02/22/1976
IWDM Study Library
The Nature and Power of the Self

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed


Speaker 1:
Brothers and sisters, I don't want to take up any of his time. He told me I could go on for a minute. No, he's here now, and you don't have to talk about the sun when the sun has come up, so here he is, the Honorable Wallace D. Muhammad, Chief Minister of the Nation of Islam.

IWDM:
All praise is due to Allah. Thank you, thank you. In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the most merciful, may his peace and his blessings be upon his servant and his messenger Muhammad forever, amin. Dear beloved brothers and sisters, I greet you in the greetings of all the prophets from Abraham to Muhammad, As Salaam Alaikum.

All:
Walaikum Salaam.

IWDM:
I'm very happy and well, kind of flattered by the great reception I've gotten here just now. Thanks Brother Minister Akbar, Brother Minister Naim Akbar for a wonderful job, a very good job of putting those things before us that we should look at today. I hope that you can be patient with me today and relax, give me an hour anyway to talk to you. All praise is due to Allah. We are certainly living in a new day. I'm very much excited over the possibilities that the future holds for the Lost Found Nation of Islam in America and for the world.


Before going into a talk, which will really be a third talk, I believe, summarizing our almost year of speaking, one year's teachings now, since February '75 convention day. We have been teaching, as you know, on the nature and power of the self, so we are going to give a third talk this afternoon on the nature and power of the self as a summary of the year's teaching.


Before going into that, I want to say a few personal and special words from myself to the graduates of Sister Clara Muhammad's Elemen- ... Secondary School, pardon me. Yesterday when my wife, Sister Shirley Muhammad was about to leave, she said, do you have a message you want me to carry to the graduates? I told her, I said, well tell them that I hope to see them tomorrow at the temple, and I hope that every one of them will be there. She said, do you have anything else to say to them? I thought, and actually I couldn't come up with anything else. I said, no, just tell them that I'll have something special to say to them tomorrow.


The reason why I don't have that much to say to them is because that they have really affected us by qualifying to be graduates, and really all that I was feeling in my heart to say to them was congratulations. They really need to be congratulated with all the diversion before them every day, year in and year out, those who can keep their minds on education and manage to get their high school diploma, they deserve a congratulations from all of us, in fact, they deserve a congratulations from the President of the United States. The President of the United States could come out once a year and take off his hat to the graduates of the universities and high schools and grade schools because our world today is not designed to encourage people to do anything worthwhile. It's designed to encourage the people to destroy themselves.


Graduates of the Sister Clara Muhammad Secondary School, I congratulate you, and if you will not make the mistake that many make by walking away now from education and thinking that it's all over, that you've made the step that you were obligated  to make and you can sit down now, if you can avoid doing that I'm sure that you will see yourself come to life, to new form, to a bigger and greater flower every year.


I graduated from the University of Islam, as it was called then, the same school that you've graduated from, and let me tell you something, don't let anybody fool you and make you think that our school is nothing. Out of about nine of us, three entered college, one is a doctor right now, and another one is an outstanding brother who can speak the Arabic language like an Arab, Brother Donnell Kareem. You have heard him chant the call to prayer and recite verses from the Holy Quran, these are students of the University of Islam who graduated at a time when we were smaller than we are now, at a time when teachers didn't come to be paid, they volunteered their time, they gave their time to the students, none of them had degrees but they were able to qualify a class of nine. Out of that nine, three of them have gone on to college and made a success.


There's a brother, he's not here now, many of you will remember him. His name was Lawrence, Brother Lawrence, he's the son of Brother Joseph and Sister Elsie, so I'm sure that some of you remember him. He went on from here to college education, he graduated, and now he's teaching in the public system. Akbar Muhammad was another graduate of that class of about nine, I believe, and he went on from here to the University of Cairo, took advance studies in Islam and Islamic history, and now he's a teacher of Black Studies and Assistant Professor at Binghamton, I think it is, University in upper state New York.


You see, and there are others, there are many others who graduated from the University of Islam, and made great success here with nothing, with nothing. They did it with those things that we don't place much value on but obviously those things have the power to bring about great results. That's truth, righteousness, love for Allah and his messenger, Islam, and the Lost Found Nation of Islam, the love for this, respect for self, the desire to get out in the world and do something, not to destroy the world, but to improve the state of the world.


These are some of the things  that Islam put into us, and if you students will go on from now and whether you go to college immediately or not, if you remember that learning is an vndless process, you never learn it all. Elementary and secondary schools, those are only doors that introduce you to knowledge. You haven't known knowledge yet unless you're an exceptional student. You've only been introduced to knowledge, but if you continue to grow and continue to examine things, when you read things don't take them for granted, examine those things. When you hear people speak, don't take what they say for granted, weigh their words. When you look at somebody coming toward you with something to impress you, inspect it. Don't take anything for granted.


Then go back, research, get the dictionary, get the encyclopedia, talk to the wise, and whether you're in class or not you'll be continuing that learning process ... this year or next year, maybe 10 years from now, five years from now, who knows? Many of our brothers and sisters here, they've decided to go back to school to get their high school diplomas after 30 or 40 or 50 years being away from high school, being away from grade school. Now they've decided upon getting their high school diploma, and they're doing it.


Never take knowledge for granted, and believe me, your real growth in the world depends upon that process, the learning process. Once you've stopped learning, you've just about stopped growing, but if you can continue to keep a mind that's interested in something, that feeds on knowledge, you'll grow bigger and bigger everyday. My best advice to you is to keep your grass green as if  you were getting a diploma for what you seek and not see it as a stopping point and keep on persuing to be successful.


It was also suggested that we have the high school graduates at the National House for dinner, Sister Lucille Kareem Muhammad and Sister Shirley Muhammad came to me with this suggestion, so I think Sister Lucille Muhammad's suggested  that Shirley Muhammad come to me with it and right away I said, yes, it's a very good thing to do. We hope to have them within a few days at the National House for dinner. Now, all praise is Allah's.


We don't like to mix the worldly things with spiritual things, not in such a way that we begin to regard the spiritual things as worldly things or the worldly things as spiritual things, but I would like to acknowledge the presence today of the greatest heavyweight champion of any weight champion that ever stepped into a ring or fought on the bare ground. Muhammad Ali is somewhere here, will he please stand and make his presence known.


I watched the fight, and it was beautiful. He was champion in so many ways, and I don't think anybody'll ever whip him unless he just give it up, but as long as he doesn't want to give it up I don't think anybody will whip him, because it's not often, it might be once in a many generations that a fighter comes along that appears outwardly to be just the ordinary fighter, but when you really get acquainted with him you discover that the man really could have been a professor in a university if he had gone in that direction. He's wise and that's really what whips his opponents. It's not just his speed and his power, it's his wisdom.


We have here a blackboard back there, and I might have need for that blackboard. If somebody could get it out a little closer. Just a moment. Before we ... I think it will be easier, since we have to do this anyway, we have a new creation here, and it is the creation, really of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, may peace be on him, but I think will be given the credit for putting this together.


The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and some of you remember this, especially the sisters and brothers who were very close to him, he used to talk about a vision he had of a book. Said he had a vision of a book and this book, its letters were dimensional, they had depth. He said when he looked at the letters of the book it appears as though the letters were penetrating the book all the way through, going all the way through the book. He said these letters they had a glow, or illumination, and he said, the letter that he recognized, the only letter that he recognized was the letter lam. Now the letter lam in Arabic is L. He said the only letter that he could recognize was the letter lam or L, he said, and he recognized it because that letter seemed to have been all through, it just stood out. The letter lam. That lam, he said, seemed to  have been standing out all through the writing.


When he told me that, I listened very attentively to him, as I always do, especially when he seems to be really concerned about what he's talking about, engrossed, so to speak, in what he was talking about. I listened to him very closely, and I was trying to, well, interpret, the vision that he was telling me because it was at the table one day he told me, but I'm not the only one, others were there then. He told this to many.


I said to myself, what can it stand for, what can this represent? The lam. It came to my mind, well, maybe it means that ... I know there's no book coming to Muslims after Holy Quran, but the Holy Quran. I know that, so I knew it couldn't mean a physical book coming after the Holy Quran, to replace the Holy Quran, although he had said things to that effect, but I understood him. I knew he didn't actually mean what he was saying. He meant something else. A great understanding, a new way of looking at the book was coming, so in our life it would be like a new book, you understand? Right. So I knew that, so I'm trying to figure out now what did he mean by a new book is coming, he said, and this book had these letters and the letter lam stood out.


Then it came to me, I said, my father's telling us that the new book is to come, is really a new book to us because we have never known the Holy Quran. We've known the Bible. We have preached the Bible from the rostrum, and most of us know much more about the Bible than we know about the Holy Quran. In fact, for most of the years of his leadership he didn't allow the Holy Quran to be preached or just hand out freely among the believers. But he always held it up high as the book, is that right? He said the Holy Quran is the book, said that's the fuel book, but he never encouraged us to really get into it.


