Where We are and Where We are Going
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

LECTURE LOCATION:  VIDEO LECTURES > PG. 1

03:00 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: As Salaam Alaikum. That is, peace be on you. We witness that G-d is one and one alone. Needs nothing to aid him, but he aids everything and gives support to everything. He is the creator of everything, and we witness that he chose Mohammed out of his creation to be the seal of the prophets, the last of the prophets prophesied in the Old and the New Testament. Upon him be the prayers and the peace.

03:25 IWDM: We also witness that the Muslims are a community, a community that G-d says has been created or evolved or raised up for the good of all people so we have to keep that idea or that message to us from G-d before us if we are to keep ourselves in the right position and have the right attitude taught for our own interest and towards the welfare of the whole humanity on this earth.

03:57 IWDM: I am here finally. We came to the city and got lost downtown. Flooded street held us back. Flooded roadway held us back for some time, and then we got in the city and didn't know how to find Kirby, K-I-R-B-Y. Couldn't find that road and we were asking the people around here in the loop here, in the downtown area, pardon me. It is a loop like our loop in Chicago, round and round we go. And we were asking them where the Astrodome is? We figured somebody should know where the Astrodome was, but they didn't know where the Sheraton was. So we're asking where the Astrodome is and got no results hardly at all. [Laughter] But finally, Rafa, he stopped at a service station, and he asked a young man, a man and a young lady, and finally the young lady gave us direction that brought us here.

04:56 IWDM: So we thank Allah that we're finally here, and I thank Allah that I'm not on that plane that I would be on if I had gotten to take the plane from Little Rock because they tell me that plane had to go leave the area, couldn't land. It had to go back to Houston---it had to go to Austin. Austin, they said it had to go to Austin, Texas. I wouldn't want to be in Austin, Texas, right now, so we thank Allah for that and for everything.

05:31 IWDM: Where Muslims are? Where we should be? First, I would like to kind of think on our situation before we became Muslims or after we got acquainted with Islam in America. We belong to a community of people, black people, African American people, that came up from slavery and came from the South; my father and mother did, came to the North, looking for better situations, for better conditions. Some of us were most dissatisfied with our life in America, even though freedom had come to us; or freedom from chattel slavery as they call it, from the plantation slavery.

07:00 IWDM: We still felt that we were held back, we still felt enslaved. And many of these were not only those that became Muslims under the Honorable Elijah Muhammed, but also many of those who were Christians. They also felt the same way. And as a result, we have political movements in our history, and we also have spiritual movements in our history; or religious movements in our history, that were trying to bring us to a better situation, away from the feeling of being alone and oppressed in this country, without justice in this country; so those movements tried to lead us to a better situation for own souls and minds.
07:54 IWDM: My beginning has to go back to that situation, because I wouldn't be here as a leader, if it wasn't for my father becoming one of those leaders that was trying to lead us to a better situation, so we wouldn't feel alone and oppressed in this country. I don't believe there was a time in our history that we didn't think of ourselves or feel that we were members of a group. This group we call "Blacks", or "African Americans." We've always felt that we were members of a group. So we were unlike many people that couldn't find their way, couldn't establish themselves because they had to first be aware that they were a group, or that they belonged together. Slavery put us all together. I don't know if we were all together in Africa before we were brought here. I don't think we were. I think we were divided.

09:02 IWDM: But they brought all those slaves whether they came from the Hausa, from the Bantu, or from the Niger River, or from Egypt, the banks of the Nile in Egypt, wherever they were from, they were all brought to America, to the plantations, and sold into slavery. Those people who were separated in Africa found themselves with each other, or together, in slavery. And ever since then, we have been a group, thinking of ourselves, as belonging to each other, belonging to each other. So one thing that terrible history did for us was at least put us together. Put us together in misery, but at least together. And we, as people of the book, of the Scripture, we couldn't find help from ourselves or from outside, so we turned to G-d even in the time of our captivity on the plantations of the South, even during that time.

10:10 IWDM: History says that we were people who turned to G-d. We had no help, we thought, except G-d. It was that belief, that G-d was different from the people who were oppressing us, and his attitude towards us that G-d didn't see us the way they saw us. That G-d saw us as his creation, or as his human creation and that G-d did not want the injustice, or the bad treatment that we were receiving. So that faith in G-d brought us eventually into the Church. Many of our people came into the church because they had no other choice. This country at that time didn't offer us any choice. There was no choice. There was no presence of Islam. There was no presence of Judaism. There was no presence of Hindu or Buddhism, so we had no choice except the church.

11:04 IWDM: Most of us, we became devout followers of the church religion, or the church. We stayed together, the spirit of G-d, our desire to have G-d rescue us and belief that G-d would rescue us has stayed with us. And finally, we got better situations because of acceptance, a little bit of acceptance into the church first, and then into the society gradually. Because of that, we finally got enough freedom to start speaking out more. Many of us lost our lives for speaking out during slavery, during captivity and after. When we began to speak out more and more, and along comes the religion Islam, in name, to us through a man named called the Savior, called also Allah in the person by the Honorable Elijah Muhammed and the followers of that time. He was called the Savior; he was called Allah in the person.

12:01 IWDM: But the documents also show us or tell us that he was called professor and also prophet; prophet and professor. So he had many names, many different names were given to him. And the leader that he chose, he chose my father to be the leader after him. He made my father the supreme minister and when he left, my father was the leading minister. And he became the leader of that following that this man from outside of the United States, he wasn't from the United States, this man from outside of the United States had attracted many followers to his highly mystified and, I would say, very difficult to understand teachings. Although some of it was very practical and very simple, and I think that's what got us to stay with it.

13:05 IWDM: Some of it was very practical and very easy to understand, such as love your brother and be just by your brother and be honest, be decent and be hardworking. All of those teachings were very practical. We understood them. Don't have bad morals and don't go unclean. Dress neat. Go clean. All of those teachings were very fine. They attracted us and we believed in that teacher so we tried hard to be well-dressed and clean. We tried hard to have good morals. We tried hard not to commit adultery or fornication. We tried hard to be true to our wives and to our husbands.

