11/18/2000
IWDM Study Library 
Los Angeles CA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
That's exactly what the Nation of Islam was, a global village. All of those who identified with my father, what he wanted to bring about, cared about me, just like they cared about their own children. And if they saw me in need, they would respond to me, just like they would their own child, their own child.
So that's a time that we remember and the life of the people that belong to this association when they were called Nation of Islam and now. Yeah. But now the world has changed so. I couldn't identify with the white man's world. I couldn't identify with the Christian world, Christian people, the church. I couldn't identify with them because we were living in a time when blacks, African Americans were discriminated against and didn't have even the government on our side. Some people in the government, certainly, but not the government on our side to change the ugly laws of the South, to make right for us in the South and in the North. We didn't have that. This new town that we live in, it came about recently, but some of us are not aware. Just this was a few decades ago we didn't have this. But now we do. We have this new freedom, this new awareness of law favoring equal opportunity for all, regardless to race.
And the moral life has been so threatened over the past 30 or 40 years.
The good forces have had to quietly work against the evil forces. They couldn't even show their hand because if they did, they would've been defeated by the evil forces. So, they had to work quietly to keep their own strength, and fortifications secure until the time changed and permitted them to come out with their forces. Times have changed. A new season is in America and in the world. Times have changed. And now, they make themselves known. And little Warith Deen Muhammad, used to call me WD when I was a boy, little WD was an international president of one of the biggest organizations working for world peace and justice for all people that you can find on this earth, the world conference of religion and peace. Secretary General Dr. William, who's a humble man and doesn't care for any publicity, but he's a leader, the Secretary General of this worldwide international organization. And I want to share some video that I shared a few small audiences of you, but never here, I don't think. The Muslim Congress of Pakistan, an organization too organized for the same aim
that the WCRP has, World Conference on Religion and Peace has. And that is to promote the unity of the human family so that we can have respect coming from on high to all of us, and peace for the whole community of people on this Earth. And that Congress, Muslim Congress of Pakistan had a president at that time, he was passed since then, may G-d give him paradise. And I'm sure that's where he is, [Arabic] is his name. And he had an assistant. And his assistant to my knowledge is still alive and in good health, Brother Hamdani.
This all started for me when I got a visit from brother Hamdani Khan, who was president at that time of the Muslim World Congress and brother Hamdani, his assistant. They came to me and they said, we recognize what you're doing. We recognize what you are working for. And we think that you should meet people who are working to better the conditions of mankind in the whole world. They should know you. So, we want to include you. And then the one looked at the other and said, we are going to include him. And it wasn't long before I had an invitation to a big conference held on the environment in Oxford, England. Son of Elijah Muhammad, the little guy who was poor with the rest of the poor in his neighborhood on the south side, where there was a junk yard two blocks away, and about 20 small [...] houses, taverns stretched along about two blocks from us.
One block from us. Yes, two blocks from us on State Street. So, whenever I went to store, that's what I saw. I saw wine heads. I saw bums, both male and female wine heads and bums and all these liquor stores. It looked like a church for every tavern, little small storefront church for every tavern in that strip where we had to go because the stores that we had to trade with were on that strip too. That's the neighborhood I remember as a boy, until I was about maybe nine or ten years old, when we moved to a better neighborhood, but still with the poor, with the poorest of the poor of our kind in Chicago. Now here I am now meeting with these people on this high level.
And I'm quite different from well-known preachers and politicians who went to colleges and got degrees. No degree, no college, but here I am way up there. I know it's G-d's doing. And it only happened because this is the season for it. This is the season for it. Righteousness is on the rise. Righteousness is on the rise. And I remember I was frightened by the things, developments, that I saw, not only in our community, but in this American society. Frightening to me. I said, if we don't battle hard, the forces of corruption are going to get us all. We ain't going to be fit to exist on this planet. And Allah is going to let us all be destroyed.
So, I desperately worked hard to call the members of the Nation of Islam when I was your Supreme Minister and later the members of the community that I lead under the new name. The consciousness, and to let you see the frightening things that I saw developing in our society, and that we all were going to be eliminated if we didn't wake up, and make some real strong efforts to change things. An awakening time came for us to awaken to the evil forces that were working against the good human life. And I struggled with that and I preached that and you supported me enthusiastically, most of you.
And now we have survived intact with our life and enjoying this beautiful sunny day, not in California, in the world. Praise, be to Allah, it's a wonderful time. If you want to really better your own self, to do more to make your own life improve and better, stop looking at your immediate small circumstances and thinking that that's all you've got going for you.
If all I had going for me with that little small one-level house I got in the town where there's an African American mayor, and the whole town ain't got more than about 70,000 people in it. If that's all I had to look at, I won't have inspiration to do anything. But I see the real picture. I see the big world picture. I see the stage that G-d has prepared, and it's bigger than all our neighborhoods and all of our troubles that we are looking at. It's the real reality. So, buck up. You have to look out beyond your immediate circumstances to live and prosper. You can get a small thing like a corn on your toe. And if you take off your shoe and just keep looking at that corn every day and all day long, and waking up next day doing the same thing, getting back up, holding your foot and looking at that corn, you are out of it. You ain't got no place in the world. You'll cut yourself out of a life in the world.
