1988
IWDM Study Library
Human Being’s Sacred Properties and Potential
Oakland CA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
IWDM: Praise be to Allah and thank you. As salamu Alaikum.
Crowd: Wa alaikum salam.
IWDM: That is peace be unto you. We give all praise to the one Lord and Creator of the heavens and the earth. Whose name, proper name with the Muslim is Allah, the same G-d for all the G-d fearing people on this earth. In fact, the same G-d for people anywhere. If they’re existing in some other body other than this earth. The same G-d, the Lord of all creation. We give all praise to Him and we thank Him for the blessings of religion, the blessing of faith that came to us by way of the blessing to all people, to all nations, a mercy to all nations, the one we call Muhammad, the prophet.
We pray the peace and blessings of G-d be upon him. And that we always be guided as Muslims into the excellence that he demonstrated, that he exemplified for the following. Yesterday, well, last evening we had a wonderful time, enjoyed another very successful fundraiser and evening of excellence for Sister Clara Muhammad school in Oakland, California. And you remember that I said, "Well, be prepared tomorrow to come tomorrow, I’m going to talk all day." Well, I hope I won't do that. I'm going to try not to do that.
We have been addressing some concerns and I hope I continue in that same vein or same line of progressing. We focus on the human being as a creature with sacred properties. We came from that focus to focus on the human being as a creature with potential for the management of the environment. Whether that environment be small, or be the total environment that we live in. That is the natural environment that we live in, the earth, all of its elements, wind, water, fire, the sun, the moon, and even the stars above. All of these things, according to revelation from G-d, were created to be utility for man.
That is utility for human society, to be of use in human service. The term in the Holy Book is “Sakkara” which means that something has been made available via another principle or authority for human benefit. And Allah says that He made the sun and the moon to be of benefit to the human being. These things are not to be worshiped by us. That's the point. These things are not to be worshiped by us, but they are to render services for us. They have services for us. And we should not become big headed and think that now we are G-d of something.
Because you know, in the history of man's search for truth, he began as a baby. And whether it's kindergarten, elementary school, high school, finally college and the university. As we retrace his movement from that first weak feeble state of his, we see a progression. He worshiped the things he feared most first. Then he began to worship the things he admired most. And lastly, he worshiped the things that satisfied his intellectual curiosity the most. That most satisfied his intellectual curiosity.
That road of experience brought some men to stop right at themselves and go no further. And for that reason, even in this most modern time, in the sense of the advance of science, et cetera. There are civilized nations still worshiping man as G-d. Let it be understood right here in the beginning of this address that Muslims worship nothing of creation. We don't worship the sun, the moon, the man, nothing of creation. We worship only Allah who created everything, and according to our Holy Book, was existing before anything was created. And is unlike anything He created and has no need of the creation for anything in Himself. He does not eat, He does not drink, He does not slumber, He does not sleep.
Years and time have no effect on Him. These are the words of the Quran, not my words. These are words of our scriptures. Years and time and the years has no effect on Him. He cannot be affected by anything. Nothing can even approach Him to affect Him. That's the Quran. I’m giving you the Quran. Most of you don't speak Arabic, so there’s no need of me giving you Arabic from the Quran. It takes too much time to say chapter and verse. The worst preachers give you chapter and verse for everything they say.
Yes, so this is the idea of G-d, the concept of G-d for Muslims. Nevertheless, that doesn’t that, “so what is He then?” He is beyond the grasp of our human perception. And that's the G-d man should worship. If I can perceive Him fully and completely with my tools, then He is no bigger than me. Anything I can perceive completely with my tools, I’m its equal. Whatever man has been completely able to perceive and understand with his mind, his intellect, he has been able to equal it and master it. So, the foolish notion of desiring and wanting to see G-d as you see your friends, look, you don't even see your friends in total. In fact, we know very little in total.
Yes, but we can get a lot of knowledge of it. Going back now to what I was saying, it doesn't mean now that G-d is non-existing. No. I can’t perceive Him in total, but He’s existing. It doesn't mean that He is not real, He is real. He’s more real than the things we acknowledge as being real.
Like this mic, we say, “this is real, man”. Allah is more real in our religion. By our understanding, in our religion, He's more real. In fact, He is The Real and everything else is just a reflection of some minut part of His Reality. This is G-d.
Really, I hate to use the English word. Because it carries the message that some people have in their religion that G-d is no more than the dynamics of the universe that goes up and down. “Man, he can descend down to the dog and up to G-d”. Therefore, we have "G-O-D." “We can descend down to the dog and up to G-d”. What a nice message, what a nice saying, but it's dangerous, it's terribly dangerous. Because man is a creature of haste. Man is a creature of daringness. He's ready to do what he thinks can't be done. In fact, that's the challenge he wants, the challenge that says, "No, you can't do it." He is ready for that one. And the biggest one is be G-d. He's ready for that one, too. He wants to be G-d.
