05/22/1988
IWDM Study Library
The Individual’s Role in Community Responsibility

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Second National United Ta’aleem Conference
United Islamic Centers Hyatt Hotel Los Angeles, Ca

We bear witness that none worthy of worship except the one Lord creator, Allah. Who's name for Muslims, Allah. We bear witness that Muhammad whom the Quran reveals is His servant and messenger. We pray the choices blessings, and peace be upon him and upon his descendants, his family, the righteous, his 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 Masajids- United Centers. I said Masajids; mosques, Islamic centers. My appreciation to you for your efforts in organizing this work.
I speak not for myself, but for the Muslims who support me. Thank you and pray Allah blessings upon all your efforts. That you continue to work harder and try harder for united effort as Muslims in this part of California because I do know that your success here is encouraging those in other states and distances away to attempt the same. For those who have already begun the same kind of work and cooperation, it's an encouragement to them make their efforts better. I had planned to speak on the concerns for Muslims, this particular time that we're living in. I had planned to write out a very thoughtful, address, speech.
However, I did not get a chance to do that. I have been tied up traveling and I just arrived here this afternoon about 3:20, I believe, and I've come a long way. I won't give you the whole story because I don't think you would want to be bothered with it.

It's not an excuse. There's no excuse. It's not an excuse but it's just an explanation that I hope you'll be satisfied with. At any rate, I am very happy to be here. I could have missed tonight also. I thank Allah that I didn't miss tonight; that I am present for this banquet. 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 efforts. My 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. That is if we did something about those concerns.
To arrive at the concern that, first of all, can be supported and established within the light of our religion, the Quran, the Word of G-d, His messenger the 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. Also, I’m striving, I would say because I’m still striving to identify with those concerns that our most able, the most learned leaders have to now also 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 require and what Sunnah the prophet, lifestyle of the prophet requires and also what has been expressed to us and left to us and it continuously coming to us from our most able and learned leaders. Scholars, preachers, Imams, whatever you want to call them. Why? Because if we truly are on solid ground, the Quran attest to it. The prophet's life attests to it and also the guides, 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 concern.
You may say why is that? Because all of us are affected differently in our different situations, in our different localities. As an African-American in the United States of America, I'm influenced by the conditions that affect African-American. 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 kind of political movement, knowing my own makeup.
That's where I probably be, but because I'm a Muslim, an African-American Muslim, in this environment, these conditions affect me differently and because emphasis are different.
Islam, the religion of Al-Islam gives us a different organization of information and specific emphasizes in that organization of information. I hope you understand what I'm saying. That makes it quite different. The difficulty is to see what are the major concerns for Muslims, not Africa-American Muslims, but Muslims and if you're Chinese Muslim or Pakistani Muslim or Egyptian Muslim, whatever or Saudi Muslim in America, whatever, you have the same difficulty. If you don't, then you haven't gotten ready to even think about the subject.
You must experience that same difficulty because you're going to have problems, problems by identifying where the major concern for Muslim if you don't realize that you yourself is a problem.
Yes. The first problem we had 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 emphasis on the Sunnah of the prophet and we experience a lot of that, where our brothers, immigrant Muslims who have come from Islamic countries, Islamic societies where the religion there is all of that society whether it's practiced and they desire it to be practiced or not, it is the accepted order of the society and they come here and would 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 of all of us to practice this religion as it was demonstrated by our prophet. Peace and blessing be upon him. To make our daily prayer 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 of Muslims and the very first Muslim. Now, I'm speaking of the very first Muslim. He led the very first Muslims in prayer and that's how we learned to make our prayers. It’s that condition that made it possible for us to learn our prayer and to pray in the same way. We pray in this way and we are obligated to do that, we are obligated to carry all of the duties of the Muslims, the five essentials of the faith to believe in those essentials of the religion, essentials of the faith. I won’t enumerate them because that's not the point of the address tonight and most of you know that. We are obligated to do that. We are obligated to have Muslim manners, Muslim manners, we are obligated to that. So, when these brothers come among us and they stress that we must practice religion, we just can't say we are 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 a Muslim.
I'm not playing down that, but for them exists a 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, the prophet. That is how we could see this concern of Muslim. That's the instrument. The religion as revealed to Muhammad, the prophet, peace, and blessing be upon him. The religion as lived by Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him we are to see our concern 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 mind to that and we try hard to committed to that, to obedience to the Word of G-d, obedience to prophet Muhammad, to his life, to his lifestyle and to the perfect order that he gave us. Yes. When we attach our hearts to that, then we are able to see the concerns that should be the concern of Muslims. I believe that we only need that to see what should be the concern in any given place in any given time. Well, we have to know that modern circumstances, no, you don't. You first have to know what we are obligated to do as Muslims. When you know essentially 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 opportunities for us or no opportunities for us. We will best able to see that if we first be grounded solidly in the Quran and in the Sunnah of prophet, and peace and blessing be upon him. I thought about these things that I've said for long time. I've been striving by myself, so to speak, for a long time to identify clearly what should be the concerns that we should point out and stress and ask the Muslim to get behind or work with these concerns. Believe me it's still very difficult. After all that, it's still very difficult. But I am sure that we should begin with a concern for the genuineness of the Muslim life. 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 a sober effort. Rational, sober effort. To live the life ruled 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 shouldn't try and copy certain saints among us. No. That leads us astray. If you try to copy a nationality you will go astray. If you try to copy some individual holy man you go astray. I'm not a holy man and if you try to copy me you'll go astray. And I'm not a holy man.

