11/17/2000
IWDM Study Library 
Jumuah Harvey IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
This is the national public broadcast of W. Deen Mohammed Muslim Society leader. The following khutbah was recorded in November the 17th, the year 2000 at the Harvey Islamic Center in Harvey, Illinois. The khatib is Imam W. Deen Mohammed Muslim Society leader.
[Arabic]
With Allah's name the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer, we witness that He is one, and we witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, the honorable servant and messenger of G-d, the last of the prophets, the seal of the prophets mentioned in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, properly named in the Qur'an, the Torah and the Injeel. We know of him as G-d has revealed him to us. G-d says of Muhammad that he's a mercy to all the worlds. And G-d says of Muhammad that certainly we have seen him on the foundation of the most excellent character, the most excellent character. And Allah says of him that he is enough for all mankind [Arabic] enough for all mankind. And with that expression, enough for all mankind, we can understand the saying of the prophet, peace be upon him, that there was a building being built, and each prophet came and contributed a block to that building, and he was the last to put a block to finish that building. And he is enough for all mankind, as Allah says in the holy book Qur'an.
Allah says of him that he has believed in G-d and so have the believers for Muhammad is a believer in G-d. He's our leader. If we follow him, we follow him in faith. Firstly, we believe in G-d, believing in G-d, seen and unseen, seen and unseen. And we know we can't see Him with our eyes so how is it understood that we believe in Him seen and unseen? [Arabic] The evidence of Him is in His works. And G-d's work is the creation of man and everything else that exists in this original creation that G-d made, the skies and the earth, and all living things. We see Him in His works and it's plain and clear, the evidence of G-d's existence and presence. We know G-d invited Moses to come up, to speak with him. And Moses wanted to see Him, peace be upon Moses.
He said, let me see you. And G-d told him, say, if you'll see me look to the mountain. The evidence, the creation itself, look to the mountain. And he looked to the mountain, but he couldn't see what he wanted to see. He was thinking he was going to see a man or something, I guess because his people believed that G-d was a man. They asked him, show us G-d in body, in material body. That's what they asked him according to the word of G-d in the Qur'an. So, they were people who believed that they had to see God in material body. And Moses was one of them, so he was really going on a mission for them. So, he said, let me see you. And G-d told him, as I told you, it's in the Qur'an. And when he looked at the mountain he swooned, he fainted. And when he regained his consciousness, the mountain was there intact. But when swooned and passed out, the mountain disappeared, as dust, it went away.
This is Islam, this is the Qur'an, this is the word of G-d. This is the religion. And this is what clears up our hearts, our souls and our minds, and our minds. In anyone who's not following the way that G-d revealed, he's confused, he's tormented, he's in the dark, he's alone. G-d is not with him. The angels are not with him. And the believers are not with him. Praise be to Allah who is one alone and needs nothing of His creation. He created everything and needs nothing of His creation. He created everything by His own will, simply to order it be. And according to G-d's word, and it was. [Arabic], be, and it came into existence. That's G-d. And there is nothing like G-d. Allah says in the Qur'an of Himself [Arabic], there is nothing at all like Him, not a single thing like Him. And we know that the people of the book, they say, G-d made us, man, in his own image and likeness. In contradiction to other parts of the Bible that say, make no image of Him in the heavens or in the earth.
So that's a contradiction. Their belief is in conflict with their own teachings, with their own Bible. And we know that they called themselves, Jews did it first, the children of G-d, the children of G-d. If the language is used lightly as a metaphor or something to be interpreted, then it's not that harmful for the person who understands it that way. But if they mean that G-d really had children, descendants, then Allah answers that in the Qur'an. It's not befitting of the Most High G-d to have a consort, a wife, a woman. He never had a wife. And in plain simple language [Arabic] never did He father a child, [Arabic] and never was He born a child [Arabic] and never did there exist anything resembling Him. This is the Qur’an; this is the religion. Let's stick with it. Don't go back to sleep.
[Arabic] Al-Islam, the religion of all Muslims and the religion of mankind by virtue of their original creation and in support of that statement, Muhammad the prophet [Arabic] said, everyone is born Muslim. And it is the circumstances that they're put in or she's put into that makes them otherwise. A priest, a monk, a Buddhist, a Christian, a Jew, whatever you become, an atheist. It's your circumstances that you're put in that makes you other than a Muslim. Muslim is your nature by birth. It is your original self. Muslim is our original self. And what is my own self I'm quoting. "And what is my own self? My own self is a righteous Muslim." I think you know where that came from.
The great scholar of this time, who passed some years back, from Pakistan, of the Indian race people, their Maulana Maududi. He wrote of this Islam, he said, Islam is an ideology for the reform of the whole world. But we know that the Christianity started with the Jews, in the Jewish people. But Christ, according to the Christian teachings, before he passed away, he instructed all of his disciples, his helpers to go into all the avenues of human life, the family of man and give the message, take the message to all people. So, Christianity then is also, by their own teachings, Christianity is also a message or an ideology for the whole world of mankind, all people.
