08/20/2000
IWDM Study Library 
Independence and Loyalty Harvey IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
This is the National Public Broadcast of W. Deen Mohammed, Muslim American leader. The following lecture titled "Independence and Loyalty", was recorded Sunday August the 20th, in the year 2000.
Thank you, Imam Darnell Karim. Brothers and sisters, believers, gathering all, peace be unto you, As salaamu alaikum.
We wish you peace and beautiful days, inside as it is for us outside. It's a beautiful day out there. Hard to keep people in a small confinement like this when it's so beautiful out there, so I shouldn't talk too long, as my son told me once. The little fellow, he said, "Daddy, are you going to talk long?"
I said, "Well, not too long." I said, "What, do you want me to talk for a short while?"
He said, "Well, daddy", he said, "Talk long and talk short."
I understood it. Yes, we had a beautiful day on the grounds of the new facility at 2979 167th Place, and the rain came. It started raining a little bit later, but it was late too, so I didn't want to hold you with that talk there longer, and I didn't think it was good either because the rain was threatening to come. The clouds were hanging, it was going to rain pretty, soon and it had already started to sprinkle a little bit, I believe. So, I wanted to speak to you at that time, and in Markham at 2979 167th Place on "Independence and Loyalty", independence and loyalty.
And though this address that I'm about to give is intended for everybody that's in the hearing range of my voice now, and even those that's not in hearing range, because we are recording it, and there are those who promote my audio tapes, the sales of our audio tapes as well as other publications, so it's for I think the audience I'm really speaking to right now, who is hearing me right now. But this ... has special ... this address has special allure, at least in some areas for the followers of the Nation of Islam under the leadership of my father who passed away in February of 1975. It has special meaning for those people, and I'm one of you. It has very special meaning for me.
Some of us miss the most important things that we get in a powerful package. Sometimes the things that reach our minds immediately is what catches us and holds us forever. But some of us, we hear something immediately, and then later something says, "Boom! Wow! That man's saying more than most of us think he's saying." You know. So, that's the kind of reaction that many of us had to the message of the honorable Elijah Muhammad, and we saw balance too in his teachings. We saw that he appeared to be angry on the one hand, but on the other hand he was very, very peaceful, very peaceful man. Very peaceful man, a very rational man.
So, I never saw my father as an angry man. I never saw him that way. He was giving some speeches, and at some points in his speech, he appeared to be angry, and I guess he was angry, but I knew he was one that knew how to get the results he wanted in the audience too, or from the audience. And sometimes he exaggerated his own excitement, and he exaggerated his own anger just to get the response that he wanted from the audience. Yes, I knew that too. The honorable Elijah Muhammad, he was not his own teacher he could not have become the leader he became had he not been himself taught by a person, and that person was the man he called G-d in person, or G-d in flesh, G-d in the person of W. D. Fard, or W. Fard Muhammad. He had more than one name.
Now, that man emphasized to his student, my father, the importance of independence, independence. And I don't believe he came to America to work among us, that is the blacks of Detroit and Chicago and Milwaukee, those that he worked among, I'm talking about my father's teacher. He was right here in this city here, at least no, I'm not in Chicago, I'm in Markham. He might've come to Markham. I never heard that he did. But he was in Chicago, and his teacher, Mr. Fard actually gave long speeches in Chicago with the honorable Elijah Muhammad on the platform with him, and in Milwaukee after working in Detroit for a year or more.
He told my father that he came to this country July the fourth 1930. We used to have to memorize these things by heart, so I know these things. It was pretty good to have us memorize. Yes, so we were told that he came July the fourth 1930. Now, July the fourth is Independence Day, independence for a new nation that came to be called the United States of America. This nation, this great nation, Independence Day. And we celebrate it, every July fourth we celebrate it with fireworks, with picnicking and outings. The fireworks recalling the great victory in war over a world that didn't want to see this nation established in this new part of the world that had been discovered 1492. Yes, so Independence Day for the United States of America.
And I heard the honorable Elijah Muhammad comment on this one day. In fact, I heard him more than once comment on Independence Day, and when he was preaching much, he'd comment on Independence Day. He said he came on this... he might've used some bad language too, but I forget right now, I can't recall it and I don't want to recall it in the new time we're in. He said he came on this nation's Independence Day, this world's, this government's Independence Day to interrupt their independence. "To break their independence", I believe was his language. My language is, interrupt their independence, but I think he said, "To break their independence." He might've said, "To break through their independence", I can't recall exactly, but, "To break their independence."
I know what he left on my mind was that Mr. Fard came against the power, authority and privileges of the government we call the United States of America. Now that's for sure, I know it. That's what he meant. Because at that time, we were not accorded citizenship rights in this country, but we were asked to go to war and fight for the country, die just like everybody else who had full citizenship rights and privileges, so the honorable Elijah Muhammad found that message tasteful, not distasteful, but tasteful. He liked it; it was sweet in his mouth. He said, "I have got... here's a man, G-d himself in the person has come to us now. He's going to do our battles for us. They're going to bring this nation down." That's exactly what we were taught, that this nation was going to be brought down. Yes.
And then again, I heard the honorable Elijah Muhammad comment on Independence Day, and it wreaks me. But the honorable Elijah Muhammad said of destruction, it wreaks me, yes, this wreaks me, I'm not a violent man, but if bad people are making a lot of people miserable, I want to see that stopped. But that's not what makes me happy, and makes me perk up, and turn on my energies. It's what somebody says positive to help me be a better person and realize what I want to do in a positive way. But when somebody's getting help from my own soul, help from my own mind, help from my own aspirations, I really give that special attention, not for the moment, but for the moment and hereafter.
So, the thing that stuck with me of independence, for the moment and hereafter, it's still with me, in fact I'm serving that interest right now, that's why I came out here to speak on this subject, is what the honorable Elijah Muhammad said about our independence. He didn't elaborate, he didn't give any long talk on it. He said he came to give us independence. He came to give us independence. Now, let us look at the word independence. You don't need a whole lot, dictionary and different entries to hear what the dictionary is saying about independence, that's too much for our purpose here this afternoon.
