08/30/1992
IWDM Study Library
How Islam Solves the Identity Problem
Harvey IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Speaker 1: Imam W. Deen Mohammed.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: As-salamu alaykum.
Audience: Wa-Alaikum-Salaam.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed: That is peace be on you. We thank Allah, the one Lord creator for all of us for this beautiful weather and nice little windy day we have here in Harvey, Illinois. We thank Allah for blessing us to gather again in the interest of serving Him and bettering the life condition of ourselves, and with His help, not only ourselves but all people.
We would like to also support the welcome and acknowledgment given by Imam Darnell Karim, the resident Imam here in Harvey, Illinois. And express warm greetings and appreciation for the mayor of this city and to all of those leaders and communities of this city who have welcomed us here in Harvey today. We also would like to acknowledge a good favorable Press in this area and hope that we will not disappoint you in any way. To begin this address, this topic on identity. By identity, we mean race as well as the basic or common identity.
I would like to begin by saying something that has been known for thousands of years, for many, many, many generations of nations, not people or individuals but nations. And that is, a section of world society is committed to prove the qualifications of the common person, to prove that the qualifications of the common person justify the common person being given freedom in society and equal opportunity to advance in society, that is in a democratic society. That's one section of world society. Another section of world society is committed to just the opposite.
That other section of society is committed to discredit the common person, to take away the credits, to discredit, to play down the credits of the common person. Our sense of identity and personal or racial values is not a thing to be left unattended. I think it is very important always to attend the need in people to feel comfortable with their identity, whether it is identity as a human person which is basic or identity as a race of people.
I would like to change the spirit here just for a moment from that of racial curiosity to bring you something that is important to Muslims on Muhammad the last prophet, Allah's messenger, who brought to us and to the world the final revelation called Quran as Muslims believe. When Allah's messenger, salla lahu alayhi wa sallam, that is the salute we give to him saying the prayers and the peace be on him. When he would address audiences, he would not say, "My fellow Arabs." He would not even say, "My fellow countrymen." And he certainly has never said, "My fellow Whites," or, "My fellow blacks."
But he would say, "You who believe. You who believe." And he would say, "You the people. Ya aiyuhan Nas. You the people." Before going into the talk about identity and race, I would like to connect with the prophet's own way of addressing audiences. The broadness of mind that we need today as Muslims or broadness of mind that goes beyond race, ethnicity, nationality, to embrace the family we call the family of man, the international family. And as Muslims, we're to be conscious of the suffering of neighbors, all neighbors. Our prophet, the prayers and the peace be upon him that is Muhammad ibn Abdallah who was born in Arabia, an Arab.
The native city of his birth is Mecca. The place where he established a great society that we all belong to today is Medina, a neighboring city to Mecca. We're to be aware of him in connection with what I'm going to ask you to do today and that is to be more conscious of Muslims who are suffering around the world, more conscious of the suffering Muslims in Europe, in Sarajevo, the Muslims of Bosnia, the Muslims of Somalia. We congratulate the editor of our paper, the Muslim Journal for dedicating the whole issue to Somalia.
We know that the circumstances for those horrible conditions in Somalia are greatly different politically from the circumstances of the people who are being exterminated in Bosnia. But that does not give any justification for any lessening of attention to Africa and to the suffering Muslims of Somalia. I would like to also mention too that there are still suffering Muslims in Palestine, in Kashmir and many other places of the world today. The Palestinian problem is not resolved it is not solved; we don't want to forget that.
The attention now is not to Palestinians, Israel simply because a new government has come in. I should say a new party has come in, not a new government, but a new party has come in, the Likud party is out for now. We hope it will stay out, but we don't know that. While things are looking a bit better for the Palestinians and for the situation in Israel, Muslims must not close the eyes to Palestine's problem, to the Palestinian problem. Now, I insist upon saying Palestine because the Israelis they insist upon saying Israel. Before there was Israel, there was Palestine.
The Palestinians had a land, had a country, had a nation, the Palestinians of Palestine. I insist that we recognize that legitimacy and also recognize a need for us to be more rational in our attitude toward the claimed legitimacy for the state of Israel. So much for the suffering Muslims of the international world. I want to conclude this by saying, in no way are we unconscious of the suffering people of the world, whether they be Muslims or not.
We are conscious of all the suffering people of the world. That's the duty on us, as Muslims, as believers in the Quran, the Holy Book, The Last Revelation, the book of all Muslims, and as a believer and the prophet to whom that book was revealed, Muhammad, the prayers and peace be on him. I'm opening with some very serious thoughts, because I think the subject is a very serious one.
Problems that we face, when they are of a very serious nature and ignored, can force policymakers and democracies, governments to go to what is unwanted, to go to inhuman remedies for answers. One of the local community papers that I have read since I've been visiting here, calls our attention to the possibility of genetic alterations experiment on our youth of the streets to see if their behavior can be changed by genetic study and genetic experiment. Genetic alteration for controlling or for altering behavior has economic business appeal but no true human appeal.
I have collected some notes that I would like to also introduce for this topic today. There are so many notes, and I seem to always collect much more than I have time to use. I decided to just give a few notes from a couple of sources. One is a book by Shelby Steele, a professor of English at San Jose State University in California. Professor Shelby Steele has a book out, and that book, Times Bestseller. And also, he has been received very special award for that work that he has produced.
In his book on identity problems, that's not the topic of the book, but it is certainly on identity problem of our people and on new attitudes, racial attitude for the future here in America. Shelby Steele describes our race as a race burden by a disappointed spirit, "A race in a kind of despair", a race in a kind of despair. What does despair mean? Despair means to give up hope. Despair means to not have a bright outlook. Despair means to suffer a spirit of disappointment. Thats how Professor Steele sees us.
I, myself, I'm not a college man. The extent of my formal education is high school, but after leaving school, I stayed in school informally. But this man is a man with high credentials. And I'm sure you who place your importance on credentials of the world. You can't ignore what he is saying about the state of our race. Though you don't buy it, perhaps you'll differ with him, but you can't ignore what he's saying if you respect credentials, the credentials of the world, the world institutions, the higher institutions of the world.
He also goes on to point to what he feels to be a serious problem for racial identity in African-American people, or for identity in African-American people. He mentions a sacred line separating the individual from the group in terms of identity. He is saying that the individual has a need for personal individual identity. And he's saying further that the emphasis on group identity, racial identity on blackness has had the effect of overburdening the individual or the personal identity.
