07/00/2000
IWDM Study Library 
Newark NJ

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We praise G-d. Al Hamdulillah hir rabbil al amin. The praise and the thanks are for G-d, the Lord, sustainer, the keeper of the world. We witness that He is one, Ashhadu an la ilaha illallahu wahda. That he is one alone, la sharika lahu, that there's no partners with him in the rule and run of the heavens and the earth. And we witness that Muhammad is his servant and his messenger and a mercy to all the world, wa ashhadu ana Muhammadan abduhu wa rasulu, ar Rahmatan fil al amin, a mercy to all the world as Allah says in his book, the Qur'an, the last revelation final book unto the people of the world.
Again, we are happy to be here in Newark for this occasion. Sorry, we had an engagement in Atlanta and we were unable to be with you last evening, last night. And I heard that the spirit was good and enjoyment was great. And we're usually with you for the two days, for both the days. Atlanta has their graduation and I'm committed to be with them for their graduation every, every year. And I have done that for years. I think since the beginning. For nine years. Ninth annual graduation ceremony was yesterday.
Yes, today for this occasion, we want to address community as the focus for life, the life that Allah wants for his people, for human beings and as the focus for production. Production. Our growth. Growth. Our production. G R O W T H growth. Our production. Allah says in the Qur'an and it's in the Bible too, but me, a Muslim Imam leader, my references should be from Qur'an and not from Bible. But if I was a Christian addressing you, I know the Bible well enough to just give the same lecture, same speech and come from the Bible.
Yes. So, G-d says he created us for growth. For growth. That we should grow. Growth. And he says he has created us like a plant. A plant. So, a parable of human life in the Qur'an is a parable of plant life. Of a plant. And when you look at a plant, a plant is rooted in the earth, in the ground, the land. It's rooted in the land, and it really gets this first growth or start beneath the surface, under the land. Covered and hid underground. Under the surface of the earth, covered and hid from view.
It gets its first start. The seed gets its moisture and it responds to the moisture and it swells up because of the need to grow inside of it. The need to grow pushes outwardly. Breaks the covering like egg. Newborn baby comes, chick comes, breaks the egg, come out and like a human being swells up the mother's stomach. Out of view. We don't see what's happening. Swells up the mother's stomach. And then the ninth month comes delivering and there, the baby comes out, comes from the mother.
So, this material world is the first womb of life. The material world for animals and human beings, it's the first material. For plants it’s the ground material, the earth, the land, soil, dirt. Returning to the parable of our human life. In the plant life, the seed breaks open and the life wants to free itself from encasement. From encasement. From imprisonment. It wants to free itself from restrictions. It's restricted. And if it stays inside the womb, the first womb, the material womb that gave it its first life, it will die If it stays there. It has to come out of there to live. So, it's struggling for freedom so it can have its life and have this growth.
It breaks free and a shoot comes up from the ground. If you dig under, you'll see that the beginning of life for it was white but as it comes out into the air, it turns green. It comes green. And if it's more than grass, if it's more than just a simple structure, like a tree or bush or something, it made bear fruit or flower, a variety of color, a variety of color, but the leaves will be green, most likely. Sometimes they're of another color too. But most likely the leaves will be green.
And the life seeks beauty. It wants to be beautiful. Thick grass that grows together. It's beautiful to the eyes. Present to the eyes. Although, it's maybe the simplest form of things that grow out of the earth, the plant life, perhaps the simplest form, except that that grows in the water. That blade of grass is beautiful and it seeks to stand up straight. It seeks balance. It wants to be balanced. It doesn't want be lift over here or lift that way. Want to be balanced, straight up.
And the more complex plants branch out have branches branching out and they branch out in such a way to give that plant strength and stability, balance, strength and stability. If one limb comes out here, on this side, a heavy and it doesn't balance with another one out this side, it will pull it to this side. It will be pulled to this side. It will lose its beauty, its symmetry, its beauty, et cetera.
Now, it's growing. If G-d says he made us like a plant, continue to listen and see what we should be seeing in ourselves. Most plants, even the blade of grass, several blade of grass, it preserves the composition of the earth, the soil, the land that it came out of. It gives the land a covering that preserves it against erosion, drying out, erosion, wearing away, becoming sand, et cetera. So, it's a protection. It's a cover for the mother ground mother that it grew out of. It's a protection for it. And as I said, as a process, they see how he has created proof and spread it over the Earth's path and spread it over the earth like carpet. And that's what the grass looks like, a nice, beautiful carpet, especially there's more nice.
