10/07/1999
IWDM Study Library 
Tuskegee, AL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker 1:
Takbir. Allahu Akbar. Takbir. Allahu Akbar.
IWDM:
Peace to you. As Salaamu Alaikum. We thank G-d and Praise Him. We say Allhamdulilah, The Lord, Sustainer of the Worlds. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'Aalameen. The Thanks and Praises for G-d, the Lord Sustainer of the Worlds. We witness that nothing deserves to be worshiped except Him. We worship but One G-d. We associate no deity. Nothing to be worshiped as G-d except G-d, The Creator of everything as we have it in our Holy Book. "Al Khaliq kulli shay" The Creator of everything, of everything. And yet this Creator says of Himself that He is "Ahsanu Khaliqeen", that He is the Best of Creators. That is G-d wants man to know that G-d has Created him also to create things, to be a creator, but he is to remember that G-d is the Creator of everything, including what man creates.
Praise be to Allah. And we have been known as a people and criticized really, stigmatized as a people that produce nothing but babies. Well, that has changed. We know there are few of us that are satisfied still producing nothing but babies, but I think the majority of us want to produce much more than babies. We want to produce a future for those babies and that means accepting responsibility for our circumstances, for the conditions in our life and our home life, firstly, but also in our neighborhood and in our city and in our country.
And this is a big responsibility that G-d gave to every human being. Knowing that every human being couldn't carry that big responsibility, but G-d knew that He created enough in the human being for leaders to rise up and represent the many. And the leaders will guide the people to a life of production and provide jobs and opportunities to grow for all people, for all the people.
This is what the best of our political leaders want for society, the best of our Presidents of these United States want for this society, and this is what the best believers in the faith Communities of Jews, Christians and Muslims want for this society. That no one be dealt with unjustly. And G-d says, "Kum kawamun abeel fisnee shuhada lillah." To the Muslims, He says to us, "Be a people standing for justice as witnesses for G-d." As witnesses for G-d. So, we have to accept this responsibility. And G-d says of us, "Antum khyrun ummatan ukhreejan annas," that "You are the best of Community evolved for the good of all people." And Muhammad the Prophet, sallahu walhi wasallam, the prayers and the peace be upon him, he said, "Khyrkun manyanta nas," "The best of you are the ones who benefit the whole of humanity." The best of you are the one who benefit the whole of humanity.
Now, if I'm a big man, it's because I have accepted a big responsibility. And if you accept a big responsibility and you're small, I guarantee you're going to get bigger. You get bigger by accepting bigger responsibilities. I told my poor Community when I first became their leader, they called me Chief back then, and I felt like a Chief too. There was a lot of bucks, a lot of bucks. I don't mean dollar bucks. I mean male Indians, soldiers, bucks, that was doing more...more bucking than anything else. But they called me Chief, Chief Minister, Supreme Minister, Chief Minister, then they start calling me Chief Imam. Chief Imam, that's what they called it, but I think they dropped the Chief now, and I'm more comfortable now as your leader since they have dropped all that Chief stuff because I know it didn't help the Indians at all.
Responsibility. G-d created us for responsibility, created all of us for responsibility. And He doesn't want to burden us. He doesn't want to see us miserable under a heavy burden. G-d says He does not want difficulty for us. He wants ease for us. But there's certain requirements that we have to accept. We're required to do certain things and it's not going to be easy. But He promised us if we accept to do those things that's required of us, that's going to be difficult at times and sometimes very, very difficult, extremely difficult, He promised us that if we accept that challenge and accept the responsibility, He promises us a life of ease.
And we know that we relatively have a life of ease now in these United States. If you don't believe it, just travel to other countries and see how they're fairing. We have it relatively easy as citizens of these United States and it has come the hard way. Those before us have paid a big price. Frederick Douglass, Dr. King, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and all the people, white and black and all that supported them. And the Nationalist Movement, Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington. Then I would say the Business Movement, Booker T. Washington, the movement for business and education. Booker T. Washington, Dubois who was an educator but also political leader, a political theorist, philosopher in his own right. All of them paid a price and many of their followers had to lose their life, had to shed their blood. Many of their supporters lost life and shed blood. It wasn't easy.
It hasn't been easy being an African-American mother even in the North. My mother didn't have it easy when I was a boy in Chicago but look now at her son. Her son makes so much money he takes care of three or four families, pays their bills every month, they don't have to worry about it. Those are not my wives', Sisters. No, I said three or four families. I didn't say three or four wives'.
I thank G-d. I thank G-d for blessing me, but it wasn't easy. My mother paid a big price. My father paid a big price. My sisters and brothers and especially the senior citizens of the Nation of Islam that supported my father and family and my mother and us, the children, paid a big price. Yes, paid a big price. Many of them are gone. They're not here anymore. And some of them have died because they just worked too hard, worked themselves to death. One of them was the Secretary of the Temple and I used to see him in the streets as a boy about 11 or 12 years old, I saw him pulling what they called the pushcart, but his was so big he couldn't push it.
They called them a pushcart. It was too big to push and he wasn't the only one. They made them big like, big, as a ton and a half truck and they had to pull them. He would load it up with the metal, old scrap metal and whatever he could sell at the junkyard, and he would pull it with a belt, big wide belt like two and a half inch wide belt, be over his shoulder, and sometimes he'd be at an angle. He would be at an angle. He'd be leaning over at an angle of about 45 degrees, pulling it. His body would be jutting out like that in front and he'd pull. That's how heavy it was. He did that so he would be able to donate money to the Temple of Islam so that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad would have financial support. His family would not have to be hungry for food and shelter and be out of doors. He did that for those reasons, big sacrifice. Why would that man make that big sacrifice?
