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IWDM Study Library 
IWDM Question & Answer Session

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
He taught me how serious I was.
Speaker 2:
My question is as far as the transitional language. Sometimes I have difficulty understanding completely the message that you're putting out.
IWDM:
Let me first explain something about my methods of teaching. I do most of my teaching Islam with the Imams, when I meet with the Imams. I consider myself serving Islam but not necessarily teaching Islam. Some authorities in Islam, they don't like that. Some scholars, some Imams, especially your immigrant Muslims. And also in our community, there are a few in our community. They don't really, they think I'm doing it the wrong way. Some even come and tell me, that I should stick to this, stick to the Qur'an, the Hadith, the Sunnah of the Prophet. I've had them tell me that.
And I've tried to explain to them what my method is. And it's a strategy to it's a part of my stratdgy. I believe, even the Muslim audience can be helped better because I'm with you, just for the day. You won't see me next week. You're not going to see me again. So I can do more good. I could give you an Islamic studies lesson but you can probably get it out of an Islamic book. There are good books by authors on Islamic studies. Maybe, I could give it in my own way, and it won't be a problem.
But if I can attend the needs, in people's emotions and needs in people's thinking, to have a better mental situation for appreciating Islam, then that's what I do. I am trying to condition the mind, so the mind can come into a better situation to appreciate Islam. I've been trying to condition their emotions, their feelings, their passions, so that their human makeup inside will be more acceptable, be more of a better reception for Islam.
So that's what I spend most of my time on. I spend my time on helping people situate their thinking and their emotions, so that they will be more successful at home and their family situation and more successful in that town. So that they don't fear to go out in their town, and work for a good future for themselves. You know, when we think that the town is agianst us, the government or their job is Iblis or something is against us, we ain't going to work that hard. That stops us from going out in the town and investing and making a good life for ourselves. So I am addressing what I call the human condition. That's why I am called The Spokesman For Human Salvation.
I believe the human condition that G-d created us to have, every baby has as a basic human condition. He has the nature, the design, the pattern, the makeup, everything that G-d wants him to have in that faith. I believe that if he had that good human situation inside, that G-d wants us to have, that Allah wants us to have, then that will make possible everything else that's good. Everything else.
First you have to have the internal self in the state that G-d wants it in. Once that internal state is in the pattern that G-d wants it in that in then everything else is possible. And I believe that really nobody saves a person. Prophet Muhammad was told by G-d, "You can't give them faith". No one has the power to give them faith, no matter how much you desire in your heart that they believe. You can't do it, you see. G-d told Muhammad that. Now I'm not Muhammad. How am I going to make somebody become Muslim. I can't do that.
But we can just serve G-d and do the best we can with what we got. What I believe is that that condition that G-d wants in us, our human make up that He wants is us, that's our Savior. Every person has his own Savior inside of them. And once you get that condition right, that will save you, you won't have to worry about anything,. Then your relationship is no more dependent on Brother Imam Ansar, nor me or anybody else. You are directly connected to G-d then. Your make up tells you that G-d is your Savior. That G-d is your Lord, that G-d is your everything, that G-d can help you, tells you everything. And you're not stiff necked, you're not proud, it makes you humble, it makes you cooperate with your brothers and sisters. Then you can have a better relationship with Imam Ansar or any other brother or sister that's working in your community. You can just work better with everybody if you have the right condition inside. That's what I talk on more than anything else.
Speaker 2:
Brother Imam, we have heard so much in the media, and we take so much gossip about Brother Malcolm and the events that went on in his life. The reason why I brought it up because it's in the past and if you don't correct the past, then you know, it's a mistake to keep going on and on and on. And you'll continue to you know, fall into that. And by you being a Brother that was there how do you best address, you know, to the non-believers, that come to you and ask you certain questions about the incident that went on. I wasn't there, you know, so I don't really know exactly how to respond to it.
