01/15/1989
IWDM Study Library
Ta’aleem Oakland CA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
As-salaam Alaykum.
Audience: Alaykum salam.
Al-?amdu li-ll?hi rabbi l-??lam?n, praise be to Allah the lord of all the worlds. Nash hadu anla ilaha illa Allah, wa nash hadu anna Muhammadan abduhu wa Rasuluhu. We bear witness there is but one G-d, but Allah. And Muhammad is His servant and messenger. We pray that peace and the blessings be on the prophet and upon his descendants and his companion the righteous all. Sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam, wa 'ala aalihi wa Sahbihi ajmaeen. Amma ba’d.
We're pleased very much to be here in Oakland today after the evening of elegance which is very successful again, more rewarding each time that I have attended. We are sorry for the difficulty that was caused by the persons who were responsible for the opening of the public school. And for whatever other inconvenience that has occurred. We're sorry for that, but we're happy with our situation here to have this meeting inside the mosque, the Masjid facility.
My talk today will be on the condition of our spirit as an identifiable Muslim group. Mainly, what I have observed over the recent years. It will be in the form, mostly, I would say in the form of just comments. Many times, we feel in our hearts what we should do, what we want to do, and what we should do. But we are kind of feeling in the dark. And we go on and we're not aware ourselves of our situation. We get so eager, so anxious to do what we feel is right and urgent.
But if we're sincere in what we're doing, the burden of having to feel our way will at one time or another register on us, come into our conscious mind. And we realize that the situation is not what we would like and we want to change the situation so we can be more direct in going after what we want. And so, we will be clearer in going after what we want.
I've experienced that in my lifetime as a spokesman, a speaker, for the religion and for Muslim concern and for our concern. I've experienced that. And I look back now 8, 10 years behind me and I can see myself feeling that urgency, that desperation to make headway, to accomplish something, to hit the mark. But was in a situation that wouldn't enable me to see clearly or to go as directly as I wanted to go after the things that I wanted to go after. Feeling in the dark so to speak.
Not to say that I was totally in the dark, no. There was much light for me. I knew the religion. I know it better now, but I knew it then too. I knew the religion and I knew the important matters in the religion. But there was a spirit in me to accomplish something and to be skillful at accomplishing that. And for that particular task, I was not in a good situation.
And the problem for me was the habit of what you call going in the same direction, the habit of past experience, the force of past experience, the momentum of the old. That was the problem, going with the force. The force was to show people community, preach community, identify with community, work for the strengthening of community, for the progress of community. It’s nothing wrong with that if it's in the proper place. But if you make that your first object and your main focus, you’ll stay in the situation I was in.
And I’m sure there are many who are still in that situation that I was in. Although for several years now, I've been pointing to that as a mistake, that we made a mistake in lifting up community and focusing on community and working directly for community betterment. The focus should have been the human person. That should have been the focus, the human person. And we should have made our investments directly into the human person and the result is success for the community.
Now, we know that people can get big vision of collective life that they want, and they can come up with an idea for collective life, and can work for it directly and experience great results. I can't cover this in this short time that we have. Certain things I just make statements and go on to something else. I'm convinced that in the long run, all of those efforts fail. They don't survive, they die.
But the efforts to gain a collective life upon the building of the individual, gain a collective life upon the building of the individual, the structure of the individual, it succeeds. It succeeds. It stays. Every nation that have had that idea are still around. They're still around. And they will be around until they lose that idea. If they ever lose that, something can happen maybe so dramatic for them that it might take them off that course and shatter their thoughts and their ideas and scatter their minds. And maybe when they regroup, it'll be too late. Maybe they won't find the place where they were. And maybe they'll lose it. As long as they have that, they will have community life, they will have national life. That's the answer.
Now, I can draw many references in support of this I believe. If we just look to the collective efforts of people in business and study those business organizations that give a whole lot of attention to equipping the individual in the organization, over the priority of improving or working directly for the improvement of the organization. They concentrate directly on the individuals in the organization rather than directly on the organization itself. You study it, and you will find that those who are making the greater success are those who are making their investments directly into the individuals that make up the company or the organization. The result is the company or organization thrives, grows bigger and better all the time.
This is nothing new. This is old. This is nothing new. This is what made the West great. More importantly for us, this is what made the early followers of our prophet so great. They were obligated to be a community, obligated to be a nation, but how much have we in our tools, resources, in our tools for building a nation? But we have great resources and great amount of tools for building the lives of individuals.
The Quran, is mostly for building the life of individuals. The traditions of our prophet, his teachings, his precious words that he left with us, peace be on him, those are tools mostly for treating the life, working on the life of the individual. We can't pick up this book and say, "Here is the blueprint for building a nation." It's not there. Here is the blueprint for building a human being. Here is the blueprint for building a human being. But not a fragmented human being, this is the blueprint for building a total human being. And if you build the total human being, you are going to address all of the essential, all of the important concerns of life: morality, work, establishment, business, government. You have to address all of that because the natural requirements in a human being are demanding that you address all of that if you respect the total human being, the total person.
