10/15/1975
IWDM Study Library
Ministers' Meeting 
Chicago IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Thank you. In the name of Allah, the Beneficient, the Merciful. May His peace and His blessings be upon His servant, His Messenger, Muhammad forever. Ameen. And I greet you Brother Ministers Asalaam Alaikum. I was going to give out the prayer today, something on prayer today, but we might not have time to get to it. If we do, I want to put it on tape so I can check it back home before putting it in a book. We trying to get a little prayer book together. It shouldn't be long. You'll have it pretty soon.
Let's see. There you go. Fair to say most of you did pretty well. Ones that I heard it sound like you're ready to teach. Alright, first we are going to read some attributes of Allah and then we have a few other comments. Audhu Bilahi Mina Shaitan Ir Rajeem. Bismillah Ir Rahma Nir Raheem. The Al Fatiha is the first chapter of the Holy Qur'an and the first attribute of Allah that we come across in the opening of the Qur'an Al Fatiha is Ar Rahman. And then we have Ar Rahim, then Malik, which means King, Sovereign or Judge. And we have Raab, is that right? In that one chapter, the Opening Raab, which means the Developer who develops the form and then watches over the development until He brings it to completion. In the Holy Qur'an, Allah is called Qudus, Al Qudus, which is spelled A-L-Q-U-D-O-O-S, spelled DUS. But so you can pronounce it Qudoos, Q-U-D-O-O-S, Qudus, which means the sacred or the holy. Then He's called As Salaam, A-S-S-A-L-A-A-M, As Salaam, which means the peace. And He's called Al Mu'min, A-L-M-U-M-I-N, Al Mu'min, which means the Faithful, faithful. The Faithful. The one who can be trusted, right? The faithful, the one who can be trusted. He's called Al Aziz, is the Mighty, the Dear, the mighty. D-E-A-R, the Mighty and Dear, DEAR. And Jabbar. Al Jabbar put Al before all of them. Al Jabbar. A-S is the same as A-L in Salaam you put A-S, not A-L, not El Salaam. Al Salaam, Al Mu'min, Al Aziz, Al Jabbar. A-L-J-A-B-B-A-R. Al Jabbar. Al Jabbar. The terror. The terror. The Frightful, the terror. The one who's capable of terrorizing or striking with fear. With fear. The one who's capable of terrorizing or striking fear into people. A-L-M-U-T-A-K-A-B-B-I-R the proud. The proud, the magnificent. It means huge, huge, great in dignity and in power. The proud. Leave it like that. The proud. Al Khaliq. A-L-K-H-A-L-I-Q. The Creator. The Holy Qur'an says He is the Creator of everything. Al Khaliq, the Creator. A-L-B-A-R. I. Al Bari, leave it like that. This means the Former, forms things, brings something into form, shapes it, grows it into shape or into form. Al Mudsawwir. A-L-M-U-S-A-W-W-I-R. 2 W's. The framer, the designer, put designer. Designer is better designer. Al Ghaffarl. A-L-G-H-A-F-F-A-R-L. 2 F's. The Pardoner, the one who grants pardon or forgiver. Maybe this more would be like one who forgives. Because there's another one whose attributes that's very close to this and it's more like who grants pardon. Forgive. One means like you forgive and you forgive, but that's it. You don't go any further. And the other one you forgive and then aid the person to overcome his problem. You see? So this one is forgiving, so leave it like forgiver.
Al Kahar, Al Kahar. A-L-K-A-H-A-R Subduer, subduer. You know the city Cairo? Its real name is Ka.ere They call it Cairo because they can't say Kahere. Good. Kaher means subdued. Kaher means the subdued city. So the name means that it was a place that was captured. It takes its name from besiege. It was besiged and captured. Kaher would be a subduer. It subdues you pardon me. But you don't have to change that. You wrote the right word for the attribute, The subduer. But Kaher also means a subdued, means the city subdues.