IWDM:
Yeah, but it's not a short story. It's a long story. But what I would, what I would be careful to not do and that is to let them make us an enemy or make us see Malcolm as our enemy. I don't think we shoud see Malcolm as our enemy. Malcolm as a Minister or a follower of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was the most terrific worker that we've seen. Nobody was better, more effective then he was in working for The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's interest,the Nation Of Islam's interest. So that we should remember that and say that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm must have been close because The Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave Malcolm that freedom to represent The Nation Of Islam. That permission and freedom was given to him by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Now the first thing you want to be aware of is that they were real close together. And they were working beautifully together for a long time. And my position is that the enemies of Islam, the future of Islam, the future of the black people, the enemies of our religion and the enemies of Islam in this country, they instigated the division that came about. All of us are subject to have human weaknesses, so these human weaknesses were fed by enemies of Islam until the weaknesses became so big that it hurt and destroyed that beautiful relationship that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm had with each other. It was insitgated by the Intelligence Department and jealous leaders in The Nation Of Islam.
Speaker 2:
I was just listening to the radio this morning and someone asked about the relationship between Sister Shabazz and the Nation Of Islam.
IWDM:
Well, again, I don't make judgments you know. Really that's their thing and this is our thing you know. But I have my thoughts and I have my opinion. Personally, I don't think Dr. Betty Shabazz helped herself at all when she permitted herself to be seen with Farrakhan like that. I think it hurts her. I think she is going to have more problems than she can foresee right now. As for Farrakhan, it helped him a lot.
Speaker 3:
I just want to know, how do we as young Muslims go up against the problem we are facing as Americans regarding teenage pregnancy.
IWDM:
Yes, you have to draw from the work that has already been done, there's a lot of good work that has been done by scholarly persons in the Muslim community, and not just our community, but also the immigrant Muslim community to find treatment for these ills in the Qur'an and then apply the Qur'anic treatment to the ills. And also in the teachings and life of the Prophet their is all the help you need right there. But it requires also the intelligence, the interest, first, strong interest and the intelligence to see that help in the Qur'an and see that help in the life of our Prophet and then apply it to the particular problem we have in our society.
And I have to address some of the things but more can be accompished when we sit with each other, versus making speeches. So the Imam, I'm sure he can give some assistance, and he can maybe help pull together people and help identify literature, some literature that the Muslims have produced, our communities and others have produced, addressing the problem of teenage pregnancy and violence in our society. So do a little research and see what information you can find already. And then once you find that information, I believe you're a bright sister, I can tell by the way you talked to me. And you should be able to do even further research yourself doing further research and build on that, that you feel that that is already available. That is healthy, that isn't healthy, that can be used. You build on that yourself by continuing to study and research.
Speaker 2:
You know, what is it that we should do about Farrakhan marching on Wasington. Should we join him or not join him?
IWDM:
Well, I rejected only that that was incorrect. I didn't reject The Honorable Elijah Muhammad . And The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, "We don't go begging anybody." When you go begging the government, I think that's wrong. And if it's just a demonstration to say, look at all these youth that are unemployed, that's a message. That's a strong message. But to me, wouldn't it be a stronger message to the White House if we could call one meeting or not one meeting. 50,000 men together in St. Louis, Chicago or somewhere and talk to them and give them the strength that we have gotten from our experiences and our teachings and tell them we are going to create jobs here. We're not going to ask the White House for the jobs. That's The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's way and tha's my way. If he goes to Washington with a million men I don't know if they got enough jails for that million. Something going to happen to about least 800,000. That's too much trouble.
Speaker 2:
What do you think? Do you think they will give us back what we worked for?
IWDM:
The government?
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
IWDM:
Yeah. The government is saying that we owe them now. They're saying we owe them. Say we are going to have to pay them back.
Speaker 3:
I have a question.
Speaker 3:
I want to know how we have all these branches of Islam and we supposed to be one community.
IWDM:
Well when you look at Christianity you could ask the same question of the Christian preacher-"How did all this division come about"? Islam is a religion that says "There is no compulsory in religion". Someone wants to think his own way, nobody can stop it because we are going to have these different thoughts in Islam. But it doesn't bother me at all because we have been Muslims now for 1400 years and better. And still the great majority of Muslims think alike and they are brothers and sisters. But don't worry about these litle small divisons. They are temporary. The biggest one is Shiite. The biggest one is Shiite. And they are small. They only represent a small minority of Muslims on thie Earth. Don't worry about it, do the best we can. Don't worry about these things. Now when it comes African-Americans, how come we're divided? Because Farrakhan like his thing and he's dong it. And I like what I am doing. That's why we not together. And it doesn't bother me either.
