07/31/1994
IWDM Study Library
Good Life for Muslims in Different Communities

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Introduction: Public address by Imam W Deen Mohammed, Muslim American spokesman for human salvation entitled Good Life for Muslims in Many Different Communities.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: Peace be on you. As Muslims greet, As-Salaam-Alaikum.
Congregation: Wa Alaikum Salaam.
IWDM: We praise G-d and say Alhamdulillah. We praise G-d and thank Him, and we seek Him for forgiveness and we seek Him for guidance. We believe in Him and trust in Him and we associate nothing in worship with G-d. We witness that Muhammad is the last prophet, that he is the servant and messenger of the one G-d. The prayers and the peace be upon him. Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Waba’. We salute him with the traditional salute and what follows of that salutation or salute to the last prophet of G-d. We indeed, again, enjoying ourselves in Newark, New Jersey with the Muslims and many believers of the city and the area.
We had a wonderful day with you yesterday. We thank Allah for answering your prayers that the rain wouldn't fall on us and it didn't. And we're thankful again for another beautiful day today. We're very thankful. We are really very pleased to see the response to the invitation to come for the address today, the public address. You have responded so wonderfully; we are very happy that you're here. We have a topic that I think is of interest and should be informative or at least should be refreshing. Especially for those who have been Muslims for a long time and are just beginning
to feel comfortable that we have arrived at that junction that our souls anticipated. Praise be to Allah. You who were with us when we were following the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and heard the many things good that he said. And registered a lot of the good hints too that he made. See, there are some who heard, but didn't hear all because they weren't registering the hints that he was making. So, we thank Allah that there were enough of you who were not just listening to him to hear what he was going to say about black people, and getting plenty of money and good homes, and friendships in all walks of life, but you also listened to him to see if he has some help for your soul in its route to its destiny.
And you wouldn't be pleased until your soul was pleased. And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad knew that, so he put out some hints to help us feel comfortable in our souls while we were following him. Praise be to Allah. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad promised us in the name of his Savior, he promised us plenty of money, good homes, and friendship in all walk of life. Now, sometimes in English, the most important thing is the last thing said. In English expression or English composition, English speech or composition, sometimes the most important thing is the thing that is lastly said.
And in this statement, I think that's the case. The most important thing is the thing that he lastly said, friendship in all walk of life. Now, see, the African American people, we were not just needing money and the material comfort or good homes, what we needed most for our souls' happiness was to be accepted by human beings on this earth. Psychology teaches us that the worse burden a person can carry is rejection by its society. If its society rejects it, that's the worst burden, the worst pain, the worst misery that the person can suffer.
And here we were a huge population numbering into millions in this country during the times of its most evil days who were rejected by the society.
The society that we were in rejected us and only tolerated us because of our value to them as slaves. We know the history, so we don't want to repeat all that. It's not necessary for today's address. But we know long after the law itself changed; we were still a people seen the same way by this society. We were still looked upon as inferior class and as rejects, unwanted people. I know I can almost hear you all screaming out there some of you. You're screaming in your own minds or on your own bodies, you're saying, "They still don't want us."
Let me tell you something else, we still don't want them.
Isn’t that the right thing to say?
Praise be to Allah. So, what I'm saying is there is the way of G-d for all creatures, and His way is to create the creature right and then when the creature goes wrong, to have mercy on the creature, but after mercy, there's nothing else.
And we have received mercy. Both sides have received mercy. Now if they still like they are, they don't want us, we don't want them. In other words, there are some trash that's going to remain trash. There are some devils that's going to remain devils.
We just don't want that among us. But we accept the way of G-d and the way of G-d has never been that everybody is going to be beautiful, and human, and sweet. No, that's not the way of G-d. He has not created us like that. He has created us to be creatures of choice. We can make our own choices, independent choices. And to me, that's the greatest, I would say, evidence or the greatest testimony to G-d's mercy. That He made us creatures of choice, creatures to make independent choices.
Even when G-d speaks up giving us Al-Islam, the Quran, Al-Islam the religion, the expression tells me that even there in that expression, His own expression of His gift to us of Al-Islam. G-d is saying that He recognize our independent free will, that He have made us creatures capable of making free independent choices. He didn't say that I have imposed this religion on you. He said, "I have preferred this religion for you". Now that's how we talk to our children when they got up and we recognize that they are intelligent, so we don't want to speak down to them anymore. So, we don't dictate to them anymore, we say, "I prefer this for you, but you are your own boss you know."
To me, that's the greatest testimony to G-d's mercy is that He creates creatures, and then give them the mental tools, the mental faculties to make judgments for themselves and even reject G-d or reject the idea of G-d if they want to. G-d won't even impose upon us respect or believe in Him, respect for or believe in G-d. He won't impose that upon us. He leaves us to make our choices. That way justice is done too. If G-d had imposed something upon us in His creating us like obedience to Him and without any freedom or power to disobey, then G-d would have, not, in my opinion, shown as much mercy as He has shown by creating us as He created us.