And we know black people; they get foot trouble. Most of us have some kind of foot trouble, corn, bunion, something, get a mysterious foot trouble. Can't identify it. All I know is my feet hurt. I look at it. I don't see anything wrong. It’s just hurting.
There are a few things I want to say to Muslims. Most of what I'm going to say, I'll say to any human being, It's for any decent person, but mainly to Muslim guests. Cause this is our immediate task is to deliver ourselves in good conditions with respect, not only at home, but also abroad. That's what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wanted for us, respect at home and abroad. This religion, Al-Islam, known by the abbreviate or shorten expression, Islam. We have to understand it. We are saying we are Muslims, and we say our religion is Islam. We should understand it. We should know what we are saying we have. So, my effort is firstly, to help us know what we claim to be our religion better. The great scholar and leader. He was not only a scholar, but he was a community leader from Pakistan. He died several years ago, a good while ago. I met him in the United States when he visited a couple times, but I met him also on Mount Arafat during the Hajj.
That was over a decade ago, over 10 years ago. His name is Maulana Maududi. Before I met him, I was around him because my father, even when I was a young man, a young minister for my father, my father had a book by Maulana Maududi in his collection of books in his library case. Maulana Maududi said of Islam, " it is an ideology and a message revealed by G-d for the rejuvenation and reform of the global community and its environment".
So, Islam didn't just come for Wallace. Islam is here from G-d for the whole world. And if Wallace responds to it and works hard to qualify for its great name, to wear it as a Muslim, then Wallace is going to rise, not on 5308 South Wabash, where that bad strip was. Not on 6026 Vernon, where sewer rats were so big the cats backed up. [...] That's where I used to live. Not on 6116 South Michigan, where the house that we lived in and the hen house that the city permitted us to have didn't look too much different. You might walk in the hen house thinking you were going in your own house.
Two framed structures, wood-framed structures. No, not just for squatters who lived in those small places, but for the whole of mankind that occupy the whole world, rich and poor, wise and foolish, is for all of us. Presidents and citizens, common citizens, bankers and beggars, it is for all of us, this religion of Islam. So, this religion of Islam has already proved that it is for all of those people because we find presidents of nations saying I'm a Muslim. And they haven't just started doing that, they been doing it for the whole time of history of Islam. Presidents of nations, rulers of nations saying my religion is Muslim. Bankers, generals of the army, people responsible for the earth under their feet, and for the future of their citizens saying I'm a Muslim, my religion is Islam. So, this religion pulls us up and lifts us up.
We cannot lift this religion up. It's already up, way up, long before America was discovered. Long before any European, a white man was on this land, Islam was high up in this sky and reaching down on the earth and pulling up bankers, making them presidents of banks, pulling up soldiers, making them generals of the army, pulling up the student, making him the educator for the whole nation. That's what this Islam was doing before even America was occupied by a white man for Europe. So, if you can't give anything to this religion, this religion has all to give to you. I'm talking to the Muslims. I'm hoping that I will wake you up so you will get better benefit from your religion. You can't get benefit from something that you're not aware of, you don't know the value of. We can give you a Rolls-Royce car to go to work in tomorrow morning. But if you don't respect the value of that Rolls-Royce, you won't get the benefit from it. Pretty soon we find it impounded.
Yes. Or sitting on the roadside, can't even get the battery charged. This is no joke, this is serious. So, a spoon full of sugar, will help the medicine go down, but the medicine is serious. An ideology for the rejuvenation and reform of the global environment and the whole of mankind. And that is exactly what Islam is. So, Islam, then, is bigger than our life.
We have a world to live in that's bigger than the space we need. See how G-d is. He didn't give you a world that's just big enough for your space you want or need. He gave you a world that's much, much bigger. So many times, bigger than the space you need to live in. And it makes us very comfortable, doesn't it? Cause we know we can live here for generations and generations, and this world will always have room for us. Yes. I know about population explosion and all that. That's just like weeds growing. Pretty soon, the weeder will be coming in. Don't worry. The weeder will be coming soon and it won't be sick for long. Get ready for it. A new day is coming. I hope you are not one of the weeds. So, you'll be gone, buddy, incinerated, gone up in smoke, ashes can't be found, disappeared in the wind.
I'm conscious of the high worth or value of my religion, Al-Islam. I'm conscious of that. And that motivates me to improve my own personal values so that I am not a discredit to this great name I wear. I don't want to misrepresent and be discredited to this great name I wear. This great name I wear is a motivation for me to improve my own personal worth and value. Can you see it the same way? If you can, then do more about your own life. Put your own personal life in better condition, people. You can improve your own personal value, your personal value. Muhammad the prophet said the obligation to acquire knowledge is on the Muslim from the cradle to the grave, from the cradle to the grave.
