FAITH

Imam Warith Deen Muhammad


Today in this Khutbah I want to talk on "faith",  and I hope that in talking on faith,   some confusion might be cleared up in the society in which we live, and speaking the language that we speak. The common language that we speak is English.    You have to be very careful  of  the  terms   that we use,   because a  term may mean one  thing to me and another  thing  to you. I've heard    people use  the word faith to mean different  things.     Faith meaning belief.  But  I have also heard some people use the term faith in a different sense,  like inclination or motivation,  even desire and these meanings,   if you give it to faith,   it would be incorrect. Faith should shape our desires)and the faith should be faith in Allah,  first,  you see.  The faith should shape our desires.    Some people confuse faith with impulse. Some people confuse faith with ones own will. To identify faith, we have to know that faith 4s. a belief, and belief is based on knowledge.  Belief is not something taken out of the space there. Belief is based on knowledge. We have faith in that that we can trust. What we can trust, we have faith in it and that trust .is an evidence of knowledge. We don't trust things before we have some knowledge of it. 

We fear many things and some of us might confuse faith with fear. We fear death. We fear destruction, threat to our personal lives, to our family members, our love ones. We fear death. We fear violence. We fear a lot of things. But we shouldn't confuse this with faith.. Faith is belief and belief is indication that there is some knowledge, not all knowledge, but some knowledge. No one has all knowledge except Allah. He is the All-Knowing. In fact Muslims say, the knowledge is not ours the knowledge is God's. We don't have the knowledge,  Allah has the knowledge.  This is the Muslim.  The Muslim recognizes that the human being has not knowledge except the knowledge that God gave him. And the human being has no power except the power that God gives. So, faith then is belief and belief is an indication that there is some knowledge. When there is, such faith then there is some thrust.

Now, let us go back to the Quran to the definition of faith in Al Islam, the Quran.  Faith is belief and belief is an indication of some knowledge and it requires trust.  In fact, whatever you have belief in, trust is automatic.  Trust is an automatic. We know that the most trustworthy one among the human beings is Prophet Muhammad. He earned the name "Al Amin"' even he was missioned by Almighty God to preach the religion. He earned the name Al Amin. "Al Amin" means "the faithful one, or the trustworthy one", one that is worthy of you trusting, worthy of you trusting that person and worthy of you putting your faith in that person, you can put your faith in that person. 

So, I can say, I have faith in Prophet Muhammad, it that right? Yes! I have faith in Prophet Muhammad. But to say I have faith in Bro. John wouldn't be correct. Why? Because Allah didn't establish Brother John. Allah established Prophet Muhammad. He is listed among the faith, you see. So, we can't say we have faith in Bro. John, not in an Islamic language sense. We can not say that within context of Islamic definition for faith. We can say generally speaking, just generally speaking, as we generally speak, oh, yes, I have faith in Bro. John. Yes! That's common language. That's in the general sense, but if I want to list the faith of the Muslims, I can not include Bro. John on the list.  Is that right? All right, so this is what we want to understand. 

Faith, Iman, Faith, belief in God, Faith, over and over again Allah tells us in the Quran that we Muslims have faith and good works, faith and deeds, faith and good deeds. They are the ones "Al ladzeen aamanu", those who have faith, who believe "Wa 'amtdutt and they have good works.  Faith and good works. We may call it faith and performance.  Some people have faith, but not performance.  Some people have faith, but no works.  Some people have faith and no motivations They say they have faith, but no motivation, you see. Oh, yes I believe, but where's the  motivation. So, the belief is not strong enough is it? When the belief becomes strong enough then you have a motivation. 

The belief motivates you to perform. The Muslim must develop his faith. He must develop his faith. He must give his mind and his whole life to Allah, to serve Allah. And in giving the whole self to serve Allah, that faith grows, it grows. Whereas in the beginning it might not weak, it might not be strong enough to motivate you to action. As you get nearer and nearer in obedience and worship of Allah, that faith will get stronger and stronger and pretty soon it will become strong enough to light up your life, to motivate you, you see. This is the kind of faith that really counts in Al Islam. It is that faith that is strong. That faith that is strong enough to light up one's life and motivate the person to action, motivate that person to action.