The greatest demonstration of mercy is to create a creature, allow that creature free choices. And also, in doing that, I said, then that's real justice, it's real justice. It's not justice if all of us are forced to accept the same thing, that's not justice, not to human beings. Justice for stones and rocks I guess, but for human beings that have a mind to think, it's not justice that G-d even impose His will upon us. To me, that's not justice. If He created me to think, then He should allow me to use that. If He created me to make judgments, He should allow me to make those judgments. Even when it comes to Him, He should allow me to make those judgments and G-d does that.
He said, “anyone who wants to follow, here's the way. Anyone who wants to follow, it's open to him. Anyone who doesn't, then that's open to him too.” It's open to him to disagree or to not follow, this is the way of G-d. There was a story also of King Solomon, peace be upon the Prophet Solomon. Suleiman, we say in Quranic language. He decided over a matter that involved two women, both claiming to be the mother of a baby. The real mother of the baby, she came to King Solomon asking him for his help. King Solomon, as the story goes, he asked the mother to give him the baby with both the women claiming the baby there before him.
Then he took his sword and he said, "I'm going to give each of you a half. Immediately, the real mother, she screamed and said, "Give her the child." Then he took the child and gave it to the mother who screamed and said, "Give her the child." Now to me, that's not a story that we are all to see on that level only, but what are we to we see that through that woman, G-d's own mercy, G-d's own love is shown. That G-d is the one that said, "Rather than have my human being split in half, where one part of his life is cut off from his other part, his emotional side is cut off from his intelligence, I'll let him have both intact, keep him intact.
I could have split him and made him incapable of having his emotions affect his intelligence or his intelligence affect his emotions, then he would have obeyed me in everything because he wouldn't have been able to think, and reason, and make independent choices like he can. So, rather than split him, I kept him in whole. The world splits him, the world is splitting him up and claiming him to be their child, but I will not split him. I invite him to think on his own, I invite him to evolve his human side, both his emotional makeup and his rational makeup.
To evolve and evolve freely and mature, and those who are mature and appreciate me, I've given them the care capacity, the mental capacity, the emotional capacity.
I've given them the capacity to appreciate me in their emotional life, and in their rational life, and to come to reconciliation within themselves, where their emotions embrace their reasoning, and their reasoning embrace their emotion, and they say Praise be to the One G-d who created me”. He made us to do that, He created us to have that kind of capacity, but He leaves it to us to make choices, and to come to our own conclusions, and to suffer or benefit from the consequences or from the conclusions that we make.
A beautiful story, really not showing us a woman but showing us G-d. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, if I would identify his strength, his significance, his importance, I think I would have to say that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was in touch with the nature of his people and the needs based in their nature. He addressed those needs in a very bold and profound way. And the way that he did it sometimes would make somebody think that that man wasn't a religious man, that man wasn't all about G-d, obeying G-d because he hanged some dollars out before your eyes. And I heard him in last maybe two, three or four years of his life tell his staff, "Brothers, go get the money."
I heard that with my own ears.
See, but I knew my father too. I did. I knew him and I knew he was not materialistic. Never have been, never became materialistic. No matter how much he said get this and get that, in his own personal life, you could see that he really didn't care about diamonds, he didn't care that much about fine shoes, fine clothes, fine anything. It was just something temporary for him, just something to create the affect he wanted to create. And he knew that in order to attract his people who wanted to eat some meat and be able to leave some gravy in the plate.
See, most of them who ate meat couldn't leave the gravy in the plate.
He knew for his people he had to show that he himself was aware of the material need in their life in order to get them to pay him attention. In fact, my brother sitting out there, he used to be assistant Supreme Captain. I said he used to be, now he's Da'wah man.
And for those in the audience who are not Muslim or familiar with our language, Da'wah man means he propagates, he invites people to the religion. Although he has more interest than that too and I appreciate that in him. He still wants to be able to eat that meat and not lick the plate too.
Yes, so the Honorable Elijah Muhammad when he was driving his staff to work hard for a better material showing for the Nation of Islam, he was not doing it as a man greedy for the world. I know him, I was his son, and I'm still his son. I know him, he was doing it because he felt that our condition demanded that some leader lead us to a better material life. Lead us to a promised land of some money in our pockets. So, that's what he said. He gave us the words of his teacher. “Plenty of money.” He had better say plenty of money.

He better not say a little money or a moderate amount of money. He better not, that wouldn't do us. We need plenty of money, but we ain't got the sense to grow money. So, we need enough to satisfy us until we die. “And if it's going to run out before I die, I don't want to listen to you, man.” Now I'm not talking about all of us. All of us was not broken down as thoroughly as the majority of us. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was aware of that and he addressed that. Now, surprising it may be to you, this interest is also addressed in our religion in our Holy Book. G-d said, “that He wants us to have establishments and good establishments.”
