04/06/1999
IWDM Study Library
Islam and Global Community

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

We are saying G-d is Greater. Allahu Akbar. Peace unto you. Muslim greetings means Peace unto you and we say As Salaam Alaikum. And to our Non Muslim Christians who have joined us, we wish you peace and we pray G-d that you had a satisfying day yesterday with your religious people, your friends, and your family. We are here again in this city of Toledo and on this precious ground here, the campus of the University of Toledo to address you not just the Muslims, but to address persons from the public as well, from the public of Toledo, Ohio and the surrounding areas. We have selected to speak or to address Al Islam, the religion of Islam, the American Spirit and Vision for the Global Community, vision for the global community. Islam as commonly called in our holy book is always written Al Islam. Islam is, as one scholar said, who has passed away, but he's a great scholar who influenced many students in Islam throughout the world and I am one of those, Maulana Maududi of Pakistan. He said of Islam, it is an ideology for the reformation of the world. It is the ideology that's given to bring about the reformation of the whole world, the whole globe, the global community of mankind.

And as a student of religion, I understand that the message of Christianity or the Christian message, the message of the gospel, the Bible, the New Testament is also an idea or an ideology for the reformation of the world, the global community of man. And we must also acknowledge that Judaism, the religion of the Jews, is also a message and ideology for the reform or the reformation of the whole globe, the human family. We are nearer to the Christians in our method or methodology, the way we go about promoting the idea or spreading the idea. That is we announce that we are inviters inviting all people to the path of G-d. We don't hide it. We announce that that we are inviting all people to the path of G-d. That doesn't mean that we don't recognize the rights of other people to their religion. It doesn't mean that we are seeking to dominate the earth with our religion. G-d is too great for that. G-d is too high above that to force people to come to His word or His way against their will.

If we all were still in the original purity of our religion, we would be the same. We wouldn't be any different. There would be unity. There would be one message. But because as our scripture says and the Bible also acknowledges the same, but because we have lost part of our knowledge, and some have intentionally went away from their knowledge and gotten in positions of power to influence the way the knowledge is perceived or understood or even read, we have these great differences. Differences because of I would say innocent errors, differences because of ignorance, and differences because of bad intentions. We are living in the day now that I call the day of religion. And I call it the day of religion because religion is for the first time in the history of man that as I know it, I'm not a historian but I'm a student of history also, we are living in a time that we have never witnessed before for religions recognizing each other, respecting each other and seeking to know more about each other so that there can be more respect for each other and more cooperation for the advancement of the whole human society on this earth. This is the first time, this is a wonderful day.

I believe it's a day prophesied in the scriptures, the Bible and the Qur'an. And in other books, religious books that I won't name. But it is a day that man has been made aware of and a day that the best of the human souls have been hoping for, for generations and generations behind us. And Islam is a religion of peace. The name itself gives a message of peace. Peace is Salaam. Al Islam is a religion of peaceful obedience to G-d, to seek peace with G-d and to seek peace with our fellow man. Peace with G-d and peace with our fellow man. And we cannot have that peace if we don't have peace with ourselves, peace with our own soul. So Islam, the religion that is intended to bring about a peaceful individual with himself, his own life, his own soul and peace for the individual with his G-d. And he cannot have that peace with himself and with his G-d unless he accepts that he is just one of the many dependents that G-d made or created. He has to embrace them, acknowledge their creation as a creation like his, no less than his, and that G-d is the cherisher of all life who cares about each and every one of us. When he accepts that, then he can have peace, he can have peace with G-d, he can have peace in his own soul and peace with his fellow man.

Islam, I repeat is the religion of peace. Now why is it then that there is a fear from non-Muslims in many parts of the world of Islam? That Islam seeks to wipe out all other religions, dominate the world. That has happened because some of us have just not understood our own religion. Some of the teachers of our religion have not really understood this religion. I will give you a few quotes from the Holy scripture of the Muslims, the Qur'an, that I hope will just clear the air so we can just keep going and moving forward. It says very clearly in our Holy book and most of the scholars stand firmly upon this. I mean Islamic scholars in all the Islamic world, Saudi Arabia, wherever you go, Africa, Egypt and Africa, Morocco and Africa, all the Muslim countries over there. And in Asia, Pakistan and others, they all stand, the scholars all stand upon this. "Let there be no compulsion in religion." Do not compel people, force people to be believers. And G-d says to the Prophet himself, Peace be upon our Prophet. You cannot give faith to anyone. It is only G-d that gives them faith.