Speaker 2:
We need a program to offer our children some type of guidance.
IWDM:
Good. The only thing you can do is do the best you can with what you got until we can get better. And don't let the youth of St. Louis burden you so much until we lose you too. You can only do so much.
Speaker 4:
I don't know if this a big question or not but I wanted to ask you how did you get you get to be so smart?
IWDM:
How did I get to be so smart?. In the word S-M-A-R-T is the word art. I'm an artist, that what it takes to be smart.
Speaker 4:
So what do think I can do to become like you or even better?
IWDM:
Believe that help and opportunity is everywhere. Start right where you are wherever you are in your home. But the best help and the best opportunity is your opportunity and the help that you get from G-d.
Speaker 4:
What's the actual relationship between you and Minister Farrakhan.
IWDM:
You asked a question?
Speaker 2:
In the prison system, we have a situation of inmates wanting to get married and I have no problem with marrying the female sisters to a brother that's free but I have a problem with marrying sisters with brothers that are locked up. Is that anything that we can be cognizant of here in America? I know in Sharia they say that a male... The family should not be split no more. Some scholars say four months, some say six months and it's grounds for divorce.
IWDM:
Brother Imam Ansar he bought the verses to me yesterday and my answer is this. If the term is a short term and the interest is serious and good between the two of them, their interest in each other is serious and good, you don't find any flaws in it. For example, the Qur'an says, Allah says "Do not marry out of desire just for sex". The word is lust, don't marry a person just because you want to have sex with them. Now if the sexual or physical interest is so strong that you can't hardly see nothing else as the interest there, then you should discourage that marriage. Whether it's short or long. But if it's going to be long and the brother is not coming out for the next 14 years you should strongly advise them against it. It's better the brother even commit fornication, send him a woman in their occasionally, keep him from going crazy or to keep him away from homosexuals. That will be less sinful, than having them married ane the brother is in jail all the time and the sister is out and something happens and then all of them are messed up and we messed up too.
Speaker 4:
So can you speak some more on what caused the division between Malcolm and The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
IWDM:
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us to rejoice in the detriment of white people. But he also cautioned his Ministers to be careful of what they say in the public regarding the assassination.
Be careful what you say. Say "If you are asked any questions by the media, don't make any statement." He told them not to make any statement. That was very difficult for Malcolm because that was his expertise, debating and throwing stones at the media people, that was it.
And answering them and being quick witted, to respond to any question. So it was like his nature, it was first nature for him that the media asked him something, his first impulse was to reply to them, you know with a witty reply. So that's what he did. A case of chickens coming home to roost. If I was him once I said I said that i would have said, "Well, I slipped up there. I just answered on impulse, really, my leader told us that we have no comment and please forget about what I said please erase that. Now I know they are not going to erase that but at least when I get back to the bossman at least I would have had a defense.
And why would I have done that? Because I am scared of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad? No, because I love my people. I love this religion. I love the future of our community. And I believe Malcolm should have done anything to keep himself around so he could serve the future of our community. That's what I would have done. But people have different makeups. So he did something that was in line with the teachings. What he said was not out of line.
So, he wasn't acting out of line with the teaching. He was acting out of line with the wisdom that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave us medicine that they were supposed to use when they were out in the public and in situations like that. And that did bring about the split. That was the thing that started the real split. But already he was suspected. He was being undermined by the national staff. He was already aware that they wanted to get rid of him even before he made that statement.
But they don't want that. They bring with them their culture. And their culture has given them a kind of master position over their women. And the women are like the servant position, servant to their masters. We don't want that and those that are strongly for that, they're not going to be comfortable with us. And they will find other reasons for rejecting us and for them not wanting to just be one community. They'll say, "Well, you are not practicing the Sunnah and not doing this correct or "You don't understand Islam." Some of their people don't understand Islam. But there with them. I mean but even if it’s true that's no reason for you to reject me if I don't understand Islam. Let me hang out with you. I might understand it a little better.
