10/20/1996
IWDM Study Library
What is Al-Islam?
Boston MA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Announcer: "Islam. How is it influencing our future in America?" was recorded October the 20th 1996 at the Boston Teachers Union Hall in Boston, Massachusetts. The lecturer is Imam W.D. Muhammad, Muslim-American spokesman for human salvation. And now Imam Muhammad.
W.D. Muhammad: Praise be to Allah. [Arabic language]
Audience: [Arabic language]
W.D. Muhammad: Praise be to Allah. We say [Arabic language]. Praise be to Allah, the Guardian, Evolver, Sustainer and Keeper of the universe. Be witness that He is One and that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed 14 centuries ago and about 15 years or more is the last, the seal of the prophets. The last of the prophets. We salute him with the traditional salute, being G-d's peace be upon him and the prayers be upon him and what follows of that traditional salutation.
We're finally here after having a lot of eruptions, lot of trouble. First, the flight had to go to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It couldn't come into the area out here. Had to land in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It couldn't land here in Newark and we were going to drive up here but the flight had to land in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania so we had to drive up in heavy rain and a lot of bad weather and then I had difficulty finding the airport in Newark, New Jersey. I finally made it after maybe about three hours delay, a setback, I finally made it to the airport. The Imam had waited for me. He could have got paid for a full day's work like eight hours. He's waiting there for me. I finally made it there and then go up here and ran into bad weather again this morning. This morning we left the hotel and drove up here but as I said the weather is bad as you know.
I'm sure you've experienced a lot of it too. It's flooding and bad weather but we thank Allah we are here because Allah is always in charge of everything. We do our best and that's all we can do. The flight had to be diverted to Harrisburg. I say, "Well, everything is in Allah's hands." I was wondering if I could be compensated for the expenses that I would have to put out to drive from Harrisburg to Newark. Someone told me at the airport said no. Said when it's the weather and there's nothing else involved, it's only weather, they don't give you anything because it's out of their hands. There is nothing they could do about it.
Audience: [laughs]
W.D. Muhammad: I said well, everything is left up to G-d. Everything is in G-d's hands. I, as most Muslims, I'm sure you who are here today, whether you run into trouble or a good situation. You always thank G-d because maybe the trouble saved you from something worse. You never know. Something worse could have been in the way for you and maybe trouble detained you or diverted you so you wouldn't get that other trouble that was waiting that would have been much worse. We never know. We trust G-d for everything and we say Subhanallah, in Allah, we put our trust. Highly Glorified is Allah and we put our trust in Him.
Our Prophet, prayers and peace be upon him, maybe I should mention the topic that we're discussing today, what is Islam and how is Islam influencing our future in America? How is it influencing our future in America? First I would like to begin with a saying of Muhammad the Prophet, the Prophet of Islam, our prophet and he said, (peace be upon him), you will will not enter the garden until your, the word is [Arabic language]. It's translated inclinations but these words are difficult to translate. Inclination, maybe we will use it, that word is translated like that by one of the translators as until your inclinations obey or follow what the Prophet came to us with. The saying reads like this, you will never enter the garden until your inclinations follow what I, the Prophet's speaking himself, what I brought to you, or what I came to you with. G-d, most high, promises us paradise and all of this has a lot to do with our future.
Paradise is the future for the believers who were not cursed or condemned to go to hell. Paradise is where they're heading and G-d promises us paradise and the Prophet has, I have just quoted you the words of the Prophet, he says, "You will not enter that paradise until your inclinations obey or follow what I came to you with. [unintelligible 00:06:22] what I brought to you, or came with. I would like for you to join me in seeing our future, first of all as a promised paradise. That's what our future is.
First of all, the Muslims should think of the future firstly as the Jannah the paradise that G-d promises us. That's our future. That's the future we work for. That's the future we should be working for. Some understanding of the paradise will help us understand what we should be working for all the time as long as you live. You're supposed to work for G-d's gift that He promises you based upon your attitude and your behavior, your obedience to Him. You should work for that gift all the time. Paradise should be something you're working for all the time. In sura Al-Rahman Allah, G-d that is, G-d presents two paradises. He said two paradises. Jannah [Arabic language] which means two paradises. Jannah one paradise, Jannah [Arabic language], two paradises.
Let me before going further thank you for inviting me here again and thank you for supporting the effort of your leaders. Our Imam here and others to make this event here, this occasion here possible for us and comfortable for us today. We thank Allah for you and your efforts and we thank our office back home too that worked with you, communicated with you and we certainly thank brother Ronald Shaheed. He's here, brother Ronald Shaheed, who responded to my first hint of interest to come to Boston. That's some time ago. Two years ago and he has kept my concern and worked to make my visit here possible. We thank you very much brother Imam. We thank also the officials, the public officials, public servants that you have recognized today and who are embracing the good works that you're doing here in this area.
Al-Islam or Islam as it's commonly called. In the Quran, it is always referred to as Al Islam but for some reason, it was shortened by the translators by I guess out of habit maybe the people speaking English they didn't say, Al Islam. They know that "The Islam" wouldn't sound right. "Al" means "the". In English to say the Islam doesn't sound right in English. I guess that's the reason why they shortened it to just say Islam but understand that that's not the full expression, it's Al Islam and in Arabic it's used as we use the article 'the' in English grammar. It's a definite. Just makes it definite. Distinguishes from other Islam.
In the Quran, G-d also mentioned our individual Islam and there is no 'Al' on it. It's Islam. Just Islam. That's for your individual Islam because you will never find the whole Islam in any single person unless it was Muhammad the Prophet, or some of the perfect obedient servants of G-d. You never find the whole Islam ever there with us but our Islam. We submit to G-d. We surrender our life to G-d for His purposes or for His purpose and that's our individual Islam.
The religion of Islam is what we find described, written and explained to us in the Quran, in the book of the Muslim, the holy book of the Muslim, the Quran. That is the book that shows us Islam, holds for us what is Islam in its pure state and the Prophet's teaching and life pattern is our model for the life of Muslims. We want to know how to carry out that life that G-d has given us in the description, in the Quran, then we should also know how our Prophet Muhammad, the last Prophet lived this religion, Al Islam or Islam as commonly called.
Our Creator's invitation to us in the Quran, in Islam, I will use Islam because it's a common expression but I will always let you know that it's Al Islam in the Quran. That's the complete word, complete expression. Creator's invitation to us, to humanity, is for us to accept life. The life that G-d wants for us. Our future, we should be working for the future life that G-d wants for us as Muslims or as his human creation. We should be working for that future life, to have that future life.
When we hear the prayer and I think the prayer gives more visibility to Muslim life for outside and inside and us too than any other activity we have. Even in the Hajj, at the Hajj, what we see is pilgrims, million, million and a half of them, thousands and thousands of them, circling, going around the Kaaba, the house built by Abraham or Ibraham in the Quran and his son Ismail or Ishmael in the Bible and as the first house built for the worship of G-d. To the worship of G-d or dedicated to worship G-d for all people. This is the Quran, not me. I hope you know the Quran well enough to know what I'm saying and what's in the Quran. The house built, dedicated to the worship of G-d and build for all people. [Arabic language], built for all people.
We pray there. We see those great numbers in prayer at that very little simple one-room house. Prayer distinguishes us from other communities. If any non-Muslim writer in a publication writes about us and they want to really let the reader know right away this is about Muslims, now they're getting in the habit of capturing us, photographing us at prayer, standing at prayer. In a group or single person but most of the time in a group praying. Or the dress, the dress too distinguishes Muslims. I hope that the day will come to America when the dress won't distinguish Muslims because the dress that we really should be distinguished by is not the Sudanese dress or the Pakistani dress or the Egyptian dress or the Saudi dress, it's the dress of decency, moderation and decency. That's the real dress and I'm dressed modestly and decent today. Very modestly and decent today. I don't have my naval showing, I don't have my armpits showing and my knee is not showing. I'm dressed very modestly and decent today.
Yes. Islam is a call to life in the prayer. The call to prayer tells us to come to prayer. Right, But the expression is haya and this word is taken from the word in Arabic that means life or living. haya if you're living I say haya, you're living. Haya means come but it means come living, alive. Don't come as a dead person. Come as a living person in response to G-d or come consciously. Come alive within yourself. Come consciously alive. Totally alive responding to the call to worship G-d. This is a religion that invites us to a definite life. A definite life form. A definite way of life, a definite lifestyle. That's what it is. It is an invitation, Allah's invitation. Our creator's invitation to us.
What we want in the future for ourselves is this life. G-d says that he offers us a life and He wants us to have a good life. This is what Allah says. He wants us to have a good life and He promises us good establishments. People with bad establishments, they'll have a bad life. If your neighborhood is a neighborhood of bad establishment, you as an individual, you suffer the burden of the blight that is on that neighborhood. You suffer that as an individual because you live in that neighborhood. G-d wants us to have good establishments. G-d wants us to have good environments. Isn't the Paradise a picture of the environment that we will have if we achieve the great victory of pleasing G-d in our lifetime? Isn't Paradise, a picture of that environment? He promises us the picture of an environment that is wonderful without suffering. That environment is called Paradise.
That's what we want in our future and Islam is influencing, shaping that future for us. Many of us, we're not actually consciously working for that future but whether you consciously work for it or not, you are getting closer and closer to that future. That's if you are with us. If you are with us, you're getting closer and closer to that future because that's what we're working for. Good Muslims and good Muslim leaders, they have to support the best. We are working for that good future that Allah promises us.
The learned in this religion, some misfits make a mystical language of it but some don't. They put it in very common language to us. They tell us that really Paradise starts in this life and Hell too starts in this life. You get a bit of Hell and a bit of Heaven and this life. It's not something that is promised to us, and we don't get acquainted with it at all in this life. It's something that is promised to us and we get acquainted with in this life. Not only do we get acquainted with it in this life in part but we also get to experience it in this life in part. Not the whole of it but in part.
And scripture like the Bible, and even the Prophet saying too, prayers and peace be upon Muhammad, the Prophet, tells us that if you don't have any heaven in this life you won't have any heaven in the end, at the end of the road when G-d fulfill the promise on us. If you don't have any here, you don't have any at all there. Actually, your life has to show that G-d is giving you the jannah while you are living on this earth. What are the signs that a person is being given the jannah? Signs are that they keep their composure for G-d's sake. You can't shock them out of their form, you can't anger them out of their form, you can't seduce them out their form. They keep their composure in this world for G-d's sake. That's a sign that they're already in the garden in a certain measure. In a certain measure, they're already in the paradise. They are already in the garden.