13:49 IWDM: We were punished if we were caught being unfaithful to them. We were excommunicated, that is put out of the temple or out of the religious group. Abandoned, put away from the religious group for doing those things. We were not drinking liquors and using narcotics. If we were found guilty of any of those things, we were excommunicated, put out of the community. We weren’t lying to each other because if we were found to be liars, we were punished again. Because we were told to say, "My word is bond, and bond is life and I'll give my life before my word should fail". And we were told all those things. So the practical things were very simple and very easy to follow, and they were very good for us. Those things were very good for us, those teachings. Moral teachings were very good for us. Teachings of cleanliness, good thinking, clean thinking and good, clean behavior. That was very good for us and it made us very special people that received credit from the society that was really condemning us. We lived to see the newspapers and also the police department acknowledge that the followers of the honorable Elijah Mohammed were law-abiding, clean and disciplined. Clean and disciplined, having good morals.

15:11 IWDM: So here we are coming from the time of slavery and the time of freedom from physical bondage, to be citizens of the United States. But many of us, not all of us, many of us still feeling that we were not given the justice and that we didn't have a situation that we could live with and be happy with. The followers of leaders like Marcus Garvey, and another one, Father Divine in Detroit, those followers felt very much like us. And they felt like they had their saviors. The followers of Marcus Garvey felt they had a savior in Garvey. And the followers of Father Divine of Detroit, Michigan, felt that they had a savior in Father Divine. And there was even a few others, the Noble Drew Ali people. The people who followed Honorable Noble Drew Ali they thought that they had a savior in Noble Drew Ali. And the members of the nation, or the followers of the nation of Islam, we felt that we had a savior in W.D. Fard or W. Fard Mohammed, the teacher who came from abroad and taught my father, Elijah Mohammed, what he taught for about 50 years or so. Yes. Yes. Well, not quite 50 years a little under 50 years.

16:47 IWDM: We read of what G-d says about people that lost His favor. He took His favor off of them. We read about them, and G-d says that some of them achieved great wonders or great accomplishments on this earth. That they had to their credit cities,  great cities, huge towering buildings, et cetera. And some of them, they were just war makers, and they went on destroying life, oppressing the weak and the innocent, spreading corruption over the earth. And some just indulged in play, folly, foolishness, ignored G-d and they all came to an end. And G-d says that you can't even hardly find  a trace of some of those great communities that had such great achievements to their credit.

18:01 IWDM: That the destruction came to them, buried their cities beneath the earth, some of them by earthquakes, and some were destroyed by fire, others by strong winds, all of this is given in the Qur'an and also, in the Bible; how they were destroyed, some drowned, some flood drowned them and wiped them out forever; they're gone, they're gone. So the sign that a favor is taken off of the people is that they lose what they used to find pleasure and comfort in. They lose what they used to find pleasure and comfort in, or what they were finding pleasure and comfort in; they lose it.

18:51 IWDM: Here we are in America today, and our situation is much better than it ever has been, I do believe. When I mean that... When I say that, I mean... Pardon me, when I say that... What I mean is that we are in a better situation to do something ourselves about our own condition, than we ever were. We have never been in a better situation to do something about our own condition. When we were on the plantation as slaves, there was hardly no opportunity for us to do something for ourselves independent of other people, of the white oppressors, no.

19:29 IWDM: And even long after that, I would say in 1940s, '50s, '60s, and much of the '60s, we didn't have that situation. But in the late '60s and now, the law has changed all over the United States, and we are in a situation to do something about our own condition. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s message of "do for self" is more on-time now than it ever was because there was too much fear of what would be the consequences. If we took on too much responsibility for our own selves in the time of slavery, in the time up to the '60s, but in the '90s now, after the '70s are gone, the '80s are gone; in the '90s, the situation is better than it ever has been for African-Americans, especially those that don't feel that they're situated well in this country, that you feel that you are not in a situation like the whites, or they're favored and you're not.

20:43 IWDM: If you feel that your situation is bad, and theirs is good, I say to you, whether you're a Christian, Muslim, or whatever you are, I say to you, your time is here. The time is here for you. If you don't like the world the way it is, make it the way you want it to be; not for those who don't want it, but for those who want it like you. For those who want change of life like you want a change of life, get up, don't be lazy, don't be fearful, have the courage to tackle the job, accept the responsibility, and work hard to bring about the conditions that you want in life.

21:21 IWDM: But first of all, have some idea of what conditions you want in life. Don't just go battling up, hitting in the dark, fighting in the dark. Know what you have in mind as a life that you want in America, on this earth. I believe that G-d has situated us in a very wonderful way. I believe that we are a blessed people who have survived the triple veils of darkness in this 
oppressive world. I believe that we are in a good situation. We survived slavery. We survived so-called freedom. And we have survived religious darkness. We have been put in the darkest of the religious darkness. I don't believe there's any religious darkness darker than the one that we were put in. And we have survived even that religious darkness, and we have come to accept the Qur'an as our leader. The Qur'an is our leader.

22:25 IWDM: The Qur'an, the G-d of the Qur'an is our G-d, Allah who's G-d of everything, and the Messenger or the Prophet of the Qur'an is our human leader, Muhammed, the Prophet upon him be the prayers and the peace, the seal of the prophets, and the scripture, the Qur'an itself, is the light that we live by, along with the teachings and example, the practical example that Muhammed left behind us as a demonstration of how we should follow the Qur'an, the Word of G-d. So we have these lights, and we are living in this light, and we are trying hard to live by that light.

23:00 IWDM: I believe we are in a great, great, great situation. Our situation is excellent. Our situation is great. Our situation is powerful! Yes! It is wonderful situation because we are not guessing anymore. We are not oppressed anymore. We are not oppressed by the white man, and we are not oppressed by darkness. We are not oppressed by ignorance anymore. We truly feel free today; free of the yokes of the past, and free of the wrong ideas in religion. We've gotten ourselves free of all of that. We have left all of the wrong ideas in religion. We are following religion with a sober mind and with clear eyes now. So we are in a great situation. And I want to, again, bring our minds back to people that G-d's favor is taken away from or taking off of.

24:02 IWDM: Now if it is a sign that people have lost G-d's favor is in the sign that they lost their achievements. Then we---I'm basically talking to the Afrocentric people now, if we lost Timbuktu, if we lost Mali and Songhai, if we lost Ghana and all of its gold, if we lost all of the Sciences of ancient Egypt, then we are people that lost our great achievements. And if we are people that lost those great achievements, then it may be that we are people that were punished by G-d that lost G-d's favor. And we know in Africa before we were brought here, we were fighting each other, we were oppressing each other, some of us weren't, but too many of us were; we were believing in witchcraft, we were idol worshipers, many of us, we were worshipping our ancestors many of us.

