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IWDM Study Library
Night Conversation with IWDM

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

So, he was among sinners. So, G-d told him what? To come away from that. Come away from that. Go where people still have moral concerns. So, G-d is not going to help those who are morally insensitive. He didn't have nothing working for him at all but faith. He didn't have anything working for him. He wouldn't have had a whole life for long. Some people like that. Some people are just like that. "You talking about G-d. I don’t know what you're talking about. Ain't no G-d helping me." Faith makes you rational. One supports the other. Faith support your mind becoming rational, and the more rational your mind becomes still holding and rooted and faith, the rational puts it in a position to increase your faith.

It's like walking on these two legs. One is faith, the other one is logic, reason. You need one to advance the other. And when the other is advanced, then it gives support to the other one to make it come up more. That's the way moral life and rational life work. That's the way faith and understanding work. You step out on faith. When you do that, you put yourself in position to advance your moral life. You put yourself in a position to use your intelligence better ,use your rational, to be more rational, be more reasonable, more understanding, et cetera. So, the two advance each other. And the Bible put it this way. Said the great one, he put one foot on land and the other along the water. He measured everything.

He was able to take the measurements of things. I'm not sure, I'm not sure, but I would think Revelations more so than Proverbs. I believe it's Revelations, probably Revelations or some other part of the Bible. So how should we understand the sight of both feet walking on top of the water? Being able to stand upon the water is trust, faith in G-d but also trust period. It means the person is of a disposition to trust, not to doubt. And people are different. Some people have a disposition to doubt more than trust, right? And there are others that would have a disposition to trust more than doubt. And that's the kind that can stand on the water. And Peter, he couldn't stand on the water.
Speaker 1:
So, when the Qur'an says that Allah establishes His throne upon the water, is that related to that?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. Yeah. For faith and faith itself. But later in the Qur'an, it says that His throne extends over the heaven and the earth. Which makes it universal. Man, society, rising in knowledge and in progress, science et cetera. Community progress. It's a sign of how the community is advanced or progressing. His throne will stretch over the water. So, mankind started in faith. That's where he started, in faith. If it wasn't nothing but in faith that the fertility god would bless him next planting time. Yes sir, that's faith. So, it starts in faith and the church people, the leaders, whether it's church people or the Christians, but I think it addresses mostly Christians who put so much on faith, who put so much value on faith as a factor, consequence. Faith. I think it's addressing them as Jesus addresses them when he goes out to the water to call the fishermen away from the water to fish, to go pump the land.

So, it's addressing that same condition. That same condition.
Speaker 1:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Where people, leaders under G-d are looking for spiritual people and calling them to spirituality. Just stand on the water, on the waterfront.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And fishing in the water. Fishing in the water. On the water. And that they hold back the progress. The story of Jonah is the same thing. Where he starts out it's the reverse. He starts out, well G-d called him first but he doesn't understand G-d's call. He end up resting on a commercial vessel upon the cargo. Which is to say that this is where his interest was. That's where he found his comfort.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
He found his comfort in the material, in the material interest. The guys out there on the water fishing, they're just the reverse. Theirs is in the spiritual.
Speaker 3:
Right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And either extreme keeps you from obeying G-d, keeps you from fulfilling G-d purpose for man. Yes. So yes, you called them to go into land. See now one foot on the water and one foot on the land would be Jonah and those fishermen. One has, he was positioned, supporting himself upon material interest and the others supported themselves upon spiritual interest. So you need two groups to have two feet. Two feet. Yes. So you can have two people. They both be standing on dead ground, can't they? They both be standing up on the water.
Speaker 2:
Some years ago you made a comment. You said that no people could write a document like the Declaration Of Independence without being familiar with the Qur'an. And just recently, the Qur'an that Thomas Jefferson owned was discovered. When that happened, that came to my mind. Imam Mohammed said that years ago about Thomas Jefferson. And inside that Qur'an, you can see his signature on almost every page. And you can also see where he had marked it up so it was obvious that he had been reading it and taking notes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. I never saw the page. But one of our suburban papers, South Suburban Daily, Downtown Daily. It had him taking the oath. Taking the oath but his hand wasn't up. He was taking the oath and the Qur'an was right there. It was open. The Qur'an was open, it was. I saw it but you couldn't see the writing. You couldn't see, it wasn't close enough to see the writing. You couldn't see what was on the page.
Speaker 3:
That might've been the Detroit paper. I believe it was in one of the community local papers, black papers.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Imam WD Mohammed:
They say James, James Madison. James Madison. Yeah. He was another one that had the Holy Qur'an.
Speaker 1:
That is correct. Ben Franklin. He never said he was Christian. He just said he believed in G-d.
Imam WD Mohammed:
That's right.
Speaker 3:
I know close to 30 years ago, the Imam said the Constitution of this country was based in the spirit of the Holy Qur'an.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes. The spirit of Democracy is based in the spirit of the Qur'an.
Speaker 3:
So here we are 30 years later. We are starting to realize your words in practice. I mean being able to see it. We heard that and I believed you, but I just wasn't there yet. And the Imam did say that In 75 we was 25 behind.
Imam WD Mohammed:
When I look to see what motivated me, look back into my life and see what motivated me. It always has been human spirit. Yes, human spirit has motivated me. That's what kept me going. Human spirit.