Looks like a beautiful carpet. But now. That grass, we don't know it, but it's also giving support to small life, small life, but as grass you'll find earthworms and the earthworms, they also work the earth to keep the earth alive and they give us food. They also eat, but they also, what they give is nourishment to the earth that they live upon. So, if G-d created us like a plant, he created us for a beautiful growth, he created us, firstly, for freedom. Freedom from restriction. Our growth should not be restricted. And if you restrict the growth and don't permit it to come out of the womb from, where it was put for life to form, you will kill it. You will kill it. It will die without that freedom. It has to have that freedom to have its life, to grow and have its life in the free air under free sunshine created by G-d.
Yes. So, it needs it. And if it gives it, then it also renders a service. It gives. It receives and it gives. The grass gives a covering. The covering invites little creatures to grow beneath, to live beneath. The little creatures, there are many kinds, but the earthworms perhaps the best example for this particular picture I'm trying to paint for you now. Earthworms feed on the rich earth, made rich by the living things that, grass or whatever, growing in it, grass. And it feeds on that rich earth, but what it gives out, what it gives back is nourishment, richness for the earth. And it works the earth like plowing, like plowing the ground. It works the earth and keeps it manageable, but also loose to breathe air and to support other life. This is wonderful. Like a plant. Created us like a plant.
Now that's blade of grass, it can't hold birds. Birds can't come and make nests in it, It like they can in the trees. They can't get that much support, but that be of grass is giving great support. Support for its size. It is giving great support. Now, in the Qur'an, grass is mentioned, I think, mainly for the beauty, to get us to see the beauty in it, how it makes a blanket or carpet over the earth. But in the Bible, even man is described as a blade of grass. It says, "What is the son of man, but grass? What is the son of man, but grass?"
The tree gives support for birds. Birds can have their nest there. For squirrels and other small animals. It even gives support or rescue, a hiding place for some larger animals. In some areas of the warm earth, the world, in the hot belt, jungle environment, it gives support to even bigger animals and protection for them and hiding places for them. So here is this big tree grows up out of the earth and supports life. It supports life. Its leaves are not just there for it to have breathe. And breathes, science tells us. It breathes by the leaves, it breathes. But it's not only so it can have its breath of life. But those leaves are also to serve as small shelters, umbrellas for birds when it rains. The birds can take rescue. They go to the tree and they get up under the leaves to protect themselves from the beating down of the rain.
Now we should not just want life and growth selfishly for ourselves. If we are going to be like a plant, our growth is also going to be a contribution to other life. What kind of growth is this? The earth is material. The earth is material. The land is material. The life, the living things that grow out of that have responded to... they were dead. Earth without water is dead. Land without water is dead. So, these living things were once dead. They were dead matter but they became living things because of them being the life of living things, though its dead, though it dies. The seed is dead. But it came from the life of something living. It came from life, though it's dead. So, when it's put back into the earth in the right time, and the conditions are good for it, not harmful to it, it will survive for a time, and when the weather... climate gets good and moisture gets it, its swells, as we've said. It responds to ...... and open up and release the life that was in it.
The water is sensitive. Water is very sensitive. The least little touch on the sensitive water, makes ripples all through it. Makes-
Doesn't happen, you're dead. It protects the surface of the water. It ripples. It shows that it has been touched. Because when nothing happens, you're dead. But that that came from life though it be dead. The right sensitivities come and touch it. It opens up and release the life potential that was in it dead. It released the life potential so it can have its freedom to become itself and enjoy the world that G-d created for it. The world of air and sunshine, praise be to Allah.
So, G-d is telling us a beautiful thing. When G-d say to us, the parable of our life is the life of a plant. He's telling us a beautiful thing and he doesn't go into descriptive detail. G-d knows that he has created us with intelligence to take the idea and think on it and draw out all the beauty that G-d gave us in that idea. He created us to do that. And are we to do that? Yes. Allah says in his book that these are signs, but most of the people go along unmindful, not giving these signs any attention. And then G-d tells us don't be like that. G-d says, Arabic... Think. Ponder on these things, for surely pondering on, thinking on the thing gives you profit. You'll profit from that.
Now who wants to take dirt and eat it? Who wants dirt at the table for dinner this evening? Say, "Gimme a plate of dirt. Give me a plate of land brother. That's what I love. Give me a plate of land for dinner." None of us want to do that. That's death. But that, that you do not want to consume within is the environment for you to have your first life. Isn't that something? Yes. The world without life is the environment for you to have life. And its role is only to support life.
