12/08/1996
IWDM Study Library 
Islam-Past, Present and Future
Savannah, Ga

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Host:
And clearly internationally accepted, world renowned Islamic scholar, Imam W Deen Mohammed. Takbir. Allahu Akbar.
Imam WD Mohammed:
As Salaam Alaikum. That is peace be upon you. The Peace of G-d that is. G-d's Peace be upon you. We always begin trusting Allah, trusting G-d that is. We say Bismillah. We ask Him for guidance, mercy, forgiveness in the reverse order- Forgiveness, mercy and guidance always. And we trust Allah, Highly glorified is He, for the results that we aim for and that those results be acceptable in His presence. We witness that Muhammad of Arabia, to whom the Qur'an was revealed, is the Prophet mentioned in the Torah, the Old Testament and in the Injeel, what is now called the New Testament. As it is said to us, by G-d in the Qur'an, that he is the one mentioned in the Torah and in the Gospel or in the Injeel as one who would come taking the heavy yolks of bondage off of the people, breaking all the bands of slavery. We witness that he is as G-d says in our Qur'an, in our Holy Book, that he is also the seal of the Prophets, the last of the Prophets, the seal of the Prophets. It is traditional for us to say the Prayers and the Peace be upon him and what follows of that traditional salutation.
And we pray upon us will be G-d's mercy and His blessings, Ameen. We are happy to be in this city of Savannah, beautiful city and be your guests, the guests of the Muslim community here in this city under the able leadership of your Imam, Ali Majid, Majid Ali pardon me. And we appreciate the efforts that you have made as our host city to welcome us and to provide what is necessary for this occasion. We also would like to acknowledge the presence of many Imams from around the area, from this state and from neighboring states that are here with us today. There are plenty Imams right here and there are a few others that are not sitting right here. And we are very happy always to have you present and appreciate your support very much. We also want to acknowledge that we have been honored by this city and we certainly appreciate the words of the Mayor to us, given to us by our brother Muslim, and we wish to send back to him our warmest greetings. I think that the key was the, I would say the acknowledgement that he read to us from the Mayor, acknowledging your leaders accomplishments in a kind of calendar fashion, calendar progression. And asking the citizens of this city to accept our visit or to recognize this day of our visit. That really is the key. That's the key that I'll be taking back with me. That's the real key. And the key that he gave me is symbolic of that, that the Mayor asked this city to open its arms to us and receive us. That is wonderful and that's all we need. If you open your arms to us, we can get in.
Praise be to Allah, Islam. It is abbreviated, kind of. When we say Islam, it's a shortened version of what actually G-d says in our Holy book. The complete expression is Al Islam, Al Islam. That's the complete expression. But we are not responsible for it being abbreviated or shortened like that. It was done by the first, I guess the first Muslims from overseas who came here when they gave the name of the religion in English, they said Islam. They didn't give the complete Al Islam, I guess because they didn't know how to translate Al to make it sound good English. And really, it's still difficult for us to translate Al to make the expression very, very comfortable for us. It really, Al Islam means, if you say the Islam, that's exactly what it means. Al means the literally in Arabic language. Means the, T-H-E, the, so it means The Islam.
The Islam. But that expression doesn't go too well in with the ears of the American English-speaking people. So, they say Islam. But now we have started to write, especially for us, when we translate it, we say Al Islam, we leave the “Al”, we don't translate it the “Al” we leave it “Al” and we say Al Islam in our books that we are writing InshaAllah, which you'll be getting more in the future. After January, I hope you'll be getting more as there is a team of us organizing to write more books on the religion and the community. Now we are addressing Islam, Past, Present, and Future in America, just in America, in America only, Past, Present, and Future. I will work my way to that point In Shallah. But first I want to acquaint you with just some of the language of Islam or Al Islam.
When we say, Bismillah Ar Rahma Nir Raheem, there's many ways to translate it, all are good. The first translation we had was In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. And that translation was done by the Ahmadiyya movement in Lahore, Pakistan. Bismillah Ar Rahma Nir Raheem. In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. A good translation. Very good translation. Then later, we read some translations coming from what they call Sunni, the Sunni Muslims, who were the great majority. Great majority are called Sunni Muslims. In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. And in the circles of students attending the University, Illinois Tech, Illinois Institution of Technology in Chicago. I got acquainted with some of them and we used to join together and have readings together. We used to sit and read together, read Qur'an, have some light discussion of the situation for Muslims and Islam or at least the basics in Islam. And I've attended a few Jumuah's with them on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. And there meeting them from others, they didn't all come from the Institute, but they would meet there at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Some of them came from other campuses. But we would meet on that campus and meet sometime in the homes of these brothers. One of them, many Imams, I think maybe all of you know him. He was the first president of the MSA, the Muslim Student Association of Canada and America, US and Canada. His name is Dr. Sakr. Dr. Ahmed Sakr.
And there I heard the expression from them In the Name of G-d, In the Name of Allah, In the Name of G-d, the same G-d. There is only G-d. There's only One G-d. In the Name of G-d, the Merciful, the Mercy Giving. Now that expression never caught on, but the other two that I mentioned, they did. In the Name of G-d, the Beneficent, the Merciful, and In the Name of G-d, the Merciful, the Compassionate. And I have all over these years as a student of Arabic, especially Qur'anic Arabic, I have tried to find an expression that was comfortable for me and for a long time I would just transliterate it. I wouldn't give the English, I would just transliterate it because I could see something was missing in it. I learned as a student that Rahman comes from the root word, Rahma, which means mercy. And Rahim comes from the root word, Rahma, which means mercy.
So here you've got both of these names, Rahman and Rahim of G-d. These two names of G-d in the Arabic and Qur'anic language. Both of these names are indicating mercy as the meaning, as the core meaning, the essential meaning, the root meaning. Mercy. Now how are we going to translate them? And it was after reading and studying the chapter in the Qur'an by the title Ar Rahman that I came to feel more comfortable translating the name Ar Rahman. Because G-d says in that chapter that Ar Rahman is the one that gave us all the benefits we have in life, the benefits we have in life. So that's why I am sure that Beneficent is a good, the Beneficent is a good translation, but it doesn't quite say yet what I felt that should have been said plain. We want to make it plain and easy for American speaking people.
So, I came up with the translation for Ar Rahman, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Benefactor. And you know, we all have benefactors. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is one of our benefactors, right? Yes. We benefited from him greatly. So, he's one of our benefactors. Our parents are benefactors. Our school teachers are benefactors. The people that help us in life to have a better life. They are our benefactors. Frederick Douglas is one of our benefactors. We have many benefactors, many benefactors. Women such as Sojourner Truth, benefactor, all these great benefactors. We have a lot of benefactors. But ultimately who is The Benefactor? G-d. Nothing can happen without G-d and G-d is not a benefactor like some people, especially some people who have high offices or power, money, wealth. They will give you and you'll benefit a lot because of them and your relationship. But they will make you feel so indebted to them that you wish you had never accepted anything from them. Now that's mentioned in the scriptures too. Those who give you and followed it up with reminders. Then there's a worse giver than that.
