06/23/1985
IWDM Study Library
Ta’aleem Masjid Malcolm Shabazz

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Thank you very much. Dear Muslims, as-salaamu ?alaykum. Praise be to Allah, the Guardian Evolver, the Cherisher, the Sustainer of the worlds. We pray peace and blessings in Allah upon Muhammad, the last messenger upon his descendants, his companions, the righteous all, Ameen. 
Praise be to Allah for blessing us, first of all, to be Muslims, to have faith, faith in him and faith in the last revelation the Qur’aan and faith in the human model, that received that Qur’aan, as revelation and as mercy to the believers and as a mercy to the worlds, Muhammad the prophet, peace and the blessing be upon him.
And we thank him for blessing us with faith, in his angels, and in the Day of Judgment. We thank him for blessing us with faith in his law that operate to reward and punish. We thank Allah for faith. We thank Allah for our religion. And it is Allah who says in his book that he has made the religion complete and perfected it and completed his favor on us and has chosen for us, Islam, as religion. We thank Allah for Al-Islam. Prophet Muhammad, peace and the blessings be upon him, he said, “boonee al islam wal khamsin” the religion of Islam is structured upon five essentials, five important elements.
The first of them being laa ilaha illa Allah anna Muhammadun rasoolillah there is but one G’d and Mohammed is his messenger; As-Salaat, prayer; Az-Zakaat, charity; Saum, Ramaadan fasting in Ramaadan; Hajji-l-Bayt, and Pilgrimage to the house. We thank Allah for faith and we thank Allah for this religion. Our religion is structured upon these essentials. Our life, depending on this religion for its content, is also to be structured upon those essentials.
Muhammad the prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. He has given us a parable or illustration. That illustration---Should we wait until they get by? (Marching band passing by outside in a parade) So we just take a break and we relax until they get by? When I was a child, I used to love parades. Your parades here are better than ours in Chicago; at least I can detect the African beat.
A lot of great people of our race have lived right here and did their work right here in this area. It is good not to forget the good that they represented and the strength that they represented. They had their shortcomings, but they made a contribution. It is good to keep that in your memory. One thing about our religion, it does not---in fact, it is still aiming to not abolish the cultural traits in the life of the people. It aims to build upon the cultural strength of the people without undermining their culture, and to complement it with Islam, not to destroy it. That was the way of our prophet that is the way of the religion, peace be upon him.
So it is fading out a little bit now, it is good. Praise be to Allah. We seek him for forgiveness, we seek him for guidance, we seek him for protection, and he is the best to protect. 
Returning now to what we were saying concerning an illustration that the prophet gave to us of the community life or the religious life: It is reported that the prophet described or illustrated the community life by giving a picture of a tent having four supports and one center post holding up the tent. And he said of that center post that holds up the tent, that it is laa ilaha illa Allah, there is no deity but G’d, one G’d. And the four supports around represented the other four pillars of our faith or the religion: As-Salaat, Az-Zakaat, Saum Ramadan and Hajj---Hajji-l-Bayt---pilgrimage to the house.
We have to understand that the first reality for us in terms of our life, our conscience, our environment, is the inner-self, the inner-part. We cannot have much of anything outside until there is something strong inside. So when we think of this religion as being structured on five essentials, we have to see first the belief in the man, the belief in the woman, the belief in the child. That is, the belief being in the man, the belief being in the woman, and the belief being in the child who is Muslim and them being aware inside of themselves that their life depends for firmness for some kind of intelligent structuring, it depends on imaan---imaan bil-llah Faith in G’d, in his angels, in his books, in the messengers, in his judgment, in his law that rewards and punish, in resurrection and after death, et cetera.
Imaan, faith and a clear understanding of the importance of his religion; the importance of his religion is faith in G’d and obedience to G’d. So here now imaan becomes also a practice, obedience to G’d. So we obey with everything. We obey with our conscience. We obey with our spirit. We obey with our properties. My body is my property. The members of my body are my properties. My hands, my feet, all of these things are my property; my intelligence, that is a property of a human being. The thinking ability to think, to make decisions, that is a property of the human being. All of my properties, all of these things that I have, are rendered into the service of G’d. I obey him with all of these things. I obey him with my conscience, with my spirit, and all of my properties. 
So the Muslim, when he says la ilaha illa l-llah audibly, he is carrying out the duty of that principle; when he says la ilaha illa l-llah audibly. Because in the world, even in a Muslim community, there are those that do not want to hear la ilaha illa l-llah. So he risks being put in disfavor. He risks being hated. He risks being disliked and hated. He risks being attacked whether openly or subtly when he says la ilaha illa l-llah. When the Muslims declared behind Muhammad the prophet, la ilaha illa l-llah, they put themselves in a situation to be attacked, to be killed. And Allah says in His Holy Book, "And they are persecuted for no other reason than that they say, la ilaha illa l-llah there is no G’d, but G’d."
So these are duties, really acts of faith and courage that we say la ilaha illa l-llah. Then say, Muhammadun rasoolu-ul-llah oh that is a great risk in a world like this. You are risking people disliking you, hating you, and working subtly, deceitfully to undermine you. When you say, la ilaha illa l-llah, you make a big trouble. Then, when you complete the kalimah Muhammadun rasoolu-ul-llah, you invite all the trouble. If you say la ilaha illa l-llah and stop, it is not as bad. Why? Because people say, "Well, they are not in any danger." Our slaves are not in any danger, because our slaves are left to communicate with G’d by their selves. They are left on their own to communicate with G’d, but when you complete the kalimah and say, Muhammadun rasoolu-ul-llah then the slave is not left on his own to communicate with G’d; he has to communicate with G’d through the communication that G’d gave Muhammad.
Now, he is not on his own; he has a leader and that is what they fear---that man will have a man as a leader. See, men that want to dominate us they do not care if we have a leader that is not within their reach; they cannot communicate with him. They cannot sit down and negotiate with him, or they do not have to sit and negotiate with him. Who will sit down and negotiate with G’d? But, once a man accepts responsibility and he is determined to succeed with it, pretty soon somebody is going to have to sit down and negotiate with him.
But as long as they just have G’d, we do not have to worry. We do not have to sit down and negotiate with them. When a human being takes upon that responsibility to say, la ilaha illa l-llah as the point the way, to show his will, his aim, his purpose for human being, oh that is big trouble, big trouble. This man is going to forge his way, he is going to press forward, he is going to force his way, he is going to insist upon having that life that he says G’d has revealed. And we are going to have to overcome him, we are going to have to prevent him from becoming strong or overcome him, or we are going to have to negotiate with him.
Every man seems when he wants power, he seems to have no limit. He is not satisfied to just want power in his own territory. Many times before he even get power over his own territory, he is already getting into your territory. So he is not going to be satisfied. Is not it strange that as big as this Earth is, we cannot have our own Muslim life in a little part of it? That is strange. How terrible man is. As big as this Earth is, they won't even let us have our own Muslim life in just one square block of it.
If they see us determined, really determined, with our minds set, our purpose established to make our religious life as it should be on just one block---it does not have to be Harlem, New York, any part of New York, Illinois, any part of Illinois, it is the same thing. When they see you coming to establish your life, they get disturbed. They get disturbed. Right away, they want to make trouble for you. So what does that say? It says that anytime you accept to worship G’d and to follow the light that He has given, you accept risk, opposition, struggle and trouble.
Laylat-il-qadri, laylat-il-qadri, laylat-il-qadri khayrun min alfi shahrin the night of Qadr is better than a thousand months. Here, G’d tell us,---Oh, here's something wonderful. It is good to hear--- G’d is telling us one night in which the revelation came, the Qur’aan, descended on the heart of Muhammad the prophet is better than a thousand months. A thousand months is a lifetime. So G’d is saying, "This one night of blessing from G’d, that blesses Qur’aan revelation, is better than a lifetime." khayrun min alfi shahrin; tanazza-lul-malaikatu waar-roohu feeha bi-idhni rabbihim min kulli amrin---salaam. They descend on him in that night, the angels with the permission of their Lord, obeying every command. Peace.