I'm speaking not only from third hand, second hand, I'm speaking from first hand. We used to say we were G-d, the followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. We used to believe we were 
G-d, that black man is G-d. And our knowledge wasn't as heavy as the white man who said he was 
G-d. We did things more foolish than he did, you see?
Perception is a natural urge in the intellect, a natural urge in everybody. When the baby is first born, the greatest interest in the baby appears to be the urge to perceive. The baby will look at the mother, look at the father, the brothers or sisters, whoever is in the household. They'll look at the objects, study the objects. The baby wants to see and understand what it's seeing. It looks at itself.
Science has said that man is a creature of habit described him in so many ways. Science doesn't have any one definition for man, it has many definitions for man. The one we use most commonly is human. What does human mean? When you say human, what do we mean? You say, “man of the soil or man of the earth”. Perhaps so, but the idea that we have now when we say human means a person with feelings, a person caring, a person that has refined sensitivities that are human, that are just natural for him.
And when he behaves or responds to our kindness, et cetera, in an ugly way, we may call him an animal. Again, a great mistake. Because you'll find the same good feelings and concerns among animals that you find among human beings. I haven't seen any human mother any more caring than some of the mothers among the animals that I have observed. So really, that's not our excellence. Kindness, consideration, caring, that's not our special excellence.
The special excellence of man is his mental power, his intellect. Not as a creature of feeling, his superiority as an intellect. Man is free. He's a free creature. So, his feelings sometimes lead him to go beyond what is good. He can become so good that he is too good, that he is bad. Whereas the animals, they have checks on them. They can't love each other to death. I've never seen animals loving each other to death. I'm sure you ran into somebody, if you didn't run into one of your girlfriend or boyfriends of yours that will love you to death. You say, “I don't think I can make it if you keep loving me. Hold up, slow up a little bit”. So, that can't be our excellence. The intellect is our excellence.
But there's something else that goes along with that intellect. It's intelligence all right, but it is something that is typical of a human being. And that is a requirement in us to give for what we receive. To give for what we receive. A human being does not like to receive, not a real human being, receive and receive and receive and not give. Human beings like to receive and give. Receive and give. And this is a requirement in us that leads us to acknowledge G-d. “How did I get all of this? I want to thank somebody for it. Who am I to thank for all of this?” So, he looks for the one to thank, and that is G-d. He keeps searching. He says, “G-d, thank G-d”.
And that's the spirit and attitude that makes him a good servant of the Lord. He becomes a good servant of the Lord. He reaches a point in that realization, where everything he does, he wants to do it knowing that G-d is pleased with it. Whether it's running his family, running the household or caring for the household or working on the job or helping the men in the neighborhood, whatever it is, or even playing on a team, whatever it is. He reaches a point in that kind of progression where he wants everything to be first accepted by G-d. That's a wonderful creature.
That's the creature that excels. That's the creature that really becomes a hero. That's the prophets of G-d. They are our best heroes, the prophets of G-d. They rose above the confines of their day, time and knowledge because they served the Lord Most High with that kind of devotion. We believe in this religion that man is a creature created for service. And when he accepts himself as such, he finds happiness. And he cannot find happiness until he accepts himself as such. That he is a creature to find his pleasure, his happiness in rendering service. He has been made the servant of G-d. We call Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon him, the servant of G-d, we call every prophet, the servant of G-d. We call every human being the servant of G-d. Allah says in His holy book, "You are the ebaad of G-d. ebaad Allah, you are the servants of G-d." And Allah instructs the prophet to speak to my ebaad, to speak to my servants. Called them back from their straying.
He calls them His servants. The word for servant, when it was used by our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was the common word for slave. That's what the people of the Middle East were calling their slaves, Ab. They were saying Abdi, my servant. It also meant my slave. Because most of their servants were in the position or the status of a slave. They didn't call their children Ab. They called the non-member of the family that they hired for two years or ten years or for life.
They could employ, contract a slave for a short time, a long time, and also for life. They would call him Ab, slave, meaning slave. The revelation came and called Muhammad “Ab”, slave, but the slave of Allah. And then Muhammad was instructed, peace be upon him, to call all men Ab. Slave, but the slaves of Allah. Now, we're not going to go to deal with everything, and try to cover everything, it takes too much time.
