12/15/1996
IWDM Study Library
It’s Time to Make a Change

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Introduction: '96 in Dearborn, Michigan. The lecturer is Imam W D Mohammed, Muslim American spokesman for human salvation. And now, Imam Mohammed.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: As-sal?mu ?alaykum.
Congregation: Wa ‘alaykum al-salaam.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: Alhamdulillahi. Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil 'alamin. Praise be to Allah, that is to G-d, the Lord, the sustainer of the worlds. We seek Him for forgiveness. [foreign language]. We seek Him for help and assistance. We seek Him for forgiveness for our sins, our faults, our errors, our short-comings. We believe in Him. We put our faith, our trust in Him who believes in us. There's a Christian song that says, "G-d believes in you."
Well, many, many hundreds of years now, over 1,400 years ago, the revelation came to Muhammad, the prophet, prayers and peace be upon him, the Qur'an that is, the last of the revelation revealed books, and G-d, one of His names that's given in the book is that He is a believer. G-d is a believer. G-d, believer in Qur'anic language or in Arabic, this word believer, Mu’min. Al-Mu’min is G-d's name. G-d is Al-Mu’min, the believer.
It has strong meaning of trust. Now, if G-d is the one who created us, if G-d can't trust us, who can? G-d trusts us, that's what it means. G-d is the believer, it means G-d trusts us. He has faith in us, if we can put it that way, trusts us. He lets on our own, He let's us go on our own. That's trusting us. He gave us life, human life, intelligence, rational mind to have a great margin of freedom over all the other creatures He made, and that's His trust. He trusted us.
Then the oppressive world comes, and they take away our freedom because they don't trust us. The great struggle for man, for human community, or for man, is the struggle to establish trust. Islam is a religion that promotes trust, trust between the members of the family, trust between the members of the society, trust between us and our leaders, our good leaders, and trust between us and our G-d who created us.
G-d trusts us, we trust G-d. G-d believes in us, we believe in G-d. G-d believes in us different from the way we believe in G-d. We believe in G-d with a limit of knowledge, a limited knowledge, but G-d believes in us with full knowledge. That's the difference between G-d as a believer, and a human being as a believer. The human being believes with limited knowledge, G-d believes with complete knowledge. That is, G-d trusts us. Isn't it wonderful?
We salute Muhammad, the prophet, to whom the Qur'an was revealed, with the traditional salute, salallahu alaihi wa sallam [foreign language], the prayers and the peace be upon him and what follows of that salutation. Muhammad is also the model of trustworthiness. He is called El-Amin. El-Amin means one that you can trust. One that you can feel safe with, El-Amin. He is the trusting person and a trustworthy person, Muhammad, El-Amin. He was given that name, not from his mother or his father or his relatives, that was a name the members of the society that he belonged to gave him. They gave him that name. He was established, he was known, he had a reputation for being trustworthy.
As it has been reported to us from the learned, faithful Muslims from the time of the prophet until now, it's reported that, before Muhammad, the prophet, peace be on him, was given the mission of prophethood, or the office of prophethood, the prophet was already called El-Amin, the trustworthy one.
Now, I have come to understand myself, studying, first of all, scripture, the Qur'an, and then studying the society, the nature of society, right here in America and elsewhere, somewhat, I have come to understand that, really, trust is one of those, I would say, determinants. Something that you have to have in the end, and it's always working. Determining the outcome for the future. Trust is one of those determinants that are operating in the very spiritual and social and economic nature of society. It has really, now, manifested itself in the international economy, and the commercial life of the whole world. It has manifested itself. Nations must trust each other. Nations must cooperate with each other, and to cooperate with each other, they must trust each other. Trust, they must trust in each other.
I remember our president going to Russia, and he said to the Russians, "Trust your people. Trust your people." When I heard that over the news, it registered very deeply in me because I understood that really, G-d created us to have the life that He created us for, to have that life. In order for us to have that life, we have to have freedom of expression. We have to be free to move into what ever growth we see for ourselves without any law preventing us from doing that, if that growth is the growth G-d wants for us. If you don't have that, the freedom to think free, the freedom to act out your best wishes, if you don't have that, then you are oppressed. You are enslaved.
This trust is the key. The world have tried to free man. The world of communism or Marxism, the world of capitalism or the world of democracy, the world of religions, and many other ideologies, political ideologies, they've been working hard to want to free man. They claim to be liberators, claim to be freedom fighters going to liberate man, liberate human society, but they haven't gone about it in the right way. They have done it with their own limited vision. They've done it with their own limited knowledge of what man's life is and what man's life wants. They have done it with limited knowledge, they haven't turned to G-d.
But now, I am convinced that people in high places in all the major societies of the world have become awake today to this knowledge, that what G-d gave man is better than what man gave himself. I'm convinced of that. No matter how poor the showing is for some of these nations, believe me, their posture is different. Their disposition has changed. Their attitudes have changed. They are not the same nations. This has happened in a relatively short period of time, just in about 5 or 10 years this has happened. The nations have been converted from their old disposition to think narrow, to think small, to think themselves and not include others, to depend on their own minds and their own knowledge, and not have an interest in investigating the knowledge and minds of others. That has changed, that time has gone. It's time for us to change. This is a different world. We're living in a really changed world. It's not the same world. If this was the same world, you wouldn't have to lie about your problems.
