05/23/1992
IWDM Study Library
Dealing with Money Problems 
Dallas TX

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(This article has been prepared for Muslim Journal's readers by Imam W. Deen Mohammed. It is prepared from his public address given in Dallas. Texas on Saturday, May 23, 1992 at Dallas Convention Center.)
Praise be to Allah, the One Lord of all the worlds. And we pray upon Muhammed the Prophet be the prayers and the peace, the Last Prophet, and what follows of that excellent traditional salute to Muhammed the Prophet.
First let me say that on every visit to this city of Dallas hosted by you, I always get more than I expect of good and also of inspiration and encouragement. That means a lot to me. Last night was so impressive. I feel that we are really accomplishing big things.
We have to acknowledge not only the strong exuberant spirit of Imam Yahya Abdullah, but we also have to acknowledge his winning personality and his obvious wisdom. We thank Allah for that. I know as soon as I start paying him a compliment, he starts telling me about you all. I know he could not do it by himself, so the compliment is to all of you.
We are very happy and proud when we find productive leaders. That gives us rest in our souls and in our spirit. But when we don't find productive leaders, we are miserable inside and are downhearted. I hope you understand how important your leadership is to us (nationally) in Dallas and your support for that (Dallas) leadership.
I looked at this topic and said to myself, I wonder what I had in mind when I suggested this topic. I think I understand or know. The topic burdens me because people expect quick answers. "You are going to tell us how to get out of this situation we are in? Are you going to do something for poor people ? Okay, let's have it right now."
If I had a quick answer, I would not do any talking. I would just tell you where to go and get hired tomorrow or the next coming work day. I would just give you the information you need to go get hired. Most poor people are suffering because they don't have jobs or they don't have adequate jobs. The jobs they have are not enough to take care of them.
Most of the people who are unemployed are not even bothered, and that is why they are not employed. Those who are bothered by not being employed, in time they are going to be employed. We have to try to reach not only those who are bothered by their situation, but also those who are not bothered by their situation. I believe that many of us who are now very much alive and active and productive were at some time just like many out there who are not even bothered by their situation.
We changed when something came to our awareness in the form of a message. Our whole mental disposition was changed. It gave us a new way of looking at things. That kind of help does not come instantly. It comes over a period of time being exposed to a particular sensitizer. The sensitizer can be the word of G-d or it may be something else. However, we have to be sensitized by something. The quickest answer I can give for making change, the change that we should be wanting in our lives, is a change in the way we look at things. It requires a change in perception.
The learned say that perception is all senses operating together. We think of perception perhaps as perceiving or seeing something with our eyes. That is perception, but the more complete meaning of perception and the richest meaning is that one which combines all senses working together. What we need is mental perception, perception to dawn in the mind or to become clear for us in the mind. Many things affect perception, and perception affects all things for the individual.
Support from faith, that is the answer. We have heard that "faith can move mountains." It means that if you just had faith, you could accomplish and do so much that you want to do. We need a conditioning to favor us having faith. Father too is not something we can just easily come by. In fact, we say as Muslims and as people in religion say, "No one can give another one faith." Faith is always the Mercy of G-d. If we have faith, it is because of G-d's Mercy.
There is plenty support for us having faith. The life style and its burden on the individual person today and the demand on the individual's attention today make it very, very difficult for any individual to be in a situation to get help. This is a time that is described in scripture in these words: "No soul will be able to help another in any degree." No matter how much we try to help our friends or our own relatives, it looks like we are just wasting time — theirs and ours — when they are in that bad situation.
We shouldn't feel so let down when we call the community or the public to an address and they don't respond. Most don't respond at home with each other. So why should we be disappointed if they don't respond when we call them? It is the times, and I am predicting right now that before ten years from this day, we are not going to be able to find facilities big enough for the crowd that will respond. Gradually a change is coming about in the people's perception of Muslims. When that change grows and becomes clear they are going to have the situation they need to act favorably. We are going to see a changed society, a changed public in this country. It is coming.
