09/10/2000
IWDM Study Library
The Importance of a Career
University of Wisconsin
Milwaukee WI

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker 1:
This is the national public broadcast of W. Deen Mohammed, Muslim American leader. The following lecture titled The Importance of a Career: A Muslim's Perspective was recorded on the campus of the university of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Sunday, September the 10th, the year 2000. The lecturer is W. Deen Mohammed.
IWDM:
Thank you praise be to Allah. We're very pleased to be with you again in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the community and on the campus of the University of Wisconsin here at Milwaukee, and to share with you the program. I wanted to be here earlier, especially for the panel. I asked Brother Imam to make sure that the host people get me a audio tape so I can listen to it in my car. That's where I listen to most of the tapes I get. And I get enough to fill at least a quarter of the space here. Audio tapes, and a lot of video tapes too I'm getting now. This is the first time I've been asked to address the subject that... Well, I think of it in the context of the secular world more so than in the context of the religious world, that is career. But as I thought about it, I said well, I say, this is really rooted in fitrah. This responsibility that worked for our career.
IWDM:
So I want to first say that we praise G-d, the one Lord who created all things and who created a special creation, the human being with our humanity. We praise Him and we witnessed that He is one and there is nothing worthy of worship other than the one G-d. And we witness that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed is the prophet mentioned in the Injil and in the Torah or in the Torah and the Injil. Names for the scriptures for the two books in their earliest form in the time of Moses in the time of Jesus peace upon both of the prophets and now called Old Testament and New Testament. And I find the words that our holy book referred to in the Old Testament. And I do believe by reason also in the New Testament. Allah says of Muhammad without any attempt to establish the reference in the Bible.
IWDM:
Allah says of Muhammad, the prophet to whom he gave our holy book the Quran for all mankind. He says of him that he is an un-lettered, which means uneducated, unschooled, prophet and messenger. And it says of him that he is to come and free the people of the burden that burden them and the yolks that weigh them down. The chains or the shackles that bound them, he's to break every bond of slavery. And I understand that job, not as a job that one takes up and then get weapons or make weapons or arm themselves to go to battle with slave holders or slave masters to free people.
IWDM:
A saying of Muhammad the prophet is that the pen that writes is mightier than the sword. The pen that we use to write is mightier than the sword. So when we really understand Muhammad the prophet as a liberator, the scene of that liberation is education. That's where the scene of that liberation is. Education brings freedom from all forms of slavery. An educated man cannot be enslaved. You can lock him up, but you can't enslave his mind. You can't enslave his soul. And that's the best freedom. And we are very much proud of these institutions like this one.
IWDM:
And we are very proud of our own private schools. Very precious creation of our community, the University of Islam first, and then the Clara Muhammad school. We are very proud of these schools and we hold education as a priority and as the instrument that we must use to advance the good human life, the best of human life, and nothing else is going to do that for us, but correct education. You can free people physically, but if you don't educate their lot, they will still be slaves. If not slaves to their former master slaves, to their own defects, to their own weaknesses, et cetera. They will still be slaves and they'll be vulnerable. And they'll be exploited by the strong. And their form of slavery after physical slavery may be worse than the former form of slavery. Yes. But for us that education must respect G-d, the creator of the heavens and earth.
IWDM:
And we haven't learned anything. We are not capable of doing anything unless G-d has already given us something to work with. If G-d doesn't create us with the brain, with the human sensitivities, we couldn't do this great human work that we have done historically on this earth including the great work that is being done now. Science and technology couldn't be done if we didn't use the best of what G-d gave us. School can't give you human brains. They can only give you something to feed that human brain with. And what they give you to feed the human brain must come from what G-d already has made. And so we can't really advocate education as a number one priority without acknowledging that without the creator G-d, we could not have any knowledge at all. That's what the learned, the saints say in Islam, G-d you have knowledge, we have nothing. Meaning that we have nothing that we can claim as originally ours, everything that we have, we got it because of you.
IWDM:
I want to also express our appreciation for the Muslim American student association. I met the president now and I thought I should make more notes. I was told it was a female, but you know how it is. You don't find many females in those positions, it's changing now though. But you expect females to be in those positions. So I'm coming here and I'm thinking it's a male or some something's not settling too well here. So I'm looking at the president, the sister, she's meeting me right here as I arrive. When I arrive and I want ask her, I said, where is the president? She said, I'm the, no, the brother who accompanied her, her husband says, he pointed to her. It's the president you're looking and talking to there.
IWDM:
So we thank Allah for these fine brilliant young people who are making their contribution for the benefit of all of us. We thank G-d for them. And I thank them for the honorarium too, came right in time. Wasn't peanuts either. I usually get peanuts. I got a little more than peanut this time. See the brother before me he complained. I'm not complaining, I'm thanking you. But I understand his situation too. I pity all the Imams. They're like store front preachers. They cry all through their sermon. But when I said, how am I going to handle this topic here? How am I going to handle this and career? I said, I know I can tell about my life and my career, how I have made a career of my life. My life has become my career. But that wasn't good enough.
