01/22/1988
IWDM Study Library
U.C.L.A University Los Angeles CA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
As-Salaam Alaykum. Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. We begin always with Allah's name. Bearing witness that He is One, the Lord of all creations and there is none besides Him. And that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed is his servant and Messenger. And we pray the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and upon his descendants and family, his companions, the righteous all and upon us be peace. Ameen.
I always feel very grateful for the opportunity to address such a special occasion in the entrance of our religion, our Muslim nature and character. And in the interest of our community, the one community and our separate community within that one community, the Ummah of Al-Islam. However, at this particular time I'm aware of the duty of Muslims to pray a Maghrib prayer and we always make accommodations for our prayers
So, at this time it was requested that we take out five or 10 minutes to do our Maghrib prayer and I believe that perhaps there is a place or not? Yes, there is a place so we will have Maghrib prayer and immediately after Maghrib prayer inshallah we'll return and then I hope to address you for about 15 or 20 minutes Insha’Allah. Thank you.
We bear witness that none is worthy of worship except the One Lord, the Creator, Allah. Name for Muslims, Allah, and we bear witness that Muhammad whom the Quran was revealed is his servant and Messenger and we pray choice’s blessings and peace be upon him, upon his descendants and family, the companions, the righteous and upon us be peace.
Again, I must say thank you to the Muslims and their leaders in this California area. The United Islamic centers. My appreciation to you for your effort in organizing this work. I speak not for myself but I speak for the Muslims who support me.
We thank you and pray Allah's blessings upon all your efforts. And that you continue to work harder and strive harder for united efforts as Muslims in this part of California. Because I do know that your success here is encouraging those in other states, in distances away to attempt the same. And for those who have already begun the same kind of work and cooperation. It's an encouragement to them to make their efforts better. 
I had plans to speak on concerns for Muslims in this particular time, that we're living in. And I had planned to draw out a very thoughtful address, speech. However, I did not get a chance to do that. I have been tied up travelling and just arrived here this afternoon about 3:20, I believe. I've come a long way. I won't give you the whole story, I don't think you would want to be bothered.
It's not an excuse but it's just an explanation that I hope you'll be satisfied with. At any rate, I'm very happy to be here, I could've missed tonight also. I had a lot of business tonight but I'm present for this banquet and, if G-d Willing, I will say something that will be appreciated by you tonight.
I have for some time been striving hard within my own self. What I mean by that, my own private efforts, my own private thoughts. My private thoughts, when I’m alone to myself. Striving to arrive at concerns that would do the most for us if we respected those concerns and that is if we did something about those concerns. To arrive at concerns that first of all can be supported and established within the light of our religion, the Quran, the Word of G-d, the Messenger His Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and to all believers. And the lifestyle, the life habits, the lifestyle of our Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him.
I'm striving, I would say, because I'm still striving to identify those concerns that our most able and most learned leaders, past and now also would approve. Because we are not satisfied, that is the believers. We are not satisfied until we feel that we are on solid ground in terms of what Allah's Book requires, and what the Sunnah of the Prophet, the lifestyle of the Prophet requires. And also, what has been expressed to us and left to us and is continuously coming to us from our most able and learned leaders. Scholars, preachers, Imams, whatever we want to call them.
Why? Because if we truly are on solid ground, the Quran attest to it. The Prophet's life attest to it and also the guided, the ones among us who have been guided by G-d they also attest to it. They will support it. And it's not easy to identify the most important concerns. And you may say, “why is that?” That is because all of us are affected differently in our different situations, in our different localities. As an African American in United States of America, I'm influenced by the conditions that affect African Americans. I'm influenced by conditions that affect African Americans that are believers in this religion.
I make that distinction, simply because if I were not a Muslim, I don't think I would be affected as I am. I would be affected differently. Maybe I would be a hard worker, in the civil rights movement or in some political movement, knowing my own makeup. That's where I probably would be, but because I am a Muslim, an African American Muslim in this environment, in this condition, affects me differently, because my emphasis is different. Al-Islam, the religion, of Al-Islam gives us a different organization of information and specific emphasis in that organization of information. I hope you are understanding what I'm saying. So that makes us quite different.
The difficulty is to see what are the major concern for Muslims, not African American Muslims, but for Muslims. And if you are a Chinese Muslim or Pakistani Muslim, or if you are Egyptian Muslim, or whatever. Or a Saudi Muslim in America whatever, you have that same difficulty. If you don't, then you haven't yet gotten ready to even think about the subject.

You must experience that same difficulty. Because you are going to have problems identifying one of the major concerns for Muslims is, if you don't realize that you yourself is a problem.

Yes, the first problem, we have to overcome is ourselves. We ourselves constitute the biggest problem we have. We have to get beyond ourselves to see what is the problem for Muslims. Some may want us to put more emphasis on the Sunnah of the Prophet. And we experience a lot of that where our brothers, the immigrant Muslims who have come from Islamic countries, Islamic societies, where the religion there is the order of that society. Whether it's practiced as they desire it to be practiced or not it is the accepted order of the society. And they come here and they would right away like to see us resembling them in their practice of the religion.
