08/30/2003
IWDM Study Library
IWDM Resignation Meeting with the Imams
Chicago IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
With G d’s name we begin, the praise and the thanks is for G d, we thank Him for the gift and blessing of the model human person Muhammad (pbuh), the honorable and noble servant and Messenger of G d and what follows of the salute or that traditional salutation to the last Prophet (pbuh), the seal of the Prophets mentioned in the Bible as it is given in the Quran. 
With G d’s name we begin, the praise and the thanks is for G d, we thank Him for the gift and blessing of the model human person Muhammad (pbuh), the honorable and noble servant and Messenger of G d and what follows of the salute or that traditional salutation to the last Prophet (pbuh), the seal of the Prophets mentioned in the Bible as it is given in the Quran. 
Imam WD Mohammed:
Thank you Omar and thank you brother Imams and we thank our leader for our discipline as men for his presence here my brother twice Raymond Sherrief. I would like to first introduce him to you and ask him to address us, address the men who are still the fruit of Islam. Fruit means the product so we are still the fruit of Islam; Raymond Sherrief our leader for manhood.
Raymond Sherrief:
As Salaam Alaikum my dear brothers Imams I’m happy to be here before you not to teach you anything because I feel like a high school graduate called upon to address a committee of PhDs and masters because I know you have been well taught. I know by the progress that has been made so I come before you as one who has been around for a while, a few years longer than most of you and there are some things that I might remember and you may have not forgotten but may have been a little slack on. So I’m just here as a reminder I want you to understand that not a teacher, just a reminder.
I am your brother, I love you and I hope you love me and I will do everything I can to warrant your love because we want to help our Imam to make a strong community of workers. He wants his community to be second to none and we are going to help him, it is not going to be done by mere words it has to be done by actions. And who is to carry out that actions? We are, that’s right, we are and it does not exclude anyone. If you can talk you can do the job, if you can move around you can do the job.
We as Muslims we can never forget we must secure our community. How can we secure our community? First we must secure ourselves with out Maker. How can we secure ourselves with out Maker? Obey Him, He gives us the ordinances, it is in the Holy Quran all we have to do is follow it. throughout the Holy Quran it is warning us, guiding us, telling us what we must do, what we should do because we all want to escape hell fire and it tells us what we must do, so we must do that.
Security takes on many forms, we can secure our homes with electronic devices, burglar bars and all those types of things, but we are looking farther than that we are looking farther than just securing our own, we have to secure our community and this is not a small community, this community it encompasses three thousand by two thousand miles. Wherever you find Muslims you find our community and we have to look our for each and everyone of them. 
I believe that we should look upon this Muslims community as a human body, wherever that human body is afflicted with pain you feel it all over. If you stump your toe you feel it, if someone steps on your toe you feel it, if someone stick you with a needle or a pin you feel it, we have to be that way about our Muslim community. Wherever that community is hurting we are hurting too, I don’t care if we are in San Francisco, New York, Dallas or wherever we feel that pain whenever one is in pain. So let us remember that it requires the effort of everyone who has knowledge of Islam like our Imam and he is teaching us from the Holy Quran. 
We know he is teaching us the Word of Allah swt, we never have to worry about any doubt because there is no doubt in Allah’s Word and His Messenger, we can lay our lives on it. We must instill this into ourselves first because if we can’t instill it into ourselves we cannot impart it to others so that means we must have 100% belief in Allah swt and His Messenger. 
And to have this means that we have submitted ourselves entirely to Allah swt, there is no second guessing, there is no looking for someone else to help Allah swt, Allah swt doesn’t need any help, He is self sufficient, the Creator of the heavens and the earth He doesn’t need any help we are the ones who need the help of our Creator to help us, to bless us with His spirit and in every way because we know if we have the help of Allah swt we will be successful. 
Being a Muslim for as many years as I have been a Muslim starting out at the age of 13 years old that is when I became a Muslim. In those days we had to write a letter, if you were 12 years and older you had to write a letter we told the savior to take away that slave name and give us our original name. Well I did that and I was registered into the junior FOI, I loved the junior FOI because I loved that militant part of it, all that drilling and carrying on and I became a part of it, I became proficient at it, I became the junior fruit captain all praises due to Allah swt. 
I was studious, I studied all my lessons and the first job I held at that time in the Nation of Islam was the office boy in the university of Islam. My duty was to flash the lights to notify the teachers to change classes, at that time we had an auditorium, maybe a little longer than this but not as wide and we had a classroom here, a classroom there all over and my duty was to flash those lights, its time to change and I was proud of it. That was my first job in the Nation of Islam. 
Army officers from World War I trained the FOI
But soon I graduated out of the junior FOI into the senior FOI and I didn’t lose my enthusiasm, all of that military training. I studied hard and I learned and at that time we had some old X-army officers from World War I training us and they were proficient in their job, they knew what to do, they gave us all the marching training, right face, left face, rear march, squad left, squad right, column left, column right all kind of classes and I had to learn them, and I advanced in the FOI to the position of lieutenant, then first lieutenant.