His vision of a new book, to me, was the vision of the Holy Quran but it was big in my mind. The ideas, or the thing that I was seeing, it hadn't really taken complete form, it was vague on my mind. I put it aside. We were coming up with some ideas for the blackboard because I came to understand that the blackboard drawing that we had been using was out of date. It needed to be updated, you needed a new drawing on the blackboard. While I was trying to think of a new drawing for the blackboard a picture came to form, and when it came to form I said, well this shouldn't only be a drawing for the blackboard. I said, really we have to make another drawing for the blackboard. This drawing should be for something else.


Just pull the curtains back there, and we want to show them what we have here. Let me explain to you what this is. You can see it's a flag, right? The flag is a book. The book is the Holy Quran, and on the flag is La Ilaha Illallah, which means there is nothing worthy of worship as a God but Allah, which means the God. Muhammadu Rasulullah, Muhammad the Messenger of Allah. Now if you have some knowledge of the contents of the Holy Quran you know that this first principle, or first kalima, pillar of faith, is all through the Holy Quran from cover to cover. This fundamental belief here goes throughout the Holy Quran. It dominates the whole Holy Quran.


If you count the letters or the number of times that the letter lam is repeated in that kalima, La Ilaha Illallah, Muhammadu Rasulullah, you will see that the letter lam or L stands out more than any other letter in the kalima, and when you look at it you see lam before you see anything else. It begins with lam, La, Ila, another lam, La Ilaha Ill-, ila, another lam, Allah, two more lams, Muhammadu Rasul-, one more lam, and Allah, again, two more lams. The letter lam is all through it, and it stands out, and this kalima is all through the Holy Quran, you see.


This was his vision. I don't want to take the credit for this. I think, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, peace be on him, he gets the credit for this vision. I think that's a flag that you all can identify with and be proud of.


A new world needs a new flag. All praise due to Allah. The Muslim world has come to be identified with the symbol or the emblem the crescent, star, is that right? Now when you read the Holy Quran you don't find any crecenting star in there. Islam is a simple religion. What I mean by simple, it is not a religion that is covered up with symbolism, ritualism. It's a religion that comes straight forward and straight out in the open with what it's all about, you understand.


What brought on this flag with the emblem, the star and crescent in it was really the crusades that came against ... the Christian crusades that came against Islam and the leaders of the army, they carried the cross, so the Muslims reacting to that raised the crescent, which was a better symbol because the cross, represents, as the old spiritual song that our forefathers used to sing and mothers used to sing, suffering, shame and death, you see? Here was an army representing a nation or society of people that held sacred an emblem of suffering, shame and death and couldn't see the ugliness of what they were doing. All they knew was that it was Jesus that they identified with.


When you really go into that and think about it, the lifting of the cross, there's something sacred, really is a disgrace to the global world that Jesus brought into existence, it's a disgrace to it. The emblem itself brings to mind death and misery. It doesn't bring to mind life. You have to interpret to arrive at life as a meaning. You have to connect Jesus, his purpose, his sacrifice, his teachings with that emblem. Well how many of us will see the cross and do all of that interpreting? When we see it, we see something that was on graveyards, or something that is on graveyards, pardon me. When we see it, we think of the suffering and misery that Jesus had to bear, so to us it's an emblem of death and shame and suffering. Is that right?


It is a better ... the emblem in the crescent, the star and the crescent than it is in the cross. Why? Because what the Muslims were saying to the Christians is this, you lift up death. You see death as glory, but God has pointed out in his scriptures that his glory is readily seen and not in the grave, but in the heavens. Read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, God never points to the graveyard to show us his glory. He says look at the heavens, how they're lifted up in glory, the sun, the moon and the stars. Is that right? All right.


This is what God does, he directs our minds to the heavens to show us the sign of his glory, so a Muslim was saying to the Christians, the sign of God's glory is not death but life, and the sun is the source of life, in the physical world, and the moon is a necessity. Is that right? All right. The stars are very useful to man because they direct his path at sea and through the land, is that right? They raised a much better sign, but they didn't raise their sign upon an order from Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, they raised it as an answer to the cross that was raised in war against Muslims. You see?


What did we really exalt? What did we really raise? It's knowledge. Why? Because we know emblems can't save humanity. Pictures and signs can't save humanity. Men can look at the star and the moon, the crescent up there in the sky, all the life for generation after generation until the land grow old and dead, that doesn't mean that they are going to be lifted as a society. Is that right? The savage, the primitive man and woman, they see the sun, moon and star but what has made the difference? Knowledge. Some men have seen and gone into and come out with knowledge. Is that right?


The book of knowledge for the Muslims is the Quran. If we exalt anything other than knowledge we exalt the wrong thing. You say, well what about God? God is not something that we know in any sense, other than in a body of knowledge. We don't know God in flesh. We don't know God in symbols. We know God in knowledge. All praise is due to Allah. You may say, well I feel God in my flesh, and that's how I know God. That's the beginning of knowledge. Feelings are the beginning of knowledge, but you can't say you know until you grow up a little bit taller than feelings.


We are going to get into our subject here, and now I wish you now take the flag and sit it to the right and bring the blackboard forward here because I might want to use the blackboard. Black and white, that's a good combination, I think, so we're going to use some blackboard and white chalk. Before going to the board, I want to just talk to you a bit on the subject. I hope that you'll have patience to sit and listen and see what Allah has inspired in this Lost Found Nation of Islam in America.


I'd like first to go to the fall of Adam, the man Adam, as it's given in the Bible. We read in the Bible that Adam was a man made from the dust of the earth, he was made from the ground, and after being formed he had a yearning, or a desire for something outside of himself. He wasn't satisfied with what God had made him. He had a yearning for something else. Now let me quickly explain to you this, that Adam in the Bible and in Holy Quran was not a finished product when God formed him out of the ground, or from the ground. That was the beginning of his creation. For that reason, that story is a part of Genesis and is seen in the message or the context of Genesis, is that right? Meaning a start, a beginning. He was not complete.


But after God had formed him of the ground and he had this desire, or yearning for something outside of himself, God then took something of himself and made Eve, and that's something he took of himself, in the words of Genesis, was a rib of the man. Is that right? After taking this rib out of Adam, and the Bible says he took the rib out of the man and then closed back the flesh. The man was attracted to the woman and the woman was attracted to the man, and the Genesis explained this by saying to us that being of the same flesh they were attracted to each other. Is that right? We have here a beautiful allegory, a story, an allegory, of the creation of a man and a woman.


For one year now we've been talking on this and most of you know now that we are not talking about a physical, single man, individual man and woman. When we read Genesis, just the surface language that we find there, there's enough to open our eyes, especially if someone has given us some hints because in, I believe it is in the fifth chapter, I believe, second or fifth. I'm not sure right now. That's not important. Adam and Eve are not spoken of as individuals. They are spoken of in the plural. In the day that he named them Adam, so we have the word Adam used in the singular but people spoken of in the plural, but tell us that Adam is not just a single individual but Adam represents a people.


The creation of Adam in Genesis is not the creation of an individual male and female. It's the creation of a people. All right, so let's digest that. Keep going here. The woman that was made of his flesh became the trigger of his downfall. She was tempted by the snake, so the book says, and she in turn, tempted the man, Adam. Is that right? And brought about his fall. God didn't blame only the woman, the serpent and the woman. God put the blame on all of them, on the serpent, the woman and the man. It seemed as though he even blamed the earth, according to Genesis because he also cursed the earth, according to Genesis. Is that right? He said, cursed be the woman, cursed be the serpent, cursed be the man and also cursed be the earth. Is that right?


Now, let's look at the whole thing here now. The beginning of this fall comes with the serpent or the snake making a suggestion to the woman to get her to go astray, to ignore instructions that came from Almighty God. After she accepts this and become influence by it and accepts it, then she in turn pass on that suggestion to the man, and the man becomes weak and he gives in and he follows the woman and do the forbidden thing, is that right? Then the curses come upon them and the Bible says also the earth is cursed, it won't yield its wealth or its product to you as it did before.


Now we know that God wouldn't curse the physical ground for something that a human being did. Is that right? Why curse the physical ground? The physical ground's not at fault. Then we should also reason, then, that God wouldn't curse flesh for what the mind did. What am I getting at now? The interpretation that you find popular out there in the church and in other religious societies, that Eve stands for the flesh, so if my flesh sins, my flesh should be cursed upon it. No, the curse is not for the flesh, just as the curse is not for the earth. The curse is for that that initiated, that started the evil, and the book says that the serpent, the snake started that evil. Is that right?


What is a serpent now? The serpent, many of you will recall, that in our teaching over the last year we have identified the serpent as the slick, shrewd moving parts of the mind that can hide truth, justify evil and wickedness. It's that part of the human mind that is subtle, and the book says that that serpent, that snake was the most subtle of all the creatures. Is that right? This subtleness of the human being that we identify in his mental makeup, that's the serpent. We know that when we do evil things, especially if we haven't become so corrupt that we are through and through evil and wicked, a devil on earth in the flesh. Before we come to that we know that we kind of struggle or argue with suggestions to do evil, to bring about wickedness, to do hurt, harm without cause. Is that right? We struggle with these things, with these thoughts. We say, I shouldn't do that. Sometimes we ... I need to keep that off my mind. Let me get my mind on something else. Is that right?