And I'm trying 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 Allah gave you. The prophet Sunnah, will not threaten your individuality. The prophet 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. If you look at a personality like Farrakhan and like myself and like John Muhammad and all these people and others, there are many others more important than these I’m naming.

If you look at these personalities, if look at these individuals, what you're going to copy from them is what they are all about. They are not all about living the light of G-d, they are all about playing tunes that you like to hear. So, when you see me you say, "Hey, my man you are going to play a tune I like to hear." And you go astray every time. What I’m 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. The ideal person lives the word of G-d so perfectly. That you'll 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 is all about, you see what G-d is all about. Don't you know the prophet had said that whoever had seen him had seen G-d. Does not mean he is G-d. No, he is not G-d but you have seen the way of G-d. You have seen the purpose of G-d.
You have seen the aim of G-d for man. If a man wants to see G-d, why does he want to see G-d? If a man wants to see G-d he should hope to see G-d to see what G-d's purpose is for him. That is the only reason why you should want to see G-d. He wants to see what G-d has purposed for him. Now if a fool wants to see G-d, no, I'm not telling how many reasons there might be.

The prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him, peace be upon him, he demonstrated to us G-d's will, G-d's purpose in the life of man and society. We are not chosen for that. We are chosen to follow. We are chosen to believe in G-d and to follow His word, to believe in His prophets and to follow His prophets. We are chosen to follow. And that we have to accept and that’s what we all should 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 any models, it's a waste of time. I can tell you because I'm 54 years old approaching 55 and I've spent most of this life looking. All right. That's the truth. G-d's truth as the people 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 short time that we are here on this earth. Now, some of us make a mistake of going to extremes and we don't recognize that we are 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 and 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. I believe if it wasn't for the conditioning that I received as a follower of Elijah Muhammad may Allah forgive him all his sins and give him paradise. That I would have been perhaps lead into one of these far away orbits and perhaps I would have never got back. I perhaps would have been buried, way out in space somewhere because well-meaning people. I believe they were good people. I love them, I still love them. I love them now as much as I did even more. They were well-meaning people, but they had a fear of the world that caused them to stress too much 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's my Imam too. They say I’m their Imam, he is my Imam. In fact, every good Imam is my Imam. Imam Siddiqi he brought to our attention two extremes. Capitalism in this 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 combine both concerns in the proper way, in the best way. Concerns for the individual and concerns for the community, for the collective body. Those are two extremes capitalism and communism that take man away from his life, away from his natural life, and his natural purpose here in creation, takes them 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 the trade between nations, people and nations, as a moral good that had its own way, if it was allowed to proceed naturally, that has its own way of bettering the quality of life for the individual 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 this betterment, whether it be 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. “But how come it hasn’t done any of that”, you may say. Well, look, if Adam Smith was alive today, we give him a fair chance to come up and defend this case.
I believe he will come up and defend his case, and he can 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 have been a great force in motivating man toward better character, to better human concerns. Yes, why? Because this movement is an environmental movement essentially, isn't it? It’s essentially an environmental movement. And as it improves, it is going to bring about condition that are conducive to the freedom of the individual, in terms of his moral life, in his intellectual life, his moral life, in his intellectual life, not to mention his political destiny and all those things. Are you following me?
Audience: Yes sir.
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, and then bring all of these other things to conform to the demands of a 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. Yes, on Friday the prayer, call the prayer, Allahu Akbar.
If the man is in his business, he hears Allahu Akbar. You may say “Oh Allah is bigger. Allah is bigger relating to all other deities. Allah is bigger than the pagan deities”. No, that's not what it says, it says Allahu Akbar, Allah is bigger, period. And we know that the pagan deities it’s only a symbol for something that he attached himself too. And if we allow you to go on with your own business without knowing Allahu Akbar, pretty soon your business will be a deity. You’ll say “O brother, put that fish deities, take the fish deity bother, that's right, and that’s what made all the money for me. Oh, make that fish god”.