We read that the prophet- the scripture of the Prophet Abraham, this is in the Quran also, Bible and Quran. In the Bible they give it through Hebrews, I think they give it. The Quran is Ibrahim. The enemies kicked Abraham in the fire and they opened the door to see, was he baking, half done or burnt and they saw him unharmed, unaffected at all. The flames did not harm him. Allah says in the Quran, he made the flames cool for Abraham. He made the flames cool for the Prophet Ibrahim, upon him be peace. This is wonderful. This tells us that Abraham was in the fires of the world, that are like a hell, that's that measure of hell we have here on this earth or should have here on this earth, but it didn't affect him.
Going back to that neighborhood that I talk about, the blighted neighborhood, the depressing neighborhood with bad establishments, you will find a believer keeping their composure in such a neighborhood and are unaffected by the hell in that neighborhood. They live in peace, they live with peace. Praise be to Allah. We're not satisfied just to have the good state internally, our obligation as servants of G-d is to work to see the good state externally, outside.
Whenever you come out of your home and you don't see any presence of the Muslim state, I don't mean a political state, of the Muslim establishments, the Muslim state of community. If you don't see any presence of that, you should be bothered by that situation. You should be hungry, hungry, hungry to see that change, hungry to see the area that you live in change. I will not make residence in Africa, not even in Timbuktu, no. My residence is in the United State, and that's where it's going to stay, I'll die here. I'll die a citizen of some city of the United States. You see? Inshallah, that's my wish too. I'm not going somewhere else, my children are going to be here, their children are going to be here, children to come for hundreds of years, I hope they'll be here. Don't we care about them, don't we want to build a better future for them and pass that on to them, pass that responsibility on to them? Say, "Now you increase what we've done, children." This is what intelligent people do and Allah doesn't ask any less than that of us.
We must work for good establishments, we must work for the future. Why do you think it is so important, the future for us? To get us orientated, to get us in the habit of, the spirit of and in the habit of, working not for just today, living for not just today but working for the long distant goal. Living for the long distant goal, that's what Allah wants in us. That's why he tells us that the da Lahira, the latter, the end goal, the da Lahira, the home promised you in the end, the da Lahira Allah has promised you in the end. It's the Dar es Salaam, it is the abode of peace.
When you don't have these agonies in your life created by ignorance, vulgarity, blight on the neighborhood and et cetera and crimes, then you can have that peace. Let us not see the Da Lahira or the Dar es Salaam, the house in the end of the road and in the end of the journey that G-d promises us, the house of peace, let us not see that only as something we'll have when this physical body is gone and G-d resurrects us into a new life but lets see that as something we should be working for on this earth. To have conditions like the jannah in our environment. This is what makes people great. This is what makes nations great. This is what makes civilizations great. It's because they don't just want conditions to be perfect, a paradise or a perfect environment for human life and existence. They will do their best while they live to bring that about for themselves and their children and their children's future to come. Children, children, children, children, on and on forever.
This is how we should act. Islam is influencing the shaping of that future. Here in America, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he never saw the pure light of Islam. He started to try to see at the end of the road about the last three or four years of his life. He started to try to see it in 1958. He even made Umrah, the minor visit, the minor pilgrimage to Mecca, to the Kaaba there in 1958. He tried to see it but never did he see it. Now we can see it and already many of us do see it. He didn't see it but Allah rewarded his desire to see it. Allah rewarded his good intentions to see it. Allah rewarded his good efforts to help bring it about. The biggest reward he got was his son Wallace D. Mohammed.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
W.D. Muhammad: Allahu Akbar. Allah blessed him with a son that was turned on to the distant light, to want to see the distant light and because of that, now we have a community of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. You came from him most of you like I did. We have now a community built of the material blocks that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad brought together. He hued those blocks for construction, didn't he? Yes, he hued those blocks to construct the Nation of Islam and the walls came tumbling down. It was almost as though somebody said, "This temple shall be built back up in three days." And it looked like to me in about three days it was up again. Now it is the mosque of Islam, what it wanted to be, what it was established to be, the mosque of Islam.
We're talking about Islam influencing our future in America. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was given the Quran but was not told to teach it to us, so he didn't. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught the Bible to us and related its stories to our own experiences, to our own lives, told us to see our own story in the Bible stories especially of the suffering people of the Bible. He used the Bible. Now, the Quran was given to him as a holy book, the Bible was given to him as the poison book. This is not my language, this is the language of his teacher that he gave Fard and Mr. Fard gave that language to my father Elijah Muhammad. Elijah Poole at that time, he changed to be Elijah Muhammad.
He gave him that description of the Bible. He told him, "That's the poison book." Now, here the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is teaching us more Bible every Sunday whenever he spoke, preached, than he did Quran. Go get the papers, the Pittsburgh Courier that he used to write in, get the get the Muhammad Speaks and you'll see Bible, Bible, Bible, Bible, Bible, very little Quran but he said that Quran is the perfect book, the pure book. He said, "The Bible is the poison book." Poison book. He was giving us or preaching to us from the poison book, called in their language, not my language. Please don't put any of this on me. I try to get all of it off of me and I think I've succeeded. Don't put any of that on me. He was teaching now to us from the poison book. He made you know that he cared about the Quran. You never saw him come and speak without the Quran in his hand. Up right here, that's where he put it most of the time. It'll be just like this. He walked in with it just like that, with the Quran, just like this. He taught us that the Quran was dear to him. He taught us that. Just that alone was a help for Islam to start taking route and growing in this country. Just that alone. Now, he wasn't the only one that pointed people to Islam.
The African-Americans, “Blacks”, quote, as we are called, - to Islam." Ahmadiyyas, some Ahmadiyyas were doing it. I mean in the early '30s, maybe late 29, late '20s. Moorish Science Temple, or the Moorish Americans were doing it. He was not the only one, there were others too. I would say the same thing of them.
They too should be given some credit for making some contribution to the possibility of Islam taking root and growing here in America. They all should be given some credit because they all were ignorant of the true Islam, except the Ahmadiyyas. Really, the children of the Ahmadiyyas descendants of the Ahmadiyyas that came before, I believe they're innocent too.
They're innocent of errors that their people made, that Ghulam Ahmad made, who's supposed to be the messiah or the mahdi messiah of the Ahmadi people group. They made errors. Their errors were nothing like the errors that the Moorish-Americans made now. Certainly not in any way that can be compared with the errors that the Nation of Islam made under Professor Mr. Fard and my father, Elijah Muhammad who was his innocent student.
I understand that. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was not guilty, he was an innocent student. Really, Fard was not guilty in his own mind. He saw himself with a scheme, a plot, a strategy to get Islam fixed in America at any cost. He just wanted Islam to be in America at any cost. He prayed and believed that one day we would discover that really he ridiculed his own false teachings.
It takes a scholar to see these things. Takes a high school student with a bright and curious mind, or a college student with a bright and curious mind to see that Fard was actually ridiculing. He was making ridiculous those things that he was teaching us that was not Islam. While at the same time, making those things magnetic, fascinating to us to hold us for the Quran, to hold us for the Quran so that one day, when the Quran starts to be read and studied and preached, the Quran would break the spell from all of that ridiculous behavior. I hope you're following me.
[audience agrees]
Praise be to Allah.
Islam is shaping us for the future in America. If a new life is growing in an environment, it makes a contribution to that environment. If it is altogether alien or foreign in that environment, it will either be killed by that environment or it will kill that environment and it will take over that environment. Al-Islam, the Quran is not alien, completely foreign to this environment we live in that is Christian and that is democratic, et cetera. It is not completely foreign to it.
There are a lot of various significant similarities for the Islamic life and the true life of the Christian and the true idea of this democracy, a lot of real significant- significant meaning important- similarities. This, most of us, now should know. When that started out, it didn't maybe, you weren't thinking that way. Now your Imams have been preaching this to you. I'm sure that most of you accept now that we are not completely strangers.
There are some similarities for a Muslim life and Christian life, and for Muslim idea of community or society and the democratic idea of community and society. Again, I hope you are following me.
[audience agrees]
You know why" It's because I'm so happy I'm following myself.
[laughter]
I am, I am.
I follow my best self. That's myself, that's my true self. I follow my best self. My best self brought me to the Quran. My best self brought me to Muhammad, my leader, our prophet, that perfect model of all people, all human beings. It was my best self that brought me to that. It was my best self that brought me to be accepted in the one billion membership of Muslim or more on this earth. It was my best self that brought me to that. You think I'm going to disrespect my best self or put down my best self? I look up at my best self. You're a terrific person.
[laughter]
He's a terrific man. I'll follow him until the day I die. When I stop following him, I'm going to die. I'm going to die spiritually, morally, rationally, and every other way. Yes, I am, because he is the best person in me and he's responsible for leading me to where I am and also for leading you who followed me to where you are. Allahu Akbar. Praise be to G-d, Allah is greater.
Al Islam shaping our life, future in America. This society is an advanced society. It is the most advanced in many respects, in the most significant respects other than maybe moral, it is the most advanced society that we have on earth today. Even in terms of its treatment of its citizens. I go to other countries that's called Muslim countries and I don't find their citizens treated as nicely as ours citizens are treated in this country.
Look at Islam in Africa. It has become almost Islamic witchcraft. This can be published. I don't care. I like for them to hear. I want Africa to hear this. Look at Nigeria, the conditions there. Look how the crime and the criminals were just running rampant in the roads of Nigeria. I don't know if it's safe or not to go there, but at one time, it wasn't even safe for foreigners to even go there. You were subjected to be just kidnapped or robbed in broad daylight, highway robbery. Very dangerous at one time.
I think it's better now, but it's still not too safe there. Nigeria is almost 100% Muslim. There ain't no big population of Christians there. Majority of those people are Muslims, great majority are Muslims. They talk about Sudan, but I've been to Sudan. Believe me, Sudan has been given a bad name. Sudan is being slandered. Sudan is being lied on. Sudan is not a bad place. It is a good place with good leaders. They have political problems there, and it's being instigated. It's being supported by enemies of Sudan and enemies of Islam.