That's what saved me from the dark. That's what saved me from feeling in the dark. Now I feel that I'm on solid ground. I feel that I see very clearly. I feel very sure of what I'm doing. I have no doubt whatsoever, no doubt whatsoever. I'm perfectly convinced that we are on solid ground and we can't help but achieve success.
But that's not something that you can just pass on, "Hey, hey brother, I've got this here. Take it. You take it. You've got it now." No, it can't happen like that. Something has to happen within you as it happened within me. You have to realize too that you're feeling in the dark. And then have the courage and strength to question your position, no matter how much you love it. Have the courage and strength to question your position, question your attitude, question your stand. You have a stand; you have a stand if you take it.
Question your attachment. You're attached to certain ideas; you're attached to certain concerns. Question your attachment and question them as an individual not connected with them. Like it’s not yours. "This is not my concern, this is not my position, now I'm going to question it." See, everything that we question that we say is mine prejudiced our position to feel with it. You see?
I've always said, "I don't have anything." There is nothing I hesitate to question, to pick a part because I don't have anything. Nothing is mine. I came into this world; I didn't have anything. This body came from my mother and my father. I didn't have anything. So, everything I've got came from somewhere else. If I got an idea it came to me too after I got in the world, I didn't invent it. It ain't my product, so I question it. The only thing that's mine is the attitude I have toward it.
So, I'm just going to deal with attitude. I can deal with that attitude; I can manage my attitude if I can just break this belief that this is mine. I've seen parents defending a bad, no good child. They didn't know the reason why they couldn't deal with the situation fairly was because they were all caught up in possession; "My child. That's my boy, don't you lay a hand on him, don't you say a thing to him. That's my boy."
In certain times, you have to separate away from that attachment, say, "For right now that ain't my boy. That's just a boy. Now, tell me what happened here." Then you'd be able to see better, right? Yes, you'll be able to think better and be able to come to a better conclusion, better judgement. You have to detach yourself, that's all I'm saying. Not that you give up possession, but you detach yourself. You detach yourself where you're not affected by ownership, "This is mine."
Some of us, we had this idea from 1940; “mine”. Nobody can give you a better idea. “This is mine”. You got it in 1940. And it hasn't produced anything for you, you look right today like you did in 1940. "This is mine, I'll never give it up. I got this in 1940. And I knew then that this was it."
For me, I'm always willing to accept change. If the truth or the situation dictates change, I'm ready to accept change. That's what I've done over the years of my life. I've changed when I felt that it was right and best to change. I've changed. So, I changed that attachment to the community idea because I realized that the best way to achieve community goals is by investing in the individual. You must invest in the individual.
Because of that change in me and my addressing the community through the individual interest, I have observed over these recent years, now three to four years or more, I have observed beautiful change in the people, change that we all are very happy with. When I say 'we all', I mean people in my immediate association. We are very happy with these changes. We see more peace in the people, and that tells us that they're more comfortable with themselves. That tells us that they are having a better outlook on things.
You can't have a good outlook, if you are not peaceful, if you're not at peace. If you are yourself not at peace, you can't have a good outlook. If you're not at peace, you can't expect a good tomorrow. You have to first become at peace with yourself. You have to feel good about your own self, about your own state. Then you can feel good about tomorrow. A lot of people go to bed with a frown on their face. They go sleep like this, and they sleep ugly. You're scared to wake them up.
Because they feel bad about themselves, they are not at peace, they don't have peace within. And I do believe that the change in the way I give this propagation, do the propagation, has brought about a condition for all of us coming into a better sense of self and a better state of self. The result is just a better atmosphere for everybody. And in such atmosphere, there is profit, progress. Yes. You'll be surprised how much progress our association is making. Great progress.
By me being the leader, I perhaps get more information than anybody else on the success of individual Muslims in our association. It's growing and growing; it's constantly progressing. New businesses, new achievements in all kinds of fields, job promotions, new jobs, new ventures in business, expansions of business. We have people in our association that are not only moving up in our circle, but they're moving up in the outer community circle. They are being recognized and awarded in the eyes of the community by the eyes of our community and in the eyes of the outer community. Yes, and this is happening regularly. Great progress is coming.
It's not something that is general or something that you can say is happening all throughout the African-American community. No, it's not. It's happening in our community. It's not happening that much outside of our community in the African-Americans outside. It's not happening that much.
Believe me, they are noticing that. The outside African-American community of non-Muslims African Americans, they are noticing our progress. They are registering our progress, and they are very nervous. Few of them are happy, because they don't have no problem inside their own temples, you see. They don't have no problems. They're happy with themselves so it doesn't bother them to see Muslims or anybody else going up and making headway or progress. It doesn't bother them, but they are a very small percentage. That’s a very, very small percentage.
The great majority of the non-Muslims African-American or black, the great majority of them, they are worried to death that the Muslims are going to go and take the lead and going to become the focus for what is going on in the way of progress for the African-American people. They're worried. They're terrified. They meet with us, and I see them shaking and they pretend that they're happy with us, but I see fear and they’re trembling almost. “I hope you’ll aren’t coming up with nothing new”.
