06/14/2001
IWDM Study Library
How Close are Muslims to Western Democracy
Detroit MI

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
SPEAKER
This is the national public broadcast of WD Mohammed, the Muslim American Society leader. The following lecture titled Justice in Islam, How Close Are We Muslims to Western democracy, was recorded Saturday, June the 14th, the year 2001 at Orchestra Hall in Detroit, Michigan.

IMAM W. DEEN MOHAMMED
Thank you. [Arabic] Our greetings is peace unto you as [Arabic]. With G-d's name, the merciful benefactor, the merciful Redeemer. We say [Arabic] Muhammad, [Arabic]. There is only one G-d and Muhammad is the messenger of G-d. We pray the prayers and the peace be upon him. [Arabic]. The prayers and the peace be upon him.
The traditional salute to the last of the prophets, the seal of the prophets, Muhammad. We are happy to see you this Saturday afternoon here for this occasion for this address. We appreciate you taking from your private matters, your time, and your families to be here with us today. And to the fathers who are here. We won't see you tomorrow. So we wish you a happy Father's Day and a blessed day. Always a blessed day.
Detroit is the city of the beginning of Islam for us who followed the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who himself was taught by an outsider, a foreigner who came to this city and began introducing a new idea for the improvement of our people. Introducing it into the poorest sections of the city and to the poorest members, families, and the poorest members of our community.
Justice in Islam. How close are we Muslims to Western democracy? When I was a student in the University of Islam, which was really elementary and high school. I was in high school at the time, when a person hired to teach us Arabic was named professor Jamil Diaz. He later got his doctorate degree. Doctor Jamil Diaz. He's still alive living in Phoenix, Arizona., And he heads a Mosque there. Well now he, I think he's kind of retired. His son is the Imam there in Tempe, Arizona. The Tempe Mosque or Masjid in Arizona.
My first acquaintance with him was as his student, one of his students. My younger brother Akbar who is professor of Islamic studies and African studies in upper state, New York Binghamton University, was a bright student of Jamil Diaz, professor Jamil Diaz. And I was a student there. Darnell Karim, the Imam that most of you all know who has been around for a while in the community. Darnell Karim was also one of his students. Donnell's sister, Gloria Kareem. I mean Roselene, pardon me, and his wife, Gloria Kareem, all were students of professor Jamil Diaz. Another brother of Darnell Kareem, named Leroy, was also a student. And I could name several more of these students.
Jamil Diaz was a very good teacher. He respected the honorable Elijah Muhammad. He didn't believe as we believe in Islam, he had the belief of Muslims throughout the world. And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad knew that when he hired him. He did not try to make trouble for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad or for the nation of Islam. He respected the order of the Nation of Islam. He did the job he was hired for. And that iwas to teach us the Arabic language.
That beginning on 1951 maybe. Way back there the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had hired a teacher to teach us Arabic, the Arabic language. The point that I'm trying to make here is that our form of democracy is not something that Muslims have to be afraid of. In fact, it may be closer, closer to what we have as Islamic justice for society than any other idea, political ideology existing in the world today.
Professor Jamil Diaz obviously recognized that as a foreigner, partly as an immigrant, or as one who migrated from his land to this country and studied this country's government and its idea of democracy. He told us, he said, "The constitution of the United States is based upon an idea that Muslims can accept." That's the way he put it to us.
And he said that he had read the introduction to the constitution, the language of the writers or designers of our constitution, founding fathers, we call them. And he said that he believed, these are his words I'm giving you now, Jamil Diaz said that he believed that they were acquainted with Qur'an and Muhammad, the prophet. Those who formed that language.
I began by saying [Arabic] translated simply, there is no deity, nothing to worship, to pray to as a G-d. That's what it means. [Arabic]. Except to G-d are, but accept the one G-d, that's what it means. Then it says Muhammad [Arabic]. Muhammad is the messenger of G-d.
I believe that declaration of faith or that statement of the Muslim creed in Islam holds in focus for us, a concept of G-d and a concept of man, a way of perceiving or understanding G-d and a way of perceiving and understanding man. And here, G-d and man are put the together in one statement. There is, but one G-d and Muhammad is the messenger of G-d. In one statement, the two are put together.
Muhammad, didn't come to just invite people to a spiritual way of life. He came to establish a spiritual way of life as the essential life of community. So the interest was to strengthen community. And Muhammad is unlike many of the prophets, especially minor prophets of the Bible. Muhammad was a prophet like Moses. And he's called that in our religion, in the Qur'an, a man like Moses. Prophet Muhammad and prophet Moses were very similar in that both of them came to lead their people into community life.
The Jews were oppressed. They were a subject people or underclass people under Pharaohs, under ancient Egypt or oppressive Egypt, because Egypt was not always oppressive. Egypt was not always a hard task master. When we studied the history of Egypt, many of the pharaohs were very kind to their public, to their citizens. And they believed in strengthening the social family, the social fabric of the society to have their people, family, and even some of them guided their public to the belief that there was one G-d.
I'm not here to give you that history. So I wont give you lot of notes or information on that although I know it. I've studied it and I do know it. It's simply to say that Muhammad the prophet was guided by G-d to establish spiritual life as their life for the betterment of society so that society could exist and have a good future and progress in the line of progress that G-d, the Creator mind you, G-d, the Creator intended for them.
And this is the language of the founding fathers. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator. Here is the language of the founding father, recognizing G-d and recognizing the Creator and recognizing all men as having inalienable rights that the government can't give to them, that the government cannot give to them. You were created with those rights, inalienable rights among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In my studies, I have come to see that statement as a statement of strong faith and allegiance to G-d, strong faith in G-d and allegiance to G-d. So the writers of this language, they were building an idea that would tie man to G-d and insist or force government to recognize that tie between man and G-d, a tie that government didn't make, a tie that government cannot break. Government has to recognize that tie and treat all citizens as the creation of G-d. And that G-d gave them certain rights that man or the world, or the government cannot take away from them.
So this is the beauty of, I would say that idea, and this is what makes for a true democracy. A true democracy must recognize that there's an authority higher than man. That's a true democracy that recognize that there's an authority higher than man and people are accountable to their maker. People are accountable to their Creator, their maker, the one that designed their life and gave them this life.
And this life that we have is a very precious life. So we perceived G-d as a Creator of everything. G-d didn't tell Muhammad when he first gave him revelation that I am Allah but Muhammad later became to know the name Allah. It was not during the first revelation to Muhammad. G-d introduced himself to Muhammad firstly as the Creator. The creator, not by the name Allah, as the creator. And every religion that recognizes G-d as the one who's responsible for what we see in the skies and for the earth that we live on and whatever comes out of the earth and for man's own existence, those religions that recognize G-d as that, as that, those religions can live together.
