07/22/1998
IWDM Study Library
Organizing our Resources 
for Productive Community Life
Milwaukee WI

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
00:00 Speaker 1: The following lecture titled "Organizing our resources for productive community life" was recorded on the campus of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Tuesday, July the 22nd 1998. The lecturer is Imam W. Deen Mohammed, Muslim-American spokesman. And now, Imam Mohammed.
[applause]
00:23 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Thank you. Thank you. As we say in Islam, peace be unto you As-salamu alaykum.
00:35 S?: Alaikum-Salaam.
00:35 IWDM: We praise G-d, the one and only Lord, the keeper of this universe, whatever is in the skies and whatever's in the Earth, made by Him, and He sees the order of everything. And He is the only G-d, and He is the only G-d, there is no other G-d except the one that made all this beautiful world above our heads and all around us comfortable for us, made us the human beings a special creation with potential above all the other creatures that He made. We are able to do things that no other thing in the creation is able to do, and that is change our life to suit ourself, make choices, independent free choices. We can be what Allah wanted us to be. We can be what the G-d wants us to be, or we change our minds and say "Hey I don't like what I am. I'm not gonna be what G-d made me to be. I'm gonna be something different." So G-d gave us the freedom because we're so special, gave us the freedom to choose to be even something He doesn't want us to be. G-d knows that most of us will soon get tired of doing something that's not best for us and we will come back to what He wants. And the world sometimes looks like it's lost and there's no way to get people to think sanely or to think sensibly, or to think righteousness, or to think obedience to G-d.
02:11 IWDM: And all of a sudden, something happens in the world. Things begin to change, and pretty soon we are looking at that bad time as a time that has passed. And believe me, in the '70s, I was really worried. I was troubled by the way people were behaving, even by the way the establishment was behaving. I thought the establishment, the newspapers, the media, the magazines, the major magazines, the TV, the television, Hollywood, I thought these media instruments, these mass media instruments were really feeding disobedience, encouraging disobedience, a disobedience to G-d, a disrespect for G-d, disrespect for sacred things. I felt the media had a big hand in that, and I was so angry and I was so uptight that I just wanted to scream. I saw a movie once, and the man, the fella in the movie, he said, "Stop the world. I wanna get off." And I'm telling you, when he said that I cheered. I just, I did two claps in the movie 'cause I felt the same way. I felt that the world was no good for me anymore. I wanted to stop. I wanted to get off this world and be separated from this world. And all of a sudden just people started changing for the better. And that's the time we are living in now. We're living in times when respect for G-d is back. Respect for parents is back.
03:32 IWDM: Respect for human life is back. These things are back now and this is a good time to be living in. It's a good time to say, "Yes, we thank G-d for life. We thank G-d for all the possibilities that we enjoy in this life." It's time for Muslims to say, "Yes, we thank G-d. We thank G-d for our religion. We thank G-d for our Holy Book, the Quran. We thank G-d for Muhammad the Prophet who was on this earth preaching to human beings when no one else would turn His people around, turn them away from idol worship, turn them away from shameful behavior in the main areas of the town. They would go in the center of the town, they would go in the heart of the town, they would go right in the heart of the town, what we call downtown. And they would go there and march around the Kaaba house, the sacred house, in the nude. And the society was accepting that they behaved that way. They were marching around the sacred house naked. And that was imposed upon them by the wealthy people. The wealthy people say, "The poor people, you have to go around it naked. We wear clothes, you have to go naked." So it was a very, very bad time for good behavior.
04:44 IWDM: And Muhammad the Prophet was chosen. So Muslims, you should be happy to say, "We thank Allah for Islam. We thank Allah for the Quran, our holy book. We thank Allah for Muhammad the Prophet that broke that ugly time and changed the trends in the time of Dark Arabia, ignorant Arabia, and made it possible for us to have Islam, G-d's mercy to us, Muhammad the Prophet and His mercy to all the world. And we should be proud of that, that G-d says that Muhammad, he's not just for Muslims. He's a mercy to all people. He's a mercy to all the world. And that G-d said of our sacred place in Mecca that we look to and we pray to there, we pray toward that place. It's our center, our direction in prayer, and we make pilgrimage there once a year if we can afford to. We go there and we make... I'm planning to make a minor visit called Umrah very soon. I'll make Umrah there Inshallah. We make a visit to that sacred house and we circle... Go around in a circle, circling that sacred house and complete the rituals there. And we feel great about that.