For most people, independence means being the boss in some area of their life. Being the boss in some area of their life. Now, let's reflect. Let's go back a little bit. I mentioned that this country had to fight for its independence, and it won its independence I should say, although I wasn't living yet back then. But I'm so much a part of this now, I feel to say to you, when we fought for our independence, although I didn't live back there, we fought for our independence, and we won our independence. And don't think the black man wasn't there now, because it was Crispus Attucks who gave the first demonstration against Great Britain. Yes. Yeah, they were fed up. They call it the Boston Tea Party or something like that. Yes. Instead of delivering it, he starts dumping it in the ocean as a protest. Yes.
Now, this country was first built by people from the country of their first origin as a nation, and they refused to continue as citizens of that nation, because that nation was not giving them enough freedom and enough independence. Enough independence, they call it Independence Day, the victory. Independence Day. They were not giving them enough independence. They wanted more independence in their life to realize for themselves the life of their choice. Now, this is a people that belonged to another nation that was their nation at the time. They had every right that every other citizen had in that nation, or in that part of the world.
Now, they come to America and they find this new land suitable for them to build a new nation. It's called New Jerusalem, it's called by different names, the New World. To build this new, great nation they did it with the help of others who were sympathetic. France and others were sympathetic, and they gave them military support, not just moral support with their mouths, but military support as well. And their slaves, some of them asked to fight for the independence of the new world, and their permission was accepted, they fought on the side of the masters, but here are slaves fighting on the side of the masters. This is not a new thing in history, this is happening in the old world too, where slaves have fought with the nation that enslaved them, or with the nation whose people enslaved them. Yes, so that wasn't a new thing. And then some of them were actually forced to go to war, forced to fight on the side of the master class, or the master people, white race.
Independence, keep in mind on what we're talking about, independence. We're not talking about the white man; we're talking about independence. Independence. All right, you know, when you really study your religion, for Christians, Christianity, for Muslims, Islam, Al Islam, and see what G-d is giving the believer, offering the believer, inviting the believer to. When you see that through devotion to G-d, G-d is establishing a relationship for you with him. A relationship, a powerful relationship. Powerful relationship. And in both of our religions, no matter how high up you are, how big you are, or how small you are, you have direct access to this great G-d that created the heavens and the Earth.
You don't have to come to Imam W. Deen Mohammed, and say, "I need Allah to help me. Where is Imam W. Deen Mohammed? I ain't Allah, brother, don't ask that question if you want Allah. Where is he now W. Deen Mohammed? I need him to help me. I need Allah. Help me with my life. You can go directly to Allah yourself.
And I saw the Muslim Journal. Beautiful. It said, "What's faster than light, what travels faster than light? Prayer." Prayer. Oh man, did I like that caption. I wanted to look Brother Atique up and just hug him and kiss him one time anyway. Give him three hugs and one kiss, on his cheek of course, or forehead, right there. Because he got something behind that forehead, the brain up there, good brain.
So anyway, I know you like to tune your thoughts, you have to like it. What travels faster than light? Prayer. Before you get the word formed, G-d got it. Yes? Before you get the words formed, G-d's got it. But for yourself, you have to form the words yourself, for your own mind. That's fast. And as far as G-d being closer to somebody else than he is to some other person, only because of the purity and good deeds of that person, but if a person whose life is neglected, who is far away from purity, if that person can sincerely, begin to, in his soul beg for G-d, G-d will come to that person just as quick as he's come to the one who has been pure and righteous all his life.
Yes, he's just as quick for that person as he is for the person who's been pure and righteous all his life. Righteous deeds, that's what I mean, has purity and righteous deeds in his life. Purity. Yeah, just as quick. There's a saying of Prophet Muhammad. He said, "The one whos done injustice, there is nothing between him and his G-d, not even a thin veil." Now, you know they say Moses spoke from behind the veil, but the prophet says it's not even a thin veil. No, we can get to G-d. We have free access to G-d, freer access to G-d than whoever that was speaking to Moses from behind the veil had. Yes.
Now, independence. Independence. When you form that relationship with G-d that G-d wants, and you devote yourself to worship G-d as the authority above all other authorities, then what you're saying is that my boss has a boss over him, that's G-d. You're saying that my president of these United States, he's got a boss over him, that's G-d. That's what you're saying. And most people know this, but some of you that's working for self-interests, you work so hard for self-interest, you forget who your boss really is. You'll be shining boots and licking boots, and doing other things, and brown nosing, and you forget who the real boss is. You forget that that person you're trying to impress to get up a little higher yourself, has a boss over him or her.
So, when you form a relationship with THE boss, G-d, you then can have your independence through your worship of G-d. So, G-d himself created us for independence, that's how come it's in us, and that's how come it drives us. We're not satisfied when somebody asks too much of us, so they're asking me to make them my G-I'd. I can't have that. There's a limit to how much, I or the president, or the pope, or anybody will command your life. There's a limit, you're not going to let them command except but up to a certain limit, and then you're going to say, "No! Hey, what are you trying to do? What are you asking of me?"
Now, what is that rebelling against then? The same thing that turned Jonah around and made him go back, pick up his interest. Same thing that made Moses stand up to Pharaoh, same thing that made Abraham tell Pharaoh, the G-d that created me will guide me. Not you, Pharaoh. Yeah, it's the same thing. There is...
Muhammad put it this way, I think he put it. Yes, yes, I recall. Peace be upon Prophet Muhammad. He said, "Every landholder, or farmer, he has a special piece of land in his land. He has the land, this whole farm was his, but he has a special, special little piece of that farm that he gives very special and personal attention to, himself." He said, "Likewise for G-d." He said, "G-d, he has a... area that's prohibited to all but himself, and that is the core of every person's soul." The core of every person's soul belongs to nobody but G-d. He doesn't want me in there, talking and telling you what to do, and he doesn't want the president of the United States in there talking and telling you what to do.
He wants not authority in there but him talking and telling you what to do. In the core of your soul, for want of a better word, in the most important, most sacred area of your soul...
That's what I mean by the core, C-O-R-E, of your soul. Yes, so that's where your independence is. And you were born with that soul and with that independence. And it's that, that's your privacy, that sacred privacy, that makes you tell somebody, sometimes that you won't listen to anything that I have to say. I'm entitled to an opinion, too. You assert your rights to be heard. You have a right to be heard too.
