10/26/1998
IWDM Study Library
Political Responsibility is Inherent
Richmond VA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
W. Deen Mohammed, Muslim American Spokesman. And now Imam Mohammed. We greet as Muslims As Salaam Alaikum, and that is Peace Be Unto you. We are very happy to be again in the City of Richmond as your guests, guests of the Muslim community and guests of the city. And we appreciate the special way we have been received here by the Mayor and the establishment here in Richmond. I'm going to have to get some help for my eyes. My daughter tells me I need a hearing aid too. I can't wear a hearing aid yet. And we begin always asking G-d to accept us, accept our intentions, accept our presentation, and give us the result that G-d will be pleased with.
We've chosen to speak on political responsibility here in the great City of Richmond, and that is because I have some knowledge of the African American professional class here in the City of Richmond, and the leadership, the African American leadership that has been with this city for many generations. And having a respect for your professionals and their interests in this city and in the future of this city is what calls me to select this topic because I felt they would appreciate it and I hope they will appreciate it, my prayer is that our leaders, our African-American leaders will appreciate what I'll be saying to you today.
I am a Muslim first and last. I believe in G-d, who created everything, who cares about all of us and a follower of Muhammad, Ibn Abdulah, the Prophet of our Holy Book, this book that's now read by 1.2 billion people on this earth, and they are in every corner of the world. I follow him the best I can. I believe in him as G-d ask us to as Muslims. G-d in our Holy Book says, He says, "Believe in G-d and believe in His Messenger." And G-d asks us to obey G-d and obey His Messenger, and I have accepted all of that. I strive to obey G-d. I've done that since as far as I can remember because my mother made sure I knew that obedience was to G-d.
I also believe that the best way I can obey, believe in and obey, prove my belief in Muhammad the Prophet, who was on this earth about 14 centuries, and some 18 years, 17 years ago. And the best way I can demonstrate my faith that I believe in him is to try to support and act upon the things that were most important to him. I believe why the reason why many Muslims misrepresent themselves is because they are not aware of the way that we are supposed to live Islam. We are aware somewhat of our religion in terms of what is faith, what is Islam, what is faith and what are the practices, the ritual practices in Islam, such as prayer and charity and fasting and visiting the Holy Sacred Precincts, the Ka'bah built by the Prophet Abraham and his son, Ismail, peace be upon the prophets. We are aware of those things.
But when it comes to being aware of how Islam is to be lived, I think most of us haven't been given a situation where we can know that or learn that and practice it. And for some reason, and I believe I know the reason, lifestyle in America, especially in the big cities, keeps you so busy, you hardly have time to put on your underclothes. And those are the most important clothes. I thought I should make that clear first, that I'm a conscious Muslim, a conscious Muslim, and I love it. I love it so much, I'd give my life for it.
In our religion, according to the teachings of Muhammad the Prophet, the Prophet that G-d gave the Holy Book to, the Qur'an, in our religion we are to firstly want to qualify to be responsible for our individual personal lives. We're not to want our individual personal life to be a burden on another person if we can carry our own weight. That's first. That's number one. That mean that the brother shouldn't put his cross on his wife's back and tell her to carry it, and the sister shouldn't put her cross on a husband's back and tell him to carry it. He's supposed to bear our own crosses. I believe the cross is all about being able to live with conflict, live with conflict, and yet live honorably. Live with conflict, but you live honorably.
Each and every one of us should be able to... Should be willing, pardon me, after hearing it from G-d saying to you, as a Muslim, every one of us should be willing to accept what G-d asked us to accept. If G-d says we are supposed to carry our own problems and not put our problem on somebody else, then we should do that. Now, it doesn't mean you're not going to get help. When you do that, you're getting more help than you ever would think you would get or ever would dream you would get, because people love to help somebody who's trying to carry their own burden.
Yes. Even as a little child, I used to see women, and my parents raised me with the sensitivities, to have these sensitivities, I used to see women carrying a lot of groceries, and boys do it for money, but I wouldn't offer help for money. I'd be offering help because I thought they needed it. And I'd say, "You want me to help you with that, lady?" I'd say, "Lady, I'll carry that for you." In fact, I did in the terminal today. This lady was getting off the plane, and she was loading. I got a bad back. The doctor told me not to lift over two pounds, but this lady looked like she was as old as me, and she was moving like she had a back problem worse than mine. And she was struggling with these boxes in her bag, so I said, "Give me some of that lady." And she accepted, and I walked out.
I said, "I got some friends waiting out here." And I was almost crying for those friends. I felt as soon as we got out at the gate, they were going to... And they did. They saw me. They rushed up there and took the box out of my hand. So, people rushed to help you. They'll help you when they see you are struggling with your own burdens. But if you are not caring about your own burdens, you're leaving your burden for somebody else to pick up, people don't want to help you. Now, she had been just leaving all her things down in the aisle of the plane and just stand up there looking like, "Who going to come and pick this up," I would've climbed over her boxes and went on out the plane.
G-d asked that of us. But G-d then asks us, second to that, G-d asks us to care about our own family and to accept responsibility for our own families. The words are, "Oh you who believe..." This is the Qur'an. "Oh you who believe, save yourselves and your families from the hell fire. "Oh you who believe, save yourselves." That means individuals. Your obligation to your own self. In fact, the word for yourself in Arabic is your own souls. Save your own souls and your families from the hell fire. So, that means I'm obligated to be conscious of my own life. I'm obligated to be aware of my own condition and to keep myself in a condition that will keep me in the good graces of G-d.
