02/23/1992
IWDM Study Library
Protecting the Future Through Sound Economics

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(Imam W. Deen Mohammed made this public address on February 23, 1992 in Birmingham, Alabama. He has now prepared from it this article for Muslim Journal's readers.)
As-Salaam-Alaikum. That is peace be on you. We seek our Lord Creator, Whose most popular name among Muslims throughout the world is Allah - Highly Glorified is He. We seek Allah for the good outcome of everything that we put our minds to do. We thank Him for the results of our work, and we trust that we will always receive good results from our good works. We witness that He Alone is G-d; there is no partner with him, no sonship, no children who inherit His Power or His Throne. And we witness that Muhammed to whom the Qur'an was revealed is the Last Prophet, and His Servant, His Messenger. We pray the prayers of peace be on him, that is on Muhammed to whom the Qur'an was revealed, and what follows of the most excellent salute to the last Prophet.
I wanted to speak within the theme of these two exciting days for me and for you. I want to speak on how Islam or we as Muslims should benefit economically or should approach economic concerns. I am not an economist, although I have read volumes on economics. And if I had the time I would go to school and get a degree in economics. I love economics. I am not an authority in the area of economics or in the area of business to be addressing such topics from that interest  from a pure interest in economics. But to address this concern as a common person, as a consumer, and most of all as a Muslim who has knowledge of his religion  I do claim that  is something I can do and something I think you expected me to do. I don't think you expected me to come out here with a lot of figures and data.
My talk will be mainly on disciplines. Most failures in anything are failures of disciplines. If you fail a life of disciplines, then you fail. And there are some basic disciplines that make for success in almost anything that you may endeavor to do or take up as an interest. Those essential disciplines are not addressed in any specific focus other than regard for what should be regarded.
Muslims always say, "Regard for Allah". That is the number one regard for Muslims and other G-d-fearing people, whether Muslims, Christians, Jews or whatever. Regard for the Lord Creator. This term "regard" in our religion is not only for Allah, it is for Allah first but for other things as well. Our religion is in the Qur'an itself, the universal Book of all Muslims, whether they are black, brown, yellow, red, or some other color, or whether they belong to this nation or that nation of the Continent of Europe or of the Continent of Africa or some other continent. It is called "Koran" by most English speaking people and it is called Qur'an in the proper Arabic pronunciation.
In that Book Allah says we should regard Allah. That we should regard the family ties and it is translated in a very literal way by some as "regard the wombs that bore you." It means regard close family ties. And we should regard "a day in which there will be no one "to come to our aid. Every person will be alone, no friend to help. We should regard "the fire of hell." We regard the literal fires, don't we? I don't care how drunk someone may get, we know better than to stick our hands to warm up in the flames.
We are a people who are told to regard certain matters, and that term used is "i-taq-qi" and is derived from "taqwa". Most of us know what "taqwa" is. I would like to see the hands of the Muslims here who know what "taqwa" means. Now you who are Muslims and didn't know and after I explained it, you still don't know; then you go home and beat yourself with a strap. Just whip your legs just like you are a little baby. Taqwa means being conscious of G-d and what G-d wants of me. This taqwa is a very personal thing. It is what G-d wants of me and being aware of it (the obligation), and being disciplined in my whole life, my mind, my thoughts, my spirit, my behavior and everything, so that I do not do anything that would bring G-d to be displeased with me.
None of us is perfect. No one of us is an angel. We all are human with limited abilities, so we are going to make mistakes and commit (some) sin. But we should always be a person with taqwa; that is, desiring never to do anything outside of what G-d has approved. That is taqwa (regard) for G-d. But does G-d (Allah) need that from us? In our religion, Allah is bigger than creation. And we know we have not measured creation yet. Man has become superman. Today man is flying without a cape and going to the moon and on to objects much farther away from us than the moon. Man may try to fool us sometimes, but really he has no idea of where is the end of space. He has not been able to measure all space. All he knows is that when he goes into another area, he is still looking and there is still more to see. Man never sees the end of it. Allah is bigger than the material universe, the creation itself, and He does not need anything from us. That is the way it is in the Qur'an.
