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IWDM Study Library
Washington D.C.

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
We give all praise that is, in the English language we say that we give all praise to the one Lord and Creator of the heavens and the earth, whose name for Muslim is Allah. We thank Him and praise Him on the blessings of Muhammad, the last and universal prophet. Upon him be the peace and upon his descendants and his companions, the righteous all. Dear beloved Muslims, Imams, distinguished guests and all of us in this honorable audience, we wish you the peace and the blessings and mercy of the one Lord and creator.
As Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa barakatuhu.
To begin, I am very appreciative for the opportunity. This is a blessing in itself. A great blessing for one of us to be so loved and respected, so appreciated to receive this kind of reception in Washington DC. This is a blessing that I feel very grateful for not because of myself, but because of us, our needs, our strivings that goes back a long way. And I would say kinship. I don't like to use the term too much, but our kinship in circumstances that make us sometimes closer than blood kin.
I'm grateful to the persons that have worked with, our organizers from Chicago here in Washington DC. Obviously, you have cooperated with each other and have done a very excellent job. We congratulate the Chicago organizers who are in my personal administration to promote my ministry. We say Dawa, my ministry. They have been very helpful and each time they grow more, I would say experienced and they are now attracting better people and more sincere people in the localities that we are visiting to assist them to assure us a very good reception.
As you know, we could not achieve anything if it was not for the favor of the one Lord, whose name is Allah for Muslims. So, all thanks again and praise is for Him. Since our most pressing need, today is a Muslim consensus regarding what should be our attention to concerns at a common position regarding matters of Islamic importance. By consensus, we simply mean majority agreement, majority support, majority opinion in favor of that.
Common faith should be the most reachable meeting place for such unity of mind, or coming together of minds, or consensus, common faith. However, to the surprise of many, we are not in agreement on matters of importance for Islamic faith. I think we have not given enough attention to get an understanding of just what is specifically, uniquely by definition, Islamic faith. This is not to say we don't have faith. We all have faith.
But the Islamic content of faith for many of us needs much improvement. I have experienced myself over the years, a need to grow into a better understanding of Islamic faith. What we should trust, what we should put our trust in, the spiritual foundation for us. Over the years, I've come to realize that my knowledge of the faith was too general, not specific enough, not identifiable enough with Qur'an presentation of faith and faith as the Prophet Muhammad lived it.
We are addressing on this wonderful occasion that began with the honoring of our pioneers, last evening. We are addressing what should be Muslim concerns and we are hoping to find some kind of agreement or some kind of common direction for us, some kind of common position for us to take regarding these concerns. Faith as presented in the Qur'an please up the question, if we know or call, the important teachings of faith in our holy book. Also, the prophet has addressed faith in many ways and it has been protected for us as Hadith, reported sayings, or Hadith as we say in the Arabic language. The Arabic term for it is Hadith.
Now, I will just briefly go to the Qur'an and Hadith in hopes of getting us at least to be aware that some of us are not really having Islamic idea of faith. Our concept of faith perhaps can be no better described or established by approaching it any other way than first, looking to the Prophet Ibrahim called Abraham, for the English people. And seeing as Dr. Isayah of Libya put it, the two great aspects of faith as illustrated in Abraham, peace be upon him, searching for the concepts that would satisfy his heart, that would satisfy his mind. And the experiences in Abraham's life, we may see even the events in his life that this devoted scholar and Muslim of Libya, Dr. Isayah brought to my attention for our consideration. Because I met with him to invite him to co-author a book with me on the simplicity of our religion. Our religion in its plain teachings. And in the course of our conversation, we got really fascinated. I did.
I don't know if he was fascinated, old scholars, they're not too quick to be fascinated but I think he was too. I think he found the subject of discussion fascinating, even though it was a subject that he was accustomed to giving or speaking or commenting on perhaps for many, many years of his life.
He pointed to Abrahams devotional strength, the strength of his attachment to G-d, his belief that G-d exists, and whatever he sensed that G-d intended, he would give his all to it. As you know, you are familiar with the story of Abraham or Ibrahim. He readily offered his own son as a sacrifice because he saw in the vision that G-d desired that of him.
Now this report on Abraham, the prophet Abraham, is accepted and given by not only the Islamic faith, but Judaism and Christianity as well, with some maybe variations, but essentially the report or the story is the same for the three great religions. So, to illustrate one aspect of faith, that is to present one aspect of faith, that is Muslim faith because we have what? The faith of who? Ibrahim, Abraham, the upright.
He was willing to sacrifice his only, his child, his son because he saw in a vision that G-d intended that. It really bothered Abraham. It disturbed him greatly. It caused great anguish, great suffering to him but he did not hesitate or think about it from the time he realized that G-d wanted that for him, in his own mind he was prepared to do it. So, he took his son, as you know the story goes, and he took him to present him to G-d as a sacrifice.
He took the knife and he was ready to present him as a sacrifice, and his son had accepted. He had told his son what G-d desired and his son being the child and also, he was going to be a prophet too. So, it was in him to accept what his father desired to do in compliance with the will of G-d. So, his son agreed to it and he was about to take his life with the knife. And Allah revealed to him that in that he was prepared to do it, the vision had been fulfilled.
