09/04/1994
IWDM Study Library
Islamic Convention
From Building a Nation to Building a Community 
Washington DC

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Praise to be to Allah. Thank you. Praise be to Allah. We say Al-Hamdu-Lillah in the Quranic Arabic who is Lord of all the worlds. Al-Hamdu-Lillahi Rabi Al-Alameen. We pray the prayers peace be upon the Prophet of Al-Islam, the prophet of Quran and the Prophet of Al-Islam who is given to us in the Quran as the last prophet from G-d and the seal of the prophets, who is also described by G-d in our holy book as a mercy to all people. A mercy to all the worlds.
We thank the lord of the universe who has no partner and no need for a partner with Him in the office of G-d. He is one and one alone. We thank him for our presence here. We thank Him for blessing us with this convention that has been very very impressive for me, and I'm sure for all of you. We thank Him for our wives, our mothers, grandmothers, fathers, and grandfathers and especially for these beautiful children that are in such great number here on this occasion of our 1994 Islamic convention.
We also must express our appreciation to our host city, the Muslim community under Imam Yusuf Saleem for its role in hosting this convention, and those who have joined them from the close by areas, Pennsylvania, Newark, Virginia and other places. We appreciate the great help that you have given sacrifices that you've made and most of all your sincere devotion to the interests that we all identify in.
We appreciate you very much and congratulate you for doing a wonderful job in Washington DC, the nation's capital. Thank you very much, I'm speaking for all of us. Al-Hamdu lillahi Rabi Al-Alameen.
We have a subject “from building a nation to building a community”. Now, that subject may strike your ear as a kind of this letdown for you who say, “Well, a nation is bigger than a community”. Well, let me tell you I know no nation on this earth that is bigger than the international community of Muslims. There's not a nation on this earth bigger in the numbers of people are bigger in significance than the international community of Muslims. We call the Ummah of Al Islam.
The Muslim community it is a community of nations a community of people believers, but also a community of Nations, community of governments, national governments. This community it incorporates everything that is vital or important to the life of human beings, this is Al-Islam, this is the Muslim community. I want to begin not by addressing the subject directly building nation, and building community.
I want to start by addressing Al-Islam. If Muslims are to be pictured as being distinctly different from other religious bodies or religious people or from other societies two images come to mind, and the first one that comes to my mind, is Muslims standing in prayer. Muslim standing in prayer that distinguish us when we stand in prayer, it distinguishes us from other societies from other religions, and other religions they recognize us and remember our picture as a group of people who stand together in prayer, who bow in prayer together, who put their nose and forehead on the ground with their hands and knees, and the toes touching the ground in prayer, sajda, as we call it.
We know the name for us in Al-Islam is Sajda, making Sajda, that is how they know us and rising back up from that position glorifying G-d, submitting and humbling ourselves to G-d and glorifying G-d, that is the picture that says to everybody these people are Muslims.
Another picture that readily identify us too as Muslims is our presence in the holy precincts of Mecca that is in Saudi Arabia. When we are there present at the house called the Ancient House or the most Ancient house or the Kaaba or the Masjid Al-haram, the sacred mosque. When we are there making pilgrimage or the visit, the picture of that tells everybody who we are.
There are some of us they say all they know we are by the way we dress, no they don't. The Turks dress don't dress like the Pakistanis, and we can go all the way around the world and show the differences in the way Muslims dress, now you see how I’m dress? I have this Western suit on, but the suit doesn't identify me as a Muslim. Some will say, "Well, we don't drink." A lot of them other people don't drink. "We don't eat pork." A lot of other people don't eat pork. "We don't commit adultery." Yes, you do, a lot of the people don't and do.
Prayer is most important for us. Our prophet said prayers and peace be on him, he said, "Never did a community fall before it gave up prayer." That's a sure way to fall as a community. When you give up praying to G-d, you fall. Now, what is the most important concern or meaning for prayer? Allah lets us know in His book, in the Quran, The Book of all Muslims, G-d says, "And establish prayer for My remembrance." Aqimus salah li’dhikri "And establish prayer for My remembrance." I can now say what the Prophet said and rephrase it, or say it in other words, in different words.
Never does a community fall until it forgets G-d. When it forgets G-d it falls. Sometimes, we don't see the fall in concrete change, the fall is in abstract change. When you look at the interior life of the human society, the interior life in the human society is the life within us, the life in our hearts, the life in our souls, the life in our hearts, the life in our spirit, our values, our sacred values. When we look at the interior life, in most of the world today, we see that the world the nations, the communities, they have fallen, they have fallen. But thank G-d there is a strong consciousness in the people that are regardful, and while the world has fallen and is still falling, it is also rising, it is also rising.
We see the strong rising while the weak are going down and the future belongs to the human beings who are true to the best of their human nature. The future belongs to the righteous, that's what we've been told by G-d in the scriptures, and that's what I see as a reality, as a proven reality.
Many things that I would like to say to you, but I'm going to move on with this. G-d says of the Muslim community, he says, "You are--" He speaks it to us in the plural, speaking to each and every one of us at that time and at all times to come. G-d says of us, “Antum khaira ummatan ukrijat lin nas”-"You are the best community brought out for the good of all people." Brought out for the good of all people. You are the best of communities or the best community brought out or evolved for the benefit for the good of all people.
If G-d has identified us in those terms then shouldn't that influence us, stimulate us, motivate us to have not just an interest in Muslims and where we are going, but also in an interest in mankind and where mankind is going or where the people all of them are going. When I speak this way sometimes I get frowns or expressions of disapproval. I mean on the faces of Muslims of the old world, as well as, on the faces of Muslims who came through experience with us so-called Nation of Islam or Black Muslim. I get these expressions on their face.
How come? Because most Muslims are really ignorant of their own religion. This our scholars are beginning to address some of them have known this for a long time, but now our scholars more and more the Islamic scholars are beginning to address the ignorance in Muslims regarding their own religion.
We have let Satan influence how we see our own religion. The only way we can get back to the correct picture of our religion and the correct understanding of our religion is to follow the Quran with an innocent, sincere heart and soul. But I repeat because I believe this with all my heart and soul. You are the best community evolved for the good of all people.
Now, you know that brings to mind something that a stranger said to us when he came among us I was I guess not even conceived yet, but I think about within a year of his presence among African-American people or black people of Detroit, Michigan. I began to form in the womb of my mother Clara of the loins of Elijah Muhammad who was called Elijah Poole before he met this stranger. The stranger introduced himself as W.F. Muhammad, Wali Fard Muhammad, and W.D. Fard.
This stranger he said something that I recalled while I was giving you what G-d said of all Muslims regardless of their color, regardless of the national place or national origin. G-d said that of all Muslims, "You are the best community evolved for the good of all people." Fard said, "I can stand on top the world and tell anyone that the most beautiful nation is in the wilderness of North America."
