Educational Concerns

Imam Warith Deen Muhammad


Brother Imams, Teachers, Principals of Sister Clara Muhammad School, Muslims, As-Salaam-Alaikum.

Praise be to Allah, Guardian-Evolver, Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds. I bear witness that nothing is worthy of worship except Him alone, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

Before going into the main concerns that I have for the department of education I would like to mention efforts by individuals and not Muslims, not members of the community that have been very good efforts and that I think can be  study material if not  models in some sense, for us. I'll begin with the old school of the community when we were called the Lost-Found Nation of Islam or the Nation of Islam. That school I think was a school that attended the real needs or the most urgent needs in the African-American or Bilalian students, Bilalian children. As I mention one to two others we'll see the connection between us. This land that we own  right now and this facility that we are in, the facilities that we are occupying that have been purchased for this community now and represent our own property, on this land was the Palmer Institute of Miss Charlotte Hawkins Brown, I believe it is, yes, and I have read recently the Xeroxed copy from an old issue of an Ebony Magazine on Miss Hawkins's works, her works. 

What impressed me was the concerns for discipline in the life of those students that were fortunate enough to be accepted by Miss Brown. She didn't accept just any student, they were carefully selected and once they were selected she gave them such a strict discipline that if they weren't serious I'm sure they couldn't have stayed long in her school. She insisted upon certain manners of behavior from the time that they entered until they left. From morning to night, they had to begin six o'clock in the morning following the guidelines and disciplines of that school for personal behavior for the whole conduct of that school. She taught the girls etiquettes, proper way of doing things, proper way of standing, proper way of sitting, proper way to walk, proper way to speak when you're speaking with others. So she gave them a strict code of behavior that they had to conform to and I think that that made for the success of that institute. I believe that's what accounted for the success of the Palmer Institute. 

It was the concerns she had for rigid code of obedience. We find that today in the public life and in the institutions as well a this is relaxed and people think that you are not conforming to what is proper now if you insist upon proper behavior, proper guidelines for personal behavior or personal conduct. But we know that this element has come into the society to contain the masses of people in their own foolishness and ignorance. We know that the people that are allowing this kind of thing to become an epidemic in the society, they themselves don't live by that philosophy. They themselves live by a strict code of discipline but that want the public to be disorganized. They want the public to be so-called free and what it means is carefree. So I'm impressed by what I've seen in the brief account of the Palmer Institute that was printed in the Ebony Magazine some years ago. The community that we belong to has evolved from the Nation of Islam, Lost-Found Nation of Islam, more properly named to be what it is today and we have inherited the
school of yesterday.    

The Clara Muhammad School  used to be the University of Islam.    We have inherited that school.    In studying its history we find that there was really the same kind of emphasis put on personal behavior of the students.    In Chicago the students had to conform to a dress standard set by the school.    They couldn't come in unclean, untidy, whatever the dress was for the students, all  the students had to wear that, there wasn't any room for differences of opinions.    The tendency now is to differ just for the sake of differing.    You see.    So I'm talking about a time now before this, this is not today now.    If you are in today, you're out of touch with what we are talking about, you won't even understand what we are talking about.    But those who have survived this new wave of insanity, we know the value of this.    Society can't survive without it.    So here we find something that's very essential for us and that is the serious spirit, serious attitude in all of us.    

We don't have to become so serious that we become inhuman or become mechanical or stone people, but a certain amount of seriousness is require if any people are expected to make progress and there is a tendency in us to be too, I would say, playful. I was trying to find a nicer word. There's a tendency in us. to be too playful, we want to make fun out of everything, you know. Say okay what do we have to do? Say wel1 we have to remodel, we have restore these properties.    All   right, well   I  know just the person to head the progress, oh he's fun. So we pick a person to head the progress that's a lot of fun, oh he gets along with everybody, he's a lot of, he's easy to get along with, he's fun, he's humorous, he's got a taste for good humor.  

First we should look for the serious things. Then after you find the serious things then see if you have any serious problems with the serious things, yes. First you look for, the serious mind, you select a person from the serious mind    for the serious job, and then you look at that person and see if he has some serious problems.    And if that person doesn't have any serious problems  that's the person for us. But don't look for the emotional  person first, don't look for the person that everybody likes, that might not be the right person.    Look for the person that best fits the job, serious business, and then hope that we can get him to smile occasionally.

I  think that's something that we should value.    We have inherited a school  that emphasizes strict discipline for its students and for its teachers.    It had its own code of behavior and we are Muslim, we haven't changed, in fact, we are more Muslim now then we ever were.    So we are Muslims now in the true sense of the word and we shouldn't think that the pass is completely behind us or completely separated from us.    We haven't severed ourselves from our pass, only from the things that are not usable, the things that are improper and not usable, but Muslim discipline was perhaps reflected in the old days under the un-Islamic concepts more than its reflected in some places where there is the Islamic concept    but not the Islamic discipline or Islamic code of behavior. 