Peace. Is not that wonderful? G’d telling us he has this one night, this happening in one night, that he descend the revelation down to Muhammad, peace be upon him, and this one night for you is better than a whole lifetime. And G’d says, "The angels come down into that night with the permission of G’d, Allah, obeying every command”. They are not disobedient, they do not disobey anything; obeying every command.
Then G’d says, "Peace, it is”. Peace, it is “hattaa” until." Peace is not going to last, until-- Right? Salaamun hiya hattaa "Peace, it is hattaa up to a point." That is what it says. "Peace it is, until. Peace it is, up to a point." Up till what point? Matla’il-fajr the rising of the dawn; when dawn comes no more peace; as long as there is night there is peace; the night---peace. As soon as the dawn comes, the day comes, lights up, no more peace hattaa matla’il-fajr. No more peace. The day ends the peace. Trouble, risk, opposition, threats, sneaky people, et cetera, thieves, they will get what you got in the night. They are going to steal it from you. What you have got in the night, they want to come steal it.
There is a sign in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ---we know that was not an actual crucifixion according to the word of G’d in our book, in our Holy book, peace be upon the prophet---they have a sign in him. An innocent man having no intent but to obey G’d and to do good but they were not satisfied just to capture him, contain him, nail him down and deprive him of his freedom, lift him up, suspend him up out from reality, that was not enough. Also, they robbed him. They robbed him, took his possessions according to their report.
Do you think the people won't rob you? Any of you who are blessed with guidance from G’d, there are thieves waiting to rob you. Yes, they are waiting to rob you. Why did they rob him? To capitalize on what G’d had given him. They did not want it for the purpose that G’d intended; they wanted to capitalize on it, they wanted to make money on it. This is the hellish world that you have to live in.
The risk, the trouble that you have to accept when you declare yourself Muslim, a believer obedient to G’d and obedient to his messenger. You have to accept this kind of life but you are not to be the kind of sheepish person that just gives up everything to the wolves. You are supposed to be a thinking being, believing in G’d and thinking hard and using all of your properties to defeat the opposition, to beat them at their own game; to knock the foundation out from under them before they can knock it off from under you; to leave them in the desert that they planned for you.
Yes. If you are believers in G’d, if you are believers in Allah, in this Qur’aan, and in Muhammad the prophet, and you have accepted it consciously, and you are serious, you are not playing, you are a great contender, you are a great foe, you are a great match for the best they have in the world. The Muslims are not to be thinking that, "Oh, our situation is bad." In terms of heaven and hell, it is bad. It is bad because we are not in heaven, we are close to hell.
But in terms of how you can fare in a competition with other men and other women and other communities, your situation is better than theirs.
What Allah says that he has revealed this religion for the purpose that it may prevail over all other religions, though the polytheists dislike it; those who worship more than one G’d, may dislike it. But G’d says, "Though they may dislike it, it is going to happen anyway." Yes. Again G’d say, "And if you are believers then you shall triumph." If you are indeed believers, you shall overcome. You shall be the victors not the defeated, but the victors.
Again G’d says, "If you help G’d, he will surely help you." And he says in his book, the Qur’aan, the last of the revelation, he says, "For any who G’d helps, there is none to defeat them" there is none to defeat them. So we do not expect defeat. We expect victory. If I lose something from my own personal self or my family, the situation is not good, even if the whole community of Muslims is not good, that is no sign that Muslims are defeated because it is often in the darkest day that the greatest victory comes.
The disbelievers in the time of the prophet upon this earth, peace be upon him, they were strutting around, showing off their superiority, their greater numbers, their greater forces, their control, their power that they had over the Muslims, they were strutting around, strutting it up, showing it off and laughing at the Muslims and ridiculing and treating them as though they were pitiful laughing stock. What does Allah says in this book, "Laugh now, weep much later." And that came to pass.
We are not talking about anything we cannot prove. That came to pass. Those that laughed then came to weep much later. So we are setting out on a little more than faith. We have a record of success. That if you follow this religion as it should be followed, there is none to defeat you. Does it mean you won't have a set back? No, it does not mean that. Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon him and his companions and his followers, they had set backs.
They had defeats. Where there were battles lost, the war was won.
Yes when we go to look at that land now where the battle took place it is not under pagans it is under Muslims. Their main purpose was to deny the public the right to hear the message of Muhammad, the Qur’aan that was their main purpose. They wanted to persecute the word of G’d to keep it from reaching the ears of the common people. That was their main purpose not only the common people but other men too. Men on high too, they feared that some of them would receive it and be influenced and change their lives and joined the force. That was their main purpose.
So we look now at history, "Did they succeed?" They were defeated. The word has reached the ears of the high and the low and they all joined it. The land now is under la ilaha illa l-llah, Muhammadun rasoolu-ul-llah and has been under that for hundreds of years. They have not been able to get it back. Not even their children's children have been able to get it back. I know what the disbelievers says in his heart---but who is ruling this world---you dumbbell. Allah.
If one of the followers of Muhammad pleases Allah, he is going to turn it over to the followers of Muhammad. That is right. Who is better to instruct human beings in the right manner of life than a Muslim? So you, Muslims, you should have faith and you should have aspirations; faith and aspirations that is what keeps you alive not just faith, faith and aspirations to want something big. Show me a man with a small appetite and I will show you a small man. I thank G’d I do not have a small appetite.
I may not have great possessions but I certainly have big appetite. You should want great things, but not for self as a selfish motive. You should want great things for the betterment of life under G’d. And that is, you want great things because you feel an obligation upon you that your Lord put upon you. How does your Lord make you to understand his obligation? If you were intelligent thinking Muslim, you have accepted his obligation because you have done some study of yourself and you find yourself capable of great things. You give credit to G’d for making you like this and you want to use this talent, you want to use this capacity in a manner pleasing the Lord that gave it to you, right?
If you have intelligence and skills, you want to put then to use as a duty to your G’d more than as a duty to yourself, more than as a need for the…and the family, you want to do it as a duty to G’d. Do you not know that the greatest force in man’s life is the force of G’d? No greater force can be in man's life than the force of G’d. That is why Moses defeated Pharaoh. It was not Moses, it was G’d in Moses defeated Pharaoh. That is how Muhammad defeated the enemies. It was not Muhammad, it was G’d in Muhammad that defeated the enemies.
When men come up and they have great ideology, they have great power motivating them, and they come up, they are defeated over and over again. How many of the messengers came into the world and were defeated? Even those they looked like they were defeated, later on you reflect back on their lives, hundreds of years later, and say "Hell, the man was victorious after death." He looked like he died pitifully but he is victorious after death. The same people that laughed at him have to respect him later.
How many of you jump off in your own name and achieve your purposes; very few---hardly any at all. Even the greatest ones of them are just like the light that comes up, just like the sun and then set. Is that not a fact? Come up like the sun and set. When will the light of Muhammad set? Never, never; his life will never set, no, it will never set as long as there abide the light of Muhammad will be here. It is not a light that came up to set, never set. And Allah is protecting it, oh yes, Allah is protecting it.
I sat among the so called learned and wise and elects of Christianity, two of them from among the Jews and some other oriental religions, and heard how they talk in my presence as though they have the power and authority to alter religion to suit their needs for today. They looked at me and tried to get me to join them. Said, "How can you have a relevant religion, how can your religion remain relevant, how can it stay relevant if you are going to have any area that is untouchable?" Said, "Surely in Catholicism now, women cannot be ordained, but we have priests in Catholicism that are entertaining the question. The decision from the Pope can change all that.” But there is not a decision from any man on earth that can change the Qur’aan or change how we look at Muhammad the prophet.
We do not have something that has been put into the world from G’d and then left to man's judgment. Is not that something? That is exactly what they saying. Yes, we accept that this is the world of G’d, but it is left to our judgment. Anytime, our life progresses and it causes a problem for our life, it is left to our judgment to change it. So, who is G’d? They are making themselves G’d by taking that kind of position.
That is how come their sun comes up and sets. But we hold to what G’d have revealed. The sun comes up and it does not set. In fact, it is greater than the sun. Oh, yes, it is greater than the sun. The sun is a light for just one world and Allah's light is light for all worlds. Yes there are some fools out there that think they can take sunlight out there to the next galaxy---they won't be seen. There is some lights out there bigger than that one you call the sun. Now, what happens to the “sun of Man? His symbol is gone, his symbol is defeated. New knowledge coming to Man has defeated the old symbol. 
