12/09/2001
IWDM Study Library
IWDM in Trenton, NJ

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
IWDM: Thank you praise be to Allah, we give the greetings of peace as we say in Islam, As Salaam Alaikum?
Audience: Wa-Alaikum As-Salaam.
IWDM: Being this it is the month in which the Quran was revealed to the model human being, for us and any as G-d says in our holy book, "Model human being for any who believes in G-d in the last day." Muhammad the prophet upon him be prayers in be peace so we wish you in this blessed month a blessed Ramadan, Ramadan Mubarak. I'm sure that we will be in different places celebrating the Eid I also wish you all a blessed and happy Eid. If it is a blessed Eid it we will be a happy Eid [laughs], praise be to Allah.
I'm happy to be back in this area and to meet with you all in this town, hosted by our Imam. A wonderful leader providing real leadership for us all here in Trenton, Imam Abdul Ali. We thank Allah for such leaders, who will give more than what you ask of them. Sometimes we don't need much from each other, but we need a lot from each other if we are going to establish the community our society of Islam of Muslims in America. We need a lot from all of us, a lot from all of us and I'm often telling my associates who are working with me in Markham and in the area town, suburban areas of Chicago at my home town.
I'm often telling them that if I was working for just myself you wouldn't see and I wouldn't be known. I'm working for the interest, for the cause, for the interest. I say every one of us that's working in these offices, I say we should know that we are working for the interest, for the cause. And the interest is always above each and every one of us as individuals; the interest is bigger than all of us. I tell them, "Don't buddy up with each other, buddy up with the interest. Then you're helping everybody and you're everybody's buddy in this community." [laughs] Praise be to Allah.
That brings me to the idea that I want to begin with for this presentation here. We are together in bigger ways than we think, with Christians and Jews and some others; not just Christian and Jews, and some others. Because Allah mentioned another group in the bible, I mean in the Quran pardon me, that I thought were none existent. I thought they were extinct and they are called the Sabians, Sabians, the Sabians. They're still existing, they are a religious group they are still existing and practicing their way on earth today.
Really, we are told to recognize, I give you the words of Quran, any who believe in G-d in the last day, any who believes in the creator, a real G-d. They can't believe in their G-d that they have made with their ideas or with their minds or with their hands. It has to be the real G-d, the creator of the heavens and earth. If they believe in that creator that caused all to be in the skies and in the earth and including our existence, and they believe in the last day - meaning they believe they have to answer to Him for how they lived this life - then we should embrace them as believers. They are not kafirs they are believers.
We share with them the idea, the people of the book I'm speaking specifically of now, those people that are called in our holy book the people of the book meaning Jews and Christians. We share with them the idea that all of this world, material scheme, skies and earth is not the creation of any. or the doings of any. but one G-d. 
Where we go from there may cause us to diverge away from each other, to depart from each other. Where we go from there may establish a different house for one another, different house for them, and different house for us. But we start in that one place agreeing there and that's the beginning of the world and man according to G-d. G-d doesn't tell us in the Quran how the creation the skies, the sun, the moon and all these things came into being. Or how He made them or how He created them. The beginning of our knowledge, our introduction that we get from G-d that introduced His works the creation, the worlds to us, began with G-d focusing on man.
The first verses, communication, that came to Muhammad the prophet said, "Muhammad read." So, the attention is on a man, Muhammad. And G-d wants to teach this man to read. It's not an ordinary reading it’s read G-d's communication to mankind, to you for mankind and my communication to mankind. He says, "Read Muhammad.” He told Muhammad to read. And He said, "Read in the name of your Lord who createth." [Arabic] Then He told him something about the G-d who created. [Arabic] Didn't say He created the sky. Now He's just talking to him. He's not telling him he created the start and the moon and the stars and created the earth and the water and the wind and the rubble. [Arabic].
He created human being [Arabic] from a small clot of concealed blood; the clot.
Then He told him to read again. He told him again read. “Iqra”, He said. And then He tells him some more about G-d. [Arabic]. And your Lord is the most generous-- the translation this gives. And your Lord is most generous, but your Lord is also the one to be respected above all. Akram. It's not only generous also honorable, deserving, respect above all. To be honored, to be respected above all [Arabic] The one who taught the human beings [Arabic] what he was not knowing before.
So, G-d is communicating for the whole of mankind through His special servant and messenger that He has taken from the world, who He took from the world without any spot or blemish in his character. He chose a man, Muhammad, who had no spot of blemish in his character. Who had lived 40 years without being pointed to as a person that had a bad character. The most honorable in character that the people knew in his land. The land that is now called Arabia, the most honorable one.
His name that he was given by the people, not by G-d, by the people - was the truthful. Another name they gave him title names that they gave Muhammad the prophet, common names. They wouldn't say, "Oh Muhammad," those people who didn't know him, those who were not close him or anything they knew of his character. His character was well known in the whole tribe of Quraysh. The biggest tribe and the most respected tribe of the Arabs, well known, he was well known. And they would say to him, "Ya Al-Amin, Ya-Al Amin (Oh trustworthy one." [Arabic] "The one who never lies."
So, here's a man that G-d picked from the people who lived a life of idolaters except from a few among them who didn't do that and Muhammad the prophet, prayers and peace be on him was among the few that didn't worship the idols. He didn't do those things. He didn't follow them in their culture, religious culture. So, He continued to communicate with Muhammad, He said, "And Your Lord is most generous to be respected above all who taught the humans, mankind, what he would not before knowing."