Those religions can live together. They can coexist together. Those religions can do more than coexist together. Those religions can work together and cooperate with one another for the future of mankind. Because that's the precious idea that make it possible for us to make progress with our human life in society. That's the precious idea that there is a maker. There is a designer. That this didn't happen accidentally, that there is a designer for what's in the skies, for what we see in the sky, this system of matter, stars and et cetera. There's a designer behind that. And the same designer is also the cause for our existence, for our human existence. And just as that designer has designed the course for matter in the skies, that designer has designed the course for man's life, for human life on earth, and it must be lived in community.
The expression, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven," is another way of saying that as G-d has ordered the universe and brought it to exist in a certain order and design and have preserved it with that design that says the sun must keep going the way it goes. The moon must keep going the way it goes. The stars must keep following the courses they follow, et cetera. And the Qur'an, our holy book, and the Bible address that. Both our holy books, the book of Christians and the book of Muslims address that.
So the same G-d that had designed that has also created and designed human life to follow laws, to follow definite patterns, definite patterns of behavior, definite patterns of discipline or behavior so that the life will continue and make progress and make progress.
"Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in the heavens." So these people were visionaries. These people were thinkers, deep thinkers, philosophers, visionaries, who believed in G-d. They had a spiritual devotion to a G-d, to a Creator. And they were working to have man's life conform to the universal law, to the universal law that his life just confirmed to the universal law. The same G-d that made that up there, made this down here. And as he made an order and a plan for that up there, we have to discover the order and plan that he made for this down here.
That's what it was all about. So America recognizes that, the government recognizes that. That is the strength of our constitution. That is the strongest glue or adhesive matter, holding together the idea we call Western democracy. Yes. So when we appreciate this as Muslims and identify that language with our language or identify our language with that language, we are in a good situation to make progress in this society. We can make progress, not as just publics, but make progress as leaders.
No Muslim should be satisfied just being a member in another public. You should be also contributing to the lifeline of that society that you are in. You should identify its lifeline and you should join the guardians of that lifeline and make contributions to that lifeline for the better future for all. This is where Muslims should be.
Now we are still talking about democracy. Insha'Allah, we are going to appreciate this democracy more as Muslims after I'm finished. I know you appreciate it already some of you, or many of you. Some of you are still are so afraid of it. You spooked up. I'm telling you, the booger man got you but Insha'Allah, we will get the booger man out of your life one day. And we want our Christian friends to know how we see America. How we see the idea that preserves this country in this way of life, the American people's life. We want them to see it. So they will know that we are not that far away from them.
In fact, we shouldn't be apart from each other at all. We should be together. Muhammad didn't say one day the world will see Jesus Christ and me together. He didn't say that. Peace be upon the prophets. He didn't say that just as breath in the air.
He said that as a prediction. That statement is also a prediction. That's a prediction that Christians and Muslims are going to come closer and closer together. Because if the world comes to see Muhammad and Jesus Christ closer and closer together, then the Christians will appreciate Islam when they see that their Christ and Muhammad, the prophet are close together. It mean that the two communities are going to come close together because of those two figures being seen close together. And it's happening, it's happening now in the world and it's growing. Yes.
So I begin by saying that the creed, the Muslim creed , there is but there's one G-d and Muhammad a man. That's what it means. See, Muhammad is the name of a person, but that person is a human being. So what that statement is saying more importantly than that person is the messenger of G-d. Is that a human being, a man is G-d's messenger. Yes, I think you're getting it. You got it. Yes. That restores Adam, that restores mankind, that restores black people to their proper respect in the order of creation.
Know the G-d that did all this, has made man, His messenger, made man His messenger. So every man should identify with Muhammad. And that honor that G-d chose man to be His messenger. Yes. And that's why Muhammad is told by G-d in the Qur'an. It says, "Muhammad, tell them, say to them, 'I am a mortal human being just like you.'" And I am [Arabic], a mortal human person, [Arabic] , just like you. That's what Muhammad was told by G-d to say.
Now, when he say, I am just like you, he's saying, G-d has chosen me to be his messenger. And I am a man, a mortal person just like you. So you should identify in this honor, in this high honor that G-d has given or paid to man. You should identify in it. You shouldn't just say, "Muhammad was chosen to be G-d's messenger." You should say, "Man was chosen to be G-d's messenger." And yes. And the same words that G-d found in Muhammad, was put in you when he created you. Muhammad didn't discover his human worth as Muhammad. He discovered his human worth as a son of Adam,
as a human being created by G-d for a high place in the universe. Jesus Christ, he said through the people. He said, "I in the father and the father in me." But he also said, "I in you and you and me." Didn't he say that also? Well, it was restated 700 years and more later.
That statement was made again, by G-d. Muhammad, say to them, "I am a mortal human person just like you. What's in me is in you. And what's in you is in me." So we have to see this common life that G-d has created in honor. And it's not the priest, the monk or the learned, but it's that essence that G-d created. For the learned can fall from the high pedestal, and be of no help to themselves, not to mention society.
Those with not one, but two or three or several PhDs, are sometimes found to be on skid row. And all their doctorate degrees cannot pick them up out of the gutter. And it has been not those who have been educated by the world, but it has been those who have not been educated by the world who are outside of that privileged circle of people.
With the common people, having no credentials at all, and G-d took them and revealed to them the course of their human excellence, reveal to them and they became the leaders of a new world order. Moses was one. Muhammad was one. And Jesus was one. And there were many others. They became leaders of a new world order. Many of us don't understand the nativity scene for Jesus Christ. He was born in a manger, they say, with animals, because the fine hotels would not receive them. The inns that cared for people would not receive them. This is the Bible.
So he had to be born with animals. What does it mean? That he had no help from the establishment? He had no help from the establishment. He was born without their help. That's what it means. But look where he rose, how he rose from that to become the leader of the Christian world. A new world order. The late reform teacher of Pakistan, Indian people, Maulana Madudi is his name. I met him in person at the Hajj on Mount Arafat, '67, I believe it was. Long time ago. He said to us... He said, "Islam is an idea or ideology for the reform of the world." So it's an idean an ideology that G-d has revealed or given to a man to reform the world. And it did it.
Yes. Islam came to free, not only man, human life, but to free religion that had lost its good guardians and had fallen in the hands of oppressors. And oppressors were reinterpreting religion, reinterpreting religion, stating religion all over again to satisfy their design or their desire to have man under their control. Religion was used to oppress and enslave people. It fell in the hands of the wrong leaders, the wrong power.
And Islam came and addressed that. And Muhammad was told by G-d, "and fight them, meaning their oppressors, and fight them until there is no more persecution of the sincere true believers, until there's no more persecution. And religion, it didn't say Islam, it said, and religion, we know it means Islam, but it means religion. It was for also for the church. It was also for Christianity. It was also for Judaism. It was also for the synagogue. It was also for the Jews that Muhammad was fighting oppressors, persecutors of the faithful. They didn't fight them until there's no more persecutors of the faithful.
