07/04/1997
IWDM Study Library
Leadership Conference Workshop

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
This is the 4th of July and I wanted to have a little something to say about this 4th of July day. I hope you don't have a problem with us identifying as citizens of the United States of America.
Audience: No. Sir.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: If you do, forgive me, for hurting your feelings with what I'm about to say. This is a great country the United States of America. It's a great country. I wasn't raised to even think of liking this country. I was raised to see this country as the evil of the devil. Works of the devil. It was pretty evil too when I was a boy. It was an evil country. It was good but we were living in the bad, not the good when I was a boy until I got to be a grown man. That was the case.
Back during the '60s as you know great change came about for us in this country. Jim Crow was done away with. This country was a bad country and it was an instrument of Satan. It was an instrument of Satan. But it had good people in it, and good power in it, and the life of the country was good. But the racism that was in this country, the power of white supremacy was tolerated and felt, not only in the South but in the North.
You all know of bad treatment in the South, people from the South. But I have experienced bad treatment from whites in the North. I have personally experienced bad treatment from whites in the North. And I've have personally put a hurting on a few of them too. I know what this country was and I know what it is. And I know that now looking back, the knowledge of this country, how this country was established by the founding fathers and how the great, decent, leaders of integrity intended that this nation move forward from the time it was created until now. I know that that good force was always there.
Even during the time of the white supremacy influence in this country. I know now that that good influence was there and that this country was an evolving country, this country was a growing country, this country was a living organic idea growing to reach its destiny. We believed that it has reached its destiny now. To me, that's the real independence.
Independence, 4th of July, that's what I'm talking about, that's what I'm addressing now, 4th of July. This independence that we celebrate on 4th of July, with fireworks. It’s more than just fireworks and eating hotdogs, barbecuing, picnicking and playing baseball and whatever it's more than that. That's the life of the American people as we see it. Apple pie and hotdogs and all that and playing baseball. That's America.
That's why that's so strongly in the picture of the celebration. But if you think what is said, what the word says independence. Does this mean independence from the old-world government? Independence from England, independence from Britain, is that's what it is? Yes, it's that but it's much more than that. Is it the freedom of the 13 of the States of the colonies? Is that what it means? Yes, but it's more than that.
The day that had been chosen for this celebration is the 4th day of July. This is a freedom for every person, for the common person. That's the real freedom that America stands for. The freedom of the individual. The right of the individual to have his life under G-d and to have freedom of choice. To choose the career he wants or she wants. And to choose the religion that he or she wants. And to be free to enjoy all the benefits of citizenship with every other citizen of the country. This is the real freedom.
The real freedom is the individual freedom. This is a personal freedom, this is an individual freedom. I strongly believe in that freedom. I believe that Allah intended for us to have that freedom when He revealed the Quran to Muhammed for us and for the world. That holy book we call the Quran. I believe that He intended for us to have that freedom. The word freedom is hurrun in Arabic. Hurrun is freedom. And in the Quran, this is a common freedom huriya. Freedom.
This is a common name, common term. This is not a symbolic term, this is a common term. This is the language of the common people. They know that. This common term is in the Quran. The prophet Muhammad, he says, "I am a free man in this town". Hurrun bi hathal balad, I am a free man in this town. That wouldn't be there if that freedom wasn't very important. It's in our scripture. I've read the bible twice thoroughly and read it occasionally now, parts of it. I don't recall any statement where a prophet or a great leader says I am a free person here in this town.
It means in this system; the town has its own political system. In this political system, I am a free man. To me, that's a declaration for all of us to follow the prophet and aspiring to be free people, wherever we live in whatever town we live our existence. We are in this country and thank G-d this country was founded for freedom. It was founded so people could then be free to choose the life they want to live. Under the government or under a system that's established to protect their freedom and their rights. That's the purpose of it.
It's established to protect the freedom and rights of the citizens of the individual citizen. That's the government. Government aren't established to make war. It makes war to fulfill its obligations to its citizens, to guarantee security, to give them defense so they feel secure. We pay for defense for our own security. It's not really government. Government is only service. That's how we're supposed to see government. Government is service.
The whole government is created just for service to serve the citizens of the country and the people. That's the real reality or the real cause. The real cause is the people themselves. This way of life has been envisioned or perceived for those people by great visionaries, by great men of vision and we have that idea. We call it freedom in America. The democratic way and we celebrate on the 4th of July. It's independence.
The July itself is significant because it's the seventh month. It has a significant number, seven. And G-d says in the Quran, "And there are seven tracks above you and a like number within yourself". Seven above and seven within yourself, yes. We understand that to mean that the same spiritual nature we have to ascend, to great heights with our human life, to achieve great things, to have great vision to rise to great vision, that same ability that we have in ourselves is also above us.
How is it above us? It is above the common man in the leaders that G-d chose for him. Because we know that Muhammad, the Prophet was taken on a vision, he was taken on a night vision. In that night vision, he traveled the seven heavens and he met prophets on all seven levels. So, we don't have to look to Walt’s Disney to find the answer to the seven. It's in the Quran, the answer to the seven is in Quran that you have seven above you and seven in you.
It means simply that you have the ability, the capacity, you have the potential to rise to great heights. It's in you. Maybe you don't realize it but G-d put it in every person, it's in the common person. He put that power in you. It's in the common person. We look above in the heavens and we see the prophets in the heavens and they represent the seven heavens in their ascension. They have ascended to the seven heavens. Abraham is the seen at the top of that. He is the most elevated of all the prophets in the seventh heaven. And Muhammad he was living and G-d blessed him to visit the seventh heavens while he lived. He visited the seventh heavens while he lived. And this great leader extending the millah of Abraham, the prophet Ibrahim, peace be up on him, he's continuing that millah of Abraham. In the millah they say order, they translate it order of Abraham in the Quran. But millah comes from the word, means the hope, is to have hope. It's the aspirations, your hope, your aim. It's the aim, the hope of Abraham, the millah. Prophet Muhammad says to us that, “this millah is the millah of Abraham.” He didn't claim he had a new millah. He said this millah, G-d revealed to him that this is millah, the millah of Abraham, the upright in his nature, Abraham.
