06/21/2005
IWDM Study Library
Public Address
Philadelphia PA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker 1:
Our leader, Imam W Deen Mohammed.
IWDM:
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Praise be to Allah. Praise be to Allah. We thank you and the greetings always, peace be onto you. As Salaamu Alaikum! It's a pleasure again for me to be back in Philadelphia and to be with such beautiful and wonderful people. I have been here now on the third day, I'm going on the third day and I've had nothing but comfort, pleasure and friendship extended to me from the beautiful people here in Philadelphia. Yes. I always think of Philadelphia as home. You know when you and the wife have your first child in a city, you don't forget that city. Our first child, there she is there, Laila, who assists me in the office. She was born right here in Philadelphia, a great city. A wonderful city. Despite of all the ugly things that are happening in these big cities, and Philadelphia can't be spared, this is a wonderful city, a great city. Too much have been invested in this city by wonderful people who feared G-d, believed in G-d and look forward to having freedom and a life under G-d so they can serve G-d as they chose to serve G-d.
IWDM:
So this city is a blessed place and no matter what come here to disturb it or to take away from its peace and its beauty, G-d will help us to get it back. I am sure of that. I am sure of that. And the time is very close, the time is very close, very near, for good to show itself as being the real life and not subject to the bad life. Yes. G-d is never pleased with good life being under bad life, never pleased. That can never be accepted by G-d and He has put it in the human being's nature, into the soul of human beings, to never be satisfied with this. We'll never be satisfied with that and prayers are powerful. Yes, don't ever forget the power of prayer. When a sincere believer prays to his Lord, his Lord hears him always. His Lord has power to bring his desire to him, home, manifested for him. So just have faith, keep the faith. That's what has kept us here, faith. If we didn't have faith, we wouldn't be here today. We're here because we have kept the faith. I'm here because I'm a man of faith. I'll never give up faith in G-d and I'll never give up faith in good human beings.
IWDM:
Allah, most G-d revealed in the Scriptures, same revealed to the other people of this Scripture, G-d revealed that you ought to have faith in G-d and also have faith in human beings. Allah says, "Believe in G-d and believe in His messenger." And who is this messenger? A human being. G-d says, Muhammad the messenger of G-d, he says ... Please, be on him, he says, "Say to them ..." It means, say to all people that I am a human mortal just like you. Now, that was demonstrated before in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gave the same message to his people, that he and the people were one and the same in the human mold that G-d created. Muhammad came to repeat that, to make it clear again. G-d said to him, "Say to them, to the people, I'm a human mortal like you. Mithlukum like all of you, that's what it means. Like all of you. So G-d gave these special men to us to show us what He wants in us, and to show us what He has put in us. G-d put the possibilities for the best life in every human being, in every human being. Religion delivered in the right way condemns racism, it condemns any unjust superiority of one over another.
IWDM:
Religion presented in the right way. So this is true of the major religions, what we call the heavenly religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is the most important message that religion has for you. Do you hear me? The most important message that religion has for human beings is that they are the plan of G-d. Human life is G-d's plan. They are the plan of G-d and G-d has made them all equal in their possibilities for good life. Equal. Some will be inferior to others but it's not because they don't have it in their creation. It's because they have not found the circumstances or do not have the willpower, the spirit to bring it out. But all of us have it. So we were taught one time to believe in the superiority of blacks over white. When I say, we, I'm talking about those who join what I was born into. My mother and father had already accepted a way of life they called Islam at least two years before I was born, about two years before I was born. So I was born into that life and many of you were there at the very beginning, and a bigger number of you joined later and knew my father for 10, 20, 30 years.
IWDM:
Now we've come here, we're right here. We haven't left it. Faith has kept us and faith has us here today. We haven't left it. And we should know that G-d, the best message, the real message from G-d to us ... whether we are Muslim, Christian or Jew and even for some major religions that I know, the biggest message is the great possibilities that are open to every human person by virtue of their original creation, original life. That's the greatest message. If I have to repeat that for two hours I'll do it, because some of you don't have it yet. Yes. I can't go anywhere with you if you don't get this message. The most important message in religion is the message of the value of human life and that that life is planned by G-d. G-d planned that life. The great framers of the Constitution, the power, introduction to the Constitution of these United States, they knew it. They studied the great Scriptures, they studied their own Bible but they studied other great scriptures. They knew it and they put the language into the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."
