09/02/1996
IWDM Study Library
The State of The Muslim Address - Islamic Convention Pt 2

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Do not deal with it. And the few that did deal with it, they either suspected that something was wrong. And because they suspected that something was wrong, they survived or they did go to the nut house. In an attempt to get African-Americans to think rationally---now listen very carefully---in an attempt to get African-Americans or “Black people”, as you call yourselves, to think rationally while studying religion, or thinking about religion or religious language, religious, terminology. Mr. Fard told his followers, "The unknown does not exist". That is what he said. “The unknown does not exist’.
He said, "We have searched for that unknown G’d." He used a term mystery. We have search for that mystery G’d for trillions and trillions of years”. That is mind-boggling right there. Trillions and trillions of years. Where in the hell is that history. Trillions and trillions of years. Then we have come to the conclusion that we have been unable to find him. We have come to the conclusion that there is no mystery G’d. That the only G’d is the Son of man. That is what he said.
Now, is that Islam? Mr. W. Fard quietly placed, within our view, within our eyes, within our view, mental view to attractions such as pantheism. Many of you have never recognized the flavor of pantheism in the teachings of Fard. He said that Allah is in the heavens and in the earth but not unseen. That He is the all and all. That is pantheism. That is pantheism saying that all material reality is G’d. Pantheism, that everything in the realm of reality taken together; taken all together is G’d.
Fard also put in our way the attraction of materialism. Materialism---a kind of Marxist materialism---by telling us that if it is not material it does not exist; if it is not material it does not exist. He also introduced to us the attraction of socialism. I do not know if you Imams have found that. He said, "What is social?" He asks the question and answers himself. He said, "What is social?" He says, "Social is to advocate a society of men, or a group of men for one common cause. Equality is to be equal in everything."
Now, the question addresses socialism but he adds equality. Equality means to be equal in everything. Now, how are you going to be equal in everything? If I was described the genius of Fard, in one statement, I would say, "His genius was giving people the impossible and getting them to believe the impossible is more real than the possible." That man was powerful---a powerful doctor of the Psyche.
Now, he also put as an attraction for us the worship of G’d in man or man-G’d. Now, we know that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us that mister Fard was G’d---G’d in the person, the son of his father who was G’d. That G’d had passed down from father to son. We know he told us that, but when you study Mr. Fard’s teachings, you see that Mr. Fard he casted himself as the Son of Man---the son of man but he points to the black man as “the man”. The man, the man, the original man, the true G’d.
And it is the black man that even gave birth to Fard, the “Son of man”. Here is the language: "He said his father was black man. 100% black man, by the name of Alphonso." it sounds like a joke to you now. If you were back then you were to say, "Yes. I know it is the truth." Then his mother was a white woman, by the name of Baby G. Now you know that sounds good to uneducated blacks “Baby G”. "Baby G, yes, our savior’s mother was named baby G." 
Yes, she was 100% white woman. "Yes, Praise be to Allah!" "Every white person is a devil." "Yes, Praise be to Allah!" And never see the conflict; never see the contradiction---so attracted. The magnetism is so strong on your thoughts, in your mind that you cannot speak. You cannot see anything that makes you differ with your teacher. Impossible for you to differ with your teacher.
You know what does that? Hypnotism. If you have heard about hypnotism--let me tell you something about hypnotism; if the hypnotist gets a willing subject, a hypnotist can hypnotize a person and tell him to bite this microphone it is chocolate candy. He will bite that microphone and break out his teeth and keep doing it until the hypnotist stops it. This is fact. Hypnotists can take a man or woman or anybody here that will have submit to be the subject that he can hypnotize; hypnotize them, tell them put your arm out there. He can take fire put under it and say “That is cool. Is that not cool? Yes.” Yes, because he has complete control of their mind. That is what Fard did. He designed something to give him complete control of our mind, if we bought it. You see a hypnotist cannot hypnotize you until you agree to it. Now, I am not saying he was Satan but the same thing to say about Satan. Allah teaches us with His holy book the Qur’aan that Satan cannot-- Satan does not have power over you accept what you give to Satan. You have to be willing. That is what it means. If you are not really, he, Satan cannot control you. 
Now, why did Fard put these attractions in our way? Because he knew the time and he was afraid of what could happen. Already, there were intellectual blacks, a few of them, turning to communism, to Marxism. He was afraid that his following may be taken over by a Marxist.
Because he had gathered people who did not care for America, who did not care for the white man; he gathered those people who are fed up with America and felt that "We do not have any hope here. They will never do anything just by us." Those were the people he would gather. The same people now that he would get it could be attractive to Marxist. Marxist will say, "No. These people are already that do not have any faith in America. Let us go among them and make convert."
Fard suspecting that, he put something in there to make you feel, "What are you telling us?" When they come and tell us about socialism, they would say "No we do not want it." We have got freedom justice and equality. Islam is freedom justice and equality. They say, "Do you know anything about socialism?"
“Social means to advocate a society of men, a group of men for one common cause and equality means to be equal in everything---you had better join the nation of Islam.” 
You take an uneducated man and make him think he is the wisest man on earth nobody can teach him. That is the fact, you take a dummy and make him think he is the wisest person on earth, and nobody can tell him anything until the hypnotic spell is broken. 
I want to point out, I pointed out one powerful positive because he is experimenting with positives and negatives, right? I pointed out a lot of negatives but I pointed one powerful positive. He said the Qur’aan is the right book not the Bible, Qur’aan is the holy book, the Bible is a poison book.
Now I am going to point you to a second positive, a powerful one. by telling us that we were once Muslims and we descended, we came from Muslim ancestors and that we were once the best of the Muslims, he told us. By him telling us that and Honorable Elijah Mohammad being still that is why he picked the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, because the Honorable Elijah Mohammed was a renegade, a rebel in Christianity, but a person that believed that the Bible was right but had to be read in a different way. He picked the Honorable Elijah Mohammed and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was able, he knew his father preached that Bible, he knew it, he did not have to set it in no school, his father preached it in the church at night and day and at the dinner table. So the Honorable Elijah Muhammad knew all the stories. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad giving us the Bible story “…and that is you.”
