02/07/1997
IWDM Study Library
Post-Civil Rights Needs of African American-America: What Direction?

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Thank you. As-salamu ?alaykum.
Congregation: Wa ?alaykum as-Salam
Peace be unto you or peace be upon you. Praise be to Allah. We say Al-Hamdulillah. Praise be to Allah, the Lord, Sustainer, Nourisher of the worlds. We witness that He is one, our Lord creator, G-d for all of us as we're told in Quran.
We’re told, “say to the people,” meaning the Christians and Jews, “say to them, "Our G-d and your G-d are one and the same." We witness that that G-d is G-d and there is no other G-d.
We witness that Muhammad is the last of the prophets called the Seal of the Prophets, prophesied in the Torah and in the Injeel of the Bible. We salute him with the traditional salute. Upon him be the prayers and the peace and what follows of that traditional salute.
We are pleased to be here in Mississippi. Here in the towns of Quitman and Meridian. We really appreciated last evening the banquet that was given and speakers who spoke so well last night and so impressive. And, in my opinion, in tuned with reality and the gathering that was large and very beautiful. Last night, it was a wonderful night.
We appreciate the Imams and good pioneers of our community who supported the attendance last evening and also this attendance here today from around the area in the south of these United States.
The banquet speakers last night and the Imam Yahya Shabazz, seem to have been having in focus support for the business growth or economic development and in my opinion, they are right on the money. They are not off-target at all. They're on target.
We all appreciate too the good support that you obviously have here in the religious community of both Christians and Muslims. The spirit of brotherhood was in the air last evening at the banquet. We felt it. We felt a connection for Christian and Muslim spirit in values, and it was very much appreciated.
That's what is needed in the world more than anything else right now, is a need for us to see with the eyes that G-d created for us. G-d created eyes for us and He wants us to see what He created us to see, and we’re not to see the world in a selfish way.
We are to see the world with the eyes of an unselfish servant of G-d. We should want for all of G-d's creation what G-d wants for His creation. And G-d created everything and cares about everything. G-d doesn't have any favorite people or any favorite race. G-d doesn't have that. All people are G-d's favorites. All colors are G-d's favorite.
And the best of us, according to the teachings of our prophet and the teachings of the scriptures, if we understand the scriptures, the best of us in G-d's presence is the one who's most serious about respecting Him. Respecting G-d and pleasing G-d by presenting ourselves in the life, in the life form that G-d wants us in. That's what makes you bigger in the eyes of G-d.
And Muslims are to recognize only that as a basis for any special recognition to somebody. We recognize them above another because of their higher development in obedience to G-d who created them. But not for their color of their skin or their national origin or anything other than how they measure up in terms of how they are conforming to what G-d wants for them as His servants on this earth.
Post-Civil Rights period that we're living in now. The topic that we selected says that this Civil Rights period is over. It doesn’t mean that there might not be a concern for civil rights or a need to address civil rights. But there's no longer the importance of civil rights over another importance that has manifested. That is human excellence and human relations. Human excellence and human relations and human rights in the international world. Human excellence, human relations, human rights in the international world, not just here.
So, the attention has shift from national problems to world problems. From trouble that nations have with their citizens, from trouble that is in all citizens of the world and how that trouble in all citizens of the world affects our life in our respective countries. And this trouble is affecting our lives so much that it has priority now over the trouble that we are experiencing with each other in our respective countries.
So, I agree with the speakers last night, that it's no longer civil rights as the issue before us. It is responsibility in citizens throughout the whole world and respect for that responsibility that G-d has created everybody to have. G-d created all of us to have responsibility in our lives.
And to the degree that we can shoulder that responsibility or manage that responsibility that 
G-d created us for, we will have dignity in the world. We will have protection for our life in the world. But anyone who cares not for that responsibility that G-d created him or her for, they cannot expect to have dignity and protection for their life in the world anymore.
In fact, you haven't had it. It always was something that was not there for the person who doesn't accept responsibility that G-d created us for. He created us all for responsibility.
Now I rather express it this way. Not Post Civil Rights period, but Post Civil Rights Needs. After the Civil Rights days, we're left still with needs. We have needs, but these needs are not the same as the needs we had during the Civil Rights days. They're not the same.
There was a need to bring out the evils of racism so that the citizens who were victims and the citizens who were perpetuating it would have an opportunity to be healed. Healed, become healthy, become normal as G-d wants us to be, as citizens sharing in the blessings of the nation.
So, that has happened, and we have to recognize not only the role of the civil rights figures. Really, Dr. Martin Luther King, I don't see him so much as a civil rights leader. I see him as a human leader, working to bring healthy human conditions to the souls of all citizens so that there would be better performance by citizens and a better world for citizens to live in, a better human world for citizens to live in and that's why he couldn't stop at just political issues.
When he died, he took up the business issue, economic issue, and he was about to get busy in the business arena, in the business circle, on the business stage and regretfully he was assassinated before we could see him in that role.
