02/06/2000
IWDM Study Library 
Allah G-d Obligates us to Establish Community Life Harvey IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
The following lecture titled, "Allah, G-d, Obligates Us to Establish Community Life," was recorded Sunday, February 6th, the year 2000 at the Harvey Islamic center in Harvey, Illinois. The lecturer is W.D. Mohammed, Muslim-American spokesman.
Thank you. As-Salaam Alaykum. That is, peace be unto you. We thank G-d, the one and only G-d. We associate nothing with Him in worship. We witness that Muhammad of 14 centuries ago, born in Mecca, what is called Saudi Arabia now, is His last prophet, the seal of the prophets. And according to the holy book, the Qur'an, G-d says this prophet Muhammad is mentioned in the Torah and in the Injeel or Gospel, that is for Christians and Jews, the New Testament and the Old Testament.
And a clear reference is made in our holy book to the saying of our prophet, description of our prophet. When I say, "Our prophet," that's my love for him saying, "Our prophet." He's a prophet of all people, everybody's prophet if they understand. The description of him is in the Qur'an, and when you search, or you know the Bible well enough, right away you know the description in the Bible that the scripture of the Qur'an is referring to. It says "He," meaning Muhammad, the prophet, "Is an unlettered prophet." That is, he never got education, formal education. He was never in any school to learn.
"And he is of the unlettered people." He's from the unlettered people, meaning they too had never received scripture, the Arabs at that time had never received scripture. And it goes further to say that he's a liberator, that he would take from the backs of the enslaved, or the burdened people, the yoke that weighed them down, and break every bond of slavery so that they would have freedom. This is a description of our prophet. So, you, many of you, you know the prophet as the prophet of Al-Islam, but you don't know him really. You just say he's the prophet of Al-Islam, but you don't really know him because you haven't studied the Qur'an to learn him, to see him, and to understand him. And you haven't studied the history of Al-Islam to really know him. So, you don't really know him. All you know is he's the prophet of Al-Islam. That's not near enough. You're supposed to know him.
Knowing him is not just to know that he's the prophet of Al-Islam. If he's the prophet of Al-Islam, then anybody else can be the prophet of Al-Islam, and you might accept them because you don't know who is the real prophet of Al-Islam. To know who the real prophet of Al-Islam, you have to know him in the Qur'an, and you have to know him in real history, in the real history of the world. And mind you, he's the only prophet that is in real history. The only one. If you want to learn the life of the other prophets, you have to learn it from the people that say they believe in him, and got some message, some scriptures, something he said. But if you want to know Prophet Muhammad, you can study him, you can know him from any library. Any good library in the world will have something on Prophet Muhammad and they will not only tell you, "Well, the Qur'an says this, and the Bible," or "Paul said this." No. They will tell you; they will report on his life just as they report on the life of Martin Luther.
Now we know the life of Martin Luther. His life is in history. History knows him. But all prophets other than Muhammad, only his people know him, and only their history of him has him. And the world has gotten its history of that prophet, or those prophets, from those people. But no one had to get the history of Muhammad from the Arabs, no one. The Persians knew about him. Rome knew about him. Egypt knew about him while he was living. The world knew about him while he was living, and they have their history of him.
That should really stick in your mind to make you wonder, how come this last prophet is the only prophet that the world has a history of? A non-Muslim writing on our prophet has described him as the most successful of all leaders in the world. And really when you read the writings of other writers who were non-Muslims, too, most of them say he's the most successful leader in the world. Any one author who took the question up, definitely acknowledge that Muhammad was the most successful leader. Successful in what way? No other leader is recorded to have changed his whole people, the whole people, the whole land that he was of before he died. It had completely changed from idol worship to the rule of Al-Islam, the worship of one G-d. And Al-Islam was the authority in that land when he died, nothing else was in authority except Al-Islam when he died. And it only took about 22 or 23 years. Nothing has happened like that in that magnitude, in that great dimension, except Muhammad the prophet and his life and mission on this earth about 1400 years ago.
Now as go on, if you listen, you're going to understand why, if you believe in G-d. Let me acknowledge the great and sincere support of Brother Dennis Muhammad, whose really work's that he does all the time, and has been doing it since I knew him, a boy about 15, 16 years old, maybe. He's a builder. He's a rehabber. He rehabs and he builds. He's a contractor, and successful at that. But he's a student of Al-Islam, too. His Arabic is pretty good. He can read the Qur'an and understand some of the Arabic. And he can read it with good pronunciation, read Qur'an with good pronunciation, good Arabic pronunciation. And he can also lead the prayer, lead the congregation. And he does that sometime when there's invitation or opportunity. So really, he's an Imam. Dennis Muhammad is also an Imam.
So, we have to really appreciate him for his work that he is doing and has been doing now for several years, trying to revive the interest in this area for the propagation of Al-Islam. When the honorable Elijah Muhammad died, it seems like all of us made a coffin in our house and said, "At least when it comes to doing this work, I'm going to be in my coffin. I'll be out for other things, but not for this work again. I'm going to be in my coffin." But thank Allah, Dennis said, "No. I'm going to be more active now because I understand better." And Imam W.D., pardon me. Yes, WD too. Imam Darnell Kareem has never stopped, never stopped. They say he has never missed a beat. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad passed, he kept walking, kept working, kept struggling to keep us in the right mind and going in the right direction. So, we have to thank Allah for persons like that. And I mention them because they are here and they have prepared for me to be here today. There are many, many others, males and females that have done that.
G-d wants us to be whole, W H O L E as it is in the New Testament, whole, W H O L E. A whole person, not a fraction of a person. G-d wants us to be happy or pleased with our life, with ourselves as a whole person, not as a fraction of a person. Many of us may be pleased with ourselves in our careers or in our professions. But when we look at the family life, maybe we will not be pleased. When we look at our own individual life, our own spiritual life, maybe we won't be pleased. When we look at our moral life, maybe we won't be pleased. When we look at our behavioral life, how we behave every day when we are out from the bed, up from the bed, we might not be pleased. G-d created us for the first time He created us, when He created us the first time, we were pleased until we came into this world and this world began to influence us.
The reason why I'm a Muslim is the same reason why you're a Christian most likely. The reason why I'm a Muslim is the same reason why you want to be right most likely, most likely. G-d made us all and He put in all of us a memory. Dr. C. Eric Lincoln, he says there's a memory gene bank, a genetic memory. We may not remember it up here, but it's in our life, it's in the life blood. It's in our genes. It's in our biology. It's in our chemistry. It's in that that wakes us up in the morning, and that that tells us we need to go to rest at night. It's in that feeling that was with us when we were born, a feeling inside, deep inside ourselves that continues to be alive when the conscious dies. It stays alive. It's always alive, always alive. When we sleep, it's alive. It's always alive.
And when you die physically, the learned and faithful people, well not only the learned, but the faithful people, period, believe that that does not die, but that awaits the time of G-d, G-d's time for it. And it will be given a new creation or a new reality. Another dimension of reality, a higher dimension of reality, a better dimension of reality, heaven. Heaven, paradise. That's what we believe. So, we are really one people. The most important thing is to know that we are one people. And I'm not talking about black. I'm going to get to that too. This is African American History Month or Black History Month. We observe Black History Month, too. I know I do. So, we're going to get to the black people, but right now I'm talking about all people, all people. We have a oneness. We have a common life. It came from one ancestry according to our great religion, a common life.
So really, we are all one family from that common ancestry in that common life. And we are different in our cultures, we are different in our thinking. We are different in our behavior. We are different in our mind. We are different in our hearts. But we are not different in our soul. We are one soul. The same thing that will change my mind when it bothers my flesh enough will change your mind when it bothers your flesh enough. And my mother used to say to us children who keep ignoring her advice. She'd say, "Well, if I whip you," she'd say, "I'm going to whip you until you come into another spirit." And I knew how my mother could whip. I don't care if you were Chinese, European, African, American. I don't care what your race was. If my mother put a whipping on you, buddy, if your spirit was bad, you're going to come into another spirit. When she gets through with you, you'll be in another spirit. You'll be saying, "Yes, mama! Yes, yes, mama!"
In our own ignorance, our own disobedience to what we know is right. It doesn't have to be Al-Islam. It doesn't have to be Christianity. G-d created us all with a core in our soul, a core in the soul that warns us, "This ain't right." So, by our disobedience, conscious disobedience, disobeying what we know is best for us, what we know is right, G-d has punished this whole world. The whole world has been under punishment. And the punishment now has gotten to be so bad, it's like my mother's whipping on them, and they're coming into a new spirit all over the world. I know because I'm a traveler. They're coming into a new spirit all over the world after Clara Muhammad's whipping on them.
When we look at the things happening around us in our environment within our sight, with our eyes and hearing. And sometimes we get a false picture or untrue picture of just what the world is. Not only what the world is, we get a false picture of what our country is. We get a false picture of what our city is, even a false picture of what our neighborhood is. Because many of us, we don't look at the neighborhood. We don't stay in touch with what's going on in the neighborhood. We just, from one interest to another, and usually the interest is very close, next door maybe, or a few blocks down to the store. Or to the amusement place, a show, a theater, a dance hall, the corner that we hang on. Don't go very far, don't see much. And we are hearing false prophets preaching, and their voices are loud in the air. They're preaching, doomsday preaching.
