03/22/1997
IWDM Study Library
OUR JOB AS BUILDERS IN CREATION

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

IWDM: As-Salaam-Alaikum.
IWDM: That is peace be unto you. We praise G-d, and we say thanks and the praise is due to G-d, the Lord Sustainer of the world who cares about his creation, and especially his human creation. And he has given us as a human example, the model of human life excellence in Muhammad the Prophet, the seal of the Prophet, Muhammad, Ibn Abdullah; Muhammad, the son of his father, Abdullah. Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the prayers and the peace be upon him.
We are happy to be here in this city Philadelphia; this beautiful place in the Philadelphia Center, Convention Center, yes.
Audience: Pennsylvania.
IWDM: Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, I knew something that was not going quite right with that; Pennsylvania Convention Center. And to be back in the city that we still call the City of Brotherly Love. I'm sure that all the citizens here know this city as a City of Brotherly Love. This is the city of the Liberty Bell, too, that rings out for freedom. And when I came here as a young minister for my father who sent me here late 1958. My father told me, he said, "Son,"---in case someone is not aware of who my father was, Elijah Muhammad told me, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he said, "Son," he said, "I'm sending you to the City of Brotherly Love."
And I didn't know what that meant, until after I came here and lived with you for about three years. Years later, like 15 years later, I reflected back on that, and recalled what my father told me. I said, well, that's exactly what I found, brotherly love. Yes, a brotherhood was formed, that is strong enough to withstand anything that may come against it; the love that we experience for each other as Muslims, and as supporters of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in the Nation of Islam.
So strong, that I repeat, it can withstand anything that comes against it. This is what happened for us throughout America. Wherever we go in America, we can find some small group. Yes, yes, yes. We recall Muhammad Speaks; we can't help but recall it. It paid bills when nothing else would.
Yes, wherever I go, where the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was known personally by anybody, personally by anybody; there's a strong following and a strong support there for my leadership today. Now that's no accident, that's G-d.
That was the doing of G-d. G-d, the Almighty Lord who cares for us all, that was his doing. And I value that more than I value my physical life; because that is the life, that's the real life. Islam now, as we understand it, G-d blessed us to come into the understanding of the true religion of Islam from the Quran, from the holy book the Quran. And from the Muhammad the Prophet, upon him be peace, who is the leader of all the Muslims we have on this earth, whether they know it or not.
Their leader is Muhammad, the Prophet, who was born in Mecca, venerable Mecca; the sacred city of Mecca over 14 centuries ago. And now his following has grown to well over a million-- of a billion, one billion people. Well over one billion people, that is the whole population for human beings on this earth is estimated now, the recent to be about five billion plus. And if you take that one billion and look at it in that five, then if we could put people, line people up according to what they believe in, one out of every five of those people- persons would be Muslim.
One out of every five would be Muslim. And this is what was predicted, this is where Allah promised us in the Quran with his words. And this is what the prophets also predicted. We don't think of Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon him, as a prophet who made predictions; but his life, when we look at it, and his sayings, when we study his sayings, we can see that his life and his words, and his life, gave us many predictions, and many of them have come true already. They have come true already.
And one of them is that the followers in Islam would be more numerous, many more in number, than the followers of Judaism or Christianity. We haven't yet become as many as Christians, but we are still growing and growing fast, growing fast in all parts of the world. Europe, Asia, Africa, America, the islands, everywhere. People are looking at Islam and they are choosing it to be their religion. You know, I didn't tell you that to say that this news is what we need to support our spirits. No, that's not the news that supports my spirit, because you can have many numbers and poor quality.
And you have just more problems than more help. If we want help for the religion of Islam, that it helps to promote the religion of Islam and presented in the right picture, we have to have more than numbers. We have to have growth in quality, growth in the content of the believer who says he's a Muslim; growth in the content, thank you. This is not liquor, is it? [Crowd laughs] “Pure water”, thank you.[crowd laughs] Muslims do not drink liquor, not even beer. Not even wine, not even a sip.
No. G-d said to us, "Stay away from it." It is the work of the devil, Shaitan, Satan. Stay away from it. Yes. Now you know what Satan makes something for you. If you take it, you're in trouble. [crowd laughs] That's enough for me. If G-d doesn't want me to have it, I don't want it. That's right. All I have to know is G-d doesn't want me to have it, I don't want it. If I'm weak, I'm going to try to be strong, right? It doesn't mean that I can obey to the letter and perfectly everything G-d wants in me. But I sure feel bad when I know I'm not obeying.
And just feeling bad when I know I'm not obeying makes my good side stronger. And one day I'll be better, and better, and better, and better. And that's all Allah want from us, that we be better, and better, and better, and better. We can never be perfect, only G-d is perfect. Okay, so much for that. I feel at home. Am I at home?
Audience: Yes, at home.
IWDM: Yes. I used to have an address here.
Audience: Yes sir, you still got one.
IWDM: Thank you very much. I know I've been away a long time, but I'd like to think that I still have an address here in Philadelphia.
Audience: Yes, you are.
IWDM: Thank you very much. Alright, yes, I would like to before going addressing the heart of the topic or the message that I would like to give you today. I would like for us to just see the presence of G-d's will and help in our history. You know some of us think---well, this is not because I'm with my old friends that I'm talking like this. It may have something to do with it. But those who travel with me, they'll tell you, that “no he talks like this when he's not visiting his old friends”.
Many of us in religion, especially in Islam, whatever idea we have in our mind that is right, any good that happened to us before we had this idea, we don't want to say G-d did that. We want to say, we tend to want to say “oh, before I had this religion, G-d--, I couldn't get no help from G-d, and G-d didn't do anything for me”. Do you think the G-d of heavens and earth will withhold his help from you because you don't know how to turn to him? You don't have to know how to turn to G-d.
If you have a good heart--- even if your heart ain't that good--- if you need help from G-d, and it can’t come from somewhere else, G-d is going to give you that help. I don't care what, where you are, what you believing in, you could be Christian, Muslim, Jew, whatever you are. If you need G-d, and no one but G-d can come give you what you need, G-d obligates himself to come to you, to help you. That's the kind of G-d we-- we don't have no small peanut-head G-d. We have the G-d, the real G-d, who's so big that the whole world can't hold him.
Now this is not just Islam, this is the Bible. Solomon said when he was building the temple, he said I build this temple, but I know this temple can't hold you. He said not even the heavens of heavens can hold you. He means the whole skies, all the skies, all the space that he can see, he said can't hold you. And then we have a religion that tells us that Allah is bigger than the whole creation.
He's bigger than all the space we can imagine. G-d is bigger than that. That's what we say, when we say, "Allahu Akbar." Yes, so we know that, that G-d --- G-d is so big, he contains all the creation in his one hand. This is the Quran. This is Quran, says “all the creation”, that means earth, stars, the moon, the sun, whatever's beyond that bodies, heavenly bodies beyond that, says “he holds it all in his one hand”. Now you know G-d doesn’t have---look like this. In Arabic, hand means control, it means that G-d hold all of that in one control.