I can name you some other states, Islamic states. I seen shameful things there. Even the best one that we think is the best, Saudi Arabia. There is not the freedom of expression there, not good expression. You shouldn't have the freedom to do the rap song that ain't got nothing but M.F. in it.
[laughter]
You shouldn't have that kind of freedom that we got here in America. I'm not talking about the freedom to do bad with your expression. I'm talking about the freedom to do good with your expressions. It's not given to all the citizens of Saudi Arabia. That's not good. Not to mention, some other countries. I don't want to name too many because I don't have anything against any of them. I wish all of them would become right. They should be Muslim countries, or as countries that have a majority of Muslims and Muslims leaders, Muslim rulers.
I began with the saying of the prophet that, "You will not enter Paradise until your Da Lahira," translated, inclinations, "obey or follow what the Prophet came to us with." The scholars and teachers in Islam, they say that what the prophet were referring to when he said, "Where I came to you with" is referring to the Quran and they add, and his Sunnah. Referring to the Quran, that's what he came to us with and his model behavior as a Muslim. The Quran and his model behavior obedience to G-d. His model obedience to G-d. That's what he was referring to. Those two things.
We know that those two things is what make the religion Islam for us. It's not just the Quran but it's the Quran and how it is practiced, not just the Quran but the Quran and how it is practiced. Who could be better in demonstrating how it is practiced than the one to whom G-d revealed it. So we see that as the focus for Al-Islam, Al-Islam. Al-Islam is life. It is the Quran and the practice of Muhammad called the Sunnah, called a lot of names, by different names. The Quran and the practice of Muhammad, how he practiced the Quran or the religion of Al-Islam.
Religion, talking about the prophet saying that something will be in our way and that is our own inclinations. You know, when one follows his own opinion, stubbornly, he's following his own inclinations. When one follows his/her own spirit, that person's following his/her own inclination. If one follows their own sensitivities/feelings, stubbornly, that person is following his/her own inclination. When a person holds to their own reasoning very, very, very dogmatically- very stubbornly and very dogmatically, they are following their own inclinations. That's how you're inclined to have it. You're following your own inclination. We could go on and related how the different urges, and the different influences, and the different features of our makeup are working in us and how we sometimes give all those features, all those urges over to our self, and our self say what is what, what should be and what shouldn't be. When you get to that extent, you're subject to fall into the pit of fire, or you're subject to be transformed as the dupe of Satan himself- a dupe of the Satan himself.
Muslims, we are not arrogant in our own knowledge, in our own position. We are not stubborn and fixed in our own minds or opinions. We are curious and we are humble. By curious, we are looking for always more knowledge, more life, more information, a better way and we are ready to repent. When we see a better way, we see a better life, brighter light, a truer light, a better way or we see more understanding, we are inclined- we are ready to give up our mind on the matter and follow the best. This is the way that the true Muslim should be. If we can be that way, we can enter the garden, we can enter the Paradise. The prophet said, "You will not enter the Paradise until our inclinations are what he came to us with."
Yes, Islam is shaping our future. This is Islam. I have people in this community and outside this community, in immigrant communities, other ethnic groups and overseas, but not too many overseas now. You see, when they get something, they study it like our government study a thing. They don't just look at it themselves, they pass it on to the person with more knowledge and authority to examine it. And then, they make that judgment after their best minds have told them what they think this is. Imam Muhammad is respected in Saudi Arabia, in Egypt, in Sudan. I don't know a place that I'm not respected.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
W.D. Muhammad: Yes. They hear me talking and they wish that I would follow their Da'wah style.
[sound cut]
They are hoping that, when I do it, I won't lose a lot of what I have in my own style. That's exactly where I'm headed. They expect me and it's going to come. Eventually, my style is going to blend in with the style that is recognized right away in the Islamic world. It's going to blend into that. Right now giving public talks, addresses I am now it can't happen. I will shut too many people off if I do that. But if you come to see me lead the Jumah, you will see me in the, I would say, Islamic form, in the Islamic form. Here, I'm in the Muslim form. But if you want to see me in the Islamic form for (Arabic) or for the Imam, the one who gives kutbah, you come see me in the Jumah. Yes, you'll see me in the Islamic form.
Now, continuing. Our own life then, under our own individual authority, is a big trouble for us. That's why the prophet said, "Prayers and peace be on him." The biggest conquest is the victory over your own self. The biggest struggle, the biggest jihad is the one made to bring your own self to conform to what Allah wants. Prophet Abraham, Allah says of Prophet Abraham, Ibrahim in the Quran, upon him be peace, said that he was successful in bringing his whole self, his whole self to conform to what G-d wants. He presented himself holy, completely in the entirety of his constitution or his self-maker he presented himself complete to G-d. He is the prophet we call father after father Adam. Peace be upon the two prophets. He is the one that Allah revealed to Muhammad, upon Muhammad be the prayers and the peace. He revealed to Muhammad that our millah is the millah after the order of prophet Abraham upon him be peace.
Now they translate this term millah to mean different things. Pattern, order, et cetera, but I see millah, and here I'm going to have people differ with me because they have been differently trained. And they hold to their training. I see millah the best term that I can give you in English for millah is destiny.
The destination that you are trying to get to. The destination or the destiny that you are trying to get to, but not a destiny just for the spirit, not a destiny just for the soul. A destiny for community life. The community life in the distance, the ideal, the goal to reach for community life was seen by prophet Abraham or Ibrahim upon him be peace. He had given himself completely to G-d. I'm on the subject believe me. I'm addressing the subject. He gave himself completely to G-d and by giving himself completely to G-d then he could perceive or envision what the community life should be.
A man that's just focused on the rituals of Islam, or the rituals of Christianity or the rituals of Judaism or any religion, he can only lead people to a facet of the community. Small Facet of the community. To a small angle in the community. A man who comes to know himself in his entirety as a creation of G-d, he knows what home should be like for that particular life.
You can't prepare a home for something you don't know. Can you prepare a home for a rabbit and you don't even know a rabbit? You might prepare something for a fly or a hyena or something. You've got to know a rabbit right? Then you prepare a home for a rabbit. You can't prepare a home if you don't know that whole life is for every human being, if you don't know that whole life yourself.
This great prophet called our second father he perceived by struggling to give himself completely to G-d. He perceived the whole life of the human being and what that whole life looks like. Then he was able to say or to signal, to signal the inheritance by the generations behind him. The followers of his, or the inheritors of the promise that G-d made to him. He was able to signal them in the direction of that ideal whole environment for the community life. Yes, Al-Islam, the Quran, G-d the Quran Al-Islam prophet Muhammad want for us a complete life. Cultural life life, consistent life. This is what makes Islam so special.
Islam is a consistent life. Consistent mean no part of it is at odds or an enemy towards the other part. Here we are in this society wanting religious life, but there's another angle or a section a quarter of life that is working against our religious life. It's the commercial quarters. The commercial quarters, the secular quarters are working against our religious life. We have a life in this society, but parts of it are enemies to other parts. Is that not true? Yes, Al-Islam is not like that, Al-Islam is unique in wanting for us a complete life that is consistent with itself or in itself. That no part of it does harm or threatens harm to another part. of it.
You say, we can't have that in America brother Imam. We are getting it in America brother Joe Blow.
[laughter]
We are getting it in America. This is what Al-Islam wants for us. That our life be good. We can't have a moral criteria here, that's violated over there. Al-Islam gives us one moral criteria. It's consistent, no part of it violates another moral.
Now, can't you see and understand a little better? What Allah says in the Quran, when He says that you are a witness for all mankind. Yes. This model Muslim community if it's really planned as it should be planned, it's a witness in the midst of the nations for and against them. For them, if they are striving to get there. Against them, if they're striving to keep it out or to destroy it.
For that great task or great assignment, G-d needs the best of the best of his servants. G-d needs the best of his servants in that work. Not that G-d needs anything. I'm sure you understand the language I'm using. If G-d has prepared or G-d wants, G-d has chosen to have the best of his servants or his devotees in that work. He says let their rise out of you a community. G-d is talking to us, He's talking to the Muslims when He says, let there rise out of you a community. There's the big community comprising all the community of Muslims. But G-d wants in that big international community, we call the Ummah. G-d wants an effort by a special group of people.
That special group of people should be working to establish the model community so that the international community will have a model like they had in the time of Muhammad the prophet in Madinah. At Madinah, [Arabic language] the city of the light. Let there rise out of you a group. A community. That community should be striving for the best, that community should be upholding the best standards and protesting all that work against the best standards.
This is the Quran now [laughs] I hope you recognize it. This isn't me talking. I'm giving you Quran. I'm giving you what Allah says in Quran. And that community, - when I'm giving myself here's what I say. I say that's my opinion that's how I see it. That lets you know when I'm talking for myself.
I let you know, I give this hint to know when I'm talking for myself. G-d says they will be people who will not be shamed or intimidated by the criticizer. They will not care about criticism. That tells us that if a people really want to fully achieve what G-d wants for them and desires, they got to be prepared to take and endure criticism. You're going to be criticized.
Occasionally I have to refer to the Bible not only the Bible, I have to refer to Karl Marx sometimes. [unintelligible 01:00:18] If it's good to be used, you pick up dirt. You're not going to bath in it. You're just going to take it and put some top soil on it and have some better grass. I don't know. Things have their use. They have their purposes.
The bible that says, this is not the Quran of David. Prophet David upon him be peace. This is the Bible saying of Daud Prophet David, Says that he said, "Woe is me, that everyone should praise me." That's a wise saying. If you take his advice, his advice is this. Never want to have everybody liking you. Never want to have everybody pleased with you. Never want to have everybody saying all nice things about you and no bad things about you, because when that time comes to you, you are destroyed. You are finished. You are no good for anything.
Woe means completely lost. Woe means completely lost, completely gone. Messed up. deteriorated, all the good gone out of it.
Did the prophet say something similar to that? Yes, he did. Yes, he did. He described certain people. One person would have nothing but the people would be saying nothing but good things of him. Never said any bad thing. [laughs] That was a sure sign that he was corrupt.
[laughter]
Everybody said nothing but good of him. I repeat, Islam wants us to have a complete life. Functional, consistent life. Going back to these sensitivities. I guess all this wet weather and wind did this to me. Sensitivities will sometimes cloud the conscious mind and drown the intelligence, easily drown out the intelligence.
