1989
IWDM Study Library
American Public Address Tour

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Speaker: This is the first in a series of video teachings from Zakat publications on the religion of Al-Islam. This premiere presentation is brought to you in three parts. Number one is an address to the over one billion Muslims worldwide. The second part discusses the beliefs and principals of Al-Islam sometimes called the five principles. The third part is a public address to Muslims and non-Muslims worldwide. Now, the honorable Imam W. D. Mohammed Muslim American spokesman for human salvation.
Hon. Imam W. D. Mohammed: As salaam alaikum.
Congregation: Wa alaikum as-salaam.
Hon. Imam W. D. Mohammed: Peace be unto you. For all occasions, we seek the Lord Creator of the Heavens and the earth, Allah that he accept our efforts and grant us good outcome. I bear witness that there is but one Lord and Creator Allah and I bear witness that Mohammad is his servant and his messenger. We pray the peace and the blessings upon him upon his descendants and upon his companions and the righteous all and upon us be peace. Ameen.
Allah the Lord of the world, he is not only the creator of the self or the soul but he is also the structure, he is the one that gives structure to the soul. Most of us we think of the soul as being fluid, airy like a gas, like a vapor or like water and that's true. However, the Lord who created that soul, he wants us to come into an understanding or a vision or a view or a perception of our soul as something that must be structured. That should be structured. He says that he had not only created the soul but he also proportioned it as the heavens as raised up and structured.
There's a definite design to the skies, to the heavens. They have a definite design. Though the bodies of the sky are described in our holy book as bodies and a fluid kind of environment swimming along because they appear to be floating in space with nothing supporting them. They verge about, they go about in different kinds of ways for the moon is going around the earth, for the earth it is going around the sun, for the sun it has also a path, a round path that it is following and it belongs to the great milky galaxy of so many billions and billions of stars and the milky way itself seems to be floating and some of these things are seen to be even out of order.
A shooting start will come, comets will pass, comets will be moving along but in all of that what stands out the most is an orderly design, a definite design, a definite pattern, a definite order and we don't look at the sky and wake up and look at the sky at night or think about it and expect to find things missing, things out of place. We expect the sun to rise up from the east as it always does, we expect that it sets in the west as it always does and we expect for the moon to appear as it always does, to go through its phases from a new moon to an old moon and repeat that.
So we have definite idea of what the picture of the heavens should look like and we don't expect to find something contrary to that when we look in the sky at night. Either tonight or any night. There is a definite and unity and harmony there. There is a structured heaven up there and Allah wants us to think of our soul in the sense of needing, in terms of needing structure, order, definite design.
Structure and order and definite design. Where you say I can't-- The soul is a mystery to me, I don't know how to begin that. Trust Allah and read the Quran, study his word and become more educated in your book of the Quran even if you are non-Muslim. Our book invites non-Muslims to research it. Says for those who doubt the word of G-d why don't they research the Quran. By the soul and how it is ordered or proportioned, ordered and proportioned. It says that [Arabic language] and thereafter after he gave it gave it the structure, gave it the design that he wanted for the human soul, thereafter he gave it [Arabic language] means its enlightenment.
We have heard I'm sure other speak of an enlightened soul. Allah wants us to have an enlightened soul and we know that knowledge if it's true knowledge, knowledge itself will give a sense of order to whatever it comes into to. Knowledge because knowledge is by its nature ordered. If knowledge comes into that soul it will itself influence that soul into coming into some definite design, some definite order. We may conclude then that the state of our souls in terms of the order of the soul reflects the kind of knowledge that has been coming into us.
If the knowledge itself has been impure knowledge, weak knowledge, poorly informed knowledge then most likely the soul, the fate of the soul is going to be similar. The one who gave it its enlightenment and that he gave it enlightenment and also [Arabic language]. Now Taqwa, this term refers to or simply regardfulness. Simply put regardfulness. These are the two essential qualities or essential elements that should be in the soul and in the human being. The two, understanding, knowledge, correct knowledge, correct understanding, and regardfulness. Men will achieve great heights in the scholastic order or the academic world. They will achieve great heights, get Ph.D.s but occasionally we will read of some of those men with doctorate degree behaving just like the person that never got through elementary school. It's not always how much you learn that's going to be reflected in your behavior. You need something else and that something else is proper respect, a deep regard, a profound respect and regard for the higher things of this creation and especially for the Lord, the designer, the architect of it. G-d Himself. A deep respect for your Lord and for those things that are deserving of special regard in His creation. We have to have that taqwa. This is what the soul needs.
Now, [Arabic language] taqwa is enlightenment and it's regardfulness. Following that description of the soul that Allah wants all of us to have and his prophets had it, Mohammad is perfect, in his human creation. It says [Arabic language]. He is certainly a failure, he or she is certainly a failure that neglects that. Neglects what? Neglects trying to get enlightenment for the soul and trying to grow the soul in respectfulness, in regardfulness. Those who neglect that will certainly be a failure. It says before that [Arabic language] He is or she is certainly a success, and that's what this talk is all today about, human salvation. What is the opposite of human salvation, human failure?
The person that neglect to attend the needs in the self, in the person, in the personality, in the soul. The person that neglect to attend the needs in the soul for enlightenment and for regardfulness, for virtue and proper respect for things beginning with the most high himself Allah or G-d as we say in Christianity or English, he will be a definite success if he spends on his soul in that way, spends on his soul to make his soul grow in enlightenment and in regardfulness.
If he does the reverse then [Arabic language] he is certainly a failure who neglects to do that. Here is established for us in revelation that one billion approximately, Muslim men and women of various colors and nationalities, from one side of the earth to the other believe in. They believe in this book. Here is the book saying, the divine word saying, something that represents for intelligent people, and I consider myself an intelligent person though I don't have a college degree. I consider myself an intelligent person.
Allah is also giving us a rule that we should accept, a law that we can apply. How come these people are in their bad state? Maybe this law can be applied for their situation. Have they been attending the needs of the soul for enlightenment, for real true education? Have they been attending the needs in their souls for the real respect, for a deep-seated regard for the things that are high and beautiful and most valuable and Allah as the creator of them all for Allah? Have they been attending that need in their soul?
Well, maybe this is the problem. Maybe we should go and tell them as doctors with the medicine and with the science of G-d, maybe we should go and tell them that what you're doing is neglecting the need in your soul for informed knowledge, informed teachings, informed educated, based in truth not guess that. Tried and proven. Not in one lifetime but in a lifetime of many generations. Tried and proven.
Don't you know the best knowledge we have in our finest institutions of this land, is the knowledge that have been tried and proven, not in one generation but over many generations? It is with the word of G-d. The word of G-d has served the followers of G-d, the people that seek G-d for generation after generation, for hundreds and hundreds and thousands of years. It is tested and proven.
I said just for our religion, Al-Islam there are approximately one billion followers by adherence, at this present time approximately one billion. There is just an ocean of us in Indonesia, so many million in Indonesia, so many millions in India, not to speak of Pakistan that was partitioned in 1947 and became a separate state, an Islamic state, but in the non-Islamic state of India there is over 100 million maybe 130 million or more. I don't have the figure right now. I'll get it right now to give you but I'm sure they're well over 100 million Muslims in just in India. Then there is Pakistan with its millions. We were talking about the Far East that's the Far East.
Then there is Malaysia, and even in communist China, and even in communist Russia as you know a Muslim population had the earthquake. There was so saddening to all of our hearts that those people were lost to that earthquake, to that natural catastrophe. They are all over, maybe Allah let that happen so we will know that there are Muslims in communist Russia because that came in the national media. Prime time. Americans saw for the first time that there are a community of Muslims in communist Russia, so who knows what is G-d's great plan.
