09/04/1995
IWDM Study Library 
Prophet Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets 
Detroit, MI

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Thank you. Praise be to Allah. Thank you. Praise be to Allah. Thank you. Praise be to Allah. Praise be to Allah. Praise be to Allah, the Lord Sustainer of all the worlds. The Creator of everything. This world all about us and the human man ourselves, are all the creation of G-d. He deserves thanks for providing us with the things we enjoy and with all of the resources we benefit from, including our company, the company we offer to each other. All of that wouldn't be possible without G-d having created the world and us and designing it to be that way. So, we worship Him, we praise Him, we love Him with our whole being and we feel in our souls and our minds we never can love Him enough or serve Him enough. And we thank Him and praise Him for His gift to man to the world, to all the worlds of His last Prophet. The seal of the Prophets Muhammad to whom the Qur'an was revealed, who is the model person for all of us, the model person for all mankind. As G-d says in His Holy book that he is the most excellent model for any person who believes in G-d and in the judgment day or in the last day.
And we know most of the good people who have made the biggest contributions over the long road of history to the progress of human beings and human society. We know that most of those persons, most of those persons and the nations, they have been people, persons and nations that claim to believe in G-d. They're the ones that have made the greatest contributions, which tells us that G-d is the really Benefactor and once man have G-d, his life will show and his society will show more benefits that are worth to people than those societies that don't acknowledge the G-d or ignore faith in G-d. We have seen that over the long road of history that it has been those people and those nations that said there is a G-d and identified themselves as believers in G-d that have made the greatest contributions to the life, wellbeing and future of all people. That alone to me is enough evidence to prove that disbelief is nonsense. Disbelief in G-d is foolishness. Disbelief in G-d is nonsense. For me it's enough.
Maybe it's not for many other people, but for me that alone is enough as proof that man just acts stupid when he ignores the worship of G-d, ignores the blessings of G-d in his life and in the life of his society or his nation. No matter how we look at these nations, these nations claim to believe in G-d. I don't know hardly a nation that doesn't claim to believe in G-d. America believes in G-d. That's the claim. G-d the Creator. And on every dollar in G-d we trust, and I don't know of any other nation except the Communist bloc that came in and lived a short period of time, span of time and passed away. I don't know of any other nation that doesn't acknowledge that there is a G-d. Everywhere I go, that we find people say we believe in G-d. And those that have done the most, as I said, to benefit the human person and the human society, they are the ones who appear to be the most vocal and the most devoted to the belief in G-d. And we know the great progress that we see in the modern world today. It was started, it was ignited, it was initiated by that religious movement, if we may call it the movement under our Prophet Muhammad, the last Prophet, the seal of the Prophets. Within a relative short period of time, a world that was lost from civilization, in the darkness of idolatry, came out of that darkness and became the ambassadors, the emissaries, the heralds of enlightenment for the whole world. And in time there was the revival of the interest in knowledge, in education, in the public interest. The public interest itself had been forgotten. The public interest was revived and institutions of learning popped up all of a sudden, great institutions of learning. Colleges, universities and Damascus, Syria and Baghdad, in Timbuktu, in Morocco, Fez Morocco, in Cairo, Egypt, Al Azhar. And soon there was the interest in the sciences, medicine, astronomy, geography, mathematics, algebra, and many other disciplines of the sciences. All of a sudden, all of this appeared again, the world was excited again. The nations were excited again. The nations had faith again that the future can be great for them and their citizens. And the West took it up, took up the sciences, but didn't take up the word of G-d revealed to Muhammad, the Qur'an. But they took up the benefit from the scientific studies and discipline, research studies and disciplines that was introduced again to the world and in a bigger way than it ever had been introduced before by Islamic scholars, Muslim scholars, Muslim scientists.
And today we have automobiles, refineries, oil refineries. We have technology, science and technology. We have all of this, but where did it start? What regenerated that interest and made it possible? It was those men that were turned on by the revelation, the Qur'an that came to our Prophet, the last Prophet, the seal of the Prophets, Muhammad, the Prayers and the Peace be upon him. It was his disciples, his students, the students of Qur'an and the students of our Prophet. Those students were the ones that led the sleeping world back into the business of civilization, industry and science and now technology. All of it came because of that rebirth that was made possible by the presence of the Qur'an. Allah says that He does not close the gates of the worldly benefits to any who want them. Anyone who want the worldly benefits, money and such, G-d says He doesn't close that door to you. I know some of you African-Americans, you may say, well look like it's closed to us. No it's not. Some of you African-Americans, you get very rich. But the problem is we don't know how to get rich altogether or don't know how to get rich as groups or as communities, but we do get rich individually and very rich.
So, Allah doesn't deny anybody that if you want it. But G-d says that He has a special favor. He has a special gift, special favor, special mercy special, a special blessing that He will give only to His devoted worshippers. That He will give only to His devoted worshippers. And it is always the devoted worshipper who makes possible the rebirth or the regeneration for society. Always. Others benefit, but they are not the ones that initiated it. They're not the ones that represent the beginning for it. They reap the benefits that was really the rewards given to the devotee, the devoted servant of G-d, G-d's devotees. We are thankful to Allah for our presence here today and this city of Detroit, a city that for decades and I would say for much longer than that, has had a sizeable population of Muslims, mostly those that migrated from other parts of the world, Muslim lands. Lebanon, Yemen. It was a long time ago. In fact, when I was born there was a strong Yemenite Muslim community here in this area and I understand that the Muslims of Yemen are still here, been here a long time, and really our acquaintance with the Qur'an, that is those in our association or in our group, our membership, it too began right here in this city of Detroit. The little pamphlets that we got as documents of the Nation of Islam, we called Supreme Wisdom, says that it all started July 4th, 1930. Now I believe that time is really symbolic. It really has a meaning or a hidden meaning. It doesn't necessarily have to be the calendar starting point, but the evidence supports that the late thirties, and definitely there's plenty evidence support that during the early 1931 there was activity in this city called the Temple of Islam, the Temple of Islam, and this city was called by the members of the Temple of Islam, Number one because Temple Number one was here, the first Temple was here. And then the second Temple was established in Chicago where I've lived most of my life. My mother said I was only 11 months old in her arms when she took me from here to Chicago and that's where my parents set up, house, a home, and that's where we lived until we were grown men and even till now, I live in the suburbs of Chicago. I've lived in Philadelphia for about three years. I've lived in Oakland, California for about three years. I lived in Little Rock, Arkansas for about three years. So you take about nine years or more out of my life and the rest of those years except 11 months here in Detroit, was spent in Chicago.