25:06 IWDM: So if by the light of what G-d has revealed in the books of the great religions, we were people who were away from the guidance and therefore away from the favors of G-d. So why don't we look at it and reason with it from this kind of position, reason with it as in perhaps we were not a blessed people, perhaps we were not an innocent people. Perhaps we were a people who had turned our head or turned our eyes away from the favors of G-d and lost the favors of G-d. Christianity was in Africa, Judaism before Christianity was in Africa. Islam or Al Islam properly as it's called in the Qur'an, Al Islam was in Africa and there was great strides made by the communities of Africa, the people of Africa who accepted Islam, they made great strides, they accomplished much, they had powerful governments, their governments were some of the leading governments of their time, and they lost it.

26:28 IWDM: When we look at the State of Islam in Africa today, we find that they are not respecting most of the African. Muslims are not respecting their religion. The conditions that we find their people in and them and their subjects in tells us that. The problem that they are having with their own citizens and with other neighboring Muslim countries tells us that they are not respecting what our Allah revealed. So why don't we stop seeing ourselves as all innocent; the Black people of the world, why don't we stop seeing ourselves as innocent? And why don't we look at our condition in the light of what G-d has said about people who suffer losses, who suffer bad conditions, who suffer setbacks, who lose their glory, their glorious achievements. Why don't we look at ourselves in light of what G-d has said and see have we been faithful to G-d? We have not, we have not been faithful to G-d. G-d has not punished anybody innocent.

27:44 IWDM: Now here we are in America and the law has changed, there's no more plantation life in the South unless you volunteer to be in it.

[Laughter]

27:55 IWDM: The world has changed; we are free to do anything we want almost. We are frightening the White man with what we do, we got him afraid to live in certain neighborhoods... 00:10 Speaker 1: And here, the call of Christianity and the call of Islam has been ringing out over America for all of these years. And too many of us do nothing but just go around looking for everything to be put on the white man, "He is responsible for this. He is responsible for that." If it wasn't for the white man, we'd have... "

00:40 S?: That's what we say.

00:44 IWDM: It's time that we look at ourselves and wonder if we are innocent or maybe we're guilty. If we make a decision after explaining ourselves that we're guilty, I pray G-d gives us all the moral strength to repent, to repent. To say, "G-d, yes, we've been wrong. Forgive us. And let us earn your favors again." When I go to Chicago and live where I live, I sometimes tend to forget that America hasn't changed very much for most of us. I'm not talking about the law now. I'm talking about the conditions. Sometimes, I do it, I make it a habit to occasionally go back to the neighborhoods that I---we came from to see the conditions. I go to the poor neighborhoods where I lived with my parents, and they are in just about the exact same condition they were in before.

02:08 IWDM: The only neighborhoods that have changed are those neighborhoods that have been changed by urban renewal. And those people who were living in those bad neighborhoods have been pushed out into another bad neighborhood, into other bad areas. Few of them moved on and survived and went to better situations. But if you go to the bad areas, now, to the areas where they were pushed to, or forced to go because of their condition and their weakness, their own weakness in themselves, you will find them living like they did 30, 40, 50 years ago. The neighborhood where we used to live, I'd go in there, they still walk in the streets, idle, nothing to do; men  no work, drunk, wine heads, women looking like they've been beat up and deprived of sleep; bad-looking people very bad-looking people. And I don't think this is only in Chicago bad areas, I think Houston has some bad areas, too. I believe you can go around Houston, you'll find the neglected, lost people.

03:23 S?: You're right.

03:24 IWDM: Just living death every day and every night; living death every day and every night. And their neighborhoods neglected, their homes neglected, the inside of their houses dirtier and more of a hazard than the streets.

[Laughter]

03:41 IWDM: They find more safety on the streets than in the home. They find less garbage in the streets than in the home; terrible conditions. This is what bothers our heart.

03:54 S?: That's right.

03:56 IWDM: I'm sure it bothers yours, too.

03:58 S?: Yeah.

04:00 IWDM: This bothers our heart. How can we change this? Now, it used to be... We used to think that we were the only ones who suffer these bad conditions. But we're not. The whites have theirs. They have their people too, that can't stand on their feet, can't seem to change their bad state for the better. You go in some areas of their neglected neighborhoods or their bad, rundown neighborhoods and you find the same thing. White wine heads, bad-looking, beat up women looking like they don't get enough sleep, you find the same thing. So this is a bad condition that falls on most of the people. The only thing that's so bad about our situation is that we thought of ourselves as being all together; all together. Slavery put us all together. And we thought of ourselves as belonging to each other. Most Whites never had that kind of feeling of bond to every White person. They're still divided. Irish, Italian, Englishman, they're still divided like that. And they think of their own separate group, not of all Whites.

05:18 S?: That's true.

05:19 IWDM: Very seldom they think of all whites. But if we were put all together, we think of all blacks. In fact, our leaders over here, they even want to think of the Blacks in Africa. And that's right, we should, because no people have been, I would say, cut off more from the light of truth than we have. We were cut off so much from the light of truth that we thought our very physical features were cursed. Our skin, the blackness of our skin was a curse. The nap of the hair was a curse. We thought that we were cursed people, and that we were made ugly by G-d [chuckle] until Lord Elijah Muhammad began to teach us different.

06:08 S?: Yeah.

06:09 IWDM: Huh? 

06:09 S?: That's right.

06:10 IWDM: And James Brown began the saying "I'm ugly. I'm proud of me."

[Laughter]

06:16 IWDM: "Black is beautiful." I got it right. Yeah. James Brown began the saying "Black and beautiful." I don't know. I used to say "James Brown was a nice looking fellow", but I think something is happening to my mind now.

[Laughter]

06:38 IWDM: Maybe he's just getting old in some fat... I don't know. That just came out, I couldn't hold it back. A lot of us have been saying, "I'm black and beautiful." You know you were lying about that.

[Laughter]

06:57 IWDM: The real beauty is on the inside. That's where real beauty is. If you're beautiful inside then you're beautiful outside no matter how unattractive your physical features are. If you're beautiful inside you're beautiful outside because the ugliest person... I've seen some people ---a woman so ugly and she's was with a very handsome man and I wondered "What in the world that man had on his mind when he chose that woman." I say "He must was making a sacrifice to get into heaven or something." I don't know what it was.