There's man who is blessed to use the tools of his intelligence and the benefit from the resources G-d made and then he puts his name on it, "I discovered that. He discovered that. This one discovered that. This one invented this." And never mention G-d. And G-d really invented him, designed him to do what he could do and made available the resources that he had to use to come up with anything. So that's the most underservant claimant to that position over us that exists. Benefactor. That's not our benefactor. Allah is our Benefactor, and Allah is not the kind of Benefactor that gives you and burdens you, gives you and burdens you. You know, we sometime as parents, we'll give our children money because we love them and we are professional. We know we don't have enough time. We are not spending enough time with the child, with the daughter or with the son and we feel guilty. So how do we make up? We think, "give money." You want a new car? Alright, which one do you want? There you got it. So, after a while they have all this money, but they don't have that nurturing that we should have given them as parents, they feel deficient, they feel like they've been cheated. So, they start hating us.
And we say, "What's wrong with this boy? What's wrong with this girl? I never shown them nothing but love. I never did anything but give them everything they want." Everything they want but what they really need. And that is a father present in their life that they can communicate to and with daily. You, see? So, we feel guilty, we do it. Then someone will have a friend, plenty of money. He's got a friend, and he gives his friend money. I know people with money buy a friend a car. I mean a nice car, fine car. Car of the rich people. Buy him a nice car but didn't teach him how to use his head. So, he never gets anywhere. No matter how much you give him, he never gets anywhere. He stays in the same old bad situation. You have to come and give him another car. He tore up that one or let somebody else tear it up.
It is cruel to give people a lot and don't try to help them qualify to manage that lot that you're giving them. G-d is the one who gives us a lot and also qualifies us to manage the great lot, the great abundance that He gives us. That's why He's so merciful. What He gives us, He gives us the ability to manage it. G-d never made a mother that couldn't manage being a mother. The world makes her unfit, not G-d. Same thing goes for a father. G-d never makes the males that's not fit to be fathers. The world presents the problems and that's the reason why they're unfit. If we stick to the word of G-d, we will be fit fathers and fit mothers. Now I want to bring your attention to something else. There's a translation of that whole expression as we give it, which is not to say take this one and don't take the others. No, I tell you all to take the one you want to take. It's With Allah's Name or with G-d's Name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer. The Merciful Benefactor, The Merciful Redeemer. It is because of G-d's mercy that we benefit in life and in the hereafter, and it is because of G-d's mercy that we can may be redeemed. It is His mercy that makes it possible for us to be redeemed. Redeemed means to get back what you lost.
Praise be to Allah. Praise be to the One G-d of us all, Christians and everybody. Now this first phonetic sound that you hear Bi, Bismillah, Bi, is translated in, is translated with, both. It can be translated also BY, by, depending on the word situation, the word environment for the Bi, the context in which it is used or put. Now let's look at another expression from Qur'an for this Bi. G-d says, and really this one, I'm hoping I'm setting the tone or the mood for my address with this quote from Allah's book the Qur'an and from our book, the Qur'an. G-d does not change or remove what is bothering a people until they change or remove from themselves what is bothering their souls. Now let us have a few comments on that expression. Islam: Past, Present, Future. I know where I'm going, don't think I'm forgetting. Let's have a few comments on this expression and let me correct those who translate it wrongly. And it's not just you. In fact, you never translate. You'll never translate. I haven't seen any of you all translate. You buy others translations. You don't translate. I hope you'll follow me and become translators yourself sometimes. Yeah. Alright.
There's a translation that they give, overseas Muslims who came to America. It's not a popular translation among them. It is the unpopular translation among them. Translated like this only by a few. G-d does not change what is bothering a people until they change it themselves. That's how they translate it. Well, if I change it myself what I need G-d for? I don't need G-d. Now what kind of ridiculous statement is that- G-d doesn't change a people. what is bothering the people until they change it themselves. I don't need Him to change it. I changed it already. Now what is He coming to change? I've already changed what's bothering me. Why does He have to come and change?
So, it really puts G-d out of the question, doesn't it? It puts G-d out of the question. That statement is saying this, don't depend on G-d. Don't wait on G-d. Don't expect G-d to do something for you. Do it yourself. That's what that statement is saying. So, this is coming from the atheistic thinkers in the community of Muslims, immigrant Muslims, those who are atheistic, it's coming from them. They say, "Oh, don't wait on G-d. Don't trust G-d. Take your matters into your own hand. That's the only help going to come to you is from yourself. G-d is not saying that at all. And every natural human person in this audience today and those that this speech will reach, or this address will reach or the national broadcast or through the publications, they know what I'm going to give. They know it's the truth.
You know it because your own good nature tells you. Now I'm going to tell you exactly what G-d is saying. This is not the first time, I've done this many times. Explain this expression in the Qur'an. It is plainly said. G-d gave it clear and plain. That G-d does not change what is bothering a people. What is wrong with a people. What's the matter with a people. What is bothering a people. What is burdening a people That's what it means. Until they change or remove what is bothering their souls. That's what it is. That's clear. You don't need to translate it anymore. That's clear enough. But let's have some few comments on it.
When you are not in the proper condition, when you are not yourself in the right condition to get G-d's help, it's because something is wrong in you. G-d will help us if we are all right. If we are right. You don't have to be sinless. G-d helped sinners. We know that. You don't have to be sinless. Moses was a sinner and G-d called Moses to be His Prophet. Peace be upon Moses. So, we know that G-d helps sinners. So, you don't have to be holy and perfect and pure and angelic to get G-d's help, but you just have to be truthful. Truthful.
Your soul tells you that you ain't right yourself, that you need to shape up, that you need to work on your own self. Your soul is telling you that. And sometimes you'll be so good in your own soul, in your own soul, that you won't really feel that I have to do something about it, I'm a pretty good fellow. I'm the best fellow in this town. He won't be bragging but say "Hell, my morals and nature, tongue is straight, clean as anybody in this town." So, you feel good about yourself. But you've got sinners and liars and thieves all around you and you are not helping them get out of that condition. So still, you have the burden on your soul. It's not because of you being so bad but you now, you in a good shape and good condition and you won't help others. So, your own soul tells you that when you ain't doing what you should do by other people, your own soul lets you know. So, G-d created us to act upon the good voice in our own souls. And He's not going to come and help us when we are closing the ear to that good voice of our own soul. You won't listen to your good voice in your own soul. Why should G-d come and help you?
But once you start to listen to the good voice in your own soul and respect it, then G-d is going to come and give you all the help you need, not as you think G-d should do it. As G-d knows how to do it, as G-d knows to do it. He's going to take care of you. That's all you have to do is be true to your own self and G-d will help you. Now, don't forget what I'm saying here. All this is necessary in this address. Now here comes Islam by name, not by content, by name. Here comes Islam into the Christian neighborhoods of the most deprived citizens of America. The poor in many ways. Poor culturally and poor in the pocket. Poor pockets, poor minds. Poverty of the intellect and poverty of the money, the purse or the pocket, pockets. And the way it comes in, it comes in as a mystery or at least as something that mystifies, mystifies. And it starts to work in the minds of these poorly informed mentally and poor in the pocket African-Americans who were Christians before. And it makes them a kind of special student or students of the teachings of W Fard Muhammad or WD Fard and his appointed helper, my father Elijah Muhammad, who was given the name Muhammad from his teacher who was not from America, Fard. His name was Elijah Poole, born in Sandersville, Georgia.
