05/00/2000
IWDM Study Library 
Kennedy King College Chicago IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
The Praise and the Thanks is for G-d. The Creator, Lord, Cherisher, of all the Worlds. We witness that He's One. A G-d of all people. The Creator of all things. The One who sent Messengers, Prophets after one another, following each other until He sent Muhammad, the Prophet, the Seal of the Prophets, the Last of the Prophets. With the last revealed Book, the Quran. We witness that that Prophet born in Mecca, what is called Saudi Arabia now. It wasn't called Saudi Arabia in that time. The land of the Arabs on the peninsula, Arabia, and the City of Mecca. The venerated City of Mecca.
It's very important, sacred to all Muslims, because the house there built by Prophet Abraham and his son Ishmael, in the Quran their names are Ibrahim and Ismael two Prophets, father and son, peace be on them. And we know that before Muhammad the Prophet began his mission, as a mercy to all the worlds as G-d says of him in the Holy Quran, Mecca, because of that House, the venerated City.
Islam came and revived the understanding and meaning for the people of that House. And Muhammad the Prophet, as we know now, is the one that G-d chose to speak through, to reveal the last message for all mankind, the Quran and to direct all the believers, the Muslim that is, to face that House in prayer and to go to that House at least once in a life time, as a Pilgrim, it's called Hajj. That is to say to you believers, Muslims, and we have non-Muslims here today that we can talk to just like you today, that is to say to you, that Muslims are a world Community. We are an international world Community. And Islam is a message for all the world...for all the world. Islam is a message for every nation, for every people. Islam is not a family of one color, Islam is a family of all colors. All the colors of mankind are in the family of G-d.
And Islam is a prescription for the whole life of the human being. The whole life of the human being. Nothing, no important need for human beings is left out of Islam. You know they say you shouldn't reinvent the wheel, well that's correct. But if the wheel that I'm looking at is not the wheel that G-d reveals, then we have to have another wheel. That's not reinventing the wheel, that's getting wheel that you're supposed to have.
And that is to say, Muslims all over this world are responsible for the smallest thing that you need in your life to the biggest thing that you need in your life. And for me, really, G-d knows I don't have to have what I got. I got it and I love it and I appreciate it. Thank G-d for it. It's a great honor that I'm the Leader I am, and have your faith and your trust. That's a great honor. But G-d knows that's not what I have to have. I'm happy as the private citizen with my wife, my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren. With a sandwich like you had today, maybe. And, cool glass of water or juice or something. TV if I got the time, or a good movie. Rest and get up and go to work again, repeat that every day. Get a vacation, maybe every once in a while. Go to another city or state with my children, grandchildren and wife, if I can afford to take her. If I can afford to take her. Yes. See the children ain't as heavy on my back as my wife. That's not a complaint. That's to say she's bigger than the children. Even bigger than I am.
Eh, yes. But I would be happy G-d knows that, you know. They say, when somebody showing you something and you can't quite believe everything they're saying, you take it with a grain of salt. Whatever I say to you, take it in good humor. If you don't understand it, just take it in good humor (laughing). Yes, this is all I need. I'm happy with that, but that's not the way it was to be. I'm the son of Elijah Muhammad and my life was cut out for me before I even knew I had a life. So, it wasn't for me to decide my life. It was already decided for me, before I was old enough myself to even realize that I had a life.
And I'm thankful. I'm very thankful and grateful, but G-d knows that I'm ready to give this position up, as soon as we can find somebody that can do it as well as I can. Or can do it successfully, can be successful in the leadership and do it and have your support like you have...like I have your support. As soon as we can get one then I would like to be his assistant, or his assistant's assistant or his assistant's, assistant's, assistant's, assistant. It'll be fine with me (laughing). We're working for it hard. I'm praying and working to get that person (laughing). We have to not only work to have good leadership, we have to work to have good leadership after that good leadership (Allahu Akbar). Good leadership after that good leadership. We have to work for that and we all should be working for that.