So, to me this city has special meaning, special meaning in our history, special meaning for Muslims, all Muslims in America, and very special meaning for those who joined the Temple of Islam or the Nation of Islam under the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and have stayed with Islam. It should have very, very special meaning in your heart and in your mind, in your thoughts. Very special meaning. There's much I could say, but I want to keep to the subject as G-d has blessed me to see it and I pray G-d guide me and protect me and bless me to make my speech, my presentation in the way to please Him, to be accepted by Him. I am not presenting the life of the Prophet today. I'll be addressing the Prophet as a reference and as a light, as a key for really addressing and benefiting from and address our discussion of issues in the life of man or in the life of society. I would like to first give you some of the subject headings that I would like to dwell on today. The topic being the Prophet as the last Prophet. The seal of the Prophets, the seal of the Prophets. I have to make sure these papers are in order because if they're not, there will be some problem for me, real problem for me.
I hope I don't have to call my daughter up here, but I see note three and four. She did this for me, she helped me. Oh, there's two. I need one, then I can be comfortable. There it is. Alright, Muhammad the seal of the Prophets. All the notes of references that I'll be quoting for this address on Prophet Muhammad, not because this reference or this little booklet is much better than any other book or other books. That's not why, but it was just convenient. What I wanted was very convenient. So, I'll be taking my quotes from the book. The book is titled The Personality of Allah's Last Messenger, but I choose to say last Prophet, that's the topic. The personality of Allah's last Prophet and the writer or the one who compiled this work is Abdul Wahid Khan by Abdul Wahid Khan. So let us quickly go over some details in the life of the Prophet as a kind of support or an introduction for what I hope to present. His birth, Prayers and Peace be on him. He was born in what is called Arabia, the peninsula of Arabia where there's a lot of desert, a lot of sand. And where there's a city mentioned in the scriptures and he himself was a native son of that city, the city that's mentioned in the scriptures. I mean the Bible, is Mecca, but it's not called Mecca in the Bible. You won't find it there as Mecca. You'll find it, you'll find it there under the name that alludes to the name Mecca in the Bible.
He was born in that city and the Bible says of that city and that desert land in a kind of Prophetic way. In fact as a prophecy it says that waters will flow, streams will come and waters will flow in that desert. The deserts of Arabia, the desert of Arabia. Our Prophet was born there and we call it Mecca, Mecca venerated Mecca, sacred Mecca, highly respected Mecca. Mecca. That's what it is called. He was there and his father's name was Abdullah. His father died before his birth. His mother, Amina, she departed when he was only six years old, leaving him an orphan. In his early childhood, he was breastfed by a poor servant like woman, country woman named Halima. As a boy, he used to go daily to work as a shepherd to graze goats and sheep in the outskirts of Mecca. His people called him El Amin when he was just a young man, years before he was called to be the last Prophet, the Messenger of G-d. They called him Al Amin. Al Amin means the trustworthy one, the one worthy to be trusted, and they called him Al Saddiq, means the truthful one. The truthful one. These were common names for him among his people Al Amin and the truthful one. In his manhood, he noticed that the Arabs, and that's what his people are called Arabs, because they speak Arabic. They're not all the same race. Don't think to say an Arab, you mean a particular race. It doesn't mean that. Never did mean that.
They say that an Arab is a descendant of Ismael, Prophet Ismael. But if that's true, then Prophet Ismael must have had some black wives because we know some black African looking people have been in the peninsula, Arabia speaking Arabic for so long, some of the Arabs say that they really outdate the typical Arab, the Arab that most of us look at. Oh, he's an Arab. I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know that I have met nappy headed black skinned men in Mecca and in Arabia and Mecca who told me, I say, well, are you Arab? They say yes. I said, well, where do you come from, I said? They say, I've always been here. They don't know when that family came. They've always been there. And you know Yemen, where is Yemen? Yemen is a country that we believe Queen Sheba had a kingdom in Yemen. And we believe according to the history, what's left of the evidence, that that kingdom was in southern Yemen, Southern Yemen, the kingdom of Sheba called Saba in the Qur'an. Saba. And who were those people? Africans. Actually, when you look at the piece of land we call Arabia and the big piece of land we call Africa, they're so close to each other until even the scientists that study continental flora, continental flora and the origin of continents, they say that it appears that that all was one piece at one time, was one piece at one time. And it's connected now. A great conqueror, if he get power over Africa, most likely he'll also take Arabia or in reverse. If a great conqueror get power over Arabia, most likely he'll take Africa. It's just too close to rest for the hostile neighbor. They're too close together. You wouldn't want a hostile neighbor that close to you. So, it is my belief that the history of Kush, ancient Kush included not only the continent of Africa but also the peninsula of Arabia. I believe the Kushites, and I think you'll find enough evidence in history to bear this out. Those people call the Kushites of Africa. I believe that their kingdom extended into Arabia and other kingdoms of the Africans I do believe extended into Arabia. And the Yemenite people were part of that great ancient past and the great ancient history. Who knows at one time maybe the Yemenites were also commanding not only Arabia and the territory there, but perhaps even a big portion of Africa. Who knows.
We know little Japan took a big piece of Asia. Yes, and small Germany, small land masses was on the march and about to take a big piece of Europe. Yes. So, we know that small nations have had the power to expand and take over much of the territory within their sights or within their reach. This is history. We should understand this, that people that govern society, I'm not saying Presidents, just people that govern society. Because many times it is the pressure that comes from the business people or from people in other areas of interest that brings the government to have a policy that hurts a particular people. And we know for a fact from seeing with our own eyes that most Americans, not African Americans, other Americans, fear African-Americans coming together and having something independent as an idea or culture. They fear tha.t They fear that not because they're racist, they fear it because they know our history and they think that, they put themselves in our place. And they say, well, I know what we would do if we got a situation to grow and be independent. So, they think that we would do the same.
We are very special people. We are not like any other people I know. We are very special people. Even while there was slavery still in America, still in the United States or the North America, there were African Americans who had identified with America, identified with the newcomers and were doing their best to support the life and the future of the colonies of this country. While their people were slaves. They were friendly to the white bosses, they were friendly to the white government leaders. They befriended the white mansion owners or the white plantation owners. They befriended them, loved their children, cared for their white children, helped the whites. Members of the white race that had us as slaves, they helped them raise their children, help them have a nice pleasant home. They did that. We are a very strange people, and I'm not saying this to criticize us or to take anything from us. I think that's a compliment to us, that we don't judge a race by the wrong ones in the race. That if we find a good person, we don't care if they're the same color of the person that enslaved the majority of us. If we find a good person, we've judged that person one to one, one-on-one based upon how that person treats us and how that person appeal to us or appear to us, appeal to us. I think that's a good thing. That's excellence. That mean that there is, that there is an innocence, an innocence, a human innocence in us that is very special. Praise be to Allah.
