3/8/2003
IWDM Study Library
First Sunday

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam WD Mohammed:
That we were not able to be on time and we went to the wrong airport. Isn't that ridiculous? We get to our plane. Time we got to the airport, we were supposed to go to come here, we were too late to catch our plane. We regret that very much but I'm happy that you all did have patience and had something to do to keep you occupied because it makes me feel much better that at least I'm able to see you and greet you and give you greetings and speak for a few moments. And then I would like to open for questions or comments to address what I'm saying or ask questions, question around what I'm going to say.
Ownership is very important for people to have identifying in ownership. And whatever we own, if we know it, though it be small it makes us feel better that we own something. People that don't feel they own anything, they're missing the psychological help that they need in their lives. And G-d never intended for any human being for that matter, no creature existing to feel that they're not entitled to the benefits of G-d's creation. That include animals. G-d made this world for all of us to benefit us. As a human being because of freedom of sort etc., a freedom that permits us to change the world, imagine the world different from what G-d put us in and make the world that's a manmade world, this can cut us off from the help that G-d intended for us. I would like to mention that what helped us to have a spirit to go forward with our life in the time of my father the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was just that. People had no money, poor, very poor, and we began as a very, very poor congregation membership, very poor. Uneducated and very poor. But the message was so good and exciting.
It inspired those with nothing to want to do big things. And the following of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as you know eventually did very big things. First we were told that we are entitled to some of the earth or the creation that G-d made and that we were made to get the benefit of this creation. We were told that we were owners of land, the earth. That G-d intended for every human being to have ownership of some land. Those were very difficult times, a lot of progress for industry. The big fish all dominated the waters you know and it can be hard for a little fish to get anything, but if you work together you can have something. That was the teaching of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. If little fish come together, they can do big things. Little people come together and work together for one interest they can do big things. Well this has to happen even though they don't have a separate idea or an idea that separates us from the white man's world or separates us from the world. Really there was never in reality any white man's world. G-d made the world for all people.
But we were set out by the idea of white supremacy and it set us out until it was done away with. And so the Honorable Elijah Muhammad facing that kind of situation, he was taught to lead his people to ownership for themselves and accept society for themselves. A completely different way of looking at the world that G-d made and looking at ourselves, our own role in it, our own importance as people. They gave us a different way of looking at everything. So we perceived the world differently and that world was perceived as the world for black people, the world of the black man, black man's world. And we were able to do big things. We can't separate ourselves from that idea completely because the idea and the purpose was right. The purpose is to sensitize all people, especially little people that have been cut off from their blessing that G-d created them for, to sensitize them, to believe that the G-d that may everything obligates them, not just welcomes you, but that G-d obligates all of us to strive and work to be more responsible for some part of His creation. Some land.
We can't all do it as individuals, but we still have to try to do it together as a group. And even if I was in the city of Newark or any other city on the East coast or wherever like I am in Illinois, I would want myself to be a part of an effort. An effort by responsible people, an effort to increase the material wealth of small people, of little people, of poor people and an effort to have them be more responsible for their neighborhoods, their environment that they live in, responsible as persons contributing to the life and strength and progress of their neighborhood or the environment that they're in. G-d created us to engage the material world, to engage it with our heart, with our feelings, our sensitivities and more importantly to engage with our rational mind, our human intelligence. G-d made the physical world that we look at for our intelligence.
And I know the students on this campus here. I have been here before. I remember being here before. I know students here who have knowledge of these things, much of what I'm saying and you can appreciate what I'm saying. You're being taught, you're being educated to prepare yourself not just to live like animals, eat, sleep, die. You're being prepared to be responsible for something, to be responsible as part of something, as part of a business, as part of a organization, as part of the government maybe. And this is what we should have in the hands of our leaders, whether they be church leaders or Mosque leaders, religious leaders or whether they be civic leaders or just community leaders. Our leaders to be those that are having the understanding that G-d obligates us. A lot of people say, well, what if I don't believe in G-d. What if religion is not my thing.
