09/07/2008
IWDM Study Library
Shared Freedom Space

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
With Allah’s name, the praise and the thanks is for G-d. We thank Him for the gift and blessing of the model human person Muhammad (pbuh). The honorable and noble servant and Messenger of G-d and what follows of that salute or that traditional salutation to the last Prophet (pbuh), the seal of the Prophets mentioned in the Bible as it is given in the Quran.
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed
Peace to you in our radio audience and to also to you who are here in the Homewood beautiful hotel. We always begin remembering Allah swt, that is remember the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all things, even those things the man claims he created. He could not create anything unless he goes to the first resource and that is the creation of G-d, the resource that G-d provided for all of our needs.
We witness that He is G-d, He is one. We say Allah swt, His name revealed to Muhammad pbuh in the Quran. Allah swt is His name meaning the G-d and there is not other g-d. that is what means. And that is the G-d I find in the Bible, and that is the G-d I find in other religions. All of what we call the classical religions or for the family of religions that we belong to, we say the Abrahamic or the heavenly religions of Judaism, Christianity and the religion of Al Islam.
We really see all religions as having the same essence and essentially the same direction for human life if we can perceive it. If we can read and get the right understanding. Many of us have something so strongly fixed in our minds, we read scripture and cannot get the right understanding because we have already had our minds fixed on something that we believe so strongly that it won’t allow us to perceive the direction in scripture. A fact of that is the presence of the Quran in the following called the Nation of Islam for 40 years and the leaders and the people who read it, the believers they had their own idea fixed so strongly in their minds of what G-d is, who G-d is they could not see the true direction for their thinking that is in the Quran.
So they remained really outside of the religion of as it was established by Muhammad the Prophet pbuh who receive the Quran and they remain outside of the following of our Prophet pbuh that numbers over 11/4 billion now in the world. They remain outside of that following just identifying by name but the thinking was very, very far away from the thinking that is in Al Islam throughout the world. In fact the thinking resembled Trinitarianism more that it resembled the idea of G-d in the Quran.
But that was a test for us and it was planned to be that way knowing that as we became better educated, better informed we would ask, “Why is there this great difference? And we would study it and if we really appreciated what the Nation of Islam had done for us and appreciated the sincerity of its designer professor Fard who we believed was G-d in the flesh and the hon. Elijah Muhammad we appreciated what he had done to really help us reform our lives and open our minds to bigger opportunities if we appreciated that we would not just give up saying, “Oh this is different, something is wrong here. This is not real Islam, no. We would want to know why.”
If you study as a sincere person, appreciating what you received of good G-d will be with you and you would come to see the light. The light is hidden in the teaching and language of the Nation of Islam headed by min Farrakhan now and a few others but he is the most popular of all the leaders who still stay with that language and that time. You would come to see the light and really see that here is a teaching and a man, professor Fard he chose to be identified as, who was opening a code language, secret language, esoteric language, the language of secret orders by opening up that language he also opens up many areas of Scripture that could never be reached without help like Mr. Fard or professor Fard gives in his satirical language. You can call it symbolic language, all of those words fit as a description for his work.
More important than any other description is satire, or satirical language. What it does it holds up ideas that are really ridiculous that are taken to be true and respected sometimes with a sacred respect, but these ideas appear to be ridiculous to persons who have not accepted those ideas. They only appear to be sacred and good for persons who were just born accepting those ideas, raised accepting those ideas and never had any doubt or question into mind that would make them questioned those ideas.
For example, you can come up in a household in the United States of America, even now it is dying but it still strong among some few people and you can believe that there is really a Santa Claus. Now you know there is no Santa Claus but there was a time when you are a child that you believed that there was a Santa Claus. You really believed in. And as you became more intelligent or more informed, more educated then you said, “Oh no that cannot be. That is ridiculous.” I am not going to try to disturb here today but there are a lot of other ideas that are ridiculous too. And Mr. Fard really exposed them. The teacher of my father professor Fard.
We are not going to be talking about that today we are going to be talking about our Shared freedom space. Now when I am talking to an audience I am really concerned for my students. I want them to be present and to have their notebook paper or a pad and pen, something to write with and I want them to take notes because I am always giving information to my students and while at the same time speaking to a public audience for gathering.
Those who use their freedom are strong enough to respect what is important in life people avoiding their responsibility cannot be free. You may act as though your free, you may think as though you are free, but you cannot be truly free not in a world made man or any other world in fact if you are avoiding your own responsibility.
Freedom is a reward for hard work. In the wilds where animals are free, freedom is not protected. The survival of the fittest is the law. Although individual man is thousands of years away from the animal law, conditions can form in the freedom space of those who go about carefree and the animal law will be, they are dead in street. For freedom, the wilds had to be defeated. The first to be defeated were wild animals and unprincipled people. Heavy responsibility was carried by parents. This is how the world began, rising as a civilized society. Neighbors were not able to go out alone, so the neighbors had to band together. Working for the common interest, laws were put in place, public land was developed, schools were opened, schools were opened to have life assisted by practical knowledge.
To make it to live through the raw, raw, the R-A-W, raw times, savage times, neighbors worked as a family, a family of partners in the rise of civilization. Today in modern times, to know the reality of populations surviving to have more citizenship knowledge is indispensable. We have to have citizenship knowledge. Rights not understood cannot be vowed safe and get the protection under the law. Intelligent laws reach the publics as homegrown benefits like almost every other public good. We forget the home. We forget how everything we have can open society of good, of any true, of any real true value, it really is homegrown. It was developed at home before it was introduced to the public. Our cooking, our diet, the way we cook our food, the things that are good for us in the market today. The way to cook, the choice of food. And we can include also clothing, the making of clothing all started in the home. We can include also health remedies, medicine, had its beginning in the home. And if you can stretch your mind a little bit, government also had its beginning in the home. Government. Because family developed naturally, that family had a sense of order, it had a sense of authority. Its authority was in the parents. And the father was seen as the number one authority.
But in the home or at home, the mother was seen as being the person in charge of that... I will say, freedom space, freedom space. A sense of government, that's what family is. Family is a respect for government, a sense of government that we need. Animals respect rights of other animals. If you have had any animals or pets, I'm sure you know that. Or if you haven't had any, if you had just observed animals, birds finding food and then other birds follow them. The other birds perhaps are bigger and stronger, they could easily drive the birds away. But we find among them a respect. Few birds are greedy, so greedy and desperate, they just take over. Most birds will come, and if the other... If the birds that arrived first refused to permit them to eat, they will wait until the birds eat a little bit and they start to be less defensive and then they will come in and eat. Not only birds; cats, dogs, chickens. I have observed this in animals, that they respect the rights of each other.
Children insist that their rights be respected. You don't have to teach children this. They come up with a sense, it's ingrained, it's an inborn sense. They come up with a sense of their own rights. So, if you take something from them that they have, and they know it wasn't for you, it's theirs, they don't like that, they will protest. They will cry if they can, they will even fight you. So, there is an inborn sense, there is inherent sense of one's rights. And this is recognized by the framers of the Constitution of these United States. The rights of every citizen is protected by these words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Or that, "All men are born equal." However, you want to put it, "And are endowed with unalienable rights," or "inalienable rights," that mean rights that cannot be taken from them. "Among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The pursuit of happiness, in college course, if you take up college course, in the social science, political science, the...
The pursuit of happiness in the college course, if you take in course in social science, political science in the class material or the professor will bring it to the students awareness that the pursuit of happiness is to be interpreted as the right to own your own property. The right to have a piece of land, the right to have your home on that land. The right to property if you can afford it. And we know that when the West was being opened up or developed in the early days of the development of the United States or this country, its towns and cities they had so much land that they would grant land to individuals and also to poor individuals. They called them Homestead.
Homestead was a piece of land on which they could have a house or buildings sometimes the Homestead was so big you could have more than a house. And it was expected that they would farm some of that land because the government wanted food produce and that would the requirement that they use the land also for farming.
At this point out like to bring something to our attention because we have just been pampered, made to expect that we do not have to do anything, that somebody of the government is going to take care of us and do everything for us. We are here just to enjoy life have fun, eat, sleep, have sex, dying just like common animals, but we are worse off because most animals have a sense of social responsibility. Responsibility to the children, loyalty to their mate that they made with to have children and sense of responsibility for the land or the freedom space that they use Whether it's a bird building a nest in a tree or animals living in the wild, they have, by nature, this sense of responsibility, respect and responsibility.