[Laughter]

07:38 IWDM: But as I grew older and I matured and I began to study things and see deeper and better, I began to accept myself that I was looking at people, gotten... I've been talking to my wife and say, "Isn't that a pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty person there?" And she would say, "Pretty?" She didn't see it and I wonder how come she didn't see what I saw? And that happen often sometimes. I'd point to a person, and very attractive to me, and I'd point the person out to my wife and to a friend, and they 
said, "Pretty?" They're wondering what's wrong with my eyes or something. And I guess it's because when I see a person beautiful inside that beauty just radiates outward and the person is beautiful to me. In fact, I saw a woman once and her soul must have been so beautiful. She looked like what I saw in a book I used to study, The Book of Primitive Tribes, and I saw a Hottentot woman of Africa jungles in a book once. And that's just what she look like, a Hottentot. And that woman looked so beautiful inside and I told my wife, I said, "You keep on making my life uncomfortable for me, I'm going to Africa and find me a Hottentot." And I was serious. I'm telling you, I was serious. No joke. Yeah.

[Laughter]

09:10 IWDM: It's time for us to rethink our life and our situation. Just examine it again and try to understand our history and our life again. And in the light of what G-d has revealed I think we should accept that we must have done some wrong, if not to others, to ourselves, for us to be put in a situation we were put in and to be lingering still not having a feeling of dignity, a feeling of freedom, a feeling of well being. G-d wants us to have that feeling: Feeling of freedom, feeling of dignity, and feeling of well being. G-d wants us to have that feeling. He created us for such feelings. And I don't think we'll ever have them until we search our souls and search our history and rethink it, come to conclusions again and if the blame is on us, let us accept whatever blame is on us. If that means we're going to make anybody innocent that was devilish or cruel or demonic; and we know that many of the whites in our history who taunted us and denied us our human life they were more than devilish, they were demonic, they were demons. They were cruel, terrible demons on this earth. But thank G-d, that's behind us now and we're situated better than they are.

10:33 S?: That's right.

10:33 IWDM: Yes, we are. We are situated better than the racists, the extreme white racists that remain on this earth, we're situated much better than they are. We're situated so well that most of you have no thought of any Klan terror or terrorism. You're not worrying about the Klan terrorizing you. You know you got enough super black spooks that will get up and good razors and guns and dope needles, and they will do a job on the white racists. You know that so you aren’t worrying about. I know you're not, and I'm not either. I'm not worried about it at all. The only thing I'm worried about is this mental state of my people, the mental state of our people. That's all I'm worried about because I know there's a lot of ability in us and we're not realizing that ability.

11:20 S?: That's right.

11:21 IWDM: We have a lot of ability that we're not realizing. We have brothers who came from nowhere. They were not known, nobody cared a thing about them because they didn't have any achievement to their credit that would give them any kind of recognition. They weren't great sports figures, they weren't great in school, they weren't great anywhere except in the gangs on the streets, abusing themselves and others, and they came from that and identified as Muslims. And now they follow the Qur'an and they are able to not only lift their own life up in the eyes of American people, but they're able to attract others and bring them up in the eyes of the American people. They're even able to help whites, who are down, to bring themselves up. Yes, we have whites among us. We have white members among us.

12:13 IWDM: I met one in the airport who thanked me. He said, "Do you remember me Brother Imam?" I said, "No I don't". He said to me, "You were speaking at one facility, in prison." He said, "And I was there." He said, "I was the white man that stood up and accepted Islam." He said, "I just want you to know, Brother Imam, I'm out. I've been out for years. I have a business. I'm doing fine." Praise be to Allah. That's a white man, a white man. And there are others who have not accepted Islam, but have a respect for the religion. They admire the Muslim life and the Muslim manners, the Muslim principles and etcetera. So they befriend the Muslim. Some of them even work with the Muslims. Some of them work for the Muslims right here in Houston.

13:03 IWDM: We have whites working with Muslim leaders, Muslim people and business people and leaders. And we have them also working for Muslim business people in the area. This is a great change; a great change. And we're not out to condemn anybody or to blame somebody else for our problems. We think that day is over. That's behind us. What we're out to do now is to to see what our situation is in America so we'll know it very well. And I encourage you to study our situation in America. You leaders of Islam, you leaders of the community, study our situation in America, past and present, to know it very, very well. And if you know it 
very, very well, it will increase your faith in G-d. It will increase your faith in Allah. If you know it very, very well, because you will know that nothing but divine favor could have brought you and me, the son of Elijah Mohammed, to where we are today, nothing but divine favor.

14:06 IWDM: My father was not a DuBois or a Booker T. Washington. My father was a poor, culturally deprived man from Sandersville, Georgia, who never got more than three years of elementary education. That's nothing; that's nothing today in these good schools. You know what it was in Georgia 70, 80-some years ago; nothing, absolutely nothing. He didn't have any education; taught himself how to read by struggling with the words and the letters. He taught himself how to write a decent hand. His handwriting used to be very bad he told us, showed us, we saw old handwriting. But he struggled to make his handwriting neat and nice. He did all this on his own. He had faith in his teacher who came from overseas from the Middle East and taught came from the Far East and taught him a new way of thinking. He had faith in him so he tried to be the best he could be in the army of WF Mohammed. Yes. He tried to be the best he could be. And as a result he achieved great heights in the eyes of many, many people of the world. Not just America, many people of the world.

15:20 IWDM: Today, I have to myself look up to the honorable Elijah Mohammed. Look up to him for the great things that he was able to achieve in his lifetime. I had to look up to him. In fact he was paying me a compliment once. And the way he paid me his compliment, I said nothing but a great man could pay his son a compliment like that before his workers, before his subjects, before his staff, his national staff, before the highest chiefs in his staff, he paid me this great honor; this great compliment he paid to me. I said. "Daddy," I called him daddy. You know when a daddy really touch his son, the son doesn't say flatter...don't use those formal titles. I didn't say, "Honorable Elijah Mohammed", or "Dear Messenger", or something like that. I said daddy right before all the big staff at the formal occasion. I said, "Daddy, nothing but a person who's very, very, very great could say something like that to his son in the presence of all these that work for you." I said, "So, daddy, you are the great one." That's what I told him.

