1980
IWDM Study Library
Eid Al-Fitr
Oakland CA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Muslim we thank Allah for blessing us with this day. We have completed our fast and to come to the Eid and be present here for the Eid. We know that the word Eid is something that reoccurs. We have this special day we attend once a year in the month of Shawal, the first day after the month of fast. And we are to observe the prayer, the salat of the Eid, and give the Khutbah of the Eid in the morning time after the sun has risen above the eye level and before the sun has reached the zenith, the top or noon point. 
I would like for us to have the right frame of mind for this, for this be the spirit of this Eid. It is the spirit of thanksgiving, of victory because we have achieved the victory, those who have completed their fast. And this is a victory that give us an accomplishment strictly for Allah's pleasure. So we have fast for 30 days strictly for Allah's pleasure, restraining our appetites strictly for Allah's pleasure, to obey Him and Him alone. 
We know that we get many benefits from fasting during the month of Ramadan, but the greatest of all benefits to ever come to humanity was the Qur'an, which was revealed to Muhammad, Peace and blessings be Upon him in the month of Ramadan. 
Dear beloved Muslims, I would now like to read a few verses from Qur'an concerning revelation and the attitude of believers. Allah, the Most High says in Qur'an, Truth, the real truth, the actual fact is that truth is better than this worlds science. Truth is more accurate than this worlds science. That's this book the Qur'an. Allah says, "So be not of those who doubt. This is indeed the truth, the best, clear, the exact truth. More scientific than their science. And it has been revealed and it shouldn't be doubted." 
Dear beloved Muslims, we should also be aware that this message was given, revealed to a human being. The highest knowledge for human beings was revealed to a human being and not a human being of this worlds schemes. A human being that was not educated in this world. Not a son of a scholar, not a scholar, but one of the Ummiyun. Ummiyun means one with just mother wit. One who has not attended the formal schools to be educated by the learned people who is not familiar with their knowledge, who only had the natural knowledge that human being get just from growing up under mama and in the community. So he was one called in many translations, the unlettered, the unlettered Prophet. Isn't it wonderful that Allah chose not the leaders of this world, the intellectual, but a common human being that everyone can identify with? If He had chosen one of the learned people, a scientist, then we wouldn't think that we could follow that scientist. Many of us who are uneducated would say, "He is a scientist, he is an intellectual." But no, he was just like you. Even more important is this, that Allah can teach without men to help. Allah had no men to help him teach Prophet Muhammad. He took the person who some translations called the Unlettered person of the common masses because of his excellence of character, because of his sincere and pure devotion, because of his sentiment for humanity, because of his desire for social justice, because of his high and excellent spirituality, all which is possible for the common man. You don't have to be educated by this world to have any of that. And Allah took that common man because of the excellence of his heart and his nature and his mind and He revealed to him the last revelation to mankind, the Qur'an.
Dear beloved Muslims, Allah says in the Qur'an that He revealed this Qur'an in the month of Ramadan, in the month of Ramadan. For those who would like to benefit from Qur'an, they seek the virtues that Ramadan produces. And in fasting the month of Ramadan, restraining our own selfish appetites for Allah's pleasure, it induces in us that which not only makes us safe for society but make us good for society. For the Muslim who fasts, he feels the pain in his stomach and he's fasting to please Allah, that makes them think of his brother who didn't have good dinner in the month before. And perhaps won't have a good dinner in the month coming. So it makes him sensitive to the suffering of his brother and sisters. It makes him feel charitable in his heart. He's doing it for Allah and he feels victory in doing good for Allah's sake. And then he realizes that I don't have to have all this stuff I've been having in my life. 
I don't have to eat all the food I've been eating. Look how good I feel after pleasing Allah. I've been fasting and doing it with love, I've been suffering hunger. I can suffer forAllah's sake. And if we can suffer for Allah's sake, then we can do what we should do to make society a better society. What else can compel the human come to that degree of discipline and that awareness of the need for him to be charitable to a human being, to his fellow man? Nothing can do that except the worship of the one true Allah. We can have great impressive personalities come among us, with fancy flowery speech in great philosophies, and they can charm us and win us over. But when the real thing comes along, we back on out and we leave the great personality there to row the hoe by himself, or to hoe the row by himself.
But if Allah is indeed in our heart, if Allah is indeed in our heart and if we are doing it for Allah's pleasure, the hardship is endured with ease, and we even keep a good spirit. And even when you're moaning and crying with pain, suffering, screaming and someone as you how do you feel, "Alhamduillah." Because this is for Allah's pleasure. And the anticipation of what Allah will give you for obedience just drowns out all the thoughts of pain and suffering. Because while you twisting and moaning in pain and you say "All Praise is due to Allah, you don't know what's happening on the other side. 
The pleasure of Allah is the greatest pleasure. If we own that we have the greatest pleasure. Happiness for us is in obeying Allah. Let me read now a verse from the Qur'an, the chapter called The Heights, Suratul Araf, the 157th verse. "Who follow the uneducated or the unlettered Messenger Prophet they find written in the Torah and in the Injeel." Let no one make you feel that Prophet Muhammad is a black sheep among the Prophets. Prophet Muhammad comes in the line of the Prophets, and Prophet Muhammad is mentioned in the scripture of the Prophets. Prophet Muhammad is the one to complete that line of the Prophets, the one to bring us the full message for our full life. But they have selfishly denied the last Prophet, his recognition, due respect, due recognition.
