12/24/2000
IWDM Study Library 
George Washington Carver School

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Ramadan Mubarak to you all. And also, Eid Mubarak. [Arabic] With Allah's name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer. We witness that He is G-d alone [Arabic] And we witness that He has no partners in the rule of the heavens and the earth. And we witness that Muhammad to whom the Qur'an was revealed about 14 centuries and 21 years or so ago, is the seal of the prophets mentioned in the Torah and in the Injeel, now called the Old Testament and the New Testament, or the Torah, and the Gospel.
And we also witness that Jesus, the son of Mary, is G-d's servant and messenger and Christ. Peace be upon the messengers and servants of G-d. In our holy book, we read a question and also an eye-opener, something to awaken our minds to something very, very important. It says, "Is it not for G-d, the creation and the rule are all His kingdom?" That covers everything, I believe, when it comes to the question of how much we ought to give G-d. He possesses everything in the skies, the earth, and everything in the earth. Nothing created itself.
They have to make that adjustment here, I believe. Can the volume be turned up? No volume on there? All right. It's being checked now. Thank you. Oh, you can just put it here. That way I won't walk with it.
Yes, let me repeat. There's a statement in the Qur'an, our holy book, that really is put in the form of question. I see it as a question and also a statement intended to open our eyes to something very, very important. And it reads, "Is it not for G-d, the creation and the kingdom?" [Arabic] "Is it not for G-d the creation and the command over the kingdom?" That's the universe, for us it's the universe. The kingdom [Arabic] The universe, everything in the skies and earth.
This statement wants us to think about our duty, obligation, gratitude to G-d. For as most of the faithful say, "We owe everything to G-d." That's a common statement. And it is a fact. It's the truth. We owe everything to G-d. That is good, but nothing comes from G-d except good. As Muhammad the prophet said, and I quote him, "G-d is good and accepts only good. This creation, of skies and the earth, the whole universe is created by G-d. And G-d wants us to show our acknowledgement by not taking upon ourselves or assuming authority that belongs to G-d."
From this position we can go forward, and have G-d with us every step of the way. But if we assume authority that belongs only to G-d, then we will not be successful as we attempt to go forward with our life and our plans for our life. G-d wants us... Please, you shouldn't have the phone ringing in here. You shouldn't do that. If you're that important, you should have let us know. Allahu Akbar.
Now this merciful G-d, the G-d of the people of the book, the Jews, the Christians, and the people of Qur'an, us Muslims. This merciful G-d, He wants us to know that He wants us to have a good life, both on earth and in heaven. He says in our holy book, and again a question, but a statement that is a message directly to us, to get us to think, open our eyes. He says, "Is it not upon me?" Who has said...? The question, pardon me. The question, "Who has said the goods of this world is not for my devotees, is not for my servants?" He says, G-d says in our holy book, "This is for them in this world's life, and exclusively for them in the next." That's what G-d says in our holy book. And supporting my selection of that saying from our holy book, the Qur'an, I'll give you another one.
G-d revealed to Muhammad, a pious, righteous person. And He revealed to Muhammad the prayer of that pious, righteous person, to teach the pious, righteous in his following to pray this prayer. And it says the prayer goes like this, it says, "Our Lord, give us in this world life the good and useful things. And give us in the latter," that's the next life, "the good and the useful things." That's the prayer of the believer regarding the value that G-d put in this world, in this material world, for his servants. And lastly, I give you another, one, all directed at the same concern or interest.
It reads, "Our Lord, give us..." Oh, pardon me. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. That's not the one. The first one is, "Our Lord, give us in this worlds life good and useful things. And give us in the next world life good and useful things, and save us from the fires of hell." The hell fires, or the fires of sin. The third one I want to give you reads is a statement from G-d, "Seek, with the means I have availed you, the next life, but don't forget your share of this world." [Arabic]
And do not forget your share of this world. Why is that said? Because too many pious persons have gone astray from G-d's plan for their life by thinking that materialism stands in the way of their soul going to where G-d wants it to go. So, they reject the world or material things, and they reject this material nature and everything for the higher life. And we know it's the higher life because G-d says to us also in our holy book. He says the afterlife, the latter life, the life that's to come, the heaven, the paradise, the [Arabic], the garden of paradise, whatever you all call it. He said, "it is better than this one, both in its benefits and in its duration". [ Arabic] Means it is more lasting than this one, this one is short, the next one, long [Arabic] Is more lasting than this one. So, it's not only better than this one, but it's more lasting than this one, because G-d promised us a good life eternally in the next. A good life, eternally in the next.
