06/25/2000
IWDM Study Library 
Interview

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam Darnell Karim:
Mohammed and guests of this radio broadcast of WNDZ 750 on your dial. We welcome our honorable audience to this broadcast. And as you know, this broadcast is being brought to you by the Harvey Islamic Center, but it's also sponsored by the faithful, as I call them, audience of business people and professionals who saw fit that the value of the leadership of Imam W. Deen Mohammed be aired and also kept on the air to let the general audience and society know the value of the leadership and the mission and the ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed.
Imam Darnell Karim:
I am honored to have the opportunity to present to you Imam W. Deen Mohammed today, and also to...we've been on the air, as you know, for little over a year now. As we stay uninterrupted and we praise G-d for that because it is you, the people who, as I said before, saw fit that this great broadcast be aired. And G-d willing that we are working on methods right now to see that Imam W. Deen Mohammed is heard more than just the once-a-week program, which we are thankful even for that.
Imam Darnell Karim:
We also like to say to you that we saw fit, and when I speak of we, I'm speaking of the people in general, that this broadcast is about Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Even though we have various guests that come on the station but it's about his accomplishments, about his mission, about the works that he has done with the name of G-d, and that it's about the future plans of Imam W. Deen Mohammed.
Imam Darnell Karim:
We feel that he's an outstanding leader in all aspects of not only the religion, and also even in business and helping the individual people to get their lives together. So, I am honored today to have Imam W. Deen Mohammed in my presence. And I appreciate you Imam, for coming out of your busy schedule. We know that you travel. As we speak now, you might be on the way out of the city again, but I've told the audience many times that we follow an active leader, and we appreciate you for that.
IWDM:
Thank you.
Imam Darnell Karim:
And I wanted to welcome you to, I would say, to your show.
IWDM:
Thank you. Yes. Imam Darnell Karim. As Salaam Alaikum.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Wa alaikum as salaam.
IWDM:
Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem. We are very pleased to know that we have supporters for the W. D. Mohammed's broadcast of concerns under my leadership and the Harvey Center under your leadership. In fact, I consider you the Imam propagating the religion of Islam in Chicago and in the surrounding areas, not just the Harvey Center.
Imam Darnell Karim:
I appreciate you saying that.
IWDM:
Yes, you're doing a very excellent job as I see it and I'm sure that what I'm saying is the thoughts and feelings of most of the Muslims in this area. As you know, W.D.M. Ministry is my office and I work from that office, and I do.
IWDM:
travel out of the city often, sometimes out of the country. But I've been having kind of a break from traveling out of the country which I'm enjoying. I think I'll have to go travel out of the country around the end of this year.
IWDM:
So, I'm having a big break from traveling overseas and I really need that. Travel can take a lot out of you. And the worst part of it I think is just being away from the people you are close to and that's your immediate family. But not only your immediate family, the people that you work with every day and see every day. And you're one of them.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Well, thank you!
IWDM:
Let me know how you want me to proceed here and what concerns you think we should address for this broadcast.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yes, sir. Thank you for that, Imam. I guess you know my feelings and you know me as the person, Darnell. We have been knowing each other since we were kids.
IWDM:
That's true.
Imam Darnell Karim:
I remember you once said, you said that I knew you as...
IWDM:
And went school together.
Imam Darnell Karim:
And went to school together.
IWDM:
Same classroom.
IWDM:
In Arabic. I'm much older than you, but we all started the Arabic lessons about the same time.
Imam Darnell Karim:
That's right.
IWDM:
Yeah. I was older, Leroy, your brother Leroy and I, we're about the same age and I think we were the oldest of the students in the class.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah. And Charles.
IWDM:
Charles that's right. I forgot. Charles's right.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah.
IWDM:
Charles, was our age, my age and Leroy's age. Yeah. That's right. Charles and Leroy were the first graduates. Yeah.
IWDM:
We were the first graduates.
IWDM:
Yeah, from the Muslim school.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah.
IWDM:
The University of Islam High School.
Imam Darnell Karim:
That's right.
IWDM:
Yes.