Sometimes I wonder now was he talking about the future beauty of the United States itself or about us the people he was addressing. He was a stranger you know, but I think he was saying or speaking in the same spirit in the same language that we have here from G-d. I think he was saying this, "You are not yet but you will be and what is happening to you upon that I can predict that you will be the most beautiful people in the wilderness of North America". You see? Or the most beautiful nation will be you in the wilderness of North America.
I think he was really speaking to the future. He was speaking a language that indicated the present, but really, he had a view on the future.
Maybe not now but you are. You know when I or anyone one of us that were born when we began to form in our mothers while we are forming you look at it, "Oh, that's no human being. That's nothing but a little germ there." But couldn't someone say with truth, "No, that's Wallace." Though, Wallace is not yet complete. They can say that is Wallace. Well, I think that's what he was doing.
He was looking at what had been germinated. He was seeing the end the future of that germination. And he said something that was not true exactly at the time for the eye that would view the viewer but for the people who would come later it is true because they would see the materialization of what he viewed in its infancy, or in its germs state, or in its fetal state. They would see it in its complete form in time.
So, he said, "I can stand on top of the world and tell anyone the most beautiful nation is in the wilderness of North America." Now, we just had a diplomat from Saudi Arabia. He used other words, but I think he gave us that same feeling, message and understanding. Khalil Al-Khalil, our honorable brother and a diplomat for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He said to us at the banquet, words of praise and he pointed to us as a very special group of Muslims. And I believe I can sum up what he said with words of Fard, "You are the most beautiful nation". I can stand on top of the world and tell anyone that the most beautiful nation is in the wilderness of North America. He referred us to the other nations,
even his own, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He didn't say anything derogatory or anything really negative or critical in a bad and ugly way of his own country. He should not do that especially when he's out of his country. I'm sure that he left us with the impression that the eyes of the Muslim intelligentsia of the world is not on Saudi Arabia, not on Egypt, not on Pakistan, not on Indonesia, not on Nigeria, not on any of those countries or any of those nations, their eyes are on us in America. Their lost found brother whose now have paid his own way out of the lost and found shop.

We're going to come to nation, but again let's look at our holy book the Quran. What holds us all together more than anything else? We can lose practically everything else, and as long as, we have this one thing in common we are all identified together. And that is our holy book the Quran, as long as, we say our authority, our life is our holy book called Quran by the west and Qur?n by those who understand the Muslim that the pronunciation Quran. As long as we had identified with that book and say, "That book is our book. It is the authority in my life. It is the authority in our life". Then we are all identified together.
Now, the members of the Nation of Islam, Minister Farrakhan and those with him. We have differences, we know that. Some of these differences are very serious and we know that, but, we have to acknowledge that when the world looks at us the see all of us as Muslims. We all identified together because thank G-d as we say Al-Hamdu-lillah Minister Farrakhan and his associates, his group, the members of his group, they still say themselves that the Quran is their book.
They haven't stop saying that. They say the Quran is their book. And we know the one who started us the same the Quran is our book was that stranger I mentioned a little while ago. W.F. Muhammad, Wali Fard Muhammad or W.D. Fard, Wallace D. Fard. Do you know that was his name Wallace D. Fard, that was his name? That's one of the names he gave Wallace D. Fard and W.D. Fard. W is for Wali and W is for Wallace. The D none of you can tell me what it's for. It's a mystery still on you and a more of a mystery on me because he gave me this name through my parents. My name is Wallace D. Mohammed on my birth certificate, Wallace D. Mohammed. I tried to get that mystery on for me. I asked my mother I said, "Mama, what does the D mean?". She said, "Son, I don't know".

She said ask your father. Maybe you should ask your father. I've got the opportunity to ask my father I said, "Daddy, what does the D mean in my name?". He said he's thought for a while and look, "Hey, son our saver never told me what the D means. So, don't blame me for doing some things independently." Seemed like I was forced to do some things independently.
Our holy book, it is guidance for the righteous, it is guidance for the G-d-fearing, it is guidance for the people of conscience, it is guidance for the people who reverence those things that G-d have established to be reverence, it is guidance for the regardful who regard those things that G-d has established should be regarded. It is guidance for the Muttaqeen, for the Muttaqeen that's the term in the Quran.
I have given those different English words describing what that is. Some of them, some of those that the meanings that I've given you come straight from the translations of the Quran by different qualified translators of the Arabic. It is guidance for the people who are regardful. It is guidance for the people who are regardful, but at the same time, this regard fullness is not just focused on G-d or we don't identify out this obligation as an obligation only to G-d, because G-d says in the same book I'm talking about, our book, our holy book the Quran.
G-d says, "And regard or be regardful of the family times. Literally regard with a sacred regard the wounds that bore you, the wounds that bore you." It means in broader language or in simpler more simple language it means have sacred regard for family ties. The tie of child and parent. The tie of brothers and sisters in the family especially the tie of children and parent. Be regardful of the family tie. That's what G-d says to us and G-d also says, "Be regardful of the hellfire or the fires of sin that takes us to the hell. Be regardful of the fires of sin that take us to the hell." G-d says that.
So, you see to understand what is regardfulness in Al-Islam, we should have qualified students, a teacher of the Quran, or we should consult the Quran on our own and study it and find out in how many references do we find this word in the Quran. When you look at all the different references for this word in the Quran you will have the complete meaning for that word and no Arabic dictionary can give you that.
The Quran is the book of keys, keys. If you want the key understanding what is in the Quran, don't go to a Chinese dictionary. Go to the Quran. Quranic understanding, Quranic knowledge, and Quranic understanding is most important, essential. It is the demand on all Muslims communities. Now, this regardfulness is to be seen also because G-d has mentioned Himself firstly that we should be regardful of Him. Then, He mentions the family ties. The family ties. Tie of children to parents et cetera. We must understand then that G-d is trying to get us to focus our eyes, our attention on relationships, relationships. To say I am to be regardful of G-d some of them translated fear. Say fear G-d, but we know that word is much more richer than just fear.
It includes fear, but is much more richer than that. It is natural for the weaker to fear the stronger especially when the weaker think he is in conflict with the stronger. It's naturally to fear the stronger in situations like that, but the true believer he doesn't go around entertaining his G-d or picturing his G-d as something that makes him live in fear. Our G-d promises us that if we were real believers His going to take fear off of us.
Our love of G-d will be more present in our life than our fear of G-d. Our love and appreciation for G-d will be more present in our life than our fear of G-d. And we will only fear him when that love is threatened, when that beautiful relationship is threatened then we will fear the consequences of threatening the relationship, the good relationship we should have with our G-d.
