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IWDM Study Library
IWDM Lecture
Oakland CA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
As-salaam Alaykum.
That is peace be on you. We witness that there is but one G-d, we say La illaha illallah. And we witness that Muhammad to whom the Qur’an was revealed, he's Allah's messenger and servant and the last of the prophets, prayers and the peace be on him. Again, we're here on this day, the “Evening of Elegance” to join you with joy and in support for the school here in Oakland, the Muslim private school here in Oakland. We pray as always that Allah bless your efforts, bring the results that you hope for and make all of us successful in our efforts to establish ourselves as Muslims and to realize establishment for ourselves as Muslims and also as American citizens.
What I hope to do is make a contribution to the theme that you have. The Imam Shuaibe has told me that we didn't want to limit you to any topics of our choosing. And he kind of left free to speak as I please, here. And I was saying to myself "Well, what can I say in this time that I have to speak on this occasion?" I'm going to address the theme that I have been addressing now for many months, for more than a year or two. And that is the life that Allah wants for us and the life that all people identify in as the life of excellence. The life intended by G-d for each and every one of us.
But I'm also going to be speaking to you that I see, I see so many of you that I know very, very well, Muslims. I'm also going to be speaking to you and I hope the others who are here, our honored guests, very special people all of you. I hope you'll forgive me if I kind of speak past you, that is, if you do not recognize the language. I recall having a dream long before I ever became a leader of the Muslims. And I told my father about this dream but at the time I was a young minister for my father. I think everyone knows my father or who my father was, I don't like to say was, he's still my father. I don't have another father.
You know people say, “Well, my father, I don't have a father.” Yes, you do, living or dead you have a father and a mother and all the other relatives. Just because they died doesn't mean that they don't exist anymore or you don't have them anymore, you still have them. When I dreamt this dream, something made me tell my father about this dream and I told him about this dream. And he listened very carefully to my dream and he told me my dream had meaning to it, that's all he said. He said: "Son your dream has meaning to it." He did interpret one part of it, I'm going to give you the dream, it wasn't an ordinary dream this was a dream that stuck in my mind.
When I was dreaming it, it was very vivid, very vivid it had more of an attraction than the other dreams. This was a different dream. I dreamed that I was just out by myself in an area or some land that I couldn't identify. And I came upon like in nowhere, it wasn’t a city, more like open land. And I came upon a big swimming pool out in nowhere, big swimming pool. So, I was attracted to the swimming pool and I went to the swimming pool. And as I got closer, I could see a man there. I got very close and there was a man and the man was swimming, he was swimming in the water. He got out of the water and he looked at me not saying anything.
Then he set off from the pool upon the surface of the water and he stood on the water, this man in my dream. Please, I hope you're not dreaming. This is a dream. He sat upon the surface of the water. I always wanted to swim; it was a long time before I ever got in the water I was grown almost before I ever got in the water to swim. I wanted to swim so bad. I looked at this man, I just jumped right into that pool and imitated him and I started swimming. And before I knew it, I was swimming like a shark, a professional, a seal or something. I was swimming so nice just like he did.
Then I was moved to step out of the water and stand upon the edge of the pool and I looked at the water and I stepped down upon the surface of the water. I did exactly what I saw him doing and I stood upon the water. And this was the only part my father wanted to interpreted. He said "Son, water means people," He said "It means one of these days you're going to be a leader for the people." That's how he interpreted that part of the water. Dreams are funny, they just break abruptly, with no logical connection. Now I’m no more in that scene but I'm still out in the open away from dwellings and the city.
And I see, it looks like an industrial machine, vehicle for moving dirt but it was just sitting there, a huge one, huger than anything I had seen at that time. But when I went over there to see the industrial work of Saudi Arabia, I did see one as huge as that one that I saw in this dream. I saw some very monstrous looking things, tall as this building, this theatre here, dirt movers. Anyway, I begin to go and see what was there. It was a longs way away as I got closer and closer, I could see that there was a very high pile of coal. When I was a boy, we used coal in most of our homes to keep our home warm in Chicago.