Fight them until there is no more persecution and religion is free for G-d. You hear that? These words are from our holy book. Now tell me if you understand English, Simple English that I just gave you. Tell me, did Islam come to promote freedom of religion or not? That statement is very clear. You need no explanation or interpretation of that. Says and fight them until there has no more persecution. Persecution of the religious people. The faithful people who insist I must follow G-d the way G-d intended for me to follow. And you, government people, you have to kill me. I will not give up my faith and my obedience to my G-d. And they would kill you. Many of the faithful died. You know that. Christians, Muslims, Jews. Many of the faithful died and still dying in many parts of the world, still dying for their religion. Islam came to promote freedom of religion and freedom of religion is the first of our freedoms.
This is United States' government, United States' political ideas. When you study it, you'll find in the history of our political idea for democracy, it begins with the freedom of religion. First, there was a fight for the freedom of religion. Then there was fight for all the other freedoms. The fight was first for the freedom of religion. The pilgrims came over here because they were persecuted and couldn't practice their religion in Europe like they wanted to.
So they found that there was a new land over here. They were invited to come over here and see if could they start their lives again. They came over here to start their lives again so that they would have an opportunity to live their Christianity or their church life as they wanted to live it, without having that denied them by the powers in their old land, by governments in their old land. This is the beginning of freedom. So this democracy begins with the first freedom, the freedom of religion. And Islam begins with the first freedom, the freedom of religion. When Muhammad gave the creed La ilaha il'Allah, Muhammadan Resoulu Allah, he was making a statement in defense of the freedom of religion.
In our religion, we are told, surely the idea that there is more than one G-d is the most, the worst of the oppressors, is the worst form of oppression. The idea that there is more than one G-d. The pagans or the people in the Mecca in Arabia at the time of our prophet, they believed in 369 g-ds. This is a history. They had 369 different deities, different g-ds. And they were an ignorant and oppressed people. They were in the darkness. What darkness? The darkness of the absence of light on where G-d wants man to go with society. That's the darkness. I repeat that for you. The darkness of the absence of light on the path that takes man and society, where G-d wants man and society to go. That's the darkness. So G-d created not only an individual for a higher life but G-d created the community of human beings for a higher life. And the greatest ideas for advancing society of government are those ideas that have the support of revelation, scripture.
Scripture, Bible, Qur'an so that the leaders when they become enlightened in that particular knowledge, they then can take the society forward to where G-d wants it to go and where G-d wants it to go. I am what I shall be. I am what I shall be. I shall be what I am. What does that mean? I recognize that G-d has created me with that, that will place me where I should be in the future. I have to discover it. G-d has created me with it but I have to discover it. When I discover what G-d has endowed me with, when I discover what G-d has enriched me with as a special creation of His, I will discover what will put me where I am to go. I may be a lost savage, eating with animals and living like an animal. But when I wake up to what G-d has made me, I will separate myself from the animals. I'll separate myself from the savages.
I will pursue the course that G-d has designed for me when he designed me. And I will be what I am. And I am already what I shall be. But it has to be discovered and G-d sees man struggling. Struggling to find himself. And G-d looks at him and he said, oh, my creation is wonderful. My creation is beautiful. I gave him nothing more than I gave the animal but on his own, on the power of what I created him to be, he is struggling and he's making his way home to me. So G-d says it's time for me now to go out and meet my creation. So G-d then gives him revelation from Himself. And G-d says, yes, says I'm the one who created you from a clot of adhering blood. Yes. And then G-d reveals to him his destination, where he's to take his life and the life of his fellow men. And he becomes a prophet, a leader, a liberator, a builder of a great society. Moses did it. Muhammad did it. And others did it. Peace be upon them.
So let me continue, we're not going to be here very long. In fact, the time is close now. I can't myself discuss Islam without also discussing the African American people's life and struggle. To put ourselves back in that place of honor that G-d created us for. Slavery separated us from that life pattern. From that lifeline. It cut us off from that spirit and that lifeline that G-d created us with and for. But our souls were created by G-d and the world could not deceive our souls. They deprived our minds of knowledge and guidance but they couldn't deceive our souls. So the soul of the uneducated slave spoke out, said to the master, the name of this soul was Julia in history. The slave, Julia, a woman. She said to her white master, speaking to all of them. She said, you all look like G-d in the face because they had told her Jesus was G-d. And they did look like Jesus in the face. They say, you look like G-d in the face but you act like the devils in your hearts.
So that was an uneducated slave woman that had some trouble inside, accepting that white world was all right. So they could deceive the mind of the slave but they couldn't deceive the soul because that's the sacred vessel that G-d made, and they can't take it away from us. And you can't take it away from yourself. I don't care how much corruption you allow to take over your life. Your soul occasionally let you know, you're wrong. G-d treated the soul and it has a sanctuary in it. You can blind the outer parameters of the soul, and you can have a soul supporting your corruption in its outer parameters, but every now and then it speaks from its core. Out of the core that you can't touch, it's the sanctuary of G-d. So we can't talk about Islam without talking about our lives.
Muhammad was never sent to human beings to talk about Islam without talking about their lives. He addressed human life. And G-d educated him to address the problems of human life. So the human being will see that what G-d wants for you is for you to have the excellence of your life. For you to rise up from the inferior matter of your life and build yourself up on the superior matter of your life. And what is the superior matter of your life? That inherent dignity. G-d says, [Arabic] We have certainly made honorable every human being born of your father, Adam. We have certainly made honorable every human being born of Adam or born of our Father, common father, Adam, made honorable. And that honor or that G-d given nobility, it is never pleased to be reduced to dishonor. It always wants to live up to what G-d created it to be, live up to what G-d created it to be. So human beings are by virtue of their creation or their original nature given to them by G-d, motivated to make improvements on their life.
Human beings are motivated and inspired to make improvements on their lives until they reach that honor, that G-d created them for. From Europe to America, those who paid a heavy price to have freedom of religion, they paved the way for the development of this democracy and for the freedom that we now enjoy in America and in Europe and many places of the world. So they are the ones that made possible this great society that we have in the new world. John Payne, I believe it was, said, give me life or give me death. Was that John Payne? Patrick Henry, pardon me. Patrick Henry, yes. Patrick Henry said, give me life or give me death. John Payne is the one who wrote the book called, The Reason, Common Sense. Common Sense. So that was a great man and a great factor in the creation of this great society. He saw the need to leave those who are in ivory towers, those with the great ideas with academia and knowledge and ask the society to return to common sense. And what does it mean? Return to what G-d created you with.