So we should realize that and as we go about trying to improve our elementary and secondary schools we should rid ourselves of that emotional  sensitivity that we have from the past, where we either go to extremes in trying to give credibility to something of the past or go to extremes  in efforts to discredit the past.    Both are harmful  and both are equally harmful.    If we have that kind of sensitivity where we have to spend time and energy in trying to establish credibility for the old days then we are really not ready for this.    And if we have other extremes where we have to go to far-out, way-out extremes to try to discredit the old days, we aren't ready for this, but the person who is  in today, he's  in the present and he has no trouble recalling the past, but he's not in the past, that's the person that should be here today.

So we have some concerns and I just began with the main concern and that is the sentimental  hang ups that we have sometimes. We have to be serious.    All  over the world we are known as a playful  people, believe me, the world won't tell you these things, they don't like to insult you to your face, but all  over the world negroes, black folks, African-Americans,  Bilalians,  I have to use all of these names because some of you don't know which ones, all over the world we are seen as a people that's just too playful. Can't get down to serious business, can't hold a post for long, they say we are starters, but we can't finish anything.    That's the reputation that we have all over the world and we don't want that and the only way to get rid of that we have to get that Hametic strand out of our blood.    We know that we are not the children of Ham, but the man said that and he must have selected just those that had that tendency in them when he was looking for slaves.    

I guess he just picked the ones that had that Hametic strand, say you look you, look like I  can support what I say on you.    What am I talking about?    I'm talking about the character Ham in the Bible. When Noah, according to the Bible story, when Noah was seen in an embarrassing position some of his sons behaved intelligently, but one of his sons was simple-minded and he laughed at his father's embarrassment, he's called Ham. Many of you know, I know Dr. Shabazz knows, many of you know that they have called us the children of Ham and what they are saying is that we are silly-minded people, that we don't take things serious, that we don't take matters serious or we will laugh at serious things. Now wasn't that serious, their father seen in an embarrassed state, that shouldn't make any child laugh, but there was one child that laughed. Many of us are just like that. We'll see our leader, we'll see Imam Shabazz in an embarrassing position, hee, hee, hee and we will giggle, but the one who is intelligent minded, when he sees Dr. Shabazz in any embarrassing situation, he will either turn his head or he will do something to help Dr. Shabazz get himself back together. Right! and this is Islamic, Prophet Muhammad taught us to be that way, you see.

We have to get that playfulness out of us, we are too playful and believe me I had to keep bringing this up, but as long as we give our ear hours and hours at a time to records and the music of this world, the songs of this world and give our eyes and ears to the television, to their programming, you have to come out of the world that you want to rise above. There is no way to rise above a world if you are going to be under its influences. If you want to rise above that world you have to come out of it. And I don't want to be equal to America, I want to rise above America. Those that rise above America can lead America. Those that want to be nothing but equal to America, they will never be leaders. And I'm talking about Americans, What President can lead America if he just wants to be equal to what he sees in America? The President that can really lead America is the President that wants to be above what he sees in America and he has something to offer, he has leadership to offer. We should think that way, we should always think big. Think bigger than the thing that you are dissatisfied with, then you can surmount it. That's the only way.

These are my concerns. You probably want to hear me say how much money we want to spend on erasers and chalk and how many notebook paper each student should have and all that.
What will protect us from this tendency to be taken off course by emotionalism or sentimental influences? When we identify in this religion, in the Quran, in this, when we identify what is proper behavior for a Muslim and we insist that all Muslims, I don't care if he's a person that just walked in the door or if he's the one who sells eggs to us, brings eggs to the homes, or the one who runs the school and teaches our children, or the Imam of the Masjid, or Council Member over the whole community, I don't care what or who he is, we should insist that all of us conform to what is proper for a Muslim in terms of behavior. I say we should insist! Insist means that we should use our collective voice to bring down anyone that is destroying or hurting the image of this community. That's right.

Actually we don't have a philosophy. Our guidance is the teachings of the Quran, but if we would select certain principles of behavior, and behavior covers more than just how you move physically or how you move morally. Behavior also covers how you think. Muslims have their own of thinking and if you are behaving wrongly it's because you are thinking wrongly most likely. We have to establish what is proper Muslim behavior and it should begin with a rationale that holds for us the belief and outlooks of the Muslim because this world is writing   philosophies for us. 