Doomsday preachers, and those that can't see any good, all they see is bad. They have no message to lift our spirits. They have no message to brighten our life. All they have to say is that something bad is going on. They're in hell already. Anybody that can't register nothing but bad, they in hell already. The present world is not all gloomy anymore. It's getting brighter and brighter, brighter and brighter because of the effort of conscious people. Conscious people in Christianity, leadership, in the leadership of the Christian world. Conscious people in the leadership of the Jewish people. Conscious people in the leadership of the Muslims. Conscious people, the Buddhists and Hindus and all, all over the world, no matter what idea they have of religion. They have, all now, the leaders are all meeting. How do I know it? Because I'm meeting with them. I belong to about five world organizations. I'm the international president of a big world organization, international president. They have more than one, but only two in these United States. Archbishop Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore is one, and I'm the other.
They're looking for a female. I don't know if they got their female yet. So, they might have three in total, international presidents of the World Conference on Religion and Peace that met in Jordan, a Muslim country. Mostly Christians, some Jews, Buddhists, very influential Buddhists, and others. But where did we meet last conference? In Jordan, Amman, Jordan, where the king and his brother had addressed us. And how were they talking to us? Were they talking to us about, "Hey, there's a whole lot of trouble going on in the world"? No, they were positive. They were seeing the good things that are happening. And they were emphasizing the good things and focusing the good things to give us strength and hope to survive the bad things. And this is the way. When Jesus Christ came, peace be upon him, according to the Gospel.
When he came into the world, he didn't preach that there was no hope. He preached that there was hope, and no matter how bad the situation was, he told the people to believe in the G-d of heaven and earth, and have faith in all things can be accomplished. He didn't say, "Oh, you can't make no progress here, man. Pharaoh is ruling." He said, "Yes, the devil is here, and the devil has his kingdom here. But the kingdom of G-d is coming," and told them to get prepared for it, and that all things can be accomplished if you just have faith. Positive man, a savior. Yes ... A lot of good things are going on. They're going to rebuild Chicago Housing Authority. I know Dennis knows all about it. He stays in touch because he has to get contracts.
I'm quoting the Sunday Tribune. Chicago Tribune, "Businesses owned by minorities and women are to be awarded half of all contracts under a historic, 10-year, 1.5," that means one and a half, "Billion dollars, a plan to rebuild public housing in Chicago." That's what federal officials said according to this article. Is that not good news? I thought there was some good news around. I'm just singling out a few things here, because there are many things. This movement now of consciousness and righteousness and justice and love for the other person, it's all over the world getting bigger and bigger by the minute. Berea College, I don't know if you all know about it, but it's an old college that has helped African-Americans a lot, but not just African American, poor people. It's helped Appalachians from the poor Appalachian Mountains going through several states, not just in one state.
I'm reading from their leaflet that they have here, "80%," they say, "Of all our students come from Appalachian counties in nine states." And here is the number now, nine states, "And all counties, all the counties of Kentucky." They go on to say that, "This college does not charge tuition." And it's one of several other colleges in these United States that don't charge tuition, "Of all the 1,500 students required to work in one of the more than 140 labor departments on campus while carrying a full academic course load, 80% of the students work more than the minimum required, 10 hours, per week in order to meet their room and board obligations. 80% of the students rank in the top two-fifths of their high school graduating classes." So, they collect them from the better performing students.
"55% of the alumni earn graduate degrees," graduate degrees, "And most of them return to the Appalachian region to share their skills." They don't forget where they came from. They come to give back to the bad area and the bad life conditions, give back to those people after receiving help from the outside. And I can say for the duration of my leadership, which now it's 25 years or more, our youngsters that we support to have a good education in our schools, or in schools outside of us, in our community, I think our percentage is bigger than 55% percent. They go on and achieve, and they come back to our community to assist us, to be with us and to assist us. There's much more to say about Berea College, but I'm just pointing to a few good things that are going on to let you know that it's not all gloomy, the world is not all gloomy. There are bright, bright, bright rays of light on the horizon.
Reading from a publication by an organization that we have formed an association with, very close and strong association, bonds of association. They're Catholic mostly, but they're not all Catholic. They are, too, a world movement. Their leader began forming the movement during World War II when bombs were falling on her city and she was seeing destruction all around her. She was a Catholic. She decided as a young girl that she was going to lead a Christian movement, not leaving Catholicism, not leaving the religion of the Catholics, but leaving their method and their methodology for inviting people to Christianity. She decided she was going to have a different appeal. She believed that Christ's love was enough to invite people to. And if you have read the Bible or listened to the Christians, you know something about Christ's love.
Christ, according to the Bible said, "I leave you only one commandment." You know Moses before him bought 10 commandments. But he said, "I leave you only one commandment, and that is that you love your neighbor or your brother, your fellow man, as you love yourself," that's his commandment. And that's the principle of love that Chiara Lubich, and Chiara is Italian for Clara. My mother was named Clara, and this woman that I not only befriended, but I have pledged to support is named Clara in Italian. Chiara, Chiara Lubich. And by the way, I'm a proud grandfather of another grand baby born just a couple of weeks ago. And her father was in Mecca and Medina for 10 days during the Hajj month doing his Hajj prayers, pilgrimage Hajj prayers. The tawwari prayers during the month of Hajj. I'm sorry. Ramadan prayers during the month of Ramadan. He went not the major Hajj, he did the minor Hajj, which is Umrah. Umrah, he did the Umrah.
And while he was there, he spent two weeks, not 10 days, more than 10 days. He spent two weeks there in the fast month observing the fast month prayers at night. And part of the ritual of Umrah and Hajj is to commemorate the difficulty of Hagar, the mother of the prophet Ishmael, when she was fearing that she wouldn't have water to give her baby in the desert. So, she started to panic. She was desperate, and she began running between two hills, they're called Safa and Marwa, the two hills, and we repeat that. We repeat what she did as a part of the rituals of Hajj, of pilgrimage. And she noticed as she was coming from one hill, she noticed on the ground, on the sand, water bubbling up. And a spring, a new spring was formed there in the desert in the time of Hagar, peace be upon her, the wife of the prophet Abraham. A new spring came up so that her child, the baby, who would be prophet later, Ishmael, would have water.
And that well is called Zam Zam, Zam Zam, Zam Zam. Not Zim Zim as some of you all say. It's called Zam Zam, not Zim Zim. Not an I, not an E, an A. Zam Zam. The well is Zam Zam. It gives water to the pilgrims as it did before Muhammad the prophet, before the world knew about Al-Islam. It was giving water to the Arabs, pure water, very nice tasting water. And as I say, tradition has it that that's the water that G-d caused to come up in the desert to save the life of the baby Ishmael, who later became the prophet Ishmael. So, he, my son-in-law, he told his wife from over there, he called her, said, "If it's a girl, I want her name to be Hagar, Hagar." This is Egyptian Arabic pronunciation of Hagar. So, the baby is here and the baby has her name, and my daughter gave her the name as her husband wanted, Hagar. In Arabic, Arabians call it Hajar with a J. The Egyptians and Africans call it Hagar with a G, like Hagar in the Bible. And so, the baby is named Hagar, Hagar Chiara Mohammed.
So, my daughter said, "I like the name Chiara for a middle name, daddy." She said, "What do you think of me naming her Chiara?" See, my daughter has been to Rome, too, and knows about the Focolare movement and Chiara, their leader. So, I said, "Oh, it's nice." She said, "Daddy, I was also thinking that it's the name of my grandmother, Clara." I said, "That's right." I said, "What you're doing, you're preserving history." Because when they ask her, said, "What is your name?" She'll say, "My name is Hagar Chiara Muhammad." And they say, "What is Hagar?"
She going to tell them the story of how she came about that name. She going to say, "My daddy, Earl Abdul Malik Mohammed was in the Holy Land of the Muslim during the holy fast month of Ramadan, and he was commemorating. At one point, he was commemorating the steps of Hagar and how she was rewarded with a fresh new spring of water so that she could give her baby water by G-d. It's a miracle that happened there."
That's history, and her name is preserving that history. Now, when they say, "What is Chiara? What's that name? Where you get that name from, Chiara?" Because you ain't going to run into too many African-Americans named Chiara. And then she'll have to explain that, too. She says, "Well, Chiara means Clara, and my great-grandmother was named Clara. The wife of Elijah Muhammad and the mother W. Deen Mohammed." That's history. She's preserving history.
She says the Italian pronunciation is there because my mother respected, highly respected and felt loved for a great woman who brought about a great movement to better the condition of human being spiritually all over the world, that her name is Chiara Lubich. See, a lot of cultures or societies, nations, they name their children according to events that occur. The names help them preserve the history. So, let us learn these things, because we are really a new people. You hear me? We are a new people. Only had freedom for about a little better than 130 years or so. Before that, we were discriminated against, segregated, kept down, and laws protected that bad system. Laws were protecting that bad system, that inhuman system that was denying us a good human life with the rest of the citizens of this country.