For me, Allah is more than revealing something, he's establishing a tool that we can pick up, a rule, a law, a great insight into the nature, order, and behavior of human being that we can use. We can pick up that knowledge and use it and apply it to situations in our life, in our community and apply it in such a way that it brings the society back on their feet again.
We know the conditions of the people in Miami. How African Americans, our race, is fairing so poorly in Miami, Florida. Newcomers that have much less experience than we do in America are able to succeed financially where we're failing. The problem is hurting because many of us think that the answer is no more to go to the White House, or to go to our congressman and our senators and try to get them to pass legislation to favor us, so that we won't have to deal with the matter alone, by ourselves, but we'll have the country and the law and legislation favoring us.
We should have a law that these Cubans, these Haitians, they can't come in here and do this. Now we know some of them, it is true that some of them have received assistance, but we are too quick to make judgment. Many of those people your government is obligated to give them assistance, because of our commitment as a nation to help not only our citizens but any victims of oppression if we can.
Any people who want democracy and are being denied that democracy, there is a commitment of our nation and the people of this country to help them if we can. Now, we know that there is also a commitment to the citizen that have been discriminated against and that we have received help. We've received much help in terms of public assistance, funding of programs by the people of this country and don't think when the government, we say to government fund this. No. The the people fund this. That money comes from us from all of us.
Sometime it comes from the people of medium means, of average means more than it comes from those of great means. Depends upon your ingenuity as a businessperson and a taxpayer. If your ingenuity is higher than the man down there you may be paying less taxes than him, and your money is so many many times greater than his. Don't think that we say the government is going to pay for this, no, the people pay for it. The government is the instrument but the people pay for it. We know we have received finances and funding our finances and favoritism. It was a justly due favoritism because of what the circumstances were behind us, because of what the conditions were upon us. Now that the circumstances of slavery, the circumstances of discrimination, the circumstances of the Jim Crow days are behind us. The circumstances of a law favoring others and denying us, that's behind us. If you can prove that any law discriminates against you because of your color, because of your race, that law can be challenged in America now today and successfully change.
Yes, these are the conditions not to say that there are not many many African Americans, and we have to understand that there are many many non-African Americans whose situation in this country require serious attention of this society. The serious attention of this society. Don't you demand a treatment of your problem, and reject any other treatment that's offered while you are not in a position to be an authority equal to authorities that are suggesting other remedies.
There are other authorities suggesting remedy. Most of our people we are crying like babies. We want the remedy that our pains say bring, The pains say bring me the milk in the bottle without the nipple on it, or with it. Bring it now I can't wait. That's what the pain is saying. Bring the bottle. I have to have some milk. We don't have a nipple and your teeth have bitten a hole through the last one. You said, "No, but bring it without a nipple then." They say, "Well, the last bottle you spilled the milk. You lost all the milk."
I'm saying this, that yes many of us still need special attention from this society. The greater need now is not for special attention coming from the society at large. The greatest need now is for attention coming from us to our own selves and that's why we're here.
[applause]
Abdul Kareem: My name is Abdul Kareem Hassan. I'm the Imam of Masjid Bilal in Los Angeles, California. We have a very ambitious program there that we are attempting and our program is to develop a Masjid, a school, housing unit, and a business complex. In 1973, Allah blessed us to be able to purchase a piece of property in South Central Los Angeles, as a matter of fact about two miles from downtown Los Angeles in a very prime location. It has grown to about an acre and a half we own just about a block there.
We are attempting to build on this location in accordance with the or with the redevelopment agency in Los Angeles. Our complex that would provide housing for Muslims, business for Muslims and non-Muslims and also the proper places that we can buy and purchase Muslim foods such as Halal Muslim food. In this project we will have a community center where the people in the area, in the neighborhood, could come to this community center have their political meetings there, have their community meetings there, have their civic meetings there and just socialize and enjoy one another regardless of what they believe or whether they are Muslim or non-Muslim.
The idea is to have a community relation with the people in the community and further that social togetherness between those people that are living there. We are there in the community we're going to stay there in the community, Inshallah. We hope that all of the people that sympathize with what we stand for, for what we stand for the same thing that they stand for, will come in and help us provide this type of facility for themselves and for their children in the future.
Hon. Imam W. D. Mohammed: Our religion tells us that Allah has given us the models, the great models human model we call prophets and messengers. Not that we should think them to be a different creation from us, they're the same kind of creation we are. Some religions, I think unintentionally, the way they present the prophets, the messengers of Allah, they give the picture that they are a different specimen. They are a different creation from us.
Allah wants us to know that, no, his prophets and messengers are the same creation as you. If you are not the same as them it's because you have not yet come into what Allah designed for you in your creation. It doesn't mean you're going to become a prophet. No, but you'll be going to become the great human model that Allah presents to us in his prophets or his messengers, the great human model. I'm talking about the prophets in their essential human makeup. The prophets in their essential human makeup are models. They're signals signaling us to grow and mature into this excellence. That G-d intended this excellence for you.
We know that the final revelation came through Muhammad the prophet, the last of the prophets. It is said in that revelation of him, that he is an excellent model of conduct for any who believes in Allah, believes in G-d and the last day. We see him as a full rounded, fully established human personality. Spiritually sensitive, spiritually productive. Socially sensitive, socially productive. Financially sensitive, financially productive. Politically sensitive, politically productive. Academically sensitive, academically productive and on and on we could go. Not only that, militarily sensitive, militarily successful and we can go on and on.
He says for any who believe in Allah and in the last day, we will find in him the most excellent model for human conduct. Human conduct then includes political behavior, social behavior, every kind of essential activity, there is in the world for a human being that includes you human. We should choose to speak on human salvation because human salvation is the inclusive salvation; whereas political salvation might leave us still on the bottom. Don't you know you can become president of these United States and your lot can still be second-class or no class.
One man in the White House is not going to pull everybody up that's outside who are members of his family. The law does not operate that way. The nation won't accept that. There are presidents and senators who lost their children to narcotic use recently in our history. There's no guarantee that if a member of the race or a member of the family go to the highest position in the United States, that everything's going to be alright for us, no, things can become even worse for us depending on how we act down here and out here and all over this United States.
We need something to sensitize us all over this United States, to bring about more common sense and more appreciation for good common sense and more good common sense behavior on our part. That's what we need most of all. Yes, so the model. We need the model of the prophets, the human model. You may read what I'm saying this way, Allah use prophets present them to us in their human excellence to invite us to come a little closer to our own measure of excellence that all of us have in our human makeup. Yes, He wants us to grow. Allah says He has created you as a plant. He has created you to grow. To grow to what? To grow to your excellence. The prophet says that Allah prescribed excellence for everything. Excellence for everything. A prophet says it's of Allah. Another thing of the prophet peace be upon him from Muhammad I'm talking about is this.
Whenever a believer endeavors to do anything. Whenever the believer endeavors or starts to do anything, He seeks to perfect it. Look how much that will help us. We need more excellence in the schools. We need something to motivate our children, to make them want to perform better, to make them want to perform more excellently. I've just offered you something that is great if they'll accept that.
The Lord creator of them. Don't you know no relative is closer to you than Allah? No relative is closer to you than Allah. If this produce this in terms of the generation, this yesterday produce this of today. After a while we go way down the line, we go way down the line. Time is this long time, years have past. We say this 50 years ago, produced this of today. Tell me which is closer, that that produced something 50 years ago and it had been going down generations. It's further away so it's not as close to that that produce it today right? The parent that had the child today is closer to that child it had today. Then parent in their family line back 50 or 100 years ago closer to the one today. Now, Allah is the one that produced you first and there is nothing between. No one came in between and reproduce you to make a distance between Him and you. He produced you first and nothing between Him and that to make you a distance from Him.
