10/14/1990
IWDM Study Library
The Management of Obligations and Circumstances

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker 1: Takbeer
Audience: Allahu Akbar
Speaker 1: Takbeer
Audience: Allahu Akbar
Speaker 1: Takbeer
Audience: Allahu Akbar
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed: Assalam alaikum.
Audience: Wa alaikum salaam.
Mohammed: That is, peace be unto you.

We witness that there is only one G-d, and that Muhammed is a messenger of G-d. We pray the prayers, and peace be on him, on his companions, his descendants, the righteous all, and on us be peace.
First, I have to say that I got more than I expected last night from attending the appreciation dinner and fundraiser, fundraising affair for the Tulsa Muslim Community here, or Masjid. I didn't expect that there would be as many honoraries, and as many most worthy honoraries, as they were.
I didn't expect that I would hear words of strength and encouragement coming from a lady 90 years old or more, and I think 94-- Miss Mabel Little. I was really moved very deeply by her words as, obviously, was each of us who attended and heard her words last night.
We'll be talking on the practical application of the teachings of this religion, the sources of us being, the Quran, and the life as lived by the prophet himself, Muhammed. On him be the prayers and the peace. But before going in to the address, I want to bring something to your attention, because I share, the concern best expressed here to you in a book that was with Miss Mabel Little.
The book is by her, and when I learnt that she had books with her that she had herself written, I asked my daughter, Imam Hafiz's wife, and my assistant also, and the Secretary of the Department for the Muslim American Community Assistance Fund, Sister Bakeerah. I asked her to be sure and get me one of those books. So, we waited patiently until Bakeerah could get the attention of Miss Mabel Little, and purchase one of these books for me.
I told her I would give her the money but she never told me a price. Did she purchase the book?
Congregant: yes
IWDM: Yes. The price wasn't too much?
Congregant: No
IWDM: I can afford that, okay. All right. Thank you. I was going to ask the office about it, if it was too much.

She mentions in here, a respect she has for Booker T. Washington. I don't know how many of us are still aware, or how many of us have been informed of the life, the principles and beliefs of Booker T. Washington.
For the sake of feeling comfortable with you, as I mentioned him, he was one of the two personalities in the opinion of most of the African American informed people and leaders, who represented the concern or the movement of the African American people during the history of our struggle, up from slavery.
Many of the statements that we use, as Black nationalists, as Black Muslims, and I am quoting the press now, that's not our terminology. We just called ourselves Muslims, and followers of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, or followers of the Nation of Islam, but the two people who influenced the movement and its direction, perhaps more than any other back there at the time, even till now maybe, Booker T. Washington and Du Bois.
Du Bois was a first one who started the N.A.A.C.P., and later, it became the organization that we know right now, that we know of. Du Bois was described as a Black or African American intellectual. He's well educated, Doctor Du Bois.
Booker T. Washington was with education too, in fact, the Tuskegee Institute, I think, was his work, his achievement. He was there too, but he put emphasis on the common ability of the people and what they had achieved so far, pardon me, in slavery and after slavery, and that he emphasized that we should start right there with what we already have and build on that.
As a result, he got a following. He got many followers, and he was more patient with the White establishment. I wouldn't say more patient. He was more patient but I see him as being a man of wisdom. I think he was wiser in dealing with the establishment than Du Bois and many others.
Not to put Du Bois down, both were very necessary in my opinion, the intellectual view and direction, and also, pardon me, Booker T. Washington's view and direction for the person with their common abilities and whatever professional skills they had learned, like taking care of the White man.
They said you can take care of the White man, then use that to make money, open a business. I think that makes good sense. If you could cook for him, you can cook for the public. If you could do his wife's hair, you can do hair for the public. So, that was Booker T Washington's- part of his philosophy, and I have a lot of respect for that.
Mrs. Mabel Little- she says that, I believe more than ever today, that Booker T., had what the Black race needs. I just thought that I should bring that to your attention the woman who spoke to us last night, special women, very special woman, obviously a strong believer in G-d, that G-d have been her social strength all her life till now, and a kind of a preacher for G-d because she didn't just acknowledge God, she asked us to really accept that G-d too.
So, I have a lot of respect for her. I thought I would bring that to your attention so you'd understand me better. I want to begin with focus on the role of concepts in shaping our lives. The role of concepts in shaping our lives.
The word of G-d to us, the Quran, which I'll be referring to occasionally, but because I know the nature of the American audience, the makeup of the American audience, I won't be giving a lot of Quran, because I don't want to ignore many for the sake of a very few. As we don't have time to teach Arabic, not on this trip, and that's not the purpose.
This is a public meeting. We should understand what we're participating in. We call this a public address, and I mean it to be a public address. If it's nothing but Muslims, a hundred percent Muslim there, well, that's who we will address, that's who we will deal with.
Every time we say a public address, I am speaking for myself personally; I intend that it be a public address. I would be happy to see the majority here being members of the public. I would be happy to see that. I want to see all the Muslims, but I also want to see the public.
Why? Because I have made an obligation to learn about this Christian public and I know because of me having a sincere desire to learn about the Christian public of America, I have a better respect for Christian individuals. I have a better appreciation for the Christian citizens of this country and I have a two-fold purpose in bringing them understanding of us.
One is in hopes that they will see the beauty and value of this religion. If they are in something of less value to them, they will select this one and at least if they don't select it, at least try it. See our religion is a religion that you don't have to accept right away. You can try it. Our religion permits you to try living a life of a Muslim and when you're ready to become a Muslim, then you say, "I witness, I bear witness that there is but one G-d. I bear witness that Muhammed is his messenger". This religion allows you to try it out.
Many people were invited to investigate this religion by the prophet; he invited them to investigate it, to study it. He didn't just tell them, accept it. He invited them to investigate it, to study it, to compare it with what they had, with what they received from their forefathers. He invited them to look into the religion, to study the religion and to get acquainted with it, to even try it.
What do I mean by that? Try praying to Allah. Learn how we pray to Allah, you try praying to Allah. You don't have to make a confession before you pray to Allah, there's nothing in the Quran that says that. You don't have to make a confession before you behave like Muslims if you want to try a Muslim behavior, try it. When you're convinced you like it then take the testimony-- The witness. Bear witness and become officially or formally declared Muslim.
This is not say, who is speaking on his own now. No, top people in this religion, top scholars in this religion will tell you the same thing. We want to look at certain concepts. The concept of man we find in Quran, the origin of man, the beginning of man. A definition for man comes with the concept that is in the Quran and also the prophet's beginning, the beginning of his prophethood tells us something about the prophet himself too, gives us a concept of the prophet.
The prophet, peace be upon him, he received five verses from G-d. The first of the verse that he had received from G-d as Revelation. Said, "Read". R-E-A-D. Read. He was not a lettered person. He was not the one who was taught reading. He replied, "I am not able to read, I am not a person who have been taught reading." The order came the second time and it is said that it came a third time.
He began to recite what G-d revealed to him, "Read. Read in the name of your Lord who created. Created the human being, a man from a small congealed clot of blood". “Min alaq” a clot and we understand that to be a clot of blood, the beginning of life, the blood in the womb. Says, "Read". Again it said, "Read and your Lord is most generous who taught man to use the pen, made scribes to leave wisdom, to leave knowledge et cetera, to record what they had learned". Said, "Who taught man what he was not before knowing".
Taught man-- That G-d taught man what he was not before knowing. There is a definition if we understand it. There is a concept of the beginning of our prophet's prophethood and a definition of what the prophet is. The prophet is a teacher, the prophet is one educated by G-d to teach others. Prophet Muhammed the teacher, educated by G-d to teach the multitudes. In fact, the whole humanity if they would respond to him.
When it comes to the beginning of man in the Quran, Allah says the first man that we understand to be the first man Adam, upon him be peace. He said that He told the angels first, G-d informed the angels that he was going to create a human being, a man. They became disturbed, this is the Quranic version. They became disturbed that G-d was going to create a creature that would exercise free will, whereas the angels do not exercise free will. This is the concept of angels in Al-Islam, they don't exercise free will, they obey without any free will to disobey. They just obey the orders of G-d.
They were disturbed by that and they asked about the frightening possibilities, there was going to be killing and bloodshed and et cetera. As the report goes, the revelation goes, G-d told them that He was the knower not them and the angels submitted. They said, "We have no knowledge except what You have given to us". That was the angels' reply and we know the beginning of the creation of man is also the beginning of Satan because the angel who was the archangel in charge of the angels, the leader of the angels, he was different.
He was capable of free will and he opposed G-d's plan. G-d said, "Wait until I have breathed into him of my spirit, then make submission to him". The idea we get is that the concept of man in just the ordinary human form, and with ordinary human capacity will frighten people if you give that to the public-- If you give that kind of public authority, free will and authority but G-d is saying, you shouldn't fear if that particular creature that you are now fearing accepts My will, My spirit into him and live for My will, for my purpose.
This is the authority upon which G-d made his plan and made his decision. Is that the man of free will being my creation, he will in time choose me. He will choose me, he will choose my will and my purpose and you will have to accept him because G-d is going to back him up. That's the way we understand that but getting closer now to what I want to bring to your attention. G-d to show the angels His Judgement, He said to Adam, He said, "Adam, tell them their names".
Now, Adam was seen as a creature that was going to make a lot of problems because he shouldn't be trusted with free will, he didn't have the ability or capacity for that. G-d approved something that they didn't know, He said, "Adam, tell them their names" and Adam told them their names which says a lot that we are not going to discuss at this meeting.
Let it suffice to say that G-d created the human being with something that puts the human being in a situation above the angels. Not that the human being is above the angels in the complete sense, no, but because of a certain thing that G-d gave the human creation, the human creation is situated to be above the angels at least in one respect. I find that very comforting. I don't like to think that I am created to sin and I don't like to think that I have to become an angel in order to be perfect. I would like to think that I can become a good human being and make a mistake tonight and still be perfect. I'm a perfect human being. A perfect human being does not mean that I'm an angel, it means that I'm a perfect human being and a perfect human being is a well-meaning person that will repent for wrong, that's a perfect human being. A well-meaning person that will repent for the wrong that he or she does, that's a perfect human being and that's as perfect as I want to be.
Our religion requires that we have respect, real regard for concepts and that with this regard, or as this regard grows in us, also, we will begin to realize improved perception. Definition is very important for us in this religion. It is not enough to just say I'm human and not know the definition. Muslims are supposed to live a conscious life. Everything we do, we should want to do it with a conscience. We should want to do it with an awareness of what we're doing. Being more clearer, we should want to have knowledge of what we're doing. We're not to do things without knowledge.
The prophet, peace and blessings be on him, he says, "Do not pursue things for which you have no knowledge base". You have no knowledge base, he tells us don't even pursue that; you have no knowledge base for it. What is he referring to? Spookism, superstitions that have no grounds, no basis. Fantasy that has no grounds, no basis in reality. I was making a talk once and people thought I was against fiction and I'm-- In fact it's hard to find anybody that's more a lover of fiction than I am, I really go for fiction but if I see fiction hasn't got no roots in reality, I'm through with it.
I only appreciate fiction because it's telling me something that I didn't know about reality. Now if it can't do that for me, I don't want any fiction. Let me try to complete this part on the perception. I heard a discussion on television, educational TV and one of the persons participating in the discussion said, "Perception is the function of all senses working together". I thought that was the best definition of perception I had ever heard.
We think of perception, perceiving with the eyes or seeing with the eyes and most of us think of perception as understanding. When you really think serious about what is involved in making it possible for us to understand, it ain't any particular thing. It's not just seeing with the physical eye. As that person said, there's a combination of senses working together to make it possible for us to understand or to really perceive correctly.
The time that we live in today, the time of the society. The problem for society today is what I'm referring to, makes it very difficult for us to have good perception. We're not even perceiving the members of the family correctly, most of us. We look at our brother and sister in the family, yet we're not perceiving them correctly. We're not perceiving the child, the baby that's depending on us in the household, in their room. Or the mother, of the parent, of the father, of both the parent. We're not perceiving each other correctly.
I'm not saying everybody but this is for the majority of us and for the majority of our household, we are not perceiving the members of our family correctly. The nature of the influences in the media and in the society, especially in the streets and common conversation of the people is such that we are hearing things that's coming from people with no roots, with no real roots. They have no real roots in religion, no real roots in education. We go to school, we learn something just to pass and get a diploma.
We're not really having any real roots; we're not there because we believe that something is there that our life needs. We are there because we believe there's something there that our career needs and it's a big difference between this world now that I'm seeing and the world that I was a child in. The world that I was a child in was greatly different. We had extremes, we had the bad people but they weren't the majority, it was different.
I'm going to say that in order to see something, to perceive something, or to define something, understand what we are seeing, perceive what we are looking at or what's around us, we have to begin with circumstances. What are the circumstances for us really being able to see and understand? Are they good or bad? We have to look also at the condition of the person, individual. What is the condition which-- That person's condition is part of the circumstances.
What is the condition of that person? Have they been cared for, are they in their good mind, have good sense been passed onto that person? We have to look at the condition of the person, has that person been mistreated so much that that person can't respond really to good sense? That person can only respond to his hurt, to his suffering? We have to look at the condition of the person too. I'm showing you what I believe to be steps toward perception and then we have to look at interest. Interest will be decided by circumstances.
When we were slaves and our freedom was restricted to going to bed in a little mud hut or something, and rising up before the sun and going to the field and ploughing or working in the field for the master and then returning to the bed. They were awakened in the morning, put into the field to work. When they got through working, go to bed and sleep because the master wants you up before sun.
That was the life of many slaves, not all slaves. Some slaves had different masters who had different circumstances and they had better circumstances for their slaves but for the great majority of the slaves, that was their life. What interest could that slave have? The master's driving his whole life from sun up to sun down, the master is deciding his whole life 24 hours a day. What interest could he have?
He lived his life under fear of the master and just answering the duties or the calls of the master. He had no opportunity to have an interest but you know the human being's soul, the soul that G-d made is so marvelous that in spite of circumstances like that, the soul can while working in that hardship, working in the field and suffering all that. The soul can take wings and fly from that situation but if we are looking from the outside, we can't work with that factor. We can't say well you know the nature of the soul; I'm sure many of those slaves. They were really not there working in the field.
Most of them were working in that field with fear on them and they were thinking that when this going to be over was, I want to go to bed, or I want to eat. The masters let them eat and sleep, that was about it and then the weekend Sunday was off. The master believed in the Christianity so he would let them off on Sundays, and Sunday was their day. Most of them followed the masters' religion because they didn't have any knowledge of any other religion. They would learn from the master how he worshiped and they tried to practice his religion. Now I'm not saying this to offend each other. Is that how we got Christianity? That's not how you got it; you all don't have it yet.