“Do not look at these people; do not look at the white race that is not talking about them, that is talking about you. You are the ones that are in bondage.” (IWDM imitating the speaking style of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad)
“You are the one that is long overdue for a deliverer.”
“Yes sir, I know it is the truth.” And if anybody say I am making fun, you are wrong, you are dead wrong. Because of the way we were sensitized and the kind of language environment that we were put in to sensitize us and put status to a rhythm of obedience, because of that we came to firmly believe, we believed---most of us believe before we became Muslims by that name or in that condition of Honorable Elijah Mohammad, most of us believe that G’d should have an interest in us as a people, most of us believe that if there's any real G’d existing that G’d should come to our rescue, most of us believe that.
Most of us believe that G’d did not carry us through all this hell and damnation and torment and aggravation, vexation of our souls and demeaning of our human worth, we believed that G’d did not do all that without a purpose. We believed that G’d had a cause and He was preparing us for a cause, we believed that our life in America was for a purpose; our suffering was for a purpose, G’d was fashioning us, influencing us and shaping us to serve His cause, divine cause. If we did not think it consciously or dwell on it in your mind that feeling was in our hearts and in our souls, so when the Honorable Elijah Muhammad came and said that “you are his people that He has chosen you to make a nation”, we believed it and we began to identify with the divine cause.
Let me use Jonah the prophet, upon him be peace, to explain to you how I see this, how I see our suffering and yet believe that we have been chosen for a divine cause, to serve divine cause, to be a people serving divine cause. Jonah in both the Qur’aan and in Bible, the stories are pretty much the same, the report in both books are pretty much the same. Jonah was a man who had a destiny with G’d, he had an appointment with G’d. But for some reason he forgot it, he became negligent, he became absent-minded or something and he finds himself on a boat out at sea and the boat gets into trouble, storm comes up.
The boat is a commercial boat, it is carrying cargo, it is the boat of businessmen who are out there to make money, that is why they are at sea, they are at sea to carry goods to ports making money, bring goods back from port, they got there to make money. Jonah he is on this boat, he does not belong to those people, they find him down in the hull of the boat, and they call it the belly of the boat. They find him down there asleep; he is down there lying on the cargo, lying up on their money, asleep. So when it is reported to the masters of the ship, they say, "Go down and get him up, maybe he is the jinx, maybe he is the ho-do on this trip of ours. Go down and bring him up."
When they brought him up they did not ask him any question and he did not say anything, they just threw him right over the boat out there in the raging water, threw him off their boat into the raging water. As the story goes, along comes a big fish and swallows him up. While he is in the belly of the big fish he remembers that he was supposed to be doing something that he was given an assignment. He starts to feel bad because he did not do his assignment and gets his repentant posture within himself brought G’d to come to his rescue. G’d made this big fish aware that he had swallowed something very strange, big fish was not conscious until G’d made the big fish conscious. When G’d made the big fish conscious, the big fish said, "What the hell is this strange thing that I have swallowed? It is the most distasteful in my stomach.”
So he headed for the shore, he did not even want that distasteful thing in the water where he lived or swims, he headed for the shore and when he got to the shore, he spit it out, spit Jonah out on the shore. You may not accept this application of this story but I am going to give it to you. The white rich world of America they find you who got a destiny with G’d laying up sleeping comfortably on their wealth, they say, "What is this?"
They economy gets into trouble. Waters that support their economy is raging. "Hey, look at that---they have spooked the journey, throw them off." They threw us out of slavery. "Go on you all. You can have forty acres and a mule, but you are getting off this boat." And was it not the slave economy that was supporting our existence? The whole existence of our people in slavery was supported by slave economy? "Okay, let us throw them off this boat," threw you off the boat and here come the big church in the name of the Lord, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Now they are burning black churches. Big fish came, swallowed you up, but a few of us remembered that we had further to go than the belly of the whale.
We have a destiny; we have got a divine destiny. The Church rejected us, the Church rejected us and then Fard came and said, "They do not want you? Nobody wants you but me. I am your only Savior, but right now I want you to study your situation on the sand, study sand out there on the sea shores. Put Jonah about on the sand, on the bank of the sea shore. Study sand until you discover what I want you to find.” Sand not bearing any life that it is sand. Standing up out there so pitiful and meaning well now and ready to serve G’d really wanting to serve G’d now, you want to answer that call. G’d have mercy on him, it was G’d's plan to grow up on gourd and shade his head out there on the sand. 
Sand means the absence of culture, the absence of civilized society you are away from it. The absence of knowledge, you are away from it out there on the sand, but having good intentions and now wanting to be right with G’d; G’d had mercy and caused some life to come out of the sand. A gourd plant, so it is given in the Qur’aan, comes up, a vine wraps itself around and shades your head---a bit of mercy. In the story Jonah said, "I have got a three-day journey," he meant, "I cannot stay in this situation," I have got a three-day journey meaning the urge inside the human being will never be satisfied until the human being has a comfortable environment and a comfortable state to live in, something that he feels good about. You cannot feel good about that kind of existence and that is how we have been moved from bad situation to another situation, from a bad situation to a better situation or trying to move to a better situation because something inside us tells us that we do not yet have a comfortable situation for ourselves.
Now, we in America, the law has been changed from two laws to one law for all citizens, we are not fearing that the Klan will march on us or drag us out of our houses at night or something, that is gone. We live in a changed America, greatly changed, but too many of us are still feeling hopeless we still feel like we are oppressed. We still feel like we are being dominated and that we are not in charge of our own circumstances, that the white man controls our circumstances. Too many of us still feel that way and that is why Minister Farrakhan---a man that I really I like him, and he is tough, he is hypnotic no doubt about it, can hold an audience spellbound. But that is why he is able to continue to give that same message that I have grown out of.
He is able to give that same message to so many of our young African-American men, youth because their fathers cannot tell them anything. Their fathers cannot direct them, cannot give any guidance whether it is in the church or not their fathers and the mothers cannot direct them cannot give them any guidance. No guidance that that they can accept. If they tell them, "Go to school" that is not enough. If they say “Go to school and you will be able to get you a good job, that is not enough. If they tell them, "Get a good job and work and save your money," that is not enough for most of those youngsters out there today because a good job that brings them money quick is a bad job, it is an illegal job, selling drugs et cetera. So they cannot reach them and they are those youngsters are cannot be reached by their mothers and fathers by the family and by the church leaders the black church leaders, they cannot be reached and they are feeling hopeless inside. They are feeling like, "I am supposed to have better than this on this earth, something needs to be done about this situation.”