When we use the term faith, we are talking about trust too. Faith and trust are almost the same. In the language of the Qur'an faith and trust carry often the same meaning.
When we look at the world we may see it only in its physical picture. The world all outside of us and in us is a world of death and life. There is death and there is life, and the two (death and life) are working together. As scripture (the Qur'an) tells us the "dead is brought forth out of the living, and the living is brought out of the dead. "To me that is enough support to generate faith. I am a kind of philosopher, and that is enough in itself to make me have faith.
The world exists by a system that is operating upon the principle of death and life. Life which is a mystery to me comes out of death. Death which is a mystery to me comes out of life. Death supports life. To me that is enough to generate faith.
Closer to us we have our own world of human beings and our families. In our families we see birth and in time death. We can observe the baby newly arrived today. It just arrived and see how its relationship is soon formed with the mother and how that relationship is so important for that baby to exist, live, and grow to manhood or womanhood.
Nobody can pay a mother to be the mother G-d made her to be. She mothers her child out of her (mother) nature. She will wake up in the middle of the night with fever herself and will be sick and weak. She hears crying and goes to attend to the baby. To me that alone is enough to generate in us faith in something outside of ourselves.
Let us think of G-d, and why bring up G-d? In our (world) situation we should try anything that's rated high. Here is a creature who has lost faith in G-d. He has no time to talk about any "G-d." And some of us will see that person and will be so into religion we may not even bother with him.
In this connection brothers and sisters look at the condition in Arabia before the advent of Prophet Muhammed (peace be on him). That period is called Jahiliyyah, the time of ignorance or "darkness." They did not care for anything but their own immediate interest. They were divided into feuding tribes. The society was all sectioned up along tribal lines and was abusing itself. Gangs roamed city streets and the countryside. But from that place and from that time G-d created Muhammed.
Some will say, "He should not have been raised up in that place. Why should such an excellent model of the human person and such beautiful human being be raised up in that ugly place?" Now that may not be enough to generate faith for you, but I am offering it to you.
Many think that I should come out and give you a lecture on one of the ayats in Qur'an and some commentary and some fiqr and close out with a half hour du'a. I disagree. You should go to one of the Islamic classes for that: This is a public address. [Note the form of Muhammed's (A.S.) Farewell Address.]
I as a young man wondered why some people were so nice and seemed to be so blessed by G-d and were not Muslims. I wondered about that because I was raised to say if you were not this (Muslim) then you were not anything. The language of that teaching back then said that to me. It was not the attitude of the people (N.O.I, members). The attitude of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and my mother did not say that. The attitude of the brothers, Ministers, and Minister Isaiah Karriem (who is in this gathering now) did not say that. We were taught we were the only and the best and the supreme. What we were taught would cause us to believe. It said that we were the only ones right and everyone else was wrong. However, as a child I wondered. I saw excellent and wonderful human beings who were not Muslims.
It is not that I thought their smoking or drinking liquor or foul language were beautiful or acceptable. But I saw that some of the best people smoke. Some of the best people will drink. Some of the best people will use foul language at times. You can be a victim of certain habits and yet be a jewel in a bad situation.
Also, I found that some did not smoke and did not drink and were Christians. They (some Christians) didn't use foul language. Later on in my life I found others who told me they did not believe in G-d but their character was admirable.
You will say, "Well how is that?" If you have never come by one, I can understand you asking. I see their good fortune as G-d's mercy.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed
(This article has been prepared for Muslim Journal's readers by Imam W. Deen Mohammed. It is prepared from his public address given in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, May 23, 1992 at the Dallas Convention Center.)
Say you had a child and something separated you from that child. The child had no way of making a connection with you, but you had a way of making a connection with the child. Still you could not get that child to be aware of you as its parent. We know G-d can do anything, but G-d also has some laws He established in His relationship with His creatures.
Even if that child heard your name, it may say, "I don't care anything about that person." But will that change your feelings for that child? No. Even if the child said you did not exist or cursed the name. The child has been separated and has no direct way of communicating back. Also the child is not believing the communicating that is coming from others. But that is your child and you love him still.