From this state, Georgia. So, we have one time period for Islam among us. Now we have to acknowledge that there was the Moorish American Science Temple existing a few years before Fard started his Temple of Islam under the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. There was the Moorish Science Temple. And when my father first preached or taught or lectured, gave lessons to the Fruit of Islam called FOI by us, the FOI, Fruit of Islam, the military unit for men in the Nation of Islam. My father was put in a dress like the Moorish Americans wear. Fard’s first influence on the way we dress, gave us the Moorish American Science Temple dress. The men wore Fez's, wine color Fez's with black tassel. Now I've told you all about this, but I'm fortunate today to have a gentleman in the audience wearing one. So, I want you all to turn around and look at this gentleman. Would you please stand for me brother? You see this headgear. The headpiece. That's exactly, we still got the portrait. We still got the group picture of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Captain in those days, the Supreme Captain and the Fruit. We still got the picture and that's how they were dressed just like that. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Now, alright.
During the time period, beginning with 30, 1931, although we are told officially in the documents of the Nation of Islam that Mr. Fard came July the fourth, 1930, that that's when he came to our community to do his work. I think that's more symbolic than it is factual. Well, we know that in 1931 he was preaching in Detroit in the most deprived areas of the black community or the African American community. Up until the Honorable Elijah Muhammad went to prison for refusing to carry a draft card Not only did he refuse to be inducted, he refused to carry a draft card, and many of his men with him followed him. They were beyond induction age. If they had just gotten a card, they could have spared themselves. They wouldn't have had to go to jail if they just had accepted a card. Because they were too old to be inducted into the army. But they took his position, and they went to jail. They gave my father five years and sent him to Milan Michigan Federal Institution there, to do his time. And many followed him. My oldest brother was one of them. He was young enough, he was just in the right age to be inducted. But he didn't accept the card either and they were put in jail. This is the past. We're talking on the past now, this is the past.
In the prison, in the jail, my father didn't stop preaching. He preached in the jail like he preached outside. And actually made converts in the jail. One of the converts he made, his name was Andrew, brother Andrew. Brother Andrew was a young man. He was in jail for some crime. He converted to the Nation of Islam while he was in jail. He came out before my father was released and my father had trained him to be a Minister. He started ministering in Chicago. He became our Minister, brother Andrew. And a very good one he was. So, this is kind of giving you a picture of the beginning. What distinguished the men, or I have to say the congregation, the following from the present, was that they were mostly thinking about and interested in the lessons or the teachings of Mr. Fard. That's what they were interested in. To become a member, you had to write a letter and your letter had to say, Dear Savior, and you completed it letting the Honorable Elijah Muhammad know. You're writing it not to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad though, you're writing it to WD Fard, Dear Savior. And you're saying that you want to accept your own.
And if that letter was written nice and clear, you would be accepted. But if you misspelled words or your handwriting was not clear, they would send it back to you. You had to write another letter. Now you didn't have to know anything about the teachings to get your letter approved. You only had to be able to write a clear letter with the words spelled correctly, punctuated, the sentence, punctuated correctly and not sloppy.
What was the price you had to pay to get in to become a member? You had to write clearly, correctly, neatly, and be clean. You send a dirty letter; it's going to come back to you. Yeah, you got some dirt on it. It's coming back to you. He'll send it back to you. Do it again. They wouldn't accept it until it was correct. Neat, clean. All right, so shouldn't that tell us what the emphasis was on? I don't care what you learned after you got in. Shouldn't that tell you what they wanted most of all to have you respect knowledge, try to learn to read and write correctly. Be neat and clean. So that was the emphasis, that was the most important thing for you. And you were the most, I would say, uneducated of your people. Of our people. All right? And the poorest in material resources. The poorest. All right. Now after you came in, it was very wisely done, very wisely done. Now here you coming in. Right away, they know what kind of people they got. You couldn't get in until you respected authority and instructions. If you don't respect authority and instruction, you can't pass. And they got people that will accept to be neat and accept to be clean.
So, they're not worried about any Mao Tse Tungs popping up Or Nat Turners popping up. These are not people who are going to start any revolution in our midst, or revolt. Or trouble. These are people that have proven that they will accept our authority and obey. So, you're guaranteed a following that you can manage because they ain't even let them in until they show that they respect your authority and do what you say. All right? Now don't think you the only ones that wrote letters, plenty of others wrote letters that they never got in because they wouldn't respect authority. They couldn't take instructions, they couldn't be neat and clean. They never got in, no way. Not back then. Now it has changed. Somebody may be giving you a letter, but I don't know about it. It's a secret. We don't give out letters anymore. And you couldn't write your own letter. They gave you the letter and you couldn't compose it yourself. You got the letter from headquarters and you had to make a letter exactly like that letter. So, the emphasis back then was on really language. Language. And Fard, he says, you have to learn how to put the language in its proper terms. In its proper terms. He says, this is Fard talking, not the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He said, and you will not be successful unless you speak well. That's what he said. This is Fard.
And you won't be successful unless you speak well. And you have to put the language in its proper terms. Here's a man that's saying to you, I'm giving you language, but it's not in its proper terms. That's exactly what he's saying. I'm giving you language but it's not in its proper terms. Now how can you speak well if you don't even have the knowledge of the proper terms? And then he says, and you won't be successful unless you do speak well. So, the first job is to find the proper terms in his language. In his language. And then the next job is to try to speak well his language after you've put it in the proper terms. Then, he says, you will be successful. You're looking at a man who did that.
I put his language in the proper terms. I learned to speak that language well and I am successful. Praise be to Allah. Now, I was a young boy, very young, perhaps young as that little child you hearing back there or younger. And I remember the picture of the men, their spirit, their excitement, their personality, their group personality, or persona of the group. I remember it very well. I looked up to those people. They just caught my attention. Right now, if I saw any of them, you'll see me, you could tell by the way I greet them that they were somebody special in my life. I can't help it. I give them that kind of respect, special respect to them. Because I saw them working diligently, persistently, hard, to be decent, intelligent, mannerable, dignified, obedient to the language that they were given. That's what I saw.
Can't help but have special respect for people like that. I saw them caring about the children. They would greet me and other children too with affection. They would greet us like they were saying, you are our future. We are looking to you to be where we are one day and to take this Nation further in the direction it should be going in. That's the way they would greet us. They wouldn't say it with their mouths, but we registered that because of the way they treated us. We registered that, we who were conscious. All the youngsters weren't conscious. Some of the youngsters wanted nothing but just a child's play life. But I wasn't like that. And there were a few among me, my friends, we weren't like that. We took the Nation of Islam very serious. We took the work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, very serious. Even as little children.
We respected it. That was our world. We didn't know any other world. We didn't learn what Christianity was. No one would teach us that in our house. We didn't know what the streets were. We were told to separate from that world, the devil's world. We were told that's the devil's world. So, we grew up with great sense of respect and appreciation for the world that we were born in or that we were raised in. As children. We would notice these men coming to the Temple. Well dressed, suits, pressed pants, shoes, shined. Neat tie on looking like bankers, professional people. And they were the poorest of the people in the neighborhood. No, no joke. This is not a joke. This is credit to them. This is a big credit to them. And they would come into the Temple like the Temple was Mount Zion. Mount Sinai, yes. They'd come in there, lit up, faces bright, eyes bright, hopeful, excited that they're coming to the Temple again. And they would march through old men, sometimes 70, 80 years old. They didn't walk like that. They didn't walk like they were 70. They walked briskly. Soldiers. They had a guard at each end of each aisle, turn around and sit down in his seat and he looking, waiting on the speech to start, waiting on the lecture to start or the teachings to start.