These are the first verses communicated to Muhammad from G-d, focusing on a man for the future good of all men, for all mankind, women and men. The human society on this planet earth, a learned and highly respected teacher who has passed now but he may be established as the leading teacher for Islamic re-awakening. These Muslims reawakening in our time in this modern time, Maulana Abul Ala Maududi of Pakistan. He said to us on Mount Arafat when we were making a hajj there on mount Arafat we were together he said to us-- Maybe I should tell he said to them first about us here.
He said we will make a mistake if we try to lead the Muslims of America. He said, “We should leave them alone and just assist them the best way we can. But let them lead that; we should try to lead them.” That's what Maulana Maududi said. And let me tell you what my father said, "Don't follow them."
[laughter]
I didn't say I said that now. My father said, "Don't follow them.” And I'm not agreeing with my father, and I'm not agreeing with Maulana Maududi. But I am acknowledging a real concern, that both of them were addressing when they said what they said [laughs]. Yes, because I want our leadership to be like the leadership of our prophet Muhammad, prayers and peace be on him. I wanted to have in it different colors so they know that we are following his way. So, we can't have all blacks in our leadership we have to have black, brown, yellow and red and even white [laughs] even white in our leadership. Praise be to Allah.
We are continuing with this point in the opening of my address. Now what I have said is unlike the Bible that begins-- for those average persons, the common person. When we read Genesis, the beginning of Genesis. We think it begins with the creation of the world. And really the moon comes before the sun in the creation in Genesis. G-d creates the moon; He puts the moon in the heavens before He puts the sun up. And one thing for sure in Islam the day starts with the night not with the sunrise. It starts with the night, the day. When fast we observe the moon and we begin our fasting from the time we observe the moon whether it's in the day or in the night.
We know a new crescent can appear in the day too but whether it's in the day or in the night we begin. But actually, we do think of ourselves really starting our fast, making our intention in the night. When we know that the Ramadan-- we make our intention in the night and we begin right then fasting. Because fasting in Ramadan we know is the fast from that that the flesh needs. We say the carnal body, with that that the flesh needs. But it's not only that; it’s a fast that the spirit needs as well. That's why we are reading the Quran, we are staying in the Quran as often as we can. We are reading so much of the Quran all the time. That's the discipline of the Ramadan and a daily life in the Ramadan.
We are also told to stay away from things that will take us out of peaceful, spiritual state. You don't want to engage somebody in an argument. If someone annoys you tell them, "I'm fasting”, meaning that I am not going to respond to you. You're picking at me, you want to pull me into an argument but I'm not going to do it; I'm fasting." So, it's a discipline for our whole life not just for the physical body. But it's extremely important for us to know that the material body, the mortal life affects the spiritual life, and the spiritual life affects the mortal life. And the spiritual life came here like G-d wanted it to come here and once we woke up in a material body the trouble started, [laughs] the trouble started.
We have to know that and know that the discipline for the physical body is most important because if the house is peaceful, the spirit dwelling in it can have peace. Okay, continuing now, the focus is on the human being not like Genesis, “And G-d made the heavens and earth and He put a sun in the sky, a moon in the sky and then He put a sun in the sky, and He made the oceans and He put all these of thing”. So, first is telling us about the outer world whereas in the Quran the first words of revelation that came to Muhammad addressed a man without a spot or blemish, that had lived a spotless life. A life perfectly acceptable to G-d as a human being even before any religion came to him.
He was not Christian, he was not Jewish, he had not been taught by any of them. No religious teachers had ever tutored him or anything. He didn't know about the bible scriptures and all that stuff, he didn't about that. He was not a Jew or a member of the Jewish society or anyone privileged to be exposed to their way of life. Here is a man that had lived among idol worshipers but had kept the human life that G-d created him with when G-d made him a human being from his mother and from his father. Isn't that wonderful? If you don't think this have connection with previous scriptures you are missing the boat.
The scriptures tell us that such one would be given to the world, to lead the world. As a Christian you might say, "Well that was Jesus Christ." I'm through with it now, I'm going to get back on my topic [laughs]. So, G-d focused to human being and if we want to understand the world first understand your own self. Because the world to a rooster is not the world to me. The world to an elephant is not the world to me, to an ant, or any other living creature. The world to those living creatures is not the world to me. I don't want to perceive the world and relate to the world the way they do. I'm a human being. I need to perceive the world and relate to it as a human person.
If I don't even know myself then first I need to know myself in order to know how I'm to relate to the outer world, or to the external world. And that's where G-d goes for the last revelation, goes right to man, focus on man. And what does He say? How does He tell Muhammad, how that all begun? He told him, "From a clot of congealed blood all people are made like that." But He didn't leave him just right there. He also went where the bible went to. The bible eventually got the man, but it went to the creation first and then it got to man. And on the sixth day, the last day it talks about man. And on the seventh day everything rested. That's the Genesis, the Bible.
Whereas in the Quran G-d focused on man, on a selected man, a special man that have kept his original excellence and have not had revelations from G-d or help from scripture. See that? I wish I could go a little more with you all, go on a little longer. But I'll have to digress; I must stay right with my topic. [laughs] I must stay right with my topic because you see I don't have too much time. I know when it's time to eat I'm going stop.
[laughter].