Allah (as given in the Qur'an) is independent of all that He created. All that He created depends on Him and He depends on nothing. He exists alone without food, without drink, without clothing, without flesh, without protection, without anything that is made for the sustenance of His mortal creatures.
Once I was talking to my little daughter about Allah, and she was just ignoring me. This (the reality of Allah's nafsin) is heavy even on our minds. So, you can imagine how heavy it was on her. She was somewhat trying to imagine what I was talking about, but she kept ignoring me. I have a lot of patience, and for many years I would not even bring things like this to little children. Now I feel that I am qualified to do it, and I know it requires a lot of patience.
I said to her, "When you came into the house hollering that the mosquitoes were eating you up, you know where those mosquitoes came from?" I had gotten her attention. I said, "Allah created the mosquitoes. The next time they bite you, tell Allah to stop them from biting you." So I got her attention, and from there I went to other things. I said, "You see all of those birds flying across the sky?" Now, I couldn't see that (on as big a scale) in Chicago, I'm in Little Rock now. You never (hardly) see anything flying across the sky in Chicago. A squadron of jet planes could come across and you might not even know it. I had her attention, and she said, "Yes." I finally told her about Allah, and she heard the description of Who Allah is and What Allah is. She had no (indicated to me no) problem, and I was surprised. She appeared to have had no problem understanding that Allah was not flesh and blood. I said to myself, "I'm glad I told her early."
The disciplines that we are given for our own life so that we live a life acceptable before our Creator are the disciplines that we need for success. That is, no matter what the thing is we are discussing or thinking about. I am going to give you my position and my conclusion of my whole talk in about two or three minutes, but I will afterwards give it in full length.
If we strive to please our Lord Creator, then we are assured success. I don't care what you want to go into, you are assured success. If you want to go into business, if you want to go into religious work or dawah (propagation work), if you want to be in education, if you want to be in medicine; if you really make up your mind and you are very serious, you are assured success. Now this does not mean that you are going to be rich if you want money and business, but you are assured success.
It is not always the rich person who is successful. Sometimes his wealth destroys his family. Sometimes his wealth destroys him. Sometimes his wealth lands him in jail. Sometimes his wealth gets him killed. So it is not always success the way we are apt to see success. The real success is "to be pleased". If I get all the money in the world and I am in hell mentally, I (in my soul) am not successful. So there is no way to guarantee that you are going to be rich. The guarantee is that you are going to be pleased. Most likely, and in fact I can guarantee this, you can take the same number of those people and match them with the other people who care nothing about that kind of respect for G-d, and let the two groups go (racing) at business. There will be more from the G-d-fearing group succeeding in business than there will be from the none G-d-fearing group succeeding in business.
Just look at our associates. I call them (our gathering) associates, because I don't want anybody calling me their leader unless they are calling me that without any heavy burden. Please, don't over burden yourself and don't over burden me. / am not going to answer for your behavior and you are not going to answer for mine.
I know we have to have leaders and leadership. I know we all have to follow something and I follow a lot, believe me. If you are successful at leading you are following a lot. What really matters is that we be good Muslims, and that is the point.
We are assured success if we make ourselves obey what we believe to be Allah's Will for us. Sometimes people think, "Oh, I wish I could be a good Muslim. If I knew that Arabic like you. If I could recite that Qur'an like you. If I knew the Sunnah like you." No, all you have to have is a good heart like Abraham (A.S.), then you are going to get everything that everybody else is going to get.
Wealth does not always mean success, and knowledge too does not always mean success. You can get all of that know-ledge and be needing a psychiatrist everyday. Some people will let knowledge drive them out of their minds. It (mystical knowledge) will make them so strange that they think everybody else is strange. They will be thinking the earth is populated by aliens and they are the only humans.
Don't think any one thing is the answer other than the desire to please Allah. Everything else by itself is not the answer. Some will say, "Oh wait a minute now. There's the Qur'an." But by itself, it is not enough. "Then, there is Muhammed." By himself, he is not enough. "Then, Allah." By Himself, He (Allah) is enough. Allah says in Qur'an that any who holds on to Allah will be brought back again, even though he be in hell. Holding to Allah will bring us out of hell.