Well believe that nature has made it that you engage the material world with your intelligence, with your heart, with your hands, with your efforts. Man cannot develop even his own human life or his own humanity without engaging the material world. The more we interest ourselves in the material world to see what this can give us, the more our minds develop, the more our whole life as a human being develop. And when you are separated from that, then you can lead your own human identity. Separate the human being from a life of true production, a life of intelligent progress for his intelligence and you limit the progress for that individual in terms of coming into the full human life that Allah, G-d made for us, intended us to have. And nature evolved that, nature evolves that. You don't have to have a revealed book, you don't have to have our holy book or any revealed book. Nature itself, G-d made nature to evolve that. And that's what G-d is saying to us in our religion, in our holy book when G-d says this religion is the religion of origin. The origin upon which He patterned human beings, human life or evolved mankind. What is the proof that G-d made the world to have a nature to bow to the human life as He wanted to be even without revelation. The proof is Jesus Christ as a sign, Moses before him as a sign. Muhammad after him as a sign. Since Muhammad is the most recent one, the peace and blessings be upon the servants of G-d. Let's look at his life.
He lived in a time and in a place of ignorance, bestiality, the worship of idols. He was not raised in an environment that had revelation. No Christian teaching was in his environment. No Jewish teaching was in his environment and the religion of Islam had not yet been revealed to him. The history of his life tells us he never worshipped idols. He never behaved in any manner other than displaying the highest idea of what a human beings life is. He always performed in a very excellent way, of the greatest character. G-d i revealing the Qur'an to him says "We have certainly observed that you are established on the greatest character, mighty character, firm mighty character." And G-d says of him to make us aware, his audience at that time firstly, but for all of us to remember that Muhammad had no flaw in his human charact or in his human life before he received revelation.
G-d did not give Muhammad revelation to teach him to have good morals. He already had good morals. G-d did not give Muhammad revelation to teach him to respect the intelligent life. He had that already. He was a successful businessman in the employment of his wife who was a businesswoman who trusted him so much, who saw full value in him that she asked him to take over the management of her business. And he became a traveler, doing business for her. He went to Syria many times and other places doing business for his wife Lady Kadijah, May G-d be pleased with her. So Muhammad was not given Islam or revelation because he needed to be saved from sin. He was not a sinner.
He did not need to know that he's supposed to be truthful before he received any revelation. One of his title names is the truthful. He did not need G-d to reveal the revelation to him to teach him to be honest, he was already called the honest one, the honest one, Al Amin. These are his title names. So he already had this excellence of character. And as a student of scripture, I'm a student also of the Bible. I'm happy to know that our religious leaders, preachers of religion are also here present, and I hope maybe some of you'll remain here and some of you are still here. You are our brothers in the path of G-d. We're all believing in G-d, the one G-d for the benefit of the one family, the family of mankind. And charity does start at home and spread abroad for Muslims too.
Yes, now, yes. So Muhammad didn't need the religion to make him, to help him find his own excellence that G-d created him for. He was in that excellence before G-d gave him any revelation. He went to G-d because he was carrying the burden of the world on his heart and especially the burden of Arabia on his heart. He went there because he was sad, saddened by the terrible condition of people and he went up in the mountain in hope that he would find some connection with a higher intelligence or higher cause. And he did, up there pleading and pleading for understanding G-d came to him and he had never read about how G-d comes to anyone so he was frightened by it. He went home and told his wife his experience and he was trembling. The report said he was trembling. And he told her about his experience and she said, well I don't know about what happened to you.
She said but I have an uncle who knows about the Christian religion. She said, I'll ask him. So her uncle was familiar. He said, well maybe you're being chosen to be a Prophet of G-d, that's what he told him. But later G-d gave him other experiences and finally gave him guidance, the revelation. And the third word of revelation said to him read, Read in the name of your Lord who created. And he began to understand finally revelation, how G-d communicates to man. And got acquainted with Christian, Christian teachings and also with Jewish teachings. And there's another religion still in that area too called Sabian. He got acquainted with their teachings and he became the leader of all Arabia and as a result we know Islam spread through Africa to Persia which is Iran now and even to Europe, all the way into Europe. And we now have been reached by it in America and it's all over the world now, all over the world.
