11/02/1986
IWDM Study Library
Atlanta GA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Dear Muslims, dear people, peace be unto you as we say in Al-Islam, in our religion commonly called Islam, in the West, as-salamu alaykum.
Congregation: Wa-Alaikum-As salaam.
Al-humdulilahir rabbil alameen. Nasta’eenahu wa nastagfirahu. Wa nu’minu bihi azza wajal. Wa nashadu anla ilaha illallahu wahdahu la sharika lahu. Wa nashadu anna Muhammadan abduhu wa Rasuluhu, salla lahu alayhi wa salam. Wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmaeen. Wa ba’. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the world. We seek Him for assistance. We turn to Him for forgiveness. We put our complete trust in Him who is almighty and sublime. We bear witness that nothing deserves worship except the one Lord, Allah, and we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger. And we pray the choices blessings upon the messenger of Allah, His descendants and the righteous companions, the companions and the righteous all be peace.
Dear Muslims, we pray Allah's peace be on us and that He favor this gathering and the purpose for which we have gathered, and make us stronger in the faith and purer in our hearts or in our intentions. We pray His blessings, His mercy, and His favor on those who have made great efforts and separated from their dollars and their concerns back home, even for those in this city that He gives them His blessings.
Allah most high says in the Quran. The translation in English is, "Say, who has made prohibited the inviting things which Allah has brought out of the Earth, or brought out for His servants and the good things of the provision? Say, such things are for those who believe, that is who believe who have faith. It is for those who believe doing this world's life and will be complete for them, perfect and complete for them in the resurrection."
"Say, surely my Lord has prohibited shameful behavior whether done openly or done secretly, and He has forbidden all the wrongdoings. Sins or wrongdoings." And hatred and the association with G-d, that is not to be associated with Him. The making of partners are associated with G-d. And again, Allah most high says in the Holy Book, in His book, the Quran. "And who is better in religious life than one who has submitted himself completely to Allah and is a doer of good and he follows the way of Abraham, the upright man? And Allah took Abraham for a friend."
Again, Allah most high says in His Holy Book in the Quran. The end abode, we have made it for those who do not aspire to or desire, or work for supremacy in the Earth nor corruption. And the end or the fulfillment of things, the end abode or the fulfillment of things is for those who are regardful. The G-d-fearing, the pious, the G-d-fearing, those who are regardful of the matters that are sacred and precious, the matters that G-d has established to be highly regarded, sacredly regarded by man.
Again, Allah, our Lord says to us in His book, the Quran. And Allah, He invites to the abode of peace and guides whomsoever He wills to a way that is straight. We say in Al F?ti?ah, the opening chapter of the Quran that is repeated on all occasions, and in all prayers, “Ihdina siratul Mustaqeem”. Our Lord guides us in the straightway. The way of those you have favored. So, Allah Most High, He only favors those who walk or who go upon the straightway. He does not favor those who go upon other paths. There is only one straightway, other ways are crooked. The straightway in our religion is the way intended by Allah for man in creating man, it is the way of our natural inherent excellence.
The Prophet Ibrahim completed his sacrifice before Allah, to Allah. He is called Hanifa. He completed it, and he is also our father. And we know Allah has said in Quran that He made Prophet Abraham, Prophet Ibrahim in Arabic, Prophet Abraham, peace be upon him, a leader for all nations. Our prophet peace and blessings be upon him, was given the Quran for all people, as a benefit to all people, for Muslims, not only to Muslims but as a benefit to all people. And it is said in the Quran that was given to our prophet, peace and blessings be on him, that our way is the way of Abraham the upright in faith.
Allah has given to us in His holy book, and I read this verse now. The words of the faithful, “Our Lord, surely, we have heard a caller to faith calling us to believe or calling that you should believe in your Lord. We have gathered here and we should understand that whatever we can accomplish here, depends upon faith, first of all, upon faith. Without faith, we cannot begin, we cannot go anywhere. Faith strengthens us and puts us in a good situation as Muslims, as family people, as concerned residents, workers on our job, voters when election times come. Faith. Without faith, we can't do anything. Those who have no faith in their future as Muslims, cannot be expected to do anything.
Those who have no faith in their ability to manage good family lives cannot be expected to do much of anything, faith is the beginning. Allah has called us to faith, Allah gave us Muhammad the prophet, peace and blessing be on him, to call us to faith. The beginning of a Muslim's life is faith. We say we believe in Allah, we believe in His angels, we believe in the revelations that He has sent, we believe in the messengers that He has sent, we believe in G-d's promise to us, we believe in the day of judgment, we believe in the resurrection after the death. We believe in the ordinance of Allah that regulate good and evil, that gives us the consequences of our good deeds, and the consequences of our bad deeds.
Life for the Muslim begins in faith. Belief is faith. Faith is trust. A distrustful people cannot go anywhere, we must be people of faith, we must be people trusting Allah, trusting the Quran, trusting the messenger to whom it was revealed and trusting what Allah has revealed in the Quran for us, for our life, for our direction in this world. We must be people trusting His promise. His promise of judgment, His promise of justice, His promise of reward, His promise of paradise, His promise of hellfire. We must be people trusting Allah.
Again, I'm quoting from the Quran, "Allah most high says, there is not much good benefit coming out of secret meetings." This meeting is no secret meeting. I don't know if we have non-Muslims here or not, but they are invited. I invite them all the time. I appreciate their presence all the time, and I feel obligated to invite people, not just Muslims, all the time.
Prophet Muhammad, if he had invited only Muslims, there would have been no Muslims, but him. Peace be upon him. He invited non-Muslims, he invited people and obligated us to do the same. And we know it's difficult for non-Muslims to join us because we have been misrepresented, and people are skeptical. They don't know if they could trust themselves in our meeting.
And our enemy is constantly working at keeping them skeptical. And our enemy is sometimes dressed in our clothing. In fact, that's his best position when he's dressed like one of us and claiming to be one of us. That's his best position for carrying out his dirty works. So, Allah most high tells us in the holy book that there's not much good coming out of secret meetings. Why is that there for us? To discourage secret meetings. Our religion discourages secret meetings and encourages open meetings.
This is a Muslim concern, but Muslim concern is also a human concern. Muslim concern is also a people's concern. Therefore, we don't have any need to conduct our meeting in secrecy. We invite the public. Allah says, "There's not much good coming out of the secret meeting except for those secret meetings where good is done." The purpose for the secret meeting is to do good. “Except for those who instruct people to be charitable”. Or to be of excellent behavior, to conform to the highest standards of human excellence.
You may say, “Why would there be a need for men to gather in secrecy for such accepted calls?” It continues, or to promote the doings of justice, righteousness among the people. Why would men gather in secrecy for that? That seems to be something, a cause, that we should come out in the open with, no one would be against us. Yes, the devil is against that. His imps are against that.
The verse continues, “And whoever does that seeking Allah's favor, seeking what pleases his Lord, then surely, we shall bring for him or give him or bring him to a reward that is mighty. If the Muslims meet in secrecy, they should be hiding something from devils. If the Muslim meet in secrecy, they should be hiding something from devils. They should be hiding something from the wicked. Knowing that if the wicked see and know about what they are doing of good, they will plan to defeat it.
