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IWDM Study Library 
We Needed a Powerful Friend 
(Annual Muslim Convention)

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Now, what I'm going to say and be discussing, I'm going to say it plainly to you right now. We went to Islam for the same reason that Blacks went to Jesus Christ, Christians, Black Christians, African-American Christians went to Jesus Christ. Why did African-American Christians in the past go to Jesus Christ? Because they had no other friend with power that was working to protect them, so they went to Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ was given to them as a friend, their friend.
We went to Mr. Fard Muhammad, the teacher of my father, who was not an American. He came from abroad. We went to him because he said he was our friend, and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us he was our only friend, that nobody else wanted us. That's what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us.
So, we went to him ... We went to the temple or through the temple of Islam or to the mosque, they were later called, in the early fifties started calling them mosques. For the thirties, for the forties it was not called mosque, it was called temple, not mosque. We went to that because we needed a friend and the teachings of my father befriended us and made us feel that we for once had a powerful friend, and we didn't care what he called his G-d. He could have said Hallah. He didn't have to say Allah. He could have said, “Hahallah”, and told us that that man loved us or that G-d loved us and came to sympathize with us against our oppressors, against those who discriminated and segregated and dutifully treated us, inhumanly treated us. He could have got us to love Mr. Hallah. Don't care who it was.
We didn't know the name Allah. It could have been anything that he said to us, as long as he showed us what he showed us, love, concern, and that a powerful, divine power was on our side. We would embrace it for the same reason that Christians suffering oppression, discrimination, segregation, and inhuman conditions under whites back then embraced Jesus Christ, their friend, their savior.
Are you hearing me? I hope you are, because this is necessary to get us where we have to go. Slavery uprooted us. This is given to us by many authors writing on slavery and how this slavery took us, enslavement of our people on these shores. Took us from Africa, caused us to eventually know nothing of Africa, and then gave us a picture of Africa that was false, Tarzan, a white man in Africa. And all the Africans, nothing but like baboons and monkeys. That's the picture of Africa we were given in this country, 50 years or less ago.
I used to be in the theater not 50 years ago, less than that, sitting with our people, Christian, African-Americans. Christians, Blacks, and seeing them laugh at Tarzan making a fool out of Africans. Thank G-d that day has gone.
We were uprooted from our cultural life to have a situation for spiritual fulfillment. We have to have a sense of ownership. Ownership. Every religion, the great religions I'm speaking of, they came to strengthen the people they were calling, that those religions were inviting to come to G-d, came to strengthen their sense of personal worth, individual human worth, and their sense of entitlement to great things, their sense of possession of great things, their sense of ownership of great things. The Jews say G-d said to them, "This land I give to you." Land, so that G-d told them that they were owners of land. And not just one acre. A good, big, wide expansive of land. And Islam comes to tell all Muslims the earth belongs to G-d and G-d made it for you and all the people He created. And He says, "Then seek with what G-d has made available to you, the promised home in the hereafter. But don't forget your share of this material world." Wa latansa naseebaka mina dunya. And don't forget your share of this material world. That's what G-d tells us.
So, Allah gives us a sense, a strong sense of possession, ownership as His trustee. We know the earth belongs to G-d. Allah says the earth belongs to Him and the earth is a mosque, a place of worship. It means the whole earth was created by G-d to be a pace of obedience to Him. That's what it means when He says "Al aardu al masjidullah." When He says the earth, all earth is the mosque or the place of worship of for G-d, He's saying that He made this whole earth to be a place for us to worship Him with our heart, with our spirit, with our hands, with our skills, with our knowledge. With everything we do, we should be worshiping G-d. And if we do it according to the best motivations and the best sensitivities in our human makeup, we will be pleasing G-d with everything we do. He made us to please Him with every act, with every devotion, with every interest. He made us, by human nature He made us to please Him. Praise be to Allah.
There is a mystic, the great mystics who love G-d so much that they don't have much time for the world or hardly any time for the world. Such great minds. Pure creatures. They have shared with us this thing that G-d said. I was a treasure. Listen, I was a treasure to be discovered. I was a treasurer to be discovered. So, He made, He created people. He created human beings with freedom of thought, with freedom of mind, with freedom of spirit, because He knew by freeing his creature, his creature would be able to use his human intelligence and study and search the creation of G-d and would finally acknowledge that no man could do this. No force in the heavens and the earth could do this. There is a G-d behind it all, and he would discover his G-d in time. G-d knew that when He made His man, His woman too. Praise be to Allah.
In our nature, in our natural appetite as clean, pure humans, we have a hunger to discover G-d. To discover G-d. And He has made this beautiful world of His as the prophets say in the Old Testament, they behold the wondrous handiworks of G-d, and by His works, by the beauty of the stars and the heavens at night and by the wonderful things, plant and animals and the beautiful streams of water running through the land, they know by all of that art and beauty and power that there is an artist behind it all, and that artist is G-d.
Yes, man was made and created and given freedom and given the freedom to study and work and be curious and examine and re-examine and imagine so that he would discover G-d. Isn't that wonderful to know that we were created to discover G-d? And why we need to discover G-d? We need to discover G-d because we can't manage this human life by ourselves. It will wear us out. It will wear us out. It will wear our parents out. It'll wear the children out. This human life cannot be managed by us alone. We need the one that made it, designed it, and gave it to us as a trust, that trusted us with His own creation.
So, G-d says the greatest and most productive power comes when you reflect on G-d, when you remember G-d, and think on G-d like the thinkers did that came to be the seers and the prophets of old. That the greatest power is in thinking and reflecting on G-d, remembering G-d, and respecting on G-d. That's the most productive force.