And if you understand the Jewish teachings, the Jewish religion, you understand that they are too committed to work for all people, for the whole of mankind. But they make a separation between them and other people as to who is authorized by G-d and who is not. So, if you come into the Jewish people with them, then you come in by adoption and I'm quoting the Bible. I'm quoting their teachings. You come in by adoption, which means you are not a child of G-d, except by adoption. They are the true children of G-d. They are the authentic, genuine children of G-d and anyone else who comes into that religion comes in by adoption. This is Judaism. And they identify themselves as the only begotten of G-d. They identify their whole people as the only begotten of G-d. This is quite different from Islam and it seems to be, on the surface, different from Christianity. But I have studied Christianity and Christianity, the New Testament says the same thing. You just don't understand it. They're saying too, that the only begotten is a Jew.
This is not to knock the Jews. This is to clear up our heads so that we can be strong in our faith and clear in our minds to do what we have to do in the path of G-d here in the United States of America and in other places where we are like Bermuda, and a few other places. We should be all over this world, like other people working for G-d. Working for the world idea, global reform. Righteousness. We are born Muslims mean we are born righteous, not sinful. There is no original sin in Islam. We are not born in sin. We are born Muslims. That means born good natured, without fault, without sin, without corruption. All that comes after we learn it from the world. We don't sin until the world shows us sin. So, we are born into a world of sin, not into a nature that's sinful.
G-d said he created us and He gave us our [Arabic], that's our righteousness. He gave us our [Arabic] and He gave us our [Arabic] and the [Arabic] is a hunger for knowledge and understanding in the intellect and in the soul. It's a hunger for the light. So, he gave us righteousness, obedience to Him, [Arabic] and He gave us also an appetite for the light. So, we thirst for light. From the time we are born, we thirst for light. It's in us. It's inborn into us. This is not my teaching. This is the teachings of the Qur'an, the teachings of G-d, not my teaching. In the Qur'an G-d says, and He gave you, nothing else, before your creation was complete, He gave you your [Arabic] and your [Arabic]. So, it's inborn in us. And when G-d finishes it, it's a Muslim. And as Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon him has explained, circumstances we are put in may pull us out of that Muslim form.
So today in this khutbah here, we want to stress obedience to G-d and the original nature. The original nature of a baby is not to rebel against G-d. The original nature of a baby is not to rebel against its parents. The original nature of a baby is to obey what G-d has ordered for it. Parents, mother, father, family, that's the original nature of every human being. And G-d says to us, He named us Muslims before and in the Qur'an. And we understand that Abraham was the first conscious Muslim. And he was the first of the Muslims, Abraham, the first of the conscious Muslims, but every human being was made a Muslim by nature. But Abraham was the first of the conscious Muslims. He taught us how to be Muslim. He taught us how to protect our original nature and to deliver it to G-d whole and sound. Abraham taught us that. And a learned imam, I once heard overseas said, "and Abraham was a community". Then I recalled reading in the Qur'an that Allah said that Abrahams was a community.
And he said, "and Muhammad is a community too". I know this community that we are in is a community of Muhammad the prophet. It was Muhammad the prophet, serving Allah, that established the first community of Muslims. And the whole world now follows in his tradition, practicing the religion, as they best understand it from Muhammad the prophet. Firstly, from the Qur'an of course, but then from Muhammad the prophet who demonstrated to the world, how that revelation was to be practiced, put into effect in the life of individuals and society. Muhammad showed us that. It was Muhammad [Arabic] the prayers and the peace upon him. It was Muhammad who showed us how to pray.
You read the Qur’an; you will not find the way to pray. It's not in the Qur'an. Allah intended for Muhammad, the leader, to teach us how to pray. And he's the first of the imams for us. And he is our teacher, he is our guide, as well as our leader. So, Muslims should know that they should say Allah is my G-d, the Qur'an is my book, and Muhammad is my prophet. Nabi Muhammad, Nabi. This is universal. Muslims whether they are in Asia, the continent of Asia or Africa or Europe or America, wherever they are, or in the islands, they all believe in what I'm explaining to you right now. If you don't know these things, you new ones should study. And you old ones should blow your brains out.
Because you've been around here too long, hearing the truth, and not found it. You should just go to the mirror and blow your brains out, see yourself killed. It's a waste of life. You're a waste of human material. You just keep wrestling with something that torments you and the liberating light is plain as day in your eyes. I'd get rid of that hypocrite, that cheap hypocrite. I'd just go out and take him out myself. I wouldn't wait for myself to die. And you say, Imam told us to go kill ourselves. Are you in here? I didn't know you were in here. I didn't know I was talking to some of you all. We thank Allah that we open our eyes because we want to see. We want to see. So, we open our eyes. When the Qur'an came and showed us how to open our eyes. We opened our eyes. Praise be to Allah.