But long before then because I have to be on a plane and Insha Allah I'll take my plane, with my little security guard with me. He is out there somewhere he is 11 years old. Terrific little fellow and a great company for anybody. He's sociable. Okay, yes. So, He didn't leave Muhammad with the first picture of the beginning of mankind from a clot. Then He takes Muhammad to where Genesis goes on the sixth day, on the sixth period; a phase in that progression.
He says to Muhammad – given revelation for all of us, and he said, "G-d said to the angels, I am making a Khalifa in the earth." He didn't say we are making a Khalifa in earth. He said to the angels, "I am making a Khalifa in earth. And when I have inspired him or given him my spirit, make Sajdah to him; submit to him, make Sajdah to him; submit to him." Now he was talking to angels but also there was a jinn among them who was performing in the role of the angel, the leading angel. He was leader of the angels. His name according to our scripture is Iblis, who was a jinn. How do we know he's a jinn? Because Allah tells us in the Quran, “And the jinn people, the jinn community He made them of fire, of fire. A fire that does not repent.
Oh, I'm sorry, that is not what it says, I'm sorry. It says a fire that gives off no smoke. And Muhammad told us this of himself, peace be upon him, he said, “When they asked do you also have a jinn?” He said, “Yes”. He said, "But my jinn became Muslim." [laughs] How wonderful.
Yes, so that means all human beings have a jinn. And G-d has also assigned to us angels. Because G-d tells us these things we don’t have to question these things. If we are believers we don't question what G-d tells us. We know that G-d says He's assigned to each an angel, an angel to record and an angel to help you, to warn. G-d has given each of us angels and we also possess a jinn. So, look, everything that G-d was speaking to right immediately in the life of man. Right? Angels and jinn. So, when the jinn that was leading angels refused to accept Allah's plan for man that, He was going to make him Khalifa meaning that He was going to make man His responsible representative in the earth for the interest of human life and the future of that life.
That's what G-d is saying. And the angels heard that; they were disturbed because their knowledge of human being was this. that you are free, you have free will, and because you have free will, the angels don't have free will they only have Allah's will. [laughs] G-d's will. Because we have free will, the angels worried, said they will create bloodshed. Bloodshed. They would be killing and spilling blood and what did G-d say? What did the almighty G-d say, Allah said to them, "I know what you know not," and then He challenged them, He said, "Tell me your names, tell me your names if you know." And they responded with the nature that G-d had given them, they said, "We have no knowledge except that you gave us."
That's what they said, the angels said that to G-d. Then G-d again turns all attention to man and He said to Adam, He had not yet established Adam. But He said to Adam, he said, "Adam, tell them their names," and Adam told them their names. Then they submitted. All except one, their leader Iblis, who was not in his true being or nature of creation, he was not angel. Originally, he was jinn, jinn not angel.
Being unlike them he had, just like man, he had limited free will. He can obey or he can disobey. He had his own power to obey or disobey. G-d gave give him, made him like man, so he refused. He saw the trouble coming for the world with man being responsible for his life and the earth and the future. He refused, [Arabic] these are the words, the expressions from Quran from G-d communicated to us through Muhammad, by way of the angel through Muhammad.
He said G-d said of him, pardon me, that jinn Iblis, He said he refused [Arabic word] mean he refused. [Arabic word] you can't even say the word [Arabic word] without feeling your body want to go up. [Arabic word], your body wants to go, it wants to straighten up a little bit. Proud, [Arabic word] and he became puffed out in the chest. Proud, proud, arrogant. He thought that he was so much greater than man. So, G-d said to them, "This is no place for this kind of behavior, get you down from here all of you." [Arabic word]. 
You know what [Arabic word] means? Together, like the fingers are together to make a fist. Get you all together down from here into the earth where you'll find your desires, the fulfillment of your desires. Where you will live and die and from there you'll be resurrected. 00ere you’ll be together, pardon me, live and die and from there be raised up again, raised up again. This is Quran.
What Quran, Allah's communication or revelation wants us to first to give our attention to our own beginning. Our own human life and our own beginning. Can I say then that the beginning of Quranic teachings to us should be addressing the real life that G-d wants for us as human beings? And educating us so we can live that real life? That's where I think (unsure), it really is. We see self-knowledge, self-knowledge. Knowledge of self. G-d wants us to know our own self and when we question G-d, “Oh how can these things be? Resurrection of dead after we are dead that can't be really be when we are dead.” G-d says when your bones are less than bones He can make you bring you back again even your fingerprint, even your fingerprint. That's what it says in the Quran, even your fingerprint, thumbprint. And I'm sure some of you all of you have seen your thumbprint.
[laughter]
I know where I am. I'm in Jersey. Some of you have seen your fingerprint.
[laughter]
Your thumbprint. Okay. G-d says He can even bring that back because He's the one who made us the first time. Can't you understand that the one who did it the first time can do it again? Praise be to Allah.
Okay, so we have to begin with man. Since our life begins with Adam. Adam. Shouldn't we want to know Adam? That's the beginning of our creation. And according to Muhammad the Prophet, what does he say about Adam? He said, “No one is resurrected from the dead, except on pattern or the design of Adam.” So, if we ought to come back from the grave or from death, we must come back as we were born, babies from our mothers.