Again, I remind you that he said there's a sacred line, sacred line that separates the two. The most important identity for us is original identity, original identity. All other identity must be constructed with a reference connecting those identities to or with original identity. I would like to continue and get back to this concern. I would like to mention now Booker T. Washington. Booker T. Washington, was born a slave. However, he was a bright minded slave. He was a slave with great talent, intellectual talent and also industrial talent.
He shed the popularity of his day with W. E. B. Du Bois an intellectual. Though Booker T. Washington had a great intellect, he's not described as an intellectual, and I don't think he wanted to be described as an intellectual. He wanted to be seen as a man of industrial skills, interested in his people becoming more skilled in industry. And he saw that as a way to make religion more meaningful for his people, and I agree with him. He had a great philosophy. His philosophy was, you don't take the people from the abstract to the concrete, but you take the people from the concrete to the abstract.
He believed that you don't tell people all about things they cant understand, theoretically, before you take them to basic things that they can understand and benefit from while they live, skilled labor, et cetera. And he believed that, that route conditioned people to perceive religion and benefit from religion, to have meaningful religion in their life, and that is to say, useful religion in their life, religion that serve their needs in a practical world as well as for the hereafter.
I admire that man's brain, I admire his intellect, though I disagree with some other things that he said, but I think it was only because of naive, being naive in terms of what the world was in the past and in his day. For this same man Booker T. Washington, he said in praise of Christianity, that to his knowledge, Christianity is the only religion that require its adherence to wear clothes.
Now, I know many of his Christian learned friends was snickering when he said that, because I'm sure they were aware that Muslims are more serious about wearing clothes than most people on this earth and always have been. Not only Muslims, I think most of the great religions require that you wear clothes. That's essential. It's very necessary that you clothe yourself decently when you go out in the public, or go out of the privacy of your bedroom. Remember he was born a slave. And he gives credit to opportunities even during slavery for his rising as high as he was able to rise at that time.
Today, we may tend to give all the credit to those who liberated us. Our African American leaders and others, and even to the government at that time, the Republican government at that time, Abraham Lincoln. We might tend to give credit, all the credit to those circumstances that removed that horrible state of slavery from us. And not realize as Booker T. Washington has so clearly stated and proven, documented that even during slavery, there was a condition for individual progress and also the group progress of the Black or African descendants or African American slaves.
He talks about the accomplishments that were made immediately after slavery by the African American people because they had been allowed to become skilled laborers. And many of them had had circumstances with their European American masters that enables them also to become well educated, to become intellectuals. We should ask ourselves sometimes, how is it that Fredrick Douglas, born a slave became such a giant before emancipation. Such an intellectual giant and statesman before and immediately after emancipation. There must have been circumstances favoring his acquiring such greatness in education and becoming such a great intellect. Such a great orator, such a great statesman.
Why am I saying that? I'm saying that because we tend to carry too much of the burden of gloom and despair. And we tend to blame all of our setbacks and all of our deficiencies and all of our needs on the state of America today. That we have a Republican party, a Republican president and a Republican party in our way. We tend to make that the problem for us.
Well I say, if we were able to become Fredrick Douglas and Booker T. Washington, et cetera, during slavery and immediately after slavery, why should we blame a president that we don't particularly subscribe to his policies or his attitude toward the economics of America, or whatever. Why should we blame him for our problems today?
The professor I mentioned, Professor Steel, Shelby Steel, he says also, that he believes the policies of the Republican party has had an effect of spurring us on to more achievements in business if not in other areas. Most of those who point to our real serious problems of the day, seem to point it to business. Economic and business more so than any other thing.
So, if, not that I'm buying this totally, I don't, I have some differences with what Shelby is saying. Not with what he's saying explicitly, but what can be understood are the conclusion which may be drawn from what he has said. That's where I have some difference.
I do believe that we have opportunity to establish ourselves in business, to make progress in business, to become economically strong. I told my son; it hurts you when your son come to you for money all the time and you're not always able to give it to him. It hurts you. I told my son recently, I told him I said, "Son." I call him with his name but I'm going to say son here.
I said, "Son, all out there in the streets are opportunity to get something, but you won't get it unless you really hate yourself for not having it. You got to dislike your own negligence. You got to dislike yourself for neglecting to get what's out there to be gotten." When you start to dislike yourself for being negligent, then you will start to get something because, believe me, opportunity is out there. We shouldn't have to trust the political state of affairs for opportunities.
Do you think other ethnic groups will wait until politics in America favor them to try to get a piece of the pie? No, they don't care what the state of America is, they're going to continue to work just as enthusiastically to establish themselves materially, economically. And that should be the attitude of the African American people, no matter who's in the White House, friend or foe. No matter what the state of politics in America, good or bad. It shouldn't affect our determination to better our material condition to get more wealth in America. This has a lot to do with identity.
Now I'm going to conclude these notes on these two great men by pointing to something that I think is very important for this topic that Booker T. Washington said. Booker T. Washington placed the importance on and I quote, "An idea of life." An idea of life. Here is this man he was born a slave, but he had grown intellectually, to see that himself and his race needed an idea of life.
Praise be to Allah. The one Lord and creator of all. As we say in the Quranic language, Al-humdulila hirabbil aalameen. We always put our complete trust in Him. We seek Him for guidance, we turn to Him for forgiveness. In His name or with His name we make every effort or involve ourselves in every activity. Bismillah hirahman niraheem. With Allahs name, the merciful benefactor, the merciful redeemer.
Paying best salutation to his prophet Muhammad, the prayers and the peace be on him. I come back now to the topic, How Al-Islam solves the identity problem. I would also add, How religion solves the problem of identity. Because as a student of the great world religions, I see that these great world religions all address this problem in very much the same way. The urge or the curiosity in human mind to know self is the basic explanation for the burden of identity.
I'm going to repeat that. The urge or the curiosity in the human mind to know self is the basic explanation for the burden of identity. And with that statement, I'm going to say to us. We are the people who suffer the burden of identity more so than any other people I know of on this planet Earth. Even more so than the American Indian, the first natives of this continent. I've been among American Indians. I've lived with them for time on a daily basis. I know you're wondering Muslim say, "When did the Imam go among the American Indians?"
Well, I did sometime in Sandstone, Minnesota Federal Correctional Institute for not answering the demands of selective service. They demanded that I take a job under the armed force administration and I didn't do it so they locked me up. And there in Sandstone, Minnesota, I met a lot of Sioux Indians. They come into that area. When I say a lot, I mean a lot, considering the number of the inmates in that population.
