10/21/1996
IWDM Study Library
The Religion of Unity

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker 1: Titled "Islam, the Religion of Unity" was delivered Tuesday October the 21st, 1996 at Battell Chapel on the campus of Yale University. Introducing Iman W. D. Mohammed, Muslim-American's spokesman is professor Robert P. Farb, professor of history at Yale University.
Professor Farb: Thank you. The name Warith Deen Mohammed is not for many Americans a household word and I would say that that fact is, in large part, one of the Imam's achievements. As the son of Nation of Islam founder, the Honorable Elijah Mohammed and the man who was groomed to be his successor, it would have been very easy for the Imam to be a household name, but instead, he chose to take the route of redirecting the organization founded by his father, the Nation of Islam, towards the vision of the true Quran.
This was the democratization which the Imam brought about in what had been a very authoritarian and top-down organization has meant that there's less focus on the headquarters of the organization than there was in the past, but at the same time, the membership of the organization has gone from about between 10,000 and 35,000 to now probably better than 2.5 million. We do not often hear the voice of the mainstream Islamic movement in the American media and I think that you will see why tonight it is such a great privilege to hear the voice of the leader of mainstream Islam, W. D. Mohammed.
[applause]
W. D. Mohammed: Thank you. Praise be to G-d and as we say in Islam Alhamdu-lillah, and we witness that Muhammad of Arabia, who was on this Earth preaching the religion was showing us how to live the religion of Islam about 1415 or so years ago, is the prophet of Islam, the prophet of the Quran, the one who received our holy book called Quran or Al-Quran more correctly, is the seal of the prophets and G-d's mercy to mankind. We make the traditional salutation for our prophet Muhammad, upon him be the prayers and the peace.
This is indeed a very precious time for me as the leader of our community to be invited here on this campus of Yale, especially by the Divinities School here to be hosted by [unintelligible 00:03:31] and supported by the African-American Student Union and the Muslim Student Association and all of you who have assisted our very kind and hospitable hosts. We appreciate you very much and we are very appreciative to have this opportunity to address you here.
Islam is the religion of unity, as we are taught in Islam by G-d's word, the Quran and also by our prophets who preached to us and showed us how to understand the rituals in Islam and to live the spirit and the letter of our book, the Quran. He showed us too that this religion is the religion of unity. It's the religion of oneness. It's called tawhid, it comes from the word wahid, or one, - tawhid. It began with the belief that G-d is one and one alone as G-d and it goes from there to the belief that creation is only the creation of G-d, whatever is in the skies, and the Earth and man, animals, plants.
Everything is a creation of that same G-d, the one G-d and we then proceed to identify ourselves as humans. That the human's though we are difference in looks et cetera, languages and looks, we are one creation from one parent, our parents are one and the same parents and as the known story of the man and the woman in the garden. Our holy book tells us that G-d made the male and the female from one soul, from one and the same soul. He made both male and female and then spread from those two all the children, all the people on this Earth, all the different colors and whatever that we find on this Earth. This is the strongest idea, or the most, I would say, significant idea in Islam, is this idea of tawhid, the oneness.
Everything else forms after or upon that idea, the oneness. Islam then is a universal religion. It is a religion of universals. The universals are more important than the distinctions or the local concerns or the local interests for Muslims. The universal interest is the strongest. Our prophet Muhammad, prayers and peace be on him, the tradition is to say that. When you say his name, it is tradition to say, "Prayers and peace be upon him" or at least "Peace be upon him".
Our prophet, giving his farewell address, this was the last speech or address he delivered at the holy precinct where we make hajj or pilgrimage and he gave us, I think, the emphasis for our perception of what are the issues. The prophet addressed human life, that it is not to be violated. He also addressed property rights, that property rights are to be respected and he addressed the issue of race. Color consciousness, black and white and he said, "There is no superiority of the white over the black or the black over the white. The only superiority is upon one's obedience to G-d."
This is what our prophet said, so that was a long time ago and since that time the ugliest race consciousness that the world knows developed here on this continent, white supremacy and the Klan, and all the other evils that drew upon the new idea of race superiority in this part of the world. It is very revealing, to me that our prophet, the prophet of the Quran, he addressed this consciousness as an issue, and whatever he said in his final address at that sacred site must have been very important.