This is the millah and he was blessed to visit the seventh heavens even to greet Abraham in the highest of heavens while he was living. Not after his death. No, while he was living, he visited and greeted them one after another from first level Adam to the highest-level Abraham. He greeted them, peace be up on him. He greeted Abraham. He said, "Peace be up on you, father, Abraham." He greeted him, his father. As he had greeted Adam on the first level, peace be up on you father Adam. And he greeted his brothers, Jesus Christ and all of them, peace be up on you he said them, my brother so and so and so. Peace be up on the prophets and Abraham, peace be up on father Abraham. He led them all in prayer, then he led them all in prayer.
Which shows that he was the leader that would connect all of them. He was the leader that would connect all of them. And G-d would give him the universal message that brings to the people the essence of all the great prophets' teachings. The essence of all the teachings of the great prophets, given to us in that small book Quran. Muhammad, the universal leader reconciling the prophets with each other and reconciling the common man with the noble life that G-d created him for. That that is one and the same. G-d says, "Say to them I am a mortal just like you." He said, "I am a mortal just like you." That's what he said. Muhammad the prophet. Meaning he had no divine nature. The Gnostic order had come before prophet Muhammad, had come before the coming of the Qur’an and prophet Muhammad. The Gnostic order of the Christians. And they had claimed divinity for their leaders. That in order to be the leader you had to have the divine spark.
Christ is divine and you have to have the Christ's nature and have to be illuminated, you have to be illuminated, you have to have a divine light in you. And the proof of divine light in you is that you're separated from this world and this world did not affect you, you didn't need a woman, you didn't have to have to this world. I'm not joking, this is serious. You couldn't marry, you couldn't marry and have a wife and children to belong to that order. You have to be devoted to celibacy and they were the great leaders in the hierarchy of a religion called the Gnostics. And they believed, “that you to ascend up to the heavens and get the light in the life from the heavens. Then you come back down here but remaining in that form, remaining in that state. You have to separate from the world first and in that spiritual body you can ascend to the heavens. And with the right discipline in you and faith in you, you will have the divine spark put in you. And then you'll come back down to earth as though you’re G-d.”
So, really, it's not only in that old idea, it's not only Christ Jesus that they saw G-d in, but the Pope himself was to be like G-d, on earth. He was like some of the great Shia say, “the shadow of G-d, G-d's shadow on earth.” We know that idea and it's important for us to have some knowledge of that because the Quran is addressing that. Al-Islam came to address that, to do away with that darkness so that the real light would come to us. Says Muhammad, “I'm a mortal just like you.” Jesus had said it but they didn't get it. Jesus said, “I in you and you in me.” After he had said that, “he was in the father, the father was in him.” Then he said, “I in you and you in me.” Meaning that we have common nature, that's all he was saying, that we have one common nature. That I'm common human being just like you. But he didn't say it quite that clearly according to the teaches of the gospel. But when Muhammad came the G-d revealed to him to say, G-d revealed this to him, this is not a hadith. G-d said to him, “Say, I am a mortal just like you.”
This important, very important on the fourth of July, don't forget, I'm addressing the fourth of July, I'm still addressing the fourth of July. All of this comes under the fourth of July, the Independence Day.
When we look at the terms for male and female in the Quran. And I'm happy some sisters are here. Because me and the sisters we're going to do things together. I don't know about you Imams, but I work very well with the sisters.
The sisters are some great leaders’ brother, we have some great leaders among these sisters. I was just their guess of the women organization in Kansas city, they are international now Muslim women organization. I didn't understand when they said international. I thought they were tied in with the women of China or something.
I came to find out they're talking about just Muslims associating with us. And they've attracted some people from outside of our association too. And they have three of four chapters in Africa. I didn't know that, I learned from them. And they're us. And I mean beautiful sisters doing charity, helping suffering people, helping the senior citizens, they're doing great work. They're worried about the sex gender, gender problem we have among us. And they say brother Imam can you tell the Imams what you're telling us? And I say, yes, I'm going to tell them exactly what I'm telling you. I will tell you a part of what I was telling them now.
The Quran, is addressing sex, gender, it uses language that we should understand. Especially leaders, you Imams. And you teachers who will be teaching in Islamic schools, Muslim schools, you should understand this language, you should know this language. Because you have to establish Al-Islam in education. You have to Islamize your curriculum and you have to have Islamic studies as a major part of your curriculum. And I hope we can get some support for that. To unify the curriculum so that an easy transfer of students can be made. No one has to be set back or have difficulty continuing their courses. The courses will be so similar like it is on the public school, you can translate, you can transfer from one elementary school to another, from one high school to another. And you don't have any problems because the curriculum is uniform. That is what we have to have. We have a school system. It's small, it should easy for us to make our curriculum uniform. It should be very easy.
We've been asking for this for 15 years and we haven't gotten it yet. I hope that this occasion here will be an opportunity for you to make a real progress towards getting the support you need to have a uniform curriculum for Clara Muhammad schools. And to Islamize those curriculums. And have Islamic studies as the life of the whole curriculum. The life of the curriculum should be Islamic studies. Because for Muslims Islamic knowledge is our life, that's our life, Islamic knowledge is our life. It's not any other knowledge, it's Islamic knowledge, that's our life. Islamic knowledge makes every other knowledge digestible for us. If Islamic knowledge doesn't approve that knowledge then that other knowledge is not even digestible for us. This is very serious. It's so serious until I'll be willing to take 1,000th of the people we have now with us to where we have to go and sacrifice others. Let them all go their own way. I don't think we have to come to that but if we have to come to that I'm more than willing to do that. We have to do what we have to do. This invitation that G-d has given us to be independent. And to be Muslims in America is just too good for us to compromise it in anyway. We're not going to sacrifice any part of it, we're not going to compromise at all. We want the whole thing that G-d is offering us. Nothing less than that.
The sex agendas addressed. And G-d says, "The male is not like the female." But now listen, the male is not like the female. But what terms are used, are these common terms used for male and female in the common language of the people who walk the street including the homes? No, this is not common language. This is a very, very, very spiritual language. The male is not like the female. The term used for the male is Dhakr and the term used for the female is Untha. These are not common terms for people who speak languages in the streets.