So, if they fear the eyes of the wicked on what they are doing, then it is acceptable for some of their concerns that they meet in secrecy to advance their good according to Allah's will and purpose among men. Allah has ordered us as Muslims to be active, to be productive, to be aggressive. We know Allah doesn't accept aggression that is violent, aggression that is war. He only accepts that we retaliate for injustice, that we defend ourselves against aggressors, but he doesn't accept that Muslim be aggressive in war.
We are not to start wars. We are not to be the cause of war. But if war is made against us, we are to retaliate, we are to defend ourselves. But Allah does want us to be aggressive, aggressive in carrying forward the good things. When we say we believe in Jihad, we are saying we believe in being aggressive with the responsibility for carrying forward the good things, the good life, that Allah intended for man.
Allah says, “Struggle, pressed forward, assert yourself. Struggle with your possessions, your belongings, your wealth, and with your very selves, with your very own leaders. Leader of a small thing, leader of big thing. Leader of private matters, leader of government matters. Even the president. If he is the president, if he is wrong, if he is doing wrong, then the best conduct of jihad that we can demonstrate is to show the courage and speak out against the wrong of a powerful leader.
The highest form of Jihad is to speak up for truth in the face of a ruler, whether government authority, other authority, or any leader who deviates from the right path. Our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he has said, “Yadullaha ala jamaa’ati”. He has said that Allah's protection is for the whole people, the collective concern, not the private concern. When the private concern is at odds with the collective concern, then know that Allah will not favor the private concern. He favors the collective concern.
And if Allah favors the collective concern, then the Muslim should be united for the collective concern. We should not unite to advance good morality without thinking and being interested in promoting the collective concern. Some of us want good morality and good moral condition for ourselves where we are, but we don't have an awareness and a concern for the conditions of people beyond us, a distance away from us. If I have a moral interest in the Masjid in Newark, I should have the same in Masjid in Atlanta. I should have the same in all the Masjids. And my moral concern for the people of Newark should not stop there but it should also go on to the people of Atlanta. Wherever there are Muslims, we should have the same moral concern.
We shouldn't be satisfied to have one Masjid morally established and many other Masjids beyond us, a distance away, morally corrupt. I'm not saying this to point at corruption anywhere. There may be no corruption, I don't know. I didn't come here with that. With any issue of morals in the Masjids. That's not my point. My point is the general concern that we shouldn't give ourselves to narrow concern and overlook the general concern. Allah favors the general concern.
Therefore, we must be united behind the general concern. We cannot be satisfied with good business effort in Atlanta and overlook the need for that in Chicago and other cities throughout the United States. Whatever we do in our local place, it should take into consideration also the needs of other places. And maybe it can't serve those needs today. Maybe not even this year. Maybe not for the next five years, but it should be in our concern.
We should have that in our concern and we should say one day our effort here is going to be carried on and going to benefit those in Newark, those in Chicago, those in Los Angeles, wherever we are. Then Allah will favor us, Allah will be with us, His protection will be with us because we are not selfish people, we are not narrow-minded people. He will be with us. And if we have that kind of concern, we're not going to only better our condition as Muslims but we're going to better our situation as a minority people in a non-Muslim country.
When the non-Muslim see us with that general concern for the Muslim community, they're going to appreciate us more. They're going to know that the Muslim effort is not going to be small in America, it’s going to be big in America. There's no way that we will take care of our collective concerns and not make a great contribution to the betterment of non-Muslims also who suffer same situations. No way. But if we narrow in our concern, then we will hurt ourselves, and we will also hurt our future in this country that the great majority are non-Muslim.
So, it makes good sense. It is good common sense to be a good Muslim. It is good common sense to be a whole Muslim. It is good common sense to be the total Muslim. Not a half Muslim, not the one-eighth Muslim, not the one-fifth Muslim. To be a total Muslim, it makes good common sense. Especially in the situation we find ourselves in, in America. It makes good common sense. Not that we shouldn't practice it anywhere in the world. Certainly, we should practice it anywhere in the world.
But in America, where we are a small minority here, and the mechanism that are in the culture and in the atmosphere that can make trouble for us and set us back. Being as great as they are, it makes good, good sense for us to work hard as we can to grow into the total Muslim. Our prophet, peace and blessings be on him, he has also said, “The believer is one that when he endeavors or steps into an endeavor or work, no matter what it is, decorating the house, establishing a business, organizing the family, instructing the family, whatever it is. Working on your own self-improvement, no matter what it is. He says when a Muslim enters into work, he seeks to perfect it. He's not satisfied with no shabby job, with no hit and miss. He seeks to perfect it.
If we will believe in our religion and live it as Muhammad the Prophet taught it, peace and blessings be on him, we will show great progress as a people. No way we will not have great progress. We will have great progress as a people and that progress will not only be in the church conception of what the believers should be doing, but it will be also in the eyes of the intellectual, in the eyes of the industrialists, in the eyes of all people who need it for the advance of man’s society. That work will be seen by all of them and appreciated by all of them.
If we follow our religion as Allah has revealed in the Quran, follow it as Prophet Muhammad taught it and as he lived it. There ain't no way you're not going to progress. You're going to progress. And you're going to progress in every dimension. Not in any small narrow puritanical dimension, but in every dimension. For Allah has said He has made this Earth to be inherited by those who worship Him.
He has not made this Earth to be inherited by the disbelievers, the rejectors of faith, rejectors of G-d, the rejector of truth, the corruptors, the oppressors of the righteous. No, He has made it for those who serve Him. Allah says that very plainly in our holy book. That's enough for me. If Allah says He made the Earth for those who serve Him and I'm the one who pledged myself to serve Him, then Allah made the Earth for me. And I'm going to do something about the false tenants.
Now you know you can hurt him just like he hurts you. You don't have to go at him directly all the time, go at him indirectly. The most productive indirect way to advance against your enemy who is a corrupt enemy, a wrong person, the most powerful way to go at him indirectly is to go at him by concentrating on improving your own content. Because his most powerful effort is weakening your own content. That's how he advances himself against you.
His best weapon is to weaken your content. So, your best weapon is to improve your content. Now, if I am not doing a good job on the battlefield against wickedness, against evil and my environment is most likely because, I am not watching my own content to see that my own content is improved every day, all along the road of progress.

Allahu Akbar and in Him, we put all our trust. You know what we are saying when we say, "Allahu Akbar"? We are saying Allah is more important. We are saying Allah is more important. Allah is bigger. Allah is greater. You know the Bible people, they have a saying, greater is He, greater is He that is in me than him that is in the world, than he that is in the world. Or than him that is in the world. Greater is He that is in me. Aren't we similar? When we say Allahu Akbar, we must first have Allah within us. Allah should be in our heart. Allah should be the core, the nucleus of our very life. We should not depend on our life system, the lungs, the brain, the nervous system, the heart more than we depend on Allah. A man can say, "Well, the most vital organ for man, for life, for sustaining life and keeping life is his heart." Then we, when we say Allahu Akbar, we mean Allah is more important for sustaining this system than the heart. For a man may aim at the heart to kill me and Allah may cause him to faint before he pulls the trigger. Praise be to Allah. And Allah says, "He's closer to you than your own juggler vein."