Farrakhan comes and condemns the whole system the whole establishment and they listen. They come under the hypnotic spell. We should not condemn them, we should sympathize with them and understand them and pray to Allah that we who do not need that anymore, we feel free in our souls we do not feel oppressed, we feel that we can take our own circumstances into our own hands, we should pray to Allah that he bless us more to become more learned Muslims and more qualified Muslims so we can have a stronger and more rational and more convincing argument, but also a better material presence, a better material existence to convince Farrakhan and those who follow him that they do have hope in America, there is hope in America.
My study, my study of Islam, my study of the Qur’aan and the leadership of the perfect human being that G’d has given us completing his human nature and makeup Muhammad the Prophet tells me that G’d created every human being for a great station of honor, great station of honor. Now most of us won't qualify not separately or individually, but G’d has made it so that among us will always be leaders that excel and these leaders can lead us to that great situation, to that ideal situation that Allah want for our lives.
We can all together to share in it and identify with it and feel that we in some way made a contribution toward it we made it possible by supporting our leaders or supporting the idea. Therefore we all can come into good establishments. Allah created us for good establishment and he wants us to come into good establishments and until our souls find ourselves in good establishments, we are going to feel denied, cheated, somewhat oppressed. But when we are convinced in our rational mind that we are on the road towards the good establishment---if we are convinced that there is no more oppression in the soul, no more hopelessness; freedom, jubilation, enthusiasm positive posture, confident work, yes. I thank Allah, I and a big number of you- we have made it because of G’d's forgiveness in his mercy to us.
Allahu Akbar. We are moving forward, we are not Jonah in the boat anymore sleeping. We are not Jonah on the sandy seashore anymore trying to pretend a little gourd plant is really a whole world. No, we are not in that situation. We are moving forward. We are moving forward without human resources and with our small material resources. Before, it was just mainly the emphasis on our human resources. Let your humanity, let your best human nature rise up and kiss the Qur’aan, rise up and kiss Muhammad, rise up and embrace Islam and be happy.
We preached that for about 20 years. Yes. But now we are saying, as Allah says, "Struggle in the path of G’d with both your human resources and your material resources." That is what G’d say to us in the Qur’aan. Now, we are at that point when we can invite all of you to make this mighty jihad---this mighty struggle---with our human souls and its resources, intellect and everything, and with our material possessions, no matter how small they are. Let us bring our material possessions and our human possessions into the path of G’d to make progress in the path of G’d, both spiritual progress and material progress. That is my invitation to you that I have been giving now for about a year so or more, maybe two years or more. And you are responding.
We are not giving up on help from outside, assistance, financial assistance from the outside; we are not giving up on that. But we are not making that our main concern. We are making our own resources, and our own industry, and our own nature. G’d have made man industrious, He has given him industry in his own nature, your soul is your industry. G’d want us to be industrious people and we are relying upon our own industrious nature to bring us material results.
We are going to seek business in a big way---not in a small way. We are going to seek business in a big way. We are not going to the bottom to get to the top; we are going to the top to bring up the bottom. With our numbers, we do not have to start on the bottom.
Long ago, leaders even before the black nationalists, there were African Americans, or Africans in America, who were telling their people that we can lift our own selves up materially. All we have to do is support each other, cooperate with each other.
Along comes the honorable Elijah Muhammad and he makes a lot of progress calling us to self-help, to accept to help yourselves, cooperate with each other, combine your efforts and your resources. He said, "Pool, pool your money." He made a real big showing for us, and we made a real big showing for that belief, for that idea. We did. We impressed a lot of people. We never were an empire though, do not believe that hood-wrinkling bull---$4 million in the bank, how is that an empire?
You can hardly buy a decent debt with that kind of money, but we were told by-- not by us, the honorable Elijah Muhammad, he never told us that we were an empire. It was the white man, the devilish, deceitful white man in his press trying to get us to think, "Oh, look how big you became in America." The white man uses some powerful psychology. Notice I said the devilish, deceitful white man, not all of them, that few among them that are really wicked.
Look what they did to the American Indian? Came over here and made the American Indian think that they had nations too. White man come over here and just take everything away from them, their land and everything and put them under the trees in tents, camping on the river and stuff, and tell them, "You are the Sioux Nation. You are the See-Oux Nation”
That calling them nation went to their heads, "I represent the Sioux Nation." Called their leaders honorable, "Honorable Marcus Garvey, honorable Elijah Muhammad, honorable the leader of the Nation of Islam." Then, when he died, “the man that built an empire” thinking an empire, that is a whole lot of money.
Bill Cosby and his money- that his money makes without him looking at him, had more than the whole Nation of Islam had when honorable Elijah Muhammad died. Bill Cosby, one man, one African American man. Not to mention his wife's money too. They say he is going to make, I think, $40 million in one year, his new assignment, his new show for CBS. $40 million? You could not find $40 million nowhere when the honorable Elijah Muhammad passed. He is going to make that in one year.
Do not let your enemy capture your mind and manipulate your mind to his advantage. Never look at yourself through the eyes of your enemy. Never look and estimate yourself as your enemy estimates you. If he says “you are great people”, do not listen to him look at yourself to see if it is true. "Oh, your leader accomplished this, these riches, he built an empire." Do not be influenced by it; do not be duped by him. Study what your leader did and see if that is an empire. But we believed it. We were so hypnotized that we actually believed it, reading the papers Chicago Tribune, New York Times, "The Nation of Islam organized-- Muhammad built an empire."
Rockefeller, he built an empire. Yes, Mr. Rockefeller. Did you all tour the Rockefeller Center, with a squared-eyed visit. That man was something else. That man had so much money he just bought an island. "Come to the island, people on it. How much is this island?" "I do not know, we do not know." "Get a price. Figure the price." "Okay. This is my island now." Rockefeller did that, and he is just one in a powerful family of Rockefellers, [laughs], one in a powerful family of Rockefellers. That is wealth. Those big, rich Rockefellers, they built an empire, they did have a financial empire.
