09/03/1996
IWDM Study Library
1996 Annual Islamic Convention Public Address
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

IWDM: Dear Muslims. Dear believers. Friends and our Honorable Guest, all, we greet you with a Muslim greeting. A greetings of peace, wishing peace be extended to you and wishing that peace be accepted by you. We say as-salaam-alaikum.
Audience: Wa alaikum as-salam
IWDM: Peace be upon you. We thank Allah, the one Lord over the heavens and the earth and everything there is, who created everything and who made excellent the human creature and gave us the most excellent model as leaders and examples to us, his servant, the messengers and prophets of the scripture. The best of them, the last of them, the completion of the human excellence that G-d intended for all people, Muhammad the Prophet, upon him be the prayers and the peace.(Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam Rabah)
Before going to my typed notes here that I hope will guide me and keep me from talking too long. A little boy who just made six years old, July 6, 1996, not too long ago. He told me, he said, "Are you going to talk long?"
[laughter]
IWDM: I said, "I don't know." I said, "Should I talk long?" He didn't reply right away. I said, "Should I talk a little or talk a lot?" He hesitated. He said, "Talk a little and talk a lot."
[laughter]
IWDM: I told him I listen to him-
[laughter]
IWDM: -and I'm going to try to do that. Before I begin this address, I have to make some comments. First of all, on the people of this community, you, many of you who came to the Quran, though you didn't pick up or touch it; you weren't invited to do that, but you did accept that the Quran was the Holy Sacred Book and not the Bible. You did that in the early '30s, through the '30s, through the '40s, through the '50s, through the '60s, through the '70s, until 1975, February 26 when Allah brought change about and I became your leader by your consent. Praise be to Allah.
I have to say something about you. I have observed you all over all the years of my life as a little fellow I was attracted to look at the followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, to look at your faces, to look at your expressions, to listen to what you have to say. When you are socializing and when you are listening to Honorable Elijah Muhammad talking about the teaching. I had an ear that wanted to hear what you are saying, your expression. I believe Allah has made me to know you very well and today in White Plains, New York for our 1996 Islamic Convention, I want to say to you I'm very happy, I'm very pleased with you, I'm very proud of you.
Audience: [Arabic language]
IWDM: Praise be to Allah.
[applause]
IWDM: I've seen this following sought out in a very honest and sincere way, very religious, strongly believing in a G-d, believing that we were true Muslims, believing that we had the real Islam. I've seen a change from that sincerity, from that religious character to a black image character during the last half of the '60s and the '70s, and the early '70s. I thank Allah that now after 20 years we are coming back, we have come back to the sincerity, to the religious character. We have a good spirit now. The spirit of the following is the spirit of G-d-fearing people, the spirit of Muslims.
We still have a long ways to go for the many of us to come into the rational mind of the good Muslim. To have the rational mind of the good Muslim, we have to have the knowledge for our intelligence, the knowledge for our brain that G-d has given to us in the last revelation, the Quran, and in the teachings and example of the prophet, the last and seal of the prophets, Muhammad. When we get that knowledge, we don't all have to become scholars, but there is some simple basic knowledge for our brain, for our reasoning that we need to have so that we will be also Muslim, believer, in our rational makeup, in our rational makeup.
Right now, the majority of us, our rational minds accept, but don't know; Accept but don't know. We don't want to live in the dark. We want to live in the light, in the light of the faith and in the light of "ilm", knowledge, in Islam. I encourage you who are thinking not only for yourself or yourselves, but you are thinking for the good of this whole people, the whole community, I encourage you to continue to study, studiously, the Quran as a rational person and as a person of faith. Continue to study hard, qualify more, and improve your Arabic. [Arabic language]. 
Improve your Arabic language so that you will be able to read the Quran and understand it in the Arabic script, the Arabic text, so that we will have better qualified leaders to bring our people, forward more and more. Not only into the spiritual side of the religion or the just belief, but the knowledge itself, the logic, the rational teaching, the rational guidance, et cetera. This is a must. Our guest from Malaysia, Dr. Mohammed Minudti is a brother that I met, brother in Islam that I met in Malaysia as his guest, as a guest of his organization, the Muslim youth of Malaysia or ABIM.
I went there really because I have met many Malaysian Muslims over the years that I have been serving this community. They all, each one, encourage me to want to visit to Malaysia. More than half of them invited me to come to Malaysia. I'm sure that all of them, each of them would want me, would have wanted me and still would want me to visit Malaysia. I went to Malaysia mainly because of the impression I had of Malaysia from Malaysians that I had met, Muslims that I had met in this country. When I learned of the organization, the Muslim youth organization, and learned of the principle of tolerance or accommodation and tolerance that the leader of ABIM just shared with us. I was even more excited about the visit because I wanted to see very much that society that took the position that I feel very much convinced that Muhammad the Prophet took, prayers and peace be upon him, and that was the position of a person totally devoted to G-d and is rational.
If we can’t understand our leaders and follow our leaders with our good common senses, with the brain that G-d put in our heads, something is wrong with those leaders. I will not follow any leaders just with my heart or just with my spirit. If I can't follow him with the common senses that G-d gave me, I'm going to follow somebody else, look for somebody else to follow.
I believe Prophet Muhammad is importantly for us in the world. The prophet that was established upon the excellent intelligence or the excellent rational mind; of a human person and at the same time, the excellence of faith, both, he was established in the excellence of faith and also in the excellence of intelligence, human intelligence, the rational mind, and because of that he is the last prophet and the last example to us.
He didn’t just represent that he applied it. He applied it for the establishment of the Ummah, the Muslim community in Medina, the first government of Islam. He applied it for the establishment of the the Muslim Ummah. He applied it for good relationship in non-Muslim nations. Do you know Prophet Muhammad had good relationships with Christian Ethiopia of Africa?
First nation, they didn't believe. They weren't Muslims but he had good relationship with them, and he had good relationship with really the Christians of Europe and we read the Quran G-d, revealed the religion to Prophet Muhammad and recognize the excellence of the followers of Jesus Christ even though we’re told by G-d that they have strayed, and most of them are corrupt, but a few of them are believers and they want to see advance, the same good that the Muslims want, of the Ummah, should be devoted to advancing,the same good. For G-d pointed that out to us and because of that the Muslim, early Muslim Ummah had good relationship with the Christians, most of them. And the early Ummah, the early community under Muhammad the Prophet [sallallahu alaihi wa sallam] the prayers and peace be upon him. In it's earliest days, it had extended the hand of friendship, accommodation and tolerance to the Jewish community of Medina, but there were elements in the Jewish community who were devils. They were Satan, they were the followers of Satan.
There were elements in the Jewish community of Medina who were devils, and they helped create hypocrites in the ranks of the believers, caused a lot of trouble, instigated a lot of trouble for the Muslims, within the ranks of the Muslims, and also with other people, other tribes that hadn’t converted to Islam, et cetera. So then, the separation came, separating the Muslims from the Jews, but never has G-d said in Quran that all Jews are bad. Never has a prophet roused his community to hate Jews per say, never.
In our Quran G-d tells us of the Jews too, that most of them are corrupt. G-d, I bear witness, most Christians are corrupt. I bear witness G-d, most of the people who call themselves Christians they are corrupt. I bear witness G-d, most people who call themselves Jews they are corrupt. G-d I bear witness, that most people who call themselves Muslims they are corrupt. I bear witness G-d, I am a witness.
Yes. I am attracted to the people of Malaysia mainly because of what the Muslim government stands for their, and the cost of their support for that Muslim government, the support of the non-Muslims for the Muslim government of Malaysia. I’m attracted to that country. I hope that we will have another visit soon to Malaysia and follow up on the proposal that we presented when we were there.
To ABIM, the president of ABIM and other -- secretary general of ABIM and to the deputy prime minister who used to be the deputy prime minister’s second man in the political power structure of Malaysia. The deputy prime minister used to be a student of ABIM. Also, an officer of ABIM. I met him, a very wonderful person who may one day be the prime minister's, number one man, we think and it could come soon, we don’t know. Next election who knows if he chooses a campaign for that position but we are satisfied with him as number two man. We will be satisfied with him if he was number 10 man, a wonderful person.