If we could give faith to anyone, do you think we'll have unfaithful or nonbelievers in our families, among those we love? Muhammad the Prophet had relatives that wouldn't come to Islam. If he had the power to give them faith, he would have. If he could have given them faith, he would have. And again, we have to understand the clear language of the Qur'an, it says "Let whosoever will accept and who else whosoever will reject." This is the freedom of religion. What we are saying here speaks for the freedom of religion. Do we fight against those who disbelieve? Yes we do, but upon what grounds? That they are denying us our religious freedom. The wars in Islam, in the history of Islam, beginning with the very first war led by Muhammad the Prophet himself. Those wars, if they were true wars, true jihad, they were wars in defense of Islam and they were not aggressors. The leaders were not aggressors. It was in defense of Islam. Muhammad the Prophet was a man of peace, a lover of peace, and he suffered much. The average one of us would've fought long time before he did.

He went to Taif, a neighboring area to his land, to his city of his birth Mecca. He went to Taif, a raised area with mountains there to invite those people of Taif to the religion or Islam. And they laughed at him, scorned him, and permitted their silly ones and their young ones to stone him as he was leaving the city. And the report says that blood had dripped from him so much that the sound of the wet blood in his sandals could be heard as he was stepping, the squishing of the blood. But did he fight? Did he become angry? No, he understood their ignorance. He peacefully walked out of that town and went back to his own place. That's Muhammad the Prophet. That's why G-d had to say in the Qur'an, the revelation to Muhammad and to us now, to all of us now. Permission is given to you to fight. So, G-d had to give him permission to fight. And then Allah says, G-d says in Qur'an, "But do not be aggressors." And the last reference I want to make you aware of, point to, some of you are already aware of everything I'm saying, you're students of Islam as I am. Students of the Qur'an. And Islam.

G-d says to Muhammad and to all of us, "And fight until there is no more oppression and religion is only for G-d." That's a powerful statement. It passes by many. I mean scholars, many scholars. "And religion is only for G-d." What is that saying? What is that addressing? Most nations have religion as a scheme for containing the subjects. So, the religion is serving the nation more than it's serving G-d. Islam came to do away with that, to break that slave hold, enslaving hold on religion and free religion so it could be wholly for G-d. Be aware brothers and sisters, be aware that your religion is supposed to be for your G-d. Now we know G-d obligates us to do many things because G-d doesn't need anything from us, but our obedience or our sacred regard, our Taqwa, the Muslim term Islamic term. That's all G-d needs. And He says that in the book, the Qur'an. G-d says, "What you give, your money or whatever, the animals you slaughter, whatever the blood that you sacrifice from those animals during the Hajj, He says, that does not reach him." He says, "But what reaches Him is your obedience, your Taqwa, your Islamic consciousness, your Taqwa."

That's the only thing that reaches Him. So, all that He asks us to do is really for ourselves. To help ourselves individually as families and as communities. So, we know that we are to give in support of our Mosque. We give in support of our leaders who devote themselves to the preaching of Islam, to Dawah, et cetera. We are to give, to support the need to support the widows. The list is long for the recipients of our charities or our giving. And firstly, we are to support our families. But G-d says, "And families have a priority when it comes to rights" in the book of G-d. This is from Qur’an. Al Islam, the religion of peace. Al Islam also is a religion of freedom. The first freedom of the American people is the freedom of religion. I celebrated with religious leaders that first freedom from eight or nine years ago because I strongly identify with it, religious freedom. Here we join the American Christian people and the citizens of this country as partners cherishing the freedom of religion, supporting it and I myself being prepared to die physically right now for it. Those who understand the scriptures, the religion as it is given in the scripture, sacred scripture, Christians, Jews and Christians and Muslims, those who understand it, we know that nothing can keep our precious life for us but the guidance of G-d. The nations will come and go. Their precious knowledge comes and go, but the way of G-d stays. And it is only because of the eternal light of the word of G-d that nations have great life and great, great longevity. America is living and surviving for these 200 years or more now, not so much because of its political ideology, but because of the essence and influence of the scriptural wisdom incorporated in its political idea. We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator. This is the language of the Founding Fathers that recognize G-d Almighty, the G-d of all of us. With certain inalienable rights.