So, we are a new people. You didn't get the freedom of your body until what, a couple hundred years ago? And you didn't get the freedom for your heart until about 1960 or so. So, we are new people. Now, I used to listen to one of our singers, a beautiful brother. He could sing. Sing so beautifully. He would say, "We want our life back." Well, now I know I don't want any life back in my past except the life G-d created.
When I look at Africa today, the condition that they in today, I know something must have been missing in them just like it's been missing in us, because their life on the continent of Africa tells me something terribly has been missing. Killing each other up, chopping each other up, slaughtering each other mercilessly. One tribe against another belonging to the same nation, just different tribes. Hacking each other up like meat of a human being is nothing but the meat of a cow or something, and then they not hacking it up to eat it. They hacking it up just to hack it up.
And looking at the dictatorships all throughout the continent where people don't have democracy, don't have freedom of choice. One little Papa Doc or somebody ruling them all, and he's the only one getting all the benefits. They are suffering and miserable. When I look at that and look at how the masses of Africans tolerate that, I never could tolerate that. Frederick Douglass didn't tolerate that. I could never tolerate that. How come? I'm in a country that has Christians in it, and they have a picture of a wonderful human being, Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. And I’m in a country that has democracy American-style in it that we've gotten from the founding fathers of this nation, of this great nation. So, even though I'm afraid you may lock me up and take away my human life, but as long as I have a human model somewhere in the air that I hear about, that makes me to wake up my conscience and tell me that if there's rights for one human being, there's rights for me. If it's wrong for me, it's wrong for every human being.
There must be some sympathy out there, so I must start my mission. I must preach. There's got to be some sympathy out there, because there's human beings like me who when they notice things and its details, know exactly the crime against me, I'm going to have some support. That was the position of Frederick Douglass. That was the position of Dr. Martin Luther King. And results came. Not to mention the many others that fought against the bad condition.
Now, when the land belongs to you, we expect to see a whole lot of things happening quick. So, you tell me go back to Africa. I'll go back there and help straighten them out. Yeah, I'll go back there and help change Africa. Something terribly is missing, and we know what it is.
When we observe the newborn baby born today or yesterday in the nursery, and we see that baby, you don't see anything but an angel. You see a little angel. They become little devils later. G-d didn't give any mother a little devil. G-d gave every mother a little angel.
The publication by the Focolare people called the Living City, and the front-page coverage is on children, children's life. And what does it say about children life? It says that children imitate the world around them, about them. Things, people. They imitate the world outside of them, but they try to express the world inside of them. That's why from little children, you don't get sass, you don't get bad talk, you don't get this ugly talk we're hearing now from some of these little children four and five years old cursing out grownups. You don't get that. No, you get decent language, beautiful language, kind words, kind expressions, love in their expressions. And they will give that love to anybody. They don't care if you're white, black, brown, yellow, red. If you're nice to them, they will return that niceness. And if you're bad, they don't know why. You puzzle their minds. Say, "What's wrong with them?" That tells us that G-d didn't create bad people. G-d only created good people.
I have attended conferences, world conferences on the continent of Africa, Europe, Middle East, and have received invitations to go to Far East, but I haven't gone yet. May go soon. And all these conferences I attend, the language is one. The language is one, and most of the items on their agenda, things that they put down as being most important for them to address are on the agendas of the other big world organizations. Their language is so similar.
So, actually there's one life that's being registered now, human life. And even political issues around human beings and human conditions and a need to come to the rescue of suffering human beings in the world or suffering communities, it's not political rights anymore. It's human rights. It's gone from political rights, civil rights to human rights. It's human rights. All over this is happening. Even in America we are hearing now our leaders of political organizations saying that we have to come from the language of civil rights to the language of human rights, of human rights.
So, I often say now that we're living in the time or in the day of religion. And the scriptures promise us that the day of religion will come, and it's translated also as the day of judgment. The day of religion is coming. The day of judgment is the day of religion. Because G-d gave us a spiritual core, and He created that spiritual core to come back to Him. To come back to Him. And when I say come back to Him, I don't mean to come back to G-d in the Vatican or come back to G-d in the Haram, the sacred precincts of Mecca. Or in some place in Timbuktu somewhere or on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa or somewhere. No, I mean come to G-d not in physical movement, but come back to G-d in spiritual movement. Not in physical movement. In spiritual movement come back to G-d, return to G-d.
So, not to return to G-d as one object going to another object, but return to G-d in the state of life, the composition of life, the constitution of life, spiritual life that He designed for you when He created the first human being. That's what it means, return to G-d. Come back to that obedient, beautiful nature that responds to good and resists evil. Return to that beautiful human spirit that wants to be in heaven, was created for the first time in heaven. Don't you know all of us are created in heaven? That's how come we want to go back.
He created the first human being in heaven and then put him in the earth. The spirit, the soul of the person was made first in heaven, and then He put him in the earth. You say, "Oh, I can't understand that." Go look to any hospital or go to the nursery where they have the new babies just born and look at those babies, and all of them just came from heaven. All of them just came from heaven. They have no hell in them. They're not hell raisers.
I want to use the best material. Why should I use the worst material when I got the best material? Dennis Muhammad is a builder. He's not going to use the worst material and he got better. He's going to use the better material. He's not going to use something that's going to fall down and break up, crumble up. So, why should I use the worse material when I got better material? If I want to impress you with something that has happened to me that I think has been good for me and I want to share it with you because I think it's good for you, why should I take the weaker impression and give it to you when there's a stronger impression?
And let me tell you something. The honorable Elijah Muhammad, Mr. Elijah Poole Muhammad, my father, his life coming from Sandersville, Georgia with no education. Only three years elementary school education, not knowing how to read and write. As a child, he had to be put in the field. His father couldn't afford to let him stay in the school. He needs every hand out there in that field in order for them to survive materially. Just one of many of the South little children who had to be taken from the fields and worked, work on the white man's field or work for their parents if their parents had a little land.
That little man came up North and met another man who was not from this country. He was from Asia, and that man said things to my father that changed his mind and changed his whole life almost instantly. And it happened since then to others who follow the honorable Elijah Muhammad. They heard him one time. Their life changed completely almost in an instant. From his loins, from the honorable Elijah Muhammad's loins has come his son, W. Deen Mohammed.
I hope you are following me. I hope you didn't forget that I said if I got stronger emphasis or stronger material, why should I use weaker? I don't like to refer you to me. I don't like you to look at me. I wish I was invisible while I'm talking. I just want you to hear what I'm saying and listen to what I'm saying. But this material is so convincing, I would be against my own purpose if I didn't use it.
Here's his son now also educated not by the world. When I was born, my mother actually risked her life to keep me out of public school. She told the police officer that came there to get me by force, she said, "Before you take him, you're going to have to kill me." She said, "I'll die as dead as this door facing." I heard this myself. I was a little boy listening to my mother. She said, "I'll die as dead as this door facing before I let you take my son and put him in your school." She said, "We're teaching him."
That big, red man ... I didn't know how to identify his race or anything then. I was too small, but I could see his face and his stature right now just as clear as it was then at that door when I was a little boy. He's a big Irish policeman. Big Irish policeman, and when she said that to him, his face got redder. He looked at her, and he walked away from that door. Nobody has been to her door again. I'm sure when he reported to his bosses they said, "Did she say that? What? No need of killing the woman. No need, because the woman ain't going to let us take him. Ain't no need of killing her. Did she really look like she meant that?" "Boss, she would actually kill me or I would have to kill her." Say, "Leave them crazy niggers alone." Say, "Were they doing anything wrong? Did you say anything, any other violation there? They look like they were doing anything else wrong like gambling or something like that?" "No. No, they looked like really clean-living people." "You leave those folks alone. I'll talk to my boss."
Son of the honorable Elijah Muhammad, an international president of the World Conference of Religion and Peace never has gotten one college degree. I'm not bragging. Really, I'm sad. I wish I had got a college degree. In fact, I plan to go back to college when I get about 95 or 98, somewhere in there. My life is too busy right now with more important things, and I don't find myself academically crippled to do this job I'm doing. G-d has educated me for this job. I don't have any problems.
But when I see more time to relax as more of you all help me with this work, I'm going to go back to school. I'm constantly in school, though. Don't think I'm not studying. I been like that ever since I remember. Constantly in school, because that's what we are. Members of Nation of Islam believe that they're supposed to be students all the time. I believe whether we know it or not, we're following the teachings of Muhammad the prophet who came 14 centuries ago. He said the Muslim, the believer studies from the cradle to the grave. He's seeking to improve his knowledge from the cradle to the grave.
From the cradle to the grave, that means from the time a baby is born. Yes. Yes, when he's born, he's born, according to the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, an original Muslim by nature, not by conscience. Not by conscience of mind, but by nature. And science is saying now that the time to start teaching your child is as soon as a child is delivered from his mother. You have to make sure the learning environment is healthy for that baby, for that infant, because that baby is learning from the time it comes into the world until it dies unless some of us in the world turn them off to education and learning. And that happens. The world itself turns us off sometimes.