Because he was working for something bigger than himself, something bigger than his family, something bigger than even The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's family. He was working for a whole Community we called the Temple of Islam, or the Nation of Islam. He was working for that. That's how he got the energy and that's how he could endure. That's how he could survive and accept the misery, accept the discomfort for the hope or for the end result that we would be free from these unnecessary problems we were having in our life because of our ignorance, because of our neglect of our own selves and our responsibility to self, but also because of the white man cruelties to the Black man. During the early years of this century, up to the middle, well, up to two thirds of this century. Up to two thirds of this century, we were suffering the bad conditions that the white man was imposing upon us, the white society, the white establishment was imposing upon us.
And then as you know, 1960s things started to break. Opportunities started to open up for us, but only with the price of blood, sweat and tears. And in the 1970s, equal opportunity came, early 1970s. We have equal opportunity now and our people as a people are still needing to have an awareness of the state of their own race or the state of their own people. When we had leaders fighting for justice in this country, they kept this country, and therefore also kept us informed of the state of the African-American people. Now you have to go maybe to the NAACP or go to the Urban League and ask them, "What is the state of the African-American community in America? What is the state of our people in America? And they could give it to you. They'll give it to you and they'll tell you that there's still a lot of work to be done. Still a lot of work to be done.
But recently, to show you we are making progress, recently the head of the NAACP called for the NAACP to be not an organization just for Black or African-American organization, but to be an organization for all minorities who need their assistance. And that tells you that there has been progress for African Americans, though we still have a need for these organizations, NAACP and Urban League and others. And we still have a need for organizations, militant organizations or organizations that concentrate on our men, our males, our youth, our males, young males, to see that everything is done possible to give them something productive to do like Minister Farrakhan in the Nation of Islam under him.
We still need leaders to make us conscious and to make us aware of our own responsibilities to ourselves, to our families, to our community, to our neighborhood. And I'm happy and very pleased, feel there's a special blessing to be invited again to this city, Tuskegee, Alabama. To say to the people of this city, especially to your leaders like Johnny Ford, who spoke, the Keynote speaker last night, to say to your leaders and to you that we have a lot in common. We who represent the Muslim American Society who identify with my leadership, we have come from a path that gave us a new life. Most of us who joined the Nation of Islam, we believed in G-d, we believed in being righteous, we believed in being good people, but we were not happy with our situation as citizens or as people in this country.
So, we heard the message of the Nation of Islam inviting us to become... separate from this world society, from the white man's world. We accepted that and we believed that the new religion, that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Temple of Islam was offering us was the right religion. And we believed that we would realize the promise of the Nation of Islam or The Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s' promise to us, that if we would unite and become Muslims in the Nation of Islam, that G-d would be with us and one day we would be freed from all of these problems and we would have a life in dignity, with dignity and a life of comfort. This is what he promised us. He promised us that.
And he emphasized education. He put emphasis on getting a good education and he, as you know, built private schools, opened private schools in many of the cities. We still have those private schools, many of them, have more even now. And when you look at what Booker T. Washington was all about and look at what The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was essentially all about, you see two people doing a similar work. Booker T. Washington didn't just want us to have education for the sake of having education and being accepted in society or the society of the educated. He didn't just want us to have vocations, jobs as builders, brick layers, beauty shop owners or whatever. That wasn't the end for him. All of that was for the dignity of the people.
He wanted that the African-American people would one day have a normal existence as a people in a civilized society where... that they wouldn't be ashamed of their station and their representation beside other civilized communities. That's what he wanted and that's what all of our leaders wanted. All of our leaders just wanted to see us free in our own life and in our own identity, and comfortable with our citizenship and comfortable with our future. That's what they all wanted. The betterment of the race, simply put. NAACP, National Association for the Improvement of Colored People, so improvement for the people. That's what they all wanted.
And it's compatible not only with that tradition that we know in the Nation of Islam under The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, but it's also true for the Religion of Islam, this Universal Religion, the Religion of Nations. Not one Nation. The Religion of Nations. The religion of over a billion people on the face of this earth. Black, brown, yellow and white folks are Muslims and all of them have Nations and they have their Islamic Nations that are white, black, brown, red. So, it is a religion of humanity. It is a religion of the Children of Adam, all of them. And now we have ourselves, we are included in that big following, that Universal following that we call the Muslims of the world or the Moslems of the world, as some say Moslems. They pronounce it, the French pronounce it, Moslems of the world. The Muslims of the world. We are members there and is it asking us to do something else?
We lose sight on the real beauty and the real meaning for the religion. The real beauty and the real meaning of the religion is not just doing prayers and thikr. Some of you all have followed traditional, so-called traditional ritualistic Muslim influences and you haven't accepted them in their full life. You accepted them only in their ritualistic life. So, you follow them in their rituals and you think Islam is nothing but doing thikr on your fingers, or on the beads, brushing your teeth with a stick that's made soft on the end and wearing garbs for the desert.
You think that's the religion, that's the religion and putting some incense in the house, burning incense and some oils, some musk on your skin, and that's the religion for you, and saying, "As Salaamu Alaikum Rahmatullah Yakhee. Alhumdullilah Yakhee. Mashallah. Insha'Allah." You got about 10 sentences and that's the religion. That's not the religion. I'm not saying this to make jokes, its humor, and I welcome you to enjoy yourself, but me, I have no jokes in me. I'm very serious. Yes, no intent to make a joke, very serious. This is real and this is serious. So, this is not Islam. Islam is a full life for human beings. "Deen al lathe fatarah nasah alayha. Deen al lathe fatarah nasah alayha." The religion, original in its original state. The religion upon or the pattern upon which He patterned mankind, "Fatrah nasah alayha," the pattern upon which He has fashioned or established all people. This is a Universal Concept. Universal Concept. It's no in-the-sky, away-from-reality concept, it's a Universal Concept.
