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IWDM Study Library
Develop the Human Potential

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Anybody else doesn't believe in angels? "I don't believe in no angels." You got a moral problem, you got a moral problem. The angels represent forces or influences that are perfectly, perfectly obedient to G-d's rules and order. That's what the angels represent. Now to say you don't believe that any creature or any creation or any agent is existing that perfectly obeys G-d, that's a moral problem. That's a moral problem. Not if you are Muslim, if you are anybody, you got a moral problem. People don't want to accept the Unknown that G-d has revealed because it threatens their security. They're secure in their unrighteousness as long as they don't accept that there's, pardon me, something to condemn it or that there's a different situation. That things are not existing as I see them. Things exist differently from what I see. To accept that is to change their position. But they want to hold on to their disbelief, which stems from moral weakness, the absence of moral strength in the creature.
In the angels and the book. You see, the angels come before the book. Angels come before the book. Why? Because man, before he saw a book, he believed that there were angels out there that were influencing things and they were part of G-d's creation and serving G-d's will. Yes, before he even saw a book, before the primitive man knew how to read, he hadn't even developed the language, but he was fearing the lightning and fearing the thunder and turning towards G-d. "G-d, don't let it strike me." Huh? Yes.
And he felt that those forces out there were obeying G-d. There's something behind that and it's obeying a G-d. So he would pray to what he thought was behind it and ask His protection from those forces that were carrying out orders without any way to be influenced. Say, Hey, I can't influence that. I better talk to the one behind it. Say that doesn't hear me, doesn't respond to me. And the month of Ramadan, night of Ramadan, "And the angels are sent, following every order."
It is too late. You can't say, "Hey, ya'll come back. Can you hold up five minutes?" No, they don't hear that. They can't hear that. All they can do is just follow orders. And you got something like that coming against you say, "Hey, what's behind it? Say, oh Lord, please, I can't talk to your host. I can't talk to this army you sent down here. Say, please spare me. Don't send this on me. Delay it for a while. Give me another chance please." So man has had that belief before he had books. So then the book comes. "And the book." See how the belief is progressing, the development of faith. The belief is progressing, the development of Taqwa in the human being is progressing. Serves that it is not phony. It is not pure ritual. It didn't start that way, man didn't start by having a ritual. I'm going to pray to this, this object. Pray to that direction. No, it started as a fear and of awareness of a G-d and a fear to disobey Him. That's how it started. And he wasn't phony when he started worshiping that G-d, he was as innocent as a newborn baby. If he did that, that's what he thought he should do. "Oh G-d." whatever he did, that's what he thought was best. He wasn't phony. He wasn't putting on. But later in man's history, when he lose that pure spirit, that pure faith, then it becomes a phony thing. "Oh G-d, oh Lord, oh Lord. We got a sick sister here G-d and she's poor. She got many children Lord." He didn't start off phony like that. When he first realized that he was threatened and he needed G-d, he was for real man. So righteousness is not turning your faith to East or west. That's formality. That's ritual. Not that ritual and formality is condemned. It's condemned when the substance is not there. The real thing must be there and then the ritual can be appreciated. But still, we don't turn East and West because G-d is in every direction. As He says in this holy book, "For whatsoever way you turn, you'll find the presence of G-d."
And the Messengers. And to believe in the Messengers and to spend of your sustenance. So not to believe in the Messengers, that G-d can communicate messages to His creature. To not believe that is a moral problem. And to spend of your sustenance. You got money, you got wealth and just keep it all to yourself. That's a moral problem. You don't believe in giving nobody any help. You got a moral problem. If it's not righteous, it's not moral. Not morally sound, not morally right. Out of love for Him. Because there are some who give, and give a lot.
Hey man, you want a hundred dollars? Give you a hundred dollars. That doesn't mean he's moral. That doesn't mean he's morally sound because he gave you a hundred dollars. Maybe he wants you to love him more than you love another buddy you got. His motive could be corrupt, his motive could be sick. Yes, so many men will give that money, but the motive is sick. That's why the qualification here to come under righteousness is that you give for the love of G-d. And what is the love of G-d? G-d is the embodiment of all purity. G-d is the embodiment of all that is right and perfect. So the love for that truth and righteousness and purity and unity, the love that is in me for such things, for such influences or for such principles or for such objects. The love in me for that makes me stand above the pettiness of trying to give you some money. so you will love me.
Oh Buddy. See, you don't know. I've been preaching for 400 years. As soon as they brought me over here from Jamestown, Virginia and they put me on the shores, I started preaching. But the white man was so threatening I was preaching silently. But I've been preaching for about 400 years or more.
To spend out of love for Him, for G-d, and for your kin. See G-d first and for your kin. Now that's the real G-d that says love me. But you ain't right if you don't love your kin, huh? Yeah. G-d said love Me. You should love Me, but G-d never say love me. G-d says there's something wrong with you if you don't love Me. He never says love Me. He's too big to ask you to love Him. But He just says, Hey, something wrong with you if you don't love Me.
And love your kin. It's something wrong with you if you don't love your kin. I don't mean the relative that took your car out, your new car and you haven't seen him since and you found out he was arrested and then talked bad about you, bad mouth you. I'm not talking about that relative. You don't have to love him.
It didn't say love a bad relative. It says love relatives, you supposed to love your relatives. So you don't love him now in his state that he's in. But as a relative, you still love him, right? You wish that he would come back from that, change his ways and be right. Wish you could get things like they used to be again. Yes. So the love for relative is natural, like the love for G-d. And for orphans. See now here, responsibility is coming up right? Responsibility is growing. Love for kin and for orphans. And for the needy and for the wayfarer. The child of the road doesn't have anywhere to live or in your town and just on the road, don't have a home to go to. For those who beg, for those who ask for help. And for the ransoming of slaves, for the freeing of slaves.
See how the issues of that time are brought into focus? But now we have an issue. The issue of the race is a need for economic representation. Some kind of economic parity or some kind of economic representation for the race. As a race, we are economically unrepresented. And we have our leaders who are speaking on that need. "This is our need, we need jobs and money." Their right. That is a need. But first thing first. You were making more progress with your business life when your morals were better. And most of all, when you had faith in G-d. For the ransoming of slaves, for the freeing of slaves. To be steadfast in prayer. To be steadfast in prayer. "Qad Qama Tu Salat." To be steadfast in prayer. A lot of people, they pray but they pray in a relaxed position. They pray on their knees, leaning on something. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. Or they pray like this, right? The Muslim begin his prayer, not from a relaxed position. He begins his prayer from a vigil, from a position of vigil.
