1978-September-29

Bilalian News

Historic Atlanta Address: Part 1

Imam W. Deen Muhammad


All praise is due to Almighty God, the guardian evolver and sustainer of all the worlds. The blessings and peace be upon Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah to us all.

O  Allah, guide us, forgive us our faults, and grant us the blessing of faith. I bear witness there is no deity except Allah and I bear witness Muhammad is His Servant and His Messenger. Peace be upon him, his descendants, his companions, the righteous servants, all of them, and upon us in America and throughout the world:

I  shouldn't have to ask anybody to propagate the work and spirit of our community. Once I say something, it should be readily accepted by every member. If it's not readily accepted, I should get a quick rebuttal. That's how we progress.

If the leader invites you to do something or asks something from you and you feel it is not right, challenge him right away. But, if it is right, if it is good, and in the light of the Quran and in the life of Prophet Muhammad and in the conscience of good people of the society, what right have you to hesitate?

Right away you should support it!
I've been a follower since I was a little child. In fact, I've never known a time when I wasn't a follower. The environment that I came up in produced followers.

I was a follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad; I was a follower of the teacher, and principal, the one who taught me most of what I learned in elementary and high school, Sheikh James Abdul Aziz Shabazz.

I was a follower of Captain Raymond Sharif and the captain before him. I followed the leaders and even when they were wrong, I didn't disrespect them. I just didn't follow them in the wrong.

When they became so wrong that I thought they weren't qualified to be leaders, I began to protest. This is the way!

Some people don't want to be followers. They want to be individuals without following anything. That's not a Muslim.

Allah tells us to obey God, obey His apostle and obey those charged with authority over you. We should love leadership. Leadership is the hope of a civilized people. Without leadership they have no hope.

Our priorities haven't changed and if you go along with me they will never change until Judgment Day.

Number one, is education. Number two, is jobs for the husbands and the fathers. Not for the pimps, for husbands and fathers. For men who still value the family and want to marry and have children. These are the people we want to see with jobs because they have more responsibility. Number three, is moral excellence.

If he just keep these three priorities in mind— education, jobs for the husbands and fathers and moral excellence. We shouldn't tolerate any moral diseases in our community. If we find a moral disease, get to work on it right away. Under these priorities, we have many things going for us.

I'm very proud of the leadership that I've given to you, and I know that without God, it couldn't have been done. You couldn't have given me the support I needed and I couldn't have given you the faith you needed because I would only have been a weakling.

I'm not an educated man with a doctorate or a master's degree, not even a bachelor's degree. I received most of my education in the school established by Dr. Fard Muhammad and made a reality for us by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

The school was hardly recognized by the Board of Education but they sure turned out a pretty good high school product in me.
I wanted to find out just how I rated with the public school so I took the GED test and rated high nationwide.
We must get the Imams, not some of you, all of you, to support and promote American patriotism—sober, intelligent patriotism, and also to support our call for the common people to respect and work to dutifully preserve the government.

Recent developments have been turning the people away from civilization and government to anarchy, savagery and orgiastic forms of life.
Thanks to Almighty God, with a President like Jimmy Carter and the support he's getting from the members of his staff and the good people in government throughout the United States, and with the voice of one in the ghetto as one in the wilderness saying, "Come back to civilization, come back to respect for human dignity," we have turned the tide of moral decadence, savagery, filth and vulgar permissiveness.

We have turned around. There is a new spirit in America today. The sun is rising on the human being and going down on the brute and the filthy savage.
Our Imams must support our movement for interfaith cooperation to create a common religious front to fight the evils of our society.
The people of the Torah, the Gospel and the Quran are a family from one common patriarch, Abraham, who is called "our father" in Judaism, in Christianity and in Al-Islam. And, we are called people of the Book.

I think we can all unite on those strong points and fight the common enemies.
Religion won't survive unless we come together. We need help. As the majority of people today are leaving the strong healthy,  good things that civilization has established, don't you know we | will all be run over and trampled under the feet of those wild animals unless we unite and preserve all J that we cherish?

We can't look at each other as Christians or Jews, we have to look at each other as people | believing in One God. "Oh, Chief, they don't believe in our God." Well, I can prove something quite different, dear Sister and Brother.
Our Imam Council has to accept the responsibility of promoting and preserving the religion of Al-Islam for the WCIW. They have to preserve the Islamic spirit of this community.

We should say, "As-Salaam-Alaikum," "Wa-Alaikum-As-Salaam." We shouldn't pass by and ignore each other. We shouldn't come in on a group of Muslims and say nothing or walk away from a group of Muslims and say nothing, even from one Muslim. Give the greeting when you come in or leave.
The rule is the smaller group is to speak to the larger group. They are obligated to greet the larger group and the one who comes in later is obligated to greet those who are already in. Most of us love this, it's just a few having the problem.

The Imams have to be pledged to work for the human dignity of the individual. Your Brother and your Sister are your equals in Al-Islam. There are no class distinctions, no respect for your, degrees or your muscles. The only recognition in Al-Islam is for your being a decent human being— that's what we respect.

In the eyes of God, he who is best is the one most careful of his duty to the Almighty....
The majority of our Imams have no problem. Those of you yet to come around, we are begging you, Brother—we need you and you need us.
I've done my best to foster in us a spirit of healthy, sober, intelligent, patriotism as Americans, and a healthy, intelligent attitude toward human dignity over the past three and one half years, and I hope none of you will let me down.

Let us have a Patriotism Day Parade every year. Let us show all American people we were brought here as slaves and treated like work animals or worse. We were invited to come into the mainstream of American life and the law of the land rose up and said, "We will protect the black, the Bilalian, the African-American just as we protect any other citizen."

We accepted it and we're proud of it and we'll hold the American Flag high, we'll fight for it, we'll die for it. We're not going to put our burden on another citizen; I accept the burden. I want equal share in the blessings of America, I accept the responsibility.
As religious people, as Muslims, we have to be of service to all peoples. We can't just serve Muslims, we have to serve all peoples.
When we walk out of our door we see people; all were created by the same God, and whatever God has revealed for one He has revealed for all.

If they are not Muslim now, that's God, He's the judge of that. Almighty God says that you will be differing even up to Judgment Day. But at the same time, He says go you all together as in a race toward all that is good.
Not only Muslim with Muslim, but Muslim with Jew, Muslim with Christian. Let us all go together.

Allah is the perfect being. Allah is all righteous, truthful—no imperfections in Allah. Allah is Supreme and Perfect without any imperfections.
O Allah. Make us of those who purify themselves and of those who repent, and guide us in your path. Amen.

Peace be to you
Your brother in service to Allah, Wallace Deen Muhammad

(To be continued)