The needs that we are left with are really more individual, or personal responsibility, than the responsibility of government, federal or state, personal responsibility. We are left with the need to qualify for the full measure of freedom in America or in the United States, we need to qualify for freedom. See, we never think that freedom places demand on us, that freedom also has a price.
Nothing is without a price; nothing is without a price. If we try to give you everything till you don't have to move, say, "Lay in the bed, you want to stay in the bed forever? We'll guarantee you that you won't have to get up, we are going to bring you food, everything, we’re going to take care of you like you're an infant. When you just make a little noise in your seat, we going to come see what's the matter. Change your diaper or turn you over or something, so you can go back to sleep so you can be comfortable.”
Still, that existence is not without a price. You're going to have to breathe, and the body after a while says, “I’m tired of you just breathing without being aware of it, wake up". We can't keep you asleep, the body is going to wake you. And you're going to wake up and going to be conscious of breathing and you're going to have concerns, you have to pay a price.
Breathing is an effort. It's an unconscious effort, so we don't see it as an effort, but breathing is an effort. You, see? Doing nothing is an effort, it is. Doing nothing is an effort, that's why after a while you're bored, you're tired of doing nothing. So, nobody can give you a life without a price, you're going to have to pay something. And the price gets bigger and bigger, the more you accept to do less and less. The more we accept to do less and less, the price gets bigger and bigger.
We are told of a paradise that G-d promises us. And G-d says of that paradise, “The soul that enters it, will enter among G-d's workers". He says, “Enter you among my workers then enter you my paradise." So, really, the qualification for entering G-d's paradise, the paradise that He has for us, is that we accept to be among the workers. See, it wasn’t Marx that thought of the dignity and the value and the need to work to have happiness, it was G-d.
When we see the picture for the Christians of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, returning after death and he's seen as a gardener, an agriculturist working the earth to develop the ground, we see a picture of a worker. So, that picture is telling us that's what got him up to G-d in heaven, he was a worker dedicated to work.
“Wad khuli fi ebaadi, fad khuli Jannati”. Enter you among my workers, then enter you my paradise. We say, "Well, but we don't have jobs". We don't have jobs, or you don't want jobs? I never thought that it was impossible for me to find a job, I never thought that. I don't care how bad employment gets; I never think that I can't find a job. I believe I can always find a job; I believe I can always make a living.
I got that from what I call the thriving, struggling poor who never accept the indignation of being idle, doing nothing, earning nothing, having nothing. Determined because of the respect that they have for themselves, the picture that they have of themselves will drive them to go find some work.
I was out of work once, my father, I don't know whether he was testing me or training me for the future or just simply punishing me, but anyway he wouldn't give me any help, financial help. And I couldn't find a job either. An employment office, it was Illinois State Employment, no jobs, couldn't find jobs.
I got me a bucket, rag, newspaper and I went to an area of Chicago that had hotels where rich people live and were staying in these nice little hotel, not real big hotels. I went to this hotel, it had about 40 something rooms, and I had gone to others they turned me down. I told them, I said, "Your windows need washing." I said, "I'd like to give you a price for washing the windows in this hotel". I talked to this manager, he accepted it and I washed the windows in that whole hotel.
The hotel was about seven floors high, seven stories high. I have no equipment and I got newspapers. I learned from other workers that newspaper was good for cleaning windows. I had the vinegar and a little something in the water, but newspaper is real good for cleaning windows. You dry it with the newspaper, you dry it off with the newspaper. So, that's what I'm doing. Three days, I completed the job, I got good money. My three days was equal to a week that I would've gotten on the jobs I had before.
And I found myself later, same situation, needing money. So, an idea came to me, clean carpets, and if they'll let you, clean furniture. I went from door to door asking people, "Do you have any carpet for me cleaning? I'm an expert". I said, "I'll give you a demonstration if you like".
So, I got jobs and I cleaned people’s floors. Anybody know what a janitor’s brush is, you clean out toilet with, it's a big brush with a big head on it like that round, and a big stick, that's what I cleaned the carpet that goes down the steps with. I use that to clean the step. Using nothing but the suds to clean the step.
Then I was able to make enough money to buy me an upholstery cleaning machine. Then I stopped cleaning with the brush. I was also another brush on the porches, to clean the porches. I started using my machine. After a while, my wife was not frowning when I came home.
I worked myself into that situation, she wasn't frowning anymore when I came home. She greeted me with a pleasant face when I came home from work.
So, don’t say there are no jobs. The human soul needs us to be responsible for something. And if we don't accept responsibility for the things that G-d has created all of us to be responsible for, those demands in us that G-d has created us all to be able to meet, then we are going to be punished. Our own souls will deprive us of happiness, will make our life just a hell. You'll just see depressed and miserable, angry, desperate, you'll be in hell. That's hell, that's a degree of hell on this side, when you're like that. So, we have freedom now, we have to qualify for it. We're free.
Americans were free before we were all free. The white Americans, they were free. But do you think some of the whites weren't suffering? And some of the whites are suffering now. They're suffering. They're out of jobs, they're hopeless, they're desperate, they're depressed, they're on drugs or some other form, liquors or something, they're all drugs. They're in crime, they're losing their lives to crime life, they're going insane, they're in the halfway houses et cetera.