Now, when we were enslaved or brought over here captives on ships or whatever. Ships, yes. Our authority in our own life was taken away from us. Not part of it, all of it. All of it. We ourselves were property, so we couldn't own anything. Everything we had belonged to our master, even us. If you had clothing, the clothing and you belonged to your master. If you had sleeping quarters, the sleeping quarters and you belonged to your master. Whatever you had, that and you belonged, was the property of, your master, until he sold you to another master or whatever, or until you died.
But no matter how much a man protects another human being, or a woman, because you got a lot of women slave masters that's not in the books, not even in history at all, lot of women slave masters. I know because I had one that attempted to enslave me.
Well, now I got to fight that thing to get back on track. Good G-d almighty, she was something in my life. All right, I think I got her going now, she's moving on out again. All right.
This independence in the core of your being was put there by G-d. And then G-d frees you, even from him as the authority. Isn't this wonderful? G-d frees you even from him as an authority. He creates you and then, just as a baby is born and can't remember anything about its life in the womb. Born and can't remember any of the pain that it suffered being brought out by the doctor, or by the nurse, the wet nurse. Can't remember it. Can't recall any of that... likewise, the G-d that created us, he made it impossible for us to recall that He was the one who created us. So, we come into the world and we don't know who created us until somebody helps us get on the path, or until trouble in the world drives us to ask some questions.
Yes, we don't have to have somebody help us all the time. Enough misery or enough joy will make you wonder, how come I'm getting all of this misery or how come I getting all of this joy? And it makes you turn... to talking in the dark, you turn to the dark, because you know it's not in the light. The answer is not in the light. You would've seen it a long time ago if it was in the light. So, you turn to the dark of your own mind, and you'll begin to search the midnight of your own mind for that G-d, for whatever's responsible for that. You don't, don't even call it G-d. You just want to know what's responsible for that. Why am I like this? Why am I made like this? Yes.
It is so wonderful that this G-d creates us and then frees us even from himself; he's not even in your life as your boss. But you got something else in your life, it's an invisible wall, it's a hidden wall. It's your own self. But it's in the sacred core of your being, and it every now and then will, speak to you. Say, when you going to do something with your life?
It will speak to you. When are you going to leave that woman that has brought you down to zero? You're less than a dog because of you following that woman around and doing whatever she asks you to do.
The captain told me once, he said a brother came to him to confess. The brother said, Captain... I can't say either one of their names... said, Captain, I want to come to the Temple, I want to come to the Fruit, I want to be a good FOI. But my wife, see, she just put demands on me, and I'm afraid of her. Really, I'm afraid I'll lose her. And if she tells me that I can't come out, then I can't come out, Brother Captain. Captain said he decided to talk to that sister and then both of them together.
That sister said, yeah, he'll tell you who his G-d is. But I knew who his G-d is. She stood up to the captain. And they had a little, hot argument. And the sister took him on back home. I can't give you the full conversation. It's X-rated....
Anyway, even that brother, he kept enough hell, that independent self that G-d made to be independent of other bosses, but only under one boss, G-d. Will speak out and tell that woman, now woman is this. I ain't taking this anymore. I got to have some respect for myself. Walk out the door and never look back. Powerful core we have in our being, powerful core. G-d created that for him. That's that sacred piece or area in the land, that's the sanctuary for G-d. Yes. That's your independence. Your independence is there. That's what drives men to do what many, many great men of religion, of politics and government did; turn from the established ways of their world at the time, because they can't believe in the core of their being that the human being was created for such a taxing, punishing life. So, they turned from it.
We were slaves, properties of slave masters, but the slave master couldn't boss that sacred piece of land inside of our being that was created for our independence to worship G-d above all authority, and was created for our own self-respect. They can't command that area. Bilal, just one of many slaves. We've become very much closer to ourselves in time. Rosa Parks, she didn't know whether she was going to be lynched, killed or not, but she stood up because something in her core said, time out for this. They put her in jail, they arrested her and put her in jail, but she stood up.
We as a people were stripped of all of our independence, except the sacred self, hidden and unconscious in the soul of our being. And something had to happen to wake that self up, that sacred, hidden self in the core of our being.
Mr. Fard's teachings were so powerful and so different that for many who could not have that sacred self-awakened, the teachings of the Nation of Islam were powerful enough to awake that sacred self, awake it to its responsibility. Say "I'm somebody!" as the Reverend Jesse Jackson preached into our ears. I'm somebody. He didn't tell us that first. For many of us, that sacred self that was sleeping in the core of our being, like Jonah was sleeping in the hull of the ship, just finally realized that, hey, this ain't me. I have to become myself. Independence. Independence.
The most precious independence is this independence that I've been speaking to you all for a good little while now. That's the most precious independence. That's the independence that made possible the independence of the New World, The United States of America, from the Old World, from Britain, England. That's the independence. If that hadn't been burning and speaking and present in the Founding Fathers, and in those that came on the Mayflower, et cetera, there would not have been a call for any new independence. Those people would've went on forever satisfied to serve the Old World and to serve their old country. They would've been nothing but colonies forever for the Old World, for the old country. Yes.
Don't think the term Islam, the religion Islam, is your biggest calling. Ah, I shook you there. That's not your biggest calling. Your biggest calling is your independence. So, you be free to give due respect to your maker and due respect to yourself. It didn't have to be Islam; it could have been some other religion or ideology. But thank G-d it was Islam. For me, I thank G-d it was Islam. Because I believe in my soul that my soul parents were Muslim, on the continent of Africa. They were not heathens, they were not worshipers of idols, they were not ........., they didn't worship life, and they were not Christian. They did not worship Jesus Christ. That's what I believe firmly in my soul. And I believe my father descended from those people, and I descended from those people. So, I thank G-d, He's rewarded me, given me back what was taken from my father, and that is their religion when they were in Africa. He has given it back to me.
Before I was comfortable with Islam, it wasn't Islam driving me to want to know G-d better. It wasn't Islam driving me to want to know and understand my father better. It was not Islam driving me to want to know scripture better. The Bible, the Christians' thinking, their religious thought. It was not Islam. G-d knows it was never Islam. It was my own curiosity. In the core of my being, I wanted to have these questions answered. I couldn't live with this darkness; I had to see the light. And I didn't know if the light was going to be Islam or the light was going to be something else.
