06/07/1987
IWDM Study Library
Dallas TX

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
As-salamu alaykum.
Congregation: Wa-Alaikum-Salaam.
IWDM: Praise be to Allah, the Lord, Sustainer of all the worlds. And we praised His choices blessings, peace upon the last messenger of G-d, Muhammad. Upon Him be peace, upon his descendants, his companions, the righteous all and upon us, peace. We give thanks to the one and only Lord and Creator. We give thanks, Wa a’uthubillahi mina shaitan nirrajeem. We give thanks and praise to the one Lord and Creator for blessing us, again to gather for His cause here in Dallas, Texas. And we also thank Him for blessing us with people in Dallas, like Imam Yahya Abdullah and his colleagues who cooperate in the work with him, and his friends in the outer community for this opportunity to address you today here in Dallas, Texas.
I have been, as you know-- that is the Muslim following, you know I have been addressing you on the subject of sacred life. Sacred life connections. The theme that has been chosen for the workshops and for this address here today, fits perfectly within that general topic that I have been addressing. That is, sacred life connections. Family, community-family life is a sacred life connection.
To keep that life constituted as our Lord Creator intended for it to be constituted, is a sacred duty, to hold to the identity that G-d intended for us as individuals and as groups is a sacred duty. When we lose the identity that Allah intended for us, we begin to lose the way that G-d intended for us to be constituted, the way He intended for us to be made up inside as well as outside.
Our religion, Al-Islam, focuses on family. And Allah most high, that is G-d almighty, the Lord Creator says in our Holy Book, the Qur'an, "Family obligations have a priority." Family obligations are given priority. My obligation to my wife, to my children, to my father, to my mother, to my grandparents, to the aging people in my family and the young in my family is a duty that G-d has focused the Revelation on. And has told us that before Him family ties have a priority. Family ties are given priority.
I have a right as an individual to benefit from a good family circumstances, a good family situation, and I have an obligation as an individual to support good family life, to be a contributor, to contribute to the well-being and excellence of family life. And society in our religion has an obligation to work for the same, to respect the same, and work for the same. We understand that in America, this is the land of freedom and opportunity, it is the land of the great experiment with freedom.
So, here in this country, not only are the good people free but the bad people are also free. And sometimes it seems that the bad people have more freedom than the good people. More freedom to progress, more freedom to advance their aims, their ends. More freedom to pursue their goals that are criminal than the good people have to pursue their goals that are legal and that are honorable, that are approved by G-d.
It appears to be that way. And I used to feel very bad about the situation in America when I thought about this special kind of freedom that we have as Americans here. For years, I was burdened with the great burden, and I said, "Well, what is this? Is this hell or is this an opportunity for humanity to survive?" I couldn't say there was no opportunity for humanity here, because I have survived as an American and as a human being here, you see.
I couldn't say there was no opportunity, but it was confusing to me. The more I thought about it, the more I had to rely upon the Holy Book, upon the word of G-d, upon the Qur'an, the teachings of my religion for an answer. And I came to the conclusion that this is just an opportunity. America just gives you an opportunity. All of us have an opportunity. And the problem for us is not to be blamed on America or on this special kind of freedom that we have in America.
The problem for us is to be blamed on ourselves. We have an opportunity to compete. America gives us a special situation for competition, and never think that you're going to be helped always. In America you are helped in seasons, and the season comes you're not helped anymore, you're left on your own. Don't depend on anybody in America, religious people, government people to help you always.
Nobody in America is going to help you always unless they are following the word of G-d. I mean accepting the word of G-d over the word of man, and obeying the will of G-d over the will of man. Now, if you don't have anybody like that with you, don't expect to be helped always. Help here in America is seasonal. Now you can just hang around, spring will come again. But winter will come too, again. We must put our hope in something bigger than America.
Muslim’s hope is supposed to be in the word of G-d. Our hope is in Allah. Our hope is in what He reveals, the Quran. Our hope is in the life that was demonstrated to us by His prophet, His messenger, Muhammad, the last messenger of G-d. That's where our hope is. Muslims, don't forget where your hope is, and work on keeping your identity. Muslims must work on keeping the Muslim identity.