The boys had to shovel the coal, bring it in. The coal man would come and dump it out on the stoop. We would have to shovel the coal and bring it in and dump it through the window into the basement. Hardly ever did the coal man do all the job, he would just dump it. And my parents, I guess they saved money that way. They would have us go out bring it in and dump it into the basement. Anyway, this pile of coal was very high and the kind of coal we used in our furnace. Each piece perhaps was no more than about an inch and half in diameter. Something moved me to go there and go up to the top of that pile of coal, piled up like a mountain.
I wanted to see what was on the other side and this pile of coal was obstructing my view to the other side. Now, this is a dream, like I said. The logic is lost sometimes in dreams. Most of the time. So, why now is this pile of coal obstructing my view and I’m out there in the open anyway. But that’s the way it was in the dream. I couldn't see on the other side to this pile of coal. I started up this pile of coal. I wanted to get, well, not so far as short of being to the top it. I couldn't get to the top. Something in me told me, "Don't try to go up any higher." Because every time I tried to step, the pile of coal wouldn't support my step. I’d be brought down a bit. However, I keep trying and it brought me up and up gradually, I near the top. And something said, "Don't try to go up any further, and I go back down." so I went back down. I went back down to the base of that pile of coal.
Since then I tried to further interpret my own vision. Trying to understand my own dream. If I wanted to describe to you, the difficulty I've had ascending as I want to ascend to the position of leadership and service as I want to serve, I can't describe it better to you than trying to go up a pile of loose coal.
A perfect description. And I think it's a perfect symbol. You know coal is black. And coal has the potential for industry, has the potential for comfort, energy. Industry was fueled by coal when I was a boy to a great extent, and also warmth. Our homes were warmed by it. And to me now as I look at that, I say, "This is the members of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. This is the honorable Elijah Muhammad's following. This is the Nation of Islam. Symbolically speaking. A great pile of coal, a mountain, a society, a government, a structure that won’t support the kind of leadership that’s in me. Every time I go up, I have to come back down. Why? Because the people are all lose, each individual, no individual was tied together. The only thing supporting them is that they're put together in that situation. Believe me in my opinion, that's a very accurate description of us.
What attracts us to each other? Love to each other? Closeness. We want to be close to each other, right? But are we structured in any kind of idea? No. Leader, followers. That's all. The leaders and the followers. The leader brings the followers together. Now we know we had the lessons of the Nation of Islam and all that. But those lessons weren't ever put together or nothing was extracted from those lessons to us as an idea, or a system of life, or government, a society for us. No. I know we have some kind of structure. There were ministers. There were captains. There were lieutenants. I know that. But how were you held together? The lieutenant said, "The Honorable Elijah Muhammad." The captain said, "The Honorable Elijah Muhammad." The minister said, "The Honorable Elijah Muhammad."
All of us were just fired up with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And the lessons said, "The black man is superior. The black man is G-d. The black man is the original man.” So, many of us just love each other, just be happy and proud of each other. We felt good about ourself. So, that was a warmth, a warmth inside the coal, but we were cold as hell, weren’t we?
Now, I know coal is C-O-A-L, but I'm talking about C-O-L-D. We were cold too; we were cold people. And yet having the potential for so much warmth. Cold but loving to be with each other. Loving to be together. What I mean by cold, I don't mean that any of you individually were cold-hearted. I meant what we believe was the cold belief. And many times, the way we were treated by each other was cold too. But yet, there was a desire enough to be warm. To fuel a great thing with our energy, to give comfort and even rights. The desire was there.
We don't have to be like that anymore. We don't have to be a community with no idea of life. Our people, going back to the earliest leaders we have had, they wanted us to be turned on to an idea of life. One writer writing recently about four great people who offer a vision to the African American, Robert Michael. His book is titled Liberating Visions. It's a very good book, Liberating Visions. He writes about Dr. King; he writes about Malcolm. He writes about Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois.
In his chapter on Malcolm, he talks about Malcom’s straining for an idea of life. I'm using my own words when I say an idea of life. He calls it a system. He said that Malcolm had a leaning towards socialism. That Malcolm made statements in support of socialism. But he said Malcolm's statements did not give approval to any particular brand of socialism, especially not communist socialist. And he said that Malcolm regretfully never was able to realize or create a system.