Now, G-d wants us to have an understanding of important relationships. And G-d didn't need us-- This is don't go away and say this is his teachings, no this Al-Islam, not my teachings. We find that other religions have much of this whatever you're talking about the day and much of what we're saying that you may appreciate or may not appreciate, it says in other religions too.
Now, G-d is not like us coming into existence upon something else, or because of something else growing, living, and then eventually declining dying and passing away, feeling pain and suffering, being confused and troubled. This is not G-d, this is human being, this is creation, animals, and humans, this is not G-d. Let us first dispel the superstition, the falsehoods associated with the idea of G-d. Some of us unconsciously have to even becoming Muslims. We still carry a lot of that fall out mess from the world and from our past in our lives and in our mind that keep us from really having the situation a good situation that we should have in Al-Islam as Muslims.
G-d wants us to be-- To know relationships, to be regardful of important very very important relationships for us. The first and most important is the relationship with G-d. But does man come right away into that understanding of his relationship with G-d, his creator? No. It's a gradual process for the individual and also for communities or for nations, but eventually, man arrives at a place of comfort, and ease in his understanding of what his relationship is and should be with his creator or with G-d. Our prophet has said, Muhammad that is to the one who received the Quran over 14 centuries or 1400 years ago, prayers and peace be on him.
He said, "The one who has come into the knowledge of himself has also known his G-d or has come to the knowledge of his G-d." Now, the Mystics some of them are straying or shooting stars, and some of them are stars in orbits. Those who are straying shooting stars, they went off the track, and they think it means, even Muslims, understand this.
Some of us think that the stranger that came to Detroit is said is documented July 4th, 1930, but I think that was only put there to say something else that is not the actual fact, but we know he was there in the late 30 and in late 1930, we know for sure that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was with him. My father was with him in 1931. We know some things and we suspect some other things.
Now, our prophet Muhammad, prayers and peace be upon him, he said, "To know or to see yourself is to know how to see G-d." That's the meaning. Now, how is that to be understood? Man has been really entertained by two concerns more than by any other concern, the concern to know G-d, and the concern to know self. Believe me, if you find a world having the problem with how they perceive or picture how to understand G-d, believe me, they don't know how to picture or understand themselves either, because the Prophet is true his word is true and I'm a witness to it.
I have had the experience, the kind of language and world small very small minuscule world in a way call the Nation of Islam or the black Muslims in America that was my world that I was born into. I was not just born to any member of that world, I was born to the supreme minister who later became the sole leader of that world, Elijah Muhammad called before I was born Elijah Poole. And I was born to Clara his wife, my mother. A lady that fixed meals for the stranger almost daily. He was a very common acquaintance of her that was very uncommon. Yes, this is me. This is me, I was born in that.
I have experienced the great agony of trying to come out of darkness into the light where I could see myself in no self, and at the same time what he created as a mystery or as darkness of blackness prevented me also from seeing G-d as my own human soul needed to see G-d. Now, I'm sure that I wouldn't have never on my own disagreed or rebelled or disapprove of what I was getting. Had I not been given some encouragement from the authorities that I would fear that I were in conflict with. The authorities being number one, the stranger. Number two, his assistant Elijah Muhammad, my father.
My father told me all along the path of my childhood and my early years as a man, and my mother, and brothers, and sisters, and even senior members in this community who were back there at that time, who knew of the same concern that they had they also would tell me. They would remind me that I had a special future, a special future. They would remind me that I had a special role that I to one day come into, as a helper. This is the way they put it quote helper, H-E-L-P-E-R, helper to my father.
Now, as a child my mind didn’t even want to engage that kind of burden or concern, I just heard it didn't reject it, but you know it's like telling the boy you going to grow up to be a superstar, and the boy is not really interested in thinking really about being a superstar, the boy wants to go out and play ball. It never really bothers him so he's hearing it, but now as he gets older and he continues to hear it and then he starts to see problems that bother him, problems in his community, problems in his people, problems in the Nation of Islam that begin to bother him, then he remembers that he was supposed to be preparing himself or being prepared for a special role.
Now, he starts to listen to what they said. He didn't listen to what they said when he was seven years old. He didn't listen when he was 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12-- He didn't listen it just passed him by. He heard it but respect it, but didn't listen, didn't give an attention to it went on about his childhood business.
But now, he's seeing trouble, and he's looking to see where the trouble coming from and who can handle it. He started remembering the special thing that is said about him, that he's supposed to be a boy looking to the future to a time when he's going to assume a special role, a special position of responsibility where he's going to be of special, not an ordinary help that was an understanding that I was given, of special help to his father or to the leader of the Nation of Islam. So, he began to want to know himself. First of all, what I meant doing with this D? That belonged to our Savior, the one we call G-d. How come he and I got the same D. Then when I went to get to an understanding of it, and nobody understands it, me and him are certainly together now. “Fard me and you got a “D” and I need you to tell me what it means”.
Can you follow what I'm saying? You follow what I'm saying, you can understand how I developed. You can understand how I got the courage to disagree with what I was taught. Now, help did not come just in that limited measure. The honor of Elijah Muhammad said not to me, but to all of his special ministers. Or I would say close laborers to him whether they were ministers, secretaries, school teachers or whatever. Those who knew him personally, he said things to them. For example, he said, "What we have won't be always." He said, "There will come a time when there will be a new one, and he may use some of what we have or he might not use any of what we have. He might bring in a totally new world”. That was what Elijah Muhammad said. Now, the ministers who still identify with the old life of our life as Muslims, or the Nation of Islam. They do know that this was said.
I'm sure that it's bothering them in their souls if not in their conscience. I'm sure it's bothering them that they looking at me and looking at us what we're doing and wondering if they are in the wrong place. I'm sure they are having that problem. And I pray to Allah, I pray to G-d Almighty that that problem gets bigger and bigger, and bigger for them until they come to where they belong right here.

I'm going to mention one other help that he gave us to prepare us to be members in this community that is one with all Muslims on this earth. He said, "Brother you have to study and study deep." They'd be expressing what they thought was the understanding of the deep wisdom or the high wisdom of Fard, the stranger, and the honorable Elijah Muhammad would start shaking his head. Say, "Brother you have to study deep." He was not agreeing with their understanding. He was telling them you're still missing it. He said it's not on the surface, he said the best things are not on the surface of the earth, the most precious things are deep.
He was trying to encourage them to be suspicious, but he couldn't risk his whole movement, his whole Nation of Islam by saying to them really what I'm offering you is temporary and false, temporary and flawed, temporary and contradictory, temporary and violating moral principle, temporary and violating in universal truth. He couldn't tell them that, he was put together like that to attract them. He had to keep it like that until their sincerity rose up, and their intelligence increase and they broke through and came into the light of the truth on their own initiative or because of their own good conscience, that's what he wanted to happen.