Faith and performance is what we have to have in Al Islam. Faith and good works, faith and performance, faith without performance is what? It's a dead letter. In Al Islam faith is not accepted without works.  In Al Islam we only accept faith when it is accompanied by works, good works, "saalihaat". Saalih means righteous, saalih means righteous, clean, pure, saalih. God says, ""aamanu wa amilus saalihaat", faith and pure works, righteous works. If I'm engaging in some impure things, that's not the right performance. If I'm selling reefers, that's not the right performance, you see. If I'm selling the liquors or beers, that's not the right performance.  If I'm selling the pork, that's not the right performance. If I'm practicing lies, that's not the right performance. If I'm hiding things and showing people one face and there's another face that they can't see, that's not the right performance. You got to be straight, you got to be right, then that's " wa amilus saalihaat". So, the Muslim is one who has faith and that faith materializes in good works, and the good works are pure works, clean works, works acceptable in the eyes of Almighty God. If the works are not acceptable in the eyes of Almighty God, they are not the correct performance.

We may say then, that what is acceptable in the eyes of God has already been spelled out to us in the Quran. The Quran tells us what is acceptable in the eyes of God. Anything you find forbidden in the Quran is unacceptable in the eyes of God, unacceptable in your life, unacceptable for you. How can a Muslim learn to do the good works if he doesn't learn the Quran? The Quran is what tells us how to do the good works. The Quran establishes what is "saalihaat". The worker that does good works, performs in the right way for God and society. We have to know what Quran says. What the Quran says about the works of the human being, what is acceptable from the human being and what is not acceptable from the human being.

Faith and performance. If one confuses this term faith as it was confused here last Sunday, he will say what the Imam said who was visiting us and making the speech. He said, faith in God and next is faith in self. That's incorrect. Faith in God is first, faith in His Messenger is second, not faith in self. Faith in self, if you say faith in God and faith in myself, who is yourself? Oh, I have faith in myself. Well, who is  myself? What is this I call myself? I don't even know what I have faith in. Isn't that kind of vague to tell some one to have faith in self. I think it's pretty confusing. It's vague! Yourself differs from myself. If you have faith in yourself and I have faith in myself, everybody has faith in themselves, what kind of world would we be living in? It would be a terribly confused world. If we find what is common in all of ourselves and say faith in that, that is common, that is the same for me, you and everybody else. I say maybe I can listen to that.  

So, if the Imam had said faith in the common essence of all human beings. Faith in the common essence of all human beings! That essence that God created, I can agree with him. Although there's still a problem because that's not the way we are suppose to say it. That essence is typified in Prophet Muhammad. When we say faith in Prophet Muhammad, we're saying faith in the human being. The human being as he should be. We are not all as we should be. We have to have one among us that stands for what we all should be.  Then we have faith in that one, you see.  And faith in that one will motivate us towards being what we all should be. We will get closer and closer to that acceptable model that Almighty God approves.  God approved Prophet Muhammad. He is the acceptable model. So, we have faith in Prophet Muhammad and not merely because of his essence, his humanism, that's why I say there's still a problem even if we put it that way.  It's not faith because of his human essence alone, it is faith because now the human essence have been blessed with divine revelation. 

We have faith in Prophet Muhammad because he is really us in cur perfection, but he; is more than that, he is us in our perfection with the revelation from God.  We don't have faith in a human being simply because he's true to his essence.  We have faith in a human being because now he has received the guidance from God. It is not my essence that delivers me, brother. My essence, if I remain true to my essence, my essence bring me to become worthy of God's favor.  If I be true to what God has made me, and God has made me a Muslim, ff I be true to my nature, to my essence that God has made and yield my will to him, become a faithful person, then God will reward that with the blessings of inspiration.  

If I'm truly worthy, and if it is His Will, He will bless that particular human essence with revelation. The Holy Prophet was blessed with revelation, divine guidance. We have faith in Prophet Muhammad because he is the best of us and because now the best of us has been strengthen with the revelation; has been protected with the revelation of God. Don't ever say that a Muslim believes in God or has  faith in God and then next is faith in self. No.  That is incorrect.  In fact, that will make us just part of the world.  That's what has led . the world wrong.  They say yes, we have faith in God, but faith in myself, too. Who are you going to listening to, there's two gods now? Yes, I have faith in God, but faith in myself, too. Okay, your self is saying something. We should have faith in Prophet Muhammad, because he didn't say anything except what God approved, and he didn't tell anybody to worship him.  