Now we know that many did it to survive. They were just pretending. And that's what the white man knows too, that many of them are just pretending. That's why he fears us coming together in any great numbers, doing something on our own. They don't fear me and they don't fear those that they believe think with me, but they fear others. And it's this religion, it's this religion that has brought about a development, a growth and a maturing for our minds and our hearts and our souls that make it possible now for us to not only have faith in our existence here in America, but we have faith now in our possibilities to rise up in the system of America and take positions of responsibility like the position of Mayor, position of Governor, position of judge on the Supreme Court bench, the position of banker, the position of developer, investor in the development of the society. Position of scientists, policymaker, policymaker for education, policymaker for politics and government. So, we don't see any position or any opportunity in this country closed to us. We believe if we qualify, we can manage any of those positions. I feel that the people who think we think if we qualify, we can take over the responsibility for the United States itself. And I think that's very special for a people with our history to come to that position only about, well, how long it's been since we were slaves. Not that long. Not that long. A little better than a hundred years. A little better than a hundred years. Say a hundred and what about 30 years or so, about 130 years or so, we were slaves. That is slaves in our parents loins. We were slaves. And now here in a relative short period of time, based upon what we see in history or what we know of history, in a relative short period of time, there's Colin Powell, a man that some very powerful whites are looking at as a possibility for President of these United States or Vice President of these United States. In fact, some of them are saying very openly that he's the man that they would like to see run for the Presidency of these United States. An African-American Colin Powell, Chief of Staff. That's some progress. The Prophet noticed that the Arabs were sunk deep in ignorance, bigotry and disbelief. Superstitions. There was the degrading of the human soul.
Instead of worshipping the one true G-d, people had begun to worship idols, stones, stars, et cetera. The last Prophet, the seal of the Prophets, the Messenger of G-d, the servant and Messenger of G-d. He came to bring the golden era, the golden era of righteousness and enlightenment. Righteousness and enlightenment. Enlightenment means knowledge, useful knowledge. Knowledge that you need if you are going to have a nation, a government, if you are going to have trade with other people, if you're going to have a system, economic system, if you're going to have business, commerce, et cetera. If you're going to have hospitals to care for the sick and a law to protect the people, their rights and their properties. The knowledge that makes all that possible in a good way for us or for any people is enlightenment. Enlightenment. So, at that time there was not enlightenment, there was heathenism, idol worship, idol worship, tribal feuding, ignorance, backwardness, et cetera. And it was through Muhammad the Prophet that the enlightenment came. Righteousness and enlightenment began to flourish as the Prophet made progress and as the message of the Qur'an reached more and more people in that particular area, Arabia and the vicinity and the nearby vicinity.
He came to emancipate the human soul. Now this is not my language, I told you I'm quoting the book. He came to emancipate the human soul. Now we were told that we were emancipated. We were emancipated 16, what was it? 16, 18, pardon me? 1865, 1865. We were emancipated, as I said, about 130 years ago 1865, a hundred thirty years. We were emancipated, we were told. But we had so much difficulty, so many problems. The road for us after 16, pardon me, after 1865 has been a rough road. For many, it's still a rough road, but we were emancipated. Many of us cry today like we were not emancipated. Many of us complain today like we are still slaves, like we are still in bondage like we are still denied our freedom, like we are still denied opportunity. What could be the problem? What could be the answer? What could be it? The soul is not free. The soul is not liberated, the soul is not emancipated. You can take an animal and let him a loose. Doesn't mean that he's going to have progress. He's an animal. Same thing he did in confinement, he's going to do it in freedom. He's just going to do more of it.
But if you liberate a human being's soul, you bring about the possibility for that human being to come into human excellence, the intellect to be established, the mind to be sharpened. The vision sharpened. The future brightened. Faith in self to increase, nearness to G-d to be sought. Devotion to G-d will come as a result of that when you emancipate the soul. And G-d says, "Never will He change the condition of a people until they change what is bothering their souls." So, our Prophet is the true liberator. He liberates the soul, not just the flesh. Bilal was already liberated while he was still in shackles. Bilal, may G-d be pleased with him, Bilal the African who was under his slave master when the Prophet was preaching Islam in Arabia. And the slave master, he saw Bilal with his finger like this. And he saw Bilal, he heard Bilal saying things and he knew that the message of Islam had reached Bilal. Then he wanted to break Bilal's spirit. So, he began to torture Bilal physically and Bilal was prepared to have his physical body burned in the hot sun with a big heavy stone on his chest, bare stripped out there in the heat of the Arabian sun.
He was willing to suffer that rather than to give up what he believed in. So, was his soul enslaved? No, the Prophet's message had reached him and his soul was liberated, but his body was still in bondage and because his soul was liberated, G-d came to his aid through Abu Bakr, May G-d be pleased with him. So Abu Bakr learned of Bilal and he came and paid his master a very generous price that his master couldn't refuse. And Bilal's body was taken from bondage. But that wasn't any new freedom really for Bilal. The real true new freedom for Bilal was when he heard the message of Islam from Prophet Muhammad and accepted it in his soul, accepted it in his heart. That was the real liberation for him. He didn't care whether the man destroyed his physical body or burned him to death. He was free. And that's what have made us great too. And that's what have made all people great. What did one of the leaders of this nation say, one of those who was a key factor in bringing about the freedom from Britain, from the Queen, from Britain, great Britain. He said, "Give me liberty or give me death."
He wasn't talking about the freedom for the physical body. His physical body was already free. He wasn't restricted to any plantation. He roamed all over the colonies. But he thought himself a slave, not free. And he told the British government, the British kingdom, what they call it, the British Empire. He told, well it wasn't called empire at that time I don't think. He told Great Britain, "Give me liberty." He said, "Give me liberty or give me death." Now we are free. Just like that man was. We are free just like that man was. He was free to go all over the colonies, go all over this land. We are free too African American brothers and sisters. We are free to go all over this land. And I want you to stand up and say, give us liberty or give us death. Allahu Akbar. Yes, we want our souls to be free so our intellects can grow and be established. And so, our neighborhoods will change to neighborhoods that we can be proud of. So, our image as a people will be changed that when we see each other and think about our lot, our whole race, it will make our face brighten up, make us feel happy. Instead of sadness coming on our face, believing that we are denied or rejected or oppressed people or held back people. We want to end that. And the only way to end it is to seek the emancipation of the human soul. Allahu Akbar. The Prophet had to face all sorts of difficulties, threats, boycotts. Yes, they boycotted the Prophet. Restricted him and his followers to a small area, small little area of land for three years, refused to have trade with him, tried to starve them out. During that terrible period, Lady Khadija, she died. It was just too hard, too difficult. May G-d be pleased with her and I'm sure she's in the paradise, in the high place in paradise. They tried their best to offer temptations of wealth and women, beautiful women to the last Prophet.