And he was praying that when that happened those that that happened for would not be hating the dark womb that they were put into, but would look back at it and say it's not a place for human life to stay, but I respect it because it cared for me when I was not able to care for myself.
Yes, now at this point I want to point to nature. Do you know all the life you see growing on the land unless it's very weak, it was conceived under the surface, it got its start in the dark? I don't care what kind of life it is. Even the life of the flesh, the flesh life whether it's man or animal conceive generally by and large in the flesh enclosed in the flesh only now science has progressed to the point where they can look in and see what is in the mother and tell you, “Well, it's going to be a boy, for sure it's going to be a boy, for sure it's going to be a girl”. Science has progressed to that point.
And we know X-rays can do it, but X-ray is harmful. Some people even question the sound method they question that, said it could be interfering with the natural development of the fetus or the baby in the womb may cause some problems. Some doctors don't even like to do that they just tell you to wait, wait and see. Formed in the darkness. Now, when we look at this great community, the international community of Al-Islam, where did it begin forming? In the Dark Age, Saudi Arabia that wasn't called Saudi Arabia at that time, and that time is called Jahiliyyah, the ignorant age of the ignorant period or the dark age or dark period, Jahiliyyah.
And in that darkness, the absence of intelligent life, the absence of real intelligent human life in that darkness was born Muhammad the Prophet, prayers, and peace be on him. And when he was born, they couldn't see him. When he was six years old they couldn't see him. When he was a teenager they couldn't see him. When he was a young man they couldn't see him. They just knew he was a special creation, they called him the trustworthy one, they called him that, his fellow-citizens before Al-Islam came. They called him El-Amin, the trustworthy one.
And when he really evidenced or when G-d evidence exactly who he was his people rejected him, rejected him and saw him as a threat to their life, into their society and the forces of darkness came to put out the light. Came to put out the light but G-d's will was that the light be established. So, Muhammad survived, surrounded by enemies who were lost his admirers and his friends. He survived and he preached the Quran to his near relatives and they came to Al-Islam one by one, two by two et cetera.
It began to spread out to friends, their friends, their friends and convert them their children and convert their neighbors’ children and friends’ children until it eventually dominated, the whole land of his birth called Arabia now, or Saudi Arabia and went out into Africa, went out into Persia, went even to Spain, into Europe and eventually to Spain and around the world now. That light but where did they start, in the darkness before Al-Islam the light it started in the darkness. It came to give light, to give light, praise be to Allah. Now, so getting back to self, we have to know ourselves, it's an urgency, it's a strong urge, in our soul, in our spirit in our intelligence it's a strong enough to know self.
Now, I don't think it's to be seen, as just something that happened I think we should understand that something happened in the will, in the plan of G-d. What is that I'm referring to now? That we brought from Africa to be slaves in this country separated from our history, from our knowledge of our past and forced into a situation, where we could only identify each other as the properties of our slave masters or of masters, the white man, or white women. Some of them had some slaves too. Yes, so here we are now separated from our past history, brought up in the slave plantation or on a slave plantation with no way to know self except through the ones who put us in that situation.
So, they told us, who we were. They told us that we were Blacks brought from Africa and that we were subhuman, subhuman meaning not quite a human being, not quite yet a full human being. 1/5 of a man and some of you know where this language come from, a subhuman 1/5 of a man something between the common animal, or common beast, and the human. That's what they told us. Now, we didn't know and I believe that some of us accepted that. Their behavior indicated that they accepted that but most of us, the great majority of us our souls wouldn't allow us to accept that.
+The soul was too strong to have that kind of ignorance put on a group of people and that ignorance be established in their own minds or in their own conscience. No, we rejected it, the great majority of us rejected that. We heard it but we knew it was wrong and our people deprived of education, never trained in any school primitive, primitive but living in an advanced society begin to call out to G-d in their own way for help saying, "G-d, we know that you are a just G-d and that you don't approve of what's being done to us," so they began to form a relationship with G-d and that was a very special relationship because their situation was very peculiar and very special.
So, they formed a very special relationship with their G-d. Such is the story of people who have become very, very prominent, or very, very significant in the life of the world. I don't have to name any of them. I'm sure you know some of them yourself from your studies and understanding. So, they began to have a relationship with G-d and as they grew in their relationship with G-d, they also wanted to know themselves and they began to question the picture or the identity of themselves that had been imposed upon them.
And they said when they got the courage or when they were convinced that they had really seen it and for sure they had really seen the true picture for sure, they spoke out some time trembling their voice trembling sometimes with great courage their voice very firm, they spoke out into the ears of their masters and they said, "You claim Jesus and you look like G-d in your face. I'm quoting Julia a slave and you look like G-d Julia a slave in your face but act like the devil's in your souls, or your hearts." That's what she said so here this thing forming a relationship with G-d, a relationship that grows.
It grows as the slave began to be blessed by G-d to better understand the concept of G-d and better understand the concept of self and as the two understandings increase the slave gets the courage to challenge a master that could kill him instantly but speak out and risk everything and say, "What you told us is wrong but I'm not complaining so much that you told us this. I'm complaining that you claim yourself to be the model of human being and act like the devil, the Satan the beast in your hearts”. Wasn’t that a challenge?
A challenge coming from the darkness, a challenge coming from the womb, slave still in the womb hitting at the stomach, hitting at the outer edges of the womb striking through. Saying. “Hey, look here”. Look at their fists try to come out of it a leg a foot trying to come out hitting the stomach against the womb. Yes, that's what it was, a sign that something has developed there that didn't want to be confined anymore. And that process continues until freedom deteriorated in terms of its true meaning, it deteriorated and we started thinking that freedom was freedom to do any and everything with no authority over us, that we didn't want or that we didn't accept or that we disagree with.
Our people in the late '60s, in the early '70s changed their spirit was no more an African or Negro community or African-American people carrying the spirit of their better forefathers and carrying a spirit to respect G-d and try to please G-d, our whole people came into a new spirit, a spirit to just bathe in some self purely self-serving idea of our rights on this earth. It went from moral determination and conviction to greed, vanity, et cetera.
And as a result, we don't have a sense of unity as strong as we had before the '60s. Our sense of unity before the '60s was stronger than it is now because we got false gods now of us. And once our souls responded and cried out for only the true G-d. A knowledge of self, Fard was keen, sharp witted, observant. He had carefully studied and observed life of our people in this country.
And I'm sure he came from a similar situation in his country, that was in his country, where he too, as a minority, was mistreated, held back. So, he was over here in the land of the free, using a people who had been denied the promises of the land of the free. He began to dwell on one particular concern that is in our souls, a need to know self. He said, "Who is yourself? Or “What is your own self?" Then gives an answer in a kind of Catholic catechism like. The answer is my own self is a righteous Muslim. That's the answer. My own self is a righteous Muslim.