Things may be created or produced, and a label put on them that truly identifies what has been produced or created. If those things are perishable, in time the content won't be true to the label unless you find a way to preserve it as it was made, created or produced.
Human beings, our life because we have this freedom to conform or to not conform, to obey or to disobey. We have this freedom. Society we live in encourages sometimes too much freedom, an immoral freedom. And we find ourselves, without knowing it losing the original content of our lives. However, we continue to identify as we identified when the contents were correct.
Muslims may call themselves Muslims long after they have lost their Muslim lives, they still call themselves Muslims. And we are happy to say we are Muslims, but often the Muslim life has been left behind long time ago. So, we have to live true to our identity, true to our contents. If we don't, we're going to lose the life. Keep identity before you and keep the true meaning of identity before you.
Not just as a name because names are just in the air, unless you can grasp the full meaning that that name represents or the full meaning that that name connects us with. The name Muslim connects us with the meaning. Islam or Al Islam as is called in the Quran or in Arabic language, connects us with the meaning. It's not guaranteed that we're going to keep the meaning unless we make an effort. We have to make an effort to keep the meaning.
The Muslim name is known also with the Christian. They know, they say, "Yes, the Muslim? Yes, sure we know what a Muslim is." Does a Christian know as much about a Muslim just by hearing a name as a Muslim who knows the meaning of Muslim from the text Quran and from the life of Muhammad the prophet? No. Likewise we identify as human being and many of us continue to call ourselves human long after we have lost the human content of our lives.
We have to make an effort to keep the contents true to the label. And again, I'm as you are from the experience called the black Muslim and race pride, black nationalism. I'm from that experience, and I know for a long time we were emphasizing the dignity of race. We were searching for identity, a comfortable term for the black mental makeup and by some happenings, we came to all call ourselves black.
And we used to remind ourselves of the necessity to live up to an image of ourselves that we were satisfied with, to live up to a quality of the race that we were aspiring to. To live up to the achievements of the race and the hopes of the race. We had these ideas. And we would remind each other, "Brother remember the race." The same thing happened; we lost the content. We continue to talk about race and I'm sure there's strong race consciousness in Dallas now.
What about the contents? When we think of ourselves as a race, we think of ourselves more than as a black, as a color. We have to think of more than just a color. In fact, the color is supposed to connect us with the broad meaning, with the whole meaning. When we say black, we are to think of the people, the life of the people we call black. That word should signal our attention, our minds to the meaning, the whole meaning for the people, for the life of that people we call black.
But when we get all charged up confronting each other on issues that are explosive we forget the content of life that we want for ourselves, and we're just suspended with a simple shallow definition of race. That's what we have to avoid. And the same prescription we give for the Muslim to stick to his identity, for the human to speak to his identity, we give it to the race to stick to that identity.
Recall the life you want for the race. Don't leave the life you want for the race. Keep the name, the symbol in touch with the meaning you want for the race. And if the black would do that, if the brown would do that, if the white would do that, we'll have less problems. But I'm sure many whites, though they are not in a situation where they have to think of themselves so much as a white race, most of them will think of themselves as an ethnic body.
A body with an origin back in Europe somewhere, Polish-American, Irish American and so on. But we're constantly put in situations where we have to think of ourselves simply as black. And most of us are not in a favorable situation where we can even kind of give more meaning to that or put some more language to it and say black American. Many of us are in situations where it's not even comfortable for us to say black American.
In fact, I heard nobody say black American. And I'm sure all day long, you didn't hear anybody say black American. But you must understand, if you're going to be interested in preserving the race and advancing the race, whether it’s the black man I'm talking to or a white man I'm talking to, or a brown man I'm talking to, you must be interested in keeping the meaning of your life before you, keeping the labels of the name with the content of that life you want.
We used to think of ourselves when I was a boy as black people. We called ourselves Negros, the followers of the temple of Islam called themselves, so called Negroes. Black people and so-called Negros. The followers of Elijah Muhammad were calling themselves black long before it became popular in the United States of America. The black nationalists many of them were calling themselves black long, long before that term became popular for us here in America.