Among them, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And we know the spirit, the true spirit of American people is a wholesome spirit. It is a blessed spirit. It is a spirit that I embrace and I invite all of you who are with me to embrace it, not the commercial world and it's commercial interest and the commercial life that it creates for the consumers. That life if we are not careful will take us away from the path of G-d and straight to hell. So don't see America, the true America is not in the commercial picture. The true America is in the language of the Founding Fathers and in the Constitutional evolution of progress that has been made. That has been made to respect or be in accord with the best ideas of the Founding Fathers. This is the true life, the true America and the true life. This is the real life freedom. Muhammad was told to tell the Meccans who rejected him because they were worshippers of too many G-ds that they made with their own minds and hands and they didn't like that he was bringing them the idea of just one G-d, the real G-d, the Creator of everything.

So, they persecuted him and they treated him as though he had no rights, citizenship rights. So G-d revealed to him to say, "I am a free man in this town." That's what he said. He was told to say that, G-d told him to say that. "I am a free man in this town." I don't see how any of us can not love freedom. I'm talking about African Americans, black folks. In fact, we love freedom so much, we should put freedom on anything we go after. Freedom has a price. The freedom struggle gave birth to great leaders, females and males. Frederick Douglas, perhaps more outstanding then anyone single one of them, who had, he was part of the abolitionists, among the abolitionists who were mostly non- Blacks, non-slaves free people, whites. And we know that the history of our freedom struggle is the history of a struggle for respect as human beings created in the best human mold by G-d the Creator. Freedom has a price. Those great giants of the freedom struggle of the past, they paid the price. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-, he paid a big price. Freedom has a price. Freedom is paid for with the goodness of our hearts and with the goodness and industriousness and ingenuity of our brains, our minds.

And our hands, our work. Those who don't have much in the heart will not ask for much freedom. So, they will buy cheap freedom. Those who don't have much in their brains just don't have the ability to ask for quality freedom. And they too will buy cheap freedom. Those who are lazy don't want to make an effort, they wait for freedom to come to us. And it can be no quality at all. To have the kind of freedom that our souls called for from the day that we were created and the day that we were enslaved, made slaves. And the day that we were emancipated, our souls call for freedom. And to answer that kind of freedom, that quality of freedom that our souls have been asking for, we cannot have it separately. We cannot have it going after it individually. We must have it behind qualified leaders. Authorized leaders. The great progress we made on the path of freedom was because we had such leaders and we followed them. But too many of us now have lost the meaning of freedom.

And it's the same for us as is or as it was for a few of those slaves who had to learn two or three years later that they were free. They didn't even, this is a fact of history. The Emancipation Proclamation was made, slaves celebrated, they were left free, but some of them were walking around in the streets thinking that they were still slaves. And I guarantee you, you can find some today in Chicago if not in Toledo, walking around and they don't know they free. They don't even know what freedom is. How can they know they're free if they don't know what freedom is? So, we have to have leaders. Allah tells us in our Holy book that we are community, that He made us the best community for the benefit of all people. That's what G-d says in our Holy book. For the benefit of all people, not just Muslims, not just blacks, not just Arab- For the benefit of all people. G-d says to that whole community, "Let there arise out of you a group promoting the best, not fearing the criticism of criticizers." So G-d is asking for a special group to come out of the big group. That's a leadership group. We always will need leaders, brothers, and we should not be satisfied to have bad leaders selected by us.