That's our Prophet. Getting back to other models of this human, human excellence, a complete human being even before Revelation. I as a student of the scripture of Christianity, I have been convinced by my own studies that Jesus Christ is a sign of that. That he was born, perfect, born a perfect human being. He was not born with any sin. No born perfect, never was sinning, never did wrong, never was sinning and always had good, beautiful human nature and human manners and human intelligence. Moses was a bit different, but Moses was not as Christ, as beautiful as a human creation as these two. But Moses always had intelligence. Moses never had to be told by G-d respect intelligence and developed intelligence. He had grown and developed as a very intelligent man, very intelligent man, and a just man, a working man working in the society of the Pharaoh and working really in the house of the Pharaoh.
He became like the son of the Pharaoh and shared power with those people, shared power with the power structure of that time. So Moses didn't have to be guided into human intelligence by G-d, but he had to be guided into the path that G-d wanted him to walk in order for him to walk the path of righteousness as G-d planned for humanity. Then that was true also for Muhammad. He had to be guided also into the path of righteousness that G-d planned for humanity. But to be made an acceptable person of human character and human excellence. No, they were already that. So I return to what I said earlier that nature evolved that. And Mr. Fard, the teacher of my father, he saw that there was so much disappointment with white world rule amongst those who were discontent, he never invited anybody but those who were dissatisfied with white authority.
 Fard didn't want those who were satisfied with white authority. He only invited those who had been dissatisfied with white authority. So he invited the discontent. And what he did was show us how we can evolve upon nature, if we just could get ourselves away from the things they were holding us from the natural world. He saw even our church life, the church life of discontent, of the ignorant and discontent in religion. He saw their life as a life that was separated from the natural world and it was not situated to really appreciate the natural world. And he saw our life also as a life of superstition and questions, a lot of questions with hardly any answers. So his theme was there is no such G-d. There is no G-d that is not like man. G-d lives and dies like man lives and dies. So what he did was destroy the old idea.
He destroyed for us the old world, he just destroyed it, got rid of it in our minds. That there is no mystery G-d he said, no mystery G-d, the only G-d is man. That's what Fard told my father that's the only G-d is man, there is no hereafter except in this life you already have. There is no life after death. They put you in that grave that is the end of you. And you'd be surprised how many do believe that idea right now. Okay. And he said there is no devil except the one you are looking at when you look at a white man that's holding you down, there is no other devil. And he said, there is no heaven except on this earth, the heaven that you have on this earth. There is no other heaven. And you'd be surprised how many Jews believe that too. Not just atheists. You'd be surprised how many Jews believe that too. In fact, there is no devil in Judaism. There is no devil in Judaism. You've never heard of a Jew preaching, talking about a devil. You've never heard of a Jew preaching, talking about going to hell if you don't do right. You never heard a Jew preach like that. Judaism for most of the Jews is quite different from Christianity. Quite different from Christianity.
So how are we to understand it then? Much like we understand it, that heaven and hell begins in this life. And if you don't develop yourself so that you come into a state of peace with your soul, that's the beginning of heaven in this life. When you come into peace of your soul, you have already entered into heaven starting in this life. Yes, G-d promises us the full heaven after all this creation is gone. But the Bible and Qur'an teaches us that if you don't get it here, there is nothing for you here after. Yes, I'm a student of the Bible and Qur'an. Yes, if you don't earn it here, there is no way to earn it hereafter. Yes. So we believe that both starts in this life, heaven starts in this life and hell for sure starts in this life and in Qur'an we are told that the hell is reality. It's not a illusion, the hell is reality. Yes. And the Satan is a reality. Not a superstition. The devil is a reality.
Mr. Fard, he gave us that but he gave it to us in a real unorthodox way. Never had any man come and preach the religion to people that just did away with all the standards, all the established beliefs in religion. The most important, established beliefs in religion. Nobody ever did that. But I think he might have been inspired by something in the Bible and the Bible says "Destroy this temple and I'll reconstruct it in one day. I think it says in one day or in three days. Destroy this temple. And that's what he did. He destroyed one temple and built up another. In our mind that is. And I think when the Bible say that the man was blind and Christ Jesus, Peace be upon him, put mud on the blind man's eye. Now he already blind and now you put more obstruction against the eye with mud. But after he put mud on his eyes, he right away began to see, he right away began to see. And I think that's the way of saying people, not blind physically, but people who are blind spirited, blind spirited, bind to their purpose for which they are created by the great Creator. People who are blind they have to have whatever is blinding them done away with.
