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IWDM Study Library 
Racism

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Highly glorified is He, that our efforts be acceptable before Him and we achieve success. To the Imams, Imam Kariem Abdul Hassan, and to all the Imams here today. I really enjoy meeting with you and being a part of any affair or event supported by you, and I really appreciate the support that I get from you all and we appreciate those who come from a surrounding area to be here today for this meeting. We enjoyed the banquet last night very much. It was a very, very big success as always. The theme for the banquet, the banquet is a banquet given to honor our leaders who work in the community for the benefit of the community and the broader community. The theme, "Those Who Are Foremost In Their Usefulness To Society", is a theme taken from Islamic teachings, Islamic teachings. The Qur'an directs us to be respectful of G-d, to give G-d due respect, regard Him as He should be regarded. That's the beginning of what we call Taqwa, consciousness for Muslims. That is really a consciousness that every human being is created with. Every human being is created with Taqwa. How do we know this? Our Prophet has taught us that, Peace be upon Muhammad the Prophet who preached and guided us and showed us how to live this religion over 14 centuries, over 1400 years ago. He taught us that. We know that the Islamic life is a life in obedience to G-d and that G-d obligates us G-d obligates us. The G-d that designed our creation, how we are made up and gave us life, also gave us a direction for this life. And we have it in our nature to follow that direction, but we lose it as we come up in the world among unconscious people or among people that haven't been blessed to follow the best of their nature. Circumstances have warped their nature or took them out of their good nature that G-d created them in. We know in Islam we say every human being is born a Muslim. Muslim is a word that means peace. Muslim means peace, means peace loving person, peace seeking person. Muslim. Means a person whose own nature requires that they have peace in their souls. And the proper meaning of that term Muslim is that that person lives the life of a Muslim. We can have that in our nature and not know how to live the life that G-d has put in our nature. So, G-d gave revelation, guidance from Himself, Highly glorified is He, to men and to women because the Qur'an says, "And He revealed to the mother of Moses and He revealed to the mother of Jesus," two Prophets, two great Prophets. Peace be upon them. So, we know that G-d has revealed His way. And the way for us is given in the Qur'an, is the last revelation from G-d to the world, the Qur'an. And in the Qur'an is where we find the guidance for living the life that Allah created us for. That's why it is called the religion in accord with the nature of man created by G-d. Deen Al-Fitrah. It is the religion after the original order for human life, designed pattern, makeup and life. How we live that. And G-d says with revelation, Khalaqah, He created. Fasawa, then He established the balance, the quality for life. Qadara. He empowered the human being's spirit. He empowered the human spirit. These statements are addressing something that every human being got equally. Equally. We possess these things equally. Khalaqah. The creation that G-d wanted for us, how G-d wanted us to be in our picture, in our description, in our life form. G-d determined that originally, G-d determined that. And we take ourselves out of that because of the world misguiding us.
Khalaqah. That's inherent in us. We have that inherent in us. That's our inherent character, our inherent creation. What we are born with, what this body possessed naturally without anybody giving it to it. Khalaqah. Fasawa. There's a balance that G-d wants for this nature, for this human being. And this is the basis for our equality with each other, that we have the same created form and the same balanced life to make it possible for us to enjoy it, to enjoy it. And in that respect, on those two points, we are equal to each other. That's our equality, our common human creation that G-d made and the soul that G-d has given all of us to want peace, to want Seewa, to want peace. Seewa, balance, equality. Equality of recognition, equality of estimation. How do you esteem this person? How do you value this person? You value him to be a dog, or do you value him to be above a dog? You value him to be an ape, or do you value him to be above an ape. You value him to be a human being, a man. You say that value is above the animals. Well G-d say that value is the same for every man. That value is the same for every man that He created. Seewa, Seewa, balance equality, it means both. Seewa means balance. Seewa also means equality. So that's our equality. But G-d has also given us something when He created us. He's given us some more than that in our natural creation that this body comes here with. That's what it means. The human body comes out it's mother with this already inside of it, just have to live to see it manifest outwardly, to see it expressed to mature and grow, be taught and learn so that these treasures or these skills and talents, et cetera, that G-d created us with will have expression in a civilized society or in a civilized environment. Qaddara, Qaddara. He empowered... His fellow man and enjoy equal entitlement to that land, to that society, to that government, whatever. That's what it was based upon. And why are these citizens granted equal entitlement or whatever. This land, this great land, this great concept of democracy or whatever we want to call it, offers? It is because G-d created them.
And endowed them with certain rights that you can't take away from them because government can't give them those rights. G-d gave them those rights when He created them. The rights are in creation and they're entitled to life, life on this planet. Now, if you're going to set up another order on this planet to restrict how they should live, then your order should respect the rule of G-d for them, that G-d created them to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So, if you are going to establish a nation or government that's going to define their movements, their movements, how much freedom they have and how much they're entitled to then these visionaries who had faith in the direction that G-d revealed to man for His society, they concluded that the order, the political order must respect the rule of G-d in man. A great society have lived over 200 years and nobody been able to defeat it yet. Don't underestimate this society. Yes, you should have faith in the word of G-d. That's what I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. What I've said thus far is to say to you, you should have faith in revelation. You should have faith in the word of G-d because men that designed the order that contain you and rules over you, they got it from the word of G-d. The vision was not their creation. The vision was given to them from G-d, from the word of G-d. Not that they perfectly obeyed the direction in the revelation or in the Qur'an or in the Bible for the ideal society. I'm not saying they perfectly obeyed, but I'm saying that they had respect for G-d's guidance and they did the best they could to establish an order that respected G-d's guidance for man, for human beings. So, in keeping with the interest of that theme last night, we have the subject today. Our plan for the community's future includes an obligation to society. Our plan for our community, the Muslim community in America, its future includes an obligation to society. Not just to the Muslim society, but to the society of America, the American people. That's what we mean because we all have ties to each other, basic ties. We are basically tied to each other by virtue of our rights to citizenship as citizens of this country. A doctor once was hearing the complaints of his patient and his patient didn't really have any real complaints except in the mind.
