a Masjid on one of these streets. 159th or 167th, wherever you are now. 159th we could do it there, it would be no problem. We got enough land there to do it there. But they certainly have to be shown it because they charging us now by lots.
Also across the street they charging us by lots. 19 lots. There's a lot of taxes you have to pay. 19 lots. On 159th I don't think they quite have that situation. I think the taxes on the whole piece of land because they sold that land to fast food places. So it's not in lots But this year is in residential lots. It says that they'll accept that we have residence here. So if we don't build a Masjid, we planning on building individual homes and have our workers to work on the building of that. We've already applied for homes here. And the kind of work that they do they can pay. We know they can pay and they will pay. So that would be a possible way of using this land over here if we just built homes and just kept the front for our activities, the front area. We got plenty land back there. We'll keep the front.
Speaker 2:
What's the acres? Is it two acres?
Imam WD Mohammed:
I can't tell you the acres but it's 19 lots. 19 lots and it goes way back. It's deep, it's very deep. It might be over 200 feet deep. Oh yeah. So about 150 feet. That's a lot. You can put this whole facility and have a lot of lawn and trees and shrubbery.
Speaker 2:
It'd be two story too.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. Right, two,
Speaker 3:
Four levels. It could accommodate the people, a gymnasium in there for the school.
Imam WD Mohammed:
We'll go see the mayor and we'll see if that's possible. If it's possible he'll do it for us I'm sure. Cause he wants us to have what we need because he has faith in us that we will bring tax dollars here.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, they understand that.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
On the point you mentioned if we gave people something for the fundraiser, would it be possible for us to put together some of your historical speeches and use that as something that people get? All of 'em have been outstanding, some have stood above others.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah, like I said, I understand. And whatever you all put together.
Speaker 3:
Something like 1975, Super Ego. These are some of the ones that just reach out, at least for me.
Imam WD Mohammed:
You know one that we getting excitement about now? Back there in 1959.
Speaker 3:
Oh that's excellent.
Imam WD Mohammed:
When I was a Minister for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm invited to his Temple to deliver a speech of there and I did and we got on tape. Well it is kind of starting to be circulated and I'm getting request for it So maybe even that could be considered too as an award, a gift to give to persons who will buy maybe $500 plate or so.
Speaker 2:
And don't forget the research book Evolution Of The Community.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I don't know if he can find, yeah I know he should be able to find it even if he had to go to town where I did it and ask the brothers there for it. But the speech I made to the Georgia Legislators, that would be something good where I mentioned my father and everything coming from that town. Sure moved those legislators, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 2:
And the one you made in Williamsburg.
Imam WD Mohammed:
That's right. Billy Graham was there.
Speaker 2:
Yes. Right. Also the historical talk in Rome.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah, Rome. Yes. Just historical.
It was very historical. Yeah. So you all just put your heads together and I'm sure I'll love what you put together.
Speaker 4:
Brother Imam I'm sorry but made me think. I really appreciate you over the years of introducing us to the Focolare and the traveling and what always stuck out with me. We had a program this summer in New York an.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I really wanted to be there this summer but I wasn't able to. I was going to bring my family, the girls and everybody.
Speaker 4:
They got a new building there now on the lake and they got a gymnasium in there now. And we took children out and walked around there. Little lightning bugs. They had a great time.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I know they did.
Speaker 4:
Some of the workshops we was doing was dealing with media and public relations and we know they have such a tremendous machinery I guess and how they get Lady Chiara's message out. And so we met with the editor, the living city editor and also Gary was there, the one who does the publication with all their books. And I think the the more we have a chance to get out to the common public and present your language and your message it's just overwhelmingly received and they want more. And we certainly just not doing enough to get that out. And I noticed as soon as she speaks, I mean it's just translated in so many languages and sent out over the internet. I even noticed even the Grand Mufti Kataro. He has a website and I can check in on recent speeches that he makes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Someone told me that, might have been you. Who was that? Abdul Malik maybe. But someone told me that two months ago that you can go on the web and get the latest speeches.
Speaker 4:
Even his comments on terrorism and things, even latest things.
That's all the way over in Syria and it's translated in English. And I said we just really need to be able to do this and get it all around the world. Especially in Spanish, even French, a lot of Africans in those countries France, etc. And they need it because like you said, many of 'em just reading it but they just lost the language and I think it would be very helpful.
Imam WD Mohammed:
It would be. Yeah it would be.
Speaker 4:
I'm very interested in doin g it.
Imam WD Mohammed:
The way is open for us to do that. It wouldn't be wise of us not to take advantage of that.
Speaker 4:
They was willing to help us too, the Folcolare. And showing how they have their networking, obviously they have translators that's been helping.
Imam WD Mohammed:
They're very helpful. They're very helpful. They're very good people. They're our friends, real friends. I would like to see that. So anyway myself and my office can work with you all to get things done or to better facilitate our needs. And just lemme know when. I'm always anxious to do that. But let me say this and it has nothing to do with any individual but it's just for our protection. And I say our because I'm including you all, for you all as well. Us. It's for our protection. I don't want, again, even though we reforming this all over again, I don't want to be responsible for your administration. I can't accept to be responsible for the administration of any Masjids. But it's a little different now. In order for us to work together, I have to see proof that your properties are protected for the congregation in case something happened to you all.