The relative 400 years ago is way away from me today and the relative today is so much closer, right? But, in our relationship with Allah, He produced you in a marvelous and miraculous way. He created you. He is your creator. He is responsible for you in every detail of your being. He's responsible for not only making you physically, He's responsible for making you psychologically. He's responsible for making you sentimentally. He's responsible for creating your affections.
If you come into your affections in an excellent way, you will have the same affectionate nature that Allah gave you in Adam. Allah has created something that must operate in a definite way if it expects to be successful. If you get the knowledge of how your creator or how creation exists, survive, succeed, then you got the knowledge of how to save. You've got the knowledge of how to save.
If you know what accounts for the good state of a created thing and you know what is necessary to promote the existence of that thing, then you can save that thing. If you got that knowledge, you got the help that only Allah gave. Allah gave that help. Nobody else designed the created order. Nobody else gave the creation its nature. Nobody else decided how creation must exist and how it must advance. Allah did all of that. If you've got that knowledge, then you got that from Allah. That's help from Allah. You need Allah's help.
I know some of you didn't think that I was going to come that way. That's the way to come for common sense. If you want to be successful with that knowledge, now I'm going to come from where you come from. You must also have faith in Allah. You must have love and faith in Allah.
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Our religion is stated in terms of principles of faith and principles of action, of principles of belief and principles of practice. The principles of faith, first of all, faith in the created the Lord the creator of everything. As you know the Quranic term for G-d is Allah, so the first principle of faith is belief and faith in G-d. Faith in Allah, faith in His prophets, His messengers and prophets. Faith in revelations that were given to them that is the Holy Books.
Faith and also in the hereafter. A belief that this life is not all. That after we have departed from this life, G-d who created us will give us also a new creation and a new life. Belief in the judgment that we're accountable to this Lord of the heavens and the earth. This one Lord who created everything and be accountable to Him. We have to answer for our conduct in our life. We expect that there will be a judgment. If we have lived a good life, that we will earn the reward of paradise and that is heaven.
Life of eternal fulfillment joy and fulfillment of our soul's desires. There is a belief also in the law that G-d has made when He created everything. There's a universal law that rewards and punishes. We believe in the [Arabic Language] that the potential for good and harm is the creation of G-d. When we exercise our will without respect for things in life and in creation that should be respected, we get the bad consequences of the [Arabic language] of that law, the divine law of G-d.
When we respect that, we get the good benefits. That is essentially the statement of belief. For our practices, we have the five simple statements. When I say simple, not that they are not complex in the study of these principles but, in the practical use of these principles. They're very simple, they're very easy. In fact, our religion as you know is characterized by simplicity.
The first of these principles is, to believe that there is one G-d for everybody and everything that G-d is one. To believe that the same G-d makes man a messenger to men. Makes a human being a messenger to other human beings. The prophet Muhammad peace and blessing be on him is the last of G-d's prophets. We say in the statement of declaration ash-hadu alla ilaha illallahI witness that there is no G-d except the G-d, except Allah. Wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadar-Rasulullah. I witness that Muhammad is not a G-d, Muhammad is a messenger of G-d.
The second of these is to a prayer, to pray. We pray five times daily. The steps of prayer began with the standing as called the iqama standing and facing the house built by Abraham. The holy house, the sacred house built by prophet Abraham and Ismael his son Ismael in Mecca, in sacred Mecca. We raise our hands to the ears saying, "Allahu Akbar” G-d is greater, Allah is the greater, or Allah is the greatest. We begin reciting if we are leading ourselves in prayer. Saying prayer along, we begin reciting. If you're following the Imam we say, I begin my prayer, we name the prayer. Our religion requires that we be conscious of everything we're doing in this devotional exercises. We say I do my-- We have to names a specific prayer. If it's the Morning Prayer, you say I do my morning prayer. My fajr prayer, two rakahs, two sections. Two for G-d, for Allah, Lord of the world. Yes. And if you're following someone, the Imam you say, following the Imam and then facing the Kaaba, you say it. 
You have to say this, facing the Kaaba and you raise your hands up after the Imam saying, Allahu Akbar. But if you're leading yourself, you will leave out following the Imam, and you would just say, "I do this two rakat, two sections of prayer, of the morning prayer for Allah, Lord of all the worlds, facing the Kaaba and then you raise your hands saying, Allahu Akbar and you begin reciting the revelation Qur'an beginning with the opening Chapter Al Fatiha and a small portion of the Qur'an, a minimum of about three verses, small, it would be very small verses but a minimum of about three verses and then we bow down in what is called the ruku of iqama we begin with the standing iqama and then we go down into what is called ruku‘ bending our backs and placing our hands and at our knees and saying as we go down, Allahu Akbar and in that position, we hold that position for just a moment and we say "Glory to Allah the mightiest three times and we come back up to this, we call the standing position. Saying "Allah hears whoever praises him. 
Allah, he is whoever praises him." And then immediately going down, saying "Allahu Akbar, Allah is the greater" to the floor for Sajda. This is the third position in this procedure. The best position, the Prophet has told us, peace be upon him. The sajda position, with our forehead, nose, and palms, knees, and the front of the feet on the ground and then that position we say [Arabic language] glory be to G-d the most high. Whereas, in the position of ruku‘ with our hands on our knees, we said, "Glory be to G-d, to Allah, the mightiest." And we say that also three times, in the position of sajda and we come up on the floor to a sitting position being very conscious of the disciplines of this position, the discipline of prayer and in this position as we're coming up we say Allahu Akbar, Allah is the greatest and in the sitting position we say "Allah, [Arabic language], Allah, pardon us and have mercy on us." And immediately, go back down to the floor sajda and repeat that and then rise from the floor for the second section after the prayer.
The Morning Prayer, fajr only have two sections. So you repeat that, and when sitting again, you will say Ash-hadu alla ilaha illallah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadar-Rasulullah" "I witness that there is Allah, one Allah and that Muhammad is his servant and his messenger." There is more that we say but that's the essential. That's the most important part that we have to say in that position.
That is followed by [Arabic language] the prayer of Abraham. [Arabic language]. In English, Oh Allah, make Muhammad successful as you made Abraham successful and the followers of Muhammad as you made the followers of Abraham successful. Bless Muhammad and his followers, as you blessed Abraham and his followers. That concludes it. We turn then to the right saying [Arabic language] Peace be on you and the mercy of Allah. [Arabic language] Peace be on you and the mercy of Allah.
Why I have had taken this time to go into the essential details of prayer. Salah. It is because of the five pillars of our faith. Our prophet, peace be upon him, had said, that the religion is like a tent, has four posts and a center post. The center post La ilaha illallah, The belief in, pure belief in the one G-d. And, however, the other four essentials of the prayer, they represent the base, the support there, the base support there. And of these prayer, is the one that is most obvious in life the of Muslim. Because it requires that daily, we do something, we go through physical steps. Daily, at specific times. Five times a day.
It requires that we meet and as congregation, meet in congregation and follow the Imam in prayer. At least, at Jumu'ah time. But in most Muslim societies, the masjids are available and Imams are available, so they meet in congregational prayer at Masjids or at some location daily. We encourage our people in United States we're a small minority in this country as you know and the system doesn't accommodate the Islamic system of life, daily life, but we still encourage Muslims to try to find time to have congregation prayer. If there is more than two of them working at any location, if they can get their boss to agree to it, to allow it without having to lose a job or cause themselves any terrible inconvenience or discomfort or loss of income to the family.