IWDM:
Unalienable rights, you can't take them away. No government, no man, no government can take them away. "Among these, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness." Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So this is the core life of the American people's life. That's what's brought them here from Europe and that's what keeps us here in America. It comes to this great nation from the great prophets of G-d or messengers of G-d. You have to register this first in order to get the benefit of what follows. Of what follows. I used to hear my father get up and preach. He had a certain way of beginning his lectures, his speeches or his preaching. He would say, "Islam is freedom, justice and equality." He had a sign on the blackboard painted. It was the American flag on one side, as required, and the Nation of Islam flag on the other side. And the letters 'for freedom, justice and equality' were on each corner and at the bottom corner where the staff was, was the word 'Islam.' That was something, whether he talked on it or not, that was what you were looking at when you walked into the auditorium, the seating area.
IWDM:
When you walked into that seating area, the first thing you saw was that sign on that board and the reading, 'Islam is freedom, justice and equality.' Well, let me tell you something. If I hadn't held on to that meaning of Islam, I wouldn't be a Muslim today.
Audience:
That's right.
IWDM:
The rest of it is just bull doodoo to me if we don't have freedom, justice and equality. Excuse me if I offend you, I don't mean to do that. I mean to do nothing but love and hug and kiss you, with my language. These lips are not for you, the language is. I'm just having a little fun here. It doesn't hurt at all. In these times, if you can't smile you better go bury yourself. High regard for the human life that G-d created and G-d wants this life to progress, from a recognition of what each and every one of us are to G-d. To a recognition of the pattern that we should have for our life on this planet earth. We shouldn't just be individually situated, we have to be collectively situated. Yes. Human life that connects to each other, that connects us to each other. After perceiving the model, the type that G-d wants for us to respect and build upon and grow, then we need to see how we're to tie in to one another. So G-d gives us family life. We cannot be born unless we accept to be family. You have to have two, a male and female, to reproduce the life again. And none of us can create Adam and Eve for the first time, none of us.
IWDM:
So it's kind of a mystery how it all came about because we know that you need two to have another, to have three. You need two, male and female. Again, I repeat, it's a mystery how the two came about to produce their offspring. But G-d tells us, He gives us a story of how it all happened. He says He did it, and we know we can't do it. Infant life, every child born is born with this great value. It hasn't all been lost, isn't that something? No matter what human beings do alone or as a collective body, a group, family, tribe, nation, whatever, they have not been able to get rid of that original pattern of a human life. Every child born is born in the mold that G-d intended for it to have. Is born with innocence, it's not a criminal. No child is born a criminal. The great history of criminology in this country established that no person should be treated as a born criminal. They learn to be criminal. They're not born criminal. At one time that was a question in the history of law in this country, criminality. At one time there was a doubt and they were saying that maybe we can sterilize these notorious criminals and maybe that will reduce the amount of criminals and crimes we would have, since they would not be reproducing themselves.
IWDM:
With the healthy mind of scientists, they ruled that out. They said, "No, no child is born criminal. They all are born innocent." But that's what religion has established already. Religion established that from the very beginning, that every human child is born innocent in the mold created by G-d for it. When your babies come ... all of you have that experience, if you haven't had two of them. You've been in the house and you've seen and observed the infants, the little children, the infant comes here with none of the serious problems that our society has now. I don't have to name those problems for you. We will save time. You know them. But we start right away, as soon as the baby comes to us and get into mama's arm like an hour, we start right away trying to shape the baby the way we want it to be shaped. The baby come here real curious, serious curious and we say, "Little baby." We want a play thing. We want a play thing. "My little dolly-dolly. Little dolly-dolly." After a while the baby removes that serious look and say, hell, this is funny and starts smiling. You ain't through yet. You want more than a smile, you got to hear her laugh. The baby starts ... so you brought that out of the baby.
IWDM:
The baby came in a marvelous creation, opened his eyes and ears to a marvelous creation of G-d, and the baby was serious but you tickled the tickle spot. You found a tickle spot and you worked on it until you got the baby interested in funny stuff. So what does the story of religion tell us? The story of the great religions tell us that G-d created human beings to be an intellect, intelligent. To open their minds to the whole vast creation, all that is on earth and in the skies and search it, look at it and search it for messages and inspiration. Yes. But G-d has made human life like He made all of life, and that is to avoid pain and suffering and seek comfort and security. So in time this life that wants comfort and security, it dictates to the brain. It dictates to the brain. The brain becomes the servant. The original life becomes servant of the life that manifests later. And those who can manage pleasure, they always go further than those who cannot manage pleasure. So Allah, the G-d Creator, He has given us a nature that drives us to seek that, that fulfills our need for pleasure. And really a free, wonderful G-d having the power to make us a tree, a stone, whatever, but He made us human. Making us human, He made us free to choose for ourselves, to have free choices.