IWDM:
And it came to me suddenly, I said well, that's what G-d offered the first man that he made, a great career. Yes. He offered him a great career. So career, this is from a job. You say when I grow up, and we say that I've heard y'all say it, I said it myself I think. I want to get me a good job when I get grown. You know, but when you say I want to have a good career, it means a little bit more than saying I want to have a good job. A job is one thing. A career is another.
IWDM:
A job suggests that you want something to help you survive. But the term career says more than just that. The term career says that you want to be recognized for achievement. And you want to make a contribution. People who go after a career are expected to give something to the public. Where the person who just goes after a job is not expected to give the public anything. So I believe that when G-d made the first man Mormon, our first parent, he oriented them upon their own creation that he had designed to seek a career. A career is saying you, a career suggested you're looking for fame. You want to be known. And what's wrong with that? If you want be known who good works, for works that serve the many and not just one yourself.
IWDM:
Also, we know that the person who's known for seeking a career or having career, we know that they have some professional occupation. You expect for them to have some professional occupation, not just occupation, but a professional occupation. And when you look up the word profession or professional, it has in it vow, to vow. It has in it service of course. And it has in it, academic achievement, and it was Islam and Muhammad the prophet and the great book that says in its first words from G-d read. First words to the prophet Muhammad was read in the name of your Lord who created. And it goes on to say created man from a clot of congealed blood. To read in your Lord is most generous. Who taught man by the pen, the writing pen. And G-d says if all the trees were made into pens and the seven seas multiplied over, the knowledge of G-d would not be used up.
IWDM:
So this is pointing to education. It's pointing to the value of the objective world and an objective pursuit of a knowledge locked up in that objective world. To connect career and our interest in a career with religion, the focus has to be the community. And I believe that's why in scripture, Abraham is a single person. Peace be upon father Abraham, the prophet. But he's also a community. G-d says of us in our holy book and Abraham was a community. And if we understand it, Muhammad is also a community, the prophet. Peace be upon him. And the prophet Muhammad is also a community. But Muhammad is in the lineage of the family tree of Adam, the first man and Jesus Christ too, peace be upon both of them. In the new Testament we are given the genealogy of Jesus Christ and it traces his genealogy back to the first man Adam.
IWDM:
And it says, who was created by G-d or who was made by G-d, pardon me. Who was made by G-d. That G-d made the first man. And the first man is the father of all men, including Abraham, Muhammad, Moses, Jesus Christ, all of them. They are of the lineage of Adam, the first man, Adam. And I have read mystical books on Adam, by saints, learned saints in Christianity. And those writers say that Adam, in his creation, before it was spoiled by the seducer the Satan who tempted him in his life, his form was beautiful and bright and shiny, pure Adam. This is a description that they gave of him, Adam.
IWDM:
So he was made perfect by G-d. And if you understand Genesis, this is all necessary for my presentation. This is all very much necessary. If we understand Genesis, Genesis says that everything G-d made was faultless. He made the world in six days and seven days He completed it, everything was faultless according to the Bible. And we know in the Qur'an, only good is attributed to G-d and bad, sin, corruption, et cetera, is attributed to the enemy of G-d, the Satan, and the weakness of human beings who follow the invitation of the Satan. This is the way it's given in the Quran. So G-d is a good G-d. And as Muhammad said, the prophet said, G-d is good and he accepts only good. So G-d is not a G-d that's good and then he hired some bad people to work for him.
IWDM:
G-d is good and he accepts only good. He's not a good G-d, but he says, oh, if you'll give some money from that narcotics, you're selling there I'll appreciate it. Since you're making more than you can use give me some charity or give me 10% of the money that you're making on the sale of drugs. No, G-d is not that kind of G-d. G-d is a good G-d. And He accepts only good. Yes. And he obligates us to be like him and his attributes. And I believe that when we use this language, we are using the Christian language. They use a different language. They say, man is made in the image. We are in the image of G-d. We are G-d's children. And we are in the image of the father. We are in the image of G-d. I believe that we are saying exactly what they are saying when we say that we are of G-d's attributes, and G-d obligates us to grow in his attributes. And G-d says, create yourself with the creation blocks that I have provided for you. And those are his wonderful attributes of wisdom, but more importantly, for human beings of mercy, of kindness, of forgiveness, et cetera.
IWDM:
In our holy book, G-d says, oh, you who have faith be not like those who work to harm the works of Moses. But however G-d strengthened him, meaning Moses, in righteousness against what they uttered and he was honorable in G-d's presence. So here's G-d asking all of us to be not like those who work to harm Moses. Work to harm Moses what? Moses, his flesh, no, they work to make him not worthy of honor. Not worthy of the high honor that G-d had created him for and he was earning as a prophet of G-d. To take away that honor. To attribute falsehood, sin, and weakness to the man. To spoil his beautiful character in the eyes of the people so that they would be freer as followers of his to give themselves also the sin. The ones who do work like that, they're really very close to the Satan himself. They worked very close as supporters of the Satan himself, the Shaitan himself. A good man come, and they will praise him and get you to identify them as followers of that great man or that good man. And once you relax your guard, yes those people we know they are good followers of Moses.
