01/02/2005
IWDM Study Library
FIRST SUNDAY SPEECH 
Pt. 4
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Imam W. Deen Mohammed: He brought me some water and my throat is as clear as a whistle. I'm gonna leave it just like that right now. I don't got time for the water, although I'm tempted to drink it. I love water, especially good water. The older I get, the more I love water. I guess it's because I can't hold it like I used to.

[laughter]

 No really, really, I'm not drinking it because of that.

[laughter]

 Now, G-d tells us plainly, but how many will see? G-d made it easy but for us it's difficult. G-d made it very easy. You don't need everybody knowing how to get to the new or the world or the promised land. You only need one of them. If that one is decent, that one is gonna share with everybody else.

[pause]

 So the signs that G-d wants us to see, don't ever expect everybody to see it. That's not the way of G-d. That's not the way of intelligence. The way of intelligence and the way of G-d is to give it to one, the one give it to others. And what's the good in this? Is it just economy? Oh, G-d made it less difficult or less expensive on him by giving it to just one. No, it's not just economy. It's not just to make it less a problem. G-d knows human nature, and he wants to awaken human nature in us. He knows if he gives it to one, it's the right one, that one is gonna share it with all of the others. And that's going to awaken in the others that same charity, that same goodness. When they see it displayed by one of them, they love that person, and they are influenced by his goodness and they become good or better.

 So this is how Allah awakens the best us in us by giving it to one and the one share with us, and then we love him because of his goodness, his generosity, his unselfishness. We love him for that, and that awakens the same thing in us. The same excellence that he has, it begins to be nourished. Nourished by his sentiments and by his goodness. Nourish the ground for that thing to spring up in us and become a great life. This is the way of G-d.

 So don't think when I speak all of you should know. "Oh, I'm waiting to see if he gonna say the right thing." What? You know the right thing? Where you come from? Please let me get acquainted with you. You sure didn't come from the ghetto if you know the right thing 'cause you would've changed that ghetto. You'd be doing just what I'm doing. You'd have a business in the ghetto, or you'd be telling the people to wake up to the absence of business in our name. Do something about these neighborhoods, yeah. You'd be on the case.

 So don't pretend you know something. Be like I am. And I got this from the saints before me, we say we know nothing. G-d you know, we know nothing. 'Cause whatever we know is only because of your mercy. Only because of your mercy and your love for your creatures that we know. On our own, we know nothing. We come in the world knowing nothing, and some of us go out the same way. So what do we do? 

So G-d talking to us. I know there are many who say, "Oh, what is he doing? He ain't supposed to be doing this. If he's really blessed to see these things, he should know he's not supposed to be sharing this with the common people." G-d says in the scriptures, says, "Observe how the sky is raised up over you. Raised high above you, the sky." And he says, "Observe the camel." He got humps raised up on the back, camel. And he also says, "Observe the mountains, how they are raised up." So G-d pointing us to things that are structured higher than us. The canopy of the sky, way above us. The distance seem to be immeasurable. We can never imagine where it stops, so high, so far out of reach. And mountains, we see some mountains... And I've been at the base, at the foot of some mountains and looked at the top. I had a little experience climbing, so I know it was hopeless for me to wanna climb up to the top of that mountain. It'll wear you out. It'll defeat you. You'll be found dead up there somewhere or just start falling back down. Raise up high.

 And G-d says there are signs in these things, in the creation itself and also signs in you. Also signs in you. Now, so what is G-d talking about there? When G-d tells us to observe how the sky is raised up, over us, is G-d telling us just to look up at the sky like a dog or a monkey? They look up at the sky, what is the sky gonna do for them? They've been looking up there the sky for millions of years. The sky hasn't changed their life.

 So G-d says, "Now, observe the sky." What he wants us... What is he saying to us? Not the sky of that creation, the sky of your own creation. That's what he wants you to observe. The sky of your own creation. But take from the world that I made a lesson. Let my world give you a message for the orderly of your world.