But we had different meaning, we had different meaning before us. The race name carried different meaning. The race name carried a broader meaning. Most of us now when we say black, we had been conditioned to think of black in contrast with white. I'm black, we mean we're not white. We don't mean we came from Africa. When we say black, we're not saying we came from Africa.
For the average one today, not all of you, but for the average one today, when we say black, we're not saying we came from Africa. When we say black, we're not saying, we are a product of the slave parents who sacrificed and suffered that their children will have a better situation in America. We don't tie into our forefathers on this continent. When we say black, we are not consciously tying into them.
We are not consciously tying into Africa, we are not consciously tying into the progressive-minded, hardworking, sacrificing forefathers of ours. No, we are not. We are simply responding to this race thing. We say we are black, meaning we are not white. We say we are black, meaning we are oppressed. We say we are black, meaning we are denied. We say we are black, meaning we don't have what other people have.
We have to stop thinking like that. Stop thinking like that. Allah, our Lord says in the Holy Book, "Laysa lil insan illa masa’a," There can be nothing for the human person without him struggling and striving for it. So, don't get caught in a situation where you cry the blues. I don't care what kind of situation it is. It can be a situation where you are denied economically, where you're denied politically, where you're denied socially. I don't care what situation it is. Don't fall into the pool of the blues.
And understand that the best resources that gets you out of that situation is G-d, in your private and personal relationship with that G-d. Allah tells us and the Prophet has told us, "that there is nothing separating the suffering person from his Lord when He calls on him." No partition between you and G-d. If you're in trouble, if you're being treated unjustly, if you're being oppressed, if you're being wronged, our religion says there is no partition, nothing blocking your access to your G-d.
Turn to your G-d and then exert yourself, go forward and don't cry the blues. Let the weaklings cry the blues. You be their big brother. Hold true to the identity. You know why I'm saying this in this way? But there are many people, I've read now for many years people trying to address the problem that we have in this modern society. And many have told us to don't forget meaning. Don't be separated from real meaning. Life is fast-paced. Language is constantly changing, and no word is charged more than racial terms.
Black, white, these are strong charge words. They make you drunk. They intoxicate you. They take your feet off the ground. They send you running into air. We don't want that. They call me a lot of things, no one has called me an Uncle Tom yet. They say, "Oh, he's too conservative. He's too low-key. He's too peaceful. He's too agreeable," but no one has called me an Uncle Tom yet. And I don't think I'll ever be called an Uncle Tom by a sane black man.
Now, going from those big pictures, let's see can we focus in on a smaller picture. The family. Family should have meaning. When a Christian man says family, it should bring a meaning to him. When a Jewish man says a family, it brings a meaning. When a Muslim man says a family, it brings a meaning. Now, we can lose identity if we get away from the real meaning.
Pretty soon we are finding ourselves saying we're a Muslim family but not being true to the content of Muslim family life. We have to have a recourse. We have to think back, reflect. We have to go and pick the book off the shelf and pick it up and read it. The Quran, the life of Muhammad the Prophet, how he treated the subject of family relations, how G-d in His holy book treats the subject of family relation.
What we have been motivated to do as family people, what roles we have in the family life that 
G-d assigned to us, what responsibilities are attached to a Muslim who's a father, attached to a Muslim who's a son, to a Muslim who's the daughter, to a Muslim who's a mother, to a Muslim who's a part of a family, a Muslim family. We have to be in touch with our great reservoir of knowledge, the Quran and life of Muhammad.
With the great works of our great scholars, our honorable and upright scholars from the time of Muhammad until now. Be in touch with something that can keep us in touch with the true meaning, so we don't just have a name that is a shell, a name that is nothing, a name without content. We are not going to have anything worthwhile unless we work for it. We have to work for G-d's love, we have to work for G-d's protection. He is most merciful.
He will put up with us long after we have given up on each other. Yes, His mercy is divine, our mercy is human, but even His mercy runs out. If you continue to ignore Him and forget about Him, you just take everything for granted, pretty soon His mercy runs out. And you find yourself in a situation where you feel totally alone in the grips of hell itself at the mercy of the Satan, the devil himself and you say, "How did I get into this shape?"