I don't know what you would do. Land trust. I know that's what we going to do here. We're going to put ours in a land trust.
Speaker 4:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
But we don't want to put your property in our land trust.
Speaker 5:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
You have to be responsible for your own properties. But if you can do it alone or even better, if all of you all could agree to put it in one land trust so all the properties could be under one land trust, that would be good too. In fact the Mosque Cares might look at it once you do that, we might just go with you and put it in on one land, one property. A trust fund.
Like I said, if the school has a structure, these things are subject to be lost if they're not protected, You go to court and they're lost.
Speaker 5:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
We don't want lose anything. The people's money is very precious. Hard earned money, poor people's money. So we don't want to lose anything. So that'd be something I'd require that for our records of those who are in association with us. We need proper identification of the Imam that's going to represent his Masjid or his Center. Valid license. It got to be a picture Id, valid identification and or birth certificate or passport, something like that. The birth certificate doesn't have a picture so we would need the birth certificate and a drivers license. Something with a picture. And we would need the deeds or the papers if you're morgating or renting. There need to be a copy of the papers for the facility, not the businesses. We don't need that. All we're talking about is the Masjid and schools or place where you pray, where you conduct services, Jumu'ah and have school. And you all can help me by letting others know. Like those already in the paper who say they resigned and let 'em know that's what we need them to come up with as soon as they can.
Speaker 2:
This is related to what you just talked about. I'm asking as advice and also out of curiosity myself. Is it your desire to see some sense of organization in terms of... I'm not talking about ASM, I'm talking about a new name, new organizational structure. Is it your desire to see that happen?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Yes. If we are going to work together we have to have some kind of organization. But I'd like for it to be an organization of honest gentlemen and not something on paper.
Speaker 5:
Yes sir. Right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Not a legal document.
Speaker 5:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Just that we meet. The Prophet had people pledge to support and that was it. But we have to have some kind of organizational structure that will be a clear picture to us of what kind of relationship we going to have and what kind of activities we are going have. For instance, if we are going to be an association and working directly with each other, which we will be, then we need to have our business meetings scheduled once a year. Like the Convention or something.
Speaker 5:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
At the Convention we need to have a meeting for want of a better expression right now. Leadership contact.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir. Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Leaders have to come together.
Speaker 3:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
So that's what we need and we need to schedule these and know what the plan is wo we know when we are going to get together, so we know where they're going to be, where we're going to have it this year, where we going to have it next year. Then we need to know what kind of matters we need to meet on occasionally like business. Business requires a lot of attention. When you're trying to develop business it requires a lot of attention. I think we should meet for business purposes at least twice a year. At least twice a year. One time outside of the Convention and another time during the weekend of the Convention for business purpose.
Speaker 2:
We had discussed really, not come up with anything firm but we had discussed this with what we're talking about right now. In other words our thinking was that AMS is dismantled, it is history for all practical purposes except for those who want to want to keep it going.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well I hope there's enough light there to keep going. They got a picture like mine.
Speaker 2:
Anyway, we kicked around some names such as Muslim Americans for Religious Freedom. That name came, well that was a suggestion I had. And I picked that up from talks that you gave in New York at the Apollo and other talks that you gave about how the Prophet did things.
Imam WD Mohammed:
If I understand what you'all are saying I'm for that.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
If we don't need just one organization, we need as many organizations as we need talks.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir. Okay. Alright. Okay.
Imam WD Mohammed:
There'll be seeing people doing things.
Speaker 3:
Brother Imam we just talked about it in general, but in terms of like annual dues or I don't know if that's a good term. Like organizational dues.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Annuals dues is a good term. Because zakat isuse is supposed to be computed annually.
Speaker 3:
Is there any recommendations you would have in terms of the size of the Centers or the Masjids?
Imam WD Mohammed:
It should be something definitely. We need to have some kind of standard for everything that identifies us. If it's a store, if it's a business, a store, there should be some standards we have to keep. If it's a Mosque, there's some standards we have to up to measure up to. A school, same thing, whatever it is. Whatever is going to give us visibility in the eyes of ourselves and the public, then we have to require some standards.The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he kept us clean and he told us to be modern, keep up with modern times. He didn't like people not caring about how they looked and children and clothes or whatever. And that's in me and I'm sure you all too, whether you got it from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad or got it from your home, your family, you got that. We got that kind of training. So we should require that all of us respect this religion and this religion is not mom and pop store.
This religion is a religion that has been established now for over 14 centuries and it's embraced by nations, business enterprises, banks, et cetera. So we have to realize that what we are representing when we say we're Muslims and believe in Islam, we're representing the highest establishments for living, for life or for people. The highest establishment. Religion is for all people. That's true. And the poor man like in Christianity, especially in Protestantism. Poor man can get a vision while he's taking out the garbage. That's all he does. If he get a vision, he got a calling.