That was the most important address he gave and this is the one that most of us recall and most of us have preserved it, it has been preserved for most of us and we are more familiar with that final address of the prophet than we are with any other address that he made. He also addressed the treatment of women and he told men to be careful of how they treat women, to take special care, to treat women fairly and he told them that if any of the men would spend money to educate two daughters, he would get to paradise.
He saw education as the main instrument for bringing about the liberation of women and right there, I would like to say, as a student of this religion, I perceive education to be the tool in Islam for all forms of liberation, for whatever we want to liberate, the race that's oppressed or the people that's oppressed by another people, or the intellects that's oppressed by conditions in the society or industry that's not seen and not appreciated or that's not supported. Whatever we have as problems in our society to hold us back from the destiny, the progress that G-d wants for us on this earth. As a civilized, G-d-fearing people, it is taken care of, mainly, by education. Education is a number one priority in Islam for Muslims. Education could be really good for the society, for the long-distance run that we have to make on this earth till judgment day.
It has to be education that appreciates universals, universal ideas, universal logic. I believe the best idea that we have to keep us in the right situation, mentally and in terms of even attitude, is something that G-d says in our holy book. G-d says that He shapes us in the wombs of our mothers according to his will. The shaping there is given as a picture. He makes the picture. G-d gives us our look. How we are formed in the wombs of our mothers.
G-d says He is the one who made our [Arabic word], singular. Here G-d use our look or our picture in the singular, not in the plural, and G-d says, and He made that picture most excellent. We understand this to mean the human picture. The human picture that G-d created. I preach this a lot in our community because you know something about our past belief. We were thinking that it made a whole lot of difference that we were black. That really our blackness was our truest identity.
This blackness was created later. At first, G-d made human and then He made white, black, red, yellow. All this, you see? At first, He made human. The human picture is the truest picture for all of the different races and all the different nationalities. That's what I perceive looking through the language of Quran and to the teachings of our prophets. G-d is preparing us to live in the world of the future.
I think the world of the future is here already. It's the world of inclusion. It's the world of appreciating our differences and tolerating our differences. Our different colors, our different cultures, our different religions. This is the time for that. We're on this globe that is being called by organizations like I belong to, the World Conference of Religion and Peace and other world organizations that I belong to. It's being called the global village where we just can't avoid each other.
The media has so advanced. It focuses the whole world now. It focuses right on television. We can't hide. The material situation for the nations-- The economy of the world is demanding that we respect each other’s right to our land, our natural resources, our destiny as nations or as people. This is becoming one living room for all the people on this earth. One living room.
We believe that Islam is more the religion of the present than it was the religion of the past. We believe that this oneness is very important. It's preparing all Muslims to accept the world that is coming, and I said I believe it's here. G-d also tells us with the Quran that the religion of Islam is a creation-centered idea. It is a creation-centered faith. Creation-centered, it embraces the whole creation.
G-d says that he has set everything upon the rule and principle of knowledge and mercy. That His whole creation has been extended upon knowledge and upon mercy. The prophet says whoever enters the path to seek knowledge enters the path that G-d has prepared for him. He will meet his G-d. He will find his G-d. Knowledge is precious, very precious. Correct knowledge is very, very precious.
We believe that when G-d says he's going to create man to be a vicegerent or one with responsibility for the government or for the rule in earth, that G-d was saying He is creating the human intellect. Not a black man, not a white man, not necessarily a man, [chuckles] but the human intellect. Could be man and woman, woman or man. He is creating the human intellect. That's what we believe.
G-d was saying, He's going to create the human intellect. The human intellect has the power of reasoning. This is what disturbed the angels when they were told this by G-d. They said, "What will you create other than something that's going to create bloodshed?" G-d told them, "I know what you know not." He told Adam, the first man who had not really been created, but this is all a setting like a story plan for the creation.