We do this, the conscience is telling us that that's wrong, we shouldn't do it. Now who is that telling the thought that, no, I don't want to listen to you? That's Adam. Adam is telling the serpent I don't want to hear you. Now the serpent can never bring about Adam's fall by going directly to Adam. The serpent had to come to Eve. All right, now Eve is the flesh, is that right? Eve is the flesh, so if wickedness can get ahold on your flesh and tempt you in your flesh to do wrong, pretty soon Adam will begin yielding to Eve, the flesh, the powers of the flesh. Is that right?


Adam will begin to put his fingers in his ears, say, yeah, you're talking but I don't want to hear you. Is that right? Putting his fingers in his own ear to keep from hearing his own voice speaking to him, telling him, don't listen to that witty, slick, hogish, serpent in your mind. You see? But he grows weaker and weaker. Pretty soon he can't resist, so he stops his fingers up to the voice of his nature and open his ears to the voice of the weak and wicked nature. He becomes tempted more and more and pretty soon he's doing the thing.


This is the death of Adam. When Adam sits down and stops contending with evil suggestions that come to him, then he has fallen under a deep sleep. In the beginning of the story, Adam is brought from a deep sleep. Is that right? To see Eve. Before he didn't see Eve. He didn't know Eve. He only knew a yearning for something, but the book says that God caused a deep sleep to come over him and while he was under this deep sleep, the woman Eve was formed from his flesh. Is that right?


All right. Then Adam and Eve were warned that if they disobeyed God and eat of the forbidden tree that they would surely die. Here is not deep sleep, the meaning is brought closer to home. God is telling us that when Adam sleeps, when your righteous will sleeps in you, it's the same as death for you. We don't read anywhere in Genesis of Adam and Eve's actual death. Is that right? But the book did say that if they do that thing, they would surely die. They did it, but the book doesn't say, and they surely died. Is that right. You go on reading about the life, the continuation of Eve and Adam. Why? Because it is not that physical life that we see in the surface story of Eve and Adam that died. But it is the human life, the true human life, the divine life  that died in Eve and Adam.


All right. Let's keep moving with this. When we look at the story now, we see a picture of the individual and the world of individuals. The individual, we have the world and in that world is a will power, a will power that is naturally inclined to Almighty God, and nothing can turn it away but blindness. You have to first close your eyes or stop up your ears, you have to shut off the light before you can fall in your righteous or in your natural body. Is that right? It's telling us this, that we are really responsible for what our flesh does, and the flesh, following the mind corrupts the earth. Is that right? If the mind goes wrong, then the curse should come upon the mind. Well how do you curse a mind that is interested in the world and in flesh except by denying it the blessings, the happiness that come in the world and in flesh.


The curse came like this. Your flesh is cursed. Eve is cursed. Your flesh is cursed and the ground is cursed. Why? Because these are the things Adam, that you turn to in turning away from me. To punish you I have to deny you now the benefit of happiness that you've been getting out of these things that you've turned to in turning away from me. You see. Not that God is cursing flesh. Is it a curse for the physical flesh for you to grow overweight by 100 pounds? The flesh loves to eat, but it's cursing your mind. Is that right? It's a curse on your mind. Every time you look at your big ugly self, 100 pounds overweight, it curses your mind. Your mind is all wrong and God has inflated your flesh, but the flesh is not cursed. Your mind is cursed. So it is with the world.


We haven't hurt the earth by becoming materialistic minded, greedy, hoggish, we hurt ourselves. The earth will be here and see us pass away over and over again and the little smoke and pollution and filth and stink that we make, it'll only take a day or so to clean away. That's right. Just as carcass die and they stink up the air for awhile, but a few sun shiny days and a few rains and a wind blowing around and pretty soon there's no sign that anything stinky was around. Is that right? All right. The same thing for man, we haven't damaged the creation. We can't do anything to this creation but kill ourselves. The earth is not cursed, brother, it's the mind that's cursed. The flesh is not a curse, it's the mind that's cursed. The product of the flesh is sinful, that man is cursed in his flesh. That's a lie. Your flesh is not sinful. Your flesh doesn't commit sin, your mind commits sin, and your flesh follows your mind. Is that right?


What child is born a sinner in his flesh? No child is born a sinner in his flesh. If that was true, the only thing that ... what they call them, the crimininologists? The criminal department, the only thing they would have to do is just study the designs of the flesh, and they could go out and just identify criminals, if sin was in the flesh. But sin is not in the flesh, it's in the mind and that's why it's so hard to identify criminals just by looking at their body. The book gives us a beautiful lesson on this by telling us that God don't always give his inheritances to one born of a particular flesh. That God doesn't always let the successor come from one of a particular flesh.


The book says the bloodrights are not reasoned by chronology. The inheritance, pardon me. Let me correct this. The book says inheritance is not reasoned by carnali. chronology means who came here first physically, but it is reasoned from righteousness, that who is righteous. You may come first physically, but who has really inherited the true Adam? That one who lives a righteous life, he proves by his deeds that he is the rightful heir to the throne. Is that right? This is what the book tell us, brothers and sisters. All right, we're just reviewing these things.


Now let us look at the Bible now in full scope, the whole, what you call it, panorama or gamut, from cover to cover. When you look at this you'll see something. You'll see many movements, movement of the individual, movement of the world, movement of the religious society, you'll see many movements. Now for this summary, we are going to talk on the movement of civilization as we see it, in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Now if you don't mind, I'll step to the board now. Can someone get that mic? Where's that portable mic there? It's not on, is it? There it is, there it is. Almost too loud. That's good? I don't have to speak so loud now. I can save my vocal cords.


Scripture is very wisely put together. The book says that Adam was made from clay. The Holy Quran says that the man was made from ... so he began, the creation of man from something no more than clay. Again, it says that man is made from sounding clay. Is that right? Sounding clay. To tell the man that in his physical makeup, you are nothing but physical. You're just a physical creature. Don't think because you see that that makes you something outside of physical creation. Your speaking doesn't take you outside of this physical creation, for there are things that have not life, as you know life, they also make sounds. Is that right?


We know that pottery, clay, hard pottery, hard clay makes sound if you're tapping a ring. Sometimes just the passing of wind over the pottery makes a sound. Is that right? There's vocal chords in the man, really operate on the same principle that the clay operates on. When you hit the clay, the clay vibrates and you hear a sound. When the wind passes over the vocal chords they vibrate and we hear sound. Is that right? All right. We're not going away from the subject, but we want to know how divine the teachings that we're receiving are. They're more divine than we ever imagined them to be. Much of this knowledge that science claims is already in the scripture, but they take credit for it.


Let's go to the book now. We have many falls in the Bible. The first fall is the fall of Adam and his fall was brought on by, I would say, his lack of human or mental maturity. Adam was a baby. The book begins with an Adam that's a baby, an infant. He's made and put in a garden but he hasn't lived long enough and experienced creation long enough to deal with the challenges, with the strong temptations that are out here in the world. He becomes a victim of the influences or the powers of his flesh. Is that right? This fall of Adam is a fall brought about, really by the lack of knowledge. Is that right? Lack of knowledge.


I hope we got everybody hooked up out there. Is everybody hooked up out there, brother. As Salaam Alaikum all you temples out there. Fall was brought on by something we may call the lack of knowledge and we also may call it innocence, because he was innocent. Is that I-N-N-O-C-E-N-T? Innocent? Inn-o-cent, C-E-N-C-E, is that it? All right, very good. Okay, see we look at somebody who has been blessed with a certain thing from Almighty God and we think because he was blessed that they should be supernatural. They should be God. They should know everything, language, grammar, spelling, math, everything. Well I want to tell you that I was a C student. But it shows you what a C student can get if he's sincere and work at it long enough and hard enough. All right.


Lack of knowledge brought about his fall. All right, so this innocence is telling us now that your thought or your creation is not really the physical start or the physical creation but the start of a human being is a divine creation. The whole world, generally speaking, looked at the Genesis in the Bible and think that it's a story telling us how the physical earth was made. How the physical sun and moon, stars and these things were made and how the physical human being and animals were made. Look, if religion comes at us that way, then religion is more concerned about physical science than it is about human science. That was the wrong interpretation on our part, and the religious leaders let us go down that dark path. They knew better.


They know ... do you think the Pope reads the Bible like you read it? If he did he couldn't be the Pope. He reads it with understanding, brothers and sisters, and he know that the Genesis man is not talking about the genesis of physical creation but it is talking about the genesis of the ideal human society that Almighty God wants for humanity. All right, okay. We have one fall here brought about by innocence, a lack of knowledge, and the man, he gave in because he was weak in that respect. He was tempted by an invitation to come into greater knowledge. Is that right? That's what, they in the scriptures, in Genesis as a clue, an eye opener, to let us know that the temptation here was knowledge and the weakness here, the deficiency here was the absence of knowledge. Do you understand?


Now when you listen to the Christian preach to you in the church. Now it has changed a little bit because the world conditions have forced them to change, but I'm only 42 years old and I can look back just a few years ago and see the church when they were playing down knowledge.