We are happy to know that such persons are in the top leadership of the government. The Muslims are making such wonderful contribution not only to the group life stability of the Muslims of the Malaysian community but also they’re making that contribution to all the citizens of Malaysia, whether they belong to one religion or another or whether they belong to one nationality or another.
This is wonderful. I didn’t believe they are. I didn’t think that there was a Muslim country on this Earth today that had such an open mind, open policy towards the public in general and have such a pluralistic make up in citizenry. So, this is wonderful. I’m very excited about our future relations with the people especially the ABIM, this Muslim organization, and with the establishment of the Malaysian people.
We are hope to have an association with them. We hope to even work on dawah materials with them. Myself with their learned people, some of their learned people, some of our other imams are learned imams, will also be working with Insha Allah with some of their learned people to put out material jointly offered by a Malaysian and also by an African-American Muslim. That's what we hope.
We also hope that we will benefit from their institutions of learning especially the International University, Islamic university in Malaysia. The mosque there, beautiful, very beautiful, too. You would just love the visit if you weren"t going there for any other reason but for sightseeing. Go sightseeing. You would love the visit. It will be more than worth your ticket just to go there for sightseeing especially if you’re a Muslim. [laughs] So many other benefits that you can get just by going there.
We hope that one day we will benefit from the institutions of learning. We hope that we'll also benefit from a study of their culture, of the Malaysian peoples’ culture. How the different ethnic groups and the different people with different cultures and different cultural backgrounds, how they are living together in peace and working for one nation, the one country Malaysia. We want that in America, and we’re getting it. It's coming gradually because most Americans now of good minds, who are leading their people. They’re supporting that. President Clinton and one of his address that he made at the democratic convention. He stressed inclusion and that's what we have to do. We have to recognize that all people were created by Allah and if he created them we must love all of them. He created them for the same thing he created all of us for. He created all people for the good destiny, that Allah has made possible for his human creatures.
So, we cannot take any people out of the humanity. We can't take any people out of the competition for the good life that G-d wants for all of us. Let us compete in the spirit of brothers and sisters in humanity, if not as brothers and sisters in religion. Let us compete as brothers and sisters in humanity and pray that we all will one day be brothers and sisters in religion, if G-d wills that.
I would like to say much more about our interest in a relationship, real lasting relationship, that will be carried on by our sons and their sons' sons and our sons and daughters for generations and generations to come. Something that we want with Malaysia to be parallel if it can be. At least perpetual, we want it to be perpetual not ending, not ceasing, not stopping. We don't want to ever break the relationship that we are trying to form with the people of Malaysia. I believe it is very important in the future of the Muslim community here to have that relationship with the people of Malaysia, with the Muslims, particularly with ABIM, this group.
I also have to say that the imam of this New York area, imam Pasha. He has more than earned the recognition that the Shura gave to him, Man of the Year. I have watched him and been in close contact with him, hearing from him by phone, by mail, letters, et cetera. When I saw New York Times put out an article on him as an imam of the Malcolm Shabazz mosque/ masjid, on the frontt page of the New York Time,s in a pious position, sitting down in salah.
I said to myself, "If he didn't achieve anything but that or if Allah didn't grant him anything but that, he have achieved more than most of us have achieved in all the cities of the United States with our hard work or our dawah." Because that picture went all throughout New York, New York State and America, US and outside of the US. New York Times is no cheap media. It's thought of as number one, number one newspaper in the United States.
That was a great, great recognition that we appreciate so much. We appreciate the Times for having that interest and putting the imam on the front page. He didn't hit it once. More than once he's in the New York Times. I mean giving prominence in the paper. There very obvious appearing there writing and pictures. On the real practical side, not Islam now, but just recognition for what he has done in a very practical way.
He has made a real physical impact on the environment there that where the Malcolm Shabazz was. I go to the area and now it looks cleaner. It looks more progressive. The vacant lot has a market there named for Malcolm, Malcolm Shabazz market. The peddlers, I used to be one myself. I know how difficult it is to peddle, to sell goods on the street.
Especially if you are truly a natural human. It's very difficult. She scooped them out of one situation they thought they were going to lose, they thought they were going in a worst way. We can't sell on the streets. We can't sell in front of the retail stores. They were upset and they were taking it off. We're being betrayed, but the result has been that they have been able to earn money just like they did before. Those who are really working hard in that market, they're earning more than they did before. Not only are they earning more money but the revenue to the city now is making the city feel very grateful to the work of imam Pasha, the leadership of imam Pasha.
Then, I read in the New York paper of imam Pasha. This writer was saying that not just Malcolm X has there been a leader for the African-Americans of Harlem. They're appointing to him as a first one that is making an impression on the community there and in that environment. Convincing them tha maybe the Blacks now, maybe the African-Americans of Harlem have a leader that they can trust again. Praise be to Allah. This is wonderful.
[applause]
IWDM: I wouldn't have felt that I had taken care of what I should take care of here today without mentioning that. Again, as I have much more to say about Dr. Mohammed A. Minudi, I have much more to say about imam Pasha. I'll try to do what my little friend said, the six-year-old.
[laughter]
IWDM: Talk a little and talk a lot.
[laughter]
IWDM: This is our annual convention, 1996, National Islamic Convention. We used to, when we thought we were the wisest and the truest of Muslims, we used to have a national convention it was called Saviours' day, the national Saviours' Day, meeting. It meant a lot to us. It meant a lot to our spirit. It meant a lot to us for our unity. It meant a lot to us for our sense of belonging to each other.
Our temples, they were called back then, and later our mosque. We had a greater sense of oneness and brotherhood, our paternal bond because of that annual day once a year. Some of them they would tell me, I've heard them say in my presence and also I've been told say why I live for this day. So, every time I come to the fountain, I go back and I keep it for a year, for a whole year, it last me for a whole year.
What I am seeing now in the last few years of our national convention that the same thing is happening again. I find myself given a spirit that doesn't die. It lives in me until the next convention. Yes. When I came here to this convention I came here, still with me, the spirit, the excitement, the enthusiasm, the good results that I got from the previous convention. G-d has given us this. When G-d gave us the Eid al-Adha, Muslims from all over the world go to Mecca to visit the ancient house. The first house built for mankind to the worship of one G-d, the Kaaba are there. When we go there once a year, we get something that last to us a lifetime, really. A lifetime, but G-d has it open to us through his servant and messenger Muhammad. It has been established for us as a yearly visit. Yearly visit.
Believe me I’m proud to say that we’ve got a few in our community that go to the Hajj every year and they are not rich, they are poor. They’re poor, but they are fortunate. One of them has relatives working for the airlines and they got such good administrators, they get on a plane anytime they want to go wherever they want to go. That’s a great blessing from Allah. Many of you, if you had a ticket to go to Hajj every day, you still wouldn’t make it.
[laughter]
IWDM: These are outstanding people we are talking about, who have the opportunity to make the Hajj and they are making it every year. This national convention is very important to us. Very, very important to us. If you can go on vacation for a week or a few days on a weekend to one of the vacation sites in the United States, for nothing but a little relief from the pressures that’s on you, you should feel much more obligated to make a family sacrifice if you have to.
Allah will recover what you lost. Will more than pay you back what you spent, so that you will be present for these annual conventions. It’s very important that the small number of Muslims in America come together and as a bigger number as possible in the public of the United States so that America will know that real Muslims are here in America. We’re also grateful to this town, this big little town, White Plains, New York, for its warmth and hospitality that it has extended to Muslims.
If not Muslims, it’s Christians, and it’s Jewish, and it’s others I don’t know of. Though I know that Muslims are kind of strange visitors in this town of White Plains. They don’t see Muslims down here, but they’ll know from now on Muslims, and they’ll be telling their friends, "Don’t tell me about those Muslims unless you know what you’re talking about. Those people came to our town in White Plains.”