Here is the son of the honorable Elijah Muhammad, in Amman, Jordan greeting the king, greeting the prince, greeting the top leaders in the world of religion, the Dalai Lama and everybody else. Greeting them, and I'm doing this to them, and they doing this to me, and we respecting each other as equals. I couldn't do that. You think I could do that for myself? You think I would have that kind of respect and be up that high with the better minds in religion, the better minds of the world? You think I could do that with my high school education and my experience in life? I couldn't do that for myself. Impossible. Only G-d could do that for me through my father, through my mother who changed their minds before I was born. My legal name has never been anything else but Mohammed.
My father and mother had become what they called Muslim two years before I was born. I was born in October of 1933, and my certificates read Wallace D. Mohammed, my birth certificate. It has never been anything else. The son of Clara Evans and the son of Elijah Poole Muhammad. That's my birth certificate. I never have been taught Christianity. I was never taught to love America. I was taught that America was the kingdom of the devil and that white people were devils, and that the rule on earth all over the earth was under the white world, under white man, a world rule of devils. By devils, of devils. That's what I was taught. So, I wasn't open to the influences, good or bad, from the world all about me, all around me. My mind was closed against that world.
And I went to our elementary school, I went to our high school. I got my high school diploma from the school established under the leadership of my father, and I took the GED test because they wouldn't accept my diploma. Now they will, because things have changed. Times have changed. In fact, for the last 20 or 30 years, they accept your diploma from our school, but not my diploma. No, they wouldn't accept it. In fact, when I went for a job, guess what? I changed my name, because you won't get hired in that name, Wallace D. Mohammed. And I did change my name. I said I'm Wallace Delaney, and I got a job. My father didn't tell me to be stupid.
Only thing I heard about the Galilee was in the Bible. I read the Bible twice. I studied it from cover to cover and then read it freely from cover to cover. Read it free reading without stopping from cover to cover. Not stopping to make notes, not stopping to do anything but just read. I finally finished the Bible, read it through. I made a pledge to myself that I wouldn't stop to question anything, I wouldn't try to figure out anything, that I would just read it all the way through. So, that's what I did, because I didn't want my own prejudice to prevent me from reading it, to at least hearing it once.
I actually did a scientific work. That was scientific to make up my mind I'm not going to question it, I'm going to hear it out. That's a judge. A judge has to have that discipline so he can make no judgment, don't come to no conclusion until after he hears the whole case or hear you speak out. Yeah, we have a judge here, too. You can tell after I finish whether I'm right or wrong.
You want to hear all the evidence, get everything to come in before he comes to any conclusion. He resists coming to a conclusion until he heard everything.
So, here I am reading the Bible through once, and then the second time ... Now, I knew that I was doing that. So, when I finished it, finished the last book, Revelations, I was going to go back to Genesis, first verse of Genesis, and I was going to read it through again, but this time, buddy, I was going to be searching it and questioning it and making my notes. I did that. At the same time, I was studying the lessons that had been given to us in the Nation of Islam, the teachings of Fard, Mr. W.D. Fard. And studying the environment that we're in and how we were being influenced in the Nation of Islam. I was studying all of that.
That wasn't enough, because I saw religious language in world myths or world mythologies having a tie. I'm reading the Bible, and I'm reading things in the Bible that are from myths, from mythology, from the mythologies of the world, especially that world that Christianity is said to have come from. So, I said to myself, "The Bible says that it's not all revelations." Description of the Bible says that it is history, it is revelations, it's prophecy. It gives you a description of the book. Since the book is described that way, so now I'm saying its history, I'm going to search history to see where these myths come from so I can understand these myths better.
I couldn't have got that going to any college. No college could have given me the courses that I got searching myself. I outlined my own courses according to what I perceived as my need for the job that I wanted to do. No college could have given me that, and that was G-d pushing me on to do that. The spirit of G-d in me to obey my G-d was pushing me on to do that. So, that's why I say G-d gave me what I got. G-d has made it possible for me to go to the Vatican and meet the Pope. Little me go there and meet the Pope. From Elijah Muhammad, the man that said you're a devil, your word is wicked, your religion is corrupt. That man that said those ugly things about Christianity, here his son is being received in the Vatican by the Pope of Rome, Pope John Paul II. Shaking his hand. That was the first time.
Then, here's the same son of Elijah Muhammad invited to come back to the Vatican, and this time asked to give a presentation in the presence of the Pope along with all the other big dignitaries representing the world religions, representing the world religions. You want to see a miracle? That's a miracle. This energy, man, it's too much for that little (sound system) ... Next time, get a proper power. You need much more power than that. Yeah, you need much more power than that when I come, buddy.
Now, here this man, the honorable Elijah Muhammad, not educated by the world, father came from humble origins, and I, too, really on the Sea of Galilee. I used to live on the sea of poverty, dire poverty, naked, raw poverty. Eating chicken feet and the juice of the chicken feet with my rice and licking my lips and smiling like I was eating caviar and filet mignon, because it was so good. I had been hungry for so long that day. Oh boy, the chicken feet and the juice of that rice tastes so good. I might cook me some tomorrow.
Now, here I am on the Sea of Galilee in the finest hotel I'm sure that they had. My suite was so plush. I looked out my window, and I had to hit my head. I say, "I have never seen anything more beautiful than this scene I'm looking at right now." So, it really kind of upgraded my perception of heaven. See, a poor person can't even see a rich heaven. No, you poor and out of touch with the higher things of life, you can't even see a rich heaven. Your heaven is poor. You don't have the imagination to put much riches in your heaven. So, most you put in there is what? Some sweet milk and honey? Some slippers and white robes. I saw much more than that where I went. Good G-d all mighty.
I kept recalling my humble beginnings and my father's beginnings, my mother's beginnings. I kept recalling that, and here I am up here above the earth looking down on the ground in one of the finest accommodations that I have ever seen or could dream about. I'm looking out the window at land that has been decorated, and the greenery had been trimmed and everything to just make it look like perfect picture of a paradise. Just a beautiful, beautiful, extremely beautiful paradise. That was me.
You know what I did? I went from the window. I'm going to show you what I did. I went from the window. Yes. Have I said that so you can become Muslims all of you? No. I said that so all of you will believe in G-d. Believe in G-d. G-d is always in charge. No matter how bad your life is or seems to be to you, G-d is always in charge. No matter how bad the world seems to be to you, G-d is always in charge. And G-d says to us in our holy book he will never change what is bothering a people until they change what is bothering their hearts.
So, you know you not doing what you should be doing. You know your shortcomings. Your heart speaks to you occasionally. If you're a criminal, your heart tells you it's wrong. So, until you respond and listen to your own good motivation, feelings, and thoughts, and start giving your life to the better things that are happening inside your own private world, G-d is not going to help you.
When the African-American people were freed from physical bondage or slavery, we were not bad people. We were people who believed in G-d, and we were trusting that G-d was going to one day save us from the white man's bad treatment. That's the kind of people we were. So, we had leaders who were conscious of G-d and who we loved, because they were teaching us to be conscious of G-d. We were a religious people under G-d.
As we got more freedom, political freedom, and more opportunities to have material pleasures and material things, we got away from that. And we started to give our hearts to everything but G-d. And look how G-d has withdrawn his great help from us. During the '70s, after opportunities increase for us during the '60s. During the '70s, we left G-d and righteousness, for green power and black power. And G-d withdrew from us. What came next? Drugs, drugs, killing each other, gangs, gang wars, self-destruction. Isn't that a sign to you? We who are educated, we who are sensible, isn't that a plain sign to us? That we are in the bad condition we're in today, not because the white man is still bad, but because we left the fear of G-d, and obedience to G-d, and love for G-d. We left that, and went after the things of this world.
Now, G-d is not going to come back with us, and be with us in our struggles, be with us in our efforts to achieve a better life, until we return to the state that we were in before. Loving G-d, believing in G-d, trusting that He is always in charge, and this suffering is temporary. "My G-d will deliver me." That's the way we thought as Christian. I was never a Christian, but I'm speaking for my people.
And as followers of the honorable Elijah Muhammad, we believed that we were on the right course, and we believed in G-d, we called Him Allah. And we believed that our day was coming, too, if we just remained faithful, and not turn back around. And our day came didn't it brother? Don't we have friendship in all walks of life, now? And isn't the road to good home, plenty money, clear to us now? CPC! Yes. I walked with the Dalai Lama, walked with the Pope of Rome, walked with the princes and kings of the Muslim world. None of them think they're too big, or too special, or too holy, or too clean, or too rich, to walk with me. And I think they love me because I'm the son of Elijah Muhammad. Yeah.
They say, "If this man can be the man he is, coming from that man we have heard about, not only do I want to see him, I want to just be close to him." So, the struggle hasn't stopped, but we see it better now. It's not a struggle anymore for one race to be over another, or for one race to be free of another. It's a struggle for the human soul to be free, to be at peace and in heaven with his Maker. And we only can have that if we love each other and respect each other. Because G-d is not going to love us, unless we want to love each other.