The captain at the time he was on his job but he made a mistake and I was first lieutenant so I succeeded him and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad saw fit to keep me on the job for 38 years. 
I’m thankful to Allah swt for blessing me to be of some service in the growth of this community, the Muslim community that started under the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and it flourished under him. And now today under his son it is flourishing more and we’re going to help him make it flourish even more because we want it to be number one second to none, that’s right. And we’re going to help him in any way that we can.
I don’t know what you’re doing today but in former days all of the Mosques, Temples at that time they were called they remembered at that time what we called headquarters, they always set aside some funds to help the headquarters. They carried on their duties at their Mosque, their expenses but they always had some left for number 1. We know the vast expense that our Imam has traveling all the time to and fro all over not only the country but the world and on business not play, he is on business. So we, I think at this time if we haven’t been we should all be putting aside something to help the Imam because it is no easy task. 
We know in this world without any money you don’t do anything, you have to have money to travel, to eat, to live and he travels a lot and we should help him, he should not to have to depend on just Chicago to help him to do these things he should have the help of the whole community, every Mosque under our Imam should contribute something to help him in this work. Don’t’ think that we’re doing this for nothing, Allah swt knows us, He sees us everyday, hears us everyday, every thought that we have, every motion we make, He sees us nothing is hidden from Him. And He tells us in the Quran everything is written down in the record, so we have to prepare ourselves because one day we’re going to have to meet our Maker and we don’t want to have difficulty when we meet our Maker, we want our entrance to be made with ease, not with difficulty.
There are stages in this thing, some of us will make it with ease and some may not make it, we want to be sure that we are one of those who make it in paradise and please our Lord. Brother Imams let us be on our job not 99 %, not 99 and 9/10%, but 100% as near as we can, be perfect, let us take an inventory of ourselves and see what we can do to improve ourselves. So I know I’m constantly trying to improve myself, I’m going to Fajr prayer every morning, me and my brother in law. I’ve been told of all of the blessings you get for going to Fajr prayer, remember prayer is better than sleep. 
If we remember this then we will remember our G-d, Allahu Akbar. So brothers I’m not going to hold you any longer, I thank you for this privilege of coming before you, I pray Allah swt to bless me to be able to meet with you again and I pray that He bless us with much success. Let us remember Allah swt much, we should pray “Oh Allah swt help us in remembering You in expressing our gratitude to You and worshiping You in the best manner.” I give you back into the hands of our Imam who will enlighten us further and we know that, thank you for your attention I say to you As Salaam Alaikum.
Imam WD Mohammed:
We thank Allah swt for blessing this community with - - I started to say Imam because he is, with the supreme captain Raymond Sherrief. We thank Allah swt for blessing him to be in this community, to come in as a boy 13 years old as old my younger child right now Mohammed Shakir Mohammed is birthday was July he became 13 years old. And we know much of the strong history of Raymond Sherrief so we appreciate him sharing what he shared with us today. 
And you know it matters righteousness, dignity, high values, high principles, strong spirit and enthusiasm for what is good. Physical structures can disappear, even the physical person that is _____ to you may not be present anymore, but that lives on and on. So really he is still my leader, he is still my supreme captain and he will always be that, when I look at him I will be seeing my supreme captain Raymond Sherrief. So he will always be that and I thank Allah swt that Allah swt has blessed him with health and I know he has spirit, but Allah swt has blessed him with spiritual help and he is able to come and join us.
And we look forward to hearing from him many, many more times especially in our big gatherings whether they are once a year or twice a year or more, we would love to have him address us. 
Imam WD Mohammed Resignation 
Q. 2.256; Let there be no force in religion
I will begin by saying as the song says, “And when I hate you it is because I love you and that is how I am. So what can I do?” My patience is lost with you, you brought me to the end of my patience. I am resigning as leader of the ASM. I’m no more accepting to be wearing the title leader of the American Society of Muslims. And I’m asking you to look at yourselves and get a good knowledge of what you want and what you are willing to support. The Quran in Arabic says, “Laa ekraaha fed-deen” translated G-d forbids that we force people what they do not want to do in this religion”. 
So there is no compulsion in this religion and Allah swt says to us that the believers conduct their affairs by Shuraa. That means they meet with the best of them, the best of their representative sit down and meet, whether the matter is buying a new piece of property or repair a piece of property or much more serious matter than that.
Q. 42.38; Believers conduct their affairs by Shuraa
ASM Imams should form Shuraa leadership body
They meet and they discuss what they have to do and they agree respecting what Allah swt has revealed in the Quran and what His servant and Messenger Muhammad pbuh has ordered and demonstrated to us. And they are a democratic body, Muslims, for want of a better word I don’t know of a better word in English, you have the word “Shuraa Baynahum,” which means sitting down with each other, those who have the best character, the best record for working and the best obedience; most of all to the Quran, the Word of G-d and Muhammad’s pbuh way, his tradition. We sit down and we discuss our affairs and we make our decisions. 