So, they are free. You want to be one of them? That's what we need to ask ourselves. Not that we are free in America. We should look at the others that are free. We should look at all that are free. We should observe those that are free and see what accounts for them living a comfortable life. See what accounts for them, being in a situation not to be begging or complaining. And then look at ourselves and see what's missing in us that's in them.
We have to qualify for this great margin or great degree of freedom we have in this United States of America. We have to qualify for it. So, that's where we are now. In the post-civil rights time or span, we are where we have to really look at ourselves again and understand ourselves in these new circumstances. Understand ourselves in these new circumstances. We're not in a Jim Crow South anymore. We are in these new circumstances.
So, let us understand ourselves, see ourselves and try to understand ourselves, our reality. What's in the way of my life that I want in this new reality and under these new circumstances? And then qualify for the freedom that we have in this society.
We say, "Free as a bird" but I see the birds carrying responsibility. I see the birds knowing that ain’t no more food going to be around here. The snow is coming. And I see the birds getting together as a community and they take off in great numbers flying South.
“Free as a bird.” I see some ole hard knot birds. Crows, I see them hanging around after all the other birds have left the area that's predicted for hard times. They're going, but I see these birds, free as a bird you say, free as a bird. I see them going out in the cold weather hunting for food. Come into my back porch, I dropped something on the porch, didn't know it. See him finding it. Free as a bird, he found it, he's eaten it.
I never saw one nodding on the porch.
Never saw one on the porch with the DTs.
They're not on drugs, they're on bird dignity.
So, let us qualify for this freedom that we always demanding and talking about. Let us qualify for it. Now, we have had a lot of damage done to our natural spirit that G-d created for us. We've had a lot of damage done to our ego as human beings created by G-d for excellence, for self-respect, for social acceptance, for dignity, et cetera.
This great soul that G-d created, we've had a lot of damage done to its spirit. The spirit for excellence in that soul, the aim in that soul for achievement, for fulfillment of life, etc. A lot of damage has been done to it. By what? Disappointment, raised expectations and then shocking failure, disappointment.
America offers all of its citizens a great life. We brag that in America, you can get anything you want. There's opportunity for everybody here in America. And we quietly accepted deep down in our souls this promise. Once slavery is behind us, that's over and once we're no longer called black and put down publicly or by the government or by the institutions of our country.
Ok, now that's not in the way anymore. Racism is not in the way anymore. I'm not shut out because of my color anymore but I don't have that promise. I still feel hungry. I still feel lacking. I still feel that I'm the subclass. I'm not equal and America said that we could have everything.
Then our youngsters, they watch television like all of us do. And television may show us some reality for the struggling free citizens but most of what they show us is artificiality.
Something that's real for a very few but unreal for the many in America. They show us families on television, with color TV and all kind of electronic stuff entertaining their lives.
Here's a black family looking at it or a member of a black family looking at it, and they expect that they should have that too. "I'm supposed to have that too. I'm supposed to have that TV. And we're supposed to have that table they're eating on and that food that they're being served and we're supposed to have that car that they're going out and walking out the door and getting into". So, America, especially commercial, media America, it lifts our expectations up too high. It makes everybody think that they're supposed to have what anybody else has. That's the way the commercial world is. It doesn't say, "You can't afford this", it will show you a $50,000 or a $70,000 automobile.
It's talking to my son just like it's talking to the son of Rockefeller. It's not making no distinction between Rockefeller's son and my son. It's trying to sell all of us on that car, so my son sees it and he wants it. "Hey daddy. I want a Porsche. Daddy, I want a Jaguar".
Now I'm made uncomfortable. Here I am put on the spot. I've got to explain to this boy, "A Jaguar is not in my reach, has not been in my reach and I don't think it will ever be in my reach". 
Now when I tell him that, he's disappointed. I'm no longer his hero, so he has to go and find some other heroes now. "Daddy can't even guarantee me a Jaguar". He goes down and find him some other heroes who say, "Yes man. We can get that Jaguar man. You sell about 1,000 bags in one-year man, you have that Jaguar", so he's selling drugs to get his Jaguar because there is a promise that he can get his Jaguar selling drugs.
Heightened expectations. Unreal expectation. This is the nature of this world, so how are we going to cope with this? How are we going to beat that? It's so subtle, it's done so subtle. It's disguised. It will come to you and it gets into you before you can see that it's really something you should reject. It's already into you, it's already affecting you.
Some of you might have wives that aren't happy because you didn't get her that Jaguar. I know somewhere there's a wife that isn't happy because that brother that has got two jobs. He's what they call, He earns a paycheck. That's where his money comes from. A paycheck.
Paycheck means just what it says, paid and checked. Paycheck, paid and you're checked. If you don't accept to be checked, you'll have no more paychecks. Pretty soon you'll have no more paychecks, you must accept pay and accept the check. Both. Here he is, he's got two jobs, he's earning maybe two or three paychecks trying to get her that Jaguar.