IWDM:
That's right. And I recall getting that diploma, we were so happy and proud and the ribbons we had it all, and it was very, very beautiful and a great thrill to be the first graduates from high school, from the Muslim school. University of Islam's High School.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Okay. Well Imam, Is the reason why, when you bring up these comments, like this about back then, the times that we were in school and your mother and father were alive and all the pioneers were alive, and the struggles were there. I think about all the way up to today, how Allah has blessed this community since the passing of your father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and here recently we had the celebration of 25 years of your leadership since the passing of your father. So therefore, I would like for you to more or less, it might be a term to say, where do we go from here? We celebrated the 25 years of progress. So, what is the... I would say the immediate thrust that you are carrying the community from after the celebration of the 25 years.
IWDM:
Yes. Our families are our main concern as Muslims. We want our families to be in good condition and to have family life in good condition, it means that you have to have with us and with Christians too. It means that have to have your religion first. Your religion has to be the most important thing in your life. And religion... I don't like to separate business from religion, because there's no way to have business in the United States. Pardon me, sorry. There's no way to have your religion established and the religious services standing for the people who want them without financial support. And our following, though it's changing, it began with some of the poorest African Americans or the poorest blacks in the cities in the 1930s, early thirties. And that continued up to most of the half of the fifties.
IWDM:
And then we saw a little material change come, but still we are a community of poor people. Though we have a few, I would say, well off people financially in the community, not rich. I wouldn't even consider them the rich, to be rich people. I don't think of them as rich people, but they are comfortable. Their salaries may range from 75,000 and up maybe as much as $200,000 a year. The ones I have in mind now. So that's a big change from the thirties and the forties and fifties, even the sixties. During the late sixties, and during the seventies, we started to see African Americans, Muslims in our association who earned larger incomes. The size that I have that I mentioned.
IWDM:
So, we need to work on given the audience and given our following in the audience and in the meetings that we have for worship, that's the Jumu'ah meeting, the Friday service meeting and other meetings, Sunday’s meetings. When we meet with the people, we have to be aware that African Americans and most of the poor people. Most poor people...there's exceptions, there always been an exception, but most of them don't have a good understanding of the value of business, discipline. Handling your money properly and handling it in a way to not to get yourself in financial trouble, et cetera. So, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, you recall, he was trying to sensitize us to respect money and to manage it... better.
IWDM:
I don't think the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was doing something un-Islamic, I think he was doing something Islamic. And we find the many churches that we see in the news now for investments in the community, making investments in the community, taking care of their congregations, insurance, et cetera, these churches, they have something, they have something to stand upon too in the Bible. The Bible and the Qur'an wants believers to know their responsibility in a material world or in a financial world, as well as in a spiritual world. So, to me, this is very important if we are going to be successful with our life, with our religious life, which is more important to us than the material life, much more important to us than the material life. But we have to have responsibility or accept responsibility for creating wealth and managing it.
Imam Darnell Karim:
I see. So, I think that brings it to the next question I have here, in terms of your plans for the future. And I had two things in mind of the business plan, your educational plans. I know that you've spoken at times about the priority is the school.
IWDM:
Yes.
Imam Darnell Karim:
And so that brings to the educational part. Then the other part that I wanted to bring to you is terms of but, I noticed that you had been focused in certain area, like in a South Suburban area period. You seem to be a focusing in that area. Can you address that to us in terms of the business plan and the educational in certain areas, Chicago area?
IWDM:
Yes. Well, there are two reasons. As you know, I'm a Chicagoan. You are too.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah.
IWDM:
But we live in the suburb of Chicago, I don't mind too. I don't mind being separated from the city that I know to be my city, the city of my life. I've lived my whole life in Chicago. Just about... Except for a few years. As long as we have access to the city and its benefits, by the way, Markham, the water is not Markham's water, its Chicago's water, our water comes from Chicago.
Imam Darnell Karim:
That's right.
IWDM:
Yes. It's processed, cleaned and everything by Chicago. So, we are not really... away from Chicago, as long as we're drinking the water from Chicago.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Sure. That makes sense.
IWDM:
Yes. The main reason for us selecting this area is to have more opportunity to develop a nucleus or what we are calling a Model Muslim Community Environment. That's a neighborhood, a nucleus for a neighborhood. It doesn't mean that only Muslims are being this nucleus or be in this neighborhood. We welcome our neighbors, no matter what their religion is, we welcome them to be our neighbors. And we want to show them, in fact, that's part of our spirit. We want to show them that we can be good neighbors and we can be responsible for the governmental establishment there.