At one point I say, these communists sound better than these religious folks to me. I read where the communists said, religion is the opium for the common people, or the dope for the masses of people, meaning the common people, not educated that well and have no class, no high status, stature, no high status in the society. I said to myself, he's right. That's exactly what I said as a young man and a young minister at that time. I didn't tell you that. I knew better than do that. honorable Elijah Muhammad would have shipped me out before I was shipped out.
But I said to myself, they make much more sense, because that's what I saw it as; all that religion, I'm in my house, and Father didn't allow us to even have a radio when I was a young boy, we couldn't have a radio. That's a fact. We couldn't have a radio. It was against the law of the Nation of Islam to have a radio in your house. We could not have a radio. But on Sunday morning, man, those church people were so loud, I'm in the house, no radio, and I hear the Christian church sermon going on just like they're in my house, so loud. Window down, new putty had been put on the crack, sealed the crack, still blasting in the house there. Jesus, Lordy Jesus, ......, just jumping and jumping, got the house shaking a little bit, theyre so loud. And I know what was in that house. I know the family was in that house. I know how they lived.
And I walk out of that house, 5308 South Wabash, and go on the street and walk two blocks over to State Street. And there I see a church on almost every corner, and between the block you got about two or three churches, between the block. And you've got just as many liquor stores, and you've got bums and wine-heads hanging around all outside the liquor stores, and go into the church when the church doors open. So, you could see how I had bought the communist charge, that religion is the opium of the masses, the dope for the masses. Yes, I bought it. I said, they're right. That's all it is. It's hypnotic, just like a drug, like wine or a drug. It's hypnotic. It makes them forget their condition and makes them forget their responsibility. I saw it acting on people just like a drug. Yeah.
Now we know all churches weren't cheap like that and irresponsible like that. We know there was a few first-class churches that were doing a good job to keep their members conscious and living a good life. But most of them didn't, they weren't. But look here, even the worst church with the most ignorant preacher, even that church was telling the members not to sin, to live a G-dly life, not to sin. But the people were so miserable, so poor, suffering so many things, mostly the bad material condition in their life, they were suffering and poor, and suffering so much that the powerful psychology of the church to make them feel good: the lively music, the happy singing, sent them back home not conscious of their responsibility to do something about their life. Though he told them, live righteous, obey G-d, don't sin, sin is death, they couldn't hear that, especially after the music and after singing. They just felt good.
Just like you giving a man wine and he's getting high. After a while, he's so high he got another spirit in him. "Hey, man, hey! Yeah, man, take a hit of that! Come on, man! Come on man! Give me your hand, let me hug you, man. I ain't hugged you. You know you're my buddy, man, you're my buddy?" Now he's high now, and you telling him, before he got that high, you told him, sin his death. He doesn't remember it after that. He doesn't remember sin is death. If you had told him the worst sin is not drinking, the worst sin is not swearing, saying M.F. every two or three words in your language. He said the worst sin is you not respecting your human life. If the preacher had told them that, I think they would've been able to drink his wine and get sober. And then after he sobered up, it would've went to work on their responsibility. But the preacher didn't tell them that
This independence that we are given is no small independence, it's a big independence. It's given in the Bible in Genesis; says, "And G-d created the man and put him in the garden." And the garden was a paradise, means this beautiful, pleasant, all good. G-d created the man and put him in the garden. And the garden is understood to mean the existence in this world. That this world, before sin comes into play, was made to be a garden of paradise for human life. Now we know if we just can get the things out the way that's not right, this world will be a paradise as it was in the beginning, the Eden, the Garden of Eden, paradise. So, G-d says he created the man and put him in the garden, and his wife, of course, and he charged the man to attend the garden. So here the man is given a big responsibility.
And, if we interpret it the way learned students of theology or learned students of scripture interpret it, that it means, firstly, my own soul, the garden of my own life, and secondly, the garden outside, the external world... if we interpret it that way, then we see that G-d is given the human being that he created a great independence and a great responsibility. Independence to cultivate his own soul and independence to utilize what's outside of himself, of this world as G-d says in our Qur'an, in our holy book, and in the Bible, in different words I could give you. Whatever is in the skies and whatever is in this earth, G-d has placed it at your service for you to utilize it, to make your life richer and better.
If we accept then that that's the responsibility that G-d created every human being for male and female every human being for male and female. Oh no, it's for the male, the Khalifa. Well, you think that. Adam was the first Khalifa, and Adam was a man, yes. But Adam was once existing in one soul, and that soul was called male and female. All right? And G-d, who created that one soul, made it male and female, he caused the separation and created the first father and the first mother, or the first mother and the first father, and brought from them all the men and women on this earth. So, we are talking about Adam, and Genesis says what the Qur'an interprets. Genesis says, "And he made them male and female," G-d made them male and female, "and he named them, them, Adam, in the day that he created them." That's Genesis, on the creation of man. So, both books are saying the same thing, huh? That this male and female also are in one. Created He them, male and female, and called them Adam in the day that he created them.
He created them plural but called them one name: Adam. So, Adam is the soul that's in every human being male and female. Adam is the sacred core in the soul of every human being male and female. So, Adam is me singularly, and Adam is humanity taken altogether. If G-d says he made the man, Adam, he didn't say he made any man. He didn't say any man, we could call him Joe or whatever, G-d fixed it so you have to call him by a proper name that G-d gave him: Adam. G-d says he created the man, Adam, and he says he told the man to attend the garden; this is the Bible. And everything, said, the fish of the sea is for you. Everything. This is what Genesis says. And The Qur'an puts it almost in one statement. It does.
put it in one statement, says, "He has made to be of service to you, whatever's in the sky and whatever's in the earth." Genesis was saying the same thing, but with different language, different narration, G-d is saying to us, and this is what makes men great men. This is what makes great men and great women of religion. When they see this language of G-d, they see themselves. G-d's language is not to show you himself. G-d's language is to show you yourself. So, when they see this great language, they see themselves and they say, "Wow, am I this?"