G-d says in our Holy Book to us in the Quran, the book called Quran or Al Quran in Arabic. He says that, “He will guide us to Kawthar.” Kawthar means abundance. See, if anything was wrong in the scriptures that came before, the Quran addressed it and showed us it was wrong. In the Bible that came before the Quran, the promise there is that, “He came to give you life, and life abundantly.” Now, some stupid person in religion, maybe I'm using a hard word there, some uninformed or misinformed person in religion, they will think that life means just life, just happiness in the religion, just a happy high spirit, a good spirit in the church.
"He came to give us this and this abundantly," and they would get more and more and start saying [gibberish]. The cup gets full and runneth over.
Then they think that that's there now. “That's what it means, we have life and have it abundantly.” But it means just what it says, life, human life, and abundantly. Now, what accounts for human life? Is it a lot of flesh, a lot of children, a lot of people? Not necessarily. What accounts for human life is the condition that accommodates human life, and accommodates us in a nice and pleasant way. So, if we want to have life, we've got to have a condition that accommodates my life. Don't put me on rocks to sleep tonight and tell me I got life. Don't serve me a bowl of oodles and noodles and tell me that's life.
So, life is the good life that we have come to understand or perceive on this earth. The good life that makes a human being happy, that's life, and more abundantly, that mean you're going to have more of the things that make your life pleasant and satisfying. You're going to have more of those things. That's exactly what the promise is. You think now because you've been believing in G-d and you moved from one mule to 10, from one cow to 15, from one camel to a hundred. You think that's the limit? After a while, you're going to be riding in Cadillacs, Lincolns. See, G-d is a foreknower. He knew what was possible for us on this earth.
He Himself put the Cadillacs in the creation. He put the Lincolns in the creation. Yes, He put everything that we are seeing in this advanced world of man, He put it in creation. And He knew exactly when it was going to come out. And He knew back then when you were riding on that donkey feeling like you were riding on a Cadillac that you were going to think differently once you got in that Cadillac and sat on that sit and turn them windows up by power.
And pass the donkey dripping its stuff and not even smell it.

Pass the donkey driver fanning themselves and you don't even feel it. Air conditioning. G-d knew that. He put all that in the creation for us and knew exactly the time it was going to come out. That's the G-d we believe in. That's the only G-d.
Congregation: Allahu Akbar.

Imam Mohammed: Allahu Akbar.

Congregation: Allahu Akbar.
Imam Mohammed: G-d is greater, that's what we're saying. G-d is greater. Praise be to Allah. The things that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad sensitized us to want, now we can have them without any problem. The things that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad hinted for us to think and go after, now we don't have to have it hinted to us anymore. If the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I'm looking at G-d's plan for us and I'm judging or I am explaining, pardon me, what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad did, and why, and how far it can go. That's what I'm doing right now.
If the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had openly expressed everything, looking back at that time, 1930s, '40s, '50s, even the early '60s, I don't think it could have happened. There'd been a lot of trouble, a lot of innocent people dead. Yes, a lot of loss of innocent people's lives. I'm talking to you now in a way that I couldn't talk to you in 1930. No way. They would have killed me or G-d would have had to just turn the country into nothing but a lake of blood in order to establish me. Yes, even now, there's a minority, not a majority in the society of the non-muslim, but there is a minority, and a powerful minority that's quietly watching us, and they hate what we are doing.
They hate what we're about. They would prefer that we go back and join Farrakhan. They'd be much more comfortable. Now let me explain. See, it was G-d's divine wisdom, G-d's divine care for us that put us in a situation where we wouldn't be just killed outright. Moses was put into a slime basket. A basket with little small pieces of wood, and a pitch like slime put on the basket to hold it together. It dried and then they tarred it and made it so it could float down the river. No oars, no one in charge of its guidance. The river itself is trusted to take him down the river, not up.

Now, who would think that something as big as that Egypt at that time would be seen as down in the eyes of G-d? But He trusted the life that He wanted to plant to go down before it goes up. Praise be to Allah. We were sent down the river into the Nation of Islam. So, that we be cared for by somebody in the kingdom that would like us, right? Yes. For Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he liked us, and when they got in the white man's discriminated world, they discriminated against us, saw us all as inferiors, he looked at us and he says, "I like them, but I can't tell anybody. They're good for us." They saw value just as the wife of the Pharaoh looked at Moses and was attracted to him. She saw value in that child. They looked at the child, Nation of Islam or as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad put it, the baby, the Nation of Islam, and they were attracted to it.
Right now, we still getting praise for that baby by members in the law enforcement. They say, “One thing we have to appreciate was the neatness, the discipline, the respect of those young men in the Nation of Islam.” They appreciated that. They appreciated the spirit of industry too that the Nation of Islam put into us or that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad put into us. The spirit of industry in us. So, here we are put in a basket because after all, when she put that child in a basket, that was the first time the child went down. When a mother puts a child in a basket, she put it down. Then she put it on the river and the river took it down.