He didn't say worship me, in fact, he ordered us not to worship him.  He said do not make me a figure like the Christians made the Christ. He said of himself, I am a mortal, flesh, and blood human being like you.  That's what he said, like you. Speaking to people, he said, like you; meaning that he is no super human being; he is a common human being; not out of the human essence, in the human essence;  not above the human plane, on the human plane, with all other human beings. What raises him up to the position of leadership? It is his willingness and nature to conform to the very nature that God created for human beings, then receiving the blessings of revelation from Almighty God, which made him a Prophet and a Messenger to the people.  That's what elevates him above all other human beings, but his essence, his human nature, he is a brother with all of us. Prophet Muhammad is our brother as well as our leader. He is our leader, as well as the Messenger of God, he's our brother, too. Yes! Prophet Muhammad because he is created by the same God, he came in the same nature, he is the same human being, he just developed, he was truer in his essence than most of us are, and he was blessed by God to come to righteousness and complete faith and then receive universal guidance.

Your faith in God, Allah - we even have to discuss the term Allah. Why? Because, the Moorish-Americans use the term Allah. The Alimadiyat use the term Allah.  The Nation of Islam in the past used the term Allah.  And the name Allah meant something for them that it doesn't mean in the Quran.  Is that true or not? Yes!  So, we even have to be careful how we use the term Allah.  Oh, yes, I believe in Allah. Who Moorish-American Allah? Ahmadiyat Allah? Some of the Ahmadiyat have a different Allah. Or do you believe in the Nation of Islam Allah? Or do you believe in the Quran Allah? So, we have to be careful don't we? When I say we, I am talking about the believers who follow this community, this leadership.  I am not talking about those who follow Moorish-American or Ahmadiyat or something else or the old Nation of Islam.  I'm talking about those who follow Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, they have to be careful to use the right term, don't confuse the term, don't corrupt our Quranic language with meanings from other teachings.

Allah, where does that word come from? Was it created with Ghulam Ahmad,    the founder of the Ahmadiyat movement? No. His time goes back only about a hundred or so years ago. Did it come with Noble Drew Ali, the founder of Moorish-American Society? No. His time goes back about fifty years? Did it begin with Fard Muhammad, the Nation of Islam? No.  That time goes back less than fifty years.  It goes back about fourteen hundred years ago.  It was revealed to Prophet Muhammad that Allah is the proper name for the

Creator of the heavens and the earth, for the Originator of all things, that Allah is the proper name. Had the name been used before? Yes!  It was known among the Arabs before Al Islam came to them, the name Allah. They had approximately 365 gods that they called god, fashioned with their own imagination in their own hands, deity that they had placed in the Kaaba - but there was also existing among them the name Allah,  and Allah was the mysterious god.  A god that they knew of, but he was like a mystery from old times, from ancient times. He wasn't a god that they could visualize, but they had many they visualized. All those they visualized was kicked out of the Kaaba by our champion human being, Muhammad, the Messenger of God.

Every deity that they visualize was kicked out of the Kaaba, The only one that remained was the one they said they couldn't visualize. Prophet Muhammad taught them that this is the one that made everything that you visualize.  Everything that you can visualize was made by that one that you can not visualize.

Oh, man, this is good teachings!  This is the knowledge of God that brings to life the human spirit and the human intellect.  Oh, yes. Faith in Allah is number one.  Faith in Allah is natural for us.  Faith in Allah is the nature of His creation. It is nature to have faith in Creator.

Do you remember as members of the Nation of Islam, we use to open up every meeting with a prayer that we got away from.  It was a prayer that was left among us just to hint true knowledge to your mind in hopes that you would come out of the bait religion into the real religion. But many of us didn't hear the hint: "Surely I turn myself to thee, Oh, Allah, who originated the heavens and the earth."

Now, we were taught that Fard Muhammad didn't originate the heavens and the earth. We were taught that his father, Alphonso, didn't originate the heavens and the earth. We were taught that his mother, Baby Gee, didn't originate the heavens and the earth. We used to pray, "Surely I turn myself to thee, oh, Allah, who originated the heavens and the earth". Aren't we home? Aren't we finally home?

Faith in God.  Faith in His Messengers, all of them.  We believe in the Messengers of God,      "Ru-sule-he", in the Messengers of God. The Messenger line was completed when the revelation was revealed in its complete form to Prophet Muhammad. We don't have to spend all the time saying I believe in Abraham, I believe in Moses, although the Quran makes it very clear that every Muslim believes in these Prophets, all of them.  Not only those that are named in the Quran, but in the Quran, Allah tells us that there are many that are not mentioned in the Book and we also have to believe in them, though we don't even know their names} but God said that there are many that are not named in the Quran, and he says believe in all of His Messengers, so we have to believe in all of them. When we say we believe in Prophet Muhammad, we are saying we believe in all of them.  Because he is the only one that came and established, by the light of God, the dignity and the validity of all the others. 