We became very good friends. I remember left hand, an Indian called left hand. He was about, I guess about 42 years old at that time. I was a young man, and we got to be very good friends. He liked me so well and I liked him so much. He invited me to one of their religious ceremonies. As Muslim, Jehovah Witnesses and others were allowed in Sandstone, Minnesota to have their religious services, they permitted the Indians also to meet, but they did the Indians like they did us the Muslims at that time. Now the Muslims have the same rights in most of these institutions, prisons.
But at that time, they would give us a facility that was used for something else, like the laundry room, or the tool shed or something. Anyway, the Indians would meet. He invited me, said, "I would like for you to come and join us and join our spiritual worship." Really it was chanting. They were chanting prayers. I would like to tell you a lot of things about that but that's not what I'm here for. It would really amuse you. I mean the closeness in some respects to the Nation of Islam idea that we had at that time. It would amaze you.
Well, I better tell you now. It's not good to mention things and leave people wondering. I got to tell you. Okay, here it is. In the Nation of Islam, we believed everything was material. We didnt believe no life after death. I'm talking about the honorable Elijah Muhammads idea of the Nation of Islam at that time. We believed that there is no hereafter, no life after death and nothing can happen except through the material reality. That there is no such thing as a spiritual reality independent of this material reality. But at the same time, we were contradicting what we were claiming to believe by saying that yes, that plane that felt with those devils brother, that was Allah did that.
Somebody dropped dead in the government. Yes, he dropped dead brother. Allah killed that devil. We were kind of superstitious at the same time. Anyway, this Indian reminded me of us. After I went to a service and we were back in the compound, he said, "See, you met my friends. You met my friend." I said, "Yes." He said, "Yes." He said, I like very much." He said, "Do you remember the high part of the chanting?" I said," Yes, I do remember. Some big white men died."
They were killing big white people with chants. They didn't see but they knew one day somewhere when they reached a high point, so much for that. The basic need in such a curiosity, that is a curiosity to know self. It's for functional freedom of the intellect. Now, the dictionary gives three main definitions of the intellect. I'm talking here about the first definition it gives for intellect. That is the mind. The human mind, the ability to reason. The human mind, the ability to reason and understand. That is definition number one in your good dictionary for the intellect.
So, we have become part of a very educated society. And when we hear the term like intellect now, we right away think of a Du Bois or somebody. And we are not aware that every one of us is an intellect. Every human person is an intellect. G-d has created you quite different. He did not make you an animal governed by instinct, governed by laws of the flesh. He made you a creature to be governed by intelligence. He gave you a mind that can make free choices.
An intellect, meaning the ability to reason and to understand. Now this need in our mind, in our intellect, to reason and to understand, is what has driven us to progress and what is burdening us and punishing us for not seizing opportunities to continue to make progress. Yes, I'm a student also of psychology. And it is my firm belief that most of our problems internally, most of our hurt, most of our pain, most of our suffering, internally, is punishment. Not so much from G-d.
G-d can only be connected with this punishment, when we see Him as the Creator, and the law maker for our physical reality and other realities. But when we leave that particular connection with G-d, as Creator of this thing, it's over. As far as blaming G-d, the blame is on you. And your own biological nature and your whole self, your soul mainly trying to get your attention to come back to your responsibility. It punishes you. It punishes you first, with conscience.
By conscience, I mean, moral sensitivity. That's what I mean by conscience, now at this particular time. It punishes you first with moral sensitivity. It makes you see yourself not right. It makes you feel bad about it, it makes you want to do something to right it, to make it right again. You see? Then when you ignore this particular appeal from the creative, from your own self, from your own creation, yourself go on to higher states or to more punishing measures, for your correction.
And the worst measures that come from our own creation is to let us go on and to aid us in our own self destruction. When we reach that part of ignoring the good warning in own nature of creation and our own self, there is no help that can come to us from anybody else. Parents can't help their own children. Brothers and sisters can't help each other. Children can't help their parents. Friends can't help each other.
When you reach that state, you are beyond being helped. And then you start to wonder how come the world is so evil? How come the world is so unjust? You start to wonder if there's a G-d. Well, what kind of G-d is He to put me in this misery? You start to blame everything other than yourself, who's really at fault, who didn't heed the first warning and had an opportunity to be corrected without such a severe punishment, but ignored it, and now find yourself under severe punishment.
Now, we know that we have Islamic terminology, Islamic language for explaining everything that I have said. But whether you're Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhists, baboon, if you got a human mind, you understood what I said, buddy. Let me go on a little bit more. So, we believe that the human being has been created with a special nature. Our nature is not ordinary. Our nature is very special. Although this nature-based creation, or creation-based curiosity in our intellect serves to promote an advanced racial honor and racial esteem, its most important gain is a rational view and perception of community basis for racial unity.
Now, what am I saying? I'm saying that this particular nature in us for identity, this natural curiosity in our intellect for progress, in terms of us, realizing the destined identity for us. Where G-d want us to go and seeing ourselves and seeing our value as individual person and as a group, or as a race. That in us where on one side, it leads us to feel good about ourselves, and lead us to have a sense of personal pride in our identity and a sense of group pride in our racial identity, to be proud as blacks, to be proud as African Americans.
It leads to that. And Im recently challenging Muslim intellectuals, Muslim scholars who differ with that. There are Muslim intellectual, Muslim scholars who think, as Muslims, we are not to give any attention to ethnic pride, to race pride, et cetera. You are wrong. You are wrong. We are to give importance to our personal pride, group pride, to our intellectual ability, give personal attention to that, feel good about yourself.
We're supposed to feel good about ourselves, feel good about your personal achievement. Have a sense of pride. We're supposed to have a sense of pride. Feel good about your group talents, and your group achievement. Feel good about your achievement as a race or as a group. Have a healthy race pride that is intended by G-d that you have that. And there are those that are pitching me all the time, "Imam, Imam. Stick to the sunnah. This is sunnah.
Therefore, most forces that can reach human beings and influence human beings, the life and future of human beings, they're in competition with each other. And don't be ignorant Muslims to think that Al-Islam is not in competition with Judaism and Christianity, and all other isms. Al-Islam and all isms or all religions are in competition with each other. I should say all ideas and ideologies are in competition with each other, if they differ with each other.