That's what he said. So don't buy the defeatist spirit of this world. Well, I'm too old now. Oh yeah. Well, I used to be pretty good in school. You're never out of school. The universe is your school. G-d created earth, life, the sky, winter, everything to provoke our intelligence, to signal our intelligence, messages to our intelligence and make us think and make us want to know more, make us register more, make us record more from the universe for the growth of our own personal minds.
Plus, this wonderful work of civilization to bring about more literacy, more literacy and more education in the masses, in the public. You have all that going for you. Television has problems, but it's a great educator. So many educational programs on it, straight from G-d's created world, the natural world in its nature, and also some fine institutions, like we find out here in California, Stanford and others. You can't get the full benefit of your own life that G-d wants for you, if you are not even conscious that you have circumstances favoring you growing and becoming more successful. So be conscious, don't be just conscious of that you are black and the whites got more than you. Be conscious of that you are human and G-d wants for you what he wants for white folks. Be conscious of that.
Oh, I think I heard an old-timer speak out there. Yeah. Allah wants hell-fire for the white devil. So why did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad just a very few, one or two years before he passed, turned around and looked at the guests he had on the platform with him and pointed to a white man and say to us "That's a white man.
"That's a White man!" He said. In his house! Sitting with the dignitaries at the convention, Savior's Day convention. He said, "That's a White man, and he's a Muslim scientist." That's what he told us. And I believe it was that same speech, if it wasn't it was one that came the next year. He said, "I'll tell you this from the bottom of my heart." He didn't speak that way to us. I never heard Elijah Muhammad preach. I heard him. I'm his little boy, I'm his son. I listen to what he says. I never heard him say to us, "I'm telling you, to tell you this, from the bottom of my heart."
He wanted to reach us. He was desperately, desperately trying to reach us. To change our thinking and our spirit. So that when he died, we would be prepared to go on living and not die with him. He said, "I'll tell you this from the bottom of my heart, if the White man can change and respect you, then you do likewise." That's what he said! So don't blame that on my father. Don't blame your inability to move forward, on my father. He desperately worked before he died to free us so we can move forward, continue to progress, go forward with our lives in America, after he's gone. May G-d reward him for his good work and his sacrifices. For his masterful planning and obedience to his master. Master Fard, he called him. May G-d reward him for that with the paradise. Ameen.
I know my topic. A good school teacher won't go right to the text. A good school teacher goes right after getting the attention of the students and then to the text. G-d says to us in this religion, He says, "Enter peace!" This is a special peace called [Arabic]. Peace. To give peace, the greetings of peace [Arabic] Enter peace wholly with your whole self, with your whole self. Let us think on this for just a moment. Enter into peace with your whole self.
What does this have reference to? There are people who want peace, but they don't want to let go Hell. They want peace, but they hold onto a piece of Hell too. "I want peace, but I can't go. I want this too. I want this piece of Hell I got in my hand. I want these drugs. I want this lottery. I want this gambling. I want this liquor. I want this prostitution. I want this adultery. I want this fornication. I want this masturbation going on to no end. I want to dissipate my life, but G-d, please give me peace!" G-d say, "You want peace? Enter into peace with your whole self, and then you are following the way of Abraham, the upright in faith, upright in his nature, the upright in faith. Abraham came to G-d and he presented him his whole self, himself in its entirety. His whole self, he presented to G-d. He gave it to G-d. We are supposed to be following the way of Abraham, the order of Abraham, the upright in his nature, the faithful one. Okay?
"Prophet Muhammad," G-d says that he is enough for all Mankind. The same word [Arabic]. He is enough for all Mankind, which tells us what didn't we know. Why this is the order of Abraham is because Abraham presented himself completely to G-d, to have whatever G-d wills for him. That's what it means. In his whole life, in every area of his life, he has submitted peacefully to have his life ordered according to G-d's plan for him. Muhammad did the same thing. And our order is the Order of Abraham. Because he, Muhammad didn't do a new thing, he only did what Abraham did, as a son of Abraham, as we all are children of Abraham.
What I have addressed to this point is our need to be conscious of what we claim we are, and conscious of what we are claiming as our religion, and identifying with that religion. Be conscious of it. Be conscious of it as its revealed in the Qur'an and as is given in the life of Muhammad, the man who preached it the first time on his Earth. Yes, he's a man who preached Islam, consciously. Others, preached it from the spirit of their own life and nature in obedience with their Creator.
But Muhammad preached it from a conscious script. From a script that made him conscious of what G-d wanted for us in terms of establishment of a Muslim or Islamic life. He was the first to do that. There are none in history before Muhammad bearing that name. Islam, Muslim, and the rest of the language of Islam. Not before him, no. He's the one, the last of the prophets. G-d says of him, "He's a mercy to all the worlds. [Arabic], a mercy to all the worlds." Not just to Muslims, but to all the worlds. Muhammad. History bear witness that the change brought about in the world because of Muhammad's leadership, as a servant and messenger of G-d, opened the way for the revival of the human intellect and intellectual pursuits.
Real Liberty. Real true liberty was given a new shot in the arm. And the whole world has benefited from Muhammad, the Prophet's Leadership, and the many scholars that were produced under his leadership in the many sciences, medicine, astronomy, navigation, everything, travel on the high seas.