But I'm sure you're getting the picture. That is a powerful, liberating message. Powerful message for the liberation of the slave. Here I got slaves. I call him, “Ab. Ab come here”. And here comes a man preaching that all of the men are the Abs of G-d. I don't want that message reached this one I got. Because I'm calling him my Ab. You see? Muhammad was disliked right away. The Prophet was disliked right away. “What is this man? What strange message he's bringing? He makes the gods one”.
You know they had 367 gods. They say, "Here he comes and makes the gods one. There's no more 367, there's only one. You make all men the Ab of that G-d. And he’s preaching this openly”. So, they punished, one of the slave masters punished one Ethiopian- Habashi man from the area called Ethiopia. Punished him for accepting the message of Muhammad, which is Islam, or Al Islam. Put a heavy hot stone on his chest, tied him put him on the hot sand.
Then put big heavy hot stone on his chest and told him until you give up that message, that's your situation you have to accept. And Bilal is his name. Bilal became so weak he couldn't even speak. And his master came to him to ask him if he's ready to repent of this new religion. Bilal just put one finger out, and his master knew what that meant. Because he had already said when the master said, "Hey, come from that." He said, "Ahad."
Because his master wanted him to confess the 367 gods, of the Jahiliyyah age that they were in. The age of ignorance, idolatry, idolatry age, if you want to call it that. So, he wanted him to accept the 367 gods. Bilal had been converted to the one G-d. He would simply say, "Ahad." You know a slave, he's afraid of his master, because his master got the whole society on his side. If a slave could whip his master in the house and go outside and nothing happened, he would whip that master.
The slave would be the master. He would be whipping his master every time his master told him something he didn’t like. Because the slave is always stronger than the master. I would say almost strongest than the master, yes. Bilal, he didn't have a whole lot to say to his master. He didn't want to go overboard. He didn't give him a whole lecture on the concept of G-d in our religion. He just would simply say, "Ahad, Ahad."
"Hey, you give it up, you got to give it up." He said, "Ahad." When he was so weak, he was too weak to speak. He just raised his finger. Thank G-d he didn't die. One of the companions of the Prophet, great figure in our religion, Abubakar, may G-d be pleased with him. He came and paid the ransom money and freed Bilal from his slave master. Now, you brothers don't keep looking for that kind of favor from Arabs.
More dignity being in a situation to take care of you own. A creature created to render service. Whether we render service to G-d or not with a conscience, we are rendering service to G-d. You know, the person who says, "I care less for G-d." I don't care what kind of life he lives, his life is a testimony to the greatness of G-d. To the glory of G-d, because for all that happens him, if he rises or fall. If he rises, it's because he has respected the plan of G-d. The purpose of G-d. In some measure, whether consciously or not, he has respected it. If he falls, he falls because for the same reason, he didn't respect it, right? Same reason that the plan of G-d is there, you cannot change it. G-d's purpose is too big for us. We cannot destroy it. Whatever we do, we can’t as Allah said, "They cannot take anything from me. If all the men on earth would deny me, they would take nothing from me.
If all men came together to give me something, I wouldn’t increase in anything." This is G-d, you see, yes. We are creatures created to give service. Science says, we are creatures of habit that is, what we involve ourselves in will influence our formation, how we are formed. Everyone, that means white, black, brown, yellow, everyone is born a Muslim. And it is the situation that he's put in that makes them otherwise.
So, what does that tells us about the Muslim? One definition for Muslim then, is the inherent composition of man, the inherent native composition of man, that's Muslim, according to our religion. That everyone is born naturally a Muslim. But it is the environment that makes them otherwise. We have the expression, “man is a creature of his environment”. Man is a creature of his environment, which is true.
We know Allah, G-d created Adam, the first man, our Father, our first father from the environment, didn't He? He created him from the dust, and then from the wet soil and then breath into him, breathe of air. Left him free in the sun. Right? Yes. The man was created according to religion, he was created from the environment. So, he is a creature of the environment. Adam was in a good situation. He was in paradise. G-d created him in paradise. He was in paradise. In the Holy Book of G-d Allah says, "He has prepared for us a paradise. The space of that paradise is as the space of the heavens and the earth."
Now, I tend to stretch my imagination sometimes, and I like to do it. So, stretching my imagination, I said to myself, "Oh, boy this all once was heaven. Heaven was only up there but heaven was once down here too." Then again, Allah says to us in the Holy Book, He says, "Cannot they see that the heavens and the earth was once joined as one before it was split, severed?" Now, that might have many meanings for different people, but I'm stretching my imagination. And again, the religion says, when they enter the heaven, the blessed ones, the fortunate ones, when they enter, and believe me, it will be the fortunate ones. Don't think you are going to plan your way into heaven. There's no way to plan your way into heaven. You will be one of the fortunate ones. In our religion, we are taught that we all would be lost if it wasn't for the mercy of G-d. 