Now, I'm going to bring this to a conclusion. And I want you to look at what I call the most convincing truth of all. And that is the Nation of Islam. Yes. The Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam was conceived by an Asian who called himself W. Fard and W. Deen Fard Muhammad. W. Fard Muhammad, Fard Muhammad, and W. D. Fard Muhammad. That's the name he called himself. Also called himself Wallace. My name Wallace, came from him. He wrote it on postcards. We got postcards right now where he signed, that he sent my mother, sent my father. He sent my mother a postcard when I was born. Said, "I heard the child has been born. Take good care of him, and remember, you promised to give him my name." My name, that's what's on the postcard. So obviously his name was also Wallace. Because that's what I was given.
And there's a story about that. I wish my sister was here. I'll have hurry, I'll leave her back here to tell you the rest of that story. My sister, Riya, called Lade. She changed her name to Riya. Yes. Now, one thing we should understand about Mr. Fard, and I'm not just talking to Muslims, because the Nation of Islam has affected the life of all African Americans. Not just Muslims. I don't care whether you know it or not. If you are African American, and you've been living during the time of the Nation of Islam, you've been affected by Nation of Islam. It has changed the way blacks think. The Nation of Islam has been the greatest influence in America, to change the way blacks think. We used to call each other black, and right away you start punching each other's mouth, punching each other's teeth out, if you could. You'd fight each other like you're trying to kill each other, because one called the other black. That was when I was a boy.
The honorable Elijah Muhammad changed that. Some of you say, well, "No, James Brown changed that." No, it's not a laughable thing. When he sang that song, Black and Proud. Well, let's see what James Brown had to say when I went to him. Now I knew that he didn't make me black and proud. I knew, the teachings of my father made me black and proud. And my mother had given it to me before I even understood my father. My mother was given it. Well, my father wasn't with me until I was a boy, about 14 years old. My mother raised us. He was out working, and running from devils, and black devils too. White and black devils, who hated him and wanted to kill him for what he was doing. He couldn't show up at home, or they'd be waiting for him, around the house.
So, my appreciation for being a black person, has always been there. I never remember a time when I feel proud or good about my being black, a member of the black people. But I went to James Brown, because I had a opportunity, too. He was playing, and they told me, "Do you want to see him?" I said, "Yeah. Yeah." When he's finished playing and said, "You come backstage." I said, "Okay." I just wanted to say to him, "We thank you for the song. Your song has really helped our people." And it had, it did. It was a big help. You know what he said to me as soon as I said that? He said, "You know who gave me that song?" I said, "No." "Your father." He said, "Your father." That's exactly what he said. "Your father." So, my father affected James Brown. Affected his thinking, changed his mind. And then he wanted to sing, "Be black and proud."
The life that was designed for me and for all those who joined my father in the Nation of Islam, it had such extreme flattery in it, that no one can get me now. What can they tell me to charm me that I haven't already been told? Oh, you going to tell me something about your way, or your ideology, or your invitation to your church, or your mosque, or your synagogue? Mosque, yeah include the mosque, masjid. Arab, whatever, Egyptian, Asian, Muslim. You got something in your mouth to impress me more than what I've gotten? What you going to tell me about myself to make me feel better than what I already heard? In fact, what I was told was so much, I had to put some of the sweets back. "It's too much sweet, too much sweet. I can't take that much. I can't take that much. Please send that food back, I can't eat all that."
"You are the original man, the Asiatic black man." Before the white man called the world Asia, and Europe, and Africa, the whole world was called Asia. And it belonged to the black man. And you are the original owners of it. You're the Asiatic black man, you're the owner, the maker, you're the cream of the planet Earth. You're the father of civilization, and you are the G-d of the universe. The G-d of the universe? Wow! So, I can't be flattered. I can't be flattered, what can you tell me to flatter me? "Oh, I would tell you something about your human worth that's great." You can't say more than I heard already. I was told so much, I had to put some of it back. It's too much, I just couldn't live with it, it's just too much.
Every time I went to the mirror, or brushed my teeth, or sit on the toilet. This couldn't be comfortable with that much praise. Every time I had a stomach ache and had to break wind, I just couldn't be comfortable with that much praise. Because I couldn't see a G-d doing all that. I said, "G-d? Oh no. I can't be G-d and stinking up this bathroom like this." Oh, you might you mind find that a little out of your taste. But my psychology is working. And the doctor will give you a lot, that you go, "It's so hard to take." The doctor will say, "I'll sugar coat a little bit." Well, I'm doing my best to keep sugar on a bitter pill, sugar on a bad tasting thing.
Now, this man who came to my father and brought us this new world, he created his own myth. That's what he did. He created his own myth. But now, is that something different from what the other parts of the world have? No. The white race have their myth, the Romans have their myth of their origins, the Greeks have their myth of their origins, the Japanese, everybody, got their myths of their origins. Myth. That means it can't be proven. Myth of their origins. So, this man said, "These people have no myths of their own." So, they're living in the world of a people who have the energy support of their myth. And these blacks that they have captured and enslaved, and now have them as free citizens, but they're still not free, they have no energy from an idea of their origin, to support their ego, to boost their ego.
So, they are walking around with deflated egos, like a birthday balloon that has fallen from the ceiling, and now look like old lady's breast or something. That's the ego, that's our ego. Crushed. Crushed egos. Crushed by white man's dominance. Crushed by white man's intimidating greatness. And a picture of us being so small. So small, in a white man's world. So, Fard said, "I'm going to give them a picture of themselves that's going to make them feel that they're the tallest human being walking the planet." And believe me, we sure felt that way. We've never felt that another man was better than we were, or better off than we were. We just felt, it's just a matter of time before we overcome the setback you've given us, or you've caused to our life.
Yeah, we just said it was a matter of time. And that's all it was, a matter of time. Because it's gone now. There's no need for all that. There's no need for any of that anymore. We are, for the first time in our lives, completely free. So, let's look to Mr. Fard now, let's look at what he did. We think, "Oh, this Mr. Fard, how did he come about this knowledge?" If you study the time that he was living in, and the world, the situation. Detroit, that's where he started. The United States, study it, and you'll find out where he got most of what he said, or most of what he put together as the message of the Nation of Islam to the black man. Or the message of the honorable Elijah Muhammad to the black man. You will see it. When Mr. Fard came, there were whites who were predicting the end of their own world. Whites. Very intelligent whites, had written books predicting the end of the white world.
Henry Ford. I mention him because you know something about cars. He made the Ford car, and Ford Motors made the Lincoln. The Lincoln, that big Lincoln that you all like. Some of you got them, too. He warned America, that if something wasn't done to check the Jews, the Jews were going to take over this country. Corrupt the life of the people, and take over the country. That was his warning. Now I'm not saying I buy anything of what he said. This is not to point to anything as being correct or incorrect, that's not my purpose. Just to share with you what was happening back there in that time. So, many people, Jehovah Witnesses and many others, were talking about the end of the world. So, there was nothing for this man that taught my father, to come up with the same message, the end of this world is coming.
What else did he do that seems to puzzle us sometimes? Where'd he get this from? He called us Asiatic. He didn't call us African. He said, "You are the Asiatic black man." Where'd he get that from? Noble Drew Ali, who headed the Moorish Science Temple. He brought about that order, he's the founder of it. Noble Drew Ali called all of his followers, Asiatic. They were the black Asiatic. And they still do call themselves Asiatic. They haven't gone anywhere, they're most of the Americans around now. You can verify what I'm telling you. They call themselves Asiatic. So, Mr. Fard got that from Drew Ali. Asiatic.
He founded the Nation of... No, he conceived the Nation of Islam and charged my father with the building of it. My father actually built it. But he conceived it, it was his idea, he gave it to my father. The Nation of Islam. Was there anything like that before? The first one to bring nationalism, black nationalism, to us, was a man who was preaching and known, and his picture was appearing in the newspapers of the city, Detroit. He was originally from Jamaica. Yeah. The honorable Marcus Garvey had already started teaching that we're a nation, and we should have our own nation. And he wasn't teaching that message just for us in America. It was the, what he called, the universal negro movement. Universal black people's movement. Everywhere. On the African continent, in the Islands of the Caribbean, in America.
Wherever we were, he was appealing to us to come together and identify ourselves as one people, and build our own concept of our nation or nationalism. That's what he was doing. So Fard didn't get that totally inside of his own head, either. There was already a black man doing that. This man was doing that in 1922, Fard didn't even come until 1930, eight years later. And I'm sure he didn't come from outside; he was already inside. He was inside, seeing what was happening, and thinking about it, and getting an idea how to put it all together, and make it whole. See, you didn't know what I meant when I said whole, earlier. I didn't only mean whole in the New Testament. I mean, whole as a person. Living in a real world.
He also said man is G-d, the black man is G-d. '"Oh, ain't nobody said that but him." How come? Father Divine, big preacher of Detroit. He told his followers, that, "If you want to see Jesus, look at me." And was accepting to be called Father Divine. Father Divine says G-d. That's what it says, Father Divine. And then he plainly connected himself with Jesus. He didn't want them to see a white Jesus. He was the first before Fard, before my father. He didn't want our people in Christianity, to see a white Jesus. He wanted them to see an African picture of Jesus. And he told them, that, "When you look at me, you're seeing Jesus." And he was called Father Divine.
