4/1/1990
IWDM Study Library
Islam Is The Solution Chicago IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
IWDM:
That is, peace be unto you, Al Hamdulillahi Rabbil Al Amin. Praise to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. (Arabic) We seek Him for assistance, we turn to Him asking forgiveness, for our faults, for our sins, for our mistakes. (Arabic) And we believe in Him and put our complete trust in Him. He is mighty and sublime. (Arabic) And we witness that there is none except G-d as divine. There is nothing like unto Him. (Arabic) And we witness that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger. The peace and the blessings that be upon Muhammad, (Arabic) The peace and the blessing be on Muhammad the prophet and on his companions, his descendants, all that follows with the most excellent salutation to the prophet, the last and the seal of the prophets. We are always grateful to Allah for the opportunity to serve in the cause of Al-Islam, and we pray always that He makes our efforts a success and accept our efforts. This is our month of fast and we wish all of you a blessed and noble fast. Ramadan, Kareem Mubarak! Muslims are fasting this month in every quarter of the world. In the Middle East, the Kaaba serves as our Qiblah, directing us in prayer and during hajj. And we have also there on that peninsula called Saudi Arabia, the home of the prophet in Medina, where he went from Mecca to Medina and also the mosque he built there himself with his own hands, others helping him, but he himself worked in the construction of that mosque, the Masjid Munawriwah, also called the masjid, the mosque of the Light, the mosque of the prophet, the mosque of the Light. The city as you know, where that home of the prophet is and where the mosque is of the prophet is known by the name the City of Enlightenment. Medina Munawriwah, Medina Al Munawriwah, The City of Enlightenment. So, we have all that focus there in Saudi Arabia and that is a Muslim country and all of its people there, the Muslims are respecting and observing the past. And we have in Asia, in Indonesia and Pakistan, in India, in China, in Russia, in Europe, in England, in Paris. Now we have in Africa, in Sudan, in Egypt, in Kenya and Gambia all over fifty percent or more of Africa, the Muslims are observing in the fast month, observing the fast. We have in the Philippines, we have in South America, we have in North American, USA Muslims observing the fast. All around the world. 1 billion approximately, approximately 1 billion or one fifth of every person on this earth is observing the fast of Ramadan.
And we pray Allah accept all of our fasting and reward us as He always does, greatly in this month for our fast. What is needed in America is what we should first ask ourselves before we think about Al-Islam or any religion or anything offering a solution to problems in America. We should first be aware of what's needed in America. Do we have any very serious needs as Americans? Before addressing that, I think it is best for us to look at what we have presented in the topic for today as an answer to the serious needs in America and that is our religion. Islam, as is commonly called, Al-Islam as it is given in our holy book. And I will start first with the idea of oneness and unity. Unity. If we can say that our religion, the religion of the Quran, the last revealed book, is unique or special among all the other religions. I think first we must point to the idea of oneness and unity in our religion. First because in our religion we say G-d is one and that's it. And the G-d that we say as one is the G-d that everybody accepts as one.
The G-d that the Jews accept as one. The G-d said the Christians accept as one, the G-d that everybody who has any sane idea accepts as one. The G-d that we accept as one is given in our holy book as the creator of everything, the creator of everything. So whatever we have that's here, Allah created it. Now we may ask, say well, we have a lot of things here that man has made, Allah didn't create that. Yes, He did. Because man is himself the creation of Allah. Man, himself is the creation of that G-d. And whatever he's doing, he's doing it because that G-d created him to do it. He could not be doing it had not that G-d created him to do it and he can't do a thing until he first gets the resources that Allah created and get the guidance from the resources that Allah created. So, whatever he creates too, the credit must go to G-d. If you open a business and you provide all the material, then someone comes up and uses your material, uses your plan, extracts from your knowledge and create other things, can't you take that person to court and get your property? When the Imam said in the name of Allah, with Allah's name, the merciful benefactor. That's how we see Allah. He's all the benefits we have; He is the one that, from His mercy came all of that. The merciful redeemer. If we will ever be redeemed by mercy, it is His mercy that will redeem us. Praise be to Allah.