But this is a little different. Kahar means the subduer. Al Kahar means the subduer. Okay, let's see now. Alright, so next time we'll start where we left off and we'll take some more. You keep all the attributes together and try to learn them. And the best names we can have are the divine names in the Holy Qur'an. You see some of them, Muslims don't choose to give themselves the name because it makes them just like if someone would name himself Al Jabbar, unless he has something else going with that name, it sounds like he's trying to make himself something that he can't be. So if his name is Al Jabbar, it should be something like Salim Al Jabbar, Salim Abdul Jabbar, which means Salim the peaceful one. Abdul Jabbar servant of Al Jabbar. Like Qudus, the Sacred or the Holy. No one would want to name himself Al Qudus like that, but he could say, maybe he'll name himself Kareem Abdul Qudus, the servant of Al Qudus. Or Kareem Al Qudus. Shaheed Al Qudus. Shaheed means witness, witness for Al Qudus. You see? But you have to be careful how you use these names. They might sound good to you, but when you go and tell somebody who speaks Arabic well and knows, and then you say, my name is Al Jabbar Al Kabir, they say where this fool come from.
All right? So we'll start there and next time we take attributes, you'll keep 'em in a book or something. Put 'em in a book where when you get the rest of 'em, you can go right there. Now, I want to mention something that's in one of these little booklets, and I want to mention this just to caution you against using the materials of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad just freely you know. Most of us don't know that these materials were collected. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad never sat down and say, I'm going to write a book, The sayings of Muhammad, he never did that. He never said, I'm going to sit down and say, well, I'm going to write Message to the Black Man. He never did it. But different ones took from his teachings and compiled 'em together and finally came up with a book and he didn't have time to read 300 pages. They say well, this is your teachings from the papers and from this and that. And he looked at it and go through it. Most of it looked like his teachings. He said okay, but he's never been satisfied with any of it.
He's never been satisfied with any of it. So the best thing you can do is follow what you you're getting from me. Yes, and read the Muhammad Speaks articles that's coming in Muhammad Speaks, and you'll be on the right track. But if you go back to those old assignments and you just keep studying the Message to the Black Man and this and that, you'll be entertaining yourself and you'll like what you're reading, but you won't be getting the direction, you'll be going in the wrong direction. I'm going to give you an example right here on page 16. Says, sayings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. This he approved as gifts to his followers. Says, if you are guilty inside, Allah brings the guilt in your color. He makes your color to bear witness. The guilty person turns dark because his deeds are dark.
Now, can you read this to the average Lost Found that you're trying to tell that black is beautiful? No, right away he's going to say, this is not saying that black is beautiful. This is saying that black is wicked, sinful, you see. Allah makes you to reflect your deeds. Why does G-d make our color to bear witness to what is in us? Because the blood is the life of us. Now, you don't understand what he's talking about. There are very few that understand what he's talking about. He said these things perhaps in privacy, and now they are made public. Most likely this was said at the dinner table to a couple of people on a subject and you wouldn't understand what he's talking about unless you heard the subject that he was on.
Dark here doesn't mean color dark, it means ignorance, wickedness, wicked thoughts, bad thoughts. And blood here doesn't mean physical blood. It means your knowledge that's running in you. The life of a man is his knowledge, and that knowledge runs in him, you see? So if his blood is bad, meaning if his knowledge is bad in him, then it will show up in his color. It mean it will show up in your teachings and your talk, manifest. You see? But you can't take this symbolic talk and teach it like this. You'll kill people. I'm just talking to you, trying to save you. It doesn't help me to save you because you ain't no help to me, you a hurt to me, right? Kind of brother that's confused, he's a burden on me. He's no help to me. It would be easy for me just to say go and I'll be free of him, right? No problem to me anymore. But we keep him here because we want to save him. Not for our sake, for his sake.
Well, you read in the Bible, especially in these last books before the New Testament, so-called New Testament, of a darkening that's coming upon the world. And the people who collected the scriptures to be formed into a Bible as we have it in the West, King James Bible and other western bibles. They canonized the scriptures in an order that served them. So they put these scriptures, they collected them and put 'em all just before the New Testament to show that the loss of truth, spiritual truth and understanding would come and precede the birth of Jesus. When Jesus come, the world would be dark. They would be without divine guidance. And then Jesus comes with the New Testament and brings in the light.