And when they would leave the meeting, if there was a restaurant, they would go to the restaurant. Many of them would go to the restaurant. I would say more than 50% of them would go to the restaurant on a Sunday. After the meeting you'd find them at the restaurant socializing with each other. And the men, they would sit with each other and they'd be discussing the lessons. "Yes, brother, tell me brother, black man, how much does the earth weigh? Tell me brother, black man, what causes rains? Snow, hail, sleet, hail and earthquakes? That's the talk. That was the language. They were using the lessons that Fard had prepared through the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, his student. Fard gave the Honorable Elijah Muhammad questions and gave him answers. Then tested him on them. And when he tested him on those things, Fard gave the grade to it or qualified it.
These question and answers have been given very near correctly by one of the Lost Founds in the Wilderness from North America by the name Elijah Muhammad. And that made it, that qualified. It's okay, everybody can use that now. He never said perfectly. He said very near correctly. That's his expression. Okay, so now here they are. They're just excited about these things. In that state, the Minister would come and preach. Whenever the Minister would come to preach to the congregation on Sunday, he would have two books. He would have the Qur'an, he'd have the Holy Qur'an and the Bible, two books. And he would put them on the speaker stand, he'd put them there and then he would open up. And it was traditional to open up with this prayer. Surely, I've turned myself to thee, Oh Allah who originated the heavens and the earth. I'm not of the polytheist, no associates have You and this am I commanded. And he goes on to say, and I confess my faults. Please forgive me, my faults for no one can forgive faults but G-d. He'd go on like that until it's finished. We still have that prayer. That's a prayer from the Qur'an, from the tradition of the Prophet in the Qur'an called the prayer of Abraham.
Yes. After he finished that prayer, he would read something called the Restricted law of Islam. Now this went on for a long time. That was the form. That was the form. They conformed to that pattern for the speaker. And at the end of the meeting they would say, Oh Allah make Muhammad successful. And the followers of Muhammad successful, as you made Abraham and the followers of Abraham. Oh Allah, bless Muhammad and the followers of Muhammad, as you blessed Abraham and the followers of Abraham. They would conclude the meeting. There was also something, there was a Restricted law of Islam that they would read. But usually, the captain would come up and read the Restricted law. Captain Sharif. He'd come up and read the Restricted law and he would sit down, and the Minister would finish the presentation for that day, for the Sunday meeting or the day. Wednesday, Friday, Sundays.
Most of his texts that he would be giving to the audience, to the congregation was really designed not to further the audience in knowledge, but to get newcomers to accept to be a member of the Nation of Islam. And we would judge him not on how much he taught us today, but how many people he got to stand up and declare themselves Muslims or members of the Nation Islam. "Oh man, the Minister man. Nine newcomers accepted their own man." Oh, we'd be so happy. Youngsters. We were youngsters. We would be talking. Teenagers now. I'm thinking to myself as a teenager, I'm about 14 now. "Oh man, the Minister got him up, man. You see all of them stand up man." Oh, we'd be so happy. And how would he get them to stand up? He wasn't preaching the Qur'an. He was preaching the Bible. He would get the people to see that the story of the suffering people of the Bible was not the story of Jews or white people, but the stories of black people.
And that really, we should look to the G-d that have put our story in scripture. Look to that G-d because he has made an appearance. He had made an appearance in America in the person of WD Fard Muhammad or WD Fard. That was his teaching. And at the end of the white world has come and the black man was the one who created the white man, created him to rule for 6,000 years just to test the black man, to see could the black man be under a wicked rule and survive. And after the 6,000 years are over, then the black man has to come back into his position and take care of the problem he made for himself. That was the story. I'm giving it to you in brief. That was the story. Now when I became the leader, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I imagine he had a million and a quarter followers. They weren't all in the Temples, but they were in the streets. There were people everywhere that had been, had their minds changed by the teaching of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And they were believing in the worth of the black man and that the white man was the problem. That he was the real problem. So, they had really, I would say, accepted the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as their leader and teacher. Though they weren't identifying with us in the Temple,
When they would meet us, "As Salaam Alaikum brother." Give you the greetings just like you give it. As Salaam Alaikum brother. How's everything brother? Everything all right? How's Brother Malcolm?" Or how's brother, right? Yeah. Okay brother. You, brother's taking care of things. I know you're taking care of things. So, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had a big following. His following went much beyond the Temple structures. Went out there in the street. So now I'm made the leader February 26th, 1975. The leaders, the National leaders raised me up as their leader. I became their leader. Now I've been studying the Qur'an, and I done got put out two or three times, three times for saying for Fard is not G-d. Alright, now here comes a man, that they lifting him up saying this is our leader. After the passing of my father and our leader at that time. This is our leader. Now here I am differing with the idea of G-d and got put out three times for it. But yet back in. My father told his staff, he said, my son, they brought a tape they thought was going to get me busted again. Get me put out again. The men know what busted mean.
That's the Fruit of Islam term. Busted. So, they thought they would get me busted again, get me busted again. And instead the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was made happy after listening to that tape, it was an interview that I gave an African-American woman on the radio. And in the interview I was telling her that the burden on American society was myths. I called it mythological deities, G-ds. G-d in myth instead of in truth. So, I told her that. I said, A burden on American society is mythological G-ds. And I wanted to say, and the black man, if he was asked to show you how G-d looked, he'd point to a white man.
But I didn't want to disturb the radio station that much. So, I held that in myself. But I just simply kept dwelling on the problem in this society is the burden on the minds of the people that we have in these ideas, these concepts we call G-ds, they're mythological G-ds. It was about a 30 minute address on radio, or more. I think it went longer than that. It was about 40 minutes. The whole show was about an hour. So they gave it to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The Fruit, the officers of the Fruit gave it to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to get me busted. So, he hadn't even listened to it, but I think someone had described it to him already. He wouldn't have been that comfortable. I know him. He wouldn't have been that comfortable. He would never look like he was uneasy or anything. So, he said, "Go back there and bring me that tape of my son. Put it on. Let us hear it." I wasn't afraid either. I wasn't. Whatever he said, look, whatever I was saying, I knew that it would reach my father's ears. I knew that.
So, I wasn't afraid of what I said. I said it with a knowledge that he would hear it sooner or later, whatever I said on the show. So anyway, he was sitting there listening to it. Now this is during the time when he had gotten very weak physically. In fact, he was doing better. He had been in the bed, but he was doing much better. So really, he was looking at his best for that time on this day. But we didn't expect he would jump up on his feet. Because he was getting up slow, bringing himself up slow. Something I said, he jumped up on his feet. "My son's got it." That what he said. Now he got the National officers. He had the Supreme Captain Raymond Sharif was over there, his assistant in Chicago. James Sheik, James Shabazz, he was there. Elijah, Assistant Supreme Captain. My brother Elijah Junior, the troublemaker. He is a good fellow. Got the biggest heart and the best, the kindest heart you ever want to find in anybody. But he said, "My job is not to find what's right. My job is to find what's wrong." So, he was there too. All of them. And Yusuf Shah, you all know Yusuf Shah out of Chicago. Assistant to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Yusef Shah. He was a rapping minister before the rappers got popular, he was rapping. He was a rapping, Minister. That man used to have me spellbound, just watching him. And I'd be looking at him, this how he had to watch him.
Cause he'd be marching up and down. He'd go this way he'd go that way, he go there, then he'd come here. Then he'd shoot off in that direction, go back in that direction. And when he'd go, he'd be doing this here.