Man wants to be as great as the sun and then later on, he finds that G’d says not only the sun “sakhkhara lakum ma fee assamawati wama fee alardi I have rendered into your service not only the sun, but whatever is in the heavens and the earth”. Then when G’d brings him to meet that, to approach that and see the great expanse going beyond the solar system of man, beyond this immediate sun, he see that vast thing then he start disrespecting his G’d [laughs].
They do not respect their G’d. They call him the son of man and then make a joke out of him. They do not respect him. That is because they have outgrown him. You learned people here, as a matter of fact, they have outgrown their G’d. That is why they feel free to alter, to make modifications, change, and cancel things. "Yes, cancel it, it is not all this. This was so, but no more." Say, "But, hey---But, wait didn’t G’d make that so, didm’t he?" "Yes, G’d did, but by the authority of the Pope, it is not so anymore," or by the authority of the Baptist convention.
Praise be to Allah. We thank Allah for faith and knowledge. Our religion is knowledge, direction, purpose and aim. Don’t you know Muslims have a purpose and have an aim? What should our purpose be? G’d have defined it for us; he says “I neither created the Jinn nor men for anything other than my worship”. So my purpose on this earth, the purpose for which I am created is to serve the creator. And if I am a Muslim I am to serve him as my religion directs me, the Qur’aan and the Sunnah of the Prophet. As for an aim, what should we be aiming for? Purpose and aim are sometimes identical. But sometimes we need a different kind of language to describe something else; we want to fulfill the purpose, right?
There is a purpose, I want to meet that purpose, I want to achieve that purpose. I have to have an aim or I might miss that purpose. What should be the aim? What should be our aim? The aim is also given in the Qur’aan and the Sunnah of the Prophet. What should we aim for? We should aim for what G’d have directed us to aim for. G’d have said to us, "We are a community." Our aim should be to establish that we are not established as a community, our aim should be to establish community. That is a big job, a big task to establish community. We are followers of the Qur’aan; our aim should be to learn Qur’aan. We are followers of the Prophet; our aim should be to be know the Prophet. We cannot follow something unless you know this; our aim should be to know the Prophet. G’d have obligated us concerning our relatives; to care for our relatives, to share the responsibility. And that the bigger and the stronger, the better prepared, those with greater means, they should look out after those with less. Some of us will act like we do not have direction. We read the Qur’aan; we hear the teachings and still act like we do not have direction. We still live a non-Muslim life. Some of us think that we eat once a day, we are living like a Muslim. There are some Christians who eat once a week. Dick Gregory I do not think he eat at all half of the time. That is not enough, in fact that is nothing.
You have to be able to perceive, visualize Islamic life. The substance, the help for that vision is the Qur’aan and the Sunnah of the Prophet---the Life of this Qur’aan lived by the Prophet, he lived this, all of us are to live this. He has demonstrated how we are to live this. I've heard so many Imams in the great Muslims give a very beautiful description. They say a man makes a machine; the machine is for your own service, for your own use. But he did not leave you with just the machine, he leave you with the machine and a manual.
Many times also, before he lets you go, there is a demonstration. And that is our religion, a machine, a manual and a demonstration Prophet Muhammad demonstrated how the machine and the manual is to be used. He demonstrated how the machine and the manual are to be used, so we had the demonstration, so you have to have all that and get a clear vision. Visualize your life as a Muslim and know when you are allowing influences to come into your life and change your life from what G’d intended for you as Muslim. We have come a long way and I like all that he read out of the 10 years.
I like it. It shows trials and error, successes and defeats. Yes, I was listening at what he was reading, he read it as though all was positive, but all of it was not positive. In that was success and defeat---alright--- so I listened to it. But the thing that made me feel good was that what was continuous in the 10 years, good intention, determination to please G’d. And with that, we can say we are still alive after 10 years; still a Muslim after 10 years; still enthusiastic after ten years; still ready to get up and go for G’d's pleasure, Power and Muhammad after 10 years. And still do not want a foreigner just because he is a foreigner still satisfied with an African American as a leader after 10 years.
That is because intent has been right, we have wanted to please G’d. That is right, praise be to Allah. So I am happy over it and I know that we can do much greater things in the next 10 years than we did in those 10 years behind us---much greater things. And I believe it will come because we are accepting Islamic democracy, which puts an end to the rule of the brute in the life of the human being, Allah-u-Akbar. And I want to see greater and greater Islamic democracy, and I do not want to stop where it is, I want to see it grow. I want to see us have greater and greater Islamic democracy and all of us enjoy greater horizons of Islamic democracy, we are going to have to lift our sights to higher and nobler aims.
We are going to have to raise our intellect from low base inferior thing to have more noble aspirations, higher aspirations, bigger aspirations that include more important things. That is what we have to have, and with that in the group and individual will come greater enjoyment and realization of true Islamic democracy. The ignorant out of people are targeted for slavery. Nobody will target the learned, the intelligent, and the thoughtful for slavery. They know they cannot enslave them. They target them for deception, tricks, clever undermining, persecution, lies.
They want to belie their purposes, belie their intent, and make people think that they are a threat instead of a blessing or a mercy. So that is how they work against the intelligent. But against the fool, they just target them for slavery. They say “Well what do you have today for shackles, collars, chains and yokes. They say “Well---high fidelity, stereo, the latest foolish fashion for the masses, pop culture, so that is what we got. So we are good we do not have to worry about the many let's go work on the few. Let's work on Imam W. Deen Mohammed and those few that are with him”. They will lead the others to the high fidelity and whatever else they got in the pop culture as clothing, as mannerisms, they set your way of talking they even set your way of expression.
You are looking at a fellow for 10 years and he go and see one movie or watch television for 15 minutes and he come out with different expressions. “Kihi”, he was not doing that before. You say something to them, they say “Kihi, uh huh”. He was not doing that before. He is possessed. The pop culture demon has possessed him. Now, that is what they should be persecuting---not the work of the righteous who follow Allah and Muhammad. 
We want to concentrate on essentials in the religion, the important things in the religion and that way we can keep our religious life intact. But if we lose sight on the important things in our religion, influences will come in and get the important part and places in our lives. If I do not have the Islamic re-enforcement or the Islamic protection, in terms of what I should believe, in terms of what I should place more importance on etcetera.
Then an influence from the outside, from the non-Islamic world and their sources will come in and occupy that space that is unoccupied. I like to resort sometimes to physics, what I learned of physics. It says, "No two things can occupy the same space at the same time." And another law is that there is no space that can remain unoccupied. If nothing is there something is going to go in to fill the vacuum. So if I profess, if I take on a belief, I say, "Well, I am going to believe in the Islam, my religion is Islam, my book is Qur’aan, and my prophet is Mohammed."
Great, but where is that in my domain? I've I harvested, I've I planted that, have I cultivated that in my domain? Have I structured that in my own personal kingdom? If I have not then I have a vacuum there and the influences of the world are going to naturally, by natural force go into that vacuum and for that reason we have people thinking they are Muslim, wanting to be Muslim, thinking they are Muslim, saying “As salaam Alaykum” and they are nothing, but a shadow, a shell of a person. The call of their life is possessed by the influences of the world, therefore, the husband has no Islamic authority in his home, the wife has no Islamic authority over her children, and the children have no Islamic conscious to check each other simply because they are vacant vessels. Empty inviting the influences of the world, to come in and possess their souls. 
You should work like busy ants, busy bees, busy beavers, and inculcating the principle, the teaching, the Qur’aan and your life, the life of your children, your husband, your wife, your grandmother, everybody within your reach. That should be our obligation and that should be our challenge because that is our salvation, salvation lies right there in us filling the emptiness, filling the unoccupied spaces of our soul and our mind and our life with teaching of the Qur’aan and instructions from Muhammad and the discipline of a Muslim's life.