To dissuade him from preaching the religion, to bring him back to their idol worship, to ignorance and disbelief. He refused all of that. He refused money, wealth, and pretty women. He faced persecution after persecution, insult after insult, danger to his own life and to life of his loved ones, his close relatives and loved ones. Also, the loss of life. He braved their hostilities, their taunts, their harassments, their ridicule and their evil designs. He braved them in the most honorable way, in the most manly way. He went to the nearby town called Taif to preach to them only to be insulted, harassed, stoned, wounded and returned from that place bleeding. And the recorders of the history say that people heard the wet sound of blood in his slippers, in his sandals as he was walking away from that place. He suffered all that. He knew they were ignorant. He was trying to appeal to their good senses. He was alone by himself except for G-d as his company until companions, relatives and companions. Well actually Lady Khadija was with him from the very beginning, and soon there was his friend Abu Bakr Sadiq, and his cousin Ali Ibn Talib, may G-d be pleased with them. And in time we know others came. But for about 11 years or more, he had only a very, very few followers.
They were outnumbered so much by the disbelievers that their life was made very miserable for all those years. I wonder, would we still be here if we were tested like that? I don't compare myself with our great leader and model human being the Prophet, but I can kind of compare the events in my life and in our life with the events in his life and in the first followers life of our Prophet. I started out and as long as everybody thought that I was going to go in the same old way of the Nation of Islam, they were ready to give me their money and everything else. But as soon as they found out I wasn't going to do that, they started saying, "He's messing up everything. He's messing up everything." And really we haven't suffered. Nobody has been beating us up, torturing us, causing us physical loss of life or property. Nobody's been doing it. Well, they did cause us some loss of property, but I don't blame that. I don't blame that on the whole people. I blame it on Hoover's plan that was carried out. The FBI chief at that time. I blame it on him and those that went along and committed themselves to carry out that plan. And I blame it on you who came in as friends, but you were enemies who came into the Temple of Islam, Nation of Islam as friends, but really were enemies serving the enemy. And you came in and made it possible for them to carry out that plan against us, the Temple of Islam at that time. So, I blame you. I blame them, The Hoover plan, and I blame you who came among us and made it very easy for them to carry it out, carry their plan out. But nobody will see Hoover that's hurt because they don't have the old Nation of Islam anymore. Nobody will see the infiltrators that came among us and were part of the leadership, national leadership. They won't see that. They say, "He did it. He did it." Talk about me and point to me. Now let me continue on giving these notes.
Our Prophet finally got an opportunity. G-d gave him friends in Medina. Supporters from the neighboring city, Medina that is now called Medina Al Maw Nura. It means the city of Enlightenment. The city of Enlightenment. Medina. The city of Enlightenment. Because the Prophet taught there and established the first Muslim community there in Medina. And from that city the light shone, the light extended to many parts of the world, brought the revival and civilization back to the lost nations, the lost communities of men, and eventually sparked the rebirth of what is called the Renaissance for the West, for Europe and the West. All started there. It was from that city of enlightenment, that illuminated city. That's what it means, illuminated. That illuminated city, illuminated with the virtues and principles and sciences of Islam as revealed in the Qur'an and taught by the last Prophet, the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad. All of this is very important in our picture of Islam. If you want to see Islam, you should see these important details in the life history of Muslims, followers of the Prophet and in the life of the Prophet of course, Prayers and Peace be on him.
It was there in Medina, the first Mosque of Islam was constructed at Quba. I have made pilgrimage and Umrah, and I'm sure that you have too, perhaps many of you out here that made Hajj. You also visited the mosque, the Quba. The Quba mosque, the first mosque. I have. Little small Mosque there, little small simple Mosque, Quba Mosque. He used to say, our Prophet Prayers and Peace be upon him. He used to say "Allah has not created anything better than reason." Listen, our Prophet said this. If I say it in a Kutbah, and the so-called Ulema, the so-called person who claims that he's a member of the Ulema, scholar, learned scholar, he hear me say this and I don't connect it with the Prophet or even if I do, he might say I'm lying. He'll say, no, the reason is not the greatest thing created. No. R-E-A-S-O-N. That's what I got from the book. I got it because I like it. I got it because that's the way I think. I got it because that's the way I was believing already. See? Allahu Akbar. When the Qur'an tells us to think, the Qur'an is not telling us to think without any particular discipline for our mind. It doesn't mean just think. A lot of us are thinking all the time and sinking deeper and deeper. Ain't going nowhere, just keep getting more miserable and more miserable. But we are thinking all the time.
When Allah says to us in the Qur'an think, G-d means use the rational faculties, use the rational faculties, be men and women of reason. Use the power of reason because that's the precious tool that G-d has given you for your establishment, for your progress, for the decisions that you have to make in life.
So, this is a Prophet who's saying this. And I quote- "Allah has not created anything better than reason." R-E-A-S-O-N. Now when is that reasoning really the best? When is that reasoning really worthy that kind of recognition? We can have faulty reasoning, flawed reasoning, right? Foolish reasoning, reasoning that takes us to bad consequences. And that's why Allah says, "And surely the reasoning or the thinking on G-d is the most rewarding." It is the best. Yes, it is the best because that's the reasoning that brings us to correct our reasoning. If you begin reasoning on G-d, begin with G-d, G-d will connect you with everything else because, He is the initiator of everything. He is the creator in everything. He is the starter, the designer of everything. So, if you start with Him, He will unravel the knots for you in the rope of your thinking no matter where you take your thinking because you can't take your thinking outside of G-d's handiworks. So, He says, "Surely the thinking on G-d, the reasoning on G-d, with G-d in your view, with G-d in the mind is the most powerful, is the most rewarding, is Al Akbar, greater. Is it greater.
Praise be to Allah. Speaking of our Prophet, Prayers and Peace be upon him. He came to blend together. He came to bring about an association, a cooperation involving peoples of all tongues, all colors, all persuasions, all races and nationality. This is our Prophet, Prayers and Peace be upon him. He brought about revolutionary change. Revolutionary change. The goal of life was changed for the people who were in darkness and ignorance before the light of Qur'an and the Prophet, the teacher came. Man was changed into a human being with a distinctive badge of Islamic identity. He was made a man of that time, was taken from being just a wanderer, a lost vessel, to being a excellent human person, human being with a distinct Islamic identity. It was through the strength of its truth, conceptual superiority and its dynamism that Islam spread. I would like to pause here to say this- Islam has not been spreading like that or upon those factors or influences for centuries, for many centuries. How has this... not to discredit or to take anything away from those who have been propagating the religion, who actually brought it to America. Even before WD Fard, Fard Muhammad WF Muhammad, W Fard Muhammad came to Detroit. There were Ahmadiyyas, and there were Yemenite and there were others who were preaching Islam quietly in America. We know that.
