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IWDM Study Library
Ramadan Mubarak

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker 1:
2008 Ramadan Session will be held September the 19th to the 21st, featuring Imam W Deen Mohammed. Theme: Qur'an Study Session: The Path to Global Conclusion. It will be held at the Cobo Conference and Exhibition Center, One Washington Boulevard, Detroit, Michigan. For online registration, you can go to WDMevents.org or you can consult the Muslim Journal newspaper. We hope to see you at the 2008 Ramadan Session from September the 19th to the 21st featuring Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Thank you.
Imam WD Mohammed:
A car is a transport. Ideas are transports. Ideas limited to self-concerns only are small transports. Small ideas leave one's mind to go it alone. And many of us, too many of us African-Americans have stopped following our religion. We have stopped following the Church. We have stopped following our religious teachers. We have even stopped following the direction given to us by the best of our leaders, and the only remaining person that was leading all of us. And that was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We have stopped following him too. He left us great ideas too, and we have stopped following those great ideas.
Concern for neighborhoods and community is a transport large enough to transport a people and their lives to whatever distance they must go to reach the whole nine yards. Ideas as transports by Professor Fard's estimation, ideas were left to develop us and advance us in nature and in mind and ability so that we come from small ideas to big ideas that are big enough to transport community life to where community life has to go. Big ideas. When he said this car was too weak to make it uphill, he was talking about Capitol Hill and he was talking about our knowledge. Our minds were too small, too weak to make it up Capitol Hill.
It was planned so that our ambitions, we had great ambitions. It was planned, his strategy and ideas were planned so that our ideas would even grow to be much bigger, grow to be much bigger. We grow to be more knowledgeable, and one day come to where we would begin to translate, interpret, or translate his language. He influenced my parents to move from where they were in Detroit and move to a house on Yemen Street. Yemen Street does not bring to mind people who are whites or people who are Americans. It brings to mind people who came from the Middle East where the country Yemen is.
And those people, the people of Yemen, their history goes back into ancient time. They are people of African origin and they managed to build great structures, great houses, great buildings even to have showers. In ancient time they had showers, plumbing and showers. The people of Yemen, the ancient kingdom of Yemen. If you've heard about Queen Sheba. Queen Sheba was the Queen of that land at one period of time. Queen Sheba. And it's called Saba, the land called Saba, and they called it Sheba. In English or in Bible, her name is Saba. Saba. So Mr. Fard chose to have my parents find them a home on Yemen Street.
A street is needed to find a location. If you want to find our house that we were in on Yemen Street, you would have to first find Yemen Street. And after you find Yemen Street, then you proceed to the number, our address. And I believe it was 39 46 Yemen Street. I'm not sure of the 46, but I know it was 39 something Yemen Street. We have persons here right now who lived in this audience, who lived near only maybe five blocks or less from my birthplace on Yemen Street. And they all lived together. And I'm told that there were five families who lived close by one another. And my father and mother was one. Our family was one of those family five, and we lived on Yemen Street.
So what is the message in that? The son of Elijah Poole Muhammad is going to be born on Yemen Street. My hope is that he will help me and his father connect you all back up to your past history and to your past great achievements in your life, in your past, to your great achievements in your past, and help us inspire you to work for such honor, dignity, pride, and success in the world again, that was his hope. A man's mind can be discovered. I don't care how complicated his language was or is. I don't care how symbolic or how esoteric or how mythical his language is. If you are sincere and you don't give up searching, you can study a man's language and discover his mind. His mind. His mind is in his language. His mind is in his expressions. Especially if he has focused his mind on a particular work or task. It's easy to study his language and discover his mind.
Now, I mentioned Milwaukee. Most of you won't understand it, this language. But if you follow me, if you really had faith and you wouldn't close your ears and your mind, I can give you in a matter of minutes what you would have to go to school and study for maybe 10 years. And I mean a particular school that would help you find such language. Yes, Milwaukee. Why do you say mill Mill, Milwaukee? And you listen to the word Milwaukee, you hear mill, you hear walk, and you hear key. I know how to spell Milwaukee, but you hear at the end K-E-Y-K-E-Y. So what are you going to the mill for? You're going to the mill to grind the ideas that appear to be dead like little seeds, but they're not dead.