The complaints were of the mind, not of the body, physical body. And this person was living a very unhappy life and needed too much help, needed more help than some two year old children expect. So the doctor had been struggling with this patient for a long time and the doctor said, I'm going to give you a different prescription today. And the person said, what is it? Forget about yourself and go out and find somebody that needs some help and help them. And sometimes that's the only way you can get help for your own self. You have to take your mind off of your own problems and off of your own self and find somebody as miserable as you are, or more miserable and go try to help them and that'll be the cure for you. G-d has created us that way. Yes, G-d has created us that way, that the more we are concerned about others, the more we are able to benefit from our own life. As our interests in others grow, we are able to do more to make our own life better. And the less we have interest in others and we could build up nothing but interest in my own self, the more selfish you become. Sometime we don't get the wrath of this, I would say injustice to the people that we live among and with. None of us came here by ourselves. We had a parent or if we didn't, we had somebody to step in the place of that parent and care for us. We couldn't manage by ourselves as little infants and toddlers and et cetera. So, none of us have managed by ourselves. Before we are aware of what we need personally, other people are given of themselves to us. So, the best benefit will come to us when we do the same thing they did. Find you somebody that needs help and do your best to give them some help.
The Muslim community is designed so that we don't have to all go out looking for somebody to help. We just follow the direction in Islam and support our honorable leaders that deserve and have proven that they're worthy of that support. Support them and the community as an effort. Not personally, not a personal effort, but a community effort. We will be part of a community effort that will be helping us. And you get a sense of fulfillment just by belonging to that community and supporting that community. You get a sense of fulfillment. You know your little bit, no matter how small it is, is contributing to the betterment of a bigger group of more than just yourself. That's why people want to belong to an organization. That's why they want to belong to a movement. That's why they want to belong to a Church, a Mosque, a Synagogue. They want to belong there because they have a chance for personal individual fulfillment by doing something big, bigger than what they could do if they were just acting alone.
So, G-d has created us for a big job, big responsibility. G-d has created us for group responsibility, collective responsibility, community responsibility. If we live like this, we can't help but benefit others. You're not just going to benefit Muslims if you live like this. If you live with that perception, that recognition of what your life is and how G-d wants you to live it, you are going to benefit anybody that lives in close proximity with you and observe how you live. For your model alone is going to be helped to them. Even though you, you're not having any direct dialogue or direct exchange with them, just by them witnessing your life is going to be a support for them too if they need that support. That's why G-d says that He have made us to be a model community,
A witness before mankind of what G-d wants in the life of people or for their order, for the order of their life. So, G-d helps other people by setting up models. And we think we have to do Dawah. We have to go out and invite them. Yes we do. We have to go to the extent.
And recognize his spirits, recognize it's mankind, not just the Muslims. Because after all, what we have as a Muslim life is structured upon what G-d made that we call humanity. And G-d didn't take out humanity and put Islam in. G-d revealed to man what is his true humanity. What is his true humanity! And then G-d, just like you fit one piece of a structure that's designed to fit another piece. Here's a structure, natural structure, but it's got grooves and angles and everything. We need a piece that's in it, not to change its design. So, G-d knows the design of the human nature that He created, the human life that He created. He knows the design. So, he gave us Islam to fit that design. To fit its perfectly without altering the creation that He had already created. Did G-d alter the creation of Muhammad? No! G-d revealed to those who will be called to the way and would come to Islam and identify with Muhammad as Muslim under his leadership. He revealed to them that his life was already a model life before I called him to be the model.
G-d said, "He has already lived a lifetime among you." He has already lived a lifetime among you and I find nothing wrong with his life. I didn't say Muhammad, reform yourself. G-d didn't say to Muhammad, "Muhammad, reform yourself." G-d said let Me show you how to reform the world.
So, G-d was pleased with the creation, Muhammad in his own human creation. G-d was pleased with him. He was a man, excellent in the mold that G-d had made him in, the mold for the human that G-d made. And G-d says that his model, his human model is good enough for any people who believe in G-d and that last day. Not just for Muslims. G-d didn't say Muhammad's model is good for his following. Oh, here’s an excellent model, it's good enough for all of his followers. No! It's more than that! It's the model that He created every human being for. It's the model that he created every human being with. But they're taken off of the path that G-d made for them.
But here's a man without revelation from G-d, who remained on that path that G-d made for him. And he was chosen to be the Messenger of G-d, the last of the Prophets. We can't be useful to other members of society, or to all the members of society; to those outside of our religion, if we are going to establish ourselves in some religion that they can't identify with, just as we identify with it.
So, G-d doesn't want us to see firstly a practicing Muslim. G-d want us to first see a Muslim model that He created when He created the human being. The Muslim model, Muhammad the Prophet, he recognized that in his words when he said that "Those who were of excellent character before Islam are of excellent character now." And he was the leader, he was the top person among them in that excellence. Yes, but his companions also were excellent too, weren't they, before Islam? Abu Ali, young man, teenager, young, but excellent in his human nature and others, not just them, all of them excellent in their human nature. And because of that, they called the Hunafa, after Hanif, the word Hanif. Abraham is called Hanif because like Muhammad or Muhammad like Abraham, before G-d called him, he was already excellent in his human nature. The Christian report on him, Jew and Christian report on Abraham is that he was just a model human person by nature. Said if people did something for him, he wanted to do something in return. He didn't like to get favors and not return favors.