G-d does not reject the natural life of the human being. How can He reject it when He Created it? So, G-d says that the best of your natural life... you love to appreciate beauty in your environment? That's Islamic. You love to express your talents and share them with others so that others enjoy something or are entertained and enjoy or entertained and enjoy what you offer. That's Islamic. Some people met the Prophet when he was coming into a small area and they knew he was coming, so it was tradition for them to meet him, to meet the guests, important guests, with tambourines, beat the tambourines, and with some chanting, songs-like.
The Muslims of Arabia, they hadn't known such entertainment or such culture. Their culture was different and they didn't think that this would be nice to welcome the Prophet with such entertainment. So, they told the Prophet that these people are "such and such" people. He said, "Every people have their culture." He said, "Leave them be." He refused to let them stop those people from beating the tambourines and chanting. Now you'll find some of us... I know what I know the subject. Don't think I don't. You'll find some of us, we will go to the extreme and use such support to support us performing, singing or dancing out of the spirit of Islam and out of the respect for Islam.
The best of Christians, they don't conform to the culture, the popular culture of this society, and the best of Muslims, we don't like it. Our spirit is strained, our spirit is hurt when we see Muslims performing with no respect for the spirit of Islam and no respect for the teachings of Islam. It hurts us, pains us. Muhammad the Prophet said, "Whoever behaves, whoever takes on a behavior of people who are not Muslim, are not one of us." So understand that. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad worked all those years to take us out of the mold of the popular culture of this world.
Now are we going to become Muslims with all Muslims of the world and go back and adopt that foolishness? Hollering and screaming, shaking yourself, not caring about rules of decency for religious people? No, we can't do that. This is a big task we have and it is the responsibility of the leaders in Islam to remind us when we are going, verging off from the life of Islam. Islam calls us to a life, the life of Islam. It has its own identity. It's not the life of the Jews. It's not the life of the Christians, and certainly it's not the life of the ungodly, unconscious people who do anything and everything with their bodies.
No, you're better off going back to the church. You'll have a better time in court with G-d going back to the church and being a decent Christian and behaving according to Christian principles and spirit than you will calling yourself a Muslim, but now you don't know the difference between Muslim behavior and street behavior. You don't know the difference between Muslim behavior and popular culture behavior. This is no good and this will never get us where we want to go. And the Mosque is a center for the people, Muslims, but it's a center for all the people. Understand this and especially, Brother Imams, please understand this. Your Mosque is not only to serve Muslims. Your Mosque is to serve all mankind.
G-d says that the Ka'bah, that we turn to directing ourselves in prayer and for Hajj, for Pilgrimage. That center or that central focus for Muslims all over this earth, built by Abraham and his son Ishmael, Ism???l in Arabic. G-d says that that House, "Awulubayit, Awululbayit buneeyah linnas," "It is the first of the Houses built for all mankind." Not for black, not for white, not for Muslims or Christians, built for all mankind. "Bunee al innas." Built for all people. Now we know Christians don't go there. Christians don't turn that way to pray. We know that. We know that's our orientation, but our orientation has to respect the life of all people. It cannot offend the life of anybody. No race, no religion. No, it must be respectful of all people and all persuasions.
And we find that the Christians and the Jews, they embrace the Muslims, especially nowadays. They did it in Spain when the Moors were there ruling. Christians and Jews worked side by side with Muslims to better the society for all the people of Spain. That time is coming again, it's here again. Christians and Jews and others meeting together, in Saudi Arabia, in Rome, in different parts of the world, in China. In all places of the world, we are meeting, Muslim leaders with other religious leaders, to see how can we better understand each other so we can better respect each other in order for us to work together and support each other for the advancement of all people, for the advancement of the life, the good life of all people.
This is what's happening right now in the world. A good time, a better time than even Islamic Spain. It's a better time than that. It's the best time for religions that man has ever witnessed on the face of this earth. So, we in the Mosque, we have to be aware of this. We have to be aware of Islam as a religion bigger than your shoes and your pants, Brother, and your coat and your kufi. Islam is a religion that G-d gave us to accommodate all the needs in human life, all the needs in human life. Islam is the religion of the individual, it's the religion of the family. It's the religion of the Community. It's the religion of the earth. That's what Islam is.
And Islam has its own idea for promoting human society, advancing human society, and its idea is not Christian, its idea is not Jewish, its idea is strictly Islamic. So, you leaders, you Imams, you teachers of Islam, you educators. You have to know Islamic identity and you have to know the mission of Islam on this earth, and you have to know firstly that it most certainly respects mankind first, and then it calls to Muslims. Muhammad the Prophet, was he practicing Islam in the first 40 years of his life? He didn't know Islam. G-d had not called him, but he was practicing the excellence of human nature. He was in the excellence of human nature and he was living the excellence of human nature. He wasn't identifying with any religion when G-d called him. But G-d called him and made him the Last Prophet, the Seal of the Prophets, and G-d called him. In the Qur'an, G-d says of him, "He is a mercy to all the world."