Everything was embraced by the brains that were produced under Muhammad the Prophet, citizen of Mecca and Arabia, who was rejected by his own country, by his own city. They tried to deprive him of the freedom to do the great work that G-d revealed for him to do. And G-d gave him a boost. G-d revealed for them to hear and to see Muhammad. Said to Muhammad, tell them, say, "I'm a free man in this town." Speaking of Mecca, his own hometown. They put him out. It was proven that he was a free man. He came back in and gave them mercy, showed mercy to them. Say, "If you'll just accepted to live at this peace and not undermine the peace, you have no fear for your life or your property." And he said, "Let there be no more blood spilling, no more fighting." So, he showed them mercy. That's the history of our religion. This is our religion that we claim, I'm talking about.
Muhammad, the Prophet was an Arab. That's how they pronounce it. Arab is English pronunciation. He was an Arab, born in the city of Mecca, the blessed, holy, sacred city of Mecca. When he formed the Leadership, he didn't just have Arabs around him representing the leaders. He had Persians, looking like White folks. He had Africans, Bilal, his companion. These were all his number one Companions, like Jesus Christ Disciples. Peace upon Jesus Christ and the Prophets.
He had his companions who were like Disciples. In fact, you could say they were his Disciples. They were for him as Jesus Christs' Disciples were for Jesus Christ. Peace be upon the Prophets. And they were Arab. They were Persian. They were African and Salman, was the Persian. The record says that he was white skinned. He was white. So here is a man that G-d chose for the world, not for his race. He was missioned to be a mercy to the world, not just to his race. He demonstrated that by selecting or accepting that the leaders closest to him represents the colors of the human race. Not Arab or one race, but the human race, the family of mankind, black, brown, and white within his staff, in his immediate staff of people. We say we are his followers. We are in America.
Should we be trying to keep this leadership 100% Black? If we do, we're not following Muhammad's way. We live in a country that's mostly not Black. If we're going to live in this country and make progress in this country, we should demonstrate to this country, to American people, that we are not hung up on race. We should demonstrate that we truly follow Muhammad the Prophet, he servant and messenger of G-d, the seal of the Prophet, the last of them. When we do that, we show the unity of mankind and we defend ourselves and we protect ourselves from being charged with racism.
Racism is not permitted in this religion. It's too far from the nature and beauty of this religion to have any closeness to the important works of this society. No, we must abandon it. We must put it on the outskirts of our life and activities and not permit it to come in into our borders, racism. Racism is for the Devil, not for us. Let the Devil have racism. He wants to divide the races to weaken the family of mankind, to set it against itself.
We are not going to help him. We're going to defeat him and we are making great progress. In fact, the Devil's retreating. He's shrinking. He's becoming smaller and smaller. His smoke over Los Angeles is going away. He hasn't built big fires anymore. We got him on the retreat. Oh, that was just a recognition of your progress in your environment, your progress for the environment. Islam is a religion of unity, and its central idea is unity. Oneness, unity called [Arabic] he from the word one. [Arabic] is a derivative of the word meaning one, in the Arabic language. So, its central idea is [Arabic] and that [Arabic] is the essence of Islamic teachings and life. [Arabic] It is what gives birth to our [Arabic] our creed. CREED [Arabic].
To state [Arabic], is expressed in this language, or in these words. G-d is one. His creation is one system or one systemic whole. His creation is one universal system or one systemic whole. That means the whole of the creation, whatever you see in the sky, whatever you see down here on Earth, water, wind, fire, whatever. The masses that float in the sky, above our head, stars, et cetera, moon, everything. All of them are held together by one universal law. They're not really foreign to each other. They are elements in common. They bear elements are constitution in common, similar elements make up their constitution.
The Earth has a hundred and some elements. The same elements that are in the Earth, that make the Earth what it is, can be found up there in those bodies too. They're up there too. The gases that we have down here can be found out there too. Not all of them, but it seems as though there was just one creation of elements and gases. They were spread out over the whole world, the whole universe, the whole existence of things. We find them in all the things, strong throughout the universe, and on Earth. So, this tells us that this was made by one G-d. That's what the great thinkers came to. That the conclusion that the great, great thinkers came to thousands of years before our time. They said, "Oh G-d, we behold your handiworks. And we know that you have done these things."
They didn't say, "We know that you and your buddy did these things". They said, "We know You have done these things!" Because what they were referring, spoke of one Artist, one Designer, one Maker, one Creator. Praise be to Allah. So, this [Arabic] expressed in a statement says, "G-d is one, and the world He created is one systemic whole. And the family of man is one family, one humanity. Maybe different colors, features appearance, et cetera. Culture, et cetera. Tastes. Behavior, just like the children of the same parents are different. A mommy and daddy, they can have three or more children. You will find some of them with something that the others can't get. Some of them with taste for clothing that the others don't have. You would find some of them with a spirit that the others won't have. Some of them will be trying to be...
