11/06/2005
IWDM Study Library
INTOXICANTS AND GAMBLING
ARE SATAN’S HANDIWORKS

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed


00:00 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: That is thanks, praise be to God, the Lord Cherisher of all the worlds. We witness that he is one, and cares about all of his creation, especially the human creation that he made for the world, all of it, the inanimate world and the living. All the things in the sky, and all the things down here that God made, man could not make creation, he could only be born of creation. And the God that made it all says that he made it for it to be brought into the service of the human community, that he made all of it.

[foreign language]

01:04 IWDM: That he has made to yield this utility, the skies and the earth, for man. That makes human beings very special if we accept that from God through his messengers and his prophets, that makes human beings very special. And we witness as Muslims, we witness that revelation has come from God through Mohamed the Prophet of Arabia, the one that God made a messenger, and a mercy for all the worlds. We witness that the Quran revelation has come, and has reached us here in America. And we witness that that revelation has opened our hearts and opened our minds. It has revived the best of our life, and it has helped us fight off the worst things in the environment, and the worst things in our own life. And we witness that it is a good news religion, like the Christians believe the Bible is a good news, we believe the Quran is good news, and we salute the last Prophet who brought the last revealed book, the Quran, we salute Mohamed with the traditional salute.

[foreign language]

02:50 IWDM: May the prayers and the peace be upon him. We are addressing a radio audience today, and we are happy that you are in our audience, in the very places of the south and in some places of the north. We are happy to be speaking to you today. We are told in our religion, do not take any substance, or anything that will fog up our minds, or interfere with clear thinking. That includes liquors, drugs, and anything that people use to become intoxicated or to get high, we are not to touch any of those things. So we are not victims of drugs, if we are, we are disagreeing in our behavior, we are disagreeing with the Muslim life. We don't have the behavior of the Muslim life, we have the behavior of a straying world, the world that is off course, off the path of God. Are we victims of drugs? No. Do we remember anybody doing something good for us? I'm speaking to everyone in the radio audience, do we remember anybody doing something good for us? In the listening audience, there are you who care for someone, a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a friend, a handicapped person, a poor person, a rich but troubled companion.

04:47 IWDM: The great religions tell us life and the world both present signs. In the heavens above us there are signs, the objects in the creation of God bear messages for the human soul and mind. A weeping willow tree stands tall and strong, however, it droops, looking like a ghost from a distant past. The weeping willow is dressed all in green, but appearing low in spirit. It is often found in the company of other tall trees. Those big, strong trees in the same ground, will not appear to be sad, will be looking up, branches raised up toward the sky, spirit up, not drooping, not looking down all the time. You do well at home, you are loved by family members and friends, you must be among the living, congratulations. Most of the public are not like you. These bad times are too much for most of us. These are bad times for moral life, bad times for honesty, bad times for truthfulness, bad times for good done just for the sake of good, bad times for good done without expecting to be paid for the good deed. You do wrong and feel bad, you do good and feel good, you see a person crying and you feel something for that person, you see a clean pleasant look on the face of someone, and your face brightens up. You are among the living, congratulations.

07:28 IWDM: You graduated from high school, you like supporting yourself and sharing with someone else, you are among the living. The day before you went out from your home to be on your own, a family boss there said, "There's not enough room here for two disagreeable bosses." You carry some hurt away with you but since that bad moment in your life, you have kept living and living by your own high principle. You have not stopped giving love to others, you have not stopped caring about others. You are among the living, you are alive. The dead walking the streets need your life. We love you.

08:32 IWDM: These are bad times. But always there's some who survive. Survive keeping their life intact, because they have something ruling in their life bigger than them and their own power, and that is God. As long as we have something ruling in our life, bigger than ourselves, not given to the weaknesses and the shortcomings that human beings all have, as long as we have an above creation power caring for us and we caring for that power, to please that power with our behavior, with our lifestyle. We're safe, we won't be destroyed by the evil forces, the bad forces, the unclean forces, the cheating forces of the world. The future leaders are among the living. They are not the dead walking the streets. The future leaders for us are among the living, and many of them are teenagers right now, they're teenagers. But they're serious-minded persons like we are. I'm speaking of those in my company, and those representing the great religions, and those in their company. People who are among the living.

10:12 IWDM: They sense their presence in the life and spirit of the many among the living. We who are having the good life in us, fortunate because we are believers in God, we are among the living. They too suffer set backs, I'm speaking of those youngsters, who are among the living. However, their spirit is always set to keep on going. The number grows for young people coming up in a nasty world, and nastied by the nasty world. For young people wanting to put their hurt on another person, I say to you, "You should be among the living." We care about decency, about our neighbors, about the space we share with others, about our neighborhood, the home and the people living in it next door, one of us making it makes us feel good, even though we are not making it. We are like a solid structure, as the Imam from Wisconsin said in our prayer, in the Eid prayers that we celebrated just a few days ago, in fact a day or so ago. He said the Muslims and their stand together are like a cemented structure, yes, we are a solid structure, closely and affectionately standing in spirit together. We are among the living, we are bones of each other, and flesh of each other.

12:14 IWDM: We take our business to our own neighbor. In business, we don't go past our own neighbor in business, and carry our business to somebody else. We work to see our group body having big dollars, standing up where we live. We will live if we think that way, and behave that way. We will live economically if we think that way, and behave that way. We refuse to die, we refuse to die nasty, we refuse to die an old aged boy. Having more will situate us to give more, more education, more growth where it counts, more entering into college with higher literacy scores, more going the full distance to the graduation ceremony. A people witnessing a big rise in the number of their community focused on professions, to build a stronger and bigger professional class for our poor community and our people.

13:55 IWDM: Such people will live to see the area where they reside supporting not violence and drugs, and nasty lifestyles, but supporting structures that are vital to keep human life moving ahead, moving on, at home, in the streets, and in the structures that we all depend on. Reefers, smoking reefers increase the likelihood of our students failing on the campuses. Know something, a person can cry so much and lose the good sense that they have. A person can indulge in fun life to extremes that will cause them to be classified as a person insane. In every life, there's only so much space, only so much room. The soul, the psyche, the human mind is known for its volatile contents, and its measured or limited capacity. A home to live in has a kitchen, a bath, a bedroom for resting. Fill the house up with fun life objects 'til fun life move out the life of the kitchen, the purpose for the bathroom. Such a place cannot support human life. It makes good sense to give space to what helps life, to what gives beauty to life, and gives longevity to life. Whether the subject is an individual, or a family, or a community, the logic stands.