If you had the power, you would help that child and would be with that child. Whenever you saw that child doing something that merited a better condition in its life, whether the child knew you or not or perceived you correctly or not, you would give it credit for what it merited. If the child did kindness by another human being or by another child you would give it credit for that. If the child woke up and brushed its teeth and kept itself clean, you would give it credit for that. That is the G-d I know.
You don't have to know G-d by His Name. You don't have to love the G-d others communicate to you. But if you be good, G-d knows the relationship is broken. If you try to be good you are going to get help from G-d just as though you know (accept) G-d. That is G-d. How can G-d be any other? If G-d is any other, he is not a good G-d.
We know there are times when people will give good advice over and over again. But sometimes the circumstances will not permit anybody to help you. You loose faith in everything and will say, "I can't trust anything but myself." And really you cannot even thrust yourself. When we get in that condition we are not really trusting ourselves, we are just putting up with ourselves. It's as if saying, "Hell, I can't escape myself. So I will put up with myself." I have experiences with people like that. They don't trust themselves and don't trust anything else neither, but they have to live with themselves. So it appears that they are trusting themselves when they are not.
An article was in the Chicago Tribune of May 14th on unemployment. It didn't just present the bad picture or the bad state; it also tried to give some answers. That is the kind of treatment of problems that we can appreciate. We should not appreciate people just giving us a problem or telling us about a problem and not trying to help us with that problem.
You don't need a doctor who will tell you that you are sick and then do no more. You have an appointment and ask the doctor, "Can you do me some good?" That doctor then answers, "Yes I can. You are sick. In fact, you are all messed up and I don't know how long you are going to live like that. You know a lot of people are out there sick like you. Would you like to hear some statistics? That will be $50, and I'll see you next week." You don't want a . doctor like that.
Let me say something else now in another direction. The human heart, our heart, is very special. It is especially when we understand or perceive the human heart as a free heart. The expression "free heart" means giving freely. To say "he is a free hearted person" means that he is a giving or caring person. I don't mean it in that sense.
I mean free as a once slave is free or as a free thinker is free. I mean free liberated heart. We are given a free heart because we are individuals with freedom of thought. The Bible does not only mention thinking, it mentions also thinking in connection with the heart: "As a man thinketh in his heart". (The Bible.)
This is a poetic picture. You are thinking in your mind but your heart is governing that activity. So you are thinking in your heart or with your heart dictating. I find that most people think in their hearts. I find when people think well of me, it is because their hearts favor me, and when people think ill of me, it is because their hearts do not favor me.
The human being is a creature created by G-d to have free vision, liberated vision, liberated perception that goes outside of his small confines like the sun appearing to rise up out of the earth to rise above ever-thing below and around. The human heart with its sensitivities is like that. It can rise from its small confines and perceive by some light what is beneath it and all around. It gains a broad vision and its sensitivities begin to reach not only that little small body it rose from but also reaches the whole world.
Now, if that heart loses the original nature given to it, but still has that freedom, that is going to open a way to the most tormented existing heart conceivable on this earth or in creation. In time it is going to become the most miserable heart of all the creatures. Freedom is too big a responsibility for any creature without support from something bigger than creation itself. So you say, "Oh, here he comes with G-d!" You can call It what you want. I said "Something."
We know we don't see anything out there in the physical world that has the freedom we have. The sun is definitely more important to the world for keeping us alive, et cetera. We know that. The sun is much more important in the long run or for any part of time. But we know the sun is not free. The sun is locked in "a cell". All it can do is rotate and make its designated circular runs. In the space that the sun is given by G-d, it is only circling in obedience to that plan.
Then look at us. We can turn around, walk up and down. We can change our movements. We can stop our movements. If the sun stops its movement, it would be all over for the planets in the sun's system. We are free and have advantage over everything created.