This world establishes principles for us to believe in, ideas for us to believe in and then this world establishes viewpoints for us. They establish a way that we are to look at reality, ourselves in an external world, but we can't buy that from the world.    We can't introduce the philosophy of the western society into our schools, we won't be Muslims anymore.    I wonder if we understand that?    I don't believe many of our teachers understand it, because in Chicago I see un-Islamic teachers wearing Muslim names and pretending to be Muslim teachers and they are not at all Muslim teachers because Muslim principles  are not established in them in the first place and they don't have a Muslim outlook, they don't have a Muslim viewpoint, they don't have a Muslim outlook on the world, they don't have that.    

So the heavy responsibility of the educators in this community is responsibility to extract from the Quran and from the Life of Prophet Muhammad the proper idea, the proper ideology,  the proper way to look at the world, the external world of reality and the proper way to approach whatever you have to approach.    So this is no small job, this is a big job and the average one of us, we want something quick and easy. And this  is nothing new, no new discovery.    God says that when he offered a great responsibility to the creatures, the angels, say man rushed up, I'll  take this responsibility,  I'll  do it God, I'll watch over the universe for you.    And God says surely he is hasty. He didn't know what he was asking for.    Say oh he's hasty.    Look at the wisdom of Allah, who did Allah select - the one that said no God too much for us or the one that was cocky and ran up and said I'm ready, I'd like to do that? He selected the one that was cocky, He gave him the responsibility. 

So that tells us something, when it comes to choosing between a cocky person or an overly confident person and a person that's not willing to make a decision or do anything, you choose the cocky person. We don't want to loose focus and think that we are not suppose to look for aggressive, active, aggressive people, we are. We are to look for active, energetic, aggressive people, but we have to be aware that all of us are human and we are subject to be a little bit big-headed, you know and we perceive ourselves to be bigger than we are sometimes and God says you know we are a little cocky, but He wants us anyway. In time he knows that we will season down after that weight gets on the back. So Allah says just wait, just wait awhile, say don't bother him now, just let the world rest on his back, say after while he'll stop being so hasty.

So the two things that I have tried to bring to our attention today is the need to stick to our own knowledge and the need to select personalities who can best represent that knowledge. Secondly we have to value physical property, we know that we have a long history for neglecting physical property, material property, assets. Our religion is a religion that if you study it, if you will give your mind to our religion you will come away from that mind of the old days, the slavish mind - it's not just in the slavish mind the problem is bigger than that. You know they say that a person who will hurt themselves just to hurt someone else, they say he cuts off his nose to spite his face or something like that. 

Well that same kind of principle of that same kind of idea can be seen working in a whole race.    A race that will  unconsciously neglect material concerns, but subconsciously what is happening?    Subconsciously they are still  rebelling against the white man.    Now I hope you're understanding, most of you all  are teachers, most of you all  understand right away what I'm talking about, but some of us our minds haven't been thinking on this so you know we have to bring our minds to think on these things and then all of us can see it.  It's nothing complicated.

If I'm forced to upkeep your house, but you reject me, you speak down to me,  I'm inferior,  I'm dirt in your eyes,  but now you have forced me because you have power and possession of me, you force me to keep up your property.    You don't think I'm even qualified to own property, but you force me to keep up your property.    All  of this registers on a man,  registers in the subconscious,  if not in the conscience,  so even the best slave,  I'm sure that most of the best slaves rebelled unconsciously against this thing that the white man did to us.    Now among you is those that think it is wrong to even bring up what the white man did—don't do that.    How can you lead this community if you can't even, if you are so tender or so subject to behave wrongly if somebody brings up the past, the past is dead,  it's a reality and if we don't bring it out here, Roots will  bring it out.   If   Roots doesn't bring it out something else will  bring it out.    Now are we going to be so delicate that we can't even mention that the white man was a son-of-a-bitch yesterday. A bunch of son-of-a-bitches and everything else.    Now if we can't even mention, if we can't even think back on the past --"oh be careful, don't, he will  start
wrong vibrations." We have to be strong enough to lead the community, and to be strong enough to lead the community you've got to be strong enough to deal with anything in your past, present or in the future.

This attitude that we have, the disrespect we have for property is something that has been compounded by the plantation or in the plantation life situation. The plantation situation has made -- now I'm sure that many of us came from Africa with a tendency to disrespect, a tendency not to give properties its due respect.. I'm not saying all of us came here perfect. If you go all over the world you'll find these same deficiencies in people all around the world, white, yellow, red, all people have these deficiencies, but in us it seems that these deficiencies have been fed and bred and we know that is a fact. We know that America has fed our deficiencies in order to contain us on a inferior level, so they could master and never have to fear us competing with them for leadership and rule. We know that. In order to get us back on the right path in terms of the proper respect that we should give physical property, this is necessary. I was saying as we were coming in here and I hope I don't talk too long, please pull my coat or pants leg or something. 