Man stands like this when he's alert. He begins his prayer from a position of vigil. He's alert, his attentions are alert, his body is rigid. He begins praying from a position of strength, not a position of weakness. But in order to meet his obligation to his Lord, he's rigid, he's confident and he's firm and he's alert. And then he starts recognizing his G-d. What does that tell us? It is not the ignorant man. It is not the un established man. It is not the man who's down and beaten that recognizes his Lord in the right way. But it's the man who stands up and he's alert. He is the one who recognizes his G-d best.
Yes. And then from that recognition of his G-d, he is willing then to humble himself as a newborn baby before his Lord. He goes down into Sajdah, the best position of prayer. But it's the best position why? It is the best position because the strong man says, my Lord is deserving of my complete submission. It wasn't a weak man that saw that, it was a strong man that saw that. To stand fast, to be steadfast in prayer and to practice regular charity. Yes. See now charity coming again, but it's coming after the man has stood as he should. He has stood erect before his Lord. He has stood up right before his Lord with his eyes opened in dignity. His eyes wasn't closed, his eyes opened. Muslim ain't supposed to close his eyes when he start praying. Open your eyes.
Yes, it's wonderful Why? Because this standing position indicate that this man is no fool, the innocent child without knowledge, prays lying down or any kind of way or crying, sobbing. But here's a man, he ain't sobbing. He start off his prayer he's all together. Look like he's getting ready to go march on an enemy, right? Or getting ready to defend something, right? And he stands up like that and he declare that G-d is greater and begin going through gestures to tell you that I render my complete soul and his spirit and everything in complete submission to that G-d. Now that's a man that you better think twice about before you come against him. If he's doing that with knowledge. If he's doing that with knowledge, you better think twice before you mess with that man. Cause if he can't deal with you, the angels will help him. That's a precious man. That's a precious man. If he's doing that with knowledge.
Yes, to fulfill contracts. See such a man, he will meet those obligations to fulfill contracts. See the responsibility is coming more home, right? Coming more home, coming home to the family life. First to kin, the kin. And to your obligation to any human being that needs help, that's suffering or mistreated. The slaves and the wayfarer. And now to your business acquaintance, your business associates, Hey, you have a contract. You're in some kind of agreement and you're supposed to carry it out. Hey, you supposed to be faithful to those contracts. And to be firm and patient during times of pain and suffering. So what Muslim is prepared for such? It's the alert, intelligent, open-minded, plainly thinking Muslim. You can't depend on a Holy Ghost congregation to do great things.
What did Paul say about 'em as much as they criticize Paul? I think a lot of times reason why so many churches don't like Paul because Paul says all that talking in tongues ain't nothing but babble. Ain't nobody understand it but the person that's speaking it. It's not made for communication, it's not intended for communication or edification. It edifies nothing. He had his faults, but he was right there. So dear believers, when we begin to feel the bite or the pressure of misfortune, of bad circumstances, we are supposed to reflect on what G-d has revealed in the Qur'an. We are supposed to be readers of the Qur'an. And if you read it often enough, you are going to run upon verses. You're going to come upon verses that will put you back on the right track. That will give you strength again. That will clear your vision for you again.
But if you just run into these things that knock you off of your feet and trouble your mind and beat down your spirit and all you do is just sit somewhere and groan and moan and complain, you'll never get up. No Muslim should stay down in misery. We may get knocked down, but no Muslim should stay down because this book will lift you up no matter how great the force was that knocked you down. I know because I'm still standing. It has kept me up on my feet. And I have run against some terrible things. Lost my mother and my father right behind each other. And just because I took a position for G-d, people thought I didn't love my mother and didn't love my father. That was a terrible burden to carry while you're waiting on people to see your goodness and understand what you had to do. But I didn't fall down.
And to be firm and patient in times of pain and suffering and adversity. People will come against you. Sometime your best friends will come against you. People that you thought would never turn on you will turn on you. And that's hard to take. But we have to remember that our life and our strength is not our relationship with men and women and boys and girls, but with this Qur'an, and the Sunnah of Muhammad. Peace and blessing be Upon him. Turn to that and renew your spirit.
Oh yes. Go on about your constructive work. Such are the people of truth, the G-d-fearing. Such people, they are the G-d-fearing. They are the people who have proven truth. They have proven themselves to be true, to be just and true. Yes. So their are many will claim to be right. Many will claim righteousness, many will claim to be true and just, but if they don't meet these requirements, then they're not to be recognized as the person who met those requirements. Those are the ones that we can verify. Yes, you have proved true. So if anyone is tolerating their injustice in the society, claiming themselves be righteous, but you walk past injustices and you don't do anything, you don't respond? Yo buddy, you are not righteous. Your righteousness is very small. Your righteousness is thin, your righteousness is cosmetic. But those people who fulfilled these requirements in this one verse on righteousness, once they meet those requirements, he has met it in his relationship with his G-d. He met it in the relationship with the family at home. He met it in the relationship with the stranger in the street, huh?? And then trouble adversity came against him, would make any man just fall down and give up. But he stood up still because he has faith in G-d, now have proven true. So we can bear witness that this man is righteous. His righteousness has proven true.
Such people, such are the people of truth, the G-d fearing. G-d fearing. So you say you really have taqwa? if you really have taqwa and you really have truth, you're really a just person and you fear G-d, then it should manifest in your life and the way you live. That's the verse on righteousness. One verse. Praise be to Allah. Again from same chapter, chapter two, Suratul Baqarah, verse 58. And remember We said- Whose We? G-d. But when He speaks, everything in obedience to him bears witness and everything serves His will. So like a ruler who speaks for his kingdom, he says we, we will put you in jail. Now, he ain't going to do it with his hands, but he can start, put the thing in motion. He will put it in motion and it would be his order that brings it about. With G-d, He has complete control in everything. "And remember We said enter this town and eat of the plenty therein as you wish, but enter the gate with humility in posture and in words. And we shall forgive you your faults and increase the portion of those that do good." So you never can get away from the moral requirement. G-d is saying you want to be the possessors of rich cities or you want the share in the riches of great cities. Aren't we people who need to get in? We are physically present in such cities as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, but we are not really in. You might have one or two in, but as long as you are not represented as a group on the inside, in the power, in the responsibility, in the authority, Et cetera. In the things that really matter and of great consequences, if you are not in there as a group, then the one that is in there from among you is in there as a representative of other people and not you. Am I right or wrong? If we don't have any command, any power, any authority, any influence that can be brought to bear from economic standpoint, huh? From economic standpoint, from all standpoints. From educational standpoint, from any standpoint, if we don't have one that we can stand up on and have command there, be an equal influence and an equal bargaining power there, then whatever, whoever we have there from among us, he is only a representative of them though we call him our representative.