You're not getting Christianity. I was thinking of the people, not just audience. I'm speaking of the public and that's what you have to understand too. When I'm addressing the audience, I'm not talking to the limited number there; in fact, I include you in my delivery. We're delivering this because I look at you and I get even indications of what I should say sometimes. I forget about the script.
We are delivering this and we talking to each other too but the real audience is the big audience and when they finish, they're going to take my tape and send it to me or give it to me and I'm going to have it transcribed. It's going on air, the radio. We don't have much radio coverage but what little we have, it's going on the radio and it will be in our journal. Perhaps it will fall in other places too; sometime I pick up other publications and read what something I've said to these audiences. I am aware of the bigger audience and I hope to reach that big audience as much as possible.
We don't expect for a person to have good human interest if the circumstances are designed to kill or to not permit that kind of interest you see. Then, after interest, then we start to consider thinking. Say, "Hey man can't you think?" Maybe can. The ability to think needs circumstances; we need certain circumstances for the ability to even think as think correctly. Thinking in a certain way or in a definite way, we need a certain set of circumstances in order to have that freedom to think in a certain way.
The angels couldn't think. G-d created Adam and exposed him to things and he was able to think, G-d created him and then exposed him to things. Without being exposed to something, you are not going to think. If you think, your thinking is oppressed, your thinking is limited, your thinking is oppressed. Then after thinking comes opinion and this is where most of us are I hope. We are in a state where we entertain opinions and express opinions. I say I hope most of us are there because I met too many who weren't even there.
Next, after opinion, attitude. When you form an opinion, an attitude is going to automatically form behind an opinion. If you have a certain opinion of me, that's going to make you have a certain attitude toward me and many people think that I'm the one that came and sold all the properties of the nation of Islam, got rid of all the wealth and everything. If I did where is it? It's not with me.

Where is it? I'd be a fool to get rid of all the wealth and I didn't get a part of it. If I was low down enough to take the wealth, I should have some of it.

The opinion has to come before attitude, you have an opinion and then there's an attitude. After attitudes, you're going to have habits. Habits are going to form after attitudes. Now, you say well what good is this for this talk? I thought you were going to teach us the practical application of the teachings of the Quran and life Prophet Muhammed. This is, that's exactly what I'm giving you.
I'm not coming up with my ideas, I extracted this from the Quran and from the life of the prophet and you will find that what I'm giving you is universal and the prophet said I didn't come to give you some new fabricated teaching. Prophet himself established that what he came to give was not any new fabricated ideas, he came to give them what G-d had established in his plan, the universal truth but to complete it, to complete G-d's favor on humanity, to bring us more of that and to complete it for us.
If you find it to be just common knowledge, that's the beauty of our religion. Common knowledge. Believe me, the beauty of our religion Al Islam popularly called Islam, is common sense, common knowledge, common human ability, common human affections, common appreciation for things. This is the beauty of our religion. Although it has its appeal to the intellectual, to the person who appreciate the beauty of things, the aesthetic person. It has all of the appeals there but the real value of our religion and the real focus in this religion is on that that is appreciated by common people, common individuals. That's the most important thing for us in this religion.
After attitudes, the habits were formed. Many of us, our behaviors are decided by our habits. You have to think about these things. For many of us, our behavior is decided by our habits. We are going to do what we are in the habit of doing and what we are in the habit of doing is going to dictate our response to something else. That's pitiful, that's a pitiful state of life. That means that the life of that person is no better than the life for common ordinary animal, not even as good as the state of many animals.
Then for other of us going back, our behavior is decided by our attitudes. Our attitude decide how we are going to behave, how we're going to treat what’s being presented to us, how we're going to treat our obligations is going to be decided by our attitudes. That again is a very bad state of affairs. For others opinion, our opinion is going to decide how we're going to behave, how we're going to respond, how we're going to treat whatever is presented to us. Again, that's a bad state of affairs but it's better than those others.
Now when it comes to opinion, we look at opinion-- I'm entitled to my own opinion, yes you are. That's right, you are, you're free. You're entitled to your own opinion, that's the truth but if you respect yourself, if you value yourself, if you go out to select food and they had rotten tomatoes and fresh tomatoes, good tomatoes. Will you pick rotten tomatoes for lunch or dinner or will you pick the nice good ones? You'll pick the good ones, won't you? Well opinions come just the same way, there's rotten opinion.

Then there's good healthy opinion. We speak of opinions, we say he has his own opinion and that doesn't mean very much.