G-d asked the angels, He said, "Tell me your name?" The angels couldn't do it. The angels said, "We have no knowledge, except what you have given to us." G-d said to Adam, He said, "Oh Adam tell them their names." He told them their names, and they all submitted to this creation that G-d had shown to them, except Iblis. Iblis is the rebel angel, the angel who became rebel. Except Iblis, he was not- in Islamic, well I don't want to say theology, but in Islamic knowledge, this rebel angel was never a true angel. He was a jinn. Allah says that he's made from the jinn. He's of the jinn, but he was the leader of the angels, and he was in the role of the angel.
He was in the role of an angel and the leader of the angels. He is the one that refused. We understand that to mean that the angels don't have free judgment or the power to reason and make independent judgment. They don't have that, they're not created like that. The human being does. The human being has that power to reason. This is the great station that G-d gives man in his creation.
Our prophet, Muhammad, prayers and peace be upon him, he said G-d never created anything more valuable or better than the human intellect. This is our true identity, the human intellect is our true identity and when we lose that or we fail to awaken to the life of our intellect, we'll be treated like animals and we'll treat ourselves like animals because we're not really on the high plane of a human being.
Because of this special creation, G-d then gives this special creation, His human creation, the title abd. Abd in the time before Islam as preached by Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon him, abd meant slave. It simply meant slave. Abd is slave. The treatment of this term in the Quran and in the Muslim language or knowledge changes the meaning from slave to servant. A servant who obeys G-d as the best slave would obey his master. He doesn't disagree with his master. He depends upon his master for his existence. The complete slave.
The term has a good meaning if it's seen in the right context. As the servant of G-d and not as a slave in the world. A slave in the world. We're taught in Islam that G-d affectionately called Muhammad his abd, his servant, His abd. This is the best and highest title that we can have. To be the servants of G-d. I believe this is true for the Christians. I've heard some Christian song where the singer's saying that he'd rather be a doorman in heaven than to have a high place in the world. Something like that. I can't recall it exactly, but that's the message and I believe that's what it's saying. That the highest job or the highest station that you can have in creation is to be the servants of G-d.
G-d says that he made all men to be His servants. The plural is the [Arabic word]. G-d addresses the Muslims, he says, "[Arabic language] Oh servants of G-d." That's all Muslims. For all of us, the highest abd is Muhammad, but the least of us is also called the abd of G-d. The servant of G-d. Again, the Prophet has told us something here about behavior too. The universality of Islam-- I'm just touching upon it, we don't have enough time to just really go into it to satisfy myself. I can't do that if we don't have the time, - just stress upon the universality of Islam.
Now, for the behavior. The Prophet said of behavior, he says, "Anyone who behaves, whose behavior is not like ours, is not one of us." Behavior identifies us in the following of the Prophet Muhammad and his behavior, we believe, was the model behavior for all people. For all people, not just Muslims. G-d says, Allah says in our holy book, "Everyone's behavior is upon that person's form." The form of life we have. Now, G-d is the one who gave us our first form, life form, the first life form, but the world takes us out of that life form. Everyone's behavior is decided upon the life form itself. The form that that person takes.
If I have a racist mentality, I'm going to behave as a racist. If I have some other mentality, I'll behave according to my makeup in my mind, how my mind is formed. How my intelligence is formed. We behave according to how our intelligence is formed and the correct knowledge will liberate us from these bad forms that we have come into. My urgent message to all people, not just African Americans, to white extremists or black extremists, but to all people for us to appreciate G-d's word, G-d's revelation to us.
To you, it's the gospel and the New Testament, to the Jews, it's the Torah, to us, it's the Quran. Let us appreciate it and realize that G-d's promise to Abraham has already come to pass. G-d said to Abraham that, "Your people, your descendants, your followers, shall inherit all of the wonderful things in the world-- Shall inherit the land. The beautiful land. The future. The destiny. Your followers shall inherit it." We are called the people of the Abrahamic faiths by Muslims. By Muslim scholars, you're being called the people of the Abrahamic faiths. Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
They're even using an expression now, "People of the heavenly religious faiths, the heavenly religious faiths." It was Abraham who looked to the heavens to find G-d. He looked to the universe to find G-d and he saw the different great objects in the universe. The stars, the moon, and sun. After seeing all of them, he wasn't satisfied that any of them could be G-d and he concluded that G-d is the one we don't see. The unseen. G-d is the one behind all of these things. We know that Abraham was a rational man. He's the father-- The second father for humanity and our religions and he was the man of faith, of strong faith, but he was also the man of rational faith.