Speaker 4:
Right.

Speaker 5:
Right.

IWDM:
Don't bring it here. No place for that. We have divine knowledge. Let the spirit guide you. Let the spirit lead you. Is that right? I remember hearing preachers myself preach down education, preach down knowledge. Okay, but the Genesis, the Bible that they hold up as their scripture, holy scripture, begins, brother and sister, by exalting knowledge. Says in the book, that in the beginning there was darkness upon the face of the deep. What does it mean? There was no light. What do we say when we say deep? We mean the intelligence, the human faculty, the mind, the intellect. Right now when we tell somebody to think deep, we are expressing this concept that mind has depth, mind is deep. Is that right? The scripture say that darkness was upon the face of the deep, and God said, let there be light. Is that right.


Now in plain language, this means that the mind knew nothing. God brings every human being in this world knowing nothing. What child come out of the mother today and start telling her something about what it knows? It comes in knowing nothing, it can't even cry until the doctor hit it on the back, and teaches pain. Is that right? Or something else has to influence it from the darkness to make it begin crying. We don't hear no crying in the womb. Is that right. It makes its first noise when it comes out because something happens out here to make some kind of influence or imprint on the mind and start the wheels of that mind to turning over. Is that right?


All right. So the book says that there was darkness upon the face of the deep, and God said, let there be light. The purpose of God for society is knowledge, learning, intelligence. God wants the human society to grow and learn. That first, but how can you get human beings to value something before they have any knowledge of it? The first knowledge is not in the intellect. The first knowledge is in the flesh. Is that right? All right. God allows the man and the woman, when we say man we mean mind. He's saying when he made them Adam, male and female, right? The Bible tell you to read it carefully. Though those chauvinistic pigs that ruled in the church and the synagogue. They wanted women to stay in their place under them in their place that they made for them. To keep them there, they twisted the scripture and used the scripture to keep the woman enslaved socially. But the Bible tells us that Adam means male and female. Is that right?


All right. Then if Adam is male and female, then the mind is male and female. The word woman has man in it, as the word man has man,  but why man is not called woman, or a woman is just not called simply a man. It is because in her essential nature and function, the woman is the womb of society. Society is born out of the womb of the woman's world. Just as the individual is born out of the physical womb of the woman, society its' self is first born out of the womb of the woman's world. To tell us that, the scripture calls her woman, which means womb of mind.


When we identify classes of people and education and knowledge, we refer to some as being learned and others as having nothing but mother wit. Is that right? The first womb, the first world for society is the mother and the product of that is mother wit. Is that right? All right. Man doesn't understand just how important the womb is in the growth process of mind and society. The woman stands there as a physical womb giving us a picture of something that God is going to expand throughout the life or the history of humanity.


Here is a physical womb here, man, but now I'm going to take you out of this physical womb and put you in a mental womb, that is mostly a moral womb, the womb of your mother. He will raise you up morally, is that right? He will start your mind to growing by teaching you not to do what is wrong and to do what is right. Is that right. All right. She will form you again, you will be born again into the world of your mother. Then if you're lucky, man, you will have your eyes open enough and you'll be submissive enough to go out in the world of men and come into knowledge and be born again in a womb of creation. Is that right?


All right. If you're still lucky enough, man, again I'm going to bring you again up into a new life. Again, by a womb. Out of the womb of this world's knowledge into the everlasting life body of divine truth. Now let's go back here to the board. Lack of knowledge was the first fall. We get that in the story of Adam yielding to the temptations of the flesh, of Eve. Is that right?


Now we come to another form. That form is told in the Tower of Babel. The men decided that they would build them a tower. They wanted that tower to extend up to the heavens. Is that right? They were competing with God without knowing it. They had gone off on their own without God guiding them, trusting not in divine revelation but trusting in their own knowledge. It says they built a tower and they built it very high but what happened? A curse came upon them and their language, their tongue was confused. Is that right?



Now what is this fall telling us? That when you're ignorant, you start off ignorant, and start off empty-headed and if you're blessed you will learn something. All right, now the danger ahead for you man, along the path of knowledge is egoism . If you don't keep your mind on creator you're going to begin to think that you are the great benefactor and you're going to try to build up towers, build up monuments for your own glory to exalt yourself in the eyes of Almighty God. Now if you started that path, man, another curse will come on you, and it will be the curse of confusion because your language is individual. There are other languages, is that right.


The book says that in the beginning they start with one tongue because God was the speaker and they were the listeners, they could only learn one language. Is that right? But after they went off in their own direction, to glorify themselves, the book said that God cursed their tongue. Why? Because there were many tongues. You see what the consequence of many is? The consequences of many is corruption, confusion. Here comes a man and he discovers some concept in creation and he begins to philosophy and edify and establish himself in ideology that he says will liberate humanity. But he's individual.


There's another one going to pop up with the same thing and because they're not in touch with the divine truth, they have stepped aside from that pattern that God has established in creation, they're off on their own now, they are going to run into each other, hence, newly discovered ideology is going to conflict and contradict with the other ones. Is that right? So it is called the Tower of Babel. When you look at ... they call it, I think, Babel, right? Babel, but I call it babble because it's babbling. You understand? When somebody's not speaking clearly, we say he's babbling, so I just got that idea and I never can call it the Tower of Babel, I call it the Tower of Babble because that's exactly what happened. They went off on their own and start babbling, you understand?


Okay, so the second fall then, of the man, is the fall that is brought about by selfish pride. He becomes an egotistic creature. Bathing in his own worship, so to speak. We would say the second fall here would be selfish pride. Might go on to something else but we'll leave it like this. There are many ways to describe this, many other terms that will describe this. Ego problems, ego problems. Okay, so that's what the book is telling us. That God will give you a start, but if you don't think with God, you're going to run into ego problems and it's going to bring about the fall of your society.


Okay, let's go to the third fall now. We're talking about civilization, civilization. Eve, what did Eve represent in this subject or in this text? Eve represents nations, society, the nation or the society. All right. The third fall is the fall that is brough on by flood, Noah's flood. Is that right? Okay. Now you can mark these if you're taking notes. That first one was the fall that was brought on by Eve, let's put Eve here. This one was brought on by, well we have it here, ego problems, already there.


Think about this as we're going over this subject now. You who have read the Bible a bit or been following our teaching, or any teachings on religion, you know that the man was tempted by knowledge, is that right? Then after he was tempted with knowledge, he came alive in the world of knowledge but died spiritually. Is that right? He grew and grew and grew, but the more he grew, the more wicked he became. Which son is that in the Bible? Lamech, I think his name is called, Lemech or Lamech, Lemech. It's L-E-M-E-C-H, I think it is.


Lemech. This one, it is said in the Bible that he died in the year 777. What does that mean? It means that this prophet, this path here, bring man to death, instead of developing out of one womb into another until he comes into that that we call seven which means God, divine, not meaning ... it doesn't mean that he himself is going to be God, but he comes into a world, a godly world. Before he comes into this he have already aborted himself and what aborted him here it was ego problems. Is that right?


The Bible tells us that he was aborted by telling us that he died. He didn't come to birth in 777, 777 meaning it's three fundemental forms. He didn't come to life but he died in all of this, he died as a flesh body or moral body, he died as a mental body and  he never came to life as a spiritual body. You see? So it means that in that ... when he was supposed to have been complete, he was not complete but completely dead in the three fundamental bodies that Almighty God had designed for his total form.



IWDM:
He was supposed to attain fundamental form. He didn't come to life, but he died in all of it. He died as a flesh body or moral body; he died as a mental body, and he never came to life as a spiritual body. You see? So, it means that when he was supposed to have been complete, he was not complete, but completely dead. In the three fundemental bodies that almighty God had designed for his total form.


All right. Let's go now and we'll talk about Noah's flood. We've heard so many stories about this flood. An average person in religion thinks that it really means that it started raining, and it just kept raining until water rose up over the houses, everything, and even covered the mountains, and drowned all flesh. Okay, let's look at it a little bit now. This Noah's flood, what are they talking about, exactly? They're talking about the death of flesh in two ways. First, it represents the senses, for we are sensitive in our flesh body. Is that right?


Before the feelings are transferred  to the mind, they have to first come to the flesh. Right? We feel something on our flesh, and this is transferred to the mind. The senses, we look at the physical flesh body as representing man's senses. When someone is insensitive, we say he is callous. Is that right? And callous means grown hard, men grow hard like a callus. Is that right? There's no life, no feeling in it anymore. You see?


So, we've always identified the physical body with the senses. In the Lost Found  Nation  of Islam, you know that we have received lessons on the five senses. Is that right? They're very important, because that is the beginning of your development. We first begin in the senses that are held in the flesh, and we begin to grow and develop into our complete form.


All right, now. The flood killed all flesh. If we're going to use this interpretation now, of flesh, it means that this flood killed human sentiment. It destroyed sympathy and empathy in the society, and made the society hard, cold, callous. Is that right? But what is a callus anyway, but dead flesh. Isn't that what it is? You can take a knife and trim it, there's no life in it. That's what its saying to us. That the society became callous, dead. They didn't have feelings for each other anymore. Do you understand?