16:17 IWDM: You who are among the living, fraternizing with the people who love the fun life, going with such crowds, having nasty behavior, you risk losing your good life, losing the valued contents of the human life. Spiritual life has become man's most critical war zone, human spirituality is targeted by those who have greed for dominance, no holds barred. That is they will go to any extent to take away from you the God-given life, to take away from you the life that God prescribes for all human beings. They will go to any extent to take that away from you. So you become canon fodder, you become manure. Yes, you become waste for them to recycle. You have no value at home, you have no value in your own life. So they recycle you as waste, and make big money.

17:55 IWDM: What is faith? What are we to believe? If we are people of religion, we are to believe in truth and not give ourselves to the influences of falsehood. We are to believe in decency, and not give our life to vulgarity. We are to believe in upholding what is true, and upholding what is right, being a witness rather speaking out with our silence. If we are people belonging to a great religion, we are to be a witness against wrong doings. Whether that wrong doing is coming from a person dear to us, even a family member, or comes from a powerful person who's rich, that you carry favors from, or comes from the government itself.

19:04 IWDM: If you're a religious person belonging to the great religions, you are supposed to always be for right against wrong. You're not to go along with someone you love, seeing them going deeper and deeper into trouble, more trouble, spiritual trouble. Seeing them going into trouble that soon may take them into trouble that will land them in jail. But you're so nice to your friend, you don't wanna tell them, "I don't agree with you." You don't wanna tell them, "I dislike your life, the way you're living it." You don't wanna tell them that you're afraid that they won't be your friend anymore. You are not a true friend, you are the worst enemy that person could have.

20:00 IWDM: And we have plenty such persons in the public life, in our homes today, we have plenty such persons in our home life and in the public today, who just go along with someone because you don't want them to be hurt, you don't want them to think that you are not their friend. And you think you're being a good friend, you're the worst enemy they could have. You're the kind of enemy Satan wants people to have, people that won't stand up for right and won't pull that friend back from wrong. We're told in our religion that if you see someone doing wrong, pull them back from that wrong. It's the teachings of Mohammed the Prophet, prayers and peace be on him. If you see them doing wrong, pull them back from the wrong. If you can't pull them back from the wrong, at least show them with your looks on your face, show them that you are not in agreement with them, show them with your looks on your face that you are displeased with what they're doing.

20:57 IWDM: If we are people of the great religions, then we oughta show it by the way we live and behave. And what we see in the public, the majority of people in the American public do not show us that they are in religion. So what are we to believe? We are to believe in good actions, good deeds, we are to believe in a supreme power, a power above creation that we have to answer to one day. Yes, we are to believe in God. We are to believe in righteousness. We are to believe in fairness. We are to believe in justice. We are to believe in moral strength. We are to believe in respect for our parents, whether they are pleasing us or not. And I'm sure it's in the scriptures of the people of the book other than Muslims, but in our scripture God says, "Even if your parent strides with you to make you believe, have you believe something for which you cannot find any support from me, keep good company with them in this world."

22:15 IWDM: To a brother Muslim, sister Muslim, Allah tells us in our holy book, the Quran, that if our parents not only disagree with what we are living, the choice, our religion, our Islam, our choice as a religion, but if they stride with us to get us to change, and stop believing the way we believe, we are not to cut them off like we used to do in the time of the Nation of Islam behind us, cut them off and say, "Oh, they don't want this religion, so I don't see them anymore." No, you're violating the spirit of the Quran, and the words of God if you take that position. You're supposed to keep good company with your parents. You're supposed to bear them, they bore you. When you couldn't help yourself, and couldn't take care of yourself, they bore you. Now they are disagreeing with you, it's a burden, bear that burden, and keep a kind face, and speak to them with kind words. And visit them when they are sick, and call them every now and then, whether they're having any problem or not. Let them know you're still their son, you're still their daughter, you still care about them. Even if they push you away out of the door, say, "I'm sorry, this hurts me. But I'll call you later, maybe you'll be feeling better."

23:44 IWDM: We cannot go on calling ourselves people of religion, and not resembling at all the life that we find in the scriptures that should be the life of the people of religion. What do we believe? We believe that there is coming a judgment day, and everybody is going to be rewarded for their deeds. Both their good deeds and their bad ones. And those whose good deeds outweigh their bad deeds, they will be spared, they will be saved, and be able to live again. Yes. But those whose bad deeds cancel out all their good deeds, they won't be spared, they will be given into the hell fire, and they will be cut off from a renewal of life.

24:48 IWDM: None of us want that, and we as Muslims, we believe that that's not what's going to happen to the souls in the graveyard only, but that's happening all the time, to the walking dead, walking these streets, raising hell, torturing their parents. Making trouble for the environment, hurting the hearts of their loved ones with their insane life. Yes, we believe that hell has already come to them. Yes, hell has already come to them. Hell didn't wait for them to come to the graveyard, hell saw them looking like that and walked out of the graveyard, and went and hugged them, "Hey, you belong to me."

25:54 IWDM: Do we have faith? People of religion supposed to have to faith. You're supposed to be able to see your house destroyed, members of your family lost, job gone, and you're supposed to have faith. You're supposed to read the seasons and get an inspiration to keep on struggling, to keep on living and living the life of your choice under God. Yes, you're supposed to be strong, not weak. In the face of trouble, you're not supposed to fall down. In the face of trouble, you're supposed to remember God, and brace yourself, and get a pleasant look on your face, feeling that God is your strength. Knowing that God is your guardian protector, and he knows your state, he knows your situation, and he has charge over all things. You should rise up, brace yourself, and show faith and hope and determination, in the face of all that trouble. The loss of your home, the loss of family members, the loss of job and everything. But you're still walking the path, still walking the path. Soldier! Praise be to God.

