1987-September-25

Muslim Journal

New Medina: Part 3

Imam W. Deen Muhammad


(Editor's note: This is an excerpt from Imam W. Deen Muhammad's address in New Medina, Mississippi.)

As long as we keep our movement in a movement for what God has established, our movement has a great future. I am using movement very generally, very loosely now. What I mean is your collective effort, your community effort, your effort to have a new city, a new start in America, a new start since slavery, a new start since Africa. That is what we want, we want a new start, a new start since Africa, a new start since slavery, a new start since the Emancipation Proclamation, a new start since integration, a new start since equal opportunity. We want a new start.

That is to say, that our souls tell us, that we have not yet begun to establish our life in a way that would satisfy the soul. Whatever we did in Africa must not have been enough, the yearning and the hunger is still here in our soul. Whatever we did after we were freed in the country as slaves, in free America. It is as free for blacks now as it is for anybody else. Believe it or not, you are just not as aggressive, you are just not as daring, you are just not as imaginative as some other people. So, you think it is worse for you than it is for others. All you have to do, is sharpen your senses a little bit and get a little bigger appetite for things of real value. You will see you are in no worse situation now when it comes to being free, than the white man, yellow man, red man. I do not care what color you are. In fact, I think we are the better situated because of our experiences. So dear people, we have to understand that when we have the right vision, everything is made better for every situation. I mean every proper situation.

New Medina is an excellent situation, it is a proper situation. Our lives would be made much better if we have clear vision, as to where our life should be going as God intended. As Allah intended when we have the right vision of the model, universal model of man in his functional excellence, in his functional excellence on this earth. When you have the right clear vision of that as established in the life of Muhammad the Prophet then we will be in a better situation no matter what the task is we are taking up. It can be New Medina, it can be Halal products which is a little smaller than New Medina. We should understand, that the Halal project is smaller than New Medina. 

New Medina will have to have Halal. It is not New Medina without Halal. New Medina will have to have much more than that. It will have to follow the foot steps of Muhammad the Prophet (PBUH). It will have to establish first, a Mosque a Masjid. And then make that Masjid the hub, the nucleus, the first hub, the nucleus of life, the nucleus of life, an institution serving as a nucleus of life for the whole community of New Medina. It must do more than excite our spiritual life, it must excite also our intellectual life. I mean the Masjid. The Masjid that they will build here. They will build it IN-SHA-ALLAH soon. It must excite, it must have programs and functions to excite, not only the spirit but also the intellect, not only the intellect, but also the social ambitions. 

Not only the social ambitions, the political ambitions, but also the industrial ambitions of the people. A city is a whole life. A city is a focus upon the whole life of man. In a city you see everything come together, agricultural interest, industrial interest, medicine, religion, art, everything comes together in the city. It is a focus upon the whole life of man, upon the whole full range of activities that God made possible for man. So, if we are going to have a New Medina it must be as near as possible, an obedient copy of all of Medina, of Medina proper. This place, as we know, can be New Medina.


New Medina Means New City

New Medina simply means, new city. It can be a new city for Muslims, especially for African Americans who have not had a new city ever before. We tried it, but we did not make it. Have you heard of Soul City? And there is a city near me in Chicago, Robbins, Illinois, a little, small community. But, they have not satisfied our hopes. These efforts, these attempts have not come near to satisfying our hopes. They have not come near to dignifying us as a people. In fact, Soul City is a complete failure, it is gone. We have to understand that this, epic here says to us, and to all of you who came to witness it and' to all people who will witness it, that we want a community life. We want a physical environment that will allow us to live up to the Muslim excellence, as an individual, as a family and as a community, as a political unit that will speak well of us as followers of Muhammad the Prophet who established the best, the perfect society in Medina.

God has ordained that the rule, the desire for excellence should be executed in every matter. The Prophet says: if you slaughter the animal, do it with the object of meeting the qualification of excellence. Do it properly, have your knives sharpen, do not to cause unnecessary pain to the animal and the cut will be nice, the meat will be nicely cut. Strive for excellence in everything you do. The destiny of man is to reach the excellence, the possibility for excellence that God created him with. And that should be the motivating force for, this epic here in Hattisburg, Mississippi. Muslims should be motivated by this effort they should be motivated to move closer and closer to the excellence that God has put into us. 

The excellent possibilities that God has created us with. We should not be sloppy at anything we do here. We should not plant sloppy. We should not harvest in a sloppy way. We should not build a Masjid in a sloppy way. We should not establish a school in a sloppy way. We should not do anything in any haphazard, sloppy way. We should do everything with skill and with art seeking to demonstrate the excellence, the best that God has created us with. Following Allah, His message, the Qur'an, the word of God and His messenger Muhammad living up to the aim of Muslim. 

The aim of Muslim is to demonstrate the excellence that God has created us for. And the best of that excellence is to have Taqwa. Is to know always that you are accountable to your Lord and Creator. Fear him and obey him and behave according to what he has established for us in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah of the Prophet. And then you will have automatically excellent behavior, excellent conduct, excellent life. And then with a purpose, with a vision, strive in every field that you are in. In every interest that you take up. Strive for excellence, strive for excellence, strive to reach the potential of human excellence that God created us with. THANK YOU. 

AS-SALAAM-ALAKIUM.

