09/15/1975
IWDM Study Library
Ministers Meeting
Pt. 6

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam Mohammed: The Holy Qur’an teach that Allah expands the breath. Is that right? Okay. There's a chapter called expansion. Okay. All right, so he moving out here, but he's working to secure and preserve what he already had. This prayer, works to secure and preserve, faith in Allah, charity works to secure and preserve prayer.
Because a man who will force himself, he has the opportunity to sleep on flamingo down, you know those feathers of the flamingo? Rich people have stuffed pillows with that stuff in it. He had the means to sleep on that, and he's dreamed of sleeping on flamingo down. But he remembers his duty, his commitment to the structure that he lives under and depends upon for his survival, so he says, "No, I won't get it. I'm supposed to give this excess in charity" So he gives it, and in giving it, what has he done?
He brought about agreement between himself and Allah. This agreement makes him feel better now, makes him feel more comfortable. You see? He did what the boss said, so now, his conscience is not bothered as much, and he feels closer to Allah now because "I have done what Allah said. I obeyed Him." He is more inclined now to pray. Right? He fulfilled in charity, that deed brought him closer to Allah.
In coming closer to Allah, he is more mindful of the need to pray. One forgets this importance of praying when he drifts away from Allah. The closer he gets to Allah, the stronger prayer is in his conscience. Right? All right. This charity acts to brings him back to Allah by making him do something for his fellow man. Allah knows, "Well, there's more ways, more routes to me than coming straight to me. That's the best way you can get to me, by going to your brother and your sister.
Why? Because I have tied you all together. When you fulfill your duty, you are going to feel that you more presentable now to come home to Me." A disobedient child who loves his parent and has broken the rules of the parent, he doesn't want to come back and see mom and dad until he's done something to make up. Right? After he's done something to make up, he comes on back home. "Hey, mom, look at this. What do you think about this mom?" "Oh, boy, looks like you've been trying to do something for yourself." "Yes, mom." He's all right, he can come back home.
Okay, you spend some charity and doing what the Master says, you can come home now and pray. In the name of Allah. You feel you can come now, right? [applause].
Before then, you were persecuting yourself. You were saying you didn't think you should go and talk to the boss. "Hell, I can't talk to the boss. I haven't done what the boss said."
Boss said, "If you are ashamed to come to me, then go to your brother and then come to me. He moves now from prayer charity, he's established his charity now and he's in the position now to fast, you see? He says, "Now I'll fast." In fasting now, the Holy Quran says, Allah says in the Holy Q'uran, "Fasting is for me. The other things is for yourself, for your brother, for the society, but He says, "Fasting is for me."
Why is fasting for Him? What does he want? He says, "I have created you that you might grow." Is that right? All right. As an individual. Fasting is not something between you and the society, fasting is something between you and Allah. You see? You understand?
Audience: Yes.
Imam Mohammed.: All right. He says, "I have created you that you might grow." What is the 'you' that he has created? Is it less? No, he's made many things like this and made many flesh bodies stronger than this one, faster and stronger and more durable. Sleep out in the cold and you can't.
This isn't the 'you' he made. He just designed this. It's kind of delicate, it's kind of fragile, but isn't it delicate and fragile things that are able to carry the delicate message? You see? The more delicate the message is, the more delicate the instrument that carries the message has to be. You find real fine thread carrying the finest note too. The finer the center of the line, the finer the tune. Right?
He didn't make nothing here with big old muscles sticking on out the eyebrows and everything. He made something here that looked fragile in the jungle. Right? In the jungle, it looked fragile, it looked delicate, you know? It's a refined instrument. It's a tuned instrument. He wasn't looking for material strength. He was looking for reception, and the material had to be delicate and fine to be a good receiver. Is that right? A receiver that wouldn't boast in its strength, but would boast in its ability to replay or echo the fine music.
He wanted to create something, and that something is the inner being, the inner person, the khalif or the ruler inside this world we call the body. He wants him to grow, he doesn’t want him to stay still. Fasting helps him to grow. Something pulls on him, keeps him from growing. What is it?