Did Jesus come and verify all the other Prophets? No.  Did Moses do it? No.  It was done through Prophet Muhammad.  Through Prophet Muhammad all the other Prophets were recognized and their validity was established and sealed for all times. When we say we believe in Prophet Muhammad, dear brothers and sisters, we are saying we believe in all of God's Prophets, because he is the one that guided us to believe in all of God's Prophets.

We believe in the Books that they brought. We have to believe in the "Kutub, Kutubihi", in the Books that God gave His Messengers. We didn't give the Messengers those books.  Did any of us give man the Quran? No, indeed!  The challenge has stayed there for fourteen hundred years, that called together men and Jinn.  If they can produce one "sura", one verse, "ayat", to equal it, they can not do it.  So far the test has not been met. We know, because Allah has said it will never be met. Say, and they will not do it, they can not do it. Another place says, if all of the trees were made into pens or pencils and all of the seas added to by seven more seas. If you can take all the seas, and then double them, that's not on earth.  That kind of water is not on earth, but if we could take all the seas and then double them with another one, double, equal amount, Allah says in the Quran, that the pencils will be used up and all the ink made from those seas will be used up before you exhaust the knowledge that God has revealed in the Quran. Yes!  So, there is no knowledge like the knowledge that God reveals and no human being can produce the knowledge that God reveals.  

Oh, well, how does it come then?  It comes directly from God.  It comes from God to His Messengers,  to His Servants,  the Angel of God brings it to the Messenger of God.  The Angel of God is a Messenger himself, but not a Messenger like human beings.  The Angel of God is another kind of medium, or another kind of agent that God uses to reach the mortal created beings.  So, we also have to have faith in His Angels. We are talking about the category of faith and what order Muslim faith comes in. What is in that listing and what is not in that listing. Faith in Bro. John is not in that listing.

Faith in Allah, faith in His Messengers, faith in the Books that He revealed to them, faith in His Angels, faith in His Will that operates throughout the Creation, faith in the Will of Allah, not my will, faith in the Will of Allah that operates throughout creation. It is called the ordinance of God, by some people, faith in the ordinance of God.  The ordinance of God is the universal law, the universal law that operates in nature, the whole nature of that order that God ordained for it.  If we break that law, that universal law, then that law will give the punishment of God.  If we obey that law, that law will give us the blessings of God. That law is a servant of God, The Prophet is a servant of God.  The Books are the creation of God.  The Angels are the creation of God and the servant of God and the law is a creation of God and the servant of God.  Oh, what creates this universal law? His Will,  "Qur Faye Qun",   "Be and, it is". Yes!

This is clear knowledge, you see how clear the guidance of God is.  Now we can refuse it, we can reject it, but we can't cone up with anything like it.  It will always survive and what we have will pass out.  All that we create other than what God has given us is perishable and is steadily passing away.

We also have to believe in   "Yaum Mid-Akir",    is the end, the final stage. We have to believe that there is an end, to my life, to this creation, to everything, that God began it and He will conclude it.  And, we have to believe in the conclusion of things as God has established that.  The conclusion of life and all of these things is not the end of hope, it is the final reward of all hope that is in the faithful. Our hopes can not be satisfied on this side, our hopes will be satisfied completely only when we come to the conclusion of all of this scheme that we call creation. When God concludes the scheme we call creation, then God says you will be rewarded in full and all of your aspirations will be satisfied. There will be the fulfilling of all aspirations, or the fulfillment of all aspirations. The human being by nature comes in to aspirations that we know can not be realized in this particular existence.  

In this particular knowledge that we know now and in the body and form that we are now, we know that we can not realize all of our aspirations.  God has revealed to His Servant, His Prophets, that there will come a time when all human aspirations that are noble and right and just and pure, all of those just and pure aspirations will be fulfilled.  It says there you will get whatever you can ask for. Whatever you can ask for!  Say, whatever they ask will be given to them, is that right? I'm not talking about sinners, sinners will ask for something that will not be there.  It's talking about the God-fearing, the faithful, the righteous, whatever they ask will be acceptable to God and nothing will be impossible at that final station. At that final station, all human aspirations will be rewarded.  The human being has in his nature a desire to break with creation, that is with material creation, there's in our nature, a desire to break with material creation.  