When he speaks, he can't speak on the strength of us. When he speak, he have to speak on the strength of the things that they have approved. So he said, Hey, the law says this. Huh? The law says this. Or, I got people who vote for you and you owe them this, huh? He doesn't have the strength. That strength is an appeal. That strength depends on their mercy, depends on their goodness because they don't have to recognize the law. They can say, Hey, well I got your vote. I'll wait and see what happened next time. So it depends upon the goodness of the person, depends upon the law, what has been written. And the law is uncertain. Yes, the law is uncertain. Same people that made it can change it. Forces that be made it, forces that be can change it. Yes. Okay. So you are not standing upon, you're not in a situation wherein you are represented by your own strength or the strength of your people. But when people stand up to a Representative, to a Mayor or Governor or President or whoever, and they're representing a group of people with money, with investments, they represent a group of people whose labor or possessions or both of them account for the order staying intact for the processes continuing for the business continuing, for the good future being there. Oh, when they stand up it's different.
Because they're represented. They're really represented. So they will stand up and they will say they don't have to take no talk, they don't have to take no back talk. They say, Look, okay, I represent such and such people and here's what they mean to this town. Now you either respect us or you going to stop us. We going to get you out of office or we will pull the props of support from up under you. And consequences like that brings about the response that is decent. You get a decent response. Alright. So you have to understand that, that we are people on the outside. I don't care how present we are in the cities of America or wherever we are, we are people still on the outside. We are inside as far as getting recognition under the law, we are inside. But in the real practical sense, we are outside because we don't have possessions that are real significant. So we on the outside. The medical profession, we are not even recognized in the medical profession or any other profession to be a threat to the profession, right? If we pull out, we ain't hurting nobody. Pull out all the black doctors. You ain't hurting nobody. You haven't hurt medicine. And the white man, we thought we had a hope in the work field, but the white man put us all our welfare. You ain't hurting nothing. Your idleness doesn't stop this country from going. Idleness among practically all of us, some places 60 and 70% unemployment
And they ain't talking about those who never been listed for employment. They talking about those who just have a job record. A lot of us don't understand that. We hear they talking about so many percentage of unemployment, we think they talking about all of us. They talking about just those that have had a job record. And most of us have not had a job record. Ain't never worked for nobody, ain't never had a job. Fill out an application, put your employment in. All he did was work for a drink or a hamburger. And when he got enough money for that, he said goodbye to the employer. Yeah, just one paycheck. Just one paycheck and okay, bye. So he ain't got no job record. He wasn't there long enough to go on the book. So he ain't even counting in the job market. He ain't even counting in the statistics. He's not counting, Or you have to be there long enough to have insurance, social security, social security count you see. Now we want to get in, most of us want to get in. How you going to get in?
You want to be successful, you want to get in enter humbly. Our people ain't got nothing. When they want to protest or make a claim, they stand up there like if you don't respond to them, they can cut off the life of America. These people, these people mean what they're saying and they're really organized and they're determined. Say shoot, if you don't do something about these people, if you don't know 'em, if you don't do something about these people's complaints, they may cut the life of America off. And can't keep a candle burning. I'm not talking about all of us, I'm talking about the people. Our people as a race can't keep a candle burning. Am I right or wrong? If you take a business of 25 people and you look at that business and you find that that business has been operating in the deficit, no profit. And that business been doing that for a generation, it has been doing it for a long time. It has consistently operated without a profit. Not a member is sustained of that corporation or that business, is sustained by what it has produced. When we study the business, we find that donations, gifts, et cetera, have made it possible for them to operate. And at no time were they able to operate without that kind of help. And at no time did a combination of them or one of them produce enough to take them out of that situation. Then you would have to say that that group was a financial failure. We're financially dependent on outsiders. As a race, we have never sustained ourselves by our own efforts and labor.
When we were community of slaves, our work was profitable, but it was forced. It was forced. So we don't get credit for it. The slave driver gets the credit for it. We were productive under the slave driver then when the slave driver freed us from that time on, we haven't been productive. We've been asking for more and more charity as time has progressed. To the point where we got such a reputation for asking for charity that they labeled us the welfare people, the welfare people. That's what they have labeled the African-American man or the African-American family, the race the welfare people, the welfare generation. And now you can go house to house of the African American people, and it's hard to find one, a house that is employed and sustained by the employment, hard. You'll find more so many on welfare you just give up, right? That's the situation. And the ones ain't on welfare, they in crime. So we have progressed in many ways, but as a people, we haven't yet stood up on our own feet. We haven't yet acquired the dignity, the community dignity that other ethnic groups have acquired. We don't have that community dignity. The poor Haitians came here and we were crying tears when we heard about their situation. But in no time, they have gotten the economic dignity in no time. Ain't nobody crying the blues for the Haitians anymore. Haitians making money. The news came on the television of the Cubans that were released by Castro's regime, Castro's government, I don't like to call it regime. The government is better than ours. I respect it. I'm talking about the black Negroes government. I ain't talking about the United States. I don't want you to think I'm talking about United States. I'm talking about a Negro government. His government is much better than Negroes government. And I ain't make no mistake, don't think that's a mistake, "Imam it's black, not Negroes." No, I know I'm saying negro with a conscience.
But anyway, all the people that he released from prison, from mental institutions, they have come over here from jailhouses and mental institutions. They have come over here and just took them a city. "Hey Miami, hello there." And put Miami in their pockets. And we've been here for 400 years. During the two or 300 years of slavery, we had a lot of opportunity to watch the ways of the white man. To study his ways so when we got free, we would be able to deal with him, compete with him.
So we had 200, 300 years to study the white man. Here those people never was close enough to observe the white man. They ain't had a chance to study him to see his strong side, his weak side, his strong points, his weak points, huh? They haven't had a chance to do that.