Natural gravity; same thing that pulled against him when he tried to get up, to sit up, tried to get up to crawl, when he tried to get up to walk. The same gravity that was pulling against his growth pulls against his human growth. That's the gravity of material need. He wants to get fatter, he wants to get a better state, you see, he wants to wear more heavier clothes, materially.
It might be lighter in physical weight, but they're heavier in physical currency. He wants to increase his material weight. This is a gravity pulling against his growth. You see? Now that you've overcome this pull of gravity, he has to sacrifice material weight, so he fasts. He sacrifices this material weight, and in sacrificing it, he strengthens the muscles of the human life that's trying to grow in this material body.
Every time it's able to push back material, that muscle gets stronger. The more you push it back, the stronger that muscle gets. During that yearly every month, he grows in strength. Allah says he has only created you that you may grow. If you slow up growing, then Allah, you're messing up his whole plan. You're failing the whole purpose of him creating you.
Brother, the best worship is to grow yourself as a human being. In growing yourself as a human being, you have to grow yourself morally, intellectually and spiritually. You understand? These are the three fundamental elements in your human makeup, the moral element, the intellectual element, and the spiritual element. This is what the Christians wrongly identify as three in one G-d. You see? These three basic elements.
Jesus, he, preached that- he said, "I in you, you in me. I in the Father." He had G-d as one, Himself as another, and then the people as still another, right? Now, G-d was the Creator, in this kind of teaching / concept. The Son is the will of G-d, manifest in the flesh, that has grown out of enslavement, or grown out of bondage to the flesh, and the people represented those that were in bondage to the flesh. If we look at this now, we come up with the same thing that we have. We began with moral, and people whose struggling under the flesh, they have to survive upon moral strength, is that right?
Participants: Right.
Imam Mohammed: In order for our society to survive, that don't have anything more than just common knowledge, and they are living under the forces of the physical wants and needs, they have to have some kind of moral code, or some kind of moral teaching that they can survive with, right?
Participants: Right.
Imam Mohammed: Then we move up from that moral body, that's simply moral and nothing else is there, to an intellectual body. Intellectual people, they have something to depend upon other than moral code, and arguments. A man will not do a thing that's improper simply because he's too intelligent to lower his standard, or else he'll drop his dignity, right?
Participants: Right.
Imam Mohammed: All right. From an intellectual development, a man moves, on up, to what we call divine development, or what the Bible has, or what the religious people call, "Spiritual", is that right?
Participants: Right.
Imam Mohammed: A man, when he becomes spiritual, he survives without even watching the dictates of intelligence. He has become so much in accord with reality, what is truth and right, that he can walk the path without reading the sign. Moral code enables the common people to walk with some direction, is that right?
Participants: Right.
Imam Mohammed: Then, intellectual knowledge enables the intellectual people to walk with a higher direction, is that right?
Participants: Right.
Imam Mohammed: Spiritual knowledge enables you to walk with ease.
Participants: Yes.
Imam Mohammed: You don't have to watch the signs. Your own nature has come in accord with the moral purity and with the intellectual purity. By your nature, being in accord with what is morally pure, and what is intellectually right, you walk with ease just like that child struggled yesterday to crawl and struggled to get balanced, but now you walk and you don't even know you walk. You guys mind on other thing, is that right?
Participants: Right.
Imam Mohammed: All right.
Participants: Keep going.
Imam Mohammed: In trying to keep this concept, three-in-one principle concept, that new Christians and late ones, the Gentiles, of Europe, got on the wrong path, that Jacob, that un-G-dly Jew, put them on the wrong path and make them think that this is three-in-one G-d, three persons in one. In the Holy Quran, this person that lives in the flesh, and have to be guided by moral code is called "[foreign language]". [foreign language] means the person who's ruled by the forces of the flesh. [foreign language]. Then, you come up to the other one we mentioned, the intellectual being, has formed as a speaking intellectual person.