What is this term dhakr addressing? What is it talking about in the human being? It's talking about the thinking ability, the ability to think and reflect, to think and reflect. What is this untha then? What is it talking about? It's talking about the ability to sense. Here you have one ability in the female, the ability to sense and you have another ability in the male, the ability to think about what it senses. Now is this restricted only to male and female? No, how do we know it’s restricted only to female.
Can a female also be dhakr? Yes, she can. How do we know? The proof is in the Quran. The Quran that's the same book where G-d says, "The dhakr is not like the untha.” G-d says,” and the dhakirina and the dhakiraati. The dhakiraati that's the plural for dhakr referring to the female. And the translators from overseas they translate it, “and the women who reflect.” G-d says, “the men who reflect and the women who reflect.” Making it very clear that this principle that's operating in males more than in females is not exclusively a male property. That there are female having the same property and exercising the same power of intellect. The dhakiraati, yes.
So here is G-d saying the male is not like the female. And we may take that to mean we don't study the language carefully, we may take that to mean just what it's saying. “The male is not like the female.” And then we later on learn that the term dhakr for the male means, refers to the intellect, the power to think about something and reflect on it. And have second thoughts about it. That's what the dhakr is. It's only a power of the male and not the female. This going back to my mention of the Gnostics. This was a problem for Gnostics. The Gnostics then thought that the female was just a flesh, she was a mortal body, she's a mortal body, sensitive mortal body but not having intellect.
So, they recognized she was Untha but they didn't recognize that she also had the power of Dhakr. So, G-d had to produce Jesus from the Mary. To show that the male was in the Mary. Peace be upon her and her son. Yes, you see and it comes to us in the Quran. In plain language, it comes to us in the Quran. And G-d said," He had created you or made you from a male and a female. Not just a from a male. From a male and a female. Yes, after saying that He created Adam then from Adam he produced male and female, produced from Adam male and female, many children. Rejaalen kathira wa nisa’a.
He produced from them many men and women came from them. But how did many men and women come? Adam couldn't produce men and women from himself. G-d had to first make him a mate. And then he mated with his own mate. Then he could reproduce himself. So, Adam really couldn't reproduce himself until he had a female. That shows that in the original entity called the Adam was both male and female. Adam himself was both male and female. Yes, it's clear, very clear that Adam himself was both male and female. And then the two separated, G-d separated two and made them distinctly man and wife. Mates with each other. And they mated together and that was the way possible for them to reproduce themselves. Then they reproduced themselves and had many men and many women all over the world.
Yes, so the male is not like the female but the male is in the female. And this world says that the female is XX chromosome and the male is XY. I think it made a big mistake. The male is XXY and the female is XY. I’m just joking. What I'm saying the seriousness is this that they both are the same. They both the same when you're talking about the function of the intellect. Soul and intellect, they both the same, no difference.
The only thing makes us different is the biological body, the flesh, the physiology makes us different. This is the flesh body. And the flesh body has its nature and its role. For the female she has to bear the children, she is the mother, she carries a new life till it's ready to be delivered nine months as we expect. And then she delivers a child and then the Quran says that the weening takes two years and she's tied up for two years. So, her biological body, her physiology has decided that she has to have this nature and this role, this function in the society.
The man doing nine months, he's still free, he's going out, he's free to go out. A big part of her life that's taken away from her and confining her at home is given to him. Where he can continue to go out and explore field, explore the wilds, discover things. No wonder he is so above her in terms of his knowledge of the physical environment and his management of the physical environment. He is so far ahead of her because she was held back by her physiology. And that's why Allah says in the Quran, “and men are the maintainers of women, because of their physique, the physical physique that's developed going out in the woods, in the wilds, and in the field. Because of the physique and because of the accumulation of wealth. The accumulation of wealth that freedom gives us the freedom to accumulate and amass wealth, become materially strong and to develop muscles.
If you just stop that brother, you're going to get soft as she is. And some of you are already like that.
You lose all those muscles, you become as soft as she is. And I'm talking about she who is still at home taking care of babies. There some of those shes out there driving those mail trucks. And doing other things and working on construction. That's not what I'm talking about. That's the one that has become dhakr in her biological body. Become male in her biological body. Yes so, you become very delicate too if you don't continue to go out and meet the challenges of the field.
You become delicate too in your physical body. You become feminine in your physical strengths. Become feminine and you lose it. And you become feminine-like. And if you don't go out there and work you won't have wealth. Just like so many of our brothers, young youth they don't have wealth. They haven't amassed anything. You're got nothing, so where is you're right now to maintain women. You don't have any money, you have nothing but muscles. You're missing 50% of it.

Some of you lost your muscles too. You don't have anything, you've got zero. Where's your right to say you're going to maintain women? You have the authority to sit over the women. According to the Quran, you lose the authority once you lose the qualifications for you being in that position. The qualification is that you have physical strength and you have wealth.
Believe me, that’s what that woman is looking for man. She's looking for some physical strength because she knows she needs somebody strong enough to push the furniture around and move that refrigerator. She wants to watch behind it. She needs somebody to move it. She shouldn't be doing that. She needs somebody with physical strength and she needs somebody with some money to pay the bills.
If you don't have any of that, you don't qualify to be over her. This is logic. This is the logic. We respect what G-d says in the Quran, this is the logic. It ain't because you look good. You could look like a gorilla.
That ain't what give you your rights. Look at me, I'm macho, macho. Where's your money?
Whatever G-d has revealed, it's just naturally in human being. That song says, “Give me some money honey.” That woman was saying from the soul that G-d has put in her. “That man got to have some money, honey.”

The male is not like the female, dhakr wa untha. Now, let's look. What does prophet Muhammad say to us? “I am a mortal man, like you.” Bashir just like you. Now, we know the Bashir also is male and female, but what is the Bashir talking about? Here is a male now that's called the Bashir. That's the male. That's the term for his masculinity or his masculine nature. He is male Bashir. That same word Bashir is also given as a title for him, but in a derivative form. Derived from Bashir, Basheer.
Basheer is good news bringer. Basheer a name of a prophet. Not only that prophet, the name of the prophets who brought good news from G-d. That's a title name for them, Basheer. Title name for our prophet Muhammad, Basheer. Now, what is Bashir talking about? What is Bashir? What is it talking about?