But God says, on this side you are not permitted to break with material creation, you have to live in material world, you have to develop yourself materially, because this particular camping ground is the ticket for entry into the next.  Is that right? But at the same time, God tells us that we have to break our worship, we have to separate our desire to worship from the material creation and worship nothing of the material creation, worship only it's Creator.  Is that right? Though we live in the material world, and we develop and work in a material world, we still have to have a separation and that separation is the separation of our heart.  The heart has to become disattached, we have to disattach the heart from the material world.

The brain, we give it to the material world.  The brain has to get involved in the material world, to develop it, but the heart has to be separated from the material world.  This is God's teachings. This is what God revealed.  So, though we stay in the world, intellectually, we have to be out of the world morally speaking, or in terms of our heart.  The heart has to come out of the world.  If we give our heart to the world, the heart will become materialized. The heart will become materialistic.  Where is proof of this?  Oh, in many places from cover to cover of the Quran.  But let me go through one thing that Allah says in the Quran.  Allah says that He hoovers between a man and his heart.  God said that He, himself, He hovers, means that He protects the man from himself and his heart.  The man, if he doesn't have God to separate his intellect from his heart, the intellect wil1 guide the heart.  

And if the intellect guides the heart, the intellect will take the heart into materialism, because the nature of the intellect is to got Involved in the1 material world. Is this true or not?  Yes!  So, God says to us in the Quran, that He hovers between the man and his heart,  that God keeps the heart and the man separated, will not allow the intellect and the heart to come together.  If we let God stand between us and our heart, then when the heart asks for something, we will say, God, is it okay, may it pass by you God? And if the heart asks the intellect to take it somewhere, it has to get God's permission.  The intellect shouldn't take the heart anywhere without God's permission, and the heart shouldn't take the intellect anywhere without God's permission.  God stands between the heart and the intellect.  God hovers between the man and his heart, you see.  This should tell us then, that the heart should not be attached to the material world.  If the heart is never allowed to be attached to the material world, to the created things, then the heart has its protection and the intellect has its protection. Because the intellect is influenced by the heart as the heart is influenced by the Intellect.  These two things are weak for each other, like a male is for a female and a female is for a male. Isn't that something, and it's true, yes.

Faith in God is number one.  Faith in His Messengers, faith in the Books that they brought from God, faith in His Angels, faith in the ordinance of God, that law that operates to reward us and to punish us, faith in the ordinance of God.  And faith in the "Yaum Mid-Akir", faith in the conclusion of all of this great scheme that we call creation.  Human life needs rest and human life needs activity, God has given us the night for rest and the day for activity,  the night for rejuvenation and the day for production, is that right? The night for rejuvenation and day for production, isn't this one exercise that we call life? Then shouldn't also life and death be one operation we call life, so even death should be life. So why do you say there's  no life after death? Death, itself, is part of a life operation, so they both should evolve us into a higher life. God says  the way is open, the way is open, and He has created each human being to grow.  He has not created you to be faded in death, faded in idleness, or faded in ignorance, No!  He has created you to grow.  That means your faith is not in idleness.  Your faith is not in sterility.  Your faith is not in stagnation. No!  Allah says that He has created us to grow. We don't believe in fatalism, we believe in progress, progress.  The Muslims believes that the life must progress.  It must evolve higher and higher and make greater and greater achievements; greater and greater progress.

People who say faith in God and faith in self, they are either knowingly breaking with our religion.  When I say knowingly breaking) I mean they know what our religion establishes and they are knowingly breaking with what is established and are setting up their own religion.  Or they are doing it in ignorance out of habit.  Some people do things out of habit.  The knowledge has changed, but the habit is still with them.  They haven't seen yet that the habit is wrong.  I don't believe that our Imam is separated from our religion. I believe that the Imam who said this last week, he said it out of habit - that first is faith in God and next is faith in self.  Whatever we say, brothers and sisters, it must be verified by Quran and Hadith.  And there is no way to verify what he said by Quran or Hadith.  It is not faith in God, and then faith in self.  

It is faith in God, and then faith in His Messengers, then faith in the  Books that they brought, and faith in His Angels, and faith in His ordinance that rewards and punishes us, and faith in the Last Day.  That's the faith.  Allah tells us that we are to believe in "al-gaib, al-gaib" means what God has promised, but you have not yet realized it.  What is not yet realized.  Where should that belief come?  It should come in "Al-Akir", because "Al-Akir" is the fulfilling or the fulfillment of all of the "gaib", all of the things that are not yet known, God has said they will become known.  When? "Yaum Mid-Akir", the Last Day. But we have evolved like a butterfly, from a caterpillar existence. We used to be worms of materialism. We used to like to crawl on the dirt, walk on the limbs of the plants and the trees. And we didn't eat anything that had in it reproduction. 