[applause]

27:43 IWDM: We're supposed to be able to read the seasons, and see how spring comes. And life comes up so beautiful, and continues to beautify itself. Although the little grass growing may suffer drought and die, but it turns golden, doesn't it? Turns golden. Oh, buddy! And when the rain comes back, oh, it gets a renewal of life. And after a while it's looking just as pretty as it looked, before the drought. A little blade of grass. Big old weeping willow, drooping, looking all droopy. With all of its wealth, and stature and strength, that little blade of grass, so flimsy, standing up straight, not drooping. Standing up straight, like wheat grass. It's called cumin, wheat grass. It means it's standing.

Qad Qamatis Salaat, Qad Qamati Salaat.

29:08 IWDM: Now the time to stand for prayer. That blade of grass, standing up straight, respecting the nature that God created it in. Praise be to Allah, praise be to God that is. Yes. So we're supposed to read the seasons, spring comes and the life comes back. Comes back from what? Comes back from death. Winter came, and the beautiful dress of the trees all fell to the ground. But before it fell, it looked at death and said, "I won't die without showing all of the gifts of God." So it gives us the beautiful yellows, the beautiful orange color, oh yes, give us all those beautiful colors. It arrays itself in beauty and said, "I ain't going to die before telling you what God has done for me. And then it falls to the ground, and it appears naked and barren, nothing but dry bones. All of the soft life has gone back to the earth, and winter stays on it for two or three months or more. And spring comes, and it sprouts life again.

30:34 IWDM: We are supposed to believe in a resurrection, we are supposed to believe in life coming behind death. Winter comes and it makes everything look dead, I've seen winter in Chicago so hard, so cold, walk on the snow, the snow was crying, "Whaa, whaa, whaa, whaa." Snow crying under my feet. I look for a living thing, I can't see it. Snow, three feet, four feet deep, so hard, you walk on it like it's a hard floor, cold. I look for a dog, can't see one. Look for a cat, can't see one, look for a bird, no bird around. Every now and again we see a black hawk, and the hawk is down, it ain't flying, he can't open his wings and let that cold air come up under his cover, so he's walking around slow, slow, walking real slow. And what do we say? The hawk is walking, it ain't flying no more, it's too cold. The hawk is walking. And he'd be walking like he's so sad. So we cold too, toes all frozen up feeling numb, waiting on the big bus or something, we used to say Big Red, waiting on the street car, Big Red. And our feet feel numb like they're not even alive anymore, but when we see that hawk creeping down the street and we know how he can fly, oh, our heart go out to that poor hawk.
00:02 IWDM: We're supposed to believe in life after death, but then the season changes. Spring comes, and all the trees come alive, the grass, and the bushes, and the trees, everything that died comes to life again. And the birds come out. Oh, and they're so happy, they're singing a new song after Winter shut them in, and shut them out. Yes. Praise be to Allah. The birds are flying around, butterflies, and all the living things. All the earth is just teaming with life. And it goes on and goes on, and the weather gets very hot, and then Fall time and the thing is repeated over and over again. We are supposed to believe in life after the death. Yes. So God says, "Read the signs." In everything he has created, there are signs. Signs in the heavens, and signs in the earth, and signs in you.

01:02 IWDM: Don't we find some people just like that? Oh, they'll have the seasons go all the way from Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, and come back to Spring. And they will still be standing, like a tree. Oh, you won't see them in their beauty and see them in their production, no, the world take it away from them. And they'll be seen without their beauty, without their production, they're barren, but they'll still be standing. And they'll hold there in faith, hold there keeping their principles, keeping their high principles. They'll hold themselves right there, remain a solid structure. They're losing everything, they appear to be dead, say, "Oh, he was once doing very well, but he's finished." And then Allah blessed them to have a warm breath come into their life. A warm breath from a warm region comes into their life, warms them up, and after a while, you'll see them dressing up again. Dressing up again in their production, dressing up again in their beauty.

02:20 IWDM: Some of you don't have faith in the efforts of a righteous community, you think because they're slow realizing what they're working for, that they can't get it. Have faith that seasons are coming. God says, "Don't you know that the one who did the thing the first time, the one who made creation the first time, the one who gave life the first time, the one who beautified the world the first time, the one who beautified you and your life the first time. Can't you believe that he can repeat his creation?"

02:57 IWDM: Praise be to Allah. So let us not be among those who walk the streets, drooping, or walk the streets laughing themselves into insanity, or walk the streets killing and hurting people. We are not them, they are the lost people, they're lost. We need the living to walk the streets with them, and not be with them in their life. But walk the street with them, so they will see that there's the living man still around, there's a living woman still around, there's a living child still walking the streets, there's a living girl still walking the streets. We need to make our presence felt in this world of the dead by keeping our lives alive and keeping our faith in God.

03:53 IWDM: So don't let your behavior put you among the dead, don't let your behavior take you from among the living. Let your behavior be seen as the behavior of those who care, who are not giving up hope. Those who still strive upon their own good principles, those who still wait on the favors of God, though they deem to be far away, we keep our faith and wait for the favors of God. And you wait, and wait, and wait, and the longer you wait, the bigger the reward is going to be. Yes, so I'm patient, I've learned patience, I've learned that patience pays off big in the company of the righteous. Yes, patience pays off big. I've seen those lead that the Honorable Elijah Mohammed said, "Be decent." He said, "Be clean." He said, "Be truthful, be honest, even give a white devil, if you're working for him, give that white devil an honest day's work. Don't cheat the boss." But you come and work for us and you cheat us.

05:01 IWDM: But some of us have not changed, we will not cheat. We will not cheat our own people, and we will not cheat anybody. We keep to our principles, we hold to our good life and our good principles. We don't put it down. We lose a leader, we don't follow him to the graveyard and then come up out of the grave with the sin that he called us away from. He called us away from sin. Then he died, we go crying at the grave site, and leave the grave site to go back to the sins that he called us away from. You're not respecting the leader that you mourn for. The leader that you weep for. You're not respecting him, you're hurting him more than anything could hurt him if he was alive. By you getting weak, saying, "Oh, he's gone now." And going back to... Some of you went back to the church. I knew a brother very well, and I met him some years later he said he was with some Christians, and he told me, he said, "I came back to the church." You know what I told him? I said, "Well I know some that came back to filth, came back to lying and stealing. You came back to the church." I said, "Good, brother. Be a good Christian."

06:28 IWDM: You think Christians won't be in heaven? Our Prophet Muhammad said that God showed him the heaven, and he saw there the followers of Moses, and the followers of Christ Jesus, yes. And he saw his own followers also. And I'm sure that we were in the bigger numbers in the hereafter. And if the Christians don't like what I'm saying, straighten up and fly right.