When we were coming over to the building I said it's a wonderful feeling to be on land, property that is ours. That's a wonderful feeling! Material achievement, material gain is a psychological necessity. Your soul needs - psychology refers to the nature of the soul -your soul needs this and the proof of it is, being on our own property and knowing that - it's not just that wall see, if it was just here it would be nice, but we know it's out there too. That building there too and the building back behind that too, you know it goes for about forty acres. And now we got mules, sheep, goat, camels, we almost ready for that Cadillac and Mercedes and etc., almost! It's a wonderful feeling you see. So we have to make an special effort in designing the courses in our school for the children, a special effort to attend these deficiencies. See we just can't ignore these and say oh we are just like anybody else, no we are not. We have special personalities, we have special problems and special assets. And we have to remember all of that. 

In many ways we are superior to the white man. Our experiences in many ways have made us excel the average white man in this country. So we have to be able to identify in what way has hardship given us superior attributes and then identify those deficiencies too, that which past condition and present condition (it's still lingering as some of us) has bred into us. Identify all this and then study those attitudes in the personality and when we design courses for our students we shouldn't ignore that. We should make an effort in the course to address these things, build on the strength, make an intelligent analysis of the situation of inferiority. And then come up with right recommendations. You all can do this. The educators in this community can do this. Don't go out there and look for no psychology book or no social behavior book - in the library - you lock yourself up and throw out all of their books, only use a dictionary, all right. Only use a book that will give you terminology, if you don't know it, the meaning of the term if you don't know it. But don't use any book that suggests a philosophy, or suggests a principle, or suggests a way of behaving, or psychology, or something.    Just reject it all  and take your Quran, and take what we have in this community and sit down and lock the door.    Say there's a strong temptation to pick up a white man and then lean on him.    So to avoid that we are going to keep all  their literature and everything out while we design the course we should take.

If we could bring back a healthy respect for property we'll do a service to this country.    Because this weakness in people, this ignorance in people now has spread, it has overflowed from us and the society is now letting everybody just go wild and free without guidance, without knowledge and you will  find that this is no more a characteristic    peculiar in us now.    You'll  find the Hispanics, you'll  find the white racist,  the European racist, find all  of them silly-minded, don't value anything anymore, just want to be happy, want to have fun, but they can't maintain life, they can't hold wealth if you give it to them.    So this is an American problem or a problem for the whole western world, perhaps the whole world.    Since we were the first victims of it then it would be really beautiful if we would come up with an educational  program for attending this problem in the schools and getting rid of it, taking it out of the students.    The way to get respect back is simply to get the direction or the idea, or the philosophy from the Quranic teachings.

Allah says  that He has created everything in pairs, everything in pairs,  in pairs.    A student of Quran, or scholar   of this religion, if he was here (and we have one here,  perhaps we have more than one, plenty of them here perhaps today) they will  tell you that this idea in the Quran, that He created everything in pairs doesn't just mean us male and female.    It means the nature.    The constitution of matter itself, that in the very constitution of matter itself everything works on the principle of duality.    And what does He say?    He says every pair noble, honorable, "Karim",  deserving respect.    That's what it means.    That everything that He has created operating in pairs deserves respect.    This wall   deserves  respect.    By the Quranic teachings the earth deserves respect.    The light deserves  respect. Whatever man fashions out of the natural world it deserves respect i.e., if it is useful  to humanity,  if it still serving the purpose that God designed. 

It deserves respect, so we should include this principle in the teaching of our children.    We should tell  them that Allah requires you to respect creation.    And if that child is a Muslim it's natural  for him.    He naturally grows up respecting all creation.    So he'll  be a better student.    He'll  be a more aggressive student.    He'll  be motivated in the right way.    He'll  be attracted to the sciences better.    Because when you have a high respect or a high idea of the material  field    then there's    more urge,  there's more inclination to go out and explore.    See that's an enticement, that's an invitation to get involved in the material world, to explore it.