So that's another testimony to what I'm saying here. To my point, it supports my point. John Payne, maybe that's why I put him in here accidentally. I don't know. G-d knows. I don't know. Anyway, Patrick Henry said, give me life or give me death, give me life or give me death. Now here's a man that's... When he's saying that, he's asking people to follow him. That's what he's doing. He's asking people, to society to follow me. Let's tell these oppressors. Let's tell them that we'd rather have death than live without the life that G-d intended for us. Give me life or give me death. Give me the life that G-d created for me or give me death. Well, I think a man, long before Patrick Henry, he said, he put it this way, they were about to go to battle with the people that was persecuting them. And they told him and said, well, before we begin the battle, we want you to know that we have fighters over here with us that love death more than you love life. Now let's get it on.
They were defeated right then. That defeated them. When those warriors heard that, they yelled out to them and their ears. They say, before we get the battle on now, we want you to know that we have fighters over here who love death like you love life. What were they saying? They were saying, give us death or give us life. Saying the same thing Patrick Henry said, just in different way of saying it. Patrick Henry, he stated differently but it's the same thing. Meaning that we will not continue to live persecuted and suffer denial of the life that G-d created us for. We'd rather die if this is the way we're going to live. That's what Patrick Henry was saying and that's what Muhammad the prophet was saying when he was taking his men in war or in battle against those who persecuted them.
Martin Luther, the great church reform leader, he had paved the way for our democracy. Yes, none of this could exist without these great leaders I'm mentioning. We couldn't have this great society if it had not been for them. The first reform then had to take place in the church. Then after the reform in the church, then we had the political movement for this great society or for this great democracy. Now getting back to Islam. The first understanding I had of the word Islam, I S L A M, was quoted and I'm quoting, "freedom, justice and equality". That meaning lives today in the hearts and minds of many of us whose first acquaintance with Muslims and Islam began right here in this city of Detroit, the motor city with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, his and his teacher, Mr. W Fard Muhammad. And I recall words being painted on the Blackboard. I was a boy, younger than my son. My son is here, he'll be 11 in July. July 6th.
I was younger than he and I'd be sitting in the seat in the temple with the men and with the children sometime too, be there. And there was a blackboard with paint on it. And the blackboard said, Islam, freedom, justice, and equality. We could see it as soon as we entered the area, the seating area, where the lecture or the preaching would be done. As soon as you got in that area, the first thing that hits your eye was that blackboard with Islam, as the staff and freedom, justice, and equality, going out from Islam. The teacher of my father, he had a master plan for helping our people with their cause. You hear me? Please listen. For helping our people with their cause. He was a Muslim. His religion was Islam, but he didn't come to us to give us Islam right away. He came to help us with our cause right away. And he hoped that we would have Islam by and by. Jesus in the gospel, he points to the good Samaritan and he condemns the order that was in place at that time.
He gives them the story of the good Samaritan. And he said, there was a person, a religious person, a person of the establishment who walked the road and saw the man in the room needing help, and passed them by. Another one walked on the other side of the road so he wouldn't have to get too close to him, couldn't bother his conscience too much. But along came the good Samaritan and he saw him and he gave him assistance, and took him where he could get help. That was a good Samaritan. And Jesus, what did Jesus saying? You don't come to people suffering and try to convert them to a religion first. You help them in their condition first. And once you help them in their condition, then they'll be free of the agony that's living with them every moment of their lives. And then they'll be in a better situation to listen to you talk to them about some religion.
And when I studied the greatest masters, the greatest teachers of religion, I find that they were just like Jesus. And I find that they're just like Muhammad. Muhammad lived among people, and he was a kind man. He was a good man. And they recognized him as such. They called him the trustworthy one, [Arabic] the honest one. And they called him [Arabic] the truthful one. So he had already earned respect from them and love. He had earned their love and admiration, as a person who cared about them. And he wouldn't deceive them, wouldn't guide them in the wrong way, but would assist them in everything that was good for them. They knew him as such a person. Then he came to them and he said, [Arabic]. None of these g-ds are real, only one. And he didn't even say Muhammad [Arabic]. He didn't. He didn't say [Arabic] Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. [Arabic]. He said, [Arabic] No G-d except only one.
That's all he said to them. And why did he say that? Because their problems was caused by the worship of many g-ds. That was their biggest problem. It wasn't that they were drunk. It was that they had too many g-ds and the g-ds divided them. They had tribal g-ds that divided tribe against tribe. And some of us want to make these great classical religions, Christianity in Islam, tribal religions. We do. And we want to divide the Muslim community up into tribes. One tribe found this idea of Islam. Another tribe following that idea of Islam. One church or tribe following this idea of Christianity. Another following that idea of Christianity, and being bitter rivals. Each one hating to see the other advance, undermining or backbiting the other, downing, putting down the other, making a whole sermon just on discrediting somebody else or some other religious leader or some other religious order. The whole sermon just builds on it.
So we're in bad shape, bad shape. If we could come back to the main ideas, we could have a beautiful world. Thank you. Thank you. So we have in common with Christians and this great society. We have in common with you, a belief and man as a special creation of G-d, and that every man is given from his G-d or by his G-d, excellence of creation, and honorable creation, noble birth. And we have an inherent will that the world didn't give us. There's a will in us that G-d created us with, an inherent will and we ignore it. The world can blind us to it. But one day it's going to rise up somewhere in somebody and make things come back to where they're supposed to be. So we believe in that inherent will.
We believe that G-d created man's substance, his material substance as a bow and his spirit as an arrow. And his material substance one day is going to get tired of suffering and going the wrong way. And his own material matter is going to pull back the string of the spirit and fire a desire out of an arrow. And it's going to take and show you how to go home. You know, the Indians, they used to fire an arrow to tell the rest of them where they're going? The chief or the one appointed would take an arrow and then shoot the arrow as far as it could in the direction they're supposed to go. And all of them saw where that arrow went and they just followed. They go right in that direction. I guess when they get to that point, he would fire again, fire the arrow again to keep them going where they're supposed to go. Yes. So that one bow, but it doesn't just fire one arrow, the bow fires two arrows but they're going to one aim, one destination.
What are these two arrows? One is the human spirit that G-d created us with and the second is the spirit of G-d within us. G-d didn't create us with a human spirit without His spirit also being there. That's why the human spirit is so powerful. G-d is always there with it. Always present, always there with it. And that is the power in your human spirit. It is G-d. The power in your human spirit is almighty G-d. He's there, just waiting on you to accept the better part of your own self. And love and more respect the better part of your own self. Once you accept your better life and you want to respect it, G-d comes into the spirit with you. He joins you. And your effort is not just your effort. That's why in our holy book it says, they were seen fired in a direction, one direction, going to the same objective. Also the same aim fired from two arrows, fired from one and the same bow. Meaning that man's strained inside to take his life forward. And that straining is like pulling back the bow and then it fires his will and spirit, it fires it out.