So, we believe in the oneness of G-d and that oneness cannot be compromised. There's no compromising the oneness of G-d for Muslims. (Arabic) Say, Allah He's one, one alone, one alone. Ahad, one alone Allah. He is ..... eternal, all the time existing. (You) can't go back and find Him at the beginning, can't go forward and find the end. Allah hus sumad (Arabic), but He's not only eternally existing. Everything that is existing has its tie to Him and cannot exist without Him. Allah hus sumad (Arabic) never did He father a child. (waLam u lid-Arabic) Never was he a child, fathered by any father. (Arabic) And there never existed anything that you can compare to Him. This is Allah, the one G-d for us. That's the uniqueness for us. That's the distinct uniqueness for Muslims, that we believe in the oneness, pure, purity of oneness. That surah is called Suratul Ikhlas It is translated sometimes The Purity, The Purity. Meaning that that concept of G-d is perfect, perfect, perfect. No corruption, no mis-ideas have crept into it. It has been made perfect by G-d, revealed to Muhammad for us and for all times. That is the oneness of G-d. So unique for us. The purest of the idea we call oneness or monotheist idea, the purest.
That's not to say that others don't believe in one G-d. I believe the Jews believe in one G-d. I believe the Christians believe in one G-d. But we have that special uniqueness where we do not compromise that idea or that concept. It is not corrupt at all. It is not mixed up at all. It is not confused at all. It is not weakened at all. I don't want to offend anybody here, but to me a G-d that has a progeny is weakened by his progeny. No, I'm saying that and I accept responsibility for that. Why do I say that? First of all, because the idea of G-d is different from the idea of man, woman, child. That's why I say that. Man can hope that his worth will be improved by his progeny or through his progeny. That is because that man starts off imperfect. Allah starts off perfect if we can say starts off. Allah is perfect always. So for Him to extend Himself in a progeny tells me that He needs help like we do. We need progeny to extend our existence, to give us another chance through our son. We need progeny to do better than we did and hope we have a better society through them.
So, the idea, I repeat in my opinion, weakens the concept of G-d. We are offering Al-Islam as a solution. We should see Al-Islam clearly first. The prophet has said (Arabic) Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, he said Al-Islam is structured upon five essentials, five essentials. The first is (Arabic -La ilaha ilallah Muhammadan rasoolilah!) There is but one Allah, there is no two G-ds or something like that, or mixed up, multiple personalities, nothing like that. Only one. And Muhammad is His messenger, not G-d, not His son. His messenger. (Arabic) A human mortal just like you. Not a divine, a human mortal just like you. Not an angel, not a divine, a human mortal just like you. Now again, I think the idea is weakened when we say a man that comes to help other men and save other men is divine, the idea is weakened. If he's divine then no big deal. If you're G-d ain't no big deal, whatever you did, you saved the people. Ain't no big deal, you're G-d. You heal the sick, ain't no big deal, you're G-d. we got doctors that heal the sick. You help the blind. We have doctors that give 'em new eyes now, give 'em new eyeballs. So to me, again, it's taken from, it's not helping, it's taken from, it's weakening the idea. But if it's a man, no it wasn't G-d. It was a man and the man did these things. Oh, now it makes the man so much more. Now the man, the man is great because it's great that a man will do these things, but that G-d does these things, there's no greatness at all. The man was G-d? He should have done more than that. He should have fixed it so I wouldn't be enslaved, since he was a man.
He should have stopped slavery right then, if he was a man. If you're talking about a solution, if we have a solution, then we first have to look at what we offer as a solution and then think about what needs a solution. If we say America needs a solution, then let us look at Al-Islam first and see if America needs some of this. The second of these essentials is that we should pray to that G-d, we should make our prayers to that G-d. What we look like acknowledging the G-d that's responsible for everything and then turn .............. this wall. That's stupid. But men fall into errors like that because they get spiritually drunk and spiritual drunkenness is worse than wine and whiskey, strong drinks.