Yes. Now, this is Memorial Day weekend. This is the day that families get together because they're all out of work and the season is good. The climate is usually nice, it's raining, but the weather is good, so we hope for sunshine so we can have family outings, a picnic as a group, club or something for us as a community. Just to have a good time, a relaxed time, but we know it's Memorial Day. So, Memorial mean that this day honors somebody or persons, that should be remembered. And they are the people who made sacrifices and lost their lives, fought and lost their lives, so we would have this peace and security that we enjoy as citizens of the United States of America. So, we honor them, pay tribute to them on this day.
Also, we must take full advantage all the time. Speaking to your leaders now, directly to the leaders, in our community. We must take full advantage at every occasion when there's a holiday to meet together for every important interest that we have as a community. To strengthen, to look at, to study the situation for our schools, our Masjids, our business people, our financial needs. I said our financial needs. Senior citizens have to be taken care of. The sick has to be taken care of. The little ones without parents have to be taken care of. These are all obligations spelled out for us very clearly in the Holy Book, Quran. The weak has to be taken care of. Not to mention our investments, they have to be protected. Somebody is financing them. As much as possible, we want to qualify to finance our own investments. So, we have to work for that, we have to work at that. It's not going to happen unless we work for it. Allah says there's nothing for the human person, except that he strives for it. [arabic]. There is nothing for the human person except that you make a real hard effort, you have to strive for it. Saa’a means very difficult, you're going, but not with ease, with difficulty.
And that's our history. We are people who have come up from slavery and now free. And that's what we had to do, struggle as slaves. Those who were enslaved, they had to struggle to keep their life, struggle to not be killed by their masters. Struggle to survive that ugly rule over that part of the world until a kinder, more humane rule came into existence. They had to struggle. And an opportunity came for them to be free from plantation, confinement, confined to a certain piece of land, like a camp, like a work camp or something, like prisoners in a work camp. When time came for them to be free from them, from those circumstances, then they had to strive and struggle a little more because no one, except the very few that you would meet accidentally every once in a while.
In the lifetime of just a few of us, you would meet white person, male or female, most likely female, who sympathized with you and your situation and wanted to help you in that situation so that you would have a better life. Most of us, 90% of us, couldn't expect that. I would say 95% of us couldn't expect that. So even though we were free, we still knew that there was always someone that may take everything from us after we accumulate it. Knowledge, skills, professions, build a business. We know in history of slaves who were free and they built printing business. But they were destroyed, their business destroyed by white hatemongers. Hateful white folks. That's just to name one business, but many, they would work hard to establish a business and knew there was a risk that it could be wiped out in just a few minutes by some hatemonger. Or stolen from them. Lose it to somebody else that was scheming and plotting. The end.
Those times are gone, but there's still a need to strive and struggle and be aware that there're some around that don't want you here and don't want you to have anything. And now they're not all white folks. They're some of your own folks (That's right) living right next door to you, living in your own house sometimes. And certainly, in your own mosque and in your own community. Those who don't want to see you succeed and they're planning and scheming and plotting to see that you don't get what you're after or you lose it. That's life. That's life. Now that I understand life, I welcome it.
Don't you aggravating people leave here. We need you to aggravate us every now and then. (Allahu Akbar) If we...if we don't have you around, we might go to sleep (laughing... (Allahu Akbar). Yeah, everybody gets so quiet and comfortable we might go sleep (laughing).
So, that's nature. Allah chose that life for us; He chose that life for us. A life of struggle, a life of struggle. There's something always contending with you, especially if you want to be right. There's something always contending...contending with you. Even your own nature, your soul, your... the tendency in yourself to say, "I'm tired." I had someone tell me, Say, "I'm tired." I say, "You can't be tired right now." I say, "You can be tired after you finish what I told you to do" (laughing...Allahu Akbar). I said, "Plenty of time to be tired after you finish what I told you to do." (laughing) I say, "I don't have any time", I say, "After you finished what I told you to do", I say, " I got more to do. But when you finished what I told you to do, you off for today. So be tired when you're finished" (Allahu Akbar). Now that was a child. I wouldn't talk like that to a man or woman. That was a child and I was ready to become Clara Muhammad on them. And all she needed to do is correct you one time, you never make that mistake again.