That is the answer, that is our salvation, but we cannot do it just sitting around waiting for the sun to rise. Yes, some of us just sit around waiting for the sun to rise instead of going to meet it. If you do not rise, for me I am going to say which way is it coming, I am going to go meet it and I get there before you see it, I will see it while you are waiting on it, I am going to go meet it. I hope you understand what I am saying. Do not leave circumstances to fate, no, do not leave circumstances to fate. The reason why other nationalities and other nations are so much more in power and so much better off than African-Americans and Africans is because they do not do what we do---they do not leave circumstances to fate.
The first man, what did G’d give him? Responsibility for the environment, that is Islamic, Allah say in the Qur’aan that he rendered into the service of man, whatever is in the heaven and whatever is in the earth and the Muslim they have a prayer when he rides an animal, he uses Qur’aan. subhaana alladhe sakkara lan hadha wa ma kullahun mookhliheena wa inna Allah rabb-il Allah qaliboon Glory be to our Lord who has rendered this into our service, made it possible for us to use this. We could not have achieved this without him. What is he talking about? He is talking about his means of travel---his means of travel---like the means of travel of the physician who uses the knowledge and the information of his field.
He gave the same credit to G’d for bringing that rendering that into man service so likewise with every professional person, in every field of our profession. If he is Muslim he gives G’d the credit for making it possible for him to have access for him to be able to cross the tools, the knowledge and the tools for his work, to support the means for his transport. Everything he gave credit to G’d. Now, giving credit to G’d what does it mean? It means that G’d will make all of this approachable, accessible and attainable if I obey him and serve him and as he intended that is supposed to be you. You are African-American, you accept Islam, and you shouldn't think any more like a “nigga”.
G’d has created me and put me on this earth to fulfill my capacity and he has given me a capacity to utilize all the forces of heaven and earth, to be a responsible creature and not just this little small environment or my funky apartment, but he has given me the power, he has given me the utility, the instruments, the capacity to utilize and be responsible for all that is in the environment. Further than my vision can go. I have to send my my eye out of faith to go out there and discover new horizons of, "Hey vision go out like a mother ship. Discover the outer region, I have conquered all of this, I brought all of this to please G’d, I am looking for a new horizon." Now that is a man that “ain't no nigga”.
It all begins with faith---faith, you do not get anywhere without faith. And do not buy the enchanting lies and stories and charming songs that they have; teaching you to believe in yourself, to have faith in self saying that the “Greatest love of all is the love of our self---the greatest love of all”. Do not buy that stuff. That is to strip you, to cut you off from help. If you come up naturally, you won't think the greatest love of the love of yourself. If you come up naturally you think the greatest love is love for the one that made self possible. And if you come up naturally like that, you are going to struggle to get closer to that one that made self possible.
So to cut you off from all help they say the greatest love of all is love of self; to cut you off from all help. How would you love your child now if your child told you “The greatest love of all is love for myself”. How would you feel after you had sacrificed for that brat? And spent your time, your life and your blood, and your tears, worried your life into shreds and shrills. And then he one day tell you ‘The greatest love I've discovered is the love of myself”. That is how we look before G’d singing a song “And the greatest love of all is love of myself. And I've discovered the greatest love of all is to love myself”. But we are children, children will buy that influence. Not men, not women, only children will buy that influence. So we buy that influence and we are cut off for my adult relatives that could help us. I cannot help him now he won't accept my help. Because he believes that his self is the universe. That he is the most important thing in the creation. And loving himself is the greatest love. He is the only thing that matters. So now, the adult cannot help the child. The child by virtue of the belief that it has accepted, has cut himself off from all help coming from the adults.
The child I am talking about is the masses of people: Black, yellow, red all of you---nothing, but a bunch of crazy children. Yes this world is full of crazy children who are getting more ignorant with every day that passes. Some report now, recent reports across the nation says that one in every five Americans is illiterate; one in every five that is a high percentage of illiteracy for a great and progressive scientific country like this.
Well how come they cannot read? Because they do not have a need to; their aspirations decides their pleasures are in just having orgasms. Orgasms are below based sensitivities. Right? when they look at TV, they do not have to read---they just watch TV the TV do not give them hardly anything to read. So they can find out the news and get the weather today. They find out who won the game today. They get everything just by sitting there looking at TV. They do not have to read like we did. We used to get up and read the paper. A lot of us did not read the news, but we would at least turn to the sports section and read what was happening in the sport section. Or we would turn to the want ads, but with welfare coming now you do not even have the incentive to turn to the want ads. No reading, right? 
And we read the funnies, but now they have nothing but funnies all over. Fun is everywhere you go. So now you are not in need of funnies. You just wake up and there is something to laugh at. It is a pitiful state---a pitiful state, a pitiful situation. The majority of the people are going to hell; the living dead. We are blessed to be alive. Is it not a blessing to be alive? (Allah-u-Akbar.) So it begins with imaan, but Allah has prepared us. He has given us religion to prepare us for more than just faith; he wants us to have knowledge. Allah the most high says Aallama adama alasmaa kullaha and he taught Adam, the names---all of them. And then he exposed him to the angels and he said to the angels “tell them their names if you know?” And they said “we have no knowledge expect what you've given us”. And we come to learn from the word of G’d, from the revelation of G’d that he has honored man and blessed man and given him a station a degree above the angels--- a degree above the angels. And according to the hadith of the prophet, peace be upon him, hadith or report on the prophet said that while he was addressing the Muslims---as he did normally addressed them, teaching them the religion---the great angel Gabriel appeared and he was in every respect looking like a man. And he was dressed in the cleanest clothes. And his clothing was the whitest of white, and the blackest of black. And he asked the prophet questions concerning religion and the Prophet replied giving the answers and angel Gabriel affirmed what the prophet said. And after that had occurred the prophet the peace and blessings be on him, he told the Muslims “That was the angel Gabriel, he came to teach you your religion.” 
Now, here is the prophet, pointing to the angel---the highest angel Gabriel saying “He came to teach you your religion”, but how many times did he come? Did he come long enough to establish the religion?
No (chuckling)! He only had a minor role, very minor role in the teaching of the people. He had a great role in the teaching of the prophet; but had a very, very minor role in the teaching of the people; hardly any role at all. Because all he did was bear witness to what prophet Muhammad was teaching. He only provoked certain thoughts in Prophet Muhammad that the believers could not hear. And Prophet Muhammad responded to him and he nodded in the affirmative that you have spoken correctly. So look at his small role life in the people in terms of bringing religion to them; but look at the great role that he had in the life of the Prophet. Yes, Praise be to Allah. And look at the sign he wore the whitest of white and the blackest of black.. And this world has given us angels all white---all white! But in our religion the angel come in two colors, not just white, in black and in white; in the whitest of white and the blackest of black. 
That is great for you if you understand. Yes, that is great for you if you understand. This is the religion that brings salvation, that bring peace of mind and contentment that rests the disturbed, troubled soul of the people; this is the religion. All the rest come in and patch up one wound and inflict the hunter. Yes, I know I've have read it like you. Do you think I was not looking? What I got from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad made me look for something else. I looked and could not find anything anymore together than his, so I decided that there was something that I didn’t understand. So I went in there and I found it. 
It saved me indeed. That is right; it brought me to true freedom, true freedom. And t is the only religion; this is the only book that can really bring true peace to the life of the believer. No Christian can tell me they have peace. There is no Christian that can make me believe that. Maybe you are hypnotized---self-hypnotized. Let me wake you up and you will go mad. Wake me up and I am still at peace. If I go wake up a Christian, they go crazy.
They are only at peace when they sleep. I hope you understand what I am saying because to wake them up is to tell them some truth about Jesus, peace be upon him, to tell them some truth about their religion. If you start telling them truth about it, they will not be at peace any more. But the more truth you tell me about this Qur’aan, the more I grow in a sense of peace. Yes, the more you are disclosed, the more peaceful. Oh, that is good. This peace gets better and better with the more you disclose. But the other ones, the more you reveal the more trouble. That is why they are said when an angel came and he started taking off the hidden seals, he started breaking the secrets. As he broke the secrets, oh, all kind of monsters came out. That is Revelations; that is the Book called Revelations read it for yourself. Now this one, you break the seals and there is peace; the demons flee, they run away. Their impurities are peeled and their impurities are destroyed. But with the other one, you break the seals, the impurities are let out; all the impurities are released; the waters are poisoned, the air is poisoned, everything is messed up.