Now, I think that is awfully wicked of the white press to tell us who follow the honorable Elijah Muhammad that the honorable Elijah Muhammad built an empire. That is to turn us crazily in favor of him or either crazily against him. “That man had all that money, and we have nothing. It is either to make you---if you are still hypnotized, to make you stay in that. “See brother, even the white man recognized our leader- what he was able to do, brother." Let us stop saying we are a nation, we are tribes, a lot of small tribes and we are international. If you want to really become part of the nation then bring your small tribe and join the one billion Muslims on this earth, then you will be in the nation, you'll be in the nation of Islam, you'll be in the Ummah of al-Islam, in the community of al-Islam that is the national community of Al-Islam. 
In concluding this and lastly I want to have a few words with you on our economic plan, but in concluding, this I am going back and say something to you about the mother ship.
What is the interpretation of this mother ship? The interpretation of this mother ship is the world order that Fard created, he made us believe that we belong to our own world, he gave us our own language, the outside world could not buy our language or understand it. He created a world for us and our world is like a mother ship, it is out of touch with this world, it is suspended above this world and we really feel we are above this world. And on that world we do not eat, we do not drink, we do not defecate, we do not urinate. No activity whatsoever but still we are existing, no life activity but we existed, even managing to steer the ship, but every now and then we realize we need something downstairs or something in the real world to survive so we throw out a tube and we drop that tube down in the atmosphere of the real world so we can keep breathing, but as soon as we got that breath to just keep our life we draw the tube back into the ship and we say we do not need anything from this devil's world.
That ship is also a ship that is timed to go war, it is going to go to war one day, but for the time being it is restricted to stay out of touch with this world, this life, this atmosphere it is restricted, but one day is going to come down into this world's atmosphere. When it does, it is going to be at war, it is going to send out 1,500 bombing plane, yes 1,500; 1,500 bombing planes with three bombs carried by each plane and with a drill on each bomb that automatically starts drilling soon as it strikes the earth. It drills takes the bomb into the earth a mile deep, time not to explode until it gets one mile deep then it is going to explode and throw up the ground of earth one mile high, it is going to make one mile high mountain. Each plane carrying three bombs, each bomb with a drills. That is some complicated very, very complicated abstract reasoning.
I am almost in a situation where it is impossible for me to satisfy your understanding completely, so I am just going to give you the general idea of general picture. Once we break the spell with Fard, and we come down here with our rational minds open and start dealing in this world, or come in touch with its atmosphere you will breath---first breath the child takes, his mind is alert mind becomes conscious. It means---it is symbolic, it is language that you have to understand and has to be interpreted. You come down in this atmosphere now you are going to have to breathe its atmosphere, when you breathe earth's atmosphere you are going to become conscious and the spell is going to be broken, Fard will not be holding you anymore. Now you are thinking independently on your own.
If you start thinking independently on your own after breaking the spell with Fard, you are going to make hell in trouble for the right man. The Zebras did it, the Five-percenters did it, and they made hell because they started thinking on their own. They started dropping bomb, growing up little hills a mile high, then the last thing that will happened to the shortage a shortage is going to be made in the gravity and set all the atmosphere fire. These crazy black, these extreme black breaking the hypnotic spell with Fard, oh man they set the atmosphere of America on fire, brought the Klan back out.
Extremists on both sides, black and white still haven't stopped, you tell me some of the skin heads are still around, I think so, I do not think they gave up their mission yet they should but I do not think they have.
All of this fire just comes into the atmosphere, anger, rage---that is what it means by fire. In the atmosphere of our minds, in the atmosphere of our thinking there's nothing but rage and violence and fire that is attacking and condemning, burning passions setting the whole environment of a man's mind and thoughts on fire. So much so that now the preacher that has the answer comes with cool water for hot times is looked upon as a traitor. “Oh he is a traitor, he is a turncoat, he is not angry, he is not hating nobody, that is a traitor, that is a turncoat”. So I think Mr. Fard---if we can translate or interpret his abstract reasoning---I think we will see his genius, we will see he is a genius and we will see that he plans something and knew what will follow, a man plans something the mysterious and he puts it into the environment of American people, he know eventually it is going to affect black people and he put it together so he known how it is going to affect black people.
He put it together so he also knows how it is going to affect white people. So he predicts what's going to happen and he predicted it correctly. This man also had a prayer that some of those who accepted him would one day believe that he did have a scheme, but he also had a love and an appreciation for the Qur’aan and he wanted the people who identify or came to him if it was possible to one day be real Muslims. That is his prayer that is the prayer he prays. Because of that it worked, G’d rewards all good and punishes all evil, but he rewards all good. Because of that it worked for a few of us, it brought us to be skeptical, to be suspicious of his language and of what he is saying on the surface, but at the same time to wonder why he wanted us to have the Qur’aan. To wonder why he said it was a perfect book, the holy book, G’d's book, it made us wonder why. We believe that we should not just dismiss this man as a complete wrongdoer, but we should have patience with him maybe he is saying something else under the surface of his language. G’d rest the son of Elijah Mohammed, Wallace D Muhammad to make the interpretation and I am telling you that the scheme has worked, it has worked to set us against the white man, and it has worked to bring us to Islam. Thank you very much. Now let us talk about our economic plan.
Well, I think some of us said, getting an African-American or black man to come to the Nation of Islam, who's well-off in this white man world, is almost impossible. We said that, did not we? Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, "Do not even try to get them, do not go to them. They will never accept. Go to that one that is down in the mud." That is what he told us. If you really understand what I have given you, you should not be angry with me and you should not be angry with Honorable Elijah Muhammad, you should not be angry with Mr. Fard, you should just be thankful to G’d.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wanted to see us with material respect, or we may say material dignity. He wanted to see us feeling good about ourselves materially as well as spiritually. He worked hard from about 1945 or 1946, he worked hard. I know what he did. He did not ask anybody to open a grocery store; he did not ask anybody to become the butcher, he did not ask anybody to run a restaurant. He wanted to show that he could do it so we would have faith. He opened a restaurant himself, he managed it. He opened a grocery store himself, he was the butcher, and he butchered the meat. Had never had any training as a butcher.