Think back. You forgot something, you left some meaning and you're just carrying a name. So, let us hold true to the real family life of a Muslim. And let us hope that Christians will keep the real family life of a true Christian, and that the Jew will have the best of what is a Jewish family life. As long as we're in our private quarters, work for the true content of life, we don't have much to worry about in the big circle.
No. If we are good Muslim families, we are going to be good citizens of America. If a Jew lives in accord, lives up to the excellence of his Jewish teaching, if he becomes a good Jewish family, if he has a good Jewish family, then he and his family is going to be a credit to America. Likewise, for the Christian, likewise for all of us, for the Buddhist, likewise for all of us who have these religions.
If we live up to the excellence of our religion, if we live true to the content of our lives, then we are going to be good citizens whether we're in America, are in Russia, are in China, are in the Middle East, or in Africa, anywhere. We are going to be a credit to any environment we are put in, if we put up to the excellence of the life, we profess to believe in. We got a job to do. We can't enjoy the benefits of G-d's graces, we can't be happy and thrive and prosper without doing some work. We have to work at keeping the content of life true, and don't let it become false. Live up to the true meaning of the name you profess. You say you're Muslim, live up to the whole meaning of the name.
Allah's desire is not to make our life difficult for us, so He says in the Holy Book. But His desire is that we be clean, is that we be honorable, that we be purified. His desire is that we be purified, not that we be in any difficulty, but that's the difficulty, isn't it? For most of us, that's the difficulty. Working to keep our lives wholesome morally, rationally. Working to keep the moral health and rational balance of our life is difficult for most of us in these circumstances. You have to turn to a bigger help than you can get from each other. We can help each other, but we can only do so much. You have to also have a bigger helper available to you. Don't underestimate the power of G-d, the power of prayer. Don't underestimate it. The religious people who are true in their religion, they know the power of G-d, they know the power of prayer. You don't find them unraveling, going nuts. No. They got something to keep the life intact.
That's G-d, faith, a faith that makes you feel, "I know I can call on the Lord. And I know I can get an answer. It may not come at the moment, I hope. It might not even come, so I can identify when it comes, but I know one day I will know that I got the answer." You know that’s the people of faith, we know that. We know that.
The society is not going anywhere at a healthy direction for long if it doesn't recognize that there's a limit to what man can do for man without including G-d. We all should believe that, who say we are Muslims and say we're Christians believe in the religions. We should believe that and we should act in the world in a way to demonstrate that we believe that. We shouldn't say that and then our lives speak for something different. No, our life should tell the people we believe in 
G-d, we trust in G-d, we know He will rescue us, we know He's going to answer when we call on Him.
We shouldn't have to tell the world that, we shouldn't just say that or have to say that only and say, "Hey people, yes." No, we should live in a way to say that. Our life should say that to the people. They should look at a Muslim family or look at a Muslim on a job, or look at a Muslim taking care of his lawn or working on his house, and they should watch him daily as he goes to the store. They should observe him in his ordinary, common life and they should say, "That man believes in 
G-d," without him telling them that he's a Muslim, without him saying he believes in G-d. His life should just broadcast he is a believer in G-d.
Yes. You may say, “Well, Is a sermon the answer?” Yes. A sermon is the answer. Look, if man could do without G-d and fare well, America would have no problems. Because America has gotten everything that man can dream of, even went beyond our dreams. America has had dreamers that dreamed unusual dreams and then told their dreams to the rest of us. We would never have been able to even dream those things and got us to support them and realize their unusual dreams. Super power, super achievements in technology, science and technology. Government, yes, in government. Social life, super achievers, knowledge and science abundant, wealth-abundant. Freedom, unimaginable generations ago. You couldn't even imagine the freedom that now we demand.
So, if man could really make it fare well without G-d, America would be doing well. America would have no problems. Because you're free in America to say, "I don't recognize G-d. I'm going to the limits that I can go to, to the limits of the possibilities for me as a human being or as a creature. I don't recognize any restrictions sacred or otherwise."
We're the victims of people that took that amount of liberty. Yes. The good G-d-fearing people in this country, we are the victims of people that took that amount of liberty. To just go and pursue their potential, the ends of their potential. Just to work for the greatest realization of their capacity as creatures, with no respect for the cautioning words of G-d or humanity. So, If man could live without G-d and fare well, America would be without problems.
