03/14/1986
IWDM Study Library
Jumuah
Atlanta GA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger. We pray that peace and blessings of Allah be upon Muhammad, upon his descendants, upon his companions, the righteous all, Ameen. And upon us be peace.
Allah Most High revealed the Quran to Muhammad in stages or according to the occasion, to fit the occasion. The revelations continued over a period of about 22 or 23 years. There came the time when revelation that came to Muhammad, informed us, informed Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the community, the Muslim that is us, his followers, that the time had come in the progression of the revelation that no disbeliever or opposer could have any hope of preventing this religion from being established.
Now the rejecters have lost all hope of ever defeating you and your religion. “Today”. G-d says, “have I completed your religion for you, that is perfected your religion for you and completed for you my favor and have preferred for you Al-Islam as religion, or Al-Islam the religion. Here in the words of G-d, He first said that G-d has completed the religion. That is the religion before Muhammad was not complete, peace and blessings be upon him.
Muhammad said, his prophethood is like the building, having been built, but the last block in the building was not yet placed there. It was yet to be put there, and he represents that last block in the building which was to be completed. G-d says, "I have completed for you, your religion, deenakum, your religion.
We believe that this religion is our religion by natural inheritance, by natural inheritance. It is the Deen al-Fitrah according to G-d's word in our Holy Book, the Deen al-Fitrah. It means the deen that belong to our nature. The Deen al-Fitrah, the deen that belongs to our nature. G-d says, "I have completed your religion for you. Your religion for you."
Our religion is also our natural inheritance. It is the religion that is the natural inheritance of man. G-d has created man for this religion. And I have perfected for you my favor, completed for you my favor on you. I have completed my favor on you. Perfected for your religion and completed my favor on you. And I have completed my favor on you.
So, until this religion came with Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be on the prophet, 
G-d's favor had not been completed on the people. His great promise that we read about in scriptures before the Quran, the great promise of G-d. His great favor that He would give to the favored ones, the ones that He chose. That great favor was finally completed when G-d completed the message of Al-Islam to Prophet Muhammad for us and for all the world if they would accept.
And I have preferred to you, here Radeetu G-d has preferred. Here G-d says that He has preferred for us, for you that is for those Muslim followers of Muhammad or for those that received His great blessings. That He has preferred for them the Muslims that He's but for people that they will only accept. He has preferred for you Al-Islam Deena, Al-Islam as religion or Al-Islam the religion. 
Here we see that G-d says, He has preferred, that means that G-d accept that there are different religions in the world that have formed because of man's own search for light and understanding. And that has formed because of G-d sending messengers before, the Prophet Abraham, the Prophet Musa, Moses, and the Prophet Isa, Jesus, and many others.
The prophets He sent before they came with the great messages and the people in time form those religions to their own satisfaction. And as Allah says in the Holy Book that they take the words out of their proper places. And they say this is from G-d while they have written it with their own hand, but it was not from G-d it was from themselves.
So, as a result, we have come to have religions that are not in their pure state. They are not in the form that they were given when G-d gave them those guidance or those religions to the prophets. They have come out of their true form and we have a distorted form of what G-d gave the prophets before as religion. However, we are not to reject those people who belong to those religions as being kafirs, disbelievers or kafirs, rejectors of faith. Those people, most of them, they have good intention, they mean well. They are faithful and sincere in their religion, the Jews, the Christians, and many others.
For that reason, G-d also acknowledges them, “if any, who will believe in G-d, whether they be Jew, Christian, Sabean, or other. If they will believe and do right, then they have their reward with G-d. There is no fear for them nor shall they grieve”. But at the same time, we must understand that the religions as they exist today, are not in their original form, they are in the distorted form.
The imperfect distorted form, they are in the misconceived form, incorrect form, and therefore, 
G-d does not prefer those religions for His creatures. He prefers Al-Islam for His creatures. He says, "And I have preferred for you Al-Islam as a religion, Al-Islam the religion. And I have preferred for you Al-Islam to be the religion, or Al-Islam the religion. So, Muslims, we must understand that the religion that we have is number one, our natural right. Al-Islam is the natural right of man. It is a natural inheritance of man. It is the compliment for his nature. It is the natural complement for his nature, it is Deen Al-Fitra.
And we are to understand that this religion was in the process of coming to his fullness. It began with the first man, Adam, and it grew as He sent more and more messengers or more and more prophets. It grew in its scope and it grew in its application. But it didn't reach universal scope and universal application until the advent of Muhammad the Prophet, peace and the blessings be upon him. Then it reached universal scope and universal application, but it is the religion, the natural inheritance of man, and G-d has preferred that religion for us. We must understand that G-d says He has preferred that religion for us.
Now, if we are Muslims, and G-d has preferred Al-Islam, the Quran, that religion of the Quran for us, then as Muslims we cannot compromise religion. As Muslims, people are entitled. They want to be Christians, they are entitled to be Christians, they want to be Jews, they are entitled to be Jews. But for us, there is only one religion that is suitable, that is correct, that is appropriate, that is approved by G-d, and that's Al-Islam.
He does not approve any other religion. He says, "And I have preferred." That means this is the religion He approved for you, Al-Islam Deena. So, this is a religion that He approved, only 
Al-Islam. He does not approve those other religions, not in the form that they exist now. They're not in the correct form.