07:02 IWDM: Praise be to Allah. So we are reaching the closing hour, the closing of this, our broadcast, our radio broadcast. And again, I wanna thank every radio station that carries this First Sunday message, and I hope to see you again on the next First Sunday of the month, which will be December. And until then, stay among the living. The dead needs your life. Peace be unto you, As Salaamu Alaykum.

07:50 IWDM: Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. We praise God, we witness that he is one and needs no helpers, that he is the one responsible for his creation, and he is the one who cares for his creation. He is the one who keeps his creation, and he needs no God with him, and he has no God with him. He says to us, "No one comes to him except as a servant." No one comes to him except as a servant. "And the highest position that he has given his creation, or his human creation, is position of servant." Position of servant. Some of us take grateful pride in working for a very big and popular company, or working for a big boss, or a big important boss, we take a lot of pride in that. We will say it with pride, "I work for such and such company." We will say it with pride, "I'm working for Mr. So and So." We'll say it with pride. Well, a servant of God should sense even more honor, and more pride, and more value, if you really are a servant of God.

09:24 IWDM: And God calls every human being created his servant. When he speaks to us in the Quran he says, "All you who believe." But he also say, Yaa ibaadullah, "Oh you servants of God." Speaking to all of us. And Muhammad, he has two titles, and both of them identify him in his high role and the high honor that God gave to establish him upon, and that is servant and messenger. God calls him his servant. No greater honor could be paid a creature than to have God call that creature my servant. And his messenger, he serves him and he delivers the message, he delivers God's message. He serves God and he delivers God's message. He is his servant and his messenger. And he's also the seal of the Prophets, the last of the Prophets, and that means he comes to correct what was lost, what the people lost that the Prophets brought to them. To correct it and take out what had come into it that was incorrect, and not in the original scripture, or original message that they got from their Prophets, or from the messengers of God.

11:00 IWDM: He comes to correct that, and he comes to complete it. For the people of faith... We're in the second hour now, I want you to know that I'm guessing you're here. The people of faith for generations upon generations, they have had a certain hope, and their hope was that the promise of the Prophets would one day come true. And what God says, what God promises, in this world, struggling to keep our life, and oftentimes having to depend on the enemies of our life for a job, for income, for a place to stay, etcetera. Excuse me one moment...

[pause]

12:11 IWDM: That weighs heavy on our hearts, that weighs heavy on our spirits, it weighs heavy in our souls. That we have to struggle to keep our life and our religion in a situation controlled by people who dislike our religion, who would rather see us change our religion, and become something else. Yes, it's difficult. It's painful sometimes. Now we know we have friends among them, I'm not saying we don't have friends among, this is not all of them. But the most of them, or the many of them, this is how they feel about us, and they don't wanna see our condition change, they don't wanna see us established. Spiritually first, but they don't wanna see us established materially. And they fear, more than anything, they fear us becoming established materially, because after you have shown them by your strong conviction and your undying faith that you are Muslim forever, and I'm sure they're convinced that I'm Muslim forever. And many of you, I'm truly convinced that you are Muslim forever.

13:39 IWDM: So then like Allah says in the Quran to Muhammad, he says that, "The rejectors of faith," that is the rejectors of the message of Quran, and Muhammad the Prophet as the last messenger, the final messenger, that those persons, after seeing the Muslim grow in their religion under the leadership of Muhammad the Prophet, they were convinced, at a certain point they were convinced that you can't change these people, you're not going to be able to take them out of their religion. So they have despaired of making you change your religion. Yes. So we see this same thing repeated in our life, it keeps coming over and over again. Believers will be in situations where they'll be under powers, or surrounded by persons of another faith, who are not pleased with you continuing in your life and in your faith. And after a point, they would give up, say, "We can't change all the old Muslims, we can't change them. But let us make sure that they have no opportunity to establish themselves materially. Because if they ever establish themselves materially, we certainly would've lost all hope of dominating them."

15:17 IWDM: So, what do we wanna do? We wanna stay around here forever, a ghost of human life? A ghost of community life? That's what we are. If we believe in God and we accept that we are supposed to be the Ummah of Muhammad, the Ummah that God prescribed for us in the Quran, that is the community. And we don't have nothing but our faith, nothing but our religion, nothing but our prayers at home, and prayers in these small places that we rent, and assume that we have the own, but they're are small, they can't accommodate all of us, we go on. Are we going to go on, please? To have no body, no physical body, B-O-D-Y, no physical body through which to express our spirit, our religion, our Islamic life. You just can't have Islamic life in your heart, and in your spirit, Islamic life has to be expressed in Islamic structures. Islamic life has to be expressed in Halal businesses. Islamic life has to be expressed in homes owned by Muslims, in factories owned by Muslims. Yes, in productive land owned by Muslims. And transportation for shipping products owned by Muslims. In cars, and buses, and trucks, trains, and airplanes owned by Muslims.

17:04 IWDM: A little man with only three grades of education from the south, back in his time what was it worth? Nothing. Nothing then, and certainly nothing now. Three grades of elementary education, he showed us the picture of what he wanted us to grow into, it was in a kind of like a comic strip, but it didn't make us laugh, it made us serious. He showed us road paved by Muslims. Farmlands producing abundantly, owned by Muslims. He showed us factories and heavy machinery, owned by Muslim. Airplanes flying in the sky, owned by Muslims. He excited our appetite for a man's share of this good earth. Didn't he? Yes. He excited our appetite for a man's share of this good earth. Now that you have the Quran and you're reading it with clear eyes, shouldn't you want those things? Shouldn't you want that dignity? 

18:33 IWDM: Should you want a neighborhood of thousands of people, a United States of millions of us? Where neighborhoods, east and west and mid-west, north and south and everywhere, African American neighborhoods. You can drive now west, where you used to pass through the white man's zone and be afraid, because over there if they caught you over there you could get killed. We can drive through that west side area now, through all the territory that used to be closed to us. And now it's open to us, and we have taken our poverty into the area where the white man used be. We have taken our poverty into his area. We have taken our sterility, our business sterility, our economic sterility. We have taken it over there in his quarters and has spread it into his territory, have penetrated his territory, deep, miles and miles into territory that was only his. We're there now. But we are there as his dependents. We are there to purchase from his stores, we are there to buy his old used up houses. We are there to buy his old problem plumbing and electricity. We are there buying what he has left.