But we know that hasn't been the case. New Testament hasn't brought any light. The Jews were strong before the New Testament. They're strong after the New Testament. The church has been weak since it was born, since it came into birth. Church has never been able to stand up against the Synagogue. It's always been weak. The strength of the Western people has not been the church. The strength of the Western people has been white supremacy and material weapons. That's how they established themselves. So this must be referring to the relief that's to come, must be referring to something else, not to the church, not to the New Testament teaching, unless it is to the teachings that will come and open up the New Testament teachings. Now here in Micah, Chapter three verse six, it speaks of this darkness. Says therefore, Night shall be unto you that you shall not have a vision. It shall be dark unto you that you shall not divine. And the sun shall go down over the Prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
Now you notice this is the sixth verse. See, the book is symbolic and secretive you see. Everything has a meaning. Chapter three has a meaning, Verse six has a meaning. So verse seven says, then shall the seers be ashamed. Those who claim that they can see, you see. They shall be ashamed and the divine is confounded. So this tells us that now something is going to happen, it's going to go down. But they're not going to be all of a sudden put to shame because people have faith in them, right? But gradually people are going to lose faith in them and their minds are going to wake up and they're going to start attacking these lies that they have been told you see. Then shall the seers be made ashamed and the diviners confounded. Yay, they shall all cover their lips. Be afraid to talk. We've come to that time, Christians are afraid to talk, and this has been going on now for years. You don't catch Christians boldly out trying to teach nobody and tell somebody, they're afraid. They'd rather stay in the church. And even when they talk to the congregation of the church, they talk to them in such a way that they don't bring about no argument.
Talk to them on things that they like. Sing them to sleep or talk politics, anything but get into an argument. Yes, they shall all cover their lips. For there is no answer of G-d. Then chapter four begins, But in the last days, it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains. Alright. Mountains refer to governments, means governments. The mountain of the Lord means the divine government, the righteous government shall be established in the top of the governments. This is the Bible you see? So it doesn't say that the government is going to replace other governments, no. But this government is going to be acknowledged and it's going to be exalted, you see. Right now, the local officials, the city officials, some state officials are beginning to recognize the Nation of Islam. And they respect it just as they respect their own leaders. They respect us no less than they respect their own leaders, even more. They show more respect to us than they do to their own leaders, which is a clear sign that our government, the Nation of Islam is a government. Our government is rising up in the top of their government. It means in respect, you see, in respect, recognition.
So it says that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the G-d of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His path. For the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Now, they got the places wrong and the people wrong, but the message is right
Now, the sun going down on the Prophets. Sun here is symbolic of divine truth. The light of truth going down on the Prophets mean that there will come no light of truth to the people. There'll be no Prophet. Light of truth come to the individual, it wakes him up. It's revealed, the truth is revealed to him. Then he's able to give light to the people, right? And if he comes with additional light in the form of revelation, then he's called a Messenger of G-d or a Prophet. The book says that this will stop. Now, we know that for at least for 1400 years since Prophet Muhammad, we haven't had any Prophet. The world has not accepted any Prophet since Prophet Muhammad of Arabia. And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he made a point of saying that I'm not a Prophet. You see?
So we see that the revelation did stop as the Bible says, it was stopped. It did stop. Before Prophet Muhammad, in the history of the so-called Judaic people, Prophets were coming up almost every hundred years. Sometime two Prophets were on scene at the same time, like Moses and Aaron, and then there was others preaching at the same time. So there were Prophets. It was a season for Prophets, right? And the seasons of Prophets passed by. After the season of Prophets then what comes? The only thing that's prophesied to come after the season of Prophets is G-d Himself.
By G-d Himself what do we mean? We mean that we won't need symbols to look at. We will see G-d as He is. That's what the book says. What does as He is mean? It means that the people will come into understanding and the language will be made simple enough for them to see the reality of G-d. We won't have to tell you about mountains, about snow, about stars, to give you the attributes of G-d. You'll know that G-d is truth. G-d is truth and righteousness, you see, and you'll understand how that truth and righteousness reach the mind of the person, comes within the mind of the person to reform the person you see. So when each man can see G-d for himself, then he doesn't need a Prophet to come to him to lead him. Prophets were only to lead people until another one would come, right?