The more I look at myself in the framework, the context of this religion, the more courage I get to deal with the problem. Now if you're are weak, if you lack courage, it’s because you are not seeing yourself in the context of your religion. Dear beloved Muslims understand, for us religion is honesty, religion is truthfulness, religion is goodness, religion is a decency. Religion as the Prophet says, is good behavior. Peace and blessing be on our Prophet.
The Prophet again has said, and this was said after the settlement in the city of the light, the city of enlightenment, Medinatul Munawara. Medina, the Prophet's city. He was born in Mecca, but Medina is called his city. And it was there that he established the first community order for the Muslim that came to be recognized as the first Muslim nation. From there, Muslim nations have been established in every corner of the world almost. You might say, “Well, not in the west”. Yes, I believe Europe is considered the West, isn't? Where there are many white Muslim nations there and in time who knows? Maybe Rome will become a Muslim nation. Who knows?
Upon establishing the Muslim order of society in Medina. And we must understand Muslims, that except for devotion, spiritual devotion and just private almost discourse on the religion. There was hardly anything accomplished for our Prophet and his followers, his wonderful, outstanding followers for over 10 years. But after the settlement in Medina, great progress started. Some of us want quick results. We're not patient. We got to see it right now. We have the Sunnah of the Prophet, but we are not the Prophet. When we looked in the history of the Prophet, there's a period of better than 10 years that looked like nothing was happening. So, don't listen to those around you saying, "Well, if this way of the Prophet is right. If Imam Mohammed is right, telling us to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet. How come we don't have something to show for it?" Don't listen to people like that. In fact, I don’t have to tell an awake believer that at all. Because they know not to listen at me. If I say anything to dampens their spirit. They listen to only that, that I say that helps them please Allah. If I say anything out of my mouth that dampens their spirit to go forward as a Muslim, to fulfill their life as Allah intended, they don't listen to me.
And sometimes in my human weakness I may say something that might not ring true. Or may not contribute to the good spirit and strong spirit of a believer. So, the alert, awake believer, they know to just cast out what I said and when I meet you and I see you, remind me to thank you for casting it out. And I’m going to cast out what you say too, if it dampens my spirit.
The Prophet said, peace and blessings be on him. After establishing the Muslim order of society, he said to his followers, "After this, there is Taqwa and Jihad." Until the Prophet got a model for Muslim community life, there were many great tasks to concentrate on. Private efforts, secrecy where they hide themselves from the enemy. That's why the matter of secrecy is taken up in the Qur'an. They had to hide themselves from the enemy because the enemy was out to step out the light before it could be seen. So, there were many great concerns for the Muslim to concentrate on, but once the model community was established, then that was an energizer, a constructed energizer, that was tangible, visible for the believers. That’s very necessary. You brothers and sisters who are not only trying to keep your Muslim spirit, but you also trying to carry out your community Muslim obligation by showing work, good work, legitimate work, lawful work, business, lawful business. You are doing the work of building a visible, tangible entity for the Muslim community and that serves as an energizer, a tangible, visible energizer. I came here to Atlanta, I read in the journal about your growth in business. When I came to Atlanta and saw them again this year, this time, this visit.
Oh, again I'm just energized. I don't know what it is, but it's powerful. So, don't let nobody pay your work cheap. In fact, you stand out not only as Muslims, you stand out as citizens of Atlanta. And that's how the Muslims should stand out because Allah says if you're truly believers you should be successful and you should gain. You should succeed, you should go further than other people. The non-believer should never outstrip the believer. Now don't go away with the mind that Muslims are competing in Atlanta against non-believers. Christians are believers. There are many, many excellent believers among the Christians. In fact, you know on the day of judgment, Prophet Muhammad has told us in fact, peace be upon him that the people from the different religions, they will all be there, not going to be just Muslims gathered.
Christians will be gathered for their reward. Jews will be gathered for their reward. But we have been told this, those genuine ones will be represented mostly by Muslims. There will be more Muslims among the genuine ones than non-Muslims. But don't think that there are not excellent believers out there. Now when we start comparing believers, we have to be careful. "Oh, let's present our believers, let's have a meeting of the great religions and let us present our believers". Oh, the Muslims have to be very careful because I might present a brother or sister that will fall way down on the scale of quality believer. And a Christian will win the contest or a Jew might win the contest. So, we have to be very careful. We have to select this carefully our Muslim believers if we get into a contest with Jews and Christians.
So, you readily recognize that, don’t you? Thank you. We got the best only if we would be the best at it. But still, there are emphasis in other religions that will present them as being better than us in certain matters. I don't think we can shout better than some of those sanctified people. Because that is not one of our emphasis. Shouting is not one of our emphasis. I don't think we can sing that gospel better than they. Some of you Muslims right away got into trying to sing the gospel. But I don't think you will ever beat those Christians singing gospel. Because that doesn't happen to be our emphasis. Now let us look at a discipline in our life that many passes by and never see. But encounter it all the time if they read is the Quran.
Allah, He wants us to believe in the hereafter. Allah wants us to believe in the latter, the future that Allah has promised has yet to come. And He wants us to put more importance on that than we do on the immediate, the now, the present. And He promises us that the future is better, is better in grade, is better in quality. What He has for us in the future it is better in terms of quality and it's also better in terms of quantity. That is what Allah promises us in the Quran, in our holy book. There are two ways to look at that promise of Allah. The first and most important way to look at it we all know, that is, that I live in this world but I'm not in control of my fate. I can spend all of my energy and labor hard and be good but I'm not in control of my fate.
I may live to see 80, I may not live to see 8 years old. I may not live to see 20. I may not even live to see myself getting married and have a family and I would be an excellent person. My fate is not in my hands. So, because of this reality that we have to live with, Allah, He gives the true believer whether he is intellectual or not. He doesn’t have to be brilliant; he doesn't have to be rich, prosperous; he can just be ordinary or even sub-ordinary, but if he will respond to faith, believe in Allah and respond to faith, Allah gives him an assurance that this is not all. This is not the end of things. He can get beaten out of all his savings. He can get robbed of all his establishments. He can lose it all unjustly, but he won’t be sent to the crazy house because he has a faith.
That this is not the end of it, neither I’m I cut off from the rewards that my works have earned and neither is the unjust person cut off from the punishment that his wrongdoing have earned. That it is not finished when it looks finished. It is going to start up again in a whole new situation. Proud atheist. You may change your mind and join me and become a dope fiend believing in G-d. I tell you one thing; this dope doesn’t hinder my performance. I still work round on the job. I still can think over the family matters with no problem. See, they like the dope the world offers you, this is a dope that makes you function better. I'm going to hurry up and get through I need another fix. That’s is one way of looking at the promise of Allah. The promise of the hereafter.
That no matter what happens to me in this world if I carry out my duty, if I work hard to please my Lord, I may make mistakes too. Allah didn't say, "Oh you won't get it if you make mistakes now." No, He said you can make mistakes over and over again. You can make so many mistakes until your mistakes pile up as big as the earth. He says, "I have the capacity to forgive all of it." All Allah wants from us is that we don't give up, don't give up to sin. You may sin but don't give up the sin. That's one way of looking at it. That's the first way of looking at it, but there is another way of looking at it. Allah want us to be a people concerned for the future. A belief in Allah's promise that is not here now, it's coming down the road somewhere, that’s a belief in the future. A there's a practical way also to look at, belief in the future. When I work not to pay my bills this month, but to get myself in a situation where I can feel that my bills will be paid for this year.