Maybe I'll understand. But they have other reasons. And one reason is that they don't want you to influence their children. They don't want you to influence their women. They have a little strong clannish like community. And they're the boss and absolute authority over their women. And they don't want to see that change. But they're losing their women. They're losing their women to the American society, their losing children to American society, they are in serious trouble. But still, they insist upon having it their way. Let them have their way.
Speaker 4:
I don't know too much about The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
IWDM:
What? Well, the main thing that we should know is that I believe in his own heart in mind, he believed he was working for the future of Islam. But he used very extreme and radical methods. But at the same I think he confused the idea with the mechanism of Islam. I don't say that this is to be interpreted the way I am interpreting to you it right now.
But I do believe that he would interpret this what I am about to give you from the bible to justify his own actions. The bible says that Jesus Christ said, Prophet Jesus, Peace be Upon him, "I will destroy this temple in three days". The same one that say he's going to build the temple, said he's going to destroy it.
Yeah, so here's Jesus, who came to build the temple. Actually, the temple is himself.
Speaker 4:
My question is this. We find the immigrants often sell pork and alcohol in our communities and yet they say they are Muslim. But I don't agree with it. What should I do?
IWDM:
Well. My experience has taught me that at least two or three considerations that we should just be aware of. One is that sometimes they say Salaam Aleikum. They might even say Allah. But they'll be not Muslims, maybe from Lebanon. and they'll be not Muslims. And Christians say Allah too. The Arabic word for G-d is Allah.
And if they think you are Muslim, you come in their store they don't want to lose you. So they'll say "He thinks I am a Muslim. But as soon as they find out you're a real Muslim, and they realize you don't like what they are doing in that store, they might tell you they are not a Muslim. But in most cases, it is a Muslim.
It is a Muslim and he has been told that he can come over here and make a lot of money. So, he just here to make money. He cares nothing about having any thoughts of doing wrong until you bring it to his attention. A couple of them have actually repented and given up their businesses after some of our members put enough pressure on them to bring it to their conscious. Their places have even been picketed in some areas. Some of them come here and they think that this is the big devil, sinful society. Right? So, they say, "It ain't wrong for me to sell to these animals, these beast, these demons, you know. I'll make my money. It's helping my family, it's helping me. So, I'll sell them whiskey and pork and everything. And smoking now. Smoking, in my opinion, this is a serious thing for a Muslim.
But there's no language back there for us to use. So, we don't have any anything from the Qur’an or from the Sunnah or the teaching of the Prophet that clearly addresses smoking. That is not there. But a study of the early society of the Muslims under the Prophet Muhammad has revealed, not our study this is the study of other Muslims, that the Prophet followers did not smoke. His followers did not smoke. That's the conclusion. They did not smoke. They didn't use tobacco. And I can understand that because here is the rule.
It doesn't address smoking directly, but this is the rule. The Prophet said, " If the harm in a thing outweighs its benefit, then whether there's nothing in the Qur'an addressing it or not it should be forbidden." And the harm in cigarettes greatly outweighs the benefit. So, in my opinion, upon that logic, we should strongly condemn smoking. But since most of us don't know this logic, and don't know how to apply this logic, we should go back to the advice I gave to the brother, though you have a problem with your immigrant Muslim brother still embrace him as a brother even if he's smoking. Don't get too close to him though. Yeah. They say contact can give you cancer even if you in the room with somebody smoking. But say to him "Brother, why don't you put down that cigarette. I sure would like to give you a Muslim embrace."
Speaker 4:
Normally you don't talk a lot like a long time.
IWDM:
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 4:
And you said that spirit was so good at the place that you wanted to say something. And you talked about elephants before Prophet Muhammad this guy was marching on the Ka'aba with his elephants and they didn't attack the Ka'aba. Whenever you compare the Ka'aba as being protected as Muslims in America. How much of that spirit do you see in the Muslim community in America?
IWDM:
Okay. let me make sure I understand you now. The reason why the elephant, Abraha was his name. The one that was leading the elephants. The reason why he turned back was because he saw an innocent place, peaceful place and a custodian that was no challenge. Hasham was the custodian at the time I beleive. He didn't say," I'm going to get an army and I'm going to fight you". No. He said, "I can't defend this place. " I'm going to let G-d defend this place.