His will and spirit is fired out from the bow. But when it's fired it's not only his will and spirit, it's also G-d's will. It's also G-d's will, G-d's will is with him. If we could wake up to believe that and accept that, we will never feel hopeless ever again. How can we feel hopeless or helpless if we believe what that's saying. That G-d has created us, has not created us to be alone, He has created us to have a will that's human. And that will is so powerful, it can defeat the world. But G-d will not leave that will to battle the world by itself. His will will be right there with you, working with you, to see you succeed. G-d's will.
And Allah said to Muhammad, He says, "I'm closer to you than your own jugular vein." The jugular vein is the one that cast the blood to the brain in the neck. Said, "I'm closer to you than your own jugular vein." And again, He says to Muhammad, He says, "When my servants call on me pleading, 'Oh, G-d, help me,'" says, "Tell them I am near. Tell them I am near." Some of us we get in trouble, we holler like G-d is 50 light years up above in the sky there somewhere. "Oh, Lord. Please Lord..." And we don't know He's right here. He's right here. We yell and all that. He's right here. Says that, "I hear the caller when he calls." That's what G-d told, Muhammad to say. Yes. And in another place He says, "I hover," G-d, "I hover between a mortal and his heart." So that means in here. It got to be in here.
G-d says, "I hover between a mortal and his heart." So that mortal life, your consciousness of yourself being alive, et cetera, your flesh, that's what it means. Your flesh body, your senses as flesh, as matter and material. And your heart that registers pain and kindness and et cetera. And G-d says He hovers between the two.
Your heart troubles you, and your flesh troubles you. Two kinds of trouble. Trouble in my body... A lot of times troubles are with me in my body, but my heart is feeling good. A lot of trouble can be in my body and my heart be feeling good. Yeah. So G-d says he hovers between the two. Hover is to say, He is invisible, like a spirit. That's what that's saying. He's not matter, like you. He's invisible like a spirit. That's why the word hover is used. Hover means like a bird hovers, or something that can float on air, hovers. Hovers means to stay above, to ride the air. So He's riding the air between your mortal concerns and your spiritual concerns. He's just that close.
So He knows He's closer to your heart than you are. And He's closer to your mortal flesh and body, flesh and blood body than you are. He's inside you. Inside you. Just waiting on you to wake up and respond properly. This idea is the idea that Christianity has, Islam has, and Judaism has. And perhaps some other religions, too. We have these ideas in common.
Now, Mr. Fard, I mentioned already that he was an outsider. A man of another race from outside of America. But that man introduced to the poor of this city, to the poorest of this city, and the most uneducated of this city, a belief that Islam is freedom, justice, and equality. In the early 1930s, the work to have us promote us Islam, came to this place, Detroit. And began to grow in the African-American people of this city.
Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, his name is Muhammad ibn Abdullah, bin Abdullah, or ibn Abdullah. Muhammad bin Abdullah, the world leader of one billion and a quarter Muslims, now on this earth. When he was asked, "What is Islam?" Here's what he said: "Islam is to witness for one G-d, to pray, to give charity, to fast the month of Ramadan, and to visit the sacred house." That was his answer. Visit the sacred house means in pilgrimage to Mecca, to the venerable city Mecca, sacred city Mecca. That's what he said. When he was asked, "What is Islam?"
Now, if you would ask almost any Muslim in any part of the world today, "What is Islam?" I'll tell you what the answers you're going to get most likely, good too. "Islam is religion of peace." "Islam is religion of unity." "Islam is surrender of the human will to the will of G-d." These are the answers you would get. But when Muhammad was asked, "What is Islam?" He didn't give those answers. He didn't give those answers. He gave the answer I just gave you, from him. That's the answer he gave. Now, Muhammad says that religion is... Islam is to witness for one G-d, If you witness for one G-d, you are going to be free.
He said, Islam is to pray and seek help from that G-d, that you witness that you recognize. And he said, "Islam is to giving charity, to be charitable." If you're giving charity, you going to help your fellow man. Hmm? And he said, "Islam is to fast during the month of Ramadan." Fasting in the month of Ramadan is not just denying yourself food and water or drink and et cetera. But it is also making yourself more aware that there are people who hurting like you hurting, hungering like you hungering, and thirsting like you are thirsting. And they can't help it.
You are fasting voluntarily. Voluntarily, you are fasting as a believer practicing his religion. But there are some people out there who are so poor and they don't have these means or way to get food and they're going to bed hungry at night. So this makes you aware of them, makes you more sympathetic, you can empathize with them. And so this whole society is going to get benefits because of many in the society fasting and feeling the hunger pangs of the poor. You see here? You see the logic? You see the logic, you see the wisdom and the logic? Okay.
Then he says, "And it is to make visit to the sacred house." If you make visit to the sacred house, you're going to see that there is a common house for all people. You're going to see the black man, brown man, the yellow man, the red man, and all kinds of men and women from all kinds of cultures and ways of life. You're going see them there at that one place. That's going to say to you, we all belong to one human family. So you are going to be aware of the unity of mankind, the one family of man under G-d.
I can tell you in one statement, what the effect of Muhammad's definition of Islam is. It is freedom, justice, and equality. So don't tell me how to go into some spiritual training to get my spirit like G-d, or with G-d, so I'll have peace with G-d, before you tell me how to feed my baby, and take care of my wife. First, help me with my life, then help me with the hereafter.
So I'm here to tell you that Master Fard was on the job and he knew how to speak to us. Yes. He told us what they were ignoring or had lost. And that is that Islam is freedom, justice, and equality. Islam was given to mankind in the world to free us from every form of slavery and oppression, to free us to have our life for our G-d who created us, to have the honorable life and the good life that G-d created us for. That's why Islam came.
And as I said, it came not only to liberate Muslims or to liberate those who would be called Muslim, but it came to liberate all people who were denied religious freedom. Muhammad said, "Protect the places of worship of other people from those who would profane those places." That's what Muhammad taught. So there were people who had savages and ignorant people. They didn't care about the sanctity of those places, But Muhammad obligated his followers that if they saw such savages or such ung-dly people threatening or profaning the sacred places of worship of other people, the Muslim was supposed to defend those places.
And now we done gone crazy. We want to hurt churches. We want to see the churches die and crumble up. Some of us got a thing with Jews. We can't live our own religion for wanting to see all Jews dead. Pitiful. Pitiful. If G-d would give me the power to kill those who are wrong in religion, I'd have to start killing right where I am. Yeah, I'd have to start killing right where I am, and then kill some Jews and Christians after I get through you all. And I'm speaking of the whole Muslim world. Not just this audience here. This audience here, you in pretty good shape, baby. I'm talking about the Islamic world. Yeah, I'd have to start slaying, killing right in the Islamic world first.