And if I can improve my outlook on the future and my commitment to improve the future for myself, one of these days I hope to look for my whole lifetime and say I got this covered for my lifetime. And also, my children would have a good situation. They will take up behind me where I'm leaving off and they will have their bills paid too. “Oh, I think you mixing that up.” Well, let's see what the prophet has to say. Peace and blessings be upon him. The prophet says live this world as though you're going to live forever and live in this world as though you're going to die today.
What is that telling us? That's telling us don’t become attached to the things of the world, be prepared to die today and leave it all, but don't be foolish and neglect your share of this world. Work as though you're going to be here always. Because even though you're not going to be always, if you work as though you're going to be here always, you will leave things better for your children and for other people who you'll live behind you.
Now if that's not a good belief. If that's not a good belief, I don't want to think about belief anymore. I'll just forget about belief and think about something else. So, we have to live with a view on the future. We have to keep future in view. It is better for us to keep future in view than to keep today in view. That's what Allah is teaching us. It is better for us to keep the future in view than to keep today in view. Now we know we have to look at the day too. We have to look at the day to see what demand is on today by the future.
The future makes demands on today. But we don't know what the future is asking of us if we don't see ourselves and our situation today. So, G-d says, “seek the abode, the future abode that Allah has for you, but do not forget your share of the present world.” That's the balance religion. That's the religion that fires up the energy of man to live a whole life. To not just live on the spiritual side but to have a balanced life, a balanced growth.
We know, again I'll repeat, we know that the future ends are the best in terms of quality and also in terms of quantity, but G-d says to us do not neglect today. The prophet says live as though you're going live forever and live as though you might die today. That's the balanced religion and Allah says in the Holy book that this is the “wusta”, the midway community. Ummatul wusta, it is the midway community. By midway it means that it does not go to spiritual extremes and it does not verge off from G-d’s path into material extreme.
It is the midway. Now It doesn't mean that we shouldn't devote ourselves to occupations that are considered material. To banking, to industry. Certainly, you can make 40 hours. Do that full time, there's nothing wrong with that, but watch over the content of your Muslim life. Don't allow your involvement there to take you off-center, and make you become in your concern blind to the balanced life. Don't let it make you a materialist, a materialistic person. You can work full time in the field of materialism, that doesn't mean you going to come out a materialistic person.
That’s why we have to have people working in all fields. And the Quran is what will keep us protected. The word of Allah and the sunnah of prophet. Don't leave yourself alone without the word of Allah. You float right into the twilight zone. All kinds of crazy things come out of that zone. Allah most high says, “Do you not see Oh men speaking to all of us. Do you not see that Allah has brought down into your service for you to manage and get utility out of it, what is in the sky and what is in the earth?
And that He has increased His favors on you? His favors that are both seen and unseen.” Dear beloved Muslims, this is plain clear I will make comments, but if you are alert-minded, I don't have to interpret this. I don't need no interpretation. What comes out of the sky for us? Water, sunlight, sun energy to grow our crop and for many other purposes. Nitrates and other things of value come down to the sky for us. Even stars fall and some of them don't burn out and they bring us a message of what's up there that we did not know. Say, “hey, well, this is material just like our own earth. Here's a rock. There are other worlds up there.”
So, many things come from out of the sky. Lightening and what did that curious fellow do? He sent his kite up to get some utility from the lightening. And the result is we have now electricity here. So, what Allah sent from the sky? He sends us electricity from the sky. Will you agree to that students? I know we have some students here of general science. Clara Mohammed school, Morehouse. So, tell them students, I’m I giving that straight?
Speaker 3: Yes sir.
Speaker 1: All right.
Allah say, do not you see that He has made of service to you. He has made subservient. He has may this to be in your management. That's what subservient mean. Subservient mean He's put it into your management. You couldn't get into your management without Him. He created it. Not only did He create it, He created your mind to perceive it. He created also signals to help your mind. He created it then He created your mind to perceive it. He ordered your mind to perceive it and He also created signals in it to help your mind. Without His signals, you couldn't have got it.
Do not you see that He have made subservient for you, what is in the sky and what is in the earth? And have made it to give you abundance, rewards both seen and unseen.
Now, the electricity was always out there but we didn't see it, did we? But when that fire was jotting about in this funny kind of motion it finally got somebody's attention enough to work with it and try to see what's happening there. “How come that fire go dashing through the sky in those jerky motions and then at a great speed just suddenly change its direction? You know that’s something isn’t it? At mighty speed then change quickly, and you be running out that way for ever. That's enough to get a curious man's attention. It didn't have to be a white man, it could have been a black man, but your circumstances wouldn't allow you to think about the lightning. There was too much lightning striking on your behind. I hope you all miss me as much as I miss you. I just love to be among the Muslim. Yeah, this is my home, but you know there was a time when a person who's been at home with their family has to move out. It hurts to the person who leaves if he's a family man.
It hurts when you leave, but if there's a calling out there that warrants him leaving and he's a conscientious person, he has to go. Now, what I'm referring to here now is not my leaving the African American Muslim community. And you are the African American Muslim community, don't let nobody tell you anybody else. There are maybe other small groups of African American Muslim but you are the African American Muslim community. Praise be to Allah. And may He forgive the honorable Elijah Muhammad all of his sins because we want him in paradise. Because he's so beloved, he's so beloved and he's so dear to us.
We believe his intentions were pure. And the misconceptions that he was left with about our religion, we think Allah will forgive him for those misconceptions. In the light of what he did, his sincerity, and in the light of his last-minute support, of me a son that has already differed theologically with him. I think he has earned admission into the paradise. I know one thing, he has earned the respect of the poor striving African American man and any of us that don't respect him, we are out of our senses. And I know people call me the hypocrite.
I was on a radio program and this so-called follower of the honorable Elijah Muhammad says, "he's a hypocrite. He wasn't even a Muslim when he was with his father and he said some terrible outrageous things.” I replied, "I can't understand him. He either have a terribly warped mind, or a terribly corrupt heart. I couldn't understand it." But I know some will say and it is a good question, “say what if your father had that place in your heart, how come you didn't tell us that when you started out in 1975?” You would have gone to the grave with my father.
I had to first help you to get yourself attached to this religion that will sustain us. Accomplish that first. He was pulling you out of the fire of Americas hellish situation that they created for us and I had to pull you out of the fire of your passions for Elijah Muhammad to get you on the path of Al-Islam. Now do as much for me when I die, as I'm asking you to do for the honor of Elijah Muhammad, give me justice too. So, Allah is saying to us that He has made His creation to yield, utility for us. This is my religion. This is no voice coming out of the secular world. This is Allah's voice speaking to me in the religious world, in the Muslim life. Telling me that He made what is in the sky and what is in the earth to yield into my management utility.
Now, if we are not challenging, a good competition for the western scientific world it’s because we've been sleeping and haven't been awake to what Allah says to us, in His book. And when you see this for yourself, you are going to enter into big competition with not only the American white man, with the Russian white man, with the African black man, with everybody that's trying to do something to go forward, you’re going to be a competition. And that's what we want. That's why when we invited you here, we invite all the colors. Because if any color sits here listening to what I'm saying, he knows that this ain't no black prescription. This ain't no white prescription. This is no Chinese medicine. This is something for everybody. And it's as accessible to one race as it is to another.