G-d says also in the Holy Book, He says, "Spend in the path of G-d, we are to spend in the path of G-d." Oh, you who believe spend of what we have provided for you”. The greatest thing that G-d has provided for us is our Deen, our religion, Al-Islam. He has provided for us, given us many things for He says, "I have completed my favor on you." He had already given us the physical creation. The Earth was already here. The great resources of the material world were here. The great favor of G-d on us is our religion, is the message of the Quran, is our religion.
So, He says, "Spend of what He has given you, spend in the way of G-d from what He has given you." We know that this reference is directly to our possession. We are to spend of ourselves, of our own self. This is a give of our own selves and of our Amwaalukum, and of our wealth in the path of G-d. We know this is very clear. But shouldn’t we also be aware that the religion is the greatest gift of G-d to us. That Al-Islam, the completion of the religion, the Quranic message is the greatest gift of G-d to us, and we're to spend of that.
And G-d says, "Spend on your family." Shouldn't we be aware of this great gift and spend the Quran on our children. Spend the Quran on our relatives, give the Quran to our children, give the Quran to our relatives. Make sure that they are informed of what is in the Holy Book. This is a greater obligation. Although we know that we are obligated as men, as husbands, as fathers to also spend of our material possessions in the way of G-d and Fisabillila. G-d has ordered for Muslims, that they take care of their obligations.
And the first obligation is the obligation to fear G-d and take care of your personal responsibilities at home. Take care of your wife. Take care of your old parents if they are with you. Take care of your children. This is the first obligation, to spend. But we should never forget that the greatest gift of G-d to us is the gift of Al-Islam. The greatest possession that we have is the Quranic knowledge, the Quranic message, the faith Al-Islam. That is the greatest possession we have.
And G-d says, "And when you go out, take precautions, take your precautions and take provision, have provisions for your trip. But He says, "The best provision is to go knowing that G-d sees you and is aware of everything that's going on”. That is the best provision, Taqwa, to know that G-d sees you and He's aware of everything that's going on, and to go with that kind of recognition means to go in the state of Taqwa. To go in the state of Taqwa.
So, the best provision is to fear G-d, the best provision is to fear G-d. The best resource is the Quran. The best gift of G-d is the Quran. It is only second to nature. G-d gave us the nature, human nature, great gift that He has created us with human nature. He could have created us in different forms, but He made us human being.
We are created in the human form, the most excellent mold, He has made us. That nature, that possibility for nature, for the development of nature that is given to every human being, is the second-best gift. But the best gift is the Quran, it is the best of all. Because it makes possible for us that that is not possible for us in our nature. It complements the nature, it improves the nature, it beautifies the nature, it completes the nature. In that it complements nature, it beautifies nature. It completes the nature. It makes possible for the nature to come to its completion. The nature itself cannot reach its completion without that favor of G-d.
The nature was here, but it could not reach its own completion without the great favor of G-d, the Quran. I'm not preaching myself, my word, I'm preaching Quran. Those who know Quran will not have a problem recognizing it. I don't want you to think I'm saying something from myself. I'm saying only what G-d has revealed in Quran and what He has taught Muhammad the Prophet, peace and blessings be on him. So, spend in the path of G-d, "Oh, you who believe, spend of what we have provided you." Don't forget, G-d has provided you with the Quran.
Spend the Quran, that should be natural for a Muslim. I shouldn't have to tell Muslims that but because we are Muslims in a non-Muslim, unMuslim, unIslamic environment and situation here in America, we have to point to the Quran and make ourselves become aware that the Quran is the highest book, the perfect book, the most resourceful book.
You can't go to any college, any library and get a book more resourceful than the Quran. It's the most useful book, it is the most beneficial book in your life. No other book can aid your life more than the Quran. The Quran, not for one aspect of your life but every aspect of your life. Not for one need in your life, for every need in your life. The Quran is the most resourceful book, most resourceful, most beneficial book.
See, we have to say that to ourselves in America, because America is saying, "Oh wait, look the man. Look what man has done. Look what man is doing, look what man offers you. Come to our institutions, turn to our resources."
So, in an environment like this where G-d has put back, is pushed aside by the man and the man's work is brought forward for us to look at. We have to as Muslims always point to the fact that what G-d has done is bigger than what man has done. What G-d has done is more useful in our lives than what man has done. And without that, whatever man has given us will become a hindrance and a destruction in our life in time if we ignore G-d.
See, this is what we have to be aware of. Be aware of the great value of the Quran. That it is the most resourceful book, that is the most useful book, that it is the book that complements the human nature. Now, dear beloved Muslims, man has spirit, desire, need, hunger, appetite, that is as old as his life on Earth. We find ourselves in different geographical locations with different needs, different concerns. But there are certain essential basic concerns for a human being that stay, they stay with man.
Our religion focus upon the timeless, the ageless concerns of man and make it possible for us to live the best life here on this Earth. But we will never know that if we are not curious. If we don't have a desire to know something, if we are satisfied with whatever happens day by day, if we are satisfied with whatever comes to us day by day, if we have no aspirations higher than what just occurs by accident, we will never know this.
We have to have an appetite big enough to bring us home to this kind of observation or this kind of recognition in Al-Islam. This is something that is expected not from the general run of the people. This is not expected from the ordinary person in the community. This is expected of the most aggressive. This is expected of the forward-looking people in the community.