IWDM:
Then they start to make hints, seemingly to praise him. But those hints are to take him down. And I've heard people refer to me, not that I'm a prophet, no, I'm nothing. I am something, but in the eyes of those great giants, I'm nothing. Besides those great giants, in my eyes, looking at those great giants, I consider myself nothing. But if persons in our in our following they said, well, you know the Imam is human. We love our Imam, he's human. But the person that was saying that, well, the person known to be a weak human, a morally weak human. And so when he says that the ones listening to him gets message, oh, Imam is weak too. Imam is not all that strong morally. That this man is telling us that he's human just like he is, he's weak too. And suggest that we hang out together, yes, to bring yoiu down to their weak level of their weaknesses. So I know from experience what they do to people like me. I can understand what things prophets must have suffered. And yes, I know what I'm supposed to be talking about. I'm talking about it. I'm on it. I'm right on the subject. I'm coming right directly to the subject. I'm making a lot of progress too.
IWDM:
Yes. Says that G-d strengthened him in righteousness against what they utter, against Moses that is. And he was honorable in G-d's presence. Now, the prophet Muhammad is established in history. And history says that he was established in the public of his time as the honest and trustworthy one. And he was also established as the truthful one. Now these two attributes of Muhammad the prophet Al-Amin in Arabic and As Sadiq the honest and trustworthy one and As-Sadiq the truthful one. These two words, I find them in the Bible. They're in the Bible. They're in the major theme of the Bible that begins in Genesis one and goes to the end of the Bible, Revelation. They're in the Revelation. These two names are in that theme, that great theme, that great movement of scripture that takes us from the beginning of man's creation to where he should be in the end. And according to our knowledge of Islam. And according to my knowledge of the Bible, our world depends on us having leadership that's honest and trustworthy and truthful.
IWDM:
And we are given a lot of help. I guess you're guessing now where I'm going with this career, right? I'm suggesting already that to be successful in a career, you have to be based in your best creation, your best nature, your best creation. You have to carry that best creation of yours forward You have to develop in yourself the best human qualities and the best of those human qualities from G-d's own gift to us. And really in those excellent qualities, we are a reflection or shadow of G-d himself in the best of those attributes, so those qualities.
IWDM:
And I'm also suggesting that if you don't respect that and try to be honest and truthful and trustworthy, you fail as a career seeker. Career. Doesn't suggest that it's always honorable. Some criminals have sometimes some very impressive careers. So impressive I go see the movie two or three times. But with the righteous, they were not successful. They were failures. They were successful in gaining notoriety. They were successful in enjoying the comforts of the material world for a while. Fame for a while. But they were not successful because we know in the scheme of things that G-d desires for human life. They're left out and their names will not be remembered, in time they will be totally forgotten. They will not have fame. They will not have honor. They will lose all of that in time. Because G-d's way will prevail.
IWDM:
One of the attributes of Muhammad is also bashir. B-A-S-H-I-R they spell it R but it's pronounced B-A-S-H-E-E-R bashir. And bashir is a word that wants to human sensitivities in their original nature and form. Human sensitivity, pure unadulterated human sensitivity. And I find this also the importance of these sensitivities for human beings is also in that major scheme or movement of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And when we study the term bashir in Arabic language, this bashir is also suggesting skin, the human skin. The skin, the outside skin of a human being of anything, even a fruit. The outside skin. And for flesh, the outside skin appears to be alive. And it is alive. But in the way that we perceive living things, it is not alive. The very outside skin is dead.
IWDM:
That's why you could cut yourself real shallow, and you feel nothing, no pain. But you have to go deeper to feel pain. So here's the skin that's dead, the outer skin, the dead skin. So the whole life alive living body gets the protected by dead skin. And it seems to be alive more so than the skin that's beneath it, because you just touch a little bit, you feel it. It's such a great conductor or recipient of the communication. It goes to the dead skin and immediately, do you feel it? And it's dead. And it also protects the other part of the body from discomfort. If it was really alive, when my wife rubbed me like this, she used to do that. We'd be standing close together, she would grab my face and she'd do this.
IWDM:
She used to take my face and she would do this. And it felt so good. Immediately go through the skin. The dead skin takes it to the nerve and I feel it, it feels so nice. Now if it was alive I guess it wouldn't feel good. It would be painful. Be uncomfortable. It wouldn't be comfortable because when you get some skin knocked off, you don't want anybody rubbing that place do you? Dead and yet alive. Dead to what's not good for it in the life. Dead to what's bad for the human life in this world influenced by the Satan, but alive to the life that G-d wants. So learned men, great men of wisdom, Saintly men and women I'd imagine too among them. They saw this human body and they studied it and they saw the human body as a message from G-d, that the body itself was a communication to the mind of the people from G-d who made that body. And they began to translate the language that they saw in the human makeup.