I bear witness, for I remember a time in my life when I didn't have Prophet Muhammed. I didn't have the Qur'an. I didn't even have the right "picture" of Allah. I am speaking of the idea in mind. But I had faith in Allah. I had a belief that there is a G-d. I knew I had to obey (a) G-d if I expected to be successful. I knew that He would get me eventually if I disobey. So I was obeying in the dark and believing that there was a G-d. That brought me out of all the confusion I was in. I am a living witness and you are too. We experienced it. Some of you were in the light you say, but I didn't see your light. "
Disciplines are very important for us. When it comes to success Allah tells us what it will take to make us successful. He tells us in so many ways. But there is a particular passage from the Qur'an that ties in business with hope for success. It puts business into the focus with the hope for success. The passage says we are missing the real thing when we are going away from Allah to the dollar for success. This is the way I am commenting on it, because this is the way I am getting it.
"Oh you who believe. Shall I turn you on to a business deal that will save you from a punishing affliction? Believe in Allah and in His Messenger and strive in Allah's path with your possessions, your wealth, and with your own souls, your ownselves. That is best for you, if you only knew." That is what G-d says in the Qur'an.
Now G-d used the term "tijaarah". Tijaarah means commerce, business, enterprise. The term means something that invites and promises profit, something that offers material gain. Allah says, "Shall 1 turn you on to a business deal? (Shall I turn you on to a business interest that will save you?)" He (S.T.) did not say, 'that will make you rich'. Many people are rich but they are lost. Then He tells us what to do: "Believe in Allah and His Messenger." He didn't just say 'believe in Allah'. It says, "...believe in Allah and in His Messenger"."
A celibate mystic Saint can be successful in this material world of wealth without a messenger. It is because he does not want anything from him as a complete human model. All he wants to do (celibate mystic saint) wants to do is just exist until G-d calls him back. He doesn't want a woman, is not looking for a wife. He is not looking for a family, does not want children. He wants clones. He is not looking to buy him a home or anything. He looks to occupy yours. He can sleep in a cave or in a tree. He doesn't want anything on a typical human level. He tries to hid that reality even from himself.
But this Qur'an statement here addresses people who want something in the world and it uses "tijaarah". That is, money, enterprise, commerce, and business. So we Muslims have to believe in G-d and in His Messenger (A.S.). Why? We have to believe in Allah and in ourselves. The Messenger is the model for ourselves. The Messenger is the type that Allah wants in us. Allah wants us to be like the Messenger. He (Muhammed, A.S.) is the ideal human model.
We have to believe in G-d and also believe in the good possibilities for ourselves. And the possibilities for us are best seen in the possibilities demonstrated by Muhammed himself. That man (the prayers and the peace be upon him) was successful in every respect. He (the Last Prophet) was an all around achiever. He (Muhammed) managed the material world and the spiritual world and was successful doing both of them. So it is not enough just to believe in G-d. No, we Muslims are to believe in G-d and believe in His Messenger.
Another condition is that we struggle in the path of G-d with our possessions. Anybody going into business for nobody but himself is going to be a failure sooner or later. But they of importance are going into business to help a bigger cause; they are going into business to help somebody they are not expecting to get something from.
If you go into business and create one hundred or one thousand jobs, surely you will get fame. But when it comes to money, you are not going to get back all the money. Those employed got a share, and they don't owe you a thing out of their share. Those workers are spending that money on their families, on their cars, and some of them will not even know the boss or the investor.
Your satisfaction grows from your helping all of those people. But when it comes to yourself actually getting all of what you are producing, no. Your share (total production) is going to be given to many people and you are going to get a small share. Your share will not be all that you produce, for most of what you produce will be going to others. Many of you will never see or know in your lifetime those people. Your money (your production) will go out from you to employ them and you will not be knowing all of what is happening. You will not even live to see its limits. But it (your wealth and production) will be benefiting others.
You can have that kind of mind to not expect all the fruits or profits, the harvest, in your day and time. There is a saying in Arabic in a little children's textbook that speaks of a man who was planting a tree. It was a date palm I believe, and the children questioned the old man. "Old man what are you doing?" He said, "I'm planting the date palm." They said, "For what?" He said, "So it will bear fruit." They asked, "Will you eat the fruit?" He said, "No, it will not bear fruit in my lifetime. But those coming later will eat it."