He was something. So, he was there too. All the top officials, Abbas Rasul, National secretary, he was there too. And the women's staff of secretaries, they were there, Captain, she was there. These are National figures. And the officers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad staff. Now the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he listened to it. He looked. My mother was sitting down at the table as she normally would. She would sit down to the table on my father's left, on the side of the table next to him. She was sitting there. My father looked down at the table, he sat down after he got up and he looked at my mother. He said, "Clara said, isn't this what we wanted?" And she smiled. She said, "Yes."
Now this is a long time before they lifted me up. This is about a year and a half or two years before that. She said "Yes." And after the dinner, we all go out as we normally would. And when I was staying in the house, I went on to my business, to my room or outside, wherever I was going. But now I'm not living in the house. So, I go out with everybody else. Unless you're told to stay there, you don't stay in his house. Even if you are his son, you came from outside, you get back outside.
Unless he says, son, hang around. I got something for you. I want to tell you something. Or would you like to spend some time with us. Okay, then you stay with his asking or permission. Okay. So, we all leaving out and as he would normally do, he'd be sitting there waiting to greet of all of us, and we went to greet him. We all would come to him and greet him. So, we standing around him, greeting him, National staff. He looks up at the National, he looks at me first. Then he looks at the National staff. He said, "My son can go anywhere he wants and preach." He said, "And son, teach that gospel." That's what he told me. Teach that gospel. And they all heard it. He said, "And son, teach that gospel." He gave me permission to teach what I thought I should teach. He heard me talking on the radio. He didn't tell me, but son, teach as we teach, don't teach like you doing. Don't talk like you were talking on this tape. He said, "And son, teach that gospel."
He promised me he was going to take me to Phoenix with him during his time of sickness. He said, "There's something I want to tell you that I promised our Savior, I will tell you." And I was available. I told him, just let me know when. I actually went out there twice to see him while he was in Phoenix. And the last time I was there, he said, "Son, I really want to tell you these things." He said, "Maybe later." Now he's back in Chicago now, he's not in Phoenix. No, pardon me, I'm sorry. Correction, not Phoenix, Mexico. This was when he was staying in Mexico, not Phoenix, although I did visit him in Phoenix too. So, he's back in Chicago now. He's not in Mexico. Cuernavaca, Mexico. That's where he was living. So, he's back in Chicago now. And he says, says, "Son, I wanted to tell you some things that I promised my savior I would tell you." Now how old was I when he promised his savior this? I was born in 1933. His savior left in 1934. So how old am I? I'm not even, maybe not even a year, just year old maybe. And he said, he promised his savior that he's going to tell me some things. And he looked at me, he said, "But son, I've thought about it." He said, "Sometimes it's best to let the next man," I'm giving you his exact words. "Sometimes it is best to let the next man go without disturbing him." He said, "I'm afraid that if I tell you some of these things, it might not all help you." Now that tells me two things, maybe three things, important things. Firstly, it tells me that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is now acting on his own judgment for the first time and not on the judgment of his teacher. And it tells me secondly, that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is so interested in me being successful, he's afraid to even tell me what his teacher said, that that might affect me in a way that won't be good. Tells me thirdly that he's so convinced that I'm in good hands now, that he doesn't want to tell me anything.
Audience:
Yeah, that's right. Allahu Akbar.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Say let good enough be. Don't touch it, don't bother it. Let good enough be. Praise be to Allah, when he stood up and said to my mother, say, "Clara, isn't this what we wanted?" If he saw in what I was saying, an independent thinker, that's what they wanted. They wanted an independent thinker who wouldn't follow this world but wouldn't follow them either. Not blindly. They wanted an independent thinker. Now, well, I hope I don't hold you all too long here. That brings me to tell you something about the theory of WD Fard, his theory, his idea, idea or theory. He used the idea to mean theory. Where he uses idea many times, he meant theory, not idea. But theory is an idea. He says, "What was so and so and so's idea in doing such and such?" You recall that language? Now this is in the lessons. Now I don't want to burden these people with this. You got new people here. We don't want to burden them with these things that sent some of us to the crazy house. What was the scientist's idea in making the devil? Okay, what was his idea? Okay. Alright. So here he used idea almost interchangeably with the word theory. With the expression theory. Just theory. What was his theory? He had a theory. He suspected that this would work scientifically, but didn't know, hadn't proven it. So, he experimented, this is what he was doing. He experimented. Yeah.
Alright, I want to share with you Fard's idea. Teacher Fard. His idea for bringing about transformation, change a revolution in the way black people think, to remove white authority, white man's authority from their minds and make them depend on their own judgments. Their own intelligence, their own judgments, their own decisions, rational decisions. He came in what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad called the volume of the books. But that's the way the Honorable Elijah Muhammad expressed it in the lectures that he gave or the teachings that he gave Sunday after Sunday on The Theology of Time. Yeah. Okay. So, he comes now in the language of scripture. But here is a man that has his own way of looking at the language of scripture and translating it out of its literal expressions into an applicable expression for a specific job that he wants to do. Now that I have the light on in his world, rather than try to explain in my language, I find it easier just to go to his own language. He told the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he said Sampson. Now he tells his story of Sampson. Okay? That's what I mean by he translates it again. Puts it in a new language so it makes it applicable. He said Sampson, when he was a boy, his father told him to pick up a certain weight that was in the town square. And Sampson would go to the town square, and he would pick up that weight. Say when he first tried to pick it up, he couldn't pick it up, it was too heavy. But as he grew older, he got so he could pick that weight up. And the father would change the weight. As he got to lift that weight up comfortably, he would go and put a heavier weight there looking exactly like the weight he picked up before. And he would come there thinking it's the same weight, but it's not. It looks exactly like the same piece that he'd been lifting all the time. It's heavier now. So, he tried to pick it up and he's having difficulty picking it up. So, he kept doing that, increasing the weight by little gradually, until Sampson became Sampson, the strongest man alive. That's what he told my father. Okay, he gave this expression, I'm giving you two expressions, and with these two expressions, I'm going to explain to you his theory. He said, "I come not in my royal dress, but I come in the clothes of the Cavy." Cavy, meaning a cave dweller. And that's what he called a white man, the cavy. He said, "I come in the clothes of the Cavy."
And he said, "I come treading the wine press alone." That's what he told my father. I come treading the wine press alone. Alone mean by myself. I'm the only one doing this. That expression is in the Bible. It is Jesus. Peace be upon him. He's the one that the Bible says comes treading the wine press alone. And his garment becomes stained with the juice of the grapes. And then later in the return of Jesus that's understood that his garments would be stained with the blood of the wicked because he's a merciful savior in the first appearance. But in the judgment, when he comes back, he comes to punish the sinners.
To announce good news to the faithful and punish the sinners, saying that blood shall flow up to the horse's bridle and his garments shall be stained with the blood of the wicked. So, this is the expression. Now treading the wine press, I don't think they still do it. They might do it in some village, some small villages in the back, behind the back woods somewhere. They used to get the juice out of the grapes by putting the juice in big containers, wooden containers sealed in so no juice could come out. And then they would stand up in it and tread it, tread it, tread. I came treading the wine press alone. And they walk on it like this, like that until the juice is out. And when the juice is out, then they take the juice and bottle it, seal it up, let it age to make wine.