And they want to hear you say you have a bad time. So, when I know somebody's got something like that on their mind, I'm a little tricky myself sometimes. When I know what his state is, I know he's in that fix and he got that kind of mind, I don't give him nothing but bad news, to keep him just satisfied. I want to rest him. I want to put him to rest. I want him to sit down so we can go get that much more. So, I tell him something to make him sit down. "You all having that kind of trouble? Yes.” He sits down.
Don't you underestimate what's going on here. Don't underestimate what's going on here. This is the life. This is the life. If you love this book, the Quran, this is the life. The more you become acquainted with it, the closer you get to it, the more your life is going to improve. It ain't no other way but that. Now, if you're sincere and you love this Quran, the revealed Book of Allah the last one. If you love this, and the closer you get to it, believe me, the better your life is going to get. Ain't no way but up or forward. You're not going to fail. You're going to be successful.
And if you love the Prophet Muhammad, now you can love the Quran, but if you don't love Prophet Muhammad, you're going to be a failure. You're going to be a failure. I don't care how much you love the Quran. If you don't love Prophet Muhammad the one that his book was reveal to, you want to be a failure. No way Allah is going to bless you with this book and you don't love the one he revealed it to. No way.
The first followers of the Prophet, they love the Prophet so much. They're those on earth that still love him like that, but I'm pointing to them because they're the model for us. They loved him so much. Allah told them what? "You have to love the Prophet more than you love your own family member." Now, somebody in the sentimental pool of American life, "Well, I ain’t going to love nobody more than I love my own relatives."
That's not the reality. That's not the truth that we have such attachment to our relatives, that we can’t stand to hear somebody say that you should love a certain benefactor more than you love your relative. No. We're just reacting, that's not the reality. Because we shoot up our relatives. We don't give our relatives any of our money. We put them out of doors, cuss them out and talk about them like they a dog. Call the police on them and hope the police shoot him or bust their head with a club. So, that's not the reality, we're just liars.
But when it comes to somebody that doesn’t looks like you, you got the picture of Prophet Muhammad in your mind. And you don't see an African-American and you're so black, you're just crazy black, so you don't see an African-American, “that's a foreigner”. But an Albino can be born into a black family, whiter than Prophet Muhammad, eyes lighter than Prophet Muhammad and that ain't no foreigner. “That ain’t no foreigner”. Why? “Because he came from my family, that's us”. Well, man is but one family. Whatever comes into the family, that's us.
And the closest one to you in true relationship is the one that's best for you as a human person. Yes. Now, we have obligation to blood relatives. We know that. And Allah charge us to recognize our obligation to our blood relatives. That's a big thing in our religion. But we're not supposed to have this racist recognition where you start thinking about color and excluding certain ones because they're not in the color. That's racist recognition.
Allah wants us to recognize the closeness to our family members, not based on their color, but based on the responsibility because they're born in the same household. They're from the same father and mother. They needed support from the same father and mother, from the same parents. Those who were in the household had to share the support that came to them from whoever the parents were, whoever provided for them. They have a common life. This is what Allah wants us to recognize, that immediate common life that we share with each other. Not the color.
That’s nothing but common sense, but that's what's missing most in this society. Common sense. We have to get out of these sensitivities that we are in. Everything, but not rational hardly about anything. There has to be a balance. You can't become so sentimental that you lose your rational balance that you judge wrongly, that you take false positions, that you become guilty of abusing the truth and mistreating worthy people. No, we can't do that. We have to work on that. To get all that bad water out of us so that we'll be better people.
The best way to do it is to address the human state. Not the black state of man, not the white state of man, not the yellow state of man, or the Asian state of man, but the human state of man. That's the answer. Let us keep focusing on the human state of man, addressing the human state of man, constructing our life in accordance to the best that Allah made for the human state of man. And in doing that, oh, it's so easy. The operation is painless.
But when we're talking about our colors and, "What are we going to do about the black? How is that going to help? Isn't he a white man? Didn't he come from over there in Arabia? Isn't that a white man?" And the same black man would say in the church, "Wash me white as snow."
He's thinking when he gets to heaven, he's going to be white as snow and won't accept a white man down here on earth. Ridiculous. That's what I'm saying, that's foolishness. If you're trying to figure out what I'm saying. I’ll answer you, so you don’t have to worry. It’s nothing but foolishness.
The Quran, as I said, this is material to build up people as individuals. Build up individual people, build up great men, great women, great boys, great girls, with this. Then as one Imam said, he said, "A good manufacturer of a product, he won't only give you the product but he'll give you also a manual." So, we may say Prophet Muhammad is a product. Allah's product. That's His choice product that He want us to follow. That should be our role model. The number one role model for all Muslims, Prophet Muhammad. But He didn't leave us just with a product, He gave us a manual.
He wants all of us to be that product. As much as we can, as best we can, be the Muslim that Prophet Muhammad was or is. Allah said, "Do not speak of my messengers as dead, for they are alive and you know not." So, we know he passed from this earth, but at the same time, he is. We have the Quran, the manual for enabling us to operate our life in the same way he operated his. For being as successful with our life as he was with his.