Children share, sometimes, the table, their freedom space at the table, and one will be taking too much off the table... These can be very little children. And the other ones say, "You better leave me some," because they know it's shared, it's not for one of them just to take it over. No, it's shared. They can be in the bedroom and they... One have a bunk bed in one side of the room and another have a bunk bed on the other side of the room, and one is disrespecting this freedom space of the other. He's throwing his stuff on the bed of the other one. "Get this stuff off my bed." He's speaking from his soul, he's speaking from rights that are inherent, inborn.
Public space. Who owns public space in the United States of America? We do. The members of this public, the members of the United States public, America's public. We own public space. Who owns the White House that the president lives in? We do. We should understand or at least come to know our ownership rights. We do, when we work and pay taxes, we contributed to all of these things. The local town, its strength and survival and progress, the state we live in, everything is supported by the people who are productive, supported by their taxes. And those who are not productive, who care not to do anything, the money of the productive ones go to help those who are not productive. Charity, government assistance, whatever you wanna call it. So, these are the realities that a conscious few of us must know in order to help others. You know everybody doesn't have to know what I'm giving you today, we only need a conscious few.
A conscious few, then you become your brother's keeper. You become your sister's keeper. You become the ones who are the guardians in the society. Society need volunteers, society need guardians. People can't be left alone. We all are not fortunate in the same degree to respect our human intelligence, to respect the inherent sense of a need to produce, produce. That's an inherent need. That's an inherent need in human being, it's in the soul. It registers on the mind, if circumstances favor the mind developing. Sometime you can be put in circumstances that will destroy your human intelligence, retard your human senses. The same condition that affects one individual in that way will affect another one in just the opposite way. They will defy the circumstances, they will defy the conditions that are hurting their intelligence and denying their good life from coming forth. They will defy it. And they are the ones that will be our leaders, they will be the ones that will be our leaders. So, G-d has made life so that there's always a part of that life or some in that life that will not accept to go down, no matter how powerful the circumstances are for taking that life down. There are some that defy that, and will not go down but rise up against it, and they are the leaders.
So, what am I saying? I'm saying that leaders, in proportion to the numbers of the people, are like the head of the human being in proportion to the whole body. The head is not bigger than the whole body. The body weighs many times more than the head; if the body is put on a scale and the head is put on a scale, the body weighs a lot more than the head. But it's the head responding to the heart that accounts for all the great help that the body gets. And likewise for our people. We don't need everybody, we just need a small percentage of the people to serve as the heart and the head for the whole people. That's the way G-d made it, that's the way it's been since the beginning of time, it's not going to change. So, some of us Imams and some of us good brothers and sisters, we're waiting for everybody to come up and say, "I'm ready to go to work." No, you got three or four, be happy. You got three or four out of 3000 or 4000, be happy, take... Work with that three or four. G-d has chosen you to serve the many. He has chosen you to free the many, to liberate them, and take them to the goal line. Huh? He has chosen you.
So, let's get out of that old spirit that we've been in for so long. Waiting on everybody to be converted. That won't work. It never did. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was one man left by Fard Muhammad or W. Farrad, the professor who taught him, left by him and he was one man, he came by himself, he said that, "I've come alone by myself." One man, and then he left one man to be our leader, Elijah Muhammad. And that one man, he didn't have no brothers and sisters saying, "I wanna be your partner in this." No, they said, "Teach us, Dear Holy Apostle, teach us" and we'll wait for him to say when the next step is going to be made. They wouldn't come up and say, "Well, it's time to make this step now, Dear Holy Apostle, Honorable Elijah Muhammad, it's time for us to make this step now." No, they wait for him. And most of you all are still in that same mind.
Poets became popular when I started writing. This is a fact. Business, got back on your minds when I started going into business. Yeah, it's a fact. Now, that shouldn't be. Sophisticated societies have members that will come to their leader and say, "Well, I think it's good that we start investing in such and such thing." They don't wait for that leader all the time to make a move. Those who are best qualified in certain areas, in certain professional areas, they should be alert, they should be alert, they should be watchmen for all the rest of us. And when they see an opportunity or something that's good for the whole, they should bring it to the leaders. Yes, you should bring it to the leader, because the leader is in a position to help the many and to do it quicker and faster than you... Quicker and perhaps more effectively than you, because you're not having their ears, and many times their hearts like their leader. So you want to get something done and help the many, you should come to the leader with it. Not that you have to, no, you don't have to 'cause wherever you are... And I know what I hear a lot in our community, "You can't get to the leader, they've blocked the way. You can't get to the leader, they've blocked the way."
You're a weak follower. The only way people can block me from getting to my leader if I know I can help him and the many, they have to kill me. And I ain't one that wants to die. So first thing I do is call 911. I would say, "He's my pastor, he's my minister, he's my leader, he's my imam, and got some brutes that won't let me see him." And believe me, they'll come talk to those brutes. They'll come see him. I know because I experienced that once. Yeah. Some brutes trying to use brute force to stop me from doing what I had to do. I went to police department, and one of the detectives that spoke to me, he said, "Oh," he said, "So and so, and so? That's who doing this?" He said, "I know him, yeah, we're gonna talk to him." And they did. I never got any more word from them, no more problem. So 911 works. I'm telling you, it really works.
Family life, in the care of devoted females, it's where people should qualify for citizenship. Now, I don't know if we give any thought to the meaning of citizenship, I don't think we do. 'Cause we take our citizenship for granted. We are born citizens. We know we were born citizens of the United States, so unless a situation has to be faced that require us to learn more about the meaning of citizenship, we won't have it. And by the behavior that I see in most of the people born citizens in this country, I don't think they really know the meaning of citizenship.
Citizenship, I quote, should... This is dictionary. Random House Dictionary. "Citizenship should bring to mind a certain behavior expected of persons or individuals." Now, this is me, but when I get to quote I'm gonna tell you, but all of this that I'm giving you, my words, but on citizenship as the dictionary gives it. When there's a direct quote, I'll give you the direct quote. I'll let you know this is a direct quote. Civic-minded community servants who have been awarded for good citizenship, they know its meaning. Now quote, this is a quote from the dictionary. The citizenship, the state, quote, "The state of being vested with the rights, privileges and duties of a citizen." That's what citizenship means. When we behave in this society, we behave as though the citizenship is just freedom for us or rights for us, but with no obligations. So listen as I continue here. The character of an individual viewed as a member of society. Now, let's stop right there.
Citizenship includes in its meaning, the... Pardon me, the character of an individual viewed as a member of society. The character of an individual. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the last of our great teachers and reformers and freedom fighters, he said, "A day will come," he believed... He hoped for it and he believed it, he said, in fact, he promised us, "A day will come when a man will not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character." By the content of his character. Now, that's not important enough for our leaders that are here in the absence of Dr. King? That's not important enough for them to register, for them to give serious thought to it, and for them to reflect the same principle and the same interest that Dr. King was carrying? To reflect it when he speaks to us? Since him, how many have been telling us to measure up to the content of your character that the church wants for you or that G-d created you for? How many have been telling us that? I haven't heard any.
If they are around and doing that, they are not public figures. The public figures, I don't hear them saying things like that. I don't hear them even showing the awareness that they appreciated the real value of Dr. King's leadership. The real value of his leadership is not seen in telling a white man off or pressing for more opportunities for us, that's not his real value. His real value is where that power was coming from. And that power to put himself at risk, to put his life at risk, to put himself on the spot for others, that power was coming from his human values and his human principles. That's where the power was coming from. So the man without his values and without his human principles is a man without power and a man that would never have been able to get the respect that he got from our people, from Jews, from whites and from many, many in high places, both in the religious world and the secular world.
So what am I saying? I'm saying that we lose our leaders. They don't die, we bury them. Dr. King is never dead in my life. That one thing he said is enough to keep him alive in my life. That a time will come when a man will not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. Over the many years since the passing of Dr. King, whites and their children have read his words and been affected by his words, and now they care more about his leadership than his own people... Than his own people do, yes. And I fault our leaders. You got to fault the leaders. As I said, the head is a percentage of the body, and a small percentage of the body. The head should be responsible, not the whole people. The leaders are responsible. Those are the ones we should hold responsible.
Further giving you the meaning in the dictionary of citizenship. Behavior... And I'm quoting the dictionary now, "Behavior in terms of the duties, obligations and functions of a citizen." Look how much is in citizenship. Behavior in terms of the duties, obligations and functions of a citizen. So, if we don't understand our rights, we cannot respect our rights. So, the rights of citizenship involves more than just the right to live in this country and go free, enjoy whatever is open to the public, etcetera, it carries heavy meanings for you as responsible life. All life is created to be responsible life. Responsible life. Your stomach tells you, you're hungry, it doesn't tell me. When you're hungry, your stomach tells you, it's hungry.