IWDM:
And they thought it was wonderful to be dead and yet alive. And if you want to be successful in a career, you develop that develop your life so that your life is dead to that that takes you down, and alive only to that that takes you up or helps you to get up. This life is a trial. And no matter how much academic knowledge you have, how much you have acquired as a student in the college or professor or whatever, a little small thing can take you down. And we will have to give you a dollar on the street. You'll be asking us for a dollar on the street to get yourself some wine or something. A little thing can take you down. The brain cannot hold man up.
IWDM:
Only his obedience to G-d, obedience to the best of his own creation. Only that can hold him up. Everything else will let him down sooner or later. Allahu Akbar. When I look at the word career too, and I did a little research, in Latin. It goes back to a word spelled C-A-R. Now I'm sure it's not car like the automobile we have, but I was on Hajj once and the traffic, you know how it's very heavy during Hajj season pilgrimage season in Mecca, and this was after they had built those nice roads, fine cars lined up one behind another big traffic jam like it is in New York or in Chicago during rush hour. And the officer took his stick and he hit the car. And he saw me look at him and I don't speak Arabic I speak English. And I'm sure he knew I wasn't a Arab, but body communication is every human being's language.
IWDM:
So he saw my face. He knew what I was thinking. So he said to me, he spoke English. He was Arab but he spoke English. He said, the vehicle has skin too, he said the vehicle has skin too, S-K-I-N, skin too. And I understood what he was saying because there was a human being in that car. And the human being was living. The car was dead. But that car was so much a part of that man's interest and his needs that when you hit that dead car outside, it's just like hitting his skin. He said, the vehicle has skin too. I understood what he meant.
IWDM:
So car. And when you look at car, you're talking about career, when you look at car, car also may be tracedpardon me, the word caro may be traced to the word car. Caro, which means flesh, caro may be traced to the word car. And I do know the designer of the first car and those who designed later, they followed the first design. Henry Ford. They made that car to address the vital life and makeup of the human person's body. And they're actually trying to teach us through their invention or their creation. They're trying to teach us. The old cars they're basically the same, the old car had a crank. You get outside and take that crank, and you crank it and start it up. It had a flaw. Sometimes you had to smash on the gas and pull that throttle to keep it accelerating until it got up to where it should be and held it own Arm could keep this velocity or keep it's speed up.
IWDM:
Yeah. Old car was made like that. And all of them had water that was cool. You had to heat it up to get it to going. You needed to turn on that motor, the water heats up. But the purpose of water is to keep the motor from getting too hot. A cooling agent. And I'm sure they were speaking to us. They saw that human beings need a cooling agent. If you want to go with your life, you need a cooling agent. And you have to have an exhaust system. You take in, exhaust system to let out impurities.
IWDM:
You have to have spark plugs to ignite, start the fire and engine start. All of these things. And inside you have to have a steering wheel. And they used to tell us that, they used to tell us when we go to get our first driver's license, take that first drivers test. I don't think they do it anymore. In Chicago, Illinois. They used to tell us, both hands on the wheel. 10 o'clock and two o'clock please. Balance. You had to have the hands balanced on the upper part of the wheel at 10 o'clock and two o'clock on the clock. That's how you had to drive. And it was best for driving that wheel. But I know there's something more to that than that. You down from a blow to the head in the ring.
IWDM:
And I just return from I'm getting a ticket and paid everything by a good friend, Muslim friend, who was a fight promoter, manager of Roy Jones. And I saw the fight there. And getting back to a point, you're in the car and you have this wheel and you're steering it. You steer the car with both hands on the wheel. And you got a window there that's not called a window pane, it's called a windshield. And you got brakes, you got gas, but also brakes. And when you had to change the gears yourself, you had a clutch. You had the clutch. And you had to, before you start to change that gear, you had push down on that clutch. And you did that with your feet. You push down on the clutch with your left foot, and your gas was the right foot, and the brakes with the right foot. But to change gears, left foot. All science. The design of the car is speaking a science to our minds, but not to the minds of the public. He never thought he would reach them. But to the minds of those who have been blessed with the opportunity to gain deeper and higher knowledge, deeper scriptural knowledge and higher knowledge in the world.
IWDM:
What I mean by that expression, deeper scriptural knowledge puts you in position to have higher knowledge in the world. That's how come Muhammad became the leader of society. The leader of his time. He couldn't become that just by having spiritual life and spiritual love and spiritual knowledge. He had to have something that the banker appreciated. He had to have something that the governor appreciated. He had to have something that the general of the army appreciated, and highly appreciated. They saw him with ability to educate them and put them above the rest of the men of their time in knowledge. G-d had given him a knowledge that when he imparted it to men who had faith in him, he put them above the men of their time. Not only in spiritual knowledge, but also in worldly in knowledge. I'm not using the term worldly in a bad sense.