Chiara Lubich, the President and Founder of the Focolare movement that you find us in the Muslim Journal paper with. She put this so beautifully. She said that "Whole of Mankind can be seen..." I'm not using her exact words, but I'm condensing it. "...can be seen in the picture of just a single family." And that's true. I've been preaching that for many years. You can be seen in just a picture of a single family. Actually, what is being done by G-d through man, but also through the force of the nature is the progress of the original family life. G-d is evolving the single, family life for the whole of Mankind.
The single home life for the whole of Mankind. So here is the core of man in his original, social nature and spiritual nature, growing, influencing, as it grows until it fuses into all the children of mankind. And brings them into accord with the single soul of mankind, with the single soul of mankind of all people. Do you know if we are many souls, just as many as there are humans? But we are also a single soul as it was in the beginning? And G-d says, "That it was in the beginning. So shall it be an end."
We are different souls, but at the same time we are one soul. It's that one soul that's going to make a home for all of us. Each one of us separate cannot make a home for all of us. But all of us in our collective life, in that one spiritual life that we call human life, in that one soul, we can. When we conform through it, when we become reconciled with it again, and conform with its hungers and its thirst, we can have this Earth as one home accommodating all of us, as one family. That's the destiny.
That's where we're going. This great lady, Chiara Lubich, she sees that. She sees that with the light of her own Bible, the New Testament, the teachings of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. And we see it with the light of the Qur'an. And the works of Muhammad the Prophet to show us how to live that religion in the Qur'an. We see it too. We are in harmony. We are in harmony with her aspirations for humanity. And she's in harmony with our aspirations for humanity. There are many up in the heavens with controls down here, working for the same thing. We are not going to fail. No. This is G-d's movement and you can't reverse G-d's movement. We are not going to fail.
We are not going to fail. And Allah says in the Qur'an to us that He created all of us from one soul, [Arabic]. From one soul. [Arabic], and He created from that one soul its mate. That was our original parents. The first human parents on this earth, and created from that one soul its mate, [Arabic]. And spread from those two, just two, [Arabic], many men and women. So, Allah says, not W. Deen Mohammed, not W.D, the little guy, about two blocks from the winos and everything else that went with it. G-d is saying this to all the world, and especially to Muslims, that He created all the family, all the races, all the people on this earth from one and the same parents.
A soul that was both male and female, before G-d caused that soul to separate, and gave entity and independence, a degree of independence to the male and to the female. And they chose to come back together, not be separated, and they made it. And G-d blessed that coming back together, as he wanted them to be, with all the men and women on this earth. How fruitful they became, when they accepted to be united again, after G-d permitted them to have their own limited independent. Isn't that wonderful?
That's a message to us, brothers and sisters. Then G-d gives us a symbol, a sign. He points us to Abraham, and wants us to identify, in the house built by Abraham. And G-d wants us to know that that house was not just built for the race of Abraham. It was built for all people. And he wants us to know that this is not a house conceived by man and built by man. He wants us to know that this house is only a structure, pointing to a house that was existing when he created the first human being.
What is it? It's the house of the behavioral life, that G-d created you for. And that behavioral life had to be expressed, practiced, expressed manifest by a human person. And the first was Adam and his mate. Then Abraham received the guidance from G-d, it was already in his nature. Abraham was moved by his own life, inner life, nature, original nature, inner life, or original nature. He was moved by his own original nature to build this house. So, he had started before G-d came to him, and G-d saw him.
Abraham saw a star fall, and he felt that that star was G-d's answer to what he was trying to find, motivated to find from within, not from without, from within. And the stone that fell from the sky was a small piece of matter, material, from a fragment, from some body that split. They call it a falling star. A meteorite. A small meteorite. And it didn't burn up completely when it hit the earth. Most of them burn up in the air, before they even hit the earth. It didn't burn up completely. It fell, and it cooled off. And Abraham saw it, and he took that to be G-d's communication to him.
You're looking for a place to build a house. You're looking for material for your house. Here it is. So, he went there, where the stone fell. He and his son, Ishmael, in the Bible, or Ismail in the Qur'an, they began building a house. They built the house right there where the stone fell.
So, what was the message to Abraham? The message to Abraham was that the heaven supplied you with one stone, and let this one stone be the cornerstone of your house. Now, take this stone up from heaven, this single stone, and orientate the building of the structure upon this stone. This stone will influence the whole construction of the house. It'll be the cornerstone. That's what Abraham saw. That's the message he saw. And he saw that one stone saying, "Your essence was once in heaven and you fell from heaven. Pick your essence up. Pick your fallen essence up, and make it the cornerstone of the building for mankind. Let its ideology influence the whole expression that goes into the construction of the building."
It is to say [Arabic] G-d is one. The world is one systemic whole, and mankind is one family, one nature. So, he took up the stone that represents the pure essence of mankind, the life of all people. He put it in the corner. And when we go to make Hajj, we try to kiss it, along with all people following that tradition. Yes.
It's in the Bible. Says, "And the rejected stone shall become the corner." That's the Bible, brother. I know it like you, maybe it better. And that's a fact. I'm not bragging, but I got to be a witness, and got you, I got to be a witness. See, if you didn't see it, and I did, and ain't nobody else to witness, I got to tell the people. Now, I got to be my only witness, and G-d. G-d is my witness.