We must come back on the pattern of Adam and Muhammad the Prophet said, in his pattern he didn't stop there. He said and his pattern is sixty arm spans. Sixty arm spans. Now that is huge. Huge. That'll take us into Islamic myth, because it's not in our life that we see a man standing up and he's sixty arm spans in his height. You know what sixty arm spans is? Multiply that by six. That isn't feet. That's like three feet almost for me. For some of you all it is three feet.
They use to say yard and they didn't even take a measure. Remember that a long time ago? You brothers my age and older? They go to buy a yard of goods, the material for your wife to make a dress or something and she asked the man, and you would see them measuring for your wife and they're doing this. They have it. Looks just like that. That's how they were measuring it. That's how they use to measure it. A yard, each one was a yard.
Yes. Imagine that. That'd be three times six. The average man now is six feet tall. That's the average right now for men. That would be three times six. That'd be 18 feet tall. I think all of you might get ready to run out of here if somebody walk in that door, crawl up under there, stand up and head (laughing)--
So, to me it’s like myth. If you take it literally, to me it's like mythology. It's something that belongs in the myth in mythology. That means this has to be translated, interpreted. You have to find the answer from the study of it and you have to translate it from that picture back down here to our size, to us, okay? That's how it is, but what does it really say? How can we find something out?
You know that the sixth chapter of the Quran is called what? Al-An'am; the animals. And it's given to us to tell us what? This is in the Quran. That G-d has given everything a life in community. A life in community. The animals have their community and man, we have our community. And the bible, it has to explain the bible and carry us further, because it is a last revelation. The bible tells us too that on the sixth day, He didn't just make man He made animals, too, on the sixth day. You see? Put together.
That's to tell you that animals are social beings and man is a social being. We're social beings. We live in community with each other, socializing with each other makes us form a community. Man having to socialize with his fellow man, make friends with his fellow man, to deal with the problems of life, to fight the wild animals that will terrorize his society, to keep them off, to conquer them and to prepare the society to survive storms, weather and flooding. Man has to work together. He can't stay alone, because man is created to be a social creature and to work with his fellow man. That's the only way we can have our life. We can't have it alone.
If we're going to have human life, we to have to work with each other. We have to love each other. We have to be friends with each other. We have to share each other's concerns and we have to work to have our concerns addressed and go out and do what we have to do improve our life as a collective group of people, a social community, or a community of human beings.
Actually, community is stronger than social, because community permits even the one who wants to be a hermit, who won't live with others, but it supports him too. He can have his life of a recluse, living to himself and by himself, but he can have it if we provide for him a social community life. There he can have all that. We love him. We say, "Well he has his own dreams. He has his own life. Let him have it. It's good. It's harmless. He's not hurting anybody, but himself." No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. "He's not hurting anybody, so let him have his life."
Those who want to devote their whole attention to medicine, or devote their whole attention to archaeology, or whatever. The community, once it’s formed, it supports all of them because eventually they contribute in some way back to the whole. Without the social community life, we don't have much anything. That's what Allah is giving us, the knowledge of the social community life and telling us that it began with one human type. As Muhammad said we have to be resurrected even, not just born. We have to be resurrected on that pattern. We have to be that type and conform to that type. G-d is telling that it all began with one human type. And He named that one human type in our origin, in our beginning, Adam.
Now, let's go to the Bible. The Bible says that He named the human beings, Adam. It says in the day that He created him, He named them, it went from singular to plural. In the day that He created him, Adam, He named them Adam. Adam. It says He created them and named them, Adam. This is in the Bible in Genesis. So, here the Bible is saying that not only was one single man named by G-d, Adam, but the family of that man is also called, Adam. And one, learned Imam and also Mufti in an Islamic country.
He was speaking at once and he said, “Abraham was a community”. He didn't say Muhammad is a community, but as he continued in his talk, and his line of reasoning, I and I guess all who was following him very consciously, I concluded that he was telling us Muhammad is a community. After reflecting on that, I have come to see Muhammad as really a type for all the community. Isn't that why we have to follow his life? Follow his life, his pattern, the way he lived? If we followed his life the way that he lived it, we will be the best community. We will be the best community, because he is the best model. And if we follow his life our community will be the best community model.
Aren't we told that Muhammad, when all this is settled before G-d, Muhammad is going to be a witness for and against us? If we have conformed to what we claimed, then he is a witness for us. If we deviated and went against what he established for us, then he is going to be a witness against us. And didn’t G-d tell us just like he was going to be a witness among us. Didn't G-d tell us to be a community model witnessing for G-d among other communities of this Earth? He made us not only a model community, but he obligated us also to be a witness for G-d as a community. That this is the life that G-d revealed for mankind. All of your communities should be like this. Think about that.
Sometimes it takes me longer to prepare to give you what I have you give you than it takes to give it to you. I have to take a moment, just a moment, to give thanks to Allah for a Sister Amatullah Rashad and for the Dawah supporters that work for her in the office, IWDM Ministries Dawah Supporters office. I thank all of them who sponsored us and I thank Masjidul Taqwa, I thank you and your imam. You're a great leader for what we want on this earth in America. Imam Abdul Ali, Imam Ali. The two for sponsoring this event.