All right. This is what this road takes us to: That the first Adam traveled. It take us first because he didn't get enough knowledge, and he wasn't strong enough  in his spiritual nature ... Not that all people came down this road, just a particular people came down this road. Most people, they passed the test. They don't fall.  The snake don't get everybody. But it got these particular people that are ... described as or are under the name Adam in Genesis.


All right, let's keep moving here, now. So, Noah's flood killed all flesh. What did God tell Noah, when he told him to make the ark? He told him to get Adam. Right? Two and two. Why is that told to us? To let us know that God didn't really have it out for no animals. He wasn't out to kill flesh; he told Noah to get flesh, save flesh. Is that right?


So, it's not that flesh that his anger is against. It's another kind of flesh that has anger is against. All right. Let's go now. He goes and he gets, animals, of two and two and he brought animals of all kinds into the ark. Is that right? To tell us that God is not angry with animals; he's not angry with flesh; he's angry with man, for his rejection. He rejected him, and now I've brought on curses and now I've come up with another one. See, if you hit a child once and he don't get straight, he'll come back again with that strap, don't you?


All right. God hit Adam once and made him go blind spiritually. And, caused him to lose the happiness, that peaceful bliss that he was enjoying. But that wasn't enough to teach him the right way. We're talking about these particular people. All right, he had to hit him again. This time he hit him by embarrassing his intellectual order. The philosopher found out that this thing we have come up with, it ain't as strong as we thought it was. He shaming them by having them babble their philosophy out. Is that right?


They failed as leaders for the society. Their philosophy failed to save their society, and the power of philosophy failed down into nothing but babble. Okay. Let's go on, now: But that wasn't enough, brothers and sisters. He still wasn't ... hip to what was going on in real life, and he had to be struck again. This time, he struck him by killing him in the thing that had set him wrong from the beginning. He had yielded to the powers of his flesh; his senses had guided him off the right path. Is that right?



His physical senses, his biological senses that drive of his flesh had directed him off the right path. So, God now smacks him right in the thing that let him lose from the beginning, and curses him by making him big in the flesh. Let me tell you that's one of the worst curses that can come upon a society.


Let me tell you again, America is a diverse, complex mixed-up society, and you will find every extreme in America. And I'm telling you, that extreme callousness cannot be matched anywhere in the world with that which we find in America. We are the most insensitive people in the whole world. Very in the flesh. We won't feel for each other. We read news of death, of misery, just like we read news of the stock market. In fact, we don't have the feeling for the human beings that are suffering and dying, that we have for the fluctuation in the stock market reports. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Insensitive. Walking around in the community, seeing women trembling, they can't keep a straight gait for looking to the side and behind them, not knowing when some crazy lunatic, ravenous beast is going to run up and snatch their purse off her arm or something.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Is that right? Or maybe a rape her in broad daylight, twelve o'clock, on State and Madison.

Group:
Yeah. Right.

IWDM:
The police come and look at it, and they'll start writing up a report. ... Believe me, this world of America is not only a Mt. Everest, brothers and sisters, of material accomplishments, and scientific accomplishment. It is also the Mt. Everest of every wickedness you can identify in the book.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Believe it or not. ... Now, this Noah's flood came to kill all flesh, so God brought about callousness, insensitive ... feelings in people for each other, as a curse on them, to show them: See? The road that you're following, see the consequences of it? See what it has brought you to? You don't want to listen to me; I tried to draw you with love, created you and forced you to come together by putting in you a desire to be together. But you have followed your own path now, and that desire is not respected anymore.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
You just use each other ... Well, I hate to even say what I ... Well, I told you I'm a C-student, and I don't have the proper words, so I came with one of those small-letter words, you know, and I can't say it right now.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:10:52]

IWDM:
The sacred relationship turned into just a sex toy for us. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
All right. The curse, brothers and sisters. Okay, now, if we go here and this flood comes, and they say the flood rose so high until it covered the mountain, Ararat, I think it's called. Is that right? All right. What does this tell us? What does the mountain represent? The mountain represents government. You see, the insensitive nature started with the common people, because their leaders had deserted them, had stopped giving them guidance. Children will become insensitive to each other's needs. If their parents don't continue to guide them. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
All right. So, the leaders neglect the masses, and the masses first grow callous. But this flood of callousness is going to rise, taking about 40 days. We'll talk on that another time, because we'll spend a lot of in things that we don't have to talk about today. But everything has a meaning, and a real significance. That flood begins with the masses, brothers, and then the water begins to mount up higher and higher. Pretty soon, the higher-up become callous. The last thing to become callous is the government. They become callous; they don't have feelings for each other, don't have respect for each other. That's the last thing to happen in the destruction of a society: When its leaders become insensitive to each other and lose respect for each other, brother, they're finished.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Isn't that what has happened here, in this country?

Group:
Right. Yeah.

IWDM:
Look at the shame that was brought on the White House. Look how they've neglected each other.

Group:
[(recording pause) 00:13:08]

IWDM:
-and cut up each other.

Group:
Right. [crosstalk 00:13:28]

IWDM:
That's what we get in Noah's flood, the rising of callousness that began with the masses and it rises up and rises up until it engulfs the leaders of society. And when that happens, time for a new world order.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
What does the book say? Noah began a new world order. Is that right or wrong? When Noah came out of that ark with his family, he began creation anew. Everything had to be started all over again. Now we've come to the end of this world society. We have seen the flood reach the leaders. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
We've seen them become so callous that-

Group:
[(recording blip) 00:14:28]

IWDM:
-each other, and don't know that there's another human being in the office.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Planning and scheming how to cut his throat.

Group:
Right. [crosstalk 00:14:41]

IWDM:
Yeah. ... All right, brothers and sisters, now how is this new world order going to be made? The book says, "as it was in the day of Noah." So shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of man. I know you thought that was Jesus, but that man is Muhammad.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:15:11]

IWDM:
Muhammad comes, and when Muhammad comes, he comes in one that was rejected. Dead, thrown for out dead. And, he comes in that one, and he begins growing and as he grows people misidentify him. And say, "Oh, that's not Muhammad, that's the church." In that new Muhammad, they see first the coming return of Jesus. Not Jesus in the body that he lived in in those days, not the soul that was in that body in those days, but the mind, the sensitivity. The concern for righteousness and for humanity is come up again; that same light has come up again in a newer man and that's Muhammad.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:16:25]

IWDM:
This Muhammad is both Christ and Muhammad, but he's not that same Muhammad that brought the whole Quran, not that same soul that lived in that body, but a man with the same interests, in that truth that was revealed to him.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
All right, you don't have to believe it.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:16:48]

IWDM:
If you believe in this then you're all good. If you reject it, you just cut off yourself. You can't cut off this. Look at it yesterday, look at it today. Hasn't it grown? All right.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:17:15]

IWDM:
So, how now must the world be remade? It must be remade in the dream with the prophecy, as it was in the day of Noah: "So shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of man." After the flood, God first called the waters to assuage. He called those waters to start coming down. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
He called the callousness to start coming down, but what did it come down from first? From the high-up. The high-up realized, "Look, hell, we've gone wrong, we've brought curses upon us. Better wake up our institutions and our established order. If we don't right away get something first for the little men and women in the street, we're going to be finished. Free the slaves! Give them equality. Give them equal justice. Is that right?

Group:
[crosstalk 00:18:32]

IWDM:
All praises to Allah. ... So the waters began to assuage, they began to come down. First the mountain top has to be seen.

Group:
Right. Yeah.

IWDM:
And what did prophet Martin Luther King say? He said, "I've been to the mountain top." What did he mean by that? That I have seen what God has intended in his plan for us. The mountains are going to force it up. The waters of callousness are going to come down from the mountain top. That's what he meant, that he had a vision that this water was going to come to a better state and a better order. ... All right. Let's go on a little further.


And the water came down, but there was still a problem. Noah didn't feel it was safe yet. And who was Noah? Noah is the man that died. That's Adam, that true human being. He couldn't come out yet and populate the world. He didn't feel it was safe to come out and populate the world. So, Noah first sent out a raven-bird. Is that right?


He couldn't go out, the world wasn't fit for him. So, he sent out a raven-bird: "Go and search. Seek out a place in that world that has gotten better, but not good enough for me." That old raven-bird went out there and he didn't come back. That let Adam know that the world still wasn't ready for him, because if an old raven-bird can find a place out there, there's still something wrong with it.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:21:01]

IWDM:
You understand? That old raven, he's an insensitive bird. He's not a loving, sensitive bird, he's insensitive, quarrelsome. Fights. That type of bird, is that right? All right. He can do good things, but he resembles a fighter in his nature. Not peacemaker. So, he sent out that old raven, and that old raven found a place. That told Noah, "The waters ain't up there; but that water of callousness is still down there on that earth, so I'll wait a while more."