Unreal expectations. That's the big problem with freedom in America. The commercial world makes us have unreal expectations. We can't accept the world the way that the commercial world presents it to us. We have to ourselves see with the light of faith in G-d, see with the understanding of our religion, see upon the principles, standing upon the principles of our religions, see what should be seen as the real world.
See the real world as a Christian, good Christians following principle, standing upon principle. As good Muslims standing upon principle with the guidance that G-d has given us. Let us ourselves perceive the world for ourselves, not through the eyes of the television or the media or the commercial media or the commercial world. Then we will have a chance. 
And we have to stop glamourizing and stop giving popularity to the indecent achievers in our society, to the criminal achievers in our society. How is that done? Again, by the media. Especially, news media. They'll find some criminal guilty of drug trafficking or something else and they'll have him on the news, show him on the news or her on the news, sometimes it's a female. Show him on the news in his fineries, all dressed up in his fineries, walking as though he is the executive at a bank or a big corporation, walking along.
They ask him a question, the media trying to question him, "Mr so and so, what do you say about the charges they have against you? What's going to happen to your empire now that you are arrested?". And he should be wrapped up in big black cloth and he should be tied like he's a big sack of potatoes or something so nobody sees his face or anything and they just say," This is so and so and so, he's just been arrested for such and such". But no, he comes in showing off. He's been wanting to get on TV. Maybe he went into crime just because he knows if he stays in the crime long enough, he's going to be on primetime television.
So, we give him this kind of respect, we give them this kind of exposure, this kind of glamour. Glamourizing the criminal. What is that saying to the boy who is struggling, who is hungry, who can't get the Air Jordan’s he wants or can't get the jeans he wants, who's walking with patches and holes and suffering. But knows that he can go out there and get into crime and be successful? What is that saying to him?
So, we are doing a lot of things to keep these troubles on us and to keep these troubles multiplying. We can't just change the television and force them to do certain things they're not going to do because their whole operation is based upon how they survive financially too, you see? So, what makes money is going to be a determining factor for them too. They say, “Well, we’ll do much, but now, if we go too far with this, we're not going to be any business anymore.” They're not going to go out of business.
We have to inform ourselves. The preachers have to stop just preaching for good spirit. We have to be preaching for good sense in our congregation. For survival sense in our congregation. For consumer sense in our congregation, and most importantly, for sincerity in our congregation. Sincerity, not a fake, artificial congregation living for a life of artificiality. A sober, natural, excellent, human congregation.
That's what we should be working for. Then, we'll have a congregation standing upon principles and will be able to protect themselves against the evils of satan influence in the culture of the world, not only America.
Now, I want to come to something else, something that give us hope. What I focused on then was the bad picture in the world that's so depressing, the popular culture that's too big as a force for us to deal with unless we have G-d working with us. Yes, it is. None of us can survive the influences of satan or the poisonous world to our souls without G-d's help. None of us.
But now, I want to talk about something else. We are told now that there is no more a formidable adversary or a foe in the way of democracy as we perceive democracy, America now stands as the leader on the world scene, the international scene, America. That's what we are being told.
And it seems that the international world has accepted that. There's no more contest between capitalism and communism. Or the Soviet block and the west, no more contest, that's over. How quick we forget? How quick we forget?
I can look back just a few years back, at a time when we actually were carrying on us a fear that maybe the communists would declare global war and drop atomic bombs on America or send missiles over here and we would be in an atomic war. That was a real threat. How quick we forget?
But now the threat is no more, it's gone. We don't see it anymore, there is not a presence of that fear anymore. And it seems as though maybe not capitalism in what that word by itself signals has been victorious but free enterprise and democracy is victorious over communism. We accept that.
And I am accepting that our country is the leader in the world today. Our country is the leader in the world today. However, too much will be lost if we don't observe also that something else has materialized. The promise of democracy has materialized. The promise of democracy that this is the better way, that this idea is the better way, that this idea is best for the globe, for the international community. It has materialized.
And believe me, there are small communities that were yesterday under dictators, they are celebrating now. Oh boy, they're celebrating the day of democracy. The day of free enterprise and they're getting rich, rich, rich. But the citizens that this idea has not yet reached as it should reach them who are poor and somewhat isolated, though this is the time for inclusion, they're not celebrating, they're not excited. They're saying, "It hasn't proven anything to me. I don't see anything to shout about to be happy about". 
There is the promise to Abraham. Listen carefully please. There is a promise to Abraham made by G-d in the scriptures of the Muslims and the Christians and Jews. There is a promise to Abraham. It has also materialized, but the religious community is not saying there is a victory for the people of Abraham. We are saying there is a victory for the people of capitalism. There is a victory for the people of free enterprise, but we not saying there's a victory for the people of Abraham. There is a victory for the children of Abraham. And there is a manifest victory for the children of Abraham.
What did G-d promise Abraham? G-d promised Abraham when this world was under idolatry, when this world was under savages, Vandals, and et cetera. Warmongers, dictators.