That Allah does not want our innocent life, blood as a sacrifice. As it says, Allah says in another part of the Qur'an, "None of these such things reach G-d. The only thing that reach G-d is our obedience called taqwa. Which is bigger than obedience but that's the best word I can find, a single word I can find right now. The thing that reaches Allah, that we want to give another sacrifice is our obedience.
Now you may say, "Well, how am I sacrificing when I'm obeying?" You're sacrificing your desires. You're sacrificing your own will. If you obey G-d against your desire and against your will, you're making a sacrifice. And don't tell me you didn't have to sacrifice if you're obeying G-d. Maybe now you don't feel it as a sacrifice, but the first time you did it, it was a real sacrifice. Maybe the second time, maybe even the 20th time you did it, it was a sacrifice.
We have to sacrifice. And many times, after we have done a thing over a period of years and didn't even feel it as a sacrifice. Something can come up, something can occur for us in our life and make that thing a big sacrifice for the thing that we were doing for years and didn't even think nothing of it, now it's a big burden. It's hard to do. You say, "Allah, help me, give me the strength to obey you." Yes, so we have to sacrifice. And that's the sacrifice He wants, obedience.
So, your blood, it doesnt reach G-d. The things you sacrifice of the world, they don't reach G-d, but it is your taqwa, your deep regard for G-d's will and His way that reaches Him. That deep regard reaches Him, your obedience, your good disposition toward Him, respecting Him, fearing Him, loving Him, wanting to comply with whatever He wants of you, that's what reaches Him. Yes.
Now, I'm not here pretending to give you any new knowledge. I just hope I will help you review old knowledge and get a better understanding of it. Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. And we bear witness that Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed is a blessing and a mercy to the world, a guide, and a model to be followed by all people who want excellence. And we pray always peace and blessings of Allah, the special peace and the special blessings of Allah be upon him because he is the excellence that G-d wants in all of us. Praises be to Allah.
Let's me now quickly summarize these comments on that aspect of faith. When Abraham, peace be upon the prophet, was ready upon seeing a vision, and feeling spiritually by intuition or by some kind of soul sense in him that G-d intended that for him and he was prepared to sacrifice his dear son. He was following upon pure faith with no other help. Pure faith with no other help. Now that's one aspect of Abraham's faith and that is also one aspect of our faith because our faith is the faith of Abraham, according to the teachings of our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.
The other aspect is given in this particular event that took place in the life of Prophet Abraham. Prophet Abraham told G-d to tell him, he asked G-d, he said, "Tell me, how will the dead be raised?" Being a man of the first kind of faith or the first qualification for the faithful, that is faith upon pure belief, pure faith. Faith upon just pure belief. He was apologetic. See, a real believer is very careful about questioning things of a sacred nature or things of G-d or close to G-d. A real believer is very careful. You find somebody rushing to question everything about G-d, hey you better you lookout. That might not be the saint you think it is. No, a real believer is very careful and cautious when questioning things of G-d.
Abraham said to G-d in an apologetic way, he says, "It's not that my faith is not there, but so that my heart will rest." He wanted his heart to rest. He had faith but he wanted his heart to rest. He says, "So my heart will rest." He wanted to know how will the dead be raised. Now, that's an indication that the man was not satisfied with blind faith or faith with no knowledge base. He desired that he have some knowledge base along with his faith, to support his faith.
Now, if this is rightly understood, then you will appreciate it, you feel very good with this, Allah says in His Holy Book, "Do not pursue anything for which there is no knowledge connection." Do not pursue anything for which there is no knowledge connection. Now, the disposition in many people of faith to go to one or the other extreme, to work to be comfortable knowing that their faith has no evidence anywhere except in their belief that it is right. So, thats one extreme, isn't it? The mystics, they are not satisfied. I'm not condemning mystics, I'm a mystic myself but I just don't like to be mystified.
I'm not condemning the mystics because we know all mystics are not the same. But the typical mystic, he is not satisfied until he proves to you that what he is offering you comes from the world of non-existence, comes from the world of nothingness and there is nothing in creation or in your mind or in the ability to think to connect you with it except that you follow him blindly out of this world. That's the one extreme.
The other extreme is this, that we don't believe in anything that we can't verify with the tools of our intellect, no matter if those tools are toothpicks and broken, rotten leaves, no matter how infirm they are or how cheap they are, we think those tools must qualify everything he say. G-d said it, "Prove it to Me, prove it to Me." That means, prove it to My intellect. That's the other extreme.
We don't go to either of these extremes. The Muslim person of faith must accept that there's a limit for his own mind and his own intellect and his own ability to grasp and understand and clearly see, and have command of things, ideas, et cetera. There is a limit and we are all different. You will have your ability to deal with one subject and I won't have ability equal to yours. I will have an ability to deal with another subject, you won't have the ability equal to mine. There are too many differences.
But there should be common faith, common faith. There should be a common meeting place for the mind of people of faith. And all I'm saying is we need a common meeting place for the minds of Muslims regarding what is essentially faith in America. But we need that meeting of minds, that commonplace for the meeting of Muslim's minds, all over this world. Because so many people beyond these shores that call themselves Muslims belong to different schools of thought, belong to different kind of disciplines in religion are far from being of the faith of Abraham, the upright. Far from it.