Dear beloved people, let us continue. This Prophet, who is not just a Prophet to call the people to faith or to virtues, but he is a leader for the people. He's a Prophet bringing instruction and he's a Prophet to be an example for all human beings. He is the Prophet, the human Prophet, the example for all human beings. I'm emphasizing this attribute because we are human beings. And Allah has said in the Qur'an, Praise be to Him Most High. It says, "If there had been angels populating the earth, He would've sent an angel as a Messenger." But there are human beings populating the earth, so He sent a mortal human being as a Messenger. 
This is not to be construed or interpreted as to favor any weaknesses on our part. This is not to say that a mortal is weak. This is to say that a mortal is more excellent than an angel. Allah has said in the Qur'an that He has created the human being a degree above the above the angels. Why? Because we have freedom of judgment, we have freedom of judgment. The angel has no freedom of judgment. The angel can do nothing but carry out the nature G-d gave him, follow that nature and obey that nature. He cannot have freedom of judgment. The angel is not like human beings, tested by sexual appetite, tested by food, tested by anger, tested by frustrations and tested by hatred and wars, tested by the temptation to take something that is sitting right there without being caught knowing that it was wrong, you see?
But the angel is not tested like that. He has the nature, the angel has not the nature to be tested like that. And the angel has not the ability has not the power of independent judgment, of individual judgment. I know that none of us are independent of G-d and we can't exercise that except as Allah wills. But we have been given a limited freedom and in that limited freedom we exercise our own personal judgment. Is that right? Yes. So we understand that we are more excellent than the angels f we can follow Allah's guidance. The angels follow it without any thoughts, without any temptation. We follow it with temptation. We follow it without any inclination. We follow it in spite of inclination and we follow it because of inclination. So we have to war and fight and struggle with our inclination and we have to use good judgment and we submit all of that. After it has been given it to us, we submit it all back to G-d. You show G-d, I don't want to use this independent judgment if it is not what you want. You have given me this power, but I give it back to you. Now You tell me how to use it. Don't you think that's better than the angel who never got it to give it back?
Yes. So we must understand that Prophet Muhammad is the human being Messenger. And this is not saying that he's less than Jesus Christ. This is not saying that he's less than those who lived pure lives, ascetics, monks. This is saying he is more than they are because they have resigned themselves to a life away from the influences. They have taken themselves out of the challenge. They have taken themselves away from the temptations. They have cut themselves off from the field of human exploration and human cultivation, and they have become angels in their minds and their attitudes and in their spirit. So they're not in touch with the world. They don't feel what happens in the gutter. They don't feel what happens on skid row with those drinking wine and their history and the narcotics and the heroin and the reefers and the whores and all these things all around us. They're free from that. They escape that, they run off and leave all of that. And they claim a purity and they claim an excellence. But how excellent is the man who can live among the Jahiliya, live among the filth of the Jahiliya and then rise up and call them to strength and tell them, in all of my 40 years I have not fallen into your corruption. Yes, this is the human Messenger for human beings.
All Praises due to Allah, Highly glorified is He in the most early time of the day and at the most extreme time of the day. Some of us we can be all right when we're little children, but as we grow older we begin to be corrupt. When some of us come up corrupt as youngsters when we get old, we think of being serious and we start praising G-d. If you notice the seasons of the world go like that, we come into a season in our own nation, in our own country America, where the people are morally conscious and they're just like little babies. They're all so sweet and courteous. Don't you remember a time in America when people used to say "Good morning, how are you?" And when people used to say a bad word the reactions was always negative, usually followed by an admonishment. You remember that? And you remember how this society got older and began to get more and more corrupt, and now it doesn't remember G-d, it plays the thought of G-d lightly takes it for a joke, many of them. And corruption is just spreading and spreading and spreading and rising, drowning us in corruption. Well as the seasons pass over, they'll pass over one day, it's not going to stay this way. The season will pass over and this one will die and another one will come to birth and they will be exchanging courtesies. But that sign is already here. You find different people saying, may you have a good day, may you have a good day, have a good night. That just started recently didn't it? Yes, yes. Have a good day. So we see it's trying to come back. They died now they're trying to come back. Isn't it wonderful that Allah hasn't left us to the fate of seasons?
We are not left to the fate of the season. This world will be tested and it will be burdened and they will break down under the burden because they don't have a strong enough light, guidance in their life to save them. The Muslim never should die an immoral death in this world. "Die not unless you are Muslim." Why? Because we know how to die before the world says die. We know how to die before the season says it's time to die. Prophet Muhammad, he says, "Die so you'll not have to die." or die before you die.
Die before you die. Die before you die. What is the death that we die before we die? We die to the temptations. We die to the inclination to follow the world's leadership. We die to that. We die to the influences of materialism. We die to the influences of a flamboyant speaker of great orator skills. We die to the influences of man and society. And we live to the influences of Allah guidance. And when we live with influences of Allah's guidance, we don't have to die anymore. So when the seasons of death come, they shouldn't test the believer. The season shouldn't test the believer and he die. He should still be alive while others are dying. There's no season of immorality for Muslim. You should always have morality and strong morality. There's seasons of immorality for those who are victim of the circumstances and influences of the world. Yes. And where can find me a nation that survived the season?
America doesn't survive the season. In my own life I've seen several seasons come and go. Now imagine if we really held the whole history of America right before where we could see it. We would see many lives coming and going. Whole society coming to life in human sentiment and dying to human sentiment and falling in moral corruption just over and over again almost with the fashion industry. Fashion industry almost have complete manipulative power, dominance over our moral life. They change the fashion, our morals go out the window. They come back in advocating decency, and the decency come back to life. Don't you know If the morals of a people can be manipulated, if the morals or people can be manipulated, those who manipulate your morals master you. Those who manipulate your morals have complete control of your life. Those who manipulate your morals decide your future. You don't have any destiny within your own control if your life is decided by those who manipulate your morals.