Now, I wonder what would happen to date palms, if they were all left to most African American dollar-chasers. I am just wondering and don't know. But the way we act sometimes, it is hard for me to see African Americans today planting date palms. I imagine there would be a scattered date palm here and there. Most of us don't want to do anything unless we are going to get it all for ourselves right away.
Do you think I would be coming to Birmingham and doing what I do and spending time all over these United States, if I were just doing this for myself to get a dollar? No, I can't even do that until I first want to see something come to somebody generations down the road. I can't even do that just for you. It isn't that necessary to do that just for you. I can do what I want to do for you over the telephone or radio or through the paper in one day. But we want this to be around here for the generations to come, and that makes a difference.
When you have the mind to invest in something to bring benefit to more than yourself and to people after you are dead, you really have the ambition or the aspiration that will get you not only help from intelligent people, but you will also have G-d and His angels on your side. This is because above yourself you are helping G-d's Cause. That is what G-d wants.
G-d does not just look out for us today. He looks out for our children to come way away generations down the road. Allah is not interested in just us in this room. He is interested in all of the people out there. When you get that kind of interest, believe me, G-d is going to be with you. You will be successful.
This is philosophical, and a lot of my talk to you is philosophical. If you open your mind for the vision and open your heart for the sensitivities that Allah wants, you are going to be successful. It is guaranteed. Amen.
Our prayer is a call to success. "Hayya a'lal falab" which comes after "bayya alias salat". "Salat" is prayer. "Hayya a'lal falah" is translated by most as "Come to success". Now, I have said that if you obey the disciplines that G-d gives us, you are going to be successful. G-d says if you come to prayer, you are going to be successful. And that is only one discipline. Salat is only one of our units of discipline.
Some will say, "No, brother Imam. Allah didn't say that. Some of the Companions saw that in a dream. It was two of the Companions who saw it in a vision, and that is how that call to prayer came about." But the Prophet also said it. When he heard them say what he had also seen, then he approved it as Allah's intent. If you can't look beyond me buddy, then I am way ahead of you.
Some of these "holy" sheikhs and "sufis" don't want me to talk about worldly success. You can see the difference between real religion and guess work religion. One calls you to success after you are dead, and the real religion calls you to success here and after. And nobody is going to change my mind about this religion. Amen.
Malcolm was not the only one looking at communism, I was looking at it at one time too. The more I learned about the Qur'an, the less attractive communism became. I had no knowledge at all that the Soviet Union would look like it is looking now in the grave. I had no knowledge that would ever come in my lifetime. But I thank G-d that He had mercy on me and I made the proper choice: Islam over communism.
"Hayya a'lal falah." Come to success. In the morning before the sun is up someone in the Muslim family or in the Muslim community is supposed to ring out so the neighborhood hears or so the household hears "come to success." Now if you are told that five times a day and it is ringing out all in the neighborhood, "come to success", you are supposed to be successful.
Now how come the "third world" Islamic societies are not successful? They are hearing "come to success." I can explain it to you very easily. You were told "come to the Qur'an," and you weren't coming to it. I was back there as a young boy in the thirties and growing up to be a bigger boy in the forties and a young man in the fifties and I was a man with a family in the early sixties.
For all those years I heard the call that the Qur'an was our Book. That is what I heard, but we had not come to it. If anybody can understand you should be able to understand, how those people can hear "come to success," and they are getting up from their beds but they are not coming to success. That is not all of the Muslim world, but that is the great majority. They do not measure up to what they say they believe. There is a reason for that.
The intent has to be right. The perception has to be right. You can be given a wrong idea and it will blind you so that your perception will never be right, until something changes within you to make you displeased with the way you are perceiving things. Then you will start to perceive correctly.
"Believe in G-d." Do you know what Prophet Muhammed advised when one person came to him? This person came like one who goes to the person for the lucky number. This was a person coming to Prophet Muhammed, the prayers and the peace be on the Prophet, for that lucky number. He knew that if anybody could give it to him, it would be the Prophet. He said, "Tell me something that nobody can tell me other than you." The Prophet said to the young man, "Say, I believe and thereafter be straight," or be straight up as the youngsters out there today will say.