Now I’ll get back to what I was working on. Let us see Muhammad the prophet now and some features that to me are extremely important for us although we have to see him in his whole life especially as a husband, as a married man, and as a father of children, a father of children. Very important that we see that because we are living in a time when the home is in trouble. The home life has a lot of trouble and marriage is no more sacred for most of us and our children are suffering because of that. But let me go to the businessman. Muhammad the businessman, peace be upon him. Before G-d gave him the mission, made him His servant and His messenger to all the world, and a messenger to all the worlds, he was a businessman. He got married when he was 25 old to lady Khadijah, may G-d be pleased with her and she was a businesswoman. She was not dependent upon anybody else for money. She had her own business and she wanted Muhammad, the excellent, most excellent of people, persons and men to be in her business, protecting her business interest, doing business for her. She turned her business over to him, he accepts it, she turns the business over to him.
Here we have a prophet who was working with the material world, correct? Now, in the Quran, Allah says that He raised him among the brethren, a man like Moses. Not only in the respect that Moses, Musa in our language, was not educated and that's what it means when it's said he had a knot in his tongue. He was not educated, he didn't have smooth full flowing language. He didn't have educated speech so he had a difficulty in his speech. There is a knot.
A knot is a difficulty in his tongue and you know tongue means language. What tongue do you speak? I speak English. I have English tongue. Tongue does not only mean this piece of meat it means language. Yes, so he had a knot and G-d gave him Aaron who obviously was the educated one. He gave him Aaron to be his helper. And I don't know of another time in the history of revelation where G-d chose, made messengers of prophecy and He put two brothers together to work together like that. But Aaron, his brother, was his helper.
Now he was better educated, right? Obviously, if we follow the logic. He was better educated and we know he was better educated but they kept arguing with Moses but when it came to Aaron they didn't want to argue with Aaron. I never saw where they argued with Aaron. They wanted to influence Aaron. [laughs]. He was the educated one of the two brothers but did G-d make the educated the leader? No. Not that he rejects the educated one but he picks the one that's prepared. Who was put in the basket and floated down the river and ended up being taken out of the river by Pharaoh's wife and being brought inside of the big house with Pharaoh as an adopted child? It was Moses. And who was the child whose mother was inspired to put him in the river? It was Moses.
So, according to G-d's plan, it has to be even though that one is not educated like the one in the world, or like one established in the world. Now you know Moses was loved by Pharaoh according to the history, he was loved by Pharaoh. And Pharaoh gave him a position with the builders, the construction people. Gave him a job with the builders with the construction people. Gave Moses a job. Moses, Musa. So, here is a man Moses, before he knew he had his spiritual mission, he didn't know it. As a baby, he was thrown down there. He didn't have no knowledge of anything. Before he even came to know of his job that G-d was going to give him, he was already working in the material construction of his nation or his place where he lived.
Muhammad was already working in the material construction of the people that he lived among. Business is material construction. Business contribute is related directly to material construction and business contributes to the life and progress of the business construction. So, these two men were alike, not only in one way but obvious right away. Yes, he was a man that was not educated he was not from the educated leadership and G-d made Moses his messenger and G-d also did the same thing. In another way, Moses was under an oppressor. His people, pardon me, he was not under an oppressor. Pharaoh doubted him. He was in the house enjoying the comforts of the oppressor but that was not to be his mission and that was not to be his mission and that was not to be his end for his life.
Anyway, like Moses also, the whole world was under darkness in the time of Muhammad. It was during the time called Jahiliyyah the ignorant period or the ignorant age and oppressors were everywhere. Oppressors were everywhere, and darkness is called the worst form of oppressors and the worst form of darkness means ignorance, ignorance and corruption and the worst form of darkness is shirk, making g-ds with G-d. Shirk is certainly the worst of oppression or the mighty oppression [Arabic], the mighty oppression is having people believe that a g-d that is not G-d is a G-d in their lives for all their lives.
Okay, then we should see Muhammad also like Moses in that he had to lead a people from captivity to freedom. But how to describe that captivity? G-d is telling us something that is very important for us you know, that the worst captivity is not holding behind some material walls or restricting their physical movement to some material limits or some material boundaries. The worst captivity is to capture your good spirit that should be for G-d and to capture your intelligence that should be for G-d. Because G-d gave it to you to build your life up, to live your life. So, when they capture your good human spirit, the spirit to go forward with your community life and be a helper in advancing your human society. When they capture that spirit, they have done worse to you than the people that just locked you up within some physical walls, the limits of some famous physical wall or the boundaries of some physical camp, labor camp or slave camp. That the worst is done to you when they hold you back from the good, precious, fruitful, productive life that G-d created you for, that's the worst. I know the physical boundaries will do it, but sometimes men have been locked up with good, well-developed minds. And they have made great contributions while confined in prison to the betterment and future of society.
If you are from those that have been denied their freedom to develop your own minds and your own social nature as human beings that should live in a human community, then they have denied you a chance to even have that mind, to work while in prison, to help to produce something to help society, society at large or generally. We should understand that Adam is not dead. We all are Adam, that's why I said they named them Adam, we all are Adam. Whatever our first father was, that's what we still are. Maybe not in his thinking, but we are that in our nature. Whatever he was, that's what we still are.
He was a human being in the type that G-d wanted to begin the population of this earth with human beings. We are still that. That hasn't changed; we are still that. That means we still qualify if we respond to G-d. We still qualify to be His Khalifa on this earth. This is Islam I'm teaching you. We still qualify to be His Khalifa on this earth. And, if He made our father with the capacity and the potential to be responsible for human life on this earth under G-d, and to utilize whatever is in the sky and whatever is in the earth, the bodies of water, the seas, everything G-d made to bring it in to service for human society in community life.