And say if he was traveling in a strange land, he didn't want to be a burden on that strange land. Strange land. He would suffer rather than have himself be a burden on another people. This is Abraham. According to the Christian reports about him, Bible reports on him. He was an upright man. That's what he's called in Christianity too. The man of faith and uprightness, faith and G-d and uprightness, honorable life, conscious life, decent life, high standards of human excellence. That's Abraham and he's called Father Abraham. Muslims have lost their basic life. They lost it. We have followed tradition like people before who've received revelation from G-d. We have followed tradition, conformed to customs and have lost the perception of our basic life. G-d didn't reveal something to us that disrespect what we are. G-d want us to know the high value that we have in our creation before any revelation comes to us. Is G-d such a G-d that creates a junk and then have to give revelation to help that junk become something better than junk. That's not the G-d.
Audience:
Give us some light.
IWDM:
And all of these are signs of what's possible for man. That's why G-d created everything. To reveal to us what's possible for us. It's possible that you get so much away from your human life, you become that snake. You become just like that serpent. Cold, deceitful, poisonous, treacherous. And we know people become that. They become just that. So, a man is made honorable by nature. He's made honorable. G-d says, "Certainly we made noble, honorable all the sons of Adam." Why is it put that way? Why didn't it say certainly we made honorable all the sons and daughters of Adam? It could have been said that way, couldn't it? Now, why didn't it say we made, certainly we made noble and honorable all the children of Adam. No, certainly we'd made honorable all the sons of Adam. You know what racism is based upon in the west. And the world was generated again, started all over again by Noah. Peace be upon the Prophet Noah and that it was his sons that gave character to all people. This is Bible. This is the church interpretation of this in the Bible.
The sons are called three, three main sons to regenerate the world. This is the regeneration of the world. Adam, according to this Christian theology generated it first. Now all those were destroyed. That generation was wiped out by the flood and only a certain group of survivors, certain group of survivors, led by Noah who was a Prophet, called to be Prophet, who was shown how to survive the flood by revelation. only those people were left. So, they populated the world all over again. So, we are the children of Adam, according to that report of the church. We are the children of Adam and then we are the children of Noah. But Noah didn't have all good children. He had three that survived with him. A fourth and others they drowned. They wouldn't heed his call. So, they drowned and they were drowned in flood. So, of those that were saved, three, one they say represents the white race. Another represents the in-between brown, yellow, red, in between. And the third represents the black. And the third is called Ham. And you know Ham is the strongest muscle that a pig got. Ham, strongest muscle mass that a pig got is ham.
So, one is called Ham and he's the worst of them all in terms of human excellence. Human excellence being focused. This story focused human excellence. So, one son, white one, according to their interpretation, he sees his father in a disgraceful disposition, or disgraceful form. He is drunk and naked. This is the reports in the Bible, not Qur'an. Don't get this mixed up with Islam. It's not in Islam. No, I'm serious. Very serious. There's no joke. I'm very serious about that. This is not from Islam. This is from the misreading of G-d's word in Christianity and Judaism.
So he ,sees his father nakedness and what does he do? He takes go to his father and pulls covering over his father's nakedness. That's the best of the sons. He covered his father's nakedness. He had compassion on his father. One little less excellent or less good at his human nature and character, he saw his father and turned his head. It was too shameful for him to look at. He turned his head. The nigga, I'm innocent, I'm innocent. That's what the white man said. That's what the white man in the church said. He said, "The nigga looked at his father and laughed and for that sin and ignorance, G-d cursed that son. Cursed him to be subservient, cursed him to be common laborer, cursed him to be slave for his brothers. That curse will not fall on Ham directly, but on his children Canaan. So, the children of Ham, it's supposed be us. The curse fell on us and our role on this earth is the role of a cheap servant. According to their reading of the word of G-d, he's cursed to bring water, to carry water and cut wood and tote wood. So, these are cheap jobs. That's what it say.
He's cursed to have the very cheap jobs, servant jobs, slave jobs for his brothers, the whites and those in between. Asians, others. And I think some of them read that and they believe it. Not only whites, I think some of the Asians and some of the browns and the yellows and the red. I think they read that and they believe it. They say there he is, he doesn't know it, but he's on this earth to do our cheap labor. Get him at any cost. So, G-d reveals the truth to knock out the brains of falsehood. That's G-d's words in the Qur'an. Says no, you have got the wrong reading. Certainly, most certainly, most certainly. Qad, strong emphasis. Qad, the Arabic word. Most certainly G-d has made noble and honorable all the sons of Adam. Oh, but those weren't sons of Adam, they were sons of Noah. Where did Noah come from? Who was his father? Adam. So, whose children are Noah's children? Adam's children too. That's why we say we all have one common father. That's Adam. All people have one common father, Adam. So that's why the Qur'an goes beyond, goes beyond. It takes us back earlier than Noah to establish what G-d did, what G-d established. What did He establish? That all of these human beings are created with honor and nobility.
And that never changes. Nothing can take that away from them. G-d gave that to them, can't be taken away. So that's to say the Ham story is a lie. The blacks are not inferior. Do you think the Lord G-d of heavens and earth knowing everything would allow a big issue to come up on this planet of earth like racism and wouldn't have something to say about it Himself? You underestimate G-d. But we don't know how to find what G-d says because we are not clean enough in our hearts. So our vision is not clear enough.