That's what its role is, to support life. Now let's look at this land as money. Money. I mean big money, not little money. See little money is probably like corn, corn kernels. Yeah. Grains. That's little money, you see. Land is like big money. The purpose of big money, then, is to support life. Not to be taken into your body and to become part of your life systems. It's not to feed your heart. It's not to feed your brain with life. No. It's to give support to growth. And then the growth feeds your body.
If the gift supports the growth and the growth feeds your body. The things that grow from the earth feeds us. We eat them and it tastes good. They're meant to go into our body. G-d made them the taste good to us to tell us, "This is good for your body to take this in." We love those things, greens, or whatever that grows out of the earth, the fruits, many fruits, but also to give beauty, they feed our spirit. They feed our souls because they're beautiful. The beauty feeds our soul, our sensitivities, the sensitivity for beauty, are fed by the beauty of these growing things. And it's said that they created the man and put him in a garden. And put him in a garden and charged the man and held that man responsible for cleaning the garden. Cause a garden needs help if you want to see it in its best beauty. Then work the garden. Although it's beautiful, just as an actual creation, it's beautiful. But if you use your intelligence, man, you can even realize a more beautiful garden. So, you tend the garden, test the garden. This is both Bible and Qur'an. Test the garden. What am I talking about? Some of you might be asking that question, "What is he talking about?" I'm talking about the biggest matter that'll ever come into your life.
What you are here for and how you are to live so you will have growth and prosperity. That's what I'm talking about. If that's not interesting to you, then you are dead. And water won't help you, cause I'm pouring the water down right now. Yes. This is the beauty. It's the beauty of life. Being given life from the dead and G-d says, and He's the one who made you, brings you out of the dead, and gives you life. Then returns you again to the dead and gives you another resurrection. Another growth, another birth and another growth. The baby is born today, this minute, this second from its mother. 
Nothing gave it that life, but the creator G-d, that designed life to be that way.
And that baby has been given a good life, not a bad life. The baby is not born a criminal. The father could have been criminal. The father and the mother both could have been criminal. That doesn't mean the baby is going to be born criminal. The baby is not going to be born bad because the parents were bad. The baby comes here good. Always a fresh page for life. Ready to have its own record from a clean slate. Isn't that a wonderful G-d. And if we care for that baby with our human concern for it, mother or whoever the parents may be, that's taking care of that baby. That baby is going to have a beautiful growth, beautiful life, most likely, unless something hits it from the bad influences of the world.
This baby will have a beautiful life. Muhammad the Prophet, prayers and peace be upon him. G-d says of him, say, "He has already lived among you for a lifetime," speaking of Muhammad the Prophet. For 40 years, he lived and had not known Revelation. He did not belong to any religion. He rejected the religion of the idol worshipers because he was of the group of thinkers in Arabia that were called Hunafa.
It means they believe that human life, in its real purpose, is excellence. It's excellence. That it aims for excellence. So, they, in their life, were aiming for excellence, just to live the best motivations that they have. The best aspirations that they have. The best sense of beauty that they have. They were just trying to live the best that they saw in a human being's life. They would reject that in the bad stuff in the human being's life and go with all of the best stuff in the human being's life. And for that reason, they're called Hunafa. Hunafa means what they are, is already in them. That's what it means. They live the best of their inborn, inherent excellence. They lived it to the best of their ability. So, they were called Hunafa people. They're mentioned in the Qur'an, the Hunafa. Abraham was of the Hunafa. 
G-d came and told them they had lost the knowledge of Abraham.
They didn't know anything about Abraham, but G-d came and told them about the house that was in their land. They didn't even know what the house was for. The house was filled with idols. They had lost all of that knowledge and as a group that they didn't have Revelation it’s in the Qur'an. If we accept the Holy Book, the Qur'an, if we're Muslim, we have to accept that. So, the Revelation has now come to our people that had not received Revelation before. Speaking of them, the Arabs.
Yes. Although Abraham had been in that area. So, Abraham was in that area so their ancestors must have received Revelation before. No, but he didn't come to them as a messenger. He came because Sarah, his wife, peace be upon her and him, had rejected his wife that she asked him to accept and to have a child by. This is Bible.
Sarah asked Abraham to accept her handmaid, her servant, her girl servant and have a child by her since I'm too old to have one. And the Bible story goes on to say that as she began to show life, pregnancy, life growing, new life growing in her, the old lady got jealous and Abraham naturally, if he was a good man, naturally he's starting to give that woman more attention now, because she is bearing child and she is carrying a burden.