So, let us realize that most Americans realize, I do believe most Americans realize, government people and private citizens, they realize that G-d exists, and sooner or later we all have to answer to Him. In fact, we are answering to Him all the time, but one day it becomes so serious that you recognize it. For muslims, family life is a sacred commitment. Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon Him. He said, "The life of your fellow Muslim is sacred. His property is sacred, his family is sacred. Don't violate his family."
Allah tells us in the Holy Book that when we call on people in their homes, to respect the home don't go in the home even if the door is open, don't go in the home without announcing your presence.
Announce your presence and get permission from the people of the house before going into the house. Don't go in by doors that are not proper for you. Go in by the door that's for the public if you're a public person. Don't go to the back door, the rear door of the house, go in by the proper doors. This is teachings of our religion. Also, in our religion we are encouraged to be each other's helper, to help each other with whatever resources we have. And a resource that the poorest one of us has, because I don't care how poor you are or how uneducated you are, G-d has given us all a conscience, a sense of right and wrong. And many times, it's the person with the least amount of education that will come to our aid when we are blindly going down the road of corruption, and say "Son, if I were you, I would turn my life around." Yes.
Many times, the uneducated is, though they were called ignorant in the world, that recognize that we are headed towards destruction. Maybe we have graduated the best graduate in the class in high school or college or whatever, we might be the best graduates but we have let our lives slip from moral disciplines. And it sometimes is the most uneducated person that pulls our coat and have the right words, the key words to quicken our conscience and help us turn around and get on a good start again.
We are to help our brother with our moral support. Prophet Muhammad says, "Hold your brother back from the wrong. Hold your fellow believer back from wrong doing." Now, how do we hold him back from wrong doing? In many ways. Some people, you can't even speak to them, they have become so hardened, they have become so defiant, they have the spirit of defiance. They defy any attempt to correct their thinking or to correct their behavior. A word of advice from you provoke even worse behavior, but you still can help them. In our religion, we help with the strongest means then we use the next strongest and we even help with our silence. Sometimes, silence speaks louder than the loudest horn or the loudest voice. Yes, silence. In fact, when people become so hardened and so defiant that you can't penetrate their ears, you can't reach them with good advice, the loudest word you can speak is silence. A silent disapproval of their action.
And then demonstrate with your life without addressing them. Demonstrate that this is my choice. Let them see that there's somebody that appreciates the good life, appreciates the moral life, feels comfortable with their moral life, and satisfied with their moral life without showing off. Don't show it off. Do it naturally. Some of us, we show off. Some of us will say, "Hey, so and so won't pray. I haven't seen him pray in three days." Then we go and get the prayer rug that we don't actually have to have. Sometimes, you speak louder to the non-praying person when you pray on the bath floor. No rug. Pray on the floor, go out there and pray on the ground.
So, we go and get the prayer rug and they're watching TV, we put the prayer rug in their view, and then we make our prayer right in their view. No, the best way is to go in your room. Close the door. They don't like anybody to be alone in solitude. They'll come in there sooner or later and open the door and they'll find you praying.
We have to use our intelligence. In this situation we're in, in the fast life of these big cities, intelligence is sometimes lost. Intelligence for just common ordinary situations of life is lost. We can go out and run the complicated machine, make the complicated errand. We can do that, but when it comes to very simple tasks of life, intelligence is gone. The fast pace of life in the big city and all the confusion. The polluted culture, it shatters all the common sense when it comes to dealing with the common practical everyday situations. So, we have to rely upon greater sources and use some psychology. Don't be afraid to use some psychology.
I heard a person say, "Well, that's being deceitful, isn't it?" Some of us are so honest. I was trying to give advice to a woman who wants for her situation to her family. She said, "Well, isn't that being deceitful? I don't feel comfortable being deceitful." I say, "You call it deceitful; I call it natural for the circumstances." You don't tell people everything. G-d hasn't made our mind in such a way that we have an urge to tell people everything.