 Now, see how my sky is raised up so high and beautiful. You see how peaceful it is. When the clouds go roll by, they're in the lower, lower region. There's blue sky far out there above the clouds. And when you out there on a clear night and you observe my creation, my artwork, my design, my order, and how quiet it is up there. Isn't it restful? How peaceful it is. Now when you make your sky, pattern your sky after mine. So when your subjects look up at your sky, they feel peace. They feel order. They feel the absence of trouble. They see beauty. This is the reason why G-d is telling us about the sky. You don't need a prophet to come tell you to look up at the sky, look up at the sky. Rats look up at the sky when they go outside, but they can't get up there.

 See the sky, all these pretty stuff. Now, for English-speaking people, the sky is called heaven. Heaven. For Arabic speaking people, it's called sky. That's right. Ain't no heaven for sky and sky. No, no two words for sky in Arabic. There's one word for sky in Arabic. So if you wanna say heaven, then you still have to say sky. So the little child that hear his father or mother or brother or uncle or somebody say, "Yes, one day we hope to be in the heavens," he gonna hear skies. No different word, same words for the one the stars are in, the one the clouds come down, block out for us the same one. That's what he gonna hear. One word, okay? 

 And when he hears heaven, he's gonna get a picture of the earth. Clear waters, pure waters. G-d lives underneath which the rivers flow. I don't look up to find gardens, I don't look up to find rivers, I look down here. So in Arabic language, when you hear the heaven, their mind comes down here. And when you hear heaven in English, your mind go up there. And it's true, peace is up there. What you need for your soul as a condition is sky. What you need for your mortal life as a condition is earth.

 And G-d didn't make us to be spirits without bodies. G-d made a body for our spirit to come in to. Not a spirit to get rid of the body. And some people, some holy saints, think the spirit has to get rid of the body. I have to say this body is non-existent, the body is non-existent, and then I can live the spirit. But G-d wants you first in a body, and the body invites the spirit. Alright? Yes. And then G-d made for your soul the sky.

 What is sky then? Ah, you know in this world you have more than one sky. You have Hollywood sky. Right? Hollywood sky. Los Angeles is a place where they make most of their stars. Los Angeles. Los Angeles. Lost Angels. A sky full of lost angels. If you're lost in Chicago and we give you role, we give you a job acting, and you can go straight to heaven. [laughter] Become one of the stars in heaven, go straight to heaven. Don't be a lost soul in Chicago, I'm saying. You had acting time. Come here and go to heaven. So the world, the secular world, they feel so bad... They feel so bad looking at the religious world preaching heaven and saying heaven all the time and going to hell all the time. So I'd say, "Everybody, well, look, we ain't trying to compete with G-d, but we don't tell him to come here and be stars."

[laughter]

 Stars in the heaven, huh? Yeah, okay. Well, I want you to know there's seven heavens, if you forgot. There's seven heavens. And one of those heavens is the heaven of business accomplishment. One of those heavens is the heaven of material achievement. One of those heavens is the heaven of the fulfillment of material aspiration. Material aspirations. Yes. So you see the mountains? How they are raised high, huh? How they are structured and how they are raised high. The mountains. That's material establishment. Great material establishment symbolized or pictured as a mountain. Moses went up in the mountain. And the Jews came out rich. [laughter]

 Now, Dr. King went up the mountain too. He said, "I've been to the mountaintop." But look at the ghetto. Look at the neighborhood. What mountain was that? No change over his followers. Not economically. They're still described as economic failures. Yes, the neighborhood of the business failure. The neighborhood of the blacks, the African-Americans are one big business failure. So what mountain did our Moses, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr go up to? The mountain of enlightenment. The mountain of light. The mountain of enlightenment. He was able to see with his intelligence and his education. He was able to see the future. Yes. For those down here on earth. See when you go up on top a high mountain, you look down on earth. It's like being in a plane. Some planes don't fly as high as some mountains are raised up. That's true. It's a fact. So when you go up to top of the mountain, you look down on earth. You look down on the people all around. So he was enlightened to see the future for society on this earth. And he was ready to die. He knew they didn't want him around, and he knew they were gonna kill him. But he was telling us, "I'm ready to die. Because I know they can't stop it, it's inevitable that freedom and justice be established." That's what he saw. He saw the hand of divine interventions, and he also saw the purpose of G-d for the creation of man in society.