We as a people, in our very nature, we knew that there was no help from us in the south under the white slave masters, except to please the slave master. So, we did whatever we could to please him. Someone said before me earlier here, that we didn't rebel. Well, young man, I want to tell you, we did rebel. Nat Turner fought to free us from slavery and he knew he couldn't do it, but he knew he was going to be killed, but he was ready to have a demonstration that would put something on the mind of the white man, that all your blacks will not take this and keep their mouths shut. We will fight you and have you kill us if you want to, but we will not accept this indignity. We will not accept this humility. We will fight you. We are not brute animals. We are human beings just like you. And Nat Turner fought them and they killed him.
And there were others who rebelled, too. Their leader was a white man and America called him crazy. He wasn't crazy. He was so good and so determined to tell the white Americans in the world that it's not accepted under G-d that you dehumanize these people and treat them like beasts and brute animals to do your work and tell them that they are not G-dless and tell them that they're subhuman. He said it's not right. And John Brown went out with a few rebel blacks and he fought his own people so that we would be free one day. John Brown, a white man. I love him. I love him. I pray that his soul is in heaven.
We have to get it straight. All right. Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth. All of these and many others that I'm not mentioning, Ida B. Wells and many other men and women put their life on the line, made great sacrifices, struggled with us to get us up on our feet in dignity and in self-respect with all other human beings on the same level of human essence with them. Yes, they did. They worked hard and they lost their lives, many of them. Elijah Lovejoy lost his life, and many others lost their lives, but they didn't stop. They didn't stop because they were being killed. Right behind that one would come up another one, sometimes two or three at one time. Some preaching in the Midwest, some preaching in the North, some preaching on the East coast. They just kept popping up. Ready to Die! And knowing that they were going to be killed, knowing that they were going to be killed.
Look at the Jews that went down South and protest segregation with us. Men and women lost their lives. They knew they could be killed, but G-d has put in us a true creation of his, the human creation. Not in the world's mold, not in the world's style, not in the world's pattern, but in the pattern G-d gave, the pattern of Adam, the first man that was pure in his nature and in his pattern. G-d has put that in every one of us, black, white, brown, everybody. You can't mistreat one of us and the rest of us like it. There's going be some among us that's going to join the black, join the white, join the red, join anybody. There's human in their defense against you and we'll be ready to give our life. We don't give a damn about our life when it comes to the life of humanity.
When G-d blessed me to have your support and I became your leader, those who thought that they could make us back up and give it up after the Honorable Elijah Muhammad sent word by a messenger to me, and here was the word. Minister Wallace, chief minister, we have gotten word from someone, some people. They said, "Don't go out of the house today. You will be killed." I got so angry instantly. I said, "Tell them I had no plans to go out of the house today until you brought me this message."
Some of you may say, "Well, you're foolish to want to be killed." No, I was wise and I knew how not to be killed. If I had showed fear, they would've killed me, either by killing me outright or making me so afraid they could tell me when to go out and when to stay in. I can't live that way. I've had freedom, human dignity and freedom in my body ever since I can remember. I was never a fool, I was never a coward, and I was always a person that wanted freedom, and I was always ready to die for it. Even as a child, I was ready to die for my freedom.
And I couldn't make myself that way. It took the Nation of Islam, that environment. It took the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, his boldness. It took all of that. It took his teacher, W.D. Farad, or Farad Muhammad. It took all of that to make the person I am, a person that believed my word is bond, my bond is life. I will give my life before my worship. A person that fasts. I will face hell and death rather than give up my dignity.
You hear what I said? I said, I'm a person that will face hell, hell fire and death, eternal death before I give up my dignity. And my dignity is in my freedom. My dignity is in my freedom to be the person I want to be. I don't want you making me the person you want me to be. I'm going to be the person I want to be.
And thank G-d we're in great America that defends freedom of choice. I can choose the temple. I can choose the church, choose the Muslim Mosque or the church. I can choose what I want to in America as long as it's decent and honorable. I can choose what I want in America. In fact, I don't have to be decent and honorable. There's just a law to catch me and hurt me or punish me and take my money. But I can be an Al Capone. I can be a Marquis de Sade; I can be anything in America. And thank G-d we have freedom of choice, and thank G-d we still have the human nature in us that G-d gave us. Our choice is excellence. Our choice is righteousness. Our choice is to be G-d's servants. Praise be to Allah.
We have recent publications by beautiful authors, letting us know that all of us didn't come over here as Animists or worshipers of our spirits of our ancestors or worshipers of idols in Africa, and all of us didn't come over here as Christians. In fact, Christian America never wanted to believe that they were bringing Christians from Africa and putting them in bondage here. They didn't want to believe that, so they didn't want to accept that the slave traders would bring Christians from Africa here. So, if they didn't like that, they didn't want enslave Christians, then who are we the children of? We're the children of idol worshipers, Animists, parent spirit worshipers. Or are we Muslim? One another. So, these books, new books, they document that many Muslims were brought to America in slave ships.
Then there is, whether want it or not, whether you like it or not, you may not want to be a Muslim. But many of you who are not Muslim, you have a natural hunger and urge in your soul and in your spirit to be reconnected with what you were cut off from. Dr. C. Eric Lincoln, he said in his studies, he's a great theologian, a great African-American theologian. He said that he believes strongly that there is a genetic, Islamic genetic memory in black people. That means you don't remember it, but your genes, your flesh, your body remembers this. Your body still remembers that you were once Muslim. Your body, your human body, with the genes from your fathers in it, still remember that you were Muslim, and that's why you have an interest in Islam. That's why you have an interest in Muslim.
Many of you, not all of you, and that's why you are happy when you become Muslim. And you can wait until you learn Islam. You don't mind. Inside your body, the genes are shouting, "I'm back again where I was before, in Islam." Your mind can't shout because you don't know Islam yet, but I have learned Islam and I shout with my whole being. breath, mind, soul and spirit.