G-d said to Abraham that, "Your seed shall inherit the land." And we call ourselves the children of Abraham. The same as saying the seed of Abraham. We call ourselves the children of Abraham, Jews, Christians and Muslims, we call ourselves the children of Abraham. And G-d promised Abraham that his children will become the inheritors of the land, that they will become the people who enjoy the graces of G-d, the bounties of G-d, the great resources that G-d provided when He created this earth and sky, et cetera. They were promised that. And today, we are the ones having that more than any other people.
America is a Christian nation. The Jews are not a people with any small influence and say-so in the international world, they are small people maybe in number, but they have great influence and great say-so in the international world. Find me any people other than the children of Abraham with any power and presence on the world stage as promoters, as operators, making things happen as visionaries, find me any other people than the children of Abraham in that great role on the world stage, you can't find it.
Even the Soviets they were communists, now they're going back to religion. Mosque, the Muslims, flourishing now where there used to be the Communist Bloc. Churches now flourishing where there used to be the Communist Bloc. China now still holding on to its own special brand or special make of communism, it is also relaxing its grip on its people and they are beginning to freely practice their religion again, Muslims and Christians and others, the Buddhists and others.
So, the presence and prominence of the children of Abraham is the greatest in the world. The world is mostly in the hands of the children of Abraham. So, G-d's promise to the children of Abraham has come true. Shouldn't that make you believe in G-d if you didn't? Shouldn't that revive your faith if your faith has been weakened? That G-d promised something to Abraham a long time ago, our second father after Adam, and now it has come through, it has materialized for us, for the children of Abraham in the world?
And the seed of Abraham, they are supposed to be G-d's servant for the good of all humanity. Isn't that what's happening? The three great faiths are coming together on the highest level of a leadership and authority. And they're discussing how they can contribute to the betterment of this world so that all people benefit, not just the people of the Abrahamic faith, but also Hindus, the Buddhists, or whoever?
They are meeting together to see how they can contribute to the world being better for all human souls, not just for the children of Abraham. Again, the promise materializes, the promise being answered and fulfilled in our time in this generation. This is the best generation in the history of man. I would have loved to have been back there, in the time of the early Ummah, the early community of Muslims under Muhammad, the great prophet, the last of the prophets, peace be upon him.
I would have loved to have been back there, to have sat with him and listened to him and heard the message from his mouth, and responded to the call to give my life if I had to, in the defense of the religion, or to just benefit from being in that time enjoying the preaching’s of our prophet, the presence of our prophet. I would have loved to been back there. But that was not a time as good as this time, no. The only thing was better about that time is that those people could be in the presence of the prophet.
Likewise, for the time of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. The Christians, the only thing you would have going for you is just being in the presence of Christ Jesus while He's living and preaching. But as far as circumstances for human life, you wouldn't have been at a better time. Now is the best time, and we must be special in some kind of way, we who have survived and have been born in this time.
We must be special in some kind of way for us to be here. G-d wouldn't have ordained or will that we be here present to see this time and witness this time, and prove ourselves in this time if we weren't special. We are the seed of people who'll see the great price, not only black but whites, all of us. We are the seed of people who will see the great price, for what we have today as opportunity.
And G-d is rewarding them through us for the great price to our forefathers have paid, our ancestors have paid. You are so blessed by G-d but you don't know it. You are so favored by G-d and you don't know it. You have all the proof that G-d is G-d, ever living, ever present and fulfills His promises.
You have all the proof it, but you can't open your eyes, you don't know how to look for it so you don't know it.
But I know it, and I'm confident that I can take care of myself as an obedient servant of G-d. I'm not worried about how my family's going to be taken care of, I know I can take care of myself. And I know G-d is going to bless me to take care of my dependents, I know it. Throw me out in the no man's land, where not a thing is growing. And if I didn't throw myself out there, I couldn't help it, you made those circumstances for me, I'll be happy.
I know my G-d lives eternally, and never was born and never dies, never sleeps, never slumbers, never have any need for anything. Never is diminished at all, is always as He has always been, and has the same long reach and the same great power to rescue, that He have always had. Throw me out there, I will be taken care of.
So, thank G-d we are not going to be thrown out there, instead they've thrown the rabbit into the briar patch.
Right at home, right where he can thrive better. We have all the signs that we need to support our faith and encourage us to obey G-d and go forward with our lives. Leading economist, this never has happened before, leading economists are now saying. One of them that I'm speaking of now his name is C-O-V-E-Y, Covey. This particular economist is the leading economists that serves the White House and the State Department as adviser.
He has 40 offices internationally, not just in America, they are all over the world, 40. He has retail businesses, the man is very, very successful financially. He advises not only the government, and not just federal government, he also advises city and state and other small government. But he also advised big cooperation. He gives advice to them. He showed them how to work themselves out of their problems and to make great gains in the future. And what is he standing upon, this man? He says that you cannot be successful, especially in these times of global revolution. There's a global revolution that has taken place.
A global revolution in the nature of society brought about because of changes in the global economy, the way businesses has to be done now globally. So, he says, “that no institution can survive anymore unless it is based upon principle. It cannot be based upon profit or production or anything like that. It must be based upon principle.” And he said, “this applies universally.” He said, “no individual can have a future worthwhile anymore in the world if they are not based upon principle.”