Now if I had walked up to one of these African American scholars in the religion and said, "Look here brother, tell me something in Islam that nobody else can tell me." Man, I would have been there listening to him until I had to order a box of Excedrine Plus. But the Prophet answered so quickly and so simply.
Why did the Prophet say, "Say, I believe....'? It was so that it will be conscious and will be written indelibly on the mind. To say something, you have to concentrate a little bit. It is not the same as hearing somebody else.
When you become a Muslim you have to say the testimony. I can't say it for you. You have to say "I witness One G-d and Muhammed the Prophet."
"Anybody could have told him that." No! Nobody else but the Prophet could have told him that, and I am going to explain it. This man asked for something the average person would have thought was a big deal. Only the Prophet could answer him in such plain and simple language and giving such easy advice. And only the Prophet could speak in the context of revelation from the beginning to the end. When he (A.S.) answered that person he was speaking in that context from Adam to the last Prophet.
There are those in religion who say, "Say, I believe, and you shall be saved," and, "Believe in him, and you shall be saved." Prophet Muhammed in the context of scripture knew where the problem was.
I want to further explain the call to success. The call to success has "come" given as the translation in English for the word "hayya." It means come, but "hayya" comes from a word that means life.
Coming to prayer is the same as coming to success. I don't say I believe it, I know it. I am not perfect in my obedience to my prayers, but I have a desire to be perfect in my obedience to my prayers. And G-d has made me successful. I am not a failure, I'm a success. And I do not claim the credit without acknowledging there were many helping me. G-d has blessed me with success on this level because I want to obey perfectly everything that He orders. I don't measure up to it, but that is my desire.
That is a believer. I doesn't mean that we are angels or that we are perfect. We are not. But we should desire to do everything that Allah asks of us and do it exactly as He asks, not the way we interpret it or twist it to excuse ourselves. We admit it when we are wrong, and that is what makes for a powerful human being. "Lord, I was wrong. Forgive me." That is a great human being.
The one who never has any sins to admit, he is not a human being. He might be a devil, but he sure is not a human being.
"Come to prayer, Come to success." Allah wants us to be successful, and He wants us to be successful as living human beings - not as dead people. This is not a religion that just calls us to be successful after death or after the grave. He wants us to be successful while we exist in this mortal form, this body, this flesh. He assures us that we will be successful if we obey the disciplines. The most important one is prayer. Obey that one and you will be successful. There is no way to obey that one alone and not obey the others. That one is going to condition you to have the fullest amount of involvement in the religion.
Prayer will make you want to do everything. It will make you want to help in the field of education, to help the Clara Muhammad Schools. It will make you want to be materially successful and successful as a parent. It will make you want to have social status, social esteem, social respect. It makes you all around a person desiring success, an all around achiever.
When we go down to our knees, we are thanking Allah. We are doing justice by submission. We thank Allah for bringing us up on our feet. Now isn't that a wonderful prayer. And there is a lot more to be said. I hope to meet you in the "camp" one day, and we are going to talk some more.
Our prayer (salat) is a discipline. We can't say what we want to say, we have to quote Qur'an. Our prayer also disciplines our physical body. We can't move when we want to, we have to move when the discipline says move. We move down to ruku, the bowing position. We come back up to a standing position. We form a position with nose, forehead and palms touching the floor. Our position (sajda) resembles a baby with the head too heavy for him, so he rests his forehead on the floor with his nose touching too. Don't put your mouth to the floor.
The Prophet stopped some people from praying because they were doing it improperly. That is how serious it (salat) is. It is a discipline. We have for the morning prayer two sections called rakats. A Muslim also prays sunnah prayer, because he feels that although it is not a strong obligation, he obligates himself. He wants to do the sunnah of the Prophet. So really he prays a total of four -two sections of obligatory and two sections of sunnah which means after the practice of the Prophet.
You count the number of times that you put down your forehead and nose and hands, the number of times that you are prostrated on the floor like a baby. In the two rakats you make four sajdas or four prostrations. That is a discipline. Now when it comes to the Noon Prayer, you double that number. You do four sections, and that doubles also the prostration like the baby to eight times. And Allah (S.T.) says eight holds up the throne. And don't we want the throne to be successful too? There is a total of eight sections for fard and sunnah noon prayers.