Now see when we would put in the Nation of Islam, we were put down, and then when the Nation of Islam was put upon the river of the world and float it down to the United States’ concerns and interests, the river took us even more down. The more we began to get placed in the kingdom of the world, U.S, the more we went down until someone among us was told, "Don't you know you got a mission? You ain't supposed to stay here, this is not the end of your journey. You're situated good now. You're enjoying the Cadillacs, Lincolns, Rolls Royce, Mercedes Benz, diamonds, furs, long leather coats, alligator shoes, big hats, bow ties, and stick pens, et cetera, and a big mouth.

You're just screaming all over the place flouting your freedom. This ain't the end of your journey.” I'm getting a signal back there; they say they're not hearing too well back there.
Imam Mohammed: Okay, now?
Audience: Takbir.
Congregation: Allahu Akbar.
Imam Mohammed: All right, thank you. We appreciate your help, but we don't want to be talking up here and missing half of the audience. Sometimes the ones in the rear are the ones that we're going to need to bring up the front.
What I'm saying here is that this religion brings or makes possible for us complete freedom. So, if you miss something, you're going to get it now in summary, don't worry. This religion brings to us complete freedom, and if someone among us had been a speaker or a leader of ours for our complete freedom, as I said earlier, I think this country would have been turned into a lake of blood or G-d would have sacrificed us, and we just would have been destroyed. This country was not ready at all for anybody among us to speak for our complete freedom.
Now, we may think that President Abraham Lincoln, may G-d bless his soul and rest him in peace eternally, I wish him happiness and his descendants happiness, but if we think that his order that we be free was an opening for us to go into complete freedom, we're a long way from seeing this reality. The freedom he gave us was the freedom that was given to any visitor in the myth or the mythology about ancient Egypt, and the impossibility of just anybody coming into ancient Egypt and enjoying it. The story in the mythology goes like this. It says anyone who came to visit or coming to Egypt, they were questioned by an oracle. The Oracle is a mystery, a myth or a mystery.
Some kind of fashioned material thing has a voice and it can speak to you, and it sat there on the gates or are at the gates of Egypt to see that no one came in that shouldn't come in. This thing called Oracle would ask the one approaching a question. If the one approaching answered the question correctly, they could come in. The question was, "What walks on four?"
Imam Mohammed: Are you hearing back there now?
Congregation: Yes.
Imam Mohammed: Okay, good, all right. I don't know, once we got a delicate system here.
We just going to have patience with it. Sometimes what I say, it'll hurt eating this metal.
You know what this going to make us do? Work harder to acquire facilities that will accommodate thousands. Yes, that's what we're going to have to have. It's all right now, right?
Congregation: Yes.
Imam Mohammed: I don't think anybody's doing anything. I'm don't think anybody's monkeying with it.
We're just being tested at the junction.
Give a chance to some to go the way they want to go. Now, the oracle would ask this question, what walks on four, then on two, and then on three. If you didn't know how to answer that question, Egyptian ancient mythology said you wouldn't get into Egypt. Into Egypt means that you wouldn't be able to go into Egypt and benefit as a free person. Now, what kind of freedom was needed in order for that person to benefit? Knowledge or a key to the kingdom of Egypt. You see? They needed knowledge or the key to get into Egypt.
We were only freed physically and later, won opportunity, because of good support from the good people of the country and the world, and many sacrifices on our side and also Whites and others. But finally, the opportunity came for us to go to the same schools, aspire for positions in the government even the presidency. So, we may say that full freedom at least in man's eyes finally came, but that was a slow, and long, and painful process. Let me tell you that freedom is still not complete for us. Why do I say for us? We are a people who once had our life in traditional life of our forefathers. I don't care if that life was not Islamic, we did have our life in traditional life.
We know for a fact that Al-Islam was the strongest religion on the African continent when we were made slaves, when we were brought over here. Not Christianity, not ancestor worship, Al-Islam was the strongest religion on the continent of Africa when we were brought, and our parents, fore parents were brought to this country and made slaves. That's the fact of history. And we were cut off from that life of tradition, life of Islamic heritage, inherit guidance, where you inherit guidance from your fathers and mothers. We were cut off from that. And in time, there were no traces hardly at all of any connection whatsoever with that life in Africa. Muslim life or any other, Christian or any other.
What does that mean? That means that we are a very strange people in America. Jews are not cut off from their traditional life, Irish are not, Polish are not, Italians are not.
All of those people have, among their people, people who can speak back to the Oracle and answer the oracle correctly. Now, just as there was an oracle that checked those who wanted to enter Egypt and enjoy the full freedom of that land, modern Egypt has her oracle. And if you don't know how to answer the mystery questions or the mysterious questions, then you can't enjoy full freedom here either. Because the Egypt that immediately meets your eye is a created Egypt created to confound your senses.