Let the bad people select bad leaders, but let us keep our eyes open and not go with the majority. Let us even put a man up for nomination or for election that we know is going to lose. But we put him up to say to the world, this is our choice, not these that the majority are going after. And then G-d will be with us and the people will soon hear us. And they're good by nature, they're good in their souls that G-d made. They'll respond in time and we will have the numbers to back us to support such people. But first you have to struggle. You have to be willing to have patience and wait until your message has reached the soul and hearts of the people. Authorized leadership we must have. The best freedom is expensive. A freedom that you pay little for to me is a freedom not worth having.
Audience Member:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Freedom to eat and sleep and drink and have sex and play and go in any park I want to in America, or in any movie house I want to in America, or sit down in any restaurant I want to in America, eat, sleep, drink, have sex, play, be entertained- Why the animals ask for that. But my brain and my human soul holds much more than that. So let more of us support leaders who choose not to lead the way to cheap freedom. I can't have a cheap freedom myself. I'd rather be dead. Islam is a religion of faith and worship and works. We are not different from the Christians. That's their religion. Religion of faith, worship and works. A man was brought to Muhammad the Prophet for his devotion to rituals and purity and they said to Muhammad the Prophet said, "We bring you this man because he's so good. He prays. He never misses prayer. He fasts, he devotes himself always to the Mosque." Muhammad the Prophet, Peace be upon him, he asked, he said, "Who takes care of him?" They say, we do. He said, "Then you are better than he is." I find it difficult now after preaching for 10 years, 20 years, I find it very difficult to really be aware of my spirit, the spirit that's moving in me as a purely Muslim spirit, or religious spirit, separate from the spirit of the good American people. Yes, I have learned that what we believe in and what we cherish, what we hold sacred is what they hold sacred, what they believe in, what they cherish. And I find myself speaking as an American and as an Imam, and not even knowing the difference. And really there is no difference. Now, I don't want you to go too far with some of the things I want to say to you now. I was preaching just a few days ago in fact, and on a prestigious ground, very prestigious ground like this one. And a Jewish professor and one of the persons in the organization that invited me, he got up behind my talk, they made comments on my talk and he said, "If a Muslim is what Wallace Muhammad says a Muslim is, I want to tell you I'm a Muslim." That's what he said. That's a Jew said that. What he was saying is that I accept him without reservation. I accept and I accept anybody to live coexist with us, to be my neighbor, to work with them if they will be the Muslim that this man is pointing to. Praise be to Allah.

And that's why I guess G-d says in the Qur'an, when you present it correctly, He says, "And who would reject the religion of Abraham?" Now remember that the religion of Abraham means Islam because the Qur'an establishes that. Says this religion is the religion of your father Abraham. It says, "Who would reject the religion of Abraham, but someone who wants to make himself a fool." Someone who wants to push his brain down until he gets stupid. Islam is a religion that wants us to be aware of sacred ties. The number one sacred tie is our tie with our Creator who made us and made everything possible. But G-d want us to be aware also of the sacred tie of family relations. G-d says, "And be aware, be regardful of the ties to G-d and also to family." Family ties. So, family in Islam is very, very important. I already mentioned that G-d says in His holy book that as for rights, families have priority in the book of G-d. And I'm giving you now the statement of G-d in Qur'an where G-d says, I'm not going to speak Arabic today. You won't hear it. Where G-d says be regardful of the tie to Him, and be regardful of the tie to family ties.

This is America, this is American life. When we went so far with secularism and commercialism, commercialism that we were losing our moral life and losing the content of believers, the content of faith, the leaders were alone. And not only church leaders, but community leaders, civic leaders, business leaders too few politicians. I would say many politicians, but they're not in the majority, their in the small minority. But many politicians begin to call us back to G-d, begin to call us back to religion, begin to call us back to faith and family. When G-d says to us in the Qur'an have a sacred regard for Him and have a sacred regard for family ties, G-d is speaking of family not only in the immediate sense in me, my family from my mother and father, but G-d is speaking of family in the broadest sense, in the broadest perception, the family of mankind. Beginning with own family, immediate family at home. But you must extend that respect to all members of the human family. The Hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam, is a symbol of that unity and that togetherness. And G-d says "You oh people, all people were originally one community." And we know the great religions say that we all descended or populated from one ancestor, one ancestor. That makes us one family in that ancestry in humanity.

And if we can use our imagination a little bit, the original people, the first people on this earth had to be a family. And as they grew they became a community. And G-d says they were one community. That means they didn't have a different political idea from the other. They didn't have a different religion from the other. They all had the same life and the same aspiration and the same appreciation for whatever there was existing for them. They were sharers in one life. And G-d says, He said, G-d said to them, to people, "Bringers us of good news." And I imagine it was because some of them earned it more than others and then people started to be different. So, I was thinking for a long time, in fact I'm still studying and it's very recent that I just saw what those words were saying of Allah in the Holy book. I was thinking all the time, you know we have our own theories, we get the theories from the scientific world, but we also have our own theories too you know, some of us, like myself. And I had my own theory. I thought man just went out on his own and went into different areas and he discovered different life, different environments for his life and became different. That's true. But more importantly, it's what G-d says. He said He sent them, givers or bringers of good news and Warners. That's what He said, that people were one community, He said. And He sent them bringers of good news and Warners. So that means He selected certain people out of the descendants that had populated, multiplied on earth. He selected certain ones for His favors and He gave them Warners, good news bringers and Warners. And then later they begin to have arguments.