Because once you are morally corrupt, you are rationally blind. There's no such thing as moral corruption and rational vision. When you are morally corrupt, you are rationally blind. You can follow the logic of Einstein, the logic of any great philosopher. But if you are morally corrupt, that logic is just a blind instrument. You can't use it, you can't follow the direction, you can't get the intelligence out of the use of that logic because your eyes are blind. So you think you are living a logical life when you are living an illogical life.
So we look at this society today. Do we see a logical life? We see a life of ignorance, we see a life of confusion, a life of conflicting values and conflicting moral principles and also rational principles. Rational principles don't agree, moral principles don't agree. The society is ignorant by any good judgment. By any good judgment the society is ignorant. But if we survive as Muslims and keep our hearts in faith, hearts in faith as it should be and that is in Qur'an, and follow the example of Prophet Muhammad. Why is it so necessary to follow him as an example? Because human beings are inclined to be arrogant. They're inclined to be self independent and trying to be important, self important And we have to follow a mortal human being who lived the life of respect and faithfulness to G-d and carried out his duty and discharged it even though it was against himself, even though it was against his near relative. He said if my daughter Fatima steals something, I'll cut her hand off.
Yes. Who didn't compromise, who didn't compromise his mission for nothing. He was a human being and yet he was so kind and sympathetic. He would share his little morsels of food with others who didn't have anything to eat. While his own stomach was hungry, he would share his little morsels of food. 
Prophet Muhammad, the example of what we should be, sleeping on his mat. He awakened and those who saw the prints of his mat in his back, the rough thing on the ground had put prints in his back because his bedding was so thin. So his wife I believe, she suggested that he have a more comfortable bedding. He could draw to him a more comfortable bedding. He refused it, he refused it. So he was offered the more comfortable things of this world. 
How did he put them off? He put them off by saying, I'm in this world only as a traveler, I stopped under the shade of a tree. This is not the end of my hope. If this is the end of my hope, then I want everything you can give me. But this is not the end of my hope. I hope to meet G-d. I hope to be in His presence. I hope to have the Jannah, I hope to have the afterlife. Yes, this is temporary and my duty in this is not to eat up this, my duty in this is to see that justice is done toward everybody, and if I have too much, what about the man over there? How can I lie down on this comfortable bed and so many of them are getting up with prints in their back. 
Now this time that we live is not that severe, but still we have to respect the example that Prophet Muhammad set. Today I came amongst you with nice shoes. I have some Stacy Adams. They were given to me by Brother Clyde Rahman, the Imam of Cleveland. And he told me he said, "I know you don't like expensive taste." I like expensive taste. I don't like too much, but I like moderate expensive taste.
I like quality. So he said, I know you don't like expensive taste. I didn't say nothing but I was saying to myself "You don't know." He said, but these shoes didn't cost that much Brother Imam. He said, I get these shoes wholesale. He said and this shoe is irregular. So I get them at a great discount. So I took the shoes, he gave me two pairs, a pair black ones and a pair brown ones. A young brother in Chicago who doesn't have a job, who struggles for the cause of Allah, but who's with a job and without a job. You know how some people, not because they're lazy but it's because they have their mind on something else and they won't devote themselves fully to the job. Now since he's not married he can be excused somewhat cause he has nobody but himself. So he was walking around in the wintertime with gym shoes. So I gave him the black pair and they fitted him. I was so happy to know that they fitted him. I gave him the black pair but I still got the brown pair. And I was wondering, I said Prophet Muhammad, when he was offered the better mat he refused. I was offered the better shoes and I accepted it.
Well Allah forgive me. And if anybody want those shoes, you give me yours, I'll give you those. They're out there, right out there. All Praise is due to Allah. Dear beloved Muslims. Society needs knowledge but almost just as important, they need a leader. Society need a leader who can carry that knowledge for human dignity, who can be trusted with that knowledge, a leader who can meet the demands of that knowledge on the human being.
And that's what Prophet Muhammad is to us. He is the example, he is the leader who brought the knowledge for the full challenge of life. The other Prophets, they got knowledge for part of the challenge of life. Prophet Muhammad received the knowledge for the full challenge of life. He was a soldier, he was a leader of government. He fought in the battles. He was a husband. He cleaned the house, he helped his wife at home. He helped raise his children. He was a father, he was a husband, he was a soldier, he was a great government leader. He was an economist. He was everything that a human being has to be in order to keep society going. He was a businessman even before he became the Messenger of G-d. He was a businessman conducting business, going about doing commerce. Yes, this is a full man, the full man who gives the message for the full life, not for his people, for all people, the Messenger for the people, all of them. That's what the Qur'an says, the Messenger for the people, all of them. The pygmies, the Watusi, the French, the Turks, the African, the Chinese, the Hispanic, the Japanese, the people of the Islands, everybody. He's the Messenger for them, all of them, all of them. Didn't leave out anybody, not a one. Dear beloved brothers and sisters, when we take on responsibility to be the Imam or to be an Islamic teacher or to be a Muslim period, we take on the burden of that Messenger, because we are to be examples for the people. Allah says in this Qur'an He has raised Prophet Muhammad as an example, a witness to you. Because you who are Muslims you witness to Prophet Muhammad. You don't expect the Christians to say Yes, I testify Prophet Muhammad such and such and such. Or the Jews or anybody else. it's the Muslim that will say i testify. But if you testify to the Prophethood, the mission of Prophet Muhammad for all the world, then we become then a witness against the people. Yes, because he was a mortal human being.
