10/04/1995
IWDM Study Library 
Masjid Muhammad

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We have been talking about the basis of the religion and faith. Iman. Iman. We are going to go over the Articles of Faith and InshaAllah, read some Qur'an for correct pronunciation and some meaning, InshaAllah. Belief, faith, trust, all are very much the same, depending on how the term is used in a sentence.
Actually security, the word security is taken from the same word. Belief is faith or belief is Iman. And this is from the word Aman, which means belief and faith, trust. We get so many words- Iman, faith. Aman, security
And Mu'min-Believer. Many words. So, Iman is first Iman Billah. Iman Billah. Faith in G-d.
Faith in G-d. Faith in the angels. Belief in the angels and belief in the Messengers. Belief in the books, the revelation that G-d gave the Messengers. Prophets and Messengers. Belief in the Qadar of G-d. This term here has been translated as predestination, though predestination is not what I want to define it as. I think the term predestination might be influenced by religious thinking in the West. Predestination. But it is more closer to premeasurement. But don't write premeasurement because there's no term, I don't know any term premeasurement.
But it's more like premeasurement. G-d has already measured everything. G-d measured everything that He created. He knows how far it can go. He knows what can come out of it. Everything is measured by G-d. You see. So, we don't have a term really that satisfies us for this. So, as we learn Arabic, then we will have the meaning in here. The meaning will be in our heart, in our minds in Arabic that'll be the best. So don't come to any conclusion because I haven't come to any conclusion in English for this term. But all we know that it is the ordinance of G-d. G-d has made this and established this as a law, as a rule that everything that He has made, it has a capacity and a potential. It can bring good and it can bring harm. That's what we should know. So, we say, you could say it with me. "Al Qadaru Khairihee Wa Sharahee MIn al La Min Al Ata Ala." Yes. So that's what you should say. That's how we should give it. So, lets write. And if you don't have it written like that you should copy it.
And you can put your own pronunciation to it better. Your own way of making the sounds. If you want to, you can put, what do you call it? Transliteration. You can write the sound as you hear it. Write it as you hear for yourself. So, you know what you are saying exactly. So, is that saying evil is from G-d? No. It is saying that G-d created and made the potential. His will is that His creatures can only do good. How do we know G-d wants only good? He says it many times in the Qur'an. And the Prophet also says "Surely G-d is good and He accepts only good. He's good and He accepts only good." That means G-d does not want any evil or harm for His creatures or anything. Did everyone finish the board? If you did, we can erase it because it distracts and before you know it you'll be talking about something else. Allah Most High says in the Qur'an that "The Mesenger of G-d himself believes." Why is this said, that the Mesenger of G-d himself believes? And then Allah also says in the Qur'an, in our Holy Book, that G-d obligated the Prophet just as He obligated the Believers.
And the Prophet gave this in a saying. It's in the 40 Hadith. Earlier in my leadership we were given a number of those books and we made them available to the communities. Dr Ibrahim Izideen of Egypt who's worked in the Gulf and in the Emirates for long time. He is a Scholar of Islam and a very devoted Muslim. And he made available to us a number of books that he himself had worked on. He and a English person did the translation and he compiled 40 Hadith, selected 40 Hadith and put them in that book called 40 Hadith. Al Nawbi I think it's called. 40 Hadith Al Nawbi. Sayings of the Prophet, Peace and Blessings be Upon him. And this saying of Muhammad the Prophet is in that book where it says that G-d obligated the Prophet just as He obligated the Believers. That the Prophet is not allowed to do things wrong. That's what it means. That's exactly what it means. It means that the Messengers of G-d or the Prophet, the Prophets of G-d, they're not permitted to do the wrong things in the name of some secrecy or in the name of some great end that is sought. The ends justify the means. That's not in Islam. That's what it's saying. And I don't have to tell you. If you have read the Bible and other scriptures, Prophets are pictured doing things wrong and then justifying it somehow. That they had those defects, but they were so, so precious to G-d because of some quality or some attribute or some ability they had or because of some lineage they had, they had to be chosen even though they had all these faults.
And it's somehow justified in the end because in the end it all works for the worship of G-d, the glorification of G-d, everything works for the glorification of G-d. So, whether it's right or wrong, good, bad, as long as it says everything, how is that? The means justify the ends.
Yes, means justify the ends. Or there is another western saying too. All is well that ends well. All is well that ends well no matter how it started. Well, we suffered a lot and we know bad but now we are with G-d like you should be so now, All is well that ends well. This is condemned by G-d in our Holy book. The story is told of those who mistreated Joseph, right? And Allah says that they said, "Well we'll do these things and we'll have time to prepare."
So, they knew they were doing wrong and they were thinking that yeah we can do wrong as long as we get back on the right path we can get off for a while. That's not accepted by G-d. Allah is good, only good, and accepts only good. Doesn't accept anything but good. So, this is the faith in the Qadar of G-d, depending on the Qadar of G-d. The Qadar regulating what happens for us with anything that we approach. Ourselves, the world, the things in the world, our wives. There is the benefit that is good and then we make it the benefit that's harmful for us. It doesn't necessarily mean evil. That's another thing we should make a note of. That this sharr doesn't necessarily mean evil. It means evil, yes. But it also means, it means more correctly, It means harm. Harm. You can be hurt by it. A lot of things we are hurt by, they're not evil but we're just ignorant and got hurt.
Yes. Why are we talking about this Imam Billah? Because it's mentioned. And actually all of the Iman in my opinion can also be Iman Bil Ghaib. We believe in angels, right? But have we ever had one present and that we could really document? So, my opinion that's Iman Bil Ghaib. Bil Ghaib means you haven't seen it, you haven't witnessed it, you can't document it because you haven't witness, you haven't seen it with your eyes. You, see? So, it's still something that you have to have faith in because there's not enough knowledge of it, where you could say this is a fact. You see? Or this is evident, real evidence. There's no real evidence except evidence by reason, by logic, by reference by inference, you see. So evidence by experience too. That's why G-d says also that I am just as My devotees see Me. Because devotees of G-d, those who are devoted to G-d like us, who love G-d and are going to pray to G-d and want to do everything correct.
We hate missing our daily prayer or any of our five prayers. We should hate doing anything that we know we should not do. Not doing anything that we know we should do for Allah. Even though most of us are so busy with the life we have, we can't do these things. But it is not something that we like. We don't like that. So, people like that, the Prophet Muhammad said of them and G-d says of them that they know G-d, they know G-d. So, we know G-d. Our souls tell us G-d exists. Our hearts tell us G-d exists. Our minds tell us G-d exists. But when we want to explain to other people we're burdened because G-d, this is just too big, too big. And too much of the unknown, of the unknown for us to explain it that well you see. So, we are burdened when it comes to this. "Well tell me who is G-d?" The best thing to rely upon when you want to tell somebody, don't try to describe what you feel.
Use the revelation and the teachings of the Prophet when you want to describe to somebody who is Allah. Don't rely on your feelings to tell people. Go straight to what Allah says in Qur'an and straight to what Muhammad has taught us of Allah. That's the way we do it. But in our hearts we know, we know. We can't put language to it. But we know for sure in our hearts that Allah exists and is present at all times. And what it means to say is that the real believers, they believe in Allah Bil Ghaib, without proof, without convincing evidence for their rational mind. The evidence is convincing for their souls but not maybe in convincing language that you can put to others. No, not rational. Not rational language that you can put to others that will convince them. Just tell them, "I don't have that. I'm sorry. I don't have that."
But I do have convincing knowledge of G-d in my soul, in my heart, in my own mind. I'm convinced. And it's clear to me. You see. So that's G-d. So Bil Ghaib. We can't present it. That's what it means. You can't present it. You can't document it. You can't present it on paper and say here is G-d's description like I describe a tree or something. We can't. We can't, He's too big. He's bigger than our capacity to perceive Him or to perceive Him wholly in His entirety. We only can perceive this a little bit, just so much. But G-d has revealed much in His scriptures and that's where we can learn about G-d and His way and everything by reading what He has revealed to the Prophets or the Messengers and following that. Praise be to Allah. And the same word that is derived from this same root of Ghaib is Ghaibin.
So, if I want to say brother so-and-so is not here today for this meeting. We saw him last evening at the meeting but he's not here today. So, I would say brother so and so is Ghaibin. Ghaibin means absent. Absent means we can't find him here. So, something that we believe in Bil Ghaib mean we can't put our hands on it, we can't. But nevertheless we know it exists. We are convinced of its existence and its reality. So, believe in it Bil Ghaib. So that should be pretty clear. Believe Bil Ghaib. Because brother so-and-so is not here where we could see him and I could point to him and everybody witness it, that here he is doesn't mean that he does not exist. The very fact that the word Ghaib is used, means it exists but you just can't attest to it with your rational mind in enough degree to document or establish it so everybody says "Yes, we see the evidence." See a lot of people are blessed with experiences that only they are blessed with. Spiritual experiences, whatever. Psychic experiences.
But you experienced that and that's a dimension that we don't live with. That's not a dimension that we live with. Like going to work, riding a car and paying the cashier. These things we live with. So, these are so familiar. These are things we accept. They have become habits, practice. Everyday practice. So, we accept. But you'd be surprised how much Ghaib is in the things that we think there's no Ghaib in. Because I'd love to talk to a person that says, "Well I don't believe in any G-d If I can't see a physical G-d. I'd love to talk to that person. And I'd start talking to them right about themselves. I'd say, what about yourself?
We see you physically. Have I seen you? Am I looking at you? Am I looking at your meat? You can hide yourself from me and I'd be looking at your meat and I'll never see you. So where is the real you? Is it in your meat or is there something else that's inside that? So actually the real you is not even the physical real you. Isn't that a fact, right?