We got seven, when we break them, man, nothing, but heaven; nothing, but purity, nothing, but purity. Peace, purity, victory, sense of security come with every word and with every verse. Yes, because we have seven too. Allah calls it the Seven Oft-repeated Verses---Al Fatihah. Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem Al-hamdu lillahi Rabb il-'aalameen. Praise be to G’d, lord of all the worlds. Now let me break that seal and see don’t it bring peace. Read their scriptures through and the lord is the lord of a favorite people. Now when we break these ones, what does it mean? It is not hard to break either---easy to break. It is clear without breaking. The light is shinning with the seal on it.
Yes. Says all though not lit it appears illumined, illumined. Yes, okay so I said, Al-hamdu lillahi Rabb il-'aalameen, Praise be to Allah, lord of all the worlds. So what is the message in that? That is a G’d, that is not lord for a special people. He is lord for all people. He is not lord over Earth as the center of the universe; He is lord of all worlds. He is not lord over Gnosticism; He is lord over science too, He is lord of all the worlds, etcetera. We could go on for hours. Yes. And who do we give credit to? G’d. Ar Rahmaan, Ar-Raheem Al-hamdu lillahi Rabb il-'aalameen. 
Now, what is the next verse? Iyaaka na’budu wa iyaaka nasta’een. Now you are not going to have me as a slave. You design your lord to enslave everybody, but your race. I have got the right lord here. To this lord, I render myself a slave, and to him I render services. I am begging him for help---I am not begging you---I am begging him for help. I am his slave and I beg him. I do not beg you. Now you tell me that if that is not justice. That disclosure makes you feel better doesn’t it. Now you want me to get the Bible and go to the Revelations and disclose some of that for you? Shoo, then have half of you would be going to the nut house. Half or more than half, but you could not take it. You would be driven out of your minds. That is a fact. Believe me, I am not playing. That is true. The monsters that will come out with drive you nuts.
I have patience now. I have always been a patient fellow. Allah is my witness. I think the environment that I came up in from the birth made me patient. I have always been very patient, but you all really tried my patience. Allah protected me and I am still here. Now you cannot disturb my peace, I do not care what you do. I hear you and I do not hear you. I see you and I do not see you. I thank Allah that he has given us an increased number from the believers and the ignorant are getting smaller and smaller in number. Praise be to Allah. Yes. So imaan is very important. Prophet Muhammad, in teaching us imam, it is reported that he pointed to his heart and he was talking about imam they say and taqwa or ihsan and taqwa. Taqwa is consciousness, and imaan is what we believe in, but do not necessarily fully grasp.
For example, we say we believe in Allah and our belief in Allah is stronger than our belief in anything else. I know my mother. I know my father. I know what people who are close around me. I know the things that I am handling and dealing with every day, perhaps even know them abstractly as well as concretely, but I do not know G’d that way. My faith in G’d is greater than my faith in those things I know. And the moment I know everything about a thing, there is no more room for faith. When you study the things that Muslims have faith in, they are things that we cannot know in their entirety.
Imaan billah we cannot know Allah in the entirety. Imaan in angels, malaaika, in the angels, we cannot know entirely. In the Revelation, we cannot know it in its entirety. This book is here, none of us can know it in its entirety.
We can say what we think, but we cannot be sure of everything, none of us---there are no scholar, no man says Muhammad, not even Muhammad, peace and the blessings be upon him, he had to wait for G’d to inspire him and give it to him. And he was the best among us, so none of us can know the book in its entirety. We talk about the law of G’d that rewards and punish, that you cannot escape the justice of G’d, but that is another reality that we cannot know in its entirety. We only know in part. We talk about the hereafter, life after death. That is something else we do not know in its entirety. We only know in part.
And because we do not know well enough, to satisfy the curious intellect of the non-G’dly we believe the non-G’dly. They say “Well since you cannot satisfy my curious intellect I reject it”, but the G’dly say, “though I cannot understand it completely with my mind, I accept it with my heart.” Is that not wonderful? And look, Allah said that “He would build it upon his heart”. The mind is not made to take it. He revealed it upon his heart qalbihi because it is in his heart. He revealed it upon his heart and that is the way it comes.
It comes as faith, it comes to our hearts and from the heart, and the heart passes it on to the mind as much as the mind can stand. Is that not true? I am not talking something you do not know, the believers know that---you have experienced it in one measure or another, you have experienced it. And I guess that is why it is said, by G’d, “Say when my worshipers ask about me tell them I am near.” If my worshipers ask about me, tell them I am near. “I hear the plea of the caller when he calls.” That is what G’d says, tell my worshipers. You cannot tell an atheist that. [Laughs] “Tell my worshipers.” And another thing, says “If you would know me I am exactly as my worshipers know me.” He did not say “I am exactly likes the scientist know me. I am exactly like the Gnostic know me.” No, I am exactly as my worshipers know me. So here we cannot even know Allah, we cannot know Allah with the instrument of our intellect.
We can only know Allah with the instrument of our heart. And then with faith we take as much of the knowledge as we can and we carry it out, we use it for the material side, for the concrete side, the practical side, the scientific side of life. Right? But we do not allow that rational discipline to come in and try to set its self up as a ruler to decide spiritual matters, matters of faith, for us. 
But the unG’dly does just that. The un-G’dly brings the tools of rationale into the area of faith, and they determine what stands up as faith and what should fall as faith. But the believer in G’d says, “G’d you know, we know not. We believe in whatever we have, we say as the angels say. ‘We have no knowledge except what you gave us’”. We are not proud, we are not boastful and we do not jump ahead of G’d. We do not make a G’d a subject of our inquiry. Praise be to Allah. The Muslim, he should understand what is Muslim conscience for him.
The Muslim conscience should be different from the conscience of non-Muslims. They should have a conscience according to the best of what their world or what their life offers. We should have a conscience according to the best of what our world or what our life offers us. The good Muslim conscience should be the substance of Qur’aan, and the life of Mohammed the Prophet, peace be upon him, and his sense of duty to the word of G’d and to his messenger. That should be our conscience and G’d is first, foremost and biggest in the conscience of the Muslim.
Prophet Mohammed said, "Behave as though you see Allah, so if you are not seeing him, he is seeing you." Peace be upon the Prophet. This is the Muslim conscience, but Muslim conscience is like ihsan and taqwa. He pointed to his heart. The Oriental people, Eastern people, especially the Muslim, they point to the heart, as the seat of conscience, the symbol, the seat, symbol, place of conscience. Where most of us point to here like he did like he did. Remember that picture? We pointed to here. And we had to come to point to here didn’t we? We started off like this, because this was gone, but we came to point like this because this is not enough, even with help, this is not enough.
This has to support, to be given support, and when you look at it even from the point of anatomy, what is the life of the brain? Blood and oxygen and where does blood and oxygen come? From this area here, blood comes from the heart, the heart pumps the blood, the lungs give the oxygen and the oxygen goes to the blood and the heart pumps the blood with the oxygen to the brain. So, what is keeping the brain functioning? If it stops pumping that good fresh blood to the brain for long---they will say he is alive, but he is not what he used to be. Brain deterioration will set in after a while. So understand that these things are tied together. G’d produces signs, and the knowledge is contained in the sign.
Responsibility, now: conscience is the first awareness of responsibility. First things come into the conscience. It is supposed to trouble the conscience, bear on the conscience and weigh on the conscience, until it gets some kind of compliance, some kind of response, some kind of action. We might look at a suffering person, in the family or outside of the family it bothers our conscience, and it will bother the conscience until we go and do something about it. We have to act, act out the goodness. If we continue to ignore it, what happens? We say that the conscience died. We assume it is not bothering the conscience no more.