He has his own opinion, that's not a compliment. Very seldom, that's a compliment. He has his own opinion and we say he's a man of informed opinion. Now that's a compliment. Informed opinion, that's a compliment. We just shouldn't have an opinion; we should have an opinion that's supported by knowledge.
An opinion that is supported by knowledge that's respected, knowledge that is established, knowledge that will stand up not only where you're standing but if you walk down the street and stand up there, if you go across the country to stand up there. If you even go out of the country, it should stand up there. You see, establish knowledge for your opinion.
An informed opinion is what I believe Americans take pride in. Informed opinion. Our politicians, the best of our politicians, the best of our leaders have worked so that the public will have an informed opinion. An informed opinion is what really counts, if we can help our brothers and sisters who are just moving on, habits, attitudes and rotten opinions, we'll be doing a good service.
I think if we approach it with respect for them, there's no way for me to approach any human being without a sense of respect for that human being because my religion has educated me regarding the value of every human creature. I don't care what that human creature has done with himself or herself, or what the world has done to that human creature. I still respect what G-d created and this is the key for getting results for getting better results from the people that need our help. Respect what G-d created although you don't see it when you look at that person. We know G-d created it so it’s there. I don't like to get in a Christian circle of authority because I'm not an authorized preacher for Christianity. But the story when Jesus was asked to come and give life to someone who had been dead, now who in the world would ask somebody to come and help somebody that's dead, physically dead?
We don't ask nobody help of us, we do ask for help once we are certain that physical dead, you ask the end of helping. That's pray, pray for the soul. We take him to graveyard, we bury him and that's the end of it us having any hope for that person in this world as a physical living, but this person had faith that Jesus, peace be upon Jesus, could bring that person back to life.
I think the way the story goes that this particular poor fellow had been dead too long, so they asked Jesus help. When Jesus came and saw him, he said, "He's not dead, he's asleep."

This is the way I look at individuals that most of us will give up hope for. I say, "No, he's not gone. He's just not present."

I begin to try to give it all my best to bring him to show up.
I believe that Muslims should be established upon definitions. Many of us we say we are Muslim, but do we know the meaning of the term? Are we established in the definition of a Muslim? We say our religion is Islam, do we know the meaning of it? It's not enough just to say, "Yes, I know the meaning of Al-Islam. Islam is a religion of peace. Peaceful resignation to the will of G-d." That's not enough. You have to know the meaning of Islam in the context of the Qur’an

Who will be learning the meaning of Al-Islam. How are the Muslim going to know the meaning of the Islam if he doesn't read the Quran, if he's not familiar with the Quran? You won't know it. A Christian can tell you that Al-Islam means peace, but do they know the meaning of Al-Islam? 
Our life should be established upon definitions. For us, Allah is Lord but for many other people, G-d is Lord too. We have to understand the meaning of Lord for us.
I believe that it's the same for other people, but like us, other people too are just grab terms and go along with the surface or with the expressions, daily expressions and don't give serious thought to the meaning of what they are actually talking about or saying.
G-d says to prophet Muhammed in those first five verses that came to him of Revelation, "Read in the name of your Lord who created, your Lord who created." For us, Lord and Creator are the one and the same. We don't have the Creator and then the Lord as separate entities, as separate identity, no. The creator and the Lord, one and the same identity for us. We don't have G-d or Allah, one, and then Lord, another one. Somewhere else, another one, no. We have Allah, Creator, the Lord, same exactly. Lord for us is the creator. "Read in the name of your Lord who created. Created man from a clot." “Min Alaq”, is a clot. "Read and your Lord is most generous."
Now the Imam, Qasim Ahmed, he really, I thought, did an excellent job as a keynote speaker last night. If someone lost all of this, they better do something about it, it just clicked off. I'm going to be nice to you in waiting.

Send your contributions to M.A.C.A fund Post Office Box 1061 Calumet City, Illinois. Calumet City Illinois, don't forget that. 60409 zip code. Yes, the verse is saying to the prophet, "Read in the name of your who created."
Creator is the Lord, Creator is the Lord. "Who created man from a clot." Congealed blood. Now, it would help if you heard Imam Qasim's address last night. It would help because he went into some things that I'm not going to go into now, to show the evolution of the step by step process from water then blood, the clot and the fetus, and on up. The Quran gives this so beautifully and he mentioned he gave it last night in very, very entertaining and beautiful way and a profound way.
We understand this to be referring to the physical creation, our life as it begins with the physical creation. When we are born with this flesh body of ours, this physical body, then for us, life starts. There was no W.D. Mohammed or Wallace Deen before this came. Now some spooky people, they would say, "Yes, it was.", but I stopped right there. I stop where this stop. That's as far as I—I can’t go back any further. That’s enough. That's where I stop for me personally.
That's where I started. I started right with this. This goes into the ground at the end of my history here in this world, that's the end of my history. They put this in the ground and buried, that's the end of my history. Now what's going to happen after that, that's with G-d and I have faith in that, but I don't know anything about this. I stop right here, that's the end of my knowledge. I'm just telling the truth that’s the end of my knowledge. If you don't believe it, I said I have faith. That will be going on faith.
Beyond the grave, I'm going on faith. 
I'm just going on faith. I hope everything will be all right there. I'm going to trust in G-d all the way, Allahu Akbar but my knowledge is limit to this.
My mother was carrying me and I guess nine months before October 30th 1933, but when they gave me the birth certificate it was on October 30th, 1933. That's where the history started. When they signed that thing saying you're officially dead that will be the end of it. That would be the end of it. I am trying my best to make the best of my life between those two major events.
Yes, we have here the creation of man beginning with this physical body and also the creation of man beginning with something else. Read in the name of your Lord who created man from a clot. Read and your Lord is most generous who taught man.
Here, we have to understand that ‘Alama bil qalam”. We have to understand that there are two major occurrences that are necessary for human existence if it is to be real. These are the physical birth and the learning process. Isn't that what we are taught in higher education? We're taught that in higher education, that the child of the human person is formed in an environment that permits it to learn. If it doesn't learn, it will not come to be a true human person. We have evidence to back this up. There is the story of the Wild Boy documented by a student of anthropology. The story of a wild boy who somehow was left by parents among animals. And survived miraculously to live in an environment with animals. When they discovered this boy, this boy was behaving in every respect like an animal.
This boy ran and moved about like an animal, this boy made noises with his mouth like an animal. But they saved the boy from that environment, brought him into a human environment and he gradually began to learn how to speak and he became a human being. These are what G-d tells us in the Quran. The world of science and knowledge has already documented it, that that is a fact.
This is not just said in our religion, if you understand other religions, many religions say this very same thing but they just say it in different ways. If we don't keep our awareness, at least those who want to help others. I believe Muslims accept that we are our brothers' keeper. Prophet Muhammed says, "Help your brother even if he's the one doing the wrong." We don't give up on him even if he's the one leading the wrong doing.
The question was asked the prophet, prayers and peace be on him, how is that we understand that we are supposed to help a brother but how do we help him if he was doing wrong? The prophet said, "Help him by holding him back from wrongdoings." That's the obligation, we have the moral obligation.
Now, it follows then that this revelation in the Quran establishes that in as much as the definition and a definite order of events have to come into place to give us or the world, a physical delivery of a human person. It just doesn't happen any kind of way; it's not an accident that we come into this world a human physical person.
Certain things have to take place. You have to have a male and female come together and then the womb has to be impregnated. The two lives have to mix there and the germ has to grow of the mother and of the Father and go through definite stages that the Imam Qasim describes so beautifully and so entertaining last night in order for a physical, whole baby to be delivered from the womb.
G-d is saying to us as I understand it, just as definite circumstances have to exist in order for that physical birth to come and be realized. Likewise, a definite set of circumstances have to exist for us to come into the real human person, the person with awareness and of human ability in there.
You are not going to come into that fruition, that blossoming of that physical into a human person, a healthy, beautiful human person without certain things taking place in a definite order and in a definite progression. I may say then, that for this human physical body, we need a human state inside of it, don't we? What state is inside the human body? We have the physical body but what state is there? Is it the state of the animal?
Is it the State of the rock? A hammer? A bazooka? What is the state in here? You know what? A human being, because we have this free will, we can come into the form of a pistol and that's what we are. We just are a walking pistol. We won’t do anything but shoot people. We have the free will not to only become animate creatures and that we think, "He's nothing but all animal." That's sometime a compliment. Depends on who you're talking about. Some of you just say, "He's nothing but a vegetable." Again, that's a great compliment to some people. In our world, thank G-d; he's not a pistol and a rapid firing one, indiscriminately firing one.
There is also a third requirement, not just the physical and learning has to come, but learning has also a requirement according to these five verses that came in the in the first revelation to our prophet. That requirement is generosity. Now, that's the problem for the world.
The world is just not generous enough with its knowledge. If the world was generous and generous enough with its knowledge, we wouldn't have the burden on establishment and the burden on the public that we have. The burden on the poor, the burden on the rich, the burden on the establishment, the burden on the public would be great, much great, much less a burden.
It would be greatly removed if we had this generosity. Again, I say I'm stepping out of my territory when I use a Christian but Jesus said, "If your child asked for bread, would you give him a stone?" That's cruel. Now for the men in the religion, the pastors and preachers and learned people in Christianity, they understand what we're talking about, what that is and they perhaps know more about it than I do because I'm not a Christian preacher.
They understand that Jesus didn't mean, he meant it all right but it also has a connection with something else. He didn't mean that baby asked for bread, rye, white or something like that. Rye, white bread or something, Instead of you put that in the mouth, you then got a stone, put it in the baby's mouth.
He didn't mean that but he wanted to show you the cruelty that the child is asking for something that can be digested, something that tastes nice, something that is tasty, is suited to, is made for. Something that will go into the body and give it strength, take away hunger, give the body strength and make a contribution to the well being and development of the body.
The baby is asking for something like that and you go give it something that's hard on his mouth, doesn't taste good, will break up his teeth off, cut his gums. If it goes down, it hurts as it is going down and everything and it hurts even coming out. Depends on how large it is. Right? Yes, you give him something that is just bad on the whole system. Bad going in, bad while it's in, bad going out.
He's asking for something that's good going in, good while is in and good going out. Yes, the trouble is we are just not generous enough, we are generous enough. When you go to school and they start bombarding your mind with a lot of stuff you don't understand, that's giving you Stones. They're not giving you bread, they are giving you stones.
They are giving you some that you don't understand, something you can't appreciate, something you are not excited over, something that won't take away your hunger. Something that goes in bad and comes out bad. That's like giving you stones. The third requirement is that we be generous with knowledge and to be generous with it is to give knowledge that will help others get in your good situation.
To do that, you have to take the risk that others that you are helping may rise above you. Now, G-d has put it into our nature to want to see newcomers succeed us. The father and the mother, they don't want that child to stop where they are. They want their child to excel even them. They want their child to go further than they went. They want that child to grow up so they look up to that child.
You see how G-d has given us what we need to succeed in the society? Now we would accept that that saying that good excellence that G-d gave us for the family, he also gave us for the public, for society at large. Then we will be in a good situation. Why should I not give freely to your son and your daughter in the institute where I work, or in the elementary school, wherever it is, or in the factory wherever it is, or in the science department or the government, wherever it is. Why do I have that same love, that same excellence in me that G-d has given the parent? No matter whether that child is related to me by blood or not, don't you know when we treat people not related to us by blood different, we are still on the level of a savage? I mean a real savage.
What we call savage is not all the time savage, there are a lot of primitive societies that are much more civilized than we are in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and even Tulsa maybe, much more civilized. I'm not talking about that kind of savage, I'm talking about the person who is humanly deformed in his behavior, who is wild and destructive and don't appreciate things of values et cetera. That's the kind of person I'm talking about when I say savage.
Now, when we don't think that we should treat outsiders the way G-d has established for us to treat our own sons and daughters, I say we are still far from being evolved as civilized people. We are supposed to feel the same and G-d is my witness, I'm not here to make you look at me, I don't want you to look at me, I don't. I don't want you to look at me for my sins; I don't want you to look at me for my credits. That's not important to look at me, it's not important for me to look at you, it's important for us to look at what helps us all and what hurts us all. That's what's important.
Speaking to you and being very honest and sincere and truthful to you, G-d is my witness, I do not treat other people's children different than I treat my own, I don't. When I have someone else's child, I will give them the advice I give my own children. If I have something to offer them, what I won't give to my children, I won't give to them, I won't. If I don't think this sandwich is fit for my child, I won't offer it to your child, I won't. I want your child to have the best from my hand just as I want my child to have the best from my hand.
This is me and I'm not the only one, there are many people like that but there are too many that's not like that. If we were like that, we wouldn't have the problem in society that we have because knowledge would be given in a generous way. We would be generous with our knowledge. Knowledge is the best help you can give people in need. Knowledge.
Now we know sometimes you have to respond to the physical because the baby that's just born, can we give it the education? We can give it an environment for learning but we can't start with the first grade or even with preschool, the baby is just an infant, the baby is just here. What you will do is attend to the baby's needs right, you tend that baby's need. The baby wants food, you give it, the baby wants water, give it, whatever the baby wants to be cleaned, you clean the baby, the baby is uncomfortable, something is hard under the baby blanket and got wrinkles in it or something and the baby is not comfortable, you go and smooth it out, make it smooth under there so the baby will be comfortable, the baby will rest very comfortably. You just take care of the baby's needs, the baby is cold, you put a little blanket on there, if it's too hot, you start taking some of the clothes off. You attend the baby's needs.
Now, many of us in this society of grownups, we are just like that baby in that situation. All we want is somebody to tend our needs, we ain't ready to learn nothing, we ain't ready to crawl, we ain't ready to stand on our own feet, we're just ready to have nothing but somebody to tend our needs. It's too hot and we don't even explain why it's too hot. We're just like the baby, it's too hot.
Well, hell don't you know what's wrong?