Because some of us, we thought fish was gold. Black man become rich in fish as gold. It wasn’t quite gold but it was good business for the peddlers. I’m not criticizing for the sake of criticism, but I'm saying that in hopes that your mind is much bigger now, that you want to be more than just fish peddlers. Dear people, if we understand what Allah asked of us, that when the Friday prayer, when the call for the Friday prayer is made, respond to it, leave off your business, answer the call of G-d, come to the Jumu'ah. This is in the Surah by that title, Jumu'ah. Come to the Jumu'ah, leave off business, come to the Jumu'ah.
That same Surah that ask or require that we leave off business, to pray to G-d, and then give our minds to his guidance. The same Surah tells us also when this Jumu'ah service is over, disperse back into the avenues, the activities of business. Here is Allah, our Lord telling us to come away from business to give your attention to what I require of you. And then He tells us when it is over, go back to business. That’s balance, isn’t it? 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 or not. The man in the house are responsible as Imams in the house.
The man in the house is supposed to be Imam in the house. He's supposed to follow the prayers. He's supposed to lead the prayers. That's why there's no clergy in this religion, do you hear that? No clergy in this religion, no priest order in this religion. I’m going to repeat this even if I have to 10 times. No clergy in this religion. You don't get no special license plate.

You don't get no special parking permission, you can't break a law that other people are obligated to keep, no. You getting no special bow. I don't have to call you when I want to get married. Hear that? I don't have to call you to get married, you don't marry people. You don't do that to recite Quran and preach. You don't marry anybody. Well, you didn't know that did you?
Yes, no clergy. You heard somebody say, "Imam married us." "I never married nobody." 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 read your vows themselves, and your marriage would 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 challenge me when I conclude. There's no clergy in this religion. There is no clergy. Every duty of this religion can be performed by someone who's not an Imam. If the Fridays comes and there's nobody to lead the Jumu'ah, you don't have to have an Imam.
If there's a brother who knows the religion, he knows how to recite the Quran, he knows how to make the prayers, he knows how to make the Jumu'ah 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. So, it’s not a certificate, it's not formality, it is not some kind of a ceremony that makes a 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 the Imams may mean different things to different people. In Iran, an Imam would mean much more than I'm able to even understand.

But I don't try to because I'm tired of wasting time.

We pray Allah's mercy and forgiveness upon him and that Allah guide us to the straight ways, that's all, and accepted 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 Muslim-- I hope you're understanding what I'm saying. These are the concerns that we have to address. “Hey the Imam said he going to talk about..., 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, et cetera, and they have their drama.