And they had to pull their pants up high to keep the stains off of them. And if they did this so much, when they come out of the treading vats or whatever you might call them, they would be all stained with grape juice. Like they got blood all over them. So, he said, I come treading the wine press alone. You all heard it from the lessons. I came to North America by myself, saying that he comes by himself. Now I'm going to interpret treading the wine press for you. The grapes means your own souls. The grapes represents the souls of the people. And the juice in there is the spirituality, your spirit, your spirit or your spirituality. And treading it means he wants to get it out of your souls. He's treading it to bring out of your souls, the essence of your souls, to bring out the essence of your soul by treading. Okay, that's the meaning. Now, further translation of that. What is the essence of your soul? You know, Ignorant people you don't have to teach them. They haven't been taught.
You have to empty out of their nature what has been put in their nature or empty out of their souls what have been put in their souls that's not correct for their spirituality, for their mind and spirituality. So, treading it means pressure. Putting pressure on your soul to make you give up that that is in your soul. Want you to give it all up. Now, what was in our souls? The belief in Christianity. The belief, I can't say Christianity because actually the Church preachers in these deprived neighborhoods, they didn't teach their congregation Christianity. It was Church teaching, not Christianity. So, you had to give up the Church teaching. And the Church teaching wasn't much. Come you sinners, accept the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And you a sinner and only one can save you. Only one is not a sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ. And read some hymns, some songs, do a little preaching of scripture and get you all worked up. And you go home. You could tell the story of Jonah maybe. You could tell the story of Moses fighting Egyptians maybe. You knew a few stories, but you didn't know Christianity.
And most of you now do not know Christianity. So, they weren't teaching Christianity, really. They were just teaching the Church message, a call to faith in Jesus Christ. That was about it. And that you a sinner come and repent. Stay here and clap and shout and moan and groan until you feel good and go home and come back again soon. Cause it ain't going to stay with you long. Yeah, that was it. That was about it. Yeah. So now, but that kind of environment, that kind of Church experience, that environment shaped your souls. It gave content to your souls. So, what was at the core of your souls? Belief that Jesus Christ is a savior, came to save sinners. What else is in your soul? I hate to do this. The white man is too much for us to handle. That Church message puts that in your soul too. White man is too much for us to handle. But it puts it in there by going past your rational mind, right into your subconscious, into your soul. It goes past the rational mind, goes right past your conscious mind, into your subconscious and into your soul that, "Don't mess with this white man."
Now what's reinforcing that? Something that you won't rationally address. Jesus is a white man and he's the son of G-d. And G-d's son must look like his daddy. Don't mess with that white man. See, that's the reinforcement. Psychology teaches that they superimpose a picture upon your mind without you being conscious of what is happening. Thank G-d and thank this American society of today. The Civil rights movement and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad have been the main agents in this world of the West to get the white authority to look at themselves, question themselves, check out themselves, and change the world for the better. Yeah. Yes. African Americans now, we are not the only minority. Got women with us, and I ain't going to name some of the others, but we are not the only minorities. And now we got deprived white Americans qualifying for the same benefits that we qualified for with demands, with protests, with sacrifices, with loss of life, et cetera. Now they're getting the same benefits. So, our being in this country, in the bad state that we were in and pressing for freedom and respect and justice and all that really have opened a way for all American underclass, or oppressed people to come up and get their freedom too, right? Yes.
And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he challenged the white man. "You've made claims that we don't buy, that you think you G-d, we think you're the devil. You think you civilized. We think you are savage." Now, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wasn't the first one to tell a white man he's a savage. Frederick Douglas, in one of his speeches, he said, You claim to be believers in Christ Jesus, Peace be upon Christ. And in democracy. He said, but your behavior is such that it would shame a nation of savages. That's what Frederick Douglas said, talking to this country, talking to the power structure. But your behavior is such that would shame a nation of savages. That's what he said. All right. Now here's Fard. Whether he was a master in psychology as a student or a professor, I don't know, I doubt it. But he had a natural ability. And I consider him a master psychologist, a master psychologist, and a master interpreter of scripture. I consider him a master in that area. Yes. He now sees a theory. He looks at it. He perceives a theory, that if you can pressure the soul enough, you can drive out what's in it.
And once you empty it out, then it will begin to take in what you give it. Now, here's a man remaking the soul of black people by pressuring out, pressing out everything that had been put into our souls before.
We get everything out of our soul that was put in there before. And our souls, as soon as there's room in the soul for something different, it comes into that open space. It comes into the space that is made in the soul. Comes in there because you love your teacher, you love your new teacher, you love what your new teacher's saying. You love the idea of life and the world he's giving you. So as that old is being pushed out of the soul, the new is coming in. So, where there was Jesus, Lord Jesus, looking like a white man, here comes Fard. He's taken Jesus, pushed out. Fard coming in. And you were looking to your boss on the job, whoever. Mayor. Now here’s this little black man, Elijah Muhammad, he's coming in. He's the voice that's present. He's the living man present before you. So here he comes in. So, you're not listening to the Mayor anymore. You're not listening to the preacher anymore. You're not listening to school teacher anymore.
You're questioning everything they say, or rejecting all that they're saying. Because the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is telling you what you want to hear. All that you want to hear. All right. So here he is. He's remaking us internally. Remaking us internally. But there's pressure, isn't it? He's putting pressure on us. None of you took it easily. I've never seen one of you walk in the Temple and come in there, "Oh this is good. Hey brother, that's enough. Can I go get my letter?" Yeah, I'm sorry. I have seen a few of those, but those few I saw, they were already acquainted. They were already acquainted. Somebody had been working on them already teaching them already. So, you just didn't do that. You quiet for a long time. Now you listening and you not buying it right off, but they keep pouring it on and pouring it on and pouring it on. After a while, "Yeah, I guess that is right. I think this is for me." I've never heard anybody say, "Oh man, that's perfectly clear. I understand all that. I accept that. That's rational." Never heard a convert say that. All they say, "I think that is for me, I think this is right. And I think I want to take out my letter. I think I want to be a member of the Nation of Islam." I think every now and then one say, "Oh yeah, I know this is for me. How can I reclaim my own? How can I get my letter." Or whatever. But that was rare. And like I said, somebody had been working on him for a while before he even came.
Alright, so here we have this method of Fard that if he can pressure you enough, and the white man created the circumstances that provided Fard with the material to pressure you. All he had to do is just tell how you were treated. That's all. Tell how you treated. And now here comes a savior that has reversed it. That has reversed the whole language. So, it's not the black that's the demon or the devil. It's the white that's the demon or the devil. And it's not the black that's wicked or sinful and nasty. It's the white that's that. We were told that a white man was so nasty that he had to work on himself artificially to stop the stink so he can come out in the public. Say, you should smell them when they're at home. They used all kind of lies. And they tell me the Klan and some of those other extreme racist groups, they told, they had the same stories giving to their people, making them think we were stinking, had tails or something and beasts, that we perform like beasts at home and stuff. Say "The niggas bark at home, don't you know that?"
Pressure, pressure. Pressure out of the soul what was in it. And then the new comes in, you ain't dealing with it rationally so much. He got your mind so occupied rationally that you can't think because he gave you... He told you the earth weighs six sextillion tons. That's a whole lot to think about. He told you the universe was 76 trillion miles in diameter. That's a whole lot for the imagination. He told you the white man was grafted on an island, of Pelon, called Patmos in the Bible, and the grafting took 600 years and the first 200 years he got a brown race. Second 200 years, he got a yellow race. Last 200 years after it was over, he got a white race. That was just too much occupying your mind. And he told you that the white man was the devil, and the black man was G-d. And he told you that the black man put the moon in the sky. Say he hung the sun up and put the moon out there. And he told you the black man causes hail, snow, sleet, and earthquakes. Told you the black man does that. Isn't that what he told you?