Islam is firstly, a message to all the world. It is an ideology, as Maulana Maududi said, may G-d give him paradise. It is an ideology for the reform of the whole world. That's what it's given to us for, to reform the whole world. And if you study the history of the world before the time of our prophet, immediately before the time of our prophet, and in the time of our prophet, peace upon him, and study it after Islam came, you'll see that it was grouping in the dark and not civilized. Though few of them, the learned, were civilized, but the masses were not educated. The world was not civilized until Islam came. And after Islam, we start seeing a change for the better for the whole world of mankind. Although wars were made, ugly violence, jealousy, and Allah says in the Qur'an, never did they differ until the clear evidence came to them. That's the Qur'an. Then they began bickering, fighting and killing, and jealous of the Muslim rule in Spain. They got together and got their forces together and drove the Muslims out of Spain.
Now understand that the Muslims in Spain went in there beautiful, but in time they became corrupt. They became corrupt. If they had not become corrupt, they would have been in Spain till today, till today. Because the Spanish people were not against them. The Spanish people were thankful to them. The history says that when the Muslims were leaving Spain, turned it over to the Christians, Spaniard people could be seen crying on the sidelines as they were watching the Muslims leave. Crying. So, this was a power act by the Christians of the world, led by a few who were devilish and wicked.
But Allah is the Best Knower. I believe what they did softened the hearts of many Spanish people for Islam. There are a lot of Muslims now that are Spanish and they're increasingly coming to Islam, the Spanish people. And also, the non-Spanish people of Europe. It softened their hearts for Islam. When they read the true studies, I talk to them. They tell me how they've softened their hearts. Community. G-d says you are the best of communities brought out, or translated by the English translator of the Qur'an, evolved, evolved for the good of all people.
[Arabic], you are the best of communities brought out for all mankind. Evolved for all mankind. Brought out of the darkness into the light for all mankind. Then G-d says of this religion. He has revealed it to bring you out of the darkness, into the light. This is Qur'an. So understand this Muslim brothers and sisters, all and children understand this. That no matter what the world says, if you are a Muslim, you should go by what Islam says. No matter what the world says. If you say you are a Muslim, if you wear that name, you should go by what the Qur'an says, what Allah says in the Qur'an and what Muhammad has taught us, the prophet of Islam peace be upon him. If you don't do that, then you in conflict with your own self. You're in a mess.
You say why is he angry today? I'm as peaceful as I've ever been. I'm not angry. I'm happy. I'm in heaven, really. In my soul, I'm in heaven. G-d knows that. Yes, sir. I'm not angry with anybody. I love you. I'm in love with you. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't talk to you this way. I'll sell you some bull and get your money, and be rich sitting up somewhere on the Gold Coast somewhere in wealth. And coming to visit you in a little ghetto, in a little stink hole and take your money and go right back to my Gold Coast home or apartment. That's what I'd do if I didn't love you. Sometimes I think some of you deserve that. And I don't have to give you that. There are plenty of them around that give you that. They gave that treatment. They ready.
All right. So, we have to know our own identity. We are Muslims by the definition given to us in the Qur'an and the teachings of Muhammad. Not by any definition, popping up in your head somewhere. We are Muslims by the definition established in the Qur'an, the word of G-d and the teachings and practice of Muhammad, his traditions. That's why we are Muslim. And the origin of this concept came from the teacher, Abraham, [Arabic]. This is the order of Abraham, the upright in his nature. Praise be to Allah. And you are to understand your identity as a society. As a society, you are one, supposed to be, one united community, [Arabic], one united community under G-d, following the universal messenger Prophet Muhammad [Arabic].
This is it, clear as anything can be. This is Islam. Now you are obligated to be a Muslim responsible for your own Muslim nature. And you are obligated to be a Muslim individual responsible for your own Muslim environment. And you are supposed to be working on your environment to make your environment agree with what Allah has revealed is the [Arabic]. So, your environment should have Islamic education in it. It has to have Islamic schools. It has to have a place to pray [Arabic]. It has to have mosques, or if you want to say masjid. It Has to have a masjid. And it has to have halal. Halal means accepted as G-d wants it for you.
You remember the story of the man walking, in the hadith, given in the hadith, a Muslim and [Arabic]. The man walking and he's disappointed. His life is miserable. He's walking like this and looking at the sky and he's oh G-d, oh G-d, oh Allah, he's praying to Allah. Why do I suffer like this? And the hadith said that his clothing was not halal. His dress was not halal, and he had been consumed by all that is not halal. So, his whole life was not halal. And he's praying to G-d asking G-d to help him and wondering why would a G-d leave him miserable like that? When he had ignored G-d and G-d's way, and it made his life all haram, not halal.
So, we are obligated to be responsible for our life to make it right in accordance with the guidance of G-d. And the example of Muhammad the prophet. And you're obligated, as I said before, to take charge of our own environment. A Muslim, whether you got a mansion or one room to sleep in, you want that one room to be your room of worship, worship for Allah. Yes. And you don't want those objectionable things in your one room or in your mansion. And when you walk out of your doors and you don't see any Islamic structures, nothing done by Muslims, that should make you feel very sad. You shouldn't be happy to step outside of your house or your apartment onto the streets and see nothing that Muslims have done. That should make you very sad. And you should work hard behind any qualified leader who loves the way of G-d, follows the path of Islam, the path of G-d in Islam and behind the leader, Muhammad the prophet.