20:18 IWDM: And you think he's running from you, he's fooling you. He said, "Well, we've got everything out of this and it don't cost us a whole lot of money to bring it back like it was when we moved into this area. So it's time for us to move out, the blacks wanna come in here. They're dying to come in here. Let's move out, and get twice what we paid for this property, and turn it over to them." Yes. Are we going to continue to live that way? That's sick, that is. That's sickening. Any person that knows what's happening and continues to let it go, go along with it, is sickening. Really sickening.

21:09 IWDM: Do you know a people who call to the right life and recognized it but continue to live the wrong life, do you know you're in for a punishment? Our religion of Islam, the dawning of it was in Arabia. At some points, geographically, Arabia and Africa are almost touching, almost touch each other. In fact, they do touch each other. Small little waterway separating the two, and at some points, it touches. Our religion of Islam came to Africa, that continent, and it brought new life to the African people. Pepsi-Cola company, advertising to recognize the African or the black people, African American, or the African people pass. The show us in their advertising, kings dressed in their garments, dressed in their royal clothing, looking honorable like state men, huh? State men. And dressed as though they were men of wealth. And we know of Timbuktu, how those Africans who embraced Islam contributed how high forms of society came into place after the Africans embraced Islam. And the message of Islam then was what it is today, it's the message of respect. Firstly for God and then for human life, your past, your family and human life. The message is still today what it was then, freedom, justice, equality, respect for everyone's rights. Yes.

24:07 IWDM: But look what formed and has been standing for hundreds of years now, monarchies that became dictators, wealthy families living in opulence, living in plenty, having great wealth, spending heavy, riding big, walking tough, while the multitude of their people starve, suffer diseases without having help coming from the money or the wealth that the ruler takes from the country. Suffer sicknesses unnecessarily, suffer poverty unnecessarily. How can a rich ruler... How can a ruler go about with wealth and riches and see his own citizens, his own public, that he's supposed to be responsible to, see them suffering as the African masses are suffering in Africa today? No, they're asking America to come over there and take care of their problems. Show America that you care by spending your money until it runs out. Yes, they should spend their money until it runs out until they become a poor person along with the poor people in their country and then they'll prove to me that they deserve our tax dollars to come over there and help them. They need another whipping, they need whipping behind whipping, they need drought behind high drought, they need AIDS behind AIDS. Now I'm talking about my people, I'm talking about my forefathers, I'm going to leave yours alone today.

26:29 IWDM: And look at America, look in America where the African Americans have had great leaders since Frederick Douglass, great leaders, one just passed, Rosa Parks. We've had all of these great leaders, males and female to help us with our thinking, to help us open our hearts, to be decent, honest, truthful, upright human beings. But look at what we see in the African American public, look what television show us how our lifestyle is, nasty, nasty people. People that show no sign in their lifestyle, that they remember God. Show no sign in their lifestyle that they remember the contributions of Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, Carter G. Woodson, and many, many, many more males and females. They don't show a sign in their behavior the way they live that they even heard of such persons, or been touched by such persons.

27:32 IWDM: And let me tell you something, none of you living today that have not been touched by some of these great personalities, all of you have been touched whether you recognize them or not. You might not know their names but you're enjoying certain benefits, you're enjoying certain rights, you're enjoying certain freedoms that you wouldn't have had without those persons sacrificing, risking death, risking being hung by white bigots, risking being killed by evil people. You wouldn't have these things, enjoy these things if it wasn't for those people born ahead paying a price. So your life has been touched by them. Now, you don't care? You go to church to have fun, not to get your life straight? You go to church to have fun. Your life has become one big playpen. Everything is for fun, sex is for fun, so then you don't need a wife, or if you've gotten one, you don't care if you go out and cheat on her because everything is just one big life of fun, one big playpen.

28:43 IWDM: Don't you know you got a curse coming on you? You're earning a curse. So we supposed to read the signs, don't we? We're supposed to read the signs in the heavens and in the Earth. So Katrina comes through the South. Katrina comes through the South, storm comes through and moves people out of sin city, drive them out of sin city. Now if that was in the Bible, you wouldn't know how to read it, they'd say, "You crazy preachers!" Who just preach to make people go out of their minds.
[background conversation]

00:05 IWDM: Allahu akbar. You should read the signs. It's time to read the sign. There's a curse on our people. Yes, there's a curse on our people. You've changed from the spirit of God to the spirit of nasty, and there's a curse on you. I hope once they clean up the city and you go back in there, I hope you go back in there on your knees. I hope you get out of your vehicles, get off the plane and get out of the cab and fall right down on your knees, and cry and say, "God forgive us our past. Forgive us for betraying the best of our leaders. Forgive us for betraying the best of our principles. Forgive us for betraying you our lord. After we had faith in you and asked for your help and you helped us. You stayed with us until we got opportunities in this great land of plenty. And we turned our backs on you and went to nasty. God forgive us." Yes. That's what I wish they'd do. Come back to New Orleans and fall down on their knees, and pray to God and say, "If you establish us again, permit us to be established again, we will tell our children, we'll preach to our children, we'll obligate our children to remember you, and remember how you set us on the path to freedom, and you stayed with us until freedom was won." And then we're going to leave our children with our disobedience, our record of disobedience and this day of repentance. And ask them to vow with us that they will pass it on to their generations to come.

01:51 IWDM: Stay with God, do not go to nasty. That should be our attitude, that should be our commitment. Yes, and if it's not, look for more drought. Look for more flooding, look for more natural calamities. When you disobey the God that made everything and has everything in His control. When you disobey Him, He doesn't have to say, "Oh I've got a problem here." That, that He made carries His will and His spirit. The earth says, "I've got some crap on me I can't tolerate it anymore. Let me whip it with a Katrina. Let me bury this filth and drive it out." Yes. The earth itself will become a living organism, and will behave as though it has an intelligence, a mind and it can think on its own. And then it'll whip you. You're already getting whipped into some of your own self. Your own body whipping you. Yes, you who are rebelling against the way of God. Your own body is whipping you every day and night. But sometimes you deserve a bigger whipping than your little body can give you. So a Katrina comes in.