Open the window.

Or turn the air-condition on, or hell, take this coat off me.
I'm not joking, talking about that's going extreme. Hell you see him with this damn heavy coat on, take it off.

If you have to take the coat off, take the heavy coat off me and I'll be so patient and it will be just like a newborn baby.
In order for this idea of human state to come that makes us comfortable with ourselves and feel good alone with ourselves. We have to have knowledge, proper knowledge and have to have an establishment or people who will not be stingy with it or selfish with it or hold us back by not giving us what they know; that they have for fear that our situation may become equal with theirs or surpass theirs. We have to get rid of that and Allah requires of us that we get rid of that, that we give proper knowledge and give it generously.
Now, I'm coming to another concept. Concept, that's mainly what we're going to be addressing now, is concept. Allah says and also in our holy book, says, "Is there not for G-d, the creation and also the command?" Most of us, we acknowledge that G-d is the creator well if G-d is the creator, if this creation belongs to G-d then G-d created us too. Then my creation belong to G-d, this is G-d's. G-d did this; it's G-d's creation. How many of us are willing to think of G-d as owner before we think of ourselves as owner? "This is my body". Well, where did you get it?

You got it, G-d created it for you and all the possibilities that you have are limited to creation. That's another thing, this is religion but this should really dawn on us.
All the possibilities we have are limited to creation, you don't have any abilities outside of creation. No matter what you do and that you like to be proud of or like you feel so special about, you couldn't do it without your creation. Allah made it possible, whatever you want to call G-d, made it possible for you when He created everything and you have no possibilities beyond creation.”Oh I have my own imagination”, try to imagine anything without creation. Just try it. You'll go insane and your insanity will also be a product of creation.

You have nothing outside of creation. Allah is the creator of everything, yes. We give all this credit to man, man is our great benefactor. He couldn't create a thing without G-d, he can't make or create a thing without G-d, he can't imagine anything without G-d giving him something to work with. Fantasy ain't nothing but a distortion of what G-d created.
We let the kids play with ABC blocks, put them in there anyhow you want. They go ABCDEFG all the way down to the end to Z but we give the blocks to the baby and the baby can play with them, put them anyhow they want and the baby come up with BCD

And may say I never saw that, you never saw that or heard it before did you?

Well, the blocks did it, you couldn't do it without the blocks.
I want to emphasize here the Muslim concept of ownership. We don't believe that we are the absolute owners of anything, only Allah is the absolute owner. Great peace comes when you accept that. When you think that you own your children, you're in trouble because when they start to torture you, all that burden's on you. That's my child. Me, they start to torture me, I say, "Yes that child is from me all right, from my loins". I'll start saying that you left that language out, that, "That's my child". I start saying, "Yes that child is from me, from my loins".

I don't know what else is in my loins.

Whatever is there I didn't put it there, it was in my loins when I was created.

That was mine as long as it was formed in me but that's somebody else's dad. I think he was made down the street . Yes, the possibilities for him are so many, he can become anything and when he becomes what you don't want to acknowledge, you're in trouble. If you say that, "I'm the owner, that's my child". That's nice to say that, I say that too, "That's my child". Believe me; I love all my children very dearly and very deeply. I love them and I like to say my child too, my son, my daughter. I love to say that but when I say that, I'm aware that my possession of them is after Allah's possession. They belong to Him first, then to me. To G-d first and then to me. When you think like that, you are in a much better situation to survive in this world.
You may have a thriving business, "My business" but who made it possible? You lose the business, you go insane. "My business" but if you say G-d giveth and G-d takes away, I'm giving you the Christian language. G-d giveth and G-d takes away, isn't that a better way to live with this reality? Yes, that's a better way to live with it. Not that you are going to neglect it, no, you're going to care more about it. What is the logic there?
Look, if you believe that G-d is the highest reality and then you believe that that highest reality is your partner in success, aren't you going to respect that partner in your success more than you respect this ordinary Joe Blow? I know I do. I see Allah as my partner in my success so I respect Allah in my life as my partner much more than I respect Johnny Go Blow or something. Yes. That makes me more conscientious, that makes me work more harder and more diligently, that makes me work more to secure what I'm bless with because Allah is my partner in this.
I didn't do this alone; Allah is my partner in this. I believe that accounts even for my respect for my car. I let one young fellow-- How am I going to tell on him? I let him have my car; he had it for almost about two years.

Yes, he did and he's a good driver, believe me, he's a good driver but he got tired of it and he wanted a new car. I guess he doesn't have the same kind of relationship I have with the superior partner, Allah. He's going to show me now that he doesn't accept anymore this car, he wants a new car. He starts to neglect that car, when I got it back, it was in bad shape. I got it back and I put it back in good shape, I ride around him with it. Now he's jealous.

I got it in good shape, it's in very good shape again and I believe the reason why I care for my things like that is because I'm aware always of Allah as the superior, as the authority in my life, as the cause behind whatever is happening. Yes, I recognize that and appreciate that and I believe that makes me respect everything much more better. What I'm saying is this, that the most productive force in our life is the sensible regard for the creator, the Lord creator who has power and authority over all things.
Now, with ownership comes authority. Well, who has the ownership? The one with the ownership has authority. A lot of us want authority without ownership responsibility right? What are you saying in this? You said G-d is the owner, now you're just talking about ownership? Yes, G-d is the owner but G-d permits us to have temporary ownership. It doesn't mean we are the absolute owner; I made it clear when I began talking about ownership that there is an absolute owner and none of us can be the absolute owner.
God allows us to have ownership. Ownership means that this is in your care; this is subject to you and is trusted to you, so it's really a trusteeship. A trusteeship as many learned people in our religion describes it. It's like a trusteeship but for all practical purposes, you are the owner there and believe me, you can't go to court and tell the-- I mean you get in trouble and tell the judge, say well, "Judge I'm not the owner". Judge said, "Well, who's the owner then, Allah?"