And it says "Also your family", So that means I can't see my children going astray into destruction, going the way of destruction and not do my utmost to pull them back. I can't say, "Oh my son, he makes a lot of money," and close my eyes. "I don't want to hear where you got it from." "Don't tell me where you're getting it from." "Thank you, son. I'm going to pay the rent." "Get me a new coat with this." Well, that won't be saving your family from the hell fire. In other words, we can't support our children or our family, our brothers, our sisters in the household, we can't support the wrongdoings of those persons. We have to be a support in their life for their good moral nature. We've chosen this subtopic of political responsibility, and that this political responsibility is inherent, meaning that it comes with our life. It's in our life, just like the ability to learn language, to learn a human language, the ability to function as a human person on the job in society, et cetera, to qualify for a driver's license. All of that is inherent ability.
We couldn't do that if we weren't created to do that. You're created to be able to do those things, and we are created to have political responsibility. That's what we are saying. Inherent, inborn qualifications that has to be expressed outwardly. It has to be trained. It has to be taught. But it's there. It has to be taught, and it has to be trained in order for you to use that great tool. But it is there, and everything, even the seed that we plant, you don't instantly get the results of that seed. You have to care for that seed. If you are a gardener or a farmer, you have to care for that seed. And eventually in the season, in the right time, you'll get the benefit of that seed, the full benefits of that seed.
After family, comes the neighbor, the neighborhood, the neighbor. Prophet Muhammad said of the neighbor, he said G-d had pressed him so regarding his neighbors, his neighbor's needs, his neighbor's life, so that he had at one point thought that G-d was going to have the neighbor inherit him. Now, I'm giving you his language. This is not rephrasing. That's the way he put it. At one point he thought that G-d was going to have the neighbor inherit him. Now, who's supposed to inherit the Prophet? His followers. The Muslims are supposed to inherit him. Inherit him means that we carry on his mission. We keep his work alive, alive in the world. We keep his mission alive in the world. That's how we inherit him. We do it as an obligation. We do it as something that we feel we are obligated to do because we identify with him as a Muslim, as his follower. So, if he said, and he did, that at one point he thought the neighbor was going to inherit him, who's he talking about? The Muslim neighbor? No, he's talking about the non-Muslim neighbor. The non-Muslim neighbor.
You may say, well, he didn't have any non-Muslim neighbors. Yes, he did. He had even heathen neighbors. Idolaters. Yes. Idol worshipers in his family. Yes. But I'm sure the Prophet was talking about his neighbors of the book. Those that are called People of the Book in the Qur'an. He was talking about Jews and Christians in particular, but all human beings are included. But his Jews and Christian neighbors in particular, that they would inherit him. He thought at one time that they would inherit him at one point. When G-d speaks of Muhammad the Prophet in the Qur'an He lets us know that He didn't create Muhammed or put Muhammad in this world just for those who will embrace the faith, and say they're Muslims.
Allah says of him, G-d says of him in our Holy Book, Qur'an, the word of G-d to move to us and to all the world, that Muhammed is an excellent model of human life and behavior. The word Uswah is the Arabic word. He is an excellent model of human life and behavior for any person who believes in G-d, didn't say Muslim, for the Muslim. For any person who believes in G-d and believes in the last day. Why are those two so much important? Could have said for any person who believes in G-d and finished it. It could have ended that right there. But no. And who believes in the last day. So that gives us this picture that G-d is saying that Muhammad's life and his behavior is an excellent model for any person who has faith in the Almighty G-d who created everything and believe in being responsible for their behavior. Because those who believe in the last day are people who watch their own behavior because they don't want to meet G-d in the judgment with a life that G-d will reject.
So they have to have those two factors in their life, that they believe in G-d and they also believe that they have to be responsible for the record of their own behavior, the record of how they live their lives. Isn't that Christianity, isn't that the obligation of a Christian and a Jew and others, that they believe in G-d and they also believe that they're accountable to that G-d, that one day they going to have answer to that G-d? So, any person who believes in G-d and believes that one day they have to answer to that G-d or before that G-d, Muhammad said to be by G-d, in revelation to us in the Qur'an, an excellent human model for them. Now, they don't have to accept him. They don't have to accept. This religion is not a religion that forces himself on anybody. Not even Muslim. Muslims don't have to accept his religion. They can reject it if he wants.
After he lived with it for 100 years, on his 101st birthday, he can say, "I don't want it anymore." And we can't say, no, we're going to beat you until you accept it again. We can't do that because G-d says no forcing His religion. No forcing. Forcing, compelling in religion. Says the way is clear. Says the way has been shown clearly. The good from the bad, the right from the wrong. Let him who chooses to follow the wrong, let him follow the wrong. And let him who chooses to follow the right, let him follow the right. How come G-d has to say both of those? Look like it'd be enough to say, if anybody want to go wrong, let them go wrong.
But no, G-d says also, if anybody want to go right, let them go right because the bad people, if they get into power, they want to stop the good person from going right. So, G-d is saying to the community of human beings, to their leaders, to their government, that I have ordered My creation to have freedom of choice. And those who want to choose to be bad, let them have it. Those who want to choose to be good, let them have that. Let them have the good. So, G-d has to be on record for defending our right, our freedom to be bad if we want to be and also to be good if we want to be. And believe me, the more you try to be good, the more you going to see that the bad fellow got more approval, and we have to be prepared for that difficult hour to give our all if we have to.
And that's what makes Islam so strong. I'm interviewed by interviewers, most of them media people, but some of them are not. Some of the are authors of some publication or getting ready to do some publication. And, or, they're professional people, just professional people. They get an opportunity. They ask me questions, and the questions that's been asked me often here lately is, first, they make a statement. They say, "We know your father, and he had a very strong following. And now we are aware that you have a very strong following. What accounts for that?" So, I say two things. Training under my father and then something that they love as much as they love what they were getting from my father, I say, and that's freedom and clarity.