But only a very few have followed the method of our Prophet, Prayers and Peace be on him. Very few. So, I repeat. It was through the strength of its truth, conceptual superiority and it's dynamism that Islam spread. We mentioned earlier those fine institution of learning, those universities of Damascus, Baghdad, Fez Morocco, Timbuktu, Cairo, Egypt. We mentioned those great universities that were in the forefront of the new movement to bring civilization, enlightenment and decency and higher morality, higher morals and ethical life back on this earth to man. We mentioned them. It was such movement in the rational teaching of belief in G-d. We know belief in G-d is faith and must be supported by faith, but belief in G-d in Islam also have rational basis, rational basis. They were just not appealing to our soul's emotions and the emotional nature of man. They were not just those teachers, early teachers, they were not just appealing to that. They were appealing to the rational faculties, to the reasoning power of man and to get him to see that there are sound rational basis for belief in the Creator of this world. G-d, the designer of it all. And that is how the religion spread. Love for education. Actually public education began with the Prophet's teaching. There was no public education before and this modern world didn't have public education until very recent in its history. Is that not a fact? Public education is a recent development even for the West and the Prophet started public education from the time he received the revelation. He started public education. Pardon me, public education. He made education a duty on every citizen, male and female. As G-d guided him.
He made every person who learned a little of the Qur'an, the wisdom, the sciences, et cetera. He made them obligated to spread it to another person, take it to another person. No matter how little the amount is that you have, the world is in darkness. Your neighbors all around you are in ignorance. So, you have a little bit, take it to them, they're in need of it. Everybody's in need of it. Take it to them. Don't have them in darkness anymore. Don't wait until you get a PhD. You already have one line of the master wisdom. You got one line, one verse, one ayat of the master wisdom, the supreme wisdom, the highest knowledge, the highest science. So don't wait till you get a PhD. Take that to that starving brother whose brain is starving dead, dusty. Take that to him so he will have some sense and be educated. Let the education process begin with the first line of revelation. That was the Prophet. And spread it so every member of the society, the whole public has it. That was the Prophet. You can understand that being a revolution, a revolution, a cultural revolution, a spiritual revolution, a cultural revolution.
And eventually a total revolution. Allah's last Prophet remained extremely preoccupied with answering the attacks upon him and his followers by his enemies. Soon when he established the society, the Ummah in Medina. Right away, they thought that their armies could wipe him out. In fact, the Meccans were after him before he left Mecca and pursued him hoping to destroy him before even he got to Medina. But G-d protected him always. So, they engaged him in fights and battles and wars, tied him up all the time. But even with that great burden on him, the religion continued to grow. He kept preaching. He kept building the society even while being engaged in war all the time because of the aggressive, hateful idol worshipers and their friends. Yes, that continued until the age of 53. From the age of 53 to the age of 63, 10 years. That terrible kind of circumstance continued for our Prophet. 10 years, 10 long years from he was 53 and it wasn't until he was 63 when the victory came. In fact, victory came just a few, a little while we would say before his death. Victory came and he gave the last sermon and the Hajj. And actually we'll be taking from that sermon too for this presentation. So we know the record of battles, the hostility towards Islam. At the time of the conquest victory for our Prophet and his followers and Mecca, what did he do? And to fulfill answering prophecy, pointing to that particular liberator that will be given victory over his enemies, he forgave and pardoned his enemies. The Prophet of Islam practiced religious tolerance. Now this is something that we are just beginning to become aware of again, just beginning to become aware of again. I mean Muslims. The enemies of Islam had entangled us so much in a kind of religious combat with them that we lost really a sense of just who we are and what Islam is. So, most Muslims of the world until here just recently, we thought that Islam is here to wipe out Christianity and Islam is here to wipe out Judaism. Islam is here to wipe out all religions and that we ought to take up a physical weapon of sword or something and go to war with them. That that is the real jihad. To just get swords or weapons and just fight Christians and fight Jews and fight other people who belong to other religions. That's what we thought. But listen to what this man is saying, not from me, not from you, not from America, from overseas about Islam and about our Prophet. He says the Prophet of Islam practiced religious tolerance toward non-Muslims. As an ideal, as an ideal.
I am understanding him to be saying that as a sign of what is the ideal dignified human behavior. He did not force or compel the people of other religions to embrace Islam. And this writer says it would have been against the very dictates of the Qur'an if the Prophet had done that.
As the ruler of the state, speaking of our Prophet, the seal of the Prophets. He used to meet the lowliest of the society on equal footing as he himself was the leader, the leveler of the society. He was to bring equality. That's what leveler means. He was to bring the arrogant ones down with the teachings of Islam, with the teachings of the Qur'an, the words of G-d and his own model, his own example. He was to bring the arrogant ones down to the place where they should be and bring the degraded ones, those with inferiority complexes up from their degradation, from their shame to bring them up to the level where they should be. So, he was the leveler of society. That's what this author said. I like the way he put that. He called our Prophet, the leveler of society, the one to bring about a leveling by bringing the arrogant ones who got their nose in the sky turned up looking down on us.
He was to bring them down to the place where they should be on the plane of common human excellence. And he was to bring us up from our fears, shame that had been put on us because we were called black slave, inferior dumbbells, ignorant, et cetera. It doesn't have to be white, didn't have to be black. They call you that no matter what color you are. There are people who look down on you because you not educated like they educated, and they would look down on you because you are not of their culture. They will look down on you and they'll reject you and say, you ain't fit for nothing but to shine my boots or to clean my toilet or take out my garbage. That's the way it was back then. And the Prophet was the leveler. He was the one to bring the high nose down, put him where he's supposed to be in his natural place of human excellence, not in the sky as an angel or as a G-d, but bring his old funky tail right down here and sit him on the seat of humanity and bring that fallen humanity that had no sense of nobility, no sense of inherent worth or inherent excellence, bring him up from the bottom and set him up there too. And they all sit together. Praise be to Allah. See, this is the liberation of the soul. So, our Prophet became the leader of the state, the head of the state. Now for a word on his wives. His wives had special duties, special responsibilities, and a role to play in the spread of Islam. They gave correct guidance and removed misunderstandings regarding family and female life and also regarding the true character and conduct of their husband. Those special ladies had a very special role, a very special responsibility, and they were a very important factor in the spread of Islam and in the uniting of the Ummah in love with each other behind our Prophet. In the 10th year after the migration to Medina, the Hijrah, Allah's last Prophet Muhammad delivered his last sermon. It was the first universal declaration or charter of human rights. You hear that? We are not joking. We're very serious. This writer was very serious when he wrote this. And believe me, all of the scholars that know this, they're very serious when they say this. And as a student, I'm very serious when I say it.