Now, if you die of starvation with all the food within your reach to eat, but you died of starvation, you could be my brother, blood brother, and I would say, "Well, hell, I didn't know what was happening to him. It was his stomach that was letting him know some food needed to be put in it, not my stomach." Now, if I see him losing a lot of weight or something, I'd say, "Hey man, what's happening? You're losing a lot of weight." And he say, "Well, I don't have no appetite." I'll see that he go to a doctor. I'll see he gets some help. But the most important consumer of things to help life survive and prosper is not the physical stomach down there, but it's the mind up here, the mind up here.
And many of us are just going on through the world, the intelligence doesn't feed and alert like the stomach does, you see. So we're going along and just passing up all of the good food and opportunity for our mind to feed on, to feed on, and grow better and be more productive, and we're just passing it. We can't register, we don't register appetite, mental appetite. We don't register mental hunger, we don't register intellectual hunger, and the need for intellectual growth. We don't... They don't register this. We're just caught by fun life and just going through the world carefree and living more in the animal state of life or existence than we're living in the human state of existence.
Now, everything I tell you is supported by scripture. I don't speak unless I'm supported by scripture. You see, so don't think that this is something coming from me or he's trying to impress us with what he knows. No, I'm not. I'm trying to impress you with what you don't know, and I hope you are starting wanting to know more.
Wonderful, G-d is greater. So we have people they awarded the award for good citizenship. And when they're awarded for good citizenship, it is because they are conscious citizens, conscious citizens. So many of us are citizens but we're not conscious citizens. We're not conscious. Any time a citizen come through the neighborhood with his car window down and he throw banana peelings out on the street or some barbecue rib bones out on the street, he's not a conscious citizen. Any time you come in the neighborhood and there's trash and garbage all over the neighborhood and the yards are not attended, that's proof that they are not conscious citizens living in that area.
Now, I'm not always ready to condemn them, no, 'cause many of them can't help their conditions. Some of them need to see a psychiatrist. I'm serious, I'm not joking. Some of them just need to see a psychiatrist. Some of them can be helped if they just see a social worker, especially one that attends the needs of families. So some of them are not responsible for their conditions because their sense of what they should be doing is not present in them anymore. Bad things have had traumatic effect on them and they are not able to function intelligent as human beings anymore. But we are our brother's keeper, those who see that is supposed to do something to help those people, to help them.
When I look at neighborhoods where African-American neighbors, residents cannot accept that their own dignity is insulted when they don't have a business showing in the freedom of space that they occupy, don't have a business showing. They go to everybody else to purchase their needs, go out of their neighborhood to purchase their needs, or go to someone who has come into their neighborhood and opened businesses in their neighborhood. But they don't come home from work and pass by all these other people making money in their neighborhood and feel that their dignity is insulted. So those are people that need to be rescued from their own bad mental state.
And that's what we should do. That's why the work that I give my life to is supported by so many of you good brothers and sisters, in Chicago area and throughout these United States, and in places beyond the United States, like Bermuda. I love to visit Bermuda, 'cause I go down the main business artery of a street in Bermuda, Main Street in Bermuda, and I see the presence of Muslims that belong to us, the presence of their businesses along that street. Oh, they're so confident to me. So, satisfying, satisfying in my heart and soul and mind to see their presence there. We have to have more of that. Now, I'm going back to a sense of ownership, and I'm gonna conclude it with a brief discussion of a sense of ownership. It's a requirement in our soul, G-d put it there. If you don't believe in G-d, Mother Nature put it there. It's a requirement in our soul that we own something. We're born owning something. We have to grow up to be responsible for what we own, but we are born owning our own bodies.
When we come from our mothers a full healthy person, it is expected that we will grow up and one day become responsible for our personal life, for our individual, our personal life, that we will be moved by an innocence of my worth, of my personal worth, we'll be moved by that to say, "Momma, I don't want you working and taking care of me anymore, I'm going out get me a job. I'll find me a job." And if you have had the right caretaking momma, caretaking momma, you grow up with that sense... And my mother... I don't think I was old enough to go to school, I wasn't. And she said, "Your brother is gonna be washing the windows." She gave me a bucket, little water in it and a rag, said, "I want you to clean the baseboard." And I cleaned the baseboard, I was washing the baseboard. Now, that's just one example. That's just one thing. But there were other things too. "You all go out and rake the leaves up in the front yard, and Junior, you take the, put the garage on the street for the pick-up." We had to do things. And that taught us that we have shared freedom space. You're not free to be in this house and do nothing.
You're free to be in this house and share responsibility for the whole house, you have to have a share in it. Well, now let's apply that to the public domain. Don't we have a share of responsibility for the public domain? And I have said earlier, we own it. The citizens own everything in the United States of America, we own everything. Only thing we don't own is what we own privately or individually. But everything that's public, we have a share in it. We have a share in the ownership of that. And if an individual neglects his own ownership, he can lose the rights of ownership, you know that? If you have a piece of property and you keep neglecting your responsibility to keep that property up, law can take that property from you. And the easy way they take it is you don't pay your taxes. [chuckle] And then the government takes it. Or you don't pay your mortgage, and the mortgage people take it, a mortgage company takes it. But you can pay your mortgage, you can pay your taxes, but if you let your property be neglected and they warn you and you don't do anything about it, they can take that property from you. And it's not a new thing, that was in the time of our Prophet.
When he established Islam as the way for us, it was established that anyone who finds property unattended, and nobody is caring for it, you can take that property, and if you care for it, it will be regarded as your property. You will be regarded as the owner of that piece of property. And I think they say in the American law, occupation is so much percentage... Percent of the right to own. Occupation. 'Cause somebody don't occupy the property, the owner, the real owner, he won't occupy it and he's not taking care of it, you go there and you start living there and you start taking care of that piece of property, when the owner comes back and say, "Hey, that's my property", take him to court. And tell the courts, "I found this property vacant and nobody taking care of it, and I tried to reach the owner, I couldn't reach him. I waited for him, he never showed up. Now, that I've improved this property, he wants it." And the judge will tell him, "You've neglected the property, you abandoned it, and this person has invested in it. Give him his full investment or give up your right to the property."
So, the law still stands. The law is the same law that was established in Islam, and believe me civilizations just inherit each other. A new civilization inherit a civilization that died before it, and inheriting it, it also inherited the wisdom that was left, the laws that was left, the civilization that they discovered, and one feeds the other, like the dead Earth gives life to another planting, another planting so that there'll be another harvest. Ownership, I was teaching in a school in Chicago, and I noticed that the children needed a sense of ownership. So I start telling the children, I said, "Do you know whose property this is, this building where we have school?" I said "Do you know who it belongs to?" I said, "It belongs to us Muslims, aren't you a Muslim? Aren't you one of us? It belongs to you, too." So I start talking to them that way. And they started coming into a sense of ownership, the feeling that they own that property, their attitude and behavior improved toward the property. Yes.
Now the soul has in it a need to promote a sense of ownership. It's inherent in the soul. Now, the psychology of the soul is hurt when that claim to ownership is not real. It was a long time in these United States, after we were free from chattel slavery, after we were free to go up, come up north or go wherever you want in the United States, free from the plantation slavery. But were we truly free as an intelligence, as an intellect, as a mind? No. The mind was left burdened because the citizenship was not real. It was not genuine, it was not real. So we were in this country, but we were still denied the full rights of citizenship. So citizenship didn't mean much to us. So what happened psychologically? See, I'm a student of psychology. I'm a student of world sciences. What happens to the psychology of the person when the mind can't be comfortable with something that is supposed to be real, but is not? What happens?
The mind is burdened by that, but the soul protests that. And the soul is not like the mind, it's not going according to the five senses all the time, it's not going according to what is accepted as intelligent behavior by the society. The soul is just protesting. And the soul... This protesting of the soul will sometimes hurt the functioning, the healthy functioning of the mind. The soul will sometimes work even to defeat or kill or destroy the person who's not responding to the nature of the soul like that person should respond. So the soul will try to wake that person up, will try to turn that person around, and if it can't do it, the soul ultimately will destroy that person. You might just blow your brains out or you might go to drugs, and you won't understand why. And it might be just that you can't accept that you are black and free in these United States. Your freedom is not real for you and your soul protests that. And the soul will protest it to get you to make it real.
It can't tell you that what you need to do is get a better understanding of citizenship. That you should get a better understanding of the rights in the Constitution of these United States. And whether you have done something or nothing to justify you claiming citizenship and claiming ownership for the sake of your life continuing, your soul supporting your intelligence, etcetera. Impose it upon yourself, force yourself to accept. Yes, I'm entitled to human rights, I'm entitled to the full rights of citizenship, I own a share of America, the land, the progress, the government, the public domain. That I own this.