People who want something more than just a life. They want a good life. People who want something more than just a life. They want a productive life. They want a rewarding life. So, this kind of message, this kind of matter that I’m pointing to now is not for just the general run of the mill people. This is for the special people. It's for the special people. G-d has created us on the earth for opportunity, for expanding opportunity, for ever-increasing opportunity.
This doesn’t excite everybody. This is for a special group. G-d says, "Let there arise out of you." Out of you, who? The community of Muslims. A special group. And that's what this appeal is for right now. This appeal is to the special people. Those that will be the cause for others having something to look to that will inspire them. The general run of the mill people needs a leadership group.
The general run of the mill people needs a forward-looking group, an outstanding group, a group that demands of themselves more than just mediocre performance. The general run of the mill needs that kind of group. They need more than just Imam sermon or Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. They need a group. They need to see that there is a group of people that are sensitized and motivated and excited about big things in the future.
And this religion has been given not only for the common run of the mill person, but this religion is more expressly. This religion is more expressly given for that leading group, that forward-moving group. Because that is the group that will carry the responsibility that G-d intended for man to bear on this earth. We who share this desire for greater and expanding an ever-increasing opportunity. We who share the desire and believe that G-d has revealed the Quran to make that possible for us, to make it safely possible for us.
To make it possible for us with peace. We don't have to go to war. We can have this good life. We can have the ever-increasing opportunities before us in our path and without saying, “we have to have an army”. No, we don’t have to form an army, the army will be this army. An army of workers working for better and ever-increasing opportunity. That will be the army. Those that want that, they should get together with each other.
They should seek each other out, they should find each other. They should want to know where is that brother who thinks like me, where is a brother who is motivated like me? Where is a brother with is my spirit? They should seek each other out and when they find each other, they should sit down and talk with each other. They should talk to each other. They should share ideas. They should assist each other. G-d says, "Assist each other, work together, form alliances and work together."
But how can we do that if we don't have even a mind to know that we are to go forward? That it's a sin to stand still. So, we should seek each other out and then we should pledge. We should have a sacred oath, not a secret oath, a sacred oath. That we are going to obey the spirit of Al-Islam. That we are going to conform to Islamic behavior, that we are going to obey Islamic rational disciplines. Yes, that we are going to obey Islamic devotional life. And what is first in our devotional life? Allah.
La ilaha illallah, I don't give my spirit, my worship to any but one Allah who created everything. Muhammad-ur-Rasool Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of that G-d. That is the first commitment. And then we say we pray to that G-d five times daily, Salat. And we are obligated to give in zakat as essential, or fundamentals of our religion.
We are obligated to fast the month of Ramadan as the fundamental or as essentials in our religion. And to make the Hajj, the pilgrimage to the holy house in Mecca once in our lifetime if we can afford to. If we have the health, the bodily health or strength to do it and financial means, the means to do it, we are to make that trip at least once in our lifetime. These are the essentials of our religion as the prophet says, “Buni Al-Islamu ala khamsen. The religion has been structured upon the five essentials and we have just given them.
To believe in G-d, the essentials of faith, we believe in G-d Amantubilla, I believed in G-d, I believe in G-d and His messengers, and the Angels, and in the revelations, the books that He gave, the books that He revealed to His prophets, and in the prophets, in the messengers.
And we believe in the ordinance of G-d, the law of G-d, that His law overcomes all, that His law is a just law. It rewards and punish, and it is the just law, and nothing can exceed the law of G-d. We believe that we cannot be harmed or rewarded except as G-d has willed and except that He has planned or ordered. The law regulating good and bad or harm is from G-d Most High.
Now, dear beloved Muslims, we should also understand that people are shut out of opportunity because of their imperfect light, their corrupt beliefs, their superstition, their falsehood. And people in the Western Hemisphere, in the western part of the world, people in America are more subject to false beliefs than people anywhere else.
We know how excited we are about America and how we take pride in being Americans. How great we think our country is. We know all about that and it is great in many respects. But as far as giving a person an opportunity to get their thinking right, to get their head on right, this place is not the best place. Perhaps it may be the worst place. And proof of that is that people who come to this country with other ideologies, they meet the challenge and progress and do more here than we are able to do, who were born here and raised here and know nothing but what we have gotten here. But people who come here with different other ideology. Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim from abroad, Jew, anybody other than us, come here and they do more with opportunity in America than African American has done in four centuries. Now over one century of freedom.
Yes, they come here, and they quickly improve their condition. Pretty soon they are managing businesses, owning properties, owning business operations and they are growing in the new land of opportunity for them. But we who've been here all this time just keep going in a circle from gloomy to pitch black. And it's because America, this country, this nation, does not put their citizens in a good situation to advance their understanding. You're left in a bad situation when it comes to the need to advance our understanding. That is more reason for us to learn our religion, to seek the Quran often, many times during the day.
Seek the Quran and seek the Islamic sources, seek the sunnah of the Prophet, the life of the Prophet, learn about him. How he lived and how he addressed problems, how he dealt with situations. Learn about him because that is the knowledge for us, we are Muslims. I don't care where we are. If we were in Russia, that is the knowledge for us. If we're in China, that is the knowledge for us. If we're in England, that is the knowledge for us. If we're in Africa, that is the knowledge for us. No matter where we are, that is the knowledge for us.