I think the Honorable Elijah Muhammad did have a system, and he did have an idea of life.
His idea of life was Muslim life as he interpreted that life or conveyed that idea of life. It was Muslim life. His system was the Nation of Islam, a centralized system for receiving income, putting it to use or distributing it. Those critical of him, especially our leaders, they later charged him with being a Black Capitalist. Which I don't think is correct. I know the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was not a Black Capitalist. He was just big daddy. We welcomed him as big daddy. And not only the muslims, I've heard leaders and if he was here, he couldn't deny, Rev. Jesse Jackson, referred to the honorable Elijah Muhammad as our father. And he said we, speaking of himself, in Christianity, who were not muslims. He said, "We, call him dad." That's what he meant to many people, a father
They didn't want to publicize that because they didn't want to be identified as one of his followers. But privately they would refer to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as father, or dad. Why? Because he assumed that position of daddy, a father over us. He would tell us; we have to clean up ourselves. We got to clean up our homes. He would tell us to respect our wives, he would tell us to get out and get a job take care of our family. That's a daddy. That’s the way a daddy talks to you.
He would tell us stop imitating the white man. Stop following him and his bad ways. He would tell us stop wasting money, put it to good use. He would say pay your debts, don’t cheat anybody. If you work give an honest day work, even though you give it to a white man, or a devil. That's a pretty good dad.
When we look and try to find in what he offered us, a system that we can be satisfied with, in America today it’s not there. In fact, the system that he had was a system only designed to be temporary. It was designed for the worst times that we experience in the United States of America. But as time improved there would be no justification for his system.
His system was the system separate from the system we call The Society of America. The economic system of America, free enterprise system of America. We were separate from the political system of America. We ignored it and established ourself independently of the political system of America. That was a temporary thing. It never had any real reality in America. It would have perhaps if he would have got those separate states. But what did he say about the separate states privately? He said, "I don't know, they're not going to give us any separate states but I ask for it anyway. He said, “they went to war and fought each other over that.
I know they’re not going to give us any separate states.” So, it shows that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said many things just to create or give an affect that he wanted, get attention to himself to say something to send a message out. What message would he be sending out by asking America to give him separate states? He's saying, "Look, you got a lot of blacks that want integration. You've got a lot of blacks that want to solve the race problem by having you include us and accept us among you.
Well, you've got a few blacks that would be happy if you just give us a place where we can live by ourselves and have our own lives and be responsible for ourselves.” That's what he's saying. He was saying most of the blacks you’ve trick them out of doors, you enslaved them, then you’ve discriminating against them after you have freed them. You mistreat them. You break up their families, discredit the husbands, put them on welfare. There is nobody ask you for a divorce or called a bad parent, yet.
But here is one African American man, here is one black man that wants a divorce. Don’t want to be with you anymore. Isn’t that good? I'm glad that he's on the page of the history, that there was some black people in our history that said to the white man, "I don't like you either. I don't want to be with you either. You're a bad parent. I'm going to take you to court, have you condemned as a parent, so we can go on our own."
He was tough and he was correct in that time, it’s natural to do what he did. That's why Jesse Jackson could call him dad because that man was doing something, Jesse Jackson wanted in his own heart and soul but never had the courage or situation to say it to the white man. “I want to divorce you. You ain’t no goddamn good as a daddy.
You're a bad parent. You treat us like monkeys, dogs and swine. You're a bad parent.” Yes. Now getting back to the idea. I’ve studied Booker T. Washington, DuBois and all of them. And what they have in common, Malcolm, all of them. Yes, and even the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. In fact, in spite of what he said about the white race and all that, that was for affect. That was a strategy. That was symbolic more than real.
You know what Honorable Elijah Muhammad said once to us. When I say us, I mean the leaders, who happened to be there in his house, where he held all of his leadership meetings. The same table ate and dine at, where guess would eat there. That same table was the conference table. It was the tables for the staff. One table couldn't hold all of his staff. He had two or three of those long tables.