He had many controls, but he holds all of the heavens and earth in just one control. And really, hand means for us control, too. I'm going to handle you if you don't handle yourself. Handle you if you don't handle yourself. [laughs] So it means control in our language, too, in English. Yes, wonderful. So Muhammad the Prophet, prayers and peace be upon him, He is recorded to have said, as it is in the great collection of Bukhari, may G-d be pleased with him, and Muslim, those two recorders of the life Prophet Muhammad, and his deeds, his works and his sayings are recorded there.
That our prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon him, he said to his people, "Those who are of excellent behavior now, were of excellent behavior before." Ah I'm sorry; he put it this way, "Those who are of excellent behavior before are of excellent behavior now." So he was saying then that before we became, before you became Muslims, you had excellent behavior. We'll, I'm sure all of his followers knew they were to thank a lot for their excellent behavior. Because even the prophet wouldn't take credit for his excellent behavior, without saying it came from G-d.
They were complimenting him once, this is just preliminary, and we’re giving a kind of introduction. They were complimenting him once, and they asked him about his Jinn, you know Jinn. Jinn is the creature that are not angels, and not human, Jinn. And we are taught that every human being has angels guarding his life for him or her, but also Jinn that it's in our makeup. It's in our human make up, Jinn. And Jinn gave prophets trouble! Not just individuals.
We have a Jinn tempting Solomon, the prophet Solomon, upon him be peace. They asked the prophet, they said, "Oh, messenger of G-d, did you have a Jinn?" He said, "Yes, but my Jinn became Muslim." Did you hear that? He said yes, he said yes, but my Jinn became Muslim. That was a wonderful Jinn wasn't it that accepted Islam, became Muslim---I would say---not accepted Islam. That was a wonderful Jinn that became Muslim in Muhammad's life, in Muhammad's body.
That Jinn became Muslim. Yes, there are many of us; we had Jinns; when we were—with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. We had Jinn. I don't know if our Jinn became Muslim. I know I was fighting mine; I had to fight my Jinn. Sometimes I had to fight him, he pops up, and every now and then he pops up now. [laughs]. Yes, but we had excellence. What was that excellence? The police department when we were getting in the news under the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, getting in the press a lot on TV, it was reported that the police department said, "One thing we know of these people, they believe in being clean, they believe in working, they’ll give you an honest day's work," he said, "And they are very manner able and disciplined." That's excellence, that's excellence. And we know that people who have gotten to know the followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, since that early-- I would say presentation of his community or his Nation of Islam people on television and in the news, they have come to agree and say the same thing that the police-- that persons in the police department said of us.
They say “they are manner able, they're clean, they dress well, they're very disciplined. So this is an excellence that we had then. And that excellence was the gift of G-d. It was the blessings of Allah; it was the blessings of Allah. And you who've kept that excellence, you have been protected by Allah. A prophet said of his own excellence that he didn’t give in to sin he said it is because of mercy, of the mercy of Allah, because of the mercy of G-d.
And we know the prophet Joseph or Yusuf in the Quran, he was tempted by the ladies. Not these little small ordinary ladies like the one that got OJ Simpson, working in a restaurant. You know it wasn’t no little ordinary lady like that. The prophet Joseph, peace be upon him, Yusuf, he was tempted by big ladies; the head lady in the most powerful nation of that time. The head ladies, and all of her ladies in her service, were just drunk in the head, in love with Joseph, Yusuf.
And they tried to seduce him, they tried to seduce him, and he could not be seduced. And what does Allah say of that? Says, "Surely, the amorous self, the self that is powered by passion, is headed for corruption, except for the mercy of G-d," illa except for whoever G-d has shown his mercy. So G-d has shown his mercy obviously to Joseph, peace be upon him. And Muhammad said that G-d showed, gave him mercy, that G-d was merciful to him, and protected his soul, gave him a soul that would be protected from these temptations.
Yes, praise be to Allah. And I have come to learn that if we are of excellence, if we have anything great, it is because G-d has been merciful to us. G-d has been merciful to us. And this is the Christian religion, too. We don't believe that we have anything of good, because of ourselves, without G-d. No. It's because of G-d being merciful to us, being merciful to us. The grace of G-d, the mercy of G-d, and the grace of G-d. So much for that; now, what was that all to say?
We have to stop this thing that we got in our community, some thinking one way, and others thinking another way, about the good and the excellence in the time of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Some don’t want to even mention it. They don't even mention that you had some blessings in the time of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, because we were jahiliyyah, we were jahiliyyah. Well, the Prophet didn't treat the jahiliyyahs like that.
He said, "Those who were of excellent behavior in the time of Jahiliyyah, they are of excellent behavior now." So that was a tribute that he was saying to those people who were excellent before the message of Islam came to them. So how come we can't be the same? How come we can't have the same kind of reasoning when it comes to the excellence that we're proud of, and I'm proud of my excellence; my mother and father raised me to not to be a liar, to not to be a thief, to not to be lazy or idle.
They taught me this, they put this in-- They burn that into me, and they taught me not to drink liquors, not to take drugs. They taught me not to be a whoremonger, and you can search my life all over this country where I've been, and you will find a witness will tell you that that man is not that kind of man. He did not do those sins. They'll tell you that. I know I couldn't do that by myself, because I see a lot of things that I had to choose. I'm raw [Laughs].
Every day you know this world it publishes, oh it publishes this stuff. You don’t have to look for it, it's right in your face all the time, and I know that my salvation is not my doing, it's the mercy of G-d. And G-d has put me from a child in circumstances that would protect me, and give me strength and support. That's the mercy of G-d. So don't come here feeling that you can't think yesterday, you can't remember yesterday. You can't applaud yesterday. No, don't think that way, but applaud today even louder, than you applaud yesterday.
Allah says that we should glorify G-d with the spirit and with the glorification greater than that we gave our false G-d. That's what Allah says to us in Quran. So now we know the religion as we understood it from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, was not correct? We know we were worshiping false G-ds, while having the real G-d in our soul and in our--beat in the heart, but we were worshiping visually with our eyes, false G-ds.
And if we could jump to our feet and thank Allah for the Honorable Elijah Muhammed, we should be louder today for the new day and new knowledge, and new time, and new direction, and new future. [Audience takbirs] So if you call me your leader, then I'm giving you an order. Do not knock any good of yesterday, but see it as a foundation that we didn't have to build, while we are building the new structure of the day, and that's Islam. You don't go knocking down things that are good. You look for an opportunity to build more good on what is already there.
And that's how come your leader has been successful with you. I have built on what ---on the good that was already there. I built upon it to complete this edifice. That is the real Islam today. Praise be to Allah in our hearts, in our houses, in our homes, in our schools---if we have our schools, and definitely in our messages, our places of worship, our mosques. To build this life that is really Islam, for ourselves this is our life. Don’t you know that, too? This is important; Islam is not something that comes to you that had nothing to do with you.
Islam is something that comes to you that had something to do with you. Islam is your inheritance. This is Islam. Islam is your inheritance. Islam is your inheritance. What does that mean? It was my property before I knew it. G-d created me to have it, but the world did not permit me to have it. So now G-d has revealed it to His prophet, so I can have my own property. Islam is human property; human property, and yours and my human property. That's Islam.