Uncontrolled passions. You know passions? Passion is a sensitivity that's shifted to another speed, another gear, speed, terrific gear, speed. Passion. Love is a sensitivity, but lust is a passion. Love is a passion too, but right away, love is a passion, but it's the soft passion.
You really want to make it, drive it home as a real passion, a big fire? Lust. Passions will sometimes destroy one's life and one's properties. Your life and your property can be destroyed by passions. Passions out of control they're called unbridled passions in this American language. Unbridled passions. Passions out of control.
Airs, air, A-I-R, airs can make a wet mess of one's sensitivities. Airs. Airs can feed one's passions. Bring in the fires to get out of hand and all to be lost, your life and all your possessions, airs. Didn't Iblis have airs? Air feeds fire doesn't it? You can't have any flame without air. Iblis was all up in the air, wasn't he? He was all up in the airs.
When I go to Saudi Arabia when they want to tell you about the proud one they say he became proud. When they say it, they go up like this.
[laughter]
[unintelligible 01:05:27] [laughs] All can be lost. This is G-d in the Quran getting us to know the harm and the benefit of our life to us. How our own life can benefit us and harm us. G-d wants us to know that.
When you know that from G-d, you have the best management brochure or the best management booklet for your own safety and progress that anyone could possible have. Allah wants to put it in our hands. A management booklet for managing our own lives. Some of us are afraid to seek light in the hints that G-d gives in scripture. We fail to seek light. He said that the religion calls us to light out of the darkness. That's what the religion is for, to call us to the light out of the darkness.
We find in the scripture signs from G-d. The scripture would have us know the signs which say or the sign that says, no matter how extreme the clouding may be, clouding up like the sky is today or the down pour of the rain or the ferocity or violence of the wind. No matter how out of control the fire is on this earth. All these are storms you see, fire storms, rain storms, different storms. 
The sun, - you have to know a little something about the truth of the physical environment, the clouds and the sun, to know that that some among us right now-- Just like we're in a show once, and I was surprised, all of the sudden, this boy about two rows ahead of us he hollered, "He did get killed."
[laughter]
"He did get killed fool." (unclear) he'd listen that that guy had been killed. He didn't know it was act. He didn't know it was just an act, actors. He knew it was on screen but he believed, and didn't want to believe any other way either.
"He did get killed." So some of us though, who don't know what's really happening we think the sun is gone, because the cloud had blotted out of everything. Yes, sunny up there now.
[laughter]
Really. You'd be surprised how many think that. They go out, sun ain't out today. They think that really means it ain't no where. No matter how extreme these activities are that flood us out, that drown us out, burn us up, the sun is not affected at all.
The sun is carrying the social community pulse beat as a sign. Carrying the social community's pulse beat. It's not losing any time. It's not changing time. We look at it. It might cloud up so bad, it looks almost like sunset, but the sun may be at noonday, right? It looks like sunset, but the sun is not working upon that reality. Sun is keeping to its discipline. The sun is keeping to it's assignment, so it's right there where it's supposed to be, all the time. No matter how dark it gets or how long the night seems because of the darkening of the sky when 24 hours come, we say that day is gone. Sun, not letting the time be changed.
Now, our future in America, how Islam is influencing and shaping it. We have to become like the sun, in it's obedience to its assignment. No matter how many hot heads come up, how many radicals come up and start preaching blackness, black this and black that and how many hoppy doopies are-
[laughter]
-foot shufflers and butt shakers. No matter how many of them come up and hit the world with a gold album and then just take the community's mind, we want to be like that sun. When environment is all clouded and confused and when senses are going astray and exploding and water is just pouring down from above and drowning and wetting up everything, interfering with the traffic and slowing up things.
We want to be like that sun, on the time that G-d assigned for us to be on, not losing time, not disturbed by it, not affected by it. Soon the clouds role back and the sun is where it was supposed to be. Take your watch and look at it. When the clouds roll back and look where the sun is. It hadn't been slowed up. Traffic down here was slowed up by the storm, but the sun is still where it's supposed to be. It ain't slowed up by it, it ain't affected by it, it still is bright as it was. When the clouds roll back, the sun doesn't appear weak, like that storm put out some of its fire. It's just as bright as it was. That's how we should be.
When the sadness and gloom and confusion of this world rolls back, they should see us just like we were or someone can get on a jet or back of an eagle and ride up there above the clouds and they get up there, they just see us untouched, unchanged, and on time in our performance for Allah's sake. Wouldn't that be a wonderful community? Wouldn't that be a great community? Yes.
We can do that if we allow our lives to be touched by the words of Allah in the Quran and the teachings and example of Muhammad the prophet and conform to it. Let your life come in obedience to that. The more you do that, the more you will be like the sun, rising up from the night, but didn't change during the whole night. Didn't change not a bit. Praise be to Allah.
Audience: Praise be to Allah. [pause 01:13:41]
Imam Mohammed: Islam is given to us to serve our life, the whole life, the complete life. We should not think of Islam anymore as a spiritual way of life only. Islam is not a spiritual way of life only, but Islam is a spiritual way of life more importantly. Understand what I'm saying. It is a spiritual way of life more importantly because if you don't give your spirit to Allah, whatever you do with your body and everything will be not appreciated.
You have to give your spirit first to Allah. Have the spirit to want to please Allah. When your spirit accepts to want to please Allah, it makes it easier for everything else, because human being, his truest life is his spiritual makeup. Not his material makeup, but his spiritual makeup. That's his truest life. When his spirit can be expressed through the instrument of his intellect, then he really has his life intact. When that spirit can be expressed through the instrument of his intellect, the mind, the learned and the rational intelligent mind, it's like having spirit in this physical body.
When spirit comes into this physical body at birth, this physical body shows that now I have life, right? It had life before, but it has no functional life of its own. That is, the mind is not in charge of that life. The mind in that body, which is the person, the truest identity for the person, is the person's mind and not the physical part. Not this.
The mind is not alive or awakened in that body until the breath is taken in the child gives out an expression or starts to show that it's in control of its own body.
Likewise, your intellect is the best part of you. How do we know that? Muhammad prayers and peace be upon him, he said that G-d did not create anything any better than the human intellect. That's what Muhammad said. Not me, Prophet Muhammad. I'm talking to you all that are fixed in your old training and in your old habits. Yes, and don't want to come out of it, - stubborn.
Muhammad The prophet said Allah did not create anything better than the human intellect. What does that tell us? That when Allah was creating Adam, what was he creating him as, more than anything else? An intellect. When Allah created all the other prophets what was he creating them as? An intellect. When Allah created Muhammad, don't say no Muhammad wasn't created, he was. When Allah created Muhammad, - you might say, no Muhammad wasn't created. Yes he was, - He was creating him as an intellect, more than any other thing. Because if you take out the intellect, the body is no more human.
Animals have feelings, animals have spirit, animals have shyness. Yes, animals have that, but what animals don't have that we have, is the human intellect. A human mind to reason, question, et cetera. Select better decisions and judgments et cetera. That we only have. To look at something and say, - a roach lives now the same way that it lived in the palace of the Pharaoh. I know because I read about the Pharaoh's palaces and I read that one has some roaches in his palace.
[laughter]
That's why they got them so much in hieroglyphics. They got a lot of roaches in hieroglyphics. Beatles and other things too. I'm not saying that the roaches dominate the hieroglyphics.
[laughter]
But they are there. The way they are inscribe and the way they pictureed on the monuments of Egypt, they hadn't changed their lifestyle. They haven't changed their life at all.
When you study man, over the history of 2,000 years, we find that a community was going around like wolves or baboons, centuries, thousands of years ago and that community changed and now it's civilized and intelligent with intelligent speech and institutions of learning, et cetera and they used to walk around like wolves, so says the story of the Romans.
That there were two brothers raised by a wolf, meaning that their life was like the life of a wolf. One of them couldn't go to the promised land and they call that one Uncle Remus. I don't know why they call us all (unclear) bad names but the one that succeeded and made it into the area that would become the new Roman state, he was called Romulus and Rome was named after him. Romulus. He's called Romulus and Rome takes his name. They say takes his name from Romulus, that victorious one of the brothers.
Now, maybe I should try to stick with this so I don't digress so much, so we won't be here too long. I didn't eat breakfast or lunch.
[laughter]
I'm not asking you to take me to breakfast or lunch or dinner or to pay for it. I've already been invited.
[laughter]
By someone that's here. [laughs] I thank him. I'll be ready.
[laughter]
The point is that Islam offers us a complete life. Anyone who gives themselves to just a facet of life, even though you give yourself to spirituality. Some of these religious orders or religious groups, they invite you to nothing but spiritual life. That's not the whole life. Allah wants us to have the whole life. Muhammad, the Prophet, upon him be the prayers and the peace, he was not a spiritualist before he was called to Islam.
He was a person carrying the burden of the community of mankind, on his heart. This is what the Islamic history tells us and it's in the Quran too. He was a person carrying the burden of the community of man on his heart. Especially that community that he was looking at everyday. The community of the Arabs in the time of ignorance, jahiliyyah ignorant, time of ignorance.
He was the man that was engaged in practical matters. He was a business man for his wife in the employ of his, wife, Khadija, may G-d be pleased with her. Lady Khadija. He impressed her so much as an able business man that she just put her business in his charge. Turned her business over to his charge, for him to run it and he run it very successfully.
This was Muhammad. Not a person so saintly or so pious that he couldn't function in the world of people or in the community of man. Really, a lot of the statements that G-d makes in the Quran itself. We are to see them addressing, also Muhammad, the Prophet and I'll give you one
Allah says, Highly glorified is He, if the earth had been populated by communities of angels, (gap in audio) as community, brought out. Brought out of what? Brought out of the world of ignorance, darkness, and errors, mistakes. You are the best community brought out for the good of all people, or for all people. [Arabic language]. The best community brought out for all people.
G-d identifies us, not as a congregation, a church group, a congregation, a temple group, or a mosque congregation, or a jumah. He didn't say you're the best Jumah. He brought out for the good of all people. He said you're the best community, because a community reflects what is needed and wanted and what's the whole life inspires to or for. The community is a reflection of that.
As much as we satisfy, the best aspirations in the human being in forming an environment, the nearer we come to satisfying that paradise or that community that G-d wants for us in the end. Yes.
Almost an hour already. (unclear) Thank you. But I'm going hurry up and try to get finished. Allah wants us to cultivate our own personal life. Cultivate, what does cultivate mean? If you keep the language of this religion, it is rituals.