But if you clean your heart up enough, you'll be able to have clear vision and you'll be able to read what G-d's saying and you'll get the message. You'll know what He's talking about. You'll know what He's addressing. So, when G-d says, "Certainly we have made honorable every person," that's what He's saying when he says.... He know what the world thinks. He knows the Christians say every person is a child of Adam. So, He doesn't have to say every person, He says every child of Adam. Certainly, We have made honorable noble, every child of Adam. So, who said all of them weren't honorable and noble? If we find that we'll find what G-d is addressing. Somebody must have said all of them weren't honorable and noble. So, G-d has to tell them again. Yes, each one is honorable and noble. So, we read the Bible, we find someone trying to say all of them are not honorable and noble, especially when we see how the church have interpreted the Bible. Doesn't say the black man per se, but it says Egypt. Ham is Egypt. Buddy, I know it. So don't try to debate with me, you'll waste your time.
The Bible says Ham is Egypt and Egypt is Africa. Egypt is Africa. The most brilliant light on the continent of Africa, Egypt in history, in the history of man's advances on that continent, the brightest light is Egypt. So that's why the focus is on Egypt. Egypt is Ham, Egypt is Africa. That's what it's saying. Ham means black. Egypt is Africa. That's what it's saying. That's what the Bible is saying. Egypt is Africa. Now the curse won't be directly on Egypt, won't be directly on Ham or on Africa, but it will be on the children Canaan, the children. What is the children? Canaan, what does Canaan mean? What does the children mean? This Canaan. This mean it'll beyond the most degraded, the most degraded of the children of Africa. They're most degraded ones. They're most reduced in value. Those cheap ones, they will bear the curse. The curse will fall on them. That's what it's saying. So now to take advantage of this racist interpretation of scripture, they have to then claim that all those that they took for Canaan's role or Canaan status in the world would have to be cheap, ignorant, subhuman. So, they brought the children of Africa to America to enslave us for slavery. They brought us to America for slavery.
And they told the American public that these people are not to be thought of as humans. They are not. They're subhumans, they're black beasts. This is history. This ain't me talking. It's history talking. I'm speaking to you from history. They are black beasts. They have no true human soul. Then even after this country was founded upon the Constitution, upon the vision of the great visionaries to justify keeping us in a situation like that, for their exploits, they put into the constitution of these United States that we are only two fifths of a person. Two fifths, wasn't it?
Audience:
Three fifths.
IWDM:
Three fifths. Pardon me. Three fifths of yes, that's why I recall that. That we are only three fifths of a person. Two fifths missing. Yes. Three fifths is a fraction. A whole is five fifths. So, you take three fifths from five fifths, you got two fifths missing. And I guess we thought we can get it out a Johnnie Walker bottle. I'll get that other fifth. I'll get my missing fifths. You won't get it there buddy. So right there is the basis for racism in America and racism in America has been exported to the world, whether they know it or not. Racism in America has been exported to the world, even to Africa. You have an Ethiopian black as a Ghanaian, identifying himself as a Caucasian. This is a fact! Because his hair's curly. His hair is not nappy like the brother from Ghana. So, he said, I'm not, no, I'm not black, I'm Caucasian. Oh, your mountains in Ethiopia are now the Caucasus mountains. So, you are Caucasian, Caucasian come from the people that lived in the Caucacus mountain of Europe and that's how come they're called Caucasian because they're from that region called Europe that has the Caucasus mountains there. This is history.
Now here's an Ethiopian, he's living in a mountain area too. And just because the white man wanted to divide him against other blacks and came up with a classification that included him with the whites, that's Caucasian. He buys the lie with no real logic to support it. And he in his own personal world of his personal worth sees himself separate from his black brother in the subcontinent or in other parts of Africa. And he's identified with the Caucasian race. Isn't that outrageous? That a man on the same continent, they both have the same motherland and one had a little curly and the other one is just more like that rug you're walking on, and he buys a lie from the enslaver of both the Ethiopian and the southern man. He buys a lie from the enemy of his people and he separates himself from his people and think that his worth is greater than the worth of his black brother in Ghana. I'm a Caucasian. Now what is he in Ghana? He's a negro, bought it from the white man. He's a negro. What negro mean? Black. That's all Negro means. Black in Spanish. That's all it means black. And we had some of our educators, "The Negro, the Negro." you call him black, he'd be ready to come out of his education.
With a Switch blade, cut your butt up. But they can call him black in Spanish and he's proud. "The negro people, we make these demands." Took an ignorant man from Georgia with only three grades education from the white man's public school system to stand up and tell him he's black and that he's not inferior until he heard it. And now that educated black, "We are black and proud." Black is only a color. It's not an identity, it's only a color. So here the man manipulated us, the racist manipulated us into position of seeing a color as our identity. Don't you know that there are Indians in India as black as any African that ever was born on the continent of Africa? So, what is going to distinguish you from him if it is just black is what you are. He's black too. He is blacker than you. He's so black when the moon hits him, I see blue. I ain't joking, I'm not joking. I've been over there. He's so black until I can't see the white of his eyes unless I go up close to him. I ain't jiving. The density of his blackness covered, even blocks out the whiteness of his eye. If you're looking at him from a distance.
He is black. He's so black when he's speaking you can't see his white teeth. I'm not joking. He's so black, look like a black aura or something just cover his face. He got black light. Black light comes in between you and his eyes. Between you and his teeth. I'm talking about black in India, way across the ocean. Now how come he's not called a black race?