Freedom and clarity. I said, Listen, what I do, I say, I show them what I love, and I want them to have what I love. I say, When they see it, they feel that is what they want too. I said nothing is forced on the people. I said they like what they're offered. And I said I believe that most of them were looking for what I'm giving them, the lead in their souls. So, they don't have much to say when I'm giving them that part of the anwer. They go back to The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, say, "Well, he had a close-knit following, and it appears that you have a close-knit following too." We thank Allah. We thank Allah that He has shown us the way and has not left us on our own. G-d Almighty have shown the way and have not left us on our own. That's the real answer. And as long as Allah is with us, we will be strong, we'll be steadfast, and we'll be long living...
Be long living, have a long life and will not turn around, and go with what we know we should have left. The Prophet also is given to us, the picture of him is given to us by G-d as someone who comes with help for all people, for all the world. Allah says of Muhammad. That is, G-d says of Muhammad in our Holy Book. "You are a mercy to all the worlds. You are a mercy to all the worlds."
I was in Saudi Arabia about a year ago, and there as a guest of the Royal Kingdom, and my meeting was with the head of Rabitat, the World Muslim League, which is founded and based in Mecca, Holy Mecca, Sacred Mecca. They had just appointed a new Secretary General for the World Muslim League, the Rabitat. And I had the opportunity to meet him before he really assumed his responsibilities. He was a gentleman that I had heard of and had met before, and was very happy to see that they had appointed this fine gentleman, a very excellent mind, to that position. I don't know how much he had kept up with my activities and what we are doing here in America.
But he said to me, he pressed upon me, he said, "Well, the time is short. We don't have much time together. Looking forward to your return visit." He said, "But I just want to tell you that the best way with the message of Islam is to focus universality." That's what he said. "The best way," he said, "With Islam is to focus universality." Now when you have a lot of respect for a man you consider to be much more formally educated than yourself, you don't take up his time and say, "Well, you don't know what I've been doing. That's just what I've been doing. That's what I've been doing, is focusing universality." You just simply say, "Thank you. Thank you." And that's what I said. I said, "Thank you."
But I felt so relieved that a man of this high caliber and in this very special position in Mecca is telling me that you doing the right thing. That's what he was telling me. You are doing the right thing. Cause that's what I've been trying to do since day one. Since 1975, February 26th, I have been trying to get us to look out and see more than just our immediate situations and our immediate concern, to look out until we can see the whole earth, the whole world, and how we are nothing but a part of it, and G-d has put us in this whole world, not just in Richmond or in Chicago. G-d has put us in the earth.
Richmond wasn't here when G-d said, "I'm going to put you in the earth." G-d put us in the whole earth and then made our ancestors to spread and spread and spread until now, we are all around the globe. We are covering the globe, over 5 billion human beings, I believe. Covering this earth, covering this globe. And G-d put us here. So G-d didn't put us in Richmond. G-d didn't put us in Chicago, Los Angeles, or New York. G-d put us in the earth. So what does it tell us? That G-d want us to be aware of the global community. G-d want us to live with an awareness of the global community. And G-d says that He made us different nations, tribes, and nations. Not that we should think ourselves better than each other. The word is think yourself superior to others, but that we should be curious and want to know each other.
So G-d put us, made us in this earth, and then caused us to come up in different places, to form as nations in different places, some in the continent of Africa, some in the continent of Europe, some in the continent of Asia, some in the continent of the new world Americas, on these continents, all spreaded out all over. Now, we're going to lose our closeness. We're going lose our unity. We're going to lose our common place, and we're going to be separated and not know one another, living in strange places, distant places. And that's G-d's plan.
So that I come up with my African life. Another one comes up with his European life. Another one with his Asian life. Island life. All these different lives. And G-d want all these different lives to eventually be put on one table. One table for the benefit of all of us. So I come with my African life, and I put my African resources on the table. The other come with his life. The other come with his life. And we put all resources on the table. Something like the Prodigal Son, of the Bible, who lived with his Father.
But he establishes a life there. Then he comes back home and he has something to offer that the brothers didn't have. That's not quite the same picture, but it helps us-
And G-d want all these different lives to eventually be put on one table. One table, for the benefit of all of us. So I come with my African life and I put my African resources on the table. The other come with his life, the other come with his life. They put all these resources on the table, something like the Prodigal Son of the Bible, who lived with his father, but something happened. His brothers was jealous of him, gave him a lot of... So he ends up not with his family. He's in a strange land, but he establishes a life there. Then he comes back home and he has something to offer that the brothers didn't have.
That's not quite the same picture, but it helps us understand what we are saying. So here we come from the different corners of the world with our separate experiences and with our learning and our products and our skills, et cetera, and we put them all on one table. And here G-d has enriched the family of man by separating the family of man. If that had been a group effort on the part of all people, it couldn't have worked out that well, because all people would have come under one mind, most likely. All under one kind of thinking, because great people who are closely put together, collected together. They usually evolve one thinking for the whole of them. But if they're separated, they'll evolve a collection, a variety of ideas, thinking, strategies, national ideology, et cetera. So that's exactly what happened. And G-d said that's His plan. G-d said He planned it like that.
We have now what we call the global marketplace. We didn't have this language 20 years ago, not to mention generations ago, but now we have it. The global marketplace. And one word is added there. The competitive global marketplace. It's competitive. The competitive global marketplace. This is the reality. This is the economic reality. This is the commercial reality of the present time. Global marketplace, for the intention is no more local. I can't be successful in business today if I really want to grow to be a big businessman. I can't be successful if I don't have an understanding of global economics, the global marketplace. If I offer my employees too much of a salary, I'm going to be out of line with the new reality. I can't do it and be successful.
I have studied scripture, the Holy Qur'an, and the Bible, and other scriptures and I'm convinced that G-d told us of this time thorugh His Prophets, through the voices of His Prophets.