He went to the meat supplier and he said, "I have a store and I have people who will patronize the store. I can buy a lot of meat from you. Will you show me how to make the cuts?" The supplier agreed, showed the Honorable Elijah Muhammad how to make the cuts. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that the supplier put the meat chart on the wall and told the Honorable Elijah Muhammad the names of all the meat cuts then put the big carcass of the beef on the cutting block and showed the Honorable Elijah Muhammad how to make all the cuts.
That was a white man doing that, and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad went to a white man. Honorable Elijah Muhammad came back with that chart, put the same chart up in that store. And I saw him myself, as a young boy I saw him myself looking at the chart. He had to go to the chart because he did not know. He looked at that chart so he could make sure he was doing the right thing. He was strong too, a little man, he was a little smaller than I am but he was strong. He said, "Just help me get it on my shoulder." I helped him get that side, cut it in half while it was hanging. We cut it in half.
He would take the half and he would lift it off the hook and drop it on his shoulder. He would go to the block and flip it off onto the block. Then he would look at the chart, and he would start cutting that carcass. When he put his cuts in the window they looked as good as any market you ever would go to. My father, our leader at that time, the powerful little man from Georgia with only three years education, Elijah Muhammad. Yes, I am proud of that man, very, very proud of him. Great, great man. He was a great man but he was not released. He was just suffering along, depressed, ashamed to go home to his wife and children because he did not have any job. It was depression time.
There's another reality of that time that Fard came in that you should remember. It was depression time. The worst economic depression in the history of the United States. It was during that time and Honorable Elijah Muhammad, wife was on welfare, he was so proud he did not even want to come in the house. He did not want to be a part of it. He would be in the streets drinking and my mother said he would be so drunk sometimes she had to carry him on her shoulder up the stairs and flip him over like he was doing that half a carcass. He would fall into the bed and sleep and wake up the next morning.
I got sisters and brothers here they shaking their head. They know, they saw these things. I did not see these things, I was told these things. But they saw some of these things I am telling you. We know that there's a lot of great potential in many of our people who now have given up on life they are roaming the streets or maybe drinking or shooting dope into their veins. That same potential that Fard was able to awaken in the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, we can awake it in the many out there. Just like the Honorable Elijah Muhammad came from nothing and shook the world, we can bring many to come from nothing and we can shake the world.
Shake the world to wake up more and be right. Praise be to Allah. I just had to say that little bit. Now, we give credit to the Nation of Islam, to its men and women and some youngsters like I was a teenager who supported it and sacrificed and believed in its destiny. We give you credit for showing us this particular generation in this time, we give you credit for showing us that we can unite, we can come together and pool our money and pool our resources and we can do big things materially to bring about better material conditions in our life.
We bought a jet for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Yes, you did. I do not say I did. My little part was almost nothing. But you bought a jet for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. You bought a commercial plane for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. You brought thousands of acres of farmland, and good farmland, because you believed in the dream or in the hope, I won't say a dream, Honorable Elijah Muhammad was no dreamer, and the hopes of Honorable Elijah Muhammad. You believed in him. So you were able to do that. I think it is because we were able to do that. I do not see that as a complete fiasco. No, that was not a complete failure, no.
Because that was done, we do have hope. We do have something real to stand on. Say, look, if we were able to get that much material acquisition, thousands of acres of good farmland, a dairy operation, big semis to bring watermelons and things to the city, if we were able to do that and follow a leader that with only three years in elementary school from Sandersville, Georgia, at the time when a high school in Sandersville, Georgia did not rate with a grade school in New York City. If we can follow a man and believe in his great imagination and his great bold vision and believe that we are going to have what that center page had in it of the Muhammad speaks: Planes and roadways made by us and farmland producing our needs and stores selling these goods, supplying our community with these goods. If we had enough faith in him in that old temple of Islam and Nation of Islam Lost-Found of Islam to do that big thing, what can we do now that our rational mind can be comfortable? Our rational mind could not even become awake and question or try to understand what was happening. Now we are in the true rational faith, Islam, the real Islam and our minds, our rational minds are free.
We are at a time we do not have to fear that this country is going to shoot us down, pick us off like little ducks or something in the gallery because we are trying to do something different or new. We do not have to have that fear anymore. Some of you may think that but I know we do not. You do not see anybody bothering this meeting. If a security man is out there from the government or police department or the CIA, or the FBI, if he is out there he is jumping in his soul he is he is applauding us. We are in a great time and we have achieved a great thing. We are really fortunate, most fortunate. I believe we are the most fortunate African-Americans to ever live on this Planet Earth. I will go further than that. I believe we are the most fortunate blacks. We are the most fortunate Africans to ever be on this earth; even more fortunate than those who were running Timbuktu and Mali and all that, much more fortunate than they were.
I am inspired by my faith, in Allah in the Qur’aan and in Muhammad our prophet. I am inspired by my faith and in the knowledge that G’d has given us by way of revelation. I am inspired by my faith in all that to tell you that I am prepared and anxious, eager, can hardly wait to serve you as your leader not your leader for just rituals, not your leader to just a spiritual community. I am ready to serve you as your leader to material establishment---material establishment.
G’d did not give us a spirit without a material casing for it and that same merciful G’d will not give us a good Muslim spirit without giving us a physical environment for it. We are going to have our physical body to go along with this good Islamic spirit, Muslim spirit. We are going to have not just businesses. We are not in this for just businesses. We are in this for communities. We believe, we who have accepted this plan, we believe that this plan is going to carry us all the way from investors, to business operators, to developers, neighborhood planners, city builders. Our goal in the road is to one day say, "We built this city." And to name that city Islamabad or whatever we want to call it and name the whole business district New Africa.
Look how we have started this great work. We have gotten people together who trust each other, on trust. That is what we are going on, trust; trusting each other. I trust my brother he trusts me, I trust my sister she trusts me. A sister gave me $10,000 to invest in this. $10,000. I said, "Wow." A little later a brother gave me $10,000. Another brother gave me $10,000. Two brothers got together and gave me $20,000. Another brother said, "Brother Imam, I trust this brother, we are partners in business, I trust him so much just put it in his name we will handle it from there." Now that is trust in each other, isn't it?