They're going to put us out of here at 5:30 or so, but I'm doing my best. I'm trying to skip over things that are less important and get it done quickly because I don't want them to turn the lights out on us. I will miss something and just go past some of this, but what I want to say is this. Many people have been the victim of inhuman, demonic, horrible oppressors. And I, as a student of the ways of G-d and man, I'm convinced that it was the will of G-d that we be put on slave ships and be brought to this country, this continent. I'm convinced it was the will of G-d. They could not have done it if G-d had not accepted it as our fate that would put us in a situation to come out of it as a reborn people.
And scripture talks of it. Say see how the metal, the gross metal is put into the refiner's fire and how the impurity is made to separate from the purities of the metal and are better and more durable and pure substance is created because it had been put into the fire. Plantation life, life in America up until the sixties was hell fire. It was a fiery furnace fired up by the demons, warp-minded white people who had lost their sense of what Christ really was to them, and they had done this to us. They had put us in the fiery furnace, but it didn't burn out anything but our impurity. The pure at heart have survived, and it only burnt out our impurities. Now we are ready as a new people to serve our G-d and to lead humanity back to humanity.
Yes, G-d has prepared us to use us in this conclusion of things for man on the earth. Yes, this is the day of religion, this is the conclusion of things. He has prepared us to use us in this day of the conclusion of things so that we will be a witness to them that G-d is G-d. And there is but one G-d, the One who created man and everything. And that no matter what happens for His human product in the world, He has power to re-establish them as He intended for them to be established.
So, I'm not worried about CPC. G-d is in charge. I'm not worried about ComTrust. G-d is in charge. Someone said, "Oh, you better be careful. Whitey might reverse it and have us in slavery again." I'm not worried about whitey. G-d is in charge and G-d has always been in charge. And your calendar is long. G-d's calendar is short. It seemed like it was just last week that we had racism and ugly racism glaring at us, staring us in the face in the South and in the North. I experienced it also in Chicago. It seemed like it was just yesterday almost. And it's gone.
Oh, I hear you. No, it's not gone, so why don't you get rid of it? You're free. It ain't gone? You get rid of it. You're free. If you need me, call me. I'll help you get rid of it. I'll do my part, maybe more than my part. I'll do some of your part too, because I know you are much weaker than I am if you think racism is still a big issue. Look here. The need for us to be responsible for ourselves and our families and our houses and our apartments and our neighborhoods, our children, and our block and the trouble on our block, that's the bigger issue right now, buddy. Praise be to Allah. Thank you.
So, all of our troubles, for the innocent, for the innocent, is nothing but tests, trial and tests, and the refiner's fire to drive out from us the impurities so that we will become a pure people like refined iron and steel. It becomes hotter. It becomes more resistant to rain and rust. It becomes hotter and more durable and long-lasting. So, you should be a very special people. The man who taught my father, he said, "I can sit on the top of the world." He wasn't talking about what he saw then. He was talking about what G-d had blessed him to envision that would come out of us in the future, when America would open up, open up and we would have a chance to really establish our life ourselves. He said, "I can sit on top of the world." A future picture he saw.
And I can tell anyone that the most beautiful nation is in the wilderness of North America. And he was talking about the Nation of Islam and the members that he had brought together under the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, my father with no more than three years elementary education from Georgia, a man that didn't know nothing. He didn't know anything but just existing in America and trying to fight for his life like an animal, like a nice animal, like a nice deer, like a nice rabbit. That's all he knew. And a man came and put something in his head. He put a seed, a germ in his head that just fed his brains and his life. It was really nothing but the seed or the germ of the true human being's essence. He put back into the man. The human essence that he had lost that had run, that had taken away from him. He put back into that man those human essence that G-d made and it just burst him open. It just stretched him out. It just made him see further and made him more determined not to be treated like less than a human being.
So, what am I trying to say to you? Don't you think that you just became something worthwhile when you joined the Temple of Islam. Don't you think that you just became, if something was importance, when you said you were Muslim. You were important when you didn't know what you were. G-d knew what you were. You were important when you didn't know what religion should be yours. G-d knew what you were. You were His human vessel that He created and the world had to follow that human vessel, and He knew that in time you throw out, you would pick up what defiled you and your human essence will begin to manifest and burst forward in you to make you the great thing that G-d created you to be.
And it has happened. It has happened in America. It has happened in the greatest and most powerful country on earth. It has happened in America. There has been a new birth. Those who are with me, from my father, you are not the same black man. You are not the same black woman. You are a brand-new people on this earth. You are brand new people on this earth. You have a brand-new spirit. You have a brand-new will. You have a brand-new intelligence. You have a brand-new mind. And if you think like I tell you to think buddy, respecting G-d's word and Muhammad, the model human, you will have brand new thoughts. And when you have brand new thoughts, you will be working behind me and working with me and I won't feel your weight anymore. You'll be standing on your own two feet.
So, accept the ugly past as G-d's will, a condition to forge you into the wonderful, bright and brilliant creature that G-d has made, the new African-America in a new Africa on these shores. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? Yes, it is.
If my father had not presented Islam the way he presented it to us, I would not be a Muslim, because when I got older and started studying on my own, I was attracted to Communism and Malcolm was, too. He told me the same thing, that he was attracted to it while he was in prison. I was attracted to Communism because I couldn't understand everything I was taught. There were too many questions unanswered. I mean, serious questions. There was a conflict for reality. G-d made me to be free as a rational, thinking, human being. My father and mother never worked against that development in me.
My father and mother never worked against that development in me. They encouraged me to think, to use my own good senses. My father asked me, he said, "How can you, knowing how our savior found me and your mother; poor, drunk," not my mother, but my father, "drunk, et cetera, and look how he has dignified us, how can you say he's not G-d? How can you reject him?" That's what my father said to me.
I told my father, I said, "Daddy, I could better accept you, but that's your savior, but I can better accept you." I didn't tell him this, because you are not saying you are G-d. You're saying your teacher is G-d. I could not accept a man as G-d. That was not in my reasoning, not in my intelligence to accept a man as G-d. Once a brother, I was manager of the restaurant. I was a young minister in Chicago. Wow, I better look at this time. Oh, buddy, we going to have to stop. I was a young man and my father had made me the manager of the restaurant. I had grown up from delivering groceries and cleaning floors at the store, and went in the restaurant, he asked me to go work in the restaurant. I went there and I just automatically just started cooking, and I was a very good cook, so he saw that I was doing so well with the restaurant, he made me manager.