But once people are able to see for themselves, there's no need for a Prophet. So the Holy Qur'an made it possible for people to see for themselves, you see? But it so happened that everything happened in time. There's a season for everything. Right now if you plant grain, you don't reap the harvest right now, right? So the Holy Qur'an was put in the world, the plain truth was there, but we couldn't reap the harvest of that until today. The Arab people, they saw great truth. They saw much. They got much. Do you know that the Qur'an inspired them to become scientists, astrologers, mathematicians? All of this was inspired by the Holy Qur'an. They were inspired to become scientists. So the Holy Qur'an took a people of Arabia who were dead as far as learning is concerned. They hadn't developed any learning. They didn't have any colleges or nothing. They were a dead, backwards, ignorant people. Pagan, ignorant people. Most of them couldn't read. They couldn't read. They could speak and recite, but reading was just in the hand of very, very few people.
But overnight, they became readers and people of science, and they were the ones who revived science in the world and brought on what we call the Renaissance. But they did not clear up the arguments in religion. The arguments in religion is about the son of man, the Messiah. There's a big argument in the religion. All through the Bible that's what you hear, the coming of G-d, the Christ, the Messiah. We read it in the New Testament, we think only the New Testament is talking about Christ and Messiah. Christ and Messiah starts in Genesis, you see? And it continues until the New Testament, when it comes out in stronger language and Revelations is the strongest language of the Bible on this particular Christ. So the big question in religion was the Christ, G-d coming, making Himself manifest. Islam came and it satisfied the Arab Muslims, most of them, because they really hadn't been converted to this kind of teachings about the Christ. They were pagans before. But the moment they got acquainted with this kind of language, language of Messiah or Messianic teachings, their scholars began to wrestle with this idea, and none of 'em until today have been able to come up with any real understanding on the problem, on the question, you see?
So what happened? They came up bright as a scholastic scholarly people. They came and rose high as a bright light, as a scholarly people and as a material people too. They got great material wealth. And went down, went down, and I mean down. You don't have to go to anybody over here to learn about it. You can go to them, go over there and they'll tell you yes, down, down, down. They went down. They went down so far until even their leaders begin to lose faith in their own teachings. They pick up the language of the West, the habits of the West. Look how some of their Kings come over here and spend money on prostitutes, give thousands of dollars to prostitutes and nothing to the liberation of the black man in America. This is what they did. They're changing now, but they've only changed during this last 43 years that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was teaching, you see?
But up until just here, a few years, a couple of years ago, they were a people that had died spiritually. On the whole, their leaders. And I've been to the Mosque. You go in the Mosque, they say prayer, they pray, the Imam talks. But if you go into church, it's not that much difference. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. I know. I'm telling you from first hand knowledge. You go sit in the average Mosque and listen to the Imam teach, and you go in the average church, there's hardly no difference. Hardly no difference. If you want to get the better teachings of Islam, you have to go to just small groups, little small groups, like Ahmadiyya. Little small groups, what's the group called?
No, not the Moorish Americans. No, no, no. It's a group that goes all around the world. They go all over the world, Missionary group. Can't think of their name. Can't think of their name right now. But you go among them, there a few number of people who gave up their wealth. Most of 'em are rich people, and they gave up their wealth just to spread Islam. And they go all around the world teaching. And you sit among them you can feel the life of Islam. Not that much knowledge now, but you do feel the life, the spirit of Islam. And the Muslim Student Association is another group that you sit among and you can feel, you can sit among them and you like it. If you are really a Muslim, you could enjoy their company and stay with them. But how much have they been able to do to convert Christians?
They do a good job with Pagans, but Christians, they haven't been successful. Why? Because they haven't understoodd you see. And you read the Holy Qur'an, it tells you there's enough there in the Holy Qur'an without Hadiths to tell you that the Jesus is a mystery. It's a mystery to be cleared up. The Holy Qur'an didn't clear it up, it worked on it, but eventually it would clear up you see. In the Holy of Qur'an, we have beautiful teachings on Jesus that explains it very good. But the way it's given is given in an easy way, a way as to not bring about no great excitement, big disturbance you see. it's done in a careful, easy way to tell the Christians exactly who Jesus was and what Jesus is all about. The truth couldn't come out boldly plain enough at that time. It just wasn't time for it.
