09/15/1976
IWDM Study Library 
Community Night

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
In the Name of Allah, the Benefice The Merciful. May His peace and His blessings forever be upon His Servant and blessings to Muhammad. Ameen.
I give open testimony that there is no G-d, but One, Allah. There is nothing likened to Him. And I give open testimony that Muhammad is certainly His slave servant and His Messenger. Brother Muslims, beloved guests, brothers and sisters, we greet you with the greetings of Peace, the greetings of all Prophets from the beginning of time until now. As-Salaam-Alaikum.
Tonight, I want to speak to family, problems and family relations. But before going into this, I thought it would be a good idea if I would mention to you something that is in fact within this subject, but I would rather mention it now and that is the need for all of us to show how we can improve our financial condition. We all know that the habits that we have come into as a people, I should say the habits that we have inherited as a people, have been for a great time, habits that destroy any hope of financial growth in the life of individuals, and especially in the life of families.
And because of this, it is really necessary for us to make drastic changes in our life. Now, I remember coming out that day... I wasn't in this position, but I was ministering. And I came out one day and I told the brothers and sisters, I said, "You know, I been cutting my own hair for many years?" And I mentioned a few other things and what I was doing was trying to reach that brother who really has a hard time just getting five dollars extra on the weekends to buy himself, feed himself with a malt, a shake, and a hamburger or something. But really I know why you need that if you trying to be straight.
Sometimes you just can come up with enough on the weekend to get a hamburger and a shake. And another weekend, he can't get that hamburger and a shake, you know? You just can't do any of it. And your clothes are looking bad, you're buying the cheapest things and those cheap things just don't hold up. They're wearing out so fast, you have to buy them again. It's hard, real hard.
So, I said, "Now, maybe a brother will take a hint and begin trying to cut his hair. And if he would cut his hair, why that's a shake. That's a shake every week." That's right, yes. And I don't have a fresh hair cut now, but believe me, no barber has touched my head in, I guess for maybe eight or 10 years. And over a period of about 15 years or more, I been cutting my hair. And of those 15 years, maybe a barber has been on my head maybe two or three times. You see? I do it myself.
Now, all of us can't do it as well as I can, you know? But there's things you know you can think about until next Sunday. The more you practice... Because one time my wife laughed at me so bad. What hurts, you know? Your wife picks on you sometimes, you know? If you got a wife like I got, she picks on you sometimes. Friendly in an ornery way, but she picks on me sometimes. Well, what hurt me is that I went outside and somebody said the same thing she said. Now that really hurt because I had to accept what she said, you know? And I guess that's what made me really get down to business and start taking time and trying to develop some skill.
But I got it down now, believe me. Most people don't know. They think I go to a barber, you know? They don't know, but I can cut my hair all over. Cut it short, cut it long, any kind of way. And get by. Now, I developed those talents when I was in bad shape. See, and this is the kind of mind we all need. We need a mind like that. We have to find ways to make it without going down, joining the people that's walking with the dead or with the monsters, you know? You don't have to join that company. We don't have to walk with vultures and monsters and what not. We can stay in one society, but we have to think. We have to think. "How are we going to do this"?
Now that we have formed great community here, a Nation of Islam, we should now start thinking of ways for us to do, and ways of improving our conditions as a group. Now, I want to suggest something here tonight, and I know it'll work. Let's see how many have electric dryers? Washing machines? Who has... I mean, look at all these dryers. See it? Look at all these dryers. Now, most of those dryers have a lint catcher in it, and that lint is clean when you take it out of there. It's clean.
Here's the simple thing. If all of us would save that lint, turn it in to somebody. Just save it at home until you get a bag of it. Don't tear it up, keep it as it is. As it is, it stays together. It's hard to pull it loose. It sticks, it holds itself. In fact, it holds itself so well I believe you could run a thread through it and connect it with another piece, if necessary. But I tell you, I've already tested it. If you use the same kind of clothes I use in your machine that I use, then your lint should be the same as my lint.
And I've already tested it. It will make a quality pillow. Quality pillow. Now, the pillows we use, most pillows are not even quality pillows. Because quality pillows are very expensive nowadays, right? If we can't accomplish anything but sew pillows for the couch, that's something. Something out of waste, you see?
But I know that lint will make a very soft, comfortable, altogether a nice bed pillow. If we come up with this bed pillow that we can sell real cheap, we could have a mosque project. And sell them to the Muslims, much cheaper than if they buy the same quality pillow at the store. If it sells at the store, the same quality sells maybe for $7. We sell it for $3.50. I'm sure we can make $2 profit. We can make more than that. We can make a $2 on each pillow. That $2 profit, put it into a charity to help needy people in our community with the money you're making. To help needy people in the community.
Now, we could do all... I have another idea, but I'm not quite finished with it. I better not announce it. In fact, I might've announced that one too soon. I hadn't worked it out, but I thought I got me a little collection of lint already. And believe me, I'm going to make a pillow. We have to start thinking of ways and means to improve our physical condition. And we have to think as leadership thinks. Those in the field of industry, manufacturing and whatnot, research. Those people are thinking for the future, and they're looking at conditions and trying to think of ways to better conditions. They're looking at the opportunities for investment and they're trying to think of wholesome ways to take advantage of these opportunities. You see?
They're studying human need. Human problems and human need. So we need to think the same way. Muslims must learn to think the same way. Don't wait for other people to think for you. To come up with solutions for you. As long as you let other people do all your thinking, other people are going to have you, brother. If you want to have yourself, you have to start doing some thinking for yourself.
Now, this is nothing new. They've been the teachings of Islam and the Nation of Islam for 40 some years. There's nothing new, but we just have to take it seriously. We talk, but we don't get down to serious business. We have to take it real serious, and whether you recognize it or not, we are numbering over 30 million people. I wouldn't be surprised if we number about 40 million in America. And by description, that is by financial or economic classification, we fall in the class of poor people. You understand?
You are right in the class of what they call "undeveloped people", "undeveloped nation." Now, undeveloped nations, they don't live like... Rockefeller and all these other big wigs. They live within their means and they work and plan together. They've found out that they can do more working together and progressing, move ahead, than they can working as individuals. That's what we have to learn. In times when you need family strength more than any people in the world, our family strength is dying, dying, dying. Your family has to get strong. Your community has to become a family. It has to stop killing itself as a family. You have to see yourselves as brothers and sisters of one family. And see the leadership as mama and daddy.
And then work hard together, in the spirit of a family, filling each other's needs, sympathizing with each other, coming to the rescue of your brother and your sister. Then get down to planning and say, "Winter's coming. What are we going to do about it? There's still snow on the ground. When the snow begins to hit the ground, how many of us will be hit by the cold? How many babies will be short on the clothing that they need to keep them warm? This is how we have to think. We have to put feelers out in the community. "Please, how many people need more milk on the shelf? More canned milk, or maybe more rice or more beans or more flour? How many people need better clothing? How many people need to improve their water hose for this season?" You see? We need to be concerned. We have to move like this and think like this. If we don't do it, we're going to stay apart. We're going to remain a people depending on handouts, such as welfare. There is no dignity in welfare because welfare is corrupting our society, don't you know that?
Anytime you give people something that they did not earn, it feeds their immoral tendencies. It makes their immoral tendencies get stronger and stronger because a human being knows that he wasn't created to be fed like no baby in a cradle where somebody bringing him a bottle and sticking it in his mouth. Changing his diapers for him. He knows he's not supposed to be treated like that. He knows he's supposed to be earning something for himself, you see? Embrace yourselves in that. Now, if somebody gives him a check all the time, then what's going to happen? He's going to begin to subconsciously or consciously, think of himself as a successful crook. That's right!
Why do we allow these brothers and sisters to sit down and just get handouts? You love your children. Do you want your children just to depend on you for everything and do nothing? What man that love his children, what woman that love her children, want to see her children just grow up doing nothing? They just eating and sleeping and playing. No, if you love your children, you don't want your children to grow up like that, because you know that sooner or later in life, a test is coming and they're going to have to stand up to that test. And if they've been milk fed and pampered, they just won't be able to stand up to it. Is that right?
All right. So, any society that's just satisfied with just giving its people charity checks, food stamps, without being bothered by this, is a society that doesn't really care anything about you all. I'm telling you the truth. They don't love you. No leadership can come out of a camp of charity recipients. Leadership has to come out of a camp of workers, brothers and sisters. And if they ain't got enough jobs out there in society for us to get employment, then what you think churches are for? What you think synagogues are for? What do you think mosques are for? They are to find something for the people to do when there is no other place of rescue for them.
G-d's door is an open door for those people who can't find a rescue anywhere else. Now, I'm not saying religion is only for the poor, but read your Bible, read any other scripture. Religion is the leadership of the poor, the rejected, and the proud. Is that right? All scriptures tell us that. So, the door of religion is mainly open for those persons who can't find an open door anywhere else!
It's a natural creation. It's a natural creation, an answer to the social need. Society sometimes can't fulfill the need of all its people, but a different kind of leadership can organize those people and in the spirit of charity, can mobilize those people, put them to work, and bring the community to life. Is that right? This is what it's for. We can do this if all of us would get in the mind of a people who are trying to establish themselves economically and socially.