So, this made her even more of a burden. She said, according to the Bible, she said, "Take this handmaid away from here. Take this woman away from here." And so, Abraham accepted to do that. And he took her out in the desert and he took her in a land of the nomads. Land of the nomads. People that didn't have established civilization. They just went from water hole to water hole. Living, existing. Like migratory animals and birds. That's how they lived.
So, he left the child out there and he prayed to G-d that G-d would give her protection for her child and keep them safe. That was his prayer. Isn't it a wonderful picture, brothers, who study their scripture? You ministers and preaches and Imams. This is a beautiful story. Yes. So here he is. He leaves her out there and a bird. She was desperate. She bore her child, but now her child needs water. She can't find water. And she had to go from water hole to water hole out there in the desert. For water. Rain hardly ever comes. She's desperate. So, she runs between two hills, desperate, desperate. Running and panicking.
And she looked and she saw a bird. This is how the tradition goes. And she went where that bird was and the bird was pecking the ground and water started coming up from the ground. And that was the beginning of the Well of Zamzam, that all pilgrimage can go to visit that spot. That sacred, holy spot that holds great message for all mankind, great city. As Muslims we go and visit that spot and we make the run, the sa’ee between the two hills, repeating her act of desperation, her panicking and repeat it. At one point, we have to trot a little bit.
Like we're desperate, like we running. We get between those two points where she was running, we have to really run. We run. Desperate. And right in about center of the distance, there's a margin within about center the distance that represented anticipation of her desperation. So, we get the signal. Signal post that tells us, "Here it is, pardon me. Yes. So, the little bird pecks the dead surface and up comes the sensitivity. A spirit of sensitivity. Water, fresh water, pure water for her child who was needing water. So, G-d gave her the water. G-d provided for her the water out of the dead matter. Out of dead earth.
Now, as I said, who wants to put earth, ground, soil, dirt into his mouth for dinner? Nobody. Even if you put water in it, we don't want it. So, think of it as great wealth, now. Think of it as the great support for wealth. As wealth, the land, the land mass as wealth that supports smaller production of wealth. Isn't that the fact the land mass is what support all the other smaller sources of, wealth, our production. We don't only put water, it's, "Oh, I'm going to give you some water with your dirt." No, it still don't... I can't eat that. So, some of us, we can romance materialism, but it's still not fit for consumption.
You can put all the human sensitivities and beauty to your idea of materialism, but if you want us to live on materialism, it's still not fit for consumption. But if you see materialism as a basis to support life and not life itself, but it's dead. It's not to be taken into my body as life or as something to feed my life. It's dead. It's to be seen as a support for my life. Then we can make all the money. We can become billionaires. The money is not going to kill us because we are not going to eat it. We going to use this to support those things that we can take into our bodies, like better schools, like better equipment for our schools, like paid teachers, qualified teachers as paid teachers, hardworking servants in education. Pay the good price and enable them to not worry about their meal today and not worry about that rent this month, not worry about that light bill, that phone bill. Isn't that life? That's beauty, now. I can feel it. Can't you feel it? I feel it. Bills paid. Ooooh, I feel good!
You see how the support comes from the dead thing first? And if you know that it's dead something and you're not supposed to give your life to it. It's to support your life. You'll say, "Now water, look at water. All this support plant. This is our plant. Look at the plant life. I've seen plant life beautiful, as you have, but I've seen plants, especially trees, ghostly pictures. A ghostly picture. What was that ghostly picture? Trees that were inundated by flood. Water rose too high, came in where the trees were, and didn't go back. Didn't recede. Found a place there to stay. A sunken place and stayed there. Covering the trees too high. Trees standing in water. Trees die. All the leaves die. The branches naked like skeletons standing in the water. A ghostly picture because they got too much water. Now you want to make yourself a ghostly community? Just love crying preachers. "Oh Lord."
If he crying more than he educate, you going to soon be a ghostly community. Too much water. Allahu Akbar! Now when you have land and water, you're going to have growth. Cabbage. Collard Greens. Oh, he knows we don't eat collard greens. Talk for yourself, buddy. See, I studied the Qur'an after the trial period, after trying to be upright. I studied the Qur'an and, in the Qur’an, G-d says that the people of the Book imposed laws and restrictions upon themselves, that G-d did not give them. G-d didn't authorize all that. See they did that to themselves. And I started seeing that we were really put to test to see which we prefer, freedom for the mind, from mental slavery in this world that had us thinking we were inferior, which we prefer, the message of freedom of the mind from thinking we were inferior, or collard greens.