IWDM:
So those who choose pleasures are going to have a life of ups and downs, of wins and losses, of pleasure and pain until they finally discover ... or hear the words of the preacher who's really connected to G-d's truth, until they finally discover that the only way to fulfill the pleasure appetite in the human life is to connect with Creator, connect with G-d, connect with Creator. Then you will have what you need to manage your pleasure principle. Yes, that's the key. So all of us are born with the same human intelligence, the same brain, the same human intelligence. But G-d gives us many parables in the Scripture, if the man who sows his seed, if he throws the seed on a rock, there will be no life for it. But if he sows his seed in fertile ground, there's life for it. So the circumstances has to be there, the conditions has to be right. The circumstances has to favor human life, and look how this country has progressed. African Americans and many others, minorities in this country ... and even those who were ruling class, look at the price they had to pay to bring about the circumstances for human life to grow and flourish.
IWDM:
For the brain, number one, the intellect, intellectual curiosities, to have the freedom to grow and produce in this country. Look at the price they had to pay, look how North fought South and South fought North. Look at the price that was paid in blood and human life. But look where we are now. So there was established a definition of human life and the great value that is inherent, born in every one of us that are in America. That was established. And that perception and respect for human life survived all of the troubles, greed, petty differences, racism and other problems, had to be confronted. But the faith, the belief that the leaders, the framers of the Constitution, the idea, had, was so great. They had reached so many citizens that that life was strong enough to outlive and overcome the bad life that was threatening that life. We come here with the same human heart and the human heart is nothing but a symbol. It's a symbol. A symbol of our appetites, our affections, our attachments.
IWDM:
But our core appetite, our love for things, our love for ourselves even ... for the heart, if it's not anchored properly, if it's not rooted in that, that is eternal, in that that survives all trouble, all corruption, eventually the heart can be defeated too, and we're so weak in our hearts. A man's brain is never stronger than his heart. His spirit may be but his brain is not. The proof of that is, PhD, multiplied by 10 or 1,000 PhDs, that old switching Sandie can bring him down off his throne and have him out there with the winos. He'd be telling them, "Yeah, I'm a doctor," but he won't have the strength to leave the whinos and go back upstairs where he used to live. So don't take these things cheap. These are signs from G-d. They're signs from the all Creator who made us, that you need something bigger than your brain. You need something that your brain wants to serve, to keep your brain and keep your heart ... I repeat, to keep your brain and keep your heart in good relationship with one another. Yes. If you get the right authority over your brain, your heart will love it. You know what a woman really thinks little of?
IWDM:
A man who boasts in brain power and has no heart power. Now, that's something she can't stand. Even if she's turned on flesh-to-flesh, it's just something she wants to hurry up and get through with. So G-d revealed to His servants that He Himself inspired. They discovered that behind this universe, this material existence we have, there is an artist, a planner with a plan for human life. They connected with their G-d, their Creator, and then they were able to follow His communication that directed them to devotional nature and devotional life. G-d says in our Holy Book, "There is nothing for a human person without them striving or struggling for it. And what they strive or struggle for will soon produce itself in the eyes of the people." When we understand human value, we appreciate human value and we want human rights. Human rights are the rights to be treated as a human being, a human being in the correct definition, the definition that we have after hearing what G-d has to say about what He did or what He created. Community life is what all of us need in order to come to life. You can't come to life unless there is community life.
IWDM:
Studies have been made of human persons that somehow got separated from human beings and lived in the wild with animals. When they discovered or found these human persons, they were behaving like the animals that they were in close proximity with and most likely monkeys, and in one case a dog. The animals that they were in close proximity with, if it was a dog, they'll bark like a dog. They made sounds of a dog, a human being running and making sound of dog. If they're around apes and monkeys, human beings running like apes or monkeys, make the sound of a monkey. That tells us that this life we call human life is a life that requires long period of time together with each other. Males and females producing their children and living with each other. It requires a long time for them to experience life, surviving with their life, surviving upon the efforts, terms of each other. In time, they develop language. They develop knowledge of their nature, their behavior, how they behave. How to behave to continue to live and how not to behave. How to behave and how not to behave. They learn this in time and they record it. It becomes tradition. It becomes wisdom, tradition, et cetera.