We would eat and right there he would also address the meeting. Talk to the staff. One day he said, “brothers, we had to seeing Yakub’s history as something that happened back there. I have come to believe that our Savior want us to apply that to us now. That's what he said about Yakub’s history. I recall him taking all those old lessons out of circulation, a long time before most of you ever came to be followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
And here is the reason he gave to us. He said, “these lessons are too much for you to understand. They are not for you; they are for me.” He took them out of circulation. That didn't stop those having them or being attracted to them, they did. But they did it quietly without letting it be known openly that they were still reading those lessons. And the result of them disobeying the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was the Five Percenters in the Jersey area and Zebras out here.
You’ve heard of the Zebra killings, haven’t you? Yes, that was result for them not obeying the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And Five Percenters who did so much of its trouble in the New Jersey area, New York area. That was the result of them not obeying the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He told them that they couldn't handle those things. It was for him.
He saw that the climate for race relations were changing. And the African American man was getting to be very warlike and if that stuff got in his hands, it could be very dangerous. He saw that coming, took them out of circulation. I'm talking about a long time ago, like 20 years or more before he passed. He had taken those things out of circulation. What these leaders have in common is a desire to prepare an idea of life for their people. Most of them were unable to do it. If they could do it, they couldn't let it out they couldn't articulate it. But if you read and get signal from their work from their writing and from their speeches. You could feel what they're saying, an idea of life, an idea of life. Don't just live without a picture of life for yourself. A design for your life, an idea of life. A set of principles that you can express or recite that represents controls on your life. A statement of belief of something that represents a framework for your life.
This is what they wanted; they all was striving for that. And they also wanted the right spirit to be in our people. They didn't want our people to just have any spirit. To just have the spirit of the church is not even enough or the spirit of the temple is not enough. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he tried to give us an appreciation of ourself, what we're worth, what we are, what our worth is. What our originality is, what we are in our original self as G-d created us.
He said, “your own self is a righteous Muslim.” Then he treated us in a way to get us to understand what he meant by righteous Muslim. He didn't mean just virtuous person; he meant an industrious person also. He would tell us move quickly, think fast. Yes, hold yourself up straight, be dignified. He told us so many things and all those things if we summarize them, we can put it in one statement. He was motivating us towards excellence. If you summarize Booker T. Washington's message for our life, he was motivating us towards excellence. Pick out any one of them, single out any one of them and if you study what they was pushing us towards, if you try and summarize it in one statement, you could summarize it in one statement, they were trying to motivate us towards excellence. They wanted a spirit in us, the spirit for excellence.
If you accept to be driven to excellence or to be self-motivated toward excellence the result is that your spirit is going to become a spirit for excellence. It becomes automatic, it becomes second nature, it becomes automatic for you to want to do things as best as you can. That's how my parents influenced me.
My mother influenced me to want to be the best young boy, to want to be the best behaving young Muslim boy. To want to be the most respectful young Muslim boy, to want to get the best grades in school, to want to have the best character, to want to speak the best language. They motivated me to pursue excellence. Read the Quran dear Muslims and you'll see that the Quran has the same overriding message in it. The Quran gives us principles and tips for realizing our life, establishing our life and for advancing our life. But it doesn't depend as much on the detail for our behavior, for our transactions, for our community. It doesn't put as much emphasis or it doesn't depend as much upon us being there as it depends upon us being motivated to pursue excellence.
How do I know that? Of Prophet Muhammad, Allah says in Quran that, “you certainly have in him a model for any who believe in G-d and the last day.” And G-d tells us to follow and obey his model. Accept, follow, obey his model. What is his model? Excellence! Because G-d says, “you certainly have in him the best model, “Uswatan Hasana”. If I want to tell you, “brothers your performance was excellent, I say "Ahsanta." from the same word hasana. I say, “Brother, ahsanta, you did excellent. My teacher used to grade us. He would grade us fair, good, excellent. My teacher, I'm speaking of now Professor Jamil Diab, our Arabic teacher.
When we did superb or above the good, he said in his own writing, ahsanta. It meant you did excellent. “You certainly have in Muhammad, Uswatan Hasana, an excellent model for any who believe in G-d and in the Last Day. Why the two there, believe in G-d and the last day? Some people believe in G-d but are not conscious of obedience to Him. What will keep us conscious of obedient to Him? There is going to be a last day for your independent action. And you will have to account for your independent actions before the Lord of the world.