0:01:23.2 IWDM: And something will happen to your psychology, if you will impose that upon yourself and really force yourself to accept what is duly yours, what is what you're entitled to by rights of birth in this country, a psychology will change in you and then you'll start wanting to tear down, you'll start wanting to build up. You know why we wanna tear down? You know why we can't really engage interests in America and build up? Because we haven't accepted that we're really an American, we haven't accepted that we are really a United States citizen. We haven't accepted that we are not property belonging to white folks. So the psychology in us wanna hurt white folks. Oh, I'll throw these neck bones out there on the street. [chuckle] Can't you see it? So thank you. I hope Elijah's son has done some healing work today. Peace be on you, As-salamu alaykum.

0:02:53.2 Speaker 2: Wa 'alaykumu s-salam. Ramadan Mubarak.

0:02:58.0 IWDM: Ramadan Mubarak.

0:03:00.0 Speaker 3: Thank you, brother Imam. So folks let's get with it and share that information some more, in our classrooms, in our family structure, whatever. Let's share that information. And, I just wanted to say that I've missed a Masjid Wali Muhammad of Detroit who was recognized in the sponsorships and the support for our convention 2008. And... This one... The fashion show, if you weren't there, start crying. You want my handkerchief?

[laughter]

0:03:31.0 Speaker 3: If you weren't there, start crying. And the entertainment, start crying, and the Imam building the peace before we converged on these fashions and the... Start crying. So we thank you dear believers, our sister Adid or whoever is gonna do the announcements. You turn over to Mom, huh? Come on Ma. I tried to get that right, that's African for mama... Umni? What's mama in African?

0:04:03.1 Ummi: Ummi.

0:04:04.0 S3: Ummi. Come on Ummi. [chuckle]

0:04:07.2 Ummi: Bismillah Rahman Rahim, as-salamu alaykum.

0:04:14.3 IWDM: Yes, I heard that they was taking pocket change for the project to build a masjid. I got some pocket change. I'm not like those preachers who ask for money, but don't ask that the bucket be passed by me too. The brink... Always come by me with the bucket. And that was change. [chuckle] Yes. Alright, we're gonna begin the second portion of today's program or agenda, and I'm gonna give you a chance to respond to what I have said the first hour, live broadcast hour, after I have said a few words to you, I'll spend maybe no more than about 10 minutes, 10-15 minutes at the most, and give the rest of the time for those who wanna make comments, ask questions, but please keep your questions... Limit your questions to questions on what I've said today. Don't go way back in the past, and please don't use your personal concerns as an opportunity to reach others with your personal burden. Okay? So I'm not here to hear what you think about this or that, or who's done this or who did that? I don't wanna hear it. If you start that way, I'm gonna sit down and tell the security to handle it. [laughter] Okay? And that'll be justified, 'cause I've told you, don't come that way. Alright? And they're civilized, they're human, I haven't seen any blood since I was on Stony Island.

[laughter]

0:06:40.8 IWDM: Somebody might have drawn blood, but they didn't let me see it. And I don't think they have done it really. Yes, now, we should be governed by intelligence and good character. Nobody should have to be subject to brute force if you're a Muslim and you understand what you were getting in, so don't invite it. And I ask those who may come at you to also restrain themself and be gentle, even with person who's not gentle themselves. And sometimes we can convert a person to human kindness by extending human kindness to them. Yes, doesn't work all the time, that's why I say call 911 if you have to.

0:07:58.8 IWDM: Yes, now, you know, we identify as Muslims, we are happy to say we are Muslims, but Islam requires us to know what a Muslim is and it requires us to know what our conversion, if we've converted from some other religion like Christianity, for most of the members here, it requires that person who converts to know what they're converting to. And that's given in the word Shahada. Shahada means that the person who converts, they witness themselves, that Islam is what it's said to be, and they witness themselves that Islam is their conscious choice.

0:09:16.0 IWDM: They ain't just coming up under some emotional pressure or something, or some emotional excitement, "Yes, I want to be a muslim. I am a muslim. I want to be a muslim." No, Islam, the message of Islam wants you to take plenty of time, not to rush. And when you have decided, in your own mind, and in your own good reasoning, with your own good intelligence, you have decided that this is the choice for me and this is my choice for these reasons, you give your own reasons. I understand G-d better now that I have heard the religion of Islam, I believe now that Islam respects me and my own common senses or my own common sense and my own human intelligence, and I'm choosing it for that reason. I'm choosing it because it's more consistent as a moral teaching, it doesn't say one thing in one place and then say a different thing in another place. It says don't eat pork and it says it means it. It says don't be a whiskey drinker, and it means it. It says don't take drugs and it means it.

0:10:40.4 IWDM: It doesn't let some of the members do those things, and ignore what they're doing. So there are many reasons why a person may convert to Islam or choose Islam, but know why you're choosing Islam when you choose it. That's a requirement, that's an Islamic requirement, that you just don't blindly come and say, yeah. I wanna be a Muslim. Those are the ones that will be a Muslim for a season, and as soon as the weather change, they're something else. We don't want that kind of person. So if that's the kind of person you are, then we'd rather you not to be among us or if you come among us, we'd rather you not say you are a Muslim and identify with it. You can come here as long as you want, as long as you don't say you're a Muslim, but once you say you're a Muslim, then we wanna look for a proof in your life that you're a Muslim. And if you don't show it by your life that you're a Muslim, you burden us, you hurt us.

0:12:01.8 IWDM: So we should make that clear. People are people, and you can't change that, but I think this Windy City area, Chicago, Windy City, it's the most moody congregation I know. Moody. They give charity, most of them, according to mood. They be in attendance according to mood. Some little thing happen that they don't particularly like, they go into a mood change, you don't see them here. Windy City. And this is not only my complaint, my father said.