I have something in my mind and say, "Hey, ho, slow up and ho, stop." I'd be talking and be saying things at home or in public situations. I got something in there that checks my mind every now and then and say, "Hey, ho. Don't say that. Don't let them know that, that's too much. Ain't no need of revealing your purpose before time”. I have all these checks on my mind telling me, "That's not necessary." But there's some people, they get caught-- America produced all kinds of extremists. I don't believe there's another place on earth producing as many kinds of extremists as we have in the United States.
When somebody say he's a human being, look here, don't think you know what he's talking about. He might be talking about a human being proper, and then he might be talking about a human being that's way, way out. "Yes, I'm a human being, baby." You don't know what he's talking about. You have to check him out. Likewise, for the one who's saying he's a Muslim. "I'm a Muslim. Yes, I'm a Muslim." You better check him out or either just don't worry about it now. Just go and leave, it ain't important. Go on and just say, "Okay, baby, you're a Muslim," and keep on going.
In America, you can't be sure. Produced so many different kinds of extremists. You have this extremist, the goody-goody extremist. "How can you speak to that child?" "How can you holler?" "How can you use that harsh voice with the little child?" And the little child got a butcher knife going at his sister. “That's not the way”. When you got a fire started, a big fire started, you can't go to that fire and say, "I know you're raging.
Everything's going to be all right. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to chill you too quickly," you're putting little water. A big fire, you got to go in with as much water as you can get. You'd drown it. You got to drown to put that fire out quick, because it's out of control. Right? The fire's out of control. When life gets out of control, we can't have these people from the '60s and '70s, social workers' mentality from the '60s, flower children. We can't have them coming around us trying to solve our problem. They make problems. They are the problems.
You have to have disciplined people who are strong, but rational people, not extremists. So, dear people, don't think any situation is hopeless as long as you have recourse to G-d, as long as you have a way to G-d, as long as you have a way to G-d's Word, to G-d's true message, as long as you have a human model that is excellent that you can look to. Because after all, G-d wouldn't have completed His great mercy on us, if He hadn't established that there's a human model that satisfies Him. Allah has created man and mission prophets and He has given us the best model.
And to the Muslim, He says, "Surely in Muhammad, you have an excellent model of human conduct." So, we shouldn't despair, don't ever despair. Not only do we have access to G-d and His Word, but we also can look at another human being, a human being with the same human nature, with the same human possibilities that we have for failure and for success. Yes? But G-d blessed him to be successful in every respect. The perfect human model, Muhammad the prophet. So, let us never despair. Turn to G-d and know that His mercy is never diminished. His mercy is the same today as it was in the beginning. His mercy is so unlimited.
And Allah says in the Quran to us that if His creature would come sincerely to Him with sins as big as the whole earth and multiplied over again, that He has the capacity to forgive him. And the prophet has told us peace and blessings be upon him, that a certain man fell into wrongdoing, and he turned to Allah, he remembered that he has a G-d over him, he turned to his G-d, and he asked his G-d to forgive him. And his G-d forgave him. He repeated it again, repeated wrongdoings again. He went to G-d again, G-d forgave him. He did it, repeated some wrongdoing again he committed, he turned to G-d, G-d forgave him and told him, "Go on your own."
What they call it in the courts? Reconnaissance or something like that? Yes. "Go on your own good behavior. Go on the strength, the support of your own good behavior." Now, G-d tells us through His prophet that if we trust in Him and believe that He forgives sins and if we want to please Him and turn to Him repenting for our wrong, that after we establish a record, establish a life of doing that, we reach a point where G-d trust us on our own behavior.
G-d Himself will trust us on our own behavior. Meaning that the human being has been given an excellent moral nature by his creator. And if he just relies on it, if he just lives up to it, he reaches a point where living good, where pleasing his Lord is no longer a burden on him. He can be let loose on his own behavior.
Well, let us strive for that. Let us work for that because that will keep us from going insane. That will keep our families from coming apart. That will keep our good life from unraveling and turning into a monster of some type.
In these trying situations, we find ourselves in, in America. So, I repeat what I've said to you earlier, watch the meaning of your life. Watch the meaning of your labels, whether it's for your religion, or for your race, your ethnic group or whether it's for your family. Watch the meaning. Keep the meaning that you want true to the label that you wear.
Peace be on to you. May G-d guide us to the right path. As-Salaam-Alaikum.