It's not something that your nature didn't want; it's something that your nature was missing. And your soul was lonely. Your soul wanted to be filled. There was too much emptiness there. It was hungry for something that it couldn't see or touch or know, but it just understood that it's missing something in there. Then when Islam came, the soul rested like a little newborn baby. Eh! Why? Because that wasn’t something that was foreign to you coming to you that was your property coming to you.
How come Muhammad is chosen to be the last prophet? And how come G-d says of Muhammad to us? He says that Muhammad, in the Quran, "Muhammad has already lived a lifetime with you"; a lifetime with you, what did that mean? Before G-d called him and gave him the message of Islam, through the angel Gabriel, peace be upon them, G-d says of him that he had already lived a lifetime among you. And what was that lifetime? It was a lifetime of human excellence.
For forty years he had lived, from birth till a 40-year-old man. And G-d called him, and G-d saw all that 40 years before his call that he had lived the life of a Muslim. Muhammad had lived the life of a Muslim for 40 years before Allah called him. Not a Muslim in the classical sense. Not a Muslim in the sense that we know, the formal, classical sense that we understand Muslim now. But he lived a Muslim in the same sense that Islam tells us that the moon is a Muslim, the earth is a Muslim, all heavenly bodies are Muslims, and that every human being, these are the words of the prophet now I'm giving you now, prayers and peace be upon him. He said every child is born a Muslim. You're born a Muslim, saying “it is the circumstances that the baby is put in that makes it something else.” So Muslim is your nature then, isn't it?
And I guess that's why we were taught to say: “And who is my own self or what is my own self?” You were taught that. You recall it? Let me see the hands of those that recall it. Wow. I thought so. [Laughter] I just wanted to know. You think these people will be lost? No, praise be to Allah. Yes, we were taught---we were given a question and were taught how to answer it saying, “And what is my own self?”
You know, the biggest problem that was created for us by our separation from Africa, from our ancestors, fatherland, motherland, separation from whatever religion we had, separation from whatever cultural life we had, from whatever social life we had, the separation from that life, business life, political life, whatever life we had, you know what that separation did, more than anything else? It created for us an identity problem.
[There is apparently a break or pause in the recording for approximately 30 seconds]
A reform teacher tell us we’re something else, we readily grab it. Say “Oh the Moorish American reform teacher Noble Drew Ali, may G-d bless him with paradise, he taught us to say we are Asiatic, Asiatic. And Fard used the same language when he came, he used the same language, but he just added black man, Asiatic black man. You remember that?
Audience: Yes, sir.
IWDM: Who is a colored man? Who is the original man? Do you remember those questions?
Audience: Yes.
IWDM: I do, too. Now, so Marcus Garvey came along, and he put our minds on Africa. Now remember, these two men were living in the same time, too. Their communities were thriving in the same time. He put emphasis on Africa, so a lot of his followers, they were Afro-centric, and they identified strongly with Africa as Africans. Along comes the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and he stressed color because the white man was stressing color. The white man was stressing color, that he’s white and we black. So now the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was taught by his teacher Fard, who in his lessons said we are the Asiatic black man.
He said that in his lessons, we’re the Asiatic black man. But the Honorable Elijah Muhammad just used the black. I don’t blame him. That’s exactly what I would have done. See, Fard was a psychologist. He was a head doctor, not a foot doctor. He was a head doctor. And, uh--he wanted us to have a problem with his language; so that we would be in a mental situation to accept change in language.
He didn’t want the language to be comfortable for us. He wanted us to have language that’s not comfortable for us, in hope that one day when things got better, and we didn’t have to address these evils all the time, some of these evils would be gone from America, that we would be in a situation to come up with a better language. He saw himself coming in the role of Christ---Christ and what did Christ say? This is not in the Quran, this is the Bible.
Christ said, “Tear this temple down. Destroy this temple.” That’s the word. If you’ve ministers, ----any ministers here; yes, I’m familiar with the Bible. He said, “Destroy this temple, and I will build it up in three days.” Isn’t that what he said? “Destroy this temple, and I will build it up in three days.” Now, you know, they think of the temple being the body, the flesh and blood body. “Destroy this temple and I will build it up in three days.”
Apply that to the flesh and blood body according to the scripture that doesn’t gel. Why? Because the scripture said he was saved, his body went up to heaven. That’s according to scripture. Says his body went up to heaven, they couldn’t destroy his body. Yes, they attempted to kill and destroy his body, but his body was raised up to heaven. So it could be understood by a translation, we have to translate it. It’s talking not only about his teachings---that’s the real body was his teaching---it’s not talking just about his body, it’s talking about those who were with him, the people with him. That’s the real temple is the congregation in Christ, the congregation in Christ. So the congregation in Christ is destroyed, and then the world came again -- He told the world, according-- this is the Bible now, don’t confuse it with Islam, I’m not teaching you Islam now, I’m quoting their scriptures and their teaching.
He told them that they were going to suffer. The world was going to come against them, and they were going to be given even worse than he was receiving. And after his passing from them, I won’t say death we don’t accept that G-d’s servants die. And after his passing from them, that’s what happened. The cruel world came against his followers, and so miserably treated, so cruelly treated them, and subjected them to so much misery, to destroy the message in them, to destroy their faith and the word that had been deposited in them.
Yes, but they outlived it. They outlived their tormentors. They outlived the time of torment, and the seasons changed to favor them. And they rose up in great numbers, and those who had oppressed them became members in the temple. Rome---Rome, Caesar is the one who gave approval, approved of the execution, and the things that were being done. You know, so let’s apply this to us now. We were in the temple, weren’t we? We were in the temple? Who knows what Fard said?
Fard might have said, “I came into the world for this purpose to die, to be sacrificed, to be killed and rise again.” Not rise again in that-- but rise again in the purpose. I’m convinced that no matter how strange the work of Fard is, his purpose was to put us in a situation to survive the cruelties of the times, until a better season to come and we could rise in true Al Islam. I’m convinced of that as I’m convinced that this is water.
Praise be to Allah. So do you believe that G-d acts in mysterious ways? That’s a saying among Christians. I do. Now, G-d called Jonah, didn’t he? And G-d told Jonah to go warn a wicked city, Nineveh, didn’t he? And Jonah didn’t do it. Now you may say Jonah heard the word of G-d and disobeyed, but I know better. Jonah didn’t hear G-d. G-d told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell Nineveh, but Jonah didn’t hear G-d. And Jonah was on a ship out at sea, and he shouldn’t have been there.
Not only was he where he shouldn’t be, but he was fast asleep there. And he shouldn’t have been fast asleep in those serious times. So G-d caused a mighty wind to come and rock his boat. And the people that were responsible for the boat, in whose hands were the ship and the cargo to keep it safe and take it to its destination; they wondered why are we having this problem? I guess they had been traveling that way for many, many months and years, and they never ran into ---this was an unusual happening, they weren’t supposed to run into any storm. So they said -- Everybody gets a little superstitious when you can't find any answer. So they said, “There’s a man on this boat, and we don’t know that guy. He’s down there in the hull of the boat, sleeping on the cargo. Go down there and get him." They went down there and got him, and they just felt sure that he was the problem. And they threw him off that boat into the raging waters. And when he got out there in that trouble, he called on the Lord only after he was swallowed up by a big fish.