IWDM:
No, I'm using the term worldly in a good sense. And G-d does not want us to abandon his gift to us of the world. G-d created the world. And the world itself is a gift of G-d to us. And G-d says, who has said that the good things of the world are not for my devotees. Meaning those who devote their life in obedience to G-d. He said, this is for them and exclusively for them in the hereafter. Meaning he's going to cut the sinners out. He's going to cut the criminals out. The killers, the dope pushers who don't respect human rights or anything. He going to cut all them out. The crooked banker, the crooked ruler of the land. He'll cut all of them out. And this land is going to be for us exclusively in the hereafter. I see it coming right now and my careers are getting me a big part of it.
IWDM:
My career is to get me a big part of it and to share with as many good people as I can share with. G-d says to us and seek with the means that I have given you the hereafter. Meaning the spiritual life is the higher and more valued life. And the destiny with G-d is better than all this material world. But he says, do not forget your share of this material world. That's what G-d said. Now where would the Catholic church get, if they had said money is sin and not run after some share of the material world, where would the Catholic church have gotten? It wouldn't be the great church it is. They wouldn't be able to finance its needs. So we want to balance life. And that's what you should seek as a career. Put human values first and obedience to G-d first.
IWDM:
But don't think that the land that you walk on and the wealth that comes out of the ground, the earth that supports human life is your enemy, or interest that's in conflict with your better side, with your moral side, with your spiritual life. Look, it's our perception of this world that causes us trouble if we misperceive. The world is created to assist us, to help us take our human soul and our human spirit and the best of our human life, moral life to the destiny. It's to assist us. Certainly it's going to challenge us, but it challenges us only to be the best that we can be. Material world doesn't challenge me and say, well, I'm hungry I better feed myself. That's the first thought, but you want to be more prepared to feed yourself, say I'm hungry and I'm going to help feed the rest of my members in my family that's hungry. Now you got a better force. You got more energy, you got more power working for you to feed yourself. Thank you. Peace. As-salamu alaykum.
Speaker 3:
We passed some cards out in the interest of time we found that it's quicker to if we do it that way. So if you have a question, could you please write it on the card and then we'll have the Imam answer it. We we ask your indulgence. Because we won't be able to ask all of the questions. So some of the questions won't be answered, but we hope that the ones that Imam answers will pretty much answer the ones that you had. Imam the first question says, some Muslims do not display or keep photos yet the United States has photos of the believers and the Imam. What is our stand on this subject?
IWDM:
Yeah, one of the major sins is to be vain, to be a vain person. And we know in Greek mythology, a certain creature came to the water, he saw his picture in the water, reflection his picture in the water. And became so much involved with the picture of himself that it destroyed him. In Islam, we are taught not to make pictures of human beings, unless it's for the sake of knowledge of science. So in science, we can have the anatomy of the human person, study the human body for science purposes. That's to get away from this tendency, the human interest in human beings is described in Islam by the Quran in three types that the human being tend to be given to impulse, to act without thinking. And to be demanding, to demand, place demands, put demands, always putting forth demands, demanding things, demanding something of another. And that leads to commanding, given instruction, ordering people, ordering its always giving orders.
IWDM:
And this is nafs-Ammara is called. There's another one, second description of these three is that the person is occupied with himself. You become occupied with your own self, with the human makeup, the human person. And it was called Nafs-Lawamma and the word Lawamma means that this person is critical. Critical person. People tend to be critical and if you are not critical, then you tend to look for the good always. I've used critical in the negative sense. You tend to look for the positive things, for the good, for something to praise. So these two don't often go together, because the critical person doesn't necessarily have to be looking for fault. Doesn't necessarily have to be a fault finder. The critical person could be critical of something that's unsuitable for human excellence. You see, but just the tendency to be tied up with this, looking at the human person, admiring or holding the human being up for higher merit or putting the human being down these tendencies, that tendency can lead to many things. To hardheartedness, coldness, where you don't value human person at all, the human being as a human creation at all.
IWDM:
And then it can go to the other extremes where you are just enamored by what you see in the human being, you fall in love. That was the romance period for the old world. the old world. That was the romance period where the artists was just all in love with the body of the human person. And they called that whole period the romance period to show you that this tendency really rose to be a mark on history itself. Man's interest in himself or the human person's interest in himself as a great human creation. So the romance period was accompanied by those two, one putting the human being down, others putting them up. So we know just those great artists who drew the beautiful, biggest pictures of human beings and described the human beings in such wonderful terms language. But there were also at the same time, artists who were putting the human being down, making the human being demons, making demons, put figures, making figures of demons for the human being.
IWDM:
So that's what this is for, pictures. Islam came behind that time when the Greeks had a Pantheon of G-ds males and females. Egyptians had it. Africa had it, Egypt. The nations were just preoccupied with the human figure. So in the time of the prophet, he did not encourage, in fact, he discouraged making images of human beings or pictures of human beings. Not to be sculpted, not to be drawn with the pen or ink or paint, not painted. No images of the human person. There was no pictures of the prophet in his time, no pictures of his companions who followed him. They didn't do those things. I do not like to look at pictures of myself and that's because I've trained my soul to not to want to admire myself or to be looking at myself. It's just natural for me when I'm going to prayer to avoid looking at a mirror that will show me myself. If I'm walking through the room and I know there's a mirror there, I will turn my head away from the mirror while I'm walking to the place where I want to pray. And I think we have to be aware that human beings have this weakness in them. And if we like our pitches too much, the pictures may make us vain, may spoil us.