So, after another period elapsed, he sent out a turtle-dove; and you know we sing songs about the turtle dove, don't we? As sweet and as loving as a little turtle dove. He sent out a turtle dove, and the turtle dove came back. That told Noah that "They still ain't ready. It's getting much better now; we can go out, but they ain't ready. They won't kill us." The turtle dove there was symbolic of the kind of nature, the kind of human life that is in Noah. If the turtle dove came back, it meant that Noah could go out and come back. But still, they weren't ready; because if they were ready, the turtle dove wouldn't have come back. He would have found a whole lot there, just like the world he found with Noah. Is that right?


All right, let's keep moving with this subject.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:22:46]

IWDM:
Now what did God do there? ... He caused the wind to blow. Is that right? Wind had to blow, and the wind ... The wind had to blow and dry up the water. Now, there's many winds in the Bible. There are winds of war, and winds of compassion. Both winds will help to dry up the water of callousness. Won't they? Some people are saved from their callous nature by suffering what others suffer, and it calls them to feel what others feel. Is that right? So, some have to be whipped with the winds of adversity; they have to be hurt in their body. All right. Then there are others that that kind of whipping won't change them. But the winds of kindness, the winds of compassion will change them. Is that right?

Group:
Right. Yeah.

IWDM:
All right. What kind of wind now came in those days? It was the wind of compassion. The world had been patteled. They had suffered their destruction, for they had seen they had got on the wrong path. They had humbled themselves a bit. To a great extent, they had humbled themselves. But, they were still callous in the land. Although, the government had softened, the society was still hard-hearted and insensitive. Do you understand?


God's wind blew on them, the winds of compassion. He didn't blow the winds of compassion, did he? He didn't move the water from the mountain by blowing the winds of compassion. Why? Because they were at fault. They were the ones responsible for the callousness that had drowned the whole world. Is that right?


Why did he blow out of his chest from around his heart the winds of compassion to those that are callousness and hard-hearted and causes of it? No, he waits until curses have beaten them  into submission and forced them to change their wicked ways. Then he looks down, metaphorically speaking, "Come out of that kindergarten talk." He looked down on the residue of the nation, the lowest of the low that was still hard-hearted. I know you see it.


He says, "I'll get rid of this water by blowing on this water the winds of compassion." We don't come preaching to you destruction for your sins; we come preaching to you forgiveness, that Almighty God Allah won't charge you with anything until you open your eyes and see the truth. Then if you reject him with your eyes open, then you're going to be punished just like the mountain was cursed, you will be cursed. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
But if you see the truth, bear witness that is the truth, and accept that truth, embrace it, God won't curse you. He's not going to send adversity against you. The government, the land, the people, have had you torn apart by the winds of adversity all your life;  for four centuries, you have been beaten by adversity. Can you be remade now into a new man and a new woman, by more of the same whipping?

Group:
No.

IWDM:
No, indeed. That's what has made you callous. Evil, cruelty of the ruling establishment is what made us callous, insensitive to the feelings of each other. Is that right? Now, God is not going to come whip us with the same wind that he whipped the establishment with. No, he's going to bring us around my giving us that breath that we've been suffering and suffocating ... What is that breath, brothers and sisters? That breath of love and compassion. Is that right?


The Honorable Elijah Muhammad peace be on him. He came preaching to us, he said, "Allah loves you." ... He didn't say Allah hates you because you are [thievesinaudible 00:28:19], wine-drinkers, whore-mongers, foul-mouthed and ignorant class of people. He didn't come to you telling you that. He said, God knows your condition. He knows you're an ignorant, empty-headed criminal. He's not going to whip you for it; he knows who put you in that condition. He's coming to whip them for your sins. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
He's coming to you with love. Going to blow on you the winds of compassion. Let me tell you, when the Honorable Elijah Muhammad started blowing on us, the winds of compassion from the mouth of scripture, we began to come to form, that callus began to get soft, to get the feeling of flesh again, is that right?

Group:
Right. [crosstalk 00:29:38]

IWDM:
Saw us walking in the street shoulder to shoulder in the street....as-salaam alaikum  brother. Let me help you, sister. Let me help you, brother. Devil, leave my brother alone. I'll die for my brother.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:30:12]

IWDM:
Devils don't respect our women. We are a new black people, we have died for sisters. There won't be no police; police die, too, when they trample down sacred teachings.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:30:34]

IWDM:


All praises to Allah. ... Say oh, man, Elijah has made a new people. ... He has blown the winds of compassion over these people, and turned them into love again. Is that right? All praises to Allah. The books, they have been warning from the day of Noah. Noah's days being the days of the coming of the son of man. Did Noah get off the ark before the winds blew?

Group:
No.

IWDM:
I don't think so. I think the winds blew first, then Noah got off the ark. I don't know that Bible like some of you, but if I remember it correctly, the winds blew first before Noah got off the ark. Okay, Elijah Muhammad blew the winds of indictment against the establishment, against the mountain. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
And the waters began to assuage, began to pull down from the mountain, at the same time he was blowing the winds of compassion on us. After the mountain came down, our people in the street began to talk love and peace. Is that right? Not till Elijah's day did you see people walking around - "peace". Giving the greetings of the Muslim  ; "salaam", is that right? That's what Elijah says, brothers and sisters. I don't care what you've got in your mind about Elijah, let me tell you Elijah was a divine instrument.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:32:23]

IWDM:
Thank you, all praises to Allah-

Group:
[crosstalk 00:32:32]

IWDM:
All right, that is not to say that he was a lamb without a spot or blemish. That's not to say that he was a tool that had no defects. I only said that he was a divine instrument. If a man can take an old worn-out, beat up, rusted, neglected poisonous, piece of metal and shape it into an instrument and cut down a mountain, that is a firmer testimony to the power of that man. Is that right? ... All right.


Almighty God, he didn't pick no lamb without a spot or blemish, he picked Elijah Muhammad. A man who dedication to a God has no spots and no blemish ... but in his flesh certainly he had spots, certainly he had blemishes. But not in his dedication. Now, didn't God pick a man for his flesh, to stick with, to commend himself to something and stick with it until death?


So, that man has blemishes or spots in his flesh; he's still worthy. The whole world is spotted, the whole world was blemished-

Group:
[crosstalk 00:34:01]

IWDM:
And I don't mean the whole world's a sinner. I mean those that call themselves faith, and wear the holy cloak, lying and committing adultery, oppressing and suppressing , oppressive force.. Leading a society a whole world down a road to more kindergarden  language. Are you talking about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad? He was holy among the Imams, holy among the rabbi, holy among the priests-

Group:
[crosstalk 00:34:55]

IWDM:
The one who will set back home and stay clean. Say he lives and obeys the law. He married formally and he published his marriages. But he sits at home and never comes out to the job of Almighty God. Call him, too. Sits there and eats the fat of the land. Sit  on the throne that is made of the ignorant, the poverty of the masses. He has made him a that is made of your and mine, rubbish. They have to throw it up right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Emptied us of all of our life and richness, and made us dust and dirt and grim and filth and hatred, and they sit on that and keep themselves in positions of authority.  But they pray, and they claim to be close to Christ, to Moses and to Muhammad. But they don't get up off that wicked diabolic pile and come out here and do something about the position of the poor.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:36:47]

IWDM:
Isn't that their history?
Isn't that their history?

Group:
[crosstalk 00:36:56]

IWDM:
That's the history of the synagogue, the mosque, and the church.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:37:00]

IWDM:
But Elijah Muhammad, he said, "I didn't have a job." Said, " Master Farad Muhammad gave me a job. I don't know any  job but this one. This is the job I'm going to do. Told the world that nothing would take him off his job. What was he telling us? He was telling us more than met the ears, brothers and sisters. He was telling them, Look, Master Farad Muhammad, a man that I identify as an Arab, came to me when I was on welfare getting a bowl of soup every now and then. Just enough to survive on. And the world has become such a burden on my mind that I was drinking more wine with the welfare money than soup. That man came to me and tolded me something that all of a sudden started doors to clicking , and made me understand what has been troubling my mind.


For all the 40 or 50 years that my father, a Baptist preacher, ruled over me and preached Christianity into my ears, a man that was a rebel, that didn't follow his father, his Baptist preacher; that went out into a sinful life, drank his life away, a common drunk. That's what he was. I'm talking about my father. The father of this flesh body, not the father of the real body. But he met Master Farad Muhammad; he said, "I'm your man: whatever you want me to do, tell me, I'll do it." Master Farad said teach this message. He did.


Okay, now, what was he telling us when he told us that? He gave me a job and  I'm going to stay on it? He was telling us this, that: I know what it is to live in this world as an uneducated, un-favored black man. I know the chances, I know how quick the chances are - odds are guilty". I know what it is to look to the welfare for a hot cup of soup. I ain't going that route anymore. Master Farad has given Elijah a soup bowl that has some meat in the soup. Isn't that the way he preached?


He said, Look, brother, I had nothing before Master Farad came. But now, I have soup and some meat floating around in it. That's what he was telling us. I'm not saying he was materialistic, that he was selfish; I'm saying that he was the right material for the job that had to be done. He was a man that was robbed completely, of the blessings and the pleasures of this world. So when one came and gave it to him and put it in his reach, he became the loyal and devoted servant. He knew what it was to be without it, so he had something to draw him. Is that right?