Do you realize that we all are just a little more than 100 years removed from slavery? A little over 100 years ago, your and my people were in physical chains. We were no more than work animals for the society of America, and in many parts of the world. Maybe not all of them, but as many as they wanted to put in chains, were in chains, and that was the general condition of the lot of us. Is that right? We lived in chains. We were no more than work animals for the society. Here, and many other parts of the world, but mainly here in America.
Now, here it's just a little over 100 years from that, here we are speaking as though we have never had a problem at all. We talk like people who have generations and generations, or thousands and thousands of years of successful leadership. That's all we have. We talk like people who have national leadership and national wealth, extending back hundreds and hundreds and thousands of years into the past. We don't act like a people who just come into the semblance of freedom and have just got the opportunity now to finally move and to do something, to establish themselves in the land.
We have been crazy and we have acted like a people who suffered from a bad case of amnesia, who have forgotten what happened yesterday.
Wake up in the morning and think that you are the son of a king, when you are really the son of a hustler. You live a carefree, happy go lucky. You pass away from the world, and when the world blows the last scent of you, there is nothing remaining of you. Your children come up and follow the same walks in life, with the same old minds. Pretty soon, they fall over the wind comes by one day and blows their scent away just as it blew yours away and there is nothing left of them.
Bilalians are coming up from one generation to another and inheriting poverty. That is a shame, especially when we compare our inheritance to that of so-called primitive people who only in very recent years have emerged from the wastelands and jungles to observe world civilization. These people who only yesterday have seen the first light of civilization and heard its sounds have far surpassed Bilalians in preparing for future generations.
Bilalians have 100 years of physical freedom with 400 years of knowledge of the greatest industrial civilization that the world has ever known (America). We have been in the heart of this country, hearing the noises of its factory hammers and its tools of exploration. We have seen skyscrapers erected and the building of bridges that stretch over miles of water, and every morning we are being disturbed in our beds by the sounds of production and the sounds of machinery rolling through the city over the pavement. But yet, all of these noises of industry and civilization are not enough to wake us up and make us stand-up as civilized people. This shows you that we are a seriously dead people.
The only way that the Bilalian Community can come out of its dead state is that we have to start a revolution. I don't mean no silly cops and robbers revolution. Shooting at things that don't need to be shot. Blowing up civilization and that's all you have. Now I could see the South Africans doing that. They are in the majority. If they get the minority out of the way, the majority can move out and establish themselves.
But how in the world is a little small minority now going to kill all the majority when the sentiments of both the inner family and the outer family are against you. The sentiments of the general public are against that kind of revolution and the sentiments of the overwhelming majority of the society are against that kind of revolution. Now, how is a little small minority going to stand up against the great majority even in their own camp and against even greater majority outside of their camp, and say, "We going to take over this thing by force"?
That shows you just how much we've been kept out of the knowledge of society. We don't know nothing about society. You see? But brothers and sisters, we do need a revolution. Revolution means change in your behavior. Change in your way of life. We don't need it for Caucasians; we need it for ourselves. We need a major change in the way we function. A major change in the way we habitually live. This is what we need. Major changes in the way we handle money, in the way we look at each other, in the way we look at our children coming up under us. This is where we need a revolution.
We need a revolution in our social circles, and that's what the Nation of Islam has been struggling and trying to do. Bring about a revolution in your social thinking, so that you become a new family of people. With new ideas of the social life. Without any ideas, social life that you call your own, that you identify with, anybody can just blow a hint of some social activity among you and you'll catch it like it's the plague. Make you talk a language that nobody understands. Make you bow, when you should be walking. Make you take off all your clothes in the winter and put fur on in the summer.
I'm telling you what they have done, not what they can do. They have done that some of us. I saw some Super fly brothers walking around. I looked at those brothers, "How in the world can you walk around with all that fur around his neck and here it is, 84 degrees out here?" Then when winter come, if they advertise some old sissy shirt, that crazy Super fly Miami brother will be out there walking the streets, zero weather, a blizzard going on, with some little sissy, feminine shirt that Grace Kelly should've been wearing 20 years ago. Yes.
We have to come out of this, and we going to come out of it. Because we are not going to give up. We have a divine blessing in the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam provides us with the kind of structure that our people need all over the world. To come into and again to grow socially, in the dimension and the ways of the Nation. We can do it! We have the program and we have the structure for it. We have to do it. Be prepared to make sacrifices.
Now a wave of insanity blew over us and just made us crazy, too. When I came into this office, we had Super fly Ministers. Wearing big old hats, high heeled shoes, concealer, mink. I'm telling you what I saw, man. Ministers! People supposed to be helping the poor. Supposed to be organizing the people and mobilizing the people to share with each other so that those who don't have can get a little bit and live. And here we were being ruled over by a bunch of sissies and Super fly Ministers.
Now I'm not saying all of them was like that, but a lot of them had become like that. I sat at a table with a bunch of them once, at a meeting. I say a bunch of them. See, when you're talking about things, you don't say a group of them. Say a bunch of them. When I was at the table with a bunch of those things and I looked and got scared. Diamond rings sparkling all over the table. I said, "Good G-d Almighty. What in the world has happened to this place?" And G-d as my witness, and Allah as my G-d, and you know Allah is the Creator of the heaven and the earth, the Ever-living, Ever Present who has power over all things. I want you to know what I'm talking about.
The one who reveals the Holy Qur'an and before that, the Bible. Let me tell you, G-d as my witness, that bunch of flamboyant, ostentatious, peacock head... You ever notice a peacock, how small the head is? That's a showing thing, I'm telling you, but the head ain't big enough to see. Sitting in all that plush luxury, this righteous man! I'm telling you what I saw. Righteous! See this is what happens when you grow materially and don't grow humanly. You'll be sitting up in a king's castle, with the king's clothes on, but the signs of ignorance and poverty will still be there.
Pitiful, really. Pitiful. We going to change this world. I'm not giving my life for nothing. I think, don't think that any man can hold the position that I'm holding without a belief in G-d, and his heart in the right place. And I'm a tell you, big price you have to pay. If you could just read 1,000th of the mail I get, and keep your balance, you'll be good. See, most of the good, blessed people, they don't even lecture. They're busy working and visiting. You see them. But those that can't get any help at the masjid and other places, and those that hung out back there a few years ago or 100 years ago, or 4,000 years ago. Believe me, people were acting like this 4,000 years ago. I'm not joking. You read the letters, it sound just like a man speaking to you for 4,000 years ago.
Then you get letters from others that are desperate, like a vampire, you know? I'm not joking. Like a vampire that the sun is coming up on. But they can't get to the one who controls the sun. And they can't get to sun t to put it out, so they come to the one that's pulling the chains back, opening up the curtains. And man, they just want to kill us! They want to show blood dripping all out their mouths. All the fangs showing and dripping blood and going wild, calling nasty names! I'm telling you. Telling you the truth. This is what I get.
Let's lift the falsehoods on it, period. He is a sick person. Sick! And they need your medicine more than anybody else, because they're the sickest. But they're so far gone that they think you are the one who's the enemy, and the sickness is their friend. Well, doesn't bother me any. I say to myself, "Poor sister, poor brother, I hope you come to some understanding before Allah destroy you in your sickness." Yes.
I keep moving on because life is movement. You can't sit down. And many things I would like to do for myself. I'd like to be free with my family to relax and be a family man. I'd like to visit some friends; I got friends, personal friends. I'd like to visit them and socialize with them, but I can't do those things. I would like to go out and dance, or relax sometimes, play ball. Or go to some entertainment, clean entertainment, and enjoy it. Many things that I would like to do, that I can't do! I can't even go shop. Somebody else has to shop for me, know what I'm saying? I am! So, I am a prisoner. I have become a prisoner of my own free will, and as the book says, I'd rather be in prison of the Lord than to be free in the clutches of Satan.
So, this is my happiness. This is my happiness. Now, our only reward, brothers and sisters, is knowing that Allah is pleased with what I'm doing. If I ever begin to think that I'm wasting my time with you, then that was against the leader. Allah is not pleased with you wasting your time with these people. Go where people are waiting for what you are talking about. And I have to move! Is that right? Let me tell you, I'd have to move then because this is too great a sacrifice, brother, for somebody just to hang around for nothing. Paying too much to hang around and keep company.
The company has to look the part, walk the part, and be the part at heart for me to hang around. That's right. The only reason why I'm here is because of people like Minister James Shabazz, Dr. Naim Akbar. Oh! Dr. Naim Akbar, Brother Jackie, Norton Ahmed. You see, people like this brother let me know that I'm not wasting my time. That the job is still here and the field is ready to be plowed.
So as long as I can come in and see Brother Naim Akbar and his beautiful face, Minister Kareem Abdul Azeez and his sunshiny smile, Sister Alita Akhram with her spirited voice and the confidence that she hands off on herself and touches all of us with it. As long as I can come here and see there's a whole ton of people like that, I'll feel happy in my placement. Brothers and sisters, I said I would like to say this. A lot of us are going to walk to get in prison to a certain degree, if we expect to get the job done that we have to do.
Don't be around here greedy and selfish, like a little baby that's got to have everything pampered for itself, at all times of the day, every day of the year. Be willing to put your hand in filth if you have to, to clean up the society. Be willing to put your muscles against strong trees and chop them down with an axe if you don't have better equipment. Be willing to come out here half-dressed, if you can't be fully dressed. Be willing to eat Mexican food, or Puerto Rican food, or Indian on the reservation food for five years, for 10 years, for all your lifetime if necessary. Knowing that your sacrifices are pushing the whole family higher up the scale. Is that right?