I'm not criticizing that; I couldn't do that. Because that is an obligation on all of us, to practice this religion as is was demonstrated by our Prophet peace and the blessings be upon him, to make our daily prayers as he made them. Because we didn't know how to make those prayers until he taught us until he led us in the prayer. I'm not speaking of myself now, I'm speaking about the Muslim and the very first Muslim. Now, I'm speaking of the very first Muslim, he led the very first Muslims in prayer. That's how we learned to make our prayer. It's that condition that made it possible for us to learn our prayer, and to pray in this same way.
We pray and we are obligated to do that. We are obligated to carry out all of the duties of Muslims. The five essentials of the faith. We believe in those essentials of the religion, those essentials of the faith. I won't enumerate them because that's not point of the address tonight and most of you know them. We are obligated to do that. We are obligated to have Muslim manners; we are obligated to do that. So, when these brothers come among us, and they stress that we must practice the religion, we just can't say we're Muslims but we must be Muslims in our actions, we must be Muslims in our habits. They are emphasizing something that is a must in the life of all Muslims.
So, I’m not playing down that, but for them exist the problem and that problem is seeing the concern of Muslims through their own eyes. We have to see the concern of Muslims through the Quran, the word of G-d and through the Sunnah of the Prophet. That's how we're able to see the concern of the Muslim. That's the instrument, the religion as revealed to Muhammad the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. The religion as lived by Prophet Muhammad peace and the blessings be upon him. We are to see our concerns in the light of that.
And when we attach our minds and our hearts, I should say our hearts and our minds and our hearts. The heart first and the heart last. When we attach our hearts and our minds to that. And we strive hard, committed to that, the obedience to the word of G-d, obedience to Prophet Muhammad to his life, to his lifestyle and to every order that he gave us. When we attach our hearts to that, then we're able to see the concerns that should be the concerns of Muslims.
And I believe that we only need that to see what should be the concern in any given place and in any given time. “Oh, well, we have to know the modern circumstances”, no you don't.

You first have to know what we are obligated to do as Muslims. When you know exactly what we are obligated to do as Muslims, then look and see what the world presents. Whether it presents hope or no hope, whether it presents opportunity for us or no opportunity for us, we will best be able to see that if we first be grounded solidly in the Quran, and the Sunnah of the Prophet peace and the blessings be on him.
I thought about these things and I've said for a long, long time. And I have been striving by myself so to speak for a long, long time, to identify clearly what should be the concern that we should point out and stress, ask the Muslim to get behind, to work for these concerns. Believe me it's still very difficult.
After all that it's still very difficult. But I'm sure that we should begin with a concern for the genuineness of the Muslim life. The Muslim life should be genuine. It shouldn't be a pretense. It can't be a pretense; it shouldn't be a blind effort or a fanatical effort. It should be a rational and sober effort. Rational and sober effort to live the life approved by G-d and demonstrated in the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. It should be a rational and sober effort. We shouldn't have to copy anybody unless it's the sunnah of the Prophet. We shouldn't try to copy another nationality; we should try to copy a certain saint among us. No, that leads us astray.
If we try to copy the nationalities you will go astray, if you try to copy some individual holy man you will go astray. I'm not a holy man, if you try to copy me you will go astray. And I'm not a holy man.
And I have tried my best to tell you that, do not copy me. I'm not fit to be copied. No, I'm not. I'm not fit to be copied. Look, the most precious thing you have is your individuality that G-d gave you. That's the most precious thing you have, your individuality that G-d gave you. The Prophet’s Sunnah will not threaten your individuality. The Prophet’s Sunnah will enhance, improve, will help you get into more of your individuality. Because his Sunnah is not his personage, his Sunnah is his discipline in the light of what G-d revealed.
But if you look at a personality like Minister Farrakhan, like myself and like John Muhammad and all these people, you know, and others. And many others are more important than these I'm naming.
If you look at these personalities, look at these individuals, what are you are going to copy from them, is what they are all about. And they are not all about living the light of G-d, they're all about playing tunes that you like to hear.
So, when you see me, you know, you say, “Hey, there goes my man, he is going to play a tune I like to hear”.
And you go astray every time. What am I saying? I'm saying that Prophet Muhammad was the ideal person. The Ideal person. The ideal person in the service of G-d. The ideal person lived the word of G-d so perfect that you never see him, you see the word of G-d. You don't see his personal choices, you see G-d's choice. You don't see what he's all about, you see what G-d is all about. Don't you know the Prophet has said? “That whoever has seen him, has seen G-d”. That doesn't mean he's G-d, no, he's not G-d. But you have seen the way of G-d, you've seen the purpose of 
G-d, you've seen the aim of G-d for man.
If a man wants to see G-d, why does he want to be G-d? If a man wants to see G-d, he should want to see G-d and see what G-d's purpose is for him. That's the only reason why you should want to see G-d, he wants to see what G-d's purpose is for him. Now if a fool wants to see G-d, oh, no telling how many reasons there might be.

For the Prophet Muhammad, peace and the blessing be upon him, he demonstrated to us, G-d's will, G-d's purpose in the life of man and society. And we are not chosen for that. We're chosen to follow. We're chosen to believe in G-d and to follow His word, to believe in His prophet and to follow His prophet. We're chosen to follow and that's what we have to accept, and that's what we all should all understand.
The best we can do is be good followers. Our perfection is in following to the best of our ability. That's our perfection. Don't look for anymore, it's a waste of time. And I can tell you because I'm 64 years old, approaching 65. And I've spent most of this life, looking. All right? That's true. That’s the G-d's truth as the people will say. I have spent most of this life looking and I'm still looking, but I'm looking now without wasting so much time.