IWDM:
So my position is, dear questioner, that we should follow the prophet Muhammad and his best followers, his companions, and not want to see our pictures up on the wall or everywhere. But for the sake of science and knowledge and history, you can have those pictures, but don't display them. Have the pictures of your babies and family, picture books. Then if you just want to introduce, say this was your father, you go there again. I'm not sure that that's not even tainted a little bit, but I will say that I do that. And I think the interest in preserving the records, history, et cetera, so that it would be in the family, this person, how they looked, I think we would be excused for that. As long as we don't let it feed our weakness or make us vain. And I don't wish, Is there a more that... Should I say more? That took care of us?
Speaker 3:
Yes, sir. If you want to say more you can.
IWDM:
Yeah. The answer is no, we shouldn't attach ourselves to photos.
Speaker 3:
The next question Imam is how would you encourage youth to seek higher education and be leaders in student Islamic groups?
IWDM:
Study! Studying my presentation today. That's how you would do it. And avoid the things I said avoid, and go after those things I say go after. But I will tell you something else. Realize this young students, that no one existing in this world, child or grown up, created life and the good things that we enjoy. Nobody did that but G-d, so have a respect for G-d and know that your parents, that the adults, you admire, the great men and women you look up to know that all of them were once little children like you. And younger than you. And someone had to care for them, come and get them in the crib when they're crying, and change their diaper, take their wet diaper off or the dirty diaper off and clean them up care for them until they're old enough to be responsible for cleaning themselves and dressing themselves.
IWDM:
Somebody had to do that. G-d says we owe a debt to our parents or those who perform in our life that role of parent. Whether they are our flesh or not. If they did that for us, we have a debt to our parents. And G-d puts the parent next to G-d himself. G-d says and reverence G-d and also reverence the close family ties. That's what G-d says in our holy book. Reverence G-d. And G-d says, and also the close family ties. And the closest one is mama. The prophet, when he was asked by a young man and the young man said, my mother and my father needs my support.
IWDM:
He said, who should I turn to? Who should I give my attention to? Muhammad, the prophet peace be upon him, he said, your mother. And the young man asked again, the same question. He said, your mother. Oh man, the young, man. He must have felt heavily indebted to his father. He loved his father a lot because he stopped. He asked it for the third time. And Muhammad, the prophet is recorded to have said, and your father. And your father, he said. So we know mama is first. We are indebted first to mama. Then we're indebted to father, especially if he was there. But if someone else was there in the role of the father and did a beautiful job, I think the debt is to that person. The debt is not to somebody that is flesh your father, but never was in the house doing anything for you. The debt is not to that person. The debt is to the person that was in the house, in the role and father caring for you and helping your mother with the responsibilities. Yes. And G-d says, and in the book of G-d, Kitab Allah in the book of G-d, family close relatives have priority. So if you want to be successful, the young students reverence G-d and reverence the close family ties.
Speaker 3:
This question is from one of our Clara Muhammad School students who is the same age as your son Mohammed I think. This young man is 10. He asked the question, did you go to Clara Mohammed School when you were little? If so, did you like it there?
IWDM:
I sure did. Yeah. I'm the first student of Clara Mohammed school. My mother's name is Clara Muhammad. And she taught me first, when I was a little boy in the house, in her charge, and under her care. She taught me first. She used to teach me penmanship before I went to school. She taught me penmanship. She tried to get me to do a little simple math. Arithmetic we used to call it. And she watched my language. She said, use correct-language Actually, the mother's the first teacher. Your mother is your first teacher.
IWDM:
And it's so happened for me I'm the son of Clara Muhammad. So she had a school in the house for her children. And I was one of her students. Yes. I was a student of Clara Muhammad School and I loved it. And I still remember and obey the knowledge my mother put in me, and the respect my mother put in me, and the sense of right and wrong my mother put in me. See some of us want to give conversion all the credit for everything. I was nothing before I became a Muslim. You're a liar. If you were nothing and before you became a Muslim, you wouldn't have become a Muslim. You would've had no sense to become a Muslim.
IWDM:
You had a lot before you became a Muslim. And Islam comes to compliment what you had. All that you had that was good. From your Christian religion, from your Christian parents, from your Christian life, Islam comes to affirm all that was right and good and just keep building on it. That's what Islam does. Yeah. Now, when I went to school, the school wasn't called Clara Muhammad School. The school was called The University of Islam. And we had dedicated teachers who believed in my father and in my father's mission to help lift up or raise up the African American people. The black man as we would say back then. They believed in him and they gave everything. Most of them got no pay at all. Their service was charity, and they did it because they wanted to see the nation rise. Yes, I have to use that language.