05:50 IWDM: But we have to understand that G-d says of that house, of that little, simple sacred house, G-d said that it was built for all people, not just for Muslims, that it was built for all mankind as a symbol, holding great news for all human beings on this earth. It was built for all mankind, for all people. So, Muslims, we can't be so selfish that we live Islamic life without any recognition or any awareness that we have to live a life, not only for Muslims, but a life for other people too. For our Christian neighbors, for non Muslims, we have to live so our life is a contribution to all people, a good contribution to all good people. That's how we have to live. Mohamed, the prophet said to support what I just said to you, I'm giving you the words of our prophet Mohamed, Mohamed said "The best of you is the one who benefits all people, whose life and work benefits all people, who is most helpful to the people that's the one who's the best of you." According to Mohamed, the prophet. If you want it in Arabic, I'll give it to you in the words that he said, he spoke not English.
[foreign language]
07:16 IWDM: "The best of you, is the one who is helpful to all people whose life and work benefits all people." So we witness that G-d is G-d, and he's the one and there is no G-d with him, and no G-d other than G-d, and we witness that Mohamed to whom the Quran was revealed, better than 14 centuries ago, 1400 years ago, is the last of the prophets mentioned the Bible in the Old and New Testament, he is according to teachings of our Holy Book the Quran. He's mentioned in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the Bible, and we witness that He is a mercy to all people.
[foreign language]
08:07 IWDM: Mercy to all the people. We witness that he is a seal of the prophet, according to the teachers of our Holy Book. That he is the seal of the prophet, he's the last of the prophets and the seal of the prophet. May prayers and peace be upon on him, amin, as you say amen. We're going to have questions here, so you ask direct questions to me, according to what you have heard, if you have some questions about it, ask me questions. Now that's why I'm here, I'm here to talk to you and have you ask questions, but direct your questions to what I'm saying or what I have said. And please, try to remember correctly what I have said before you give me the question. Be sure you are asking a question with a knowledge of exactly what I said.
09:03 IWDM: So many times people come up and they say "You said that." I said "Said what? I never heard that before." And they listen to me and still get up and say "You said." I say "Hey I never heard that before." So be sure you know what I said, and remember what I said exactly as I said it. And then ask your question about that. Now if you wanna ask a question about something outside of this talk and outside of this visit, I will accept that, but I expect you to ask questions directed to what I have said or to what I'm saying. And not the Muslim world or the Muslim community of America, our Imam W. Deen Muhammad, what he did last year or 50 years ago, I don't accept questions like that. But if you have to ask a question like that, I will try to answer it. I will try to do my best to answer it.
09:55 IWDM: Now, what is this concern that we have for Muslims or for people. Not just Muslims. For people organizing their resources so that we will have more productive communities. The future of the world, the way things are moving, the way the world is moving, tells us that citizens everywhere, not just here in Milwaukee or Chicago where I come from, but everywhere in the world, citizens are going to have to accept more responsibility for their lives and for the life of the community that they live in. That's the way the world is going. And I believe that's in accord with what is in Scripture. Both Quran and Bible. Both the Holy Book of Muslims, the Quran, or Quran as they say in English, and the Bible, tells us that a time is coming when individuals are going to have to accept more responsibility for themselves. Language that you would recognize as Christians, the Bible says, "Every cup you'll sit on bottom, everyone shall have his own vine and fig tree." So this is the Bible.