We are told that when we enter the paradise and behold it, we will say that these are the things like we knew before. Isn’t that wonderful? Yes, it's wonderful. I don't know anybody that wants to go to heaven that doesn't have something in it that they've been missing here, unless they got Alzheimer's disease or something. That's different. I'm the kind of preacher that likes to fuss at you, attack you, shock you, if I can, reason with you. But most of all, I just want to provoke thinking, thought. Just to provoke thought. If we can get the thinking mechanism to going, there's hope. Now, "Oh, so what he is saying that all of us are fools and we got to learn to use our brains." No.
There are men and women with PhDs, but in this particular business we're talking about now, the brain might be completely numb. It has to be revived. Life has to come back to it. Man, as a creature of his environment. The environment begins with the total material universe. The total universe, everything, that's environment. We believe that Allah created us and put us in this environment and this whole environment is home for us. We say earth is our home, yes, earth is our home, but also, the things beyond are also part of the environment that G-d put us in. We live in the universe too.
We live on earth and we live in the universe. And we believe that G-d wants us, just as man explore the new regions that he discovers on earth, Allah wants us to explore the regions beyond our reach today. What am I saying? I'm saying that the white man did a real Islamic thing when he advanced the sciences and began to want to travel out, to reach out to utilize what's beyond earth out there among the stars. He did an Islamic thing and I haven't had an Islamic scholar, or scientist to check me yet. And I've spoken to all Arab audiences, we were just a few guests, we were their guests.
I've spoken to big audiences of so-called learned men. I would say learned men. And I said these same things and no one has checked me. It hurts, it's a bitter pill to swallow, but no one will check me. In fact, they know that Allah created all of this to be of service, even the stars out there beyond our reach. He created all that to be of service in the life and in the world of man. 
Now, if I believe that as a Muslim or a Christian, whatever, if I believe that, I'm in a good situation right now. Pay $50 an hour to get your brain put it in some kind of order, $50 an hour, so you believe in yourself. “I want to believe in myself”. And all it takes is just that. Believe just like that and it is all over. No more dejected me. I ain't walking around with my head hung. That can be understood logically. I'm a creature of environment, G-d put me in this environment, if I'm the only person here, who does all this belong to? G-d said, "I don't need any of it," G-d said, "I don't need of this." G-d don't need the creation. Well, I'm the only one here it's mine. So, when G-d put Adam here, he said, “look at my sun come up this morning”. That was his home, that was his house. Say, "Hey, look at my light bulb come up this morning."
Now, know not that he's the real owner, G-d is the real owner, but G-d doesn't need it. It's not for G-d, it's for him. So, it's in his charge. It's to serve him.
Now, when man knowing that he's not bigger than all this that is out there for him to use, he's not bigger than all that, eventually he's going to have to go the way of the dead, right? He's going to leave all this; he cannot keep it. He's going to leave all this. The world eventually consumes him. The big thing out there for him to use and live off of, live on eventually is going to consume him. It's going to take him back, going to take him into it.
Man looks for answers, he looks for understanding, the thinking man. That's one of the definitions of man in our religion and also in science. Thinking man, right? Thinking homo-sapien, thinking man. In our religion, thakir. thakir. It means the same thing, thinking man. They even translated it, one who reflects, but the word reflect means, it's just given to bring home the message that this is not just thinking but this is serious thought. Serious thought, but it's thinking. Man is a thinker. Not only man, Allah in revealing to Prophet Muhammad, He made a point to use the same description for female. Thakaraat is in the Qur'an and the thinking women. Not only thinking men but thinking women.
You know the history of philosophy? We go back in history of philosophy; it begins with what? The thinker, philosophy, the first movement toward, what we call the exact sciences, right? It began with whom? The thinker. The thinker. And men thought that they were some special creature, some men thought that they were some special creature with some special makeup that the women didn't have. So, they didn't think of the women as having that.
The thing that distinguished the male and the female was not what we see with our own eyes and understanding, the physical difference, the physiological difference, the difference in the roles in the home, et cetera. It wasn't just that but they saw another difference. A difference in terms of the essence, the intellect of the two. That one had a nature to know and the other one just had a nature to perform.
So, as a consequence of that kind of thinking, women were denied the right to be educated by most of the civilizations before the coming of the Islamic civilizations. It was with Islamic civilization that women were given the same rights as men to education. Allah says in the Qur'an that higher knowledge is a lost property of the believer, not male, not female, the believer, for the male or female.