The Jew is successful because whether he's in Asia, Africa, Europe, America, he keeps to his own knowledge and, therefore, he's more successful in the material world, in the political world than we are. He's more successful because he keeps to his own knowledge. The Buddhists that come here, the Asians, they're more successful because they keep to their own knowledge.
We are in America; we must keep to our own knowledge. Other knowledge can only be useful as our knowledge permits. We can't even use it unless our knowledge permits the use of that knowledge. And if our knowledge permits the use that knowledge then it's only useful to us, its benefit is determined by its place in our knowledge. If it supports what we find in our knowledge, if it agrees with it, okay, good we accept it.
In other words, we have to be able to identify Islamic knowledge. Islamically approved knowledge, Islamically acceptable standard, Islamically acceptable principles, Islamically acceptable viewpoints. We have to be able to identify that is what we see in the world, and don't even accept it until it is already established as Islamic.
It says, “this nation is one nation indivisible”. Okay, is that agreeable with Al-Islam, if so, it’s Islamic. Though it came from a non-Muslim mouth, if it is acceptable in my religion, then it’s Islamic. If they say love your fellow man, if that's acceptable in my religion, then love your fellow man is Islamic. And we know it's Islamic because G-d has inspired the prophet and he told us, "Love your brother, love your fellow man." Right? Yes, that you will not enter the paradise until you have faith and you will not have faith until you have love. That's what he says. I'm quoting the prophet. “You will not enter the paradise until you have faith and you will not have faith until you have love”. And it means love for each other.
Dear beloved Muslim, when we’re seeing right in this religion, we're seeing an opportunity to live and grow, to undetermined limits. Allah has not placed any limit on how much we can grow, on how much opportunity we can come into. “Hey well, don't talk like that Imam, quote Quran”. This is Quran, “if you would try to count or measure the favors of G-d, you will fail, you cannot do so”. That's G-d saying in the Quran, that's Quran. So, that means He has opened up opportunities to me that I will never be able to use up.
And He says,” rush to Allah for forgiveness and a garden”. What is a garden? A garden is a place where I go and look to produce the things, I need to take care of my body, that's my support. Some men may even grow cotton in the garden. You know, don't think it mean a garden like you got, the Jannah is big, you’ll learn it, just hold on, because I'm going to complete what it says. It says, “rush to G-d for forgiveness and a garden whose measurement is as the skies and the earth”. That's what G-d says, “rush to G-d for forgiveness”. It means the condition for getting the great opportunity to explore or to develop the resources of the skies and the earth, the garden, the condition for that is that you rush to G-d for forgiveness because you have sinned. No matter who you are, you have sinned. How do we know? G-d says, “if He would punish everyone on Earth, there would not be a soul left on the planet”, that's Quran.
So, that means everybody commit sin. So, G-d sets a condition now for this great, vast field of opportunity is that you first rush to G-d. It didn't say come to G-d. It didn't say walk to G-d. It doesn't say, as you feel it, come to G-d for forgiveness. No, it says, rush to G-d for forgiveness. So, those who have a willingness, a love for G-d, if you have a great love for G-d, you don't respond to Him like you hate it. If you have a great love for G-d, as soon as you know what G-d wants, you gone. “Yes, G-d!”
You ever been to a spiritual meeting or something and you hear somebody cry out and says, "Yes, Lord." That's quick. Someone cries slowly out, "Yes, Lord."
It hasn't hit them right yet. But someone says, "Yes, Lord." That's quick. So, we have to respond quickly. And G-d says, “rush to forgiveness from Him, from your Lord. Rush to forgiveness from your Lord and a garden, that means a place for cultivation. A place where they have great resources, where you can cultivate it and explore it and bring in the utility for your own needs. It says, “A garden who measurements or expands is as skies and the earth, limitless opportunities. And if you would try to count the favors of G-d, you would not be able to do so.
That's what G-d says. So, then I have to accept as a Muslim that my Lord calls me to faith and to a way of life that gives me opportunity without limits. A life of continuous opportunity, growing and increasing opportunity. That's what G-d has called me to. If I understand the Quran and I'm a Muslim, that's what G-d has called me to.
And G-d has said that, “this earth, I have made it as an inheritance for the righteous. I have made it to be inherited by the righteous”. So that tells me, again, that this all that I see belongs to G-d. You may be here, but you didn't create it. You found it, it was already here, and my G-d is the owner of it. And my G-d tells me that if you are bad fellow, you don't have rights to it from Him.
If I am a good fellow, I have rights to it from Him, He's the owner. He's the only one with the power and authority to give the rights to it. So according to my book, you don't have rights to it if you're a bad fellow. So, if America is ruled by bad people, then that's temporary. Eventually, G-d is going to give the rule of America to good people, if I'm a believer.
Congregation: Allahu Akbar.
Allahu Akbar, and knowing this, I should be looking forward to that, I should have my eyes on that. That these people are not fit to rule America, and G-d has not authorized them to be in those positions. This earth belongs to my Lord and He hasn't approved these rulers. Now I'm not in any position to take them down, but I'm going to prepare myself for their position, and I'm going to prepare my children for their position.
That's the tree, that G-d said do not eat of it. Don't eat from wrong, don't do wrong. That's the only tree, everything else is permissible, wrong is not permissible. Isn't that wonderful? G-d only obligates us not to approach wrong tree, that's the tree of wrongdoing. Don't approach the tree of wrongdoing, everything else is permissible. So, we have the great resources of the skies and the earth that G-d has reduced or has brought down into our reach for our services. Sakkara means that He has made this useful and approachable, accessible. You can reach it and get it and use it.