He loved his power of reasoning so much that it caused him to have difficulty understanding how dead people can be raised to back to life again. He said to G-d, said, "G-d, not that my faith is weak, but tell me, how will the dead be raised again?" G-d gave him a parable that satisfied his intellect and his soul, his faith. This is the intellect and we are the people of Abraham, the children of Abraham, meaning that we are the people that G-d guided to appreciate the human intellect and to keep that intellect in service under G-d. Thank you very much.
[clapping]
Jerry: One of the thrills of being a University Chaplain, my name is Jerry Streets and I'm a University Chaplain and pastor of the Church of Christ in Yale resident here in Battell Chapel, is being able to be a part of a process that promotes the beauty and- of all of the world's religion and to promote tolerance and understanding of those religions. Tonight has been an example of a very important step in that direction, as Imam Warith Deen Mohammed spoke to us.
He not only spoke to us with his words, but I felt his (unclear) and I hope that you felt that as well as I have. Would you join me again in giving a round of applause to W. D. Mohamed Imam for being here.
[applause]
The other reason why I'm standing here is that Common Quest was the inspiration of Dean Mark Ryan and we've been in existence now going into our third year. As many of you know in Yale- in the Yale community, Dean Mark Ryan is stepping down after 21 years to assume a greater vision of his life in working for Universal Spiritual Understanding in Mexico. This may be one of his few remaining public presences, so, would you join me in thanking him for founding of Common Quest here at Yale University.
[applause]
Mark: Thank you, Jerry. I had no idea that was coming. Our evening is not over. The Imam has agreed to answer some questions, and you'll notice we have some floor lights set up in front, so we have a process for this. We ask that you-- If you have a question, is to come forward to one of the microphones and the Imam will take your questions for 15 or 20 minutes. Do we have one to begin?
Audience member: Peace be unto you.
Warith Deen: Yes, peace be upon you.
Audience member: First of all, I'd like to wish your father a happy belated birthday. My question is, because actually, I have two brief questions and I hope you'll have a chance to address them both. May Allah continue to bless your in attempt to pass [unintelligible 00:28:51] here in America, of Islam. However, as your father decided, these are the hells of North America for people of color.
As a white man, and one who embraced Islam more than a decade ago, and has spent a lot of time researching different sects, different brands of Islam, and as well as just a student of history, I've come to the conclusion that it's not enough for us as whites to simply take shahada and to bear witness that there's no G-d but Allah, Muhammad his messenger three times, that doesn't cleanse us of our white-supremacist attitude, which I agree with you is the most critical and threatening problem here in America and throughout the world.
White supremacy threatens to eliminate everything. People, environment and so forth. Having said that, why not put the Muslim program that your father was given and the divine solution? Why not consider that? Why not put it before Congress and the American people? If we are trying to show them that we can't even live with each other, we fight one hundred year wars with each other, we go into these world wars to control not only our own lands but the lands of non-white people of the earth, why not consider the divine solution and secondly, in the nearly 20 years of the establishment of the American Muslim Mission, what relationships did the Wahhabi sect have in its origin, financial, doctrinal and so forth? What relationships still exist today, if any, thank you.
Warith Deen: Thank you. I believe that the best way to get the results we want for a Muslim future is to join others who want essentially for man on this earth what we want. I do this by joining Christians, Buddhists, Jews, everybody who has the same interest for mankind in the future of mankind like the World Conference of Religion and Peace, the Parliament of Religion, the Muslim Congress in Pakistan, Rabita, the World Muslim League based in Mecca, even the Islamic Call in Libya.
Our relation broke off, we broke relations with each other because of situations that were created for our country, but I hope that I’ll resume that relationship with them too, the Islamic Call. These are all world oriented or world focused organizations and I think the best way for us to prepare for the future and get the results we want for ourselves is to join those who have the same vision of the future. That's how I think we should do it.