And then he started asking you questions like you supposed to know. Says Mr. Sharif cracked the atom in so many million parts. If one third of a cracked atom weighs such and such, tell me how much was this portion of the atom weighs? And you don't know how to read well. Let alone work a reading problem of that complexity. So, your mind is just petrified.
Your brains are so frozen that they can't do anything but just hold you right there listening. And at the same time, he's emptying out of your soul all that you had cherished and was loving and obeying. He's emptying it out of your soul. And the scientists, they were going around. One scientist was named Sherman Allah. Another one was named Allah Sha. These are their names. Now you telling uneducated people that they're G-d and now giving them the name Allah. Mr. Allah. So, this bothered me. I'm coming up as a child. I'm not hypnotized as much as they are.
Because I live with my father every day. All right? So, I see the other side of him. They just see one side of him. They see him preaching. I see him living with his family. So, I'm not as hypnotized as they are. So, this brother came in the restaurant one day. Now I started off as a delivery boy delivering groceries at the store next door. Then I moved. My father put me in a restaurant. I started off as a waiter and then cashier, then as cook, then as manager. Now I'm the manager. And he had been doing this two or three times. This big black brother named Brother Robert, called him Big Robert. He's about six feet tall, big, heavy black Robert. I ain't saying this to criticize, I'm just telling that his skin color was this. That's his skin color right there. So, he comes in, "As Salaam Alaikum. What's wrong with you sisters back there? Don't you know that G-d is out here? Come out here and wait on the G-d." So, I walked out. Now this big old man could have took me by the head like this and crushed my head probably with one hand. Big Robert was strong. He did hard labor, hard work. So, he comes out, I come out there, I said, look. I said, you no G-d. I said you're not my G-d.
I said, look at yourself. I said, you just come from work, and you came in here to eat. I said, and you can't even wait. You're hungry and impatient. I said, you're not my G-d. I think that might've been the beginning of me getting a name among the brothers. Yeah, the word gets around. I got respect too. Anyway, these brothers, such brothers as Brother Robert, they were the ones who read the lessons and took them too literally and took them too seriously. Alright. Most of you, you knew, knew your limitations. You never thought you were no G-d. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad could have told you, you were G-d a million times a day. You would've went home the same way. You wouldn't have changed a bit because you know yourself. You know your limitations. But somebody that's got a false makeup anyway and they want to be more than they are and don't mind lying to themselves and others, they would take those words and use them literally and actually act on it. That's what he was doing. He was acting on it. He was telling the sister, respect the G-d, come out here and serve me. He knew he wasn't G-d now. He was just using it. He knew he wasn't G-d. If he thought he was G-d, he wouldn't have reported back to that hard job.
For that little money he was making. Past, present, and future. The past was what I have described to you, a past that shows us sincere, obedient, clean, neat, studious, studious. Wanted to learn, wanted to get some more in our heads. Sacrificing. Sacrificing. We'd give all to see the Nation of Islam come to be or build up. The present. What is the present? The present I would say, I'm still referring to it as the present because there's still the Nation of Islam under Minister Farrakhan and a few others. Uncle John Muhammad of Detroit and Silas, they all still carrying some of the teachings Farrakhan the more intelligent, the more educated, the more articulate, the much better speaker than all of them. So, he got the big following, Nation of Islam following. But they're branches, little branches other than the big group that Farrakhan has. So, the Nation of Islam is still existing. So, when I say the present, Islam the present, I'm actually talking about the Nation of Islam presently. The Nation of Islam presently. Alright, so what is the present? The present is very much like the original that I have described to you.
Given you a picture of in that it is an argument. An argument. Fard, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Nation of Islam gave the following an argument. Made us argue with the white world. Debate the black leadership. Argue with the black leadership. So, we became debaters. People with an argument. Gave us a powerful argument. Mystified, symbolic, but a powerful argument. So, we were people with an argument. Now here comes Farrakhan. Farrakhan is presently representing the Nation of Islam, big following. And he's still in that posture. He's the person who is standing upon an argument. He has an argument with the white world, an issue that he's arguing. The issue of mistreatment, the issue of denial of justice, the issue of not letting us have circumstances so that we can take our own life into our own hands. So, we can be responsible for ourselves, et cetera. But it's a protest, it's an argument.
So presently we have slightly a better situation. The present Nation of Islam is not so much under the symbolic language of the past or under the mystifying language of WF Muhammad, Fard. WD Fard. It's not so much under that. And the mental makeup of the present following is more rational than it is mystified or symbolic or irrational. It's more rational. So, I see that as progress. I see that as progress. I think we can be not too disturbed by the Nation of Islam under Minister Farrakhan. They are in a better situation for coming into the real Islam now than those people were during the thirties and the forties and the fifties up to sixty, up to the year 1960. They're in a better situation mentally. And circumstances is much better, is much better. Circumstance is much better for them. So, I don't think we should have to worry about them too much. Their religion, their religion. If you take the religion away, no problem. We all want a better social life for our people. We all want a better showing in the power structure for our people. We should be sharing the power, sharing the power structure. We all want that. So, there's no problems there. The only problem we have is with a religion that we were told calling Islam that was not Islam and is not Islam.
And a language that is meant for people who are worldly naive, not worldly knowledgeable. And once they become knowledgeable, if they hold onto that language, it's going to drive them crazy. They either have to give up that language and accept the real language of the world and try to see the good in that language or interpret it, decipher it, what you call thrash it, thrash it, and then come up with something that's acceptable for their own logic, for their own reasoning as human beings. If they can't do that, they're in trouble once they become knowledgeable in the world. Alright, so that's our problem. That's all our problem. I have nothing personally against Farrakhan, against my Uncle John in Detroit or against Prophet Silas as he calls himself. I don't have anything personal against these people. In fact, I sympathize with them because most of us, we were back there. We were believing the same thing. So, I have a sympathy for them. I sympathize with them. The only one that I dislike is one that I know has learned the truth. He knows better now, but he's capitalizing and exploiting for personal gain. Those who don't know are those who are still innocently following. That's the only one I have dislike for.
But those who are still following innocently, they're my brothers. They're my sisters. I sympathize with them. I pray for them that Allah will bring them to where we are in our understanding of this religion. Not change them from their militant stand. We don't want a community of sheep and rabbits. I don't want them to be changed from that militant stand. I wish some of you all were a little more militant than you are. We still have a long way to go to establish ourselves. So, we should be about doing work in asserting our manhood in a sensible, rational way. Not arrogant, humble, but yet firm. Be humble, but be firm and don't accept the world as it is. Want to make it better, want to make it better for yourself and make it better for others.
You, see? So, I wish we had a lot of those brothers over here with us. They still got the militancy, and they got the energy to go out and stand on the corner all 4, 5, 6 hours selling papers. Not that I want you to do that, but I wish you could be as sacrificing as they are. I wish you could devote yourself to some work every day like they do. Not to know how to sell papers. But do something that helps the community out. Take some time out of your life daily to do something that helps your brothers and sisters, your community out. And don't be shame. You say you got the best religion now, but you don't want to even take it to your neighbor? You don't even want to go on the corner and take the Muslim Journal and hold it up. Tell people there's a message here you need. But those men following Farrakhan, they do it. So, my hat's off to them. I salute them. I love them and they know it. When they come to sell me a paper, I buy the paper. If I don't want the paper, I give them money. I tell them, put this in the collection.