Thousands of years ago, at least a thousand, 2,000 years ago, G-d told us of this time, that it's coming. G-d had revealed that to His servants, men, human beings, the developmental nature of human society and this interaction with natural resources, and that a time is going to come when mankind is going to be brought together again like he was in the beginning. We're going to become one community. G-d says to us, the Lord says this to us in the Qur'an. I consider all this to be necessary background for my statement I'm going to make to you here in Richmond. G-d says, says to us that the community of people was at one time, one community. That's in the Qur'an. And the scholars of Islam, the scholars of the Qur'an, the scholars of Islam, they believe that what G-d is saying is not only that that was the original situation, but G-d is saying more importantly that that's going to be the situation at the destination.
Life on this earth has been described by our Prophet and by all the great Messangers and Prophets as a path that you're traveling upon. Now, we can give the explanation for what that path is in many ways, but I think that path is applicable to the whole of human life. His moral life is on a path. His rational life is on a path, but also his social life and his community life is on a path. His community life is on a path, and the destination for his community life has already been pre-told. It's been told in advance by the great Prophets, by the great Seers, has been told that one day you are going to have to again live as one community. So I don't know what the Reagan administration meant by, or the Bush administration meant by New World Order. I don't know what they meant, but I sure know what G-d means. I sure know what G-d means, and believe me, there is going to be trickle down. We don't get no heavy rains anymore.
There's going to be trickle down, no matter how much the Democrats dislike it. Going to be trickle down. No heavy downpours anymore. Why? Because the whole earth needs these fertile rains. The whole earth needs these fertile rains, and we are moving toward a just order for the whole community of man. That's what we are moving toward.
The great... Allahu Akbar. G-d is Greater. That's what we are saying. The great religious community of Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and Buddhists and others are meeting together. I know, because they have accepted little me among them. They're meeting together, and what are we discussing? What is our agenda? That we have to use our influence to make more of our congregations aware of the global trends and what religion asks of us. Religion asks that we work for a day that the whole earth will be shining with justice and freedom and opportunity for all. An ethical community of man on this earth. A community of people who have more than justice, but they have compassion and charity.
That's where G-d has directed us to go. And now is the time. Now is the time. I thank The Almighty that I'm living in this day. I wouldn't want to live in any other time. I've often said, listen, I'm going to say it to you in Richmond here. As much as I love Muhammad the Prophet, and I can recall in many times that I have tried to imagine myself back there in his day, walking behind him, walking beside him, going in the front of him if he wanted me to, to search out the dangers and miss my life so that when he walked that road that I covered, it would be safe for him. In other words, I would love to give my life for him in the struggle to establish Islam. I have imagined him and his life, everything. And I can put myself back there in that time, and I enjoy doing it.
I've never gotten any spooky communication, but if some spooky communication would come to me, "Wallace. Imam W. Deen Mohammed, you have a choice. You can either stay in the United States of America and continue with your work there, or you can instantly join the company of Muhammad the Prophet." I love you very much, my Prophet. I love you with my whole being, but the best way for me to serve you is to stay right here in America. And I'd close it out with a special prayer, "Oh Allah, bless Muhammad and the followers of Muhammad, that You bless Abraham and the Abraham and make Muhammad successful and the followers of Muhammad as you did for Abraham and the followers of Abraham. Ameen."
And I would hope that he would get that spooky communication. Because it'd be spooky if he got it, and it'd be spooky if I got it from him, too. We don't expect it to happen that way, but I'm very happy to be here in this time. I couldn't have dreamed, I couldn't have had no way of knowing that I'd be here in such a time. A time when the faith communities of Jews and Christians and Muslims and others, Buddhists, I've told you others, are meeting together not just to learn about each other, but to see what we can do in the way of cooperation so that we put our energies together and put our minds together, put our resources together to work for a just society for all people on this earth. I never thought that time would come.
But that's what G-d is telling us. And G-d tells us that in the beginning, there was a darkness and the light, and G-d separated the darkness from the light. And G-d says in the beginning, there was the water and the land, and G-d separated the waters from above from the waters below and caused the dry land to appear. Yes.
So many of us don't understand that, and I wouldn't try to give you my interpretation, but I'm just going to generalize a bit. Now, look. What G-d is saying, that at one time there was not a whole lot of difference between people. There were the people of darkness and the people of the light. There were the people who gravitated, who were land-oriented, and there were people who were water-oriented. And the world has come back to that. Man is being forced now to see it as being more important than the way he dressed or the way he speak his language, the tongue Arabic or English or French or whatever, to see that they are things more important. And that is the human soul. We all have one soul.
Don't you know that? G-d made only one human soul, and that soul is shared by all of us. We all have the same human soul. The only thing make your soul different is how you relate to your soul because of your experience, et cetera. Training, knowledge, experience, et cetera. But we have the same soul, just like we have the same land. Land is one for everybody. Water is one for everybody. Water is water. Land is land. Soul is soul for everybody. That's why G-d says, "And He made you one soul, made you from one soul, you are made. And the nature of human intelligence, the nature of our human mind is the same for all of us. G-d didn't give a man one nature for his mind and a woman another nature.
What I mean by this, ability. Ability and communication. We have the same ability and the same tools for communication. And we are all rational creatures made the same. I reason, G-d has created us to reason so that we get the benefit of the external ourselves, our life, our personal life, and external environment. This reasoning that G-d created for us, it's not for a ethereal world.
That world was made for our rational mind, and our rational mind was made for that-
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Our rational minds. And our rational mind was made for that world. The world began with these great common tools in the hands of the people that G-d made. And the world is going to end with us putting importance back on these great common assets, the moral assets, your spiritual identity. One soul, your spiritual identity that moral nature that G-d made. The rational nature and the rational discipline that G-d created us for.
The world is going to come back to this. This says it began with that, it shall come back to that. But appreciation for human life in the abstract. We're spiritual creatures. And the greatest learning that we can get on this earth is the knowledge that we are more importantly abstract that concrete. And our identity, our identity is more important in the abstract than it is in the concrete.