To want to be more of what I am inside. This is another Bible scripture that can help you all see better. When Moses went to Pharoah to tell Pharaoh what G-d had charged him with, that he actually was charged with coming to him by the permission of G-d and he came for his people. People can't stay with Pharoah any longer. He comes to Pharaoh, tells Pharaoh just that. Pharaoh said, who is this G-d? And Moses told Pharaoh what G-d told him to say. But he asked, he was fearful of facing Pharaoh. So he said, who shoud I tell him sent me? So when he got to Pharaoh, he told him, he said I am that I am sent me.

Now the average preacher who knows, maybe even the Vatican may think that was G-d's speaking, saying I am and referring to G-d I am that I am. No, G-d doesn't tell you who He is, G-d, wants you to discover who He is. He was telling Moses to tell Pharaoh I am that I am sent me. My own best human nature sent me and I am what I will be. My human nature is a developing thing. If it comes through an develop, I will be as I am now that's not seen. That's the argument and that's the spirit that's been in me all my life as far as I can think back. It's the spirit for that real true human essence and values to come free, to manifest itself and stand independently. Freeing the potential that G-d wants to be free and put out in the world to serve the need of human beings. Yep. That's the light herd. That's the true light herd. The monkey is not equal to the human.

If people could see their real value, we wouldn't have to struggle to get them to do things. That appreciation of your own human value makes you do things. You can't be happy without doing things. You're not happy when you're not productive.
Speaker 3:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
So that's the big key. Unlocking the mind so the mind will recognize that the human spirit and the human life is the biggest life G-d created. No other living thing has what we have.
Speaker 4:
Brother Imam, Rahman mentioned something earlier that there's things happening that sometimes we can't explain...
Imam WD Mohammed:
Speak a little louder because my ears are slightly stopped up.
Speaker 4:
Okay. Rahman mentioned earlier that sometime there's things happening that we can't understand or explain. We have a sister that's going to be interviewed by Paul Lagan on CNN on Monday about taking an oath on the Holy Qur'an when we go to court. What advice or do you have an opinion on that? What advice can you give the sister of our community that that's a part of your leadership?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. First let's look at the Bible and the Qur'an. Most Christians take an oath on the Bible and most judges in these courtrooms are Christians, right? So we understand why they take their oath on the Bible. But now if a Jew come there, you think he's going put his hand on the Bible? No, he is going to tell them I take the oath on the Torah. And they going to accept it and they've been accepting it. So they have no problem with the Jews. You have already lived through this difficulty. But now we have to face this difficulty. So my advice is that we don't make an issue that get us stuck in the courts or creates a situation for the news, for the newspapers like that.

Just bring out, you should have the Holy Qur'an there. We shouldn't ask the court, the court is a Christian court. Shouldnt ask them to have a Holy Qur'an available. Stop taxing us. We paying too much in taxes now. So how much is it going to cost to put Holy Qur'ans in all the courts. Who's going to pay for it? Judge ain't going to pay for it. No way. So my advice is when we go to court, take the Holy Qur'an with you Your Honor. This is my Bible. May I swear on this? This is the Muslim Bible, it's respected all around the world by over 1 billion people. One billion or more on this earth respect this book as the word of G-d. May I take my oath on this book? I believe most of them will say yes, won't have any questions. But say you don't have a Qur'an and you in the court. Your Honor, may I swear on my own honor, raise your right hand.

You don't put your hand on the Bible. Now if some courts force you to do that then they out of order. Raise your hand, raise your right hand and your right hand mean your conscious side. Yeah, that's all it means. You're conscious of what you're saying. So I don't think we should make a big deal out it, but I'm glad that a big deal was made out of it. But now that it has been made, we don't have to keep repeating all over the country. Try to have peace, try to keep out of trouble. Try to stay out of a lot of complicated matters.
Speaker 4:
I know during the first experience, a lot of those being sworn into Congress or whatever, a lot of them did just what the Imam said. They didn't use anything.

That's what they told me in court when I was there for my trial.

Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And I guess the court had been informed that I was a Muslim and that I follow my father. I guess they knew that so they didn't do it. They simply told me "Raise your right hand." I raised my right hand. That was all I had to do. Then they put me on the bench. All I had to do was raise my right hand and the judge said so, so and so And I said I do. Yes.