So, we wonder how come we can't have unity. The first place to get unity is on the meeting ground of faith. That's the first place to get unity. We may never have unity in other areas of our interests. We don't have to, but where we must have unity is on the ground of faith. We should all be believing the same thing. If we believe the same thing, then we don't have to have unity on other matters, as to what should be our priorities in the community?
Priority should be a unity of minds or what is our faith. That's the priority. Then after we have that, I'm sure we will present ourselves in great uniformity when it comes to the other concerns that we should be having, such as the place of education in our concerns, the place of the family in America in our concerns and many other things that are bothering us right now and need our attention right now. We will be better able to arrange our concerns and have a greater margin of agreement for ourselves if we can come to some kind of agreement as to what is faith for Muslims. And I believe we can have it.
Now, it's not enough to just recite those essentials of faith, it's the proper start but it's not enough. Muslims must believe in G-d. We must believe in G-d. How are we to believe in G-d? Some Muslims from one of those extreme orientations in the past, I don't know which one, but if you're from either one of the extreme orientations I mentioned represented the two extremes, the desire to go out and never be satisfied until you don't have anything to prove anything, you just got something that, this is the language, nobody has this language. Don't look for it in the history of the world, it doesn't exist, this is uniquely ours. So, there's that extreme.
Then the other extreme where you think you are so intelligent when it comes to matters of faith, that nobody can prove nothing to you unless it meets the expectation of your mind, no matter how small it is. So, be aware of those two extremes. I don't know what extremes we have in the audience here but I'm sure we've got some out there that's right in those two extremes. I'm sure. I was there myself once upon a time, I know. This world messed me up so much on the subject of religion, before I knew anything, I was following a guru and I didn't see nothing I recognize.
I said, "Where is he taking me?" 
So, getting back to the first step. The first step is to know exactly what is said in our Holy Book, that's the first authority, supreme authority for us. What is said in our Holy Book about the faith? First of all, we must believe in G-d. I won't go into all of the qualifications for that belief in G-d, but I will mention some because it's very important for the subject of faith. We must believe in Allah upon evidences but also and more importantly because Allah is too big for the intellect.
We must believe in Him upon faith, pure faith, the same kind of faith demonstrated in the life Abraham when he had a feeling inside of what G-d wanted and he was willing to carry it out even if it meant the sacrifice of his own son. Yes, that kind of faith. We must have that kind of faith. We must believe in Allah bil-ghayb. What is that Qur'anic expression? We say Arabic expression, it's Arabic language but understand this, when the Qur'an came to Prophet Muhammad, an unlearned man, not one of the learned people, peace be upon him, precious mercy and blessing to the worlds. When the Qur'an came to him and was expressed as revelation through him, and the people heard the Arabic coming from an uneducated man, identified with the ignorant masses of Arabia in our Holy Book, the Umeyeen or the Umiyoon or the Umeyeen, meaning the unlearned, ignorant masses.
When the revelation came through him and reached the ears of the so-called learned in the language of Arabic, they were so astonished. It is reported that they saw just one verse on the Kabah, someone had put it there, it was the habit of those lovers of eloquence, that is the professional, the smooth professional tongue in language. They were so proud of it, they would bring their writing or a bit of their writing, a verse or so. And they would hang it on the Kabah, the shrine there that Abraham built that they had turned into a shrine for pagan gods, for false gods.
They would hang near the sign there with their beautiful verses, powerful, eloquent verses. Once they noticed that there was a verse and it was strange to them and it was the verse that Allah had revealed to the Prophet, and they were so amazed. They said, "Who did this? No one can do this." They were so amazed. This was before they came to know the Prophet. They were so astonished, so surprised that anyone could give such a powerful verse.
They boasted that they could give powerful verse that would bring clarity, communicate clearly and with the greatest economy of words. The least words. They could say so much and say it so clearly with the fewest words. That was their boast, and that it would be so beautiful in the ears and so beautiful in terms of its profoundness, philosophical profoundness.
But when they heard the verses that were revealed to our Prophet, they were amazed. They said, "Who did this? Where did this come from? None of us could do this." Yes, and they were right. It was done by Allah. What does that say? That says that the Arab language was enhanced, improved, raised up to a higher standard of excellence with the coming of the Qur'an to the unlettered Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him.
I could go on talking about this. This is very important. This is also a matter of faith. Because who can prove that to a dumb person? Some of us, we are like, "The whole Qur'an is a miracle in what sense man?" In the sense of its purity of language, its eloquence and its power of expression, its economy of words. He says, "Let me read this, I don't see that."
So, even this is a matter of faith for many, we are not scholars in the language, so we can't see it. Scholars in the language can see it. Oh, yes. Yes, getting back to our point. The point is this, that we call the language of Qur'an, Arabic, which is true, but to say certain terminologies and certain expressions are Arabic without first knowing that they are Qur'anic is not true. Because the Arabs did not have such expressions until the revelation of Qur'an. They did not have that high appreciation, that high of an appreciation for literature until the coming of the Qur'an.
I'm saying this for the benefit of our people over here, I'm not ready myself and I know I will never be ready myself to call myself an Arab. I'm not ready now to call myself an Arab and I know, I don't believe, I know I will never be ready to call myself an Arab. Not because I have any prejudices against Arabs, no, I have the greatest respect for Arabs. But I don't care if there was a new race created and they will come out of the heavens, land down here and say, "We never did any wrong." I'll say, "Still I choose to be calling myself, you keep your own name, you keep your own racial identity."