16:40 IWDM: And this was near his end, he didn't live very many years; he lived only a very few years after that. He was weak at that time, kind of secretly, but he paid me that high compliment. So I witnessed so many things of the honorable Elijah Mohammed. I witnessed his sharp mind. If he had not been culturally deprived and had had the freedom to go to decent schools and given a fair chance to educate himself, I believe the man would've been one of the leading, if not the leading, intellect in African-American history. He was so perceptive, he had such a sharp mind and his perception was so great.

17:19 IWDM: Me and my brother, we were doing algebra problems, and this was one of those times when my father didn't have company. So when he didn't have company and just eating with his sons, or with his wife and his children, we would all be relaxed around the table. So we had homework to do. We had our problem with us at the table. We didn't bring the books and everything, but we brought our problem at the table. So me and my brother we was trying to work this algebra problem. We were talking out loud. My father heard us. He gave us the answer. He thought about it for a while. He gave us the answer. Nothing but a brilliant mind could do that. Now let me tell you, I'm his son. You can investigate this if you want. I took the GED test and scored in the highest percentile for the whole nation. Mathematics; in mathematics! So I believe I got this ability in math from my father. What they call it, IQ, IQ.

[Laughter]

18:20 IWDM: Whatever that is you have naturally, although the IQ is influenced by learning, by your situation too. It's influenced by both, because they should have two; IQ and Achievement, and then that's how they should explain the IQ. Because the kind of questions they give don't show what your IQ is. It shows intelligent quotient... It doesn't show what your intelligence quotient 
is. It shows what you know. That's what it shows. That's what... and also your ability to handle what you know, what you have learned. It shows that.

19:05 IWDM: So that's why the IQ test have been questioned and that testing have not been given much credit over the last several years now. They haven't been given much credit because they bring a culturally deprived person into a situation with a culturally enriched person. Give both youngsters or persons the same test, and the test have the information that the favored group have been privy to and one that has not been favored doesn't have that kind of experience or doesn't have that kind of awareness, so they fail miserably on the test. So, the IQ test will show the culturally deprived group as being ignorant, unintelligent, not capable of going into this institution because they don't have the mental ability to do it, to carry the load of the responsibility, and it was a terrible injustice to us. So that has been kind of done away with almost.

20:17 IWDM: But I'm talking about natural ability. There is such thing as natural ability and I believe very strongly in it. I believe that you inherit natural ability. Anything that your people stay in for long periods of time for generations it will show up in their children by nature, by birth. It will show up in their children. If you've been a person, people who gave themselves to foolishness, making jokes and laughing up, most likely your children are going to be inclined to do just that, make jokes and laugh at life and laugh at everything, just have a lot of fun. But if you've been serious minded, most likely you will have serious-minded children.

21:00 IWDM: If you've been attracted to art, to beauty, the beauty of nature and whatever, and attracted to art and you've been trying to draw or copy art or fashion art pieces, most likely, you'll have children with that same talent will come up. And when they go to school or go to a situation where they have opportunity to express that talent, they will excel in those schools or in those situations, they will excel. So it does make a difference. People that you hold back, here is the point, people that you hold back from any situation to engage their intelligence, to express their skills or to develop skills, if you hold them back over a long enough period of time, those people will be naturally inferior to those that were not held back for long periods of time.

21:55 IWDM: But once they get a chance to be free, to indulge the challenge of the world and knowledge again, they will quickly gain what they lost. They will quickly gain what they lost, because it's just like a person who's been starved. They are more anxious to get food than the person that's fed every day. And if you're mentally starved, culturally starved, you're more anxious to get knowledge and to get the refined life again than those who've had it every day. So by G-d---G-d has a law that is working that if you set people back for long periods of time, once they're free, they're going to out-compete you. They're going to outstretch you. They're going to out-contest you. They're going to beat you at doing whatever it is that they'll have the freedom to do. We've been in sports and we think, African Americans think, and white men think too, I guess, that we excel in the sports because we are just physical people.

23:02 IWDM: No, we are not excelling in the sports because we're just physical people. We are excelling in the sports because you have more freedom to engage in this sports. But we are intimidated when it comes engaging our intelligence and competing with the white man on the battle of intelligence. We are intimidated. We are intimidated by his great presence that he have had over the history. We're intimidated by his control of the resources, by his control of the establishments. We are intimidated by that. We are intimidated by his strong presence in everything that we read; his strong presence in every institution that we go to. We're intimidated by his mighty strong presence and by his mighty achievement. Let me tell you, don't be intimidated by it. When freedom comes, don't be intimidated by what happened in the past, no. That's the psychology we need to know. We need to know this psychology. When you're free, you look at what the other people have done, we look at their presence, we look at what they control and you're free, so you let that favorite situation intimidate you.

24:08 IWDM: But realize that you're free now, and that you are more spirited to achieve and to acquire and to achieve and to make success than they are. You have it by nature, you've been held back, and your spirit has. You have the spirit that's stronger for success than their spirit for success. If a people are enjoying success and luxury and dominance for a long time, something happens to their spirit. After a while, they have no spirit to keep it up. And another people compete with them and defeat them and they lose all of their glory to another people because having it became dull to them.

24:52 IWDM: So, you know what they say about fighters when they fight, say "Oh, he's not hungry enough for the championship." But you get an old fighter that don't know what ten dollars is in his hand and somebody tell him he make $10,000 or $10,000,000, oh man, he is going to fight, he is going to fight with a spirit that the other fighters don't have. And I'm telling you African-American people you're more situated spiritually, you are better situated spiritually than any other people I know, because you've been set back, you've been set back. And I say we, we have been set back and we don't have the opportunity yet that we want, that's because we don't see as we do. You don't see as we do. We see the opportunity and we know we can get it.

25:44 IWDM: Where we are today, we are in Islam, Muslims of America, we're in Islam. And our G-d is the G-d of all people, the creator of the heavens and earth. We call him Allah, Muslims all over the world call G-d Allah, that's his name. We are in Islam, we're under G-d and we are under G-d's word, the Qur'an, the holy book, the sacred book, the last of the revelations that all Muslims have and believe they should follow. That's our authority, that's our written authority. No writing is more precious than that writing to us. No script is more authoritative than that scripture we call the Qur'an or that script we call the Holy Qur'an, no script is more authoritative than that to us. We will reject what other books say if those books go in conflict or go against what the Qur'an say.