Or I affirm. That's right. I affirm with your right hand ready. Right. So the provision is on there.
Speaker 2:
I have used the Qur'an to swear in on. But the 9-11 thing changed. That changed a whole lot of people.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And I understand that. I can understand that. You ask them "Get my book." That's Taliban ok. You know they got some negro, some black converts, he just look like a Taliban. And it may be true, because some of us just as crazy as we can be. Something get popular, we start dressing like them. They popular for trouble. And we start dressing like them. Poor black man. He has no identity so he just looked for one that's different. "Oh this a different one nobody wore. I haven't see anybody wearing this."
Speaker 5:
Brother Imam, didn't you say somebody came to you one time and said they were Taliban.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Oh yeah. I was in some small town. Might have been Charlotte. I'll tell you i just a second. Rafah, where was that we went with the young boy that came and he spoke with us and we invited him.
Brother Rafah:
Philadelpha. So we spoke out in the open park. And the young boy gave a beautiful talk. So as I was coming out, the people kind of lined up. This guy came out of the line and greeted me. "Mr. Mohammed, I'm a Taliban. I said to myself, Good G-d Almighty. Yeah, very dark-skinned. He wasn't dressed like them but he was clean and looked like he was intelligent. And he stepped out there and just wanted to disturb my peace. "Mr Mohammed, i'm a Taliban." I think I refused to shake his hand. I don't remember shaking it. No I didn't. But he stuck his hand out, wanting to shake my hand. "Mr Mohammed, I'm a Taliban. I wanted to tell him "You a crazy ass."
Speaker 2:
So when it comes to African American Muslims in Philadelphia, they got all kind, they split up different ways.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And it started in Egypt. That's the movement to bring Islam to be over Egypt, even President Abdul Nasser. And you know his time was way back then in the early fifties. Even before that time these people were there. They called themselves the Salafi.
Speaker 2:
Okay that's where it came out of.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. But now these radical movements developing all over the world. Terrorist movements and stuff like that. They take the name from one that they think represents them. The Salafi is against the government of Egypt. Not all government. Just the government of Egypt. That's the original Salafi.

So, we gonna get it man. Oh we gonna get it. If it come around we going to get it. If it's negative. Those that want the negative, they find it. And then, no, you know how I believe it came? That Egyptian that they finally put in jail.
Speaker 2:
The blind Imam?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yes, the blind man. Yeah. See his knowledge, the knowledge of him came over here and I'm sure he's Salafi. Yeah, the blind sheik. I'm sure he's Salafi.
Brother Rafah:
He was operatin out of New Jersey I think or New York one.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Now Salafi in Egypt, I wouldn't call them un-Islamic or radical terrorists. They're not terrorists, they're not terrorists. They're a political group that have not resorted to outright violence in Egypt. But they're responsible for some of these assassinations. But they have not tried to disturb the public order. I've never heard of that. And they're led by a very intelligent, very well-educated Dr. Hiya. You know, you ever heard of Sayid Qutb? Nasser executed him. Well his teaching philosophy has spread even outside of Egypt. Yeah. And he have not to my knowledge, his teachings have not bred insensitive people, morally insensitive people. But one of us get it...
Brother Rafah:
And that's where it changes. Some of them start rolling their pants leg way up because they say that the Prophet made sure that his clothing was never seen dragging the ground.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah, they be doing some weird stuff. Just want to look different.
Speaker 3:
So now you are not practicing the Sunnah if you if you don't roll your pants leg up.
Speaker 4:
You know Sayid Qurb was a very interesting person. I read him but some people say that what he spread was Islamic revolution. I never saw that. I read him and I didn't see that.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Not a violent revolution. He was educated. Yeah he was educated. But his plain, easy to understand, sincere, rational explanation, commentary was gaining followers. And that's what Nasser was afraid of. Nasser was a dictator.
Speaker 4:
What do you think of Anwar Sadat Brother Imam?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Who?
Speaker 4:
Anwar Sadat. Anwar Sadat.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Anwar comes from the word that means light. And Sadat means he's truthful. And I think he just tried to live up to his name to such an extreme that he stopped being rational. I don't think he was very rational. If he was very rational he wouldn't have gone to the extreme which he went to prove to America and Europe that you can trust me. And that's how come the Salafi people killed him. That's it. That's it. He was too soft and too eager to show America, I'm just like you. I'm a guy just like you. We never should go to extremes like that, to win people's favor or win their friendship by trying to prove to them that you mean no harm.
Speaker 4:
Right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
You don't like this image. You see a Muslim. Okay, well I'm just like you, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha. Laugh too much. These people don't know what the hell he's saying. They speak Arabic. But they see him on the news laughing. Laughing with this interviewer, laughing with the leader of our government. Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha. "Hey, this guy's too comfortable with them. He more comfortable with them than he is with us. You got to take him out."
Speaker 2:
They did.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. Don't ask for trouble. That's what I'm saying right now. Don't ask for trouble. Look down the road and see what's going to happen if you keep going that way. See what the road look like ahead for you going that way.
Speaker 2:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And you most likely you'll say, "Oh I better change, I better pull back."
Speaker 1:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. That's the problem I saw in him. You know he met with me, we got picture two of us sitting together. Naturally I loved him because he was a good man. His heart was real. His heart was good. You got to be level headed headed. You just can't be good. You have be level headed. He was never level headed.
Speaker 6:
I have a grandson named Anwar.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Your grandson named Anwar?
Speaker 6:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. It's a beautiful name.
Speaker 6:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Sadat is a beautiful name. So I guess his name was motivating him subconsciously. Anwar mean lights, but it also means beautiful. Aren't lights. beautiful? When you put many lights together, especially when you need light, it makes it beautiful. Beautiful. Many lights seen together. It's beautiful right here. See that. So lights mean also beautiful. And I think that was motivating him without his knowledge. You got to present yourself beautiful. Bright and beautiful and truthful to these Americans. You have to relax them. Egyptians, their history is rooted in mystery and psychology. Mystery and psychology. And they're very shrewd leaders. Very shrewd leaders. They got it from their fathers, ancestors. How to rule and manage people's emotions, feelings. Rule them through their emotions, feelinga and emotions. They mastered that, they made a science of it. So look at Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak. He's a dictator but he's clever enough to keep the public with him. Yeah. How's things going? How are you high priest? How's the order of the high priest, the media doing?