We did not do it, it is not bothering our conscience no more, it is not bothering the conscience no more, the conscience dies, became dead, and that is bad death. That is the bad death. G’d say then “Do not die unless you die in the state of a Muslim”. A Muslim is a person conscious of duty, duty to G’d, duty in the religion. Duty to G’d duty in the religion; duty in the community, duty in the world of man. A Muslim is---his consciousness is a sense of duty, and when you become so hard, so insensitive, so unconcerned, about what is happening to hurt the life or to cut the life off of people, whether they be your relatives or not your relatives, then you are dying the death of a non Muslim. Your death is the death of a disbeliever.
A Muslim, he dies still having a sense of duty, a sense of responsibility to his G’d and in his religion. He dies desiring to do more good for his G’d and for the benefit of the society: A man. Yes. Conscience and responsibility; Muslims are supposed to be people of responsibility, having a great sense of responsibility. There is no ideology that I know of that gives me a vision, or a perception of my role on this earth or in this creation, as clear and as important, as dignified, as great as that given in Al Islam. None have given me a sense of responsibility as big as a sense of responsibility that I've have gained from a study of this Qur’aan and the life of Muhammad, this religion, none!
I've studied just like you have when you studied. I've studied the different ideologies that they have available in the books. I have studied them. Now when I read it---because once you see so much, they all resemble---they are nothing but shades and facets of one thing.
Once you've known that, you pick it up and you read two pages, you are through with it, you throw it down. You do not have to have to read the rest, you know what it is saying, and you know it. So do not think they all matter, how you read all of that, no one makes it that is what you think. Once you read so much, volumes open up.
Yes, once you read so much, it is all about the same stuff, hearing the same old story, just like listening to a brat, always telling you some fascinating story. You hear ten of his stories, so that when he comes with the eleventh, you say “Hey I do not care hear it” because you have seen through his whole mentality.
Yes, and it is the same way for ideologies. Ideology is nothing but a reflection of some man’s mentality. And that once you learn enough about the nature of the ideology, you can just hear a little and then say, "I do not want to hear the rest of it, I know what it is."
The only ideology that has entertained me for more than three or four days is this Qur’aan. The average book and ideology I've picked up, I look at it, I spend a whole day. I will take a book and I will spend a whole day on it. Maybe I will come back the next day. But I know none that I have come back to the third day expecting some greatness to come out of it, except this (Qur’aan).
I am fifty two years old almost, and I still go to this with the same enthusiasm, with the same anxious anticipation believing that a new revelation will come. It is exciting to me all the time. That it will entertain me forever. Yes, this (Qur’aan) but not the rest of it.
It has given me a sense of purpose, a sense of my own worth, a sense of my destiny, greater than anything I have seen in any other ideology. That is the honest, the goodness truth, no exaggeration. And in fact, what I see in theirs is nothing but a little piece of what I see in this---if it is of worth.
What they show me of worth, I see it as a little piece of that. We have one little ayat one little verse, sometimes four words covers their whole philosophy. And that is a fact, I am not joking, it covers their whole philosophy.
Then they come with big old, great ideas, materialism and all that dialectic materialism, and to each according to his needs, and from each according to his ability and all that. And I read just a few words and the Qur’aan cover the whole thing, covering it without mutilating me.
They give me something from that material side, but it mutilates me because my spiritual life and my material life are intact. They are joined together. I am not just spiritual, I am spiritual and material. I am not just material, I am material and spiritual. So when they take the one part off and do not address the other part, it is like mutilating me. But Allah tells me what I should do in a material situation, and he tells me what to do as clearly and better than what they tell me without mutilating me. That is why I love this religion so much because they do not have anything to brag about that we do not have in the Qur’aan.
Capitalism, communism, whatever they have that fascinates man and thrills him is in the Qur’aan. I can prove that, that can be proven. Unless it fascinates you to just believe that you are everything. That is silly. You do not find that in the Qur’aan. [Laughs] Or believe that some man is G’d, or some man to be followed blindly without you questioning him. No! It is not going to give you anything like that because my book tells me to question even Muhammad. Yes, it says, examine him, study him, and look at him. It did not say just take him-- look at him, question him, and they did. And do not accept him or what he say, but accept him on what he is given and what proves itself. G’d do not tell us to believe on Muhammad; just believe on Muhammad and everything else is going be all right.
Believe on G’d, and believe in Muhammad. And first is G’d, then Muhammad. And believe a whole lot of other things and put them all together and test each other. Test the strength of each of them with each other. And if they all stand up, they all stand the test, then know that it is right.
So our religion appeals to our rational faculties, appeal to our logic, “O men of logic”. “O men of reason”. “O you who have sense”, that is how Qur’aan address us. And those who reject it called them the sufaha, those who debase themselves, those who retard themselves, that is what it means, sufaha, those who retard themselves.
And that is exactly what they do, they come up with these crazy ideas that free them to just be their own crazy nut in their own crazy world, and it is self retarding, it retards you. Pretty soon you are just going back within your senses.
You are becoming more ill prepared to deal with the challenges among men. Yes, is not that the reality? So do not allow that to happen. Be sensible. Be thankful children, because that is what most of you are, you are nothing but little children.
Appreciate Allah, be thankful to Allah, get rid of that ignorance in your mind that this crazy world have put in your mind to keep you from having access to power, access to light and guidance. Get rid of that stuff, surrender yourself, submit as a child on the floor in sajadah.
Pour out your heart to Allah, repent for your own. Empty your head there is nothing in it but bullshit; empty it out. And then say G’d now fill the crown for me with Qur’aan and the Sunnah of the prophet. That is what you should do. Then you will be alive again, and you will have the hope to join the race of men and women.
Because believe me, there is a great elimination process going on, and most of you are not staying around here on this earth; you are going fast. Allah most high says: Khalaqa Allahu assamawati waal’arda bil-haqqi inna fee dhalika laayatan lilmumineen, G’d have created the heaven and the earth in truth, and surely this is a sign for the believers. G’d have created the heaven and the earth in truth.
What does it mean? It means more than I can tell you in the limited time that we have here today, however, this perhaps would suffice for today: It means that there is no guess work, there is no room for playing, guessing, changing, what G’d has made the order of the heavens and earth. Whatever you do will be killed, whatever you do will be cancelled out if it does not agree with the scheme of G’d for the heavens and the earth. That is what it means. All of your efforts are futile, of no consequence.
You will be deceived by your own works thinking you are doing something, making a big change. You have not touched a thing. You will die and your works will die. And the order that G’d established remains. That is the lesson that wise men have learned, and that is the lesson that they keep and pass on to their children.
They become servants of G’d. Surely there is a sign for believers in a sense of responsibility makes---a sense of responsibility makes possible greater productivity; the less sense of responsibility in a people, the smaller their works; the greater the sense of responsibility in the people, the greater their works.
We have been conditioned by past bad experiences, uprooted from Africa, brought under the power of another people, suffering centuries of slavery, brutal slavery, the worst kind of slavery that ever existed in the history of man; reduced to no more than a dumb animal for torture.
Because many dumb animals are cherished and loved by their masters, but many of us were reduced to a dumb animal for torture, shame and torture that delighted, the … deranged, insane, whites that wanted to vent their evils on another people who were helpless.
This is no more than the truth. If you are not strong enough for it, you ought to go kill yourself. Yeah, you are not strong enough now, go kill yourself, finish it. Because we do not need anybody around here on this earth in these days and time who cannot stand up to truth. If you cannot stand the truth, you ought to go find a planet for yourself---go---you ought to find a planet of your own.
So since you do not have the light you have been conditioned, you have been conditioned to seek relief. The white man is not motivated by needs to seek relief, the white man is motivated by a need to stay in front, he is motivated by a need to stay ahead of other people. You are motivated by a need to seek relief.
You want more food, better food, more transportation, better transportation you want more lodging, better lodging, right? Yes that is right, say you want equal opportunities; you want more opportunities, to do what? To work for more food, better food, more clothes, better clothes, more transportation, better transportation, more lodging, better lodging, that is all you want more opportunity for.
I am talking about the majority of you. The majority, the great majority of African- Americans and the ignorant masses, all they want is more opportunity to satisfy animal-level needs. For that is all an animal needs clothing, an animal needs sex, an animal needs food, an animal enjoy better food, just start feeding your animal better food and then feed them that stuff after a month and go back to the inferior stuff that you gave them, then you will see he appreciates better food, too.