A thing has to run its course. Let a thing run its course, then you can deal with it. But while it's in full force, it's hard to deal with it right? But you let a thing run it's course....Just like if you want to catch a crook. Don't catch him as soon as he gets started, wait until he gets into it real good. But if you catch him right when he just started, he can defend his wrong. He might cover up and might convince people, oh no, I wasn't doing nothing wrong. Let him go on. Let him really get into it and build a big thing and then expose him and everybody can see it. Well, just like you have to let some crooks run their course. some lies have to run their course until the people see just how much trouble this lie has brought into the lives of people. And they begin to turn against it, then you can talk to 'em better, right?
Well, this lie about Jesus, the way of putting Caucasians in the minds of the people as G-d, the Jew tried it. The Jew wanted to put the Jew in the minds of the Gentile as G-d. Then the Europeans took and made the Jew European. Gave him blue eyes and blonde hair and keen features to put him into the mind of the darker people as G-d. So the European was making himself G-d, right? So nothing could stop this lie until the teachings of Master Fard Muhammad. With his teachings, the lie began to receive a shaking. And now today, we expose it. And the people they see, don't think they don't see, they see. They're not all ready to accept. They're weak. They still want to hang on to their own little thing, you see? But believe me, they see, they understand, and in time they'll all admit it.
So that has been the big problem. Big problem has been the Christ. All the other confusion is really tied up in that. Social problems that we have in the world. Most of them are tied right up in that Christ doctrine. Self-destruction, suicide, slavery, corrupted sex, ideas about sex, mistreatment of women, homosexuality, sadism. All of this is fed by the doctrine of Christ crucified. So that's what we have to work on. We have to work on the lie of the crucifix. That's our mission. And if you use the teachings that I'm giving you here, we'll be successful. But if you think something else is more important, you think you can do a better job teaching what you like, then we'll never make any progress with you.
And don't think anybody wants to hear it. Nobody wants to hear the truth. Only those that are with the truth want to hear the truth. So don't look for people to be ready for "Yes, teach me more. I like to hear this." They don't want to hear it. If you've got a mission to teach something that everybody wants to hear, you've got a mission that you created yourself. That's right. Because Allah don't give a person a mission unless it's something that brings about change. Whenever He wants a change He gives the people a mission, you see? And that mission is not going to be accepted, no open arms for it. There was open arms for it, it wouldn't need to come. It would be no need for it. Much of our teachings they like. But this teachings on the Jesus and on white supremacy, most of them don't like. Not even our people. You know that? Most of our people don't like it because it cuts both. It cuts both ways you see. And they don't like that. The Christians don't like it, and the so-called Orthodox Muslims don't like it. But this is what we have to do. And I'm depending on you to do it. You do research and go and look and get everything that I have said on Jesus and on the Trinitarian doctrine, and you use those things more often than you use anything else.
All right, now it's five o'clock. I think you've had a good day here. I listened to you and you sound good. So we'll call it a day today, and next time when we come, maybe we can go over the prayer again. We want to stay on these prayers. But Muslims, Muslims should be able to do the prayers. And Muslim Ministers should not only be able to do the prayers, he should be able to teach the prayers, because you have to teach it to others you see. At your next minister meeting, we hope to go over the prayers with you again, how to perform the prayers, and the proper words, how to say them properly. You have a book. I don't have it with me. Introduction to Islam. Most of you have that book, right? It's a yellow back book I think. Paperback. Alright, how many have it? How many don't have it? Those that don't have that book. Alright, so you better inquire and see can you get it, see if there are any more copies around.