[laughter]
We used to tell the truth about our problems. But now, it's popular to lie about our problems. I ain't got enough food, weigh 350.
[laughter]
Science tells us that man, his life is decided mostly by two conditions. One, is his human condition that G-d created. What they call genetic life. Genetics. How you were born from your parents. The other is the environment. What kind of environment you find yourself in. How that environment influences or affects you and the possibilities for your life? When G-d tells us by revelation, through revelation, or with revelation, that He gave us to a heavenly environment when He created us.
He created the man and put him in the Garden of Paradise. We believe, as Muslim students of Islam of the Quran and the teachings and life of our prophet, we believe that G-d created, made Adam in heaven, in heaven, and then put him in the earth because he had to grow. Earth was the place for him to grow. This is what Allah says. This is not Imam W. Deen Mohammed. It is what Allah says in the Quran.
Earth was the place for him to grow. Allah says, "Keep thee down from here into the earth where you will find your life expressions, where you will meet your problems, where you will eventually die, and where you will also be raised up again from the death." This is what Allah said. G-d created us, when this language says that G-d created us for heaven, what it wants to communicate to us is this, that G-d gave you a soul that wants perfect peace, your human soul. That G-d gave you a human soul that wants perfect peace, and you cannot have that perfect peace except that you get it the way G-d, who created you, intend for you to get it. You can't have it. He is the one that created you for heaven. He created you for a condition of heaven, for a state of heaven, for a life of paradise, He created you for that. You will not be able to have that unless you accept to live your life as He designed that life to be lived.
He revealed the revelation after trusting us on our own. Wasn't Adam trusted on his own? He was trusted on his own. After G-d trusted us on our own, we ran into trouble, met the big adversary, the big enemy, the Shay???n the Iblis or whatever. We met him, and his experience and skills and knowledge were too much for the new man that G-d made. The man was big enough to deal with Satan in his soul, from his soul-power. He was able to deal with Satan.
But Satan was very skillful. He addressed the man in a way that didn't invite a soul response, it invited a rational response, and the Satan was superior to the man rationally. Satan outwitted the man and made the man believe that a wrong thing was right. The man did the wrong thing and threw himself out of the garden, out of the state of paradise. This is the story, and a beautiful one, and a very perfect one, describing very perfectly what man's nature and what his problems are. Praise be to Allah.
Now, Islam, that's what we want. Islam. We're Muslims. Anyone who call themselves a Muslim, their book is supposed to be the Quran. Anyone who call themselves Muslim, you never heard that word Muslim until the Quran was revealed. Muhammad got that word. 1400, 15, 16 years ago. You never got that word. Muhammad, if he was here, he could take you to court and sue you for using patent in the wrong way, for violating patent laws. Yes, he could.
Let us not fool ourselves. If we call ourselves Muslim our book is the Quran. Not your book that you made. Time for a change. Not your book that you made, it's the Quran, that's the book. If you're a Muslim, then your leader above all your other leaders, human leaders, - human leaders, is Muhammad ibn Abdullah to whom the Quran was revealed. It wasn't revealed to another person, it was revealed to him. It was from his mouth that human beings on this earth first heard the words of that book, and heard all the words of that book.
He lived to see all the words given from his mouth. They didn't hear Gibreel, the angel Gabriel. They heard Muhammad the man speaking, the whole Quran. If we call ourselves Muslims, that man, prayers and peace be upon him, is our leader above all our other leaders. No leader can be above him on this earth, in this time, or any time in the future. They cannot produce a leader that will replace Muhammad as our leader. We're Muslims. It's time for a change.
For the sincere ones, this is easy. It's not hard. It's easy. The truth is always easy on a sincere person. The truth is hard on a person that's not sincere. Hard on him. If you're not sincere, I don't want you to have it easy.
[laughter]
I don't. I hope that when party time come and you start eating and enjoying all this, I hope that won't even be easy for you. I hope that will be a burden, if you're not sincere. Sincerity is what we must have first. Muhammad, the prophet, prayers and peace be upon him, he said that religion is sincerity. Religion is sincerity. If you're not sincere, you're not even in religion. You're a hypocrite. You're a deceiver. You're an impostor. A sneaky person, sneaking around with people you don't belong with. Yes. If you're not sincere. Religion is sincerity, and that goes for Christianity and any religion. If you're not sincere, you don't have that religion. Time for change. What kind of change we need? We need to change from following our own mind over what G-d has revealed. We have to stop that.
Stop following our own minds over what G-d has revealed. Our minds must submit to what G-d has revealed. Time for a change. It's time for Imams to stop coming out faking it. I'm not attacking any particular Imam.
Don't fake it, brother. You're living in a good day, you don't have to fake it. You fake it when you don't know any better. You fake it when you don't have the right goods. But now we have the right goods. We have the Quran. We have Muhammad the prophet in the right way. We don't have to fake it. Study the Quran, study Islamic knowledge, prepare your khutbah. Don't be lazy. Pick up the Quran and study it, think first, pray to Allah, do duas. Allah, guide me to find the right words for this khutba that I want to give, for this speech, this lecture I want to give, for this message or whatever I want to say to the people. G-d, guide me to the right language, to the right words. Put me in the right condition, put me in the right spirit, put me in the right mood, help me to get myself in the condition that is suitable for what I want to do. G-d, guide me to the right words, guide me to the right thought for this address today, guide me to the right context or text for this expression, or for this preaching I'm going to do today. Guide me to be sincere.