So, for any. And this is a belief that not only we have but before us the Christians had it. Before the Christians had it, the Jews had it and others had it. Not just this association of great faith. And I say association because we have something in common, Jews, Christians, and Muslims. And that is the continuous revelation and the same lines of prophets, a continuous line of prophets. The motivation towards excellence. Now there's something else that is important for our idea. I hope I'm not going beyond my time too. Please, make me aware of the time. I must stop at the time.
This model of excellence is not something foreign to us, our nature, our own creation. And it's not something that we ourselves can’t identify with. Allah says that you Muhammad, say to them, meaning to the people that he was sent to lead the world really but first it's the Muslims. “Anna basharum mithlukum.” I am a moral person just like you. It would have been enough maybe for some if G-d had said, "Muhammad say to them "I am a mortal" but no that's not enough. Because we say of certain figures, “he's a mortal but not just like me.” 
We said of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. “Yes, brother, he's a man but he's different". Isn’t that what we said? That, " Yes brother he's a man but he's different." And we were made to believe that Honorable Elijah Muhammed in his ability and in his position, in his station, in is his destiny was something that we could never be. Now you might say, "You’ll can never be Muhammad either, you can never be the last prophet either.” We could never fulfill the role of the last prophet. That role has been fulfilled by the prophet. But not only can we be Muhammad, we are Muhammad. And Allah said tell them, "Look, I am a mortal just like you." And then the prophet was taken up into a vision from the earth and a travel from the city of his birth, Mecca, the holy precincts, the Haram at the Ka’aba, the ancient house. He was taken up from there, from Masjid Al-haram and carried on a vision, carried in the sky and made an arch like that.
And G-d caused him to descend on Jerusalem. Now called the Masjid of the rock, the Dome of the rock. What was he shown? He was shown an ascent from the earth. And on the first level his father Adam, the first man. He went to a higher level, he met Jesus; the prophet who came prior to our prophet, the last prophet. But in that progression or in that accent, Jesus and John the Baptist was on that second level above Adam.
He went to the third level, and there was Joseph, the prophet Joseph. And to the fourth level there was Idris. And some translate that Idris to be prophet Ezekiel, but we don't know that. All we know is that it was the prophet Idris. In the fifth level, there was Aaron, the brother of Moses. And on the sixth level there was Moses. And on the seventh level there was Ibrahim or Abraham.
Peace be upon the prophets. In that ascent he identified that two of those were and are our father. Because he said As-salaam Alaykum my father Adam. And in the other levels he went up to, he said As-salaam Alaykum my brother. Until he reached the seventh level, Abraham, and he said As-salaam Alaykum my father Abraham, Ibrahim in Arabic. So, two fathers.
And Allah says in the Quran, “that there are seven tracts above you and the likeness also in you.” That's what Allah says in the Quran, that there's seven above you and seven in you.
So, I stand on solid ground when I say, “that those on those levels, they represent no more than potential in every human being.” They represent the potential in all of us. Now the prophet was the eighth of them. And he ascended, G-d blessed him to ascend and he came down. Now, he is in the earth. Is he symbolic of what is our potential? Yes, but more symbolic of the community potential. The community potential that's in all of us. It's in all of us to identify in the idea that will make for us a great society. It is that idea.
The West is blessed with it. America is blessed with it. That we are all the creation of one and the same Creator. That we are endowed by this Creator with the same qualification for achievement on this earth. In the language of that document, "With certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Now I don’t care how the idealist or the theorist translates the language or change it, most Americans they accept it just as it is. They accept it to be saying that human beings are all one creation, and what every G-d has deposited in one person for the establishment of their life, for the establishment of a great society, He has deposited in every one of us. That's what that language says.
And by them saying, "Endowed by the Creator" tells me that they identified that idea somewhere in their Christian teaching, somewhere in the Bible, somewhere in the message of Jesus Christ, somewhere in their perception of Jesus Christ for his role on this earth. Somewhere they found that language and then put it in their own words or put in the preamble or statement.