So he go and open up a little storefront. But Islam gives us that freedom to, you don't have to go through a body or be an ordainded priest or anything or institution for that matter. We can just get the feeling that we should be Imams and if we qualify to preacher or givet Kutbahs and lead the prayer, we can be an Imam. We don't have to go to an institution. It is like the Protestant community where in certain Protestant groups the preacher can get inspiration and start preaching. He don't have to talk to anybody to be ordained. But we should require standards because we got a holy book and we got Muhammad's example and his companions example that they set. And we got our own standards. And Allah says, "And He loves the doers of good." Muhsin. And here the good means, there's a lot of words in Arabic for good, but we use Muhsin, and it means excellence. The performance of excellence really. Al Muhsin, the performance of excellence. He love those when they perform their performance is excellent or they strive for excellent performance.
So we have to set standards for them and we have to agree as an association that our members in this association must abide by certain standards. And you must accept that if a Shura body, a lawful Shura body, make a decision against your facility, you must respect that decision and respect the recommendations that are made for your property to be improved or for you to move and find a better location, et cetera. I think if we don't do that, we are not going to be successful in the long run. Since we starting all over, we got to start out rights you know.
Speaker 3:
Yes sir.
Speaker 2:
As I told you in Houston, we working on some things on the college campuses.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Looking at opening up organizations.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Right now we don't really have anything to call them. Now should we just name them after local Masjids?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Now you're talking about the actual student association on the campus?
Speaker 2:
Yes. At that time we were establishing, working to establish the student organization. The name that I mentioned back then was ASM student union. But now there's nothing since I resigned. A lot of others that we were working with have also expressed their support for your leadership and not associated with the ASM anymore. Once we move forward, we're looking for a way to name them. If we should just name them whatever your local Masjid is named, should we name the student organization after that. Because it's a student organization that sets up the activities and reserves the rooms and different things like that.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Right. That's a good idea I think. But for me, just Muslim Student Association, that's good enough for me. But to identify them with a local Center nearby, or put them in the name of Center. That's excellent too. I don't see any problem. There's no problem I know, it's good. They call 'em Muslim Student Association and I don't think there'd be any problem just having Muslim Student Association.
Speaker 2:
They're under ISNA.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Not under them.
Speaker 2:
Right. Right. That name. Under that name it's been used for years. MSA Muslim Student Association. That's actually where ISNA started in Champaign.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I know, I'm aware of it. Canada also. That's where it started. Canada and America. And they called it Muslim Student Association. Muslim Student Association of United States and Canada.
And they're an ISNA affiliate. They're a part of that.
I know.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I know when I think of that name, there's a legal name for them. I believe they have a status as a legal name. So that might be a problem, saying Muslim Student Association.
Can the name that we come up with could be used for that also?
I think we should come up with some name because I'm thinking too many Centers and Masjids, too many names.
Speaker 6:
Too much variety. Yeah, too many. We could reword it like Association of Muslim students.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah, we could. I don't see anything wrong with that. Association of Muslim Students.
Speaker 3:
This question is similar to what you said about the standards. Some of the chaplains had been approached by the administration when they heard about your resignation and they asked, "Well what does that mean for you as a person who got authorized to come into the institution as being a member of this body?" And they were looking to see who would they be communicating with. And they're looking for some clarity from us for the chaplains. And the issue of standards also comes up because some of the chaplains they may start out being a part of a Masjid, and then we see less and less of them and the work kind of consumes them and then their relationship with the local community becomes somewhat estranged. And there has been no clear kind of censorship around that. And that's one of the things that we want, we're going to be working on in California because it has presented some problems for us. And then they get in under the name of our community into those positions and then we don't really get the benefit of the work they're doing. The people are not coming out to our Centers or Masjids.
Imam WD Mohammed:
For you all who will be working together just simply let them know that Imam Mohammed is still the one that we refer matters to when we need advice. And if you all see a need for me to meet with administration anytime or whatever, I'm available.
Speaker 3:
Thank you Brother Imam for your time and your leadership and all the advice and everything. So we appreciate it. We'll be working to put some of these things in place and apprising you of our developments.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Thank you.
Speaker 3:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I'm here to serve, I'm here to help. CPC website looks excellent. Yes, I did. I told her I like it.
Speaker 4:
I didn't want to go too far with it without you looking at it.
Imam WD Mohammed:
No I like it. I like it. I've been through it. I like it very much.
Speaker 4:
So you're going to be at the Mosque Maryam this evening?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Seven O'clock. Right down street.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
They trying to raise funds to build a Masjid and I told them to consider across here too for their Masjid.
Speaker 2:
Right. Okay.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I don't know if the town will permitted when we think about permitting them to build over there.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
But in light of what Imam Qadir suggested, I'll let them know that I did receive a request and we might need the land for our own construction.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And see if they will share with us. They come under us. We can all have Jumu'ah together.
Speaker 2:
So we plan to be their to support you this evening.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Alright, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:
Thank you Brother Imam.
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