Then they should try to find time to pray in group. We don't have to pray in a mosque. It's nice to pray in a mosque. It's preferable to pray in a mosque if we have that nice environment. But we could pray at any location, Allah says, in our holy book that the earth is his mosque and [Arabic language] the earth is the mosque of G-d or the Masjid of G-d. I have put more time on this particular pillar in our religion. Essential principle in our religion of practice.
Because, it represents for Muslims, the daily unity, daily demonstration of the unity of all Muslims on this earth. The international body of  Muslim. We're all at this specific time doing the same thing on this earth directed towards the same center, the same qiblah, the same center and going through the same steps and saying essentially the same thing. So this is the greatest demonstration in our life of unity, of singleness of purpose as a religious community as an international religious community. After prayer, for first, the open public acknowledgment that there's but one G-d and Muhammad is the messenger of G-d.
Then, prayer, that really gives the picture of Muslims. When we think of Muslim's life, we must think of prayer, because as I said that is the devotional exercise that is most visible and it is done physically, and that's why it's most visible it involves all Muslims at specific times during the day. Five times during the day. When we were given the steps of prayer, we should have mentioned that when we go from the standing position to ruku' that the hands placed on the knees, we say "Allah Akbar". In fact, at every step downward, we say Allahu Akbar and every step coming back up, we say "Allah Akbar" except when we come up from the knees in the ruku' we say "[Arabic language]" Allah hears whoever praises him. Now, we mentioned that there are other steps, three others, three other steps to complete the five. Of these, the Prophet said, peace be upon him. [Arabic language]. The religion of Islam is built upon five essentials or five principles and he went on to name these. We are continuing these principles to present these principles, we have charity, the principle of charity zakat is charity and it is also something that is practiced, we have to do it, we have to do charity and practice. You have to do something physically, you have to go into your resources, into your monies and give an annual percentage into charity, zakat. Then, Muslims have to support all of their institutions, all of their essential important-- Very important concerns and we go into our money, and we take down something, and we give it. When we give, we have to understand that though we are spending on our own needs, and spending for our own benefits, that this spending as every other devotion in our religion is for Allah.
Allah says that, "Spend in the way of Allah, spend in the path of Allah, spend with your persons and with your wealth and with your possessions, you see your wealth." Many of us have very small material means, very small amounts of money, almost nothing. We should give if there's-- The spirit of charity should be in all of us, no matter how small our means are. It helps us by giving, - something happens to us internally. It makes us feel better, it makes us stronger, it puts us in a better situation to earn money or to find opportunity, and to do more.
Some people will say charity is for the poor. Certainly, there’s allocation for the poor from charities. We don't want poor people to think now that charity is for the poor and poor are to depend upon charity. Allah says that all of us are poor and who knows what circumstances will happen suddenly, and bring the rich man to the same state that the poor man is in. "The best riches is the riches of the soul." Prophet Mohammed said. He said, "The best riches is the riches of the soul.
When a person is rich in human qualities, rich in virtues, that is the best richness. One who has no money, should not really think of himself as being hopeless, and has to be dependent upon everybody else. That position should be one that he tolerates no longer than it takes him to do better. We encourage people to keep the spirit of charity in them, no matter what their material circumstances are. Also, we have to understand that the Prophet has said, that the hand like this, (giving position) is better than the hand like that.(receiving position).
Congregant: The one that's giving is better than the one that's receiving.
Hon. Imam W. D. Mohammed: Yes, that's right. The hand like this, is better than the hand like that. Charity is a very important pillar and this is-- It would take a whole segment to just discuss charity. We have to go quickly from this now, to move on to fasting. Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan. It was the habit of the Prophet to fast at other times too. That's not really an obligation on us. We're not obligated to fast two or three days at the end of each month, or 10 days during the month following the Ramadan.
Although, the prophet just had the habit of fasting more. It's good, Muslim free, they can fast but we don't want to be extreme extremists. The prophet dis-encourage persons just fasting continuously or fasting all the time. We don't want to leave the real world of human responsibilities. I caution people when it comes to this. I know some people they want to just fast, fast, fast, and many times they think they're doing it for Allah but sometimes -- I've met a few, I think they were doing it for a really sleek look. They want to look really good.
Fasting is very important and it teaches us restraint. Most-- The most important benefit of fasting is restraint, discipline, restraint. Checking the wild passions, the strength to check your wild passions for the sake of G-d firstly, but also, for the benefit of a decent human society. If we let these passions go unchecked, we'll have nothing but a savage environment for man. Lastly, we have Hajj. Hajj is again, a pillar of our faith that focus Muslim unity, International Muslim unity. Once a year, those who are able, who have the means, are to go to holy sacred Mecca. We call it that because of those sacred precincts  there.
The Kaaba, the holy house, the first house, built for the worship of G-d by Abraham and his son Ismail, peace be upon them. We go and we visit that house, and there are specific steps or procedures, beginning with the intention again. Everything in our religion begins with intention. We have to be conscious of what we're going to do or what we are doing. These devotions require conscious acknowledgment or conscious acknowledgment of them. We say, "I planned to do Hajj to Mecca, to the Kaaba, to the holy house and we ask Allah to accept that, that please accept it of us."
We do this too for Allah but who gets the benefit? We get the benefit. Allah says, what you offer him doesn't go up-- Nothing goes up there to him except your respect, your regardfulness, your taqwa, your piety etcetera. We have briefly gone over the five essentials of Prayer and these represent the structure for our Islamic life. If we were like the sea, what house we live in, what structure we have for our life, we have to see and understand these five principles of practice that Muhammad said, I repeat, [foreign language]. "The religion of Al-Islam is built upon five essentials."
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Imam Faheem Shuaibe: [foreign language]. That is with the name Allah most gracious, most merciful. I will bear testimony without any embarrassment, that there is no G-d but Allah. I bear open testimony without any embarrassment that Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah. Brothers and sisters, and our viewing audience, I'm Imam Faheem Shuaibe. I'm the resident Imam of Masjid of Waritheen in Oakland, California. We’re located at 1652 47th Avenue. We are inviting you that whenever you are in Northern California, if you within the driving or anywhere in California, is only an hour from one place to the other.
Even if you can fly into Northern California and see us at our complex. We have a beautiful complex and includes a Masjid or Masala. The place where we make prayer and have our jumah services, we have a very beautiful cultural center complex. Also, we have a school for our elementary and secondary students. We have our services every Friday midday and every Sunday.
Monday, we have the Taaleem classes, which are classes where you can learn more about the religion. Our perspective on social and cultural concerns of today. We are certainly happy to have this opportunity to invite you. We hope you take us up with our invitation to come and see us at 1652 47th Avenue in Oakland. If you need directions call 415 436 7755. Thank you, Asaalam Alaikum.
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Hon. Imam W. D. Mohammed: I will begin by saying faith is a condition that makes possible positive things to happen, good things to happen in our lives, good things to happen in our life. The absence of faith is distrust. I have faith, if I don't have faith then I have distrust. Distrust is good when it's called for. There are many things we should distrust. Like some people who get so holy, they think they can jump off a building. Well, I distrust that power. Distrust is good but when it's justly called-- Only when it's justly called for.
Just like how in our religion, we are permitted to be suspicious. Although, G-d tells us that some suspicion is sin. Some suspicion is sin. Nevertheless we are permitted to be suspicious because some situations justify us being suspicious. Being suspicious. Just like when you go into all European American neighborhood. You've never been in that neighborhood before. Well, you're going to be cautious. If you are intelligent. You're going to be more cautious than you were around your neighborhood. You're going to be a little bit more cautious. You'll be suspicious of the possibilities. 