I don't mean intellectual in the common language the way we use it. I mean intellectual meaning intelligent. Man, who responds to intelligence rather than to emotions. Intelligence dominate his life and his actions, more than emotionalism, that's what we mean by intellectual growth here. He moves on up to the intellectual plane, and on that plane, he takes on the person that in the Holy Quran is called "[foreign language]". [foreign language] means the self-accusing person. The self-accusing person.
How can I accuse myself if I don't have no knowledge of judgement? I can't correct myself if I don't have any knowledge to judge, is that right? Once I become an intellectual person, a person moved by intelligence, I can look at myself and judge myself. I can say, "Wallace, that's beneath your dignity. Man, you look you're ashamed of yourself, you're going to blow your cool if you do that." This is this [foreign language] talking. This intellectual being that has form. He didn't have to read the moral code.
The moral code might not have the answer to the problem that I'm dealing with right now, but I have become an intellectual being, my intelligence has a question to ask. Now, look, you're stepping beneath yourself now. [foreign language]. Then we move on up to that one who walk free, without even feeling the gravity affecting him. Muslims done got so used to it until gravity canceled out, right? And he has to walk a long time before he recognizes that gravity is there. He said, "Why, hell, gravity is there. Let me sit down and rest a little for a while."
[laughter]
[applause]
Imam Mohammed: That person is called "[foreign language]". [foreign language] means that self who has found his rest. Life is in motion, it's time to find its peace. It finds peace on a level when it finds its form, is that right? It ain't satisfied with that small level of peace, is that right? It wants to perfect this peace, that's why the peace that Allah has offered us is called the perfect peace, is that right? The perfect peace. Meaning this peace has been completed, it has been perfected. The man has reached the limits of his struggle. He has found what his being was naturally struggling for. Therefore, he has arrived at the board of perfect peace. When he gets on the level we call the spiritual being, he is at rest. [foreign language]. The Holy Quran says of him that he is well-pleased with his Creator, and well-pleasing to his Creator. All right. I think we have covered these five pillars now. He's looking for rest, for completion. Let's take this off, here (erasing the chalk board).
[unintelligible 00:20:13] level, is that right? Growth goes outward, and growth goes down and upward, right (writing on the chalk board)? Growth move outward, that's like this and this, and growth move like this, is that right? Doing what his master said, but the first thing he must do is move upward, is that right? If he doesn't find that particular relationship between himself and something else that will enable him to raise his level, he will stay and grow outward on one level and never really grow in work or in value, is that right? In order to make him grow in value, he has a perpendicular. A vertical line of upward. He grows like this, and he grows like this. This growth gives him this, is that right? This growth gives him this, is that right? Again, we attach here, we attach here, we attach here, and here for the five pillars, and we get the shape of the tent that Prophet Mohammad was talking about. A circular tent.
Participants: Yes.
Imam Mohammed: That's why Islam is called a circle. Muslims, still today, some of those who still follow this tradition, when they sit down for their meetings, their discussions, learning sessions, they form a circle, they sit in a circle. This is the tent, circular shape. With one bar here, (writing on the chalk board) put one here, holding these four corners holding these points but the concept is one of a circle and not the square. The square is used too but really a square is a circle if you understand. The degrees in this square are the same degrees in the circle. All right, you have 90 four times is that right? They should be here pardon me. The 90 should be here. 90 four times gives you how many? 360. Squaring is just for our convenience. Move it out horizontally, to complete his horizontal movement, he has to accept the Hajj, right? The Hajj brings him in touch with people all over the world.
It makes the community a worldwide community. The Hajj, when it was established, it was not a worldwide community. It was established to bring about a worldwide community. It was only a local group of people making the Hajj, is that right? All right, but since this is a worldwide mission, one day we will have to include in this Hajj or we'll be Hajjing, making pilgrimage with people on the other side of the world.
When we do this, we will have one economy. You understand? This economy is not a physical economy. It's not an animal economy. It's a human economy. It's an economy that has a currency that is called Zakat, right? That's the common currency of this universal community. An economic community. You may have never heard the Hajj described as an economic thing, well go back and study it. When you make the Hajj there are people there who depend upon you coming there for their economic survival.