Yams. Sweet potatoes. Pork, all that. Which do you prefer? So that was a test for us and we proved that we did not want the things for our stomach, as much as we wanted the things for our brains, our minds. We proved that by-
For the average person black-eyed peas. But every once a while, I tell you some black-eyed peas and, they taste so good. Yes, it tastes good. And I'm telling you, G-d says that they hold them saying that those laws upon themselves and it was a punishment. I agree. When I taste my first yams, I said, oh boy, I been punished. All this all these years of my life, I haven't been eating this stuff! God G-d, all mighty I've been punished!
And the same for collard greens. I got to eating them collard greens, man. Why they deny a black man collard greens. That should have been a different test, not this one. So, from that day and every Sunday let us things that delight that we enjoy and it's meant for our life. It's meant for our life. It supports our life. With the life of dying and eating or feeding upon life comes awareness of hunger because sometimes you can't get it and you hunger for it. Poor people, know hunger. Yes. You hunger for it. Now is this hunger something bad? Immediately it is. Immediately it is something bad, but hunger is only in you to drive you to go and get some food. G-d is only making you uncomfortable. That's just way of driving you. Then go get some food. Now, the person that just stays hungry and hungry and don't move, don't go anywhere. They ain't fit to live.
If you hungry, get out and go get some food. If you can't get it on your own, ask somebody for it. Go ask the neighbor for some food. Don't stand there and be hungry and die. Just die right there on the spot. No, hunger is to make you move. And if you're a sane person, that's exactly what you want to do. You ain't going to stay there hungry too long. You're going to get on the move to get you something to eat. So, man is driven by appetite. Yes. Driven by appetite. And this is good for us to be driven by appetite. And no matter how much you prosper in a material sense; you should always be driven by appetite because you are a creature high above the base level.
The first foundation of material and material potential, dead earth. You're high above that. And you're high above the things that the material world grows such as vegetables, animals. We don't think of animals as growing up on the earth, but they do grow up on the earth. They can only live if they feed on the things that grow out of the earth. So, they too are fed by the ground, by the dead earth they are fed, but they're fed through a living thing, plants and other things. And some of them, as we do, we thrive on life that has died, right? Beans, life that has died. Dried beans that's life that has died. We eat it. We love it, but we don't who will try to crack them with their teeth and eat them.
Now, my brother was such a bad cook, former assistant Supreme captain, Elijah Muhammad Jr. Called Elijah Two, now. Second. He was such a bad cook, man. We hung at home. My mother's gone long and said, we, she ain't got back and be hungry. Junior said, he said, "I want cook some beans." First time he ever tried it, hadn't been watching Mama. He put those beans on my plate and his plate and I could hear them when they hit the plate. They had oil on them. It had salt and pepper on them. And we looked at each other and ...... and that's all we did, just what we doing now.
Nothing we could do with that. So even a dead thing has to be softened, softened, softened, and made manageable for living. Hm, yes. And plenty of water. And some heat. Warm it up. Getting back to appetite as a driver, a motivator. Appetite. The only life of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And I'm going to be mentioning him a lot for the rest of my life. Allahu Akbar. Why? Because we have come to where he wanted us to go. So now that we have come to where he wanted us to go, we can now live with him in this new place. Allahu Akbar.
A truly great man made by even a greater man. His teacher, Mr. Fard, W. D. Fard Muhammad. He went by those different names, also was called Wallace. When he sent postcards for mail, he put Wallace, I guess that was his way of hiding from the intelligence department. I don't know. But when he went somewhere and wrote back to my father and mother or the others. I've seen postcards he wrote to my uncle Callot that passed. All of them passed now. And we still got some of those cards and I'm sure Callot's family has still has some cards from this mysterious person that taught my father, gave him the idea how to build a community called the Nation of Islam. Lost-Found Nation of Islam.
Yes, my father wanted us to have big appetites, not small appetites. He didn't want to have small appetite for fancy cars, a nice apartment or a home, private bank account. To the honorable Elijah Muhammad, that's small stuff. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wanted us to have the appetite of the biggest white man on this earth. You hear what I'm saying? He wanted us to not be afraid to think as big in terms of what we want for the future. He wanted us to think as big and not be afraid to do it, but be courageous to do it. He wanted us to think as big as the biggest white man that have ever walked the planet earth.