Now, are you his follower, Brother Imam? You his follower? If you're his follower, then you better know who you are following. You are following a man that G-d says is a mercy to all the world. Do you have mercy for all the world? To follow him you must have mercy in your heart for all the world, and mercy in your heart for all the world means that you have it in your heart to want to see all the world benefit justly, fairly, equally. This is no small religion. This religion cannot be made a fad. You can become a fad with the name Muslim, but the religion will live to see you dead and your fad gone. It will never be a fad. It's permanent. It's permanent, not seasonal.
If you accept the truth of Al-Islam and you're a leader and you express this truth to your congregation, I guarantee you with my presence and with my life that you will not stay 10 and 15 and 20 and 50 and 200 in number. I guarantee you, in a few years you'll be a thousand in number because you will be reaching and touching the life of human beings, and there are many human beings out here waiting for a true hand to touch them. Yes, they're waiting for that.
So, we must first understand the role of the Mosque in the time of Prophet Muhammad by understanding him. What was his leadership? What was his role? He was a man serving humanity and he challenged his own people. He didn't preach national glory. No, he challenged his own people, the Arabs. And he didn't have more faith in Arabs than he had in humanity. The last sermon when he spoke at the last big gathering at the Pilgrimage site, what did he say to the people? He said, "You who are present..." he's speaking mostly to Arabs, "Convey this message to those who are absent. Per chance they will understand it better than you." That's what he told them.
So, his hope for the future of Islam did not rest in the hands of Arabs, but he told them to carry it on to others, "Per chance the others may understand it better than you and if they understand it better than you, then there'll be a better future for Islam because of them joining it also." And even though he was in a sea of Arabs, members of his own race or his own people racially speaking or tribally speaking, he had with him in his immediate circles of leaders, the white-skinned Muslim, the black-skinned Muslim, the brown-skinned Muslim. His organized group of leaders working with him directly was a reflection of the colors of the people we call the race of mankind, the race of mankind, the human race.
So, I have tried registering that more and more over the last 20 years. I've tried to bring into my immediate circle, persons of color. And I have white, I have black and I have brown and I have red working directly with me for the future of Islam and the future of Muslims in America and the world, Praise be to Allah. The role of the Mosque in the time of Muhammad the Prophet was a community center and emphasis was on learning how to read, literacy so that after literacy could come scholars, knowledge, education, higher education and scholars. If you can't read, you can't be educated. So, he put emphasis first on literacy, learning to read. He obligated every follower of his to write down what he would give them and then teach it to another person who could not read. So, he made really, teachers of all of his followers. He said, "If you only can remember one line, then teach that one line to another person."
And in the Qur'an, he's mentioned as a liberator. In our Holy Book called the Qur'an, G-d says of him that he is "the unlettered," meaning was not formally educated. He received no formal education from anybody. He was not belonging to any Rabbinical school or any Order that would educate him. No, he was not formally educated by anybody. He belonged to no...he had no teachers and belonged to no schools. And G-d says of him that he is... the unlettered Messenger or Prophet mentioned in the Torah and in the Injeel, mentioned in the Torah and in the Injeel.
So, Brother Imams, how many of you all are conscious that G-d said to us through Muhammad, that our Prophet is mentioned in the Books that Moses' people received and in the Books that the Christians received? How many of you all are conscious of that? I don't think you are. I listen to most of you. Most of you are not even conscious of that. You think Prophet Muhammad is a Prophet separate from all other Prophets, when the point is clearly made to us in our Holy Book that this is no new religion. This is the religion of the Prophet's before. That's what we're taught and we are told that we are to believe in those Prophets, all of them.
And we are told we're to not only believe in Jesus Christ as a Prophet, we are told that we are to believe in him as Christ also. How many of you were aware of that? If you are, you don't show it in your language. We are to believe in Jesus Christ as a Prophet and believe me, the Bible says he's a Prophet. The Bible says he's a Prophet, and we are to believe in him also as a Christ. The Bible you know says he's the Christ. We believe in him as the Christ. Even further than that because Christ only means anointed and David was anointed by them putting special oil on his head and wiping his head with the oil, so he's more than just that.
He's also the child, man of the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception. Do Muslims believe in Immaculate Conception? Yes, but how do we explain that? I would say "Great Sign." Allah says he and his mother, not only Jesus Christ, peace be upon him and his mother, he and his mother are for signs. How do we explain this in Islam? In Christianity we know how it's explained. I don't need to go over that. In Islam we say G-d is the Creator and has power to create whatever He Wills, and Jesus' creation, peace be upon him, is as the creation of Adam, the first man, Adam. That's what we are told to say. "Oh, but I want to know more." You got your mind on sex too much, Brother. You will never learn the religion if you're just going to be sexy through and through. Get your mind off of sex. This is not about that thing that you do. It's not that, it's not that small, Brother. This is a big thing. This is a big, big conception. 
Yes, say believe that G-d has the power to create whatever He Wills and as He Created the first life, He can create the second and repeat it. Says that as He created a man from the dead earth, He can certainly create a man from a living woman. This is G-d. You're supposed to believe in the power of G-d to create whatever He Wills and G-d again says, to make it very simple for us, He says, "If I want a son, I can get a son from those that I've already Created." Thank you. And He Created Adam. Didn't He Create Adam? Was that not the first man He Created, Adam? And He said, "If I want a son I can get a son from those I've already Created."
And I read the Gospel, the New Testament. One of the Books of New Testament that's given us the genealogy of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, and the genealogy of Jesus Christ is traced from his mother back to Adam, says who was created by G-d. Need I say more? I think I should, not for the sake of you people in the audience, but for the sake of our Imams that are fixated in Christianity and Christian theology. Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, is also called the Second Adam, the Second Adam. That's why the Bible or the New Testament has to trace his genealogy back to the First Adam.