I guess he said, "Hell, it ain't no cargo here to sleep on! Ain't no cargo here to sleep on! It ain't comfortable in here. Oh, Lord. Oh, G-d." And G-d heard him, and G-d responded to him, and caused the big fish to feel nausea at something distasteful in my stomach, and it rushed to the seashore, forcefully and spit him out, and puked him up on the sand. Now, why can't I say the same of my experience? That G-d called me, and I didn't hear him.
And he told me stand before America, and give America my message. But I didn't hear Him. There I was resting in a ship, sleeping on the cargo of other people, wasn’t my cargo. I'm there sleeping in a ship on the cargo of other people, and they picked me up. That boat was rocking and carrying on, and they threw me overboard and I fell into the raging waters. And I was worse off than Jonah. I didn't read where he couldn't swim, I can't even swim. I'm just kicking and beating the water.
Here come that big fish, swallowed me up, I'm in there, opening, pulling my eyelids, and can't see a thing, pitch black, pitch black; said Oh Allah, Oh Allah Oh Allah the big fish went straight for the sand. Phew! And I fell out on the sand. I looked at myself, I don't know what happened to my clothes, I was butt-naked. So I have to give you the rest of The Jonah Story; Jonah couldn't give it to you. I had a three day journey---I had a three day journey and I met a word from my Lord, and I got on my job. Isn't that wonderful?
See these parables, these stories, these parables are given to us as a picture of circumstances that man falls into, and how the mighty will of G-d, the mighty plan of G-d for the human soul works his way. It works in us while we are asleep, when we don't know it. Now I didn't know, Jonah didn't know, but G-d knows always, and G-d is all the time knowing and present, and aware of everything in your circumstances. And G-d has willed that the human soul be delivered from all captivities and stand free to serve G-d. G-d has built that.
So I know that G-d has been present in my life from the time I took the first breath, to this very day. But I had to wait G-d's time, G-d has His clock and we have our clock. I had to wait G-d's time, thank G-d His time came for my soul to stand free before Him, free of all captivity, and that's you, too. Praise be to Allah. So much we need to review sometimes, we need to stop and before we do the thing that we are eager to do or anxious to do; stop and count your blessings, before you became in charge of the matter.
Yes, before we became into charge of the matter, G-d was helping us, and with us, and supporting us, and Blessing us, and getting us closer and closer to the great meeting with Him. So when Jonah came upon that boat as a-- what do you call those guys that are on the boat that aren’t supposed to be on there? (Audience: “Stowaways”)---stowaways, thank you. {Imam Mohammed responds to a comment coming from the audience. He repeats the comments then responds to it.] “The Imam doesn’t have a script.” Yes I do Don't you ever think that. I never come before you without a script, but I'm a free man.
All right. Not even my script can hold me if I want to walk off from the script, I'll do it. Yes, don't ever think that G-d was not with you, if G-d was with Jonah, to see him go where he's supposed to go; if we are lost, don't you know G-d is with us? And if we move from place to place, is G-d with us, calling us to go from place to place? Now this is going to be a little hard on you. Yes, they came to Africa with the slave ships from Europe, and they loaded up the ship with merchandise that was my mothers and fathers, and your mothers and fathers.
And some of our people had my mother or my father, or both captive? Because they had wars, and they had regional wars, and they had captives, and some of my people were glad to get rid of a person that they had captured in war, and sold me or my mother, not me personally, but my mother, my father, fore fathers and mothers, sold them to a slave trader. The slave trader brought them on the boat, and brought them here across the water, many of them died, committed to suicide, jumped overboard.
But obviously those of my parents forefathers were not thrown overboard because I'm here, they didn't die, I'm here. All right. If G-d had selected Jonah, and he's on the ship sleeping; why can't you accept that I say G-d selected my forefathers and mothers that were brought by ship to this land and they were on the ship and they were unaware, too, like Jonah? They were unaware of their calling. They were unaware of their purpose.
And they were thrown off the ship into slavery. And I guess that's worse than the fish. Thrown off the ship into slavery; they became even a worse captive now; captives on a ship, not captives in slavery. They are going to have generations of miserable existence. Yes, their children are going to be born in that miserable condition, and you'll know nothing else but what they are born into. If we can believe that G-d was with Jonah on the ship while he didn't know it, that G-d had selected him, and G-d was going to see him get to where he's supposed to go.
How come we can't believe that G-d was with us? When our parents were on the ship, and G-d was going to see that we get where we should go. G-d never punish you for nothing; he never punishes you for nothing. The message of Islam came to Africa, and the Africans didn't respect it like they should have. And they suffered then, but even more they are suffering now. They have no more dignity now, most of them than we have now on welfare; us who own welfare, getting paycheck from the taxpayers, officially from our government.
There are big nations over there in Africa---nations over there in Africa--- they are existing waiting on a paycheck. They are waiting on the assistance check to come from the industrial nations. This is their condition; we talk about Africa, great Africa. Where is great Africa? When there's poverty and starvation, widespread. When there's no strong industry there. Egypt in Africa, under President Abdel Nasser, was able to produce their first automobile. What automobile does Africa produce? Can we send to Africa to get some G-d washing machine, electric stove or gas stove?
Can we have call there and say we want so many school buses made for us. It'd be wonderful, wouldn't it? If we could call to Africa and our situation would be financially good enough for us to call to Africa and say we want motherland to send us, to make or manufacture so many school buses for us, for our school system. We are going to use your school buses. We are going to call them Fez Morocco school buses or Timbuktu school buses.
That would be wonderful, but we can't do that. Because they on welfare too. They're deeply in debt to the Western powers, deeply in debt to the Western powers, and still got their hands out asking for more. They're on assistance, do you hear me? Wake up! Africa is on assistance. It has to have public aid from America, Europe or some other industrial nation. So, yes, circumstances. They're being whipped for some reason. They're getting a spanking for some reason. Okay, so here we are in that bad situation on a slave ship.
For our people, good people, had they honored their calling; if they had, we would never been on the ship. Nobody would have seen, nobody would have looked at Africa and say, "Here's a place where we can get what we want." We would have been so strong in our excellence as servants of G-d, they would have never thought to come to us for slaves. So don't think we were innocent. But the human soul is innocent. The human soul is innocent. The mind goes astray. The soul always knows G-d.
All it needs is an opportunity, to have a chance to have a communication again with its Lord. And it will repent, and it will go to his job; if the head doesn’t interfere. See while I'm talking there are some of you all interfering, I feel static in the lines of communication. Not many of you all, just a few you out there doing that. And it is not your soul that's doing that, it's your crazy head, in the way of communication.
If you just stop thinking about that stuff that messes up your mind, buddy you'll be travelling real nicely with us. And believe me, this is the best trip I ever took. Oh so wonderful to travel on the path of Allah. Oh, yes. Now, here we are in America in bad circumstances, and the proof that they captured the soul that belonged to G-d, the proof of it is while we were without knowledge, without education, without even the tongue to speak correct English, dumb deprived slaves in the world sense.