And I was born when he was preaching. My father had only been following in the way of this teacher for about a year or so, when I was born. I was born in 19, not more than two years, I know. I was born in October, 1933. That's almost at the end of the year. My father became a follower of this mysterious man in 1931. And he told me himself, he said, "Son, you are different." He said, "Because you were born from my loins, after I came into the knowledge." He didn't say the religion. He said, "into the knowledge." He said, "after I came into the knowledge." He said, "And your mother carried you, while she was also following in the teachings of Islam. Say, so you are different.
I believe in genetic life and genetic memory. I believe in it strongly. I'm not spooky. I'm not superstitious. I'm scientific. Believe it or not, I am scientific. But I believe in genetic life, I believe in the continuation of life, through the gene, genetic life. And the world of science that we live in right now, this great world of science and technology, et cetera, this world too believes in genetic life, that much of your life comes to you from the body, from the physical biological cells of your mother and father. You get your life and that life finds expression and reaches consciousness in your own body.
So, if that's true then I am a living Elijah Muhammad and I am a living Clara Muhammad, though they are dead. Their life lives in me. That's fine. That's science. Not superstition. All right. So, if that's true then, I have to be like my father and mother. I'm like my father and mother in some ways or in many ways. Now understand that it's not only them that you inherit, you inherit everybody that was before them. And sometimes a grandparent, a great-great-great-great-great-grandparent may come into your genes stronger than your mother strong than even your father.
Because you have a new chance at the life that went into them. So, the life that went into them had a chance to too. Now the same life that went into them had a chance to too, and express themselves that itself, that life do too, can come into another and express itself through different ones. Not just those two. And believe me, Clara Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad were not just the products of their two immediate parents. They were the product of those that went before them too. But because Elijah was so strong in his life journey, Elijah is obviously the strongest in his son Wallace.
And Clara Muhammad was very strong, very strong in her life germ and it went into me. So obviously I am myself, much like Clara Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad. Now, if they had been wasters of life, perhaps another person in the genetic line or more would have influenced my composition more than they did. If they had been wasters of life. What I mean by that? Sleepers. Just sleeping their time away. Those people, they don't reach their goals. Or destructive people, just living a life or self destruction or hurting other people. They don't have a chance. Those humans don't have a chance for life.
Okay. Now here I am, the son of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And I'm telling you that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad invited us to have big appetites and you need big appetites to have the spirit to do big things. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, "Come and help us build a nation." That's a big thing. And many of us had a big appetite, had our appetite big enough for that. Yes, we hungered for a nation of our own. Should you stop hungering for a nation of your own? No siree. No. Islam wants community established on earth that is in accord with the will and guidance of G-d. Community. Not one nation, community nations. Plural. More than one. G-d want us to establish as many community models for society as a life pattern or picture for society, the ideal society. He wants us to establish as many of those as we possibly can.
So, this is the biggest task that we have as Muslims. Our biggest task is to use our brain, our thinking people, our best of our thinking people, male and females. We are to use our brains to imagine a better environment for human beings to live in. A bigger and better and more productive environment for human beings to live in. And we are to work together for that, to realize that, to see that materialize, we had to work together for that. We have to have a select number of leaders working for that all the time, a select number of leaders devoted to that all the time, working for that all the time. We have it. We are developing that. We have it developing in the community, in this community right now. Persons of professional life experience, education, and experience.
They have come together to monitor this community's life and its direction to improve upon it. To see that it always has more freedoms and more help to become more in accord with that ideal model community that G-d asks us to build on this earth. And we are not just shooting for one model. We want a model in our town. We want a model in your town. We want a model all around. Yeah. All around the globe a model. We have people outside of this. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, saw that his message reached people even, outside of the immediate, the boundaries of the United States, the land mass of the United States. Went into Bahamas and in Bahamas, there's a strong group of followers that came from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's teachings. And now they're with us. They're with your Imam W. Deen Mohammed, just as you are. In Bermuda. And they make sacrifices, they're working hard.
Their spirit is excellent. And they're looking to create a model of community life. Community is nation, if you understand it. Nation only implies political concerns and political order, when we hear nation. But an effort to establish a societal model or a model of human beings living in society as a group is a national effort. Don't misunderstand that. And as much as we possibly can, we want to be responsible for writing laws and also for managing our society under law. I said as much as we can. If we are liked as a community model, don't you know the United States government, it's court will respect our life that we want ourselves.