Audience:
Come on with that.
IWDM:
No, he's not the black race. He reached the white man's definition of what is a black man and he identifies with the white man.
Audience:
That's right. Yeah. Come on.
IWDM:
Some Indians of Trinidad invited me to be their guest and to make some public talks long before I became your leader. So, I'm down in Trinidad with them as their guest and Imam Jago, that's his name, Jago. Imam Jago was the one appointed to introduce me to the audience and I don't see anybody in here that comes close to being as densely black as Imam Jago or I should have said intensely black. But I chose to say densely black because I think he was very dense. So, when it comes time for him introduce me, he said, "As Salaam Alaikum brothers. We have here the son of Elijah Muhammad, WD Mohammed, WD Mohammed. WD Mohammed is a black man." That's what he said. I'll never forget it. We don't forget that. "Wallace D Mohammed is a black man." So, I've always been kind of calm. So, when it come time for me to speak, I found something in the environment to help me. We were outside, it was outdoors, good weather and outdoors. So, I saw a billboard and it was advertising a movie. I remember the black cat, leopard. Black cat. And it was all about magic, witchcraft, superstition. So, I looked up at the blackboard, the billboard in the distance, and I said, there's a billboard with a black cat on it. I said, and that is black. I said, because that's what they taught me as a little child in school. They taught me that's black.
I said, it is black. I said, but now I look at my skin and if I go by what they taught me in school, I'm brown and Jogo is black. I said, I'm just going by what they taught me in school. I said, he looks the same color that cat looks like right there. I was in charge from then on. I gave them my little talk and went home with their women following behind me. "Brother Imam, Wallace D Mohammed you get our men straight please." That's why I didn't say the sons and daughters because the females haven't had a part in this evil.
They have been victims too, just like we have. They didn't do it. Our men did it.
Audience:
That's right.
IWDM:
Our plan for the community future must first recognize common origin for all people. That's why G-d wants us to know firstly that He created us. How do we get here? Our Creator that made stars and moon and earth and trees and everything, He made us too and He made us from one common origin. None of us can brag that we have a superior beginning on this earth. We all had the same beginning on it. We all began in the first human that G-d made. We all have one father. So, if any of us are inferior, all of us are inferior. If any of us are great, all of us are great in creation and created worth because we all came from one common origin. And the wisdom of Islam is to show us to always respect ties of relationship that G-d created. G-d created the ties of relationship. G-d created the human person in his human nature and identity in his human mold. And then G-d made for him relationships. Man and wife, woman and man, husband and wife, mama and father, children from them and cousins and aunts and uncles. This is the doing of G-d. Man didn't do that. So, G-d want us to know relationships. Alright. So, we see how two people marry and have children.
And the children look more like them. The house is more uniform when the children are all from same parents. Uniform in their appearance, uniform in their looks, uniform in their natures. But we'd also know that as our family gets bigger and bigger, these children marry some other children. And now we got cousins. Pretty soon we got second and third cousins and fourth cousins and the looks are changing, right? G-d want us to be aware of common origin and then look at the whole mankind, all the people and go by the logic that you have right available to you in your own family. And see that that's the same logic out there on the continent of Africa, on the continent of Europe, on the continent of Asia and everywhere where human beings are. The same logic that you explain, that can explain how a family began to look different as it branches out, explains how the human family has become different in their looks by branching out.
Audience:
That's right.
IWDM:
Common logic for common origin. G-d want us to value common origin. It's more important to know that you are human in the mold G-d creates for you than it is for you to know that you are African because you were first in the mold of human before you were in the mole of African. And these other molds are inferior to the mold of human beings. Yes, if I'm just an African but I don't have the support of my humanity, I'm not firstly strong in my humanity. I'm strong in my African identity but not strong in my humanity. I'm a cheap ass African. Yes, I am. And I'm saying this because I'm seeing many cheap ass Africans on the continent of Africa. Killing up each other, dictating to each other, enslaving each other and somebody over here, another son of an African over here, 14 centuries away maybe he's up here pointing to the black man. The black man is the superior. The black man is great and the black man is this and the black man is that and a cheap ass African over there making him a liar every time we look over there and see him.
No democracy, no equality, no justice, no care for the common person. Dictators are put in office by stupid Africans who know their tribal identity, but they're off center. They're off the pattern of their human identity. Let us not copy their mistake in America. Let us come back to our human basis and be proud first in our humanity. Be proud first in the mold that G-d put us in the first time. It was such a great mold that G-d said it was in heaven. It was in heaven. G-d said He molded us first in heaven and then we came down, not up. Down, down into our narrow nationalism.
Audience:
Takbri!! Allahu Akbar.
IWDM:
Then G-d has to remind us, I didn't make you to be proud of those identities, although I did make you to be Africans. I made you to be of these nations. I made you to be of these tribes. I gave you the life that have molded you in those forms too. But I didn't create you to be proud in those later forms, I created you to be proud in your first form that you got directly from Me. So, G-d says, there's no basis upon which you stand to claim a superiority over nothing in your tribe or in your nation. "The most excellent of you is the one most regardful of Me." G-d speaking. And the one who's most regardful of G-d will not be in his Arab or his African or his Spanish or whatever mold firstly. He'll be in the mold of his humanity that G-d created for him. That was Muhammad, that was Muhammad the Prophet. He wasn't satisfied with his African identity. When are we going to become dissatisfied with our black identity? Like Muhammad was dissatisfied with his Arab identity and he had to seek rescue in his human identity to escape the ignorance and the oppression of his Arab identity.