And I've seen a lot of those who call themselves scholars that I would like to invite to grow up by inviting them to be my students. But I don't claim to be a scholar. I don't claim to be a scholar. Yes. So, with this declaration of human rights, we get the words from our Prophet in the 10th year after the migration. So that's about in the 23rd year, 22nd or 23rd year of his life as last Prophet, the seal of the Prophets. This is near the end of his life with us on this earth now. And he says "Oh people." Now, couldn't he have said Oh Muslims? How would we say it? I don't think we would say "Oh people."
If we got a big victory like that after 13 years of suffering persecution and being put down and kept out of the haram, denied the permission to make pilgrimage. If we had been suffering like that and all of a sudden now G-d has blessed us to be victorious with an army too big for them to deal with. I don't think most of us would've said on that day, I mean the best of us, I mean the most saintly of us. I don't think the best of us could have done what the Prophet did, Prayers and Peace be upon him. I don't think we could have looked out at that great multitude of our followers, of our members and said "Oh people." We would've said, "Oh Muslims." "Oh Muslims victors that have vanquished the kafir.". That's how we would've begun. And we would've preached and preached and preached in that spirit. But the Prophet, he knew they were Muslims, he knew they were believers. He knew that they had been converted by G-d, converted by his efforts under G-d to the religion of Al Islam. But he didn't say "Oh Muslims" or "Oh Muslim believers." No, he didn't. He said "Oh people." People.
"Oh people, he said, listen to me." Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? "Oh people listen to me." Here's a man that has such excellent, perfect human character that... He is the victor. He is in power. The average one of us wouldn't get there and say, listen to me. We just started talking. And if he didn't listen, say, Hey, go over there and chop his head off. Say, Hey, that one over there ain't listening to me. Go there and chop his head or shoot that son of a gun. Yeah, we had that kind of victory in our power, oh man. We'd be crazy in our power. No, but he said "Oh people" and then asked them like the Romans, lend me your ears lend me your ears like the Roman emperor. He said, Friends, Romans countrymen, lend me your ears. The Prophet who's supposed to have been uneducated, a child that never got formal education raised to that high station by G-d, doesn't have the background of the Romans in their excellence, in their knowledge and cultural excellence. Although they were savages on one side. They were like that guy in this new movie. On one side, you see a presentable human being. On the other side, you see a beast. I don't know what happened over there in Europe. Something happened, looked like they couldn't get the whole body into civilization. One side would be civilized and the other side would be savage. A monster on one half and a human being on the other half. But anyway, they had to achieve it. They knew how to slip into the other side, then slip into the other side. "Friends, Roman, countrymen." Now he showed you that side. Friends Roman countryman lend me your ears. Now he better keep looking like that at the audience. He better not do this and show them the other side. "Arrrrgggg."
We understand that condition. Believe me, G-d has blessed us to understand that condition and He healed us. We don't have to suffer that. He said, "All Praise is for Allah. He didn't claim praise. He let them know right away the credit for this victory goes to G-d. He said, all praise is for Allah. We praise Him, seek Him, seek His pardon and return to Him. We seek refuge with Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evil consequences of our deeds, whom Allah guides aright, there is none to lead him astray. And there is none to guide him against whom Allah leads astray, none to guide him whom Allah leads astray. Now you may say, will G-d lead a person astray? Yes. If G-d gives you guidance and mercy and guidance and have patience with you and have mercy on you over and over again and pardon you over and over again, the very thing that was meant to guide you aright will then be changed and it will be your guide to hell. It will be your guide to hell. And you brought that on yourself, not G-d. Yes. And it says, and there is none. Pardon me, and there is none to guide aright whom Allah leaves astray. I bear witness that there is no G-d, but Allah the only one. He fulfilled His promise and granted victory to His servants and He alone routed the enemies. He didn't say, I'm your general. I am victor. I am the victor here.
He didn't say to his army, under your general, we have defeated them. We have routed them. He said, G-d routed the enemy. G-d defeated the enemy. G-d hemmed them in. G-d brought them down. G-d vanquished them. G-d did it. He says, goes on to say that the Prophet delivered this last sermon or this last speech to the multitudes on Mount Arafat. And you who made Hajj like I have, you have visited Mount Arafat. I'm sure that is where our Prophet spoke and I'm sure the guides there, they guided you to just where he stood on a little raise, on a raised level there where he stood and he gave his speech there on Arafat. And the Prophet went on to address the treatment of women and also the treatment of slaves. And what he said, which I want to conclude so I can not spend too much time today here. What he said in effect was that women have been held back from their dignity, their G-d-given respect and dignity, inherent value and honor, and men have been responsible for it. Men have imposed themselves upon women, denied them their rights as equal human beings with men. You hear what I said? Equal human beings with males. That's what the Prophet said in effect.
Yes. And the Prophet appealed very earnestly to the men to accept the responsibility to correct that wrong, and to treat their women with the proper respect and to recognize their women's rights, to engage in business, to inherit wealth from their parents, to be educated, to participate in the vital processes, to have roles in the vital institutions of the society. To have a public voice, a public voice that will enable them to influence the state and course of the state or the nation. This is what our Prophet did. Along with what G-d revealed, Allahu Akbar. Whenever a sister say takbir, you respond to her just like you respond to a brother who says takbir. Thank you. We are going to get there. Yeah, we are making a lot of progress on the road. We are going to get there. He made it, our Prophet, the seal of the Prophets. He made it impossible for slavery to continue. He didn't prohibit people from having servants. You can have servants, but not that servant that is the typical slave whose ego has been crushed, whose sense of personal value has been destroyed, and who think of you now as an almighty in his life.
He did away with that. You can't have servants as your properties anymore. The servant is not your property. He's G-d's creation. He belongs to G-d. You want to keep him as your servant? All right, feed him the food you yourself eat. This is what the Prophet said. And that goes a long ways brother. Feed your servant the food you yourself, eat and dress him in the clothes you yourself wear. And don't say to him, my slave, but say to him, my dependent. Dependent meaning that he's like a child depending on you for certain needs, but he's not your slave. In other words treat him just like you would your own boy from your wife and your own loins. That's what the Prophet was saying. Treat him like you would your own child from your own loins and from your wife. Treat him like that. Don't say my slave. Don't say Abdi.