Before I wasted a lot of time. When we come to the right attitude in ourselves, regarding the proper respect for the word of G-d, and the life pattern of Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon him, things begin to clear up for us. The path begins to get easier for us to walk. And we start to understand better what we should be doing in this little short time that we are given here on this earth.
Now, some of us make the mistake of going to extremes and we don't recognize that we're going to extremes. For example, some will be so afraid of the temptations in this environment, in the non-Muslim environment that they will go to extremes in urging you to give yourself to the spiritual life, of the religion. So much so that they will cause you to neglect the wholeness of this religion. The wholeness of the religion. I've faced that difficulty in my life, and I believe if it wasn’t for the conditioning that I received as a follower of Elijah Muhammad, may Allah forgive him all of his sins and give him his paradise, that I would have perhaps, led into one of these far away orbits and perhaps I wouldn't have ever got back. I perhaps would have been buried way out in space somewhere. Because well-meaning people, I believe they were good people. I loved them. I still love them. I love them now as much as I did then and even more. They were well-meaning people but they had a fear of the world that caused them to stress too much a spiritual life for those people that they were inviting to the way of Allah.
The speaker before me our dear brother and our Imam, he is my Imam too. They say I’m their Imam, he's my Imam. In fact, every good Imam is my Imam.
Imam Sadiq, he brought to our attention two extremes. Capitalism is democracy, its emphasis on the individual and Communism, its emphasis on the community, on the state. He brought us to understand that the community that G-d chose is the midway community, the one that combines both concerns in the proper way, in the best way. Concerns for the individuals and concerns for the community, for the collective body.
Those are two extremes. Capitalism and Communism that takes man away from his life. Away from his natural life and his natural purpose here in creation, takes him away from that. I'm aware that Adam Smith who has been called the father of capitalism saw business, commerce, trade. Especially, business in the market place and trade between nations, people and their nations as a moral good, that had its own way, if it was allowed to be naturally, that has its own way of bettering the quality of life for the individuals and for the society.
He saw it as a process that would bring man closer and closer to the excellence that is inherent in every person that would make men more trustworthy, that it would eventually make men behave better towards each other. He saw the process of capitalism, the process of business, capitalism, working to bring about this betterment of the human being.
Now, I don't totally disagree with that. Do you think G-d has created us to avoid business, to avoid industry? No, G-d has created us for business, for industry. He has created us for this and if G-d has created us for this, then it must be something to aid the process of our life for his betterment, whether it's moral betterment, intellectual betterment or any other kind of betterment. It must be something that is good for the betterment of man in the total sense of man's needs.
Yes. That's what I believe. "Well, how come he hasn't done that?" You may say. Well, look, if Adam Smith was alive today, if we gave a fair chance to come up and defend his case. I believe he'd come before us and defend his case and he could prove to us that the progress of business, the progress of capital, the progress of industry and all these things that we see as material life, the progress of these things has been a great force in motivating man towards better character, towards better human concern.
Yes, why? Because this movement is an environmental movement, in the sense of it, isn't it? It's essentially an environmental movement. And as it improves, it is going to bring about conditions that are conducive to the freedom of the individual in terms of his moral life and his intellectual life, his moral life and his intellectual life, not to mention this political destiny and all those things. Are you following me?
Audience: Yes.
So, our religion does not condemn this interest in this, but it wants us to do everything in service to Allah who made all of this possible. And as long as we keep the demands of our religion before us, and then we bring all these things to conform to the demands of the religion, we are on solid grounds. So, we shouldn’t play down the importance of the material world or play down the importance of industry and business. No. We should call men to industry, call men to business but tell them what we always tell them, Allahu Akbar. Uh?
Audience: Yes.
Yes. The call to prayer, Allahu Akbar. If the man in his business he hears Allahu Akbar, now says,
"Oh, Allah is bigger. Oh, this is related to deities. Allah is bigger than the pagan deity”. No, that's not what it says. It says Allahu Akbar. Allah is bigger, period. And we know that the pagan deity is only a symbol for something that he attached himself to. And if we allow you to go on with your business without knowing Allahu Akbar, pretty soon your business will be a deity.
“OH, Brother, put that fish deity. The fish brother, that's what made all the money for me. Oh, make that fish G-d”. Like some of us, you know we thought fish was gold.

“The blackman going to become rich, the fish is gold”. It wasn't quite gold, but it was good business for the peddler. Now I'm not criticizing for the sake of criticism. But I’m saying that in hope that your mind is much bigger now. That you want to be more than just fish peddlers. Yes. Dear people, if we understand what Allah ask for us that when the call to Friday prayer is made respond to it. Leave off your business. Answer the call of G-d. Come to the Jumah. This is in the Surah by that title, Jumu’a. Come to the Jumu’a. Leave all business. Come to the Jumu’a.
The same Surah that has required that we leave all business to pray to G-d and to give our minds to His guidance, the same Surah tells us also, when the Jumu’a service is over, dispense back to resume, the avenues, the activities of business.
So, here is our Lord telling us to come away from business to give your attention to what I require of you. Then He tells us when it is over, go back to business. Huh? That’s balance isn’t it? Yes, that’s balance. Now, in our religion, we know we are obligated to be a community, we are obligated to our families, our men, whether you know it or not. The men in the house are responsible as Imams in the house.