In the interest of that concern, I make a point of telling you the truth about the importance of Arabic language for Muslims. Certainly, it's important. But it is important only after Allah upgraded the Arabic language with the revelation of Qur'an. It is not general Arabic that's important for us, no. I care nothing about the general dialects of Arabs. It's Qur'anic Arabic that's important for us.
The Prophet did not encourage anybody to take on the ethnic identity or the racial identity of another. In fact, he worked against that. There are many instances that I can point to you in his life reports, authentic reports by Bukhari and Muslim and others to support that. But that's not what we're here for, we're not going to spend all that time. I can do it you know. When I was younger, I could talk till the sun rises up again. That's no joke. I got some witnesses here. I start talking when the sun was shining and before they know it it's dawn and I say let's have dawn prayer.
And that's not because I'm some great speaker, no, I'm not a great speaker. I just have a hell of a lot to say. I'm filled up. And that's the truth, I'm filled up. I'll be so filled up I don't want to stop. But sometime the mortal body can't take all of that. I had to check myself and save the life for all of us. Praise be to Allah.
Now, let us go back to where we were when we were talking about faith as presented in the Qur'an. Number one, belief in G-d but not belief in G-d without also a willingness, a reception in you to believe in him, without knowing with your mind how to prove it or how to defend it. Don't you know there's something that we shouldn't argue about?
They are established common principles of faith, that nothing can be relied upon in the human being to verify it amongst ourselves, except the innocence of the human soul. And some faithful people of the various religion, I've heard Christians say it, "Oh, I don't need nobody to explain it to me. I know it in my soul."
And some say, "I know it in my heart." Which almost means the same thing. You know well have a pain here and sometimes; we don't know exactly where to point. And well have a good feeling too and sometime we miss; we don't know where to point. I know it's somewhere here.
One time I thought it was in my hands. I said, "Oh Lord, my hands feel like they were just vibrating almost, electricity went on in my hands." I said, that soul might be here normally but now it has gone to my hand. Don't let it go to your head. You might drown out your senses. Yes. Belief in G-d, bil-ghayb. Bil-ghayb means without proof, without verification, without the mind, intellect, verifying that, without you knowing the proof of that with your intellect, with your mind, with your rational thinking. That's what it means. Bil-ghayb its like, if I say, tomorrow I'm going to be speaking in Philadelphia.
Where's the proof for that? I may be dead tomorrow; I may be too sick to go there tomorrow. I may be insane tomorrow and go to Los Angeles just thinking I'm going to Philadelphia. There ain't no proof of that. How can anyone give verification for the future? We can believe it. Now see there?
You're not allowed that. That most of the things that we depend on are really of the nature of faith. Their support is but the nature of faith. Okay, Ill see you tomorrow. What proof do you got of that? That's why in our religion Allah says, do not say what you are going to do tomorrow without saying, InshaAllah, if G-d wills it, if it's G-ds will its going to happen. Whatever He wills, its definitely going to happen. But I dont know. Im not a partner with Him, an equal partner, say, "Whatever is going to happen, you got to let me on it."
No, He doesnt let us in on it. He might know that, Wallace say he is going to be out there tomorrow, but he doesnt know his family will be crying over him tonight, he's going to be dead tonight. It's only Allah who knows. That's the Bible. That's Qur'an. That's all the great religions. So, we have to believe, bil-ghayb. G-d promised us, what? Afterlife. That's another thing we should believe in. We have to believe in Allah, in our G-d, the one Lord, and creator. I want to make it clear what we need to believe in. Allah, the one Lord and Creator. He's Lord and Creator. Both. Ain't no Creator then the Lord comes.
I think Christian preachers and mystics, even, in Christianity, I think they believe that. I think they believe that The Creator and the Lord is one and the same. I really don't think they believe it just like most of us hear it. I don't. I don't think they believe it just like most of us hear it, because the way most of us hear it is a heavy cross to bear. If you carry it, that's a heavy cross to bear. I won't talk about that. I'm going to leave that alone, but it's a heavy cross to bear.
Why is it so heavy for me to bear? Because to me, it's an injustice to Almighty G-d who created everything and made possible everything, to separate Him in two kinds of identities and say, "This is the who one created, but this is our Lord. This is the one who created, but this is the one who saves us." Believe me, I can't buy it, and no matter how hard I try, I can't help but knock it when I see so many victims.
Any Christian that thinks they love the blessed Jesus Christ, the prophet for Muslims, more than we do, you're fooling yourselves. You're fooling yourselves. We're not insisting that you Christians become Muslims. We're obligated to invite everybody, but we're not insisting that any of you become Muslims. We're not going to break company with you or part company with you or look at you in an unfavorable light because you choose to remain a Christian.
In fact, if you want to improve your image in our light, just, improve your Christianity that you live. Not that you talk about, that you live. I hope I'm not boring everybody or taxing you too much today, but I don't like to rush. I like to take my time.
You won't be here until sunrise; you'll be back home. If you want to go back home, you'll be already back home and, in the bed, sleeping and sleeping tonight and everything, God willing. Inshallah.
Belief in Allah, bil-gayb, without proof, without it being verified, but in a sense, it is proven to the faithful. In a sense, there are verifications for the faithful. Many things are verified by other avenues than the rational mind or the intellect of man. I noticed that this thing occurred this way, at this time, in connection with this interest, and when I got in a similar position five years later, it occurred the same way.