Everybody here should understand what I'm saying. Everybody here should readily grasp what I'm saying. Concrete, I mean your flesh and your body, your flesh. Many people have seen my physical picture, but they don't know me. It's only those who have seen my invisible picture who really know me. They've have seen the way I feel, they've seen my emotions, they've seen my way of thinking. They have seen me in abstract. And they know me. But many have seen me in body and they don't know a god---- thing about me. And excuse that for coming in. But that's something I left behind in the neighborhood, and it almost expressed itself fully.
To understand this inherent responsibility, this inborn this responsibility that G-d created us for, we have to have that background I just gave you. We have to have that background. G-d put in one person, and I shouldn't say person really, I should use the language that defines it literally. G-d put in one soul, G-d put in one soul all that was necessary for man to live on this Earth, benefit from it, utilize what it offers, share it with his family and prosper, and have a virtual paradise on this Earth... put it in one soul.
If we are really believers in Christianity or in the Bible and in the Qur'an or in Islam, then we believe that we all descended from that one soul, called Adam, May peace be upon him. And if we believe that, we can reason a little bit further that Adam still lives. How does a peach tree live? It lives because the seed from the previous tree has been put in the ground again. And the tree has come up again. So how does Adam live? Because the seed from the previous man was put into the womb again. And it kept living.
So actually, what ever G-d created Adam with, all of us still have it. All of us still have it. If Adam was created to have responsibility for himself and for the whole environment on this earth. Yes the whole environment for this earth. The Bible speaks of it butit's more elusive, more, pardon me, vague, more shrouded in mystery than what the Qur'an presents.
The Qur'an makes it very clear. That G-d put Adam in the earth, and said to the angels, "I'm making a Khalifa in the earth. And a Khalifa means one who's going to be responsible for himself, the human community, and also the natural environment. That's exactly what it means. But you can't do it without great knowledge and power. And you know that's how man have gone to the moon, right? With great knowledge and great fuel, power.
Rockets fuel power, great power to lift that rocket and cause that rocket to break the pull of gravity and go to the moon. Yes. So many proofs that we have in this real world today. Today is the most difficult time for people to come to faith, and also the easiest time for people to come to faith, at the same time. At one in the same time. It's difficult because we're not in the immediate picture or surroundings that G-d made. Our immediate surrounding's made by man. Those walls there, clothes I wear, the transportation out there. The horse isn't waiting for me out there, I hope it's not, something with horsepower, but not a horse. Then I'd be terribly disappointed if I don't have nothing but a horse out there waiting on me when I get ready to go to the airport.
But at one time there was only G-d's creation. Everywhere you look, G-d's creation. Even the house you lived in, very simple house in the beginning. Tree leaves, yeah, straw, oh yeah, mud, very simple start, very simple beginnings. But now you live within man's mind. That's what you live in. You live within man's creation. You live within man's mind all around you. Really if this man doesn't talk to you to be aware of G-d and what G-d wants for you in your life, you won't get it. Because the whole environment is showing you nothing but man. So that's what make it so difficult now to have faith and have it truly and travel the path of faith.
But at the same time I said it's easy now. Why is it easy? With knowledge of Scripture. With knowledge of Scripture, you'll see that G-d told us about this time coming thousands of years ago. Hundreds and I would say even thousands of years ago, G-d told us this time was coming.
I have so much proof now that G-d is G-d and is real and is present at all times, that I would actually have to go insane. I would, to step out outside of religion. I would have to be absolutely insane. In fact, I don't think I would do it if I was insane. Because many insane people, they keep to their old life. They know to go to the bathroom, they know how to go to the bathroom, lot of men insane. They know how to go to the bathroom, and they know their old complaints they used to have. If they didn't like this particular thing on the table while they were eating, they insane now. But they, "Ugh." I'm sure I'll still have my Islamic mind. I'll still be G-d's servant even if I was insane. I'd just be a crazy follower of G-d. And I guess we have a lot of those out there.
When G-d says He's going to make man a Khalifa, G-d is saying that He's going to make him responsible for the whole environment, for himself, his family, people, whole environment. Who has that responsibility now in our national of boundaries? The people. But who carry out that for us? Our government leaders. Our government leaders, they carry that responsibility for our public, responsibility for the total environment.
We have air space that belongs to this nation. We have waters that belongs to this nation. We have the resources and the land and in the water, all belonging to this nation, belonging to the people. And we have a government, a great government, Democratic government, the best model of justice for human beings on this Earth.
And I didn't forget the Holy Land. I said on this earth. Yes. We have this great society and we hp;d government leaders, and the government leaders hold industry, et cetera responsible. So actually our government carries out the wishes of its citizens, us, of serving as Khalifa. Right? Yes. Some of us might say "Well, it's certainly not a good Khalifa." You have that right. But you're free to use your influence as an American citizen to get better government. Really, we're not in any terrible situation. We're in a good situation. If we don't have good government, we can do just what great Americans have been doing all along. Holding government accountable and getting better and better government.
I'm talking to you all that don't want to claim your share of America. I'm claiming my share, already claimed it. I'm obligated under Allah. G-d, your G-d and my G-d, I'm obligated under G-d to claim my share. Because America said it, G-d said it. The Qur'an is over 14 centuries old. And G-d says in the Qur'an, "Get by the means that I have given you. Work to get to hereafter." It's called the last, the end, the latter. Not even called day, doesn't say the last day, it says just the latter, just the latter, that means coming later that G-d promised you in the end, destination. That's the destination.
Says use whatever G-d has given you to get there. But don't forget your share in this material world. That's what G-d tell us, each and every one of us in this religion. Now I'm in America, G-d obligates me to have a material share of America. And believe me, if you have material holdings, it puts you in a situation to care more about all of your rights. In fact, it awakens in you, rights that you never knew or rights that you perhaps have forgotten. Yes. What you have is strongly identifying with it.