If we earned it. If we earned it with our faith and our good behavior. I tend to be a philosopher, and I think in all of us, especially thinking people, is a little philosopher if not a big one. I don't claim to be a big one. G-d says he formed us in the stomachs or in the wombs of our mothers. He formed all of us in the stomachs or in the wombs of our mothers. He gave us the form, so the form is first, isn't it?
And then after we have our form, nine months or earlier, we are delivered into this world to breathe the breath of this world, ourselves with our own efforts. And the mother, all that's taken care by the mother, without our efforts. But we are born and then we have to breathe with our own lungs, our own effort, and that starts our life of independence. The life inside the mother was a life dependent upon her. The life outside of her, is a life of independence, where have to grow step by step into that life. The immediate delivery is not independence, except a separation from her body, not a dependency on her physical body anymore.
We start to be dependent upon the second mold. The first mold, the mother, the second one is this world out here. We are shaped in our mother, and then we are delivered in time as G-d planned it. We are delivered into this world, another mold to shape us. We are shaped in our mothers. Allah says, mothers, put plural on that, in mothers. Now that plural, we know is for all women who are mothers, or for all women who mother us. But couldn't it be also for the mother, the flesh mother in where we are formed, and also this world that we come into from her. And we formed all over again.
And we come in this world as both scriptures say, the scripture the Bible and the Qur'an, knowing nothing. We come into this world knowing nothing. So, we formed first time without our consciousness, without our conscious awareness of it. We had no conscious awareness of ourselves being formed, or the form it would take you. Then we're delivered into this world. And in the next mold we learned about the first one. Where I was, how I was formed, yes. And this is the world for us to have our individual responsibility for our own life. Or I say, independence, a relative independence. So, we thank G-d for life. We praise Him for life. And He is the best giver of life. We can't give ourselves the life of the womb. We're not even conscious that we are having children when we are having them. All we are conscious is that something happened, that was wonderful maybe.
And we don't even know what we had until it's delivered, or until the mother is aware that something is growing in her and she says, "I'm pregnant." Daddy didn't know it. So, he says he's making babies. You're not making babies. You're making whoopee. G-d's, making babies. G-d is making babies, and we are making whoopee. So, the life is for G-d, that's the point. We must give our life to G-d. The G-d that gave us our life and the means of keeping our life, we must give our life to Him. It's nothing short of that. He asks nothing less, than that we give the life to Him. My personal life must be lived for G-d. And as people who believe in the final day, we want to also deserve a life after this is finished, the next life, which will be higher and better and more lasting. And the only way for us to earn that, we have to go all the way with this responsibility. Love for your brother what your love for yourself.
This is the teachings of Islam, Al-Islam and the teachings of Christianity. Love for your brother what you love for yourself. So, if I have the good life for myself, then I'm obligated to work so that my brother also will have the good life. And in brother we mean brother and sister, so that we all will have a good life. That's an obligation. We can expand on that or discuss that from the language that is very simple and common. We don't have to go into the more deeper language or the language that is heavier in meaning. We don't have to do that; we go from the simple language. Love for your brother what you love for yourself. If I love for my brother what I love for myself, and I want the good life for myself, then I should work for the good life for all people, all my brothers and sisters, to have the good life. From the premises, love for your brother what you love for yourself, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.
Yes. So, this is the teachings of both religions. And both religions will not have a stop short of making the environment or contributing to the environment being good for everybody. And how big is this environment that G-d wants us to be interested in? He says, the expanse of it, is as the expanse of the skies and the earth. Now we have to congratulate modern science and the modern world, and the modern leaders who have employed the scientists and employed technology and everything to give us a better world. We have to applaud them, simply because they have done what G-d asked of man to do.
And that is, we know this first world is just a reflection of what to come. It's only a reflection of what's to come. But G-d knows that when He speaks to man, man will use what G-d gave him. And G-d knows what He gave him. And if he uses what G-d gave him, he's going to do in this life what he can do. What he can do. So obviously somebody has responded to the urge in themselves to see that everything in my perception or in my mental grasp is intended for my mind as a garden to be explored and cultivated.