I won't cover all the details of these essentials. I'm just presenting to you the concept of religion. The third of these is that we give in charity, give in charity first to those closest to us who are dependent on us, first of all. But we are to give also to help other people's children and other people's family and other fathers and other mothers and other grandparents, other children, you see, we are to help others, and we are to give for the sake of Allah, as a duty. These are the five essential practices of Muslims that we are giving now. The fourth of these is to fast the month of Ramadan, the month that we are in. (Arabic) The month of Ramadan. This is from Qur'an, the last revelation, the book, copy of it right here. It doesn't have to have a black cover. You'll see blue, red, green, white, black, gold. The month of Ramadan in which the Quran descended, was revealed to Muhammad, peace in the blessings be upon him. Guidance, (Arabic) as guidance for all the people. Now Allah tells us that the Quran come down to Muhammad to guide Arabs. Let's see what Allah says. (Arabic) As guidance for all the people. That's it! Didn't say as guidance for the Arab, guidance for all the people. That's the Arabs and everybody else. That's me, that's you, that's everybody.
And that's why you find this religion everywhere and everybody has it. Black, brown, yellow, red. Everybody has it. If E.T. comes down, he'll get it before you. Because he's not in the mess of America's culture. He won't have as many problems. I'm sure that one finger, he'll get the other finger out there. He'll say, (Arabic- Lailaha illallah Muhammad ar rasoolallah) He said, I don't have to call home. I found Allah and Muhammad. and Qur'an. The last of these pillars are essential, is that we make pilgrimage, visit the house. What house? (Arabic) Allah gives the name, title for that house. (Arabic)The most ancient house. (Arabic) The first house. built for the worship (of) Allah, built for man to worship, the one G-d(Arabic)
It was built., (Arabic) Built for all the people. So we turn toward the house that Allah says in our scripture that was erected for all people. Didn't say for the Arabs. Didn't say here's a house erected for Arabs? No erected for all people. Who's it erected by? Prophet Abraham and his son Ismael, the two prophets, (Arabic) Peace be upon them, built by them. And what Allah says of that prophet that built that house there, He said, I will make you a leader for all people. Not one person, for all the people. Therefore, the house he built there, Allah says in the Quran, is for all the people and we turn towards it as a Qiblah, as a sign and as a Qiblah for our direction in prayer and also for our hajj, to the holy precinct, our pilgrimage to the holy precinct. It shows our participation in the hajj, making the pilgrimage, shows the oneness of humanity. That's the oneness we're talking about in our religion. One Allah, one creation. No two creations. There's no creation out there that belongs to the devil or Satan or some Jinn or something. All that's out there. Allah did it. Even the Jinn. Allah created the Jinns too.
Everything out there, Allah did it. The angels too had no existence before Allah Willed them into existence, creation, et cetera. So, we see the unity of man in that beautiful picture, millions going from all quarters of the world there at that one site there, one house, one Lord. Now some of the Westerners, Orientalists, they want to put falsehood in your mind instead of the truth about our religion. So they have said that they worship the black stone there, they're heathens and they worship up an idol. We know why Muslims kiss the stone. They kiss it because the prophet's hand picked it up and placed it in its place.
They kiss it because they know that it's a symbol. It's a symbol that is as close to one man as it is to another. It's a symbol that is as close in its rich meaning, to a black man as it is to a white man or to a white man as it is to a black man, is as close to the yellow man as this, to the red man or any other man. It is as close to the woman as it is to the man. We know that the symbol is close to all of us. That's why you find the women there, they don't have to follow the man. They go around the house independently without man leading them just like we do. Everybody there on their own. She stops and prays at the sight there. You can't say, sister, stand behind me or stand to the right or stand to the left. She stands where she pleases, there. It's built for everybody and everybody on an equal plane there. I know right now you want to ask me how can I become a Muslim if you're not, well just wait. We'll be finished in a minute.