So these ideas are super and that's what we have to understand the psychology for making life better is not in public school!    It's not in their universities,  it's in your Quran.    They are busting their brains out trying to find out how to motivate the students. How to motivate him, because the only way they motivate him - the thing that they rely upon for motivating the child is what's in today.    Whatever is in today that's what they have to motivate the child today.    So when the whole world has gotten full on what's in they can't motivate them anymore.    They have to wait until when they create new interests to motivate people.    Now they have made everybody a ward of the mental  institution.    Everybody has a mental problem now.    How to motivate him, he's got a mental  problem!    You don't have to motivate something that doesn't have a mental  problem. That's what they are admitting.    Anytime they say we have to come up with ways to motivate our students,  the western school    system, the public school  system, they are saying that we have a mental  problem in our students ."We've got to think of ways to motivate them.    Why ya'll  ain't thinking of ways to motivate them?"    Life out there, it doesn't need motivating.    The animals, cat, rat, dog whatever it is doesn't need any motivation.    You just leave it alone it's naturally motivated.

Can you imagine the first man on this earth needing to be motivated?    I can't imagine the first man on this earth needing motivation.    But we need to motivate people. So motivate him!    Give him a reason for living!    We have to understand the problems of the West and we have to see the West as it is.    The West is problematic.    It is psychotic.    Well, you have to see it like it is.    As long as you look to this world you will  always be under it.    But anytime you can latch on to the Quran and see its superiority then you stand above this world.    That's the only way you can help it.    You want to help this world?    I  know most of you want to help America,  I  know that, you want to help America,  I  do too.    You think I want to hurt America this is my home.    My ancestors lived in Africa but this is my home, America is my home.    United States of America, this state and all the rest of them,    even Hawaii.    When I went to Hawaii, way over there, I said is this my state too?!    I said I've been flying all night and day end you tell me this is my state too!    But I said I remembered that it's one of the newest states. So right away I accepted it, I said this is my state.

Don't think that because I am a Muslim and because I see God's knowledge above the world's knowledge that I'm not American, that I'm not patriotic. I am perhaps more than most Americans, but I'm critical too and that's what made America great. It was people, pioneers who had a higher vision. They had a bigger vision than the present state that they were in. So they were able to lead their country, their people and their nation into a greater life. Now if we have the same vision that the world has you'll never be leaders. You'll never be leaders. You have to be like those pioneering Americans whose vision was bigger than England. Bigger than the old world, whose vision was bigger than the reality that they were in at that time. Bigger than the thirteen colonies. They're the ones who advanced this country.

The most important concern I have is the concern for your mind. Because we are children of slaves. We are affected by it. We still carry the after effects of slavery, plantation life and just being the subordinate all of the time. That's right. We carry the effects of that. Some of us over react to it and we exhaust in our own small mindedness. We want to take ourselves out of the world and be some separate God or some superior being, we're bigger than America, we're bigger than everything. And then there are the other ones who are just crushed. Can deal with everything else but the white man, but America. Can deal with everything else - one of us stand up and express an idea, right away that person challenges. Well Kant said, Plato said, such and such said, so and so said, and just tear up the presentation of that poor brother. But let anyone bring anything from the white man and right away buddy "genuine, that's genuine, the Imam ought to include that in the curriculum!" So we want to be aware of that.

The current concern as far as number one is the mind.    Because our mind has been intimidated, our minds have been crushed, our minds have been made to think small  and to fear to express itself. "Oh, if I express what's on my mind they are going to laugh at me."   Aren't we intimidated like that?! Some of us have a great idea, be just the answer, be the solution, be the medicine for the ill, but we are afraid, we're so jive. "Well, I don't have Plato,    I don't have Kant, I don't have Aristotle, I  don't have any of the Western authorities to support this idea, oh if I said this they will  laugh at me. "We have to get out of that.

Getting back to the physical  property.    In Chicago I thought I said, now I knew as a child I didn't have any    problem living in the properties of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam or living on the properties of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam.    I  didn't have any problem.    You would never find me or any child with my mind writing graffiti  or defacing the property or doing anything to diminish the beauty      and value of our properties.    You wouldn't find me or anybody with my mind, girls, boys alike.    Why?    Because over and over again we were told that this is yours.    See the problem that we have inherited,  I  call  it the plantation ghost that's still   in us.    It isn't a ghost it's a spirit.    It's a real spirit, it isn't a ghost. The problem of the past is that this thing was in us and it can be the neighbor's property, not the white man's, the neighbor's property. But the same kind of heat comes up in us when we see the neighbor get a new house or the neighbor get a new car, that I imagine came up in us when the white man said go out and shine up my mule, go out and shine up my buggy, you know. 

They go, "oh wipe my mule down and shine up my buggy. Say hey boy, go out there and wipe my mule down, wipe my horse down and shine up my buggy." And I imagine that we — yes, yes! and I imagine heat was just coming all up -- yes, yes, yes sir, master, yes, sir! Because we weren't suppose to have those things. And was making us take care of his, keep his up, keep his looking nice. So the neighbor moved next door, not a white person, this is us, and they have a nice pretty house. If a white man had moved next door it would be better. White man move next door say -thank you, thank you, oh we got a white neighbor, white neighbor! Because that means that the white man is accepting you, if he can stay next door. And they will tell you in psychology that one of the heaviest strains on the mind of an individual is the one produced by isolation, rejection, etc. So they know the psychology and they know that your nature wants to get rid of that strain. You don't see a way to improve yourself, to make yourself, to convince him that you were acceptable, or a way to get in by force. 