So you are not any better when you just want better food, better lodging and better transportation and more sex. You haven’t gotten any place. You have not gotten any higher than a roach, or a rat, or a dog. That is right; you are no higher than they are. But when you look at the world and see flaws in it---in the world of man---when you look at the world of man and see flaws in it. When you look at the world of man and see critical needs in it, and you begin to desire to do something about the situation, then you have started to be a man. But you look at man’s world and say “I want more food, I want more clothes, I want more transportation”, you are nothing but a dog or a rat or a snail or something asking for some more animal needs. You are just asking for some more animal needs.
And that is what they do not want to happen. They do not want the masses of the people to rise above animal level existence. See they can care for animals, they have jungles, they have cages, there are people that want pets. There are insecticides and germicides and other things to take care when it gets to be too many. But conscious men and women is something different.
G’d say waif’aloo alkhayra, do good. But this is not good just like g-o-o-d. When we read “good” in English, g-o-o-d, the first thing come to our minds is sentimental things. Say “do good”, and we start thinking sentimentally. We start thinking, do not do bad.
So with us, it is good suggests bad, say do good, it suggests that somebody did bad. But when G’d waif’aloo alkhayra, it does not suggest that somebody did bad. It suggests that somebody is doing nothing or not enough. See the difference?
It suggests that somebody is doing nothing or not enough. G’d says waif’aloo alkhayra The word for good in Arabic is hard to translate in English. It means that that is good by reason of it being in G’d's plan, in G’d's purpose as a need in the life of man that is why it is good. In simple language, it is good because it has utility for the betterment of life that is why it is good.
And everything that G’d have created; it has some khayr to it. The fire that burns, does it not have khayr? Yes. The liquor that makes us drunk, does not it have khayr? Yes, alcohol has great khayr. And G’d said it, “in it are benefits to man”. But it says “its harm is greater than its benefits”. Meaning that more people suffer from alcohol than are benefited by it, that was true then, it is true today; right or wrong? We use it to clean our wounds; they use it in the hospital to sterilize the doctor's tools, instruments. But when we weigh the service that it is doing on earth to the harm that it is doing on earth, the harm even today after 1400 years outweighs its good.
But nevertheless, if we could just stop people from drinking and killing themselves, destroying themselves or making a great risk to life and use it for its good purposes, then we would think of khamr alcohol as utility, as a good, as a useful thing to society and man, it is harm would then have been gotten rid of. So G’d says waif’aloo alkhayra--- waif’aloo alkhayra means do good. But understand here the meaning of “good”, because in Arabic there are many meanings for good. “Tayib” means good. “hasan” means good. There are a lot of words for good.
But this word khayr, it means that that has been put in the scheme of G’d, in G’d's plan, to bring utility for the betterment of man's life. This is a khayr for you. So G’d say fasting is a khayr for you, and the physical things that we use, the very creation itself is a khayr---abstract as well as concrete there is khayr for us. When G’d say fasting is khayr for you, he means that it has practical benefits for you, it as well as increase you in virtue and that is a khayr. Many people cannot see the abstract gain as a practical benefit. Let me tell you, it is the abstract gains that are the strengths, the supports for every other gain. Without them, you have---the other gains are nothing.
When did this western world---America and the rest---when did they get in real trouble, materially? It is when they got in trouble spiritually; when their value systems became confused. That is abstract, is it not? Values are abstract. When their value system became confused, their world suffered like an earthquake. Their academic world suffered like an earthquake. And also the economic world of the West suffered like an earthquake. An earthquake comes and shake the foundation, weaken the foundation and confuse the foundation, and brings things down that were structured.
That is exactly what is happening to the western world, economically and in every other sense, almost. That is what is happen. Why? Because the spirit went wrong---the spirit went wrong, the vision went wrong, the values were wrong, destruction came.
If you were understanding it with the eye of the intelligent person, America has been destroyed while you have physically been on it living. That is nothing but reality. America has been destroyed while we have physically been here living. We have witnessed the destruction of America.
Just because they still have big store of bombs, atomic bombs, and great fleets, and spaceship going out, that is not the proof of life. The proof of life for Americans is in the value system of the American people; it is in the value system of the American people; it is in the spirit of the American people; it is in the vision of the American people. Spirit gone, vision lost, value system destroyed, people are destroyed.
Civilization for America is not the same anymore. We have been turned over to a great crazy jungle, one big Woodstock. You should understand these things. And then you as people who came into a sense of the greatness of this country as slaves, and then began to aspire for an equal share in the greatness of this county, and were denied that and did not achieved that, and saw the destruction of the country before you got your share.
You who have never had your great aspiration to realize a share of a great America, you should be the one leading America back into greatness, because you did not get yours. You do not understand. I am telling you people do not understand. If you understood what I am saying, you would be shouting.
If you understood what I am saying, you would say I am free, because what I am saying is freedom. It makes possible success, not for you as an individual, but for you as a people. And G’d have made it easy because the people who will stand in your way are weak.
They are not strong anymore, they are weak. They are so weak that if you make a dying effort to do it, they'll follow you. And they tell their white brothers and sisters, I do not care what color he is, I am following him because their situation is just that desperate.
Maybe they got something coming, but all I see so far is nothing but patch work on something that is finished. And this has happened before. We are not talking about something that has never happened before, it has happened before. That civilization that have come up and ruled the world, had their beautiful time, heyday of their life, and suddenly came to an end.
While the country was not invaded, no foreign power came on their land; but they just went down and became dust. So history gives us that. Maybe Allah has chosen this little few---stretch your imagination a little bit---maybe Allah has chosen this little few, those that love Allah, this Qur’aan, Muhammad. Maybe Allah have chosen this little few, and maybe said I am going to in spirit, I am going to make this people high spirited. I am going to make them have daring ability. He is going to give them the sense of power and courage and faith in what they can do, for my pleasure. Or make them feel bigger than the people who towered over them. And through them I am going to lead the way for the rest of them.
How do you know that is not G’d's plan? Because if it is not his plan, why has he given me this spirit? That is my spirit. My spirit is not to follow your people. I have no spirit to follow any of your people. Why is that spirit in me? I am not a vain man. I am not a guru man. I want nothing for myself, really. I would be happy to go with Shirley and with my family, and go away from everybody.
And just live a peaceful life until I am finished. So why have G’d given me this spirit? It is not for me. I do not need it personally. And my wife is not demanding this of me. She does not care one way or the other. She'll be happy if I just take her and her and the family somewhere as long as she knows the bills are going to be paid and I am going to be her sweetheart.
So I ask the question. If you are all believers, if you a believer in G’d, I am asking you a question; why has G’d given me this troubling spirit? That won't allow me to stay with Shirley? Won't allow me to go off from the people, but force me to address you and tell you to open up your mind and open up your heart and open up your vision to see bigger, to think bigger, to sense bigger, and to feel bigger.
Why has G’d given that to me? I think it is because he has chosen me and you to bring in a new world. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar that is right. Do not think it cannot be done. It has happened before, it can happen again.
Allah, most high, said in his book, he says to Prophet Muhammad, [Arabic language]. He says, Otlu ma oohiya ilayka mina alkitabi waaqimi assalata, recite what has been revealed or inspired in you from the book---the revelation. Waaqimi assalata and establish prayer. Inna assalata tanha AAani alfahshai waalmunkari, surely prayer wards off indecency and evil.
Odious hateful things, all gotten rid of by prayer. See how important it is for us to keep up prayer; to be regular in our prayer, to feel it a great duty and obligation. And if we do not do it, do not dismiss yourself. Do not say, well, I knew that. He cannot do that in America. Do not have that kind of attitude. Feel bad about it.
Even if you couldn't do it because of a great necessity, still feel bad about it. And if you do, Allah will make a situation one day where we can do it. He will give us an Islamic economy. He will give us a Muslim economy, a community economic bay, so that we won't have to work for people who will keep us away from our belief. So we can make our five prayers right on our jobs.