So, what did Fard do? There were other things happening, too. Booker T. Washington. He's the one who built Tuskegee, took students, and taught them how to take the clay out of the earth, shape the clay, bake the clay, get the bricks, and build the building. You can go down there right now like I have done, and you'll see those big buildings, many of them standing. Because they have been kept up. They were built by his students, under his leadership. Booker T. Washington. And there he also had George Washington Carver, working right there at Tuskegee. Black scientist, a human scientist, a man whose scientific contributions to the world of agriculture, is much bigger than you would ever imagine.
That man was much bigger than peanuts. He taught the world of agriculture, to rotate crops. So that one crop doesn't deplete the land, rotate it, and you'll have better crops, year-round. It was that man who did that, for all Americans, and for all the world. He did that. He is known all over the world by agricultural scientists in the field. George Washington Carver is known all over the world. And not for peanuts. You know he did all those wonders with peanuts. But what we miss, the white man wanted to put... The bad white man, not the good white man. The bad white man wanted you to put your mind on just the peanuts, so you wouldn't see what he did for American agriculture. They were planting cotton, and the cotton was eating up the land. Eating the minerals, and eating up the value of the land. And they just kept planting the cotton over, and over. And after a while, the land won't grow nothing, won't grow peas, won't grow string beans.
So, he said, Plant the cotton. But the next year, after two or three years..." I don't know exactly how much time, but he said, "Plant something else there, and plant the cotton somewhere else." So, he taught them to rotate crops. They didn't have it before. But what else he did? He knew that black people from slavery, having that gene, and the new gene, to rebel against any boss. What black slave you think liked the boss that he had over him, that the white people were bossing him and his family, his children and everybody else? They didn't like that. They had to work for the white man, they had to obey him, or be whipped or killed. But they didn't like it.
And there were exceptions like we learned in the study of Frederick Douglas' life. That his first master was a kind master. Treated him well, respected him as a human being, and wanted to see him have an opportunity to develop his mind, his intellect. And helped him, created a situation where he could learn, and educate himself. But that's rare. Because he had to give Frederick Douglas up. The next master was a bad one. But Frederick Douglas had experienced a different treatment. He couldn't take that from that bad master. So, one day, he hit him and knocked him out, and he ran, and never came back. He ended up in the north.
Yeah. Booker T. Washington was a genius in his own right. He realized that there was a spirit in us to rebel against authority, there was a spirit in us to rebel against any attempt to discipline us, or to give us some kind of orientation, or regimentation. You have to have that on the campus. You just couldn't come there behaving like you want to. There has to be a behavior setup for the student on the campus. So, to get them to accept that, to come out of that spirit of rebelling, and resisting anyone who wants to direct their life, or order their life, he created military drills in the school of Tuskegee. They had to take military drills. "Attention." We had to take it in the Nation of Islam. "Attention. At ease." And you're not supposed to think. "March. Left, left, left." You know what that "left" means? You aren't supposed to be thinking, you're supposed to be just listening and obeying. That's what that "left" mean.
Start on the left, you start on the left foot. You don't do anything but listen and obey. Don't bring your own mind into it. Start off on the left. See, the left side is the unconscious side, the side you were born with. The right side is symbolic of the conscious side, your mind. "You let your mind be still, sleep and dead. Just listen to the sergeant or to whoever's calling cadence, and just do what he says without thinking about it. That's a soldier, right? That's what you have to do, a soldier in drill. That's what they have to do. You can't be thinking about it, just listening to and obey what he hears.
You better.
I know. He said, "You better." I know, that's right. Or, "Out of the line, you go." And if it was intentional in the Nation of Islam, you might've gone in the back, for a little exercise. And the exercise would be you trying to get away from those licks. So, he didn't even originate that. It was already there in us. That effort was already started for black people, for the betterment of black people. And the military drill was already in Tuskegee. But he brought it into his Nation of Islam. Military drill.
The emphasis on having your own. Do you think that came from Mr. Fard? No. All the nationalist movements had it, and also Drew Ali's movement had it. I'm not saying anything that can't be found, documented. Everything I'm saying to you today, is documented. You can go do your research, the newspapers, magazines will tell you, if you go back to that time, it'll tell you about Drew Ali, about Garvey. All these people I'm mentioning, they are in history, it's documented. The Moorish Science Temple had their own cab line. You hear that? Their own taxi line. The Moorish Science Temple had stores, businesses, and trucks, way back there. In the early '30s, late '20s, and the early '30s. They lost it all. The Nation of Islam lost most of theirs, too, when the honorable Elijah Muhammad died. We lost practically everything. All the material achievements, practically all of it.
Why? These movements that are foreign and alien in the system of the country, they plan for your demise. And it's just a matter of time. They'll catch you at the right time, and they knock you down, and they take everything from you, in the name of taxes or something. They take everything from you. So, it didn't happen to us, and never happened to anybody else. It was just a pattern. And the same thing happened to the Nation of Islam. Now I know what you heard. "Wallace came in and changed everything, and gave up this, and did that." No, I fought for it to the last. As long as you were willing to fight, I was... In fact, I was fighting when your spirit had gone to fight, I was fighting for our property. And I didn't see many ministers in the court with me, either, trying to fight and save the property.
So, you liars, be ashamed of yourself. And the leaders in the Nation of Islam, they had no spirit to fight for it. Because the honorable Elijah Muhammad had told them, “We’re going to lose all of this." That's what he told them. That we going to lose all of this. I was with Farrakhan recently, in fact, just two days ago. At his invitation, I went to his home, and sat with him, we had a beautiful meeting, beautiful time. And he said, "Yes," he said, "Your father said that it had to fall." He said, "But it would rise again." So, he struggled to bring it up again. And he has done a good job. He's added a lot that has accounted for progress for his following, the members of the Nation of Islam.
And his recent position that he's taken, has convinced me that Farrakhan is now in the posture that we should accept, embrace him as a brother. I'm going to Jumua' that they are having, on the 27th, I think. No. 25th or 24th. 25th or 24th, 24th or 25th. And to Farrakhan's address that he'll make, Sunday. On Saviors' Day, the 27th. 27th. Yeah. Because the 26th is Saturday. And on Saturday, I understand that Gaddafi is going to speak. Come in on screen, as he did once before. But I won't be able to make that, I won't be there, Saturday. I don't agree with Gaddafi coming in, speaking to our people.
Now, you say, "Well, how come you going to go to Jumua' and Saviors' Day. You all have to get out of that. You don't have to have 100% in your favor, to join together for the betterment of our people. If you get 51%, man, go. Join the effort. You can do more together, than you can do separate. So that isn't no difficulty. My difficulty is when you perceive G-d wrongly, and you're giving the wrong picture of G-d. That's my difficulty. When you're perceiving human nature wrong, and giving the wrong picture of human nature to people. That's my difficulty. Once you get passed that difficulty, oh man, I'm going to walk with you. You can stick the back out of one side of your head, and then lick it with a tongue coming out of your chest. I'll say, "I'm walking with a strange creature here, but he's going the same place I'm going, and we going to walk together."
Yeah, he got a spirit to go where I want to go, we going to walk together. And I don't see anything in minister Farrakhan, but beauty. I saw him, he's a beautiful man. A beautiful person. I saw nothing but goodness radiating on his face, and in his eyes. The man is free, and he's a great man. And I ask you to support him like I'm going to support him. Yeah, so I don't see anything new. He said, "Insha'Allah, if G-d will." He said, "If G-d wills." That's what Muslims say when they want to say, "I don't know if I can do that or not." When they're doing other risky things, ain't no, Insha'Allah. He's trying to pull this cover over. Yeah, I pulled the cover up and you saw a naked thing. He said, "Over there, over there, over there."
I done met too many Muslims overseas. Never hear G-d come out of their mouth, until you ask them to do something that calls for a little courage, moral courage, Muslim courage. And then they say, "InshaAllah. If G-d wants it, brother. If G-d wills. InshaAllah." That's my friend there, now. I want you all to know I love this brother very much. And he's a big helper to us, and he's a good man. And he's a real believer in G-d. But something in him, he's uncomfortable with me saying, "Let's go and support minister Farrakhan." So he said, "InshaAllah." And I don't have military drill anymore. But, back then when we had military drill, I'll say, "Brother, you're supposed to say, 'I hear, and I obey.'" But that day is out, he can hear and disobey.
The great G-d of the universe revealed to Muhammad that the true believers should say, "I hear and I obey." But when Satan didn't like what G-d was about to do, have a world of mankind, with mankind in charge under G-d, Satan said, "I don't trust human beings with this kind of responsibility." And Allah says that Satan felt proud of himself and much above man. He refused to obey G-d. G-d didn't say to Satan, "Satan, you're supposed to hear and obey." What he told Satan? "If that's your way, then be excused from here." "Get out of this heaven," he said, "and go down into the earth where I'm going to put this man to work out his life. So, get down from here, all you, all together."