Now, Mr. Fard Muhammad, he gave us a program language, a language for a program. And it had profound influence in our lives. It shaped us. It shaped our growth. I couldn't be where I am today without it. It has shaped the growth of Muslims in these poor areas of America, the slums of Detroit, Chicago, and other places.
We grew from calling our places of worship temples. He didn't even tell us they were mosques. He didn't use that language. He said they were temples. We grew from calling them temples to calling them mosque. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad in the '50s had us change from calling them temples to mosques. We grew from calling ourselves Xs, Malcolm X, to calling ourselves Malcolm Shabazz and Muhammad Ali. Our Islam was freedom, justice, and equality. We couldn't recite Qur'an. We couldn't give the Articles of Faith with the logic and aqidah and everything. We didn't know that. We weren't educated in Islamic studies. Most of us couldn't even go through the prayer rituals. The great majority of us couldn't go through the prayer rituals, to do the prayers as they are done by Muslims all over the world. But we knew that Islam was good for our life, because we were told that Islam is freedom, justice, and equality.
And we came to believe that the self that we were displeased with, was the self that the world made of us, the white world, bad world. And we came to believe that we didn't always have this ugly inferior self. We came to believe that we were, in our own nature and creation, the original man. First man that G-d made. That's true. Every person is the original man. Even though you may be living an artificial man, a false man, you are still the original man. What G-d made is there and it's going to stay there and you'll be buried, and maybe it'll never be reconciled or brought to peace again, with your original self. But your original self will be there when you are dead and your original self will survive your grave.
Yes. We were taught that we was original man. And we were taught that the original man is a righteous Muslim born by nature. G-d created you a Muslim. A righteous Muslim. These are good teachings. These are teachings that really hold the essence of so-called orthodox Islam, world Islam. We were told that we should be upright, because Allah made us to be upright, that we are born by nature to be upright, that we should be upright and sincere on the path that will take us to our G-d, Allah.
Today learned Muslim authors of Islamic publications are discussing Islam as a universal message for promoting human progress, social and economic justice, et cetera. One of such publications is titled The Minaret of Freedom. I became acquainted with them maybe 10 years or more ago. I was so happy to see Muslims, educated Muslims in America, embracing the idea of freedom. And calling Muslims' attention to the great idea of freedom. Leaders in Islam, they fear to use language that the West uses, because that language is really their own language sometimes, their own language. But they fear to use it because they're afraid that using it is going to cause them to be seen as friends of the West. Isn't that a bad situation to be in? You can't even speak your own language for fear that somebody's going to think you the friend of your enemy. That's ridiculous. Why don't you be a friend of those who think like you? Why don't you be their friend? Why don't you be a friend of those who want what you want? And then join them and they will help you fight their own people, who are against that.
See, Allah, G-d, the Creator of all of us, He will never help us if we are selfish and are not standing upon truth and justice. If we are standing upon hurt and bitterness, He's not going to help us, if we are not standing upon truth and justice at the same time. It's okay, you're supposed to register hurt, you're supposed to dislike hurt. But you're not supposed to stand upon hurt. "Oh, and my position is on that 'You did me wrong.'" No. My position is that wrong is wrong, whether done to me or anybody else. So I'm standing on the principle, not on the pain, not on the hurt to me. I'm standing on the principle. A man can fight much longer fighting for principle than he can fighting for hurt. After a while you ain't hurting so much, you stop fighting, But there's need to continue to fight for the principle because there's others hurt.
Let me see. Can I hurry right through this now? Now here is the difference between what Islam wants for society and what America wants for society. In principle, America and Islam want the same thing for man, in principle. But in practice, in practice, they're different. America seems to put the emphasis and the focus and the light on freedom, more so than on justice. And the result is that the society has turned on to freedom, but not necessarily turned on to justice. And my freedom disrespects your freedom, my freedom clashes with your freedom. So the society suffers, because we are going after freedom, but have lost the connection for freedom with justice. Freedom and justice are born together and freedom and justice are to live together, always. You can never separate justice from freedom. In Islam, justice is willing to sacrifice some freedom, for a better freedom or for a genuine freedom down the road. But freedom in Islam is never willing to sacrifice any part of justice.
It's not justice that you punished the victims to recover from the wrong or the injuries of the guilty. I know some of you are following what I'm saying here. No. That's why in Islam no bearer of a burden should bear the burden of another. Now I didn't do you... I'm not going to be your scapegoat. I don't care if it is in the Bible. I'm not going to be your scapegoat. You get some person that's guilty, you take the right goat out there and whip that right goat. Slay that right goat. I'm not the goat that did the wrong, don't use me. A lamb for sacrifice? You getting one of them that did you some wrong, man. I'm a lamb that ain't going to be your sacrifice. Let's find the guilty lamb. Let's sacrifice that one. Now I know, I know. You know I know the other side of the story. Make the innocent pay for the guilty, pay the price for the guilty.
See if this was true Islamic society of justice and freedom and equality, we wouldn't have so many jails. No. Islam would not tolerate this big population of convicts. No indeed. Something is wrong with a democracy that has such a large population of convicts. So, don't think that our democracy is the same, don't think that since we believe in the same thing in principle, that we are the same. We are not the same. Islamic justice is not the same as American democracy, not the same. This democracy will slay many innocent people and souls. Many innocent people and souls will lose many families to destruction in the name of freedom and democracy. In the name of freedom and democracy this society tells Satan, "You have as much freedom as the Pope of Rome."
Now, if he can't handle you, then later for him. No, this is wrong. I don't know where they borrowed this from, but I think they borrowed it from Hell. Yeah. I read in the language of the West, the Christians, that they received the key to Hell and Heaven. Now I know what a righteous man can do with the key to heaven, he can help more souls get in there. Well, what in the world does he need a key to hell for? We don't want to open the doors of hell for anybody. Let you go in there, break the door down yourself and get in. You have to go down on your own, all right? You don't have to get the help. And I'm certainly ain't going to open the door for the demons to come out of hell and come up here where we are. No righteous man would do that. Open the door of Hell and let the demons come here and mess up our lives? Something wrong with a democracy that permits such an idea. I know you hear me.
So that should tell you brothers and sisters and believe me, we have many, many comrades in arms in the church and in the synagogue. Don't think I'm speaking on my own or just as a Muslim. No, we have many brothers and sisters who stand on what I'm telling you right now in the churches and in the synagogues. And we are free too, as citizens of this country. And we are going to shape the future of this country. And we are not going to be satisfied with Satan getting the same respect that the righteous people get.