I know my wife was not asking me for any money when I met her and I brought my little children into her house. I took over the responsibility there. The only thing she pays is for her phone. If I did not have experience with women talking on the phone I would be paying for her phone bills too.
I want you to know I is not no pimp. I am paying those bills. I took over the mortgage and she have not had a notice yet. Allahu Akbar. I is not neglecting the ones I had before. They are not married yet. They are still living on their own. They still have needs I am sharing my money with them too.
Praise be to Allah. I am doing all that as a follower of Muhammad. His excellence is what inspired me to try to be better and better all the time. I really got a surprise. Well, I understand it but I am still a bit surprised. My wife, before I met her, I knew of her when I was a resident imam. She was a young girl, really. I doubt if she is more than 19, 20 years old. I saw her in the congregation. I had a wife, but that nature was in me.
When she came out with her fiancée and said she wanted me to marry them, I had relief and pain at the same time.
I was the one who officiated. I officiated at the ceremony. Something happened and she lost her husband, a man that I admire, I greatly respect. He was a hard-working businessman. But he got killed by the insanity in this society. Just an insane man desperate for money walks up and shoot him as he is coming out the currency exchange, takes what he has then goes there and killed her husband. I did not know of that until I got on my desk a check for $1,000 to the M-A-C-A Fund. The ministry used to be called that. I said, "Who is this sister?" I did not know her by name, I knew by looks. One of the brothers working with us said, "That is sister so and so and so. Her husband got killed" uh-oh.
"Is she married? Did she remarry?" "No, she is not, no." Uh-oh.
Here go that powerful rationalism in men. This sister must be a good Muslim because she sent $1,000.
[laughter]
That is the proof that she is a special sister, special Muslim sister. [laughs] Does she have any children? Yes she does. They need a father, that rationalism is working, isn’t it? They need a father. She got her own home too. That is enough.
I am a special kind of lover. If I see another sister that I really care about I start praying on how I am going to get another job to make enough money to take care of her. I am not going to treat any of them bad, no indeed. That is not in my nature, and not in my understanding as a man and a Muslim man. No, I cannot accept to treat them wrong. I am going to find out how to get another job that can make enough money to take care her. Now I do not have to think about that, at least not for right now because she is in a house. The big thing is to put her in an apartment or a house that big. She got her own house. I go in there and I am sneaking up on the information. "This is a nice house. Do you manage all this? I bet that the mortgage is terrific."
"No, the mortgage is set." Ummm…
[Laughter]
To make a long story short, we got married. We got married. We finally got married. I would visit her. Very respectful sister. Get too late, "Go home, Brother Imam." You have got to respect a sister like that, "You look tired and sleepy, Brother Imam. I know you are but go home. It is time for you to go home." I thank Allah for her. That sister, Sister Bina, as I was getting ready to come out here to White Plain, she said, "I have got something to give you." She said, "The business," she said, "I want to invest in it, $10,000." $10,000, in fact the money is still with her because I have not had time to go take it to the bank. It is still with her I have not had time to go to the bank on our way here. So the money is still with her. An official bank check, what we require, for $10,000.
That is unless you are paying less, if you are paying less a money order's okay too. But no certified checks. You can certify a personal check and the bank may do something funny. Official check, money order, it is got to be equivalent to cash. Now how does this work so well? Many of you were not at the banquet last night. If you do not mind, it won't take me too long; I want to explain to you. How does it work so well? Tomorrow's a holiday too, right?
You got my permission to sleep for the rest of the night and even part of the day. Join us for the picnic and we'll be happy. I cannot sleep. Soon as I leave here I am going to get into me some activities. If it is not the carnival it is going to be chewing on something good. It is going to be something. I love the market. It gives me a good feeling to spend my dollars with the Muslims. So if you are a Muslim, take advantage of this opportunity to spend your dollar with Muslims. There is nobody cheating you here. You are getting your dollars' worth. We are selling a watch I have got one on right now here. We are selling this watch in different styles, about five or six different styles. The one with a metal band for ladies for $24.95 a special convention price.
You take this watch to any jeweler, take the watch to any watch dealer and ask them did you get a good buy, if they are not liars or somebody that wants to turn you off from the person that you bought from so you come to them, if they are straight, and most of them will be I do believe, they will tell you that you got an excellent deal. This watch is stainless steel back, water resistance, quartz, keeps perfect time, if they start losing time go and replace the battery, get the same kind of battery that is in it, that is all of this battery now, you do not wind nothing anymore and all that stuff. That is all. This is an excellent watch, very good watch. It looks good. You might see it from there, that watch looks good. I get compliments.
I was in the bank, a lady that comes to the same bank---African-American bank---I am proud to say that too. My money is in African-American bank. A good bank too in Chicago, the Seaway Bank in Chicago. If you ever move there I am plugging for them, Seaway National Bank in Chicago. I was wearing it and I happened to look at it like that. Lady came up she said, "Mr. Mohammed," she knew me. She said, "Mr. Mohammed, I heard that you were selling some things is it jewelry or watches?" I said, "Yes." Because I brought some watches in from Saudi Arabia, a lot of them. A lot of good watches. They are probably on sale right here, some of them, right now. Let me tell you, Westair is one of them and the price you get that watch for, it is a gift. How can I do it? I got it that way.
That is right. I got it for $11 overseas. The only thing I do is pay duty, the little duty I had to pay on each watch. I brought a lot of watches in with my money. With $300 I came back here with 30 watches, then I add it to it and some more I ended up with suitcase full of watches. You think I'd cut my brothers out of that? No, they get the watches they got for same thing I gave. I say, "If you sell them, here, just give me what I paid for it. Give me what I had to pay for these watches."
Good brothers now, that is not for everybody. Good brothers work around me. One of the security brother, Wali Kareem, he will tell you. Wali Kareem is somewhere here on security. We are making money right now on all the watches at this convention. [laughs] Praise be to Allah, and we are happy to be with each other. Doing business with each other is even making us closer. It is bringing us closer together. We were close before, but doing businesses with each other is making us even closer. This watch here that I have on cost us about $10. Maybe all cost, just putting in every possible cost, it cannot go higher, I do not think, than $11. It is not going to go higher than $11, I do not think.