Their heavy psychology, that's theirs. That's not ours. We have to find what is ours. Ours is not a heavy drama. No. Anytime a minister preaches hard and he leaves you dizzy headed or he leaves you tipsy like you've been drinking, would be as wrong if you 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. If we’re not doing that, something is wrong. Now I remember the time, when I was all into to something.

All I'd 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 the son of a long train of preachers. And now I'm in this religion without complete or good understanding. I'm just in it, and I'm told to look for the needle in the haystack.

And to put some pants on the elephant.

I'm told to do these things but I'm not given any guidance. No instructions, just do it. Well can you imagine how hard that is? Okay, so here I am, standing before you and preaching. I said put the pants on the elephant, while I'm finding the needle in the haystack. Then I just work so hard, worked so hard and when I got through, I was really dizzy.

Then a brother comes to me and then say, "All praises are due to Allah for you brother Minister. All praises are due to Allah for you brother Minister." He'd walk away, his eyes shaking. 
Then I'd say, "Well, it sure feels good."

But that was a burden. That was a burden, great burden on us. It felt good, but it was a great burden, and you don't know it until the hangover, right? Say “well here is the price for drinking”. 
And pretty soon if you got any good fiber in your system, in your makeup, you say, "I'm tired of drinking. I’m going cut this out. I hate these hangovers”.

Then you may realize one day I'm going to drown. Say, "I'm going to drown." You're going to drown." 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 family. Yes. Allah says, "Save yourself and your family from hell fire." Allah requires it of us. 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 of Jesus that's bad.
They tell us that you have to be willing to separate from momma and separate from this and 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. This religion doesn't ask 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've found by studying it emphasizes, relationships. 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. Is that correct? I tend to philosophize, 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. In this religion, strengthens for us, respect for relationships. I have my concern that should be a secret concern. That should be a-- what they call it, a corresponding concern.
A concern that should be corresponding with this concern. You see? All right. We have concerns for many things. Allah wants us to have concern for our family. 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 tie. "Reverence," He says, "Reverence the family tie." Look at the language. Reverence the family tie. 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 until the Reverend eats."
[
Maybe he'll eat a wing or something.