[applause]
IWDM: I feel very good. I’ve prepared for notes and I've came here to address you. G-d is my witness, highly glorified is he, G-d is my witness. If I know you want to say Amen and go to the next program, I’m ready to do it with you.
[laughter]
So, we have some very valuable words shared with us today, given to us, extended to us today from our Honorable guests from Malaysia and also from our very lively imam, imam Pasha. I will see if I can really finish this up for that young fellow.
[laughter]
IWDM: Let me say this, most of us who follow The honorable Elijah Muhammad we're not expected to know exactly what was happening to us. We are not expected to know what was happening to our minds in that learning environment, strange learning environment, we call the nation of Islam in the wilderness of North America, or the holy temples of Islam. We are not supposed to understand what was happening to our minds. We are not supposed to understand what was happening to our spirit. No, we’re not supposed to understand it. It was a plan.
It was like a prescription from a spiritual doctor to get us into something and hold us by powerful attraction. Powerful attraction, to hold us by powerful attraction until the grip of Christianity was broken, and until the grip of servitude to white authority was broken. That’s what it was intended for, but we are not supposed to understand it. We’re not expected to understand it. It was too high above our head.
The scheme, the formula, whatever we want to call it, the scheme or the formula for bringing us out of the clutches of Christianity, out of the clutches of the church, out of the clutches of the white man, it was too high above our level of learning for us to understand it. Majority of us came from not only the people who are poor in their pockets, but also poor in their head.
African-Americans first got acquainted with Muslims in the late '20s and in the early '30s. The first to introduce Muslims to African-Americans was Honorable Noble Drew Ali. He started the Moorish Science Temple. There's a similarity between the two, you can see it right now. He identified as Muslim but called the place of worship a temple. That was before Fard came.
Then, W.F. Fard came and he did the same thing. He call the houses of worship, our places of worship, temples and he gave them numbers. The first one, Temple No. 1, Detroit, Michigan. Then, he went from Detroit to Chicago and they set up the second temple, No. 2 in Chicago. Even while Fard was here, they went to the third one. Went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and set up a third one in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
All the temples after that were established without the presence of W. Fard Muhammad under the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad went to Washington in DC himself and visited the homes of African-American Christians, and found a friend, brother Benjamin, and his wife, Clara. Found a friend there in Washington that welcomed him, opened the door of their private home, “That you could stay with us. Where are you living?” He said in a hotel. "Don’t pay the hotel, stay with us.”
Honorable Elijah Muhammad was looking for a private home to stay in. Brother Benjamin and his wife, Clara -- and by the way my mother is named Clara. The wife of Honorable Elijah Muhammad was Clara, who passed away about 1972, I think. The home was open, and temple No. 4 started right in that home. Temple No. 4, Washington DC, started right in that home.
Honorable Elijah Muhammad build up a following there and eventually before Malcolm, and Malcolm came he had No. 5, No. 6, No. 7, and I believe No. 8. Yes, I believe so, No. 8. He had these temples. Malcolm came, he was so energetic, new blood in the ministry, energetic, a young man who was current. See, the old ministers, the majority of them they weren’t current like how they tell you what happened in the news today. They all tell you what Isaiah said.
[laughter]
IWDM: They could tell you what Ezekiel said. The bible, they were bible people, but they couldn’t tell you what happened in the news today. Malcolm came and he wasn’t a bible man. He wasn’t from that kind of orientation, the Christian orientation, of church orientation. He came from the streets. He was in touch with what was happening in the public life and because he was better suited to introduce he Honorable Elijah Muhammad's work to the public than those ministers that he called too conservative.
I don't agree with him. He became too radical, too. I don't agree with him, but I appreciate him for his contribution to the works of our Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Not any one single person ever contributed more to the works of our Elijah Muhammad than did Malcolm X or Malik el-Shabazz.
[applause]
IWDM: Getting back to the history. A few years after Noble Drew Ali in the early '30s, a man more unorthodox and more strange than was Drew Ali. A more of a stranger in the Muslim population of the world than was Noble Drew Ali, Mr. Fard. He came and began introducing the African-Americans of Detroit, the poor, Islam.: I've never heard of anything like that. they couldn’t believe it. Even now, they read the paper, they can go back in detroit papers that will tell them about the Quran. If can't get the old articles from the Detroit newspapers.
Go to the police department and police department will share with you its records. You will see Mr. W. D. Fard picture on the newspaper back then. In the newspapers being arrested and the charges against him. You will see that. You will see his pictures in the newspapers. He was their leader, not Elijah Muhammad, and I don't know why. Muslims outside of America especially those who propagate the religion or devote themselves to the teaching of religion, just won't accept that Elijah Muhammad had a teacher from outside of America that claimed to be a Muslim, and claimed to be from Mecca.
He claims that he was taught and established him and appointed him to be the leader and list him with a problem. I don't know why they can't accept that. That's the facts. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was the son of a Baptist minister. A small, small Baptist minister from Georgia, my grandfather, called William Poole, later Wali Muhammad. He was the son of that Baptist minister. He wasn't a church-going son. He disagreed with the preaching of the preachers. He was what you would call a black sheep in the family.
He'd rather spent his time out on the street with his buddies, laughing and talking and drinking, then to go to church. That was the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, but not a bad man.
Never was he arrested for stealing and doing anything like no. Not a bad man, but just the African-American that couldn't find no comfort in the church. It's the way they would preach.
I'm Elijah Muhammad here and save his mouth. He said, "I couldn't accept the way they were preaching the Bible." Meaning that he thought it should have been preached differently. He finally met a man who agree with him that this is wrong. He accepted that man and that man gave him something he called Islam. Elijah Muhammad, he never got out of Georgia and except to come to the factories of Detroit looking for a better financial situation for himself and his big family.
He never knew anything about Muslims. He never knew any Muslims. He had his first contact, his first contact with Muslims, somebody calling themselves Muslims. First one, he knew about Noble Drew Ali, but he wasn't following Nobel Drew Ali as some of them think. I met some of them and then they say, "Your father was a member of our Moorish Science Temple, the first. We would know it because that's our fez on his head."
[laughter]
IWDM: Fard called his temple or his places temple after Drew Ali. He also gave his first follower, the men, a fez like Drew Ali wore. That didn't mean that they are Moorish American. No. Fard just used that. He used what Drew Ali had used. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad didn't know anything about Islam. When the Honorable Elijah Muhammad went to prison for refusing to fight for the country or take out a -- or have a draft card, just register with this country in this war against the Japanese and the Germans in the World War II. Honorable Elijah Muhammad refused. When he went to prison, he didn't know anything about no real Islam. When Fard introduced Islam to him, he introduced something that was so, I would say, different. I know the words to use but I have to use the words that you can accept.
[laughter]
IWDM: He introduced something that was so different that it completely engaged and occupied every brain cell in his head. He could read a book later now he'd been introduced to Islam. You think he would go and say, "Let me find a book on Islam and read it." He found one by accident, he didn't picked it up. He wouldn't read nothing but Yakub history in that book. I don't care what it says in its language. I don't care how straight his language is. When he read it, it's called Support Yakub's history.
It's going to support the Black man being G-d, because what Fard gave him was so different, it had such a powerful, hypnotic effect on him that he couldn't see anything beyond that. If you say this is a Muslim, he saw one agreeing with him. If he didn't, he condemned that person. "You don't understand Islam yet, brother. I don't care if you--. I was G-d in Asia", I've seen him do this, "I don't care if you had 50 years studying about our G-d in egypt. You don't have the real Islam, brother".
[laughter]
IWDM: Why don't you let me teach you?"
[laughter]
IWDM: So, Fard has some powerful medicine, powerful magnetism. He told us that the white man's world began with a interest in magnetic power. Right? He was hinting that he's going to begin his world, too in us with the same interest, an interest in magnetic power. "I'm going to create something with such a powerful attraction that it's going to be like a powerful magnet. It's just got a bring him to it and you ain't going to be able to break from it."