You repeat the true to the life of this religion. The rituals are not so much important in their language by themselves, they're important in their language to explain what your life really is. When we start the ritual of prayer, All?hu akbar what are they saying? You didn't live until you heard something. You hear sound, you're mind could live. You can't even speak. You don't hear nothing, you're deaf mute.
(unclear section)..but the hearing there, if it doesn't come through the ears, normally, from the great majority of people, language comes into the ear and we learn, the brain develops. The mind develops because language comes into the ear and we learn that language. Whether it's English language or the language of math or the language or psychology, or whatever it is. Comes into the ear and we learn that language, but it comes into the ear.
With the [unintelligible 01:26:27] our prayer said. Even though the meuzzin has done this himself, but then we have to do it. We say All?hu akbar bring our hands to our ears. That's how we start. Bring our hands to the ear, like this. This is scripture. Hear ye the word of the Lord and live. Haya alla salah Allahu akbar. Scripture that went before. Is this Quran? Yes.
This is a correction on the books that went before and a completion. [Arabic language] A correction on the books that went before, came before, and a completion. Meaning that that was yet to come to complete those books have now come to Muhammad in the form of the Quran, the last revelation. Containing or having preserved, the essence of the books that came before. The essence, the purity of the books that came before.
The rituals, they have great meaning for us. When you do this, That's beginning of life. What is this prayer teaching us? That life for a human being is really the intellect. It is life for your intellect. We don't start prayers like this, All?hu akbar (put hands to his heart). That's your heart. It's very important now. The heart is very important, but the Prophet didn't lead us to say All?hu akbar (putting hands on his heart). No, All?hu akbar, (putting hands to ears) Hear ye the word of the Lord and live.
Now, do you want me to change my style of dawa?
Audience: No.
Imam Mohammed: I don't. I got it from the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.
Audience: All?hu akbar.
Imam Mohammed: He was a man that had a strong suspicion that the brightest light was not yet dug up, so he was digging all the time. He dug too much in the graveyard though.
[laughter]
Imam Mohammed: I had to put it that way because he said the Bible is the graveyard of my people. Getting back to what I was saying.
Al-Islam, this religion wants us to cultivate ourselves, the life within ourselves. The most important part of the life to cultivate is our intellect, our minds, to develop the potential for a great intellect that all of us have. Allah wants us to cultivate that mind. But the mind doesn't work by itself. The mind works as a president or a presider over a rule or a government. That's how the mind works.
The mind wants to know what is the opinion of the people. What is the opinion of my supporters? The heart represents the plural community and it's one symbol, because it cares about all parts of the body. It's feeding nutrients, light, food to all parts of the body. Even the fingernails and hair. Yes, this is science. Like the Prophet, Prophet taught me how to bring these things clearly to your mind. He's was talking about a dream, a vision he had. He said in it, he saw milk coming out of bones. He didn't leave the people hanging, in space. He said that's science. They're suppose to look for a reference in science to understand his dream.
We know now, science tell us that bones need mainly calcium, right? Bones need mainly calcium. Milk is the source of calcium for the baby and for many of us. The Prophet actually directed his studious, scientific-minded followers to go to science. He said that's science, “eulim”. 
Cultivate the life within. Intellect is the life of the human being. That is your life. If you're not conscious in your mind, you're dead. If you stay unconscious long enough in the hospital, what will the doctor say? He is clinically dead. That mean dead as a person. That person is gone.
This world has made us think the heart is the boss. The heart is everything. Heart is a key. The heart is is a key, but not the boss. The heart wants to get itself to the boss. The heart wants the boss to be ready and qualified to take the heart. As soon as the boss is ready, just like a good mother, she raises son until she sees he's ready, - to grown up, then she'll just like a baby, push that little bird out of the nest. Say, "Go with me. You're on your own. Get on your own."
Our mothers will do the same thing to a little boy. I'm talking about special mothers. Will do the same thing to a little boy that's been running behind her, asking her everything. Once she sees that he's showing that he's got intelligence, he can make good judgments on his own, then she don't want to interfere with him too much. She'll leave him by himself.
He might even come and ask for something she said, "Son, I don't know. Mama may tell you the wrong thing." She wants him to do it from his own mind. She's hoping that he'll have a better intellect than she has. That's progress. Good mother.
This is the way the human heart is. The human heart as a sign or a symbol for our social conscious. The human heart wants to turn their responsibility over to the brain, wants to see itself subordinate to the brain. The brain is boss, and the heart, second in command, assisting. But you know in a real, truly democratic society, the people become the authority right?
[01:34:03] [END OF AUDIO tape 1]
Imam Mohammed: Now the only difference is here, this applies to us individually, like myself. Yes, myself. Yes. I have to answer to you. Mohammed the prophet said, well, when he was asked, "What is sincerity?" He said, "Sincerity is what you give to Allah and what you give to those charged with authority," and he said, "Sincerity is what the leader gives to his constituents." Sincerity, sincerity. What he was saying is that there should be sincerity between you and G-d. Sincerity between you and your leaders that you put into authority, that you both elect to be in authority or appoint to be in authority, there should be sincerity. You should be sincere in your relationship with them.
Now, when you have a problem with corrupt politics, it's because either the leader or the people have broken their sincerity. It is usually the people who-- excuse me again, please. It's usually the people who let their own principles fall down and the shrewd politician, the demagogue takes advantage of their loss of principle, of them sliding off of the platform of principle. He takes advantage of that, and then he become corrupt working through their weaknesses. Then you have a corrupt political society or corrupt politics. Yes. That's because sincerity is lost.
There should be sincerity in us. For G-d, we should be very sincere in our obedience to G-d, in our relating to G-d. We should be very sincere. We should be very sincere in our relating to people we appoint to positions of authority. Very sincere. Now you just listen to what's said sometimes from the floor there, somebody asking a question. Listen, and you'll find some devilish questions asked sometime from a person from the floor. Devilish question, deceitful question. That wasn't sincerity and that person will pretend like they respect the leader, "Brother Imam, now you know I followed you for years."
Audience: [laughter]
Imam: "I know you are our chief. What happened to all that money that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad left?"
Audience: [laughter]
Imam: [laughs] Or something else. "I heard, I don't if it's true or not brother Imam, man, you-- That's why I'm coming here asking you now, but I heard that one of your sons saw you coming out of the tavern drunk."
Audience: [laughter]
Imam: Yes, I heard that. I've heard this of me. I can't say I've never come out of a tavern, I have. I went to a tavern. I know not to drink. A person that I cared about, I went into the tavern to see that person, and you went too for another reason.
Audience: [laughter]
Imam Mohammed: I don't go for that reason.
Audience: [laughter]
Imam Mohammed: [laughs] Yes. Cultivate the inner life and that will be part of it. That's the biggest achievement because when you succeed in cultivating the inner life, the life within you, your heart, your mind, your spirit, your feelings. When you cultivate all that, work on it to get it to be like Allah wants it. You will never succeed in having it say, "Allah, I got it now. I don't have to do more work on it." No. Allah have made us so that we will always have to work on that. We will always be making progress to improve upon our own life, inside, the internal life, but be happy over the amount of success you enjoy, out of the amount of success you realize.
Be happy with it, that's fulfilling, isn't it? To know that I told two less lies today than I did yesterday. That's a success. That's something to feel good about. Yes, that's something to feel good about. To know that I didn't let my old aggravation, whether there's a person or a thing, pull me into an argument and make me lose my dignity. I succeeded today. I fell victim yesterday, but today I didn't permit that thing to happen. That's a victory. Just look for victory every day. Look for little improvement every day and be happy with yourself as long as you are improving.
In the world, we want to have more education, we want to have a better earning job, job that earn us more money. Getting minimum wages, isn't it a victory? Isn't this achievement for success or for progress when you're now making $5.50 an hour? Yes, that's a progress, so you feel good about it, don't you?
Audience: Yes.
Imam: Yes, I know you do. Because I got a young daughter, she started working about a year ago and she got a raise, oh, she come feeling so good.
Audience: [laughter]
Imam: Making a little more now. Well, that's how we should feel about our successes for the internal life too. No, that is not enough, but when we do that, we strengthen the society. As many of us that succeed there, that brings us closer and closer to having the support we need for the external life. The external life must first be supported upon the internal life. The external life must first be supported by the internal life. That's when you are born on the desert, you don't have nothing. There ain't nothing externally. Nothing out there but death on a desert.
When you're born and there's nothing to support your life internally, then you have to be fed, nourished, formed by the word of G-d following the way of the prophet, prayers and peace be on him until your internal life is intact, strong, whole. You've given your whole life and whole self to Allah for His will. Then we can begin to ask what we need in our external environment. We are ready now to build better schools, better mosques, better masjids. We are ready to build businesses. We are ready now and we are ready because the internal life in many of us has become whole, and solid, it's strong now.
We couldn't do it before. When Honorable Elijah Muhammad started his work in 1933 or earlier, up until about 1965, or '64, '65, he had a strong internal life for himself and most of his followers. It wasn't right with Islam but it was a strong internal life. Those people were ready to support material growth; material investment and material growth, and because of people like that he realized a lot of progress materially; material progress.
What caused it to be lost? It was the deterioration in the internal life of his followers. Their internal life began to deteriorate. He began to have more members that came just to show off than came for the real spiritual life. That gave him a weak following, and the weak following tolerated weak leaders, and the weak leaders caused everything to fall apart.
Superfly leaders, Superfly ministers. That's all I can call them, that's the way that they look like. Long fur coats, and long leather coats, [laughs] and shiny rings all over their hands and stuff, and stick pins blinding you almost with the light shining on it, diamond stick pin in his tie. They look way out. They did. They looked like fools to me. A guy wearing a big old hat and long old coat, they exaggerating everything. To me, he looks like a fool. I know they look sharp to you probably, but they look like fools to me. I say me, I'm talking about everybody else who holds to the old way. Old good way. The old good way like I did. Yes, they look like fools.
Those people, they weakened the congregation of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. They brought weakness. Some of them succeeded to be in positions, very key positions, very strong, very important positions. They brought about the downfall. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad thinking of himself as a man fulfilling scripture, really understood that it was not that successful not to last.