And they're already doing this and will ask us, "Well, what do your law say about this? What do your religious law say about this?" They will invite us in certain courts now to tell them what our law says. And that's what Muhammad did when he gained community, government. Those Jews and Christians and others, especially Jews and Christians, because he respected their laws, their holy books, pardon me. So therefore, he gave them the freedom to be judged by their own books. So, he would ask them, or the judges under him would ask the offender of the law, the one who has broken the law, who, the Christians, what does your law prescribe in this case. And when they gave it, he applied their law on them and not the law of Islam on them. Now isn't that justice? That if they're living under Christian, living a different life or Christian life, and they're living under a different scripture, under different law, then we shouldn't apply our law to them? "Oh, you can't have this cross in your house."
"You can't sing these songs that you're singing. It's not Islamic. You stole something. We are not going to chop off your hand. What does your law prescribe?" Yes. So, this was justice. This was fair. Not that Muslims chop off the hands of every thief. In fact, some thieves go away with a gift. Yes. If a thief comes to us and we find that that person had to steal to feed his family or feed his child or his wife or to live itself, survive, it had to steal because there was no way for it to earn a lawful living, earnest living. We have to take that person and put him in a better condition so he would not have to be desperate and hurt or steal from somebody else or hurt somebody else to get his own life supported. His food or whatever. This is Islam. Islam is rational. Islam is intelligent. Islam is compassionate, Merciful.
And G-d says His wrath overtakes so much, but his mercy goes beyond His wrath. 
This is G-d. in the Qur'an. This is G-d. His wrath overtakes so much, but his mercy goes beyond his wrath. His mercy is bigger than his wrath. Therefore, our compassion should be bigger than our desire to catch somebody wrong. We going to conclude this in a few minutes.
Now, we are also supported by vision. Appetite and seeking to satisfy appetite give the experience to the intellect, the brain, an intelligence. And people living to take care of needs, appetite, they experience much that educates them. Man was first educated by life itself. There were no schools, no institutions, no houses for education. The field of life was the great university, the great schools that educated people, life itself. And the colleges now, they haven't always done this either, but this is a new day. New day we living in. New day.
Many of the colleges now will give you credit for a degree, toward a degree, based upon your life experience. I'm told that I can easily get my degree if I would just go and give them my life experience. Show them the speeches that I have made. Show them what I've done and take a few tests maybe, and get a degree. I'm told I can do this. And many of you can do the same, based upon life experience. So that was the great... the world that G-d made was the great university. It was a Pre-K, it was a K, it was elementary school. It was a high school. It was a college; it was a university. And it's all still out there. It hasn't gone anywhere. They're still out there. Even made more rich now, in it's influence to stimulate the brain and educate us by the accomplishment of studious man, civilized man.
And I stay a student. I'm a student, always. So, appetite then gives us experience, knowledge of the world outside of us and of ourselves too, helps us to understand our own life better. And with a great better knowledge, we then begin to look inside of things, have insight into things and get messages out of things and see that there is a direction in the material scheme of the world for my own life. For my life. I am a special creature, raised above all plants and all animals. I have more freedom than anything G-d created. More freedom to go left, right, forwards, backwards, up, down, any direction I choose to go in. I am the freest of all things created by G-d. So, this great margin of freedom helped me as a student of the world, a student in the university of matter, the natural world.
It helps me to find that G-d has written, in this matter, a direction for my life. And I perceive that and oh, it gives me such a joy. Here I am having another chance to be born all over again. And G-d blessed me with a vision to take my world of human beings into a better life, a higher plane of civilization or reality for them. Visionaries. Visionaries written about before prophets were written about, visionaries were written about. In the Bible, they're called Seers and we think they're spooky people. That's going to look into a crystal ball or something. No, that came later. Real seers mean perceiving a future for the people. And later they became to be called prophets. These seers later came to be called prophets. Yes.
All right. So, we have to be men of vision and women of vision and we have to come together and support the most promising vision, most promising vision that we have. Now, we have a vision C.P.C., Collective Purchasing Conference. We have a vision and you invest in there. You become a partner. The business is a partnership. Legally established partnership. Every investor is a partner or owner, having his investment as his share in the ownership of that business. This is the way we established this legally. Yeah. Then it is like a mother created to nourish babies.
And the babies will be distributors or smaller people, wholesalers. Or even smaller. Street vendors, Pleasure's Club for street vendors, which eventually will have their own card. Pleasure's Club members will have their own card that enabled them to jointly or collectively make big purchases overseas or here in the United States or in Canada. Wherever. We buy through C.P.C. So here is an organ, a living organ called C.P.C., Collective Purchasing Conference. It doesn't engage in retail. Not even in wholesale. It just serves its distributors, who are also its investors. Its owners. That's all it does. But here it is. It's a big organ.
