5-29-05

First Sunday Address
Homewood, Illinois

Imam W. Deen Mohammed


If we are really doing any good for ourselves and others as religious representatives of religion or the great religion, Islam, which is related to also, the religion we call Christianity and the religion of the Jews called Judaism—related directly to what they received from their Prophets—peace be on them. I say directly—because we are also related indirectly—that is scriptures does not acknowledge the connection—but we see the connection. We are not stupid. We see the clear connection for religion also for all the great religions on this earth—all the great religions on this earth. I was reading something today from a publication published by Buddhists—you know Japanese people most of them are Buddhists. They are Buddhists. They identify with the great spiritual leader and thinker, Buddha. 1 was reading what they had as four main points for focusing. And the most important of their points for focusing— Don't write this down unless you want to be a Buddhists. 

I am not giving you this to write this down—unless you are a reporter—you are reporting—that is good—for the Journal or whatever-that is good. They have four points. And the forth one is the one that they identify as the most important of all of them. They use the term "origination", origination of all things. They said in the origination of all things is an inter-dependency. Well you know science has ideas that look very much like that one. They say every thing is related. Nothing is existing alone by itself without being connected to something else. And dependence upon something else is nothing but for it's existence in the universal field of gravity that holds all matter together." And this inter-dependency, they bring it forward to advance life of mankind to tell us that we are inter-dependent. And this is the idea in Islam, the idea in Judaism, the idea in Christianity—is that G-d made this material reality, this material environment that we see and can't reach it all the time—can't reach it, but it is there in the heavens, in the skies and on earth—all of this material world that we can see or perceive with our senses has a unity. It has a unity. And it is connected. 

We have metals on this earth that are also in the bodies above the earth that we see as stars or call them stars and other small bodies, planets and even smaller bodies that we call shooting stars and other things. They are all connected. And all have one reality. They belong to one material universe. .And G-d says, "He has given you your needs, and supplies you with your needs from both the skies and the earth". And there is much to be said about that. How man has been able to advance industry and science because of him observing what happens in this material universe or in this great system that has all systems together, incorporate all systems, all systems of matter. By observing, by observation, they were able to advance their sciences. They were able to—they say discover. What does discover mean? That is a big word for some of you all. But it is a small word for some others—discover. If you saw lightning hit the forest and you went behind the fire after the trees had burned—and you went behind the fire, and you dug a little place there and you were maybe getting ready to barbecue and you found some metal, some hard metal— and later on you named that metal or somebody named it iron. 

So, you discover it, iron. Yes, you discovered iron. That is exactly what they did. "Who discovered iron? Oh, iron was first discovered by so and so.." And they tell you when and they tell you where. But, science now just points back to the time when primitive man was existing and he found these metals after the fire had come— a huge forest fire had formed the ore and made the ore, melted it, caused it to purify itself, to cleanse itself—hot fire and running metal. And they were able to find the steel or metal. And then use stones and whatever to cut it and also build fires to make it soft again and beat it into a sword or fighting tool or whatever, or working tool. They beat it into a tool. And all of that is given to us in science. And we have a disposition, because of I guess habit and tradition—that is how education has carried us. We have an awe. We come and sit down and look at the teacher and we are amazed that he is so heavy, he is so brainy. He know so much. And it you can boil all of that stuff down, to go back and unravel it, you will see that any fool could come by that route. And coming by that route, eventually that fool won't be a fool anymore. The fool will be wise. So, G-d's creation teaches everybody, 
G-d's creation teaches everybody. 

Anybody got any knowledge, any civilization that achieved anything, it is because of 
G-d's creation. Without matter, without this universe, we can not have anything. And we can't certainly have sciences. You will foolishness. And you can't even have foolishness, because you need to perceive something of the world in order to be even a fool. Yes, it takes a little knowledge to know how to be a fool. So if any religion is worth anything, it is a religion that ties the human mind and heart to the great universe, this great existence of matter, stars in the sky, patterns of weather, beautiful things growing in the earth, the good and the bad, the storms, everything, the earthquakes. All of this brings man, especially when he lives in a community with one another—living in a community causes man to want or need more from the environment. When he lives alone, he needs very little from the environment. But, when he lives in big numbers, tribes, modern towns, cities, live in big numbers, you need a lot from the environment. And all of this have to be regulated in time. 