Allah says very plainly to us in the Qur'an, "I have made to be of use to you, to yield its utility to you, everything that's in the skies and everything that's in the earth." Now those men of great minds, the great thinkers, the men of great minds who followed Muhammad the prophet, 1400 years ago, they heard the prophet say these things and they responded with respect for their own intelligence. And they said, well if G-d is saying that he has made everything we see above and everything down here to yield its utility to us, then we should apply our minds and study the skies and study the earth, to find, explore, discover, it's utility that we need for our life on this earth. They did it. They were the first, after the age of darkness. The followers of the honorable servant and messenger of G-d, Muhammad, upon him be peace, they did it.
We see in the history, Muhammad's message and works giving birth to learned people, scholars, and researchers, who researched the old worlds knowledge, and revived much of this knowledge. And they went further to improve upon it, so that the world will have even more knowledge, with the coming of the Qur'an and Muhammad the universal prophet, messenger and prophet. So, they did that. They gave birth to astronomers, after Muhammad, in Arabia, on the peninsula of the land of the Arab called Saudi Arabia now. There, was birthed scientists, in astronomy, in math, arithmetic, in medicine and in many other fields. Scientists that are recognized today in modern history as forerunners of the great scientists that we have today. This is the history. How come we can't respond as they did? How come we can't listen to what Allah says? That I have made to yield utility to you, all that is in the sky and all that is in the earth.
How come we can't respond? How come we are not giving birth to scientists, in this community, here in America, and wherever Muslims are living on this planet. How come we are not giving birth to more scientists? Scientists just not known in the field of science, but scientists known in the field of the Dawah, in the field of the Muslims, in the field of Al-Islam. Scientists known to us. We have scientists that are Arabs, and scientists that are Indian, and scientists that are Pakistani, scientists that are Sudanese. We have many scientists from the Islamic world, but they are scientists in the field of modern science. That's great. But we need to know your presence in the ummah. We need to know that they're still intellectuals with their minds open, who are thinking, and they're looking at the skies, appreciating the marvelous creation of G-d. This material universe, they're appreciating it, and they're digesting its signals, its messages.
You know the first Americans, the natives of this country, before the Europeans got people sent over here. Do you know in their religion, they have many religions, but I'm sure all of them perhaps see this as the same? They say that everything that exists has an existence, and also a message. I read this in the teachings of their religion. They said everything that exists has an existence and a message. Now they said that they didn't know a Muhammad the prophet. They don't read the Qur'an. And G-d said, "In the heavens above there are signs, and in the earth below there are signs, and also in yourselves there are signs." So, this is saying what the American Indians discovered, on their own. Not completely on their own. I'm sure G-d's influence in the matter, influenced them to come to that conclusion. Everything has an existence and a message. And we find the same idea in Africa, in many places of the world. They express it differently.
But the idea of animation with the common people, it probably is nothing but fantasy. But with those who first conceived that idea, I'm sure it was that this dead world is alive, and has properties and power to convey a message to the mind of human beings.
So, it comes alive, the living world, the living universe, as they say on the natural life channels showing us the natural life. Yes. So, we thank G-d for this life, and we have to ponder on it. Allah says, "Think." [Arabic] And thinking, this term for thinking means what all of us should be all about all the time, but we are not. It's not just thinking, it's thinking and reflecting. It's thinking and reflecting. And that's what's called thinking in Qur'an. If you're just thinking and not reflecting, in the Qur'an you're not thinking. You're only thinking when you think and then reflect. And everyone thinks and reflects. Right.
Now my little daughter, who wears the hell out of me, excuse me, please. Dory, back home, 12 years old, just made 12 in November. I'm thinking about her. She came into my mind while I'm talking to you. But I'm also reflecting. I'm not just thinking about her, I'm reflecting. How bad she is sometimes, but how beautiful she is as a human creation. Yes, she is a very beautiful girl inside. I'm not speaking of the outside, the flesh. Flesh is beautiful too, she's a beautiful physical person, but I'm thinking of the nonphysical person. She's a beautiful child. And I have nothing but beautiful children. Thank Allah. They all are very beautiful inside.
They need to dress up outside, a couple of them need to dress up outside but inshallah. Inshallah, G-d willing that'll happen too soon, I hope. What we are obligated to do, that's the topic that I took today. What we are obligated to do. Allah says that the best of his servants were thankful servants. Thankful servants. The more thankful you are to G-d, the more G-d will open up. It stretches to you. The more thankful you are, the more He will open up His treasures to you. That's why those great men we called seers, prophets, messengers of G-d, servants, they were thankful and that being thankful caused G-d to open up more to them. They came possessors of knowledge, vision, that we ordinary people don't have. Because of them, we have the great life, the great perception of truth, and the great life that permits us to have freedom and respect, and go forward on this planet.