0:12:54.0 IWDM: He said, Detroit and Chicago. Two of the worst places. My father speaking now, "Detroit and Chicago, two of the worst places. They got a den of snakes in both of them." Said, "And every time they get a chance to spread their poison to somebody else, they do it." Well, I don't know whether that condition still exists or not. But I sure see some of you look like you've been a bitten by a snake. [laughter] But I still love you and that's the truth. Yeah, I know there was a reason for you all locking yourselves up, hiding yourselves away in a hole somewhere and waiting to see what's going to happen to Imam W. Deen Mohammed. I see some of them, they meeting me in the street and they look so shocked saying, "This guy is still alive." [laughter] "He doesn't look like he's dying." You know you can wish something so bad until it becomes a reality in your eyes. Yeah. You can wish somebody's sick and dying, you see that person, you see a person sick and dying. And you happen to see him again and you're not in that kind of groove, and you shocked. [laughter]

0:14:37.2 IWDM: Well, everything has it's wear and tear in time, and I'm having my wear and tear but it affects my physical life only. My spiritual life is a young man, young man, that's my spiritual life, and my faith in the future is just like a person 16, 17 years old. Yeah. That's because my spirit is my real life. My real life is my spirit. So as long as I see you still needing a leader like me, and I don't see anyone, somebody coming up to replace me, I think I'mma be still battling health problems and whatever for a long long time. [laughter] No. No. No. No. No. Thank you. Thank you.

0:15:35.5 IWDM: I know why you are clapping. But those who I'm talking to, I'm trying to lighten the burden on them. See 'cause next year at this time, he's still living? And I'm letting you know I plan to live about 100 more years, so don't carry the burden of expecting me to die on you. I'm trying to help you out. [laughter] And who knows? Only G-d knows. Only Allah knows who will live, who will die, who will have a life extended and who will not. Only Allah knows. The only indication that I know, that I got, is my own soul and spirit. Yes. And that says for as long as it takes. [laughter] Thank you.

0:16:40.9 IWDM: Now, getting back to my first point is, you all have to be conscious. And like most of us are not conscious to mean our citizenship. And I read it to most of you, and I'm sure that you've got now a bigger and richer understanding or picture of what citizenship is all about. Yes. But the same thing goes for all important words, Muslim, it has a real meaning, it can't be a meaning in your mind or something. No. Get the real meaning from Islamic knowledge. Yes. So that's the first point. That's the first point, I'm making for this part of the presentation. Take meaning serious and live "a meaningful life". A meaningful life. A life without rich meaning is oppressed, is oppression, and it will stress you out and you'll be stressed out not even knowing why you're stressed out. You need to live meanings, live knowledge. Live knowledge and meanings, then you will have a good life and it won't stress you out.

0:18:05.7 IWDM: Second point, and the last point that I wanna make here is that Islam is not a plan for an individual person. It's a plan for community life. Community life. And individuals don't find opportunities for their individual life on an island away from society. They find their opportunities for their individual life within the context of the community life. So when we accept responsibility as Muslims to focus community and bring everybody together to support community, a Muslim community and not in international world only, that's just an idea. If you don't live there, how much can you help the whole international world? It should start right in your home. You should teach your family if you are the parent there and you're a Muslim, and you're responsible for the household, teach your family. See that your young ones know what we are all about, know what we want as a life in America and keep them focused on community as the work assignment for all of us, community life. That's the work assignment for all of us.

0:19:51.9 IWDM: Yes. And don't forget what I said in the first hour about a sense of ownership. Insist that all of us share this sense of ownership. We say, "This is my nation, this is our community." And back then, in the time of Imam Elijah Muhammad, most of us had a healthy sense of community or nation and our place in it. But something happened when Imam Elijah Muhammad passed and we started to lose and stuff. Then I started hearing a different ring in the words of those who said, "Yes. This is our community. This is our community." We didn't say it like that. "Yes. This is our community." We said, "This is my nation."

0:20:52.2 Speaker 2: That's right.

0:20:54.4 IWDM: Huh?

0:20:54.5 S2: That's right.

0:20:55.4 IWDM: Yeah. We stood up, we were bright faced, we were bright eyed when we said that. We didn't say it from a low down spirit, "Yeah. This is our community. May Allah bless us all." Well, hell, why don't you do something to earn Allah blessing you. Don't associate yourself with me in that. "May Allah bless us all." Don't put me with you. I ain't complaining. Allah is blessing me, I'm happy. You got a problem, take it to 911. Well, that's all I wanted to say. Now I'm ready for you to say something. Just come to the mic. You all come on up to the mic and let's hear from you, whatever you wanna say come to the mic. Make sure the mic is working down there.
0:00:01.7 Speaker 1: Well, that's all I wanted to say now I'm ready for you to say something, just come to the mic. You all come on up to the mic. Let's hear from you. Whatever you wanna say. Come to the mic. Make sure the mic is working down there. My brother, Nahim Muhammad. Yeah he's here, there the mic.

0:00:29.8 Speaker 2: Testing, testing, testing.

0:00:38.2 Speaker 2: Assalamu alaikum.

0:00:39.5 IWDM: Alaykumu s-salam.

0:00:40.1 S2: Ramadan Mubarak.

0:00:40.2 IWDM: Ramadan Mubarak.

0:00:41.3 S2: Brother Imam, you expressed the psychology part of this grant and what we would get out of accepting that this would be ours. Could you give us... Give us something, how this unseen forces worked for us? Even in the Quran, it speaks of the unseen, unseen, unseen, but give us a deeper meaning of understanding these great forces in this unseen power.

0:01:10.5 IWDM: You mean the soul and its property of that I call a sense of ownership rights? Sense of ownership.

0:01:26.1 S2: Yes.

0:01:26.8 IWDM: Yes. Well, what you need to do is buy the CD or DVD, and just listen to it over and over again. I put it all into that hour that I gave. It's all there.

0:01:40.0 S2: Okay thank you sir.

0:01:41.0 IWDM: The psychologist can't do any better for you.

0:01:43.9 S2: Thank you.

0:01:45.8 IWDM: You're most welcome.

0:01:49.9 Speaker 3: Assalamu alaikum, sir.

0:01:51.6 IWDM: Alaykumu s-salam.

0:01:51.6 Speaker 3: I would first like to extend my deepest apologies to you for my parent negligence and not consulting with you regarding the direction and challenges that we're experiencing at Simeka school. I pray that you know that I have had an abiding love and respect for you and your family and your leadership over the past 40 years, and we are starting our fifth year, and I guess in my humble attempts to try and implement the teaching that I have heard, I did not want to burden you because I know that you have been very overwhelmingly supportive of me, the school and what we have done, but I really would like to sit down and discuss with you the questions regarding some things that we have done, and I think in our fifth year that we're at a fork in the road at this point, and in terms of the direction that we would like to go, I seek your wisdom and your guidance.

0:02:54.4 IWDM: Yes. I welcome the opportunity to meet with you at any time that much gather and yours permit. But I want you to know that you were nowhere near the problem that I was addressing. You were not in my mind at all, when I made the statement, I need...

0:03:17.1 S3: Thank you.

0:03:17.6 IWDM: You're most welcome.

0:03:19.1 S3: How should I make arrangements to meet with you?

0:03:21.7 IWDM: Well, you can do it through Sister Amatala, she lives not far from me.

0:03:32.4 S3: Alright. Thank you.

0:03:34.1 IWDM: Thank you.

0:03:34.6 S3: Assalamu alaikum.

0:03:38.2 Speaker 4: Ramadan Mubarak.

0:03:42.2 IWDM: Ramadan Mubarak.

0:03:43.4 Speaker 4: I have a letter that some of the vendors have put together, some issues that we would like for you to be aware of, so when you accept a letter.

0:03:53.5 IWDM: Thank you, yes. I will accept it. You can give it to the security right there. Thank you.

0:04:00.9 Speaker 5: Assalamu alaikum.

0:04:04.0 IWDM: Alaykumu s-salam. My brother.

0:04:05.0 Speaker 5: Yes. Your talk is always inspiring, but I just wanted to just say on my heart, the connection with citizenship you made for me was wonderful because I realized that the root... One of the roots, just broke it up and I thought about city, and then I thought about Zenas and Zenith and holding the city high as a ship that would ride us to whatever the trouble waters, I just wanna thank you for that, inspiration as always. Thank you so much.

0:04:31.7 IWDM: That's beautiful, yes thank you.

0:04:33.0 S5: And that idea my city, I was... The other day, I was with a gentleman, not a Muslim, we were playing golf, and after we finished it was... I'm getting close time to break the fast, and so he wanted to break with me, he wasn't fasting, and so I had some dates and I offered him to take an odd number, I said, and he asked me "why?" and I said: "Well, that's the way prophet Muhammad did it and that's our tradition." and usually I have a basis and understanding, like you said, we should always know why we do what we do, and I'm sure probably one of the scholars here could have told me, but I thought I'd take an advantage of getting from you directly.