This is the spirit we have to take on. We have to get down to business. Say, "What does my flesh need?" Not wanting to see Muhammad's flesh. What does my poor community flesh need? That's really none missing. What does my poor community flesh need? Let me think. So today, I make the right movement to bring about the right results. Is that all? What does my flesh, mine need? Get down to business. Wake up in the morning and do something to better the mind of my flesh. Not my individual flesh only, but the whole community.
What does my flesh heart need? What does the heart need? Get up in the morning, do something for the heart of the community. How many of us are thinking like that? How many of us wake up in the morning and pray like a Muslim pray? Pray to Allah "Guide me on the straight path". Rise up in the certain way. How many forget how they're supposed to pray, and say, "Allah, help me this morning. Help me! Help us!" We pray as a Muslim, guide us. So, let's pray as Muslims, help us.
We say, "Ihdina Siratal Mustaqeem". Is that right? "The way of those who you have favored." We're talking about people collectively, not about individuals. Is that right? We say "Iyaka Na'budu". "You who we slave for." They say worship in the Holy Qur'an, but the literal translation means "You I slave for." Na'budu comes from the word Abd which means a slave, a literal slave. Na'budu means "I slave for you." We're telling G-d, "I need only you! For only You, I will slave." This revelation came at a time when slavery was the thing.
Better people to believe in One G-d, Creator of the heaven and earth, who is responsible for all the benefits of life.
Dignity comes to the society when we hear from the hearts of those people who have been physical slaves, and even from the hearts of free men: "G-d, it is only You for Whom I slave, and it is only You to Whom I cry out for help." True human beings would not want you to be their slaves, and we should not be slaves for any human animals. We slave for Allah because He is the One to Whom we owe everything and Who has a full share in our blessings.
Say, "I'm not going to slave for no human animal. I'm only going to slave for the creator of the heavens and the earth. And I only slave for Him, because He is the One that I owe everything to!" Isn't that right? All right. If He was one that didn't have a full share in my blessings, I wouldn't want to slave for Him. All right.
And let us remember that. Remember that the prayer of a Muslim is the prayer for the community. A Muslim doesn't pray as a selfish person. So, we should think community, think for each other, feel for each other, and act for each other. I don't mean you're not supposed to go out there and work to put some clothes on your back, some food in the house so you can be fed. I don't mean that. But I mean whatever you do for yourself, you should do it with the knowledge and a conscience that, "I'm not the only one that needs these things. The whole family needs these things. The whole community needs these things, and I am not alone, I am a part of this community. And if I grow big, somebody's going to be denied, because there's only so much for this poor community." Is that right?
So, I'm not going to overfeed myself. Don't you know the scripture says of a people that they came to their end, they came to their destruction because they grew fat. They have waxed fat. They just overfed themselves and that destroyed them. G-d teaches us to our individual body that overfeeding yourself, being a selfish glutton, is your death. Because when you do that, pretty soon you have to go to a doctor. Because after you've fed yourself like a pig for so long, you don't have enough willpower to save yourself from the death that you're bringing into your own body. So, you have to then go to a doctor and tell him to put you on a diet.
Some of us are too weak, we become so much a slave to the habit of being a glutton, that the doctor can't even give us a prescription that we can follow. Say, "Man, hypnotize me." Doctor has to hypnotize you to make you act as you supposed to act. So, what does that tell you, brother? I'm talking about something that is popular in this modern society. It is. All right. You go to the doctor and have the doctor hypnotize you, so you can control your eating habits. What does this tell us? It tells us that the person has lost his mind. The doctor has to give him another mind, because his mind just ain't good enough. Won't work for him.
So, he hypnotize him and give him another mind. He suggests to that mind his own thoughts, and puts into that mind his own thoughts, his own willpower. And then this person goes around without his mind, using the willpower of the doctor. We are talking about 1976, USA, the greatest country on the face of the map. And isn't this a horrible, horrible form of the human being that has come about in this world?
All right, you should love Islam with all of your hearts. You should love Islam so much that you don't attract nobody to be your friend, but somebody that love Islam. And what do I mean by that? What do I mean by that? I don't mean that you won't have Christians and Jews or whatnot for friends. I don't mean that, but I mean you won't have no Christian that's hating our work for a friend. Whatever person you have for a friend, it'll be somebody that loves what we are doing. You find a believer that's got a whole lot of people liking them. Or few people liking them, that don't care nothing about this Mosque and the work that the Chief Minister is doing. You have there, a lying, poisonous hypocrite. That's right.
Because if he's true, brother, he can't give his heart to nothing but this. Oh, the scripture is beautiful. It says to the Prophet that G-d opened His breast, enlarged His heart, opened His chest, brother. Expanded His chest, but made that man have it to first and last and only love, the love of G-d. But look what G-d said, that "I haven't narrowed his heart. His heart is not smaller than it was before. His heart is bigger than it ever was, but his heart is all for Me."
What does that tell us? That, "Now there's more room in that man's heart for the Africans, for the Asians, for the Europeans, for the Chinese, for the Mexican, for whatever it is. Whatever man, whatever race he is. There's more space in his heart for them. More space in his heart for the rich, for the poor, for the ignorant, for the wise, for the sinner, for the saint. There's more space in his heart now. Everybody can find space, a place, in his heart. Why? Because he has given his whole heart to me." Is that right?
"And being that I'm the G-d of all people, and the G-d of all things, the heart that I get must open for all people and to all things." Now this is how this community should be. This community should be a community that gives its whole heart to Allah. Not part of it, the whole heart to Allah. Now, in giving our whole heart to Allah, Allah says, "Open the doors of your heart and let the brown come in, and let the white come in, let the black come in, let the red come in, let the yellow come in, let the green come in, let the purple come in." Is that right? "Let all of them come in to your heart," this is what G-d says. "And don't close the door to anyone who is dressed for the ceremony."
And all that you need to be dressed for the ceremony is sincerity. A sincere heart. A Christian might be going to G-d on the Christian path. If his heart is sincere, he can come into my heart. A Jew might be going to G-d on a Jewish path, but if his heart is sincere, he can come into my heart. Is that right? An Atheist might be going to his Greatness, or to his Power, whatever he dream of as a power, along an atheist path, but if his heart is sincere, he must have a place in my heart.
Because many people, brother, are starved of guidance and understanding, and can't see the realities that are in the road. So, they follow the blind signs of unreality, but their hearts are sincere. So, G-d says in the Holy Qur'an that when the judgment comes, He's not going to take a Holy Qur'an and judge a Jew. He's not going to take a Holy Qur'an and judge a Christian. He says He's going to take the Torah and judge a Jew, and He's going to take the Gospel and judge a Christian, and He'll take the Holy Qur'an and judge a Muslim. Then He'll speak to all of us through our conscience and judge us by our intentions, and by our deeds. Now, isn't that a G-d that knows how to judge?
Thank you. Allahu Akbar. Glory be to Allah, Mighty, powerful, truthful. The Absolute, and nothing is Absolute but Allah. Brothers and sisters, I want to turn to the Holy Qur'an now and begin reading. From chapter four of the Holy Qur'an, chapter five of the Women, and it's called... Women is called here, there's different names for women in the language of the Holy Qur'an, or in the Sematic or Arabic language. There's Imra, which means woman, and there's Nisa' which means woman, and there's Na'ara which means woman. So, we have many words that mean woman, but this chapter has the word Nisa'.
Now, Nisa' is close to another word; nasiya. Nasiya means he forgot. Nasiya, he forgot. Nisa' is close to this word, G-d is revealing to Prophet Muhammad to use the word that is close to something, and when he heard that word, then they hear the other word too. What they call this in language? There are suggestions in here. It's a play on more than one word. And you give a word, but the connotation, I think they call it, isn't it? Connotation? Denotation is what it goes directly to, connotation is what it's meant to. Well, connotation. See? We got it. All right.
But it gives a word that goes right to this meaning, the female, a woman. But it has a connotation there that brings your mind also to something else; forgotten. Now, here the verse came, the chapter came, to tell those men that, "You have forgotten your women. A whole section of society. A section that you depend upon for your own well-being. For your own survival, pardon me. A section that you need in order to extend your years. Oh, yes. For you may die in one generation if you don't remember this section of your society that you seem to have forgotten." Is that right?
Look how beautiful G-d is in revealing his truth. He begins with this message by using the term that tells the society, "Man, you've forgotten your woman. You've forgotten her value. You've forgotten her social meaning in the society. You've forgotten her social value. You've forgotten her place in the structure of your family life. You've forgotten the promise that is in her for your social life, for your community life." You see? This is what G-d is saying that you've forgotten man.
Then He begins, "In the Name of G-d, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Oh human kind. Reverence your Guardian Lord, who created you from a single person. Created of like nature, his mate, and from them scattered many seeds..." Pardon me, "Scattered many like seeds. Countless men and women." Now, let's go and look at the Arabic. It says here, "Who created you, Nafsin," Nafsin is not a person, so much as it refers to the inner person. Not a physical person. Don't think of this as a physical person. This is referring to the inner person.