Anything that represents the end to this problem is a great relief. You're so happy, a white man moved next door. Yes, I'm sure they know we negroes stay here. But this is a fine neighborhood and all you have to do is keep up your property and you don't have that problem. The white man lives next door. Black one moves next door and you want to kill him, especially if he's got something nice. And don't let him buy anything new, oh the heat comes up! Why? Because you were shut out of those things, right. Two things are working if the black one moves door. If the black one moves next door, he doesn't help your situation. You need to be accepted, not by him, by the white man.    So if he moves next door he doesn't help your situation.    If the white man moves next door then that helps your situation because that means you are accepted by white folks. 

Now that's one thing that's operating, but there's something else operating.    You were shut out and you have been conditioned by white man and his psychology to compete with each other for freedom, for escape, for achievement, etc.    So you have been conditioned to compete with each other, so it's just a natural  impulse in us to fight the one that seems to be making it.    Deep down in you the white man has another you in there and that other you in there is saying he has no right to have that if I don't have it.  Do you know the white man used to put fighters, Bilalian fighters against each other just for sport.    And the one that put   on the good battle he would favor that one, give him advantage over the one that lost. So right in that the instinct to beat each other up for a better image in the white man's world was created.    

Yes, I mean this is history.    This is documented I just don't have the material.    This is already documented that the white man on the plantation and also in the north used to put the black man against the black man for sport.    Now he did this on a community scale too, but for sport he would actually put two people against each other, black, same race. Put them against each other for sport and they would laugh and cheer the one winning and everything.    And when the winner won they would favor him and give him more recognition than the loser.    On the community level  they were doing the same thing.    They would create sensitivities in the black community to set the black community against itself.    When their side won they would come in and reward their side and punish the side that they didn't approve.    They still do that, they are still doing that. With this happening above our heads over generations, now we have a tendency in ourselves to just automatically attack another Bilalian. Yes! And when it comes to people who are right, it's automatic for people to want to get them out of their face, get them out of their conscience. 

The person that represents right they like to tell him leave, go away. If he won't leave or go away they want to kill him, do anything to get him out of their conscience. Because he's a discomfort in their conscience. He represents what they should be growing towards and their nature tells them that they should be growing towards that, but their worldly mind tells them that  is  too uncomfortable for me. It's too difficult for me to grow towards that. The worldly mind has to destroy the presence of that thing so that it can relax, so the worldly mind says reject it, condemn it, rationalize it bring falsehood up, anything. Rationalize, you know rationalize means reason falsely. Rationalize can mean reason correctly, but rationalize also means, in fact, rationalization is a negative word more than a positive word. It means reason falsely. So it says rationalize him into a position where you can do evil to him. So you take a good man, a good idea, a good person and you rationalize that until you can put it in a position where you can do evil to it, where you can condemn it, where you can say that ain't worth nothing, it's wrong, he's troublemaker, he's trying to destroy the order of society, he's un-American, boom! Right?

We have to understand all of these tendencies in us in order to survive and make progress for our own lot. Now what's wrong with people trying to make progress for their own lot? You all should take notes on what the Chinese and what the Asians are doing. The Asians are coming into this country, there are establishing themselves.    By that I mean, they are bringing their culture   with them. They are living in their American homes the same way they lived in Asia.    They eat the same way, they pray the same way, they are living the same life they lived in Asia.    But now they are in America and they are Americans.    What we have to understand as educators, brothers and sisters, that America welcomes that.    In fact, America is that. America means an opportunity for you to bring your life from one part of the world to this part and keep your same life and grow in a new world.    America represents a new opportunity,      new horizons, the new destiny for man.    

Now we think differently over here.    We think that people are going to call  us prejudice if we put emphasis on retaining our own African-American identity.   Oh they will  think we are prejudice.    Say we don't want to put no importance or emphases on ethnic pride or on Bilalian ethnicity. That would set us apart from the rest of the Americans.    What would have set you apart from the rest of the Americans  is the fact that you are not an American, and you are not an American because you don't represent anything you need.    You don't have an identity, isn't that a fact.    You don't have an    identity, the other people have an    identity.    The other people have human personality, a human personality that has been born or formed in an ethnic personality.    An ethnic personality that has been formed or born out of an ideology, a way of conceiving the world of reality and we don't have that.    