The word Bashir really comes from the outer surface of an organic thing. The peel of an apple comes from the name of that peel of the same word, of the same root. The peel of it. My skin, the outer surface, my skin that's the same. This is my skin, this is also from the same word. Although they have different terms for the skin. But the Bashir, the term for skin will come from the same word meaning the outer surface.
What is it saying? You know we feel with the outer surface? We feel this is the way we feel all over the body, sensitive. The outer skin is sensitive to feel. That's for our protection. The hairs above that where there's hair, for our protection. It's even more sensitive it goes down and touch the sensitive nerves in the skin so it's even more sensitive. Just touch your hair a little lightly and you feel it.
Animals have this hair power. They have it. Something just touches a little speck that you can’t hardly see. Touch the hair of a cat and he shake the whole of his skin. He knew that something touched the hair so sensitive. What is it saying? What is this name now for the male? What is it saying? Sensitive human beings. That's what it's saying. That I am a sensitive human being just like you. Not just human, sensitive human. I’m a sensitive human being just like you.
What hurts you hurts me what makes you happy or makes you feel good makes me feel good. That's what he's saying. We have the same nature to register joy and pain. Happiness and sadness et cetera. And G-d talks about this is the Quran too. That he's the one who created you with your faculties. He's the one that gives you laughter and tears. This is Allah in the Quran saying it. That's saying He’s the one that gave us this sensitive nature.
Gave us intelligent faculties, but also gave us this sensitive nature. And both of these are needed. Because you can become so hard in your sensitive. Both scriptures talk about this how that people become so hardened they become like rocks like stones. Stoney hearted people. This is in scripture. And G-d mentions the stones in the Quran. That hell fire has been prepared to burn up both men and stones.
We think the stones means stones that they're using to break it up to use to make gravel or something for the road. It's talking about some more men.
Those who have lost their human sensitivity and don't have any more human sensitivity they ain't qualified to be called men so they're called stones. Men and stone. This Bashir is very important. This Bashir that Muhammad is a Bashir like us. The story of Muhammad peace be upon him. The story of his longing for understanding and for direction in his life. Is the story of a man registering the hurt of his people.
Registering the poverty of his people. I'm talking about the mental poverty now. Registering the mental poverty of his people and the hurt of his people and the division of his people. A people divided against each other. All that burdened his heart so much that he had to leave them and seek exclusion somewhere. And he went to the mount of the Noor the light which was not called it at that time. It was called by another name.
He went to that mountain up in there and found a hole up in the top of the mountain and he went into that hole and there he separated himself from the world and he just asked for help. And G-d heard him and G-d responded to him and gave him the help. That's the story of man. This is how you see the Bashir Muhammad is Bashir like us. This is how we understand him as the Bashir. He is a man with human sensitivities like us. And he is a man who registers the hurt of his people pain and suffering and poverty of his people, deficiencies of his people.
He registers that. The lack of social organization. Society was divided and he wanted to see them as a social unit. Organized social body of people, not tribes but one country and one people. He wanted to see them all together as one family. He went up there not knowing the bible not knowing any religion. He went up there and G-d responded to him and gave him the first words of the Quran told him read. Read in the name of your Lord who created. That's what G-d told him.
He said, "I'm not a reader, I'm not one to read. G-d repeated to him until finally, he understood and he received the reading or the recitation came to him from G-d. By way of the angel Jibril. And we know the rest of the story. It's not enough for us just to hear these things and not make connections. Make connections. If Muhammad is a mortal like us try to make connections. Study the Quran study the history. Make connections. Understand what it means that he's a mortal like us.
Study the meaning of the Bashir from good dictionary or lexicon or whatever until you know the meaning of Bashir. And if G-d is not with you you're not going to get it all. No, you won't get it all. G-d has to be with you for you to get it all, but you will get a lot. And you'll be able to better manage knowledge for yourself and better communicate it to others.
The male is not like a female. It's talking about the intellect. The great scene of the creation of man in scripture and we Muslims saw in Quran, for us in Quran is the focus on the human intellect. Why is the focus so strong on the human intellect? Why is the creation of man the creation of his intellect? Because man does not function in any way superior to the animal except through his intellect. That's a fact. You may say, “No, no his heart.” The human heart is no different from a bird's heart. That's the truth. “We love and we're more loving.” No, you're not. There are some animals just as loving you and more so.
Look how dogs love their masters. Look when a male and a female become so crazy in love with the other how we criticize them. "He's following her around like a little puppy.” Like a little puppy. Only a dog supposed to carry love that far. That's what the expression is saying. Only a dog supposed to carry love that far. Don't think you're more loving than other creatures, no, the only superiority that you have, I repeat, over other creatures is your intellect.
If that ain't elevated, if that doesn't raise you above other creatures, you're not above them. I don't care how nice you are, they've got some animals out there just as nice. But no animal can produce this mic for me to talk on. See? No animal can do this, but the human animal. We're the only one that can make that mic so I can speak in it. Then the focus should be on the intellect.
When G-d says I'm going to create a man, a khalifa and put in the earth, he's not talking about a mushy mushy. He's talking about an intellect because the intellect is what turns the light on. Like the sun, it comes up in the day, in the morning after it's been dark. Sun comes up and the light is on. Then we can move about. Without stumbling over each other and running into things or killing ourselves. Correct knowledge is the same way.
To really reach the goal we want to reach, in terms of, our own evolution as human beings, the society that G-d had created us for, the destiny and destination that G-d has created us for. In order to move about in that society, and to progress in that society, and to have ease of movement in that society, for our intellect and our whole life. We have to have the light on and the light is not the sunlight, the light is the light of intellect.
This is a reality. Be very serious about your mind. Be very serious about your intellect, give special attention to your intellect. We know the soul is very important because the soul is that sense body. That sense and response. The soul is that sense body and you don't know what to respond to until you sense it. Sense is before response. We sense and then we respond.
And G-d has described us like that in twos, not threes, not four, not five, not even the five senses. G-d said that the human being is by description a sense creature and a response creature. A creature that sense and responds. Now is that anything new for scripture? No, because the-- Let me see this time here. Yes, I'm right out of time but we'll make it all right.
The scripture before the Quran also gives that, but it gives that in such symbolic language. It gives us pictures women crying and stuff for us to see that woman has the sensitivity. Then the man sitting and the women crying attending to the man’s needs or something. But more than that it gives us the fish.