We believed in no reproduction.  That is we believed in no hereafter, except in this material world.  You remember this time, don't you? We thought once we died physically that was the end.  So no matter how much evil we did, once physical death took us, we know we weren't going to get any more punishment. We were really materialists, atheists, calling ourselves believers in God.  But at the same time we had the mind of a spiritualist. We had the mind of a religious people and God blessed that with the true religion.  Isn't that wonderful, that God did not judge us for our atheistic ignorance, but He rewarded us for our heart's nature. The heart's nature was to believe in God. The heart was given to God. The heart was given to righteousness, purity and spiritual life.  God didn't condemn the intellect for giving his self to atheistic belief.

Oh, brother I'm telling you, the signs that people look for are right here in us.  God says matters are judged by intentions, you can get off the track, but if you are ignorant God will not punish you for it. Matters are judged by intentions. Were you intentionally, knowingly wishing up an atheistic concept, a material concept and rejecting your Originator, were you knowingly doing that? No, we were fascinated gods. We had become infatuated and fascinated by a fantastic story, Yacob's history and we couldn't see reality, God, for looking at fantasy. God said I know it, I won't punish you for your intellect's failure, I'm going to reward you for your goodness of heart.

Now, who is the Chief Imam? A member from the times of atheistic teachings; the son of  the preacher of materialism1, the son of Elijah Muhammad, the preacher of racism, black nationalism, black supremacy, materialism', the son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad
has  been rewarded because of the heart of the people.  Not only his heart, but the heart of the people have been rewarded as he has been made an Imam, now in the Sunni Path of the Universal Prophet Muhammad, Yes!  This is the blessing,  brothers and sisters, this is the blessing and I don't want you to be ignorant of your share in the blessings.  If matter and mind had been in a contest with each other, then let's see how matter and mind separated.  Mind has evolved out of matter.  

Mind evolved out of matter is no more than a higher expression of matter, is that right?  Mind evolved out of matter is no more than a higher expression of matter. Men that have that concept, they fall victim to the powers of matter. We are just reasoning now.  Men that believe that mind is a product of matter, they fall victim to matter.  They make matter their superior.  The Communist people make matter their superior.  They say the human being shouldn't design his own life, matter should design his life.  They say that man should be governed by the dialectics of matter.  So, they place man under matter, because they see matter evolving man. Is that right? Now, let us look again.  

If man believing this way falls under matter, and we know man believing in God rises above matter, thon who is really the God, who is really the reality?  Is it matter?  No, it's not matter.  Is it mind?  No, it's not mind.  The reality is that invisible, that man believes in, that that he can't visualize, that he believes is before matter, after matter, above matter, independent of matter.  When man becomes a believer in that concept of God, when he sees God as being before matter, after matter, above matter and separated from matter, when he comes into that kind of belief he rises above matter.  Yes!  Not only is he lifted above matter, he is lifted above mind.  Isn't it matter and mind that takes us down?  It is not only matter that takes us down, it's matter and mind that takes us down.  If matter doesn't take us down, the mind takes us down.  When the man gives hiss mind to matter, the matter holds him.  When the man gives his mind to his mind, the mind takes him down. Isn't  that a fact. Yes!  The matter holds you down, the mind takes you down.  Isn't this a fact? We are talking facts.  Matter holds you down, mind takes you down.  There is something that lifts you up above matter and mind, that's the Originator, Who's not matter and Who's not mind. Yes!  Allah is not matter and Allah is not mind, therefore, Allah can lift us up above matter and mind.  And when we are lifted up above matter and mind, we have a chance to get a new mind and a new matter. Oh! Brother, that is the blessing.  Yes!

I'm not speaking to you just on belief, I'm speaking to you from experience.  As the Christian say in the Church, I have been born again.  Brother, I have been born again and I know that Allah has saved me from my own logic, my own logic was holding me down, was keeping me going to the material things, looking for answers. But Allah saved me from my own logic when I put my faith the Originator, who is not in the confines of the material world and the logic of the material world, then I was lifted above the matter and above my logic.  So, don't be deceived.  Yesterday was baby day. Don't go back in the crib for manhood, keep walking forward to the promise land.