All He requires is that you don't give yourself to wrong conduct. Do not give yourself to wrong conduct. Now, we have heard of the tree and some people see the tree differently. Some of you have to go to work, I understand, if you have something to do, I understand. They see the tree differently. They say, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree bares the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil”, what's wrong with that tree? That's a good tree. Allah wants us to approach that tree, He wants us to eat of that tree. Nothing wrong with any knowledge, there is nothing wrong with knowledge.
The knowledge of good and evil is morality, moral logic, ethics. Doesn't ethics give us the insight into good and evil, the nature of good and evil? How it starts, how it grows up, how is it established, how it branches? Yes, so the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of knowledge of good and evil is not the tree we shouldn't approach. But we know that early Christian movement, the aesthetic movement of Christianity that was established and survived about a thousand years before time was interrupted by Martin Luther, Protestantism.
We know that that order of Christianity that survived on this earth for about a thousand or more years, it forbade that you think rationally what is good, what is bad. They didn't allow their converts to think rationally of what is good and what is bad. If they said it was good, you accepted on faith that it's good, you're not supposed to think about it. If they said it's bad, you accept that on faith, you weren't supposed to question or think about it. If there were any ethics, they had the ethics, but they gave the masses blind faith. They gave the masses blind faith; they didn't educate the masses.
There were no such things as public education, so you couldn't go and study the ethics of business, the ethics of politics, the ethics of government. That wasn’t available to the people, under the rule of the church. So, the bible, King James Version, before it was King James' Version, it was the Early Church's Version. It was the same book as far as that tree is concerned in the Bible. It means that you are not allowed to go and approach in no rational way the moral logic. Now, but Allah hasn't forbid us to approach moral logic, we have a rational mind, we are moral creatures with a rational mind.
We have a natural urge in us, to question what people say is morally right morally wrong. Somebody tell me this is morally right, I have a right to be curious, they might be wrong. If they say this is morally forbidden, I have a right to be curious, they could be mistaken. So, their tree that they're forbidden is not forbidden to us. The Quran comes to correct their mistake, it is not their tree that's forbidden, G-d hasn't forbidden any tree of knowledge. He has given us an intellect, and whatever we have a curiosity for, we can pursue it, if it has some real base.
The only thing that we are forbidden to pursue with our rational mind, with our intellect is that for which we cannot find no real base. We are forbidden to search for spook or superstition without any reality. I say, “okay, let's develop a science, let's find a genie, see how he got in the jar, see how he gets out”. That's disallowed, Muslims cannot use their intellect for such foolishness. But G-d has not closed any door of knowledge to our intellect. And morality is something that we ought to study, because as we study morality, we find that G-d has designed a natural system for man's moral life, just as He has designed a system for his physical life.
You will discover that, and we follow the Quran, obey the word of G-d, we come into the best knowledge of human morality, ethics for society. The Quran gives us that, and G-d wants us to have that. The only tree He forbids is the tree of deceit, tree of falsehood, tree of wrongdoing, and the worst of wrongdoing is to deny that there is a G-d. Surely the greatest sin is Shirk, “la dhulmul ‘aatheem,” the greatest of all sin is Shirk, to deny that there's a G-d. And to oppress is a great sin, to prosecute, to have power, and authority and wealth, and use your power and your possessions to deny other people, to block their ways.
To deprive them of the free expression of their good life that G-d intended for them. “Surely, prosecution is worse than outright slaughter”. Yes, but how will we be aware of these things, how will we know where to place importance if we don't stay in touch with the Quran, with the knowledge that is in that book, that resourceful book for us?
Dear beloved people, Muslim, men, we need to identify each other. Who feels like I feel, who is motivated like I am motivated? Who is pledge like I have pledged? Let us get together, wherever we are and let us work for the great end. Let us work for the great end.
We don't have to be people of the same field, you may be a mathematician, I may be a politician, you may be a businessman, I may be a medical doctor. You may be a lawyer, I may be a preacher of the Dawah, but we all should be committed to Allah, Muhammad, the Quran, the Ummah of Al-Islam. We should see all of our usefulness in the context, or in the framework of Islamic community, and whether we have an Islamic community or not. We are to work as though we are living in an Islamic community.
And we are to bring our skills together and plan together and see how can I assist you so that you are more effective in your field? How can you assist me, so I am more effective in my field? How can we all contribute to the growing and important and great future of Islamic community? Don't you know your obligation in America if you are Muslim? Your obligation in America your number one obligation, your number one citizenship obligation, if you're Muslim is to establish Islamic life.
How can you be a good citizen in America if you are Muslim and you don't conform to your Islamic life? If Al-Islam is your life then if you want to address citizenship, the building or improving your citizenship then you have to do that in light of what the religion of Al-Islam asks of you. To be the best Muslim in America is to be the best Muslim citizen. When they find you outside of your Muslim life, you're in court. That's what gets you in court getting outside of your Muslim life. Then they go, "Hey you're Muslim? Look what you did, what kind of Muslim are you?"
See I know what those people are preaching. They don't tell you to do these things. You know better than this so then they discover you're a bad person. Let us understand that we don't put America above Al-Islam. We don't put the president of the United States above Muhammad the prophet. Muhammad the prophet will be the prophet long after President Reagan. Long after the white house, long after the United States of America. The prophet Muhammad will still be the prophet the last prophet for all the people. You understand that?