I am advising you to do that, to continue to do that and you who have been negligent, not doing that, I’m inviting you and advising you to please respect what is established as the rule in Al Islam; respect what is established as the rule in Al Islam. Because if you don’t you will lose. If you do you will prosper because Allah swt is real, Allah swt is not imagination. And our representative, I could feel him and I always feel him when he speaks, he’s a believer in G-d. He’s always been a believer in G-d. I remember him speaking so many times to the fruit, helping us with our lives, helping us stay in the Temple not getting put out. I never heard him speak without feeling he was a believer in G-d. If you heard him speak, you know him, you know he impressed you as a believer in G-d. And I am sure he had that as a child and he still has it. I know of him making Fajr Prayer all the time.
Isn’t it something what we came from, the teaching we came from, the belief that we had before and how the best survived and conquer and break through all that, that was inferior just like a strong live plant. Maybe dead plants are all around it but that strong live plant will push up through the surface of the earth and take off and roll back all those dead plants and stand up firm. So G-d blessed the strong to survive and we have survived because number one we had faith in G-d and we wanted to be right, that is how come we survived. And I don’t have to say number two, number three and number four.
I advise you leaders, you Imams to meet together after I leave you and do not rush things. Do not be in a hurry. Some things deserve special attention, a lot of thought, careful judgment and this is one of them. I don’t know if you have all of your regional leaders or Imams here. 
How many regional Imams do we have here or sectional Imams I think we call them now? Could you stand so I can see you a little better, all sectional Imams? Many are not present here. En sha Allah, you will reach the rest of them and you should meet together with other Imams who are active in this community. Those who are doing nothing, if they are present, okay. But I wouldn’t look for them. But those Imams who are active and producing for us, for the community, you should meet together. And you should see what it is that you can establish as an agenda for this community that I am resigning from. 
Establish an agenda if you can and review everything that I have given you and be honest with yourselves, stay away from your agenda anything thing I have given to you that you know you can’t give your support to. It is better to go with 1/10th of what I have given you and be open and sincere, than to be pretending that you are going with us and you are only going with 10% and 90% of that. You don’t really have it in your spirit and in your heart and soul to support it. So you should just take it from your agenda.
If you want to go back to the Nation of Islam, that is fine with me. If you want to go back and join Farrakhan, it might be better off, it is alright with me. But please, I am speaking to you as a friend and as a brother. Please stop pretending. Don’t have one agenda among yourselves when I’m not around and pretend you’re with the agenda that I gave you when I am present. Stop being pretenders. It is bad for you, it is bad for us, it is bad for all Muslims.
Imam WD Mohammed will not lead persons who reject his agenda
You might say, “You’re not accepting to be our leader?” Well, if I am your leader I will always be your leader. I will not accept to be your leader if you are not following my agenda. I love you brother I will not accept to be represented as your leader when you don’t accept my agenda. I cannot be successful as a leader unless I have people that I am trusting and supporting my agenda, not having two agendas; one that you keep in your pocket when I leave you and you take it out when I’m away. I can’t have that. I can’t have you speaking and think I’m ignorant. Some of you think I’m ignorant. I can’t have you speaking your silent language to each other. You have been doing this for years. I can’t take any more of that. 
I speak and you say, “Well, we heard from Imam.” I know the way you said it that you are communicating to your people that, “We heard from him and that is it.” And you meet later and you discuss how you are going to manage what I said, how you are going to deal with what I said. So that is over.
WD Mohammed leader for all good people 
G-d made me a person for all good people and I thank Allah swt for that. So I am still your leader if you are good people. Whether I know or let people advertise or publish that I am the leader of any organization, for the rest of my life I will never be a leader of any organization. I will lead only good Muslims of the United States of America and my commitment is firstly to those descendants of slaves that are on a mighty journey and that journey is not over. So my commitment first is to them and then to all Muslims of the United States. 
I know this is surprising to you; disappointing to some of you, a relief for many of you good and bad. The good ones are relieved because you suffered. You know what I have been putting up with in this community, struggling with it year after year and looking at the same old faces, never changing, waiting for us to die. They are hanging around waiting on us to die and do they have anything prepared that they are going to give us better than what we have now? Or when you did, do they have anything else better?
They will be around here looking at the next leader, waiting on him to die. So let’s finish this ugly business. You are on your own. So let the public be aware and let the Muslims be aware that the ASM, American Society of Muslims, formally, by all those other names going all the way back to the Nation of Islam, you are on your own. Do not say that I am your leader. I do not accept to be your leader. But, individually, you good people, I am your leader and I love you very much. As Salaam Alaikum. 
Darryl: 
As Salaam Alaikum brothers those of you who actually know me Know I don’t do this very often this is in April of 2001 this lovely brother here brother Imam WD Mohammed brought me in to take his ministry to the next audio and video level. All praise is due to Allah swt we have done that, if you listen to the audio it is clean, you look at the video it is clean. I present this to you Imam WD Mohammed the first DVD in operation of the Mosque Cares, from us to you our esteem leader Imam WD Mohammed.
Imam WD Mohammed:
If you don’t mind I’m going to move out because I don’t want to keep you uptight, As Salaam Alaikum.
Transcript 1st draft unedited Nasir Ahmad