And if we mortals can take on this responsibility, if we can run our lives without cheating, if we can run our lives without corruption, if we can run our lives by being fair and honest and decent to everybody, then we are witnesses against all the people. But you also can do it. You're a human being just like we are. The attitude of the Western world, the Christian world is that you can only be so good as a human being, but being too good is unrealistic because you can't have a society without vices. That you can't have courts without double dealings or double standards of justice. That you can't have a society defending righteousness and defending high morals always. You have to turn the commercial people loose on the society. And when they turn the commercial people loose on the society, the commercial people exploit the ignorance and weaknesses of the people and sell their good life away.
Is that right? Bargain and buy and sell their good life away. So dear brothers and sisters, we have to be an example for all the people of the world. We're have to have just society. We don't have to be a nation to be an example. We are a people, we are a community within a nation. But as a community we show them that our community operates like Medina operated. No corruption in it. G-d says, "Do not mix in your charity anything gotten unlawfully." Yes, that's what G-d says in the Qur'an. This word is very big. Zakat is very big. Because Zakat covers all of your doings. The doings to your son, the gifts to your children, the gifts to your family, the gifts to the society. Whatever you give as knowledge, whatever you give as material value, whatever you give as moral value, it covers the whole thing.
So you are not to mix into that anything that is corrupt. So would you give something into charity that if it was exposed you would turn away from it yourself? You wouldn't want to own up to it. Yes. So this tells us that this religion obligate us to be morally upright in all of our doings. There's no such thing as a double standard. There's no such thing as doing wrong to achieve a good end. No, no such thing as doing wrong to achieve a good end because your gift is your charity, or either it's your corruption, it's your sin. And if your wrong doing is your charity, then you can't do anything to achieve a good end that is bad. G-d says "Do not put anything that is unclean in your charity." Now if this world would practice that, if this world practice that, don't you know there would be no injustice in this society.
And what G-d says again. He says that that special home, that special home the greatest of all possible life that G-d has promised to us if we make the right choices in this earth. He says He has promised that home to who? Those who desire neither corruption nor a dominance in the earth. Let me repeat that. Those who desire neither corruption nor a dominance in the earth. They do not desire any high place above other people. They do not desire a position of dominance. They do not desire a superiority. They do not desire a superiority or a position of dominance in the earth. And they do not desire any corruption. They do not desire any corruption. There are people who claim self-righteousness and they say they're going to build the kingdom of G-d on this earth. People like Governor Reagan. Is that him Governor or Senator or what is he? He's Governor. I think Governor Reagan, he's making great promises but how is he going to achieve these ends? He says that America must go back and remember her destiny.
If America goes back and remember her destiny and take the attitude that some of our Presidents have taken, they would throw this country into more confusion. They will hurt the future more than they have hurt it up till now. They'll be working against the clock. I remember a time in my own life as a boy, I heard one of our great Presidents say, he said, "We can police the world." I know when the Europeans came to America, the early Americans, they talked about the divine destiny of the American people and they saw America as a hope, as a place for the divine destiny to be realized. And we know what that divine destiny meant to the political, to the land grabbers to those who were standing and taking over territory and taking over life. We know what it meant to them. That divine destiny was the rule of America in the name of democracy over everybody else. Now I know some of you are shivering in your places and burning up some of you because we say we're going to attack something. How can a Muslim live on this earth without attacking everything that's wrong? I'm with President Carter, I don't know who you with.
Now dear beloved people, they conceived the destiny but that destiny was an arrogant idea. It was an arrogant idea. They conceived a thing that was arrogant and selfish. It didn't take into consideration the justice to their fellow man. And you had World War One, a war that was fought for what? Territory. A war fought for territory. Then came World War II, a war fought for what? A war fought for industrial dominance, industrial dominance. Japan had superseded America with it's industry and Hitler was threatening the world with his machinery, with his great planes and his great army and the great powers were vying with each other for industrial dominance. And what happened? They went to war, and it so happened that America came out in the lead. But that lead gradually began to be cut and cut and cut. And now today America does not have that industrial lead.
It's really now a matter of careful decision, a matter of careful calculation to decide who has the industrial lead. Because America has been hurt terribly but by what? By the hand of the clock. By the hand of the clock. And this is what we must understand, the fields of commercial exploitation, the fields for the people who traffic in nothing but merchandise and have no respect for human life, that's over. The man doesn't have a deed but the man says this land is mine. The resources under the soil is mine. You are going to have to deal with me if you want some of it. And the man say the prices you offered last decade will not be accepted today. The man realizes that he was taken advantage of. The man may be in Zimbabwe, the man may be in Sudan, the man may be in China or anywhere. The attitude in the air has changed. Because the clock is moving on, the hand on the clock says it's not that time anymore.
Now President Reagan or anybody else who tries to fool American people and make the American people think that Americans need to go back to that arrogant attitude so it forces can exercise it's will and judgment on the whole world and take their resources and smuggle them into here however they want to, and one little nation called America live fat and rich while other nations get and poorer and poorer, an entire stockpile of weapons won't work because people are ready to commit suicide before they give up their humanity. The people have got a taste of justice, they've got a little taste of it. They tasted justice, they tasted truth. They know what they need and what their life demand and they will stand and let a power, no matter how great it's arsenal is, they will not stand to let power take away all their wealth and their riches and leave them begging and suffering without the things that they need while their land have those things.