If he gave that to our father, that has not gone anywhere, it's in every baby that's born. It's in us and it's in every baby that's born. G-d is telling us what is our native life, what is our original life. G-d is telling us what is our inheritance. G-d is telling us what is our possibilities as living creatures on this planet Earth. It has not gone anywhere, it's in us, it's with us. I will go further because I'm philosophical, [laughs] I can't help but be, that's my nature. I'll go further and say that Adam hasn't aged one day, one hour, not one minute, not one second, he has not aged, he does not age.
He's the original type and pattern of our created matter. M-A-T-T-E-R. He does not age, he does not change. We age, we change, we die, but his pattern stays for as long as the earth abides. Allahu Akbar. So, I'm Adam, not Adam the one that G-d spoke to, but Adam before G-d spoke to him. Yes, I'm Adam before G-d spoke to him, I'm Adam, so G-d can speak to me and say, "Wallace, tell them their names?"
[applause]
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Now, that's my introduction.
[laughter]
Here is the substance of my talk right here, I'm going to give it to you quickly. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he wanted us to have business life, business life. I'm not saying he was a prophet, I know he was not a prophet, I know he was not. He said himself he was not, but he insisted on saying he was a messenger, but he told us who was his sender.
He didn't say, Allah who made the heavens and the earth with his sender, he said Allah in the person of W.D. Farad was my sender. He didn’t say the G-d of the heavens and the earth. And understand this too, just a little help to us. He told us to pray like this. Surely, I've turned myself to the O Allah who originated the heavens and the earth, trying to be upright. Isn’t that what he told us to do? Isn’t that what he told us to do? Did he stand up and say, "Surely I've turned myself to the O Allah, who came in the person of master WD Fard." He didn't tell you to do that.
[applause]
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was blessed to put our focus on that that would give us the most help. What did he want us to be? He wanted us to be a separate society in America. He didn't want us to just infuse our life with them, or to fuse our life with the life of this society. He wanted to protect our life from being fused with the life of society. I remember in France, I'd always loved science, we did an experiment. We put, I think it was a brass bar or brass piece of metal, we put it with another piece of metal, it was a white metal, I can't really remember exactly, my minds-- I've kept my thoughts so much on this and traveling so fast here.
The experiment was to leave it there and after days come back and some of the brass metal had gone into the white metal and some of the white metal had gone into the brass metal. Now, for many of you all, this is a miracle, a witch doctor can do that and have all of you as his converts. And you'll go to hell, jump in hell fire with him. [laughs] You'll believe him so strongly if you saw that because, how in the world did that a metal, flat solid metal go into each other.
Well, it happened. They were infused. If you bring their fuse together, the molecules from one will go into the other one and they will become mixed, they'll mix with each other, though they are solidly put together. Science explains this, but I know it’s still mystified some of us. Science explains this, they said, "Nothing solid is without motion." Though it looks solid to you, there's motion inside of it. It’s whole material body has motion. There's movement of electrons and protons in the body, the molecules, the structure of it is in motion even within itself.
That's what they tell you. I think that experiment is proof that they're in motion because how did the particles or molecules of one metal get into another if they're not in motion. And isn’t that how we are? We become so much convinced in our minds that we should not let our minds be influenced by anything. And though we be here in the presence of my voice, you hear in my voice, you've already made up your mind no matter what he says, I will not be changed.
[laughter]
So, aren't we aren't we able to solidify our spirit. Solidify our thinking, our thoughts. Solidify our mind and soul, make it so solid that we can be in a warm social environment where we just want to- the nature is to just hug each other, remain rigid, won't let that movement embrace another movement. But if I'm brass you better let your white metal touch me, baby.
[applause]
[laughs] I'm not got brass, I'm not brass, but we need to touch. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I say he was blessed. What we were deprived of was the right to be responsible and Allah made Adam, that mean he made all of us, men, women, children too to grow up and into our responsibility for a community life. We can't be separate from others who are carrying a responsibility from community life. Allah created every human being. If we in our sane mind, we should be accepting our responsibility for something that community life needs. If we can’t give it no more support than five cents, give it that. Give it a nickel worth of support if that's all you have. We should give some support, and I mean your five senses. Support it with your five senses. Support it with your human life that you have. If you don't have education or whatever, support it with that, support it with your morals.
Give it your moral support. We have to be Adam and we have to support the Khalifa. The Khalifa is not one of us, the Khalifa is all of us put together, we all together, we represent the Khalifa. And that's how we should live as a community of Muhammed the prophet. The community that Allah made and told us you are [Arabic language]. And another brother told me another quote from Quran [Arabic language] evolve the raised up for all people. G-d is speaking to us, telling us, "You are the best community, evolve the raised up for the good of all people, mankind." [Arabic language] We all have to want to grow more and more into that responsibility. Business, we were taken from Africa and brought here not that we had a good situation in Africa, it must not have been that good. That wouldn't have happened if it was that good.
We were brought from there and brought here and we were held as slaves or property of the landowners, a property of the landowners. They didn't want us to entertain them after they worked in the fields, "Okay, now bring those slaves out, we brought them here to sing to us and make us feel good. Sing and dance for us. We are tired, we want some relaxation. No, you get up before the sun, get out down that field, pick more cotton today than you did yesterday or you might get a whipping, might be last." That's what we were forced to do, we were forced to work the land and to help the landowners to have a good life. Bur we weren't given the freedom to have the human dignity to work for our own community life.
