02/15/2000
IWDM Study Library 
Speech - Tuskegee AL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
I pray for him and my mother all the time. Yes, I do. I pray for their soul. I believe in the eternal life and I pray for their soul.
I think I'm more an African than I am an American. I do. The more I live, the more I realize I'm an African, an African. I am an African. I am. That doesn't mean I'm not a citizen of the United States. I'm firstly a citizen of the United States. That's a government. That's different, but people and continent, I'm African.
Praise be to Allah. Yes. The community of the prophet peace be upon him, was the community center. The Mosque of the prophet, correction, was a community center. That center was made a school. That center was made of rail stop station. That center was made a city hall, a place for the council. Yes, sister, you would've met right there in the prophet's mosque. If you were one of the political leaders of his time, you would've met right there in the mosque of Medina, the mosque of Enlightenment, the light of the light in the cities of enlightenment, Medina Al Munawwarah.
In the city of enlightenment, you would've met there and you would have been given a space there, and time there, to discuss the political issues. You would be meeting with leaders like yourself to improve the political life of the Muslim society. That place was everything. He made it a center for all these, so really a mosque is not just a place to pray and since that is not just putting yourself physically down on the floor. Brother Imam, it says that it's not just putting your full hand and face down on the floor. How do we know that? G-d said to the angels, who were not open to his invitation to them, to accept that he created Man on earth and give that Man responsibility for himself and his descendants, and his environment.
They thought that that wouldn't work, because the human being has had a notion to agree and disagree, to obey and disobey. They were not believing in human beings and G-d was. That's another thing we have to know. G-d is a believer and a believer doesn't mean believing like we believe only. Believing means a trusting one, because now that I believe in you, that means I trust you. G-d is not a believer in that sense that we usually take the word 'believe', but G-d is a Trusting One and He's called Al Mu'min. That's one of His names, the Believing One or the Trusting One, Al Mu'min. The Imams know this. If He's called a Trusting One, why is He called that? Because he trusted Man to obey Him and arrive at the destination that G-d created him for. He trusted Man to do that. Gave him freedom, freedom of mind, freedom of will, freedom of choice. He trusted. The angels didn't understand. They didn't have the knowledge G-d had. They were frightened by this and in our holy book, they said this would cause bloodshed.
They feared killing and violence, etcetera. G-d says, "Wait until I have inspired him of My own spirit". G-d acknowledged them, that yes, the Man I'm going to create with free will, freedom of choice. Yes, he's going to shed blood. He's going to do these things, but he's going to also earn my Grace, my Mercy and my Grace, and I'm going to inspire him of My own Spirit. My own Spirit has become his spirit. My own Will has become his will. Then you, what he told him to do, he says: "you make sajdah to him."
So, we make sense only to G-d, we know that, but the angels were told to make sajdah to a Man, when he is following the will of G-d, when he's in the spirit that G-d wants for him and following the will of G-d. G-d told the angels to make sajdah to Him. Do you think they make the same sajdah that you make? You think they put their foreheads on the ground, like we do? No. What does it mean? It means surrender completely to My plan for Man and serve Him with no hesitation. That's what it means. "Fall you down all together", is what G-d said. That means without hesitation, fall you down all together, and such accepting My will.
So, the sajdah is more, more than just us putting our foreheads to the ground and nose to the ground, palms down and everything on our knees, and the masjid. The masjid are called 'said masjid', after the word sajdah them masjid. The word 'mosque' comes from 'sajada'. It means to make sajdah there on the ground. So, the mosque is a place for sajdah, but we are not to just make sajdah of that with our bodies, we are to make sajdah of that with everything in our power and in our control.
Just like we surrender ourselves completely to G-d, by putting ourselves in the baby position, we did not get, have the strength to pull his head up off the floor, on his hands and knees, trying to get the strength to pull his head up off the floor. Surrender as little babies on our hands and knees. We are supposed to surrender our whole life that way. You surrender your money that way. You surrender your intelligence that way, surrender your education that way, surrender your professional skills that way. Give everything completely. Surrender as a baby, surrender everything up to G-d. That's the place, that's the mosque. Your education program should be completely obedient to G-d. Your curriculum for your school should be completely obedient to G-d, and everything else that you are doing in your life, as a community, should be completely obedient to G-d. Your restaurants must be Halaal. Your life must be Halaal. It means 'meeting requirements' to be called Islamic.
All right, so this is the role of the masjid. Remember, as I told you in the beginning, and I'm closing out now, remember that G-d says of the first house, and G-d and Muhammad the Prophet, G-d tells us in Muhammad the Prophet, to establish it. It says that the mosque fit to pray in, is that mosque established upon Taqwa, from the very first day when it was first built. It was built and established upon Taqwa. That's the Taqwa, established from the first day on Taqwa and that Taqwa is what? Some of us forget Taqwa too.