And the rejected stone became the corner. The most important stone in the construction of the house. Well, let me bring you up to date real quick. That stone is the recognition of the value of the common man, that his value is equal to the value of every man and any man. You build your society upon that, and have a just, economic, democratic order. Where every child born would have opportunity to rise as high as any child born. That's the idea, brother. That's what that stone is all about.
And is this a common human essence, unworthy or the worthy? The builders rejected it, the builders of the old world of dictatorships. It rejected it. Empires dominated by one man or a family, a blood family. That world is gone, it's condemned. The little stone hewed out of the mountain, bringing down the kingdoms of the world. Same reference, but only it's coming from a mountain, not from the sky. But from on high, coming from high down to low, to serve all people, low and high.
So don't just take rituals and get drunk. And somebody asks you to speak, you're talking tongues. And as Paul said, nobody understands but the one speaking. So, G-d says, it is the first of the house, the most ancient of houses, [Arabic]. Built for all people.
Now here is Islam. G-d says, "Muhammad", the Messenger, that He sends to the world to bring them, to enlighten them, "awaken them to the religion that He preferred for them, that He has preferred for them. Isn't that a wonderful G-d? I wish some of these Imams would say, "Well, brothers and sisters, this is what I prefer for you." That mean you giving me a choice. No, this is it. You don't want this to get out. My G-d got all the power in the world. All the power in this creation belongs to Him. He got even the power of my own body, and power of my own mind, the power of my own will and everything. He got it. It's His. He created it. And He won't even dominate it in my life.
He tells me, "Wallace, I want you to think about it. And when you make a decision, I want it to be yours." That's a G-d that made me to be free, free to grow as much as I can, and to grow in every dimension possible for me, as a created person, to the limits for me as a created person. No race limits my growth. Nothing limits my growth, if I accept to obey my G-d, who wants me free, F-R-E-E.
He wants us free more than he wants us under Him. He wants us free. He gave us the freedom to leave Him, to forget Him, to never look at Him, or think about Him. He makes us free to do that. He knows that, one day, a few of us are going to discover Him. A few of us will discover how good the Creator is, how wonderful the one is that made all this possible. And us, and we are going to tell the rest. And it's described as the good news.
The good news. The Gospel is called the good news. Then Muhammad is given the title, Bashir, a good news bringer. And it is good news. And G-d says of him, using the term, that is really the term Bashir is derived from this term. He says, "Say to them, Muhammad, "I am a mortal human being just like you." And the word is [Arabic] Bashir is derived from [Arabic]. He said, "Say to them, [Arabic]. I am a mortal human being just like you." That's the good news.
Well, what is good news about that? That somebody tell me that I'm a mortal human being, because the world of Satan told us we are black demons, white heathens, and black demons. That's what the ancient world told us. That's what the medieval world told us, black demons and white heathens. And the religious establishments told us born in sin, sinners by nature, sinners by birth, and can't be saved unless the son of G-d come down, and kill himself for you.
My G-d. Oh, its good news, that tell me that they lied, or they lied against my own creation. That I'm [Arabic], a shining, brilliant creature, the most productive thing in the universe, made of matter, to be in accord with it, to engage it, to take the universe as my wife, and produce productive offspring. That's me. [Arabic]. Allahu Akbar. So, G-d wants us to know that though we have multiplied, we are still held together by our original essence, the original soul, in a unit, and in a unity, as [Arabic]. Same soul, same satisfying condition. When we return to faith, and the true value of the human person, we will have that same satisfying condition that Adam had when G-d created him. And G-d says, "And He's the one who created the death." He created death and life. He created death before He created life.
Now you say, what death? Death, something had to die. So, what died? Maybe we need to change that term a little bit from death to the dead. He created the dead and the living. What is the dead? Matter before life is in it. Stone, sand, whatever. That's what He created first. And the scientists and science will bear witness. So, He created the dead and the living, or the death and the life, because actually that stuff is the death too. We don't have time to talk about it. You'll be here too long. You won't have the patience with me.
But actually, what we are calling the dead is also the death. And what we are calling the living is also the life. He created the death and the life, or the dead and the living. Why? He answers. I'm asking why. And He answers, "That you may know, that it may be known who among you is best in his works." So, life invites us, doesn't it? And life engages us. And we become all engaged in living. And death frightens us. Death scares us. And the two forces test us, test us. Okay. Then Satan come, and he tries you. He frightens you with poverty, as G-d says in the Qur'an. And you start to fear death, or if I may starve to death. I can't live poor. Satan got an easy way. Satan offers me life, but this religion subjects me to the fear that I'll die, the death.
When Muhammad's followers were threatened by bigger numbers in war, Muhammad had to lead an army. He yelled out to the enemies, who were arranging their ranks for the battle. He said, "Hey, out there, we love death like you love life. Now let's get it on, chickens."