In fact I can feel pretty safe to tell you it won't go higher than $10, the cost to us. But the factory cost to us is about close to $9, isn't that wonderful? Our powerful negotiator, Brother Talib Abdullah who works in the facility in Houston, Texas, Islamic Institute there and that big business service facility, he got on the phone called this company. I was going to do it but I heard that he is good so I said I am going to let him do it. He calls this company, American Watch Company. I know there is not nobody there but Americans, Christians. Who is the owner? Used to be Christians but now a Muslim from overseas living here is the owner of the American Watch Company.
You know that is Allah. You know that is Allah that sent us there. So he is talking to this Muslim, this Muslim got his prices set, been in those catalogs and brochures for I do not know how long, $11 something, $12 something, $14 something. He said, "Brother Imam, we got them down. The average price we are going to pay for the watch now is a little under $12." I said, "What? Okay, that is very good." Calls me up a few days later, says, "Brother Imam, it is come down under $9." That is our negotiator, the chief executive officer of the Houston facility down there, Talib Abdullah. Praise be to Allah, we thank Allah for him and for all the good things that are happening.
We are able to buy the watches. The ministry did not have the money. The ministry gives in charity and it has heavy responsibilities and I am one of them. The ministry did not have the money; we did not have that kind of money. How will they ever have that kind of money? Only in November at the end of the year we try to manage the charities in a way to have something to give to the school and we do. We give big amounts to the schools, considering what we get.
We give big amounts to schools and real productive workers in the community, our best leaders. We give to them at the end of the year. Inshallah at the end of this year we will again. Although I did not see how it was coming but now I see it coming. We are going to be able to do it again this year in November, at the end of November. Close the year out and give the moneys out.
We will be able to sell these watches, the ministry that is, because we had moneys that we could use. Our CPC investors some of them do not want products, so we have two situations for the members or the investors Talib Abdullah has explained it so I am not going into that. He will talk to you later too if you want him to. My cousin, from Detroit, who gave me the first investment of $10,000, of those big figures $10,000, I told her, she said, "I got business," she is in business. She said, "I cannot be bothered with the business part of it. Can you just use it and give me a cash return on my investment?"
I say, "Yes I can do that, providing you are willing---since I am going to take all the responsibility and do the work or get somebody to do the work---are you willing to give me 50% of the profit?" She quickly said, "Yes, sure, that is fine." She was happy. That is one $10,000 that I can touch. Here would another brother. He has $10,000 too. He says, "Brother Imam, I have got my real estate business. Handle it as you see fit. I know you. We trust you, Brother Imam." That is what he told me. I like that, and I think I deserve it. He said, "We trust you Brother Imam."
Here's another $10,000 I can touch. That is now $20,000 I can touch. A sister writes, and I took I do not know how long to reply to that sister, because I am busy, but I was going to get around to it. I finally got around to replying to her. She had a phone number on the letter so I was able to call her in the Chicago area. I called her. She said, "I heard about the program, Brother Imam, and I got $10,000 in the bank. I was thinking about it would be better used if I would invest it in that. Could you give me more information?" I said, "Gladly." I gave her more information and I told her to wait until I follow up with some paperwork so she can see it on paper.
She calls me up before I sent her the paper two days later she calls me up and she telling me, "Brother Imam, you'll have the check tomorrow." Next day I have the check. That is $30,000. When we found out that it would cost us something like $17,000 for those watches, I had money I could go to and felt-- I was careful now---I asked the facility because also they have corporate attorney in their group. They have everything. They have what we need. I called them and I said, "Will you check it out and make sure that I am safe to use this money?" They checked it and said yes, no problem.
I took the money out of the account. They requisitioned for the money, they withdraw, I put on a withdrawal, the member's name whose money we are using and then went and got duplicates, we have duplicates of all the checks, I have only got duplicates of this withdrawal and put it into the accounts record of that person. It is there showing that we used their money, so much of their money for this purchase, and called them up and talked to them personally. Believe me, if you invest I will call you personally. Yes, I will call you and talk to you on the phone and we'll work out whatever we have to work out.
I called and told them I said, "Look, this is not like buying an item from the manufacturer yourself, you are loaning or lending money to us, the ministry, to make a purchase." I say, "Would you be satisfied if I assure you that you will get 20% return on your money that we use?" Right away, "Yes." See, these are business people, they know what is happening out there in the market. They know they cannot get that kind of guarantee.
So they say, "Yes." I say, "Wait a minute that is not all to it. Of that 20% that you get, would you be willing, because my position is that whatever I make as a result of this program made possible because we are Muslims in this association, I am going to give 10% of mine to the ministry. At least 5% I am requesting from everybody else---at least 5%." "Yes, no problem, happily, yes."
They are going to get 15% return, two of them; we used two of their moneys. We are going to give them 20% return and take 5% out for the ministry. They will get 15% on close to $9,000 or $8,000 and something that they made available to us to make the purchase. They get 15%. after these watches are sold, in fact maybe before that we'll be able to pay them. Their account is going to grow by 15% and we have only had their money a little less than one month, one month. I know US bonds, I know CDs---can you get that kind of money that quick?
No, you cannot. Now let me tell you what's even better than that. That is why they got their money there. These are little goodies they are getting but the big thing will come when we buy directly from the factory. What we know we are going to be able to sell and make 100%, 50%, 100%, 200%, 300% profit on. We know we are going to do this.
When we buy directly from the manufacturer and we sell the product, or you sell it yourself, you say, I'd rather you sell it really because it ties us down to be selling everything. Although it is a good partnership. It is real good. I have to tell you this too now. Since I took in those first two or three it has changed from two-thirds to me and one-third to you, if I am going to sell your products, two-thirds to me---one-third to you. You are only putting your money in like putting it in a bank. You are not doing nothing, but waiting on me to give you some money.