I have to respect myself more. I have to do more with my life. G-d made me a creator. G-d made me a boss in charge of great things, big things. G-d made me and trusted me with my own life. G-d trusted me with my own life after he created it. And, G-d trusted me with this powerful environment, we call the world, and all the powerful things that's in it. G-d entrusted this to me when he created me. I don't see how anybody can believe that and not go forward in a positive way with their lives. I don't! That's what was driving me.
I didn't know this. I had never read this in Genesis. I had never read this in the Qur'an. All I know is that something was in me, inside of me, that couldn't be satisfied with all the darkness that was in the way of my vision. That's all I know. And, as I said, it was not Islam driving me. It was a lot of big question marks driving me. Lot of big question marks driving me.
Now, we have moved from the smaller creation to the bigger creation. And, even the smaller creation is so big that G-d has revealed to us that that small creation is not bigger than the external world, the whole universe. G-d says to us in our holy book, he says, "And, man, think not that your creation is a bigger creation than the heavens and the earth."
He made this world to serve us, even the angels. He made even the angels to serve us, but we are not bigger, as a creation, than the world outside of ourselves. No, G-d makes that plain to us. Says, "But, man is fool-hearted and cocky, hasty." He gets a drink of the heavenly juice and it goes to his head so quick, that he's going to rush our ...,, think he can manage the whole world by himself. If he rises to the top of a nation and that nation is victorious over other nations, now he's going to take it upon himself to manage their lives too. He going to tell them how they should live, how they should run their lands and their nation. Fool-hearted, hasty, cocky, thinking he has to be told their life. Your creation is not bigger than the world. The world that G-d made is a bigger creation than you. You have to be told that. Praise be to Allah.
So, we are talking about the bigger interest now. Now, understand that all of this is made for Adam. Jesus is recognized in the New Testament for his greatness, but Jesus, in the narration about his greatness, his own life goes back to Adam. Says, "In the Genesis of Jesus Christ is on this wise." And, it goes on to trace backwards, go backwards, connecting Jesus with his past life until it gets to Adam. And, it says, "And, he was created by G-d.
So, Jesus' life, according to the New Testament, his genealogy of his life, goes back from himself, to his mother, and to those that were before his mother, on and on and on, until it gets back to Adam, the man that was created by G-d. So, what is the origin of Jesus' being? Adam. Adam. Just as it is for all of us. And, that's why the prophet gave us the picture of steps up in the heaven, the great steps up to the heaven. And, he gave us the picture of Adam on the first level, and then Jesus Christ and John on the second level, and Joseph on the third level. And Yusuf...Joseph, pardon me, on the third level. Yes. And, Idris on the fourth level. Some say that Idris is the Ezekiel in the Bible. I don't know. I can't say that's true or false. And, the fifth was Moses and Aaron. No, no, the fifth was Aaron, sixth is Moses, the seventh is Abraham. Abraham.
So, these are the steps up, up the ladder. These are the steps up the ladder, according to the teachings of Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon him. And, he said, "At each level, how were these men greeted? They were greeted, 'Peace be unto you, brother, my brother.'" All but Adam and Abraham. Even Jesus has to greet Adam, "My Father," just as Muhammad had to greet Adam, "My Father," and even Moses, powerful prophet, he had to greet Adam, he has to greet Adam, "My Father."
Oh, somebody may ...say, but "Oh, but G-d was Jesus Christ's father." Read again, the genealogy of Jesus Christ in your Bible, the New Testament. And, as far as G-d being a father of Jesus Christ, G-d was a father, in that sense, of every prophet, of every prophet. And, every prophet that was made prophet by G-d, oh, it was a powerful conception. A powerful conception, when that prophet became a prophet upon the inspiration of G-d. This is not to say we don't accept that Jesus is Christ. Yes, we do. All Muslims, if you understand your religion, you have to accept that Jesus is Christ, and that Jesus was not the son of a man, son of a man.
Well, you just said he was son of Adam, didn't you? Well, who said that that Adam has to be a man? I said he was male and female in the beginning. In the beginning, he was not just a man, he was male and female, according to his Bible, and according to our holy book, the Qur'an. And, Allah says in our holy book, says, "the same one who created the earth, the world, from the beginning, has the power to recreate it, to create it again." He who had the power to make a man from dust, certainly has the power to make a man from a woman. Yes, Independence Day. Independence. G-d wants us to be independent.
G-d, the G-d that made us, created us, along with all other human beings, wants black people in America and all over the world to be independent. He wants us to have the same independence that he wants every human being to have. The independence to live the richness that he created for you in your soul and in your brain, in your makeup, He wants you to live that richness to its fullest.
Oh, it's great wealth. There's a great wealth in the new creation of a human person. He wants you to live it to its fullest. And, he wants you to live it, not as a single person. That's why Adam must be called, also, the many as well as the individual. He doesn't want you to live that just for yourself, he wants you to live that for humanity, for the human race. He wants you to do it for the human race, not for one. Because, originally, he did it for one, but that one was the capsule, the atom from which the human race would exist. Was not it? So, in the beginning, all men, and women, were in one, in the one G-d created.
Now, when we want to go up, rise up from our inferiority, rise up from our poverty and ignorance, rise up from that to a high station in the world, we should try to connect with the G-d that created us for that rise. Connect directly, if you can't find a leader that you respect. But, if you find a spiritual leader that you respect, connect behind that leader, or through that leader. Connect up again. And then work, not just for yourself, selfishly, but work for yourself, but with charity in your heart, to see all men and women get where you want to go and have what you want to have. This is what G-d created us for. And, it says, "Charity starts at home and spreads abroad." And, in the Qur'an it says, same thing. You have to know how to relate, yes. But it's something else I got in mind. You have to know how to read your book and the Bible together. You have to know where they correspond, where they flow together.
All right. So, we know that Muslims, too, are obligated to live, not just for yourself, but for your fellow man, and for all people. Allah says in the Qur'an, of Muhammad the Prophet, says, "And, he is a mercy to all the world. a mercy to all the world." The first people to claim him was the Arabs, and then the Africans and others, and the Persians and others. And, that is in close vicinity, of the land of the Arabs, the Peninsula of the Arabs. They claimed him. And, I believe, even today, they're not seeing him correctly. Most of them. Most of them. He's not for Arabs to claim, he's not for Africans to claim, or Pakistanis to claim. Muhammad is for humanity to claim, mankind to claim. G-d didn't create Adam for the white race, he created Adam so all people will have their life from him, from their first father.