IWDM:
So human life is a product of learning. It's not like bird life, dog life, pigeon life, horse life. It's not like that. They come here with their life. They have their life pattern, they have their behavioral pattern already fixed. They come here with it, but the human being has been created to learn his life. To live and study enough and learn his own life. It's in him and he's going to try to live it, express it in certain surroundings. In time, he's going to learn how he should best relate to the things all around him, even the sky and earth and everything. The weather and everything, he has to learn that. His learning process is endless. We are evolving now, mentally, spiritually, morally, into a higher creation. The human beings on this earth in time will be much superior to what we are right now. I'm not preaching, I'm sharing knowledge with you. Yes. So human rights must continue, especially in the communities that haven't developed. The communities that are still in their infancy or in the womb of their mothers. Communities ... I'm speaking symbolically but you can follow it, that have not developed, they're still in the womb of their mothers, are their infants, can't fend for themselves. Those communities must continue to pursue human rights. Don't you know the greatest of all human rights was taken away from your people, your fore-parents?
IWDM:
When your fore-parents were brought to America from Africa and put on the plantations and kept in slavery, that denied our life, the freedom to exercise community life or the rights of community ... the rights of community, not even the rights of family. For many slaves ... for most of them I have to say, for most of them the rights of family were taken away from them. They were bred like animals. This is not to bring bad things to your mind, this is to come forward to the present time. Community life is fait accompli and the soul will never be pleased. You may be happy if you're having fun ... just like you can change that little infant's nature and make him care more about fun than about serious matters by tickling them and playing with them so much, community life is what your soul hungers for. We have great stars in the African American people, great stars, males and females, great achievers. Great achievers and great men and women, period. They're not just achievers but they are charitable. They contribute to the good life and the progress of the American people and they go to the aid of the suffering and they help the suffering with their moneys.
IWDM:
I'm not going to name a single one by name. I won't give you a single one. But I'm proud to say that this is a new day for us, for individual achievement. We have wonderful achievers in these United States of America, individuals. And the burden, the biggest burden on those great achievers is the state of African American soul, the state of African American spirit, the state of African American morals, the state of African American's intelligence. All the precious aspects of human life are very much absent when we look at the whole people. We only can see that beautiful precious human material when we look at individuals. A few individuals, not many, and most likely we have to go to serious churches and serious religious places to find them. Yes. Not all of them are religious. Some of them have been so disappointed with even their religious life or with the religious life they identified with, that they have just given up on religion. Do you know Muhammad the Prophet gave up on religion? The religion that was in his country, or in the peninsula where he was born called now the Peninsula of Saudi Arabia, it offered him nothing that he could accept and respect. Nothing, not from religion. He rejected, he stayed away from the religions of his people.
IWDM:
G-d said of him before he was made G-d's servant and messenger, G-d said of him that he was certainly seen as a great character established upon great character. That's what G-d said of him. Now, he came to this great human character without religion. He wasn't accepting any religion. Don't you find people in America today ... and they've been in America for all that life of America who say, "No, I don't have much care. Religion is too much of a problem for me." But they have devoted themselves to excellence, to excellence. Excellent human life, excellent life in the world of professions. They have devoted themselves to excellence and as a result they have kept their human excellence and they are standing too in the beautiful human model of the best character. Oh, he's playing down religion. Religion without understanding can send you to the mental hospital. Now, coming up from slavery, free from the plantation ... given the rights of mobility in this country to move about without asking the master, "Can I go up town," or "Can I go up to the next city or something, they were given this freedom and then discovered that we had to work hard to change the way America or the majority of Americans, perceived us or valued us. They valued us as slave labor, we had to change that.
IWDM:
So we got together and worked together and we supported our leaders in the march toward real freedom, complete freedom for the human soul and the human intellect. They formed political organizations and worked hard and paid a big price, sacrificed life to gain political freedom. Now, something as easy as walking to the polls and casting a vote, they had to have an organization. They still do. They had to have an organization to promote that, to protect it. But after the polls were made open to all of us, they still had to have organizations to encourage us, to speak to us, to keep us aware of the value of our vote. And even to take some of us by the hand. Ain't nobody threatening us but ourselves, our own lack of knowledge and appreciation for the value of exercising your right to vote. They have to almost take you by the hand and walk you to the poll and stand there with you until you're finished. Some of us have to have that kind of help. Now, even though today I'm appealing to you ... not this small audience here. I'm appealing to you, but you and the big audience out there. In fact, this is just a small percentage of our audience. We have a much bigger audience than this.