0:05:08.8 S5: Why is it that, in our tradition, we choose an odd number one or three or five when we're selecting? Because I didn't have a good answer for him, but I told him I would get one, and so hearing it from you would be much appreciated if you could just share.

0:05:20.7 IWDM: Thank you.

0:05:21.3 S5: Yes, sir.

0:05:21.8 IWDM: Tell him, Allah says in the Quran that he gives without counting, he doesn't count. He doesn't count. So numbers one, two, and three, it mean nothing with G-d, he just give you more than a you need. He knows you'll be alright because he gives you more than you need.

0:05:46.8 S5: Yes sir.

0:05:54.2 IWDM: Yes, for the next I'm waiting.

0:05:57.4 S5: Assalamu alaikum.

0:05:57.6 IWDM: Alaykumu s-salam.

0:05:57.7 S5: Yeah I have a book that was written by a brother out of St. Louis, Karim Hack and he's talking about citizenship and the 13th Amendment. He wanted to give it to you on his behalf.

0:06:07.0 IWDM: Oh that's a coincidence. I'm talking about citizenship and you got a book about that. Let's see it. I may have it, I just wanna see if I got it. No?

0:06:21.4 IWDM: Yeah, this should be interesting. It looks like it can be very interesting.

0:06:24.3 S5: Yeah, I read portions of it. It looks very good.

0:06:27.2 IWDM: Yes. We got a lot of professional help in this community. A lot of it. In fact, a brother that's giving me this book, he has produced book and the excellent book, and more than one, and this looks like an extensive work here. I don't know how many pages, but it looks like yeah, that's the protein. Not 500 pages, just about 500 pages and it looks like it's gonna be very interesting.

0:07:02.2 IWDM: You know, you all should get together. You professionals who are producing work, and you should make sure that your work is listed in the journal, 'cause listed in the journal every so often, maybe periodically, say every three months or so, make sure that all of your professional productions are listed in the Muslim Journal, so we all know about it. Can you give the book back to our brother?

0:07:31.6 S5: It is yours.

0:07:32.9 Speaker 6: He's saying it is yours.

0:07:35.7 IWDM: Oh, its a gift?

0:07:37.4 S5: Yes sir.

0:07:38.2 IWDM: Thank you, thank you very much. I'll make use of it.

0:07:40.4 S5: Yes sir.

0:07:41.1 Speaker 7: As-salamu alaykum, Ramadan Mubarak.

0:07:44.0 IWDM: Wa'alaykumu s-salam, Ramadan Mubarak.

0:07:47.2 Speaker 7: Last year I think it was in November, I come and may mention, I know everybody knows I'm scared that usually got a heart, especially for the pioneers and what I want to say, you basically spoke on it today about being responsible since that time we know physically our pioneers are passing away, and I had got a chance to speak with you Imam Mohamed in March, and he asked me to get him a pendent as soon as I could, and I have established something that we servicing.

0:08:20.8 S7: We have identified basically all the pioneers where they are now and set up visitation and serving them, and I have set by laws, Lord bless me, to come up with the name that pioneering spirit, whether we pioneers and we pass on physically, we know we have to have the spirit, no matter what, to continue to exist. So this is a copy of the bylaws for this pioneering spirit, for Imam Mohamed.

0:08:48.0 IWDM: Is that a copy you have...

0:08:49.6 S7: This is for you. Yes, sir.

0:08:50.8 IWDM: Thank you. Can you give it to brother, security?

0:08:53.0 Speaker 8: As-salamu alaykum, brother...

0:08:56.6 IWDM: Wa'alaykumu s-salam, our brother, our poet. Brother Bilal.

0:09:04.2 Speaker 8: I want to first just convey to you my condolence for the recent passing of your brother Jabber, who himself has been in many ways a credit to our community.

0:09:17.2 IWDM: Yes. A big financial help to many. Infact he paid, I think all the pioneers that would accept it. He paid their way, their hardship expenses, that was a big hand he made of 300 members, made hot.

0:09:36.5 S8: Yes, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah. Lastly, I just want to thank you for continuing to give us the keys that we need to keep our lives stable and manageable and prosperous...

0:09:52.0 IWDM: Praise be to Allah.

0:09:52.7 S8: In a way that is also is intuned with the religion of El-Islam.

0:10:02.9 IWDM: Yes, praise be to Allah.

0:10:04.5 S8: In a very balanced way. Thank you very much, may Allah continue to bless you and this community, As-salamu alaykum.

0:10:10.5 IWDM: Thank you, and we thank Allah for you.

0:10:12.2 Speaker 9: As-salamu alaykum, Ramadan Mubarak.

0:10:17.0 IWDM: Wa-alaykumu s-salam, Ramadan Mubarak to brother Muhammad.

0:10:23.1 Speaker 9: Alhamdulillah. I would like to thank you and tell you how much I appreciate your leadership and your patience with us as a community, and what I wanted to come up for concerning what you was talking about was getting to you, speaking to you about things and we were concerned about that would help this community, and it's been on my spirit that the fact that we're having so much calamity and turmoil, natural disasters throughout the country, what's happening with that is that the predatory animals are coming close to civilization, and it may sound funny, but it's true, and lives are being lost, and they're gonna be lost to a greater extent, the more this takes place...

0:11:42.3 IWDM: Yeah.

0:11:43.1 S9: And what I wanted to see you about was, with your knowledge of the welding and your constructive knowledge, I know there's something protective that could be brought about for human beings to wear or some kind of protective situation that would come into play so that they wouldn't be... When they are attacked, they would be able to survive. I don't know if you follow me, so I don't know whether it would be a... Well, I had in mind of something with sharp objects that would ward off an animal attacking a person. You know.

0:12:40.6 IWDM: I welcome you bringing that to my attention, and all you have to do is call my daughter Leila...

0:12:55.1 S9: Yes, sir.

0:12:56.8 IWDM: And make an appointment through her or Sister Amatuma.

0:13:06.9 S9: Yes, sir.

0:13:07.5 IWDM: Our Brother Rafa.

0:13:08.3 S9: Yes, sir.

0:13:08.9 IWDM: Yes. Or Ndindi.

0:13:10.1 S9: Yes, sir.

0:13:10.6 IWDM: They all know how to arrange a meeting.

0:13:13.9 S9: Good.

0:13:14.3 IWDM: Mm-hmm.

0:13:15.6 S9: Thank you so much.

0:13:16.2 IWDM: So whenever it is convenient for you and my schedule, I would like to see it happen soon, soon, Inshallah.

0:13:24.5 S9: Yes, sir. Thank you very much.

0:13:24.5 IWDM: That I hope it can... Can it wait till after the Ramadan sessions, of course?

0:13:28.9 S9: Yes, sir.

0:13:29.8 IWDM: Alright. So I hope to see you soon after the Ramadan session, no more than two days after.

0:13:37.2 S9: Yes, sir. Thank you very much.

0:13:39.0 IWDM: Thank you. I look forward to it.

0:13:40.5 S10: Bismillah Rahman Rahim, Assalam Alaykum.

0:13:45.9 IWDM: Alaykum Assalam.

0:13:48.0 S10: A couple of things really, as quick as possible, the Enlightenment Series, I know you have this, but just wanna make sure you have another copy, you talked about building upon your citizenship rights, and these are some of the things that you provided for us for the publications, so we do have that pamphlet as well as, we talked about, we need guardians, and then there's also one on we need watchers. So I'm...

0:14:11.4 IWDM: Thank you.

0:14:11.7 S10: You can have those at your accessibility. I just wanted to thank you so much for today's address. It really spoke to me. Alhamdulillah, and I'm sure as well, it spoke to everyone here, or many people here, Inshallah, in terms of addressing our citizenship.