Not by bringing the issue to the United Nations myself or as Muslims, but we can appeal to the United Nations all together. The leaders of Christianity and leaders of other great religions and all of us. It might not be me, it might be somebody else chosen from the Muslim world. It would be a great idea for all of us to present the case to the United Nations and appeal to them to respect our Creator.
The Lord, Creator of all of us. He's made all of these things possible for us, that's a great idea and I would like to be included in the group that would present that appeal or that request to the nations of the earth. I would call it and I would remember it and I would repeat it, especially in the circles of the high caliber people that I’m fortunate with my humble self to be among.
As for the second question, the Wahhabi or school of thought or [Arabic language] in Islam has been introduced to us, we know about it. We think that G-d didn’t bring us this far through the darkness by ourselves, just us and G-d, for us to join any other school of thought. We hope that a school of thought will develop right here in America. Thank you very much for your question, I appreciate it.
Participant: Assalamu Alaikum, brother.
Warith Deen: Wa alaykumu s-salam.
Participant: I got two questions. First is a honor of being in your presence.
Warith Deen: Thank you.
Participant: I just seen you last night on [unintelligible 00:33:35] but when I saw you sitting with president Clinton [unintelligible 00:33:44] was it black political forum? I think it's [unintelligible 00:33:50] black political forum, you shared the stage with president Clinton during his inauguration [unintelligible 00:33:58]
Warith Deen: Yes, I was invited to. Yes, I was there and I spoke there, yes.
Participant: Just a few days ago he signed a bill and I’m sure you heard of it about the injection of abortion, that they can abort the baby. If its head come out first, you can’t abort the baby, but if you pull the arms and the legs out, then you inject a needle up and it sucks the arms, the brain out, this is accepted. This is what bill- Clinton just passed recently, just a few days ago.
By standing with him on inauguration, I wonder how you felt about that. Also, it was the one-year anniversary of The Million Man March and Farrakhan, speaking to the United Nations, as you all are just speaking about in [unintelligible 00:34:56] take the gun of the world, speaking to the whole world in internment of farm tools instead of to tools to kill another.
Warith Deen: Yes, that's the Bible, yes.
Participant: Yes, sir. I would like to know how you feel about both of those questions.
Warith Deen: Yes. I've always loved that reading in the Bible that one day the weapons of war will be laid tools for agriculture. I like that very much. I’m happy to know that Farrakhan liked it too now
[laughter]
As for the issue of abortion, we had our differences. We don't expect the president as the president of all Americans to accept our position on abortion. That is upon his own good judgment. He has to be free to make his own good judgment. We don't have to vote for him, although I will.
Participant: Okay, thank you, sir.
[laughter]
Warith Deen: You're welcome.
Participant: My name is Ibrahim Abdul, Assalamu alaikum.
Warith Deen: Wa alaykumu s-salam.
Participant: My question is about The Million Man March. I did not attend the Million Man March last year. I was wondering- I wasn't exactly sure if you advocate it, the Million Man March because I [unintelligible 00:36:36] at home, you didn’t believe that Muslims should attend or [unintelligible 00:36:42].
Warith Deen: There's a brother that I know very well and I happen to be their guest in Detroit at a speaking engagement for them, for the Muslim community in Detroit. He told me-- It was before the Million Man March, he said that-- This is the first Million Man March, there's a second one, but not quite as publicized and not quite as, I would say, supported, not supported as much as the first one. Anyway, he told me, and he was a little nervous when he said this, I could tell his nervousness in his voice.
He said, "I want you to know, you're my leader, but I’m going to the Million Man March." I said, "That's good, I won’t be there."
[laughter]
We are free to do what we want to do as long as we don't consciously disobey G-d.
Participant: Alright. I guess I was looking for a different answer.
Warith Deen: I didn't have faith in the first march and I don't have faith in the second one.
Participant: I was wondering, could you elaborate?
Warith Deen: I don't have faith in it. Some good came out of it because the people are sincere and they wanted to say something more than do something and I think to that extent, it was successful. They said that black people care about themselves and we want to be more responsible, young black men and our race that was the great message. To that extent, I supported it.
Participant: All right, thank you.
Participant: Assalamu alaikum, brother.
Warith Deen: Wa alaykumu s-salam.