And there was one Saviour's Day, the big convention for the Nation of Islam, coming, and the brothers were coming more from Chicago. They were coming more to the restaurant, I guess, hoping that they'll see out of towners and just, Muslims like to be together. And this big, black brother named Robert; big, black brother, strong, he was strong enough to just take my hand and break it, take my leg in his hand and break it. He could have taken my head and just twisted it and broke every bone in my neck. That man was terribly strong. We all knew him, called Big Robert.
Big Robert came in the restaurant. He said, "Sisters, come serve the G-d." Because we were taught that the black man is G-d. He said, "Sisters, come serve the G-d." I immediately heated up and I walked out the door right quick, walked out the kitchen door right quick and I said, "Hey, you're no G-d. You are not my G-d." And my little self was just like little David. I put fear in Goliath. That man was afraid of me. I could see fear in his eyes. And he went on and sat down and I never had any problem with him again, coming in there like that. How are you G-d? And you break wind, just like everybody else. You stink like everybody else. You can't even put yourself over the white man, and you going to tell me you are over the heavens and the earth? You need to go to a psychiatrist, fast!
But we gave the white man 6,000 years to rule us, to prove that we can survive his cruel rule. Well, the 6,000 years been up, man. What's going on now? We have given him an extension of time. Yeah, we know you have. We know you have. He going to keep getting him an extended time because you can't deal with it. Thank G-d, G-d will deal with him. And G-d has dealt with him and brought the beauty and the humanity to flower in the white people of America and have pushed the beast back out of America's life. They hiding now. There are still Klansmen in Illinois, Southern Illinois. There's Klansmen in Northern Indiana. We know the Klan is still around, and some worse than Klan members are still around. But one thing, this environment is not inviting them to come out and they know it. They are hiding.
So were uprooted, and thank G-d that we have wise people on earth that know how to put us back in the soil, in the dirt. You hear dirt. Back in the dirt of the earth, or find us where we are in the dirt of the earth, and give us an environment for our new birth and new growth. Thank G-d that there are wise people that know how to do that. And we had wise ones come to us, and that's what they did; found us in the dirt, but brought the environment, the mental environment, the spiritual environment, the human environment, brought it back around us like clean eating, fertile earth without poisons of industries, without the things that will kill the life germs. And we have come to birth again out of Mother Earth, out of the womb of Mother Earth, we have been born again and we are rising up erect as human beings, homo erectus, rising up perpendicular to the square.
We are rising up as the mustaqeem, the mustaqeem. Muhammad said to a man, he asked him a question, a young man, he said, "Tell me something no one else can tell me, prophet." Meaning, since you know G-d, since you talk to G-d, since G-d is talking to you, tell me something nobody else can tell me. He said, "Say." Meaning, speak with your own mouth. "You got to do something. Say. Quul," he said. " Quul, in Arabic means say. "Amantu. I have accepted faith and thereafter be mustaqeem." He said, " tumustaqem." Meaning, "Thereafter be mustaqeem. Upright in your nature. Upright in your nature, created for you by your G-d." That's what he said. "Let your behavior be correct after you say you believe." Let your behavior be correct after you say you believe. Let your behavior be right after you say you believe. And if you should stumble and fall or err, remember your religion. Remember yourself that you're supposed to be upright and straighten up again so that you stay presentable before your creator.
And if you do that over a long enough period, G-d will be with you in everything you face and in everything you do. I know it. I don't believe that, I know that. I more than believe, I know it. Muhammad, the Prophet, says that the human being striving to please Allah, to please G-d, says he cries so long, over and over again. Whenever he makes a mistake, he goes to his G-d and says, "Forgive my mistake. Forgive my sin." Say he does that for so long, it becomes his nature. He's taken back to his original nature that G-d put in the garden. Before the seducer seduced our parents out of the nature. He comes back to that nature and Muhammad the Prophet says, when he speaks it’s as though G-d spoke. If he hit you, it's though G-d hit you.
And when I write the formula for "EggMate", it's as though G-d wrote it. When I tell them how to direct and manage ComTrust it's as G-d wrote the prescription. I know it. I'm doing nothing. I'm no more than an instrument. G-d is the doer, but He has given me the freedom to get credit for it if I want. But thank G-d I know G-d. I know His presence in me and I know His presence outside of me. I'm not going to take the credit for what He's doing. He is building economic dignity with me as His instrument and you as my workers, working with me. G-d is building economic dignity. Not only for African-American Muslims, but for poor Mexicans, poor Spanish speaking people, poor whites. All of you, I invite you to come on in, because G-d is building economic dignity for the poor. For the poor. For those who think they cannot rise economically.
And this is the work of my father. That's why I said to you earlier, and we thought Elijah was dead. Elijah is not dead. When you looked at that screen, didn't you see Elijah? Isn't that what Elijah showed you when he was living? Didn't he show you the same things? Didn't he put it in the centerfold of the Muhammad speaks? Huh? And you see it again? He's gone, but you see it again? That's Elijah. And G-d was with him when he didn't know the Qur'an. And he's even more with his son that carry Elijah's genes in my body. He's even more with the son more, because his son knows the Qur'an and loves it and will follow it and lift it up above all books written by man. The Qur'an, the sacred script of G-d, I lift it up above all the works of men and I lift Muhammad up above all the leaders of men. He is the most excellent model for any people who believe in G-d and the last days. That's what G-d says in our holy book of him.