 And he knew that their way was in direct opposition to the will of G-d and the way of nature. And that eventually, the way of nature in man will work him out of this bad situation and there would be no more segregation, but there would be equality of opportunity for all citizens. He saw that with his wisdom and his insight, and he got great help from the Bible to understand it, and he was ready to die. A real Muslim or a real Christian; Christian, I mean being like Christ's nature.

 A real Muslim and a real Christian are ready to die anytime G-d calls. Anytime. And we're happy to go, if we know it's G-d that's calling us. We're happy to go. Yes. So the sky, how beautiful it is. Beauty. Order. Peace. Isn't it wonderful? On a clear night, that's the feeling you get in your heart and your soul from looking at the sky. Beauty. Order. Peace. Now wouldn't it be wonderful if we could reflect on our Imams, who lead this community in America and a few places outside America. We're talking about this association that you are in with me. Wouldn't it be beautiful if we could look at them? And when we would look at them, they give us the beauty of stars in the heaven. They give us the security of order and not conflict. And they communicate to us, impart to us from their statutes, peace for our soul. Wouldn't that be wonderful? 

 Well, that's the message in sky. G-d is saying, "Man, hope for sky of your leaders, of your stars, like my sky that I made for you." That's what he's saying. See how the mountains are raised up high, and G-d says he raised them up like that so that the earth would not give away or shake with you. What earth? The earth of material accomplishments. If you don't want your business to shake and fall, if you don't want your material life to crumble, then establish men in the leadership of business, solid like a mountain and tall enough with material achievement for themselves, like a high mountain. Don't follow nobody got peanut shells all around him. Ain't nothing growing up higher than his peanut shell, he's eating the peanut and dropping the shell. Find a man with achievement and model yourself after him and make him your business leader.

 You see the great wisdom? You see how G-d is communicating? Now you rather go and follow somebody that's gonna tell you to count the beads? Count beads and make so many rak'ahs and do this and read... Hey this guy... No brother. The sky! The sky! What is this foolishness that brother, that Imam is telling you? No, the sky, the sky, everybody knows the sky. G-d told the sky. It mean the sky.

[foreign language]

 Put it in the basket, brother. Did you make Salaat? Make Salaat. Here, here. Make Salaat. You make now brother, you make now. Yes, you make now. And you fool, you make your Salaat and he's looking around for another fool. Hey, look at that.

[laughter]

 Come here, come here brother. Come here, come here, come here. Did you make your zakat? Did You make your sadaqa? Oh no, Imam Mohammed, he's wrong! The mountain is the mountain. Moses went up a mountain, a real mountain. This stupid stuff that Imam, the Mohammed, that the Deen talking about, you leave that brother. You go on back to Bid'ah, you go on back to Elijah Muhammad darkness. But you help yourself. If that's the way you're going, come to me fittingly. Come over here.

 Muhammad the prophet said, "The time will come when they will see Christ Jesus and him together." He was saying that right now or in these circumstances, or in this time, for the circumstances that man has to accept, you can't see us together. You think we are... I'm an adversary or I'm in competition in some kind of competition to pull away from Christ, to take from Christ his following or to hurt the Christian hope. No. He said you will come to see one time that there's come a time when you'll see us together. Now, I mentioned the prophet being given the freedom or the right of choice, to choose the path to his destiny that takes him through the mountains. Or to choose the path that takes him through the plains. And he said he chose the path that takes them through the plains. I mean I choose to fulfill my mission with the masses, with the common people, not with the mountains, the rich, the mighty, the bosses, the rulers. No. This is good. But if you take what I'm saying in another way, it's bad. If you think that I'm saying he went out to topple governments, you're wrong. And that's bad, that's a bad perception.