And to keep your mind from ever arriving at the destiny, where you able to see behind the curtain or interpret the codes? Yes, now we don't need everybody to have this kind of knowledge. All we need is the leader with that kind of knowledge, and that leader knows how to steer his people safely and correctly into the path that will take them to the destiny. Now what I'm saying is that African Americans are in a real disadvantage. That's why we have no consistent leadership. We have leaders that come up and they see politics as the road to take. We have other leaders come up and they see education as the road to take, and others come up and see money as the road to take.
Never have we before this time had someone to come up and see life as the road to take.
Yes, life is the road to take. Any other road by itself or either in a combination, short of that combination that satisfy life takes you off the course of life, takes you off the road of life. Our people are dying because they're not on the road of life. They're destroying themselves because they're not on the road of life. They're dissatisfied with their accomplishments because they're not on the road of life. We have among us a professional class with plenty money, plenty intellectual esteem in society, plenty of recognition to their talents, mentally and otherwise. They are achievers, but our achieved class today represents the most psychologically or emotionally miserable of our whole lot.
They're the most miserable in the whole lot of the black people or the African American people. Why? Because they are meeting with the greatest amount of disappointment. What is the disappointment? Disappointment to their soul. Their soul is disappointed. We as small achievers, we think the soul will be pleasant and relaxed or satisfied if we can just get some money. Some of us think if we can just get to travel. “If I can get me a car so I can go downtown and uptown when I want to. Go to New York when I want to, maybe drive to Atlanta. Oh Boy, I wouldn't want nothing else.” And I imagine some of them told G-d that in their prayers.
See, the soul sits quietly. The soul rests quietly in the establishment we call the human person. The soul rests there quietly with no arm or nothing to reach out. It can't reach out. It can only signal you to reach out. It can't reach out. It ain't got no arm, no nothing. No legs, no limbs at all. And the soul just can't communicate to you directly, so the soul's just so happy that you're going on a path of progress, the soul just waits. It's waiting tells you, even my soul is happy. But the soul, it knows where you're supposed to be seated or where you're supposed to be placed in order for you to really be comfortable and pleased and happy. The soul waits for you to get that car, and when you get it after a while, you say, "Allah, may I change my request? May I add something to the list? I know I told you that that would do it."
Here we got those progressive blacks with millions of dollars in the banks. Bigshot. Big end. Even got the white man saying, "Yes, sir." See, I didn't say the white man saying, "Yes, sir." Watch me again. The white man saying, "Yes, sa," and trying to show that big black man that he's a good servant so hard that the black man had to call him back. "Yes, sa." Say, "Wait a minute, George. Wait a minute. Come back here, Mr. Haggardy. Mr. Haggardy come back. I wasn't finished. Will you also stop by my home and tell my wife to send me that telegram that came in?" "Yes, sa." That’s the white man.
And this black man goes home and he's miserable. Black man sits down in a television discussion or interview, and he expressed more dissatisfaction, more disappointment, more anguish than the brother out there in the street with nothing but time. All he wakes up with is hours. That’s all he got is hours. So, that's all he's conscious of. The reason is that Allah created every human person for a complete freedom, complete freedom. And anything short of complete freedom will, at one point before you die, register on you as a big disappointment.
Now this is not to discourage anyone who wants to move up in this society. No, we got to move up. That class up there, they can do so much for their people if they get the ankh's cross in their hand. I'm going back to ancient Egypt. They could do so much for their people if they could get the key of life-- That's what the ankh's across is called in ancient mythology, Egypt history mythology, the key of life. If they can get the key of life in their hands, they could do so much for their people. Right away, it would make them feel accomplished rather than disappointed.
What makes them feel disappointed is that they are where the other man is, but they can't enjoy it like the other man does. The other man ain't worried, his soul isn't carrying the burden of questions of "Who am I? Why am I in this state? Why can't I sit with Mr. so and so and so, who is not of my race, my colleague, and feel as good about my people as he feels about his? Why I sit here burdened with the condition of my own people, even though my situation, materially, is good?" You see?
When I say burdened with the condition of his own people, I don't mean that he now wants to do something about your unemployment. I don't mean that. I mean that your poverty is seen in him. The man who come from his people looks at this man, one individual that’s got, but he sees him belonging to a people that have nothing almost. A People that have not. So, the group esteem is not there for him, where the group esteem is there for the other man.
You know the greatest thing that is holding back the American Indian? The condition of their people on the whole. They got a few among them who are achievers. A few among them who are rich people, big, strong business people, but they carried a burden of the majority of their people, so they don't have a good life in this country. Now how are we going to solve that problem? Will more money to the poor solve that problem? More jobs and more money to our poor solve that problem? No. Something got to happen to bring the complete life or the complete freedom or at least faith in it to our many.