The one that we serve, He created both for us, the life and the death, or the death and the life. And if that's what He chooses for us, we happily go to death. Because we know the Lord that gave us life for the first time, in His own words in the Qur'an, "He well able to do it again". So, life and death, G-d says, "they are mysteries, but you understand that they're to test you", to separate those who want the way of G-d from those who don't. Try you with life, death and life, to see which one among us is best in his works, or in his deeds.
And then G-d says, "And his throne was upon the waters." And I'm sure that's talking about Noah, the rebirth, the regeneration of the world. And his throne was upon the waters, the ark of Noah, to try you, that it be known which of you, or which one of you is best in his work. So here, we find the same expression that is given with reference to the role of death and life, in the spirit and accomplishments of the people, how they will thrive and succeed with their life or fail. And find the same language given again, referring to G-d throne being upon the waters.
Now, we know this throne upon the water is more than just a wooden boat that a man made. It means your existence, your life that you want for yourself is sometimes supported by nothing but water, meaning the spiritual, the transparent, the see-through life. And that's your abstract life inside of you. It bears up. It bears and it will hold and support your whole existence. Yes, it does. It's the first, water, the first support, as a symbol or as a sign. Water is the first support, supporting your whole existence. It's the belief in the unseen, the belief in the abstract human being. It's belief in the spiritual life inside of the body. That's what it is. It's trusting your feelings.
Is trusting your feelings. And trusting your best sentiments. That's what it is. And isn't it revealing that G-d didn't make many animals to feel bad and drop water from heaven? Human beings get sad, water comes dropping down from the sky. So, this special creature that He gave all of this potential to, all of this great capacity to, all of this great intelligence to, and freedom to, is unlike most of the creatures. When we are hurt, we drop water down from our sky. Isn't it beautiful? We are certainly not weaker than all of them. We are the stronger of them all, but our sentiments are more alive and deeper, much deeper. And G-d says of the human being and also the jinns. We better comment on jinn too.
G-d says, speaking in the first entity, first person, G-d says, I did not create, humans or jinns, except for my worship [Arabic]. This statement in Islam is a very, very condensed, powerful, potent statement. It has reference to what Jesus was trying to say to the world. And these words of the Gospel, the New Testament, he said, "do you not see that I have to be about my father's business?" He was telling them that he had been put into the world to serve the will and the works of G-d. G-d's will manifests in his works.
Then he creates human beings and of the human family. He gives special attention to some of the special ones and he gives the special one a mission to introduce my will and my works to the rest of the human family. So, they were wondering, why was Jesus different? Why was he not going along with the whole order, the old ways of things? And he wanted them to know it's what this was all about. And he said to them, do you not see that I have to be about my father's business?
You got your business. It's not in accord with the best will and destiny of human nature in the world. But G-d's will is in it from the beginning until the end. G-d's Will, will overpower everything else in creation in time. And it has produced me. I'm speaking as though I am Jesus, and it has produced me. Now, you're looking at my works and call me strange. Can't you reflect back on the original order of things? And how justice life was, feeding and supporting all things? How a poor man could go and get fruit from any a tree before you said this is your territory and he can't do that? Under G-d's rule and when it was only G-d's territory, all of us could eat. All of us, had a place to sleep. All of us could use the resources in the earth. Can't you see that I have be about my father's business to bring back in the just order of things. Yes, that's how we should understand that.
Then G-d says to us in His Qur'an, He made us to be free. He wanted us to find our way and using the tools that He had created for us, had given us by nature. And He said that He offered the position of securing the skies and the earth. And the mountains refused to accept it. The angels, the mountains refused to accept it. But man, cocky, given to be hasty and foolhardy, [Arabic] cocky, rushing before thinking it through. [Arabic] ignorant, said, I accept it G-d. I'm a candidate for it. So, G-d gave it to him. And the world was not safe in man's hands.
Violence escalated, savagery escalated, corruption escalated. It got so bad that it's given into a scripture, both the Bible and Qur'an says, and corruption had spread over land and sea, covered both the land and the waters. But then G-d shows us the way back home. He gives us a symbol, a sign of our unity, the unity of mankind. And that simple symbolic house built by Abraham and his son peace be upon the prophets. And he says it is the first house, the original house, the most ancient of houses built for all people.
[Arabic] And then he gives us a ritual. He guides Muhammad to give us a ritual, a Hajj ritual, pilgrimage ritual. And the precincts, the land, where all the ancient signs are placed. That land called the haram, the restricted and forbidden area. What does it restrict us against? What does it forbid? It forbids any wrong behavior on a part of the human being. There you cannot think about taking what's not yours, using something that belongs somebody else without permission. You are not to get angry with your brother, your sister, not to speak of fighting them there. You're not even to bother land animals while you're there. If a scorpion comes up to you, you're to leave it alone. He tries us with death and with life.
Now you may fear dying, but what do you fear most, obeying G-d or getting bit by the scorpion? Now I ain't no country boy, I'm a city boy. When I made my first Hajj, I never had any experience laying out under the sky and looking up at the stars with no cover on myself, nothing for my feet and my head. I never had experience like that. So, I was aware that scorpions do live on the desert and here I am laying out there on that desert. So, I'm using my rational mind, right? I'm saying with all these people, scorpions will not come up in here I don't think. Now if he's was already up in here, he's trapped up in here, then anything can happen tonight.