Yes. There'll be two identical twins. They look the same physically and may be worlds apart in terms of their personality. That's right. Yes. So, this is not the big deal, the physical. It's a big deal because we want to be here in the world and without this being in here, that's the big deal. We need our container, we have to have our container. It is wonderful. I think it's a sign from G-d. And when you go out of space, you have to put this container in another container. If you don't you can't go.
So, for this environment, this is a container G-d gave us and we have to have this container. It's a medium. It's more than a container, it's the medium for communication. It is the means by which we are reproduced. So, it is a wonderful vessel that G-d put us in. Wonderful container that G-d has put us in. It is a living container, wonderful container, the most marvelous machine ever made and never will anyone be made like it. But the operating person in that machine is not physical except as an effect. As an effect. See your spirit can be physicalized. And that's what happens to people who just give themselves to the physical all the time. They don't care for the spiritual. They give themselves to only the physical. And you know the song. "Let's get physical, physical."
Well, that really can happen. You can really get physical. And I don't mean physical just for this physical body. Your soul can become physical. Yes, you can become physical where you don't register anything but physical. Your life is not going after anything but the physical. Your life doesn't know pleasure in anything but the physical, just very little of the spiritual is left in you. So not enough left in you for us to describe you as a spiritual being. You are a physical being. And I've heard too. People criticizing. "That's just physical." Something just physical. He's only physical. Physical. And they can't feel any humanity from it. Can't feel humanity from it. You become so physical don't even feel any humanity in it. So, the Iman is Bil Ghaib. So now the angels. Now look, there's some similarities here that will help us understand angels too and that will help us understand some other words related too. Now the rule or the universal rule and law, the universe taken as an order under rules, under authority and rule. The universe is called Mulk, right? Al Mulk. Now this is Mulk, right? You can see right away that Mulk and Malik or Malika, plural for angels, comes from the same word, they are derived from the same word, from the same root. So, this tells us something about angels, the order, the ruling order. And isn't this creation the ruling order? From the time we are born into it, we are under the rules of this creation. We say we are under the rule of G-d, but who established the rules of creation? G-d. The G-d that created it. He establishes, He establish those rules. They aren't our rules, but they are rules based in creation. So, from the time you're born and even before the time we exist, we are under the rules of Allah's creation. Now without trying to say, because we don't know, we can't say, we have to believe in angels Bil ghaib. We can't really say what angels are, but without saying, G-d said that the angels descend in the Night of Power. Obeying every command, obeying every command. Well where the commands come from? G-d, G-d is doing this. This is the marvelous work of G-d. Allah, this is the marvelous work of Allah, the descending of revelation in the month of Ramadan. That's His work.
And the angels are following His commands and they're descending in the night, in the night, not in the day. They're descending in the night. These angels and the Ruh, and the Holy Spirit or and the spirit of the Ruh. They're descending in the night following every, obeying strictly every command that G-d gives them. Now those angels that are following those commands that Allah is giving them, they somehow must be related to the universe as a system of order, rule, and rules. As a system of orders and rules. Rules that govern or governing what exist. So, if they're related to it, then we also should understand something else. That the angels are understood to be beings that serve the Creator Allah, in keeping the order of the world right? So, they're not just put on errands at certain specific times. They have a continuous job. They're angels that are all the time at work for everything, the universe. And we are part of it also for the human being. So, we've been taught by it, by the Prophet Prayers and Peace be upon him and by G-d's own word in the Qur'an, that all of us have with us angels. And this is not Islamic only, this is the belief of the major religions, even religion, even religions that we don't even recognize as really the genuine religions anymore. They all believe in angels. All of them have some belief in angels that I know of. I don't know of a religion that doesn't have a belief in angels.
The belief that there are angels attending our life for G-d. We didn't assign them. We have no power over it at all. G-d has assigned them to attend the needs of our life. G-d says to us that there is an angel assigned to us to write down, to record everything that is happening in our life, everything that we are doing even that that we don't carry out but we thought about it, we entertained it. Angels will write that down. Nothing can happen in our conscience, in our mind without it being recorded or in our hearts without it being recorded by G-d's angel that He assigned to each and every one us. Your angel is not my angel. So, there are many, many angels out there. Yes, my angel is not your angel. We know that. We know that much about it. Your angel is your angel and mine is my angel. Yes. And there's also an angel assigned to us to help us whenever we want to do any good. As soon as the heart or the soul is inclined to good, that angel is ready to start us up. This is Islam. This is the teaching of Islam from the learned, from the Prophets and the learned people who follow them. Yes. Also, there's an angel assigned to us that when we have gone so far that the good angel has nothing to do. Good angel has been idle. The angel that helps you when you want to do good, you have put him out of work.
Then there’s an angel assigned that will help you go to hell. And we can relate this to Al-Qadara can't we? Yes, yes. So, this is belief in angels. Belief in the angels. Belief in the angels and also belief in ghaib, they have a real strong connection. Real strong connection because they exist. Don't think they're unreal because they are mysterious, they are real. Everything has to be explained that we are affected by, we are creation. So, everything must be explained in the context of creation. We don't know everything about creation. G-d says He created worlds that we know and that we know not. But don't think they're going be formed to this nature, this nature of this world. If there are other worlds unknown, they're not formed to this world. Even the Hereafter. What does G-d say? That the souls who are blessed to enter the Hereafter, the Paradise, when they behold it, they'll say "This resembles the things we had before." This is only Islam that tells us that. I don't know another religion that tells us that. Lets us know, don't strain your brain too much, imagining foreign creatures and foreign existence. You've already seen what it looks like.
It's just going to be perfect. It's going to be beautiful and perfect in Paradise. And we can get this also from the saying that we had, we gave last night of the Prophet, the Prayers and Peace be on him of G-d showing Jibreel the creation that He planned for His creation. When Jibreel started, he marveled, "What a wonderful creation. How can any creature go wrong in such a creation?"
But then G-d showed him the creation after the Satan had fixed it up for him, for him and his slave. And then Jibreel said, "My Lord, how can anyone go straight in such a creation?" How can anyone be obedient in such a creation? So, what changed? It was the same creation but G-d intended it to be Paradise. That's what He desired it to be. A paradise for His creature as human, especially the human. That's who He prepared it for. Prepared it for Muhammad, the perfect man and all who will seek perfection to please G-d. All Praise be to Allah. So, this heaven, we don't know. The scripture says what eye has seen, right? No eye has seen, no ear has heard.
And there's nothing in Islam that tells me that that's something that we should just ignore or cancel out. No, it's still true. No eye has seen, no ear has heard. No eye has seen, no ear has heard you see right? But nevertheless we know in our souls and we believe in the hereafter Bil ghaib. Islam gives us something we can reason with you see. But Allah also teaches us to appreciate belief in life after death with our rational mind by showing us how He gives life after death.
He invites us to look at the barren earth, right? And then look how it will burst forth with life. Right? Allah causes it to burst forth with life. Yes, after death He caused it to give forth life and it was dead before. Then also G-d said of our own resurrection, "Certainly He who created you for the first time is able to create you again." That can tell us it's no spooky thing. It's not a spooky thing. You don't think this creation is spooky, do you?
Audience:
No sir.
IWDM:
For the same one that did this can do it again.
Audience:
Yes sir. Yes sir.
IWDM:
So, this kind of teaching it disregards, I would say dispels, superstitions. It dispels superstitions. We are rational but we are not all powerful, all knowing. We are not. We are rational. But we are not all powerful. We are not all knowing. So, there's a limit to how much we can know with our minds. We're only human. We are only His creation, not Him, not G-d. But that doesn't mean that we can't appreciate with our rational mind these things that we have some evidences of. But not conclusive evidence, rational proof that we can document. So, belief in the life and the world to come. We believe in it and we expect it. And G-d says that He is obligated to give that. Justice obligates G-d. G-d's justice obligates Him to give the believers what they hope for, what they expect. A better world then this to come of the life after the death. G-d gives us life after death. And then He tells us that to look how we die in our own world and how we resurrect. Look how a town dies and nobody is attracted to it. Its roofs are caved in. It's all dilapidated. It has died. It has shriveled up like an old man and no life is in it anymore. Says G-d gives it life again after it's death.
So, the belief in that G-d is the Resurrector, He resurrects the thing after its death. That belief is something that we should see as a rule, as a rule of G-d in our world as well as the promise for the hereafter.
So, a person can become spiritually dead and G-d that created that person can give them a spiritual resurrection. A person can become mentally dead. And the G-d that gave that person that creation can give that person a mental resurrection. And the resurrection that we're most interested in is just that. G-d made us spiritual and rational. That's the great quality. The great quality of the human being. His spiritual nature and his rational nature. That's what makes him so great. He's emotional, he's a lot of things. But emotional is connected with spiritual. He's physical, but the physical is connected with the rational. Yes. So really we can say he started off with only two pillars in his construction, spiritual pillar and the rational pillar. And with those two pillars, this construction just keeps increasing in complexity. And he becomes a marvelous creature of so many facets, so many descriptions. But essentially he's spiritual and rational. Praise be to Allah. So, if this is essentially our essence, if this is our essence, spirituality and reason, spirituality and reason, then we can appreciate, we can appreciate G-d establishing us on faith and establishing us on logic. Right? These are the two strong supports of man. Faith and logic. And the scripture say they saw a mighty one who put one foot on the water and one foot on the land.