A review of that time back then, 1930, the late '20s, 1930, is almost a must. For us who want to better prepare ourselves to invite not only those who are in the nation of Islam and the temples of Islam like we were, in fact, "I was born in that, I was born in it." I was born October 30, 1933 and my father was following throughout at that time and Fard was present at that time. My mother was a devout follower of his at that time. They remained so. So, I know I was born in it.
If the imams with me, if you want to be better qualified to invite African Americans to Islam, even if they haven't been converted to the Nation of Islam or the Temples of Islam, you need to go back and become acquainted with what was happening in the religious atmosphere of that time, the late '20s, then the early '30s and for a time after. Why do I say that it's very important? It's very important because African Americans whether they have turned their attention to the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad or not, you have been affected by the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
You may be Catholic, you may be Protestant, you may be a holy roller, I don't care what you are. Your mind has been affected by the presence of that little powerful Black man, Elijah Muhammad in America. Whether you're conscious of it or not, the way you were thinking has been somewhat shaped by the presence of Elijah Muhammad in America. If we are going to bring you forward and to a better life and a better condition, we who want to do that, or assume that responsibility, we should study those times that Farad came into.
During that time, the late '20s and early '30s, a kind of apocalyptic air have been created. By apocalyptic, we're talking about prophesies, preachers, those scholars of intricate verses in Christianity, in religion, where it is taking us, what it says about the beginning of things and the end of the world. Those people were excited. Their minds, their intellects were excited in the '20s and the early '30s, very much excited. They thought that 1914 should have been the end of the world, not the Temple of Islam, not Drew Ali, not Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Christians.
It was published in their papers. You can get the papers. All these can be verified. One thing good about America, they record exactly everything. All of these can be verified. The Christian mood and the Christian spirit was the spirit of people that had been touched by apocalyptic prophesies, apocalyptic teachings in Christianity. They thought that the world would have come to an end in 1914, but it didn't. That didn't make them believe any less that the world was near its end. They still believed it and they thought it was coming at any day, at any time.
Farad comes at that time. Not that he had come, he was already there, but he comes to the mind, he comes into the mind that, "I can do this thing." There was reports in the Detroit area by people and the press reported what they said. A spaceship, a spacecraft appearing over Michigan, the state of Michigan. Not hearsay, these are newspaper reports. Said that it appeared so big that people described it as a city in the sky. This is the press, Detroit press. They described it and said it appeared so big, it was like a city in the sky.
Now this is happening while Farad is thinking about how to do something here. I'm familiar with the Bible, I know about Prophet Ezekiel in the Bible. I know about the Ezekiel wheel in the Bible and that was there many, many generations, hundreds of years before there's a lot of people that looked up there and saw a wheel in a wheel in the sky. Farad knew too about the Bible. He told African Americans that the craft, that spacecraft that the people said they saw, the Japanese built that in 1919, I think, he said that it was, about 1919, I think it was.
In 1919, now you know you could tell them anything. Half of them couldn't read newspapers, they were illiterate. The majority of them couldn't afford a radio. No news. By the time they got the news was when they were told to go to jail. Henry Ford also back there at the time, Henry Ford, now this would have missed all of us, but it wouldn't have missed Farad. Henry Ford was pointing his finger at the Jews and accusing the Jews of being people that you can't trust and American government had better watch them.
At the same time, Adolf Hitler was rising up in Germany. At the same time, an atheistic idea that said, "Forget about G-d, let's deal with the material society." A society based upon the dynamics of materialism, communist, Marxist idea. It was rising too during the same time. Farad didn't come in a time where everybody was content to believe that there is G-d. He came at a time when there was a great number of people on this earth questioning, "Is there a G-d at all? And should we listen to religion at all?"
The communists, Marxists and those who follow that idea, they were calling religion, "The dope. Dope, drugs for the masses of people." That's the time that Farad came into. There were many Christian writers or theologians, learned people in the Christian religion, they were questioning the nature of the government and if those governments were really governments that people should support and they were preaching that the real kingdom is coming, is near and that people should get ready for the new king, the kingdom, the promised kingdom.
They were preaching the end of the world. This is a time that Farad came in right there in Detroit area. There were African-American church leaders preaching strange teachings to African-American people. Many of you perhaps still know about Father Divine. Father Divine was popular on this East Coast, right? Philadelphia? He also was popular in the Midwest, Detroit, and Chicago. He was popular. He had a following there. Father Divine told his people, "If they were to see G-d, to look to him." He was a Black man and he said, "If you want to see G-d, look to me." He called himself Father Divine.
Farad came into this kind of atmosphere. This is a kind of atmosphere he came into. This is a kind of language environment that he came into. Now can you understand him coming up with his strange ideas? I think I would have come up with some strange ideas if I have been back there at that time, thinking of trying to find a way to awake people's mind. I might have come with a little strange idea like that myself. I don't know if G-d hadn't guided me.
We are trying to present to you knowledge. Knowledge of the environment and things that were happening in the environment, so that you will be able to understand the rise of our community. The great role of Islam in the rise of our community. Mr. Farad comes in and he introduces the sacred book of all Muslims to us, the Quran that he left with Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the same Quran that is with us now, same one read by Muslims all over this world ever since the time of Muhammad, the Prophet. I should say recited by them and studied by them ever since the time of Muhammad, the Prophet, present peace be on him.
It's the same Quran. The other thing that was different was, it was translated into English by teachers, leaders, scholars of the Ahmadiyya movement. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had Muhammad Ali translation of the Quran, translated by the Ahmadiyya [unintelligible 01:01:55] The Ahmadiyya movement, based in Lahore, Pakistan at that time. I think it still is, but they're outlawed they can't preach publicly. That was the Holy Quran he had, but as for the Arabic, it was the same, no difference. In fact I have one at home. I can pick it up and read things, it's the Quran, that's what it was.
Here the Quran was put into our midst by the hand of Mr. Farad. He introduced it as the book that G-d approves that's what he told the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, not the Bible. The Bible is not a holy book. I'm giving you what he said. He said, "The Bible is a Poison book." He said, "This is the holy book, the Quran." But did he tell them to study it so that he can teach it? No. He told him, "Brother, don't you worry about teaching this book." He said, "Your children, your sons will learn, they'll learn and they would teach it later."
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad respected the book so much he hung it on the wall. I was a little boy, but I've seen and I can see it right now in a shiny material, green, kind of light green color, real almost kelly green, real live green, with straps. The straps were like a purse, the Quran inside, hung over a nail on a molding near the top of the ceiling, hung high. Yes, it hung high, in the home of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad before he even had a house, apartment, a little rented apartment. A lot of you don't know that. You think the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was born with a Mercedes Benz. He was born with poverty, in poverty and the poverty on him.
Most of his children: we knew poverty and we still know poverty.[laughs] Yes, praise be to Allah. We have a beautiful audience look out there, turn around. Let's turn around, look back there. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. That's what happens when you get your soul right. Our guest, our honorable guest, what did he say? He said, Allah says he ain't going to change the conditions for our people outside until they change the condition within themselves. As our interior has gotten better, G-d has rewarded us more and the more we get better internally, the more G-d is going to reward us externally. Allahu Akbar.
Mr. Farad definitely wanted us to revere the Quran. He wanted us to respect it as the holy and pure book. Not only did he want us to respect it as the holy pure book, he wanted us to want that book. How do we know it? From his own words in his own writing. He said, "Whoever can solve this problem, his reward will be a Holy Quran to read." That's what he said. He tempted us to just try to solve the mystery in his own language. He said that if we're able to solve the mystery in his language, our reward will be the Quran. I solved the mystery and my reward has been the Quran.