African-American slave woman, she had the courage to speak to the white uppity upees. She said you all look like G-d in your face. Now where did she get that idea from? They gave her that idea; that the face of a human being looks like G-d. She said “you all look like G-d in the face, but you act like the devil in your heart.” Along came others who said “we do not believe G-d want this miserable condition for us. G-d is a G-d of love. G-d is a G-d of justice.” Those were the protesters, who protested the treatment that we were receiving.
So here is Jonah now, waking up to his calling and he's speaking, risking his life. He might be lynched he might be shot, he might be burned at the stake. He's risking his life to speak what he believes is the will of G-d for him, and many of them lost their lives. Yes, many of them lost their lives. They were killed for expressing their minds. But we are here, we are here, their children, we, their children, we're here in a new day, and we have made that three days journey. Praise be to Allah, and our souls now stand freed from all captivity, giving itself to G-d.
Yes. So look, what I have done is given you concrete proof that G-d works through a people, without their knowledge. And that G-d moves further and further ahead His purpose, until the people are free to have the life He created them for. So now don't look at the day and say “Oh, the presence of G-d in my life began last year, or in 19-- when we made hajj to Mecca, with Imam W. Deen Mohammed, or it began in 1975 at the annual savior’s day convention.
No! The presence of G-d in your life began when you took the first breath. In fact, even before then. Before your mother and father conceived you; your purpose was already with G-d, and He started bringing it together when your mother and father came together. And the mother became impregnated, and then we saw a visible sign of G-d's work in you.
This is the way we have to believe, to have the real freedom our souls want. You can't really be free Muslims and feel completely comfortable in your Islam if you don't have this kind of reasoning. You are going to bed afraid to think of yesterday, oh, my mother, she never knew this way. But I know my mother was good, but you're afraid to say it. You're afraid to tell other people. No, stand up for any good, because all good comes from Allah. I don't care what name it comes in.
Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam – I don’t care what name it comes in. All good comes from Allah. That's the teachings in the great religions. G-d is the source of all goodness, and in Islam, we don't attribute anything to G-d except good, and in Christianity, too. The prophet said peace and blessing be upon him. He said, "Allah is good, G-d is good." That's what we are saying, when we say Allah, we are saying G-d. That's Arabic, you don't speak Arabic you speak English. G-d is good. He said G-d is good, and he accepts nothing but good.
Surely G-d is good, tayyiboon wa laa yaqabalu illa tayyibaan. Surely G-d is good, all good. Nothing but good, and he accept nothing but good. So don't go out and sell some drugs, and give it to us, give us some of it as charity. And you think with G-d, you’ve got an account? No, with hell you’ve got an account. With hell you’ve got an account. One more time - with hell, H-E-L-L, you’ve got an account.
So much for that; I hope it's clearly understood. You know a Christian at a meeting high-level leadership meeting, just a few days ago, we were meeting in the Thanksgiving Square, in Dallas, Texas, high-level meeting of religious leaders and a few other people, but it was mainly religious leaders. And this woman told the brothers who were with me, she said “you all are blessed to have this man as your leader. He is so clear” and it’s C-L-E-A-R; it is clear. Now tell me if you can understand what I am saying.
[laughter]
People don’t even know me, white folks? Christians who don’t even know me yet when they hear me they say, “He’s clear.” You won’t be able to use that excuse: talking about “he’s heavy man, just too heavy man. Don’t you have a headache man?" I’ve heard a lot of that coming from you all, “Don’t you have a headache man?" Right in front of me, Imams, yes, right in my face. "Oh, that was heavy I'm going to need an Excedrin?"
[laughter]
Now, I know that there was a time when the language was difficult because I was bringing you all out of the language of mathematical theology into American English-
[laughter]
-and that was difficult, that was difficult, but the plain talk that I gave you shouldn't have been difficult. I always gave you plain, plain talk. Even though I was talking in the language of mathematical theology, I was also giving you plain talk at the same time. You should have specified what it was that was giving you some difficulty. You shouldn’t just say, "His language is difficult, or his methods were difficult. You should say, “This part or these things are difficult for me. And that’s honest. But the main difficulty they were expressing was the difficulty to accept the soul's calling for them to be truthful, righteous, and straight. That was the real thing that was giving them a headache.
[Audience laughter]
This man makes it uncomfortable for me to live with my criminal mind.
[Audience laughter]
Or with my arrogance, you see; that was really the problem that they had, but they blamed it on the language of the past. Let me tell you something brother, when the air is bad that, sometimes the heavens have to cloud up and it becomes so dark, you need a light at noon-day times. And down comes a great pour of rain, washes everything, and floods the land. After awhile the sky opens up and it’s the clearest day you ever saw; the healthiest day for breathing the air has been washed thoroughly. You can breathe better, look up at the sky, oh, it's pretty and blue like it never was.
So I thank G-d for the darkness, I thank G-d for the storm, because it all was worth it to get me before G-d, free of all captivity. Yes, Allah says in the Qur'an “Fight, the oppressors or the rejecters of faith.” Until there is no more persecution and the religion is freed---the religion! And the religion is freed. So they were trying to oppress the religion. They were trying to hold the religion in captivity. They were trying to deny religion the freedom of expression and Allah says “and fight them until there is no more oppression and religion is freed for G-d.”
Huh! And religion is freed for G-d. Some of you all don’t even believe that there is a purpose in your life and that purpose is also freedom. G-d created you to be free, free from all oppression, free from all corruption, moral corruption, free from all captivity. The soul that has to be free to go to its G-d it must not be held captive by man or by any powers other than G-d. So don’t give up your love for the word freedom; we love freedom. Our life was created for freedom. Our brains, our reasoning powers, our intellect was created for freedom, freedom of expression. Sometimes we ourselves are the prison that holds our life captive. So you come to realize that G-d bless you to see it, see his light, you come to realize that you are your own oppressor, that you are your own slave master. You’re holding yourself in bondage and you have to strike out against your own self. You have to say, "Wallace, you’re wrong the way you’re thinking, I have to be free in my soul Wallace, get off my back with that thinking you have in your head." Huh! But some of you are looking around to see who is holding you back-
[Audience laughter]
-and all you need is a mirror.
[Audience laughter]
All right, so much for that; now, we’re living in a time that I say is the best time that we, human beings have been on this earth. This is the time, right now, this time. You know, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is very strict when it comes to doing something as a Muslim. They’re very strict. While some of them when it comes to doing something as an individual, as a person, they are not strict at all; they are not restricted at all.
But when it comes to doing something in eyes of the world that is associated with Islam, or associated with the---now we have Rabita based in Holy Makkah, sacred Makkah; Rabita is the World Muslim League. And the present Secretary General---that’s the Chief, he's the Head; he’s top of the world Muslim league in Makkah he recently said in a very serious communication that he delivered to our congress here in the United States. He said, "America is the greatest nation on earth."
That’s what he said, I have it, I got a copy of it, the whole statement. He was protesting the two-handed way of dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian problem. But he acknowledged in his statement to them that America is the greatest nation on earth. 
Now, I'm beginning my address here, my presentation and I have to catch a plane too. I am not worried about missing that plane. What are you worried about missing?