Ain't no conditions here that you have to go back to Africa and then come to this religion. He has made this utility for us, some of it seen, some of it is apparent. Some of it is seen with our eyes and some of it is not apparent, it is hidden. So, there is the material reality and also its hidden reality. Its utility, we have to study it and find access to its utility. Allah has given us signs; He will help us along the way if we will only believe. There are men with so much money, with so much wealth, with so much security in the material world that you depend on them, you seek your protections at their feet, you seek your livelihood at their feet. You depend on them guaranteeing you and your children a future life and you don't know they were men of trust. They had to trust something. They trust the person that passed on to them that outlook on life. They had to trust something. They trust the field of work that they are in. They trust the promise that that feel presents. If they didn't have trust in faith, they wouldn't have gotten what they got.
We limit faith, think of faith as something just for religious people. No, faith is not only for religious people. Ain't nobody out there doing anything without faith. You have to have faith.
We know now Allah says He has created worlds that you know, and worlds that you know not. That message came from Allah by way of the angel Gabriel to our human Prophet Muhammad, the most excellent man. Yes, the most excellent man, Muhammad Rasool Allah, the most excellent man, the perfect man, the complete man, me at my best. Now, who wouldn't follow himself at his best? I'm happy to follow myself at its best, and that was demonstrated in Muhammad the prophet to whom the Quran was revealed. So, He has created worlds that we see and worlds that we did not see.
Since that time, man has found the world of micro-organisms. Back there we had no knowledge there, was that on the record, nothing written, nothing said about the world of micro-organisms. But Allah had said before man found the world of micro-organisms, that there're worlds that you can see and worlds that you see not. So, they went and they started looking in the environment to see if they could find some help from the creator in reaching with their eyes the world that Allah says you see not. So, they found the glass that could enlarge an image. And they improved the glass and improved the glass until finally they got telescope and microscopes. Now we have visible proof of the worlds that we could not see, when Allah says, “there worlds that you could see and you could see not.”
Now that Lord has also said to us in Quran, the Lord before Jesus Christ was Lord that's our Lord. That Lord has said to us that He has made utility for us and that utility is seen and it's not seen. We shouldn't stop because man has found some of what Allah told him was around here. We should still be students with scientific curiosities, and don't let the white man lead this interest. Why should the Western man, the White man lead this interest. It's time for the African American to come in this interest. Not as a follower, as a leader. And it is the Quran that will excite your imagination. It is the Quran that will give you the courage and the belief, the faith. To go into that field and say white man it ain't nothing but a matter of time before I'm going to lead in the field of science.
You're intimidated because you live in the White man's world. His world intimidates you because he got ahead of you, and he built his world and made it fascinating. He made it to strike awe in you. He made it stun your spirit and just drop as a rag. Your whole mental energy, because you didn't do this. You had to have him take you by the hand and show you into his world. Now you're working behind him and beside him, and you don't think you can work without him. But Allah with what He has provided makes a new mind, a new man, a new spirit. A spirit for doing not only what the white man has done, but a spirit to do more. Hold me here Lord just for a little while longer.
We have now our attention on a powerful energizer. And don't think it will not materialize. I'm going to walk away from here and I may see you next month in the spring, in the summer. May not see you not more than next year this time, but when I come back, I'm going to find that energy growing into visual form. Oh yes. When I told you about 10 years ago, that our future as business people is not in centralization, it's not in one headquarters controlling everything that is happening in business all over the United States. It's not in Captains and Lieutenants managing from Chicago what is happening all over the United States. I told you that our future in business is seeing the white man, not as our master but as nothing but another man and getting out here competing with him.
Hey, it comes a time when you have to stop seeing the white man as your slave master. We were taught the white man was our slave master, well, they ain't supposed to stay our slave master. I told you the way to go is to decentralize. All of you work like hell, work like beavers, work like ants in your respective places. And the work will be scattered out so much the CIA, and FBI, and the police department will have to spend too many tax dollars to watch what you're doing. Now, that was almost 10 years ago and you're seeing the energy materialize. It has materialized in the form of small businesses and big businesses now by the Muslims in Atlanta. Not only Atlanta, Dallas, Texas.
Even in Chicago, there's a group of brothers there, they have Dock’s Fish and they have about five or six fast-food fish places there that compete. Not only competes, Long John Silver has tried to put their place across the street from one of Dock’s Fish places, it's about to dry up, it's been there for a few years or more, it cannot get Dock’s fish off of 87th Street. You know how come? Lieutenant Roggie Ritchie Shahbaz ain't bothering it. When people are left free to produce for themselves with their own resources, you're going to have the best situation. You may say, “That belief sounds like the free enterprise system”. Oh, the white men got it from the Quran.
That's where he got it from, he got it from the Quran. Show me a religious book that has more support for the free enterprise system than the Holy Quran. Produce it. Rather female or male, give to them what they earn, give to them the measure of their earnings. Right now, that's an advanced idea here. Women should get equal pay for equal work. Shoot, all they had to do is read the Quran 1400 years ago. Allah says in the Quran, "Don't control commerce, but leave it free so that the traffic of money and business will not be tied up into the hands of a few." That's the Quran and I can go on and on.
I didn't come here to teach you Quranic economics, not today. The idea in growth without restriction, that's in the Quran also. See, the American kind of economy has also this principle that growth shouldn't be restricted unless it becomes an evil such as some monopolies became, but growth shouldn't be restricted. Just like some of you all want me to have a paycheck, or a check to pay me, a pay to check me. I refuse to let the white man check me; you know I ain't going to accept that no newly born black Muslim check me.
He ain't got a diaper off yet, and he's going to check me or give me a pay to check me? No. You're wasting your time, you're in for a great disappointment. And I'm trying to soften the blow to you today. It will be hard when you already got everything set and set a whole lot of energy on giving me that pay to check me, and then you find out that it ain't working.
"Oh, Brother Imam, we're going to see that you have $100,000 a year to work with." "You're going to see that I have that with what?" "With your publications." I'm going to see that you have what you deserve to work with, and I'm going to get justice for my output, and I'm going to get control of my resources because I see myself as more trustworthy than you. That's right, shouldn't we put the best forward? Shouldn't we trust our precious thing with the most trustworthy one? So, I don't want no crooks competing with me for my resources. You don't have any rights to them, what I give you is charity.
And the holy man, he shouldn't talk like that, the holy man should say, "I'm going to help you realize more from your resources." We got to wake up and do a little better. Allah has given us resources both visible, seen, and unseen. Let us not see all of this great wisdom for our growth on this earth, and then go back into the same old non-productive mind and way of behaving. When we see these things, they should make us change for the better. As a student in class, I would listen to my teachers and when I got an indication of where I should be going to be more successful as a student, I didn't pass that by, I didn't pass that over. I dwelled upon it. I left the class with it on my mind.
I carried it with me wherever I was going, and I kept it with me until I could realize the benefits from it. And if you are successful as a listener here today, you would do the same. Don't be full of play and foolishness, that retards your senses. Yes, it's good to be in touch with nature. Before I knew what Prophet Muhammad said about dogs that they should be kept out of the house, I had a dog that couldn't be kept in the house. If he was nice enough, I would have had him in the house because I loved the dog, but he just couldn't be disciplined for the house.