Children, no, you can't eat now, the preacher hasn't. The preacher is coming, when he has finished we can-- okay, so we reverence the preacher, don't we? You know out there in the street I'm talking about. Reverence the preacher. Allah says, "Reverence the family tie." Reverence the family tie. Now, I'd go so far as to say that when Allah most high said He created everything zawjain. Zawjain. Nothing has been created single. Allah is the only single. He exists before eternally singularly, but He has created everything zawjain means "couples". Pairs. Everything. And the science of biology, the science of physics, they all tell us zawjain.
Biologist, he says, yes, there are pairs. The physicist, he tells us, "Yes, there're pairs. Operating in the physical matter." All right. So, we know they have borne it out through their studies that everything in this physical world operates in a relationship. There are relationships for everything, everything in pair. Now, we must live also with a respect for pairs. Male and female. Husband and wife. Yes, but more than that, in me, too, are twin forces. Forces that are twins. 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't understand them as twin forces, but you'll understand the force.
They are forces that should be married. They are forces that should operate together as pairs. If you have a spiritual life, a spiritual interest, a spiritual motivation, and it's not corresponding to also a material one, something is divorced that should be married. Not only that. I would go so 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 are 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 relative.
I don't mean you have to have a father, a brother, a mother, a sister like that in that sense. But if you go there with only spiritualism and no worldly achievements, you're going to be in a bad shape there. If you go there with just a left hand and nothing to account for in this hand, you're going to be in bad shape there. That hand will not keep you from falling to hell, you'll be grabbing and grabbing and falling down to hell just like that. You will need something in this hand.
Yes. You'll need achievements in this life, that's what I'm saying. 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 approach correctly, plainly and simply, every one of us will say, "I want achievements in this life." Everybody wants achievements in this life. That's the nature of us to have achievements in this life, and our religion has come to us to encourage us to go after achievements 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 betweens. It's better than its beginning.
It's better than this life the end victory, but how will you get to end victory? Hasn't G-d given us this particular chance in the world as an opportunity 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 achieved in this life. If they achieved nothing in this life, they have nothing to look for in the end. This has been the preaching of the prophets. This is not 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 intend for you. Work for a 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 to get, 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. Every prophet has stressed that. That you must have deeds not just faith. You must have deeds, but faith is very essential, too. Faith. I'm attempting now, and I hope I'm not going too far behind let me put the watch in my hand, I better hold it in my hand. Faith is important, and faith is a condition. Precondition, prior condition. Faith is a prior condition for the exercise of good deeds. Faith, because without faith, you're not going to able to consistently follow good deeds. Not without faith. You can try it forever.
You will never be consistent in your good behavior without faith. Impossible. Faith is a necessity, it is a prior condition and a necessity, and it is a life. We know that. Faith is the real life. The hereafter is the real life, not this. We know that. G-d has told that and we know that, but you must get there by and exercise of the muscle that G-d has given 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 won't have to worry about the end reward because G-d has given us this. This opportunity to be here as the chance for the end. This is the chance for the end, and the only chance for the end. That's the teachings of the prophets. That's what it's all about. Unless you have deeds. Some of us think we can just go religion or faith and live on blind faith and get the Holy Ghost and feel good, 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. Muslim, 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 this dope problem is now, on the city, on the neighborhood, without talking about the old burden of poverty, and joblessness and all these things.
Discrimination against women and all that kind of stuff. Without talking about any of that. If we can just 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. I shouldn’t come here and read you a lot of data and 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 mind and your sight fixed as Muslims, you will know what to do about all of these things.
If 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 give special attention to the requirements in our religion, all these other things will disappear just as they appeared. They appear 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 purpose as Muslims.
That's what I’m convinced of. And I know sometimes they say, “How come the Muslims don't-- How come the Imam don't talk around the issues anymore? How come the Imam are not talking about discrimination? All these things, and pressure on the Black man, and pressure on our women, and discrimination of the sexes and all this stuff. How come the Imam won’t do that? Because I have learned that it is 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.

You discover that the heaviest thing I have to carry is my own self. 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 the road of pettiness. Yes. 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 deserves and learns to manage his mind, he's able to manage his own mind, he then lives a consistent life. That's the trouble with the west.
The west sensitizes the people. It sensitizes the subjects, the people, the citizen to do everything but manage their own mind. In fact, the thing that’s feared most in the west is individual taking upon himself the responsibility for his own mind. What does Allah say to us? O you who believe, on you is responsibility for your own self. When you accept the responsibility for your own self- now, that means I have to get out and get a job when I get 21. No, it means before then.