"Created you from a person," it means from a mind. From a personality. From a psychological makeup. From all the things that make the inner human being. You are product of that, so G-d is bringing our attention to something that's more important. It is more important that you think of yourself as product of the inner person than as product of the outer person that is the flesh. As product of the inner person, you should try to preserve the strength of the inner person. And in doing so, you will extend the life of the inner person.
For human beings, procreation is extending human life. If we think of procreation as only an extension of flesh life, we lose the procreation of human life. Is that right? All right. So the book is saying, "You have forgotten your woman, man. Meaning you have forgotten that society of human beings, the social image of human beings, that you are supposed to mate with." You understand? "That you are supposed to carry your energies to, and give your energies to that womb. That image of life, that image of what the world should look like. That human image, do you understand? You're supposed to carry your energy to that, so that you can reproduce the likeness of human life in the society. But man, you've forgotten your woman. You have reduced her to be your work animal. You beat her, you rape her, she has to go with you whether she wants to or not."
I'm talking about the conditions in Pagan Arabia. I'm talking about the conditions in Pagan America. She has to go with you whether she feels like it or not. And then she's no more good sexually, you say, "Woman, be as my mother's back to me." This is what the Pagan Arabians used to say, "Woman, be as my mother's back to me." Meaning that you don't move me no more than my own mother.
We say the same thing as modern Pagans here in America. We tell our wives, "Woman, get out of my face. You don't move me no more anyway." Is that right? Because we've stopped relating to ourselves. That's why the Holy Qur'an says, "Nafs, created you from a Nafs, one Nafs." One nafs doesn't mean one body. It doesn't mean your body. It means the physical body. One Nafs means that that dwells and lives and grows and matures inside this physical body. That G-d created us from one Nafs, one inner person.
Do you understand? Let's get this clear. The Holy Qur'an is not incorrect. The Holy Qur'an is not confusing. It's this pastor leader trying to abuse Biblical language so that his book will be in the class of the Bible, literally! Do you understand? He's the one who's making this stink. It didn't say one person, it says from one self. It should be, "G-d created you from one soul." That's what it should be.
And then created from it, its mate. What are we talking about, one soul? G-d created a Prophet with the leadership power in him to generate life on earth. Then created from that Prophet, a society like him, of his own mind, of his own body. Do you understand? This is what the book is saying, and all the time we been thinking that G-d was saying that He went out there in a field somewhere, where nothing was growing, and brought some dust together. And spit on it or something and shaped it in His hands. And then blew into it and it became a walking man. That's a monster's story; that's not a Bible story or a Holy Qur'an story.
And then after He did that, He went and named the thing. Tore open his flesh and pulled out a rib, and then conquered it some kind of freaky way and made a woman. And then brought it back to him like bringing Frankenstein monster's wife to him. "Look what I've made for you, Frankenstein."
Alright? So, G-d is telling us, "People, I made you, not all of you. The leadership. I want you to have leadership and I made your leadership one man, one mind. A divine mind, a servant of G-d, a Prophet, a Messenger. Then I made from his mind, a society that he could relate to, could find comfort and quiet in." Is that right? Oh, man. I could talk to you for five hours, but we can't stay here that long. Look, "That he could find comfort and quiet in." Is that right? "That he could reproduce himself from. He put his seed in that society, and here comes another Prophet, another Messenger." Is that right?
Or if not another Prophet or another Messenger, at least a Mahdi. Is that right? Or a Muheddid. True! He reproduces himself, reproduces the mind that can carry on the leadership in the society. So, this is what G-d is telling us, but at the same time he's telling us that, "You have not only forgotten that you have to work for the survival of yourself as a person, as a human person, as a soul, as a human soul. But you have forgot even your flesh. You start treating your women like they belong to the flesh of dogs." Is that right? This is what G-d is telling us.
"But you're not doing this man, because your flesh has got off the track. You are doing this because your Nafs has got off the track." And your Nafs is your inner self. Is that right? All right. Let me read now. It says, "From a single person and created of like nature, his mate." Now, let's go to the grammar here and quickly. I hope I can let you out of here in about 15 more minutes. I'm a try.
Let's go to the grammar now and see what it says here. The word here is "Wahida". If we were talking about sexes, it would be "Wahid." Wahid is feminine. Why did G-d use these terms that have feminine? When its speaking of something that you take to be masculine? To let the man know, "I'm not talking about you, man, as a sex. I'm talking about something that starts out and goes to do the job as you do...Performing the that you do, or the function that you perform in your physical, here is something that is performing in its inner being. In its inner self. Performing a similar job."
"But I don't call it male, because you are limited. You need a female to reproduce yourself." Isn't that right? "But I'm going to produce something that can reproduce its mate out of itself." So, though it functions like a male, it also has the power. It also has the environment to act within itself and function as a female. You understand? You'll find this language in the Bible. Sometimes the Prophet is called "she". Is that right? "She", right? All right. Called she because he can function as both. See, the leader, his main role is to function as a male. That is to give the germ of life to the society, but when there is no society to give the germ to, he has to then put himself in the society, and then feed himself. You understand? You say, "Well, how is this done, Brother Minister?" It's done like this. Before I give you my germ, I give you my body. Do you understand? So that you have a receptor. So that you have a receiver for my germ. Before I give you my germ, I give you my knowledge, so that you have a willingness to receive my mark. Do you understand? Before I give you my knowledge, I give you my moral sensitivity so that you have a place for the seed that I want to put into your body.
So here it is, the Prophet, in the image of G-d's word, is acting both as male and female. Now that's a big subject we won't have time to cover tonight, so let's move on with the reading. "And scattered like seeds countless men and women". What's He talking about? The physical? Yes. The physical. But this book is not written just for physical people. This is a viral revelation. Every word of this book must speak to you on a higher plane, as well on lower plane. If it can't speak to me in my ignorance and to the wizard, it is literally, or whatever you call it, then it's not divine. That's what makes this book divine. It's able to speak to us on our general plane, on our common plane. And at the same time, speak to the most potent minds among us. And if he is awake, he will strap his mind and bring him to life so he will become a leader for the rest of us. Do you understand? All right.
It says here, reverence G-d to whom you demand his mutual rights, be you a male and female in physical platform, but is also speaking to a higher level. And reverence to whom that bore you. This is talking about reverence G-d, respect G-d, hold G-d favorite. Respect the Prophet, hold the Prophet sacred, respect the Nation of Islam, respect the society of righteous people, and hold a society of righteous people sacred. But it also says at the same time, it is for men. Don't only reverence G-d and hold G-d sacred, but reverence the womb that bore you and hold it sacred. Reverence your mother and hold her sacred. Is that right? All right.
It says... Yes. All right. So "Arham" means the womb that bore you, and it's a word that stands for human relationships. The closest relationship to you is your first relationship. Your first relationship with your mother, right? When you first came to be a being, you were tied to your mother. The milk from her breast, and before that, you were tied to her inside of her. Your life cord was hooked up with her life system, and she was pumping blood to your body and breathing with her body for your body. Is that right? All right. And her system for excreting filth and waste matter was doing it for your body. Is that right? So, you were one life with your mother at one time. Is that right?
And then, G-d said, "I don't want you to be one life with your mother. I want you to have your own life." Is that right? So, He brought you out and left you hanging by a flesh cord to let the world know that you belong to one body. Is that right? That you did not have a life of your own. Is that right? All right.
Then teach the midwife, the nurse, or the doctor how to cut that cord. Is that right? And tie it, so you can go and start living on your own. Is that right? So, with every birth, G-d is telling each and every one of us that you didn't have no life of your own to start with. Your life was being in another's life. Is that right? Now isn't this a perfect description of human society? A perfect description of human society. For every child that is born into our world, he gets his start in our body. My children didn't come into this world with no mind of their own. They came in this world with an empty mind. The first thing that came into their mind came into their mind from my world, my and my wife's world. Isn't that right? All right.
So, they were living inside of our bodies. Not only physically, but they were living inside of our body humanly, mentally, morally, and spiritually. Is that right? And after they live in us so long, G-d said, "Well, cut the naval cord." Is that right? And they go out into society to live on their own. G-d is telling us that when you grow up young man, when you grow up young woman and walk out into society on your own, remember to reverence G-d who made it all possible. And reverence your father and mother the life that you came out of. Is that right? Reverence the womb that bore you. Reverence your mother. Once you didn't have no life of your own. Your life was your mother's life. Once you didn't have no world of your own. Your world was your parents' world, and you fed, your mind fed, your heart fed in their world. And you became sensitive as a mind and sensitive as a human being in their world, on their life and in their life. Don't get out here, young man. Don't jump out here, young woman, in the world because your naval cord is cut, and you can walk around without a rope holding you back. Don't get out here and say, "I don't have no G-d. I don't have no father. I don't have no mother."
We can trace yourself backwards and prove to you that you have a G-d. You have a father. You have a mother. Is that right? And your life once was not your own. All right.
Now let's quickly move through here and go onto another note down here and see can we conclude it quickly. "To the orphans restore their property when they reach their age. Don't substitute your worthless things for their good things, and devour not their substance by mixing it up with your own, for this is, indeed a great sin." Now this is not talking directly to the person that's my offspring from my own flesh and blood. This is speaking of the person that I have charge over now that's not my direct offspring. Now it's talking again, should you be seducing and speaking to the physical individual? Some people, when they got somebody else's child, they use the child. And they look at the child as the child had been left somewhere else by somebody, or if the child has a value at the welfare department. They look at the child as a means of bringing some more money into their house and into their life. Is that right? See we have the same sickness today.