G-d doing marvelous works. G-d doing marvelous things. Meaning if you stand in your spirituality upright as G-d intended and stand in your logic, your rational mind as G-d intended, you can do wow, marvelous works. And no matter how much we learn with our rational tools, we're overcome by that dynamic or whatever. The bigness of G-d, G-d is so big. That's why I'm saying Allahu Akbar. G-d is so big that our own little rational mind just submits and falls to the ground. And we stand back up on the spiritual legs and we get knocked down. The rational legs get knocked down. But we are not finished. We hold on to G-d, we stand up on our spiritual legs and G-d has created us as a spiritual entity. Yes. Firstly and lastly we are a spiritual entity and G-d promises this spiritual entity another world. Says He is obligated, His justice obligates Him. Wouldn't it be wrong for a G-d to put in the hearts and souls of His creatures a belief that there is something beyond this? This is universal. Mankinds around the whole world believe that. And then He disappointed him or failed him. No, that's what G-d means when He said justice obligates Him.
Yes. He must give His devotees what they hope for. Praise be to Allah. Now if you had all power, would you disappoint your creatures that loved you and worshipped you and the best of those that love you and worship you also expect another world. If you hadn't planned for it, you'll put it in your plan. Say, well I hadn't planned to put something like that in my plan, but I'm the Almighty. I can create anything I want. I'm going to create something to please him. That would be the real G-d. If He was a good G-d He would do that. That's how I reason. I get guidance from the Qur'an and from the Prophet, but G-d has respected my intelligence and my power of reason and the Prophet has too. So, I use it. Iman. Iman. This faith is powerful. Powerful. Our faith will give us strength to keep going and do things when everything else fails. Everything. I mean our minds, the rational mind and everything may fail us. Say, "I don't know what to think about but all I know that I believe in Allah and I would die believing in Allah. Yeah, it'll hold you up and everything else there. And some people they don't think you, I should mention Bible. They think this is a sin. It is sin to mention the Bible because the Bible is not our book. That's true. There are other things that are not ours either but we have to mention. Yeah. Yes. It is a saying in the Bible that I like.
The power. Yeah, the power of faith. That's what I wanted to mention. A picture that is given in the Bible. Beautiful picture where Jesus is supposed to have said that if you only have the faith as much as the grain of a mustard seed. I've seen mustard seeds. My mother came from Georgia from the farmland of Georgia and she kept a garden and when I was a boy, she had me working in the garden and helping with the garden and a hen house too. We raised our own chickens and eggs in the city until the law changed.
Then you could only have a garden of no chickens anymore in the city. So, I was a teenager, I was 13 or 14 by that time. Yes. So, I know mustard seeds cause my mother bought mustard seeds. And if you ain't careful with the wind just blowing a little bit, the wind would blow all your mustard seeds away. Doesn't have to be blowing that strong. It would take your mustard seeds right away. Very small seeds. And so, light a little breeze would just take them away. So, you got to be careful with little windy when you planting mustard seeds.
And from one little mustard seed, just a little crumb comes a big stalk. You buy mustard greens from the store. Mustard greens, sometimes you can't even hardly bite that big mustard stalk on the leaf, right? Yeah. It is so strong. Most people cut it off and throw it away. I chop it up. Yeah, I cook a lot. I chop those big stems and I throw them in the pot first, let them boil for a while and they get a little tender and then I throw the leaves in last and they come out real nice. I paid too much for those stems to throw away those stems. But now when we get rich brother, we can throw away the stems. But let's be practical. We both poor. That's good breakfast for the stomach.
Keep people from paying $50 on the next colon job. I enjoy it. I enjoy it. I like it. I chop up them stems and chop them up. When you chop them up make it cook faster. I chop them up in little pieces like that and put the pot on and cook them for a while about 10 minutes. I cooked them by themselves about 10 minutes. Then I put the greens in and cooked the greens 15 to 20 minutes and everything is nice. Faith so much as a grain of a mustard seed. That little thing like a speck of dust starts swelling up in the earth and start shooting up stuff and pretty soon there's a stalk like this. Have you seen a mustard? Mustard grows like this. Yes. I've seen mustards that grow large. Strong mustard from such a small seed. It gets roots, anchors itself and then supports itself. A little small mustard seed. Now the human life germ is many thousands of times smaller than that, isn't it? Yes. Cause you can't see it with your eyes, you have to have a strong glass to see it. A strong special glass to see the life germ that becomes a body like us human beings, persons like we are. And look at the mighty things we do.
Look at the mighty weight we support. Prais be to Allah. If you only have faith as a grain of mustard seed. Now let's be philosophical right now.
Let's not stop there. Faith as a grain of mustard seed. A grain of mustard seed is placed in the earth. Right? If it is to live it must be put with soil, earth and get moisture. Right? Can't just have soil. It Must have soil and moisture, water and it accepts to have G-d give it life.
Now you know, some dead things look like they know that they must carry their own dead life to the right place to get life. Yes. There are seeds of plants and seeds of animals that in their form before developing they'll be struggling to get to the environment that they have to have in order to have their life. So, there are some seeds with wings, right? We don't call it wings, but they serve as wings and they fall and those wings carry them out so they have a better chance that they going have some land to eat on. If all of them built down in one place, it'll be too much of a fight over the territory. So, G-d give them wings so the breeze come and they just go with that breeze. And even if there's no breeze, they glide like a glide, like a glide. And they'll go a distance away for a better chance to survive.
Now you say, well they don't know they doing that, Allah designed them that way. That's true. But that dead thing is moving to a better place to live. No matter what place you get. I know I saw that dead thing was moving to a better place for itself. So, when it got down there and most likely have a good situation to live. Isn't that what we've been doing all our life here in America? Came up "Lord" at first they accepted Jesus. The church Jesus. The way the church presented Jesus. We accepted Jesus, the Lord Jesus the way the church gave him to us. And then we came up north. That's all we've been doing. Driving around like dead things, looking for a fertile field to fall in so we can just survive and establish ourselves. And finally it happened. Islam. Al Islam. Isn't that wonderful? And didn't we come to Al Islam as a dead thing? Dead thing walked into the Temple. And that's what you were called too. Dead thing walked into the temple. And something altogether different. Saw something that what wasn't bothering you before. You saw something you could start all over again with. "Oh, here is a fresh start. Here is a brand new start. Said, "Hell I don't know nothing here. I could start all over again."
It's true, it's true. I'm telling you, if you gave any evidence that you had some independent thoughts going on your head, you would back out that door. So, we know the dead had to get up and walk. Praise be to Allah. We know the dead had to get up and walk. And again, what I liked about this in Professor Fard’s teaching, who did a great wrong. But I think his intention was good, is that he didn't refer to our death as no spiritual death. He said that mentally. We were the most spiritual people on earth. Maybe we still are.
Audience:
I think so. Yeah.
IWDM:
So, we wasn't spiritually dead. Spiritually misguided, but not spiritually dead. We were mentally dead. We were mentally dead. No matter how we were able to use our minds in the white man structures. We were able to use our mind in the white man structure. But that doesn't mean we were mentally alive. He created structures for us and he told us how to think in those structures. But the thinking in those structures did not provide for our wellbeing and future. So as an individual or as a free thinker, as an independent thinker, we were non existent. Mentally dead. So that's true. We were mentally dead. But once we started to question the white man's world, questioned his system and suspected, then our own independent intelligence came on for the first time. We started thinking for ourselves for the first time. You know to say a white man is wrong in lynching us, that is not necessarily a proof that you are mentally alive. Because the white man has told you that he's wrong.
Right? And a white man did things and then told you he's wrong too. That's not Christian like to do that. And he was doing it. It's not Christian like to treat a black man bad. He was doing it. That's right. Yeah. So, you went to this reference even to the point of accepting a white figure as G-d. But when you decided that "Look, this is his world."
Now you start to be mentally awakened in your own mind. You come alive as an independent thinker. See, to be mentally alive mean that you capable of thinking on your own, in your own constructs, not only in the constructs of the world or the constructs of the white man. I hope you understand what I mean by constructs. See, anytime the world establish a rule or the world established an idea are the world establish a picture for you and your thinking operates on that strand, on that basis then you are thinking in the constructs of the world. And if your ancestors, your fathers and mothers had no role in designing that, then you left out. You left out. And you can't feel that. You can't feel that's your world. So, since it ain't your world, it doesn't satisfy your soul and you are going to be dead. Yes, you are mentally dead there because your mind can't operate independently just to your satisfaction in the constructs that reject you and say you had no part in the making of those constructs. That was a situation you put in. Now there's not always absolutes for such things. So, we know in some degree we had something. But when you analyze it, what you come up with, you have to describe it as mentally dead. I hope it's clear what I am saying. Yes. Alright, Iman Bil G-d, faith in G-d.
We are told that everything in creation is Muslim for human beings. Muslim is a person who's converted to Islam, who's born under the teaching of Islam and accept it. You, see? But when we are talking about it as the nature of the thing, as a discipline or as an orientation in things, then the whole creation is Muslim.
And look at the beautiful picture that G-d gives for us. This is for the mystics and for those people who find aesthetic value in beauty. Great beauty in ideas and things and they're attracted to it and they begin to relate what they see to themselves. You, see? So, G-d says to us in the Qur'an, all of us have a mystical side. The creature, the creature is spiritual. And because of that he has a mystical nature. He has a mystical side. And when you give yourself to it to the extreme, you become mystic. You see. Now we don't like any of these extremes. We don't like the extreme in this particular interest that makes one a mystic. We don't like the extreme of spirituality that makes one a spiritualist. We don't like the extreme of rational devotion that it makes one a pragmatist or a rationalist.
A rationalist. You see, to be a rationalist in one facet of your life or in one focus is okay. Be a rationalist, be rational. But when your whole life someone see you, "He's a rationalist." You're characterized as a rationalist, that's an extreme. We don't want that. You're characterized as a spiritualist, that's an extreme. We don't want that. You're characterized as a mystic. That's extreme. We don't want that. You're characterized as a materialist. That's an extreme.