Was Adam a man? Adam was a man, wasn't he? That explains why Jesus Christ is called both the Son of Man and the Son of G-d. And Jesus Christ, wanted his followers to know him better, he said, "Who do you say I am? Who do you say I, the Son of Man, am? He didn't say, "I'm not the son of a man," but he let it be known, the high knowledge, to keep you Imams from going astray or from missing me while you are fixated, he said to his Imams, he said, "Who do you say I, the Son of Man, am?"
And one of those Imams said, "You are the son of the living G-d," and he let it be like that. You all keep being numb in the head and hearing me and saying something I didn't say, I'm going to open me up a church. I'll do a better job in the church if you Imams don't straighten up. It's time to be in accord with the Qur'an, in accord with our Holy Book all the way, not part of the way, and be in accord with the life example of a Muslim in Muhammad the Prophet, the model man, the model Muslim, all the way. You can't make a little small business of Islam. The Muslim world won't like that and we won't like that, we don't like that.
When we know Muhammad the Prophet and know this religion, then we are situated to be appreciated by other people. You see how other people appreciate your Imam? Christians, Jews, the Buddhists. I meet Buddhists, people, and they heard of me. When they meet me, they're smiling and they're showing affection. That's love. Know why they love me so much? Because they learned in my history that I came from The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. A man who was very sincere in his work of helping his own people, but a man that did not have Islam in its true and universal picture. But they know that he wasn't responsible for the incorrect the representation of Islam, that whoever had taught him, wanted him to concentrate only on the improving of the conditions in the Black man's life.
So, they excused him for his errors and they love and appreciate him for his sincerity and his great work of trying to uplift the life of poor, neglected African-American people. And we who followed him in sincerity, we love him still. We appreciate him still. To tell you the truth, I appreciate him more now than I ever did appreciate him because I realize the giant of a man he was. The thing that he did to help me, made him a bigger man in my own eyes. He told his Chiefs', his top officers of the Nation of Islam in my presence after I had differences with him and he had rejected me, putting me out twice out of the Temple of Islam, out of the Nation of Islam.
He told them, says, "My son can go anywhere he wants to," and then he looked at me because they had brought a tape I made. I had a radio interview. They brought the tape, [...] "You're going to be able to get me busted again, get me put out of the Nation of Islam again." But the tape did not affect him as it affected them. He liked the tape. He says, "And son," looking at me, he said, "and son, go and you preach that gospel." He called it gospel. You know, with no serious weight to it, but, you know that's how we talk, you know. Preach that gospel means preach that truth. He didn't mean that my message would be a gospel, something fit for a Holy Book or something like that. He didn't mean that. He only meant, "Go and preach that truth that I'm hearing from you." He said, "And go and preach that gospel." That was his exact words to his Supreme Captain, to his Assistant Minister in Chicago and to about 20 other staff people that was in that room when he spoke these words to me. He said, "And preach that gospel."
So, what was he telling them? "My son is not obligated to preach what I taught anymore. He's free to preach what he has in his mind and heart now," and that's exactly what I did. (Imam laughing). That's exactly what I did. And who made me the kind of man I am? Who made me fit for the Qur'an and fit to follow Muhammad the Prophet? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He did. He told me. He said, as he told all the other Ministers and you too who followed him, he said, "Don't take what is on the surface," he said, "but look deep into it. Study deep," he said. He told me to use my own intelligence. He freed me to use my own intelligence. He freed me to question even what he gave me. When he said, "Don't take what's on the surface, but look deep into it," he freed me to question even what he gave me. And in questioning what he gave me, it made me fit to follow Muhammad the Prophet.
Yes, he'd already given me a sense of obedience to G-d. I just didn't conceive G-d correctly. But he gave me a sense of obedience to G-d and he also gave me a sense of responsibility to self and humankind. He made me industrious. He taught me to be industrious. He made me truthful. He taught me to be truthful. He told me there's a penalty for lying. He told me, as he told you, to say, "My word is my bond and my bond is my life and I'll give my life before I let my word fail." So, he prepared me to accept the Qur'an and follow it and follow the Prophet of the Qur'an, Muhammad sallalhu walihi wasallum, prayers and peace be upon him. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad did that.
So, one day he was questioning me, and you know he was a master of human psychology. He knew I was having a hard time out there, Wallace Deen Mohammed. No job record anywhere but in the Nation of Islam. Born in the Nation of Islam. So, he knew I was having a hell of a time, so he took two suitcases, two of those little cases, you know, that he used to carry. Some of you remember him carrying one. And he opened them up and it's full of money. I guess like the mafia leader would do, you know? Well, he wasn't saying, "I got enough to have somebody to kill you." He was saying, "Here's a lot of help, my son, if you want to straighten up and fly right." So, he opened up those two big cases, man, all that money in there.
I'm looking at it and he told me, he said, "Son, I heard that you don't believe in our faith." And I... I'm the son of a master of human psychology, right? So, the son of the master of human psychology said, "Daddy, I can more easily accept you as my savior." And he tried to pretend that I didn't strike him, but he... I knew I had struck him. So, he said, "Well, son, you know what this means?" I said, "Yes, sir." "It means you can't call your mother, you can't write her." Now he didn't say us... me. He knew how to use master human psychology. He didn't say, "Son, you know, you can't call your father. You can't write your father." No, he said, "Son, you know you can't call your mother, can't write your mother, and you're not to associate with any of the members of the Nation of Islam. That's it. Son, you're dismissed." Oh, he could execute his law now, but I walked out knowing that I had struck him. (Audience laughing).