If you're in trouble with the law, the judge is going to say, "well okay, we're putting Allah and you in jail."

Say okay, you and Allah go serve your time, go with the Marshall. For all practical purposes, we have to accept that we are trusted with ownership, that we are responsible for ownership. When you accept ownership, the position or pardon me, the situation of ownership, the condition of ownership. The obligation of ownership, that's what I wanted to say, then you, can talk about authority.
How do we apply this in a practical way? I'm talking about big things, the small things, I like to talk about them too but I'm more interested in the big things. To me, nation is a big thing, citizenship is a big thing and I know not only the African Americans but we have a special problem. Most people in America, they have a problem benefiting from the reality of citizenship.
Citizenship is a resource; it's a resource for us. Citizenship, a great resource if you will approach it rightly, understand it rightly and approach it rightly and then you can benefit from it but if you don't, you can't benefit from it. When you don't benefit from it, then you are hurt by it. And many, the fact of your citizenship is hurting many of you, especially the African American or the black people. We don't like to think of ourselves as citizens of the United States of America because we are still responding to hurt. Present hurt or past hurt, we're still responding to hurt or denial, disappointment, unfulfilled dreams and expectations. We are still responding to hurt and we're not responding to positive things. We see citizenship as something we don't like to think about and a lot of them don't like me because I speak in an exciting way about American citizenship.
I understand the adverse things, I understand the bad things, I know the bad past and I know the adverse circumstances for African American people as citizens of this country. I'm aware of all that but I believe the greatest adversity we have to face is the adversity of our inability to take what is ours that this country has to offer. Whether you accept it or not, it's yours. Citizenship belongs to us whether we accept it or not. When we turn it down and don't want it, it's just like us saying this place has equal opportunity that was gotten for us by legislation but I don't want it.
To me, it's the same. If you turn down the benefits of citizenship, it's harder on you; it's worse on you than if you turn down an opportunity to move up in a factory or somewhere or in some establishment. To me, it's much worse because the gains there is nothing like the gains you can get if you began to build upon your citizenship rights.
What am I referring to exactly when I say building upon your citizenship right? If you have US citizenship, then you have protection under the law. If you don't get it locally, you can carry it to a high court, just your citizenship rights. If any citizen has the privilege to do anything and you learn that that privilege is there, you have the right to also that privilege. In fact, I don't know of any rights or any privilege that a citizen can have that is not open to every other citizen.
There are special passports that are given to certain individuals because they qualify. They're able with this special passport to travel more freely, to go into countries and contact people that average citizens with an average passport can't do. They're able to get certain benefits that average citizens can't get but isn't that happening within the citizenship of the city too? Yes, you can move up in the city and because of you moving up in that city, you get a card that will take you places others can't go. The same thing for your passport or for your citizenship papers. Same thing doesn't mean that that's not open to you; you can, if you have the qualification. You can go the same route that person get and get that special passport. Same thing. That's the way we should look at it. We have the same rights of citizenship that everybody else has. If a man from Georgia or from Boston can go to Communist China and buy their rugs, their carpets, so can we. If he can go to Canton, to the market there and buy from their market, so can we. If he can go to Kenya, so can we. That's where I want to see us move up to.
I want to see us move up to where we will be great support for our great achievers. We have great achievers; we have people going from the black community, from the African American community. I prefer the language African American. Going from the African American community, they're going overseas, buying and coming back here selling. They can't become successful in our neighborhood because we don't have enough worldly sense to appreciate what they are about, to appreciate their service, to appreciate their advancement and to support them.
We look at them many times and we're turned off because they are doing something that makes them tie in with establishment and we hate the establishment. We identify them with this establishment, they are successful, so we identify them with establishment. The only way you can be comfortable among the losers in our race and that's the majority.

I'm not making jokes, this is serious. You have to accept to want nothing and to go no place. How are we going to correct that? What I'm saying to you established people or you people who have an appetite for establishment like I do, I'm saying to you, did you hear that? Like I do. I'm saying to you, you can't go very far because of the thinking in the masses of our people and I think I'm doing a greater service for the liberation of our people.
When I am talking this talk that I talk all over this country and outside sometimes than any other person that I know of in the United States of America. Now maybe somebody is doing better but I don't know of him. I think they're missing the mark. When they're telling you be black and proud, they're just talking emotionalism. When they're telling you you're entitled to something, get it, they're just talking emotionalism but when they address the condition of our people, that's denying our achievers the great success that they would have if we supported them, addressing the real psychological issue, we have a psychological issue.
Slavery set us back psychologically. Oppression after slavery set us back psychologically. The notions and ideas that we have accepted are burdens on us that enslave our capacities. When we address this psychologically, we are doing a greater service for the liberation of our people than those people that just addressing the surface needs of our people. The proof of it is I can prove, if a survey is taken anytime, I can prove that those people that buy my approach are more successful in every respect than those that buy the other approach. This can be proven.
We don't have the visibility for a national office, for a central shop that we used to have under Elijah Mohammed, we don't have that. That's not our thing anymore but we have more successful people in business today than we ever had before. We have more material wealth than we ever had before, not in our national office, no. It's in our national membership and that's where it's supposed to be if we are good and fair people.
I'm going to touch your sensitive buttons here occasionally. It's necessary. I went to have some work done on my mouth and the first thing the guy did was touch a sensitive button. He said, "You want me to continue?" I said, "You got to, I got to have my mouth fixed".

We're off again when it comes to rights. The wrong approach to our rights can oppress us more. The right approach to our rights can benefit us. We're just crying, "We have the right to do this, we have the right to do that" and with the Republicans, we've been hearing more and more of whisper in our ear, "What about your responsibilities?"

They're gradually reaching us. I think they got problems too though, they're hurting us too and I sure hope they do something about relieving the burden, unfair, unjust burden on the middle-class people, middle-income people in this country because it's not fair at all for the rich to share less of the burden than the middle-income people. That's not right, that has to be changed. I support that and look for a change soon because my income is going up but my condition is not improving.

We have rights, that's true but our rights in just a simple and plain way of stating it, is the right to fairness. The society is supposed to be fair and that's the way I think of my rights. My right is the right to fairness. Are you treating me like you treat others? Are you singling me out for mistreatment? Are you treating me like you treat others? That's all I want, just rights to fairness.
Some of us think we're supposed to have the right to equal benefits. That is wrong, it sounds pretty doesn't it? That's how come demigods can come up and just lead us and get established on our dumb following, our dumb response to them. They just go and make it on us because of our ignorance. I can see one starting a campaign, "We insist upon equal benefits". Sounds pretty, sounds good, sounds like its right but its wrong.
You can't have equal benefits in your house, you can do all you can to treat those children the same and to give them the same but you cannot have equal benefits for those children. One child is going to benefit more. One child is going to excel, the other one is going to be behind right? You ain't going to have equal benefits in your family so how can we tell society, "We demand equal benefits"? The society has used our weakness, when I say society; I mean the trends that we have allowed to grow in the society and take over and dominate the bad trends.
The society has conditioned us to expect too much and to not to be sensible or realistic. If we look on TV and we see somebody walking on a rug and the rug is so thick, it's covering half of the shoe, we want a carpet like that, we just got to have a carpet like that. We see somebody walk in the door, the television come on, we got to have it too so we walk in the door and the television come on. Then we're going to fuss because the channel we wanted didn't come on. We want all that. If we see somebody riding in a car with 16 wheels and a shower in it, a tennis court and all that, we got to have that. We will make a demonstration. 

We envy the rich; we have class discrimination where the poor discriminate against the class. Not just the upper class discriminating against the other, but we have the lower class discriminate against the upper classes. "I reject him because he's rich. I reject him because he's a PhD".
We got people who reject you because you are learned, reject you because you are a material achiever. They reject you; they hate you and will punish another one of their circle because they befriend you. I'm talking about what I experienced, what I know. Will punish another person just for befriending you, they hate you because you achieved and they didn't. This is ignorance, its ignorance. We are that way because we're ignorant, we don't understand.
Somebody have sold us wrong ideas. You're not supposed to be rich because one person is rich, then everybody is supposed to rich. Everybody has always been different, each person has been an individual ever since time began and there's always been these distinctions of achievement ever since time began. It's going to stay that way forever. Always, there are going to be a few people achieving something that majority can't achieve. It's been that way; it's going to be that way forever.
What is the beauty in this? What is the G-d's justice in this? If G-d made a family that didn't need each other, the children come up, they don't need parents. Some animals, they come right in the world and they can make it just like this. They go out on their own just after a few hours. They can make it on their own. In fact there are animals that can make it on their own at the time they come from the womb, they come out in the womb, right away they're on their own the parent has nothing else to do.
G-d could have made us like that; he wanted us to be special, obviously. He wanted us to be caring, more caring. He wanted us to be more responsible; he wanted us to have more responsibility. He wanted us to earn more credits. If everybody have the same thing and all of us are equal, where is that room for any of us to earn credit for anything?
If many of us can't achieve what the few can achieve, then there is opportunity for the few to serve the many, an opportunity for the many to appreciate the few. In appreciating the few, they’re benefiting, some of us don't know sometimes to say thank you is more rewarding to the soul than saying, "take this". Yes, I've experienced both and I hope I will keep experiencing both. I say here take this, I feel good, I give you that, you need it but I also want to say thank you, I need that in my soul too.
We need achievers, we need to benefit from somebody and G-d is the greatest benefactor. If you understand it as a Muslim, you will never think you are beneath a person because they are above you because G-d is above them and they couldn't have gone anywhere without your G-d. Yes, and that situation is a blessing from G-d and a mercy from G-d and your situation too no matter how much you might not appreciate it. Your situation too is a blessing from G-d and a mercy from G-d.
Many times the poor are blessed with things, with values as you know, you've heard the great philosophers talk on these things. They're blessed with values that many of the rich will never have. They are given joys from Allah that many of the rich will never experience. Some of the rich, they envy the poor for the joys that they can experience that are not available or not permissible to the rich.
Don't think that there is a real equality in a total sense, G-d allows equality in certain aspects or certain areas of our life but when you look at the whole thing, G-d has equality. Yes, he does. There's equality of reward and punishment, that's the equality. No matter how much fortunate that you think you are, if you deserve punishment man, you're going to get it. Sooner or later, you're going to get it and no matter how poor your situation is, G-d can bring rewards into your life and you will enjoy a sense of happiness and well-being that others perhaps that have much more than you physically or materially can't enjoy.
That's the equality of G-d's justice. The amount of enjoyment that we have is not determined by what kind of benefit come to us, it's not. "I can only be happy if I have more money". G-d sometimes will let you get more money to show you that you were wrong. You're getting more money and you still ain't happy. You say what? You say, "The more money I make the sadder I get".