And then we have the product itself that we can look at as proof. What was the proof of that book, that that book actually has a real product? The Muhammad himself. We have his living history, his tradition, his life. He preached these words. He taught these words. He advanced these principles. He lived and died advancing these principles. Gave his whole life for the advancement of these principles. The teachings and these principles. And when we look at him, we see the product of the word of Allah. You see the product of the Quran, living and expressing itself and operating in a very marvelous way as a human being on the most excellent plane.
If we can just come to some very simple conclusion, and that is that, we have no need to look further for guidance. The guidance is here. The guidance is sufficient as it has been given by Allah for all time in the form of this Quran. So, we need to come to some clear conclusion that we don't have to be looking for any guide. Some of us are still stupid enough to be still looking for a religion and call ourselves Muslims. Wake up in the middle night, "Wake up, honey. Allah told me something last night." "Honey, you know that Quran it ain’t the last? Honey, there's another book. I'm going to write it next year, I think. Prophet universe”. All of us don't go to that extreme, but a lot of us are touched with a bit of that. “I could feel a little bit more comfortable with Imam Mohammed if he just wouldn't say that Prophet Muhammad is the last. I can't accept it. Allah can continue to make prophets forever. He is not through making prophets”. I don't see him making more moons and suns for us. He might be still making some out there in the space where nobody got in, but He made one for us. I don't see Him making another one. Saying, ‘I got to make another one. We need two”.
I see He did something out here in the universe and said, "That's enough." How come He can't do something in our world of ideas and say that's enough? See, we don't know. Our reasoning is faulty. Our reasoning is faulty. We think we are saying something great of Allah when we say, “He can keep doing it”. But we are saying something greater of Allah when we say, “He can do it and don't have to do it again”. Because it's us with our limitation, we have to keep doing it.
There are some of you brothers, you are almost 90 years old, you still are trying to have a son.
Or you believe that you can have a better one than all the others you got. You got all those boys and still want another son. "I ain't satisfied yet, I'm getting the boy I want yet." That's because of your limitations. Allah can say, "Well, this is the one I want, I'm finished. This one here is good enough for all time." Yes, a book good enough for all time. A prophet good enough for all time.
Now, if he's not your color, you have the problem, not G-d, not the Quran, not Muhammad. You got the problem. "He ain't my color, how come he can't be my color?" Your color won't solve your problems. I didn't mean it that way.
But your color ain't going to solve your problems. Why? Because that problem that you got is going to be in another people that's not your color, and they are going to say of your prophet, "He ain't my color." That disease you got is a common one for people that can't see straight. When you get the prophet of your choice, other people are going to say, "No," like you. Other people like you in another race, they're going to say the same thing you were saying, so we'll never come to no agreement at all.
If we all stop looking at color and start looking at content. As Dr. King said that he hoped that a day would come when a man will be judged by his content and not by the color of his skin. Dr. King is my witness on the platform today, that we should accept Prophet Muhammad on the basis of his content and not the color of his face.
Why? Because in our real worth we are not people of skin color, we are people of soul color, spirit color, mind color. The real color is the internal color, not the external color. How is your mind colored? That's your real color. Prophet Muhammad's mind was colored perfect human. That's my man, that's my relative, that's my closest relative. Yes, I don't have a closer relative than that. The perfect human is my closest relative because I want to be the perfect human. I want to think of myself as a perfect human, not as a perfect snake, not as a perfect dog. A perfect human.
So, the human being in the family of man, I don't care what color he is, that comes closest to being the perfect human or to satisfy my needs, to meet and greet and embrace the perfect human, that's my closest relative. And that's why Allah says, “you must love him more than you love your own children, your own brothers and sisters and your family”. You must love him better because he comes closer to being a perfect human. He is a perfect human, and your people are not in your household. They are not in your household.
The people in your household are not perfect humans. They haven't achieved the model of human excellence that Prophet Muhammad achieved. They weren't successful in holding together intact their excellent humanity even without revelation from G-d. Prophet Muhammad was before the revelation came to him. In the face of all kind of human confusion, community confusion, cultural confusion, ignorance, savagery, blindness in the mind, immoral conduct, heathenism. In the face of all of that, he kept his humanity intact.
And Allah says, “that he had lived a whole life among you”. Meaning, before he got revelation, he lived a whole life among you. And they were the witnesses that his life was spotless.
They called him the trustworthy one, Al-Amin, the trustworthy one. They trusted him with their possessions, he was like a bank for them. They would leave to go on a trip out of town or out of the precincts, they would trust him with their possessions just like he was a bank. He was so trustworthy; he was like a bank. They would leave their possessions with him.
When they were trying to decide and argument, who would place the stone into its place when they were putting the building back up the Kaaba after the flood. They were trying to decide who should be given the honor of placing the actual stone into its place in the corner of the Kaaba.
They observed Prophet Muhammad was coming in the distance. They said, "Here comes Al-Amin, let him solve this for us." Prophet Muhammad came and he told them, "Each please take a corner of the cloth." Then he took the stone and put it in the cloth and each of the four of them, they carried the stone in the cloth. He solved the problem. He gave all of them equal dignity, equal honor in carrying the stone.