I don't care what color he is, what nation he comes from. And I'm speaking to these brothers here who are not of the Negro, not of the... Excuse me, that's the old word. Not of the black people, the African American people. I'm speaking to them too. To let them know where your leader stands. I don't know what you are telling them, but I want them to know where your leader is and where he stands. You should follow any of them. You don't have to come here. If you are not happy with this place, go behind any true Muslim that's trying to be upright in Islam. And he's a leader, support him. This is Islam. Islam is a free religion. It's not racist. It's free for all. And it recognizes all Muslims as brothers and sisters. You don't have to come here to be a brother. You go anywhere where there's a decent Muslim environment or a decent Muslim place to pray. And to hear the lecture, the teacher of Islam, and you're a brother there. You're a brother anywhere.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us many years ago when the reality was not there to support what he was saying. He said, when you register and become a member of the Nation of Islam, you automatically... Finish it from me, somebody. Finish it hypocrite. You know it. Finish it. You automatically what? I'm not hearing you that ain't loud enough. You automatically? Yes, yes. But ain't the word he used. He didn't use brother. What word he used? You know it. That tells me a lot about you all. [...] what did he say? What did Honorable Elijah Muhammad say, when you register in the Nation Islam, you automatically become what? Imam [...] I'm speaking to Imam [...] You don't recall. You came in late then.
Is there anybody who came in, in the fifties, early fifties? Anybody here from the early fifties? Nobody. I don't believe that. Yes, can you recall what he said? You got the idea, that's not what he said. Hmm. You automatically become a, what? A what? Yes. A citizen. He said you automatically become a citizen of every Muslim government. That's what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said. So, I guess that's why I have such a hard time with you all. You didn't even get the help that came from him. It's really pitiful. We need new people. You preachers that are with me, solidly, you need to go out and get some new people because these are going to be in the wilderness for another 40 years.
So, Islam believes in the innocence of every human being. That's what it's saying. At birth all human beings are innocent, not in sin. And that condition, that innocent condition is called Muslim. Muslim by nature. And if we want to make progress, then we have to continue in that innocence. Don't become guilty. Don't become a crooked minded person. Stay innocent. You have to stay in that innocence and you have to work for more purity in your life. Purify your life. Allah says in the Qur'an, Allah says He does not want for us difficulty. Isn't that a loving G-d? Say, I don't want you to be in difficulty, but I want that you be purified, and you have to have some moral muscle, spiritual muscles and moral muscle to purify your life, especially when you're facing so much sin and corruption, pornography, child pornography, all kind of freakish, perverted stuff that'll make a dog puke. And you're living in that stuff. You're seeing it on television. You're seeing it in the movies. You're hearing about it if you're not seeing it.
So, you're bombarded with a lot of corruption that makes your nature warped and freakish, and you become an alien in the human family. So, you have to work for purity, work for the purifying of your own soul. And G-d says, and spend on your own soul. And whoever spends on his own soul, spend your time, spend your energy, spend your good thoughts, spend even your money to put your soul in a better situation so it can become more beautiful for Allah's sake. Purify it. And G-d says, whoever spends on his own soul, he's certainly prosperous. He prospers, he succeeds. And whoever neglects to do that, doesn't care for that, he goes down to the lowest of the low. Down to the lowest of the low.
And remember we are people of faith. We don't know everything. Follow the learning, the wise pious leaders in this religion who say to G-d, you know G-d, and we know not. Admit that you know not. Everything you got, you got it from somebody else or from something else. You came in the world knowing nothing. And only because G-d created you like you are and created the world like it is that you are able to know. So, give G-d the credit for everything. Say, G-d, you are the knower and we know not. And believe me, there's worlds of knowledge that you don't know. What you know is a speck on this earth, not to speak of in the universe. It's a little speck on this earth, not to mention what it looked like if it was measured in this context of the whole universe. It would be like nonexistent.
And G-d says, do good. And we have to believe in G-d and believe in His messenger Muhammad [Arabic]. G-d says, believe in G-d and believe in His messenger. How are you going to separate them when G-d has put Muhammad, the messenger, right with G-d as His servant and His messenger? And you have to believe in him, or G-d will not accept your belief. G-d will not accept you just believing in G-d. G-d will only accept your belief if you believe also in Muhammad the prophet. So, G-d says, Himself in our holy book, "believe in G-d and believe in His messenger." And the messenger is a believer too. Says, and the messenger has believed and so have the believers. And G-d says and do good [Arabic] do good. And G-d says it is closest, or it is really the strength of piety [Arabic], it is closest to [Arabic], it is really the strength.