The fish life, if anybody look at fish or go fishing or if anybody watch fish in a fish bowl or container at the aquarium or whatever. If you watch the fish, his movements tell us that he is on the level of sense and response in the physical body. He senses and responds. That's it, that's the fish. He senses and responds. Because the fish gives us that picture, depicts to us the sense and response principle in the life we have that fish in scripture.
Why else is fish in scripture? It's for that reason. Fish is so important in scripture. Moses goes out looking for a certain fish. Christ Jesus peace be upon the prophet, he goes and finds his disciples fishing and that's where he discovers them. He brings them from the water and takes them in to land. But fishing. Yes, the fish has a very important place in scripture. G-d comes and tells us plainly that He has made you male and female.
What is matter that they don't respond when they're invited to believe in their Lord. What is the matter with them that they don't respond? That is the question. There's something unusual happening here. G-d is saying that this is not normal. Now, you may think it's normal but G-d is saying this is not normal. What is the matter with them? That when they are called, they don't respond and they are asked to believe in their Lord.
It didn't say they are asked to believe in Christ Jesus, peace be upon him. It says, “when they are asked to believe in their Lord.” This is giving us really the explanation of Christ Jesus in Christianity. Here's a man that if you have faith in him you have salvation. Through him, you will have salvation. He is a man, if you have faith in him. Through him you have salvation. You don't have to repent your sins one by one or even count them. You don't have to do anything about them just believe in this man and sins go. This is Christianity.
Here is a mystery now, a man as a mystery. And faith really as a mystery here's a mystery of faith that just having faith. There's a story in the gospel that says the woman she touched the hem of his garment. The woman just touched the hem of his garment and she was healed.
The bible says that she was healed because of her faith. Her faith was so much in him and so great in him, in Christ Jesus, peace be on him. She touched the hem of his garment and she was healed of her troubles. It went away.
Here's the Quran asking us a question saying, "What is the matter with you? That you don't respond when you're invited to have faith in your lord?" Your lord. Didn’t Jesus say, “I in you, you in me.” How is this lord is in me? I'm saying now that the lord was in Jesus and the lord was in me. How is this lord in me? We believe that G-d is in us, don't we?
Audience: Yes.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: Yes, because G-d says that He has put something of His spirit in all of us.
Audience: That's right.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: He says, “He's closer to us than our jugular vein.” And the jugular vein is inside the body not outside. Jugular vein inside of the body. And if G-d is closer to me than my jugular vein, that means G-d is even more inside me. Deeper inside of me than my own jugular vein. That's what it saying. I have to accept then that G-d is inside me, but now is the Lord inside me too? Yes, the Lord is inside me too. How is the Lord inside me? The Lord is inside me as the will of G-d. I have the spirit of G-d in me, but also G-d's will is in everything He created. So, G-d's will is in me too. And G-d's will is what eventually overcome my will. I may want to be a welder, but G-d says, "No, W.D. Mohammed is going to be an Imam." I may weld and feel satisfied in that, but something is going to happen. So, G-d's will is going to overcome mine.
Something is going to happen to take me from welding and put me in a position to be an Imam. That's what happened, that did happen. That did happen to me. That's my Lord in me. That's the will of G-d in me, but that's also my Lord in me. Also, my own desire in me to be better. My desire in me to achieve more in goodness, in righteousness, in justice. That movement in me is also the movement brought about by my Lord. My Lord is evolving me, isn't He?
Audience: Yes sir.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: My Lord is evolving me. My Lord is in me as His will, and my Lord is evolving me. You are not asked to believe in a G-d that's not really part of your reality. That's why the question is asked, "What's wrong with you that you don't want to believe in your Lord?" We're not asking you to believe in something that's not part of your own reality. You're asked to believe in something that's part of your own reality. Your own life forces are supported by this Lord. Your own life forces guided by the Lord. Your excellence is the will of the Lord and your excellence is the works of the Lord. So, how come you don't believe in the Lord when He's working right inside you?
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: I don't know if you understand this as clear I do. But for me, it's clear enough. I know that I am myself, and at the same time, I am supported by my Lord. In this body is my Lord, and my Lord is working with me to get me where my Lord wants me to go. If I become reconciled with the will of my Lord, oh buddy, there's no height that I can't reach. No horizon that I can't find-- Horizon that I can't find. No. No, because everything is possible with the Lord. Praise be to Allah.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: I wish you can understand this reality that we talking about. The Qur'an says, "Allahu Haqq." Why is Allah saying that, that Allah is the truth? The truth in Arabic also means, "real," meaning it's not imaginary. It's not phony. It's not fictitious. It's real. So, Al-Haqq also means real in Arabic. So, G-d is real. Why does G-d say that in the Qur'an, "G-d is real," and An-Narul Haqq?
The hellfire is real. Why does G-d say that in the Qur'an to us? Because the common people have been mystified, and they've been fed superstition more than the truth and knowledge. They have been fed superstitions, and they think the hellfire to be a mystery, a superstition. They think the hellfire to be a superstition. Those who rule over them and have lost the real knowledge, the real guidance, they rule over the masses, believing themselves that what they tell the masses to believe in is really superstition.
In their own minds, they look at the common people and say, "We give them these superstitions and they are governed by them. Hellfire, heaven and G-d. We know who's the real G-d. We know where is heaven, and we know where the real hell is. We know, but we give this to them.” These are the deceivers among the religious leaders. These are deceivers. They laugh at us believing in hellfire in the way that we believe in it, common people believe in. They laugh at us. "We don't believe in no hellfire like that. We don't believe in that kind of hellfire. That's for you all. That's a superstition. That's a superstition we gave you."
The Qur'an comes to tell not only the common people, but it comes to tell those who stand above the common people and think themselves wise and superior to the common people. It comes to tell them, "Yes, G-d is real." Allahul Haqq, and hellfire is real. An-Narul Haqq. Hellfire is real. These are the Haqq, it's true. It's reality. Believe me, many of them repented that sins and became Muslim after hearing this knowledge revealed from the Qur'an to them. They repented their sins and they became Muslims. Okay, have to watch the time here. Twelve o'clock, isn't it? Look at your watch.