Participant: I don't see a lot of questionnaires he, so I’m going to stand back up. I know the first time, I know you hear the nervousness in my voice now because [crosstalk]
Warith Deen: You might hear a little bit in my voice too because I’m wondering what you're going to ask this time.
[laughter]
Participant: That's what I want to understand, your stand with president Clinton, and brother, they'll take children, brother [unintelligible 00:38:58] that he's in charge of this country and he don't have the respect for life, human life, you would stand with that brother, but you don’t stand with Farrakhan. I’m not a follower of Farrakhan, I follow prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. I'm in a thirst for knowledge wherever I can find it. Whether from you, Farrakhan, and even from the president, but brother, how can you stand with him? I wouldn't stand with him as he take children's life [crosstalk]
Warith Deen: I have no dislike for Farrakhan as a person. I dislike this for some of his ideas that he espouses I dislike this for this attitude that he passed on to so many African American people. An attitude towards mankind, attitude towards sacred things, attitude towards the Jewish people and this is not Islamic. His strong emphasis on material values and not on spiritual values. You see? The strongest emphasis should be on our spiritual values. G-d will give us a reward for our spiritual obedience. He will give us the material things.
Audience: I know, brother, you've been around a long time. You're my elder. 30 years. How do you see progress in Islam from how you converted the Nation of Islam in '75 until now, '96. Do you see any great progress? In what year--
Warith Deen: For Islam?
Audience: Yes.
Warith Deen: Yes.
Audience: In what areas did you feel like Farrakhan spoke to young fellows like myself and others to take responsibility. Go back home and do something. If I must ask, the young brother spoke. There was great things that happened with the Million Man March. The problem is it wasn't nothing planned for after the Million Man March. Now you got to take up any more of your time.
Warith Deen: It wasn't my fault because I wasn't a part of it. I did say that it was going to be a big show. It was going to fizzle out. Nothing would come back to the community that we would remember. That's what I said before the March. So far, that's what has happened. Nothing came back to the community. In fact, they're saying that their in debt, a big debt. They want to do another march to catch up or to pay the debt. As far as standing with Farrakhan. If he would stop trying to preach religion and just be a man preaching social reform for down and out black people, I wouldn't only stand by him, I would try to help him raise money for that. As long as he try to preach religion too at the same time and give the incorrect picture of religion, I can't stand by him. I don't want to stand with him. I don't want to stand by him.
Audience: I've been hearing disrespect about all the boy wants. I hate Farrakhan. I heard this. I [unintelligible 00:42:28] of it. I heard at home. I come here. I hear this new haven. I heard this at the march in New York.
Warith Deen: I don't hate him. I love him. He knows that. He knows I love him.
Audience: It's disrespectful. Brother, I don't want to disrespect you. Not you but in general.
Warith Deen: If you ever get a chance to speak to Farrakhan-- When you say to Farrakhan, if you say, “ do you think Imam W.D Muhammad loves you?" He will say, "Yes. He does love me. He will just tell you I love him. I love him so much I want to pull him back from the wrong.
Audience: You ain't chasing him. Wait. You ain't chasing him, though, brother. The books say, "Chase the one you love. Chase as much." You ain't chasing after him, though. By going back to the money part. He spoke to five continents. Hold on. Let me get to this before I forget. He spoke to five continents, right? He spoke to five continents on the one year anniversary march. Five continents, right?
Warith Deen: Who's that?
Audience: Farrakhan.
Warith Deen: He spoke to five continents?
Audience: He spoke to five continents.
Warith Deen: On the mothership or by satellite?
Audience: By satellite.
Warith Deen: Okay. All right.
Audience: Did you go with Ezekiel's will? Then you know it's in the book, brother. Come on, brother. It ain't even funny to me.
Warith Deen: It's not funny.
Audience: It ain't even funny. I didn't think that you'd come here to be no comedian. I didn't think you'd come here to be a comedian.
Warith Deen: I'm serious.
Audience: I know it is because that's Ezekiel's will. We ain't going to go into that one. He spoke to five continents by satellite. You know ain't nobody going to give you nothing, man. Is that right?
Warith Deen: Well, Gaddafi gave him something.