He didn't mission Muhammad so Muhammad could become the leader for Arabs, or for Eastern people. He created Muhammad, made Muhammad, the man and the prophet he is, and the messenger of G-d, so that he would become a mercy for all people, to all the world. This is what you have to know in your heart and understand it clearly, then it will motivate you to respect other people more, to have an interest in other people more, to want to build, not just for yourself, but want to build so that all people will find pleasure in what you're doing, will find gratification in your work, will find some contribution to their life in what you are doing with your life. This is the way it has to be.
Independence. Here are a people now, denied their independence, stripped of their independence, robbed of their independence, they're having that independence taken completely away from them. No human being in the history of man have had their, or his or her, independence taken away so thoroughly, as did we by slavery, New World style. Yeah, that's no joke. No joke. Very serious. All right. No matter how much a parent dominates a child, that parent never takes away the individuality of their child, and the freedom to act and to have a life, as much as slavery took away our individuality and our freedom to act.
Yes. So, we lost our independence completely, afraid to even think our own thoughts, if we thought those thoughts were against the interest of our slave masters, many of us. Now, you had the strong ones, but they were few. They were very few, like Nat Turner and a few others, Frederick Douglass. Very few. The great many couldn't think. And, believe me, you got too many of us right now who can't think. We can only think to the extent that we know the white man approves. And, it's not the modern white man, we still got that old, ancient white man in us, telling us what he wants.
We aren't acquainted with the new reality enough to hear a voice of the new white man. That same old, ancient white man is talking to us still, "Yeah, you know you're a nigger, you know you're inferior. Don't you listen to the black Muslims telling you, you could have a C.P.C." What the hell is a C.P.C.? Collective Purchase Conference. You know no nigger got no part, and they go to another country and buy no goods from them without a white man leading him. So, you better not join that C.P.C. Thing. Old, ancient white man talking to us. Yeah, you let him talk all he wants about Allah is G-d and boss over the United States and the president. Don't you believe that. You listening to another nigger, that's all you listening to. "Now girl, are you going to stay with me or listen to that boy you got there?" "No, Master, I'm going to listen to you." Thats her. That's her and him. He said, "That's him. I was talking about her."
Now, let's come to the word, loyalty. Then, we going to bring the two of them together and close out. Now, look at the word, loyalty. When you hear the word, loyalty, loyalty says that the person who has to be loyal, or is obligated to be loyal, is not absolutely independent. Not absolutely independent. You owe somebody something. And, the first loyalty is to G-d, isn't it? If we are religious people, first loyalty is to G-d. And, you know he gave a covenant to Abraham. Yes. And, it's mentioned in our religion, that now the covenant that was given to Abraham has been passed on to the Muslim. And, the Christian says, it's passed on to them through interpretation, translation and interpretation. It was passed on to them through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, it's a new covenant.
And, we have a new covenant. It's a new covenant that came from Abraham, our father, Abraham, or the millah of Abraham. We have a covenant and we should be loyal to that covenant. That's the first loyalty, be loyal to the G-d that has found you for yourself. You hear what I'm saying? Found you for yourself, so that you would have yourself. Be loyal to that G-d. Then, you know we have to be loyal to the nation. That's where we have citizenship. If we're a citizen of the United States of America, we need to be loyal to that citizenship. Loyalty is very, very important.
So, getting back to independence. Loyalty, very, very important. If you break the first loyalty, you going to lose the first independence. If you break the loyalty to G-d, you going to lose the independence that G-d created you for. You won't have that independence anymore. You will think you're independent, but you have the independence of a rat. You'll fall from the independence of a man to the independence of a rat, from the independence of a man, to the independence of a hog, from the independence of a man, to the independence of a dog, from the independence of a man to the independence of a snake. That's Genesis. Huh? Yeah. So, you won't keep that independence, if you break the loyalty.
Now, we want be as independent as we possibly can be in this United States of America, that celebrates its independence for all of its citizens, and I'm included, every July 4th. We want to have our independence inside of this great nation that knows the value of independence. We cannot have that independence without also respecting our citizenship and obligation on us to be loyal to this government, in which we have and enjoy citizenship.
Now, if we were going to have some argument with this, we should have argued in Frederick Douglass' day. We should have argued when Rosa Parks was in jail. But, now that Rosa Parks is out of jail and living a good life and ain't leading no demonstration, it's time for us to stop having these problems with our independence, as citizens of this United States of America.
Loyalty. Loyalty. We have to be loyal, also, to the best tradition of our own people. Mama taught you something that stands up now after you became a Muslim, just as strong as it stood up when she told it to you when you were Christian. Be loyal to that. Be loyal to the first, best advice that you got from your Christian parents, from your Christian relatives, from your Christian friends, from your Christian church. Be loyal to the best that you got from them. Just because you're Muslim, doesn't mean you're not going to be loyal to that, that stood your life up before. If it was good, it's good in Islam. Islam doesn't come to throw away anything good. Islam is not here to condemn anything good. That's why G-d says to us in our holy book, "Cooperate, work together. Cooperate upon what is standard, established knowledge." It didn't say, "Islam."
G-d didn't just reveal to prophets, G-d created man, and created him good and excellent. That's what he said. Yes. "And, made your form beautiful and excellent." That's what G-d said. So, he did that before a prophet was made, before a prophet was given a book, or a revelation, or a message. G-d had made your form, and G-d said, He made it beautiful and excellent. So, that means you already had habits in your life, you already had principles in your life, you already had high values in your life, you already had respect for the thing that is more important, a sacred thing, an idea of what is sacred in your life. Even before He sent the first prophet, human beings on this earth had that.
As you know, in our religion, that's called the Muslim that G-d created. Say, "G-d created you and named you and named you Muslim." This is in our holy book, "And, named you Muslim." He named you Muslim.
Yes. And, I guess the Christians, and Christian who understand Christian theology, they would call it Christ-like, the Christ in man. Praise be to Allah. Allahu Akbar! Loyalty, loyalty. We have a history that begins with us being slaves, being on ships as passengers, and then made slaves in the New World. We also have a history of being in Africa, but that history is dead. It was denied us, none of us, and we can't get any help for it either. Now, we know of a gentleman, kind gentleman, who traced his lineage back to Africa. He says that his family can be traced all the way back to Kunta Kinte. Kunta Kinte. Kunta Kinte. That's his relative. Alex Haley, relative. Before slavery. Kunta Kinte. Kunta Kinte.