We in this city of Richmond, Virginia. We just shouldn't be here with our minds in another city and npt here. Our minds should be firstly in Richmond, Virginia. I'm a citizen resident of Richmond, Virginia. How am I faring here? And how are my neighbors faring? That's if you're a servant of G-d, that's if you're Muslim, a believer in G-d. You can't just be here when you know how your religion obligates you, then you have to stop thinking so small. You have to stop thinking so narrowly. You have to begin to open up your eyes to see bigger responsibilities. And the more responsibilities you see, the bigger your spirit gets. Yes.
I heard some guy wrote, "If we have spiritual strength, you can conquer all things." But how do you get spiritual strength? Spiritual strength comes when I see there's hope, there's hope and there's opportunities. And I can meet the demands. That's when my spirit gets stronger and stronger. When I know there's hope, opportunity, and I know I can meet the demands. Then my spirit gets strong. Oh boy, it's strong.
We live in Richmond. Richmond should be our responsibility. Community, G-d awakens in us an obligation to Him to present ourselves always in the best condition. And then tells us that He made you not just for yourself, but He made you for community life. He made you for community life. And G-d says to us, the Christians are a community. The Jews are a community. There are many communities that have not been mentioned in the book. But G-d have made man community. Is that wonderful?
And G-d says that if you follow this religion you are the best community, evolved for the good of all people. Look, a Prophet who's a Mercy for all the nations, all the Worlds. A Prophet who's a model for any person who believes in G-d and is accountable to that G-d. And then G-d says a community, that He has evolved, if they follow the religious guidance that He gave to Muhammad, that is the best community for the good of all people.
So how can we work on building the Nation of Islam and leave out our neighbor? Oh, we're going to have a great Nation of Islam. We're going to have enough bean pies for every Muslim to have a bean pie on the table every day. But what about the neighbor next door who can't eat sweets, can't eat desserts today? They got Campbell's soup, ravioli or something.
So you're not really living up to the model of Muslim if you're not having them in your plans. We have plans. We have plans. We have a plan and we know how we're going to reach it. We have a plan to measure up to more of our responsibility as Muslims following the guidance of the Qur'an in the way that it was shown to us by Muhammad the Prophet. We have that obligation. And we know in order to fulfill that obligation. We just can't have a place to pray, we have to be responsible for passing on Islamic knowledge to our children, and qualifying leaders in the future to carry more of the responsibility for the community of Islam that we're carrying presently.
We have to have better Imams in the future than we have today. That means we have to be working to give our children that's coming a better Islamic education than we had the opportunity to get ourself. We have to see Muslim schools on the top list of our priorities for our agenda, Muslim schools, quality Muslim schools. Teaching Arabic in the best way, not in any quick, makeshift way. Just snatch somebody up who impressed us. "Yes. Alhamduillah brother. Yes, I can teach you Arabic. Yes. I can teach an Arabic class." Where were you trained? Where did get the schooling?
"Oh, brother, brother, brother, brother, brother. Don't worry about that, brother. Allah take care of everything. Allah will take care of everything." You can't have that. You've got to get qualified teachers, qualified teachers. And give quality environment for the students. You live in America. You live in progressive USA. And you claim a religion that's equal to Christianity? And you want to have a school that shames the neighborhood in America? No. You have to have a school that the neighborhood is proud of. You have to have a school that the public school system is proud of. The superintendent of schools should come and visit our school and say, "Hey, this is a fine school. I want to congratulate you."
G-d has given us a situation that will make it possible for us to go all the way to the end of the road, to the Promised Land, to the destination. A religion that will lift us up to the highest level of human intentions. Political, financially, and not to mention morally, but in every way. G-d has given us a religion that will satisfy... G-d says, not me. Allah says, G-d says in Qur'an that this religion is sufficient for any human being. That mean no matter how much G-d has created you to want in your life, if it's that that is good for your life, this religion opens opportunities for that or prepares you to go into the opportunities that will be open, and to open them if they're not there.
Yes, this religion prepares you for that. So how are we going to have this big religion and not try to grow bigger ourselves? Our religion obligates us to have bigger appetites for better and for more in quantity. Yes, it conditions us to have appetites for more in quality and more in quantity. G-d says of Muhammad, that He found you groping, and He enriched you, enriched you. And then G-d says, also, "Surely I have given you of abundance, and I have created you that you may have increase." Increase, growth, prosper, prosperity. This is the way you should think. This is the way we have to think.
Any leader over a congregation, who doesn't have his faith as a sincere requirement in his life, and he doesn't have respect for the human intelligence and their moral nature in his mind, or in his makeup, and he doesn't have a desire to see prosperity, to see progress, to see people grow, to see people have more day after day, showing more and more, he's not an Imam for Muslims.
He's not Imam for real human beings. Human beings are not going be happy. They're not going to be happy. They're not going to be content. They're not going to have a spirit to go anywhere. If the person who is speaking to them, and representing them, or trying to motivate them doesn't have a desire or sincere interest in following and obeying G-d, and in respecting the excellence of each person, that G-d made. You may disrespect your own excellence. I can't disrespect that excellence. I have to respect that excellence.
You may not care anything about learning more, or about improving your life, or about taking care of your family responsibility, not to mention sharing in the responsibility for the City of Richmond. You may not have any interest at all in that. But I know G-d created you for that. So I'm not to look at the person that's showing himself or herself to me, I'm to look at the person that's hidden, behind that crap that's buried under that crap. And I'm supposed to work until I bring that person out, so that the real person that G-d made can have life and more abundantly.