If you're sincere, you say you believe in Allah, G-d? You can go and trust yourself and you got a G-d? Or are you going to trust yourself by yourself and you're Muslim you got a G-d to help you? And a G-d that has revealed a whole book to help you, and it has helped nations. It has put nations off the welfare roll. Nations, lifted nations up off the welfare roll, and you're one little person on the welfare roll, and you won't trust G-d that did that? What's wrong with you? Time for change.
Believers, you shouldn't put up with the Imams anymore coming out faking it. We know you too now. About 20% of you are fakers. About 20% or more, fakers. Brothers, the sincere ones when you see the disturbance in the masjid, don't act on it. We don't act on Satan's works. Even though his work look to be the right works. Satan get up and say Allah is G-d, you don't say yes to him. He says ain't Allah G-d, you don't answer him. Though it's true, but don't answer him because he's not sincere. Satan says, isn't Islam a beautiful religion? You don't say yes. He's the wrong one to ask that, he's the wrong one to say that. You be silent.
When you see Satan's works in the community, don't give it no support even though it's saying good things. “We have to support our Imam W. Deen Mohammed!” You know he works for Satan, don't give him no reply. Allah has given us the Quran and Mohammed, and those two sources make us wise.
We have seen the world, and we have known it in it's worse condition, racism, slavery, et cetera. Now we see a new world, a changed world, where those things cannot be promoted openly. No one can openly promote racism now without being attacked. No one can openly promote the enslavement of any people without being attacked. This is a new time we're living in, new day. No one can promote inferior condition for one people, and superior condition for another people without being attacked.
I remember them saying our Negroes should appreciate what they got. I heard that. Our Negroes should appreciate what they got. They can't do that anymore without being attacked. We don't have to attack them. We can sit back. There are many others that are not of our color or race, they will be attacking them. This is a new day! To wake up and acknowledge it and know that this is time for Islam, this is time for Islam. What the world is advocating now for the betterment of people, the world of human beings, is more in line with what Allah revealed to Muhammad the prophet, prayers and peace be upon him, then it is in line with any other body of knowledge.
Respect for the human person, whether he's black or white or some other color. Respect for what G-d created him to be. Don't limit him, don't hold him back, if he has the ability to achieve, accept that the black be president or the black be king. Allah revealed this long before there was any discussion on this continent by white folks that came from Europe. Allah revealed this, and Muhammad the prophet, prayers and peace be upon him, in his farewell sermon or farewell address what did he say in the sacred precincts? What did he say to the people? He said there is no superiority of a white over a black or a black over a white. That the only criteria is obedience to G-d and they translated piety and different other ways, obedience to G-d, that's the only criteria. If the black man is obedience to G-d, he has a right to be the leader equal with any other man.
And so it is for the white man. If the white man has qualifications to be leader he has rights equal with those of any other man, if he stands upon the qualification, he is obedient to G-d. He demonstrates that he'd has fear of G-d in him, and that he wants to obey G-d, and that we can trust him. He's going to obey his G-d, then he qualifies to be our leader and anything else cannot be accepted. Then we go upon who is qualified for that particular job? Of those who qualify upon obedience to G-d, now who among those who will qualify through obedience to G-d qualify for that particular job. No matter what color he is or she is, if he or she qualify for that particular job, they can be given that particular job.
In the world of government, in the world of politics, a woman can be our leader, and we have them. We have a woman in Pakistan, she's a leader, we have women in different Muslim countries as a leader, and no one Sheikh, no learned scholar in Islam, no religious knowledgeable person is saying this is the wrong, this is the bidah, this is an innovation, this is something that shouldn't be here. This woman cannot be our president. They won't say that because they know that a woman can be our president, she could be head of the state, she could be head of the nation. This is the real democracy, and Islam is the real democracy. It was far ahead of all of the efforts to give man a true democracy, and it is right now the quiet influence behind closed doors that is helping and encouraging the ones who are advocating a perfect democracy to stay with the job until it's completed. It is quietly working, the knowledge of Quran and Muhammad the prophet as the liberator, quietly working in these great powers to move them with more certainty in the role to the best and most perfect state for human beings.
The ideal state for human beings. We can't find a better word than democracy right now for the political state. Democracy, which means the people must have respect from their leaders for what G-d has created them. They must not be treated as sub-creations, but as equal creations with their leaders. G-d did not make the leader of one creation and made us of another creation. He made all of us of one creation.
So, he must then respect us. He must consult us. He must serve our best life and our best needs for the future. He must do this. He's only a representative. He's not our master. He's only a representative, representing us. Our master is Allah. Our leader is Muhammad. Some of us, we adopt the language of those who come from Europe. We call Muhammad, our Master Muhammad. Muhammad would never accept that any of us call him master. Master suggests slave, and Muhammad would never ask any of us to worship him.
Worship only Allah. So really, this language is an error that's done in innocence. I don't think any of the brothers from overseas intentionally are doing wrong. It's something they do in innocence. They just want to show how much they love Muhammad, and that Muhammad is so superior to them. That's true, but he's not our master. Allah is our master. We only have one master, Allah. They even say Master Bilal. He's not our master. Bilal wouldn't like that if we would call him master. See, master in English means one thing, and these people come here and they pick up this language and they don't know what they got.