The animals are not "free". Although animals are free to move, animals are locked in. Their behavior is limited to and already defined by instinct. They cannot go out of the limits of their animal instincts, unless we train them to do so. Even so, animals cannot be trained to do anything that would make us believe that they have evolved above the level of being instinct-controlled creatures.
The human being is not governed entirely by instinct. We have come out of that mold and are free to change reality. The animals have never changed reality. They go crazy but they leave reality the way it is. Now, don't think they don't go crazy. We will go crazy in the house and then make the house crazy. The teacher will go crazy and make the students crazy. The preacher will go crazy and will make the congregation crazy. When we go crazy, we change reality.
As it is with the human freedom of mind, freedom of thought, the heart is so powerful as an influence, it governs our mind, whether we know it or not. You don't devote your mind to something until your heart is drawn to it. This free, thick, powerful heart of ours is too much for us to manage without the help of something bigger than this material reality. If you can accept that, then a new door has opened for you that was not there before. It is a door of hope. It is a door of new perception and new opportunities.
Just that should change your perception of yourself and the perception of the reality for you in any given situation. It is the same whether you are alone with yourself or at home with your relatives or out on the job with somebody or in the public streets. It will be the same wherever you are, whether it is in good circumstances or bad circumstances. Thinking now in that way should change the way you look at yourself and the external world.
Note:
Whatever state the "free heart" is in, the heart is dictating. Whether from love molds, fear molds, greed molds, envy molds, hate molds, or others the "free heart" is dictating to human minds.
Motivation for the Positive
(This article has been prepared for Muslim Journal's readers by Imam W. Deen Mohammed. It is prepared from his public address given in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, May 23, 1992 at the Dallas Convention Center.)
Now I want to talk about motivation. We need something to motivate us in a positive and productive way. What will motivate that fifty percent unemployed? We hear that seven percent are unemployed. They are talking about people who they have records on, but something should tell you that those statistics are wrong if they are to be read like the average one of us reads them. When you go in your neighborhood, you know that there is more than seven percent unemployed. In most of our wards there is more than fifty percent unemployed. The records list those who got laid off and are waiting to be rehired because their jobs are terminated. Those are employer's figures.
The article in the Chicago Tribune by a writer Long-worth says that in the most depressed areas of the inner cities the unemployment runs as high as fifty percent. But most of these people are out of the reach of anybody; they were never on the records of being employed. Who is in touch with them, and who can say that they don't have jobs? You have to go there to find out and see for yourself. You have to see them idle to know that they are unemployed. That is what they are calling the chronic unemployed.
Now of that big number many of them are not bothered about having a job. And what does this have to do about the money thing? It has a lot to do with it. When you better see the reality for your circumstances and the circumstances of the people for whom your heart goes out, then you are in better shape to deal with any problem as it relates to their condition.
This writer (Longworth) documents that of those who request applications, most will not be even considered. He goes on to say that many of them when applications are given will not complete them and will get up and leave. These will not have an interview. Many of those who are approved for interviews will not show up. And many interviewed will not qualify. It is either their reading level is too low or their ability to perform the task is not there, so they are not hired. Worse still, some will have criminal records and some will be on drugs.
You cannot just look at the state of unemployment and say, "We need jobs!" When we get the jobs, how many can be placed? So are we to demand that our government spend our tax payers' money to create enough jobs to hire all of the unemployed? If we are just dealing with that seven percent or so, then that is reality. I agree that all of us should support eliminating unemployment if we are talking about eliminating that figure that is around four, five, six or seven percent of unemployment.
If we are talking about the great majority of unemployed people who are not only African Americans (for there are "Whites", Hispanics and others), then we must look at lifestyles. Lifestyles kill positive and productive initiative.
How do we make the people fit for employment? That should be the question. How do we improve our young men in this society to have more employment? We have to convert them to a new mind or to a new way of thinking. They can be guided to have a new perception of themselves, of the world, and of the challenge.