IWDM:
We hope to have a nucleus in the community where we will have our own alderman. We will have maybe our own mayor in time. If it grows big enough, we'll have our own mayor. And we want to show that we are responsible Americans, citizens of the United States of America with love and a concern for all of our people. That includes Christians, Jews, whoever, whatever that religion is, Buddhist, whoever, and I just want us to rise up to that challenge, to provide an environment for people and be responsible for it. I think that desire in the soul and the heart and spirit of most African Americans, because slavery took away from us that responsibility.
Imam Darnell Karim:
I see. Well, I think that is very clear, Imam as to your plans for in this area, the South Suburban area, because from studies, it shows that this is not this idea that there's new growth in north and the west or whatever, but statistics show that this is one of the fastest growing areas for productivity, for production, for development is in the South Suburban area. And I understand even from studies, that they have the chamber here in the South Suburban area, and the chamber is supposed be larger than the one in the city of Chicago.
IWDM:
Wow. I didn't know that.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yes. So, it's a lot of development. That's in the south suburban area, that's much larger than the city of Chicago.
IWDM:
Yes. I know there's land, more land available out here and you can select the place or the area that you want to begin developing a small community, a small neighborhood community. You can do that out here where the land in the city has already... Most of the land is already had by somebody, by developers or by mostly land occupied by the residents, families. So, this to me, the outside of the big city is where we should be concentrating on developing on a model of Islamic community life with neighbors, Christians, and whoever.
Imam Darnell Karim:
I see. Well, speaking of a school education, how would you address to people that perhaps their focus might be business? It might be jobs. It might be others, but they seem to set aside studying the religion, just study, educating themselves. Can you address that in terms of the priority?
IWDM:
Yes. Now, when I became a leader, I had a visitor from Egypt, came from the government, but a religious person since from the religious department. And first thing he said to me was, he said, "Well, you know I'm acquainted with your brother, Akbar, Akbar was educated by them, educated at Azhar University, most popular, famous University in the Islamic world by popular opinion in Islamic world." And he said, "I know your brother, Akbar, in fact, I talked to him and we know of you, but we don't know you too well." I said, "Yes, that's true." He said, "If we have a choice, we like to pick the one who is educated." He said, "But if we don't have that choice, we pick the one who's good"
Imam Darnell Karim:
Is that right?
IWDM:
Yeah, that's what he told me. Ibrahim, Dr. Ibrahim.
IWDM:
From Egypt.
IWDM:
So, I'm agreeing with him. Education is number one priority in Islam. Respect for knowledge is part of propagation of Islam. That is important part of preaching Islam, or spreading Islam is to make the people aware of the importance of knowledge and to have them respecting knowledge. G-d says to us in our holy book, and you know Arabic too, some... Arabic, he says, he has tied everything together and has incorporated everything, the whole universe upon knowledge and mercy. And it means that everything has, it's in a context of knowledge and mercy. So, when we... I'm speaking on this, using the mic, this invention of modern science, modern technology, I'm using this mic to carry the voice, using it to carry voice, to the recorder for the broadcast.
IWDM:
But you can study that mic and that mic has its own knowledge. The mic has its own knowledge. When you study the mic, you are studying the knowledge of the mic in the PA system and system, right?
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah.
IWDM:
So that goes for everything. If it's a mosquito, mosquito has mosquito knowledge and science will study the mosquito and give you the science of his life. So, you understand why, how he lives, why he wants blood and how he flies and everything. So, G-d said this to us 1400 years ago, long before modern science and technology. G-d said this to us. He told us that everything through Muhammad the prophet, told all humanity, that everything is contained in a context of science, knowledge and mercy. That's to tell the wise judge that don't just go upon your knowledge, but respect your human heart and know when mercy is to be the rule.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah.
IWDM:
Yeah. So that's for everything. Knowledge and mercy, we find that even death is a mercy. Most people see death as "oh it’s frightening'. They think that, oh I'm going die and my child is going to die. Yes, we all going to die, but G-d has created death too as a mercy. So, knowledge is priority. Number one priority. Education then is our responsibility. And did you know, the first words revealed to the Prophet Muhammad 1400 years ago about was Read. First word of revelation to him. It was Read. Iqra, its Arabic. It’s a Qur'anic term. Iqra, He said to Muhammad, read in the name of your Lord who created "Iqra bismee rabbuka aladhi khalaq!" And you know it all, you know all of that.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah. Well going to another area, thank you for those beautiful comments, Imam. Another area that we have here is about, how do you see the Islamic Centers and their role in society,
IWDM:
The Islamic...