And I'm concluding this now. We have had Nat Turner. We've even had white people die for us, like John Brown, who knew he was going to be killed by his own people. He knew he couldn't beat them. He knew he couldn't liberate us from the great multitudes of whites and their establishments. He knew it, but he put himself on the line and gave his life to demonstrate to his people the heavy gravity of their terrible sin against our humanity. Frederick Douglass, the great statesman who was a slave, and had a kind master who permitted him to educate himself, brought him books to study so he would be better educated, but his first master ran into financial problems and he told Frederick Douglass, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to sell you so I can get some money to keep myself out of debt and from being financially destroyed."
He sold Frederick Douglass to another master and it hurt his heart to do so. The next master was not nice like the first one. He treated him like a slave, like an inferior. Frederick Douglass one day was so insulted by the treatment he was getting from his master, he hit his master. I imagine he did this. I imagine his master was just standing up there, He fell, he couldn't take that slave. He couldn't take that brute force of the slave. He was too delicate for it. He knocked him out on the road and he went by foot until he reached the North, and the land where there was not a law protecting slavery up North.
He became a great statesman. He joined the abolitionists; good, white Christians who were working hard to get slavery abolished or ended or taken off the books. He joined them. He so impressed the president at that time, Abraham Lincoln, that Abraham Lincoln consulted him and benefited greatly from his mind and his knowledge, and in time we were emancipated. We were freed. And when we were freed, it was reported by writers, of that great day of our emancipation, that slaves could be seen running to grab anything that they could read. Newspaper, piece of a book, a page out of anything, just to read it, because they had been denied the freedom to educate themselves. They had been denied the freedom to read, because reading will educate you.
Allah says, the first words of revelation to our Prophet Muhammad, he told him, the unlettered prophet, he told him, he said, "Read." The first words from G-d. He didn't say, "I am Allah." Not like Moses... "I am G-d, et cetera." No, he didn't say, "I am Allah." He said to Muhammad, "Read." And then he introduced one of his attributes, after telling him read. He said, "Read in the name of your Lord." One of the attributes of G-d. Rabb. And Muhammad, after G-d repeated to him several times, Muhammad began to understand and he began to receive the words, the revelation, the words of the Qur'an, that was meant, intended for all mankind. That's how it happened. He said read.
Now, here we are, free. Remember our parents who experienced the first day, knowing that they were free. Remember their hunger, their appetite, that they had an appetite to learn to read so they could be free indeed. No human being is free if your intelligence is enslaved. If your mind is enslaved, you are not free. I had a pigeon once. I got the pigeon as a little, small thing, couldn't fly. I fed it and loved it and took care of it and it learned to fly. If I hadn't permitted it to have the freedom G-d gave it, it would still be my captive. But one day, it would fly away from me and come back and light on my shoulder. That's such a thrill for a young boy. I was about 12 years old, or maybe 11. I know I couldn't have been born than 13, because we lived on 6116 Michigan Avenue in Chicago, and we moved from there when I was 13 years old, so I know I couldn't have been more than 13.
That pigeon would come and right back on my shoulder, he would fly here. One day, the pigeon was on my shoulder. I had it outside and I just felt almost like it was talking to me. I could almost feel it was saying, "It hurts my heart to have to leave you." And it flew off my shoulder and joined another pigeon in the air. I never saw it again. And I was happy when I saw it flying with its own member of its own family. I was happy. I was a child, but I was happy to see it now with a pigeon who could really speak his own language, speak the pigeon language, in its social environment that G-d made for it. I was happy to see it join another pigeon.
Now, white folks be happy to see us join another Black man. Some white people are scared to death when they see us loving each other. They think we going to be remembering what they did and get together in great big numbers and hurt them. Buddy, we don't want to hurt you. We ain't going to punish you for what your fathers did. We have forgiven you and we are praying G-d that your forefathers won't burn in hell too long. Yes, they're scared to death when they see us on the streets, talking to each other, smiling and look like we enjoying each other's company. They're scared to death.
Don't be afraid. I let that pigeon go with this family. Let us go with our family. We ain't hurting you. We just want to be free. We have no intentions to drop droppings on you or anything. We ain't even drop any droppings on you, buddy. We are human pigeons. We are human birds. We ain't going to mess you up at all. We want to keep your environment clean. We won't even splash your windshield or your car, man. We won't do that to you, white brother. Let us go to our family and be happy, so we can be better citizens of America and make a bigger contribution to the United States of America and the world. Let us go free. Don't work against us becoming Muslim, if that's our choice. America is land of the free and home of the brave, and damn it, I'm brave and I'm free and you can't take it away from me.
I'm going to have freedom of choice. I choose Islam. I choose Qur'an. I choose Muhammad. I choose this religion for myself, and as long as my children are under my supervision and not of age to make their own decisions, I am choosing Islam for all of my children. Long as my wife will like me and will love me, and she don't have to love me; as long as she respects me, I choose Islam for my wife and that's my responsibility. I hope you all feel the same way. Thank G-d we are free at last. We are free at last. You are not free when you're just free from physical bondage. You are not free until your mind is free and your human spirit is free. Your human spirit will take you where G-d wants you to go, and if you got that human spirit that will follow what G-d wants, your mind will be blessed by G-d to know how to get your body there. To get your body there.
We are tired of being spooks in America or anywhere else. We are no spooks. We have a human body like everybody else. Don't tell me to accept G-d, immigrant Muslim from Pakistan and from Egypt and other places. Don't come over here and give me a life of Muslim ritualism. I had enough ritualism. I feel the genes of my fore parents. They are in me and I have a distaste for too much ritualism. I want reality. I want reality and I want a place in this world. I want to obey G-d and I want to get my share of this material world. Don't give me a spirit and tell me I don't have a body. G-d didn't give me a spirit and tell me I can't have a body. G-d gave me a spirit and he gave me a material body to house my spirit. Now give me a material environment to house my mind and my spirit that is African-American.