[applause]
IWDM: Praise be Allah. All you have to do, most of us who have seen a picture of Farad, if you haven't seen one even though you're with me and you don't agree with Farakhan's leadership, I give you permission to go visit Farakhan and look on their walls and see the picture of Mr. Farad. You'll see him holding the Quran in a pose that says, "This book, I love it. This book I humble myself to it." Very pious pose, he's holding it. Looking very sincere, very pious, very respectful of the book. There's a lot I can say to you all and I thank you, ministers.i'm sorry Imams, I think you know that.
[laughter]
IWDM: They know I love them. They are better than those that didn't have any appreciation for any scripture. Now it is my belief that he put the sacred book among us, calling us Muslims. By placing the Quran in the context of his own experiment, understand this, in his own experiment with abstract reasoning. Now I have to explain this to most of you, but there are among you many in the audience and behind you who understand abstract reasoning.
Abstract reasoning uses concrete to talk about that that is not concrete, uses physical thing like this to talk about something that's not physical. It will use a physical thing to talk about your spirit, a physical thing to talk about your moral life, a physical thing to talk about your mentality or your mental make up. It'll use physical things to talk about things that are not tangible, not touchable, not physical. This is abstract reasoning.
I may say to you that a lot of esotaric language has abstract reasoning. Metaphysics, abstract reasoning, metaphysics. These languages that uses the material to address the nonmaterial are using abstract reasoning if it follows some kind of logic. Now Farad said, "Islam is mathematics." His words, not my words, not Elijah Muhammad's words, my father's words, his words. He said, "Islam is mathematics." Well, I'll just go and study mathematics if I'm going to take him literally. Islam is mathematics? Well keep the Quran? I'm going to study mathematics.
Something in us told us that there was more to understand than what was reaching the ear. Human beings are not completely without brains, even though they have been deprived of having contact with education exposed to education. They have some brains, something in us, and we have a human soul. That's what's important. Something in us told us, "We can't understand this, it sounds good." So we just thought of it rhythmically like you dance to the music. We followed it rhythmically. It sound good from this man who said, "We are black and superior." Sound good from the man who said, "We are black and G-d." In our state that we were in. It sound so good you can say, "Snails eaten raw is delicious." "Yes sir, praise be to Allah."
[laughter]
IWDM: "Snakes make the best bed partners, sleep with snakes." "Yes sir, praise be to Allah." You couldn't hear anything wrong from a man that said so much and in such a powerful way to you, to make you feel good about yourself. You couldn't hear anything nothing he said out of his mouth would have been wrong. He couldn't say anything stupid. "Four men met up in a mother ship, a plane with a wheel in a wheel that went up in 1919 it's still up there. No toilets and no food." "Yes sir, yes sir. All praise is due to Allah." "That mother ship is coming to rescue you all, take you from this devil and destroy all America." "Yes sir, praise be to Allah. I know it's the truth."
[laughter]
IWDM: Would be physically dead if that good white person hadn't come to your house and gave you some help. "Every white person living and dead is the devil even those in the wombs of their mothers are devils. They are devils by nature and they can't help themselves." "Yes sir praise be to Allah, I know it's the truth."
[laughter]
IWDM: Powerful magnitism. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said what his teacher told him to say, what Farad told him to say. "The white race is a race of grafted devils." That's what he said. He said that black is original. "Black man is G-d." Now you know we believed all of this in degrees. We accepted it wholly as a rhythm in our life, all we accepted wholly was only just a rhythm force in us to have the moves and happy tunes, happy moving in our lives, "Oh, praise be to Allah." But up here when we start thinking rationally we backed up, "All praise is due to Allah, all praise is due to Allah."
[laughter]
IWDM: In degrees. My father appointed me as a young man, I don't think I was 20 yet. I was a manager of the Shabazz restaurant in Chicago 71st street. This brother Robert, big brother, big black skined deep brother. All of us black, but he a black skined brother. Big raving black skined brother, he was coming to the restaurant at a certain time every day he worked for himself he was self-employed hard worker too shoveled coal, he'd pick up trash and sell it. They call them junk men. He would do anything he kept money.
He comes in, big black brother, red gum, red eyes and he's hungry and he tired of coming in hungry waiting for the waitresses to come out, so he wanted to put some fire on them this day. I'm in there, I'm the manager now. I got a little weight here. He comes in there and he says, "Okay sisters, come out here and feed the G-d."
[laughter]
IWDM: Now I thought of the Honorable Muhammad. He said, "The black man is G-d." I didn't deal with it I just let it be the rhythm. "Yes, yes sir, yes sir." Here comes a man, he ain't the Honorable Muhammad and he's talking like the Honorable Muhammad would never talk. The Honorable Muhammad would never do a silly thing like that. I went out there angry. That man could have squashed me like he'd squash a roach. Big old tough black man. I went out there and I didn't see his size or nothing asked him, "What are you talking about?" I said, "You ain't my G-d."
I said, "Look at you." I said, "And you hungry."
[laughter]
IWDM: I said, "And you need these waitresses to give you some food." I said, "You ain't my G-d." And I went on back in the kitchen where I came from. But I left the look on that brother's face I never saw on it before. I don't think he ever was the same again. Big Robert, we called him. I'm sure my brother know big Robert [laughs] We have a big Robert, tall Robert and big Robert.
Here's another thing for us from Elijah Mohammed. He said, "Islam is mathematics." "Now how you going to deal with that." He said, "G-d is power and force." That's what he said. "G-d is power and force." Now how we going to go with that? If your rational mind comes alive and your rational mind wants to understand what you were told, how are we going to deal with that, that "G-d is power and force?" Okay well, I got so many horse powers of G-d in my car, in my motor.
That's power and force. Because power is force in action, right? In motion. That's what power is, force in motion. Force can be dominant just there but not acting but once it's acting then its power. So G-d is power and force then G-d is only force. [laughs] But force becomes power when it's applied or when it's acting. That's what he says, "G-d is power and force." You going to call that Islam?
"Islam is mathematics." I know what mathematics is, science and numbers. Applying numbers and understanding the nature of numbers, that's mathematics. G-d, then how are we to understand these things? You'll go crazy trying to understand these things. You will go stark raving mad trying to understand all these things. My advice to you is, "Don't even try." Your own nature guides you right. Don't deal with it, and the few that did deal with it they either suspected that something was wrong, and because they suspected that something was wrong, they survived or they did go to the nut house.
In an attempt to get African Americans to think rationally, now listen very carefully. In an attempt to get African Americans, Black people as we call ourselves, to think rationally while studying religion or thinking about religion, religious language, religious terminology, Mr. Farad told his followers, "The unknown does not exist." That's what he said. "The unknown does not exist." He said, "We have searched for that unknown G-d." He used the term mystery. "We have searched for that mystery G-d for trillions and trillions of years." Now, that's mind boggling right there. Trillions and trillions of years? Where the hell is that history?
[laughter]
IWDM: Trillions and trillions of year. Then we have come to the conclusion which is, we have been unable to find him. We have come to the conclusion that there is no mystery G-d. That the only G-d is the son of man. That's what he said. Now, is that Islam? Mr. W. Farad quietly placed within our view, within our eyes, within our view, mental view too, attractions such as Pantheism. Many of you have never recognized the flavor of Pantheism in the teachings of Farad. He said that Allah is in the heavens and in earth but not unseen. That he is the all and all. That's Pantheism. That's Pantheism saying that all material reality is G-d.
That everything in the realm of reality taken together, taken all together is G-d. Farad also put in our way the attraction of materialism. A kind of Marxist materialism by telling us that if it isn't material it doesn't exist. He also introduced to us the attraction of socialism. I don't know if you imams have found that. He said, "What is social?" He asks the question and answers it himself. He said, "What is social?" He says, "Social is to advocate a society of men, a group of men for one common cause and equality is to be equal in everything."
Now, the question addresses socialism but he adds equality. [laughs] And equality means to be equal in everything. How are you going t to be equal in everything? If I would describe the genius of Farad in one statement, I would say his genius was giving people the impossible and getting them to believe the impossible is more real than the possible. That man was powerful, powerful doctor of the psyche. Now, he also put as an attraction for us, the worship of G-d in man, a man G-d.