You can't answer my question? Do I have to be worried about him? Do I have to be worried about my public? Well look I know you don't care for Imam Warith Udin Mohammed. You invite him to come over here and speak. And I want the press here and everybody. That's that psychology, a black man who's got a lot to complain about. He's coming here and he likes our President. So our President can't be bad.
Speaker 6:
That's why he gave you that award.
Imam WD Mohammed:
No, that was awarded after I had been there about twice. I had been there about twice at that point. So when they gave me an award that was to say, "You have helped us heal our public. You got to be on retreat.

Public can't be mad now. Hosni Mubarak, he's the friend of Elijah Muhammad's son. He's a friend of a black man from America, black Muslim from America, Warith Udin Mohammed. And the ceremony was to bring more attention to my presence there and my relationship with the President. Because he bestowed that honor, not Al Azhar. That Sheik of Ahzar? Oh man, that guy, he was so uptight And he couldn't look at me hardly. He couldn't look me in the face. He didn't like it at all. I had a brief spirit to tell Hosni Mubarak, "That Sheik of Ahzar. You better watch that guy. I think he's Salafi." Well I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do anything like that. I don't take sides.

Who knows who's right and who's wrong. Who knows who'd be the best for Egypt. Hosni Mubarak or one of the leaders of the Salafi. We don't know that. Only Allah knows. So I saw him once again outside of the country. He tried to make up for his coldness. "Imam Warith Udin Mohammed." I said yes. And then the person he was with said as introduction, "This is the Grand Sheikh of Ahzar." I said yes I do know. I said I saw him in Egypt once. And that was it. He didn't say anymore. He just called my name. He didnt' even say Asalaam Alaikum at all. He said, "Imam Warith Udin Mohammed." I said yes. I guess he was saying I recognize you. He didn't speak to me in Egypt. Didn't say a thing. He gave me ugly little cold shoulder.

Yeah, but that's the world. That's the world. There's another thing I read in the Bible that really helped me. I was young, young minister. I read this in the Bible. David said "Woe is me when everybody just praise me. Woe is me when everybody just praise me." So you don't want everybody praising you. You start questioning what you've been doing. Start questioning say, what have I been doing to get all this praise? Well it's hypocritical. And usually it's those closest to you. Right? They praise you to fool you, to trick you, to weaken you. And destroy you through your ego. Cause if you start eating up that praise, you are going to have a big ego problem. And they know that. Government people do that. Government people, security people, government, CIA and those people. Hey, try this on him. Try that on him. He got a weakness, find it.

They don't believe any human being is without any weakness. All human beings got some moral weakness. You just have to find it. You couldn't put girls on him. Have you tried homosexual? Try one thing and then another until you find his weakness. That's the Satan. Satan comes, come at us the same way. Find some way into your weakness. Find that weakness. Come from behind, come from before him, from the left, from the right, from the behind and from before. Right in front his eyes. And you see that praise coming don't you? That's one of the things that they give you right before your face. You see it. And you start liking it, you're on the way. They'll have you pretty soon. You won't be able to do what you want to do.