We want to see New Africa. We want to see African Islamic theaters. We want to see skyscrapers go up and we build them. We want to see shipping lines and trucking lines and transportation lines all over in our neighborhoods. We want to walk outside our house and we want to look at the product and the construction and the industry of our own people, Muslim African-Americans in New Africa. In New Africa on these shores. On these shores. That's our rightful inheritance as the creation of G-d. G-d has created us for this. That's our natural inheritance and we will accept nothing less. Nothing less.
They have Spanish-town, they have China-town, damn it, get ready for African-American town, Muslim, New Africa. And I will say it. I know you've been ready for it. You've been ready for me to say it. We cannot be stopped now!
Judge Shaheed:
Dear brothers and sisters, the program is not complete. We want to continue the important things we still have to cover. Most important is the declaration of faith for those who want to come to this religion, and we are told that there are several people that want to take the Shahada on this special occasion of our Muslim American Society Convention. And two of the people, and there may be others, but two of those people are Emory Holiday and Lane Salmon. If Emory Holiday and Lane Salmon are here, if you would come forward.
Imam Omar Shaheed:
Brothers and sisters, please pick up your souvenir. The 25th souvenir coin. As Imam Mohammed said, surely you would want to pass on to your children this coin that represents 25 years of his leadership. Please buy the coin. It's on sale outside. The 25th year celebration. The Islamic Convention, the Muslim American Society Convention sticker. It is the only one and it's on sale for $1. Please pick up one on your way out. Also, we have a brochure this year for Islamic Convention. Please get a brochure. They're on sale for $5. You don't want to miss this great opportunity to have these items from our convention. We want to thank the team of people who have worked very, very hard to make this a success. It was a team effort and we thank Allah for your support, appreciate the support. The team followed the instructions of our leader, Imam W. Deen Mohammed, and we have had a successful convention, sponsored by WDM Ministries.
Judge Shaheed:
The committee members that took most of the criticism and most of the complaints and a lot of phone calls, we need to mention also. Sister Mohammed. Sister Mohammed, let her know that we appreciate her work. Imam Abdul Karim Hasan, who was also on the committee. And also, Imam Omar Shaheed. They were the three persons on the committee, and we also want to thank those who are participating in this historic convention by satellite. There are now cities that are participating by satellite, and we thank those who have gone to the trouble to participate and be at this convention by satellite. Now Imam Mohammed will... If you would come forward and have the two men that want to take Shahada; Emory Holiday and Lane Salmon.
IWDM:
Let's have a few words ... before we witness this very joyful moment that we're going to have very soon. First, I say to you that our holy book tells us that Muhammad the Prophet who lived the religion so that we follow it in the best way he lived it, he said, "Every person is born a Muslim. It is the environment that they are put in that makes them other than Muslim. Something other than Muslim." We're only returning to the nature and mold for life, mold and mold of life that G-d created for us when he created the first parents. That's what we mean by Muslim. See a beautiful person who will not be a Muslim. We will see their beautiful spirit, their beautiful attitude, their beautiful human nature and we will know that they are Muslim.
And I'm sure you have Christians and Jews who will look at us who are excellent human beings, loving and worshiping G-d, and they will see in us a Christlike person. A person who's Christian or Christlike. I want you to understand that most of all. They're only returning to the original purity, human purity and behavior that G-d created when he created the first parents in the Garden of Paradise. And also, I would like to say to you that in our religion, we want a person to feel good, and just because you feel good about Islam, I want to take my Shahada]. I'm a Muslim. I want to be written down as a Muslim. We want you to think about it. When we say Shahada, we mean you've witnessed Islam as the course that you accept. You've witnessed, and to witness it, you have witnessed it with your good and reasoning, your good mind.
If your good mind now ... you declare yourself Muslim this evening, son of Elijah is ready to accept your hand tonight and congratulate you and welcome you into the international community Muslim called "ummah". And please learn more about your religion so that you will better be able to live it and learn more about life in America. Learn more about the Christian, so we respect Christianity. We cannot ... a small group of people among a big group of people. We are going to aggravate them and disturb the peace, and in their life and their nature, we accept too that Christians believe scripture from Jesus, upon him be peace, and we accept Jesus Christ as G-d's Prophet, messenger, prophet, and Christ is anointed by G-d.
And we also accept his mother as the Blessed Virgin and we believe that man did not create Jesus Christ, but G-d created him in his mother, Mary, his blessed mother, Mary. Understanding these things, I ask now, first one come up. Anyone. Do you witness or bear witness... Just stand close so they can hear us. Do you witness or bear witness that there is but one G-d, and do you witness and bear witness that Muhammad of the Qur'an, the Muslim prophet leader and guide for all Muslims, a mercy to all the worlds? Do you witness that he is G-d's servant and messenger?
Emerson:
Yes, I do.
IWDM:
G-d be with you. We're with you. And say now behind me, Ashhadu
Emerson:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
An la ilaha
Emerson:
An la liaha
IWDM:
An la ilaha
Emerson:
ilaha
IWDM:
illallah.
Emerson:
illallah.
IWDM:
Muhammad.
Emerson:
Muhammad.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Emerson:
Rasulullah.
IWDM:
Yes. Brother, what's your name?
Emerson:
Emerson.
IWDM:
Emerson. Emerson is now a Muslim anywhere on this earth. In Saudi Arabia, in the Holy Precincts of Mecca, in Egypt, at Al-Azhar, wherever he goes in the Islamic world, he is a Muslim entitled to the same rights and respect as the biggest Muslim on earth. Because before G-d, we are all the same size. You heard what I said to him? Do you feel comfortable with that?
Wayne:
Yes, I do.
IWDM:
Will you repeat after me? Ashhadu.
Wayne:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
You have to come close to the mic? Ashhadu.
Wayne:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
An la.
Wayne:
An na.
IWDM:
ilaha.
Wayne:
ilaha.
IWDM:
illallah.
Wayne:
illllah.
IWDM:
illallah.
Wayne:
illallah.
IWDM:
Yes. Muhammad.