Also, the Declaration of Independence has the same powerful language identifying us as citizens that represent not only the purpose for forming a government but also the end, the goal, the destiny of that government. To prove every man, so every man has the same opportunities in that society. To have the power of that government not in the hand of a select few to claim some human creation different from the collective body, but to work for the good of every individual person.
I don't care how small your operation is. If you have to work with people to get a job done, the best thing to hold your people together and to inspire your people, and drive your people, move your people to greater and greater opportunity and performance, is this idea. That we are attracted to each other and we form bonds together, we are bonded together firstly because we identify in one original human excellence.
We believe that G-d made us wonderful, great. Made us for excellent. Made us for achievement. Made us for success. Made us for high morals. Made us for great intellect. Made us for great industry. Made us for great achievement in every decent rational human way. If we can believe that, that each of us are endowed thusly by G-d our Creator, we’ll have an appreciation for each other, we’ll love each other better. But if we identify in something more than that, the possibilities for us achieving becomes smaller. And we identify in something much smaller than that.
Where are we going to go identifying in each other just because we are black. When we say, "Oh, we're black. That's our identity and blacks ought to stick together." You know what that says? You know what that has an effect of saying to most of us? We identify in hurt. We identify in pain. We identify as victims of the white man. That's what that says. Why? Because we can't even when we get together as blacks, we can't even teach the vision and the motivation, system before. We can't teach Fredrick Douglas before us. We can't teach Booker T. Washington, or DuBois or the Honorable Elijah Muhammad or Malcolm before. We can't teach any of those figures before. Black just seems to black us out.
And all we know is we all hurt together and the white man is most likely the one to point to for it. So, the result is just hitting and missing all the time. Taking two steps forward and three backwards. Well, we don't have to be in that situation. I'm not saying that we should turn to some idea that I'm giving you now for our concept of life. No, we continue going to the Qur’an. We go to the example of Muhammad the prophet; the prayers and peace be on him. I'm not taking anything from that.
No attention from that at all. We must keep doing that because we are Muslim. But I'm telling you is if you want to be in a better situation than the average Christian or the average Jew, or the average Muslim, see the motivation for all of us that can be summed up in very few words. There's a whole lot to go over the belief, the articles of faith, the articles of practice. Important excerpts from Quran. Important excerpts from the Hadith, the sayings of the prophet. That's a whole lot. We can remind our people of what should be our motivation and what should be our conscience. With just some very few words, strive for excellence.
Excellence in every respect. Moral excellence, intellectual excellence, excellence in every respect. Strive for excellence. That's easy. Then, if we seem to be regressing or falling down on our responsibility, it'd be easy to say remember we are a community that Allah created to be driven or motivated to excellence. One word can pull us back. Excellence. You know it's not excellence when you call each other black niggers and black head son of a so and so, and your mother so and so on. You know that's not excellence.
But the honorable Elijah Muhammad tried to call us back by telling us your own self is a righteous Muslim and they'll still accepted. But a lot of us because of the image of the Muslims in the world now we're not even moved by that too much. But I think all of us can still be moved by the desire to pursue excellence. And this is easy, very easy. Evident as that seems but it can be just cosmetic. I wouldn't substitute that language. No, excellence. In the Quran also, Allah speaks of Prophet Muhammad, and He says, “Muhammad is not the father of any of your men.” 
Now I know the connection with this in history and all of that. I know the incident that it is commenting on. I know that, but the Prophet himself says for every verse or for everything said in Quran there is a direct and also an implied reference. What is the implied reference here? The implied reference is that prophet Muhammad is not Adam. Prophet Muhammad is not Ibrahim. Prophet Muhammad is not the father figure. Prophet Muhammad is your brother. He came to demonstrate the common man.
What's possible for the common man, not the intellectual who studies the heavens. Not the man that G-d originally created and made him conscious of his original creation before he was even educated, Adam, the first father. He was not him either, but the common man who is subject to be led wrong, subject to become ignorant after G-d has created him for wisdom. He's subject to become ignorant. The Ummiyyi Prophet from the Ummiyeen. Isn't that Muhammad? You who speak Arabic.