But G-d want us to have a friendly competition, a brotherly competition, a healthy competition, a competition to benefit the excellence, or progress for the excellence of all people. That's what 
G-d wants. And all of these prevailing religions have that kind of sense in them. All of these prevailing religions have that kind of sense in them, as members in the family of man. Now this is just something common, common knowledge.
You heard that before, we hear that all the time. We've heard were black too over and over, but have forgot the meaning of black. These races are but members in the family of man. Allah most high says in the Quran that, He has made us tribes and nations. That we may come to know each other, that we may be attracted to each other to get acquainted with each other. That's what it means.
You and your history rose into power, or glory on one continent. Another people in their history rose to power and glory on another continent. And were separated from each other by an ocean of water or by long great expanse of land, and had to discover each other for the first time. After your departure from your original fathers and mothers, you had to discovered each other for the first time. Now, if you look at each other and say, "He's that color. I'm better than this color". If you look at each other and say, "His features are blunt, mine are sharp. His features are sharp and mine is a blunt and soft". And start bragging.
If you have that kind of attitude, that kind of attitude of social immaturity, that's what it is. If you have that kind of attitude of social immaturity in you, then you will not get the great benefit that G-d had deposited in His plan, when He planned that children of Adam would go into various parts or would come up in various parts of the world and come up into great glory, and later be able to benefit each other. That their minds would be conditioned to their particular environments and would have gained great wealth and great knowledge from their particular environments.
Then when they meet later, they will be able to combine all of that great research, all of that great knowledge, all of those great skills. They will be able to combined it for the betterment of the whole family, of all the races of the family of man on earth. That's G-d's intent. But immature racial attitudes will deprive us of that and that's what I understand G-d attending as a problem in us, when He says, that I made you tribes and nations that you should come to know each other, get acquainted with each other. Now the translators add, and that you should not despise each other, that is not in the Quran, in that text.
There is nothing there says that you should not despise each other. And I would caution these intellectuals and learned people in religion, to not be influenced by their emotions, by their sensitivities to stand to the Quran something to satisfy what they think is the need in the public or in the audience. No, we don't need to add so we won't despise each other. It's enough what G-d says, li taaraafu. That's what He says and that's all. Li taaraafu means that you should become acquainted with each other, you get to know each other. That's enough.
To say that we shouldn't despise each other means that the wisdom in this, is that we should respect each other and not look down on each other. No, the wisdom in this is that you are distinctly different and you come from different backgrounds and different histories and different experiences. G-d wants you to get acquainted with each other so we can benefit from that group resource and group ability. Isn't that where the world has come today?
The world has come today where we cannot afford to live separately. We have to live together. We can't afford to claim treasures on this particular part of the earth and deny the benefits of those treasures to the rest of the people on earth. We have to share the treasures that we find on Earth. We can't claim Africa for the African anymore. Africa has to be for all humanity. We can't claim Europe for the European anymore. Europe must be for all humanity.
The Asians can't claim Asians for the Asians anymore. Asia must be for all humanity. Because man has become members in one living room and it just won't allow the family to get over get along like that. They have to get along with some intelligent sense of family, of oneness of racial and unity. These are the realities. Running away from this will do nothing but put to your ignorant tail in hell.
The focus for addressing human potential and progress is our common intellect. That's the best focus for addressing the needs of progress, our common human intellect. 
Al-Islam leaves every door of opportunity and progress open to us that is acceptable before G-d. Business, everything, politics, everything. But the door that it focuses on for us is the intellect, the human intellect and education. The human intellect and education.
That's where it focuses. When we study the rise and fall of great nations, we find two factors contributing to that rise and fall more so than any other factors. One is the moral factor. And the moral factor has as its base a recognition of a benefactor, being thankful, being appreciative to a benefactor. That is to G-d. That's the first moral lesson for the human being. Know that you didn't make yourself, that you didn't make all these things that you benefit from, that you didn't make the opportunities for yourself.
Know that and say thank you, whoever you are that did it. That's the first moral lesson for the human being. And the study of the rise and fall of great powers of great nations, point out these two factors. One is the moral factor and the second of these factors is the attention to the intellect of the human being. The great philosophers. How do they point out the beginning of their rise in society?
They point to the free thinker as the beginning of their rise into society. And Allah says in Quran to us, think, think, for thinking benefits you. Fa dhakir inna faatidhikr. We have here with us today, one of the leaders and hard workers for the cause of G-d in the community of Muslims of Chicago, brother Abdul Hayy. Thank you very much for your presence.
He's a learned man. He speaks several languages and he know where all the languages of Quran. So, I refer it to him and I may refer it to him again before I finish for some assistance. Innafa atidhikra surely thinking benefits you. And what else G-d says to tie the two in. The intellect and moral responsibility. He says, Wa dhikrullahu akbar, and thinking on G-d is the greatest. The greatest what? The greatest in terms of benefits.
Which is a whole intellectual work to itself. Not one book, volumes. The focus for addressing human potential and progress is our common intellect in its role of service for the betterment of our private and public society. Not just the intellect for no purpose, no. The intellect for a purpose. Why do you want to build the intellect up? Because G-d has created the intellect of the human being to have a great and dignified role in his personal life, in his home life and also in the society, in the public. Home and neighborhood is where the intellect is to be established.
Now, if we have no special attention to build an intellect in our homes, for our children, for parents, for all the members of the family, if we have no attention to building the intellect there, then we don't have the right housekeeper in that house. We don't have the right husband in that house. If we are not giving attention to building the intellect, then we do not, I repeat, we do not have the right housekeeper, we don't have the right husband in that house. Because G-d intended for us to build the intellect.
If G-d just wanted to build sexual drives, if G-d just wanted to build sexual romance, if G-d just wanted to build brute force, if G-d just wanted to build industrial animals, He didn't have to give us this special human intellect. The perception of neighborhood grows to include the international world in a perception of neighbors. G-d want us to understand home, and then neighborhood. And G-d want us to do justice by home and justice by the neighborhood. Then G-d want us to progress as a civilized nation to the point where we don't see our neighbor just as the people in the borders of our nation, but we see our neighbors as neighboring nations.
And then treat them with the same treatment that G-d orders for the neighbor. Prophet Muhammad, he put such a great importance on the treatment of neighbors, prayers and peace be on the Prophet. He said that, G-d had urged him through the angel Gabriel so much concerning the treatment of neighbors that he said, I thought my neighbor was going to inherit me. Isn't that wonderful? Do you think the prophet is just telling us something for no purpose? The prophet is telling us that to condition us to be more conscious of treatment of the neighbor.