There are some more copies around? Very good, there's more copies. So see Dr. Salaam, Minister Abdul Salam for some more copies. It's a very good book. I don't see any problems in it. The language is easy, it's clear. So we study it, study the prayer in there, study the five principles of Islam or the five Pillars of Islam, study the beliefs and the daily life of a Muslim. If you study those things in that book, then you can begin teaching the believers. So every Friday night, you should spend your time teaching the believers the fundamental principles of Islam. You shouldn't just teach anything on Friday night. Really we should have Friday prayer and Friday prayer includes Friday lecture. But the world over here is ordered different from the world of Islam. People are working and there is no allowances made for Muslims over here. You can't get off your job and come to Friday worship at noontime you see. So we have a problem, but eventually we're going to have it because here are many who work at night who can make it or at other hours and they can make it. Then we have a lot of people that's not working at all can make it. And we have some part-time workers. So many can come. So soon we'll hope to have Friday prayer. But you'll have to learn first, you see, because you'll have to be the one who lead the Muslims in the Friday prayer and give the Friday speech. So every Friday night, forget about converting the people to sell so many papers or so many fish, or to donate so much to the treasury. Forget about that on Friday night. Concentrate on nothing but one thing. That is to teach the people the fundamental teachings of Islam, fundamental principles of Islam, beliefs and what should happen in the daily life of Muslim.
And you have that as a chapter, I think. And it it's not a chapter, a paragraph or so in that book Introduction to Islam called The Daily Life of a Muslim. I haven't read everything in the book, but I've read enough to let me know that the book is a sincere effort. The only thing I'm interested in knowing is the writer sincere? Is he crooked? Is he giving this just to get somebody in his pocket or in his camp? Or is he really just teaching the truth? And if he's just teaching the truth as a Muslim helping to spread the truth, he's okay. But there are a lot of 'em out just to get you in their pockets or in your pocket, get their hands in your pocket or to get you in their camp politicking and whatnot. We don't want that.
So you have to be very careful of these books, these writers. I was surprised, and I've been reading the Holy Qur'an, translated by Abdullah Yusef Ali for I don't know how long, for many years. And the other day I was looking at in his footnotes on the Prophet Luqman, and I could see the prejudice, the racism in him. That's a shame. Beautiful translator of the Holy Qur'an. But he's affected by racism. He probably doesn't know it. He'd probably swear up and down. He would probably be shocked to his very heart that you called him racist. But I can see in his comments on Luqman that he's racist. If he really had been convinced that Luqman was an Arab and not a black African, and he had just gone out straight like that and said, Luqman, some people believe he's African, but he's Arab. But he went about it in a sneaky way. Yeah, he went about it in a sneaky way. He was trying to deal with the subject and yet hide from the reader the facts. So right away I said, well, how can I Allah bless that, you see? But they wonder how come they haven't been successful in converting people to Islam. How come they can't make headway. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad gets black people by the thousands. And we have been over here for 50 years too, and all we have is about three or four people scattered about in the United States from the black community. How come we can't get the Christian people of the West to follow Islam? It's not because the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has had nothing that has been so strange or so super miraculous. It's because he has been sincere. He love his people. People can tell. Your heart tell you something wrong with a person. Your heart will tell you. Your mind might not see it, but something inside say, this is just not for real.
This is a shame. But All Praise due to Allah. I believe our day is just around the corner with just, well, we don't even have two legs walking. We have one leg walking and another leg dragging. We got a wounded body. Some of 'em, they just dragging along to see what's going to happen, and some dragging along to get a chance to make what they want to happen happen you see. But even with this problem, we are making a lot of progress. Last meeting we had here on fourth Sunday, we had 2300 people out here. Now we're shooting for 2,500. And really if we had about four other places like this in the city, we could have 25,000.
See, the more you expand materially, the bigger material accommodation you make for the people, the bigger flow of people you get coming into you. There are many people who live in other parts of town. They would come to the Temple if the Temple was near you see. So we are moving, All Praise due to Allah. Reputation is spreading fast. Recognition is coming to us from high and low. So I can see something that's working to bring about just a sudden change. I can see Churches just turning over to Islam right away. The thought is rolling over in their minds now you see. It's like a seed, a germ planted in the soil and the thoughts turning over in their mind. They're wrestling with it. Pretty soon the man gets tired of wrestling with his thought. He said, well, hell, I'm going on. Tell Muhammad I want to make this church a Temple. Right? That's right. You see how quiet everything is? It's quiet. So that lets you know. They say the quiet is before the storm, right? Everything is quiet. So let you know that something is going to happen. It can't stay quiet like this forever. They're going to either come out with a big noise against us or a big noise accepting us, right? So keep working hard. The Holy Qur'an says, "Surely with continued effort comes ease, or with difficulty comes ease. For surely with every difficulty comes ease."