It means I have to get married and have a family, yes. It means that, it means all of that. I agree with those Muslims who are saying and not just some of the Imam. In fact, some from more-- The Muslims from the general community, then from the scholars, or the Imam. 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 Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. You will understand that really, we are not expressing, or not really respecting if we had the faith, we're not really respecting the faith in us if we start saying I’m going to have two children. “Well honey we are 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 lives of the people of the prophet, you'll know that you're not thinking right. A Muslim should not be counting children. "We're going to have two." Why only two? Why only two? Where did you get this idea? When you were in the south, you don't think that way. Now, up north the white man pays to many on welfare and to many knocking at that door asking for a job, the white man says, we can't stand no more. 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-- what do you call them? Pro-creator? Baby maker. Let him exercise great discipline as a baby maker. Since its a dollar problem. You’ve got all the dollars, you discipline your own sex." I haven't been able to meet match you in the discipline of business, I ain’t going to try and match you in the discipline of sex. You go on and limit yourselves two if you like, but I pray G-d bless me every time I get one. I'm going to say, "G-d, there's 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 have a child, "Oh, G-d, why you curse me with another." They didn't have anything, but 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 nature of the economic man to want more and more sons. More and more sons mean more and more workers. "Yes, but we don't have jobs now, we just have more and more people without jobs." Well, maybe you get enough of you all without jobs something will be done about it.
Maybe we need more of our men without jobs, for something done real about it. I’m serious. I’m very serious. If you were 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. Now, dear people. If we follow the ways of the west, of America, and the west, and 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 the influence of the world. But if we say to ourselves, "We're 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 mind that many of you have. No, we could have children, but we should look for that corresponding concern, that is a concern that should be naturally mated to that concern. And the concern that is naturally mated to that concern is the concern as a father, to be a call for opportunity in their life.
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 is 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. 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 will be very bad, it will 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 you are going to have big families, qualify for that responsibility. “Well there is 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 an answer. As the need grows, the pressure grows on you to find an answer. We ain’t going to solve our problems and become more dignified as African-American men by reducing the number we have in our families by cutting our families down to two children, or a family of three or four or five something like that.
That's not the way to go solve the problem. We're going to solve the problem by accepting responsibility to take care of our own children. Reducing them is not going to make it better for us. Increasing them is going to increase the burden. And as the burden increases and it’s going to alarm somebody, yes, let the burden continue to increase. It's going to alarm somebody. Maybe that certain brother, he may continue to be lazy, neglect his family, but as the burden increases, it's going to become a heavier burden on the whole community.
A heavier burden on the welfare, a heavier burden on the nation.
The nation, they just can't do nothing about it, like they're saying. They're saying now, they can't do much about it. "We just can't afford to do anything about that. We told you all to use some of this protection. You won't use protection, and the thing is, it's your problem." And that's the way it should be put, it is our problem. Having African-American families is an African-American problem. An African-American responsibilities shouldn't be called a problem. It's an African-American responsibility. Having children and having wives, and having children is an African-American responsibility if it's an African family, African home, African-American community. It's our responsibility.
We should accept our responsibility, and I'm telling you, let's have more children. Let's have more children. Let's have more children, multiply them. Don't forget when a new baby comes, whisper in the ear, the Adhan. and whisper in the ear Al-Fatiha. Don't you worry about them understanding it. Allah has guided us to the tradition of our prophet and the learned people in our religion to do that, so let us do that. Don't worry about them understanding. “No baby can understand that at that early age”. The psychologist says the baby is most impressionable during the first months of their life.
During the first months of their life, not the first year. The first month. What happens during the first six months of the life is more critical for the child. If you drink and act crazy and cuss 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. Sixty years, I don't know how long the child lives. If we whisper into the child's ear what Allah has instructed us, inspired us to do, through the teachings of the prophets and the learned teachers 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 would be tied to what was whispered in the ear of the child. Have faith, have faith and believe in what we're all about as Muslims. Believe in the Muslim way of life, have faith in it and do it. Somethings we must do purely upon faith, purely upon faith.
Don't let your baby hear all that loud boogaloo stuff and whatever it is they call it nowadays. All that noise and mess. You've got to figure out something, you can't keep it out of the house, it's there, and they're addicted to it and you have to really go to jail to correct it.

The situation can get that serious. Look, you're going to have this child 24 hours, and I know it's going to pouring into his ears because you're not going to stop this mess, this TV and radio, records and all this mess. Say, look, our religion requires- sister or honey or whatever you call your wife. Or whatever you call your husband, because sometimes, he's the weaker. In fact, they are saying now, they are 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're bringing all kinds of scientific proof to back that up. I don't know who I should be talking to now.

Anyway, if both of you can't come together, at least one, the stronger of you, please. Say, “Look our religion asked us to do this. The first thing this baby as soon as it's born, the first thing he's going to hear in his ear is the Adhan in the right ear, and Al-Fatihah in the left”. Wouldn't it be wonderful? Wouldn't it be wonderful? Science tells us that the two halves operate differently. The left hemisphere and the right hemisphere of the brain and everything. One doctor told me, he was examining me to see if I was fit for a job. If I wasn't fit, I would come back and at least, hit him in back of his head. He wasn't getting off because I need the job just that bad. And I did about 20 raka’as to get it.

I prayed, and I had prayed hard, that Allah bless me with that job. And he starts talking about something about my posture. He said, "Do you know your posture's off?" I said, "Huh?"
I said to myself, "Here go this white man coming with this stuff and I’m trying to get this job. I’m going to come back here and I would wait for him and, whop”.