You begin to fail at every good thing that you set out to accomplish."Woe is me that verybody should praise me." And we say what? Alhamduillahi, that keeps us conscious. That praise beongs to G-d. You praise me. But the one that I owe, owe whatever you credit to me with, I owe it to G-d. I got about 10 more minutes to stay with you all, you got something you want to say. Entertain me for a while. I'm tired.
Brother Rafah:
Wise man from the East, what you got?
Imam WD Mohammed:
I don't agree with that Mr. Fard says your teacher wants to hear from you at once. Ask questions now about yourself. I don't know a teacher that don't ask for a student to give a composition or write an essay, or express yourself. Sometimes express yourself to hold the whole class right? Say the fast is here brother.
Speaker 3:
How are we doing with the suits? There's some more interest in people buying some more suits. We've heard from some brothers who want to get some more suits too.
Imam WD Mohammed:
They're going slowly. They're going slow. And it's because really we wait for an occasion to really promote the sales. We don't have a staff of people that we hire to stay on the job. They busy trying to promote the sales of food. And we don't think we are in a situation where that would call for us to invest a lot right now in marketing. In fact we don't want to ever invest a lot in marketing. We think we wasting money. But we got the market. The market is our people. And their are enough of us to really have a real strong sales force. And I have a suspicion that I'm going wait on. I know one thing.

When we step out in Chicago under my leadership, direct leadership like in Chicago. my staff. When my staff does a thing or I do something, others take it up, just take it up. It's just automatic. Bila was our only poet, right?
Brother Rafah:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
You remember?
Brother Rafah:
Yes sir. From Chicago.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah the one got a twin brother.
Brother Rafah:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. That Bilal. Yes. But as soon as I got known among the believers for reciting or writing poems, reciting poems. Oh man we had about a thousand popped up within two years.
Brother Rafah:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
We got a lot of good poets too. We got a lot of good ones. Very good. Old. Most of 'em are young but we got some old ones that's very good. Females, male. And when they learned that I wanted to make a showing of business in Chicago area, Atlanta and all thess places started doing business. And they were hiding what they were doing. And the Imam wasn't doing nothing, Plemon.

He was doing nothing but just living off of what those people doing on their own initiative. But when I stepped out then he got to be a voice for the development, economic development. So I know the more we do physically to make a physical presence where I am, the most going to be done in other places. And Allah, He's not going to let us have things without being tried. And He tried us and I think now He's opened a way for us to have these things, big things.

So, we finally got permission to build on a piece of land that they've been holding us up on for several years. They held it, refused to give us permission to build on the land. And I'm going to hold it. They weren't going to take it from us. I was going to hold it because I knew that eventually they kept holding it, I was going to take it to the Supreme Court if I had to. And show what's behind it, what behind it is illegal. So what happened is when they found out that I was that determined, I sent Rafah to him. That's the environmental engineer. So at first their people, we went to the environmental people, engineers south of us. We went to them, met with them. I presented my plan, our plan to them myself and they liked me and they said we want to see this facility built.

So come to find out later, they all signed on there approving it. But when we start to build, the environmental entities, someone from environmental engineers, came and said " No you can't do this. Stop right now. Stop this right now." Finally though, talking to them, using Rafah to communicate for me, I got word from one of the officers who was in charge there. The lady, big lady.
Brother Rafah:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
She said, "Mr. Mohammed, we never intended for you not to have this property. Never intended." So we stayed on it. He stayed on the case until they finally gave us a proposition. They said the way we can settle this is you give $4,000, and we would take $4,000 and we would be responsible for the special species of flowers that they say they have to protect you.

So anyway, we wondered how come nothing is happening. So again I had to tell them to stay on the case. So finally they did reply to me and they said if you come up with $6,000, we'll approve it providing that you do these things, 1, 2, 3, whatever. So we agreed to it and sent the check for $6,000. Nothing happened. Followed up on it. And one of our people go there and they recognize our check, see the check on the desk. Our check that we wrote, on the desk. It had been on that desk I guess four month or more. Nobody even touched it I guess. So the person that I sent, I sent them with another check for $6,000 and told them that that check must be lost. So we'lljust go to the bank to cancel it. But the person saw the check.

So, they brought the check back that they didn't cash and we left the check that we wrote, wrote out again for them. And this time they accepted it and replied back and told us that we were free to build, got the green light. We finally got the green light here to go with the project. So that's where we are now. And we got the developer, he's back tomorrow. He called.
Brother Rafah:
Yes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. He said tomorrow he's going to have the people there working on doing the survey and getting ready to put the pipes in. No Rabani did the drawing, the original drawing. But I think that's been changed somewhat too, hasn't it? It was too elaborate. Rabani was trying to get as much money out of it as possible. And I told him to keep it at around 300,000 or under. And I told him this design. He made it very elaborate so it would kick it up to about a half million, so he would get more out of it. I know that's what happened. But the way it looks now it's really a blessing, it's really a blessing.
Speaker 3:
6,000 square feet?


Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah, 6,000 square feet. So instead of putting a restaurant in there, these suits sell better than food.
Brother Rafah:
Absolutely.
Imam WD Mohammed:
You more out of suits than out of food for that space you got. So we don't have any restaurants. No restaurants and the brother, I think he just getting a little too old.
Brother Rafah:
Yeah I think he's 80 something years old.
Imam WD Mohammed:
So we were saving it for him because he wanted a barber shop. He say he actually wanted to have a barber shop. So the barber shop won't be out there. He wasn't going to pay for the equipment. We were going to pay for the equipment and he was going to pay us. We trust the good brother. He was going to pay us for the equipment and the lease but over a long period of time. So we cut that out and the developer say "Oh that price will be greatly reduced."

He said it's going to be greatly reduced. And then he told us about, I don't know if that's going to work, not dealing with the tax department. But he said really we shouldn't have been paying taxes. So if that's true, we got a lot of tax money coming back. He said if you got nothing but a vacant lot and nothing's on it then you shouldn't be charged all that tax. And he said they're taxing you as though buildings that earned incomes on that land. It is possible that they didn't know that. They didn't know that the land is without any building.
Speaker:
No buildings on the land opposite here. If you have land you don't have anything on it and you a religious group, they would tax you. But once you put something on the land they stop taxes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah but the tax for having this bare land is not as high as tax income property. That's what the developer was saying. He saw our taxes and he said that we shouldn't be paying these taxes. So we'll see. If that's the case. We got a lot of money coming back.
Speaker 4:
They might have been charging you what they charge for commercial. So they charge you a high feet.
Imam WD Mohammed:
No, no this man, this man got land. He got buildings and everything in the same area where we are. And he said they're charging us as though we got income property.
Speaker 4:
Brother Imam, how many shops would there be in there? Would it be one shop or It would be two or three shops?
Imam WD Mohammed:
One open. One open facility. Open all the way from one end to the other. And we're going to put different stores inside there. No separation. Okay. No separation. All going be related items, right? Accessories, suits and accessories. Women's dresses and accessory.
Speaker 4:
That's what the brother got in Raleigh, Durham. He built one shop and you can walk in there and see different departments within one shop.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah well that's what these department stores are. You got Walmart. One open area. But you got dresses, you got everything all over the place. Which going to be similar to that but all supported by those business suits. That's where the money is. Going to be supported by the business suits. And we've got some nice business suits for women too that's coming from Pakistan. And the prices, prices are just beautiful. Just like this business suit. Price is wonderful. Dress a sister up real nice for about less than $50. I mean retail. Retail. You can buy a nice suit and you can go in any office and look nice. Pay no more than about $50 for the business suit.
Brother Rafah:
Brother Imam, remember the dresses we had from Malaysia.
Imam WD Mohammed:
They were very attractive. They were dresses though. Dresses and slacks. But these are actually business suits. If you see a woman dressed up in a suit at her job in the bank, she could wear the suit to her job. Like I said, retail wouldn't be no more than $50. That's that cheap labor that Walmart be getting. That's important. Got a trip coming up to Turkey. I believe we're going to find some real good business there too. But Turkey got what they call it, Favorite state with the United States. And I heard that you don't pay any duty on import from Turkey but Turkey ain't the only country. I don't think you pay any of it. Maybe Thailand, but I know you don't pay on Jordan. You import from Jordan, you import something from Egypt. Several countries. I think Morocco, there's no duty on it.

It might be quotas but no duty. They might have quotas.
Speaker 4:
China got quotas.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I know Pakistan got quotas. Bangladesh got quotas. But there's a way to get around that too. Good. Right. You don't sent it to the The United States. You send it to country where there's no quotas. But then see we are small. They told us in Bangladesh you don't have to worry about the quotas, you ain't gonna order all that much. What you do is buy our excess, because all of them make us produce more than they buy. That's agreement they have to wear. That's what they told them. They produce more than they buy. Sears order so much but don't guarantee them, won't tell them, won't accept that they buy all that they make for Sears. So Sears might say we want, they have so much that they allow that they don't have to purchase and that's, I forget the word and expression for it. Overstock or something like that. They say because we are small, we can buy that and the quotas won't affect us because they got their quota.

So, you'll get what Sears orders.
Speaker 4:
And we get a discount off that
Imam WD Mohammed:
That's right.
Speaker 4:
Cause they would need to move.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Right, exactly. That's right. And you don't have trouble going to the United States because when they see that it was part of an order that Sears requested, Sears already got their quota. They say Sears never take their whole quota.
Speaker 7:
They got a new website out now called Overstock.com and all they sell is overstock, overstock stuff. It's probably the same kind of thing. Everything is overstocked.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Business done made a big business out of it. And then they tell us also that there are marketplaces, market centers. To go to a market center, you don't have any problem at all.
Brother Rafah:
That's sweet.
Imam WD Mohammed:
No quotas, no nothing. So if they have already set up, they've set up everything and they've done their work where their market have nothing, no restraint on it at all. No quotas, no nothing. And you can shop and pay less by shopping at those big centers, market centers then you would if you went directly to China and bough from the Chinese. market.
Speaker 5:
Where in the United States?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Market centers In the world. But I believe in Chicago. You know where the merchandise market would be?
Brother Rafah:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Well it's still there but it's owned by somebody else. I believe it's one of those market centers. And a brother works for them and the brother told us that anytime we want they're ready, people that run that merchandise market say they'll have us shop and look around and anything we want to get it. We should go there.