He just banished him, but he didn't deprive him of the freedom to do whatever he wanted to do. I follow my G-d and my leader, Muhammad, the prophet. I ain't going to tell you, you're not free to do whatever you want to do. But if you stink up this place that I'm in, man, I'm going to tell you, get down from here. I won't have you stink up the place. The air has got to be healthy. As long as we keep the air healthy, you can have your own mind. We can talk it through. We can discuss it. Some of them have no respect. No respect at all.
You've got to have respect, and I'm not talking to the Imam, he has great respect. Imam Clyde Rahman. We all have to respect each other. I respect all of you, all of my co-workers. They can tell you I respect them. They can speak. In fact, they speak over me, sometimes. They be talking, I can't hardly get a word in edgewise, but that's human and I tolerate that. Sometimes I wish I had a captain in the room to bring order to the room, but we manage and we love each other. We get things done. Yes, and that's the way you all should be.
Depicting yourself as being special, more important than the next person, or having some kind of right to exercise your authority, and your intelligence, and your power for your own benefit. You say, "Well, I'm powerful enough to get all of them to do what I say and not question me. I'm powerful to herd them like sheep, and drive them and put them in the corral like horses or cows. I'm powerful enough to do that. I'm going to do it." No, you should be like me. Too much flattery, I turn it away. That's too much for me. I can't be comfortable with all that credit. I don't deserve all that. I'm not that. You should be like me. With all this freedom I've got, to be your leader, to be your mujeddid. I have the freedom to be your next savior if I wanted to take that freedom. I could introduce myself as the next savior, and you all would have followed me.
As long as I just went and kept soothing you the way you were being soothed, kept satisfying your mind the way it was being satisfied, you would have supported me as G-d in the flesh, but I wouldn't accept that. Right now, I could go out there and start a new movement and do it with a different mind, different intentions and I’d have hundreds of thousands of people giving me hundreds of thousands of dollars every day. Every day. I know I have the ability to do that, but I'm here. The same person I was when my father opened a big attaché case with money in it. Loaded with dollars. He opened it, and had another one that he didn't open. I don't know what was in that one, maybe money or a pistol.
I can't say what was in the other one, but he left one closed. He opened the one that was filled money. Then he started talking to me. He didn't even start talking to me until he opened that attaché case, and let me see all that money that was in there. Because he was trying me, I was there for a hearing. I was being tried for saying that Mr. Fard was not G-d. He said, "Well, son," he said, "this is a hearing." It was no hearing; it was a court.
Because he had secured his judgment on me right there at that table and I left out of the house, banished. Put out of the Nation of Islam. So, it wasn't a hearing, it was a court. He said, "I have Raymond Sharrieff, that was the Supreme Captain. He says, "My son." He said, "is this true Wallace?" I said, "yes, sir." How could you not believe that this is our savior when you know the condition your father was in before he came?" I said, daddy, he's your savior." I say, "but if anything, you are my savior." I knew that would work.
But I knew I was going to get put out. I knew I was going to get put out, I knew I left something there that would work for me while I'm gone. "My boy said I was his savior." I said it very comfortably, because he has saved all of us from a lot of misery, trouble, mental confusion, et cetera. He has saved a lot of us from seeing ourselves as inferior people and ashamed to identify with Africans, ashamed to identify with our black skin and everything, wanting to conk the hair and look like a white man or somebody else other than an African. Wearing makeup, magnolia and all that stuff to make your skin brighter. I know the bad condition that our people were in. And using hot combs till it gets straight, frying that hair, whole house smelling with hair. Smelling like hair and oil, hair and pressing oil. Frying that hair. Smoke signals, smoke going up from the head of the ladies, in the house, burning hair.
You know? So, I knew where it came from. You were my savior, our savior. You know what Reverend Justice Jackie told me once? He said, do you know what we call your father when we meet? He said, we call him father. Now here is Reverend Justice Jackie telling me that they called in private meetings the African American leaders in his association, called my father, father. You know what Minister Farrakhan called my father when I was at his house? He said, your father, he said and then hesitated. He said, and my father. That's true. The honorable Elijah Muhammad knew that the white man had took the position of parent in our life.
I don't think he planned it. I think it's just natural for him, to say, I'm taking that position. And he actually spoke to us like all of us were his children. "You got to get out of these silly habits, shaming yourself in the street, making a fool out of yourself. Stop that ignorance. Clean up yourself. Be responsible for something. Clean up your houses." That's daddy talking with momma support. Oh baby, I'm telling you, we got something. We got something. In my conclusion, what I'm saying to you all is that Mr. Fard put all this together because he knew all of it had power and influence. He also took Du Bois, too. W.E.B. Du Bois, he wanted to see us rise in the society, through the system, though. The honorable Elijah Muhammad gave you a concept of a new order, of a world, a nation of your own. Now you still need to rise up through the system. But now the system is a portable system, it's yours.
You still need to rise up through the system. And he taught us to respect the disciplines of government. To respect the order of government, to respect law. He taught us that. Actually, he was given us the same training or the same sensitizing that Du Bois was given, but not going through the political system of America. But speaking to build your own political order in hopes of one day having your own Nation of Islam. So, he borrowed from all of them. Now this may be disappointing to some of you all. He didn't intend for any of that to live forever. The man wasn't foolish. He knew that conditions were going to improve in America. He knew America's constitution, what it promised all citizens. He knew in time, there was going to be another Frederick Douglas appealing to the white man to live up to the best of his life that he himself sells to the world, this great democracy.
And to live up to the principles and the respect that we see in the best of Christians, in the best of Christianity. Influenced by Jesus and his perfect model of what a righteous person is. So, he knew that in time, these influences would shame the white man out of his ugly behavior and bring about better conditions for all citizens. And especially for African Americans or for blacks. He knew that was coming in time. He knew in time; the uneducated following of the Nation of Islam would have a growing educated elite.
Why? Because he said, remain separate. Don't go to his schools, but build your own schools. And he wanted us to even work for a university, to have a university of Islam. And also he said, study mathematics, study the sciences. He said, study civil engineering and mechanical engineering. Here is in his lessons, is an invitation to us, to really go after higher knowledge, higher skills. So that we'd be in position to manage bigger positions in the society. He himself encouraged us to do that with his own words. So, he knew it was temporary.
He called the religious houses just after the same name that the earlier leader, Drew Ali used temple. Drew Ali calls the places of worship temple. Moorish Science Temple. Fard called his places temples. But look, this man had something else in mind when he called them temples, he had tempo. On time. Something established to be regulated by time. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad didn't, for no purpose, choose at the end of his life, the subject the theology of time. Which most of us haven't understood at all. He chose the subject, the theology of time. In the Bible, understand, I'm coming to the conclusion on Mr. Fard to explain to you just what this man had in mind, just how he perceived himself. In the Bible. It is said of Jesus and coming from Jesus, destroy this temple. Destroy this temple, exact quote, and I will restore it or build it up in three days.
I'm sure the educated Christian leaders in the church, preachers, ministers, pastors, whatever. I'm sure they understand this to mean, where it be referring to Jesus accepted his death. That I'm going to die. Because the temple also is a temple of his body. His body's a temple. That I'm going to die, so he is saying to the world of the unG-dly, you are going to kill me, but it is by permission of my father that you can do this. And I have accepted to give myself as a sacrifice. You're going to kill me, that's okay. Destroy this temple and I will build it up in three days. What did he mean, I will build it up in three days? See I'm inferring that men like prophets, like Jesus Christ, and even many pious, saintly men today who are in different religions. They speak and they speak in their own name, but they also speak in 
G-d's name.
They say, I, referring to themselves and they say, I, referring to G-d. So, when he said, "I will build it up and restore it in three days", he wasn't talking about that man that's going to die. He was talking about the G-d, himself. Talking about G-d. Now you listen to me sometimes, I may say I, and it won't be, you know I'm talking about myself because you know no one has told you that I'm G-d. But I might say, I. I will make, I'm going to make myself a vicegerent, a Khalifa. I said, "I". Now, if you take that and go tell people, “The Imam W Deen Mohammed said, he's going to make himself a vicegerent, going to make himself a Khalifa on earth.
You don't know where that came from. You get it in the next person's hands, then after a while, I'm known to have said that, that's coming from me that I'm going to do that. And that's how a lot of misunderstanding is coming through religion about scripture. People don't understand. They take it out of context. They don't know the full references. They don't know all the references. And they come up with these false ideas about G-d. Jesus never said he was G-d. Jesus said to Peter, he said, Peter, and I'm not here to convert Christians. I'm just here to make free the minds of African Americans. So, we can stand up to the white world and build our world. Yes, we have to build our world.
And right here, we don't have to go anywhere, in this world. In these United States, we've already begun the building of our own world. And it's going to get bigger and bigger and better and better. And it's going to be a model for the other world, for America and the rest of the world. A wonderful model, a convincing model, that will convince them that G-d lives and G-d has erected this and G-d has overseen this. And this is G-d's will. Yes. Jesus, peace be upon him, he said, Peter, who do say? Now, listen to this carefully this is in the Bible. You can go read it for yourself. What chapter, what verse? That ain't, that wasn't my interest. Now you'd have to talk to a pastor, ask one of your pastors to tell you what chapter and what verse.