But who actually got the highest honor? It was the prophet himself because he had to solve the problem then take the stone with his own hands and put it in there. They were holding the cloth, he picked up the stone and put the stone in the cloth and they took it to the place. Then he took it out of the cloth and put it into its proper place in the House.
So, you see, our foolishness holds us back. Our foolishness holds us back. Racism is foolishness. If I as a doctor of the mind, a psychiatrist or psychologist would diagnose the western ill in his psyche, I would diagnose that ill as racism. What is responsible for the decline of the western man's psyche? There a lot of reasons I can give, but the one that would come home to the point would be racism.
He believed that he was special as a race. He believed that his color was more approved by G-d than any other color. He thought of himself as the divinely chosen people. He thought of himself as being in the G-d family. Time and progress made that a lie and convinced most of them that it is a lie. And their psyche, having fed for generations on that lie, was too weak under the nourishment of racism, was too weak to survive and thrive in the new world of reality.
So, they lost spirit to lead the world anymore. They lost spirit to be aggressive and to go out in the front, no more the superman. Can't be superman anymore. Why? "Because I am disappointed to my heart, I'm just like every other man. That's too much of a disappointment for me. I have no spirit to go forward anymore. Oh, let the Asians come in and take over. We don't care, we got a new thing. We are James Brown and Jimi Hendrix; we got a new thing. We're in the old nigga groove now, we want to have a party. Let the Asians and the newcomers have industry and we're going to have a party, blow out time."
Yes, blow out in the soul, right? Blowout it the soul, just finished. No more spirit to go forward anymore. Don't you know that's the state of what you call white America? They ain't got a spirit to go forward anymore. They’re so disappointed. They don't realize what that great disappointment for them is that has deflated their ego. That great disappointment is, "You ain't no special person. You aren't nothing but a human being like everybody else."
Now psychiatrists can understand very well what I'm saying. They know very well what I'm saying. They see the scientific proof, support for what I'm saying. I'm going to show it to you very quickly. Imagine not a race but this being an individual child, and this child is in your family or in somebody's family. And they pump this child’s head from birth. They pump into that child's mind from birth that it is superior to all the other children in the family. It lives and enjoys that kind of reality. The other children accept he is Superman and we are not. And all the other children now are retarded because they believe too what was told to that special child in the family. And one day the children learn that that's a lie and all the children change, they don't believe it anymore. Some of the children start to excel and some of the children start to beat him as an achiever.
That's too much for him. He goes crazy, "I don't want to do this. I don't want to live. I don't want this house. I don't want to stay here. You ain't my mother, you ain't my father." You see it now, don't you? I used to be angry with the white man, but the more I saw his state the more I wanted to tell him, "Come on."
“Come on, somebody loves you. Somebody loves you. I know what you've been through. You've been through hell. You were conditioned for fatal end, I understand it. You have a right to feel bad and be mad at everybody, you got a right. Come on, let me hug you. As much as you hate me let me hug you, just a little while. There ain't going to be nothing but just an electricity shock of a tap.
Now go on, just know that somebody wanted to hug you”. Believe me, all we have to do is be true to what we profess. We profess to be converted to this religion, we profess to be believers in this holy book, then be true to that. We profess to follow the prophet, the last of G-d's prophets Muhammad, peace be upon us, be true to that. Be sincere and be true, you will be successful. No way out but to be successful.
It's just going to happen automatically. If this is what you accept as the authority in your life, and you love and honor and respect the prophet of this book, it's automatic. Success is automatic. When I look at myself and what I want to achieve, I don't see myself as any failure. I'm a success.
Audience: Yes sir.
IWDM: And no small success, I consider myself a big success. Maybe some of you don't consider it that way but I can see myself better than you.
Audience: Yes sir.
IWDM: You haven't seen the situations that I've been in all of them. You just see me when I come here or on some occasions. I see myself 24 hours or at least most of the awake hours of the day, and every day I see myself. I see myself in all of my encounters with people young and old, wise and foolish, uneducated and dumb.
I see myself in all those encounters. Kings and common folks, government leaders and ordinary folks. I see myself in all those situations and encounters. And I see myself as being very successful, very successful. I didn't dream that I'd be leading people of such high stature, such high caliber, such high achievement in the world, such high offices in the world.
I didn't dream years ago that I would meet such people and they would be humbling themselves before me. Not that I desired that, but I had kings humble themselves, they make a humble gesture to me.
What are they making that humble gesture to? Something that they have great respect for. Sincerity, Muslim sincerity, Muslim steadfastness, Muslim courage. They say, "This man is a man of truth, a man of truth, a man of constancy and a man of great courage." And they say, "Even though sometimes we see grammatical errors in his writings and in his talks, he's a man of great intelligence."
G-d has blessed me with that. To be respected as a man of great intelligence. A man told me, now here is the head of a university. I spoke on his campus. In my talk I told them I didn't have those qualifications; I didn't have degrees. He came to me after I had made my talk, he shook my hand, he said, "Yes you do have a degree." He said, "You're a doctor." Now, that's a doctor. That's the head of the college saying that to me.