So you have to blind them again. You blind them again and then you can educate them to see. But as long as the first blindness is there, they have no power to build with. But once you destroy the first blindness, then they'll be free, be guided into the light. It's a strategy that has worked, that has worked for thousands of years and it worked for us, those who followed my father the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his teacher Mr. Fard who taught my father. Now in conclusion I wanted to go back to what I said in the very beginning. People have to have an awareness, a sense of ownership. When you look at the language we use home, certainly home may be nothing but one room, but it's home. Yes, home. Then you have out in a bigger perimeter or in a bigger dimension you have hometown. And even in a bigger dimension you have homeland. Our homeland is the United States of America. So we have to really cautiously identify with the United States of America as your personal home, your personal home for the psychological benefits you need to make material progress in America and contribute to the growth and beauty of this great nation. And the more of us do that, the better America we'll have for the future and the better life we have for each other here in the country, in the state, in the land. So you have to identify consciously with America as your home land. When you are walking on this land, I don't care what town you are in, what state you are in, you are walking on your homeland. People who own these houses or these businesses, they don't own the land you are walking.
That's the public domain. There's a private domain and the public domain and even their houses are on your homeland. And you don't have any rights to anything private that is bigger than your rights to the land as your homeland. You may lose all of your private achievements, all of your private accomplishments. But if you hold to the belief that this land is your land, look how the Jews sing so strongly, this land is my land. You need that psychological support in order to do something great and make every project be productive. The white racist, he intended that we never come into this kind of mind. So he never intended for us to be free. He always wanted to use us as animals and to benefit his psychological looking down at a whole people thinking he's better. He wanted that great psychological push up, lift for his ego by keeping us in that position.
Yeah, these are our niggers, our niggers. Okay, well that's over now, he's gone. The two laws in the land that stay the black man here and white man there, them gone now. So we are free. Well let us accept that we are free and not only accept that we are free, but as Malcolm said, what the white man wants is what a black man should want. White man asked him once he says, what do you all want? He said, ask yourself what you want. That's what we want. Well understand that we want as much as in the man is entitled to and if I don't get it, let me know. I have to know it's mine even if I don't get it. I got a lot, I got the energy to whip up on some people, but I don't have to whip up on 'em to feel good, but at least I know I got that strength.
Okay? So we got ownership and we got responsibility. Now whether we carry out or not, at least let us help many of our people as we possibly can understand that we are owners in the earth. This responsibility is given us by the creator Himself. And that's what the visionaries, those great minds we call the Founding Fathers. That's what they're saying when they say we hold these true to be self evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And no government can take it away from you. Why? G-d gave you that responsibility. G-d gave you that identity with something that belongs to you. I conclude with those words, may G-d open our hearts and open our minds to more of the responsibility that He created us for and gather us together under the best of our minds and leaders, males and females, so that we can do more with our life and not have the white races looking at us saying black people can't produce anything but babies. We're proving to him now. We have Colin Powell, we have so many in education, in business in the corporate world, we even have females in the corporate world. So the white races can't talk now. Thank G-d. Peace, Asalaam Alaikum.
Speaker 3:
We're going to have some time for a few questions. So if there are any questions, we have a microphone on both the left and the right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I'm not familiar with six pillars, but the house has a lot to do with six but more to do with five. And seven, there's a lot of numbers that's very significant for the house all the way up to eight. The number eight, even 10. Really the most important number is five though. Five represents the common life that all of us share. Male, female, black, brown, red, everybody. We share these five, five human senses. And in the Bible a woman was washing at the well and dipping up water from the well and it says that Christ Jesus, Peace be upon him. He said to the woman, he said, you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not yours.
So the five represent the common human life and husbands represent heads or ruled in the life. And we have ruled, all of us are ruled by five senses. The life is ruled by five senses. We hear, we see, we taste, we smell, we feel. So these are ruling in our bodies before we are educated or turned on to our purpose in this life. Our five senses of ruling in our bodies. And those five senses really are the life that feeds the intelligence in the mind, the thinking mind works with the five senses. You don't mind me sharing but this is very important what I'm going to share with you all. Educated people, they say they lose the proper relationship for their thinking mind with their five senses. Your children need to be taught this a lot. You have children in school and they don't have a conscious awareness of the working relationship for their thinking mind with their five senses.