03:37 IWDM: What is religion? Our prophet said, religion is sincerity. It ain't hypocrisy. It ain't show time. It's sincerity. What does the dictionary, English dictionary tell us religion is? "An organized system of beliefs and rituals centering on the supernatural being or beings." I'm reading you the dictionary. "Adherence to such a system." Adherence means holding on, obeying, following such a system. Now, we have allowed things that satisfy us for short term, the fun that this world offers us. We have allowed such short term pleasure to take us away from the pleasure that lasts forever, and that is the pleasure we get from obeying God. So our religion is no longer what we claim it to be. We are still saying our religion is Christianity. We're still saying our religion is Islam. But it's not. Our religion is not that anymore. No more than a claim, that's all it is. It's a claim, it's a claim. When you give your life to the wicked world, to the nasty world, to the things that you know are against the way of God, your religion is no longer in you. You're only claiming it. You're only using the name.

06:19 IWDM: We use spirit. But we should understand that spirit is an invisible reality. Spirit is an invisible reality. And when I say that I have the spirit of God's word in me, I can change the language a little bit and it means exactly the same thing. I have the influence of God's word in me. So if you have the influence of the nasty crowds in you, you have the influence of this popular hype and popular lifestyle of the streets in you, then the spirit of religion is not in you. The spirit of the world is in you, as the preachers would say. The spirit of the world is in you not the spirit of God, not the spirit of the religion, but the spirit of the wicked world that goes against God's way, is in you. Then your religion is a religion of Satan. Your religion is a religion of Satan.

07:40 IWDM: And that's what he always has been working for. Is to take out of you the natural inclination in you to find your God and please your God. To take that out of you, so you will be satisfied of whatever he gives you. And he will play on the keys or on the buttons of your emotions. And he will find the tunes that you respond to and that you are soothed by. And that you are spirited by. And he will play those tunes and give you a happy life. Oh, you'll be happy. He'll be playing the tunes that you are spirited by and playing the tunes that make you happy. And you will be responding to the tunes that he is playing. And he will be your god. And your life will be under his command. And you will be still saying you're a Christian, but you're not anymore. You are one of the slaves of Satan. Yes. And this is a reality. This has actually happened for many, many in the streets of America. In these homes, in these United States. These have already happened. They're calling themselves Christians and they are followers of the devil. They are calling themselves Muslim and they are followers of the devil. Calling themselves Jews, followers of the devil.

[background conversation]

09:17 IWDM: But we lose the good life to the devil who's behind the filthy entertainment culture. The movie's out. It's getting a lot of criticism. The actor himself, 50 Cent, I think. It's 50 Cent? 

09:45 S?: Yes.

09:49 IWDM: Say it. It's, "Get rich or die trying," I think? 

09:51 S?: Yes. Yeah.

09:52 IWDM: "Get rich or die trying." Why are they giving all these messages to us? And they know that we'll reach for it. We see all this wealth the white man got. All the wealth the newcomers in the neighborhood got. That's not black. We see 'em just making money and making money. Nobody giving us any cents. Nobody helping us to see straight. So all we see is that others got all this money and we want some. McDonald's pay a little bit more than minimum wage, selling drugs pay a lot. So our youngsters, they don't wanna work for McDonald's, they wanna sell drugs. And then they give us this guy. And know that the youngsters going to go there to see him, right? They're going to flock in droves to see 50 Cent. Get rich or die trying. Can't you see the influence? God says, "And when I breathe into the man of my spirit, then he's going to be qualified to be a custodian in the earth under God." Responsible for the land, the water, production and everything. Look at that great man that God created. But when the devil breathe into him of his spirit, he is nothing but 50 Cent.

[applause]

11:32 IWDM: We have to see what's going on. We have to see what's going on on the big stage. The big stage where Satan himself has a seat, a throne. And when you look at the throne you can't see Satan. He's invisible. But you see his throne.

[background conversation]

12:02 IWDM: We can't beat Satan without Allah. We can't beat him without guidance from God. And what does God say to us, Allah say to us in Quran? And fight the schemes of Satan, for his schemes are weak. Fight the schemes of Satan. Didn't say fight Satan directly. Fight his schemes, for his schemes are weak. What else did Allah say to us in the Quran? 

[foreign language]

12:38 IWDM: Surely toxicants, things that drug your mind. Drug your mind. They are of the works of the devil, and you need to know the other things. Gambling and other things, are of the works of the devil. Stay away from these things if you expect to be successful. Huh? This is fighting the schemes of Satan. Allah didn't tell us to fight the schemes of Satan and then demonstrate through the Prophet Muhammad how we are to fight his schemes. You are to fight his schemes. One of his scheme named clearly in the Quran, is to give the people things that take them out of their normal minds. Drugs, in the form of liquids or whatever. Whatever. Drugs, reefer too. And God mentioned also the gambling. Look how big gambling has become in the United States of America. Mentioned gambling, said, "Stay away from such, for surely it is of the works of the Devil.

[foreign language]

13:45 IWDM: Surely it's of the works of the Satan, the Devil. Now, we are truly believers and God says fight the schemes of Satan. And then He shows us clearly the schemes of Satan. And we're going to be closed mouth looking at gambling growing and becoming bigger and bigger in the United States? We who say we are spokesmen for Islam, spokespersons for the Quran, the word of God. When you get a chance to get on television, get a chance to be on radio, get a chance to sit in council with preachers, you should bring up these evils, you should bring up the schemes of Satan, and tell them what your holy book says about these evils. It says that these things are the works of the Satan, the Devil. Gambling and drugs and liquor, that's another drug. They're all drugs that drugs the mind. Forbidden to us is to take anything that befalls our mind or confuse our mind, take out the control of our mind away from us.

[pause]

15:05 IWDM: Yes be patient with me.

[background conversation]

[pause]

15:15 IWDM: So, religion is also given in the English dictionary as, "Belief upheld or pursued with zeal and devotion." That's also a definition of religion. Beliefs upheld or pursued, you're going after it, with zeal or devotion... Or zeal and devotion. The way we are going after the world that takes us away from the path of God, is with zeal and devotion. We are going after this wicked world, and its pleasures, its temporary heaven that it offers us, we are going after it with zeal and devotion. Now, if we are going after these things of the world with zeal and devotion, and we are not manifesting in our outward appearance and our outward behaviour, we are not manifesting the life of Islam or the life of Muslims. Then isn't that another truth that your religion is not Islam anymore? 