In Islam, we are told to fight the schemes of Satan. Fight the schemes of Satan. And if this is one of his schemes, and it is, we are obligated as Muslims to fight that scheme. All Christians don't believe in this way of life to have Satan on the loose, whatever he wanted to do, whatever he please to take as many down as he want to. No. We have an obligation, the strong have an obligation to the weak. To protect the weak from things that are harmful and Satan is harmful. So the strong have an obligation to the weak to protect the weak from Satan. Yes, we do.
We are to protect... That the wise will protect the foolish. The strong is to protect the weak. The healthy is to protect the sick. This is true religion, is Islam and true religion. There's an obligation on us. Those who say, "Well, those people are dumb and their misery is their own problem. And we know what could be done to turn them around or bring them around, but we can't do that. If we do that, we'll be going against our commitment to let Satan have his way." No. They're not ready to fight those who greed for power. Those who have greed...
Greed for power. Those who have greed for power. Now, they don't want to be drug addicts. They ain't going to be drug addicts. They don't want to be alcoholics. They're not going to be alcoholics. But if they see a chance to make big money on alcoholism, on drugs, they will not turn down that big money for a principle. To uphold a principle. No, they will justify it, say, "Well, they have all the help they need. They know it's wrong. So if they go and buy drugs, use drugs, they know it's wrong. They should suffer their own action, their own deed."
No, that's not human. That's not human. Human being is a creature of intelligence and goodness. Intelligence and goodness. We are to appeal to your goodness. We are to appeal to your intelligence. And a human being can be deceived in his heart, and can be deceived in his mind. And Allah says, "Think not that the creation of man is a bigger creation than the creation of the world." That's what G-d said. So what is G-d saying to us? G-d is saying that you have not the power to resist the world if the world comes against you.
You cannot as a human being match the world. No, no. So if you can be good, you could be good. You could be from a good family. You could be a real good Christian family or real good Muslim family or whatever. But if the world continues to grow against your life, that you've been raised to protect. After a while, after a while, the world is going to become so big in its influence that it's going to start taking the members of the family. Taking the members of the family.
Man is not bigger than the world. So now when children come up in a world, and see television and see all this stuff popular. And they go in the streets and they hear what's popular. The drugs out there, plentiful. The guns are available. Everything that you telling them wrong is just made so easily to get accessible. So the world is a stronger voice than your little voice at home. The world is a bigger power than you. So the world is going to overcome them and take them away from you. And not only take the children, going to take adults too. The mama of the woman that never took drugs. Now the daughter's taking drugs.
The son that was never seeing his father become an alcoholic. Now he's becoming an alcoholic. The world is just taking them away. G-d made the world to sensitize us. G-d made the world to tell us what is right and wrong. Listen, what I'm saying. If Satan wouldn't take over the world, these trees, the grass, the animals. They would never make drug addicts out of us. This natural environment will not make a drug addict out of us. It takes sin to do that. Oh, you blaming that on sin. Our holy book says, surely intoxicants and gambling and games of superstitions are the works of the devil. Satan. Stay away from it. So I'm coming from my holy book. This is not me talking. I don't stand. I don't give you anything unless I can stand upon it in my religion. Okay? Well, these things are the works of the devil, the works of Satan.
So says my holy scripture. G-d, in our book says that. And we are to fight the schemes of Satan. Okay, the world is too big for us. So what is that telling us? What is that? It's not speaking to the common people. Blessed. You are really blessed if you get it. It's speaking to the learned leaders in a society. It's saying to those learned leaders, "Look, G-d created the natural world to support human life, and to sensitize human life in a good way. But the Satan has another idea." And our religion says, this is reported by Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon him. Says, "G-d wanted the angel, Jibr?l." The archangel, Gabriel in Christianity. Jibr?l in Islam, "To see his creation. And what was going to come about. So he said, 'Jibr?l, come and behold my creation. See my creation.' Jibr?l looked at it. He said, 'My Lord, how can anyone go wrong in such a wonderful creation?' And then G-d instantly showed him the creation after Satan had changed it. And the same angel, archangel Jibr?l, he said, 'My Lord, how can anyone go straight in such a creation?'"
That's telling us that once Satan reorders the world, we are helpless. We are helpless. We know a few of us can survive. G-d always save a few souls. A few of us can survive. Yes, but who knows when we will go? And if we can't do anything about it, we gone too already, haven't we? We may not like it. But not liking it ain't enough. You can't change it. So you finished too. Satan has finished you, too. So as saying to man, actually man, who puts himself in a position to be responsible as a guardian for society.
It's saying to him, man, as a creation, cannot manage this world if this world is turned against him. And Satan has a power to turn it against you. You can only manage if you have G-d with you on your side. G-d is bigger than the world. G-d can manage the world. If you just accept to have G-d with you on your side, then you can manage the world. Even though Satan is trying to use it against you. And then G-d says, I repeat. He said, "And fight the schemes of Satan." And what are the Christians told?
Rebuke Satan. And he will run from you. This is the Bible. Rebuke Satan, and he will run from you. So what is this idea of leave Satan alone? No. G-d's people. They are prepared to do battle with Satan. He's the enemy of all people. [Arabic]. That's what he's called in the Qur'an, the enemy of all human beings. Don't think of him as the enemy of G-d. G-d doesn't have any enemies. Enemies just nonexistent with G-d. It doesn't matter.
You can't affect him anyway. So what? To yourself, you're his enemy. But to him, enemy? I don't have any enemies. You're your own enemy. That's what G-d says, you your own enemy? Yes. So we need to see G-d correctly too. We make G-d cheap. Make a cheap G-d out of the great G-d. Like he's worried about Satan. G-d ain't worried about nothing. G-d worried about nothing. When He wants us protected, He wants us to have our good life. So he serves us, and he is ready to serve us.
And He calls us His servants. [Arabic] Oh servants of G-d." That's how He addresses all human beings. All human beings. And He says, "And I have not created men or jinn, except that they serve me." So the purpose of our existence on this earth is to serve our G-d. And it doesn't mean rituals. It means serve G-d with your soul, with your intelligence, with your whole life. And that's another place as I'm concluding this. That is again where we differ from this idea of freedom and democracy. We come to Jumah and we are told when the call to jum'ah prayer service is made, to leave off business.
So the businessman is ordered by G-d that when the prayer to jum'ah service is called, he had to shut up his shop. He had to close shop, stop selling. And hurry to jum'ah prayer service, congregational prayer. Now this is in Islam. This is in Islam. And the same chapter on jum'ah says. And when the jum'ah prayer service is over, has concluded, disperse, and go back into the avenues of business. So Allah is telling us. G-d Almighty is telling us, business is necessary for the life and progress of society. But it's not the higher value. The higher value is devotion to your G-d. So when you are asked to come and devote your attention to your G-d, close up your shop, and come devote your attention to your G-d. Then when it's over, when the prayer service over, go back to your business, take care of your business. So our day out of the week for prayer service is not a day of rest. You hear me?