Yes. Now, what is this all about? Why is religion so important for us? Religion, for some people, is a pastime. It's a recess from life, recess, a pastime, something to do when there's nothing else important to do, or something that you just do for pleasure only. For some, religion is a deception. Yes, a deception. They got their religion to hide their true life. They have religion to hide their true life, so religion is a deception. The religion won't, it doesn't have the power or influence to correct their chosen life, the life they choose to live, but the life they choose to live has the power to affect how they regard their religion. So that's why I say for some, religion is a deception.
For us, religion is the life. (That's right) The life. If we were in a Muslim land, or if this land, well, not the land, we just say a neighborhood, if we could be successful. I was reading in the Tribune, today was it, I think, reading about, the Lithuanians who came to Chicago long time ago and they have a strong Lithuanian community. And a lot of things have happened over the decades to make them feel uncomfortable, uneasy, to worry about whether they're going to be able to keep that neighborhood for Lithuanians, but they're still there. And I believe if you would go there and ask them, just go there to each neighborhood each neighbor in the neighborhood, ring the bell and knock on the door, say, "What church you go to?" I guarantee you, 90% of them go to same church. 90% or more of them go to the same church.
Lithuanians. They came to this country, maybe I should tell you what my topic is, I'm talking and you don't even know what about, I'm sorry. I hope you all didn't put a topic in the paper for me, did you do that? I hope you didn't. If you did, then I hope I'm in line with that topic. I might have given you a topic, but I can't recall giving you one. The topic is "The life of the human family". "The life of the human family". They all come here to have their life that they choose. They want their life that they choose to live. Lithuanians come here to have the life that they choose to live.
Now, Segregation's wrong. Segregation is evil. But people should have a right to have their own life in their own area. And we should regard it with a sacred respect and not want to bust up their family, bust up their neighborhood, destroy their religious family. We shouldn't want to do that. So, as I had the plan, if I could go back in time and if I had the plan, the strategy, for breaking down the walls of segregation, I would have done it with respect for people who came to this country to choose the life they want to live, because they couldn't have it where they came from. They were persecuted. They were denied that freedom. I would work, I would have a strategy, to respect their life, their dream, as much as possible. And only cause trouble for them when there was no other way to achieve justice, except to have a confrontation or to have trouble with them. That's what I would do. And I wouldn't just have that as a strategy, I would make that public. I would proclaim that in the beginning of my effort to make things right for my cause. I would proclaim that. I would tell them in my statement of purpose, that we have a sacred respect for the life of people who choose to live their own ethnicity, their own culture and support their own religion, the religion of their choice.
I would make that statement. I would be a man like Muhammad the Prophet (saws), the prayers and the peace be on him. He was this kind of foresighted person. In fact, I’m the man I am because of knowing about him. The Quran, he was given the Holy Book for all of us and about his life, a model life for us. I'm the man I am because I strive to conform and be in agreement with what Allah wants for human beings. And I know that what Allah wants for human beings is given to us in the last Prophet Muhammad of Arabia, prayers and peace be on him.
Yes. So, I would have that kind of strategy and I would make friends and reduce the number of my enemies. And if that had been done, we would have much more opportunity in Chicago and in these other cities of the United States to work and strive and make strides, accomplish things, because there would be less fear of us. There would be less hatred in people because of us. So, the climate would be much better. The climate for our presence and growth would be much better if it had been handled like that.
But our movement was left to be exploited by politicians and people of greed. Politicians and people of greed. So, they come and they join the leader. And they join the leader and tell us, we are going to assist you, you have our dollars behind you, you have our voice with you, et cetera. But they have also a plan for themselves. They have a plan to put you in position of where you can open up place...areas for yourself, and when you get an area for yourself, they have plans to come in there too. Maybe they were also not wanted in that particular area. So, they'll plan your coming into that area and your coming into that area, will open up that area for them to come into that area also. And then they know that you have been deprived of a history or tradition of successful community life. Success at community life. So, they know they are the better prepared. They're the better equipped, they're the better prepared to succeed at community life. So, when you get in there, they get in there too because of you getting in there and then they come in and get the great benefit. They establish themselves, they become rich, they open up businesses and this and this, finance...financial institutions and everything and just bloom and blossom. High level, high level, high level of production. And you're still struggling on the top of the earth, like a little bug.