We don't want that. But everything, all of these proper measures is excellent, is good for the human being. So don't even dismiss the interest of the mystics because we all are mystical in our nature. G-d has created us like that. Okay, so G-d says of the heavenly bodies, say "Observe how they are held up seemingly with nothing to support them, no structures holding them up." We know that Jupiter has been discovered by the astronomers, the scientists, and they say Jupiter is the biggest planet in our family of planets, right? Jupiter is so much bigger than this earth. And you know this earth is big. In fact, for the average man of common sense, this earth is endless. It's endless. Man in thinking with his common sense, he asks where does this earth stop. It must be endless, we've been walking on it for all our lives, for all the generations and we've never walked off it.
It must be endless. You know, the common man, he won't figure out that it's round and that a circle is endless. You, see? Yeah. So, he won't discover that. You see. The infinity of a circle would not be discovered back then. So, he'll be here, he said, we've been walking on it forever, we never walked off it. So, it must be endless. But we know it's not now. Science has told that this earth is so many miles in diameter, and so many miles in circumference. You know we got all that. You could run it down. Couldn't cover a nine square feet, 14 square feet floor with nine square feet with linoleum. You couldn't do it. We didn't know how to measure it and put it down there. But we could give you the square inches of the earth. We were heavy. Heavily loaded.
I didn't want to put it like that. Thank you. Heavily burdened. But the weightlifter, doesn't he heavily burden himself to strengthen himself? Yeah. So G-d in His mercy, He gave us the Asr so we could have the Usr.. That was the plan. That was in G-d's great plan. Yeah. So, we are talking about the beauty for the person, the mystical person in the Qur'an and it says all of us have that. So, we all appreciate it. G-d says, See how the great bodies, Jupiter being so many earths, but it's held up just like the moon and everything else, held up with nothing physical that we could see supporting it. Now Allah didn't say that nothing was supporting it, did He? He said that it appears that way. You don't see any structures holding it up. Which tells us that that common sense man who had no education, wasn't trained by teachers or anything, received knowledge that great men of intellect could only bear witness to. They wouldn't have references for that, right? Educated people, they wouldn't have no references for that. And even the people at that time, they were so ignorant, I doubt that any of their intellectuals would have been able to understand that. They had to grow, their minds would be turned on. And they started to think scientifically because of the great rational and spiritual teachings of Islam.
And we know soon we had astronomers in Islam and everything else came about. So, what's holding up those bodies? We know now. We go on what science tells us. Science tells us that physical bodies have, they produce a gravity field. A gravity field. They have a gravity field and that gravity field is the power of the material on the other material that is of like nature. So, there's other material out there of like nature and this great mass has a traction, has a traction on it. So, it will draw that mass toward it. And that mass also has the same thing. But that mass may be a smaller mass. So, its force field will be weaker than the force field of the bigger mass. So, the bigger mass will pull the small mass, right? But the bigger mass only has so much strength. So, it pulls the smaller mass only as far as it can pull it, given the other pulls on that small mass. The small mass has some pull of its own, and then other masses are all out there in the world too, Universe have an effect on it too. So, it ends up G-d checks them all in the balance. G-d creates so many of them out there as mass and attraction and force fields and He places them so that they balance each other and none pull the other into it where they break up. If not, they have lost their ratio that G-d created for them, right? They broke up. So now they lost the ratio that G-d created for them. So, in their small pieces they have to find a new ratio or a new orbit or give in and accept to ride on the back of another one who had its own orbit right? So, they fall down in little pieces, they're not able to maintain themselves up there. They had their ratios broken, they too weak. So, the force was too great for that little small thing, snatches it in to the bigger one. So, they ride on. If I was out there on one, I'd be happy I had fell down on earth, philosophical.
I'd be happy I'd fell down earth. I'd say thank you G-d for cracking me up and putting me down here. Earth is such a wonderful place.
They Looking for another place but they won't it in my life. I'm pretty sure they won't find it in my life. Earth is a wonderful place, wonderful place. There could be something like it out there somewhere else. We know there's worlds that out there. But if I believe, if I know G-d and I know G-d and if I know revelations, I know revelation, there's nothing out there for me to interest myself in. And all the taxpayers money they've spent to go out there. It haven't made up, it haven't justified the spending yet has it?
Audience:
Absolutely.
IWDM:
Even the scientist, they acknowledge that all that we've gotten from going to the moon and sending the explorer out there looking in the universe does not justify the money. Suppose that money had been spent on the poor. Just suppose they had said let's give up the space program until we can bring up the poor. Oh, there would be quality schools everywhere. With that type of money? Quality teachers in every neighborhood, just the space money. Just the money spent on the interest out in space. Now I'm not condemning that. G-d wants us to have such interest. G-d wants to explore. In terms of money, there's no benefit to justify it. Although there have been new inventions and new things created because of that. But when you look at all that, that doesn't justify it.
But the benefit of that comes to us in the expansion of our minds in the long run down the generation is going to bring us the rewards in time. Not immediately but in time because of this expansion, expanding of the mind, the human mind. In time down the road of our generation there will be creations and inventions and things that will justify this spending out in the space. But it's too much spent out there and not enough spent here on the conditions of people. And this is the position of all the religious people. We don't like that all that money is spent on interest in the space out there and not enough being spent to make a better situation for us on this earth. InshaAllah, that's being corrected. At least the concern is strong and getting stronger. So, we expect that's going to be corrected to soon.
Yes. Iman Bil Ghaib. Iman in all the things that we list have listed. First G-d, angel, the revealed books and the Messengers of G-d and the Qadar of G-d, which regulates good and harm and also the resurrection after the death. There are six, should be six in all. That's six? That's six in all. So, it is also given as the judgment. You say you believe in the judgment. The resurrection after the death is belief in the judgement. The same. So, we have six articles of faith and five articles of practice.
So, we have again gone past that hour. We used up that hour long time ago. So, I'm going to open now by asking G-d to bless us, to stay steadfast. To stay steadfast, always in the faith upright and to seek Him and worship Him only. And to seek Him for all of our needs and to turn to Him for forgiveness whenever we have sinned or did a wrong thing. And we hope that He will always have mercy on us and bless us from the guidance, the Qur'an that He revealed to Muhammad the unlettered Prophet, Peace and the blessing be Upon him. And we pray that for us here and for all Muslims in the world, Ameen. Now we can begin the questions, or discussion. It's not just question, it's also discussion. You have something you want to express, comment to make. That's what we want. We want this kind of free expression. Yes. I usually start in the front. This time we'll start in the rear and come this way. I see a sister, she's in the rear.
You'll have to stand until your voice will carry. I can barely hear you.
Sister Corral Qadar:
As Salaam Alaikum.
IWDM:
Wa Alaikum salaam.
Yes ma'am.
Sister Corral Qadar:
First off, I want you to know how appreciative myself and my family are for your leadership and I am so grateful to be a part of the gathering here today. I hope that the community will be diligent. There is something pressing on me. I'm trying to visualize the community life that we want. And being an American I've always been that the separation of Church and State is protection for us and is protecting us to practice freely as Muslims. And then I hear Muslims sometimes saying that's not true. I'm trying to understand InshaAllah, when we become leaders in this country, how will we be able to practice what is morally correct without allowing people to be free and allowing Muslims also to be thinking freely without separation of church and state. I don't want to take your time. If that's something that you've already written about, I can go read about it.
IWDM:
Thank you very much. Yes, I have not written about that. But I have discussed the separation of Church and State and how Muslims should look at that idea, how Muslims should see that idea and appreciate it while at the same time not subscribing to it wholly. Muslims don't believe in the separation of religion and the nation or the society. When we say the separation of Church and State, we mean that there is a government for the state and religion is to come under its own authority. And its authority is not to be imposed upon the state as an authority. That is government authority that all the citizens support ask for order and support. So, this idea has its problems not only for Muslims but also for good Christians and other religious people. It has its problems when the government carries the society in a way that frightens the religious people. The religious people don't like the way the government is taking the country or the way what they call the secular world. The secular world. We don't like what is happening in the secular world. So, if the government favors the secular world over the interest of the religious world, this is a big problem. That's a big problem.
The government, if is going to be neutral then it's okay. Then it's okay. But to have a government that says we don't recognize the rule of G-d is not acceptable either for religious people. We can't accept that. But that's not what we have. See. So actually, the citizens of this country themselves don't know clearly what separation of Church and State is. The government of the United States is not a government that dismisses the idea of G-d. It accepts the idea of G-d, the Creator, the real G-d. Our government accepts the idea of G-d, but our government does not want repeated what happened in the history of the people that came here for a better life. In Europe they were under the Church at one time and the Church dictated the life for everybody. And one religion and one spiritual persuasion was imposed upon everybody else.
So, there was not the freedom of religion and there was not the freedom of the mind in such a world. That's right. And many times their leaders had become themselves regressive, corrupt, and there was this ugly, ugly existence. So, we should understand that this idea of the separation of Church and State is really something that was brought about because of horrible conditions before under religious theocracies you see. So, the mistake that we can make as African-Americans and as African-Americans of ordinary education, most of us have ordinary education or below average education. The great mistake we can make is thinking that the separation of Church and State or religion and state for this society is a complete cut and dry separation. It is not.
Our government is supposed to be a G-d-fearing government. Our Presidents are supposed to be G-d fearing men. That's right. And the role of this government is to see that no religion dominates another, that no religion deprives another religion of its right to be in America. The role of the government is to see that no holy man rises up and take over the rule of our society and say he's the ruler. He can't do that. No matter how powerful he becomes as a religious leader or spiritual leader, he is not the President of these United States. Now if he's real powerful, he can have power with the President of the United States. Maybe the President of the United States will be so influenced by him that the whole country will be affected by that man's presence on earth. That one spiritual man. Because the government, the President and the Senate and the Congress, the houses, the two houses, all of them have to respect what the people want. And if the people support one spiritual leader, if the people like Imam WD Mohammed, and say Imam WD Mohammed is what the majority of us like, we would like that leader, and the majority of them start following Islam as I present it, this will become an Islamic country. And the President will be happy to serve his Muslim voters and his constituents.