The prophet said that education is obligation on everyone, male and female. Then, he even threw out some incentives to the men. He said whoever will educate two daughters will earn paradise. Whoever will spend so that two of his daughters will be educated will earn the paradise. There was a really strong movement by the prophet to bring justice to the women, the females who have been denied the right to higher knowledge or the right to be educated. Not digressing, I think that goes right along with what we are doing today, with our purpose here today.
Religion says man is a devotional creature, devotional creature. We don't know when we're making a nice drawing, a nice painting. If we do it devotedly, we are doing it as a service. If we thought we were going to be the only one pleased with that painting, we will have no spirit to do it. We want that painting to please people, to please the beholders. So, whatever we do in the spirit of devotion, it's service. And if we understand that the requirement in us is first of all for Allah, then our performance will be much greater, will be much higher, we can perform on a much higher level, we will do much more if we do it for Allah. This is what made great civilizations. Men believing that they were working in the plan of the Great Planner that planned the universe.
Whether they were called prophets or philosophers or what, or just revolutionists. Those men thought that they were servicing the great plan of the Great Planner. And because of that, they didn't tire, their minds expanded to do unheard of work, to render services not equaled before. And this is what the common people need. We need people to preach to us religion as it was preached in the day of Adam, in the day of Abraham, in the day of Moses, in the day of Jesus. Most of us don't know Jesus. In the day of Jesus and especially in the day of Muhammad. We need people to preach to us, why? Because G-d's prophets in their lineage, their line or their train coming one after another, represent the growth of humanity along the plan that G-d made.
The last prophet, as Prophet Muhammad said, "There was a house being built by the prophets and there was only one brick missing. And I am that brick. That one brick." Something was missing to complete the house and he came and put it. He didn't claim, "I built the house." He said, "No, there was a house being built by the prophets and there was one brick missing and I am that brick." What was missing? The universal application of the knowledge. The universal application of the knowledge. To keep it within manageable size for the time I have, I'm just going to use three prophets or three figures I would say in Scripture; Adam, Abraham and Muhammad the last, peace be upon them.
If we can see these major movements in the progress, then we can understand that between those major movements, there had to be a lot of movements also to bring it about. So, Adam in his figure or his type represents us. Now, this is no new thing. I'm talking nothing but what is common knowledge among the learned in religion. Adam in his type is us. He's us. We are his sons but we're also him. Whatever Allah made Adam; I am myself. Whether I know it or not, whether I am living up to it or not is another thing. But whatever Allah made Adam, I am that now. Nothing has been lost.
They say, some religions and their esoteric teachings or in their symbolic teachings, they speak of “Adam as a perfect, pure and shining being”. That is before the fall in Christianity, Judaism and Christianity. Before the fall, they say he was a perfect and shining. Not Adam. Jesus is a perfect, Adam was not perfect”. Adam was perfect. Adam was perfect. Can imperfection breed perfection? I don't think so. I don't think so unless perfection was there before imperfection. Yes, imperfection will not breed perfection unless perfection was there before imperfection.
So, Adam was perfect being, perfect being. What he represents is the behavioral nature G-d made. G-d created man for a certain behavioral nature and Adam was that. The story of Adam tells us that G-d made us with the behavior that He wanted and something happened to bring us, to seduce us out of that behavior. We know the story of the serpent, the devil, and all that, right?
Now, the difference between our religion and some other religions, like Christianity where Adam is recognized is this, we don't see Adam's fall as a sin of admission rather a sin of omission. He didn't do it with an intent to do wrong. He was tricked, seduced, that's different. And according to The Bible, according to what the preachers preach, Adam did not consciously do wrong. Adam was outwitted and he wasn't in a good situation when he was approached. “He had fallen into a deep sleep”.
Well, look, that shouldn’t make us dislike our beginning. Our father, he was a sinner. How come he's a sinner? Some of us have our eyes wide open and get trapped. We throw it at Adam who was in a deep sleep when the most powerful trickster ever existed came to him. I don't think I've been met by that powerful trickster and I slipped a few times. Adam, he was a great man. In our religion, we have to speak of Adam with that kind of respect. We say, Father Adam. Prophet Muhammad taught us that. Your Father Adam. We greet him with peace. Salaam alaikum. Peace be on you, Adam our Father or my Father Adam.
Now, it all begins then in religion with man being responsible. He's responsible because G-d created him with the correct behavioral nature and gave him a conscience to know better. Now, if he slips, he's not perfect, he's not an angel. He's not perfect when it comes to that power of intellect or anything like that. He's perfect as a human being. Now, a lot of us can’t understand that you can be perfect and at the same time imperfect. Yes. To be a perfect human being is not to be a creature incapable of making mistakes. To be a creature incapable of making mistakes is to be other than human being. Is that clear? I see somebody they got a headache.