IWDM:
I'm appealing to you to look at and study, to find out why we don't have community rights exercised by us. "Oh, yes, we do have community rights." No, you don't. Community rights is a right like family rights. The right to be family means the right for me to be the husband, my wife to be the wife. For me to be the dad in the house, for her to be the mother of the house. For the two of us to manage the house. That's family rights and we have protection for our rights of authority to be protected by law, by law of the land. We do, we have that. We know we have to ourselves conform to certain principles of decency, et cetera, but we do have that. But as a community we don't have that. We have the rights to reside in this city, in this neighborhood. We have the right to go and buy our needs in this city, in this neighborhood. But we don't have the rights exercised to be responsible for our residency and for our neighborhood. We are not yet the keepers of our own neighborhood. Others keep our neighborhoods for us and then go back to their neighborhoods where they are the keepers. Yes, others come and keep our neighborhoods for us, and then go back to their neighborhoods where they are the keepers of their own neighborhoods.
IWDM:
We stand out as a strange life when we look at how we live collectively, strange life. Banks in our neighborhood, owned by others. Grocery stores in our neighborhood is owned by others. Clothing stores in our neighborhood, owned by others. All of the important business belongs to others. Responsibility for keeping the lights on in our neighborhood belong to others. For keeping the gas open, belong to others. And if you have anything to do with it, you're working for others. Now, if we can look at this condition that won't leave us, is hanging on us ... it punishes even our greatest achievers. They're entitled to, they've earned, they've worked for themselves but they haven't had their community to come to light so they all could work together for the community life. I hear it from different ones, they say, "Well, yeah, this is my community. This is my community." And you're the one that says that? What is it? This is a Mosque Cares, is it? "This is a temple. This is a mosque but this is the business. This is my community. This is our business." And you, the one that talk like that makes no contribution to anything.
IWDM:
But it's the one that just conformed and enjoy, just come in and enjoy with smiles on their faces, they're the ones that's paying the bill for the many that's talking that community talk and doing nothing. You know about CPC, right? Collective Purchasing Conference. COMTRUST LLC, limited liability company. You know about that. It belongs to everyone who invested in it. You didn't invest in it? You don't own a thing. You don't own our property. I can speak like that because I'm an investor from day one. Yes. You own our property, not yours, so don't come to Chicago talking about, this is ours, unless you put some money in it. If you didn't put any money in it, you are a liar. It's not yours. What you get is going to be a gift. That's right, you didn't earn it. What you get will be a gift. And G-d is going to bless us to grow financially, business-wise, economically. G-d is going to bless us to grow, whether I'm here or not. I don't feel like I want to leave. I feel like I'm going to be here a long time. Now, that might not be true. That might not be the case in the long run. I don't know what's going to happen, I could die the next second.
IWDM:
But I feel like I'm going to be here a long time. Looking at the condition of the collective life of our people outside and also in this Muslim community, somebody better live a long time because it's going to take a long time to reach you. We're trying, but we got a long way to go and we're not giving up on you. No. It's divinely ordered, yes, we are not giving up on you. Even if we tried to, we couldn't. We couldn't. G-d is in control. And if we succeed, look how wonderful G-d is. G-d permits our people to fall into bad circumstances but in the measure that he permitted you to lose your life, He is obligated to stay with you until you achieve that measure back, and more. Yes. That's the Just G-d. He says that for those ... But you've got to earn it. You've got to earn it with your decency. You've got to earn it with your truthfulness. You've got to earn it with your energy to work and struggle and not give up. Yes, you've got to earn it. There will always be those among us who will earn it. We will earn it. G-d says for those servants He will not only give them the equal of what they lost, but He said He will give them amply, give them without counting.
IWDM:
You know even your mom and dad, they count their money, whatever you're going to do, right? They love you but they're counting. G-d says He's going to give without counting. Yes. Allahu akbar. Yes, praise be Allah. We thank G-d That's our hope when we were in the plantations as slaves. That's our hope after when we followed good Christian African American leaders. Yes. They were G-d-fearing leaders. They were not these playboys and show people that we have nowadays. That's what's going to stay with us. G-d is going to stay in my life and in your life forever. Forever. He will never leave us alone. No, he won't. Don't fear that. When we had G-d, G-d kept our spiritual life strong and healthy. Now that we've lost G-d, most of us ... even though we haven't consciously said, I'm through with G-d. But by our habits we say, "I'm through with G-d." The spiritual life is weakened, is divided against itself. Hope in G-d has gone for most of us. Fun life gives us our spirit. The majority of blacks in America, African Americans, the majority of us, we get our spirit from fun life. The spirit is no more the spirit of faith in G-d or the spirit of obedience to G-d. The spirit is a spirit of fun life. Also upon us is the spirit of failure. Failure without strong leadership, if you're a private person living privately, failure without strong leadership in yourself.