If you hear something, your mind has to hear it. Know what you heard and then act upon it with the sixth principle, your thinking mind. Yes. So if the thinking mind and the five senses are working together and the five senses are going ahead of the thinking mind, the only time your five senses shouldn't go ahead of your thinking mind is when they say the place is on fire. You don't think you get out of here. That's all the senses working together. All the senses come together, they don't have time to speak to you separately. They all come together and get the hell out of here. Yes, but getting back to five and six. The Ka'ba for us represents five, the common life of all people and we have to hold it sacred because that's what the enemies of mankind exploit. They exploit the five senses of human beings. They exploit them to disguise you, to change even the nature of your five senses. But your five senses do not work for you as G-d made them to naturally work for you. So this is the sanctuary of human life. Sanctuary of human life is the human five senses, the flesh as G-d created it. Okay? That's the sanctuary of human life and all people are united in that life. That's the common life for all people.
Yes. But six is our father, Adam. G-d says that he made man on the sixth day he made man. And Muhammad the Prophet, Prayers and peace be upon him he says, "No one is resurrected except on the pattern of Adam," the first man. He said and his pattern is 60 arm spans, 60 arm spans. There's a six with a zero. Six with a zero. A zero means consciousness. One, you add a zero to 10, the boxer will get knocked out,he hits the floor. If he can get up before 10, he can start fighting if he's in shape to fight. But first they want to know you might have made it up by 10, but are you really in charge of your faculties? They say how many fingers you see, right? Their testing his awareness make sure he is conscious. You see? Yes. So Muhammad says take charge of five before five defeats you, take charge of five before five defeats you. And who is that taking charge? The sixth principle, your thinking mind.
I understand you. You are asking, you are making me aware of the abuse that we are giving our youngsters or suffering from own hand. And wanting to know how could you address that? Is that it? But if you look at what has happened in African regions, how Africans have just turned on each other in a very savage way. And I used to think that we weren't capable of that kind of behavior, I thought that that was just white folks. His race got established first in Europe up there in the cold area. I said that cold climate didn't encourage them to appreciate warmth and beauty and human life, et cetera. And I said we were born on a warm continent, hot continent and we did get the benefit of help from our environment to develop our human sensitivities and our human life, et cetera, and appreciation for beauty of human life. But when I looked at what happened recently, that makes me wonder. The answer is in the guidance that we get from G-d. G-d says whoever will spend on his own soul, he will succeed and be successful. And whoever fails to spend on his own soul, he would be reduced to the worst of the lowest of creatures.
So human beings have in their nature the potential to rise to the highest possible excellence commanded by G-d. But also if they fail to respect that life, that nature, to spend on it for its development and beauty, they can fall to the lowest of the low, the lowest of the low. I think that's what was said by a philosopher also who said, in human beings or in mankind you'll find all the creatures of the wilderness, all of the creatures of the wilderness, the highest and the lowest. Well I think the answer is this ultimately- that we have to awaken the deep consciousness in our people. There's a shallow consciousness that we get from the world, but if we appeal to the soul, to the depths of the soul, reach the depths of the soul, and have the person start to see themselves differently, that I'm created for bigger things and I'm a special creation.
I have a creation that's higher than anything else G-d made. The elephant, the lion, no matter what. None of them could create a world like we created. Man has created a wonderful world and if they can be turned on again to the appreciation for the value of human life and the possibility that it has for doing good things and wondrous things, we can defeat that spirit in them that is not having that kind of potential and power. And they will come into the new spirit. My mother said she could whip us into a spirit like that.
She said, you can ask crazy if you want. She said, but when I get that switch, she said, I'm going to make you take off all your clothes. I'm not going to whip clothes. I don't believe in whipping clothes. She said, when I get through whipping you, she said, I'm going to have you in another spirit. Thank G-d she never had to whip me into another spirit. But I think some people can be whipped into another spirit. It doesn't always worked because psychology before modern psychology, they thought you could be shocked into sanity. And they put you in a dark room and just start firing guns and turn the light on. You go, I'm alright. I'm alright.