But it's clear. To be perfect as a human being is not to be a creature incapable of making a mistake. That idea come from the false notion in false religion that “man is G-d” or “man is ascending to G-d”. “So, in order for me to be a perfect human being, I have to be like G-d. I can't make a mistake”. That's what makes me perfect. I can make a mistake and repent. That's a perfect human being.
Praise be to Allah. See, this is the religion that they used to sing about. “Give me an old-time religion”. And people long before the slaves of Georgia in the South, long before that, there were oppressed people in the history of religion. In fact, 1,000 years or more before us and they cried too. They say, "Well, I know this can't be the end. G-d didn't create me to be treated like this. You tell us what G-d is. But one day I'm going to see His face, then when see Him, I will know Him." That's what the oppressed said 1,000 years or more before we were oppressed in the south of this country. Something inside tells us that truth is recognizable and when it comes, the most ignorant will know it.
G-d created us, perfect human beings, with the behavioral nature that He wanted for us, then what caused all the problem? Satan? The devil? Yes, but not directly. His works. There is a teaching in our religion it goes like this, it's reported by the Companions of the Prophet that the prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, told them of the beginning of G-d's great plan of creation. And how 
G-d introduced that plan before it was actually brought into reality, He introduced it to the angels. And G-d said, "Behold my creation." And when it was seen, the angel said, "A marvelous creation. How can any creature go wrong in such a creation?" And then G-d showed it like a time machine or something, I guess. G-d showed the angel the creation after it had been influenced or affected by Satan. When he beheld the creation after it had been affected by Satan he said, "How can any creature go straight in such a creation?"
That's the difference. The behavioral nature, if it's put in the right environment, it will fare well. But if it's put in an environment that the devil has rigged, it can't fare well. It's going to have great difficulty. But didn’t G-d create us for just that? G-d want us to develop our muscles. You know G-d could have created us with the ability of the horse, the physical ability of the horse or some other creatures that come here from the womb much sooner than we do and when they come out, they can manage and get around much quickly than we can. We come out here and lay up sometime for a year.
Everything else jumped out of the bed and gone. The intellect that G-d made for us, He wants it to have a lot of time and a lot of questions to ask. He created us and Allah says in the Holy books, “He created us for toil, for toil, for hardship. He created us for it”. It doesn’t mean that He desire it for us, because in the same book He said, "And I desire not hardship for any of my creatures." He doesn't desire hardship for us. He says, "But I desire that you'd be purified." We know they say putting the metal into the fire purifies it, and even beats it. The blacksmith looks like he hates what he's doing. Bam, bam, and then he takes it and sticks it in the fire. Bam, bam, bam. And let me tell you, some of us have been through just that, haven’t we?
Then right from extreme heat to cold.
And then have the nerve to put cloth over it. Yes, see, I worked in a steel mill. They carry that metal through some kind of torture. And then after they get it all like they want it, they drape it over with a big heavy cloth. They say, "We don't want it to cool too fast. It might cause cracks in it”. It's the truth.
And everything is a sign, isn’t it?
Congregation: That's right.
IWDM: Yes. If you believe that, you got to believe in G-d.
Congregation: That's right.
IWDM: That's too big for us, that something could happen and make everything big or minor, big detail or the minor details, a sign. No, that's too big for us. There must be a G-d, must be a G-d behind it. Yes, now we come to the idea of the environment itself being oppressive, not Satan now. We know Satan started it, but the environment itself is oppressive. You put the seed in the ground and you oppress it. Don’t you?
Congregation: Yes, sir.
IWDM: You put that seed on the ground and you put dung on top of it so that it would have a hard time getting up. You're oppressing it. But if you don’t oppress it, it won’t come up strong.
Congregation: That's right.
I feel I can go now.
I do. Because all I want to see is my people free.
Yes. But if you love and you care about the work you're doing, if you care for your seed. And the farmer will take them and he'll wrap them up. He’ll put them in a special bin to keep the light from them. And keep them in the dark. He cares about those seeds. And then he takes them out, handle them like they're precious nuggets of gold or something. Carry them in his hand, and so precious. Putting them out, right? He got a little hole to put them in. Then, he come back and kick the dirt over them. He oppresses them. But he cares about them. 
Now, so G-d Himself brought about oppression. Yes, He did. Now, the symbol for it is “thunmoon”. He created the darkness and then the light. He didn’t create light first. He created darkness and then light according to our religion. He created the darkness and then the light. And then, He says that the intent is to bring you out of the darkness into the light. Yes. So, he sends a liberator to bring us out of the darkness into the light. Some of you say, “The white man is an oppressor”. Well, maybe he is, but he’s not the biggest oppressor. The biggest oppressor is ignorance and has been known for ages. Right? Yes, the biggest oppressor is ignorance.