But in time. I'm thinking of getting accessories. Accessories. We don't need to go all around the world shopping for accessories If we can get some from somebody to give us a good deal naturally we'll buy it. But we can go in Jewtown.
Brother Rafah:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And go to the merchandise market. I believe we'll get prices that'll be cheaper than going overseas. For accessories like socks, shirts and stuff. Maybe suits too. Might be worth it buying some suits from some of those places too.
Brother Rafah:
I know a quality socks can't be beat.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Shoes too.
Brother Rafah:
Yes sir. Absolutely.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Oh it's hard to find shoes.
Brother Rafah:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
That won't hurt your feet.
Brother Rafah:
That's right.

Feel like you walking on glass, glass cutting you.
Imam WD Mohammed:
That's right. Throw your balance off. They ain't used to making shoes for themselves. Most of them go barefoot. Or wear sandals, homemade shoes.
Brother Rafah:
That is the truth.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Stacey Adam. He put that Stacey on he won't want to take them off. This not the best time to be an American citizen. You have to pay a lot to get something. Especially shoes. You get a nice shoe, you got to pay a lot. You all see me in the same shoe a lot. You know that's the one that feels better.

At one time I had about 12 pair of shoes. I had give 'em all way. Now some people you don't have any trouble. You know I think the older you get too.The older you get, the more conscious you are. See this one my better one. But right now right in here, in here I feel like I'm stepping on something like a pencil or something going crosswise.
Brother Rafah:
They look pretty comfortable.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah they are. They are very comfortable in here. But right under here and here I can feel stuff. When I wear them out, I'm going to find out for sure. I'm going to tear it inside out. I really believe that they just took the thinnest thing they could get and put over all that rough work they did. Yeah. And that's what my foot is feeling. That rough work. Rough sticks. Yeah. Yes sir. Put it where everything connected.
Brother Rafah:
Absolutely.
Speaker 3:
You wear insole in your shoes?
Imam WD Mohammed:
Sometimes. Not in these though.

What is that telling us? Equilateral is a plus. If you missing the vertical it's a minus.
Speaker 2:
Theres this joke that says Jewish family was having problem with their son. He was very good and everything except math. And they tried everything so they didn't want to send him to a Christian school but they heard that there was this Catholic school that was really good in teaching math. So they finally sent him there and from after about six weeks he'd been there, he was making straight A's in math and they couldn't figure out why. So they finally got around asking him. They never asked him, they had inquired at the school. So finally asked him one day at dinner and they said, "Well we just want to understand why is it that we tried everything when we sent you to the Christian school, Catholic school you started doing well in math." He said, "Well mom and dad it's real simple." He said, "When I entered that school and I entered the principal's office and I saw that man nailed to the plus sign, he said I knew these people was dead serious about math."
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah the religious people, they got the heaviest grammar that you find anywhere. The religious community, Heavy grammar, heavy grammar. And you think they believe in that like you believe in it. They believe in it stronger than you believe in yours. But it ain't what you believe in. It means different. It means different. There's a translation for the rulers and a translation for the subjects. And scripture, both Bible and Qur'an, points us to a day when the land is going be leveled. That means the rulers ain't going to have no more than you got. To see, to visualize. That the secret is going to all be told and the light is going be shed on everybody. Shine on everybody.

No rising or setting of the sun. That's talking about the strategy, not about the sun we see out there rising setting. The strategy that the rulers have to give the world light, to give 'em darkness. To create a situation where they can be comfortable and rest. Create another one and make them get up and go to work. Yeah. There will come a day there will be no rising or setting of the sun. It's going to be a just world. No rising of setting of the sun. The sun will not rise or set. The light will be on all the time and the leaders are bringing that time in right now. Transparency in the language of the President may not be transparency in the language of these World Peace organizations. When the World Peace organizations use that term transparency, they're speaking Bible, they're speaking prediction, scripture and prophecy. That's what they doing. And they're saying that the time is now for transparency. And they're waiting for this to come in. This is new. It's a very new development and the government and the business world have really taken it from those people, from the religious people. They're the first one to bring it out. It means openness, openness, not having deceit. Its not hiding, not surviving upon strategy. Comforming to what should be normal for human beings living in society with one another.