 No, he was saying that religion, connecting people back with G-d, does not depend on material wealth and power. It does not depend on academic knowledge and power. It does not depend on all of these mountains of achievements and power. It depends on nothing but the common person in his best human-spirited nature responding to the invitation that G-d has given him to give to them. And a new life will be bred. A new life will be bred. And from the ground will come up new, new worlds. And of people who will eventually have their mountains. But they'll know that the mountains didn't make them, the spirit of G-d and their guidance made them. And also made them able to raise up their mountains. This is the way of religion.

 Was Jesus Christ any different? No. That's why he said, "You'll see us together." Jesus Christ is pictured in the Bible being welcomed into the city, and the people threw their palm... Easter coming up pretty soon too. In fact I can already smell Easter. This materialist over here, he got these holidays so close together, as soon as one's gone you start smelling the next one.

 Thanksgiving, Christmas, he'll just stay in the house and eat popcorn and drink the coffee and tea and whatever. And Christmas will be there soon, you only got but a short wait. You don't have but a short wait. It's okay if we live for G-d and not for the holidays, then the holidays are beautiful. You live for G-d and the holidays will be beautiful. And without hangovers and all the other trouble, without a jail term. More people from the ghetto go to jail during these holidays than any other time. And jail's wasn't so crowded, there'd be more of them going to jail. But not if we just take them out of the jail, "Go on home, man. We ain't got nowhere to put you." You didn't do nothing but put out the eye of your friend on the dance floor. You stab him in the eye. He was blind, He was blind in both eyes anyway(humor)Just go home.
 
 Yes, getting back to Jesus Christ, peace be on the servant of G-d. Jesus Christ is pictured in the Bible coming into the city victorious. Victorious. And they threw palms down, branches, leaves, in his path for him to walk on. Not a red carpet but a green palm carpet. That was their livelihood. Palm trees supported them, that was their livelihood. So they threw what they cherished and what they valued, they submitted to it saying, "You're the man, not us. We trust ourselves and on our life and our way of life to you." So they dropped at his feet.

 And he rode in on a donkey. Rode in on a donkey, victorious. Riding in on a donkey. The same Bible in the Old Testament have Baal riding a donkey. And keeping donkey in donkey life. Now who's the donkey? Everything a sign, G-d is speaking through signs. Who is this donkey? Moses was trying to lead his people, and they were so busy questioning him and doubting him that they made so much trouble, he could have gotten what he had to do done much faster if it wasn't for them just constantly questioning and doubting and making trouble for his leadership. So G-d blessed him with a sign to show them that when they saw it it was a healing for them to take them out that argumentative state of mind where they wouldn't be just disputing all the time with wisdom and guidance. It says in the Quran, it says that the ignorant say [inaudible] and the ignorant who say. That's the way the section of the Quran starts. "And the ignorant they say." The ignorant one they say. These are the ones that this contend, that are always doubting and contending with people.

 So the donkey is an unruly animal, isn't he? He's given to changes of spirit. He'll just be cooperating with you and he'd be doing the Boogaloo with you down the side of the road.

[vocalization]

 You'll get out there and you'll talk to him, get back on his back.

[vocalization]
 One man said he got off of one of the donkey like that and he said he took a 2x4, said he hit him right back in the face with it. Said he got back up there and he rode without trouble for a while, [laughter] but I don't think so. The nature of a donkey, no, you had to kill it. He said, "Well, if you kill it, you kill your ride too." [laughter] So what he's saying of this donkey, this donkey represents that type of spirit and mind in people. Donkey can be a white man, red man, and yellow man, but most of times it's Negroes.

[laughter]

 It is said in the Bible of Jesus Christ, peace be on Christ Jesus, it says that he told the leaders, the establishment...