And he wasn't putting on like some of you all do, "Hey Mujedid. As salam alaykum brother Mujedid.
See, he wasn’t full of stuff; he was full of knowledge. He said, "Your work is scholarly," that's what he told me. He said, "Your work is scholarly." He said, "Believe me, Imam Mohammed, believe me, I know." He said, "You are a scholar." He was so impressed with my presentation.
Now, some of you all you want the guy in the pool room to verify that Imam Mohammed is qualified. And he has never been nowhere but to the pool room and the tavern and jail. And you want him to verify that Imam W Deen Mohamed has qualifications.
I’m not saying this to point to me. I'm saying this to tell you something, that this works. The love of G-d's words, the love of His prophet works. This works. All you need is to be sincere, be truthful. Don't lie to yourself about what you believe, and don't lie to others about what you believe. Be truthful.
If this is your book that you recognize as being the holy revelation of G-d and the last revelation for people to be following on this earth today, you be truthful to that. Don't lie. Don't lie to yourself and don't lie to others and your life will become better.
Why would I be talking to a lair like that? That's a good question. That means that I recognize that some of you all are liars. Why would I be talking to a liar like that? You may say forget about a liar. Because I recognize that in America people will lie and will not be responsible. People will be hypocritical but not responsible.
Responsible to a certain extent, but the conditions in America, they are so powerful, so prevalent, so powerful for creating phony liars, phony minded people, phony pretenders. People that attach themselves to fads as one brother Imam said. He said, "Yes, brother Imam, this a fad generation”. He said, "All they're looking for is fads, they don't care what it is. If it's a garment or a religion, they're looking for a fad.
They hold on to that as long as it excites them as a fad. Somebody comes along with something else that's a fad they will buy another religion. They're ready to get into another religion like they're stepping into another garment”.
Stepped out of the parachute garment into the cardboard suit. They don't care. Say, "I saw you wearing a parachute yesterday, now you're wearing a cardboard box. "Yes, this is the thing, man. You ain't into it, man?"
The same thing for religion. Today he is a Muslim and tomorrow he is a Buddhist. Next day he's Jesus Christ himself.
I'm going to conclude this by pointing to something very essential for us, faith. Faith. Faith is not just something for religious people. Something for spiritual people, let me put it that way. Faith is not just something for spiritual people. Faith is a key ingredient in the intellect and soul, not for the success of spiritual people, but for the success of any people.
You'll be more successful as a business person as your faith becomes more solid. And that goes for any other interest or any other occupation that you may think of. You'll be more successful as your faith becomes more solid. However, we know that in our religion, faith alone is a dead letter. Faith must be followed up with good work, faith must be proven by action. If you say you believe that, then let us see in your life the proof of that. You believe that? Now how do you live? So, Allah says, illalathina aaminu wa aamilus saalihat, “except those who have faith and they also have good work, righteous work”. So, those two go together. If you say you have the faith that Allah wants you to have, then you're supposed to have the righteous work that Allah wants you to have. Not that you're going to be spotless, sinless, you're never going to do a wrong, you're never going to tell a lie, you're never going to commit a sin, you're are human. You're going to tell a lie one day. You're going to commit a sin one day. We know, you're human, you're going to make mistakes.
That's why G-d has given you that human nature to feel sorry, to repent, to draw yourself closer to Him. And He loves you for coming back to Him. He loves you for not liking you're wrong. He loves you for not liking your sin. He loves you even more for that. Then He brings you closer. He strengthens you and you find yourself sinning less because you repent because you don't like wrong in yourself. You find yourself sinning less.
This is human, that's human. So, not that He expects that you're going to be perfect. No, you're not going to be perfect, but Allah wants you to love righteousness, Allah wants you to live for Him. Live for righteousness, that's living for Him. Live for righteousness then you're living for Allah. Live for truth, you're living for Allah. Live for the right judgment in your life for the right decision you're living for Allah.
Live, for progress, live for helping others, live for charity to others as well as to yourself. Live for no neglect in my life and live for progress and to get the neglect out of other people’s life. Allah loves that. The more you get like that, the more Allah loves you, the more you'll find the help of Allah with you. Pretty soon you’re so sure of the help of Allah. You just go along comfortable. No matter how bad a situation gets. Everybody's excited thinking the world is coming to the end.
You're just as peaceful as you can be. You know that whatever happens, it won't be bad for you because Allah is right there by you, right there with you. He's there by you all the time. He's your protector, He's your company all the time, you're satisfied. Yes, that can come, that can come to you sister, the big liar down there on the floor. That can come to you, big hypocrite siting on the floor, that can come to you. All you have to do is change your attitude.