11:23 IWDM: And in our holy book, G-d says "No bearer of a burden can bear the burden of another." In other words, your burden is your responsibility. I may help you but your burden is still your responsibility. And by me helping you does not excuse you from your responsibility. So you have somebody who's lazy, they won't wake up at 7 o'clock, and they know they're supposed to get up at 7 o'clock, and get ready to go to work and be to work at 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock. And you volunteer to see that that person is awake and help them, push them on to the washroom and help them get out that door.
12:06 IWDM: Well, in the world you help that person be successful, but when it comes to judgement day when G-d, we all of us are gonna have to answer before G-d, that is not gonna excuse that person. G-d is gonna say, "That credit goes to the person who woke your lazy up every morning at 7 o'clock and push you to the washroom, that credit goes to them. Where is your credit?" And if you don't have any credit, you know you're not gonna get the great blessing of paradise, according to the teaches of both books, Bible and Quran. Yes, so how are we going to survive now in this world that...
12:47 IWDM: That's coming, and it's already on us, really. That's asking more of us, that we be responsible for more in our own life and in our own neighborhoods or in our community. How are we gonna prepare for it? I think we should prepare for it the same way that all other great efforts were made to improve the life of community and to improve the life of individuals in community. Those efforts was made by organizing the resources of the people and bringing people together who have similar resources, similar concerns, similar sensitivity. Bring them together. We have to learn the example of Muhammad, the prophet, and prophets before him, like Jesus Christ, peace be upon them, who selected certain people, and those people became their close acquaintance. Those people became their close friends. Those persons were selected, out of the many people, to be their companion, to help them in their life and in their life work. Well, all of us have to do that. That's human nature.
13:50 IWDM: When I was a boy there was some boys I wanted to be with more than I wanted to be with other boys. So, I ended up with two or three friends that were my very close friends that I went out with almost every day. I saw them every day; we became very close. I know their names right now; their names in my mind right now. So clearly, because that's how close we were, yes. So, all of us have to do that. But we have to do that not only in the name of pleasure or in the name of fun. We have to do that in the name of survival and progress, survival and progress. In the name of survival and progress, each of us should say, "Who makes the best company for me? Who has sensitivities like mine? Who thinks like I think?" And if we start mixing like that, but if you're not selective, and that's the greatest power G-d has given us, the power to make choices, independent choices, to use our reasoning, to use our rational mind and make independent choices for the better. So, we have to select these people that we gonna have as our buddies and our friends.
14:53 IWDM: I'm not telling you to put down your friend that you've been friends with for 10 years. That's your business. But if I were you, and if I was gonna look at friends, my friends, and say, "Now, who's more like me in his sensitivities? Who feels about things the way I feel about things, the good, bad, ugly, beautiful, life, death, pain, pleasure. Who feels like I do about these things?" And if that one who'd been my friend for 10 years, I found out that he doesn't feel the way I feel about things, and he doesn't seem to be going in the direction that I wanna go in, I would have to put a X on him. And I ain't talking about Malcolm X, I'm talking about just the X means out, crossed out. I'd have to cross him out. "Hey, I can't go, I can't go with you now. The world is asking for us to accept responsibility. The future depends on me accepting more responsibility in my life. I want a condition, so I can make progress."
15:56 IWDM: The best condition for progress is when you have the best environment for progress. You don't have a good environment for progress when you got people working with you and playing with you and living with you every day, occupying your time. From morning until night, you're spending your time with them. And they pulling in one direction, and you pulling in another. You never make any progress because you're in the company of people who always wanna go left when you wanna go right. You have to change that. You have to select friends to survive and make progress. We have to select workers to survive and make progress. We hold responsibility for work in the community and for work in our home.
16:30 IWDM: We have to organize, organize the home, and then partner up with those who feel more like you feel, in the home, in the family. That's what families are supposed to do. You may have five brothers and four sisters. All kids are not gonna agree; all kids are not gonna be the same. But there'd be a partner in that family for every one of you. I've never seen a family, where somebody didn't have nobody to partner with, if they wanted to partner up with somebody. In my family, I had my brother Herbert, and I had my brother Elijah Jr., and I had my little brother Akbar, that I partner up with. I could partner up with any of those three. The rest of them, they were so far away from me, I couldn't communicate that very well to them. But with those three, I could communicate, and we partnered up. So, we always can find good partners for survival and progress.