It’ll be said by someone, "We need a revolution!" What kind? A violent revolution? That is what we have out there in the streets every night and day, a violent revolution. Are we going to recruit those who are killing themselves, who beat up each other and maim each other petty things? We have to give up this crazy thinking brothers and sisters. Some women are pumping iron and putting on boxing gloves and running six to ten miles a day. They want to knock through a brick wall or something.
Try to see a little apartment that we live in with a kitchen and a bathroom and a living room, as a situation. What happens in any one of these rooms will affect the whole house or the whole apartment. You can keep the living room beautiful, and people can come and visit you without ever seeing any other room. They will be complimenting you for keeping such a lovely house, and you will be taking pride in it. But if they look at you real close, they will see pain in your face. And you know what the pain is saying. The other room is on your mind! It might be the bed-room or the bathroom or the kitchen or all of them. Any one of them if messed up will just mess up your mind. You don't want to confess, but sometimes it is good to do that. Say, "Wait a minute, you should see that pile of mess in the other room. I need help."
The situation for the mind is the same, and each focus in the mind represents a room. Each concentrated area in your mind represents a room. We have all of these different rooms in our minds: Race consciousness. Race awareness forms one of these rooms. The situation for employment forms one. The state and our own town and how it is performing also affects us. If any one of those concentrations of interest is confused, it affects the whole mind. If we have the wrong perception of material life and opportunity, if it is terribly distorted, it is going to affect the whole state of our minds.
The wrong attitude caused by a distorted picture of what reality is for race relationship is going to do the same. When people follow a discipline, an ideology, a philosophy, a message, a scripture, a teaching or whatever, that offers them a discipline for their total perception, a discipline that in its composition is a total behavioral system — it decides how you will look at everything. When people have that, they are fit to meet the challenges. We want to do justice by an ideology or some philosophy or some message or some scriptural religion that offers a system for our behavior.
I hate to say religion, for religion is so loose and is open to so many interpretations. I can't just say, "Islam will save you." You may have Joe Blow's Islam or Sheikh Hoochy Choochy's Islam and you will be shot out in a twilight zone you could never return from. To be safe, we should have the right perception in Islam. We need the right perception, and if there is a system offered for total behavior, then you are safe.
All great religions offer a behavioral system, and they are perceived after the order which G-d created. Allah's creation is an orderly system for this life and for the ordering of life. If we had a system of belief that was perceived correctly and patterned on G-d's universal system, it should be able to support us and give us a situation for life and growth and prosperity. That is the idea, and it is true and will work. But who will accept that among that fifty percent out there.
We need something to motivate us. I don't think anyone can bring it more clearer than this, but you still might say "that's heavy". And we certainly don't like to burden you any more; it is cruel to put any more weight on you. Some people will say, "Oh, well I am going to introduce my lost child to this new opportunity and take him to this school or this person." You are hoping your child will be motivated and turned on again. But he may embarrass you so much. You may take your child to the finest school and sacrifice and put another mortgage on the house. There is no answer or any guarantees that the things of this world are going to motivate these children or even grown ups. But there is a strategy and a perception that works.
If we can keep ourselves to what we believe in, we Muslims will keep to the Qur'an and to the example of Muhammed The Prophet and to traditional excellence. I wish you wouldn't be Shii, but if you want to be that then follow the best that they have to offer. I will not reject you. This is the key for every human being. Every human being is created to want better. Don't be despondent and throw up our hands and give up because we can't get everybody to believe in the religion as we believe or think the way we think in the religion. Don't give up.
Work on doing two things: Educating ourselves in the Muslim Community in the proper way; devote ourselves to that. Do that in our homes, in our schools, in our mosques. If you don't have that situation, then find a way to meet in homes every week and educate your community in Islam, in Qur'an, in the Sunnah and Life of the Prophet. This is one answer, and for us it is the best and most important and most rewarding one.
However almost equal in importance is to help better the life in these streets. Too many suffer needlessly and have no interest, no faith, and no desire to accept good help. We cannot give up on them. We have to help them. The organization AA-MAN is an example of what can be done to reach some of these unreachable people. When they see what AA-MAN is doing, some of these unreachable people are going to be inspired. AA-MAN is an answer.