[laughter]
Mister's okay, but not master. Mister. [laughs] But I doubt if we were in the time of the prophet, I doubt if we could use that kind of language, even Mister. Never did the prophet address somebody as Mister Sharif, or Mister Omar. Never. You could study his language in the Hadith, study it yourself. Never. And never did they address him like that either. They addressed him with his title, messenger of G-d, Rasoul’Allah. Rasoul’Allah, oh messenger of G-d. And those who were a little more close to him, like intimate friends, close people, they would say Muhammad, and he never said, "Don't, - put a handle to my name, don't call me just Muhammad." He was not that kind of person.
[laughter]
He's a wonderful man, a perfect man, you know? Perfect human being.
Praise be to Allah. So it's time for change. We are living in a time now when the world does not want to be against itself. The world does not want to see nations against nations, or religions against religions, or national members of nations against each other, or members of a race against each other, the member of different races against each other. The world has moved to a position now where the world does not want to see that.
If your mind is there, you're out of tune with the world. If that's where your mind is, you're out of tune with the world. So isn't this the climate for Islam? That tells us now here is the time for Islam. Allah recognizes our limitations, and Allah excuses some of our behavior because of our human limitations. A man ignorant of the law, he won't be given the punishment that a man who is knowledgeable of the law will be given in Islam or in any civilized society.
The ignorant man will be dealt with according to his knowledge. The poor man who steals a loaf of bread because his baby, his wife is hungry, he's not going to be dealt with under the law like a man who didn't have to steal. He got food. He'll be dealt with differently. We know we're not supposed to eat pork. Pig, hog, the thing got so many names. Sow. Never seen an animal with so many names. I guess they say, "Well, they don't want to eat pig. When they come to the market, they won't see pig. They'll see sow, and they won't know what they're buying. When they catch on to sow, call it something else, and give all its parts different names, ham, pork." We know we're not supposed to eat that animal. We can't eat him. We're not supposed to give it to anybody else, to sell it to somebody else, or give it to somebody else. It's forbidden to consume that animal.
Now, Allah says that if anyone eats that animal, for fear of starvation, dying in starvation, and he does not or she does not desire to eat it, they're just eating it because they have to survive and there's nothing else to eat. Allah will forgive them. Allah is a merciful G-d. All knowing merciful G-d.
Now, we used to live under the white rule in this country and in the world. That was very, very severe, and its punishment of us for violating laws that they put on us, very severe. If they said you're not supposed to eat at this counter, they say you're not supposed to be doing it, then you knew if you did it, you're going to bring to wrath of the white community down on you. And you know you could be taken to court, or you could never see court. Beat you to death, or hang you up on a tree and that would be it. You gone.
So in that time, if you didn't come out and say what G-d wants for us, for the people, speak out against them, you're excused, because it was your very life at stake. So, anybody's entitled to save their life in such times when the life is at risk, the whole life is at risk, you will die.
See, Allah doesn't ask us the believers to be a community of kamikaze or suicide mission people. No. G-d is loving and merciful to us, and he accepts the conditions, and if they're too much for the human being, he doesn't blame you for it. He blames those who put those conditions on you. When we were first introduced to the name Muslim, the one who introduced it said that we were a people held down by fear. He said it was the fear of the white man. That's what he taught. Mister Fard. Mister W. Fard. He taught that our condition was a condition of fear, we weren't doing what we were supposed to do, because we were fearful, and because fear was put into us when we were little babies.
Now, you know any child born into the time of slavery or into the time of the Ku Klux Klan terror, or the time of discrimination in the south, any child born in that soon learned to fear the white man. So, Fard blamed it all on fear. He blamed eating pork on fear, and I believe he's right.
He's right, especially for those he was talking to. If he was inviting them to stop eating pork and they weren't listening to him, most likely it was because they had more respect for a white man than they did for him, and they feared what the white man would think of them following what this man says about a pig over what the white man said about the pig. The white man, obviously, said pig was good, tasty, something to be relished, and if Fard came up and put it down, put that pig down, I'm sure (unclear).
I used to be a minister for years teaching the nature of Islam language to audiences like this, smaller and bigger than this. For years, I did it. Believe me, I knew that the biggest thing that I had to overcome to get people to respond favorably was to break the grip of the white man on those people, break the grip of the white man on their mind. White men had a grip on their minds, and I had to break that grip in order to get them to respond freely and favorably to what I was saying. I knew that, fear.
A great president of these United States, he wanted to see his country, his society, society of American, the great American society, step into a new gear, come into a new gear, step into a new dimension for their minds, for their planning of the future, for the idea of what is good for the society, the whole society. He told them, “You have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
President Roosevelt, President Delano Roosevelt, one of the greatest presidents of this country has ever had, especially for social justice, social reform, and social justice. Yes, he said, “You have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Here's Fard coming in at a time, and that time, in fact, when Roosevelt became President, Roosevelt became president in 1933, wasn't it? Somewhere around there, so Fard was still there preaching. So Fard thought too that the problem for you was fear? That fear blocked the way for you. Fear was working against you.
I hope it's not happening today, but for some of you it is, I know. Fear is still working against you. You fear to change from what you are to what you know you should be, because you still are in the grip of the white man's mind and influence. It's a shame, but it's true. You're still measuring yourself according to how he measures you. That's no good, time for a change.