If it had last, you would have stayed in ignorance maybe forever, most of you, but because it did fail, it made it little bit easier for someone to bring you the right way. If it had been the big success, and the business had grown, and all the material wealth money had been making money still and making big money for everybody, maybe you would have never been in a situation to take your mind from that attraction and look at the thing and question its validity, its genuineness as a religion. Allah is the best knower.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad saw that, so he acting out a piece of scripture said, "I will destroy this temple and build it back up in three days." Then he said, "I'm going away. I'll be gone for three years," that was symbolic. It wasn't a real three years. He meant that that thing had failed and it was going to collapse, it was going to be destroyed, and he had to go away for three days. He, not him as his person. He meaning he and his responsibility. The next man that takes his responsibility is the same. He is a true person, not Elijah Muhammad. When Elijah Muhammad goes, the one who takes his responsibility, he now is that person.
When he says I, he's talking about the office, not himself as a physical person. He said, "I have to go away for three years." He mean the office is going to be gone, but it will come back. He had faith that it will come back, and it did. Yes. I say he's acting out scripture, say, "For if I don't go away, the kingdom will not come unto you. Our comforter will not come unto you," right?
Audience: That's right.
Imam: Yes, it means both, brother. "If I don't go away, the kingdom will not come unto you or the comforter will not come to you." The comforter and the kingdom they go together. The comforter is only to marshal in the kingdom, or to urge or to lead us into the kingdom. The comforter. The comforter there is bigger than a person. The comforter is bigger than the person. The comforter is not only a person but the word of G-d in the person. That's the real comforter. Yes, the word is first the comforter. Then the person bearing that word as G-d wants him to bear it to the people as a comforter. Then that goal of that word is to bring the community into being. The community is also the comforter.
Audience: Actually, both.
Imam: Yes. I think you all can follow me.
Audience: Yes, sir.
Imam: I used to get bad vibes from the audience. I'm not hardly getting anything today. You're either asleep or you're with me.
Audience: [laughter]
Imam: Praise be to Allah. We want community development. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad again had that sensitivity in him. He knew that we need to go all the way. We just can't have mom and pop's stores, just can't have big businesses and trucking lines up. No, we have to be the developers of our own communities. That's why he formed Progressive Land Developers. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad formed that. Progressive Land Developers.
Now here, we lost all of that, didn't we? Yes, the temple was destroyed. We lost all of that, but now all of a sudden, we find ourselves again in a situation where we can depend on good people and strong people to support a community effort. An effort to really build for the community. Schools, fine schools, masjids, social centers, recreational centers, businesses to support financially the whole vision. We are there again. Yes, we are.
The contributions to the collective purchase conference are coming and increasing. We restarted, I said, "Pretty soon, we are going to be to $100,000." We've reached it. It took like maybe two months. I said, "Pretty soon, we are going to be to $200,000." We reached it, it took about one month. Then I said, "Pretty soon, we're going to be to $300, 000." We reached it. It took less than three weeks. Less than three weeks, and it's still coming in. When I go back home, I expect to find maybe 20, 30, 40, 50,000 dollars in the account.
Audience: Millions.
Imam: Yes, it's coming brother. That's exactly what's coming.
Audience: Millions.
Imam: Yes, that's my expectation. I believe my expectation is inspired by G-d. That's my expectation. I know when something is moving me that's not just me. I believe this is my expectation that G-d is supporting, and I believe it's going to be millions very soon and maybe 5, 10 years, billions.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Imam: Allahu Akbar. We're not just going to take care of ourselves, we want a model community in America, that will serve as a model for all Americans, not just African Americans. I have asked the business manager who's assisting me, Brother Talif, Abdullah, he's a good brother. Can't you see that Islam is great? I'm a Muslim, son of Elijah Muhammad. Then and awakened Muslim in the following of Muhammad the Prophet. That's what I am.
Many of my ancestors came from places like Sudan, Niger, Timbuktu, who knows? Right?
Audience: That's right.
Imam: Yes. It's 50% Muslim, maybe more than that now. Africa. During the time when we were brought over here, it was the most popular religion on the continent, our religion of Islam. You think G-d-- if you have to power yourself as a man to take a child and put that child back with its parents that it was taken away from, its true parents, its real parents, that were good parents, wouldn't you find a way to do that? Well, then what do you think about G-d? If G-d sees parents that's slavery and other things that happened and occurred in their life, got in the way and separated them from their good lineage, Islamic lineage, you think G-d is going to just know that and not try to help?
G-d in His own ways was helping through every person that tried to introduce Islam in any way to us in America, and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad more importantly than any other. Yes, G-d was helping. Now we've come in contact with Quran, we have Islam, we have the real Islam. You think G-d is not going to give us the complete life that we were taken from?
Mali, Songhai, these places, Timbuktu, the educational center in Africa. These places had black African individual, Muslim people presiding over that interest, caring for that interest, taking care of that interest. Just because you lose the national glory or statehood, doesn't mean that G-d is finished with you. This country lost it too, didn't it? They lost it in Europe and came here in hopes of having it again, and they got it again. G-d is with us, I'm sure of that. Yes, we're over 300,000 now.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Imam: We are over a quarter a million, we're going to the half a million mark. We're already in good situation to go over and make purchases, go over and make purchases from the factory. We've got enough money now, we can go directly to a factory and buy from the factories, but we can't buy that much because we only have $300,000, but we can buy from factories. We already selected some things, the leaders, but we want to go a little more, travel a little more, and get more items that we think you'll need and we're asking for a survey to be taken too by all the areas, we want your Imams to find out what would you like for us to provide you with.
I think for the sisters, we should provide them with, it's embarrassing for me to have my wife go to a non-Muslim, or a person outside of my race. It ain't racism it's just racial pride, family pride and buy very intimate items, very secret, intimate items. Why can't we start on those intimate items, for her to go get it from somebody else? Start on those items, get some of those items. Let every sister, and brother pledge that we're not going to get this-- if we can get it from the CPC effort, we're not going to get it from anybody else. Let us pledge to do that.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
Imam: Allahu Akbar. It's not going to cost you more, it's going to cost you less. If we can't bring you something of the same quality, equal to the price you get it at or cheaper, then we don't want to deal with that, we won't even do it. We'll only do it if we can give it to you at the same price or for a few pennies cheaper. There's a lot to say about this, you know. The good strategy is not to sell too cheap to your public, unless you do it in secret, then it'd have to be a club like, then that doesn't work too well.
The best way is to sell at the best price, be competitive with the market, sell the same quality of what you can get it out there on the market. That's the best way. Then the money comes into those who invested the money. We got it much cheaper, so they got money. We ain't letting people come in here into this group who doesn't have the community interest at heart, they are people who already donate, we know them, they donate to the ministry, they help this community, we already know that. They're the best believers. If we find one that's not like that, we're going to tell him to take his money, we'll give him a refund or give his money back.
If he doesn't have the community interest at heart, we don't want his money or her money. Only if he has the community interest at heart. Most of us, we live just to see Islam become our life and our communities become Islamic. That's what we live for. Those who want that, those are the ones that we want to invest money in this project and get the benefit of it. They will get benefit, they're going to get benefit, real money benefit.
We mentioned the monies that was given to us by persons who didn't want products, they don't have time. Like my cousin in Detroit, a woman, she has a fish business and she doesn't have time to sell commodity, she doesn't want to be bothered with that. She got her hands tied enough. She put $10,000, she's one of the early investors. She put $10,000 into the CPC and she said, "But I don't want anything but cash return." Called capital investment in the language of the business now. The language was formed by the manager, Talib Abdullah. One of the main manager, Talib Abdullah in Houston, Texas.
I told her, I say, "Well, if I'm going to do all the work now," I said, "I don't have a lot of time either to promote this," I said, "I'm going to have to hire somebody to sell," I said, "So you're going to have to give me 50% of the profit." She was happy, she said, "Is that all?" She was happy, she was relieved that I said 50%.
Then my wife, Binah, she came up with $10,000, so I said, "Well, you know what I told my cousin, now I have to tell you the same," so I told her the same. Another sister from Chicago area, she came up with a big amount and she said the same, she wanted to help. I said, "Oh boy, how am I going to handle all of this?" Then the money start coming in, checks start coming, and I'm looking at the checks. Looked like to me better than two-thirds of people are saying they want a capital return, they don't want the products. Better than two-third.
I can't take that. I could take my relative, I could help my relative. I could be a partner with my cousin, I could be a partner with my wife, and this sister, I know her very well, we're friends too. Not girlfriends now. Not girlfriend and boyfriend, but we're friends. I know how you all stretch things real quick.
Audience: [laughter]
Imam: That's that old habit. We are good friends, so I'll go do that for her. Now, I'm not going to do it for any others because it's too much. I won't be doing it, I won't be having that kind of arrangement with anybody, not even my cousin, or wife, anybody. Everybody's money comes into the CPC. When the profits come, the investor gets 60%. 40%-- I was working on 30%, but we had to round it off so the figures would be easy to handle.
I told you to write plain, I said, "I like threes. My life seems to be having a lot of threes in it," so I was superstitious of threes. Gotten a little super superstitious. I say, "I like threes. Okay, one-third to me, two-thirds to you, but no, not that anymore. 60% of the profit goes to the investor, 40% of the profit stays with the company.
Now, the investor owns that investors share of that 40%. Nobody owns that except the investors. The company is owned by the investors, so you earn your share, but your share will just be by number now, not by percentage. Your share when you invest, say you invested $10,000 and one person invested $2,000, so your share is five times that person's share, than the $2,000. When we bring this money in that's for the company, that's made by the company, the 40% is shared equally by all investors. By all investors.
I think that's a fair way to do it because it's too much trouble to break it all down and get-- We could do it. We could do it the other way too, give them according to ratio, do it on the ratio basis. If you've got $40,000 in here, your share will be 20 times the person who got $2,000 in here. We could do it on that basis too, but since it's for the community anyway, this 40, you weren't expecting it, right? You got your 60, that's yours. This 40, if the people want to claim it, why don't we allow all of them to claim equal share based upon their number?
We are not going to have all the people claiming it. Just a few people are going to have a claim to get something back. "I want everything I got there, I'm in a bad situation here. My house caught on fire or this here happened." They will be a very few. That's not going to happen all the time, no. Why don't we use that money to build up financial power, so that we can build those schools, to supply better schools, and build better masjids, and build better community, and provide insurance, et cetera, to the teachers and to the families, et cetera?