Perception
Most of the people who are unemployed are not even bothered, and that is why they are not employed. Those who are bothered by not being employed, in time they are going to be employed. We have to try to reach not only those who are bothered by their situation, but also those who are not bothered by their situation. I believe that many of us who are now very much alive and active and productive were at some time just like many out there who are not even bothered by their situation.
We changed when something came to our awareness in the form of a message. Our whole mental disposition was changed. It gave us a new way of looking at things. That kind of help does not come instantly. It comes over a period of time being exposed to a particular sensitizer. The sensitizer can be the word of G-d or it may be something else. However, we have to be sensitized by something. The quickest answer I can give for making change, the change that we should be wanting in our lives, is a change in the way we look at things. It requires a change in perception.
The learned say that that perception is all senses operating together. We think of perception perhaps as perceiving or seeing something with our eyes. That is perception, but the more complete meaning of perception and the richest meaning is that one which combines all senses working together. What we need is mental perception, perception to dawn in the mind or to become clear for us in the mind. Many things affect perception, and perception affects all things for the individual.
Faith
Support from faith, that is the answer. We have heard that "faith can move mountains." It means that if you just had faith, you could accomplish and do so much that you want to do. We need a conditioning to favor us having faith. Faith too is not something we can just easily come by. In fact, we say as Muslims and as people in religion say, "No one can give another one faith." Faith is always the Mercy of G-d. If we have faith, it is because of G-d's Mercy.
There is plenty support for us having faith. The life style and its burden on the individual person today and the demand on the individual's attention today make it very difficult for any individual to be in a situation to get help. This is a time that is described in scripture in these words: “No soul will be able to help another in any degree.". No matter how much we try to help our friends or our own relatives, it looks like we are just wasting time – theirs and ours - when they are in that bad situation.
We shouldn't feel so let down when we call the community or the public to an address and they don't respond. Most don't respond at home with each other. So why should we be disappointed if they don't respond when we call them? It is the times, and I am predicting right now that before ten years from this day, we are not going to be able to find facilities big enough for the crowd that will respond. Gradually a change is coming about in the people's perception of Muslims. When that change grows and becomes clear they are going to have the situation they need to act favorably. We are going to see a changed society, a changed public in this country. It is coming.
IMPROVED PERCEPTION
What will do the most for us is told in many ways. It is in the scriptures that this great leader of Moses's people went to Jericho. The walls of Jericho were a block and in their way. So they blasted the horn three times. But we only need one blast. The one blast that we need is perception ["They do not know the Book except as regards matters of faith". Qur'an]
Work on improving the perception, not just their perception of one thing but their perception of the total reality. You won't see the results all at once, but it will be continuous, steady, and the results will continue to come. When you present the Islamic perception of the total reality, ail the natural law and natural reality support that perception. When you present that, you can call it scientific or whatever you want to call it, it will shatter the house of myth, fairy tales and none reality.
We need to correctly educate the perception of the people. Whether you do it in the name of Islam or in the name of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, peace be upon the prophet, whether you do it in the name of one thing or the other, work on bringing the perception of man and the external world to agree with what is fact and reality in this real system we call the world and space. How can we expect people to manage adult responsibility with kindergarten, fairy tale preschool ideas of reality in their heads: It cannot happen.
MYTH-BURDENED PERCEPTION
The American society I do believe is the most advanced society on earth in terms of science, industry, and secular world advances. But when it comes to religion and culture, we Americans are the most primitive people walking this planet. We are primitive in our cultural thinking. We are primitive in our religious thinking. When you think that you can go to the church and someone can lay a hand on you and you are going to come out all right, then what makes you any different from that savage in the jungle who goes to the witch doctor for a root or to have him lay his hand? If you believe that looking at some image is going to heal you, what makes you any different from what we call a savage who looks at his image and says it heals him?