IWDM:
Brother Kareem interviewed me today and asked me certain questions on radio earlier. At one point I told him, I said ... we were talking about who's following who and whatever. I said, "Well, they're not ... all of them, someone left and then all the Muslims followed me." I know they knew better but I guess they wanted me to admit that I'm not the leader of all the Muslims. I said, "No, a lot of them follow different ones. I know I'm a follower of Imam W Deen Mohammed." So Brother Kareem was shocked. Oh, yeah, he was shocked. So he pulled it out of me, he said, "Are you saying or implying that ...?" Because when he asked me what I meant by that I said, "I follow the best spirit in myself. I follow the best spirit in myself and I follow the best life in myself. That's the one that makes me ashamed when I do something wrong or I'll start to do something wrong, I call that person Imam W Deen Mohammed. He's not just Wallace Deen Mohammed, he has a title, Imam W Deen Mohammed, that's who I call. G-d has established that person in me to be my own salvation. "He knew the message I was trying to give the audience, is that every one of you have that great life in yourselves, and if you'll just listen to the best of yourself, you will be the best of the people.
IWDM:
So when we listen to failure it kills our good spirit. It kills the spirit to survive and succeed. To survive and progress. It kills that spirit and after a while you are nothing but a subject of bad influences everywhere. You're the victim of bad influences everywhere, fun, foolishness, corruption, vulgarity. You're just a victim of every bad thing that gets into the air. And we got preachers who want to keep you thinking of your failures. There are preachers who come with a lot of data, a lot of statistics, on failing. On failing and very little on succeeding. So they convinced you that your life in America is not worth a nickel or two cents, and you are not to blame. Others are to blame for taking your life away from you. When that was true, when it was true that the white men was blocking the way for us ... that worked. But now that we have the freedom to our exercise our own judgment, our own will, to seek our own end we can perceive what we want and go after it. Nobody telling us we can't get together, look how we're here now.
IWDM:
Do you think some angry whites are out there, angry because we're here? No. Nobody has that right. If they come some other whites in uniform will take them away from here. We don't have to worry about it. So how can we blame anybody but ourselves now for our failures? Oh, you know a black man can't succeed in business. Well, stop calling yourself a black man, start calling yourself a complete human man and I guarantee you, you'll start succeeding in business. You're carrying a heavy burden, you keep calling yourself black. Black is a description from bad times. You need another description now. You know if the white man just called himself white, he'd be down too? Asians and others would be taking over his community too, if he just called himself white? But he's a white Irish. He ain't just white. He's white Polish, but you're just black. Irish got an Irish history, blacks got a history too. You carry a heavy label. You carry a heavy label and look how G-d works. We used to have leaders that wanted to give us the glory of Africa. They're going to preach to us the glory of Africa. "Well, you know the white man has kept this knowledge from you. At one time the Africans ruled the whole world. Kush ruled the whole world. CPO" You don't know who the heck CPO is. They didn't tell you, didn't they? CPO, the great G-d, Ciphos.
IWDM:
They tell you all that stuff to swell up your head. What happened to that history? We lost it, it was taken away from us. What can I do with it today? We should ask our leaders to stop talking about stuff that's gone and stay on the present. I can look at the present life of my people, African American people, I can look at your present life and think of where it was just a century and a half ago, and I smile. I'm happy. I'm happy because G-d has brought us from terrible circumstances ... Yes, that's the way you enliven the audience. You can enliven the audience by showing them the truth of their life and their reality in the history of America and in the history of the world. Tell them the truth, stop lying. Stop inventing things so you can get the money in their pockets. We have not forgot about getting our rights. And those who think that all the rights have been given, you're certainly mistaken. There's a right that no one can give you, you have to get it yourself, and that's the right to be family and be responsible for your family and your children.
IWDM:
And the rights to be community, neighborhood and be responsible for yourself and your neighborhood. Nobody can give you that, you have to take that and you take it from your own lazy mind. You tell that lazy mind, let my future go. Thank you very much. Peace. As Salaamu Alaikum! 