So, here is the skillful reformer standing upon the science of behavioral psychology. He is treating the evils of the people most mistreated in the land of opportunity, most denied. And he's understanding a major problem to be problem of self-view or self-knowledge. And he says to them, or gives them an identity. He says to them, but doesn't give them the identity before he convinces them that he is not to be suspected, that he is not to be questioned, that you hear and accept. He had established himself among us as the Savior, the long-awaited Savior, the one coming to redeem, the one like Jesus Christ.
So, we just listen, you see? So, here he is breathing into our life or into our mind and souls and another identity. He tells us to say in reply to him, "My own self is a righteous Muslim."
We became very comfortable. From that time on, the members, the Blacks that he gathered together, most of us. There's exception to every rule. Most of us have not any identity problem like the great millions of our people. We don't share with them an identity problem. We're no longer trying to find who we are as a race or why we are Black. That doesn't bother us no more. That's not our problem anymore. It's not a problem for us anymore.
We're satisfied because someone told us, we are righteous Muslims in our original self, or original creation. We are a righteous Muslim. That's enough for us. The only reason why you're carrying out any problem is because somebody took the knowledge away from you or deprive you of access to knowledge and then imposed upon you a lie, that discredit your worth. That's the only reason why you carry that problem. Now, when someone comes looking like they have the right to speak with at least equal authority with the white man, that gave us a lie.
After all, Fard himself appeared to be a white man. When we look at him with his straight hair and white looking face, we say, "Hey, here's a man coming with credits. Here's a man coming with authority, speaking out of authority with authority." We listened and accepted it. White man had such an imposing image that dominated us, that intimidated us, intimidated our thinking, intimidated our intellect, intimidated our rational ability. He intimidated us so with his impressive image. He was a G-d in flesh for us. It took another one in his same flesh to make us disagree but that other one at that told us a lie.
So, when the same opposing image stands up and tells us something that sounds good and sets well in our soul we attach ourselves to him so firmly that he can lead us against the true G-d and we follow him to our grave. But thank G-d, that he himself feared G-d while he was doing his dangerous work. And he left hints and helpers in the form of hints. Some of it was plain talk. To one day reach the curious intelligent mind and cause that mind to be dissatisfied with what it was given in surface language, and began to dig deep until it comes to the conclusion that on the surface, its darkness, the light is only beneath the surface and the light really dispels the darkness or the deep removes the surface.
This relationship with G-d eventually brings us to know self and G-d. The Prophet I repeat, he says, who have known himself, who have seen himself have seen his G-d. Which is the say who has known himself, has known his G-d? Well, we will come to that later. I'm going to mention some other relationships quickly and come back to this self again. Relationship with self but also with the human family, with the human community because the wombs that bore us, referring to close family ties, they extend, and extend, and extend to include all the people on this earth. We are one people, one human family, one humanity.
We have that interest or that concern to be regardful of social relationship, family ties, et cetera will eventually grow us up to identify all people in one family and be concerned about the welfare of all. Also, G-d mentioned angels. G-d want us to know what our relationship should be with angel or how we should relate to angels. G-d makes it clear to us, in our religion in our Quran, in our holy book, that we are not angels and G-d did not create us as angels. Angels and human beings are two separate creations, two different creations. If you believe that a human being can be an angel, pretty soon you're going to believe that a human being can be G-d.
And that's what happened in history. That shooting star out of orbit traveling through the darkness amazed about what is it running into, great flashes of light and dark, comes to the conclusion, "I'm G-d. I'm G-d I'm going independently." Until the great boom. Boom and the travel is all over and the “great god” is at a standstill dead settles upon the grave of a bigger body. But until that climatic conclusion. He's thinking that he's god because he just moving through the universe, and seeing the wonders of the world, the wonders of space and leaving a great trail of light behind.
He looks back at his light saying, “Oh how bright I am”. So, G-d want to set the mind straight wants to save His creature from needless trial, aggravation, anguish, vexation of mind, spirit, and soul. He wants to save us from that so he said, "Come to grips with your own reality. Don't talk about G-d so much look at yourself you make big statements about G-d, this is the Quran. You make big statements about G-d as though you know everything about G-d and you forget your own self your own reality." What do you know about yourself? You going to tell us how G-d started our G-d begins how did you begin but what about your beginning? This is what G-d tells us in the Quran.
And once we come to know, I come back to it now. Once we come to know our own reality that we are no G-d, that we are subject to higher authority than the creation that we are not responsible for our own existence, our own coming into existence. We're not responsible for that, we didn't do that. We come in the world ignorant, helpless, weak and needing someone and don't have any opinions to begin with. Yes, so this is what our religion wants us to know and you’re no angels, you have dreams.
Even though you're so sweet and puritanical, you don't commit any sin consciously while you awake but to prove you are not an angel when you go to sleep, you do the thing you didn't want to do when you were awake and you wake up and say, “woooo this is not supposed to be on an angel”. So, G-d wants us to know our own reality. That doesn’t mean that He's saying that we’re something less than angels. G-d says the man that He is creating as a model for all other people that you, all of you have in you as a possibility, as a human potential. That man He has created him a bit above the angels, a bit above the angels.
So, we are to see our worth, our complete worth in what the common person is but we have to see our complete worth in what this human flesh can be lifted up to and the same human flesh that we have, it can be lifted up to the Khalifa of G-d. The Khalifa of G-d, one that can be entrusted with the life of society, the environmental world or environmental things all around us, plants and animals and everything and carry out that trust in a way that pleases the creator of it all, G-d. G-d says, He has created us with that. And that person is so special to his creator, that person is in all of us, in all of us is that person.
But only one in billions realize that high assent for the human being. Yes, so G-d says of that person, that He has created what is in the skies and what is in the earth to respond favorably to that person, think about that. He has created whatever is in the sky, sun, moon, stars, weather conditions whatever, elements in the heavens whatever, whatever's in the earth water, land precious things. He said that, He had made it all to favor that special creature, that special creature, that special creation of His, the human flesh the person human person in that human flesh, born of the same flesh of the same womb that every common person in this audience and outside here in the whole world was born in. One common flesh, one common flesh, one common breeding ground will breed a person so special that everything in creation responds favorably to that person. And G-d says, He intended that the yield of benefits come to such person from the skies and also from the earth. So, we should understand that the knowledge that G-d created us for, higher knowledge and science and technology, this is the promise of G-d, it is the promise of G-d. And as we grow in better relationship with our G-d and with the creation that He created, we are going to be able to get more benefit and less harm from this progress. That's coming and we see it.