If you're a Muslim, you shouldn't care what white man, European man, American white, European white, Asian yellow, India’s red, Africa’s black, you shouldn't care what all of them think. If all of them said, “Oh, you were wrong.” You just say, go to hell. I'm going to follow what G-d says, I'm a Muslim. I'm not you, I'm a Muslim. It’s time for a change. We must change from carrying the burden of fear on us to carrying the burden or the responsibility for peace and the trust. It is what a Muslim should be carrying? The burden or the responsibility for peacekeeping and for trust.
Keep the trust, keep the peace.
[silence]
- to prove the human being worthy. Worthy of what? Worthy of trust. That you can trust the human being. What the human being is what G-d made him, what he is in his true nature and constitution as a man a created thing by G-d, you can trust that. G-d made him with a soul, G-d made him with a rational mind, G-d made him with a spirit, et cetera. Gave him life and human faculties. You can trust him.
Seven went out to disprove it. It says seven went out to prove him worthy, and seven went out to prove him unworthy. I would say if we want to find those who went out to prove the human being unworthy, find the dictators, find the despotic rules on this earth, find the slave-makers, find the white supremacist. Then you are putting your finger right on those who represent that movement, to prove man in his make that G-d gave him unworthy of trust in society.
You're not worthy of trust unless you follow our mind, you're not worthy of trust unless you follow our thinking, you're not worthy of trust unless you obey our laws and don't question them. You’re not worthy of trust unless you accept what we say your station should be in life, what we say your position should be in life, what we say your place should be in society. You're not worthy of trust unless you accept what we say about you. The human being got something in his soul that G-d put there.
Something is speaking in his soul that says I can't accept what he was saying, no matter if you’re educated or not. No formal education, but G-d made him with the ability to know right from wrong when it comes to how he should be treated. Something inside of him is saying, “No, you're wrong” Afraid to speak out, afraid to even showing his face that he disagrees because he's living in a time of white supremacy, he living in a time of severe punishing rule over him. He can't take a chance, he had to scratch his head and pretend like he likes it. Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir, and many of us did that. Called Uncle Toms and (unclear).
That was good psychology. You won't be condemned after for that, that was better than swinging on a limb. That's another thing we all put down Uncle Toms, NAACP and all of the other followers of the NAACP's mind. You got to put down Uncle Tom. A lot of Uncle Toms, they had a strategy to survive and get near the big house or get into the house so they can get information and knowledge that the field hands couldn't get. They were able to rise up in the society. When freedom came, they were in a position to lead. Those who had nothing but the situation in the field as work animals, as work animals. Let not put down these Uncle Toms as much we'd be been doing. That woman, Mary Beecher Stowe, is that her name? I think that's her name.
Congregation: Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: Harriet. Pardon me. Harriet Beecher Stowe. That's right. That woman, she admired Uncle Tom. She saw Uncle Tom having great human qualities. She wrote a book about him to convince her people that these people are not animals, these are human beings just like we are, and maybe he got some human qualities that we need. That's what she wrote the book about. That’s what he wrote the book for. But because he wasn't angry with white folks, later on, freedom movement put him down. Anybody that stands up and ain't spitting out fire at the white man, we called him an Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom, he didn't satisfy my need to see the white man flogged, he's an Uncle Tom. [laughter]
Even in this day and time when really all reality is pointing to you all as the one who need to be flogged, still we want to see the white man flogged, "Oh, flog him, tie him up against the pole and flog him, [laughs] (unclear) his skin off the beast, yes, oh, praise is due, (unclear) the skin off that beast." Time for changed, time for change, change from fear to trust, change from fear to making peace, not war, make peace. Islam is peace between yourself and your G-d. Islam is peace between yourself and your fellow man. Islam is peace between yourself and the order that G-d made, this is Islam.
Be promoters of peace, don't want to see mankind having unfair laws, or unfair principles, or rules that make one people better than another people, to set one people up for mistreatment, no, don't support that, I don't care who's preaching it, don't support it, be against that. It's time for inclusion, inclusion, inclusion, what do I mean by inclusion? Tawhid, that's the focus for inclusion for Muslims, Tawhid. The first principle of Tawhid is La ilaha illallah, there's nothing but one G-d, the G-d Allah, only one G-d, that's the first one. The next is that if G-d is one, then whatever He has done, also has a unity, whatever He has done, that there is unity for that because G-d is one.
An artists who draw flowers or whatever, those who know art, they study this artist, they can identify his work because his work is an expression of him, of his mind, of his thinking, of his skills. The learned people in religion long ago, thousands of years ago came to see that the creation bears the designs of the artists that did it and that it shows a unity. Though things appear to be different from each other, all things are tied together by one reality, and one essential nature. One essential nature, one true reality, that there is a unity, that these things are really members of each other. The Earth is a member, the Mars, the Mercury, Venus, and even Pluto, the farthest one away.
The sun is a member to the burning stars distance away, even beyond the Milky Way that we belong to. They are all members of one system of material things. We need calcium, we need iron to live, these are nutrients for us, we can't live without these. The earth needs it too, the earth has it too, we have water, earth has water, we got solids and water, earth got solids and water, plants got solids and water, every living thing has to breathe, every living thing must have water. In order to become alive, you must have water in order to have life, all of the living things are tied together. This shows that one artist did all of it, one artist made it all and tied it all together.