This is not separate from my point that I've been making ever since I began speaking. It is not a day of rest. Our rest is in our productive work. That's where our rest is. You want to rest, work and produce. That's how you rest. The more your reserves increase, the more your property grows. The more you rest. Yes. So understand me Muslims. We don't believe in one day of rest. We believe in seven days of work. And that's our rest. Then the rest, the whole day and a night, I have them for the rest of the week. And some of us did it. I mean, that's what happened. We get off work and we go back Monday. We out of it.
Can't recover. But we are not going to rest. I can't speak to Satan directly. You tell Satan that I said, we are not going to rest. We cannot stop now. So I want you all to join me and other good religious people of the great religions of this planet. Join me in raising a battle, war on the schemes of Satan. We are not looking for him. We know he's in his works. We're going to hit his works. Mr. Fard said, "How many ducks will it take to dry up this water source of his, and let him drink up all the water? Dry up his water source." His wisdom, his wisdom. Because the beast was seen in the end of the world. He seen in the water. Yes. In the lake. Yes. And it means in the sensitivities, in the innocent sensitivities of human beings.
So Fard said, you going to dry up this lake. That's the lessons you know. They'll dry up this lake. And believe me, the teaching that he gave the Honorable Muhammad did a big part, had a big part in the drying up of the lake. The lake that's old Satan was ruling and occupying. Yeah. Had a big fountain drying up. So all Black, all poor Black people, all they were hearing. Now they suffering and suffering and suffering. Everybody got everything. They don't have nothing. "Love your enemy. And it's not your one side, give them the other cheek. They ask you to go one mile with him, go ten. Walk down the road all day and all night with him, with your enemy." That's the kind of teaching they were getting. Now they had misery. Somebody done took everything from them. The freedom to have life, liberty and everything else taken from them. And they being preached to love. "Love, love, forgive."
"Pray for them." That's the beast's lake. That's the lake of the beast. So Mr. Farad came around and said, "He's a devil. His time is up. All that is a fire in lake, man, that water going to dry up." After a while, those innocent weaknesses you had in your sensitivity, they burning out. Farad's message just burning them out. Slap me on my side of my cheek, I'm going to try to chop his hand off. That's what Farad did. He turned that Black man around that was saying, "Yeah. Yes, yes, Jesus. Oh Lord. Yes. Clap away. Walk by, walk and walk by. Walk in. Yes, yes. Hallelujah. Hallelujah." Farad got to working on him, said, "Hell no, I not going walk one step with him. He slapped me. He raised his hand. I'm going to try to cut it off." Now, let me tell you something. In my conclusion, this is my conclusion. Mr. Farad was wise. He got his wisdom from the world, but also from Scripture. Most of his wisdom, he got from Scripture. In the Bible. Jacob has said... Jacob, the one who stole his brother's birthright?
First he, yeah. And then got his inheritance. Stole his birthright, then he got this inheritance. The same Jacob in the Bible. I'm not saying I go along with this, it's a story. It has wisdom in it. It's not to be taken literally. That's what I'm saying. The same Jacob in the Bible, it said that he was seen putting dirt in the wells that Abraham dug. Listen to that. He was seen putting dirt in the wells that Abraham dug. Now Abraham dug those wells for water so that people have water. And here comes Jacob now. He's putting dirt in them, means that he's doing away with the wells, that Abraham dug for the people.
That's what it means. Now there's wisdom there. And Mr. Farad read it. So we can't see all the complicated and fine details in the puzzle. You can't see that unless G-d blessed you to have that kind of intelligence and perception. Mr. Farad obviously had it. And he understood what the psychology was. So he came and he used it against this society. Instead of him giving us the wells that Abraham dug, he put dirt in those wells. He filled them up with materialism. He took out the spiritual life, the spiritualism, and he filled those wells that Abraham intended for our spiritual life. He filled them up with material interests, material interests.
And what was the result? He dried up the lake. He dried up the lake. Thank you, Mr. Farad. I'm glad Allah sent you already. So you certainly did a masterful job. You punished our enemy, and you freed us to go on our own. Independent. Even free of you. Yeah. He freed us even to be free of himself. And now it's up to us. We have the freedom to establish our own life. We have a son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad who knows how to take us all the way to where we have to go. And who has been blessed to see Mr. Farad as a warrior, fighting a battle in the air. And only landing in the water.
Yes. The battle of psychology. Yes. And I know how to distinguish between the warrior and the Muslims. So I reject many of the tactics of the warrior, because the warrior used tactics that were not Halal for Muslims. But I'm not going to reject them and hate the man that had good intentions. He said, "Fight fire with fire." So he picked up what they were using, and he used it against them. And he tells us, he tells us in his own language. He tells us that yes, I'm doing this. And I'm not halal now. Said that he put on dyed garments. And he left word with the seniors of our community, told them that, "One day you'll see me in my sacred robes. But right now I'm using everything I can. In this fight against this ung-dly society that have made you nothing but waste. Wasted your life." Yes.
So G-d has blessed me to see Farad, the one who picked up the tricks, the wisdom, the schemes, et cetera of the rest and use it against them. And distinguished him as a fighter outside of his Muslim dress. Came out of his Muslim dress. He put on their dress, blessed me to see him. Now I can distinguish between what he wanted to be and what he had to be. His own consciousness and his sympathy for us, forced him to go outside of Islam to do battle with Satan.
Now I reject that person as a person for me to follow. But I thank G-d that he raised up one to do battle with another. And that's what G-d says, and man said. Yeah, in the Qur'an. Yes. Say he will raise up with one, to do battle with another. You create an enemy for the enemy. Yeah. But I know the man in his intentions. And his intentions were good, honorable and pure. All he wanted to do was break the grip of this wicked world on us. So we'd be free to go to our G-d with our whole life, and have the great future that G-d created us for. And the way is open.
The way is open. So please don't doubt me. There's too much for us to have right now for you all to be doubting me. I'm pleading on your own behalf, I'm pleading for your sake. I'm pleading in your interest. Please do not doubt me. Support me and we can have great things, great things. And have it soon, soon. And G-d is my witness. You see? You see any jewelry? You see anything I spent a lot of money on? And most of the clothes are given to me. And I don't hardly buy unless there's a discount or sale. And I'm happy. And if I see you, with diamond watch that cost 4 or 5,000. And I know you're a good believer, it will not affect my love for you at all. See, it's something wrong with a person that want to fast and make everybody fast with them. I can fast by myself. I don't have to have all of you all hungry. As-Salaam Alaikum. G-d bless and peace be upon you all.