Now we know the Honorable Elijah Mohammed told us that Mr Farad was G-d. G-d in the person. The son of his father who was G-d. That G-d is passed down from father to son. We know he told us that. But when you study Mr. Farad's teachings, you see that Mr. Farad fostered himself as the son of man but he fostered a black man as the man, the man. The man, the original man, the true G-d. It is the black man that even gave birth to Farad, the son of men. Here is the language, that his father was a black man, 100% black man by the name of Al Fonso.
[laughter]
IWDM: It sounds like a joke to you now. But if you were a black man you would say, "Yes. I know it's the truth."
[laughter]
IWDM: Baby Jesus. Our savior's mother was named Baby Jesus.
[laughter]
IWDM: "He was 100% white woman." "Yes. praise be to Allah." "Every white person is a devil." "Yes, praise be to Allah." Never see the conflict, never see the contradiction. So attracted, the magnetism is so strong on your thoughts and your mind that you can't think. You can't see anything that makes you differ with your teacher. Impossible for you to differ with your teacher. You know what does that, hypnotism. If you have heard about hypnotism, let me tell you something about hypnotism. If the hypnotist gets a willing subject, a hypnotist can hypnotize a person and tell him to bite this mic, it's chocolate candy. He will bit that mic and break out his teeth and keep doing it until the hypnotist stops him. This is fact.
Hypnotists can take a man, a woman or anybody that will submit to be the subject that he can hypnotize, hypnotize them, tell them, "Put your arm out there. Take fire, put it up there. See that's cool. Isn't that cool?" "Yes." Because he has complete control of their mind. And that's what Farad did. He designed something to give him complete control of our mind if we bought it. A hypnotist can't hypnotize you until you agree to it. Now I'm not saying he was Satan but the same thing for Satan. Allah teaches us with his holy book, The Quran, that Satan does not have power over you except what you give to Satan. You have to be willing, that's what it means. If you're not willing Satan can't control you.
Now, why did Farad put these attractions in our way? Because he knew the time and he was afraid of what could happen. Already, there were intellectual blacks, a few of them turning to communism, to Marxism. He was afraid that his following may be taken over by Marxist because he had gathered people who didn't care for America, who didn't care for the white man. He gathered those people who were fed up with America and felt that, "We don't have any hope here. They will never do anything just by us." So those are the people he gathered. The same people that he gathered could be attracted to Marxism.
The Marxism said, "Look, these here people already don't have any faith in America. Let us go among them and make converts." Farad suspecting that, he put something in there to make you feel, "What are you telling us?" When they come and tell us about some of that, "No, we don't want to hear it. We've got freedom, justice and equality. Islam is freedom justice and equality." And they say, "Well, do you know anything about socialism?" "Socialism means to abdicate a society of men, a group of men from one common call and equality means to be equal in everything. You'd better join the nation of Islam."
[laughter]
IWDM: You take an uneducated man and make him think he's the wisest man on earth, buddy, can't nobody teach him. That's a fact. You take a dummy and make him think he's the wisest creature on earth, ain't nobody can tell him anything until the hypnotic spell is broken. I want to point out, I pointed out one powerful positive. Because he's experimenting with positives and negatives, right? I pointed out a lot of negatives but I pointed out one powerful positive. He said, "The Quran is the right book. Not the Bible." Quran is a holy book, the Bible is a poison book. Now I want to point you to second positive, powerful one. By telling us that we were once Muslim and we descended, we came from Muslim ancestors and that we were once the best of the Muslim, he told us.
By him telling us that and the Honorable Elijah Mohammed being skilled, that's why he picked on Elijah Mohammed. Because the Honorable Elijah Mohammed was a renegade, a rebel in Christianity but a person that believed that the Bible was right but had to be read in a different way. He picked Honorable Elijah Mohammed and Honorable Elijah Mohammed was able, he knew, his father preached that Bible, he knew it.
He didn't have to study it in no school. His father preached it in the church at night and the day and at the dinner table. Honorable Elijah Mohammed knew all the stories. Honorable Elijah Mohammed started giving us the bible stories. And thats you. "Don't look at these people, don't look at the white race. That's not talking about them, that's talking about you. You are the ones that are in bondage. And you are the ones that's long overdue for a deliverer."
[laughter]
IWDM: We'll see his genius and we will see that he planned something new his new [unintelligible 01:32:08]. Man ran something in a series and he puts it into the environment of American people. He know it will eventually affect black people and he put it together so we also knows how It's going to affect black people. He put it together so he knows how it is going to affect white people. He predicts what's going to happen and he predicted it correctly. But this man also had a prayer. That some of those who accepted him would one day believe that he did have a scheme. But he also had a love and an appreciation for the Quran and he wanted the people who would identify or pray to him, if it was possible to one day be real muslims.
That's his prayer, that's the prayer he prayed. Because of that, it worked. "G-d rewards all good and punishes all evil but he rewards all good." Because of that, it worked for a few of us. It brought us to be susceptible, to be the spigot of his language and of what he's saying on the surface. But at the same time, to wonder why he wanted us to have the Quran. To wonder why he said it was a perfect book, the holy book, G-d's book. It made us wonder why. We believing that we shouldn't just dismiss this man as a complete wrong doer but we should have patience with him, maybe he's saying something else under the surface of his language.
And G-d blessed the son of Elijah Mohammed, Wallace D. Mohammed to make the interpretation and I'm telling you that the scheme has worked. It has worked to set up against the white man, it has worked to bring us to Islam. Thank you very much. Now let's talk about our economics plan.
[applause]
IWDM: Well, I think some of us said that getting an African American, a black man, to come tothe Nation of Islam, who is well off in this white man world, is almost impossible. We said it, didn't we? Honorable Elijah Mohammed, they don't even try get there, don't go to him. He said he wouldn't be able to help. But go to that one that's down in the mud. That's what he told us. Yes. If you really understand what I have given you, you shouldn't be angry with me and you shouldn't be angry with Honorable Elijah Mohammed, you shouldn't be angry with Mr. Farad, you should just be thankful to G-d.
[pause 01:35:28]
IWDM: ....big carcasses of beef on the cutting block and showed Honorable Elijah Mohammed how to make all the cuts. That was a white man doing that. Honorable Elijah Mohammed with the white man. Honorable Elijah Mohammed came back with that chart put the same chart up in that store and I saw him myself as a young boy, I saw him myself looking at the chart. He had to go to the chart because he didn't know. He looked at that chart so he could make sure he was doing the right thing. Then sometimes, he was strong too a little man, he looked snaller than I am but he was strong. He said, "Just help me get it on my shoulder." To help him get that side hanged; cut in half while it was hanging. It was cut in half. He picked that high, that half and he would lift it off the hook and drop it on his shoulder. He would go to the block and pick it up onto the block. Then he would look at the chart and he started cutting that cow. He put his cuts in the window they looked as good as in any other market or store. My father. Our leader at that time.
The powerful little man from Georgia with only three years education, Elijah Mohammed. Yes, I'm proud of that man. We're very proud of him. Great, great man. He was a great man but he was not relieved. He was just suffering along, depressed. Shamed to go home to his wife and children but he didn't have any job it was depression time. Another reality of that time that came in if you just remembered. It was depression time. The worst economic depression in the history of the United States. It was during that time that Honorable Elijah Mohammed. Wife was on welfare. He was so proud, he didn't even want to come in the house. He didn't want to be a bother. He was in the streets drinking.
My mother said he would be so drunk sometimes, she had to carry him on her shoulder up the stairs and bent him over like he was doing that [unintelligible 01:39:26]. He would fall in to the bed, and sleep and wake up the next morning. I got from others. They probably say, "I didn't see anything, I was told these things." But they saw some of these things I'm telling you. We know that there's a lot of great potential in many of our people who now have given up on life. They're roaming the streets maybe drinking or shooting dope into their veins. But that same potential that Farad was able to awaken in the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, we can awaken in the many out there.