All right you don't put no United States and the president of the United States above Allah above Muhammad the prophet. You don't put the constitution of the United States and their ideologies above the Quran. That's not Muslim, you're stupid. You either become a Muslim or reject the religion go back where you came from. If you are Muslim, then accept your religion as it should be accepted.
A Jew, if he had that kind of attitude, he would never be a powerful little people he is. He is a powerful little people because he does not put America or the United States, or the President of the United States above Moses or above the Torah. He will tell the United States he'll tell the president we don't bend our knees to any but our G-d. I heard them tell the president that right on television. I'm not talking about what I think. I heard the Jew tell the United States from Israel. You don't know the Jewish people you have to learn the Jewish people. We do not bend our knees to anyone but G-d.
Look at all the help they get from America. And you over here, you tremble when you hear me speak like this and you ain't getting no help at all.
Man, that's intelligent he respects intelligence in another person. Man, that's not a coward he respects bravery in another person.
You want to get into the kingdom, and the way you go on you never do anything but polish brass. I doubt if you'll get a job that good. I'm talking to those that have fear, fear to think free. Don't you know our prophet Abraham is the figure, the symbolic figure representing the free thinker? The Muslim thinks free this is the order of Abraham the upright. Abraham the upright in faith and he was not a believer in idols. He was a free thinker. What did he tell his people? He said I'm free from what you believe in.
Isn’t that what he told them, "I am free from what you believe in, from what you ascribe." He said, "I'm free." Most of us don't understand that Abraham is a free thinker. Free thinker brings you into a universal vision. It brings you into universality. The free thinker, he would eventually come into the universality. And when he comes into that great observation or realization, and if he maintains his good nature his good spirit, he becomes the best of the Muslims. Yes, become the best of the Muslim. It is this piecemeal knowledge that keeps the good man a fool. There are a lot of good people that's foolish and not because they ain't good, it's because they have only piecemeal knowledge.
But once they come into universality, then the good man also become a productive man, a progressive man, an effective man. Yes, so of Abraham it says, "And G-d made him a leader of the nations," because he's a free thinker. And his heart was good, his spirit was obedient to G-d. He was a man of perfect faith. And Allah says, "Think for surely thinking profits." That's Quran, “think for surely thinking profits”. Now, if I want to stop getting losses and get more profits, I better start thinking more.
You either believe or you don't believe. If Allah has said this, I believe it, I'm a Muslim. I don't question what G-d has given me. I don't question his power I believe it. He says, “think and surely thinking profits the thinker”. Before even you pray, you're doing dhikr. What is dhikr? Thinking, thinking that's what thinking is. Dhakara, thinking, dhikr, thinking. It says, “And the greatest thinking of all is the thinking on G-d”. Think on G-d profits you more than anything else. Dhikr Allahu Akbar. Surely thinking on G-d is the greatest. Not thinking on G-d like a fool. Thinking on G-d to see if I can disappear, I don't want to disappear I want to appear.
Dear beloved brothers, Muslims, sisters too, we have to see the seriousness of our own decisions. When you make a decision to become a Muslim to say there is no G-d, take shahada (La ilaha illalla, Muhammadar Rasool Allah). To become a Muslim and say I'm a Muslim now. You can't be a Muslim over here in this corner. Muslims are all over the world. So, you can't be a Muslim in this corner and go outside. They're going to be Muslim out there who'll look at you. Say "Hey you're no real Muslim that's a corner Muslim. Their Muslim is only corner Muslim”. And the Muslim of the world are not corner Muslims, they're universal Muslims.
So, take into account the seriousness of your decisions especially you who are not satisfied with being short-changed. You want the full measure of what G-d has created for you. Take serious your decisions. You say you're Muslim, take it serious. I'm a Muslim, now, what is required of Muslim? I go to the Quran; I go to the life of Muhammad. Ain’t no way for me to get around that, I got to do my best. I got to do my best. Maybe I'm not as great as you or maybe I'm not as great as the next fellow, or the one that just went behind left, no, I may not be as great as those, but I have to do my best.
If I'm going to live with a good conscious. I have to do my best. I can't excuse myself. Say, “Oh, forget about this. Forget about that. All I want to do is just pray every now and then, say Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar occasionally and go on to hear the Imam once in a while. And that's enough. Allah knows my heart”.
That's okay but get behind us. You are not the one that G-d wants to carry the work. The one that G-d wants to carry the work are those that accept the full responsibility. And even though they can't measure up, they won’t excuse themselves, they never will excuse themselves. They will say, "Well, brother, not yet but I pray Allah one day I will”. Allahu Akbar. They are never satisfied with their poor performance, their shortcoming and this is the teaching of the Prophet also. Praise be to Allah.
So, dear beloved Muslims, another thing we have to get out of is being ashamed to look different. Being ashamed to be in the minority. Being ashamed to disagree with majority opinion. 'Being ashamed to establish yourself aside and apart from what is popular. People like that ain't fit for nothing but slavery. That's the general run of the mill. They're okay, get behind us. You can't carry the leadership. You're too weak.