And I said to myself, "I'm not going to obey this law." I said, "I won't write mama. But I know mama now... I ain't going to get her in trouble. I'm not going to call her. I'm not going to write." I said to myself, "But I'm going to write you. I just want you to know that I know that you're getting ready to observe Savior's Day. Your Savior's Day," I said, "and I wish you success and I hope that you have very successful meetings and get very good results and have a big, big time." That's what I was telling him in the letter, and he just couldn't stand it for too long. He said, "Who"...this is what my brother told me, "Have you all seen Wallace?" So, one of my brothers told him, said, "Yes, Daddy. I saw him on the street once. He's looking pretty bad, man."
Now you know a brother will help his brother, right? Now, I wasn't looking that bad. He said, "He's looking pretty bad." "Get in touch with your brother and tell him 'come on back home." Came back, didn't ask me, "Well, son, you have to confess the belief in our savior." No, accepted me back without asking me any questions. I was accepted back. One day...I'm skipping over some of this because we don't have that much time. One day, this is important for you to know. You know, the Imams, the leaders of this time, you should also know the man that's responsible for you having these people here with you. He said to me one day, sitting at the table with his staff again on a Sunday after Temple meeting, he said, "Son, here's Sister Shirley here. She's a good looking Sister and a good secretary and she doesn't have a husband. She's single."
Now he knew I was married and my wife's name was Shirley. Now he's introducing another Shirley to me at the table, so I just kind of dropped my eyes like that. And he looked at me and said... my eyes raised up to see him, he said, "Well, son, I didn't think you would want that." Then he spoke, he did that just to say this to his staff. He said, "I wish I was the man my son is." That's exactly what he said, and you who know me, you know I don't lie. He said, "I wish I was the man my son is." That made him the biggest man I ever seen or heard of, except Muhammad the Prophet that I came to know later in his full role and image, yes.
But the men that I have known before, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad became bigger than them. What man, I don't even know if I could do that, would tell his staff that has to support him, that my son that has differed with me and this little old man that has nothing to his credit, this little Wallace Deen Mohammed, he has nothing to his credit, he didn't build a Nation, I'm saying to them, "I wish I was the man my son is." He said that to say to them, "I repent my actions that you are aware of and I'm proud of my son who's turning down Shirley Hazeez." That was her name, Shirley Hazeez. That made him a big man. Isn't that a big man? That's a big man, Brother.
And let me tell you, he had to be a big man with a big spirit, a big, big, big soul and a strong spirit to do what he did and to stick faithfully to the teachings and plan of his teacher, Mr. W.D. Fard. He had to be a big man. No small man could do what he did. A big man, a very big man, a very big man, a giant of a man, and I agree with those who are saying...even non-Muslims are saying this, some African-American Muslims, that he's perhaps the greatest leader that the African people in America have given birth to. Yes, they're saying that now. Some of them are saying that. So, I have to agree with them, a great giant of a man, and we should never make our job for the Community, and believe me, your job for the Community is your job for G-d. Yes.
G-d says, "Your sacrifices don't reach me. You make blood sacrifice. You sacrifice wealth, you sacrifice your children." G-d says, "Your sacrifices don't reach me. Only your consciousness reaches me." It's called Taqw?. This is the special consciousness for a Muslim, obedient Muslim in Islam. Says, "Only your Taqw? reaches me," and G-d says, of Taqwa, He says, "Abidillah Taqwa." That your righteousness is Taqw?. Righteousness is Taqw?. And then G-d tells us what righteousness is. G-d says, "Righteousness is not rituals, turning your faces to the east or to the west, but righteousness is to believe in G-d and in the Angels and in the Revealed Books," and et cetera.
Goes on to say what righteousness is, and righteousness doesn't stop at just believing in G-d and those things G-d has established for us to believe in. But righteousness translates into action. Says then, "Righteousness is to spend of your money." "Mal, mal", the money, wealth. Spend of your money out of love for Him for you are supposed to be motivated by love for G-d. The love of G-d. You're supposed to be motivated by the love of G-d to share your wealth, and G-d addresses the rich man, He says, "Be you kind to others as G-d has been kind to you." So out of the love for G-d, the rich man with his wealth, he realized how Merciful G-d has been to him. G-d has been kind to him to create him with his talents, his productive talents and whatever and his energies and everything, and then make available to him helpers, men and women to help him. A market where he can sell his products, open field for his expression of all of his creative talents, so he's supposed to, for the love of G-d, then share that with those who are not so fortunate.
Says, "And spend of your wealth on the needy. Out of love for G-d, spend on the needy, on the homeless, on the widow, on the orphans." And all of that is given under... I can recite it by heart, the long passage of the Qur'an in the Chapter Al-Baqarah. Titled...the passage is titled, "Righteousness" and it begins with "Laysal biddirah anta walu juhacoom bashrefee al maghribi walakee al bidarah..." And it goes on to say that righteousness is not to turn your faces, ritualistic turn your faces east and west. But righteousness is something real and sincere, to have sincere belief beginning with the belief in G-d, and then to translate that belief into your actions by helping others that are less fortunate than you so that you serve the Will of G-d. That's what you will be doing because G-d Created the many people like He Created the many, many lands.