Because, you need government to regulate things, to protect you from your neighbor who might not be so nice. He might be too greedy. He might be too domineering. So, you need laws. And in time, you have laws and government and everything in time. And all of this is because of the great gift of the material existence—and you call it the Creator did it or whatever, it is here and we know we didn't do it. Man didn't do it. So that is where it starts. Genesis in the Bible starts with man being alone in this big creation that G-d made. And in the Quran, it is exactly the same. It is actually a commentary and an additional teaching on what the Bible brought. And it starts with man existing in heaven and he was not yet formed in the earth. And he was given the power by G-d to understand with his mind the nature of things made by G-d. G-d favored him with that superiority over all living things. No other living things have that superiority. 

There was two types of living creatures that are related or similar to man. One is called Jinn. The other is called Ins., human, Ins—Jinn and Ins. Ins means those who lived the best of their humanity. Their feelings, their emotions, their sentiments—they do not separate from those things. Some occupations requires that you separate yourself from those sensitivities, feelings, sentiments, etc. So that you can follow strictly material logic, material laws, material rulings, material logic. And, there are some people who are not quite human. They look human. We would call them human. But, they are not. They are not Ins. They are Jinns. And they achieve a dominance, superiority over people, or dominance over people by ignoring morals— moral thoughts or moral feelings—ignore it. They put it aside or relegate it to a position of little or no importance when you are achieving your object. So, these Jinn people are the people who gave birth to the Devil, Satan, the Shaytan, the real Devil, Shaytan. I say that gave birth to him. G-d never created a Devil. G-d never made Devil. G-d never created Devil. G-d created Ins and Jinn—human and Jinn. And the Jinn chose to be a Devil because he was jealous of the position and the destiny that G-d chose for humans. 

He was jealous of it, so he became rebellious—he rebelled—and when he rebelled, he continued to go more and more against G-d's rule, against G-d"s way. And he went so far that he became the enemy of all humans, the enemy of mankind. This is our religion. This is Islam. But, I can show you the same in the Bible. He becomes the enemy of all human beings. And he gets the name Shaytan. And it is nothing but the same word—Satan. For the Jewish people—the "sh" is "s". For the Muslim people the V in Judaism is "sh". So, he becomes Shaytan of Satan. The Jews would say Satan, but, they don't believe in the Satan. I don't know of any Jews who believe in the Satan. There might be some, but I don't know of any. If they are, they are different Jews, reformed Jews or something. Jews that differed from their old teachings, that didn't stick with their old teachings, the orthodox way. 

They left orthodoxy. They believe the figure that we call Shaytan and the Christians call Satan—they believe that this figure is an agent of G-d. And that this figure is serving G-d. They call him by different names— the "Whip" and other names. I chose to use the Whip because the role of this particular figure in their religion is to whip us back into obedience when we can't be controlled—to whip us back into obedience. And the whip that they use—the Qur'an says, Take or use the flesh of the life to whip". Now, don't think it means flesh— they don't take a piece of flesh and whip—it means the nature of the flesh. They use the nature and power of the flesh to whip you. So, they are the ones who the Devils in our religion and in Christianity. They are the Devils. But, they recognize no Devil. So, don't hold anything against the Jews. What they don't know, they can't be condemned for it. What they believe sincerely, you have to excuse them for it. And they sincerely believe that. And let me tell you something. Democracy welcomes them— Democracy in America. That is the only Democracy that I am talking about right now. Democracy in the United States of America welcomes them—to whip you. Drugs is a whipping. Liquor is a whipping.