Okay, just like your Almighty God in the story of Genesis tempted the man with his flesh to get his mind to open up, is that right? If you understand the story, that's exactly what it's saying. God tempted man, he put desire in the man's flesh so that the man that was not yet born in his mind would be led to right by the flesh. For Honorable Elijah Muhammad was given that same bait of Genesis; he was baited with pleasures of the flesh: Look, Elijah Muhammad, Master Farad told him, If you follow me, you'll have more money than you can count. I'm telling you what he told him; my father always told me this. Not only me, I've got brothers and sisters around here, they'll tell you the same thing. He said he told me that you will never go hungry. He said, Now go out them. Meaning, tell all people that if they follow you, to me, I will give them money, good home, and friendship in all walk of life. Is that right?

Group:
[crosstalk 00:42:26]

IWDM:
So, he came to us with the same bait that was given to man in his creation in Genesis, but the appetite was put in the flesh. Is that right? Almighty God in his divine way of bringing us around inspired this kind of seeking that brought about sensitivity in the flesh, desire in the flesh. We don't want to hear nothing about no spirit. The churh had been preaching spirit to us , and we had been going up on the limb. Losing body and soul. Is that right? They had free spirits everywhere they went in our neighborhood. We could hear spirit. If you were a black man put there 30 years ago, you couldn't enter a neighborhood without hearing spirit.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
You didn't have to go to church. A woman walking down the street would put you in church.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
"Oh, the lord Jesus ...thank you Jesus" Yeah. You go to the park and you'll find somebody else preaching the spirit. Tell me if I'm telling the truth or not.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:43:49]

IWDM:
All right. You lay up in your bed at night, and there's a midnight service going on. You can't hardly sleep for the church bouncing up and down in spirit. Thank you, Jesus, and oh lordy hammercy (have mercy), And jumping up and down, and tearing the place up. If spirit was going to do something for us, we would have been raised into a new life before Elijah Muhammad started preaching.


Hold it, let's look at it some more. Arabs came. Pakistanian Indians came. They set up mosques in our neighborhood; there was one on 40 something street. We used to see them in the community. The Moorish Americans who were preaching. But none of them brought this light into being. Moorish American wore his fez and his fez was dirty.  I'm telling you what I saw as a boy. Dirty greasy fez, dirty greasy Moorish American. Pushing a push-cart, pulling a push-cart. Eating pig. Cursing and drinking wine. The only thing that the distinguished him from the common dregs in the black community was his fez, man. I'm just telling you what I know.


Don't think I came up somewhere else, I was born here. Ahmadiah walking around with his seal cap off, with cigarette smoke and reefer smoke on his breath, whiskey on his breath, a lying tongue. Hatred for his brother and sister. Walking as though he was the king of the planet earth, like he had discovered some knowledge now that makes him superhuman in the black community, but acting like a damn fool, and screwing everybody else in the society. Excuse my language.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:46:04]

IWDM:
Am I telling the truth or not?

Group:
[crosstalk 00:46:11]

IWDM:
All right. But Elijah Muhammad came from a different angle. He was a master fisherman. Is that right?

Group:
[crosstalk 00:46:27]

IWDM:
He said, Look, you can't get this by working with your plan. You have to go back and study the devine plan, see how God gets his man. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Jesus said, Come on and follow me, I'm going to make you fishermen of men. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Not a fish, you don't show the fish what you want your fish to have as his body. You show the fish what the fish want. The fish want food.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Come on, you'll get good homes, money, spending money. Is that right? ... That's what Elijah Muhammad started preaching to us, and that meaty bait attracted us. Is that right? But once he got that hook into our mouth, he began pulling us fishes up and saying, Look, I ain't going to let you die here on the bank, I'm just going hold you on the bank until I teach you something.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:47:23]

IWDM:
Elijah said, I love you. My job ain't to put you in a new world. My job is just to bring you out of the fire of this world.

Group:
Right. Yeah.

IWDM:
He said, I have another one coming behind me that's going to put you in a new world. [crosstalk 00:47:55]

Group:
Hold up.

IWDM:
He said, But my job is just to keep you from going back in that firery water that you came out of. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
All right. ... [crosstalk 00:48:15] Okay. ... So, now, I tell you that there's a new water with a new nature, that you can come into now and take on a new life. Become part of a new world. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
And you're coming into it, and you're living . You're growing, I see life in you. I see growth. All praises to Allah.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:48:50]

IWDM:
They say Elijah, he didn't teach real religion. He didn't teach real Islam. He wasn't supposed to. He was supposed to bring about another real genesis. First, you have to put life into a body that's dead before you think about putting life into a mind that's dead. Minds don't come here first, bodies come here first and minds develop in those bodies. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
All right. So, Elijah didn't come to no world that was ... neglectful, neglecting their duty. He didn't come to no backsliders. He came to dead people.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
If you want to bring backsliders back to the path, you begin teaching them right religion. Teach the same message, and they will hear it and recognize it. But those who are dead, they don't recognize no message of religion. They won't do nothing but respond in their flesh, do a lot of shimmy-shake and hallelujahs, and go right back into hell pot again. Right?

Group:
Right. [crosstalk 00:50:21]

IWDM:
So, he knew how to bring about this correction so that life will start again in our bodies. He first appealed to the senses that are in the flesh, those that have been denied. Say, Come on and follow me. You're promised money, good home, plenty money, good home and friendship in all walk of life. But at the same time, while working on this first development, he was also treating us so that we'll be ready for the second development. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Teaching us self-respect. Teaching us dignity. Teaching us to love scriptural truth. Teaching us to search the depths of scripture, not to take for granted what's on the surface but to dig down into the darkness, so that you will discover the germs of life one day. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
So, while he was raising us up into the first form of life, he was also treating us so that we'll be ready to go into the second. ... All right, let's go a little more here, now. When the turtle dove went out and returned, then Noah went out from the ark. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Noah went out from the ark and searched the land, and found a place to start life all over again. What saved Noah? The ark. What is the ark? It was made of trees. What does a tree represent? A live tree represents living people.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
A dead tree represents dead people. So what did Noah build his ark with? Dead people. With dead people, Noah was able to rise above the floods of callousness. Do you understand?

Group:
[crosstalk 00:52:57]

IWDM:
Let's take this off the board. In some of your family bibles now, you see a tree there, and you call it the family tree, is that right? ... The bible tells you that people are trees. The book says that Adam and Eve were seen walking among the trees, is that right? ... It meant, it was saying, they were walking among other people. Do you understand? Okay. ... I'm not going to hold you much longer.

Group:
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:53:50]

IWDM:
So, God said to Noah, Build the ark. Noah had to go and cut down some trees, or find some that was already dead. Is that right? I don't think the book said that Noah chopped down trees, does it? ... No, he just got the wood. That tells us some people were already dead, so he got dead people and formed them together into a society, into an order. You can't go out and get the world that thinks it knows everything to save itself, but get those that know they don't know anything.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Get those that are dead as society. They'll listen to you. The wise ain't going to listen you. Say, Noah, you're trying to get the wise to listen, say, "It's going to rain", they laughed at him. "Look at that fool building an ark. Talking about, it's going to rain." So, they wouldn't hear him, wouldn't come to him, so he built it with dead people, with wood. Wood is of trees that once were alive. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
But they've been cut off from life. The wood has been cut off from life, and now it's dead. Is that right? ... All right. So, Noah took these dead people and built a society and his society rose up to the top of the mountain. The mountain was destroyed with callousness, but his ark wasn't destroyed. His ark floated above the mountain. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
What does that mean? That when callousness overcomes the government, the government becomes divided against itself, insensitive to its own vital needs. Noah, or in this day and time, the Lost Found Nation of Islam, was still existing. They hadn't been drowned by the waters of callousness. The government was drowned, but we were preaching concern for your fellow man.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Love for each other. Spirit of sacrifice for each other's sake. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
So, this that was dead, when the wrath came, it didn't destroy it, but it brought it right up to the top. As they came down, we went to the top. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Not to the top in material might, to the top in real human nature. Real human mind, real human sentiment. We rose to the top, and they went down under the flood of callousness. Is that right or wrong?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
All right. ... All praises to Allah. ... So ... because we survived the flood of callousness, then we are the only legitimate liberators, leaders, saviors for the world.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
The whole world died. They all lost their sensitivity. They all became insensitive to the needs of the poor. Now God has condemned them and has taken the dead material and formed a new society to hold Noah, to hold the true human life force. I hope you've been following what I've said.

Group:
[crosstalk 00:58:29] Right.

IWDM:
So, if you want to see Adam in his true form, don't go to the government of America. Come to the temple of Muhammad.

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
That's right. If you want to see what a real man, what a real woman, looks like, don't go to the mountains of the world, come to the valley ... that has survived the wrath that came down from the mountain. Do you understand?