Al-Islam has been charged by propagandists from the times of the crusades, with being a religion that advanced itself with the sword of the warrior, far from being correct. Proof is now in the Western scholars, the Western historians, they are beginning to acknowledge it more, and get away from that old lie about Muslim. Al-Islam being forced on people to agree with the fact of history and that is that contact with Muslims who were good neighbors, good friends, good customers. Just good people, is what brought about the great progress for Al-Islam in this world.
So, Muslims, be aware of your obligation to keep to the best of Muslim behavior. Because if you don't, then you are the main obstacle to propagation of the religion. Our intellect from its base or home, which is rational activity and clear sense understanding. Why have I use this term home for this condition in the intellect, because when you don't have that your intellect is out of home. And when you're out of doors, you feel bad, don't you? When you're out of doors you're lonesome, lonely, lonesome and miserable, aren't you? When you're kicked out of your home, you're in bad shape, you become miserable.
Well, I'm saying to you that the home of your mind, the home of your intellect, is rational activity. Clear sense understanding. And when you don't feel comfortable inside your head, when you are feeling miserable inside your head, its because you're not doing the right thing or you're not dispositioned mentally to favor the home of your intellect or the home of your mind, which is rational activity and clear sense understanding. A lot of people they'll do all kinds of things. They have become such weird and such terrific acrobats of the mind. Their mind will become such terrific acrobat to escape facing recognizing home, rational activity, and clear sense understanding.
I've been talking with people about their primitive, backwards. When I say primitive, I mean backward because a lot of things that are primitive are forward for this backward civilization. When I talked to people about things backward, backward in their life, backward in their thinking, backward in their moral thinking backward in their rational thinking. I often find that it makes them so uncomfortable. They will actually stand in my face and put themselves down so low just to escape dealing with the thing as they should deal with it. Oh, they will become a dog and start barking. Tell me, I don't know how to talk. Start barking like a dog or become something else. They will transform themselves into anything to avoid continuing a rational conversation with me because they are afraid to accept to go back home. To come back home to rational activity and clear sense understanding.
I don't care who you're listening to. It could be my brother, my sister, my son, my daughter, my friend, my coworker, a member of my associates in this religion now or a member in my associates in the past, the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan. I don't care what time or what people that we are looking at. If they're not respecting the need in your intellect, for rational activity, and clear sense understanding, you should walk away from them. You should tell them, "Look, I'm going where I can fair better. I'm going where I have better opportunities to be at home with my own senses." The intellect seeks to progress to higher elevations and to bigger horizons.
I know by now you know that I'm placing more importance on the intellect as focus for identity than anything else. I'm sure that by now you know that, that I'm putting more importance on the intellect, the common excellent intellect that G-d created for all people, for us and all people. I'm putting more importance on that for identity than I'm putting on anything else. I'm sure you got that by now. The intellect seeks to progress to higher elevations and to bigger horizons, to bigger horizons.
The most urgent elevations are one, useful knowledge and two, a dignified position of responsibility in both the private and the public worlds. We can't be happy in our soul. Don't you know the goal of the soul is to see the intellect establish where G-d wants it? That's the goal of the soul. The aim in the soul, the destiny in the soul is to see the human intellect establish where G-d wants it. Where G-d intended it to be eventually, that's the goal or aim in the soul.
Whenever you're neglecting that, suddenly you're going to feel bad, your soul is being denied its main aim, its main objective, its main purpose. A man whose intellect is cultivated, a man whose intellect is elevated to great service for the whole world, that man derive such great joy from that achievement, that he can walk among great people shoulder to shoulder with them, have no money in his pocket, no bank account, have no wealth, no material assets, have no armies, no power all he got is that achievement of his intellect that benefits the whole world and he walks among them humbly as he's a religious saint or something. He walks humbly among them but he knows that he commands respect.
He humbled his body because he knows G-d blessed his intellect and he shouldn't be proud in his flesh. And he can't be made unhappy by you calling him poor. He can't be made unhappy by you calling him powerless because he knows what G-d has blessed him with have made people rich, nations rich people, people powerful and nations powerful. You see where you can go if you just follow the route of the intellect to where G-d wants it? I'm not going to keep you here all day, don't worry. But it is a beautiful day, I think G-d wanted us to stay out here a little while.
Now we want to come to the concept in our religion, Khalifa. This term Khalifa is found in the Quran. This term Khalifa is Quranic Arabic, Quranic Arabic. What am I saying by that? I'm saying that the Great Arabic for us is not the Arabic that Arabs were speaking before revelation came through the great man, the example for us the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad, the life and Sunnah of prophet. Before that came to us, the Arabs did not have this language. They did not have Khalifa. They did not have Quran. They did not have the important knowledge that we need, or terminology that we need to get great knowledge and advancement from. That was not in their Arabic language.
Don't let the enemies of Al-Islam tell you, "You now have those Arabic names." No, you have Quranic names. Don't let them tell you, "Now you have that-- That's Arabic, isn't it?" Don't let them tell you that. "That knowledge is Arabic, isn't it? That ilm and that Quran and that Sunnah, that's Arabic, isn't it?" No, you tell them certainly it's the best Arabic, but it was not existing in the Arabic language until Allah revealed it to a man who had no schooling, Muhammad, the prayers and the peace be on him.
So, we're talking about this term Khalifa, that was not existing in Arabic language until Quran was revealed. Not that it wasn't existing in religious language. Sure, it was existing in religious language but not for the Arabs. Because Allah says in the Quran that the mission had come to the prophet who belongs to a people that no warner had been sent to before, a people who were not connected with the Abrahamic tradition or the Abrahamic religion. That's according to the Quran.
This Khalifa let's look at its first meaning. Khalifa, firstly, literally, very literally means going back, attention to the back, attention to the rear. That's what Khalifa means, attention to the rear, going back, attention to the rear. When we read Quran of the first mentioning of this term in the Quran, Khalifa, we read it in the concept of Adam's creation, the creation of our first father. He was not only our first father; he was our prophet's first father. How do we know? Our prophet taught us that.
Our prophet tells us that G-d took him on an ascension and on a travel. And he was lifted up to the higher heavens. And he says that there he entered upon a plane and greeted father Adam. The report still exists where he said, "As-sal?mu ?alaykum, oh father Adam." He addressed Adam himself, "Oh father Adam." This particular word comes with report in the Quran on the creation of Adam, may peace be upon Adam. And with the introduction of his creation, the angels were made uncomfortable, which tells us that angels were already in existence before the creation of Adam.