But we can do more than that. We have to keep on showing them, showing them what others like them can do with their lives. So we have to build a great model of achievement, not just for us as individuals or for us as Muslims. We have to see achieve a lot in the city of Newark to show them that we are creators ourselves, that we can create the world that our souls like to live in. That's what we have to do.
Audience member:
I would like to know, how do you respond to criticism from other Islamic groups who come down on us for our association with Minister Louis Farrakhan and his group? How would you respond to that?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well, I wish they knew the leader that's the leader for them and us better, Muhammad the Prophet. I wish they knew him better, Peace be upon him. All I can say is that when we look at the Islamic world, this international community of Muslims outside of these United States, what we see tells us that we don't have any reason to listen to any criticism from them.
Over here.
Speaker 4:
How could we view Africa and the rest of the world?
Imam WD Mohammed:
View Africa and the rest of the world as the world of mankind? All the worlds taken together, the world taken all together is the world of mankind and all people taken together is the families of man. No matter how much we disagree with them, no matter how shamefully they are behaving, they are our brothers and sisters in humanity. And we can never forget that. We have to love them and we have to realize that we have obligations to make some contribution to their betterment as well as while we are working on our own betterment.
Audience member:
Thank you.
You are welcome.
 There are a lot of things that I and some others would like to do but it's just so hard to get the Imams together.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. Okay. Well all I can say is that I support that effort. And I will tell you this, don't think that you in a worst situation that I am. I have a lot of difficulty getting these Imams and getting the leaders together. Have a lot of difficulty, a lot of difficulty getting the schools, the leaders of our schools together. But it doesn't at all discourage me. I'm determined more and more every time I see them backing up it make me stronger to go forward.
Audience member:
Thank you for coming.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Thank you.
Audience member:
How can we move forward in establishing Islamic schools for our young people?
Yes. Yes. Okay. For the first question. Yes, we are constantly working our minds and hoping to develop more business that will give us finances, more finances to develop our schools. And we have recently asked a group of educators to come together and form a team to work on the problem of improving our curriculum for the Muslim schools, to Islamizing the curriculum, teaching Qur'anic teachings and the life of our Prophet upon him the prayers and peace. And so that these schools be part of one system, but now they're not. Everybody's having his own experiment in education. And we should have one curriculum for all of our schools. And that curriculum should be a curriculum for Muslim schools, meeting the curriculum requirements for America's public schools so that they can transfer if they have to out of or into other schools and graduate and have recognition from the school system or in this system as well as in our own school system.
And we are working on that. And I am very much encouraged. I didn't know mostly sisters though. I didn't know we had so many qualified educators in our community. They're coming together and you'll be hearing from us. It's going to be a national effort, a national effort. You'll be hearing from us and we are going to be working with everybody. I'm determined to have the right good, strong Muslim leadership in our educators for our schools. We don't have it yet, so we have to have it. But I think we got what we can work with. I'm very much impressed. We have a few brothers, but most of the sisters, the sisters seem to have all the degrees too. It is a little bit disappointing, but we thank G-d that at least we that. Please keep your desire and you keep working hard for it too.
What do you think is more important? Setting up programs for people in the Masjid or creating programs to bring new people into the Masjid?
Imam WD Mohammed:
The first for us is our number one obligation, to set up programs for the Muslim community. And really if we set up programs in the right way for the Muslim community, we will be making a big contribution to the non Muslim community in our neighborhood. Big contribution to the non Muslim community in our neighborhood. Because if we really have real programs for the Muslims, it won't be just programs that have nothing but the Qur'anic teachings and teachings on Muhammad the Prophet. That has to be applied. Those teachings have to be applied. And the only way those teachings can be applied is when we see life growing stronger and more beautiful and more healthy for us in the community environment. And if we do that, we have to also welcome help and workers from the non-Muslims as well from the Muslims, but we don't have enough help workers ourselves. And this is how Allah intend it. So we have to work with non Muslims to develop the life we want in our neighborhood. It'll be an African-American effort. That's what it should be. We should be working inside the Masjid to have our own contribution to the development of our neighborhood. And that should be an African-American effort, not just a Muslim effort.
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