I'm thankful to Allah that we have a President now. And this is not politics, this is the Eid subject, which is the Eid Kutbah. This is what we have to see. I'm thankful that we have a President now who is willing and motivated to enjoin the masses of the people of the world for justice and respect for the human being, for the human person. And he says that it's unrealistic for America to say that it can just exercise its will and judgment on people without respecting the will of the people. That day is out but they want to build up that fervor for what? Just to satisfy the wealthy. Just to satisfy the rich. They know they can't carry it out but they don't mind. Those materialistic people who would come into power if we would let them. They don't mind destroying just millions of people. Because a million to them is a burden.
They don't see human life like we see it. If they don't have jobs for you, if they can't have a mule harness to put around your neck and put you to work when you bring money into them in the same way they say you useless. So now there's not a lot of jobs around so they say you useless. They may look at the masses of the world and regard them in the same way. They might say the masses of Africa are useless and they might go over there and drop bombs on them and just wipe them out and take their land. But it won't happen dear people. The clock has turned, that season is out. That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. In fact, it's not going to happen in America. They have trouble here in America like they've never seen before. When the American people demonstrated and condemned the Vietnam War that should have been a sign to our leaders that the people of earth have come to a point of human sensitivity wherein they will sacrifice their whole life on earth rather than lose their human life. Yes, America has to realize this. And I think we have people that realize that. And any of us who have been influenced by this political campaign and let the wind blow us against our intelligence in a direction toward Reagan or toward somebody else other than President Carter, you'll be making a terrible mistake. Dear beloved brother and sisters. now I know the world's situation. I know President Carter is not a man that is so respected in our eyes as American and he's not so respected in many eyes of the people of the world, but he's the only one that I hear speaking with what I hear as a recognition of the facts of the world politics today. He's the only one that shows a sensitivity to the time of today. And he's the only one that seems to be humanly sensitive enough to let the country suffer a little bit materially so we can have some kind of human justice.
Yes. Now those who want material things, I would like to see millions from Detroit go back to work, the many thousands that worked for the auto industry and for the steel industry. I'd like to see 'em go back to work. I know they having a hard time but I thank Allah that he has brought hard times to the Bilalian American. Because Bilalian Americans under hard times have a better opportunity to get involved together than they have under good times. Look how much money the dope pusher handles The dope pusher is handling thousands, hundreds of thousands but he never awakened to his moral responsibility. He continue on to corrupt and torture and make miserable the lives of his brothers and sisters. Is that right? Yes. So money is not awakening him to his moral responsibility. So I thank Allah. I'm not going to ask for poverty but if poverty come and I see that in the time of poverty, my moral life need attention, then I'm going to take some time out and do just that. Ok, I don't have a job demanding 16 hours of my time, I can't work two shifts. Well I'm going to take eight hours and work on my morals.
Yes, so I thank Allah for a better time. This is a time for America to get it's senses back together. Let us work for social justice. Dear beloved brothers and sisters the time running short and I have to hurry and wind this up. But I have to talk sometimes on the political issues because we have to know where we go as Muslims. 
Dear beloved brothers and sisters. There is the Iranian people and we have a crisis. Why? Because our government is in the difficulty with the Iran people. And because of this there's a lot of slander, there's a lot of falsehood, there's a lot of lies, a lot of propaganda. And we as Muslims shouldn't read the newspapers like non-Muslims.
The non-Muslim has been fed prejudice against the religion, prejudice against the Arabs for hundreds of years in America under the Western culture. The non Muslim have been prejudiced against the religion. So when he reads the newspaper and it says Imam Khomeini is a fanatic, he might buy that. But let me tell you something that I've experienced here recently. I find that there are more of many if not more, non Muslims that are willing to give Khomeini justice than they are so-called Muslim., So-called Muslims without knowledge, they have the impulse pr inclination to just say, "Oh he's a fanatic." Have you met him? Is he a fanatic for saying I want my religion back. Is he a fanatic for saying we don't want this wealth, this power over our back, we want social justice. Is he a tyrant for saying I want my women to dress in long clothes? If he's a tyrant I'm a tyrant because I asked the Muslim women here to wear long clothes, to cover themselves up, to go modest and decent, to follow the Qur'an. And I ask you to stay away from gambling, to stay away from drugs and to stay away from prostitute houses, to stay away from indecency.
So if he's a fanatic, then I'm a fanatic too. Then Karl Marx is a fanatic because Karl Marx says the Communist people cannot succeed with vice. They wiped out vice, they first had to establish some decency in society. I went to Communist China called Red China, and I found that the women there were all covered up. My whole time in Communist China, two weeks or more, I didn't see no thighs of no woman in Communist China. I saw no breast of any woman in Communist China. I didn't see drugs, I didn't see drunkards in Communist China. They came into power and the first thing they did was wipe out these vices. They got rid of all the dope pushers. The first thing they did was got rid of the dope. They got rid of liquor houses, they got rid of the prostitute dens. They called a war against vice. Now if it's insane for Khomeini to call a war against vices, then the Communist world is insane morally speaking.
You have to be rational. You have to be able to hear what the devil says. This world is filled with the language of the devil. This world speaks with the angels tongue but also with the devil's tongue and it'll make you change when something is right and just. Oh yes, we shouldn't tell the women, women should be free. They shouldn't tell the women they have to wear those long black gowns. You should teach our women intelligence if they don't have it. Look, the state of this society tells us that the women by Allah are not their own leaders. The women follow the man. And they don't follow me, they don't follow you. They follow the leadership Paris, the leadership in England. They follow the fashion setters who set the fashion.