The biggest robbery that I know of is that robbery, and it’s in the Bible, says the Jews speak out with the tongue of their prophets or whatever, and they said-- No, I'm sorry I recall now. It was G-d speaking on their behalf and G-d said to the people who had enslaved them and taken them out of this life. He says, "Will a man rob G-d? You have robbed me this whole people." What is the stealing or the robbing of a G-d of a whole people? When you take them out of Adam, when you take them out of the life of Adam, when you take them out their right to the life that G-d created them for in society being responsible for their own community. Then you have robbed G-d a whole people.
I used to preach this when I was a young minister in Philadelphia, not far from here, I haven't changed very much. I used to preach this, that we now can look at scripture of what happened to that people and then look at ourselves and understand what has happened to us. We can say if G-d didn't like and wouldn't tolerate those people, Pharaoh and others who robbed Him of the Jewish people, He will not tolerate in this time those who have robbed Him of the African American, the so-called Negro. G-d is G-d, He abides and lives forever unchanged and His word lives forever unchanged. hat's scripture, I'm giving scripture.
Knowing that beautiful picture of G-d, I don't fear anybody when I'm going to establish my Adam again. I don't fear anybody when I'm going about to establish the communion life that G-d created Adam for again. I don't fear anybody. I know I've got G-d on my side.
Congregant: [Takbir. Allahu Akbar] We can't stop now.
IWDM: We can't stop now. Now, understand what I have said, my father said he was not a prophet, he said he was a messenger, but not of the G-d that created the heavens and the earth, of Mr. WD Farad that he believed to be like Jesus Christ, a manifestation of G-d in the flesh. We don't accept that; Islam corrected that for us. Okay, now we can proceed and I hope you don't get in trouble following me. If you get in trouble following me, it's because you're not paying attention to me. Elijah Muhammed was named after Elijah the prophet of the Bible, now let us look at Elijah the prophet of the bible.
Elijah the prophet of the Bible, if I'm not-- I think I'm correct, he was the one who challenged false prophets, but he was also a healer. What's the name of that figure in the bible that he healed? No, he didn't only heal, he healed a widow's son, but he also brought him back to life - revived somebody in the Bible. Anybody know? Lazarus, Lazarus. Yes, thank you for helping me with this presentation. Lazarus is seen in the bible as a healer and he is also seen in the bible as one who that gave life to the dead. Lazarus was thought to be dead, but Elijah didn't say he was dead, did he? He said, "He's not dead, he only sleepeth. He sleeps and he looks dead to you. He appears to be dead, but he is not really dead he sleepeth." And he brought him back to life.
Now, let's look at Lazarus. You know, it’s not painful to be beggar at a rich man's table. [laughs] A beggar. It’s not painful a beggar at a rich man's table if you don't want more if, you don't want more. Some beggars, they want no more than a little handout. Said Lazarus was there to get the crumbs that dropped off the rich man's table. We want much and therefore, we must have, like him, like the rich man, a table. The son of Elijah Muhammed is with it. Yes, thanks to Allah. Elijah did not have a lazy bone in his body, so let's get busy. In this theme that we have, we know that the human didn't have his life until G-d breathed into that human of his own spirit.
Then that human became a living soul, like the baby that's alive in the mother. Taking form, a form that's it's going to have to live in the world. It’s not considered living until it can breathe own its own. When it takes the first breath, then we know the child is living. The child has life, so really its life truly as a human being begins when it comes outside of his mother and takes that first breath and begin to have his heart and his lungs all working, all his vital organs working, detached from the physical body of his mother. The umbilical cord has been broken or cut. He detached, living on his own body, not on the body of anyone else, not even his own mother. We should reflect on these things.
I've tried to give you a clear picture of what human life, our individual human life is in terms of the original value and worth given to us by G-d Almighty in the day that He created us or in the time that He created us. We should have a clear growing picture. Clearer and growing picture of our life in the mold G-d made for us. The Adam type. We should know the responsibility on all of us is the responsibility for establishing human life in community. Human life in community, that means land.
You don't have to have ownership of the land, but responsibility for the land. You can rent the land because after all, strictly speaking, as Muslims, we don't believe any of us own land. Allah is always the owner of the land. He made it, it's His property, it belongs to Him. We have trust, G-d trusts us with the use of the land and with the care of the land. To care for the land and get the benefits from it. That's a trust from G-d to us.
The great teachers in Islam, they have taught us also that we have to even understand that our own bodies are not ours. Our bodies belong to G-d. When you abuse it when misuse it, you're misusing something G-d trusted you with. It's His property, not yours. He trusted it with you for your journey, in the whole life. Muhammad said, "On this Earth, in this life is just a journey." Taking us from birth to the destination that G-d wants us to go to. Not to death. Death is another door in the reality G-d created.
Now, we have a Qibla. A Qibla. Our Qibla is not like the Qibla of other people. That's what Allah tells us in the Quran, speaking of the people of the book. We are like them, we started off showing up where we all began in the same. Same origin in Adam. Same origin in the human type G-d wants us to have on this earth that makes possible all of the wonderous things that we want to realize, or we want to have for our achievements as human beings in society. Working for progress education, civilization and industrial life, and human progress in community. All of that's in- that as given, that's what G-d promised the type that we call Adam. Now, when you study Genesis, it’s Quran too, if you understand it. Because he said that he [Arabic word], for him [Arabic word] everything in the skies and everything in the earth, that He made it to benefit man.