Wayne:
Muhammad.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Wayne:
Rasula.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Wayne:
Rasulullah.
IWDM:
May I hug you, my brother? Praise be to Allah. Praise be to Allah. Wonderful day. Your name? Now give me your name again. I met you.
Wayne:
Lane.
IWDM:
Lane. This is Lane, and Lane is now a Muslim brother, equal with every Muslim on this earth in the eyes of G-d. And we will also put our signature. I will put my signature saying that to the Hajj Administration in Mecca, or to anybody, Azhar, the greatest university of ours in Egypt, I will put my signature behind his name saying this man is a citizen of the Muslim Ummah, the International Community of Muslims. Now, I want to introduce you to Raab. Raab has been a Muslim and practicing the religion and I met him now, I think, on the third or fourth occasion. At least three. I would like for him to come speak to us. Will you please have a word to say?
Raab:
I don't know what to say. Hello? Salaam alaykum.
IWDM:
It was in the same... You're also from Racine, right?
Raab:
Yes, sure.
IWDM:
Yes, just tell us about it.
Raab:
I'm from Racine, Wisconsin. I took my Shahada about five months ago now, and my life has just gone on the up ever since.
IWDM:
Allahu Akbar. We have two sisters who would like to declare themselves Muslims with Muslims witnessing it. They are already Muslims these brothers too. The moment they feel it in their hearts they're already Muslims in G-d's presence, but for it to be formal and on record, official, we have to declare it with witnesses. They have to have witnesses. Yes, sister come forward. You heard what I said, right? Tell the brother.
Sister:
Yes.
IWDM:
Yes. She heard what I said to the brother so there's no need of me repeating it. So will you repeat behind me. Ashhadu
Sister:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
An la
Sister:
An la.
IWDM:
ilaha.
Sister:
ilaha.
IWDM:
illallah.
Sister:
illallah.
IWDM:
Muhammad.
Sister:
Muhammad.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Sister:
Rasulullah.
IWDM:
Wonderful. I would love to hug you with a big hug, but it is not proper for males to do that. But you got my... I'm spiritually hugging you all over my sister.
Sister:
Al hamdulillah.
IWDM:
Yes, sister. You heard the language I speak for them. So come close to the mic now. Come closer to the mic so they can hear you. If you accept everything that you heard me saying then witness before the Muslim witnesses saying, Ashhadu.
Sister #2:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
Ashhadu.
Sister #2:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
An la.
Sister #2:
An la.
IWDM:
ilaha.
Sister #2:
ilaha.
IWDM:
illallah.
Sister #2:
illallah.
IWDM:
Muhammad.
Sister #2:
Muhammad.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Sister #2:
Rasulullah.
IWDM:
Congratulations to all of you. We congratulate all of you.
Speaker 5:
Imam Mohammed...
IWDM:
Yes.
Speaker 5:
She was born Muslim but never took her Shahada
IWDM:
You have to... So, you were Muslim before though. Oh, I thought you for just becoming Muslim. You are just becoming officially acknowledged.
Speaker 5:
Okay.
IWDM:
Yes. And so, since you heard me repeat, come close so they can hear you.
Speaker 5:
Okay.
IWDM:
Ashhadu.
Speaker 5:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
An la.
Speaker 5:
An la.
IWDM:
ilaha.
Speaker 5:
ilaha
IWDM:
illallah.
Speaker 5:
illallah.
IWDM:
Muhammad.
Speaker 5:
Muhammad.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Speaker 5:
Rasulullah.
IWDM:
Wonderful. Wonderful. Congratulations. Give me a hug, please!
Speaker 5:
Thanks.
IWDM:
Praise be to Allah. We thank Allah for you all. Yes, our sister wants to make her Shahadah. Where's my wife? I need some protection. Come close so you can be heard by the witnesses. Come a little closer, a little closer. Ashhadu
Speaker 6:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
You accepted everything I said, right?
Speaker 6:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
IWDM:
Ashhadu.
Speaker 6:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
An la.
Speaker 6:
Al la.
IWDM:
No, say an, A-N. An la Say what you hear in the ear. An la.
Speaker 6:
An la.
IWDM:
ilaha.
Speaker 6:
ilaha.
IWDM:
illallah.
Speaker 6:
E-
IWDM:
Try it, try it. It's musical. You can say it. E. Say la. Say la.
Speaker 6:
E la
IWDM:
Say E, la La..
Speaker 6:
La-
IWDM:
La.
Speaker 6:
La.
IWDM:
The tongue has to go up to the top. Illallah.
Speaker 6:
illallah.
IWDM:
Yes. Say it one more time. Illallah.
Speaker 6:
Illallah.
IWDM:
Il la lah.
Speaker 6:
La la.h
IWDM:
Three, three sounds. Il la lah. One more time. Il la lah. By yourself. Yes. Yes. Wonderful. Wonderful. Yes, so I am witnessing that our brothers and sisters have accepted Islam and declared themselves properly to be Muslims worshiping the one G-d and following the model, the last prophet seal of the Prophet Muhammad. So, we acknowledge them and we say to each of them and to you that they are equal members in the Ummah of Islam, the International Ummah of Muslims with white, black, brown, red, all kinds of human beings with all kinds of cultural dress. When you go to Hajj one day, you all who have joined you are going to see so many different looks and so many different dress styles over there. And you're going to see some over there who may not be as human as you. May not be as Islamic or Muslim as you so don't think you're going over there and seeing all angels.
IWDM:
You're going to see human beings of the world and it's just like Christians or anybody else. We have our best and we have our worst and I pray G-d bless you all to be your best.
Speaker 7:
Just one more.
IWDM:
Yes. We have another sister who is going to make her Shahadah. She has come to make her Shahadah and that is witness that there's one G-d and Muhammad is the messenger of G-d. So, you have heard me I'm sure and I know your face. I've seen you here around. Please come close so they can hear you. Repeat the Shahadah witnessing that there's one G-d and Muhammad is the messenger of G-d. Ashhadu.