Audience: Allahu Akbar.
The man in the house is supposed to be Imam in the house. He's supposed to call to prayer. He's supposed to lead the prayer. That's why there's no clergy in this religion. You hear that? No clergy in this religion. No priest order in this religion. I'm going to repeat this I have to do so 10 times. No clergy in this religion. You don't get no special license plate.
You don't get no special parking privileges. You can't break a law that other people are obligated to keep. No. You get no special bow.
I don't have to call you when I want to get married. You hear that? I don't have to call you to get married. You don't marry people. You don’t do nothing but recite Quran and preach. You don't marry anybody. Now you didn't know that, did you?
Yes. No clergy. I hear somebody say, “Yeah, the Imam, married me.” No, I never married anybody. I just read the Quran appropriate for the occasion and heard your vows as a witness.
You could have read the Quran yourself or a member of your family could have read the Quran themselves and they could have heard your vows themselves and your marriage will have been as good in heaven as the one I perform. Now if I'm not standing on solid ground, I want to see someone who challenge me when I conclude. No clergy in this religion, there's no clergy.
Every duty of this religion can be performed by someone who's not an Imam. If the Friday comes and there's no one to lead the Jumu’a, you don't have to have an Imam. If there's a brother who knows the religion, if he knows how to recite the Quran, he knows how to make the prayers, he knows how to make Jumu’a, the khutbah, he is just as qualified and his delivery is just as good as any Imam. In fact, at that time, he is the Imam.
It's not a certificate. It's not formality. It is not some kind of a ceremony that makes the man qualified in this religion. It's what he has in his heart and what he has achieved by faithful study. Yes. Now, we know Imam may mean different things to different people. In Iran, Imam will mean much more than I am able to even understand. And I don't try to because I'm tired of wasting time.
I just pray Allah’s mercy and forgiveness upon him. That Allah guide him to the straight way, that's all. And accept him as a Muslim and pray he gets better with old age.
That's very difficult, but I still pray for him. Yes.
Now, dear beloved Muslims I hope you're understanding what I'm saying. These are the concern that we have to address. “The Imam said he was going to address our concerns.” These are the concerns that we have to address. These are the most difficult things for us in America. We cannot pattern ourselves after the order of religious America. They have their church, they have their clergy, they have their ministerial order, their priest order et cetera.
And they have their drama, and their heavy psychology, that's their, that's not ours. We have to find what is ours. Ours is not a heavy drama, no. Any time a minister preaches hard and he leaves you dizzy headed or he leaves you tipsy like you've been drinking, he copied somebody else. He didn't copy the Prophet.
Prophet didn't make people dizzy; he didn't leave people tipsy. He cleared up heads. He made people able to stand more solidly and to walk without wavering. Yes. So, if you're not doing this, something is wrong. I remember the time when I was all in to something. And all I ever knew was preaching. My grandfather was a preacher, I think His father was a preacher too. I'm almost sure. My father was a preacher, so here I am, his son, of a chain, a long chain of preachers. And now I'm in this religion without completely and a good understanding, I’m just in it. I'm told to look for the needle in the haystack and to put the pants on the elephant.
I'm told to do these things but I'm not given any guidance, no instructions, just do it. Well, imagine how hard that is. Okay, so here I am standing before you and I’m preaching. And I say, “I’m going to put the pants on the elephant and find the needle in the haystack.
And I just worked so hard. When I got through, I was dizzy. And this brother comes to me and says "All praises to Allah for you brother. All praises to Allah for you brother minister." And he walked away feeling good.
I said, "Well, it sure feels good." But that was a burden.
A great burden on us, you know. It felt good, but it was a great burden. And you don't know until the hangover, right?
You say, “Well, here is the price. Here is the price to drink”. And pretty soon, if you got any good fiber in your system, in your makeup, you’ll say, “I’m tired of drinking. I’m going to cut this out. I hate these hangovers.”
So, you may realize one day I'm going dry. You say, “I’m going dry”. Then you go and dry out. Well, let me get back on the point. Now, if we can avoid these extremisms, we can accomplish much. If we can avoid extremism. Allah requires of us that we love our relatives, and that we respect our relatives, that we value the family. And that we take it upon ourselves to work for the good destiny of our families. Allah says, “Save yourselves, and your families from hell-fire.”
Isn’t this a wonderful religion? It doesn't tell us like some people. I'm not blaming the Christians, but a lot of things have happened in the name Jesus that's bad. They tell us that, “you had to be willing to separate from mama and separate from your brothers and your sisters and everything and see families broken up”. That's not the way in our religion. First of all, you should be concerned to see your family in a good condition.
You should want your family in a good condition. And this religion doesn’t anything of us that Allah hasn't already created for us, in us and for us. We should want to see our families in a good condition. This religion I found by studying it emphasizes relationships. For everything is a relationship. I'm not here by myself, I have relatives. If I have a concern, that concern even has a relative.
No concern is without a relative. Isn't that right? You know, I tend to philosophy. But I call it just plain sense talk. No concern is without a relative. No person is without a relative. No concern is without a relative. And this religion stresses for us respect for relationships. I have my concerns, there should be a corresponding concern. A concern that should be corresponding with this concern. You see?