0:14:31.3 S10: In school, we've learned the whole concept of multiculturalism and how people need the... How it is important for a community to feel esteem about itself, it has to have citizenship rights, just as you were saying in your sociology class or your political science class, the concept of John Locke and how the world operates off of a concept of whiteness, being a citizen, owning property, speaking English, certain things, that was a way to determine who gets to be a citizen and who doesn't.

0:15:03.4 S10: I sincerely appreciate you expounding on that and it further encouraged us to take our piece, our share of this Earth and a share of this United States of America like you did here, and at the convention, and Inshallah, I'm gonna do my best to continue to do so and encourage others, and Alhamdulillah, one of my friends yesterday became a Muslim, she took her Shahada. So when you were saying about reflecting upon your Islam, that's something that a lot of us did, so I just want to say that we thank you, on behalf of the youth and young adults, we're behind you. We look forward to seeing you at the Ramadan session and just thank you so very much.

0:15:40.9 IWDM: Thank you. Thank you.

0:15:42.1 S10: Alhamdulillah.

0:15:42.2 IWDM: And we thank Allah for you. Yeah.

0:15:44.3 S11: Assalam Alaykum.

0:15:46.9 IWDM: Alaykum Assalam.

0:15:49.4 S11: Ah yes! You had requested a gift from me last week, and I'm not sure if you ever received it, there was a mix up, so I just came up here to bring you something to break fast with, so...

0:16:02.0 IWDM: Thank you. Thank you.

0:16:03.8 S11: Alright, Assalam Alaykum.

0:16:05.3 IWDM: Alaykum Assalam.

0:16:06.5 S12: Assalam Alaykum, Brother Imam.

0:16:08.5 IWDM: Alaikum Assalam.

0:16:09.6 S12: I'm Sister Miriam, Ramadan Mubarak.

0:16:11.0 IWDM: Yes.

0:16:11.0 S12: I just really want to truly thank you for your speech today on ownership and taking this community to the level that it should be, and I'm ready to align with you in that, and I'm making a request to my brothers and sisters that we all align to take this community where Imam Mohammed spoke about today.

0:16:26.0 IWDM: Yes.

0:16:26.2 S12: Thank you very much, Brother Imam.

0:16:27.0 IWDM: Thank you, thank you. Allahu Akbar, yes.

0:16:30.3 S13: Ramadan Mubarak, Brother Imam.

0:16:33.6 IWDM: Allah says to us in the Quran, "Jahidu wa Rabitu." "Make strong jihad, struggle hard." But that's not enough. "And form alliances." So people who have like minds and you know you want the same thing, you all should identify each other and then work together, no matter how loosely, or how loose, pardon me, no matter how loose your alliance is, it's better to work together than not to work together at all. So you who have literary skills, you should get together, you who are interested in promoting business, you should get together, a lot of you, sisters and brothers, you have business, you have private businesses, we should have a time in the year, and the convention is an excellent time for that, when those who are interested in meeting other professionals and business people in our community, you should insist that we have time in our program, during the convention, for you all to meet because that's the time when you don't have to spend money to meet with each other.

0:17:47.7 IWDM: You're coming anyway, so that's a time for you to meet.

0:17:50.9 IWDM: I brought this to your attention many times, and I'll continue to bring it to your attention, that's the time for us to meet and take advantage of opportunity to support each other, to learn from each other, and to get vision improved for each other.

0:18:06.1 S13: Ramadan Mubarak, Brother Imam.

0:18:08.8 IWDM: Ramadan Mubarak.

0:18:10.3 S13: Brother Imam, I saw your comments today in light of what's transpiring politically, this monumental shift in what's happening politically with the candidacy of Barack Obama, and also I saw it in light of you cautioning us to make sure that we don't sit on the sideline as this shift is taking place.

0:18:34.5 IWDM: Yeah.

0:18:35.1 S13: My wife, Gloria and I, were fortunate enough to attend the Democratic National Convention...

0:18:39.1 IWDM: Wonderful.

0:18:40.5 S13: And we saw how people are taking advantage of their citizenship rights, and the time that I spent there, I thought about our community. There were Muslims there, there were Muslims that were invited there, and they were able to participate, and I want you to know that we are doing everything we can to live up to your words on making sure that we are active politically and that we assume our rightful place.

0:19:06.6 IWDM: Thank you.

0:19:07.4 S3: Thank you for your...

0:19:08.2 IWDM: Thank you very much.

0:19:09.2 S13: All that you've done, Assalam Alaykum.

0:19:10.0 IWDM: Alaykum Assalam.

0:19:15.0 S14: As-salamu alaykum brother. Amen.

0:19:17.1 IWDM: Alaykum assalam.

0:19:19.0 S14: I too wanna thank you. It was 35-plus years ago that you set me on a stage of education, you positioned me as a teacher, first teacher at Sister Clara Muhammad School so I wanna thank you for that.

0:19:33.9 IWDM: Thank you.

0:19:34.3 S14: And the leadership that you've exhibited throughout those years that I've been a Muslim, as-salamu alaykum to you on that.

0:19:41.3 IWDM: Thank you.

0:19:42.9 S14: As you were speaking about your topic today, Allah has blessed me to re-position myself at Chicago State University and it has crossed my mind many times how our school, Sister Clara Muhammad School can be impactful by establishing a strong relationship with the university system especially with our history of Self-Help in business and entrepreneurship, this is a theme that I think would do our system very well. I wasn't able to make the convention and I know that there was a brother here at one first Sunday that you had identified would be leading in effort to strengthen the curriculum of Sister Clara Muhammad School. I want to again, put myself in a position where I can be of assistance to you and the community in my new role.

0:20:44.9 IWDM: That's wonderful. We welcome that help, we need it.

0:20:47.7 S14: So at your earliest convenience I would like to sit with him or you to discuss how to strengthen our curriculum.

0:20:53.9 IWDM: Okay, so if you contact any of those persons that I identified already as persons who can arrange a meeting for us...

0:21:04.1 S14: Yes, sir.

0:21:06.3 IWDM: Either the three I think I mentioned three or four by name so if you reach any of those that would be fine.

0:21:13.2 S14: I know Brother Rafa.

0:21:14.1 IWDM: And when it's convenient for you in my schedule we'll do it.

0:21:18.1 S14: Yes, sir.

0:21:18.6 IWDM: Alright.

0:21:19.3 S14: As-salamu alaykum.

0:21:21.0 IWDM: Alaykum as-salumu.

0:21:22.7 S15: As-salamu alaykum.

0:21:24.3 IWDM: Alaykum as-salum.

0:21:25.9 S15: And Ramadan Mubarak to everyone.

0:21:28.9 IWDM: Ramadan Mubarak.

0:21:30.4 S15: Brother Imam of all the people who have spoken before me, I started not to give up and I had to come and speak for me because all of what you said down through the years I'm one of your students in the beginning as of today and I'm just so happy to be here with you today. I was in Detroit on Sunday and I plan to be back for the Ramadan session and every chance I can get to come over here but last Friday evening Allah blessed me with my granddaughter coming to visit me, my oldest granddaughter, I have 19 grandchildren and 14 great-grands and I have one little great-great grandchild, that's her grandson and she is just so happy because down through the years I left Los Angeles when she was a baby and I lived in Oklahoma City down through the years, coming to Chicago whenever I was blessed to and traveling wherever you are, Texas, Arizona, California, it didn't matter but she had been so happy getting to come and understand Al-Islam, well she lived in Los Angeles as long all of her life but if I was not there to take her to the Masjid she didn't go but Allah has blessed her and my youngest daughter was here with us also until yesterday so my soul is happy.

0:23:13.3 IWDM: Praise be to Allah.

0:23:14.3 S15: And I'm so thankful.

0:23:15.4 IWDM: We thank Allah for you. We thank Allah for you.

0:23:18.5 S15: Thank you sir.

0:23:19.5 IWDM: I believe brother Rafa mentioned you to me, from Los Angeles is that the sister from Los Angeles you mentioned?

0:23:27.0 S16: Yes, hello thank you for coming to Los Angeles, no we haven't met.

0:23:31.8 IWDM: That's not the one that you mentioned to me that came to Chicago?

0:23:36.6 S16: No sir.