And we began corrupting things, twisting the truth, mixing up that that belongs to them with that that belongs to the child. So, there's all look like one. Tell the child we one family now. Everything is everybody's. And when the child gets big enough to use his share, his share is gone because you put his share into the pot too soon. Is that right? Made it a community treasury before he got old enough to even use it. All he knew was about 15 cents a day out of it, and you were taking $15 a day out of it. You see?
What I'm saying is this. Even our own children, we spend heavily the money we make, man and wife, spending his stuff, and don't realize that the new ones have a share in this money. Where did it come from? Didn't it come from my body and your body? Well, isn't this us? Well, don't us have an equal share in what us have? Now why should we spend heavily and not show concern for the share of the new us? There's new Wallace coming up and new Shirley coming up from the same body. So really they have a bigger share in what we're making than we have because we only have so many years to spend it, but their future projects a long time. Is that right?
So, my flesh of the future have more demand on my earnings today than my flesh today. Now don't you know this is the kind of sense that is going to bring our people up out of poverty? We don't have any sense of family togetherness. Family are our... We could call it a cooperation. We don't have any sense of family togetherness and family cooperation. We think of ourselves as individuals. Married and the man still thinking of himself as a single man. Married and the woman still thinking of herself as a single woman. Have children, and they're still thinking of themselves as single people, going out and spending money on some fancy wardrobes, buying fancy cars. How much have you put in there for your flesh of tomorrow? Huh? How much did you pull out of your check today for your flesh of tomorrow? How many of you do that?
This world has taught you how to kill yourself. They've taught you how to abort your life, how to deny yourself of any hope in the future, and you've been following them blindly. Get out of that old slavery way of acting, brother. Come into civilized knowledge. Come into human knowledge. Every time you get a paycheck, help your children. And you want a new suit, but how many suits have you bought for your children? Huh? I'm not talking about suits they going to wear today. How much money have you put up in the bank so they'll have suits when they get 14, suits when they get 16?
And books, college books and college tuition. You say you want them to go to college, you want to get ahead. How many of you put some money in so that they won't have to start working with ducks, so they will have $5 to buy a bag of corn feed or to buy a hammer and a saw so that they can get into some field of work and make more than you are able to make right now. How many of you are doing that? How many of you are saying that I started off with a hammer and a saw I want my son to have a toolbox? Huh? How many of you are doing that? I'm telling you the people that lead and rule this world, they practice these things. And until we practice this way of life, we will never come into power as a people.
Now we come to another subject here. "If you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with orphans", meaning that if you can treat somebody else's children right, you want more children for yourself, "Marry women of your choice, two, three, four". It didn't say one, did it? It says two, three, four. Why? Because it's speaking to somebody who already have one. They already got one wife, but they don't have no children of their own. They taking care of orphans, somebody else's children. And they desire to have some of their own children. So the Holy Qur'an said, okay, marry another woman who can give you some children. If you want many children, and you can afford it, marry three, marry four. But if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with them, then only one. If you can't deal justly with two, three, or four, then stick to the one, man.
Now we are talking 1400 years ago in Pagan Arabia. And I think Solomon had had how many hundred wives and hundreds of concubines. Okay. We're talking about a man that had followed the habits of King Solomon, you see? They were used to having plenty of women. And here in the Holy Qur'an the revelation coming telling them to limit the number of all these women to four. And that it's fine if you have just one. In another place the Holy Qur'an says one is better for you if you put but understood. And I'm telling you let somebody talk to you that's had three or four or more, and was trying to deal justly with them, and that's exactly what they'll say to you. "Man, one woman is better if you but understood".
But remember again, strictly speaking, how come this Holy Qur'an is timeless. How come this saying here is still good? Don't you know in most of the Muslim world, there is monogamy: one wife. Hardly ever you find a Muslim with more than one wife. In the most affluent civilization of the Muslim world, they have one wife. Hardly ever you find one with more than one. But why is this still here, and why is it so timeless? For two reasons. There is always something that comes up in life. If it's a rare thing that a man really deserves to be dealt with slightly different. Say if my wife, not in this world, we don't have these laws, and society is not built for it. So, we have to respect the law of the land. But we never know what's going to happen tomorrow now. Even America might change.
Say if a man got a wife, and his wife, he loves her very dearly. She loves him. But suddenly, she just becomes an invalid and kind of out of balance. And the man can't enjoy the conversation, the company he had with her anymore. She's not the company she was before, conversation wise or physically, sex wise. But he loves her. He remembers the good days he had with this woman. He looks at her condition, and he cries. He sheds tears, real tears. Now if this man don't want to put this woman in somebody's rest home or nuthouse and want to keep that woman with him, who is better to take care of that woman if they love each other and if they didn't have any problem, but she just suddenly became physically helpless. Who is better to care for her than the one who loves her? He is better to care for her.
Why should that man be denied because he need another woman? Should he be denied another wife? Should somebody say, "No, live with this". Do you love her?" If the man still has his sex thoughts, still desires some conversation with a woman in the house, then who is so great now, to be a G-d to tell this man, "No, you don't deserve another woman," or the law says you can't have another woman. Or if you want another woman, put her out of your house. No. Our society is not the best society. It is the better society. There's room for improvement before we can be called the best. The best society is right here in this Holy Qur'an that make allowances for things that need for allowances.
All right. So, if a man can't have relationship with a wife, she can't relate to him anymore, but she's not affecting him. She's not running around the house with an ax or something to kill him. She's peaceful and manageable, y'all know what I mean? Now if he want to keep her and get another girl, and when the girl come in, it don't make this woman go any madder. But she finds comfort in the one that's brought in. I'm telling you what has happened. I'm speaking from history. The other woman comes in and helps the man take care of the woman, and she finds comfort and peace in this kind of environment.
Now who is to say that that man is wrong for having a second wife? He's not wrong. How many Americans have two, three, four, a dozen wives. But they put them in different homes and don't give them license and say it's right. Isn't it better to give them a license?
How do I know? Is that right? And if a sister comes out with a baby, the world knows that this Mrs. So-and-so and Mr. So-and-so's baby. Is that right? But Americans do it the other way. We have our women scattered all over town with no license. And there's just babies and nobody know who did it. The baby come here and running around. Who's your daddy? I don't have a daddy. Big old children coming up in school talking about I ain't got no daddy. What baby ever came here without a daddy? We're raising people with false ideas with disorder all in the society. Killing the relationship between man and woman . Youngster coming up thinking they ain't got no daddy so they just hate men. Or they hate women for letting it happen. Is that right? They turn out to be a freak on one hand and a sicko on the other. Because our society is all freaked up.
I hope my wife ain't taking this conversation too seriously. I forgot you was there. Our women don't feel it's time for us to get on the subject of polygamy. Even when they tried to curtail, you know. Islam accepts the spirit of polygamy.
But they just think we all, you know. I don't have an invalid, so I'm satisfied. Don't you ever go lame on me. And if I can still kick my leg out like that... If you go lame on me, and I can't do nothing but this, then we just treat each other kindly in our invalid state.
No. This is good. All of this is very good. Some of us, as long as everything is perfect with the life, the relationship is just blossoming in all of its beauty, we'll be good to her. But as soon as she starts looking older, or refusing to serve us completely, you start cutting the allowance. If you were giving her $20, she will spend it on herself because I know some of you don't get nothing but 20 cents a week. Y'all is some hard men. Don't think I don't know your problems brother. Don't think nobody know your problems. You're telling me lies.
Just because you all are not singing and dancing together, you cut it down to $15. Now that's wrong. I don't care how mad I get with my wife. If it's a personal thing, I never cut what I give her. I never block anything at all that I'm giving her. She could cuss me out, and believe me she does it sometimes, and I cuss her out too, sometimes. And both of us needs cussing out sometimes. But let me tell you, I don't care how mad I get with this woman. I never tell her no. The only time I tell her the money's going to be cut is when she's abusing the money. What I mean by abuse? You can do it ignorantly sometimes. If she ain't watching the waste. I don't mind her wasting some garbage sometimes, you know? She can throw away some rice sometimes down the drain. I don't mind that.
Now if you jump on the poor wife, it ain't her fault all the time. We are more conscious than our women most of the time, especially about saving money. Now some of us are lucky. We get some women. I don't know whether they're lucky or not. But I know a woman, I'm telling you what, I wouldn't want to be married to her for two minutes. And you worry the hell out of a husband, worry the poor man to death. Counting pennies and telling them what they can't spend today. I don't like that kind of relationship. "Honey, we can't afford to go out today". "But baby, we only going downtown. All we need is $2 gas. We ain't going to a movie. We going out to Grant Park. we going to look at a free concert". "Well, that's $2, and I got the budget. I'm looking at it here. We can't afford that".