That's the way it happens for some people, they think more money is going to make them happy and the more money they get, the more miserable they get. It doesn't work that way. Let us not envy each other. All religions tell us, do not envy each other. One of the major crime, sins, is to be jealous or be envious of a person. Greed is another one, major sins. Allah says to us in the Quran, "Stay away from the major wrongs". Ain't that what he says? If we get to nitpicking and busting our brains trying to find out every loop. "Did I lie? How many times I lied today?" Just look at the major thing, just look at yourself and take one look in the mirror or let's somebody take one look at you. Say, "What did you see?" "I saw a greedy Nigga". Well get rid of it, get rid of that greed.

You don't have to get that big magnifying glass. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes with that big glass looking for the crime. No, you don't have to do that. Just take one look and see what you see and deal with those major problems and we'll be all right. Lastly, and this address is a focus on the role of concepts for the purpose of stressing Muslim life and our obligation to build respect for intelligence.
Intelligence, I think this is the greatest need we have now in the Muslim life. We have to build a respect for Muslims as being an intelligent people. Our religion in my understanding, based upon my inquiries, our religion is the religion that stresses the value of intelligence and respect for intelligence and the exercise of intelligence more than any religion that I'm aware of.
It begins with man being created as an intellect, as an intellect. That's the beginning of our creation, G-d created an intellect. Some of us would like to say G-d created a heart, no, G-d created an intellect. All animals have hearts and we have no superiority when it comes to hearts. We don't. Animals will sacrifice their life for each other. Yes, animals have unimaginable courage when their young are threatened. We don't have any more heart; don't think you have more heart.
I know many of us have experienced this but I wouldn't bother the bird's nest, I just happened to pass near. The bird had put a nest somewhere, it was low. I guess something happened, maybe the bird's nest might have fallen and it had to build it on a lower level. I was in this wooded area and I passed by this nest and that bird came out after me and I'm telling you that baby bird looked like a giant.

That little bird made itself look like a giant. When you see something that you've been used to seeing run from you, now it's coming at you and it means business. It made itself look like a giant. So don't think that's the way it is for us and I think that's where the society went wrong. The idea of freedom that we have in this country, it leads us to extremes that become regressive, that become very regressive.
So the society reaches a certain point and is pursuing freedoms where it becomes regressive for them. No more progressive but regressive. That's what we have done in this history of America. We reached the point of our pursuit of freedom where our freedom have become regressive. We can't survive with that king of idea of freedom. We have to understand then that we have to see and appreciate the human concept as the creation of an intelligent creature responsible for his behavior or her behavior.
They don't say, "Well, you were responsible for your behavior, haven't you been given a heart?" No, you can have a heart but if your thinking is wrong, the heart is everywhere. The thinking that makes the difference. When we be intelligent or respect intelligent behavior, we'll have a better situation for ourselves. The management of obligation and circumstances; favorable and unfavorable.
For this particular point in this address, I want us to look at the early life of the Muslims under the leadership of the prophet himself, peace and the blessings be on him. The Muslims were persecuted. The Muslims weren't invited to establish their religion in the world, no. When the prophet was detected for what he believed in, persecution started right then. Right then, it didn't wait. They started right then to persecute him and those that embraced it or accepted him, they persecuted them.
The prophet during the first wave of this persecution, he sent an envoy or delegation to a Christian country to seek help nearby Ethiopia that's in Africa. A lot of us don't know that Arabia is so close to Africa, at one point you can just step out of Arabia right into Africa. The red sea separates her; the red sea separates the two land masses. Some people have suggested, students of geology and geography, they have suggested that really these two land masses belong together.
That actually, Arabia belongs to the continent of Africa. When you look at it, it joins the continent of Africa. It's not separated from the continent of Africa. It joins the continent of Africa. Most of the peninsula is separated along the African coastline by the red sea if I'm correct. I'm thinking sometimes I know but my thought is not just happen to be not concentrated there so I may say something wrong sometimes that I know but I may say something wrong because those things are not in my note. That's why I don't believe in preaching or speaking without notes. I'm trying to get where I won't do that because it's dangerous, you make mistakes.
The land mass is sometimes thought of being the same. The prophet sent this group of- this delegation to Ethiopia which was called Abyssinia at that time and Arabs called it the Habesha land. They were sent to the ruler himself of Ethiopia to plead the case of the persecuted Muslims. One person without any schooling or anything, all of his education had come from the prophet's teachings and the Quran.
He led the delegation representing the persecuted Muslims and impressed the ruler so much by quoting the verses of scripture from Quran that the Christian leader was familiar with because he knew the story as is given in the bible of the Blessed Mary, et cetera and the birth of the prophet Jesus, the Messiah Jesus, peace be upon him and his mother, peace be upon his mother.
The ruler was so impressed that his heart went out to this delegation. The Meccans who were described as Jahiliyyah means dark age thinkers or idolaters, they pursued them to catch them. When they arrived in Ethiopia at the court of the ruler, they demanded that the ruler return those Meccans to them so that they would take them back to Mecca. The ruler refused. This is really the first alliance or kind of political relationship that was established for the community of the prophet with another nation or an outside body.
First, it was with a Christian. A Christian authority and with a Christian nation. A haven was given to them, security was given to them, they were protected, the ruler refused to turn them over. I won't go beyond that to tell you more about the story, I think that's enough. I'm only saying what's needed for this address or for what I points I want to make in this address.
When we were persecuted as Muslims in the beginning of this religious community, under our prophet, the prayers and the peace be on him. We found rescue and protection in a Christian nation of Africa and by the hand or the judgment or authority of a Christian individual or Christian ruler. We shouldn't forget that. Now, I'm addressing the management of obligations and circumstances.
We have obligations as Muslims to live our Muslim life and some of us say, "Well, look at the circumstances, what can we do? The circumstances won't allow us. I can't get off from work to pray. My boss won't let me stop and observe the times of prayer. I can have no food, no Halal meat. I don't have any Halal store I can go to". We have all these adverse circumstances and some of us say, "Well, I'm not going to support any plan to invest in property in this city. These Christians or this government not going to let us progress. They're not going to let us establish ourselves here".
We are pessimistic, we don't believe in the future. I'm saying this in hopes to counter some of that. Our obligation is to believe in Allah and to have faith that Allah will make a way for us. We are obligated too to use whatever the Prophet used in his day and time. He used faith in another religious people. Why can't we do the same and not be called traitors? He used diplomacy. Those that represented him were diplomats, they used skillful diplomacy.
He didn't go on there to read a chapter on the doom. He could have went there and recited to the ruler some chapters on the hellfire to try to frighten the ruler into giving them some aid or rescue. He could have done that, he didn't do that. He used intelligence, he used diplomacy. He gave the ruler what he knew the ruler should appreciate if he was an intelligent and sensitive ruler and he was successful. Tell me what's wrong with us using that same intelligence, using that same good diplomacy to get ourselves in a better situation in America that's predominantly Christian?
That's my teacher, you want to know who W Deen Mohammed is, that's W Deen Mohammed. I believe in using good sense, following the Prophet, using good sense and not being bull-headed and not being arrogant and not being so black that you can't see any other color, that's me. People that don't like that, I don't care. You don't have to like that.

You don't have to like that, that's my happiness. I want to share with everybody that wants it. Those that don't want it, I want to get the hell away from them. Some of them will call you a coward if you run from danger; you think the Prophet didn't run from some dangers? You're crazy. "We aren't supposed to run from this fight, we're supposed to fight. We aren't supposed to let the devil take nothing of ours". Then he took it to the courts and the lawyer's exhausted every dollar of the funds. What should we do, declare war on the court?
Silly headed people. You do the best you can. You trust G-d, use what He's given you, do the best you can and many times you'll be alone doing it. I'm telling you and those people that will do nothing won't go with you, won't help you. They'll be the first to point to your failures when you've reached the end of the line and you can't go any further. They're the first ones to point you and say, "He the one that did that. He lost that. He failed". They are the ones that didn't go with you when you were trying to save things for them. I'm speaking from some first-hand knowledge and experience.
So don't think that it makes us look like cowards if we back away from some dangers. Look, if we're in this town and we see we're going to run into a lot of dangers if we pursue a certain direction, intelligence tell us, "Look for other directions that may take more time. Have patience". Allah say, "Have patience". A great virtue of Muslim is patience. This doesn't mean that we accept injustice, accept wrong and approve of people mistreating us, no. We don't approve of that at all. We will never approve of that. But it means when we are faced with circumstances that we cannot overcome, we are to have patience and wait for G-d to open another way. Have patience.
If we can't arrive at the destination by going this route because there are strong opposition and great danger, we're supposed to look for alternative routes. This is intelligence, Muslim intelligence. The Prophet did it. He couldn't succeed in Mecca so he went to Medina. He didn't say, "Mecca is my home I am not leaving this city. G-d sent me and I am the Messenger of G-d, have no authority over G-d and I'm His Messenger and this is my hometown. You Meccans aren't going to make me leave my hometown".
The Prophet left his hometown because it was too hostile, too unfriendly. Persecuted him, boycotted him and his people. He left there and went to Medina. What does G-d tell us? This earth is spacious. When judgment comes and you tell G-d, "I couldn't succeed G-d because these people here persecuted me". G-d is going to tell you, "Did not you know my earth was spacious?" I'm giving you Quran. G-d will say, "Did not you know my earth is spacious?"
We have in our options, the option to flee from persecution and seek a better situation. Believe me, we have to study this. You leaders, you have to study this to find out what areas of the United States offer us more promise. Why should we stay in an area that's persecuting us, that hates us and we have other areas to go to? We are migrants by history.
We migrated from the south because it wouldn't tolerate justice for us. What's wrong with Muslims now migrating to a better situation for Muslims? Study the United States and find where there's better treatment for Muslims and live there. Why should we give a state our money? Because Muslims believe in work, we believe in honest work, we are good citizens. Most of us will become stable units in a society, stable units. We will carry our part of the weight. Why should we contribute to the tax base of a town that persecutes Muslims? If that town really has that pasture, we should tell them, "Hell, we're glad to leave you. Goodbye". Say this is a friendly exodus.