We don't have no problem in this country. The government is our tool. It is the instrument of the people. I'm speaking their language, not mine. So, we need to study it and appreciate it more. And all of us religious people, we should see the movement of secularism as the movement of Satan. And we have to work against it before it take over our lives. And I'm sure that you understand what secularism means. It means the tendency to let the world just develop anything it wants to develop, create anything it wants to create. Take us down the path of sin as much as it pleases them. Corrupt our ideas, impose their thoughts and their influences and their ideas on us through the power of the media and just crush us with this big weight and its big giant feet. We can't accept that. So good people, religious people that know that, and we don't see always, they don't like the secular trends that disrespect our human excellence. Though we should all be against that and we should work against it. This is not the government's fault. The government is our instrument. If we let everybody use it but us, we shouldn't complain. Let us use our instrument. It belongs to us too. Yes. I'm starting from the back. Sorry, I'm coming this way. Sister in the center. Yes, in the rear.
Speaker 6 (01:29:43):
As Salaam Alaikum. Yes, regarding the workshops you have been giving this weekend.

IWDM:
Workshop?
Sister:
Yes.
IWDM:
Yeah, these sessions that I'm having. Yes. I call them sessions.
Sister:
Will they be made available to us?
IWDM:
I know how serious the Imam is about making sure we get a tape so I know it's rolling. So, we will have tapes, but the tapes are only available to those who participate. And the tapes are not to go out to just anybody. The only tapes that'll be out, that'll be distributed to everybody can be the tape made in the evening. And even some of that might be edited out. But the tapes we are given here for these morning sessions are only for the Imams and persons who are interested. Students of the dawah, doing the dawah, if you're students of the dawah. Or you are interested in knowing how you should pass this religion on to other people by mouth, by tongue. All of you, you are welcome to have these tapes. Yes, sister sitting right here in the middle again, sister with the blue.
Sister Daiyah:
I have two concerns and it's dealing with the salat. I think it was about three years ago you were here, it was about 15 of us sitting and you were saying when you come into the Masjid, you're supposed to sit on a line, the same line that you're going to sit on to stand up for the salat. And when you were explaining the different positions in the prayer, I had interest for that to be out here. Also, I'll be working with Imam Armiya Nu'man going to a Ahmadiyya Conference on the Seerah Prophet Muhammad. And when you explain the extremism in certain issues, this is supposed to be a celebration of the Seerah, and my topic is supposed to be The liberator of women. But on the back where they have the English translation of the last sermon, they have a line in here that's questionable. I'm asking you for some information on Ahmadiyya where it says, treat women well. They are your help mates and can do nothing by themselves. Can you explain to me something on the Ahmadiyya please.
IWDM:
Well, I got friends who are Ahmadiyyas and I know they mean well. They mean well. But they also know that I reject the Ahmadiyya movement, I reject it. I see it as a movement that has strayed from the way of Islam and the Prophet. Not in the alarming degree that Professor Fard took us, but still they have strayed. They have strayed to the degree that now they're seen as different thinkers in Islam and they have really against their will, to their hurt or maybe to the satisfaction of some of them. They have separated themselves from the great majority of Muslims and that's no good. That is no good.
And some among them feel that as they free to experiment with the tools of their own reasoning. So, they will. And one will come up with an idea. It is so open that you have so many ideas now in the Ahmadiyya movement, they're not all the same. And some of them are farther away from Islam than others. Some of them are really, in my opinion, from all appearances, real excellent Muslims, very excellent Muslims. Those who are like that, they're heavily burdened like we were. They're very burdened and they know things are not quite right. But some of them are very learned. They're respected by people of Ahl Sunnah Wa Jamat very highly and I believe in time it's going to be corrected. I met with some of them myself and we sat down and talked. They don't dislike me. They know I don't accept the Ahmadiyya. I told them, here's exactly what I told them. They invited me to a meeting in Lahore, Pakistan. This was right after I became leader. So, I told them first of our story. I gave them our story. They were familiar with it, but I gave it to them for myself. I gave them our story and then after giving it to them, I told them, I said, now I invite you to do what we have the courage to do.
We stopped calling ourselves the Nation of Islam Muslims and black Muslims, original Muslim. We stopped calling ourselves that we just call ourselves Muslims. We identify with all the Muslims of the world. I said, I don't think a Muslim should have any other name than Muslim. And I said, I invite you to do what we have done. They never invited me to another conference. Well Sister, if you are going, I would do just what you did here. I would stand up and ask that question and read exactly what you just read to us. That's on the back of the leaflet there. Yes.
Sister Shaheedah Muhammad:
My questions will be very brief. Yesterday you talked about the importance of salat. And I wanted want to know whether you could explain the importance of the line up, the straightening of the lines and the toe to toe. Second question is, can you explain what the real role of women is in society as a wife and as a mother and to herself?
IWDM:
Alright, first for the salat. The Prophet has said that G-d prescribes excellence for everything. And he went on to explain that if you're going to halal something, if you're going to slaughter an animal, then take care that you slaughter it properly and that your knives be sharp that you cause the least pain and you make a clean cut. So, you do an excellent job. Make your slaughtering excellent. And excellence is being merciful to the animal and being a skilled butcher, right? Being a skilled butcher, don't hack the animal up. So, the Prophet has described and follow the rules of halal that the blood be drained from the animal, Bismillah, Allahu Akbar, et cetera. All the rules of halal. So, this is the proper slaughtering, this is excellence in the slaughtering of the animal. If G-d has prescribed excellence for everything, then when we come into this very special place, the Mosque, where we make sadjah to G-d all together at the Masjid.
We should try to do everything in the most excellent way. We should try to sit in the most excellent way. We should try to stand in the most excellent way. We should try to line up in the most excellent way. We shouldn't be satisfied with sloppy wavery lines. You see. And if lines have been put on the carpet to help us, then we should use those lines. Use those lines. If they say put the toe on them, then put the toe on them. Because if some put toes on them and some put heels on them, ain't going to be enough space for everybody. So, whatever they say for you to do in the Masjid, do that and we will have a more excellent arrangement for the orderly arrangement for making the salat. Yes. Now, as for the role of a woman, as a wife and mother and as a person, I would like to start with as a person because the female is a person before a female is a wife and a mother.
So, we will start before all that happens. Because first, she's a female person. The role of a female person in the society is to aspire to motherhood. Motherhood is the best that G-d has given the woman. G-d hasn't given the woman anything greater than motherhood. So, the teenage girl, she should be aspiring to motherhood the day when she will be a wife and a mother and she'll be caring for children. And this is the natural way for people of this earth. Our southern people, they used to train the little girl right away. They wanted to train that little girl so that girl, little girl will be able to be stand in the role of a wife or mother and will not be shamed. So, they will train her manners, they will train her sensitivity, they will tell her about things to come to prepare her for her role as woman, a wife and a mother. They would be preparing her for that. She would have to come in the kitchen and learn how to cook. She'd have to watch her mother. So that's her. As an individual female person, you should be, every female should be interested in knowing motherhood and how a mother should relate to a father or to her husband. How she should relate to her children, how she should relate to her house and how she should support the family in the society.
She should be alert to know that something is being legislated for our society that's going to hurt our family life. So, she should be quick to tell the men, "Men don't support that. That's going to hurt our family, our family life down the road." So, this should be the woman's number one job. It's not just a job confined to the house. It's a job that goes outside the house too. That should be her number one job. That's the highest she can go. Some women think that the highest they can go is being Muhammad Ali, the boxer, the champion. Some may think the highest they can go is being a wrestler. Some think the highest they can go is driving one of those big semis on the road.
Audience:
Semi.
IWDM:
Yeah, they want to drive a semi. They want that sense of power too, carrying that big container behind them. They want to be shaking on the road knowing that they moving all that weight. A lot of them that's what they want and a lot of them want to become teachers. Wonderful. We need women to rise in education. We need women to be more than teachers. We need women to be educators. We need women to be key persons, policymakers in the field of education. There's no limit to how high women can go in Islamic education or in the education of the society. No limit. No limit. We want women to be interested in business but don't be interested in business if it's going to mean my child is walking around with plaster on his back and going on.
Let's raise the children first and if we can raise the children and have enough money, if we are fortunate G-d has blessed us to have enough, we can hire somebody to do that. Then let's hire somebody to take care of our children and both of us are out working. That's okay. As long as we know the child being given good attention, that's okay. And that child will love us. Don't think the child ain't going to love you. Say, "Oh we wasn't at home." Child will grow up and understand if you wasn't at home it was because you were making a better life for that child and you were not seen having the child be neglected while you were making that life. You have excellent people there taking care of your child.
But the sister should see the greatest place in the world for her is the place that the Creator gave her first. And that is the place of mother, mother, the mother of society, the mother of civilization. Yes, that's how she should see herself. And as a wife, I'm not quite finished with this question. As a wife sister, we also should be aware that scripture addresses this concept from the floor level to the ceiling. On the floor level, the wife is just the wife of a common man. It's a common woman, the wife of a common man. But on the higher level it is an interest in preserving the best state of society. So mother, mother is really the interest that the man devotes himself to. He devotes himself to mother interest and that's the highest interest he can devote himself to. He becomes President, he becomes the Amir, he becomes the Khalif. Whatever he becomes, the highest interest he can devote himself to is the interest of the mother. The interest of the mother is to see that all sexes, male and female be treated better. The interest of the mother is to see that all dependents, citizens in her kingdom, her house have equal protection under the law. And we can go on in this discussion. So really it is the mother, the mother order, that is the ideal order for the society. And the man must devote himself to the mother order if he is to himself rise up and be approved by the society. So sister, you ought to make sure that man does it in the right way.