When we die, we go back to the earth, and when they take us up after so many hundreds of thousands of years, and they say, "Here he is," you look just like the tree that died, you look just like the animal that died, you look just like anything else that died, you're back there looking like earth again. We are all living here one common origin, Mother Earth, isn't that right? We've come to believe in the unity of matter, that G-d is one and matter has a unity, and they call the system what? The Universe. The uni-verse, uni means one, verse means verse. One verse that the artist made, highly glorified is the artist above all that we can imagine. Time for a change, this is the day for Islam, for Islam to be taught freely.
This is what the scripture, the word of G-d in the Quran prophesies, a lot of us don't see the Quran as prophecy, the Quran is prophecy. When Allah says in the Quran that, "One day the earth is going to behave as though her Lord revealed to her," that's prophecy. When Allah says in the Quran and that, "Allah inspired the bee," B-E-E, the insect, Allah inspired the bee, that's revelation, not necessarily prophecy. When G-d said that Allah revealed to the earth, he inspired the earth or the earth start behaving as though it had received inspiration from G-d, that's prophecy.
That's telling us that there's going to come a time when the natural forces are going to respond as though those natural forces had been given the message from G-d. You who study, you are scientific-minded, you who study the trends for the societies of the world, you can see that this time has come when the earth itself is responding as though her Lord has revealed to her. No prophets telling these people what to do, what to say, no prophets telling them, no prophets can control the economy, even if they are prophets, they can't control of the economy, only Allah.
Natural factors and man, commercial man, industrial man, but we see the natural dynamics, the natural forces, orderly forces, see, I break these terms down for you because I know you ain't going to the dictionary, some of you will but most of you won't. The natural orderly forces in the business life of nations and the world are beyond man's control, he can't control it anymore. This is the earth responding, acting as though her Lord has revealed to her. Nations (unclear) no more say what they want and what they have to have according to their program, according to their vision.
They must respect the natural dynamics, the natural workings, orderly workings in the life we call the business life of not only a nation but the whole world now, the whole world now, they must respect it. What makes this possible? It is the third world or world that's not seen as the industrial world, the leaders. Ikt is the third world, the followers, the masses are those who have not yet come in to world leadership. Their own souls are telling them enough is enough, no more will we let people come and take our zinc out of here and take our our aluminum out of here and take other minerals out of our land, without us being respected and getting a fair share or getting a break, getting justice.
They're demanding this, it is their soul telling them that, not the Bible, not the Quran, not the Torah, not any book, the Bible of the Buddhist, it's not that, it's their soul telling them that. The human soul has been conditioned over the long period or train of history of seeing oppressors rob them of their life, rob them of their land and resources, that soul have been conditioned now on time, in the time of universality, their soul is conditioned now to rise up and speak against that. You can kill them by the masses, you can kill 50% of them, you can kill 75% of them and the 25% will still be saying the same thing, this is wrong.
No scripture in their hand, natural forces, natural forces rebelling against injustice or wrongdoing. The earth is behaving as though the G-d-- The Lord that made her has revealed something to her, isn't that wonderful? This is the time. 
Now, this is a time for us to move from disbelief to believe, skepticism is not what made this world beautiful and comfortable and productive. No, faith is what make this world beautiful, productive, comfortable, faith, believing. Believing in our human possibilities that G-d gave us, believing in the beautiful world all around us, that in that world are useful things that we bring them out and work our talent, use our talents and skills, bring those things out, we can have a better life for ourselves on this earth. Believing is what have made life better. Not disbelieving.
Look how Allah addresses us in the Quran [Arabic language]. "Oh, you believers, oh, you who believe, oh, you believers." You read the Quran? How many times does G-d say, "Oh, you Muslims"? He made you Muslim when he created you, you're Muslim in your nature, but he had to reveal guidance to you and give you the prophet to educate you in the knowledge of your own life. So you will know your own life and so you will be a Muslim consciously, consciously following the guidance that will enable you to keep your Muslim condition. The Quran and the guidance that we get from the Prophet Muhammad's model will keep us in the Muslim condition.
G-d gave us that-- It's like saying, "Oh, you man." He know you're a man, "Oh, you woman." He know you're a woman. It's not your man that will get you into the good future you want, not by itself. All the man muscles and the man knowledge, it won't get you there. Or your woman's condition? No. Or your natural condition, the natural condition, had already proven to be a failure without G-d's guidance. He made Adam in a natural condition, and Adam was deceived out of the natural condition by the Satan. G-d doesn’t say, "Oh, you Muslims." We were so attracted to the name "Muslim", we thought ain't nothing better than Muslim, and black Muslim too, black Muslim.
"Oh, I just brighten up, I just light up when they say that name Muslim." Let me tell you what's better than a Muslim, a believing Muslim, a believing Muslim is better than a Muslim, and that's what Allah want us to be, believing Muslims. We have to have a change, a change from skepticism, doubt, doubting, disbelief. Now, I don't test you consciously, not me and not my doing, I don't test people, I don't. Wait a minute, I'm sorry.
[laughter]
Only is some small, small circles, I test somebody in my family occasionally, I got to go sleep with them, I got to make sure--
[laughter]
Then I want to see them in-- I want to know that they're safe, so sometime I have to test them, make sure that they're safe. A little test, not a big one, a big test mean you don't trust them.