Those are circumstances that justify you being a little cautious, a little suspicious. Having a little less sense of security. Being a little less trustful of the circumstances, you have certainly found yourself in. These are natural. In fact, we cannot think of anything that is natural for a human being, that is not approved in our holy book. Whatever is natural for human being, is approved in our holy book. It's natural to hate. I know some people say, "If you are a religious person - if you are really a sincere servant of G-d, how can you hate anybody." It's a human nature to hate certain people. Hate is just a strong dislike. That's all it is.
Hate is strong dislike. They're certain people because of their behavior, and because of their treatment to you, or treatment to some of your loved ones, you naturally hate them. You would hate them until you see something in them to make you believe that now, "I can stop hating them. Or now, it is not a real reason anymore for me to hate them." If you are that person that can forgive, you will start to hate them less. I used to have a problem with the Christian religion. I heard they say that, "You ain't supposed to hate nobody. You ain't supposed to hate." I heard that. I had a problem with that. Even when I was young, still in my teens, I had a problem with that.
I heard my father once said that there is a writing in the bible that says that, "There were two brothers and G-d loved one, and hated the other." I said to myself, "If that's true and the Christians know that, how can they say you ain't supposed to hate nobody? When G-d himself hated one brother and loved the other?" I just couldn't manage that. I still, as much as religion has really grown in me, and I thank Allah, sometimes I have to put a check on myself so I won't slip out of this body as some angelic form and leaves it all, or lose it all. I've really grown a lot, in a virtuous way, and peaceful, and humble way. I still hate. There's some things I still hate.
Some people, I don't hate them as a person, I hate what's in them. Maybe that's what the Christian mean. Maybe they mean that we shouldn't hate the person, we should only hate whatever is in them that's causing the problem. That's right. That's right, I hate the way they think. I hate the way they reason. I hate the way they feel. I hate the way they express their feelings. Or, it is I'm going on and on, tell you what I hate. That's enough for that.
Now, getting back to a situation that is best for us. Best situation for us, is first of all, a situation where we can have faith. Faith. Without faith, you can't accomplish anything. If you don't have faith in yourself, you can't accomplish anything. If you don't have faith in something outside of yourself, you can't accomplish anything. You don't have faith in your family, you can't have a good family. You got to have faith in something in order to-- Even when your family just appear to be a total loss. Often time, you will find certain people still with their family, loving their family, doing for their family.
They know the family and its appearance, a total loss. Why? They have faith. They have faith in the family. They have faith in the family or they have faith in a principle. Faith in a principle. They have faith that, "If I continue to present myself in a decent way, if I still continue to keep my life, my decent life, maybe that we'll one day bring them back or influence them to come around." They have faith in something. You have to have faith in something. You don't have faith in anything, is no way to survive. When Allah created everything-- Now, I'm going to the idea that we in our true nature, true character, true makeup, we are people in a good situation. We are people of faith.
When Allah created everything, the creation, it said in the traditional sayings of our prophet, (peace and blessed be will be upon Muhammad), that he showed the angel Jibril or Gabriel, his creation. The great angel Jibril or Gabriel, he said, "My Lord, Oh my Lord, how can anyone go wrong, go astray in such a wonderful creation?" Then, Allah showed him the creation after the creation had been altered, affected, influenced by the Satan, the devil, the Satan. The response from the angel Jibril was, "Oh my Lord, how can anyone go straight in such a creation?" That tells us something.
I will go now directly to it when Prophet Muhammad, with the saying of the prophet, "Peace and blessed be upon him." That, everyone is born a Muslim. It is the circumstances that they put in, that make them Jew, Christian or other. Science as you know, points to two conditions as being responsible for forming us. One is our genetic makeup. What we have inherited genetically from our parents and from those behind us. The other is, the environment. This is science, western science. I would say, it is universal. Science, wherever you find it, will say that is true. Basically or essentially, there are two circumstances accounting for what we are, the condition that we have internally.
The genes of our parents and the environment that we so happened to be in. I don't know how many of us will be concerned to work for the better genetic outcome of our life? According to science, it will make good sense even to work for the better genetic outcome of our lives. That is by seeking a person of good nature, of good behavior, of good reputation, of good mind, to mate with. So that the likelihood of the child being good and what you would like, will be improved a little bit, you see. It would be not only scientifically backwards but it would ignorant of a common sensed person to knowingly go and pick some trash, some junk, some filth. A wreck from the society and mate with them, and have children.
Now, I know some religious people they're so tender hearted, even this hurts them. Some of you might be sniffing a little bit now. While you're the ones should be left with those wrecks of society. You can have them. I think a sensible man and sensible woman, should be looking for someone with a genetic makeup, with a natural makeup that will most likely account for a better generation. Who will account for a better generation. Don't just go out there picking somebody. Don't you know our religion tell us do not pick a mate out of lust, out of sexual drive. You can not pick a mate because of sexual desire. No that can't be- there is no foundation-- There's no grounds, no justification for taking a meeting in to marriage. We marry but if that is the main motivation then that marriage is not respected if sex is the main motivation.
If sex is not the main motivation, what should be the main motivation? It should be decency, qualities in that person. That will make for a good mother, a good husband, a good father, you see. We should be looking for that. The qualities there that'll make the home, that'll contribute to a life in the home being good and being better. Each generation should seek to improve the generation behind us, whatever good they did, it should be a challenge to us to do better.
I should want my family to be better than my father's family. All around, in terms of virtuous life, in terms of education, in terms of material success, whatever. I should want my family to be better. That's how we should be motivated. Now, we've come upon a word that's very important to faith, - motivation. We find that the conditions we have today, in spite of very-- I would say, very, very excellent conditions, we have the worst of conditions, right along with those very, very excellent conditions.
There is a professor, school teacher, and instructor, in fact he was a principal of our school. I call him Professor. His name is Yusuf Salim, who now teaches in Washington DC. That's his home, I believe. The home of him and his wife. Both of them are educated sister, Mariam Salim, his wife and brother, Yusuf Salim. He spoke in my absence at an educational meeting, in Richmond Virginia, here recently. One of the things he said in his talk, it caught my attention for my address today because it goes along with what I'm going to say today.
He said, "Right in the midst of advancement, is stagnation, right in the midst of advancement, is stagnation." We know what stagnation is. Stagnation, it means nothing is happening, nothing is going forward, nothing is improving, everything is just held in a bad situation, can't get started, that's stagnation, can't get started that's stagnation. Right in the midst, he says of advancement, of progress. I would say, astounding advancement, astounding, amazing progress. When we look at this time that we’re living in 1989, and look at the achievements of man, in terms of education, science, technology, modernization of towns, and transportation, and all that.
We live in an amazing, an amazingly progress time. It's surprising how much progress we had in our lives today, in our environment today. Right in this environment, that is so advanced, in scientific terms, in material terms, in technological terms, and in so many other ways. We have this absence of motivation, absence of excitement in the life of our people in these big cities, and many times in the small towns. We have this absence of enthusiasm, no enthusiasm. I have looked at it and brought it down to the smallest factor. I find that, at the base of all of this, is a loss of faith.
I can see just how it has all come about. First, religion was  treated in a way to make the public play down its sacredness. I'll go back to maybe 25 years ago or so. When a headline appeared in one of the popular magazines and I was so shocked by it at that time. I was believing in the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, believing in his way of presenting the religion.
I was believing in his Trinitarian idea of G-d. That is, I believed the manifestation of G-d, was a man his teacher called Fard, W. F Muhammad, Wallace Fard Muhammad, W. D. Fard. I was believing in that. When I saw that headline, it angered me that anyone would let anything be published in any kind of civilized society that believes in religion. This is a religious society. America is a Christian country with many other strong religious communities in it, Jews and others.