Imam On Stage:
Right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
This is the Prophet's teaching. So, it is reported that one man said, "What did he say, asking about what the Prophet said. What did he say regarding the slave? They told him, said, he said, you had to feed him the food you yourself eat and you have to clothe in the clothes that you yourself wear. You have to make education a possibility for him, just like you make it a possibility for your own children. He said, What? Well, I don't want my slave anymore. And that's just what that was, that was the purpose. That's what it was designed to do. It was designed to make the slave owner or the slave master be fed up, not find it desirable anymore. Oh, it's not desirable anymore to have them as my slave. I got to feed him now the food I eat. I'm going to buy lamb chops today and he got to eat some lamb chops? Can I wear these clothes here? It costs a little money. I can't give him that I throw away anymore, rags and tattered rags to wear? I can't let him find sandals on the roadside that somebody threw away? Well, I don't want him anymore. He's not profitable. There's no more business or profitable to keep him. So many of them gave up slaves right away.
And those who kept slaves, their slaves were not slaves anymore by our definition of what a slave is. No, not by our definition of what a slave is. But they were working, they were employed in the employment of that person to do certain jobs. But they were respected and embraced as brothers and sisters. They would greet them "As Salaam Alaikum brother." Treated them as members of their own household as family members. Yes. And the Prophet went on. I'm trying to wrap up things. There is a lot more I have here. The Prophet went on and made it an obligation that a slave and a black man or a slave, a slave or a black man, had to be respected as having the rights to qualify for ascension in government. And no office was barred against them. No office was restricted. The slave could rise up as high as he wanted to go. The Prophet said, if a slave of Africa become your leader, that mean a slave of Africa, a black man and a slave have the right to become the leader of all the Muslims. Of all the Muslims. He said, if a slave of Africa with black skin and nappy hair, he made it plain that he wasn't talking about a straight hair Arab living in Africa or Indian Asian living in Africa. He made it plain that he was talking about a slave, a person who had been a slave and also black with nappy hair. He made that very clear. He said, if that person become your leader, if he follows the Qur'an and the Prophet's way, then obey him. Obey him. This is what the Prophet said. So here we are, 130 years from slavery and we still waiting on one of us to become President of United States. Right now we have the rights to become President of the United States, but we don't think the people are ready. And here we are 14 centuries, almost from that time when the Prophet made it a law that a black man, or a slave. It didn't mean just a black slave. Any slave. Any slave could go up to ascend in the system or the structure of the government and become the top man or leader of that nation or that government of Muslims, all the Muslims of the world if they would accept him. It was just not any black slave any slave could do that was given that right. He had freedom. If he becomes educated and if he qualified upon the Qur'an and the teachings and way of our Prophet, if he qualified by that criteria, he was to be accepted. And I say 14th centuries later, just about, and the Muslim world is not ready for that. In America as citizens of this country. 130 years from that day when we were freed and maybe when did the law come into effect ending segregation and discrimination? About 30 something years. Yeah, it's been about 30 something years. It is 30 something years ago, 30 something years ago, laws were brought into play that gave us equal citizenship in this country. South and north, south and north. But even today, we don't feel that this society is ready for a black man to be President over these United States.
Many of us feel that way. In fact, I think more of us doubt that a black man can be President than whites do, because I find more whites coming out saying, Colin Powell will make a great President. I haven't found a black saying it yet. I'm sure a lot of us thinking it, but it haven't reached the media. If it has, I haven't heard it. Yes. So, we have to be educated. You want me to be the President? You keep wanting it. Praise be to Allah, I think I would make an excellent President. That's right, sister. And proud to be that too. That's right. Now I have some subject headings that really go with what I've presented from this book by Wahid Khan. And when you get this tape, the audio tape, the audio tape, or if you get a book, maybe sometime this will appear in the paper or a book or something. In the newspaper, the Journal, Muslim Journal.
Please, study what I gave from the book describing in some important details the last Prophet, the seal of the Prophets, and read it as a preparation for what I'm going to say from this point on. Now I have some subject headings here. One is the role of the character of the last Prophet, the seal of the Prophets, the role of the character of the last Prophet, the last Prophet as the leader in the road in route to the destiny. Destiny. Now I know this language destiny, because the Christian world used it and popularized this term destiny. Muslims just frown on anything the West said. Oh, Imam sound like the Western thinkers when he's talking about destiny. Oh, some of the Ulemas, some of the big chiefs, the big thinkers in Islam, I know they have said this of me. They say, oh, he's coming from the western idea when I say destiny. No I'm not. I'm coming from the Islamic idea. And if anything, the West copied Islam, when it gave this idea of the destiny and that man should work for the destiny, should hope for the destiny, and should order his society so that his society is realized for him as a destiny. This is a Western idea. It certainly is. This is the Western democracy.
Those that were working over here for the destiny in the literature they called it the Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny, meaning something that had not been seen yet. Something that they wanted to realize, that they wanted to see, that they wanted to have materialized in their eyes and for their life.
It had come about. They called the Manifest Destiny. Now, for real Christians, the West, America has not come to any manifest destiny yet. This is not the destiny yet. They still hope to see the destiny. But progress has been made, toward the destiny. And if any of us can't see that, we are dumb, in the dark ourselves. They have made great progress toward the destiny, in spite of the sins and corruption and the duplicity in the character and morals and makeup of this society that shows us a devil on one side and an angel on the other side. Righteousness on one side and wickedness on the other side. A system to support the righteous and a system to support the criminals. We know all that exists, but we know that is not what the real Christian wants. And we know that is not what the true decent American citizen wants. That's how come they fight crime. They fight lies. They fight corruption. They fight immorality. They fight all these things as decent American citizens because that's not what they want.