Because of them we have it. The Russians who separated from the people of G-d. Well, I should say the Bolshevik leaders, the communist leaders who separated from... I shouldn't say the people. They did not separate. Most of the people stayed with G-d. Even under communist, iron-fist control, iron-handed control. Those leaders took the people, and the government, and the nation away from G-d. And they raised up materialism, with all of its powers and benefits, and put it in G-d's place. They worked for it. They served it. They tried to even invent theories, et cetera, as laws to guide the life of the people and their nation.
But look, they lived only 70 years. My grandfather lived longer than that. Their rule lived only about 70 years. And I repeat, my grandfather lived longer than that. So, he could have, if his years were put in the right place in the calendar; he could have seen them come on earth and go off, in his lifetime. Think about that. Now that's gone. The Chinese people, well they're communist, but they're not communist like the Russians were. They never were, they never were communist like the Russians were. That's why the Russians always had a problem with them.
They believed in communal life. That's not quite communism. They lived in communal life. And they're still trying to build communal life. I doubt that they even understand the difference. Maybe their learned ones, but I believe most of the Chinese, they just think they're communist. They are not communist in the picture that the Russians were communist. Although they followed Lenin, they followed him just because they can. But they are not completely satisfied in Marxism, Leninism, et cetera. They have still, their Chinese culture, their Chinese communal life. Mao Zedong, I remember him when I was a young man, I remember his words and I even got his book.
And I didn't see him as a communist then, as I saw the followers of Marx, Lenin and Stalin. I didn't see Mao Zedong in the same picture, though, they birthed both what was called communism. Now I'm not saying that Mao Zedong was a good guy, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that they had different perceptions of how they should live the communist doctrine. That's all I'm saying.
And the Chinese were always more relaxed when it came to obeying the old-[...] People we don't know, they do not want to do what we want them to do. We have to respect their own good people. They're good people with sound minded, learned people, who work for the best future for all of their people. We have to trust them at that. Because if you're good and you're intelligent, we have to trust you. We should not impose our plan on you. And we don't know you like you know yourself. I have great faith that Chinese people is going to keep going forward with their community life, and that in time they will be seen not as persecutors of the believers of any religion. They'll be seen as friends of the people of faith, all the people of faith. That's what I believe is coming. I visited them as you know. I visited them before I became your leader.
They invited me to go with them, a group called China people, American people, friendship visit. So, we made that visit to China in the interest of bringing the two people closer together. And that was a long time ago, I can't recall. But I know one thing, it was before my leadership, so that's better than 25 years ago, or more that that happened. And there, I heard them speak, and they are very sensitive people too. They want you to know what you don't know about them, that they think will help you see them better. They made effort to show us that. And I was very pleased to see the human side and the cultural side of the communist Chinese people, who were communist at that time. And they're still communist. They still say they're communist. But they're changing, changing fast.
Getting back to the point. If you are grateful, if you are thankful, Allah will give you more. And some people are just thankful by nature, that's the blessing of Allah too. The same mother has two children, one is thankful, the other is not. So, you didn't make them like that, G-d made them like that. And I thank Allah. As far as I can look back, I have been very thankful. And I don't demand much. I demand very little. My mother if she was here, she would perhaps tell you, she'd take the conversation over. She said, "Wallace. He would not ask me for anything."
And she would ask me, "Son, what you want mama to get you." Or, "Son, what you want mama to cook for you today?" I got extra. Now she didn't ask all my brothers and sisters that. She asked me. "What you want mama to cook for you today?" Because I was a thankful child. Now not that they weren't, they were thankful too. But there are degrees, I was more thankful than most of them, and they would bear witness if they were here. So be thankful, G-d gives you more. G-d gives you more. We are obligated to build beautiful environments. Allah is also G-d of beauty. Since He loves beauty, He is beauty and He loves beauty. That's the saying of one of the deep thinkers in Islam, in the history of Muslims. He is beauty and He loves beauty.