IWDM:
That's the time. That was the time and that was the language. They wanted to see the nation rise. They wanted to see our people rise up and drop off foolishness, ignorance, vulgarity, profanity, corruption, filth, lies, stealing, drugs, liquor. They want to see us rise and drop those things off. And as Garvey said, join the constellation of the stars in the heavens. I think what he said was a prediction. And I see it coming true. Yeah? I see Reverend Jackson and certainly some of those that are dead already, great leaders and the best of their following. I see the honorable Elijah Muhammad. And I see Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Up in the sky among the constellations of the stars. Yes, because of our good work, our faith that has not been weakened, our continuous faith and our good works is raising us up. And those that join us and share this with us, they're rising up with us. And I'm looking at a great people. Today I can truly say what Mr. Farad said, the teacher of my father, the one that's his brother minister referred to from the nation of Islam, as the Mahdi the guide in Islam. A guide for us in Islam, one that guides you to his Islam in the right way.
IWDM:
He said, I can sit on top of the world. Imagine this man, a foreigner in 1933 or four, early 34 if it was 34 because he was gone in 34, saying I can sit on top of the world and tell anyone that the most beautiful nation is in the wilderness of North America. He was talking about those people that he had organized into the new knowledge of how to rise up as a people under the leadership of his appointed first man, the honorable Elijah Muhammad, who was first called supreme minister in 1933 and 34. He was called the supreme minister. Yes. He was talking about that group. He was looking at the group that he had organized, he helped organize Muhammad and many of the workers. He called them workers. He called them students working with him to do that work.
IWDM:
And he said, I can sit on top of the world and tell anyone that the most beautiful nation is in the wilderness of North America. The honorable Elijah Muhammad said, and I know myself, I've studied now I can say without referring to what Elijah Muhammad said that he was not speaking in the present time. He was pointing to the future. He saw what he was doing and he saw that it had the potential to grow into the most beautiful society or community on this earth. And I do believe we have that chance and I'm not going to blow it.
IWDM:
So I'm very proud and happy of my early young years as a young child, student of my mother's, Clara Muhammad. And students of the private school, The University of Islam. That's where I got my elementary schooling and my high school. So I got my high school diploma from The University of Islam. And when I took it to get a job, they wouldn't recognize it. So then I had to take the GED test and my teachers did such a good job on me I scored in the highest percentile for the nation, for the United States in math. Very proud of our school. We had teachers who were there for one purpose, and that is to see that we got the best that they could give us. That's what they were there for. They give us the best that they could give us. And they were not only teachers. They were aunts and uncles. They were mothers and fathers. They cared about us.
Speaker 3:
We only have two more questions brother Imam. And this next question is how do you suggest that the nation of Islam and the Muslim American society reconnect and interact with each other?
IWDM:
Well, that's one that you ain't got the time to listen to the answer. You don't have the patience to listen to the answer. Because I'll be talking on that until the sun rise in the morning. And some of them among you here, they know I can do that. They know I can start talking now and will still be up there talking when the sun, when Fajr prayer. When the sun begins to light the sky in the morning. We don't want do that. I paid the price. I don't want to pay it again.
IWDM:
If you all pay the price, you sure wouldn't want to pay it again. Yeah. We sat for hours and hours, a long time just talking. Yes. Now let me make this short. My son is here now who told me once, I was going out and start taking him with me and my father used to take me with him to the temple when he was going out to teach. So I'm taking little Mohammed with me and, he's a child, he want to have some free time. He'll say, daddy are you going to talk long? I said, well, maybe I said, you don't want me to talk long? He said, daddy, he looked like, he didn't say it right away. He thought for a few seconds. He said, daddy, you can talk long and talk short.
IWDM:
And I understood exactly what he meant. Remember me, and don't hurt your speech. But remember me, I'm waiting on you to finish, to conclude. And I tried to do that. So this question, I'm trying to think how to answer. Yes, I got it. Look. The Islamic world and Minister Farrakhan, believe me I'm with him a hundred percent in pointing to the failure of the Islamic world, the Islamic nation, to respect the Quran and respect Muhammad the prophet. They have failed to do that. The Islamic world, I can't think of two countries that work together to the satisfaction of the Muslim intelligence and moral life and interest in our community and the people, in each other. I can't find two.
IWDM:
The trouble in the middle east caused by Jews coming from Europe into the middle east, Palestine, Jordan, those areas, has really been the only thing working to bring Jordan and Egypt together. Jordan and Egypt have good relationship. Not only Jordan, but Jordan and Egypt and Israel. They have very good relationship now they working good. There economies work together. They trade with each other. They're committed to uphold the peace, to have safe borders, to work for each other's interests. But except for that, where do we have a picture of two different Muslim bodies, national bodies working together for the good life of all? We don't have it. I believe we are a people that G-d is using as a sign, to give a message to the rest of the world. Look, I myself, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad first of all, he started off condemning America.
IWDM:
He never said America was not to be condemned, but you know, he did soften his language as he came to the end of his life. He started off condemning America and the white people as a race of devils. And he concluded with a major address on Saviours' Day, pointing to persons who are Muslim but he said, these are white people. He pointed to one of his guests on the platform Saviours' Day, he said, that's a white man. He's saying he's a scientist of Islam. That's what he said of that man. And he said, if the white people can be good by you or right by you, something like that, I can't say I'm using the exact word he used. He said, then you also be likewise by them. I'm not using the exact words, but that's the exact message.