We just buy what the white man filters into our heads over the wire or through the air waves.    Brothers and sisters what am I doing this for, I know you, oh let us get down to the business of program - this is the business! I  know many of us are misguided because of our sensitivity. We are good people, but our sensitivities have us mislead.    So I think it is worthwhile for me to take the time and dwell on these things in order to get just one more, or two more, or fifty more to make the turn.    Because         really, the future of our children depends on our ability to step up out  of the muck and mire of America's ideas and walk home to an idea of our own.    And in this interest, dear brothers and sisters, I insist that we don't let any Arab, Pakistani, Egyptian, I don't care what he is, don't let anybody come over here and be the idol.    Nobody should come from out of this community and be the personality, be the reference. Say oh Mr. Shu Shu Sheikh Bawa, he's our reference.  No, no! You keep Imam W.D. Muhammad as your reference!    And if I  fall  dead right now, you look for one that came up like I did.    Say hey where is one that don't follow sheikhs and don't follow anybody else but this idea?    Say okay brother come on you have to take Imam Warith Deen Muhammad's place.

That's a need that we have inherited from the souls of our ancestors.    This country took away from us the dignity of the people and we can't have that dignity if we are going to have other people over us.    Now many of us will  be so sensitive we will  say, "oh that's not democratic, any other person qualified we should accept that person."   Yes, if they are qualified,  I agree with you, if they are qualified, but number one in the qualification is that you be part of this natural  growth in America.    If you are not, we can't identify with you, no indeed. Because we are a people growing into what we are.    We are not yet that, we are growing into that and   we    don't want anybody that has grown into Italian form, or into Greek form, or into Turkish form, or Egyptian form, it will be a terrible conflict. Once we have grown into our form as a people then, okay Mr. yes you have the qualifications, step right up, be our leader because we are going to hold you accountable you bastard. 

You better not make a mistake. But now we are too far from the destiny that we ourselves have to grow into that give us (identity) to allow some foreign element to come and stand over us because we'll be influenced. We are like fresh clay. We'll be too easily influenced. Wait until after we have established ourselves in the community and have recognition in Egypt and Africa and all over the world, and Asia and all over the world. Recognition for having established our own personality as a people, when we have gained that we will be like any other community. But until then we are a particular people under the eyes of the Lord.

So these are our concerns. Dear beloved people getting more at home now or coming closer to the real problems that you are confronted with as educators in the community, i.e., curriculum and teaching, or teacher's qualifications. I'll just have a few words to say.
One of the main words I have for subject matter and teaching methods is that emphasis be put more on what is required, what is needed, pardon me, then on just what is available. Now you know there are some many subjects out there and some much knowledge out there, there are oceans of knowledge out there available. If we don't have our own specific needs in mind then forming curriculum and setting guidelines for courses, selecting subjects and etc. become a problem too big for us to tackle. 

But if we first establish what are our real needs. Now I said in Oakland that one of the major problems we have is poor qualifications for the job market. We are not qualified for the job market and we know the job market now is constantly changing. The thing that was the necessity yesterday may not be the necessity today. New demands are coming in and it's changing the qualifications or the needs in the job market. We have to study that, be in touch with that trend and I think if we concentrate on what is practical. You know what benefited me most in mathematics or arithmetic, the practical mathematics, the practical arithmetic. All that academic, high language and fancy talk, I found that when I went out there to try   to feed Shirley and myself and - it didn't have much importance anymore. The man say, but can you? And he said "can you"? I was used to telling what the principle is, what the theory is and I was never asked to do. No one ever said can you before, they just asked me could I recite. Can you recite your twelve times table? Yes. 

This man was asking me could I apply this in a given situation that meant something to human life and what it has to do, what it has to be. So when he said that you know I had to start thinking. I said just a minute, what you do is just keep my application and I'm going back and get me some books and I'll be back. And I went and I got me some books on short mathematics. I got me some books on short arithmetic, short mathematics, you know it's different. The other mathematics says 7X7 is 49. The short mathematics says 7 lbs x 7 Ibs is 49 pounds. It was different you know. One book says, you know, 6 x 6 is 36 square and the short mathematics says we need 36 square feet of linoleum to cover this area. It was different. I think we shouldn't just give - don't even give the children tables like that. 