Yes. When we think on G-d, as people of faith, loving Him and appreciating Him for this existence and this great creation, we often say to ourselves, G-d is beautiful. Didn't need a philosopher to tell us that, common person. G-d is beautiful. And Muhammad has taught us that G-d has put something of His attributes in us. He says, "As G-d is merciful, you are obligated also to be merciful." "As G-d is merciful, you are obligated also to be merciful." And Allah says, "He obligates Himself." That's what a law says in our holy book. He says, "I obligate myself."
And as G-d has given us of His attribute, mercy, we are obligated to be merciful. And the same teaching that's in Christianity is given to us also. As G-d has been good to you, be you good to others. This is the religion of Al-Islam. The obligation to be responsible to G-d for our life, both as individuals and both as societies. We are the Muslim-American society. So this Muslim-American society that we belong to, it was made possible for us with the sacrifices of the teacher of my father, Mr Farad, and the sacrifices of my father, Elijah Muhammad, and those that supported him, then and now, still with us, those that supported him. With us or with Farrakhan, or somebody or Silas or somebody. Or my Uncle John, the only true nation of Islam is in Detroit, he says. Well, all of us have benefited and we are here because of their sacrifices.
Now, we are obligated to make improvements upon this environment. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad knew that was the greatest need in our life, for us to accept responsibility for our immediate environments, our home, our yards, our block we live on, our neighborhoods. He knew that. So, he was working very hard to get us to invest, give money for the building of a material show piece, that when any of us poor and depressed, because we don't possess anything appreciable in the environment, sees that accomplishment, that material accomplishment in the environment, it would lift the spirits of the down-hearted poor and ignorant in our race. And that's exactly what it did. The achievements of the so-called black Muslims affected all of our people and caused them to lift up their heads, those who had heads hanging down, caused them to lift up their heads and feel good about themselves.
So, if we can work and do things and our working affects others like us, or like we were, poor and ignorant, to get them to have faith in themselves and in their future, raise their heads, go healthily forward for a better life. How much harder should we work, you people, to have that? Knowing that that's going to have that effect on the many that are down-hearted and can't go forward with their lives. So, you're not working just for yourself, you are working for all that need this help. And that's why G-d says to you, "I want a band of you, all following of you who will work for me and who will not fear the criticizers."
So, G-d wants a special group within the big international group called Muslims. And I believe in all my heart and mind and soul, that G-d has selected us to be a model, not only to Americans who are suffering from our people, but to all people around the globe, and especially to the minds and senses of the Muslims in the international community. To get them to wake up to see what He wanted them to do and what they failed. G-d doesn't only want individual persons being leaders, Imam. G-d wants a community that's an Imam.
Praise be Allah. So, I conclude this by saying to you, we are on the way. And I wish you would trust me more. I don't have the time to show you everything I'm doing, and to tell you everything that's going on. It's impossible really. But I hope the good ones among you will get the message to you, the true message. I'm busy, I don't have time. And we don't have people qualified to weigh the gravity and importance of what we're doing, and respond accordingly. We don't have the people. Not only we don't have the people, America, this nation, is without the people. We are living in a bad time when it comes to individuals being conscious of the more important matters and attending the need. We are living in a bad time. This is a good time for freedom, this is a good time for many things. But this is a bad time for responsibility.
So, we are burdened terribly. Not only my office, I'm talking to the office of the Secretary General of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, he tells me we have the same problem. I talk to leaders in industry, they say we have the same problem. I talk to bankers; they say we have the same problem. So, this is epidemic. We're not like we used to be. All of us were never like this, and don't expect all the people to ever be like this. Allah says in His holy book, in His book the Qur'an, [Arabic].
Most of them do not have knowledge and good senses. Now let me give you the philosophy for understanding that. You see this human body. Now we know the head can't manage its job without the service of the rest of the body. We know that. But where the buck stops... That's where the buck stops. That's where the buck stops. If I have to drive my car, I can't turn it over to my arms and feet and things. I can't turn it over to these limbs. This is where the buck stops, as one president of ours said. Truman, president Truman. So, this is where the buck stops brother, right here. Now look at its size in proportion to your whole body. And the majority of them do not know, do not understand. Peace. As-Salaam Alaikum.
May Allah grant us... Allahu Akbar. May Allah grant us the rest of these days in Ramadan, blessings and may He grant us with a blessed and happy celebration, Eid celebration. Holiday. Eid means celebration, return to the newness and freshness. And you are not even happy with your wife if you are with that dead stale stuff. But once it become new and fresh for you again, oh, you are happy, you have a celebration. And likewise for you, brother. Peace. As-salaam Alaikum, again.