17:23 IWDM: We have to organize our resources. What resources? The first resource that you have is your human feeling. That's your good resources, to have good human sensitivities, to have good sensible sane human feeling. That's a great resource, great resource! Believe me, that resource keeps you out a lot of trouble. That great resource keep you from suffering a lot of losses. So, if you have good sensitivity, if you have good feeling, then treasure that. You're a good person. And you should be with good people. And you should be partnering up with good people. That's a great resource. But you are so brilliant, you're bright, you're intelligent. You make Cs and no Fs, that's good. You thought I was going to As, huh? You make Cs and no Fs, that's good.
18:13 IWDM: I know a great president of United States. Maybe the one of the most productive presidents of these United States. They say that that president's grade average was a C. Not B, not A, a C! But he turned out to be a terrific guy. Sometimes the school environment doesn't bring out everything that's in you. So, a student will be making a D or C or A or B or what a B or something and then probably could do much better in a different situation. So, always, it is not the grades you made in school that really tell what possibility or what you were qualified for, or what possibility you could have. Not always the right criteria. So he was a C and a very great President, a really very productive President, outstanding among the Presidents of these United States. Now, I heard that of John Johnson, President.
19:15 IWDM: No. Not John Johnson. Correction. Johnson, President Johnson, who died.
[background conversation]
19:21 IWDM: Lyndon Baines Johnson. I didn't have that on note. I'm still used to trying to talk without there being something out here to look at. Yes, Lyndon Baines Johnson. That's who I'm talking about. I read that Lyndon Baines Johnson was a C average student, but a better than an A average president.
[pause]
20:00 IWDM: We all have to live together. The world has been made all over again. Walls have come down that separated religious communities from each other. Walls have come down that separated nations from each other. We have to live with each other. That means we can't plan without the other people in mind. If I'm gonna plan for my future in America, I can't plan without having the others who are planning their future in mind. So Muslims, we wanna plan our future in these United States. We wanna plan to really develop as a community in Milwaukee, in Racine, in Chicago, in every city where we're populated, where we have some population there. We wanna plan to grow in these cities, and we can't have our plan on the table, but also having in that plan, respect for the plan of the church people, and the synagogue people and others in religion. They're planning too. So we have to plan knowing that they're planning too. And we have to meet with them and get acquainted with them, so we can know, to the best of our ability, we wanna know, What are they planning so that we will know how can we complement that plan, how can we be a complement to that plan? How can we be help and not harm?
21:39 IWDM: And we want them to be aware of the things that we share with them in common so that maybe they feel the same way we feel. We want them to look at what we're doing and say, "How can we complement what the Muslims are doing? How can we be a help to the Muslims' plan for their future community life and not a hurt?" Then we should be organizing resources. The people who have the school... Elementary school, high school or whatever, as their interest, they have made a career as teachers, they gonna be teachers all their lives. They should find teachers like themselves with feelings like they have, with an interest in the students like they have. They should find those teachers, and they should work with the people that they have closeness with. Closeness. Who they're closest to, in their feelings and in their aspirations, their feelings and what they want to see for education. They should get with those people and work with those people, combine their resources, organize their resources to make a better contribution to education. We should do this in education, we should do it in business.
22:55 IWDM: We're asking that our business people, not only work for business for the individual and business for the family, you have to do that. But we want some people who want to do more than that. We want some people who accept responsibility in bigger circles. We want some people who want to see their contribution in business not only benefit themselves and their families, but we wanna see people who wanna see their contributions benefit the city, benefit Milwaukee, benefit the neighborhood they live in. They wanna see more business life in the neighborhood they live in. We want those people to get together and collect and join together. Like-people with like-people. People of like-sensitivity with people of like-sensitivity. People of like-aspirations with people of similar aspirations or like-aspirations. Get together, combine your resources, and plan to make this life and community a better life. This is what we want to see. And I believe this is the demand of the future. This is the way the future is going to be. This is what the future is asking for. Present and future, future even more. This is what G-d wants. G-d wants that.