Some of us thought that, "Well now that the Imam have established that the religion, Islam, it's the same here with us as it is in Mecca, you can get some of that Saudi money." Some said, "Some of that oil money." It's slippery money, I can tell you that. "Get some of that oil money." "Look how much money the Emirates got. How come we can't get some of that money?" Because G-d wants you to have your own life. And that's more important for you down the road than money. G-d wants you to have your own life.
There's never been a spirit in me to go and ask anybody else outside this country for anything. In fact, I don't have a spirit to go and ask non Muslims for anything. No, I want us to have the joy for the first time since we lost our life on the continent of Africa. And I won't say slavery, because we wouldn't have been brought here and put in bondage here in this country if we hadn't already invited somebody to do that.
So obviously, our life on the continent of Africa had deteriorated so, humanly speaking, civilization wise, it had deteriorated so that we invited somebody to come and get us and put us in bondage. So I don't believe that we have had our own life in our own hands, for many, many generations. Many, many generations. And I believe that what makes African Americans dissatisfied with the state of their life is not so much what America is denying us, but what our souls want and we don't have light on. We don't have the light on the scene, to see just what our soul wants.
So we think the soul wants the white man to be nice and still. And really what the soul wants is for us to stop asking others for so much, and start looking for more to do for our own selves. That's what the soul is asking for. Our soul has a mind of its own. Listen to me now, I'm a deep, deep man. Our souls have a mind of its own. The mind that G-d created it with. And we be doing things, and our soul, that's not what our soul mind goes along with. But our soul can't communicate to us, simply because we have been so long out of communication with our soul.
The lines have become clogged up. The lines are all clogged up. You can't get any clear communication. When a soul is strained, it can't reach you anymore. But that soul knows what it wants. It wants the full responsibility that G-d created it for. It ain't happy when it looks at an Oprah Winfrey, that's most likely as one writer said, is going to be the first African-American billionaire. But that ain't enough for the soul. The soul looks way up there and see where Oprah Winfrey, with all of this following, Black, and White, and Asian, and everybody, everybody accepting her and loving her, and all that money just pouring in.
And the soul is sad, because the neighborhood, African-American as a group, still in bad shape, still not having responsibility, not as a group, not having responsibility. In this City of Richmond, I'm told that it's almost an African American city. The percentage is what? What is the percentage of African Americans here? Majority? Over 60%? 63%? Majority?
PART 2 OF 3 ENDS [00:54:04]
You're in the majority, and you got the minority looking out for you and taking care of you like you wear Pampers?
That's a shame. Something's wrong. And if you go and review what I said today, you'll see the answer. You'll discover the answer, if you don't already know it. If you go and review what I said to you today, you will discover the answer.
We have been cut off from natural growth, natural evolution of society. The natural growth, the natural evolving, our evolution of society, we were cut off of that. Slavery cut it off. Something happened on the continent of Africa to make us blind to that responsibility, or to that favor of G-d in the nature of human society.
And we came over here, and we were cut off, we were denied opportunity to even seek it. And then slavery was ended, and then discrimination made it very difficult for us to come into a new mind, to look at ourselves as, look for responsibility to take into our own hands. And right now there are too many of us professional African Americans, who say to me right now, "You are naive, buddy man. The white man ain't going to let you do that." Malcolm X says that he wants whatever a white man wants." Yes, and he was questioned, "What do you all want?" He said, "Ask yourself what you want." He said, "And that's exactly what I want."
Now that's great, and I like the way you responded, but I hope you won't disappoint us, because most of us, when we applaud what Malcolm said, we are just talking about money. Yes, jobs, money, benefits, rights, but not responsibility. Now the big help comes to us when our leaders will stand up and tell the white man, we want the same responsibility that you want.
We want responsibility for the way the town will be run. We want responsibility for factories. We want responsibility for land and for structures built on the land. We want responsibility for planning the neighborhood and developing it. We want all of the responsibility that G-d has created any man for.
Teach your children to think that way and we won't be arguing rights anymore. We won't be complaining too much anymore. We will be making progress. Yes. And you don't have to be rich. "Oh, I got this. Oh yeah, well these immigrants, they come over here and they get in the neighborhood. And reason why they're able to have stores, and operate stores, and pretty soon own things, is because they get so much help from our government."
And you don't know that, but you heard somebody say it. Some of them do get help. Government feels it owes help to some of them. You don't know what they've been doing over there in their country to help this government.
Putting their life on the line, risking their family lives to support our government, when the majority of their people was against us. Some of them that come here, that was their situation in their land. And the government offered them so much protection for putting their life on the line, trying to help make the land better as America sees it, through the eyes of America.
And they come over here, they come back here, and they don't have anything. Their people didn't give them a chance to have anything, or took everything from them. Some of them lost everything to the nation. Communists, or whoever took over that was in charge of the land. They lost everything. They wouldn't permit them to have anything. Some of them were rich, they had factories and everything. New order come in and take everything. Government confiscate everything in the name of the nation.
And they come over here with nothing. So the government knows about this, it feels obligated. Then some of them, government feels obligated to give a certain amount of help to a certain percentage of people outside of America anyway. That's the obligation. You're supposed to help your own, but you're also supposed to have charity for those abroad.
So that's the way of the government. So they come here and we're jealous. Those people come here, most of them, they come here and they will do without color television, they will do without that fine furnishing that we have. We are poor people with rich life. Yeah, we are. We are poor people with a rich lifestyle. Rich lifestyle. They would do without that fine car, that fine car and everything. They will suffer to live. Got three rooms, they will suffer to have three or four families in that small apartment.
They will save money because they're not spending it. They will save that powerful US dollar until they can get enough to invest it wisely.
Then they'll invest it in a business of their own. Might take them maybe 15, 5, 10, 15 years. They'll sell you the color television before they have one in their home.