Look, when that woman start putting more importance on $2, then me and her are going out and sit in somewhere in the open and relax in a good atmosphere, I'm ready to say, "Woman, give me some papers with your name on it. Let me go." That's right. I'm telling you. I don't like that at all. I'm not talking about that kind of penny saver, penny conscious, money conscious person. I'm not talking about that kind of freak. I'm talking about the kind of woman that look and kind of look at things trying to keep things in balance and let you know, "Honey, I think we're spending too much here. I think we ought to cut back on this". Well, that's all right. But we can go to the extreme with this and she turns out to be a monster in your house, right? Kill all the love, man. After awhile, you need all the Iron John, potent pill, Geritol and everything else. That they can sell you to keep things going in that house or the fire's going out, right? All right. I'm not talking about that.
But you got sisters that come up in the world, and this is the world, and they're not like those old mother's brother that was raised down there in Georgia or Alabama. Those mothers, they were conscious. They worked out in the field. They knew about things, you know what I mean? They knew how it goes. They weren't scarred by the city life. But these young girls brother, in this modern world, they look at TV and see the artificial life. Man sit down with his baby, really his woman, and order filet mignon. And if she takes two bites out of it, he take three. Tastes the salad, bite a piece out of the cheesecake, and wipes their mouth and done.
Now these young girls, brother, sitting looking at that TV until you bring in that filet mignon, and you brought in chicken, too, this morning now don't forget. She already ate some chicken legs, then she cooked that filet mignon. You ain't got all that space for those filet mignon, so she remembered to feed you. So, she takes a few bites out of it, wipes her mouth. Throws it in the trash. $2.50. $2.50, man, you looking at it. At $2.50, that might be a chance for you to get to work Friday. Is that right? But by Friday, that's all you got, and there it go, man. Well, we gotta get ourself together.
Verse five, "For those least of understanding, look not over your property that G-d has made as a means to support for you, but feed and clothe them, and speak to them kind words and gestures". What is this talking about? It says "Those least of understanding". It means those that are, what you call in modern language, they're dumb. You know? They're retarded. Here, the Holy Qur'an is telling us that a retarded child among us, it might an orphan or even be your own child. You are also to treat him fairly and to provide for them food and clothing, just feed and clothe him. Just because they're dumb, that doesn't mean I'm not supposed to provide for them. I don't think that you should let yourself be irritated by their dumbness. And by their clumsiness. "Go on fool. Get out. Get away". Some of us do that.
Not to someone who is retarded so far back that he is an imbecile, a moron. We do this to children who are just a little slow, don't we? Have a child in the house that's just a little slow. Because he ain't making no hell of a grades like Johnny or like sister Janine, we treat him bad. "Oh, I ain't feeding you nothing today." I don't care if he hasn't made not one grade. I don't care if he can't do anything. You are obligated to feed your flesh if it becomes nothing but flesh. You in your own body, don't you see it's your flesh? But you feed him and clothe it, don't you?
All right let's go now to chapter 18... I know you're tired. Why don't you want to just a stand? Stand up. All right, now stretch back again. Allahu Akbar. We want to move now to the crux of our very existence. Let's see how we are supposed to conduct ourselves.
Now, we know that society has made us to feel poverty as a test. Is that right? And whenever you talk to people about struggle and test, they usually speak of poverty, hunger as being a test. Is that right? But here, G-d is speaking to us about a bigger test. Hunger is a test, poverty is a test, but the bigger test is faith. Most men and women can stand up under poverty. Women and men have died from starvation brother. And don't fall down to criminal or immoral character. Keep their morals and keep their decency. Keep their honesty and die starving, hunger, die from hunger but didn't go to criminal activity and didn't lose their moral consciousness. Is that right?
You know this happened. People starve to death. Die of starvation, and that's going to happen. And they will try to make it the best way they can. And go on out of this world sometime. Alright. But their is a test that comes on us that most of us fail. That's the test of wealth. That's the worst test you can get. And because it's so heavy and its so hard to come to, G-d's not going to put that test on most people. He only test a few with that. This is so the society can learn that wealth is a great test. That should wake your mind up and let you see. You shouldn't be inviting a lot of wealth into your life. If you're able to produce wealth, produce it but don't bring it into your own life. Keep it out there in the society so the society will survive and can grow. Is that right?
And look what a big work or service that person would have done now in putting his product in the society to grow the whole society. Just like a man whose married and has a big family and all of them well taken care of. Is that right? Now compare him with the man who marries and have no children, just him and his wife going around in the neighborhood, just as fat and rich. Here's another man, he's got plenty children, and all of them are well taken care of. So, this is what G-d is trying to bring to our eyes, among many other things. Alright. It says, So, one is left by parents, there is a share for both men and women. That means men and women have a share of the inheritance.
But this scripture here is 1400 years old, approximately. Don't you know, women have just recently been recognized in the history of the West. Recently been recognized as voters, recently been recognized as independent people in a business, recently been recognized as people eligible to inherit wealth. Don't you know that? These are new things in Western society. Women were left at the mercy of men. Men could do whatever they wanted to do. But here is a 1400 years old script..... And believe me, these rules are older than 1400 years ago. Prophet Muhammad just bought back a lot of this precious knowledge.
But many of this was existing...In fact, the oldest law giver was one of your own flesh. A Bilalian man. Hammurabi. Hammurabi. In fact the Jews know that many of their laws are not their laws, that most of their laws were stolen from Hammurabi, a Bilalian. and their laws. They give Moses more laws than Moses ever knew about. They stole the laws of your law giver and put them in the name of their Prophet, and steal their Prophets. Not physically, but steal his knowledge. Steal his real knowledge which was his moral knowledge. All right. Well, I hate to hold you like this and just talk, talk, talk. If you think I'm just talking, go and talk to those who have a knowledge of these things. Go talk to the people who have the knowledge of ancient history in the Middle East, and ask them who was Hammurabi, and they'll tell you a lawgiver before Moses. Lawgiver whose laws covered more of the era of civilization. The needs of civilization more than the law of Moses did or does. And from that law, they stole so much.
In fact, the oldest son of Noah, called Shem I think he's called, that's only talking about Bilalian people. We thought we were Ham. Ham is not us. Ham represents the mixed blood. Bilalian or so called African blood, with other blood. Shem represents the pure blood. And Shem was the oldest son of Noah. Meaning that civilization, when these people were writing this scripture and writing these books, they were telling their people that the oldest man in this knowledge, the oldest people in this knowledge or in this civilization, are those black skinned people. The Bilalian people. That's what they were telling them. Noah means the spirit of G-d and Noah's son means the one who came from that spirit. Means that G-d brought His Prophet, gave His Prophet guidance and that Prophet produced leadership for the land. The oldest leadership from that spiritual guidance, is the Bilalian, your people. That's what it says. Not Adam, your people. Adam is younger than Noah. Say "Man I know you're crazy now". You read the Bible and you'll think I'm crazy. You say, "How can Adam be younger than Noah?" Because Adam is not really a man. Adam have no real place in time. Adam just represents any flesh that comes up weak in knowledge and falls victim to the temptations of the world. That's why the Bible has to have another generation, and that generation starts with Noah. Is that right? And his sons. And from his sons you finally come up with 12 tribes. Is that right? You see, there's a populating of the world all over again. So, what they’re telling us is that all they know is that flesh falls, losing its light because of the weakness of knowledge.
And then it gets its start back by the inspiration of G-d, in Noah, the breath, the wind blowing and putting the waters back in their place, putting the people who have moral nature, symbolizes water, putting them back in their places, meaning establishing an orderly world again. Is that right? It's the breathing of G-d's inspiration, but He made the Prophet. And Noah is symbolic of that Prophet, and the first leadership under that kind of generation is called the oldest son of Noah, which is Shem. Now you know what Shem is in Western language? Or in Aramaic? The Shem in Hebrew is Sam in Aramaic, is Sam in Arabic and is Sam in the Western American language. Do you know what Sambo comes from? That mockery of Sambo? That white man, gave this racist society the knowledge of your ancestors and told them that these people are the great first leaders of society.
As far as we can look back in history, you'll find that they are the only one in this kind of knowledge that we now have come into. So, they made a joke, they said "Look at Sam now". They had him looking like a fool, eating watermelon. "He ain't leading the society now. He's our boy". That was a mockery. "Come here Sam." They was calling you Sam and that's not even your name. "Come here Sam". Sambo. They got a little better they wouldn't call you Sambo, they would call you Sam. Anybody could be called Sam. You know that. Why Sam? Ok that's another subject for a later date. You have an idea now.
Let's go to Chapter 17, Verse 26. Let's stand up and stretch now. Now sit back down and you should feel better. This verse reads "And give those who are in need, and those who are in want. And to the wayfarer." Wayfarer means one without a home, those out there in the middle of the street, they have no place to stay. In fact, the word here means, a child of the road. They have no place to stay.
"But squander not your wealth". So here the Holy Qur'an is telling us that Muslims are not to squander wealth. So don't go to the top tier of the restaurant, way up in the sky, and order a $20.00 meal, and as you are eating it you looking down on everyone. And act like you don't enjoy eating those chicken legs. Get yourself worked up all crazy and high with the atmosphere of the place. "I think I'll have some lox and caviar".
Don't be a spendthrift. Satan is the chief devil. And spendthrifts are companions of the chief devil. And your behavior indicates that you act as if you have no relationship with G-d. We are obligated to keep the order in our household. If you can feed yourself and your wife in the house everyday along with your children, and nobody crying from hunger, you can afford to help someone else. The Holy Qur'an says that a spendthrift is a friend of the devil.