Now, isn't this religion? Prophet Muhammad was asked, "What is Al-Islam?" He said, "Al-Islam is structured upon five principles, five essentials, five principles. And our life is just a life of principle, faith and principles. Faith, principles, work, charity, giving, sharing, this is our life. This the Muslim life. This is the great life. And he says, “that any institution or individual or groups of individuals who have their function in the environment, who sees their function in the environment as a control for them, as a security for them, they won't be able to survive. You must see your function within yourself.
Your function must be within yourself then you can survive the changes in the environment. But if your function is environmentally placed or environment placed and not personally centered, or placed in your own self, you won't make it.” Isn't that what G-d wants for us? Isn't that what G-d asked for us? Allah says that in our Holy book, "Oh believers, you are responsible for your own souls."
Or, we can change or say, the word soul means also self. “Oh believers, you are responsible for your own selves.” Here I am told by G-d that I'm responsible for myself. If I'm responsible for myself, I should not then see the security for myself in an institution, government or private or in the environment. No, the security for myself must be within myself. So, what is the security for myself? My religious principles, my Islamic principle. My Islamic principles represents my security. As long as I conform to the Islamic principles, G-d is one. G-d gave me everything.
G-d obligates me to show my appreciation. And G-d gave us the prophet and G-d gave us the religion of Al-Islam. I am to use it, to benefit from all of this and I am to show my appreciation to G-d that gave it all to me. These are principles. These are people living by principles. Don't you know to live by faith is to live by principle? Faith is only to describe the condition. Faith only describe the condition of that person. He's a person of faith. That's his condition. That's the description of his soul. That's the description of his mental makeup.
He's not living upon his own knowledge or upon his own ability. He's living also upon faith, which is bigger than his knowledge and bigger than his ability, faith in G-d. But what does his faith ask of him? A life of principle. I just can't do anything that I feel like doing. I just can't behave in any way I want to behave. My life is governed by rules.
My life is governed by disciplines. And those disciplines and rules are founded upon principle. Yes, they manifest, they take root and they grow structured because of principle, men of principle. So, we have to have our function first here, the function to protect our life and secure our life. The center for our security, well-being, security and forward movement has to be here first in us, as our religion or as our idea that governs our life.
Then whatever happened out there to disappoint us, will not un-establish us, will not take away our establishment. We will still be established, though we have lost the hope in that thing out there that we had great faith in. It's gone but still, we're standing. But if all our faith is in something out there when that's gone, we collapse. And that's what happened with the citizens of America who are not part of the strength and the progress of America, that's what happened to them. The thing without them disappoints them, then they ain't got nothing now. They fall down, helpless, desperate, frustrated, out of it.
I’ve read the Bible, it said, "Every tub shall set on its own bottom.” Even man shall have his own vine and fig tree. Ain't that the bible? Yes. Well, you got a vine and fig tree, you got to take care of it and keep it. And if every tub won't sit on his own bottom, that mean you don’t go and ask somebody else for their tub. And that's when the dignity comes, that's when the fulfillment of your self-respect, fulfillment of your dignity, it comes.
When you are doing something, he's going to bed at night knowing that you did something to keep the lights on. You did something to keep the telephone on. You did something to keep the gas on. You did something to keep the five-day notice from coming to move out of this apartment. You did something. You go, you rest like a king, man. Your wife can come and see you sleeping, and want to kiss you, you're looking so pretty.
But you go to bed knowing that you ain't do nothing to keep those things. You didn't do nothing to provide these things that you enjoy and that you have, doom day may come at any moment. You sleep uglier, your wife wants to divorce you. I gave this talk in private once, just this talk on sleep. How to go to bed and rest pretty. And then one African American woman she said, "Yes, I had to wake that nigga up, he's looking so ugly. I said, wake up nigga, you're looking ugly."
Now, I'm going to close out with this interpretation of what I see as revelation. Not just the prophecy but a prophecy in revelation, in the Qur’an. We don't claim that I'm no prophet, so whatever I say, it can be questioned and someone can argue with me. I don't mind that, I accept that. That's what makes the world progress. When we're willing to argue with each other or to defer.
Well, I want to give you two examples from our scriptures. One example of what I think is just revelation, not prophecy. It's on the bee, the insect, bee, honeybee. G-d says that the honeybee, and He revealed to the bees. G-d gave revelations to the bee, to the honeybee. To me, that's revelation, not prophecy. Just revelation, not prophecy.
There's a lot to understand and a lot that G-d is revealing with that expression, “that He revealed to the bee. He gave revelation to the bee.” But when G-d says, "And the earth shall behave one day, the earth shall behave as though her Lord had revealed to her or inspired her." That's prophecy and revelation. Prophecy and revelation. And I think this is the time when we see that prophecy fulfilled. This right now is the time when we see that prophecy fulfilled.