And the thing that will enable you to change your attitude where I mentioned in the very beginning, you have to look at the life that you're holding on to and say, "Well hell, this is not mine. I didn't create this; this came to me after I came into the world. It came from down the road there, I picked up part of it over brother so and so house. I pick up other part of it and I remember my sister came to me grinning and carrying on and on a lot of foolishness. I got a lot of folish stuff from her. So just start throwing that stuff away that you go from others and say, "I ain't got nothing on my own now let me get some new on my own." They say, "What is that?" "My good attitude." It'll come automatic. Your good attitude to come automatic. Faith and work. Belief in the right disposition. You know prophet Muhammad said, "Everyone behaves according to his disposition. And this is what Allah says for us. Prophet Muhammad taught us this and Allah says it in the Quran that, "Everyone behaves according to his disposition."
If somebody is behaving in a faulty way in a defective way, their behavior is an embarrassment, their behavior causing problems with them and others most likely. Then it’s because of their disposition, if we go by this rule. Applying that rule, we must come to the conclusion that their trouble is to be found beside their disposition. “Qullu ya’malu shaakilati. Everyone behaves or acts according to his disposition”. The word of G-d. All right, with belief comes disposition.
The belief is associated with disposition. What is going to change my disposition from one of a problem making disposition to one of our problem-solving disposition? What's going to change it? The proper belief, the proper belief. Who was the candidate for the Democratic Party? Dukakis? That’s some name too. That’s Greek. Dukakis, he came in and for a while people thought he was going to be successful. Bush said, "This is all about ideas." See, people believe in people and people believe in ideas.
It seems that Dukakis had a whole lot of people believing in him. Well, hardly everybody believing in his ideas. Whereas Bush had fewer people believing in him, but many more people believe in his ideas and Bush knew it. That's why he said that. "This thing is all about ideas." Now, Allah gives us an idea. He gave us a book of ideas. Don't you this is the Muslim supreme ideology? Not any manifesto from some political theorist. No, this is our supreme ideology.
The Quran its wisdom, its principal, its strategy et cetera. It represents our supreme ideology. Now, you need to believe in it and once you believe in it, then your disposition changes. What do Christians say? “Just said you believe in Jesus and be saved”. Be saved they mean have your life that you want. Have your life, that G-d wants you to have. Believe in him and be saved. Well, that has proven to be itself a failure.
They say, "Jesus never fails". Well, that statement itself has failed. Because if Jesus never fails, American would be in much better shape than it is now. But not only America, the Christians that hold on tight to Jesus would be in better shape if Jesus never failed. No, Jesus as a person failed but Jesus as the word of G-d never fail. Now, we don't need a sign for the word of G-d, especially, I would say a part of the spectrum, just one little segment of the spectrum.
Jesus Christ is not the whole life. He's one little segment of the spectrum, not the whole life. Although they will like to say, "He's the whole light." If He was a whole light why would he say, "I have to go away”? The Bible says when the whole light has come there is nothing else. When the whole light comes, you’re saved forever. How does it give it? It gives in this way, “When the spirit of truth has come”. When the spirit of truth come, nothing else has to come behind it.
It's going to be the whole answer. So, he has to go away, so the spirit of truth will come, right? “It’s expediate that I go away, for if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you”. The comforter or the spirit of truth. That tells me that Jesus at least in his first coming. Now, I know they say that was his first coming but he's coming back again. That's his second coming. Well, he has to come twice. In his first coming, He was not the whole answer, he's just part of the answer. Then he comes back again, perhaps that's the whole answer when he comes back again. I'm convinced that the second coming of Jesus is Prophet Muhammad. Prophet Muhammad, Jesus is the sign of prophet Muhammad coming. What is expected of Jesus in the second coming, is what prophet Muhammad did. That's his life. When he comes back, He's not a lamb for sacrifice. When he comes back, he's an authority, demanding respect, whipping sinners into shape, establishing a kingdom that will last. Prophet Muhammad did all of that. He did all that. Now, the Christian can argue himself to death. Work himself into a frenzy. And he still ain't going to change the fact that he's pointing to a mystery and we point to reality. The Bible is mystified and highly enigmatic, confusing with its symbolism but if you can see through the maze, if you could see through the haze I would say, of all that to see just what is the substance there, you'll agree with me that Prophet Muhammad is the answer to that.
Not no holy ghost. They say the holy ghost is the second coming of Jesus. What did Paul say about the holy ghost? He didn't care much for no holy ghost. You got people communicating and can't talk to anybody but themselves. I differ with Paul on a lot of things but I have to agree with him there. What good is the holy ghost if you can't talk to nobody but yourself?
And I’ve seen them with the holy ghost, talking to nobody but themselves. They get the holy ghost and they start talking and trigger another one off, they set him on and he starts talking. Neither one understands the other. You've been in the church, some of you have been in the church when they get the holy ghost.
A young lady she had the holy ghost in the church. Now, this is not for the sake of criticism, this is for the sake of understanding and enlightenment. This young lady kept getting the holy ghost and I wasn't sitting down; the church was pretty filled up. I didn't want to get too far up in the church because I wanted to leave when I got ready. So, I'm standing near the door.
And it's one of those doors that just swing back and forward like this. She gets the holy ghost and I'm standing at the door and she just comes running like a wild bull and she hits that door, boom. She goes out in the vestibule and she cools off a little bit. Then she goes back too and goes back to where she was sitting, and here she comes again.