Preferential treatment. All that's begging. "Oh well, we know we don't own nothing here and we ain't responsible for the tax base here in this city, but we represent so many in the number of the citizens of this city. So give us so many of your jobs." That's appealing to the good side of the person you are begging. That's not like saying, "Look, we are responsible for the economic life of this portion of this city. So recognize us or suffer." Oh buddy, I'm telling you.
So enter, says "Enter the gate." But let's go back-first - "And remember we said enter this town and eat of the plenty therein." We want to get into the town. We want to enjoy plentiful, the plentifulness of these big cities. G-d has recognized this. There's nothing wrong with that appetite. G-d says, "Enter the town according to your own appetite. And eat of the plenty therein." As you wish, according to your own desire, according to your own motivation, according to your own aspirations. Some of you want to be doctors, some of you want to be lawyers, some of you want to be financiers, some of you want to be cultivators, agriculturists.
Enter the town according to your own appetite. Just go and follow your appetite, follow your aspiration. There's plenty there. Some of you want to be developers, go in it, be a developer, be a city developer, huh? That's what it's saying. And the town is plenty, but don't go in proud, boastful. Because if the people don't stop you, G-d will eventually. So He said go in humbly in both posture and in words. So sometimes we speak real humble words don't we, but we stand like this. Yes, brother? Yes, brother. Yes brother, Subhana watallah. Yes, brother. Yes my brother. Yes ahki.
Welcome, welcome ahki. Say what all this for? Your words sound like this, sound like this, but you talking from a posture like this. Yes ahki, yes my brother. Some have a fist balled up. Yes my brother, yes ahki. That ain't the way. G-d ain't going to be with you. And the people ain't going to be with you for too long. So don't just make your words acceptable. Make also your image acceptable. Make also your image acceptable. Word and image acceptable. And we shall forgive you your faults. Now this is telling us that those people that G-d is warning or admonishing, that they were at one time guilty of these things and G-d is telling them how to change their ways and get His favor. Well, we should accept it in the same way. We should accept it in the same way. That we with the same, I would say awareness of our faults. That we have been at fault as a people. Don't think we are innocent as a people. White man committed a great unforgivable crime against us, can't be forgiven. No.
It can be passed over as a cause for grievances. We can stop using it as a cause for grievances. But to say it can be forgiven, no, no way to forgive it. The extent to which we were brutalized, we were brutalized, degraded, made a laughing stock for the world, for America and the world. No, it ain't no forgiving that. Don't say well, forgive means you just passed away, you've forgotten. I forgive you for that. No, I don't forgive you for that. G-d has to forgive you for that. My heart ain't big enough to forgive you for that. No I'm not. That's me. See, this me talking now. You could say what you want to say about yourself. But me, I can't forgive. I say no, no, no, no. I haven't been made to forgive you for that. You need divine favor.
I can't give it. Now I'm not the fool now to hate white people for what whites did a generation or so ago. No, I blame those people who did that. Now, if these don't do that, I have no problem with them. I have no problem with them. If they don't do that, I have no problem with them. But those people that did that, had parties before my suffering and before my misery that they were heaping on me and they were having parties, the singing and drinking and smoking and carrying on while I'm burning at the stake for nothing. I looked at his woman or his woman say I looked at her and he dragging me out of the house and have a party and smoke and drink and have fun while watching me burn slowly from the bottom up. No, I can't forgive him for that. G-d has to forgive him for that. But I will commend his children for not following his ways and for improving their image as a human being and being just by me. Yes, I will commend his children and embrace his children, but he could prop by the grave. I'd kick him in his face. I'd have to put it on him. Say, "Hey, you know that was 400 years ago. You haven't forgotten." No, I haven't forgotten it. What I mean by that, if any white man I see on this planet today that's got that same kind of heart and mind, I feel like killing him.
No mercy, no forgiveness, no, no talking to him. No trying to teach him anything. No, I don't think you have any patience with a person like that. And I think it's a shame on this country that the Klu Klux Klan still exists. It's shame on the whole country, not just white. A shame on the whites and us too, that the KKK still operates, still existing. The Black Panthers, they weren't a terrorist group. They weren't out to do injustice to anybody. But look, they represented a violent threat. They wiped them out. Came into the back of the Panthers headquarters, killed off the leaders and surrounded them and infiltrated them and just removed them from the earth as an organization. But their own people, they tolerate them existing. Now you see, that's the thing that bothers me, that kind of thing. That organization was such an ugly, ugly, ugly terrorist force. Their tactic was terror. Huh? Their tactic was terror. They're the true terrorists.
They believe that terrorizing you would make you submit, would beat you down and make you submit, would put fear in you and make you submit to their cruelties or to their injustices. And they were allowed to operate and commit those horrible cruelties a hundred years or more, huh? Just lynching and burning and just terrorizing the black community, the African-American community here in this country, huh? Yeah. This is a fact of history. Now we can understand how South Africa is dealt with so softly, so delicately when we see that the Klan has been here and still here and the media will write about them or speak about them as though they have a legitimate base for continuing their life in America.
Any organization with that kind of history, the government, the lawmakers should say this organization must be obliterated, must be totally exterminated to get the ugly remembrance, the ugly reminder out of our sight. That's justice, that's civilized people's behavior. But they'll talk about it just like it's something that that's natural, just a natural development. So there's still a lot of hypocrisy in this society and a lot of ignorance in the African-American man. Because I'm not the only one should be speaking like this. Many of you should be. Reverend Jackson should speak like that. I guess the evil is left around here to keep our senses awake. Let us know that you can't drop your guard completely. Not yet. And as long as they're tolerated to exist by that name KKK, Klu Klux Klan. I will never drop my guard completely before the white man.
Yes. So if you want to go in, we should take the lesson, benefit from the light of the Qur'an and take the lesson from Qur'an and then design our plan, design our strategy for getting ourselves out of the terrible situation we in into a strong situation, a good situation in this country, in this nation. Yes, we should take this time. We can't do it by ourselves. If we try to come up with a plan, all we going to do is what we've done in the past. Preach to the heart of the white man and try to move up into positions so we can influence that. How can you influence something and you ain't got nothing.