So, we have concern for many things. Allah wants us to have a concern for our families. If you want that concern to be served best, then you must put concern for Allah and His messenger before your family. Now we should love Allah, the Lord that has told us to reverence the family ties. He says, “reverence the family ties”. Look at the language, reverence the family ties. We reverence a special preacher. Reverence so and so, and we reverence him. We give him special treatment. We'll tell the children, “we have to wait to the Reverend eat.” So, we reverence the preacher, don’t we? You know out there in the streets, I’m talking about. We reverence the preacher. Allah says, “reverence the family ties”. Reverence the family ties. Now, I go so far as to say that when Allah, the most high says, “He created everything zawjain”. Nothing has been created single. Allah is the only single. He exists before eternally, singularly, but He has created everything zawjain. It means couple, paired. Everything in pair. The science of biology, the science of physics, they all tell us, zawjain. Biologist says, yes, they’re are pair. The physicist, he tells us, yes, they're pair operating in the physical matter.
So, we know they have born that out from their studies, that everything in this physical world operates in relationship. There is a relationship everything, everything pairs. Now, we must live also with respect for pairs. Male and female, husband and wife. But more than that, in me too are twin forces. Forces that are twin, or maybe you can't understand the twinness of these forces. I call them twin forces. The spiritual force and the physical force.
I call them twin forces, but maybe you can understand twin forces, but you got to understand the force. They are forces that should be married. There are forces that should operate together as pair. So, if you have a spiritual life, a spiritual interest, a spiritual relation, and it's not corresponding to also a material one, something is divorced that should been married. Not only that, I would go as far as to say, the only chance of going to heaven is to go there with a relative.
Now we know that G-d is going to raise us up bare and alone. In the judgment, we're going to stand bare and alone. Yes, you have to stand bare and alone, but if you don't have any relative, you're going to be in bad condition there. Now, what do I mean by that? I'm looking at the broad vision of relatives. I don't mean you have to have a father, a brother, or a mother, a sister like that, in that sense. But if you go there with all spiritualism, and no worldly achievement, you're going to be in bad shape there.
If you go there with just a left hand, and nothing to account for in this hand, you are going to be in bad shape there. That hand will not keep you from falling to hell. You'll be grabbing and grabbing falling down to hell just like that. You will need something in this hand. You need achievements in this life. And every one of us, no matter how ignorant we are, no matter how culturally deprived we are, no matter how backwards we are, every one of us, if we were approached correctly, plainly and simply, every one of us will say, "I want achievement in this life."
Everybody wants achievement in this life. That's the nature of us to have achievement in this life. And our religion has come to us to encourage us to go after achievement in this life. Although we know we're not to put emphasis on this life above emphasis of the hereafter. We know that. We know that the end is better than all between. It's better than this beginning. It's better than this life here, the end victory. How will you get the end victory? Hasn't G-d given us this particular chance in the world as opportunities to earn the end victory. So where am I to prove myself?
Am I to prove myself out of the world or in the world? If you understand what the prophets have been teaching the people, all down through the history of the prophets, you’ll understand this, that the prophets have been calling the people to two interests, to two concerns. To the concern for the spiritual urge in their life, and to the concern for the material urge in their life. And that they should not expect to earn the end by looking only to the end.
They should look to the end expecting the end upon what they achieve in this life. If they achieve nothing in this life, they have nothing to look for in the end. This has been the preaching of the prophets. This is not the preaching of one prophet, this is the preaching of the prophets. That you should work for the end life. That's what you should work for. Work for reconciliation with your purpose that G-d intends for you. Work for the chance to be in heaven, in paradise, to be before G-d, in His presence, approved by Him and accepted by Him.
This is the end that we want, but G-d has given us something as a test. He's given us the opportunity to earn it. You just can't get it; you have to earn it. And every prophet has said that. That you must have deeds, not just faith, you must have deeds. But faith is very essential too, faith. I am attempting now, and I hope I'm not going too far beyond the time. Let me get my watch in my hand, I'm better hold it in my hand.
Faith is important, and faith is a condition, a pre-condition. Faith is the prior condition for the exercise of good deeds. Faith, because without faith, you are not going to be able to consistently follow good deeds. Not without faith. You can try forever; you will never be consistent in your good behavior without faith. Impossible. So, faith is a necessity, it is a prior condition, it is a necessity, and it is the life, we know that. Faith is the real life. The hereafter is the real life, not this, we know that. G-d has told us that and we know that, but you must get there by and exercise of the muscles that G-d has given to you for this side of life.
He's given you physical muscles, He's given you moral muscles, He's given you intellectual muscles, He's given you spiritual muscles. He's given you many kinds of muscles, and you must exercise those in a real-life situation at home, by yourself, or with your wife, or with your husband, or with your family members. You must exercise all of these tools, these instruments. You must put them to good use in this life, and if you put them to good use in this life, you don't have to worry about the end reward. Because G-d has given us this opportunity here, and the chance for the end.
This is the chance for the end, and only chance for the end. That’s the teachings of the prophet. That's what it's all about, unless you have deeds. Some of us think we can just go to religion and live on blind faith and get the Holy Ghost and feel good, and go on back in the world, no conscious effort, no continuous conscious effort to be made. No. You have to use your brain. You have to use your intelligence. You have to keep your brain, your intelligence at work. You have to set these instruments to work for the end goal.