It is the best power for your keeping your [Arabic]. Doing good. Doesn't that make all the sense in the world? We know when we see people that believe in doing good, we readily accept them as good people. And we readily respect whatever they believe in. But if they're doing bad and claiming to have faith in some religion, it doesn't touch us. It won't touch us because their life is in contradiction with what they're claiming. They say we have heard a call in the land. It's in the Qur'an that Muhammad was calling. Calling the people to say, and those that heard him they responded and said, we believe. We believe. Praise be to Allah. So, let's practice doing good. Let's remember the best teachings we got from our Christian mamas and fathers and families. They taught us to do good. They didn't tell us to be bad crooks and liars and hypocrites and sneaky people sneaking around. Twisting behind my back.
Discrediting me. Trying to pull me down. But you ain't got the courage to come to me and do it in my face. So, what are you a cheap little mouse, a sick field rat? Yeah, that's what you are. You're in bad shape. Why can't you just come to my faith? You jealous, you don't like it because G-d has blessed me? You can't do anything about that but drive yourself nuts and torment your life. Stop pretending. You ain't fooling nobody but yourself. We see you. We see all of you. You're not fooling anybody but yourself and those you hang out with. And I'm saying this only for your good, not for my good. My good would be just to leave you and never come back, and go with the people that I know are straight. That would be for my good.
So, we have to become workers, not just claiming faith. Become workers and let your work say you're a Muslim. Let your work say you follow Muhammad the prophet. All through the Qur'an, work and faith are together. [Arabic] those who have faith, [Arabic] and their works are righteous works. [Arabic] and their deeds or their work is righteous work. So, where's your work? Where's your work? You're coming here on and off, weekend you come here, Fridays and maybe some other days too. And you come back, have you increased your good works? If you haven't, you're wasting your life and you don't have any credit with G-d.
You have to be doing good works. What do you think this is a cult? A street gang? I'm speaking to all of you. This is not just to you here in this town. I'm speaking to all of you all throughout the United States and outside too if you have this problem. What do you think this is, a street gang? A fad? Something that you just come into for a fashion, and you wear it as a fashion and you put it down when you want to, and pick it up when you want to? I don't love you like that, brother. G-d know I don't love it like that.
If you're doing it in innocence, that's one thing. If you're doing it and know you're doing wrong, I don't love you. And if it wasn't no law in this land, I'd organize a group and kill you. I'd actually kill you. G-d knows I'd kill you for wearing the name Muslim and being the way you are. Some of you think you can scare me. A gunshot, anything, a firecracker popping behind I'm not expecting, it can scare me, but just for a second or two. A gun in my face it can scare me. But just for a second or two. I rely on Allah and Allah takes the fear away. So, you can't scare me. If I was going to be scared, I would've been scared in 1973, '74, '75. That's when I would've been scared. Here comes a little nut in my face and using language that make me think he's trying to threaten me. You couldn't threaten those guys I got rid of. You weren't brave enough to go on their face and turn them around. Now what makes you think you can stand in my face and make me afraid?
I was alone. None of you came out and helped me fight those guys. But now you're so tough you can do me in. Go get to one of them guys that really gave you hell, and show me you're brave. That'll show me you brave. You're not brave. You're weaklings. I heard a Spanish girl. She was a waiter in a restaurant. And some African Americans were in there acting like apes. And she said, negros chicken. See negro is Spanish for black, negros chicken. You brave though, when you think you've got one of your own kind. Coward. When you think they're afraid of you! Oh, you're brave then. Oh, you'll beat him up something terrible. Dismember him. You can really be cruel. But you're nothing but a coward when you think you, might lose you ain't going to be around. You're gone. Hiding somewhere. That ain't a Muslim.
A Muslim accepts death, if we have to accept it, doing what G-d wants us to do. We accept death. We are not afraid of death. We're not afraid of dying. If I was afraid of dying, I wouldn't have lasted two weeks. No, because I got threats, way back then before 1975, serious threats. I reported them to the FBI and the police department. I tied my camel, and I trusted my G-d. And I'm here. Thank Allah.
We have efforts to change this thing where we don't see any contribution, material contribution of ours in the streets, in the public. We want to change that. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad made that his number one aim to change the material environment for the African American poor people. So here we are again, we are here. A brother walked into the store into the department when we were on 167th street. And he saw me handling meats. And he was from back there when I was a teenager,18 or 19 years old, in the Nation of Islam. So, I told him, I said, you see? I said, when you saw me. You saw me in the restaurant working in the restaurant, in the grocery store and restaurant I worked. I'm saying I was a minister, called minister back then. Minister W. Deen Mohammed. Minister W Warith Deen Mohammed or W. Deen Mohammed but I worked in those businesses.
So, I say, you see I'm back in it. I'm back in the same old image, same old style, back in it. This ain't nothing new for me. This is what I used to do. This is what I started out doing. My father, if you didn't work, you didn't stay around him. He wouldn't accept you. If you want to be around him, you had to work. And for me, I loved it. It was my pride, my dignity. It was my freedom to be with a job. A lawful income is freedom. To be without it is one form of slavery. Well, I loved it and I still love it. I got a brother, Elijah Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad will paint this building, he'll wash the floors, he'll shovel coal, he'll do anything. He'd pick out the garbage and never feel that he had to lower his pride. He'd be just as proud doing that as he was being a commander over hundreds of first officers and captains in the Nation of Islam before I became the leader. He is just as happy to do these little things as he is to do that big thing he was doing. That's my brother. And I mean it. That's my blood brother. We got the same spirit. It's a blessing, Elijah because some of our brothers and sisters don't have it.