Audience:
That's what we got to do.
IWDM:
Yes, I thank G-d he blessed me to do that. That's not to say we had to disrespect any form that G-d has decided or willed for us to come into after the human form or the human mold. We come into the political mold, we come into the cultural mold. We come into all these different molds, the ethnic mold, but they're empty. They're shadow vessels as scripture say. They're empty vessels. If you don't have the human mold to hold them. The human mold must hold them. The human mold is first and then you put the clothing, these other clothing, these other molds upon the human mold. And just like G-d put the religion upon our natural human excellence that He designed and He made it fit that excellence, fit into it just like that. The parts fit together perfectly. We have to fit our other molds into the human mold that way. What has evolved tribes a perception of their best nature? The human and its excellence. Listen. What has evolved nations? The same thing. A perception of their human life in its excellence, in its excellence. That's what evolved them, brought them up, made them better, gave them progress.
They say be the best that you can be. That's the motivation that has motivated tribes to come out of savagery, barbarism to become civilization, civilizers. That's what have motivated nations to come out of savagery and barbarity to become civilizers. Striving for human excellence. It has been their perception of their form in their flesh body that wants more and more improvement for itself. More and more growth for itself in terms of its merits, its value and what it can merit. So, this is the natural evolution that G-d points to when He said that He has given you the Deen, the religion upon the pattern, original pattern that He made when He created you Deen Al Fitra, the pattern of origin, the origin that we got from G-d. We want to have a community established for us in America. If you don't buy that, if you're not impressed with that identity more than you're impressed with black or African or Arab or whatever, you'll never get it. I'll get it. And those who with me, we'll get it. But you who'll disagree with us, you'll never get it. No, you won't. You're going to be in the same place. We were coming out of the restaurant just a few minutes ago. I don't take breakfast at breakfast time. I take it later like 12 o'clock or so. So, I asked them to let me eat before I come out here and talk. I got enough to make me angry. I don't want hunger bothering me. So, I got a little food before coming out here so you can tolerate me more or better. Yeah, so we saw a sign. We just had discussion about differences in division. We just experienced no unity at the table of our discussion. Unity wasn't prevailing. Disunity was prevailing. So, it wasn't a real serious matter. It was like which is better to get a hot dog or a chicken sandwich, something like that. But anyway, when we were coming out, there was a sign on the door we had to go out of. It said, "Together we can make it" or something like that. I think that's what it said, "Together we can make it." So, I tried to get them to look at the sign, but they was so much into what they had been talking about, I doubt if maybe one or two of them saw the sign, but I was trying to tell them. I said, look the sign, that's for us to read, the sign there, "Together, we can make it. "Yeah,
And I told them, I said in a part, you're not going to get anything but the cheap crap you already been getting and you're used to. But what is the basis for unity? That identity G-d gave us. And that's what the visionaries, the Founding Fathers perceived. That the strongest unity for a strong citizenry must be based upon belief and common origin and that common origin is the best possible perception of ourselves as creatures of value. That's what they reasoned, that's the conclusion they came to. And they didn't come to that conclusion without the help of revelation from G-d. That's where they got it. We want to build a community life ourselves. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had the same spirit that we got.
What makes us see him different from us is language. And one writer, a Muslim woman, has written on the progress of the Nation of Islam and the division. She points out that the Muslims, African-American Muslims are so divided. There's so many different groups. But what she points out is something very worthwhile, makes her book worthy to be read and to be sold, be published. She said the language is evolving. She didn't say the people, she said the language. The people are too. But more importantly the language. She said the language is evolving from the time when Elijah Muhammad started in 1931 or so, up through the thirties, up through the forties, up through the fifties, through the sixties and into the early seventies. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad passed, gone, in 1975. She studied this language and she studied the language of other Muslim groups too, Ahmadiyyas and few others, and she comes to the conclusion that language is evolving.
What does that indicate to us? Language is evolving? It indicates to us that we are progressing in terms of what we know about Islam. The language wouldn't be evolving if our knowledge wasn't evolving. Our knowledge is growing and that's why the language is growing. Our knowledge, the content of our minds and the content of our knowledge shows progress, shows growth from 1930 till now and that's what explains the language showing progress from the early times till now. We're evolving. We are evolving. And G-d says, not of our small scene here in America, but of the universal scene, the Ummah of Islam, the community of Islam, the world community, worldwide, international community of Islam. He says of it, you are the best community. Yes, nominated, elected, chosen, evolved. You are the best community evolved for the good of all people. That's what G-d says. You are the best community evolved for the good benefit of all people. Khaira, means good benefit. You are the best community. Evolved, brought up, evolved out, grown up from inferior to greater, from ignorant to wise, from immoral to moral, from unethical to unethical. You are the best community evolved for the good of all people. So the theme is Islamic. Last night, Those Who Are Foremost In Their Usefulness To Society, taken from the sayings of the Prophet himself. Prophet Muhammad says many things about who's the best.
Says "The best of you is one who loves for his brother what he loves for himself." That means the best of you is the one who's true in his saying that he loves his brother because he's not just talking. He wants his brother to have what he wants himself to have. That's what Muhammad said. But that same Muhammad, Prayers and Peace be upon him, he said, "The best of you is the one who is most useful to the people, to the society." He said the people. That means the whole humanity. An Nas. I know what it means. That's in Arabic. If you understand it, if you speak Arabic or if you understand Arabic, you've learned Arabic. The best of you is the one who is best in his usefulness to mankind. Then G-d says, well, Muhammad is speaking from what G-d says. Muhammad is not giving something ahead of G-d. Muhammad is giving something after G-d. He's a follower of G-d's word and G-d and G-d's word. G-d said before he said, Muhammad said that. G-d says, "You are the best community evolved for the good benefit of all people."