So, I'm thinking like that, right? I'm fearing death. It's natural to fear death. So, I'm fearing death. But I'm not obeying the fear of death, I'm obeying Allah. I went to sleep and slept there on the sand all night long and woke up with the rest of the pilgrims around me. I was kept safe. And G-d calls the precincts a place of security and safety, a place of security and safety. Now the Hajj is a symbol of the unity of mankind. And what is that telling us? What is that haram telling us? That if we will accept that we are one family and not work deceitfully, but work openly and honestly, for the good of all members in the family of man, that G-d will give you safety and security from scorpions, snakes and wild things. I hope you're seeing where my message is going. It goes further than my words. All right? But my words indicate to you how far it's gone. So, G-d says again of man, that man is khalifa.
And when He was preparing the angels to accept His creation of human beings, He said to the angels, I'm creating a khalifa on earth. I'm making, creating, establishing whatever you want to say, a khalifa on earth. [Arabic] And they said to G-d that this creature you're talking about will bring in violence, bloodshed. And G-d said to the angels, I know what you know not. Then he said to the angels, he said, tell me your names if you know, speaking to the angels. Tell me your names if you know, and the angels reply, we have no knowledge except that which you gave us. That was their reply to G-d.
Then he addressed Adam. He said, Adam. Now Adam is a nonexistent creation presently. He's only existing in the will and plans of G-d. And He's showing Adam to the angels out of His will and plan. Follow? And He's empowering Adam. He's empowering Adam to speak to the angels before his existence in the will and plan of G-d. Like me drawing up a blueprint of a new edifice that we want for our community. And I let the drawing speak to you. Huh? Yes.
And Adam told them their names. And when they heard Adam give them their names, they all accepted and submitted except Iblis, called the fallen angel in the Bible. And the head Satan, or the devil, the head of the devils in Islamic theology or Islamic teachings. So, they all accepted. Now I said that so that we could get focus back on Adam as khalifa, man, that is, as khalifa. Now let's look at the term khalifa. Khalifa comes from a word [Arabic], which means to go back, to go to your back life.
So actually, every man is khalifa and G-d uses khalifa [Arabic] that He has made you [Arabic] khalifas on the earth. All males, females too, male and female, He have made us [Arabic] khalifas on the earth. So, Adam is man and He made many men from man. Adam is khalifa. And he made khalifas from khalifa, Adam, the khalifa. One khalifa. Now it doesn't mean that you were already that. I said, this was really revealed to the angels from the picture of his plan before the man was even created. The man was in the process of being created.
And therefore, the verb [Arabic] means in the process of being made. [Arabic] It didn't say [Arabic]. It said [Arabic], in the process of being made. This man is in the process of being made. Yes. Now how do we go back? G-d has created us to go back. When this world confuses our life and we have no thinkers, no brilliant minds to perceive a continuous course for us, for our life on this earth, or in a particular important condition for our life or plan for our life, and we can't go forward anymore, G-d has created us to bear that pressure on our souls. And that pressure mounting up on our souls will eventually ignite our intelligence like pressure upon dry matter will eventually set it afire. It will eventually ignite intelligence in the depths of our soul saying the spirit was in the deep. I mean, the spirit moved along the face of the waters and G-d said, let there be light.
There was darkness upon the deep, darkness upon the deep, but the spirit moved on the face of the water. And G-d said, let there be light. And there was light. [Arabic] Be and it is. So, I'm telling you that your own human soul can be pressed so by darkness. The darkness of not knowing what to do, the darkness of not knowing what step we can take from here on to continue our life. That pressure can mount up so that it will quicken the life in the depths of our soul. And from the depths of our soul will come consciousness and light for guidance. Yes. And that's what is meant by khalifa. You don't go forward with the mind. Something comes out of the ancient history of your existence, from the genes of your fathers in ancient times all the way back to the first creation, Adam. It will be brought out of that.
Don't you know you have the history of billions of years of the life in every human body. How come you don't? For as long as man has been on this earth, that's the history that you have in your own human body. Every flesh body has that much history in it. And that's logical. That's not, oh, he's heavy. It ain't heavy, man. You come down out of your spooky twilight zone and stand down here with common human sense, and we can talk and understand each other. Where did my flesh start? My flesh is a continuation of flesh. I came from my living father and mother. They came from their living father and mother, and it goes all the way back as the Bible says, the genealogy of Jesus Christ goes back to the first man created, Adam. Where does his genes come from? Adam. Where do my genes come from? Adam. Where's Adam? In my body. That's where he is. And he's in all of our bodies.
So, we go back to khalifa. We go backwards straining for the power and the vision to go forward. Our nature and our soul bring us backwards. Go all the way back to the first man. And then bring that first man's will and purpose into our consciousness. And we can rejuvenate the world. We can rebirth the world. We can create it all over again.