26:47 IWDM: That's where we are today; we are struggling for our Muslim life today, struggling for our Muslim life today; struggling to be a stronger witness to the wonders of G-d and the finality of prophethood, that Muhammad is the last messenger of G-d, the last prophet or the last prophet, the messenger of G-d, the servant and messenger of G-d. We are struggling for that. We are struggling to have that strong in our life. We are struggling to not just say that with our lips but we are struggling to let our actions and the way we live be a witness that we say "G-d is one and G-d is the creator of all people and G-d has sent Muhammad into the world as a mercy to all the world."

27:29 IWDM: We struggle to have that witness in us strong, we struggle to pray, we are obligated to pray five daily prayers. We who are sincere in this religion, we are struggling for a chance, for an opportunity for a better situation in our life so that we can make more of these prayers on time as they're supposed to be said, we are struggling for that. We are struggling for our Muslim life in America. We are also struggling to be in a situation where we don't have to ask people for money, where we don't have to beg them for material assistance or financial assistance... 00:00 Speaker 1: We are struggling to get ourselves together, even though most of us are poor, most of us don't earn enough income to work to keep us from worrying about the monthly bills. We worry about those monthly bills. But many of us in this situation, worrying about these monthly bills, we have our minds strongly on a plan to take us out of this bad financial situation, so that we'll be able to not just take money but give money. We don't want to take money, we want to give money. We want to give money. We want to be charitable. We want to fulfill that third pillar, that third principle of our religion, to give in charity, to support the society with our charity. We want to do that. And most of all, we want to support our schools, we want to have better schools, better physical facilities. We want to have better teachers. We want to be able to hire better qualified teachers. And we want to have the school that we can be proud of in every sense, in every way. That's what we want. We want it all over America, wherever we are, we want that.

01:03 IWDM: So, here's where we are in America. We want our businessmen to accept financial leadership for the whole community. They're the businesspeople; they should accept financial leadership for the whole community. They should not just be going to work for themselves. They should just not be just running a business for themselves or for their family and their friend. They should be running a business for the whole community of Muslims, especially the poor African-American Muslims in this country. They should be running their business for all of us. They should be planning their business so they can employ more of us. They should be planning their business so they can be richer, so they can support the community more. They should be planning to take every poor child in our school and take him from worrying and worrying his mother and his father how he's going to pay his tuition. They should be planning to give tuition to every child, every poor child in our community; to relieve the parents, the mother and the poor father of these burdens. You should be accepting responsibility for the financial leadership of our whole community.

02:07 IWDM: I'm not a businessman by profession. I'm a hard worker, a factory worker by profession. And now, after many years working for you as a leader, I am now by profession a religious preacher, a religious teacher. That's what I am by profession. But I am forced to go into business. I'm forced to go into business. I'm going into business because it is a must. If I have ability to succeed in business, it's a must that I succeed in business because I know, I recognize my responsibility. That my responsibility as a businessman is not just to me and my children, to my wife and children; my responsibility is to my poor brothers and sisters who want their children better educated, who want them in better facilities in the school, who want their masjid to be a decent facility. My obligation is to all of them. And if we accept this obligation, we will expand our business, we will have bigger business visions, we will have business... bigger business interests, bigger business vision, and result will be that we will be bigger businessmen and women.

03:16 IWDM: And as bigger businessmen and women, we will have much more return for our labor than we have now thinking small, thinking me and my child, thinking me and my wife, thinking me and my husband. When we start to thinking me and my community, buddy, we will be developers, we will be industrialists, we will be the same great giants that the white man has been and still is, because he's not working just for his wife and his children. There are white developers, white industrialists they are working for a city, they are working for a town, they have a vision to make America better. They're working for the whole United States. When we think that way, we'll be bigger businessmen. And I urge you businesspeople, you business brothers and sisters, accept the responsibility for the financial state and the financial future of your community. Where we are, where we should be, where we're going, we're going to our full responsibility, our full responsibility. I won't be happy in my soul until I can walk out of my door in the neighborhood and hear that adhan called, until I can look next door and see a Muslim house there, look across the street and see another Muslim house, look down the street and see a Muslim business. Send my son or my brother down and tell him, "Go down there and buy me a suit from Brother So-and-So." I won't be satisfied until we have that. And we're moving more and more into that kind of situation.

04:43 IWDM: Yes, you have a great sign here that Allah has favored us. We are blessed to have people among us who have been successful. They were successful financially when they joined us. They are still successful, and they have more determination now than they ever had to do more, but not just to benefit themselves or just to enjoy it, but to do more for people, for Muslims and for people. Brothers like Brother Qassim have working with him. I don't want to name any, you have to do that. I won't do that. I won't do that, you have to do that, because I don't want them standing at the door, lined up at the door bothering him, you see. I won't call his name, because he'll have a line, a soup line or some kind of line that he have to... So, I won't call his name. But he, the brother Imam is blessed to have people working with him who have ability, great ability and financial ability. They're great leaders in their field with their talents and et cetera, but they also have great business minds. And they're working together as professional people. I have visit them and I am very proud of what I've seen here in Houston. Very proud of what I've seen here. There's a great future for you here in Houston. And I hope there'll be a great future for us throughout America. And G-d want us to not neglect our responsibility.

06:11 IWDM: If G-d says, "Look at those people that once had great skyscrapers." We thought that modern world only has skyscrapers. The Qur'an tells us that nations before had skyscrapers. They built buildings that went up to the clouds, skyscrapers. So, where can you find them now? No traces of them, hardly can find a trace of them. They're gone. Why? Because they lost the faith in G-d. Now, we can say bad conditions, and slaves, slavery and other bad conditions is what caused us to be where we are today in our bad situation. But now after freedom, after being freed physically from physical bondage, and after having the law now work for us as it works for other people. And while you may say, "No, it still doesn't work for us as it works for other people." Well, if it doesn't, you can certainly get it changed. That's the good about it. And if it doesn't, stay on the case, we can change it. At least, there's a commitment now to have a just law for all people. So, anytime you find a law that's not just, we can challenge that law, and get it changed. If you find a situation that's bad, we could challenge. And don't think rich people will always dominate you because they got the wealth, that's not true. Some of the poorest people with nothing, penniless people, have found situations that put them into the position to make money. And they have made money, and gained great wealth, and joined the richest of people in this world.