Make sure he does it in the right way. If he does it in the right way, call him your husband. All Praise be to Allah. Is that sufficient sister? Thank you. I am going have two more sisters. I'm sorry I've been favoring you brothers. I am going to have two more sisters. Yes, the sister. Yes sister.
Sister Ummil Khair:
Yesterday it was said that in Al Islam, if the brother has sex with a woman automatically that's his wife. Well what is fornication and adultery?
IWDM:
Yes. Yes. Fornication is an English term. There's no Islamic term called fornication. In Islam, all of it is adultery. Fornication is adultery. Yes. In Islam, fornication and adultery is having sex outside of the law and keeping it secret, hiding it. That's the definition of fornication for a Muslim. And doing it with the intention not to have that person as your wife, but to have that person as your girlfriend or as a pleasure, pleasure for you. As one of your pleasures. That's fornication and adultery in Islam. But if I meet a sister and we attracted to each other and we love each other and we are overcome by our attraction for each other. And I tell the sister, "Sister, I want sex with you, but I will never leave you. I want you as my wife." There are no witnesses at this time but G-d, and the sister accepts that and we have sex and I don't depart from her. I don't depart from my commitment. I let my relatives know this is my wife. I let my friends know this is my wife. My marriage is made in heaven just as the one that was conducted by the Imam who gave or officiated the wedding. The sin is to hide it and not be just by the person you get involved with. That's the sin. That's what makes it fornication and adultery. When you're doing this secret and you won't acknowledge that person in the society. I'm not saying that's the way we're supposed to do it. It has been established. Nikah has been established. The Nikah. So that's the way we should do it. But if you get in a situation and you are weak and you have that relationship with each other, have it honorably and stand by your responsibility.
Don't back off of your responsibility. And Allah accepts your marriage. Yes. I said two more sisters. One, this would be the last sister. Yes, the sister in the dark blue. Right, the white right here. You don't have to stand up. You don't have to stand up. Okay, thank you.
Sister:
Brother Imam, as a Muslim woman, in what ways can a Muslim sister, if she chooses to spread the religion of Al Islam to other people in society, can you tell me or us, what are some of the ways that a Muslim sister can spread or invite other people to Allah's true religion, Al-Islam.
IWDM:
Yes ma'am. If I were a woman myself, a female myself, I have a strong desire to see people become Muslims. So, if I were a female myself, what I would do is be a good mother to all youngsters. To all youngsters. I would just be a good mother to all youngsters and I let them know that I'm a Muslim, but I wouldn't try to teach them Islam necessarily. I would just be a good mother to all youngsters and a G-d-fearing mother before all youngsters. That's what I what would do number one. Number two, when I got an opportunity, when I saw another female that I thought I could approach and she would respond and listen. I would talk to that female about Islam, acquaint more females with Islam. If I was a sister, I wouldn't go looking for males to invite to Islam. I would look for children to mother and females to invite to Islam. And especially those females who have more children and are suffering bad conditions in this society. Yes. One more, this is the last one. One more.
Sister:
There's a controversy. I'm the Administrative Chaplain with the women who are incarcerated at Rikers Island and I administer Islamic classes and there's a mixed opinion on whether a woman can give Jumu'ah prayer to all women. What is your answer on that please?
IWDM:
Yes, yes. There is not agreement on this. There's disagreement, differences of opinion in the leadership of Islam worldwide. My opinion is that if there are all women in a house or family and the males are gone, all women there. Or in a situation like you were talking about where a number of women together and they need to make prayer. That they make prayer and one woman lead them in prayer. This is my opinion and I think the tradition will bear that, will support that more than it will support that a man has to come in and lead women only. In my opinion, a man shouldn't come and lead all women in prayer. There must be males in the audience if man is to lead them in prayer. Let's see here. I'm going to start to the left here.
Brother:
Would you please elaborate on when Jibreel came.....
IWDM:
Yes, I can hear him.
Brother:
Would you please elaborate on when Jibreel came Prophet Muhammad and squeezed him three times and told him to read.
IWDM:
Yes.
Brother:
What does the three represent?
IWDM:
Yes, yes. Alright, we have in the Qur'an that Allah said to Muhammad three times "Read." It doesn't say the angel pressed Muhammad, it says that Allah said to him "Read." But the Prophet has taught us other things more that we have learned from the Prophet and the learned people. And I believe that some of this has been stretched, like Hadith have been stretched. Alright. Because I know another one where it says that the angel put his thigh so close to Muhammad's thigh and it was so heavy pressing on Muhammad's thigh so hard. To me that's stretching the story and you need to translate what we're talking about and all of us to understand. So, they give picture language to something else and we get the picture and the picture mystifies us. What we've been given is myth, Islamic myth. So here now you have Islamic myth and that's not in the Qur'an. This myth is not in the Qur'an. This Islamic myth or mythology.
Islamic myth is not in the Qur'an, so I would caution us to take all these stories with a grain of salt as we say English. Take them with a grain of salt. That is with a bit of caution. Take them with a bit of caution, be a little cautious. What we know for sure is that the burden on Muhammad to understand revelation is itself pressing him. That's what's pressing him.
And the angel is the medium of the communication. So, if you want to connect those and get and see the picture, it's good that we know the word. Because G-d says, "I'm going to give you a weighty word." Its a heavy word. So, the word itself, the revelation itself is heavy on the Prophet. So, we know the word itself pressed him because he could not understand revelation. So, it pressed him once. It pressed him twice and the third time he was able to read, he began reciting. That's enough for me. Yes. Is that sufficient? Well, let's go over here. Now I see hands up. I want to give everybody a chance.
Imam Qareeb:
Yes. Two points I wanted to bring out, one was a concern with our young people. Living in this country, we know the effects of the television, advertisement, music, all of those things have on our young people and it's a struggle with them. So, one of the first things I was interested if you can make some comment on is your opinion on us possibly marrying our young people off at an earlier age than what's considered traditional for this country. The other point was if you could just give us some insight or some opinions on an Adaab in terms of what direction we should be looking to as far as our etiquette, mannerisms, the mingling or whatever with brothers and sisters, those kinds of things.
IWDM:
Things. Yes, thank you for that question. Excellent. Yes. First is his concern. His concern is actually one concern because they're connected. Yeah. His concern is first that we find a better way for our children so our children don't keep having children, don't keep having children with the grown up responsibility and no help from us grown ups. Brother, I'm strongly in favor of what you recommended. I'm strongly in favor of us educating ourselves to accept, I say educating ourselves. It's just intelligent to do what you are suggesting. Educating ourselves to accept that our families, our parents do more than just obligate themselves to take care of their young ones. But when they become 13, 14 and start having strong sex drive, that if we see a nice situation for them to mate, and our own judgment tell us, most likely they'll be successful if they married. We accept to continue to take care of them. Let them marry and we'll continue to take care of them until they graduated.

If they go far as they can go in school and ready to go out and earn a living. That's the way of the south brother. That's the best tradition of our southern people. And that is the way of Islam, that's the way of Judaism. That's the way of the great religions. He's asking us to do something that will make this community a very much stronger social family community. I support you a hundred percent brother. Work on it please. Work on it please. And I ask all of us to support brother, what's your name? Brother Bashir. Support him please. He has a strong interest in this. I can feel it. So, we should support him. Those who have the interest, let him know that you support him.
Imam Bashir:
I have six children Brother Imam.
IWDM:
That's reason enough to have an interest. Praise be to Allah. And we are behind time. We are not teaching our children Islamic etiquette. So, the man is interested. Start drawing the materials together. A lot of good material already exist. And let us make our contribution too. Let us have books on Islamic etiquettes, especially manners for young children, manners for young children. How they're supposed to respect that parents and each other and their power, their possessions, that etiquette in Islam. There are rules of manners in Islam for everything. We love that question and I hope we'll support you.
Imam Bashir:
Thank you.
IWDM:
Yes. Let me see the brother in the back with the green shirt on the cap.
Brother:
Could you explain to us what the word Israel means? And why they called it Israel. And Israel, when you look at the English language to where it is, IS in front of rail and it shows that it is a question towards rail. So, I'd like the explanation.
IWDM:
Okay. Yes sir. Well when I give you access to a lot of things, I'm not giving you these answers as complete answers and there is nothing else to be said. I'm just giving you the answer that I can get based on my information that I have. Israel, according to the Bible would mean he saw G-d. Now if that name comes from what happened, what was happening and his anguish or distress, he was wrestling with his brother Esau. So, it says. And it was as though he was wrestling with an angel. And after he wrestled with Esau, his brother, he meets with G-d. He comes to know G-d after wrestling with his brother Esau. So, coming to know G-d is expressed as seeing G-d. Alright. Not seeing G-d with his physical eyes, knowing G-d with his intellect. So, it says, and he had power with G-d. He had power with G-d.
Having power with G-d means that he became like the angels who shares the rule or who has a role in the rule of G-d's kingdom. So, the angel has power with G-d, doesn't it? It doesn't mean like what it's suggesting. See the scripture is very tricky sometimes. And it may suggest to us, some of us that it means he had power too. Like G-d had power. That's left for the reader to believe. But the real pure communication is not that he had power like G-d had. It is that G-d had blessed him to share in the power. To share in the power. Like angels share in the power and the angels can do nothing on their own. That's why the angel is put in the picture too. So, this is a good story. This is a good story. If it's translated the way I just translated it to you in the correct way. So, from then on he was called Israel, meaning that he saw G-d. And the real expression should be that he came to know G-d. He came to know G-d. Before he was called Jacob, according to the Bible. And then he was called Israel. Now look at the word Israel. You can see saw in it. You can see saw in it. I told you don't run away with this.