We use that money to strengthen our community financially. Because this shouldn't come to you anyway, you got your 60. It should come to you indirectly, not directly, that's what I’m saying. Indirectly not directly. Only if you have a real dire situation and you want to pull it out, pull your share out, then we give you a share based upon the numbers of investors rather than upon your investment. A man that got $50,000 in there, he won't be able to pull out $50,000 and hurt us too bad.
Believe me, it works fine. In fact, it works so good, it spooks me up. Really. I know I couldn't do that. As for the benefits that I'm seeing, I didn't expect those benefits. I conceived an idea and I knew it would work because nobody earns more than the other person, not even me, so I know this will work. It enabled everybody to invest and make money. It's attractive to everybody even me, yes, so I know it would work. I told a brother, I said, "This is going to work. This is going to work. This going to really work. Everybody is going be happy where they're going to appreciate it." That's what happened. Since day one, that's what had been happening.
I didn't realize that we would have all these investors. I was imagining that we would be able to get our money together, and we'd be able to buy products, and everybody will take their products. This brother will have a product, he put himself in this retail business, this brother put himself in that wholesale business, this brother do this, this and that, our sisters too. That's what I saw. Now, I see we're going to have growing capital, and that's financial power.
I might as well tell you something else, you're going to hear it later. You know, I'm not the prophet. I shouldn't have to tell you that. I'm only an Imam, no more titles than these brothers got. I don't want any more, I'm tired of getting more titles they make me wear. The prophet is finished and mujaddid as far as I'm going to say was finished too. Mujaddid is the new thinking that comes into an environment. That's the mujaddid, that will revive us, the new thinking.
Sometimes that thinking may be identified mostly with one person but there may be many people, new mind, many new thinkers, contributing to what we credit that thinker with. Who knows where he got his from. I'd rather say the the reviver is really the new mind, a new thinking that comes into the society to give us better leadership and better future. Obeying Allah's word and following his messenger, Muhammad upon him be the peace.
I believe that this idea we have is going to be very, very successful. I believe also that the people have heard of our idea now, and they're desperately reacting to it. They believe that we are going to achieve big, big success, so they're desperately reacting to it. A magazine was sent to me by an alert sister, sister on the ball. She was alert to see it captured in the magazine and sent it to us, sent to me as a CPC, representing the CPC. The Christian Baptist, associated with the Baptist convention, they have formed a CPP, it said recently. That's what it says, recently. 
It represents Collective Purchase Power. They are expecting that hundreds of thousands are going to be investors, and they're saying that their financial resources is going to grow to the hundreds of billions. Are you listening to this? They say a non-African American brought them the idea, quote, - white man. He's making the deal with them. He has the vision, and the know-how, the bring this about, and expertise, I guess, and the connections to make it possible for them. He's asking them to give him 30% for seven years. 30% for seven years. Can you imagine what kind of money that's going to be if they realize what they’re talking about? Billions, hundreds of billion dollars.
I think they said 400 billion, is what they're expecting. Look what his share is going to be. 30% of that money is outrageous. I think they reacted to the news of what we were doing. Who knows, maybe the white man brought them the news and said, "Look, you better move quick. This Muslim leader, he looks good. He's going to the Vatican. He must look good if they're going to let him go to the Vatican. He gave a speech on the Senate floor. He did a prayer on the senate floor et cetera. See, you better watch this guy. He will take all your congregation from you."
I don't want their congregation. If their congregation wants what's right, and they want Islam, and they want what we represent, welcome, but I'm not out to get their congregation. But he followed (unclear) and told them that, you see. "That he's going to be so impressive with this financial plan he has, you're going to lose all your people to him. He plans to take over the neighborhoods." No, he plans to revive the neighborhoods, develop the neighborhoods, our neighborhoods, bring material dignity to our community, to our people, to us and to our people, that's what we plan.
I'm sure he (unclear), and they accepted him in desperation, desperate to act do something quick. [unintelligible 00:37:59] a person has to be of their mind almost, to give him the support of all those people and all their money. 30%, that's one-third. Like 3% of being one-third for seven years. That sounds like working for (unclear). That's terrible. Let me tell you, Allah says too-- that's why I said I'm not a prophet, don't want to spook you, don't want to get you in to spookville, or in the wrong galaxy on me.
Audience: [laughter]
Imam: Allah said, whenever he desires something for his messenger, for his servant, the devil conspired to produce something the like of it. Now I'm not calling the white man a devil either but you know what I'm talking about.
[laughter]
The devil mean the evil influence. The evil influence. The evil and deceitful influences conspire to bring about the likes of it. As Imams and scholars tell us in this religion, we will find that whatever the prophet experienced, when we really commit ourselves to do this religion the right way and to achieve all that it offers us, we are going to have the same things happening to us that happened to our prophet and his followers. The same thing. You should expect that. Expect that they will get together in the darker places and conspire to defeat, to distract, to take away to distract and defeat our efforts. Take attention away from our efforts and defeat our efforts, but Allah says, He plans, and He is the best of planners.
Look, what they have done is going to get more help to CPC than anything that has happened so far. When the African American community learn that we have our plan and the way our plan had been designed, and then look at theirs, [laughs] they in trouble. They are really in trouble. I can see almost see a riot. I can see protest against the Baptist Convention. "You niggers giving that white man one-third of all that money, billions and billions. Mr. Muhammad, he ain't giving no more than anybody else. His people making that money."
[applause]
They got together to pull down my pants and look like Allah made them boo-boo on themselves.
Audience: [laughter]
Imam: Community development. Islam is influencing us to come into our full responsibility as citizens of a state, a nation, or a community, into our full responsibility. Who knows who's going to be the banker 10 years from now? Ain't nobody organizing to say, "This person's going to be the banker and they're going to put this new bank in into existence. This person is going to be the manufacturer. He's going to manufacture this new product here." Nobody's doing that. It's happening on the initiative of the people. The people are doing this individually under the influences of their society.
Now we have added the benefit of the influences of an Islamic society coming from the Quran and the leadership of Muhammad the Prophet, prayers and peace be upon you. This is giving us a separate life and a separate life in terms of its picture, - its distinction, what it is, what it's constituted at. It's given us a separate, distinct life in the life of America. That's what it's doing. It's shaping us to be very, very successful in America. No way other African Americans can outstretch us, no way. No way. The influences, the life that they live upon just doesn't predict that they will have the progress that we will have, given the life that we depend upon and live upon. Can you understand that?
Audience: Yes.
Imam: Ain't nothing in their environment telling them that you have to build the community. They don't have an assignment to build community. They're just looking to have a share of America. We're looking to have a share of America, and the biggest share we want of America is our community share. The Jews are entitled to their community in America, the Irish, the Polish, all of them are entitled to their share, the Chinese, or whatever. We are entitled to our share. We are the only African Americans so far asking for a community identity or a community share of America. Only ones. How can they be as progressive or as productive and successful as we? No. The life motivation for them is much weaker than ours. I'm going to bring all of this to a conclusion, because I know I talk too long.
Audience: No, you don't.
Imam: Yes, yes.
Audience: [laughter]
Imam: See, I'm on my own time. I'm like the sun. I know I'm talking too long. I'm going to try and get it finished in just a few minutes. Now, I would like to discuss with you maybe in another time, things that are in the Quran and in the life of Muhammad that are given to us so that we would think how to realize this in our daily life, how to realize this in our physical environment.
Things are suggested and the implication is also hinted. We have to have the keenness of mind that only G-d can give us, because if you see wrong, you won't see right. You got to see right to see right, all right? [laughs] How are we to implement these things? I believe G-d has blessed me to see how they implement. Yes. I believe our G-d has blessed me to see how to implement these things, and they're all there in the Quran and in the life of Muhammad the Prophet. Sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Concluding this now on the two efforts. The effort to cultivate the internal and the effort to develop or cultivate the external. I conclude it by giving you two references from Quran.
One, Allah says, "Struggle make Jihad. Jihad means strong effort. Strong, unrelenting effort, Jihad. Struggle with your possessions and your own lives, your persons in the way of Allah." Struggle with your own selves, that means the inner struggle. Struggle to make the inner life like Allah wants to be the kingdom within. Make that kingdom within like Allah want it to be. That's the struggling with your own persons.
He said, "Also with your possessions." That's the material struggle. Enter into the material struggle." You don't want to the material basis to belong to non-believers. Allah didn't intend that. Material basis in your neighborhood belonging all to non-believers. That make you look cheap. That make you look ill-equip. You're suppose to be very nicely equipped with Quran, and the teachings of Islam, and the sunnah of our prophet. You're supposed to be nicely equipped.
You don't have any material base, no material strength in your neighborhood. It's a shame on us. That's a shame that we are going to fight. We're not satisfied with that shame. We're going to remove it. "Struggle in the path of G-d with your possessions and with your own selves, your own souls." The external responsibility and the internal responsibility to build up the kingdom of G-d like G-d wants it in you and in your environment.
[00:48:38] [END OF AUDIO part 2]
[silence]
Imam Mohammed: All right. G-d wants us to do this. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He wants us to do this, this is our obligation and Allah is with us. Don't think Allah is not with us, Allah is with us ahead of us. Allah was ahead of your Imam. I had to look to Allah to find out where I'm suppose to go. Allah is ahead of us, we're just following what Allah wants us to do. Now, we have in this language of economy now business and economy, the expression human capital and material capital. Business capital, material capital and other human capital. You see how the world is conforming to the language of the Qu'ran?
This is sign of Allah to us. Here they're coming up with something they call human capital and material capital to distinguish between material and human because they realized that they haven't kept the two before them. They haven't kept the two before them in proper focus to give respect to both. They have what you call brought about urban renewal but did not keep the human interest right on the picture with the plan for material development. They didn't keep the human interest and the material interest right there before them and say, "But how is this going to affect the human interest," they didn't do that.
Now they realize their mistake and they're coming with this language, human capital and business capital or material capital so that the two are kept in focus so that one growth won't punish the other. The business growth should never punish the human life, the commercial life should never punish the human life, the family life et cetera. The human life should never diminish the business life, these things are supposed to be reconciled.
Where what we do externally complements what's internally. It responds to like we breath in and out. Breath in for the life within, but every time you breath in normally you want to breath out. You got to give equal respect right? We just thought we were just breathing out something that we didn't want.