Muslims, then should be utilizing every resource he has in his life.
He should be utilizing it and putting it to work in this life in order for him to get the big prize at the end in the next. That's what our concern should be. Now, without talking about how many teenagers are getting pregnant, without talking about how big the dope problem is now on the city, on the neighborhood, without talking about the moral burden of poverty, and joblessness, and all these things, and discrimination against women and all that kind of stuff, without talking about any of that. If we can stick with what we have been hearing so far, and let our minds keep going in that direction, we will know where to put our emphasis.
And I shouldn’t come here and read you all a lot of data, a lot of statistics on how many babies are dying, what is the rate of life for the old people now, and how many men are out of work and all that. All that stuff is good, but it's a waste of time if you don't have your sight fixed right as Muslims. Once you get your minds and your sight fixed as Muslims, you'll know what to do about all of these things. And these things have come about without us giving any special attention to them. We haven't given any special attention to making more girls pregnant earlier in their life.
We haven't given any special attention to make people want to depend on narcotics. We haven't given any special attention to that. If we gave special attention to the requirements in our religion, all these other things will disappear just as they appeared. They appeared without us giving any special attention to them, and they will disappear in the same way if we give special attention to our life and our purpose as Muslims. That's what I'm convinced of. And I know sometimes they say “how comes the Muslims don't, how come the Imam don't talk on the issues anymore? How come the Imam don't come out here and talk on the issues anymore?
How comes he is not talking about discrimination and all these things, especially on the blackman and pressure on our women, discrimination of the sexes and all this stuff? How come he is not?” Because I have learned that it's a waste of time. The devil has his own business. Satan, the devil, has his own business. You get mixed up in his business, you are out of business. So, let us strive hard as Muslims to carry the heaviest burden, which is the management of our own selves. You’ll discover that the heaviest thing I have to carry is my own self. And believe me the management of your own mind is much better than the management of the United States of America. Because if you can't manage your own mind, and you are put in a position to manage the United States of America, you will carry the whole United States of America down. A man who can't manage his mind, he's a man that's given to foolishness. He's given to foolishness. He's given to irregularity. He's not consistent.
But once a man learns to manage his mind, and then he's able to manage his own mind, he then lives a consistent life. And that's the trouble with the west. The west sensitizes the people, it sensitizes the subjects, the people, the citizens, to do everything but manage their own minds. In fact, the thing that's feared most in the west is the individual taking upon himself the responsibility for his own mind. And what does Allah say to us? “Oh, you who believe, on you is the responsibility for your own self.” When you accept responsibility for your own self, now you may say, “Oh, does that mean I have to get a job when I turn 21?”
No, it means before then. “It means once I get married, and have a family?” Yes, it means that. It means all of that. And I agree with those Muslims who are saying and it’s not just coming from an Imam and it's in fact coming from more of the Muslims from the general community than from the scholars or the Imams. They're saying Muslims should ignore this fear of population, population explosion.
Muslims shouldn't be concerned with that. And if you really read Allah's words and follow the teachings of His prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, you'll understand that really, we are not expressing, or not really respecting. If we have the faith, we are not really respecting the faith in us, if we start saying, "I want to have two children." Well, honey, we going to have two children and that’s all.
If you're thinking that way, if you really know the word of G-d, and the life teachings of the prophet, you know that you are not thinking right. Muslims should not be counting children. “We're going to have only two”. Why only two? Where did you get this idea? When you were in the south, you didn't think that way. Now up north, the white man says, "Too many of you on welfare and too many you have been knocking at the door asking for a job."
The white man says, "We can't stand no more”. Or you can't stand no more? Since he exercised great discipline as a businessman and we haven’t. Let him also exercise great discipline as a, what do you call it? A pro-creator? A Baby-maker. Let him exercise great discipline as a baby-maker. Since its a dollar problem. You got all the dollars. You discipline your own sex. I haven’t been able to match you in the discipline of business; I'm not going to try to match you in the discipline of sex. You go on and limit yourself to two if you like. But I pray G-d bless me every time I get one, I’m going to say, "G-d, there is another blessing."
That's the way of the southern people. That was the way of our mothers and fathers in the south. They didn't look at child and say, “Oh, G-d why did you curse me with another?” They didn't have anything. The more children they got, the more they were able to manage. It didn't make life more difficult for them. Big families managed in the south better than small families. And don't you know it's the nature of economic man, to want more and more sons. More and more sons mean more and more workers.
Now, you’ll say, "We don't have jobs now. We’ll just have more and more people without jobs." Maybe if we get enough of you all without jobs something will be done about it. Maybe we need more of our men without jobs for something to be done real about it. I'm serious. I'm very serious. If you will trust G-d, Allah says, "He provides for all. For you and them. Do not kill your children for fear of want. For Allah, He provides for you and them.” This is the teachings of G-d to us. Now, dear people, if we follow the ways of the west, and America, and say, "No," or even in the communist world now, and say, "No, we can't have more because we can't afford it."
Whose influence are we following? The influence of the world or the influence of the revelation? We're following influence of the world. But if we say to ourselves, who are not following the influence of the world, we will have children. Now, as I said, everything has its corresponding part. So, that concern for having children should be coupled with a concern for being able to provide for them. So, I’m not here saying that we should just have children, and keep the same old minds that many of you have.