And the science of how to chart the way has to be in the hands of some of our leaders, or in the heads of some of our leaders so that when they speak to us, they make us feel comfortable. You got a leader that's speaking it to you, but you can hear in their voice that they aren't much better off than you. They may have money, they may have center stage right now in the media, but something is telling you they're miserable just like you are. When you're listening to me, do I impart or register any of that misery to you? No, because it's not in me. All of it is out of me.
So, when a white man looks at me, he doesn't see a burdened man, and when I relate to him, he gets no communication from me that I am a burdened man because I'm not. I'm a free man.
And money is not my esteem. No. Power is not my esteem. No. What's my esteem? Freedom. Freedom is my esteem. I sit there and look at him and say, "Buddy, you're no freer than I am. You might think you are, but I know you're. Most likely, you're not as free as I am." Because G-d has put the key of life in my hands. Yes. What is the key of life? The knowledge of life is the key of life. The knowledge of life, especially the knowledge of the human life. What makes the human being feel accomplished? Most people don't know, and the world disappoints them. Nothing makes the human being accomplished but his belief that he has satisfied what his creator wanted of him. When he feels that he has satisfied what his creator wanted of him, then he's completely free. He suffers no loss of esteem. No. He is honorable in his own eyes because he knows he's honorable in the eyes of his Lord.
Now, we have achievers, African-American achievers. They may be honorable in your eyes, but when they look at themselves in their mirror, they know they're not honorable yet in the eyes of their Lord, creator. No, they're not honorable yet. Not any of these I see. How come they're not honorable yet? Because they're still trying to live in someone else's life system. That's what tells me that.
The Irish that are established and the Irish that represents the endurance of the Irish people, those people are not established in America's life system. They are established in the Irish life system. The Italian in the Italian life system. The Jew in the Jewish people's life system. The African-American, one day you're going to be established in the African-American life system, in your own life system.
How would that life system manifest for you? How would it materialize for you? When you connect again with your people and embrace the excellence of your people, your African ancestors. If you don't embrace the Muslims, you will be tormented in your soul forever because the Muslims represent the greatest achievement of your ancestors. I know about these fancy tales about the great history of black people on the continent of Africa, before Al-Islam, and the charge that Al-Islam dis-established or hurt the black man of Africa. We know about that, but we don't have any history worth putting the stamp of approval on that shows learned men coming from all parts of the known world to a particular town of black people just to benefit from the wisdom and insights of those black people other than Timbuktu.
And when a white man who has insight or knowledge of our history and insight into your particular black problem, image problem, when he sees you and envies you for you showing off some achievement or some advantage that you may have, sometime it will be one of those wise ones, and he will say, "Timbuktu," and laugh. That's to say you don't have your Timbuktu anymore. You're showing off, but you don't have your Timbuktu anymore. So, even though you may have more money than him, you may have more of a lot of the things of the world, worldly things, than he has, he's saying that, "My people is established as the knowledgeable people, and they come to the shrine of America, not to Timbuktu, and not to Black folks anymore."
But there was a day in history when they came to the blacks to get more knowledge, to learn more of the sciences, to get insights so that they can make more progress in their respective lands. They used to come to Timbuktu in Africa. And what made possible that development of those intellects, of those minds? It was the Quran. The Quran in Arabic. The ability to read the Quran in its language, that it was revealed in, and a mind to appreciate and digest what is written on the pages of the Quran. Yes, it was the availability of the Quran and the knowledge to get the benefit from it that made that possible.
Life needs the right kind of circumstances in order to benefit. A living thing, G-d says that He has made us on this earth, or created us, like plants, like plant life. And we know that plant life, in order for it to grow and thrive or prosper, it needs its environment. It needs earth, and then earth with the food in it for that plant's need. It needs water, sufficient, and air and sunlight, et cetera. Sometimes it need attention from a higher life. Certain things we plant, they wouldn't even survive without man. If they survive, they would never come to the quality or to the lustrous growth that man makes possible. Is that not true?
Audience: Right.
Imam Mohammed: Likewise, a human, as the garden of his Lord, has to have his Lord attend his life in order for his life to grow to the quality and the lustrous growth that G-d intended for it or that it is capable of. I'm not talking about G-d as a myth, I'm not talking about G-d as a dream, G-d as someone's fancy, I'm talking about G-d that made sky and earth, trees and plants and animals and everything to follow a logic, and made man and woman to follow a logic. That's the G-d I'm talking about. The G-d that created everything to follow a logic and created human beings to follow a logic. And if you accept that, that G-d did that, then you should want to be in accord with that logic. And that logic is knowledge. That logic is a key to human life.
Yes, we're hitting and missing. We think life is a game in Las Vegas. It's not. It's a job at the table of the scientists. We can accept that we need political leaders. Some of us even accept that we need the church leaders, spiritual leaders. I know we accept that we need academic leaders, leaders in the field of education. I know we accept that. The most difficult tasks of them all is how to live on this earth, and we think we don't need a leader in that area of life, which is life. We do.