Imam Darnell Karim:
Centers.
IWDM:
The center? Yes.
Imam Darnell Karim:
The center Islamic Centers. We have Mosques. Some is Mosques, some we have health centers.
IWDM:
Yes.
Imam Darnell Karim:
And we are there, but what would you say is the central important of the role of it in the community?
IWDM:
Yes. The term that's used by Arabic speaking persons, teachers, instructors, Imams, professors is Jamiah. That's one of the terms Jamiah. And Jamiah simply means gathering the group. The people who come together collect, come together, Jamiah. You might say congregation, Jamiah. So, Jamiah is a term that is broad enough for us to have everything represented in that term, under that term Jamiah gathering that we want. And that's the place of worship, the schools and social functions, et cetera. We say centers and centers to me means the place that attracts the numbers to come there. So, you end up with Jamiah, still end up with Jamiah. They attract the numbers to come there and center, I love that word center because we know all Muslims are held together by the center called Qibla the Ka'aba in Mecca.
IWDM:
We all direct ourselves in toward that center, our Qibla in prayer five times daily, and we make pilgrimage to that once in lifetime and some of us go yearly, if we can afford it to that place. So center is a good term for us to have in English good term for us to have. And the role of the center should be to build community life. G-d says to us that you are community, you are the best of the communities evolved, or brought out of darkness, ignorance and corruption for the good of all people "antoom khira ummatan ookhrijat li nas" yeah. That's Qur'anic Arabic, which you understand in I'm sure that some in our audience understand that too. Understand that language, the original language of Qur'an, of our holy book, the Qur'an. So, the role should be community life, but we are also a community within a community.
IWDM:
We are a Muslim, a community within the community of American people. So, we are obligated. Then according to the best traditions of the Muslims coming from the best tradition of man, Prophet Muhammad's tradition, Peace be upon him, is to respect your neighbor and to respect those who, that you are living among, who provide the services of government for you. So, we would have to respect this, the United States of America and appreciate all the services that the people authorized the government to give us. And therefore, we have to live and build, live community and build community with respect for what compliments and enhances the beauty and human value of Americans society.
Imam Darnell Karim:
I'm glad that you made that clarity, because the reason why we brought that question was is that sometimes people, we seem to be threatened by each other. Sometimes human beings that they're Christians or the Jews or whatever, that certain people come into an area, and they tend to be threatened by it to say, well, the Muslims this, for example, because we are Muslims, and that we are coming to an area. We want to give those, our neighbors and people, let them know that we are not a threat to them. And that our purpose in here in this area is not to try to convert you to Islam. So can you mention that in terms of that, how we can clarify our neighbors and let them know what we about when we come to the area and they see an Islamic Center, or they'll see a Mosque or whatever.
IWDM:
Yes. I agree with what you said a hundred percent, but I know some people, some persons, Christians and others and especially Muslims, will have a little bit discomfort or uneasiness with what you said, when you said our purpose is not to convert them to Islam. Because many Muslims, mostly Imams from overseas and from here and from America, from the African American Muslims, feel that we are duty bound to invite people to Islam. And when they hear an expression, we are not... Our main purpose is not to convert, they sometimes respond emotionally to what's said without really coming from knowledge. And in the Qur'an, G-d says, that even the Prophet Muhammad does not have the power and authority to make a person a believer, that only G-d can give people faith. We can only invite them. So really Islam is not a religion that I would say highlights conversion as many people think. It's not really a conversion.
IWDM:
And most of the learned people from overseas that I've had occasion to talk to long before I left the Nation of Islam, or the I would say, the idea of G-d in the Nation of Islam. They made a point of saying that you are not converted to Islam, you're just accepting what's your nature. And you are not to use high pressure sales talk to bring a person to Islam. You're supposed to discuss Islam with them and invite them to accept Islam. It's called da'wah as you know, and da'wah is invitation. It's not conversion, it doesn't mean conversion. It means invitation. So we are to give... Muslims are obligated to give people invitation to come and experience and observe Islam, to see if that's what they would like to have.
IWDM:
This is the way we should approach those who are not Muslims. And anyone who shows us by their expressions, by word of mouth or whatever that they do not want us to introduce them to Islam or invite them to Islam, then we would be really violating the spirit of Islam, if we insist upon inviting him.
Imam Darnell Karim:
I see.