We got a Mayor in Gary, he's a black Mayor. What is his power? What is his power? That's right. Because when he came in with all those blacks, there's a great percentage of us in Gary, the white man say, "Well hey, ain't nothing here no more." He pulled out, pulled out his industry, pulled out his big businesses and left Mayor Hatchet and the citizens of Gary with nothing. Look at Detroit. Wonderful man. I'm not playing down any of these men, they are men with great strength and great qualifications. The Mayor of Detroit, you go there now, his town just looked like a big Gary, just like a big Gary, nothing there. So the white man is laughing at us, say, Hey, you think you could force your way and make me give you something? Say, look, I show you, I can give you freedom to take a whole city and then pull my stakes out and put them elsewhere and let you just sit there representing nothing but something, crying for help. And we should see the pattern by now.
There's a pattern for the white man to go to an area or go to a place or devote himself to an interest and just use it up. And when it's no more profitable for him, he turns it over to the blacks and make you feel like you have moved into greater achievements. Oh, we have, look all these Mayors we have over all these big cities. Oh man, we really doing it. Black man Mayor in Chicago. But where is Chicago? Chicago ain't there no more. He's the Mayor of a place, of an area that once was Chicago. Well, where is Chicago? It ain't there no more. Now in the case of Chicago, except for the black community, Chicago still has strong potential. It's still a viable city. That's why the Mayor there catching so much hell. Get him out of there. "Hey nigga, don't you know were temporary?"
Don't you know you came in here us so we wouldn't have a hot summer. Hey nigga, we got you in here so we wouldn't have another hot summer. Are you thinking your position is real? "Hey nigga, we going to get you out of here, going to get you out of here. Hey, give that nigga $5,000. Give that other nigga his $2,000. Give that nigga his hundred dollars. Say Hey now go in there and bust all of them. Send the inspectors in there, send the security there, go in there, the FBI and everybody. Go in there and bust all them niggers. Say, Hey, bust the whole nigga administration. Bust the whole nigga administration." How much they got total? Oh, about $8,000. They going to bust all these niggas and discredit this man. He ain't going to be here next time. "Say how much Jane Byrn get? Oh about $800,000. Let her run again."
Run her again. Leave her alone. Don't tell no more than you have to. So we might run her again. We had a little town called Robins, Illinois, black town. Police department black, Mayor black. Didn't just start, been like that for 30 years or more. What have they done with that town? Nothing. You know why? Because they don't have any more vision and guidance than what the white man has given him. White man will give you nothing but a chance to compete. That's all he give you. And if he can, he's going to make competition very difficult for you. Don't you all remember when we used to hear the complaint that yes, they give us education, but they encourage us, open the way for us to go into music, singing, theatrics, and they make it very difficult for us to go into those fields that are of great consequence.
Don't you remember that time? That's what I was hearing when I was a teenager. Well see they can also influence the circumstances so that your coming into the competition is very, very, very, very, very difficult. So they weaken your possibility. They weaken the possibility for you even in the competition. This is true and real. And not only here in America, did the same thing in Africa. The colonial power that dominated the African state, they pretended to be preparing the African for freedom. When the colonial contract was over, they pretended to be preparing them to come into responsibility for their nation. And they were only giving them very weak knowledge, theory and no application, theory and no practical experience. So when they pulled out, they left those men without vision, without insight, without the knowledge to apply, the ability and knowledge to apply even the education that they had received. Left them with abstract theories without even knowing the place of those theories in the real field.
This is fact. So why don't we give up depending on the white man, on his graces, on his goodness of his heart for our future. Stop that. The Asian come over here, he doesn't depend on the white man's goodness of his heart. The Haitian, he's black as we are, but the Haitian didn't come over here depending on the goodness of a white man's heart. They didn't say, well, let us go get a Haitian movement and let us ask Washington to do this and to do that. We are the only ones that have to get everything worked out for us through some legislation, some political favors. We the only people. They don't come here looking for no favor from the political establishment. They come here looking for an opportunity to get some of the base, get some of the material base, and they know if they get some of the material base, they can talk back to the establishment if the establishment deny them their rights, abuse them, then they got some money. now They will take the money that they accumulated in America because of economic freedom. They will take that money and they'll pay a good lawyer and say, "Hey, this man is denying us our rights here. We have a right to form this country, this company, we have a right to sell this product,," huh? Yes. But no, it's different with us. We follow in the spirit of a messianic movement that goes to the Pharaoh and think everything must be made right in a negotiation with Pharaoh. "You know Pharaoh, some of our children still don't have shoes. We got to have shoes. But Pharaoh, some of our children, we still don't have a steak. We had to eat chicken. We can't buy steak. Now most of the citizens of Egypt, they buy steak. How come we can't buy steak Pharaoh?" We got to carry every problem to Pharaoh. See, you look at one part of the messianic movement and you fail to see the other part. The first part of Moses movement who was typical of the Messiah or the messianic movement. Jesus came in the same image, the same type, to fulfill the prophecy of Moses, right? Yes. Okay, so he's a messiah. He's the liberator. He's the messianic figure. And he went to Pharaoh first, but he didn't ask Pharaoh to favor him, to take care of him, to give his people welfare. He said, we hate slavish jobs under you, Pharaoh, let us go.
Let us go on our own. He didn't ask for the right to win favor from Pharaoh and Egypt. He asked for the right to do for self, right? And he didn't want in. He wanted out. He said, let us go Pharaoh. And he said, this ain't my demand Pharaoh. G-d of our fathers say, let His people go. No people should possess another people. And though we are not physical property, as we were in the days of chattel slavery, we are virtually still the property of the American white man race. Is that a fact or not?
Well, what he asked is to let us go. And most of us think it meant that there was a town Egypt or city Egypt. And actually Pharaoh, Moses and his people went outside of that city to a promised land. No, they didn't go outside of the city to no promised land and no physical progression. It wasn't no miles, physical miles that were counted. He went out, he went out ideologically, he moved out of the ideology of Egypt into the ideology that was suitable for his own people. That was the movement outward. And we have failed to come out of the ideology of the white man that we have never mastered, that we have never mastered, that we have never been allowed to master. We have failed to come out of his ideology into an ideology that serve our life and our life needs. Time to come out. We are beginning to see the interest waking up and the work started on forming an ideology to contain the life and serve the life purposes of the African-American man. Yes. Thomas Stonewell, educator in California who once I think was working as a professor too of Amherst College, as a visiting professor in Amherst College. He's one of us, but he's studying the African-American social problem, his social life, his social problem, his economic life, his economic problem. And he's writing his discovery and also suggesting a direction for coming out of the problem. It's coming.