So, it's a blessing that we have that. So, we have established an organization called collective purchasing conference. It's a distributor itself really, a Limited liability company. But it is mainly a tool for all of us. It makes purchases, big purchases with dollars from many of us. Money from many of us. So, money from many of us piles up like it did for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. When the Honorable Elijah Muhammad passed, there was over $3 million cash in the bank downtown. So, he didn't leave us actually broke. No, he did not. He left us with a situation with properties and things. When the government came in, well, they set us up. They set us up for it. So that's what wrecked us. It was not that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad didn't have money. He had money. He had money from you all, over $3 million in the account.
Now Allah has blessed us to have your support for me. And we again have a few million dollars, cash. That's a little power there. So, with that kind of money, we can go and buy from the manufacturers in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, wherever. Thailand, Hong Kong, wherever. We can go and buy. And not to mention opportunities right here in this hemisphere to buy from America, from the US, Canada, Mexico, we can buy. So, we are not hopeless. We are in the position to go forward with our material lives for the first time, since the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's death. And actually, his effort was an effort doomed to die because it had no life that was compatible with the life of this society, or this government, this world. You cannot build an independent government inside this government that is enemy to this government. It's common sense to tell you they ain't going to stand for that. So, they let you do it. But they planned for you down the road. They said, well, they're building, but we're going to get all this. And that's what they did. They took it all through the probate courts.
So, you have to understand these things and to go with me and not burden me. You have to understand these things. This address I'm giving you, bringing these serious concerns to you I had planned for other locations. Well, I didn't find any place suitable till now. I'm doing it here. And it's going out to the whole community. It's going out to the whole community. Now we were asked to support Hajj, a big delegation to go the Hajj. In this coming year, 2001... If you have to leave, leave. Please, no problem. Don't feel embarrassed.
2001, we didn't have enough months to really build up. I myself, you all got me living pretty comfortably financially. But I, myself, I need more time. I didn't have enough time to give that amount of money over 2,000 dollars. I don't have it right now. But if I have until to 2002, I think I'm pretty sure I'll have it. I'll have that much by that time. And it's wrong for you to make Hajj on my money. That's not right. Suppose you don't pay the Hajj agency back, what happens to my money? This is Islam I'm teaching you, don't think this is not Islam. This is not proper for khutbah, the brothers, they have time on their hands. They have time demands on them. This is proper for khutbah.
We have to strengthen in the Muslim community and that's what I'm doing. I'm working to strengthen this community. Now the spirit was put into the community to make Hajj in the big number, 2,000 persons. With me it would've been 2,001 for the year, 2001. So, a lot of people who hadn't planned to make Hajj were given the spirit to do it, to go in this big number with Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Now we don't have enough to go. Not near enough. We don't have near enough money. So, I want to postpone it till 2002. So-called leaders purporting to say I'm their imam. They say Imam W. Deen Mohammed is my imam. They tell the people that. But they're working to now go and take as many as they can in 2001. So, if they're ignorant, I want to show them their ignorance. If you work to get big numbers for 2001, you are working against your imam because you are taking numbers away from 2002.
And you are doing it on that back of your imam. Because it was your imam that invited the people and excited their enthusiasm. That's just another case of you working against me and undermining my efforts. The CPC would never be in existence if it wasn't for a few believers supporting me. Working with me here and a few outside. The great many of the imams, they were waiting for this effort to die. And they only came in when they saw it was right in that backyard. Members of their own mosques had started supporting us. Then they came and said, we want to make an investment, when they couldn't help it. That's when they said they want to make an investment.
We could have big numbers of people with us if we didn't have these leaders before the people, as an image of us. If they remain before the people as an image of us, they'd turn good people, sincere, hardworking people away. They only want people who have been victim of crime life and who will accept that they're the barn boss to keep them in order for the establishment. They have made prisoners of you all. They made you prisoners. And this has to stop. And I'm here to announce today that I'm the one who gave this community, the name MAS, Muslim American Society.
I'm the one who gave that name. And I can show you right now, it's in the records where I registered an organization almost worded exactly like that, long before I became your leader, I registered that organization because I thought the Nation of Islam just might be lost. And if it was lost, then I was going to use that organization. I wasn't going to give up. I never give up. But thank Allah it wasn't lost. We made a transformation. So, I'm not going to give them this name. You the one who's not in the court with the name. You go. And I don't care if it's all the support, but 1%. I'd rather have 1% straight people than to have a hundred percent hypocrites.
So, I'm announcing here from this place, from this Masjid, under Imam Darnell Karim, in this city of Harvey, I'm announcing today, that you who've been lying to yourself and us, you're not included in my eyes anymore. In my eyes, you're not included. You're not with us. We don't expect anything from you. And I will not be coming to your masjids anymore. The leader goes with good, beautiful Christians, Focolare people from Rome. I commit myself and us to join them for respect for each other's religion and cooperation as decent human persons, in the way of G-d. And I don't get the leaders of this community to support me. They thought I was going to be embarrassed and the Focolare people perhaps would never want to see me again. But Allah brought whites in there. Allah blessed us to have whites sitting where they should have been sitting.