24:05 IWDM: G-d has not created any of us to be so selfish, to have a good thing, to have it good for ourselves and not care about our neighbors. Muhammad The Prophet, peace be upon him, he said, "The Muslim who goes to the bed with his stomach satisfied, knowing his neighbor's hungry is not one of the believers, not one of the Muslims." So, he didn't say, "But your neighbor has to be a Muslim." Muhammad The Prophet, peace be upon him, I repeat. He said, "If anyone goes to bed with his stomach satisfied, and he knows his neighbor is hungry, he's not a Muslim." You're not supposed to go to bed. You're supposed to go find some food and give to that neighbor next door. And the neighbor doesn't have to be a Muslim. The neighbor could be a Christian. So this is the way of G-d, not just the way of the world, or the trend of the New World. This is a trend that G-d wants. And G-d has brought this about.
24:58 IWDM: G-d created us to have the behavior we have, to have the nature, the behavioral nature that we have, and when wrong punishes this behavioral nature. This behavioral nature says, "I've had enough." Pretty soon their behavioral nature is gonna say, "I had enough." I may be the first one to say, "I had enough." You may be the first one to say, "I had enough." An old man might be the first one to say, "I had enough of this world that is going against reason and going against morality and going against G-d." It might be an old man to say that. It might be a teenager that says that, might be a little child that says that first. But G-d has made us to say we've had enough when things get too far out of line. So let us think about that and know that G-d has made each of us very special creations, human beings.
25:56 IWDM: There's nothing that I'd rather be than a human being. If G-d would say to me, after learning my place in this world from scripture, if G-d would say, "Well, Wallace, it's not too late, would you like to be a special angel in the heavens?" I'd say, "G-d, will I still be a human, too?" G-d says, "No, just an angel." "No, thank you. I thank you for what you made me, human, and I want to organize my life upon the human pattern that you made, upon the human pattern that you made, G-d, and I wanna make the best of it, and I wanna walk, work with people, who share my feelings and my aspirations, combine resources and make a better place for us to live in. The home, the block, the neighborhood, the city, the world." Thank you. Peace, As-salamu alaykum.
[applause]
26:56 Speaker 3: Takbir.
26:58 S?: Allahu Akbar.
27:01 S3: Thank G-d. I would like to thank our Imam, for that lecture, for the pious words. I hope we all benefited from it. Now, that was the lecture portion of the event today. We would like to join for our question-and-answer period. We did pass out 5-by-7 cards for people to write their questions down. If anyone has any questions, they can write their questions on the card. First question here, we will read. The question is, "What are your views on education in our Muslim schools here in Milwaukee?"
27:43 IWDM: I'm not from Milwaukee, so I can't... [chuckle] I can't have any particular opinion about the education in the Muslim schools in Milwaukee. But I do know that Milwaukee has, all with the Muslims of Milwaukee, have always been, I would say, committed to have Muslim school, Muslim education for their children, to have Islamic teachings for their children, Arabic language, which is the language of our holy book for their children, and recently, there has been an effort to transcend or improve the school in Milwaukee.
28:28 IWDM: Sister Basima Shahid, the wife of Imam Ronald Shaheed, has been asked to come here to Milwaukee, to be the principal of the school, of the elementary school. She accepted. She has been the principal there. And she's working with others who are supporting the school, to better the educational, the Islamic curriculum for the school. So, I don't have any knowledge of any problem, except a need for more people with resources, with education skills, to join their effort. We need volunteers. Education is very expensive. A poor community, we are not wealthy sheikhs [chuckle] from Kuwait, from the Gulf state. We are not wealthy people. We are poor people from the ghettos of the United States, so we don't have finances to finance our needs in education, like others who come here from those wealthy areas of the world. They can finance, and we can't. They can finance their needs, and we can't. So, we have to ask for volunteer help. We've paid some help. We have to ask for some volunteer help.