The Ummiyyi Prophet from the Ummiyeen. That's why he went up there. They already up there. And he came down. Allah inspired him. What is the difference? What is the difference between Muhammad and us? The only difference, Allah gives it. He is inspired by G-d. That's the difference. No revelation is coming to us. We are not inspired by G-d. Not on the level of prophet, no. We are not like that. G-d inspired him, made him a Prophet. That's the difference. But he in his type, in his nature, in his role in society he is just like us.
He represents no more ability than we have. He couldn't read, that's what we're told, but G-d blessed him to read. Now, that doesn't mean he couldn't pick up Times magazine and read the headline, the caption. It meant he couldn't pick up the Bible and understand it. He couldn't pick up the Torah and understand it. He couldn't pick up the Gospel and understand it. He couldn't go and hear a preacher preach the religion and understand it. And G-d picked him up with no priest over him. He had no rabbi. And G-d picked him up and revealed to him the religion because he is the fit vessel for it.
Common man yet standing in his excellence. Didn't betray his excellence. Even his own people who believe in idolatry. They said of him, “Yes we know you, we can trust you. 
You are Al-Ameen, The trustworthy one.” And they thought he was so excellent in his human conduct, in his human model, before he was made prophet. They wanted to restore the house that they had made a house for idols. It was a pagan house.
It was originally, it was the house built by Abraham and Isma’il his son, but now it is a pagan house. And the pagan Arabs they wanted to restore it. They wanted the precious stone, which is the black stone. They want to put that precious stone in place, but each of them wanted credit for carrying it there.
And they asked Muhammad to solve the problem. “Which of us should carry the stone in the proper place. Prophet Muhammed said, "Take a cloth, and put the stone in the center, and you each grab the edge of the cloth.” He gave a solution that allowed all of them to have that dignity.
That special honor of carrying the black stone there. When they got it there to the place where it was supposed to be placed, they told Muhammad to take it out with his hands, and put it in the proper place. Now, you brothers who have left Blackness for Blackism. Let me tell you something about that black stone. That black stone is your rested potential. It's a symbol of your rested potential. The potential that's in every baby that’s born, but it has to be unfolded, expressed outwardly. It represents the being, for the possibilities in you before you come into your conscious mind as a human being and to grow in that direction, for your fulfilment.
It is the night of our life, that's what the black stone is. It is the night of our lives. And the night of our lives is the obedience, innocence pure part of our lives. Now, this idea is just the opposite from what the West believe, that light is purity. Yes, we believe that light is purity too, for Angels. We believe that black is death too yes, and it is. We believe that black is sinful too, for the sinful. We believe that black is ignorance too, for the ignorant. But for the nature, we believe that black means innocence. Innocence, black as a symbol means you're innocent. Not only you're innocent, but you're potential, your rested energy, your energy at rest.
This is no idea foreign to other religions. The Christians sing on Christmas, “the holy night”. It's black, the night is black. And we're told in the Qur’an, Lailatul Qadri khairum min alfisha, the night. And we say, Shahru ramadan unzela fehill Qur’an. And we are told Lailatul Qadri khairum min alfisha, tanazzalu malaa ikatu warruhu fiha, bi ith-ni Rabbihim min qulle amrin, Salaamun hiyyah hatta ma’la-il fajr. Isn't that what the Christians say, “Oh, holy night.” And we say, “Peace until the rising of the dawn.” Meaning that man in his originality is a loving creature. We can have peace in that original nature. But once his mind has opened up then he has independent choice. Because G-d didn't want him to be a creature without a free will, having freedom of choice.
Once he become conscious, the same creature having freedom of choice, then trouble starts. 
If G-d does not reveal to him, trouble starts. Because he is going to make his own independence choice and get himself in trouble. But G-d created him for that too, didn't he? To learn by trial and error until he qualifies for guidance and help directly from G-d, like the great Prophets did. Like Muhammad did. So, G-d inspired him, that's the difference. But we are created the same. 
And G-d took off of him the strain of his aspiration to extend charity and help to his fellow man. That was a strain on him, G-d took that strain off of him.