IWDM:
Yes. If you're a fisherman, I'm not, but I would love to be a fisherman. If you know a good fishing spot and your neighbor is going out fishing, you would want your neighbor to know about that good fishing spot. Yeah. If you enjoyed a certain delicious meal, you would want share that with your family, but if your think your friends don't know about that dish, you want to share that information with your friends too. Yes. So, we are actually competitors and we have to accept that. Christians have a delicious meal and a beautiful fishing spot. We do too.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Right. That's true. We do. That's exactly...You know, because there was one of the questions, I was going to ask you. And I think you did answer because we... I was at an occasion one time, at a dinner, there was about 1500 people there for a fundraiser, and we had a lot of ministers was on the stage there a Muslim Community on the north side was given a fundraiser. And as they were introducing each speaker, they were using a lot of Arabic terms. Jazakallah, Jazakallah, Jazakallah. You know means may our G-d reward you. Hamdulillah, hamdulillah. So, I was looking at the audience and it seemed to be uncomfortable. What's going on up here on the stage here.
Imam Darnell Karim:
So, when I came up to make my comments, the first thing I said, I clarified, but let them know that we didn't want our Christian brothers and sisters here, that their presence to be uncomfortable. So, I made a little joke of it, saying we're not having any passwords here talking against you or anything. I think these are very Islamic, good terms that we use. And perhaps our brothers might not be conscious of it but it means may G-d reward you and peace be with you or whatever. So, I made it clear as best that I could. But my point with that Imam is this here, we tend to try to introduce Islam to the people in the way that we turn people off.
IWDM:
Yes, that's true.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yes, sir. And I think that when a person comes into our centers or mosque and everything, we shouldn't come right and say, if a woman comes in, make her feel uncomfortable, say before you come to any of our meetings, you have to put on hijab. If you don't put on hijab, you can't come to this. So, we throw that Islamic
IWDM:
Hijab is head covering.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yes, Sir. The head covering. Yes.
IWDM:
And yes.
Imam Darnell Karim:
But the person doesn't... They come in; they want to know. Then here we come with Islamic terms and different things that we are so accustom among ourselves, we throw on the people and they become disenchanted about Islam. Yes.
IWDM:
Yes. The obligation on the speaker who is representing himself as a Muslim or representing Islam, is to make it clear. This is the obligation.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yes.
IWDM:
To make it clear...says, "We have not revealed this religion of this message for a purpose, other than to make it clear that it might be clear and understandable.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yes sir.
IWDM:
Yes, so that's an obligation and if you speak, use too many foreign terms, that's foreign to the audience that they don't understand. You do separate the audience from yourself. The speaker, without knowing it is separating the audience from himself.
Imam Darnell Karim:
I see. The other one brings to mind and really Imam, I have to stress on this more too, that we really appreciate your time.
IWDM:
Well, thank you. I'm grateful.
Imam Darnell Karim:
For this as you. It is a lot of people who they are dedicated listeners, I would say to this and they live by this. We have some, we had a youth, I like to say this here, one youth in Gary, for example, whose life has changed, turned around. The mother called me and told me that she was having problems with her son. And just the one time that we must have had the right subject on that played by you, and it made a difference in that child's life.
IWDM:
Wonderful.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah.
IWDM:
Thank Allah.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah. So, I had said to myself, if one soul can be awakened a mind, or whatever, then it was well worth it.
IWDM:
Yes.
Imam Darnell Karim:
There are a lot of youth listening.
IWDM:
That's wonderful.
Imam Darnell Karim:
To this here. And I'm glad for this because this brings me to the next question. In terms of our youth. We use a term youth, I assume that we talked to them about, let's say teenagers and young adults. And we have a lot of them as you know, that went to going back to our school, the University of Islam and also the Clara Muhammad School, and these youth, young people, they have, I wouldn't say they never left the community, but they have gone on to qualify themselves in education and business. And they hold a wealth of resources in them. I had a few that we interviewed here on the radio and I was surprised at the way that they expressed themselves.
Imam Darnell Karim:
But there was something that they were... was missing, that with them, that they want to feel a sense of need in our community because we feel as if you are offering, as we might, I can use the term keys of success, you're offering so many programs for humanity Imam, it's just unbelievable. So, these resources of these young people, they can be viable to the community. So, I would like for you to say something to them in terms of their need in the community, as G-d has blessed them to become qualified in all of these areas.
