September 17th 1999
Muslim Journal

"City of Brotherly Love"
Imam W. Deen Mohammed


I want to tell you something about the significance for me, the interest that I have in Philadelphia. And it is not just because I lived there. I did live there. When I married at about 24 or 25, the first time was to Sis. Shirley Muhammad. She was Shirley X something; I have forgotten the number of her X. We got married and had our first child, Laila, born in Philadelphia in 1959. I went there in 1958 and was there in 1958, 1959 and part of 1960; for about three years I lived in Philadelphia. 

When my father approached me about going to Philadelphia ..., mind you I had no experience as an administrator or as a resident minister responsible for the congregation and paying the bills and all of that.
I was just a young minister given the opportunity to speak occasionally in different places, mostly in Chicago with Min. James Shabazz, who was the principal of our high school, and he knew me as a student. He was my teacher and I was a student, so we had a good relationship. That's the kind of relationship I had as a minister, with no real responsibility except to just get up and speak.

So my father comes to me and says: "Son, the minister in Philadelphia is a good man, a good brother, but he has gotten into something, and I have to replace him. I want to send you to Philadelphia." He said: "Philadelphia