29:46 IWDM: So, I know one of the concerns would be that those who have education, training, and skills and desire to see improvement for the Muslim schools in Milwaukee, we would like for you to identify yourself and come forward, so you can volunteer, if no more than an hour a week, or a day a week. Volunteer some time to help make our school a better school. I say that in the name of our school here and in the name of the principal, sister Basima because I'm sure that she welcomes that, and she's looking for that kind of help. Yes?
[background conversation]
30:31 S3: Okay, the next question here, how can children help better the community?
30:44 IWDM: Be better children. [chuckle] Same thing for adults. How can adults help the community? Be better adults. We need better adults, and we need better children. And one thing I'd say to the children... I know that I'm almost 65. I'll be 65 soon, in this year. And the child in me has never gone away, and I think that's true for everybody. Sometimes I wake up and the child in me is in my mind and on my mind and shaping my thoughts. The child in me. So, I would say to you, "No matter how young you are, if you know this world is not a good world, good enough for human beings, if you know that your life and your family and your neighborhood is not good enough for human beings, then use your good senses, qualify yourself. If you have a desire to make things better, have the courage to go on and follow that desire and find a way to qualify yourself, so that we will have a better leader in that neighborhood, with your manhood, than we had with the manhood of those before you." So, that's what I would say to the youngsters. Don't be afraid to look at our world and criticize it, to look what we've done with it and criticize it and hope that you'll make a contribution better, so that people will have a better life in the neighborhoods and a better world.
32:18 IWDM: And remember this also, none of us can carry the world on our back, we have to have others to help us. Know that you're gonna need much help and you're gonna have to influence the leadership, you're gonna have to impress the newspapers, the media, you gonna have to win friends to your cause, but be brave and have the courage to wanna make a better world than the one that you lived in yourself, or the one that you're living in yourself.
32:48 IWDM: That's how the world gets better. I was a young man and I saw the temple of Islam, they called it the temple of Islam and I looked at it and I said, according to what I'm hearing from my father, "It's not what it should be.", and that's what made me stand up and be a minister. I became a minister just because of that, because I looked at my father's congregation and I said, according to what I'm hearing from him, "This congregation is not what it should be." And I was a young man, I was a teenager when I said that.
33:27 S3: The next question here is a two part question. The first question is, "I have a hard time always believing in G-d, what should I do?" The second part is, "I question whether a book can be a revelation from G-d? How do you believe in a holy book?"
33:45 IWDM: Alright, well let me say this. It sounds like you are reading some pages out of my life story because I looked at G-d, the way that they were telling me G-d was and I wasn't satisfied with it. And I questioned G-d. I'm gonna share this with you. I think all of us wanna believe in G-d. I don't believe G-d created any human being without a soul, that deep in that soul that has a desire to wanna believe in G-d and want to obey G-d. But what is your idea of G-d? What is G-d to you? The world that I was born in was called, The Black Muslims or the temple of Islam. And they gave me the idea of G-d. And I looked at it and I said, "If that's G-d, then that I don't want it."
34:48 IWDM: I didn't do it all of a sudden but in time I thought about it, and thought otherwise, I got older, I didn't like it. So I said, "If that's G-d, if G-d is gonna do these things, if that's the way G-d behaves?" I said, "No.", it's the only G-d I knew so I had to speak to that G-d that I knew. I said, "G-d if that's your behaviour, if that's your judgment, if that's the way you are, then I don't want that, I don't like that, I don't want you." I said, "When you bring me in your court, I'm gonna bring charges against you." That's what I said to G-d.
35:21 IWDM: Now, I'm sharing this, this is something that is hard for me to share with a public audience like this, but I'm sharing it with you. That's what I said, because I wanted to believe in G-d, I said, "Well if that's G-d, when you bring me in your court, I'm gonna have charges to make against you." So that person who's writing that, you keep seeking, you keep questioning. That's what I say to you, keep questioning. You don't believe, don't believe, don't believe until you feel comfortable to believe, don't believe in the scripture, don't believe in G-d until you feel in your soul comfortable to believe in that. That's my advice to you.