You know, just for a concluding word on the Angels.  Some of us don't understand Angels.  If we understood Angels, I think we would be comfortable in our faith.  When you come into the language of Al Islam, you are told that angels are not human.  That's true. We are told that angels have no sex.  That's true.  Angels have no intellect, no Independent mind, they don't have any freedom of thought.  That's true.  But, if you think that angels can't come like I am, you are wrong.  An angel can come just like I am, flesh and blood, just like I am, flesh and blood, sex and intellect, just like I am.  An angel can come just like this.  But at that time, the angel is unseen, you see the flesh and blood, but you don't see the angel.  You see the body, the flesh and blood, and you feel them.  Haven't the angels come according to scripture, they say feel me.  In every respect they were a human being.  The angel that came to Mary, the Quran says in every respect it looked like a human being, it was a mortal to the eyes of Maryam, the Mother of Jesus.  Is that right? Yes!

Now, Prophet Muhammad was giving a lecture once, and an angel was sitting in the company of the listeners, and the angel looked in every respect to be a man.  The angel asked Prophet Muhammad questions, so, the angel could talk.  The angel was intelligent.  It could ask questions.  The angel talked, the angel asked intelligent questions, and the angel could hear, because the angel received the answers and verified that the answers were correct. Are we ready to —-"Wow!" Yes!

If God wants to make an angel, He makes an angel.  He creates an angel and He is the one that sends the angel on his mission. Dear people, many human beings are used as vessels for an angel. At the time, they themselves might not know that they are being used as a vessel for the angel.  God has powers above our imagination.

It is not within our human grasp to understand fully al] of the workings of God.   If it was, we would be equal to God.  Yes.  We are created beings of great dignity and station, but we are still created beings and we can not conceived all of the wonders of Creation.  And we can not conceive what is the totality we call God.  That's beyond our grasp.  That's why the human being's salvation depends upon faith, depends upon faith.  Because we are going to run out of knowledge and only faith can carry you further, you see.  That's why the whole future of society, human society depends upon faith and trust.  Go among any society and if you find people with no faith in God, most likely they don't have faith in themselves.  They don't have faith in their leaders. They don't have faith in their government.  

They have faith in nothing.  So, they are either a slave society or an anarchic society.  You look at the world and tell me if that picture is true or not.  Every where I've gone, if people didn't have a genuine belief in God, if their faith in God was not genuine, they were either slave or they were very anarchic society.  America is an anarchic society.  We believe in fighting each other.  We believe in contesting authority. We believe in contesting everything. Everything must be contested.  We believe that nobody has the right to discipline me or to tell me how I should live, or how I should think or where I should go.  We are an anarchic society.  Go to the hard core Communist society and you find them, they are an enslaved society.  They are nothing but slaves.  Don't listen to anybody else I've been there.  They are slaves.  They execute their will. 

They live constantly under fear. They are regimented just like parts of a machine.  I'm telling you what I saw with my own eyes. I've been to two Communist countries, two established Communist countries and in both of these countries the people were under fear and they were regimented just like slaves.  They didn't like the way they had to live.  They wanted to live differently, but they were forced to, there are laws against it. Their behavior is under law, even their aspirations are under law. They can't even dream or aspire for nothing that's different.  If they act on it they will be persecuted and maybe executed.  So, there are only two kinds of societies that you can have without faith in God, slave or wild demon.  The Communist world has slaves, we have wild demons.  Yes, it's true.

So, we want faith in Allah, that's the only salvation.  In the great blast of the horn of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad came many notes, many hints, many messages.  He said, the Bible is a grave yard of my people.  He said, Islam is their salvation. That's what he said.  There are those who still want to favor the Bible over the Holy Quran.  Well, we aren't ready for the Quran, the Bible is where we should be.   The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was in the Bible to show you that the Bible was not the place for you.  He said, the Bible is the grave yard of my people, and he said, Islam is their salvation.  I'm going to show you back in the early history of this Community, there was falsehood, but there was a hint to go in the right direction.  Don't you know the religion was persecuted, suppressed in this country.  Don't you know if anyone tried to preach pure Islam, 
Al-Islam properly in this country, that that person, if he was a foreigner, he was immediately arrested.  If he didn't accept to stop that preaching, he was deported.  