How can the white man enslave a free man? You can only enslave a man who is already a captive. Right?
Congregation: Yes, sir.
IWDM: Yes. “Oh, but he can put him in chains”. A lot of men have been in chains, and they wrote notes and left something to carry to civilization a thousand years further while they were in chains. They were physically in bondage, but as a human being, as a thinking creature they were not in bondage. They were free. There ain't nothing they can do to you, short of killing you that can tie up your resources if you are free, you will find a way. You will find a way. I know I believe I can. They lock me up, put me in a hole, no bigger than enough for me to turn around in. I’ll meditate my way out into society.
Oh, yes, and cause a powerful thought to be felt somewhere out there.
See, that intuitive aiming and firing, it's not like rational, or conscious. You don't know where you’re going to hit, but you know it’s going out there somewhere. Go out there and hit and land somewhere, and somebody picks it up, and pretty soon I’m on the outside, as well in the inside.
Yes, not that I'm in control of it, but if I had that strong will and desire and I think free and I think out of this place. I'm thinking out of this place. It’s going to register on some soul already out there in time. And the same thing that’s motivating me will be motivating him on the outside. And before they know anything, the same hell that they trying to save themselves from by locking me up, will be right outside the door.
Now, we don't expect those kinds of terrible circumstances to come, but even if circumstances came that terrible, it doesn’t mean it’s hopeless. No, indeed.
So, the creation itself is first an oppressive burden on us. The creation itself is first an oppressive burden on us. The angel saw it perfect. Everything beautiful and perfect. Yes, it’s beautiful and perfect for the angel because the angels have been made a creature to serve the order and rule of the heaven and earth, to perform without thought, without that kind of a problem or anything. So, the angel is already in touch with the workings of the universe. G-d has created him for that. We have to learn the perfection of the universe. We will not see it that way, when we see it, we see an oppressive thing.
The thunder frightens us, the lightning frightens us. The sun rises up, we fear it for the first time. You know, they have stories of the first time that man saw the sun, and he runs and hide behind the rock, he goes back in his cave. Yes, you know they’re trying to show us what would happen, they're imagining what would happen if you will suddenly see the sun for the first time, and that’s true. These things come to us gradually. And we gradually learn to live with them and accept it and appreciate them. But at first, they're a great burden on the mind, great burden on the intellect of the person until we understand it. And we make mistakes when we make these things our G-d. They are no G-d, but are things put into our service.
Out of that ignorance of the creation, we come into a knowledge of the creation as the plan of the Creator made not to hurt me, but to benefit me. I'm challenged now that G-d made this to benefit me, I'm challenged to make the best use of it. The person who tries to make the best use of the things in his environment, whether it's his home, or a neighborhood, or a city, or a whole nation, or a whole world, that's the person that renders the biggest and the best service. Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, he said, “The best of you is the one who is most useful to the people, most useful to the people. The one who renderer the best service for humanity is the best of you.” Now we know that he had many statements about the best one, but that's one of them. "The best of you is the one who benefits the human family the most."
Now, we know that the best is the one who is taqwa. That's not the saying of Prophet Mohammad, that's the saying of G-d and Prophet Muhammad only repeats it. G-d says, He look not to our faces but to our hearts. Not to our faces, but to our hearts. And He says, “The best is the one who is best in taqwa.” The one who has taqwa. G-d has made you tribes and families, and no one has a superiority over the other. The best is the one who is best in taqwa, that is best in his behavior before G-d. Best in his behavior before G-d.
So, we know that it begins first with us being G-d-conscious, doing something out of sincerity, with sincere intent, doing something as a servant of G-d not as a master. You know a lot of people they will help their fellow man, but they want to be seen by their fellow man as the benefactor. There's an arrogant race on this earth right now that won't stop reminding mankind of their gifts to mankind. I'm not going to name them.
And many of us, we still have a problem living at ease with the white man. I'm not talking about white men, the white man. Simply because we see them as an arrogant people, a boastful people, a people that want all people to see them as their benefactor, and some of them are like that, but many of them are not. Many of them are not. Many of the American whites and other whites, European whites, they're not like that. They don't want to brag about their achievements or accomplishments. They don’t want you to thank them, give them credit for those things. They're not tooting their own horns and patting themselves on the back, but there is a race that does it all the time, all the time.