How in the world we going to plan our life in America, plan our community in America, plan how we are going to have homes, neighborhoods and streets and businesses, whatever transportation lines. How are we going to plan all this, industry, factories and whatever? Oh, we can't plan all that. We are not a government. Government's not planning that. In America, private sector plans that. Government only comes to the private sector when private sector needs government. That's the business of the private sector to establish neighborhoods, homes, develop an area and have homes built there and business arteries or business places to serve the needs of those homes, those families and decent streets and decent lighting, utility, et cetera. And transportation lines. That's the responsibility of private citizens and that's why other races put their nose up at us because they see we don't accept that responsibility. We seem to not be even conscious of that responsibility, that it is a responsibility on all people, not just on whites and Asians and other, but it's on black people too. To be responsible for building society, building the basis for society, building the structures for society, accommodating the full life of human beings. That's an obligation on private sector, on human beings as citizens of these United States.
Some countries take that from the people and they don't allow the people to have that much freedom to determine their own life, to determine their own circumstances. If somebody else is designing your neighborhood and you coming in there or designing a neighborhood for people and you coming in there and living there, what they design, you'll always be subject to them. Your circumstances always determined by them and not by you. This is a free country. The Chinese people come here and they put a Chinese marking on the territory that they occupy. You don't have to ask who lives here. You see it.
Audience:
That's right.
IWDM:
See it readily. That's a Chinese community. They even take the roof off the house and put a Chinese roof on top of the house, put a China man’s design on top of the house. Yes, Mexican come. You don't have to ask if he Mexican. If you don't know how to speak Spanish, you can't even tell the people the street you on. Spanish got his mark there and you'll be able to smell his food, when you get on the main street. You don't smell the Englishman's food. Englishman's food ain't hardly got no smell. He's quiet, he's quiet, he's quiet, he's quiet. You know you in a Spanish neighborhood. Nobody have to tell you. Come to our neighborhood, you don't know if all the blacks aren't out. If all the blacks aren't out, you won't know who lives in that neighborhood. You say it look like some poor whites must live here.
Say, look, poor whites must live in this area. They had to come back home for you to know that that's their area. "Nah, this our area man." We should do something to mark our territory. If we Christians, why the hell don't we put a cross on every corner or something? Do something different.
Audience:
That's right.
IWDM:
Do something different. Say, oh yeah, we in a negro neighborhood. We know in the black man neighborhood now because the cross is on every corner. At least we marked it. An animal will piss on a spot and mark it. Why don't we do something to mark our territory. "Oh, he can't be the Mujeddid. His mouth is foul. Intentionally. I selected those bad words intentionally. I was conscious of what I was doing. I am a doctor and you're sick in hell and a doctor have to know how to balance poisons to heal the sick. I ain't going to kill you. Don't worry. The purpose of this address is just to press upon your mind that we have to build something in America that we would get credit for. That other people won't take the credit for. We have to build something in America to establish our equal worth as a social people. Man is a social family. That's what man is. Man is a socially based family. And G-d says, to show us the importance of man's social nature. G-d says, family, in the book of G-d has first rights. First rights. So, what is before G-d? What is before family? What is there in my life more important to me than family?
Consciousness We call taqwa. That's the only thing. After consciousness, taqwa, consciousness. After we accept, we are aware that there's a G-d responsible for all this. I didn't make this myself, I didn't make the world. I couldn't have done this. I'm a beneficiary. I come in here having to be dependent on what was done before I became a life. So, I know I'm not the boss. I know I'm not the one that made my own accommodations. I know something else made my accommodations and made it possible for me to come here a healthy human person. Somebody else did that. That somebody else, that other thing is G-d. That's consciousness. That's the right mind. That's the right frame of mind that we have to have first. After that, the next thing is respect for your social family. And G-d says family have rights. Priority, first priority. In the book of G-d. In the book of G-d. Didn't say in the world, didn't say in the book of man or men. In the book of G-d. That's to tell us that it is G-d who has shown you your wonderful life, your wonderful creation. It is G-d that have put you on solid foundations. Foundations that your own life, your own natural life is asking for. Is asking for because G-d made your life to ask for these things.
Don't forget, don't become ungrateful. Don't become big headed. Remember that is G-d that puts you on these solid foundations. And Muhammad the Prophet in the conclusion of this talk. Muhammad the Prophet, Prayers and the Peace be upon him. He said after the model community was established in Medina, and there's a lot to say about how that community came to be established there, but that'll take another subject. Muhammad the Prophet said to his people, to his following, it is reported that he said "After this, there is no more fleeing from persecution." He said after this, there is only Taqwa. the consciousness that G-d wants us to have, that He have revealed for us in His book, the Last Revelation. After this, Taqwah and Jihad. Taqwah Wa Jehadu. That's written in the records, in the reports. How are we to understand that? We know G-d got hundreds of ayats to guide us and G-d is asking us hundreds of things that we should do. But this is the focus. Don't lose focus. It is essential focus that enable a person to have what they intended to have from G-d or from anybody that give them something wonderful or great.