And just like the Honorable Elijah Muhammad came from nothing and shook the world, we can bring many to come from nothing and we can shake the world. Shake the world to wake up more and be right. Praise be to Allah. I just had to say that.
Now, we give credit to the Nation of Islam, to its men and women, and some youngsters like I was young as a teenager, who supported it and sacrificed and believed in its destiny. We give you credit for showing us, this particular generation in this time, we give you credit for showing us that we can unite. We can come together and pool our money, and pool our resources, and we can do big things materially to bring about better material conditions in our lives.
We bought a jet for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Yes, you did. I don’t say I did. My little part was almost nothing, but you bought a jet for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. You bought a commercial plane for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. You bought thousands of acres of farmland and good farmland because you believed in the dream or in the hope-- I won’t say a dream. Honorable Elijah Muhammad was no dream, and the hope of Honorable Elijah Muhammad. You believed this, so you were able to know that. And I think it’s because we were able to do that, I don’t see it as a complete fiasco. No, that wasn’t a complete failure. No. Because that was done, we do have hope. We do have something real to stand on.
Saying, "Look, if we were able to get that much material acquisition, thousands of acres of good farmland, a dairy operation, trucks to pack big semis to bring watermelons and things to the city. If we were able to do that and follow a leader that was only three years in elementary school from Sandersville, Georgia, at a time when a high school in Sandersville, Georgia, didn’t rate with a grade school in New York City.
If we can follow a man and believe in his great imagination and create this whole vision and believe that we are going to have what center page had of the Muhammad Speaks, planes and roadways made by us, and farmland producing our needs, and stores selling these goods, to flying our community with this . If we had enough faith in him and that whole Temple of Islam,lost Found Nation of Islam.
To do that big thing, what can we do now that our rational minds can be comparable? Our rational minds could even become weak with questions or trying to understand what was happening. But now, we’re in the true rational faith. It’s now the real Islam, and our rational minds are free and we’re at a time when we don’t have to fear that this country is going to shoot us down, pick us off like little ducks or something in a gallery because we are trying to do something different or new. We don’t have to have that fear anymore. Some of you may think that but I know we don't.
You don’t see anybody bothering this meeting. If a security man is out there from the government, the ploice dept., or the CIA, or the FBI, if he’s out there, he’s jumping in his soul. He’s orderly, . We’re at a great time and we have achieved a great thing. We are really fortunate, fortunate, most fortunate. I believe we’re the most fortunate African-Americans to ever live on this planet earth. I will go further than that. I believe we’re the most fortunate Blacks, we are the most fortunate Africans to ever be on this earth. Even more fortunate than those who were running Timbuktu and Mali and all that. Much more fortunate than they were.
I’m inspired by my faith and Allah, and the Quran, and Muhammad our Prophet. I’m inspired by my faith and in the knowledge that G-d has given us through-- by way of revelation. I’m inspired by my faith in all that to tell you that I am prepared and anxious, eager in all the ways to serve you as your leader. Not your leader to just rituals. Not your leader to just a spiritual community. I am ready to serve you as your leader to material establishment. Material establishment.
[applause]
IWDM: And G-d didn’t give us a spirit without a material casing for it. And that same merciful G-d will not give us a good Muslim spirit without giving us a physical environment for it. We are going to have our physical body to go along with this good Islamic spirit-- Muslim spirit. We’re going to have not just businesses-- we’re not in this for just businesses. We’re in this for community. We believe we will accept to this plan. We believe that this plan is going to carry us all the way from investments, to business operators, to developers, neighborhood planners, city builders.
Our goal in the road is to one day say we built this city. And the name of that city, Islamabad or whatever we want to call it, and name the whole business district, New Africa.
[applause]
IWDM: Yes, and look how we have started this great work. We’ve got the people together who trust each other. On trust, that’s what we’re going on, trust. Trusting each other. I trust my brother, he trusts me. I trust my sister, she trusts me. A sister gave me $10,000 to invest in this. 10,000. I said, “Wow.” A little later, a brother gave me 10,000. Another brother gave me 10,000. Two brothers got together and gave me 20,000. Another brother said, “Brother Imam,” he said, “I trust this brother,” he said, “We are partners in business. I trust him so much, just put it in his name. We’ll handle it from there.” Now, that’s trusting each other, isn't it?
Audience: Yes.
IWDM: Now, I know my wife wouldn't ask me for any money when I met her and I brought my little children into her house. I took over the responsibilities. The only thing she pays for is for her costs. And if I didn’t have experience with women talking on the phone, I’d be paying for the phone bill too.
[laughter]
IWDM: I want you to know, I am no pimp.
[laughter]
IWDM: I’m paying those bills. I took on the mortgage and she hasn’t had a notice yet. Allahu Akbar. And I am not neglecting the ones I had before. They ain’t married yet, they’re still living on their own, they still have needs. I’m sharing my money with them too.
[applause]
IWDM: Praise be to Allah. And I’m doing all that as a follower of Muhammad. Muhammad, his excellence is what inspired me to try and be better and better all the time. Yes, so I really got a surprise. Well, I understand but I’m still a little bit surprised. My wife, before I met her, I knew her of her when I was a resident imam she was a young girl. She was no more than 19, 20 years old, and I saw her in the congregation, and I had a wife but that nature was in me.
[laughter]
IWDM: So, when Renee came up with her fiancé, and said she wanted me to marry them, I had relief and pain at the same time.
[laughter]
IWDM:I was the one who officiated, I officiated at the ceremony, now something happened and she lost her husband. A man that I admired and greatly respected as a hard-working businessman. But he got killed by the insanity in this society. This insane man desperate for money, walked up and shoot him as he's coming out the cash machine, takes what he has and he goes and killed her husband.
I didn’t know that until I got on my desk a check for $1,000 to the MACA. Fund, you know, the Ministry as we used to call it.
And I said who is this sister? I didnt know her by name, I knew her by looks. I finally found one of the brother working with us said, "That's sister so-and-so, her husband got killed." "Oh-oh."
[laughter]
IWDM: "Is she married? Is she re-married?" "No, she is not."
"Oh-oh."
[laughter]
IWDM: Okay, here goes that powerful rationalism in man. This sister must be a good Muslim because she sent a $1,000.
[laughter]
IWDM: That is the proof that she is a special sister, special Muslim sister. [laughs] "Does she have any children?" "Yes, she does." "They need a father." That rationalism working, is it? They need a father. She got her own home too. That's enough.
[laughter]
IWDM: I have got a special kind of loving. If I see another sister that I really care about, I stat planning on how I will need another job to make enough money to take care of her. I am not going to treat them bad, no, it's not in me, that is not in my nature, I am not-- and not in my understanding as a man, as a Muslim man, I know, I can't accept to treat them wrong. So, I am going to find out how to get another job so I can make enough money to take care of her.
Now I don't have to think about that, at least not for right now because she is in her house. The big thing is put her in an apartment or a house, thats big, she got her own house. So I go in there and I am sneaking up on the information. "This is a nice house, you are managing all this? I bet you the mortgage is terrific." "No, the mortgage is settled." "Oh."
[laughter]
IWDM: To make a long story short, we got married, we got married, finally got married, we got married, I visit her, very respectful sister. "It is too late to go home brother Imam."
[laughter]
IWDM: I got respect for a sister like that. "You look tired and sleepy brother Imam, I know you are, but go home, it's time to go home." So, I thankAllah for her. Now, that sister, sister Thena, sister Thena and I were getting ready to come out here to Whiteplains. She said, "I got something to give you." She said, "What, there's a business?" She said, "I want to invest in it, $10,000."
[crowd murmurs]
IWDM: $10,000. In fact, the money is still with her because I have not had time to go to the bank, on our way here. Money is still with her. Official bank check for $10,000. No certified checks.a money order, that's okay too, but no certified check. You can certify a personal cheque and the bank may do something funny. Official check, money order, it's got to be equivalent to cash. Yes.