Science taught us that the trees couldn’t exist if it weren't for this form of air or gas that we're putting out here. They're in a balance, the animals and the plants, this is science right? We're breathing in, the trees breathing out what we need, the plants not just trees, all the plants they're breathing out what we need and then what we give back is what they need. Keep the balance, balance of life. One of the factors in the balance of life. Yes.
Now, if we keep these two things these two interests before us and give them the proper respect, give the two the proper respect, our community can progress day by day, year after year, generation after generation, - progress.
The real temple that's sacred in most religions is the temple of your eternal life. Do you know that? Yes that's the real temple. Really the English word temple comes from tempo which only means keeping time. Mark time march, hep, hep, hep. Tempo right? [laughs] This here is pulsating right? They call it the tempo don't they? Yes. I'm the [unintelligible 00:04:30]
[laughter]
G-d has blessed me how to bring it home to you. G-d has blessed me with that. I got to brag about my special gifts. If your son does a good thing don't you want to be proud of him? Well, I'm your son, be proud of your son. Yes. I grew up in this community as a little boy looking, curious, wondering and G-d brought me to where I am because of you.
Now, lastly, to keep these two interests together so that one won't cause the other one to be neglected, keep both of them going, G-d says, "And seek the latter or the destiny that's promised to you," that's the paradise. The life after this world is finished like it is and after we have finished like we are in this body to seek that says with what G-d using what G-d has made available to you. Using the means and the methods and the material, whatever that G-d has made available to you to help you advance that.
We know now, we know for certain that even our progress in perceiving what is the destiny after this world has gone. It has been aided tremendously by our increased knowledge of this material world. In it is [unintelligible 00:06:29] yes we are. Yes, we're getting there fast. Yes so G-d says, but don't forget. Isn't that something? G-d says, "[Arabic language]" and it means [unintelligible 00:06:47] and don't forget or don't neglect [Arabic language] your share [Arabic language] of this material world. Now G-d told us that. “Oh the imam will mess up, he was you're doing alright when he was teaching us prayers and everything. He's now getting interested in making money in business”.
G-d said but don't forget about neglect your share of this material world of Dunya, means this material world. Lastly, G-d says, "When you hear the call of Jumu'ah respond, leave off business, put down your business." Isn't this making the destiny with G-d more important than our material world? It interrupts our material world. When you hear the call of prayer for Jumu'ah, didn't say for any other prayer He said Jumu'ah. When you hear the call of prayer for Jumu'ah leave off your business.
That don't means, - “The Imam is saying if it ain't Jumu'ah I don't have to”. No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that best conduct for a believer is whenever he hears the adhan he stops what he's doing and prepare for prayer and get (unclear) in prayer. That's the best conduct. G-d does not impose or force that upon us, like He stresses that Jumu'ah, I was coming to the Jumu'ah. Yes and says but after the prayer is completed go back into the ways of business. That's what Allah says the Qu'ran, that after the prayer is complete you're free now from the Jumu'ah. Didn't say go home and go to sleep.
[laughter]
Didn't say go home and spend the rest of the day with the wife or the children or the wife and family. It says return to the avenues of business because business upholds the society materially. You need that you have to have it and the Muslim if he devotes himself as a business person to obeying G-d, obedience to G-d, his business will make him a better Muslim. His business will be an influence in his life to make him a better Muslim.
Business strengthens my spirituality because I ain't doing business just to have money, I'm doing the business as an obligation to Allah so that we can have better Islamic community. So that we can have more support for our children who want to go to good schools. For our wives who want to have better situations at home or better conditions in their life. That's what we're doing it for.
How come you can't see this as sacred? This obligation is sacred, just like spiritual obligations. It's a sacred obligation. That's why in Islam, you don't just clean with water. Water is the preference. Water is preferred, but if you can't find water, clean with earth. Clean with clean earth. G-d is telling us that we are not to think of just water as something that can cleanse us, material can cleanse you too.
This is not only in the Qu'ran, this is in previous scriptures too. I could quote it to you if I had time. How do we purify ourselves? We purify ourselves by fasting. We purify ourselves firstly by not having shirk in ourselves. That's the biggest purifier, to get shirk out of your life. We should worship none but G-d, G-d is authority over all authority. That's the biggest. One G-d that created everything. That's the biggest purifier of the life. Number one, Shahadah.
Number two, Salat. G-d said, "It is a cleanser, it purifies." That's Salat.
Number three is Zakat. All of these words have purity implied in their terminology. All of them have purity implied in their terminology. Zakat is a purifier, because it purifies the person who may have greed or stingy or fear for themselves that they ain't going to have enough to eat if they give a little bit to some other cause. So if you give, it's going to purify. Purge that impurity out of your system, our of your spirit, out of your soul.
Fasting, you know, is a purifier. It purifies. Fasting is a purifier.
Hajj itself, you think Hajj is not a purifier? Hajj too is a purifier. Again, that's in scripture before. I could give you this scripture before, - five. I'm talking too much here today, too long here today. Look at the Hajj. Look at the Hajj. The Hajj is the fifth pillar for a Muslim, the last and the fifth. If you understand the hidden wisdom in the Hajj as a symbol, the Hajj is all four in one.
The Hajj is Shahadah, because you started off saying, "Labbayka Allaahumma labbayk, labbayka laa shareeka laka labbayk." Giving strong pronouncement that G-d is G-d, there is none to be associated with him. I obey you, I obey you. That's that. I said all of them. Salat you know is in the heart. You do (unclear). It's in the heart. It's salat. You do dawa on the mountain of Arafat with the salat. So it's a concentration on your Salat too, the Hajj.
Charity, the 10th day, you have to give and sacrifice. That's charity. Fasting, you can't argue and you can't kill things to eat while you're on the Hajj, while you in the sacred parts of the pilgrim. You are fasting, aren't you? You're restraining your appetite. You even fast in the Hajj.
The last one is Hajj itself. Hajj means strong effort. That's what Hajj is. If you ain't ready to make strong effort, don't make Hajj. It's not easy. [chuckles] I mean you have to physical muscles too sometimes, but you definitely have to have some strong spiritual muscle and some strong moral muscle to be successful on your Hajj. Yes, and much more, I would like to say.
I'm going to tie it in with the Bible. David took five smooth stones from the water. Five smooth mean refine. Very nice, refine, very nicely. Five smooth stones from the water. He put one in his sling and fired into the head of the materialist. The man with six toes and six fingers. The great Goliath. Fired it into his head and knocked him down. Then he took Goliath's sword and severed the head of Goliath from his body. Five stones. The Qu'ran is a correction and a completion on the books that went before. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
Hajj is a struggle we say, right? Exerting ourselves. Actually, you have to be conscious of other pilgrims exerting themselves don't you? It's almost like having a competition. You're not really at each other, but you look around and somebody has got at you and you wasn't intended to be that way. They're pushing you out of the way, so it's a competition. You have to be able to keep your cool you're not suppose to get angry and start a fight and then you lose your Hajj. You got to keep your cool, and say, go on by you big, crazy, sucker you.
You have to have a little humor too, sometimes, to survive the Hajj. People come through, you say, go on through you big bull, hoping that you keep your cool and finish your Hajj, finish the rights of the Hajj. Now, so it is a competition. It resembles a competition.
[unintelligible 00:16:16] doesn't it resemble the Olympics, the Olympic runners. Everybody running. A whole lot of people running. In the Olympics there are a whole lot of people running, whole lot of believers running, running. You get to a certain point, have to run. Between the two post, you have to run. Repeating or commemorating Hagar's running. May G-d, peace with her, so you run.
You see the militant brothers, they be spiritual too. Imams, students of [Arabic language] or whatever, when they get-- (simulating running)
[laughter]
Some are 80 years old.
[laughter]
Proud as he can be. Finally, we have to be competitive. Let us be in the spirit of competition. Let us not be out of the spirit of competition. Let us accept the spirit of competition and let us be competitive in this society. Let us be competitive even among ourselves. Let us be competitive.
The Hon. Elijah Muhammad use it a lot. He would put stars on the one who gave $100. This person would be published in the Nation of Islam that he has eight stars behind his name, $800. That inspired competition. Another brother, now he wants to get nine stars. It's competition. If it all works to the better the spirit and to keep people happy and no one suffer or hurt by it, and the community is growing stronger, there's nothing bad here. I don't want to see that kind of competition though.
I don't like that. To me, it's outside of Islam. That's not the way to compete. To show off one's gift. The best gift is giving without attention to it. That's Islamic. I believe that the best of the religions will tell us the same thing. The best gift is the gift that you give quietly. It is your business and G-d's business. You don't want a lot of publicity for it. You didn't do it for publicity. You did it for the good purpose.
We don't want that, but we do want what G-d says, "Go as in a race all together." Is what he said? "After all that is good, after all that is good." After the [Arabic language] "Go as in a race after all that is good." That's competition. Go as in a race. That means we go as people trying to outdo each other. In Islam, the competition must be clean, number one. If it's corrupt, then it's for the devil. It's for the Satan. Satan claims that. It has to be clean, number one. Clean competition. Not unfair, not for the unlawful, only for that that is halal Clean competition done in the Muslim spirit, loving my brother and finding pleasure in my brother's success.
Though my brother did better than me. He scored higher than me. Finding pleasure in my brother's success. This is the spirit of competition in Islam. That we are working for Allah, we are working for the good that Allah has made possible for us. When one achieves it, we are happy for him though we were in competition with him hoping that we would be the number one person in the competition, but we rejoice just as much.
That's just natural, common, good human nature, isn't it? Yes, it's only the spoiled human nature that's the other way. A poor loser can't stand the other person. Disliking that the other persons did better than you or did more than you. This is the poor human nature character in us. It's not the good one but that one is the one, and sometimes you find little children with that best one. Let him have it, let her have it. I won but she almost beat me. Wanting her to get respect, get credit too, don't want her to feel bad.
Allah gives us only what is the best of our nature. The Quran is designed to give us back what is the best of our nature, that’s all. Muhammad is given to us to show us what is the best of our nature. Isn’t that wonderful? Now I’ve talked enough. And I've gone over the time that my son gave me, that little six-year-old. He'd say, "Daddy, talk a little and talk a lot."
That’s his way of saying make a little say a lot. I’m working on it. Thank you very much.
We ask Allah to give us guidance always, to forgive us our errors, save us from our sins and unite us in following Mohammad the prophet and make us the best example for this time and times to come, amin.
[00:22:15] [END OF AUDIO]