[Audience chatter]
Yes, he said America is the greatest nation on earth. You know what the scholars are saying of Islam? What the scholars of Islam are saying throughout the world? "We have no Islamic state." That’s what they're saying; that the Muslim world does not have an Islamic state. What are they saying? In case you are not getting it, some of you. They are saying that Muslims don’t have any nation to look to as an Islamic nation, a nation that’s respecting Islam as it should be respected. That’s what they’re saying, no nation.
They include the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that there is no nation that’s really respecting this beautiful great religion Islam or Al Islam. In America, we have Da’wa efforts, propagation efforts, an invitation to Islam efforts. That’s what Da’wa is, an invitation to come on the path of G-d, to come to Al Islam.
So we have Da'wa efforts in America and the efforts in America are freer than efforts in Muslim countries--- freer! And Allah says, fight them so there's no more persecution and the religion is freed for G-d. Is thr religion of Islam freed for G-d in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia? You go there and try to preach. You go there and try to preach it. I won't write you because I know you won't be able to write me back.
[Audience clapping and laughing]
It's reality man, reality bro.
[Laughter]
This world is something else eh? [Laughs] See when you’re jiving with something it won't even come out clear. We want to say, "This is reality brother. This is reality bro.”
[Laughter]
I saw a movie, and the guys said “And that’s the truth, dude”. It should have been just stopped right there “and that's the truth.” Now it’s got impact but if you bring a slang in behind it, it dilutes the statement “and that's the truth dude.” What's happening bro? [Laughs] That's this world so far from reality it can only give you a little reality and a lot of artificiality. [Laughs]
Yes, okay, so here is this great man of Islam--- and believe me I know him. I know the Secretary-General of Rabita. He is a genuine Muslim, an excellent Muslim. I know him personally. I knew him before he got his job before he got that post. I knew him when he was much in much lesser role or office that he is a wonderful Muslim person. And he says of America “the greatest nation,” why, is he looking at the material might only? No. Is he looking at the technology and all that? No. He's looking at more than that.
He's looking at the fact that people are coming from all over the world with their best life that they want to live and can’t live it like they want to where they are, they're coming to America so their best life can have more freedom of expression, a better place to be established. Now it looks like we were being taken from Africa and put in bad circumstances. But now, we look at the whole world and the situation for the world; G-d has by a strange route a perilous journey G-d has brought us to the best situation on earth!!
[Takbir]
Where here is a man without a college degree, don't even have six months college credit, sitting with doctors that’s got many doctorates, not one, many doctor degrees; sitting with the people that's working out the plan for tomorrow for the whole word and there I am with my little self, and my little knowledge---formal knowledge sitting up with them and they say, "Dr Mohammed", "Dr Wallace Mohammed." I say, "Pardon me, I'm not a doctor." They say, "No, you are a doctor."
[Takbir]
So what has lifted the high school boy up to the Doctorate plane of recognition? G-d! Yes. Praise be to Allah. We have to build our unity with respect for our differences. That's the way our unity is going to be strengthened, that's the way we’re going to realize unity, the unity of all good efforts, the agreement for all good efforts. By people, whether they're Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus---whatever.
We're going to have an opportunity for work on this earth to have a united global effort involving all people who want to come and share in it, regardless of their persuasion, religious or whatever to Marshall this movement to get this soul to get closer and closer to the meeting with G-d where it will know that it is completely free of all captivity. Isn't that wonderful?
Audience: Yes.
IWDM: I sit with these people and we are talking. Here, I am to talking to a great Reverend, Chairman, Chief Boss of the Kindness Foundation in Dallas who presided over a congregation of a few thousand members and every one of them off of welfare; never known welfare, and they never knew welfare; powerful and rich membership. And he meets me and he is so humble---not because of me---because that's his nature.
And he's not a Muslim, he's a Christian and he's so humble. He introduced me, I wish you could hear--- I think you're going to hear, I wish you could hear the way he introduced me. He was selected to introduce me when my time came to speak. You should hear the way he introduced me. We sit and we talk about our interests in contributing to a better world for everybody and I forget he's not a Muslim.
I was becoming aware that I'm talking to this person who's not a Muslim. My heart felt so comfortable with him. My spirit felt so comfortable with his but I'm just, my inside I'm just feeling as though I'm with the man of my own faith until something happened to wake me or to get my attention to something matters outside of what's happening, then I see that this is Reverend Don Benton.
And I have that experience with so many people, males and females, males and females. This is important for us to note. We know Allah created us Muslim and this is our original identity. How do we know? Allah tells us in the Qur’an “and we named you Muslims before and in this.” It’s in the Qur’an. So we know that. That means before there were Muslims in history; G-d had already named us Muslims through Abraham---Ibraheem—Prophet Abraham, peace be upon him, and Abraham is called Father, in Islam like he's called father in Christianity and Judaism.
So this is something we should note, that Allah does not call us Muslims when he's talking to us or communicating his message to us not nearly as often as he calls us believers, believers, yaa ayyuhal moominoon, O you you believers. yaa ayyuhal moominoon, O you believers, hardly ever, yaa ayyuhal muslimoon, O you Muslims, hardly ever, but , yaa ayyuhal moominoon, O you believers.
Believers connect us with more than just Muslims because Christians are believers in G-d. Yes, they are. In spite of what some of our enraged, spiritually enraged representatives say. Christians are believers. Among them there is a strong body of believers; Jews among them is a strong body of believers and we could say this of other great religions too, believers. Now, if we would just keep the language that Allah gave us. 
Allah gave us that language to address each other as believers but we have become crusaders. We wear army clothes all the time. The word is a sword and we're ready to kill somebody with it at any time. It can be over the dinner at breakfast, it can be at the cemetery when we bury somebody. We keep our sword on our side and we're ready to go to war and kill somebody at any time, in the name of what? Muslim; we are Muslims brother, we're Muslims!
We have emphasized that so much over the generations that we have lost our identity as believers. Muslim is my nature, Muslim is my unconscious life. It doesn’t become my conscious life without me becoming a Believer. I become a Believer, and the Muslim becomes a conscious expression because now, I am a person of faith. Yes. 
To have this unity grow strong, as the basis for our diversity, listen closely to what I am saying. This unity it needs an acceptance of the diversity, of the differences in order for it to grow, and the differences need the strong support of unity in order for them to be held up. Nothing will hold up our differences but our unity. May hold up our differences when we are separate from each other, separated from each other, you don't need unity to hold because you're in your own world, and you can float in space. You don't have to have a foundation with human beings, you know. Some people’s identity, the unique self that they have chosen for themselves is a self that levitates up here in space, you know, it's not down here on earth.
So to have that, you don't have to come with other people for any unity. You don't need unity; in fact, you can't have it because I am not going to join you there. I don't believe in levitating. No. I believe in gravitating, not levitating. You see levitation is oblivious to all the laws of gravity. And my humanity has great gravity, and it wants to be with my other human brothers and sisters on earth where we can live out our lives. G-d says, that "He put you into Earth, the place where you'll find your needs, the fulfillment of your aspirations".