That's their interest. That wasn't my interest. My interest was just to know, not numbers, but where it was that was there, in the New Testament. He said, Peter, who do you say, I, the son of man am? Exact words I gave you, I'm giving you. Who do you say I, the son of man am? So, Jesus wanted to it to be on record, wanted Peter to understand first that I'm not saying I'm anything but a man, a human being. I'm the son of man. Well, how is he the son of man? Didn't his mother come from a man and a woman? If he came from his mother, then his lineage through human beings goes back to Adam, the first man. And that's what the book of, one of the books of the New Testament tell you. The genealogy of Jesus goes from his immediate mother back to Adam the first man created by G-d. That's Bible.
I imagine you probably got a preacher here. Please don't embarrass yourself and try to argue with me, man. I love you too much to put a whipping on you. And that's exactly what you would get if you try to argue with what I'm saying, nothing but a plain good, A whipping. And I don't mean anything, but a donkey when I say A. I'm talking about a donkey, not the rear end, you'll get a whipping befitting a donkey. I don't expect anything. They love me more than some of you Imams love me. The Christian pastor. Yes. They understand me better than any of you Imams understand me, because they know scripture and understand scripture better than you do. "Oh, you mean you in scripture?" No, but they know the way of G-d in scripture. So, they know when a man is respecting G-d and when a man really knows scripture, and is respecting scripture.
They know that. They've been learned and educated in scripture, in the Bible. Read well, okay. Yes. Jesus Christ never told anybody, said to anybody he's G-d. And it says in the Bible of him, the sent is not, listen to this. The sent is not equal to the sender. That's the Bible quote, word for word. The sent is not equal with the sender, to the sender. And he says to his followers, I am sent into the world by my father. That's what he said. So, he's saying plainly that I am not equal to my father. But yet they have the trinity and they say they're all three in one and all equal with each other. So that's contradictory. That idea of trinity is contradicting the plain language of Jesus Christ in the Bible concerning himself and his father.
And he didn't mean that the father wasn't also every man's father or every human being's father. He also said, "your father who are in heaven". Isn't that what he said? That's in the bible. He was talking about a common father, a father of all of us. "Oh yes. But he was a father in a different sense." Yes. And that's what you don't understand. And you better leave it alone. And just understand that Jesus was a man, a flesh and blood man and he lived and died. He had to be taught. He had to be educated. That's what the Bible says. He had to be educated. The Bible even goes to say something that we don't accept, it says he had to be sanctified. He never had to be sanctified. He was born saintly. That's wrong. Jesus never had to be sanctified. He was born saintly. He was born pure and righteous. He didn't have to be trained in righteousness.
Yes. Praise be to Allah. Okay, so here's Mr. Fard coming in disguise, his own words. Here's his own words. He said, now you see me in the clothes of the savage, the cavvie, the cave man. He said, but you will see me. Now here, he's predicting obviously that he's going to come back. In my royal robe. In my royal robe. Now we had followed like Muhammad, trying to understand we so-called ministers and students of the lessons. We hear that and every one of us don't go any farther than just the physical picture that comes to our eye, a man wearing lee suit, European style. Because that's how he came. His pictures, dressed just like I am. Just this style of dress. Shirt, tie everything. You're picturing a person like that, in that dress. And you were saying, "he's in white man clothes.
Yeah. He's going to come back in his royal robes, brother. Wearing his jalabir, his kufi. His royal robes of the Arab world brother. That's how he's going to come back." That's the picture you got in mind. It doesn't mean that at all. The clothing is the clothing of righteousness. That's what I want to say in Quran. Say the seducer, the Satan, seduced your father to come out of the clothing that G-d put them in. And he says the clothing of righteousness, the clothing of righteousness. So, this man is talking in scripture. He's not talking in the language of the suit makers and suit sellers of your city. He's talking in the language of scripture. When he says that I'm coming now in the clothing of the cavvie, of the savage, he means racism is the idea of the savage. The supremacy of one race of over another is the idea of the savage.
And I come in his clothing. I come in the clothing of racism. Black supremacy. I'm bringing you a reverse of his own idea. I just took him out of the superior position and put him in the inferior position. And put you in the superior position. You are the black and supreme. Whereas before, white supremacy said to you, you are the black and inferior and he's the white and superior. So, he just reversed it in our favor, coming in the clothing of the savage. He said, but you'll see me in my royal robes. He was predicting. That was a prediction. That one day, Allah G-d is going to bless you with the understanding. And you're going see that this was a hidden strategy. And just like the temple wasn't supposed to be established forever, but on time.
And it's going to be destroyed, came into the world to be destroyed. This temple that is Nation of Islam is going to be destroyed. And when it is destroyed, the righteous and innocence in my following is going to study this thing and G-d is going to bless one of them or more than one of them to see me as I am. That really, I didn't want to put myself over G-d, not even over the holy book the Quran. I left my picture with them, me tirelessly reading the Quran. Now why would G-d be reading a Quran? And looking at it with such reverence? And such obedience, such complication of mind and spirit?
He said, he knew that one day we would discover the hidden strategy. Is this anything new? No. Jesus said he would have dyed garments. Dyed garments. And he has the blood of the wickedness on his garments. I'm helping you out preacher. This is gold and silver I'm giving you. And thank my G-d for it. If you think Jesus is G-d, don't thank your G-d for it, thank my G-d for it. The G-d who created everything and even Jesus. He created Jesus, peace be upon Jesus. Now, you have to know what the language of scripture that went before the new language. New language doesn't cancel old language. New language is formed in accordance with old language. The old language says of Joseph who was stolen, who was taken from his life with his rest of his brothers, from his own father's house, a royal house. Taken from that house by his brothers and sold into slavery.
And in the Quran, G-d says that his brothers put animal blood on his garments to make the father think that he had had some ill fate, that animals had killed him. But the old man was wise and had a great spirituality. He sensed spiritually that the sons were lying. He took the garments, looked at them, he saw the animal blood on him and he smelled it and he didn't believe what they were saying. So, the animal blood on the garment means paganism. Paganism on the culture. They're trying to say that your son, Joseph, he's gone to Egypt and he became pagan like them. He got the animal concept and the animal life way. They worship animals in paganism. Although worship man higher, but some of their G-ds, especially in Egypt, their G-ds are put into animal figures. Rams, snakes, other things.
So, when Fard was speaking of him, "coming in dyed garments". There are some around here who know the lesson. "Coming in dyed garments", he's saying the same thing. And when he said that, "you see me now in the cavey's clothes, the caveman's clothes." He's saying the same thing. "I'm presenting myself in his language, in his mind, but this is a strategy. I have a power now for you to fight him with that's equal to the power that he used to subject you, to subdue you. He's subdued you with his powerful image of a white G-d. Now you have the black G-d image of yourself to fight him with. You have equal power. I've given you equal power with your enemies. But it's not the truth. If you really love righteousness, if you really want to find your G-d, as you become more educated and more worldly informed, you're going to reject these myths that I'm giving you.
And when you reject these myths, maybe you'll be the one that G-d will guide. The innocent one. The one that wants not anything for himself but wants to just please his G-d. That one will be rescued by his G-d and G-d will help him in his struggle. And in his role to unlock the mystery, to uncover the strategy and see the myth for what there were", that has happened, that has happened. And we know now that he had a cover strategy.
He said, "I come under the cover of darkness. Darkness, mysteries, myths and mysteries. He come under the cover of darkness. Come as a thief in the night. To do what? To steal a people. Steal them from whom? From their white masters. He stole them, and I thank G-d for letting him steal me and my father, and the rest of us. Now there's another thing. This is my last statement for you today. The last thing. In the Bible, Jesus is reported to have said, peace be upon Jesus Christ. He said, take this person, sick that he found in the way, he didn't have time. He had to go. He didn't have time to take that person to get him in the hospital and be cared for. He said, "take this person to an inn". I-N-N. Take this person to an inn and have him cared for. When I return, I will pay you.
So here is W.D. Fard saying to America, take this sick African-American that I'm leaving with you. Take him into an inn, let him in. Don't put him out. Don't stop him from doing what I put him here to do. And when I come back, I'll repay you. And here he is being repaid through W.D. Mohammed, my imam. Through W.D. Mohammed, my imam, white America and white world is being paid and you get more money than you ever thought you would get. And money is metaphorical, symbolic. They get more profit and gain from studying what has happened, from my father to me, than they ever got before.
Let me tell you this. There are Christian preachers of great minds, great respect and Christians higher up in the leadership of Christianity. They are telling the Christian leadership something has to be done about Christianity. It cannot live and survive the future, unless it makes great changes. That's what they're saying. And the Islamic world are being told by their enlightened Islamic scholars, if something is not being done, if something doesn't happen soon to change Islamic thinking and the Islamic world, it will not survive the future. The future belongs to us.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We praise G-d. We ask him to forgive us our errors, our sins, our shortcomings, and reward us. Give us mercy and reward us with guidance always. Amen. Dear brothers, if there ever was a time for you to be happy as the minister Willie used to say, it is right now, Again, peace, as-salaam-alaikum.