Allah says, "anything that drugs your mind, stay away from it. For, it is the works of the Satan. Stay a way from it if you expect to be successful". This is what our Holy Book says. It says, "Stay away from such as befogs your mind or drugs your mind. And stay away from gambling. And stay away from games of superstition. For these are the works of the Satan. Stay away from them if you expect to be successful". That is the teachings of G-d—G-d's words in our Holy Book that came to Muhammad the Prophet over fourteen hundred and some twenty years ago. And it exist in the form of the sacred, the last revealed book, the sacred book called the Koran by Christians, Qur'an in Arabic. These things that have been mysteries up until now, can not be mysteries anymore. Time is out for these mysteries. The world use to have masses that was too ignorant, too uneducated, too primitive to trust such knowledge with. If you can handle computers science, if you can handle living in New York, Chicago, and these other big cities—you shouldn't be kept in kindergarten, pre-school as a follower of religion. And it is a sin for a civilized world to keep their religions uncivilized. It is uncivilized to believe in some of the popular things that we believe in religion. It is out right uncivilized. It is primitive and savage. And the day has come that we can't afford to cover those things anymore. We have to show the truth and respect the adult minds of the public.

So going back to creation, every new baby coming into the world knows something. Science will state it in scientific language. I am not giving you scientific language. I am giving you plain talk. Every baby coming into the world comes into the world knowing something. How to ask for help—The baby knows how to ask for help. How to feed on food—the baby knows. The mother gives the baby milk, the baby knows how to swallow it. The mother doesn't have to say, "Let me teach this baby how to open it's mouth and swallow my milk. The baby comes here knowing that. How to accept and how to reject people even—the baby comes here knowing that. One person will touch the baby and the baby will smile or the baby will just accept it. Another person touch the baby—not a bad person, but just another person touching it, the baby recognizes that there is something here that I am not interested in having close contact with this person. 

The baby starts crying. So, babies come here knowing something. Standing upon it's feet and walking, after crawling—the baby accomplishes that. Such ability is born with the baby. It is in the baby when the baby is born. We say we taught the baby. Never say you taught a baby how to stand up. You encouraged the baby to stand up. You don't teach a baby how to stand up. Standing up is the feat of the baby. The baby sees you standing, and the baby notices that—after so long, it feels that it can try it. The baby will pull up on something and let it go slowly. I have seen them stand and be trembling a little bit. And it will grab it again, but after a while that baby is standing and walking. Yes, I wish we could do it as a people. And if you watch little babies when they attempt the first time to stand up, I mean it is exciting. And for that child, I think it is the first of the great accomplishments for the child spirit. After that baby can stand and hold it and take a few steps and not fall, you see on the baby the look of achievement, the look of a great achievement. And that feeds that bay faith in itself from then on. Allahu-Akbar—yes—G-d is greater. 

That is what that means. Allahu-Akbar—G-d is greater. The Christians say that a lot. In fact, they were saying it so much on the radio once—"G-d is greater", I just couldn't walk away from the radio. In fact, many times I listen to Christian programs. And I can't turn away from it because I identify with what they are talking about, what they are feeling good about. So, day one, if you could imagine it—that day that the first person was on earth—Holy Scriptures or Sacred Scripture—we are talking about Judaism—mainly the related religions—religions that we are related to—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—these scriptures have the idea of first man in it. And all of them call that man Adam. Our holy book did not change the pronunciation of the name—Adam. Imagine being in that time and being that person Adam. Also, imagine feeling hungry. Now, you are a big boy. You are not crawling, you are not learning how to stand up—you have been walking around. But, you are alone—nobody else, it is just you. You are a big boy now. Now, what would you do? The world is there, all around you—and there is water, pure waters, nice water. But, you have to go walk a little bit to find it. 

There are trees with fruit and animals everywhere—all kinds of animals. Now, what will you do? Would you wait on a welfare check? One can't come because that time has not arrived. A people are very much like this boy. I am talking about a people like us—Free people, free in America, with opportunities everywhere. Some of us are growing up but the people spirit is down, down like a baby crawling on the ground. The people are being carried about by others, as a community having community needs—grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, whatever. The people are being carried by others like a baby in a mothers arms. The idea of a single person alone in this great big earth, fruitful earth, productive earth, teaches us to listen to the better voice inside my body. But, we have powerful things pulling our attention in all kind of directions except the profitable and productive direction—foolishness, fun for the sake of fun, ignorance, self destruction, dancing our selves into the mental hospital—putting our attention on sex—so much that our brains can't produce for us so that we can be achieved people in the world. It is just too much sex. 