Yeah. And we know, you're jealous of them, you envy them. We need to be deprogrammed and then taught how to live all over again. Anytime a whole race can be described as a consumer market, something is terribly, something is terribly wrong.
And that's where we are. As a race or ethnic group, we are a consumer market. We are not producing enough to be described in any other way. We are consumer people, a consumer market. That's what we are. Spending billions and billions of dollars, but not having one billionaire. Now we think that's going to be awful exciting, and it's going to come soon, I believe, when we can say we have an African American billionaire.
And I just recently read about one European woman who's having billions, billions, not 1 billion, billions. Private family business, company, private family company. And I imagine there are many more that have much more than that. Not to mention to men, the European American men, what they got. I can name you several men who are trillionaires. Trillionaires.
So that's not going to be any real big deal. But for one person, yeah, I got to say, she's a great achiever, remarkable achiever.
Yes, so what are we going to do about our situation as a group? We're going to change it. That's what we're going to do. We're going change it. G-d is going to force us to change it. We are going to have to come into business sense, and we are going to have to come into the community sense, where we live, not just for ourself and our little house somewhere, our apartment, but we live for the neighborhoods, live for the whole neighborhood.
And we don't see our success or our achievement in our family only, or in our little house, in the car we own, or the business we're operating only, but we have to see our achievement in the neighborhood progress, how much this neighborhood has progressed, how much this African neighborhood has progressed. Can't keep living in the neighborhoods and moving from one to another, to have some false sense of achievement.
"Oh yes, I'm separating from these niggers. I'm moving up there where the white folks live. They shame me every time I come out of my house, and I can afford better, so I'm separating from these niggers." So you're just like the white bigots. You say, "I'm going to run from these poor niggers. I couldn't keep them out of here, so I'm going to run from these poor niggers. I'll find me another place to live. I put up stake somewhere else, put stakes up somewhere else."
So you ain't no different. You're worse, because he's not leaving his people. He's just going to catch up with the people of his class. But you're leaving your people, because they ain't no people of your class that you could live with for long, without poverty creeping in and the neighborhood going down, because we don't respect you either. The white man moves in the neighborhood, and look real good, and we can afford to rent there, or buy there. "Hey, I got the money. He can't keep me out of here."
Now you think we're going to spare you? You're living in a good rich neighborhood. This Black folks, a bunch of professional Negroes, you think we're going to spare you? No, we're going to bring our poor ass right in your neighborhood too. Soon as we get enough money, and we might get it from selling drugs, or anything else, we are coming, baby.
So don't keep running. Let's accept responsibility for the state and condition of our neighborhood. We have a plan. We are selecting business people with a little bit. They're not rich. We don't have rich people. We are selecting, organizing business people who have a small amount of investment money, and they are investing under the name, now in the company called Collective Purchasing Company, CPC.
And we are committed. We are firstly Muslim, conscious Muslims. And our obligation is Muslim community life. That means we must have some geography for our community life. If we are to fulfill what G-d asks of us. We must have some geography for our community life. We must have some geography for a house of worship, schools, constable centers, the social outlet, social activity, et cetera. We must have responsibility for building homes, designing the neighborhood.
G-d wants us to be community developers. That's what He created us to be, community developers. So we won't have satisfaction in our souls until we become the developers of neighborhoods. You think I'm dreaming?
I'm wide awake. And this is what wakes me up more, accepting this kind of responsibility. I got people with me. We are making progress. We are making progress. G-d is with us. G-d is not going let the Saudi Royal Family give us no billion dollars so we can have a golden cage to live in, owned by the Saudi.
No, G-d is not going to let Khadaffi give us a billion dollars from his oil reserve? No. Oil sales? No. G-d is going to deny us that. Why? Because G-d respects what He created us to be. G-d respects even if we don't. And we have been separated from our motherland, separated from our traditional life as an independent people, and brought over here in America. And now G-d insists, He insists that we learn and accept community responsibility.
It's in the soul to have it. It was taken away when we were put in slavery. It's in the soul to have it back. Community responsibility, not just responsibility for myself, or for my friends, or for my family. No, community responsibility. It doesn't take everybody to do this. It takes nothing but a small number of people.
Prophet Muhammad had a small number of exceptional men and women, and they were able to lead the way for the many. So don't say, "Oh, you can't do that. You'll never get all the Blacks." I don't want all the Blacks. I don't want all the Negroes. I don't want all the African Americans. I just want a few people who believe in what we can do and will accept this vision and we will have the city and our responsibility in our hands. And white people, the white neighbors will be saying, "These Blacks are really running this city in a marvelous fashion. They're such wonderful responsible leaders." 
I invite my friends in Europe to come and live here in Richmond, that they may come. If you invite me here, invite me, I'll come to Richmond and live. With you being in the majority with this really very impressive traditional African American leadership you have here, even though ..... El-Amin.
Attorney Green, what's his name? Yeah, you know who I'm talking about. Even that guy, I welcome him to be my friend again, and if they will support me coming here and will accept the vision that we have to bring community life into our hands, I will come here and be a citizen of Richmond and I'll work with you and we will set a model up in Richmond that will revive the black man everywhere in America. That will bring him to come back to life in responsibility for the environment that he shares. Thank you very much. That's my message today. G-d created us to inherit responsibility for community. He put it in the language, political responsibility.
Exactly what we are talking about is responsibility for the community that we live in and share in. Let us be responsible for it. My soul will never be satisfied, my soul will never be at peace until I know African Americans can be responsible for their own neighborhoods without a lot of help or excessive help coming from outside. We should need no more help than a Mexican neighborhood, no more help than a Polish neighborhood, no more help than an Irish neighborhood. We shouldn't need no more help than any other neighborhood. We should be as responsible as any people that G-d has put on this earth. Thank you, and we pray for success and ask G-d to have mercy on us and show us the way, never leave us alone, our Lord. Amen.