I remember in my younger years, it wasn’t any great disturbance in the minds of people about the future of science may be a few had concerns but it was not public. Now, it's public that science makes errors, they make errors they do things wrong, they threaten the survival of man on this earth sometimes with their projects, their research and even their conclusions how they are going to apply or use the benefits of their research or their studies, their explorations or whatever.
Some people blame pollution of water, air and land and all this on science, and science I believe is accepting the blame and working hard to see that science doesn't continue to make big mistakes or at least be more conscious of the future consequences for the real human future of man on this earth. But you know we have mad scientist too and some of them want to change the human nature to recreate man so that man will be able to survive mans the world. Isn't that something? Also, G-d wants us to know what should be our relationship with the Jinns because the man has in him a mystery too.
We don't know ourselves completely, we don't understand ourselves completely. There is an unknown element even in us so G-d want us to know also the Jinn at least to have some knowledge of the Jinn. Prophet Muhammad was asked once, prayers and peace be on him, when he was talking about the Jinn, the Jinn that people he said they asked him he said, "Is this true also of you?" He said, "Yes, I also had a Jinn, but he became Muslim”. Isn’t that wonderful? So, really becoming Muslim is the answer to overcoming even the unknown that you fear in yourself.
We can't know it completely but just continue to work on becoming a better and better Muslim and eventually your Jinn will become Muslim too, can't stay in a Muslim house that's conscious for long. Pretty soon, you'll find him making sajda right with you. Al-Humdulilahir rabbil Alameen, praise be to G-d Lord of the Worlds. Now, we want to continue this relationship addressing the relationship. G-d want us also to have a proper relationship with life. Do you know life can be confused for us in such degree that it will deny us a good life? G-d is the giver of life. G-d is the creator of life. G-d is the designer of life and your life is no more than human life.
Human life not angel life, not G-d life, your life is human life. And G-d also want us to have a knowledge or relationship with death of death or with death. Death mistifies people and some people become so superstitious studying death or entertained by death in all of its forms et cetera. They become so wrapped up or so entertain by death that they can't live, they can't enjoy life. Death is a creation of G-d. Death is under G-d's law. G-d is the authority over life and death. He is the giver of both life and He is the giver of death. So, if my G-d is a good G-d and the prophet said, "G-d is good," that’s the Prophet told us and Allah says, that through the Prophet “surely, G-d is good and accepts only good”. G-d is good.
He's only goodness not bad no bad in Him and He only except goodness. Now, if that's the G-d and He is the one who made death or created death then death is good. That's what the sick world need to know, death is good so is the hereafter. But I don't want to go there instantly, I got some work to do to prepare myself for it first. I don't want to go to paradise right away, I got some more work to do. I think I can present myself a little better. Now superstitions a great problem for man in his early history especially for the early nations. Superstition a great problem.
In fact, for Christianity before the Renaissance and by the way we are in the hotel by that name, the Renaissance. In Christianity before the Renaissance superstition plagued Christianity, the Christian people, the Christian community. Superstition, they believed that witches were people, were witches and demons et cetera and they burnt at stake and did cruel things to people that problem was just mentally sick. Some of them probably weren’t sick or bad at all probably were good people but just feared by the authority because they were questioning things that should have been answered and the authority probably didn't know how to answer them.
So, they say, “hey, you're questioning the Word of G-d, you question a lot, you a rebel, you are disbeliever you were making trouble for our society, you witch burn her at the stake”. And men, great men were tortured some in a horrible way because of evil, fear, ignorance and most of all because of superstition. Because the society wouldn't tolerate it there if they themselves hadn't been subjected to superstitious. Christian world but not only the Christian world, the world itself because we know of similar horrors that occurred also for Muslim Society of the world.
In our religion, superstition is to be dispel, we don't want the darkness of superstition on our community. Let me tell you something, these ancient nations that were, I'm sure that they saw themselves as great creations, great powers something to be admired. They thought themselves glorious but when we look back at him now, with the eyes of progressed, intelligence for human beings, with the eyes of real human civilization, we don't see them being that great or that good. Both the Quran and history records these great ancient nations and it has been said that history is best to reward all research.
So, we're living in a time when we too busy to do a little research, we rather trust what’s at hand than to go back and study what was because we're just too busy, the demands on us are too much, too many. The time is not enough, we have too many things the family putting on us, the family needs pulling on us and the job the employment and everything so the brain doesn’t have much time to think to solve problems for human life. So, we don't tend to go back and research the past, we just address what is happening, come up with two hours of statistics and just burden ourselves with it, pretending that we’re establishing some kind of point or position or logic or answer.
These ancient nations in the Quran, they are given as the people of Noah, people of Lot, Lut called in the Quran. Noah, Lut and people of Salih, people of Shu’aib and different others in ancient times. And G-d says of those people, that they thought themselves to be great and they thought they were building up something that will endure forever but suddenly, they came to their end. They went out or forgotten as a thing that never existed. The great nations, so we should question the value of this concept nation. We should question the value I repeat of this concept we have nation.
Men have taken great pride in nation but when we study nation in its beginnings we find that nation and human beginning differs. When we study human life in its beginning its beautiful, we don't know how really we began on this earth but our religion tells us that man was first put in a garden and it was a heavenly garden, it was a garden of paradise and that life was so beautiful and peaceful and wonderful. And that all the environment was so lovely and so supporting. Yes, that's what we told by G-d.
No one knows how all of us started but we do know how human life starts every time we look at a newborn baby, we know how human life starts and that newborn baby is innocent, attracts our sentiments, warms our hearts and we just feel good just to pick it up and hold it. That's the human life, new human life and all of a sudden in man's world, you wake up and see what has happened over the years to that human life. Boom-boom-boom-boom. But with the beginning of nations, I wish I was back there to say boom-boom-boom-boom when they were in the cradle. Because most of them started out ugly. Nation really is the scene for envying competitors. One group organizes itself together, calls a itself nation to get more power, because it envies another group. And the other group organizes to get more power to defeat, conquer, expand its territory and its power. This is the history of ancient nations. That's why Quran reminds us that ancient nations were oppressive. They oppressed the good life of the human being.
They lied about G-d to get man to not be connected with G-d so that they would see them as the only authority and obey them blindly and suffer their rule. This is history, as well as Scripture. So, we have been introduced to this ideal nation and we as Blacks in America right away we loved it, we wanted it, because why? Why do we want to become a nation? Why do we want to be a nation so bad? Why we prided ourselves in being Nation of Islam in America? How come Fard's invitation was so attractive to us? Because at the time of his coming this nation excluded us. So here we are in a home that excluded us. A home that was oppressing us. A home that really tolerated us but rejected us as a legitimate citizen or member in the household.