This is a prophecy for the universalizing of the world. The world is going to become universalize. If you can understand my expression, the world is going to be universalized. When we live in America under a United States government, and our lives in America are influenced, and shaped, and determined locally by influences, and experiences, and happenings and whatever opportunity locally in our nation, and that's happening in other countries, the world is not universalized, the world is nationalized.
The world is the world of nations, and the life is the lives of the citizens of the world, their lives are nationalized. But when the importance of the character and the nature and the influence of our nations are not bearing on us, our life and how we live, and how we see the future, but it is a global community, the international community and its dynamism, and its realities, and its nature, that's bearing on us, the world then is universalized. The citizens are universalized.
We become citizens in the universe of this earth. A citizen in the universality of the global community, rather than citizens in our separate nations only.
Our character, even as citizens of our nation is being shaped now over again by the global realities, by the global, international realities. So, we're living in a time of the unity of the human family, the oneness of the global community.
And G-d says, "Man was once one community," meaning that you are going to become again, as it was in the beginning so shall it be in the end. And you’re going to come again in time one community. Isn't that what they're saying, “One world order?” So, these predictions in the scripture have come true. They materialized. And man can no longer be addressed now in his separate departments, in his nationalistic nature, and needs. He must be addressed in his human nature and his universal needs, his universal needs, his global community needs.
And the Quran prepared us for that, G-d revealed and addressed this time that we are living in now. “And the Earth shall behave as though her Lord had revealed to her, or had inspired her.” The Earth. What is the Earth? Al-Ard, Al-Ard is the ground. The ground, the material ground that we walk on, that's Al- Ard, the Earth.
Now, we know that we began in history of man's industrial life, we started as agriculturalist, farmers. Agriculturalist, that was the first character of the economy, right? Agricultural economy. We move from there to an industry, and to an industrial economy. From an industrial economy, the economists are telling us now we're moving into a service economy. A service economy, the time of information, information sharing, and selling, and dispensing. This is the economy.
But it is the economy, isn't it? Now, we don't want to lose our faith. We don't want to weaken or taint, or make our faith defective. I don't find that threatening to my faith. I find these revelations strengthening to my faith. It makes me all the more convinced as a servant of G-d, to stand in the posture, and in the nature that G-d wants me in, and act as G-d wants me to act. I'm all the much more convinced. Yes. 
We know everything G-d says in Revelation has two applications. They apply to one reality and to another reality, to two realities, everything. So, maybe I'm not satisfying you if I'm not addressing the other reality, but we are living in a time of the material reality. Materialism would be a mystery, would be a puzzlement, material reality would be a burden, material reality would be a foe or an enemy of man’s spirituality until the time when man is enlightened enough, and illuminated enough, is understanding enough, and knowing enough to see G-d's will and purpose in the material realm.
His Will and Purpose is in the material realm just like it is in the spiritual realm. That's why we are told that G-d says, "Come you together, oh heavens and earth, willingly or unwillingly,” this is the will of G-d that this world must come back into one unit, as G-d made them in the beginning. And our material life must be reconciled with our spiritual life. Our spiritual life must be reconciled with our material life so that we carry them both with equal respect, into the great road of progress that G-d has made possible for it.
This is the salvation. This is the freedom, this is the liberation, this is the resurrection, while we live in this life. Yes. Not that we won't have the resurrection after the conclusion of the world. Yes, that's the great Resurrection. But G-d resurrects us while we live in this life on this earth. 
G-d says, "Look at a town, neglected, its roof falling in. The restoration of that town is as a resurrection”, that's what G-d says in our holy book of Quran.
G-d wants us to look at the town, neglected, its roof collapsing. Life is not seen there anymore. The activity has gone. And how someone comes in there, a developer comes in there and looks at that town. He says, "This town can have life again," and brings life, so G-d says, "Likewise is the resurrection." Now, that's not to take anything from the great resurrection that we expect. But I sure G-d wouldn't have given us that picture if G-d didn't want us to be resurrectors of our towns.
G-d wants us to resurrect towns that have died like Gary, Indiana and a few others. G-d want us to resurrect these towns. And G-d has given us the faith, the guidance, the light, and the hope to resurrect our spiritual life. Now, G-d want us to become resurrectors of the life in the environment. Isn't that wonderful? I find this so wonderful, so liberating. Boy, if I was sanctified, I'd be shouting on the wind. You wouldn't see my feet up here on the stage. I'll be up there in the air shouting.
So, this is the time for us to accept full responsibility for our life in community. Life in community. Al-Islam does not show us just Muslim life. It shows us Muslim life in community and it wants our Muslim life in our Muslim community to be a model inspiring and inviting people who haven't achieved what we have achieved to have hope in our model. That they can have a model like that too. “That we are witness for all mankind.
G-d has made us Muslims a community raised up for the good of all people and as a witness for all mankind.” This is the great hope, this the great vision. We just can't live for another leather jacket, or a new pair of sneakers, or another fancy looking automobile. The many can't carry this vision and work for this great dream. But we have to have some leaders representing the many doing this.