Oh, it's costing us now to put all that cost into long dresses. Let's be reasonable. We have to shorten the dress, we can make more money. So the demand is there, they can make more money. And when the demand is not there and they got a lot of stock, they have to get rid of it. So they make the clothes longer, put more material, more yards, more yardage in the material. Because if they don't, they're going to go to waste anyway. They got overstock of these materials. So when the time come have an overstock and the demand is there, they say "Look, why put all this material in one long dress when you can get three out of it?"
So the fashions change. Your wife come out, last year she was wearing her dress down to her ankle. Or down to the calf. Some of them were wearing them down to the ankle. And now this year everything has changed. Woman going out there with what they call that little thing, a tutu. Nothing but a little fan on her hip, a little fan umbrella around her hip. You can see her under clothes. Now you know this a fact. Walking down the street and the dresses went up one time, dress was that short so you can walk behind a woman and you see her underclothes up under her dress. Dress just that short. Now who is more enslaved? The woman that follow the fashion, the dictates of the commercial life in America to that extent. Today she's in a long dress and decent like a mother, like a lady, and next year she's wearing something to make her look like a prostitute. Tell me who is more enslaved? Our woman in America that follows that or the woman in Iran that say, I want to do what G-d says. I want to cover myself up and go modest. I don't like this way, this fashion this dress that this American nut Muslim brought on us. That's what he was, nothing but an American nut. What I mean by that? He brought friendships with America at the cost of losing friendships with Muslims. So he was American nut.
The American people now abandoned him. He's in his grave now. May he rest in wrong for as long G-d wills. Do you think anybody respect you when you sell out your precious life to please them? No. Nobody will respect you. You want respect in America. Do you think any of you are more respected than me in America? The President know my life. I'm sure the CIA, the FBI, i'm sure they told him whatever he needed to know, he knows my life. What I tell you here I do it at home, I do it in secrecy. I don't commit adultery, I don't drink, I don't use narcotics. I don't break Islamic law.
The laws I break are very small laws. And when I break a very small law, it comes to my conscience, I plead to Allah for forgiveness. They watch me. I'm sure they got my phone bugged, I'm sure they got the house watched whenever they want to. And they know what's coming in my house. They know I'm a clean living man and I'm not bragging. But they respect me. Suppose I was one who sold my religion away. I wouldn't have no respect for these people, no. Brothers and sisters in this political world scene today, you have to be strong as a Muslim and if it means going against even political principles of this world go against those political principles. In my heart I believe that this Qur'an and the Constitution of the United States of America in its essence, in its true spirit, in its promise to the human being, I believe that Constitution is compatible with the Qur'an. So we could push forward for a society, a government that will give the common person what the Constitution promise the common person. That is equal rights with all other people, justice without corruption, without oppression, without double standards, double dealing . But since the Constitution is so limited and its knowledge on that valuable concept as valuable principles, we should help the American people and the Christian people, the American people by giving them Qur'anic knowledge, propagating this knowledge. When we talk what the dignity of man is or what my right is in the Constitution, we should back it up with Qur'anic verses so that the American people will get good knowledge and sound knowledge that will enable them to understand better the concept that the Jahcubites passed on to them. Yes, the Jews passed that concept onto the Gentile world as they're called.
The concept of man being born with great honor, born with great responsibility, born to be G-d's trustee on the earth, born to be responsible for his environment. Don't you know this is the idea of Western society? And when they say that the business of G-d, the business of G-d is the business of man, the ignorant don't understand what they're saying. We think they mean that they're assuming the office of G-d. The learned Americans don't mean that. The learned Americans only mean that G-d has charged the human mortal with responsibility for what's happening on this earth. And that's Al Islam. G-d says in Qur'an, that He has charged us to be responsible for our lives, our personal lives, our family, our society, and even the world at large. Is that right? Yes. Says He have made us Kalifah and He has subjugated or reduced everything in the sky and on earth for our human service. Is that right? He's made it all available to us an abundance of material goods, everything has been made available to us for the benefit of human society, but we are to explore and cultivate the world with this knowledge- That the earth belongs to Allah and everything therein including ourselves. And the skies belongs to Allah. Everything belongs to Allah. None of us are possessors of anything.
Is that right? Yes. Well, don't you know you have to search, to analyze, to search out Western philosophy as it is interpreted out of the Constitution and out of the language of the great Western scholars and philosophers and interpret Western philosophy of life as it was once was conceived by the builders of Western society, and give them, the support from the Qur'an and the knowledge, enlightenment from the Qur'an. What would happen? If they don't buy it we would become the leaders, because they cannot expound upon the concept that they hold precious as we can expound on those concepts, which is this Qur'an. Brothers and sisters. I hope you see the point. The point that I'm trying to make here is that the Eid, the Eidul Fitrah, it should be a time of the reawakening of our human conscience. We are not just following moral dictates during Ramadan for nothing. The objective is to make us more fit to carry out our responsibility as human, responsible human beings in society. To make us more fit as promoters of social justice, moral excellence and social justice. And we should understand dear brothers and sisters that the Eidul Fitrah, Fitrah as you know it means originating, bringing something in, bringing something into existence for the first time, something has been brought in for the first time. What has been created for the first time? You, a human being. His original nature. They were created for the first time by Allah.