I'm serious, I'm very serious. What about jihad? Yes. We're obligated to wage jihad. However, this jihad for us is important to be seen in two particular aspects. One aspect of jihad is your private jihad. A private jihad to get rid of the adversity in the way of your being a good Muslim that's in your own person, in your personal self, in your own mind, your heart, your spirit. That's a big jihad. You have that responsibility to fight the bad influences that are in yourself. If we do that, the jihad proper will not be so difficult.
The reason why we have to make jihad in so many parts of the world, Muslims I mean, is because we're failing on that private jihad. If we work on the private jihad, the world, the society will not be so adverse. They will appreciate Muslims. The Muslim is the ideal human person. The Muslim is the model of human excellence if he lives up to his religion; he is the model of human excellence. He's not irrational, he is not a fanatic. The Muslim is a rational, sober, healthy contribution to any society if he lives up to what's required of him in the Quran and in the life of the Prophet, the prayers and the peace be on him.
Yes, we should concentrate first on that jihad to conquer our own adversity so that our life is compatible with our religion. Stop wanting to be a vandal at home. Stop wanting to be a waste maker at home. Stop wanting to be a liar at home, a cheater at home, a thief at home, an abuser at home. Stop wanting to be wrong at home. Make it your purpose to be a right person in your house, in your apartment, in your room, wherever you are, privately. I believe you will make a big step toward liberating the Muslim society in the whole world.
Congregation: Allahu Akbar
Yes, that's the answer.
If we make the individual jihad to conquer adversity in our own self, we will be making the greatest contribution to making a place of acceptance for us in the broad society of the world. Whether it's Christian, Communist, Jewish or whatever it is, Buddhist. We will have a much greater chance in this world if we will live up to what is expected of us as Muslims based upon the authority of Quran and the life of our Prophet. It's as simple as that.
Congregant: Allahu Akbar
Congregation: Allahu Akbar
IWDM: Do you think I'm a coward?
Congregation: No.
IWDM: I don't see myself as no coward. I fear Allah. Since I have known the fear of Allah, I've never feared anything above Allah. I don't, I don't fear. If it's necessary, I will join an army and fight physically, if it's necessary. If it's necessary I know that I can lead an army. If I lead an army, I believe that I'm going to be victorious.

Yes, that's me, that's me. That's the way I feel, that's the way I feel. You think I can make it where I am with fear?
Congregation: No.
IWDM: You try to get out of a temple of Islam saying something that they don't like. G-d better be on your side.

Now, quickly I’m trying to whine this up, I know time is gone. I’ve covered what I wanted to cover on the concern for self. A lot of us are concerned for self in the wrong way. We should be concerned for self to make self-right and presentable before Allah. Another concern for our collective investments and I slightly hit up on that. I will be more direct in what I wanted to say to you on that.
We have mosques in some of these big cities. We also have Clara Mohammed schools. We have several, I would say, a good number of schools throughout this country. We have a school system and we’re working on making it a strong school system where any student from any part of the United States can easily transfer to another school and have no interruption, no problems.
That’s going to come because we’re working seriously and very earnestly to accomplish that. We are going to be successful. I don’t accept that I’ll be over any administration. I don’t have any position like that. I have my own private ministry. That’s what I’m responsible for. My position of office if I have one is the office of my ministry. My authority is the authority in that office, the office of my ministry. What I do outside of that is giving advice that I think is really the role of a leader in our religion is to give advice to help people in matters of religion and matters of judgment respecting what their religion obligates them to do.
That’s my service that I offer. I think we can accomplish more with that kind of leadership than we can with the leaders sitting in the office having a legal responsibility for the outcome of what happens because the enemies will send people among us to give us many legal problems like they did. They did that already. They will send many among us to give us many legal problems and to defeat our efforts. But if we leave the efforts in charge of the local people, we will be successful. That’s the American way, that’s Islamic democracy, too. We will be successful. That’s what I like. That’s the situation that I’m comfortable with and I thank you all for going along with it.
Collective Investments. We still have collective investments. Don’t think because we don’t have that central office, we don’t have collective investment. I think of the mosques in any town is being our mosques. Any of you who have a mosque, I call that our mosque. After all the mosque is a house of worship. The house of G-d. It’s all our mosque. We shouldn’t look at a mosque as built in Tulsa also a mosque as built in Birmingham, Alabama as their mosque only.
That’s our mosque. If we are in that town, we have as much right to go there and worship and pray as anybody in that town. That’s our mosque. The fact that it was one of our poor members, one of these poor African-American people that managed to achieve that with the help of others in a town should make us feel a strong bond to that. We are the same people. We are African American. We are Muslims and we’re in the same material circumstances.
I don’t care if you’re selling cars, you car dealer now. You’re in the same circumstances. Jabir he understands that. I wish he was here he would help me with this part of this lecture. He really understands that. That’s my brother who achieved more material than I did. He is a business success for us in our family. Jabir Mohammed. We do have national investments. Don’t think because we don’t have a central office, a central point for the chain of command that we don’t have collective properties. We do.
When you go to Atlanta see the Muslims at all those private businesses and see how well they're recognized in Atlanta as people who want something in the way of business. When you see that, you shouldn’t say that’s theirs. Yes, it is theirs. It's theirs but it is also ours. That achievement is for all of us. Whatever we achieve in one city is achieved for all of us. What I want to get in is that we have a responsibility to them.
I have a responsibility to the business people of Muslim, not only you though, also to other immigrant Muslims and other ethnic groups that are Muslim. I have an obligation to them. Once you say you’re a Muslim you have an obligation to all Muslims. Yes. If there’s a Muslim doing business here and a non-Muslim doing business there and you need something that that Muslim can give you, you think you're supposed to go to that non-Muslim for it? No, you’re not supposed to do that. That’s wrong.
Likewise for a Christian. The Christians are in a much better situation than we are. The Christians have all the stores, you see. They don’t need Christian support for Christian establishments. We need African-American Christians support for African-American Christian establishment but we don’t need an American in America all the way I don’t know Japanese coming here. They changed things a bit here lately.
We do need to buy America, I have to correct that. Things have changed here recently. I’ll put it this way. If we have the choice between a newcomer from a thriving part of the world like Japan or some other place and any American we should buy from the American. Yes, unless it’s justified. If the American is selling me cheese that’s molded and the newcomer has a cheese that’s not molded.
I have a justification to go over to the newcomer because G-d does not obligate me to buy molded cheese from anybody. That’s another thing we have to accept. You just don’t buy from a brother because he’s a brother. The brother selling you inferior products, you tell the brother, “Look here brother; you got do better than this if you want my patronage. You want me to patronize it, then you have to do better than that”.
This brings us up then. If we insist that we will in business, respect each other. Respect the customer. That will bring all of us up. Yes, we want that kind of discrimination but we also want our people to measure up. We should insist up on that. I return now to the Muslim brother. If the Muslim shop is there, you are not to pass over the Muslim shop and go to the non-Muslim shop. Why? Because your Muslim brother is deserving of your patronage and your Muslim brother is a minority in this country, who is at a disadvantage because he’s a minority. If he didn't get the support of his own Muslim brother, who’s going to support him.
Once he breaks the mark into the market and he’s supported by the general market, we don’t have to treat him that way anymore. No, we don’t have to treat him very special anymore because he has broken into the general market. We don’t have to treat him. As long as he is not into the general market and supported by the general market, we have to treat that brother as a needy brother and a Muslim is supposed to support his needy brother. This is nothing but good sense.
I’m asking you as your spokesman to support the Muslim in business and support the African-American in business whether he’s a Muslim or not and support the immigrant Muslim in business just as you do your own Muslim in business. We’re all the same. If you do that, I’m going to negotiate with them so that they are in a better situation as business people than we are. They got more money.
They got a little bit more business history. I want to put it the hard way to you. They got a little bit more business history. They've been in a business longer. I want to negotiate for you to make sure that we get advantages from them, too. We give them something and we want something from them too. We’ll do that but let’s do it as brothers. Let’s do it loving each other and Allah will be with us and we will successful.
I’m not quite finished. I’m trying to go through this quickly. Now, we also have some concern for our families. We need to have more organization at home in our family. If a Muslim is the head of the household, we know the head of the household in American society is not the man. The head of the household in the Muslim society is the man. The head of the household in American society is the woman, the mother.
Now, we accept that the mother is the ruler in the house but we don’t accept that her authority is above ours. We should be trusted by the wife to do what G-d has commanded. G-d commands that we respect the mother and her authority in the house, that we do not take all the children, the rearing of children from a mother. The Western society especially among African-Americans who have been all messed up, the family has been destroyed almost by this society, we tend to take responsibility from the mother.
We go tell the mother, "Don't do that. Don't get the child that". I don't care if she's not as informed as you, she's better prepared than you are to raise her children. Believe me, I told you this before brothers if you accept this; you're going to have a much better house. You think you are more intelligent than your wife that you know more than your wife, that you know what's better for the child than your wife. If you can't tell her that in privacy, away from the ears of the children and she accept it, then don't say it at all, please.
Because our families are in bad state and I'm telling you what we need first, we need the brother to respect the mother and her authority more. Respect her. Respect her authority over children; respect her authority over the house. Don't you come here and say " Yes, you move this apart, I'm going to put the gold wallpaper on this room and your room I think I would paint it white and green". That is not your job.
Your job is to have her give you what she want as a requisition she gives you the requisition. "I want wallpaper this on that, I want to put this color paint on it and I want your office". Let her even tell you what she wants in your office, "I want your office to have this desk and I want you to have this color on your wall". You say, "Baby, I like natural wood. Can I have natural wood?" She says; "No" ask her a week later.