G-d says, “He will raise up a people if they fail Him, He will raise up a people who will love Him. Love Him”. And anybody who keeps putting their responsibilities behind them and closing their eyes to it, they don't really love G-d. The more you love G-d, the more you tax yourself. Yes. The more you love G-d, the more you tax yourself. You say, “no, I got to do better than this”. He said, “He will raise up a people, who will love Him”. I love to say this so much. Says, “who will not fear the criticism of any criticizer.
Audience: Allah Akbar.
I love that because I have known friends, I've known even a few relatives who say they love me, but as soon as they were in a company with many others, and others were taking the one position and they knew the right position for me, they wouldn't take the right position for me, they went along with the majority or they kept silent. And I wanted my beloved relative to show me strength. Stand up and tell these people the truth about me, but they wouldn't do it.
So, I really appreciate it. Allahu Akbar. I really appreciate it that in the Quran where G-d said they will not fear the criticism of any criticizer. We fear that we are going to be looked at or pointed to or criticized for not going along with the majority or what's popular. Live your religion of Al-Islam and live it with dignity and pride and walk with confidence that you have the best and the majority are mediocre, they're beneath you, they are inferior, and you are the excellence.
Don’t go among them and try and please them by coming into their spirit, but coming into their mannerisms, no, keep your spirit. Keep your mannerism, and you will command respect from every bastard on this earth.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Yes, I don't care how low they are, how ignorant they are, you command respect from the worst people when you keep to your Islamic form. I'm speaking from knowledge. I'm speaking from knowledge. What I'm saying is not from any guesswork, not from any notions or imaginations. No, I'm speaking from knowledge. G-d has protected me. I've never run from the low people. I never avoid the low people. I've lived in the worst neighborhoods in Chicago, and they respected me. They have never done the things to me they did to others.
And I know that nothing but the protection of Allah, fearing Him and believing as I should believe, and trying to be always a right Muslim, an upright Muslim was my protection. I've gone among people that would frighten the average person, and they took to me. They were curious, I could have become their leader. Yes, I could have become their leader. Some of you, you know, you were that kind of a person.
And you felt that way about me, but the more you look at me and the more you want to get closer to me. Because no matter how far you are away from home, you still have the human spirit, the human essence in you. And if you can just see a strong enough presence of what is lying sleep or dormant in you, I don't care how much of a crazy man or devil you are in your mind, eventually, that might reach you and you'll come around.
I honestly believe that if the devil wasn't a coward, he would be converted. I honestly believe that. The truth is so powerful. Nothing can withstand the test of truth, but truth. Really, I believe that the devil was not such a coward, he could be converted, but see he's a coward. As soon as he sees the strength, he goes. The devil gets out of there. Like Dracula as soon as he sees the beam of light is coming, Dracula's he's gone. He's bad when there is no light around. He bad. He's a bad man when there's no light around. That light come, he got to go. If he wasn't such a coward, I believe we could convert him.
Praise be to Allah. Let us take this religion very serious. Take our decisions that we make very serious, and let the strong come forward, embrace each other, put your hands in each other's hands, make pledge, make a sacred pledge that we are going to cooperate with each other for the advancement of this great life. For the advancement of this great life. To realize a better, bigger and more progressive Islamic community life in America. We're going to work together.
I'm ready now to take the oath, with any of you that want to take an oath and remain loyal, pledge my life. Not only that, if we have private concern that are acceptable in the eyes of G-d, in the light of Quran and Sunnah. If we have private concerns that we must keep secret. If it doesn't have bad intent, it's not an immoral or ugly design that we have on other people or on the world. We're not going to plan some wrong thing on other people. If it's anything acceptable in the eyes of G-d, if you want to keep it private and secret, I'm ready to pledge my life. To give you my life if I break that loyalty. That’s how serious this is.
We should come together, am not talking about fools, not the general run of the mill. I'm talking about the intelligent forward-thinking Muslim. We ought to come together and make a pledge to put our lives on the line and say, "If we fail, kill me." Yes, just say, "Look, if you don't hurry up and get to me. I will be dead, I'll kill myself."
A Muslim it is forbidden to kill himself. It's okay if you kill yourself, if you run out there and kill 10 oppressors.

Just run out there and kill 10 oppressors and die. Or get you one low down dirty dog and die. If you only get one, that's good enough, and go straight to paradise. Some of you all been shaking a long time. I've been speaking for 10 years, you've been shaking. "Yes, they're going to get him for that." They won't get me. They're going to get you. They can only get the sheep. Yes, the wolf gets the sheep, right. They don't get us, no indeed.
So, come away from that small kind of awareness of yourself as Muslim. Come to the great awareness, the real awareness of yourself as Muslim. That your purpose here on this earth is to set examples for all people on this earth. You're not here to live for no small negro or small black community. No, that isn't your job, that's not your role and responsibility on this earth. G-d says that, "The prophet, is a witness against you or for you and you are witness for or against the whole of humanity at large."
How is the Muslim community going to be a witness for or against the whole human family on earth if we don't have the most excellent standards of all the people? We have to be the most excellent people on this earth if we're going to be a witness for and against others. It means others, will look at you and see your life and your standards, and your life and your standards will either approve them or condemn them. They will either be approved or condemned by what Muslims live, do, establish and work for.
That means, we've got to find the Muslim for this. Right, we've to find the Muslim for this. We're more ahead, we're further ahead than most of the people in certain respects. How do I know? Non-Muslims tell me so. They say, "We have your people, they work for us. They excel others in these respects." I've had them tell me, "Your people whether they be in the army, or be in politics, or whether they be in business, we have found them to be better. They're of a higher standard than the others."