07:48 IWDM: Just like those individuals can find situation to succeed, and join the richest of people in the world, we, if we strive hard, put forth our best effort, remain faithful to our G-d, to Allah, the G-d of the heaven and earth, we too can bring a poor community to come into a situation where it will join the richest communities of the world. This I don't just believe in, this I have the knowledge of. I have the knowledge of this. And believe me, if you would trust me, I can lead you out of all these bad material situations you're in. If you trust me, I guarantee you, I can lead you out of all the bad situations you're in because G-d has blessed me with the faith in G-d, with the faith in the Qur'an, and also with the perception and the vision to do it. I know I can do it. In fact, I think of myself as your Moses. I'm not a prophet, but I think of that myself as your Moses. If you will listen to me, I'll bring your musicians together. If you musicians will listen to me, I'll make the best musicians you ever heard, you ever witnessed. They'll become the best musicians. Your singers will become the best singers. Your prose, your writers of poetry will become the best writers of poetry, yes. Your planners in business will become the best planners in business, yes.

09:19 IWDM: And if we have to fight a physical war, let me be your general. You'll have the best general to fight a physical war, but I hope that will never come. I hope that will never come. I pray to G-d that that will never come. I have all the faith in G-d that G-d has answered us who have repented. We have repented. We have accepted the Qur'an. We have accepted G-d in the right way. We're not looking for greatness for ourselves. We don't have to have G-d in our own image. We don't want G-d in anybody's image. We want the only G-d who says he has no image in the heavens or in the earth. That's the only G-d we want. And we found that G-d, and I have enough faith in my faith in Him, I have enough faith in my innocence, I have enough faith in my good intentions to tell you, I can be your Moses. I can be your Moses, and lead you out of captivity; the captivity of ignorance, the captivity of poverty, the captivity of disunity, fighting each other, being jealous of each other. I can do it as a Muslim. I can do it, believe me.

[Background conversation]

[Applause]

10:37 IWDM: We've started a collective purchase effort. This time I'm telling you, don't give it to those that are less qualified than I am. If I'm more qualified for the trust, then give the trust to me. So, that's where the trust is going to be. I've gotten some people with me, they're with me, and they’re supporting me. Without even trying to really campaign for support for this effort, we have about $70,000 into this account. When it gets to be about $200,000, we're going to put a lot of our good faith of hard workers into big business. When it get to be two or three million, we're going to change the material state of our community. That's a promise from me. And it's not going to take long to do it. No, it's not because G-d is with us. In fact, G-d is ahead of us. G-d is ahead of us. G-d is leading the way for us. Allah, Subhanah Wa Ta'ala, he's leading the way for us. He has given us this great religion. He had made it possible for us to come into this great religion with understanding and with good intentions and great and the right attitudes. And those of us who have this, G-d is with us. And G-d is showing us opportunities in America and outside of America.

12:11 IWDM: I have opportunities in America and outside of America that will blow most of your minds. You won't believe it. In fact, it just about blew my mind.

[Laughter]

12:20 IWDM: Really, some of the things that I've come in contact with. In fact I go, "Wow, I can't believe it. I can't believe it." There is a Muslim country right now ready to deal with, Imam W. Deen Mohamed. To give us everything it has, everything. When I say everything I mean everything; to give us support from its institutions of learning, to give us support from its industries; institutions of learning and industries. That's what I mean, when I say everything it has. There is a country that has told me... I went to them. I made my proposals to them, and everything that I asked, the things that they said that they didn't yes to, they didn't say no to. They said, "Let us see, can we work on this" or "let us see, can we get in a situation to deliver on this." They didn't say no to anything. And that's a great blessing. Here we are, we've been in America, small people. Worse off than ET.

[Laughter]

13:27 IWDM: Because ET could get a phone call back home.

[Laughter]

13:31 IWDM: And now G-d has opened up, raised for us to call back home. And I found out how... Home isn’t Africa anymore. Home is anywhere good Muslims are.

[Background conversation]

13:45 IWDM: Yeah. G-d has given us more relatives than we could imagine we would ever have. I got all these good relatives in the Near East, in the Far East, in Europe and in Africa many of them are in Africa. So, I can call everywhere now. I feel like a cosmic man, sitting here on earth and just sending messages out, sending telephone calls out into the Universe, say, ET needs some help.

[Laughter]

[Background conversation]

14:25 IWDM: I thank G-d for this situation we are in. Finally, we are in a blessed situation. And some countries that I would like to have very good strong relationships with, right now their political situation the political situation for them in the US is not so good. I hope that will change in the future. You might be surprised to hear me say that Libya is one of them. Libya is one of them. Libya is one of them. The Libyan people are great people. They've just suffered a lot. They have suffered a lot. They have been scarred a lot, mentally, emotionally and in many other ways. They have been scarred a lot.

15:08 IWDM: But once G-d free them from that situation that they are in, and they gain acceptance again international by the West, mainly by the West, which will come. Because the West, it can't dictate what's going to happen in the world anymore. It has to bend too, sometimes. So, it will happen. That way... The situation is not going to remain that way always. And I've been to Libya twice. I've met some of the leaders there, and I've met one leader particularly that I love and admire a lot, Gaddafi, may G-d strengthen him to see the right way and follow the right way. He won't be around forever, he's going to die just like we are. We're all going to die, and insha'Allah, better leadership will come. And they'll be able to work out better situation for themselves as a nation being a member nation with other nations. No nation can exist alone anymore, and never could. The imperialist nations, they thought they could, but finally G-d's judgment came upon them. And they had to accept that they had to live and respect the rights of other nations.

16:34 IWDM: More, and more that's growing now, where nations are... Have to acknowledge that they have to respect the rights of other nations. And as this development grow and grow, more and more to be appreciated more and more by the nations of the world, and as the people of Libya and Cuba, Gaddafi's Cuba, as they began to research re-study their own situation, re-study their own position and situation and use a little bit more of finesse, a little bit more of new strategy more than just confrontation, we are going to see a beautiful world. And some of the best people are the people that's in these nations now that have bad names. Like Cuba, and like Libya. Also the people of Pakistan, they have been very good by the United States, they've kept good relations with the United States, but over the last two years, relationship has deteriorated. I'm sad to see that situation, I hope that Pakistan will strengthen its inner structure and bring its citizens to have more faith in their leaders, and do what they have to do to earn more respect from America so that they would have some clout in their legitimate disputes.