Yes. Why? Because it's a good brother. He doesn't know any better. That's me. That's Wallace D. Mohammed 40 years ago or 50 years ago. Man, less years than that. What I'm talking about 40 or 50 years ago? 25 years ago. I sure want to push that time way back. I do. I do Lord, please, way back there. Let me put a lot of distance between me and that past. It had a lot of benefits, but I sure don't want that burden on me anymore. And I don't want that confusion on my life, in my life or on me. And I sure don't want that for my children and thank Allah none of my children is suffering it. Yes. So, we've given a picture of the past and I made some comments on the present. We don't need to explain the present because the early beginning explains what is presently the Nation of Islam, and I have commented on their progress and their new state of mind, what makes the difference. Now the future. The future of Al Islam in the African American community is represented by the leadership of Imam WD Mohammed and you who support that leadership. Because of us, Al Islam has a great future in this country. Great future. Great future in this country. But we are going to have to concentrate our attention, our efforts on some specific areas so that we will have strength and growth and progress. For our schools, education. For our schools.
I won't say the dawah. But yes, the dawah too, but not as such. Not the preaching that we do, not this lecturing we do every Friday. The Jumu'ah prayer. Not that. We need to actually have students of the language and sciences of the Qur'an. Studying and developing in this community, in the leadership. For the leadership. Those students should be giving the interest that we should have. The force in our vision, in our eyes, before our eyes to the Department of Education, to directors of our schools, the principals, the teachers, those students of the Qur'anic language and sciences. They should be the ones given the educators, director, principal, teachers, the interest. Where the interest is for education. What should be the emphasis in the curriculum, for the curriculum, where the emphasis should be in the curriculum or for the curriculum. Where should be our strongest concentration? Concentration for developing the student, student in that curriculum? Where should be your strongest concentration?
We need those with insight into the language of the Qur'an and the life of our Prophet to give that to the Department of Education. Then we will have a unique institution of learning. We will have a unique group of educators. We will have a very special, very, very highly qualified staff of people for our schools and all the needs in education. We'll have people who won't only be educating from the position of a professor or a teacher, but they'll be educating as writers of articles that go out into the papers and hope that those articles can be passed on to non-Muslim papers. They should be able to do that. We should be able to share with the public a new perception, a new vision, a new perception of the reality of man in society. A new perception for the future of man in society. We should be able to share this in hitting the emphasis that they should be hit and sharing that with the public so that the readership increases in the public and so that we help shape the future not only for Muslim, but for the people of America. Isn't that what others are doing in Christianity, in Judaism, in Buddhism? Aren't they doing that? So, G-d hasn't qualified us so that we be under them or be behind them. G-d want us to be shoulder to shoulder with them and in competition with them for the betterment of the world of man.
So, this is the future, InshaAllah, the future of our Islam in America is going to be an advancement for Muslim life that's never been seen on this earth except in Prophet Muhammad and in a few of his companions. But the Muslims as a whole, even in his day, they were not in any great position or great condition and situation that I see us coming into. No, they didn't have it. They got great wealth. The proof that they didn't have what I'm talking about is that they lost that great wealth. They got great power in the world. They lost that great power in the world. Now they're fragmented. They're divided against each other. The Saudi Arabians, they have their enemies in the Islamic world. The Pakistanis, Pakistanis, they have theirs. The Africans, they have theirs. Egypt and Libya on the same continent and can't come together. Egypt, Muslim nation, Libya, Muslim nation on the same African continent, not existing far from each other and they can't come together. We don't want that. So, here's an Islamic world that's divided against itself. An Islamic world with no real brotherhood between man and man. Citizen and citizen or nation and nation. Or for man and man, citizen and citizen, nation and nation. It doesn't exist.
We got Muslim rulers over these nations, and they are really oppressing their masses, oppressing their publics. Won't allow the people to learn the religion freely and express it freely in their publics. No. Government control of the dawah. Government control of the people. We don't want that. Allah is shaping us up better than that.
The future of Islam in America. I have accepted already and I'm sharing with you what my own mind is seeing and digesting and wanting to reach out for knowing that you have my same nature and I have your same nature. We are the same people. Not because we are black, but because we share the same genes of the same people that was enslaved and freed and not freed. But now getting free. Becoming free. So, we have a common gene history, common history for our genes, and because of that we are the same people. We have the same group; I would say aspirations. We have the same group, what they call ethos. We have the same group personality. Yes, we identify with the personality, not your color. I may find a sister or brother that's almost white, but because they have experienced similar to what I've experienced, and their genes have been passed down from people that I received my genes from. Suffering people, but who are decent people, proud people, struggling people, striving people.
We share a gene similarity, a gene likeness. And because we share that gene likeness right away, I gravitate towards that brother. Then sometimes he be the blackest brother as black as this is, and that's black, I think. And another one will be almost white as a white person. And I won't gravitate toward that light one because I don't sense that that light one got what I got in me. I gravitate toward this black brother because I sense he got in him what I got in me. We have like souls; we have liked gene experience. Our genes have experienced similar kind of past. We've come along the same hard road of struggle and survival. So, I have a strong bond with him. Most of us here in this community with me, you have similarities of soul. That's why you're here. That's why you sit on your seat, and you won't leave. Some can walk out. You can't walk out. I can't put you out of here because you are at home. Your soul is at home and you are the ones with me that's going to reach the mark. We are going to reach the mark. We are going to reach the end of the road. We're going to establish Islam and African American life in a fashion that's going to be marveled over all around the planet Earth. People will be coming from different countries just to see our neighborhoods.
It's going to come. I know it just as well as I know. I'm here today on this afternoon in Savannah, Georgia, right? 1996, on the 8th of December with the sun shining in the window. Praise be to Allah. So, I know it. I know it's just a matter of time. And it's going to happen so fast. You really going to say, wow, I didn't know it was coming this soon. It's going to happen very, very soon. Within the next five years, you won't know your community. You, you'll say, "Wow, this community has grown." Next five years. Praise be to Allah. So, we are going to work. I'm pulling together a team. I think we're going to have about 10 on the team just to produce books. About 10 just to produce books. I got a big team to produce wealth. Maybe you didn't understand that. I got a big team to produce money. Yes, a speech a while ago at a big gathering. I told you that I saw myself as your Moses. Yes, I do. That G-d has equipped me to do for our community what Moses was equipped to do for his community. Bring the light down from the mountain.
All right? And then organized the professions. He organized the professions. He brought the iron workers, the metal workers together. He brought the politicians together. He brought the musicians together. He brought all the professional people together and he was the one to coach them, send them on the way, put them back into the road. "This is what you do. Go out with your task, deliver it." And they end up with a great nation under Moses. Well, don't call me Moses. I'm not. I'm a follower of Muhammad the Prophet. Imam WD Mohammed. Don't give me any other titles. But I see a resemblance. To what I see for myself now, I see a resemblance in what Moses did, only when he came down from the mountain. Now I wasn't with him. I don't see my story going back to Pharaoh.
My story doesn't go back there, and I don't see... Well. Yeah, yeah, I see myself on that night when the wind blew all night long and we went out and the sea parted, and we walked across on dry land. Yeah, the Imam was leading you. Oh yeah. And we went into the Promised land, and now we are about to organize the Nation, but not a political Nation. A governmental system for a religious community of people who are underrated, underclasses. Underrated underclasses. Thank you very much. I hope you have understood. As Salaam Alaikum, may G-d forgive us and guide us and have mercy on us always. Ameen.