So thank Allah he couldn't because it kept me from being guilty, well, I wouldn't have been guilty because I would have done it in ignorance. But it even kept me from doing it in ignorance from having a dog in the house, so we had to keep him outside. We built him a nice little house and everything, turned the door away from most of the wind and put a solid fence to help keep the wind off of him, and then made it so comfortable. We put some rag in there we took out the house, and blankets, and pillows, and stuff. We made him a nice little place out there, and then I decided to get cats.
Cats are different, so we started having cats, and I noticed the behavior of cats. Not only that, I noticed the behavior of dogs too. Good behavior. They have many fine points. Many fine attributes, although they are nothing but what we call low animal. We can call them low animals, but the lowest animal is a human being that's being an animal instead of a human being. That's the lowest animal. Now that's one you can't even keep in the yard.
So, I started having cats. We started having cats and I noticed the social discipline, the social excellence of the cats. They want the best. I had a nice carpet on the floor my wife asked me to buy. I said, Okay. Yes, you know our situation, we ain't like the white man. The white men say, "What color you want, darling?"
Now not all white people, a lot of them get in more hell that some of us now. Things have changed for them too. In fact, they never were all rich or accomplished. Always were some poor whites, you know that, don't you? Always were some poor whites or whatever. We then got a small throw rug that was more of better quality than the carpet, and we put that on the carpet and that cat chose to rest on the throw rug. Later on, she bought a fine pillow, a big nice fine pillow and put that on the floor and it was a little better quality than even the throw rug. We came in and found that cat up on top of that pillow.
I thought that the cat was reaching me somehow by mental telepathy and was trying to tell me, "Look, whatever you want for yourself, I'm going to claim it for me."
Now, I finally made him stay out of the house during the good weather and let him in only during the bad weather. See, I had to teach him the difference between cat provision and human provision. But I admired him, I still admire that cat. That cat, he's got a high place in my mind. High place in my estimation. He's something else. Then I noticed that the mother cat, she would let the young ones eat and she sits back and they eat everything up over her, and she'd go hungry in hopes that she'll get a chance next time. Then I noticed the male cat, he'd would watch the female and wait till she got through eating, and then he eats.
Sometimes she would eat and wouldn't leave nothing. Then I noticed the mother cat letting her big old son cat, bigger than her, I felt like taking a broom and beating him up bad.
She let that big old sucker just eat up all that good food I put down there for her and him, and she says, "That's my son." So, I had to come in into the cat family and help them establish justice.
I didn't say meow, I just took the broom out and hit that boy cat, "Get out of here. Let your mama eat."
Now, this brings us to another concern. Time is flying here. I didn't notice time was fast like that. We'll be here a few minutes. About half an hour, inshallah, and we'll be gone. Another concern and that concern is really a concern that has occupied the energy of many, many African-Americans all these centuries we've been in this part of the world. Self-awareness. That should be our first awareness. When a baby comes here from its mother, it's aware of itself before it's aware of its mother. Right away, it is aware that it needs protection and soon it's aware that it needs somebody or something to give it food and et cetera, so it's aware of itself first.
Then it meets the mother and becomes aware of mama and later on, its awareness grows, and grows, and grows. So, when people are lost, it's natural for them to want to know themselves. Success at that has been poor. What is the proof of it? The proof of it is self-awareness is supposed to bring about the circumstances for you being more successful. That's what self-awareness should do. It should give you the circumstances for a greater success, but instead of it giving us the circumstances for greater success, we reach the point of diminishing return.
When our people were made slaves and the slaves born in slavery, he said, "I don't think G-d who made all the skies and all that I see intended for me to be in this situation." He began to become aware of himself as a creature of G-d. And later on, that awareness because some of them had the courage to tell to the master, "You may deem me to be so unimportant, so worthless, but I don't think the G-d who made the heaven and earth intended for me to be in this situation." Some of them had the courage to tell the master that, and they began to require better treatment. Some of them even demanded it.
Some of them lost their lives because they demanded it. Some of them didn't care. They knew they were going to die and still demanded it. Yes, Nat Turner and many others. The circumstances that that time and Nat Turner rebelled, the circumstances was slavery. Emancipation hadn't come. The proclamation hadn't come. All right, so after that came another concept of self-awareness. Somewhere later in our history, we began to give ourselves to the interest of self as a race. The first interest was not self as a race, it was self as a creature of G-d. Will you agree with me?
Congregation: Yes.
IWDM: That's history. It wasn't self as a race; it was self as a creature of G-d. The next awareness was self as a race. That awareness brought us to black power. Black consciousness and finally black power. We came into that kind of self-awareness and took the same route that the white supremacists took.
Those of the Caucasian people, the so-called white race. They're white I guess under the pants, if not above the shirt.
So, they're white, I'll go along with it, they're white. Yes, so the races among the white people, they took that path. They went from their occupation with themselves as a great people, as a race and they carried it to Arianism and finally to Western-style Arianism white supremacy. We went the same route, not all of us, but too many of us and we influenced the state of all of us. Now it's hard to talk to an ordinary audience, to a general common audience of our people and tell them sensible things about race consciousness. If we don't come with the same kind of emotional stuff that they have been used to, many of them will turn their ear off, some of them will even get up and walk out on us.
Not that any of you all will walk out on me today, I'm not saying that. No, that's not the point anybody walking out. These people are just tired and they never know what's going on. It ain't my business. Now what we want to talk about for a few minutes is the nature of self-awareness in the life of man. Self-awareness should begin right where it began for our slave ancestors in the situation of slavery. They went to the right place. They had the correct self-awareness. The white man said they were cheap, black inferior humans, and they looked out at the universe and following the universe, and thought on the one who did it, and they thought on a white man.
They looked at him and they thought on him, said, "Yes, he's in a better situation, but one on one I'd whoop his tail.
I'd have him saying yes sir to me if the situation was different." That's what some of our strong bucks had going on in their mind. Finally, one of them start thinking on that, he said, "It's just these circumstances that we're in that accounts for our state, our bad state of existence. G-d didn't intend that for us. He intended us to have the same freedom, the same dignity that the master has," and they began to rebel. That was the right situation for coming into self-awareness. That's the first step in self-aware. We have gone off track, we need to read the Quran and come back to that self-awareness that our ancestors found in the situation, in the circumstances of slavery.
That's the message that Allah brings to us for self-awareness. He says that I created all that you see in the heaven and in the earth, and I created you, and I made you in the most excellent model or mold, and you all have descended from one ancestor. None of you have a superior origin over the other. You all descended from one ancestor, and it didn't say Adam, but we recognize that it's Adam, but his name is not as important as his identity. His identity is nafsen wahida, the one original human personality. The one original human nature, the one original human personality. From that one original human nature and personality, Allah created a mate for it and spread from the mate many men and women.
He said He cause the whole earth to be populated with men and women from that original human mate and personality. So, that tells us without any doubt that Allah is saying we all are equal. If that's not enough, Muhammad the Prophet says in his farewell address. There's no address of his more major, more important, more critical for us. If we want to stick to what he wants, then that farewell address. When a man tells you, "I may not see you again. I may not see you next year. I may not see you again at the major gathering like this," and then he began to speak to you on issues, you with your common sense should recognize that what he tells you represents the most important concerns.