The angels were made so uncomfortable that they question G-d. Now, the angels weren't created to question G-d. They were created only to obey G-d automatically, that is without rational attention to obedience. I'm not speaking with my own mind, my own thoughts, I'm giving you what is revealed in the Quran and in the teachings of the Quran. The angels were not created to question G-d. "Are you saying that man was created to question G-d," yes. Man was created to question everything. They were created to obey G-d without any rational attention to that need.
When G-d described this man He was would create, the angels became greatly disturbed. They obviously had power to see down the road consequences, down the road developments. They asked G-d, "What would you make something that will cause bloodshed?" They feared the down the road consequences. But G-d told them that He knew what they knew not. See, our religion is quite different from most religions in that we do not make Satan too big to deal with.
And we do not make angels too big for man to look at without still feeling that he has a special role in G-d's creation, a degree of dignity above that of angels. So, our religion doesnt play up those things not too much, you see. G-d says, "I know what you know not." G-d challenged the angels to prove that they knew something. When G-d exerted Himself, the angels humbled themselves because that's their nature to submit, to serve G-d. So, they humbled themselves. And they said, "We have no knowledge except what you gave us." That's what the angels say in the Quran. "We have no knowledge except what you gave us."
Then G-d turned His attention to Adam the man that He was going to create on the earth and put in the earth. He says, "Adam, tell them their names." I'm getting to the view of identity that we should have as Muslims of ourselves, that's what I'm getting to. The identities that we should have as Muslims of ourselves. He said, "Adam, tell them their names." Now, here in this particular context, we see G-d pointing to a superiority in Adam over the angels. Because the angels, obviously, could not even anticipate the coming of Adam because G-d surprised them with His introduction of Adam.
They couldn't even anticipate Adam coming into the world not to mention naming him. But obviously, G-d points to a superiority of man. Not that we're superior in everything. No, the angels are superior to us in many respects. But in one particular respect, we have superiority over the angels. So, G-d is pointing to a superiority in Adam over the angels when He says to Adam, "Tell them their names." And when Adam told them their names, they all submitted except Iblis that was the leader among the angels, the leader for the angels. His name in Quran is called Iblis.
He was not true angel in his creation, but he was serving in the order of the angels and acting in the role of angel. You understand? Serving in the order of angels and acting in the role of angel and had no disposition except angel until he was challenged. When he was challenged, then he came back to his original self. He left his angel nature and came back to his original self and he started rationalize. He said to G-d, "I will not submit to this that you're going to create from mud fashion into shape. You made me from fire."
He prided himself in being superior to the man that G-d will make from mud fashion into shape by saying he was made from fire. And we accept this perception of Ibl?s. Because Allah tells us that He made the jinns before He made man. He made them of a fire that gives off no smoke. Praise be to Allah. Now, dear beloved people, Allah says of Ibl?s, Aba wastakbara wa kanna minal kafireen. He rebelled, he refused what G-d was ordering. He rebelled. Aba means rebel, resist, rebel. Wastakbara means see yourself as important. Come under the influence of your own self-importance, see yourself bigger than the issue at hand. That's what it means istakbara. Wastakbara wa kanna minal kafireen, and he became one of the disbelievers, one of the ungrateful.
See the word 'disbelieve' in Quran, or 'unbeliever' or 'disbelieve' in Quran, at the root of it is ingratitude. Ingratitude, you are not thankful. You are not conscious of what you owe G-d. That's what it means. He became one of them. This is Iblis. This same Iblis, later is seen as Satan himself. He used to lead the angels; Satan in the Quran once led the angels. And then he becomes Satan the devil, Satan the leading devil, the great devil. Satan the leading devil, or the great devil, Satan.
Now getting back to Khalifa. G-d says, "I am going to put a Khalifa in the earth, a Khalifa in the earth." And G-d says to those angels, to Iblis, and those that didn't want to accept what G-d was going to create, the man, the human that G-d was going to create.G-d said to them, "When. When, not now. When I have inspired him with my inspiration or literally when I have spirited him with my spirit, or when I have given to him of my breath. Submit to him. Submit to him." Make sajda to him. Make sajda to him, meaning submit completely to him.
What is the special worth of this creature that G-d is making? According to Muslim teaching, it is a Khalifa. A Khalifa is one who goes back, gives his attention to what's in the rear, gives his attention to what's behind him, gives his attention to what has passed, gives his attention to past history, gives his attention to past existence. He is a creature that when he faces problems, he doesn't only look at what's now and look where he want to go in the future, but it's more important for him to know that he is continuing the best of the paths, that he is continuing the best of the paths. That's a Khalifa. That is our best identity. That is our basic identity. That is our most essential identity. And this disposition in the intellect when you're dealing with problems or want to achieve something, you don't just take the present and the future into consideration, but you have, more importantly as a need in you, a need to continue the excellence of your past. Man should work for the future. Yes, but he should do it with a respect for the past. I should work for the future of this community, but as your leader, and I know I am the leader of most of you, raise your hand. I am your leader, who? Raise your hand, stand up those that you say I'm your leader. Let's see you stand up. Sit down if you don't say it. Stand up if you say I'm your leader. Thank you very much. Very good. G-d bless you. G-d bless you.
Now I'm not only to work for the present, and the future. No. If I am to be a worthwhile leader for you, I should give special attention to building upon the excellence of our past. My father and mother told me not to smoke. I haven't broken that habit since they put it in me. My mother and father told me not to drink, not to use drugs. I haven't broken the habit since they put it in me. My mother and father told me to be morally upright and truthful. I haven't broken the spirit and desire to be that way since they put it in. My father told me not to copy the ways of this devilish world. I haven't broken that teaching since they put it in me. I can go on and on and on in telling you of the excellence that Elijah Muhammad and Clara Muhammad put in me, and you will see I will tell you on every point I haven't broke habit with that since they put it in me.
And I thank G-d because it's only because of His special favor on me that I've been able to do that. But not only that, they also left wisdom. They also left direction. They also left achievement. They also left encouragement. They also left power. And I keep with the best of all of it. The honorable Elijah Muhammad left us with a sense of duty to G-d, to our race, to our own personal dignity. He left us with a sense of duty to our families, to our homes, to our neighborhood, to our businesses, to our people in all of their healthy and productive life. He left with a sense of obligation to it. I stand here and tell you right now, I have never in any degree left it.