Kunta Kinte(singing).
Sounds like somebody getting ready to write a song. Kunta Kinte. Anyway, he said he traced his relatives back to Kunta Kinte. But how many have done that? How many can trace their relatives back to Kunta Kinte or anybody else? How many can even trace their family back to a particular part of Africa? Very difficult. We would do a more accurate job of telling you where you came from, by just studying your features and matching you with people on the continent of Africa, we would do a much better job. And understand that all countries, hardly any country's populations have been made up of all one people, all the time. So even though you came from Africa, doesn't mean that you perhaps were there always.
You could have come from some other part; you could have come from Saudi Arabia. Your fathers, first fathers could have come from Saudi Arabia and went to Africa. Yeah, they're so close to together, Saudi Arabia and Africa's just like that, at some point you can throw a rock from Saudi Arabia, into Africa. Look at the map. Alright. And you could have come from Persia, you could have come from, who knows? India, who knows where those people come from? So, give up that... that thought. I got to know my race, and I'm black, and I'm this, give up that, that'll wear you out forever, and they know it too. That's why they want you to get hung up there, so they know you'll be occupied forever, and get nowhere on this earth. G-d knew that human beings would be scattered all over the earth, and they were going to be looking for that national pride.
Yeah, my nation was this, and my nation is that. And G-d says, and all of you are created from Adam. And Adam was created from dust. Dust. That's where your great, great history goes back to. Your great history goes back to dust, to the dust of the earth, that's your first home, the dust of the earth, not Ethiopia. The dust of the earth. So, if we think origin is going to connect us with our great brightness and brilliance and pristine essence and power, show me how all that in dust. So, G-d says that's what he made you from originally, from dust. Clay, water, dust. That's enough for me, that tells me that all human beings have common origins in the dead earth.
That's what G-d means by dust, he means it's dead, dead, no life. He made you from death, and gave you life. So, all human beings have origin in common earth, common, dead, earth. And it was G-d that created them for life and created them for human identity. And he made you humans before your social interactions, and progress as a social unit, brought you into these other names, tribes, nations, et cetera. Independence and loyalty. So, loyalty implies that there's not complete independence, it's a shared independence. Because if I have to be loyal to somebody, then my own life, and my own freedom and independence depends on that relationship being supportive of my freedom and independence, et cetera.
We want to make great progress in America, we are not where our souls bid us to go, our souls want us to go much further than we have gone. The end of the road is not to have the government recognize us as equal citizens along with other citizens. The end of the road is not for us to have opportunities to make as much money as another person that belongs to this great nation, or to rise up high and become the president of a bank or the president of these United States. No, the bidding in our souls want us to go much further than that. Well, where is further than that? Further than that is to have your own, to reclaim your own. I'm using the words of the honorable Elijah Muhammad and his teacher in the Nation of Islam. To reclaim your own, if you reclaim your own, then you want to get back what was taken from you. And what was taken from you was the opportunity to accept or re-get another national life or cultural life.
Are you listening to what I'm saying? But you were captured, and you were not given the freedom or the opportunity to say, I don't think I want this life that you're going to make for me in this new world. So, if G-d is G-d, then G-d himself is obligated to give us back what was taken from us, if the world can't give it back to us, G-d is obligated to give it back to us, because they took from us, what was G-d's own property. It was not their property, they took from us, our human life, and the ability to have it in our own hands. They took that from us. They took from us, the freedom to exercise the biddings in our sacred core that G-d created, and he said no one is to plow in that area, but himself. And they locked it up, they denied it expression
So, to restore me, for me to reclaim my own, I have to have the freedom to listen to my core, the sacred core of my being. And we have to, ourselves, do things that will write our history over again. Yes. We have to write history over again. It doesn't take all of us. We don't need 20 or 30 million African Americans to do this. The whole world began with one atom. We don't need everybody to do this. We just need those who have the strongest whispers in the core of their being, that's whispering to them, it's not enough yet. You haven't restored yourself enough yet.
You know, if a bird is born a sparrow, and if something could be done to make that bird forget that it's a sparrow, and it starts believing it's a crow. Now it's living with crows, and it's given full citizenship in the nation of crows. It sits on the highest branch of the tree, with crows, it hunts as a free citizen of crow nation, with crows. But one day in the sacred core of that sparrow, there's going to be a whisper. And he's going to start being unhappy with the crows. Now our professional class of Africa Americans, they are that sparrow group, and they've been with the crows. And they go and fly to the highest branches in the trees.
Bill Cosby, way up there at the top of tree. Oprah Winfrey, way up there at the top of the tree. Colin Powell, way up there at the top of the tree. All these big black fat sparrows, way up in there in the top of the tree, thinking theyre crows. And soon it dawns on them, from the core of their being, you're not a crow, you're a sparrow. Oh, and they start weeping on the branch. See, how come these professional class gets freedom and then run into a dead end, and have no more enthusiasm for building the race? It's because their grand to begin to realize that they're not white folk, and never will be white folk, we're not created to be white folk.
Allahu Akbar! G-d is greater. You're supposed to have a black person's song in your soul. You're supposed to have a black person's light in your soul. That was turned on by the same G-d that turned the white mans light on in his soul. And until G-d turns the light on in our souls, for ourselves, and free our minds to live for ourselves and to build a better image of our own people for ourselves, just like the Nation of Islam asks us to do, but do it in the name of truth, sanity, and charity for all. And I guarantee you, you will rise, and you will rise in independence, you will rise in the respect for loyalty too buddy, and you will find the doors of the world opening up to you, the Nations opening up to you, opening up to you, welcome!
And you won't have to get it there and say, well they had us in there, but you could feel, man, they still don't accept us. That's what the professional class is telling us all the time, well, you know they still don't accept us, man. You get your independence, they'll accept you. You have to get your independence, and your independence is not to change life from a sparrow to the life of a crow. And don't envy the crow because he got a little bigger body than the sparrow. That sparrow's wise. I see them in my backyard almost every day. The sparrows, and the crows, they eat together. The crows come in, he's bad, you know. He come in and walk high and bad. Sparrow pretends he ain't even around to see if he'll be decent. And he'll come at him, sparrow just takes off, sparrow says, I knew you'd be around here always.