Then we have black psychologists, Dr. Naim Akbar and others who are studying the cultural life from the standpoint of psychology. And they're suggesting too a way of structuring an ideology, a way into a cultural life that will sustain the African-American man. So it's coming!! It's coming. But let me tell you, when they get there, they'll be followers of the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet and Imam Warithudeen Mohammed. Because what I see them fabricating will not stand. They're going to have to take more and more of what I am discovering from Qur'an and the Sunnah of Muhammad.
In fact, whether they acknowledge it or not, Dr. Naim Akbar, he is influenced by the heat of my sun. Yes. Because he used to be black in blackness, now he's black in the light. Yes. He used to be the same black man. He was the same black man and a doctor, with a doctor's degree in psychology. And he was talking black talk, but not like he's talking now. His talk changed, and it's because G-d blessed the Honorable Imam hat I respect, WD Mohammed. Yes, that's the truth. Allah, G-d of the universe, blessed Imam WD Mohammed, my leader, my Imam. Say, well, how can you be your own leader and your own Imam? I'm following the best of myself. I'm following that thought of myself that works against the weakness of myself. I'm following that part of myself that say obey Allah words and obey His Messenger. I'm following that spirit in me. So I have to tell you the truth. That's been my leader. I chose Prophet Muhammad because that leader in me required that of me. Praise be to Allah.
So I go now again to Joseph. I hope I'm not holding you too long. Look at the circumstances of Joseph. Joseph, Joseph was a younger brother. Aren't we the younger brother? No. Don't get spooky and crazy. Say "Hey, hey, you know wasn't that in the Holy Qur'an and not the Bible. That's us brother." No, that's other people. But the example is for all times, that's why it was recorded and put in everlasting scripture because it's a lesson for all time. Just as those people fell into that situation in time, other people will fall into the same situation and become the same type and will require the same answers. So in this day and time, we are Joseph.
Not having acceptance among his own brothers. And any of you who think that Muslims abroad, I'm talking about the community now, any of you who think Muslim nations and Muslim people abroad accept us, even after we have declared ourselves Sunni Muslims, if you think they have accepted us, you're making a big mistake. They have not accepted us. They're watching us, and they still would like to sell us into slavery, but not the same kind of slavery. They would like to sell us now into a holy slavery, a slavery where we just follow the trivial things of the religion, the cosmetic things of the religion. And they hold the substance so they can stand over us.
But it's too late!! Too late!! Yes, Joseph have been guided and he's seen great things. He has become an interpreter. He can solve problems now himself without help from his brother. Ain't no dominating us, too late. G-d has freed us to establish us in the same dignity that other communities have. It's coming. You all should be able to see it now. And it's going to get bigger and bigger and better and better. Yes. So his circumstances was similar to ours, sold into slavery by his own people. Yes. Now I know that back history when we were in Africa, it was our people and Muslims who went after dollars and didn't care about the crimes they were committing who helped get us over here in the white man clutches or in the white man's hand as property of the south, property of the slave system and a plantation life. Yes, they had their part in it. So I'm not saying that when they wrote that they were writing about us, but G-d has caused to be written a lesson to serve a situation that was like that back there whenever that situation arises or come about. So the situation has come about again. So now if we want to address a real model of what the Bible and what the Qur'an is talking about, the best model we can find is us. Not another race, us.
All right. So whatever was the answer for Joseph in his situation, if our life pattern and our life development show that of a parallel, we find a parallel that just these developments are similar, these conditions are similar, these circumstances are similar, then also the solution should be similar. And what was the solution? Joseph did not go into Egypt and learn psychology from the Egyptian psychologist. G-d inspired him, gave him vision some inspiration. It was G-d's gift to him to look into the nature of things and come up with explanation for their functioning, whether it was good or bad.
And when the big chiefs, when the big chiefs heard of his talent, they were just amazed. "Oh, look at this. Look at the talent of Joseph. Say we need that kind of help. That man shouldn't be in prison. Let that man out of prison. Bring him up here so he can help us doctor on our problems." So they brought him up out of prison. How did he rise? He didn't rise by applying their science, he rose up among them by applying the science that G-d had opened his eyes to. Now we in America, we ain't going to never rise up applying the knowledge that the white man has given his people. We have to rise up upon the knowledge that G-d has given all people and have granted us to see with our own eyes. And has given us the vision, the perception to recognize it and recognize how it is to be applied. Then we take that knowledge and use it for ourselves, and use it for our friends, and use it for those who need help. And our ability to solve problems and to cure where their cures and medicines have failed will give us esteem in their eyes though from the beginning they esteemed us to be something of no worth.
That's Joseph's story. That's Joseph's story. But it fits us. So if you see what I'm saying, I am addressing Moses and his people's situation and I'm relating it to us and our situation. And I'm saying that the answer is not to rise up or to get free on the strength of their knowledge, but to come into knowledge by your own effort with G-d's help, by your own effort and establish your own knowledge, structure your solution for your problems and come into the security of that knowledge, of that light, and come out of the dependency on their ideology and their light. Because their ideas and their sciences and everything was structured to serve them, their situation, their life, their life purposes, their life needs. You are a peculiar and unique problem here in America. Their knowledge is not for you. Their knowledge will not save you. Their knowledge will just bring you among them. But you'll still not be free. You won't be free. They can give you all of their psychology. They can give you all of their political sciences. They can give you all of the knowledge that they got and you can go in with them and use it. And you can see the universality of their knowledge. But you still won't be the doctor that they are on social problems and community problems.
You'll know how to heal them, but you'll not know how to heal yourself. I believe what I'm saying is coming through loud and clear. They say, well, who are you to come up with an ideology? The Christian Black may say that or the non-Muslim. Who is he now? Yeah. Where did he study? He ain't got no degree. He's not educated, he's not eloquent. He's not that articulate. He makes grammatical mistakes. When the man come up here with a degree, he can make all kinds of grammatical mistakes and you won't recognize one of 'em. His degree blinds you to all of his thoughts.
Yes. So if the white man system or society doesn't popularize one of us, we don't recognize him. Has he been on 60 minutes? Has he been on Johnny Carson? Oh, he ain't nothing. You don't need to listen to that nigga. He ain't got nothing to say. If they put me on 60 minutes, you'll be alive for six hours. They ain't going to put me on no 60 minutes unless I agree to not say anything. You got to put me before 60,000 people. They ain't going to do it. They ain't going to heal us. They ain't going create an opportunity for us to heal ourselves. We are going have to create the opportunity for the healing of our people. G-d has given us the medicine and the help and the courage and the spirit.