It was a revelation to me that time. It was a revelation to me this time. Then it occurs to another friend of mine, way, way, away, and they don't know anything about me, about my experience. I meet them and I tell them about my experience and its the same as them. Isn't that some kind of verification? If we share the same kinds of experiences and we can't explain it ourselves with our rational mind just what occurs to make those experiences possible.
But the faithful say, "Oh yes. Sister, you don't have to tell me, you don't have to explain it to me. I had the same kind of experience." So, for the faithful, there are verifications. There are proofs. There is a common agreement. They say to verify a thing, you have to find somebody outside of yourself. You got to go about. Okay. They wont be satisfied just to have it verified by someone of your persuasion.
Go to somebody that differs from you. Well, this happened for Buddhists. It happened for Christians. It happened for Jews. It happened for people that ain't got no religion. What am I talking about? I'm talking about experiences that we can't explain with our minds but we know they happened and we know they happened bringing us a message.
They don't just happen; they happen bringing us a message. They happen bringing us relief in our critical heart. They happen to alerting us to a situation, a bad situation for our loved one down south and up north. We know something is wrong. We know we have to get in touch with them, and then we finally call them. "Oh child, she's sick. She's in the bed. She's in the hospital right now. Maybe you should come down here and see her." Yes.
We believe in the unity of matter. The unity of matter. That's part of Tawheed, that is the unity in our religion, it's the first principle. Unity, one, oneness. First principle in our religion, and it begins with Allah is one. Has no partner. Allah is one, cannot be made divisible. You can't divide Him up into no different parts. He is a unity that cant be altered; therefore, the Muslim cannot believe in the Trinitarian doctrine.
Though we respect our Christian brothers and sisters, we don't reject them as being a legitimate religious community and a fine religious community because they believe that, but we cannot except it. We know it to be, according to our religion, a great burden and a great injustice to man that he sees G-d in plurality and not in oneness. There's no plurality for Him. That's our belief.
We believe in Allah, in His oneness, perfect oneness and unalterable oneness. He cannot be altered. And we also believe in Allah without any proof that He exists for our intellect. Because we are born with a respect for Him even before we know it. We're born obeying Him before we know that we can even think. How are we born obeying Him? Every child is born with a soul, every child is born with the qualities of the soul, every child is born with spirituality.
Every child is born susceptible and ready, agreeable to the belief in G-d. We make him an atheist after long, long years of hard, hard labor, and a lot help from Satan, we make him an atheist. Every child is born a believer in G-d. Born with a soul, with all of his human sensitivity that G-d wanted for it, and with faith. The first expression of that faith is his faith in his mother. His faith in his mother. That's kind of philosophical, but the first expression of faith in G-d is the baby's faith in his mother. He never saw her before.
Once we get grown, we don't trust ourselves in the lap of nobody until we have some experiences with them. But the baby knows right away that it's supposed to trust its mother. That's the trust that G-d has put in. The faith that G-d has put in that baby. That's faith in Allah. You know, if I have enough faith in the people that organized this affair, I can sit out there comfortably. But if I don't have faith in the people that organized this affair, I might sit there and say, "Hey, what are they doing now? What's holding up the program?"
"Is somebody going to come in here and shoot up this place?" I'll start having all kinds of wild imaginations, after a while, you'll see me moving on out. Well the Lord that created us, we know Him. We know Him in our nature. Our nature knows Him. And we can't speak to Him. We can't tell about him. But there was a baby who spoke in the cradle, Jesus Christ, peace and blessings be on him. He was a baby in the cradle and he spoke and his mother heard him. His mother was asked, "What is this that has happened? This miracle, what is this? You are claiming that you have a child and no man touched you." Then, she pointed to the baby, Christ Jesus, peace be upon him, in the cradle and she said, "Talk to him about it."
And he spoke. Now, there's a test, see? And you're not Abraham. But I hope you keep following Abraham. That is, keep following the faith that Allah gave the prophet and verified that faith as the faith that He intended for the multitudes of the earth, by saying that that is the original faith, the faith of Abraham the upright. Let me continue on faith. I hope I won't keep you too long. I don't want to make anybody uncomfortable or tie up the day. Now, we are to believe in the resurrection. Prophet Abraham, he asked G-d, "How will you raise the dead?"
He said, "Lord, I would love to apologize for this question, but I just want my soul to rest." He wanted peace in his soul, peace in his heart. He said, "For my heart's sake or for my soul's sake, will you give the answer for me?" Did G-d say, "Abraham, you have to believe in me without me giving you any help on this particular question or matter that you're presenting to me?" No, he didn't.
According to our holy scriptures, the Quran, Allah replied to him and he said, "Take portions of birds and put one portion on each mountain, or four mountains." He said, "But train the birds and when you call them, they will come to you." Isn't that beautiful? Now, that was enough for me years ago, that was enough for me.
It was enough for me that Allah respected the intellect of His human creature and said, "His intellect needs more than what his heart has been given. His intellect is not satisfied with just what his heart has been given. His intellect needs more," so Allah responded and gave him more. Just that he said, "Take four more." To me, I said, "That's good. That's plain."