16:29 S?: Yes. That's right.

16:30 IWDM: That your religion is not from God anymore? 

16:32 S?: That's right.

16:33 IWDM: That your religion is the spirit of the wicked world that had you going after it, going after its pleasures, its temporary pleasures, its temporary heaven, with zeal and devotion. Zeal only means strong conviction. Strong spirit. Strong conviction. That's what zeal is. And devotion means you're working for it. You're working for it. It has become your interest that you work for. That's what means devotion. So we are false people then. You think Allah is going to bless us with the benefits of Islam, and Islam is not our spirit. Islam is not our religion. The world spirit has replaced the Muslim spirit, the spirit of Islam. And the world behaviour has replaced the Muslim behaviour. Huh? Do you think Allah is going to bless us with the benefits of Islam? No. You can't be blessed with the benefits of Islam and Islam is not your religion anymore. It's just a name on your tongue. A claim that cannot be supported by the life you live. And I'm not just talking to you, you African-American brothers and sisters that our immigrant brothers say are just fad Muslims. Yeah? I'm telling you what they're saying behind our backs. "Oh, they ain't nothing but fad Muslims." Islam is a fad for them. And what they see in many of you, they're justified to say that.

18:17 IWDM: Styling, and they calling that Islam. Just styling. But the same old spirit is in you, that was in you when you didn't have Islam. Same old appetite, same old taste for life, that was in you before Islam, before you claimed Islam is still in you. When Islam come into you as a spirit, with the spirit of the word of God, the Quran, entering into your life, you have a change of life. You have a change of spirit, you have a change of appetite, you don't want the things you wanted before. You don't wanna act like you acted before. You don't wanna behave like you behaved before. You don't want to be in the crowds that you used to be in. You wanna get out of those crowds. You're not happy in the company of the dead. You're happy only in the company of the living. You have a change of life.

[background conversation]

19:24 IWDM: Now, you want to see the plan of the devil? First thing he wanted to do to Adam, was to change Adam's way of thinking. He came in to Adam's mind and told him, "You need to change your way of thinking. You need to change the way you look at things. You need to change the way you see things, and see things the way I know will make your life come open, brighten up, and become productive. Wealth and long life, live like the gods, live eternally." Huh? Satan did promise Adam all those things. But the first thing, the key for us to understand, that he had to first change Adam's way of thinking. He had to change the way the first man saw things. He had to give him a new way of reasoning, he had to give him a new logic. And once he did that, he knew, Satan knew that he's no longer God's man, now he's Satan's man. The evil spirit of Satan and his works in the life of America, what has it done? First it broke our allegiance to God by hurting our respect for sacred matters. Weakening and hurting our respect for sacred matters making it easy for someone to pay attention to the sacred matter or just ignore it. Making it easy for you to hear someone calling you to be serious about God and just ignore them.

21:44 IWDM: Satan conditions you to come into that mind and spirit. Where you don't have the fear of God anymore. You don't have shyness in you when you're displeasing God anymore. Satan worked on you for a long time, generation after generation in these United States of America. During my life time, I have studied his ways and seen him. When I was a young man in my 20s they brought out a headline on a popular magazine. The headline said, "God is dead." G-O-D I-S D-E-A-D. That was on the caption, big caption on the front of the magazine, "God is dead." Now, how many of us are so weak, tired, and weary trying to keep going the way of the righteous, keep walking the straight path with all of these temptations, to have it easier, if we'd just drop our principles for a while, and go the way of the wicked world. We could make much more money selling liquors, make much more money running a gambling joint, selling numbers or something.

23:07 IWDM: How many of us saw that statement and it helped us to go in that direction. To go in the direction for release in the world. From struggling and waiting on the favors, on the mercy of God. Yes, they knew what they were doing. It wasn't for them. It wasn't for the wise and the strong. It wasn't for those that are strongly established in their life. It was for those that are really having it hard walking the path of God. It was to get them to forget God. I said, "Oh, that magazine, it said, 'God is dead'." You don't have to think about it. Satan knows that once something comes in through your senses, once something is received by your senses, sense of sight, sense of hearing, or whatever it is. Once something is received by your senses, you don't have to think about it, it's working on you while you are even sleeping. It came into your senses, it'll be working on you in your sleep. It'll come up maybe a little bit in your dream. It's working on you, and he knows that. Once he get it through the door of your senses, he knows that the influence is there, and if you didn't fight it when you saw it, it's going to be working on you. Huh? He knows that. They have all kind of language, the scientifically... The subconscious and all that. But the way I'm explaining it to you is good enough. It's the plain easy way to understand it. You don't have to go and take a course in Psychology. You get just one statement from Imam W. Deen Mohammed on this problem, and you got it.

[background conversation]

25:06 IWDM: So then after saying God is dead, now, when that magazine caption came out, we were still having most of our people living a life of religion. If you told them, "You know you shouldn't be doing that. Is that what they teach you in church?" They would come back to their senses. Most of them would come back to their senses and respect what you were saying. Back then we didn't even have to use God most of the time. "Do your mama know you're doing this?" And that would be enough. I'm talking about the early '50s. The early '50s. In fact all the way up to the '60s. That life was still strong in most of the African-American people. Yes. But they worked on us, then they turned to culture. You know, the culture of soap operas used to be soap operas. Soap is a play on washing and cleansing. They used to be soap operas. Their main purpose was to show people something about life, about the common life or the regular life of people, that would help cleanse them of sin and problems in their life that they shouldn't have. So they watched soap operas. All of them were so innocent. But now, oh boy. It's a wicked, wicked group. A wicked sin on television. Right? Yes.

26:46 IWDM: Feeding you with greed, selfishness, lust, devilishment, etcetera. Ain't no more soap operas. Now they have become sin operas. Huh? That mean the devil won, didn't he? The devil won. He worked on 'em until he got control of their life, and now he's showing the life and he's boasting. "Yeah. God said he's going to give all this authority to his worshiper. Look what I've done to his worshipper. God now look at your worshipers. They're mine." Now the same one gave you the soap opera, gave you the sin operas. Same one. So he sneaks in doesn't he? He sneaks in pretending he with you obeying God. And he weans you by degrees. He weans you off of the diet that God prescribed for you, and open you up to the filth that he wants to feed you. And pretty soon he got you. Yes. Now, what other ways he's come into our life and taken over our life? By taking over every important issue, he takes it over. Freedom. Freedom was freedom from the evils of plantation slavery. Wasn't it? From the injustice of plantation slavery. But now you're free. Give 'em a job, let 'em have money. Break down their respect for God. Make the church of no effect.