No, we should have children, but we should look for that corresponding concern. There is a concern that should be naturally mated to that concern. And the concern that is naturally mated to that concern is a concern as a father to be a cause for opportunity in their life. And if you don't have any establishment, you don't have anything to your credit as a job, as a business, or some kind of involvement that’s profitable for you, then you are not fulfilling the obligation. And you are just bringing people in the world to be a burden on somebody else.
And don't worry, they'll be taken care of. Allah provides for all. They'll be taken care of, but what will be your situation before Allah? It'll be very bad; it'll be very bad. So, while I ask you to forget about this, what do they call it? Planned parenthood. While I'm asking you to forget about that and leave that to them. Let them have that. That’s their invention, let them have it. I'm also asking you to qualify for that responsibility. If your going to have big families, qualify for that responsibility. “Oh, but there are no jobs, it’s a bad time.” No. What have we heard? Necessity is the mother of invention. I believe it. Necessity is the mother of invention. You get more need; you're going to find the answer.
As the need grows, the pressure grows on you to find the answer. And we aren't going to solve our problem and become more dignified as African-American men by reducing the number we have in our family, by cutting our family down to two children, or a family of three or four or five something like that. That's not the way we're going to solve the problem. We’re going to solve the problem by accepting responsibility to take care of our own children. And reducing them is not going to make it better for us. Increasing them is going to increase the burden. And as the burden increases, it’s going to alarm somebody. 
Yes, let the burden to continue to increase, it's going to alarm somebody. Maybe there is a certain brother he will continue to be lazy, neglecting his family. But as the burden increase, it's going to become a heavier the burden on the whole community. A heavier burden on the welfare. A heavier burden on the nation. And the nation is going to say we just can’t do nothing about it.
In fact, they’re saying that now, “we can't do anything about it”. Well it will get to point we can't do anything about that. Say then, “we told you all to use some of this protection. You won't use protection, well then, it's your problem”. And that's where it should be put. It is our problem. Having African-American families is African-Americans' problem. The African-American responsibility shouldn't be called a problem, it's the African-American responsibility.
Having a wife and having children is the African-American responsibility if it’s an African family, African home, African community, African-American community, it's our responsibility.
So, we should accept it as our responsibility. I'm telling you, let's have more children. Let's have more children, multiply them. And don't forget that when a new baby comes, whisper in the ear the Athan. And whisper in their ear Al-Fatiha. And don't you worry about them understanding it. Allah has guided us through the tradition of our prophet and the learned people in our religion to do that. So, let us do that, and don't worry about them understanding. You say, “Oh, a baby can't understand that at that early age”.
Psychologist says the baby is most impressionable during the first months of the life, during the first months of their lives, not the first year, the first months. What happens during the first six months of the life is most critical for the child. So, if you drink, and act crazy, and curse each other out, and do all that during the first six months of that child's life, you have terrible damage following down the next six years and more. Or 60 years or however long the child lives. So, if we whisper into the child's ears what Allah has instructed us, inspired us to do in the teachings of the Prophet and the learned leaders of this religion, we will be giving that child something that is indelible.
It cannot be erased from the mind. The child won't understand the connection, but behavior down the road will be tied to what was whispered in the ear of the child. Have faith, have faith in the least, and what we're all about as Muslims. Believe in the Muslim way of life, have faith in, and do it.
Some things we must do purely upon faith, purely upon faith. Don't let your babies hear all that loud boogaloo stuff and whatever it is they call it nowadays. All that noise and mess. You know, sometime you can’t keep it always out the house, it’s there and there addicted to it. And you have to really go to jail, to correct it.
So, the situation is just that serious. So, you tell them you say, “Look, you're going to have this child 24 hours, and I know what your going to be pouring in its ears. Because you're not going to stop this mess from being played on the radio and records and all this mess. Look, our religion requires sister, or honey or whatever you call your wife. Or whatever you call your husband. You tell him too. Because sometimes he's the weaker.
In fact, they are saying now, they’re really telling us now, they’re really telling us loudly, that the woman is genetically better prepared for survival in the world than the man. They bringing all kind of scientific proof to back that up. I don't know who I should be talking tonight.
But anyway, if both of you can't come together at least one. The stronger of you, please. Say, “look, our religion asks us to do this. And the first thing this baby, as soon as it comes, the first thing he's going to hear in his ears is the Athan in the right ear, and Al-Fatiha in the left. Wouldn't it be wonderful? And science tells us that the two halves operate different. You know, the left side and the left hemisphere, and the right hemisphere of the brain.
One doctor told me, he was examining me, to see if I was fit for a job. If I wasn't fit, man, I was going to come back and at least hit him in the back of his head. Because I needed a job just that bad.
And I did about 20 rakats to get it. And I had prayed and prayed hard that Allah bless me with that job. And he starts talking about something with my posture. He said, "Do you know your posture's off?" I said, "Huh?"
I said, “this white man coming with all this stuff while I’m trying to get a job. I’m going to come back here and I'm going to wait for him and, whap.” He said, “yes. Look at yourself in the mirror.” And sure enough, I saw that it was off. I kind of chuckled and he said, “everybody is like that.” He said, the left side is different from the right side”. He said, “you never notice, that did you?” I said, “no I didn’t”. I didn’t tell him, I said to myself, “man this ain’t no foolishness, this is real”.