Don't want to be like that Satan. Don't want to give them no big test. Now don't go home and give anyone in your family a big test, brother, please, a little small test. In fact, when I test them, they already know they're tested They don't. I don't know anyone that I tested that showed me or gave me any indication they knew I was testing them. Now, to leave money out, see if they'll steal, that's not testing, that's temptation, and you'll be punished for that.
You shouldn't leave money out to see if they'll steal, you should leave money out to show you trust them. We have to move from disbelief to believe, and this belief should begin, first of all, with the articles of belief for Muslims, we believe in G-d, we believe in angels, we believe in the books that G-d revealed and the prophets and messengers of those books and we believe in the judgment, the day of justice that G-d is going to bring. We believe in the divine ordinance of G-d, we believe that this order we call the created world is regulated by G-d's will. The law is G-d's law, the (Arabic) of G-d.
We believe that G-d has ordained that this natural world work as it works, to reward and to punish. To reward the right approaches and the right uses and to punish the wrong approaches and the wrong use of His created world, we believe that that is from G-d and, we believe in the resurrection [Arabic language] We believe that after a person is dead, they shall be raised up again, resurrected. This is a belief, but we also believe in Muhammad, the Prophet, yes, we believe in Muhammad the Prophet, we trust him, we believe in him, we believe in Allah and we believe in his messenger, Muhammad the prophet. Let us not say we believe in the books and believe in the prophecy of G-d and forget that we have a living prophet with us, Muhammad. "Oh, no, he died." "Speak not of my servants as dead for they live and you perceive not."
Yes, we believe in Muhammad. He's the last of the prophets. He lives with us forever until G-d concludes the matter. Though his body is physically gone, but his life is here guiding us, supporting our life and we are thriving as Muslims to model our life after the best example; the life of Muhammad the Prophet. This is where the trust begin, to belief again, but this trust should be carried on into our our world of activities. The members of a Muslim family must promote trust between the members of that family, promote trust, promote trust. If their husband and wife not trusting each other, don't be satisfied with that, you two are Muslims, you have an obligation upon you to work, to get out from between you, get out of your relationship, suspicion of one another, distrust. The children, you see them playing, you see them working together, if they are treating each other like they don't trust each other, tell them they know that's not becoming of you as a Muslim. Trust your brother, trust your sister, trust one another, like mama trusts you, like daddy trusts you, like Muhammad trusts us with Islam. Didn't he leave us Islam?
He left us Islam. He trusted us, and he asked G-d to be the witness that he was passing that religion- Islam over to us. He did this in the farewell address. He gave us a religion and said G-d has asked us-- He asked the people first. He said, "Have I not given you? Have I not said this? Have I not given you the message?" They claimed with one voice, "Yes, we witness." Then he turned his head to the heavens and he said, "G-d be witness to me, for me." He was passing the responsibility for the religion on this earth to his followers. He believed the mass in America today. How do we know that? He told his followers, "You who are our present, pass it on to those who are not present." By chance some of them will hear it and will know better how to act on it.
Now, don't be proud, but we're living in better times. The world is much more educated and much more informed. The world is much more progressed to have Tawhid. So they are among us, those that can do more with the message of Islam now than they did with it back then in the past. You can do more with? Yes, we can. We don't want to advance Islam so that Islam becomes an empire with a great army, rattling swords, firepower, weapons or atomic bombs like Pakistan got, and maybe a few other nations will soon have may be if they don't keep the tight screw on them. Yes, we don't want that. That’s not the proof of Islam. It hasn't made Pakistan any better Muslim, because they have atomic bomb now. No, maybe they got worse.
This is not the progress we want. That’s the progress we will go after only if we are forced to go after that kind of progress. We don't want that, we want to be peacemakers not war makers. The progress we want is progress for the human soul, and the human intellect. That’s the progress we want, because progress for the soul and the human intellect means a better society for the human bodies, the physical bodies that we have, and the mind, and the soul. Praise be to Allah.
It's time for change. Times to preach with an awareness of Tawhid, and Tawhid means G-d is one, and G-d created everything, and G-d cares about everything. You think he created something that he hates? Would you create something you hate? It may get into a condition that you don't like, but you won't create it in that condition. You’ll create it in the condition that you like. Allah created Adam in the condition that he liked, and created his mate, the woman in the condition that he liked.
He created us in the condition that he liked. He created us just as he created all other people. We believe in the One G-d, and we believe in his will and his design on the created world. That he cares about all of His creation, therefore, we must care about all His creation. We don't want to mistreat a dog. Muhammad was the first one, not this animal cruelty society. Muhammad was the first one that taught people to not mistreat animals. He even gave an animal, taught them to give an animal the right of way.
Now you know you're not suppose to spoil the society. You walking down a road, dog coming towards you. You don't insist that the dog get over, the dog ain't got as much sense as you. You don't insist, "Get out of there. Get off the road walkway, dog." No, the dog walking down the road, you see him, he's coming down, you see his tracks. You know when he going to be coming. Get out of his way. Share the road with him. Don’t treat him like those cruel white masters did us. Get off the sidewalk, walk in the streets. No, he taught even respect my animals. Taught us to respect animals. When you kill an animal to eat it, G-d has permitted you that. G-d made it for you to eat. That’s food he gave you. Now, don't be cruel to the animals. Don’t take a dull knife and saw on the neck all day long.