36:03 S3: Next question, "At what point... At what age or point in your life did you realize that you had to take total responsibility for yourself, family and community?"
36:19 IWDM: I don't know, I can't recall the exact time in my life when that happened. Seems like it was yesterday. [chuckle] Now, when you say total responsibility that's a big part, that's too big. Total responsibility, no, I accept responsibility for my behavior, I accept responsibility for my thoughts and for my behaviour, that's what I accept responsibility for. I can't accept responsibility for my family. I can do my best for my family, I accept responsibility to do my best for my family, but to say that I accept responsibility for the state of my family, that I am going to accept responsibility to keep my family healthy, to keep them happy, to keep them safe, to keep them clean, to keep them active, that's too much for me. We all have to accept that responsibility, they have to accept the responsibility for themselves too. So I accept responsibility within limits.
37:29 IWDM: I accept responsibility for my family, given that they're also gonna be decent enough to accept responsibility for themselves and want to share the responsibility that we all have to accept for our family. Yeah. And that goes for the community and anything else. No, I have a limit on how much I can carry and I expect that my members of my family will respect that and try to do their best too.
38:01 S3: Can we, as Muslims accept or go to the banking institutions, etcetera to get money, loan with the obligation upon getting the loan paying interest or is interest prohibited?
38:18 IWDM: Well, that's one of the first things I have experienced. If you wanna go to the bank to get a loan, you better have some collateral, you better have what they call equity. If you don't have something worth money already, you get to bring... Show them, if you don't have dollars, you have to show them, "I have a brand new Porsche. I have a brand new Jaguar. I have a home without a mortgage on it, I haven't taken out a mortgage on it." If you can't show them you have money, they're not gonna loan you money, that's number one.
38:53 IWDM: Now as far as avoiding the banking problem with the banking system, avoiding having to get interest compounded to avoid that, let's get behind the program we got. If you're in this community, we got a business effort going nationwide. Let's get with that business effort. And we can put our money together, we can invest our money together and we can escape the problem of reback working together as business people.
39:33 S3: In greatest respect, what does it mean to be a Muslim? What is the difference between a Muslim and a Christian?
39:45 IWDM: Well, the difference between a Muslim and a Christian, number one, is that Muslims say, "There is but one G-d. And Jesus Christ, peace be upon the prophet, is not the son of G-d, but the special creation of G-d." That's the big difference. The next big difference is the Christians power, Scripture, revealed 2,000 years ago, written by Apostles on the life of Jesus Christ, peace be upon Him. Muslims follow the Quran, revealed about 14 centuries ago to Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon Him.
40:38 IWDM: These are the major differences. I could keep pointing out to you major differences, but when it comes to what we believe in, we believe in essentially what you believe in. We believe in G-d. We believe in G-d's angels. We believe in the revelations that came from G-d to his messengers and prophets. We believe in the prophets and messengers and the revealed books. We believe in the Day of Judgement. We believe in the Qadr of G-d that G-d has ordered this world to give us the benefits that we want if we approach it correctly, and to give us harm if we approach it incorrectly.
41:18 IWDM: We believe in all these things. We believe in the resurrection of the dead. We believe in the resurrection of the dead. We believe that everything has to account before G-d one day. So these are your beliefs too. These are Muslim beliefs and these are your beliefs. So I wish someone had asked, "What are the similarities for Christians and Muslims?" It would have been a much nicer question, but thank you anyway. That question has to be answered too. What are the differences? I gave you the main differences.
41:53 S3: What specific ways can people share resources to improve economic conditions?
42:00 IWDM: Specific ways to share resources to enjoy economic... Economic?
42:04 S3: Economic conditions.