A certain teacher didn't care about what he did in the present, he was just working for results, in the present, for the particular scheme that he had.  Now the future, he left it to the Will of God and to good influences, but he left a lot of good influences that would help get you into the proper future. Here I have the cover of two issues of a paper put out in 1934, August 25, this copy, and August 18, the preceding copy, the same year 1934.  This is August 1934.  This is about three years after the appearance of Fard Muhammad among the Afro-Americans of Detroit, and Chicago.  If you could see this picture up close, you would see the picture of many men, all dressed in suits and ties with white shirts.  Not a one on here with a colored shirt.  All of them have on whites shirts.  Why? White shirts make you think you are somebody if you are not.  And especially if put a tie on with it and then put a coat over it.  If you got a suit on and a tie and a white shirt, you feel like somebody even when you're not.  

That's why on one day of the week, everybody in America could wear this suit. It was on the day that was not business day, Sunday is not business day.  On Sunday all the people can wear suits, white shirts and ties. But now, if you are caught during the work days dressed up like this and the man look  at you, and he doesn't think you are supposed to be wearing it, he might come up to you and search you, with all your suit and white shirt and tie on. There  isn't any suspicion, you're not suspect, nothing.  Your only suspicion is that you are dressed like the business people that have got something, and  you don't look like them. So, he tells you, "get out of the car, get out the car. Lean up there, put your hands up there."  Say, why Mr. I haven't done anything. "Are you resisting arrest? You are being insubordinate. Are you refusing to be searched?" You might go with a lot of hickeys to the jail, right?  I know this is happening, I've seen it happen. 

They were stopped for no other reason then that they looked prosperous. They were dressed like business people, and they didn't look like they should have what was showing in their dress.  They were stopped, they were questioned, they were shaken down and sometimes taken to jail.  Yes! This man was terrible with his psychology.  He knew that people feel new identity just in a dress, and he wanted you to grow in the feelings of a new person.  He didn't want you to identify no more with the slave mentality-.  So, he put you in a business suit. A whole community of men were put in  business suits.  Every male had a suit, shirt and tie. I remember the time when you could get by with a jacket that wouldn't match your pants.  

Pretty soon that would stop.  Your jacket had to match your pants.  Powerful psychology, but there's something on their heads that you can't see from there, there are wearing fezs.  They are wearing what looks like the Shriners and Moorish-Americans fez.  It is also called the Moroccan fez.  The Moroccan fex..  It is a deep wine color fez, with a black tassel hanging behind.  On the front of this fez is a crescent, moon, and star, and if you could see these men, you could see them all wearing this.  Now, this is 1934, I'm not going to hold you too much longer, but this is important. 

Let me read to you what it says.  The Saviour of we, seventeen million in the wilderness of North America.  That's what it says here, right up here, in this part, over the heads of these men.  These men are the fruit of Islam In the old Nation of Islam, 1934.  This is a Detroit, Michigan paper, August 1934.  Under the picture of Fard Muhammad, that you call W.D. Fard, Fard Muhammad, different names, is the writing Prophet W.D. Fard, right under his picture it's written, Prophet W. D. Fard.  Now, right here it says, Prophet Fard Muhammad is our deliverer.  Under his picture it says, Prophet W.D. Fard.  Under his picture his last name is Fard.  In this statement his last name is Muhammad.

I'm going to read the caption here and here. "The final call to Islam." Is this a call to Islam?  No!  No!  When you call somebody to believe in Yacub's history, and believe that they are black gods, you're not calling them to Islam.  When you call somebody to believe that this man is a Prophet, you're not calling them to Islam.  So, what he was doing was not calling the people to Islam. But, obviously his intention was to call them to Islam, because he used the word "call to Islam".  Didn't your leader, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, your leader and my leader, in those times, didn't he say  that he told me to get them at any cost? 

You've heard that more than once.  And didn't he also tell you that we are fishing? He said, we put an attractive bait on the hook.  Bait is something to attract you.  Hook is something to catch you.  If I say I hooked you, does that mean I was honest?  To hook somebody is to be deceitful. To bait and hook is double-cross, that's double-deception.  Because if you take a hook, maybe you can snag them and bring them in, right? But the hook is not enough, you have to bait it, too.  Now, look at a hook.  A hook is designed to go in, but to hurt you when it comes out. The fishing hook is made so     it goes in the fish easy, but if the fish tries to bring it out, oh, it hurts, so painful trying to come out. What you were taught that made you think yourself to be superior, black and supreme, doesn't It hurt coming out?  It's a hook.  Didn't it go in easy? Went in so easy, you didn't know you were being stuck. If  somebody says, I got to take the hook out, "oh, my goodness, please be careful, please be careful. You're going to pull the hook out, how are you going to do it?" How did you get that hook in you anyway? "There was an attractive bait on it.  Plenty money, good homes, friendship in all walks of life ."