Audience: Yes. Yes sir.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: Okay. Getting back to our Prophet Muhammad. Our Prophet Muhammad is to be seen as a mortal human being with no divinity and no angel nature. No angel. He's not angel in form, that's what I mean. He's not angel in form and he's not G-d in form. He's human in form, and that's to tell us that we don't become better or get closer to G-d through some angel agent or through some divine agent.
It is through our human life, our human nature, and our human ability that we are able to get close to G-d. And because of our human nature and human ability, we can get closer to G-d and become more useful to G-d in the created world than even the angels. Than even angels themselves. That's why the Bible says that he had raised him up even above the angels. And the Qur'an says that he has given us a degree above the angels. Doesn't mean just any of us.
It means us who achieve that great excellence of human nature like Muhammad, the prophet and the others. That those who achieve that great excellence of human nature, they are a degree above even angels. Because the angels don't have the power of intellect, so the angels don't serve G-d in this creation like we do. They can't. They can only assist us.
They are really created by G-d to serve us, to assist us. To assist us but not to serve us, or why did G-d say to them, "make sajda"? Not only to help, but to recognize the superiority of man. Told angels, "And make sajda. Bow to him." And they all bowed except Iblis. The Satan. Who became the devil, the Satan. So, think five times before you speak.

Don't rush to judgement. Pray is due to Allah. Getting back to my point now, I'll sum it up. I think I can sum everything up now. We started off with Independence Day, and I talked to you about Muhammad at length. I've had to go to scripture at length. For what reason? So, you see Muhammad better. That's the only reason why. All that talk about scripture, all that talk about the G-d in us. The will of G-d in us, the Lord Thou G-d is our Lord. Our Lord G-d in us. In His will, a plan for us. The function of G-d as Lord functions in a human being. That's a function in the human being, and in everything that He has created and evolved, but in us more so.
In us more so because that reality can dawn in our intellect as it has already done. It has dawned in the intellect of the great prophet, and in us now. It has dawned in the intellect, this reality, this real perception of G-d also in my workings. In the workings of my own creation, there is the workings of G-d. I can see Him in the role of lord in my own perception of my own evolution of my own progress as a human being trying to be better all the time. How wonderful it is. Praise be to Allah. It's the because of the body, the way He made this human body. He made this human body to have life, and then have intellect and expression, become illuminated. Great light created by G-d, a great light.
This is what G-d has made in you. It's the flesh body that has all of this possibility, is in my flesh body. Possibility. Myself is in my flesh body when we come as a germ from our parents. We have ourselves in that germ, and that germ becomes this flesh body. So, I am in this flesh body, and I express outside of this flesh body because of my intellect. I can express my life, myself. Beyond the boundaries or the limits of my body, I can communicate myself, and myself who can fill books if I’m blessed. Fill books and volumes.
What? Yes. Can fill the eyes of many people. I'll be dwelling in the minds of many people, and on the pages of many books. I'll be living in Asia and all over the world, and if people go to the Moon with that perception of me, I'll be living on the Moon. Look how my body can extend itself. Life is born here, but created to be expressed beyond the boundaries of even the flesh body that was its womb. Praise be to Allah.
This is wonderful. You need to reflect on your own creation. Allah says, "And why don't you reflect on your own creation.” Praise be to Allah. If you understand what I'm saying here, you should now have even a better appreciation for the Prophet. For his life, what he is. He's a human being, but that human being has great, great potential. Potential that can take it above even the ranks of angels. Can lift that human being even up above the ranks of angels. It's the scripture, the word of G-d.
We have Muhammad now, and Muhammad realizing. G-d causing him to realize the great human creation that he is. He can accept no more to go along with the order of the world that was holding back his potential and a great mission that G-d had given him. So, he said to them, "I am a free man in this town," meaning I'm a free man under this system.
No system has been created to restrict the movement or growth of the human being. No system, except the total universe. Because G-d says, “He made the total universe as a field for our cultivation.” Ard duha, it as, "The skies and the earth." "The expanse of this field is as the skies and the earth," that's what G-d said. It says, and He created the woman as a tilth. That means for you to cultivate it. Right?
Audience: Yes sir.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: Some of you all may think you need to cultivate your wife, but that women G-d's talking about is the town you live in. The neighborhood you live in, the town you live in, this earth we live on. That's the woman G-d is talking about. When He say they gave it to you as a tilth for you to cultivate. You don't need a revelation to do the cultivation with your wife.
You don't need monkey sense.
And you’re going to have a reproduction. The white man from the days of white supremacy, he says, "A black man can't produce nothing but babies." With Al-Islam, we can have a great harvest for children, with knowledge, civilization, the right guidance, obedience to G-d. We can have a big harvest of children from our wives. But G-d want us to see your mate as creation itself. G-d creates the intellect to mate with the objective world.
He made your intellect to mate with the objective world. And that makes you very productive when you accept to mate your intellect with the objective world. You become very productive. G-d then says, the garden that He promised to them, "Its width is as the skies and the earth," meaning that we're not to mate only with this earth. We are to mate with the total creation of G-d, the whole universe. The white man has done that. We are behind. Yes, we are.
Give it to the white man, he did what Allah suggested in the Qur'an. He has done it. He has took the suggestion and he did it. Now, he could have gotten it from the Bible. But I don't think so. Because those visionaries that we call the Founding Fathers, James Madison, may G-d give him paradise. Thomas Jefferson, and others we can name it’s on the record that they didn't only know about Al-Islam, they also read from the Qur'an.
So, we're talking about people who are in touch with the Qur'an. And G-d says, “that He created the man, the intellect of the human being, made sister too, to engage the total creation. That's what the scholars did in the time of the Prophet. After the knowledge came, they engaged the creation. They became astronomers, leaders in their fields of science. Philosophy and science. This is what we need to understand. Muhammad was too big a man, he knew his reality was too great for him to be under the pagans. For them to be holding back his freedom. He says, "I'm a free man in this town." This is fourth of July, right?
Audience: Yes.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: We celebrate independence. How can you have freedom and be dependent? Is there any freedom from Allah? No. No, there is no freedom from Allah. Not in obedience to Allah, in disobedience, yes. There's no freedom from Allah and obedience to Allah, no. I don't want to be free from Allah, I want to be slave of Allah. I’m the abd of G-d, slave of G-d, the servant of G-d. I don't want to be free from G-d, but everything else I want to be free from.