42:08 IWDM: To enjoy better economic conditions. What is the best way to do that? We don't have enough time to really do that question justice. I will simply say, "Be decent human beings by each other." G-d has already created us with a human soul and human nature to know when we are not being decent by each other. Be decent by each other and want to see bigger work in the world. More help in the world. If you do that, you're gonna join your small efforts so that your small efforts become a big effort. That's what we are doing.
42:51 S3: What should be our roles as Muslims, as humans, regarding environmental issues such as projected global warming due to human activity?
43:00 IWDM: Global warming?
43:00 S3: Yes, sir.
43:01 IWDM: You mean, like these '90s that we're having?
[laughter]
43:03 IWDM: Yes. Now look like those cars are growing. I think they're supposed to be decreasing and looks like they're increasing. Yes. We're gonna have to bring this to a close very soon. Now, global warming. I'm glad you asked the question. I wanna tell you something that I have observed. If these automobiles that we like to ride in had never been made, I wouldn't have to sit in an oven 130 to 140 degrees hot until it cools off. So the cost of the invention of the automobile... We sit in these hot automobiles as they go and we're sitting in the sun as hot as... It's just like an oven. We open the door and we open both sides out on both sides and let the heat out. And you have to close the door. You can't drive with the four doors open. So you have to close the doors. I close the doors and get in there. Oven, and I feel the oven.
44:25 IWDM: I've turned the switch quickly, air conditioner's on, it's blowing and I'm waiting for it to cool down a little bit and I thought about that. Look at this invention. Look, this invention has created a situation here where I have to expose myself to these high temperatures, often in the day. But what is happening? The high temperature that we're exposing ourselves to in these automobiles is conditioning us to survive global warming. That's G-d's mercy. I believe G-d is ahead of us in everything that happens. G-d is always ahead of us. So G-d is giving us a path for global warming.
45:08 IWDM: I don't see global warming as a doomsday. I see global warming as G-d's mercy. This cold Milwaukee is one day gonna be warmer. Some other states that have been warm are gonna be cooler. Chicago is gonna be warmer. Some of the states that's been hot, in Arizona somewhere, it's gonna be cooler. G-d has to rotate his mercy, as the Scriptures say. He rotates his mercy. So don't be fighting by these scientists. Some of them are stone crazy. They're batty as, battier than a bat, some of them. So don't be worrying about their predictions. Believe in G-d, and whatever G-d allows to happen, ultimately, it's gonna work for the good of mankind.
45:53 S3: Okay, we'll end up with two more questions here. This question says, "What does Muhammad got to do with G-d?"
46:02 IWDM: What does Muhammad have to do with G-d? Now, I'm gonna take that personally. My name is Mohammed. What do I have to do with G-d? I have to obey G-d. I have to obey G-d. That's what I have to do with G-d. Obey G-d. Respect G-d. Am I important to G-d? I'm nothing. I'm a little nothing. And G-d has given me such respect among people. G-d has given me such a respect for the human creation and Scripture. G-d has put a big value on me and I'm nothing. When I look at G-d and look at myself, I'm nothing. I'm nothing. What do I have to do with G-d? Nothing. Not important. I'm not important, but G-d has made me important. G-d says, [Arabic] G-d certainly gave respect and honor to every human child from Adam, descended from Adam.
47:11 S3: We are seeking to construct our schools in a more natural fashion than it is now. Would you say a gradual approach is better or a complete change, say, over a summer?
47:26 IWDM: Well, we have to study the needs. Study the needs, know the needs and know what we have to offer as solution. And then, once we know that, once we know the need, and what we have to answer the need, sometimes that says, "Go at it, and go at it speedily." And sometimes, what we see will say, "Take gradual steps. Don't go too fast with it." So I can't say go fast or slow. The situation, once you know it, will tell you whether to go fast or slow.
[background conversation]
48:27 S3: Okay, and those are the questions that we'll take. We'd like to thank, once again, Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Takbir.
48:32 S?: Allahu Akbar.
48:33 S3: Allahu Akbar. Let me make one final comment. Yes, sir.
48:39 IWDM: Thank you for your.