Just because I take on a new direction or take up a new light and proceed by new strategy and proceed in other direction that I was going in, don't think I left anything excellent in my past that I found or could see. No, I haven't left any of it because that's the spirit in me, the spirit of Khalifa, to always give attention to the excellence of my past before I decide what I'm going to do in terms of correcting things or advancing things presently or for the future. If we can have that kind of disposition, that kind of disposition in our intellect, we are going to grow more powerful and more productive as a people. That's what is stirring in our souls to make us productive. That's what is stirring in our souls to make us feel unhappy and miserable when we neglect it. Understand that and you understand a great wisdom.
Now, going back to Khalifa, we picked up the term of the honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam and his teacher Fard, original. See, understand this, the teacher of the honorable Elijah Muhammad was wise in metaphysics. If he himself wasn't, personally achieve, individually or personally achieve in this field that I am accrediting him with right now, he at least had secret friends and helpers who contributed to his great knowledge in metaphysics and helped him prepare his lessons, his teachings called lessons. English Lesson C # 1, Problem Book et cetera. He had somebody of great wisdom working with him. If it was not all to be given to him. Now, that is something I know as a student. And by the way, one of the greatest metaphysical societies institutes existing today, recently sent me an invitation, a special invitation, to join them for a special meeting they are having.
I'm not going. Not out of disrespect, I'm just not going. Why? Because their idea of the origin of man and their idea of G-d is in conflict with ours. I don't even care to answer their invitation, because if I do, I would make enemies. When they give me an opportunity to say anything, I'll tell them just what I told you. Your idea of origin of man and G-d is in direct conflict with ours." So, I don't want to offend and become the enemy of people; I think who liked me from a distance. I want them to keep liking me from a distance and I'll keep stomaching them from a distance.
We are coming to this term, special term, original. Let me tell you those leaders who came to help African American people, firstly from among us. Do you think Fard was the first one who wanted us to come back to our original self? No. We had great intellects among ourselves who were also appealing to us to come back to our original self. Fard, he also did it. Those who did it, they had a better sight on what our condition was and is and what we needed to better the condition than the others that didn't have that interest in bringing us back to our own originality.
If the white man is a great race, if white civilization is a great civilization, it is because they were able to tap the originality of man. It is because they were able to benefit from a perception, a concept, a perception of mans originality. They were able to advance their life upon a connection with mans originality. That all men are created equal and are endowed with certain attributes. Among these are liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I'm not giving it verbatim, but you know what I'm talking about. You hear the introduction to the constitution of these United States. Yes, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Rights you can't take away from them.
You can't alienate them from those rights because those rights are their G-d given inheritance. Thats what the preamble or the introduction to the constitution of these United States upon. It is the preface and the premise for supporting the constitution itself. Do you understand that? Yes, and that's what that language says. What is that saying, that's addressing mans originality? This nation could not build itself upon tribal identity. It could not build itself upon racial identity. It could not build itself upon European identity.
And most of the founding fathers, practically all of them, and most of the people working for the cause at the time in its inception, in its beginning were of European descent. Of white people, or of the Caucasian white race. That we call the white race. But they could not establish an identity for the citizens of these United States in race or in tribal group or tribal identity. No. The only identity you will find established for the citizens of the United States is given in those words from the introduction to the constitution that I just gave you. That is, that all men are created equal. And are endowed by their creator with certain rights that cannot be taken from them or cannot not be made foreign to their possession or to them. You cant alienate them. You can't make them become foreign. This is not yours. No, Im kin to that, that's mine. That's what it means. You can't alienate you from those rights. That language I gave you is the language that addresses that common identity, the most excellent identity of man. The most excellent identity of men, is the identity that G-d gave you when He created you. That's why the wisdom, the metaphysical wisdom in the Nation of Islam says, I am the original man."
Man wants to know himself. That urge is natural in him, he will never be rested, he will never be comfortable with himself, until he has a comfortable picture of himself for himself or for his intellect. So, the Nation of Islam was designed to claim itself to be the second coming of Christ. It was designed purposely to claim itself to be the second coming of Christ. So, its method, its way of doing things, its perception, its language, its study, its analysis, everything has to be supported by what is perceived in Christian wisdom as the Christ when He comes.
So, it has to be quick stuff. Everything has to be quick stuff. It said, That when He comes, it'll be all of a sudden. You see this is Christian wisdom. When He comes, it'll be all of a sudden. Quick moving, fast thinking right down to the modern time. That's Fard's language. It has to be all of a sudden. So, he's not going to waste a whole lot of time with even the doctrine. You see, he's not going to waste a whole lot of time with it. Where I go into all these elaborations, his message was just to say, you are the original man, and leave it like that.
I forgot he did ask something because he thought that he might be getting in a little trouble, when he said, You are the original man." He said the Asiatic Black Man. He thought you didn't want to connect with Africa yet because you thought Africa was a continent of baboons and monkeys et cetera. That is the masses or uneducated blacks over here and yet that was the thinking, believe me. When I was a boy, most of us African Americans or black or Negro, we thought that Africa was a place inhabited by monkeys and baboons in our form. He didn't want to waste a whole lot of time. But I guess he said, Well, if I see Africa alone, they aren't going to like that. I better say Asiatic. He said original man is Asiatic black Man.
Then he went on to exaggerate just as those experimenters with metaphysical wisdom do. He said, The owner, the maker, the cream of the planet earth. The god of civilization, the father of the universe. Allah, the only god, the black man," that is what he said. Now, that is a quick charge. It will take you around a corner out the door to house back into it and around corner and then no more running. But I say we pay respects to the best of what we have in the past. And we continue to keep it with us. We advance ourselves in the present and in the future, upon the excellence of the past.
Khalifa. Continuing these comments on Khalifa now. Khalifa means going back to the originality. Going back to the originality. To what G-d intended to be the excellence of your life. Going back to it. It's like going back to a seed to have the future for that particular life. Don't you have to go back to a seed if you want for the future for that particular life? If you want the future for human life, you have to use the human seed, don't you? If you want the future for the apple orchard, you have to go back to the apple seed, don't you?
Well, no need to continue this, I'll look ridiculous if I keep on talking. So, the Khalifa means going back to the originality. Some may ask if G-d hadn't created man yet, if there was no human or no person yet created, what originality was there to go back to. Our originality was existing before we were on this earth, speaking these languages. The most important wisdom or direction for us in perceiving or looking at or viewing this originality, is its connection with responsibility.