Be sure that your knife is very sharp, so that you give the animals the least pain. Don’t kill animals for sports. Use them for food out of necessity, don't kill them for sport. Really going out hunting animals for sport, that's forbidden for Muslim. You can't do that. Out there target practicing on G-d's creation that He made. He created them for their life. Now, maybe I'm an extreme, I don't want to kill anything. I'm not Hindu either. I don't want to kill anything. Roach in the house, I say well, I'm going to see how you fare outside. I try not killing. If I can help it, I don't kill him. Sweep him up or something, in a paper bag and throw him outside.
I'm not telling you to do that. That’s a little extreme. That’s me. My wife saw me putting a fly out one day. She looked at me kind of strange. I said, "Well, that fly has a family, got a life. That's how I got a life and a family. If I don't have to kill it, why should I?" I said, "I can't kill all the flies in the world. Too many of them. All I want is this fly out of the house." G-d want us to have beautiful sensitivities, beautiful feelings inside of us. G-d want our feelings, the way we feel toward each other and toward G-d's creation. G-d wants it to be human and beautiful. Read the Quran more.
Ramadan is coming up soon. All of us let's pledge to read the whole Quran before the end of the month is out. You can't read in Arabic, don't try. Read in English. Don’t try to read the commentaries too much. Read the commentary during the free time of the year. During Ramadan, don't try to read commentary. Read only the Quran, the translation right next to the Arabic. Read only that. Don’t try to read all that commentary. It’s too much for you to do in the month of Ramadan. Unless you ain't got nothing to do but sit at home.
All right, now, in my conclusion, I'm hoping that after this Ramadan, you would have made up your mind with me that we're going to read the Quran more, we're going to study this religion more, we're going to seek books on the life of our prophet to learn more about him, his life. You have to know your prophet, the Muhammad the prophet. Our prophet, you have to know him. Not our messenger, our prophet. He's only Allah's messenger, but he's our prophet. See, that's the religion, that's teaching you the religion. Because if you don't know it, somebody make a mistake. The Imam said, "Call the Prophet our prophet." No, brother, he was our messenger. Imam said, "Our prophet. Call him our prophet." If he's our prophet, he's our messenger too, brother. That would be wrong. He’s only Allah's messenger. He’s our prophet. Prophet means a warner. That’s what prophet mainly means. Prophet means someone giving you news that you didn't have before. Warning you of the present and most the time the proof of the fact, he has to also warn you of the future because prophet means taught the future to, mainly toward the future, so he's a warner. How are we to understand that he's our prophet. Because when Allah created Adam, he created this warning apparatus, this warning mechanism in the soul of Adam and it stays with all of us. All of us have that warning mechanism in our soul. That warns us of danger present and future. All of us have that. He's our prophet because that mechanism in us was elevated to his highest condition of state in Muhammad.
He is the perfection, the completion, pardon me, of the prophet, the progression for prophethood, so he's our prophet mean the life that is human life, Muhammad is the model of that life and he's also the prophet for that life, the last prophet, the universal prophet representing all people throughout the whole world. You see, so he is our prophet, so he's our life, isn't he? Muhammad is our life. Muhammad is our life in his perfection. Muhammad is our life in its excellence and in his perfection. Muhammad is our human nature in his excellence and in its perfection. Muhammad is our human possibilities for even prophethood in its excellence and its perfection.
I guess that it has something to do with what G-d says of Muhammad said they know him as they know their own sons, talking about the wise, the wise. It says they know him. They didn't deny him, but they really can't deny him, because they know him as they know their own sons.
What does that mean? A man knows his son-- What make a man say, "That's my son, I know it." When he sees the best of himself in that son. That's when he's proud to say, "That's my son."
Right? Yes. The nations of the world, when they saw Muhammad and his excellence, they knew that he was the best of their genetic life. They knew it. They knew it just as they know their own sons. Praise be to Allah. We are human family, this religion doesn't come to teach us about the black family or the white family. This religion comes to teach us about the human family. The excellence of man is the excellence of all men. The excellence of a human being is the excellence of all human beings. How do we know when the best of us have been established?
In our own personal family. When one of our children measures up taller than anybody in the history of our family, we know the family line and now here is one that is more useful, more productive, more resourceful than all the other in our family line, so we point at that one, that's the best of our family. Right?
Congregation: Yes, that's right.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: Well, how come we can't apply the same logic and point to the whole human family and say Muhammad is the best of our family. He's the best us. Stop this color description, the color identification, get rid of it out of your head. Muhammad is the best of Adam, Muhammad is the best of Abraham, Muhammad is the best of mankind. Muhammad is the best of Warith Deen Mohammed, and you too. So let us change. Let us change for following our own limited mind and knowledge and put the Quran in Muhammad's life above it, submit everything else under that and judge everything by the rule of Quran and the rule of Muhammad's life and we will be given great, great world, prosperous world. Allah will give it to us, I guarantee you. We ask Allah for guidance always, we ask him to forgive us for our wrongdoing, our shortcomings, for our sins, show us mercy always, our Lord, and grant us the guidance that you have given in the Quran and in Muhammad the prophet. Amen.
As Salaam Alaikum
[01:25:18] [END OF AUDIO]