IWDM:
And he said, I say this from the bottom of my heart. The honorable Elijah Muhammad never spoke like that before. So here is a man that really was a fiery preacher, Elijah, a modern day, Elijah, bringing fire down from heaven and condemning the wicked rule and saying they is out for it, doom is coming. Destruction is coming to this rule. Changing later on and conditioning his following to work in a positive way to build themselves up in America and live in America and progress in America, in spite of the bad history we have. The bad history of bad treatment we have from white folks and many bad circumstances that were still with us. And some are still with us now. In spite of that, he was encouraging us to soften our language as he softened his. Soften the language and look at these people again, seems like they're repenting.
IWDM:
So if they will repent then you respond likewise. That's what he was saying. Okay. Now from him, when I was a little boy, like this is a time, they going to turn the lights off in a minute or so. But I'm going to finish in a couple minutes, but when I was a little boy, my mother, I believe my father told her to do this. My mother would have me. I'm a little boy. I mean a little boy. My mother was have me in her arms. I was happy I was in her arms, and I could walk, but I was in her arms and she'd be looking at the newspaper. And she said to me, who is that? Pointing to a white man in the newspaper? And I didn't answer her. She said, that's a devil.
IWDM:
And I loved my mother and wanted to be the child she wanted me to be. I had no anger in me, to tell you the truth I can't remember being angry or hating anything, but I knew what she wanted me to do. So I took my little hand and I tore the face out of the paper and tore it up like this. Tore the picture up. I did that twice, more than once. Twice my mother was reading the paper and she asked me this. I said, that's the devil. After she taught me I said that the devil, took the paper picture, tore it up. That could have been very dangerous for me and later in my life. I could have joined the zebras or somebody. You may not know the zebras, but they had some of that raw teaching of the nation of Islam. And they actually organized to kill white folks in California, in LA California. Even had a white girl with her. We have so many and contradictions in this nation of Islam history. Had a white woman, a white young girl the daughter of a newspaper owner. Yeah, the owner of a newspaper had his daughter with him in the black zebra organization. And their mission was to kill white folks.
IWDM:
So I escaped that. Thank G-d. But to me this is a sign to the world, not just to America. Our life is a sign to the world. Because look where we came from. We came from parents who were slaves back 300 years or so or less parents who were slaves. And slaves in a system that's called by encyclopedia Britannica the most peculiar slave system with more horrors than any other form of slavery in history. And we managed to survive that. And we are here today, still with our human condition in pretty good shape. Some of us are in excellent shape as human specimens.
IWDM:
Reverend Jesse Jackson just recently earned and was received the president medal of freedom for his sacrifices for putting his life in danger, going overseas, to bring our soldiers back to America who were captured in another strange land. Yes. So we are a people, if you would put our history in the Bible and wouldn't call it Negro or African and leave it in there, it will stand up in the Bible with the history of all suffering people. And we would be just as much worthy of having our history on the pages of scripture of the Bible and any other people that ever lived on this earth are more so. That's our history. So you think about that. And now here we are in this country for sake of saving time. Thank you very much. Now here we are in this country changed. We are changed people because of changed times.
IWDM:
We are changed people, but still determined to go forward with our life in the best shape, in the best way we can deliver it. And we are working now in the interest of humanity, meaning all people. Not just in the interest of blacks. And here is the nation of Islam on the under Farrakhan. And the son of the honorable Elijah Muhammad, who headed the nation of Islam who built the nation of Islam really, separating and coming back together. Now for me, we can continue to be a model that speaks to the world, not just Muslim world, but that speaks to the world. We can continue to be that model and even be more effective as that model. If the nation of Islam stays the nation of Islam. Farrakhan keeps his responsibility as leader of the nation of this Islam. Imam W. Dean Mohammed stayed with the MAS Muslim American Society and keep the responsibility for representing the Muslim American Society. And we work to improve our relationship with each other as two separate groups of Muslims. And make progress with that work so that we support each other in all our good undertakings. I'm going to the million family march, and I'm looking for other opportunities for us to do things with each other together.
IWDM:
We will be a model speaking to the Muslim world, firstly saying to the Muslim world. Now these two groups separate, and they were once rivals, but now look how they have embraced each other. And what has brought them to embrace each other? The Quran and Muhammad the prophet. Peace be upon Muhammad the prophet. So we as a sign to them that if you follow our steps or if you seek our message and you put the Quran and Muhammad first you Muslim nations can have good relationship with each other and shared interest and plenty room to cooperate for the betterment and strengthening of the Islamic world. Because it's in bad shape now. And I think who knows, maybe that's why all of this is happening. So that we as a model will help the Islamic world and help the world and the family of man, the family of nations and race. If they study the African, they can't study that separate from the history of African American people. They have to study us in the history of African American people going back to slavery. Thank you. I'm sorry to hold you so long.