It's true, that if you train birds and you can separate them, you can put them in different situations. Four mountains are four different situations. Put them in four different situations. In the mountain itself there's an elevation, isnt it? You have trained them and that's why they'll go and be on top of the mountain, because you have trained them.
Now, they're elevated. Theyre able to go on top of the mountain. You know that song, "Let's go where eagles fly," and all that stuff? You heard that song. I can't recall it. The folk singer sings it. When he sings, it touches me too. I have to check myself sometimes. I be singing.
"Wow, what am I doing here?" I had to catch myself, because I'd like to be able to go higher too, especially on a mountain. It's got some connection with the earth, but that guru's trip up there, no ladder, no nothing.
I can understand that, because when you train something, the discipline is engrained in that something, especially if it's a living animal, or even plants. Plants, they get accustomed to a certain kind of orientation, a certain kind of activity. If that activity continues for a long enough time, though that was not in that plant, the seed of that plant will bear a new orientation. A plant will come up a little different from the one that went through that, and if it continues over a long enough period of time, a new-looking plant will come about.
Yes, and it's true for us as human beings. True for dogs, true for animals. In fact, based upon what they call the evolution of the species, adaptation. What the western science says? The western science says that the way the monkey's arms are, the way his legs are, the way his jaws are, the way his head is, the way the bird's beak is, how long it is, how sharp it is, how round it is, all of these things, even the color, comes from that thing being exposed to a certain environment, and it has to go through a certain kind of discipline over and over again for hundreds and thousands of years, and finally it comes out as a creature looking like that.
That's western science, and some of you all don't believe that. I would quicker disbelieve that than I would the Quran because I'm a man of faith, but I believe that. My religion doesn't put me at odds with exact science. My religion, to the contrary, obligates me to respect exact sciences. Yes, so much for that. We're to believe in the resurrection. "Oh no, W.D. Muhammed, I know him. Yes, I know him. He's the son of Elijah Muhammad, but he's not Elijah Muhammad. I don't care what he says. I know there's nothing after death. The honorable Elijah Muhammad told us death ends it all and I know that."
If the honorable Elijah Muhammad was here, if I could bring him right here and he'd sit there right now or stand here right now beside me, I would prove to you before him that you are not his follower, in 1975, just before February 26th. I could prove it because the honorable Elijah Muhammed told me, "Son, there must be something after death."
He knew my belief. I had long changed and he put me out of the community because I had changed. He knew my belief and he told me, "Son there must be something after death." I knew he was serious. He wasn't giving no lecture. He was just sitting down eating and talking and relaxing, like we normally do.
Audience Member: You got a witness.
Yes. Okay, He said he was there, he is a witness. I know I wasn't at the table by myself. I can't tell you who was there but I know I wasn't there by myself.
He said, "Son, I know there's something after death." Now, you may say, "Well, how come he didn't tell us that?" Here's something else to explain that. He said, "Son, after a man has gone for as long as I have gone, speaking as strongly as I have been speaking, he can't bring any change on those matters to his people, they would think he was lying all the time." I'm telling you his exact words to me. That's his exact words to me. This is within a year or less before he passed away, and Allah knows that I believe that he will enter paradise.
I do believe that. The honorable Elijah Muhammad will enter paradise. I'm very convinced of that.
Yes. Allah will forgive him his sins, and in our religion, the only sin is conscious sin. Any sin in error is not a sin. Any sin you commit without a consciousness of it, without awareness of it, is not even a sin. I know the honorable Elijah Muhammad couldn't have preached to his own son, a little boy, the way he preached for all those years as strongly as he preached and not be sincere. I know he was sincere.
I know he believed what he was saying. So, if he believed what he was saying and he was taught that by a mystic who pretended to be not only an authority on religion, but the G-d himself. Anytime an African American with three years elementary education, formal education, no more, who had to go to lumberyards, freight yards, et cetera, for a job because he didn't qualify on the basis of what is required up here for better jobs, and was on welfare when he was found by this mystic. He was on welfare and also a man victimized by alcohol.
This is the truth. I have to tell you these things. He was victimized by alcohol. My mother used to have to bring him in on her shoulders in the house drunk, he was out of it. And then, that African American with that little bit education, with no world exposure, Georgia and Detroit, that's it. No worldly exposure. No opportunity to sit with the learned, to sit with people of higher minds or of informed knowledge. No. No opportunity for that.
And then a man comes to him looking like a white man with thin lips, sharp features, straight hair. And he made sure it looked straight. He had a way of processing his curly hair. Actually, he was a curly-haired white man, but he knew in order for a black man to listen to him, he had to be straight-haired and looking as much as he can like the typical caucasian or white man because we just didn't listen to anybody else in those days, unless they had the backings of a white man.
Let me tell you something at this point, most of us would not have supported Dr. Martin Luther King if he didn't have a degree in the white man's approved knowledge. Dr. King, if he was, just, King that had that elementary education, he wouldn't have got nobody to go two steps with him on no passive resistance march.
"Damn, fool man. You here that crazy fool man? Talking about laying ourselves on the street. This crazy nigga, man." That's what they would have thought about him, but because he was Dr. King, "Oh, yes. Dr. King."