So, we are talking about the Prophet, last Prophet. Let's look at the very word Prophet. Prophet in English. When we see the word Prophet, P-R-O-P-H-E-T- , P-R-O-P-H-E-T. When we see that word in and look it up in the dictionary, it tells us about someone who prophesies, someone who is a can see into the future and make predictions. And it may give us other descriptions, some other description. But that's the main description. That's the main meaning for the term Prophet. But when we look at the word in Qur'anic, Arabic, an nabi, an nabi, an nabi and how that word is used grammatically in the context of the Qur'an or in the text, the whole text of Qur'an, we come to know the true meaning of this word. And this word means "to warn." To warn. It means one who is a Warner. Now, you know old folks when I was a boy, young boy, they don't say it anymore. They've used the term warn. "I'm giving you a warning, if you do that again, you're going to sure get it." So as a Prophet in the Qur'anic term means a warner one that warns you. Allah never said that Muhammad, in the Qur'an and nowhere else has the Prophet said or has the Qur'an said that Muhammad is the last messenger. That's not the language. It doesn't say last messenger, because Allah is going to send you some more messengers to put the fire on you. Put the whip on you. When I relate all this to the destiny, the destiny, what is Islam in this life, in this world? It is a life upon the path of G_d, isn't it? It is life upon the path of G_d. And G_d says, call to the path of G_d when you Imams and you preachers, you dais. When you invite people to the religion, G_d says, id’u, call - sabillillah, to the path of G_d, to the way of G_d. Call to the way of G_d. So, a path indicates or suggests a point of origin and a destiny. If there's a path, there's a point of origin. That's where I start. Now, I may not start where you start, some of us are farther away from the destiny than others, but for all of us, it's a start. We have to start where we are. We start where we are, depending on how we're equipped for the path, we start where we are. So, it indicates or it suggests a starting point and a destiny. Sabillillah. The Prophet said in this world, he's a traveler, didn't he? Yes.
So, the real destiny is the destiny for the human soul. The real destiny is the destiny for the human soul. And in this world, we have a destiny for ourselves individually, for our personal life, for my personal mind, for my personal heart, my sensitivities and everything, I have a destiny for that. That's not the major destiny, that's not the classical destiny. That's my personal destiny. If I just have that and seek that, I'm not going to be qualified for the destiny that Allah promises. The destiny that Allah promises the Muslims, that is. The destiny that Allah promises the Muslims is a community destiny. It's not just a destiny for my spirit or a destiny for my soul in myself. It is a destiny for my soul that is a monitor, a kind of monitor for the collective body of people. My soul, every man's soul, every woman's soul is a kind of monitor, monitoring what is good and bad, not only for individuals, but what is good and bad for the whole society, for the whole human world.
It's that group soul. It's that group sensitive soul. That group kin soul. It's akin to the group. It's really one life, one life with the whole group. But I have it in me personally, separately, and it monitors for me and monitors for the whole world of human beings what is good and what is bad if it is responding as G_d intends for it to respond. So this is the soul. That's the real end for the soul. That's the complete goal of the soul. The complete goal of the soul is to not to have paradise and nobody there but me. The complete goal of the soul is to have paradise and see Binah and so and so. I'm going to get in trouble, and so and so. All my children and all my loved ones and my friends and everything. The real goal is to see all of them there. And as a soul expands, as the soul expands as the way G_d wants it to expand, it won't be happy until they see every decent human being there. No matter what that color is, no matter what their national origin is. The soul want to see every decent human being in that blessed state, in that blissful state, in that paradise.
So, this is the goal of the community of Muslims to work for that on earth, to work for that on earth. We know that G_d promised us hereafter, the greater life and the end beyond the material world. But we want a community of Islam on earth that satisfies the souls needs, that brings us to have peace in our soul because we have an ideal society, ideal society designed for us by G_d Himself. We want that society. That's the destiny we want on earth. And G_d brought us Muhammad and brought us the Qur'an and invited us to Islam for no other reason than that. That is the end that we should be a community evolved out of the world, a community evolved out of the world. Obeying G_d, worshiping G_d following and obeying his last Prophet Muhammad the Seal of the Prophets and being what? Of good, a benefit to the whole of mankind. That's what Allah says in the Qur'an. So, you tell me that's not manifest destiny? Will any one of you scholars argue with me and tell me that my religion doesn't suggest that we should be on the path toward Manifest Destiny! A great society on this earth that will be a model community resembling paradise, that G_d promises us in the after life. I say to you, if you don't know that man, let me teach you!
Let me be the scholar, you be the student. You can't have a great society on this earth dealing with the material environment, making a home for the soul and for the body and for the whole life, the intellect and everything in this material environment, unless you have a rational mind, an authentic human nature, an authentic real human character. A rational mind of a natural human being in its excellence, a thirst for knowledge, a desire to become educated, an interest in nature and in the sciences. You can't have it without that. So, part of our journey, part of our steps on this journey includes working to establish high institutions of learning. They did it in the beginning of the Ummah in Baghdad, in Damascus in Cairo and Fez Morocco, in Timbuktu way down there in the nappy head land and had scholars coming way down there in the nappy, head land coming with straight hair, white skin. What were they coming for? Coming to be taught under those black nappy headed teachers of Timbuktu! You may say, what happened to that great progress for you, blacks? What happened to it? White supremacy rose up to do final battle with the human model.
And now we living in the days of the final curtain for white supremacy. It happened, but that old wicked thing is dead now. It's dead now. We can have a Timbuktu now and it will never be crushed again. But we won't call it Timbuktu, because the white man, he made it a slang. Timbuktu, he made a slang for him. It's mockery when he says Timbuktu, he's laughing at you. He's making mockery. The Prophet also told us to have an interest in nature, to have an interest in nature and to think on, ponder the complexity of the natural world. That's what the Prophet told (us), these are the keys. These are the keys for coming into the great intellect for becoming scientists. These are the keys. Be interested in the nature that G_d created. Study the nature of the animals. Study the nature of the plants. Study the nature of the rocks.
Study the nature of the atmosphere. Study the nature of everything and think about it, ponder on it. Think deeply and think seriously on the complexity. Complexity means, it's not simple to see and understand. That's what complexity means. It's not easy and simple to see and understand. Don't back up off it. Don't be afraid. Don't be intimidated. Bring your brain. Bring your brain, that great tool, bring that rational faculty that Muhammad said of it, "G_d didn't create a better thing than that." Bring that great tool and let it meet the challenge of this material world. Its nature and all of its complexity, because those are keys. Those are keys for further progress toward the destiny. Toward the destiny. I have no fear in this world anymore. I'm not afraid for anything anymore. I know I can be killed. I know I can die. I know I can catch a cold and die.
I know I can walk out there and be hit by a car. I know all that. I know if I threaten this order of society enough that they will have somebody shoot me with a needle and claim I was a dope addict. I know they can do all these things. I know all that. But I don't fear. I don't fear. I don't fear that we can't make progress on the road toward victory as a community. And that's what Allah wants for all Muslims. We must not be victorious as nations. We must not be only victorious as races or nationalities or culture or ethnic groups. We must be victorious as a Muslim community. And for us to be victorious as a Muslim community, we must take on the responsibility and have the courage to say, I don't care what law prevails. I don't care what circumstances prevail. My obligation is to establish a new government, a new community, a new society, a new way of law and obedience to G_d. That's my obligation. That's my obligation. Now, I'm not going to do it like a fool. You don't come in a new territory and tear down what you can use. There's a lot in America we can use. Let's go forward to the destiny. As salaamu alaykum, peace be unto you.