IWDM:
Yes. I recall my teenage life and my young adult life in my twenties, early and mid-twenties. And I know the environment, the city environment that I was in, was nothing in terms of being a stimulation for my mind, my intellect, my desire to develop my intellect and educate myself and become a productive person or citizen family member. It was nothing in comparison what we have today. These youth are favored by an environment that stimulates the mind and stimulates the intellectual curiosities more than any environment before them, before their time. And it's becoming even more and more rich in terms of its power to stimulate intellectual interest. The television, the programs, on science and natural life and science, the programs on technology, et cetera. And just the news itself is so rich in comparison with what we received when I was young, that we must say that, this generation is really favored in terms of what this environment can do to stimulate their minds and their intellect for a productive life.
IWDM:
So, we have a very special generation, and they should not see the media as detrimental to them. Certainly, we know violence and sex perversion, you can get it on certain channels if you have that kind of TV program, that does not make the media detrimental. What they should know is that, there is a richer media now, television, radio, newspapers magazine, the media, the news media, the information media is much richer now in terms of what it can do to assist a person in developing their minds and becoming better educated, more knowledgeable of things and information that permit them to have a better and stronger productive life as a citizen of this country and the world. That's my message to them. Be aware of your good situation that we didn't have when I was young. In this modern world of information, science and et cetera. And remember your roots, remember your family and more important than family, is to remember your religion, because if you lose your religion, then you can't do much for your family, in our opinion.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Oh, good. Well, I guess that leads to the next question. We got a few more questions here for you, Imam, and we will end this here. And the other one is, in terms of that, how could you address the Muslims, knowing that this is with our young adults and even with Muslims, just in general, how would you say that to live as a Muslim in a more or less a pluralistic society and not be affected by that? How would you address that?
IWDM:
Yes, a question recently came to me in the mail. From a young person on the campus, on a college campus, a female, and we can understand them having some problems.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah.
IWDM:
And that same question... And in fact, it was the same question put in different words. Different words were used... The same question. Yes. So, the way we live is with knowledge. The more knowledge we have of Islamic life, what Islamic life is, what Islamic daily life is, how am I to live my life daily.
IWDM:
And for the situation here now, I know you're coming to the conclusion of this program today, we don't have a lot of time. So, it would be enough to say, it was sufficed to say that, if your... most of the youth that could come to... that are Muslims with us from our association, African Americans, blacks, they came to Islam from Christian families. Maybe the child was very young, a toddler, maybe, when the parent converted. Maybe the child was born in Islamic community. All great. Your Christians parents, they know Christian virtues. They know that adultery is wrong. They know that to have sex before marriage is wrong. And they know that to use drugs is wrong. They know to go to parties and they behave as though you're a sex creature and not a moral creature and a rational creature is wrong.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah.
IWDM:
So, until they increase their knowledge of Islamic life, they should be aware of their parents and their good morals and virtues and the thing..., the do's and don'ts that their parents know and respect their parents, what their parents tell them.
Imam Darnell Karim:
I see. So, you are saying... So, you're giving us, I would say advice in terms of holding onto those values and those virtues that, well, I would say that we grew up with in the home.
IWDM:
Yes, exactly.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yes.
IWDM:
Christian virtues.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Christian virtues.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yes. Until you know Islamic life, daily life, its instructions, its moral instructions for a virtuous life, et cetera. The commandments of G-d. Because we have persons who convert to Islam today and they on the campus when they converted. Then we have persons... youth who convert to Islam last year, but now they're on the campus.
Imam Darnell Karim:
Yeah, I see.
IWDM:
Yeah. So, we don't expect for them to know anything about Islam, for what I'm saying. Most of the teachings in a virtuous life are so close to Christian teachings on the virtuous life. That until they learn the Islamic teachings on the virtuous life, they should benefit from what their parents have imparted to them.
Imam Darnell Karim:
This broadcast for the day Imam, it's always good, when sometime they have on the television where you see the thought for the day, the inspirational word for the day, I think you really said it, you said is good lasting thought, but just for a minute or two, can you just give us... I would say a lasting thought for today. If I can use that term.
IWDM:
Yes. How Allah says in the Qur'an, "be a people for justice and witnesses for G-d."
Imam Darnell Karim:
Thank you very much Imam, we hope to hear from you, more broadcasts of you. I know how your time is and everything, but certainly value time that you will come. And I hope that the...