Now let's go to Chapter 24. verse 26. "Also forbidden to you are women who are already married. And why am I reading this verse? Because I know that there are some members of this community who are already married and you have taken on a second wife. Not only are you breaking the laws of the land, but you are also breaking the laws of the Holy Qur'an. "Except those whom your right hands possess." So, what does this mean? Means that if you're married, or single, you can't go get a woman that's already married. And she can't get another husband if she's already married. You see? All right. So, you want to take a second wife and your wife agrees, you'll take a second wife but don't get somebody else's wife. Don't go get a married woman. If you can't find a woman that's not married, it says take one from those who your right hand possess. It means from those that you have taken into your charge. Remember there was a war, and the Muslims took many woman in to their charge who had lost their husbands in war. Believing women. And they took others in, who had agreed to come with the Muslims, and to live with the Muslims, and to come under the Muslim way of life, whose husbands perhaps was lost in war on the enemy side.
You took the enemy's wife or the enemy's daughter. You understand? Whose husband was killed. Others said, "No, I don't want to go to the east, I want to come with the Muslims." So the Muslims took her. And many times, they would take them as ransom. If the other side paid the ransom money they would give them back. But if the Muslim wanted to stay with the Muslim, the Muslim would keep them and pay for them. You understand? All right. So as a result, there were women in the Muslim's charge, in the charge of a wealthy strong man and he was responsible for taking care of them out of his wealth. He would feed and clothe them and take care of them. He wasn't committed to go and have sexual relation with them just because they were in his charge. If he wanted to have sexual relations with one of these women, he had to marry one of these women. This is the teaching of the Holy Qur'an.
Now some of you pick up the Holy Qur'an and you will look and you're looking so hard to see a justification, for the weakness that you're on, that you misread what you're reading. If you want to marry a sister, make it a single sister. Don't even approach a sister that's married. As long as she's married. If she's weak enough to approach you, don't you approach her. She's still legally married to that brother, and that brother still hopes that she respects her marriage tie. Now, maybe that relation is bad, maybe it's going out the window. Maybe they're not sleeping with each other, they may not even talking with each other. Don't you start talking to her. He hasn't divorced her yet. Maybe there is a chance for them to get back together, and the children will stay with their parents. Both parents will help their children. But you come in with your slick self just because you saw they were sitting up in the Mosque and they weren't looking at each other like they didn't like each other. You come and start whispering in her ear.
You're corrupting the society. You're breaking down the strength of our nation. Don't do that. There's plenty women out here brother. 100s and 100s of your sisters not married. If you want to approach a sister, go out there and court someone else. Look, if I was a man that cared anything about the Nation of Islam. Or if I didn't care about the Nation that much. If I cared anything about myself and my life. Don't you know brother if I had to do something like that, I would save up me money and get me a ticket and I'll go so far from everybody, and I'll put on sunglasses and wigs and beards. So, my, my wife and my children and my friends, the Nation officials, would never know I got that weak that I just had to go and plow somebody else's grounds. That's right.
As long as you have license and you haven't got a divorce you're legally, you're by contract, obligated to each other. And I don't care how much hatred come between you, don't let your Muslim integrity, don't let your Muslim decency fall down to nothing. Keep it, brother. See, you ain't the only one. We all humans. I've been married twice. And once I got so mad man, I had to leave the house. I could feel the heat building up in my body. That's how mad I was. I was so mad I felt like I could spit a hole into the woman. But I was married to that woman. So, I didn't just leave off my sense of obligation to her and my children just because I was mad and go running out the house trying to get into something. No. I went out the house where I could get plenty room and blew my steam off outside. And called that woman up to see if her steam had been reduced. And I stayed out until her steam was reduced and we could live in the house together again. But I wasn't out there messing up somebody else's house just because mine was being threatened. It's not possible for us to live for ourselves. We have to live for Allah. We have to live for the truth and justice. That's the only way we can live, and if we live that way we have more happiness in our life than we can possibly have living any other kind of way.
It says, "Except those whom your right hand possesses. Thus has G-d ordained prohibitions against you. Except for these, all others are lawful provided you seek them in marriage." You understand? Now you can't marry a married woman. But all single women are lawful to you, whether they be in captivity or free, whether they be in your servants or free people, free to do what they please. They are free for you to marry. Or you have a choice. You can go out and marry any free one. If you can't marry a free woman, marry you maid. We don't have slaves nowadays. But think of your maid. Who wants to marry his maid? He might need somebody to help him to clean up his house, right? Well, here Muslims were told to marry their slaves, which is lower than a maid. Is that right? All right. They were told to marry these women, rather than go and make trouble for a man. See, the women was scarce in those days. War had killed off a lot of men.
You, see? And married men were scarce for the women, and single women were plentiful for the men. But these women most likely were in the charge of men who could take care of them. Because in the society, there was no one who could provide for them. You follow? So, men were taking care of these extra women. They had to take care of them because nobody else could. If they didn't take care of them, these women would have been forced to go into prostitution to earn a living. That was the condition in those days. It says, "Seek them in marriage with gifts from your property, whether you marry a slave, a poor woman, a maid, you're supposed to give her a fitting dowry, a fitting gift out of your wealth. What is the dowry for? Security. In case I die tonight, this woman has something to start with until she can find herself another husband.
So, he's looking out for the women. It says "Desire chastity". Listen to this very good. A man should marry because he doesn't want to commit adultery or fornication. I know we marry to have children, that's correct. But we're talking about people now who are moved sexually by their sexual desire. Their desire should be to avoid committing fornication and adultery and shouldn’t be a movement towards what we call lust. You understand? Now, many of us, and especially... I hate to say it, members of the Nation of Islam, are in the habit of marrying out of lust. And you say to your own self, "I have to marry because I'm not supposed to commit fornication and adultery." But your only desire is to be with that sister sexually. You don't have any desire to share your life with that sister.
You haven't thought of spending many years, 50 years. You haven't thought of sitting in a rocking chair with that sister. You haven't thought of raising many sons, you and that sister, providing for them their education and their needs. You just thought of laying under the sheet with that sister tonight. Is that right? You go and marry her in haste. This is as bad as adultery. But let's not do that. Let's practice discipline among ourselves. That's what you should do. And if you can't do it, well, you shouldn't do it. Jesus said there are some men who made themselves eunuch for the sake of G-d and for the sake of the kingdom. But I don't advise that, and I don't believe Jesus advised that. That means take a sharp knife, and relieving yourself of the problem. I won't advise that, and I repeat, I don't believe that Jesus advised that. I believe the counsel slipped that one in. And it was one of the great grandfather's of Pope Pius the first or second or something I guess. Because men want to have children you know, and want to enjoy the flesh that's been put into their life into their flesh by G-d for their enjoyment.
And really want to enjoy it too. But the only thing the Holy Qur'an is saying, that don't put this physical enjoyment before something that's much more important, and that is your future as human beings, as human beings with minds and hearts that must communicate with each other. When the flesh get through communicating, that's it, brother. Doesn't take it long. But hearts and minds can communicate for a long, long time. Is that right?
But that flesh, it hits like a rooster on a chicken and it's finished in a few minutes. Then what you going to have, huh? Then what you going to have? Man, my marriage gone to pot, and I just married that old sister last week. You didn't marry that sister last week. You married that thing last week. That sister is rare, but that thing is just a thing that you can find many places in the world.
Now, let's go to chapter five, verse six. "This day, are all things good and pure made lawful unto you. The food of the People of the Book is lawful unto you, and yours is lawful unto them. Lawful unto you in marriage are not only chaste women who are believers, but chaste women among the People of the Book." What is He referring to? The Book? Al Kitab refers to those people who received scripture, revealed scripture. Jews and Christians by name.
So, a Muslim, if you can't find a chaste, believing woman among the Muslims, he may go and marry a woman who's a Jew or Christian. Or a Christian or a Jew. Maybe I should put it in that order. Because over here, there are more Christians. You'll run into a Christian faster than you'll run into a Jew. And I think we have a better chance with Christians than we do the Jews. All right.
In fact, the Holy Qur'an say you will find the nearest people to you are the Christians. Not the Jews. All right. So, here we are told that inter-faith marriage is acceptable in Islam. Now, brothers and sisters, if you can't find a desirable mate in the Mosque, there are many of them out there in the world who are Christians and Jews. Or Christians. You don't have to go to the Jews, because most of the Jews are not called Bilalians. They're Caucasians, right? They're Caucasians who choose to be called not-Caucasians. They don't want to be called Caucasians and they don't want to be called Black or Bilalian. They want an identity all of their own.
Their G-d is all theirs. Their suffering is all theirs. So, they can easily draw the sympathy of the whole world to them, and the praise of the whole world to them. I am telling you, there are some slick, slimy, snake-moving people in the earth as a people.
Now, I'm not anti-Semitic because Arabs are Semitic. I'm just anti-Devil. And if the Devil is in a Jew body, he's a devil. And I'm telling you, those Jews, historically, have operated like the Devil himself. And Jesus in his words said "I beheld your Father fall from Heaven like lightening. Say you are the children of your father, and the work of your Father, you will do". And he was talking about Satan himself.