Whenever we give this religion to African Americans, plain and simple. I know the first thing that comes into African American’s heart is how can I be one of these Muslims? Cause I know your deficiencies. I'm one of you. This is the beauty, the beauty of it. The oneness of G-d, oneness of His creation, the unity of His creation, the unity of man himself, mankind, himself. That we are all originating from one origin. Allah created our father. Allah created our mother. Allah made it possible for all these children to be here on earth. Allah did that. Originally, we were one family and scientifically speaking, we are still one family. They described us in science as the homosapien. They didn't say the black on one side by one definition and white on another side, by another definition. Science recognizes one man, one human type, homosapien. Although science also recognizes that from this, in this homosapian group or family, you have physiological differences because of regional differences.
The one who's born in the hot humid climate will be different than the one who's born in the hot dry climate. The one who's born in the hot climate will be different from the one born in the cold climate. The one born around a lot of water will be different from the one born in the desert. So, these are differences that Allah has given us, but we know that we are all one people. Allah tells us that. and science upholds that. In fact, a Frenchman, (inaudible) I think (is) his name. He wrote a book showing from his position of authority as a scientist, that our holy book has not been threatened by any scientific discovery or any scientific proposition or fact. He showed it, that this book here is not threatened by what man has discovered or observed in science. Rather, he was amazed to find that this book points to scientific revelations as well. So much to be said about our religion. And we have covered it in complete scope, that it is built or structured upon five essentials. We covered those essentials. The oneness of G-d, the prophethood of the prophet, that the man or mortal just like us. A man, not a divine, not an angel, is chosen to be the last messenger, the last prophet of G-d, to bring the last revelation and to guide all the people into the religion............ and the country just blooming and blossoming there.
And you know what came to my mind? How (the) West have laughed at called 'em Bedouins, tramps and camel drivers and all this stuff. And it came to my mind when Allah says in the holy book, say you were ridicule and laugh now and weep later, and we’ll have the last laugh on you. That song, that song is already in the book long before it's written, going to have the last laugh on you. Well believe me, if anybody want to laugh now, the Muslims can now laugh at those who are ridiculing them, cause the tables have shifted. The civilized man is back in the saddle.
Not to say we are uncivilized; we have some of the best civilized people in the history of America. We have some of the best civilized people the earth has ever born or ever give birth to. We have some, but we know when we look at the character of these people on the human behavioral side, it is greatly lacking when we look at the total society that is. And when we look at the total history of our country's presence in other people's land, we look at something awful. Awful ugly and disgraceful. The good people helped us to get where we are here. Our people protested, Nat Turner and others before him, let 'em know that black man wasn't going to accept that condition when tolerated without defiance. And finally, it reached the influence, the thinking and minds and hearts of good American. European Americans or whites and brought them to our side.
And finally, with the help of good church people and good civic people in the country, we've come to where we are now with equality and equal opportunity and everything in this country. We are free people just like everybody else. But that didn't come without great sacrifice, great pain and suffering. And it came because a minority with a strong moral will insist that the majority treat these people humanly. But when we talk about the majority, we have to say the majority and some terrible folks in this country. And if you don't believe it, all you got to do is just go right now, walk in certain areas of Chicago and just see what kind of looks you are going to get. People look at you like they wish you were dead and want to kill you right then, but their hands are tied and if you make a mistake and put yourself in the wrong dark nook at the wrong time, their hands won't be tied.
You will be lost; your life will be lost for nothing but that you're black. That’s the only reason, you're black. They didn't have anything, nobody to take it out on, but you. The wife didn't give them anything at the table and nothing on the sheet last night. And they mad. They mad in hell. And here's a nigga free, here's a free game here. I'm going to let all this out on this nigga. I'm going to lynch him, I'm going to lynch him, I'm going to string him up and if I can't find a tree, I'm going to hang him on my chicken coop or something. They'll string you up on anything or beat you, bat your head, bat in the head with the blunt instrument and beat you so nobody will recognize you. Yeah. Why? Because somebody has made racism and racial prey convenient for them to vent their hostilities on. Yeah. So this is the kind of world we are living in. We are making great progress. Christians and others and Muslim Jews, all of us working on these problems, we are making great progress. But don't forget the Frankenstein here, he ain't got came back to normal yet. He still, he's still kind of going like that.