So, they filled up with white folks. Where are my people? They’re hoping that they had embarrassed me again to defeat my purpose. My aim. That's what they were hoping for, but it didn't work. But it was an embarrassment because I'm looking at the audience, almost solid white. Beautiful people though. They were just like my brothers and sisters. That's how supportive they were of the call for faith communities together. They became friends. Those who were there for the first time they saw us, they liked us. So, G-d gave us many more friends from them. And many of them, big people with establishments. That means something, a lot.
I'm looking in side bleachers and that's where we were. I guess that was a sign. Those people were sincere, we're sitting on the sidelines. Yeah, we were speckled in the side bleachers, but the great mass, the great audience was almost solidly white. Some claimed and promised that they were going to send buses, no buses. If they were to tell the truth, we could go around to all these centers and march and let's just go around to them and ask them, were you encouraged to go to Washington. I bet you they'd tell you no. They were not encouraged to go. And I believe a good number of them said things to discourage them and tried hard to keep any information from reaching them, that the imam wanted them to go to Washington.
If we had come, it wouldn't have been standing in the room. It would've been all outside of the building. And that would've been for the news, a great plus for us in promoting what we are about. It would've been a great plus for us. You disappointed me. I'm going to disappoint you. So, you on your own buddy. I won't be coming and helping you out anymore. Won't be holding you up anymore, before the people, won't be doing that anymore. Trying to save you, and you fight me all the time. Have you heard the story of a drowning person, a person tried to save them from drowning and they're fighting, just hitting and beating up on the one trying to save them from drowning? They panic and make it almost impossible for the person that's trying to save them, to save them and take them to shore.
Now we are living in, in my understanding, the last days. And I believe the last days come and go. At certain times in the history of human beings on this earth, the last days come. And G-d gives the deserving ones a new chance, and they bring the world back again. But in time, the wicked have to be weeded out and done away with, so we see the end of time again. And I believe this is the end of time. This is not the end of time for Muslim life. This a good time for Muslim life, the best season for Muslim life. It's not the end of time for the righteous. This is the best season for the righteous. And the signs of the end of time as given by our prophet, peace and blessing on him.
One of the signs, in fact, all the signs to me are clear today. I can see them clearly right now. One of the signs they say is that servant people, the servant people, people who have been in servant class will be competing with the established people in the building of skyscrapers. This is in the sayings of Prophet Muhammad recorded by Bukhari and Muslim. Competing with the established people, the big people in the construction of high buildings. This is how it's put. I believe that time is right now. And we should be foremost in this competition because our religion conditions us to not live spiritually in one side, and then materially in the other side, and think that one side is against the other side. It unites us. It reconciles our aspirations for establishment in this world, with the sayings of G-d and the Qur'an, seek what means G-d has given you, the hereafter, which is better. We know. Better in quality and better in quantity. But G-d says, but don't neglect your share of this material world.
[Arabic] and don't neglect your share in this material world. And G-d says, who has said that this is not for my servant. Say this is for them in this life, the material world. And only exclusively for them in the hereafter. That's what G-d says. [Arabic], exclusive for them in the hereafter. So, we should be in the forefront and don't you know, most of our people are looking for us to be in the forefront. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam true followers made such an impression on Christian African-Americans, blacks, that they are disappointed when they see us not producing. And they're waiting on us to get our spirit back. They believe that we are the ones to lead them in the material accomplishment. I know it because I've heard it from the best and most popular of their leaders.
So, what are you going to do? You going to follow these other guys that call himself imams over these masjids in the different cities. You going to follow them? Disappointing me? Showing half effort? Just to pretend? Or are you going to follow me solidly like you're supposed to? Well, if you do, you who have the spirit to do that, G-d promises us success. The believers must be successful, G-d says. They must win through. G-d promises us success. So, I close out that part of the khutbah with that appeal to you and I pray to G-d. [Arabic] Amen.
[Arabic].
Dear Believers, with that traditional introduction to this last part of the khutbah, I want to say to you that we are working to get charge of some of our material environment all around us where we have no representation, as achievers, or accomplishers, or owners, or managers, controllers. We are working to get into that position. Not because I want money. If I wanted money, you know there's quick ways to get it. I know many quick ways to get money. Not because I want money, it's because we need material strength to support our life. We'll always have a weak life if we have weak or no material accomplishment. So, we need that. I'm not a hermit. I'm not a ghost. I'm not going to be one. I'm a flesh and blood man like Mohammad was. Allah says Muhammad is a flesh and blood man like you. So, I have to have the material to house my spirit and my soul. I have to have the material and the material has to be good.