The condition is so disappointing and hard to deal with that our professional people, our achievers, they go their own separate routes—usually moving out of the neighborhood, move near non-blacks or in a neighborhood with non-blacks—just get away from the burden. That is not the right thing to do, but they do it. Malcolm X, he used to criticize the African-American leaders in New York where he lived—he said, "You say you represent the people but you live in the man's neighborhood, not in this neighborhood. Well, I never, I admired Malcolm for most of what he said and did, But I never really agreed with him all the time. Sometimes I disagreed with him. 1 wouldn't have made those persons feel uncomfortable to get their following over to the Nation of Islam. I wouldn't have done that. Because right away, when I see our peoples condition and how hard you have to struggle to keep your sanity and your good human decency living in some of these neighborhoods, I wouldn't bother, I would just keep quiet. I wouldn't whisper that they wasn't living in the neighborhood. I would keep quiet. 

Yes, and so we are created to have born senses, born behavior. And we are created to have intelligence or born senses to make certain decisions. In our religion and also in the religion of the people of the book, we are told that though the human being is distinct in his own creation and nature, he is a unique creation, not another one like him. But, if he goes to sleep, or loses his orientation, his pattern of behavior in his own life and nature, he can be influenced by things living and dead to come out of his own behavioral nature. And he can fall lower then the animals that G-d made beneath him. He can fall lower then them in his thinking and in his behavior—if he separates from the social pattern that G-d created him to evolve upon—the human social pattern. Yes, so, we have born behavior and we have learned behavior. G-d created us with the mind to think, eyes to see and question. Your eyes don't just only see. Your eyes question. And your eyes make decisions. Yes, your ability to see is also the ability to be discriminate, to choose the better sight from the worst sight. 

To choose the more beautiful appealing thing from the ugly offensive thing, to choose the decent smelling thing from the vulgar smelling thing, etc. So, all of these senses have this. And in Islam we are told G-d established our religion upon five principles. This secular world tells us that man, our human intelligence is established, is evolved upon five senses—the sense to see, sense to hear, sense to taste, sense to smell, sense to feel. And they, the secular world scientists, tell us that nothing is accurately perceived or known without it coming through one of these five doors or five senses—one of the five senses. And they call it empiricism, that that is perceived empirically, empiricism. And we know that also that knowledge is intuitive, intuition, the power of intuition. Knowledge is intuitive. Here is the secular world using intuitive knowledge for what we call the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit makes itself known on different levels. The highest level in our religion is the level of revelation, like Muhammad, the Prophet, received—the great prophets up to Muhammad, the last. 

That is the highest level of Communication through or by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now in this secular world, they recognize the power of intuition. But, do they make a point of telling the students in their classes, the professors,—do they make a point of telling the students that human beings can not control this. You can not control it. Nobody can control it. Nobody knows when it is going to work for them or when it is not. So, if it is completely out of your control, then you are depending on it, you are not controlling it. So, a person with a common nature, they haven't been made so complicated by the secular world in their ability to think and judge and perceive what is rational and what is true—those persons that have not been reformed, they are still in their nature that G-d created them in, they will right away say this is the presence of G-d. they will identify it as the presence of G-d or a presence of a power superior to them, a higher authority, a higher power, a higher reality. 

Which will eventually lead you to say G-d—Right?! Yes! It has long been known, I guess as long as man has existed on this earth that man has certain powers to perceive and know things without his control. A man was telling me once—he said, he wasn't American born, he was foreign born but that doesn't matter really—he said that one day, we was just sharing spiritual thoughts with one another, he said, "One day, I felt really terrible. All of a sudden I felt really terrible inside. And my mind told me to call my aunt. I had no way to call her, I didn't know where she was living. So, finally I was able to reach her. It took me months before I was able to get in contact with her. At that time they told me—that at that time she had passed". So, there is a connection. 