I'm not going to hurt you too much today. And the medicine man never says to you that he is not going to hurt you. He says, "This will pain a little bit, but it is good for you!" And I do believe that we are the people most burdened on this earth with myths. Myth burdened perception does not prepare us for the challenge of reality. We can deal with small problems and can survive and do very well, but big problems eliminate us and remove us from the struggle or battle of life for survival. We are moved to give up, to throw up our hands.
These people now who are advocating Afrocentricity are doing nothing but adding more confusion and more mind-locking myths upon our youth. I have nothing against Africa. I love Africa. I too advocate us becoming more aware of Africa. Ever since I have been preaching I have done that. But why lie? Don't tell any more lies. Lies have our children shooting and killing each other and not valuing their life and other human beings? Lies have them in that state. Don't say they are out of jobs and that's why they are in that state.
BLIND BEHAVIOR AND THE STATE WITHIN
We were out of jobs one hundred years ago, and we weren't killing each other. We were freed from slavery and didn't have jobs, but we didn't want to kill ourselves off. We had much less, were hungry, ragged, and naked. We were only hoping just to have enough so the children could go to bed without hunger pains in their stomachs. We knew we were going to be hungry all night, but we didn't start killing each other. So don't say that it is the material condition or unemployment that makes these kids kill each other. That is not the only answer, and it is only a small part of it.
The big part of it is blind behavior. The big part of it is the state within. The society is responsible for it, because it feeds lies to them about self and the external world. It is what society has fed them as lies about man and about what a human being is. Any time an African American youth is told the black man is G-d, you are rigging him up to destroy self sooner or later. He may seem to be doing well for a while, but watch him. In time he is going to become destructive if he does not back up off from that idea (lie) you gave him.
THE ORIGINAL MOTIVATION
The answer in my conclusion is to go back to the original motivation. This is philosophical, but I will try to give it to you quickly. The original motivation in life (before we are even conscious) is improvement, excellence, betterment, growth, growth towards more and more improvement and excellence and efficiency. That is the original motivation in life.
The simple cell comes here and is not satisfied to be a simple cell. It combines with other cells so as to become more productive and more efficient and to do bigger and more things. All of the time it is growing, it is following a law of disciplined behavior and to have an artistic pattern. That is what we find in nature. When we become conscious, something tells us to want to do better.
The new baby has a desire for decency, a desire for comfort. Comfort is to be free of waste, free of filthy things. The baby is motivated just like that cell to become more efficient and to become a more complex and a better performing and a richer entity with bigger and more possibilities. The new baby is not satisfied to sit down or lay down always. It wants to rise up. Eventually it wants to stand up on its own feet.
Have you seen a child stand up for the first time? I've seen it, and it makes you feel so happy. You share that child's victory. You see the fear on that child but with the fear is the pride, faith and excitement. Fear is doing it the first time. But pride is, "I did it!" The happiness is there saying, "Look!" And the baby joins us in walking like we walk.
From a simple cell to a self-supporting individual there is a motivation towards betterment. Original motivation is towards better performance and more performance. Life wants to do more things and to do them better. We need to call to excellence to motivate excellence. One word takes care of it all, "excellence". Aspire and work for the society to be motivated by excellence. I am sure we can reach all of the people with that.
Don't worry about telling them, "Hey, you are drinking liquor!" Do you think Prophet Muhammed, the prayers and the peace be on him, went out and the first thing he told his drinking people was "Stop drinking"? No, our Prophet (A.S.) tolerated them drinking for some time before he told them that G-d forbid them to drink. The first thing he gave them was a motivation towards excellence. Let me correct that, for the first thing that he gave them was a real perception of themselves and the external world. And that in itself created a situation for them to be motivated towards excellence. He connected them back to the real "reality" of original excellence and that motivated them towards excellence. That is the answer for us.