On the second time, I wasn't looking for her, I was concentrating on the preacher. She came through there, boom and the door almost hit me. I said, "Hey with your crazy self, you better not do that again."
And that holy ghost went off of her just like that.
Now, I know some of them are really into it. They're really under a trance, they're in the trance. I know some of them, but believe me, a lot of it ain't nothing but self-imposed hypnosis. Thank you that's the word I was looking for. Self-imposed hypnosis.
They've just become hypnotized, hypotonic and following something just like they're in a trance but they're not, they've been working that up. They work on it and this church, it had great apparatus for getting them there. The preacher would work up to a certain point then he'd turn over to some hollering people and they would start to hollering. Then he would signal the band and certain instruments would come in first.
Bang, bang, bang, bang then the symbol and then he'd follow it up with the horn. Then they all come together in unison with all those instruments and then bang, they start falling off. Bang, bang, and jumping up out of their seats. And a couple of them they were competing for the marathon and that girl was one of them, running down the aisle, boom.
So, I don't have much respect for that holy ghost either if that’s what you call the holy ghost. That ain't no holy ghost. That's witch doctor madness, witch doctor madness. No, the real spirit of truth was living in the world, carried out his work in the world in the person of our Prophet peace and blessing be on him. The answer to that major drama, that we call the coming of the comforter or the holy spirit that G-d will send again into the world after Jesus, that's the Prophet Muhammad. Now, we can become inspired, all of us are blessed with the holy ghost. If we’re true, good people, Allah will bless all of us with the holy ghost.
In fact, He said, He has given to everyone something of the holy spirit, everyone. Every human being has something of the holy spirit inside. Some of us don't realize it because we haven't accepted to be the decent people G-d wants us to be. But if we let our decency rise and grow in us, all of us would experience some inspiration, something of the holy spirit. All of us would experience that.
But the major drama that scripture tells us about, I repeat, it has been answered by our Prophet Muhammad peace and the blessings be on him. Yes, belief in disposition. Now, faith and good work, sincere belief, intelligent respect for it will bring us into the proper disposition.
And once that proper disposition happens for you, you are in a good state. You are in a productive state. You're going to be successful. What unite us is la ilaha illallah, belief in the book and obedience to Allah and to His Prophet. That's what unites us, our unity is in our allegiance to Allah's word and His messenger. That's what provides our unity.
I can live a thousand miles from you and have perfect unity with you if we agree in that. Our unity is perfect. We'll have close bonds, close ties. I can be 1,000 miles away but the other brother is next door. He's not based in that, I am. You call him up next door and tell him your true story, he gives you no help.
I'm 1,000 miles away you call me, I'll get you help, 1,000 miles away. He sees you every day, I don't see you hardly ever. I will come to your help, say "Well, brother Imam do you do that?" You bet I do. There are people reaching me from thousands of miles, more than a thousand miles away. I'm convinced that they are sincere and good people, whatever I have that I can help them with, I do my best.
I send them help, and who makes it possible, the people that support me that believe I'm a good leader, that believe I'm trustworthy. They bring and send charities. I use the charities to help other people. Yes, they are my neighbor, 1,000, 2,000 miles away they are my neighbor just like right next door because I recognize in them that they are true, sincere and deserved of help.
When I recognize that I try to do my best to help them. So, we don't need to disclose this. Don’t say, “See, the Imam said brother, you don't have to come in that Masjid”. I'm not saying that. Some of us can't come in this masjid.
It's very inconvenient or impractical for us to be here. To see each other daily. We're going back to another city many of us. We're not going to see each other and even those in Oakland. We so confined, tied up with home problems, family problems, jobs, going to the jobs. Our time is so taxed, that we just ain’t' going to see each other every day next week maybe.
Don't fell that your unity is hurt because you don't have a staff of people over you telling you what to do tomorrow, telling you when to come back, giving you some assignments. Don't feel that that's what requires unity. That's a weak unity. The strong unity is the unity provided by the idea. We're united in the idea. We're united behind the prophet of that idea, that's our strength.
Maybe we won't see each other for the next three months or for the next three years but when we do, our unity will not be impaired, it will be just as strong as it was today. Because we are not going away from the word, we're not going away from the messenger, we're not going away from the idea, we're going away from each other physically but we are still as close as we were today always because we’re close to the idea always.
Now, doesn’t that make perfect sense? White man can be on the other side of the ocean another white man on this side of the ocean. He’s charged up with an idea and he knows the other man on the other side of the ocean is charged up with the same idea. They are as close as anybody can be. Though they're oceans apart, they're as close as anybody can be. They're working for the same aim in life. They're making contributions to the same goals. They will live and die for each other. If anything, require it, that man will fly across that ocean in that supersonic thing. He’ll be over there so fast. He'll come his way or he’ll go over there. They'll be together so quick, in the morning they'll be sitting down at the table having a meeting. And what bring them together so quickly? The idea. That’s what our people have to move up to. Move up from flesh worship to appreciation for great ideas, and there’s no idea better than this. As-Salaam Alaikum.