Those people in Mecca, Mecca is a place that's very poor without oil. Oil was lately discovered. Mecca was a very poor place. They depended upon trade and the people there got their economy going because of the pilgrimage being there. The Holy Quran speaks of the pilgrimage as being a blessing to the Arabs and it brings in wealth for them who live in a place that's very poor. Is that right? All right. Now this wealth is to come in there, when we bring the wealth there is not to just help the Meccans.
This community now is established so that this charity will help the broad, the worldwide community of Muslims. Therefore, the Muslim who does not make his Hajj, he is exempt and he is given something to do that will make up for him not being able to make his physical Hajj. What he has to do, he has to fast. Is that right? Fast 3 days or 10 days, and then in fasting, he has sacrificed some wealth. He has cut down his own intake and he's enabled others to benefit from it, is that right? All right, and he's also told to slaughter even though he didn't make the Hajj.
He should slaughter an animal, and the slaughtered animal should be given to the poor. If he doesn't have a slaughtered animal, he can feed somebody. He can give anything. This economic community, worldwide community is a charitable community designed to bring about social equality. They asked about selling during pilgrimage.
There are certain times during pilgrimage you can't sell, but at other times you can. You're not supposed to hunt, but at certain times you go and slaughter animals. Is that right? All right we don't have time to talk on all of this, but you can see what- where the knowledge or where the power (unclear), right? All right, we have an economic order then, don't we? You see what they mean by heaven now? This is heaven.
It means a society of complete work that's lifted above in human principals, it's above the ground world. So this is the heavenly order. It begins from the individual connecting himself with one, his Creator. It begins to move out horizontally, growing also perpendicularly. Now you see this cross, this so ancient cross, what it meant? That's what it meant. It was a sign of the universe. That the universe, like creation, moved horizontally and vertically. That's what it was.
You find the cross in ancient Egypt and you find it among the Christians. Is that right? The cross of the crucifix might be that cross, but the popular one of the west is this cross. Is that right? That's typical of them. All their growing is between them and G-d. They hardly obey this demand. I hope you're following. Don't forget what we were talking about now. They hardly follow this demand here. G-d demand that you move out horizontally and in your horizontal movement strengthen this movement. Is that right? If you just keep moving this way, this thing is going to stop growing.
Unless you recognize what he intends for you do it this way, you will not grow this way. Unless you pray and that's the first movement out horizontally. Unless you pray with your brothers and sisters. When I pray with you brother that means that I have identified with your problem. That we have identified that we have common problems that we have common needs. We're not doing anything about it in the line of charity or fasting yet. We're just doing something about it on this line, right? We're crying to G-d for help, but in doing this together as a group, we move out horizontally.
We begin to grow toward each other and we begin to expand. We combine to form a bigger body. Is that right? All right. Then we move on to charity, we move to fasting and we move to Hajj and this Hajj completes it. Is that right? Hajj completes it because now we have combined worship of Allah, prayer, charity, fasting, all of this [unintelligible 00:32:18]. See, they're growing, but they all keep containing each other. They don't lose each other. There is a bit of charity in prayer. Do you know that? There is more charity in charity and there's a bit of prayer in charity. It strengthens pray. You see? Charity is not fasting, but there is a bit of charity in fasting and there is a bit of fasting in charity, but we're moving on to broaden it and to complete it, not losing anything as we move on. Is that right? Move on into Hajj. In Hajj we have prayers, charity, fasting and certainly one our nearness to Allah. The journey is for that purpose. Many say they're going to visit Allah. They are not actually going to visit Allah. You don't have to move out physically to visit Allah. (unclear), and then again you do.
[laughter]
You can visit him first. The first step doesn't have to be a physical step, but once you make that first step if you want to keep moving closer and closer, you have to make a physical step. The Hajj now incorporates all of these and in the Hajj, we see all of these shining. All the pillars of Islam shining in the fifth one called Hajj. This outward movement enables the true Muslim to really move along the vertical line. A Muslim who prays has more movement, knows more about the relationship and the distance between himself and Allah, than that Muslim who does not pray only admits that there is a G-d.