He told them to stick to Allah, to stick to the Quran, to stick to his Sunnah, to his way of living the religion. And he told them also at that same time, at that same great mass gathering, he told them that there is no superiority of a white over a black, no superiority of a black over a white, no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, and no superiority of a non-Arab over an Arab. The only superiority is in how you performed before your Lord. All right, so if we want to gain by self-awareness, we have to go back to the first step in self-awareness and once you come into that step right, you're ready to progress. Our people had no problem progressing.
Once they came to that idea of self-awareness, they eventually got the respect of all conscientious people, not only in the North but also in the South. Many slave masters they said, “No, he's an intelligent human being just like I am. I can't treat him as though he's a brute. He's my slave, but I don't treat him like no slave. He doesn't call me master, I make it possible for him to have decent clothes, I've given him a job that goes along with his qualifications. He goes out and he makes business deals for me, he negotiates sales for me.” Don't you know some of the slave masters had slaves that they allowed to go and negotiate sales for them? This is history.
In fact, one of them were a Muslim. His name is Omar ibn Said. He was like a secretary and a businessman for his master because of his abilities. His master was humane, his master was civilized and recognized that he shouldn't treat a human being like he's a brute. The Western writer wrote about this and in his book. This book is called The People Who Walk in Darkness. The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light. I can't recall the author right now. He's got a name that sounds German. I can't recall the name right now. Anyway, in this book, he says that the master asked the slave, Omar ibn Said, he asked him, he said, "I'm going in the area of your people."
He was going overseas. He said, "Is there something you would like me to bring to you?" And Omar Sa’id said, "Yes, bring me a Quran." Some of us don't know that some of the slaves were allowed to keep their religion because they fell into the hands of most civilized masters. He said, "Yes, bring me a Quran," and his master told him, he said, "Under one condition and that is that you also accept a gift from me of the Bible." So, Omar Said he accepted that. He said, "Fine, I accept that." So, his master brought him a Quran from overseas and also brought him a nice fine new Bible. This is all documented.
Because since I have said this in the community, one of the brothers went and did the study himself, and he found down here in the South, in North Carolina, he found evidence of this person's existence and proof that he was doing that work. Now, he, having with him a Quran and a Bible began to do a comparative study of the Quran and the Bible, and he wrote on the Quran and the Bible. Some of the script has been preserved even to the day.
We have an Islamic heritage. Even though slavery cut us off from all past traditions, tradition, and heritage. If we as free people now realize that we should have a place for Africa in our hearts because Africa is our heritage, we should have a place for Africans in our hearts because they are from our motherland. They are our brothers. They're brothers and sisters of our ancestors. We have one common ethnic ancestry in them, or national ancestry in them, whatever you want to say. After all, it's mostly ethnic. It's really cultural more than anything else.
But if we can find an ethnic origin and we say these people belong to our lineage, and therefore there should be a space in our hearts for them. After the white man has worked hard, I mean the oppressive white man, the oppressor, have worked hard to keep the truth of our Islamic past from us. And now that it has come to us, I don't see any reasons to hold us back from building mosques, Islamic culture, in America to show not only the American white man but to show ourselves, to show ourselves that we are not foolish.
Just as the Irish, just as the Chinese, just as the Italians, just as all these other people who come here from other ethnic backgrounds and other ethnic past, we care too about what we had before you gave us this. Why, there are African Americans who go back to Africa and they bring bones and primitive rituals to America. Say, "We are going to preserve this. We once had this."
Kwanzaa, what is Kwanzaa? It's Kwanzaa I think it's called. Kwanzaa. They got a holiday of Christmas now. It's called the Kwanzaa. They go back and they bring nothing but really primitive stuff. What I mean by primitive now, I mean an effort by the African man that did not bring him on the plane of high civilization. They bring that here and they try to encourage Africans to identify with it. I mean American black or African Americans here, to identify with that, to cherish that, to preserve that.
We have a religion that President James Madison recognized. We belong to a religion that the Moroccans identify in, and the Moroccans have been respected by the United States for I don't know how many generations. They have been a friendly partner with the United States for I don't know how many generations. We belong to a religion that many among the white elect, among the white intellectuals say is responsible for making possible the birth of France, the rebirth of France in Europe and all over the Western world.
If that is our heritage, I can't understand why there's not more interest on the part of African American intellectuals in preserving this history by building museums in America to show African American Islamic heritage. By building mosques in American to show the past religious life, have a sign of the past religious life of many of the African American people here present today. I can't understand why we don't move in that direction.
Why there are Buddhists who will pay and devote money and even starts a project to bring a Buddhist temple to America, to Los Angeles or somewhere, and build it up and show you the Buddhist temple. They don't have to be Buddhist, but they are Chinese and they identify in the past of their Chinese people. You don't have to be a Muslim to have an appreciation for the Islamic past. You know your circumstances since slavery. You know your circumstances in slavery. You don't have to be a Muslim to appreciate African American Islamic heritage. You should be spending some of your Christian dollars for preserving Islamic heritage for the African American man.
Yes. That's good sense. That's decency by yourself. Decency to yourself and your people. The fact that we are not moving in that direction is proof that the white man still have us in some form of slavery. It may not be physical bondage but he still has us in some form of slavery. If he didn’t, we would be doing more to recognize the glory of our self and our past.
You let Budweiser tell you about your great Islamic leader. Yes. I see the picture of Muslims in their Muslim robes, Budweiser showing it to us. But Reverend Bud wiser, he won’t wise up. Look, you people call yourselves Muslims. What I'm looking at it right now, you call yourselves Muslims. You will never be respected by the immigrant Muslims as long as you remain passive before the great, great demands on you in America as a Muslim.
I shouldn't be preaching this by myself. You ought to be preaching it everywhere you are. Not only that. You should be joining me and encouraging me and say, "Brother Imam, we're going to have to bring this issue before the Congress."
I shouldn't have to be the one to tell you this. Once I point to that matter, you should be encouraging me. You should be pushing me saying, "Brother Imam, we're going to have to take this to Congress." And tell Congress that may be the reason for low African American esteem and low performance on the part of the African American community has something to do with us being completely oblivious of our past Islamic excellence. And to correct this, we want to have Islamic cultural centers showing artifacts and proof of our Islamic past and our Islamic excellence.
Putting museums throughout this United States made available to the poor, downhearted, low-spirited black man in the ghetto. But instead, they introduced something they call black study and try to hide, play down the role of Al-Islam. They end up making nothing but people who believe in animism, give them the inferior thing from their past, the hit-and-miss efforts of their ancestors. We shouldn't tolerate it.
The people who migrate here from the Western world, all of these European, American people that came from Europe, Irish, French, all of them, they have places to hold for them their past excellence. I was driving along the expressway. There's the Polish cultural center, Chinese cultural center. I'm looking for the African American cultural center. I haven't seen it yet. We have an effort inside of the impressive building that the honorable Elijah Muhammad secured when he was here that has been the place for our Masjid mosque there on Stony Island.