I'm getting at something here. Don't you know, a man with Elijah Muhammad's education which was nil, nothing, with his experience in the world, nothing. With his knowledge of the international world, nothing, meet a white man, in his eyes a white man, and that white man tell him that, "I come to deliver you, to save you from your cruel oppressors. Your cruel slave masters," and then, tell him that, "I come to bring you the supreme wisdom. I come to bring you that that is higher than anything this world knows. I am the G-d, in person," and tell him the white man is the devil.
"Yeah, yeah."
Recalling his treatment in the world, recalling the treatment of his associates, his peers in the world. And even better than them. They didn't pick on just dumb blacks. Back in those days, they'd take anybody that they didn't like. For no legal justification, beat him up, string him up and drag him through the streets, tear his body all up and smoke and drink and have a party over the remains. That's stuff we have knowledge of.
My father had knowledge of that kind of treatment being given to innocent members of our race back then in those days. At that time south was still segregated. Not only segregated, you had to be careful of how you even spoke to a white man and don't look at a white woman. That was in the time of the honorable Elijah Muhammad. Yes. For him to be approached by a white man, if he was black, the honorable Elijah Muhammed would've gone crazy.
He would've said, "Clara, what have I been drinking now?"
Yes. I'm sure he would, but the man was white. You need equals to deal with equals. Ok, it was a white man over here that has made me afraid of everything, he's white, and what you made me respect is his whiteness. I don't take that off a black man. Black man talking to me like that, I just reach in my pocket and get my razor and make him white.
That's what they used to say. Those quick razor blacks down there in the south that drink a lot on Saturday after working so hard for the master for five days or so. They say, Nigga walk up and disrespect my lady, I'll pull out my razor and, whap. I'll hit the black nigga and show the white. The white just lay out there." I heard them say that. So, they don't care nothing about no black man.
They'll just say, "Hey, crazy nigga, get out of face," but it was a white man, so he was the equal for equal. White man challenging white man. And this one says he loves blacks and he knew about our suffering, and he came to deliver us and destroy our enemies and bring us up to the top and put them in the hellfire where they belong. Aw, shoot.
If he couldn't get a convert at Tuskegee, I know he'll get a convert at the soup line in Detroit, Michigans ghetto. Yes. Go to Detroit, Michigan and get on the soup line, I know he'll get a convert. You can go right now; you brothers in Michigan now. You want some converts? Go out there and stand in them long lines. Just stand where those long lines are and watch the guy that walk away disappointed, he didn't get no job today. And say, "Hey, you know why you didn't get no job today? This whole society is rigged against you. People just like you in your situation. You should come on and let us give you something that'll help you through life."
"Okay, man. Come on man. Let's go, man. Come on. Yes, man, yes. Come on, man. Where you going? Where you taking me? Can my buddy go with me, man?"
First, he wanted to know the percentage of dissatisfied.
If he saw there was a good percentage of dissatisfied, he was confident that he could bring in his new thing. What am I saying behind that? I'm saying that we could do that, but it's not proper for religious people or so-called moral minded people to trick people or take advantage of people in a certain situation and invite them to come and listen to your doctrine. He ain't got the situation to even give rational attention to your doctrine. He's urged by flesh necessities. The urges of the flesh will make him come right in and take shahada, "Ash hadu anla ilaha illa llah, Muhammadun Rasulullah." 
That's just his meat speaking, ain't nothing but meat speaking. So, we don't want that kind of conversion. No. We'd rather go and tell a fellow, say, "Look, you're responsible for your own situation. Why don't you let us teach you the dignity of yourself, the value of yourself, the great precious worth, the tools, the precious tools and resources that you have within your own power that you don't know about?"
"Let us give you a better image of yourself that comes from G-d, than this world has given you. Brother, do you have the time to listen to this kind of talk? So, you can stop standing in this line, and go out and use your brain to make a better living for yourself, and go back home and apologize to your mother. If you got any children, apologize to them too. Tell them this lazy cuss is going to be a better person from now on. Are you ready for us to help you, brother?" That's the way you should go to it.
And that's straightforward, isn't it?
And Prophet Muhammad, they asked him for the best advice, what is the best help that he could give them in advising them. He said, "Qul amatum thummas stakim." Say, "I have faith, I believed and thereafter be upright. These two go together in our religion. Abraham, the upright. Faith has to be upright. In another place, Allah says in the Quran, They say, "We have no obligation to these ignorant people." No, you have an obligation to the ignorant people. You have an obligation to even the non-Muslim ignorant people, that's what it means. An obligation to respect their human, G-d-given properties, even though he appears to you being ignorant or drunk, inferior, not worthy of your respect, you don't look at him just on the surface. You look at him in terms of what G-d says He made him. He ain't that now, but G-d said He made him that, respect him for what G-d made him, and help him get into his form.
No double standards, no double justice, no duplicity, no dealing here one way and dealing here the other way, because they are different circumstances here. This an ignorant man, this is a white man, this is a black man, this is a Chinese man, deal with them all the same. Morality is one and consistent for us. That's the teaching of Allah's book, His holy book, the Quran, and His messenger, peace and blessings be upon him.
In fact, he said, "I came especially into the world to lead you, to promote you," into what? Good character. We can't have no sneaky characters, no shady persons lurking in the dark and coming out of all kinds of bags. Presenting themselves one way before us and another way before other people. That's not Al-Islam. Al-Islam condemns that. Protesting in jail for a kosher meal, and come out and go eat ham hocks and greens and all that stuff.