Life is sealed in those seeds. And not only life is sealed in those seeds, but a pattern for establishing the life is sealed in those seeds. From a seed. The expression, the logic for establishing that particular form of life comes out and grows and shows itself eventually, roots in the earth. And it shows itself eventually as the whole picture, a whole concept, a whole idea, a complete idea develops out of darkness, out of the earth. That its roots went to anchor it so it could grow up, huh? Do you know plants are also compared to faith life. Life of faith. And the Bible has said "f you only had the faith of a grain of mustard seed, you could do wonderful things." You could do things that you didn't imagine that you could do if you only had faith as a grain of mustard seed. So these plants also represent faith, that G-d has caused these things to develop naturally.
Their life and direction for their life is all clocked into their beginning, into their life as a seed that appears to be dead. But if you give it the right environment, the right situation, it will open up and free it's life. And free it's life's logic. Free, it's life's logic and free it's life pattern of growth. And it comes up and it becomes a beautiful thing, visible for all to see. So on the third stretch in our road, in the Muslim road to freedom, real freedom, true freedom for the community, we had to go to the grinding mill and grind and grind and grind and grind.
And when we grind enough, we break the seed down into flour, and then we take the flour if it's wheat grass, the seed of wheat grass, we take the flour and we make bread. And look how you make bread. You add water to it. And if you want the kind of bread that we ate, you add yeast to give it gas or spirit, to give it gas, puff it up, puff it up. And my mother, you know, all the members of the Nation of Islam had to make their own bread. A lot of us didn't obey, but my mother did. And many others from Detroit, they obeyed the teachings of the Nation of Islam and they would make their own bread at home. They wouldn't buy bread. I never ate store bought bread as a boy. I never ate any store-bought bread as a boy. And we were told not to eat white bread. And here many, many decades later, the cancer research departments tell us it's best to stay away from white bread. It can cause cancer.
But we were told it's bleached. We were told that a long time ago, and most of us didn't eat store bought bread. But getting back to the language of Mr. Fard so that we can follow him to where we can establish our community in the light. And as a free Muslim community. He taught my mother and he taught my Aunt Bernstein, who have passed away several years ago of this city of Detroit. Both of them knew him personally. And he visited their home of my aunt and my mother. And he taught both of them how to cook the new food called the Nation of Islam food. No bean pies were back then. That all came much later. Mr. Fard didn't introduce bean pies. And I guess it was because bean soup was enough, and we had plenty of that every day. Every meal had to be with bean soup. And it couldn't be just any kind of bean. What kind of bean It was? Navy. Back on the water. Back on the water. Navy beans.
Yes. She would take that bread and let it rise. The yeast would give it air, spirit and it would rise, puff it up. And she would wait until it got puffed up really good. And I remember her telling us, don't go walking in the kitchen. I got my bread. My bread is in there. I got it rising. Because you shake it, it may go down. And she would take her hands and she'd beat, sometime her fist, and she'd beat that bread down until it's flat again. See some black people, they're so dead, they have to be resurrected at least two or three times.
So she beat that bread, she beat that bread down, and then she wait for it to rise again. And after she'd done that about two or three times, about two times I think, she would put it in the oven and bake it. I'm telling you; I still prefer that bread over all the breads you can give me. I don't want any store-bought bread if I can get one of those whole wheat loaves cooked by one of the MGT sisters. Yes. So we had to go to the mill. He said, if your child asked you for bread, would you give it a stone? That would be very cruel, wouldn't it? Very cruel and inhuman. Your child want bread, you'd give it a stone to chew on. What is this referring to? It's referring to the complicated language that some religious leaders give to their following language that's so difficult to understand it's like chewing on rocks.
You don't only chew with your teeth, you chew with your mind. You don't only swallow with your mouth and your throat, you swallow with your mind. And the expression, "He swallowed it whole, hook line and sinker." That was a big mouth bass or something, I'm telling you. So this man shows us that he did not want us staying where he put us. You start in Detroit like a fish with motor reflexes, not conscious intelligence working for you. And then you go to Chicago, you become a temple of chickens. That's the Minister. That's all he's saying.