Audience: He offered and he didn't receive it. Ain't nobody give you nothing.
Warith Deen: Gaddafi gave him the money for the new restaurant. It costs over $1 million in Chicago and gave him $2 million. I think it was $5 million dollars at one time. It's cut off now, because of the position of the State Dept.
Audience: He didn't receive the money, Imam.
Warith Deen: Yes, he did. The first time he did.
Audience: Tell me this, though. You know don't nobody give you money to speak to five continents.
Audience: Excuse me. I think we'll have to move on to another question. Thank you.
Warith Deen: Thank you. I love you too, brother.
Audience: As-Salaam-Alaikum, brother imam. My name is Jeffrey [unintelligible 00:45:17].
Warith Deen: Great musician too.
Audience: Alhamdu-lillah. I just wanted to-- Mine was more of a statement and then as a question. I already know the answer. I'm asking the question for the audience sake.
Warith Deen: All right.
Audience: Before. Young brother. Where's brother [unintelligible 00:45:40]. Right over there. I could hear the sincereness in what you're saying, but there's a lot of things that you don't know.
Warith Deen: [inaudible 00:45:47]. A person very close to me and then the money. When I got home, I didn't open it until I got home. I opened it. It was $10,000. The same person came to me and I was resident imam of Stoney Island in Chicago. Say, "Here. This is from me and my business partner." Legitimate business now. Say, "This is $70 thousand." I took it. I used it for the community. Came back again. Said, "Now we're not giving this money to the community. If we want to give this money to the community, we would give it to the community."
They came with $50,000. I took it. I used it for the community. Came back again and said, "We have the money, but we're not giving you the money. If we want to give to the community, we will give to the community. We want you to use this money for yourself." I told them, "No." I thank G-d. That wasn't me. That was G-d's mercy on me. That's the person I am. You couldn't give me all billions of billions of dollars. You couldn't buy me out the position that I'm in.
With billions and billions of dollars, you couldn't buy me out of the position that I'm in. That includes the position that I take regarding Farrakhan, representation of religion. You can't buy me out of this. G-d has shown me his mercy, forgiven me of my errors and my sins and has shown me his mercy. Here is where I'm established and here is where I'm going to stay. Only G-d can take me out of here. I wouldn't say that to you if you hadn't brought these things up.
Audience: As-salamu alaykum.
Warith Deen: Yes.
Audience: First question. Black community question [unintelligible 00:47:39]. It seems like it's so quiet in here. I almost hear my heart beating.
Warith Deen: [laughs]
Audience: My comment is-- It can be addressed as a question, I guess. When it comes to anger in our society, when it comes to making [unintelligible 00:48:04] anger, you find that there is more action. You find that more people are more-- They address people to anger. I guess with the way society is or the way there's been hatred in this world, religious barriers, it's just very puzzling that a person [inaudible 00:48:30] in the society can have such a small group of people. When you're talking about [unintelligible 00:48:39] I have nothing against [inaudible 00:48:41]. When you talk with [unintelligible 00:48:45] about action. It is necessary to-- I'm not going to say anger but to a bit of anger.
Warith Deen: I understand. I'm agreeing with you too.
Audience: There's a different group of people here. It just puzzles me. I don't know how you can address that question. Another question that I have is, as far as women, everyone's talking about different issues, but as far as women in general. As far as marriage. As far as roles [unintelligible 00:49:33]. What do you say about that as far as their roles?
Warith Deen: The role of the?
Audience: I noticed that most of it is based on how the role of a man is. I haven't heard anything about women. How do you [unintelligible 00:49:52]. How do you talk about that?
Warith Deen: I hope that responds to first question first. Anger. First, we should remember as Muslims that our prophet said--
Audience: [inaudible 00:50:07] 
Warith Deen: As Muslims we should first remember regarding anger, that our prophet says, "Don't give in to anger." In other words, when you feel anger, we should start checking ourselves, restraining ourselves. Don't give in to the urge and let the urge take us over. Really, the reasons why we have a lot of anger in our leaders, at least our radical leaders is because of two things.