18:00 IWDM: You see, when you got weaknesses, it weakens your ability to negotiate for more respect, to negotiate for more justice. And Allah has blessed you and me by leading me to be the leader I am, by making me the leader I am with the Qur'an, with Muhammad's example. I've tried hard to live up to it, to measure up to it. And so G-d has blessed you. I'm in a great position, I'm in a strong position to negotiate for more respect, to negotiate for more justice. I'm in a strong position. I fear nothing. G-d is my witness. I fear none more than anything. I don't fear. And even you criminals around me sometimes, not here.

[Laughter]

18:45 IWDM: There are not criminals here.

[Laughter]

18:49 IWDM: We're not saying around me. I'm talking about around me, not here, wherever I go. Yeah. They can't intimidate me. They can't make me fear. They just make me think harder, but not fear. G-d has shown me that if you submit to G-d, give your whole spirit, your whole self to G-d, G-d is enough as your protector. That's what Allah says. G-d is enough, Allah is enough as your protector. And that's... that's all I'm trying to. Now, what I fear is my own self. I fear that I will do the wrong thing. I fear that I will. Yeah, make that error or do something I shouldn't do, that I will sin, that I will sin. That's what I fear. And I know if I do that, now my position is weak. If I sin, if I make errors and don't try to correct them, my position gets weak, then I lose what I have, then I'm exposed to everybody then, to criminals inside and outside. You see, so see how practical I am. I'm a moral man that's very practical.

[Laughter]

20:01 IWDM: And I think we all should be that way. Don't be good because you'll be sweet. Be good also because you'll be strong. Yes, to be good makes you strong, and puts you in a strong position, especially if you're sensible in your head and your intentions are good, it makes you strong. The strongest men that ever walked this earth were men that were obedient to G-d and lived just to obey their G-d. They were the strongest men that ever walked this earth. And they were men that changed the whole world.


20:35 IWDM: We're not living in the ideas of atheists. We're not living in a world designed by atheists. We're not living in a world designed by Marxism, Communism. We're living in a world designed by religious people, religious people who came their great 
freedom, in the great era... Day, era of enlightenment because they believe in the light revealed by G-d to the prophet or to the religious leader that they claim, whether it's Moses, Jesus or Muhammad, peace be upon them. This is the world. If you look in the world today, what leaders lead this world? I give it to you in those three, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. They're leading the whole world. Their followers were in charge. Their followers have the control over things. That should be a great sign from G-d to us that His prophets do not fail. And that's what G-d promises us in the Qur'an. He said that, "I and my servants will be victorious." And we witness that G-d and His servants are victorious. And the people who accept G-d and accept his servants, they're also victorious.

22:13 IWDM: So, I pray Allah help us to see better, clearer where we should be today as Muslims, and hope that He will strengthen us, and give us the boldness to go into the great vision that I see for us in this country, in America, so that we will have that great future that G-d wants us to have, that great future where we won't feel ourselves to be inferior to anybody. We feel ourselves, competent and equal to any or to the greatest. I hope for that day. And I don't see why we can't feel that way. Just look where we've come from, look where we are now. We couldn't have gotten there without Allah, and without His religion, and He preferred for us Islam; without this religion, Islam, without sincerity, without the courage to say, "Yes, I love the honorable Elijah Muhammad with all my heart. I gave him credit for my life and everything; he saved my life, but now I know that's wrong, so I'm going to put it behind me. I'm going to follow the Qur'an and accept the last prophet, Muhammad, the last of the prophets."

23:32 IWDM: We who had the courage to do that don't you know we are great people? Pat yourself on the back all of you, I'm telling you, you deserve a pat on the back because you are no small-minded person. It takes a big hearted sincere, strong minded person to make such a decision. Look, Hitler came, and look what he was able to do for the Germans, and for those who believed in his idea. He was able to make them think that they were going to be the rulers of the world. And look how he still got followers around here. And look how shameful he went out. They were trying to catch him to kill him and he had rolled himself up on the bed but in a rug up on the bed somewhere. And they never found him. They never pursued they found him. They don't know how, what happened to him but they say he rolled himself up in a rug up on the bed somewhere. And he hid up on the bed, rolled up in a rug. He's gone, the great Fuehrer, gone. He had his people thinking he was going to match over the whole world and bring everything under the Nazis under his regime; he's gone. And I repeat, look at some of his people they can't give up on that idea. They're still around here wearing swastikas; still around here looking for the great Aryan nation to rise again. Don't you be like him and his followers? Thank you very much. As salaam alaikum.

[Background conversation]

[Background conversation]

25:19 Speaker 2: Allahu Akbar. Brothers and sisters can you wait just a minute? Takbir! 

[Background conversation]

25:26 S2: Yes. Can you just wait just a minute? We want to conclude properly and please give the Imam a chance to leave. We want to let great Imam Mohammed know that this area here in the south west region is supportive of his leadership, is supportive of his programs and we are committed just like he is to give 100% to financial responsibility for educational liberation and for spiritual elevation with the life of Qur'an and Mohammed Rasulullah, Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, that is Prophet Mohammed, prayers and peace be upon him. So, we want to now call before you before we dismiss the Treasurer of the Houston Masjid of Al-Islam, brother Marvin Mohammed and he will address you for a few minutes, and then we will dismiss with our closing dua, our closing prayer. Again, I want to thank all of you for braving the weather to come out here. Allah has blessed us with an excellent attendance today, about 600 who came out today, Allahu Akbar. And with the weather that came on us, I think that's an excellent, excellent attendance. So, that shows right there you have a determination and determined spirit to hear Imam W Mohammed as well as to support this leadership. Thank you very much. As salaam alaikum, peace be upon you.

[Background conversation]

27:04 Speaker 3: As salaam alaikum. We want to first thank Imam Mohammed. And this time I will like to bring to your attention that we need for you to make some contribution to give to zakat today. This will help to go along with the expense that we have for the building today and other expenses that came with today. So, we have some brothers that have some envelopes and they are going to pass these envelopes out to you and feel free to take one and to put some zakat in there, and contribution in there. And also after them some brothers will also come with some boxes, so that you can place your envelope in there. And please give freely, and thank everyone for coming out. Thank you, As salaam alaikum.

[B?
ackground conversation]