All these lands are not equally productive. Some of these lands are not productive at all, but G-d Wants to test the people, test the people to see if the people of the fertile land and the productive land will be as kind to their brothers and sisters in humanity as G-d was to them. So, this is...G-d has to leave opportunities for us to earn blessings and earn rewards and to test us so that we serve others as G-d has served us. This is a test that G-d has created for us. We can't escape it. So never think all your people are going to be productive. You're always going to have some people that are not productive. You're always going to have some that the strong have to care for. And that's Al-Islam. Allahu Akbar.
I know, I didn't say it for you to say it, but it's good that you said it. I said it to make a statement. G-d is Bigger. And the bigger serve the smaller. That's not just to say to us, "G-d is Bigger." All of us know G-d is Bigger. Even the primitive man who has a primitive concept of G-d, he knows G-d is Bigger than he is. It's not just to tell us that. It's to establish a behavior in you toward the smaller. Now G-d is Bigger. He Provides for the smaller. You, His Creation, smaller, small, nothing almost. Now you are big. Are you going to be like G-d? And will you also serve those smaller than you? The bigger is responsible for the smaller, the strong is responsible for the weak. You're bigger in strength. The rich are responsible for the poor. You're bigger and [...] real money.
That's how we are to read that statement and apply it to our life. Allahu Akbar, obligates me if I'm bigger than someone else to care for them as G-d has cared for me. You see the closeness now of Islam and Christianity? And that's why G-d says in the Qur'an, "You'll find the nearest people to you to be those who say they're Christian, Nazara, the old name for Christians. Yes, the time of our Prophet, getting away from The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and all that, I think I said enough about that. I pray for him and my mother all the time. Yes, I do. I pray for their soul. I believe in the eternal life and I pray for their souls.
And I think I'm more an African than I am an American. I do. The more I live, the more I realize I'm an African, an African. I am an African. I am. That doesn't mean I'm not a citizen of the United States. I'm firstly a citizen of the United States. That's a government, that's different. But people in Continent, I'm African. Praise be to Allah. Yes. So the Community of the Prophet, praise be upon him, was the community center. The Mosque of the Prophet, correction, was the community center. That center was made a school, that center was made a welfare station. That center was made a city hall, a place for the council, yes. Sister, you would have met right there in the Prophet's Mosque. If you were one of the political leaders of his time, you would've met right there in the Mosque of Medina, the Mosque of Enlightenment, the Light, of the Light, in the City of Enlightenment, Medina and Munawwarah in the City of Enlightenment.
You would've met there and you would've been given a space there and time there to discuss the political issues, and you would have been meeting with leaders like yourself to improve the political life of Muslim society. That place was everything. He made it a center for all these. So really a Mosque is not just a place to pray, and Sajdah is not just putting yourself physically down on the floor. Brother Imams, Sajdah is not just putting your forehead and face down on the floor.
How do we know that? G-d said to the Angels who were not open to His invitation to them to accept that He'd create a man on earth and give that man responsibility for himself and his descendants and his environment. They thought that that wouldn't work because the human being had a nature to agree and disagree, to obey and disobey. So, they were not believing in human beings and G-d was. That's another thing we have to know. G-d is a Believer and a believer doesn't mean believing like we believe only. Believing means a trusting one. Because I believe in you, doesn't mean I trust you. So, G-d was not a Believer in that sense that we usually take the word believe, but G-d is a Trusting One and He's called Al-Mu'min. That's one of His names. The Believing One or the Trusting One, Al-Mu'min.
The Imams know this. So, if He's called The Trusting One, why is He called that? Because He trusted man to obey Him and arrive at the destination G-d Created him for. He trusted man to do that. Gave him freedom, freedom of mind, freedom of will, freedom of choice. He trusted him. The Angels didn't understand, they didn't have the knowledge G-d had so they were frightened by this, and in our Holy Books they say, "This will cause bloodshed." They feared killing and violence and et cetera, and G-d says, "Wait until I have inspired him of My Own Spirit." But G-d acknowledged them that, "Yes, the man I'm going to create with free will, freedom of choice, yes, he's going to shed blood, he's going to do these things, but he's going to also earn My Grace, My Mercy and My Grace, and I'm going to inspire him of My Own Spirit. And when My Own Spirit has become his spirit, My Own Will has become his will, then you..." What He told them to do, He says, "Make Sajdah to him."
So, we make Sajdah only to G-d. We know that. But the Angels were told to make Sajdah to man when he is following the Will of G-d. When he's in the spirit that G-d wants for him and following the Will of G-d, G-d told the Angels to make Sajdah to him. Now, do you think they make the same Sajdah as you make? Do you think they put their foreheads on the ground like we do? No. What does it mean? It means surrender completely to My Plan for man and serve him with no hesitation. That's what it means. "Bow you down all together," what G-d said. That means without hesitation. "Bow you down altogether in Sajdah, accepting My Will." So, the Sajdah is more, more than just us putting our forehead to the ground and nose to the ground, palms down and everything on our knees in the Masjid.
The Masjid is called Masjid, after the word Sajdah...Masjid. The word Mosque comes from Sajdah. That means to make Sajdah on the ground. So, the Mosque is a place for Sajdah, but we are not to just make Sajdah with our bodies. We're to make Sajdah with everything in our power and in our control. Just like we surrender ourselves completely to G-d by putting ourselves in the baby position, being not yet... doesn't have the strength to pull his head up off the floor, on his hands and knees trying to get the strength to pull his head up off the floor. Surrender as little babies on our hands and knees.