It bothered me that magazine could come out like that, with a big caption on it saying, "G-d is dead." Now, we know the magazine wasn't actually saying, "G-d is dead." The article actually wasn't saying that, "G-d is dead." The writer was not actually saying, "G-d is dead." What the writer was saying is that, he sensed a growing disinterest in American society, in western society for the kind of respect we give G-d or we should give G-d.
That really was the message he was trying to come to. I believe maybe he had good intentions to try to shock the American people to say, "Look, we are a Christian country but in our country, G-d is dead."
But many times we can be motivated and intentions will be good, but if the rational tools are not working properly, we can make a big boo-boo-- Excuse me, goof, mess up. We can make a big mess up. As a young child, believing in what the Hon. Elijah Muhammad taught of religion. I had the rational alertness to see right away, that that thing was doing more harm than it possibly can do good, because you have many people that masses up people. Understand this too, that Allah in telling us about the good people in the religion-- Those who we can trust to carry responsibility. He says, "They are in the few." How does he say it? "Most of them are not." Most of them are not. Talking about people in general. Most of the people are not.
Not what? Not the ones that you find in the forefront, not the ones that you can give responsibility to for the religion, for good behavior, for the good future and good security of the town. You can't give them that. Most of them are careless in their life, most of them too relaxed in their life, most of them are not disciplined enough. Most of them are kind of foolish minded. It is true today. When you go downtown to a movie or to whatever, most of the people in the crowds, would you say they're responsible? Unless, you go to a special place that’s attracting intellectuals, attracting better minds and better caliber of the people, you know you will say, "Most of them can't be trusted."
Many times, if you got little money on you, you keep your hand in that pocket. You're afraid to even take your hand out of that pocket. Whatever Allah said back then, 1400 years ago or more, is true today. That most of the people, they are just not the ones to trust with heavy responsibility. Our condition today, is worst perhaps in the history of America. Right now, the condition of people today in terms of being trust worthy, is worst perhaps in the whole history of America. I do believe that.
Yes, [coughs] now, we have to have a motivation, there has to be motivation. We need to have motivation, to be moved, to want to do something. If you don't have that motivation that tells me that the problem is the absence of faith. When attacked upon G-d, now-- I'm not saying it was an intentional attack upon G-d, but when that came out, I see the history of it now. From that point, more and more disrespect for the sacred things followed. When the movie-- What was it called? God? Oh, God! came out. There was a little shabby man that I like. I like him as an Artist, George Burns. That little shabby man, he's playing G-d. He's G-d. Then, behind that movie came another movie, with him, Oh, God! You Devil You. Can't you see-- Can't you see how they increase the dosage?
"Let's give them a dose of disrespect. They took that dose. Well, let's give them a stronger dose of disrespect." Along with this, is also something that developed, it would happen in the past, but it would be frowned upon, it wasn't approved, it wasn't made popular. The thing now, is made popular. This disrespect for Catholics, disrespect for the Catholic Church, disrespect for the Catholic priests, disrespect for the Catholic nuns, all in the movies, all in the society. This is a joke. Now, they even include it in commercials sometimes. A disrespect for a Catholic, why do they pick-- Why do they want the Catholic?
Because if they picked a Baptist or one of us, we are dressed just like everybody else. We don't say with our appearance that we are religious or the church people, or the mosque people, or G-d-fearing people. The people of the monasteries and of the-- What do you call? Nunneries, you know what I mean? Yes, yes, yes that's it. Yes, that is correct. Been so long since I've been in touch with that language. Yes, I was in touch with that language as a student of Christianity but now, I've been so long.
Yes, they readily identify them with religion-- By their dress pardon me, their looks, readily identify them with religion. While you were laughing at that person, they know that the same conscience that has to relax, to laugh at that person, is the conscience that has to also become alert. To respect what that person is connected with. If they can get you to relax and laugh at that person, subconsciously your G-d is dropping. Your discipline is relaxing. Then, they can bring, Oh, God! You Devil You. You will take that.
What am I getting at? There has been an intentional thing going on, to break down the foundations of faith. So that the majority of the public people, will have no strong foundations of faith. And a people who fear G-d, the best way to break down all of their supports of faith, is to get them to relax and take G-d lightly. Even for the non-church goer, for the person who doesn't frequent the synagogue or the mosque. Even for that person that thinks he's really outside of the church. In America, most likely, he's a G-d fearing person, if not today, at least 25 years ago.
I remember when I was a boy, it was almost impossible to find a person that wouldn't acknowledge G-d in America. Almost impossible. If they were communists and atheists, they were almost impossible to find especially in the African American community. With this thing consciously happening, now, it is hard to find a person truly consciously believing in G-d. Their belief is a belief like believing in, the numbers. It's something that they believe in but let's not talk about it too much. "Do you believe in the numbers?" "Yes, I believe in the numbers. Let's not talk about that right now." "Do you believe in G-d?" "Oh yes, I believe in G-d but let's not talk about that right now. That is uncomfortable."
How are we going to [unintelligible 01:25:40] with faith. If I'm correct now, that the big problem for the absence of enthusiasm in us to do positive and real things for our good life and progress, if the real problem is-- if the absence of-- For absence of enthusiasm, motivation, faith. The real problem, is the actual loss of faith itself, the loss of a foundation of faith itself in us, then, how are we going to go about bringing that back? We hear the call coming from what they call the far right. I don't think that's a justification. Not for many of the good things that's coming from the far right. They were not only coming from them, they were coming from us, long before they got the attention.
But, because of them having great wealth and European American identity, and such great numbers, and was so important to President Reagan, they got all the attention. Many of their basic kinds of virtues, the basic kind of thinking that have come to be associated with the far right, before-- Long before, they got that reputation, we were fighting and battling like the dickens. To get our people to come back to basics. Yes. We witnessed, I have many witnesses here and throughout this country. In fact, I have many witnesses for many things. I'm telling you. Over the time of my father and the time of myself, since 1975-- February 1975, many great things have happened.
Many great things have happened, to bring about a revitalization of the human life. Not only in our small circle but in the whole world, where it is needed. If only the message of what has been happening with us, among us, had gone out to the world. Yes. The power to bring light back to the world, is right in the story, if it's told in the right and true way. Is right in the story of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and myself. Yes. Right now, I'm rolling a thought over in my mind. I'm invited to join a summit of African American leaders, that's to be held in Louisiana. I'm rolling the thought over in my mind. I know some of you are saying, "How come you had to roll that on your mind, if you’re fortunate enough to be invited to the summit, you better get on down there."
No, I have to roll the thought over in my mind, because I recall that it was from us, that came the announcement that, "We are going to start a separate party and present a candidate from ourselves to run for the presidency of this United States." We were the first. Not that others didn't have the desire or have that aspiration, I'm sure they did. Not that others didn't say that in close quarters or in talk with each other, or at meetings, I'm sure they did. I'm sure they discussed the possibility of running an African American. I don't know of anyone coming and making a public announcement, as we did in Washington DC. Sometime after that, we had Jesse Jackson-- The Reverend Jesse Jackson running for the president of these United States.
Not only that, I can go on and go on-- I could talk for the next hour just on the first, that have come from us and picked up our side and called the first out there. For example, for about 30 years now, I have been preaching a new way of looking at Africa. About 30 years. I have been preaching a new way of looking at Africa. I have been preaching that the way we see Africa, even in so-called African American writings, is wrong. The name itself is not ours. The term Africa and African is not ours. It was put on us, to say that the black people are people just have nothing but a mind for sex. If you want a strong sex potent to make you strong sexually, then go to Africa, aphrodisiac. Yes, so I was aware of that and I couldn’t find no support for that name and true history of our people, but I found support coming from Europe. Scipio Africanus and others with name Africanus. They named the continent and then when they voyaged and went there and came back home, their people called them such and such person who's now connected with Africa because of his studies of the African people, mapping the continent for us. He's Scipio Africanus. The closes word I can find is that it happened to be an Arabic word. Ifrit and that means a big Jinn.