Ittaqullah, fear G-d, but it's not fear, because we know in Arabic, Kawf' is 'fear', and there's another word, there are several words for fear, but Taqwa is not fear. They translated fear, and they also translated piety and they had translated with G-d from this. So, what is this really? It's consciousness, but it's consciousness upon Islamic knowledge. Consciousness in Islam, upon Islamic knowledge. People are conscious everywhere and the consciousness that has been given to you, really determines your behavior.
Christian consciousness is Christian consciousness. Don't frown at them when you see them eating chiltlins. That's in your consciousness, not in theirs. If you don't like the chiltlins, just stay away from the house, don't go there hurting people children, you need no more children. I'm going to tell you something about my father the honorable Elijah Muhammad. He told me, He said, "son", he called me son too, he didn't call me grandson, he always called me 'son'. He said, "Son, I used to love those chiltlins so much, see, you know your father is something, he can't stop me chiltlins ". He said, "I used to love those chiltlins so much, I thought I could get one long enough, to start chewing on it and making and go all the way to Atlanta, chewing on that chiltlin".
That's how he love chiltlins, but I was raised in a different environment. I can't stand them. I can't stand the looks of them. I can't stand the smell of them, but I sure wouldn't go to my Christian relatives' house on a Sunday, knowing they had chiltlins, because I'm going to hurt their feelings. I'm going to hurt their feelings. I'll tell them, "I can't, I'm sorry, I got to leave". If can't stand the smell, I would say, "I'm sorry, I have to leave". I wouldn't go over there on Sunday, I'll let them eat chiltlins. I said, come on Monday, or maybe they're not eating chiltlins. That's in their consciousness, not my consciousness. In that consciousness it's okay to eat chitlins, right?
Oh you, you're smoking? You're smoking and you are a Muslim? Don't hurt, don't offend people like that. Just be thankful that you are not smoking. You're smoking and you're a Muslim? That's not in His conscience. It ain't nothing in it, ain't nothing in the Qur'an that says, "do not smoke". The prophet never said 'do not smoke', but it's a logic there that says do not smoke, but who's so special in his study of Islam, the Quranic Logic and the Prophet's Teaching, who is so studious that he's got to know that? Only of very few. We, the few who understand that logic, it's our obligation to teach the Muslim community at large, the logic for condemning the smoking of cigarettes, or the taking of tobacco is harmful. It contributes to cancer. It causes cancer. It's got so many harms; it hurts the environment and therefore hurts the health of the people. It contributes to shortness of breath, the [...] and even breathing it from someone else is harmful. We who know the logic, should give them the logic.
What is the logic? What Muhammad said came from Him. The logic came from the Prophet, peace be upon Him. He said, "If something has more harm in it than benefit to the people, it is to be condemned". He didn't say don't smoke and our Lord didn't say G-d didn't say to us 'don't smoke'. We used the logic that Muhammad gave us: if the harm of it outweighs the benefit in this, it's rejected, it's forbidden. I can stand and tell you that smoking is unlawful. Smoking is Haram in Islam, but you can't condemn people who don't know that, or who don't know that logic. You have to educate them first. Then after they have been properly educated, then you can condemn them. Then you can say, brother, you know that that's against Islamic teachings and behavior. Why are you doing this? Why are you insulting us? Why are you boldly smoking in our presence?
Then you can really get on him. I wouldn't mind if some of you brothers throw their book at them, or something with a night stick, if you got one. It'd be different. He'd be knowledgeable. Consciousness is very important in Islam, consciousness. G-d says, goodness, goodness, I'm finishing up this now. Goodness. You know, all religious people that I have become acquainted with in my life, who are really religious. I'm not talking about these new breeders people. They believe if you are religious, you're supposed to be good and you're supposed be a doer of good.
You're going to be ashamed of doing something bad. G-d says that goodness, doing good, is closest to Taqwa. It means if Taqwa, which is regarded as consciousness, regardfulness of consciousness, or righteousness, is here, right here, then there's nothing next to it but goodness. Why is that told to us? To tell us that people who are very conscious of doing good deeds, that they are closest to the righteous and the righteous is more than just doing good deeds. The righteous is believing in G-d and believing in what he has established for us to believe in.
So, what about what I've said here today in Tuskegee Alabama, I hope that the leaders can work with each other and work with me, to make our mosque more representative of this religion, so that the people will know us in our true image and our true identities, will not be afraid of us and will not think we are narrow, cutting them out. They will be embracing us as human beings, as people in humanity, knowing that we are here to be a mercy for all people and to have charity and help for all. Thank you. Peace us now.