When you study the history of societies on this earth, until modern times, they always have a leader of life. They may call him the medicine man, I don't care what they call him, the shaman, I don't care what they call him, the chief, but he's a leader representing their life. And they believe that G-d favored him. I don't care how they perceive that G-d. They may call Him this cloud, the sun, the lightning, they may call Him a snake, a tree, or whatever. I don't care how they perceive that G-d. They believe that G-d has superpowers that goes beyond the material conception before them. And they believe that that G-d has such a spiritual power that He communicates through their chief or their medicine man or whatever they may call him, and they follow him and they trust his wisdom, they trust his judgment, and that's how they survived.
Now, leaders on that level, they are just going on the strength of nature without revelation, without real revelation. When real revelation comes, we benefit and we prosper on this earth because we follow those revealed men. Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, peace be upon them and the many others. After revelation comes, the primitive man cannot compete with the man following revealed guidance, he cannot compete. Now here we are, cut off from our ancient traditions. We are put in a circumstance in this country that shows us or restricts us to the position in terms of advantage and disadvantage of the primitive man.
Our leaders in the religions, they are so blinded by the lights of this world, the attractions of this world. They’re so blinded by the attractions of this world that they never come to a peaceful state within themselves that permits them to see their circumstances separate from the circumstances of other races. He is in the same Christianity that the white man is in, but his Christianity will not equip him to compete with the white population. What is the difference? The white man has leaders, the white men have leaders that talk to them with confidence, with vision, with future in their perception. And when they speak to them, they register this power and the strength and the conviction of their leaders. And they respect their leaders and follow their leaders.
The majority of their people stay in a good situation, and they only have a small percentage that's lost or destroyed in the world. Whereas we don’t hardly have a single leader that can speak to the total need in us for freedom and reconciliation with our Lord. I can go on and point out some material things to you, but I don't want to burden you too much. No, I'm not going to do it. G-d has blessed me with an easier route than I used to take. And I thank G-d for it. But I could point out to you some material thing that you wouldn't readily see that have a negative effect in our life and a positive effect in a white man’s life. Because his leaders, they design his world for him. Now you’re in his world looking at that design. I'm talking about the spiritual world. The material world, it has its traps, too, and its marks of Satan. But I'm talking right now about the spiritual world. You have been created on this earth, all of us, for life and life abundantly, using the quoting the scripture, the Christian Bible, or in the terms of the Quran, you have been created to grow. That’s what G-d says. "You have been created to grow," and grow means prosper, progress, until you reach the fruits or the blessings or the harvest of your growth. Maturity for your growth.
You have been created to grow, and G-d says that He has given us abundantly. Speaking to the prophet, but it’s for all of us. "I have given you abundance." Abundance, Kawthar, abundance, plenty, much. That's what it says. And the same book tells us that the greed for abundance will bring us to the grave. So, here is something that G-d want us to have, but if we have a hunger for that, it will destroy us. Isn't that what the wise and humanly balanced tell us? That the money and material power, that if you go after those things with your sight on that as being the most important, it will corrupt your soul.
But they don't tell you it's bad because they know that G-d told them in their Bible too. They're going to get them plenty of it. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wasn't talking foreign when he said, "G-d comes to offer you, invites you to plenty money, good homes, and friendship in our walk of life," that's the truth. He just put it in common language. But G-d puts it in a more expressive language and a more enriching language. When G-d says, "Seek by the means I have made available to you," means whatever is humanly possible for you, the hereafter, the promise, the destiny. Don't think that's all spooks, don't think that's all spirit. No, a big part of that is right here on this earth. Big part of it right here on this earth. Even the hereafter, big part of it right here on this earth. And I’m not saying anything that any Muslim, learning Muslim can come to me and challenge me and say, “You're saying something wrong, brother Imam.” Let him come.
I’ll send him away too weak to carry a primmer book.
You give him a wudu book and he’d be too weak to hold that.
Because I come straight, and I come upon knowledge because I fear G-d and I want to be right. When G-d says to us, "Seek the hereafter”. Actually, hereafter is an English expression. The word is Darul Akhira. Dar means house. Akhira means the house in the future. Darul Akhira means seek the establishment for the future. Seek the future establishment, the home that will accommodate your life. The order that will accommodate your life. Seek the Dar. Dar literally in Arabic means house. Dari, my house. Dari means my house. Daruka, your house. To the sister, Daruki means your house. Daruna, our house. That’s a common word, Dar.
G-d says, "Seek the house of the future." "But don’t neglect your share of this world." Now the richness of this language comes now. It manifests. Look, now here is the common ignorant man and how it advances him and his need. He fears that he's doing wrong when he is worrying about getting some food on the table for his wife and children more than he's worrying about saying his prayer today, but his wife and children are hungry. G-d actually would love him more if he rushed out there to get some food so that his wife and children won't starve than He would if he stopped and prayed all day long.
Again, I'm coming from knowledge. I'm solidly supported by knowledge. Now, I don't want to waste a whole lot of time trying to clean up or justify what I say. I'm just telling you, take my word. I'm standing solidly upon knowledge.