But anyway, I got the job, praise be to Allah, I got the job. But he brought something to my attention. And we have to understand this. So, don't be afraid to trust what Allah has revealed. Now, don't ask why the Athan has to go in right ear, and Al-Fatiha in the left. Don’t ask why, just have faith and do it. You say, “Oh, that’s blind faith”. Yes, Muslims shouldn't have some blind faith. That's right. Everything began in the night, right? That's what I was taught, that's the way I understand it, that’s the way it was explained to me. Everything begins in the night and then day comes. I know one thing you weren't born seeing.
You we’re in dark and then light come, right? Everything began in the dark, and the true faith begins in the dark. Trust G-d. That’s what we have to do, trust G-d. But understand, everything that is asked of us in this religion has a rational base, everything. But it is not to us to understand it all. None of us are qualified to find the rational basis for everything, but everything has a rational basis. So, do what is told to you and understand that whatever is told to you in this religion, it’s not based on superstition. Nothing that is asked of us in this religion is based upon magic or superstition, understand that. So, if you've been asked to pray and then whisper the name of G-d or the Athan, in the right ear, and the Al-Fatiha in the left ear of your baby the moment of their birth into this world, then do it with faith. But understanding that it's not based upon superstition or any kind of witchcraft or magic or anything of that sort. It has a rational foundation, though we are not ourselves blessed to always know and understand it. Dear beloved people I want to conclude this now by saying to you, and I wish I can go on. Because I'm not one to talk fast like that, or just bring things quickly together like that. I wonder about when I’m talking. Talk on a thing for so long until I think that it has been watered well, and then I go on to the next.
Really, I regret that because of the time here, I regret that I can't go on because I could go on and I would love to go on and do a better job of rounding this up. But I want to bring this to a conclusion by saying if we put the attention where it is due and that is what Allah ask of us Muslims in the Quran, and in the teachings of life Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
If we really attach ourselves to that, and try to learn more and more about our life and how we should live it, in the light of that, we will be successful. We will be able to identify priorities no matter what the town is, or the race is, or the nation is, or the time. It can be now, or years to come, we will be successful and achieve what we have to achieve. If we keep that focus, keep that importance, keep that emphasis on what G-d has revealed in the Quran, and what He has left for us as an example in the teachings and behavior of our Prophet, peace and blessings be on him.
Then we will be able to find the features of our religion. See religion, if you can picture religion in its wholeness, religion has its unique features. The features of Islam or Al-Islam properly, are not the features of Christianity. The features of Al-Islam are not the features of Judaism. You'll find certain features in common for all of these different religions. But they are distinctly different, they're different from each other. So, the features in our religion are not the same as the features in other religions, not Christianity not Judaism, not any of these religions.
Our features are distinct, they're different, they're distinct from others. You will see the character of your religion. We should know the character of our religion, the characteristics of our religion, the essential characteristics of our religion. When you're able to sense that, see that, perceive that, you're in good condition, and no one has to worry about you. No. No one has to worry about you, you're saved. And believe me, the most important thing in this religion is obedience. Obedience. Every Muslim should be striving for obedience, strive for obedience. To obey the disciplines of this religion, strive for obedience. How many of us strive for obedience? I'll tell you how many. The number that has real faith. Because if you don't have real faith, you have no spirit to strive for obedience. So, the number that has real faith, they are the ones who strive for obedience. And that's what you should strive for. Many of us are ignorant. We are in the religion but we are ignorant. The experience that we have before in this world, has made us ignorant. Our senses are ignorant, not only is our mind ignorant.
What I mean by that? Not only are we without knowledge, but we are without the ability to have intelligent sensitivity. Intelligent sensitivity. Why? Because the experiences in the world that we thought was religious had sensitized us to be ignorant in our faith. So, our senses are ignorant and understand that. You will have a good feeling about something, but it doesn't mean that feeling is intelligent, that feeling may be ignorant. You'll have a bad feeling about something, it doesn't mean that feeling is correct, that feeling may be ignorant.
And it is your past experience that has conditioned you to feel a certain way, that is responsible for your ignorance, or for your intelligence. And believe me, the environment that is most conducive to ignorant sensitivity is this so-called free environment we live in, the western society and civilization. It is the society that breeds ignorant sensitivity, ignorant feel for things. Yes, it corrupts the senses of the individual. This is a fact. It corrupts our senses. That's why I have so much patience with these people. You wonder, “how come he doesn't stop?”
I don't stop because I know they can't think right until they feel right. They have to learn to feel right before they can think right. They have to feel intelligently before they can think intelligently. So, if we work on the problem, if we work on the problem long enough, we get the sensitivity to respond. Once the sensitivity to respond, then the intellect could come to life. Allah created everything from water. Every life begins in water. So, if it's not there, it ain't going to be on the land.
Now, I conclude this by again saying, let's not respond to the demands of the issues of the world. We know their issues. Let us respond to demands of the issues of our religion. And once we do that, then we can go ahead and make progress dealing with all the problems that we are to face in this world.
And we pray to Allah for success, and pray the peace and blessings forever be upon Muhammad, the prophet, and his followers, his family, his descendants, his family, his companions, the faithful righteous people in this religion and everywhere. Ameen. As-Salaam Alaykum