But corruption and confusion and the evil, the society, the ignorance blind us to that original nature. And then G-d takes the man who is excellent in his form and is not weak or succumb, does not succumb to the influences of the world. And He gives him the revelation of Qur'an, and that man now he comes to us as the Messenger and Qur'an says that G-d revealed to us the light, the Qur'an, bringing down with him. Him, the Prophet Muhammad, the light. The light, the revelation and the Prophet is seen coming down to us. Which tells us that not only is the revelation heavenly above us, the Prophet himself is heavenly above us. He's excellent too. And not only is the literal language of revelation light for our feet, but the Prophet himself is light for our feet. Yes, the Prophet himself is light for our feet. So we should understand that this is a celebration, a recurring celebration that comes because people keep faith and keep obedience for G-d and the revelation called Qur'an. A reoccurring celebration celebrating what? The original nature, the original nature.
So we are happy that Allah saved our original nature, He saved the original contents of me. He turned the light on and told Prophet Muhammad to tell the people that I'm a mortal Messenger like you and restored the concept of human dignity, establishes clearly the concept of human dignity. And says to us that the human science is alive. Where does the human science come from? It comes from the design that Allah established originally in your human nature or your human makeup. It's the design that Allah has established in it's human makeup, that prevailing design that ties all together as one humanity. If one studies that, what do we get out of studying that design out of that original nature? He will get the human sciences, won't he? Yes, disciplining ourselves, humanly, morally, spiritually in the month of Ramadan. Doesn't it make us more attuned to our inner needs?
It makes us more attuned to our inner needs. Then the Qur'an comes as as a light and it give us the guidance. Is this guidance separated, separated from our human design? No, this guidance compliments, this guidance completes. This guidance is perfectly compatible with that human design that G-d established. Then if it's compatible, then the guidance must be in the human being. Is that true? If it's compatible, then the guidance is in the human being. So if G-d guide me to know myself, if G-d guide me to know my creation, if G-d guide me to know my evolution as a social, political intelligent being, then I'll have the knowledge that we call human science. And what knowledge is more precious for human society than human science? No knowledge is more precious for human society than human science. You don't know it many of you, but this book is the supreme human science.
The supreme human science. But after we get the human science we discover that in this knowing is an obligation. Because in studying my human makeup with the guidance of G-d, it tells me that I have been made in the most excellent mold, I have been made with the greatest responsibility. Therefore I can't be satisfied to see the world growing up in weeds, I have to go out and cultivate the world. So you see, the first knowledge is the human knowledge and the human knowledge shows man his human responsibility. How can you know your responsibility in society before knowing yourself? Huh? We did not know it. So the human sciences come to teach us our nature and also our role in the society.
So we're celebrating an Eid today, right? An Eid today. And we're having a very good time. And we declare the praise of G-d enthusiastically. Yes dear brothers and sisters. Because we're not following this religion in the dark. We're not following this religion significantly bowing down to angels. we're following this religion as a dignified Kalifah, one that G-d has said is in the excellent mold, the most excellent mold. One that G-d has said, "Go on, the stars will submit to your service, sunlight for energy in the air, the trees, the wood, all the minerals under the earth, the fish, everything will submit to your service because I've made you Kalifah, responsible creature over all things."
So this Eid brother, the celebration of the knowledge that G-d has given to me of my own worth as a human being. And I couldn't have got this unless one paid the price. Paid the price by submitting to the best of his nature, obeying G-d in the best of his nature. Oh yes, and set an example for the rest of us. And in telling us with the words of G-d, you have the same nature. I'm a mortal Messenger like you. The possibilities for me are open to you. Yes. That's what that's saying. Don't think that G-d has sent you a super natural, a beyond the Twilight Zone Prophet. G-d has sent you a man like you. So I do this, I do this. I can do this in my material makeup. And it's the same in your human makeup. You have the same potential. So dear beloved brother and sisters, what a great this is to know that we are excellent in our makeup and that color means nothing. This excellence is not in the scheme of color. This excellence is my social evolution. This excellence is in my implicit design. There's an implicit inherent design in me. And when I study it, it says that you are President Carter if you want to be, it says that you're Einstein if you want to be. It says that the same substance, the same potential excellence that have been given to you that was given to everybody else. That whatever was given to anybody else have been given to you. I didn’t given it out in terms of color. Color is just a seasonal thing.
Rise up and shoulder your responsibility. Your responsibility to self and to society. Shoulder that responsibility and know that the day you put down the book of virtue, the book of divine guidance, your growth stops. Your great dignity is being subject to the corroding forces of this society. And it's just a matter of time that you'll be the most despicable of all cases if you don't turn back and follow the guidance of G-d. Dear beloved brothers and sisters, we know that Allah created and He established human nature and He gave us our nature. He fixed it. He outlined for us what life should be. He gave us a mold, a mold of behavior. And we know that as long as we are not following leadership that is not concerned about our wellbeing, we can go on and progress and society grows and become healthy and strong, and the society that is called primitive today, if we study it, we find that one day in its history and its past, it had some of the excellent things that this world brags about.
G-d has not left any society without this potential. Every society had the same potential. And maybe you don't see the traces of it now, but once upon a time on its land, it had industry, it had science, it had these things. Every people have come to these things. One day if we continue down this path of moral blindness, of cultural blindness, political blindness. If we continue down this path and this land is abandoned and neglected by the rest of the world, don't you know this land can grow up in the weeds. And don't you know that people can do what the Ivy Leaguers tried to do about 20 years ago. They will go out in the woods and take wild boars and eat cats, eat alley cats.
That's in our present history. Happened only about 15 years ago, wasn't it? About 15 years ago. The pride of the Americans elite. The young Ivy Leaguers of the white man society had start going out in the wilderness, gave up on civilization, wearing dungarees and saying they're going to live off of wild crops and wild berries and wild oats. Yes. Don't you know if enough of us do that, and it can happen because the tempo is already set. And if enough of us do that, don't you know in a few centuries, these great structures will be nothing. They'll look just like dirt heaps.