We are supposed to surrender our whole life that way. You surrender your money that way, you surrender your intelligence that way, surrender your education that way, surrender your professional skills that way. Give everything completely, surrender as a baby. Surrender everything up to G-d. That's the place, that's the Mosque, that's the Mosque. So, your education program should be completely obedient to G-d. Your curriculum for your school should be completely obedient to G-d and everything else that you are doing in your life as a Community should be completely obedient to G-d. Your restaurants must be halal. Your life must be halal. Means meeting requirements to be called Islamic.
All right? So, this is the role of the Masjid, but remember as I told you in the beginning, and I'm closing out now, remember that G-d says of the First House, and Muhammad the Prophet, G-d tells us, that Muhammad the Prophet established it. It says that the Mosque fit to pray in is that Mosque established upon Taqw?, from the very first day when it was first built. It was built and established upon Taqw?, Taqwa [...] Taqwa. Established from the first day on Taqw?, and that Taqw? is what? Some of us forget Taqw? too. It's Taqwallah, you know, to fear G-d. But it's not fear because we know in Arabic, Khawf, Khawf is fear, Khawf is fear, and there's another word. There's several words for fear, but Taqw? is not fear. They translate it as fear and they also translate it, "piety" and they translate it, "regardfulness," so what is it really? It's consciousness, but it's consciousness upon Islamic knowledge, consciousness in Islam upon Islamic knowledge.
Now you know, people are conscious everywhere and the consciousness that has been given to you really determines your behavior. Christian consciousness is Christian consciousness, so don't frown at them when you see them eating chitlins. That's in your consciousness, not in theirs. If you don't like the chitlins, just stay away from the house. Don't go there hurting people's feeling. "What, you eating those ole' chitlins?" I'm going to tell you something about the father of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He told me, he said, "Son," he called me son, too. He didn't call me grandson. He always called me son. He said, "Son, I used to love those chitlins so much, see. You know your father's something if he can stop me eating chitlins." He said, "I used to love those chitlins so much," he said, "I thought I could get one as long, long enough to start chewing on it in Macon and go all the way to Atlanta chewing on that chitlin." That's how he loved chitlins, you know?
But I was raised in a different environment. I can't stand them. I can't stand the looks of them, I can't stand the smell of them but I sure wouldn't go to my Christian relative's house on a Sunday knowing they had chitlins because I'm going to hurt their feeling. I'm going to hurt their feeling by telling them, "I can't, I'm sorry, I've got to leave." I can't stand the smell. I would say, "I'm sorry, I have to leave." So, I wouldn't go over there on a Sunday. I'd let them eat their chitlins. I said, "I'll come on Monday," or a day when they're not eating chitlins. That's in their consciousness, not in my consciousness. In their consciousness it's okay to eat chitlins, right.
"Oh, you...you're smoking? You're smoking and you're a Muslim?" Don't hurt, don't offend people like that. Just be thankful that you are not smoking. "You're smoking and you're a Muslim?" That's not in his conscience. Ain't nothing in the Qur'an say, "And do not smoke." The Prophet never said, "Do not smoke," but it's a logic there that says do not smoke. But who is so special in his study of Islam and the Qur'anic logic and the Prophet's teachings? Who is so studious that he's going to know that? Only a very few. So, we, the few who understand that logic, it's our obligation to teach the Muslim community at large. The logic for condemning the smoking of cigarettes or the taking of any kind of tobacco because it is harmful, it contributes to cancer, it causes cancer. It's got so many harms.
It hurts the environment and therefore hurts the health of the people. It contributes to shortness the breath, the clogging of the lungs. Even breathing it from someone else is harmful, so we who know the logic, we should give them the logic. And what is the logic? Prophet Muhammad said... came from him. The logic came from the Prophet, peace be upon him. He said, "If something has more harm in it than benefit to the people, it is to be condemned." Though he didn't say, "Don't smoke," and Allah didn't say, G-d didn't say to us, "Don't smoke," we use logic that Muhammad gave us. If the harm in it outweighs the benefit in it, it's rejected, it's forbidden.
So, I can stand and tell you that smoking is unlawful. Smoking is haram in Islam. But you can't condemn people who don't know that or who don't know the logic. You have to educate them first. Then after they have been properly educated, then you can condemn them. Then you can say, "Brother, you know that that's against Islamic teachings and behavior. Why are you doing this? Why are you insulting us? Why are you boldly smoking in our presence?" Then you can really get on him, and I wouldn't mind some of you Brothers throwing a left look at him or something, or whip him with your night stick, if you got one, you know?
It would be different. He'd be knowledgeable. Consciousness is very important in Islam, consciousness. And G-d says "Goodness, goodness..." I'm finishing up this time. Goodness, you know, all religious people that I have become acquainted in my life who are really religious... I'm not talking to these new breed, this new breed of people. They believe if you're religious, you're supposed to be good and you're supposed to be a doer of good, you know? You're going to be ashamed of doing something bad. And G-d says, "Goodness, doing good is closest to Taqw?." Closest to Taqwa. It means if Taqw?, which is regardfulness, consciousness, regardfulness or consciousness or righteousness is here, right here, then there's nothing next to it but goodness, but goodness.
And why is that told to us? To tell us that people who are very conscious of doing good, good deeds, that they are close, the closest to the righteous. And the righteous is more than just doing good deeds. The righteous is believing in G-d and believing in what He has established for us to believe in.
So what I have said here today in Tuskegee, Alabama, I hope that the leaders can work with each other and work with me to make our Mosque more representative of this religion so that the people will know us in our true image and our true identity and will not be afraid of us and will not think we are narrow and cutting them out, and they will be embracing us as human beings, as people in humanity.