Soon as he gets out, hes going for some ham hocks and greens, or pork and everything, with no conscience whatsoever. That's not the conversion we want. All right, faith, that's what we're talking about, faith. We are to believe in the resurrection of the dead, but Abraham asked for some kind of help for his rational mind, didn't he?
So, if we are Muslims following Muhammad the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon the prophets, both of them. And he said that our order of faith is after the order of Abraham, the upright, then that qualifies all of us. If we have any rational curiosities, any intellectual curiosities about a thing, as long as we have the proper respect for Allah as demonstrated in Abraham's life, that he apologized for even asking such questions, in a sense.
He said, "Not that my faith is not sound, but for my soul's sake, or for my heart's sake," he wanted that understanding. For many of us, we have questions, our mind has questions in it, about real fundamental things of religion. And we fear to really entertain the thought, we push it out our mind a lot of time.
Well, let me tell you, as long as you are faithful and respecting, you respect Allah, you are regardful of him, don't be afraid to think, don't be afraid to question. We have been given an example of Abraham that G-d approves our mind having such questions. We can question what Allah says, but we should question it with the proper respect. Is it okay then for you to wonder about the resurrection? You bet. If it ain't okay, you're still doing it. And I know it.
That's why Allah pointed it out to us, that it's human, it's human to want to know some answers about these things that we can't verify. No more than human. Certainly, ask, and if you are sincere enough, if you're pure enough in your intentions, I'm sure that Allah will guide you as He guided Abraham. You don't need that much help because Abraham is already an evidence. If you believe in Allah and the Quran and Abraham, Abraham is already some support for you, so you don't need all that help.
I believe in the resurrection, as Muslims should believe in the resurrection, both here on this earth, in this life, and also hereafter.
The teaching of the prophet is this, that for every revelation, this includes even the sayings of the prophet, most of them, because they were done under inspiration, and what he gave us was also the Quran if we understand it. It has, its support in the Quran, it has its counterpart in the Quran, if it doesn't, it's not a true hadith. We have been told that there is an expressed application and also a non-expressed application for what is given to us in the form of revelation, so I have to believe then the both.
Allah is almighty G-d with all powers, He did all of this as Allah tells in the Quran. He did all this; He made all this possible. This reality, He created it, if we could really call it a reality, He created all this. Why I say that, because He is the only real. This is Islamic teachings. When we talk about reality, we're talking about what we can touch, see, smell, taste, hear, verify with our senses, right?
That's what we are talking about when we say reality. But this stuff that we are talking about reality is not reality by our own definition. How come it's not reality by our own definition? Because our definition of reality goes ultimately to this conclusion, that that that is real is constant, and there ain't nothing constant of the creation. The only constant about the creation is its non-permanence, that's what's constant about it, is non-permanence.
This thing here, according to science, this wood here that you look at here, this is real. Yes, brother, that's real. It has so much information to give you that you don't know, that will change your whole perception of it, that it ain't funny. Right away it appears to me without motion, it appears to have no motion. But actually, according to science, its inner parts are constantly moving. Constantly moving, but it's supposed to be motionless, right?
But there are molecules here, and atoms here that are moving. And this thing is composed of many things. But when we break it down to the lowest denominator of what it's composed of, it's composed of molecules that are composed of atoms, and atoms are composed of neutrons, electrons, and protons. And all that stuff is active in this apparent still and dead body. And once you know all that, you don't even see this thing the same way no more, but you have to know it. Once you believe thats the science. Because I haven't tested that, but I believe the scientist. How come you believe the scientist?
Because his mind pays the bills. His mind cultivates the land. His mind built your home. His thinking, secular scientific mind build the world. They make it possible for you to get a paycheck. They created the products that you have to go work on in the factory. They created the thing that you can sell. They made it possible for you to have money and they made it possible for you to live indoors instead of outdoors. They tell you, "Come here, I'm going to educate you," and they educate you and send you out in the world in better shape for the task of the world.
That's why you believe in them and you forget that Allah made the world and them possible and everything that they have made available to you.
You should believe in Allah, you see.
But we have a problem, don't we? Yes, we have a serious problem. Prove it to me. Me what? Me, your heart? That's difficult too. I knew of a girl once. She loved this no-good fellow so much. Good girl. What you call a chaste girl. She loved him so much, she gave up her virginity and tried hard to have a baby. Finally had one, to hold him. Everybody, her relatives and friends knew the fellow was no good, knew he was nothing but a cancer in her life. She couldn't hear a thing. She loved him, with torture and all. So, the heart ain't no proof of intelligent judgment.
If the heart was a necessary condition for intelligent judgment, the black people would be on top of the world. Because most of the time we use moving on nothing but heart. What we feel in our heart. "Go on Jesse, Run Jesse. Run Jesse, I love you, Jesse. Run Jesse. My baby."
I see you; you can't tell me that's taboo. Ain't no taboo for me when I'm trying to help people get their minds together. Ain't nothing taboo. Yes, we have to admit we have a sentimental attachment to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who has done wonders, surprised everybody, even me, and I believe. I ain't no skeptic. I believe, I'm a quick believer, but he surprised me with his success. Oh yes. Surprised me, and really, I knew he was going to get a near 100% of us. I knew that, because every one of us, we want our image improved.