Now, we know we've got those who discredit us, who just wear the name and they don't give a, about how they live or what kind of image they project. We know we've got those but at the same time we've got sincere people. A growing number of sincere people.
And plus, we've got the information out in the public now, on how a Muslim should live so when they see that Muslim doing those things that are un-Muslim like, they don't put that on us anymore. They say, "That person is wrong. I know the Muslims, that's wrong. They're not a real Muslim there." Isn't that wonderful? But when we were keeping ourselves all behind closed doors, being Muslims behind closed doors, those bad people, will go out there in the name of our religion and give that image of us to the public.
But now that we've come out on national T.V. in the public's eye and told them what we stand for. Our principles and how we embrace the whole mankind, the whole humanity, then these people can't go out there now and do those things and it reflect on us. No, you'll carry your burden by yourself because the informed public will know that you're not a Muslim. Yes, and again they come to me and they tell me. They run to me and say, "There are some people that are claiming but we know they don't follow what you all teach." That's what they've told me. People in high places, "We know they don't follow what you all teach."
That's wonderful and that's why G-d says, "It has been revealed that it should be public, openly and freely" because that's the only protection for it. It's to publish it, it's to preach it, propagating it, openly and freely. That's the protection for it. Once it's known, then the deceivers, the infiltrators, the wrong doers, the ones that want to hurt our image. They're deprived of their tools, their tools become ineffective because the world has already seen the established proper image of the Muslim.
Dear beloved Muslims again I say to you, take your decisions serious, make commitment, form allegiance, draw on each other. Support each other with your strength, be loyal, pledge your life. You're pledging your life for Allah. Anytime you pledge your life to be loyal to what this religion requires of you and to be loyal to your brother, to not betray him. To be honest and sincere, truthful, never failing in your commitment to do what is proper and right in this religion. Your oath is with 
G-d, number one. It is with his prophet and is with the believers.
And I say, we need to do that and then hold each other answerable. Yes, if they break it, punish them. Find some way to punish them. The first thing you do is just to break association and have nothing to do with them anymore. Publish their name so everybody will know them. They're liars and can't be trusted. We cannot get the kind of relationship and cooperation for Muslims in America without us aiming high, reaching out far, demanding a lot of ourselves and making very serious commitment. That's the only way we're going to get it.
You cannot get trust from negros by preaching trust, "Hey, love your brother," you can't get it that way. You have to find a serious thinking African American who shares your same life and your same concern, and you all get together, you strengthen your bond, you pledge, you make your sacred pledges and then do your work.
And when they see that special group going places they cannot go, accomplishing things they can't accomplish, getting recognition that they cannot get. Do you know what they're going to start saying? Same thing they said when they saw Garvey grow big, same thing they said when they saw the honorable Elijah Muhammad grow big, even though it wasn't quite right. “Yes, I like those people”.
But they will never do these things. It’s going to take that special group to do these things. Then after we do it and they see us go forward, they’ll say, “Yes, you see those people? I like these people”. And after a while you hear them saying, “I'm one of those people”. They probably never made a rakah prayer. “No, salam alaikum, I belong to those people.” Prophet Muhammad says, the strong are responsible for the weak.” You have to set an example of strength, courage, and excellence for your weak brothers and sisters.
Then they will have something to believe in. Something to hold on to. We need to create a condition for them to have faith, ain’t no condition for them to have faith. When a few of the leading ones establish their excellence, and establish their works and their good life, then there will be an opportunity for the others to come to faith, come to trust and that has to happen. If our people are going to turn around for a positive life, for a forward, positive, effective, productive, profitable life. If they are to do that, that has to happen.
Do you know what they are saying now about the state of the African American people in this country? That we are more economically unstable than we have ever been, than we were before, the poverty programs, that's what they are saying in their report. That as a race, we are more economically unstable now.
That tells us we don't have leadership; we don't have any leadership. If we had leadership, we should have sustained some of that, that we have achieved. We should have retained it. It should be sustained and some of that great accomplishment, some of the great achievements. But they all have been wiped out. When we look over the lot of African American people, they are wiped out, we don't see the benefit they're gone.
Let's not leave it to the general run of the mill, African American people. You who are intelligent, and you who have better spirit, a better sense of direction in your life, you're going to have to start living more for the uplift of the total lot. And if you do that G-d is going to bless your effort. You're going to become a greater man in your field, greater a man in your profession, a greater worker by yourself. If you take on that responsibility. Say, “I have to live not only for myself but more importantly, I have to live to inspire and encourage the poor lot of my kind.
Isn't that what the great leaders behind us tried to do? Sensitize us that we can't live separately, but we have to live for the benefit for the good of the whole lot? We have to return to that. And stop living for yourself by yourself. Say, “I must live also to give hope, faith in the future to the lot of my people”. And G-d will bless you more. You will have a greater force working for you in your life. You'll become more effective and more profitable. I don't care what you’re in. If it is good. Even if it's bad you will do better. Yes, even if it is bad, you’ll do better if you take on that mind, and that sense of responsibility. Build the Islamic community, build something that others can look to and say there is hope.
Now, I want to turn again to the importance of believing in G-d and racing to Him for forgiveness. G-d says, He forgives all sin except Shirk. If anyone consciously denies G-d… to be continued.