Why should we now continue to wait on good fortune? No, G-d has given us vision, spirit ability, faith. We don't have to wait for good fortune. We make good fortune. You make good fortune. So they were told "Enter the city, but not by one door, but by various doors." And Allah says in His Qur'an, He is the one who gives without counting. There ain't no seven to get us in. No, ain't no 10 to get us in. No five to get us in. No eight to get us in. No, no 12 to get us in. No. He's the one who gives without counting. Pick up key number one, turn it if it's the best one to use for this situation. Key number three, turn it if it's the best one. And key number three will open most doors. See I'm 30. Best way you going to key number five, key number seven, whatever the situation called for. Key number twelve, sixteen, fifteen, whatever it call for. I'm thinking about using key number 60. That's a powerful key. Key number 60, powerful key. He gives without counting. He opened many ways for us, but our purpose should be the same. And that is to live the good life G-d requires of His creature and to go into the future that He has shown to us. And what is the future? Islamic democracy. Universality, freedom to grow into the dimensions of His universe.
Limitless boundaries. Come up to one, you think that's the end. G-d say, no, that's not the end, huh? No, that's not the end. They ask the astronomer if you think that's the end. The astronomer say no, that's not the end. Say when I wrote that that was the end of the universe, that was before I looked and saw a new nebulous, a new nebulizer forming. Say no, there's another system forming out there. The boundary has been extended so that His creature will always have opportunity to discover more potential. That's what makes a white man master. He's never pessimistic when he understands the opportunities his Lord has created for him no matter what his circumstances may be now, he said, G-d has given me this potential and He has created a field out there for my experiences, for my inquiry, for my utility. He has rendered as utility, whatever you see in the heaven or whatever's in the earth. Yes. And he says that G-d has not rested. He created the earth in six days and on the seventh day He rest. No, no, no. No Sabbath in Al Islam. Ain't no rest. Say "Oh my devotees. I'm a worker. Work you in your places." Yes, G-d is not a rester. G-d is continuously working. See, He is always in a new and wondrous thing. Every day He's in a new endeavor creating new wonders. So how can you ever discover them all and rest when G-d is eternal and continuously and continuously expanding the wonderous field for man to explore. You have to come into that mind. And when you begin to think like that and have an interest in that kind of hope, the small man just disappears. And a new man stands up that doesn't worry about the color of skin, the texture of his hair. You see that as foolishness, man talking about he's black. I'm better than you. You white. You burn in the sun, you get cancer of the skin if you expose yourself to too much direct sunlight. My hair is better than yours, cushion the blow.
Say, oh, I thought our cause was to serve G-d. Yes. G-d said, I've created neither man nor jinn for any purpose than to serve Me, but how do you serve Me? You think I'm sitting up here waiting for you to bring me a glass of water. You think I'm waiting on you to give me some beans or some steak or shrimp or air conditioner where it's hot, good furnace when it's cold or central heating when it's cold? I don't need those things. Say, well, what do you need, G-d, Nothing. Well, what is my service for then G-d? For my pleasure. So what am I to do G-d? Do that. Have your separate interests, but on a moral base And turn you all toward a central purpose. The most excellent cause for man. And that is the cultivation of his unlimited potential that G-d has created him with. And when you do that, you are serving Me in the best way. When we go into here, we do the circles, we come out, we do the sa'i, we come out, we return home. We return home with a new life. It is is said that when the Muslim makes his hajj, he returns home with a new life. So if this preaching of Al Islam, if it's done properly, we have to address these mystical signs and show the people the real relationship, the real meaning of those signs in the life of the man. And once he see it, either by that the gift of G-d inspiration, or by the blessing of G-d on one of them and he teaches it to the other. Once they receive it, they come into a new life.
And it said by the Prophet that everyone was created on the pattern of Adam. On his surah, his concept, his identity, the identity of Adam. And no one dies or is resurrected except on that pattern. If you die, you die on that pattern. The original nature is corrupt, you die on that original nature. It is the original nature that caused your death. You came out of it, it became confused and corrupt for you. So you lose it, you die to it. But does it die? No, it stays. That's why hell is not forever in our religion. Except as Allah will.
Oh yes. And the Bible also says the same thing, but in a different way. Saying one day hell must give up the dead. Not forever. Although the church make us think it's forever saying "You'll die and burn forever." Yeah, we know forever in our estimation, but not truly forever. No, not indeed forever. Because at one time everything has to come right before G-d, even hell itself. Yes, that's the kind of G-d I love to serve. I always had a problem with a G-d that could burn a soul forever. I don't care what a human being did, what kind of G-d is that that will keep him in their burning forever. G-d almighty, there should be at some time when it's enough, it has enough. Yes. Now dear believers, this is our central purpose. If you look at the Muslim man's life, the Muslim people's life, there is nothing more obvious as a design in their life than our salat.
We privately say Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Ilalah. We privately say that, we live with that in our heart. Taqwa in our heart. We are privately carrying out our responsibility in trying to obey G-d. But that's not that visible is it? No. But to do zakat, it's not that visible. To fast, not that visible. But when we pray, visibility. Visibility, right? Visibility. We pray, visibility. And it is that orientation that is the most important in our life. Allah says in his Holy book, never did a nation fall until it had left off prayer. And G-d says that He has given every creature his mode of prayer.
Every creature has been given his mode of prayer. Now, on one level we see that, but on a philosophical level we see something even greater. When the creature is obeying the natural instinct toward excellence, you know even a dog has his excellence. A cat has his excellence. A pig has his or her excellence. Yeah. There are times when things will test them and make them behave in a way that shame them. I've seen dogs show shame. Yes. So though he is not a human being, but G-d has given him a sense of what is proper and befitting for him as a creature. And when he comes out of that and does something that is not proper, you can see change on that dumb animal. Animal that we call dumb animals, right? Yes. So when he's living in conformity with that excellence that G-d has given him in his life, he is worshiping his Lord. Yes. Haven't you heard the Scholars, educated teachers of this religion say Ibada is a great range.
That when you carry out the responsibility to your children, when you go out and work by honorable, bringing them food by honorable means, that's Ibada. When you are conforming to the excellent life that G-d has given you, not shaming it, not degrading it, that's Ibada. Ibada is worship. G-d says I have not created either men or jinn except for any purpose then my worship. So how are we to understand, how do I worship him? Is it by prayer only, by du'a? No. The best salat is not du'a, the best salat is turning toward that house. The best salat is turning toward that house and coming toward it in the standing position and declaring G-d is more important than anything else. Allahu Akbar. And then coming into a comfortable position and begin reciting the highest of all knowledge, the Qur'an. And upon reciting it it makes you bow.