Now, how does this work so well? Many of you weren't at the banquet last night. If you don't mind, it will not take me too long. I want to explain to you. How does it work so well? Tomorrow is a a holiday too, right? You got my permission to sleep for the rest of the night and even part of the day.
[laughter]
IWDM: Join us for the picnic and we'll be happy. I can't sleep, as soon as I leave here I will get me some activities. If it is not the carnival, it is going to be chewing on something good. It is going to be something. And I love the market. It gives me a good feeling to spend my dollar with the Muslims. So, you know, if you are a Muslim, take advantage of this opportunity to spend your dollar with Muslims. There is nobody beating you here. You get your dollars' worth.
We are selling a watch, I got one on right now here. We are selling this watch, different styles, about five or six different styles, for 24.95 special convention price. You take this watch to any jeweller, take this watch to any watch dealer and ask them, "Did you get a good buy?" If they are not liars, somebody that wants to turn you off from the person you bought it from so you come to them. If they say, and most of them will be, I do believe, they will tell you you got an excellent deal.
This watch is stainless steel back, water resistant, quartz, keeps perfect time, if it starts losing time, go and replace the battery, get the same kind of battery that's in it, all you have is battery now, you don't wind up nothing that's going on in this stuff, that is out. This is an excellent watch, very good watch, it looks good. You can see it from there, this watch looks good. I get compliments. I was in the bank. The lady that comes in the bank, the same African-American Bank, I am proud to say that too.
My money is in the African-American Bank. Good bank too, in Chicago. Seaway Bank in Chicago, if you ever move there, I am plugging for them. Seaway National Bank in Chicago. I was wearing it and I happened to look at it like that. A lady came up. She said, “Mr. Muhammad," she knew, "Mr. Muhammad, see, I heard that you were selling some things, watches?"
I said, "Yes." Because I brought some watches, in Saudi Arabia a lot of good watches. They're probably on sale right here, on the south end, right now. And let me tell you,West Air is among them, and the price you get that watch for-- it's a gift.
How can I do it? I got it that way, that's right, I got it for $11 overseas. Only thing I had to do was pay duties, a little duty I had to pay on each watch. I brought a lot of watches in, with my money. With $300, I came back here with 30 watches. Then I added to it some more, I ended up with suitcase full of watches. Suitcase filled with watches, and you think I cut my brothers out of that? No, they got the same thing I did. I said, you Sir, just give me what I paid for, give me what I had to pay for these watches.
Good brothers now, that is not for everybody. Good brothers working with me, around me. One of them is security at Wally Green. Wally Green, right here in security. He is making money right now with those watches at this convention, yes. [laughs] And we are happy to be with each other. Doing business with each other is making us closer, bringing us to-- We were close before, but doing business with each other is making us even closer. Yes, this watch here that I have on cost us like $10, maybe all costs, put in every possible cost it can't go higher, I don't think, than $11.
It's not going to go higher than $11, I think. In fact, I can feel pretty safe to tell you it will not go higher than 10, the cost to us. But. the factory cost to us is close to $9, isn't that wonderful? Our powerful negotiator, Brother Talib Abdullah, who worked in the facility in Houston Texas at the Islamic Institute there, at that big business service facility, he got on the phone, called this company, I was going to do it but I heard that he is good , so I'm going to let him do it. He calls this company, American watch company. Now, I know that everybody there are Americans, Christians. Who is the owner? Used to be Christians, but now a Muslim from overseas living here is the owner of the American watch company. Now you know thats Allah, you know Allah sent us there. So, he's talking to this Muslim. This Muslim got his prices set in those catalogues and brochures, for I don't know how long. 11 something, 12 something, 14 something. He said, "Brother Imam, you got him down, the average price you going to pay now a little under $12.
I said, "What?" Don't get better. Called me up a couple few days later, said, "Brother Imam is coming down to under $9. That's our negotiator. Chief Executive Officer of the Houston facilities down there. Talib Abdullah. Praise be to Allah. We thank Allah for him and for all the good things that have happened. So, we are able to buy the watches. The ministry didn't have the money. The ministry gives in charity and it has a heavy responsibility and I am of them. So, the ministry didn't have the money, we didn't have that kind of money. Hardly ever have that kind of money.
Only in November at the end of the year, we try to manage the charities in a way to have something to give to schools and we do. We give big amounts to schools, considering what we get, we give big amounts to schools and real productive workers in the community. Our best leaders, we give to them at the end of the year. Inshallah, at the end of this year give again although I didn't see how it was coming, but now I see it coming, and we're going to be ableto do it again this year at the end of November at years end give the money out. We will be able to sell these watchers, the ministry that is, because we had money that we could used, our CPC investor, some of them don't want products, so, we have two situations for the members that or investors. Abdullah will explain it, so I'm not going into that. He will talk to you later too, if you want to.
[pause 02:02:52]
IWDM:$1000 of the big $10,000 I told her, I said-- She said, "Well, I got a business." She said, "I cant be bothered with the business part of it." She said, '"Can you just use it and give me a cash return on my investment?" I said, " Yes, I can do that, providing you will." I said, "I am going to take all the responsibility and do the work or get somebody to do the work." "Are you willing to give me 50% of the profit?" She quickly said, "Yes, sure." See, that's fine. She was happy. That's one ten-thousand-dollars right? That I can touch, right? Okay. So, here's another brother. He had ten thousand dollars too. He says, "Brother Imam, I got my real estate business," Do with it however you see fit I know i can trust you brother imamG-d, I like that. And i think i deserve it.
So, he says, "He trust you brother Imam." Here is another ten thousand dollars I can touch. Now twenty thousand dollars I can touch. A sister, nice, and I sit down on [unintelligible 02:04:19] nice sister. Because I'm busy, finally get around to it, I finally got around to replying to her. She had her phone number on her letter, so I made a call, in the Chicago area, I called her. She said, "Oh Brother, I heard about the program brother Imam." She said, "And I got $10,000 in the bank." She said, "I was thinking about it be better used if I would have invested in it. Could you give me more information." I said, "Gladly." I gave her more information and I told her wait till I follow up with some paperwork, so she can see it on paper. She called me up as soon as I sent the paper-- two days she calls me up, she tells me, "Brother Imam, the cheque will be sent, you'll have a check tomorrow."
Next day I have a check, it's $30,000. When we found out that it would cost us something like $17,000,for the watches I had money I could go to and felt I was unskilled for that. I asked specifically, because they have also-- they have a corperate attorney in their group. They have everything-- they have what we need. So I called them and I said, "You check it out make sure it's safe to use this money. They checked it out, they had no problem. So I took the money out the account. They requisitioned for the money, they withdrawl, i put the money on the withdrawal the members name whose money we're using and then went got duplicates. We had duplicates of all the checks. And then we got duplicates of this withdrawal and put into the account record of that person.
It's there showing that we owe that much of their money to that person, and called them up to talk to that person, right, and believe me if you invest, I would call you in person. Yes I would call you and talk to you on the phone and we'll workout whatever we have to workout. I call you on the phone and I say, "Look, this is not like buying an item from the manufacturer yourself, you are only lending money to us, the ministry, to make a purchase. I said, "Would you be satisfied if I assure you that you will get 20% return on your money that we use right away. "Yes, see." These are business people, they know what happening right there in the market. They know they can't get that kind of guarantee.
They said yes. I say, wait a minute though wait a minute. I say that's not all to it. I say of that 20% that you get, I said, "Would you be willing?" I said, "I have faith. My position is that whatever I make as a result of this program may possibl because we are Muslims, and this is okay . I am going to give 10% of mine to the ministry. I say at least 5% I am requesting from everybody else, at least 5%. Yes, no problem, happy . Yes. So, they are going to get 15% return. Each of them on-- two of them, we used two of their money, we going to give them 20% return and take 5% out for the ministry. They will get 15% on.
[pause 02:07:57]
[Static, mechanical whirring and periodic ticking]
[02:13:32] [END OF AUDIO]