So that's what he said. So, I think Abraha turned back because even though he was a brute maybe, but even a brute doesn't like to blow his own cool. So, here's a strong man. I make myself look ridiculous if I go up and attack this small place. There's nothing here. This old man, he didn't want to fight. Now, Abraha said, Allah will protect it, I can't protect it. But how did Allah protect it? Allah protected it through that wise old man. He didn't talk ugly. He didn't get the man angry. He just told him you a warrior. I can't resist you. Allah has to protect His own house.
Now I was talking about more than that. I was talking, I was saying that Allah, Allah has put His favor on us. Allah has put His favor on us. We are now precious and important to Allah like that place is over there. And is going give us the protection too like He gave that place over there. I'm not worried about it.
Speaker 4:
I saw the picture in the obituary of the man you say was Fard Muhammad.
IWDM:
Oh Muhammad Abdullah. I know the picture you are talking about.
Speaker 4:
Yeah. I would just want to know. You said he gave you signs through conversation, nothing ever direct, that he was Fard. Do you believe it was?
IWDM:
Yes.
Speaker 4:
There is, you know from time to time we hear Minister Farrakhan speak. And when he woud speak, as he would speak, when he would address the Muslim Community, the immigrant Muslim Community, he would give the Shahadatain. But when he would address the African American Muslim Community, he would say that Fard Muhammad was god.
The Raabita, Secretary General of Raabita, Muslim World League They arranged for Farrakhan to come to Saudi Arabia. Farrakhan gave them reasons to believe that he wanted to do the same thing with his following I had done, which was to bring his community in line with the belief of Muslims. They arranged to have a luncheon in the States, with him being present. Farrakhan had agreed to address that luncheon. Farrakhan, he got up and started attacking Arabs. He started attacking them something terrible. Everything he said was the truth. After he got it all out, he told them that he believed that there is no G-d but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger. So, everyone started hugging him and embracing him. Then we heard about a month later that he told an American audience that there was no G-d but god came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad.
Speaker 5:
Along those lines, I had went to one of their meetings because they have been recently recognized in the Missouri Department of Corrections. And I have been trying to get information on them as to what they believe. And according to them they are teaching that we are the enemy and we are hypocrites. Some of the prisons are trying to have all of these groups fast and break fast all at the same time and its creating a big problem.
IWDM:
All right, that is a big problem. But I don't have a solution. But I have what I think is the beginning of solution. And Farrakhan, Minister Farrakahan, he is not misinformed. He is not ignorant. But I would try to do is ask for a meeting with him himself, or someone that he would appoint to represent him to talk with you and tell them what the problem is. And I think if we try to work it out with their leaders, the leadership, then that would be the best way to do it. And The Moorish Science Temple also have their leaders. Try to find their responsible leaders or leaders would accept responsibility for the situation there and meet with leaders leaders come together and see if you can resolve the problem.
Speaker 5:
As Salaam Alaikum. I remember last year when you were in New York speaking about us working with The Nation Of Islam to see if we could possibly work with them in business life and building community life.
IWDM:
We're actually what I was doing was putting out a feeler to see what type of reaction I would get. And uh, I have been looking at the water and it looks like nothing hit the water. But I am still willing to do that if Farrakhan would agree not to hurt the image of Muslims. I would welcome and really work hard to bring our two communities together to advance the economic program of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And do it in a way that would be a sure success now. We don't have to make the mistakes that we made in the past.
Speaker 5:
I have been in the community for about 20 years and I remember when my father used to bring home the Muhammad Speaks newspaper.
IWDM:
Was its power over the following and the material benefits that you can get if you rose up in the leadership. So, here's popularity and wealth. And those two influences have bought men bigger than Farrakhan down. And that's why he can't give it up because that's where his attachment is.
Speaker 6:
What strategy might we be able to use in order to bring the communities together? Often times we fragmented, and not together and split off and going in all kinds of directions. You know, what kind of strategy could we implement?