There is a psyche connection or soul connection where people who have close ties with each other, who have love for one another, feelings for one another, caring for one another—something happened to that one, that person loved by them—it could be registered on their soul or on their psyche. And we can't control it. That is not our power. That is a power that G-d gave us. Muhammad, the Prophet calls it, he says that G-d is like a landowner—and he permits others to use his land. All but one part of it is called the sanctuary. He doesn't permit them to use that part. He only uses that part. Well, this power that I am talking about in us—is the power to intuit knowledge, the power of intuition, this is sanctuary-. This is G-d's sanctuary. And as I said in Islam, we believe that activity, and that reality is on different levels—small levels to the highest level—is the level experienced by the great prophets— Abraham, Moses, Jesus, the great prophets—Muhammad, the last—all of them.

Now we have in the Qur'an, but first let me go to the Bible, because the Qur'an, 1 said, is a commentary and an extension on the teachings of the Bible. Jonah was called by G-d to do a Job. And he didn't act as he should. He didn't act upon it readily. He didn't give it the importance that it deserved. So, he ends up on a ship, sleeping on the cargo, the commercial materials. I imagine there was cotton in there, probably some musical instruments, and some whiskey, and maybe some lewd pictures of naked women—and he was lying up there just asleep. And G-d had told him to go to Nineveh and warn them against their behavior. So, G-d caused the waters to become enraged, the winds blew and raged the waters and the ship looked like it was going to go down. And the ship masters, they said, "what is wrong here, what is happening here". I guess they were getting revelations on a lower level. Something was reaching their psyche. 

They said, "Let us search the boat". And they searched the boat and they came upon Jonah, he was sleeping. And right away they knew that he didn't belong on their ship. They said, "Let's throw him over board". And they threw overboard into the raging waters and the ship was saved. But, Jonah wasn't saved yet. Along came a big whale, or big fish, it doesn't say a whale, it says a big fish—but by reason we say it was a whale—along comes a big fish that swallows Jonah up. Jonah is now carried by a fish. He is in the belly of this fish. So, he is not going to drown. That fish has enough air in it for him. It is a big air breather. The whale breathes air, not water, air. So, Jonah remembers. I guess that was bad enough time to make him recall something. So, he remembered that he had been given a mission. And he felt sorry. And as soon as Jonah became conscious, the whale rushed to the land and puked him out. I said puked him out. 

The whale said, "What is this nasty thing I got in my stomach", "how did I get this inferior food in my stomach". So, he puked it out on the land, on the sea shore. Jonah said to himself after he got there and stood up on the sea shore, he said, "I got a three day journey". Now he is out on the sea shore. His life has been kick back to day one. They threw him out of their world, threw him out there on the sand. So, his life is starting the day one—at zero point of time, he said, "I got a three day journey". Now how does our scripture identify this three day journey? G-d says, 'By the teen, the fig, waz-zatun—and by the olive, wa turi sineen—and mount Sinai, wa hatha baladil-amin—and this town secured. "Surely man is created in the most excellent form or mould", this is what G-d says. So this is the three day journey that Jonah had. Jonah had to progress through generations, not one life, but through life continuously. And isn't this how we have progressed in America? Not one generation, but through life or reproduction continuously. And we are a long ways advanced from where we were when we started. 

But, we are not doing, as a people, what the Nation of Islam founders—I said founders—my father teacher and him—what the Nation of Islam founders planned for us. What is that? To not to depend on outside communities, not to depend on outside people, but depend on your own people for your future in this world. Let the world plan what it want to plan—for whoever they want to plan for. But let us always have a plan of our own for carrying us in this world to where we want to go. Yes! God is showing us to a figure called Jonah—that this is not the work of one generation. This is the work of many generations. But, you have to hold to it— like we held to our own independence from 1930 to 2005, May 29lh. And we are not going to give it up. We are going to hold on to it until we deliver ourselves into that community life that is safe and secured. Praised be to Allah. Peace—As-Salaam-Alaikum!