And the vampire he's been working on, all the fangs aren’t going up all the way. I still see one of 'em sticking down there a little bit. A little blood still on the lip. Little blood still on the lip and eyes ain't looking quite right, he's coming around but we still got to work on him. And don't leave out Wolf man. Let the full moon come man, and you don't get hair all over him now, but a hair jump out there and half pop out there and you know, still know he ain't quite got all that werewolf out of him, (woof woof woof) But we are working on him.
Now we know that Al-Islam is the last, the religion that has been established by the last revelation of G-d and that is intended for all people on this earth and for all times, till judgment on this earth. We know that. And we know Allah has said to us in this holy book that He's going to make this religion the most prevalent religion on this earth. Even though the Idolators, those who mix up the idea of worship of G-d, even though they hate it, He's going to make it the most prevalent. And we are seeing that coming very fastly. Perhaps you've been watching the media and newspaper and programs where they're telling you and non-Muslims are telling you that by the year 2000 or 2010 or so that they expect for Al-Islam to be the second religion in the United States, second to only Christianity, second to only Christianity.
And if it's moving that fast, if Christianity doesn't find something to step up its pace. I will say that we can expect it to be first in America, not too far distant in the future. So I don't know about you, but I don't owe anybody anything but Allah. That's, I only owe Allah something and Allah only make me indebted to only decent and upright people. Allah doesn't obligate me to do anything for indecent or people that ain't upright. I owe the criminals nothing. I owe them immoral people nothing. I owe the prejudice people nothing. I owe the proud and arrogant people nothing. I owe the capitalist people who can't control their human nature for wanting more gain and more capital gain, I owe them nothing. So, I don't owe the United States, the President of these United States. If he got wrong moral and wrong intentions or wrong designs on me on society, I owe him nothing.
And even the Founding Fathers say we owe them nothing if they persecute us or bring miserable life upon us, we have the power as the people to rewrite the Constitution, bring in a new form of government. They have already given us that right inside of the Declaration of Independence and the preamble of the Constitution. We have that right. So, I'm saying that I am thankful to Allah, I'm glad I feel good as an American that what Allah allows me, I find compatibility with that when I look at what the best things that the Constitution of these United States offer. When I look at the best things that the Constitution of the United States offer, I find it compatible between that and my religion. And I think I'll offer that situation because I want to be a good American. I want to be a good citizen of this country. I want to work honestly and openly and sincerely for the good of this country, for all people in this country. But I'm obligated first to live my Muslim life as Allah has intended it for me based upon the Quran and the life of our prophet. That's first. That's first. That's first. That was before the United States. That will be after the United States.
Yes. And believe me, you African Americans, you want to go up, latch on to something bigger than the United States, latch on to something that has more permanence than the United States. Latch on to something that has a higher principle, a higher value for people than the United States. And then you'll become the best citizen of the United States. The best citizen of the United States are those Christians who have a higher principle, bigger than the geographic, the geographical boundaries of these United States. Bigger than the history of these United States, bigger than the political history of this United States. Those Christians that are latched on to something bigger than the United States, something that brought them to the United States to establish a situation where they can live that and enjoy that life. They have a better situation in the United States. They have a richest citizenship in the United States than those people that are just here for the promises of the government, for the promises of the Democrats, for the promises of the Republicans, for the opportunities they have in this free, so-called free society.