Before Adam, the angels were already, they were existing. But what were they doing to fulfill the responsibility that G-d wanted on the best of His creature? What were they doing to fulfill the responsibility that G-d wanted on the best of His creatures? They were not progressing wisdom, they were not progressing the world, they were not bringing about freedom, industry, great advancement for human society. They were not bringing about. You say, well, the human beings were existing yet. I've said enough. I know what I said. They weren't doing anything to advance it.
So, G-d said I'm going to create a man. A mortal, a flesh and blood human being. And Allah says in our Holy Book, if the earth had been populated with angels, He would have sent down an angel to be the leader for the people on earth. G-d did not send down no angel to be our leader, understand that. G-d never missioned angels to be the leader of men. You may say, "Well, the Angel Gabriel led Muhammad the prophet." That's what you think. He brought a message from 
G-d to Muhammad the prophet. You might say, well, the Angel Gabriel came to teach the prophet, his religion, its given in the tradition. No, he came to teach you your religion and the prophet made it all understandable. The Angel didn't, the prophet did. Prophet made it understandable so don't be too cocky, too hasty.
Responsibility. G-d is saying He's going to put a responsible creature in earth. Now, how much responsibility is going to be given to that creature? The amount of the responsibility that's given to that creature is what makes that creature so special and what make him so dynamic and what make him so productive. The amount of responsibility that's given to that creature. G-d created man and then told man, sakara lakum, He made subservient to you. Ma fis samawati wal ard. He made it to yield is utility.
You know what yield means? Give up. Made it to give up its utility, its benefits to yield. What did He make to yield His benefit to man? He says it, the skies and the earth. G-d says, I created the man and I made what's in the skies and what's in the earth to give up its utilities to him. Can't you see that idea firing up the intellect of the founders of this great nation? Can't you see that idea firing up the intellect of great industrial powers, great industrial ancient kingdom? Can't you see that idea firing up the intellect of the African-American if he would accept it? Yes.
If the African-American would accept and believe firmly with his heart, with his soul, with all that in his being that G-d created him Khalifa. And that G-d in making him Khalifa made him the most burden bearing responsible creature in creation. Made him, I repeat, the most burden bearing responsible creature in creation. G-d didn't make us to just carry poor black children, hungry black children, ignorant black children, sinful black children. That's burdened us so much now we can't do anything. G-d made us to carry a poor black world, a poor sinful world, a poor ignorant world.
G-d made us to carry the responsibility for the utilities that can benefit us in our life that is in the skies, that are in the earth. G-d made us to draw up utilities that are in the mineral mines, that are in the atom, that in the nature of the atom. G-d made us to grow up the utility that's in the skies and in the earth. If you believe that with your heart and with your soul, with your whole mind, I don't care what state you are in now you can be a poor black dupe of this society. If you accept that in your mind right away change is going to start. Right away change is going to start in your mind.
The more you hold on to that and the more you believe in that, the better your condition is going to get. And one day you're going to be just as bold as I am in asserting your authority, and your identity, and your G-d-given dignity to say, I don't need any white man to guide me to the future. I don't need any black man, to guide me to the future. I don't need any Arab to guide me to the future. I don't need any Indian, or Pakistani to guide me to the future. G-d has blessed me with the germ in my mind that will guide me and also established me.
I'm telling you what I know from personal experience. I don't tell you I believe that I can lead the African-American people to establish them in America. I tell you; I know I can lead the African-American to established them. It ain't no belief. It is a know with me. And I'm not talking out of my head. I'm not under any spirit. I'm not excited. I'm as calm as I ever was. And the proof of it is just study those who support me and have faith in what I'm doing. Study them. Look at their condition 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago. Look at their condition now. If an examination could be made of them and compare them with other African-Americans, they'll find that my people are the most potent and the most productive people in Africa America.
To tell you how good I feel about myself and you, there be no collection today. Any collection you make today it'll be for the Harvey Community of Muslim. It'll not be for me and I'm in bad shape financially. I don't get in this condition often, but I'm going to refuse everything you give me. I'm going to refuse it and give it to the Harvey Muslim Community here. I'm not saying don't make a collection. Make a collection. Because people, they're appreciative. Its something in their soul tells them, give, and give them the opportunity to do what is good for their soul. You take it and then you do what is good for your soul. Use it wisely, morally and correctly. Do you do that all the time brother Imam? No, I do same thing you do. I spend money on the no-good people sometimes.
Now, let me continue and conclude here today. We are not away from a problem, stressful condition of seeing so many youths and so many people without jobs. Of seeing inferiority in the performance of our government. Signs of inferiority. A superior nation showing signs of inferiority in their behavior, in their performance as a government. We are not away from the problem of economic failure in the world, in Africa and even in America. There's much economic failure here.
We are not away from pain of seeing the drug traffic and its toll on the best minds of our people, our youth. We are not away from the serious problem of crime and criminal behavior in this society, etcetera. However, increasingly, leaders and organizations of African Americans are emerging to impact this society more and to assist more in assuring we all will have for ourselves and for our children who inherit us a healthier, more just and more productive America and world.
In my conclusion, I advise all spokesman, all spokesperson for the betterment of American people, especially for the betterment of African American people, to not just keep singing the blues and pointing to problems and defects and shortcomings. And making ourselves people who give way to the spirit of bitterness that takes all of our life that deprive us of the spirit of production.
I advise them to come away from so much negativity that glooms up the light and darkness the light, so we can't see the great achievements we have in the past. And the great achievements we are making presently, in spite of conditions, in spite of politics in Washington now, or in the society now. In spite of the party, or the party choice, in spite of all of that, we have people that are doing marvelous work in our mind, the mind of African American people, being favored by our Creator, the One G-d.
To recognize that African American people are not to just ask for help, but are to offer help to themselves and to others. We are coming into a greater sense of responsibility as a people and I admire great leaders and great intellect. Some of you of them that I've named to you. Most of them I have not named to you that are living presently. We have great people in the church, great people in this society and great people in the mosque and I would like for you to think that I'm one of them.
May G-d bless us and guide us and forgive us our mistakes. Show us the way always and not forsake us. Empower us with faith in Him first of all, the commitment to Him first of all, obedience to Him first of all, pride in serving Him first of all, so that we will come into our state, the original state and be truly the original man and the original woman. Peace be on to you. Assalamu alaikum.