28:52 IWDM: Huh? Yes. Until they are not carrying in their mind the fear of God anymore. Now they'll be free to have me come into their house via television. By way of TV, and take over the family. I'll be speaking to their little children while they're away from home or sleeping. I'll be speaking to their little children, feeding their little children mind. Taking over the spirit of their children. Giving them the spirit to just spend money and waste money. Yes, they look rich, they look popular, they look like they are somebody. Huh? That's what happened.

[pause]

29:57 IWDM: And lastly... We have in the scripture, a prediction that there's coming a final war, great war. The war of Armageddon. Forces of Gog and Magog. This is not only in the Bible, this is in the Quran, "Ya'juj wa Ma'juj", Gog and Magog. Yes. And God has revealed in the Quran, revelation, signs, ayahs in the Quran, that will open the eyes of the searcher who's trying to hit closer to the truth so he can be more effective as a servant of God in the world. They're signs and light there, waiting for him to show him Gog and Magog, Ya'juj wa Ma'juj. Ya'juj wa Ma'juj, Gog and Magog. Those who are established in law and order, those who are players and committed to uphold law and order, doesn't necessarily mean law as it is and order as it is. But they are always insisting that a civilized community or society must have laws and order.

31:47 IWDM: And the others who have a spirit to rebel against law and order, they're called anarchists. Anarchists. Satan has brought this language in, these terms in, he's behind the language, anarchists, he's behind that language. And he brought that in, and he influenced the way you want freedom. He influenced your appetite for freedom, and he feeds that appetite in you for freedom as he influences it. He influences the want of certain things, and then you've already planned to provide for that new appetite in your appetite for freedom. So you want freedom to have sex and not obey the law of God. You want freedom to be a homosexual and disregard the law of God. He gives freedom to all minorities, and he creates the minorities to demand freedom that he is behind. Huh? Freedom for sexual permissive, to be sexually undisciplined. Freedom to have sex with your own gender, male with male, female with female.

33:23 IWDM: And since this country is a country established to defend the rights of the people to be free, okay congressmen, legislators, president, you're obligated to give freedom to this new minority. They wanna be free too. See how Satan is? He take the words out of their original places, and he give the old words new meanings, and then he bring down the kingdom of the righteous. So now he pits those who'll follow law and order, he pit them against those who are anarchistic, those who are against law and order. And this is Gog and Magog, and it's everywhere. It's in the Congress, it's in the Senate, it's in the White House. Yes. It's in the workforce, it's everywhere. It's on the streets, it's everywhere. It's in the church, it's in the malls, it's everywhere. You got those who just naturally rebel, they have the spirit of Satan in them for anarchy, for anarchy, and they just naturally rebel against law and order. And I conclude it there, let us know this world and see it as it is, for God is the light and His word is the light. Thank you Ameen.

[applause]

35:01 IWDM: Thank you. Praise be to Allah. We are pleased and very happy whenever we are with the believers. And, I'll be missing you until the next first Sunday. I won't take questions today, Inshallah next Sunday. I don't know about you but I still have the spirit of Eid, Eid al Fitr.

[background conversation]

35:56 IWDM: They may have some announcements to make, so I'm going to sit for a few minutes, and then I'll be leaving soon. Actually, I had an appointment in brief just to... Just a brief appointment that I hope would have taken no more than one or two minutes, because we could always have a follow-up meeting. Today I wouldn't be able to hang around and have any meeting with you. There are two sisters present here. I was able to meet the brothers, but I didn't meet the sisters, two of them, and they wanted to speak with me. If you could come up here while I'm sitting for a few minutes, and just bring your concern to me quickly. You know who you are. There's only two sisters. You know who you are. If you come up quickly, the security will permit you to come and I will be able to speak with you quickly.

[background conversation]

37:22 IWDM: May I have your name? 

37:23 Speaker 2: Terry Calhoun.

37:24 IWDM: Yeah. Terry Calhoun is here with us now, and he is here to make his Shahada.

37:35 S?: Allahu Akbar.

37:37 IWDM: Yes. If you know how to make it, then make it.

37:40 S2: I do not.

37:41 IWDM: I will give you follow-up that I say is very simple. There is no priesthood or anything in Islam. It's the religion of every common person and we have only God's word over us. Yes. So, you repeat behind me. I witness.

38:03 S2: I witness.

38:04 IWDM: That there is but one God.

38:05 S2: That there is but one God.

38:07 IWDM: The creator of everything.

38:08 S2: The creator of everything.

38:09 IWDM: He has no partners, no sons ruling with him.

38:13 S2: He has no partners, no sons ruling with him.

38:16 IWDM: He is God alone.

38:18 S2: He is God alone.

38:19 IWDM: And Mohammed of Arabia.

38:21 S2: And Mohammed of Arabia.

38:23 IWDM: Is his servant.

38:24 S2: Is his servant.

38:25 IWDM: And his messenger.

38:25 S2: And his messenger.

38:26 IWDM: And a mercy to all the world.

38:28 S2: And a mercy to all the world.

38:30 IWDM: Thank you.

38:30 S2: Thank you.

[applause]

38:49 IWDM: The Quran and keep love in our hearts for the word of God, for our God and his messenger, Mohammed and Allah is with us always. And I want to say to you the young youthful men I just met there, saw me greeting there. I remember his face from years ago. My brother Elijah says he tells him things about me that Elijah says he had forgotten.

[laughter]

39:22 IWDM: He is 99 years young. 99 years young.

[applause]

39:32 IWDM: So, thank you and Inshallah, we will see each other soon at the next meeting. Yes. We'll meet again soon, and in our hearts we are always together. In our spirits, we are always together. We who love Allah and and his messenger, and we love this religion. We are always together. We are always present with one another in spirit and in our hearts. As-salamu alaykum.

40:01 S?: Alaykum as-salamu.

[applause]

[background conversation]