Who has the best? And G-d says that in the Holy book too. Says, "And you did not differ as to what is the religion or what is the way until after guidance had come to you." Then you took pride in the guidance that came to you over that that came to others and you began to selfishly hold yours above theirs. And then greed for power and dominance began to influence. And pretty soon you came up with religion that was poison.
Audience Member:
Yes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Had left the purity that G-d gave. This is the book. Al Islam like the great American idea also respect the value of the human person. G-d says that He inscribed honor on the creation of every person. He made all of us excellent, high in quality. So, if we fall in quality, it's not because G-d didn't make us high in quality, it's because the environment tempts us to fall. And addressing the idea of race, racial superiority or the supremacy of one people over another, G-d says We, meaning Himself, the angels, His Prophets and all for His office. We indeed, strong indeed. I said I wasn't going to give you any Arabic. The intensifier for you Arabic students is Qad, the strongest intensifier. He said, We indeed inscribed honor or made honorable and noble every son of Adam. How is this addressing racism? Some people astray in religion among the Christians and they came up with an idea. I don't think it ever became very, very popular. It never got the majority, but came strong enough to feed the biggest, the members of the Klan and others. They came up with the idea that the story of Noah's children in the Bible Ham and Jaffar- And what's the other son? I'll get it. I should have put, I got the reference here, but I didn't put their names down here on my notes. In my notes. Ham and a third one. I can't get the third one. Shem. Now how could I forget Shem, all the Shemites, Arabs and Jews and Ethiopians. Shemites, yes. That these three sons saw their father when he had been drinking too much and he was out of control, that is drunk and exposed, his nakedness was exposed. Now mind you, all of this have other meanings. Doesn't necessarily mean he was physically like that. It could mean that he was spiritually like that, spiritually like that or mentally like that. And it doesn't mean that he personally was like that. It could mean that his leadership was like that. The people that he entrusted with the leadership was like that that would be identified by his name. Noah.

Cause this story is not in the Qur'an like that. Okay? Yes. So, they saw his nakedness and when Shem saw his nakedness, he turned his head. When Ham saw his nakedness, he laughed. When Jaffar saw his nakedness, I'm pretty sure it was Jaffar, he went and got a piece of cloth and he covered his father's nakedness. So, this shows the tendencies in people upon as regards their mental makeup and their decency, their human decency. The one who gives himself to jokes and play all the time. His brain loses quality. So, he sees his father, it's a laugh to him. He laughs. He finds humor. Another one Shem. He's so puritanical, he's so righteous that when he sees it, he turns his head. But Jaffar is well balanced, refined and well balanced. He goes to his father and covers his father's shame. That's not a depiction of blacks and whites and browns. That's a depiction of all people. But the foolish ones in the church among the leaders interpret that to mean white people, brown people and black people. And the Bible even says Ham is Egypt and Egypt is in Africa. So, they used this in ignorance to identify Ham as the black people.

And they said the slaves that they brought to America were the children of Ham. Canon, Canaanites. This is what they were teaching, this small minority in the church that took this idea that came, arrived to that conclusion. And the Bible says of the curse on Ham that G-d would curse Ham, but the curse wouldn't fall directly on Ham but fall on his children. And the curse would be that they would be made the servants of their brothers to do menial labor, cut wood, be waterboys, this is the Bible, et cetera. So, you see how religion was twisted, scripture was misread, misinterpreted to give support to them putting us into the position they put us in. So, they made many of their own people believe that it was the will of G-d. It was in His word, it was in scripture, it was in the Bible that we had been given to them to be their servants and to do the cheap labor. This is history. And I could have easily documented all of this from history as well as from the Bible. And if you pay me this much again, I will take time to do it.

Oh, they paid me well, but not more than they give some others I know about because they come with a great show. I don't blame us. You're going to be entertained as well as informed. And I mean a great show, but the price ought to be high. I am going to round this up, try to close it up. Getting right to the point, we cannot make it by ourselves. We must plan our life with respect for the reality that we are in. We are Muslims, a minority group. Although they say soon in the year of 2000 something, we'll be a bigger number than the Jews in this country. But I don't care. You can be in the majority with numbers, but if you don't have quality, you just like that person buying cheap freedom. He'll never be responsible for the direction the country takes. He will never be the innovator. He will never be the one that brings about great changes to better the society and move it forward. And no matter how great their numbers are, they won't be shaping the future of this land. So we don't need big numbers, we need quality people.