If he will just obey G-d and have the community, the fair and just community life that Allah has ordered for him. Yes. It's in the bible. The sons, descendants of Adam, they were industrialists. They were leaders of spiritual community like Abel, and they were industrious like Cain. But the industrialists, according to Genesis, went astray, became selfish, and didn't want to share with his brother and respect his brother’s right to establish his own life. What did he do? He killed his brother.
This is in Quran too. He killed his brother, spilled his brother's life. Cain's spilled Abel's life in the field. Don't we see that happening now, just like Adam is not gone? Cain and Abel ain't go nowhere. He's still spilling his brother's life in the field. He's still doing that? What am I saying? The industrial life is killing the family life. Then commercial life is spilling that social blood on dead ground. These things haven't changed. We just advanced.
We're more civilized and more knowledgeable now. Thank, G-d. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin. We have our Qibla. Our Qibla is to preserve this knowledge of our life created by G-d and the great possibilities for this life. Now, can't you understand then why G-d says that this house that represents the focus for our Qibla, for our direction is the first house, the most ancient of houses, the first house built, not for Arabs or for blacks and whites. It says, "Built for all people." [Arabic language]
Those who speak Arabic, they know this if they are staying in touch with Quran and with their religion, they know what I am saying, just like you know when I say, "Hi, what's happening man." Just like, you know that, they know what I'm saying in Arabic. The first house [Arabic language] The first of the house. Some translation says, "It is the most ancient of the houses built for all people." Our Qibla does not exclude any race, it does not exclude any nation or any people, our Qibla. It was built for all people.
Some, they don't have a Qibla like that. I don't want to name any of them, but some don't have a Qibla like that. That's our Qibla. Many of the learned teachers in Islam, they say, "The fifth pillar is the pillar of the unity of mankind." Isn't that beautiful? G-d gives us a religion and He tells us that its structures are five. [Arabic language] Five. The structures for Islam are five. The pillars are structures to supporting Islam are five.
We know the five. Oneness of G-d, witnessing that G-d is one and no partners with Him. No son, no wife, no daughters, no share, no friends or G-ds with him. None. The second, we know that with that shahadatain is a two second parts. Shahada contains two parts, and to witness that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger. In our mission throughout the world, we have to keep emphasizing that. That's the first, to witness to the wonders of G-d. The second is to pray to that G-d. The third is to give charity.
To give up yourself for the growth of the human community on the G-d. The fourth is to fast, the Ramadan. Fast during this month as we are doing. The fifth is to [Arabic language] is the [Arabic language] to that house. This house that I drew it. I didn't put his name. I drew it. I just love to see it. I drew it. Our Qibla, that's our Qibla. If you know the Qibla once housed a lot of idols, right? You're aware of that, you heard that, that under the pagans who worship idols, there were idols, it was just filled with idols.
Like Abraham, Muhammad did away with the idol. He took all the idols out. So, when you go there now, it's just an empty place. Right? It's the empty place. No Idols. What is it? It's the house of our soul. Is the house of our one type. The house of Adam's soul. Adam's soul is my soul, your souls, all of our souls, the Christian's souls, the Jew's soul. All of soul. Adam's souls is all of our soul. Nothing is in their physical because it represents the soul of mankind. The one type. The one human soul that's one for all of us, the same, for all of us. The soul of mankind. That house is really a house for the soul of mankind. When everything is gone but the soul, we believe, in religions that I'm naming, we believe that the soul survives the body. Is that not correct? What did that house look like also? It looks like a coffin. When you study the design or how the house is structured, at one time, it was a rectangular and long. It wasn't a square. It was just like a coffin. Later, they made it like a house. Under the pagans, it was like a coffin. To say that the pagans believe in only that aspect - rising up. No, they didn't believe in rising up from the dead, but that is buried there.
Do you know that Arabs didn't believe in life after death? No, they did not. That's why they were like Moses, always [unintelligible 01:21:50] "how was this, how was that?" Questioning our prophet. In a lot of talks I'm explaining to them the resurrection of the dead. They believe that the person was dear and sacred and they should put him away nicely and the area was sacred, that represented all that to them. It was finally built like a house because really, we want make the most precious life in the house of a whole human society - we should see it as house. The Bible speak up there are many rooms and mansions, and there are rooms and many rooms in his mansions. This idea was already there, but it's extended, it's elaborated.
We should see the whole human community as one house and all of us are living in one house, which is the Earth. We should imagine that it is a life that had grown out of the Earth too and we're all living in one house on the top of the Earth, on the surface of the Earth. There's room in there for all of us. Now, how can you make a symbol say, "This is the house and all of us are in that house." Find out what is the essence of all of us, that all of our life must be expressed upon and expressed from. That's the human soul, the single human soul. That is the soul of Adam, that's it. Now, it doesn't take physical space, so when we go there, all of us will live in there. You get the picture? All of us are living there because it's a soul, there's one soul that we are seeing. All of us are living there. That house can hold that one soul, and that one soul, the soul of all of us, so Allahu Akbar. If that soul is still in the condition that--
[01:23:59] [END OF AUDIO]