That's how come we were grabbed and we liked it. Yes, “we are not a member of this American nation, this United States. We don't belong to this nation, America. We are members of the Nation of Islam”. That was why we accepted it so readily and we never would have gone from the appetite for freedom as a people to the appetite for nationhood had it not been Fard, knowing the psychology of people and introducing that idea to us that he knew we would readily grab. Because we were socially isolated in this country. Now, nation in its meaning is not bad. It's good. Because actually the word can be referred back to nativity; birthplace; origin.
Now if man would include in his political theory or political idea for the life of his nation if he would include a concept of himself as a nation that was agreeable with the concept of himself as a human life then it would be good. If man would say, “that the nation is created or conceived to preserve the human nativity, that the nation is conceived and established to preserve the good human original life, and to create circumstances for it or to develop opportunities for it to come into its full maturity”. Then that would be a good nation, a good nation. That would be a nation like the human life itself. But that's not what happened. These men organized and someone else called them nations. They organized to have more power.
To have more power to enforce their will on more people, and to expand their domain over more people's lands and lives. This is the history of ancient nations. I'm not going to hold you forever here, don't worry. Because forever is a long time. We're seeing trends in the life of man, in the life of man's establishments, in the life of the world society. We're seeing changes, trends. And one trend is the diminishing of the importance of the concept of nations in the life of nations. I remember in the earlier life of myself, I remember in my own early life that nation was much more present the term, the language, the concern, was much more present in the air of America than it is today.
This country, its leaders, its people was speaking of itself or ourselves as a nation, a great nation. I heard one of our great leaders say on radio, there was no TV at that time. It struck me as something that was bad, troubling. He was talking about the greatness of our nation. He said “we can police the world”. So that's what pride in nation brings us to. Pride in nation brings us to that. Man should not have pride in nation before he has pride in human life. Pride in human life is first, and then pride in nation should be qualified upon pride in human life. How is this nation complimenting or serving or facilitating the needs and future for human life?
That's what it should be. That's what the human soul has been bursting out with and enforcing change in the mind of men and forcing change in the workings of men in the society and in the workings of the authority over men, forcing change in them. Change in the idea of society to complement and be compatible with the best nature that G-d created in us the true human nature. That's what we're coming to. You don't hear a lot of talk about nation anymore. You hear talk about community. Our leaders are telling us about community. They're trying to get us to become more conscious of human societies or human life as communities. Because nation is something that carry bad signals.
The term itself signals bad things from the past into the minds of the citizens today, presently. So, they don't want to use that term too much. They prefer to use the term 'community'. And Man was meant to evolve and grow and expand and extend from the pure concept of human life in family, to see the extent of family in the extent of human life on this planet. When we come to the G-d-intended destiny for our perception of ourselves as groups or as societies or as nations for us, we then take the human life, all human life, into our family. Our immediate concern surely is myself, my wife, our children. That's our immediate concern.
But if we all had healthy attitudes and disposition toward the whole of mankind, the burden immediately upon us will be much lighter. What makes the burden immediately upon us, my own care, my own maintenance
my wife's care of it, my children, my home. What makes it so hard is that I see enemies in the family of man, and I fear them denying me the good life that I want for myself and my family. But know this, that the aim of G-d is stronger than any other aim. The aim, A-I-M of G-d is stronger than any other aim.
G-d's aim is to have all of us accept each other as equal members in the family of man. Equal members in the family of man, with equal rights to the blessings of G-d. And the blessings of G-d are not only in the hereafter, the blessings of G-d are in the here and now. For G-d says to us, "Who has forbidden the good things and the useful things that Allah intended for His worshippers?" That G-d intended for his worshipers? G-d says “they are for them in this life, and for them even more in the hereafter”. Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar. Now, dear people, in my conclusion, we see certain evils on our society, evils that have been with us and seem not to go away. We see the evil of racism and we still see racism as a problem.
Just recently, I was reading one of the local papers in Chicago, Sun Times, and this article was saying, really a kind of book review, that racism is still a problem, still gnawing at us. I agree that racism is still a problem. But racism is not anymore, the problem. Racism is not supported by the courts of this land. It is only supported by the ignorance of a minority in the citizenry of this land. We may say a big number that might be a majority, are caught unaware, so they give support to that small minority. That's what makes it a big problem, but not the problem.
The problem is ignorance of self, and ignorance of your relationship with G-d. That's the problem. If we come to know ourselves better, Allah says of us that “He created us in the best form, in the best design”. That's what Allah says of us, every human being. Allah says that “He certainly made honorable, noble, respectable, every child of Adam”. In Christianity, if you're black do you think yourself to be a child of Adam? Yes, I answer for you, I know that. Yes. So, G-d says that you are noble, on a plane of equality with all other people, white, brown, yellow and red. That nobility is not something given exclusively to a certain race. That nobility is the equal inheritance of every people, black, brown, yellow, red.
That's what G-d says. Then you look at yourself in the mirror and you see your picture. Some of you may be bothered that your hair is nappy. You shouldn't be. I thought we had outgrown that, but I don't think so for some we haven't. They still prefer lye, and conc, and hot irons, and stuff, torture themselves, and spend $75. Make $200, spend $75 this week to go to the party, to get their hair to look more like somebody else's. I'm against that. If you want to have a show, a big theater, they want to have different designs, and you can then straighten it and have it looking like chicken feathers, or whatever you want to do. We will understand that it's just a show. It's a theater. But, please, after the show is over, take off all the makeup for the show and walk out here as natural human beings.
I thought Muhammad Ali was going to solve that problem for us. Yes, I was seeing him on television, he made me feel so good. He be talking to the white man saying, "I'm pretty, I'm pretty." He says, "I'm pretty. I'm pretty." His hair nappy, but he was saying he's pretty. Hair and all! To my knowledge, Muhammad Ali has never put any chemicals in his hair to make it look like somebody else's. Now, I don't wear this to hide mine. There isn't much up there to hide anyway. I wear this to let you all know that I like this desire for a distinct identity. But don't be so strange now that I can identify it. And take off for celebration sometimes. You won't see me with this on every day, just for occasions.
That's another thing, a people without universal truth, G-d's guidance. They're subject to get in a groove and never come out. There are students of the development of societies like Margaret Mead and others, who studied the beginning of societies. They go into the backwoods, far away from civilization, in virgin territories that have not been touched by man, or by industrial man or civilization, as we know it in the cities. They go back in those backwoods, the back parts, and they study people living in small tribal groups, or family groups, and they find that they don't have any problem of race and very little problem of crime.
They live like one family until they meet another people that threaten their life, then that can make them change. So, we have evidence that man if he's left to the influences that G-d created him with, he's not given to racism, to be a racist, to be racist or materialistic, or oppressive on his own self, on his own people. He's not given to that. Racism is a creation of nation and expansion. The acquisition of more territory, to have more resources, to have more power, to have more will over the people of Earth. Racism was created to help that. And before there were the whites, the whites thought that there was racism in the blacks.