Allah knows, we do not know. Yes. So Is Rah. This is rah. And you write Israel like this? Right? Is like this is Is ra el. So, this is Is ra el. Do you see Rah in here? There's Rah. Rah means to see. Right? And the emphasis in the Qur'an is on the Rah. That's the hint. That's not magic. That's insight.
Yes. Yes. Brother. Who asked the question about, yes, the name Israel. Israel. Now if he was called Israel. And all the people from that time on, they're not called people of the House of Jacob anymore. They're called the people of the House of Israel and they're called the descendants of Sons of Israel. How proud that make them that they're the only people on earth that are identified as the people who know G-d. That's in their own minds. In their own minds. I don't want to say that. That's in their own minds. In their own psyche. Yeah. That's in their own psyche. In their own psyche. They're the only people that actually know G-d. Saw G-d in a rational mind or perceived G-d with their rational mind. They have pride in themselves that they're the only people.
But Allah revealed to Muhammad that Jacob was a Prophet of Allah. And all Prophets are not the Prophets of any particular people, but they are Allah's Prophets. They are Allah Messengers and Allah's Prophets. And they are human Prophets. And ain't nothing special in one people that is not also special in another. So, this is what we should understand, that this claim of the Prophets, that when one people claim all the Prophets, they've done the wrong thing. That these Prophets are not Prophets of their race. They're the Prophets of all the people. All the people. They descend from Adam, the father of man. All people. Yes. And they came as the servants of G-d to all people, not just to a different race, different nationality, different tribes and one tried to claim them all didn't it? One tribe claimed all of them, all the Prophets. That's really something. Okay, is there any further questions? Any further thing you would like me to address? 
Brother:
Yes. They’re called Israelites.
IWDM:
Yes. Used to call people who liked me in Philadelphia Warithsites. That's true. The Warithsites. I wouldn't pay much attention to Israelites. The only Israelites that I know we should pay some attention to are those who went to Israel to find light and they called themselves black Israelites.
I wish I could talk to them, but I don't think I can. They're pretty set in their ways. Yes. Another question now.
Imam Numan:
Thank you all of us for sharing your knowledge.
IWDM:
Thank you. Thank you.
Imam Numan:
I have concern is with the computer age we are going into. Muslims are on what they call the internet and they have great conversations all over the world and they discuss us as well as their other interests. There's been some very negative things written with millions of people who be on online services and we are not really represented yet as a community or mindset on the internet. So are there any people in the country that's doing anything towards that end?
IWDM:
No, but there is a concern, and I'm hearing it from you and I've heard it in Chicago, there is a concern that Muslims take advantage of this new, well medium of communication. And I would say I think we should, but don't worry too much about what they're saying there. This internet is almost like a bell system and if we could plug into Bell system, we'd hear some things that would make us hang up fast. So I wouldn't be frightened too much about what they're saying or what they're saying and putting on there. But just make sure we use it. We use it to serve our needs.
Brother:
There's two questions I'd like to ask you. Number one, when will you have a catalog for the toothbrushes, the watches and asprins. And the second question, what is the symbolism behind the nine signs of Prophet Musa?
IWDM:
Yeah. First, when are we going to have a catalog? Well, I'm encouraging us all around the country to get our own good situations to see what we can do to realize more of this idea that we have, find items that would be good to present to the community as items that we would like to supply to the community, our membership and look for good suppliers and compare prices. Check with more than one supplier and try to find the best prices. That's making some progress. And work with the Imams. So that you'll be able to present whatever you have discovered or come up with to the congregation and have the congregation respond to it, see what that interest is. If they would really support the item that you're interested in. Even the price too. The price. Let them know. Give them some idea of what the price would be on each one. If we bought so many volume, try to estimate the volume that you could buy it in and also estimate the volume that you would buy it in with the help of all the community that I could attract, which would be big, which would be very big. So, you come up with a local price based upon how many people that you think you could perhaps supply to give and then estimate a price figure that I would attract around the country. We might miss it, but we'll come close. We need to have something real to look at. We'd have something to look at. And start getting some items and some prices. That's what we need. We need items and prices. And I encourage this to happen in all the big cities. Chicago here and other places, New York and other places. Do it in all your big cities. And then the Imam or person that would head up that interest could be introduced through the Imam.
That's one thing we don't want to do. We don't want to undermine the Imam or cause him to be uncomfortable. Be uncomfortable. In fact, if possible we would like for the Imam to really be the distributor, the regional distributor, the Imam himself. If he qualifies and if he wants that, if he qualifies and wants that. That way he'd be taking the financial burden off of the poor people because really all of us poor and we just burdens on each other. So, we would like to do this as quickly as we can to free up the Imams that have qualifications to do business. And we can create a business job for him. So, we're going to free him up from having to ask the people for charity. For charity. That way the people's charity can go to the school maintenance, maintenance of the Mosque and the school and we can grow. And we hope that business will grow so that the people themselves will start having more money. If we can bring them in, the high cost of living can be reduced on us if we work as a unit. So, the people will have more in their pockets, they'll be able to help themselves more and help their religion and their religious community more. And the business people will be able to have powerful income so that we don't have to worry about the lights being turned off, being kicked out off the property or the house. You shouldn't have problems like that.
So, it could be just a renewal, a revival for all of us. Financial revival, financial renewal for all of us. Go from one thing to another. But don't wait on me and don't wait on anybody else. Find people who are interested and have good minds to do it and go to work. Some people going to work already. Keep your good works up, keep working for it. We can never accomplish something if you waiting on one person do it. Many people must work and many people must accept the same responsibility. Same responsibility.
Questioner:
Nine signs of Prophet Moses.
IWDM:
Yes. I knew was something keeping me from responding to these hands.
Now the nine signs. This is Islamic. This is Islamic language. This is from the Qur'an. That's what you're talking about? Okay. Alright. Cause we know in the Bible it talks about nine plagues. Yeah. So, the nine signs, I think they're giving us convincing signs. Yeah. Clear. Clear signs. Convincing. Convincing clear size, very convincing signs. Clear and convincing signs. Yes. Nine of them. Now Moses, understand that Moses was a Prophet like Muhammad. Peace be Upon him. Yes. Moses was not a person educated in religion or scripture. And Allah gave him nine signs. Moses was not to be a Prophet addressing spiritual needs in the people only. Moses was to be a Prophet responsible for leading a nation. A nation. A whole people. A whole people. So, these nine referred to the community, nine referred to the community interests, the community interests. Interest in organizing people as a community and giving that community leadership. That's nine. And nine is used in connection with top responsibility for the society. Right. How many Supreme judges? Nine. Nine. And who has the last say? I mean, who has last the last say? The President? Supreme Court. Supreme Court. Supreme Court has the last say. Supreme Court has the last say. So that tells you that Moses was entrusted with a law that was going to be applied on a whole people, a whole society. And G-d gave him the nine clear signs. Means G-d qualified him for that. Qualified him to be, he's called a law giver you know.
Yes. But nine means the whole community, the whole society. We don't see our whole community. We are not with our whole community until we are on Arafat. Right. What day is that? And still, I don't have the last say. We only know so much. Allah knows and we know not. Alright, thank you. You are welcome. You're welcome. Yes.
Imam WD Shareef:
I wanted to ask you ask, do you see any connection between the word Deen and the Prophet of Islam changing the city of Yathrib to Medina once he moved in? Do you see any connection between the two?
IWDM:
Yes. Oh yes. Oh yes, yes. Yes. There is a connection. There is a connection. Yes. Even towns now, after that time we called the plural, apartment unit. Mul. Mul means town and Medina the city. Towns and city. Mul and Medina. Yes. It's called Medina Al Mul Nawra. Also, that adjective Al Mul Nawra helps us understand Medina. It's Al Medina Al Mul Nawra and it is translated City of the Light. Yes. The scripture talks about mountains and talks about balance. Right. But the movement is toward a plane, not the mountains, but a plane. Right. The movement is toward a plane. And to take it, bring the message to those on the low plane. Right? On the low plane. We may say the common plane. The movement is to bring that is on high so that it can reach those on the common plane.
Now there's a word dal, it means to go down. It means to go down, down from higher place to down. And Medina has that meaning in it. It means a place that is not higher but down. You go down from Mecca to Medina. Right, right. Yeah. If I'm correct. The altitude of Mecca is higher than the altitude of Medina. So, it needs to go down in fulfillment of scripture that we want a government that respects the common people. And that going down to the plane means coming off your high powers and respecting the common people. And that's what happened in Medina. Muhammad established respect for the common people. He invited common people into the leadership. If they were ready, they came into like anybody else. Black, he didn't care what your color was.
And the justice he administered was the justice for the common people and the people on high. For everybody. Now the scripture says the mountains shall be leveled. And laid low, right? Well, if we have a government that is representative of the people, we don't have any mountains in our government do we? We have a plane, we all have accepted to live on the plane. Yes. So, though you have people who are mountains in their own achievements and the government is a mountain too in its achievements as far as the administration of justice, there are no mountains. There's no special places for anybody. Everybody on the plane level. And that's what the scripture talks about from the Genesis to Revelation. You can see the movement. The movement is toward, let's be on the square. Let's get on the level here. Somethings wrong. It ain't fair. And until it's fair, we ain't going to like it.
You see, that's the movement of man’s soul and Medina I think is very significant, the name Medina. The name Medina, meaning a place that is not high up. And from Medina, you also get meed, you get meed, which means the balance. The balance. Not too far to that way, not too far that way. Not too high, not too low you see. So, you get the same thing from the word and also in the same word is also the meaning that it's a balanced place. It's a place that's not favoring one more than another.
So, it's a place that's down from the proudness of those who live above the common people. It's down from that. But nevertheless, it's the place that has a balance that corrects those on high and those low and those low to bring them up on the level where G-d wants them to be, you see. And isn't that the way it should be? And we go to these two extremes. We go to the extreme of exalting and then we go to the extreme of discredit until we have people living on an inferior plane. And if we don't watch out, the Democrats will have all of us living on an inferior plane.