Yes, have patience man. After all, you get some loving you never thought could come from that direction. There's a lot of simple things we can do to make our lives much better for ourselves. Now, when it come to certain things, you have to be firm. She say, "Well, look this bacon is not going to hurt, I know it pork, this little bacon is not going to hurt nobody". You got to be firm because G-d has over you. You got to say, "Well, the bacon is not going to hurt nobody but I will".

Yes, I believe in threats but I've never been arrested for a mistreating or brutalizing a woman or anybody. No, I haven't. I believe in threats. I make her think that I'm a-in fact I scared them so bad my little child said, "Mama, monster ma".

Called me "Monster ma"

Because they had to look at it on his TV, call a certain vicious monster, she would say, "Monster ma". I believe in making them think that I would tear the whole house up. They know I'm bluffing, they know I'm bluffing. They don't know, where I take it seriously or not. They don't risk, they don't take no big risk with me.

Remember too, in this country you might say, I obey the Quran or the Quran gives me the authority to beat her a little. Some can even use the Arabic term, “darabahun khalila”
And the judge sends you right away with the Quran in your head, reciting “darabahun khalila”. Clank. Clank the gates lock it on you.

We had to just face the realities. This religion doesn’t invite us to be stupid, invite us to be sensible and intelligent. Really, I'm not sure that that means physically. Although I know most authorities would argue that it means physically but I'm not sure that means physically because the same expression is used in a non-physical way too in the Quran. To beat them lightly the option may be there for us to use physical on our wives to strike them lightly.
Perhaps knowing that you just can't expect that no man will ever do that to his wife or something. That recognition may be there that man is natural and he's going to do that but at least restrain yourself, don't brutalize. That might be the reason for it. I believe the higher application of that means that even in an argument, you should whip her lightly. That's what I believe that even when you're whipping her with your tongue, you should do it lightly don't be cruel because the worst whipping is really a tongue whipping.
You can be cruel in your treatment with your mouth than most men are with their hands. Yes, because some of these women here I'm telling you, man, will makes freaks of us. "Beat me, baby, beat me. Hit me, baby. I love you".

Saying, "Hey, what have I gotten myself into".

In this kind of society, you have a lot of that but don't be surprised if you go over to the--

IWDM: Is recorded in the Quran but did he brutalize any of them? No. We follow his example, Allah said, "Follow his example. His is the best example". Now, don't go saying the imam said that we can't smack our wives in the whole process, we can't. You tell the whole story if you can't give them the whole tape, don't say anything. The tape will be on sale pretty soon.
Concern for race, we know we still have a race problem; we have racial tension and racial race problem. We're going to have that until judgment day. One thing we are not going to ever get rid of: race problem. Can you ever get rid of differences in your family at home? Why you think you get rid of differences in the society? You can only establish for the society what is right behavior and then society has to be depended upon to respect right behavior.
You always going to have people that's going to disrespect what's established as right behavior. So I'm not working for a day when I can just go among any white people and "Welcome" and they don't know me or anything. "Welcome. Welcome". How do I expect that? I'm looking forward to live my life out and walking in on a white neighborhood and get some stares and some cold treatment. That's what I expect.
And that's what you better expect because that's what's coming most of the time. Yes, an unfriendly atmosphere. Now, the only thing that bother me is that we don't look at them a little while when they come among us. Now, I don't say we should be as ugly as they are but don't be so quick. We forget our own in the place. We don't see nothing but that one white coming in. Everybody else gone. Blacks just spooks really now, we don't see them.

That's what hurt me that we are that way. When they come, be cautious, too. Yes, he doesn’t belong in the neighborhood and you don't see him coming there. They are frequent at this place but you want to come in? Yes. Yes, let them know that you got intelligence, too. That you're cautious. You're dealing with somebody you haven't seen before. You don't know what he's coming here for.
Then tell your women too to get her to start moving them away from his area. Start moving your women and especially the young girls got to move them. "Sit over there". "Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We'll be right with you". Isn't that how they treat us? They treat us worse. Look here a bit of cautious is intelligence most of the time. Don't jump on the plane and yet look for one of them to sit by, you asking for hell. You people be looking for one of your own people to sit by.
That's right. It's an evil to legislate separation of races. That's an evil. We can't tolerate it and we will never accept that.But it’s a good human sense and it shows that a people respect each other and have boundaries with each other and prefer to be with each other than to be with strangers. That's just natural. That's nature. Believe me, I like it. I like it. I do not want to be in the ocean of white people eating my favorite dish, no. You can call it what you want to call it, call it racism if you want. I call it healthy race awareness

Now, we have economic concerns. We know that we are economically unestablished. No matter how much we have successes individuals for a few of us, we are a people who are economically unestablished. We have to address that problem, we have to be aware of the problem, address that problem and start by having a better attitude to all our own people in business.
Start demanding more of them as regards responsibility on the business person in the community. We also as Americans and also Muslims, we have to carry the burden of the crises in the Middle East. Don't think that we can escape this and be happy in our souls. We're not. We're not going to be pleased in our souls, no matter how much we fool our hearts with our rationalizing and fabricating things and pretending that those things are right or those ideas are right. It's wrong.
If Muslims suffer anywhere in this world, it's supposed to burden Muslims everywhere in this world. The Palestinian situation there is a burden on us, is a pain on us, I can't accept it. I'll never accept it. If I find any way to make a contribution, I want to do it. I want to do it. We have to support our Palestinian Muslims, our Palestinians brothers and even if they weren't Muslims, we should support any people being mistreated by another the way that the Israeli regime mistreats the Palestinian people.
Also, the crisis in the Gulf, we can't ignore that. That's our problem, too. Saudi Arabia got the money they can handle it, that's not enough. We have to give them whatever we can give them, too. We are brothers of them, it’s the same religion. What happens to them it's going to affect us soon or later one way or the other. We have to gather in this and that's what we have to understand. Allah says, "You are one community and I am your Lord. Therefore, worship me, obey me".
If we have brothers or nations that are not obeying Allah, let us deal with that problem separately. Don’t wait until the brother get in trouble and then say, "He isn't obeying Allah". You know he wasn't obeying Allah before how come you didn't go help him obey Allah. Now, he's in trouble, go help your brother. Then after you help him, then talk to him about his shortcomings in the religion. We have to help him first. That's right. Prophecy had helped him by pulling him back from wrong, right?
That's right. He didn't say wait until the oppressor stops killing him. It'd be too late, he's dead. You supposed to go help him get the oppressor off his back first. If he's the one at fault, you're supposed to condemn him as the aggressor in that conflict and that's what we have done. We have taken the stand on the side of the Kuwaitis and the Saudis against Saddam and his aggressive army. Not against the Iraqi people, against Saddam and his aggressive army.
I don't have facts to back of the charges against him, but the report seems mighty convincing us truth. If the reports are true, that man should be condemned by everybody, by any decent person. He's a brute, a savage, an irresponsible person. If it's true. If it's not true, his aggression is enough for us to condemn him as being the guilty party in that conflict. Also, we have to have sympathies with the third world or the developing world. I hate to say third world, developing world people.
How can we be Muslims upholding the justice of the Quran and the life of the Prophet and not be sympathetic with the oppressed and mistreated people and what we call the poor and developing nations? “Oh that's getting political.” A Muslim has to be political. This religion is a comprehensive religion. It requires of us that we answer every legitimate human and societal concern. We can't stop because this is economic. That's right. Allah wants involved in economic wants involve in politics.
That means we going to vote for any of those nations because we sympathize with them and their suffering. We may not vote for them, maybe we don't like their regime either. If they're being mistreated, we're supposed to come to their side. We're supposed to be against oppressors. Most of the third world is not like it used to be during the colonial days and after and immediately after. Most of what we call the third world, the developing nations they're oppressed by their own people.
Their own people are oppressing them. Following the ways of the oppressors that oppressed them the colonial oppressors. Yes. Now, if I may complete I believe that I'm trying to finish I don't want to leave anything unsaid. All right, South Africa. I was given an application to vote against apartheid in South Africa. I signed it, I tried to get extra applications for all my family, see first your family. My family members are grownups at least of those of age with good, sound mind.
Signed the protest, signed the application against, is actually they've taken what is a vote against apartheid. I don't know if you're aware of those applications, but if you are, I ask you to sign them and vote against apartheid. If you don't have them, inquire. Ask where you can get them. Get those applications and vote against apartheid. You know what? We are supposed to be prepared to go to physical war and die on the side of the oppressed against the oppressors if we have to. I'm prepared to do that. Thank you very much. As salaam Alaikum.
Congregation: alaikum salaam.