Not a ghetto, not a rat hole. It has to be good. So, we are working for that. And we have the blessings of our efforts before and the blessings of the light in Islam today. How can we fail if we just sincerely support what I'm doing? How can we fail? No way. And G-d is with us. The people who operate that facility we got for processing meats; I didn't know how I was going to get people to help me do that. I didn't have any help. I asked certain places for help. They didn't respond. Soon as they found out I got help, now they want to come help me.
They don't want to come help me. They want to come to defeat the effort that we are making now. I have a general assistant manager that I'm going to introduce to you today. Brother Lester Muhammad, I knew when he was very young, Lester Muhammad, could you stand and let the people see you. He has worked for Jewel for many years. He's had his own delicatessen that he had for three years, two or three years or more, I don't know I can't recall exactly, in Jersey when he was living in Jersey. So, he has experience and he's a very intelligent, informed, educated person. And I thank Allah for his help. And we don't intend to fail. We intend to succeed. Failure ain't in our spirit, ain't in our blood. There's no failure in us. And Allah has blessed us with a brother, Yusuf who slaughters lamb every week in large numbers, right in the city of Chicago.
He blessed us with him as a brother and as a friend, we'll be buying lambs from him. I think we already bought some lambs from him. We're buying lambs from him and there's Minmar another big company that's really very popular in the Muslim community of America, society of America for his cold cuts. Very excellent and beautiful quality products. So InshaAllah, we'll buying from him and working with him. But also, we've gotten in touch with a big supplier of chickens and they have accepted little us. And last word I heard from the big man was Mr. Mohammed, we'll be getting back with you soon.
That means the price is going to be way... The price is going to be competitive for us. We'll be able to compete with other stores. So, whatever they selling their product for, I mean, we'd be able to sell halal the same price they selling their non-halal. That's G-d. You think you can change that? I'm speaking to my adversaries. Do you think if Almighty G-d give you something, you think you can take it away from us, if Almighty G-d gave it to us? Impossible. Impossible. The only way it goes from us, we have to do something to lose. I found an African American farmer, got some of the beautiful cows I ever seen. He raised some hog too, but he's a Christian. That's his right to do that.
I didn't see a hog among the cows. Not a single pig was among the cows. So, if we support him, wouldn't that be building better relations with our African American Christian brothers? We can't have everybody charting our future and planning strategy for us to go ahead, you got to have a leader. If you don't believe in him, then leave him. And if you got better, you supposed to present that better person to your leader. You're not supposed to work behind the back of your leader. If you got better, you're supposed to bring that better person to your leader. That's the way the companions of our prophet were, peace and blessings be upon the prophet. And G-d be pleased with his companions. If they found somebody that could help, that was outstanding, they presented that person to the prophet. You don't work behind the back of the leader. Oh, this person should be the leader. That's wrong. That's terrible. Okay.
When you go into business, go into business for Allah's pleasure, go into business, to have business to help your life be better and more impressive for Islam under G-d. That's the way you go in. And don't fear. Have the courage to compete with the biggest on this earth. Maybe you can't show yourself today, but work so that one day they'll see you in a position to compete with the biggest on this earth. And that's not the lifetime of one generation; that comes in the lifetime of many generations. So let us plan for our life down the road in the year 3000. Let us plan to be as big as any business man on this earth. And I think we can do it maybe in just a couple of hundred years. We might have wealth as much as any rich man or group on this earth.
Let's work for it. Work for it in the name of G-d, to better our Muslim life and to finance our own Islamic needs. We can't have strong schools if we don't have money. All right. And let us pray. Muslims, pray. Find time to pray. Take out time to pray. Clean yourself and pray. You can't clean yourself, look how easy it this religion is. You can find clean earth and rub your hands, dust it off and wipe your face and pray. Unless you have had intercourse or something, then you have to have a full bath. This religion is easy. When you're in your car, I'm giving you permission to do this. I don't care what people say. They talk about me, if I make no mistakes, they talk about me. If I do little something, they talk about me. So, I don't care what they say. Tell them Imam W. Deen Mohammed said that when I want to pray, if it's not convenient for me to go and find water, he said to wipe my hand on a clean stone or clean brick or something, clean stone, wipe my hands and wipe my face and pray.
Say Imam W. Deen Mohammed said I can be driving my car and do my prayer. Make my attention to the Kabbah and be driving your car, do your prayer. That's what I do. I ain't telling you nothing that I ain't doing. That's what I do. All right. Allah be with you. I love you. Even you that are ignorantly working against me. I love you. But I'm cutting you off, buddy. Can't take your foot dragging and undermining what we are doing. No, we can't take it. It's too serious to take that kind of treatment from you. So, G-d be with you and let us make dua. [Arabic]
Be sure to join us next time for the national public broadcaster, with W. Deen Mohammed, Muslim Society leader. For more on ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed call 1-7-0-8-7-9-8-6-7-5-0. All right. Post Office Box 1061 Calumet City, Illinois, 60409. For WDM publications call 1-7-0-8-8-6-2-7-7-3-3. All right. Post Office Box 1944, Calumet City, Illinois, 60409. For Muslim journals see a local distributor. And thanks for listening.