What is the throne? The throne means the rule. Man wants to preserve the rule that he has whether it is over the town as the mayor, or over the state as the governor, or over the nation as the president, or over his household as the daddy or the momma. Now if you want to preserve the rule, then break that day or stop in the busy part of the day. That is hard for many people.
In the beginning of the day, most people will say, "Oh G-d, help me today." And at the end of the day, most people will say, "Oh G-d, lay me down to sleep in peace." But in the middle of our day we are busy working and having coffee breaks and lunch. Most people will not interrupt that work day or busy day to remember G-d.
If you want to hold up the throne, then interrupt that business. I don't care if it is your retail business or your wholesale business or your political business or whatever. Interrupt that business and give G-d the respect and the attention that He asks. Then you will hold up the throne. I believe that, and we are talking about the keys for success in business. In order to be successful in business, I am saying that you have to first be successful as a believer in G-d. Be a successful Muslim, and that means being successful in business.
Look how successful the Muslim world was in the early days of the Islamic society under Muhammed and the great Companions of his. They became the greatest society on this earth. This is history. They led other societies back to civilization. Even the West will admit that it owes its regeneration to Islam, to Muhammed, to the scientists who followed that revelation called Qur'an. This is history, and we cannot deny it.
Arnold Tornbee, perhaps the most popular and most respected historian for the West, pays great tribute to Islam in his report on history. So what happened to this society that was so successful for a few centuries? They lost what we are trying to get right now. They got too busy with the world and lost Allah and consequently lost the world.
The proof exists that by obeying the commands of Allah in the Qur'an and following his Prophet will bring success. We have people who came from backward life, from idolatry and were tribes similar to the American Indians as a bunch of independent tribes, even called nations, with no national unity. They were not recognized by any civilized order. The Qur'an guided them to become the leaders of nations on earth during that time.
The proof that the Qur'an will give you success is that they (the early Ummah) got success. The proof says Allah is the key, obedience to Him is the key for that success. When they stopped that obedience to Him they lost it. Allah (S.T.) says, "Never did a society fall, until they first neglected prayer." Do you see how important prayer is for us, brothers and sisters?
I don't see why any of you brothers don't like to pray. Aren't you men? I know I have a little bit of rooster in me. 1 get up and exclaim. "Allah n Akbar!" Man, that awakens a whole lot of male genes for me. I feel all kinds of ancestral manhood coming into my spirit when I do that (the adhan).
Let me tell you, if you want to have a better relationship with that woman, then do some flopping of your arms (wings) like that rooster and call out "Allah u Akbar!" But mean it, because if you are faking man, the first person to know is that woman. Prayer will strengthen us and condition us for carrying other disciplines  all of them.
There is a small surah or chapter in the Qur'an that reads: "Concerning the time down through the ages, surely humanity is lost. Except for those who have faith, and their deeds are righteous. And they cooperate for the advancement of truth. And they cooperate for perseverance and patience."
There given are four conditions: They believe. They practice good deeds. They have as their aim truth. And they cooperate to encourage each other to be perservingly patient. In the passage I read, "Shall I point out to you a business deal, a commerce, that will save you from a punishing affliction?" The first condition was to have faith in Allah and in His Messenger and to struggle in the path of G-d.
Can you see the resemblance here to what we just read in the chapter called Al' Asr? There is a resemblance. To believe is the first condition  to believe in G-d and in His Messenger. Then after belief have works, struggle. It cannot be just any striving. It has to be righteous striving in the path of G-d. It has to be with your possessions and with yourself. You cannot be successful with the worldly things, unless you follow or pursue what is truthful.
To hold success you have to be definite. You have to be correct. There is no way to do mathematics half way. You have to do it all the way. It is either correct or incorrect. There is no way to run a business gambling. Some of us believe that we can go into business as gamblers, and all of our disciplines will be the disciplines of a gambler: "Well, I'll start off buying $500 of goods, and I'll spend $1000 on this, and then I will sell these items." That is not the way you do business.