Don't give the children 1 x 1 is 1, 3 x 3 is 9, no tell him $3.00 x $3.00 is $9.00.    What I am saying is the psychology should be to eliminate the abstract from the world of reality as much as possible.    As much as possible let them work with figures that have connections with things that they have to use, things that they have in their own life.    Don't waste their times with just reciting numbers. Don't introduce even pictures into the room that has no connection with his real  practical  life.    Don't just bring something pretty, a dog.    Bring in a dog, set him up, are you going to be an animal doctor, here is the dog.    This is a dog he is such and such and such, he catches this disease, he catches that disease.    Look at his teeth, okay, isn't he learning something about a dog?    Here's a dog, pretty little dog, you don't have to do that, when he goes outside he's going to see it - that pretty little dog.

So this is criticizing the white man's mentality and that is what you have to do if you want to rise.    Criticize his mentality. This is a dog.    That child has been calling that thing a dog for 3 years, he might have one at home and you put it there, draw a dog.  D-o-g, dog, now make a cat, cat, little bitty cat and dog. That's not enough.    Now if you're teaching them how to talk you don't have to do anything but put cat up there.    Put the picture cat and put c-a-t, then say what does that word say.    Say look at that picture and tell what that word says.    Say he says cat.    Then the child says oh he's not stupid, but if I  say see the doggy, it's a cloggy,  d-o-g, dog.  S-a-a-y, little child 4 or 5 years old laughing inside, say he thinks I don't even know how to recognize a dog.

So what I want to emphasize is common sense. There's a great lawyer. This lawyer was on a television program, no it was on the news, this lawyer had won another case. I can't call his name, I'm sorry I don't have his name. Often I think back on this and I can't recall that attorney's name. He's one of the leaders, I think he's like second in the whole world, maybe first, but I know if he wasn't first he was second in the whole world and they were asking him what did he think was making him so much more successful in court than other attorneys. He said most of my adversaries stick to the books, they follow the letter, I also use common sense". That's the man up there at the top or second to the top in the whole world and he was stressing the value of common sense. 

You want to see the biggest fool in the world, the one with a whole lot of PhDs and etc and etc and no common sense. The biggest fool on earth! Some of you say oh he couldn't get those degrees if he didn't have common sense. That's what you think. This establishment doesn't want you to have common sense. They make an effort in the college to deprive you of the use of common sense. They say you have one or the other, common sense is your left leg and academia is your right, which one do you want, make your choice. Say can't I have both of them, no there isn't any two legged people walking in the west. So you make your choice, either common sense or academia.

Now people, they don't say that to you like that, but that admission examination and everything, your qualifications and everything, it's saying that I choose academia over common sense and when you say that they say welcome into the club.
Then brothers and sisters, all the courses should emphasize practical use of knowledge, whether it is social sciences or whatever it should relate to the job of living day-by-day. They used to teach music and tie music in with natural  needs in the life of human being.    So whatever you teach it should all  be tied in -this is Al  Islam, this is the requirement in the religion, is to establish human basis, practical  basis for everything.

Lastly now Islamic Studies.    Some of us are good Muslims but because we are not qualified in Islamic Studies, not qualified in Arabic, not qualified in  Islamic History, etc. we are afraid of it.    We don't want anybody else to become qualified.    This is another plantation spirit. We're   afraid you see.    We have to get away from that.    In fact this community can't tolerate that, not if it's going to accept my leadership.    Because I am a man that when it comes to certain things I  don't compromise at all.    And believe me if I can't win I'll  leave you, I'll  go somewhere else and I mean that.    There are certain things that we just can't sacrifice, we can't compromise on and I think this community is ready for real   Islamic Studies program.    We want to learn Arabic. We want to learn the history of Prophet Muhammad and his Companions. We want to study Quran.    We want to learn it.    We want this to be an Islamic Community.    All  right, so if you have the sensitivity that I am referring to now where you fear that a person with that knowledge is going to be a threat to your image, then you have to realize that that's a sensitivity from the slavish life.    And it's another plantation spirit that's alien to your real   life and nature. And nobody likes aliens.    They don't mind a foreigner, but if he's an alien they don't want him. Because foreign just means different, but alien means that he likes to be alienated or he likes to alienate. That's something that nobody likes.

So let us be strong.    That's all   I can say.    You just have to be strong enough to walk away from a piece of yourself„ That's right and say: that's me, but this dignified object that I'm after is too big to carry that part of me with me, and just drop it and leave it behind. You all who are working on Islamic curriculum and interested in Islamic Studies please support what we want and do your best to make Islamic education available to all members of this community.

So thank you very much. Now I'll let Dr. Shabazz and the rest of you talk on the rest of our concerns like money, where are we going to get it from and ... how big the job is and how much money it's going to call for and all those kinds of things, see. Like getting better qualified teachers in the classroom from our own community. We don't want to get them from outside. If we are as smart as we say we are, we can take a sincere person in this community and make them better qualified then the one we can get from out. 

As-Salaamu-Alaikum.
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