So that time has arrived. And people working, people working with faith and high hopes. They really believe that this is the end of time for a lot of things that we have been burdened by. Especially common people because of strategies, the world being divided against themselves. Fearing each other. So they got a strategy. Buddhist got a strategy, Christian's got a strategy. The Jews got a strategy, Muslims got a strategy. Everybody got strategy. And then the culture's got strategy. Each culture got its own strategy and now the world's coming together. We becoming one public. We becoming a global public. Can't help it. G-d has brought, created us for us to one day grow and multiply and we meet each other and work out our problems so we can live with each other in peace. And that's what's happening. And the material or the economic factor is the strongest for bringing that about. Global economics. That's what it is now. No more national economics, global economics.

That's require openness and justice. Economic justice. What they got, how they word it now. Free trade. Your product is not locked out of my area, my sphere or activity for business. You can sell to America. America sell to you. That's true. But free trade means free trade. They say free trade depending on how many people you got making your product. So it's free trade. And it favors China right now. China got so many workers. But just like they got laws when you were a national economy, not a global economy, a national economy, they had to enact laws. Right? They just set up laws to keep one powerful segment or organization of business people hedging, from hedging on the market, right? Yeah.

They had laws to break a monopoly, break a monopoly. Level the playing field. A level playing field, level playing field. Exactly. Yeah. Level playing field. So this new global market going have to work for a level playing field too, right? Right. They going come up with something for China. Yeah. China going to have to agree to something that's fair. Because they going prove that's not fair. You got all those workers over there paid so low. That ain't going to last too long. But China will still have an advantage. Even when the field is level. They still have an advantage. Why? Because they got so many working people and they are naturally performing. Their nature requires that. Wheras ours have lost that. American workers, we have lost that. We don't have that drive for family and stuff that they have. It's natural over there. So they still going to be ahead of us. Yeah. They're going to be producing more then we produce. And like they do when they come here. They come here, they satisfied to live on less and work hard. And pretty soon they'll work themselves above you and out of sight. I don't know what's going to happen to us. We gonna knock ourselves. Keep knocking ourselves off like we been doing.
Speaker 1:
How we going to turn it around? I mean that's a serious issue because what we're looking at here, we're talking about our children and our grandchildren and what we're leaving them. I mean we have to leave them something here other than just conversation, other than just what's happening. We got to build some institutions so we can identify our future here.
Imam WD Mohammed:
We got to keep doing what we doing. Keep working hard to advance our lives.
Speaker 1:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Right. And that will turn this thing around for certainty, in time. For us, for our people. Then what about the white man? Poor white man? On the whole, I think they worse off than that poor black man.

You know what disease they caught? Big liar. Big liar. He won't stop lying. These Mexicans gonna outowork all of them. You can pay them less too because they ain't going to ask for much. You can pay them $8.00 an hour. And the African American, you pay him $10. He won't do half the work. What he tell us? He said "I have a Mexican do it, he'll have it up in two, three days." We lost it. Yeah, we lost it. On the whole we lost it. And not only African Americans though. Americans period. That original American, he finished. That's right. These newcomers. They white too. You call him white. But that original American that was in this country, that we were living with all these generations, he's out of it too. In the south they just turned that responsibility over to the black folks. That's who run the show. Yeah. That's who call the shots. It's time for a vacation for us. They been wanting this for a long time. They say you deserve it. We proud of you black boys. But the thing about it though, let us step back, let us go to sleep. Let's go to Florida.
Speaker 1:
But at the end of the day, Brother Imam, at the end of the year we'll find ourselves. We don't have no substance. All we have is a job. And after running this corporation and what have you, then after 10 years come around, they decide to downsize, regroup and remanagement. They find out they don't have anything. It was working for him all these many years and found out there ain't nothing else to receive.
Imam WD Mohammed:
But he had to have a plan.
Speaker 1:
Got have a plan.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah. You had to have a plan. An opportunity come, you have to have a plan. And you have to plan together.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
You have to have people on all levels working together.
Speaker 2:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
From the highest man down to the lowest.
Speaker 2:
Alright now.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Yeah, the Governor, if he becomes black then he should have his people benefiting from his position he's in. And they should be loyal to him. They should be strengthening his position and they should be broadminded enough not to make problems for his office with other white people and Asians and other people. We need everything for this time. And we going do it. It's going to come. And not just for me. I ain't the only one think like this.

You got other African Americans, they know it has to be done. And gradually they're doing it more and more. But the South, they really need to come together. Our people in the S.outh In the interests of the South, not black. In the interest of the South. They need to come together. They need to take the responsibility that the white man has put down. They need to take it up. The white man was the provider for this life down here below the Mason Dixie. Now let us be responsible for it.
Speaker 2:
Right, right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Just can't plan on having success for yourself.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
You live in a context and that context has a system and a law. You got to respect that.
Brother Rafah:
Yes.
Imam WD Mohammed:
You got to work for the whole life, not just for a part of it. And I know you all know that.
Brother Rafah:
Well always good to hear because sometimes...
Imam WD Mohammed:
Good night to you my man.
Brother Rafah:
Yes sir. Alright.