IWDM:
The strategy for the masjid should beginning with a program should be by making education a stronger tool for success in the life of the believer and the life of the Muslim community. Education. We should look at what we're teaching our children, we should look at what we are teaching ourselves, and see if we can improve it and make it more effective. The trend today in education is to question education, question methods, question principles, values, everything, to question everything in the light of what is demanded of education in this present world. The present world. I'm not saying that, by this language, the way it's used by our President about it by the Western powers. But the present world is a one world situation. We're living now, in a global community, that's more one place than it is different places. So it's requiring that we not only include in our local program, education, for our local environment, but we also have to have education now for the world environment.
So, we should be teaching our children and our curriculum should have more information on the global community in it. And it should be done in a very positive way, where we are trying to build peace, we want to build peace in this world. We want to build respect in this world between man and man, race and race, nation and nation. If we have that kind of education, we're going to prepare our future generation from much more success in the public and in the outer world. That's what I think should be the beginning. That should be the beginning. To look at what we're saying. Environmental Education, that's a term that we ought to chalk right now, if we can't keep it up here.
Environmental Learning Environmental Education. The home is an Environmental Learning place. We have to improve a strategy to make it a healthy Environmental Learning place that will prepare children to be accepted. Isn't that what The Nation of Islam said? This prepares you to be accepted in the best civilized society. Yes, how to act at home and abroad. Yes, well really the influence, the thought would have been with us ever since The Honorable Elijah Muhammad' days. But we now have to see it in it's reality today. And then still stand upon that. We have to train our people to be accepted in the best Circles of Society on the Earth.
And making sure that home environment that learning environment at home, is the kind that's going to produce people who have opportunities and friends out here and the best society and the best society among the best people. And then we also want to understand the local learning environment. That's the neighborhood, that's the town. There's a learning environment there. And there are many problems in this learning environment. So, we should be making our children and our families aware of that. So we don't have a lot of things bombarding us and penetrating our interior and messing up and destroying our interior so we won't be effective in the public out here.
So, we have to have a defense against bad learning environments. And we have to have a program that will secure for us a sanctuary. That should be our home. Where these influences don't come. We keep them out our home, we keep them out our Mosques, we keep them out our school. We can't keep them out the streets, we can't keep them out the public. So, we have to prepare our people to defend themselves to survive against those influences in the public. But at the same time, make more important, the great civilization we have outside our homes. There's the wilderness there, the savage the kingdom of the beasts outside our home. But more important and stronger is the kingdom of the civilized man outside our home. So, we want to be a part of the civilized man's world, don't we? So, we can have a future and a place in the civilized man's world. So, this one I think should be the beginning. Yes.
Speaker 5:
My question is that there's so many divorces amongst African Americans Muslims that because it's so important that the family structures become stronger and so that our youth don't encounter the same problems that the older Muslims have encountered in a relationship. What are some of the words of wisdom you can offer us for us to have stronger relationships?
IWDM:
Well, I've been married five times. And I can't save anybody because I have been married five times. I don't know what type of help I can give you. All I can say is that their is one thing that Allah allows but He hates and that's divorce. So, their is one thing that we should not want and that is divorce. We should do everything we can to save our marriage.
Speaker 7:
What's the best way to go about learning Qur'anic Arabic?
IWDM:
I advise that you get yourself a good tape recorder and some tapes and study like that. Also, try to carry it with you everywhere you go. The more you hear the Arabic the easier it will be for you to learn it.
But if we put into an Arabic speaking environment, we will not understand anything. Keep saying it over and over and over and over and over and over and usually when you start doing that after awhile you start picking it up. So, the best way is to be put into a foreign language environment. We can't do that so the best way is to get a tape and just listen to it over and over again.
Speaker 7:
Brother Imam, what can I do to encourage my child’s mother more to want to get married? I am a young man with desires, but I would rather exercise them in a lawful way and at the same time put protection over myself by being married.
IWDM:
You know I wish this community would be able to afford to support our young people so that they can get married and continue on with their education, etc. So, I will say to you that if you have someone that you really love and care about and that you are ready to settle down with, be more encouraging in terms of convincing that person how important it is that you two be married.