AFFLUENT POOR
So much for the philosophical side of this address. Now for your money problems. I will not be like that doctor who says, "You are sick. You have been that way for four days. A lot of people out there have this sickness. It is spreading." I'm not going to be that way. Now, you are poor—we are poor. But at the same time the "poor in America" is both poor and well off. The first help I want to give you is faith in original excellence. Understand that America's poor is poor and at the same time well off.
What do I mean by that? Very few of us are really poor and not. well off. There are a very few of us who have nothing but poverty; we have poverty and also some means. We are enjoying colored television, beepers, and $100 sneakers. That is what I call poor but well off.
You will find poor families and one boy will have a beeper. They will be wearing expensive sneakers. One teenager will have a car and there will be two or three bicycles. But they are poor and will get notice to move for not paying the rent. The phone will be cut off and sometimes the gas and lights also.
But in the house clothes are everywhere. There will be a whole laundry bag full of socks, if located and collected. My mother could put all of our wash for the week in one big laundry bag. Now it will take a bag like that just for the socks.
So I don't call this just poverty. This is what I call the affluent poor. That is what America has, an affluent poor.
If you want to really do something about your condition, learn to respect money. In our religion everything deserves a respect. If you get $10 in your hands, then know that is $10. Look at what you need today and spend that $10 very carefully. If you can manage today without touching that $ 10, then do not touch it. Keep that $10 for tomorrow, and try to continue day by day behaving like that, until you can save for tomorrow.
I don't care how poor you are, you are supposed to save something for tomorrow. "How can I save anything? My bills are much more than what I am get-ting." Cut down your bills. "How am I going to do that? My rent is high." Then move! "But I need these four rooms!" Cram your poor self into two rooms! "But I like living in this neighborhood." It is not reality for you, get your poor self out and go where you can do better. Go down south. Go where they will allow you to put up a shanty.
You don't know what a shanty is? Just make a big wooden box to live in and put some tin or plastic on top of the roof so the rain won't come down into it. Live there until you can do better. I am serious and this is no joke. Before I let myself become a criminal or starve, or see my family suffer, I would do exactly what I am telling you to do. I would go to those extremes. And I don't think you have to go to those extremes, but you have to start somewhere. Start by checking your waste. Stop wasting. See the Qur'an on the fate of "the wasters".
Start by Checking Waste
If you want to really do something about your condition, learn to respect money. In your religion everything deserves a respect. If you get $10 in your hands, then know that is $10. Look at what you need today and spend that $10 very carefully. If you can manage today without touching that $10, then do not touch it.
I don't care how poor you are, you are supposed to save something for tomorrow. Cut down your bills. It is not reality for you...Go down south. Go where they will allow you to put up a shanty. Just make a big wooden box to live in and put some tin or plastic on top of the roof so the rain won't come down into it. Lave there until you can do better. Start by checking your waste. Stop wasting. See the Qur'an on the fate of "the wasters".
Myth Burdened Perception
Myth burdened perception does not prepare us for the challenge of reality. We can deal with small problems and can survive and do very well, but big problems eliminate us and remove us from the struggle or battle of life for survival. We are moved to give up, to throw up our hands.
Any time an African American youth is told the black man is G-d, you are rigging him up to destroy self sooner or later. He may seem to be doing well for a while, but watch him. In time he is going to become destructive if he does not back up off from that idea (lie) you gave him.
The Instinct To Improve
"The simple cell comes here and is not satisfied to be a simple cell. It combines with other cells so as to become more productive and more efficient and to do bigger and more things. All cm the time it is growing it is following a law of disciplined behavior and to have an artistic pattern. That is what we find in\ nature. When we become conscious, something tells us to want to do better."
The Affluent Poor
You are poor-we are poor. But at the same time the "poor in America" is both poor and well off. The first help I want to give you is faith in original excellence. Understand that America's poor is poor and at the same time well off.
Very few of us are really poor and not well off. There are a very few of us who have nothing but poverty; we have poverty and also some means. We are enjoying colored television, beepers, and $100 sneakers.
So I don't call this just poverty. This is what I call the affluent poor. That is what America has, an affluent poor.