You have to find them here, faith will be found here on Earth, spiritual salvation, our salvation in religion will be found here on Earth. It says. “This is the place where you will live; this is the place where you come together.” You want humanity to come together, G-d said, "The Earth is the place for us to do that". If we try to do it in our different persuasions, we won't have that togetherness.
What is the common bond for us? The fact that we are human, rational, moral, spiritual, flesh and blood, members of the same human family; and we all are born from our mother’s right here on this Earth, and our mothers need food, clothing and shelter and medical attention. If we don't have these things, we can't have healthy babies. This is a reality for us, so we must have this coming together right down here.
So we make a call for people to come together, and say, come together as human beings, as members in the human race; members in the human race. All of us can answer that call; all of us should come together as brothers of the Earth. All of us can answer that call, needing food, clothing and shelter, freedom, justice and equality, equal opportunity to excel. All of us can respond.
You know, how does Allah tell us to address differences? People believe in one thing and believe in another thing, how are we going to come together? Huh? How are we going to come together? Are we going to come together saying, “We’ll come together, I am a Muslim and you are Christian, we are going to come together, as Muslims and Christians we are going to come together. That’s not how Allah said do it.
Allah said, “Say to them, Let us come to an agreement, upon a word of equality." A word of equality; Huh; a word of equality; what is the word of equality? We are all human beings of the same human race. That's a word of equality, isn't it?
Audience: Yes sir.
IWDM: We all need food, clothing and shelter, that is a word of equality. We all have in our souls the need to be free, a word of equality. It’s a human soul same as yours. You don't have a monkey soul, and I have a human soul. You don't have a baboon soul, and I have a human soul; a dog soul, a cat soul. No, all of us have the same human family, human race soul, human soul. And that's our first soul, that's our first identity, that's our first soul, that's our first self, that's our true self, that's the self was before and that's the self we'll be after we have gone through these other selves that we adapt; Huh; this is the word of equality. We all need good circumstances for our children, we all want a good future for our children. Human souls want that, that's a word of equality.
In the religious community, we all can agree on a word of equality, we all say we believe in G-d, we all say that G-d is one, we all say that the G-d we have is not a stone, is not a clay idol somewhere, or not a dog or a river or a snake. That our G-d is the G-d that made the heavens and Earth, we all say that. Even the Hindus will boil it down to that, Huh; though they have many G-ds, more than most other people, they will reduce all of that, or boil it all down to: “Yes, G-d of the heaven and Earth that is G-d, the one G-d, the lord over everything.” That's the word of equality.
And what is the word of equality expressed in the Quran? The conditions for the word; the conditions for the word is that we don't raise up from among our own family in the human family, let not the black family in the human family, let not the red family in the human family, or the yellow family in the human family, or the white family in the human family lift up from themselves a lord other than the real G-d for us all.
That's the condition given in Allah's book, the Quran. Let us come to a word of equality, a word that we all can appreciate equally, that's what it means. Let us agree on something that all of us though we have differences can appreciate equally. Does any one of us like that someone other than us in the human family, raise up a G-d and say, "This is the G-d." but they raised that G-d up from among their people, and say, "This is the G-d?"
[Tape paused for several seconds]
…cross your mind, and that's the point, to come to equality, to come to an equality is needed for us to come a condition of equality where we are respected equally by what we're involved in and committed to. And also, that we respect the human intelligence, respect the human intelligence, G-d has made us to reason, to think, and to use our intelligence.
Say, don’t tell---don't give me something ridiculous for my plain human sense of intelligence. I can't join you if you are going to do that. Give me something that respects the best of myself. And Muhammad the prophet said, peace and blessing be on him, he said, G-d created nothing better than-- better in its utility, better in its service, G-d created-- in its contribution---pardon me, better in its utility and better in its contribution, and service to G-d; contribution to the bettering of life for human beings.
G-d, (rather) Muhammad the prophet said that “G-d created nothing better than the human brain”, the human brain. The word ‘aql means the human intelligence too; the intelligence, than the human intelligence.
We have a brain that does what other brains can’t do. G-d didn’t give this to other brains. G-d didn’t give what we got to pigs, to cows, to monkeys, to rats. What we got, no, not even to eagles that fly up above the ordinary rainstorm; fly above them, to fly up there under the sun; fly in the sun while the other birds got rain falling on them and they’re in the dark. Eagles flying in the sun; high-flying bird, but he doesn’t have the brain that we got. G-d gave us a brain that’s special, very, very special.
You may say he gave us a heart too that’s very, very, no, no. Your heart is no more special than an animal’s heart; but yes it is. Our heart is loving; some animals love. Some animals love so much, they give up their whole life for you. And I don’t mean die physically, they do that too. They would actually commit-- die physically, give their physical life for you. They give up their own life that G-d created for them, for you. You take the dog and put it in a circus. Allah didn't create that dog for no life in the circus. And they are there stilt walking like a person, walking on hind legs, doing a little dance and stuff that you taught it to do. It’s living for you.
And you can bring it in your house and it will stay with your baby, and just won’t go out to play, it won’t even have sex. Just stay right there where you told it to stay and protect your baby or your house. So don’t tell me you got a heart. Your heart is something special. Your heart is only special because your brain is special. If your brain, your special brain can relate to your heart and your heart relate to your special brain and they mate each other for cooperation and progress and excellence, then you got a heart that’s better than an animal’s heart.
But if your heart is no more helped by a human brain than an animal is, your goodness is no more than the goodness of a rabbit or the goodness of a dog or the goodness of a cow. They have the same goodness. You make love to your wife brother, you make love to your woman and you give her love and you’re--- animal does it better. If you ain’t got something working up here in your head, the animal is doing that better than you.
It just electrifies me sometimes to see liberating truth. Yes, siree. Yes, so we need unity. We must have unity. The same great man, Christian Reverend, Chairman of the Kindness Foundation in Dallas a foundation that’s doing a marvelous job of sensitizing the Dallas citizens for a better world to come. That same man said---I’m not quoting him word for word but I’m giving it to you hopefully as I possibly can---He said, “We all are here, sharing the same place”--- that’s this earth. The earth is too small now. Because of technology, transportation, modern transportation, modern technology, communication, television, media, brings us all together in one room called the earth. He said, “We’re all sharing one place and we all have some place we want to go to have it better and if we get there, we’re going to have to live there together.” That’s plain English me. So we need the unity that will support our diversity. And that unity is given to us in our great religions. G-d created us nafsin wahidah, one soul. G-d created us one soul and that one soul shared itself with its mate, huh, and they became two distinct souls, male and female.
And then they had children and they shared the soul with their children until the world became populated as it is, so many people of different looks, of different minds, et cetera, of different spirits. But to have the peace and the progress for all of us on this earth that has become one living room now, housing us all, we have to return to that spiritual core that we all descended from, that we all were dispersed from. We have to return to that spiritual core. We have to return to that unity of soul in order for us to have support while we are different for unity of purpose and cooperation to make progress on the path.
That’s what we have to have. And we don’t need anything but a recognition that before I was an African, I was a human. Before I was a black man, I was a human man and I can put all of my African I want to put on my human identity; if my human identity is not supporting it, I’m a messed up African. And that goes for anybody else that’s trying to build other identities upon your original identity, upon your essence, your truest identity. It’s not your physical identity, but your human identity.