Don't think I'm teaching you to be racist now. I got a Jew who's a very good friend of mine. His name is David Bowie. Believe it or not. David Bowie. A very good friend. A very good man and a very good friend. And I'm sure there are many other Jews who are very good people, but the power of evil established itself in them more than it established itself in any other people. Satan established himself in those people called Jewish people more than he established himself in any other people.
In fact, if you want to find a kingdom in the seat of Satan, go look in the Jewish history. Look in the history of those who call themselves today, Jews. You will find the very seat, the throne of Satan. They're the ones who made the Gentiles. Grafted them. Not their flesh. Their inner being.
Now, let's go to the last verse here. Chapter 17, verse 38. Chapter 17, verse 38. Yes, yes. "And even if you have to turn away from them in pursuit of the Mercy from your Lord, which you do expect, yet speak to them a word of easy kindness." This is talking about children who, young children or adults who are the children of parents, whose parents are not believers. The children are believers. So, it says, "Even if you have to turn away from them in pursuit of the Mercy from your Lord." What is the Rahma from your Lord? It means Islam. The Holy Qur'an is called "Rahma In Nas", a Mercy to the people. And Prophet Muhammad is called "Raham Li Nas". So, is a word meaning the guidance of Allah and His blessings. Even if you have to turn away from your parents to pursue Islam and it's teachings and it's way of life. That's what it's saying.
Because many time our parents don't want us and they refuse to support us, if we follow Islam, right? it says- "Yet speak to them a word of easy kindness." You know we don't tell our mother "If you don't like Islam, you can go to hell. That's a sin.
Remember, you have to reverence the womb that bore you. Because many times, mothers don't raise their kids. Somebody else raises them. But simply because we came out of her life and out of her body, we have to respect our origins. Respect that that gave us physical form and life form. You see? Some of us think because we don't know our parents, we have a right to deny them. "I don't even have a mother." You have a mother. Maybe she's dead or maybe because of a problem with the father, she couldn't live with you. Or maybe because of a problem with society, she couldn't live with you.
Or maybe because of a problem she inherited from those before you, she couldn't live with you. There are many reasons why the parent sometimes can't live with us. Is that right? And most times it's because two people just get excited and forget about the home and the house and the generations to come and just walk out on each other. Right? All right. This is what happened in most cases. You children who are from that kind of broken love triangle relationships, from parents, from a life that didn't give you experiences with your parents, don't look back in your past and say, "I hate my parents."
If they're drunkards, don't hate them. If they're murderers, don't hate them. If they're cold and mean to you, don't hate them. Why? Because you came from them. You came from their flesh. And if you begin to hate the flesh that you a part of, it's going to do something to your psychology. It's going to mess up your mind. Going to make a deformed and terrible, horrible person out of you. Or deny you of the freedom to enjoy life as you should enjoy it. So, if you should love people outside that don't give a damn to you, how much more could you love a flesh that you came from?
Whether she carried you peacefully or not. She carried you until you were born. You're here. You weren't aborted. Ain't that right? Even if I was aborted, if I could speak out of the grave as an aborted child, I would tell G-d to bless the womb that bore me. Because I have to have some kind of concern, some kind of love for my own origin. Do you understand? Yes. Now in the world, you have to deal with things as they are. If we have evil in our society, justice has to prevail. But that's no cause to me to turn my heart into poison, just because I got a bad start. Is that right? Because I got a bad start. No. Save my heart. And the way to save it is to always look back into your history and say, "G-d, bless the generations before me that made it possible for me to come here."
"And if anything, G-d, punish me for trying to keep me from staying here." Right. I don't want G-d to hurt somebody. If I want to hate somebody, I should all the things that don't want me to live have made it possible for me to come here. I thank you and I have kept you here much too long. We only have meetings like this twice a month. And only once for the married couples. The next time, it'll be for the singles. We hope to meet with yu married couples once a month and the singles once a month so that we can help save our families in our community. Yes. Now, I want to quickly conclude this and tie this up now. Life comes into the world and it must grow. We must cultivate and grow strong character in our homes. And in working on strong character from the very beginning, the little children are crawling around and listening to you, feed them good things for their mind. Because they're developing.
Feed their ears with the kind of things that are going to make strong character. Don't get mad and tell your little baby.... I see people talk to babies that can't even talk yet. "You little Black son of a bitch." Look. Look. Look. Don't get uptight, now. You know what I mean? Just because I said son of a bitch. This is a grownup meeting with adults, married adults, mostly married adults, I believe. Or those that are planning on getting married. So, I just want to tell you. Now, just think about this. Look down just fumbling around in the light. Fumbling and bumping into things. "Nigger, what is this? Get your godamn hands off my things. "I'll bust your brains out, nigga. Look. You'll think that their speaking to Goliath. You come in there and look who they speaking to. A little bitty tot stumbling around in the house.
"Yeah, I know. You think because your mother said you can do it, sucker. You think you can do it. You ugly little nigger you. I'll bust that ass. Don't think you going to do it in my face. Get the hell out of my face, little nigga". Talking to your little son. Little son. Stumbling around the house. What kind of things are you feeding the creation of that child? Don't you know everything that goes into his mind? Through his ears? Through his understanding? Whether it's a word in the form of a touch or sight, or hearing, no matter what form it comes through and enters his mind and creates a certain feeling in his heart. How can we curse at our little baby?
If we do it, it shows that we are not awake at all. Something has happened to our minds, brothers and sisters. This old world is killing us. It's destroying us. It's killing the whole nation. Now, let us stop it. I'm willing to give an oath right now. That the next time that I curse at my child, I accept that I be hit over the with a broomstick until the broomstick break. What? I'm telling you what I'm willing to do. Now, we should all get together and say, look, I take an oath. And the next time I curse at my child or speak to him like he's a mean, no good, filthy adult that deserves no respect from me, I accept that someone in the house go get the light frying pan or the broomstick and break it over my head.
I'm not making jokes, brothers and sisters. I'm as serious as anybody ever been. If this is what it takes to save us, let us do it. You want to make sure you don't get abused, you don't want no little sadist whipping on you. Come here and let the Minister know what you've done. And I'll turn my back. I'll turn my head. I don't want to see it. I don't want to see my animal aggression. So, I'll turn my head and say to put your head where the pan can hit you. One day you'll look back at yourself and your history, you'll look at your child and you'll see how you did him, and you'll want to kill yourself. I'm telling you. If you got any heart at all, you'll want to take a dose of poison and go out of the world. So don't do those things. Don't make trouble for ourselves.
I'll tell you another thing. I'm leaving you now. I'm getting ready to go. If you want to make your life better, if you want your home to be happier, I'll tell you what you should do. Everybody start drinking more water. A dry physical body makes a dry moral body. Don't you know that American people, Western people torture themselves like this? You go all day and don't drink no water. Eat a pint of ice cream. Drink some syrup. The few drinks you do drink is so heavy with sugar until you are actually drinking syrup. So, your body is tortured and your body is putting a strain on your mind and in your moral fabric. It's telling you that you're mistreating it and you can't hear your body speaking to you.
All you know in your subconscious is that your body is speaking to you. So here it comes out all kinds of ways. Cursing at the members of the family for nothing, destroying yourself, mistreating everybody in the house. You see? All of these things are coming out simply because we haven't even done the first thing. First thing you should do is create a feel good environment that you can live in. You need to drink some water. Don't every time you want to drink go for some sugar water or some syrup in your mouth. Pour some water in your mouth. Drink more water. If the water ain't good enough out of the faucet, I hear all these souped up, paranoid people, they say you can't drink the water in the faucet no more.
That's it's too heavy chlorinated and whatnot. Well, I been giving it to the birds and it ain't kill none of them and they're weaker than I am. But just in case you afraid of that water. If it's necessary, I will myself take up a collection and buy you some water, distilled water or something. I'm telling you what I mean. If you all would just start drinking water, get up in the morning, take a glass of water. Drink a glass of water. You know, G-d has punished us for being so artificial, so phony, he has made our own bodies rebel against. Body don't want water. And it's good for you. You need it. I don't like water. I can't stand the taste of it. G-d done punished your taste. Made you hate the thing that you need to keep you healthy.
Because your mind is so wrong. Okay. Here's a Mercy from G-d if you'll accept it. Drink water. Get up in the water, drink you a clear glass of water. Don't drink ice water. If you ain't got sinus trouble, you'll have it. If you don't have some kind of ache in your head, you'll have it. Drinking ice water. Here it is ninety outside and eighty in the house and you're pouring ice into your hot body. Don't do that. Drink water just as come out of the faucet. If it's real cold in the refrigerator, sit it out on the table half an hour before you drink it. Then drink it. G-d made people to live naturally. Here we are drinking ice, eating ice, drinking fire, eating fire.
The Holy Qur'an say that disbelievers, those who rebel, those who won't follow G-d's directions, said He's going to give them in hell boiling water to drink and ice that will freeze them to drink. This what the Holy Qur'an say. Drinking ice water and drinking fire. Coffee so hot you pour it on a baby, it would scald them to death. For fire. Yeah. See, G-d didn't create us to live this way. You want to better your mental condition, you want to better your moral and spiritual condition, do something about this crazy physical way we live. That's it. As Salaam Alaikum. May Allah bless you.
Takbir!
IWDM:
Allahu akbar.
IWDM:
Takbir!
IWDM:
Allahu Akbar.
IWDM:
Takbir!
IWDM:
Allahu Akbar.