They thought the blacks had some kind of idea of black supremacy. At one time in history, the dark races were in power. India, ancient India, in fact, the Middle East was one time a great power. What we call the Middle East now, there used to be a great power there, great civilization, influencing and affecting what happens in all the known world at that time. On the continent of Africa, even before that time, there was mighty empires, mighty nations, mighty empires. Some experienced a moral climate for them in their rule, an ethical time in their rule, when they were trying to be fair to human beings, and tried to help human life and be fair to all their citizens. But it didn't last long.
For the longer period of time, they were oppressive, very oppressive. They were oppressive people, oppressors. This is the history. As they wanted to expand and get more territory they saw that race, that's like when man bands together as a tribe. Why is he banding together as a tribe? He banded together to have a greater sense of security because there's another band, another group banded over there that he fears. So, he bands together to work. He bands together to be more effective and more productive in the field. He bands together to have a stronger defense for himself. These are the motivations to band together. And the bonds are stronger when you band together with people closely related to you.
So, he bands together with his own race, with his own family, with his own race. They band together. This is how racism came about. Somebody peeped the language of metaphysics, peeped the language of religious mysteries and used it against the black people of Earth. Black originally meant darkness, death, ignorance, etc. Then they look and they say here people are they are black and if we could label them as inferior and pretend that there's a science to support it and that there's scripture from G-d to support it, then we can coward them. We can make them kneel and bow to us. We can make them submit to us and we will have the greater force on our side.
The force in us will be stronger than the force in them. They will be weakened in their minds. They will be weakened in their thinking. They'll be weakened in their spirit because they will think that G-d intended that they be beasts or be inferior or be ignorant or be worth less. I'm talking to you from facts of life in history. They peep that. Evil men who wanted to expand the powers of their nation, they peep that and then they created or invented racism in its modern form. It started in Asia. The people of the north wanted to conquer the people of the south, and they looked at the scripture and they said to themselves, "Let us identify ourselves as people of the light.
And they are the dark ones are people of the darkness." When they came claiming themselves to be people of the light and claiming that the others are the people of the darkness and it was divine will that the people of the light conquer the people of darkness, the people in the membership of the dark people most of them were ignorant. Here they are like primitive savages almost, believing in religion and being very superstitious. Here they are seeing the light ones coming against them as angels and gods. They thought angels and gods were coming to get them. So, they didn't have any will to fight them off. They submitted to it. And that has gone into the genes of the black people, the brown people and red people.
Even until today, the average one of you intimidated by a white person. If you're not intimidated by the flesh white person, you are at least intimidated by the establishment of the white person. I want you to know right now that G-d has blessed the black man in America with one, and I know there are many more, not intimidated by the white flesh or by the white establishment.

If anything, I feel sorry for them. They have not only punished us, they have punished themselves. They have not only held us back, they have held themselves back. They have not only crippled our ability, they have crippled their own ability. Lies punishes everybody and only the truth frees.
So, racism! Let's not think that this racism is something inherent. It's not inherent. No child is born a racist. This is a false creation of powers that wanted to dominate this earth for their own particular nations. I don't want to say I'm warning you, but time is out for that idea. And our people will not be successful coming up with the other side of that idea. Same coin, white man had the heads, we got the tails. Same coin, we got the same coin passing it around as legal tender. Passing it around. Yes, saying, “brother, Black man is G-d. Black man is G-d, brother”. White man said he was G-d, look where it got him. Now, you coming in on the tail of it saying you're G-d, where do you think it'll get you?
You who know the history of the Nation of Islam, the Lost Found Nation of Islam in America, you know that I was the special child or member of that Nation of Islam according to its founders. Now look what has happened to me. So, what's there to say about you? If the best choice of the founders has now become an opposer of racism, a opposer of supremacy for any color, black, brown, yellow, red. Then what does that say about your future? Every time they hear about me it's going to weaken your you thing. You’ll say, “well hell the choice among us rejected it, saying certainly our god should have known how to choose”.

Praise be to Allah, the real G-d, that we're saved from that. Yes, what does that say for the one who pretend to be a god? Now he says, "Wallace will do this. I'll give him my mysterious “D”. I give it to him. He's going to be the one and take good care of him." That’s what he told my mother. We got it in writing. “You promise that when the child is born you're going to give him my name. Take good care of him”. I've seen it in writing to my mother. My father said on more than one occasion, and I'm sure that there's one or two of you here who witnessed it. I'm sure there's one here. He said “that he told me to take good care of this son and fulfill your promise”. This is him speaking, Fard speaking to Elijah Muhammad, fulfill your promise to me. And his promise was that he would prepare me for the leadership.
Audience: That's right.
IWDM: That was his promise. And the honorable Elijah Muhammad, just a few years, well no it was less than a year before he passed, I told him, I said, "Daddy, I would like to be with you." I said, "I would like to be with you so that you can tell me those things you said you wanted to tell me." Now here's my father said to me. He said, "Son," and he never answered, just instantly or quickly when the matter was very serious for him. He paused for a moment and he said, "Well, son, I thought about it. Sometimes it's best to let the next man go on his own. Maybe what I would say to you might not be helpful." That's what my father said to me.
My father told me he didn't know what to say to me. He was afraid to say things to me, to guide me in the future. Maybe he would say something to me that wouldn't be helpful. That's what my father said to me. Now these are the two men that you're going to call G-d and G-d's messenger? After you've seen what had happened? We are not about attracting big numbers just to say we got big numbers. G-d says. The majority of the people are without knowledge. I don't want to be in the majority, I want to be in the minority, so I can help the majority. We have big numbers here, but if there was only 10 people here, we would be happy, I would preach like I am preaching now, might hold them longer.

Praise be to Allah. So, don't think that this is what excites us. We're happy, and you know what makes us so happy? Because we know that this is not the Rainbow-- What they call it? The Rainbow--
Audience: Coalition.
IWDM: The Rainbow Coalition. This is not the Rainbow Coalition. These are the believers in G-d.
And Allah is showing us year after year that the numbers of believers in G-d in this association are increasing. Every year, our numbers are more, that is the blessings of G-d. And the will of G-d is with us and we are with His will. And the destiny for us is greater than the destiny has been for men in the past. Let us live for the future and make G-d's will be evident in our lives, in our behavior, in our planning, in everything that we do. Let us respect the will of G-d. And if we do that, we will always grow successfully and we will be a great, great help and friend to all people.
Thank you very much. We have a wonderful time. Allahu Akbar. We want to, in our conclusion, thank all of you and also mention our business people in this association of Muslims who contributed very generously to make sure that we were comfortable today. Without their contribution, we would have been here. The committee had all the needs taken care of, but we asked for their assistance and they responded.