The Muslim who gives charity and prays and also give charity, he has still more progress upon this line between himself and his maker. And the Muslim who fasts still more, the Muslim who wants to make Hajj, who strives to one day make Hajj, - still more. The Christians putting emphases on Jesus and man. "Have faith in G-d. You don't need anything else just believe in Jesus." This kind of teaching tends to to stretch this line and the cross show that this line is stretched, right? In stretching this line, this one stops growing and it gets short like that. [laughs]
Actually, this one is not stretched. He is stretching it with his own imagination and they call it "my personal savior". "None of your business, my personal savior".[laughs] In his own little imagination, this is how his cross looks, but actually it's like that. It's the amoeba. It hasn't developed into proper form. No movement, no growth. This T doesn't represent that with them, though. It represents the Jew that, unG-dly Jew Jacob, gave this cross to them to represent the last letter from the Hebrew alphabet called Tav.
The Tav is the last letter in the Jewish alphabet. It means the end of the road. That's why it's on the graveyard meaning that those who are there have reached the end of the journey.
We're talking about life. Life needs movement to manifest. It needs direction to complete its growth, right? To direct and bring it ever into more and more growth. Zakat means growth. To grow. Zakat means to grow. To make an increase, to grow. All right. Salat means to purify. Now don't be upset if you should let somebody please see these notes and they said, "Brother, salat means more than purify." Salat means this, it means that." Don't pay any attention to it. We're the scientists in the Nation of Islam. We don't deal with general meaning. We deal with specifics.
[applause]
All right. Salat means purity. Zakat means to grow, or growth. All right (Arabic) means to restrain-- Deny. Restrain, deny. In this word also is the meaning of growth and purification. Growing and purification is in this word [Arabic] Both of them. Growing and purifying. We will say here, let's use the word adjusting. To adjust. Is that how you spell it. Adjusting, adjust something make it-- bringing in correct it. To adjust, make proper adjustments and Hajj. Hajj means to make pilgrimage, to move out. To expand. We see here again is growth, but this is a kind of special movement too. It has its own specific meaning. Hajj is the kind of-- Hajj, struggle with yourself.
The kind of struggle with yourself, the Hajj. We may say it's a battle with self. Self is battling with itself. Now before you write too much, let's stop and listen a little bit. It's harder for a man, , to become a family with his neighbors than it is for him to become a family with his household. Is that right? That's harder, but his movement out from his house to become a neighbor or a family with his neighbor is the kind of Hajj. To do that, we have to wrestle with the house, right? The wife will say, "Hell, I don't want to, don't give my money.
I need this, I need that." So now you have more than what you need, but she begins to battle, wrestle with the man. The man wrestling with her. The children might even get in the argument if they hear the parents. "Daddy, I think mama right?" Some of them might say, "Well, mama I think dad is right. We ought to help the neighbors." Right? So now this is a kind of Hajj. This is an attempt to broaden the family and in order to broaden the family, we have to fight each other to bring about agreement. Is that right?
Now the individual himself before he can even broaden his world to agree to work as one with his own household. Don't he have to argue with himself? He has to struggle with himself. Maybe it's good that all of you stand. Brother minister just stood back there and that's good. Just stand up and circulate your blood. Stand up a couple of times. That's right, sit down and stand up a few times. It can help you. That's right, very good. [background noise]
Very good to help. It's very good. You've been here a long time. You've been here all day long. [chuckles] Sit now. Hajj here, it's a pilgrimage, all right. If we want to get a little more technical, down to the specific meaning, final meaning, we will say hajj is-- Let's see. Contest with self. Contest with self. Struggle with self. Self-struggle. Can we use that word? Self-struggle. S-T-R-U-G-G-L-E. Self-struggle. Sounds good. Sounds right to me. [inaudible 00:43:47] right. Sometimes when you put words to self, it doesn't give the meaning that you think it was going to give. It means something altogether different, but self-struggle...
[00:43:55] [END OF AUDIO]