Those people are weaker citizens. They are poorer citizens than those citizens who have a higher idea, given to them by their religion given to them, by their scripture given to them by G-d that lived before the United States and will live after the United States. I am one of those people, I am a Muslim and that puts me in a stronger position to not only work for a good future of Muslims in the United States, but to work for the good future of all people in the United States. That puts me in a good position and that's what I want to see more and more African Americans come into. This is the invitation to you to come once and for all to a situation that you can tolerate, to a situation that not only you can tolerate, to a situation that you can feel good about, that you can rejoice and celebrate.
Yes, this is the invitation. Nothing offers the African American what Al-Islam offers him. Nothing offers him what Al-Islam offers. Al-Islam offers him a situation to immediately jump, jump from the image of an inferior human being to an equal image with any dignified human being on this earth, immediately. Al-Islam offers the African American an opportunity to get rid of his identity problem, his identity conflict, get rid of it right away. Right like that, it's gone. How is it gone? Because we find more sense of pride and dignity, whatever you want to call it in knowing that Allah created us like this black, brown, nappy-headed, curly-headed, I don't care what it is. SOS strands on the head. Allah made it like that. And it's for a purpose. In the environment that my father came from who was given this SOS type hair, SOS type hair. His head was best suited for that environment.
If you came in there with straight chicken, feather hair, or fox hair, your head wouldn't survive as his did. You wouldn't be protected as he was. Allah gave him the head to protect him in the environment that he brought him up in. So did he give everybody their features. Allah says He gives everybody their features, their colors and features. Said it is a sign and that he's giving you your tongues, the tongues, the languages and your colors. And again, He said He gave features what you call .......... He gave the features to all people and He made those features excellent, excellent. So the man, when he’s reading this from Allah, this is G-d saying that. This is Creator saying that. And he looks in the mirror and he has an oblong head and beads over it for hair, he ain't going to feel ashamed of that. The more he reads what Allah says, the more he's going to be comfortable with what Allah made. And do you think you go there and his tribe over there and wherever he came from, you think you go there and you think his wife ain't happy with him? She loves that long head, and she's rubbing, not through it, she can't rub her hand through it, she rubbing her hand over it. You think his children going about depressed because they've got nappy hair? No, they're out running, just as happy and they see you and they wonder what in the world is wrong with you? See we only have these problems with a people that are so drastically different from us in their makeup. So, they got long straight hair and everything. So, they look at us, we look so different. They put the symbol of their beautiful people up in the billboards and everything. They didn't put our symbols up, just recently they started doing that. That was after we used the processors, the curly, the conk and stuff. Now they put us up there too. But when we just had this stuff, they didn't put us on the billboards. If they had put us on the billboard, we would've accepted our image as beautiful too. If they had put us on the billboard, put us in the newspapers, put us on the television, with this hair and like Muhammad Ali did on TV?
They called Muhammad Ali for any interview Muhammad Ali, takes out his pick or his brush. If we had had that going for us during that time, we wouldn't have never come up with all this shame. This is conditioned shame. Conditioned shame. Not natural shame, conditioned shame. It is not natural for people to reject what G-d made 'em tell you the truth, I look at some of these women that gave me a little hell in my life and don't say I talked about Shirley. I'm not talking about Shirley. Shirley was one of the best women I've ever known and the best women I know Shirley. Yeah. So don't go back to, I know how you all are, sister ....... I ain't talking about all of you all. There's some, they got hot lines.
Once,I had so much trouble. I started looking toward Africa, and I didn't want to go anywhere where a woman could buy makeup. I was thinking about Timbuktu, lost, lost Timbuktu. Go and find me a Hottentot, way back in the bush somewhere. If I found her natural with natural affections and human responses that I could give a glass of tomato juice to and she (say)"Thank you sweetie." That's what I wanted. Give her a Milky Way and take the paper off of it and (she'd say) "You so sweet, you so sweet" Instead of saying, don't get me this nigga thinking that you going to move me with this little treat. You see, I miss all that. Still got a lot of boy in me. I missed a time when I could give a girl a Milky Way, man, and she said, "oh wow, you so sweet." Now you bring her a case of Milky Way candy box. She going through it, get to the bottom of the case, didn't find no jewelry, no gold jewelry, no diamond, didn't find some crisp hundred dollars bills under a wrapper or something. Push that aside, and you know the bedroom door is locked. Don't worry if the door is wide open. The bedroom door is locked tonight.