He said, "Yes, look at yourself in the mirror”. And sure, enough it was off! He kind of chuckled and he said, "Everybody's like that." He said the left side is different from the right side. "You never noticed it?" I said, "No I didn't." And I was mad. I didn’t tell him, this isn't no foolishness, this is real.

Anyway, I got the job, praise be Allah, I got the job. I got the job. But he brought something to my attention. We have to understand that. So, don't be afraid to trust what Allah has revealed. Now don't ask why the Athan has to go in the right ear, and Al-Fatiha in the left. Don't ask why. Just have faith and do it. Don't you know that that's blind faith? Yes, Muslims should have some blind faith. That's right. Everything begins in the night. That's what I was taught, that's the way I understand it. That's the way it was explain to me. Everything beginning in the night, and then day comes. I know one thing you wasn’t involved in it. You we're in the dark and then night comes.
Everything begins in the dark, and the faith, true faith begins in the dark. Trust G-d. That's all we have to do, trust G-d and understand. Everything that's asked of us in this religion has a rational basis. Everything. But it's 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 was told to you in this religion is not based upon superstition. Nothing that's asked of us in this religion is based upon magic or superstitions. Understand that.
So, if you been asked to pray or to whisper the name of G-d, or the Adhan in the right ear and the Al-Fatiha in the left ear of your baby at the moment of their birth into this world, then do it with faith. But understand that is not based upon superstition or any kind of witchcraft, magic, or anything of that sort. It has a rational foundation. Though we are not ourselves, blessed to have an understanding. Dear beloved people I’m going to conclude this now. By saying to you and I wish I can go on, because I'm not running to talk fast like that, or bring things right quickly and together like that.
I kind of wander about when I'm talking and talk on a stage for so long, till I think that has been watered well, then I go on to the next. 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’m going to bring it to a conclusion by saying this. If we put the attention where it's due, and that on what Allah asks of us as Muslims in the Quran, and in the teachings of life of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and 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 their race is, or the nation is, or time. It can be now, or years gone, or years to come, we'll be successful in achieving what we have to achieve if we keep that focus, keep that focused, keep that important, keep that in-- What G-d has revealed in the Quran and what He has left for us as in example, in the teachings and behavior of our prophet, peace be upon him, then we will be able to find the features of our religion.
If you could 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 these different religions, but they are distinctly different. They are different from each other. The features that are in our religion are not the same as the features of other religions, not Christianity, not Judaism, not any of these religions. Our features are distinct. They're different and 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, you're saved. Believe me, the most important thing in this religion is obedience. Obedience. Obedience. Every Muslim should be striving for obedience. Strive for obedience. To obey, the requirements, 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.
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're in the religion but we're ignorant.
The experiences that we had before in this world have made us ignorant. Our senses are ignorant, not only is our mind ignorant. What do I mean by that? Not only are we without knowledge, but we are without the ability to have intelligent sensitivity, intelligent sensitivity. Why? Because experiences in the world that we thought was religious has sensitized us to be ignorant in our senses.
I’m sure you are following what I'm saying. Our senses are ignorant and understand that. You will have a good feeling about something, but that doesn't mean that feeling is intelligent, that feeling makes you ignorant. You have a bad feeling about something, it doesn't mean that that feeling is correct, that feeling may be ignorant. It is your past experience that has conditioned you to feel a certain way that is responsible for your ignorance, or for your intelligence. Believe me, the situation, the environment, pardon me, that is most conducive to ignorant sensitivities is this so called free environment that we live in, the Western society and civilization. It is a society that breeds ignorant sensitivity, ignorant feeling 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 patients with these people. You wonder, "Then 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 have the mind to feel right before they can think right. They have to feel intelligently before they can think intelligently. If we work on the problem long enough, we get the sensitivity to respond. Once the sensitivity responds, then the intellect it comes to life as Allah created everything from water. Every life begins in water. So, if it's not there baby, it isn't going to be on the land.