So I think it is fair because I am going to have to hire somebody to do much work now. I am going to have to hire somebody to help me with this thing, so it is two-thirds. It will never change now. I is not going to change that. I am a man that is spooky when it comes to threes.
I was born in 1933 and I am telling you all big things have happen to me in mostly threes, I am a number three when it comes to threes. Two-thirds is going to be it because already that has registered in my superstitious nature that it should be two threes for me and one three for you.
If you do not see the good results of me spending my money if you do not see, say, "He got two-thirds of that profit." If you do not see me spending it and then you is not proud of the way I am spending it, come back and I'll give you all your money back. If you invest $2,000, that is the minimum. Once you invest that $2,000 amount even if you take that $2,000 out tomorrow to make a purchase with that is you do not have anything in there now. You are zero. You are still a member. You are still a member. All you have to do is invest $2,000 again. You do not have to come back and register again. You are still a member. Even if your money does not come back in there real quick, if we get some good news we will share it with you. You are a member, a full member.
The $2,000 when you get your goods, we promise you at least $3,000 in goods, at least. That is the minimum. But we expect most often, most of time, to give you for your $2,000 investment the value, the cash value of $4,000 to $6,000. That is what we are expecting. Abdullah, he will explain to you who are registered to be members, he will explain to you the idea, he will explain it to you very thoroughly so you will see how it works in its all details so you can feel very comfortable with it. I have given you a general idea of how it works. We do not want anybody's stolen money. We do not want anybody's money made unlawfully on drugs or anything unlawful. We do not want your money.
If we find out you gave us that kind of money we will seek a way to punish you. I am not joking, this is no joke. We will seek a way to punish you. Do not bring us stolen money, do not bring us money to wash---drug, money---do not bring it to us because if we learn it we are going to be angrier with you than the law. We are going to be more serious about punishing you than the law.
We want it for believers. This is for believers. This is for Muslim believers. This is for the upright people. This is for those that want righteousness even if they do not have it. A lot of us do not have it, but we want it. That is good enough for me. You do not have to be righteous, but if you sincerely want righteousness I embrace as you are my brother and sister. Now, do not hurt us. Do not do something to hurt us or you have to pay for it. We have this plan so that money can be made and the cost is going to be kept down at a minimum. There is nobody going to be splurging. Nobody is going to be buying no fancy cars on this money, all right?
We'll have to hire somebody but I am asking for mostly volunteers. For the benefit of being a member I am asking those who can give us professional service to volunteer a lot of their professional service because they are going to make money and they have agreed to it. There's not going to be any big cost. We are going to keep the cost down at a very small minimum. The cost is going to be not the issue. I said at the banquet when I say here this can grow big real fast. If it grows big real fast then it is going to tax us more to do it. We are going to have to spend out more money for services that we are going to need.
Do not think we are going to spend some of this money for services if it gets real big. But you will be happy. You won't mind, when you are making $20,000 a year, then letting your money be invested and they are accepting too much risk use that part of the risk, you and your partner, but not too much risk. At the end of the year you are looking at $20,000. You are not going to mind if we say give us $2,000 to help us pay for these expenses, for the office that is serving us in Houston or wherever.
I do not want to hide anything from you. I want you to be aware of everything. But believe me as long as we are investing this small amount of money I am donating my services. I will never charge you for contacts that I make, never. I am going to try to get as many free trips abroad as I possibly can. I am going to say, "Do you want to meet Imam W. Deen Muhammad's community? I'll come and present it to you. Can you make it this time, this flight? Can you route me around here?" So I hit two or three countries and see what they got.
[Laughter]
Do some business. I am going to be trying to plan my travel and arrange my travel so that we make more money for this community because we are not doing it for ourselves. For me, I would go back and weld. I am a welder by trade. I thank Allah that this country made it possible for me to go six, eight weeks in a welding school and I became a very good welder.
I can take care of my family if I have to, I am sorry, I got something. I cannot take you all then. I have to work around the clock. They are paying welders real good too but I would not be able to sleep. I have to work 24 hours, three shifts to take care of these three wives that I have married. I say that I have married before for some reason this American black woman she will say, "I do not mind polygamy." After she accepts you, after she accepts, after a while she starts trying to tempt you to throw one out so there will only be one left.
[Laughter]
I am convinced polygamy does not work in America. It is too difficult. I am satisfied with monogamy, and three wives, two I cannot touch.
If both of them was here they'll tell you, "He is treating us good." I got a check a couple weeks ago. I say this one, I have nothing left. All the money-- [laughs] Excuse me. All of it is gone. I have nothing left out of my big check.
I had to go to my partner now that I am used to buying him, I'll treat him to a meal because I have got more money than he got. I see you got a big family man. He paying for this meal. I see you got his money.
[laughter]
He surprised me. He said, "What do you need, Brother Imam?" I said, "That is a lot." I told him. "No problem, Brother Imam. Say you need it right now I go to the bank right now." He gave me the money. That is a brother. That is love. That is what we want in this community for all of us. He trusts me. He knows I am going to give him his money back. I paid him already and that was less than two weeks ago. I paid him already and I hope I will never have to go to him again.
Thank you very much. We have given you an idea of what this business plan looks like and what the down the road aim is. Down the road we hope to bring new life to our neighborhoods, business life that we are responsible for. I can see masjids, mosques, schools built by us. Masjids and mosque and schools, recreational centers, social centers, business plazas, streets paved by our people, our entrepreneurs. Yes, paved by us. Signs saying “Kenya Avenue”, “Timbuktu Boulevard”, “El Haq community”. Yes I can see it. “Bilal’s Business District”, “Omar’s business district”, “Omar's Bank---Omar ibn Khatab Bank” raydi Allah anhu I can see it, yes, I can see it. All in an area called New Africa. Sign up saying, you are now entering New Africa. Reduce your speed.
Thank you very much
As salaam alaykum again, you do not have to sit down. Let us keep the spirit of Islam. Let us pray to Allah to increase our faith in Al Islam and to make us better Muslims. Forgive us our sins, our mistakes, our shortcomings, our ignorance, forgive us, show us mercy. And ask Allah to give us the benefit of His guidance in the Qur’aan and in the life of Mohammed, the Prophet; to give it to us and to make it open to us always. Amen.