That's really hard. Pretty hard living. Make you want to pull up stakes. Go back in the back where no civilization has ever seen, no traces of civilization. and find a woman back there that can't speak nothing. Never saw a powder puff or lipstick or nothing. Never saw anything but water. Make you want one of them so bad. Wel, you know sometimes you must look at the raw and coarse rough reality of this so-called civilization life, this so-called civilized society. And let it be felt in your soul and on your heart and in your soul to appreciate what Allah offers us when he offers us Al-Islam. When our sister becomes a Muslim and when she comes to know her religion, she will love what Allah made her more than she loves what Revlon gives her or sells her.
And brother, so will you change. You will come to love her and appreciate what Allah made her more than you appreciate what Revlon or some of those other companies can give her or sell her. Thank you very much. Let us pray to Allah to bless us in this blessed month of Ramadan, to make us all successful with our fast, to unite all Muslims in the life Allah intended for us, as revealed in His last book, the Qur'an, and as demonstrated perfectly in the life of the last Prophet Muhammad, peace and the blessings be on him. Insha’Allah, we hope to see you next time. Next, we are going to, believe to, well we're going to Cleveland. But that's kind of a local concern there, not requiring us to come from other places for that. But I will be visiting Cleveland for (an) address there, and we are going also to Newark.
We're going to California, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Atlanta. So, I enjoy moving about, I enjoy moving about and I appreciate your support to the Zakat, to the Mecca Fund that enables us to run the office, to give charity to many charitable needs, qualified concerns. And keep me in a situation where I know if they can't send me a ticket, I don't have to have them send me a ticket. I can withdraw something from the funds and make it. And not only me, I can carry others with me too if I have to. It's because of that few of you all in Chicago, we have a good number of you in Chicago and in Philadelphia and Oakland. It's a funny thing. You know where I spend most of my time is where most contributions come. Now that should tell you something about me that tells you that people that look, see me close up, recognize something. Because most of the support is here.
Philadelphia and Oakland, where I stayed. I stayed in all those cities for some time. I stayed in Philadelphia for a little over three years, about three years, pardon me. I stayed in Oakland for no more than about a year. About a year I was in Oakland. And I've spent my life here almost, just about my whole life here. And right now, I'm still living out, not far from here in Calumet City. 50% of my time. I'm living out in Calumet City where we have an office out there near the Post Office box. But I'm also living in Little Rock, Arkansas. I spend some time there too. And we have two Masjids there. One masjid that has a school in Little Rock. One Imam there, Imam El Amin, Johnny Hasan, pardon me.
He is a studious brother and hardworking brother, just as the other Imam, where they have the school. He had attracted immigrant Muslims to come there. Students who were studying (on a) temporary basis, studying there in Little Rock, they all joined. So, you see Muslims of different nationalities, even outside the country, all joining in the salat and prayer there, joining for the Jumuah prayer there, in that little place Little Rock, that little town in Little Rock, you see? So, getting out is good. And Allah says what, travel, He says travel and see what was before. And the Prophet Muhammad says, travel as far as China in search of knowledge. The prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he said that. And we know that's the way of the wise, to not stay in one little town and see and know no more than that one little town. We have some brothers who work for the airline. Because they work for the airlines, they can travel almost anywhere. And I see them practically everywhere I speak, I see those brothers. And that really makes me feel so great. And I know that their mind is being expanded because travel expands the mind. And I'm telling you, I've never had my mind expanded by travel like it was expanded on this recent trip to Saudi Arabia. So again, we pray Allah for guidance and for blessings, success in this month of Ramadan, this blessed month of Ramadan. Kareem Mubarak, As Salaam Alaikum.
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