Now I only say bug because the brothers talking about bugs and I don't know whether he was trying to tell me, "Well Brother Imam I bug you a lot, but I'm an intelligent bug" (laughing...Allahu Akbar). I think that's what he was trying to say. He's also a friendly bug and I wouldn't kill him; I'll just open the window or the door and try to get him out the house without hurting him (Allahu Akbar...laughing). Yeah, I think he's gone. I don't see him. I think he had to catch a plane. He might be bugging somebody at the airport right now (laughing).
Yeah, you brothers if something happen to me you have to take my place. Any of you here that think you can do that and I hope you think you can do that, because you have to think you could do it, to do it (laughing...Allahu Akbar).
Remember that it ain't all roses. Lord not. And a lot of thorns (laughing). Allahu Akbar. The life. The real life, the true life of the human family. Allah didn't create us to have the life of Arabs. Now I know you like that. Allah didn't create us to have the life of Africans. Some of you like that. Allah didn't create us to have the life of European people. Allah didn't create us to have the life of African American people, Negros. No. Allah created us to have the life of the human family (Allahu Akbar). That's the life. The life of the human family.
If we strive for the life of Black people, we're limited by own purpose. Yes, we are limited by own purpose if we strive to have the life of African Americans, or Black people, or Africans, or all Black people, you're limited by your own purpose. What is the life of Back people? What is the life of Africa? It may be, it used to be glorious at one time, but they don't have it now. There's nothing over there that I want to go shop for, not in terms of the life that I want. And that's not to put Africa down, that's the state of fact for me, that's all. Yes. Okay.
The reason why a certain people have been successful in rising above other people in the world and getting respect from other people in the world for a great achievement, is because they didn't go after tribal life. They didn't go after Irish life. They didn't go after English life. They went after ideal human life (Allahu Akbar Brother Imam). Human life is what pulls all other life up. All other life rises up as human life rises up. Human life will lift all other life up. Human life.
We look at our educators and our leaders and we think, "Oh", how do you measure them? What criteria do you use to understand their achievements? Do you say, "Oh, oh, he was well educated that's how come he was so successful." What about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad who was not educated at all (Allahu Akbar)? Had to teach himself how to write. Had to teach himself how to read. He told me I couldn't even write my own name in a nice hand. See, I had to struggle to do that until I got nice penmanship.
My father told me that. He only had three years elementary education in the South, Sandersville, Georgia. In that area, poorest Georgia. Only three years education. What is three years education? Nothing. You have children that have three years, that's in the third year right now. How much education is that? What can you do with that? And three years now is like six years back then and maybe like seven years. Three years a student now in the average good school of these cities, in the United States, that third grader got more education, more knowledge, more skills than maybe the sixth, or seventh grader had when my father was in school. And that's a fact. So, look back there and think, think where my father was in terms of formal education. Nowhere, nothing. But look how successful he was and drawing attention to his cause and having supporters for his cause. Many of us supporting his cause, many African Americans supporting his cause, how successful he was.
We look at Frederick Douglass. So, what really made it possible for that man, who was a slave, to come up north, run to freedom, escape slavery and become a world renowned statesman. Europe knew of him, as well as America, and respected him highly as well as America. So, what was it? Was it his education? He was mostly a self-taught man himself, Frederick Douglass. We know later he went to school and he achieved, yes. He was an educated man, he was an educated man, but this man was rising all the time before he acquired those degrees of that education. He was rising. So that tells you that there was more motivating him and more supporting his rise than just formal education.
Formal education is a must. I know, we have to have it. But if you are intelligent and you have a great cause, a great aim, as Booker T. Washington said, or as the artful Marcus Garvey said, you can succeed in spite of your lack of formal education. The greatest reformers of this earth in the history of mankind were not educated formerly. Moses was not educated formerly. Jesus Christ, peace be on him, too was not educated formally. Muhammad, the last Prophet, was not educated formally. And when you look at the world to see who has the greatest influence in this present world, it's the followers of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, peace be upon them.