Yes, I'm a man who works with metals. I worked for US Steel in Chicago. One of the steel mills I worked for as a welder. That company, I don't know how long it's been there, but it hasn't been there for a century I don't think. We found big slabs of steel. When we picked them up they just crumbled. Nothing but dust, nothing but dust. Don't you know if these structures are neglected in a few centuries, all of this will be gone. You know the granite of the pyramids will last longer than the glass and the steel of these skyscrapers.
I'm speaking to you as a scientist. The granite of the pyramids outlast the steel, the iron, the glass, and all of this stuff. It will not last as long as the granite of the pyramids. And if we abandon this, it'll all be gone. And in enough centuries and enough millenniums, there'll be no sign of civilization in any of them. And when people discover these ruins, they will say these people have never had culture, have never had industry. Dear beloved people understand this, understand this. But while understanding this, also understand that G-d is a G-d that says you all were created from Adam. And Adam was made from dust.
But we're not to look in our past for any great time of cultural enlightenment, of science, of industry. We are to look back in the past and be faithful to G-d because we know if we keep thinking back, we'll go past the time of those accomplishments, and we will go back to when we were searching around trying to discover the world when you were nothing. We had no knowledge, had no industry, had no science. We had no nothing. Yes. So all people can trace their origin back to dust. So who can brag then? If the white man was once dust, if I was once dust, the Japanese was once dust, who can brag then? If anyone has come from dust to industry, the same possibility is open to me because we all are created from dust. All praises due to Allah.
Dear Muslim, we thank Allah for the blessing of religion, blessing of faith. For the guidance and the Qur'an, which is a mercy and the best of guidance, the best of knowledge, the best science for all the world. We have the most precious knowledge that ever could be given to a human being. Knowledge that will give food and growth for our whole life. We should never think that the books written by philosophers and scientists of this world were superior to this book the Qur'an. This book the Qur'an came to Prophet Muhammad about 1400 years ago and as a result, morals were awakened, just Government was established. Just distribution of wealth was established. The cries of the poor were heard and answered. All the slaves walked in dignity with the highest man in the land.
Slaves led the nobles of the Arabs, their noble chiefs, their dignified chiefs, slaves led them in war, slaves led them in prayer. Yes. And Prophet Muhammad said in his farewell address, "There is no superiority of white over blacks, black over whites, Arab over Non-Arab, Non Arab over Arab. The only superiority is obedience to G-d. Can you give me better words? Can you give me more practical words? Can you give more excellent philosophy from Marx? Tell me. I read their books, I didn't find it. Did dam Smith, any of the American Western Philosophers? Have they said the same? If they did I haven't heard it. I haven't heard it. And If they said it and didn't say it in the Name of G-d, it doesn't have the same power.
If a man will say these same things in the name of a man, that effect will not be the same on society. If it's said in the Name of G-d who created me as He did everybody else, then I have an equal access to that G-d, I have equal recognition of that G-d. And if G-d said it, then it's the same for all of us. But if you said it and you Italian, it make me look up to Italian. G-d said it, everybody on the same footing. Dear beloved Muslims, let us not forget the Iranian revolution is a Muslim revolution. And we hope that this country will come to the point where it will do justice to the Iranian revolution and respect that as a healthy, good progressive thing. And we hope that American leadership will tell the whole world that what we have there is really moral courage, moral courage a great display of moral courage. And that's what America needs because America has allowed it's moral muscles to go limp, like a jellyfish.
We hope that America will contribute to the Iranian revolution one day soon. And that's the spirit we should be going in. And we hope that Afghanistan will continue to get the Americans support and we hope that it'll get even more support. We hope that it'll get more support. And before you hear about it elsewhere, I signed a check last week to the Afghanistan Relief Fund for $1,000 and if I had more, I would've given it. Yes, they're courageous people. They're fighting what? Supposed to be the enemy of America, supposed to be fighting the enemy of the free world. And some of you afraid to say you love your Afghanistan brother. We gonna get this Uncle Tomism out of you so called Muslims if it take us the rest of our life. We gonna burn the slave plantation ghost out of your system. And we are going to make you an American man. Allah, Dear beloved Muslims we pray the Peace and blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad. Upon his descendants, upon the righteous servants, all of them, upon the Muslims in America and throughout the world. We pray Allah that He aid the Islamic revival, aid the oppressed people of the Muslim society so that they'll be strong enough to carry the banner of Al Islam, which is freedom, justice, equality and truth. We prayed that He blesse the Muslim communities all over the world with the strongest and the best leaders, and blessed them with an Islamic victory all over the Islamic world. So we pray that that He give this community more assistance, more aid from Himself. Because if He does not help us we are finished. Dear beloved Muslims, let us not be ashamed to say we are American people, but let us also be brave and courageous to say that I am Muslim before I'm American. When Allah made me Muslim there was no America. He made first the Muslim, then He made nations. So I don't give myself to any political flag before I give myself to Allah. And it's my duty as an American to advance the justice on this earth for human beings. And if I do that as a Muslim, then I believe one day America will say thank G-d for making Muslims on our soil. I believe America will say one day we want a Muslim for President, it's fine that we have a Muslim for President. That will come Inshallah. Because America's Constitution, in my opinion, doesn't say that a Christian has to be President. It doesn't say a Jew has to be President. I have equal rights as a Muslim to be President!
Now if there are any announcements, we now will come forward and take care of those announcements and we hope to have some dinner pretty soon. Yes sir. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And I promise you to eat. I'm going to eat like a Muslim who have just come through the Month of Fast.