Not just from the black community, there are some real angry radicals from the immigrant side and Muslims too, in America. From other countries, they have taken up residency here, citizenship here and some of them are very radical and angry too. When I hear them, I feel anger more than I feel anything else. I think this is because of two things. One, the nature of protests in America, especially from the Democrat side. This is a country of protest and protesters. They think if you're going to be a public speaker, you have to be attacking something and condemning something. It's part of the make-up of our free society.
Another reason for it is that people who are deprived, who can't speak clearly a solution for themselves, they get angry with the world because of their own fate, because of their own bad situation. They get angry with the world. They just attack the world, attack all the things that are popular and popularly accepted. I think perhaps those two conditions are responsible more than any other conditions for this anger, this rage that's being expressed all the time by radical leaders.
For the second question, in Islam, I believe that we are to see the strategy of Islam, the strategy of the Quran and the prophets as a strategy to bring about a peaceful, silent revolution to put the slaves in the position of respect as a free person, to put the blacks in the position of respect and to put women in position of respect. It's done as I said during my talk, my speech for you here tonight that the prophet, doing his farewell address, he invited the men to accept an offer to go to paradise. Going to paradise required that they educate two of their daughters.
For this was a time when women were treated as the property of men, what we call jahila in Arabia, dark age ignorance in Arabia. The Prophet wanted a quiet reform, not a violent reform. He knew that if the men would give their daughters attention so that they would be properly educated like they had been doing their sons, that eventually- that the inequality would be done away with, and then, equality would come because intellect is what advances the individual and what advances the world or the society.
If you give everybody the freedom to have equal access to the proper knowledge, the proper education, you will be giving them the best opportunity to prove they can be equal upon their own initiatives and efforts. This is the way that Islam wants to liberate the woman too. Not just the oppressed masses, but the woman too, is to liberated with the instrument of true knowledge and education.
Again, when we see the concept of woman in our holy scripture, G-d says he made the male and female from one soul. That means that whatever I have in my make-up, my constitution that G-d gave me, you have in your constitution, the same soul, one and the same soul. This is repeated again so that there will be no doubts what He's talking about.
It says, "G-d made you one from another." Not just man, woman from man, but Allah says in our holy book, he makes you one from another. Male from female and female from male, with equal intellect, equal soul.
The spirit of the man is greater because he's under the most pressure, but as this world changes, and women are going be under equal pressure, your spirit is going to be just as great as ours too, unless you start respecting your fenininity more, then we would stay in the front of the spirit.
Audience: Thank you.
Warith Deen: You're welcome. Thank you. This will be the last question because we're going over the time now that I wanted to spend here tonight. The time with you is very good, but the money is very short.
Audience: I'm a 17-year-old child searching for knowledge and understanding.
Warith Deen: I didn't quite get that. I'm not hearing, not that you're not saying, but say a little louder.
Audience: I'm a 17-year-old child searching for knowledge and understanding. I have a lot of knowledge of other religions beside Islam. When you started preaching on believing in one G-d, I was wondering were you saying that I should believe in one G-d as of- the different religions praying to one G-d, or that there is only one G-d, Allah?
In the different religions that I have got my knowledge from, I've seen that they're basically praying to the same G-d or calling him different names. We're basically following the same rules but just phrasing it differently. Does Islam believe that we're all, by the divinity of the religion, are we all praying to the same G-d or is there only one G-d, Allah?
Warith Deen: Yes. There's only one G-d, by any name. You are correct in your understanding that there are different names, but for the same G-d. If we perceive G-d correctly as the creator and as the eternal G-d, he was before everything and he will be after everything. He will bring back into the existence what he wants to bring back into existence, including our own lives, our souls.
If we believe in that G-d, then we're believing in the true G-d. Allah says in our holy book that He is the creator of everything, not depending on anything that He created for His existence, or for His well-being, but everything He created is depending on Him for its existence and its well-being. This is the G-d.
If everybody believe in that G-d and I believe you do, that's the G-d all of us want to believe in, then we believe in the same G-d, no matter what names He's called. Even for the person who doesn't perceive G-d correctly, if that person is sincere, when that person calls on G-d, G-d knows that person's limitation that G-d will respond to that person. Thank you. Peace. As-Salaam-Alaikum.
[00:58:22] [END OF AUDIO]