You’re not dog, you’re not rat, you’re not cat, you’re human and if you forget that, you will put African decoration, black decorations on you and we will look at you and see a G-d damned dog---and excuse my language. It is only for psychological effect.
We must accept our differences. G-d wants us to see value in our common life. Common human connection, more important and above superior to the differences that we have as the one race, another race, one ethnic family, another ethnic family, cultural group and all that. G-d wanted us to see that the more excellent life is the one that he created for us first before he permitted us to be involved in these other different shapes or pictures.
He wanted us to see the single picture as the more important picture. He said, G-d said, “I gave you your picture and I made it beautiful and excellent.” Your picture, and then he also said that, “I give you your pictures---your pictures---more than one when you are in the wombs of your mothers. Right? I give you your pictures when you are in the wombs of your mother so we come out African and Chinese or Asian, Nigerian, Ghanaian, whatever; all these different pictures, you know Russian, whatever.
We come out all these different pictures but G-d says the pictures that he made most beautiful and most excellent is our human picture that he created for us. That he created for us. He created us to be human beings in a human family. And the human life and the human spirit is a directional life and a directional spirit like Jonah. He wasn’t arranged to be where G-d wanted him to be; G-d created him to be. As Allah says he creates man in toil and he progresses him by stage after stage, difficulties sometimes, behind difficulties.
He’s being ushered on to his excellent place where he will stand before his Lord, with his soul fulfilled, huh, soul freed. “O, soul, that has a tendency to want to be pleased. Return to your lord pleasing and pleased.” So here are two conditions G-d is pointing out, I know I skipped about [a couple of words indistinct]. You scientists down there; you high, heavy degree scholars down there that never went to a real school, don't puzzle your brain too much trying to see flaws in what I'm doing. I'm trying to give you the gist of it, I didn't quote it all. Yes, what is G-d telling us with that? That the human soul has inherently---the human soul has inherently by its own nature because of its own makeup, because of how it was made, it has a need in it to have peace and satisfaction. How will we get it? By pleasing the directional urge of excellence in our own soul. So I have to please this unique, special, precious, valuable life that is in my soul, that will not accept to just sleep, it will wake me up. "Hey, you are not making no progress, you should have enough rest now Wallace, get up."
If you just stay in that bed, the life will punish you. After a while you'll be hurting, you won't be feeling good. You only needed seven, eight hours of sleep and you had---you got 16 now and now it’s 17 and 18 and now you are feeling bad; head hurts but you don't have any initiative so you lay they in torment until the body let you sleep a little more and sometimes you just go sleep and two minutes you wake up.
Some of us so damn idle and lazy, we just stay in bed torturing ourselves. The soul already told you long time ago, "Hey, you got enough of this, get up and find some activity." Yes, so let's come down from the clouds. Let's come down from our ideas what is super up there. Come down to earth and see the reality for us while we are living in this life on this physical planet and accept, "Yes, brother, we have to live, we have to live for Allah’s pleasure brother, everything we have to do you have to do it for Allah’s pleasure brother."
We use that to excuse ourselves, the wife wants some pleasure. "It has to be for Allah’s pleasure brother, it has to be for Allah’s pleasure brother." Allah created something for your pleasure that he doesn't share. He is not sharing in it. He doesn't want that. That's beneath, so far beneath and out of the sphere of his reality. That's your reality, not G-ds.
"Yes, brother everything has to be for the pleasure of Allah.” I told sister brother, for the pleasure of Allah. I have to go and stay 40 days brother, in this program, 40 days 40 nights brother and I don't care what the sister says brother. Yes, she told me the bills got to be paid but Allah will take care of the bills brother. I got to do this for the pleasure of Allah.” If you take care of your responsibility at home, brother, that's the pleasure of Allah too.
And Allah does not want us to become so much absorbed in a one-sided perception of what human life is. Human life is serving and pleasing G-d and human life is also severing and pleasing human life; but that life is not just material or flesh. That life is also spiritual. Our life is also spiritual. In fact, our truest human essence, the truest essence is not this meat, not even my emotions not that, not even my thinking, of my mind, not that. The truest essence, the truest me is my spirit because my spirit is an ascending life, it is a moving life, my spirit.
Some people can be put in that---in a position just wiping that wall there. Say, just wash the wall a mosquito get on it and get splash or something or die, or dust accumulate, just wash it off that's all. You don't have anything to do brother, that's your assignment just keep it up. That brother will be just fine, a person they will be satisfied with that and they just stay right there. Say, Hey, man why aren't you doing something, they say “Ain’t nothing to do, there ain’t nothing on the wall brother." He sleeps, wake up and sings, might do some dancing or something anything just passing time waiting for the wall to need some service. But there are the majority of us that's putting us in prison. They tell us to just stand there and wait for that wall to need some service that's putting us in prison. We have to do more than that, our souls say, "Go out and do more. Go out and make more contribution. Go out and do something that is of more benefit to the world of mankind." Our souls move us out of that situation.
We have to have a job, a situation where we can experience more expression of the great talents that G-d deposited in us. Yes, and those are the ones who are following the directional life called the spirit, the spirit. They are following the human spirit, the human spirit---great spirit. So this is where we excel everything else that G-d has made in our intellect if we use it rightly, and if we use it wrongly, we can become the lowest of all creatures on this earth and that’s what G-d says, in the Holy Qur’an, but if we use it correctly, we can rise above all the creatures in value above all the creatures in the creation in the spirit and the intellect.
What makes the human being such a special creation; such a special creation? What animal has a spirit to make a better house for itself and then look at other animals and say, "I can create better circumstances for those animals too that don't belong to my family?" That's the human being. So don't underestimate your value as the creation that G-d made. Don't underestimate that value. You know, if we can give this message from religion to the masses of people in these cities---but we are so ready to pull out our sword, we can't talk the language that G-d has given us to give these people without wanting to pull out a sword and go to war over our differences.
You know, going back a little bit, back so far that you all that weren't with us, if you've never was a member of the Nation of Islam back in time don't try to understand this, it's too far back for you and too far away from your reality.
We were told that once a black, a great black scientist wanted to see all the people speak one language. He wanted to impose his language on everybody, so he decided since they wouldn't do it, he was going to destroy the whole world, the whole earth so he---now, I know what it was, I'm making it easy on these people, don't think I forget how it goes, I know how it goes. He wanted to destroy the whole earth, so he drilled a hole deep into earth until it went past the diameter and he filled the hole up with 100% pure black explosive powder. I know what it says; I know what I'm doing. He filled the whole up with pure black explosive powder and he set it up and he set off, he lit it and set it off since he couldn't have them all speak the same language. And he brought destruction to the planet that we were living on. That's what we were taught, right?
Audience: Yes, that's right.
IWDM: Now, will you now after getting that lesson in that allegory, will you now try to impose your language on all people if you believe in what you were given back there? That's something for Farrakhan to think about. I hope he gets it so, he can accept the beautiful language---of languages---of mankind at the table of unity, peace and prosperity for us all. 
Thank you very much As-Salaam Alaykum, peace be unto you.