You should seek freedom from everything except G-d. You're not to be the servant of anything but G-d. If you not to be the servant of anything but G-d, then nothing is to restrict your freedom but G-d. I mentioned this great nation. This great nation didn't say it wanted to hold your freedom, didn't say it want to have a patent on your freedom. This great nation say it wants its citizens to have freedom, even freedom to question this nation. They get together and decide that the Constitution is not serving them anymore the way it should, they have the power, the Constitution gives them the power to write another one, or to do away with that old constitution.
You tell me this isn't a great country? You tell me those weren't great visionaries who put a document and made a document, and then gave the people the power? Say, "This is what we given you. This is the best we could give you, but anytime you think that this is not serving you, you can take part of it or all of it and do it you want with it. If you have to, scrap the whole thing." By the way, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us the same thing of what he brought. He said, "The next one that come may take part of it and may do away with all of it." That's what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said.
Audience: That's right.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: That man that some of you all ridicule, laugh at, make mockery of, that's what he said. They think they got to stay the way they are. You don't have to stay the way you are. Time and circumstances may force you to look at the thing again and see if it has real value, has really purpose, if has any value now. If it has lost its value, if it has lost its reality, you have to throw it away. Put it aside. Nobody but G-d can foresee the future enough to say that this is going to last forever and be eternal. Only G-d can do that.
So, G-d gave the revelation, the Qur'an and of that constitution, G-d says it will serve us to the Judgment, until the end of this world. We can't change it, G-d forbids that we change it. We can't add to it, we can't amend it. Can't strap it. No. We have to stick with it just as it is, word for word, keeping it tact, exactly as it is because G-d says it.
When man put something together, if he's really, an innocent man and a pure man at heart. He will acknowledge that he is not G-d. And "I have no power to give you something that will bind you forever." We think that giving you our best, The Constitution, the desire for this land, for the vision of freedom and democracy, we think it's the best. But anytime it doesn't serve you, you have the power. The power's in the people not in the letter of the Constitution, not in the words of the Constitution. Power's in the people, rest in the people.
Great country. And because of them having that purity, that freedom and vision and purity, they have presented us with something that have lived for over 200 years. Look like it's going to live for 200 more years. Look like it's not going to die. In my opinion, it's not going to die. It has life, it has longevity. It's not going to die, but inshallah, we're citizens, when we come to understand the freedom that we have, we're going to be able to serve it better, serve the Constitution of these United States better. We're going to be able to serve the future of this country better.
Today, on this Fourth of July, I want us to make a pledge that we're going to take our great human creation that G-d has revealed to us. Because G-d revealed this creation to me. G-d revealed this Great Wallace to me, I didn't know this Great Wallace. G-d revealed this Great Wallace to me. I didn't know it. He made Great Wallace. And G-d had to reveal to me Great Wallace. Now, I know Great Wallace, I can perceive this Great Wallace, the one I call my Imam. I can perceive him, and he leads me.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: I make mistakes. He leads me. I fail to follow him sometimes the way I should, and I have to ask him to excuse me. Give me another chance. Yes, because I want to keep friends with Wallace. This Wallace that is my excellence drawn before me. I love him, I want to keep friends with him. Because he is the one that reconciles me with my God, because he did. It was that one in me that reconciled me with Allah. That one say, "No, Qur'an is not enough. No, your father's not enough." Say, "Keep following me. One day you'll be satisfied."
I kept following the excellence of my own self, that Wallace that leads me. That Wallace that leads me led me until I was reconciled with my G-d. And became a believer in His Qur'an, and His messenger Muhammad, prayers and peace be upon him, until the death. Became a believer to the death. That man in me is my leader. That man in me is my salvation. If I go against that man in me, I go against my own life. I go against my own future, against my own destiny if I go against that man.
I 'm serious when I tell you I follow up Imam W. D. Mohammed. I'm very serious. You may call it conscience, but to me it's more than conscience. It's a life that has formed in this body that's the best life I have. And I follow it and I obey it because I know it's my salvation. And you got one in you too. You call it your conscience, I guess. But when I am not conscious, Wallace is still working for me. Imam that I'm following is still working for me when I'm unconscious.
I got witnesses. They won't tell you everything. They're afraid you might believe in me too strongly, but I got witnesses. I thank Allah, that Allah has blessed the best of myself to connect with the real truth and reality of things. I fear nothing but G-d. When I put my mind to something, I know that it's going to be successful because I don't put my mind to it until G-d is pleased with it, until my own soul knows that G-d wants this. Not only pleased with it, that G-d wants this.
That's the only reason why I give myself to it. G-d has been pleased with it and want this from me. Then, I give myself to it. That's Imam W.D. Mohammed. Praise be to Allah. In concluding this, we should pledge to live the life of our human excellence, to live the life of our G-d-given nobility. G-d has created us noble creatures. G-d made us noble creatures, and we have to pledge, make a pledge that we are going to respect this nobility that G-d created us for and in. Respect it.
We're not going to shame it. We're not going to abandon it. We're not going to accept anything that takes away its value. Accepting to have slavery instead of freedom is the worst thing we can do. Accept that you going to live life as a free person, a free man, free woman, and you're going to have nothing enslaving you except G-d, or nothing dominating your life except G-d. No. If you love me, the worst thing you can do is obey me and not question me.
We don't question Allah, but we question everything else. Don't obey me without questioning me. No. You question me and obey me only when you feel satisfied that obedience to me is what Allah is pleased with, according to the Qur'an and according to the life of Muhammad, that what you're doing is accepted. Your obedience to me have to be approved by, the Qur'an and the life of Muhammad.
If it’s not approved by those two major sources, then your obedience to me is no good, and it hurts me it doesn't help me. It hurts me. This is what we should ask of each other, same thing. Even husband and wife, the wife shouldn't follow the husband like she doesn't have any dhakr in her nature. G-d has created her to think and reflect too. Brother, you should give up that beast of control over your woman. The beast wants that kind of control over a woman. A human being, a thinking man doesn't want that kind of control over his woman. Let your wives think and let them be free to express themselves. And respect them as noble creatures equal with you in the nobility that G-d created us for.