And it'd be we give ourselves wholly to the Republicans, they'll have us living on arrogance, plane of arrogance. And they say that we've been turning up our nose to the blacks. They don't say like that. They say we haven't included them. Right. We haven't included them. And some of their strong ones now want correct that. They're making appeals to us. They want to correct that. So, we don't want to be either, I don't want to be a Democrat or Republican. I don't want be an American. I don't want to be a Democrat or Republican. I'll vote as a Democrat. And if I have to, I'll vote as a Republican. But my heart is never not taken yet by either party. My party is just the best collection of people. Its the best collection of ideas, best collection of people. That's my party. Now you all have to be in politics. You have to do your thing.
Imam Sultan:
I am a businessman. Now we have talked a lot about each other and about community. I followed your father first and now I am following you.
IWDM:
Yes.
Imam Sultan:
I became prominent as a businessman under your leadership.
IWDM:
And I thought you were already very successful under my father.
Imam Sultan:
I was successful with doing what he said. I sold the papers, I did the things that all the FOI did.
IWDM:
Yeah. I mean he was being great at it.
Imam Sultan:
But as a business person, I have become a business man with big thinking and concepts as a result of what you have taught me. Now you placed a lot of emphasis and top perspective many times during the different talks on business. But it seems to be a barrier or a conflict set up between people who see themselves as just Imams and those who just happen to be in business with other interests and aspirations as well. Like myself. I see myself like I told you I just happen to be in business but that's not my only interest. That's not my only focus. I try to see myself as a balanced individual. I try to see myself like Prophet Muhammad, a person who is in business as a result of that's what he had to do. Commerce, trading, et cetera in order to be able to help people, dawah, et cetera. I don't see myself as being in business and not being able to promote and learn and represent the religion. Now the reason I say this in this context, it's heavy on my heart. And many Muslim businessmen come to me and I come to them, and we talk all the time. Whenever we have all of our different functions, especially our National Convention, et cetera, we don't receive the business interests. The business man, the business woman, we don't see that represented anywhere near what it should be. We see what appears to be, but we don't have in our religion, we see a clergy.
I've been here with you. I'm your loyal associate. You are my teacher. I don't waver about that. I'm your student. You tell me now "Sultan, pack your bags, go to Spain." My bags are already packed waiting for a chance to go. We never get a chance to go. But when we look up in the paper and we see all these people who appear to be to have some type of elite position.
We love you, people who work every day, but with your concepts in mind. The people if you call and say I need 5,000, 10,000, we'll give it to you. You know I will. But we never have opportunity to express ourselves. We never get a chance to be in the so-called limelight. We are always being talked to and taught by people who need us to help them. You said that we are not going to the paradise without the businessman. Now I didn't make myself a businessman. I didn't choose to be a businessman. I didn't choose to be a Muslim. But I accept the responsibility. And I'm your associate. I'm your follower. I'm your student. And I know you are a follower of Prophet Muhammad. I don't have to qualify that. I follower you and you taught me Allah. You taught me Prophet Muhammad. Now I didn't know any of those things. And the result of my success, it is a direct result of me being your student. But when we go to the conventions, when we go to all the other things, all we see is Imams, Imams, Imams. Amen. The Muslim man who wants to help you can never present to you his concepts, his ideas. What can we do to repay you? To show you that we going to support you. We'll never get this chance. So, I'm not just speaking about this for myself and hope I'm not being too out or too emotional, but this is the consensus of business people in your association around the country. They have money, they have influence, they have knowledge. But when we go to these conventions, we look up on the stage, there's is no place for us. If we give a million dollars a year, we have a convention, they still, they go out. Come on brother, come on brother, come on brother. They say they are your associates. They say that they love you, but when they see us, they don't even give us the greetings. Don't even give the greetings. When they come to where I live at, they don't even come visit. They don't come visit me. They go everywhere else but they won't come visit me. Something's wrong. This is conflict. But the Prophet was a business man.
IWDM:
Yes he was.
Imam Sultan:
The Prophet was a Imam. The Prophet was a husband. The Prophet was a father.
Prophet rolled his sleeves up, and he worked. The Prophet could not be seen any different among his Companions.
IWDM:
That's right.
Imam Sultan:
That's what they say. Why don't they emulate the life of the Prophet?
IWDM:
Thank you, thank you, thank you for expressing yourself. We thank you very much. It is very much needed. This hurts us as something that I'm aware of and I hope we can overcome it. I think this business effort is going to do away with that. I hope we can overcome that and I'm sure we'll be able to overcome that. But most of us need to be aware that Islam is not a clergy. It does not accept a clergy class. We can't have a clergy class in Islam. There's no clergy class in Islam. We don't want to imitate Muslims who have been influenced by Christianity and impose a hierarchy to try to have their Pope and their Bishops and whatever. We don't want to imitate that. We don't want to fall into that. And many of the Muslims of the world, you know, they have fallen into that. They have the equivalence of the Pope, they have their bishop and their followers and whatever. They have all those and they have their priests, order of priests. And you can't be among them and they don't look at you as one of them. And they have an air about them that says they don't belong to your group. But we don't want that. That's ugliness. That's not following the beautiful picture of Islam. We don't want that. And Imams are supposed to be rounded human beings, not just a one faceted human being. He's not just supposed to be a man leading prayer and doing rituals with followers.
He's supposed to be as quick to grab the broom and sweep the floor as anybody else. Yes. That's what I loved about my father. A lot of things my father didn't know so he couldn't do and he had lot misunderstanding. But one thing my father at no time thought himself too big or too much to do the common down on the ground level job. If it was there, he would rush over there. And if he saw you looking like that, it would anger him so much. He would say "What's wrong? You think you're too good to pick up this mop? He'd say, "Brother, pick up the mop or get out of here. He was a strong father. Yes he was. And I loved him for that. I love him now for that. I love him so much for that. And that went into me and I thank Allah it went into me. It didn't have to go into me. I thank Allah it went into me. I'm not too big to do anything. In fact, I don't like to see a brother doing something. If it's mopping the floor or sweeping. I'll help him. Right. I ain't doing nothing. I'm here. Why can't I help? Talking about I got more important things to do. Go on and do it. Don't be standing here looking at me.
I mean that's common sense, isn't it? That's common decency. Right? You big shot. You ain't doing nothing. Hell, help the brother clean the floor. If you got heavy things to do then don't make us make your time less valuable. Get on out here and get busy.
That's the way I see it. Now, you notice when you ask me, you raised your hand? How did I respond to you? I know you're business man. I noticed that's where you spend most of your time and energy. I know that you devote your time to that more than anything else. But you're sitting here now with me on the floor listening to what I'm saying. I what I said, I addressed you as Brother Imam. I know his name too. His name is Sultan. Sultan Muhammad. I know his name. He's doing very well. He's a very strong supporter and financially and every other way. So, I addressed him when he raised his hand I said, "Brother Imam. I recognize him. He's an Imam.
And you let me know what trip you want to go on. If I go, you're free to go. You want to go there, you let me know and I guarantee you I'll give you the same consideration I give everybody else.
Imam Sultan:
I am ready to go. I'm free. You think I can help you? I'm free.
IWDM:
We need a business man with us. When we go to Saudi Arabia, there's a delegation expecting to be invited. If it materializes your name is already on the list. I will make sure of that.
Imam Roberto Rasheed:
We hear a lot of talk about Farrakhan and particularly with respect to the million man March, but I was talking with one of the Imams from Philadelphia and yesterday you said something about there's good and bad in everything. With this ignition, this march igniting it, coming across Urban America with respect to the black male. After the 16th is over maybe thousands of hundreds of thousands of black men come back to the urban area. What good can we derive through dawah and going back and being active in the community. When I lived in Philadelphia in the seventies or the sixties, Muslims, even in the Nation of Islam, it had more impact and influence. Now that we've got the right way, the right prescription, what are your recommendations for brothers who really now want to go back and bring the right prescription back to the urban man in the African American Community?

IWDM:
Well there a lot of ways to do it. A lot of things that can be done and I'm sure that you have the ability to come up with those answers. But I would suggest one thing that would test the water, put a lot of people on spot. A lot of us on the spot. Muslims on the spot. I would build up a drive or a community voice here in this area and carry it all over the United States among us, the supporters of Imam WD Mohammed. To be prepared when they return from the march are even while they are there at the march, the day that they march, be prepared to make a statement to the media. A statement saying the one who has the strongest voice in the African-American community for us to take our life into our own hands and be responsible for ourselves is WD Mohammed. So, Farrakhan, we pray that G-d bless you with a successful march. Our Imam doesn't believe in marching unless there's nothing else to be done that he can do. So, we pray that you be successful. Let Farrakhan march. But let Imam Mohammed showed them how to establish themselves in their responsibility in community. That's how I would have it. And be prepared to introduce programs into the African American community similar to the one we have right now.
The program to strengthen the business community. Be prepared to introduce programs like that and they will have hope. Don't they have hope in this idea? This idea will enrich all of us. So that would be my position. I know one thing, we never would put that much money into a restaurant.
Audience member:
That's right.
IWDM:
You never will do that. Into a restaurant. It'd be different if you're going have all the Sheiks and the Princes come to eat and you're going to be charging them a thousand dollars a plate to get your money back. But you ain't got nobody but poor people from the neighborhood, from the Temple or Masjid to come there to eat and now all that money put in the restaurant. I think that's the most ridiculous thing that anybody has done in the name of the Nation of Islam.
Audience:
That's right.
IWDM:
I don't know of anything more ridiculous than that. Shoot. Got marble all around the place. I said I came here but I can't eat here……..