You have to first find a source to supply you and a market for your supply. You have to identify a market. You have to know how much you can get out of that market or at least have a pretty accurate guess. You have to play it safe. Business is not based on a gamble. Business is something that demands accuracy. And truth is another way of saying accuracy. If you are not working for accuracy, then forget about the material world. It is not for you. Go up in the tree and just swing in the sheet that you make into a hammock.
But if you appreciate the discipline of wanting to be accurate, you will be successful. Success will come not only in business but practically in everything. That is important. Try to be accurate. I think I can draw pretty well, and a good drawer strives for accuracy. I think I used to fight (box) pretty good too. And a good fighter strives for accuracy. A good computer operator strives for accuracy. A good anything strives for accuracy. A good march in the Army, requires accuracy. Accuracy is another way of saying truth. Truth requires a desire for accuracy.
If accuracy is a must in the world for success, then truth is a must in your soul for success. Believe me. these two things are the same. Whatever makes for success in the world makes for success in the soul. Whatever makes for success in the human soul makes for success in the world.
I heard an African American professor who did not know too much about real Islam once say, and I never will forget it, "Islam is not vain imagination or superstition. It is reality. " Well, I can stand here today and say ameen (amen) to what that professor told me when I was a boy in his class. Islam is no superstition. It is not vain imagination. Islam is reality. We say G-d is Reality. We say Hell Fire is not a superstition; it is not a myth. We say the Hell Fire is reality. Qur'an.
Strive In Righteousness With Possessions
"That you strive in the Path of G-d. Do righteous deeds." You shouldn't be doing wrong in the Path of G-d. If it is warring, then the war is approved by G-d. "...With your possessions." If you will practice this in your life and give your possessions and not be stingy  invest without fear, and just know that what you are investing in is approved by Allah. Don't go out half cocked. Give it a lot of thought and study what you are going to invest in. Get all the information you can on it and know what indicates to you that this particular move is going to be a successful move. In other words, be methodical, strive for accuracy, and don't be guessing no more than you are forced to.
A businessman doesn't guess unless he is absolutely forced to. That is the last thing he wants to do is guess. A businessman does not gamble. That is the last thing he wants to do. When he puts his money on something, he is not gambling. He has to have figures and statistics and something real and factual to support his decision. He doesn't go out and buy a tree and doesn't know the name of it. It might not be fit for construction or for anything. If you burn it, it might poison the atmosphere. He may buy something that he can't use at all and have to pay to get rid of it. A businessman thinks things out very carefully.
Home Is The First Business
Sisters, when you run your house, don't you know you are running a business? If it is an apartment, you are running a business. If you have children and a husband, you are running a business. If you have no one but yourself, you are running a business. A home is a business. Of everything in the world, the home is the First.
You have health care and hospitals, but the first health care center was home. The first store was home. The first lab or science department was home. Everything came out of the home. The first government was home. The first governmental order was man's and woman's home. Home was the first government. The first school was home. The first bank was home. The first transportation center was home. The cabs and buses started out from home. Sisters, if you can run a home well, then the society does not have to worry. If we get enough mothers running homes well, we do not have to worry about the state of society. The homes get the human beings first.
I remember once we were trying to stop a leak, and we said all we have to do is go back to the source of the water. We went back to the source where the water was originating and found the leak; it was way away from where we thought it was. We thought it was in the front yard because water had come up out of the ground in the front yard. But it turned out the leak was from where the pipes came up far back in the yard at the source for that house.
We should catch problems at home where it all started. Then we may not have to wait for problems to die of their own consequences. According to the Bible, Moses' people waited forty years for problems to die off. I don't think we have to wait.
We Can Save Society
You sisters can get control of the home. We can save society. We have to have business sense. Sisters, together it is your husband's money or your personal money or both your moneys or the children's money or the welfare money; don't take that money lightly. Make yourself a good business person for your moneys and for your family. Don't go shopping with your tongue or with your nose or with your eyes. Stop with your knowledge of what your home budget can stand. If you have so much money at home in that budget or in that purse or in the bank, shop with the knowledge of how much spending it can stand.
You are to do justice by all of your concerns. You are not shopping just for the stomach or for clothes that dress the body. You have water bills and light bills and food bills and the rent and school cost for your children. You have all kinds of needs to consider. Be aware of all of these costs.