And it's feeding distributors and distributors are feeding wholesalers and wholesalers are feeding retailers and it permits even a small seller, that's the street vendor. Say, “If you can organize and come up with enough money together to equal one of these distributors, we going to give you the buying power. We're going to welcome your buying power. And you're going be given the same price the distributor will get. Pleasure's Club. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad cared about the little man on the street. He wanted him to have some kind of economic dignity. He worked hard for that. It didn't go well. Because we were just not ready for it. And maybe not put in the right... Pardon me. Not born right.
That's why we have to be born again. Vision supports production. Vision supports production. When we get the right vision, we can have big production and production supports community life. If we want good community life, schools, strong schools, well equipped with staff people, teachers, and everything, and equipment, books and everything. We have to have production, material production. Money. Business people will have to support these things. This life, this is not support. You know, a lot of Christian establishments are supported by charity from the rich. One example is the Riverside Church in New York. Governor Rockefeller gave that church so much money, they told me and invited me there. Gave me an invitation to come to the Riverside Church. I didn't know what for. They invited me to come to Riverside Church. I said, "I have to go. The Christians invited me to come to this big cathedral-like church. I'm going."
I went. But I didn't know what was going to happen there. And they just showed me the church and they gave me a discussion of how the church came about and told me that Rockefeller gave them such a big contribution that they haven't had to touch the principal. That means if he gave them a half-billion, they didn't touch the half-billion. They didn't have to use any of the half-billion. When they put that money into a savings account, the money market or whatever interest-bearing account, the money that they earned on it was more than enough to support their needs, all of their needs.
They said literature, folks, literature, the rug, the management of that, of that big church, staff people, everything is paid by interest off that money. Now isn't that wonderful. You tell me I don't respect Christians? And all you with me, you'll make me feel happy if I know you respect Christians. Respect Christians.
Praise be to Allah. And we want to be like them in their love and in their charity, because Muhammad told us, he says, "You will not enter paradise until you have faith. Iman, the faith. And you will not have the faith until you practice loving one another."
I put before you two ways, the way of this and the way of that. Choose you life, huh? I read that. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he put before us two ways, this and that, but he told us, "Choose you life." right? Choose life.
Well, that's what we are doing now. We found the life and we've chosen life. Life. The life is the word of G-d. The Qur'an is the life. That's why when we are called to prayer, the word for call is from the word life, meaning that you are really being called to life. The word life hayy. There's a proverb in the Bible that the Bible credits the Arabs for having. They trace it back to the Arab. It's an Arab proverb. That's how this proverb is in the Bible. And the proverb is, “a living dog is better than a dead lion”. And the Arab proverb is al kalbu hayyun hayy, al kalbu hayy, akbaru, better than, asadan, a lion, maitan, dead. So, here's the word hayy. It means in Arabic language life. And G-d says hayy, to the Mueddhin, hayy ala salat hayy ala falah. Come to worship, to prayer. And the prayer is what? The Qur'an. That's what it is. The one who is leading us has to recite what G-d has revealed in Qur'an.
So, the prayer is the Qur'an. The reciting of the prayer is the reciting of Qur'an, the Holy Book. Hayy ala salat. So, these words is really life. That's what G-d is saying to us through his prophets and through the Mueddhin. G-d is saying to us the Qur'an is really the life. And believe me, this call was not a call written by somebody, without divine support. The tradition says that one person came to the Prophet and told him that he had seen in a vision and heard these words, the call. And someone else, not connected with that person, came up and gave him the same thing. And the Prophet gave them the reason for this was that G-d had given them that Adhan So it's really the Adhan of the Muslim community is inspired by G-d, is given to us by G-d, but not through Prophet Muhammad, not through prophets, through good believers in his following.
They came and told him about the Adhan. The Prophet himself didn't even give us the Adhan. He approved the Adhan, that these particular blessed persons came to him with. So, the Adhan itself is inspired. The Adhan itself is a divinely inspired. So, when we say hayya ala salat, come to salat. Follow the logic through to its end. And what that logic says is that when you come to the Qur'an, you coming to the life.
Then it says hayya ala falah. Come to success. If you come to the Qur'an, which that is the life, you will have guaranteed the success. And falah is taken from a word, which means to cultivate the land, start with the basics. Start with the land. Cultivate the land. Attend the land like Adam was charged to do. Cultivate the land and attend the land and bring forth a beautiful growth to support life. And the end of that is economic dignity. Economic dignity. Thank you very much. Peace. As salaam alaikum.