Now some birds, they got human sense. See, I gave you a picture of a sparrow, even though we've got much more sense than sparrows. Some birds, they've got strategies. There was a big bird in the territory of these smaller birds, and there wasn't so much food there, and before the smaller birds had been enjoying it, these newcomers, now they coming, they got big stomachs, eating up all the food. This is the truth, this actually happened. Much of these little smaller birds flew on the back of this bird. And loaded up on the big bird, until they weighed it down, and every time a big one came in, they would do that, they flew, and got on the back of the big bird and kept getting on the big bird until they weighed the big bird down. Big bird got out of the area, got back out of the area. They reclaimed their territory.
This actually happened, I got a witness to this, in fact I didn't see this, I got a witness to this, the person told me, this happened right around his yard. Yes, he saw this. And once I saw more that one small bird on the back of the bird, I don't why they were there, I was like, boy, they go for plane rides too. I didn't know what they were doing, but he said this bird will fly, he managed to share them with it. About two or three birds, I know it had to be two, I mean, it was three, at least three birds on the back of this big bird. Yeah, some birds ride the back of other birds, they do that, some small birds, they know how to ride the backs of bigger birds. You can see this in the nature series, on television, program on nature.
Yes. So, I'm going to conclude this now, so what I want to do at this address today, what I wanted to do at 2979 167th Place ...is to tell you that our struggle started before the Temple of Islam. Our struggle to reclaim our own started before the Nation of Islam, started before our acquaintance with Islam, and G-d was with us back then. All of us who were sincere, and wanted to be right with G-d, G-d was with us, and G-d claimed us, G-d claimed us, that these are my people. These are my servants that have been taken from me. Yes. You take a human being's life out of his own hand, you take that person form G-d. So, G-d said, these are my people that I'm claiming again, because they want me in their lives.
See, G-d won't come into your life, unless you invite him. But we invited him, even before Nat Turner, our people in slavery suffering the evils of slavery in this new world, they invited G-d to come in their life, they had nothing else. And he accepted to come into their lives, so whether you know it or not, I know that G-d was with us to reach the heights that our souls are yearning for, as long as it's lawful and honorable, G-d want us to get there. And now, G-d is one, according to our book, and the Christian sacred book, G-d is one that when you are done an injustice, and you turn to G-d for help, to have him be your G-d and you be his servant, he does not just give you what was taken from you, he multiplies it. He gives you much more than was taken from you, now this is the way of G-d. and the Qur'an calls sunnatullah. Sunnatullah.
This is the way of G-d, now what was taken from me? The right to be responsible for myself, to manage my own life, to plan my own future on this earth, that's what was taken from me. Now, if G-d's going to give me that back, and give me more, he's a G-d that doesn't only give you that, but for the sake of that, he'll give you much more. So, you know what that tells me? Just what history tells me, Bible history, world history, just what the honorable Elijah Muhammad told me, that our destiny is not just to rise, but to rise up to be equal with the best on this earth, with the best on this earth. And its G-d's way, many times, to give the leadership in the earth to a people who were robbed, like we were robbed, of our independence and of our human dignity and self-respect. Yes. So, I believe that G-d spoke through many before the honorable Elijah Muhammad. I believe he spoke through the honorable Elijah Muhammad.
I believe he speaks through all people, and the more responsibility you have in the life of people, the more important you are to G-d, because now, you're affecting many people, and we all belong to G-d. So, I believe that G-d has taken us, as a special people, for him to give his special favors to. That means we are not going to be just well off as a minority group or well off as black African Americans, we are going to be high in the order of the world, that's our destiny. Our destiny is to be high up in the order of the world. And they don't have to worry about it, because G-d is taking care of it himself. Don't have to worry about it.
How you going to do that brother Imam? I'm not going to do it; I'm going to just keep working. G-d is doing it, G-d was doing it before, G-d is doing it now, now I'm just going to keep working. Because G-d speaks to each and every one of us. G-d speaks to and through each and every one of us. And the ones who are pure, by pure I mean you're innocent, you ain't got nothing devilish in your mind you want to do, you ain't got no selfish plan that's going to hurt somebody else, or disrespect the rights of others, persons like that, G-d speaks to you, and G-d speaks through you to others, okay?
And I know, see there's always a few who get the big picture of what G-d is doing. Many get small pictures of what he's doing but a few will get the big picture of what G-d is doing, and I know that this season in our life now of struggle, to get our life in good shape, is the season of group effort, collective effort. And there are going to be those among you, I don't worry about it, who's going to come together. You going to come together as Christians, you're going to come together just as professional people, in some professional area, and many of you are going to come together as excellent Christians and many of you are going to come together as excellent Muslims. And G-d is going to bless Imam W. Deen Mohammed with the excellent Muslim. Yes. Not anybody else, G-d is going to bless Imam W. Deen Mohammed with the excellent African American Muslim, all of them. And we are going to take this work all the way and we going to be seen...
As the honorable Marcus Garvey said, "we're going to be seen connected again, in the constellations of the heavens." That's going to come. Am I holding paper in my right hand? I am. If you can't see it, that doesn't change the reality, I'm holding yellow paper in my right hand. And as true as that statement is, it's not as powerful and as true to keep on ringing and living until it's fulfilled as my statement to you, were going to go rise up into the highest order of the world, and Imam W. Deen Mohammed is going to be the leader of the best of the African American Muslims. Allahu Akbar! So, it's good always to be with you all. And I thank Allah for us. For us. That he has brought us together. And I will see you soon InshaAllah, 
G-d willing. Peace. As salaamu alaikum.
Join us next time for the National Public Broadcast of W. Deen Mohammed, Muslim American leader, for more on the ministry of W. Deen Mohammed, call 1-708-798-6750. or write. Post Office Box, 1061 Calumet City, Illinois, 60409. For W.D.M. Publications, call 1-708-862-7733. or write. Post Office Box, 1944, Calumet City, Illinois, 60409. For a Muslim Journal, see your local distributor and thanks for listening.