This is the reality. And I'm not just talking. I'm choosing my words like I would choose my steps if I was walking a tightrope. You ever went to the circus and saw tightrope walker? You see how carefully they walk? They step? They don't want to fall down; they want to get to the end where they have to go. Well, I'm choosing my words like a tight walker, choose his steps or her steps.
This is no play thing. This is no guesswork. I'm trying to share with you what has started the world of civilization, and what redeems the world of civilization when it becomes uncivilized, and what the whole world of people has to come under one day. Don't mean everybody will know it or understanding it, but they will come under it one day. And that day is very close by. You hear me? That day is very close by, when the whole world is going to be under leadership. World leadership. [...].
Yes. And I have studied it. I have studied the sacred words, and I have seen it with my own eyes and it has equipped me to communicate it to the wise and saintly people of this world. And they hear it and they understand it, while most of you do not. And they welcome me. The light is on for me in the whole world. There are no dark areas anymore for me.
And I'm telling you that if you just have faith like I have. Faith that brought me to where I am now. For many, many years I was struggling for the right understanding. Struggling for the right picture. Struggling for light in the dark areas. My faith was strong to start with and as G-d began to bless me with understanding of the sacred word and understanding of the mission of the last Prophet Muhammad, my faith began to be increased, increased, increased. So now it's so strong till, (laughing) I believe it's impossible for people to stop me (Allahu Akbar).
Yes. You know the statement should be, that I believe it's possible for me to succeed. No. I believe it's impossible for people to stop me (Allahu Akbar. Takbir. Allahu Akbar) because 
G-d approves what I have chosen to be as a human person. G-d approves of what I've chosen to be as a human person. And G-d is going to protect that life. Yes. And that life lives for 
G-d, doesn't live for itself, that life lives for G-d. Because the person who has that life, that person knows that it only has that life because G-d has favored it with His Mercy. Yes. That G-d has selected that person, favored that person with His Mercy and sent His angels to guide that person and to assist that person, when that person needs that help until that person arrives where that person wanted to be. The way I wanted to be. I wanted to be comfortable with myself. Isn't this the need that drives all of us? We want to be comfortable with ourselves.
Sometimes, the sister marries a man that she thought was going to make a good man for her. And she's an honest, faithful woman and she's a hardworking woman too, she doesn't mind working and helping him out. But the more she helps him out, the more she sees that he's doing wrong. The more she helps him out the more time he's got to go out and flirt. So now she's thinking she made a mistake, I got the wrong man. This man looked like he didn't want nobody but me, until I start helping him out, freed him up so he had more time on his hands, now he's got time to go out there and just flirt. So, he goes out and he's flirting all the time making my life miserable. Now I have to give him up. Cut this man loose. And sometimes it's hard, you know, but to have the life that you can be comfortable with, a lot of these sisters they cut that brother loose. Cut him a loose. She says, "You know I love you the same as I always loved you. Nothing can get you back in the door."
I heard one say, "You know what these other women are to me?' And I heard that sister say, "What?" "Nothing!" She said, "Well, just go on back out there with nothing". (Laughing).
So, everybody wants the life that they can be comfortable with. Man, woman, child. Everybody. We want the life that we can comfortable with. The problem is that sometimes we get the life that we think will make us happy. Well later down the road it terribly disappoints. Disappoints us. Disappoints us. And then we have to choose again. We have to work again to establish ourselves and the life that we think will make us comfortable. This is the history not of a person or individual, but this is the history of nations. This is the history of nations.
Nations are the same. They struggle, they come up and they struggle for the life that will make them comfortable. "Oh, the life that will make us comfortable is the life of environmental beauty. And let us make a G-d to this dream of ours, and let's call this G-d the G-d of Beauty." This is a history of nations and they will erect a great G-d to their aim, to their purpose in life. And they will call that G-d maybe Apollo or something (laughing). Maybe Apollo, the G-d of Beauty.