Group:
Right. [crosstalk 00:59:05]

IWDM:
The scriptures says, As it was in the day of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of man. We know that Noah was made the leader of a new world order. Society took on new life, and a new world came into being because of Noah. Now, we don't expect to follow the history of Noah, but Noah's generation fell victum-

Group:
[(recording blip) 00:59:48]

IWDM:
-there's a new day, and a new one. But the way that he will come into power and glory is seen in the way that Noah came into power and glory. Do you understand? ... All right. Going to close on out, now. ... Look at this movement, now. First, there is solid ground called dust. Ground. He made the man from the ground. Clay, et cetera. Right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
All referring to solid, dead, physical matter, is that right? ... First life comes out of this womb, then it comes into flesh. Is that right? ... Flesh. Then after flesh, knowledge. Comes into knowledge. Now this knowledge is hidden and a term for this knowledge,  fire. Fire. The devil or the serpent is called a fiery serpent, or the fiery devil, is that right?

Group:
Yeah. Right.

IWDM:
Fiery means he is great in knowledge, but not the heavenly knowledge. The world is earthly knowledge, physical knowledge, or what we call, physical science. In this knowledge or related knowledge, he is superior in that. So, we come to solid, we  come to flesh, then flesh, what is flesh hear now? The religious society, we are taught ... remember now, we're talking about the progression or the genesis of religious society, a particular religious society: the Jews, the so-called Jews. But in this, also, is teaching that came from other religious orders, too, not just the Jews. But the Jews took the knowledge that they had and they used it to tell the story of their genesis. Do you understand?


But in this story is also information from other stories, too. Other genesis stories. All right. Flesh ... We may call this ... Well its called desire for each other. Desire for each other. The word for it is Eve. How was this flesh brought to life? By breath. Breath was breathed into it, right? ... Breath in the Semitic language is [hawah or either havah, which means breath, and its given in the bible translated as Eve. It is said in the bible that Eve is the mother of all living, all life. Right?


If you look at it physically, it's true, too. Whether the life lives in the water, or in the air, they all have to have air, oxygen. Fish live in the water, but they breathe air, they breathe oxygen. Right? So, any way we look at it ... And plants, also, they breathe air; they breathe carbon dioxide, I think it is, isn't it? Carbon dioxide. So, all life breathes of the air. Eve is true in that sense.


But it's true in the other sense, too. Eve in the human sense means love, compassion. And all animal life begins with that power, is that right? They're drawn together by desire in the flesh for each other. The animals love each other, they're attracted to each other, so they mate. Is that right? The human being is attracted because they love each other. They mate and they have children. That love might be on a level of shame or uglyness, but nevertheless it's all love. The ignorant people who love each other just physically still call it love. Don't they? They don't have the higher love for each other, but they still call it love. This is a  desire in the flesh to Eve.


Then we have the fire that's the knowledge. All right. When Noah came, he had to bring life again to the world. Not to bring the world into a new world, but to bring it back to life so it can start over again. Do you understand? Where did he take the world? He took it back to the beginning. Again, Eve had to come: the breath. But it's not the breath coming out of the mouth of God as it is told in the story of Adam and Eve's creation. It's told in the picture of wind blowing upon the water. Do you understand?


But it's the same thing, starting the process over again. Wind had to again come. Eve, air, had to again come. But this is a different kind of air now; it's not love for the sex, for the flesh, or love for those things that just satisfy the flesh, but it's love, respect, compassion for each other. Do you understand? But it's still a part of this sensitivity that we identify in the flesh body.


Okay, now. ... Knowledge, now, brought about the fall of Adam, because he wasn't strong enough in his natural body, natural makeup, to stand the test of great knowledge. Satan had too much knowledge for him. That knowledge led him astray, because he didn't understand it. He wasn't strong enough for it, right?


All right. Then after he came, Noah comes and brings the light back out of a dead state to life again, by breathing again the breath. But this breath is not the breath of physical  temptation or the breath that attracts us to physical things. It is that breath that attracts us to be sympathetic, to be understanding, to be compassionate with each other. Do you understand?


All right. In the new world, now, it'll still be the same way. The breath ... Everything has to come again. But how will that come? It will come in such a way as to produce a new world order. It won't go to the ground to bring about the new world ... I hope you're following me.

Group:
Yeah.

IWDM:
See, Noah did the same thing that God did to a dead earth. Noah worked with dead wood. You understand?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
With that, he brought about a society that was strong enough to keep life existing. It supported animals, it supported human life, a human world. A world, okay? All right. But now, the new man, he began in the end of the old world. What is the end of the old world? Fire. Fire stands for knowledge, right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
How does he bring about the first manifestation of the new life? He brings it about by applying his power to the body of knowledge that exists over the world. You understand?

Group:
Yeah.

IWDM:
When he applies his power to this body of knowledge, he brings new light out of darkness. This is what we find in the end of the world, and so in the bible, that in the end God will come in the darkness or in the clouds of heaven. Meaning, the spiritual world will be under darkness and that the light, the truth of God, will come in that darkness and bring out of their dark knowledge light to light the world. He has to turn that dark knowledge into light again. Right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
All right. He starts here to bring about his new world. His world is going to be knowledge through and through. In the first stage development, it's going to be knowledge. In the second stage development it's going to be knowledge. And also in the third stage it's going to be knowledge. We will no longer be emotionally alive without being rationally alive. We are going to be rationally and emotionally alive. You understand?

Group:
Yeah.

IWDM:
We're going to be emotionally and rationally alive at the same time. The emotional body that was before not rational is going to receive the light of knowledge from this new creation, so that it will become a knowledge body in this emotional makeup. We will be emotional, but dominating that emotional light will be truth and knowledge. Do you understand?

Group:
Yeah.

IWDM:
All right. We won't be clowning in the church, clowning in the temple. We won't be carrying on a show of emotionalism without some sense, some decency about ourselves. Not to say that the church is indecent, but some of their masses ... look uncivilised. I've seen church people sit in movie houses and laugh at so-called African savages that were nothing but dressed-up fools from New York or Los Angeles doing some so-called African dance. They'll sit there and laugh at them, go to the church, and see them doing a dance more savage than the dance they just laughed at yesterday. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Yeah, it's true.

Group:
[crosstalk 01:12:41]

IWDM:
In our emotional makeup, we're going to be rational. Out of the emotional makeup, we still see emotion is related to the senses. Don't fail to understand the graduation, the step-by-step graduation. Don't think that I'm not talking about flesh now, but we're talking about flesh on a more sophisticated level. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Here is flesh in the physical sense, sex and these things. Here is flesh on a more human level. Emotionalism. We're going to be rational there. When we come to the next step, what we have here ... Here you have flesh, right?, and flesh symbolizes emotionalism. Here we have knowledge. Knowledge doesn't necessarily have to be rational, did you know that? Many people got knowledge, but their knowledge is not rational knowledge, so they're nothing but educated fools. Right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
In our knowledge bodies, we're going to be rational. ... Rational. We put the term rational here, though It's everywhere, but we put it here to show you the real clear steps of progression. You follow me? ... In our emotions, we are rational, too. Knowledge is guiding and directing and ruling our emotions. Here in our knowledge body, we don't use knowledge, we put the word rational. Our knowledge is rational knowledge.


Then we come to the spiritual body, right? Spiritual body. Now, we have been spiritual ever since the world was made. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
But we haven't been rationally spiritual. We have thought it impossible to be rational and spiritual at the same time. Am I right or wrong?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
The world as a whole has thought that it's impossible to be spiritual and rational at the same time. ... But if you study the scripture brother and sister, you'll see that the scripture is telling us that the fullness, the end, the completion of God-man, is a rational man. He's going to be spiritual, true enough, but what he'll bring about the ... What you call it? The introduction, when something is introduced first. ... No, not initiate. There's another word, but that's okay. It's going to bring about the introduction, the presenting of the man, the new finished product. What is going to bring about? The scriptures tell us that darkness is going to reach its fullness, and light is going to come and turn the world of darkness into a world of light. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
Light in the book means knowledge. There and then you will see God. You will know God, you will see God. Is that right? Okay. This is telling us that God is moving his man from one step to another and in the end of his plan, he is going to make him a knowledge body that is going to be so bright with knowledge that he is going to light the whole world. Okay.


The last step is the first step. The book says the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
We thought it meant each other. We meant, I'm going to have my day. You got yours first, but you're going to ... I'm going to get mine, and you're going to be last. Is that right? But it wasn't talking about that, brothers and sisters. Now, that's true too in many cases, but it was talking about something a little more sophisticated. A little more dignified than that. It's talking about the natural step that life comes through to reach this fullness that Almighty God plans for it. That the first shall be last. People come here first and they're not knowledgeable people. They're spiritual people. Is that right?

Group:
Right.

IWDM:
But they're not yet born complete spirits. Therefore, they have to die spiritually and be born again into a knowledge body. Then when they come into that knowledge body, if they're lucky, they become spiritual again. This will put them into position to become ... to be born truly spiritual, in a rational sense. Do you understand?

Group:
Yeah.

IWDM:
All right. So, God's man has to become rational in his emotional makeup, rational in his knowledge, and rational in his spiritual makeup. And I have completed this summary. [Asalaam Alaikum 01:18:18.