0:23:37.6 IWDM: Oh, okay. Well, you ought to get acquainted with her.

0:23:43.5 S16: Yes sir.

0:23:44.0 IWDM: And have her... Invite her to some of the meetings we have 'cause she can make a contribution inshallah.

0:23:50.5 S16: Yes sir.

0:23:51.0 S15: But you know who I am don't you brother, Imam?

0:23:54.5 IWDM: I remember you, I do remember you.

0:23:57.2 S15: Yeah, you were at Los Angeles, no not in Los Angeles but in Oklahoma city when I had the restaurant, upstairs over the Masjid?

0:24:06.3 IWDM: I remember, I remember you.

0:24:08.4 S15: Okay, well, you know you are my leader, you are my teacher and you are my brother and I love you with all my heart.

0:24:14.8 IWDM: Thank you. Thank you very much.

[applause]

0:24:16.9 S17: As-salamu alaykum brother Imam.

0:24:20.0 IWDM: Thank you, Allahu Akbar.

0:24:22.3 S17: Brother Imam, today I come to confirm with you, you know when I commit myself to you on projects I put my whole heart into it, you will get that Masjid. I'm here to commit to you that I will raise the money to get you that Masjid and I would need help in certain areas but I know how to get that money for you. My mind is not focused, I'm kinda like you, I'm not focused on money but I know the right people and the right places and I know how to go about getting it.

0:25:01.6 IWDM: Allah bless you to accomplish what you want to accomplish and I'm sure that we all will celebrate, we'll celebrate your success.

0:25:17.1 S17: Yes, sir, yes sir.

0:25:19.2 IWDM: In fact I'll cook you a special meal myself.

0:25:24.7 S17: Yes sir.

0:25:25.5 IWDM: And I'm a good cook too.

0:25:26.7 S17: Yes sir.

[chuckle]

0:25:29.4 S17: Well, I will try to have it a large portion for you. I will commit myself for one year, but the first six months you will be very pleased.

0:25:39.6 IWDM: Thank you.

0:25:40.2 S17: First six months, you will be very pleased.

0:25:42.0 IWDM: Thank you very much.

0:25:42.9 S17: As-Salaam Alaykum.

0:25:45.9 S18: As-Salaam Alaykum.

0:25:47.4 IWDM: Alaykumu s-salam.

0:25:48.8 S18: I just wanted to tell you, I was over in the back listening and observing about ownership and citizenship. And I just wanna share with you some of the experiences. I know back in the '60s when they had the riots on the west side, and I was looking at a documentary of Mayor Daley. And he said, "Why are they burning up and tearing up their own community?" And a thought came to me is that they don't think they have a sense of ownership in their community.

0:26:17.8 IWDM: Right.

0:26:18.2 S18: So that's why the tore up and was destructive. The other thing is, I was selling goods, I've been selling goods for a while now. And that's what I do for a living. But anyway, to make a long story short, I walked into a place called Home Line Industry, they're out in Philadelphia. They had a location here in the city, 34, 10 West division. And I had that attitude and I admit it was bad, but I said, "This is my warehouse." And I mentioned it to one of the Caucasians, and he said, "No, this is not your warehouse." But in my mind and in my spirit, I believed that it was my warehouse. And I looked at all the goods, those are my goods. And I just took on that ownership. And I see that that ownership mentality, that citizenship mentality, we got to see, like we were saying, "This is our America. We have a share in America." And this is hitting me to my soul. When I heard you in Detroit, I said, "This is good for me."

[laughter]

0:27:17.8 S18: And we got to take on that ownership. And the last and final thing I'd like to say as a brother said, we got to take charge.

0:27:26.3 IWDM: That's right.

0:27:29.1 S18: We're in the background, and we got to move. In Philadelphia I went to the Manor convention. They said... The brother said everybody in Philadelphia, African-American was Muslim." I said, "That's down, 'cause we need to do that to Chicago and Detroit." And the brother said that they have a saying that say, diddly diddly step to 'em. [laughter] So I feel that we need to take charge and we got to have that ownership mentality and that citizenship. And thank you very much for bringing it on home.

0:28:00.4 IWDM: Thank you, thank you. And I hope you know a difference between public property and private property. [laughter]

[background conversation]

0:28:17.2 IWDM: I don't want him looking at my new vehicle I got.

[laughter]

0:28:29.2 IWDM: But I feel his spirit, and the brother is good. He's gonna be alright.

[laughter]

0:28:39.9 IWDM: Well, that's it. We've went six minutes over time.

0:28:45.8 S19: As-Salaam Alaykum, brother Imam.

0:28:49.8 IWDM: Thank you. Alaykumu s-salam. I thought we were finished.

0:28:54.5 S19: Ramadan Mubarak, sir.

0:28:55.5 IWDM: Ramadan Mubarak my brother.

0:28:56.9 S19: Imam, I've heard you mentioned that we needed to step forth on building, the building aspects of this community. I'm a brick layer, and I wanted to say I'm available for anything that you needed me to do...

0:29:22.6 IWDM: Thank you.

0:29:23.1 S19: With helping the youngsters learning the trade and stuff like that.

0:29:28.8 IWDM: Yeah, please make sure that you give security, brother Rafa is right there.

0:29:34.8 S19: Yes, sir.

0:29:35.2 IWDM: Give him a contact number.

0:29:37.2 S19: Yes, sir, I will.

0:29:38.0 IWDM: So we can invite you whenever we're having meetings that I know you'd be interested in. We'll invite you.

0:29:45.7 S19: Thank you much, sir.

0:29:47.0 IWDM: Thank you now.

0:29:47.9 S19: As-Salaam Alaykum.

[background conversation]

0:29:54.5 IWDM: Well, I believe that it. So let's go home and inshallah enjoy the day and the month of Ramadan. It's a blessed month. And blessings come to those who are ill, or have health problems and can't fast. Can't fast from liquid and solid foods, keep as much of the fast as you can. Do the fast as much as you can. So just because you can't fast from physical food, it doesn't mean that you can't fast the month of Ramadan. During the daylight hour we are to avoid arguments. And Prophet Muhammad, peace be on him, he said if someone comes to you like that, just tell them you're fasting. And they should respect that and not open up discussion or arguments or something, or something that will lead to arguments. So restrain our passions, our anger, purify our intentions, keep a good spirit. And after the sunset, enjoy being with others who are breaking their fast and eating since you're not fasting from food. But if you have members join them and tell them, I said, don't be looking at you like you ain't supposed to enjoy the break fast.

0:31:50.6 IWDM: Tell them you've been fasting too. Keep your mind on good things, healthy things. And know this, what we are asked to do in the month of Ramadan, is designed to put us in the habit or in the practice of doing that, so that it continues for a whole year. Not in the same intensity or in the same amount or degree, but it increase the devotion to the spirituality, the spiritual life that we want as Muslims. It keeps that and it grows stronger and stronger every year. I think that's all I wanted to say. Yes. So enjoy the month of Ramadan. And inshallah we'll all celebrate the victory together, to eat together at the end of Ramadan. And I look forward to seeing you all as many as can be there in Detroit for the three-day weekend Ramadan session. And this time we are starting at 10 o'clock every morning, and we'll break for noon prayer. We have a little break and we go all day up until Maghreb. And we'll break fast together, and that will conclude the day. And that will be for three days. It'll be from 10:00 to Maghreb time. Except for a small break after the noon prayer. There'll be a break to go and relax or whatever you want need to do. There's a break, I think for about two hours, isn't it?

0:33:39.6 S20: Yes, sir.

0:33:39.9 IWDM: Yes, it's about a two-hour break after the noon prayer. And Sunday too, we are not gonna stop early like we did before, we're gonna go until break fast time. Yes, after sunset. So see you there inshallah, may Allah keep you and be with you always. Amin.

0:34:29.5 S21: As-Salaam Alaykum.

0:34:30.5 S?: Alaykumu s-salam.

0:34:32.5 S21: Let's share dua please. With Allah's name the merciful benefactor the merciful redeemer. Amin. Thank you for coming, have a safe trip home, folks.

0:34:42.0 S8: You didn't hear me make dua? I said..