Now, if we can understand that G-d has created us for great accomplishments, accomplishments far beyond our imagination, most likely. We've gone a long way, but don't think that's the end, we can go much further. I'm talking about progressive man. He can go much further. In fact, Allah says there is no end to the progress that comes to His servant that obeys Him. No end.
He says that He has created things that you know and things you don't know. And you cannot exhaust the resources. That's what Allah says to us. There's no way to use up the resources. We know that there are great possibilities for us, but also that we are not going to appreciate these great possibilities for ourselves without some understanding, some teaching. We have to be taught. Education, learning, teaching is a priority in our religion and it's a priority for any liberated people.
You have to work on educating. And education wasn't left in the hands of an elite group of society. Education was immediately introduced into the general public by our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. He said to those who came and received knowledge from him, he said, "You're obligated now to pass it on to others." And he told them that whoever will give one line, if you know one or three lines, if you would just teach that to another, there'll be great rewards for you. So, he brought about a movement, a vigorous movement, for bringing up the knowledge, the literacy and knowledge of the general public in his day and time.
We cannot have all the fine institutions working on building a master race, or working on building a master society, leaving the knowledge that G-d intended for all of us in the hands of academia or in the hands of a few intellectuals. No, that can't be our way. We can't do that. No, it's not for that. G-d says He has revealed it that it should be given openly and freely. That it should be given openly and freely.
A secret society in our religion is not only forbidden, it's criminal. It's criminal for us to have some secret society hoarding knowledge that will benefit other people if they had it. That's criminal. Education is a must. G-d created us with the nature, with the character, with the behavior he wants and that will remain good as long as the environment is good, suitable, conducive to that life and development. But it will require knowledge, revelation, education, if that environment becomes itself the factor for oppressing the intellect of man.
Dear, beloved believers, we have to appreciate knowledge, appreciate education and try our best to translate the complicated ideas and theories into the language of the common person so they can get the benefit. Don't you know a capitalistic society makes capital of everything? That's how the weak are oppressed. That's how they're oppressed. They're oppressed by greed, but we can't always see the connection. We can't always see the connection.
How come this special institution has given all this special attention to these special people here and limiting their knowledge to this special group? We know that many of the entry exams were rigged in the favor of the established people against the unestablished people. And the civil rights movement brought that out, that these examinations are unfair. In time, they tried to do something about it, but they're still unfair. They're not fair yet. They're still unfair. There's no need to try to go into those institutions and make them suitable. The best thing is to start your own movement. Start your own movement. You who have the knowledge, translate it so the common person can understand it, and then it will be us that deny the people.
At least the guilt will be off of us, the burden will be on us. We say, "Well, we have done our best, G-d, to simplify it for the common man." If the common people, those that don't get it, it's because of their neglect or because of something that we have no control over. At least we will be free.
Now, we've come to the idea of freedom. Ignorance and knowledge, darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge, oppression and freedom. Now, the real freedom we should be seeking, the highest freedom, is freedom of the mind, freedom of the intellect. Now, we have, as a people, once enslaved, we have come from slavery, we're in freedom now, we say. We're no more physically in bondage, we're no more political captives of this country. Or the South, or any part of it? No. We're free. Just like all of the citizens, we're free. The law, the courts and everything recognizes our freedom, so we are free. But can we really benefit from freedom? Physical freedom is a condition for coming into mental freedom. The baby is a captive before it is delivered into the world.
It is in the prison of its mother.
Then it comes out here, what's the freedom that it wants first? Many times, it's come out here, it ain't hungry. The mother can't even feed it if she tries. It's not hungry, but it is mentally hungering. Before it even takes the first drink of milk, it is mentally hungering. The baby will be looking with a curiosity. Eyes open and when you see those eyes, those eyes tell you that the child is curious. This newborn baby is curious. We think every baby is supposed to come here playful, so the first thing we want to do is play with it.
The baby looks at you.
They say, "Hell, what is this I'm in? What the hell is this?
G-d created that baby with a mental appetite before a physical appetite, before all this play thing. Soul brother what to right away play. "Honey, you got to do something about that baby. Baby don't got no expression.
So, as a people now, we have to be educated, reeducated, reeducated to see that freedom cannot stop with the kinds of freedom that we have been pursuing. The freedom to leave captivity in the south or wherever we were, the freedom to work on a job and have sufficient food, clothing and decent living quarters, and freedom to participate in the political process, all of that. The freedom to be President of United States, you know? We have to go higher than that. You can be President of United States and be a fool.
Look at here, if the pigmy grew in numbers, became a sufficient enough threat to the world, to the security of the world powers, a pigmy would become President and he wouldn't have to speak in English.
They have an interpreter.