It is keeping the right focus that keeps the life. Yes, you have to pay Zakat, you have to do all these things. You have a lot of things to do. But where's the focus for you keeping the context, contents and context of your life that G-d has revealed. Where's the focus? Regardfulness, number one. Struggle. number two. Taqwa Wa Jehadu. Regardfulness and struggle. That makes the life easy for us, doesn't it? See how G-d has made this religion so easy for us. Have the right mind, the right consciousness as a Muslim and then make effort. Make strong effort. Only two. Why you need only two? Because the effort, the goal has been given to you by G-d. We know the goal, the aim has been established by G-d. You don't have to establish the aim. G-d has revealed it already. G-d revealed the aim. G-d revealed the destination. G-d revealed the life that we should live, but we don't have to recreate that. G-d have already revealed it to us. Well, what do we have to do? We have to live inside of that and then go in the way of that. Follow the road that that gives us.
And the road is the road to success. Yes, and G-d says, "Certainly the believers shall succeed." They shall succeed. No doubt about it. Ain't no question whether they will succeed or not. G-d says, "And the believers shall succeed. He didn't say, and the Muslims shall succeed. G-d didn't say, and the black Muslims shall succeed. G-d didn't say, and the white Muslims shall succeed. G-d didn't say, and the Muslim belonging to the bloodline of Muhammad shall succeed. But you got all those fools in the world. You got the black fools who think the black Muslims are the ones that will succeed. You got the white fools who think the white Muslims are the ones that will succeed and you got the bloodline fools who think the bloodline Muslims are the ones that will succeed. You got Africans way down there right on the border of Heathenism claiming they got direct lineage to the Prophet blood and because of that they're sitting on a throne and got little black Africans coming up to them making du'a. Yeah. They come in to make du'as before a dunghill because he claimed he got the blood of the Prophet direct. "I descended directly from the Prophet." What does that mean? Abu Jahal and Abu Lahab also had the same family of blood that the Prophet had and they're cursed.
Audience:
That's right
IWDM:
Here the West is more in accord with certain principles, basic logic of Islam than Muslims are, than Muslim nations are. Some Muslim nations are farther from the basic essential logic for establishing Islamic life on this earth than the West is, and they're pointing at the West. "The West. It's your big Satan, your big dog, your big you big devil, you big."
Audience:
That's right.
IWDM:
This is no small job. We can't do it with our own knowledge. We can't do it with our dreaming, with our fantasizing, with our imagining, with our creative ability. We can't do it. We can only do it with the guidance of G-d. No great civilization has accomplished it. Without the guidance of G-d, you cannot do it without the guidance of G-d. I'm glad to see that area filled up. When I came in here, it was scanty, still scanty over here. There are seats over there to heaven and nobody's sitting in them. Yes, I represent the guidance of G-d. And the guidance of G-d is the road to heaven. And we are not only preaching that we should have these things. We have a business plan, a community plan. A business plan to put these things in place. Have faith that I'm following guidance from Allah and the model leader for all people, a mercy to all mankind, mercy to the worlds, Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Prayers and the Peace be upon him. My leader that I'm so proud to follow. I thank Allah that He created such a leader for us. My leader that I wish I could die for every time I wake up and realize that I was living again if it was necessary.
Yes, you all think I'm not the follower of Muhammad. You are stone out of your minds. You think I would've risked going against Elijah Muhammad to follow what Muhammad the Prophet received if I wasn't serious. Oh man, I'm telling you, you don't know the reality there or back there. I know both realities. I know the reality. My father told me once, he said, "Son, he said, I don't worry about anybody bothering me or making trouble." He said, "Son, I have survived them all to today." And he's true. He's right. I know of some people who wanted to kill him when I was a boy. They would come around. They wanted to kill him. Small boy. Before I got be a teenager, I know of this. And I got to be a teenager, I know a fellow came around and asked me about my father, told me what he's going to do. I was a young boy, about 12 or 13 then, so I know. And I've seen him survive it all. I saw him survive it all. He said, he's a Bible man. He wasn't a Qur'an man. He pointed to the Qur'an, but he worked out of the Bible. He said, because that's what his father, he was a Christian. His father was a Baptist minister, had his own church congregation. See, I said a church congregation. I think he was too poor to have a structure.
But he had a church congregation, he had a following, and they used to talk about how he preached and how he got the crowd worked up. The say my grandfather could be standing up preaching. He'd be, whoa. He preach and he started bending back, said his head would almost touch the floor backwards. Then he'd come up trembling and he'd have that congregation right in his hand, right in the palm of his hand, and that's where they put the money. Yeah. So, I know the reality. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, he said, "If someone comes against the flinty stone," now he's coming out of the Bible. They will get bruised. He said, he said, they will bruise themselves. He said, "But if the flinty stone comes against them, they'll be ground to powder." That's what he said. What was he talking about? He was talking about himself. He meant that if someone in his following tried to harm him, they would bruise themselves. They would hurt themselves. But if he come at them to harm them, they'd be finished. Bad man, bad little man.
When I differed with him and I came by the house to see my family, they were investigating me. They hadn't put me out yet. So, I came back to home to see my family, see my mama and my family and daddy too. I had no difference, no personal thing. It was a matter of truth, not personal. So, I came back there to see my parents. I love my parents. My brother, sister, Supreme Captain came right up in my face, stood up there. Some of you know Elijah. Came in my face, "Wallace, you know what could happen to you?" I said, yes. I said, and do you know what could happen to you? I knew what could happen to me, but I wanted him to be aware that something could happen to him too. Thank you very much. Let us keep our focus, respect for what G-d has revealed as authority in our life and struggling to get to achieve on this earth. We can't have that achievement and have inferior neighborhoods, as a blemish on our worth as human beings. No, our neighborhoods must be brought up to par and we must not ask Whites or Asians or Arabs, or anybody else to do it for us. We must do it as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, for ourselves. Our souls demand that.