So, no small number of us, if we are together in a church or mosque or whatever or an organization or whatever, no small number of us should be happy without a leader who is a visionary. We need visionaries, we need people who can see the mighty plan and the mighty destiny, the great destiny. We need people like that. If you don't have them in your small group, your leader is deficient let him plug into. Let him plug into the energy of a bigger leader outside and let him bring that energy and light his bulb in his small room, so that all of us will have the light and the life that G-d wants for us.
We have to work on this and we are doing it. As a leader, I promise those who are with me, if they continue to support me before I die, if G-d bless me to have the years I think I'm going to have ahead of me, we are going to resurrect towns like Gary, African American town. We're going to resurrect towns like Hattiesburg is one. But we got a little town in Chicago.
Robins, Illinois. We are going to resurrect little towns like Robbins, Illinois, like Harvey, Illinois. We're going to resurrect these little towns. Now, you've got them around here too. I don't know your towns. We're going to resurrect Tuskegee, Alabama. Yes. Oh, yes. We are going to resurrect these towns. I see right in my eyes. I see it so close I can touch it.
I see New Timbuktu modern style, 21st-century Timbuktu. I see New Africa. They got New Jersey. They had Yorktown in England, they came and they established New York. Well, I don't know whether I was taken from Sudan or Nigeria or Ghana. I don't know where I was taken. All I know is I came from Africa. I don't want New Ghana; I want new Africa. So, when they come to our ethnic neighborhoods. They're going to see up there you're entering New Africa, reduce your speed.
Welcome to our futuristic shops and conveniences of this town. The law will be executed for your protection. Rest in peace. Yes, G-d put us here, not to accept a sissy’s responsibility and this has nothing to do with homosexuality. G-d has not set us here for sissy responsibilities into this world. He has sent us here for the full responsibility that He places upon grown-up people. We want no less than what G-d has offered us.
We won't be respecting ourselves or G-d. Last night, one of the speakers, a Christian speaker he said, it was the radio announcer. He said on his radio talk show. I'm closing now. I reached the last note. I've completed the last note I have here. He said on the talk show that, he was answering, really. The person who was asking him, seemed like it was a Christian zealous or something, a little bit over. You could be so high on the spirit; it affects you like high on the other spirits. You get tipsy and drunk and a little out of your head. So, I imagine that might've been one of those that called in and asked him, "Do you believe in G-d?"
He said, "Yes." And the person jumped right in with more words. He said, "But wait, I haven't finished." That happened three times before he got a chance to finish. He said, "and G-d believes in me." That was our speaker last night. One of our speakers last night at the banquet, the radio announcer.
Now, Dr. Schuller that's one of his punchlines. “Believe in the G-d who believes in you.” And one of the attribute names of our G-d is the Believer, Al-Mu'min that's the name of G-d, Allah, one of the names of G-d Al-Mu'min, the Believer. What does it mean when G-d says, “He is The Believer?” G-d says to us, “He is the believer.” So, what does it mean when G-d says He's the Believer? G-d means that He has faith in His creation. That He trusts His creation. He has faith in His creation, He trust His creation.
Because when we say, “we believe in G-d. That's what we we’re saying. We trust G-d, right? That's what we're say. We say it on the money, "In G-d we trust," and then act otherwise. I'm just joking now. G-d is the Believer. What's the difference between G-d, for G-d as a believer and for us as believer? We believe with limited knowledge. G-d trust with unlimited knowledge. That's the difference. 
But isn't it wonderful to think of G-d and to know your G-d as one that believes in you? If G-d didn't believe in every human being, he wouldn't let every human being come here with a Will to walk away from G-d. You have the freedom of Will to walk away from G-d if you want to. How many parents raise their children and preserving them and understanding that they have a choice that they don't always have to please their parents? You may choose a life or career that I won't approve of, but if that has to happen, I'm still your father. I'm still your mother. I still love you. You have that freedom. You have that right.
How many parents are like that? Some but not all. But here is a G-d that created us. He could have created us just like He created stone. It's there and it doesn't move. Does nothing on its own. He could have created us like He created the birds. Their life is decided before, they ain't going to do no more than that. They're not going to get involved in the life of ants. We get involved in the life of another species and we start thinking how we can manipulate our genetic computer to maybe make ourselves a mixture of human beings and baboons.
We got this kind of freedom to imagine and work on things like that. One of the fears now, is genetic manipulation, that these scientists may come up with something that may alter the way we are, specie wise. Change our species, alter, affect, or influence our species. The forming of our species, the form that we are in as a species.
So, let us know G-d and if you know G-d, you will certainly appreciate G-d. And we will certainly try to walk the way G-d wants us to walk in this world and be what G-d wants us to be in this world. And if we strive to please G-d in the light of what G-d has revealed for us, I guarantee you success. I put myself on the spot. I guarantee you success.
Anyone who find what I told you failing you come to me, I'll pay a price for you failing if you acted upon what I told you. You will not fail. Thank you very much and G-d be with us always. Forgive us our shortcomings, our ignorance, and our sins. Grant us forgiveness and mercy our G-d, and protect us with your guidance, for without your guidance we have no guidance. Ameen. Peace be on you, As-Salaam Alaykum.