So, G-d is addressing him. Say, "Yes, go after the destiny I want you to come to with all that you have in your human power or capabilities, but don't neglect your share of this material world." You deserve to eat food like they do. You deserve to wear decent clothes like they do. You deserve to have decent accommodation for your family like they have. Don't neglect that. You deserve to enrich your mind as they do. Rest from work and study for a while. Don't just rest and go to sleep or rest and turn the lights out and do what all animals do. Leave the lamp burning. Meditate on the order of creation and what's behind it. Then you will be making prayer for his remembrance. "Wa aqimis salati lidhikri," G-d says. "And establish prayer in my remembrance," or "for my remembrance." Praise be to Allah.
Now, let me go on. That's the poor man, that's the ordinary poor man. The most miserable in the lot of people. He has nothing. He fears G-d. He wants to be good. And there are deceivers who are more educated than he is, who want to exploit him for material gain, material benefits. So, they make him think that this money and the material things are poison. "Stay away from--" "Ya ahki." "Stay away from these, they're poisonous things." "This world is a material world. It's one big gigantic-- You know the dragon? You know the dragon, brother? It's one big gigantic dragon. And it is just fire inside him. So much fire inside. It is-- Pop, smoke is coming out all the time from the burning, from the burning inside, and it's ready to devour all human person, the human person. He swallows you and you are no more human anymore. You come out and you’re a little dragon, you're a fire dragon.
"Don't worry about the job you are telling me, I asked you to come and join us in Ta’aleem. And dhikrs to join us in dhikrs you're telling me you have to work tomorrow? Brother, this will take you to the hell. Stay away from the dragon of materialism, brother." And he is affected or influenced by that man that appears to be wiser than he is and closer to G-d than he is, et cetera. He's affected by him, and now he's telling his wife, "Don't worry, sister, about-- Allah will show us the way." And she loved him so much until she saw herself 80 years old hugging and kissing him and petting and caring on, but now, that has all changed. You're looking at him now and wishes that he catches a cold that he won't get rid of.
So, she can get her a better husband.
And I am on your side, sister.
Because we want respect on this earth. We are never going to get respect on this earth and totally become whole, complete human beings wanting the complete life that G-d created us for. Okay. Now here's a man on that high-level taking advantage of the man on the low level. All right? How does this strike him? How does this reach him? It's telling him, "Here you are. You should be about leading the people to the full benefits of society on this earth, but here you are fascinated by the spiritual things to the extent that you would hold a man, an ignorant man, back from the benefits, material benefits, of the world so that he will be with you, give you company, and be a community for your business people to exploit.
While you, yourself, claim that you aren't interested in the business, your business people are keeping the dignity of your race or your ethnic group. They are keeping the material dignity of your group. They got money; they're getting it. You aren't over there telling them, "Don't go after it." You tell this little poor ignorant man not to go after it. And you don't know that you are cutting yourself out of the greater benefit because you are neglecting your share of the world too. Your share of the world is to be responsible yourself for dignifying yourself materially and also taking your brother by the hand and showing him the way.
And the more numbers that join the effort to enrich the human society with the things of this life, in this world, the better off the people will be, the less the world will be troubled. But instead of you doing this, that will help even the destiny. Look, if we have no science, no growth in science, no growth in material accomplishments, we are far from that Darul Akhira, far from the home in the future. The home in the future is a home for both sides of man, for the whole man. The home in the future is not just to accommodate him spiritually, but it's to accommodate him as a material being, a social being, a political being, most particularly, a rational being.
As a social being, he can't be fulfilled if he doesn't have any material establishment. If you don't have any material establishment, your social life is tormented. Our children wouldn't be so susceptible, they wouldn't be so vulnerable, they wouldn't be so easy for the dope pushers to get, for the drug traffickers to get. They wouldn't be so easy for the gangs to get if this world offered them more opportunity in this world. They go to those gangs; they go to the drugs for opportunities in this world. They become dope pushers, et cetera, for more opportunity in this world.
We can't excuse them for sin or for bad moral judgment, but we have to acknowledge, also, our part in the sin, our part in it. We are not, ourselves, in a world that is normal for our children. A world that doesn't offer a bright child a future is not a normal human world. If a world doesn't offer that bright child a future except in crime or except in self-destruction, that world can't guarantee that youth a job, points a very bleak picture to that child-- "Yes, you're going to school, but we can't guarantee you no job." That's not a human world that's normal.
When man was primitive, out there in the wilderness, his sons and daughters came, and he knew there would be work for them. Civilization takes over and the big capital holders, asset holders. This is not attack upon capitalism. The big asset holders, they design the world all over and determine how many jobs are going to be available. The population is growing and they say they can't accommodate all the need for jobs. They allow a crime economy to operate right along the legitimate economy. Now who is responsible for the criminals directly? The society is directly responsible for the criminals.