[laughter]
Another thing I learned that Africans do not call themselves Africans, - only when they're talking to non-Africans. They only call themselves Africans when they're talking to non-Africans. Not only Africa the big continent, but just look at a piece of it. We call the people of Northern Africa, there, - Egyptians. The people above the Sudan, we call them Egyptians. They don’t call each other Egyptians, they only say Egyptians when they're talking to people outside of them and who are from the West. They call themselves Mizri, Mizriun. For one, Mizri, for many, Mizriun. That’s what they call themselves.
If you look up in the Bible, the Bible will tell you that that part of the land was called Mizraim. And that’s the Jewish influenced language which identifies two Egypts. Mizraim, two Egypts and we know that Egypt was once two Egypts and they were combined under one Pharaoh at one time. Actually now, in a sense they are two Egypts, Sudan and Egypt. They once were under the same rule. Sudan and Egypt were once under one rule and once had an hair like mine, not quite as soft as mine. These are facts.
Now, I'm proud to say that the experiences I had in the Temple of Islam, that’s what they were first called the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s religion places were called Temples of Islam, - that I had that experience in Temple of Islam that made me, at least, alert-minded and curious to not just take things on face value especially coming from this world. Now the only problem that I have with that mind that I had back then was that it made me relaxed too much before the people that I believed in. That’s why I said, I don’t want you to saying yes to everything I say even if it's true. Every once in a while don’t say nothing, don’t say no to something true, that would be lying, but at least don’t say nothing. Just look at me.
[laughter]
Because back there whatever the temple said, - yes.
[laughter]
Yes. A Japanese made a ship on an island in Japan there, and that ship is going to be one of the ships that are used in the destruction of America. Yes. Japan losing the war. Yes. Atomic bomb falling on Japan. Yes. We weren’t situated to deal with that situation, but we were sure enough alert to the white man’s world. Everything he said, "Wait. No. No. No." If he just had to say yes, we say yes by just looking. That was our yes. We didn’t say no, that was our yes. That means, "I have to admit that I haven't got no comment." We need a situation in our life for faith, first of all.
Allah created everything to situate us in the best way to be a trusting people, to trust something. You have to trust something. The human being in his natural makeup is trustworthy. We’re not suspicious of our new babies when they come from the mother, who's suspicious of a new baby that come from the mother? Nobody. That baby is coming from the mother exactly as Allah created it. It has to wait a while. It's really fascinating life itself, the wonderful life Allah created, fascinating. They tell us in science that the child comes with an immunity. With immunity, isn’t that wonderful? Now, here we don’t have immunity, we’re big old grownup, we don’t have any immunity.
The thing gets in our mouth, we’re sick. The virus hit our nose, we’re sick. Baby come here with a natural immunity. Isn’t catching no disease, is going to be all right for at least, I think, six months, about six months. Six months, got a powerful immune system for six months. Now here’s a grownup America, immune system gone just like everybody got a bad case of the AIDS.
[Laughter]
I'm not talking about the physical immune system, I'm talking about the human immune system. You should have protection in you against things that tend to destroy your virtuous life, destroy your moral life, destroy your rational balance. We should have an immune system to deal with that. We have to have circumstances within to deal with circumstances without, and the most important thing I repeat, the need for faith, real faith. There was a time in this country when the masses, that is the majority of our people, and when I say our people, I would like to include all people in our circumstances, or in this particular picture that I'm addressing.
There was a time when the great majority of us were uncomfortable and not satisfied with what we were getting in this world, with what we were getting in America. But today, let’s be honest people, let’s be truthful about this. Today the great majority of African-Americans are satisfied with what they're getting from America, they're satisfied. Now, if you hear them complaining is because somebody is agitating out of their circle. Somebody out of their circle is agitating. A politician will get up and agitate and he will agitate and maybe he'll excite a certain number of the masses to join him in a complaint, but most of us, we don’t have any complaint.
We have lost the fine conscience of progressive-minded people. We have come now to the typical condition for man in the history of man, and that condition is that most of the time, it is only a minority that’s ready to do something to change conditions, not a majority. Always and most of the time a minority. We used to have the majority because the system had the majority of us in very bad condition, but now that there's plenty of food, what did Napoleon say? Napoleon said, "A well-fed army is an obedient army." Napoleon, the great general, great strategist, genius on the battlefield. He said that a well-fed army is an army you can trust.
What happens when bare necessities of life are made plentiful and then the society goes a little bit over that and give luxuries to his masses, what happens? The same thing happened to the masses that happened to Pompeii and many other great ancient nations and even nations less distant in the past. They are energetic, enthusiastic working people excited about tomorrow, excited about the future, excited about possibilities until they reach a point in their life in their progress as a civilized and materially advancing society that they have so many comforts, everything.
They don't have to want for food, they don't get hungry. They have all the convenience, they sleep in very comfortable beds, nice homes, got all the amusement they can dream of. Everything is just so easy for them. What happens? They lose the desire, the will to struggle. They lose the will to make real efforts and they start to depend upon the circumstances, and the circumstances happen to be favoring them just taking it easy. They start to depend upon circumstances and, in time, they grow soft, their muscles collapse. Not only the physical muscles collapse, but the internal muscles collapse, the muscles of the will collapse, the muscles of the moral life collapse.
When those things collapse, also the intellect, the muscles of intelligence, the muscles of reasoning also collapse. Pretty soon a nation that they used to just spank any time they wanted to become a threat. Today with America, it's not a threat from somebody that's holding a bigger gun, bigger material or a bigger artillery in that sense, but it's coming from yet from little people they used to spank. Little people like the Koreans, West Germany, Japan, all challenging America industrially and giving her a hard battle. Taking the lead in some respects from America.
Yes, why? What does industry say about this? What does the factory say about this? They say it is because human beings in America are no longer competent. You no longer can find real substance, human substance in the persons that's coming for the job. Why? A loss of faith. That's what I'm saying, that's what we believe. A loss of faith. I am saying it's the essentials of a human life, the essentials of human life, the essentials of a human life, virtuous life, rational life, ambitious life, enthusiastic spirit, industrial spirit. All of that has to come back, but it can't come back unless you have a basis of faith there in the people.
We need to be appealing to that small minority to come back to true faith and understand that faith is a great mesh, a great network. My faith in G-d is not isolated from my faith in my wife. G-d wants me to have faith in Him because he wants me to have a faithful relationship with my wife. He doesn't need me to have faith in Him to support Him, Allah says He needs nothing from us for Himself. Whatever He wants from us is for us, that's what He says. I'm quoting the holy book. He needs nothing from any of his creation for Himself, that's what Allah says, but He needs it in us for our own selves.
Faith in Allah is a power for us, it's a good situation for us. Now, if you go on a job and you're working for a business establishment, are you're going to an educational institution? You're going to be employed there, working there, or you just joined a project that's temporary. A temporary project just to do a job like folding chairs up and putting them back where they came from. You have to have some trust in that that initiated it. The person that's responsible for it. Somebody is going to say, "We have to get all these chairs and put them back where they belong. That was the condition of our contract."
If you don't have any respect for that person, then most likely we're not going to get the job done, if we do, we're going to have a lot of problem, but if you hear what that person says and respect that person, respect what they say, you trust them that, yes, he can be trusted in that responsibility or in that role that he has there, he can be trusted, so everything works well. If you are working in a business and you lose respect for the corporate bosses, that business will go down until something happen to bring up trust in the subordinates again for those that are over there.