Do not stop hoping for these things. You should never be satisfied with less than what Allah has prescribed to us. Keep that spirit in there hope in you. Aspire for the greatness that Allah has shown to us. And I am telling you, in time, the possibilities will be here. And G’ds says walathikru Allahu Akbar, and remembrance of G’d is the greatest; is greatest---Akbar. What does Akbar mean? They know what it means, it means what is says, right there: greater.
Prophet Muhammad, when he went to battle, you know what his battle cry was? It was no bugle. There were no drums like the Romans, stomping upon earth. No, it was “Allahu Akbar”! That is what it was. What is coming behind, G’d is greater? So when the Prophet Muhammad told us the meaning of Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar covers everything.
If I am dealing with a moral problem, and I want moral help, Allahu Akbar, G’d is the greatest for me---if I remember him walathikru Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar. If I remember him and think of him and pray to him, he is the greatest help I can get. And everything else comes as a consequence of him Okaying it.
Yes, nothing good can come to you without G’d allowing it. Death and nothing no harm can come to you without G’d allowing it. Allah tells us in his Qur’aan, “Do not fear death”. A Muslim is not one sitting around fearing that somebody will kill him. No. Allah says no death can come except Allah allows it.
Allah tells them in this Qur’aan---if we understand the science---Allah tells us in the Qur’aan, that he is the only one who can take life. You may see yourself, look, look, look the proof of it is, look at all these attempts to take life here lately here and failed.
I heard just the other day. A man tried to take his life and his girlfriend's life. He was 70 years old, I think. And he had problems with this girl, 22. Now this is no joke, this is real it just happened lately. He takes his gun---this actually happened within the last week or so. He was 70 something I am not sure, but he was just a little over 70.
He took his gun and he shot the girl once in her head and killed her. Then he took the gun and turn it on himself, he did not shoot himself in the head. He shot himself in the stomach three times. Neither he nor the girl died. Now he thought he has the power to kill. He had a gun that is supposed to be the power to kill, he got a gun, he thought that he had the power to kill.
But he shot the woman in the head, she did not die. He shot himself in the stomach three times, he did not die. Looks like he is going to face trial and the girl will have the chance to ask him “why did you shoot me in the head? Why did you do that?” But, then if you all can send a letter, or a message to the girl, tell her that I the said that the reason why he shot her in the head once, it was because he thought what was wrong with her was her head. And the reason why he shot himself in the stomach three times, he thought what was wrong with him was his appetite. The girl had wrong thinking and he had the wrong appetite. Barely an attempt wasn’t it?
And G’d says, “surely that the memory of G’d is the greater, and many Muslims they understand this, as it means the greatest power on earth; the greatest power possible for man. If you want power to aid you---remember G’d.
Once you remember him, he remembers you. That is what he says in the book. If you will remember me, I will remember you. And when he says “I will remember you”, he means “I will respond to you”. That is what G’d mean. If you remember me, then I will come to your needs. I will come to your aid. WaAllahu yaaalamu ma tasna-‘aaoona and G’d know what you are doing. But this word tasna-‘aaoona means what you were doing to get ahead.
The same word in Arabic is used in another connection to condemn the person, says “And those who are busily working and reckon their works to be a credit in the eyes of G’d”. We are busy trying to structure something, to achieve something, to accomplish an end. And they reckon, they reason within themselves that that their tasks and their works are something that G’d is going to favor and that G’d loves.
And do not you know these people we see them in the world all the time? They build, put up then great money, millions and millions on recreational facilities, sports facilities, and will not spend that on education and in the poor community.
Spend plenty of money on games; plenty of money on sport and play but will not spend half or a tenth of that money to improve the intellect of the poor community. And they do reckon that their works to be something that make them look good in G’d's eyes. 
They honor such people. They built this and they gave this and they made and they donated that. They made it possible for these children to come out here and do hula hoops and jump in the water. And the same children will have no help for their brains; no help for their hearts, right?
Yes. And then there are those that envision the future of man and use science blindly without respecting what G’d has ordered and what G’d has told man in the scriptures. And they build a world and in fact they building it to the glory of man and G’d. They thought they were building these ghettos, or building these metropolis to the glory of man and G’d. And then later saw the consequences of their own work as nothing but trouble in the life of man; death and pollution to the plants; death and pollution to men. They came to realize late at the end of their works that what they were doing was detrimental--- very harmful to the life of plant and men---to plant, animal and men.
Why? Because they ignored G’d. They were just going to build a name for themselves trying to prove that they are supermen. Again, Allah most high says in his book, Waan laysa lilinsani illa ma s’aa, there can be nothing for the human being without him striving for it and his striving shall materialize. Now if Karl Marx had said that, oh boy, his slaves would be out there, and holding up his slogan up on the sign. They would be marching all up and down the street with his slogan on the sign. G’d has said that. G’d have said that. You should be marching with it on a sign. You should be marching through the slumbering wasted ghettos, blighted areas of the city with Qur’aanic verses. “And surely the human being can have nothing without striving for it. And his striving shall soon materialize.”
Is not that a great message to the people without hope, whose hope has been killed? Spirit has been killed? Faith in the future has been killed? Who think life is just gone, and there is nothing to do but just playing it out until you are dead?
Would that not be a great message to carry on your placards, or your signs, through the neighborhood? Say, "G’d say that human being can have nothing without striving for it. And your striving will soon materialize." That is help. That is a message of hope. I hope you are accepting everything I am saying, and in the context of the talk which is that the Muslims must have faith and a sense of responsibility.
And that all should be determined or identified or seen within the context of Qur’aan and the religion as demonstrated in the life of our Prophet, peace and the blessings be upon him, and we pray that he guide our hearts and guide us and strengthen our hearts in the faith and forgive us for our sins, rabbana la tuzigh quloobana ba’ada idh hadaytana wahab lanamin ladunka rahmatan innaka anta alwahhabu. Ameen
Pardon me, this is not part of the address, but this is just my aspiration that I hope you will share with me and I do believe many of you share. I do believe that a great number of Muslims that have yet not given up on this religion, who have not fully come to know this religion yet, but who have not given up on this religion. I believe that there is a great number out here on this East Coast, especially in the New York area.
And I think we should be as---I will say---faithful and as courageous as we were in this day and time as we were-- when we were struggling with the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed. In fact, we have it in the religion, where G’d says—“And glorify G’d with the devotion that you had when you were ignorant when you were glorifying your false G’ds. But He said—“and even more.” So G’d required of those people who were converted from the wrong way that once they accept the right way, they should be half hearted, they should be half spirited. They should be even as enthusiastic behind the right as they were behind the confusion--and even more enthusiastic.
I remember we secured with the help of the wonderful brothers in New York and the sisters supporting them, we secured the Madison Square Garden for a meetings some years ago. We should secure the same facility. I want equal to that or better, again. It is going to cost money, but we should do it.
Look how much money they spend to sell their products. That will be money to stay on facility. That money could go to help some poor people. Do not you know that poor people are helped from this religion is published more? Yes.
So let us think about that. I would like to see us come back here in a big facility that will house thousands of people, and prepare for 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000. We will address the public, and Muslims will address the Muslims. The public will be invited. And let the public hear how we address the Muslims. We won't be addressing the public.
We will be addressing the Muslims. We want the public to know that we do not have any secret thing going on here. We invite the public to see what the Muslims life is, what the Muslims are all about, what we want. So, we will address the Muslims regarding the Muslim life, the Muslim meanings, the Muslim future, and the Muslim role, our role in the life of community, the Muslim destiny, and the Muslim relationship to the outer community.
We will address the Muslim and invite the public to come see. We will say, now see, "Can you live with these people?" This is us. Can you live with us? We invite you to see us. Come and see us. We want to live with you. Can you live with us? And you who have nowhere to go can you join us? You who are lost and not satisfied with your life would you like our company? Come on in our company. Yes. Why should we not do that? That is our duty. It is our duty to do that.
You think my Prophet Muhammad was satisfied just to give his religion and give it to his wife? [Laughs] So I think we got some people. I've been encourage by what I've heard from New York already. I think we got some people here and I think we can do it. We should get a big facility invite people, all the Muslims East Coast come. In fact those out of their region. If they are close by within reason, they should come. everybody should come. Invite the public to see what the Muslim vision is--
[02:38:18] [END OF AUDIO]