We have stopped calling it a mosque and we're calling it cultural center because it's really too expensive for a mosque. The prophet showed us how to get the work of a mosque going fast. You don't put a whole lot of money into it because it's holding the people back. They can't keep going with the dawah for looking at the gold. He built the first mosque for the Muslim, the Quba Mosque. Very simple, very simple, plain and simple building.
Four walls, roof, plain, simple building. So, he set for us the idea for mosque building. You don't make it elaborate place, don't compete with the Catholics and others in building cathedrals. But the Muslims slipped off course and they start competing with the builders of Christian cathedrals. And they had to build something more elaborate and richer than the best Christian cathedrals. They got off path, they got off course. So, we have that big, fine, rich looking place there that's making us look ridiculous.
We can hardly pay our rent. Some of us are on welfare, most of us don't have any job and we're holding our meeting in something that the Rockefeller family ought to be having. Big, old place, the ceiling so high you look at a thousand dollars’ worth of gas bill going up there in one day almost in January. You turn the heat in one day in January, you're looking at a bill of a thousand dollars going up in this cathedral to heat the dome.
I said, "Well, we will be call it the cultural center." And I felt that we really work on making it a fine cultural center, Muslim culture, ethnic cultural center. That we would get support for it from even the non-Muslims. It hasn't happened yet. We haven't really built it up yet so that it could be seen and attract support from outside the Muslim community, but I believe that's possible. That we could have a fine cultural center.
There on 7351 South Stony Island, in the south side of Chicago, southeast side of Chicago. In fact, I would say that's all we had there. I wish we leave the lakeshore. We shouldn't be that close to all that water. We should go inland. Makes more sense. When you go inland, you'll find people that's trying to establish home life, family life, trying to establish business life. Over there where we are, the people are just playing in the water.
So, the first step in self-awareness is to see yourself in the order that Allah made. Not to see yourself in the order that man made. The order that man-made is class system, color-conscious system, racism. Don't see yourself in that. Don't think race before you think human being. Think human being and see your great value in the world of the human being. No matter what your situation is as a race in a racist atmosphere, don't let that hinder you. Don't let it hurt you at all.
But move forward to advance, to recognition, the validity and respect, and recognition for your human excellence, for your human value in the world of human beings. And if you do that, you're going to be working along two dimensions of interest, your personal interest and also your interest in helping other people. But if you just think race, you will do what our race is doing now. Working as individuals, caring nothing about the collective concern, working as individuals to race and get ahead of each other.
I'm not saying all of us are in this state but this is the state of the African American, or black community here. The state of the black community in America is just that. There is not the presence of the collective concern and the collective effort, but each one is trying to race to get ahead of the other. If he can't do it lawfully, he would do it illegally. Terrible. That's because our mind has come into the wrong situation.
Situate our mind back to the reality that G-d made, don't come into the mess that the white man has made and then let your mind form in response to the mess that he has made. Withdraw from that mess. Every great mind had to first withdraw from the circumstances he found himself in before he could do a great thing.
That first step is to see your human identity. Allah shows us the human identity in Adam. Was Adam a Muslim? To be a true human is the first step in being a Muslim. Adam was a Muslim. He didn't belong to some other religion. He was a Muslim. He had the Muslim nature. He didn't have the Muslim system. The Muslim system of religion changed with Muhammad. He had the Muslim nature and for that reason, the learned Imams, the learned scholars, the Ulema, members of the Ulema they tell us that all of us are Muslim in our nature.
They make such statement based on the Quran, the Holy Book, and based on the Sunna of the Prophet and their interpretation and understanding of it, fiqh. They say all of us are Muslims in our nature. You know what I'm hearing from many Muslims abroad now. I used to hear it from just one or two but now I'm getting it from many. I've heard it first from a Jordanian and then I heard it next from an Indian, a Pakistani and then I heard it from an Egyptian.
Lately, I heard it from an Iranian. You know what they're saying that in spite of the condition of the African American people, they are the people on earth today that are closest to their natural Muslim identity.
You are not in the system of Al-Islam that Allah revealed and established. No, but you in your human make-up, you are closer to the real Muslim in his nature than most of the people on Earth today. Now that's hard to see looking at the condition of the majority of our people but when you come to know them personally, you can see it. When they get the pressure of the fast, burdensome world off their back, they say, "Sleep in my bed. You don't have anywhere to stay tonight, sleep in my bed.
You don't have no food here, come here." Say, "Honey, he ain't got no food, take some of our butter. Take some our flour. Do you want my wife to fix you dinner? How are you going to go home? Wait, I'll take you home." And we had that kind of sense before Elijah Muhammad. Now, you must have had it before me. Yes. No kin to the family at all, but see a child destroying itself, "Child, you shouldn't behave like that. Who's your mother? Where you live?" I've heard that from our women.
"Who's your mother? Where you live? If I knew her, I would tell on you, you shouldn't be behaving like that. I know your parents don't want you behaving like that." The collective concern. Yes.
See a stranger, never met him before. Embrace him, first day, first hour, the first minute. A stranger, embrace him the first day, the first hour, the first minute. Meet him, then you say, ''Oh, he's alright?'' Embrace him, take him home with you. Right? Yes. Well, see that's your Muslim nature, that's your true human self which is your true human identity. I mean, your true Muslim Identity in its nature. But upon that nature should illumined of how we could advance that nature and build a great society, a great civilization.
For that purpose, Allah revealed the Quran. He said that He had patterned man on the pattern that He made when He created the universe. Upon that pattern, he has given us the religion. It is the religion of the original nature, Deen Al-Fitrah. The religion of the original nature. The pattern upon which He patterned man, when He made the universe. Even if you don't believe you have an inheritance, or a heritage coming from Africa, because of what your ancestors had before you brought to America as slaves.
Once you know the idea of this religion, you proceed the logic, the teaching to this religion. You being in the situation that you're in, a beautiful Christian religion. A beautiful gospel but blocks against you because it's too Caucasian. It's too white. Racially speaking. African-American people, you will never get up to compete with white America in Christianity. Because the white men that accepted Christianity was the white men that accepted white supremacy.
And his design on the world is also to be found in the Bible. He situated himself in a position of advantage in the world. He situated himself in the position of advantage in the Bible. The original man is white but black in his heart. “Adam, was a man doom to sin. He couldn’t avoid it, he had to sin and all of his children had to be sinners.” But they give you Adam as a white man but his heart turned black. The same theology tells us that Satan is the black angel.
Then along comes the solution to the first calling. It is the white man born without a father to be savior of all people. “Don't you all believe Jesus was born without a father?” Yes, we certainly do but we don't say He's savior to redeem all men because Adam sinned. We don't make him the savior for all men because his nature was right and Adam's was wrong. No, our unity is first in Adam. Then our unity is in Abraham. And lastly, our unity is in the Ummah of Al-Islam. La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah and we accept all of His prophets. And we believe that they came from all color, from all nations, from all racial make.
That's what we believe about them. The problem cannot be corrected. You cannot make Christianity work for non-white people. It can't be corrected. Because there is nothing in Christianity that corrects it. There's no help in Christianity for the situation. Maybe if Jesus would be quoted in the Bible as saying, "There's no superiority of white over black, no superiority of a black over white, no superior of a Jew over non-Jew, no superiority of a non-Jew over Jew." Maybe we would have some help. As-Salaam-Alaikum, see you later.