Now I want to come to another idea, and that is we're created to be successful. We are created to be winners and not losers. If we're motivated by excellence it’ll much easier for us to accept that life is not all a bed of roses. Not all ice cream, cherries or whatever. Life demands of us some muscles. Laysa lal insan illa ma saa’a, the Human Being cannot have anything without striving for it, without effort and strong effort. “Illa ma saa’a”. And G-d says, “Fasawfa yuraa.”
If you struggle and strive you shall see the results. You know that, history tells us that. Of people who commit themselves to strive for high value, high purposes, high goals, great achievement for excellence and commit themselves to suffer bad times. “You mean to tell me people come all the way across the water and risks of so many diseases, look how many died before they got to America. And they knew that the great risk was there, but they braved that because they were determined to realize the idea of life that they wanted.
Look what a perception of an ideal life that you can celebrate, that you feel great about. Look what it can do. Look what kind of motivation it has. Enough motivation to get those people to go out and risk their lives, and their children's lives to get in a situation for them to begin working on building that life. We look at the Ka’ba, the original and oldest house. Baitul Attiq means the Ancient House. And it says, Awwal Al Bait the first house. The first house what? Bunya len Nas, built for all mankind. We look to the house with the rituals and visit once a year. It's only a symbol. We should want to be build a house in America for all mankind.
By that I mean, we should want to build a life in America for all mankind. We should want to build a life in America for all mankind. Build a life means have some perception of what its structure should be. What is most important in its foundation? And then what should be placed upon that foundation that completes the structure and then you have the whole concept of what that life is. You want to build a house of black people. You want to build an idea, a nation for black people. You will have the best nation for Black People and any other people, build a nation for all mankind.
Build a community for all mankind. That's ok, Allahu Akbar. We don’t clap. We say Allahu akbar. You can clap if you want, that's good, I like it, but, don't feel you have to, we don’t expect you too.
I’m going to conclude with this statement. The possibility for achievement for us individually, for a group, for our family, for us a Nation or as Muslim or whatever, that possibility is maximized for us when the aim is the establishment of our idea of life. And that idea of life is one that is based in a perception of our equal origin and equal worth in society, then it is maximized. And when the goal or aim is to build that society for the collective body, a collective body where every person in that body can identify equally.
I can’t identify equally with a man who excels in industry or a man who has a great talent. Or some other discipline that I don't have. I can’t identify with him. But we all can identify in the belief that G-d created all of us with the same original design, the same original capacity, the same original potential, the same original nature. The same original behavior, the same original acceptability, same original flaws, same original weaknesses. What am I saying now? I’m saying that in the long run, I don't care what color you are if you don't stick with a high idea of G-d or a motivation to excellence, in the long run, I don't care what color you are, you're going to fall victim to the influences to the weaknesses of man in society.
I remember a time when problems such as, petty theft, stealing, smoking dope, smoking weed, taking dope, whatever, drinking liquor, going to jail on the weekends, that was mostly a problem of Blacks. We didn't hear about no big crime problem for the Whites. But now it is not a problem just for Blacks. Whites, shoot up, they smoke and they go out on the weekend and kill up each other. They’re vulgar, they like to do the funk. I don't know the names of these dances, I'm just uses one word for all them, they like to do the funk.
They shouldn’t have just Soul Train for Blacks; they should also have a Soul Train on TV for Whites. All of us been reduced to Soul Train
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we just accept that in our originality, we are all the same, having the same possibility for excellence, the same possibility for achievement, and the same weakness’s for failure. Therefore, we should all identify with one dignity and that dignity is the human quality person, the quality human person and appreciation to our creator who created us so wonderfully.
That appreciation should be shown in obedience to Him, regardfulness, “Taqwa”. 
This is Al-Islam. Wouldn't it be wonderful, no matter what religion we believe in? You think Christians don't have their concept of Taqwa? They, do! They have obedience and Taqwa too. They have Ihsan, too. They have all of these concepts, too.
If they didn’t, they couldn’t all identify with that language; “And we hold these truths to be self-evidence that all men are equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We pray G-d for guidance always and ask Him for forgiveness and His mercy. The peace and blessings be on the Prophets, and especially on the last, Prophet Muhammad, salla lahu alayhi was Salam. As-Salaam Alaykum