Sharon:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
Yes. An la.
Sharon:
An la.
IWDM:
ilaha.
Sharon:
ilaha.
IWDM:
Good. illallah.
Sharon:
illallah.
IWDM:
Yes, Muhammad.
Sharon:
Muhammad.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Sharon:
Rasulullah.
IWDM:
Good. Very good. Congratulations.
Sharon:
Thank you.
IWDM:
We congratulate you. Your name, sister?
Sharon:
Sharon.
IWDM:
Hmm?
Sharon:
Sharon.
IWDM:
Sharon, we congratulate you sister Sharon and you and those before you are all citizens in the community of Muslims the international community, or nation is also called it but it's a religious spiritual Nation of Islam, a religious and spiritual and community nation. By that, I mean that we can have our individual spiritual life. We can have the religious practices and we can have economic development. We can be responsible for it. We can be responsible for towns and cities in America like Christians are. We can go to war and fight wars if they are just wars that G-d want us to fight. We can be doctors and lawyers and presidents of the United States. Islam is a complete religion for the complete nature that G-d gave us with all of the fine human appetites that human beings have. It's a complete life. Allah be with you, and keep you. If they don't put us out, I can do this until the sun rises in the morning. I love it. Yes. You heard everything, right?
Matime:
Yeah.
IWDM:
You have no problem with anything?
Matime:
No problem.
IWDM:
Okay. Come close so they can hear you. Repeat the words of witnessing that there is one G-d and Muhammad is His messenger Ashhadu.
Matime:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
An la.
Matime:
An la.
IWDM:
ilaha.
Matime:
ilaha.
IWDM:
illallah.
Matime:
illallah.
IWDM:
Muhammad.
Matime:
Muhammad.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Matime:
Rasulullah.
IWDM:
Wonderful, wonderful. Your name?
Matime:
Matime.
IWDM:
Matime. Brother, Matime. Wonderful. Wonderful. He is most welcome. And if we wouldn't welcome him, G-d will not welcome us and that goes for everyone who's taking Shahadah here. If we don't welcome them, G-d will not welcome us. Yes, sister. Your name?
Rhonda:
Rhonda.
IWDM:
Rhonda, this is sister Rhonda. And you heard everything? You have no problem with it, right? So come close to the mic. Ashhadu.
Rhonda:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
An la.
Rhonda:
An la.
IWDM:
ilaha.
Rhonda:
ilaha.
IWDM:
illallah.
Rhonda:
illallah.
IWDM:
Muhammad.
Rhonda:
Muhammad.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Rhonda:
Rasulullah.
IWDM:
Wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 7:
We have two more.
IWDM:
Okay. Right, Farah come.
Speaker 7:
Salaam alykum.
IWDM:
Yeah, alykum as salaam.
Speaker 7:
The time is pressing. You give me a name authorization.
IWDM:
My name?
Speaker 7:
You give me a name.
IWDM:
Oh, I see Shaheed. That means there's one G-d and Muhammad is His messenger. Shaheed. Yes. Come. forward. Sit there.
Speaker 7:
This is the last one...we've got two more.
IWDM:
Yes. Come forward sister. What's your name sister?
Jan:
Jan.
IWDM:
Jan. This is Jan, sister Jan. And you had no problem with what I explained before?
Jan:
No.
IWDM:
Thank you. Come close to the mic. She will witness now that there's only one G-d and Muhammad is His messenger Ashhadu.
Jan:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
An la.
Jan:
An la.
IWDM:
ilaha.
Jan:
ilaha.
IWDM:
illallah.
Jan:
ilallah.
IWDM:
Muhammad.
Jan:
Muhammad.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Jan:
Rasulullah.
IWDM:
Wonderful, wonderful. Congratulations, sister. Allah be with you as He is with you and stay with you always. Yes. Your name?
Nur:
Nur, my name is Nur.
IWDM:
Nur. This is our brother. He says his new name is Nur and Nur is a wonderful name, nuruAllah the light of God. Will you repeat now after me if you have no problem with anything I explained? Okay, please stand closer Ashhadu.
Nur:
Ashhadu.
IWDM:
An la.
Nur:
An la.
IWDM:
ilaha.
Nur:
ilaha.
IWDM:
illallah.
Nur:
ila ah.
IWDM:
illallah.
Nur:
illallah.
IWDM:
Yes. Muhammad.
Nur:
Muhammad.
IWDM:
Rasulullah.
Nur:
Rasulullah.
IWDM:
Perfect. Congratulations. Allah be with you. Is that it?
Speaker 7:
Yes, sir.
IWDM:
What a wonderful day. Jumu'ah Friday, the cultural day we had, evening and yesterday, workshops and banquet, and today. Muslims coming together with speakers from outside of our community and outside of our race. We are building a picture of Islam and Muslim life after that model shown to us by the greatest human being and the truest human being, the most perfect human being, just as perfect as Adam was in the garden. Just as perfect as Abraham was in his pure uprightness. Muhammad the seal of the prophets. We are building that model of community life and community leaders that include the white man with the black man and the red man and the yellow man. Imam W. Deen Mohammed will never be satisfied until I have members in this leadership respecting the race of mankind, not just one race. Peace. As salaamu alaykum.
Judge Shaheed:
Dear brothers and sisters, before we have Imam Darnell Karim come forward who will finish this with a Dua, we want to state to those Imams who are here and have the surveys. The Muslim American Society Islamic Affairs Council surveys, you can send those to my attention care of the Muslim Journal because we didn't get a chance to collect them yesterday. But please send those to my attention David Shaheed care of the Muslim Journal in the Muslim Journal newspaper. The tape for Friday Jumu'ah, the tape of Imam Mohammed's Friday Jumu'ah at the hotel, The Hilton is on sale right outside this convention hall and also the convention souvenir...