And you say Allahu Akbar, what a wonderous Qur'an. Allahu Akbar. And when you say that, you know, you don't guess. "Sami Alah Huliman Hamidah." Allah G-d hears who praises Him. So how do I praise G-d? I praise G-d by recognizing His revelation. That's the best way to praise Him. Not in my own ignorant mind. "Oh G-d heal the city. Praise the Lord. Oh G-d turn back the disease. Praise the Lord!" No. Stand up. My back is feeling so good I'm ready for battle.
Now you tell me serving G-d is not strength. I use a cane to walk. It pains me to step on my right leg. But I've been preaching to you all and I feel perfect. Haven't been aware of any problem in my leg. Say "Oh that's spooky." No it ain't. That's merciful. They can give you pills to make you unaware of the hurt. They can give you a sedative. They can give you something to shield you, your nerves and senses from your pain. But here's the protection for everything. I'm ready to battle. I feel like I can go about 15 rounds right now. Allah tell us in this Holy book, don't be intimidated by their big numbers and your small numbers, by your weak situation and their apparent strength. So when G-d wants, He will send down a host of angels to back you up.
Yes. Praise to be to Allah. So the greatest challenge is the challenge from the environment. In the authentic Hadith of the Prophet, it is said that G-d wanted the angel Jibreel to see His wondrous plan, His wondrous creation. So He showed Jibreel the creation. And when Jibreel saw the creation of G-d he said, Oh my G-d. How can anyone go astray in such a creation? What is the creation? The environment for His creature. How can anyone go astray in that environment? G-d made the environment a heaven, a garden of paradise for His creatures. Then G-d showed Jibreel, Gabriel the arch angel, showed him the same creation, but after the devil had put his influence in it.
And when Jibril looked at it, he said, oh G-d, how can anyone go straight in such a creation? And the Prophet said, everyone is born a Muslim. But it is the circumstances that he's put in that makes them a Jew, Christian or something other. So the environment is a great factor. The environment is a challenge. And G-d said, And eat of every tree in the garden, eat of the fruit of every tree in the garden. But this one do not eat, don't approach it because there's a possibility in the creation, in the environment for harm. There is a Khair and a Shar. The good, the potential for good and the potential for evil, the potential for profit in excellence, et cetera. And the potential for harm and losses.
Eat from the tree the fruits of good and profits and excellence. But don't eat from the tree of harm and losses. Some men live off corruption. They live off of cheating. Yes. So that is a tree that G-d forbid, because He didn't create it to be used for such purpose. It was a garden. It was a garden of paradise. However, the devil, Satan, the rebellious, the rebellious one, he refused to accept, to cultivate the excellence of the common man. He didn't want to see the common man having freedom to rise up and challenge him and others. He wanted to suppress the excellence potential of the common man. And G-d said, That's not my purpose. Said I do not want, I do not accept oppression for myself and I do not accept it among you. That's the saying of the Prophet, Peace and blessings be Upon him. In fact that's Qur'an. Oh yes, that's Qur'an. Now, dear beloved people, we have to understand that G-d said this earth is a Mosque. And we have to understand this, that G-d says, Seek with the means that G-d has made possible for you the latter goal. But do not forget your share of this earth, your share of the present world, don't neglect it. So G-d has said this to us in His Holy book. That's not Hadith, that's Qur'an, the higher authority,
The latter line is the best in quantity and also in quality. However, don't neglect your share of the present. What ideology, what philosophy says to man conform to the excellence of your total nature in life. But don't neglect to get yourself a piece of the world. Allah says that to us in the Qur'an. And no other philosophy, no other ideology has spoken to me so effectively. So you want to choose them, you go with them. I choose Allah, His book and His Messenger, Muhammad the Prophet. And I choose that Qibla. And I'll be ahead of the people that don't do that.
Though they might be presently richer than me in money, better off than me in money. They may be better off than me in worldly circumstances, but I'm better off than them right now in the world and in the future because my soul is at peace. My soul is delivered. My hopes are high, my future is bright, while they are weeping and moaning and groaning and being agonized. I walk and the fire does not touch me. And that's more valuable than a few thousand dollars, or a few million dollars or $4 billion. That's more valuable. And as G-d tells us in the Holy Book, circumstances change, the ones who are boasting now may be crying tomorrow.
And I guarantee you, if more of you come into this and believe in it, trust in it, and don't be ashamed of your leader, Imam WD Mohammed. Don't be jealous of him. Don't envy him. Why are you going to envy something that is your best development? We're one flesh, one blood, one history, one ethnicity, one people. So anything that come out of us is the product of all of us. So how can you be jealous of something? I'm not something that was brought from foreign sources, from foreign places and put among us. I'm something that came right up from among us.
It wasn't a white man's spirit or white man's conscience or white man's sensitivity that brought me into the light. It was my own African American, so-called Negro black nature and my own sensitivities that brought me to accept the light. I was rewarded not for my Arabism, I don't have it. I was rewarded not for my whiteness. I don't have it. Not the whiteness of Caucasian European man. I don't have it. I'm colorless man. The man in me, knows no race. But my substance, my nature is yours. My circumstance is yours. My history, yours. My sensitivities, yours. My life, yours. And no foreign life has come into me to change my mind. I made all of my decisions in my own content.
And that's the honest to G-d's truth. I made all my decisions in my own content as the son of Clara Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad, black people. And as a child of the community called the Temple of Islam. Yes. So I am the product of you. I am your product. I am your self. And I must esteem the self that has developed out of the substance and form of the African-American man. I must esteem, I must evaluate it. I must appreciate his work over the forms and lies outside of the African-American person. Because I have chosen to be myself and to follow the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet in my own life, in my own spirit, in my own form. I will not be Arabised, not be Caucasianised. I choose to remain Clara Muhammad's son, Elijah Muhammad's son, a member in the African-American race by African-American ethnic people. I choose to remain there. I don't like the culture of the African-American man. I don't like his cultural spirit. He has no culture. I don't even like his cultural spirit. I told him, I said, Hey, let us have culture. Let us sing, let us do things. We have to express the spirit, the cultural spirit in ourselves.