And we like to see that male look proud. He put out of his chest. First he flap his arms, "Teach that Yakub history brother." And we got no more out of it than we got out of a rooster crowing across the yard. Then he takes you to the mill, Milwaukee, take you to the mill, and the mill going to get you to walk, and the walking going take you to the K-E-Y. The walking is going to take you to the key. Well, I don't know about you all, but I started in Detroit, the original lessons of Mr. Fard. And my wife used to see me at the table, sitting there with books. I knew that his language was tied to myth, I could see that. In time I could see that his language was tied to myth. Now I'm a young man, but no more than a good strong high school education.
But I'm studying. You'd be surprised what you can find if you just strain the intelligence, it can do wonders. So I'm straining. And my wife, she left me at the table and had to go to bed because I was sitting there and I guess she said, "Well, I've been waiting on him and look like he's never going to go to bed tonight." She wakes up in the morning, she woke up in the morning, she came back down, it's morning now. She found me just where she left me. She said, "Wallace, you've been up all night."
There she is, Shirley, stand up. Oh, you ain't shy. Stand up girl. And that happened for many days and many nights. So it wasn't easy. You think you got a leader that just jumped into a position? No, I worked myself into the position and worked hard, hard, hard. And I got the invitation from Mr. Fard himself. He said, "The harvest is ripe and the laborers are few. Get busy." Huh? Isn't that what he said? Oh yeah. Well, his invitation finally reached me as a young man. In fact, just out of my teens, in my early twenties. And I began to work hard.
So now if my translation is correct, why would he want us to think about going up Capitol Hill? Well, I want to tell you right quick. I want to tell you right now and get it over quick. He wasn't directing us to Capitol Hill for us to beg the federal government for anything. He was directing us to Capitol Hill so we can see how to argue with those in the government who are not ready to give us what was taken away from us. And that was the freedom to be responsible for our families and the freedom that was taken away by plantation slavery, the freedom to be responsible for our families. But once we are free, and every time we make an effort, a strong effort behind an African-American or black leader to really begin establishing community life, there's some scheme and some trick and powerful rich people that come in and just shatter everything we do, beat us down to the ground again, and we have to go and try it all over again. Go and invest in our communities all over again. And every time they see us growing strong, getting strong, they find some kind of scheme, some strategy, urban renewal, something to wreck everything that we have done. Beat us down to the ground and we have to start all over again. And they know that if they do that enough, they kill the faith in our people to follow such leaders. And that's what they have done over the generations. They have killed our faith to follow such leaders who will help us or lead us to economic freedom and economic independence, relatively speaking. We know nobody's independent in any full measure. No, independence has to be relative. It can't be full. The United States doesn't have any independence that it doesn't have to compromise when it comes to other nations, when it comes to the interest of other nations and how the world should shape up. No, right now, we are coming to a One World Order, a global community of all these nations and people, and we have to respect one another. We are not free and not independent to do our own thing without respect for what others want for their lives. This is a great time. I thank G-d that we have survived to live in this time.
So going to Capitol Hill as a Muslim or a follower of Mr. Fard or a follower of the Nation of Islam, we are going there to tell the government, that how did you come to your independence and why did you have to have independence for the original 13 colonies? How come you even went the war to establish that independence? And eventually you won that independence. You became an independent nation, independent of your parent nation across the Atlantic Ocean, British, the English people, the British, huh? Yes. The colonies had to be freed from them. And what was the argument they gave? A people should be able to live their own will. To live their own will.
We are supposed to respect the will of other nations. And they advanced that argument. And they also said that they were entitled to be responsible for their new life in the new world. That's what they wanted, wanted as independence. The right to be responsible for their own life in society, in the new land, in the new world, without it being dictated to them or without them being bossed over by the once parent government across Atlantic Ocean. Now, if the United States of America is proud of that independence won, and proud of the argument used to establish their right to have the independence, it should look at the children of plantation slavery who had their family life taken away from them and who was separated from their African past, their African culture, their sense of history of their own, or history of their own. And they were raised as an uprooted people, uprooted people, suspended in the air and don't know where the roots were or if we ever had any roots at all.