So, I don't pay as much attention to that prediction that we soon will be the greater number, more numbers than the Jews. I'd like to have as much money as they've got so I can buy us some TV time, whatever. Get us a few powerful national newspapers and daily with a city paper there, whatever. Better schools, libraries, cultural centers. I sure wish I had some of that money. I would accept that I'd be few in numbers. Let them be many numbers. Just give me some of that money so I could help my own religion and help my own community with the help it needs. Yes.

We make a mistake in religion. Think that G-d gave the great revelation to the Prophets and to the seers or whatever so that man would know his special soul. That's true. So that man would know his special intellect. That's true. Because Muhammad the Prophet said G-d has produced no better thing in terms of its ability to facilitate production and progress than the human brain, than the human brain. So, we hold education sacred too. Yes, it's a sacred possession, that G-d intends for all of His dependents to have access to. Education is so precious that Prophet Muhammad gave an incentive to the men. He said that any of you men will see that two of your daughters is educated, you'll get the paradise. Isn't that wonderful?
Audience Member:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
The Prophet has says so much to respect education. He said he who goes out on a path to seek knowledge that he may share it with others. He goes, enters the path that takes him to G-d. Isn't that wonderful? So more important than this spiritual aim we have in our individual lives or in our soul, which is very important. In fact, it's the same that all people have in their souls. It's that common precious property that bring us all together and make it possible for us to love each other and work with each other despite the facial differences or anything else just as members of one family, one group, one religion. When there may be real differences. But if we can recognize that common life, that common precious life in the soul, that common sacred motivation that G-d put in our soul. Oh, we can embrace the Jew, embrace the Christian, embrace the Buddhist, Hindu, anybody that shares that or express that like we do. We embrace him and we forget what color he is. We forget what nation he comes from. We forget even what sacred book he reads because G-d made something more powerful than our ignorance. More powerful than our differences even. Yes, G-d in Islam wants us to see the community aim, that G-d has put into man a social nature, have made man a social creature and put into him a social aim demonstrated or symbolized in the Hajj, when we make the Hajj.

There, we find all colors, people from all nations making Hajj. They're all Muslims. But that doesn't mean that others are not part of this family. They're all a part of this family. But this is our Qibla. This is our Qibla. And G-d says to each He has given a Qibla or direction. Is that not true? Yes. So, it doesn't mean that they may not too be going on the right path. And maybe their principle too may be like ours, but their methodology is different. Their book is different. But the nature is the same. The human essence is the same. And they want what we want and we want what they want. So, we should get together and go about it in unity. Since the world is too small now for savages to live to themselves and call themselves human. The television is around. And when we see you on television, we say hey, that's savage. But we can't hide somewhere on an island and be savages all to ourselves and call ourselves humans. The world is looking at us. The eye of the world is on us. This world has become one small global village as they say. And we have to recognize each other, coexist, support each other, work together in the spirit of Al Islam, and in the best spirit of the American people that they inherited from the Founding Fathers, we inherited from the Founding Fathers.

We have a shared dependency. We are not G-ds, we are not angels. We are going to catch cold. We going to get old and need Pampers. Some of us ain't old yet and need Pampers.

So, let's accept our common life, natural life, our common deficiency. But let's more importantly, accept our common excellence and work to support that excellence and to progress that excellence for the good of all people on this earth. The community aim wants to see men come together to make work easier on them, to make feeding their families easier on them, to make driving through the woods or driving across the land easier for them. Men come together to lighten the burden on life, on human life. The community aim is more important with G-d than our private selfish aims. So let us support the new business effort in the Muslim community here in this association with me. Support this business effort. It's not a business effort that's centralized. We don't have a Chicago headquarters for it. It's a business effort to free your resources, your resources. To free your resources, your mental resources, your physical resources. To free them up so we can use them together.

And poor people putting much together from many of them will exercise the financial power of a rich person or of a rich company and do this so our families will have better life. So, our children will have a better future, a better education, and a better future. And doing so, our neighborhoods will have a better picture, a better image, and a better condition so that our children will have a better chance of living and surviving in those neighborhoods. So, they won't be tempted by illegal money or dope money, but we will have good businesses operating there so that they could see good business future right next door, right down on the street. Let us support that and let us do it all in the name of G-d. So, we will have people with more money to give to education in Islam, to give to the Mosque and Islam. To give to Islamic environment, Islamic neighborhoods. Thank you and Peace. And let's do it in the spirit of Americans and in the spirit of Islam are Muslims. As Salaam Alaikum.