That's the nobility of intellect. We're only noble because of the human intellect. We wouldn't have this nobility if we didn't have this great human intellect. And if we don’t develop it and realize the growth for it, even though we have it, we can't claim that kind of nobility. No, because we have not allowed ourselves to come into it. G-d has honored us. Let us not dishonor our own self after G-d says he honored us with a great nobility. He said, “He has certainly made honorable every descendant of Adam."
Now, if you think of Adam, the descendants of Adam, the children of Adam is only this flesh. And don't think of the descendants of Adam as bodies that were generated from Adam himself, and we are products of that, Adam, in terms of intellect more so than flesh, then we miss the whole picture. In terms of intellect more than flesh, we are the sons of Adam or the children of Adam.
And G-d says we all have been honored by Him. He honored us. He said we are noble creatures. That's our common humanity, our common nobility. Common humanity from G-d, given from G-d. Common nobility given to us from G-d. Inherent nobility, that means you, every common person, is equally created by G-d to ascend to the kingship, to the presidency, to whatever, to president of the bank, to the chairman of the board, whatever. That nobody has been created by G-d to have less of a future than another.
The thing that deprive us of having equality or ascending to the heights that we want to ascend is not G-d restricting us but people, circumstances restricting us. Given the same circumstances, we all have the same possibilities. And G-d doesn’t prove that by making a whole people rise above another people. G-d proves that by taking one person. He took one person, Muhammad. We going to have Dhuhr soon. One person, Muhammad. He took that one person, and he made that one person a new creation. Created him, a new creation.
How did He create him? He said it. Alamal Qur'an, Khalaqal insan. He taught Muhammad the Qur'an and created him all over again. Taught Muhammad the Qur'an and created that man all over again. The man that was just a good man, loved and admired for his human excellence, became a man that they had to respect. Did they respect him before? No. They didn’t respect Muhammad as being a superior intellect. No, they did not. They respected him as being a superior moral being. Being a superior moral being, but not as a superior intellect.
How do we know that? Because they tried to bribe him and do anything to get him not to follow the message, not to follow the revelation, and serve them. "What you want, money? We'll give you money. You want the prettiest women we got? We'll give you that. Whatever you want, we'll give it to you if you want these things." They didn't see him as being qualified to be their chief, the leader over their society, but they saw him as a good man.
They say, "Well, if he wants money, we give it to him. If he wants women, we'll give them to him. What he wants." But G-d was going to elevate him above the world as a intellect. Not only as a soul, a heart, but also as an intellect. He was going to elevate him above the world. This man that they thought was just ordinary became the man that led the reform, that brought about the reform of their society and the reform of the whole world. Not just their society, their society and the whole world. A reformation took place that changed the whole life. The whole society was changed by that one man, and that one man became the head of state. In his lifetime, he was the head of state.
Those that thought he wasn’t qualified, they had to accept the peace terms. They had to accept the peace terms with him. His knowledge reigned so high, the knowledge that G-d gave him. And also, his own teachings reigned so high above the knowledge of that time that it just erased it so quietly. It just removed all that knowledge and erased it so quietly. G-d says that he would teach him himself. A common man, G-d taught him Himself. Qualified him and the world had to accept him as their chief, as a top leader. Saudi Arabia peninsula, all the land of the Muslim, and eventually the other parts of the world too accepted Muhammad.
Right now, the Christians are studying Muhammad. In fact, I think the Catholics are studying Muhammad more than the Imams are studying Muhammad. I'm telling the truth. They studying Muhammad. They studying Muhammad, our Prophet, and they are speaking of him with reverence. They don't speak of him in any way except with reverence, great reverence, our Prophet Muhammad. Praise be to Allah.
Who knows what the future will bring? We don't know. We don't know what the future will bring. Right now, I want you to accept that G-d has favored us in America. And that G-d has answered all of our people through us, this is the fact. I'm not preaching this to African-American Christians. I want you to know that G-d has favored all of us African-Americans through us who are in Al-Islam, in this association. Not in other association, only in this association. You, in this association, G-d is favoring our whole people through us.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: Nothing great is coming to them that will be greater than what's going to come to them through us.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Imam W. D. Mohammed: Let us be independent. Let us be dependent only on Allah. We depend only on Allah. Isn't that what we say in our prayers, "And on You, we depend"? That's how it was translated, "On You, we depend. You, we seek for help." Let us depend only on Allah. Doesn’t mean that we have to be independent of each other. We know Allah help us. What that mean is that we put no authority above Allah, and we don't limit ourselves for anyone except G-d.
G-d is the only one that can restrict our progress, our freedom. G-d is the only one that can master our mind, rule over our thought. Only G-d. That's what it means. When you accept that, you independent. Let me tell what has to come with that in order for you to really be free and independent, truly free and independent. Appreciation for good wherever you find it. You can give yourself in obedience to Allah, but Allah won't let you be free until you become appreciative, and that appreciation has to be sincere and it has to be pure.
It's not pure if you appreciate what your friend is or has or receive from G-d or the world or whatever. But the person you don't like, you can't say, "Well, I appreciate the good that he gave. I appreciate the achievements that he's made." I tell you the truth of it, I'm not in love with white people. That's the truth, I'm not in love with them, but I don't hate them. I don't hate them, that's the truth. I do not hate any people. I do not hate white people. I'm not in love with white people. I'm in love with Allah. I'm in love with His messenger, in love with the Qur'an. In love with W.D. Mohammed, my leader. But I'm not in love with white folks. Now, this may surprise you, I'm not in love with black folks neither.

I'm not. But I appreciate excellence and goodness wherever I see it, I don't care who it is. I don't particularly feel too good about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia either. But I appreciate every good that they have done. I admire them for using the oil money and then developing that country like the way they have develop it, and making all the material improvements they have made, and in serving Al-Islam as they have served Al-Islam and are serving Al-Islam. In giving charity around the world, in Africa and many other places.
I appreciate that. So, don't let your opinion of a people cause you to swerve from doing justice by them. This is the Qur'an again, that's Allah in the Qur'an. Do justice by everybody. When we can become free enough in our souls, in our hearts and our souls, to say, "The white man has really outstripped everybody as an organized people." That's a fact. As an organized people, they've gone ahead of everybody. Don't be uncomfortable with that. Be comfortable with that. You can't change it. So, why be uncomfortable? Really, that's a tribute.