Yes, so it is with life. Allah created all of this. You can call Allah by any name you want that's appropriate. Allah did all of this whether your rational mind or conscious mind is dealing with it or not, it is being digested by your soul, by your nervous system, and your soul. That reality is digested by your nervous system and your soul whether it's speaking in your conscious mind or not. Your nature, your soul, and your nervous system is aware that something is out of place, something is not connected, something is being overlooked, something is missing, and that something that's disturbing your spirit and your nervous system and your soul is your disrespect for number one.
You have number one, number two, number three. If you move some of those out of their place, something starts to be uneasy here, something starts to be not so comfortable here inside when you move something out of place. If there's one, two, three, four, five and you take three out of place and all each one are vital for the function of the five as a unit. Okay, something is disturbed, something is missing. You're going to feel some trouble here even if you don't know it consciously. Now if you take the most important one out of there, number one you take it out, you know you're in bad shape. That's just like having a car and you say, "I'm going to take the motor out and I'm going to drive."
[laughter]
That's the point, we a need a healthy, real, sensible appreciation for our creator we call Allah. We need a real healthy, sensible appreciation for Allah. We need to trust whatever made life possible for us, whatever made the universe and our life possible for us, we need to trust that. We say, Allah, you say whatever you want to say, we need to trust that. If we trust that, that is the condition for other supports. That is the condition for other supports. If you trust that then you're going to be sensitive to the need to trust other things that are deserving of your trust, like your wife, or your husband, or your mother, or your father, your guardian, your neighbor or whatever.
You're going to be sensitive to the need to trust other things that are deserving of trust or should be trusted. That's why the principles of faith begin with Allah, Iman Billah for Muslims. Iman Billah, we call it faith in Allah, but the word Iman and the word trust are together in the Quranic language and also in the Arabic language, they're together. From the same word we get faith, we also get trust. From the same word we get faith, we also get believe. From the same word we get faith, we also get safety. From the same word we get faith, we also get security. From the same word, so you see, we need faith.
Do you begin to see the bigger context now, is bigger circle coming in? Allah is the condition for the whole circle to have trust and faith between its necessary members. The necessary unit of a working society, our working group or even your working or your own self, don't you know you are a world in yourself? For the necessary working of the parts in your own world, there must be Allah to make it work well. You may say, "We don't have to have. Look what the communist did without G-d." Yes, and look what they're doing now because of that.
[laughter]
They're doing a lot of soul-searching now and it didn't take 1,000 years, did it? Their language is changing so much now until it sounds like it's coming from the Founding Fathers of America. So don't you be fooled anymore. You pay for disrespecting Allah. Allah says in the Holy Book that, "As long as they stay with me, I stay with them, but when they break from Me and turn away from Me, then I turn away from them." That's what Allah says and he says that when He turns away from you, and I'm giving my own words here, you suffer the greatest possible loss. I'm summing it up in my own language, you suffer the greatest possible loss.
Once an African, a man of African origin, but he was actually a Saudi Arabian, but he had lived in Africa since before his birth. I mean there's people that lived there since before his birth so he was Saudi Arabian by nationality. He told me he couldn't hardly speak English at all, but because I could understand some Arabic, we were able to understand each other. He told me, he said, "For everything we lose, there's something to compensate it." That's a good thing for us to know. Because I remember when I was a young man, I wish I had somebody to tell me that over and over again because I lost a pretty young girl that I've been telling you, I thought it was over for me.
I thought I was just going to die. If you had seen me stay up all night until the sun came up, you would say, "Yes, I think he going to die if he had nothing happen."
[laughter]
I needed somebody to tell me that then that for everything you lose there's something to compensate for it, but anyway, this Imam, the old too, he's an old man, he said, "For everything you lose, there's something to compensate for it except Allah." He said, "For Allah, you lose Allah there's nothing to compensate for it." If I had the time, I could go more into explaining the consequences of turning our backs or forgetting because of negligence. Because of negligence or blindness, just turning our backs and disrespecting Allah and losing faith and trust in Allah.
I can show you real cases in the history of societies and prove to you that no other factor stands out as an answer for that happening more so than their turning their backs on the Lord creator and disrespecting Him. Most of these churches have been turned into little places to support pimps, demagogues. They just say whatever the congregation wants them to say to keep getting the money or to stay popular with them. Yes, that's what is happening to most of the churches. No, I'm not saying we don't have fine churches, Chicago still has some very fine churches and very fine preachers. There are women and men, but this is the description of the lot of the churches in Chicago.
All you have to do is turn on the radio and listen to their sermons. Some of them I can't stand them for two seconds because I know what he's preaching for. He's not preaching for G-d, he's not preaching for Jesus, peace be upon Jesus. He's not preaching for Jesus, he's not preaching for G-d, he's not preaching for righteousness, he's preaching for a big offering or preaching to tear down another preacher, so he gets some of that preacher's offering. You know you can tell the state of a people just by turning on a radio and listening to the music in the church.
You want to see what is the state of the people in a town, go turn on their major stations for their music and their religion, and listen to them, and you'll get a good picture of the people in that town. When I do that, when I turn on and listen to the popular music and I listen to the popular preachers, I say, "Boy oh boy, we're still on State Street, next door to the junkyard."
[laughter]
I've invited you all over and over again in the name of respect if nothing else, come to Al-Islam, be a Muslim and don't let nothing resembling the fakes, the demagogues from the world out there to come up here and speak to you and you support it. Even though he says his name Mohammed Mohammed Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah. If he comes up here and he looks like that junk out there, don't support him. I associate, I have associates. I associate with Christian leaders and Jewish leaders. I even have some leaders in some religion that's not even on the (unclear), and I feel a strong common bond with them.
The common bond of real faith in Allah, they call Allah something else, but I feel the strong common bond with them of faith, real faith. I feel in them the common bond of human decency, so I share these two strong bonds with them. The bond of faith in our creator and the bond of faith in human decency. Because of that, I embrace them with the same love, with the same care and concern that I show to the Muslim here that I embrace, that I see in good Muslim image and good Muslim shape. Yes, and that's what we have to understand.
That is the most important thing that the content be right.
The content should be right, but I know for a fact that the majority of the people representing these religions to the public, not only not worth a nickel, they should be shot. They actually should be shot, that's right. Now, you know we don't shoot them in the civilized society especially not a democratic civilized society. In a democracy, you have more at your disposal to use than guns, and sticks, and knives, and stuff like that. You can beat them faster by just exposing them.
We're obligated to expose them and to call our people to something real, to something decent, to call them back to the strong values and supports that made for strength in us in the past and will make for strength in us in the present and in the future if you just come back to the strong, respectful life, decent minds, and decent hearts, true values. We have reorganized our own values. We're putting too much value on things that are very cheap and taking all the value off the things that are very expensive. That means very dear and very precious to human life. The most important thing, I repeat, is faith.
Faith is what accounts for a society having an immune system. When they lose faith, real faith, true faith, they lose their immune system and then all the other disease just take over. Thank you very much and we hope to talk to you again very soon at another occasion. We pray to G-d that He forgive us all our faults and sins and guide us to the right way, Amen. Asalaam Alaikum.
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Speaker: Imam W. D. Mohamed offers many publications and makes many personal appearances throughout the world in an effort to spread the truth of El-Islam as taught by the Holy Quran. If you'd like to support his efforts, send your contributions to Muslim American Community Assistance Fund, P. O. Box 1061 Calumet City, Illinois, 60409.
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