I see another reason why the Prophet said, "Paradise lies at the foot of the mother." If our women manage home properly, man, I am telling you only G-d would stop me from making sajda at their feet. I know Allah ordered us not to make sajda for any but Him. Sister, I would be happy to make sajda at your feet if G-d would allow it, if you managed your home. It (our success at home) means salvation for streets and the whole of society.
Buy With Discipline
What we are needing most (African Americans) is good business sense. Don't you know you are not doing anything but helping your enemies when you go out and buy with no kind of discipline. You buy on impulse: "Oh, I like that. I want that." Someone can say, "Well, you have two of those at home." "But I like this one." "I think I will get some chicken." Someone will say, "Did you check the frig inventory? Did you check the freezer compartment? Are you sure you don't have chicken there? Can you vouch with your life there is no chicken in your refrigerator or in your freezer? You may be risking our financial life spending with no business sense."
If you don't have good disciplines internally, you may forget about it. If you don't want to think right inside or feel right in your heart or obey what G-d wants of you, then you may forget about it. The first thing we have to do is want the internal life. Then we will show more respect for both, the life within and the life without.
Before we can have accuracy, we must have honesty. A dishonest person can't be accurate. A dishonest person can't be expected to be truthful. It is said, "Oh, don't ask him. He can never get it straight." The first is honesty, and I am really translating faith as honesty. Faith and honesty are closely related. You can't be faithful unless you are an honest kind of person. You can't be a dishonest person and be honest or faithful to anything. So I am translating "faith" as "honesty." They used to have an old saying from the business people of the West that "honesty is the best policy." How many still remember that? I remember it from my boy years. What happened to that?
Accuracy: The Advancement Of Truth And Patience
"And cooperate for the advancement of truth." I translate it (truth) as accuracy for this particular illustration. We have some words now that can fly in the world pretty well. Honesty means faithfulness and makes for good and strict behavior.
If patience is required of you, then it tests your loyalty. After all what are you waiting for? There is the big bully and the tough guy, who is looking at the girl who is tempting. And she will say, "Wait darling." Now, something is checking him and he is holding back something. It is his loyalty to his own self worth. He sees himself in his own eyes as being a man of a certain worth. He knows that if he goes at her like a beast, that self worth will be destroyed. So he is loyal to his own image of himself. He waits and is a decent guy and is loyal to his own values. Without that loyalty he cannot be patient.
The dinner will be served. Your mother will tell you that she is not ready for you, but you go on and start eating. My mother would put something on you, buddy! We would not eat at that table until she says, "Now, come and eat." This calls on your loyalty and patience. Further patience points to sacrifice. "And cooperate for the establishment of patient perseverance." It suggests sacrifice, I have to sacrifice my appetite and protect something now and satisfy myself later. Or I will sacrifice my self-worth and receive bad consequences.
Sacrifice Is A Requirement In Nature
What sacrifice G-d wants? It is taqwa. We don't understand that we are sacrificing all the time. Sacrifice is a requirement in nature. We are no more savages throwing our children in the "fire" or sacrificing our children to please a G-d that we have imagined or guessed at. We are not doing those savage or ignorant things anymore. But sacrifice is a requirement in nature.
The real meaning of sacrifice is to deny what you want now, because it is not proper to take it. It is unlawful to take. It is not the time to take it. It is not the condition for taking it. You must deny yourself now, until it is lawful. Some things are never lawful. Killing yourself is not the biggest sacrifice. To hang around hungry is a sacrifice. To be shot in the head means your test is all over. That isn't a way to sacrifice. But to stay around here and look at all of this good stuff arid not take it, man that is sacrifice. G-d says that the real sacrifice that He accepts from us is our taqwa. For any time you obey Him in the world, you are making a sacrifice of some value.
If you can accept all that I have discussed with you in this time, you will be successful in business. Brothers and sisters. you who are in retail or wholesale businesses or any kind of business, I hope you will leave from here and be excited to get to work. Go to the work table. Go to the business shop. Go to whatever it is that you do. Go to it with renewed enthusiasm to make more sacrifice, to be more accurate, to be more honest, to be more persevering. Do what I have said today and I guarantee you success. And I ask nothing for this "seminar," except that my taqwa rise up to G-d.
As-Salaam-Alaikum.

